Friends Who Kill Often Know

Friends Who Kill Often Know

"Sora, buy fewer snacks."

Leaving the convenience store, Akihi Yu, carrying two large plastic bags, tried to persuade her.

"Eating nothing but snacks is bad for you. We came to buy ingredients for dinner."

"I don't care."

The girl named Akiyu Sora carried both their schoolbags, a stick of Pocky held between her small, delicate lips.

It was a chocolate-coated biscuit stick. Yes, the kind where couples each ate from one end in those games.

"They're so heavy. Hurry up and go home."

"Okay."

Akihi Yu smiled faintly.

The two schoolbags were hardly heavy, but the two large bags of ingredients and snacks certainly were.

Yu knew perfectly well why Sora had secretly glanced at his hands.

"What do you want for dinner tonight?"

Before transmigrating, the only thing the original Akihi Yu could make was instant noodles with boiling water. Yet Akiyu Sora's most hated food happened to be instant noodles. Luckily, he had the memories in his mind; otherwise, Akihi Yu could only have ordered takeout.

"Mm, whatever."

After thinking about it, the girl beside him gave an irresponsible answer.

"Then I'll make a meat stew."

Adachi Ward.

The sky was gradually darkening, and the setting sun painted the rows of buildings gold.

Though it technically belonged to Tokyo, it had the lowest income among Tokyo's twenty-three wards. Many of the buildings were more than thirty or forty years old. Electrical wires tangled through the air like spiderwebs around the roadside utility poles, giving Akihi Yu the feeling of an urban village from his previous life.

And the Akihi House was located here.

"You took too long."

When they reached a detached house, Akiyu Sora complained aloud but proactively opened the gate to the yard and stepped aside.

Carrying the two large bags, Akihi Yu walked past his sister, his gaze sweeping over the building before him.

It was a standard detached house from the eighties. Yes, the same kind as Shin-chan's or Doraemon's house in the anime from his previous life: a walled yard surrounding a two-story standalone home.

In prosperous areas, most buildings like this had already been replaced by apartment complexes and high-rises. Only in remote places like Adachi Ward did they still remain... Hm?

His gaze swept over the windows in the yard, and Akihi Yu paused slightly.

"What's wrong?"

His sister's puzzled voice came from behind him. Akihi Yu narrowed his eyes and casually looked away from the drawn curtains.

"Nothing."

?

Since her brother had said so, Akiyu Sora walked to the front door first and took out the key to unlock it.

"I'm home."

Akiyu Sora said it, while Akihi Yu had already stepped into the entryway ahead of her with the two large bags.

"Welcome back—"

Swish.

Before the girl could react, two figures lunged out from either side. Their gleaming daggers pressed against the siblings' faces as malicious voices rang out.

"Don't move!"

"Move, and we'll kill you!"

?!

Bang.

The front door shut behind them.

Click.

With the sound of a switch being pressed, the dim room suddenly lit up.

"Yo, you even brought food?"

An arrogant voice sounded, drawing the Akihi siblings' attention.

On the sofa in their living room sat a bald, muscular man in a tank top, tattoos covering his arms. His sharply defined arms rested across the sofa in the posture of a big shot.

"Robbers."

"No, no, little girl, you've got it wrong."

Just as Akiyu Sora instinctively identified them, the bald man on the sofa sat up.

"We're no robbers. I'm just a big brother here to uphold justice for one of my little brothers."

The man raised a hand and pointed to the side.

"Yamamoto?"

So it really was this guy.

After noticing that his curtains had been unusually drawn, Akihi Yu had already suspected something.

Normally, he should have called the police. But the spiritual power flowing through his body gave Akihi Yu the confidence to face any danger.

"It was him!"

Yamamoto, standing in the living room, pointed at Akihi Yu. The venom in his eyes was nearly solid.

What a nuisance. There were always idiots who didn't know when to quit.

Akihi Yu's gaze swept over the duct tape and camera on the living room table, and his eyes gradually turned cold.

Four pieces of scum.

The two men lying in wait by the door had buzz cuts with shaved designs and were dressed like thugs. They held daggers to the Akihi siblings. Yamamoto stood in the living room with a smug expression, while the bald man lounging on the sofa disdainfully lifted his chin at Akihi Yu.

"So you're the brat who beat up Yamamoto?"

"If no one else beat him up today, then it was me."

Though a dagger was pressed to his neck, Akihi Yu remained expressionless. Yamamoto took a step forward, then forcibly held himself back.

He was not the one in charge.

"Good."

"You've got guts, kid."

The bald man on the sofa rubbed his bluish chin.

"I appreciate bold people like you. If you hadn't messed with my little brother, I might even have introduced you to the Broken Tooth Gang."

"Brother Toshikawa?"

Hearing that, Yamamoto was both shocked and furious.

Glance.

One look from the bald man instantly made Yamamoto shut up.

"What a pity. What a pity."

"I heard your family received a large compensation payment?"

"Hand over the money, and I'll buy your life. And—"

The bald man's gaze fell on Akiyu Sora, instantly turning hungry, greedy, and vicious.

"Hey, little girl."

"As long as you play with us for one night, we'll let your brother go. How about it?"

After saying that, the bald man added another sentence.

"Don't worry. We won't make you end up like Furuta Junko."

