“Move your finger away already!”
Tomoe was so caught up with his finger that she forget what they were even talking about in the first place.
Shinichi laughed but pulled his finger back nonetheless.
Tomoe was frustrated, but she didn’t know how he would respond if she got worked up, and she could also tell that he didn’t want to discuss the topic, so she asked something else.
“Sheesh… Going back to the topic, was it a good idea to leave things to those people?”
“Hmm, what do you mean?”
“Weren’t you angry while explaining the situation? I thought for sure you’d verbally or physically abuse them.”
She still remembered how merciless Shinichi was with them and the perpetrators of the Kutoria incident, so she thought Shinichi would give them hell, but Shinichi didn’t touch the perpetrators after the rescue and just left them to their organization.
“I would’ve done just that if that was the harshest punishment that could’ve been given, ”
“Huh?”
“Think about it, those guys pissed off the one guy that managed this whole area. Moreover, they couldn’t even follow the orders they were given. No, they did worse, they went against their orders. That makes this a clear rebellion… They won’t be getting off with just a light punishment,” Shinichi laughed wickedly.
Indeed, there was no way that this man in front of her could have cut corners in that regard.
“Those guys won’t forgive those traitors. They’ll make them spill everything, then break them down to the point they’ll never get back up again physically or mentally. In the worst case, they’ll sell all their organs then feed them to the fish.”
“…”
Tomoe found her head aching when the lines between good and evil blurred.
The former group had an infinitesimally small chance of surviving, while the latter group had no chance at all. They were more or less the same.
There were parts that Shinichi didn’t explain thoroughly, but she wasn’t an ignorant child.
Perhaps it might’ve been better not to broach this topic while eating, but Shinichi didn’t seem to mind and just kept eating.
It was curious if that was because he didn’t imagine the things he was saying or because he didn’t care, but either way, it was now clear why he didn’t do anything.
“I see. So the meaning changes when it’s their own organization punishing them.”
Even if that pair of mother and son were involved, their organization might have still turned their eyes to Shinichi since it wouldn’t change the fact that he spat on their honor and destroyed their subordinates.
Tomoe and Shinichi might have hidden their faces, but in the end, they were still obviously related to the academy, so incurring the wrath of the organization might caused problems for the other students.
That’s why Shinichi left everything other than Kouta’s rescue to them. He was tacitly telling them to take care of the rest and for them not to get in each other’s way.
In the first place, Tomoe and Shinichi just didn’t want to get involved with them, while they wanted to deal with the traitors.
They were going to punish the perpetrators themselves anyway, and in such a cruel manner too, so there was no reason for Shinichi and Tomoe to take retribution with their own hands.
“Well, I’m sure it’s also because you couldn’t punish them excessively while in front of a child,” Tomoe said.
“Very astute… Conversations sure go smoothly when it’s with a smart woman.”
“…For some reason, that just sounds like you’re calling me easy.”
“Okay, now that’s just delusional! I didn’t say anything of the sort!”
Tomoe glared at him, but he denied her accusations.
As expected, he found it shocking that she would think of him like that.
“Hmph!” But Tomoe just started eating rice ball again, seemingly unconvinced.
Of course, she didn’t actually believe that, but considering how it felt like she was being played around with again, she wanted to pout.
What made it worse was that he didn’t even tell her what happened afterwards.
It also seemed like Shinichi himself was aware that he’d used her to some extent, so he couldn’t refute her that strongly.
Seeing him so flustered relieved her to some extent.
But of course…
“…Normally, you could easily worm your way out, but it looks like you can’t do that when it comes to stuff like this,” Tomoe laughed.
Tomoe suddenly went from suspecting him to smiling, causing Shinichi to go from bewilderment to a sullen face.
Apparently, that was a trait of his that he was aware of.
“I just don’t want to lie as much as possible even if I have to hide things from you.”
“Fu fu, what a clumsily honest boy you are. I can’t believe you actually used the words ‘as much as possible’.”
He could have phrased it better yet didn’t, opting instead for an expression that could be taken for too sincere or insincere.
What a strange man. He always kept his distance from his surroundings and was always so merciless and full of confidence against his foes, yet the more time they spent together, the more apparent his timid side became.
“…Leave me alone.”
When she saw through him, he started pouting.
This childish side of his truly drove in the fact that he was younger than her.
He turned away with a pout and Tomoe smiled.
“Hmm, what are you doing, Shinichi?”
But then something caught her attention from the corner of her eye and she found herself tilting her head.
His left hand had been tossing rice balls into his mouth until now, but after retracting his fingers, his right hand started taking pictures of the rice balls.
Shinichi readily explained himself, but what a terrible motive it was.
“Just telling that Kondo guy that I’m eating ‘the proprietress’ handmade rice balls in the dead of the night’,” Shinichi casually said.
Tomoe realized what he was trying to do and quietly yelled at him.
“You’re pestering him!?”
“Yeah.”
But all she got in response was an unapologetic confession.
“Stop it! He must be dealing with all sorts of stuff cleaning up right now.”
She knew he wasn’t a good person, and she would never cover for him no matter how justifiable his reason was, but considering his position and his feelings, at the very least right now, she wished that Shinichi wouldn’t pester him.
Why did he have to see pictures of someone else eating the rice balls of the girl he loved – which he likely would never be able to taste again – while he had to clean up the mess of his own subordinates?
“Hmph! He deserves it. He should be happy that I’m letting him off with just this.”
But Shinichi didn’t care and just sent him a message with the photo attached.
“Ah,” Tomoe said in lamentation, but then Shinichi snapped his fingers.
“…Shinichi?”
He didn’t say anything, but Tomoe quickly found her answer – one of the rice balls had suddenly vanished.
“Oh, you naughty boy.”
Just when she was thinking that he had his childishly adorable side, he goes and does this.
But Shinichi didn’t mind her remarks and just smirked.
“Ku ku, you’re not wrong.”
‘That was indeed a fitting title for someone such as himself,’ Shinichi thought as he sipped on his soup.
‘What a troublesome personality,’ Tomoe thought as she sipped on hers.
The same smile surfaced on them.
Kondo must be pissed right now because of the email that he received, but he must also be really confused by the rice ball that appeared out of nowhere.
Especially, once he realizes that it was the same rice ball in the picture.
While being warmed by the soup, Tomoe and Shinichi smiled as they imagined the situation.
Shinichi was always like that, so that came as no surprise, but evidently, Tomoe too had been poisoned by his antics.
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