At school on the following day, Wednesday, I checked Reyn's thoughts to see if anything had changed. It seemed like she and Chelsea had received messages asking if they knew something about their "guardian" getting sent to the hospital. They both completely denied it and it felt like the gang members also didn't think they would be involved in it. The guy from yesterday was quite confident I was a member of Giusta so it made sense.

On the complete opposite side of the spectrum was Sapik. Her mind couldn't be more removed from Reyn's and my gloomy thoughts. Today, she was still fantasizing happily about princesses. The only difference was that she had something inserted in her butt this time. It felt like she was trying something new every day. Funnily enough, her joyful thoughts and behavior sort of recomforted me. I felt myself spending more time than planned following her ridiculous stories, to the point I became hard involuntarily a few times.

I also noticed she didn't seem to have any friends, keeping to herself most of the time. She would often read a book or write something in a notebook. She sometimes wrote down her stories when she was pleased with her imagination and even vaguely considered writing a short novel one day.

When it was time for lunch, I quickly headed to the first floor of the main building, where the senior students were located. As most everyone was going to the cafeteria, I looked around until I spotted the girl I wanted to speak with.

She was a short one, standing at around 155 cm. Her long brown hair was let out freely on her back and her brown eyes gave an overall serious impression. She was very slim, even skinny. It could be said that she didn't have any forms whatsoever.

Next to her was her friend, the daughter of another gang member. Her physique was the exact contrary of the girl next to her. She was tall for a woman, around 175 cm. She sported short red hair that brought out her deep blue eyes. Her forms were quite good, curving everywhere it should curve as if mocking her lacking friend. Her expression was relaxed and jovial. A careful look would show that she was still paying attention to her surroundings, her eyes darting around from time to time.

I put myself in front of them, trying to smile cordially. This attempt wasn't that successful and I could only comfort myself with the fact they didn't flinch while looking at my face.

"Hello. Nice to meet you. I'm Kyr Auda, a sophomore. Can I have a few minutes of your time, please?"

("Who's that? He looks wild.")

("Wow. Even the old men in the gang look less ferocious than him.")

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They looked at me suspiciously, as one could expect. It was the short girl who answered.

"What do you want? We're going to the cafeteria. We don't have time for you."

"Please. It's something important."

"Hm, well… Do you want to eat together?"

"Important and confidential."

They looked even more wary now.

"Alright. Let's go to a place where we can talk without being disturbed. This better be important or you'll pay for cutting our lunchtime."

("It's rare for someone to come to talk to me at school. I hope it's not a stupid joke.")

("Amani's still playing her tough girl character. That'll only give me more ammunition later. She never learns. As for this guy, he better not try anything weird or I'll send his balls flying straight to the moon. Hehe.")

I couldn't help shivering at the brutal thoughts of the tall girl. That was why one shouldn't rely on looks to judge people. We went out of the main building and the girls directed me to the left of the secondary building. This was the opposite side of where Reyn had met the trio of guys two days ago. Was this some sort of agreement where each gang had one side of the building for running their shady deals?

Once we were there and made sure no one else was around, the two girls turned toward me. The daughter of the gang leader was the one speaking once again.

"So? What did you want to talk about?"

"Let me get straight to the point. I happened to find out what the guys working for Cattivo are doing to some of the girls at our school."

I stopped there for a moment to give them time to process the information. They were now looking at me with much more serious expressions.

("So he knows… Not the first one to notice and probably not the last one too.")

("Interesting.")

"Okay. And?"

"Did you know about this?"

("How could I not?")

"Yes."

"Don't get mad but I'm quite curious why you're not doing anything about it."

("Do you think I'm happy with what's happening? I'm a woman too. You're just a little kid who doesn't know anything about the world. If we do anything about it, it'll be full war with Cattivo and we're not going to win, no matter what.")

"You don't need to know the reason."

"I'd like to ask Giusta to help me save those girls."

("That’s something new.")

("He's at least a little better than all the other pussies who noticed the situation and didn't do anything about it.")

"Do you even know what needs to be done to save those girls?"

"I do. They're taking their families hostage, right? That means, to save them, you'll need to protect their families against Cattivo."

My answer surprised them quite a bit.

("How does he know that?")

("This guy's suspicious.")

"If you know, then you understand that we have no reason to save them. Why should we invest so much to help people who are completely unrelated to us? Did you think we're good people or something? Well, we're not. We're gangsters."

The tall girl suddenly smiled to herself.

("What do the Mafia and pussies have in common? One slip of the tongue, and you're in deep shit. Hehe.")

I had to try my best not to glare at her considering this came absolutely out of nowhere. I focused back on the conversation.

"Isn't helping them also causing trouble for Cattivo? That's a good thing for you."