Part 20

And to my delight, or even surprise, I did not find a single camera. I certainly didn't have some super skill at detecting cameras, but I guess I should have found a few, at least the fake ones, which should have reassured me after they were found. Do they really believe me that much? Or maybe they just didn't need to.

But whatever the case, before I heard the sound of the car pulling up, there were no cameras on the first two floors. So, I headed for the exit, remembering to lock the door behind me with my new keys, which I sort of took out of my pocket, and of course put them back. I went to the car, from which Kirigiri-san had already gotten out and was waving at me.

"Get in." - he said to me as I approached and pointed to the front seat next to him.

I didn't refuse, of course, and opened the car door and got in.

"Good afternoon Kirigiri-san." - I said as he got in the car.

"Hello, Yasuke-kun." - he said as he started the car.

Then we drove off and had a casual conversation.

"How do you like the house, Yasuke-kun?" - He asked for the sake of interest.

"It's fine Kirigiri-san." - I didn't lie. "It's just a little embarrassing the amount of money that was spent on it all. And of course, it's an incredibly big gap between what was."

"Ha-ha-ha." - he laughed lightly. "It's all for a reason Yasuke-kun. Your talent is incredible, if we presented anything less, it would just insult both you and ourselves. I am sure you will bring much hope to the world. To tell you the truth, we wanted to invite you even earlier, but we thought that would have been, a little too much."

"I'm flattered that you think so of me Kirigiri-san, but I think it's too much." - I said, thinking it was okay.

"No exaggeration Yasuke-kun, everything I said was true." - He said with some admiration. "People with talents, and with such incredible talents as you Yasuke-kun, can't help but become great people. You are all incredibly lucky to have it. I don't have any talent, but I have to say that my daughter does and so the only thing I can do is watch and admire people like you making the world a better place. I also want to give them all the help they can get for their development. That's why I became the director of Hope Peak."

"Hmm." - I hummed. "I won't say I agree."

"What?!" - he wondered. "Why do you think so?"

"Talent isn't all it takes to develop." - I said simply. "In order to achieve anything at all, you have to put enough effort into it. If it weren't for all the experience I had in the hospital, and all the sleepless years I've spent studying, I wouldn't be any different than the average person. You are and you are. I won't say that everyone has it, but most people who have gotten their Ultimate have put in an incredible amount of effort. So, if a person doesn't want to, there's nothing the talent won't give him."

"Yes." - he agreed. "Every person who has developed their own has put in the work, but I don't agree with your last statement. Even if you don't want to develop in your talent, you'll still get in the way of your development. I've met a lot of people who didn't want to possess Ultimate, but even so, they were all masters of their field."

"Hmm." - To this I had only to hum to myself.

Just before I wanted to ask another question, we suddenly changed our route, turning sideways and we pulled into a huge area with green lawn and dense forest visible around the whole area, but of course the most conspicuous thing was the building that was in the front. Also, if I remember, of course, that it was in the center of town, and it looked like it was in the center of the world. The only thing that came to mind at the sight of it was sophistication, and though it looked like a multi-story building with at least ten stories, it only had five, as I recall from canon.

Most of the building was made of perfectly lined brick, unless you count the four towers, which were gray and most likely made of concrete, all over the area I could see were perfectly clear windows that reflected off the sun and made it impossible to see what was behind them. Only two things stood out the most from this building. The first thing was a wall at least three stories high that was made entirely of glass and as far as I remember it was a garden. The second thing that stood out the most and kind of said it towered over everything else here was the Hope Peak Academy sign, which consisted of a black and white coat of arms, a crown above the coat of arms, and in the center was a drawing of a crossed tassel and a sign I don't understand. But this sign would be used ----, to make one of Monokuma eyes.

And what made sense was that we drove straight to the gate, which made sense, but there were also roads to different sides, showing that there was more territory here that wasn't bounded by the school. But we drove up to a metal gate that opened in front of us, allowing us to drive inside the school.

I have to say that I had a little bit of excitement about this place. Still one of the places in canon, really of the two, but this place still brought back pleasant and exciting memories of running here as a game character, and where would I go without having lived in this world long enough to acquire some respect and disbelief for this school. But fortunately for me, not a muscle moved on my face, which seemed to disappoint Kirigiri-san, who was quietly glancing at me from the corner of his eye.

So, after parking, a fully assembled Kirigiri-san and I got out of the car and walked toward the entrance. When the doors opened in front of me, I think even I couldn't contain some unease on my face, not because of what was here, but because of the memories that came back to my mind. True, they were different from what I remembered, and though it was only the main entrance, the outward differences were already apparent, the general idea of it was the same as the whole school, exquisite. The dark wood the walls were upholstered with, the red carpet that covered the floor, the floor itself, which was made of white tiles and the lighting that didn't make the place so gloomy, well, there certainly wasn't a huge metal door that covered the entire wall and a pair of machine guns. But none of this stopped me from indulging in memories.

