I went back on my way to school. Throughout the entire day I was contemplating on what I should do with the egg. I could sell it for tons of money, I could donate it for scientific research or I could give it to my grandmother and make a small omu-rice from it.

At the end of the school day I still hadn’t made my decision, although I did take omu-rice off the list. When the final bell rang, I headed to the student council room. As a class representative I’m also part of the student council. Although I didn’t become a class rep willingly, it all happened because I made a big mistake after math class…

“Alright, class. I will be going down the class list. If you hear your name, and you want to be submitted as a class representative candidate, say, “yes, sir.”

Naturally, I was sleeping during this decisive moment in my life.

“Tamaki Gou,” hearing my name being called out immediately woke me up from my mandatory after-math-nap.

“Yes, sir!”

Unfortunate events lead to me being the only person volunteering to become a class rep. All of this is what led me to the most frightening point in my life, a one-on-one conversation with the student council president.

Our president is a third-year nicknamed ‘Hailstorm’. It’s rumoured that those who make eye contact with her ice-cold gaze get turned into ice sculptures on the spot.

Today will be the first time that it’s just the two of us in the student council room. I can’t phantom why, but my gut feeling has been telling me that I should ask her advice about the egg situation.

I knocked twice on the door,

“Enter,” she said, in the coldest tone imaginable.

The door creaked loudly as I slowly entered the room.

“My-my, how curious. Gou Tamaki in the student council room, on his own accord,” she stated, with little to no expression on her face. “Whatever may I help you with?”

My hands started to get sweaty. I cleared my throat and properly entered the room,

“Well… It’s a long story, but to keep it short,” I took the little blue box out of my pocket whilst walking up to her desk, “I found an egg this morning.”

The big reveal was followed by a deafening silence. A silence so bad that it made me raise my eyes to meet hers. Her cold gaze froze my entire body instantaneously—as if I actually became an ice sculpture.

“And here I thought you were finally committed to being a proper student council member. How disheartening.”

I’m not surprised that she doesn’t believe me, so I carefully opened the box and showed her.

“Egg.”

She elegantly took off her reading glasses, brought them close to her mouth and let the damp of her breath get on them. She took her cleaning cloth out of her pocket and wiped them clean in a similar elegant manner and in the end put the glasses back on again.

“That does appear to be an egg. Any chance you would let me touch it?” for the first time something close to a change of expression happened on her face. She almost looked as curious as she actually was.

“Go ahead,” I said, handing her the box.

While gracefully examining it, she asked me,

“What are you intending to do with this egg?”

Making omu-rice was already off the list of plans. I wouldn’t have lived to see another day had I suggested that to her.

“Either sell it to whoever bids the highest, or look for a science lab and donate–”

“You mean sell,” she interrupted.

“Uh, right. Sell it for scientific research.”

She put the palm of her right hand on her left cheek, this must be her thinking pose.

“Both of those proposals will put your life in danger. The instant you make it public knowledge that you happen to be in possession of an egg, you’ll become a target for many criminals.”

She’s right. This egg is probably worth hundreds of millions of yen. I closed my eyes to deeply think about a safe solution, but even with my eyes shut I couldn’t concentrate at all with her piercing gaze fixated on me.

“Gou Tamaki-kun.”

“Y-yes, president-senpai?” Damn it, I mixed up her name and title.

“May I ask you how you obtained that egg this morning?”

“Well, I saw a man in a lab coat running through my street, he was the one who dropped it,” after a little pause I remembered to tell her about the other man, “Oh, that’s right. There was also another man running through my street, wearing a black suit. He looked like a security guard or something like that.”

“And that security guard… was chasing the man in a lab coat?” she asked for confirmation.

“Yeah, exactly! He asked me where the ‘geek’ went, but I sent him in the wrong direction.”

“Fufu~ I’ve got a rascal on my hands,” she giggled, holding her hand in front of her mouth.

I had no clue that she could be this cute. I got lost in trance and ended up staring.

“Is something the matter, Gou Tamaki-kun? Your face is getting all red.”

“No, nothing is wrong! Anyway, I’ll think some more about what to do with the egg. See you tomorrow.”

“Mhm, see you tomorrow.”

