Before long, people from the White Room arrived to take away Ayanokouji, who had been expelled from the school.
This turned out to be exactly what Atsuomi wanted. To him, whether his son succeeded or failed, he remained the one who profited.
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.
In reality, Ryunosuke could have easily used 20 million personal points to save Ayanokouji, as he still had a remaining balance of 40 million points in his savings. However, he felt that doing so would be too much of a waste of money. Therefore, he thought of another far more economical way to bring the man back.
Watching the group of people in white coats—who were clearly the experimental staff of the White Room—carry Ayanokouji away, Ryunosuke gave a meaningful glance to Megumi, who stood beside him.
Megumi understood instantly. Even though the other party did not utter a single word, as the person who always accompanied him at 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 stark, pristine white.
Ayanokouji was strapped to a long bench, receiving the torture of a stun baton from several experimental staff members.
This was a direct order from Atsuomi, serving as a punishment because his pride and joy of a son had behaved so defiantly. Giving him a little lesson was only natural.
Ayanokouji did not utter a single word and merely endured it in silence. He was already so accustomed to life in this White Room that his emotions had long since gone numb.
Before long, the staff halted their actions. Atsuomi walked over with both hands tucked behind his back.
"Kiyotaka, do you know what you did wrong now?"
"Ptooey!" Ayanokouji spat directly into his father's face, an act that was truly a piece of knowledge inherited from Ryunosuke.
Atsuomi wiped the spit from his face, his expression instantly turning incredibly dark. "Who taught you to do something like this? How dare you act so insolently toward me!"
"Akasaka Ryunosuke." Ayanokouji answered without the slightest bit of hesitation.
"That bastard Akasaka again! Just what exactly did you learn from him?!" Atsuomi was truly driven into a raging fit because his prized son had been corrupted by someone else.
"Lock him up for three days and three nights so he can cool his head!" Atsuomi ordered his subordinates, demanding that during these three days they were only to deliver food and were strictly forbidden from doing anything unnecessary.
The experimental staff voiced their understanding.
Ayanokouji was subsequently locked inside the white room that resembled 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.
Right in the neighboring cell was Yagami Takuya. Grasping the iron bars with both hands, he immediately hurled a taunt after the guards had left.
"Ayanokouji-senpai, I never expected that even you could 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 did not respond, Yagami did not want to look for further trouble. He went back into his cell and lay down on the bed to sleep soundly. Tomorrow he still had to undergo rigorous training for the sake of surpassing everyone and becoming the strongest in the world. Ayanokouji was his primary target; otherwise, how could he have ever voluntarily returned to this White Room.
Regarding how Ayanokouji had ended up in this place, Yagami had considered various possibilities. For instance, that this was the work of the Superior; he had absolutely never expected that it was Ryunosuke who had caused him to be expelled from school.
In Yagami's memory, Ryunosuke was indeed very strong, at least stronger than himself. However, it should have been impossible for that man to be able to get Ayanokouji expelled.
While Yagami was still deeply immersed in his daydreams, Megumi, who was on the outside, began to launch her move.
She walked casually and openly toward the sole entrance of the White Room. There were two guards there, but Megumi did not take any precautions and simply sauntered straight inside.
The two security guards acted as if they were blind and did not see her presence at all. However, to ensure safety, Megumi still entered the surveillance camera control room and smashed all the monitors to prevent her trail from being sniffed out.
In truth, Megumi was merely overthinking things. With her extremely thin presence, even if she were caught on camera, people would unconsciously ignore her.
Another reason why Megumi did this was actually to prevent Ayanokouji from being discovered during his escape later. After all, that man did not possess a thin presence ability like hers, so it would be very easy for him to be caught red-handed.
Megumi used a stun gun to incapacitate several guards who blocked her path, then snatched several key rings from their bodies. Because she did not know which key could open Ayanokouji's cell, she brought all of the keys along with her.
Once she arrived in front of Ayanokouji's cell, Megumi pulled out the large bundle of keys and prepared to try them one by one.
(It looks like this is going to take quite a long time,) she lamented in her heart. After all, there were hundreds of key blades there; trying them one by one would certainly consume a lot of time.
Naturally, the sound of keys clinking in the neighboring cell was heard by Yagami. With a face full of shock, he gripped the iron bars and tried to thrust his face outward. All he saw was a blurry shadow that looked like pixel artifacts trying to unlock the door for Ayanokouji.
Yagami instinctively cried out in terror, "Mom! There's a ghost!"
Megumi reflexively wanted to pull out her stun gun to silence him for a moment, but after second thoughts, she abandoned the intention. After all, she had already incapacitated all the guards around here; no matter how loudly that man screamed, there would be no one able to hear him.
Yagami soon realized that this blurry shadow felt somewhat familiar; it seemed to be the figure that 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, begging that the figure would be willing to release him as well. This condition was very different from when he was placed at the school; this was true freedom.
At school, he was under strict surveillance with many people watching him. If he could escape together with Ayanokouji now, then he wouldn't have to worry about his future anymore.
Megumi hesitated somewhat about this matter because she could not make the decision on her own. The order she had received from her husband was only to free Ayanokouji.
Ayanokouji chimed in at the perfect moment. "Just call and ask Akasaka."
He wasn't being kind-hearted, but rather because he realized that Yagami had detected Megumi's presence. Even if she only looked like a blurry shadow, it was very easy to associate it with Ryunosuke, who was at the Advanced Nurturing High School. Furthermore, both sides did indeed harbor past grudges.
Megumi nodded. She pulled out her phone and immediately contacted her husband.
Because her phone had not been confiscated by the school—purely because the school administration forgot about her—she did not need to spend extra points to contact the outside world. She only needed to know the phone number and the destination contact. The phones used at the school were fundamentally 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 this situation, asked them to wait for a moment, because he intended to ask Ichika about this first. Coincidentally, he owed that girl a favor, so he intended to use this opportunity to pay off his debt of gratitude.
Ryunosuke found Ichika on the rooftop of the school building, where she was enjoying her lunch on top of a long bench.
He walked closer. He knew that time could not be wasted any further because Megumi was currently still at the enemy's headquarters, a place that was not at all safe to linger in.
Without asking for permission first, Ryunosuke sat straight down beside Ichika.
That action startled Ichika half to death. She instinctively grabbed her bento box, which had almost fallen onto the floor.