.

Kazuya knew that Mei was more than capable of defending herself if the time came but he was still worried. He had no idea of the current situation on their headquarters nor does he know how much people were actually threatening to barge their way through.

It still has not been confirmed if it was real government official so the security team couldn't kick them out as usual. So Jirou ordered them to stall for time as he was already on his way. The mere fact that someone who was supposed to be an official brought thugs along in itself leaves a lot of room for suspicion.

"Calm down kid" Jirou could feel Kazuya's anxiety. This was the moment that he realized how much place Kazuno Mei had in this boy's heart. "You have to trust in the system and people you have under you"

"(Trust?)" Kazuya almost scoffed at this comment. Sure he trusted Jirou a fair bit but what he didn't trust was how far humans would go because of their greed. He was a direct victim of this and he felt that he could never overestimate it which is why he was worried for Mei. "Go and keep her safe grandpa Jirou, I'll do what I can from my end" Kazuya ended the call before Jirou could say anything.

Tomoyo looked at him with concern because it was rare for Kazuya to show much reactions to anything. She quickly followed him as they exited the elementary school department only to meet a crowd of students who seemed to have been waiting around the gates.

"What's the matter?" Kazuya spotted Takaya in the crowd who just finished talking on his phone.

"An accident occurred down the path so all vehicles are currently stuck below the road leading up to the school" He explained.

Sacred Forest Academy was known for their security and much of it had to do with the location on where it was built at. It stood like a fortress on the side of the mountain which had the city below it. One downside of this however was that there was a single path for vehicles leading towards the school.

"Accident? The road is pretty wide so why don't they just control the other vehicles to go through?"

"That's the problem. A big delivery truck apparently fell on its side because of the steep road" Takaya explained.

"Enough of this" Kazuya wasn't in the mood nor had the time to hear the explanation so he turned to head for another way out of the school.

There might have been only one way that led exclusively to pick students up but there were various ways for the students to get to the school. there were paths to walk up to the school as well as a dedicated road for bicycles.

*tug tug* Tomoyo looked at him with a gaze that was wondering what he was going to do.

"Stay here and wait for the instructors to pick you up" Kazuya said as he walked towards one of the other exits.

*shake shake* Tomoyo stepped in front of him and tried to block his way.

"I have to go. something doesn't feel right" he reasoned. "You need to stay here and wait for the instructors"

*shake shake* Tomoyo refused to budge.

"Be a good girl and stay here okay?" he placed a hand on each of Tomoyo's arms and put them down. "You won't be able to keep up with me even if I let you come" he smiled at her to alleviate her worry. "You don't need to worry about that incident in the past to happen again because you know how strong I am right?"

Tomoyo slowly yet hesitantly stepped aside. Kazuya patted her head and gave her another smile before giving her his bag to keep safe before speeding off down the path for bicycles. There were much less people to notice him there and it was the quickest way from their school after all.

"He's heading down the bicycle path" a student who watched from the crowd of people waiting at the gates reported. "He's alone and left the Shiroyuki girl here at school"

"Excellent" Kuuga who was on the other line said before cutting the call off and dialing another number. "I expected the two to walk down the path to meet the vehicles picking them up like the others but this is so much better" he laughed and waited for the call to connect. "The target is moving down the bicycle path on foot. Make sure that you make the necessary arrangements"

Kazuya thought nothing about the accident that occurred because that problem was resolved when he attended the Academy in his previous life. Other pathways were created for vehicles to pass through and he believed that this was the incident that made them consider it.

He didn't pay attention to it much because he never had the privilege of getting picked up from school by car in his first life to begin with. There had been only minor changes in anything that he hadn't directly involved himself with so he assumed that time was still flowing as it did in the past with his presence having very little to do with everything.

"Hmm?" Kazuya found the other bicycles going down going in one direction because of a roadblock. That was the quickest way back into the city so he frowned as he ran down the path.

"(Did the fallen truck cause a bigger accident than I imagined?)" he thought as he turned to take another path as soon as he reached the bottom.

"Huh?" he felt weird. It wasn't strange that he felt all kinds of stares as he was running down the bicycle path because what he was doing was indeed eye catching. A person running down at full speed in such a steep pavement garnered not only the riders going down the same path but also those who were trying to walk down on the path that was not too far away from it.

He was already out of the school and entered the outskirts of the city. There were various roadblocks that prevented him from making his way to the main part of the city and caused him to go through various detours which was very strange.

"(I should have already passed the site of the accident already)" he thought as he continued to run without stopping. He knew these roads well because this was heading towards the school he applied for after deciding to leave Sacred Forest Academy in his previous life.

"!!?" Kazuya suddenly stopped and was surprised at the sight at the end of the road he was currently on. He felt that he had been too careless as he hadn't realized the obvious signs because of his anxiousness.

"Well, well, what brings a rich kid from Sacred Forest into our territory?" a studend who was from the nearby academy spoke arrogantly while holding a baseball bat.

"…" Kazuya didn't mind what he said much and started counting the number of people in the vicinity. He was immediately shocked after finding himself surrounded by these people. He clicked his tongue because he felt incredibly stupid to have fallen for such an obvious trap.

