Young fish, retribution

At a certain high school.

In a deserted corner behind the school building, a boy with gentle, delicate features and shoulder-length black hair huddled in fear, his long bangs covering the right half of his face.

A frivolous girl and three young thugs stood in front of him.

"He was staring at my boobs like a total pervert!"

One of the boys laughed sleazily. "Xiaoyi's boobs are so big, they bounce all over the place when she runs."

"I get how you feel, Yoshino."

"You guys are so noisy!"

The boy blocking him into the corner kept his hands in his pockets and demanded viciously, "Were you looking or not?"

The delicate-looking boy's deep olive-green eyes were unusually resolute. "I wasn't!"

"So you're saying Xiaoyi's lying?"

One of his companions squatted on the ground and sneered, "Hahaha, how unreasonable."

Junpei Yoshino knew perfectly well that the girl before him did not care whether he had looked.

She was merely establishing her status by bullying him, and enjoying herself in the process.

Junpei Yoshino kept screaming inside, telling himself to speak the truth.

Then he slowly voiced that truth, exposing them. "Xiaoyi, you're not as cute as you think you are."

"These three know that, but they still flatter you because they think you'll let them sleep with you!"

After the delicate-looking boy's final outburst, all four stared at him darkly, cracking their knuckles as they prepared to teach him a lesson.

"Hey!"

Just then, however, a displeased male voice suddenly came from behind them.

They hurriedly turned around, only to find a handsome boy with refined features crouching atop the school's two-to-three-meter-high boundary wall, watching them with utter boredom.

"You're absolutely right, but making trash face reality isn't a good idea, especially when you can't beat that trash in a fight."

The newcomer was Araki Itsuki. Looking at the delicate, frightened Junpei Yoshino, he sighed helplessly.

Todo had been able to beat high schoolers when he was still in elementary school. Yuji Itadori was ridiculously strong, too. Even the quiet Fushiguro could beat the local delinquents into submission.

And Junpei Yoshino?

He was too weak to fight back and did not even have a friend who could help him. He was a complete tragedy.

He had no way to retaliate against the bullying, and the teacher he encountered was an inexperienced idiot who meant well but understood nothing about the situation.

He thought leaving the school where he was bullied would free him, only to fall into an even deeper hell and drag his mother down with him. Even in death, he was nothing more than Mahito's puppet.

Still, as long as he was useful to Araki, that was enough.

"Hey, hey, hey! Who are you calling trash?!"

The thug with his hair clipped upright walked toward the wall, hands in his pockets and irritation written across his face, shouting:

"Get your ass down-"

But before he could finish-

Bang!

He vanished from his spot, flying backward like a battered punching bag and slamming into the school building behind Junpei Yoshino before collapsing, dazed, to his right.

Araki Itsuki appeared where the thug had been standing, his expression cold.

Watching their companion groaning in pain by the wall, the other three were clearly terrified by Araki Itsuki's methods. They stood frozen, unsure what to do.

"One more thing. Who was it that said she was big?"

The thug who had been squatting on the ground and laughing raised his arm shakily, his face filled with fear.

"I..."

Thud!

As soon as he spoke, Araki Itsuki appeared beside him and drove his head into the ground beneath his shoe, shouting in displeasure:

"You call those big?!"

Feeling the cold earth against his face and Araki Itsuki's solid sole pressing down on him, the thug nearly cried from the pain.

So this was how much pain and misery the people he had trampled and humiliated suffered when he treated them like this.

Looking at the remaining two, whose expressions had twisted uncontrollably with fear, Araki Itsuki threatened viciously, "Do you want to find out what it feels like to be under my foot, too?"

"No!"

The remaining two shook their heads frantically, tears and snot streaming down their faces.

"In that case, you two can fight. If you satisfy me, I'll let you go."

At this demand, the frivolous girl glanced at the thug beside her in a panic and hurriedly shook her head.

"That's not fair!"

Araki Itsuki raised his right hand slightly, and a flowerpot beside them instantly exploded.

Everyone present stared in disbelief at the flowerpot that had suddenly exploded, then looked at Araki Itsuki as though he were a monster.

