Chapter 12: Chapter 12

Jin’s POV
  “How’s this world so far?” Jin asks Nyri not long after Sergeant Wakaba has left.

   She shrugs. “The air here is putrid, and the people have too many rules for my taste. Other than that, I don’t have any problems. I have yet to try the food here other than the ones you made for me, though.”

   “Seriously? Didn’t Sergeant Wakaba get you anything to eat?”

   “Nope.”

   “How did you managed to stop yourself from causing an earthquake, then?”

   “I ate some creatures. They were so numerous I’m pretty much fed for the rest of the day.”

   “...I see.”

   Jin sees lots of children’s clothing and shoes being scattered around the floor. He assumes that Sergeant Wakaba brought them here. If someone suddenly barges in, no amount of explaining will ever make up to the fact that he has them inside his room. More importantly, there’s Nyri herself.

   According to the tenancy agreement that Jin signed when he moved in to this room of this, he’s not allowed to share his room with another person. Judging from Nyri’s fondness of this world, she won’t be content with merely coming out of the Vault every once in a while. If the landlord ever finds out about her, getting kicked out will be the least of Jin’s problem. It’s not just the landlord either. Some people are bound to have seen Nyri going in and out of Jin’s room. It’s just a matter of time until someone reports it to the landlord or even the police. Left with no choice, Jin takes out his phone and calls Sergeant Wakaba again.

   “Hello? Sergeant Wakaba? No, it’s not about Nyri this time. Well, I guess she’s part of the reason I called you. Remember the time when the PM offered me a new accommodation? I would like to accept it. Yes, please arrange a place for me. Thank you very much.”

   After the call was over, Jin finds his tenancy agreement to check on the term regarding giving a notice when moving out of the unit. It’s stated clearly that he needs to give one to his landlord two weeks in advance.

   “Can you at least stay inside the Vault for two weeks?” Jin asks Nyri.

   “Is it because of more rules?” she asks back while looking really annoyed.

   “I’m afraid so.”

   “..Fine. I’ll be patient.” she agrees reluctantly.

   “I’m glad that you’re being understanding.”

   He wastes no time in calling the landlord of this apartment and tells him that he wishes to move out of it. The landlord has no issue with it. He didn’t even bother to ask Jin any questions. With that, Jin is allowed to move out once the two week is up.

   “At least cook me something good before I go back in.” Nyri bargains.

   “Deal.”

   Jin end up cooking everything he bought from the supermarket again, but he doesn’t mind it one bit. He’s earning enough money now, and most importantly it’s because Nyri likes the food he cooks. This is one of the rare times when Jin was actually appreciated.

   “Are you satisfied now?” he asks her once they’re done eating.

   “...Yes.”

   “Good. Now off you go then. See you in 2 weeks time.”

   With that, Nyri gets inside the Vault once again. All the clothes and shoes that she got from Sergeant Wakaba are also stored inside as well.

   On the next day at school, the whole class is starting a discussion about one of the events that Jin hates a lot.

   “So, what are we doing for the Cultural Festival?” Wakaba the class representative asks while standing in front of the blackboard.

   Ah, yes. Cultural Festival. The second ultimate event for normies right after Valentine’s Day.

   “Doesn’t matter what, we should get Yoshii-kun to be the main attraction!” Girl A shouts.

   “I know, I know! Let’s do a Butler Cafe! I want to see Yoshii-kun dress up as a butler!” Girl B suggests loudly.

   “Oh, me too me too! Let’s do this!” Girl C agrees excitedly.

   A few other girls agree with the plan as well.

   Jin rolls his eyes and groans under his breath. He was unfortunate enough to be in the same class with Yoshii last year as well, and the exact same thing happened back then. Majority of the girls were so eager to dress up Yoshii they straight up ignored all the other boys in the class. The boys were so pissed they decided to have a mutiny and refused to attend school until the festival was over.

   In the end, they reached a reluctant compromise and did a normal cafe. Needless to say, Yoshii still stole all the spotlights and attention. Looks like the same thing is happening again. When oh when will the girls ever learn.

   “Hold on, girls. I know you want to see me in action as much as possible, but you should give others chance too.” Yoshii tells the overly eager girls.

   “Oh, who cares about them? You’re the only one we need!” one of them says to him.

   And that was a huge mistake on her part. Jin could tell that most of the boys were already upset at Yoshii for being a goody-two-shoes, and now that girl had to make things worse.

   “Well then, I guess you won’t object to us being absent.” Jin hears a boy says at the back.

   “Again!” another yells.

   “You boys are such monkeys! Why can’t you just do as you’re told?”

   “If you girls think you’re so tough, try doing everything yourselves!”

   “Yeah, yeah! Don’t expect us to help you!”

   And here they go again. Even Wakaba and their homeroom teacher Takusu weren’t able to stop the full-on argument which involves a lot of screaming and shouting. There was a few times when Jin genuinely thought that fits will fly and bloods will flow. Unfortunately, he was disappointed. Even so, the damage was already done. The two genders inside the Class 2-2 are officially not talking to each other. Takusu deemed that all of them are too angry to take part in a civilized discussion right now, so she declared the homeroom to be over for today.

