Not long after, people from the White Room came to take away Ayanokouji, who had been expelled from the school.
Naturally, this suited Atsuomi's wishes completely. For him, regardless of whether his son succeeded or failed, he remained the party who benefited.
If he succeeded, he could prove to his superiors that his son was far superior to Ryunosuke, who had once injured Hanma Yujiro. If he failed, Ayanokouji would simply return to the White Room.
Actually, Ryunosuke could have used 20 million private points to save Ayanokouji; after all, he still had a remaining savings balance of 40 million points. However, he felt that would be too much of a waste of money. Because of this, he thought of another, far more cost-effective way to bring the man back.
Seeing a group of people in white coats who were clearly White Room experimental staff taking Ayanokouji away, Ryunosuke gave a subtle cue with his eyes to Megumi, who was standing right beside him.
Megumi understood instantly in a split second. Even though the other party did not utter a single word, as the person who always kept watch by his bedside, she immediately grasped what the man wanted to do. With a deadpan expression, Megumi tailed them and left the school grounds as well.
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Inside a room that was entirely clean and pure white.
Ayanokouji was tied to a long chair, receiving shocks from a stun baton wielded by several experimental staff members.
This was a direct order from Atsuomi, given as punishment because this pride and joy of a son had acted so defiantly. Giving him a minor lesson was only natural.
Ayanokouji did not utter a single word and simply endured it in silence. He was already so accustomed to life within this White Room that his feelings had grown completely numb.
Not long after, the staff halted their actions. Atsuomi walked over with both hands clasped behind his back.
"Kiyotaka, do you know your mistake yet?"
"Pui!" Ayanokouji spat directly onto his father's face, an action that was truly a legacy of knowledge inherited from Ryunosuke.
Atsuomi wiped the saliva from his face, his expression instantly turning pitch dark. "Who taught you something like this? How dare you act so insolently toward me!"
"Akasaka Ryunosuke," Ayanokouji replied without the slightest hesitation.
"That bastard Akasaka again! Just what on earth have you been learning from him?!" Atsuomi was driven absolutely furious that his pride and joy of a son had been corrupted by someone else.
"Lock him up for three days and three nights so he can calm down!" Atsuomi instructed his subordinates that for these three days they were only to deliver food and forbidden from doing anything unnecessary.
The experimental staff acknowledged the order.
Ayanokouji was thus locked inside that white room resembling a prison cell, complete with iron bars to prevent him from escaping. However, both his hands and feet remained tightly bound to the chair so that he could not move at all.
Right in the cell next to his was Yagami Takuya. He grabbed the iron bars with both hands and immediately hurled mockery as soon as the guards left.
"Ayanokouji-senpai, I never expected that you would also experience a day like this."
Ayanokouji ignored him and remained silent. He believed that Ryunosuke definitely had a way to rescue him out of this place.
Seeing that he received no response, Yagami did not wish to pick a fight any further. He retreated back into his cell and lay down on the bed to sleep soundly. Tomorrow he still had to undergo rigorous training in order to surpass everyone and become the strongest in the world. Ayanokouji was his primary target; otherwise, how could he possibly have willingly returned to this White Room?
Regarding how Ayanokouji managed to enter this place, Yagami had pondered various possibilities. For instance, supposing this was an action taken by the Superior, he had never once suspected that it was actually Ryunosuke who got him expelled from school.
In Yagami's memory, Ryunosuke was indeed very strong, at least stronger than him. Even so, it should have been impossible for that man to actually get Ayanokouji expelled.
While Yagami was still lost in his reverie, Megumi, who was outside, began putting her plan into action.
She walked casually and openly straight toward the single entrance of the White Room. There were two guards stationed there, but Megumi did not take any precautionary measures whatsoever and simply strolled right on in.
Those two security guards acted as if they were blind and completely failed to notice her presence. Yet just to ensure security, Megumi still entered the surveillance camera control room and smashed all the monitors to prevent her tracks from being sniffed out.
Actually, Megumi was just overthinking things. With her exceptionally faint presence, even if she were captured on camera, people would unconsciously ignore her anyway.
Another reason why Megumi did this was actually to prevent Ayanokouji from being discovered when he escaped later. After all, that man did not possess a faint-presence ability like hers, making it extremely easy for him to be caught red-handed.
Megumi used a stun gun to incapacitate several guards who blocked her path, then snatched a few keychains from their bodies. Not knowing which key could open Ayanokouji's cell, she brought all of those keys along with her.
As soon as she arrived in front of Ayanokouji's cell, Megumi pulled out a large bundle of keys and prepared to try them one by one.
(Looks like this is going to take quite a while,) she complained inwardly. The reason being that there were hundreds of master keys there, and trying them one by one would undoubtedly consume a lot of time.
Naturally, the sound of the keys clinking in the neighboring cell was heard by Yagami. With a face full of shock, Ayanokouji—wait, Yagami gripped the iron bars and tried to thrust his face outward. All he saw was a blurred shadow that looked like a pixelated sensor trying to unlock the door for Ayanokouji.
Yagami instinctively screamed in terror, "Mom! There's a ghost!"
Megumi had a reflex to pull out her stun gun to silence him, but after giving it some thought, she abandoned the idea. After all, she had already incapacitated all the guards around this area; no matter how loudly the man screamed, there would be no one able to hear him.
Yagami quickly realized that this blurred shadow felt somewhat familiar; it seemed to be the figure who had incapacitated him and Ichika the other day.
That figure, what was her name again? Her name was Kato? Oh, whatever, forget her name, he couldn't remember it clearly.
Yagami gripped the iron bars with both hands, pleading for that figure to be so kind as to set him free as well. This condition was completely different from when he was placed at the school; this was true freedom.
At the school, he was under strict surveillance with many people spying on him. If he could now escape together with Ayanokouji, then he would no longer need to worry about his future.
Megumi hesitated briefly at this because she could not make decisions on her own. The order she had received from her husband was solely to free Ayanokouji.
Ayanokouji chimed in at just the right moment. "Just call and ask Akasaka."
He was not being kindhearted; rather, it was because he realized that Yagami had detected Megumi's presence. Even though she only looked like a blurred shadow, it was far too easy to connect that with Ryunosuke, who was at the Advanced Nurturing High School. Furthermore, both sides genuinely harbored past grudges.
Megumi nodded. She took out her phone and immediately contacted her husband.
Because her phone had not been confiscated by the school—purely because the school forgot about it—she didn't need to spend extra points to contact the outside world. She only needed to know the phone number and target contact. The phones used at the school were basically ordinary phones, and she naturally knew Ryunosuke's contact number by heart. After all, they were a married couple; how could she possibly not have his contact number?
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The phone call connected immediately. Ryunosuke, who had just learned of the situation, asked them to wait a moment because he intended to ask Ichika about this matter first. Coincidentally, he owed a favor to that girl, so he intended to use this opportunity to clear his debt.
Ryunosuke found Ichika on the rooftop of the school building, enjoying her lunch on a long bench.
He walked over. He knew that time could not be wasted because Megumi was currently still inside the enemy's stronghold, a place that was by no means safe to linger in for long.
Without asking for permission beforehand, Ryunosuke sat down right beside Ichika.
That action startled Ichika out of her wits. She instinctively rushed to steady her bento box, which had almost tumbled down onto the floor.