10 years have passed since Ayanokouji joined ANHS. He had successfully graduated from Class A with Suzune Horikita and the rest of his classmates, each of whom had chosen a different academic or professional path.
Several profiles within the class had had remarkable careers.
To begin with, Sudou Ken who was the most bothersome student at the start of the school. After graduating from class A, he took a risk for his career by continuing his efforts in basketball with no guarantee of being able to achieve his goal of becoming a professional. However, after 4 years of relentless effort, he was finally snapped up by a national-level club and is now gradually climbing the sporting ladder.
Teruhiko Yukimura, who was academically one of the top performers in Class D from the outset, ended up pursuing a university career in teaching and eventually became a school teacher 8 years after joining ANHS.
Yosuke Hirata, who is as charismatic as he is talented in many areas, has finally entered the professional world as a psychological consultant in schools. He is particularly keen to do his best to combat bullying at school, using his diplomatic and leadership skills.
Karuizawa Kei, for her part, ended up pursuing a career in psychology after much reflection. Having learnt a lot from her relationship with Kiyotaka Ayanokouji, she hopes to use her new skills to help others in need.
As expected, Rokusuke Kouenji ended up inheriting the Kouenji conglomeration and becoming its new leader. He considers his company's image just as important as his own and is fully committed to his role, making the conglomeration even more prosperous since he took over.
Hideo Sotomura, known as the Professor, ended up pursuing a career in IT. Kayano Onodera embarked on a university career with a view to becoming a sports educator. Haruka Hasebe, for her part, went on to study sciences, particularly medicine, as she was very good in those disciplines at ANHS.
Sakura Airi, who had been expelled before finishing school, resumed her career as an idol and quickly built up her reputation once again, becoming one of the most popular celebrities in Japan.
Mei-Yu Wang, an expert in English, ended up studying abroad and moved to the United States. As for Akito Miyabe, his natural talent and passion for archery were enough to encourage him to pursue this career, and he now competes regularly at national level.
In conclusion, their experience at ANHS and their meeting with Kiyotaka Ayanokouji has enabled them all to grow up to become adults with successful careers.
As for the person who led the D class to success, Horikita Suzune, and the person who assisted her in this role, Kushida Kikyo...
"Results have come in on the Kirito case..."
A beautiful 25-year-old woman with long blonde hair walked into an office with a piece of paper in her hand, which she placed carefully on the table and pointed to the important information.
Horikita Suzune, who was sitting on the other side of the desk, leaning back against a leather chair, crossed her hands in front of her chest, reading the report carefully, her throat tightening.
"Still no results... Tss..."
The room was silent and Suzune was lost in thought, unsure of what to do.
"It was an interesting lead..."
"To tell you the truth, it was one of the last ones I had... we've tried so many different options, I've run out of ideas..."
Her hands rested on her head and she collapsed onto the desk, anxiety beginning to take hold of her mind. Kushida was also looking at her in confusion, but didn't know what to do either.
"Anyway, maybe we should let her know..."
"No... she entrusted me with this mission so I don't want to go back to her empty-handed, that isn't worthy of my status..."
The office fell silent again, all that could be heard was the clock ticking and the machines running. Horikita, who was sinking into exhaustion and despair, sat up again, closed her eyes, took a deep breath and calmed her stress.
"I'm sorry to ask this but... can you give me a reminder of all the facts once again?"
"Of course. The Kirito family, one of the most influential political families in Japan, reported a disappearance to the police 3 days ago. Their 12-year-old daughter, the future sole heir in the family line, has shown no sign of life since the evening of 20th of July. Today, 23rd of July, we received complete police files reporting that the entire house had been searched, as well as that of all the people who have had access to the house let it be workers or simple visitors in the past weeks, these searches yielded no clues as to her possible whereabouts".
"We're talking about a possible abduction inside a highly secured house."
"In fact, no alarm was triggered, and no noise was heard. The young girl stayed in her room, which was on the top floor, the servants were no longer allowed access to the floor after 8pm, so as not to infringe on their privacy. Only one door leads to the top floor, and it is locked by the parents themselves."
