Torturing Kushida Kikyo

The words coming from Chihaya Rei's 37-degree mouth made Kushida Kikyo feel a chill run through her entire body.

Watching the video playing on the camera in his hand, she saw her own foul-mouthed outburst captured in its entirety.

Kushida Kikyo truly panicked now; she lunged forward, reaching out to snatch the camera away.

Seeing this, Chihaya Rei lightly shifted his body to the side, dodging her grasp.

Kushida Kikyo, conversely, stumbled in a rather ungraceful manner before regaining her footing.

She looked up, glaring at Chihaya Rei with a vicious gaze.

"You'll never be able to take it."

Chihaya Rei said calmly, a smile playing on his lips.

It could only be said that Kushida Kikyo had truly lost her head in her desperation, forgetting the clear gap in physical ability between the two of them.

"Despicable, shameless! You actually recorded a video!"

Kushida Kikyo snapped, her composure completely shattered as she cursed out loud.

Chihaya Rei couldn't help but find it amusing. "Kushida, you pretentious green tea bitch, do you still not understand the situation?"

"How can you be this stupid?"

"Besides, if we're talking about being despicable and shameless, you, who planned to frame me, fit that description much better. You really do have a wicked personality."

[Tortured Kushida Kikyo, obtained 3000 Torture Points]

Every one of Chihaya Rei's words struck Kushida Kikyo's ears with significant impact.

Her face turned deathly pale in an instant as she finally realized her predicament, her shoulders trembling slightly as she asked:

"What do you want?"

Chihaya Rei fiddled with the digital camera, appearing to think it over seriously, before saying in a sincere tone after a moment:

"I'm thinking of releasing this wonderful footage to the whole school for everyone to enjoy. By then, the School Forum will surely be quite lively, right?"

"Don't!"

Kushida Kikyo shouted in a panic, her face shifting to a pitiful expression as she pleaded:

"Please, don't do that."

If everyone found out her true colors, the angelic persona she had worked so hard to build over the past month would be absolutely destroyed.

Everyone would look at her with strange eyes and point fingers at her, just like her classmates back in middle school.

"I still prefer that rebellious look you had just a moment ago."

Chihaya Rei was speaking the truth; he marveled internally at how quickly Kushida Kikyo could change her face.

Kushida Kikyo bit her lip and pleaded in a low voice:

"I'm sorry... Chihaya-kun, it was all my fault just now. I shouldn't have done that. Won't you forgive me?"

With her leverage held by him, Kushida had no right to argue back.

Not unless she was prepared to drop out and start over.

Chihaya Rei put away the digital camera and shrugged, his tone relaxing:

"Don't worry, I'm not that bad. I have no intention of exposing you for the time being."

Hearing the words "for the time being," Kushida Kikyo couldn't feel at ease at all...

At this moment, Chihaya Rei continued: "I'm quite interested in the stories from your middle school days. Why don't you pour your heart out to me?"

Upon hearing this, Kushida Kikyo clenched her fists involuntarily. "I don't have any stories from middle school."

"Then let me help you recall them."

Hearing Kushida Kikyo still playing tough, Chihaya Rei said with a subtle tone:

"In your third year of middle school, you destroyed an entire class, to the point where no one dared to come to school."

"That is the reason you were assigned to Class D. Otherwise, given your grades and physical fitness, you would likely have been assigned to Class B."

"Oh, right, Ichinose Honami is in Class B. You certainly wouldn't want to be in the same class as her, seeing that sincere, smiling face of hers every day."

"If Ichinose Honami's kindness is the real thing, then you are the fake."

Chihaya Rei seemed to get more and more into it, analyzing the situation with great interest.

As a Honami Fan, if it weren't for the sake of torturing this god-tier person, he would have liked to go to Class B to experience the wonderful atmosphere.

Listening to what Chihaya Rei said, Kushida Kikyo's expression gradually froze.

She finally understood...

Chihaya Rei knew something about her past, but it wasn't specific, which was why he wanted to learn more...

This bastard, was he trying to pick at her scars in this way?

And as for "pouring her heart out," fine, she would just dump all her trash talk onto him!

Kushida Kikyo made up her mind and began to tell Chihaya Rei the process of how she destroyed her entire class back in middle school.

Since her true colors had already been exposed to him and he held leverage over her, what did it matter if he knew a little more?

