Part 18

If I had known how much trouble I was going to get into for wearing that damn brooch. This hard and trying day began the very morning we went outside and during the hike I noticed two new things that hadn't happened before. The first thing was ------, who could barely get over her embarrassment to walk beside me, which looked pretty cute, and the second thing, which was already annoying me wildly, was the looks.

Usually, of course, there are stares at us, but mostly they are always directed toward ------, but now, literally every person was looking at me and the brooch, and when I say everyone, that's what I mean, and okay they would just stare, but they were not confused staring at me, some even tried to come up and talk to me, but I just walked past them without even trying to think about answering them.

Walking with difficulty to school without even sending someone away, I thought it would be a lot less of a problem in junior high. But God, how I fucked up that opinion. It was even worse with the kids, not only were some hardly any different from the adults' behavior, some kids still came up to ask to touch it, and some didn't even ask and just tried to rip it off my chest, with bad intentions or not, I wasn't sure, but with the guys who literally stopped me in the middle of the hallway and asked to give me that brooch and the fact that someone like me could only steal it, had clearly not the kindest of intentions towards me, not that they were much trouble for me, but it wasn't the only incident of the day.

The next obstacle was Mori-san, who saw that brooch on me and then spilled coffee on herself. After that, she spent practically the whole day trying to get me to ask questions or clarify things, unless of course she asked me in a pointing tone to tell me everything that I had done again. After the whole story, she hovered for a couple of dozen minutes and then yelled at me a little bit for not calling and consulting with her, and then yelled some more about "do I know how much effort it took her to send the three of us to the same school". But after she had completely calmed down and talked it out, she just mussed my hair with her hand and said that she was proud of me and didn't doubt in the least that I could get the attention of Peak Hope. After these words, the temperature in the room rose because of a strange temperature phenomenon, which brought a blush to my cheeks. Yes...

Then this situation repeated on the way back, only this time some kids called their older brothers to beat this "cheater" and "Thief", but yes, they did not make much trouble either, I even raised the skill [Martial Skills], by one level. But to this for today you can say that I got used to it, but the fact that the driver also reacted to it, when I got into the car and he stared at it, you can assume that the sign of the academy for people is something incredible, well, and certainly not achievable for most. Perhaps some had never even seen an Ultimate Apprentice from afar.

The same thing happened again at the hospital, which really started to annoy me today, I even had the idea of taking it off, but the extra +5 to the intelligence and charisma warmed my heart. So, I had to put up with those looks and which, to my regret, did not disappear after I put on a doctor's robe, my hopes disappeared after he could not fully cover it.

In the evening, when the main stream of people had finished, and all the people who were on record had passed, I went to see Igarashi-san in order to "make him happy. And to my surprise he was really happy for me, he shook my hand and patted my shoulder, almost killing me in the process. There were no questions about how or why, and he seemed to understand my look, saying that he believed in my brains and didn't doubt me, so I had to make the right decision. He was also a little upset that he couldn't introduce me to his son and was about to say goodbye to me, but I had to reassure him that I only had to go to peak hope in three months, so I would work some more. At this he only had to sigh and let me go home early. But I had more plans for today.

I went downstairs and found the driver, who, as always, was with his wife. He looked at me with a surprised look on his face because he had come down and was about to leave early, usually I was either pushed out of here or had to go to school, which I sometimes missed. On my saying that I should be brought up to Kuzuryu-san today, to which he again looked at me suspiciously, as if doubting whether it was me or someone else. Ironically, I really am not myself, but I am me. Well, that sounds pretty silly, but it's a fact in my case.

And the trip to Kuzuryu-san should take about an hour. Well, usually on the times I've gone to see him, it's taken that long. And, luckily for him, his plan to get close to his family worked out pretty well, since the younger generation of Kuzuryuu family and one girl guard are the people, I mostly interact with, not counting the people I live with of course. So, I often went to them to spend time having fun and just to relax, and they came to me a dozen times a month.

