Tadokoro Megumi was a student with poor grades at Totsuki—although she had recently managed to stabilize herself at the academy due to certain events, she had taken leave of absence at this crucial time when she needed to prove herself after her past self who always got the lowest evaluations due to nervousness.
And it was an extended leave.
Before she took leave, her instructor told her that this absence might result in her expulsion.
But even knowing this, Tadokoro Megumi still took leave and returned to her hometown in the northeast—a small port city.
Originally, there shouldn't have been anything at home worth worrying about.
Her family belonged to the type of small merchant family with good luck.
They ran a small inn in their early years, but later, after once hosting a VIP who was particularly satisfied with their inn, their small inn grew bigger and bigger, even moving out of the city center to build a hot spring inn in a better location with their money.
Although her family's small inn ultimately never left the sphere of influence of this small city, similarly, due to its moderate size, there shouldn't have been anything that could affect her schooling.
It should have been like this...
After getting off the train, Tadokoro Megumi pulled her suitcase and walked along the familiar road toward her family's inn.
Even returning to this familiar environment, she still looked nervous.
Because...
"—If you don't come back, the family inn will be demolished to build a nuclear power plant!"
...
The situation at Mutou Orphanage was very different from ordinary orphanages.
If a regular orphanage was as small as Mutou Orphanage, it would probably face economic pressure, staffing pressure... and many other pressures.
But old man Mutou wasn't ordinary. Besides having many friends, Mutou Judai also knew the old man wasn't ordinarily wealthy.
So compared to other orphanages, they were more like a large family.
Not only was life not hard, but "family trips" and such weren't uncommon either.
In Mutou Judai's memory, his first trip with the old man was to this small port city in the northeast—because the area where Mutou Orphanage was located was adjacent to the northeast region, just a few hours' drive to reach this city, and the old man had acquaintances here too.
Of course, the old man's acquaintance wasn't Karo Yoshinari, that uncle who was now fifty years old. The old man's acquaintance was Karo Yoshinari's master, a very skilled old fisherman who was even three years older than the old man—Kajiki Ryota.
"If the old man hadn't gone abroad, he would definitely want to come help if he knew about this... So since the old man isn't here, let me help instead."
Saying this, Mutou Judai easily made his way to the building below Ajiro Fisheries, the seafood company where Kajiki Ryota and Karo Yoshinari worked.
Some of the old fishermen here knew him, and this wasn't Mutou Judai's first time here either—so he had originally planned to greet them directly, then find uncle Karo Yoshinari to ask about the specific situation here.
But before that, Mutou Judai saw a sneaky person who, while no one was watching, climbed from a tree in Ajiro Fisheries' yard and jumped directly through a window into an unlit room on the second floor of Ajiro Fisheries.
"Eh, they actually left without closing the window, and didn't install screens or protective bars..."
Seeing this scene, Mutou Judai couldn't help but sigh.
But thinking about it, it made sense.
After all, this city was quite small and remote—it could be completely described as having simple folk customs.
The crime rate and theft rate here weren't high either. Everyone was basically acquaintances or acquaintances' family members, so their security awareness in this regard was somewhat lacking.
But now Mutou Judai had seen it.
So while no one was paying attention, he came under that window, jumped up forcefully, slapped his hands on the wall once to borrow force, then grabbed the edge of the second-floor window and smoothly climbed in.
At this moment, he saw that person had just opened a drawer, put an envelope inside, and was about to close the drawer and leave.
When Mutou Judai saw the person, the person also saw Mutou Judai.
Honestly, the person was also a bit confused.
Then after being stunned for a moment, this person actually came to Mutou Judai's front righteously.
"I'm not someone you can mess with—go steal from another house. If you don't leave, I'll call the police!"
Huh!?
Was the industry competition among thieves this fierce?
When thieves collided, one side actually planned to mutually destruct with the other to protect their business...
Thinking this, Mutou Judai flashed behind the person and directly knocked him unconscious.
"Come to think of it, that's impossible... Not stealing things but coming to place things..."
Mutou Judai walked to where the person had been, casually took out the envelope, and extracted a USB storage device from it.
This room was Ajiro Fisheries' office. When Mutou Judai came here as a child, he often came to this room—because there was a computer to play with.
So now he easily turned on the computer, inserted the USB storage device, and looked at its contents.
The contents were minimal—just one file, or rather a plan.
This plan was Toyo Electric's internal plan.
The plan itself was about this small city.
Just as Eizan Etsuya had said, Toyo Electric was targeting this small city, planning to build a large nuclear power plant at Ajiro Fisheries' fishing port and the nearby mountain areas and forests.
The plan also included information about Ajiro Fisheries, or rather about Karo Yoshinari.
The general plan here was to first threaten Karo Yoshinari, who could strangle great white sharks at sea, to fight in Kengan under the pretext of wanting to build "recuperation facilities" at the fishing port, and to throw a fixed match.
But Toyo Electric clearly had no credibility.
Actually, they still planned to occupy the fishing port and intended to turn the fishing port along with nearby mountain areas and forests into a nuclear power plant.
After reading through these things, Mutou Judai unplugged the USB, turned off the computer, and looked at the person lying on the ground.
"He came to inform?"
Mutou Judai thought about it—honestly, it didn't seem like it. After all, if ordinary people could easily get their hands on planning documents for major projects like building nuclear power plants, Toyo Electric wouldn't have such a notorious reputation.
The most likely possibility...
—Actually, Toyo Electric was directing and acting themselves, deceiving uncle Karo Yoshinari and the others, then finding someone to deliver the information themselves.
Because this way, they could make uncle Karo Yoshinari develop a rebellious psychology, then in the upcoming Kengan Annihilation Tournament, carry this rebellious psychology to exert greater power, unknowingly helping Toyo Electric greatly under their arrangement.
And because the fishing port was still in Toyo Electric's hands, even if uncle Karo Yoshinari wanted to do something, he actually couldn't escape Toyo Electric's grasp.
Sigh.
Thinking of this, Mutou Judai sighed, then kicked the wall beside him.
He didn't plan to kick the wall down, but deliberately made a loud noise to attract others' attention.
After that, he left the unconscious person here and jumped out through the window himself.
—This way, even if he guessed wrong and really misunderstood the person, they would only blame the "thief" they encountered, not Ajiro Fisheries.
As for him...
"Since I understand the situation, let's not go find uncle Karo Yoshinari for now, but go check out the other side."
After all...
This time, Toyo Electric's nuclear power plant construction wouldn't just require demolishing the fishing port, but also surrounding forest areas, and would affect nearby mountain regions.
The plan document stated this.
Among these, the fishing port side needed to negotiate with Ajiro Fisheries, while the other side also had an inn that similarly needed negotiation.
Anyway...
"Let's go to the inn side first to ask about the situation... and if things get complicated, I'll just stay there for the night."
...