Chisa hears the entrance completely close behind her, now sealing her within this semi-pitch black room. At that exact moment, she wants nothing more than to slap herself so hard right there, internally cursing herself for not bringing her night vision goggles, especially now of all times, right when she needs them.

Oh well, there's no point in her complaining about it, especially now that she's here.

Back to her current situation at hand, the more she thinks about it, the more…odd it's all shaping to be.

'What is Mr. Tengan doing in a place like this?' She tries to imagine what his reasons could be for doing so. As much as she doesn't want to think badly of him, she isn't sure if she can find anything innocent about a secret dark basement in the school grounds. A quiet gulp leaves her throat. 'I know it's still too early to say for sure, but somehow, I got a bad feeling about this. I really hope I'm wrong about this, though.'

While getting her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she goes to walk on, following the faint light ahead of her as best as she can, and based on what she knows so far, she can only assume the light is from Mr. Tengan's flashlight; though she can't say that for sure just yet. She can't exactly see who or what is holding that faint light up.

Her steps are still light and quiet, to keep anyone from getting alerted to her presence. She hasn't seen anyone in there yet, but it's a lot better to be safe, just in case. The last thing she'd want is to jeopardize her position, and by extension, Juzo's as well.

As she continues on, suddenly, the light she's been looking at for guidance abruptly disappears, just like that.

'Huh?' She blinks. As the realization dawns upon her, she forces herself to keep her breathing steady. 'Calm down, there's got to be something I can do about this. Freaking out right now of all times won't do any good.'

Since there's nothing else she can do by that point, she decides to set up a new goal for herself: finding the nearest light source to this place before anyone can spot her. It's a lot tougher than it sounds, considering that she lost her only lead a few moments back. Forgive her if she sounds a little paranoid, but if she were to pull up her phone and use its light, there's no doubt someone will spot her.

So, for now, she has no choice, but to rely on her sense of touch to get through her dark surroundings. Her hands stretch out to feel for something, anything she can palm or feel on. She quietly breathes out in relief when she finally feels something touch her palms. It's a bit cold, and since it feels like it's got a bigger space than she can see, she assumes that it's a wall.

She continues to walk on from there, all while using the wall she found as her guide. Though, since she still can't see anything at the moment, finding an area with some lights might take her a while. Though, she's hoping it won't take her too long; she can already imagine the consequences if she fails to do so.

The longer she walks in this…basement of some sort, the more she notices that it's not actually as dark as it looks. In fact, she's sure that she could actually start seeing bright white lights of some sort from there.

Chisa wonders if she should start heading towards there. She still isn't sure if that's the exit or not, and for all she knows, there could someone up there. But then, being able to see where she's actually going would be so much more helpful compared to what she's doing now.

She makes her mind up, and so, she heads to where those bright lights are, still taking quiet steps.

Before she knows it, she ends up getting closer to the light. A heavy sense of relief comes over her; things are starting to look so much better for her, both figuratively and literally. But, just as she's about to step into that area with bright lights, suddenly, she hears some footsteps heading towards her way.

Her instincts kick into heavy overdrive, and without thinking much about it, she immediately hides herself from view. Footsteps that aren't from her can only mean one thing; there's another person in there.

Her heart begins to beat faster than it ever did before as a bead of sweat drops from the side of her head. 'This is bad.' She grimaces. One of the worst case scenarios in her situation is starting to happen right now, and she's got to think fast if she wants to get herself out of here.

Steeling herself, she slightly tilts her head, and cautiously takes a peek from her improvised hiding spot, and just as she thought, what she's been fearing has been confirmed. Even a brief glance at that man's uniform is more than enough to let her know he's a security guard, and from the looks of it, one who happens to be patrolling around this area too. Weirdly enough, though, he seems to be the only one around here; Chisa supposes that made things a bit more manageable, but she can't relax too much for now. For all she knew, there could be more of them nearby.

Her mind gets to work, all while she keeps taking quiet deep breaths to keep herself steady. She isn't sure if her plan is going to work, but she supposes she has to try.

