"What the hell are you doing?! Do you want people to hate me even more?!" The door slammed shut with a bang, cutting off the noise from the outside world. Kuchiba Hiro immediately pulled off his mask and shouted at his father, his face still flushed with lingering embarrassment and indignation.
Having his private fetishes exposed in public was practically a social death sentence.
However, contrary to his expectation that his father would joke around or apologize, a relaxed and even somewhat devious smile appeared on that face—one that looked excessively young, barely over thirty, and not at all like the father of a high school son.
"Don't get excited, don't get excited, son," Kuchiba Ta said with a smile, waving his hand in a lighthearted tone. "This is all part of the 'plan' to protect our own safety."
"Plan?" Kuchiba Hiro frowned, his anger replaced by confusion.
"That's right." Kuchiba Ta's smile faded slightly as he became a bit more serious. "I know you have 'that' kind of ability. So, I figured nine times out of ten, the things shown on the light screen are real."
He paused, his gaze turning solemn. "That woman named Kuroko in there said that the corpses and living bodies of Transcendents are very valuable, and there's some 'red line rule' that prevents ordinary people from knowing they exist. I was thinking, since you're so conspicuous now, aren't you like a piece of fat meat dropped into a pack of wolves? There will definitely be ill-intentioned guys targeting you, or they might even use me to threaten you."
"So you came up with this move?" Kuchiba Hiro seemed to understand a little.
"Exactly!" Kuchiba Ta clapped his hands. "We make a big scene and turn ourselves into the focus of the entire society, so countless eyes are watching us! That way, those 'wolves' hiding in the shadows won't dare to act easily! Because once they do, they will inevitably expose the existence of 'Transcendent' powers, which violates that most fatal 'Red Line'! We're using the rules to protect ourselves, son!"
Kuchiba Hiro fell silent, carefully pondering his father's words. It wasn't that he hadn't considered the risk of becoming a public target before; he had even thought about whether he should take his father and go on the run to the ends of the earth, but that wasn't a long-term solution after all.
This method of his father's, though extremely humiliating, was indeed a... brilliant move? One that would allow them to maintain a normal life to the greatest extent possible under the current circumstances and seek protection through the 'rules'...
Aside from sacrificing his personal reputation and privacy, the benefits seemed to outweigh the drawbacks.
Seeing his son's expression soften as if he were being persuaded, Kuchiba Ta smiled triumphantly. "How about it? Your old man still has some quick wits, right?"
Kuchiba Hiro sighed, most of the frustration in his heart dissipating as he gave a reluctant nod. "...I suppose you have a point."
But then his tone shifted as he asked a more critical question. "Then what about the end of the world mentioned on the light screen... and you being silenced for leaking secrets? You're not some pivotal figure; why would The Authorities be so afraid of you that they'd need to silence you? What exactly did you discover? What did you do?"
At the mention of this, the smile on Kuchiba Ta's face gradually vanished. Now that things had reached this point, there seemed to be nothing left to hide. He sighed, his tone becoming somewhat heavy. "Sigh, all of this started a few years ago with an incident..."
"Stop, stop, stop!" Kuchiba Hiro interrupted him hurriedly. "Don't start telling stories from the beginning. Just get straight to the point! What's the deal with the end of the world? How do you know? And what did you do?"
His storytelling interrupted, Kuchiba Ta's expression stiffened. He somewhat gloomily swallowed the long story he had prepared, rubbed his nose sheepishly, and then said concisely, "Fine, fine... It's just that the end of the world is real. It's roughly... well, supposedly an apocalypse-level flood. Doesn't that plot sound familiar? Like Noah's ark."
He paused, his tone carrying a hint of irony. "And then, those high-and-mighty big shots and super-rich people secretly built a real 'Noah's ark.' They say the tickets are so expensive they could buy a small country. I just felt that ordinary people have the right to live too. Why should they be abandoned?"
"And so?" Kuchiba Hiro pressed.
"And so... I found a way to locate where they were secretly building the ark." Kuchiba Ta spread his hands, speaking as casually as if he had just looked for a camping spot. "And wasn't it a coincidence? An engineer in charge of the internal systems happened to be an old classmate of mine, and we were quite close. He had a bit too much to drink and couldn't keep his mouth shut, so he told me about the key vulnerabilities—how to bypass security and how to sneak onto the ship."
After listening, Kuchiba Hiro blinked a couple of times, momentarily unsure how to evaluate his father's behavior, which could be described as a 'masterclass in seeking death.' He could only say dryly, "...You saw something you shouldn't have seen, so you were silenced?" This was practically the classic case of 'knowing too much.'
"That's pretty much what it means," Kuchiba Ta curled his lip.
Kuchiba Hiro digested this staggering information, a rare look of blankness appearing on his face. "The end of the world... a great flood... it's real?" Although it had been mentioned on the light screen, hearing it confirmed by his father carried a completely different impact.
Kuchiba Ta looked at him strangely instead. "Didn't the light screen explain it all? You didn't believe it?"
"I..." Kuchiba Hiro's mind was a bit of a mess. "I believe it now. But the problem is, it's almost the end of the world! How can you still be so calm?! You even had the heart to talk nonsense to reporters about my... my private matters?!" His voice rose again due to shame and annoyance.
Faced with his son's questioning, Kuchiba Ta instead revealed an even more relaxed, almost heartless smile. He leaned back comfortably on the sofa and spread his hands.
"What's the use of worrying? Being miserable won't solve the problem. Might as well just do what needs to be done; life has to go on!"
Kuchiba Hiro looked at his overly optimistic old man, completely speechless.