Ginjiro and his goons were looking at Asahi, almost in a daze, except for one.

The oldest one of them, and the only one who seemed uncomfortable in streetwear, had an expression of concern, while he seemed to be agonizing over a decision.

Asahi sighed and looked at the oldest of them. “You, Arima Hideo, the dipshit’s bodyguard. Call his father, and do what I just told him to. Also, I wouldn’t even think about using that Glock 19 strapped to your ankle if I were you.”

Hideo looked at Asahi, with the blood draining from his face. He pulled out his phone and made a call.

Asahi inwardly sighed. ‘Fucking hell. Why didn’t I encounter them outside of my building? I wouldn’t need to go through so much trouble if this asshole didn’t live there. At least I’m used to bluffing my way out of things.’

Obviously, Asahi had no intention to kill anyone, because he wasn’t a killer.

He was quite used to dealing with people like them, and knew that if he did anything even remotely half-assed, it would just be worse, especially since Ginjiro had access to his building, due to living there. He knew that unless he nipped it in the bud, he wouldn’t be able to sleep at night.

For the first time in his life, he had the means to be in control, and he would for sure make good use of it.

When the other side answered the call, Hideo spoke. “Miyagawa-sama, I apologize for calling you directly like this, but the situation is serious. The young master pissed off someone that he shouldn’t have.”

The voice on the other side replied. “Did we lose anyone?”

“No. One of the young master’s friends has a sprained wrist, but that’s it. The man in front of us told me to ask you to send a car to pick him and the young master up. He wants to talk to you face to face.”

“Is he alone?”

“He’s the only one we can see, but he did something that would take a long time for me to explain, and it suggests that the people behind him could crush us like they were stepping on an ant.”

After a few seconds, the reply came. “The car will be there in ten.”

“Understood.” After hanging up, Hideo looked at Asahi, but before he could speak up, Asahi spoke first.

“Ten minutes, got it.”

Hideo trembled. ‘How the hell did he hear that? He’s almost seven meters away from me.’

Asahi put his pistol back in his hoodie’s pocket, or at least that is what the people in front of him were made to think, then pulled out his phone and called Mayumi.

“Asahi, are you alright?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. It’ll take a bit for me to tie everything in a pretty little bow, but I’ll come back as soon as I can. Don’t worry, I’m in no danger whatsoever.”

“Okay, but please be careful anyways.”

“I will. I’ll call again when I get to our building, and tell her to not worry as well. Both of you, try to enjoy the party, and I’ll make it up to you later for making you worry.”

“Alright, it’s a promise.”

“See you later.”

“See you later.”

 

Time passed by without anyone saying anything.

Asahi didn’t need the System to know that those people, aside from Hideo, were just bullies with more fighting experience than usual, not hardened criminals or actual yakuza.

After a while, Asahi spoke. “They’re here.”

Soon, three black sedans parked on the street.

Asahi walked towards them, seeing that they were scared shitless of him. ‘Good. Now, I might need the dipshit to help me convince the old fart.’

As he passed by Ginjiro, he spoke. “Let’s go dipshit, you’re coming with me.”

Ginjiro let out a small yelp, then followed him.

Several men in black suits walked out of the three cars, with one of them standing out, a man in his mid-thirties.

Almost ten centimeters taller than Asahi, with sleek black hair, bulging muscles, and a scar across his face. He wore a black suit that seemed quite expensive, with a dark-red dress shirt and dark-red dress shoes.

The man looked at Asahi, and spoke with a deep voice. “Unbelievable. My father told me that there was someone that shouldn’t be provoked here, but it’s a kid?” He then looked at the others. “You couldn’t handle a kid? You guys are a disgrace.”

Asahi looked at the man in the expensive suit and nodded. “I’m glad you came, you’re of more use to me in order to make a point, Miyagawa Tanjiro. Take a look at your phones.”

Suddenly all of the phones belonging to the men in suits beeped.

Tanjiro’s brow furrowed, and he pulled out his phone, as did his men.

A video of them arriving there was in their phones. The video had several POVs, including from inside their cars, and ended with Tanjiro calling Ginjiro and his friends a disgrace.

Tanjiro’s eyes widened. “How the…”

Suddenly the video vanished from their phones.

Asahi stepped closer to Tanjiro. “You’re coming with me too, so get that fuck up that is your brother, and get in the car, before I lose my patience.”

Tanjiro frowned. “Listen kid, y…”

Before he finished speaking, Asahi’s right hand was on his throat, gripping it with inhuman strength.

As he felt everyone around him tensing up, Asahi brought Tanjiro to his knees, and looked him in the eyes.

“I’m sorry, I must be really bad at communicating. Were you under the impression that you had a choice, or that I wanted your opinion? When I tell you to do something, you shut the fuck up and do it.”