And so, she stays still in her hiding spot, patiently waiting for the security guard to come close enough. She checks on him once again, still making sure to keep herself hidden, and just as she thought, that security guard is returning to this area. However, this time his back is turned from her view.

Chisa sees her chance right there, and almost immediately, she springs out from her hiding place without making so much a single noise.

She puts her hand over the man's mouth; she can already picture his eyes widening from shock, but she refused to let that deter her. She didn't even give him the chance to scream or make any noises as she keeps holding him against her chest.

The security guard struggles against her hold, flailing his limbs all around in a vain attempt to free himself. When that didn't work, he then puts his hands over her arm, this time, trying to pry off the hand that's covering his mouth.

She immediately realizes what he's trying to do. Without wasting any more time, she firmly pushes him face-first against the nearest wall, keeping him pinned in place by using her whole body weight. She keeps covering his mouth with one hand, and then quickly presses two of her fingers onto the side of his neck, as hard as she can. But at the same time, she makes sure not to press it too hard; she doesn't want to cause any real harm to this man.

The security guard movements grow more erratic and violent, becoming more desperate than ever to escape from her, this time out of base survival instinct. But no matter how much he tried, she refuses to budge, keeping him pinned to the wall and her fingers kept pressing more to his pressure point.

Over time, the man's struggling begins to get groggy, slower, and clumsier by each passing second. And just like that, he goes slump in her arms without so much a whimper.

Chisa turns her head around a few times, quickly checking if there's anyone else with him. As soon as she confirms that there's no one else here, aside from the two of them, she proceeds to go and carry the man over her shoulders. She then moves to find a more secure spot in this area, and as soon as she finds one, she goes to gently setting him down on the floor.

She looks over the unconscious security guard once more, and a somewhat sheepish look goes over her face. 'I'm sorry. I know you're just doing your job.' She puts her hands together as she mentally apologizes to him. 'I swear, it's nothing personal, really!'

Shortly after that, she gets down on the floor and checks over him. She sighs out in relief after confirming that he's still breathing, and that she can still feel his pulse. Though, even though she managed to knock him out, there is still a few more things she's got to do.

'I'm really sorry for this, but it's better to be safe than sorry.' Chisa mentally apologizes to him once again with a very, very sheepish grin. She then checks the back of his pants' pockets, and sure enough, there's a pair of handcuffs in there.

The situation is a bit funny, in the ironic kind of way, she internally muses as she puts his hands behind his back, and goes with putting the handcuffs over his wrists, securing them in place. After that, she grabs his necktie and undoes it, and then ties it around his mouth as a makeshift gag of some sort.

Other people might say she's going a bit overboard with this, but she can't have him screaming for help when he wakes up. Though, hopefully by that time happens, it'd be hours from now, and she'd already be gone from here by then.

She checks over him once again, she begins rummaging through his clothes, just in case if there's anything she can use while she's out here. Yeah, she's basically mugging him by this point, but it's for a good cause, she swears.

After some time of checking through his stuff, all manages to find is a card and a set of keys. It might not be a lot, but she's sure she's going to have to use it at some point, so she pockets them. Once she's sure there's nothing else on him, she hoists him up. She then walks on ahead, carrying him to a spot where he'd be by himself for a while, and also where people wouldn't be able to spot him rather easily.

Now that she's done with that, she continues on with the main task at hand; get back to looking for where Mr. Tengan might be, and if possible, investigate why there's a frigging secret basement right under Hope's Peak Academy. Again, she's really hoping that the two cases have no connection to each other at all.

She isn't sure where she's going in here at all, and she's sure she lost track of which rooms or areas are which by now. The frustration slowly building up within her, she presses her hands against her face and internally bemoans, 'Forget about calling this place a secret basement. This place might as well be a secret maze instead!'

If Chisa didn't think that she was lost before, she knows she definitely is right now. She has zero clue on wherever she might be right now; it doesn't help that almost every nook and cranny in this place is practically identical to each other, so it's even harder for her to keep track on where she is.

