It isn't normal for the Steering Committee members to constantly and restlessly pace around inside a room just like this. What nearly happened from a while back is still fresh on their minds, and even though they tried so hard to keep themselves composed, it wracked them up so much.
They've done everything they can to prevent this kind of scenario from happening. Their test subject's past escape attempt was always at the back of their minds; as much as they didn't want to admit it, it was a big wake-up call to them. Since then, they've been closely scrutinizing every last thing to keep the Kamukura Project secure.
And yet, it seems like even with all their preparations, it wasn't enough.
They never thought that someone, who's not only an outsider from their circle, but also someone they personally disliked, would break into the underground lab. Not only that, she also attempted to steal one of their test subjects, and would've undone everything they've been working for. Based on the belongings they seized from her, she gathered enough photographic evidence that would, no doubt, be used to destroy the school's reputation.
At the moment, the now former teacher of Class 77-B is still unconscious in another room. Matsuda is currently making quick work of her, erasing some of her memories, as well as extracting and investigating others he can find. It would help in giving them a clue, or more, on why she did what she had done.
Just this once, all four members of the Steering Committee feel slightly thankful that Matsuda is working with them. Even though their overall opinion of him still hasn't changed, even a little bit.
They have no idea on how long they've been waiting around, doing nothing but twiddling their thumbs around as they anxiously waited for what the neurologist would report to them.
It is…rather bothersome, to say the least. They didn't like how helpless this entire situation have made them.
After what might've been long hours of waiting, Matsuda comes in the room without even bothering to knock first. The boy's face has his usual resting scowl on, so it's hard to read exactly what's going on in his mind.
Mr. Minami is the first one to come forward. He tries his best to immediately remove any sense of unease he's been having until now, and then asks him, "Did you find anything from those memories you extracted?"
Matsuda narrows his eyes at him, as if the older man is the stupid one. "She's a spy for Kyosuke Munakata, for one." He bluntly replies.
Mr. Akiyama blinks after hearing that. "…Come again?" He says in a heavily disbelieving tone.
The boy puts a hand over his forehead. "Tch, don't tell you've gone this senile. I said that she's a spy for Kyosuke Munakata. You know, the one in charge of Hope's Peak Overseas. Unless if all four of you are suffering from dementia right now and forgot about that too."
As much as it got on his nerves, Mr. Mizushima decides to ignore that rude comment. "Are you sure about that?"
Matsuda reaffirms in an annoyed tone, "Yes, I can confirm those are in her memories, including the more recent ones." He then mutters under his breath, "I really wish I could wipe out some of the ones I saw. She has way too many memories about…those." And then he looks away as if he saw something…more perverse in those memories he prodded in.
All four of them exchange looks of disgust at each other. Yet, they all internally agreed it shouldn't have surprised them at all. Yukizome has always been a deviant, in more ways than one. Though, with that out of the way, that tiny observation isn't quite as important as what Matsuda has revealed to them.
They may not know the exact context just yet, but still; Kyosuke Munakata, despite his goal of expanding Hope's Peak Academy beyond their country, is clearly plotting something against them. Why else would he go through the effort of getting this woman to spy on this school for him? Not only that, Yukizome has been teaching for at least more than a year now, and they can only imagine what she's been reporting back to him.
Just the thought of it is enough to raise the paranoia within them.
"Is there anything else you've discovered?" Mr. Sasaki tentatively asks, quietly swallowing the lump that's forming in his throat. He had a feeling that Matsuda hasn't told them everything yet, and he isn't sure if he's completely ready to hear the rest of what he discovered.
"She isn't the only one, by the way." Matsuda waves a hand off, as if it wasn't a big deal at all. He didn't seem to care how that only served to startle them even more. "You old geezers might want to keep a closer eye on the head of the security too."
Even though the neurologist didn't mention that person by name, all four of them immediately knew who exactly he's talking about.
"Should we deal with Sakakura as well? Now that we took out Yukizome, he might start becoming suspicious as well." Mr. Minami sputters, as he nervously pulls on the collar of his shirt with his index finger.
