Ryuen Kakeru walked to Lounge Area.
On the bench under the tree.
The man is sitting there.
Kazehara Tetsu.
He had his legs crossed, holding a magazine in his hand that he picked up from nowhere, and even bought a can of coffee to keep at hand.
He didn't look like he had just been through a One Versus Three fight.
When there were many girls from Class A or other classes passing by, they couldn't help but glance at him secretly and whisper.
Ryuen Kakeru stopped.
He stood a few meters away from the bench, took a deep breath, and adjusted his breathing.
Then, he stepped over.
There was no shouting, no sprinting, and no picking up nearby bricks and throwing them at them.
He is like an ordinary passerby or an old friend who has been known for a long time.
Walked straight to the bench.
Kazehara Tetsu did not raise his head, his eyes still stayed on the page of the magazine about winter fashion, as if the person standing next to him was not an enemy, but an old friend.
Ryuen Kakeru didn't speak either.
He sat down next to Kazehara Tetsu.
"Hiss..."
The action of sitting down pulled on the wound, causing him to take a breath of cold air.
He leaned back, resting his entire body weight on the back of the chair, looking up at the ceiling of the mall, with his legs spread out in a completely awkward posture.
The two sat side by side.
There was an unopened can of coffee in the middle.
The surrounding crowd was still noisy, but in this corner, a strange vacuum zone was formed.
"... I thought you would run away and lick your wounds."
After a long time, Kazehara Tetsu turned over a page, and the sound of the paper rubbing against each other was clearly audible.
Without raising his head, he spoke calmly.
"Hmph... don't confuse me with the kind of weakling who will cry to his mother whenever he gets beaten."
He tilted his head back, resting the back of his head on the hard back of the chair, staring at the top of the mall.
"What?"
Kazehara Tetsu still didn't raise his head, and there was a bit of casual ridicule in his tone, as if the person sitting next to him was not an enemy he had just beaten half to death, but an old friend who was complaining about the trivial matters in life.
"Do you want to come again? It seems that the 'lesson' just in the toilet was not profound enough for your overly tenacious body."
"If that's the case, I don't mind doing 'tutoring'."
"Stop talking such nonsense." Ryuen Kakeru curled his lips.
"Didn't you ask me to come here? You said, 'If you want to, go to Resting Area outside'..."
"Although I am really unhappy... whether it's about losing to you or about the embarrassment I'm in now."
"But... if there is a chance, I would rather use some 'special means' to completely defeat you than fighting with me."
"Special means?"
Kazehara Tetsu finally closed the fashion magazine in his hand and put it on his lap.
He turned sideways and looked at the man next to him with interest, who would not forget to say harsh words even if he was beaten into a pig's head.
"What? Are you afraid of being beaten, so do you plan to learn to be 'civilized'?"
"Still..."
Kazehara Tetsu's mouth curved into a sarcastic arc.
"Are you going to run to Student Council or the teacher like a wronged elementary school student and cry out that you were beaten by a bad student? Are you going to use this 'accusation' method to make me Expulsion?"
"Ha..."
Upon hearing this guess, Ryuen Kakeru laughed as if he had heard some big joke.
"Stop joking."
"If I win you by complaining to the teacher, that would be too bad."
"Besides... that approach will most likely be meaningless. The school only values results and evidence."
"Oh?"
"There is no evidence that it was you who did it."
"It's a blind spot. The toilet is an absolutely private area without any monitoring equipment."
"Even if Ishizaki and I are in such a miserable state now, as long as you insist that you never did it, or that it was caused by us fighting each other... without third-party witnesses, the school will not be able to convict you at all."
"After all, you are in grade Top Student, and we are notorious delinquents. In the subconscious mind of the teachers, it is self-evident whose words carry more weight."
This is the sobering point of Ryuen Kakeru.
Although he is arrogant, he is not stupid.
He knows the rules of This School very well, and he also knows his position within the rules.
"Evidence..."
"Although there is no monitoring, if the school is willing to intervene, there are still many ways."
"For example... you can ask them to check the fingerprints?"
"Whether it's on your clothes, your neck, or wherever we have been in contact... there should be a lot of fingerprints left, right?"
"Stop pretending, Kagihara."
Ryuen Kakeru interrupted him almost immediately, with a hint of see-through impatience in his tone.
"You definitely know this, even better than me."
"In order to be better able to commit violence, to ensure that I beat people into the hospital without being discovered... I have specifically checked the information about Fingerprint Identification before."
When it comes to this aspect, Ryuen Kakeru shows a quality that can even be called "professional".
"The main residual substances of fingerprints are oil and sweat secreted by the human body."
"In the fierce fight just now, you basically attacked with your fists and knees. Although those contact surfaces are large, it is difficult to leave fingerprints. And the only time you used the skin of your palms to directly contact my body for a long time and exerted enough pressure..."
Ryuen Kakeru subconsciously touched his neck, which was still aching.
"Only the minute you grabbed my neck and lifted me up."
"But..."
His eyes fell on Kazehara Tetsu's palm resting on his knee.
"Human skin is constantly metabolizing. Even if you do nothing, it will continue to produce new oil and sweat, plus the shedding of epidermal debris. Generally speaking, after an hour, the fingerprints remaining on the skin will become blurred due to this metabolism."
"Not to mention that I am now covered in cold sweat. The sweat has already almost destroyed the marks on my neck."
Having said this, Ryuen Kakeru paused.
"And... I just realized it now."
"When we were still in the cubicle... your seemingly childish behavior."
He recalled the jet of water shooting out from the crack in the door.
That was not a simple prank.
"The reason why you spilled that bottle of water on my neck and chest, and even wet my collar on purpose..."
"It wasn't just to mock me or piss me off."
"Are you using water to dilute the oil and sweat there?"
Ryuen Kakeru's voice became deeper and deeper, with a chill that was terrifying to think about.
"The water flow can not only wash away the traces on the surface, but during the subsequent grasping process, moisture acts as a medium and will destroy the formation of fingerprints."
"So, even if I run for identification now... I will never be able to extract complete fingerprints from my neck that can be used as evidence."
This is an extremely perfect closed loop.
From the moment he sprinkled the water, even before taking action, this man had already calculated all the steps to "destroy the evidence" afterwards.
The so-called provocation is just a cover to cover up its true intentions.