Tokyo: After years of stagnation, the heiress of the yakuza arrives.

"cough--!"

Just moments ago, Shido Kuroba had been looking impatient, but suddenly his eyes widened, the rice ball in his throat went awry, and he froze on the spot.

I can't get up there.

I can't get down.

The rice ball, along with the piece of cordyceps, got stuck in the boy's throat, almost causing his turbulent life to end prematurely before he could even begin his new day.

It was a dream collaboration with Yoshiko Sawamura not long ago...

Kuroba Shido hurriedly put down the rice ball, grabbed the counter with one hand, and pounded his chest with the other.

"Cough cough cough—!"

a bit.

Two times.

Three times.

With difficulty, his Adam's apple bobbed up and down, and the dreadful rice ball finally slid down his throat.

Kuroba Shido leaned against the kitchen counter, breathing heavily, and even a layer of fine sweat appeared on his forehead.

Almost there.

It really was just a tiny bit short.

Having survived countless ordeals in Tokyo, including gunshot wounds, kidnappings, and all sorts of outrageous incidents, Shido Kuroba was nearly killed by a discounted rice ball.

If this actually succeeds, how should it be reported in the news?

Shocking! Tokyo high school student dies mysteriously in the early morning; the culprit is a half-price rice ball!

That's really embarrassing.

The phone kept ringing.

Before Kuroba Shido could even soothe his frightened soul, he hurriedly reached out to answer the phone.

The ringtone stopped abruptly when the fingertip was less than a centimeter from the screen.

The call was disconnected.

The Black Feather Warrior said, "..."

You're just messing with me, aren't you? Going to walk the horses!

He stared at the now-silent phone screen, his face gradually darkening.

If he had hung up a second earlier, he wouldn't have had to risk almost choking on the rice ball. If he had hung up a second later, he could have successfully connected and asked the minister what he wanted to do so early in the morning.

Just when he had finally managed to swallow his food and was about to answer the phone, the call ended.

The timing was so precise that it made one wonder if the person on the other end of the phone had been watching him the whole time.

and many more……

Shido Kuroba's expression froze, and he subconsciously looked up, his gaze sweeping across the kitchen ceiling.

Apart from the standard lights and smoke alarms, nothing else was found.

illusion.

It must be an illusion.

Who would install cameras all over their own apartments and then use their phone to observe how their employees live every day?

Isn't that crazy?

Kuroba Shido shook his head, banishing this outrageous idea from his mind.

The next second, the phone vibrated again.

The screen still showed the familiar contact person, but this time, it wasn't a regular phone call, but a video call.

The Black Feather Warrior said, "..."

Look at you, you're in such a hurry again...

Kuroba Shido was originally planning to let things cool off for a while, so that the department head would understand that the poor boy's time was just as precious.

But when his gaze fell on the cane at the kitchen doorway, and he thought of the slap he had just received and the shoe sole that had stepped on his face, he ultimately chose to respect the hard-won trust between people.

It's definitely not fear.

The main reason is that he has always respected his superiors.

Kuroba Shido grabbed the remaining half of the rice ball, stuffed it into his mouth with great gusto, and pressed the call button.

The screen shook twice, and Miyazaki Kiyoshi's utterly calm face appeared on the phone screen.

Kuroba Shido's mouth was stuffed full of rice balls, one hand holding his phone while the other hand was trying to push the two grains of rice sticking out of his mouth back in.

"Waaah... Good morning, Minister."

"Chew, chew, chew..."

Greetings and chewing sounds came from the phone at the same time.

Inside the car, Miyazaki Kiyoshi watched the video feed but didn't speak immediately.

Although the driver in the driver's seat keeps their eyes fixed straight ahead, their ears cannot be turned off like their eyes.

He heard a distinctly muffled male voice, and also the extremely rhythmic "chewing, chewing, chewing".

It turns out that the person upstairs who made the young lady go all the way to call him and who made the whole car wait here for so long wasn't packing anything or encountering any trouble.

He was eating.

The driver's thoughts began to resurface.

Miyazaki Kiyoshi raised his eyes slightly.

The driver focused his attention, immediately transforming himself into an emotionless driving machine.

On the phone screen, Kuroba Shido finally swallowed all the rice balls in his mouth and let out a comfortable sigh.

"Minister, is there something you can't tell me after I finish eating?"

"I'm downstairs."

"I know."

Shido Kuroba answered quite naturally.

Miyazaki Kiyoshi looked at him, his eyes slightly narrowed.

