"......"
After hanging up with Kaoru, Rentaro quietly pulled the van over.
In the back seat sat Hasegawa Yuno, a woman with a bob curled at the ends and a sophisticated beauty. Rentaro found himself clamping his mouth shut the moment he saw her face, the kind of beauty ten out of ten people would unanimously call stunning.
It was their first time meeting, but for some reason, ever since Rentaro had first laid eyes on Yuno, his lips had felt as if they were glued shut.
He was the representative of an entertainment agency, for heaven’s sake. Yuno, a promising young talent in her own right, had used the natural sociability of a magazine reporter to explain the schedule ahead, but Rentaro could only answer in a stiff, businesslike tone with a perfunctory "Yes, yes."
Idiot. Complete idiot. Rentaro let out a long sigh with both hands on the wheel and stared hard at the apartment building’s main entrance.
He just wanted Kaoru to come out already and break this awkward silence as soon as possible.
"......?"
Then, all at once, someone caught Rentaro’s eye. A large man who looked like an apartment caretaker in a fluorescent vest, someone who had been nearby quite a while ago.
Rentaro watched the strange behavior of the huge man, who had been picking up trash earlier and was now standing motionless behind a pillar.
Like a tide slowly rising, a strange question kept pressing in on him, growing stronger by the second. Rentaro tilted his head.
Something was off.
It was an unpleasant, chilling feeling that couldn’t be explained in words, something rising from the deepest, unconscious part of human instinct. It crawled down Rentaro’s spine.
He kept staring at the huge man, but his own body refused to stop moving on its own.
As if possessed, Rentaro unbuckled his seat belt and said to Yuno in the back seat with an uneasy expression, "Wait here for a moment-"
"Ah, there he is?"
"Huh?"
Rentaro’s gaze snapped toward the main entrance.
Kaoru had come out after answering the phone, and Rentaro caught sight of him.
Having known Kaoru for a long time, Rentaro understood at once that Kaoru’s gaze, just like his own, was fixed on the huge man.
And then—Rentaro immediately—
"Huh?!"
"Eh?"
He couldn’t help but scream when he saw the huge man, who had been hiding behind the pillar, suddenly lunge at Kaoru.
Why now, of all times!
Ignoring the voice pounding in his head, Rentaro threw off his seat belt and hurriedly yanked open the driver’s door.
. . .
"Die!!!!!!!!"
Thud!
Whoosh!
Kaoru’s right hand, still holding his phone, trembled once like a pulse.
His blue eyes flashed as he looked at the thick kitchen knife slashing toward him.
"!"
The distance was extremely short. The man was tall and heavily built, with a very sturdy frame. There was no tool to disarm him, and no time to spare.
Kaoru instinctively pulled on the muscle memory etched into his body, leaning back to create space and dodge the knife aimed at his abdomen.
He let go of the iPhone in his hand, letting it fall, then thrust both empty hands forward and caught the incoming knife and the man’s wrist.
Fshhk—
Slash—!
The knife’s sharp blade skimmed across Kaoru’s right palm and the underside of his wrist.
A searing pain hit him, but Kaoru clenched his teeth and, without even blinking, twisted his whole body to steal the man’s center of gravity.
The man’s massive build and the momentum of his charge slammed into Kaoru with tremendous force, but Kaoru moved like flowing water, seizing the man’s arm and shifting his legs and upper body to turn instantly.
In the process, the blade grazed lightly across his right side.
Crack-crack-crack—!
Crunch!
"Ghk?!"
Using the force of the moment, he grabbed the man’s hand and wrist around the weapon and crushed the ligaments and bones as if wringing out wet laundry.
The man groaned in agony as his wrist shattered, his grip loosening and the kitchen knife dropping from his hand. In the same instant, Kaoru struck the vital points of his face and neck with his fist and elbow.
The huge body went dark for a moment under Kaoru’s merciless fighting technique.
"Hup—!!"
Grinding his teeth, Kaoru seized the man by the collar and used all his strength and shifting center of gravity to hurl the massive body toward the apartment entrance in a shoulder throw.
Bang—!
Crash—!!!!
The over-100-kilogram body flew through the air in a limp arc and smashed every glass door at the entrance to pieces before collapsing in a miserable heap.
The sharp, tearing sound of shattering glass and broken structures rang out clearly through the surrounding area.
"Haa—! Haa!"
In less than three seconds. In that split instant, the whole sequence of events had flashed by in the blink of an eye.
Kaoru glared at the unconscious man sprawled on the ground, breathing hard.
It had been an unexpected surprise attack. If he had been distracted while answering the phone, he might have let his guard slip.
Kaoru clenched and opened his right hand repeatedly, checking for nerve damage. Fortunately, there was none.
But the cuts seemed a little deep, and blood dripped steadily from the wound, soaking the ground before long.
Thankfully, the blade had not cut deeply enough to hit an artery or vein, so blood wasn’t spurting out in time with his heartbeat.