A sound that sounds like a mix between a chuckle and a scoff comes out of Mr. Sasaki. "Don't even bother. While his strength is undeniable, he's hardly a threat. We can always cover up what happened with Yukizome, and he'd be none the wiser," He shakes his head, as if he's pitying the man he's talking about. "He is nothing more than a dumb brute."
"Though, that begs the question," Mr. Minami rubs over his chin with his hand. "What will we do with Yukizome now?"
Matsuda looks at them like they're a bunch of madmen. "Don't tell me you're going to kill her for that."
Mr. Sasaki clicks his tongue, feeling nothing but disappointment at the neurologist for saying that. "That's what we would've considered, had she not been a graduated Ultimate. We may immensely dislike her, but we cannot simply ignore that factor because of that."
"I would hate to admit this, but it is far trickier now. We can't simply terminate her, yet at the same time, we can't let her run free either, even with her memories of this incident erased." Mr. Mizushima adds with a shake of his head.
Mr. Akiyama hums in thought. "We could always smuggle her out of the country. She'd be well-provided for and be none the wiser about everything." With a frown, he disdainfully adds, "Besides, Mr. Tengan would be far from happy if we did anything too terrible to her. He's always been far too soft on her, even during those days when he has the headmaster."
"That might work." Mr. Minami says as he slightly nods, now considering that idea.
It's not a completely satisfactory solution for their big problem, but they suppose it's much better than doing nothing. In addition to that, there is still that one more spy they have to deal with, but again, considering who it was, they placed that piece of information under their lowest priority for now.
In the meantime, they'll continue to observe the next phase of the Kamukura Project. So far, none of the current test subjects have shown promise just yet. It's disappointing, but at the same time, something they should've expected by now.
Even now, they still have no idea what allowed Izuru Kamukura to not only survive past the original procedures, but also proceed to thrive without suffering from severe complications, even after it's been long done with. The Steering Committee supposes that's something they'll all have to find out all over again.
Hajime glances back at the clock. It's been about three hours now, and the class should've started back then. He then sneaks a peak at everyone, now noticing just how tense the class atmosphere has become.
"Huh, that's weird. Ms. Yukizome has never been this late before." Akane comments out loud. It sounds kinda flippant at first, but there is a hint of worry in her tone when she said that.
Now what she mentioned it, she does have a point with that. At most, there were a few close calls, just a few minutes away from the official start of the class, but their teacher was never late by several hours like this.
He thinks back on the last time their class has been with her. He remembered that she was with them up until the end of the culture festival's second day. None of them thought too hard about it back then, but now that she still hasn't shown up even until now…it's eerily concerning, to say the least.
Suddenly, the door opens. Everyone in the class immediately glances at that direction as soon as they heard that.
"Ms. Yukizome?" Ibuki calls out, with some hope in her voice.
Instead of their beloved teacher popping out of the door with a smile, it's someone else. An old man, to be exact.
The counselor's eyes widen as he immediately recognizes who that was. "Mr. Tengan? What are you doing here?"
Mr. Tengan didn't answer him. He keeps walking forward, up until he's at the center of the class.
Hajime gets a sinking feeling in his stomach. He swallows the lump in his throat, deciding to ask the one question everyone's been wondering about. "Mr Tengan, do you know where's Ms. Yukizome?"
The old man takes a deep breath, as if he's bracing himself before telling them a heavy kind of news. By then, Hajime realizes that it wasn't a good sign at all.
"I'm sorry, everyone. Your teacher was caught in an accident last night," Mr. Tengan explains in a solemn tone. "Thankfully, she's alive, but she hasn't awoken at this time and the damage that was done is far too severe. It isn't possible to visit her at this moment because she is still undergoing treatment, and not to mention, there's a high chance she wouldn't recognize any of you if she wakes up."
Kazuichi's eyes widen. "No way…" His breathing grows shakier as he forces himself to smile. "You're joking, right? Please, this isn't funny at all, you know."
Mr. Tengan slowly shaking his head at their direction gave them the answer.
Kazuo quietly left the classroom after delivering that news to them. He remembers the way everyone looked when he told them the news about Yukizome, and it was far more heartbreaking than he thought it would be. It felt like children discovering that their mother has been badly hurt, and she isn't coming back to them for a long time.
At that moment, he could truly see now that those students truly cared for their teacher. It's no wonder she adored her students so much.