Especially after we stepped out into the lobby of the academy, where more memories came flooding back to me. At the front behind the huge pillar was the school store, and to the right were the classrooms along with the video room. There was also a passageway toward the dormitory, which contained the cafeteria, the warehouse, the bathhouse, and the incinerator. All of this flashed before my eyes as we passed through the nurse's rooms, I really wasn't sure if the dorms were there now or if they were permanently for survivors, still I doubt that all the students would fit in there even if they took the second floor.

Also, not surprisingly, there weren't any students here now, but there were still occasional people passing through who were probably teachers, who occasionally looked at me with interest. Which made me look to the end of the hallway, where in history there had been a courtroom where many people had died, as I remember it, this room was not something before what it had become. Also, thankfully, there was no chess floor here now.

Here we just passed near the restrooms, after which should have been the gym, but that's not where we were headed now, and we went to the second floor by the stairs. Which logically led us to the second floor and what is strange we had to get out and walk a little bit down the corridor in order to get to the other stairs, although to me it would be much more convenient if all the stairs were in one place.

Still, even that little walk made memories flash through my head. The swimming pool along with the locker rooms, again the two classrooms, and the library with an extra room where there were secret documents that Byakuya said could be used to kill the person who read them. Also, in order to reach the stairs, we had to go through the toilets, but unlike the ones on the first floor, this one had a little secret, namely a hidden room in a stall with cleaning supplies in it. I don't really know why it's there and why it's needed, but I think there was some point to it.

With these thoughts in mind, we climbed the stairs to the third floor, and of course with that came new memories. Immediately opposite the stairs was the recreation room, if you turned to the right there would be two more classrooms, and to the right in the direction we went was the art room, and the storage room, which was an extra room. Right near the entrance to the stairs was a fork to the left where there was a lab, which had an air purifier that supplied the whole school with clean air in the game, and a storage room, which was attached to the physics lab, but we still continued up the stairs to the fourth floor. I should also note that with the windows unsealed, the place seemed much prettier.

The fourth floor was the final point of direction, because here was the principal's office on the same floor as the music room, teacher's lounge, chemistry lab, and the same two classrooms and this time with the regular toilets. Also in between all of this, right in the middle was the data room, to which the Monokuma control room will be attached in the future. Really hope that this room will still be just a room.

Despite the fact that we turned toward the director's office, I unconsciously remembered the entire fifth floor again. There was a dojo, a biology room, which became a morgue in the game, and a greenhouse, which had an omnivorous flower in it at the time of the story. And unlike the other floors, there should be three classrooms on that one, but one of them is not suitable for teaching, as it was completely destroyed because of the murders that took place there. The whole classroom was covered in blood, all the desks were knocked over, and there were chalk outlines of bodies on the floor. It all went through my eyes as we walked into the principal's office.

And, to my surprise, it was no ordinary office. There were two leather sofas with a table between them and which stood on a light-colored carpet, to the right was a display case with diplomas and several statuettes, above which were pictures of most likely old principals, to the right was the usual bookcase, which was filled with books, and in the center of this room was a table and a leather chair to which Kirigiri-san went, and on the sides of the chair were flags with the coats of arms of Hope Peak drawn on them. And even that brought back some memories for me.

"Sorry about that." - Kirigiri-san began immediately as he sat down in his chair. "I'm sure you'll have more time to familiarize yourself with everything in the academy, as well as learn the location of all the offices."

"That's all right." - I didn't show any hint that I probably knew the place better than he did.

"Good! Then sit down." - He pointed me to one of the chairs that were in front of his desk.

Not wanting to keep Kirigiri-san waiting, I sat down in the seat indicated. Then the conversation began, which lasted about an hour. During that hour, quite a lot was discussed, ranging from formalities to important topics. Some I knew, like the fact that students cannot attend classes, and only engage in the development of their talents, and that the only mandatory test is only a practical annual exam. And other topics were interesting to me myself, like the fact that the scouts of the school were responsible for the students. There were also a lot of other topics like clothing, the class I was going to be in, which turned out to be 74th grade, and the main characters in part two were in 77th grade, and the main characters in part one were in 78th grade, so I was pretty far away from them, so I probably wouldn't meet any of the equestrian characters.

Also, another payoff was that they gave me a whole separate building in the eastern quarter that I would control. The most logical thing in it will be a laboratory of the highest grade only with the most advanced technology, which I really do not need at the moment, since most of his skills reached the maximum, but I think to refuse goodwill is a bad sign. What's the strangest thing, but I was told that I would also be responsible for all the students who would have Medicine-related Ultimate, but I guess that's not so bad.