At first, she thinks that she reached a dead end. But then, right before she can try to backtrack her steps, she notices a door close by, somewhere at that corner. Curiosity gets the better of her, and so, she walks towards it, slightly wondering about where it might lead to.

But, just as she's at least a couple of feet close to it, she pauses from her steps and then looks around, in case if there are any more security guards around this area. As soon as she sees there aren't any this time, her hand goes through her pocket, and she takes the keys she got from the security guard she knocked out a while back, out of it. Holding them out, she goes on ahead and checks if any of them can fit in the keyhole.

She tries to put the first one in, frowning when it couldn't fit in. 'Not this.' She pulls out the next one, but this time, this one was too loose. 'Not this either.' She shakes her head before trying another one, and this time, she manages to twist it around perfectly, and the door clicks. 'Got it!'

As soon as she tries to take a peek inside, she immediately crinkles her nose and covers it with both hands. She hasn't even fully entered the room yet, and all of her senses are getting hit with the strong smell of isopropyl alcohol. It's so much, she wouldn't be surprised if the entire room might as well be completely permeated with that scent and other similar ones too.

It didn't take long before she gets herself used to it, and without wasting any more time, she tentatively goes halfway inside. From what she can see so far, it looks to be some kind of room. Though, it's a bit hard for her to truly see anything from here, since it's all dimly lit in dark green lights.

Chisa didn't realize it at first, but once she looks down, she sees her hands have started trembling. She clenches them, closes her eyes, and forces herself to get her nerves together.

And yet, for some reason, she can't shake off the eerily ominous feeling she's getting from this room.

"What are these?" She can't help but mutter to herself. Despite the relative darkness, she can see at least dozens of large, oval-shaped objects right in front of her. She squints, and if she has to guess, they look like pods of some sort. 'Though, if they are pods, what exactly would Hope's Peak Academy need them for?'

She takes her phone out, and then goes on to use its light to shine on the pod, so that hopefully, she can see its details better. If she's to describe it in a sentence or less, all she can is that it looks pretty advanced, way more advanced than any present technology she's seen so far.

As she moves her phone even further, something catches her eye. She looks even closer, and upon realizing what it was, she almost drops her phone out of shock. Barely stopping herself from that, she puts her hand over her mouth, her eyes widening in horror.

Through the light from her phone, she could make out faint outlines of a person inside that pod. From the looks of it, they seem to be unconscious, their chest barely moving in and out. It didn't take her long to realize that it's most likely the same thing with the other pods.

"Oh my God…" She can feel her hands balling into shaking fists. "Hope's Peak Academy can't be doing human experimentation, can they?"

As difficult as it is for her to believe it, she can't deny the facts. It's impossible for the school to not be involved with this, especially not when she saw all of this with her own eyes, right under the school grounds.

Still, she can't help but grow sicker at the idea as she thinks about it even more. "How long has this been going on for?" Her knees wouldn't stop shaking; they feel so weak.

Despite her better judgment, she wills herself to check on the other pods as well. Just as she thought, every last pods she checked on has someone inside it. As soon as she sees that some of them…weren't even breathing at all, she barely resists the urge to throw up on the spot.

"Those poor kids…" Chisa murmurs.

No matter how shaken she is feeling right now, she forces herself to move, snapping a good number of pictures for evidence. It wasn't easy, especially with the dim lighting in mind, but she manages to do it somehow.

But, right as she's about to send them to Juzo and Kyosuke, she frowns when she sees that there is no reception, or even any internet access at all in this area. 'Looks like I'll have to get out of here first, then.' She then puts it back in her pocket.

Chisa turns around, preparing to leave this room. She hasn't even taken a few steps from her position when she suddenly stops, having heard something. A chill runs down her spine when she realizes those noises are nearby.

'W…Where did that come from?'

A part of her wonders if the unsettling atmosphere here made her lose her mind already, but, just in case, she stays there. She waits, and soon, she hears the same noise once again.

