With Atsuomi's furious shout about this being a father-and-sons showdown, the two of them instinctively froze for a second. By the time they reacted and avoided the suit jacket he'd thrown, they realized Atsuomi had already run.
Neither Ryuen nor Kiyotaka rushed after him. Kiyotaka simply wiped away the fine sweat on his forehead and calmly turned to Ryuen.
"Infirmary?"
"Tch, no need." Ryuen looked far rougher than Kiyotaka did. He was filthy, bruised, one side of his face swollen, his mouth smeared with blood, dirt all over him, yet he still looked completely unconcerned. "What's a little injury like this?"
"Back when I used to brawl in the streets, I got hurt way worse than this. In the end, I always turned out just fine."
Kiyotaka nodded and didn't keep pressing the infirmary issue. Instead, he looked in the direction Atsuomi had fled.
"Then let's wait. Yukio already made arrangements. We let him go on purpose this time. In half an hour, we can go ask."
"Yeah, I've got a lot I wanna ask that old bastard," Ryuen said, eyes flashing with hatred as he clenched his teeth, as if he could still taste his father's blood.
Meanwhile, Atsuomi was panting hard, practically gasping for breath. There was a black handkerchief tied around his neck to stop the bleeding, but no matter how you looked at it, he was in terrible shape.
That only made him even angrier.
When had he ever been reduced to this kind of state? He'd dominated the world for decades and had never looked this pathetic.
Kiyotaka, the White Room's only successful masterpiece, had to be taken back for study. As for Ryuen, that brat, even if he really was his son, he still had to die. Otherwise, there was no way Atsuomi could swallow this humiliation.
Thinking that, Atsuomi just wanted to get out as fast as possible. No matter what, if he could just get out of this empty administrative area and find either students or visitors, then at least he'd be safe.
After all, if a student at Advanced Nurturing High School attacked a visitor, that would be huge news. As long as someone saw it, whether student or guest, it would absolutely create consequences for the attacker. They'd be forced to hold back.
That should be... this way.
Atsuomi tried to figure out his bearings and headed in what he remembered to be the busiest direction during the cultural festival.
But before he had gone very far, he spotted several students holding their phones, checking the screen, then scanning the area around them, clearly searching for something.
That alone put him on high alert.
Something was wrong. Very wrong.
This was the middle of the cultural festival. The students should still be busy wrapping things up. Why would they be out here looking for someone?
Don't tell me... they're looking for me?!
The thought made Atsuomi's heart jolt. That Yukio brat and Ryuen actually had this kind of influence? They could mobilize other students to help search for him?
At once, Atsuomi didn't dare show himself anymore. He ducked into the grass nearby and quietly waited for those students to pass.
In his current condition, he couldn't afford a fight. He just needed to avoid making any noise and avoid being spotted and reported.
As he hid, he couldn't help thinking how lucky it was that Advanced Nurturing High had such extensive landscaping. If this had been the White Room, there wouldn't have been anywhere to hide.
What he still hadn't realized, though, was that the cameras all around had already captured his movements perfectly. The students just weren't moving in on him directly because their job right now was only to drive him around.
And because they'd been pulled away from the festival to do this, the students themselves clearly weren't thrilled about it.
"Man, what's Hosen even thinking? I mean, sure, it's already past four, so the cultural festival competition's over, but we could still make a little more money."
"Who knows. He just told us to find the guy in the photo on our phones. If we see him, don't fight him, just message him right away. He's one of the visitors, right? Kinda fat, pretty nasty-looking too. Definitely doesn't seem like a good guy."
"Forget whether he's good or bad. Maybe he's just some old enemy Hosen knew back in middle school."
"Huh? Even if he is, if he came into the school today, he's still a guest, right? Are we really supposed to go after a visitor? Wouldn't that blow up into a huge mess?"
"Stop overthinking it. Hosen already said no matter what happens, he'll take responsibility. We just need to keep looking."
"He even threw around hundreds of thousands of personal points. Sounds like he hired some people from Class 1-B to help too. No clue why he's going this far."
Hiding in the grass nearby, Atsuomi couldn't see the photo on their phones, but he was sure he was the visitor they were looking for.
From their conversation, it wasn't hard to tell they were acting on orders from some student named Hosen. And it wasn't just one class searching for him.
Who the hell was Hosen? Some random nobody, probably. Atsuomi had never heard the name and had never paid attention to the student roster at Advanced Nurturing High.
The only conclusion he could draw was that Hosen belonged to Yukio or Ryuen's faction. Now that Atsuomi had escaped Kiyotaka and Ryuen's net, he'd walked straight into an even larger one.
A silent sneer twisted across his mouth.
Did they really think this would stop him? Naive. Far too naive.
As long as he could reach a visitor, stir up a disturbance, spread a little fear, and muddy the waters, he could slip back toward the gate.
And once he got there, retrieved his gun, and regrouped with his bodyguards, he'd be untouchable.
With that in mind, Atsuomi didn't waste any more time. Once the students had moved a little farther past, he quickly crawled forward, then after making sure he'd put some distance between himself and them, took off running again.
He hadn't gone far before he ran into yet another group of students checking their phones.
Damn it!
Atsuomi cursed inwardly. Not one of these students was alone. Clearly, they'd been instructed not to separate, which meant he couldn't even pick one off and break through.
Then I'll change routes.
The campus was huge. There was no way they could have everywhere covered.
But no matter where he turned, there always seemed to be students ahead blocking the way, and not a single visitor in sight.
It was as if the students were intentionally keeping the visitors isolated from him.
Now Atsuomi was genuinely starting to get anxious.
He changed direction one last time and made up his mind: if he ran into students blocking him again, he'd have to use force.
Fortunately, heaven wasn't done with him yet.
At the end of this path, there was still someone standing guard.
A girl, no less.
And she was alone.
Easy.
Atsuomi was overjoyed. At last, he'd found a weak point in the dragnet.
Once he got out, every single one of these students would regret it.
Just as he was thinking that, the girl noticed him immediately.
Holding onto the grudge in her heart and having trained under Yukio for a long time now, Nanase stared straight at Atsuomi.
"Do you remember Butler Matsuo... and innocent Miss Matsuo, the two people you got killed?"
...
For every 50 Power Stones → +1 extra chapter.