Kushida instinctively shook her head.
Bai Lan: "You don't know anything!"
"Let me tell you just how hard Horikita works!"
"Horikita works too hard! She exercises for three hours a day, studies for fifteen hours, and still makes sure to get eight hours of high-quality sleep every day..."
"Wait!" Kushida hurriedly interrupted, sensing something was wrong. "Three plus fifteen is eighteen, and eighteen plus eight is twenty-six... Aren't there only twenty-four hours in a day?"
"Besides, does Horikita do nothing but study, exercise, and sleep every day? Even if she doesn't need entertainment, surely she still has to eat, bathe, use the bathroom, and travel from place to place?"
"See! This is the difference between you and Horikita!" Bai Lan looked like he was furious at her for failing to live up to expectations. "Can't you eat, bathe, and travel while studying and exercising?"
The moment Bai Lan said this, Kushida was completely dumbfounded.
Taking advantage of her stiffened state, Bai Lan launched a combo:
"Does eating affect your ability to memorize texts?"
"Does bathing delay your stretching?"
"Can't you practice running and high knees while traveling..."
"Um, girls' uniforms have skirts. Wouldn't doing high knees expose everything?" Kushida finally found a chance to interrupt the combo.
"Oh, in my country, both boys' and girls' uniforms have sports pants on the bottom. I'm used to it... Then forget the high knees."
"But that still adds up to twenty-six hours... Oh, I get it. You study or exercise while sleeping, right?"
"You got it! See, under my guidance, you've already come to understand Horikita better, haven't you?"
"But even if she works that hard, what does that have to do with you making me learn that whatever skill for verbally attacking people?"
"Tsk~ I just praised you! It's precisely because she works too hard, to the point that she's under enormous mental pressure!
"She relies entirely on verbally attacking and hitting people to release that mental pressure!
"You don't have to learn how to verbally attack people. How about learning how to hit people instead?
"An old master once said: if you want to hit people, you have to get hit first..."
"Then I'll stick with learning how to verbally attack people."
Kushida made her choice.
As she finished speaking, Kushida lowered her head, looking as though she had been forced to submit for the sake of becoming friends with Horikita.
This took Bai Lan somewhat by surprise.
He had thought Kushida might be a somewhat scheming girl, and that persuading her might take a little effort.
Instead, before he had even gotten his mouth moving, she had already surrendered?
No, seriously, is this girl really that easy to fool?
Could he have misunderstood? Maybe she was only a little clever, but not very clever at all?
After all, she was from Class D, whose overall rating was relatively low.
Kushida was beautiful, sociable, and, judging by her performance in class, her grades seemed fairly good as well.
According to the principle of "balance," she should have some kind of flaw. Otherwise, she should never have been assigned to Class D.
In that case, it wasn't hard to understand why Class D's little angel was a fool who blindly trusted others and was easily persuaded.
With her personality, once she entered society, wouldn't she be swindled into marrying eight times over the course of ten years?
Thinking this, Bai Lan shook his head and unexpectedly felt a trace of pity.
Still, Bai Lan wasn't going to let her off just because she was a fool.
On the contrary, he planned to turn up the pressure!
Twenty-six. Repeat after me: ba~ka!
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Bai Lan planned to turn up the pressure.
He would use this opportunity to make her realize her own problems and teach her a lesson!
Surely, after being fooled by him once, she would be more cautious in the future and stop believing whatever other people told her so easily, right?
However, Bai Lan didn't know that the instant Kushida lowered her head, her expression changed.
Her originally bright, sunny little face, resembling an angel's, could no longer maintain its façade. It instantly turned gloomy, ferocious, twisted, and distorted. She gritted her teeth, glaring furiously.
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"Make me learn how to verbally attack people? Does he know something? Has Horikita already told him something? Is he implying that he knows about my past?" Kushida thought.
The possibility that Bai Lan knew something she didn't want others to know threw Kushida into a panic.
"Stay calm! I'm not sure whether he really knows. Maybe he genuinely intends to teach me how to verbally attack people, rather than hinting at something.
"If I question him directly, I might make him think of something instead. I could end up exposing myself!
"Besides, if he does know, how much does he know?
"I'll test him."
To test Bai Lan, Kushida decided to endure the humiliation and learn how to verbally attack people from him.
