An Unexpected Turn / [Headpat Kill]

Thus, after changing into the girls' school uniform, Ishiu calmly pushed open the door and walked out.

There was no mirror in the storage room, so Ishiu had no idea what he looked like right now. But seeing Kiana's stunned expression, he knew he probably looked pretty good.

"Y-you really are Ishiu?"

Kiana stammered slightly. Looking at the "beautiful girl" before her, she suddenly felt her heartbeat skip half a beat.

"Of course I am. Who else would I be? Do you have a mirror?" Ishiu curled his lip.

"Yes..." Kiana subconsciously pulled a small mirror from her clothes and handed it to Ishiu.

Ishiu took the mirror and looked himself over. Well... how should he put it? He knew he was good-looking, but he really had not expected women's clothes to suit him so well.

In the mirror, he wore the standard uniform, with the skirt reaching his knees. Fortunately, he did not have much leg hair, or this would have been rather awkward.

Though his hair was short, he was still young, and his features had not fully matured. His originally delicate face looked completely natural in the girls' uniform. He did not even need makeup—if he walked outside like this, no one would likely see through his true gender.

"Not bad. No problem. Let's go." Ishiu nodded in satisfaction. As expected of himself—even in women's clothes, he was still every bit as manly.

He casually tossed the mirror back to Kiana, but she did not react. She merely stared at him without blinking.

"Hey? Why are you staring at me?" Ishiu asked, puzzled.

"Ishiu, can you wear women's clothes forever from now on?" Kiana swallowed and spoke to Ishiu in the most serious, earnest tone she had ever used in her life.

"Go screw yourself." Ishiu's mouth twitched. He had only worn women's clothes because he had no choice; he did not have that kind of strange hobby. Once was more than enough, yet this idiot wanted him to keep wearing them? No way!

"Come on, you look so incredibly pretty in women's clothes! It'd be such a waste if you changed back."

"Are you coming or not? If not, I'm going by myself." Ishiu could not be bothered to waste any more words on her. He turned around and climbed out through the window.

Seeing how determined Ishiu was, Kiana could only let out a long sigh. Then... she pulled out her phone and took a hundred rapid-fire photos of him.

After all, she might never get to see this adorable "girl" again. She had to save some pictures as souvenirs.

Of course, she took them secretly. No matter how dumb she was, she knew that if Ishiu found out, she would never get to keep them.

The two returned to the shadowy spot from before. After waiting patiently for several minutes, the dismissal bell finally rang.

"Come on, lead the way." As students carrying schoolbags began filing out of the Teaching Building, preparing to go home or attend club activities, Ishiu and Kiana seized the chance to slip into the building with the crowd.

It was dismissal time, and quite a few JK girls filled the corridors of the Teaching Building. Ishiu inexplicably felt as though he had entered a kingdom of women.

So this is a girls' school? I love it.

But Kiana was not very reliable. She could only vaguely sense the general direction of the Honkai Energy, not pinpoint its exact location. They searched from the first floor to the fifth without finding its precise source.

"Kiana, can you even do this?" After the two had searched the entire Teaching Building for the third time, Ishiu had been worn down to the point of losing his temper and could not help complaining.

"Don't rush me. Girls can't say they can't do it. I guess there are too many people right now, interfering with my senses. Once there are fewer people, I should be able to find it." Kiana sounded somewhat uncertain. This was her first time searching for a Honkai Source in a school, and she had no experience. If she messed up, Ishiu would definitely laugh at her.

"Fine. Then I'll see how long it takes you to find it." Ishiu immediately lost interest. He plopped down on the railing at the edge of the fifth floor and casually looked toward the playground below.

Whoa... so many girls, so many athletic shorts...

But he had forgotten that he was wearing a skirt. With the way he was sitting, from where Kiana stood, all she had to do was look up to see beneath it.

"Ishiu!"

The white-haired little bundle immediately blushed furiously. She rushed over, pressed down Ishiu's skirt as it fluttered in the wind, and gritted her teeth. "Y-you... why are you wearing boxer briefs?!"

"Obviously, what else would a man wear?" Ishiu snapped. What was wrong with her? If he did not wear boxer briefs, was he supposed to wear lace panties? That would be way too horrifying.

"But do you know that wearing boxer briefs under a skirt is an insult to the skirt itself?!" Kiana cried indignantly. "Do you know how devastating it is when people have infinite expectations for what's under a skirt, only to find an utterly ordinary pair of boxer briefs?"

"?" Ishiu looked at Kiana as if she were an alien. "Kiana, there's something wrong with you. Why can a girl like you say something like that without any self-awareness? And aren't you wearing safety shorts under your skirt too?"

"You! You saw?!" Kiana's face instantly reddened, and she hurriedly stepped back a few paces while holding down her skirt.

