I Was Blackmailed Into Accepting Bullying Using My Childhood Friend as Leverage, But When I Found Out My Friend and Bully Were Together, I Abandoned All Compassion and Swore to Take Revenge with Everything I Had - Chapter 43: Kenichi Fudo - Final Act: Abandoning My Mother's Words

Chapter 43: Kenichi Fudo – Final Act: Abandoning My Mother’s Words

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When I go to school, I’m still treated as a toy by those who enjoy bullying me. However, I have a mission, a promise I made to my mother, to protect Shizuku from these people.

“You shouldn’t make Shizuku-chan cry! You’re supposed to protect her, remember?”

These words from my mother are now my identity. In the continuation of my mother’s diary, I’ve secretly written down my feelings of gratitude towards my childhood friend, the long-held affection I’ve nurtured, and the guilt I feel for being an inadequate older brother to my stepsister. 

Maybe this is my way of protecting myself, holding onto the pieces of me that are breaking. If I don’t affirm the kindness within me by thinking of someone else, I might truly turn into a monster.

“Compassion, Kenichi! Always show compassion!”

My mother was blackmailed by those despicable people, forced to endure humiliating situations, and was left broken by drugs. Yet, she never confided in anyone and left this world without a single word of complaint or resentment, always praising me until the end.

I respect and love my mother for that. So, enduring this humiliation to protect the childhood friend I love and to keep my stepsister out of harm’s way feels like karma for the protection my mother once gave me. I must protect Shizuku… for her sake, and to keep myself together…

The daily violence I endured at school had numbed my body to the point where I hardly felt any pain anymore. The same went for the mental aspect.

The emotional damage was soothed by the fact that Shizuku always stood up for me. As long as I could feel the kindness of my childhood friend, I could endure any cruel treatment.

The only things that mattered to me were avenging my mother’s regrets and protecting my childhood friend from those scum.



…But those feelings of mine were shattered mercilessly.

My childhood friend, who was supposed to be kind and loyal, instead moaned in ugly pleasure with the scum who enjoyed bullying me… 

“S-Stop saying embarrassing things~” “Hey, Ken-chan, why don’t we eat at home?”

My memories of my mother and my feelings of gratitude were defiled by those wretches… My heart began to break.

The gentle, honest, and caring childhood friend I had been so proud of died in my heart at that moment.

Confused by dark emotions and the once bright memories of my childhood, I returned home to find my stepsister, as usual, looking down on me with contempt, treating me like trash… That might have been the final blow.

(Why was I ever grateful to and apologetic toward someone like her… It doesn’t even matter anymore…)

(I almost feel like telling her… “Your mother got herself buried in debt because she fell for a host, and then she seduced my father for his insurance money and became his second wife. Not that it matters now, since my father is obsessed with a younger woman anyway.”)

No… I don’t owe her the courtesy of telling her that…

I sorted out only the mementos of my mother and placed them in a rented storage unit. Everything else, I burned in the hills behind the house.

As I hugged my knees and watched the ashes of my ties to my childhood friend and family turn to cinders, a single tear fell from my eye… 

“You shouldn’t make Shizuku-chan cry! You’re supposed to protect her, remember?” “Compassion, Kenichi! Always show compassion!”

I had lived my life trying to be worthy of my beloved mother’s words.

“But I’m sorry, Mom. I’m leaving your words here… I don’t need family or friends anymore.”

And though my heart was broken, the clouds that had darkened it began to clear. 

The person I loved and swore to protect died in my heart. 

The sister I wanted to protect from her worthless parents died in my heart. 

With no hesitation left, I decided to make those who bullied me experience a living hell.

I used to worry about what would happen after I got my revenge, but now all that remains within me is a desire for destruction and an overwhelming urge to kill.

From that day on, the tears of my former childhood friend and my former stepsister looked like nothing but dirty, polluted water to me.

I gave up on enduring. I gave up on protecting.

I made sure to pay back, many times over, the suffering I had endured to everyone who had belittled me.

Perhaps it was just me lashing out, still unable to avenge my mother’s unresolved grievances.

But the time had come for those people to pay the debt for what they had done.

Pretending to help me while joining forces with those scum to torment me, my former childhood friend thought she was in a loving relationship with that lowlife, Iketsuki. But she was betrayed easily and turned into a plaything for a gang, leaving her unable to ever have children.

As for my former stepsister, with whom I severed ties, I laid out the truth about her worthless parents.

I entrusted her with a letter warning her of the danger to my former childhood friend.

My intention was to make her, still selfish and misguided, live with an unshakable guilt for the wrong choices she was bound to make. 

However, it seems she retained enough common sense to avoid the worst fate. As a reward for surviving my trap, I promised her financial support while she remains a student.

My foolish former father, in addition to the massive debt he incurred for my former stepmother, also had to pay alimony for his infidelity, ensuring his bankruptcy. However, declaring bankruptcy wouldn’t help with the debt he owed to the loan sharks, and with his pregnant mistress in tow, a life of extreme poverty is inevitable.

My former stepmother, whose screws were always loose, will likely squander the alimony and assets she squeezed out of my former father on her obsession with hosts, at least until the money runs out. Recently, I heard she even interviewed for a dangerous job at a milf brothel, so it seems the money she squeezed out has literally gone up in smoke (laughs).

As for Iketsuki and the gang who assaulted my former childhood friend and attacked the school, they met their match with me. After that, they were arrested and are now serving time in prison.

“I’ve arranged for Iketsuki to experience a living hell… And as for the Red Dragon gang, they’ll all rot in prison… understood?”

In a dark alley, I handed over a paper bag containing 20 million yen to a man who blended into the shadows, then walked away without looking back, returning to the bright, main street.

With this, those gang members won’t see the light of day again, and I doubt Iketsuki will survive the hellish treatment I’ve arranged for him in prison… He’ll probably end up taking his own life. This settles the score for the humiliation I suffered at their hands…

Now, all that’s left is…

[Ring, ring, ring…]

The caller ID reads Renji Kanamori.

Finally… I’ve been waiting for this call. It’s almost time, Mom.

“Hello, it’s been a while, Editor-in-Chief, Kanamori-san.”

At last, the bait I set out has been taken…

“Wow~ what a magnificent cruiser, Fudo-sensei!”

The three of us were now out in Tokyo Bay, enjoying a night cruise while admiring the glittering cityscape.

“Oh, it’s just something I impulsively bought, but I don’t have a boating license, so it’s just for show.”

I glanced over to see Kanamori in the luxurious helm, his eyes sparkling with excitement as he joyfully operated the high-end cruiser equipped with the latest technology.

“I never knew, Kanamori-san, that you had a hobby of fishing and even held a boating license.”

This was a lie. In reality, I had thoroughly investigated Kanamori and knew that this scumbag was an avid offshore fisherman who went out nearly every week. That’s why I bought this cruiser, even though I had no intention of ever using it.

“Ah, with such an amazing cruiser, it would be a waste to just leave it docked without ever taking it out!”

Kanamori responded, happily stroking the steering wheel.

“Well, if you occasionally took the helm, this boat would finally get the use it deserves.”

“R-Really? Are you sure? To let me steer such an incredible cruiser!?”

I nodded, keeping a smile plastered on my face as I watched the scumbag in his moment of joy.

“Well, well, I heard Kanamori-kun sounding excited, so I came to see what was going on. What’s this about?”

From the party room of the cruiser, an older man stepped out, holding a wine glass in one hand… This man was my final target for revenge…

An Akutayama Prize-winning author and a giant in the Japanese literary world—a truly prominent figure.

Fuyuki Minagawa…