Chapter 429: Please Let Me Become the Poster Girl (Patreon)

Commander Kusunoki kept her face stern, betraying no emotion at all. "Am I to understand," she asked flatly, "that you want Chisato to leave DA and quit the Lycoris?"

"Jhin-nii!"

Jhin pressed an index finger lightly against Chisato's lips. "Shh... It's grown-up talking time right now. Be quiet for a bit."

Fuki Harukawa's eyes went wide. The problem child had actually gone quiet and obedient, and she could hardly believe what she was seeing.

That self-righteous Chisato, tamed by a single sentence from a man?

"If that's possible, all the better. I don't think much of DA, after all."

"Do you have any idea how much effort DA put into raising Chisato?"

"Effort?" Jhin snorted. "You adopt orphans by the batch and sift through them. How much effort could that take? Besides, if I hadn't cured Chisato's heart disease, DA would have been disbanded and restructured back in the the Radio Tower days, wouldn't it?"

Kusunoki's eyes flickered, and a trace of emotion crossed her otherwise unreadable face. "So it really was the work of your Synapse Technology. I just never imagined you had such extraordinary ability even as a child."

"Who told you I was a kid when I saved Chisato?"

"Hm? Do you mean..."

"Nothing in particular. Back to my earlier question: Chisato. Will DA give her to me or not?"

"DA can't possibly hand over its Lycoris ace to you."

If Chisato and the other Lycoris hadn't been present, Kusunoki would never have answered that way. A technology that could cure heart disease and raise a person's physical capabilities was worth far more than one ace. She could have bundled up every active ace and sent them all to Jhin without a second thought.

The value that technology could generate was immeasurable. Unfortunately, others were in the room, and as commander she had to uphold DA's justice in front of the Lycoris.

Perhaps I can contact this young chairman in secret later and transfer Chisato to him by other means. But first, let me probe his background.

"Clap, clap, clap." Jhin let go of Chisato and applauded, then changed the subject. "If the ace is off the table, let me choose someone else. How about Takina?"

His attitude, like someone picking vegetables at a market, infuriated Fuki Harukawa. They were Lycoris, shadows guarding the nation's security from the dark, not goods laid out on a stall for anyone to pick over.

Kusunoki turned her gaze to Takina, who sat uneasily on the bench. She was somewhat surprised that Jhin had set his sights on her, and at the same time she glanced unobtrusively toward a certain corner.

"But I remember she was told that good performance would get her back into DA. I'd like a definite answer from you on that."

"Lycoris are not given to anyone." Kusunoki stressed the line, then delivered a ruthless answer. "And I don't recall ever promising her a return to DA."

She had braced herself, but hearing it still made Takina's vision go black, and she nearly fainted. Fortunately, Jhin caught her by the shoulders in time and let her lean against him.

"You've already shipped her off to the outskirts, and you still won't give her to me? You aren't really planning to squeeze out whatever value she has left, are you?"

Fuki Harukawa couldn't bear to listen any longer. She stepped forward and snapped loudly, "We Lycoris are not commodities! Don't look at DA through that disgusting merchant mindset of yours. It's a symbol of upholding justice!"

Stung by the words "symbol of justice," Takina bolted out of the lounge. Chisato, afraid she might do something foolish, ran after her.

Once they were gone, Jhin wiped the smile from his face, and killing intent swept through the room like a tidal wave.

"I can treat the words of a brainwashed girl as a joke. But Commander Kusunoki, your hypocrisy disgusts me. Hundreds of attacks on my company's firewall since earlier, and all the sneaking around to collect information on the people close to me... I think it's time DA got taught a lesson."

How does he know about Radiata's operations? Is this man really only seventeen?

Only a warrior who had crawled out of mountains of corpses and seas of blood could carry this kind of killing intent.

Even Kusunoki, who had seen her share of great upheavals, felt her heart pound at the murderous aura saturating the air. Fuki Harukawa was so terrified that she had to brace herself against the wall to keep her weak legs from dropping her to the floor.

"Oh, and little girl, thanks for that line just now. It sent Chisato and Takina running out. Otherwise I wouldn't have known how to get them out of here for a while." With that, Jhin snapped his fingers. "All right, I've left you a little gift. It should show up after we leave. Remember to check it. See you."

Not until his figure vanished down the corridor did Kusunoki's taut nerves ease a little. She immediately pulled out her phone and contacted her assistant. "Stop the investigation into Jhin. Have Radiata check headquarters for anything unusual, right now."

"Yes, ma'am!"

"Commander, should we arrest that man?"

"Fuki, wasn't what just happened enough for you to understand?" Kusunoki paused, a trace of lingering fear in her voice. "That man crawled out from a pile of the dead. His killing intent alone pinned you down. The Lycoris alone could never catch him."

"Should we mobilize Lilybell?"

"We haven't reached the point of tearing up the masks yet. And he's the chairman of a company famous around the world. If word got out that he'd been detained without cause, the country would face enormous criticism and blame."

Following the signal from his personal terminal, Jhin soon found Chisato and Takina beside the fountain in the Lycoris dormitory lobby. Seeing him stroll in openly, Chisato was startled.

"Jhin-nii, this is the girls' dorm! How did you get in?"

"It's just the first-floor lobby. It's not like I barged into anyone's room. What's the big deal? More importantly, how's Takina?"

"Mm... She's just been staring at the fountain and won't talk to me at all."

Takina's face was as blank as ever. She tilted her head back, watching the water leap at the top of the fountain. She wasn't deliberately ignoring Chisato. She had wanted to wait until Jhin arrived and say it all at once, since that way she wouldn't have to repeat herself. It was more efficient.

Once she had the words sorted out in her mind, she lowered her gaze to the two of them.

"This is the place every child adopted by DA longs for, and the place they take pride in being able to live."

"You were thrilled when you put on the Lycoris uniform, weren't you?"

"Yes. But I no longer have that right." Saying it, Takina felt calmer than she had expected. Or perhaps everything that had just happened was simply beyond anything she had expected.

She hadn't expected Jhin to put her question to Commander Kusunoki directly on her behalf. She hadn't expected that she, who had taken the fall for someone else's mistake, would be so thoroughly abandoned.

Chisato fell silent. At a time like this, she couldn't say anything. It would only make her partner feel worse.

"If I hadn't talked with the Store Manager before we set out, maybe I couldn't have accepted this result so quickly..." She looked back at the beautiful central fountain. All the honor and pride she had once carried vanished like smoke the moment Commander Kusunoki denied them.

Driven by the emptiness inside her, Takina said, "Store Manager, please let me become the café's signboard girl."