Villain: Your Heroines Were Delicious - Chapter 226 - 14

Chapter 226: Chapter 14

Seijirou and Rindou stood on the periphery of the crime scene, the harsh, alternating strobes of red and blue police lights casting long, rhythmic shadows against the charred remains of the hospital.

The night air was biting, but the water handed to them by a silent officer felt even colder as it slid down their parched throats.

They didn’t speak; they simply watched the steady, macabre procession.

From the gaping maw of the building, teams of forensic specialists and officers were emerging in a slow, somber line.

They carried heavy, black body bags that looked agonizingly light in their hands, containing the skeletal remains and the liquefying corpses of the lost.

Each bag represented a life cut short, a family shattered, and a story ended in the dark.

The sound of boots on gravel and the distant, crackling radio chatter were the only things breaking the silence of the industrial wasteland.

Just then, Ieyasu walked out of the building, his face a mask of weary, professional detachment that barely hid the simmering horror in his eyes.

He pulled off his latex gloves and walked toward the two teenagers, his silhouette looming large against the flickering lights.

“There are a total of 121 different remains found in that hole,” Ieyasu said, his voice a low, gravelly rasp that seemed to vibrate with the weight of the number. “We’ve already contacted the parents of those we can immediately recognize from the IDs found in the debris, but the others… the older ones… they might take weeks, perhaps months, to identify through dental records and DNA.”

“Over a hundred?!” Rindou’s eyes widened, her breath catching in a sharp, jagged hiss.

Her fists clenched so hard at her sides that her knuckles turned white, her blue ki flickering involuntarily around her hands. “Those people… they really deserve to die! They are worse than animals! How can anyone do this and still draw breath?!”

Ieyasu shook his head firmly, his gaze steady on his daughter. “Don’t be impulsive, Rindou. The laws exist for a reason. They are the only thing keeping this city from descending into absolute madness. Don’t take justice into your own hands. We follow procedure.”

“Bullshit!” she cursed, the word exploding from her lips with a raw, uncharacteristic fury. “Father, that might be true for a common thief or a street brawler, but this is an entirely different matter altogether! Laws certainly exist, but they exist for humans! Those people—no, those things—aren’t even animals! At least animals kill for hunger, but they just kill for a twisted, sick pleasure!”

Ieyasu sighed, a long, heavy sound that seemed to age him by a decade as he looked at the burnt ruin of the hospital and then back at her. “Rindou, just… just calm down. I will allow you to stay with Kageyama Seijirou for tonight to decompress, but I am ordering you: don’t get involved. Let me and the department handle this. It’s official business now.”

Normally, such a command would have elated Rindou—the chance to spend the night under Seijirou’s home was something she usually dreamed of—but this time, she couldn’t find a single shred of happiness.

She knew how the police worked in the Shinra Region.

To put it nicely, they were civil servants bound by bureaucracy; to put it bluntly, they were often the leashed dogs of the powerful.

She knew that if she let her father handle this matter through “official channels,” she’d probably die of old age before they could even capture a single low-level lookout, let alone the masterminds.

The Yakuza connections would start pulling strings, evidence would vanish from lockers, and the “Blowers” would simply relocate to a different district.

“Father! Grandpa also made me an honorary member of the Grand Order, and I have the direct authority to investigate spiritual and biological anomalies!” Rindou shouted, her voice echoing off the side of a police van. “This falls under my jurisdiction!”

“Rindou! The Grand Order exists to deal with supernatural matters, with the ghosts and other anomalies, but not the mundane filth of a street gang! Listen to me!” Ieyasu’s voice rose to match hers, a rare display of paternal authority. “The Blowers… they are not a simple group of delinquents. They have roots that go deeper than you can imagine. I promise you, I’ll punish those who did this, but you stay out of it. That is my final word.”

“You—!” Rindou’s face contorted with a mix of betrayal and rage.

She stared at the man she had looked up to her entire life, the man who represented the shield of justice, and who now looked completely different in her eyes.

Then, without hesitation, she drove a lightning-fast, wrathful punch directly into her father’s stomach.

“Gfrgh!?” Ieyasu gasped, his breath leaving him in a sudden whoosh as he doubled over, his eyes widening in shock, not just at the pain, but at the sheer defiance of his daughter.

“Father, I used to admire you because of your unwavering sense of justice,” Rindou said, her voice trembling with cold disappointment. “Now, you’re just another officer hiding behind a badge and a handbook.”

Without another word, she turned on her heel and walked away into the dark, her back straight and her aura radiating a freezing, blue light.

Seijirou let out a long, weary sigh from the sidelines, feeling incredibly awkward at the atmosphere.

