Megumi Kato was somewhat conflicted about how to get Kushida Kikyou to relax so they could have a proper heart-to-heart, so she didn't speak immediately.
However, under the interpretation of Kushida Kikyou, who was already as skittish as a frightened bird, this silence was perceived as the calm before the storm.
'Why isn't Boss Kato speaking? She's just looking at me expressionlessly...'
'The Boss's eyes are so terrifying. That's it, she must be thinking about which method to use to dispose of me!'
A few long seconds passed, and Kushida Kikyou was on the verge of being driven mad by Megumi Kato's psychological tactics.
Finally, Kushida's psychological defenses neared collapse under this silent high pressure. She couldn't take it anymore!
Thud!
Kushida slid off the chair and knelt on the floor in a near-collapsed heap, her hands supporting her weight.
"Sister... Sister Hui! Everything the Strategist and I did was for the club!" Her voice carried the tone of someone about to cry.
"Yesterday! Yesterday, the people from the Service Club rushed over because... because their Boss Yukinoshita's man... th-that Kanzaki Saku... got l-lost in our territory! They came to find him!"
Harboring a fluke of hope, she blurted out the cover story she had prepared with Kotegawa Yui last night to deal with internal inquiries, attempting to bluff her way past the sharp-eyed Megumi Kato.
"It... It was me and Strategist Kotegawa! We helped! We f-found Kanzaki-san and brought him back! Really! We were just helping! We absolutely didn't do anything unnecessary! Then... then the Service Club saw he was fine, and we persuaded them to retreat! That's exactly how it happened! It's the absolute truth!"
After speaking, Kushida lowered her head and squeezed her eyes shut tightly, awaiting the Boss's judgment. Would she believe her? Or expose her?
Megumi Kato was stunned for a moment by Kushida's sudden sliding kneel.
So that Yukinoshita's man got lost in our territory yesterday? I thought that bunch from the Service Club were just pure battle maniacs.
Fortunately, Kikyou and Kotegawa found the man and used that to persuade the murderous Service Club to retreat. Otherwise, the consequences would have been unimaginable.
Megumi Kato's lingering fear was alleviated slightly. It turned out it wasn't an unprovoked sneak attack, but a conflict nearly triggered by a misunderstanding, and her subordinates had wittily resolved it.
I knew it. Even delinquent girls need a reason to fight; there's no such thing as wanting to fight just for the sake of it.
She looked at Kushida Kikyou, who was still kneeling on the ground shivering, and actually felt a sense of admiration in her heart.
In a critical situation for the club, not only did she not abandon her companion, but she also remained calm in the face of danger, found the key figure, and defused a crisis of gang warfare between two major clubs. She is not only a loyal subject but also a talent!
Since I've decided to walk this path to the end, to play the role of this King of a Hundred Beasts well and sit firmly as the Legion Boss, then capable and loyal subordinates like Kikyou must be put in important positions!
Look, she's so nervous right now. It must be because the pressure of handling the matter yesterday was too great, and she's afraid that I, the Boss, will blame her for acting unauthorized, right? What a good subordinate!
"Kanzaki Saku... that boy, is he okay?"
"He's fine! He's perfectly fine!" Kushida guaranteed immediately, almost raising her hand to swear an oath.
"We protected him very well! We absolutely didn't hurt a single finger of his!" These two sentences were actually true, only the process and method of "protection" were a bit hard to mention.
"That's good..." Megumi Kato breathed a sigh of relief. Regardless, as long as no substantial harm was caused, the conflict might not escalate too severely.
"Kikyou, you've been following me for a while. I know that many things in the Legion rely on you core members to hold them up. Sometimes, I might not be very competent."
Kushida looked at Megumi Kato in terror. 'What does Sister Hui mean by this? Is she hinting that I don't respect her enough? That she actually knows everything and wants me to confess on my own?'
"Sister... Sister Hui, please don't say that! You are the most competent Boss! It's us who didn't do well enough! We caused you trouble!" She truly felt she had caused trouble of the highest magnitude.
However, Megumi Kato felt that the conversation between the two was a bit stiff. She had to do something to ease the atmosphere and express her trust and care.
She remembered that in the gangster movies she had watched, when the Boss personally gives things to a little sister, it represents high regard.
So, she reached out, took one of the bento boxes on the table, and prepared to open it personally to hand to Kushida Kikyou.
As she opened the lid of the bento box, she thought to herself: If we eat something together, the atmosphere should relax, right? Chatting while eating, I can ask about more details, like what exactly happened with Kanzaki Saku, and whether Yukinoshita will have any follow-up moves...
