I became the Strongest Minus's mother!

Chapter 21:Even a nihilist can care for someone

Saki stared incrediously at Kumagawa who just dropped such a bomb with the most cassual attitude. She must make sure she heard him right.

Saki:Ex...Expelled? You'll be expelled?

Kumagawa:[Huh? Didn't I tell you? That's the condition Anshin'in-san set to get me to participate in the game.]

Saki:No, you didn't...

Had he? Maybe he said and she just ignored him? Or perhaps she just thought he was saying something incomprehensible again...

She never expected something like this. So under the threat of expulsion this Anshin'in-san had made Kumagawa participate in this game.

That was why yesterday he had to conquer the Russian Roulette against Uchi. And that is why today he came here looking for the Hero's Sword.

What was this? What was this overwhelming sense of discomfort?

In this entire story something was strange. There was a flaw in it somewhere.

Ah, of course. She felt uncounfortable at the idea of Kumagawa yelding to the threat of expulsion.

Of course, for any normal high school student being expelled was a pretty big deal. And most people would probably listen to anything in order to prevent that.

Actually, that is how Aki controlled Suisou in the past. But she didn't just threaten to expell students, she did expell some of them as proof of her conviction.

But this was Kumagawa we were talking about.This was Kumagawa Misogi.

Why did he yield to a threat like this? If anything, at that point he'd happily leave the academy on his own accord.

Kumagawa's reason for living was to trample on things that other people valued. Even if that thing was his own school register.

He was a high schooler with a hobby of burning banknotes in a fireplace and throwing out water in the middle of a desert. But then, why now did he bend to such normal coercion from this Anshin'in-san?

Saki:Why...Why is that, Kumagawa-kun?

Kumagawa:[That's obvious, isn't it? It's because I want to be with you, Saki-chan. I love you, and I love Suisou Academy.]

Saki:...

The answer wasn't what she expected. It was more infuriating than anything she could ever imagine.

What was this, some sort of final episode? If he loves it that much she's seriously gonna bury him on school grounds.

But continuing to question him would be useless. And they didn't have much time on their hands to begin with.

Saki:Just for reference, Kumagawa-kun. If the pool happened to be drained, do you think you'd be able to pull the Hero's Sword out? You said earlier that it didn't have to do with water pressure or buoyancy. In that case, it shouldn't matter whether you drain the water or not, right?

Kumagawa:[That's right, it has nothing to do with mechanics or physics...That's why I think we should be thinking about pulling it out through a different system or rule...But before that, there's another problem to consider.]

Saki:And what's that?

Kumagawa:[What Anshin'in-san has for All Fiction countermeasures, so to speak.]

Saki:But no matter what plan you had, All Fiction was a skill that could make the plan itself as if it never existed, so just thinking about it normally, it didn't seem like something you could make a plan for...Especially just with the water in a pool.