He watched Rindou’s retreating figure, then turned back to the gasping Ieyasu and turned around to follow Rindou.

He was about to take a step towards her when Ieyasu called out, his voice strained as he clutched his midsection.

“Hold up… Kageyama.”

“Hm?” Seijirou turned toward him, his expression unreadable.

Ieyasu straightened up slowly, rubbing his stomach and wincing as he looked at the boy—the one who was also a scumbag delinquent that tricked his daughter. “I know Rindou very well. She’s my daughter after all. She wouldn’t stop just because I told her so, and if anything, I just made her more determined. However, the Blowers are indeed not just an ordinary group. They are being backed by something far more sinister than a local Yakuza clan. If she tries to kick that hornet’s nest, her life will be in grave danger.”

Seijirou tilted his head, looking quite confused, but at the same, he already expected this.

In the “game” he remembered, the Blowers were indeed a formidable mid-game boss faction that appeared after Kageyama Seijirou was defeated, but they were certainly not as exaggeratedly powerful as Ieyasu was implying.

Which means, in this world, their treath has been elevated into something even more sinister.

“She won’t listen to me anymore,” Ieyasu said, his eyes meeting Seijirou’s with a desperate, paternal plea. “But she will listen to you. You’re the only one who can ground her. Can you talk to her? Convince her to stay back?”

Seijirou remained silent for a long moment, and the two of them stared at each other—the aging lawman and the young delinquent—while the flashing lights of the crime scene painted their faces in strobe-like bursts.

Eventually, Seijirou shook his head. “If I asked, Rindou would indeed listen to me. She trusts me with her life. But… I don’t want to ask that of her.”

Ieyasu’s face fell. “What?”

“She has her own thoughts, her own beliefs,” Seijirou continued, his voice as steady as a mountain. “If she wants to follow her own sense of justice, then, no matter what happens, I will support her. I don’t want to be be the one to dim that heart of hers. However…”

Seijirou stepped closer, his silver-gold aura flaring for a brief, terrifying second, causing Ieyasu to widen his eyes for a second, his body flinching.

“However, I can promise you this: I will never let a single hair on Rindou’s head be harmed. If the Blowers so much as look at her the wrong way, I will erase them from existence. This, I swear to you.”

“You—…” Ieyasu was speechless.

He saw the absolute, terrifying sincerity in the boy’s eyes. It wasn’t the boast of a teenager; it was the decree of a man, willing to give up his life for the one he loves.

Eventually, the older man sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose in utter frustration.

He looked like he wanted to argue, but he knew when he was beaten. “So there is indeed a downside to your daughter having a good and supportive boyfriend. You’re just as stubborn as she is.”

He sighed once more and stared at Seijirou with a look that was half-warning, half-blessing. “Promise me. Promise me you’ll protect her, no matter what.”

“With my life,” Seijirou said simply.

Ieyasu nodded slowly, then waved his hand toward the parking lot. “Go. Before she does something even more reckless.”

Seijirou nodded respectfully and followed after Rindou.

He asked a few officers for her location and soon found her sitting in the backseat of a parked police car at the edge of the perimeter.

She was sitting with her arms crossed, her face a mask of grumpiness, staring out the window at the dark trees.

He sighed and opened the door, sliding into the seat beside her.

The car was quiet, the sound of the crime scene muffled.

“Fine,” she said before he could even speak.

“Huh?” Seijirou asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Dad asked you to stop me, right? He told you to use your influence over me to make me stay home and play house,” Rindou muttered, still not looking at him. “Fine. If you’re the one asking, I won’t pursue it anymore. I’ll just sit here and let those bastards walk free.”

“Actually,” Seijirou said, leaning back against the leather seat, “he didn’t. I mean, he tried, but I told him no. He just asked me to protect you while you do what you need to do.”

Rindou’s head snapped around, her blue eyes widening in genuine shock. “Really?! He… he let me go?”

“Yep,” Seijirou said with a slight shrug. “He knew how stubborn you can be, after all. He realized that trying to stop a Kobayashi when they’ve seen an injustice is like trying to stop a landslide with a toothpick. So, President… where are we going first?”

Rindou stared at him for a moment, her face softening, a small, determined smile finally breaking through her anger as she reached over and gripped his hand. “Not yet. We’ll investigate slowly, after all, if even my father is worried about them, they really are bad news.”

Seijirou nodded, “Yeah, I get you.”

Just then, Rindou gripped his hand tighter, “And Seijirou… thank you.”

“Don’t thank me yet,” Seijirou replied, his eyes turning cold as he looked toward the city lights. “We have a lot of trash to take out.”