Sae Chabashira

It had been a long time since Kageya Shinjitsu had gotten into a fight, and he was incredibly pumped.

"You're not going to hurt Karuizawa, not while I'm here."

With a vicious grin on his face, he kept swinging at the upperclassmen who were still able to move.

"You bastard—!"

The second-year upperclassmen hadn't expected the guy in front of them to be so ruthless.

His punches were frighteningly powerful, too.

And he kept shouting something weird over and over.

They were starting to realize they were in serious trouble.

This was way beyond what they had expected.

A few punches could knock someone unconscious?

"A-Qi, A-Qi, are you okay?"

One of their companions had already passed out, but it wasn't over yet.

The four-way brawl and a girl's shrieks had drawn the attention of others.

It seemed someone had even contacted the school. After all, people had already been shouting for help.

"Qi-Qi..."

Before he could finish, Kageya Shinjitsu punched him, sending his head lolling to one side.

He barely had time to react before three punches came down in rapid succession.

Soon, he was lying on the ground.

"You're a lunatic!"

"You think you're going to get away with this?"

The last man left was scared. He stared at Kageya Shinjitsu, whose body was covered in bruises from their punches.

Even though Kageya had taken plenty of hits, the man was still panicking.

"Don't hurt Karuizawa!"

Kageya Shinjitsu kept shouting as his fists rained down on the man.

The upperclassman realized something was wrong.

You're trying to frame us.

He didn't even get the words out before a fist struck him in the mouth.

The pain made it impossible for him to throw a punch.

A barrage of attacks knocked him to the ground.

The only thought left in his mind was that they were in for it now.

And then there was Kageya Shinjitsu, yelling "Don't hurt her!" with every other breath, even though he looked so excited—happier than they were—and fought more viciously than anyone. A few punches were all it took to knock someone out. Was he really a high school student?

Is he trying to become the strongest high schooler in history?

What kind of monster was this? No one could answer the upperclassman's final question.

He'd taken on three people at once, without a weapon.

And they were in a cramped little courtyard.

Even Kageya Shinjitsu had taken quite a few hits.

And those injuries were all evidence.

Kageya Shinjitsu looked down at the fallen upperclassmen with a smile, thoroughly satisfied.

He was pleased that the upperclassmen would be in trouble, and then there was what the school would do next. Heh.

The fight was over.

The beautiful girl was still shaken.

"Are you okay?"

But when she saw the bloodstains on Kageya Shinjitsu's body, Karuizawa Kei still came closer and asked.

She was worried.

It was the first time she'd ever seen a fight like this.

At the same time, it made her admire the stories she'd heard about Kageya Shinjitsu even more.

He wasn't invincible, just an ordinary person.

In their group chats, the tales about Kageya Shinjitsu made him sound like a god descended from heaven, tearing through delinquents without breaking a sweat.

Even the school's troublemakers talked about Kageya as if he were a god.

That had given a lot of people the wrong impression.

"Cough, cough..."

Kageya Shinjitsu didn't answer. He'd remembered there was someone else here.

After coughing a few times, he grabbed Karuizawa Kei.

He smeared blood onto her, not giving her delicate skin a second thought.

On top of that, he had the upperclassmen's hands leave marks on her arms, making it look like they'd attacked her earlier.

"Are you okay?"

At first, Karuizawa Kei had been worried, but now she understood what was going on.

She didn't like the bloodstains, but she put up with them and asked after him with genuine concern.

Even though she felt a little like he was using her, she wasn't upset at all. On the contrary, she hoped she could get closer to Kageya Shinjitsu.

Being with him makes me feel safe.

Chapter Forty-Two: Chabashira Sae

He'd meant to stop the recording and say something.

But when he heard someone coming, Kageya Shinjitsu immediately collapsed to the ground.

"Ah, I think I've got a broken bone."

"Don't worry about me. Contact the school. Don't move me; just wait for the doctor."

He spoke on his own, putting on a helpless act.

Seeing how worried Karuizawa Kei looked, he even winked at her.

The school staff arrived quickly, after several upperclassmen had collapsed and lost consciousness. The voices they'd heard earlier had indeed been theirs.

Even though they'd deliberately left some places without surveillance cameras, people were still assigned to keep the area safe at all times.

"What happened here?"

"Get the school doctor!"

"Are you all right?"

The school hadn't expected something like this to happen.

At first, only a few security guards had arrived, but later the school leaders and teachers showed up, along with medical staff.

They took everyone away.

Karuizawa Kei, who hadn't been hurt, was taken away with the others.

She didn't know what to say about what had happened that day. She could only keep crying before handing over Kageya Shinjitsu's phone.

As for the upperclassmen, someone naturally went to deal with them.

"You really did it this time..."

Chabashira-sensei had rushed to the infirmary as soon as she got the news late that night.

She saw Kageya Shinjitsu lying in bed with bandages already wrapped around him.

Karuizawa Kei was sitting nearby, along with people from the school and the Student Council.

"Chabashira-sensei is here."

One of the school staff greeted her when they saw her arrive.

"What's going on?"

Chabashira-sensei nodded.

She looked toward the school staff and the Student Council.

Horikita Manabu glanced at Chabashira-sensei and took out the notes the Student Council had made.

"Here's what happened."

"We have evidence that some second-year students had a grudge against your students, so they ambushed Kageya in the place where he usually exercised. Karuizawa happened to get caught up in it today."

"A grudge? What grudge?"

Chabashira-sensei asked in surprise.

"Kageya went to the second-year classes before and offended them. He also reported some second-year students, and he went and called the students in Class 2-D defective."

"The three second-year students involved this time were representing those people."

"The problem now is that their statements don't quite match. The second-year students claim they wanted revenge on Kageya, but the recording Kageya and Karuizawa provided shows they were going to attack Karuizawa, too."

Horikita Manabu spoke directly.

The school had already figured out just about everything in the time since the incident.

They even knew exactly what Kageya Shinjitsu had said when he insulted the students in Class 2-D.

Horikita Manabu was at a loss, too. He finally understood what Kageya Shinjitsu had meant back then.

You think you have any right to make someone else apologize?

"The second years, huh." Defective?

Chabashira-sensei stared intently at Kageya Shinjitsu, as if trying to figure him out.

"What about those people?"

"They've regained consciousness and are in other rooms."

Horikita Manabu answered.

This situation was a real headache.

If it wasn't handled properly, it wouldn't be surprising if several people were expelled.

One of them was even from Class 2-A, and now even Miyabi Nagumo was cursing and calling people over.

"You sure know how to cause trouble, underclassman."

After saying that, he looked at Kageya Shinjitsu, who hadn't said a word.

It was as if he were asking, Don't you have anything to say?

"Don't pin this on me. I'm the one who got bullied. Uh—and Karuizawa was there, too. She was really scared today."

His body was practically wrapped up like a mummy. Several wounds had reopened and started bleeding again, and he could feel the pain even lying still. He had no energy to deal with them, so he simply waited for the outcome and gave them that one response.

"..." Chabashira-sensei didn't know what to say when she saw this.

"Um, you've asked everything you need to, right? When can I get some rest?"

"Then get some rest, Kageya. We'll look into this and give everyone an explanation."

The school staff didn't stay long.