Chapter 163 - 'Why Were You Looking For Me?”

The Toyama forests during the December nights is not only cold and dark, but also quiet and only the sounds of the winds whistling and the leaves dancing can be heard.

The night however is different.

"N-no… Please!" A man's pleading scream pierces the deafening silence of the forest.

Among the snow-covered trees and bushes, a man who looks to be in his 30s, despite his limping, his body ridden with wounds, and his face swelling red and blue with bruises, is desperately searching for someone or something he can find sanctuary from.

Suddenly, *THWACK* he feels the back of his knees whipped by something sharp and he is forced to his knees.

*Sssssssss* He hisses in pain and tears almost roll down his cheeks in defeat. He knows that his body received two more wounds.

Then, he sees a kimono-wearing person appear a few steps ahead of him.

He would be curious as to how the person still has their kimono immaculately white and clean after going through thickets if it is not for his current predicament.

"Y-you're sick…" He looks up at the woman who has been chasing him and whipping wounds on him for the past hour.

It is only thanks to the cold weather that he has not lost a significant amount of blood.

On a regular day, he would be attempting to coerce someone as beautiful as the woman to spend a night with him. Currently however, he does not even dare act like a gentleman to the woman.

"Compared to you, am I?" The woman asks the man in return.

"W-why are you even doing this? What do you want? Money? Men? I can give them to you." The man can only try to negotiate, finding no way out.

"Can you? Or your clan?" The woman answers with another question.

"I…" The man is taken aback.

"You're nothing." The woman scoffs.

"Nothing? NOTHING?! I'm a B-Class Superiori god damn it!" Something in the woman's words triggers the man.

"Do I look impressed?" The woman asks in a cold tone.

"…" The man is speechless.

"That's right. You're not better than a coat hanger to me."

The man hears the woman say and *wham* he gets hit in the face, sending him lying on the ground, by a strike he did not even see coming.

"Uhhh… Why are you doing this?" He struggles to get back on his knees with a groan.

"Why have you driven women to madness and even suicide?" The woman replies once again with a question.

"I-is this about that?" The man's stomach sinks.

"Answer my question." The woman orders him.

"I-I…" The man cannot find an answer that would please anyone, especially not the woman.

"For sport, isn't it?" The woman kneels down to the man's level and stares him in the eyes.

"I-I guess …What the fuck do you want me to say?" The man gives up feeling no difference whether or not he tells the truth.

"Well, there it is. That's your sport, and avenging others' grievances is mine." The woman smiles.

Despite the woman's beautiful smile, the man feels his spine shiver from it.

"What now? Are you going to kill me?" He can only try and prepare for the fate that is awaiting him.

"I don't wanna die. Please... Spare me, and I'll be your servant." He crawls to the woman and stopping just two steps away from her. 

"No. Not just a servant. I'll be your dog! Woof! Woof!" He proceeds to beg desperately.

"Kill you? No… Just like what you did with your victims, I'll let you live in hell, until you can no longer take it." 

He then hears the woman say, giving him goosebumps in the already freezing weather.

He does not know how his victims suffered, but he does not want to imagine himself going through what the woman is planning.

Feeling his abilities recovering by a bit, he summons an icicle in the ground before making it shoot up towards the woman.

To his disappointment, the woman catches the icicle easily with her bare hand and *crrraccckk* crushes it just as easily as one would to a Styrofoam cup.

"This has become boring."

He hears the woman say before seeing her left arm blur.

Immediately after, he feels something touch each of the major joints in his body.

"Wha…" Before he can process what he just felt, he feels a horrible combination of intense sharp and dull pain at every place he felt was touched and "AAHHHHH…" a shrill scream leaves his lungs before he knows it.

"Haaa… Y-you… haaa… I'll remember your face, you fuckin bitch." He can only threaten in between huffs.

"So what? Even your clan head fell to his knees in front of me." The woman tells the man in indifference.

"…" The man forgets his pain for a moment, connecting something in his head.

"T-the raid in the clan … It was you." His eyes widen in realization.

"Bingo." He hears the woman say before his consciousness leaves his body.

"Haaaa…" Kotone looks up at the sky and exhales in satisfaction.

She then pulls out a stack of photographs and scatters them around the unconscious man.

Satisfied with her work, she turns her back away from the man to leave.

As soon as she turns around however, she is stunned to see that she and the man she just punished, are not alone.

"F-Fumio…" She utters in recognition.

"It's just you…" She sighs in relief.

Her relief is short lived however, realizing that Fumio just witnessed her secret.

"Yes… just me." Fumio says as he walks past Kotone and stops before the unconscious man.

Seeing the photographs of different women and connecting the things Kotone said earlier, he realizes that the unconscious man is some sort of a sexual predator.

"Fumio, I-…" Kotone does not know how to explain herself.

"How did you find me here?" She asks instead.

The place, after all is two hundred kilometers away from Hinohara, crossing over two prefectures. Not only that, she knows that Fumio rarely visits the hill in Hinohara recently, so she finds Fumio tailing her from the start is unlikely.

