146. [New Volume Commemoration Side Story] His name is Kageno Minoru [Cid’s Past Life]

Nishino Akane, an 11th grader in Sakurazaka Senior High, had a classmate she didn’t like.

He had black hair and eyes and a plain face, yet he always looked tired, with deep bags under his eyes.

His name was Kageno Minoru. He was the boy that Nishino Akane really didn’t like, and to make things worse, their seats were right next to each other.

Kageno Minoru, as his name might suggest, was ordinary to the point of blending into the background.

With below average grades in academics and athletics, this boy had zero participation in extracurricular clubs, had almost zero friends, but wasn’t adverse to talking with others.

He was normal, ordinary, the type of student you’d see anywhere.

Akane hadn’t disliked him at first. But neither did she hold any special affection towards him. She had assumed to know him as a classmate and just that.

Yet, after having interacted with him on multiple occasions, Akane had discovered an aspect to their relationship that she absolutely loathed.

This aspect being, their first greeting of the day.

Both Kageno Minoru and Nishino Akane would arrive to school each morning, barely as the gates were closed. Barely on time, every time.

And as such, they would meet at the school gates and exchange greetings.

“Good morning, Kageno-kun.”

Today too, Akane greeted this most hated boy at the gates.

“Good morning, Nishimura-san.”

Returned Kageno in his usual monotone.

It’s Nishino, dammit!!

Screamed Akane in her head, maintaining her smile as she situated herself to her shoe locker.

They’d been in the same classroom three months now. This had gone on every morning for three months.

The first month, Akane had figured that he’d correct it eventually, so when this pattern had continued past Golden Week, she had all but run out of patience.

She still remembered that conversation.

◆ ◇◆ ◇◆ ◇◆ ◇◆ ◇◆ ◇◆ ◇◆ ◇◆ ◇

“Um, Kageno-kun. My name isn’t Nishimura, you know?”

“Huh?”

Kageno blinked, several times, as if Akane had said something out of this world.

“Wait, wasn’t it Nishimura?”

“No, it’s actually—”

“Wait wait, I remember now. You’re technically not an NPC, after all.”

“NPC?”

Akane wasn’t familiar with the jargon.

“Uh, nevermind. Don’t worry, I make sure to remember the names of any major players, but I tend to mess up at times, sadly.”

“It’s fine, anyone can mess up.”

Akane smiled seeking Kageno was genuinely apologetic.

That smile didn’t last long at all.

“I’m so sorry, Nishitani-san.”

Akane wanted to knock the daylights out of this idiot. Her hand was balled up in a tight fist, barely baring it.

“… Nishino.”

“… Huh?”

“My name, is Nishino.”

The boy and girl looked at each other in awkward silence.

Akane then turned away to her shoe locker, refusing to speak any further to Kageno for that day.

— The next morning.

As usual, they met at the gates.

After sleeping on it, Akane thought that she might’ve been too harsh. Kageno didn’t mean anything bad by it, and it was silly to get so worked up over someone just mistaking your name.

Considering all that, Akane made her greeting.

“Good morning, Kageno-kun.”

“Good morning, Nishimura-san.”

It’s, freaking, Nishino!! What is WRONG with you!!

Akane wanted to scream, but her perfect smile held perfectly.

She found it absolutely infuriating that Kageno was acting as if the talk yesterday hadn’t happened at all.

He simply kept calling her Nishimura, and he simply kept never looking at her.

Any time they said good morning, any time they talked, he appeared to be looking at her, but his eyes always seemed to be seeing something different, as if he was looking past her.

She hated that.

That was the crux of it. It was never about getting her name wrong.

What Akane hated was the fact that he would never look at her.

That realization was what led her to completely detest him.

Hence, she decided that he was not worth her time.

They would still greet each other in the mornings but that was all.

Akane had given up on correcting him.

They sat next to each other, yet not a single conversation passed. In cases where they absolutely had to speak to each other for classwork, Akane would keep it to the barest minimum.

She wanted to just completely and utterly ignore him. But she couldn’t. Due to her own circumstances, Akane couldn’t do anything too obvious.

Nishino Akane was a very popular girl.

Her beautiful black hair and stunning looks made her popular to boys and girls alike.

In addition to being a fulltime high schooler, she was also an actress.

The people in her class of course knew of this extravagant occupation of hers. So if it was known that she, Akane, was in bad terms with Kageno, there was a chance that rumors, base and baseless rumors would spring up. Akane wanted to avoid that.

Akane’s acting career began in her childhood. However, due to a certain scandalous event in junior high, she had to take a break from the limelight.

That incident had led to Akane always wearing a mask over her true emotions.

She kept up her grades so that teachers would like her, she was sociable as can be, so her classmates wouldn’t hate her. She made sure no one would dislike her.

As such, she couldn’t let that hateful Kageno hate her back. She couldn’t let anyone else find out either. She killed her own emotions to achieve that goal.

And she’d maintained the facade each and every day.

◆ ◇◆ ◇◆ ◇◆ ◇◆ ◇◆ ◇◆ ◇◆ ◇◆ ◇

Today as well, Akane said nothing as Kageno got her name wrong for the umpteeth time.