After an hour the car finally stopped, but good thing I had my laptop with me which allowed me to pass the time, but the car stopped in front of the gate of a huge Japanese or Chinese style mansion, I did not know much about it, but the whole house was in this style, which I, in truth, did not care about.

As I got out of the car and closed the door behind me, I heard the car I got out of start to drive away. Well, that was understandable, after all my driver obviously didn't hold high positions in the yakuza, so it was unbelievable for him to come to the big boss like that. So, I walked up to an inconspicuous door, walked a few meters along the fence, certainly compared to the giant gate, and pressed the call button, next to it.

"Who's there?" - came a gruff voice a few seconds later from the speaker.

"Matsuda." - came my response to that voice.

"Come in." - This time there was a warmth in the voice along with a touch of respect.

Immediately there was the sound of a door opening, which I immediately stepped through. It was of course strange that they let me in almost instantly and one would think they were bad at their job, but no, unfortunately for me they do their job too well and the first time I came they made me wait for a dozen minutes while searching me everywhere they could for anything that might show danger to the Kuzuryuu family, but this was for months, until everyone who could, including the guards themselves and even the housekeepers, had learned me and then they didn't realize that I'm Well, of course seeing me a special attitude from the bosses, they could assume that I'm not just a random guy and also began to treat me with respect.

Well, the walk from the gate to the door of the house you have to walk about ten minutes at a normal pace. Which makes me angry, why such a big house? But walking through the beautiful gardens, which were filled with beautiful flowers, the name of most of which I did not even know. Perhaps I should, should pump a little into floristry or better start right away with botany. There were also a large number of trees and a park that had a fountain and seating areas. There were some nice places to sit and have a picnic, which happened a few times. There were also tennis and basketball courts and even a freaking swimming pool. And of course, I've used it a few times already, which was nice. Especially resting and boosting skills along with characterization with them. Hell, maybe I'll get something like that someday, even though it pisses me off, but it will be nice.

So, I finally got to the fucking door and opened it without knocking. I do not think that with such a security system it would have been necessary to lock the doors, and of course my arrival had already been reported to at least half of the house, so I should have already been met. This was confirmed when several maids curtsied at the door to greet me, and I just waved my hand. After all, familiar people and they greet me almost every time, sometimes, of course, they may have changed, but at most there were two people. I do not know why they, and why, after all, they did not follow me and only at the beginning helped to find out where something was or if there was someone I needed in the house. Maybe some kind of personal maid service.

Heading to Kuzuryuu-san office along the now familiar path, suddenly something pounced on my back and hugged me.

"Yasuke!!!" - came the girl's voice in my ear. "Why didn't you call me and tell me you were coming!"

Well, I expected that. It was the youngest member of the Kuzuryu family, Natsumi Kuzuryu to be exact, she was Fuyuhiko younger sister and as I recall at the time of the second part story, she was dead because one of her classmates was involved, I don't remember exactly what happened there, but her death served as a good motive and a bit of a dumb story that bleached me as far as my senses tell me. So, she could be considered a semi-canon character.

But that will come later, if of course it will and I don't know what Natsumi was like in the story, but if she was killed by an ordinary girl, I don't think so, but even now she was not the nicest type of person. A spoiled girl who can afford so much more than others, also likes to throw threats about getting me killed, her tone always exuded superiority, and parts of her character showed that she was selfish and jealous. There is also no denying that she could be angry and even cruel, maybe even too cruel, if you consider that she once tried to throw a brick at me, which she then got.

But I think that was an initial opinion, which stayed basically the same, but took on some new colors. The only thing she did was to bluff or simply repeat what the adults had said and refuse to do as it was the norm in a yakuza family. Her jealousy and rudeness only applied to strangers, though she was still jealous of everything she could, but she didn't focus on it that much. Even that brick was random, well "pretty much random and she didn't mean to at all," so yeah. So, she was becoming pretty much a regular spoiled girl.

