Not long after the heavy curtain on the stage closed, it was swiftly pulled open again. The scene-changing tempo grew faster and faster, signaling that the story was drawing to its close.
On that school graduation day, members of the Yakuza drove into the deep mountains and surrounded the school. Right in front of everyone, they picked up the boy who had graduated at the top of his class. In this isolated little town, that display felt precisely like the guards of a small nation coming to fetch their prince... The rumors were true after all: the boy living in the temporary shelter was indeed the child of the Yakuza Boss, and extraordinary blood flowed through his veins. From that day on, the mayor and the Principal designated the boy and this entire affair as forbidden topics in the town; no one was allowed to discuss or even mention them.
The gossip and commotion quickly subsided within the town, but there are always traces that verbal bans cannot erase. On the school's honor wall, hanging at the very top of the outstanding graduates section, was the photograph of the boy with a stubborn look in his eyes; there was also the newly erected dormitory building on campus, its brand-new facade completely out of place among the surrounding old architecture... And then there was the other boy left behind in the town.
Chapter 444