087 – The Inferior is Just a Stepping Stone

June 2019.

"Sora."

"Yes, father."

"I assume that you already know why I enrolled you to Blue Ink High School."

"I am very aware of your intentions, father. I already know what I need to without a word from you."

"Then that is very good to hear. I know that you will not be easily hindered by anything as I am the one who raised you. But a little room for caution will not hurt.

Make sure that you will not fail to turn that school's system upside-down."

"Yes, dear father."

▪ ▪ ▪

Kagurazaka Conglomerate.

'Either you are living under a rock or you are simply not an Orion if you do not know the Kagurazaka,' is a common saying heard in almost every corner of the country of Orio. However, one will surely attest that even if one is not an Orion, they will still know them as its name flew to nearby countries, especially the country north to this one.

Kagurazaka Conglomerate is one entrepreneurial power that stands above companies in the entirety of Orio; and numerous subsidiary companies are under the company. The current and the first head of the group is Takezo Kagurazaka. He was a man whose birth originated from Japan growing up from a very small organization falling apart in the North.

Perseverance is what started the success of such a man with a name that intimidates one in a single utterance regardless of meaning. He was, or his family was an example of people that came from rags to riches. Due to the decline of his father's frail business, he quickly developed a mindset of an entrepreneur. From his high school, he was immediately known as a very cunning person—a genius when it comes to any kind of negotiations, and his abilities only got better as he grew.

In simple words, he became a business mogul.

Then, he found a very substantial potential on the economy of Orio, and so he flew to the country, in search for expanding his success. There, he met one of Orio's best businesswomen, Marianne Vantos. She was someone that does not always stay in line with Takezo's outrageous but not nonsensical ideals. He thought that he can expand his influence if he was to arrange a marriage with her, but romance nonetheless bloomed between them.

The Kagurazaka name became better known, and did not just become the number one of Orio, but also as one of the greatest in the world behind the tech giants.

Their eldest and only son took a big responsibility for carrying the name and made results at a young age. But a child was still and only a child; he ran away from the luxury and spent his own earnings to ultimately change his last name, so as to negate his connections to the company that corrupted him.

When their second child, a girl, was born to this world. Takezo sought to teach her better and more carefully, and instilled his ideals into her. But this time, his wife sharply disagreed and decided to separate. She however knew how much a burden it would be, and her affection has not waned but her love just grew deeper now that she has a daughter. Finally coming to a wiser decision, what she separated is her existence from the Kagurazaka, and formed the Carnation Group which became very loosely connected to her son's current endeavors.

Their household however is a very complicated one. One could still see the three being a family, for all its sincerity, but the air changes when work is work. Takezo and Marianne is an endearing husband, wife and parents, respectively. But in the world of stocks, they are only strangers and never enemies.

Their daughter however followed suit to the thinking of Takezo, which the wife did not look forward to. Her father was indeed rather arrogant and condescending, never putting up a visage of weakness to those he believes are below him. He has a principle of "owing no one," and only believing mostly on his abilities to wholly take grasp of success.

That is why Marianne felt extremely unhappy. Her son may not have followed the coattails of his father, but her daughter did. What she wanted to teach her was how the eldest son acted with humility and contentment with adequacy. But she failed, as her daughter decided to listen to her father's words.

Thus…

Sora Kagurazaka.

Takezo suggested naming her "Sora" as it means "sky" in his mother tongue. He brought up the name for the sole purpose of sophistication and display of power. The sky is indeed something unreachable by ordinary people, in which the Kagurazaka family is by no means ordinary. They are at the apex, higher than others, just like the sky.

Alongside her "mere" education in academic institutions was followed by her father's personal teachings at a young age. She was quickly exposed to the strategic ways of one of the most successful men in the country.

"Try not to become a man of success but try to become a man of value." It was a quote that suddenly surfaced to Ginji Satoshi's mind at some point in time.

However, the only way of survival that Sora knows is achieving success. She advocates leadership and became a model of success by being a student council head without fail.

Amidst that, she was gifted with intellectual and physical prowess. She stands above on academics and several sports in her age and became very well known to various competitions, and to top everything off, she inherited the beauty of her mother. She is, through and through, an ideal person that any woman wishes to become.

But the father and daughter sensed a hindrance to their ideals. In year 2018, Taketo Juushiro, the principal of Blue Ink High School established a new academic system that was eventually approved by National Education Department and was immediately started in the closest school year. The new system states that academic rankings and awards have been disconnected and was no longer functioning in that school—a bold move. Moreover, the word hierarchy was personally rejected by the principal himself to his vocabulary, which in turn learned by his students.