Even the thug struggling beneath his foot stopped daring to move.

Araki Itsuki's tone was perfectly calm.

"All living things exist according to their way of being. The way of being for the weak is obedience."

Xiaoyi shook her head repeatedly in terror and tried to say something else, but the only thug still standing could no longer take it.

He screamed in a breakdown and punched Xiaoyi in the face.

"Huh?"

"What are you doing?"

Xiaoyi stared in incomprehension at the thug who usually flattered her, never imagining that he would actually dare to hit her.

But Araki Itsuki had already scared the thug witless. Without Xiaoyi, he could still use his hand. If he angered that monster, who knew what torture awaited him?

At that thought, a trace of coldness and madness entered his eyes, and he punched Xiaoyi in the stomach.

After taking several punches, Xiaoyi's survival instincts kicked in. She seized the thug's hair and refused to let go, then took an opening to bite his arm.

"Ah!"

"Let go!"

Watching the two grapple, Araki Itsuki made no attempt to hide the mockery in his eyes.

Just then.

The timid Junpei Yoshino approached Araki Itsuki, afraid that once Araki left, they would retaliate even more viciously.

"Thank you for helping me, but please let them go."

Everyone froze. Even the two locked in a fight stopped struggling and looked at Araki Itsuki with hope.

If the victim himself chose to forgive them, surely that monster would let them go.

A gentle smile appeared on Araki Itsuki's face, and his voice was very soft.

"Junpei, you're weak, too."

Junpei Yoshino froze on the spot, his heart sinking. Araki Itsuki's smile was so gentle that he had thought he would agree.

When Araki Itsuki's gaze swept over the two who had stopped fighting, they broke down even further and resumed grappling, sobbing as they fought.

Araki Itsuki admired their ugly expressions for a while before finally waving his hand in boredom.

"All right, you can go."

They felt an immense sense of relief. Junpei Yoshino also tried to leave, but had only taken two steps.

"Junpei, stay."

The other four gave Junpei Yoshino a pitying glance, then turned and ran.

Junpei Yoshino stopped, looking at Araki Itsuki in bewilderment, before suddenly asking:

"How do you know my name is Junpei? And what was that power you used to crush the flowerpot?"

"Oh?"

"They only called me Yoshino."

Araki Itsuki chuckled despite himself. Junpei was introverted and aloof, disliked interacting with others, and held a negative view of both other people and society as a whole.

But he was not stupid.

Araki Itsuki got straight to the point. "There's plenty you don't know. Right now, I need you to do something for me."

"The September Kinema Cinema is showing an old movie called Evil Dead 3 on Monday. Go watch it, then just follow your instincts."

Although Junpei seemed indifferent to everything, he enjoyed movies and had formed a Film Club at school.

Unfortunately, the poor kid's clubroom had been taken over by his bullies, who not only trampled his videotapes but also beat him whenever they pleased.

Junpei Yoshino was startled by the request, because he had already been planning to see that movie.

"That's all?"

Araki Itsuki chuckled. "If you encounter anything strange in the cinema, remember to contact me."

"This will be the beginning of our partnership. If you don't encounter anything strange, just pretend we never met."

After enduring years of school bullying, Junpei Yoshino firmly believed that human nature was inherently evil.

"What do I get?"

Araki Itsuki stepped forward, his voice full of temptation.

"Revenge, power, wealth-any of those. As long as the story's ending satisfies me, you'll be amazed by my generosity."

"Even..."

Araki Itsuki took another step forward and lifted Junpei Yoshino's thick bangs with his right hand, while Junpei's expression filled with shame, fear, and panic.

Beneath them lay a dense cluster of hideous scars left by cigarette burns.

The painful experiences he wanted to hide and bury were laid bare in the sunlight.

"I can even heal the scars here."

At those words, Junpei Yoshino immediately stopped struggling.

"How do I contact you?"

Araki Itsuki waved a hand and turned to leave. "I'll appear when you need me."

Watching Araki Itsuki walk away and recalling the flowerpot that had suddenly shattered, Junpei Yoshino raised a trembling hand and touched the scars on his forehead.

His eyes were filled with hatred and madness!