By the time they reached the faculty office, Hiratsuka Shizuka dropped into her chair, crossed one leg over the other, and looked at the two students standing before her—Tōma Kazusa and Hōjō Yoru—then let out a small sigh.
"Alright. Talk."
"Didn't get my fill," Yoru said, looking genuinely unsatisfied. "If there'd been another ten or twenty people, maybe I would've felt a tiny bit of joy."
"Who asked you that?" Shizuka rolled her eyes, irritated. "I'm asking what actually happened. How did it suddenly turn into a fight?"
Before Yoru could answer, Kazusa spoke first—her tone flat, emotionless.
"It has nothing to do with him. I threw the first punch."
That made Shizuka pause. A flicker of surprise crossed her eyes. She hadn't expected someone as cold and seemingly unfeeling as Kazusa to take the blame entirely onto herself.
"So, Hōjō… you got involved because you were helping Tōma?"
"Mm." Yoru gave a noncommittal sound, then smiled and said bluntly, "Normally, this is where I'd say I couldn't stand watching a classmate get bullied right in front of me, so I stepped in out of justice and righteous indignation."
He paused, then looked Shizuka straight in the eye.
"But I don't want to lie. So here's the truth."
"I thought it would be fun, so I beat them up."
"Ugh. You two are really…" Shizuka pressed a hand to her forehead and sighed.
But she didn't scold either of them. A student had already reported that those three upperclassmen were the ones who had cornered Kazusa first—trying to hit on her—before everything escalated.
With Shizuka's personality, she was obviously going to side with her own students. Especially since these two weren't exactly "ordinary" students in the school's eyes: one was the daughter of Tōma Yoko, a world-class concert pianist who had donated a huge sum to Sōbu High, and Kazusa herself was a prodigy the school treated with kid gloves. The other was the academically excellent freshman representative, explicitly granted special consideration.
Shizuka knew the school wouldn't punish them.
And honestly, she didn't want it to. In her view, her students weren't in the wrong. Those upperclassmen deserved the beating.
But then…
An interesting thought occurred to her.
"You two."
Shizuka stood up, face serious, and led Kazusa and Yoru to the door of an empty clubroom. She opened it and pointed inside—a bare room with only a few chairs.
"Even if you weren't in the wrong, you still fought on campus. So for this morning, you'll stay in there and reflect. You're not allowed to go anywhere except the bathroom. You're staying put until lunch break. Understood?"
Kazusa replied coolly. "Whatever."
Yoru looked at Shizuka.
Shizuka immediately put on that pitiful expression, pressed her palms together, and silently mouthed:
Please Pretty please
"…Fine," Yoru said with a small smile.
He and Kazusa went into the room together. Shizuka closed the door, then flashed him a thumbs-up—like she was entrusting him with a mission.
A few minutes of silence passed.
Then Kazusa finally looked at Yoru and spoke.
"Earlier…"
"Yeah?"
"Why did you help me?"
Yoru shrugged, easygoing as ever.
"Told you. I just did it for the laughs."
Kazusa's gaze was calm—yet coldness seeped out of it without effort. Most people would tense up under the sharp, iceberg aura she carried, but Yoru met it without blinking, still smiling as if chatting casually with a friend.
"So you're saying… if it had been anyone in that situation, you would've stepped in and helped," Kazusa said. She gave a faint, dismissive snort. "I didn't think you were the 'generally good person' type. How boring…"
"What are you muttering about?" Yoru cut her off, ignoring the knife-edged stare and speaking lazily. "If you weren't pretty, even if I did it for fun, I would've waited until you got punched first before jumping in."
Kazusa frowned slightly. After a long moment of thought, she asked in a low voice:
"So you're trying to hit on me too?"
Even Yoru—who was rarely thrown—paused for a beat at how direct that was. Then he laughed.
"Whether I am or not—put that aside. First, the word 'hit on' is outdated. Nobody says it anymore."
"Is that so?" Kazusa nodded without committing, like she was searching for the right way to continue this conversation. In the end, she simply said, flat as ever:
"My name is Tōma Kazusa."
"I know."
"That's not what I mean."
Yoru knew exactly what she meant—he just wanted her to say it herself. Sure enough, after hesitating for a while, Kazusa finally forced the words out.
"…What's your name?"
She hadn't attended the opening ceremony yesterday, so she didn't know the freshman representative's name. And honestly, with her personality, even if she had attended, Yoru suspected she still wouldn't have remembered.
"Hōjō Yoru."
"Hōjō… Yoru…"
Kazusa repeated the name softly, then stared straight into his eyes, nodded once, and said each word clearly:
"Okay. I'll remember."
Yoru looked at her with mixed feelings and said bluntly,
"I can't even be bothered to roast you. We're literally just introducing ourselves, but your aura and the way you talk make it feel like you're about to write my name into a Death Note and 'send me off' with a smile. A setup that should feel like a youth rom-com somehow turns into a crime scene when you touch it."
"…Oh."
Kazusa answered quietly and turned to the window.
Early-spring sunlight poured across her eyes. A breeze slipped through the gap in the frame and lightly stirred her black hair. It should've been a beautiful scene—
but her expression and her voice carried a faint sadness.
"I'm grateful you helped me," she said. "But it's best if you don't get ideas about being friends with me… or dating me."
"Someone like me only brings pain to the people around me."
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 90)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 95)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League (Chapter 80)
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter70)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter70)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter50)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter60)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 30
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 30
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