“You’re certain you can’t stop it?”

“Kareyoshi-sensei, we’re saying we don’t have any interest in stopping it.”

Kareyoshi heard the emphasis on ‘sensei’, but there was no respect in it. If anything it sounded as if the man smirked.

The spring trimester was a memory since just a few days, but it never felt like it had ended for him. Especially since the summer of 2017 showed leniency when it came to temperatures. The last, lingering days of July offered weather better suited for late May.

“Don’t want to?” Kareyoshi asked, more for confirmation than anything else.

“Look, if the kids behave like some unruly gaijin you discipline them. As it is now those expelled got rewarded by an entry into Irishima High.”

He could growl, but it helped about as much as wiping dirt from his suit. Out of the three schools there had never been any question about which one had the highest status. Now there were effectively only two of them left, but even as Benibara High, or Akai Bara High School as it was formally named, was dissected last winter the students with the highest grades went to Irishima High and the rest entered Himekaizen Academy. Only those with pure Japanese hearts found no place in either school.

Benibara was left as a burned out shell of its former glory.

“Kareyoshi-sensei?”

He left his thoughts and shifted his attention to the representative for arrivals in Japan. A dirty half blood at that!

“As I said earlier. We’ve made an agreement with your superiors that the expulsions be rescinded.”

“And if I don’t agree?” Kareyoshi stared at the woman who had spoken without being spoken to. Being half Swedish meant she was probably incapable of cleansing herself from the foreign taint clinging to every fibre of her being.

She returned his stare.

He could have sworn there was something condescending in her expression.

“We emigrate. All of us.”

“Why? Because you love Sweden that much?”

Her next stare sent shivers down his back. “No. We represent a little over eight trillion yen. That gives us a lot more power in Sweden than in Japan. We’ll use it to shut down the business with arrivals.”

Kareyoshi shrugged. If a few dirty foreigners given overblown rights were to cease arriving in Japan, then what was the problem?

“You don’t have to understand. I’m aware it’s beyond your mental capacity anyway. You just have to obey.”

Kareyoshi almost gave in to his need to discipline a woman who didn’t know her place, but a glare from the man beside her calmed him down. Whatever the reasons for the strange order given here Kareyoshi still trusted the people who worked with the arrivals but still aimed for a pure Japan.

“Whatever is best for my home,” Kareyoshi said and made certain his voice was at its most formal.

“Whatever is best for humanity,” came the immediate reply.

Kareyoshi didn’t even bother to answer. His hand forced he’d have to reinstall every student who wanted to come back to Himekaizen.

“You’re right, of course. I’ll keep that in mind,” he said and smiled. His new orders were clear. He had to allow the garbage back inside his school. That was all. He could still make anyone stupid enough to return regret that decision for the remainder of their high school lives.