NOTE: This chapter contains scenes of intense violence and gore that may be disturbing to some readers.
Scene 1
Daigo, Kairen, and Shuya were making their way down.
Daigo grumbled, "Tetsuya's useless. I doubt he'll ever fit into our group."
Shuya shot back, "And you think you're useful?"
Kairen sighed calmly. "Relax, both of you. Don't start fighting here."
They reached the last bend in the stairs—
—and turning the corner, they came face-to-face with the same two students approaching from the corridor.
Both sides stopped.
Both groups stared.
A sudden silence dropped between them.
That's when the girl's gaze slid to Shuya's fist—blood smeared across his knuckles.
Her smile, already resting on her face, widened ever so slightly, a twisted excitement leaking through. The unsettling smile remained. "Did you bully someone again?"
Kairen's own faint smile appeared—calm, almost too calm, carrying that eerie, unreadable undertone. "Rina Amatsu… It's been a long time since we crossed paths."
Beside her, Haruka took a slow sip from a juice box and sighed. "Great… another boring movie is about to start." He still had the straw between his lips, barely holding the box in his hand.
Kairen shifted his gaze to him. "Haruka Hishaku. Are you two still in Class 1?"
Haruka lazily crouched down right where he stood, chin raised slightly as he took another sip. "Is he trying to make fun of us?"
Rina tilted her head, smile lingering. "Haruka… you go ahead. I'll have a little fun first."
Daigo snapped, both angry and nervous. "Hey, crazy girl, get lost! What are you even planning to do?!"
Rina met his eyes directly. "The same thing… you were just doing."
Still crouched, Haruka mumbled, "She means bullying."
Rina shrugged, a wicked smirk playing on her lips. "If you can bully others, then you should try being bullied too. It's fun both ways."
Shuya's voice was heavy and cold. "Kairen, who is this girl?"
Rina glanced toward Haruka. "Haruka… want to join in?"
Haruka rose slowly, almost swaying to his feet. "No, no, no. I'm heading to the rooftop. If you finish early, come find me."
He began walking toward the stairs.
Before reaching the boys, he turned his head back slightly, pulled the straw from his mouth, and gave a lazy, teasing half-smile. "By the way... this flavor's starting to taste even more sour now."
He slipped the straw back between his lips and walked past the three boys, heading up the stairs.
Rina watched him go, then returned her gaze to the boys, her smile still thin and disturbingly calm. "So… shall we begin?"
Shuya cracked his knuckles.
Rina stepped toward them, moving forward with quiet, steady steps, hands slipping casually into the pockets of her uniform pants. From inside, she pulled out a single small metal spike from each pocket—slim, pointed, and cone-shaped. Just as they cleared the edge of her pockets, they instantly grew, lengthening into lethal, needle-sharp metal stakes in her grasp.
Daigo panicked. "H-Hey! What the hell are you doing?! You're bringing weapons into a tiny argument?!"
Shuya said nothing. Anger simmered beneath the silence in his eyes as he stood ahead of Kairen and Daigo.
Kairen stood behind him, still wearing that faint, unreadable smile.
With that slight smile on her lips, Rina hurled her right-hand stake—and in a quick, precise motion, drove the needle-sharp metal into Shuya's chest, where it struck a rib bone and lodged there.
Shuya lowered his head, staring at the spike lodged into the left side of his chest. His expression twisted into a confused, furious disbelief.
He lunged forward in anger. Rina stopped walking.
He launched a heavy right-hand punch—a direct strike aimed at her forehead.
Rina didn't move. She still held another metal spike in her left hand, her arm relaxed at her side.
She lifted her right hand and, in an almost imperceptible motion, her thumb brushed the index finger and quickly snapped.
A thin, near-invisible metal line shrieked into existence, connecting her thumb and index fingertip. It instantly shimmered and compressed—hardening into a small spike, all before the snap's sound could fully register.
