Tis was a nice afternoon.
The birds was chirping as they flew overhead the school, students in their respective classrooms listened as their teachers taught them the knowledge that they would need for their future....
But realistically speaking, unless they're really interested about the topic, they'd forget about 95% of the stuff they learn before the semester ends.
In the chairman office, an old man quietly sipped on a cup of oolong tea and let out a satisfied sigh.
"Hmm. What a nice afternoon," he muttered with a gentle smile, looking like your typical kind and carefree elder that should be retired rather than continuing to be working.
However, some of those who really knew him would be surprised to see him like this.
He's Hakama Shiranui; the grandfather of Hansode Shiranui, the chairman of Hakoniwa Academy and the coordinator of the Flask Plan! As a high ranking member of the Shiranui clan, he's learned and known many things that no ordinary person should. With connections that reaches even foreign nations and the supernatural!
He was a man that had lived a life that many would die young. He isn't someone to be underestimated.
Like a fox, he wears a mask of kindness and generosity but is quick to strike at his preys when they show a hint of weakness.
But....there was one thing that had tamed someone like him. Old age was just one of some, slight reasons of his relaxed demeanor.
"Heyo~ Gramps~!" Shiranui kicked the door opened, almost falling of its hinges. She grinned as she munched on a fried chicken leg, a bucket half-full of it in her other hand. "I've come to visit!"
She was the major reason he slightly "mellowed" out.
'Haa. Well, there goes my nice afternoon,' Hakama inwardly sighed and quickly finished drinking his tea, lest his granddaughter snatches it away from him.
"Ohoho. Hansode-chan, you never change," He said with a soft chuckle, setting his empty teacup down carefully. His gentle smile never wavered, though a faint twitch at the corner of his eye betrayed the slight irritation of having his peaceful moment interrupted. "Come in, come in. And try not to destroy the door next time, would you?"
It was rhetorical. She would never change nor listen to him, unless necessary, but it couldn't help but asked.
Hansode kicked the door shut behind her with her foot, still munching happily on the chicken leg. Grease shone on her fingers as she plopped herself down on the couch across from his desk without any invitation, the half-full bucket of fried chicken resting on her lap.
"Aww, c'mon, Gramps. It's not like anyone else is gonna barge in here. You're the chairman. Who's gonna complain?" She tore off another piece of chicken with her teeth and spoke around it.
Hakama sighed and leaned against his chair, eyes closed to picture what kind of demand this little gremlin was going to do. "My granddaughter, don't you have classes to get to? Skipping your classes to hang out with your dear old grandfather, while sweet and I appreciate the company, it's not good."
Hansode giggled, "Nah, it's alright gramps. I'm in the Top 20 of academic rankings and my teachers already know I do whatever I want anyway. As long as I keep passing everything with flying colors, they don't bother me."
'That's what I'm worried about. You're supposed to be playing the part of an ordinary....somewhat ordinary highschool student as the 'shadow' of Medaka Kurokami.' Hakama inwardly complained but didn't voiced them out loud. Because, again, it would go in one and out of the other.
Fortunately, due to Medaka's extraordinariness, Hansode would appear normal in many people's eyes and wouldn't think twice as to how someone so small could eat a literal mountain-size pile of food.
She waved the half-eaten chicken leg around, a few crumbs flying onto the expensive carpet. Hakama's eye twitched almost imperceptibly, but he said nothing about the mess.
"Besides," she continued, leaning back on the couch with a lazy stretch, "I've got more important things to talk about than sitting through another boring lecture."
"And what is it this time?" Hakama hummed, expressionless, as he rubbed his beard. He inwardly prepared himself that it was going to be another favor to rent out another restaurant or do a background check on a potential ally for Medaka Kurokami.
"Gramps, what do you know about Zenkichi Hitoyoshi?"
"Hitoyoshi-kun? Well, most of what you know—the files we have about him. You know him more than many others, even Medaka probably don't know more about him than you do."
"Hmm. I'm not so sure about that~" Hansode tilted her head, her cheerful expression quickly vanished. She put down the empty bucket on the coffee table and turned to him with a serious expression, her light-blue eyes seemingly darker and the shadow beneath her feet seemed to tremble. "Because I saw something quite....intriguing about Hityoyoshi-kun just recently."
"Hoho. And that would be?"
Hansode furrowed her brows, as if hesitant, and said, "His eyes turned weird. They were kinda familiar to that strange skill, technique, or whatever from someone the Yamazaki Syndicate has. I think it's called.... Ultra Instinct?"
"....."
The entire room turned silent. Almost to the point that a pin dropping would make the loudest noise.
Hansode felt cold sweat dripping from her temple.
It was almost like an instant reaction. The temperature of the room dropped and an eerie, dark aura erupted from her grandfather's body like a silent black wave, pressing down on everything in the office.
The curtains swayed despite the closed windows. The teacup on the desk rattled faintly.
Her grandfather sat straighter, a dark shadow covered his face.
"Hehehe," the old man chuckled faintly, his lips opened as he smiled ear-to-ear. "Ultra Instinct, huh. Well, I haven't heard those words in quite some time."
He raised his head and opened his eyes, revealing them almost entirely black except for those eerie, sharp pale-white pupils.
"Not since that punk called the White Ghost, who run amok in the country a couple years ago."
"Gramps, you also have it?" Hansode tilted her head, looking surprised. She rarely sees her grandfather's true capabilities after all.