But in the middle of all that, Takezo cannot help but be amazed, even if the most integral part of the system is disregarded. For Principal Juushiro to raise a more advanced system than the senior high school curriculum and placed it to a nigh-collegiate approach, it was an extreme feat and thus, commendable.

In the end, however, he is an enemy of his ideals. Takezo's full preservation of hierarchy and power can never attract the poles of the superlative of humility. But the Kagurazaka is not one to pull underhanded plots just to achieve what it wants. He and his company stood in a very high summit because of sincere hard work, and he will see to it that he will take care of his enemies through the very same way.

And so, she sent her daughter to Blue Ink High School as a first year in senior high school, taking the Business Management course, needless to say. She knows why the Kagurazaka is very evasive of underhanded tactics. What an influential person needs… is of course influence. One may have succeeded in defeating something through dirty actions, but one failed to get the hearts of the people.

Without a single word of his father's plans, she understood what her purpose in that school is. What she needed to do is gather influence, and persuade them to come back to the standard of the world.

She was shocked upon her first entrance to the school. The only proper organization with an authority is the disciplinary committee. There was no student council, and not even a prefect for every grade was present. She realized: it was leadership that Blue Ink was lacking.

The first step to reaching that certain success was to naturally develop friendship with the people closest to her proximity, and second was to establish that she is the number one student amid the absence of the concept.

She may have flawlessly succeeded with the first step, but what she did not anticipate at all is an existence that is beyond her aptitude.

At the very first examination of the academic year, she immediately went to the bulletin board to see the results. Even if the lists were arranged in alphabetical order regardless of who passed or failed, it was easy for her to order the list on her mind from the lowest to highest. But she was not at the very top of her list, but only second to that. It was the very first time in her life that she was bested by another person. And that very person was her classmate in the course, who she saw walking immediately towards the building without a shed of care to the exam results.

His name is Aomine Sanshoin.

It was in truth the first time she saw and heard the name. Even if they were already studying in the same classroom for more than a month, she does not even recognize his face until the day she stood, defeated in her standstill in front of the board.

Aomine was after all a very unnoticed lad in his major department, as he indeed has an irregular course. Still, he was not someone that is aloof. He was able to join circles of friends from his major and minor study. He was far from an outcast, but his mind works rather differently from the normalcy.

But to think that Sora Kagurazaka lost to some "commoner" in terms of numerical scores, she became rather furious. It was however unethical to someone with that name to have her emotions swayed very easily, and so she calmed down as if it never happened in the first place.

She was confident that it was just a fluke…

But months passed, and she was not able to climb the top.

She continued with the tasks she gave herself, and advocated her want of the return of the hierarchy in the school to put a balance on the scale once again. She preached in either friends or acquaintances, but no one apparently put her words to mind.

Still, Sora was taught to have an extremely long patience, if not bottomless. Instead of using a direct approach, she went to her connections, or friends in other words, to gather information about the person in question.

And it just so happened that she befriended Ai Hikari immediately, for both having a Japanese blood.

"Hikari-san. Do you mind if I join you for lunch today?"

"O-Oh? Sure! I will introduce you to my other friends."

"I will be glad to meet them."

Outwardly, her suggestion looked only like a kind gesture, but an action without motive can't be an action no matter how superficial it is.

~ ~ ~

Old building's rooftop.

"So Kagurazaka-san, these are my friends. The one on the right is Naru…"

"My name is Naru Kajima."

"…And on the left is Anna."

"I-I'm Anna Sakato…! N-N-Nice to meet you…!"

Usually, the youngest of the Sakato does not have trouble with greeting people who she just met, unlike her brother and his timid lover. And yet, she acted flustered. That was a proof of how much the Kagurazaka name is known to almost anyone in the country.

"It's a pleasure to meet you two."

Thus, the initial flow of the conversation began with the getting to know each other juncture, and then in turn shifted to idle chats.

"Eh?! You're half-Japanese, Sora?!" the formalities did not last long, as Anna was already screaming in shock while effortlessly uttering the name.

"Yes. My father is actually a businessman already when he was in the North, but he decided to move here for good after getting married with my Orion mother."

"Your mother… she calls herself Marianne Vantos-Kagurazaka, right?" Naru butted in.

"Honestly, Mother chose to be addressed with such a long name."

