Several days later—Friday morning—Sōbu High, Class 1-A.
For the past few days, Hōjō Yoru hadn't gone hunting devils or ghouls. Not because he'd suddenly turned over a new leaf, but because supernatural monsters weren't exactly something you could order for delivery.
A devil might show up once every ten days or half a month, and even then, it wasn't like Yoru would always happen to be nearby. Tokyo had plenty of devil hunters—there was no way every devil would conveniently line up to be harvested by him alone.
As for ghouls, that was even more of a pain. Most of them hid well enough that even the Ghoul Countermeasure Bureau struggled to track them down. Most of the time, the Bureau would only identify likely hunting grounds and then station investigators there to wait—like fishing.
Yoru had no interest in wasting huge chunks of his life on that.
So for these last few days, he'd mainly been doing one thing.
"Bullying"—no, training Yuuki Asuna.
The bond of special training between Trainer and Pokémon was truly moving.
"Morning, Hōjō."
At the sound of that cool, clear voice, Yoru—who'd been admiring the view outside—turned around and nodded at the person who'd just walked in.
"Morning, Touma."
After that "detention" session in the clubroom, every morning when Yoru arrived with Asuna, the people he had to greet now included not only Shōko Nishimiya, but also Kazusa Touma.
That said, those two girls didn't talk to each other at all.
In other words: a friend's friend wasn't automatically his friend.
Shōko was timid by nature, and Kazusa Touma was famous—not just in Class 1-A, but across all of Sōbu High—for being an iceberg.
And not the kind of iceberg that was merely cold.
More like the kind that would accelerate to full speed and ram you to death if you pushed her too far.
Yoru genuinely couldn't even picture the two of them having a normal conversation, let alone becoming friends.
Just then, Hiratsuka Shizuka suddenly entered the classroom through the back door.
The first period wasn't even her class—and given her personality, she was the type to slack off whenever she could. Normally, she wouldn't make a special trip from the staff room to the classroom for no reason.
"Hōjō," she called.
She walked closer, bent down, leaned toward his ear, and spoke in a low voice so no one else could hear.
"Come with me."
Seeing how secretive she was acting, Yoru smiled.
"What, you feeling repressed?"
This time, Shizuka didn't banter back. Her face was serious.
"Be serious. This is real business."
"Alright."
Yoru nodded casually and followed her out of the classroom. She led him to the door of an unused clubroom.
And when she pushed it open, Yoru saw two men in suits sitting inside, posture stiff and formal.
"These two are from the Metropolitan Police Department," Shizuka said as she brought him in and shut the door behind them—clearly with no intention of stepping out. "They want to ask you some questions."
One of the MPD men frowned slightly. "Ma'am, we only want to speak with Hōjō. You don't need to be here."
Shizuka wasn't intimidated in the slightest.
After all, a young teacher driving a luxury sports car—one that cost a fortune—and not just one of them… her background obviously wasn't simple.
She narrowed her eyes, folded her arms across her chest, and stared the two men down with a hard, controlled tone.
"As his homeroom teacher, I have the right to be present. Or are you trying to intimidate a minor—"
"Shizuka."
Yoru cut her off calmly.
"It's fine. You can go."
Shizuka's brows knit. "Are you serious? This isn't like before. You can't joke around, and you absolutely can't say anything reckless. You can ask for a lawyer to be present. I can get one here right now—"
"Relax. It's fine."
"…Alright."
Seeing how composed Yoru was—completely unshaken, not even a hint of nervousness—Shizuka hesitated, then chose to trust him. In her judgment, he was odd, yes, but he wasn't naive. He understood what mattered.
After she left the clubroom, one of the MPD men fixed Yoru with a gaze meant to pressure him and spoke in a low, heavy voice.
"Hōjō Yoru. Regarding the disappearance of your school's third-year student, Matsuo Satoshi—according to our investigation, you had a conflict with him shortly before he vanished, and it escalated into a physical altercation—"
Before either detective could continue, Yoru calmly pulled out an identification wallet and displayed it.
The two MPD men froze, their expressions blanking out as if their brains had briefly shut down.
Yoru's voice was quiet.
"This investigation ends here."
"T-This is…"
Their faces visibly changed. Both of them leaned back slightly in their chairs, eyes filling with unmistakable fear and reverence.
It wasn't even about whether the Anti-Demon Special Operations Division had higher authority. Technically speaking, it was an independent unit—not above or below other departments. And Public Safety and the MPD weren't even the same chain of command.
Their reaction was simple.
They were afraid of the words "devil hunter."
To anyone "in the know," what was the image of a devil hunter?
A person who had bartered away parts of themselves through a contract—someone capable of wielding devil power.
And even setting aside the power itself, the real issue was that a lot of devil hunters were… not mentally stable. They were notoriously volatile—sometimes outright unhinged.
By this point, cold sweat had already formed on the detectives' foreheads. The stiff, authoritative attitude from earlier was gone without a trace.
Why is my luck this bad?!
Who could've imagined a kid who'd just started high school was actually a devil hunter from the Anti-Demon Special Operations Division?
Yoru understood perfectly why they'd come for him. It had nothing to do with that night's fight.
The real reason was simple: on the afternoon Matsuo Satoshi went missing, plenty of Sōbu High students had witnessed the scene at the school gates—Matsuo and a group of guys (who didn't know what he was, and were just looking for a fight) clashing with Yoru.
As the last person seen having a conflict with Matsuo before his disappearance, it made sense the MPD would question him.
"Shh."
Yoru raised an index finger in a "quiet" gesture, then spoke with a light smile as he looked at the two men—now sweating and stiff, their facial muscles practically locked from stress.
"Don't panic. You're doing your job. I get it."
"But don't expose my identity at school. I still want to enjoy a peaceful, normal high school life."
"Go report to your MPD superiors. Tell them Matsuo Satoshi wasn't… human. They'll understand what I mean."
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 90)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 95)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League (Chapter 80)
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter70)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter70)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter50)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter60)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 30
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 30
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