RH Chapter 21

Chapter 21 – Informant and Illegal Doctor

Resonance 4, Part 2

Novel Title: 共鳴発情 オメガバース (Resonance Heat: Omegaverse)

Author：岩本薫 (Iwamoto Kaoru)

Illustrator: 蓮川愛 (Hasukawa Ai)

Translator: K (@kin0monogatari)

Protagonists: 本浄天音 (Honjou Amane) & 苅谷煌騎 (Kariya Kouki) / 首藤煌騎 (Shutou Kouki)

*Please read at Novels Space.space, the original site of translation. TQ*

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He’s unconventional, and perhaps because of that, he’s addictive. Kouki wants to know more. He wants to see more of a different side of him.

(What a strange man. Unlike anyone I’ve ever met before…)

Amane is the complete opposite of him in every way. He finds him difficult to deal with, yet he wants to know more.

He wants to see more of his other sides.

Driven by the burning desire rising from deep within, Kouki opened his mouth.

“I’m not going back. I will never leave your side.”

He declared this while staring straight into Amane’s black eyes.

“You already know how persistent I can be, don’t you? And I can be pretty useful. You won’t regret having me as your trump card when the time comes.”

At Kouki’s bold self-promotion, Amane smirked slightly.

“Don’t get cocky, kid.”

He let out a snort of laughter, then turned on his heel.

“Let’s go.”

“Where are we going?”

“Just shut up and follow me.”

It seemed like Kouki had avoided being dismissed for now. He secretly breathed a sigh of relief and followed Amane. The man entered a narrow alley without looking back, continuing forward without hesitation.

They turned several corners through the maze-like alleys, finally stopping at the entrance of a run-down, dilapidated building that looked abandoned. This seemed to be their destination.

Descending a narrow staircase into the basement, they were greeted by a dimly lit hallway illuminated by a single exposed light bulb. Metal doors lined the hallway at even intervals on the right. Amane stopped in front of the third door.

He knocked on the rusted, nameplate-less door.

About twenty seconds later, there was a clicking sound as the lock turned, and the door opened from the inside. For the first time, Amane glanced back at Kouki and said, “Wait here.” Reluctantly, Kouki replied, “Understood,” while stealing a peek over Amane’s shoulder into the room. He caught a glimpse of an old man with a white beard.

Just as Kouki tried to get a better look inside, the door was shut in his face.

(Where are we? Who was that old man?)

As Kouki paced back and forth in the hallway for about five minutes, the door finally opened again. A stern-faced Amane emerged.

Without saying a word to Kouki, he began retracing their route. Kouki hurried to catch up and asked from behind.

“Who was that elderly man?”

“A back-alley doctor.”

“A back-alley doctor…”

“He deals with illegally obtained pills. But as for last night through this morning, Shou didn’t come here. Not just last night—no young man resembling Shou has come by in the past six months. I confirmed it with a photo.”

“I see.”

For a moment, it had felt like they were onto something. But once again, they were back to square one. While disappointment set in, Kouki couldn’t help but ask a question.

“How did you find the back-alley doctor?”

“…I asked the informant.”

“The boy in black from earlier?”

“That’s right.”

It seemed Amane had obtained the information he paid for, right down to the last penny.

“So… if Shou didn’t go to the back-alley doctor, does that mean he didn’t slip out from the building to get pills?” 

Kouki collected his thoughts and tried to confirm what they knew so far.

“Who knows? There’s also the possibility he got caught up in some trouble before reaching the doctor.” 

Amane neither denied nor confirmed this as he started ascending the stairs in front of him. Exiting the building’s entrance, he began walking in the opposite direction from where they had come. Kouki considered asking where they were going. But he knew he wouldn’t get an answer. Besides, he had already declared, ‘I’m not leaving your side’, so it didn’t matter where they were headed now.

They twisted and turned through the maze of alleys so many times that Kouki had completely lost track of where they were. But Amane, walking ahead, showed no sign of hesitation.

After another ten minutes of right and left turns, they stopped in front of a five-story multi-tenant building. Although different from the previous one, it was similarly dilapidated and crumbling.

They climbed a graffiti-covered staircase to the second floor, where an open door appeared before them.

The entrance was covered with a plastic sheet. From the gap between the sheets, the loud mix of fast-paced music and high-pitched laughter could be heard. It seemed to be a bar or something similar.

Amane lifted the plastic sheet with one hand and stepped inside. Kouki followed closely behind.

The interior of the bar was much more spacious than Kouki had imagined from the narrow entrance. It was dimly lit. But neon lights and spotlights scattered around the room provided just enough brightness to make out the faces of the patrons. To the right was a bar counter, to the left were three sofa booths, and five standing tables filled the centre.

At the back were two pool tables, surrounded by several men engrossed in their games. The bar was about seventy percent full, with couples making out on the sofas, young people watching a soccer match on TV with beers in hand, and a group getting excited over a card game. Overall, the crowd seemed to be on the younger side.

Kouki was surprised to find such a lively bar on the second floor of a nearly abandoned building. Amane, however, showed no sign of paying attention to his surroundings, heading straight toward the pool area at the back.

Kouki followed him into the pool space. But suddenly, a strong hand grabbed his upper arm from behind.

“Hey, I don’t recognize your face.”

Kouki turned around to see a bald, muscular man with thick neck and arms like tree trunks. The man was so tall that even Kouki, at 188 centimetres, had to look up at him. His dark skin was covered in tattoos visible under his tank top, and his sharp eyes scrutinised Kouki from head to toe before spitting out a “Tch.”

“What’s with the outfit? A suit, huh?”

The muscle-bound man raised his hairless eyebrows and grabbed Kouki’s tie, yanking it hard and causing Kouki’s upper body to tilt forward.

“Did you wander in here by mistake? This isn’t a place for a kid like you.”

The man reeked of alcohol as he breathed heavily into Kouki’s ear, shaking him back and forth. Kouki wanted to shove him off and say, ‘Don’t touch me with your filthy hands’, but he didn’t want to cause a scene. Without knowing Amane’s true aim for coming to this place, he couldn’t afford to make any reckless moves.

While Kouki gritted his teeth and endured the situation, the man took advantage of his lack of resistance. He tugged harder on his tie until it began to choke him.

“…Ugh.”

Kouki’s patience had reached its limit. Just as he was about to knee the man in his protruding gut, a voice came from behind.

“Hey, let him go. He’s with me.”

It was Amane. The muscular man turned his fierce gaze toward the voice.

“Shut up. Don’t order me around, shorty.”

“What did you just call me?”

Amane’s voice was dangerously low as he stepped closer, his eyes fixed and unwavering.

“Oh, now that I look closer, you’re quite the beauty. How about I take you to the back room and show you a good time, huh, missy?”

The added insult only fueled Amane’s burning rage.

“Who the hell are you calling ‘missy,’ you bald idiot?”

“Did you just call me bald?”

“I’ll say it as many times as I need to. Bald. Pig gorilla. All those muscles for nothing.”

“You… you little…- you’re pushing your luck!”

The muscular man let out a growl and released his grip. Kouki, suddenly freed, clutched his aching throat and struggled to speak, “Stay calm.”

“Starting a scene… would be bad.”

But Amane, with murderous intent in his eyes, kept glaring at the man without even glancing at Kouki. It seemed his words had fallen on deaf ears.

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*Translator’s Note: Now, Honjou-san might be smol… But he’s really fierce, ya’know… -K

Next update: 2024.12.09

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