Dismissing the snapped position, she gripped the newly formed spike between her thumb and index finger. With a quick, sharp flick of her wrist, she hurled the metal spike straight into his right shoulder.
But Shuya's punch kept driving forward without pause—
Rina's fingers, which had been pressed together in a closed grip, flew apart with a split-second snap. From the four openings between her digits, four more wire-thin metal lines shot out. They instantaneously thickened and stretched, morphing into four needle-sharp cone-shaped spikes. Before the eye could track the movement, she flicked her wrist again, firing the four metal spikes into Shuya's right arm.
And then—Thud!—his fist met Rina's forehead and pushed.
She swayed slightly from the contact, but caught herself immediately.
Shuya's eyes widened. His fist was still pressed against Rina's forehead.
Rina tilted her head, a faint reddish mark the only thing marring her forehead. A faint, playful smirk curved her lips—the kind that didn't match the situation at all, the kind that belonged to her.
"What happened…? Why didn't that hurt? Why isn't my head bleeding? Where did all that strength of yours go?"
Shuya instantly stepped back and launched another punch straight toward her abdomen.
But Rina didn't even shift. The moment his fist was about to touch her stomach, the tiny metal spikes buried in his hand began to burrow deeper toward the bone, causing a sharp sting of pain to run up his arm. Shuya froze.
His expression twisted in confused, breathless panic. He pulled his fist back and clutched his arm, quickly retreating a step away from Rina and halting.
Cold sweat erupted on his skin, his eyes convulsing. The tiny metal spikes buried in his hand were now visibly lodged deeper, intensifying the pain.
Rina let out a soft, eerie, delighted laugh.
"What happened…? Does it hurt?" She stepped toward him, voice almost gentle. "What about all the pain you caused others?"
Kairen, standing nearby, spoke firmly. "Rina. Stop."
She halted mid-step.
"Oh? Are you scared now? I was just starting to enjoy myself."
Kairen demanded, "End this fight here. Why do you even want to keep going?"
"Just… for fun," Rina replied with a shrug.
"Remember, this fight might cost you," Kairen warned.
Daigo, who stood next to him, clicked his tongue. "Move aside. I'll handle this girl."
He rushed toward her.
Rina didn't move. The spike in her left hand sharpened even further.
Sweat trickled down Daigo's face as he forced his speed higher.
Rina flicked her left hand slightly.
The moment Daigo reached her, he shoved her right shoulder—knocking her into a spin—and immediately tried to sprint past her.
But—Tschk!—the tapered metal spike from her left hand plunged into the side of his abdomen.
"What happened? What happened? What happened??"
Rina's smile stretched unnaturally wide, her eyes glittering with manic excitement.
"Are you scared?"
Terror washed over Daigo's face as he grabbed her wrist, desperately pulling his body back, trying to slide the spike out of himself.
But Rina stepped forward—calmly, almost lazily—forcing the spike deeper as she closed in on him. She simply kept pushing forward, letting the spike do the work.
Daigo kept stepping back in panic until his back hit the corridor wall behind him. His feet slipped as he tried to push away from her.
The spike, driven deep by Rina's continuous, lazy push, pierced straight through his body. As his back slammed against the wall, the needle-sharp tip tore through the flesh, and with a terrible, sharp Tangk! the spike crashed into the corridor wall.
Rina leaned closer with a bright smile.
"Oh come on, I'm just starting to have fun. Why are you all so scared?"
Kairen called out sharply, "You're crossing the line. Stay within your limits."
Rina yanked the spike out of Daigo's stomach. Tears streamed down his face as he tried to hold in his voice.
Then—Tschk! Tschk! Tschk!—she drove the spike into his right thigh three times in quick succession.
Daigo let out a series of raw, strangled cries as he collapsed immediately.
Rina turned and walked toward Shuya, who stood several steps away from Kairen, clutching his left arm.
As she walked, she spread the fingers of her right hand wide… then slowly curled them into a tight fist.