Ishiu waved dismissively, looking uninterested. "I saw them ages ago. Don't worry, I'm not interested in your safety shorts."

"Damn it..." Kiana ground her teeth in frustration, but seeing how adorable Ishiu looked right now, she could not bring herself to hit him.

"You... huh?!" Kiana opened her mouth, wanting to say more, but her expression suddenly changed. "Oh no! The Honkai Energy response is rapidly increasing! I found it!"

"Then what are we waiting for? Move!" Ishiu immediately jumped down from the railing.

Kiana did not waste any words either and sprinted downstairs.

Both of them were fast. In less than ten seconds, they had reached the restroom on the east side of the third floor.

"It's here," Kiana said.

"Uh..." Ishiu fell silent when he saw the conspicuous skirt symbol on the restroom door.

The girls' restroom... if he went in, would that not make him a pervert?

But the situation clearly gave Ishiu no time to think. The next second, several terrified girls screamed from inside the restroom.

"Damn! Something happened!" Kiana did not have as many reservations as Ishiu. She shoved the door open and rushed inside.

Seeing that, Ishiu had no choice but to steel himself and follow her in.

This was the first time he had entered a girls' restroom in both his lives.

There were four girls in the restroom. Two had collapsed to the floor with weak legs. Another was being held up by the neck by a fourth girl. The short-haired girl who was doing the choking was filthy, with several obvious footprints on her clothes. Her chest seemed to have been violently tugged open, exposing a large expanse of pale skin.

But even more striking were her gradually reddening eyes, along with the red, vein-like markings emerging on her cheeks and arms.

"Stop!" Kiana immediately gave a heroic shout and charged at the girl.

When the girl saw Kiana rushing toward her, panic first appeared on her face, but it vanished in an instant, replaced by even more obvious madness.

"Don't come any closer! Come any closer and I'll strangle her to death!"

She shouted the standard line of every villain, red light flickering in her eyes as she held the girl in her grasp before herself as a shield.

Kiana fell for it exactly as expected. She hurriedly stopped her charge and, because she braked too suddenly, nearly slipped and fell face-first onto the floor. Fortunately, Ishiu grabbed her in time.

"She's been infected by Honkai Energy." Kiana looked at the short-haired girl and quietly explained to Ishiu. "Looks like the Honkai reaction is coming from her."

Ishiu frowned. He knew that some girls infected by the Honkai would turn into mindless Zombies that only knew how to kill, but he had never seen one himself. Besides, this girl did not seem completely irrational.

Ishiu told Kiana about his doubts, and Kiana explained,

"She hasn't been fully infected by Honkai Energy yet, so she's retained some awareness. But that won't help. After a while, she'll completely turn into a Zombie."

Kiana pursed her lips and reached beneath her skirt. When her hand emerged again, she was holding a gun.

She pointed the barrel at the short-haired girl, her voice impassioned. "Let her go! Or I'll blow your head off!"

Ishiu nearly dropped to his knees before Kiana.

What the hell, are you Russian? When dealing with a criminal holding a hostage, are you supposed to kill the hostage first so the criminal can surrender?

Hearing Kiana's words, the short-haired girl became even more agitated. She squeezed the girl's neck harder, her mournful, furious voice echoing through the restroom.

"Why are you stopping me?! I only want revenge! Do you know what they did to me? Why weren't you here when they were bullying me?!!!"

Ishiu pursed his lips. Even without the short-haired girl explaining, he could understand the scene before him.

Without a doubt, this was a case of pure school bullying.

It happened in every school. It was nothing unusual. Some of it was cold violence, while some, like this, was direct abuse.

Ishiu had encountered such things while he was studying in his previous life. It had even happened to a classmate of his, so the memory had left a deep impression on him.

He would never forget the sight of that person suddenly breaking down and crying in class before finally jumping from the third floor.

Though she had not died, and those who had bullied her were punished, the harm they had caused could never be repaired in a lifetime.

Kiana did not say anything either. She did not know what had happened here, but seeing the girl's expression twisted almost beyond recognition by pain, and the Honkai Energy markings growing increasingly clear across her body, she knew they could not delay any longer.

"Ishiu, take these two girls outside first. Leave the rest to me."

"...No. You take them outside," Ishiu said in a low voice.

"Ishiu?" Kiana frowned, looking at him in confusion. But Ishiu did not look at her. Instead, he turned his gaze toward the short-haired girl.

"Um... what's your name?" Ishiu stepped forward a few paces and looked calmly at the short-haired girl.

He could easily save the girl being choked, and he could instantly kill the girl corrupted by the Honkai, but he did not choose to do either.

Because she had already suffered so much. Why did the world have to be so cruel to her?

"Who... are you?" The short-haired girl watched Ishiu warily. Her once fairly innocent and cute face had now been ruined by a twisted expression.

"My name is Ishiu. Don't worry, I'm not your enemy," Ishiu said calmly.

