Sitting in front of me was my mom. Instantly, I straightened up and sat silently, waiting for the worst. My mom was terrifying. She was the leader of our organization and a very scary woman. She was feared by all of the underworld as the person you wouldn’t want on your bad side. A, next to me, started to speak again, mad that I didn’t respond, but was silenced by my mom. “Najami.” was all she said to quiet her.

  Turning to me, my mom spoke again. “Tako, did you finish the mission?” she asked with an air of authority. Timidly, I replied, “N-no, I did not,” while slightly shaking. The moment I said “no,” my mom sighed, exasperated.

  “You do realize this is the seventh mission that you’ve failed?” she asked, looking very mad.

  “Y-yes, I do,” I replied, shaking even more.

  “I’ve given you multiple chances and great equipment, yet you still have managed to fail every time.”

  “B-but this time, i-it wasn’t my fault!” I protested weakly.

  Ignoring me, my mom continued. “This was your final chance, and you messed it up. Tako, you’re leaving the organization.”

  When she said that, my brain stopped working. I have a dream that I want to accomplish, and the only way I’ll ever achieve it is if I inherit the organization. I have spent all my time training so that one day, I could lead the organization.

  Najami, who was silent, jumped up in protest. “But it wasn’t Tako’s fault! I’m the one that told him to go down that hall! If it wasn’t for me, he never would have been caught! If you’re going to kick him out of the organization, then you should kick me out too!”

  My mom didn’t say anything for a minute as she studied Najami. Finally, she spoke. “...Najami, are you willing to risk your life to give Tako one final chance?” she asked.

  Without hesitating, Najami replied, “Yes.”

  My mom smiled slightly at Najami and then turned to me. “Be lucky you have such a great friend. Tako, I'm going to give you one last chance.”

  My mom then stood up and grinned like the devil she was. “Starting on Monday, you're going to school.”

  ???

  “Can you please tell me what you mean?” I asked, utterly confused.

  I was sitting at the dinner table in my house, facing my mom. Najami was also there, sitting next to me. After my mom told me I was going to school again, she had ignored all my questions and said to wait until we got back home.

  My mom smiled and said, “Like I said, you’re going to school again.”

  “I get that, but how is this my last chance at inheriting the organization?”

  My mom smirked cruelly. “You’re not going to just any school, Tako. You’re going to Najami’s.”

  “Huh? How?” Najami and I said at the same time.

  “I go to an all-girls school!…...oh,” Najami said, trepidation dripping in her voice.

  “By using his looks, of course!” my mom said, grinning evilly.

  If you think she’s complimenting me, you're sorely mistaken. You see, I’ve been mistaken as a girl my whole life. Over and over, people would think I was a girl. It was so bad that if I even walked into a public men’s bathroom, everyone would freak out, and when I was in school, multiple boys confessed to me, and the teachers would always mistakenly put me on the girls' side.

  It’s the reason I no longer go to school. It was just too much to handle. Now, whenever someone mistakes me for a girl, I usually snap.

  Najami looked at me, sitting there silently, and asked, “T-Tako? Are you okay?”

  I guess I must have looked mad as I sighed and tried to stay calm.

  “Mom, even if I do s-somewhat slightly resemble a girl, don’t you think it's still impossible for me to go there? I mean, what am I supposed to do when we have to do physicals and change for classes and all that kinda stuff?”

  My mom smirked at me. “You don’t think I already have that stuff planned out? I got into contact with the school, and we already have something figured out.”

  Wait, how could she already have planned this out if she only decided to send me here as a final chance?

  Reading my mind, my mom said, “I knew from the start you would fail the mission, and I have been wanting to send you to school again, so it worked out perfectly.”

  She really had no faith in me, did she?

  Continuing, my mom said, “One of the teachers at the school will help you with all the stuff you mentioned.”

  It didn’t look like I could get out of this.

  “Alright, I understand. I’ll go,” I said, giving up.

  My mom stood up and said, “Great! Now go to sleep, you have to wake up early tomorrow to get everything you'll need. After all, you’ll be staying there for the next two years.”

  With that, she turned around and left the room.