However, this action of Megumi Kato's—which was perfectly normal and even carried a hint of consolation—after being enchanted by her identity as the Terror Demon King, became the final straw that broke the camel's back in Kushida's eyes.
She watched Megumi Kato's hand reach for the bento box, the movement playing out like slow motion in Kushida's fear-dilated vision. That plain lunch box transformed into Pandora's Box at this moment, emitting an ominous aura.
'The Boss is opening the bento box!'
'What's inside?!'
'It's a knife! It's a short dagger! It's a tantō for me to commit seppuku!'
'Or is it a gun?! Is the Boss going to execute me on the spot?!'
"Don't!! Sister Hui! Spare my life!!"
Kushida Kikyou let out a shrill wail. Her body, originally kneeling, suddenly lunged forward, turning into a prostrate dogeza with all five limbs on the ground. Her voice was twisted and deformed by fear.
"I was wrong! I was really wrong! I shouldn't have lied to you! I beg you, don't kill me! Don't chop me! I'll say everything! I'll tell you whatever you want to know!"
Megumi Kato, who had just lifted the bento box lid a crack, snapped it shut again with a clack.
'Kill you? Chop you? I just wanted to hand you lunch!'
'What else could be in a bento box besides food?! Do I look like a perverted homicidal maniac who hides weapons in lunch boxes?!'
Oh, right. Megumi Kato suddenly remembered the rumor about herself "robbing lollipops from elementary school students," as well as her recent achievement of "scaring off Yukinoshita with a look."
In the hearts of her subordinates, was she perhaps really not far off from a "perverted homicidal maniac"? Or maybe even scarier?
A deep sense of powerlessness surged in Megumi Kato's heart. She just wanted to have a normal meal, ask some normal questions, and normally play the role of a delinquent group's boss! Why was it so hard!
Looking at Kushida prostrated on the ground, Megumi Kato understood that if she didn't thoroughly dispel her fear, this meal and this conversation could not continue.
She sighed and used the most direct method possible. She forcefully lifted the lid of the bento box in her hand, then turned it toward Kushida.
"Look clearly, Kikyou." Megumi Kato's voice was flat and waveless, carrying a kind of resigned exhaustion. "Inside is rice, fried chicken, tamagoyaki, and pickled radish. These should all be things you like to eat, right?"
Inside the lunch box, there was indeed a neatly arranged lunch. Although not luxurious, it was enough to arouse one's appetite, and a faint aroma wafted out.
Kushida tremblingly lifted her head slightly, looking through teary eyes at the open bento box. White rice, golden fried chicken, tender yellow tamagoyaki, pink pickled radish. The colors were bright; it was as normal as normal could be.
However, combined with Megumi Kato's temperature-less explanation, it became as if she were threatening Kushida Kikyou.
It was like saying: If you want to eat food like this in the future, confess honestly!
'A decapitation meal!'
'This is the last meal given to a prisoner before execution! The Boss telling me to look clearly is telling me that this is the last meal of my life! After eating this, I'm going to be purged!'
Kushida Kikyou's psychological defenses collapsed completely at this moment. She could no longer care about the Strategist's instructions or any unified story. The instinct to survive overwhelmed everything.
"Sister Hui! I'll speak! I'll confess everything honestly! Kanzaki Saku! Kanzaki Saku didn't get lost! It was... it was me and Strategist Kotegawa! We kid... kidnapped him!"
Megumi Kato's hand holding the bento froze in mid-air.
Kid... Kidnapped?
And it was that Yukinoshita's man?
Not lost, but kidnapped?
Megumi Kato couldn't accept it for a moment. She felt her eardrums buzzing, and Kushida Kikyou's tear-streaked face in her vision became somewhat blurry and distorted.
This wasn't just to the degree of "nearly triggering a misunderstanding"! This was active provocation! It was a declaration of war! It was offending the Service Club, no, offending that Yukinoshita to the death!
Yesterday, the Service Club coming to the door with murderous intent wasn't a misunderstanding at all; it was genuine retaliation! They came to snatch back their person and seek revenge!
And Kushida and Kotegawa actually really kidnapped someone?! And succeeded?! No, the point is, how did they dare?!
Megumi Kato was just praising Kushida in her heart for being capable. Now she realized she wasn't just capable; she was too capable! How could she be this capable!
She could already see the scene of Yukinoshita Yukino's cold face leading a mass of Service Club members to raze the Kato Legion base to the ground.
Subconsciously, Megumi Kato performed a common action for humans under extreme shock and pressure. She attempted to seek a trivial bit of stability through a familiar behavior.