This was likely the broken-window effect in action.

Then... then Chihaya Rei listened as Kushida Kikyo cursed for another ten minutes or so.

Chihaya Rei hadn't expected her to be so fired up.

Furthermore, what he heard from Kushida Kikyo was largely consistent with what he knew from the anime, though it included many more details, so he found himself listening with genuine interest.

Could it be that he, too, had awakened that strange quirk of Kushida Kikyo's—the desire to know other people's secrets?

No, he probably just enjoyed the drama; after all, gossiping was human nature.

"...The people in that class were all scum, trash!"

"Who told them to treat me like a trash can, dumping all their garbage emotions on me every single day? Do they have any idea how annoying that was for me?"

"I only badmouthed them online, so what? I never actually did anything to wrong them, yet they forgot all the good I did for them. They're heartless!"

"That's why I don't regret exposing everyone's secrets and shameful deeds at all. The class being destroyed was what they deserved—they had it coming."

As Kushida Kikyo spoke, she revealed her true nature once again, cursing her past without the slightest reservation in front of Chihaya Rei.

What she regretted most was that her online rants had been discovered by her classmates, which had triggered the subsequent chain of events.

After she finished venting, Kushida Kikyo let out a long sigh, feeling her mental state improve significantly.

She suddenly realized that having someone standing there to listen to her tirade wasn't so bad after all.

She lifted her head to look at Chihaya Rei, expecting to receive at least a little bit of validation from him.

However, she was met with Chihaya Rei's merciless criticism.

"Kushida Kikyo, it's true that your classmates had plenty of issues, but the most deranged person of all is you."

"You're just someone who only cares about herself."

Kushida Kikyo glared at Chihaya Rei, looking thoroughly displeased.

"How is it me?"

Chihaya Rei glanced at her indifferently and spoke with a tone of disdain.

"Are you confusing cause and effect? In my eyes, the reason those classmates of yours dumped their emotional trash on you is entirely your own doing."

"No, that was all their fault." Kushida Kikyo sneered. "I never asked them to come and tell me those annoying things."

"So it was all their fault that I had a breakdown."

Kushida Kikyo now felt that Chihaya Rei was just looking for an excuse to berate her.

If she could beat Chihaya Rei in a fight, she would definitely kick him hard.

And she'd make sure to take her shoes off first, just to vent her frustration.

"It's because you're psychologically twisted. You wanted to be number one, you wanted to gain everyone's attention, and you enjoyed the thrill of obtaining other people's trust and secrets."

Chihaya Rei stepped forward, his eyes locked onto Kushida Kikyo.

Kushida Kikyo retreated involuntarily until her back hit the railing, leaving her nowhere else to go.

"Do you admit it?"

Chihaya Rei asked.

Kushida Kikyo nodded subconsciously. "I admit that..."

Chihaya Rei wasn't wrong about that.

Kushida Kikyo had always known that her mindset was pathological, and she was bold enough to own it.

[Torture Kushida Kikyo, gain 3500 Torture Points]

[Current torture progress 75%, reach 100% to unlock the next reward.]

"That's right."

Hearing Kushida Kikyo's admission, Chihaya Rei continued.

"So, to achieve your goal—that is, to pry into the secrets in others' hearts—"

"You built a persona as a little angel, took the initiative to befriend your classmates, and did favors for them so that when they had troubles, they would come to you to vent."

"That was the only way you could get the chance to hear their secrets, wasn't it, Kushida Kikyo?"

"As time went on, everyone started treating you as an emotional trash can."

Chihaya Rei stated the facts in a cold voice.

Even if one were to divide the responsibility for what happened in middle school, she definitely bore the brunt of it.

"You haven't forgotten that, have you? That's why I said you brought it on yourself. In the beginning, no one would have come to you to vent, and you wouldn't have become a trash can."

"Becoming a trash can was the price you paid for obtaining other people's secrets."

"I..."

Kushida Kikyo's eyes trembled slightly, leaving her speechless.

It was only after Chihaya Rei's words that she gradually realized the classmates constantly seeking her out to vent their negative emotions was a situation of her own making.

"The class has already been disbanded anyway, so what's the point of saying all this now..."

"Indeed."

Chihaya Rei did not deny this point, and he subsequently put some distance between himself and Kushida Kikyo.

"I just wanted you to recognize that you bear an unshirkable responsibility; that is enough."