With that piece of conversation over with, Akane spent the rest of her day in the classroom without another word to the boy.

Akane didn’t participate in clubs. She would usually go home as soon as classes ended. Today however, she had remedials. Due to her job, Akane missed many days, and so she needed to make up for her attendance using remedial lessons.

Due to those and other obligations, by the time she left school, night had fallen.

“Aaand my phone is down…” She sighed once outside the gates.

She would usually call their chauffeur to pick her up, but her batteries had alas, run out.

Walking would take her 30 minutes. Not really an issue there.

The early summer night breeze felt good on her skin, so Akane decided to walk.

To be honest, it had been a long time since she’d walked home. Doing the back in elementary being the last time, she recalled.

Starting from junior high, her family had arranged a car and driver for her, and she had gone and went like that ever since.

So, after so long, walking on her own two feet felt nice, refreshing even. She didn’t even care that it was dark out.

That had made her complacent.

Suddenly, a black van was behind her, and a burly man came out. She had noticed it all too late.

“—Eh?”

Before she was even aware of her situation, the man had her in a stranglehold.

“Ah…”

Her neck felt tight, and within a few seconds, she was out cold.

The last thing she saw was an all too familiar classmate, running her way.

◆ ◇◆ ◇◆ ◇◆ ◇◆ ◇◆ ◇◆ ◇◆ ◇◆ ◇

“…Ugh.”

Akane woke up in a dark warehouse.

Her hands and legs were tied down and her mouth was gagged.

She still felt dazed. Right, black van, the big man, he strangled her and… someone was coming, she seemed to recall.

“Mm! Mmm!!” She cried for help, or at least tried. The gag didn’t help.

“Oh? She’s awake.” said a voice from behind her.

The instant she heard that hoarse voice, Akane froze.

“Keep quiet. Wouldn’t want to get hurt now, would we?”

He was a big man, perhaps over 6 feet tall. His clothes stuck to him revealing a trained, muscular body.

Behind him was another man. He was the man who had strangled and kidnapped her.

“We already send the ransom note to your folks, Missy. We get the money, you get out in one piece. Very simple.”

The big man smiled at her fiendishly.

“Some luck eh? Precious daughter of the Nishino Conglomerate walking all alone at night. It’s like you’re asking the bad men to catch you.”

Heehee, he laughed mockingly while approaching Akane who was utterly unable to move.

“Mmm!!”

Get away!

She failed to scream.

Akane writhed in her bindings, desperate to distance herself from the man.

“None of that now.”

The man grabbed Akane’s slender leg and pulled her to him.

He then lifted her chin and gazed down on her face close.

“Well I’ll be. That’s the face of an actress for you. Pretty girl.”

“Mm! Mmmm!!”

She tried to shake him off.

“Don’t test me!”

The man slapped her, hard.

“—!!”

“I fucking said, none of that!”

Akane felt the texture of blood inside her mouth. Tears held back until now streamed down her face.

The big man was breathing roughly as he moved his hand from her chin to her neck, from her neck to her shoulder.

“Pretty girl like you shouldn’t be so careless. Ah right, this isn’t your first time being kidnapped right?”

Akane’s movements stopped with a snap.

“Yeah, back when you were in junior high, right. Wasn’t it some stalker?”

Memories she wanted to forget resurfaced in her mind.

Akane’s whole body shook in trepid anxiety.

“Heck, I can even relate, with how pretty you are. Come on, Missy, what’s gotten you so scared?”

“… Mm! MmmMmmMmm!!”

“Give it a rest, no one’s coming here.”

Akane used every bit of her strength to struggle, to resist the large man’s bulging arms.

—Help!

She screamed, and,

The sound of glass shattering echoed throughout the warehouse.

“Who’s there!?”

Turning, the man saw a broken window.

Moonlight entered through the broken window, shining down on the individual standing atop the broken glass.

He wore a black hoodie and sweatpants with black work boots, in addition to a black ski mask that hid his face.

This extremely shady individual in all black might as well have been one of the kidnappers.

Clack, clack, clack.

Clacked his boots as he slowly approached.

“th’Fuck are you!!” The big man roared.

“Oh me—? Well, I’m the… Stylish Badguy Slayer.” He stopped walking to adjust his ski mask.

“Fuckin’ wise guy! Get ‘im!”

Right as the big man ordered, and his partner, who had sneaked up behind the ski mask man, swung down his bat.

Right from the blindspot— yet, as if he had eyes on the back of his head, the ski mask man dodged it easily.

“—What the!?”

“I could see your shadow in the moonlight— beginner mistake.” Said the ski mask man simply. He then turned and slugged the men behind him. Due to his black clothes and the dark environment (among other things), his punch was practically invisible.

There was a low thud, and the kidnapper accomplice dropped. And stayed there.

“Straight punch to the jaw. You… you’re no amateur.”

The big man released Akane and stood up. He loudly cracked his neck and glared at the ski mask man.

“Too bad for you, I was in the army.”

The big man drew his knife and lowered into a stance. He too was no amateur.

“A veteran… Yes, good. I wanted to fight a military man.”