"But that evening, they weren't there.
"They had been invited to a charity event, they had taken care to close the upstairs door before leaving, leaving the girl alone, in an emergency she could unlock the door from the inside but the passage upstairs was otherwise blocked."
"And yet she still disappeared..."
"The idea you had of scanning the whole house for secret passages was an interesting one, but the results haven't shown anything. There are no cameras inside the rooms and those in the corridors show no presence of either the girl or a potential criminal entering or leaving."
"It makes no sense... it's almost like she vanished into thin air."
"Yes, this story is really twisted compared to our usual cases, plus the family is increasingly angry and putting extra pressure on us to speed up our searches, unfortunately we don't have any more manpower to deploy on their case, other emergencies are waiting too..."
It was difficult for Horikita to remain calm, although she tried. As the hours passed, the chances of finding her alive decreased. While she was deep in thought, racing her brain, she didn't even hear someone knock on the door.
"Prime Minister Sakayanagi-san...Good morning..."
It was Kushida's surprised voice that brought Horikita back to reality; hearing the words "Prime Minister", she raised her head and rose from her chair in surprise. However, the woman who walked into the cabinet with a beautifully decorated cane and luxurious clothes waved with her hand to sit down.
"Please Horikita-san, we're not at that level of politeness now, we've shared a lot of moments together, we can afford a more friendly relationship..."
She replied in a tone both gentle and noble, her eloquence not failing to show her air of superiority while complimenting her politeness.
Sakayanagi Arisu, after a major tragedy that occurred a few weeks after her graduation from the ANHS, she took over her father's position within the government as soon as she reached adulthood, and over the years slowly rallied allies in her camp, until she became influential enough to compete for the title of leader of Japan. An election she won a year ago.
"I came to see you because the matter in hand is particularly serious. Do you have any good news for me?"
"I..."
Suzune's gaze lowered slightly, as if out of guilt, she really wanted to bring convincing results about this case, but the situation was much more complex than she imagined.
"We're carrying out as much investigation as we can, madam, and using the best methods at our disposal to bring her back to her parents - we'll work tirelessly!"
Kushida exclaimed in Suzune's place, sounding almost too convincing in her tone, Arisu looked at her with a small smile and replied.
"I see... I've been following this case closely, considering the people involved, I'm therefore aware of how hard you two have been working…"
She continued to stare at them with a small smile on her face, showing no emotion whatsoever.
"However, I can't afford to make any mistakes in this matter, so, Kushida-san and Horikita-san, I'm putting all my resources at your disposal and asking you to go above and beyond your capacities in order to come at me with a solution as quickly as possible."
"All your... resources?"
"Yes, ma'am. We'll be right back to work and will give it our all."
While Kushida didn't quite understand what this meant, Horikita resumed her reading of the reports and immersed herself in her thoughts. When the ruler of Japan offered you all her resources, it meant in simple words that she could make anything come true, simply by asking, and Suzune understood this.
Arisu walked over to Horikita's desk and began randomly reading one of the reports. She had no intention of getting involved in this affair on her own - running a country already took up a lot of time. However, this family was an important political ally for her, so she couldn't afford to leave them to their fate either, as Suzune had deduced.
"Bits... of plastic...?"
Arisu wondered curiously as she read the piece of paper she had picked up, and Kushida, seeing what evidence it was, began to inform her.
"In the girl's bedroom there was a toy that made light, these coloured pieces of plastic allowed the light to take on different colours when illuminating the room. One of these pieces of plastic was found in a corner of the room.
"Mhh, I wonder what this could mean..."
"Given that no other toys were moved in the room, we believe there hadn't been any fighting or resistance involved from the young girl. Therefore, we have concluded that this piece of plastic was removed from the toy by the girl herself, before this event occurred."
"That would be a logical conclusion indeed, after all no other toys were touched..."
Looking no further, Arisu placed the piece of paper on the desk and this time addressed Suzune.
