The Hidden Client (4)

"I've got something else to do, so I won't walk you out."

"No... I really shouldn't trouble you any more. Thanks for what you did today, Shinjo."

"It was no trouble at all."

Shinjo waved as he left. Sakura watched him disappear into the distance, then suddenly remembered something important.

She had just taken out her phone to send a text when a powerful hand clamped over her mouth. All she could manage was a muffled "Mmmph!"

Then she felt herself being dragged in some direction. There was no one around, and she couldn't make a sound.

She tried to struggle, but with her slender arms and legs, how could she break free of a grip as tight as a pair of shackles?

"Stop struggling, my Shizuku! You belong to me... You belong to me!!"

At the sound of his voice, Sakura immediately understood. She was being kidnapped by that perverted fan!

Already timid by nature, she was now so terrified that she burst into tears.

The man pinned Sakura firmly to the ground and pulled out a towel he'd prepared in advance, stuffing it into her mouth to silence her.

"Heh heh heh... Do you know how much I love you?! You're my everything. I'd give you all I have, even my life! But... then one day, you started playing that awful game of hide-and-seek with me!"

"Ever since that day, I've been plunged into despair. Do you know... do you know what I've been going through all this time?!"

The man's expression grew increasingly twisted.

"But at last, I've found you... This must be fate, right?! My little Shizuku! You were meant to be mine! Every part of you is mine!! Come on... let me get a good look at you... These clothes are such a nuisance!"

Just as he was about to tear open Sakura's uniform, a figure appeared behind him in an instant. A powerful roundhouse kick sent him flying.

"I'm afraid your good times are over."

The man rolled twice across the ground, then rubbed his eyes. The one who'd kicked him was none other than the meddlesome kid from earlier. He hurried to his feet, panting heavily.

"You!!!!"

"S-Shinjo!"

Sakura sat up, crying. She tried to stand, but her legs had no strength at all. What had just happened must have been far too much for her.

Shinjo watched the man before him without emotion. People like him weren't all that uncommon. They were despicable and loathed by everyone, yet more and more of them kept appearing.

"Are you going to go quietly to prison, or..."

Or should I send you straight into your next life? Though, to be honest, I really don't want someone like you reincarnating.

The man laughed in fury.

"Ha ha ha ha ha! Who do you think you are, some kind of hero? Do you even know what you just did? You used violence against a school custodian! Do you know what happens to a student who uses violence?!"

"Ha ha ha! So that's your move? It's one I've used to death, but I have to admit, it works pretty well sometimes. I'd say that if I had to use force to protect a female classmate from you trying to molest her, and the school punished me for it, then I'd really have to wonder if the school's administrators had some kind of antisocial disorder."

Seeing that his threats weren't working, the man changed his tone.

"Kid, you think I'm joking? You're saying I molested your classmate, but what proof do you have?"

"Well... I actually have plenty of evidence, but the simplest would probably be an eyewitness."

"What?! I thought you were going to say something else. An eyewitness? You mean this person beside you? She's your classmate, of course she'd testify for you..."

Before he could finish, an angry voice rang out behind him.

"What about me?!"

The man started to turn around, but a heavy fist greeted him instead.

"Drop dead, you scum!!"

The blow landed hard on his face, knocking him to the ground. The speaker was none other than the Sales Champion from the electronics store, who had disappeared from inside the shop earlier.

Shinjo took out his phone, walked over, and opened the camera.

"Give me a hand."

The Sales Champion understood at once. He grabbed the man by the hair with one hand and lifted his head.

"Look this way... Say cheese..."

Shinjo took a picture and sent it to Manabu Horikita.

"Caught in the act of molesting a female classmate. One eyewitness: an employee from the electronics store."

"Got it."

Manabu Horikita replied with just two words, then swiftly brought the Disciplinary Committee over. Unlike the police in TV dramas, the Student Council acted pretty quickly.

After hearing what had happened, the teachers and security guards who'd come along handcuffed the man.

"Remember to come to the Student Council tomorrow to give a statement."

With that, Manabu Horikita led his group away.

He'd handled everything without the slightest hesitation. No wonder Horikita-senpai was regarded as one of the school's most outstanding students.

After resting for a while, Sakura had also recovered.

"Hey, let me ask you something. You're the one who wrote the request letter, aren't you?"

The Sales Champion smiled at the question. His failure to deny it was as good as an admission.

"Then you know about her... about Shizuku, right?"

Sakura was startled. She hadn't expected anyone else at school to know her identity. Although the man had just saved her, she was still a little on edge around fans.

"That's right. I wrote the request. You must be the person from the Odd Jobs Agency?"

"Yeah."

"Ha ha, I thought I'd done a pretty good job keeping it hidden. In fact, I've been a fan of little Shizuku for a long time—one of the first fans, you could say. My father died in a car accident when I was little. My grandparents didn't like my mother and me. They thought we'd brought about my father's death."

"My maternal grandparents had passed away early, so my mother was the only family I had. But when I was in college, I got terrible news: my mother had suffered a sudden cerebral hemorrhage... To be honest, I thought about taking my own life around then. After all, living no longer seemed to have any meaning."

"Then I got to know little Shizuku. Maybe because I wasn't ready to give up on the world, I posted my thoughts and story on a social media forum. But to my surprise, little Shizuku and all her fans came to tell me to keep living well for my parents' sake."

"For some reason, I suddenly wondered: if everyone in the world forgot about someone, would that person really be dead? So, with everyone's encouragement and support, I finally climbed out of that darkness."

So this is the power of an idol?

Sakura walked over too. She remembered him quite well, actually, but back then she hadn't realized how serious things were. Out of politeness and habit, she'd simply thought that no one should be so pessimistic, so she'd put herself in his shoes and encouraged him.

"After that, I started living properly. I came to work at this school because there was no family I needed to take care of. In fact, I recognized Sakura the first time she came to buy a camera."

What happened after that was very simple. He'd wanted to protect the idol he adored, only to discover that a coworker had set his sights on her.

To protect Sakura's privacy—and because he had no solid evidence he could use to bring the man to justice—he'd made an anonymous request to the Odd Jobs Agency.