On the other side of town, when Furuya Rei and Date Wataru received Hagiwara's call, they were standing on the street, preparing to hail a cab to the hospital. Learning that Kuno was perfectly fine and already running energetically toward a motorcycle shop allowed them to finally breathe a sigh of relief.
Without anyone consciously realizing it, the five members of Onizuka class had mutually agreed that this seemingly carefree guy belonged in a category that required special attention. After all, no matter how powerful Kuno proved to be, at his core, he was still just an eighteen-year-old kid lacking family affection. Especially during times of sickness, he needed someone by his side.
"Honestly..." Furuya pocketed his phone, his tone completely helpless. "He literally just fainted, yet he won't even go back to the dorm to get some proper rest."
Date smiled. "It would be a miracle if he actually stayed still. If he can run around like that, at least it means his body is completely fine, which is a good thing."
"True... Then let's head back to school first and wait for them to return." Furuya finished speaking, then remembered his toothpaste had run out and changed his mind. "Wait, want to drop by a convenience store to pick up some daily necessities?"
Date nodded and walked alongside him. The sky had already grown dark, and a few early-waking stars shone sparsely, looking like someone had casually scattered a handful of tiny diamonds across the blanket of night.
"Um..." Date scratched his head, breaking the silence. "Sorry about that, Furuya. The things I said during training earlier... I went a bit too far."
Furuya blinked in surprise. "Class Leader Date?"
"Actually, my father was a patrol officer back in the day. Because he was on the skinnier side, he always kept a toothpick in his mouth to look tough," Date's voice dropped lower. "I always respected him deeply. What I didn't expect was that when he faced a gang member robbing a convenience store, he actually chose to kneel down and beg for mercy. Even so, the criminal didn't show any mercy. He beat my dad so badly he ended up in the hospital, and the guy went on to hurt several more people afterward."
"In other words... if my father had been strong enough to arrest that guy on the spot, there wouldn't have been any other victims."
Understanding dawned on Furuya.
So, this is the root cause of the Class Leader's obsession with strength.
"Sorry for making you listen to such a boring story... Let's grab our things and head back quickly."
"..." Furuya remained silent for a brief moment, wondering what words he could offer to comfort Date.
Right then, a brightly lit convenience store appeared ahead. The automatic doors slid open with a soft chime, and several customers were browsing the shelves. Not long after Furuya and Date entered the shop, a sudden gunshot echoed from right behind them—
Bang!
A culprit covered head-to-toe in a mask and sunglasses flashed a wide grin. "All of you, get on the ground right now!"
Furuya: ...Are you serious?
They literally just finished talking about a convenience store robbery, and they immediately walked straight into one?
Meanwhile, Morofushi Hiromitsu and his group were at the motorcycle shop, locked in a heated argument with the store clerk.
"Huh? Why can't you just tell us!" Matsuda slapped the desk in frustration.
The clerk looked thoroughly troubled. "As a rule, we cannot reveal customer information... At the very least, you have to tell me why you're looking for that specific customer."
"Then Hiromitsu, hurry up and tell him the reason!"
"That... because..."
"Because..."
Morofushi's voice turned incredibly dry, his fingertips instinctively tightening around the fabric of his clothes. The pressing voices of Matsuda and the clerk felt like they were filtering through a thick sheet of frosted glass, becoming incredibly distant and blurry.
Before his eyes, the bloody night from his childhood flashed vividly. The pungent scent of iron, the cold corpses of his parents, the killer humming a tune in the deep darkness... A wave of nausea surged from his stomach, and his breathing grew uncontrollably ragged—
"Hiro? Are you alright?"
A clear, bright voice suddenly dropped down.
Morofushi snapped back to reality, forcing out a rigid smile. "N-No... just suddenly felt a bit tense..."
Before he could explain any further, a pale hand slid over, a warm palm wrapping completely around his ice-cold fingers. That warmth felt almost alive, seeping into his bloodstream through their touching skin, dragging him out of the muddy swamp of his memories and steering his chaotic heartbeat back to normal without him even realizing it.
The black-haired, red-eyed youth gripped his hand firmly, giving it a small shake. "Don't push yourself too hard."
"...Yeah," he responded softly, casting a highly grateful glance at Gojo.
Oh my gosh, Hiromitsu's expression!! My heart aches for him so badly!!