Searing, stinging pain throbbed in time with his pulse from his right hand, wrist, and side.
"Kaaaooooruuuuuu!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Rentaro’s shrill scream brushed past Kaoru’s ears.
Rentaro, his face so white he looked like his soul had left his body, came running with a cry.
"Aah! Ah! Are you okay!? Aah!"
"Kaoru-san!!?"
The clatter of Yuno’s high heels grew louder as she jumped out of the van and ran over.
Unlike the unnervingly calm Kaoru, who had become even more composed than usual, the two of them were experiencing something like this for the first time in their lives.
Practically in a panic, Rentaro and Yuno looked over Kaoru’s body frantically like people who had lost their minds, screaming in alarm.
"What do we do! What do we do! What do we do!"
"It’s a knife! A knife! Are you okay? What on earth—call the police! Call the police! No, 119 first?! No, get in! Get in the car first!!!"
"Brother, listen to me-"
"Just get in already!!!!!! Hurry!!!"
Rentaro grabbed Kaoru by the collar and shouted as he sprinted toward the van in a frenzy. He got Kaoru into the van, and Yuno hurried in after him. Seeing the residents who had opened their balcony doors in shock and were peering outside, Rentaro pointed at them and shouted,
"I’m Kaoru’s agency representative!!!! Please call the police!!!"
At the sight of Rentaro, whose clothes and face were splattered red with Kaoru’s blood, several residents were startled enough to go back inside or grab their phones.
Rentaro immediately climbed into the driver’s seat, released the parking brake, and slammed the accelerator with all his strength.
Vroom—! Screeeech—!
"What do we do! What do we do! There’s so much blood, so much blood!?"
"He’s not in danger of dying. It’s not deep, so just stop the bleeding—"
"Yuno! Yuno! Here! A towel, a towel! Use the towel to stop the bleeding!"
Cutting Kaoru off, Rentaro yanked a towel and a bundle of socks from the glove compartment and threw them into the back seat, then jerked the wheel and sped out onto the road.
Familiar with Tokyo’s streets, Rentaro muttered in a trembling voice as he thought of the nearest emergency room.
"Tokyo University Hospital. Tokyo University Hospital. Tokyo University Hospital."
"What do we do! What do we do!"
Yuno, eyes brimming with tears, tried desperately to wrap Kaoru’s wound with the towel and socks, but her panicked body would not obey her.
Kaoru took the towel from Yuno’s helpless hands, grabbed the plastic umbrella at his feet, and crushed it under his foot.
Crunch!
Using the broken umbrella shaft and the towel, he skillfully made a tourniquet around his right forearm and secured it in place.
Kaoru tightened it as much as he could with his left hand and his teeth, then spoke in a calm voice to reassure Yuno as much as possible.
"Yuno."
"Eh? Y-yes?"
"The cut on my side is shallow, but it keeps bleeding. You see that unopened bottle of water over there, right?"
"Y-yes!"
"Open it and pour it over my side."
"Y-yes!"
Yuno, moving on instinct and in a panic, twisted off the cap of the water bottle and, after taking off her jacket and pulling up her shirt, poured water over the bloody gash at his side to wash the wound clean.
A stinging pain surged through him, but Kaoru’s expression did not change in the slightest.
"......"
Only one thought occupied his mind: Ai and the twins. If they found out he had been injured and rushed to the emergency room, his family would surely...
Whether she knew his thoughts or not, Yuno sobbed as she used the sock to stop the bleeding from Kaoru’s wound.
Her makeup ran with her tears and streamed down her face, but she was in no condition to care about that.
Today’s schedule had been completely ruined, but for the panicked Yuno and Rentaro, that was the least important thing in the world. The only thought filling their heads was that they had to save him, and that single-minded panic paralyzed all rational judgment and thought.
That much was obvious from Rentaro, who had already been caught by every speed camera and red-light camera in Tokyo more than a dozen times.
Kaoru tried to reassure the two of them, but once he realized they were in no state to hear him out, he had no choice but to stop speaking any further.
Unlike himself, normal people who witnessed and experienced something this horrific—something they might only encounter once in a lifetime—would naturally react exactly like this.
Even someone born with calmness and composure would be incapable of normal thought and judgment in a situation like this if they were an ordinary person.
In fact, the one who was truly not right in the head was him, the one who had subdued an armed assailant in return and still felt nothing even after being cut and bleeding.
His skills and experience from his past life had saved his life once again today.
But Kaoru, who had been living as part of a family and had briefly forgotten the gap between his past-life memories and ordinary life, let out a deep breath as he stared out the window.
Because of Rentaro’s desperate driving, they managed to reach the emergency room at Tokyo University Hospital at 3:35 p.m., much sooner than it would have otherwise taken. Rentaro hurriedly opened the driver’s door.