This was of course close to the Akaryuu School which was a school for both middle school and High School students. It wasn't the worst school in town when it came to academics but it was a very rowdy school. they were known to have a rivalry against Sacred Forest Academy and would mostly be made up of those who failed to enter it so the students were as one could imagine, hostile or competitive towards it's students.

"Too scared to even piss your pants kid?" he grinned and approached with a bunch of other students who were holding similar weapons.

The one leading them appeared to be wearing a high school uniform. He arrogantly looked at the shorter kid and thought how frail he looked compared to the warnings he's gotten from the person who hired them. They were told to be extremely careful with him because this boy was a fighter who was hailed as undefeated in official matches.

"So this is what's going on…" Kazuya mumbled to himself as if he realized something.

A question that had been bothering him for over two years finally had a convincing answer. Kazuya always wondered how Lee had gotten a hold of enough people to mess with him. There was even the event in the first regional tournament that had been very strange from the very beginning. A mysterious third party that he thought had nothing to do with Lee turned out to be so simple.

"(Mercenary types huh…)" it was mostly an uncommon term in this day and age but very common for someone who had stayed in Edea. Mercenaries, Assasins, or even Adventurers were the type of people who would do certain things for a suitable reward.

The timing was too perfect to have been a coincidence. Muimina Ringo and Kurogane Suzaku had went off on their own and found the person who has worked with Lee in the past from the looks of it. What made Kazuya more convinced of this theory were the messages that the people who attacked him in the regional tournament sent him.

They were offered another job from another mysterious number. It was apparently from the same person who hired them to do the job they cleared two years ago. They had been in contact with Kazuya and had done his bidding for years in exchange for jobs in Kazuno Securities after they graduate so it was a no brainer for them to choose his side.

It was only because of Lee's independent actions that Kazuya didn't find any leads of this third party but it looks like his current enemies have. They even provided him with a conclusion that has been bugging him for a while. Though he was happy and curious as to this person's identity, he didn't have the time to pursue it at the moment.

"What the hell are you mumbling around for?" He swung the bat at the concrete wall. "Try to say it in our faces if you're a man!" he arrogantly declared as his companions laughed out loud.

Kazuya already know about the other people who were gathering behind the path he took to get here and frowned. He had been too worked up and would have put himself in real danger if the actual people trying to trap him posed any threat.

"I'm in a hurry so I'll only say a few things" Kazuya made his voice loud enough to be heard by most of the people trying to surround him. "Tell the person who sent you all here that I will be coming after him soon enough"

"What a dumb kid. Can't you see that you're su—" a blur smashed his head right at the spot he swung the bat. The thugs were dumbfounded since they didn't see anything aside from a blur.

"All those who don't want to end up in the same state as this guy take a step back" Kazuya put a foot on top of the body of the unconscious thug whose head had left a bloody mark on the wall.

This intimidated a bunch of them and angered some as the friends of the unconscious guy started charging at Kazuya who wore a displeased expression. He was annoyed and wasn't going to show these guys any mercy. They dared to block his path and they will be sure to remember what the consequences of this were.

"M-monster!" a guy from the back who watched as his companions were getting beaten by the same bat the first victim tried to intimidate Kazuya with. He rushed to run back to the school and call for reinforcements because it wouldn't take long for Kazuya to break through at this pace,

"What an annoying bunch" Kazuya couldn't help but click his tongue. He tried to control his strength as much as he could. He would end up really killing them if he didn't do so and it was very challenging to do so considering his current need to hurry along.

This amount of people being sent to the hospital would attract much attention so he was glad that they chose to trap him in a place where there were no surveillance cameras. The person behind them seemed to have been very wise but what he didn't expect was that he was still gravely underestimating Kazuya but who could blame him? Who would expect that these thugs didn't even make him bat an eye?

*SLAM* Kazuya struck the bat hard on the wall and caused cracks to form on it.

"Last warning" he threw the metal bat that had bent on the floor and picked up a wooden sword by his foot. "I told you guys I'm in a hurry and I don't plan on holding back anymore" he was truly annoyed. These guys were really persistent and those who he had failed to knock out stood up and were still trying to hold him down.

They already knew that Kazuya had some skills so they were trying to pin him down with their bodies and numbers. Much to their disappointment, this only proved to infuriate him more as Kazuya no longer felt like holding back and would treat them like all the other mercenaries or assassins he's faced.

Killing intent caused those who weren't intimidated by his show of strength to hesitate in their tracks. It was only now that they saw how many of their fallen and unconscious companions were scattered around on the concrete. They realized what a real monster they were facing.

"What the hell is going on here!?" an angry voice came from the direction where the guy earlier escaped to. He led a person towards the place where Kazuya was cornered and followed closely behind looking extremely nervous.

The person who he led looked at the number of people scattered around and the amount of blood that had been spilled.

""Big sis!"" The people who were frozen by Kazuya's threat finally saw hope. The angry person who just arrived was immediately surrounded by the survivors who were trying to hang on to their consciousness.

"Looks like the big fish has finally arrived"

.