Money

That night.

Kai was asleep as it was already 3 AM. However, he suddenly picked up the sound of someone walking toward his house. He didn't lower his guard down even though he was sleeping, so he was in more of a half-sleeping state that one would wake up from if something happened.

When he heard those footsteps, he slowly opened his eyes and rose from his bed. It was unusual for him to hear footsteps this late, so he needed to check it, especially in this perilous situation.

He looked from his window and opened his mouth in surprise. He saw a woman fully covered with blood. There were numerous wounds on her body that even made her look a bit gruesome. However, he was surprised because she knew this woman.

It was his teacher, Shirotsuka Sanae.

Kai immediately came out from the window and leaped toward her. "Teacher?!"

Shirotsuka Sanae looked at Kai with her fuzzy eyes. Even her vision was already red because of the blood. "It's… Kai, huh…"

"Yes, Teacher. What happened to you? No, this isn't important, I'll bring you to the hospital, right now?" Kai tried to carry her to the hospital, but…

"No… hospital… we… leave… now… use... Kudo..." She used the last strength on her body to inform him. She came to him, part of it was because of the deal with Kai and the other part was because Kai would be the only one who could help her in this state. After she said that last message, she passed out.

"Teacher?" Kai was startled as he immediately carried her to his bed.

Tasha suddenly came to his room with her sleepy eyes, wondering what the ruckus was. She opened the door and saw Kai putting Shirotsuka Sanae on his bed. She looked at the wounds and blood that covered her body and immediately woke up from her drowsiness.

Kai immediately looked at her, "Wipe her blood for me. I'll bring the bandages and such."

"All right." Tasha didn't ask anything about this and immediately grabbed a bucket of water and a warm cloth to wipe the blood.

Not long after, Kai also came with bandages and two bags of blood. Because of Tasha, they were pretty accustomed to fighting and having injuries. There were even times where they were seriously wounded, so to hide it from their parents, they procured their own medical kit as well as blood bags for Kai and Tasha. Of course, they procured them by Tasha's reputation.

Luckily, Shirotsuka Sanae had the same blood type as him, so he could do some transfusion to her since she had lost too much blood because of her injuries.

They started dressing her wounds, treating it, and keeping it clean. After transfusing the blood to her, the color in Sanae's face finally began to appear again. They might need to stitch some of her wounds, but her life shouldn't be in danger anymore. She might need to go to the hospital later, as this was only for first aid.

"Kai, do you know anything?" After taking care of her, Tasha finally asked.

"The last thing she said to me before she passed out was: No, hospital, we, leave, now, use, Kudo. That's all." Kai shook his head.

"No hospital… she meant something like this, right?" Tasha said, starting to brainstorm the clue.

"It should be."

"But, what does she mean by 'we leave now'?" Tasha and Kai looked at each other.

"Did she mean our parents need to leave this place right now?" Tasha asked.

"Probably… and it can only be today as she said to use Kudo." Kai nodded.

"Kudo… Kudo Group?"

"Yes. I think. I told her about my last resort, about selling myself to Kudo Group… as a joke, but I think this is a very serious one." Kai closed his eyes, thinking about their situation.

Tasha looked at her brother with a complicated expression. She wasn't sure about this because Shirotsuka Sanae was still unconscious. It would be better if she could wake up, but it wasn't possible for the time being.

Kai finally decided, "I'll call Ayaka… You wake up our parents now."

"..." Tasha sighed as she left the room. At first, they wanted to contact Michelle, but she was unavailable. She sent him a message telling him that she wouldn't be able to contact him for three months, so it was useless since she was the only one they could contact. There was still a month from the time limit, so Kai joked around and said he would sell himself to Ayaka.

Of course, if he had to, it would be better to rely on her rather than Ayaka.

Kai grabbed his communication device and called Ayaka.

Ayaka was still sleeping in her bedroom since it wasn't even 5 AM yet. When she heard her communication device ringing, she woke up and rose from her bed. She grabbed the communication device and answered it with her drowsy voice. "Who is it?"

"A...Ayaka…" Her eyes immediately opened wide as she was startled to hear this voice this early.

"Kai?"

"Mhmm… I need you for something…"

"What is it? Just tell me?"

"I… I need money," Kai said with an embarrassed tone.

"Ah!" Ayaka was a bit surprised by his request. "How many do you need? I'll transfer it to you right away."

"I just need enough for the long trip to the US base for my parents. So, about twenty million. My sister tried to raise some funds, but we don't have enough time," he said.

Startled by the request, she choked. "Seriously?"

She had so many questions in her mind. She didn't know why Kai wanted that much money, but considering the number, it was true that it was the same amount for migration to the US base, and she could understand why Kai asked her for this money. After all, it was pretty hard for Kai's small family to gather this much money. Even with the help of Tasha's reputation, they would still require time.

"Yes," Kai said, ashamed.

"All right. I'll wire it to you right now." Ayaka didn't ask the reason why he wanted to migrate his parents and just gave the money. It was only a small amount to her anyway.

"Thank you… thank you… I'll repay you for this… definitely."

"It's all right. This is nothing to me." Ayaka tried to calm him down. She felt that he was in trouble from his voice. It was just that she didn't know what kind of trouble he was facing.

However, uneasiness still crept inside her heart. She was worried about Kai as Kai wasn't someone who would make trouble easily.

She went to the bathroom and washed her face before changing into her uniform. She was planning to visit him first before going to school. Of course, she knew her butler would know this, and it would be troublesome to explain this matter, so she decided to sneak out. After all, her parents or grandfather might forbid her from checking on Kai because she felt that they were acting weird these past few days.

She could just go back after she checked Kai's situation. With that, she came out from her window to avoid being seen.

Sadly, before she even managed to get out of her big house, she was spotted by a young woman. She was a woman in her twenties. She had blonde hair and big blue eyes with big round glasses on her eyes, making her look like a clumsy person.

"Young Lady?" Becca called her.

She froze when she heard that voice. She turned her head and said, "Sister Becca…"

"What are you doing here, Young Lady? You're usually still asleep at this hour. And look at you, you're wearing a school uniform, are you going to school right now?" Becca asked.

"Ye-yes. I'm going to school right now."

Becca only stared at her with a complicated expression. "Young Lady, are you treating me like a fool? Although I am indeed a clumsy person, I am by no means a fool."

"..." She froze again, looking away with an embarrassed expression. She sighed and told her the truth. "You know about Kai, right?"

"Young Lady's crush? Yes, I know."

"He is not my crush." She retorted her hurriedly. However, talking to her like this would take too much time. She decided to calm down first and said, "He asked me for money a few minutes ago. I feel that he's in trouble, so I want to check on him."

Ayaka was thinking about how to convince her.

"You can ask anyone if you want to do that, Young Lady."

"I… you know about my grandfather and my parents are acting weirdly for the past few days, right?"

"Yeah." Becca nodded.

"If they know about this, I'm afraid I'll just add more trouble for them, so please let me go this time and don't tell them about this," Ayaka begged.

Becca stared at her for a while. She remembered how her master, Ayaka's grandfather, had been acting weird these past few days. When she asked him, he just told her to take care of Ayaka no matter what.

She was perplexed by that instruction. She finally said, "All right, but under one condition."

"One condition?"

"Yes, you need to take me with you too," Becca demanded.

"..." Ayaka became a bit troubled with this. "Fine! You're going to inform them if I don't bring you, right?"

"Hehe… Young Lady knows me well," Becca said. She looked at her tracksuit and said, "Since I'm just going to protect you from afar, I will just go with this."

"Fine, let's go. We need to go back before the others notice."

"Yes."

Both of them then went to Kai's house.