The Gemini Princess wants me to confess my feelings!

Kirihara Akira braved the torrential rain and hurriedly left the house; his destination was the Period Bar.

Regardless of whether Hino Harufumi lives or dies, the information he promised to provide is worth verifying.

I hailed a taxi on the roadside and quickly arrived at my destination.

Kirihara Akira deliberately got off the bus a kilometer away from the bar and walked there.

The bar wasn't far from the Sen family's house, about a ten-minute drive away. He spent some time checking the surrounding area and found no trace of gang activity or any place that seemed to be a gang's hideout.

The area is a residential area, and nothing unusual was found.

The bar was located on the second floor of a residential building, and Kirihara Akira deliberately went up the emergency staircase.

Perhaps because of the heavy rain, there weren't many customers inside; there was only a blond bartender wiping glasses.

Kirihara Akira tried it, and the door wasn't locked.

Hearing the door open, the woman, without looking up, said, "When will you learn to walk face-up... Oh dear?"

She seemed somewhat surprised to see Kirihara Akira, who was dressed entirely in black and had a "robust" build.

"Someone sent me to see you," Kirihara Akira said. "I'm here to retrieve something. Are you Ms. Marina?"

"It's me." Marina looked Kirihara Akira up and down and said, "He did call just now and told me that someone was coming."

"Is what he's going to give me ready?" Kirihara Akira asked.

"Of course." Marina poured Kirihara Akira a glass of wine, with a brown paper bag next to it. She said, "Please read this here. After you've finished reading, I'll be responsible for destroying it."

Without further ado, Kirihara Akira tore open the cover, took out the printed paper, and quickly began to read it.

After looking at it for a while, he put the paper down and said, "I'm done reading. Burn it."

Marina was surprised and said, "I thought you were going to watch for a while longer."

"I've memorized it all," Kirihara Akira said, closing her eyes as if processing what she had just seen. "Thanks to him, I'm finally starting to get a clue."

Marina put down her water glass, her worry barely concealed: "You should know what happened to Qingwen-jun, right?"

"I know," Kirihara Akira said. "What did he tell you?"

He's going to find out what's going on.

"Who are you asking?" Kirihara Akira asked.

"Ask everyone," Marina said.

"I really don't understand what he's thinking," Kirihara Akira said, shaking his head. "His best option right now is to find a place to hide and wait for things to calm down before making any further plans."

"He's always been like this; no one can persuade him to do something he doesn't want to do," Marina said softly. "He said he didn't want to run away with his tail between his legs. If the person who harmed him was the young master or Old Man Suruga, then he would accept his fate. Both of them had done Haruyuki a great favor."

"...Foolish." Kirihara Akira simply couldn't understand this way of thinking.

"Yes, foolish," Marina said with a gentle, bitter smile. "That's why he hasn't wanted to see me in person all these years."

She composed herself and said in an almost pleading tone, "I don't know who you are, but anyone he summoned here must be extraordinary. If you have some connection with him, please save him."

"I tried, but like you said, probably no one can convince him," Kirihara Akira said. "Hino Harufumi is determined to die, and now that things have blown up, no one can save him."

Marina's eyes dimmed, and she clenched her fists until her knuckles turned white.

Kirihara Akira glanced at her, then looked away.

"Why would someone die for a sense of loyalty?" Marina asked herself.

"Yes, why is that?"

Marina, desperate and grasping at straws, bowed deeply to the stranger and pleaded, "Please, save him."

Kirihara Akira remained silent, did not linger, and pushed open the door to leave.

......

......

Coming from the wind and rain, and returning to the wind and rain, truly free and unrestrained.

Kirihara Akira bore no responsibility whatsoever in this matter. Hino Harufumi's life or death was none of his concern. In fact, he had done more than enough.

No one is obligated to save someone who is determined to die.

Therefore, the safest course of action would be for Kirihara Akira to go straight home, since he has already obtained the necessary information.

However, Kirihara Akira did not do that.

Without a doubt, in accordance with Kirihara Akira's consistent safety principle, it's better to avoid trouble. After all, in this second life, his only wish is to live a peaceful and ordinary life like a normal person.

However, as we all know, a wish is something that people most want to accomplish. To achieve a wish, one must sometimes face the limitations of objective facts, and sometimes one must face one's own limitations.

What is the self? It is human instinct, the most direct reaction a person makes when faced with all things, and something that contradicts the desire for "reason".

When Kirihara Akira saw Hino Harufumi, his first thought was of those like-minded people who died for their ideals.

Upon closer examination, they are actually completely different; it's just that they share a similar level of naiveté.

Thinking about this, Kirihara Akira imagined this scenario: He was wavering over such a trivial matter. If someone as calm and even cold-blooded as the lady knew, they would probably ridicule him for being naive. But then he thought, if the person in the scenario were replaced with someone else, some people would probably say he was too cowardly, lacked responsibility, and didn't have enough temper.

Is this the rule of this world? To have the likes of half the world's population, you will also have the hatred of the other half.

In the end, it's better to just live according to your own desires.

Unable to turn a blind eye, yet unwilling to risk his life out of "loyalty," he has only one option: to take things one step at a time.

......

Harufumi Hino truly deserves to be called the top enforcer of the Suruga Group and even the Yamaei-kai.

He single-handedly shook off most of the enemies, and also took down all the scattered pursuers along the way. His powerful physique was still going strong, and he couldn't even be described as putting on a brave face or being tired.

On one occasion, he finally had the opportunity to completely disappear from public view, making himself untraceable to everyone.

However, he still made a phone call.

Harufumi Hino sought help from Daichi Suruga, explaining his predicament and claiming that he suspected he had been ambushed and hunted by a hostile organization. He requested reinforcements from his brothers, saying he was hiding in an abandoned factory.

He was using himself as bait, risking his life to test whether the person who betrayed him was actually from the Suruga Group.

Hino Harufumi was full of hope, but the final result was self-evident.

What arrived was not reinforcements, but another encirclement and attack.

Despite his long-term illness, Hino Harufumi felt no anger, only melancholy.

In this world, kindness is always used to feed dogs.