   “What’s going to happen if we can never reach an agreement until the day of the festival?” Jin hears Estyshana asking Wakaba.

   “Well, our class will be the only one that won’t have anything to do.” Wakaba answers anxiously.

   “Is that supposed to be bad?”

   “I won’t say that it’s bad, exactly. However, we get to keep all the money we made during the festival. If we didn’t do anything, that means we get zero money. Also, um, I guess we can’t show our culture to the outsiders.”

   “Help. I have no idea what the last part means.” Esty seeks help from Jin by using telepathy.

   “She’s trying to say that outsiders will think that our class are a bunch of lazy bums or savages who refuse to cooperate.” Jin explains.

   “Thanks for the translation. By the way, aren’t you going to do something about this tense atmosphere?”

   “Who, me? You gotta be joking. I, for one, am glad that this is happening. If this keeps up, we won’t have to do anything during the festival.”

   “You’re being the absolute epitome of a competent leader, aren’t you?” she notes drily.

   “Thanks for the sarcasm.”

   “Not that I really care, but that Yoshii is being more of a Hero than you are.”

   And so he is. Right now, that pretty boy is talking to some of the girls and trying his best to talk some sense to them. However, none of the girls refuse to budge.

   “Bah, he’s just wasting his time.”

   “And here I thought all Heroes are about inspiring others to try their best.”

   “Just stay away from fairy tales since there isn’t someone like that in real life.”

   The awkward atmosphere lasted even after homeroom is over. During the next break, Jin heads outside his classroom so that he go to the toilet. There, he witness the scene of an extortion taking place. At least, it looks like one.

   A burly male student is grabbing the collars of a wimpy looking one. Four students are surrounding them, possibly to make sure that the victim doesn’t run away.

   “Let me ask you again in case you didn’t hear me the first few times, Fukuma. I’ll even ask real slowly too. Where. Is. The. Money. You’re. Supposed. To. Bring. Us?” the burly student is asking the wimpy student.

   “I told you, Himura-kun. I ran out of money.” the wimpy student whimpers.

   “Well go get more from your parents then! Do you want-”

   Suddenly, all of them notice Jin at the same time, and they turn their head to look at him.

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   Jin heads to one of the urinal calmly and does his business. Once done, he washes his hand at a sink and leaves like he didn’t see anything.

   “Wise choice.” he hears the burly student grunts right before he exits the toilet.

   Jin can’t find any reason to intervene. He could dive in and save the poor kid, but what will it achieve? They might switch their target to him once they recover, and the last thing he wants is making their stay at the hospital permanent. So no, he’s not going to do anything. From the way Jin sees it, there are three choices for the kid: keep quiet about the fact that he’s being bullied, transfers to another school or get a gun and kills everyone that wronged him. Whatever his choice, Jin wants no part of it.

Ryota’s POV
   “Stupid bullies. Stupid teachers. Stupid classmates stupid parents. And stupid student who refused to help me.”

   As Fukuma Ryota walks back to his house while covered in bruises for the fourth time this week, all he could do is, as usual, grumbles and curses. He could say that he already got used to being bullied and extorted for money, but he wouldn’t want to lie. He can never get used to it, and it hurts physically and mentally every single time.

   This all began at the start of the new school term. Unlike last year, Ryota was unlucky enough to in the same class as Himura and his entire gang of bullies. And the worst part is, they made him a target of their bullying on the very first day itself. They literally dragged him to the nearest toilet while the rest of their classmates just stood there and watched. Once inside, they made their message very clear: bring them money every single day and he doesn’t have to get hurt.

   For the first few weeks, Ryota managed to oblige. Both his parents work as lawyers, and he had been receiving pretty much everything from them except for love and attention. He was never a huge spender, which was why his bank account has lots of money in it. The bullies were paid, and Ryota could walk home unhurt. Everything started to go downhill when they knew about his parents’ profession and started to demand more money. He had to take out more money than his parents gave him each month.

   Two months ago, all the money in his account were gone. He was too much of a coward to ask his parents for more money or just tell them what had happened. And that’s when the bullies beat him up pretty much every single day for not giving them money.

   Ryota’s parents are always so busy they were rarely home. Even if they were, their attention were always elsewhere. Television. Newspaper. Each other. Anything except their own flesh and blood. They never asked about the wound he received on his face, and they never bothered to ask about how he’s doing at school so far. If only they did the asking, Ryota might end up telling them the whole story. But they never did.

   Ryota has heard of rumors that Himura’s father is the leader of a yakuza gang. That would explains a lot of things including the fact that he and his group could just bully another student in broad daylight without getting into trouble. None of the teachers are willing to do something about them since they’re scared of reprisals from his father. Needless to say, their classmates refuse to do anything as well.

   Himura is crude, but he’s not stupid. He knows that the sole person who would dare to expose him and his gang is a Watanabe Anri from the class several doors away from them. Himura always make his goons keep a lookout for her whenever they were doing an extortion.

