February — the stretch of days before the End-of-Term Special Exam. Shikime Natsu was crossing the schoolyard alone when he noticed the man: tall, lean, dressed in a well-cut dark suit, a faint smile on his face, eyes narrowed into two thin slits.
He was new. With Shikime Natsu's memory, it was impossible for him to forget anyone who moved around inside the school — he'd even filed away the faces of the shop clerks. This man alone left no impression whatsoever.
And beyond that… Natsu could feel it. The man seemed to be following him, always holding the same measured distance. A few students still lingered on the schoolyard in twos and threes, and that was probably the only reason he hadn't closed in yet.
Once those students had gone, Shikime Natsu simply turned around and looked straight at him. The man noticed, and his smile deepened a little. Then he started walking, neither hurrying nor dawdling, straight toward Natsu.
About three paces away he stopped, and greeted Natsu with what looked like perfect courtesy.
"Good afternoon, student. I'm the new acting chairman — Tsukishiro. Might I ask… how do I get to the academic affairs office?"
The man was wearing a smile, but Shikime Natsu was quite certain there was almost nothing behind it.
Natsu raised a hand and pointed toward the school building.
"That way."
"Much obliged."
Tsukishiro nodded and thanked him, but he didn't leave. He stayed where he was, his gaze resting on Natsu as though sizing up an object, and after a moment he spoke again.
"There's no one here but the two of us. If it's convenient… I'd like to talk with you about a few things. May I?"
Natsu's smile didn't shift at the words, though the light in his eyes dimmed a fraction.
Tsukishiro Tokinari.
The name had surfaced the instant the man gave his surname.
The daily intelligence system had pushed the file through only moments ago — the man's identity, where he came from, his background, and his connection to Ayanokouji Kiyotaka.
Natsu stood there without a flicker of reaction, apparently listening, while in fact the stream of data in his head had already sorted itself out.
Tsukishiro Tokinari. He had once worked under Naoe. He had blood on his hands, and he had disposed of people who should never have been disposed of.
His purpose in approaching Natsu now was unclear, but he was tangled up with Ayanokouji Kiyotaka one way or another.
The system had even attached video footage — remarkably complete footage, documenting the entire process of Tsukishiro Tokinari dealing with a certain journalist.
Clean, efficient work. Plainly not his first time.
The chain of evidence was clear too. Anyone who cared to dig would turn up both the physical proof and the witnesses.
As all of it came through, one question surfaced for Shikime Natsu.
When had he ever crossed Tsukishiro Tokinari? Or rather… when had he picked up a grudge with Ayanokouji Kiyotaka big enough to bring a man like this out in person?
He couldn't recall doing anything that would make Ayanokouji Kiyotaka hate him to that degree. Not that he intended to stand there puzzling over it. The man had come knocking on his own; better to see what Tsukishiro Tokinari actually wanted.
"Talk about a few things?"
Natsu repeated the words back at him with a small smile, a glint passing through his eyes. Tsukishiro had just called himself acting chairman — which meant something had gone wrong on Sakayanagi Narumori's end?
Tsukishiro caught the shift in his micro-expressions — Natsu hadn't bothered hiding anything. Those narrowed eyes opened the barest sliver, then settled back to their usual slits. He smiled and spoke.
"So you have picked up on something."
He paused, then went on.
"Don't worry. Chairman Sakayanagi is merely undergoing a routine investigation. I'm covering his duties for the time being — but rest assured, it won't disrupt the normal running of the school."
"Is that so."
Natsu nodded, his face giving nothing away. He thought for a moment, then continued.
"So what does Acting Chairman Tsukishiro want to talk to me about?"
"Not me."
Tsukishiro's tone stayed mild, but the meaning made Natsu's gaze sharpen a fraction.
"Someone else."
Tsukishiro stepped aside and gestured toward the school building — an 'after you' that was polite and left no room for refusal.
"This way, please."
Natsu glanced at him, said nothing more, and fell in behind.
One after the other they crossed the schoolyard, entered the school building, and followed the corridor to the door of a reception room.
Tsukishiro pushed the door open and stood aside to let Natsu in first.
Natsu spotted the man on the sofa at once. He too wore a well-cut dark suit, his hair combed without a strand out of place, his features hard and severe by nature. He sat perfectly upright, hands folded on the table.
At the sound of the door he lifted his head, and the moment his eyes landed on Shikime Natsu a smile appeared — a smile that looked even faker than the last one.
"So you've come, Shikime-san. I've heard a great deal about you."
Natsu dropped into the other chair without ceremony, relaxed, and looked up at the man across from him. His voice was flat.
"I don't believe I know you."
The man showed no sign of displeasure. If anything he laughed softly, leaning forward slightly, hands clasped on the tabletop.
"You don't need to know me."
"It's enough that I know you."
Natsu raised an eyebrow at that, in no hurry to argue. He simply watched, waiting for whatever came next.
Seeing him like that, the man smiled and said,
"My name is Ayanokouji Atsuomi."
"Though you're probably more familiar with my son. Ayanokouji Kiyotaka."
Natsu's expression didn't change. Ayanokouji Atsuomi had been in that footage too, after all — he and Tsukishiro Tokinari had been in contact, and not shallowly.
Atsuomi's gaze settled on him, appraising, the way one might weigh up an item that needed careful consideration. After a moment he went on.