It sounds like tapping, and along with that, something that's a bit more faint. The more she listens to it, the more she realizes that it sounds like a voice coming from inside one of the pods.

'Could it be…?'

Without any hesitation, she immediately runs to check on where those noises came from. She takes her phone out once again, using its light as a guide as she looks over each pod. After looking through a good number of them, she then comes across the pod where those faint noises are coming from. Through her phone's light, she can even see the person inside struggling.

She crouches down, looking around to see if there's a button, or anything she can use to open it. 'Come on, there's got to be something that can open this thing!'

She can't find anything close to it, the dim lighting not helping her either, and out of desperation, she puts both hands at the side of the pod's lid. With all the force she can muster, she pulls back and tries to tear it open, but no matter how hard she tries, it wouldn't budge, not even a bit.

Still, she refuses to give up, and forces herself to keep pulling at it, clenching her hands around it, harder than she ever did in her life. She keeps grunting and pulling for who knows how long, until finally, she hears it pop open with a loud crack. She stumbles back a bit, mostly because of how much force she exerted, but she immediately gets herself back on track. Quickly, she pushes the lid upwards, fully opening the pod at last. With that done with, she looks down, checking the inside, and what, or rather, who she sees in there would haunt her for the rest of her days.

The pale, fear-stricken face of a boy, who looks roughly around the same age as her students. Even with the room's dimness, it's clear that he looks so disheveled and terrified from whatever the school might've done to him.

As soon as he sees her, he immediately shies away from her, in an attempt to make himself look even smaller. "No, please…don't hurt me." Tears start running down from his eyes.

Her heart aches so much at the sight. "No, it's okay," She puts her hands up, letting him know that she isn't holding anything, that she truly means no harm to him. "See? I promise I won't hurt you."

That seems to work, as the boy slowly breathes in and out, like he's starting to calm down somewhat, but she can still see the fear and uncertainty in his eyes. Seeing just how terrified he was, that fueled her resolve even more; if she can save even one of these kids from…whatever Hope's Peak Academy was doing to them, then she'll do her damnedest for it. She doesn't waste a single second and undoes the metal straps binding the boy's wrists, then moves on to do the same on his ankles.

"Can you walk?" She gently asks.

The boy tries to stand up from the pod, only to slump forward, crying out in pain. She quickly moves, catching him before he can fall to the floor.

"It hurts so much…" He whimpers.

She can't even imagine how painful it must be for him. "I'm going to carry you now, okay?" With as much gentleness she can muster, she hoists the boy up, checking for his reactions. When she doesn't hear him cry out or flinch from her, she then puts him over her shoulders in a fireman carry; she feels sick to her stomach once she realizes just how abnormally light the boy felt in her arms.

'What have they been doing to you?'

"It's okay," She says, in an attempt to reassure him as much as she can. "You're going to be okay. I swear, I'll get you out of here."

A boy with long black hair stares at the monitor with a lot of interest in his eyes.

Based of the quiet, yet constant blinking and beeping on the screen, one of the pods had been opened through unauthorized means. And from the way it looks, whoever did that also managed to open it with brute force too.

He grins. While he knows that the Steering Committee wouldn't be happy to hear that someone managed to break in here somehow, despite all their planning, he can't help but be a little thankful about it. Nothing much happens around here, and for these past months, he's basically been turned into a glorified punching bag for the Ultimate Hope.

He gleefully snickers. It's about time he puts his talent to good use.

Even when they're out of that room, Chisa can't forget what she just saw. As much as she wishes she could save everyone in that room too, she's still just one person. It's impossible, no matter how much she hates this situation.

'That's why, I have to get back to Juzo as fast as I can, and then we can inform Kyosuke about this.'

The only thing left now is for her to retrace her steps, and hopefully, get the hell out of this damned place. Even though she still isn't sure about how the whole layout of this place works and there's little to no landmarks around here, she's confident that she'd be able to find the exit without much issue.