"You know?"

"Of course I know. You just came to call me personally. I haven't lost my memory."

As he answered, Shido Kuroba stretched out his fingers and pinched off the rice grains stuck to the inside of the packaging bag one by one, then put them into his mouth.

Wasting food is shameful.

Especially for impoverished children, every grain of rice holds an inviolable sacred status.

Miyazaki Kiyoshi watched him eat the last grain of rice, his voice still showing no obvious change in emotion.

"Since you know that, why aren't you worried at all?"

"Why the rush?"

Kuroba Shido paused for a moment, as if he had heard a question that was completely incomprehensible.

Miyazaki Kiyoshi did not answer, but simply looked at him quietly.

Kuroba Shido folded the empty packaging bag twice and threw it into the trash can with great precision, a serious and profound expression gradually appearing on his face.

"Your Excellency, this shows that your level of thinking has not yet been raised."

The driver's hand on the steering wheel trembled slightly.

This was the first time he had ever seen someone speak to a young lady in such a tone.

Even more outrageous, no order to shut up came from the back row.

Kuroba Shido steadied himself against the kitchen counter, adjusted his posture, and began his morning philosophy lesson on life from the perspective of a poor boy.

"Think about it, since it's already happened, what's the use of worrying?"

"I'm upstairs, you're downstairs, the school is there, and time won't stop just because my heart is racing."

"If being anxious could make someone teleport, I would already be sitting in the classroom by now. But the reality is, even if I were to roll around on the floor in my anxiety, I would only be able to roll from one end of the kitchen to the other."

Shido Kuroba paused, patted his injured leg, indicating that there was still an objective condition that could not be ignored.

"Besides, why worry about things that haven't happened yet?"

"Right now, we may be late, but we're not actually late. Even if we are late in the end, anxiety won't turn back the clock."

"Life is already exhausting enough; punishing yourself now with things that might happen in the future seems like a terrible waste."

Miyazaki Kiyoshi did not interrupt.

The driver in the driver's seat also remained silent.

Seeing that the two were listening attentively, Kuroba Shido immediately perked up, feeling that his thoughts had successfully illuminated the two souls that had not yet been liberated through the radio waves.

"Anxiety, to put it bluntly, is just a form of mental exhaustion that yields no benefit."

"If anxiety really worked, wouldn't I be able to earn a lot of money without lifting a finger, just by worrying about rent, living expenses, and whether someone else will snatch up my discounted rice balls tomorrow?"

"Unfortunately, it's not possible."

Shido Kuroba shook his head with great regret.

"Not only does it not give me money, it also drains my energy and makes my heart race, reduces my appetite, and even affects the taste of my breakfast."

"Why invest precious energy in something that brings no benefit and only costs?"

"Therefore, a truly mature person should focus their limited energy on what they can change, maintain a calm attitude towards what they cannot change, accept the outcome, and embrace life."

After he finished speaking, the kitchen fell silent.

The car was quiet as well.

The driver gripped the steering wheel, a thoughtful expression on his face.

I have to admit, what the person upstairs said seems to make a lot of sense.

What's done is done. Being anxious won't solve the problem. Anxiety won't turn back time; it will only waste your energy and affect your ability to do things in the future.

Thinking about it carefully, worrying about traffic jams, the young lady's dissatisfaction, and accidentally thinking something I shouldn't be thinking when I drive every day doesn't seem to make much sense.

It's better to relax and accept life...

A sense of detachment from worldly affairs gradually arose in the driver's heart.

Miyazaki Kiyoshi also remained silent for a few seconds.

Kuroba Shido's entire set of theories, at first glance, seem logically sound and even contain some philosophical insights into life.

The phrase "Don't punish yourself for what might happen in the future" seems to resonate with many people, no matter where it is placed.

But Kiyoshi Miyazaki is no one.

She simply followed Kuroba Shido's logic and re-examined the entire problem, quickly finding the almost overlooked premise hidden beneath these grand principles.

Being late is not an unchangeable outcome.

They can go downstairs right now, the car will leave immediately, and they still have a chance to get to school before classes officially start.

In other words, while Kuroba Shido kept saying he would focus his energy on things he could change, he was still standing steadily in the kitchen, and even had time to stuff a cordyceps into a rice ball.

Every sentence above could be true.

It's only wrong to use it on himself.

Miyazaki Kiyoshi looked at Kuroba Shido in the video, whose expression was deep, as if he had just delivered a great speech, and spoke calmly.