That wasn't all of course, just the basics. There was still a lot for me to learn and understand, but right now I was leaving the office with my head full as it was. Kirigiri-san offered to take me back, but having said that I didn't need to and that I remembered the way and it would also be a good chance to look at everything here, I said goodbye to him and left his office.

So, the first thing I did after I came out of it was to go explore the remaining unexplored floor, and then I went through the rest. There were a few details that didn't fit with my memory, but that was logical, because it would be about five years before the events of the canon, and a lot can change during that time, but even so, I still managed to remember these places by their general characteristics. What brought warm feelings to my heart and notes of nostalgia was that it was nice to walk through familiar places, especially after all this time, especially if the last time was in the game.

So, after spending another hour doing this I finally walked out of the academy with warm feelings on my soul. Of course, I had plans to walk around the academy grounds and see how it was set up and go to the building that was allocated to me, but I think I'll have more time for that and I have too much to do today, so I should hurry back home. So, I walked out of the school grounds, and with the help of the map I walked towards my already new home.

And just like Tengan-san told me, the way from the academy to home shouldn't take more than half an hour, which was nice. When I reached the house, I still had a hard time believing that this was my house and that I was going to live here. So when I got to the door and opened it I realized that no one had arrived, which was logical since I was the only one with the keys and if they had arrived they would have been outside the house by now. So, I guess I had some time before they arrived, and I didn't know what I had to do on my own, so the only thing I could think of was to go and look at my new room.

After going up to the second floor, with another careful look around every corner, I went to the end of the hallway on the second floor. Before going into the room, I took one more look at the door where the study was supposed to be. I really don't know why I need an office, in principle a room would be enough for me, but I just wanted a private office, to furnish it the way I wanted it, and well, all the important people I met had their own private office, so I had to have an office too.

When I opened the door of the room, I stood in place it...it was a little bigger than I thought it would be. It was as tall as all the floors in this house and exceeded 3 meters, and at first glance the total size of the room was over 60 square feet, for some people that might be an apartment, not so much a room. There was a large window on most of the opposite wall, and a door to a decent balcony was visible. There were also some items already here including a closet, a desk behind which there was already a decent computer, again a silk rug and a damn five bed, also there was a TV, which certainly didn't compare to what was in the living room, but it wasn't the smallest size either. And I think that's how it was planned, so that the study and this room were next to each other. But who was I to object? So, the only thing I had to do about it was to accept it.

As I looked around the room again, my eye fell again on the closet that stood there, or rather on the finished shelf, which stood out strongly in that it was located on the side of the main array and I had a great idea of what could be put here. As I approached it, I began rummaging through my inventory, trying to find the item I was looking for. Over the years that I had been a user of the system I had accumulated a lot of different things in it, both rare and fairly common, but what I was looking for was the only item of its kind, so I quickly found it and got it out.

It didn't take long as on the shelf was the pink teddy bear that ------ gave me in the first years of our acquaintance and all this time I kept it carefully, after all it was quite an important gift both for me and for ------ herself. Stepping back a bit and making sure it looked decent in that place, so having made sure of that I again did not know what I should do before ------ came, I do not think this was the best time to explore the house as I was sure that ------ would drag me around all the corners and be offended if I did it without her.

So, the most logical thing I could think of, without turning on my training, would be to sleep an hour apart. After thinking about this for a few more minutes, I realized that this would be the only right thing to do. I went over to the bed, lay down on it and just lay on it for about an hour and enjoyed the softness of the bed. And as it usually happens, with good moods come bad thoughts, so it just came to me that this whole house would have to be cleaned by the two of us. All the dust, the dirt, the stuff that has to be washed, the high ceilings. I realized that there could be an impossible pile of problems with that for two kids. So, I think we should hire a housekeeper or someone to clean the whole house, also it will be expensive anyway.

Sighing doomfully at these painful thoughts, I decided, as always, to leave all the problems to the future self and so put 1 hour on the timer and my consciousness sank into a familiar darkness. I woke up, as I had planned, an hour later, after closing the window that the rest bonus had put on me, I walked around the house to see if ------ had arrived and finding no one, I went back to my room and repeated the procedure. I don't know how many times I did this, but the one time I woke up, I felt that there was someone else in the room besides me.

When I lifted my head and looked around the room, I saw that there was already a pile of boxes, the sunset was already visible outside the window, and ------ which stood in front of the closet in front of the place where I had put the bear. Quietly rising from the bed, while putting away the resting notice again. I walked over to ------ who was looking at the bear with shock in her eyes.

"Back already?" - I said to start a conversation. "Did it go well?"

"Yeah..." - she answered my question and hesitated a little before continuing to speak. "Did you seriously keep it?"

"Of course." - I said, realizing that this was going to be a big moment for her.

"I thought you threw it away." - She said quietly and at the same time took the bear cub in her hands. "I spent the first few days looking for him, though I had no hope of you keeping him."