"Horikita-san, this case is particularly complex, so I understand the difficulty you're finding yourself in. These words may not mean much but I have confidence in your abilities, after all you've surprised me more than once in the past."
Arisu continued to smile while hiding all her emotions, Suzune watched her for a long moment before nodding, and with that Arisu and her security team left the office quietly.
"There she goes again... we can barely talk to her for 5 minutes, her schedule must be really busy."
Kushida sighed, finding comfort in the fact that her side job was far less time-consuming and arduous. Since Arisu came to power, she had decided to choose Horikita Suzune as the representative of the ministerial cabinet for internal affairs and communication. She was in charge of the police and all internal incidents. Kushida Kikyou was her assistant, among many other workers.
Horikita Suzune and Kushida Kikyou, after graduating from class A, they both went on to study law and even ended up both going to magistrates' school. For a year and a half, they worked in a prosecutor's office, before being specially appointed by Arisu to take up on this position.
Suzune's arrival at the head of internal affairs and communications at such a young age had caused a great deal of disagreement, but Arisu had, as per her usual, carefully silenced all of her enemies and rallied public opinion to her cause. Over the past year, Suzune, with Kushida as her secretary, had solved numerous cases thanks to her perspicacity and rigor. Her decisive approach to the police system and other security bodies has also led to a reduction in crime in Japan.
Realising that it was already late, Suzune looked in Kushida's direction, seeing signs of fatigue on her face.
"Kushida-san, you can go home for today, I need you fit tomorrow morning so go and get some rest."
Kushida suddenly woke up and spoke to Horikita, clutching the report sheets tightly.
"It's out of the question! Every minute counts to find her! I've got plenty of energy!"
"No, there's no point in doing this. It's highly unlikely at this stage that she's lost, so she's certainly been abducted. If they had abducted her to kill her then they would have made that known, they would have allowed us to find her but that's not the case. The kidnappers are probably up to something, and until then it's safe to assume that the girl will remain alive, I'm sure that they won't do anything tonight and will wait until tomorrow or another day to break the news."
"That's true but..."
"Let's not waste any more time with this discussion, pack your things and go home."
Kushida, seeing a familiar expression on Horikita's face, knew there was no convincing her. She tidied up her desk, collected her things and prepared to leave the office.
"I'll be here first hour in the morning."
She replied one last time before leaving, and Horikita now found herself working alone, completing the remaining reports on other cases while continuing to brainstorm ideas for this one. The silence became more and more difficult to bear, fatigue getting the better of her, and without her noticing she gradually collapsed on her desk and fell asleep for a few hours.
It was 3am when she came to her senses, 4 hours since she was last awake. She decided to get out of her office to get a cup of coffee and get over her fatigue by going out on the roof to enjoy the fresh air. In the middle of summer, it was still hot outside even in the middle of the night, but it was nice to feel the gentle wind blowing through her hair. She leaned against the railing and continued to drink her coffee, running the scenario over and over in her mind.
"Horikita-san, please don't stay here too long, we've been instructed to keep you out of dangerous situations."
She turned around, a woman who was part of her security team asked her to leave the roof, even if the risks weren't very high, she was still a government figure, a sniper might try to target her.
"It's true that this kind of life doesn't offer much freedom...".
She smiled to herself, pitying her fate; even if she loved her job, it did have some negative sides to it. She went inside, feeling more awake now, and returned to her reports. Leaning against her desk, she continued to read the same words over and over again.
"I wonder if he could have solved this case..."
In the space of a few seconds, the face of an old partner appeared in her thoughts, someone she hadn't heard from in two years, and she had even tried to trace him using her powers as a member of the government, but to no avail.
Suddenly, a paper was printed in Horikita's office. She had been surprised by the noise because no printing had been planned.
"What the..."
When she bent down to retrieve the paper, she began to read its contents. Her eyes widened sharply and a sound of surprise emanated from her mouth: it was a letter from the kidnappers.
They had arranged to meet her in an underground parking not far from her office, and she had to come alone otherwise there would be no negotiations. Suzune thought about it for a long moment, going alone could be dangerous, but if she went with her security guards then she might never have another opportunity like this. Calling the police was out of the question.
