Another Like Me - Part I (CoTE x OC) ?

Chapter 41 - The Negotiator

I slowly let out a soft smile, and chuckled a bit to myself. Chabashira-sensei narrowed her eyes.

"What's so funny?"

"Nothing, nothing at all. It's just that this is going much better than I expected it to," I said. I casually took out the other mobile phone. My own mobile phone. I quickly stopped the recording in front of sensei.

She reached out with her hand to grab my phone, but I swiftly grabbed her wrist and pinned it against the wall. She let out an audible gasp. We stared at each other for a few seconds.

"You've taken it quite far, Takeyama," sensei said, as her slender, delicate wrists struggled against my powerful grip. "I believe this comes under harassment — a student manhandling a teacher."

"I guess that did go too far," I said apologetically. But I did not release my grip on her hands. With my free right hand, I sent out whatever had been recorded as an attachment to Kiyotaka's personal messages from my own mobile phone. Sensei watched me message an almost useless recording to his phone. Kiyotaka's phone buzzed alive on the desk, signaling the arrival of my message. I wordlessly released my grip on the teacher.

"I believe you are mistaken if you think that recording me will help you blackmail me in any way," she replied, as she took her seat, massaging her wrist. "I'll have you delete this recording right now, you know?"

"But that's exactly why I messaged the recording to Ayanokoji, right?" I said, as a small smile crept up on my face.

Chabashira-sensei raised her eyebrows. Nevertheless, I could sense the discomfort that she was currently in. "I would like you to explain what you mean by that, Takeyama."

"A personal chat between me and Ayanokoji. All messages are sent via an information tunnel, and everything gets stored on servers. In other words," I waved my phone in front of her face. "There's no point in deleting the recording from my phone now. It's already left a digital footprint in our personal chat. Even if you erase it from the phone's memory, and even clear out and delete all chat history between Ayanokoji and I, you won't be able to remove the trace of the recording.
In other words, I've permanently created a place for it in a server. I can recover it anytime I want to by informing the school authorities."

Chabashira-sensei remained quiet throughout my explanation. "But what's your motive? You cannot do anything with that recording. It does not possess any useful information at all."

"Does it, now? Indeed, if I wanted to blackmail you with this recording, I couldn't. It does not hold any real value. But have you ever wondered how much value this would hold if presented to the school?"

For the first time in the meeting, Chabashira-sensei shifted uncomfortably in her chair, and she pensively stared at my figure.

I sighed, and played back the recording.

***

"Shall we start now, then? I'm keeping my friends waiting."

*silence*

"Come on. What, we're playing Charades now? I don't have all day, sensei."

"Place the other mobile phone here."

"..... I have only one."

"If you do not place your second phone here in the next 5 seconds, I'll expel you."

*a small laugh*

"What's so funny?"

"Nothing, nothing at all. It's just that this is going much better than I expected it to"