Once he notices that he's alone, and that there's no one else around him, he takes something out of his pocket. He then stares at the photo album with a heavily solemn look on his face.
It's filled with all sorts of happy and goofy pictures of her and her students having fun together. There's so many of them, possibly about a year or so worth of pictures, and yet, it's only been filled halfway through.
A sharp pang hits his heart upon realizing the reason why it's like that. Yukizome thought that she'd be able to fill the photo album up until their graduation.
Subconsciously, his hands begin to shake some more, and yet, he refuses to drop it.
The photo album was left to him after they've seized the rest of Yukizome's belongings. The Steering Committee didn't care about what he might do with it. They even told him that he could burn it for all they care. And yet, when he heard that, just the thought of doing it made him feel sick. It just…felt so wrong for him to do so.
Especially after the betrayal he's done to Yukizome. Even he didn't actively help them restrain her, a betrayal is still a betrayal. The look in her eyes right before they tranquilized her will forever haunt him. He can still hear the utterly heartbroken words she said to him as well, even until now.
Kazuo realizes that he's been staring at the photo album for a long while now. With a soft sigh, he puts it back in his pocket. He figures he'd have to keep it safe in there for now. It's the least he can, after everything he's done up to this point.
He can only hope that someday, it will be rightfully returned to them.
Yasuke pinches the bridge of his nose. If it were up to him, he'd have his peace and quiet around here, especially since he has his own living space. But no, certain people just had to have other ideas. To say he doesn't appreciate nosy intruders is a big understatement, especially at this kind of hour.
Though, then again, considering the kind of person Madarai, as well as the rest of his brothers (seriously, what the hell have his parents been doing to get so many children at once?), yeah. There's no way he can realistically keep any of them out for too long.
"So, you sure you took care of that teacher?" Madarai asks.
Yasuke doesn't know whether this Madarai is Isshiki, or any of the other brothers. And honestly, he doesn't care enough to bother who is who. They all look and act the same anyway, to the point of being more like clones than brothers, so he might as well treat them the same too.
He resists the urge to roll his eyes. "Assuming that the doctors and nurses Hope's Peak Academy hired sticks strictly close to the script, Yukizome won't suspect anything is off. As far as she knows, she got into some weird car accident and lost some of her memories. She won't come poking her nose in their business again." He flippantly explains as he turns the page of his manga.
Yeah, he hasn't even been looking right at Madarai the whole time. He hopes that simple answer would be enough, but no.
Madarai decides to press some more about that topic. "How do you know she won't regain her memories some time down the line?"
This time, Yasuke doesn't resist the urge to snort at that. Despite what the old farts from the Steering Committee thinks, he didn't actually erase Yukizome's memories. He couldn't exactly do that without giving her severe brain damage, like what happened with some of the unlucky Kamukura Project test subjects. Instead, what he did was lock those memories away, right into the deepest corner of her mind.
"As long as she doesn't come and try to visit Hope's Peak again, she won't," He flips another page with an apathetic shrug. "Of course, it's not like she'd have a reason to do that anyway. Even if she somehow got the urge to visit the school for some reason, it's going to take her a while, considering her location."
"Ohh, I see." Madarai acknowledges with a slight nod. "I'm surprised that the Steering Committee thought this through."
"Yeah, it is rather surprising, considering how little they think of how things will work out in the long run." Yasuke replies with a slight shrug. "It's almost amazing what a lot of paranoia can do to some people."
Then again, he figures that it's only a matter of time before all their questionable decisions come to bite them back in the ass. Even with the surprising amount of insight they gained because of their increasing paranoia, they still didn't change all that much as a whole.
They're still the same delusional, out-of-touch, slimy old men he sees them as.
Juzo looks over his phone once again, mulling over his options. Now that's he holed up back in his apartment, he's been thinking on what exactly he should do next. He hasn't found anything useful despite his position, and then there…the incident he heard about.
Chisa was caught in a car accident, some time after the culture festival has ended. Or at least, that's what they told him back at Hope's Peak. Other than that, there weren't a lot of details he knows, like exactly where it happened and the time.
