Surviving a Shounen Manga - Chapter 20

[Mafia’s Secret Room]

This special ability contained in the background of ‘The Fallen No. 2 of Red Scorpion’ was not as useless as I’d initially thought.

It was a simple and straightforward ability.

From the moment [Mafia’s Secret Room] is activated, the space you are in becomes ‘isolated’ from the consciousness of those outside.

Of course, it’s not a concept of the space itself being separated.

The room itself remains where it is. However, people outside can’t sense it at all.

Similar to the ability used by the goblins when they play hide and seek, rather than actively cancelling noise or distorting vision, it’s a method of erasing your presence itself.

This type of stealth can never be pierced, unless you have a good guide at your side.

And this meant that even if I made a big fuss inside, those outside would not sense it all.

I slowly savoured the surprise on the face of the Skeleton boss.

“… What, what’s happening?”

“Why do you keep asking that? If you don’t want to get beat up, just make the call. So I can gobble up the Red Scorpion.”

“No, you, right now……”

“And Skeleton too, of course.”

“…?”

He still looked nonplussed.

He was really quite slow in judging the situation.

Therefore, I decided to explain in a more straightforward manner.

“Actually, I didn’t like it much.”

“What?”

“Why do I have to be the little brother?”

“… Eh?”

“I just don’t like it.”

He didn’t look young whichever way you sliced it.

There was no denying it. I was the younger brother. By position, as well as by appearance.

I didn’t know what the original set-up had been, but at least that’s how it looked right now.

What need is there for some justifiable reason when you fight or argue? Anything goes.

“This… So, you thought you could afford to do something like this?”

Perhaps the boss finally managed to take stock of his predicament, so he lowered his voice.

“Well, yeah.”

“Did you take leave of your senses after getting kicked out of the organization and running away? Where do you think this is? You should already know.”

The boss took a cigar out of his pocket and lit it calmly. He looked pretty gutsy.

Well, the guy was finally looking fit to be the head of a giant mafia organization. At least he wasn’t as much of a pig as his appearance suggested.

But I still didn’t think that there would be any problem in subduing this guy.

This was not just arrogance speaking.

Last time in Big City I went out for wool and almost came home shorn, but that had been because of an unexpected monster. The situation here and now was different.

The mafia here were ones who appeared in the work, and promptly showed off their weakness by being beaten by Leo. How much different could their boss be?

Besides, the current me was already someone given a ‘class’ by being listed as an ‘official character’. The original characteristic, ‘a little strong’, had also strengthened noticeably. Maybe it would change to ‘strong’ very soon?

Anyway,

“Aha, so you wanna try me?”

It was enough to sort out these extra types in one second.

I rushed towards him in that instant.

“Who!”

Then I slapped him in the face.

“Told you to sit, you pig!”  

“Uh, hey!”

He tumbled onto the floor in a mess.

Of course, I had no intention of stopping with just that.

Sitting on top of his fallen form,

“Who!”

Thwack.

“A, aaaah!”

“Told you to smoke!”

Thwack.

“Aaaaahhhhhh…”

“In a shounen manga!”

Thwack.

“St-, stop…”

“Are you ordering me around!”

Thwack.

“Aaaaa…”

“You extra!”

Thwack.

I kept beating him.

After a while,

“Sp-, spare me…⁃.”

The boss begged with a feeble voice like he was on death’s door.

Of course, I had no intention of continuing. Because if this guy fainted, that would just waste time and possibly invite trouble.

But this wasn’t the end of it. Because the most important part still remained.

I grabbed his right hand and brought it up close.

There on his finger, a bright crimson ring was shining with an ominous light.

I immediately tugged on the ring.

Then,

“Hey, you can’t! You can’t do this!”

The guy started desperately screaming again.

“Oho? I can’t? I must’ve been too gentle with you, your mouth is still loose.”

The reason this guy rebelled like he wanted to die, was simple. Because this ring was one of the ‘Seven Rings’.

Right now, there must have been a command engraved in his head to keep the ring even if he died. Because that was the first goal of the behind-the-scenes puppeteer.

But,

“Ugh, look at how fat your fingers are, I just can’t pull it out.”

“Oh, no! My, damn it… Damn it!”

“Don’t act up, just stay still.”

My goal was something different.

I tugged on the ring as hard as I could, holding the guy pinned between my legs.

And then,

Pop –.

It came off. 

After that,

“Oh, no, no… no! You can’t… huh?”

The boss’ behaviour changed.