"Are you doing fine there?" Chisa asks.

The boy shifts around a bit, and then replies in a soft tone, "Y-Yeah, I think so. I'm okay for now."

"That's good to hear," She says back to him. "Just hang on tight there, okay?"

He doesn't say anything back to her this time, but he does hum in affirmation as his body fully relaxes.

As much as she wants to ask him more about exactly what's going on with those pods and…other kids like him, she decides to keep the talking minimal and put it on hold for now. She's going to have to prioritize getting themselves to a safe place before she can ask him anything.

Especially since her hands are full at the moment, she knows it'd be much harder to fight others off in case if she'd need to. Hopefully, that shouldn't happen at all, but she's got to prepare herself if the worst ever happens.

Chisa glances ahead, her eyes scanning through their surroundings. She had a feeling she's been in this area before, so decides to follow through her gut feeling for now and proceeds on, with each area she's stepping into becoming more and more familiar to her.

A loud alarm suddenly starts ringing in their ears. With how sudden it was, Chisa almost flinches and stops out of reflex, but she wills herself to turn tail and runs as fast as she can instead, knowing full well what hearing that means.

The boy makes a distressed noise, instinctively covering his ears because how loud and high-pitched it was. Chisa couldn't do the same, not while she's still carrying him, so she forces herself to endure it for now, no matter how much it threatens to stagger her.

The alarm keeps on ringing, and it didn't seem to show any signs of stopping. Loud footsteps that's running towards them follow after, along with some voices shouting at her.

Without slowing down at all, she looks back for a split second to see who's chasing after them. From what she can see despite the massive distance, their pursuers consist of two security guards; neither of them looks like the one she knocked out a while back.

As much she wants to curse herself for any possible mistakes she might've made, there's no time to wonder how did they find out about her. She can't let them catch her and take this boy back with them.

It didn't take long before the two security guards' voices slowly fade from her ears, and so does the constant ringing from that alarm.

Chisa turns around for a bit, breathing out in relief when she sees that there's no one behind them anymore. She still keeps her guard up, but she slows down with her steps to catch her breath. "I think we've lost them. I'm really sorry about that."

He mumbles, practically begging her, "Just, please don't let them take me back there."

Hearing that only strengthens her resolve even more. "I won't let them."

As they go back on track, Chisa can't help but get a feeling that she's getting closer to the exit somehow. But, from the corner of one of the dead ends nearby, there's another person standing right there; even from this distance, she can see that they have long hair, with a long tongue sticking out of their mouth too.

Instinctively, she freezes for a split second, immediately recognizing that person as Madarai. She remembers seeing him a few times, but she never thought that he might be involved with this too.

Madarai grins from ear to ear; in the blink of an eye, he sprints towards her, faster than humanly possible. Chisa isn't even able to react in shock as the mercenary closes his distance onto her, and then delivers an uppercut right to her stomach.

She gasps out loud from the sheer impact that came from his fist. Despite the sudden spike of sharp pain she felt from that, she tries her best to keep holding onto the boy, keeping a tight yet gentle grip on him, to keep him from falling off without hurting him by accident.

He doesn't even give her a chance to make comeback at him, taking advantage of her staggering form as kicks her from the side.

Because of how much force Madarai applied to that kick, she couldn't stop herself from falling face-first to the ground. Around the same time, the boy falls off from her back, crying out from shock as he hits the ground with a loud thud.

Chisa winces, putting her hands on the cold floor. She shakily pushes herself up; despite the intense aching she's still feeling, she forces herself up on her feet somehow.

She looks around, searching for the boy, and she finally spots him a few meters away from her. But, just as she tries to run back and pick him up, Madarai suddenly runs in front of her, blocking the boy from her view. He raises a fist, aiming it towards her face.

This time, however, Chisa has prepared herself, quickly moving out of the way. Madarai completely misses her. He nearly falls over because of the force he was applying to that attack, but then he regains his footing and turns his attention back to her. He doesn't do anything for now, like he's waiting for her next move first.

