Chapter 179
“…Um. Do you want something to drink first?”
When I asked carefully, the high school girl nodded weakly.
Naturally, I couldn’t just make her a Martini as is. Also, there is no such thing as a virgin (non-alcoholic) Martini in this world.
It was a cocktail made with gin and vermouth, so there was no way to remove the alcohol from it.
Still, her condition didn’t look normal. I was rummaging through the cocktail ingredients, thinking I should give her something to drink first.
“Just give me that too. A Martini.”
Hina said in a listless voice.
No, what was she talking about?
I freaked out and waved my hand. Did she want to get someone fired?
A memorial service is a memorial service, and a minor is a minor. Even with a knife to my throat, I couldn’t sell alcohol to a minor!
“Uh, even so, alcohol is…”
“My dad was euthanized after an accident, and my mom committed suicide. Even the guardian I thought of as my last remaining family was murdered, and you’re saying you can’t give me a single drink just because I’m a minor? Should I just drop dead too? Would you sprinkle some alcohol on my ashes then?”
“…”
Okay. At this point, it was safe to say there was a knife to my throat.
I had no choice but to nod. What else could I do when she put it like that?
“Okay. But if we get caught, it’s not my fault. You threatened me.”
“As if we’d get caught.”
Hina snorted and sat down, resting her chin on the bar table. What an arrogant delinquent.
Still, she wasn’t wrong.
Even I didn’t think we’d get caught. In all my time working here, I had never seen the DCPD patrol this far out to inspect bars.
Even when we fought Ned Ludd, didn’t they only show up belatedly after the whole incident was resolved?
They completely abandoned and neglected it just because it was an outskirts area near Sprawlfield. They turned a blind eye to the security of the outskirts and only neatly managed the areas where rich people lived.
I finally understood why everyone was so busy badmouthing the corporation and the city police at every opportunity. The city was in this state because the police did their jobs like this.
Grumbling inwardly, I took out a mixing glass filled with ice. I could find the gin and vermouth with my eyes closed by now…
“A dry martini won’t taste very good. Are you sure?”
“That’s what Mister Miguel usually drank, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Then give me that.”
Fine. Whether she threw it away because it tasted bad or not, what did I care?
10ml of vermouth, 60ml of gin. I measured it exactly with a jigger and poured it into the mixing glass. With just this, a third of the work was already done.
I lightly supported the bottom of the glass with my hand, lifted it, and stirred the contents with a bar spoon.
As smoothly as possible and briefly, just enough for the cocktail to mix with the water to the perfect degree.
After that, I placed a cocktail strainer over the glass and poured the drink into a pre-chilled martini glass, straining out the ice.
Then, I placed a dried olive skewered on a cocktail pin on top.
Done.
“The Martini is complete. Please, have a taste.”
Hina unhesitatingly picked up the glass and gulped down the Martini.
Her expression contorted. She forced it down, but it was quite funny seeing her coughing and frowning, overwhelmed by the dry taste.
“No, why would anyone drink something like this?”
I let out a hollow laugh as she pushed the glass aside, looking as if she had just seen some bizarre food.
I didn’t particularly like Martinis either, but it wasn’t to that extent.
Still, having strong alcohol go down her esophagus perhaps calmed her down a bit, as Hina sighed and said.
“…I’m sorry for talking like shit. It’s just… I don’t want to be like this either, but it’s like this every time, so I end up reacting harshly to everything.”
I shrugged.
“It happens. It’s fine. I’ve met plenty of troublemakers worse than you.”
At least this girl didn’t try to grope my ass like a certain someone whose hand I cut off.
That was enough.
It would be a lie to say I wasn’t flustered, but it wasn’t like I didn’t know her circumstances. As she said, her dad was euthanized, her mom committed suicide, and on top of that, her last remaining guardian, Chainsaw Man, was murdered.
It would be cruel to interrogate a kid who had gone through all that about why she spoke that way.
“So, you want my help?”
At my words, Hina hesitated and nodded.
Do you want my help?
I couldn’t really guess what it was about.
It wasn’t like I was close to her; at most, we had exchanged a few words when she came to the company dinner last time.
Even then, because she was so prickly, it wasn’t like this high school girl left a good impression on me either.
Likewise, Hina hadn’t shown any signs of trusting me or feeling comfortable enough around me to readily come and ask for help like this.
‘Since Mr. Miguel, who was her guardian, died… is there something regarding that she needs an adult’s help with?’