He abruptly stopped talking, and began to rub his eyes. Drool was dripping from his mouth.

Cognitive dissonance.

What happens when one of the ‘Seven Rings’ is forcibly stolen from its host.

And after a while,

“Huh? Where…”

“Hey, you’re finally awake.”

He regained his sanity, and became engulfed in an intense hatred.

“I’m going to kill that damn bastard…”

I was not the one his hatred was directed at. Rather, it was the owner of the ring that had been controlling him for so long.

This was the limit of the unique ability called [Seven Rings to Bind Them], that a host who escaped from the ring’s mental control became filled with irrational hate against the Lord of the Seven Rings. Hatred without any regard for their current circumstances.

Even if someone was sitting on top of them and was crushing their right hand.

“Hey, hey. Pay attention, please.”

“… Huh?”

It was then that he became aware of me.

The funny thing was, that irrational anger didn’t mean this guy suddenly forgot what’d happened just now.

As anger towards the Lord of the Rings gradually subsided, anger towards me would begin to bloom, and his mind was probably a red haze at the moment.

“Brother! I’ve come to my senses, let me up!”

“Huh?”

“Put my arm down!”

“… Ah.”

He seemed to be thinking that all my antics so far were to take the ring off.

I tapped the guy’s forehead.

“Aak!”

“Okay, so do you hate him?”

“What, what?”

“The guy who put that ring on you. Don’t you hate him?”

Question marks seemed to appear in the two round eyes of his.

“Yeah, that’s right, but…”

“Well, I’ll take care of him. Where is he now?”

“… You?”

“Right. Did you ever go see him? Just tell me where.”

This was the reason why I had to sneak in here. To find out the whereabouts of the ‘Seven Rings’.

In the first place, the Skeleton wasn’t much to speak of. What difference could a single mafia organization make? No matter how big, it would still pale in comparison with the entire Mafia Coalition. If you’re going to, you should bag the big boss.

Also, just a few hits were nowhere near enough to turn a mafia boss like this guy into a subordinate. In this manga, guys like these who live in the dark are all evil and insidious, so you can’t get their obedience that easily. Maybe they’ll pretend to obey in front of you, all the while planning to stab you in the back.

So, I made a really simple plan to swallow the Coalition whole.

Let’s catch the ‘Seven Rings’ first. Then the Coalition will naturally follow.

Apologies to the author who suggested the ‘Seven Rings’ backstory to me, but thinking about it, I don’t really need to play that role. I just need to make him my subordinate.

“Do you know where he is now?”

“Ah, I know, but do you really want to go alone… that guy has something to do with the Black Shadow…”

“Yeah, just tell me where. Leave him to me.”

“There’s a small underground shopping mall at the end of the 2nd Avenue. Ah, but I can’t say for sure if he’ll still be there. It’s been a while since I’d last seen him.”  

“…”

I knew it.

There was one more reason why I had to take a risk and meet alone with this guy. In fact, there was one fatal problem with my plan.

That is, ‘Seven Rings’ might not exist in this world right now.

To be honest, I still couldn’t be sure. It’d only been about an hour since I chose this ‘Fallen No. 2 of the Red Scorpion’ as my background. Meaning that until then, it only existed as a setting.

So, I decided to directly grab one of the seven rings he’d scattered. So as to trigger his character to be incarnated. Once I confirmed the ability with my own eyes, its owner’s existence should be enforced by ‘plausibility’.

Finally, I put down the boss’s right hand which I had been clutching tightly. It looked blue because of how tight my grip had unconsciously gotten.

“Ugh…”

“I’ll come back soon. Don’t even think about making a fuss, just stay here quietly for now. Otherwise, you’ll get another massage.”

The boss nodded slowly, a frightened expression on his face.

“That, but how long…?”

“Think it over. As long as you aren’t afraid of what happens afterwards, you can leave any time.”

“…”

Cancelling the special ability, I rushed out like the wind.

I carefully scrutinized the man who was staring out the window.

Neatly combed hair, gold-rimmed glasses, and a buttoned-up shirt. A weak impression overall.

“That’s right.”

He was the ‘Seven Rings’ I’d seen in the manga.

I remembered being quite surprised seeing that face for the first time. He didn’t look like the final boss of the Mafia Coalition at all. The me at the time didn’t understand that such a neat appearance was also a cliché.

Looking back now, he really did look like a villain. An incredibly sinister and vicious one.

I smashed the window glass and went in through.

“Hello, Black Curtain?”

