After the incident.
"Help me..." Ryunosuke Akasaka let out a scream.
"Mm, after all that back-and-forth, it really feels great going in and out~ My ears don't even itch anymore." Sogo Doma lay nearby, with the beautiful woman who'd answered his call beside him.
He looked completely at ease. But one glance at Akasaka—
And it felt like those two belonged to different worlds.
"Enough!" The silver-haired loli was the first to admit defeat. She had no choice. What could you expect someone who'd passed out to do?
That attitude of his was terrible. No wonder he hadn't developed until now.
After Sogo Doma collected the money, he grinned like a fox that had just stolen a chicken.
The silver-haired loli left too.
However.
They were leaving the beach.
Before she left, the silver-haired loli asked, "Your name?"
Sogo Doma: "?"
"I'm asking your name. I'm Masuzu Natsukawa. I hope you'll remember me."
Sogo Doma slapped his fist into his palm. "Masuzu Natsukawa..."
Who the hell was that?
He glanced at the still-unconscious Ryunosuke Akasaka. Whoever she was, he should just answer her! Sogo Doma nodded firmly.
"Masuzu Natsukawa. I'll remember you!"
Even so, he had a few guesses—
Is she from the Natsukawa Family? Sogo Doma thought, rubbing his chin.
Masuzu Natsukawa was exhausted. "Your name."
"Hi—Hijikata. Toshiro Hijikata!"
"Toshiro Hijikata? I'll remember you!" Masuzu Natsukawa nodded in satisfaction and walked away.
Watching them leave, Sogo Doma said, "Hahaha... That Hijikata guy can handle it, right?"
The Natsukawa Family's sphere of influence wasn't in Japan anyway. Otherwise, he'd have made those people understand what it meant to get a beating from society.
Well, for now, who cared? If they really made Hijikata angry, the Kondo Group would teach them a thing or two...
But right now—
Sogo Doma looked at the unconscious Ryunosuke Akasaka beside him.
"@_@!"
"Hold on, Ryunosuke—who did this to you? Tell me! I, Sogo Doma, will never let him get away with it. No one messes with my people and gets away with it! Tell me who it was—as long as he's not stronger than me, no one can save him!"
Doma, pretending to have amnesia, said with a shocked expression.
Come to think of it, had he forgotten something?
Sogo Doma frowned in thought. Thirty seconds later, his eyes widened.
"Wasn't I supposed to go find Umaru? What the @#￥#￥#@..." Finally, he let out a loud shout: "Umaru!"
His shout attracted countless curious onlookers on the beach.
But how could Sogo Doma care about that now?
He searched all around, but there was no sign of his useless little sister.
Heh heh heh...
She must've left while he was held up just now. This was all Ryunosuke's fault, right? It was Ryunosuke, wasn't it?
The lazy, unconscious Ryunosuke Akasaka: ""
In the end, after searching in vain, Sogo Doma set off home, dejected.
Seeing his boss looking so down, Ryunosuke Akasaka assumed he was deeply reflecting on something. He'd been about to offer a few words of comfort, but...
A sinister gleam shone in Sogo Doma's eyes. Don't ask what a sinister gleam looked like; ask Ryunosuke Akasaka. "This is all your fault, isn't it? If you hadn't dawdled in the changing room..."
"Huh?" Ryunosuke Akasaka stared at him, completely bewildered.
Doma, who was absolutely not sinister, stepped forward. "Wahaha! Have you ever felt despair?"
Ryunosuke Akasaka: "WHAT?"
"Driver, stop the car!"
Ryunosuke Akasaka: "??"
"Walk home from here!"
"Don't mess around. It'll take at least two hours to walk to my place from here."
"Two hours?" Sogo Doma rubbed his chin again. "Wow, you're pretty lucky. You'll be home in only two hours."
Seeing Sogo Doma's smiling face, Ryunosuke Akasaka panicked. "H-Hey, you're joking, right?"
"Well then, goodbye!"
Reality slapped Ryunosuke Akasaka in the face. Ah, so he hadn't been joking.
MMP.
Even if I die of thirst or hunger, I'm never taking this job again... Ryunosuke Akasaka thought, standing beneath the midday sun.
Then.
The next day.
Armed with a weapon—cough, armed with a resignation letter—Ryunosuke Akasaka felt like he had a spring in his step.
As soon as he opened the door, he saw Sogo Doma typing something on the keyboard.
Ryunosuke Akasaka walked over and watched line after line of code appear on the screen—
"Uh, so you can do it this way..."
"Can this part be simplified too? No, not just simplified—this speeds up the whole program..."
"Wait, and this part..."
The more Ryunosuke Akasaka studied it, the more he felt he was learning. But Sogo Doma noticed him staring, paused, and looked up. "What's wrong?"
Ryunosuke Akasaka smiled sheepishly. "Nothing. I just wanted to ask what you'd like to eat later, Boss."
Quit?
What was quitting?
With a genius like this on the team, he'd be an idiot to quit. Wasn't learning from a master like him great?
Yeah!
It was great.
That was one of Ryunosuke's thoughts.
And this was Sogo Doma, just back from the beach—his body slumped like a filthy dried fish. If he'd been in bed, you could've put a book on his face and it would've stayed there. He wasn't sleeping, though. He was thinking.
"I'm back~" he said listlessly. Since no one would answer, he thought he'd find a book to put on his face and maybe calm down.
But just then, a certain dumpling-shaped person said:
"Got it. Onii-chan, you're so slow. It's a vacation, but you keep going out..."
"Umaru!?" Sogo Doma stared in shock. What was she doing here?
The certain dumpling: "Huh? What's wrong?"
Sogo Doma: "..."
The certain dumpling: "Oh, right, Onii-chan. We're out of soda at home, and we're almost out of potato chips. Octopus legs, shredded squid... So when are we going to restock? They're always telling me I can't eat this or that at home. Onii-chan, you're the only one who..."
Before she could finish, Sogo Doma felt a hash sign rising on his forehead. "Umaru!"
Umaru Doma: "Huh?"
Onii-chan seemed angry. Activate skill: Umaru's innocent look.
Doma, furious, Sogo Doma: "...Fine. I give up."
"By the way, weren't you going to the beach?"
"Mm!" Umaru Doma gestured with her fingers. "The beach we were going to was really far away, not in Chiba or Tokyo. Nanako wasn't used to it, so we didn't go."
Well done, Nanako!
Sogo Doma gave her a thumbs-up in his heart.
"As for me, I thought Onii-chan might get mad..."
"I wouldn't!"
"You would!"
"I wouldn't, I wouldn't!"
Like two children.
Although he hadn't found Umaru at the beach this time, Sogo Doma had discovered a new source of amusement. It turned out that messing with a long-haired, black-haired pretty boy—er, playing games with him—was really fun.
Like at the hot springs.
"Hey, hey, this is a mixed-gender bath, right? There's no way I'm going in..."
"Ryunosuke, the company has booked out this place. All our coworkers are inside. Women? How could there be women? Electronic programming doesn't need women!"
And then.
A group of women in their thirties, maybe forties, swarmed around him.
"Wow, he really does have long black hair..."
"And that skin..."
Watching this, Ryunosuke Akasaka thought, I've been tricked again!
Then he passed out...
Looking at Ryunosuke Akasaka, who remained unmoved despite being surrounded by a crowd, Sogo Doma muttered, "Mm, I really am a kind and considerate boss who always thinks of his employees."
Before you continue