Asahi then threw him to the side, like he was a rag that Asahi was done with. With a swift motion, he pretended to pull his pistol with the suppressor from his hoodie’s pocket, and shot the tires of two of the cars in less than two seconds.

At first, Tanjiro’s men didn’t react because Asahi had their boss as a hostage, then when they thought they had the chance, Asahi already had a gun in his hand.

He then pointed at the car in the front with his gun. “Move, let’s go.”

At that point, Ginjiro and his posse had cold sweat running down their backs.

Tanjiro started to get up, looking at Ginjiro with an expression filled with anger, but spoke coldly. “Get in the car, now.”

Asahi was already walking towards the front passenger seat. He opened the door, pretended to put his gun back in his hoodie’s pocket, sat down, and closed his eyes.

Tanjiro looked at one of his men. “Enomoto, drive. The rest of you, don’t try to follow us.”

As the three of them entered the car, they saw that Asahi had his eyes closed.

Tanjiro immediately looked at the driver. “Don’t even think of trying anything, just drive.”

The driver just started the car and drove off.

After five minutes of driving in silence, Asahi turned his head toward his left, facing the window, then opened his eyes. ‘Show me.’

[ Existential Analysis (Passive) – Obtains all the information about any creature within your perception. ]

‘Passive? Does that mean that just by the creature entering my perception in any way I get their information?’

[ Correct. ]

‘And you store all that information for me to use at any point in time?’

[ Yes. ]

‘I thought it was a function that I gained during the first evolution, not a passive.’

[ Your thoughts were partially correct. Existential Analysis is tied to evolutions, just not a specific one. The bearer needs to complete three Milestones and ten Achievements without having committed any evil deeds. Upon achieving that, the Passive Ability is unlocked during the next evolution. ]

‘I see. And how common is it to unlock it during the first evolution?’

[ Only 0.00000000374168…% of the bearers who ever unlocked the ability, did so during the first evolution. ]

‘Wow, doing it blind seems to really be the best way. Last couple questions for now; it says all the information, so I assume it’s literally everything. If I need something, I just need to will it, and no matter how specific I get, you’ll deliver, right?’

[ Correct. ]

‘Lastly, from what I understand of you and how you operate, them entering my perception as a requirement, is in order for you to establish a connection with them. If that is true, does that mean that their profiles will be updated even with me far away from them?’

[ Correct. ]

‘If you had a body, I would kiss you.’

[ As you may have imagined, it is not possible for me to have a body of my own, since I am part of you, and the only thing that can change that is your permanent death. ]

Asahi smiled beneath his face-mask.

As for what the System meant by permanent death, he had a few ideas. The main ones would be a passive that revived him, followed by becoming a Lich, or something akin to it. It wouldn’t be strange, given what he’d seen of the System, to have something like an auto-revive. Within that context, the word permanent is needed.

As the System’s screen disappeared, the car arrived in front of a skyscraper.

Miyagawa Tower

‘How original…’

As the car entered the underground parking lot, Asahi spoke. “There better be nothing to get in my way. If you try to stall in any way, you won’t like the outcome, so just bring me directly to your father. No stops, nothing.”

Tanjiro answered with a serious expression. “I will do my best.”

After saying that, he started to curse inwardly. ‘God fucking damn it, he’s for sure one of those freaks. I’ve never even heard of one in their twenties, fuck me. What a shit week I’m having. First, Mika-Mika’s tickets were sold out, and now my waste of oxygen of a brother pisses off a monster. A monster who seems to have one hell of a backing nonetheless. Fuck me…’

Upon parking, the four of them got out of the car and took the elevator in silence. Inside the elevator, Tanjiro used his fingerprint to access the top floor.

As the elevator doors opened, Asahi exited, turned left, and started walking.

The three men promptly followed him.

He arrived in front of the door to a meeting room, with one guard on each side of it.

Asahi ignored them and went straight to the door.

Tanjiro immediately spoke. “Stand down, let him through.”

As he opened the double doors, he saw a standard but luxurious conference room, with 23 people sitting at a long table. Seven men and four women to his left, eight men and three women to his right, while the person he was looking for was at the other end of the table.

Miyagawa Junichiro was a man in his fifties, but still seemed to be in incredible shape. He wore an expensive suit, and his grey hair was properly trimmed and combed.

Before anyone said anything, Asahi spoke, pointing to the 100” smart screen on the wall. “Look there.”

He did the same thing that he had done with phones before, but did so with the giant screen.

They looked at the video, flabbergasted, since it looked like there were multiple cameras inside the what they thought to be clean conference room.

Not content, Asahi spoke again. “Now, look at your phones.”

As he finished speaking, their phones beeped. They saw a video of them seconds prior, watching the other video, and as it finished, both videos disappeared.

They all looked at Asahi with complicated expressions, muttering between themselves.

Suddenly, Junichiro spoke with a commanding tone. “Silence!”

Startled, everyone shut their mouths.