  I turned to Najami and said goodnight, utterly defeated, before standing up and heading to my room.

  Before I left, Najami called out to me. “G-goodnight, Tako. I-I’ll see you in the morning.”

  “Yeah,” I replied shortly, before turning around again.

  ???

  The next morning I woke up early and ate breakfast quickly. My mom had told me she was going to drop Najami and me off at a shopping district so we could get the things I needed. The school is actually a private boarding school that specializes in underworld activities such as espionage and whatnot, so they provide basically everything I’ll need except a few things like extra clothes and personal items.

  “S-So, um, what do I get?” I asked Najami. We were in a girls' clothing store.

  “We should look for some clothes that are very plain. Not too girly but not too boyish.”

  With that in mind, we spent around 30 minutes picking out clothes. My mom had told us that she would pick us up in an hour, so we had to be quick. We ended up only getting around three sets of clothes, but apparently the school would help provide some, so it was fine.

  After we finished shopping for clothes, we moved on to other essentials such as toothbrushes and other hygienic products. Once we finished there, we still had around 20 minutes left, and since everything else I wanted to bring was already in my suitcase back at home, we headed to the arcade near the shopping district to kill time.

  “Hey, what do you wanna play?” Najami asked me.

  I guess I should probably explain who exactly Najami is. Najami is my friend that I’ve lived with since I was a kid. Her parents are really big people in the underworld business, so they’re never home, and since they’re good friends with my mother, she always came over and eventually just ended up living here.

  Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

  She’s really smart and can do all sorts of things with computers, so she always helps me whenever I go on missions. She’s taller than me and has long, light purple hair. She also has a mature-looking face, so whenever we go places together, people always assume I’m her little sister. Of course, I’m not even a girl, so whenever someone says anything, I get really mad and she ends up having to drag me home. Because of that, we usually don’t go out anywhere.

  “Hey, Tako! What are you doing? Let's play this one!” Najami said, standing next to a game.

  “Alright, but don't think you can beat me,” I said, flexing my fingers…

  After playing at the arcade for a bit, it was time to head back.

  “Aghh, you’re too good at that game,” Najami said, walking behind me, annoyed.

  “Hehehe, you should know by now that I’m unrivaled when it comes to that game.”

  “I’ll beat you one day! I swear it,” Najami said, getting fired up.

  We then went to where my mom had said she’d be waiting. On the way there, some guys stopped us.

  “Hey, hey, you two,” one of the guys said, walking up to us.

  “Yeah?” I asked, already fearing the worst.

  “You two’re pretty fly, wanna hang?”

  What is he even saying??? “What?” I asked, already annoyed.

  “I said that you two wanna come hang with us,” the guy said, walking closer to us.

  Najami started to tremble beside me and grabbed my shirt.

  “U-um, sorry, b-but w-we can’t.”

  Apparently, this guy couldn’t take no for an answer, as he started to get really pushy.

  “C'mon, just for a bit. You’ll have a good time.”

  “S-sorry, bu—”

  Sighing deeply, I interrupted Najami and drew the attention of the guy. Looking him straight in the eye, I said, “I’m a guy.”

  The moment I said that, the guy’s face froze for a second before looking at me closely. Realizing that I was wearing men’s clothes, he looked super stunned for a second, but then he looked at the other guy and they both nodded. He then turned back to us and said “EVEN BETTER!!!”

  What happened next was something I’d rather not recall… Let’s just say that, I had to be dragged away by a group of people and almost got arrested. Anyways, after that whole ordeal, Najami stopped trembling and let out a sigh of relief.

  Because of an incident that happened four years ago, she has been afraid of men, specifically older men. But since I, sadly, look just a little bit like a girl, she doesn’t have a problem with me.

  “Are you okay?” I asked her.

  Still looking a little shaken, she replied, “Yeah, I’m fine… But uh I don’t think that guy is fine…”

  Psh he’s just dandy. But, well, as long as she was saying she’s fine, I won’t bother her too much.