She pulled out her chopsticks, preparing to take a bite of rice first. Since things had come to this, let's eat first.
However—
"Eek—!!!"
Kushida Kikyou let out another voice-cracking scream. Her body shrank backward, her back slamming into the cabinet behind her with a thud, rattling the cabinet doors.
She hugged her head tightly with both hands, staring in utter terror at the two plain chopsticks in Megumi Kato's hand.
"Chop... Chopsticks! Sister Hui! Spare me! Don't use chopsticks! Poking the eyes is too painful! Just give me a quick death! Or... or seppuku is fine too! I beg you, don't use chopsticks! That's too cruel!!"
She was incoherent, obviously completely scared witless by the "One Hundred Ways to Kill by Megumi Kato" she had concocted in her brain.
Megumi Kato: "..."
She looked down at the innocent disposable chopsticks in her hand. Then she looked up at Kushida Kikyou, who was huddled in the corner shaking like a sieve, acting as if what she held were two red-hot pokers.
In Kushida's perception, completely distorted by fear, those two ordinary chopsticks had become the world's most terrifying murder weapon.
The Boss must be mad with rage! Angry that we acted unauthorized, angry that we poked a hole in the sky, angry that we... angry that we kept it from her!
Now that she has both the witness and the evidence, the crime is aggravated. She can't even be bothered to let me eat the execution meal; she wants to execute me directly—
"Ahhh, don't! Sister Hui, spare me! Chopsticks! Put down the chopsticks! I beg you! I'll say everything! I'll really say everything! I won't hold back a single word!"
"No... I..." Megumi Kato was stunned again by her violent reaction toward the chopsticks. She didn't know whether to retract the chopsticks or put them down.
"It was the Strategist! It was Strategist Kotegawa's idea! She said... she said that since you, Sister Hui, have always been single, you must be lonely too! That Kanzaki Saku is so good-looking, and he's Yukinoshita's man, so you would definitely like that kind!"
Megumi Kato: "???"
"She said that kind of taken man, especially one Yukinoshita has her eyes on, definitely has a unique flavor! Snatch him over to be the mistress of the fortress... ah, no, to be... to be the brother-in-law... that's not right either!" Kushida was already incoherent.
Megumi Kato's hand holding the chopsticks began to tremble slightly. Not from fear, but from anger!
What is all this nonsense? I have my eyes on Yukinoshita's man? I'm lonely? I rob other people's men?! Kotegawa Yui! What kind of ghostly things are you thinking about in your brain!
"We didn't intend to hurt him! Really! We just wanted to let you, Boss, have a taste first!" Kushida had completely lost her bearings, only wanting to spill everything she could to seek a glimmer of survival.
Snap.
The chopsticks in Megumi Kato's hand were crushed by her unconscious grip.
What exactly was her image in other people's eyes right now? A perverted homicidal maniac who executes people with chopsticks? A thirsty sex maniac who covets other people's men and sends subordinates to "test the goods" first?
Kushida continued speaking, not stopping: "The Strategist said that a man Yukinoshita has her eyes on is definitely not ordinary! Since we kidnapped him anyway, we might as well verify the goods for you, Boss. Help you, Boss, tune him up a bit. Since you, Boss, like married men anyway."
Verify the goods? Tune up? I like married men?
Megumi Kato felt that she might have already been beaten to death in the previous decisive battle, and her experiences afterward were just post-death hallucinations. Otherwise, how to explain Kushida Kikyou suddenly starting to talk in her sleep?
"We really just wanted to help you," Kushida's voice lowered. "The Strategist and I tied him up, thinking... thinking we'd test him out a little..."
"And then?" Although Megumi Kato's brain had stopped working from receiving too much absurd information, her instinct still wanted to hear the juicy gossip.
"And then..." Kushida seemed to return in her memories to that afternoon dominated by Kanzaki Saku.
"He didn't need us to test him at all! He instantly controlled both the Strategist and me! His strength was terrifyingly great! We didn't even have a chance to resist!"
Once the floodgates of Kushida's memory opened, those chaotic, shameful, terrifying scenes mixed with unspeakable sensations surged out uncontrollably.
"He interrogated us about who instigated it. We said... said it was you, Boss. He seemed to smile a bit, and then said, 'Since you are Megumi Kato's people, I must entertain you properly'..."
Megumi Kato's vision went black.
Entertain? Entertain with what? How did he entertain?
____
New Story: FGO: Building a Lostbelt from Scratch, the Winner is Canon
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