Perfectly Secured

She looked at the girl, whose face was filled with terror, yet somehow seemed completely convincing.

Hoshinomiya looked disgusted. She raised the girl's chin with one hand, then met her sharp gaze. "Kushida Kikyo, I suggest you stop playing games with me. Tell me, did that guy send you to follow me?"

"Otherwise, don't blame me for turning against you!"

"Hoshinomiya-sensei, what's wrong? Why did you suddenly become like this?"

"What happened? Can someone tell me? Waaaah..."

Seeing that the girl wouldn't give in until she hit a dead end, Hoshinomiya—who had been seething with anger—slapped her without the slightest warning.

"Smack!"

The sharp sound rang out as the slap landed squarely on Kushida's flawless, fair cheek.

Silence. A deathly silence...

The girl, who had just been sobbing, immediately covered her face and began trembling violently.

Thinking that Kushida had finally learned her lesson, Hoshinomiya was just about to speak in a scolding tone.

But in the very next moment, the girl suddenly snatched a sharp-edged stone from the ground and swiftly slashed at Hoshinomiya's face.

Even Hoshinomiya, who had some martial arts training, couldn't dodge the sudden counterattack entirely. Her beautiful cheek was about to be cut.

Panicked, she squeezed her eyes shut and tried to block the strike with her hand.

She had no idea that the sharp stone was aimed right at the major artery in her wrist. If it cut through, the consequences would be unthinkable.

But at that critical moment, Hoshinomiya suddenly froze. Through her narrowed eyes, she saw Kushida forcibly stop her own attack.

Confused, she couldn't help asking, "Tell me, why did you stop? I really want to know."

Kushida, now lost to her other side, looked at her with murderous intent. "Heh. You old hag, you'd have been dead for sure if this were before. But now... consider yourself lucky."

The more Hoshinomiya listened, the stranger it sounded. "What do you mean by that?"

"Tch. You're not worth explaining it to!"

Kushida shoved her away. In her darkened state, she was no weaker physically.

"You!"

Just then, applause suddenly rang through the air around them, rising and falling in volume.

A boy's voice followed, murmuring praise from the darkness. "You've grown quite a bit, Kushida."

Only then did the two of them notice Rinya, who had been standing nearby and taking photos with his phone. Its flash had been blinking as he slowly approached.

"Master!"

Seeing the boy walk over, the girl, who had been feeling deeply wronged, immediately returned to her usual angelic self. Before long, she was leaning against him and sobbing softly.

"There, there. You've been through a lot." As he spoke, Rinya gently smoothed her disheveled hair.

Hoshinomiya stared at them, mouth agape. She had been ready to curse him out in her anger, but when she saw the girl's blissful expression and heard her call him Master...

She seemed to understand why Kushida had stopped her attack.

"Heh... Hehehe... Hahahaha."

Hoshinomiya suddenly began to laugh, but there was no happiness in it—only endless loneliness and self-mockery.

"Well, Hoshinomiya-sensei, don't you have anything to say?" Rinya asked playfully.

"Heh. What's left to say?"

The woman's face was bitter. "I can't beat you, and I can't outsmart you. Even my late-night ambush... You're a monster. Do whatever you want with me."

Watching the evidence still playing on the other person's phone, Hoshinomiya's face went numb. She seemed to have given up, showing no fear at all.

"Guess," Rinya said, stepping in front of her and watching her with an enigmatic smile.

"Send me out of the school or kill me. It's up to you."

Seeing that she wasn't afraid of death in the slightest, Rinya gave an almost imperceptible nod.

Then, his lips twitched. He suddenly grabbed her by the nape and pulled her close, saying meaningfully, "Hehe. Then how about becoming my personal homeroom teacher?"

Hoshinomiya shuddered. Confusion gave way to a sudden, inexplicable anger. "You want me to call you Master like she does, is that it?"

"Let me tell you, dream on!"

"No... You can call me whatever you like. It's you I value, not the name."

After he let her go and his expression turned utterly serious, Hoshinomiya couldn't help asking, "What exactly do you mean? Explain it to me."

"Sure. But first, I want to ask you something: what has your dream been all this time?"

"I... My dream, of course, is to teac—"

Before Hoshinomiya could finish, Rinya cut her off sternly.

"I mean the real you, not the person hiding beneath that teacher's mask."

Hoshinomiya fell silent, gazing at the ground.

It seemed that ever since that incident, she had never imagined what she wanted from life.

But if she had to say...

Memories gradually flickered through Hoshinomiya's bewildered eyes. It was as if the school's Class Vote elimination exam had happened only yesterday.

After a brief pause, Hoshinomiya suddenly murmured to herself, "To win... To win everything I want."

"Heh. Is that so?" Rinya nodded gently.

Then he spoke earnestly. "Then let me tell you why I invited you. I'm going to establish a completely new class here, building on what the school already has, and you're the key to creating it."

"A... new class?" Hoshinomiya's eyes widened in disbelief.

"That's right."

"And don't you want to win?"

"Then let me make this clear: I want to create a class made up of nothing but strong people, a class that will never lose, a class that I'll lead to even greater heights."

"Hehe."

"If you're willing to join, I think... I'll even help you bring down the school you've hated all this time!"

Hearing that, Hoshinomiya seemed to have been struck right at the root of her deepest pain. She shot to her feet and asked, her voice trembling, "Who... who are you? How do you know about that?"

"Maybe I'll tell you someday," Rinya replied with a faint smile.

Staring at the person before her, Hoshinomiya felt more and more certain that he was a monster through and through.

Whatever she said, perhaps he could give her the answer she wanted most.

But one thing was certain: she was tempted.

The school... the school she had hated all her life, the one she had never been able to shake off, even for a moment.

She wouldn't have believed anyone else who said that. But Rinya—the only person who had shattered her understanding twice over—was someone she couldn't help believing.

"I... accept..." She said only three words, but each one dragged out with painful difficulty.

"Welcome aboard, Hoshinomiya-sensei," Rinya said with a rare, gentle smile.

"Welcome, welcome! Congratulations, Master—and congratulations to Hoshinomiya-sensei on joining us." Kushida understood just how important it was for her master to win Hoshinomiya over. Now that it had really happened, she was overjoyed for him.

"Just call me Chie."

"Ma...ster..."

Her voice was stiff and halting, but Rinya didn't mind in the slightest. His reply remained gentle.

"Chie, is it?"

"Then I look forward to spending the rest of our lives together..."