"Shikime-san, I know you're a remarkably capable young man. Academics, physical ability, even your relationships with others — you're flawless in every respect. One could say you're the most dazzling presence in this school."
He paused there, then changed direction.
"But precisely because you are so capable, I'd like you to lose to Kiyotaka."
Natsu stayed silent for a while. Then he tilted his head slightly, and the corner of his mouth curved with genuine interest.
"Lose to Ayanokouji? Why?"
"What do I get out of it?"
Ayanokouji Atsuomi had clearly anticipated the question. He answered without hurry.
"I'm aware, Shikime-san, that you have a great many girlfriends."
"If you intend to marry them after graduation, the expense will surely be considerable. I can give you twenty million yen."
"And all I require is that you lose to Kiyotaka once. When you agree, I'll tell you which occasion. One simple defeat, twenty million yen. That's not a bad deal, is it?"
Ayanokouji Atsuomi kept his eyes on Natsu as he spoke.
Natsu's answer came quickly, with a note of regret in his voice.
"If that's all you called me here for, then I'll pass."
He stood as he said it, ready to walk out. Watching him rise, Ayanokouji Atsuomi let his smile shrink a little — but he wasn't rattled. He spoke again, unhurried.
"Shikime-san, before coming here I paid a visit to your parents. They look quite healthy — good spirits, too. Anyone can see your family is close."
"And of course, you're on very good terms with the girls around you as well."
"So I hope you'll give my proposal serious thought. Some things, once lost, can never be brought back. And money is very important."
It was about as plain as it could be — an open threat, laid on the table. Natsu did turn back around, just as they'd wanted, but his face was nowhere near as ugly as they'd imagined. Instead he pulled his phone out of his pocket.
Not an audio recording. A video.
Ayanokouji Atsuomi and Tsukishiro Tokinari both looked at the screen at the same moment.
The footage began. First came a back alley, rain running down a drainpipe on the wall and pooling into thin streams across the ground. Then a figure entered the frame. Tsukishiro Tokinari.
The image was grainy, but that face was unmistakable. He stood in the alley facing a man in a trench coat who looked every inch a journalist — and then Tsukishiro Tokinari dealt with him, fast.
The journalist's death had made the news at the time; the manner of it had been far too blatant to ignore. They'd simply never caught Tsukishiro Tokinari afterward.
Of course, that had been a contest between powerful men. Leaving a body that obvious was itself the warning.
The second clip showed one of Ayanokouji Atsuomi's own dark dealings. Only one — but that single item alone was more than enough to sink him.
Both men raised their heads at once to look at Natsu, their composure wiped clean away. Neither reached across the table to snatch the phone. They had spent too many years in this world not to know that if Natsu was showing it to them, he certainly had something held in reserve.
The question was how he had obtained it at all. That incident had happened before Shikime Natsu was even born.
Just then, Natsu took his phone back and smiled at the two of them.
"That's about time, gentlemen. Let's end it here."
The words had barely left his mouth when the reception room door was shoved open from outside.
A group of uniformed men filed in, quick and orderly. At their head was a middle-aged man with a hard, cold face. He glanced at the phone on the table, then at Ayanokouji Atsuomi in his chair and Tsukishiro Tokinari standing beside him, and spoke.
"Ayanokouji. Tsukishiro. You are suspected of involvement in multiple serious criminal cases. We are placing you under arrest in accordance with the law."
Tsukishiro Tokinari started to rise on instinct, but two officers already had their hands on his shoulders and pressed him back into the chair.
Ayanokouji Atsuomi's face turned uglier still. His eyes cut through the crowd of bodies and fixed on Shikime Natsu, filled with disbelief.
No — this brat could move that fast?
He had only arrived today. How was this possible?
Which old relic had leaked his movements?!
"Well then, I don't expect we'll be meeting again, Ayanokouji-san."
Natsu laughed quietly as he said it. He waited while the police led the two of them away, stood in the reception room a while longer, and then went back to his dorm.
Once there, he took out a notebook that looked entirely ordinary and wrote down the names of Ayanokouji Atsuomi and Tsukishiro Tokinari. Forty-five seconds later, both names vanished from the page.
This too was one of Shikime Natsu's CG tools — an upgraded edition of the Death Note, the kind that disposed of the remains on its own. The conditions were the same as ever, naturally: the name and the face.
He had assumed he'd go his whole life without ever needing this thing. He'd never expected to use it so soon.
But there was no helping it. Ayanokouji Atsuomi's threat had been plain enough, and if there was one thing Shikime Natsu despised, it was being threatened — especially by an ambitious piece of work like Ayanokouji Atsuomi.
Still… that was the end of it.
However grand a man's ambitions, without a life to carry them, there's no way to act on them.
Natsu knew nothing about Ayanokouji Atsuomi's past, and had no interest in it either. The man's hands had long since been filthy, and what he'd done could hardly be called human work. In the end it was only ashes to ashes, dust to dust.
After Tsukishiro Tokinari's exit from the school, Sakayanagi Narumori came back, and the exams all went ahead exactly as scheduled, with no sudden new twists added.
Word had it that on his very first day, Tsukishiro Tokinari had proposed adding an extra special exam — only he'd been carted off before he could work out the details. What a shame.
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