Master of the Machete Style Manga

Chapter 16 I support you!

Natsume Mio quickly followed Sakamoto Ken out.

Ken Sakamoto walked along a dimly lit residential alley with his hands in his pockets.

Although he didn't look back the whole way, he kept a close ear to the sounds behind him.

Judging from the footsteps, Natsume Mio was about three meters away from him.

She tried several times to quicken her pace to catch up, but after only a few steps, she resumed her previous pace and maintained the same distance.

Ken Sakamoto knew his strategy had succeeded.

Maintain a proper psychological distance from her, so as not to rush into an intimate relationship, but still to keep her thinking about you.

This is the safest state.

This is the hard-earned experience that Sakamoto Ken summarized after experiencing the "hack-and-splitter" ending in the last playthrough.

Finally, upon reaching the street corner, Ken Sakamoto stopped and turned around.

Mio Natsume stopped immediately and, in the dim light of the streetlamp, stared at Ken Sakamoto.

"Do you see what's in here?" Ken Sakamoto pointed to the fence by the roadside.

Natsume Mio turned her head to look and said, "A cemetery?"

Ken Sakamoto nodded, then pointed to the house covered in rusty iron sheets in front of him.

“That house is where I live,” Kenjiro Sakamoto said.

Natsume Mio quietly looked at the old apartment building under the night sky.

The exterior walls, weathered and rusty, had lights on in a few rooms, and beyond that lay a grove of trees belonging to the cemetery, which looked particularly eerie under the night sky.

She actually knew where Ah Jian lived.

When she came here last time based on the memories in her dream, she happened to run into Ken Sakamoto. She was a little surprised at the time. She only knew that his family was not well-off, but she did not expect that he actually lived in such a dilapidated apartment.

But I was too busy following the trail to think about it further.

Natsume Mio shifted her gaze to Sakamoto Ken, lost in thought.

Just now, when Sakamoto Ken told the store manager that he needed to take a short leave, she was actually a little secretly pleased, thinking that Ken was going to tell her something important, like... confessing his feelings.

Little did she know that Ah Jian had brought her to his place to see it.

But what was his purpose?
At this point, Ken Sakamoto continued walking towards the old apartment building, talking as he went.

“My parents left me with a large debt after they passed away, and I am still asking public interest lawyers to help me with the lawsuit.”

"Shortly after that, I moved here by myself."

"If it weren't for the store manager's grandma, I wouldn't even have been able to get food back then."

"Ken...it's really tough for him," Natsume Mio whispered.

Ken Sakamoto continued, talking to himself, "Natsume-san, actually, I used to like you."

"Huh?" Natsume Mio paused, then quickly sped up to catch up.

Just as she was trying to walk to Ken Sakamoto's side, Ken Sakamoto continued, "You are the prettiest girl in the class."

She took a few steps forward, ahead of Ken Sakamoto, and turned back to him, saying, "Then... Ken, why didn't you tell me back then?"

“Because that kind of liking is a very vulgar kind of liking,” Kenjiro Sakamoto said.

"How could that be! Why would liking someone be considered vulgar?" Natsume Mio exclaimed anxiously.

"I simply like your body." Sakamoto Ken stopped and looked the girl up and down.

Is this... vulgar?

Natsume Mio's emotions were immediately disrupted again. "Besides, I don't think I have enough qualifications." Sakamoto Ken stepped aside to avoid Natsume Mio, who was standing in front of him.

He took out his key from his pocket, inserted it into the lock of the apartment building's main door, and opened it.

"You see, this is the kind of apartment only the poorest people live in. There isn't even a private bathroom in the room, and sometimes in winter you have to brave the snow to go to the public toilet," Sakamoto Ken said to himself.

“I don’t mind…” Natsume Mio said softly.

She knew the apartment's conditions perfectly well. In that remarkably vivid dream, although other things were a bit blurry, she remembered the days she spent living there with Ah Jian very clearly.

The public toilets here are squat toilets. On winter nights, after using the toilet, your whole buttocks will be so cold that you can't feel them.

Then...then Ah Jian would let her sit on his lap, and that would warm her up quickly...

Natsume Mio pouted, feeling that her dream was utterly delusional, filled with strange and inappropriate thoughts about Ken.

"Come in," Sakamoto Ken said to Natsume Mio as he stepped into the apartment.

"Huh?" Natsume Mio didn't expect Sakamoto Ken to invite her in.

Without hesitation, the girl stepped into the apartment.

Looking around, sure enough, everything was just as I remembered...

Ken Sakamoto led the way to his room and unlocked it with a key.

Ken Sakamoto touched the wall and turned on the light in the room.

“This is the kind of room I can live in by myself, but let alone one more person, even one more cat wouldn’t be enough.” Sakamoto Ken pointed to the wall by the door and said, “Look, it’s all moldy here, and several of the tatami mats inside are broken.”

Sakamoto Ken stood at the door, not inviting Natsume Mio in. He shrugged and said, "Now you know, with my looks and qualifications, I have no interest in dating."

As they were talking, a heavy breathing sound came from next door, followed by the creaking of the wooden floorboards. A woman's heavy breathing grew louder and louder, eventually turning into soft moans.

Ken Sakamoto silently walked out of his house, closed the door again, and took out his phone to check the time.

“You heard all the noise around you. That’s how bad my living conditions are.” Ken Sakamoto walked toward the stairwell. “I should go back to the shop. You should hurry home so you don’t miss the train.”

Mio Natsume was still standing blankly at the door of Ken Sakamoto's room; he could no longer be seen in the hallway.

The sounds coming from the next room were particularly clear, making her blush.

There were no lights in the stairwell; the only light came from the faint glow of a distant streetlamp.

After Ken Sakamoto left, I felt that the darkness around me had deepened.

Natsume Mio hurriedly went downstairs and ran out of the dilapidated apartment building.

"Ken! Ken!" Natsume Mio ran up to Sakamoto Ken, panting. "I understand what you mean, Ken! But I don't want you to give me any gifts, we just... let's talk..."

"Nothing to talk about, I need to make money," Sakamoto Ken said as he walked. "Otherwise, you'll support me?"

“Okay, I’ll take care of you!” Natsume Mio blurted out.

Ken Sakamoto: "..."

No, you want to take care of me too?

Ken Sakamoto shook his head and said, "I'm not the kind of man who lives off a woman."

"Is...is that so?" Natsume Mio asked instinctively in a questioning tone.

The scene flashed through her mind: Ken Sakamoto getting into a wealthy woman's Porsche...

Ken Sakamoto walked into the store without looking back, giving Mio Natsume a very firm answer.

"Of course, I would never be a kept man."

This time, definitely.

(End of this chapter)