Chapter 5: La Passion 🗣️🔥🔥

My current plan was to introduce Shinji to a workout place affiliated with me. A place untouched by outside influence.

Of course, as a reincarnated person, I always kept my tracks clean and neat. I never did my rituals at home. Only an idiot would do that where their address was registered and easily known by others.

That was why I always had various properties rented for such occasions. The place I was taking Shinji to was an exclusive private gym owned by my family.

Owned by family meant I was reincarnated into a good household. I thanked whoever placed me here with resources to spare. After all, what use was a grand idea like “cleansing the world of degeneracy” if I was broke?

If I were broke, I would rather just laze at home. But since I was well-off, I could afford to be a little generous to this cursed world.

Especially to this guy. The upside: I would get an underling. The downside: he kept crying about how his dead sister resembled me. It took the whole trip to the gym to convince him I was not his dead sister.

“Little sister… hiks…”

Bruh.

If she was dead, then she was dead. Don’t drag me into your fantasy.

“Alright. Here it is. Home sweet home~”

“Um, a gym?”

With a dumbfounded look, Shinji pointed at the rows of fitness machines. He gulped like he had seen a great enemy, but for me, it was paradise. From the smallest dumbbell to the biggest machine, everything was brand new.

SNIFFFFF!!! The smell of workout!!!!

“Yep, this—is—La Passion.”

“La… Passion?”

“Get on the damn treadmill, Shinji!”

Time passed. I picked up a 10 kg dumbbell. Even a kid like me could lift it easily. So what was stopping a boy like him? The absence of La Passion, of course.

“Catch,” I said, tossing him the dumbbell.

He let it fall to the floor with a loud thud, cracking the tile.

Shinji gulped.

“…That would definitely kill me.”

“Get your shit together, Shinji!”

SLAP!

“Get in the gym, Shinji!”

With righteous zeal, I urged him not to remain a weak, puny little guy. Not someone who cried when someone close to him was taken. Not a teen still sucking on his mama’s tits while whining about bullies.

“But, I’m afraid.”

“You must do it, or your sister won’t love you anymore!”

To truly mold a man, one must weaponize the sad backstory. And this one had plenty.

“If you don’t, your girlfriend will be brainwashed by those you despise.”

Shinji dropped to the ground, tears streaming. But this time, they were different—the tears of rage.

Just one more push, and he would be my lackey. Nihahaha!

“Imagine your—”

“Enough…”

Huh? Who turned on the AC? Why was it suddenly this cold?

“I understand now. The La Passion you mentioned—it will be my way of revenge.”

His tone shifted, his eyes hidden by his bangs. If not for his earlier pathetic face, I might have mistaken him for a third-rate H-protagonist.

And you knew what I did to those. I butchered them.

App hypnosis? That was always a fluke. Maybe the victim had a weak mind, maybe the culprit had a psychology degree.

Time stop? What was this, playing some 18+ harem snake in this economy? Sorry, I was more of a Gangnam Style guy.

“Nihahahaha, finally you understand.”

This time, with conviction, I tossed him the same dumbbell. To my surprise, he caught it easily, like a different person.

Shinji held it in one hand, dissatisfied, then grabbed another 10 kg dumbbell with the other.

“Thank you. The La Passion you mentioned worked.”

He smiled.

All my hairs stood on end.

His aura as an NTRED protagonist slowly vanished. In its place was the aura of a seinen protagonist.

Not to be confused with shounen—seinen was like Berserk’s Guts. More realistic, more pragmatic. More mature. Not easier to control.

“I did it, sis.”

He stepped closer, fast. His smile wide.

Ah shit. He still hallucinated me as his dead sister.

“Eeeehh! Stand back, I’m not your little sis!”

“Why? Why are you running?”

“Because you want to hug me, who is NOT your little sister! Open your mind, Shinji!”

I ran around the gym, with Shinji chasing me like his stamina had been fully restored. Maybe I had hit a jackpot, but not in the way I wanted.

I should have met him in my adult body, not this little kid form. If I had, maybe this siscon maniac wouldn’t—

“Lil sis!”

He leapt at me, hugging me tightly, like he was afraid I would vanish.

“Please, never disappear again.”

All I could do was struggle as he crushed me in his bear hug.

“Let me go!”

“No! Why would I let you die again!? Please, just this moment—I want to hug you, sis.”

He caressed my hair while crying, whispering this and that.

This must have been fate. He had upgraded into a seinen protagonist, but in the process, he saw me as his dear little sister.

But, frankly… my dark passenger loved being petted so much.

If it weren’t for that, I would have sedated him already and used this place for my monthly ritual.

Shinji, my guy—were you a follower of Dom Toretto? Because clearly, you loved family way too much. Or maybe you were just a hopeless siscon.