Chapter 14 - The Otherworld Hero's Cheat Peerlessness
Rio and I had arrived at Gondo's office.
Standing a little away from the main gate, the two of us looked up at the building.
It was a two-story office with a simple design. That itself was within the realm of common sense.
However, the concrete wall surrounding the perimeter asserted a defensive power unnecessary for ordinary people.
It was a dangerous foreign object wedged into a quiet residential area.
The atmosphere was a little similar to a dungeon.
Capturing this kind of risky facility was a Hero's job.
Let's do this.
I stepped in front of the gate and opened and closed my hands to concentrate my mind before the assault.
Rio followed beside me as if it were perfectly natural.
Hey.
"I can't allow any more than this, no matter what. Wait outside."
"Why? I'm fine with blood and stuff. Or are you saying the woman should stay back? Isn't that old-fashioned?"
"It's not about being old or new."
"I can at least bite if it comes down to it, and right now I'm invisible to others, right? Then there's no problem."
Whether Rio's figure could be seen or not was irrelevant.
The opponent was the underworld. If they had guns, a stray bullet could hit Rio.
I'm saying this for your sake, so why don't you understand?
Don't make me take extra trouble, I thought, and my tone accidentally became harsh.
"Shut up and wait outside! Listen to what adults tell you!"
Perhaps because it was before a battle, I seemed a bit on edge too.
Was I being too condescending? Was she mad?
When I quietly checked Rio's face, for some reason she was blushing and shivering. She even looked happy.
"Yes," came a reply in a strangely high-pitched voice.
...Let's pretend I didn't see that.
It should have been a phrasing that would irritate most girls, but I felt the response of gaining affection.
If a dog you kicked started wagging its tail, I think "Is it rabid?" would come before "What a cute fellow."
Well, but it's only been once. It doesn't count, it doesn't count.
Rio must be temporarily emotionally unstable because her brother was kidnapped.
I want to think so. Even if it's not true, I want to think so.
I cleared my throat to pull myself together and jumped over the wall.
Finally, I was infiltrating the office.
Considering it would be better to instill fear, I deactivated the concealment.
A surveillance camera pointed this way, so I fired a [Skill: 『Light Ball』] magic.
The sound of the lens shattering rang out, and white smoke rose from the short-circuited circuit.
It wasn't that I was afraid of being filmed. Rather, it was the opposite.
I had raised the signal fire of war against the guys who would be monitoring the footage.
I kicked through the window glass and marched further inside.
I wondered if men with punch perms would come jumping out with handguns in one hand.
While I was having such a retro imagination, two men came out from the other side of the hallway.
Middle-aged men who were tanned dark despite it being winter. The one on the right was chubby, the one on the left was lanky.
Both had nasty looks and were wearing casual clothes.
Their hairstyles, unfortunately, were not punch perms.
"Hey kid. Are you planning to be a human bullet?"
A raspy voice. For a voice withered by age, the quality was unnaturally metallic.
Unless one raised their voice on a daily basis, it wouldn't become like that.
The scenes where yakuza shout would mainly be extortion.
A worthless way of life was affecting both their faces and vocal cords.
"I'm looking for Gondo. Where is he?"
The response to my question was a right straight to the face.
The portly man had suddenly attacked.
A nasty crack sound echoed.
The fist that punched me must have lost to the hardness and shattered.
My defense power was 45,680. I was harder than steel.
Over clothes was one thing, but punching my face directly was a suicidal act.
"Take care of your hands. They're tools of the trade for a yakuza, right? You'll use them for cutting off fingers, won't you?"
"Ga... gu..."
The giant yakuza crouched down, clutching his right hand.
His shoulders trembled as he continued to leak pathetic groans.
"...What? This guy."
The tall man took a handgun from his coat. Finally, the lethal weapon made its appearance.
I didn't know the details since I had no interest in firearms, but if you shot at something hard, wouldn't there be ricochets?
"Stop. Weapons intended for human opponents don't work on me. You're the ones who'll get hurt."
"Do you have something embedded in your face?"
Listen to what people say.
Dry shooting sounds rang out, and bullets were fired into my chest.
All of them were deflected in random directions, hitting the floor and ceiling.
The bullets seemed to have chosen the path of piercing the shoulders and knees of the yakuza bunch after bouncing in complex trajectories.
"Gyaaaaaah!"
"...Even if I don't lay a hand on you, you guys just get beaten on your own."
I asked the fallen lanky man once more.
"Where is Gondo?"
"...Go to hell, you moron."
A response came back that felt like the chivalrous way of the old days, rare in this age.
The sentiment of 'I won't sell out the boss so easily.' It was admirable.
The demons in the other world would blabber classified information the moment they were in a situation like this.
"I don't dislike the sense of camaraderie. Quite the guts you have. I won't treat you badly, so tell me Gondo's whereabouts."
"...If you have any female family members, I'll kidnap them, get them hooked on drugs, and drop them in a brothel... They'll be basement-dwelling sluts for the rest of their lives... Be prepared..."
"I was just admiring you, and then you come out with the lowest kind of threat."
I stomped on the man's knee with all my might, crushing it.
"Agaaaah!"
I'm great at breaking plates. Both ramen shop china plates and kneecaps.
"I hate it when people target the ones I care about. Do you know why? Because when that happens, I end up killing the opponent more than necessary. I don't like myself when I'm behaving brutally."
"Agaa... gagi... guaa..."
I brought my fingertip close to the bridge of the nose of the man who was gasping and writhing in pain.
I chanted [Skill: 『Fire』] magic and lit a flame at the tip of my nail.
"Having your eyes burned is painful. Say it quickly. Where is Gondo?"
"..."
"Should I raise the firepower a bit?"
"The president's office! He's in the president's office! Go straight ahead, turn left and there's a staircase. You'll see it as soon as you go up."
"Your tongue is finally moving. Didn't Gondo bring in a boy about high school age? Blond hair, full of piercings, a kid with a nasty look in his eyes."
"...That brat is with Gondo-san."
"You can do it when you try," I said, removing my finger from the man.
I followed the route I was told and headed for the president's office.
On the way, a man with a dossier rushed at me, so I punched him reflexively and he flew several meters straight up.
His head got stuck in the ceiling, and he was dangling there, swinging.
It was a state that should be called a morbid teru teru bozu.
I hoped he wasn't dead.
I'd hate it if an effect like 'using the power of a grudge to make it eternally sunny' occurred.
I climbed the stairs while glancing at the avant-garde art of the swaying ceiling.