The funny thing was that with mutual hatred we started to treat each other normally and much warmer. So, it's safe to say that we became more than just acquaintances for each other, and afterwards the relationship only got warmer and now she felt something like her first crush on me, that my coldness and refusals about going out only warmed her ardor, and the fact that I wasn't afraid of her or her family and everything else and was quite a promising young man-made hearts appear in her eyes when she saw me. There's certainly no comparison to my own yandere, but the rudiments of a harem I don't want are already there. And after all these years of relationship, I was able to raise a relationship with her that made it look like this right now.

[Natsumi Kuzuryu] [Alive]

[Status: Happy/Excited]

[Attitude: 189%]

[Description: She thinks you're a good match for herself, and she also totally likes your looks, especially your hair.]

And the descriptions totally validated the reality. Because somehow, I couldn't describe or explain the fact that she stroked my hair incessantly. And my silky and soft dark hair had already managed to grow to shoulder height and all the same pointed ahoge, which never got any way to remove, but in the world of anime this is considered normal.

"Because I'm not here for long and I only came to see your father." - I replied indifferently.

"Well." - she stretched out. "I thought you were coming to see me!"

"Don't get your hopes up." - I didn't buy her game.

"Fine!" - she said in my ear the same way. "I didn't really want to see you!"

"Okay." - I said, knowing what she wanted from me. "As soon as I talk, I'll come straight to you."

"All right!" - she shouted in my ear and still didn't get off and still kept rubbing my hair.

"Ehhh." - I breathed.

I reached behind my back and fumbled for the girl's side, and my other hand grabbed the other side, and then with some effort I was finally able to lift Natsumi above me and move her in front of me, holding her like a kitten, causing her to fluff up a little and inflate her cheeks with feigned anger. I don't know why, but she liked it when I personally carried her in my arms, especially if it was princess and prince style, which of course I don't allow, but sometimes she does make her do that.

After dragging her and placing her carefully in front of me, I looked at her. Natsumi was a girl of medium height with blond hair and light olive eyes. She had light skin and the only thing she always wore was a downward-flowing pink blush on her cheeks. She was wearing a plain white shirt, which was tucked in my type, and a dark skirt covered the bottom.

Looking at her more closely, I realized that her overall appearance was similar to the short-lived protagonist of the third part of Danganronpa Kaede Akamatsu. Even her death was near a piano, and Kaede was the "Ultimate Pianist." And maybe you could have somehow made the plot of part 3 on that, but because of the others you had to change the plot. But I think you can make a lot of different theories forever, so I think you should stop thinking about it and live in the present. By the way, about the present, her eyes weren't focused on my face at the moment and there weren't even any hearts in them, just total shock and lack of understanding, and the look itself was directed at my new jewelry. Well, I guess her reaction wasn't much different from anything else, except that I wasn't going to hit her.

"Mm-mm-mm." - she mumbled. "Yasuke?"

"Yeah? What is it?" - As if I didn't know what she meant.

"Where did you get that?" - she said and gently, with her finger as if it might bite, touched the brooch.

"I was accepted into Hope Peak yesterday. So, they gave me one of those." - My voice drained of nothing but boredom, as if it were a common thing.

"What?" - she didn't understand. At that, her face changed to a calm one, and her lips changed to a sweet smile.

"I was accepted into Hope Peak yesterday. So, they gave me one of those." - I repeated my past words.

"WHAT!!!" - All of her calm completely disappeared with that shout.

"I was accepted into Hope Peak yesterday. So..." - I didn't have time to finish my repeated speech before...

"I heard it the first time!!! How did you get accepted to Hope Peak, it's the best school in Japan, and in case you haven't forgotten, you're only in junior high now and you're going to middle school." - she clarified for me.

"Well, they made a small exception for me and let me get in a little early." - I said without an ounce of emotion.

"WHAT!!!" - Unlike her, who shouted again to the whole house.

"Well, they made a little exception for me and..." - I began again.

"STOP!" - she couldn't stand it. "You do realize that they don't make exceptions at Hope Peak, right? You can't even enroll there, not for any money, and you only get in by invitation. That's impossible. It's the only time in history! You understand that, don't you?"