At first, he believed it. But as he thought about it some more, the more it didn't make any sense to him, especially when they didn't give him any more information other than the basic. It didn't help when they refused to let him visit her, somehow making an awfully convenient excuse that she isn't conscious at the moment and that they're not sure if she's going to make it.
Juzo is not in denial, he simply has a gut feeling about it. Besides, it's not like there's no reason for him to doubt it. After all, they did cover up the two incidents from the reserve course a year ago, and he assisted in it, even if he didn't exactly like it.
Finally making his mind up, he presses the phone against his ear, waiting for Kyosuke to pick it up. He can only hope that Kyosuke forgives him for calling him at this ungodly late hour. He can't exactly make this call back at Hope's Peak Academy; he can't exactly fully trust the school grounds at the moment, especially not after what they told him.
The phone continues to ring on, and several uncomfortable moments of waiting go by him. He stays still, anxiety spiking up within him as he knows there isn't much he can do by this point. The ringing continues on and on, until…
The ringing finally stops, letting him know that Kyosuke picked it up. It didn't take long before his voice becomes audible from the device. "Juzo?"
"Kyosuke, I…" He involuntarily pauses, like something got caught up in his throat. He isn't sure on how he'd even start this conversation at all, especially with the topic in mind.
"Juzo," Kyosuke repeats, this time with a heavily concerned tone. "Is everything okay in there?"
His free hand clenches into a fist at his side, as he swallows. "I have some bad news." With a somewhat shaky breath, he forces himself to say at last, "Chisa was caught in a car accident a few days ago."
For a long minute or so, there's nothing but complete, eerie silence on Kyosuke's end.
Juzo stays quiet as well, anxiously waiting for the white-haired man's answer.
Several more seconds of silence go by before Kyosuke finally replies back with, "She...what?" His voice
Juzo winces; he can hear that Kyosuke is just as agitated as he is, if not even more so, considering his relationship with Chisa. He makes himself calm his nerves down, figuring that it won't be any good if both of them are anxious wrecks. He elaborates on that even further. "That's what they've been saying to me back at Hope's Peak, but I'll be honest. I don't believe them." He bluntly tells him.
"What do you mean by that?" Kyosuke asks.
For a second, Juzo hesitates a bit. He has a feeling that what he's about to suggest would be tactless, especially after what he just told him, but he continues, "I know what Chisa was doing last night. She was investigating some of the rumors I've told her about, the one about Mr. Tengan visiting the founder's statue rather frequently."
"Is that so?" Even based on Kyosuke's voice, it's clear that he's raising a brow in interest.
"Yeah," Juzo nods. "In fact, she told me to leave the school grounds if I don't hear anything from her past midnight, and…" He breathes out, remembering how that night went. "She didn't contact me like she said she would've. I honestly thought that they found her out, but then they told me it was a car accident. I believed them at first, but the more I think about it, the more it just doesn't line up."
Kyosuke goes quiet on the other line once again, and Juzo worries that he ended up offending him.. Before he can apologize or say anything to take everything he said back, the other man begins speaking once again.
"As much as I want to give the school the benefit of the doubt, you do raise some good points right there. I'll admit that it lines up with my personal suspicions of the school as well."
"You...really think so?"
"Yes," Kyosuke reaffirms. "I remember that you and Chisa told me that Hope's Peak Academy covered up several incidents at the reserve course from a year ago. Then there's the fact that far too many of their reserve course students have been dropping out, even more so during this year."
"Huh." Juzo blinks, as he considers what Kyosuke just told him. "I thought that those brats were just being way over their heads and gave up, but when you put it that way, it does sound rather suspicious."
"Exactly. Assuming that Chisa…" Kyosuke momentarily pauses, before continuing on with, "If she has indeed found something that incriminates them, then the only logical step they'd take is to take her out of the equation and cover it up, as they usually do. But this time, I assume her status as an alumnus of Hope's Peak Academy would make it harder for them to simply do that, and I truly hope that it's the case."
"I hope so too."
"In any case, don't let them know you're suspicious about them. Let them think that you truly believe in the cover story they gave you."
He snorts, barely resisting the urge to chuckle as he confidently replies, "That'd be very easily done. Those old men already underestimate me."
He'll admit; it was very frustrating to him at first, especially when they kept talking over him like he's a toddler compared to them. But now, it looks like it's gonna work well in his favor this time around. They won't suspect anything off with him.
