-Conclusion(4): Motivating his sister-
Yuki could be said very professionally in her duty, within half an hour while Kenshin was still sitting there, she had narrowed down about 15 names who had the maximum probability of leaking their info. Such a thing was by no means a simple case of info leak, it violated both Hunter’s trust and privacy together with security. It could become a scandalous event if left alone.
She was giving her all to catch the culprit as soon as possible, not only for Kenshin but also for all those thousands of hunters that work under her. After narrowing down those fifteen names, she called Lily inside. As expected, the situation became awkward again. Kenshin started to shift uncomfortably in his chair while Lily stood with a stone-cold face. As for Yuki, she was secretly giggling at the two awkwardness.
“Lily, here are some of the names who are suspected of having done a largescale security breach, putting many hunters in jeopardy. I want you to call the Intelligence Department and have them find out the culprit or culprits within a day, it's urgent.”
“Okay, got it. Anything else?” Lily asked with her stone-cold voice, looking straight at Yuki’s eyes. She silently accepted the list from Yuki and tugged it inside the plastic file case she was holding without even sparing a glance at it.
“No. that’s all, you are dismissed.” Lily silently left the room, not even bothering to look at Kenshin, acting like a stranger to him, which amused Yuki a lot. She then opened her desktop and started punching the keyboard. Kenshin felt bored after a while, he would have initiated an idle talk, but Yuki sharply cut him off with an ‘I am busy right now, don’t disturb me.’
“Okay, then I will be here when your office ends. Give me a call then.” With that as a parting line, he left the office wearing sunglass while at it, showing off his coolness, which he thought he had. When he reached near the car, he saw the security whom he had threatened was standing there with a complicated look on his face. He seemed to sweat a lot as he frantically wiping away his face with a piece of a white handkerchief.
“Sir! Sir, please, I am sorry. Please don’t hold a grudge against me.” The instant he saw Kenshin coming out of the office, the security latched into his leg while apologizing profusely. Kenshin looked apathetically towards the man who was about to cry at any moment and snorted. Even without the need to explain, he knew what happened. This man indeed went with what he threatened and got the biggest shock of the day.
“Why are you holding my leg? Did I do something to you? Don’t just be pretentiously assume anything that comes to your mind. Let me go.”
“Sir, I am just a simple man who has a family to feed. Please don’t keep a grudge against me. I know what I did was less than glorious, I will apologize for it. Please just let me go this once.” The man cried loudly while mumbling gibberish. Even if its Kenshin, he still felt embarrassed at the situation. If this continued, any further a crowd would gather. What this man doing was giving the wrong impression to the people.
“First, let me go, or else I will call the police and file a harassment case.” Listening to his peaceful warning, the security let him go, but still, his face was filled with tears and mucus, he had already thought the worse. As such he had been waiting here all this while to plead for his mistakes. Fixing the creases in his pants, Kenshin spared the man a look before speaking “you don’t have to worry. I am not a narrowminded person. But, in the future, you shouldn't do this. Sigh… you know having power is great, but if you start misusing it, it only then power becomes a burden. Remember this, got it?”
After giving him a piece of his mind, Kenshin drove the car away from the office, with no destination in mind, he could only let his instinct do the driving.
Seeing him leave the premise, the security breathed a huge sigh of relief. The past one hour had been like a nightmarish rollercoaster to him. From the very moment, he called the local police, his henchmen, to now… he felt like he was living in a dream.
“Goddamnit! How can I, this Ibiki, made such an embarrassing mistake?” he shook his head before going back to his position, vowing to never indulge in the powerplay for the time being.
After leaving Yuki’s office, Kenshin drove aimlessly on the streets of Mito, before going to a self-serving gas station to refill his tank. After refill, he stood in front of the car and took a few snaps before sending it to Akari. He had already sent one before, but Akari didn’t reply anything to it.
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‘Hmm! Isn’t her expedition to the low-level dungeon supposed to be over today?’ a few days ago, while talking with her, Akari informed that they were going to a nearby place to engage in a real-life battle situation. Her academy was a top grade school for to-be hunters, even qualifying to appear its entrance exam takes talent, not to mention actually getting inside with a scholarship.