"I was just finally recognized. I'm a man of great talents." - I bragged a little.

"You?" - she said doubtfully.

"What do you mean, 'you'?" - I said incomprehensibly. "I am Yasuke Matsuda, the Ultimate Physician. In case you didn't know."

"I thought you were joking..." - she said quietly. "Tell me how it was!" - Her eyes literally lit up at those words.

"Let me go to your father first, and then I'll come and tell you and Fuyuhiko what happened and how it happened." - Made himself an extra challenge.

"What about 'this one' and the other one?" - she asked the question that interested her. "It's not like they're even on the same level as me, so they can't be accepted."

"The academy director promised that he would give the three of us a dorm and even a separate house if we were lucky." - I answered her question.

"What, Principal?!" - she clearly overreacted to that. "Now you owe it to me to tell me everything!"

"Okay." - I had already given up completely. "Go to Fuyuhiko room and find him yourself, and I'll try to finish quickly and come to you."

"Already!" - she shouted from the other end of the hallway, having already managed to move there somehow.

I don't know why, but her love for ------ is showing too much, and not in a good way. While she can talk to Mukuro normally, but of course Mukuro herself doesn't want to talk to her, she fights with ------ for some reason. Although why "for some reason", clearly, it's because of me and she doesn't like ------ because of jealousy, I hope that all this will pass and this is just a first crush that will cool down. I don't think, of course, that for a strong Ultimate there will be a ban on the creation of a harem, but I don't want to. It's so much trouble, and I don't want to mess with it all.

So with a clear conscience about not wanting to make trouble for myself I went to my boss's office. Not paying attention to the large number of people that were around. I felt the bosses office was in the middle of the house and did not impress me at all, not even from my first arrival. It was a perfectly ordinary office, bookshelves filled with books, a desk with a computer in the middle, a few chairs in one corner. So, it was perfectly normal which was unexpected.

This time I showed decorum and knocked on the door before entering, and already after the answering "come in" I calmly opened the door. Kuzuryu-san looked the same as when we first met, like a typical mobster, but he still emitted an aura that made me respect him, but luckily, I wasn't as young and green as when we first met, so his aura wasn't pushing me as much and I could already do something like that myself. Usually in the evening he would sit in his office doing things that had accumulated during the day, so I already knew when to come in. There was a faint and pleasant smell of coffee all over the office, as usual.

"Good evening Kuzuryu-san." - I said as soon as I walked in.

"Good evening Yasuke-kun." - A smile appeared on his face after seeing me. "How are you doing?"

"Just fine, and things have only gotten better since yesterday." - I immediately turned the conversation in the direction I wanted it to go.

"So, what happened yesterday that put you in such a happy mood?" - As you'd expect from him, he already sensed a catch in my words.

After that, I sort of casually shook off the non-existent dust, as if accidentally snagging my brooch.

"Oh, you mean that?" - he already knows. "I already know about it. And let me tell you, I'm happy for you. After all, your talent doesn't just show up in Ultimates, but in everything you touch, so this rapid progression for you will be no surprise."

"Yes." - His information about everything is really surprising, or maybe it's just about me. "I'm here to tell you that I'm three months away from the end of our contract."

"Yasuke-kun. You know very well for yourself that it didn't affect anything for me, so if you have any problems, you can contact me at any time." - He said too earnestly.

"Yes, I know. And I really appreciate it." - I said with warmth in my voice.

"All right," he clapped his hands together. "You've probably already been stopped by Natsumi and she's looking forward to seeing how you get there. So, I won't keep you, and then she'll tell me all about it."

"See you later, Yuuei-san." - Almost for the first time I addressed him by his first name.

"I'll wait for Matsuda-san." - he said earnestly.

His addressing me made me stand in place, after all it was the first time, he had ever addressed me by my last name, and even applying the san to me, it was a hidden thing. After all, if you've known a person for so long, it's just physically impossible for them to remain a nobody to you. It was clear that he acknowledged me. Leaving the office without looking back once, I headed in the familiar direction to the room I knew.

