Chapter 51: The End of a Stalker
It took a long time for Ai's heart rate to slowly return to normal. She wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes and sat there dazed.
*How strange...*
*Was I always like this?*
When she had faced Ryosuke back then, she hadn't been this nervous; she could even calmly contemplate the aftermath of her own death. But facing this new attack, her mind had gone completely blank, and she had wept like a helpless little girl.
Gotanda rushed to the scene. After assessing the situation, he immediately comforted Ai: "I'm sorry I'm late. But you can rest easy now—the culprit has been restrained."
He didn't bother comforting Aqua. In his eyes, Aqua possessed a psychological fortitude even stronger than Ai's; a sudden attack wouldn't rattle him.
The two children sat on either side of Ai, clutching her arms. They held on so tightly that Ai felt a slight discomfort, but she only looked at her children tenderly and pulled them over to sit on the edge of the bed.
"Don't be afraid anymore. Mama is here. I will definitely protect you."
Aqua looked at Ai's trembling arms in silence. He had never been worried about himself, nor had he felt fear; he was simply drowning in self-reproach. After being complacent for so long, when danger struck again, he still couldn't do anything.
Ruby clung to Ai's arm and burst into a loud sob.
Aqua looked around, his brow furrowing. "Where is Hikaru Hoshino? Why hasn't he shown up yet?"
"He went back to Tokyo," Ai replied softly. "He said he had some things to handle."
*Not being by Ai's side at a time like this...* Aqua's opinion of Hikaru Hoshino dropped another point. However, considering that Rin Futamichi had been specifically left by Hikaru to protect her, he silently added the point back.
*Wait...* Aqua's eyes narrowed.
*Isn't the timing of this bodyguard's arrival a bit too convenient? She shows up in the morning, Hikaru leaves in the afternoon, and an attack happens in the evening.*
*Could he have orchestrated this?*
Aqua thought for a moment and shook his head. Hikaru Hoshino had no motive for such a thing. A self-directed play to increase Ai's affection for him? That would be redundant. Though he hated to admit it, the signs of a reconciliation were already visible; he wouldn't be surprised if they actually ended up together one day. In fact, they already acted like an old married couple, likely because of the children.
*Dammit, is my very existence nothing more than a wingman's assist?*
Regardless, Hikaru didn't seem like the mastermind. But just like before, he must have received intelligence in advance. Perhaps his trip to Tokyo was related to this.
The problem was that Hikaru never shared his advance intelligence with him.
Aqua let out a heavy sigh. *After all, I'm just a four-year-old kid. In Hikaru's eyes, I'm probably not even considered a proper helper.*
As Ai calmed her nerves, she sent a fragmented account of the events to Hikaru via Line, though by then, Hikaru had already learned the full story from Rin Futamichi.
Hikaru felt his heart skip a beat.
He never expected that within just half a day of his departure, Ai would encounter an accident. He didn't know what had gotten into Ishigami; the target was clearly supposed to be him, yet the man had suddenly pivoted to Ai. Furthermore, it was a physical, "offline" attack just like Ryosuke's—completely different from the war of public opinion they had discussed.
If something had truly happened to Ai, Hikaru would have regretted it for the rest of his life.
Rin Futamichi reported that the attacker was not Shin'ichiro Ishigami himself, but a stranger she had never seen before. This meant that even though they had caught the culprit, the crisis was far from over.
New problems were cropping up before the old ones were solved.
Gotanda was currently having a headache over how to handle the culprit. The man was likely a fan of Ai, and Ai's current situation was a secret that could never be exposed.
Hikaru shared the same view. Without evidence, Strawberry Productions could forcibly suppress the news. However, this person was likely sent by Ishigami. Since Ishigami was a voyeuristic stalker, he definitely had photos of Ai and the twins; consequently, this culprit probably had them too. Calling the police would only blow the matter out of proportion. Going through official legal channels—even for a clear-cut case of attempted murder—would take over half a month from detention to sentencing. The process was too long, involved too many variables, and once the media caught wind of it, everything would be ruined.
Hikaru felt his head throbbing. He felt like he and Ai were celebrities walking through a minefield of scandals; every step had to be taken with extreme caution to avoid triggering the public's sensitive nerves.
*Is there any way to solve this once and for all?* Hikaru wondered.
Meanwhile, while Gotanda was still undecided, Koromo Shiranui stepped forward. She thought silently for a moment, decided that one of her seniors was quite adept at handling such matters, and placed a call to Maki Shijo.
Having spent time with the crew, Frill felt she got along quite well with Ai. As an idol, Ai was truly a senior worth learning from. Her own senior, Tsubame Koyasu, was also a die-hard fan of Ai, so she didn't mind doing Ai a small favor.
"Mm-hmm." "I see." "Understood." In front of everyone, Koromo chatted with her senior for a while, then turned to Gotanda with a serious expression. "My senior says that people like this can be encased in cement and sunk into Tokyo Bay."
Everyone present: "???"
Seeing that everyone seemed confused, Koromo's beautiful eyebrows knit together. She asked a few more questions over the phone, then nodded in agreement.
"If the crime isn't worthy of death, we can also cut off his pinky finger first and send him down to a 'group' for a period of labor reform to see if there's room for repentance."
The question marks on everyone's faces only multiplied.
Why did such a delicate young girl say such terrifying things? She sounded like a Yakuza "Big Sister."
Before long, people sent by Maki Shijo arrived at the scene. A group of burly men in black suits and sunglasses wrapped the culprit up like a zongzi (sticky rice dumpling), tossed him into the trunk like a piece of cargo, and drove the van away. Aside from greeting Koromo Shiranui, they didn't say a single word.
The hotel owner shrank into a corner, not daring to speak. He decided that as soon as he got back, he would delete the day's surveillance footage and go to bed, pretending he had seen nothing at all.
In Tokyo, Hikaru Hoshino had ultimately failed to find any evidence, so he could only rush back to Miyazaki.
Early the next morning, he hurried to the hotel. Just as he was about to knock on Ai's door, it opened on its own.
Aqua, sporting heavy dark circles under his eyes, stared at him expressionlessly.
"Regarding the culprit who attacked Mama..."
"Do you have anything you want to say?"
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