The instant her fingers closed into a tight fist, the tiny metal spikes in Shuya's arm lengthened and pierced through the back of his arm, appearing thin and needle-like.
Her footsteps echoed sharply in the narrow corridor as she closed in.
Without stopping, she grabbed Shuya by the collar and dragged him across the floor toward Kairen.
Kairen's face tightened with tension. He took a few steps back and slowly climbed two of the three steps behind him.
Rina sneered, "Don't try to run now. If you do, instead of getting respect, you will be called Kairen the Coward throughout the entire academy."
But as Rina dragged Shuya closer, Kairen climbed the final step onto the small turning landing, then kept retreating backward across the flat floor until he bumped into the wall behind him.
Rina dragged Shuya's limp body up the three steps and onto the small turning landing.
Shuya's eyes were still open, his expression warped in pain and terror.
She paused on the landing, holding him with one hand, and muttered, "Hmmph… his body's so light. I thought it would weigh as much as those heavy fists of his."
Pinned against the wall, Kairen hissed, "Don't cross your limits."
Rina tossed Shuya's body to Kairen's left side.
Shuya lay flat on his back, chest rising weakly—barely alive, most of his blood already lost.
Rina stood before Kairen and mocked, "Why are you just standing there? Why aren't you fighting?"
His voice wavered at first before he gathered himself. "I don't want to use magic. If I do, things will get worse."
Rina sighed, unimpressed. "Now you're boring me. I thought fighting you would be fun—but you're no fun at all."
With an annoyed smirk, she turned slightly.
"Well, I enjoy watching painful expressions," she purred, pointing toward Shuya. "So I'll go play with him instead."
Before she could take another step—
Kairen's hand shot forward toward her neck, a card held between his fingers.
Rina glanced back with a sly smile.
But before his hand reached her—Tschk!—a spike shot from the wall to Kairen's right, piercing his wrist and lodging there. At the same instant—Tschk! Tschk! Tschk!—three more spikes erupted from the wall behind him, impaling his left arm, right knee, and left calf, the four spikes immobilizing him against the stone.
Rina turned fully toward him, laughing softly. "I didn't expect you to attack from behind. And you did it so stupidly too," she mocked.
She leaned in and gripped the edge of the card with her teeth, pulling it from his fingers.
"But your magic… seems kind of interesting," she mumbled, her voice muffled around the card.
Kairen's lips pulled thin and tight, stretching the skin over his jaw as a shudder ran down his spine. "I wasn't even using my magic," he said through his teeth.
Rina removed the card from her mouth and examined it with her right hand—blank from both sides.
"You're seriously playing some weird game," she muttered, tossing it aside.
She stepped over to Shuya, planted her feet on either side of his body, and pulled the metal spike from his chest. She then sat on him, placing her legs over his arms to pin them down.
Holding both spikes near his neck, she reached into her pant pockets and pulled out a handful of tiny cone-shaped metal spikes.
She showed them to him.
"So tell me… how do you want to feel pain?"
Shuya tried to rise—but one of the spikes in her hand suddenly expanded, while the others slipped from her grasp—and she drove the enlarged one into his collarbone with a sharp Crack!
His expression contorted, his breath choking into broken, strained sounds.
Rina's smile deepened, bright with insane excitement.
She lifted both spikes and drove one into the left side of his collarbone—
Tschk!
—then again—
Tschk!
—and again—
Tschk!
Over and over, switching targets: left collarbone, right collarbone, right shoulder, left shoulder—stabbing in rapid, wild bursts.
Blood splattered everywhere, crawling across the walls.
Kairen's face twisted in panic.
Daigo could only stare, horrified.
Shuya was on his final breaths. She kept stabbing him, again and again, until he finally died, his eyes wide—yet she continued switching targets, stabbing relentlessly.
Kairen shouted, "Hey! Stop! You can't do this—he's already lost too much blood!"
But Rina didn't stop. She stabbed even faster.