Fumio turns to Kotone and, "I won't tell on you, don't worry.", says in assurance instead of answer Kotone.

"Answer me this, though…" He takes a deep breath.

"It's obvious that you've done this before. I wouldn't even be surprised if you did many times… So, have you killed anyone before?" He asks.

"I'm… not sure." Kotone looks away.

"Please, explain." Fumio is confused by the answer.

"I've never killed anyone directly… But, I don't know if everyone of … 'them' … managed to get to help in time." Kotone explains.

"I see." Fumio nods as he steps away from the unconscious man.

"I see?" Kotone is surprised by Fumio seemingly accepting the situation easily.

"Yes. We've known each other for quite a while now. And knowing you, I trust that you never did this to anyone who didn't deserve it?" Fumio asks.

"Of course." Kotone denies immediately.

Seeing the repulsion on Kotone's face, Fumio is relieved, for now.

"What if there's someone who didn't make it?" Fumio asks.

"If they didn't, then… they had it coming." Kotone says.

"…" Fumio is surprised especially with her stubborn tone.

Kotone catches a slight expression of revulsion from Fumio's face and she feels a great urge to defend her actions.

"Take a look at that photo next to his left ear." She asks of Fumio.

Fumio sees a beautiful woman in the photo who gives him a pure impression.

"A college coed of that man. He seduced her and promised her with lies. And when she was giving away her innocence to him, he secretly taped it and spread it to his other piece of shit friends. Her reputation is destroyed to the university. Even her own family shunned her…" Kotone explains.

"…" Fumio looks away from the photo and "What happened next?", asks Kotone.

"She killed herself a month after her tape was spread." Kotone informs.

Fumio does not see any signs of deception from Kotone, only rage.

"Look at that photo next to the hem of his right sleeve." Kotone asks again.

Fumio looks at the photo and sees a beautiful woman who gives him a cheerful impression.

"She was violently r*ped by this man multiple times. When she tried to report it to the authorities, her case was buried, and the officer who documented it, fired.

"And when she was about to tell her story to a person who can help her, she was killed by the same person who took her innocence." Kotone stops as her anger towards the unconscious man surfaces once again.

"That photo over…" She is about to continue when, "Enough." Fumio stops her.

"If you don't believe me, Gin san's reports ha-" Kotone is not done however.

"I believe you." Fumio cuts her off once again.

He knows that the unconscious man is evil, but he did not expect the man to be that evil. He himself gets the urge to add to the already crippling punishment that Kotone delivered to the man.

"This man is one of the least evil people I've dealt with. You have no idea how much worse the others are." Kotone continues, seeing Fumio in ponderance.

"So, tell me… when even the authorities are not willing to punish these people, who will?" She asks.

"You're right. I understand where you're coming from, more than you know." Fumio says with a sigh.

Kotone's image in his mind has changed greatly tonight.

He even feels a bit envious of her resolution with justice.

While he himself ordered the deaths of evil people, he was forced to it by the circumstances of his arrangement with Red.

Kotone on the other hand, actively looks for evil people and delivers justice on them on her own will.

Feeling Fumio's sincerity, Kotone is relieved.

"Let's get out of here." She suggests.

"Let's…"

...

The two soon arrive at a fancy bar in the nearby city of Nanto.

"*sigh*… I'm no longer buzzed by this…" Kotone caresses the beer bottle in her hand which she half emptied in one go.

"Same. Maybe we can ask boss to brew beer?" Fumio agrees, matching Kotone's drinking pace.

"Talking about Kichirou-san… can you not tell him about what you've seen?" Kotone asks.

"Didn't he know even when you were still C-Class?" Fumio asks.

"He only knows about me beating up thugs. Not…" Kotone looks around before leaning closer to Fumio, "… crippling people… or beating them up within an inch of their lives…", and says in a shushed tone.

"Oh. He knows more than that." Fumio chuckles.

"He was the one who told me where to find you."

"He's tracking me?!" Kotone almost yells out in disbelief.

*Thck*

Fumio flicks Kotone's forehead.

"The communication token. Did you forget?" He reminds her.

"Oh…" Kotone's anger disappears, remembering one of the functions of the token.

"I forgot to turn it off." She pats her forehead.

"Unbelievable." Fumio scoffs.

"S-so… how much does he know? …" Kotone asks.

"Probably more than you want. When I asked where to look for you, he told me that you were in one of your 'Vigilante escapades'." Fumio explains.

"But his warning was an understatement." He utters in addition.

"So, he probably knows everything." Kotone deflates.

"Uhuh. Probably approves of what you're doing too." Fumio figures.

"You think so?" Kotone asks in surprise.

"Yeah. He never stopped you, did he?" Fumio shrugs.

"That's true…" Kotone is convinced.

"I'm still gonna talk to him though." She decides to come clean just to be sure.

"That's a good idea." Fumio nods.

"So…" Kotone realizes something else.

"Why were you looking for me?" She asks.

"Do you have plans for the holiday break?" Fumio asks.

"What? You want to spend it together with me?" Kotone chuckles with a tease.