Chapter 12 - Lie or Truth
"You went out of your way to call out to me because you wanted me to treat your boyfriend? How devoted of you."
"...Leo isn't my boyfriend. He's my big brother."
"Siblings? You don't look alike."
"That's obvious. We have different fathers."
A complicated family situation, perhaps? That might be why she turned delinquent.
"You might not believe it, but his teeth will all come back even if you leave them alone. Just leave him be. At most, tell him to rest. Goodbye."
"No, not the teeth! ...Those seemed like they were going to heal anyway, so I'm not that worried about them."
Then what is it? I asked, slightly irritated.
"Mister, you're strong, right? And you can even use some weird power. Are you maybe not human? Whatever you are, it seems like it has to be you, so I've been looking for you this whole time."
"...Shall we change locations?"
If she started blabbing about my superhuman nature in a place with people around, I'd feel restless, worrying that others would wonder what was going on.
In a reversal of yesterday, I led Rio to the back of the game center. To that deserted area under the elevated tracks where I had dominated the high schoolers.
A place like that would only be entered by delinquent boys or stray cats. And one of those groups had already been cleared out by my hands.
There aren't any early arrivals, right?
While feeling some anxiety, we arrived to find no signs of people, as if it had been planned. It was a perfect spot for a private conversation.
Leaning my back against the wire fence, I faced Rio.
A modern high school girl with glossy black hair fluttering in the wind and her hands thrust into her pockets. Seeing her from the front, I was reminded again of how good her proportions were.
She was slightly shorter than me, and I'm exactly 170 centimeters. She must be around 165.
She had a small face and a look that could work for a model.
"Um, you see."
Almost at the same time Rio opened her mouth, my eyes went to the black stain spreading at her feet.
"You were peeing right around there, weren't you? Isn't that puddle the one you made?"
"Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"
Distorting her cool beauty face, Rio began to kick the ground with intense force. Raising a cloud of dust, she covered the puddle with sand and gravel.
Once she finished the series of tasks, she turned back toward me. Scattering droplets of sweat, she had a refreshing, composed face.
She looked like a young actress appearing in a soft drink commercial. The kind where she finishes a full sprint in her school uniform, then chugs a bottled drink and announces the product name.
She didn't look at all like a girl who had just finished cleaning up after peeing. Rio kept her expression fixed in that state and spoke to me as if nothing had happened.
"Can I get to the main point? Leo is in big trouble right now."
"What impressive leg strength."
"Can I get to the main point?"
"There's no need to be embarrassed, is there? It's just a physiological phenomenon."
"Can I get to the main point?"
"Your face has turned bright red. You're probably bad at Old Maid, aren't you?"
"Can I... get to... the main point?"
Finally, her eyes became teary and her shoulders began to tremble, so I stopped teasing her.
"What happened to that Lion-kun?"
While smoothing her disheveled hair with her fingers, Rio answered.
"He had a fight with Mom's boyfriend."
Mom's boyfriend. It's frightening how that single phrase alone makes one imagine a terrible home environment.
Of course, a mother is free to have a romance. If she's single due to divorce or bereavement, it wouldn't be strange for her to find a new lover.
However, the prior information about Rio's family was too awful. A delinquent eldest son with a flashy name, and a daughter with a different father. The combination of these didn't suggest a warm family drama, but a criminal suspense story.
"Is your mother divorced? And she brought home a boyfriend as a new father candidate, but he didn't get along with King Leo-kun. Something like that?"
I tried suggesting a relatively peaceful guess. The answer that came back was...
"That's mostly right, but about that father candidate. He has a tattoo on his back, and the pinky on his left hand is missing. He might be the worst partner yet."
It was an extremely ominous answer. It wasn't criminal suspense; it was a yakuza story.
"My mom is easy. She changes the man she's with at a pace of about once every four years. It's not the Olympics; it's stupid, right?"
"It's painful to listen to."
"And since I started middle school, the men Mom brings home have started looking at me in a gross way."
"Please, stop."
I had nothing but a bad feeling. I hoped she wouldn't say, 'I'm a yakuza's toy right now, how about you take a turn for twenty thousand yen, Mister?'
"But, because Leo was there."
"...That guy?"
"Every time Mom's lover tried to do something to me, Leo would fly in and beat them up. Leo's been big since he was a kid. You beat him, but he's incredibly strong in a fight. ...Because Leo worked hard, I haven't had any harm done to me until now."
Big brother's still got it, Rio muttered.
"That's unexpected. I thought he was just a brat, but he was actually being a good big brother."
"He's bad at studying and his name is weird, but he's a pretty good big brother when he's with me."
A beautiful younger sister who is easily targeted by men. A hot-blooded older brother who cares for his sister. The mother's new partner is a mobster with no morals or decency.