Even if she asked the police to surround the perimeter and not let anyone through, she knew it would be pointless, after all, if the kidnappers were arrested by the police, they could simply deny the facts and say they were the victims of a bad joke.
She made up her mind and headed for the exit.
"Horikita-san, please wait, if you have to leave, we have to get the security cars ready."
"I'll just go and buy something in the konbini next door, there's no point in accompanying me, it would attract more attention than anything else."
"But..."
"It won't even take me 10 minutes, don't worry. Go back to your position."
"...Alright. We'll wait for you here then."
Horikita immediately left the premises and headed for the parking.
.
The parking was made of 5 underground floors, and as far as satellites and mobile networks were concerned, no waves went down that far. It was an isolated spot, so it had been well chosen.
Horikita walked towards the middle of the parking and waited in silence, she wanted to speak to indicate her presence but it would only draw unnecessary attention. Shortly afterwards, footsteps were heard and a bald man appeared, hiding behind a black Range Rover with tinted windows.
"Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications, Horikita Suzune, good evening to you."
He spoke Japanese, but he was a foreigner, she was still struggling to work out exactly what nationality he was, but she had imprinted his face on her memory so that she could reconstruct it later.
"I suppose you're the one behind the kidnapping of young Tomoe, heiress to the Kirito family."
"That's right, we're the ones responsible. If it makes you feel any better, she's still alive. But for how long? That depends on your answer now.
"What do you want?"
"To tell you the truth, given the value of this hostage, we want a lot of things, but one thing takes precedence over everything else."
"What is it?"
"Sakayanagi Arisu, the Prime Minister of Japan, we would like her to resign."
The answer was so unexpected that Horikita almost felt like laughing: make Arisu resign to save a young girl's life? The request was so ridiculous that she still found it hard to believe.
"You know very well that such a request is unrealistic, I hope you're not that stupid."
"Is it really? What would happen if we sent a video of the hostage to every journalist in the country? Up until now you've tried to silence this case but the reporters won't listen to you for long, a video like this one would make a scoop, they'd all rush to publish it."
"What's the point of making it public?"
"By making it public, it would be announced to everyone that the young girl's life could be saved in exchange for Sakayanagi Arisu's resignation. So what would the Prime Minister do? Would she rather save a young girl's life or keep her grip on power? Whatever her answer, her reputation or career would be at stake.
Suzune was increasingly worried about the situation, their request seemed sincere and if such a scenario were to occur, it could have several consequences. Even if any sane person knew that such a request was ridiculous, the citizens also had feelings: if they saw that Arisu was refusing to resign and would rather sacrifice the life of a young girl, her popularity would inevitably fall.
The situation was truly difficult.
"There's one point I don't understand. If your aim was to get the Prime Minister to resign, why did you call me here? You know very well that I wouldn't succeed in getting her to leave."
"Our plan is really ambitious Horikita-san, we have no room for error so we have to make sure that we have every chance on our side to see this plan succeed."
Horikita's attention was caught by the sound of metal, the sound of a metal pipe being held by another man who had been hidden behind another car. He wasn't the only one; suddenly several other men appeared from various hiding places in the car park and surrounded the young minister.
"I see, so you want to make me another one of your hostages, to make your claim more credible."
"A young woman who is a member of an influential political family and the Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications, it has to be said that we have everything we need to succeed."
The man sneered viciously, the kidnappers were equipped with various weapons, baseball bats, metal pipes, tasers and iron fists. Suzune tried to analyse the situation as calmly as possible, they were all physically muscular, most of them taller than her and all of them seemed to be trained criminals. One on 10, with so many disadvantages, the fight seemed doomed.
However, she knew she had no choice but to fight, she couldn't let herself be kidnapped here, she had to seize the slightest opportunity to flee from here otherwise the situation in the whole of Japan would become critical.
She was certainly capable of beating one or two of them, but she had to take the opportunity to run straight away, she was lighter than them so it was possible for her to beat them at speed. She waited to see who would charge at her first, neutralize them as quickly as possible and use that opportunity to flee.