"How could I have thrown him away?" - I said with incomprehension. "It was a gift, how could you throw it away?"

"Where did you keep it? I know every corner of the house and I'm sure it wasn't there." - I had only to smile at her question, but not to say anything since it was my secret and she knew it herself, as she decided to continue talking. "It was my only toy I once found on the street, and it was the only one I could sleep with at the time, as it gave some sense of warmth. When I found out it was your birthday, I didn't know what to get you, so I decided it would be something dear to me. Then I searched a lot of nasty places to find some threads and needles. I remember hurting all my fingers trying to get it to look decent. And when I didn't find it, it hurt a little, but it was understandable. It was pretty questionable quality after all."

"..." - I was silent, since there was nothing to be said.

"But you kept it." - she said as quietly as she had spoken all along. "Thank you Yasuke. It means a lot to me."

"Don't thank me." - I said as I watched her cradle the bear cub against her chest.

After being in this strange atmosphere for about ten minutes, she stopped hugging the bear and put it back down, lying just as I had placed it. After that, without saying anything, we started quietly unpacking our stuff. As I realized Tengan-san had already left when he realized I was asleep and didn't bother me, and like she said, the whole move didn't take much trouble. I also managed to notice that the things that belonged to Mukuro had been put in the attic.

Already during the night, when the sun had completely disappeared over the horizon, we were able to arrange and put things in their places. And while ------'s room was beautifully decorated and lots of different details and little things were visible, my room looked a little humble and empty, so we'll have to decorate it somehow. But I think that over time, all of this will somehow fill itself, I also hope that I will have a lot of pictures that you can hang on the wall. About these thoughts and I sank into a systemic sleep.

In the morning when I woke up in a strange place, I panicked a little, thinking that I could be stolen, but then I remembered that I had seen the same ceiling before sleep, and the familiar ----------- hair, which lay on my face and smelled the same as usual, that calmed me down a little.

The whole day passed in a rush, running from one corner to the other, thinking about what we should buy or redo, and also decided better to look around the house. As much as I didn't want to do it, but school was in a few days, so we had to get ready for it. It was a good thing that Tengan-san gave us both a list of things we needed and also for decency's sake stopped by today to check on us some more and make sure everything was in order. He also gave us his phone number, just in case and told us where to call if we needed anything.

Already in the evening after taking care of a lot of things I finally decided to relax and sat down in an armchair to do so. I took out my laptop, which had been gathering dust in the corner for a long time, and went online to check the latest news and opened the first headline.

"Yasuke Matsuda, Young..." - I read the first few words.

And immediately closed it back up. All the while I wanted to relax and not read about more problems. But as much as I wanted to put it away, I knew that if I missed it, there would be a lot more problems. So, with firm thoughts I opened it and began to read it carefully.

(From the author: I had a gap of a few months between writing here, so there may be errors.

P.S. I will reread them and correct them as I can).

Well and as I suspected there wasn't anything there to surprise or discriminate me. A little bit of my biography, which wasn't particularly secret and could be found out if you did a little digging. Even so, the bulk of the article was about me being a genius among geniuses, which was nice in a way, but still kind of hurt my dignity because there was nothing more about me than my talents.

Not paying any more attention to this than necessary I closed the laptop back, as I lost all interest in looking at it further. Deciding to try to distract myself again, I turned on that huge TV, hoping to find something interesting there, and immediately after turning on the screen, my close-up image appeared. Without giving it a second thought, my finger pressed the button again and the TV went out again. Yes.... Well, it's not the first time I appear on TV, the interest in my person will pass quickly, the main thing for now is not to show my face from the house. And it might work if in a couple of days, I would not have to go to school, where I'm likely to get a buzz around me again because of my age.

That's pretty much how I thought about the rest of the day and would have been just as pessimistic if I hadn't had ------ in a swimsuit burst in asking me to teach her how to swim. I guess I had learned to say no to her in the last few years, especially now that she was just back to her usual happy-go-lucky self. So, I had no choice but to go to the backyard and teach her how to swim.

As I went down to the backyard, the realization came to my head that I had never gone swimming in my life. And climbing into the water, I hoped only that I would have experience from my past life and that the system would not reset it to zero. But after swimming a few laps, I realized that nothing had changed and I could swim in peace. As I swam up the stairs I started to wait for ------ who was already bouncing in place out of impatience.

Almost all day I had been teaching her how to swim and towards the end of the day she finally started to learn how to swim normally, that she even started splashing and we were able to play in the water a bit, but... it certainly wasn't particularly noticeable, but I still saw that most of the time she pretended to be bad at swimming. But I, thinking it was no big deal, maybe she just didn't want to seem too talented or something. Right? RIGHT? After all, there wasn't much time left before canon, which couldn't help but stress me out.