Said the ski mask man as he also lowered into a stance. A practiced stance.

The two men sized each other up in the dim light.

They slowly closed their distance, then—

“Die!!” The big man slashed.

As expected of a veteran, his speed belied what his large frame might suggest. His movements were swift and minimal.

The ski mask man, for his end, raised an arm to block the knife coming for his neck.

The knife connected, with a sharp clang.

“How!?”

The ski mask man had stopped the knife with his bare hand.

No, looking closer, he was holding something.

He was holding a black… crowbar.

The ski mask man held the crowbar almost like a .

“Y-you’re using, a crowbar!?”

“Crowbars are great. Super tough, hard to break. Easy to have it in hand, and even if you’re taken in for questioning, it’s just inconspicuous enough to make up a good excuse. Best of all— I can use it just like a tonfa”

“What!?”

The next instant, the ski mask man had already drawn back his arm.

The crowbar swung an arc just like a real tonfa and struck the big man in the arm.

The big man was disarmed as his knife flew off.

“Fuck!”

The big man took a boxing stance.

Crowbar met fist.

Hardened muscles pummeled on metal pole.

The two men exchanged blows under moonlit darkness.

But gradually, the ski mask man was losing ground. Each time he would block the powerful fists of the much larger man, he would draw back. Step after step.

“Heh. I can work with his.”

The big man said after a handful more punches.

“You’re not bad. I can tell you’ve been in more than a few fights. But you can’t win here. You’re barely 5 foot 5. 130 pounds tops. Me, I’m 6’4 and over 250. I’m just bigger, that’s it. You might have a crowbar, but I’m safe so long as I protect my head. On the flipside, you’ll go down if you take just one of my punches. You’re out of luck, chump.”

The big man proclaimed all this with a grin.

The ski mask man replied calmly. “Correct. As I am now, I can’t handle a veteran. A sad truth… So, let’s get serious.”

The ski mask man changed his stance.

“—You what?”

“I saw great potential in the crowbar. It’s almost exactly like a tonfa, it’s light, it’s tough, it’s portable. It truly is a weapon with great potential. Night after night, I bashed this against the biker gangs, finally to discover its true worth…”

“— Wait! You, you’re the freak going around bashing biker gangs with a single crowbar, you’re the Ski Mask Berserker!?”

It’s been said that it’s because of him that the local biker gangs have adopted to all wearing helmets. The helmet would protect their heads at least.

“The truth of the crowbar that I reached after countless biker gang bashings… that is, that rather than using it like a tonfa, it’s better to just bash it!!”

The ski mask man then proceeded to swing his crowbar down on the big man’s face.

A wide swing, but incredibly fast.

Almost by instinct, the big man raised his arms to block— there was a dull thud.

“Fuck, my, arm…” Groaned the big man holding his left arm.

“Broke, didn’t it? This is the true potential of the crowbar. The trick is to bash with the corner of the L. The force gets concentrated like that.”

And so he bashed.

“Gah!! Wai, no…”

And he bashed.

“Sto, shtapid alre…”

And he bashed and bashed some more.

“Urgh… oof…”

And he just kept on bashing and bashing and bashing!

Dull thuds echoed continuously within the warehouse.

It was a veritable storm of pure violence.

The ski mask man simple kept bashing on, and at some point, the big man wasn’t moving anymore.

The crowbar dripped with blood.

“Not enough… I can’t even beat a veteran yet… I need, power…”

He turned to face the moon outside the broken window.

“I need more power…”

He uttered bitterly.

It was as if he was reaching for the moon itself with his bare hands, an impossibility.

He shook his head as if struggling against the harshness that is reality.

He then picked up the knife the big man had dropped and came up to Akane.

“Mmmm!!”

Sensing as if her life was in danger, Akane struggled in futility to escape, but the knife was already on its way.

“Mm?”

The knife had cut, away Akane’s bindings.

Now freed, Akane looked up at the ski mask wearing, crowbar wielding, all in back shady individual.

He also looked at her.

“Take more care on your way home.” He said to her, and then left.

Akane could only watch him in a daze as he walked away. It was only after he was gone that she realized that he’d saved her.

“Stylish Badguy Slayer… just who is he…”

The only sound in the warehouse was that quiet mutter.

◆ ◇◆ ◇◆ ◇◆ ◇◆ ◇◆ ◇◆ ◇◆ ◇◆ ◇

The following day, despite her parents’ worries Akane attended school as usual.

She still felt frightened recalling the events of the previous day, but then, remembering Stylish Badguy Slayer caused her to smile somehow.

“Heheh… Stylish Badguy Slayer, so lame.”

Passing the school gates, once again, there he was, that detestable boy.

“Good morning, Kageno-kun.”

“Good morning, Nishino-san.”

“—Huh?”

Stunned, Akane stopped in her tracks.

Kageno passed her by and headed for the shoe lockers.

He, Kageno, he didn’t mistake her name. Also, she also felt like he was actually looking at her that time.

“Could it be… nah.”

Akane smiled and followed after him.

“Wait for me! Kageno-kun!”

She figured she might as well try to talk to him, just a little.