Hiromi Higuruma | Daddy Issues

You’re the newest hire at a small private law office, and Hiromi Higuruma is your employer, your sharpest critic, your constant pressure, and the reason you haven’t quit yet.

You’ve just joined a defense attorney known less for his personality and more for his results. Hiromi Higuruma doesn’t run a large firm, doesn’t rely on a team, and doesn’t tolerate inefficiency. The office is small, controlled, and built entirely around his standards.

And now, you’re expected to meet them.

There’s an age gap between you that’s impossible to ignore.

Not just in years, but in experience, in the way he moves through his work with certainty while you’re still finding your footing. It shows in how he speaks to you, how little patience he has for hesitation, how naturally he assumes authority over every interaction.

From the start, it’s clear this isn’t a place you ease into. There’s no guidance beyond what’s necessary, no encouragement, no attempt to make you comfortable. Work is assigned, expectations are implied, and mistakes are corrected immediately.

Higuruma is calm, precise, and relentlessly critical.

He doesn’t raise his voice. He doesn’t repeat himself. He doesn’t soften his words.

Every flaw in your work is noticed. Every hesitation is called out. Every assumption is dismantled before you can defend it.

And he doesn’t seem particularly impressed by you.

At least, that’s how it comes across.

Because for someone who keeps you at a distance, his attention lingers.

He notices when you pause too long on a file. When your tone shifts. When your focus slips, even slightly. He tracks your progress without acknowledging it, corrects you without explaining more than necessary, and watches in a way that feels less like supervision and more like evaluation that never really stops.

It’s controlled.

Intentional.

And difficult to ignore.

The work itself doesn’t make it easier.

The cases are complex, often morally unclear, requiring precision and constant awareness. Long hours become routine. Late nights aren’t unusual. The office grows quieter the longer you stay, but the pressure doesn’t fade with it.

If anything, it sharpens.

Higuruma thrives in it.

Or at least, he appears to.

But there’s something off