She frowns, considering the dilemma before her. 'I'd rather not lay a hand on a student, not like this,' Her eyes narrow as she gets herself in a fighting stance. 'But it looks like I've got no choice but to fight.'

Madarai charges towards her once again, this time with a knife in his hands. Chisa quickly realizes the danger she's in. There's no choice for her but to go on the defensive for now. Her heart pounding faster, she steps back as he tries to cut through her cheek.

Despite Chisa's best efforts to dodge the attack, the blade still manages to cut through a bit of her skin. A tiny bit of warm blood trickles down from the cut.

And yet, she spots an opening right there. Ignoring the stinging from her cheek and refusing to give him another chance to slash at her again, she runs behind him, her hands striking fast and grabbing him by the shoulders, causing him to gasp from shock.

Without any hesitation, she pushes him against the wall as hard as she can; Madarai's face collides with the cold concrete, making him gurgle out as he drops the knife out of reflex.

Now that she managed to disarm him, she tries to knock him out by pressing on his pressure point. Right before she can do so, Madarai wriggles and twists himself around, with far more strength than Chisa anticipated; it was far stronger than the security guard she knocked out by several times.

And for good measure, Madarai takes advantage of the fact his hands remained free, so he pushes himself against the wall, the force taking Chisa along with it, causing her to stumble back and freeing himself from her grasp.

Though a bit stunned, Chisa realizes exactly what he's going to do next, and so, she kicks him in the face at the exact moment he crouched down. She won't let him take the knife again!

She kicks him once again, this time under the chin for good measure, before going down to try to grab the knife for herself.

At that moment, she feels like something, or rather, someone is behind her. Out of instinct, she turns her eyes to the side, and they widen. 'Wait, when did he get there?' Acting as quickly as she can, she moves and rolls off to the side, canceling her move as she narrowly dodges the attack from behind.

Her cap gets knocked off from the sheer force of it, and it gracelessly lands on the floor.

Once Chisa stands up and gets herself back into position, she blinks, wondering if her vision has gone wrong. 'Wait, hold on, why is there two of them now?' After thinking on it some more, she shakes her confusion off, and goes back to focus on her, now two, opponents.

Just dealing with one of them was tough enough, and now that there's two of them, with one of them having retaken the knife, she isn't sure if she can beat them, but she'll have to try somehow.

Speaking of that, to say that both Madarais are crazily synchronized with each other's moves would be a huge understatement. They pace around her, letting her know that she's surrounded at both fronts and utterly outnumbered.

The surrounding atmosphere is thick with tension from all parties.

Chisa stands there, taking deep, heavy breaths to keep herself calm as much as possible. Her eyes go from one Madarai, then to the other one, scanning their movements and waiting for them to make their move first.

She had a feeling that if she were to try to attack any of them right now, the other would take advantage of her blind spot and take her down for good.

For a few more moments, none of them steps forward to make the next move. All three sets of eyes stay on each other, watching and waiting for the right moment.

Suddenly, one of the Madarais, the one holding the knife, runs towards her, while the other one goes behind her. Chisa had a feeling they'd try that tactic, so she waits until they're both close enough to her.

Once they are, she doesn't hesitate to punch the first Madarai at the cheek, even as he tries slashing at her once again, with her narrowly dodging them as much as she can. She then elbows the other one right in the gut when she felt him try to attack her with a bear hug.

Chisa tries to move back, to lessen the gap between her and the two Madarais, at the very least. Yet, in the next blink of her eye, she sees more of them pop up from seemingly out of nowhere. If the first two Madarais are counted, then their whole group now consists of eight of them.

All of them quickly surround her in a circle, leaving her without any room to escape. They didn't give her any chance to try to push one of them as they all jump on her in a dog pile. The eight Madarais take their chance to grab at her. Chisa struggles against them, refusing to go down just like that, but that only made them tighten their hold onto her arms and legs.

Several loud snaps of limbs getting dislocated and broken echo in this area. Chisa bites back her screams, her fingers twitching as unimaginable pain spread through all four of her limbs, followed by a stinging sense of numbness.

