(vol 7 btw)

I was just packing my books in my bag after today lessons.

"Hello Kiyone."

When I was just about to walk towards the door from the classroom to leave, but suddenly I heard Hirata calling my name.

The neighbor beside me, Horikita, paid no heed and after packing her belongings, left the classroom. However I can somehow sense the members of the Ayanokouji Group observing the situation.

'Why is a popular boy like Hirata talking with Ayanokouji and calling her first name?' Is probably what they're thinking. Haruka, in particular, is interested inthe circumstances of the other boys.

I don't have much time to talk now due to certain circumstances.

"Yes?"

I asked with a typical poker face and monotonous tone and saw Hirata thinking about the question for a while.

"Say..."

Hirata looked a little nervous for a while and I saw him trying to build up his normal image by forming a warm smile on his face.

"Could you accompany me to Keyaki Mall for coffee today, please? I'll buy you your favorite coffee today. What do you think about this Kiyone?"

I don't have any plans in mind for today. Our group assemblies aren't mandatory either so that's good too. The stares from the group members are worrying but that's still trivial. Unfortunately, the first thing I have to do is to deal with a certain teacher

"Was it bad timing?"

Since I didn't give an affirmative reply right away, Hirata anxiously asked me.

"Sorry, Hirata. Today is no good."

I hesitated a bit but in the end, I turned him down. The reason for that is because my shoulders are feeling stiff. From morning until the end of school, I've been feeling unpleasant the whole day at the stare I received from time to time. Even now as I'm talking with Hirata, that stare remains affixed on me.

Chabashira-sensei stayed behind in the classroom after school ended. She's pretending to fill out paperwork but it's obvious she's been staring at me from time to time. Almost as though she wants to approach me.

"I-I see. See you later then, Kiyone..."

I feel bad for Hirata's disappointment but it's just bad luck. As though to see Hirata off, I walked out into the corridor to go back. And with this, the problem will be resolved...or rather, animmediate danger drew close right off the bat.

Almost simultaneously, Chabashira-sensei left the classroom and approached me. As I suspected, she must have some business with me. Looks like I made the right choice turning Hirata down.

I avoided the conspicuous corridor and headed over towards a staircase that leads to the entrance in a round about fashion.

"...Ayanokouji."

Since the crowd has thinned, Chabashira closed the distance and called out to me.

"Do you have any business with me?"

I asked and saw how Chabashira-sensei pulled out a cigarette to calm down.

After a while, she breathed white smoke and looked at me again.

"Yeah. Follow me. There's something I need to tell you."

"That's a tall order. I've got an appointment with Horikita now."

I tried to create an excuse to get away from this situation, but Chabashira-sensei ignored it.

"I don't want to act carelessly as a teacher either, but circumstances are circumstances."

Chabashira-sensei, who often doesn't show emotion, now has an unusually vulnerable expression on her face.

"I've got a bad feeling about this."

"Unfortunately for you, you don't have the right to refuse. It's an extremely urgent matter."

I don't really want to follow her but I can't afford to disobey a teacher either, I suppose. What little resistance I put up proved futile, so I ended up following Chabashira-sensei.

I only just hope that's not what I think.

We left the student area and finally arrived at this place.

"The reception office? What do you need to talk about that you brought me all the way here? It's still too early for career consultation, right?"

I tried making a joke but it doesn't appear like she's going to answer student's question.

"You'll understand soon enough."

I have never been good at jokes, but I wanted to relax a bit before the storm came.

I looked at her for a while and rather than what's beyond the door, I'm more curious about Chabashira-sensei.

Forget calmness, she seems almost agitated. Even if the person behind that door is in fact the person I think it is, her acting strange this blatantly is still strange.

It'd be a different story if it's a teacher who's usually like this but Chabashira-sensei doesn't belong in that category. And without even realizing the doubts I'm harboring, Chabashira-sensei knocked on thedoor to the room.

"Headmaster. I've brought Ayanokouji Kiyone."

Headmaster, huh? It should be someone a student like me would have no reason to interact with from enrollment until graduation.

"Please enter."

I heard a gentle voice, but a dignified one befitting his age. And Chabashira-sensei opened the door to the reception office.

