The Disappearance of Osomatsu-san

Chapter 55: The Ugly Truth

Night had arrived sooner than everyone thought. The day went on as normal, with Fuyu and Yuki doing basic paperwork instead of doing what they usually did because of Jyushi's absence, and Hana and Hatabou both had to deal with half of Ichi's workload due to their president's apparent business with the other three clones. Homura was still getting used to being the boss of one department, and though she stuttered every single time, she had done her best to assure Ichi that she was indeed worthy of this position.

As for clients, it was a rather slow day, so they didn't really sell much information for the day. Either that, or Ichi had ordered all employees to reject every customer for the day in favor of saving Jyushi first and planning things out with Lonely. Still, Ichi just let his workers do their jobs as well as their paperwork, while Osomatsu had stayed in his office the entire day with Kara and Todo. Surprisingly, the eldest Matsuno hadn't uttered a single word after the video call. While he did let Todo pry the phone off his hands and let Kara spoon-feed him a bowl of porridge as his lunch, he didn't say anything. He just blankly stared at a wall.

It was only an hour before Lonely would arrive, and like last night, Ichi had his employees set up candles at the top of the hotel to call for the masked man. Kara had decided to help them out, so it was only Ichi, Osomatsu, and Todo who had remained at the office of Flag Corporation. Kara had Todo promise that he wouldn't start a fight with Ichi if something were to happen, though Todo assured him that he'd behave. Ichi knew that Todo's eyes hid a thousand lies, but he didn't know if the promise he made to Kara was one of them. Still, Todo hadn't tried anything funny with Ichi. He just held Osomatsu's rather cold hand as he worriedly watched his older brother stare blankly into a wall.

"Osomatsu-niisan. Snap out of it. Lonely's gonna come here in an hour, and didn't you say he was the alternate version of the brother closest to you? C'mon. Stop staring into nothing. It's your chance to tell Lonely what's going on. And maybe he'll tell us the name of his enemy too." It was already embarrassing enough for Todo to show that he actually cared for Osomatsu's well-being, especially in front of someone like Ichi. But for now, he would have to set his pride aside for Osomatsu's sake, his poor older brother (who was younger than him in this dimension) whose thoughts had been occupied by nothing but concern for his younger brothers.

However, Osomatsu blinked, and the shine in his eyes came back once again. As expected, his eyes suddenly spilled tears, though he was trying his best not to let out a sob. "Todo.. I.. I'm trying my best, aren't I..? I.. I did my best to make sure I was a good older brother. But I can't.." His fists were clenching now. "I can't even remember how I got here.. and now.. you saw what happened. You two heard what happened." He stood up from the sofa, and it looked like Osomatsu was angry now. "Whoever got me here in the first place.. didn't they think of what could happen to my little brothers?! How they could have suffered in the absence of their eldest brother?! Whoever that bastard is, I'm gonna pummel him to the ground-"

"Can you at least calm down a bit? You're in my office, and you even had Katsuna break my door earlier. You're lucky I still haven't kicked you out yet." Ichi spoke up from his desk, surprisingly calm. Even Todo looked a bit panicked at Osomatsu's current angry state. "I understand the worry you may have for Jyushimatsu, but I can tell you being angry's not going to do a thing."

Osomatsu couldn't think properly with his rage clouding his mind. "What do you know about this. You only tried to kill me and Todo." He growled, his eyes darkening.

Ooh, snap.

Even though Todo himself hated Ichi for attempting to murder him twice and would have agreed with Osomatsu any day, he still decided to defend him. All because Osomatsu was blinded by his own anger, and Todo had to admit, he was being irrational.