  After that, we didn’t talk until we got to the spot where my mom was supposed to pick us up. Looking around, we immediately spotted my mother. She was standing in front of a really expensive car, wearing a cool black jacket and some sunglasses. She honestly looked really cool. Upon seeing me and Najami, she raised her hand, signaling us to come over.

  “You’re late,” were the first words out of her mouth when we reached her.

  “Sorry, we ran into a bit of trouble on the way here.” I explained what happened.

  Accepting my reason, she sighed, “I see. Well, get in. We don’t have much time.”

  ???

  “Alright, we’re here. Get out.”

  Stretching while getting out of the car, I looked at the school now in front of me.

  “Wow, so this is the school,” I said, trepidation creeping into my voice. Grinning mischievously, my mom said, “Yes, it is.”

  “Now, she should be here any second.”

  Who was she talking about? I was really starting to wonder just who this person we were waiting for was.

  Turning to my left, I saw Najami standing there, not moving.

  “Najami? What’s wrong?” I asked.

  “Um, Tako, I’m sorry this has happened,” she said with a worried look on her face.

  I smiled at her and said, “It’s okay. It’s my fault that I failed all my missions.”

  Najami looked at me with a sad expression, and just as she started to say something—

  “Oh, you’re here!”

  Cutting her off before she could finish, a woman walked up to us.

  My mom turned to the woman. “Hello, Seiko.”

  Seiko, the woman in front of us, was tall and had a ditzy-teacher look. She had long red hair and wore a tight skirt and shirt. And her, um, melons were huge. Smiling at my mom, Seiko turned to me and said, “You’re the new student, Hiranishi-san—er, I mean Hiranishi-kun, right?”

  Even she was confused for a second… dammit.

  Holding back my darkening mood, I said, “Yes, that’s me. If you don’t mind me asking, who are you?”

  “Oh yeah, I forgot to introduce myself! My name is Seiko Ringa. I’m a teacher here,” she said, a little embarrassed.

  So it's Seiko-sensei, huh.

  Clearing her throat, Seiko-sensei said, “Anyways, we gotta be quick with the tour. We don’t want to keep her waiting.”

  Beside me, Najami looked a bit scared.

  “Um, Seiko-sensei, who are we going to go see?”

  Looking a bit startled, Seiko-sensei said, “O-oh, Kaotomi-san! I’m sorry, I didn’t even notice you!”

  Her expression darkening a bit, Najami said, “It’s fine. Anyways, can you tell us who we’re going to see?”

  “Oh yes, we’re going to see the principal, of course!”

  Najami looked down and muttered a defeated, “I knew it.”

  This really scared me, as Najami hardly ever seemed genuinely afraid of something like this.

  Just who was this principal?

  ???

  After that, Seiko-sensei led us through the school grounds and to the dormitory where I’d be staying.

  “Okay, follow me this way.”

  Seiko-san then led me through the building, showing me the kitchen, bathroom, and all the other facilities in the dormitory.

  “And here is your room. We understand that Kaotomi-san knows your secret, so we gave you the room next to hers.”

  My room was next to Najami's on the second floor, in the far left of the building.

  “Woah, this room is so large!” I said excitedly as we walked into my room.

  “Yes, this is our best dorm facility on the school grounds,” Seiko-san said.

  “But why do I have a whole bath in my room?”

  “That’s because we had to install a private bathroom in your room.”

  “Why?” I asked stupidly.

  “Because you're a boy. Unless you want to bathe with the girls, I suggest you appreciate it.”

  “O-oh…”

  “Oh, but you’re free to come bathe with me if you want. Wink.”

  “U-uh, no thanks…”

  Damn, this lady’s way too hot. “Tehee, I was just joking.”

  “You were? Dang, and I almost considered taking you up on the offer.”

  “A-anyways, it’s time to meet the principal, right? We should go now,” Najami said, looking pretty flustered.

  “Ah, yes. Kaotomi-san, you should stay behind. Meeting the principal will be less dangerous if he’s alone.”

  “O-oh… okay...”

  Najami didn’t seem like she wanted to stay, but she reluctantly turned around and sat on my bed.

  “Now come with me, Hiranishi. It’s time for you to meet our principal.”

  She then led me out of the building and toward the school.