"That makes things even better, then." After saying that, Kyosuke suddenly goes quiet for a second or so, probably realizing what that'd imply. "Uh, no offense. I didn't mean it that way." He sheepishly apologizes.
Juzo is tempted to chuckle back at him in good fun. "None taken." With that out of the way, he isn't sure on how he'll end this call, so he decides to go with a simple, "So, I hope you stay safe in there."
Kyosuke chuckles for a bit, and then he replies with so much sincerity in his voice, "You better do the same there, then. I'm counting on you."
"I swear I won't disappoint you." Juzo finds himself replying out of habit.
The call ends, and now, Juzo is left with nothing but his thoughts once again. He reluctantly sits himself down on his bed. Despite what he promised Kyosuke a few moments ago, if he's being honest, he doesn't even know where he'd start, especially not on where he'd get more information about his suspicions.
He doesn't have Kyosuke's leadership skills, nor does he have any of Chisa's tact; all he has is his physical strength going on for him. It did great in intimidating the men serving under him, but in this kind of mission, he knows far too well that it isn't enough.
Juzo bitterly smiles. He supposes that in a way, those men running Hope's Peak were somewhat right about one thing.
Chisa groans, now opening her eyes. As soon as her vision completely clears, she then realizes that whatever this place is, it doesn't look like her apartment, or her office. In fact, it doesn't look like anything she can recognize at all.
'Huh? Where am I? What time is it now?' While trying to keep herself calm as much as she can, she then tries to sit herself up. Suddenly, she puts her hand over her forehead and groans so more. "Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow."
Her head hurts so much, way more than those times her head would get punched in sometimes. If anything, it feels like it just got split open. She isn't sure why she went with that comparison, but it does sound like it. And then there's the rest of her body too. Even throughout her career, it never hurt this much before.
She hears a voice, and it's one that she doesn't recognize at all either. Assuming that it wasn't in her head just now, she decides to look around for the source of that voice, and before she knew it, she spots another person with her.
From what she can see so far, that person is a woman, and she seems to be wearing some kind of nurse uniform.
The woman blinks, probably out of surprise, and begins to approach her slowly. She then turns her attention to her, and says something.
Chisa then slightly frowns, realizing she can't understand what the other woman is saying at all. "Um…" She awkwardly starts, now also realizing she has no idea how to convey she can't understand her at all.
That other woman blinks, looking like she realized exactly that. She then talks to her in surprisingly fluent Japanese, "Can you understand me?"
"Oh, yeah! I can understand you." Chisa affirms with a nod and a smile. "Do you know what happened to me?"
She nods. "Ah, about that. This might be a bit hard for you to take in, but," The other woman pauses, before telling her, "You have been in an accident."
"An…accident?" Chisa repeats in disbelief. She doesn't remember anything like that at all. Not to mention, that explanation feels…kind of off, somehow. She isn't sure why she's feeling that, but still. Maybe it's because she just can't picture herself getting in an accident in the first place? Then again, accidents are supposed to be unexpected, so…
"Yes," The other woman nods as she further explains, "Most of the damage went to your head, but it looks the rest of your body didn't get as badly damaged as it would've been."
'My head?' Chisa tentatively reaches her hand out to that part. As her fingers touch the side of her head, she immediately feels the still-fresh bandages wrapped around it. "What kind of accident is it, though?"
"A car accident of some sort, from what I've heard. The report said that the car didn't fully hit you, but you did end up landing on the pavement head-first, and the damage was severe enough. You were unconscious for several weeks."
"Ohh," Chisa blinks, and then nods. "I guess that makes sense." As she thinks about it more, one of the things the woman said to her stuck out, and so she blurts out, "Wait, hold on, I've been out for weeks?"
The other woman nods again. "Yes. We weren't sure if you were going to make it, if I'm being honest. It's a relief that you woke up when you did."
Chisa can already imagine tough it was for them during that time. "Haha, yeah. It really was."
'Also, it's a good thing I still have my insurances for this kind of thing, then.' She internally remarks to herself, wanting to think of something to lighten up the sorta serious situation she's stuck in.
Still, there is one thing that's been bothering her.