Junichiro looked at Asahi, and spoke politely. “Please, continue.”

Asahi pulled down his hood and mask, and looked at Junichiro. “My name is Kinoshita Asahi, and I came here to tell you something. The apartment your son, Ginjiro is living in, will now be vacant, for as long as I or anyone I care about lives in that building. Not a single one of your people or anyone even remotely connected to them, will have access to that property in any way, aside from you, Miyagawa Junichiro. Don’t fuck with me or those who I care about, or we’ll be coming for all of you, no exceptions. Check your phone, we sent you something to help you control your lapdogs.”

As Junichiro looked at his phone, his eyes widened. It was a video that showed the faces of five of the people present, one by one, with writing on top of it. The writing said that they were on the take of other organizations, and who they were working for.

Asahi spoke again. “If you doubt the validity of the information, I’ll give you a demonstration of our capabilities. When you were only thirteen years old, an adorable ten-year-old girl, a blue tie, and cheap cologne. That was the day that had the most impact on your personality, instead of the story you usually tell people.”

Junichiro felt shivers run down his spine. It was something that he had never told anyone, and neither did his wife, the ten-year-old girl in the story. Nothing had impacted him like killing that child molester, saving his childhood friend and future wife.

Asahi nodded. “Good, you seem to understand. What I’m gonna say now, is not an order, just advice. Start being an actual father to you son, before he digs both of your graves.” He then turned around, and started to walk out as he looked at the driver. “You’re driving me back, alone.”

The driver didn’t even look at Tanjiro, just did as he was told.

As the doors to the conference room closed, one of the men at the table spoke. “What the hell just happened?”

Junichiro took a deep breath, leaning back in his chair. “Someone had a score to settle. Someone who is part of an organization that is capable of erasing us from the face of the earth with ease, that is all. None of you will go looking into the boy, or I will deal with you myself. We will proceed as he said, and that’s final.” He then looked at his son, Ginjiro. “I remember you promising me that you would stay out of trouble, but that boy was right, it is my fault.”

Ginjiro swallowed dry.

 

Asahi knew that attempting all of that was a huge gamble, but it was the best course of action that he could think of.

If he hadn’t interfered in the first place, Mayumi and Fumiko would have, so he had to. If he just beat them up, he knew that they would come back, and it would be worse, because they wouldn’t go after him, but the girls.

He was painfully aware of how that kind of cockroach operated.

By doing what he did, he removed them from his building, while taking care of the ones above them as well. And as an unexpected bonus, if any of them tried to plot something, he would know.

The drive back to Asahi’s building was a silent one. On the way there, Asahi put away the gloves and mask.

The driver, was scared shitless of the boy behind him, let alone of whomever the boy worked for.

Entering the building, Asahi pulled out his phone and called Mayumi.

“Hi, are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m getting into the building right now. Everything is taken care of, without any casualties.”

“That’s not funny… okay, it’s a bit funny. We came back to the apartment as soon as we convinced them to not call the cops. There is no way we’d be able to stay there and enjoy the party.”

“Yeah, I wanted you guys to enjoy yourselves, but I get it. I wouldn’t be able to either if I was in your place. I’m sorry, but I had to do that, otherwise they’d end up targeting you and Fumiko.”

“We know… we were just talking about that. Between the three of us, you’re the one who would know best how to handle that, System or not.”

“Probably. I’m getting into the elevator, see you guys soon.”

“Okay, bye.”

“Bye.”

As he arrived at the 9^th floor, he smiled, feeling both girls inside the apartment, waiting for him a couple meters away from the door.

Opening the door, he just walked towards them with his arms opened. They both walked to him, hugging him tightly.

Fumiko rubbed her cheek on his chest. “I want you to tell us everything.”

He kissed the top of her head. “Yeah, but I’ll do you one better, I’ll show you. I already asked the System to make a video of it. We can watch it on the tv while eating some popcorn.”

Mayumi laughed. “Sure, mister protagonist.”

They let go of the hug, and closed the front door.

In the living room, he got them some movie theater popcorn and drinks from the Store, and they started watching.

They were a bit surprised with how well Asahi handled himself, but were really surprised by how much bigger things got by the end.

As it ended, Mayumi pinched his arm.

“Ow, what was that for?”

“For saying cringey lines while we were here worried about you.”

“I had to. Those guys were living cringey tropes, so I spoke their language to make sure they understood me.”

Both girls laughed, relieved by how well things went.

They became even more relieved after he explained his newfound passive ability, since it was one hell of a reassurance.

Fumiko shook her head. “We need a patch to nerf you a bit.”

Asahi laughed. “Right? Resistance to plotting is a new one.”

They laughed and joked around, while re-watching the video, making fun of the walking stereotypes.

After that, they started kissing, ending up in Asahi’s room.

A session of tender and passionate sex started, only ending an hour later, when their stomachs started growling, making them laugh.