One strike.
What the police would typically consider the acceptable limit of self-defense was, for me, a single blow.
Any more than that would be excessive force, so I had to settle the fight with just one punch.
The man with the slicked-back hair, caught by my counter punch, flew through the air like a toy.
His white teeth scattered like flower petals.
*Thump!!*
The man, spewing a large amount of blood from his mouth and nose, flew about three meters before crashing into a vending machine, which finally stopped his momentum.
"Boss!"
"Hayashi-san!"
The delinquents cried out in alarm, rushing to the fallen man.
I stood behind the two of them as they shook the unconscious man, trying to wake him. I clenched and unclenched my right hand, still feeling the satisfying weight of the impact.
"You laid a hand on my friend. I hope you're prepared for the consequences."
The two, one with his neck in a cast and the other with his hand in one, yelped, "Eek!" and fell backward, shouting desperately.
"T-Touch me and I'll call the police! My dad knows people at the Metropolitan Police Department!"
"My father's a police executive! You know what'll happen if you mess with me, right?!"
Truly textbook threats.
Have these guys never heard the saying that the law is far, but fists are close?
I grabbed each of their faces with one of my hands.
"I'll fix that rotten mentality of yours."
The Iron Claw, a technique often used in professional wrestling.
The advantage of this move is that it applies pressure to the temples with one hand, inflicting immense pain, yet if you control your strength, it leaves no visible marks.
"Aargh! Aaargh! It hurts! It hurts! I'm gonna die!"
"Please, save me! Somebody, please! I was wrong!"
Lifted into the air, their vision completely blocked by my palms, the two flailed their arms and legs as immense pressure and pain shot through their temples, tears and snot streaming down their faces.
I held them like that for about thirty seconds before letting go. They had pissed their pants, their faces still twisted in terror as they clasped their hands together, begging for their lives.
I looked down at them with cold eyes and said,
"Get lost. And don't you ever show your faces in front of Tojo and Sakamoto again."
The delinquents nodded frantically, then helped up their boss, Hayashi, who had been knocked out by my punch, and hastily fled the park.
"Phew…"
In the end, I'd bloodied my hands on what was supposed to be a good day.
If the same thing happened again, I wouldn't hesitate to use my strength for a friend, but I felt a bitter taste in my mouth, as if I were slowly drifting away from the realm of normal humans.
Is this the fate of a muscle-bound comic relief character…?
As I was staring down at my palms with a strange sense of lingering feeling, Kishimoto, who had been watching the fight from a distance, ran over, waving her hand.
"Ryu-chan! Are you okay?!"
"Hm? Oh, yeah, I'm fine. Aside from a few light scrapes, I'm not hurt."
I tried to reassure her, but she pointed at my forehead with a still-panicked expression.
"But blood is still streaming from your forehead!"
Only then did I remember that my forehead had been cut. I took a handkerchief from my pocket and pressed it firmly against the wound.
"A little spit will fix a wound like this."
At that, Rika pulled on my arm with a rare look of anger.
"Don't be ridiculous! Let's go to a pharmacy, now!"
In the end, I couldn't win against her insistence and headed to a small pharmacy near the park.
***
Only after applying antiseptic from the pharmacy to my forehead and sticking a square bandage on it was I able to return to where we had been.
While I was dealing with the delinquents, Tojo had carried the fallen Sakamoto to a nearby bench. It seemed he had recovered some of his strength by now.
I wanted to ask if they were both okay, but a strange atmosphere hung between them, so Kishimoto and I kept our distance and watched.
Presently, Tojo was the first to speak.
"I'm sorry, Sakamoto. You got hit because of me."
Sakamoto, sitting next to Tojo, shook his head and replied, "Mm-mm."
"If anything, I should be the one who's sorry. Those guys were after me because they had a grudge."
A moment of silence fell between them.
Then, Tojo, who had been fidgeting with her hands while looking down, courageously spoke first.
"Sakamoto! I like you! Please, I want you to be my boyfriend!"
Sakamoto's eyes widened slightly, then he gave a bitter smile and said,
"I'm sorry, but I don't think I can give you the answer you're hoping for."
"Why! Is it because I'm like a tomboy! If that's it, I can change, starting now…!"
Sakamoto quickly waved his hands and said,
"No, it's not that. Tojo-san, you're definitely too good for me. But I have my own circumstances."
"Circumstances?"
"There's a girl I promised to marry when we were kids. Until I meet her again, at least, I don't plan on dating anyone."
Tojo turned her head forward and asked,
"Do you still like her that much?"
"That… I'm not sure myself. But I remember that I liked her a lot. The day she moved away, I cried my eyes out."
"Was she your first love?"
"Yeah. I guess you could put it that way. She was my first love."
"…I see."
Tojo nodded at his words, then stood up from the bench with a bright smile.
"If you really don't want to, I can't force you. I'll give up gracefully. Today was really fun! See you at school next week, Sakamoto!"
With those parting words, she turned her back on Sakamoto, who was still sitting on the bench, and ran out of the park without a second thought.
Sakamoto watched her retreating back with a wistful gaze but didn't follow.
He must have been serious about not wanting to date her.
"What do we do…"
Kishimoto mumbled, covering her mouth with her hand, her eyes filled with sorrow.
I watched Tojo's retreating figure for a moment, then turned to Kishimoto beside me.
"Rika, you should head home for today. I'll go after Tojo."
