“Just try to touch them, you son of a bitch! I’ll kill your ass before you even get close!”
“Oooh, I’m scawed! But, you see...I don’t plan on doing a thing to them. No, not to them.” The man shoved his hand (still absolutely covered in chunky, sticky durian gunk) into his pocket and pulled out a small bottle, the contents of which he gulped down in an instant.
“Bweh heh heh!”
Suddenly, he was holding my head between his hands with terrific—no, abnormal strength. I didn’t have the time to analyze what was happening, though. His face grew closer, and closer...and before I could process anything at all, I felt a distressing softness on my lips. His face dominated my entire field of vision.
“Mnnghhh?!”
The perverted old man...kissed me on the lips.
I let out an incoherent, muffled moan of shock and horror. I could hear Kiryu and Renge shouting my name, as well, but they sounded incredibly far away—like they were shouting from an entirely different world. His arms were incredibly firm and hardened up like plaster the instant he got a grip on me. I couldn’t budge an inch.
H-Help me...
Aaah, jeez. I felt like I was about to break down in tears. Why did I have to get kissed by some gross, greasy old sex offender in a room that smelled like death while Kiryu and Renge both watched in stunned silence?
Is this...what I deserve? I could think of plenty of ways in which I’d earned that sort of horrific punishment. I’d committed more than my fair share of sins. But that didn’t mean that I had to accept the indescribable humiliation that I was going through lying down! I mean, sure, it wouldn’t make for much of a punishment if I were able to accept it without protest, but that’s neither here nor there.
Actually, wait. If this is punishment for my sins, then fine, I can live with that. But I sure as hell can’t come up with any reason why this degenerate asshole has any right to be the one to punish me!
He’s the one who’s assaulted people! He’s the one who decided to wander around town in the nude first thing in the morning, inflicting deep and lasting psychological trauma on Hikari, and in turn, me! And now, at this very moment, he’s the one who’s dealing another blow to my mental health that makes the first one pale in comparison!
Hikari isn’t around, sure, but in status-ailment terms, he’s just inflicted a lethal toxin effect on me. Again! This makes twice, dammit, and that’s a very generous assessment that doesn’t take into account all the problems his actions have indirectly led to! And I’m supposed to just sit down and take it?!
Suddenly, I was floating. Well, not literally—it just felt that way, on account of the man letting me go and allowing me to fall backward onto my futon.
“Geh heh heh, and with that, I’ve accomplished my objective. I’ll be taking my leave!” The man made a show of wiping his mouth, then turned his back on me. I didn’t say a word and just watched him walk away in silence.
I felt strange. My whole body felt like it had those pins and needles you get when your limbs fall asleep, and my thought process was a jumbled mess, but I knew one thing with absolute certainty. I was enraged.
“That...”
My lips were trembling. I was having trouble speaking clearly. But my body felt like it was aflame.
“That was...”
I wasn’t suddenly engulfed in a blazing golden aura of rage or anything of the sort, but I was somehow miraculously rejuvenated. It was like I hadn’t been suffering from debilitating mana-drain in the first place. My adrenaline glands were probably pumping their whatever-juice into my brainpipes, or however the hell that works. I was experiencing the superhuman rush that stems from utter disaster and desperation. Like how a candle burns brightest right before it goes out.
But really, none of that mattered. All that mattered was the rage that swept me away as I took a long, deep breath, then shouted with every ounce of force I could muster.
“THAT WAS MY FIRST KISS, GODDAMMIIIIIIIT!!!”
Okay. That was a little satisfying. Just a little. But the roiling fury was still growing within me. I bet I’d feel even more satisfied if I punched a certain someone into the next dimension!
“I-I hope you’re not being serious, Kunugi-kun...?” stammered Kiryu.
“Wait—really? Is that true, Kou?” said Renge, following her up. Both of them looked like they really sympathized with my plight...but I pretended not to notice as I leapt to my feet. My body felt light, somehow. The man was long gone, but in this state, I had a feeling that I could catch up to him in no time. Is this the power of rage? If so, then damn, rage is really something!
“K-Kunugi-kun,” stammered Kiryu once more, “I think we can all agree that, umm, that definitely didn’t count as your first! Isn’t that right, Miss President?”
“Yes, absolutely! Kou, the best thing to do at times like these is to forget about it and move on. My mother and father kissed me all the time when I was little, but I never even considered the possibility that those would count as my first kiss! Right?”
They were really trying their best to make me feel better, but I couldn’t contain my fury and broke into a sprint. I heard them shouting my name behind me, but I was gone in a jiffy. I wouldn’t be satisfied until I punched that old man right in the kisser. The only doubt in my mind was about whether or not one punch would be good enough on its own.
The night was young, and the chase was on.