Kaori and Sakura walked along the beach together, the starry sky twinkling overhead.
“I don’t normally go to concerts, but that one was really fun!” Kaori said.
“Really? I was worried it’d be boring, since it was only local bands playing, so I’m glad you liked it.”
After the warm welcome Sakura and everyone else had given them, Kaori had explained everything that had happened. Once that was done, they’d lazed around for a while, but then Sakura invited Kaori to see a mini-concert that some local bands were putting on at the beach. Sakura had figured Kaori hadn’t been able to leave the house much in the busy week she’d had dealing with the logistics of her return, and Kaori had indeed been grateful for the opportunity to get out of the house.
Sakura breathed a sigh of relief as she saw Kaori’s genuine smile, glad to know inviting Kaori out had been the right idea. But then she looked behind her and her expression stiffened.
“Waaah, Kaori, my dear angel. Please look at me. I’m so sad I’m going to die.”
Tomoichi was trailing behind them. He’d offered to go with them to the concert, since he was worried about sending two girls out alone. However, Kaori had been tired of him butting in every time she tried to talk to Sakura about Hajime and Yue and the others, so she’d refused. Still, he’d cried so much that she’d ultimately relented. That being said, she was ignoring him completely as she chatted with Sakura. It was honestly kind of scary how good she’d gotten at completely ignoring him.
In truth, Sakura understood how Kaori felt. She’d had the same issue with her dad the first time she’d brought home a boyfriend. At the same time, she understood Tomoichi’s misgivings about Kaori’s somewhat irregular relationship.
She didn’t want to take sides, which left her stuck between a rock and a hard place.
I wish something could happen to just magically fix this rift between them. I’m getting sick of this...
“Huh? You guys were at the concert earlier, weren’t you? What a coincidence! Wanna hang out for a bit?”
The heavens must have heard Sakura’s prayers and decided to spit on her, since a group of five men suddenly came up and blocked their path.
This is not what I was hoping for...
“Sorry, but we’ve already got plans,” Sakura said in a tired voice.
“How about letting us join in on the fun? The more the merrier, right?”
Sakura could immediately tell these were the type of guys who refused to take no for an answer.
Sakura and Kaori were both extremely beautiful women, so these guys weren’t going to give up very easily. Naturally, Tomoichi wasn’t going to sit idle while these guys hit on his daughter and niece.
“Could you guys please move out of the way? We all had a good time at the concert, so surely you don’t want any trouble,” he said, trying to sound reasonable.
“Who the hell’s this old fart?”
“I’m her father, and we’re on our way home now.”
The men burst out laughing and started hurling insults at him. Tomoichi didn’t get angry, but neither did he back down.
Seeing his confident attitude pissed the guys off, and one of them raised his fist threateningly.
“Get lost, you creepy old fart. Look, we’ll take them home after we have a bit of fun with them.”
Another guy reached out toward Kaori’s shoulder, so Tomoichi grabbed his hand.
“Don’t touch my daughter,” he said, in a perfectly even voice. Tomoichi was an architect, which wasn’t a very physically demanding job and he didn’t go to the gym regularly, so he wasn’t particularly well-built. That being said, he was still a grown man, which made the look in his eyes feel quite intimidating.
“Get lost, geezer.”
The men found themselves taken aback by the fire in Tomoichi’s eyes, but then they grew angry at themselves for being intimidated and the one with the raised fist punched him.
Tomoichi let out a pained grunt, blood dripping from his split lip. And yet, he continued glaring intently at the men, which caused them to get even angrier. The man tried to punch him again.
“Uncle!” Sakura shouted, taking out her phone to call the police. Upon seeing that, the men turned their attention to Sakura and glared threateningly at her.
“What do you all think you’re doing?” Kaori said in a quiet voice.
Everyone stopped in their tracks, and the man who’d punched Tomoichi suddenly realized that Kaori had stopped his second punch with one hand. They all turned to her, overwhelmed by the ice-cold smile on her face and the fact that she’d stopped a man’s punch with her slender hand.
Her tone completely flat, she said, “What are you doing to my dad, huh?”
“Wh-What’s your problem, girlie? We’re just teaching your dad a lesson, that’s all! He needs to learn not to look down on people!” the man shouted, trying to pull his fist out of Kaori’s grip.
“It’s true that dad needs to learn a lot of lessons. He’s always joking around, he’s too overprotective, he still treats me like a kid, he sulks too often, and he keeps bad-mouthing Hajime-kun.”
“Wh-What the hell?! This girl’s strong!” the guy exclaimed. Even after putting all of his weight behind it, he couldn’t pull his fist out. The other men stared at their companion in confusion. It would have been more believable if he was acting, but it was clear from the panic in his voice that he wasn’t.
Kaori ignored him and continued talking, almost as if she were speaking to herself.
“But you know, he’s a really kind dad too. Even when he’s busy with work, he always finds time to talk to me. And even though he’s bad at fighting, he always tries to protect me. Whenever I try my hardest, he praises me, and whenever I do something wrong, he scolds me.”
Kaori wasn’t even looking at the men anymore. She was looking over at her father.
“I’m sorry, dad. I should have stopped him before he hit you, but I was so caught up in my own thoughts that I reacted late. Thank you for trying to protect me.”
“Kaori...” Tomoichi mumbled. He was so stunned that all he could do was say Kaori’s name. It was shocking how mature his daughter looked. He was forced to accept that she’d long since left the nest...and that realization brought with it a sense of profound loneliness.
Kaori turned back to the men and glared icily at them.
“My dad’s the best dad in the world, so stop making fun of him!”
“Let go already you—Bwagh!”
The man tried to punch Kaori with his free hand, but she sent him flying with a kick before he could.
The other guys watched as their friend sailed through the air and crashed into the sand with a resounding thud. He twitched a few times, but made no move to get back up. They stared at him in stunned silence for a few seconds.
“If you leave now, I’ll let the rest of you go,” Kaori said in a cold voice. The men exchanged uneasy glances. Normally, they would have run away, but she’d hurt their pride. Screaming incoherent insults, they all charged at her.
“I guess no matter what world you’re in, there’s always guys like you out there, huh?” Kaori said with a long sigh. That, more than anything, got to the men.
“We’re gonna fucking kill—!”
There was a loud metallic click and the men stopped in their tracks. They looked down at Kaori’s hands in shock. She’d somehow suddenly brought out two extendable batons, one in each hand. They must have been custom-made, since they were over a meter long. Definitely not the kind of things a regular high school girl carried around.
“K-Kaori, where did you bring those out from?” Sakura asked, looking just as shocked as the men. None of them had any idea that the ring on Kaori’s pinky finger contained a whole host of deadly weapons, including her prized twin claymores.
Hajime had, in fact, made these batons for Kaori—as well as mundane weapons for everyone else—because he’d predicted that something like this might happen.
“That bluff won’t work on—Bwaaagh!”
The baton was made of pure azantium and could shock people as well. Kaori made short work of the hoodlums, teaching them a lesson about pain that they wouldn’t ever forget.
“Isn’t that great, uncle? Kaori’s getting mad on your behalf,” Sakura said.
“Y-Yeah... I can even see the aura she gives off when she’s really mad. It’s clearer than ever,” Tomoichi replied. They both watched as Kaori sent all five of the men flying. Once she was done, she messed with their memories a little using spirit magic, a beaming smile on her face.
Neither Tomoichi nor Sakura asked what exactly she’d done to them, but they could tell from her expression that it was something exceptionally cruel. That night, they both learned that they should never make Kaori truly mad.