One of the Madarais holds her up by her arms, completely restraining her.

Several men in white uniforms come in. They go and grab at the poor boy with far too much roughness and force, completely disregarding his pained cries and screams.

"No, no, no, please…don't. Don't put me back in there, please…" His body shakes and trembles uncontrollably, struggling against them. "I want to go home…"

As much as she wants to stop them, Chisa couldn't do anything; every time she tries to move, she'd feel several spikes of unbearable, throbbing pain on her limbs, and the Madarai holding her so tightly didn't make it any better.

Completely helpless, she watches as the men hold him down. Right as they're about to tranquilize him in his shoulder, the boy begins to move even more erratically than before, screaming at them in a raw, hoarse voice, "Don't touch me!"

They ignore him, keeping him pinned down on the floor. One of the men takes a syringe out and then injects it into the boy's shoulder. The boy keeps struggling, but after a few seconds have passed, he goes slump. The men pick him up, most likely taking him back to that horrible place.

"Ah, Yukizome. Fancy seeing you here."

Chisa turns her head to the source of that voice, immediately recognizing as Mr. Akiyama. She narrows her eyes, immediately feeling her blood boil as soon as she sees his face.

She tries to ignore the unbearable throbbing from all four of her limbs and keeps struggling against her captor as hard as she can. "What in the actual hell is wrong with you?!" She shouts at him, harsher than she's ever been. "I already knew you and your men are the one of the most despicable people I've ever met, but this is a new low, even for you! I can't believe you'd go so far and kidnap these kids for some sick and twisted experiments!"

He condescendingly shakes his head. "I'm afraid you are sorely mistaken. We didn't take any of these reserve course students by force. What we did do, however, was to tell them that they have the potential to enter the main course through a special program, and they all agreed to it. All we wanted is to create the Ultimate Hope," He fervently raises both hands. "What better way than to take a talentless individual, and then imbue them with every known talent?"

She growls, her teeth gritting against each other. "So you're admitting that you exploited those students, and for what? For some completely insane idea you've got about hope!"

"I figured you wouldn't understand where we're coming from. It's such a shame, really." He shakes his head with a mocking smile.

"The only thing shameful about this is you and everyone else involved performing human experimentation on these kids! You promised to give them a brighter future, but all you did was to cruelly rip it away from them!"

"What's going on in here?" A familiar voice calls out.

Chisa swallows, bracing herself as she turns towards the source of that voice. Her eyes widen as her fears got confirmed. "Mr. Tengan?"

His eyes widen as well. "Yukizome?" He steps back, putting a hand over his chest.

Mr. Akiyama sighs in annoyance, pinching the bridge of his nose as he turns to him. "You should've disciplined her more when she was one of your students. She nearly stole one of our private properties tonight, and then went out of her way to assault our security guards as well."

She shakes her head. "That isn't true at all, Mr. Tengan! They were performing inhumane experiments on the reserve course students. One of them wanted to get out of here, so I brought him with me, and I had no choice but to defend myself."

Mr. Tengan suddenly grows quiet. He didn't look at either of them; his face is unreadable, but it's clear that he's thinking about whom he should believe in.

Chisa tensely waits for his reply. As bleak as her situation is looking to be, she hopes that he would speak out against this, that he's still the same reasonable man she knew him back when she was one of his students.

A few moments pass by, and Mr. Tengan sighs, shaking his head. "I'm sorry things turned out this way. It's truly disheartening."

She feels a sharp, indescribable kind of pain in her chest. Those words shattered any remaining hope she had for the old headmaster. Even though she followed him here in the first place, a part of her didn't want to believe the old headmaster isn't involved with any of these at all, that it was all just a big misunderstanding. But, now that he's here, right in front of her, and he didn't say or do anything to condemn any of this, it's impossible for her to deny it any longer.

It didn't mean it hurt any less.

