Chapter 42 – What Wakes You Up

Reading Settings

Maybe it was the word “murderer.”

Maybe it was the memory of me knocking him down last time surfacing in his head.

Either way, Nishida flinched like someone had just stuck a needle into him.

“S-so, how did it end up like this?”

I jerked my chin toward Naegi-san, still curled on the floor.

“Explain.”

His eyes shook, mouth opening and closing like a fish.

“I-I wasn't… It's not like I… S-Sara just came back today, so we were just talking about the future, that's all.”

“The future? And talking somehow leads to this?”

“N-no, it was a misunderstanding… I thought she'd finally had enough of me, and I was ready for that, I was trying to apologize for everything so far. But then Sara started saying all this stuff like, ‘I'm not breaking up with you. But I want you to clean up your act. Quit gambling. Either take university seriously or drop out and get a job. I want you to straighten up,’ so I just…”

So that was it.

From the way things looked, it was almost certain that Naegi-san really was pregnant.

Maybe some stubborn maternal instinct had kicked in and flipped her whole attitude upside down.

Honestly, I had to admit that part was kind of impressive.

If there was no lie in what this piece of crap was saying, then she probably had not even told him directly yet that she was carrying his kid.

I glanced over.

Naegi-san's face was drained of color. Mahiro was fumbling with her phone, voice shaking as she called an ambulance. Temari pressed gentle hands against Naegi-san's back and shoulder, whispering to her.

I decided to leave that side to them.

My job was something else.

I turned back to Nishida.

“Tell me something. Did it really never cross your mind that there might be a new life growing in Naegi-san's belly?”

“Wh-what are you even talking about?”

“You had more than enough reason to suspect it. Her period being late, weird mood changes, all that. And you still chose to swing at her. Even just one blow to her stomach can cause a miscarriage, or leave a long-term injury that means she can never have kids again.”

I took a slow step forward.

“Even if it was all a misunderstanding, you still chose violence. That alone makes you a complete failure of a human being. A fully certified good-for-nothing.”

“…I…”

I had already guessed why Naegi-san had gone back to him after everything.

She came from a single-parent home herself.

She was the type who still went out of her way to make a lunchbox for a guy who was clearly not her type.

With that kind of personality, of course she would hate the idea of letting her own kid grow up without a Dad.

I clicked my tongue.

If things kept going the way they were, anyone could see the outcome: a kid who would end up homeless, broke, or both, courtesy of her loser boyfriend.

Naturally, she would demand, at the bare minimum, for Nishida to straighten up, quit gambling, and start functioning like a halfway decent adult.

“It's almost amazing, you know. Last time, when I got between you and Naegi-san, she had more than enough chance to just run away from you.”

I looked him straight in the eye.

“But what did she do instead? She bowed her head to me and said, ‘I'm sorry,’ then went right back to you. That's one form of love.”

His shoulders twitched.

“Well, maybe she only did it because she didn't want the kid in her stomach to be born without a Dad. Either way, it's still love.”

“……”

“If it wasn't love, who the hell would willingly come back to a place like this, fully aware they were probably going to suffer again? If I were in Naegi-san's position, I'd run and never look back.”

I jabbed a finger toward the floor next to her.

“And you trampled all over that love with those pathetic, thoughtless swings of yours. You worthless piece of s**t.”

“……”

“Now, quiz time, murderer. Let's assume there really is a new life inside Naegi-san. Where do you think the weight of her affection is leaning now—toward you, or toward the kid?”

“Th-that…”

His voice came out thin.

“You can't even answer that?” I scoffed. “You really are beyond saving. Naegi-san probably thought, ‘For this kid's sake, I'll try one more time.’ And you smashed even that last reason she had to start over.”

I took another step forward, close enough to smell the stale cigarette stink on him.

“You felt relieved because she came back, right? You figured it was all forgiven. So you stopped holding yourself back, just like always, and the second things didn't go your way, you lashed out. No reflection, no restraint, nothing. You need to learn the basic skill of not acting like a rabid dog, you b*****d.”

“Th-that can't be…”

Nishida's face turned the color of a rotten green plum.

It suited him.

Probably matched whatever moldy STD was living in his dick.

“From now on, I'll call you the ‘Golden Tyrant’… No, that's rude to Oda Nobunaga. You're the ‘Golden Murderer.’ A pretty name for a guy who stomps on a new life that was just trying to exist, with nothing but his violence.”

I shrugged.

“You're a murderer. A murderer who fails at being human. How exactly do you plan to atone for a sin that doesn't disappear? You murderer. Maybe go get your brain syphilis treated at an STD clinic first, murderer.”

“……”

He stopped even pretending to argue.

Nishida just knelt there on the floor, limp, like someone had cut his strings.

Honestly, I really did want to beat the crap out of him again.

But I had already settled that part once. If I kept on bullying someone who was already as pathetic as a carp on a cutting board, I would just be dirtying my own hands to his level.

So I held back.

Apparently, the word “murderer” had been heavy enough for him.

If only he could have imagined, even once, what lay at the end of DV before getting this far.

“Yuuya, hey…”

A little while later, once the ambulance arrived and the paramedics loaded Naegi-san onto the stretcher, Temari tugged at my sleeve and whispered.

“What?”

“You went too far. There was no need to repeat ‘murderer’ that many times. What if, instead, you corner him so hard with your words that that useless guy actually kills himself?”

“There is no way Nishida is the type to get that depressed and kill himself.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“Okay, picture this. A student gets bullied and kills themself. People start calling the bully a ‘murderer.’ Think that bully, tormented by the accusation, goes and hangs themself out of guilt?”

I snorted.

“If someone was soft enough on themselves to die from guilt, they wouldn't have been bullying anybody in the first place. At best, they run away somewhere so they don't have to face it. People who are that indulgent with themselves don't even register that they're in the wrong.”

“……”

“That's why somebody has to hammer the weight of what he did into that self-indulgent head of his. And that somebody just happens to be me this time.”

It was a flimsy justification, the kind that would probably lose hard if the “King of Logical Defeat” showed up and started picking it apart.

But after getting dragged into this bullshit thanks to Nishida in the first place, I felt like I had earned the right to swing my mouth at him at least this much.

Temari watched me for a second.

Then she nodded slowly, like she had just solved some puzzle.

“I get it. In your own twisted way, Yuuya, you just couldn't accept your friend continuing to live his life rotten like that.”

“…Huh?”

“One way or another, you really care about your friends. That part of you, Yuuya, I kinda like it.”

She smiled and patted my back.

“Hey, hold on. How did you even get that from what I said?”

“No need to be shy.”

“I'm genuinely not following here.”

She kept grinning, clearly pleased with her own conclusion.

Temari had evolved into some strange creature whose thought process I no longer understood.

On top of that, she had somehow turned this into a feel-good story about friendship.

That had never been my intention, not even a little, not even a tiny speck.

Instead of spinning some beautiful delusion about me caring deeply for my “friend,” shouldn't she be worrying more about Naegi-san, who had just been taken away by ambulance?

I let out a long breath and watched the taillights of the ambulance disappear into the night, feeling the leftover heat of anger and helplessness burn low in my chest.