"Will you be okay by yourself?"
"Even if I'm not, she probably needs someone to comfort her right now."
Kishimoto hesitated for a moment, then nodded.
"Okay. I'll leave Tojo-san to you, Ryu-chan."
"See you at school next week."
"Yeah. You did well today, Ryu-chan."
After a brief farewell with Kishimoto, I started running with all my might in the direction Tojo had gone.
***
Thankfully, Tojo, who had fled the park as if escaping, hadn't gotten very far.
It was probably because of the high heels she wasn't used to wearing.
She was sitting alone at an empty bus stop, blankly watching the cars pass by. When a shadow suddenly fell over her, she looked up at me with a tear-streaked face.
"You okay?"
Tojo forced a smile and replied.
"How could I be?"
I was about to offer her my handkerchief to wipe her tears, but then I remembered it was a mess from wiping the blood off my forehead earlier. I awkwardly stuffed it back into my pocket.
Instead, I took out some tissues from my other pocket and wiped her tears for her.
"Such a slob for a girl. Here, blow your nose."
"Hmph!"
As I wiped away the tears and snot messing up her face, her true face, hidden beneath the makeup, was revealed.
With her makeup gone, she scratched the back of her head, trying to act cheerful.
"This is embarrassing. I've never let anyone see me cry before."
I looked down at her for a moment, then sat down in the empty space beside her.
"We're friends. What's the big deal?"
"Friends, huh."
Tojo muttered to herself as she looked up at the blue sky.
"Actually, I knew you and Kishimoto were tailing me from the start."
"…You did?"
That was honestly surprising.
Isn't it an unwritten rule of romantic comedies that no matter how obvious the tailing is, the people being followed never notice?
As a delayed sense of shame washed over me, I awkwardly averted my gaze. Tojo patted my shoulder and said,
"I'm not trying to give you a hard time about it. It just means I wasn't trustworthy enough, I guess. For the guys who gave me advice on everything from A to Z to follow me around all day, watching over me."
"That's not what we meant…"
"I'm sorry. For failing in the end."
Tojo suddenly bowed her head to me as she spoke.
"I thought if I changed, I could win Sakamoto's heart. But that was just my arrogant delusion. From the very beginning, there was no room in his heart for me to squeeze in."
She said, her voice choked with tears.
"I already knew, but I turned away from the truth. And this is the result."
Tojo Karen clutched her chest in frustration.
Then she pounded her heart and said,
"It hurts here. It hurts like crazy. But there's no way to fix it. This is the first time I've ever felt this way."
She hung her head and poured out her anguish.
"I!!"
Like someone possessed, she screamed with all her might at the empty bus stop where we were the only two people.
"I really, truly liked him!!"
*Pant… pant…*
I quietly watched the profile of Tojo Karen, who was suffering from the pain of being rejected by her first love.
Honestly, at first, I thought of her as a character in a manga.
The same went for Kishimoto.
Even while smiling and spending time with them, I had drawn a clear line between them and me.
It was probably because I was an anomaly, an outsider who had intruded into the world of this manga, 'Scramble Love.'
But the person before me now was not a character in a manga.
She was a living, breathing human being named 'Tojo Karen.'
Just a fragile girl, agonizing and suffering alone from the pain of a failed first love.
Having realized this fact belatedly, I decided to act according to my heart from now on.
"Karen, get up."
"…What?"
Perhaps because I had called her by her first name without permission, Karen looked up at me with a startled expression.
"If you keep screaming your head off like that in a place like this, someone's going to report you to the police for disturbing the peace."
Karen stared at me blankly for a moment, then burst out laughing with a *pfft!*
"You… is that really what you should be saying in a situation like this?"
"Yeah. It's better to laugh. You look much better that way."
I said, forcibly pulling Karen up from the bus stop bench.
Still looking dazed, Karen followed my lead and stood up. She looked up at me with eyes as red as a rabbit's and asked,
"I'm up like you said. Now what?"
I took off the hoodie I was wearing over my shirt, put it on her, and pulled the hood over her head as I spoke.
"We're going to karaoke. You're going to let out all your pent-up frustration there. Then you'll be able to accept the fact that you were rejected."
"…What?"
Ignoring Karen, who raised her voice in disbelief, I used my smartphone to search for a karaoke place nearby.
The closest one was on the second floor of Sunshine City.
As expected of a multipurpose cultural center, it had everything but the kitchen sink.
I gestured for Karen to follow me—she looked like she was wrapped in a blanket since the hoodie was too big for her—and started walking ahead.
"Hey! Kim Yu-seong! Hey! Wait up!"
I glanced back and saw that her face, which had been as gloomy as a sky full of dark clouds just moments ago, had finally cleared up.
***
"…That friend, Kim Yu-seong, he's a really good kid."
"*Sniffle*, I'm so glad the young miss has a friend like him."
"It's been a long time since this old man has seen something so good…"
The yakuza members each offered their impressions as they stood up to go home.
Tojo Naoto watched the retreating figures of Kim Yu-seong and his daughter and chuckled, "Hmph."
"A rare kid to find in these trying times."
Honor and justice!
Watching the man named Kim Yu-seong, Tojo Naoto, the sixth chairman of the Toseikai, was reminded of words long forgotten by time!
Perhaps he could be the one! The one to revive the names of the men of honor, who were becoming ghosts of a bygone era, in this country once more!
"Let's meet again if fate allows, young friend."
Date Over