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Chapter 165x Part 2

As they had work the next day, the three of them, feeling sufficiently tipsy, left the izakaya at 9pm, made their way to the station while talking about meaningless things, exchanged parting words and then split into two groups.

Her two friends were taking the JR line. While she alone was taking the subway.

It took 30 minutes to get to the nearest station, and from there it was a 12-13 minute walk to the apartment where she lived with her mother.

They teased her a lot, but it was a fun time with friends she had continued to keep in touch with even after graduating.

The little bit of fun that came a few times a year had come to an end.

Once she preserved through her work tomorrow, the biggest event of her life would await her the next day!

So she believed, without any shred of doubt, until she somehow managed to get off at the nearest station without falling asleep, pass through the ticket gate and start walking home.

◇ ◇ ◇

What on earth is that?

It was around five minutes after she started walking that she wondered as such.

It was after she entered a quiet residential area.

Multiple footsteps she had been hearing from behind her since a while ago.

She had turned three corners and had long since stopped seeing people walking in front of her, but she could still hear the same footsteps from behind her.

As soon as she turned the second and third corner, she looked back and caught sight of around three figures in the darkness of the night.

Why were they following her?

Robbery? Kidnapping?

There should be no point in targeting a woman in her twenties with little earning power like her.

Finding it incomprehensible and creepy, she naturally started walking faster, but the footsteps behind her also followed her at the same speed.

「No!」

When she looked back and saw several figures silently following her, she, spurred by fears, reflexively broke into a run.

「Look, she’s running.」

「Oi, wait!」

The voices she finally heard were relatively young.

Either way, it seemed there was no mistake that she was being targeted.

If she were to get caught, what would become of her?

Getting brutally killed?!

Even though the greatest lucky chance of her life was awaiting her the day after tomorrow!

At this exact moment, her train of thoughts ended up running in the extreme direction.

This place was her home area.

If she had thought about it calmly, she should have headed for the convenience store she often stopped by, or a large street where there was traffic even at night.

However, falling into panic, she continued to run thoughtlessly through the complicated residential area.

As such, we went back to the beginning, and around 10 minutes had probably passed since this speedy game of tag began.

When she arrived at a T-junction, she saw black shadows looming over her from a high position in front of her and almost screamed, but she quickly remembered.

It was off her usual path, but it was a large park located around 7-8 minutes’ walk from her apartment building.

The tall shadows were the trees planted in the park.

About half of the long park grounds was elevated like a bank, and dozens of cherry trees were planted there.

As such, in the season when the trees were in full bloom, it made for a magnificent sight, and every year this place was crowded with cherry blossom viewers.

Realizing that the entrance to the park was right in front of her, she went in without hesitation.

Perhaps encouraged by the fact that it was a familiar place, even the low lightning and the spreading darkness didn’t scare her. And she decided that she had no choice but to shake off her pursuers here.

「Damn it! Where did she run off to?」

「Even though we had her cornered until just a moment ago, to think we’d to lose sight of her.」

「F, find her!」

After getting into the park, she desperately ran and hid in the shadow of a long slide placed along the slope of the bank, and her plan seemed to have succeeded.

Her pursuers – judging from the shadows, as expected, there were three of them – were frustrated at losing sight of her, and each of them seemed to have decided to search in different directions.

There, she decided to slowly climb up the slope.

She intended to climb over the bank, go down the slope on the other side and leave the park.

Having long since sobered up, it looked like her action, powered by her rare quick wittedness, would work.

However, it was dark and she couldn’t see the ground, so she ended up stepping on a twig halfway down the slope.

The cracking sound echoed expectedly loud in the quiet park.

Not good!

「There she is!」

「Over there?!」

「You damn female! Hold it right there!」

It seemed that one of the pursuers was right next to the slide.

She immediately ran up the slope and chased after her.

Eeeeeek! I, I’m going to get killed!

She somehow managed to crawl up to the top of the bank and started running down the path, but when she saw another pursuer running up the stairs ahead of her, she was overcome with fear.

These guys must be the female hunters that had been making waves recently.

Jealousy and envy tended to be stronger between people of the same sex than between people of the opposite sex.

A case where women who had lived a life without any luck with men of their own age took issue with women who had just parted ways with men after going on a date, or women who boastfully talked about getting into a relationship or having sex with men, and used violence against them happened to be highlighted on a TV news program and attracted attention.

From the fact that they attacked females who became the mates of a male, no one knew who came up with it, but they ended up getting called the ‘’female hunters’’.

The attackers could be of any age, but generally speaking, there were many cases where middle-aged or older women who had had no luck with men targeted young, beautiful women.

However, right now, judging from the physical abilities of the people attacking her, they appeared to be young women.

At this rate, she would be caught in a pincer attack.

Judging as such in an instant, she gave up running down the path ahead and decided to go down the steep slope on the opposite side of the slope she had climbed up.

S, scary!

It would be one thing if it was daytime, but it took courage to go down a steep slope in the dark, where your footing was not clear.

「Hold it right there, you bastard!」

I have to run away!

The threatening voice coming from right behind her gave her the push she needed.

She ran down the concrete-covered slope.

Her pursuers were perplexed by her drastic action, but one of them, who was well prepared, brought out a flashlight, found out that there was a staircase on the side and was about to get down from there.

Thanks to her mustering up all her courage, she was going to be the first to get to the fence that separated the inside and outside of the park.

However, because she had gained too much momentum and because her sense of distance was off due to the darkness, she was unable to stop in front of the fence, which was about as high as her waist, and ended up smashing her stomach hard against it.

「Gueh!」

Along with the crash, she let out a cry like a frog being run over, rolled out of the park by rolling over the iron bar, and then rolled down the road as she was.

It was probably what they meant by 「bad things come in twos」.

It just so happened that a taxi, which had just left after dropping off a customer at a nearby house, was running right in front of her.

「Ouch, ouch, ouch… Huh?」

Crouching on the road, she was stunned by the dazzling light that suddenly washed over her and couldn’t even move.

Screeeeeeee… Bang!

「Gyah!」

It wasn’t going that fast yet, but the panicked driver failed to hit the brakes in time, and when she got hit by the front grill, she was sent flying a few meters away.

「H, hey! Are you okay?!… Huh?」

The taxi driver, a middle-aged woman, immediately opened the door and jumped out, and at the same time several figures who rushed over from the park approached the woman lying on the ground.

Given the circumstances, they must have rushed over because they were worried about the woman, who had been run over; so the driver thought.

However, these people snatched the shoulder bag from the woman, who was unable to resist, and then took their leave straight away.

「Wha…?! Y, you guys!」

Here, checking the condition of the woman lying on the ground was more important than chasing the robber group.

Although she was bleeding from her hands and feet and unable to move, she seemed to be conscious and responded when she called out to her, albeit weakly.

「Sigh… just my luck.」

She started work in the evening and hadn’t even reached half of her quota for the day.

Now was the prime time to make money, but with the police inspecting the scene and other things, who knew what time she would be released?

The taxi driver let out a heavy sigh and, thinking that she should use the radio installed in the car to ask the company to call an ambulance and the police, ran back to the car.