Hidden Assassin

Edit: IlkonEbi

TL Note: Bold text is spoken in Japanese.

It was already late autumn; the golden leaves floated down from the trees and littered across the ground of the hospital atrium. A variety of ornamental fish swam lazily in the pond, and leaves fell into it at times, causing ripples on the surface of the water. The middle-aged and elderly people, wearing white hospital gowns, were either supported by family members or strolled around the spacious courtyard in groups of two or three. Even though they were here for treatment, they seemed relaxed and comfortable. Jiaming, on the other hand, did not, as he would leave his hospital room every day. He felt like a psychiatric ward patient who could not stay still because there was an annoying bug stuck to him.

Based on his physique, once medicine was applied and he was stitched up, he would have been able to move like normal. Staying at the hospital was quite unnecessary. However, when it came to the Huang family, even if they did not care about Jiaming, they cared about their name and pride. Ever since Jiaming had entered the hospital, the only thing they did was pay large amounts of money and never showed any signs of caring about him. Since the hospital was aware of the Huang family’s situation, they were willing to exaggerate Jiaming’s conditions as long as the Huang family kept paying. Thus, a week later, Jiaming ended up having no choice but to start living at the hospital.

As to the bug that was following him around, it was neither Lingjing nor Shasha —they both had to go to school— it was the person that was sharing the room with him. Though, the truth was that after they entered the hospital, apart from that one night when she had said ‘thank you’ to him, they did not interact at all. Apart from the weekends, when Lingjing and Kaoru had exchanges in English, the japanese girl sat in bed all day and stared blankly at nothing. Thinking that she was afraid of being in an unfamiliar place, Jiaming had suggested that she should go out for walks as well. Even though she had not responded to Jiaming’s suggestion, when Jiaming went out every day, she would follow behind him like a silent ghost.

When Jiaming strolled around the hospital courtyard, Tsukichi Kaoru would quietly follow behind; when he sat down on a bench, she would sit quietly next to him; when he squatted down by the pond, she would quietly squat down as well; when Jiaming played Go with the elderly at the pavilion, she would watch quietly from the side. What was more horrifying though, was that whenever Jiaming had the upper hand in the Go match, Kaoru would tap on some locations on the Go board and then the opponent would laugh merrily and say, “Oh, oh, over here, over here…” and then they would counter-attack and win the match instead.

Thus, Jiaming was very depressed!

Was it because he did too many wicked deeds in his previous life that a vengeful spirit had latched on to him? Well… he did do a lot of atrocious things, but Kaoru had commited suicide in the other timeline, just why was it his goddamn business? It was not possible that her spirit had travelled through time, right?

But to tell the truth, Jiaming did not take all of this too seriously. Even though he was depressed and thought about a lot of things, he did not speak up about it. Besides, they were not really friends and he did not want to have any contact with someone that would be part of Peroka. If she wanted to follow him around, then he would let her do so, but he would keep the ‘I don’t know her’ expression on his face.

Lingjing and Shasha visited every afternoon; when they brought meals with them, they would bring a portion for Kaoru as well. Lingjing and Kaoru ended up being friends through learning English, and while Jiaming seemed indifferent to it, he was actually wondering what potential trouble this could bring him in the future.

After staying at the hospital for another four or five days, Jiaming was finally allowed to check out. Lingjing must have said something to Kaoru, because late that night, when Jiaming was around seventy percent asleep, he heard Kaoru’s voice.

“Gu Jiaming…”

The gentle voice was cautious, testing to see if he had fallen asleep or not. After a pause, Jiaming “mmm”-ed in response.

“Excuse me… I’m sorry, but… could I request for you to help me with something?”

“Nope, not interested, thanks,” Jiaming quickly responded in Japanese.

She fell silent at that and Jiaming turned over, preparing to go back to sleep, when she spoke up again.

“I’m sorry… but it’s really important to me. I was wondering if Gu-kun could… listen to me first before deciding…”

Jiaming did not reply, and only listened as she continued, “I wanted to ask, Gu-kun… Have you done anything with girls… do you have that experience…”

Jiaming rolled his eyes and thought, Are you kidding me?, while he said, “Yes, but it was with a sexy foreign woman and not with a flat-chested, small-butt japanese girl. Why? You want me to do it with you?”

Jiaming did not pay attention to his tone when speaking with people that he did not care about. He thought that the aristocratic japanese girl would be struck speechless by his vulgarity and would go back to sleep. But then she quietly said, “Yes… yes, I was wondering if you could…”

“Forget it. You’re not sexy at all and your body’s full of scars right now. Not only are you ugly as heck, but I’m a young, healthy, growing boy. If I were to do it with you, I’m going to get scarred for the rest of my life. Even if you were to repay me for saving you, you don’t have to do this. Please just disappear from my life and it’s enough thanks for me… If it weren’t for the hospital not having any space, I wouldn’t want to share a room or bed with you…”

While he was spouting nonsense, he was doubtfully wondering, Just what is going on? Do women nowadays want to repay people using their bodies just by being saved? My previous self didn’t really pay attention to the ethics of normal society because I was still in the middle of training. Is it possible that within two to three years time, society’s morals had actually been completely ruined?