'Though, why do I feel like…like I've forgotten something very important?'
The constant noises of a mouse clicking and the clacking of a keyboard is the only thing Junko can hear at the moment. It's only been a few hours at most now, and honestly, she's already growing sick of hearing it over and over again.
Like, seriously, for a school that's being run by a bunch of out-of-touch old geezers, their cybersecurity is surprisingly excellent. She thought that their password would be easy to guess, something like 'hopespeakacademy123' or something else on those lines, but no. No matter how many times she's tried, she can't even come close to cracking it. It went to the point that the system automatically blocked her out. She managed to find a workaround with it now, but still, that was a big pain for several months.
Also, thankfully, since she's obviously still here at the school, they never traced it back to her, but still. That was unusually competent of them to implement; again, this is the same school that's mostly being run by wrinkly old men who probably never touched a computer once in their lives.
And then there's a bunch of other things she's got to consider too, like how it's practically impossible to hack into it.
It's like the Ultimate Programmer herself personally put it up. Then she bestowed her magic programming skills on it or something, and then upgraded the whole damn thing to something that's around as secure and encrypted on around the level of government securities.
Or wait, now that she thought about it more, she does faintly remember that the Ultimate Programmer used to be here, and now, that doesn't sound so farfetched, actually. She kinda forgot about which class that programmer attended, and to be honest, she won't bother to look it up right now, but still, her point stands.
She has no idea if any of that was accurate at all, but still. That's just basically to sum up how much of a tough nut to crack it is.
And then there's the fact that procrastination's a big bitch to deal with. Even though classes aren't mandatory in here at all, Taka somehow managed to convince Makoto to get everyone to attend their class every day. And that's without getting into the whole lot of other stuff she's gotta deal with, especially things that are outside her classes.
It's just, ugh.
Maybe if she hadn't been hit by that truck around three years ago, this would've been a shit ton easier. It's a big shame that the analysis talent she had since practically birth got washed down so hard after that. She might've gotten this case over with in the past three months or so if she still had it.
So, without the exclusive admin access for the past few months, she's got no choice but to manually search her up. So far, the only thing she's found about this Nanami person is that she used to attend some school called Sakurai High and…that's about it, really. Like, damn, this girl doesn't even have her own social media profile, and the only reason why she found out about that is because of Nanami's mother posting it.
It's probably just her, but she kinda gets the feeling that Nanami's mother is one of those kinds of parents. The ones who show their kids off like they're very special and shiny trophies for the world to see.
Anyways, she's getting a bit off-track, so it's back on looking for this girl. Now that she got some of her time back, Junko has gone back to work and tried looking up Nanami's profile within the school's database multiple times already, and so far, it all ended the same exact way.
Case in point…
Error.
File not found.
She groans at seeing yet another error screen that popped up on her screen. Yay, goodie. She never thought that looking for information about some random average jane would be a lot harder than it looks. Even digging up on the many dirt surrounding Hope's Peak is a lot easier than this. It's been grinding down on her gears the whole time—
Wait, hold it right there.
For a split moment, her eyes widen in realization. What's this? She's actually…feeling kind of stuck and frustrated on this kind of thing for once. None of the other cases she's ever worked with up came close to this. Hell, even cracking a decade-old cold case was child's play to her, and it took her at least less than a couple of months at most.
But this?
A thin smile goes over her face, spreading from ear to ear.
"Upupupupu. It looks like things are about to get even more interesting here at Hope's Peak Academy."
A/N: Man, that was a wild ride. I can't believe it took me at least less than 4 years to finish it up to the second year (and there's still the third year coming up too), but heh, it's partially my fault for that. As soon as I finish Change of Tide, I'll go back here and start with the third year, so yeah.
But anyways, to everyone who's been reading this far, I just wanna thank you all for sticking up until now. I never thought you'd all enjoy this silly little self-indulgent AU I thought up of, and I'm honestly really glad for that.
Also, big shout out to BastionMY for creating a fanart based off a scene from Chapter 13, as well as several other pieces. I can't post the exact link here, but their tumblr is tetsuya04, and you should be able to find it via the talentswap tags, as well as the farewell to thee normality tags and change of tide tags. They're all so wonderful, and I don't think I can say enough just how much I love it.