"Um, M-Makoto... what about Katsura?"
Yotsuba Nakano suddenly remembered the classmate she'd only recently met back in the real world. Kotonoha Katsura stood frozen in place, lost and alone, and the sight tugged at something in Yotsuba's chest.
The moment Nishikado's gaze drifted her way, Kotonoha's heart seized. She dropped her head, refusing to meet his eyes. Long lashes trembled like a startled rabbit's.
Nishikado scratched his chin. "You want to stick with your boyfriend?"
"I... I don't have a boyfriend!"
Her head snapped up. The voice was small, but the look in her eyes left no room for argument.
Makoto Itou's expression was that of a guy who'd accompanied his girlfriend to a concert only for her to announce she'd come alone.
"Kotonoha, you... aaargh!"
He'd barely started his protest before the wound between his legs tore open again, ripping a scream from his throat.
Eriri Spencer Sawamura, who'd spent the previous day changing Tomoya Aki's bandages more times than she cared to count, stared at the spectacle with dead eyes.
Can't you people with ruined crotches sit still for five minutes?
A long, agonizing moment later, Itou finally managed to catch his breath. "Kotonoha," he wheezed, "aren't we... together?"
Kotonoha half-turned, considering the question with an odd calm. "Itou, I don't think I ever liked you. I think it was just... the Sekai pushing me into it."
In a phrase from Nishikado's previous life: she'd been forced into it like a square peg into a round hole.
Kotonoha had never been good at saying no. Back then, Sekai Saionji was practically her only friend, and the girl had thrown herself into playing matchmaker with the zeal of a full-time cupid. Kotonoha went along with it, more out of resignation than affection.
By now, the two of them had been in a cold war for a while. And after transferring from Class A to Class F, Kotonoha's world had expanded. Beyond Nishikado, she'd grown close to Megumi Kato, Yui Yuigahama, and others.
Her younger sister Kokoro had helped bridge the gap, and Kotonoha had settled in well among Nishikado's circle.
Once she'd finally woken up to it, the absence of romantic feeling for Itou became impossible to ignore.
Itou stared at the girl he'd always known as meek, now meeting his gaze with an iron he'd never seen in her. The pain below his waist faded into nothing beside the heaving in his chest.
"How... how can you do this? You agreed! You said yes! Is there someone else?"
The question cracked through Kotonoha's composure. A faint flush crept up her neck.
"N-no, there isn't..."
Itou's eyes slid to Nishikado, who stood behind her with the serene smile of a man watching quality entertainment unfold. He nearly blurted it out. Is it him?
But perhaps because his lower head was out of commission, his upper one was working better than usual. He swallowed his rage with the last shred of reason he had left.
"So, you're not going to kill him?" Nishikado asked out of nowhere.
Kotonoha stared at him, speechless. She thought back to their very first meeting and the conversation they'd had.
So you were actually expecting me to do that?
She was beginning to question her entire existence. Did she really look like the murdering type?
Itou and Sekai both nearly wet themselves.
I haven't even done anything to offend this guy! Why is he like this?!
"Boss, want me to handle it?" Yu Ishigami perked up. His attempt to kill Yukino Yukinoshita had fizzled, and his shot at Itou had gone nowhere either. Since taking out Etsuya Eizan, he'd been itching for another chance to prove himself.
"Nah. It's no fun if you do it." Nishikado waved him off and pointed at Kotonoha. "It's only interesting if she kills him."
Kotonoha: ...
Sekai: ...
Itou: ...
Nishikado thought it over. "You'll group up with Hayasaka and Yui's team."
Although the maid quartet wasn't the strongest lineup, their side only had Mrs. Yuigahama as a chaperone, so the protection detail was manageable. Adding two more roommates shouldn't be a problem, especially since both of them could hold their own in a fight.
"This guy... he really is evil incarnate."
Shinichi Kudo ground the words through clenched teeth. Both legs gone, he sat in a wheelchair Yukiko had procured from god knows where.
"Shinichi, keep your voice down."
Yukiko Kudo clamped a hand over her son's mouth, then turned to Eri Kisaki with both hands clasped together and her most dazzling smile. "Eri, our families are sticking together, right? Obviously?"
She'd pulled this face every time she needed something from Eri since they were girls, and Eri had never once refused.