A man roughly in his 60s sat on a sofa. I've seen him several times both at the entrance ceremony and the end of semester ceremony but this man is, without a doubt, this school's headmaster. But his expression is not a laid back one but rather, I could see beads of sweat forming on his forehead.

And there's one more person opposite him. I'm sure of it now. Of why I was called all the way out here.

"Now then, the two of you can have your conversation..... you don't mind, do you?"

"Of course not."

"Then I'll be taking my leave so please feel free to take your time. If you'll excuse me."

The man sitting opposite the headmaster is in his 40s. Despite the fact that he's clearly twice this man's age, the headmaster acted in an extremely and thoroughly polite manner and left his territory as though he were fleeing.

"Then I'll also excuse myself....."

Chabashira-sensei also bowed before the man and left alongside the headmaster.

I didn't overlook the fact that in the last look she gave me, she seemed worried.

As the door closed, the only sound I can hear is the faint sound ofthe heating system. As I stood still without saying anything, the man quietly said.

"How about you sit down. I'm meeting up with you of my own accord after all."

It's been one ye-, no......one and a half years since I've heard this man's voice.

However, his speech and tone was the same as usual when we started the conversation but--

"I'm not planning on holding a long conversation that requires me to sit down, I have planned on meeting some friends later."

I said with a typical tone and masked the slight irritation I felt when I entered the room.

--this harsh tone of voice usually stayed only at the beginning of the conversation, so that this man does not ruin his status in front of others because--

"Friends? I will never let you create bonds. What if something happens to you, you want me to have a heart attack? I can't let you do that."

--he is a complete overprotective and obsessive daughter con.

His voice tone from the previous conversation completely disappeared and was replaced by a smile and a gentle look.It looked a little disgusting on his usually gloomy face, but I got used to it.

He didn't even get to know them or see them and he already judges them. It is typical of him, he always listens only to himself not me.

"Whether we talk together now or not will amount to nothing."

"So I can assume that I got a favourable answer then? If that's so, there's no need to talk anymore Kiyone. In that case, we can practically leave this pathetic place."

This first sentence he said with a cheerful tone, but the second with disgust at the thought of this place.

He didn't pay me any attention while arriving at his conclusion.

"I don't know what the answer you want is."

I crossed my arms and stood still.

"I have prepared the papers for you to drop out. I was talking about it with the headmaster earlier. You just have to say , then we can be done with it."

He saw my intention to gloss it over and I went directly to the main topic.

"I see no reason why I should."

"That may be so for you, but I have some on my own. First of all your safety, please Kiyone come home with me."

Probably nobody could see the situation when my father spoke such words with a slightly broken and worried voice.

That man is completely obsessed with me and overprotective. He locked his own child in a White Room so that I couldn't see the world from birth and he looked at me all his free time, explaining to scientists that his reason for this observing is my talent, that he spent this time watching my every move... For him, the White Room was supposed to not only count me to the perfect human project, but also to protect me from the world. I was like a bird locked in a cage.

After a while he noticed my ignorance and I saw him return to his rough tone and sharp eyesight.

"The point is, you were acting on your own accord. I ordered you to remain on standby."

He threw out, forgetting to urge me to sit. Then he continued.

"You defied my orders and entered this school Kiyone. I'm ordering you to drop out immediately as a matter of fact."

"Your orders were only valid inside the White Room. Right now, I don't need to listen to them anymore. Not only because of this, but also because when you start your education at this school, the legal guardian prescribes custody of your child for this school for three years."

I said with a little smirk, this expression was only present in me when I managed to crush his plans. It was simple logic. But of course he wouldn't be satisfied with that. Even if that is the law, people can pass it, especially that man. The law was created by humans, so it can also be broken by them.

After a while my typical poker face returned and I continued.

"Certainly, you have provided us with the best education possible. You may have used methods which the public won't ever acknowledge, but still, I won't reject the White Room itself. Which is why I'm not planning on speaking about the past to anyone, nor try to put you in a difficult position. However, you are excessively chasing an ideal. The result of that is me, that's all."

"Does the conclusion, the answer to that have anything to do with why you ran away?"

