The man in the black suit knew very well that among the so-called "Twin Fiends," the girl—Toumi—was the superior combatant. As a Level 4 esper, her fighting strength ranked near the top even among members of the Dark Side organizations.
However, in any partnership, the one who truly made the decisions was never the "muscle" or the "weapon."
The real brain of this duo was the boy sitting in the wheelchair.
Through professional intelligence analysis, it wasn't difficult to conclude: the boy named Kobayashi was calm and precocious. Though his outward appearance was that of a child, his inner world was no different from an adult's.
Steady in action, deliberate before moving. And once he made a decision, he never wavered—he would exhaust every means to see his objective realized.
Just like the recent confrontation with Black Moon Technology.
After surviving an assassination attempt early on, Kobayashi had shown remarkable restraint. Relying fully on the protection of the Security forces, he endured more than half a month staying indoors, never stepping outside, deliberately lulling the enemy into complacency.
Then, the moment their guard dropped, he struck.
He deliberately chose remote, deserted routes, practically throwing himself into danger to lure the enemy into attacking first.
And once the battle began, he annihilated the Dark Side unit "Hunter" hired by Black Moon Technology with thunderous speed. Together with Honeybee Toumi, he followed through relentlessly, storming the enemy's headquarters, destroying the entire organization, and rescuing over two hundred experimental subjects imprisoned there.
The entire operation lasted less than two hours.
A fairly large organization like Black Moon Technology was uprooted completely.
That efficiency. Those results.
Even setting the Security forces aside, it would be difficult for any other Dark Side organization to do better.
There was no doubt about it—this was talent.
In fact, if not for the excessively brutal methods used in the underground training facility, Kobayashi should have been an undisputed hero. With merits like those, he could have openly received commendations from the Security forces—perhaps even from the Governing Board itself.
Instead, he was stuck in this awkward position: publicly praised through media spin on one hand, while being placed under strict surveillance on the other.
"How do I know everything you've said is true?" Kobayashi asked calmly.
The man in the black suit felt a surge of delight.
From experience, once someone asked that question, it meant the deal was practically within reach.
"I can prove it."
The door suddenly swung open, and Yomikawa Aiho stepped into the room, her expression stern.
"Everything this man said is true."
"Yomikawa-sensei!"
The two students greeted her at once.
"…Yomikawa…"
By contrast, the man in the black suit wore a distinctly bitter expression.
The two guards at the door craned their necks to look inside, flashing helpless looks at their superior. After all, this was a uniformed Security officer—there was no stopping her.
"You got back quickly, Captain Yomikawa," the man said with a wry smile.
To distract her, he had deliberately arranged for someone to tip off the authorities about an illegal smuggling ring, forcing the Security forces into an emergency overtime operation.
"That's because I didn't participate in today's raid," Yomikawa Aiho replied coolly.
"And since I knew you were up to something, how could I possibly ignore it?"
Earlier, when Shokuhou Misaki had visited, she'd mentioned that there were "suspicious individuals" in the hospital asking about Kobayashi. The moment Yomikawa Aiho learned this, she launched an investigation and quickly locked onto the suspects.
Those "suspicious individuals" were, of course, from the Dark Side.
They bore no hostility toward Kobayashi. If anything, they resembled recruiters from a human resources department.
And just as the man in the black suit had said, the Dark Side organizations of Academy City and the Security forces were not enemies.
Individual Dark Side groups might differ in stance and ideology, but as a whole, "the Dark Side" and "the Security forces" were two sides of the same coin—partners, in a sense.
Because of this, Yomikawa Aiho couldn't simply resort to force and drive them away.
She also had to admit that joining the Dark Side could indeed free Kobayashi from his current predicament. If he wished to accept, she had no right to strip him of that choice.
"Kobayashi," Yomikawa Aiho said, turning to the boy on the hospital bed,
"everything he said is true. But you need to understand—nothing comes with only benefits and no drawbacks. The Dark Side is harsher than you probably imagine."
"But he's extremely talented," the man in the black suit pressed, now directing his persuasion toward her.
"He'll definitely adapt."
Yomikawa Aiho was Kobayashi's guardian—and it was obvious to anyone that she wielded tremendous influence over him.
"And Kobayashi's case…" the man added, touching on the most crucial point.
It wasn't severe enough to land him in a juvenile correctional facility, but strict guardian supervision, compulsory education, and psychological counseling, electronic monitoring—
For a minor, those measures were already severe.
Especially for someone who was, in every sense of the word, a hero.
It was precisely because the Security forces knew they were morally in the wrong here that Yomikawa Aiho had tacitly allowed the Dark Side to approach Kobayashi and offer him a choice.
At the same time, she hadn't been idle.
She had gone to seek outside help.
The Security forces upheld rules and order—but in this city, there was only one group with authority that transcended "the rules" themselves.
—the Governing Board, the true rulers of Academy City, the ones who created and administered those rules.
"Yunchuan-san," Yomikawa Aiho said, glancing toward the door,
"Please come in."
A middle-school-aged girl stepped into the hospital room.
Facing the men in black suits from the Dark Side, Yunchuan Seria didn't even bother to raise her eyelids, her demeanor lazy and relaxed.
She casually pulled a document from her schoolbag and handed it to Kobayashi.
"That's how it is," she said.
"You and Toumi-san are now registered members of Judgment. If everything looks fine, just sign and stamp it."
"Judgment?" the man in the black suit blurted out in shock.
"And what's the problem with that?" Yomikawa Aiho shot back.
"By convention, Esper students join Judgment, while adult teachers form the Security forces. Those are the two official institutions that maintain Academy City's order and safety."
As for the Dark Side—
They never appeared in the narratives of the "surface world" to begin with.
"So… what about what happened in the basement?" Kobayashi asked, scanning the document.
"That's classified," Yunchuan Seria replied, giving him a sidelong glance.
"It's been sealed indefinitely. You'd need very, very, very high clearance to access that information."
Yomikawa Aiho turned to look out the window, as though she had no interest at all in what was happening behind her.
This was the result of negotiations and compromise between the Security forces and Judgment.
(End of Chapter)
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