"It's such a shame things have to end this way, Yukizome." Mr. Akiyama suddenly interjects. "If only you hadn't stuck your nose in matters that shouldn't concern you, you'd still be able to coddle your beloved students."

Chisa sees that one of the men in uniforms is starting to walk towards her, and out of instinct, she struggles even more. "Wait, no, please, don't!"

The man takes another syringe out. There's not a single emotion on his face as he wordlessly injects it onto her wrist.

It hasn't even been a minute, but Chisa can already feel her senses grow more groggy by each passing second. Before her strength can completely fade away, she looks at the former headmaster one more time. There's so many emotions swirling within her, and all of them feel so terrible.

"Mr. Tengan…why?"

Everything feels so heavy, and before she even realizes it, her vision goes black.

Juzo yawns, not even bothering to lower his voice. He's got a hunch that there's s no one else but him right here, anyway. The rest of the security guards have been scattered around the school at these late hours, just in case if some students thought it'd be a great idea to sneak and loiter around.

Though, he'll admit that he also arranged it so that they don't even get a chance to encounter her, assuming she went along with investigating what he told her about. He knows that she can handle herself well and can be scarily sneaky if she wanted to, but he had to make sure, just in case. The old men running this place have been requesting for more frequent security patrols, even during ridiculously late hours.

He leans himself, letting himself relax as he thinks back on how the past two days have been for him.

As huge as the whole culture festival was, there wasn't a lot of trouble that happened. All the worst that happened is him having to break up a couple of fights, and even then, the fights weren't anything too serious. Even at the very worst, it's just the usual trampling over others while in a long line. It's rather relieving, if he's being honest.

Although his shift has already ended quite some time ago, he decides to stay around a little longer, more or less excusing it as part of his overtime. So now, all he's been doing since is then is waiting at the corner of the school gates, wondering about how Chisa is doing now.

As tempting as it was to send a message to ask her about how she's doing, he knows that it's not going to help at all. For all he knows, she could be in the middle of investigating something very sensitive, and if he were to contact her by that time, he could end up blowing her cover or worse.

It doesn't mean he's alright with it, though. He absolutely hates the idea; it's no different from leaving her to fend for herself.

But there's nothing else he can do. He has no choice, but to believe in his friend, and to keep waiting for her to contact him first. They've come this far already, and one of the last thing he wants is to ruin everything.

Especially not what Kyosuke has been working for all this time.

He can already picture how Kyosuke would react if that ever happens, and…even the mental image alone is enough to send a heavy chill down his spine.

Juzo grimaces, running his fingers through his hair. 'Fuck, I need to do something else before I start losing it.'

Taking several deep breaths, he looks over his to phone to check on the time. He raises a brow and then frowns once he sees it. 'That's how long I've been out here already?' While not as late as some of the other nights he spent here, it comes somewhat close to it, since it's at least an hour before midnight comes in.

Letting out a quiet sigh, he pockets his phone once again. He thinks about what he's going to do next in the meantime.

As minutes go on, he remembers what Chisa told him not too long ago. If he still hasn't heard anything from Chisa after midnight passes, he should head back to his place as soon as he can.

He subconsciously grits his teeth at the idea. Even if she's the one who proposed that idea to him in the first place, plainly abandoning her just like that is far too wrong for him to even consider it. And yet, it'd be far too suspicious if he were to stay here until morning comes. It could potentially give them away.

Time slowly, and so painfully, goes on. When he checks over his phone once again, midnight has come. Again, there's not a single message from Chisa.

It takes every last self-control within Juzo to not immediately crush his phone, or throw it off the floor. Forcing himself to take deep breaths, he puts it back into his pocket. His hands clench into fists, and they begin to uncontrollably shake.

He hates how utterly powerless he is.

A/N: Remember back when I said that Chapter 19 is probably the longest chapter I've had for this fic so far? Welp, this new chapter has officially overthrown that, holy fricking hell. Also, I gotta admit, writing fight scenes are a big pain, and I sincerely apologize if they were kinda bad in here haha.