Or Perhaps While You're Plotting Against Others, They're Plotting Against You Too, Like...

"..." Looking at the hot-blooded female teacher wearing an expression of self-proclaimed wisdom, Sogo Doma really wanted to ask if she was dreaming. Sure, he had only mentioned it casually, but did she really think he didn't know what would happen next? Not to mention such an obvious wording trap—though surely no one actually thought it was a trap rather than lifting a rock only to smash their own foot, right?

No way? No way?

Putting everything else aside, he had targeted Hijikata both openly and covertly for years, forcing the other man to rise up and fight back. Though Shizuka Hiratsuka's iron fists were incredibly powerful in ordinary people's eyes, they weren't even in the same league as Hijikata's desperate slashes. Even so, had Sogo Doma ever been moved? No!

Sure, Hijikata often sent him flying with a slash, and clouds of dust would rise whenever he hit the ground, but wasn't there a saying? Smoke without damage...

Even the Demon Vice-Chief couldn't harm a single hair on his head. As for Shizuka Hiratsuka, Sogo Doma crooked a finger. "This is what you said, Shizuka-sensei—"

Whoosh! Before he could finish, Shizuka Hiratsuka threw a straight punch at his face. The force of it even blew Sogo Doma's hair back. But—who knew what this hot-blooded female teacher was thinking? She had loudly declared she would beat him up, yet when the moment came, she chickened out.

With Sogo Doma's extensive experience of getting beaten up, he could calculate that Shizuka Hiratsuka's straight punch would ultimately stop one centimeter short of his nose. Rather than trying to hit him, she was just trying to scare him. And that made him realize something—this woman definitely intended to welsh on the deal!

As long as she stopped her punch naturally, she could brush