"Hohoho. Oh please. If you put your mind into it, you also could achieve Ultra Instinct as well." Hakama closed his eyes and leaned back on his comfy leather chair, the intimidating presence from his body receded. It was if it never existed.
"Huh? You talk as if it isn't a big deal."
"Tis true, my dear granddaughter. See, achieving Ultra Instinct is no great feat. Users have existed in every generation, and it was reported that it had reached a peak during the Heian Era where many powerful fighters were known to have existed."
"And in my generation, at least 50 people had achieve this sort of skill. To my knowledge, that is. See, Ultra Instinct is when you just maximize your dynamic visual acuity and momentary thought process to awaken the instinct to concentrate only on the fight. It doesn't involve using a technique that you've never seen or learned before."
"The state enhances two things and no others: dynamic visual acuity and concentration. It removes everything standing between a fighter and their own experience, so that the body performs what it remembers at full output every time."
"It's all in your head. In your heart. And in your muscles! As long as you keep thinking on fighting, regardless of how beaten or exhausted you are, you will achieve Ultra Instinct—to fight without conscious thought, to fight to the bitter end."
Hansode frowned. "That sounds....laughably simple and dumb."
Hakama laughed. "Hehehe! True! It is rather simple to achieve in theory."
"But think about it. To achieve it, you need to fight someone strong. Strong enough that they could kill you with a few blows. Could you really keep your will to fight in a long period? As your muscles ache and hurt, your bones breaking, blood dripping on the ground, and your vision blurring. Could you keep fighting? Fight even in death?"
"No." Hansode replied without any hesitation. She wasn't no battle maniac! No wonder it was both easy and hard to achieve.
Hakama smiled. "Then you could never achieve it. You lack the resolve necessary to even trying it. But, well, knowing you? You probably could by either in accident or some kind of epiphany. Either way, Ultra Instinct isn't powerful."
"I'm sure you realize the consequences follow from using it. Fatigue and exhaustion stop registering, so a fighter does not tire. Pain stops registering, so they do not moderate their force to protect themselves. A temperament unsuited to fighting stops interfering."
"It also means the state is worth exactly what the body carrying it is worth. A fighter with no combat experience gains nothing at all from it, and would not become dangerous by entering it."
Hansode was confused. "Then, why did you learn it?"
Hakama wearily smiled. "Not by choice."
"Ah."
"Yes," He chuckled and paused for a while, deep in thought. "Still, that Zenkichi Hitoyoshi had managed to achieve it? Hmm. How peculiar."
"How so? Hitoyoshi-kun has been following behind the princess for years. They've gone through some pretty rough thugs in the past."
"So why hasn't Medaka have it as well? And yes, I have personally tested her to see if she had it amd she didn't."
"...." Hansode went silent, contemplating the situation.
'As expected. If Hitoyoshi-kun didn't gain the Ultra Instinct in the second and third years in middle school, then it has to be the the strange six-month gap in his first year. Or it could be that he gained it just recently?'
"Hmm. So many questions~ Oh well! My curiosity was satisfied and I'll leave it at that." Hansode stood up to leave the room.
"Hold on for a moment, my dear granddaughter. I have something important to tell you," Hakama stopped her, raising one hand lightly.
Hansode paused mid-step, glancing back over her shoulder with a raised brow. "Huh? What is it, Gramps? I already got what I came for."
The old man's expression remained calm, but the earlier sharpness in his eyes had not completely faded. He gestured for her to sit back down. "Sit. This will only take a moment."
With a small sigh, Hansode plopped back onto the couch, arms crossed. "Fine, fine. Spit it out."
Hakama tapped his fingers on his table and said, "I want you to be prepared. In a the next few days, we will be expecting new transfer students and new staff members."
"Hmm. If you're telling me this then....there are problems with these people?"
"They may have some ill-intent towards the students here. The backgrounds of these people are slightly worrying."
Hansode rolled her eyes, "Then don't accept them if they're so troublesome! But you aren't going to because—"
"Because they can be important research subjects for the Flask Plan!" Hakama darkly laughed, slightly grinning. "I'm only telling you this so that you remain cautious. Some of them may have connections that even the Kurokami family couldn't touch."
Hansode narrowed her eyes.
"You're saying as if they would intentionally cause trouble."
"Of course!" The old man pulled out a thick enveloped and toss it towards Hansode, who easily caught it and opened it up. "Most of them are going to be in class 13, who are exempted from attending except when taking important exams, and they prefer attending school! Hahahaha! There's going to be a good show soon."
"Will the Thirteen party change? Or will there be a new faction? In the end, all of it would be for the grand goal of turning ordinary people into Abnormals."
Hansode hummed in interest, flipping through the files and paused when she reached the last.
"....Gramps, why are they all women?"
"Who knows!"
Hansode huffed and tossed the envelope on the table, thinking,
'I wonder where Hitoyoshi-kun went. Man, I'm sure there's going to be a good show with the way Best Pain clinging onto him. I wonder how that princess is reacting.'
Unbeknownst to Hansode, out in the campus among the trees and bushes, said princess was currently face deep into Itami's pussy while Zenkichi thrust deep into Medaka from behind, gripping her hips tightly as he pounded into her with steady, powerful strokes. At the same time, Youka leaned in from Zenkichi's side, her shirt fully unbuttoned and hanging open. Her large, soft breasts pressed warmly against his arm as she captured his lips in a deep, messy kiss, tongue sliding against his while one hand stroked his chest.
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AN: For those curious of the new cover, it's from MILF Hunting in Another World. Highly recommended.