"W-Wow… I thought having a pure Japanese friend was good enough… but now I met a half-Japanese…

Wait a second! I'm pretty much around with Japanese people everyday…! No, that's not it! I myself am…"

"It's rare to see Anna-chan act hysterical. Please don't mind her, Kagurazaka-san. She's not always like this."

"Fufu. I see it as a quirky character of Anna. That is quite funny to be honest."

"I guess she got that from her weird brother in second year."

"You have a brother, Anna?"

"W-Well, yes. We are actually the same somehow, Sora. I'm also half-Japanese."

"Ohhh…?"

"Though my father didn't know that he was until recently since he was born here. I have two older brothers.

My brother in S2VA went independent before the eldest, though."

"I see.

…

Ah, that aside. Hikari-san, you have a classmate named Aomine Sanshoin, right?"

"Sanshoin-san? Yes, he is my classmate but his main department is BM…

Does that mean that you are classmates too?"

"Yes. But he is not a very noticeable individual in class. He does not even participate in recitations so he didn't stand out."

"Why do you ask, though?"

"Information. I just want to know how he is in classes."

"Oh? Don't tell me…" Naru pulled a smug smile before even finishing her sentence that was halted by Anna.

"I don't think that's the case, though."

"Party pooper."

"I'm just saying how I see it, okay?"

Then, Ai started.

"If I were to say… I'm quite surprised when you said that he was barely noticed. From where I see it, he is quite an active student in VA. But if I were to scale the course with BM which is mostly academic, I think that's the reason why he's not very participative.

You see, VA is 40:60 lessons to performance ratio respectively. So I guess our department is mostly visual and kinesthetic while read-write comes third."

"What are those terms, Ai-chan?" Naru curiously asked.

"Those are learning styles based from studies about it. I just happened to stumble upon the research.

Anyway, I think that he likes art quite a lot. I would say that he is not the most skillful, but he, for one, actually enjoys looking at his own errors when doing a piece, for instance. He always laughs whenever Arlo-sensei tells him that he is a slow learner."

Anna interjected, "Hey, you said a lot about him. You'll make Yuka Jean jealous, you know?"

"Can you not, Anna-chan? Lol."

"So that is how he is in VA…" Sora nodded. "Thank you for telling me, Hikari-san. I now have a rough grasp of how his character is."

"See that, Anna?" Naru proudly whispered.

"Eh…"

▪ ▪ ▪

September.

The Open Event that happens in the beginning of October has been finally announced. For the S1BM class, they already had a clear image of what they will do for the weeklong event. The plan, or the project proposal, was being put together while the assignees have been chosen upon their volunteering.

Without further delay, they started the preparations after receiving the email containing the approval of their proposal.

Of course, Sora had a very high objective in mind. The event involves monetary factors that she wants to turn to profits eventually. For the endgame, her aim is to have the highest sales among the entire student body. She believes that such success will turn heads to her.

But then, the preparation of her classmates is moving at a turtle's pace, at least on her eyes. But in truth, it was at a normal speed where even a hint of rushing was not seen. She was very used to see fast-paced responses coming from her father's company, as she was already well versed with the work in the field.

Needless to say, she was extremely disappointed and a small occurrence of her outburst arose.

"Are the posters not done yet?"

"Ahh, we're halfway there. It's difficult to make them since we're short on meter sticks. The others are still on their way to borrow from VA."

"Can't you just improvise for now? I honestly can't stand it when I see people doing nothing while we should be making progress for our project."

"Sorry about that. But we'll most likely ruin the posters if we don't use any form of guide. We also want to finish them today but we really can't right now."

"Can I see the posters you have made?"

Thus, it was presented to her. "Halfway" perhaps is the right word for the progress. It is indeed not near to being finished, but the simple characters that were lettered onto the canvas began to take shape as they can be read clearly even at a few feet away. However…

Sora suddenly clutched on the posters and tore them cleanly in half.

"Wha-?!"

"All of you… did you really think that a trash like this can bring us sales?! Are you seriously planning on posting this mediocrity all around the school, saying that the students of S1BM are just some mediocre, incompetent students who don't even try to apply their knowledge?!

Are you all just some idiots who don't even try hard after all?"

The entire classroom silenced in no time. The other students' complexion paled, thinking that they angered the individual Sora Kagurazaka—the daughter of the richest man in the country. Without any response coming to her, she continued.

"Do you think that this is all a joke? You people are seriously making me hurl. Are you seriously satisfied with a second-rate standard so you can slack off and just get things done while you're at it?