***

Late in the evening of that same day, I sat down at my desk. My head was resting on my upper arm while I was lost in thought, staring at the blue box. All of a sudden I heard weird noises coming from my window. I slowly got off my chair to take a look. The instant I opened the curtain, I fell on my back while screaming,

“What are you doing here?!”

The scientist from earlier this morning was hanging on the outside of the window… on the first floor. I closed the curtains again when I heard dad coming up the stairs.

“Tamaki! What on earth happened for you to be yelling like that?”

I said the first thing that came to mind,

“Spider!” I should’ve thought this through, I haven’t seen any spiders in my room at all lately.

“Where?” he asked.

Once again, my impulsive thoughts take over my rational mind,

“There!” I said, pointing behind him at a spider-free wall.

However, the moment dad turned his head around a relatively big spider came crawling down the wall. Dad removed his belt and swung it against the wall in one quick motion. The spider died almost as fast as it appeared. While putting his belt on again, he mockingly said,

“Don’t worry, princess. This is what fathers are for.”

After saying that he left the room. I saluted the spider for his service before turning myself towards the window again. I grabbed the box containing the egg off my desk and put it in my pocket.

“What do you want from me?” I whispered, as I opened the window.

“There’s no time to play dumb. You and I, we need each other,” he said, while climbing inside my room, “I only have time to explain this once, so listen closely.”

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

“…Alright.”

“The egg that you have somewhere in this room… I stole it from my science lab. Have you ever heard of RIKEN?” he asked.

“I believe so. You work in that big building near Wakou Highschool, right?”

“Yup, I sure do. There’s some impressive projects going on over there, we’re also the biggest government-funded lab in all of Japan.”

“Well, that’s impressive,” I noted.

“I know, right? Anyways, I’m not here to brag. There are some corrupt things going on between our lab and our international partners. You may or may not realise but that egg you picked up this morning is the last reported egg we have on this planet. Our research on it, and the egg itself are of unimaginable value.”

“What corrupt things are going on?” I asked.

“Naturally, a big lab has plenty of connections to other labs. The problem is that we have some under-the-radar connections with a lab in an unknown location . They reached a full agreement on all of our egg research up until now.”

“Is that a big issue?”

“Yes, of course! I don’t trust a lab that doesn’t report any information to the outside world. Not even to its partners.”

“That makes sense, I suppose. So what is your plan now?”

“I already managed to steal the egg from my lab, but I know that they’ll soon find me. So it’s a good thing that you’re in possession of it now.”

“I hadn’t thought of it before, but how did you figure out that I was the one with the egg?”

He was sliding his finger under his nose and smiled,

“I implemented my ant-sized tracker in the box. That does mean that the location might get hijacked, but whatever you do, do not remove the egg from the box.”

“Err… Understood?”

“Now, the plan. Before I started working for RIKEN I worked in a small, but almost equally impressive lab in Hokkaido. I will probably be locked up in prison soon. So, please, could you get it there for me?”

“I’m sorry. I don’t really see what’s in there for me. Won’t I be getting involved in your heroic criminality?”

“I figured you would say that,” he said disappointingly.

He sighed and got up from the floor. The moment he did, he noticed my whiteboard with my goals written on it. He started reading them out loud, from the bottom to the top,

“Make parents proud, fall in love, find a passion… and lastly, save omu-rice…” he turned his head towards me, “Save omu-rice is your number one goal?!”

A little embarrassed I scratched the back of my head,

“Yeah, it is.”

He got on his knees and grabbed both my hands,

“If we work together, fellow omu-rice lover, we can save this planet.”

He does have a point,

“Alright, fine. Don’t blame me when anything goes wrong though.”

“Of course I won’t, you’re a lifesaver! Just make sure to deliver it before the end of this month,” he reached for his pocket, “Here is a map with the location of the lab.”

The sound of the creaking stairs caused panic in both our eyes.

“Alright, I’ll be heading out. Make sure I don’t see you in prison, buddy.”

He jumped out of the window just in time.

“Hey, Tamaki,” dad opened the door, “were you talking to someone just now?”

“Yes, uhm, I was on a phone call,” finally a decent excuse popped up in my head.

“Hmmm, was it a girl?” the way he asked reminded me of my middle school days.