"Save... save me..." The girl being choked seemed to still be conscious. She looked at Ishiu with difficulty, her voice unclear, hoping he would save her.

Yet Ishiu did not even glance at her. He continued looking at the short-haired girl with calm, gentle eyes.

Perhaps Ishiu's attitude moved her, or perhaps she desperately wanted someone to talk to right now. After hesitating slightly, she gave her name.

"My name is... Asakura Miyuki." The short-haired girl licked her somewhat pale lips. She did not know why she had become like this, but she knew she was in pain now. Her entire body hurt, and a voice in the depths of her mind told her that if she snapped the neck of the person in her hands, the pain would stop.

Looking at this person who had bullied her for so long, she clearly hated her and wanted to strangle her to death. Yet for some reason, she simply could not bring herself to do it.

Asakura Miyuki's body trembled nonstop. Her expression turned savage one moment and hesitant the next. Various emotions flashed across her face, and Ishiu came to a realization.

Hope the image survives for one day.jpg

"So, Asakura Miyuki, can you tell me why you want revenge?" Ishiu asked in a low voice. Though he had already guessed what had happened, he still needed Asakura Miyuki to say it herself for it to help ease her heart.

Ishiu was not trying to persuade Asakura Miyuki to be kind or preach that whole "repay evil with kindness" nonsense. Not everyone was a saint. If you had not experienced someone else's pain, what right did you have to tell them to be kind?

Those who advised others to repay evil with kindness should stay far away from them, because people like that would get struck by lightning.

All Ishiu could do now was listen. He could not position himself as a savior, because he had arrived too late.

When someone trapped in despair began to go mad, what they needed was no longer salvation, but someone who could understand her—someone who could stand by her side.

"I... because they're all bad people!" Asakura Miyuki bit down hard on her lips, as if trying to vent all her pain. Bright red blood flowed from where she had bitten them open.

"I never did anything bad. Every day, I obediently listened to my mother and my teachers. My grades weren't very good, but I always worked hard. I never lost my temper at anyone, because I wanted to be friends with them. I even gave them cookies I made myself... But why? Why did they still bully me?"

Her voice shifted from shrill to impassioned, then from impassioned to enraged. In the end, all that remained was a hoarse voice utterly despairing of everything.

"I've already forgotten how I offended them. Maybe it was only some trivial little thing. But after that, they started treating bullying me as entertainment, calling it a joke. At first, I wanted to tell the teacher, but in the end, I didn't, because I was afraid they were really just joking. If I told the teacher, we wouldn't be friends anymore...

"But the truth proved that I was wrong. Maybe my weakness made them get used to it. Gradually, I realized even the other students were looking at me differently. By the time I noticed, there wasn't even anyone around me I could talk to anymore..."

Ishiu pressed his lips tightly together and said nothing. He did not know what he could say at a moment like this to comfort a heart so fragile it could collapse at any time.

He could only listen quietly and do his job as a listener.

At some point, Kiana had also come to stand beside him. Her expression was equally complicated and heavy. The gun in her hand hung weakly at her side, and she realized she could no longer raise it and aim it at this pitiful girl.

There was no doubt that Kiana was kind as well. Fighting the Honkai and saving people were things she had done often over the past few years.

But when those two things conflicted—when the person she wanted to save had been infected by the Honkai—what should she do?

Kiana did not know, so she could only watch.

Asakura Miyuki seemed not to have spoken so much to anyone in a very long time. Or perhaps these words had been buried in her heart for too long, with no one to confide in.

"...Do you know? I used to have beautiful long hair. I lovingly washed it every day and went to the salon once a month. But in the end, I cut it off with my own hands, because it hurt when they pulled my hair. It really hurt..."

"So what are you going to do now?" Ishiu looked at her and said softly. "Do you... want to kill her?"

At Ishiu's words, it was as though some switch had been triggered within Asakura Miyuki. Her entire body began shaking violently, and her expression, which had somewhat calmed, instantly twisted again.

"Kill... kill..."

Her pale, bloodless hand tightly gripped the girl's throat. The red glow in her eyes intensified, and the thick malice rolling off her made Kiana instinctively raise the gun she had lowered.

"What are you doing?" Kiana frowned in confusion at Ishiu, who blocked her gun barrel. "I know she's pitiful. If possible, I don't want to do this either, but she's already been corrupted by the Honkai. In a little while, even her consciousness will be devoured. I can't just stand by and watch her kill someone!"

"Don't rush. Wait a little longer." Ishiu's voice remained calm. He had realized something. In fact, he was already certain Asakura Miyuki would not truly kill that girl.

If she had really intended to do it, she would have acted long ago. She would not have hesitated for so long.

Even corrupted by the Honkai, this girl remained kind at heart.

But sadly, in this world, kind people never received good rewards.