Chapter 138 – Divide and Conquer

"I'll be right back in a sec," Takei said.

While the girls were still shopping, Takei had received a text from someone inviting him to have a chat in a low traffic part of the mall.

It was someone he couldn't refuse because of the consequences that would happen if he refused the request.

He decided that it would be less troublesome if he just got it over with and not have to worry about it anymore.

"Okay," Akihiko replied. "I'll let the ladies know. Get what you need to do finished. We'll wait."

Takei had believed his poker face to be perfect at the moment, but Akihiko tore down all the walls that Takei had set up.

It seemed that Akihiko could sense the seriousness that Takei was hiding behind his facade, which only made sense since they were grandparent and grandchild.

The compassionate eyes that Akihiko directed towards Takei were ones that also implied that he knew everything.

I forgot he knows about what happened to me as well. My parents most likely informed my grandparents about the middle school incident, which was a bit of an oversight on my part.

Nodding his head, Takei waved goodbye to Akihiko.

"I'll be back soon."

***

As he read the instructions on how to reach the location from the text, Takei finally reached the rendezvous point that was specified.

"So, you actually came," a mysterious yet familiar voice echoed.

Stepping out from the shadows, the mastermind and cause of Takei's stress showed up.

It was none other than the red-haired boy who got intimidated by Takei the other day, Araki Tachibana.

"Where is she?" Takei annoyedly asked. "Why did Erika text me after years of radio silence?"

The person who had inflicted a whole lot of trauma on Takei, Erika Tachibana, had ended up texting him and told him to meet up at this location to discuss something.

He didn't want to refuse, in fear of Erika creating another disturbance in his life, so he obediently agreed.

"Don't worry, she's here. Just doing something else at the moment though," Araki laughed. "I'm the one who told her to bring you here."

Why though? What reason could you possibly have to talk to me?

The reasoning for this meetup was very suspicious, Takei thought.

He had nearly beat up Araki a few days ago, so there was a chance that Araki could be looking for revenge.

Glaring at the annoyance in front of him, Takei was reaching his limits.

"What do you want?" Takei hissed.

Araki chuckled, sinisterly. "Hmm, do you want to try guessing?"

"Nope, all out of ideas," Takei stated.

A vein could be seen vividly throbbing on Araki's forehead from the quippy remarks that Takei was saying.

"You want to be the funny guy, huh? I'll show you something funny!" Araki roared. "Come out, everyone."

From the shadows of the area around them, three boys stepped out and revealed themselves with sinister smiles.

"This is the guy we're supposed to ruff up?"

"He's so scrawny!"

"Hey, let's be nice and don't judge. He'll end up beaten black and blue either way."

The three delinquents here were obviously up to no good, but Takei wasn't stressing out too much.

He could tell they wanted to beat him up since that's what he ended up almost doing to Araki, but this was well within the realm of his contingency plan.

"What're you going to do to me?" Takei paled.

At the sight of Takei's frightened reaction, Araki's sneer grew ever more creepy.

"We're going to beat you the f*ck up!" Araki cackled. "We're going to make it so that even your parents won't be able to recognize you after we're done with you!"

"Oh no~" Takei said, in a high pitched feminine voice.

"..."

Araki's brain couldn't comprehend the difference between Takei's initial reaction and his reaction after Araki had told him what was going to happen.

Is he even scared? Is he mocking ME? Of all people? This piece of sh*t!

Obviously, Takei was just playing around and faking his reactions to make fun of Araki.

However, it seemed that Araki had finally reached his breaking point.

"Boys, beat him up!" Araki yelled.

As soon as that command left his mouth, the three delinquents began to close in on Takei.

"Kyaaa~" Takei cutely screamed, in response to the frontal assault by the group of delinquents.

The delinquents began to lunge towards Takei, but he had already expected this beforehand.

Takei ducked at the open space that was in-between them and barrel rolled into their blind spots.

Once he was out of their immediate vision, he immediately made a run for it to try and escape the people chasing him.

Thank you, Ryuto, for helping me train my body!

Due to his consistent jogging and muscle training, Takei got significantly more athletic than he previously was.

Now, he was confident about his speed and strength compared to most people.

Certainly, there was no way these lazy-looking delinquents could beat him in a race of speed.

Since Takei was giving it his all to escape his pursuers, there was a significant gap in distance building between Takei and the pursuers.

All according to plan! I should be able to wrap up this plan soon and put an end to these delinquents once and for all.

As Takei began to think that he had already won, he could hear a loud voice echoing from behind him that shook Takei to his core.

"Keep on running, loser! The longer you stall, the longer your girlfriend has to suffer!" Araki maniacally laughed.

Hearing Araki mention Akari being in trouble made the triumphant expression on Takei's face immediately disappear.

"Akari...?"

Things were certainly not going the way that Takei had thought.

All because of an outlier that he had forgotten to account for.

The devil herself was going to once again make a disturbance in Takei's life.

However, it would be Akari who would have to face the consequences this time.

—

To whom it may concern, SS - Yandere part two was finished last night. It will be the chapter that is released after this volume ends.

Sugar-chan: Woohoo! Hip hip hooray!

Serious-san: It's not that exciting...

A/N: For the next volume (5.5), I will be doing it as a side story volume which means that the volume will only contain side stories such as a harem ending, continuation to yandere, gender bender, isekai, kuudere, himedere, etc. Most if not all of the side stories will be revolving around Takei and Akari in What-If scenarios that are not canon to the main series.