“NO.”
“But, Kouya—”
“I can’t agree.”
“Considering the situation, attending school is the best option—”
“I don’t mind tying you up, you know?”
“I hope you will spare me that much…”
An extremely disgruntled Kouya and a stumped Azusa faced each other as they fought a war of words. The digital clock read 8pm. They returned home to have a lively exchange of opinions in the mansion lounge without changing or eating dinner.
Azusa planned to accept Tsukiharu’s deal. Kouya wanted to stop her. They had hit a deadlock. Subaru and Ichi learned of the situation by being in the same room. They helplessly looked on as the other two argued in a world of their own.
“Think about it. Do you believe that guy will honestly keep his end of the deal?”
“But a bunch of people might be put through some terrible stuff if I don’t go. I’ll regret not going for the rest of my life if that happens! …Besides, he might actually keep his promise and not do anything to me.”
“Can you seriously say that after what he did to you already?”
“For now…”
“I’ll tie you up.”
“Eek!”
His eyes were dead serious. He wasn’t smiling.
“Now, now, Kou. Chill out. You shouldn’t tell women you are going to tie them up. You’re not in bed with her,” Subaru interjected to help out, only to receive a face full of Kouya’s fist. Subaru, along with his chair, flipped several times before ending with him moaning on his back. Blinking away tears he dragged his chair back over.
“Your last sentence was unnecessary,” Kouya growled.
“You deserved that one, Subaru,” Ichi icily approved.
Subaru rubbed his swollen face and brought things back on topic with teary eyes, “…Well, all jokes aside, the real question is: what are you actually going to do?”
“Subaru and I will subdue the kid tomorrow. You don’t need to come,” Kouya ordered as if it were already set in stone.
Azusa frowned with annoyance over how he took control. She felt as if she were being treated like a nuisance. Of course, she knew he was trying to protect her. But this was her problem too. If anything, it was her problem and hers alone. It seemed weird for her to be the one left out.
“You need to make sure no one gets hurt. Can you do that?” she asked.
“…I can—”
“Not happening. At least some casualties will come from it,” Subaru said, cutting off Kouya. Kouya glared at him, but Subaru ignored him with a devil-may-care attitude.
“In the first place, he’s an anomaly. I asked Master Akashi, but he didn’t know anything about the research into the Ancient’s body or about Tsukiharu Hiragi. He’s currently got a team looking into it, but it’s not like they’ll get the results anytime soon. If we take what he said at face value, his power level is on par with Kouya—or higher—even though he’s in a pre-awakened state. Were they to go all out against each other, the resulting damage would be enormous. Even if we successfully get everyone out of the school, the damage would likely extend to the surrounding homes.”
“……” Kouya averted his eyes at Subaru’s calm deduction of the situation. He knew some degree of victims couldn’t be avoided.
“What do the two of you think is the best course of action?” Azusa asked Ichi and Subaru.
“…I think believing that Tsukiharu guy will keep his promise is the method most likely to avoid widespread mayhem.”
“Subaru!” Kouya snarled.
“It’s not like I want her to go either, but that’s the best choice to keep casualties to a minimum. Right now we’re only dealing with the Tsukiharu kid, but imagine what will happen if that viper Shiro joins him in the fight against us. The two of us alone can’t stand up against them and protect people. We can’t even gather people in time before school tomorrow. Even if we were capable of rallying some people, if they aren’t strong enough, it’ll be like sending a lamb to the slaughter. Let’s not forget Azusa’s blood is a highly classified secret. Only some of the highest ranked nobles know about it aside from us. We can’t get people to help even if we wanted to.”
Subaru’s reasoning was sound. Azusa felt it gave her the push she needed.
“What about you, Ichi?”
“…I do not want you to go, but I am of the same opinion as Subaru… I’m sorry, Azusa,” Ichi answered, looking down.
Azusa shook her head and spoke with forced cheer, “Thank you. I’m okay! I’ll run away if anything happens, and I actually wanted to keep attending school! It’s so agonizing to be bored out of my mind every day!”
“Azusa…”
“Nothing happened today either. It went by surprisingly normally. I was just thinking how much I would love to enjoy my long-awaited high school life again—as long as that guy behaves.”
Kouya loudly clicked his tongue. Azusa looked up—his ruby-like eyes glowed a deeper, more sinister red than usual. His eyes narrowed with utter disgust before he averted them from her. He turned on his heel and left the lounge without another word.
BANG! A loud crash came from the hallway. Azusa wondered what happened as Subaru ran out of the room with an exasperated look.
“Dude, don’t take it out on the furniture. Or the walls. Or the floor! Or MEEEEE!” Subaru’s flustered voice could be heard along with several more crashes.
“…Kouya,” Azusa whispered.