During the process, she planned to use her natural charm to draw closer to him, gain his trust, lower his guard, and carefully fish for the information she wanted.
This was Kushida's specialty. Using this trick, she had made many friends who were close enough to share their private matters with her.
She had consequently learned other people's secrets, many of which were the sort that couldn't see the light of day.
Although, much of the time, she hadn't wanted to know those things at all. It was because of their trust in Kushida and their desire to vent that people had taken the initiative to pull her aside and tell her. Even when she didn't want to listen, she had no choice.
To maintain the "Kushida Empire," Kushida could only patiently accept their confidences.
The so-called "Kushida Empire" wasn't anything evil.
It was simply a circle of friends centered around Kushida Kikyo, where everyone was Kushida Kikyo's good friend.
Kushida Kikyo merely wanted to be a school idol loved by everyone. For that, she had also put in a great deal of effort, spending enormous amounts of time and energy helping others and responding to their expectations in order to earn their favor.
Most of the things Kushida heard were negative and depressing.
For a time, this made Kushida feel that she had practically become an "emotional trash can."
Moreover, this "emotional trash can" wasn't merely filthy and chaotic. It was also filled with all kinds of unspeakable things, making it an extremely dangerous existence.
If any leak appeared in this "emotional garbage dump," the evil within would gush out. The world she had worked so hard to build around herself—the world known as the "Kushida Empire"—would be destroyed in an instant!
In fact, her world had already been destroyed once!
Kushida had always hated this "side effect" brought about by her ability to make people feel comfortable.
After all, that side effect had once brought her such a disaster, nearly destroying everything she had.
Kushida had accepted Advanced Nurturing High School's invitation to enroll and traveled all the way to this distant place to study largely because she wanted to get away from that world—a world that had already been destroyed and where she could no longer continue living.
If the "Kushida Empire" had still existed, she never would have abandoned the fruits of her hard work and come here to study.
She had arrived at Advanced Nurturing High School full of anticipation.
She thought that since it was so far from home, nobody here should know her. She could start a new life and rebuild her "Kushida Empire."
As it turned out, she had been wrong.
On the first day of school...
"Why is Horikita Suzune here?!"
Horikita had once been Kushida's classmate at the same middle school. Because of her extraordinary beauty and academic ability, as well as her outstanding personality, Horikita had been famous in middle school too.
Kushida easily recognized Horikita Suzune.
In other words, Horikita very likely knew about her dark past!
Once Horikita exposed her dark past, it wouldn't merely be a matter of being unable to rebuild a new "Kushida Empire." She might even find it difficult to remain at this school...
Although Horikita usually looked like someone who "heard nothing of what happened outside and devoted herself entirely to studying the sages' teachings."
When she saw Kushida, she also seemed not to recognize her at all. But what if she did?
To protect her world.
For that reason, Kushida planned to take the initiative and use her "side effect" to test Horikita, finding out whether Horikita knew about her past.
If necessary, she intended to obtain some kind of leverage over Horikita that would make her keep quiet...
Ironically, she now had to rely on the very "side effect" that had destroyed her world to protect the "new world" she had just established.
She didn't want to experience that kind of pain a second time!
To protect this "new world," she would find a way to eliminate every threat. For that, she was willing to pay a heavy price.
As it turned out, Horikita simply ignored her.
Kushida couldn't tell whether Horikita ignored her because she didn't want to bother with anyone, or because she knew about Kushida's dark past and looked down on her.
Kushida wanted to continue finding a way to test her.
Since Horikita ignored her, she decided to take an indirect approach.
It was said that Bai Lan got along well with Horikita, and had even flirted with her in public. They also interacted during breaks.
Therefore, Kushida sought out Bai Lan, hoping to enter Horikita's circle of friends through him.
As it turned out, she had barely made contact with him when Kushida was horrified to discover that Bai Lan might know about her dark past!
There was now one more person she needed to test.
Fortunately, Bai seemed to be a good person.
Good people should be easy to fool, right?
At least he talked a lot. He seemed easier to pry information out of than that Horikita, who couldn't be made to utter a single word even with three clubs.
"Want to teach me how to verbally attack people?
"Do you really think you need to teach me something like that?
"You have no idea what I've been through."
Before you continue