Chapter 194 ( investigation )

"I think we'd better leave the topics that have nothing to do with the meeting aside and start with this conversation" - said Rino as she took control of the conversation.

Those present gave her a quiet look but quickly went to their assigned stations.

Cloud together with Asuna were on the right side of the table, Ayane together with her two subordinates on the bottom, Kyōka was together with her girls on the left side of the table together with her girls, Rino being the one on the top alone.

"Hmm?where are your pets, Ransuiryū?" - Kako asked disdainfully.

"I wish you wouldn't call them that, Zankōtei (Empress of Cutting Steel)" - Rino said coldly.

"Kako..." - Kyōka just shot an annoyed look at her subordinate, because while the relationship between the dragons wasn't the best, it didn't mean that just anyone could insult them.

"I'm sorry, Kyōka-sama" - Kako said as she knelt down in front of her leader.

"I'm sorry for my subordinate's words" - said the blue-haired girl.

"I just hope it won't happen again" - replied Rino while snorting in annoyance.

"Tch, better pull the stick out of your ass" - thought Kako with irritation.

"Anyway, we'd better move on" - said Cloud while earning a glare from the girls - "After all, Asuna managed to get some information."

"!" - the girls except Ayane were surprised when they heard this.

"Interesting" - Rhino said as she looked at the aforementioned girl, though she quickly sighed with regret when she remembered that she herself had been responsible for driving away such a good prospect, though this didn't show on her face - "Well?"

"You can talk whenever you want" - smiled Kyōka as she looked at the girl.

"Ok" - nodded Asuna as she looked around - "What I managed to find out is the following..."

Asuna quickly handed over a report to all the dragons, to quickly continue - "According to the information I got, it was that the attacker was what appeared to be a six-foot-four person with an excessive muscular build."

". . ." - Kako frowned when she heard this because she couldn't see any way that a guy like that could be a student, much less an invader.

"This information doesn't make much sense at all, especially since we would have detected a person like that with ease, after all, he sounds like an easy target to identify..." - Rino said as she frowned.

". . ." - Kyōka didn't say anything even though she was thinking something similar.

Asuna frowned as she noticed how no one seemed to be taking in the information she had managed to get.

"Though you have to admit that both the damage caused to your subordinate, as well as the timing of the aforementioned girl who testified to this, is correct" - Cloud replied as he earned a glare from everyone - "Even the size of the attacker could justify the extent of the damage caused to Ryōko-san..."

". . ." - Rino was silent as she frowned because what the blond boy said was true. The damage caused to her subordinate's ribs was too great to be a normal fist, to the point that if she hadn't been operated on quickly, she had gone into critical danger.

"Cloud has a point there" - nodded Kyōka while looking at Asuna with a smile.

". . ." - Ayane just kept silent as she calmly analyzed everything with the information the black-haired second year girl had gathered, trying to find something that the others had missed.

"Well, we have a suspected culprit with a bit unrealistic characteristics that couldn't be related to one of the students... that would leave us the only possibility that said attacker is someone external to Nangokuren" - said Rino as she felt a deep headache start to appear.

"No... you're wrong" - Cloud said seriously as he shook his head - "We still can't rule out that the culprit is one of Nangokuren's students."

"Cloud Strife, there is no student who has the physique close to the one your subordinate just informed us about" - said Honori while looking at the boy in confusion.

"It's because we didn't take into account one detail" - said Ayane while earning the gaze of everyone present - "It's possible that the attacker has the ability to control his body or practices a martial art that makes his body expand... that's not something impossible."

Rino was silent as she started to think - "True... there are countless martial arts in the world, it is possible that a few have the ability to control the body well enough to expand the user's muscle mass to acquire greater power... but that doesn't change the fact that they are rare and that your hypothesis is still just that, a hypothesis"

"That's the best answer we have right now" - Cloud said as Kyōka nodded.

"Not bad, Senseiryū" - said the blue-haired girl while giving her a feral smile - "If you hadn't said that, we would have missed such a simple detail."

"Well, we already have a relative visual profile of the culprit, we also have a possibility on how he or she managed to bypass our senses" - said Rino seriously - "But we still don't have a motive for the attack on my subordinate"

"What was that girl's condition when you found her?" - Ayane asked seriously - "We may find some clues if we analyze her appearance."

"She was with her body damaged, her clothes torn to the point that they barely covered some parts of her body and with her panties exposed" - answered Cloud calmly.

"Did the culprit attack Ryōko to humiliate her?" - Chiyoko asked while frowning.

"It's possible..." - replied Kyōka while shaking her head - "Even in third year we've heard that girl doesn't have the best attitude, so it's possible that one of her many enemies is responsible for this."

"I don't think it was to humiliate her" - Cloud replied calmly - "If that had been the case, the girl's physical state would have ended up so deplorably."

"I concur" - nodded Rino while looking at the blond boy with her green eyes - "If the goal had been to humiliate her, Ryōko would have suffered less physical damage and more damage to both her clothes and her appearance... whoever attacked her, it was for a completely different reason"

". . ." - a new silence invaded the room as answers and assumptions generated only more questions.

"Anyway, it's best that we remain vigilant for the time being so we can find the one responsible because as long as he's not in our sights, the other students could be in grave danger" - Kyōka said while shaking her head.

"That's good to hear that... although I would have preferred to be told about it at the moment it happened so I wouldn't have to know about this situation from Okina" - said the blonde Principal while looking around as she entered the room - "The safety of my students is the most important thing and that one of them received this kind of damage by an unknown entity is putting Nangokuren's credibility at stake....

"Okaasan..." - Kyōka muttered as she saw her mother in the room.

"We regret not informing you but as leaders of the different factions of Nangokuren, we have a duty to protect our subordinates" - said Rino calmly - "If we cannot do that, then we have failed as sovereigns."

"As long as you don't win the Dragon Rioting, you are not sovereigns" - said Kagamiin Ryōko while looking at the blonde girl - "I hope you remember that, Ransuiryū-san... and this goes for the others as well... as long as that doesn't happen, you remain students of Nangokuren and as such, you have to play by my rules.... is that clear?"

". . ." - the girls were silent as they nodded.

"I see someone didn't understand" - the blonde headmistress said when she saw that Cloud had gone silent - "Cloud Strife-kun"

"Hmm~?when did you arrive, Ryōko-san?" - Cloud asked in surprise when he heard that he had been called.

"A few seconds ago" - replied Kagamiin Ryōko as she looked at the boy with a narrowed gaze - "But I guess the appearance of the headmistress isn't enough for you, Kokuryū."

"Oh, it's not that, it's just that I kept thinking of a possibility about the culprit" - said Cloud while shaking his head - "What if far from a martial art, what happens to the attacker is a biological condition peculiar to the individual?"

"An interesting theory" - said Kagamiin Ryōko while looking at the boy with narrowed eyes - "It's also possible that it's a disease, after all, there are diseases in the world that cause changes in people... you have one that makes your instincts activate when you're under a lot of excitement..."

"That's plausible... but what kind of disease can cause that bodily mutation?" - Rino asked as she frowned, after all, she wasn't a doctor or knew anything about medicine.

"I would have to search more on the subject to find out if there is one" - replied Kagamiin Ryōko while shaking her head - "Anyway, I hope that if something like this were to happen again, don't hide this information from me as it could cause serious damage not only to the students, but also to the entire infrastructure of Nangokuren."

"Ok" - nodded the dragons along with their subordinates as they watched the headmistress leave the room to conduct her own investigation.

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