The news reports the next day were filled with what had happened before the charity event even started. Kurogane s.h.i.+s.h.i.+o of the Kurogane Conglomerate was shot by an unknown culprit while he was making his entrance at a charity event.

While he received pity from those who were unaware of what the Kurogane clan was, most people in the same field felt no pity towards him. They thought that whoever shot at him must have been in the right because to them, the Kuroganes really have angered too many people.

Of course, not everything about the event was bad news. Kazuno Tech has announced that they would be developing an innovation that would be helping with the places in the world that have a lack of educational personnel or inst.i.tutions.

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*tug tug*

Tomoyo who saw the news reports as they were having breakfast immediately tugged on her grandfather's sleeves.

"The kid's fine. He should be on a plane heading towards the western prefecture right now." Jirou answered her concern. "He didn't even forget to have me make something I'm having trouble with." He shook his head.

"?" Tomoyo tilted her head.

"What did Kazuya ask you to make dear?" Kaori was curious as well. Jirou was a skilled craftsman who once crafted along with his workers so declaring something troublesome was something that rarely came from this confident man.

"These things." He pulled up a few papers from his pockets and showed the two.

The papers contained detailed drawings together with measurements. Each one looked very detailed pieces of metals that were of various shapes and sizes. The two of them couldn't figure out what they were for but like Jirou said, the various engravings on them made it look complicated.

"Do you know what this is or what it is for?" Kaori couldn't help but ask curiously. She was interested in the intricate looking engravings on the metals.

"I'm not really too sure but it looks like they are a.s.sembled together. The kid told me that he could help with the engravings but how can I let an amateur do it?" Jirou believed that though the kid may be the most talented he'd ever met, Jirou was still a master craftsman that had a lot of experience under his belt.

"I know you're upset about him joining a compet.i.tion involving firearms but you should let him try. He might even be interested in being a craftsman." Kaori decided to be the voice of reason. To her, Kazuya was already a grandson.

"Tsk! I wouldn't have let him go if there was any choice. Though guns may indeed be superior weapons, the sword is much better at training the people who wield them." Jirou wasn't one of those people who refused the common fact even though he was above the norm.

"I'm sure he is just doing it to humor Tenma, that old coot. He is keeping the peace between the clans after all." Kaori gave Kazuya her support. She knew very well how much Kazuya had been sacrificing for the sake of preventing the both sides of his lineage from fighting.

"I know." Jirou nodded. "Anyway, you better hurry off to school Tomoyo. The instructors will be taking you since I have to think about how to make the things that kid asked for." He already knew that Kazuya was using himself as a sacrificial lamb to appease both families. His concern however, was when the boy was going to make his move and what he was going to do. With what the Kuroganes tried to pull last night, he felt nervous about what his future grandson might do.

While he did use a large amount of funds to help Kazuno Tech with their research project, it was still an amount of money that was meant to be spent that night. Jirou did not believe that the boy would be satisfied with just that amount of payback. The boy had done worse things for reasons that don't even come close to Kyouko being exposed to such danger.

Jirou watched his granddaughter as she left. He wondered if Kazuya would react in the same manner if she was ever in danger. The two of them had gotten relatively closer over the years and the boy himself even announced his support of their engagement publicly. Of course, he didn't want Tomoyo to be put in any danger but only through certain situations will certain things will be revealed.

-

Tomoyo looked towards the sky as soon as she got off at school. Kazuya should have already arrived at the western prefecture for his compet.i.tion. He had been quite busy these days so she was a bit lonely. Takaya also didn't go to school as much because he was part of yet another production that kept him quite busy.

She was the only one who had a normal schedule among the three of them ever since Kazuya had gotten himself involved with Kurogane s.h.i.+s.h.i.+o so Tomoyo was left to attend her cla.s.ses on her own. What the two friends weren't aware of however, was that Tomoyo had gained a new and unexpected companion that she would spend time with if her two friends weren't present.

"Good… morning…" a soft voice came out and greeted the pretty teacher that smiled as soon as she spotted Tomoyo. It was still relatively early in the morning so Hikaru was

"You were able to do it well today s.h.i.+royuki-san. You've made a lot of progress." Hikaru praised. She was slowly helping Tomoyo make use of her voice which Kazuya and Takaya had been trying to improve for years. No one would have thought that someone else would be continuing their efforts without their knowledge.

*nod*

These two have grown a lot closer ever since Hikaru approached Tomoyo to get to know a little more about Kouzuki Kazuya. Though it was a rough start in which the two of them couldn't communicate well because of Tomoyo's reluctance to use her voice, a sudden breakthrough was achieved when the question of how the two became friends was asked.

Hikaru had no reason to doubt Tomoyo because this girl has always been pure and innocent. She found out that all of her a.s.sumptions towards Kazuya had been a mistake. Her initial prejudice against him was because if the words spreading around about how Kazuya was the lost son of the Kurogane house and how they intended to make up for their mistakes in the past.

She felt quite stupid because this was how the Kurogane clan usually operated. They manipulated the information towards those who weren't informed so that majority of those who knew nothing about them would feel sympathetic. The Kouzuki house would have been painted as hindering the parental rights of s.h.i.+s.h.i.+o if he was not allowed to visit or have time with Kouzuki Kazuya.

Tomoyo had been separated from her only friends because of her selfish prejudice towards a boy who was caught in the crossfire of two clans. This was something that Hikaru felt extremely guilty about. She no longer felt any hostility towards Kazuya, but rather she empathize with him more after learning more about his past.

"The compet.i.tion Kazuykun should be in should be shown somewhere. Do you want to watch during your break time?" Hikaru looked at Tomoyo gently. Though she knew the answer already, she liked seeing this girl's expressions change. Even though they were subtle, her eyes would light up whenever it was about Kouzuki Kazuya.