“Uh-huh, it was.”

He shed a tear and dramatically wiped it away with his index finger. As he left the room he said,

“They grow up so fast, don’t they?” to mom.

***

The following morning I woke up much earlier than usual.

“It’s rare to see you up so early… Are you feeling alright?” mom asked.

“I’m fine, I’m fine. There’s something I have to take care of at school. Anyway, I’ll be heading out now.”

“Take care.”

I have to tell the prez about what the scientist told me before school starts. When I arrived at the school’s gate, I was greeted by my friend, Soichiro,

“Yo, chief! What are you doing here so early in the morning? Wait, let me guess… you’re here to finally join our football club?”

“Never in a million years,” I banteringly said, “Anyways, I’ll be heading to the student council room, see you in class.”

“Ah, that’s right. You’re a class rep of the highest status. Respectable, admirable, invaluable–”

“Are you done now?” I interrupted.

He started laughing,

“I’m joking. See you in class, chief.”

After that interlude, I was finally on my way to the student council room. It’s quite relaxing to walk in empty hallways. At this time of day, the few people present are those who have club activities in the morning—like Soichiro has.

Once I was at the door I closed my eyes and took a deep breath before knocking. The moment I brought my fist to the door, the prez opened it without me realising… and I accidentally ended up knocking twice on her forehead.

“Ow,” her facial expression was as neutral as ever as she made that sound.

“I-I’m sorry!”

“Oh, Gou Tamaki-kun. Is it the egg that brings you here so early in–”

“Shhhh,” I said, covering her mouth with my hand, “what if someone hears us?”

With my hand still on her mouth, she near inaudibly said,

“Don’t worry, there’s hardly anyone present on school grounds at the moment—let alone the third floor.”

I suppose she’s right.

“Gou Tamaki-kun…”

“Hmm?”

“Can you please remove your hand from my mouth?”

Only when she asked me, I realised what I had just done to the senior nicknamed ‘Hailstorm’.

“I’m sorry!” I said, bowing down on my knees.

“It’s alright. Let’s go inside to further discuss things.”

The both of us sat down across from each other at her desk. Her gaze suggested I should start to speak.

“The reason I’m here so early today is because of the scientist who dropped the egg. Yesterday evening he climbed into my window to tell me that he stole the egg from RIKEN.”

“I see, please continue.”

“Apparently, RIKEN sold their scientific research and the egg itself to a lab overseas that can’t be trusted. He wants me to bring this egg to his former lab in Hokkaido. The reason he gave me as to why he can’t do it himself is that he’ll be locked up in jail soon.”

“Do you mind me asking a few questions?” she asked.

“Of course, go ahead.”

“Well, firstly, how did he get into your house? Secondly, how come he was so certain that it was you who had the egg he stole? Hmm, a third question–” she kept on rumbling her questions off until I interrupted her,

“To answer your first question, he was hanging from my window. I let him in and then he explained to me what I just told you. The way he found me was because of the ‘ant-sized’ tracker he put into the little blue box.”

She grabbed her notebook and shredded a page out of it, took a pen and started writing on the paper.

‘Take the egg out of the box,’ she turned the sheet of paper my way.

‘The scientist told me not to, no matter what,’ I wrote down before turning the page her way.

‘If that’s the case, leave it there for now. So, what are you planning to do?’ she wrote.

She writes amazingly neat for someone who writes as fast as she does. Her beautiful handwriting really is putting mine to shame. It reminds me of those writing exercises where you had to copy the teacher’s example. Seeing her handwriting makes me feel like a toddler again.

“Is something the matter? You don’t have to let me know if you don’t want to.”

“Ah, that’s not it. I was lost in thought.”

I grabbed the pen and wrote down the plan I had made up yesterday night.

‘I’ll travel to Hokkaido either during the upcoming break in two weeks or next weekend.’

‘On your own?’

‘I’m not sure yet who I should trust with this,’ before turning around the page she took another pen out of her pen holder and wrote,

‘Me.’

A single word written on a sheet of paper. That was all there needed to be for this warm smile to appear on my face. I stood up,

“Thank you, I’ll return here tomorrow morning with a plan.”

“See you tomorrow.”