The laws regarding family relations in this world were somewhat delicate, or rather, strange.
Applying them to Sakiko's current situation, her father undoubtedly retained custody. Blood ties outweighed everything else, even if her father belonged to the unemployed population without a steady income.
Unless he were a criminal, the courts would only consider stripping him of custody under discretionary circumstances. But the problem was that, at least on the surface, her father merely drifted through life. He had neither committed heinous crimes nor broken any laws.
Consequently, when the law firm informed him of this, Miki Kashiwagi felt a profound headache.
He hurried through the school gates. Since all his formal clothes were at the dry cleaners, Miki Kashiwagi wore only a plain white hoodie and jeans today, paired with decorative black-rimmed glasses. His thick, slightly wavy hair was piled up in a messy tangle, making him look like an ordinary college student found anywhere.
While younger girls might appreciate such everyday attire, wearing it as a teacher to negotiate with a student's parent lacked a certain persuasiveness.
Yet there was no help for it. He couldn't very well go back and change clothes now; by the time he returned, whatever money Sakiko had would likely end up in her father's pocket, and she would probably be coerced into signing her name on yet another of her father's promissory notes. That would be a complete disaster.
"……Mr. Kashiwagi, I just consulted a more senior and professional colleague," the lawyer on the other end of the phone said after a brief pause, speaking with professional composure. "My colleague's opinion is this: if the party involved is currently facing active financial or criminal litigation, and the child is a student aged sixteen or younger, the court will prioritize temporarily transferring custody to another relative, leaving the final decision to the child's own wishes after they finish their education."
"I will send the specific legal provisions to your personal email shortly for your reference."
After expressing his gratitude and hanging up, Miki Kashiwagi transferred the full consultation fee to the other party's account, and a plan began to take shape in his mind.
Although Sakiko's mother completely ignored her, she at least wouldn't bleed Sakiko dry. If they initiated a lawsuit against her father soon, considering the uniquely sluggish administrative efficiency in Japan and her father's financial situation, they could at least ensure that Sakiko would be able to study and live in peace for the remainder of the school year without interruption. At that point, they could symbolically take a fraction of Sakiko's hard-earned money just to give her peace of mind.
Everyone would have a bright future.
Lost in thought as he walked, he unconsciously arrived at the entrance of the infirmary. The door was unlocked, but the room was completely empty. A note had been left on the desk—it was from Sakiko:
Class time has arrived. Could you please come to the second-floor office during the break?
Miki Kashiwagi stayed in the infirmary alone. Checking the time and seeing he had about half an hour left, he took out his phone, opened his email, and carefully studied the legal provisions sent by the law firm, pondering the rhetoric he would use when negotiating with Sakiko's father later. If the man backed down in the face of difficulties, that would naturally be the best outcome. What he feared most was Sakiko's father playing hardball, determined to take Sakiko away and even using the threat of forcing her to drop out of school. That would make things difficult.
Miki Kashiwagi had an intuition that the conflict between Sakiko and her father was undoubtedly the key to unlocking Sakiko's skill specialization. Even without the skill specialization, Miki Kashiwagi couldn't bear to watch this strong and lovely girl sink into the abyss of a broken family and impoverished life.
...
This period was mathematics class, and Sakiko didn't hear a single word.
The mere thought of her father sitting in the office next door with the head teacher, perhaps plausibly telling him about the hardships of being a father and hypocritically expressing his determination to mend their relationship, made Sakiko feel sick to her stomach.
"……Toyokawa Sakiko-san? Toyokawa Sakiko-san?"
"Ah, present!" Hearing the teacher roll call, Sakiko hurriedly stood up to respond.
"Can you tell me what the answer to the problem on the blackboard is?"
It was a simple quadratic equation problem asking for various coefficients. Sakiko gathered her focus, calculated it mentally for a few seconds, and arrived at the correct answer: "The values of a, b, and c are -1, 4, and 2, respectively."
"Correct. Toyokawa Sakiko-san, please try not to daydream in class."
"……I am deeply sorry."
Sitting on pins and needles as she endured the final ten minutes, the class bell finally rang. The moment the teacher left, Sakiko instinctively wanted to bolt from the classroom; any chance to hide for a moment was better than none.
"Sakiko-san, please come to the office." The head teacher seemed to have teleported to the classroom door, calling out Sakiko's name.
Now there truly was no escape.
With a conflicted heart, she followed the head teacher into the office. Her snow-white cuffs were clenched into wrinkles, and she bit her lip as Toyokawa Sakiko saw her father and Miki Kashiwagi... drinking tea quite leisurely?
"Ah, you're here, Sakiko-san. Please, sit down." Miki Kashiwagi drained the cup of green tea in his hand in one gulp, exhaled a refreshing puff of warm air, and pulled out a chair to invite Sakiko to be seated.
Seeing that Miki Kashiwagi was also there, Toyokawa Sakiko felt a little more at ease. She sat up straight in her chair and greeted everyone present: "Good afternoon, Dr. Kashiwagi, and... Father."
If an ordinary person looked at Sakiko's father's appearance and attire, it would be hard to believe that such a respectable-looking, stern-faced, elegant gentleman sporting sexy stubble was actually a deadbeat alcoholic who lived off his child.
Yet the moment they met, Miki Kashiwagi could tell that her father's suit not only had uneven seams and was a size too small, but his beard had also been trimmed crudely with visible razor cuts. The bags under his eyes were so severely swollen that makeup couldn't hide them, and a faint, scorched smell lingered about him if one sniffed closely.
He could already picture how the lazy, good-for-nothing father had tried to disguise himself as a successful man: instead of using shaving cream, he had dry-shaved his beard until his face was covered in cuts, put on an ill-fitting old suit dug out from who knows where, and even accidentally scorched patches of it with an iron.
One glance told the whole story: a total fraud.
"Since Sakiko-san has arrived, I will take my leave, Dr. Kashiwagi." The head teacher took a step back to leave. In her eyes, Toyokawa Sakiko was a "three-no" student who didn't socialize, join clubs, or participate in class activities—someone she didn't know at all. Therefore, when Miki Kashiwagi offered to speak with Sakiko's parent on her behalf, the head teacher had gladly agreed.
He was the school doctor anyway; whatever happened, the blame wouldn't fall on her. Arigato, Dr. Kashiwagi! With the hours she saved, she could take the train to Shibuya to get a manicure!
"Ahem... Sakiko's father, may I address you as such?" Seeing the head teacher depart, Miki Kashiwagi took the initiative to start the conversation. "Nice to meet you, my name is Miki Kashiwagi. I suppose I'm a teacher who gets along relatively well with Sakiko."
"Hello, Teacher Kashiwagi. I'd like to talk to you about Sakiko." Her father reached out to shake hands with Miki Kashiwagi, then let go. "I hope Sakiko can be present as well."
"What do you think, Sakiko-san?" Miki Kashiwagi's sharp black pupils were already beginning to gleam.
"Eh, I... I don't mind." Sakiko felt a bit nervous. During a clash between adults, she felt her presence wouldn't make much difference, but since Dr. Kashiwagi wished it, she might as well stay. That way, if her father said any lies about her, she could point them out and prevent Dr. Kashiwagi from being deceived.