Ran had beaten that crab-monster back in the real world. It had even been on the news. Yukiko figured that with her future daughter-in-law's protection, surviving the next ten years was well within reach.
But when she looked at Eri's face, the smile froze on her lips. In all their years of friendship, she had never seen that kind of coldness in Eri's eyes.
"I don't think that's going to work, Yukiko."
Eri's voice was flat. Final.
"Mom?" Ran flinched.
"Quiet." Eri silenced her daughter with a glance that brooked no debate. "Yukiko, we're ordinary people. No grand sense of justice. We just want to live."
Her gaze lingered on Shinichi, legless but still burning with defiance from his wheelchair.
Years of courtrooms and every conceivable flavor of human idiocy had sharpened Eri Kisaki's instincts to a blade. She read Shinichi Kudo like an open book.
This kid is absolutely going to pick another fight with Nishikado. He's a dead man walking.
"Eri, that's..."
Seeing the wounded look in Yukiko's eyes, Kogoro Mouri felt a pang of sympathy. World-famous actress, after all. When she turned on the sad puppy act, the effect was devastating.
"If you want to march to your grave, be my guest. Don't drag us down with you."
Eri seized Ran's arm and pulled her away without a backward glance, ignoring the girl's pleading eyes. Kogoro scratched his head, hesitated, and followed his wife and daughter. No matter how close he was to Yusaku and Yukiko, dying alongside them wasn't part of the deal.
The Kudo family stood alone. Stranded. Not a single person with abilities left to protect them.
Well, no. There was one more family.
"Um, Nishikado, what about us?"
Alice Nakiri looked up at him, eyes bright with expectation.
Right. The Nakiris still didn't have a patron.
Her cousin had already... been intimate with Nishikado, but Erina's pride kept her from asking outright.
Nishikado considered Alice, all youthful radiance but an entirely different energy from Erina. "Who do you want to go with?"
Alice's eyes swept across the Akizuki sisters, Utaha Kasumigaoka, Yui Yuigahama, weighing her options. She'd spent the last stretch trying to build relationships with all of them, but the time had been too short. No one she could call a genuine ally.
She was still deliberating when Mana Nakiri spoke up.
"Could we stay with you, Nishikado-sama?"
Nishikado raised an eyebrow.
"He just said he's going solo to fight the Control Devil." Utaha couldn't help herself. "Were you not paying attention?"
I gave him my first time and even I can't tag along, but you think you can? Dream on, lady.
Ignoring the hostility radiating from every girl in the vicinity, Mana pressed on. "Lord Nishikado, you're aware that Erina and I both have the God's Tongue. We can't eat normal food. Nutritional supplements from our era don't exist here. Without you, we'll starve."
Erina's eyes widened as the reality hit.
Their condition had been manageable so far only because Nishikado's genjutsu had gotten them through. But they were looking at roughly ten years in this world. Once he left, what then?
"You do realize there's a high chance you'll be killed if you stay by my side," Nishikado said plainly.
He was hunting Makima. Hostage-taking was that woman's signature move. If she discovered two people close to him who couldn't fend for themselves, she'd exploit it without a second thought.
"That's... that's fine!"
Mana clenched her jaw. Even knowing the risks, there was no real choice.
Stay with Nishikado and risk death by devil.
Leave Nishikado and guarantee death by starvation.
"Alright, alright." He shrugged. What else could he say?
"Makoto, you're really taking them?"
Airi Akizuki's voice rose, indignant.
Her family had been with Nishikado since they were kids. Even they couldn't stay by his side, but these women who'd appeared out of nowhere got a free pass?
"Don't be like that." He rested a hand on top of her head, and the warmth of the gesture drained the fight right out of her.
She leaned into him, murmuring, "Fine... I get it. But you better make it up to me when we're back."
Ishigami nodded approvingly. "I think it works out. Boss needs someone around to take care of day-to-day stuff anyway. And since you barely know these people, it's not much of a loss if they die."
Mana Nakiri: ...
Erina Nakiri: ...
Not much of a loss if they die?!
They wanted to sew that blue-haired mouth shut.
Nishikado couldn't keep a straight face either.
In the original story, Ishigami's blunt, oblivious honesty had been a precision weapon against Chika Fujiwara, that walking catastrophe.
Even with his personality so drastically altered, that particular talent had survived intact.