Rentaro ran into the emergency room with Kaoru, and Yuno followed after them, but then she suddenly remembered something and quickly pulled out her phone to call the senior reporter who supervised her at work.
She needed to let them know that today’s schedule had been completely canceled because Kaoru had been attacked by an assailant.
- Whaaaat!?!?
"You heard me, right?! I-I can’t, can’t, can’t do the interview!! P-please tell the editor-in-chief! Okay!?"
After roughly explaining the situation, Yuno hurriedly hung up and rushed further into the emergency room.
Murmur murmur—
"He can still live, right!? Yes!? Doctor!?"
With Rentaro crying and clinging to the doctor, the emergency room bed area was crowded with medical staff and patients’ families.
"P-please calm down!"
"Sob!"
While a young resident doctor soothed Rentaro, Kaoru received emergency treatment from the emergency room staff and the surgeons who had been called in and rushed over.
After he was taken to the treatment room, the heavily bleeding area on his right hand and wrist was disinfected, the wound was numbed, and then it was stitched shut with medical needles as if sewing fabric.
The cut on his side fortunately hadn’t gone in very deep, so there was no threat to his life.
"That’s not Kamiki Kaoru?"
"Whoa, what? Suddenly?"
"Looks like he got stabbed?"
"Yes, hello? Yeah, hey. I just saw Kamiki Kaoru in the emergency room? He got stabbed, crazy!"
Rentaro and Yuno, who had been sitting there with hollow expressions as if their souls had gone missing, sensed the uneasy atmosphere in the emergency room and stood up.
Busy footsteps and shouting could be heard from outside the emergency room.
Startled, Rentaro and Yuno looked at each other.
At that moment, a phone rang in Rentaro’s hand. When he checked it, calls and messages from reporters were pouring in so fast that the phone was shaking in his grip.
Yuno’s phone was ringing just as wildly, messages flooding in nonstop.
"Ah. What do we do!?"
"W-what is it?!"
Yuno clutched her head and widened her eyes. When Rentaro asked in alarm, she stomped her feet and said tearfully,
"I called my senior reporter and told her Kaoru-san came to the emergency room so I couldn’t do the interview, and I think it all, all got out!"
"What?!"
"Oh no, what do we do!"
After hearing Yuno’s words, Rentaro ran toward the emergency room entrance with a dazed look on his face.
Rentaro ran a hand through his hair with his blood-dried right hand and stared blankly at the chaos erupting at the entrance.
"You can’t do that! Reporters are not allowed in!!!"
"Patients need to get through!!!"
"Wait, I’ll just take one shot and leave!!!"
"Don’t you know the public has a right to know!?"
"What right to know?! This is a hospital, not a press conference!!!"
"Did Kamiki Kaoru die!?"
"When did he die!?"
Security guards and staff from the hospital, along with reporters and news crews who had swarmed in like clouds.
Camera flashes flickered wildly, and even the parking space meant for ambulances had been forced open by press vehicles.
It was utter chaos, a complete madhouse.
With a hollow expression, Rentaro waved his hands frantically and tried desperately to squeeze through the crowd.
"H-he’s not dead! What are you talking about!? He’s not dead!"
Rentaro’s voice was swallowed by the shouting and the noise and never reached them.
"I said he’s not dead!!! Listen to me, will you!! What the hell are you saying?!!!"
"Ah! It’s President Rentaro!"
"President Rentaro! How do you feel right now!?"
"When did he die!? You were there at the scene of the attack, weren’t you!?"
Some reporters, having spotted the furious Rentaro, who was boiling over at their outrageous behavior, shoved microphones and cameras toward him and strained to break through the line.
Then—
"It’s [Ai]?!"
Shocked cries erupted from behind them one after another.
The reporters who had been rushing forward to photograph Rentaro all turned around at once in surprise.
The crowd parted to both sides in an instant, like the Red Sea splitting open.
Camera flashes and recording cameras all swung toward Ai at once.
"Haa! Haa! Huh! Haaah!"
From beyond that, a woman’s ragged breathing could be heard.
Rentaro stared blankly, then found Ai running toward him through the opened path like someone out of her mind, and he could not close his mouth.
Her hair was in disarray.
Her shoes were gone, and her bare feet were covered in scrapes and cuts.
She had come running straight into the entrance in her concert costume, and tears were pouring from her starlit eyes.
Wasn’t the concert still going on? How did she get here?
Rentaro, filled with confused thoughts, hurriedly raised his arm to stop Ai, but she shook off his hand and ran straight into the emergency room.
Her long purple hair fluttered wildly, and though she was so out of breath she could hardly breathe properly, Ai passed Rentaro by and screamed at the top of her lungs toward the emergency room.
"Kaaaooooruuuu!!!!"
Ai’s pitiful cry, a scream that sounded like it was being torn from her very chest.
The voice filled with pain and fear, the desperate cry of someone who absolutely could not bear to lose the person she loved—
echoed through the entire emergency room.
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