Kuno's hands are so warm... Knowing how to comfort someone at a time like this is so touching.
Matsuda looks so fierce slamming the table, but he's still so cute.
Who on earth is that bastard with the goblet tattoo!! He's the one who killed Hiromitsu's parents, right?
"Morofushi..." Matsuda also noticed his pale face. He turned back to the clerk and resorted to pure stubbornness, "I already forgot the reason! Long story short, if you don't tell us, we'll arrest you—"
"Hey, hey, Jinpei, you can't just threaten people like that!" That doesn't sound like a cop at all!
Naturally, they couldn't squeeze any information out of the clerk's mouth in the end. Leaving the motorcycle shop thoroughly unwillingly, the group walked down the street toward the school, listening to Matsuda complain about the clerk's sheer stubbornness.
Perhaps to shift the focus, Hagiwara actively brought up an old story from the past. "Speaking of which, I suddenly remembered something regarding Class Leader Date."
"Oh? What is it?"
It turned out that when Hagiwara was a child, he had witnessed a thick-browed uncle who looked remarkably like Date Wataru getting beaten by a gang member in a convenience store, even kneeling down to the criminal.
"Thinking back on it now, that was definitely the Class Leader's father. For a police officer to beg a criminal like that... no wonder the Class Leader has a mental block regarding his dad."
Matsuda sighed. "I understand how he feels. When my dad was wrongfully arrested as a suspect, plenty of people called me the son of a murderer. I almost ended up hating my dad because of it."
"Luckily, quite a few people told me to believe in him and wait for his return... which was the only reason I didn't completely fall apart."
Gojo looked up at the night sky, offering a casual remark, "Come to think of it, everyone's childhood was packed with massive waves."
Unlike him, who could only sit in a dark organization eating, sleeping, and thoroughly thrashing little kids on a perfectly ordinary basis.
(System: You call that an ordinary life?)
"But everything is pretty great now, isn't it? At least Matsuda's dad cleared his name. As for the Class Leader..." He rested both hands behind his head, adding, "One day, he'll definitely patch things up with his father too."
"Is that so... How can you be so absolutely sure?" Matsuda was somewhat confused.
Gojo turned around, walking backward right in front of them. The curve of his lips still held a playful edge, yet it felt far softer than usual.
"Because, at your core, all of you are incredibly gentle people—"
Saying that, he reached out and ruffled Matsuda's curly hair, quickly dodging behind Hagiwara before the guy could snap.
"See? Jinpei obviously hates getting his head rubbed, but he won't actually hit me."
"...That's solely because you're a patient right now!" It is absolutely not because I can't beat you!
Seeing Matsuda's completely helpless expression, Hagiwara Kenji and Morofushi Hiromitsu let out a warm laugh.
"Oh, right." Gojo pointed toward a convenience store across the street. "Want to buy some snacks? My treat~"
"Still talking about snacks? Did you already forget about keeping your diet plain?"
"Come on, I'll just look. Not buying anything is fine, right?"
Hahaha, Kuno's head rub was definitely payback for Matsuda's fist earlier!
Just looking and not buying? That's exactly what I used to tell my parents at the supermarket, haha.
Hiromitsu and Hagiwara share such a well-timed laugh!! The multi-shippers are winning here, hehe.
Wow, Kuno is actually incredibly gentle too!
Help, the way he walks backward is so classic and cute.
Hey, hey, did anyone notice that things are looking incredibly bad on Furuya and the Class Leader's side?
"Well, since Kuno put it that way... Morofushi, I don't know what happened to you in the past, but now that we're around, if you talk about it, we'll definitely solve it one day—"
Facing Matsuda's rare, straightforward encouragement, Morofushi's eyes suddenly widened as if he hadn't heard a word.
"P-Please... S-Save... M-Me..."
"Huh? Right now?" Matsuda and Hagiwara were completely baffled.
"No, look at the billboard right next to that convenience store!"
Looking up, the lights on that sign were flickering in a bizarre pattern. It didn't look like a technical glitch at all; rather, it was...
"Morse code?!" Hagiwara's expression sharpened instantly.
"It's a distress signal." Gojo stopped walking, fixing his gaze on the convenience store. "Looks like our plan to buy snacks is going to be delayed..."
-----------
100 Power Stones = 1 Bonus Chapter
10 Reviews = 1 Bonus chapter