Thinking that it was just a joke, Jiaming waited a while before Kaoru responded apologetically. “I’m… I’m sorry. It’s just… I don’t know if Gu-kun knows or not, but the Tsukichi clan is currently facing a crisis…”

Jiaming would naturally be more aware about that situation than she was. The director of Japan’s division of Peroka, Onmori Shou, had long since wanted to make a move on the Tsukichi clan, but he did not have any excuse to do so. When his son, Onmori Yoshi ended up taking a liking to Tsukichi Kaoru, who was fourteen-years-old at that time, it finally became the fuse for his father to make his move. Now that he thought about it, Jiaming frowned. Was it due to his skills that this girl was going to sacrifice her virtue to him, thus causing Onmori Yoshi to fight him? Was this her plan to use him to kill that guy off?

Onmori Yoshi was one of Peroka’s best ability users. Even though he was extremely powerful and normally seemed kind and honest when handling affairs or interacting with people, he was actually a deviant and an extreme lolicon[2]. He felt disgusted by women over the age of eighteen and would only go to bed with naive and adorable thirteen-fourteen year old girls. Once he took their virginity, he would no longer have any interest in them. Because he took a fancy to Tsukichi Kaoru, even though he only wanted to propose an engagement, the Tsukichi clan naturally did not want to agree to it. Thus, this gave an excuse for Peroka to make their move.

Even though Onmori Yoshi was a pervert, he did not like to use force. He would use large amounts of money to dazzle the young girl’s family, and then use candy and toys to swindle his way into the young girl’s bed — it was this strange older brother’s goal and the pervert’s usual tactics. As to using these tasteless means of dealing with the Tsukichi clan, anyone could see that it was his father’s plan; and as to whether they agreed to the engagement or not, the Tsukichi clan could not avoid this crisis.

“… Because of this, our family requested for assistance from Takamagahara and father had asked me to strengthen the relations with them. He wanted to arrange for an engagement with the eldest son of the Amau clan. I have not yet met the Amau clan’s Masanori-kun, but when I return back to Japan, I can no longer avoid my father’s intention. That’s why I hope that, at least for my first time…”

“You should give your first time to your dad. I already said, I’m not interested… otherwise, I do have a pen. You can just directly break it…”

“B-break it…”

“Yup, just break it, then go to Peroka and show it to Onmori Yoshi. Since that guy has that disgusting type of interest and was used as an excuse by his father this time, you should know that once you don’t have your first time, he would definitely announce to the whole world that he’s not connected to you at all. He doesn’t really have any ulterior motive other than that, so you don’t even need to be forced to marry Amau Masanori too! Hoho, I’m so smart…”

He continued rambling nonsense, somehow unexpectedly reaching a solution to her problem. Feeling satisfied with himself, he got up to drink a cup of water when he heard rustling behind him. The girl had also gotten up off the bed and was suddenly approaching his side of the room.

“Hey, what are you up to?” Jiaming had only been joking just now and was not taking anything seriously, but the girl extended out both hands and said, “I… I would like to borrow your pen…”

Gu—Pu— Jiaming gagged and, to avoid spitting water onto Tsukichi Kaoru’s doll-like face, he choked and spit into his cup instead. Then clutching his stomach, he started rolling around, “Hahaha… Is your brain damaged? I’m only joking! You actually wanted to use a pen… Hahahahehehe…”

With his mind full of thoughts of this beautiful girl, Kaoru, spreading her legs and sticking a pen into her, he could not control his laughter. After a long while, when he was finally able to stop, he patted his aching stomach and then swiped at the water stains on his blanket. When he took another look at Kaoru’s face, he started laughing again, “Hahaha… just go back to sleep, you silly girl. Peroka has wanted to take over the Tsukichi clan for a long time; even without an excuse, they will still make a move. If you use a pen… hahaha, that’s just going to make Onmori Yoshi depressed. You are just his type…”

“Gu-kun, you… are you really familiar with Peroka?”

“Nope, I don’t have any relations with Peroka at all and I don’t want to be connected to them…” As he lay back down on his bed, he felt that Kaoru should be rewarded for being able to make him laugh, so he said, “Relax, once you get more familiar with Amau Masanori, you would find that he’s quite a good catch. However, whether you like him or whether you get engaged with him or not, he won’t make a move on you because he has a girlfriend.”

“Gu-kun… do you know Amau-kun?”

Jiaming turned his head and did not reply to that question, while Kaoru thought that the silence meant tacit agreement. The Jiaming at that time did not realize that his silence was the first mistake he made in his current reborn life. Luckily, it did not lead to too much trouble later on.

The next day was when Jiaming checked out of the hospital and could return to school. He did not exchange additional words with Tsukichi Kaoru. After another few days passed, on the Thursday of the week after, when Jiaming left the Ye family and returned home, he sensed that something was different even before entering his room. It seemed that someone had slipped in while he was out.

As he carefully pushed his door open, he noticed that there was a note left on the bedside table. The note was written in chinese and the script was extremely neat and tidy,

‘Tomorrow afternoon at 2pm, Dongcheng Road, Fleeting Dusk Cafe.

This is only a brief meeting, see you there.

Amau Masanori’

It was a school holiday tomorrow as it was an Education Committee Inspection day. The guy inviting him out was definitely aware about it.

TL note: I kept the Japanese honorifics in (‘-kun’) because that was what the author did.

[2] Lolicon – a complex where one is attracted to young girls https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lolicon ↩

1 / 3 chapters of the week (next release is Wednesday, March 21).