   Just now, when he was getting extorted yet again, a student went inside the toilet they were in. Seiji noticed that Himura had forgotten to tell at least one of his goons to stand outside and keep an eye out for trouble, and he was praying real heard for someone, anyone to come inside here. And a student really came. Unfortunately, the student didn’t do a thing. Even after he left, Ryota hoped that he went outside to fetch someone. But no help ever came while he was being beaten black and blue.

   “Maybe I can switch school. No, father and mother wouldn’t allow it since there’s too much paperwork involved. Or I could get a gun. No. There’s no way I can get one in Japan…” Ryota starts to murmur again.

   He was so deep in thought he didn’t notice the person standing in front of him.

   “Sorry.” he mumbles to the person.

   “Non, non. I’m the one who should apologize, my boy.”

   Ryota looks at the person he bumped into. The middle-aged man is obviously a foreigner who’s from a Western country since he has a pair of blue eyes. America, perhaps. Or even France. He’s wearing some worn out gray suit and a pair of wrinkly pants. The lab coat he wears on the outside are also creased and looks really old. As he’s staring at the person, the person is staring at Ryota too.

   “Good heavens! What happened to you, young man? Your face is covered with bruises.” he exclaims.

   Wow. A person who actually cares. Ryota has thought for a long time that such person doesn’t exist in this world. Even so, he still doesn’t have the courage to tell the stranger what had happened.

   “I had, um had a really great fall.” Ryota lies in a half-hearted manner.

   “Would you like to talk about it, mon amie?” the man asks him. “There’s a park nearby that we can sit down.”

   Back then, Ryota should have known better than to follow the suggestion of a complete stranger. However, he was so depressed he just wanted to talk to someone.

   They found a bench at the park and sit down side by side. No one else was at the park, so Ryota won’t have to be that self-conscious about the bruises on his face.

   “Go on. You can tell me the truth. I promise that I won’t tell a soul.” the stranger encourages Ryota.

   “I, I really shouldn’t. I might end up even worse than this. Even wore, you might get involved too.”

   “To think that you’re worrying someone else while being that injured. You must be a really kind soul.” the stranger beams.

   Ryota could only laugh at that.

   “I’m not kind, sir. Just cowardly. I’m not worried about you either. I just don’t want you to end up blaming me for whatever that happens to you once Himura-kun finds out that I said something I shouldn’t.”

   “And who’s this Himura-kun?”

   Ryota winces. He’s in so much trouble. Oh well. It’s too late to stop now that he brought up his name.

   “He’s my classmate that bullies me all the time.” Ryota explains to the stranger.

   “Is that so? Did you ever told your parents about it? Or anyone at all so that he would stop harassing you?”

   “There’s no way I can do that. The thing is…”

   Ryota told the stranger everything. It was really strange. Every time he felt like stopping, he somehow continued. This lasted until he spat out everything that happened until today.

   “...I see. That’s rather unfortunate.”

   Ryota sighs. That word pretty much sums up his entire life of being neglected by his parents and has to live on without having a single friend. And getting bullied.

   “I just don’t know what to do anymore…” Ryota says while on the verge of tears.

   “Would you like to become stronger?” the stranger asks Ryota.

   Ryota stares at him.

   “Are you trying to sell me some supplements?”

   “Oh non non non! I promise you that I’m not some suspicious vendor!” the stranger quickly assures.

   “Who are you, then?”

   The stranger takes out his business card and hands it to Ryota. Ryota takes the card with both hands and reads it.

   “Professor Jacques Bouchard, Masters, PhD. Director of Unknown Creature Investigation.” Ryota mumbles as he reads the card.

   Once or twice, he saw a vehicle or two with the name of the same organization being printed on it. He always wondered what does the organization actually do, but never cared enough to find out.

   “This place of mine is backed by the Japanese Prime minister himself. As such, I would never do something as low as selling questionable drugs.” Professor Bouchard assures Ryota.

   “Then, what did you meant when you asked me that question just now?”

   “If you agree to it, I would have you participate in a few experiments. Having a few drops of blood taken, taking a medicine or two. Nothing too complicated. And you don’t have to pay a single yen.”

   Naturally, it sounds extremely shady. However, Ryota has nothing to lose. He just doesn’t care anymore. Even if he got ended up in a scheme that cons people, he still wants to take the chance.

   “All right. I’ll do it.” he tells Professor Bouchard.

   “Excellent! Do you think you can begin right away?”

   “Sure. It’s not like I have anything better to do.”

   “Excellent! Now follow me. I shall bring you to my lab right away.”

   He then stops.

   “Oh, silly me! I have completely forgotten to ask for your name!”

   “Um, it’s Fukuma Ryota.”

   “Greetings, Monsieur Ryota. I hope we can get along from now on.”

   Ryota was brought to a surprisingly modest car. He goes inside and lets the Professor to bring him to…wherever that he’s bringing him. Along the way, the French man tried a few times to rope Ryota into making conversations, but he was too nervous to reply properly.

   The trip lasted around 30 minutes, and Ryota was finally rewarded with the sight of a huge building which is at least 50 storeys high.

   “Welcome to the UCI.” the Professor tells him.

   Suddenly, Ryota is full of hope. He doesn’t care what kind of experiment has to undergo. He will become strong and get back at Himura and his gang.

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