A problem related to school? Or maybe a money problem. I didn’t know if I’d be of any help. Especially if it was a financial issue, my wallet wasn’t exactly thick either…
Why did she specifically seek me out?
There had to be adults she had known much longer and could trust more.
Like Felix - ah. Right. Felix died too…
Still, there was Paulo. Yeah. It was a mystery why she came to me, someone she barely knew, instead of asking Paulo for help.
Don’t tell me something happened to Paulo too?
However, the answer that came from the high school girl’s trembling lips was outside the realm of my expectations.
Words spoken while biting her lip until it bled.
“I want to catch the culprit with my own hands, personally. I’m going to find them and kill them exactly the same way.”
…What did I just hear?
Only then did I realize that the reason the girl was so restless wasn’t because of anxiety, fear, or embarrassment.
The high-school girl looked at me with bloodshot eyes and said.
“Please, help me.”
The emotion contained within was a desperate thirst for revenge.
* * *
“I don’t know where to start explaining this to you.”
Thinking this wasn’t something that could be resolved with a short and simple conversation, I asked Tony and Sey for their understanding, paused my work, and sat down in front of Hina.
“To start with the conclusion, it’s all a misunderstanding.”
“A misunderstanding?”
“Yeah. hand butcher, a samurai from Neo Tokyo, a retired ronin… It seems you’re asking for my help because you heard things like that, but they’re all baseless rumors, and I’m just an ordinary trainee bartender. I don’t know how to do things like tracking or subduing a criminal.”
“But you’re saying you know how to kill?”
“No. I don’t know how to kill either! It’s not like I’m a killer.”
When I shouted in absurdity, Hina spoke with a face that didn’t believe me at all.
“Then what about the leader of the luddites, Ned Ludd? Didn’t you kill him, Mister?”
I frowned.
“…Officially, it should be known that I wasn’t the one who killed him. I only fought against him together with the others.”
Didn’t Dragon President clearly say back then that she had coordinated stories with Chainsaw Man and the others at the scene so as not to draw unnecessary attention?
“Mister Miguel told us at the Group/Gathering.”
Hina’s short answer cleared up all my questions.
Chainsaw Man, you cheap-mouthed Yangban! But it wasn’t like I could blame a deceased person…
Clicking my tongue in frustration, I said.
“Right. That’s true. I did do that. But it was unavoidable due to the circumstances, and I didn’t do it on purpose.”
Come to think of it, that was a murder. I had killed a person.
Because I had been living without even a moment to breathe, I haven’t properly realized it until now.
Was it because I didn’t do it with the intention to kill?
Or was it because I was also caught up in that explosion, almost died, and lost consciousness, and because I didn’t even see Ned Ludd die, that it didn’t feel real at all?
Either way, I didn’t really feel the guilt of murder depicted in movies or books.
I felt so little that it was almost unpleasant.
It’s just… he deserved to die. Come to think of it, I killed him. Even if it wasn’t a crime, I committed a murder. I see.
That was exactly the extent of my sentiments.
I was much more worried about what would happen in the future than what I had already done.
As long as I lived in this crazy city where people died at the drop of a hat, I was afraid that I couldn’t guarantee this would be my first and last murder.
“Anyway, it’s true that you killed him, right?”
Perhaps because of that, I reacted more sharply than usual to Hina’s words.
“I’m sorry, but let’s stop talking about that. I don’t want to go around proudly blabbering about how I killed a person.”
“Why? You killed him because he deserved to die. I think you can be proud of it. Slaughtering the leader of a Terrorist Gang! How cool is that. Just use that wonderful technique one more time - .”
“That’s enough. I clearly said let’s stop talking about it.”
When I firmly cut her off, Hina pouted. She had an attitude as if she couldn’t understand.
…Right. In a world where death had become as light as a feather, maybe I was the weird one for somehow trying to maintain the heavy Moral Concepts of the 21st century.
But even so, I didn’t want to make killing a person something to boast about. What’s wrong is wrong.
No matter how many years had passed since the time I lived in, no matter how much the era had changed, I wanted to believe that there were things that remained unchanged.
For me, this topic was one of them.
“Anyway, it’s a fact that you have the ability and technique to do 'that', right?”
So, a sigh naturally escaped me at the question that the girl, burning with a thirst for revenge, threw at me persistently without giving up until the end.
What on earth should I do with her?