However, there was a very simple flaw in her plan, one which the kidnappers did not fail to exploit. All of them charged towards her at once. With so many targets running towards her, not only did she not know which one to attack first, but she also lacked the space to get into a defensive position, so she was vulnerable from all angles.
"Damn..."
Finally losing her composure, anxiety got the better of her.
"Heh... using 10 armed people to immobilize one person, you're very cautious criminals."
The rush came to a halt as the criminals who had been charging at Horikita turned towards the voice. The bald man, who hadn't expected anyone else to be here, also turned towards the voice.
"Who are you?!"
The footsteps grew louder and louder and the figure emerged from the shadows, illuminated by the small lights from the underground parking, his face became clearer and clearer. Horikita also looked in his direction and after a few seconds her heart skipped a beat.
"A-ayanokoji-kun...?!"
"Do you know this person? You little bitch, you didn't come here alone...!"
"No. She really did come here alone, I just followed her."
"W-what are you doing here? Why are you here?!"
"I'd love to answer your questions, but the situation doesn't seem conducive to doing so."
The bald man was frustrated to see that the situation had changed, but he was a very careful and thoughtful man, with a plan for every situation.
"Whoever it is, hurry up and knock the girl out and let's get the hell out of here."
One of the men was about to hit her with a baseball bat, but in the space of a second, Ayanokoji quickly closed the distance between them. Using a big leap and a back kick, he attacked the assailant directly on his neck and sent him to the ground, unconscious.
As soon as his feet touched the ground again Ayanokoji used the momentum of his attack to send an upper-cut to the jaw of another of the kidnappers and a punch to the face of a third one, each time using enough force to render them unconscious in one blow.
With three attackers now on the ground, he had created enough space to grab Horikita's hand and pull her out of the circle. He took a step back to create some space and analysed the behaviour of the 7 remaining kidnappers.
"W-who the hell is this guy... in less than 3 seconds, he had time to attack 3 of us at the same time..."
Ayanokoji's speed of execution and attack had intimidated the kidnappers enough to make them back off slightly.
"It doesn't matter! Guys! Run at him all at once and break every one of his bones!"
The bald man, who was becoming increasingly impatient, gave the ultimate order, and immediately they all began to charge at him. Without wasting a second, Ayanokoji ran at them again, using another great leap, he launched a kick directly at the forehead of one of the kidnappers, almost breaking his neck, knocking him out in one blow. Still in the air, he used his momentum and agility to turn his body around and land another kick to the right ear of a fifth criminal. This blow was strong enough to destabilize the crystalline lenses in his ear and cause a dizzying effect, making him lose his balance.
His feet finally touching the ground, he dodged a blow from a baseball bat, followed very closely by a blow from a metal fist. He caught the man's wrist and snapped it, doing a judo hold at the same time, sending the man's body flying towards the man with the baseball bat, knocking them both out.
"And here goes the 7th one."
Horikita, who had just seen all those men fall in the space of a few seconds, couldn't believe her eyes; she knew he was strong and very different from all the other humans, but she had never thought for him to become this strong as an adult. For the first time, she felt the same intimidation she had felt at school, when she had understood what he was really capable of for the first time.
Ayanokoji's face was unchanged as he looked in the direction of the three remaining criminals, two of whom had tasers in their hands while the bald man had pulled out a knife.
The two men, each with a Taser, charged at the same time, their strategy being to hit him at least once to neutralize him. Ayanokoji, aware of their plan, picked up a baseball bat from the ground and threw it at one of them, forcing him to dodge the bat. This dodge forced the two attackers to create some distance between them, and Ayanokoji took advantage of this distance to charge at one of them, sending a strong punch into their abdomen to cut off their breathing and grabbing their wrist before he had time to use the Taser.
The other attacker charged at him immediately, Ayanokoji threw his partner's body at him, forcing him to dodge, and took advantage of the blind spot this created to kick him on the right knee, forcing him to the ground, finishing with a kick to the face to completely knock him out.
