"Urgh…"
Ko Ogino groaned as he slowly opened his eyes, his eyelids heavy.
It was pitch-black all around, except for a faint light from above. Looking up, he saw two men in sunglasses and masks standing over him, shoveling dirt onto him.
"Mmmph!!!"
He tried to scream, but his mouth was gagged with cloth. His arms and legs were tightly bound, and a sharp pain shot through his right leg when he moved.
Only then did the terror set in—he was in a dirt pit, and those two men were clearly trying to bury him alive.
"Oh, you're awake."
"…"
Suddenly, Takamine Rinji appeared in his field of view, standing above the pit, smiling down.
Ogino remembered now—he had been watching when Ishigami attacked. He hadn't done anything. But then, for some reason, Rinji knocked him out.
"Mmmph!!!"
Crack!
While the other men continued shoveling dirt, Rinji casually popped open a can of beer.
"Ogino, I've always thought someone like you only survived this long because society is too tolerant. But I'm not so forgiving. You threatened my brother in front of me, pretended to be innocent after, and tried to shift the blame. Thank god I knocked you out in time. Otherwise, this mess would've been harder to clean up."
"MMM!!!"
"Don't bother screaming. We rented this whole area. Even if I removed your gag, no one's coming to save you."
Watching Ogino squirm like a worm in the dirt, Rinji calmly sipped his beer.
"Your sudden disappearance will definitely alarm your parents. They might call the police or hire someone to look for you—that'd be annoying. So I made a call to make them disappear too. Can't risk extra variables."
"..."
Seeing the fear in Ogino Ko's eyes, Takamine Rinji gave a slight smile.
"Oh, don't get me wrong. I didn't do anything to them. I just felt Africa has great development potential, so I pulled a few strings and had them transferred there. It's just... you don't seem to be as lucky."
Takamine Rinji smiled and waved at the person shoveling dirt nearby.
The man, who had been burying Ogino under dirt, nodded and stopped his work. He pulled a pistol from his pocket and handed it to Takamine Rinji.
Takamine took the gun and immediately aimed it at Ogino, a chilling smile spreading across his face.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
"Mm! Mm-mm-mm!!!!"
Three shots fired, all hitting his body. But there was no spray of blood—just overwhelming pain.
"Just kidding. They're blanks. You won't die."
Ogino Ko didn't die, but he was so scared that tears and snot streamed down his face—and his pants were soaked.
"You pissed yourself already? Kids these days really are pathetic."
Takamine jumped down into the pit and yanked the cloth out of Ogino's mouth.
"Takamine… Please let me go!!"
Now able to speak, Ogino broke down in snot and tears, begging for mercy.
"I swear I won't go near Kyoko Ootomo again! Believe me! I'll go back and confess everything! Please don't kill me!!"
"Oh, come on—don't say that. I'm not some devil, you know."
Takamine smiled, though to Ogino, the expression was utterly terrifying.
"If you'd just said this earlier, none of this would've happened. Had to be difficult, huh? Was it worth it?"
"Please… I'm sorry! I'll apologize to Ishigami too! I'll cut all ties with Kyoko Ootomo! I beg you… don't kill me…"
Ogino was genuinely terrified.
"Good boy! Nice, sincere apology."
Takamine gave a small smile, grabbed Ogino by the collar, and with a tug, hurled him out of the pit.
Only once outside the pit did Ogino see the surroundings clearly.
They were in a massive open space, surrounded entirely by integrated buildings.
"This is the organization's research department. Ordinary people can't enter. You're lucky," Takamine said beside him. "If we didn't still have some use for you, you'd already be on a lab table getting experimented on. And once your body started rotting from the inside out, you'd be buried right there in that hole you were just lying in."
"..."
Takamine's words sent chills down Ogino's spine.
"What… do you want me to do?"
"Well… I'm not sure either," Takamine chuckled. "Aunt Kaya didn't say what use you'd be after being rescued."
"..."
"Maybe I should just toss you on the operating table. Make use of every part."
"Nooooo!!!"
---
"Did you hear about what happened in the first year?"
"Yeah, apparently there was a fight. An outsider student beat up a fellow classmate from the drama club and sent him to the hospital."
"I think his name was Takamine Rinji. He used to be a member of the disciplinary committee—always causing trouble for couples on campus."
"So scary~"
"Are outsiders really that arrogant?"
It had been a day since the incident, and Takamine Rinji's name had spread through the entire high school. Even the second-years were discussing it.
A few girls were chatting in the hallway after class.
"I don't think it's that simple~"
"Huh?"
They turned around and saw the familiar blonde girl with manicured nails—Ai Hayasaka.
"Hayasaka? You know what happened in the first year?"
"Not in detail," she said with playful cheer, "but you've heard of Takamine Rinji, right? Every time he cracks down on a couple, it turns out one of them has a history of cheating."
"Oh, I've heard that too."
"Yeah, someone in the next class even went to the disciplinary office to request an investigation."
"Come to think of it…"
"It was probably the guy who cheated, and Takamine caught him. Then things escalated into a fight," Hayasaka smiled. "I'm not saying I approve of his methods~"
"I see…"
"Well, if the guy cheated, getting beaten up doesn't seem so unfair."
"But violence still isn't the right answer…"
Today was Takamine's first day on suspension. Negative rumors about him continued to spread, but someone was clearly working to steer the conversation in a different direction.