Chapter 302 - A legal license to have s.e.x

"Mother says we should always leave the house after pooping." Honoka bobbles her head seriously. "I like your brother. I wish I could meet him."

"You can meet him later at school." Kiyohira places Aerie on the seat. "Honey, I will send your brother to school later. Stay with Honoka all the time. Don't wander off."

The school has a tight security. Nothing bad should happen. However, the Consortium is powerful. They don't know when or how they might attack. He's hoping that the Consortium would stick to their original plans. They might change their plans if they notice that Aerie's true identity is already exposed. 

Aerie lets go of his hand reluctantly. She wanted him to come. But uttering her wish feels hard. She gives him a small smile. "I will do as you say."

He rubs her head once again before he closes the car door. 

***

"Umezaki-san, is there no way to retrieve those emails?" Iori questions Rie.

Rie presses a few keys on the keyboard, tilts her head as she furrows her brows. After five minutes, she answers, "Not possible. It's completely deleted from the database. Your account was hacked. The hacker only targeted your mails. Why? Were you planning to bomb the president's house?" 

"..." Iori becomes quiet. Umezaki-san has a way with words. Does she not know that they aren't supposed to say things like that even as a joke? If someone hears them, they might think that they are terrorists or something. Media has a way of twisting words.

"I also want to know what was in those emails." Takeshi gives her a hard glance. "What were you doing? The fire and Sawano Shusui's death are related to these emails, right?"

Iori straightens her back, sighing. "I went to Tezuka Kohei's house."

"What about him?" Rie signs out of Iori's mail account. She realizes that she isn't updated about the latest changes in the hacker world. Is there a new hacker? Maybe she can play with him.

"I found some information in his laptop that could have been used as evidence for the corruption that his company and Ngage did." Iori props her chin with her hand, feeling lost. She can't bring justice to anyone. 

"I mailed some information to myself and kept some data in USB. I made a copy of everything on my laptop and then I went to see Sawano Senpai. The apartment caught fire. Everything was burned. Sawano Senpai killed himself. There's no sign of the USB in his office."

Tezuka Kohei was killed by Mira. There's no doubt that he's connected to the Consortium. If they could get hold of Mira, what would the Consortium do? Rie ponders in silence. What are they planning? Are they trying to bury something?

"They couldn't burn everything." Kinoshita Iori opens her bag and takes out the notebook. "I found this inside his safe. But it's empty."

"Huh?" Rie takes the notebook and flips the pages. There's nothing. "Is it coded?"

"Could it be that?" Iori pulls her brows together. "Wouldn't that be too obvious?"

"Sometimes, the best place to hide something is in the 'obvious'." Takeshi says to her, "I will send it to the lab and get it tested."

On the top of the stairs, Yuta has been listening. He's not sure if everything should be revealed to Kinoshita Iori or not. Maybe he should have killed Mira that day. Everything could have been avoided. Maybe Valerie would become that cult's leader or the cult would give up. He sighs. Can he kill Mira? Maybe he can do it if she tries to harm his family again.

"I can't do much about the deleted emails." Rie mumbles, "I might be able to look into Ngage."

"You can?" Iori's eyes shine with excitement.

"If there's something in their system, we might be able to find out." Rie shows an evil smile. "It's been so long since I have --"

"And you aren't doing it now." The laptop is snapped closed, pulled away from her. Kiyohira gives her a look. "Do you want to go back to prison? Do you love that place that much?"

Fuming internally, Rie gives him a maniacal smile. "Didn't I say that I was going to start a dark hacker guild?"

"We need to decide when is the right time for new hackers to appear." Kiyohira stresses his words. "How long has it been since you were released? They will be suspicious of you. What will happen to Sho?"

Rie slumps her shoulders, turning to Iori slowly. "Girl, don't get married. It's a trap. You can't ever have fun if you get married."

Is she sure that she's not having fun? Kinoshita Iori exhales. It's been so many years, but these two are still the same. Maybe growing up is optional to them.

"That's not true." Kiyohira sits beside Rie. "Being married means that we can have fun in bed."

"We don't need to be married to have fun in bed," Rie argues.

Yuta sighs. There, they are on it again. He didn't need to know how they had fun in bed. Can't they censor their conversation? 

"We have a legal license to have s.e.x," Kiyohira mutters, "and many other things. Remember that we have to make a baby later."

"I was kidding." She smacks his arm. "We already have three. It's Takeshi's time."

"When are you going to get married?" Kiyohira asks his younger brother. "You promised to give cute cousins to Yuta."

"Anytime she says yes," Takeshi replies with a straight face. 

All eyes turn to Iori. Iori feels too awkward to be there. Can she dig a hole and bury herself already? 

"Can I take a look at the notebook?"

Rie grins at him. "Your stomach pain is gone."

"You know that I was pretending." Yuta picks up the notebook from the table. The moment he touches it, the black letters appear on the yellowish paper. He frowns. "It's not blank --"

And the notebook bursts into flame.