Devil's Contract and Palm Brand

The news of the Special Exam hung over every Class D student like the Sword of Damocles. In this oppressive atmosphere, Feng Qi Ran noticed that Kushida Kikyo seemed to be struggling more than ever to maintain her "angel" mask; her smile remained flawless, but the exhaustion and irritability in her eyes were nearly impossible to conceal.

The opportunity came one evening. Feng Qi was delayed by some temporary Student Council matters (he had used points and connections to open a few doors, allowing him access to some non-core information), and on his way back to the dorm, he happened to pass by the nearly abandoned small garden behind the Old School Building. Overgrown with weeds and dimly lit, it was one of the few Surveillance Blind Spots on campus.

Just as he was about to hurry through, a stifled, beast-like sob made him stop in his tracks. The sound came from behind a dense Rose Wall. Feng Qi approached silently, and through the gaps in the leaves and branches, he saw a familiar figure.

Kushida Kikyo had her back to him, her shoulders trembling violently. She was no longer the eternally sunny and cute Maiden, but a trapped, venomous Beast.

"...I'm sick of it... I'm really sick of it! Why do I have to smile at those losers! Why do I have to remember their disgusting preferences!" Her voice was hoarse, filled with a bone-deep hatred that was a world apart from her usual sweetness. She tore violently at the Rose Vines beside her, the thorns cutting into her palm and drawing blood, yet she seemed to feel no pain. "Hirata... Horikita... and that arrogant Feng Qi... you all deserve to die! Just wait... once I climb to the top, I'll trample every single one of you under my feet!"

She spun around abruptly, her twisted expression grotesque in the dim light. And at that very moment, her gaze met Feng Qi's calm, unruffled eyes from beyond the Rose Wall.

Time seemed to freeze.

The venom and madness on Kushida Kikyo's face instantly solidified, then shattered like fragile glass, replaced by boundless terror and disbelief. Her pupils dilated to their limit, her face pale as paper, her lips trembling but unable to form a sound.

Feng Qi said nothing, merely watching her quietly, his gaze like that of someone examining an interesting specimen.

"No... it's not... Feng Qi... let me explain..." Kushida stammered, frantically trying to cover up, to put her angel mask back on, but extreme fear had frozen the muscles in her face, and the smile she forced out was uglier than a cry.

Feng Qi slowly walked out from behind the Rose Wall, step by step closing in on her. His pace was steady, carrying an invisible pressure. Kushida instinctively backed away until her back hit the cold, rough wall, with nowhere left to retreat.

"Explain?" Feng Qi finally spoke, his voice low, unreadable. "Explain how you meticulously maintain this false mask? Or explain how you scheme in your heart to trample everyone under your feet?"

"I... I didn't..." Kushida denied futilely, tears spilling from her eyes out of fear, mixing with the blood seeping from her palm.

Feng Qi stopped in front of her, his gaze falling on her bleeding hand, then lifting to meet her terror-filled eyes. "Kushida Kikyo, you disguise yourself well. Unfortunately, a Devil always can't help but show its tail."

He raised his own Right Hand, leisurely examining his palm as if admiring a work of art. "You know, if I were to tell everyone what I saw and heard today, everything you've painstakingly built would collapse in an instant. You'd become a monster everyone avoids, even more isolated than Horikita Suzune."

Kushida's body began to tremble violently. She could already see that terrifying scene, a future she feared more than death itself. "Please... Feng Qi... no... I can't..." She suddenly reached out, not to wipe her tears, but as if grasping at her last lifeline, she seized Feng Qi's raised Right Hand by the wrist.

Her grip was astonishingly strong, her nails nearly digging into his skin. Then, under Feng Qi's slightly probing gaze, she made an extremely bold, almost insane move—

She grabbed his hand and forcefully, fiercely pressed it against her own left chest!

Through the thin fabric of her summer uniform, he could clearly feel the frantic, drum-like pounding of her heart beneath, as well as the soft, vibrant sensation of life.

"Can you feel it?!" Kushida looked up, tears mixed with a near-maniacal resolve rolling from her eyes. "My weakness... my lifeline... it's right here! Now, it's in your hands! If you squeeze, if you tell, it's broken! Completely broken!"

This wasn't seduction; it was an extreme and twisted form of threat and surrender. In this way, she handed over her "heart," her most deadly secret, bare and exposed into Feng Qi's hands, while also warning him—if you speak, you destroy me completely, and no one knows what a cornered madwoman might do.

Feng Qi's palm could clearly feel her wildly beating heart, as if he held all her disguises, all her darkness, all her fragility. He looked down at Kushida's face, a mess of tears, blood, and despair, and a faint, abyss-like glint flickered in his eyes.

He didn't pull his hand back. Instead, he slightly curled his fingers, feeling that tremor even more distinctly.

"A very interesting... collateral." His voice was low and magnetic, carrying a devilish allure. "It seems you're more valuable than I thought, and also... more dangerous, Kushida Kikyo."

He leaned down, close to her ear, and whispered in a voice only the two of them could hear: "I'll keep your secret for you. But from now on, when you can't put on that nauseating mask, when you need to release the Beast inside you, come find me in Dorm 129. Let your darkness bloom for me alone. This is our... Contract."

With that, he slowly withdrew his hand, as if the heart-stopping contact had never happened. He glanced at Kushida, still slumped against the wall, her eyes hollow, as if all her strength had been drained away, then turned and left the dim garden.

Walking back to the dorm, Feng Qi raised the hand that had just pressed against Kushida's chest; the tips of his fingers seemed to still retain the sensation of that violent heartbeat and a faint trace of blood. A cold arc curled at the corner of his mouth.

Control sometimes doesn't require violence, only the grip on someone's most fragile nerve. Kushida Kikyo, the social center of Class D and even the entire grade—from this moment on, both her light and her darkness would serve him.

And Dorm 129 would become the unique Cage to contain all her ugliness and truth.