"Excuse me, I hope I'm not disturbing you?"
Kazuo slowly pushed open the door. He saw Kiryuuin standing by the table, holding the receiver to his ear, and taking notes with a pen and paper.
Seeing Kazuo enter, he hummed in response to the person on the other end, while signaling Kazuo to close the door.
It seemed he was in the middle of a negotiation with a client.
As Kazuo approached, he seemed to hear loud reprimands from the other end of the line, but Kiryuuin just kept apologizing, trying his best to mediate and negotiate.
Kazuo stood there for a good five minutes, and even after the call ended, he didn't hear the person on the other end stop their scolding.
After hanging up the phone, Kiryuuin rubbed his eyes in annoyance, letting out a frustrated sigh, "Haah... You're back? Aoi told me you found Rice Shower?"
"Yes... I've already heard about it from Aoi. I'm truly sorry."
"Phew... Why are you apologizing? It's not your fault. It's just that the negotiations here are really troublesome."
Kiryuuin tossed the notebook onto the table and stretched, saying, "Tsk, as you just saw, the client is furious. The delivery is in five days, and we were just waiting for them to pick up the goods, but then this happened."
"We've contacted the manufacturer, but we don't know if they can rush out a new batch in four days..."
"Uh, what exactly did Rice Shower accidentally break?"
Although Aoi had given a general idea over the phone, she hadn't specified what trouble Rice Shower had caused, so this was the first time Kazuo had seen Kiryuuin's dead-fish eyes upgrade from looking like they'd been dead for three days to a month.
"That thing."
Kiryuuin pointed to the winning uniform placed on a nearby table. The torn parts had already been pieced together, but many frayed areas were still visible.
It was like discordant notes inserted into a perfect score, or a black stain on a pristine white canvas.
The pure white, light-as-gossamer wedding-style winning uniform was torn at the waist. Even Kazuo, a layman, could tell that it would be very difficult to salvage.
Kazuo hadn't expected Rice Shower to damage such an expensive item. It's important to know that racing outfits need to be custom-made in advance; some are even specially ordered just for a single race's appearance and victory stage.
The one before them clearly belonged to the latter category, so Kazuo knew how troublesome this matter was.
He asked Kiryu uncertainly, "How much would this cost, approximately?"
Kiryu picked up his notebook and glanced at it (it turned out he had been calculating expenses earlier too).
"Hmm... the agreed price was around 100,000 yen. If you factor in the cost and the price negotiated with the manufacturer, it's probably around 130,000 to 150,000 yen."
"Hiss––"
Although Kazuo had already prepared himself, he was still startled by the price.
It was just a special series racing outfit that would only be used a few times, yet its price was almost equivalent to a month's salary for an average working person.
After a moment of hesitation, Kazuo said, "Well... if possible, I'll pay for this."
"...What did you say?"
Kiryu frowned as he looked at him, seemingly not understanding his words.
"The income from my part-time job during this period, plus a bonus I received earlier. It should be enough to cover half, right? I'll pay it first; that way, Rice Shower will probably feel much better."
Kazuo had thought of this plan before he came, the only thing was that even he hadn't expected the cost to be so high.
So now he proposed a compromise for negotiation.
"...I don't think you're helping her this way? Besides, this has nothing to do with you, does it?"
Kiryu frowned, looking somewhat displeased, completely misunderstanding Kazuo's actions.
Kazuo shook his head and explained, "No, after all, I asked Rice Shower to help... If it weren't for me, Rice Shower wouldn't have made such a mistake. So I want to make amends for all of this..."
In Kazuo's view, if he hadn't been injured, or if he hadn't involved Rice Shower, she wouldn't have made such a mistake today, and this situation wouldn't have occurred.
Ultimately, perhaps he shouldn't have watched this race... "Asama."
Kiryu directly interrupted him, showing a rare serious expression as he looked at him.
"You'd best give up those immature thoughts of yours. This kind of thing isn't something you can just talk about; anything that can be compensated with money isn't a big problem. But there's one thing you need to understand."
"Blind protection isn't always good for others; sometimes, blind kindness can become poison."
"There's no need to argue about this matter anymore. I'm the manager; I know what to do. In any case, I'll figure out a way to handle it properly. Don't even think about using your meager salary to compensate for anything."
As he spoke, he walked directly out of the room, and before leaving, he seemed to remember something, turning back to add, "Instead of negotiating a solution with me here, if you ask me, you should be giving Rice Shower other forms of support, rather than simply trying to alleviate so-called guilt through compensation... whether it's to make up for your own remorse or to lessen her self-blame... Of course, what exactly should be done, that's what you, as her Trainer, should be considering, isn't it?"
He left with that remark, leaving Kazuo alone, stunned, pondering the meaning of his words.
Kazuo clearly understood that Kiryu had just given him a hint about what he should do.
However, the so-called hint still required him to comprehend it on his own.
But just as Kazuo was deep in thought, Kiryu returned.
Back in the room, he took out another Mr. Rabbit mask from a drawer and walked out again.
Kazuo stared blankly at him, as if he hadn't reacted, and for a long time, he couldn't understand why Kiryu had made that move.
However, there were indeed still things he needed to handle.
From a teacher's perspective.
Kazuo looked at the new phone number sent to him via email on his phone and, with determination, dialed it.
Soon, the call was connected.
"Hello, I'm Asama Kazutomi, a teacher at Tracen Academy. You're Rice Shower's mother's driver, right? Rice Shower has been found... Um... no, there's no need to rush to pick her up now. Uh... yes, I'm actually calling you now because I'd like to understand more about Rice Shower's mother and Rice Shower. Is it convenient to talk over the phone?"
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