Practical Classroom: Kaoru Hanayama's Classroom of Merit

As I passed through the automatic doors of the Beech Tree Shopping Center, the sky had already turned a dark red twilight.

On the main road within the campus, streetlights are turning on one by one.

Suddenly, Huashan stopped in his tracks.

"ah……!"

Sakura, who had been keeping her head down, was caught off guard by the sudden stop and nearly bumped her face into Hanayama's broad back.

Huashan didn't turn around, but instead reached out to the vending machine set up next to the trail.

An electronic voice sounded, and after 600 points were deducted, two aluminum cans rolled out of the exit.

He picked one up and turned around.

"Take it."

What was handed over was a warm milk tea can, which is quite rare in early summer.

"Eh... um, that..."

Sakura, feeling confused, tentatively stretched out her hands.

The warmth transmitted through the metal of the can seeped into Sakura's originally cold palms little by little.

"You look a little cold."

She realized then that she was trembling.

Huashan flicked open the tab of another can with his thick fingers, made a sound in his throat, and gulped down most of it in one go.

He then gently leaned his back against the pillar of a nearby street lamp.

"Sorry. I might have gone a little too far. You saw something disgusting."

As the pinnacle of the yakuza, although he had long been accustomed to violence, he was also self-aware.

That wasn't a scene that should be shown to ordinary people, especially not to a very timid girl in the same class.

Sakura's shoulders jerked violently.

"No, no...!"

Her voice was as faint as a mosquito's buzz and came out in fits and starts.

Even so, she desperately raised her head, which had been hanging down, and with an incredible amount of courage, tried to look directly into Huashan's eyes.

"I...I wasn't scared. The blood and stuff did startle me, but...but..."

She had been living in fear under the shadow of the stalker, and dared not ask anyone for help.

But that weak version of myself was fundamentally saved by Hanayama's unreasonable and overwhelming power.

"Thank you for saving me... I'm really, really grateful!"

The last words were swallowed up by suppressed sobs.

Sakura kept her hands tightly gripping the warm milk tea, and bowed her head deeply.

Huashan silently looked down at her.

"There's nothing to thank me for. There were pests swarming out, so I just stomped them out. That's all."

He finished his drink and accurately tossed the empty can into the nearby trash can.

"Lift your face up. That piece of trash isn't going to be hanging around in front of you anymore."

Sakura slowly raised her face.

Although tears still glistened in the corners of her eyes, the previous look of being like a frightened little bird had faded from her expression.

"……yes."

She nodded very quietly but clearly.

Keep walking forward until you can see the entrance to the girls' dormitory.

The area ahead was off-limits to boys, so Hanayama stopped and gestured with his chin for Sakura to go first.

"Hanayama-kun."

Just before passing through the gate, Sakura turned around.

"I may be a clumsy and incompetent person... but if there's anything I can do, please tell me. I'll definitely do my best...!"

That was the greatest courage she could muster, despite her phobia of people.

It is a clear will to stop isolating oneself in a shell and to establish a connection with the existence of Kaoru Hanayama.

Huashan narrowed his eyes slightly and gave a brief reply.

"I will remember that."

After bowing deeply once more, Sakura jogged away and disappeared into the dormitory.

After watching that figure disappear into the distance, Huashan slowly turned towards his dormitory.

Huashan took out a familiar packaging box from his pants pocket.

He deftly pulled out a stick with his large, thick fingers, and a cluster of red flames faintly lit up in the orange darkness.

He took a deep drag of smoke, just as he was about to exhale it into the night sky.

In the pocket of his pants, the smart device began to vibrate softly.

Hua Shan didn't stop; he took out his terminal with one hand and pressed the call button.

"..."

There was a few seconds of silence on the other end of the phone.

Soon, the voice of a middle-aged man, who was trying to remain calm but could not hide his nervousness at all, reached my ears.

"I'm sorry to bother you tonight, Hanayama-kun. ...It's me. Sakayanagi Narimori."

Huashan spoke in a low voice while smoking a cigarette.

"I was planning to visit you tomorrow. I never expected you to call me first."

"Just now, I received an urgent report from the person in charge of security at the commercial facility. It's about something that happened near the electronics retail store."

Chairman Sakayanagi appeared very humble and cautious in his choice of words and sentence structure.

"The area has been completely cordoned off by us. We're handling the situation to ensure the students don't see it at all. I don't believe you would act like that without a reason. There must be some underlying reason, right?"

When faced with Hanayama, who should be the perpetrator of the violence, the chairman tried to find a reasonable excuse for him.

"My classmates were being stalked and harassed by your store employees. So I took action."

Just one sentence made you feel as if the air passing through the telephone line had dropped several degrees.

What followed from the other end of the phone was not a sophistry to shirk responsibility, but a straightforward apology that humbled the person to the extreme.

"I am very sorry! As the person in charge of the school, my management has been completely inadequate. Please allow me to express my deepest apologies."

As if bowing to an unseen opponent, Sakayanagi Shigemori continued in a sincere tone.

"Regarding that employee, out of humanitarian considerations, I will arrange for emergency life-saving measures and treatment. However, a crime that threatens school discipline and safety is extremely serious. He will be dismissed immediately, without waiting for his recovery. Furthermore, the school will pursue his responsibility rigorously and file a lawsuit."

The chairman's words clearly conveyed an intention to calm Huashan's emotions.

"Regarding the female student who was victimized, the school will also express its sincere apologies and provide her with corresponding personal points as compensation, while promising to ensure her safety without any mistakes in the future."

Admit your mistake, handle the matter promptly, and provide compensation.

That is the most exemplary method of quelling trouble when a company faces yakuza individuals within the framework of society.

Huashan Mountain exhaled wisps of white smoke.

To put it in the yakuza's terms, when family members are threatened, this debt cannot be settled with mere verbal apologies and money.

Originally, he should have gone to the chairman's office tomorrow so that he, as the person in charge of management, could give him some explanation.

We should at least accept one of his fingers, otherwise it would be unreasonable.

After all, the school is ultimately the domain of this chairman of the board.

but.

The other party is not a yakuza, but just an ordinary person living in normal society.

Imposing the rules of the Yakuza onto ordinary people who admit their mistakes and apologize, forcing them to cut off their fingers, is something that Kaoru Hanayama's aesthetics cannot tolerate.

Finally, Huashan used his fingers to pick up the cigarette from his lips and slowly pressed it into the portable ashtray.

"This is a one-time exception; let's leave it at that."

"Thank you so much for your generosity!"

You could hear the sense of relief in the chairman's faint sigh on the other end of the phone.

Huashan didn't say anything more and unilaterally pressed the end-of-call button.