Chapter 411: When in Doubt, Head to the Hotel (Patreon)

Because Kazami Kazuki had called Takina away, Jhin had the afternoon off. He headed back to the café early to make some desserts for the girls. Of course, he hadn't forgotten Sagiri, who was hunkered down in the basement, drawing her heart out, so he made her a cream pudding specially.

"Thank you, Brother." She wore her mask in a strange way this time, deliberately leaving her soft pink lips and small chin exposed. She was probably working up to taking it off in front of him.

"It'd be nice if you were as eager about carrots as you are about sweets."

"No way! Carrots taste awful!"

"Then I'll make you a carrot cake next time."

"...I'd rather die than eat something like that!"

Once again, his attempt to persuade his little sister not to be a picky eater had failed. Jhin gave in with a helpless sigh. "Fine, fine. I'm heading out, then. If you need anything, contact me on your personal terminal."

"Mm."

He picked up the boxed desserts, walked out of the café, and locked the door. He had meant to use [Spatial Displacement] to go straight back to the company, but he noticed that someone seemed to be watching him. So he whistled a tune and strolled leisurely into a back alley.

Let's see who came knocking first. The Alan Institute, the DA, or that hacker.

He was only halfway down the alley when boys in uniforms resembling high school ones, all with stern faces, blocked both the front and back exits. They wore earpieces and were murmuring to each other, apparently thinking Jhin couldn't hear them from this distance. He could hear every word.

"Captain, are we really going to use an ordinary civilian as a hostage?"

"We're already breaking regulations as it is. If we drag a civilian into this..."

"Hmph. Why don't you think about how badly Nishikigi Chisato has hurt us Lilybell? We've finally got a chance to grab someone close to her. How could we let this slip?"

The two Lilybell members blocking the exits hardened their gazes with resolve as they listened. Jhin had already started to grin.

So they want to use me to threaten Chisato. Good idea, and bold of them, too. Shame their lives are a bit short.

He had spent these past few days relying on his physical abilities to train Chisato and Takina, but in truth he had been steadily tuning the weakened versions of his magic that could be released in the Main World. By now he could once more use [Elemental Armament], though only the visual effects remained, and only within half a body's range.

Apart from [Spatial Displacement] and [Blade of Resurrection], most of his other spells were only good for a light show. Jhin didn't mind. With his current physique, nothing in modern society could threaten him except for stupidly taking a missile to the face. Ordinary firearms were no danger at all.

Meanwhile, even before Jhin left, Nymph had spotted the Lilybell members loitering around Café LycoReco through the disguised drones she had set up around the building. After a quick assessment, she judged that Teacher could easily handle them, so she only informed Kazami Kazuki verbally.

Who would have guessed that Kazuki would turn around and pass the news straight to Chisato, then watch her storm out of the lounge in a blaze of fury?

"Didn't we agree to leave Nishikigi Chisato to Teacher?" Nymph didn't understand her purpose.

"My little brother's methods are too gentle. If I've trained Takina well and Chisato is still treading water, how boring would that be? I might as well give her a hard shove and shatter every fixed impression she has of him."

Kazuki smugly crossed her legs, the tips of her pale, tender toes hooking a slipper and swinging it lightly. "Besides, I'd like to see him flustered once in a while, when his plans get thrown off."

Nymph shook her head helplessly. "Don't call me for help when Teacher catches you and punishes you."

"Hmph. Worst case, I'll serve as an experiment sample too."

"That's actually a decent suggestion."

...

Smack!

Jhin casually tossed aside the Lilybell member whose limbs had been twisted like dough twists, then turned to the only one still conscious, who lay limp on the ground. "I'm curious. What kind of grudge does Chisato have with you Lilybell, that you'd even kidnap an ordinary guy like me as a hostage?"

"D-Demon... I... I won't tell you anything!"

"What you're saying sounds a lot like the first two guys, just without the backbone." Jhin had preferred how defiant and arrogant they'd been at the start. Beating them up had felt much better that way.

A puddle of steaming, clear liquid spread out from the Lilybell member's crotch. He had actually wet himself from fright!

"Forget it..." Seeing how pathetic he was, Jhin lost any desire to keep scaring him. He had The World crack the three of them like watermelons and send them to their graves, then opened his personal terminal to have Nymph dispatch drones to dispose of the uninvited guests.

Chisato arrived just then. She stood at the mouth of the alley, staring blankly at the bloody scene inside, and forced out a call from the depths of her throat. "Jhin... nii?"

Jhin frowned. "Chisato, why are you here?"

"They're..."

"Lilybell. It looks like they were planning to grab me as a hostage to threaten you."

"But there was no need to kill them all..."

Jhin let out a long sigh and walked over to Chisato. He meant to reach out and pat her head before continuing, but she instinctively backed away two steps and froze on the spot, her eyes wide with astonishment, as though she couldn't believe what she had just done.

Why did I dodge Jhin-nii's hand?

Jhin understood that Chisato could only have turned up near the café at a time like this because Kazuki had told her to come. He grumbled at his sister inwardly, then went on thinking about how to handle this.

He had originally planned to use the boiling-frog approach: gradually wear down Chisato's overly rosy impression and filter of him as her savior, and push down the weight of her debt of gratitude, until she fell for the real him. That was how he meant to have both her person and her heart, and he was stubborn about it.

Unfortunately, Chisato had witnessed him killing Lilybell with her own eyes. That crude shortcut had fast-forwarded the whole process to its end, and he had no choice but to face her early, when she was in no way prepared.

"Chisato, understanding how precious life is and sticking to a no-killing principle is truly admirable. But I hope that principle applies only to people who don't matter, not to enemies who come to your door and endanger the people around you."

"Suppose I were just an ordinary person, caught by them and used to threaten you. What would you do then? What if they demanded that you shoot yourself?"

Every word he said hit home. Chisato knew very well that if it ever came to that, she would trade her own life for his without hesitation, but that was absolutely not the outcome she wanted.

She tried hard not to look at the corpses in the pool of blood and kept her attention on Jhin. But the moment their eyes met, she turned her head away at once, as if the person in front of her had become so strange that he frightened her.

"Kazuki really landed me in a huge mess..." Jhin rubbed his throbbing temples, then firmly grabbed Chisato's wrist. "Come on, come on. I'm taking you to a hotel."