Repeat that… Repeat that all! I want to see a product that is at least better than that! See this, I'm lowering my standards just for yo-"

"Who died and made you boss?"

Amidst the terror-struck crowd, one masculine voice dared to resonate to the classroom and into Sora's ears.

It was Aomine Sanshoin's voice.

Her menacing gaze shifted immediately only to be met by what also looks like a cold stare directed to her.

"If you want to get such a good product, then why didn't you volunteer to be the leader and work our butts off? That'll be easier for you, right? Then all you will have to do is watch on your personal podium and look down on us as if we're slaves.

That's how rich people do things, right?"

"You take back what you said!! You dare say such things just because you are better than me?!"

"Huh? What in the world are you talking about?"

"Don't feign ignorance! I already know for months that you're looking down on me with how your grades are higher than mine like you're slapping it right on my face!"

"…!"

Once again, the other students flinched in fear. It was however for a different reason rather than Sora's exclamations.

"Tch."

Aomine turned away and took a bundle of A3 paper, prompting to step out of the room.

"If anyone wants to do the posters, please come with me as I can't do this alone.

And just so you know, highest queen, I will not be following your grandiose standard because you are the only one in this room that thinks like that.

I don't even care if you're a child of an entrepreneur, we are all students here. If you're going to put a bounty on my head, then say goodbye to that precious name of yours just because you wanted to silence a student."

The door then slammed shut, and the room stayed silent for a few minutes. But then, the men that were originally doing the posters stepped out and followed with materials on their hands.

…

The S1BM room is however situated near the ladies' room, in which Anna instinctively hid on a corner once a shudder crept on her back upon hearing the exchange of words. After a loud sound echoed in the hallway, she saw Aomine stepping out, almost seeing her.

Assuring herself that she was not seen, she stood still almost lifelessly, and heard the student mumbling on his own.

"For crying out loud… I thought I was already out of that forsaken competition and hierarchy…"

Anna anxiously went back to her classroom with all the exchanges encoded in her mind.

"The way he talked just now was just like how Nee-chan described Nii when he's a bit mad…

I didn't know that Nii can get scary when he's angry…!"

▪ ▪ ▪

Notwithstanding the fact that some kind of a fight surfaced in the class of BM, their services proved to produce a good yield from their services. The posters that Aomine helped to do on the contrary were presented to be an effective way to pull the customers in their place.

But despite all that had happened, the warm tones of the lanterns that softly illuminated the entirety of Blue Ink turned the issues as water under the bridge, even for Sora herself.

~ ~ ~

On a certain cold night in December, Sora was seen walking a street somewhere in Sector T1. She was on a hood and all, but she still stumbled upon two men who saw her face.

But from the way they talked they seem to have succumbed to the influence of alcohol in this night.

"Ohhh…? What do we have here? It's rare to see a cute lady walking around town in the middle of the night! Don't you think so too, compadre?"

"Yeah… yeah! What do you think, girl? Want to come with-"

In a blink of an eye, the two men fell down unconscious to the cold ground. For some reason, a part of the snow under the men was suddenly dyed red.

Soundless, a bullet then quickly approached her head.

TING-

However, it was not her head that was hit, but a white reflective mask where the bullet just ricocheted on.

"Are you alright, miss?

Man…! Good thing I was in the area before anything worse than this happened! What actually happened here anyway?"

"I-I don't know… those two men suddenly fell down in front of me…"

"Do you know them?"

"N-No… they were drunk…"

"I see.

…!

Stay behind me! I think someone's after you."

Two consecutive bullets attempted to hit the Exile's left and right, but it was without an effort deflected and caught on its hands. It now had a rough idea of what is going on.

"A sniper… A fast one at moving, at that."

From behind the trees on the other side of the road is where the beginning of trajectory came from, and it figured that the sniper moved nimbly because of how two bullets were quickly fired in two positions.

As a counter, he immediately swung his left leg that pushed and compressed the air, propelling towards the trees. Since there was not many leaves still on the branches, the sound was more isolated, in which the Exile heard a muffled noise on the pile of snow.

"Can't believe a minor is being targeted by some crazy people these days…

May I know your name, miss?"

"Sora… Sora Kagurazaka…"

"Huh… I think I have heard your name somewhere… I don't know where though.

Anyway, I am an Exile, so… Do you prefer it if I accompany you to the nearest police station, or just make me call them?"

"Please just call them…"

"Haha, figures."

And so, a police car came with an officer and a detective in it.

"Good evening, Mr. Exile. What happened here?"