Thinking to talk with her a bit, he called her directly instead of sending her the image. The phone rang twice before it was picked up.
“Hey, Aki, how are you, my girl?”
“Big brother? Oh, I am alright…” Akari answered, but she seemed to be pretty absent-minded, making Kenshin worry.
“What happened?” Kenshin knew his sister very well unless she really stumbled on to something serious, she would never allow herself to be down like that. No matter how much she struggles, she would never let it show in her emotions, especially when talking with her brother. For her to be down in the dumps like that, Kenshin suspected his sister faced some serious setbacks.
“She challenged an upperclassman and got beaten by her without any chance to retaliate…” it was Harumi who spoke loudly form the background.
“Ah? I see…” Kenshin understood instantly what happened. It seems she had faced a little set back in a while… making her like that. He understood his own sister best. She was pretty prideful and would never allow herself to be defeated by anyone, no matter who the opponent was. This time, it seems her pride and confidence both taken a hit.
“Say, my little girl… are you upset cause you got defeated?” Kenshin asked softly. He could hear something shuffling, making him think of a situation where she was sitting on her bed while covered in her blankets. It was her usual action after stumbling on a setback.
“…I have worked hard for a year… but I can’t even manage to qualify for semi-finals. That senior, she didn’t even use her skills, she countered every move I did with pure movement and hand to hand combat… I was thrown to ground no matter how many times I stood up to her. It was humiliating… I don’t know what I am doing here all this while.”
“Are you questioning your effort? Your hard work now, my little girl?” landing his ass on the bumper of the car, he asked her softly. To his sister, he was always soft, not daring to ever raise his voice let alone raise his hands or beat her. The car and his style, it attracted a lot of attention as a crowd slowly formed around him to marvel his car as well as him. A few girls even took out their phones and continued to snap away photographs of Kenshin sitting on his car’s bumper while talking sweetly to someone.
He didn’t pay them any heed, his ole attention was towards his darling of a little sister who seemed to need a little help currently.
“…I don’t know, big brother. It makes me feel like I am not worth anything…”
“Hah! Well, it's alright, my little girl. That feeling, you shouldn’t let it push you down, instead use as a driving factor to propel you upwards. Tell you the truth, something similar happened to your big brother too… I was defeated by a very powerful enemy. Forget about an equal match, even though I poured everything I had, I still couldn’t make a crease on his clothes. How frustrating is that?
But you know what, instead of making it affect me negatively, I channeled that humiliation to drive myself further. Why can’t I defeat him? Isn’t that because I didn’t have enough strength? Then why didn’t I had enough strength? That’s because I haven’t worked hard enough.
My little sister, let this useless big brother of yours give you a bit of advice. Talent, it can only bring you this far. From henceforth, what you need is hard work. In the age we are living, anyone can become strong as long as they put in enough effort. Of course, talent is crucial for further growth. But, where talent couldn’t prevail, pure hard work will.”
“…” Akari was silently listening to her brother’s advice with apt attention. She always respected her brother, even during his weakness period. Now he was a strong hunter with many wins under his belt, how can she disregard his advice like that? Of course, a few things felt impossible to her, like him claiming have been defeated without making a single crease on his enemy’s clothes.
“Why do you think that senior could win against you, a talented magic skill user with a bit of footwork and hand-to-hand techniques? In the first place, why do you think she was that fast without the help of an item, skill, or anything like that? Think it through my baby girl.
To me, you are the most talented and hardworking person I have ever seen… but since you are defeated, you need to work a little harder. Let me copy a line from a place I have read before, ‘even if everything fails you, hard work would never fail’ got it?”
“Yes,” Akari said with a small voice, but it no longer held that depressing vibe as before making Kenshin smile. Seeing his long preach work, Kenshin breathed in a mouthful of air while thinking, ‘Thank god I read a lot of light novels, preaching a few motivational lines came in naturally… but I never thought I had the talent to be a motivational speaker. Maybe I should change my job, haha!’
“Okay, I am hanging up. Cheer up and work hard, who knows maybe the next time you meet her, you might not be defeated in such a lame fashion.”
“Alright!” she seemed a lot calm than before, making Kenshin nod in acceptance. Akari was a talented and hardworking girl… but she gets depressed too easily.