Torturing Kushida Kikyo

Chihaya Rei's words, spoken in a voice as mild as a 37-degree body temperature, made Kushida Kikyo feel a chill run through her.

The video playing on the camera in his hand showed her cursing up a storm, every bit of it recorded.

Kushida Kikyo was truly panicking now. She suddenly reached out to snatch the camera.

Seeing this, Chihaya Rei simply shifted to the side and dodged her.

Kushida stumbled awkwardly, then managed to regain her balance.

She looked up and glared at Chihaya Rei.

"You won't get it."

Chihaya Rei spoke calmly, the corner of his mouth curling into a smile.

Kushida Kikyo must have been so flustered she'd lost her head. She'd forgotten the obvious difference in strength between them.

"You're despicable! Shameless! You even filmed me!"

Kushida shouted, completely losing it.

Chihaya Rei couldn't help finding it funny. "Kushida, you fake, two-faced little angel. Do you still not understand the situation?"

"How can you be this stupid?"

"Besides, if we're talking about being despicable and shameless, the one planning to frame me fits that description better. You're the one with the truly nasty personality."

[Torturing Kushida Kikyo, earned 3000 Torture Points]

Every one of Chihaya Rei's words hit Kushida Kikyo hard.

Her face turned pale with shock as she finally realized the situation she was in. Her shoulders trembled slightly as she asked:

"What do you want?"

Chihaya Rei fiddled with the digital camera as if giving it serious thought. After a while, he said earnestly:

"I want to share that wonderful footage with the whole school, so everyone can enjoy it together. The School Forum will be buzzing when that happens, won't it?"

"Don't!"

Kushida cried out in a panic, her face once again taking on a pitiful expression.

"Please, don't do this."

If everyone learned what she was really like, the angel persona she'd worked so hard to cultivate over the past month would be destroyed.

Everyone would look at her strangely and gossip about her, just like her middle school classmates had.

"I liked you better when you were acting all defiant just now."

Chihaya Rei meant it. He marveled inwardly at how quickly Kushida Kikyo could change faces.

Kushida bit her lip and pleaded in a quiet voice:

"I'm sorry... Chihaya. I was wrong just now. I shouldn't have done that. Please forgive me, okay?"

With Kushida caught red-handed, she had no grounds to argue.

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 don't plan on exposing you just yet."

Hearing the word "yet" did nothing to reassure Kushida...

Then Chihaya Rei continued, "I'm really interested in what happened to you in middle school. Why don't you tell me about it?"

At his words, Kushida Kikyo clenched her fists without realizing it. "Nothing happened in middle school."

"Then let me help you remember."

Hearing Kushida Kikyo still deny it, Chihaya Rei said with a peculiar tone:

"When you were in your third year of middle school, you wrecked an entire class and made everyone afraid to come to school."

"That's why you were assigned to Class D. Otherwise, with your grades and athletic ability, Kushida, you probably would've ended up in Class B."

"Come to think of it, Ichinose Honami is in Class B. You definitely wouldn't want to be in the same class as her, seeing that sincere smile of hers every day."

"If Ichinose Honami's kindness is genuine, then you're a fake."

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

As a Honami Fan, he would have liked to experience Class B's wonderful atmosphere, if not for his mission to torture the gods.

Listening to Chihaya Rei, Kushida Kikyo's expression gradually stiffened.

She understood now...

Chihaya Rei knew some of her past, but not the details. He wanted to learn more...

Was this bastard really going to rub salt in her wounds like this?

He'd said he wanted her to open up, so fine. She'd dump every last bit of abuse on him!

Kushida Kikyo made up her mind and began telling Chihaya Rei how she'd destroyed her entire class in middle school.

He'd already discovered what she was really like, and he had leverage over her.

What difference would it make if he learned a little more?

This was probably the broken-window effect.

And then... Chihaya Rei listened to Kushida Kikyo curse for more than ten minutes.

He hadn't expected her to have such a temper.

What she told him was basically the same as what he'd learned from the anime, though with plenty of added details. He found it quite engrossing.

Had he developed the same strange quirk as Kushida Kikyo, wanting to know everyone else's secrets?

No, he probably just liked gossip. After all, gossip was human nature.

"...Everyone in that class was scum, trash!"

"They treated me like a garbage can, dumping all their emotional garbage on me every single day. Did they think I wasn't sick of it too?"

"All I did was insult them online. So what? I didn't actually do anything to hurt them, but they forgot everything good I'd done for them. They were so ungrateful!"

"So I don't regret exposing everyone's secrets and all the things they wanted to keep hidden. It was their own fault the class fell apart. They deserved it."

As Kushida Kikyo spoke, her true nature showed again. She cursed her former classmates to Chihaya Rei without holding back.

What she regretted most was that her classmates had discovered the venting she'd posted online. That was what had led to everything that followed.

After she finished cursing, Kushida Kikyo let out a long breath and felt a little better.

She suddenly realized that having someone stand in front of her and listen while she cursed wasn't so bad.

She raised her head to look at Chihaya Rei, expecting at least a little sympathy from him.

Instead, Chihaya Rei criticized her without mercy.

"Kushida Kikyo, sure, your classmates had plenty of problems, but you were the most messed-up one of all."

"You're someone who only thinks about yourself."

Kushida Kikyo glared at Chihaya Rei, looking displeased.

"How is it my fault?"

Chihaya Rei glanced at her indifferently and spoke with disdain.

"Have you got the cause and effect mixed up? In my eyes, your classmates dumped their emotional garbage on you because you brought it on yourself."

"No, it was their fault." Kushida Kikyo sneered. "I never asked them to tell me all that annoying stuff."

"So it's all their fault I broke down."

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

If she could beat Chihaya Rei, she'd kick him hard.

With her shoes off, too. That might finally make her feel better.

"You're the one with something wrong in the head. You wanted to be number one and get everyone's attention. You enjoyed the thrill of earning people's trust and learning their secrets."

Chihaya Rei stepped closer, staring straight into Kushida Kikyo's eyes.

Kushida Kikyo involuntarily backed away until her back touched the railing. There was nowhere left to go.

"Do you admit it?"

Chihaya Rei asked.

Kushida Kikyo nodded without thinking. "I admit that..."

Chihaya Rei wasn't wrong about that.

Kushida Kikyo had always known her mindset was unhealthy, and she was willing to admit it.

[Torturing Kushida Kikyo, earned 3500 Torture Points]

[Current torture progress: 75%. Reach 100% to unlock the next reward.]

"That's right."

Only after Kushida Kikyo acknowledged it did Chihaya Rei continue:

"So, to get what you wanted—to uncover the secrets in other people's hearts—"

"you created a little angel persona for yourself, befriended your classmates, and helped them out so they'd come to you with their troubles."

"That was how you got the chance to hear their secrets, Kushida Kikyo!"

"Over time, everyone started treating you like an emotional garbage can."

Chihaya Rei stated the facts in a cold voice.

Even if Kushida Kikyo wasn't solely responsible for what happened in middle school, she was certainly the one most at fault.

"You haven't forgotten all that, have you? That's why I said you brought it on yourself. At first, no one would've come to you to vent, and you wouldn't have become their garbage can."

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

"I..."

Kushida Kikyo's eyes trembled slightly. She was at a loss for words.

Only after hearing Chihaya Rei lay it all out did she gradually realize that her classmates had kept dumping their negative emotions on her because she'd brought it on herself.

"Anyway, that class has already disbanded. What good does it do to talk about this now..."

"True."

Chihaya Rei didn't deny it. He stepped away from Kushida Kikyo.

"I only wanted you to realize you had a responsibility you couldn't shirk. That's enough."