*nod nod*

"Then I'll meet you in the counseling room during lunch." She watched Tomoyo obediently leave for their cla.s.sroom. She still had to attend the morning meeting. Hikaru headed to where the other teachers were and though she still hadn't talked with Kouzuki Kazuya ever since he stopped coming to her cla.s.s, from what Tomoyo told her about him, there wouldn't be any problems if she admitted her mistake and apologized.

She wondered if anyone else knew that the key to s.h.i.+royuki Tomoyo's voice was Kouzuki Kazuya himself. Though she initially thought that the girl was mute, the very first time she heard the girl's voice was when she talked to the boy in question. Tomoyo liked talking about Kouzuki Kazuya and Hikaru definitely felt the fondness this so-called 'robot girl' felt for the boy who was initially hostile towards her when they first met.

Not much people really knew the initial relations.h.i.+p that Kouzuki Kazuya had with the Kuroganes. Though the incident that happened between him and Has.h.i.+yama Lee was well-known, to people like Hikaru who didn't pay much attention to recent events, she only found out about it when she was informed about it.

Who would have thought that the son that was being praised and declared as one of the most talented youngsters of the Kurogane clan was a victim who experienced the arrogance and dirty tactics from that family.

It was only when she learned about Kouzuki Kazuya that she understood just how much he had helped the school and the students. Though it may have been involuntary on his part, many people have been influenced by his strange presence. Though Sacred Forest Academy frowned upon those who flaunted their backgrounds, they really didn't have any means to prevent any actions that would be taken outside. This was especially if the parents themselves got involved. Though the school technically had some kind of power, enforcing punishments on these offenders would have to be clearly justified.

Kouzuki Kazuya was a deterrent for those kinds of people because he had shown in several occasions that he was unlike those people and would even take action whenever he would encounter something that did not sit right with him. It was because of him that the behavior of S cla.s.s students have changed. It may have been out of fear of Kazuya's growing influence but it was still a good thing for the regular students who were once like Mei in the past.

Hamasaki Hikaru's thoughts about Kazuya had undergone a complete turn as she sat to watch the coverage of the boy's partic.i.p.ation after her morning cla.s.ses.

"Good Luck!" she wished him after Kazuya appeared on the screen to take his first turn in the compet.i.tion.

Tomoyo was looking forward to the break period and appeared to be restless as she was in cla.s.s. No one tried to call her out on it because no one would expect an answer from her because Kazuya would serve as her translator whenever he was around.

*dun… dun…" the chime for lunch rang and Tomoyo rushed towards the counseling room.

"YES!" Hikaru hadn't noticed Tomoyo's entrance as she cheered out loud.

"?" Tomoyo entered the room and looked at the screen and immediately recognized the person that was being featured.

"You're here!" Hikaru noticed Tomoyo as the girl stepped closer towards the screen. She felt a little embarra.s.sed because she found herself cheering for Kazuya before she knew it. "Kouzuki Kazuya broke another record! Even the commentators can't believe that he's the youngest compet.i.tor in the compet.i.tion." Hikaru explained what happened while Tomoyo was in cla.s.s.

Both of them knew nothing about the compet.i.tion nor about guns so Hikaru explained it as she heard from the commentators. Initially, she was a bit skeptical about what she heard about Kouzuki Kazuya. The boy was highly valued by the middle school department because any compet.i.tion he would join would always grant a victory.

Now that she witnessed it herself, she understood how much of a marvel Kazuya was. The only problem she had while watching the program was that instead of using Kazuya's official name, he was broadcasted with the ident.i.ty of 'Kurogane Kazuya' in which Hikaru believed was the work of the Kuroganes. The same compet.i.tion was one of the achievements of the current head of the Kurogane clan after all.

"(What a kid…)" comparing the middle school kid to the other young people in the compet.i.tion, other than the name he bore, Hikaru thought that Kazuya would have to be intimidated as the youngest compet.i.tor in the compet.i.tion. Yet, not only had the boy have his usual indifferent look, he also broke the records that have set by predecessors who was older than him when they were set.

"(I wonder what kind of person his mother is towards him…)" Hikaru began to think. She had her own responsibilities as the homeroom teacher of cla.s.s 2-B. She was interested in meeting Kouzuki Kyouko but Kazuya was not officially registered as a student of her cla.s.s. The home visits that she was supposed to do did not include him.

"s.h.i.+rayuki-san, can I come and visit your grandparents later?" Hikaru asked as soon as the broadcast had taken a commercial break.

*…nod* Tomoyo gave a nod after thinking about it for a few seconds. It was already announced that there would be home visits and their previous teacher, Miyamoto-sensei had already done it a while back.

"Great! We can go directly to your home after your club activities." Hikaru smiled. "I will inform your grandparents that I will be coming along with you later"

-

Meanwhile, in the western prefecture compet.i.tion grounds.

*BZZT BZZZT*

"What's the matter?" Kazuya answered his phone after seeing who the caller was.

"Boss! You won't believe where I found out the information you were looking for!" Ika sounded very excited as if he had uncovered something of great significance.

"What is it?" growing curious, Kazuya expected something out of the usually bored hacker.

"You were right! Hamasaki Hikaru's ident.i.ty really was fishy!" Ika exclaimed. "It turns out, her ident.i.ty was something that was changed by the Kurogane family!"

"Huh?" Kazuya's mind stopped. He couldn't wrap his head about what was going on. "Are you telling me that her ident.i.ty was something that was fabricated by them?"

"Right! Hamasaki Hikaru is a false ident.i.ty that has not existed for very long! Her real name would shock you!"

.