"So, that's your excuse for being deliberately late?"

The driver had just entered a state of detachment from worldly affairs when he instantly snapped back to reality.

Yes.

There's still time!

He almost got tricked by them!

"Oh dear, Minister, how come you have no sense of humor? I mean..."

Kuroba Shido raised one hand and waved it back and forth on the other end of the phone twice, a look of helplessness on his face after being misunderstood.

"Life shouldn't just focus on the result of being late; we should also value the process. For example, I just ate to replenish my body's energy."

"Without energy, I can't get downstairs. If I can't get downstairs, I can't get on the bus. If I can't get on the bus, I can't go to school."

"So, from a cause-and-effect perspective, my eating is not intentionally late, but rather a preparation for not being late."

Kuroba Shido spoke more and more fluently, even feeling that his logic this time had reached a point of being impeccable.

"Your Excellency, you cannot look at the surface of a problem; you must see through the phenomena to the essence."

"On the surface, I was standing in the kitchen eating rice balls instead of going downstairs immediately. In reality, I was accumulating energy for the next move, which is an essential part of the whole process of going to school."

"If even this necessary step is omitted, the poor boy might collapse on the way due to low blood sugar. Not only would he be late, but you would also have to take him to the hospital. Wouldn't that be a huge loss?"

Miyazaki listened quietly, without refuting him or continuing to discuss the relationship between the process and the result.

Because she has discovered that when dealing with someone like Kuroba Shido, normal verbal communication can easily drag you into a strange world where he sets his own rules.

There, any problem ultimately boils down to the basic survival needs of impoverished teenagers.

Eating is for living, sleeping is for restoring energy, being late is to avoid anxiety, and skipping class is to allocate energy rationally.

Given enough time, he could even explain not doing homework as a great contribution made by humankind to reducing paper waste and protecting the Earth's environment.

Miyazaki Kiyoshi glanced down at the time in the upper right corner of his phone.

There's no point in continuing the discussion.

"One minute."

Shido Kuroba was still preparing for his next speech when he heard this and stopped speaking.

"What, one minute?"

"Come down within a minute."

Kiyoshi Miyazaki held his phone steady, his eyes calm.

"If it takes more than a minute, the car will leave."

Shido Kuroba blinked.

The next second, an indescribable joy slowly rose from the bottom of the poor boy's heart.

Is there such a good thing?

If the car drives away, he won't have to go to school, right?

By not going to school, I can go back to bed and continue the sweet dream that was just forcibly interrupted. As for the issues of being late or absent, I can deal with them slowly after I wake up.

Anyway, he is no longer the poor boy who could only fight alone and was at the mercy of his teacher.

He has powerful backers now!

And they're not just any ordinary people.

As one of the most important, unique, and irreplaceable members under Miyazaki Kiyoshi, he could easily take advantage of the boss's influence and exercise the invisible power he wielded.

Even if a regular teacher doesn't greet him, they'll at least seriously consider whether it's appropriate to deduct points from his account.

As for the principal...

In the poor boy's imagination of a bright future, let alone deducting his attendance, even the principal would have to come over and lick his shoes when he saw him.

Of course, actually licking was a bit too much, so Kuroba Shido generously adjusted the scene so that the other person was bending over with a big smile, personally wiping his shoes clean.

"Kuroba-kun, what brings you to school today?"

"Kuroba-kun, you must have run into something important on the way here to be so late, right?"

"Kuroba-kun, don't worry, your attendance record has been processed, and I will personally explain it to the teacher!"

Thinking of this, Shido Kuroba almost couldn't help but smile.

Stable.

That's incredibly stable.

He was originally thinking about whether he should take his cane and go downstairs immediately to give the minister some face.

In retrospect, it was completely unnecessary.

If he just stands in the kitchen for a full minute and waits for the car to leave, his free life for the day will officially begin.

Kuroba Shido tried hard to suppress his smile and pretended to be very embarrassed.

"Minister, isn't one minute a bit too short? I'm still upstairs, and I have trouble walking..."

"sixty."

Miyazaki Kiyoshi didn't listen to his explanation and directly gave a number.

Kuroba Shido quieted down.

it has started.

The minister has actually started the countdown.

However, it doesn't matter.

It only takes sixty seconds.

For Shido Kuroba, who had survived countless dangers, this amount of time wasn't even enough to finish the opening sequence of an episode of anime.