(From the author: It was around this point that I had the idea of making the protagonist an Izuru hitchhiker, but yes...)

Walking along the familiar route, I approached the familiar door along the familiar route and this time I did not knock and almost kicked the door open for a spectacular appearance, but managed to restrain myself. As I looked around the rich interior of the room, my eyes fell on the only people in the room. The first person was Natsumi, and at the moment she was lying on the bed with her arms spread out in all directions, she seemed to be asleep, but when the door opened her eyes opened and then she jumped up and sat down on the bed while staring at me expectantly.

The second person, and coincidentally the only male person, was the eldest male heir of the Kuzuryu family, Fuyuhiko Kuzuryu, who was now sitting on the edge of the bed. He was almost indistinguishable in appearance from his sister, the same blond short hair that was shaved in lines down the sides. And the same olive-gray eyes, and still the same constant pink blush on his cheeks. He had a baby face that had freckles on his nose and a mole at the bottom corner of his mouth. He was dressed in the traditional yakuza costume, namely a two-piece suit, consisting of a black jacket and white striped pants over a white shirt.

Heading toward him, I tapped his outstretched fist with mine as a greeting. Surprisingly, Fuyuhiko and I became very good friends. I think it was even safe to call us best friends, though perhaps that was because I was his only friend who wasn't part of his Mafia gang. My first impression of him was certainly not the best, he was rather rude and not the most unfriendly guy, but unlike his sister it was all played up. In fact, he was a pretty outgoing and kind guy, as was shown in Part 2, and overly responsible and despite the fact that he's already an "Ultimate Yakuza" he's too much of a stickler for the rules.

But I guess it's only natural when you consider all the pressure, he's been under from all sides. To have so much hope and privilege already thrust upon him, and yet to be second in line and only because Natsumi gave up the title. It's also kind of hard for him to make friends because of his title, some of them are just afraid of him, and some of them just trust him. So someone like me he cherishes a lot, and what's there to hide, I can call him a friend without any qualms either.

He's also surprisingly too proud, in a good way. He wants to achieve everything on his own, rather than relying on connections and family money. That he wants to be strong to lead his family, not be strong because he's leading it. To that end, he spends a lot of time on the training ground improving his physical parameters and devoting a lot of skill to everything else. Because of this, he even got over his pride and came up to me to ask me how he could grow. He was too small for his age when we first met and didn't even tower over his little sister who wasn't tall anyway, so I was a giant in the land of midgets when we first met and if you remember that at the time of the story, he was about 1.5 meters (155-157) tall, he never managed to grow up. His main problem was that he was lactose intolerant which made him unable to drink milk and some other foods which made his body lack calcium. But after I told him that there were a lot of other foods with calcium and pills that had calcium in them were invented a long time ago, he listened to my words and even thanked me, and then he started taking the right pills so he could even overtake his sister and was not so small, it was safe to say that he would not be the runt that he was in history. So, his principles and goals made him respectable. Even though he didn't think he was worthy for the position, he didn't need words of encouragement, and he would quietly be able to prove himself worthy of the position.

He also had a love for sweets, which he was ashamed of for a silly reason, along the lines that a real man should not like sweets, much less yakuza. So practically every time I arrived, we would sit on the roof or somewhere in the depths of the park and eat sweets. To my embarrassment in private he called me bro, which at first embarrassed me, but over time I also started calling him bro, so we both had a really strong bond.

After that, my gaze caught on the second girl who was standing behind Fuyuhiko, namely Peko Pekoyama. She was a tall beautiful girl with pale skin. Her hair, which was tied in two braids on either side of her head with red ribbons, was silver in color. Her bright red eyes were covered with rectangular glasses in thin frames. Her clothes consisted mostly of black, and behind her back was an overly visible sinai in a dark turquoise pouch. In short it was a bamboo sword. Also, strangely enough she was often mistaken for a cosplayer.