In this combination, who has the highest mortality rate?
Needless to say, it's the big brother.
"Leo might be killed."
Rio's voice was trembling.
"The yakuza Mom is dating now... his name is Gondo, and he's crazy. Today, as soon as he barged into the house, he tried to flip up my skirt."
Rio said that Gondo had started dating her mother about a week ago.
"Gondo acts like he's my father, but he comes to peek at me while I'm changing, and he rubs my shoulders for no reason. Finally, he tries to take pictures under my skirt with his smartphone. ...Many times. Every time I hear that 'click' sound in the house, I jump. I feel like I'm going to go crazy at this rate."
—So that was it.
Yesterday's behavior from Rio now made sense. I had been taking screenshots of a smartphone app near this girl.
From Rio's perspective, she was already sensitive to camera sounds, and then she directly heard a traumatic sound. She reacted excessively, and then her delinquent brother, who was fully intent on protecting his sister, appeared, leading to the violence.
I could understand the motive. But if I had been weak, this would have ended with me being beaten up due to a misunderstanding. In the first place, they should have checked my phone to see if I was a voyeur. One look at the saved image list would have settled it.
They were too hot-blooded; there still wasn't enough material for sympathy.
"And that yakuza named Gondo had a fight with King Leo-onii-chan?"
"...Yeah. Because he tried to touch me again. Leo grabbed him, and the fight started. Usually, Leo wouldn't lose, but because of you, his teeth were blown out. Apparently, he couldn't put any strength into it, and he was being one-sidedly beaten. I've never seen Leo like that."
"You say it's my fault... I was almost lynched because of a misunderstanding, you know? It was self-defense."
"It's your fault."
If it were the usual Leo, he wouldn't lose. As she spoke, Rio gritted her teeth, and tears welled up in the corners of her eyes.
"What do you want me to do? Should I just treat King Leo-kun?"
Rio covered her eyes with both hands and shook her head vigorously. I could hear the sound of her sniffing.
"...Leo was taken away."
Where? To my question, Rio answered, "The office."
Around noon, Gondo beat King Leo again, and after confirming the opponent had stopped moving, he reportedly stuffed him into a car. Leaving only the word that they were going to the office, the car then drove off.
"Isn't he already dead?"
"He's not dead!"
She retorted with bloodshot eyes. Her fine features were a mess of tears and snot.
"I understand the situation, but why don't you try reporting it to the police for now?"
"I already did. But when I gave Gondo's name, the cop said, 'Give my regards to your father-in-law,' and hung up. ...The police around here seem to be on good terms with Gondo's group. It's a give-and-take relationship."
It's completely corrupt. I felt a sensation akin to dizziness. While I was acting as a cheat Hero in another world, what happened to this country? Or has it always been like this?
"In other words, you want me, who is super strong and can use mysterious powers, to rescue and treat your brother."
"...Yeah."
"You're telling me to go barge into a yakuza office right now."
"...Is it impossible?"
Of course it is, I replied immediately.
"What's the merit for me? I'd just be getting glared at by an anti-social group for no reason. In the first place, from my perspective, you siblings are just shitty brats who suddenly picked a fight with me. I have no obligation to help you."
"About that... I'm really... sorry..."
"Besides, I don't even know if this story is true. There's a possibility you made up a story because you wanted revenge for yesterday. To get me in the mood and make me fight with unrelated yakuza. How about it, it's possible, isn't it? Since you can't win yourself, your scheme is to have someone else hurt me."
"It's not like that."
While tearing up, Rio let out a weak voice, asking, "How can I make you believe me?"
I wanted to believe her if possible, but I'd been used up and discarded in another world. I'd become quite suspicious.
"...I don't really like doing this, though."
Let's make it clear whether it's black or white. While looking straight into Rio's face, I chanted, "Status Open."
I didn't care about the ability scores, but there are cases where personality or true feelings are written in the remarks column. I thought I'd judge whether she was lying or not with this.
The displayed content was:
【Name】 Rio Saito
【Level】 1
【Class】 High School Girl
【HP】 80
【MP】 120
【Attack】 70
【Defense】 65
【Agility】 70
【Magic Attack】 100
【Magic Defense】 100
【Skill】 Father Complex (Protection)
【Remarks】 A girl who has been targeted by the yakuza. She longs for a strong and strict father who will protect her and her brother, and sometimes scold them. She is not yet consciously aware of it, but she is conscious of Keisuke Nakamoto as a member of the opposite sex. Last night, Keisuke appeared in her dream and gave her a spanking. She was happily shouting, "I'm sorry for being a bad girl." For Rio, it was a wet dream.
Some kind of bizarre appraisal result came out.