Chapter 40

Yumiko's parents were only proud of her achievements but only as a prideful asset to gain more influence in their name because they would only show off her achievements, she thought about it and if it weren't for those achievements they wouldn't acknowledge her. What she wanted was her parent's personal and genuine acknowledgment and attention as a parent and not as an asset for the influence of their family name.

Middle school came around and she attended a school somewhere in Tokyo, in her midterm in middle school she was part of the smartest kids in school, and she was no doubt in the number one spot on their school leaderboard, but one of her classmates particularly stood out as she was observing her every move even her expressions and reactions for quite a while now. Then one day, she reached out to Yumiko.

"I'm Shibata Nao, nice to meet you!"

"Mishiki Yumiko, Nice to meet you as well." She said with a monotone.

Shibata Nao has long blonde hair, quite athletic. People tend to see her as girlish yet physically active as she was great at sports but she was still accepted by her peers. You could say she was everyone's friend.

"Do you wanna go to the cafeteria with me?" Nao asks.

Yumiko nodded as she doesn't talk very much when she was younger and mainly focused on trying to get personally acknowledged by her parents, she was somewhat suspicious of her as she thinks she'll try to use her for her money like the others.

"Is there anything you want? It's my treat!"

Yumiko was surprised as Nao was offering to treat her to lunch. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah, It's not that expensive anyway so it's fine. So is there anything you want?"

Yumiko smiled and thought 'maybe she'll be different than the others this time.'

"I'll have a custard bun."

"Alright, I'll have one as well."

Yumiko thought this would be the first time she has ever made a genuine friend.

Months later they have become close friends and Yumiko started to show more expression and emotion but other students from other classrooms started to become too comfortable in school and started to do whatever they wanted, sometimes even extorting others that are younger than them because they know that the school has a lot of rich students. They themselves are also rich but chose to use other people's money and weaknesses for their own pleasure and benefit because they're spoiled kids trying to feed their egos.

Yumiko wasn't bothered as she mastered a lot of martial art techniques to defend herself but at times it would annoy her and sometimes she would feel bad for the victims. That's why she created a small group that helps out victims of bullying. Although the students have tried reporting them to the guidance counselor, because of their money and the influence of their parents they would either be bribed or threatened and there's nothing they could do

Making a group that tries to defend victims that mostly consists of students is risky unless they're too afraid to lie. In other words, Threatening someone, to tell the truth. It's a foul plan but it is no foul than theirs.

Yumiko would help others not out of kindness but of pity. Nao was the vice president of their own small band. At first, it was the two of them but slowly it would become a popular group but not too popular that the teachers would know.

"So? What's the name of our group?" Nao asks

"Custard?"

"Custard!??"

"No good?"

"We can't just name our group like that. Hmm, How about Tea clan."

"..."

"It's better than Custard or something!"

"It still fits in the category of snacks though."

"...Whatever it's just a small group anyway and we can just change it anytime."

"Right..."

And so they went with the Tea clan for the moment because they have no ideas left. And what they contributed to the Clan was quite an astonishing feat.

Immediately they sought out to exterminate all students who were spoiled and full of themselves and are attacking others for their own amusement. Rather than fighting them immediately head-on, They tried reporting them via blackmailing them by recording what they were doing and threatening to send it to their parents, if that doesn't work then they would go for extreme measures, if they retaliate later on they would again use extreme measures.

Almost immediately after their group's debut, half of the school bullying was dissolved. Others tried to fight back but they were no match against Yumiko's overwhelming strength. All seemed to be going well, Over time, People have started to join the group as well, gaining influence and power and everything in and outside of the group seemed peaceful until Yumiko overheard something that would shatter her perspective.

One day, while Yumiko was trying to find Nao, walking around in the hallway, she stumbled upon her in a classroom with a few students as she was about to call out to her, she overheard her conversation with them.

"Nao-san how come your parents let you bring a large allowance to school?" Asked one of her classmates.

"My allowance didn't come from my parents." She bragged.

"Ehhh?? Really? Where did you get it then? Don't tell me did you steal it?" Said one of them, jokingly.

"I didn't steal them, my money came from those seniors of ours who were being annoying and bragging around and bullying other people. We usually do that to make them stop bullying people that's all but lately, they've been extorting people since we can't tell if it's their money or not I usually hold on to it since Yumiko doesn't want to hold on to someone else's money because she might mistake it for own. So I held on to it instead and since no one was asking it, I used it for myself instead."

"But wouldn't you run out of money since there have been fewer and fewer bullies lately?"

"That's true, that's why I secretly made a donation box for our group, other people might think it's for our operations on removing bullies in school but rather It's just for my pocket money Haha!"

"Eh!?? That's mean!"

"Oh, come on-."

Yumiko's head went blank. In particular, Yumiko wasn't angry that Nao secretly pocketed money from the bullies but rather the fact that she used the same tactic that the bullies used to take advantage of vulnerable students who thought their money was used for good reasons when in fact it was the opposite.

Yumiko wasn't particularly the type of person who would do anything for someone but she hated anyone who would take advantage of weak people unless they deserved it. She follows from justice but at the same time, she doesn't like people that she barely knows as she would only care about someone if they're worth caring for in her perspective.