In a luxurious apartment. Marika, fully recovered, was spinning around the room in a floral dress with a bright, giddy laugh. Her father, Tachibana Iwa, watched with a relieved smile.
His daughter's complete recovery was thanks to Japan's finest physician, Nakano Maruo. Without that man's exceptional skill, she might never have been able to live a normal life.
Marika stopped spinning and bounced over to her father. "Has there been any news about Ryunosuke?"
The smile dropped from his face immediately. The corner of his mouth twitched, and he answered with quiet resignation, "We found him. He's currently enrolled at Advanced Nurturing High School."
Marika's eyes lit up at once. She closed the distance between them in an instant. "Then hurry, hurry! I want to enroll there too!"
Iwa gestured for her to calm down and assured her he would arrange it. Marika was overjoyed. She was finally going to see her prince again. Everything she had done to herself over the past years, every change, every effort, had been for the sake of words Ryunosuke had spoken when they were children.
He had said he liked gentle girls. Marika had shed her sharp edges and become someone graceful and composed.
He had said he liked girls with long, straight hair. Marika had let her short hair grow out without cutting it once in ten years, until it now reached her waist.
By her own measure, her appearance was now a perfect match for what Ryunosuke had described. Since childhood, her only dream had been to become his wife.
She stood in front of the mirror, looking at the young woman she had grown into, and smiled her sweetest smile. "Just wait for me, Ryunosuke-sama. I'm coming to find you very soon."
Meanwhile, Iwa placed a call to the chairman of Advanced Nurturing High School's board, Sakayanagi Narumori. The conversation started smoothly enough, but the moment Iwa asked whether Ryunosuke was currently a student there, Narumori went immediately on guard.
Iwa answered honestly that Ryunosuke was his intended son-in-law. The instant those words landed, Narumori ended the call and sent a short message stating that Marika would not be permitted to enroll.
Iwa stared at his phone, genuinely puzzled. "Strange. Why such a defensive reaction?"
On the other end, Narumori muttered to himself the moment he hung up.
(He's trying to steal my future son-in-law. I am absolutely not letting his daughter through the gates.)
◆━⊰✿✧✿⊱━◆
In a hospital room. A girl named Konno Yuuki lay in bed with tubes running from her body. She had been born with a rare illness, passed on from her mother during childbirth.
When delivering Yuuki and her older sister, Konno Aiko, their mother had suffered severe hemorrhaging and required an emergency transfusion. The blood the hospital provided was contaminated. As a result, both girls and their mother contracted the disease.
Their father divorced their mother and left. The hospital, eager to bury the scandal, proposed an arrangement: they would cover all medical expenses in full, on the condition that the family did not pursue legal action. Their mother had no choice but to accept, having no means to afford treatment on her own.
Yuuki's condition continued to deteriorate regardless. Even so, she kept a smile on her face for the sake of her mother and sister.
"I'm fine, Mom, Onee-chan," Her voice thin. Yuuki, known online as Zekken, knew she didn't have much time left.
Her mother held back tears and brought her the latest video game to cheer her up.
She knew that only Japan's finest physician, Nakano Maruo, could save Yuuki. But they had no money. All they could do was stay in this charity hospital and hold on.
Yuuki lay there hugging the game her sister had given her, while her other hand curled tightly around the necklace at her throat. It had been given to her by him, when they were still small. Yuuki had been a sickly child with no one to play with, and he had been the only one who stayed.
"I want to see you again so badly, Akasaka."
They had played house together once, taking on the roles of a bride and groom. Yuuki had taken it completely seriously and insisted she was going to marry Ryunosuke one day. The necklace was their "engagement token," and tucked inside it was a photograph of the two of them as children.
◆━⊰✿✧✿⊱━◆
Back at Advanced Nurturing High School. Yamauchi, Ike, and Shimamura had been accused by Ryunosuke of colluding with Nagumo. The fact that they had genuinely voted for Nagumo was evidence that couldn't be argued away. Ryunosuke proposed to Narumori that they be expelled on the grounds of their involvement in Nagumo's organized assault.
Narumori had returned to his position as chairman after Tsukishiro was taken in for investigation. He was developing a headache. Because of Ryunosuke's actions, nearly the entire second year had been expelled. Second year now consisted of eight students remaining in Class B, while Classes A, C, and D stood completely empty.
In Class C, the atmosphere had broken down entirely following the news of Yamauchi, Ike, and Shimamura's expulsion. Hirata sat with his eyes shut, feeling utterly powerless.
"I really am useless. I keep leaving everything to Akasaka."
"If it were me alone, would the only answer really be to meet violence with violence?"
He thought back to middle school, where he had done exactly that to put a stop to bullying. He knew it was wrong. But he couldn't see another way.
Meanwhile, the Trio of Misfortune, as Yamauchi, Ike, and Shimamura might as well have been called, had begun to rage at the injustice of their expulsion.
Kushida tried to calm Yamauchi down, and was shoved to the floor for the attempt.
"Get out of my face!" Yamauchi screamed.
The other girls, Wang Mei-Yu among them, rushed to Kushida's side and turned on Yamauchi with open hostility.
"What do you think you're doing, Yamauchi?!"
"Shut up! All of you, shut up!" His voice cracked with fury. "You don't understand anything! You're not the ones being expelled! How dare any of you blame me?!"
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