Furuta Junko.

At the mention of that name, fear instinctively appeared on Akiyu Sora's pale little face.

Thirty years ago, a female high school student had been tortured beyond recognition, then stuffed into an oil drum, filled with cement, and buried.

The case had shocked the entire Island Nation at the time. The infamous method of disposing of a body in cement had later been widely copied.

Even thirty years later, the matter was not over. Those people had long since been released from prison. After changing their names, they continued living freely, even brazenly leaving posts on their blogs without the slightest remorse.

And it had happened right here in Adachi Ward!

"We'll take some pictures too, as keepsakes."

The bald man looked with satisfaction at Akiyu Sora's deathly pale face. The girl was a bit skinny, but that sweet, adorable face of hers... She was practically a money-printing machine!

The Broken Tooth Gang ran quite a few sex establishments. If he delivered such premium merchandise, he could enter the organization—

"Are you done talking?"

?

At that moment.

A cold voice rang out, making the bald brute on the sofa feel a chill run through his body.

"Looks like you're done. Then—"

The one who spoke was Akihi Yu, who had a dagger pressed against his neck.

"Sora, close your eyes."

As Akiyu Sora instinctively closed her eyes and the others in the living room stared in confusion, Akihi Yu reached out and grabbed.

His five fingers clamped around the wrist holding the dagger.

Crack.

The hand infused with spiritual power tightened, like the jaws of a mechanical vise snapping shut.

"Ah!"

The thug holding Akihi Yu hostage instinctively screamed.

The scream had barely begun before it cut off. The thug froze completely, and the dagger in his hand slipped free and fell.

D-Rank Illusion Technique: Gold Binding Technique

Swish.

Akihi Yu snatched the dagger from the air with his other hand and spun around sharply.

Before the thug holding Akiyu Sora hostage could react, a flash of silver rapidly expanded in his pupils!

Squish.

His eyeball burst as the dagger plunged into his eye socket, sinking all the way to the hilt!

Driven by spiritual power, Akihi Yu hurled it in fury, the dagger nearly piercing straight through the thug's head.

"You—?!"

The bald man in the living room shot up from the sofa in horror.

Smack.

The next second, Akihi Yu, who had been in the entryway, had already rushed before him. His spread fingers slammed over the man's face, choking his cry back down his throat.

Grabbing the man's face, he slammed it downward, forcing the brute to sit back down on the sofa.

At the same time, Akihi Yu raised his right foot toward the man's lower body.

Boom!

His foot stomped down heavily.

The kick was so vicious that it drove the bald man deep into the sofa!

Squelch.

Akihi Yu pulled his shoe from the man's blood-soaked lower body. Red and white fluid stretched into gruesome strands from the sole. Releasing the bald man, who had already passed out, Akihi Yu turned his gaze to Yamamoto.

Thud.

Yamamoto's knees gave out, and he dropped to the floor, his mind utterly blank.

Facing Akihi Yu's cold gaze, he trembled all over as his plea came out in a stutter.

"A-Akihi... classmate."

"I was wrong. I know I was wrong! Please."

"No, Yamamoto."

Akihi Yu shook his head lightly.

"You only know that you're about to die."

?!

"Brother, there really isn't any need."

"No. Go change your clothes and take a shower first."

Waving her away, Akihi Yu sent Akiyu Sora to the bathroom. He then turned to look at the two writhing figures on the living room floor.

"Next, it's time to deal with you."

"Mmph, mmph, mmph—"

The thug who had held Akihi Yu hostage and Yamamoto were not dead.

Their hands and feet had been bound with the duct tape they brought, their mouths sealed shut. They could only writhe and struggle desperately on the floor.

After witnessing Akihi Yu's earlier display, they did not dare hope that he would spare them. But with such a vast gap in strength, their struggles were completely futile.

"Friends who kill often know that killing someone is easy, but disposing of the body is hard."

Speaking calmly, Akihi Yu opened the sliding door leading to the yard. He dragged all the things these men had brought, the bald man mixed in with the wreckage of the sofa, and the corpse of the other thug whose eye socket had been pierced by the dagger into the yard.

Night had already fallen. There were no buildings around taller than the Akihi House, and with the walls blocking the view, no one would see whatever he did.

"But for me, that isn't a difficult problem."

He tossed Yamamoto, still bound in duct tape, onto the pile of "trash" as well.

"Enjoy the last few minutes of your life."

Smack.

Akihi Yu crouched down and gently pressed his palm against the ground.

Gurgle, gurgle~~

The soil in the yard began to writhe, transforming out of thin air into soft mud.

D-rank Earth Release: Mud Swamp Technique

This ninjutsu could only turn earth into mud. It had originally been a ninjutsu used by students of World of Fire to create traps.

But it was perfect for cleaning up trash—Akihi Yu planned to bury this garbage dozens of meters deep underground in one go. Unless someone brought in heavy excavation machinery, no one would ever find them.

The question was,

What reason would there be to use heavy excavation machinery here?

"Farewell."

Watching Yamamoto, his face streaked with tears and snot, sink down and vanish from sight, Akihi Yu rose to his feet and clapped his hands.

The ground in the courtyard had already returned to normal under the effects of Earth Release!

"Hmm, time to prepare dinner."