Seeing all his partners now on the ground, the bald man lost all his composure and charged at Ayanokoji in anger, knife in hand. For a moment, this moment reminded Ayanokoji of his fight with Hosen, but this time he didn't really want to hurt his hand.
Seeing which way the knife was going to come depending on the position of his hand, Ayanokoji dodged the blow a first time and hit him in the face with his elbow to completely neutralize him.
All the attackers were now on the ground, unconscious.
"Coming here on your own really wasn't a very prudent idea and yet... it's just the sort of thing you'd do."
Ayanokoji replied, his voice just as monotonous as when he was at school. Horikita gradually came to her senses and approached him.
"It's an investigation where you have to make risky decisions. What's more, I had also thought about the possibility of being abducted."
"And you came anyway?"
"If I was kidnapped, every police force in the country would be looking for me, and I dared to hope that by analyzing the cameras in the streets of Tokyo and investigating the cars in this parking, they would be able to trace me back.
"I see, you wanted to be abducted so that they could trace you and therefore trace the young girl."
"Although I have to admit... finding myself abducted by such repulsive men was just as distressing, so I'm also glad I didn't..."
"I have to say you're pretty brave, agreeing to be abducted to save a little girl's life, that's admirable."
"What are you doing here? How did you find me? Were you spying on me?"
"This afternoon Sakayanagi came to inform you that she would make all her resources available to you."
"You... were part of her resources? What's happened in the last two years, I haven't heard from you. Who have you become?"
Ayanokoji didn't answer for a few minutes, he looked at the criminals on the floor and started walking away from this place followed by Horikita, heading for the emergency stairs where no-one could hear them.
"When I came to the ANHS, it was precisely to get answers to two questions in particular. What is equality and what is freedom, that's what I wanted to know."
"And so? Did you find your answer at the time?"
"At the end of the ANHS, I was able to get my answer, when those questions had been answered, another one had come."
"Which one?"
"What is justice? Why do people care about justice?"
"I don't understand where you're going with this."
"Two years ago, I decided to use my skills to serve justice, simply so that I could get an answer to my question. I've travelled all over the world destroying corrupt companies, governments that exploit the poor and children, and people accused of many crimes.
"I can't remember ever knowing you to be so concerned about other people."
"I wanted to help others to get answers to all these questions, to foil the plans of the strongest and help the weakest, there's a certain pleasure in that that has enriched me a lot."
"So you were abroad for 2 years?"
"The Pearl Company affair, the denunciation and destruction of mines exploiting children across Asia, doesn't all that speak to you?"
"You were... the person responsible behind these events?"
"I worked in jobs that didn't attract attention, I was a hard worker like everyone else and little by little I gathered all the evidence and elements necessary to bring these people down. Naturally, I was extremely cautious, because there's no proof of any of these events that could link me to these cases, proof being that you couldn't find anything about me either."
"So you knew of my investigation ?"
"Your agents are pretty competent, unfortunately not competent enough to investigate me. The more corrupt people I destroyed, the more enemies I made, as well as some allies, but in all this nobody ever knew that I was directly involved. The blame always fell on someone else, and that's how mafias, mercenaries and criminals killed each other, allowing me to get rid of several enemies at the same time."
"It's quite hard to believe…"
"What happened tonight should convince you enough of my abilities, shouldn't it?"
"I hadn't known you to be so boastful in the past."
"I'm not telling you all this to brag, Horikita. I'm telling you all this just to let you know."
"To let me know? About what?"
"I'm back in Japan, and from now on I'm going to help you manage the internal affairs of the State. In other words, we're going to become partners again, you as Minister of the Interior and me as your shadow assistant."
A/N : Hey everyone ! I've decided to publish this new story that's been sitting in the corner of my head while also updating the COTE X NGNL crossover at the same time, I've always wanted to draw something about the adult life in COTE and about the characters lives after school, this is the idea that I've come with, hope you'll enjoy it ! More characters from the story are to appear so I hope you'll support this one !