"Well, I was just passing by when I saw this girl almost got shot from somewhere. I think that there is a sniper here who got those two done in.

Ah, I would suggest making her step in immediately. This place is not yet safe so I'll accompany your travel out here."

"Wha- Ms. Kagurazaka?!"

"Woah. You know her, detective?"

"Of course…! Uh…

I guess you wouldn't know her since you're an Exile."

"I guess she's quite well known…"

"Anyway, thanks for reporting this, Mr. Exile."

"I was just taking a stroll, that's all."

▪ ▪ ▪

January.

Sora had long realized a rumor that spread in Blue Ink from mid-December that says: "There is an Exile among the second years." But still, a person like her does not outright believe rumors like that, as she is a believer only of facts. Thus, she placed it deep in an unnoticed part of her mind.

"Excuse me, may I have three more of the printouts given to BM earlier today?" she knocked abruptly and entered the staff room searching for a certain teacher.

"Oh? Did the handouts I gave fell short? Sorry about that. I'll photocopy some now."

…

"Gin, where's Poru's sheet?"

"Eh? So that guy did not pass his answer sheet? Man, he'll make me tired. I'll be back, Nana-sen."

But Gin stopped on his tracks, upon hearing the breaking news in the television in the office.

"We bring to you the latest news.

A few days ago, Rishou Kagetora had successfully administered the very first cure created to fight against the outbreak of the virus dubbed 'WIR' happening across the whole world right now.

The patient in question was on a critical condition, but we are happy to announce that the patient has survived the illness with the help of the cure."

"…

WHAT?!"

Suddenly, his voice echoed throughout the office, but he then covered his mouth and bowed low.

"I'm very sorry…!

But I thought Rishou Kagetora demanded to extend his suspension?!"

"From what I heard, it was an emergency knowing how the virus is spreading. Other doctors needed his help, apparently."

"Apples… I didn't know that at all…"

On the other side of the room, Sora had made a face of suspicion while waiting for the printouts. For some reason, the voice of Gin felt familiar to her even if it's the first time seeing him.

"…"

▪ ▪ ▪

At the end of January, the results of the exams were posted anew in the public board, still on the same fashion as how it was arranged in the past.

Aomine, as usual was walking past the board, uninterested. But it was then, he was caught by Sora and was pulled to a quiet enough place.

Aomine's blank stare was immediately replaced by a perturbed look.

"What do you want?"

"Why are doing this…"

"…?"

"Why are you acting like your talent is so worthless that you're ignoring them?!

You have astonishing grades and performance… you are gifted with intelligence better than mine. You can be successful with all the things that you can do…

Yet why are you wasting your time in this school that doesn't even have a good system?! What good does an abysmal system without ranking can do to the society? Any institution needs an echelon… a leader that can make the people follow them for the good! You can reach those heights easily… You don't belong in a blasphemous school like this…!"

"SHUT UP…!!"

Aomine's tone of voice, that was known to be rather calm and reserved, suddenly amplified in a few seconds, displaying a great degree of anger that halted the words of Sora.

"…

Must be nice because you are blessed with intelligence that you can use to obtain anything…"

"What are you saying? You have greater intelligence that will also enable you to obtain anything and everything!"

"Do you really think that I obtained everything with this cursed intelligence?!

You can easily say that because not only do you have the brains but also wealth. You are someone who can meet anyone's expectations and therefore grasp your kind of anything…

But I was nowhere near from the wish I wanted…!! I moved to this school so that I can move on from that darn unreasonable expectation and standards… I even found my happiness finally in this place.

This is where I belong!! But you suddenly came shouting at me as if you know how much pain this ability has given me…!! I finally found that happiness… finally away from the expectations that suffocated me… strangled me almost to death… But it was suddenly gone because that concept came back to haunt me…

Sora… you are the one that stole the ephemeral happiness from me…!!"

…

Sora Kagurazaka.

She was a person gifted with talent and intelligence from her early years of life. She is someone who can comprehend how others feel based on their actions and expressions. Knowing how the financial world works, she learned from her father how to treat her subordinates; to the point that may even hurt them. She can easily interpret a person's mind…

But this is the first time where she hit a wall—unable to walk forward. She realized that the pain she inflicted was not the mind, but the heart of a frail one.

In the end, a child is still and only a child.

Chapter Message:

87 (+35) chapters in, and I've completely forgotten how I thought about introducing more characters at the time I was first writing the first draft of this chapter, or the entirety of this small arc.

Thank you for reading!

Next

088: The ironic fate of a genius that refused to become one.