She was a very serious and stern girl whose amount of emotion was not unlike mine, which is to say almost none. Also, her voice was always with an important tone, but it was just a tone she didn't put any purpose into. She was also Fuyuhiko personal bodyguard and assassin. And when I talked to her a little bit, I completely remembered why I, hated the moment with her. She didn't think of herself as a person, she was just a tool and her only purpose in life was to protect and follow Fuyuhiko instructions. Because of this, she even killed a classmate on the pretext that she was a tool and not considered human, so that Fuyuhiko was innocent of murder and could be set free. After all, even I considered myself human.

And it pissed me off to the core. I don't know what it was, but it had been with me before this life. It just pissed me off this moment, this whole story and her story. I just wanted to smash her face in, which I basically do to her sometimes in training. It was pretty easy to get asked to spar with her as a partner, so it was pretty easy to get the fencing up to level 78. But I think it was up to Fuyuhiko, not me, to deal with her problems, which is kind of what should happen, well, I hope. Because of this opinion of mine, we never managed to become too close to her, but we didn't remain strangers to each other either. So Fuyuhiko and Peko relationship looked like this.

[Fuyuhiko Kuzuryu] [Alive]

[Status: Excited/Tired]

[Attitude: 200%]

[Description: You are his best and only friend. He respects you because of which he considers you an equal and calls you brother. He is glad that you are not afraid of him and his family.]

[Peko Pekoyama] [Alive]

[Status: Quiet/Tense]

[Attitude: 131%]

[Description: You are a good sparring partner for her, for which you should try harder, as you can overpower her. She thinks you can protect Fuyuhiko better than her and is happy for you to be friends with him].

Nodding to Peko and getting the same nod in return from her, I sat down on the bed between Fuyuhiko and Natsumi, and then I already lay down on the bed and relaxed, feeling several intense pairs of eyes on me. Which went on for a few minutes and I thought I was asleep, but... I got something in my stomach and when I opened my eyes, I saw that it was Natsumi's fist that had punched me in the stomach.

"Tell me!" - she said demandingly, while looking strangely at the contact between her fist and my stomach.

"Okay, okay." - I said doomfully.

(Time Skip.)

It was already dark outside, of course, judging by the view from the windows and all the streetlights that illuminated the entire park. But as it was, I wasn't going out, because I was now walking with Fuyuhiko to the garage. Before I left, of course, I said goodbye to Natsumi and Peko, and Fuyuhiko decided to see me off, which was, in fact, what was happening now. We walked in pleasant silence, since neither of us wanted to spoil the silence.

Strangely enough, the whole family reacted very violently to the fact that I had entered Hope Peak. Natsumi screamed practically the whole time about being jealous and wanting the same thing, and Fuyuhiko clenched his palms into a fist because of something I couldn't tell. Peko was Peko, but the widened eyes spoke volumes. While I was remembering their reaction, we had already reached the garage, and my companion stepped back through some separate door that was here.

It didn't take long for an unfamiliar man in a black serious suit to come out of that very door, followed by Fuyuhiko himself. As the man headed toward one of the expensive men and started to wind her up, Fuyuhiko came up to me and extended his hand to me, which I shook firmly, after which we patted each other on the back in a friendly manner.

"See you later, bro." - Fuyuhiko said quietly.

"I'll probably stop by the other day, so we can go see a movie, but if anything, I'll call you." - I'm supposed to have some free time the other day.

"Deal." - He replied with a smile.

"See you next time bro." - But it still sounded a little embarrassing, even though I didn't show it on my face.

I got in the car and waved to Fuyuhiko one more time, and headed home. Where an angry ------ was waiting for me who I forgot to warn and I really thought she wanted to hit me with a frying pan already, but a simple "I'm sorry" and a little explanation was enough for her, though she clenched her hands on the handle when I mentioned Natsumi. Mukuro strangely enough wasn't asleep but was sitting on the couch watching TV while eating ice cream, she usually goes to bed before anyone else but it looks like something has been bothering her lately, but I guess if she wants to, she'll tell. It's not my policy to beg for people's problems.