He steadied himself on the counter, as steady as an old dog, and even had the leisure to pick up the packaging of the rice ball he had just finished eating to check if there were any leftover rice grains inside.

"Fifty-four."

Kiyoshi Miyazaki's voice came through the phone.

Kuroba Shido turned the packaging over to the back.

No.

It seems he just ate very cleanly.

"Forty-nine."

Kuroba Shido looked up at the clock on the kitchen wall.

Time progressed normally; the minister did not tamper with it.

very good.

He has forty-nine seconds left before he can get back into bed.

"Forty-two."

Kuroba Shido picked up a small piece of wrapping paper that had fallen out next to the trash can, put it back, and checked the ground.

Since I'm about to begin my wonderful life of sleeping alone, I should still keep the environment a little tidy.

Thirty-six.

The countdown continues to decrease.

The driver sat in the driver's seat, listening to his young mistress announce one number after another, and for some reason, his heart started to race.

Even though the countdown wasn't for him and exceeding the time wouldn't affect him in any way, the gradually solidifying atmosphere inside the car still gave him the illusion that a bomb was about to explode.

On the other hand, Kuroba Shido on the other end of the video showed no sign of being in a hurry.

Instead of leaving, he leisurely picked up his cup and poured himself a sip of water.

For the first time, the driver felt genuine admiration for someone's mental fortitude.

No wonder this person dared to make the young lady personally go upstairs to call him, and even dared to leave an entire car waiting downstairs while he hid in the kitchen heating up rice balls.

Only someone with an extremely thick skin could do something like this.

"Twenty-nine."

Shido Kuroba paused for a moment as he drank the water.

For some reason, even though victory was so close, a subtle unease suddenly arose in his heart.

Everything went too smoothly.

Things seemed to be going too smoothly from the very beginning.

Would the minister really just drive away and let him go back to bed and continue sleeping peacefully just because he didn't come downstairs for more than a minute?

Based on his understanding of Miyazaki Kiyoshi, the other party had a clear purpose in doing everything.

She came over specially this morning, personally went upstairs to wake him up from bed, and even came again after he fell asleep again. How could she give up on letting him go to school just because of a one-minute countdown?

There's definitely something wrong here.

"Twenty-three."

The ease in Shido Kuroba's eyes gradually disappeared.

He held his phone and began quickly analyzing the available intelligence.

Getting downstairs within one minute is objectively very difficult.

It takes time to get from the kitchen to the entryway, it takes time to put on shoes, and it takes time to take the elevator, not to mention that he now has one leg that makes it difficult for him to move around.

In other words, the conditions given by Miyazaki Kiyoshi were never a reasonable goal for him to seriously complete from the beginning.

Since it's not a legitimate goal, the real purpose of this countdown is likely to confirm whether he will obey, or perhaps...

To provide a legitimate reason for what follows.

"eighteen."

A bead of cold sweat appeared on Kuroba Shido's forehead.

He suddenly felt that his calm and collected demeanor just now seemed a little hasty.

To be on the safe side, it's best to find out more first.

"Wait a minute, Minister, I have a question."

Kiyoshi Miyazaki did not stop the timer.

"fifteen."

"Just suppose, I mean, if I don't come downstairs for more than a minute, what serious consequences or punishments might there be?"

Kuroba Shido tried to make his tone sound casual, as if he were just being ordinary curious, without any nervousness whatsoever.

"twelve."

As Miyazaki Kiyoshi watched the face on the video screen, which had become noticeably more cautious, the countdown finally stopped.

Kuroba Shido breathed a slight sigh of relief.

It seems there's still room for negotiation.

Miyazaki Kiyoshi tucked a strand of long hair that had fallen beside her face behind her ear, her tone remaining calm.

"There won't be any serious consequences."

Kuroba Shido's eyes lit up.

Stable.

"I'm not the kind of person who would threaten my team members."

Kuroba Shido's smile grew even brighter.

As expected, although the minister is usually a bit cold, he is quite principled in his actions.

How could she possibly be associated with such a despicable and shameless act as threatening her own staff?

He must have been judging others by his own petty standards.

"I knew it. Minister, you are a wise and understanding person, gentle and considerate. You would never let something as trivial as this..."

"I will just tell Aoko Jingu some facts."

Shido Kuroba's voice abruptly stopped.

Miyazaki Kiyoshi ignored his rapidly stiffening expression and continued to add.

"For example, you went to Kaoru Amamiya's house a while ago."

"In the end, we even spent the night there..."

The Black Feather Warrior said, "???"