Chapter 116
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 116
Chapter Title: Kidnapping Aftermath
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How much time had passed since I lay down?
-Ring ring ring!
I woke from a deep sleep to the ringing bell coming from my pocket.
"Ugh."
As I carefully sat up, pain surged through me like someone was pounding every inch of my body.
A faint groan escaped my lips because of it, but it only lasted a moment.
"Hoo..."
Once I'd adjusted somewhat, I looked around.
Tsutomu was still out cold, along with Chunshik and Detective Miwako.
Everyone was exactly as they'd been before.
'Good thing I won't have to deal with any more hassle.'
Takuya thought to himself as he pulled his flip phone from his pocket and answered the call.
"Yeah, hello?"
When I opened my mouth, my voice came out hoarse and raspy.
[Master?! Are you okay?!]
Miyuki, the one who'd called, spoke in a panicked voice at the sound of mine, but I replied in a tone that said it was no big deal.
"I'm fine. More importantly, could you run an errand for me real quick?"
[Of course! Just tell me what you need.]
"First off, some thick rope for tying people up, and..."
With that, I ordered what I needed from Miyuki.
-Click.
"Haa... How am I supposed to clean all this up by myself?"
For now, I started moving to restore the trashed surroundings to normal.
For starters, I tossed Tsutomu into the basement.
He probably wouldn't be coming back anytime soon, so I left him with some food too.
Just leave him like that? you ask?
According to my memory, the room where Momiji had been locked up was game-proof—even a bunch of grown men couldn't break out of it—so it should be fine.
After stuffing Tsutomu in there, the next priority for cleanup was...
"Chunshik, wake up and eat this."
"Kuhung-"
Chunshik, who'd been a huge help in the brawl against Tsutomu.
Chunshik must've been hurting from the hits he took; he nodded with effort and opened his mouth.
I poured a Stamina Recovery Potion into his open mouth.
I considered giving him two, but the sticker on the bottle recommended just one per dose regardless of body size, so I stuck to one for now.
After feeding him the one bottle, Chunshik's complexion visibly improved.
You might say what kind of bear has a good complexion, but that's just how it looked to me.
Anyway, with the Stamina Recovery Potion and some food down Chunshik's gullet, the last thing to deal with was...
'This detective.'
What to do with her?
I'd already erased her memory since she seemed like she'd be a pain otherwise, but now what?
Takuya pondered for a bit before coming up with a good idea.
'Might as well use this to strip Tsutomu of his Japanese identity.'
To use as part of his 'punishment.'
I already had Tsutomu's punishment planned out anyway.
'Time to send him on a little trip to America.'
I planned to ship Tsutomu off to the States. Specifically...
'Charges: child molestation, rape, attempted rape, assault, kidnapping. That oughta do it.'
Straight to an American prison.
There wasn't any special reason for sending Tsutomu to America.
'American prisons are hell on earth.'
You see fancy facilities on the news sometimes, but those are a tiny minority.
Most are shitty by default.
But that's not the only reason American prisons are hell.
The real reason is simple...
America, which loves preaching human rights, treats prisons like a total exception.
Same-sex rape, assaults and murders, private vendettas, riots—these are standard features.
And that's without even getting into the constant interracial gang wars inside.
So what happens to Asians, who are a tiny minority there?
And not just that—even murderers, robbers, and assaulters treat child sex offenders like less than human.
In a place crawling with those kinds of guys, what kind of treatment do you think an Easterner like Tsutomu—who raped kids—would get?
'He'll get a proper taste of hell.'
That's why I planned to send Tsutomu to America.
Drop him in one of the notoriously worst facilities, and some big black dude will rip his ass open soon enough.
Eh, the punishment ends there. Should be enough torment for about a year.
Why just a year?
'After that, he'll probably croak.'
Prisons in America are overflowing with gangs.
I wasn't expecting him to survive for decades in a place like that.
Just slap on some anti-suicide hypnosis and call it good.
So how does this involve using the detective?
Show Tsutomu—who might be spinning happy delusions—a clip of her on the news, and gift him some extra despair.
'Ah, can't wait.'
I'll have to bribe a guard later to record it.
But how do I even get Tsutomu to America? you ask?
Not hard. Just ask the yakuza who deal with foreign crime syndicates.
Sounds crazy? Don't forget, I've got the power to make it happen.
'While I'm meeting the yakuza, I should handle Momiji's parents' punishment too.'
