Because Rias had bought up land from the neighborhood to make the Hyodo residence larger, the report of Kenji Hyodo being assaulted was delayed.
He woke up a day after being transported to the hospital.
Parents, friends, and teachers came to visit in a great panic.
Then the police.
While there were some who visited out of curiosity or obligation, the majority of the visitors were worried about the hospitalized Kenji.
It was undoubtedly proof that he was loved by those around him.
However────.
“GET OUT!!”
With a volume that could be heard in the hospital corridor, Kenji threw a pillow at his brother Issei, who had come to visit.
“W-What gives!?
I went out of my way to visit you!”
It was the first time they had seen Kenji so enraged, and the members of the Occult Research Club, including Issei, were bewildered.
“Out of your way!?
What kind of face do you have to brazenly come visit me!
Who do you think is responsible for me ending up like this this time!”
“W-What!
Are you saying it’s my fault!?
The ones in the wrong are the guys who used violence on you!
I’m angry at them for this incident too, you know!”
Facing his brother, who seemed to not grasp the situation at all, Kenji ground his back teeth.
Whether that man’s girlfriend was really peeked at or photographed—that was no longer a major issue.
The problem was that Issei was giving people a reason to feel it was okay to harm Issei Hyodo’s family.
There was no guarantee that someone else wouldn’t try to do the same thing in the future.
Yet, his brother’s attitude of “that’s that, this is this” finally pushed him past his limit of patience.
“It’s not just this time!
Even at school, the things you’ve done are holding my life back!”
How could he have grown into such a fool who couldn’t even realize that?
“Enough already!
How much debt are you planning to push onto me!
Someone like you!
Someone like you…!”
The dam of emotions broke and wouldn’t stop.
He screamed as if vomiting out the pus he had accumulated until now.
“I wish you would just disappear somewhere!!”
“What!?”
Issei tried to argue back.
But before he could, Akeno slapped Kenji’s cheek.
“Akeno!?”
At the sudden action, Rias grabbed and held her hand.
Kenji was also surprised to be slapped by the usually gentle Akeno.
“Don’t you think you are saying terrible things to your real brother?”
Akeno could not forgive Kenji’s verbal abuse.
Issei was a man Akeno had opened her heart to.
She couldn’t bear to hear his biological family speak ill of him so maliciously.
Above all, that sight overlapped with her own self loathing her father, and she couldn’t stand to look at it.
Rias stepped between the two who were now glaring at each other.
“It seems it would be better to visit on another day.
Everyone, let’s go home.”
“Eh?
But…”
“Just do it!”
She grabbed the hand of the protesting Issei and forced him out of the room.
This was a hospital, and she judged that proper conversation would be difficult unless they cooled down.
The other members also left their gifts and exited the room.
However, only Koneko remained.
Koneko opened her mouth, looking a bit hesitant to speak.
“…I met my sister at the vacation spot.”
“…”
Kenji listened to Koneko’s story in silence.
“…Sister tried to take me away by force, and Issei-senpai stopped her.
So, um…”
In that voice was an affection that hadn’t been there before.
Her expression was like that of a maiden in love.
“…Issei-senpai isn’t as bad an older brother as Kenji-kun thinks.”
Those words were a clear betrayal to Kenji.
“…So you’re saying I should let this incident go?
I see.
In the end, Toujou-san, you also take Brother’s side…”
A clear disappointment could be felt in his voice.
Koneko also left the room, only leaving the words, “I’ll come again.” As he made a fist, tears fell on his hand.
Traitor.
Even if he thought that, Kenji and Koneko weren’t in that deep a relationship.
It was just a sense of familiarity born from a bit of empathy.
Thinking such a thing was just taking it out on her.
He understood.
He understood.
Still, that empathy had made him truly happy.
That’s why he realized that Koneko would no longer be his ally, and tears came.
As he tasted an indescribable anger and sense of loss, the door to the private room opened.
“Hi there, nice to meet you.
Kenji Hyodo-kun?”
The person who entered was a middle-aged man in a suit with somewhat spiky silver hair.
The man approached Kenji familiarly while stroking his goatee.
“W-Who are you!?
I’m calling someone!!”
Kenji, whose alertness toward strangers had risen because of this incident, tried to press the nurse call button, but he was stopped by the man.
“This old man is on your side.
I came to deliver a slightly early Christmas present.”
“Huh!?”
While he was bewildered, the hand holding the nurse call button was pulled away, and instead, he was made to hold an earring.
“This is a magic earring that lets you see any dream you like.
Whoops!
This isn’t a religious solicitation or anything~.
I won’t charge you money for accepting it!
I promise~”
Kenji tried to return the earring to the incredibly suspicious man, but the man wouldn’t allow it.
“When you sleep wearing this, any dream is exactly as you wish!
You can have lewd dreams with that girl you’re interested in, or beat up people you don’t like as much as you want!
Since it’s in a dream, you don’t need portrait rights either!”
He wanted to return it, but his fist felt as if it were wrapped tightly in cloth and wouldn’t move.
“Well, just keep it.
It won’t be a bad thing for you~”
Having said only what he wanted to say, the silver-haired man left the room.
That night.
Even when it became bedtime, Kenji was looking at the earring he had been forcibly given.
“Even if I’m given something like this…”
He was told he wouldn’t be charged money, but he couldn’t trust it.
He was scared of what would happen if a huge bill came.
Perhaps because they had suddenly built such a mansion, he was being mistaken for someone incredibly rich.
“A dream I like, huh…”
Even as a scam, the person was so strange it was laughable.
“This…
you don’t have to pierce a hole to wear it.”
Normally he would ignore it, but because he was mentally exhausted from this incident, Kenji was in a state of mind where he wanted to cling to a suspicious occult product.
“…Just for today, it should be fine to wear it and then take it off right away.”
If nothing happened, he could just have the police take it.
With such a light feeling, Kenji put on the earring.
Just like that, he fell asleep in a matter of minutes.
The dream he saw after this was────.