“…?”

He looked at me blankly, as if asking who I was.

The expression just looked cute on that gloomy face.

“What are you staring at, you bastard.”

I slapped him on the cheek.

Crash –.

The guy just flew away.

He didn’t even get the chance to scream, fainting instantly.

As expected, in reality, his physique was set to be extremely weak.

I walked towards the guy lying unconscious on the floor.

“Let’s see…”

Controlling this guy was simple.

You just had to reverse the process.

This had been showed by Kiriko in the manga, to great effect. In just one scene, this guy became a cute little follower hanging on to Kiriko’s every word.

This absurdly fragile and cowardly character setting was probably to show off the gap[2], and from that point on, Kiriko’s popularity skyrocketed. Because his spirited yet indifferent demeanour made a very lasting impression on the readers.

Besides, I’d prepared something extra.

[Give me the money! Intimidation Potion]

I’d never actually seen this ability used anywhere, but I was drawn to it while looking around the special potion shop to see if I could find anything good.

I had no idea how well it’d work normally, but for a cowardly guy like this, I thought the effect should be quite good.

‘I wonder if I’ll have to wake him up three or four times as he’ll keep passing out?’

After swallowing the potion, it was time to wake him up.

“I did think It was strange that I couldn’t contact him…”

A voice came from behind me.

I felt all the hairs on the nape of my neck rise up in alarm.   

It was a familiar voice, and a familiar situation.

I turned around slowly, and he was right there.

Haka.

“You are the one who surprised me so many times.”

“…”

“You, who are you? You don’t seem to be some simple thief. I won’t let you go today unless I get an answer.”

I looked at him quietly, trying to calm my pounding heart.

I was surprised. I was really surprised, but not as much as back then. In fact, I’d been expecting to meet this guy sometime soon. Because Haka had first appeared to Leo and the others in Chapter 9 of the original manga.

Of course, I never expected this kind of timing.

“Hoo…”

I took a couple of deep breaths.

No, this was good. That we had some alone time with just the two of us so early. Since I’d been thinking of contacting him anyway.

“I can’t just tell you who I am. That’s not a fair transaction.”

“Hey, you want me to tell you who I am? Funny, is that something a weak chicken like you can ask for…”

“What are you saying? I said it wasn’t fair because I already know who you are. Mr. Haka, a member of the Black Shadow Secret Service, and an ardent admirer of the goblins.”

“…”

As I kept speaking, his eyes just got bigger and bigger.

Those dynamic changes in expression almost made me unconsciously chuckle.

“But if you join hands with me and help me with my goal, maybe I can give you some hints about who I am?”

“Ah, I can just torture you and find out!”

Haka shouted as if frenzied. A rather violent reaction that didn’t fit him at all.

Are you that surprised? But there’s more to come.

“If you like. Just remember, if you do, the organization behind me will immediately attack the ‘Windrider Gang’[3].”

“…”

The Windrider Gang was another secret organization that Haka was a member of. Actually, I didn’t know much about it either. There was never any clear explanation. It was just one of the organizations that he’d talked about in the manga while passing by.

In other words, I was just bluffing.

But,

“I, uh, how do you know… Wh-, what do you want!?”

Nevertheless, the effect was significant.

Wait a moment. Could it be that ‘intimidation’ was working on this guy as well?

An unexpected stroke of luck. Things might go easier than I’d thought.

“It’s just that… we want something from each other, so let’s take our relationship seriously. How about forming a temporary alliance?”

“Uh, temporary alliance?”

I smiled at his bewilderment.

“Hey, you there.”

It was already the second time he’d heard the voice.

But Chinuavi still pretended ignorance.

It couldn’t be him who was being called.

Right now, he had no intention of revealing himself to anyone. And because of that, the humans here couldn’t possibly discover his existence.

But,

“Hey! Are you deaf?”

What?

“…”

Chinuavi finally couldn’t contain his curiosity and looked back.

And then,

“Whew, look at all this expensive stuff. It’s hard to even see your face.”

He could see a little girl staring straight at him.

“That’s really my style. Oppa[4], want to get some coffee?”

Editor’s Notes:

[2] Raw talks about it as a 반전효과를 (reversal/twist), but the concept is probably better expressed via the term ‘gap moe’ (fictional characters doing something completely contradictory to what their usual habits/personality/appearance dictates – making the reader exclaim, ‘how cute’). Although, the ‘moe’ part is probably not appropriate since we’re talking about a crime boss.