"Yes but.. Will I be able to learn the same things at this school as staying inthe White Room? What freedom is, how is feels to not be bound by anything. I couldn't have learned that in that place. You taught us a a lot of things."

This is a fact even he can't deny. The White Room was perhaps the most efficient place in the whole world to raise a human, but you couldn't learn everything. It was an institution that threw away anything unnecessary to the extremes.

"Not only the usual arts and sciences, martial arts and self-defence, wisdom and much more. It is because of that I wanted to learn about the you threw away from me and locked me.

This last sentence I said with a little bit of sadness, which I tried to hide, but he unfortunately noticed it.

"I-."

He tried to turn this rough tone again and corrected himself.

"*Cough* You have become quite talkative since last time I saw you. Influenced by this worthless school I see."

How could I not be? In the White Room it was forbidden for children to communicate with each other. It's not normal for a child to want to meet others and feel?

"Anyway, let me hear your reply to my last question."

"The meaningless one about you not requiring to listen to me anymore? You are my property. The owner has every right to use it as he fits. I don't need to tell you this. Whether you live or die is for me to decide."

He tried to preserve this behavior, but I saw how painful it was for him to say these words to me.

To honestly being able say that in this country in which law rule prevails, what a wicked and corrupted person sometimes he is. But to me...

I know that this temporary shutdown was also a heartbreaking memory to him. That is why he so strongly wanted me back. But to make contact after half a year, there must be something else happening behind my back. Is there someone big behind this school?

I don't believe he can interfere with this school as he is right now since it's backed by the government.

"No matter how much you are stuck on it, I don't plan on leaving this school. Besides, I think you cannot interfere in the activities of this school. "

"What makes you think so? That's a statement without any proofs to back it up."

"The first one, the bodyguards you always surround yourself with are nowhere to be seen. You are making grudges all around so you shouldn't be so willing to separate from them. But they are not in this room nor in the hallway as far as I can see."

The man grabbed the cup and drank the now lukewarm tea.

"Why should I need bodyguards just to visit a high school?"

"That's sloppy considering you always have them guard when you go to the toilet. It seems to me you couldn't take them with you even if you wanted to. The authorities behind this school didn't permit it, is what I think."

And if he didn't adapted here, he wouldn't be allowed to enter.

"You are still lacking evidence."

"Next, If you had the power to make me quit, you would have done so before even counting to 3. But you didn't do that, instead going out of your way to talk to me face to face and convince me to quit. Something is defenitely weird."

I said and continued.

"And there's another thing. If you made your move in an enemy territory like this school and it becomes public, your ambitions... your comeback would forever be a faint dream, isn't that so?"

He didn't answer anything as if he just ignored me. He always ignore me when I am right.

Doesn't matter what I say, we are just going in circles.

As much as he is obssesed with me and overprotective, he hates wasting time on useless talk so he should know this. Then what is next?

Of course he will strike

He stand up from his seat and thought for a while.

He came closer to me and looked at me with his sharp eyes, but I still looked at him invariably. The difference in height between us was visible by the head.

"You can stay in this school--"

He said and I widened my eyes in surprise.

"--but only if you call me the best Daddy or Dad."

My eyes darkened and showed infinite darkness to him. A person could describe it as a void in itself, because that is where I wanted to send him now.

"You are pathetic and disgusting. Die."

For a while he was still watching me, until finally his false expression completely fallen. He fell to his knees and held my legs with his hands beggingly.

In Professor Ayanokouji's head, the words 'disgusting and pathetic' were repeating themselves.

"Please, Kiyone come back with me, you're the perfect woman, you shouldn't be in such a place!"

"No, go drown yourself or something."

I said with an empty voice as eyes right now and grabbed the door handle.

"Wait, if you leave now, I'll have to forcefully get you out of here, if necessary."

He's just panicking now.

"Then, it just means that I will have to use all possible methods to stay here."

I told and left the room leaving that man behind.

I saw Chabashira-sensei was worried and looked at me with a questioning eye.

"How did the conversation with your father go?"

She asked a bit nervous. She is probably trying to hide her nervousness, but I already know everything about her.

"Haaaaah *Sigh* Sometimes it was worse."

I replied shortly and we went through the corridor.

Now all I have to do is break Chabashira-sensei for her filthy lies.