Kyo meandered out of the Academy at the end of the day, about a week and a half after the whole Lunch Incident. (Takahiro and Yuu refused to get anywhere near her now.)

"Hey, kitten," a familiar voice greeted, making her grin before she'd so much as looked up.

"Tou-san!" Kyo exclaimed, leaping at her dad and feeling her heart jump with joy when he caught her without hesitation to bring her in to his chest, despite the fact he looked like he'd come here directly from the gates. "You're back!" she added, happily stating the obvious.

"Figured I might take the opportunity to surprise you," Kou told her with a weary smile, absently patting her back a couple of times as he settled her on his hip. "Everything good?"

"Souma-sensei wanted to talk to you," Kyo confessed, remembering abruptly sensei's words after… the Lunch Incident.

"Oh?" tou-san murmured questioningly, though he'd already started off towards the Academy building. "Any particular reason why?"

Kyo squirmed a little. "Maybe two of the other kids in my class were accidentally poisoned," she muttered, embarrassed.

When she chanced a look at Kou, he gave her a sardonic one in return, but Kyo was fairly sure he also looked rather amused. He patted her back again.

Soon enough, Kou knocked on the door to the staff room, and Kyo couldn't help but feel nervous while they waited for someone to answer.

A man Kyo wasn't familiar with opened the door.

"Souma-sensei in there?" tou-san asked evenly, automatically scanning what he could see of the room.

"That's me," Souma-sensei's voice reached them and a second later, the man himself came into view.

He blinked at the two of them a second, and then motioned at them to follow him.

Not even half an hour after class had been let out for the day, Kyo found herself back in her classroom.

"So," Kou prompted, still with Kyo on his hip. "I hear you want to have a word."

"Does your daughter bring toxic substances to class often?" Souma asked, launching straight into the heart of the matter.

"Every day," tou-san returned without missing a beat. "Has been since the start," he added with a slow blink.

Kyo resisted the urge to try and check if he was alright, or if he was going to get angry with her.

Souma glanced at Kyo for a long second, before he frowned contemplatively. "Well, then I guess I can only request," it was, very clearly, an order, "that she keep a closer eye on any food items she brings and don't leave anything unattended." It was accompanied with a pointed look at Kyo, who couldn't help but grin sheepishly, leaning closer to tou-san.

Kou snorted. "What, some idiot brats ate your lunch?" he asked, clearly amused and perhaps a little bit inappropriately vindictive.

"Possibly," Kyo returned weakly.

"Learned their lesson, then, I hope," he drawled, gazing expectantly at Souma, who gave a disgruntled huff, but inclined his head. "Then I don't see any issue here," tou-san decided, shifting Kyo higher on his hip.

As soon as they were done, tou-san brought them home, and Kyo couldn't help but think that that had been far simpler and less painful than she had imagined.