They've got some fun punishment lined up as well.
Takuya thought that to himself as he loaded Detective Miwako onto Chunshik's back and headed to meet Miyuki.
"Master!"
The moment she saw me, Miyuki ran over with tears streaming down her face and hugged me tight.
Seeing her worry about me like real family made me smile faintly, feeling pretty good.
Aside from how she mashed my face into her chest, making it hard to breathe.
Honestly, you never get used to this.
Once Miyuki's hug finally ended, another person stepped forward from the car.
"Momiji."
"Takuya..."
Momiji had been waiting there.
Momiji walked over to me, sniffling.
She looked like she'd been through a lot.
I slowly pulled her into a hug and patted her back.
"It's okay. Everything's okay now."
"What am I supposed to do now? Mom and Dad abandoned me..."
Her words made me freeze mid-pat without thinking.
'I was gonna wait till she calmed down a bit to tell her.'
With that thought, I glanced at Miyuki.
"Earlier, when I went to drop off Momiji-chan... I kinda forgot."
She'd been in such a rush that she'd forgotten to mention it.
In the end, I sighed at the sight of Momiji speaking in a voice thick with sobs—but caught myself, realizing a sigh right now would fuck things up. Instead, I laid out the plan I'd come up with.
"Stay at my place for the time being."
"Y-Your house, Takuya?!"
"Huh?!"
What? Why so surprised?
I raised an eyebrow at Miyuki, who seemed even more shocked than Momiji, and explained.
"You got nowhere else to go, so stay at my place. I'll help you out."
"R-Really?!"
"You think I'd lie?"
Momiji's eyes went wide like saucers, as if she were touched.
Unable to hold back her tears anymore, she sniffled and spoke in a worried voice.
"But... is it okay if I just keep taking like this? Sniff. I haven't done anything for you up till now..."
"Well..."
Strictly speaking, yeah, that was true.
I was doing this partly because he's a friend and partly because of the screen's missions, but to Momiji, it probably looked like I was helping with no strings attached.
And honestly, it wasn't entirely wrong.
As I thought that, Momiji's self-deprecating words kept pouring out.
"On top of that, I'm useless. Not particularly pretty, no good at sports, bad at studying..."
From her self-criticism, I realized Momiji was psychologically pretty crushed.
No, actually, it made sense—if you'd been brainwashed at home into thinking you were worthless, then kidnapped on top of that, and now rescued by a friend while feeling powerless, anyone would lose their self-esteem.
'Comforting her in this state would probably backfire.'
I'd seen a similar case before and knew that pity was the worst approach here.
So what to do?
The answer turned out to be surprisingly simple.
I grabbed Momiji's shoulders as she wallowed in self-blame and said,
"Momiji, let me say this first: this isn't just me helping you out. Think of it like... an investment."
"An investment?"
"Yeah. An investment in Momiji's future."
I just had to make her realize she had potential.
"What about me makes you say that?"
For the record, what I said wasn't a lie if you nitpicked.
Because...
"Well, if I had to pick, your looks and your diligence."
"...My looks and diligence?"
Momiji's appearance was dragged down by that bushy hair and horn-rimmed glasses, but absolutely not her actual looks.
Her real features were shockingly good. Clean skin, balanced proportions despite whatever diet—she had no blemishes, which confirmed it.
And diligence? Well...
"The way you take notes in class, stay late to feed the class pets when kids forget, bow politely to teachers and other adults."
"Th-That's just normal stuff!"
Momiji protested that it wasn't diligent at all, but I stroked her head and said,
"Plenty of people screw up the big stuff because they can't handle the little things."
This was sincere.
Politicians always stir up scandals by dropping something from their pockets right when they're about to do something huge.
Momiji seemed convinced by my words and nodded.
"Got it. Then I'll make sure to become someone useful to you someday."
"I'll support you fully until then. Don't worry."
"Yeah! And one last thing, Takuya."
"What."
As I answered, Momiji buried her face in my chest and said,
"Thank you so, so much for today..."
"I'll make you repay this light someday. Be ready."
"Yeah... I definitely will..."
And with Momiji's response...
The third scenario has been cleared!
Rewards: ...
The screen text announced the scenario's success, followed by a list of rewards.
Seeing it, I unconsciously thought,
It's really over now.
With that, Takuya let out a sigh of relief as the long day finally drew to a cl...
"Takuya?!"
"Q-Quick, call the hospital..."
...ose.
Looks like there was still more to do.