Tokyo Metropolitan Advanced Nurturing High School, artificial lake.
"Bang!"
Another kick. The metal railing groaned under the strain. Sweat dripped from her hair and soaked into the concrete, leaving a small dark patch. Kushida Kikyo ignored the jolt of pain in her knee and stared fixedly at the pitch-black lake, as if all her disguises and shackles lay buried beneath its surface.
"Disgusting... That self-important Horikita, and that clueless, stupid Ayanokoji..."
She panted heavily. Her usually smiling purple eyes now held nothing but venomous coldness.
"Why... Why are you still allowed to stay at this school!? Why do you always treat me like that!! I'm trying hard too... I'm trying hard just to stay alive... And that disgusting Amasawa Reigetsu, does he think he's so great just because he's in Class A!? How dare he desecrate me like that!! Disgusting, you're all so disgusting!!!"
"Kushida, you shouldn't speak that way about my master."
A flat voice abruptly tore through the silence of the night.
Kushida's body instantly stiffened, her blood seeming to run backward. She mechanically turned around and saw Ayanokoji Kiyoko's figure gradually emerge from the shadows.
Her face wore its usual inscrutable expression, and her eyes stared straight at Kushida without a trace of emotion. Yet that alone was enough to make Kushida's hair stand on end.
"Aya... Ayanokoji?"
Kushida quickly adjusted her expression and tone. Her energetic smile appeared almost instantly, though her sweat had smudged her makeup, making it look a little ridiculous.
"What are you doing here? What a coincidence! I was just..."
"I don't care what you say about anyone else. Only what you say about my master."
Ayanokoji Kiyoko suddenly closed the distance between herself and Kushida. She moved so quickly that Kushida didn't even have time to react before Ayanokoji's face loomed close, startling her.
"Oh my~ What are you talking about, Ayanokoji? I don't understand~"
"Smack!"
The smile vanished from Kushida's face.
"Huh?"
"What do you think you're doing? And who even is this 'master' you keep going on about, huh!? How dare you hit me—"
Kushida grabbed Ayanokoji Kiyoko by the collar.
"What gives you the right to criticize me? I didn't expect you to blurt out your little secret the moment you opened your mouth... Hehehe, if everyone in Class D found out that our aloof Ayanokoji was actually some classmate's mo—"
"Amasawa Reigetsu."
"What—"
"Remember my master's name."
"Are you even taking me seriously!? There aren't any cameras here. Do you think I'm afraid to fight back!?"
Kushida suddenly exerted her strength, only to discover that she couldn't budge the expressionless person in front of her.
"Thud!"
Kushida was slammed hard onto the ground and lost consciousness.
Tokyo Metropolitan Advanced Nurturing High School, student dormitory.
"Why are you here!?"
The door opened from the outside, and the person who came into view was Amasawa Reigetsu!
Back to Amasawa Reigetsu's perspective: he had just walked the bewildered Ichinose Honami back to her dorm room, then returned to his own room, ready to wash up and go to sleep.
But when he opened the door, he found Kushida Kikyo—looking very much like she'd been beaten—lying in the entryway and staring at him in surprise.
"Who set this trap?"
That was Amasawa Reigetsu's first thought. He sprang through the doorway in an instant. If the person hiding in the shadows hesitated for even a moment, they wouldn't be able to capture the decisive moment!
"Ayanokoji... That bastard!"
Kushida sprang to her feet without hesitation, her eyes bloodshot. Her sunny, adorable image had vanished, replaced by a hysterical, twisted expression.
"Amasawa, so you're in on it too!! None of you will get away!!"
She screamed hysterically and lunged at him, trying to grab his collar and vent her fury.
But Amasawa Reigetsu merely shifted slightly, easily dodging her wild attack. Kushida Kikyo slammed hard into the door.
"You're so noisy."
From those two lines, Amasawa Reigetsu had already pieced together most of what had happened—
Kiyoko had brought him his prey.
"Pathetic. You're filthy as a stray dog,"
Amasawa Reigetsu said, his gaze full of amusement and undisguised provocation. He could already imagine how interesting things would get.
"What would you know!!!"
Kushida Kikyo pulled out a fruit knife and swung it wildly at Amasawa Reigetsu through her tears. She'd anticipated this situation, so she'd taken a fruit knife from the kitchen beforehand to make up for the difference in strength.
She had expected Ayanokoji Kiyoko to be the one opening the door when she returned.
But the person standing in front of her was Amasawa Reigetsu. If she could help it, she wouldn't have done this, but... It was just her bad luck!!
This would end everything... including my life.
God, if this is a nightmare, please let me wake up soon...
"Induction" activated. The wild expression on Kushida Kikyo's face faltered for an instant, then she swayed and lost consciousness.
Amasawa Reigetsu took the fruit knife from Kushida's hand and put it back in the kitchen. A clever idea had already formed in his mind...
"Ahhh!!"
Kushida Kikyo jolted awake in bed and saw the person sitting beside her—
Ayanokoji Kiyoko.
She looked around. There were no signs that the room had been disturbed. It was still unfamiliar, but somehow it gave her a small sense of security.
"Do whatever you want with me."
Kushida Kikyo's voice was heavy with exhaustion. The threat of death was simply too terrifying for an ordinary high school student, whether they witnessed it, killed someone themselves, or were killed.
"You want to kill me, don't you?"
"Ayanokoji Kiyoko" pulled back Kushida Kikyo's blanket and seized her wrist in an instant—
The right hand hidden beneath the blanket, Kushida Kikyo's own hand—
was gripping a bloodstained fruit knife tightly!!?
It was as if a string inside Kushida Kikyo had snapped. She let out a piercing scream, her face twisted as she lunged at Ayanokoji Kiyoko.
"Kill you, kill you... If I kill you, I'll be free, right!! If I kill you, I can escape this nightmare—"
"Perhaps. But can you really do it? In the previous round, you still raised your knife against my master, didn't you?"
"—!!"
Kushida Kikyo's pupils suddenly widened. In that instant, Ayanokoji Kiyoko snatched the fruit knife from her hand.
The metal blade gently tapped her face. Its icy touch nearly drove Kushida Kikyo to the brink of collapse.
A warm dampness spread across the bedsheet.
The humiliation of wetting herself completely shattered Kushida Kikyo's sanity. She began to believe that this was a nightmare and that Ayanokoji Kiyoko was an absolute demon!! She was behind all of it!!!
Right, an apology!! If she apologized to Amasawa Reigetsu, would Ayanokoji Kiyoko let her go?
Before she could think any further, Kushida Kikyo's brain triggered its automatic defense mechanism, and she fainted again.
I... don't want to experience death again.
"Ayanokoji Kiyoko" changed back into Amasawa Reigetsu.
He sighed. He'd have to change the sheets.