Ever since he entered high school, Orifushi Shiki had begun to be bullied.
That said, he wasn’t the kind of person who’d normally be the target of bullying—in fact, up until middle school, his life had been completely free of it.
His height was only slightly below average for his age, and he was reasonably athletic.
Academically, he’d been upper-middle at best in his middle school—not particularly outstanding.
His personality was fairly easygoing, with a decent sense of justice and a bit too much kindness for his own good, so he was rarely disliked by others.
So then, why did Shiki suddenly become a target for bullying the moment he entered high school…?
The reason was painfully simple.
Due to a series of unfortunate coincidences, the high school he ended up attending—St. Lukimantz Academy—was, despite its fancy name, infamous for its terrible reputation and delinquent students.
Now, Shiki was nothing more than a herbivore thrown into a cage full of carnivores called delinquents.
“Hah… hah… hah…”
During the break before second period, Shiki was running down the stairs, panting heavily.
The delinquent group that bullied him had ordered him to buy drinks from the vending machines on the first floor.
And, of course, they’d given him a time limit—100 seconds.
When he was a first-year, his classroom had been on the fourth floor, but now that he was a second-year, it was on the third. He’d like to say that made things easier, but in reality, the time limit had been shortened by thirty seconds, and the number of errands had increased—so his burden had, in practice, doubled.
Considering that it hadn’t even been half a month since the new school year began, he didn’t even want to imagine how much worse things could get from here.
He finally reached the vending area on the first floor, only to find—unluckily—that another student was already there buying a drink from the exact machine he needed. He had no choice but to wait.
Once that student left, Shiki immediately inserted his money.
First, he bought oolong tea for Kawato, the leader of the delinquent group, followed by barley tea and orange juice for his two lackeys.
Snatching his change, he grabbed the three cans in his arms, turned around, and was just about to dash off when—
“Whoa!?”
Out of nowhere, he almost collided with a red-haired female student standing behind him. He froze in panic and tried to dodge—only to slip and fall spectacularly, sending all three cans flying through the air.
As he envisioned the cans hitting the ground, Shiki also saw his future—being forced to buy replacements with his own money and then getting beaten up as a “penalty.” A dark sense of dread washed over him.
But—
“Whoops…”
The girl casually caught all three cans with the iron fan she was holding.
Shiki’s eyes widened in disbelief.
Because when he thought “caught,” he hadn’t imagined this. The girl had balanced all three cans vertically on the closed surface of her fan—like some kind of circus trick.
On top of that, he could’ve sworn there was no way to avoid bumping into her a moment ago, yet her reaction speed and movement were so sharp that they hadn’t even grazed each other.
Still lying on his back, unable to process what just happened, Shiki stared blankly up at the girl.
In a word, she was a delinquent.
Her hair, dyed a blazing shade of red, was tied up into a golden ponytail. A white stick—hopefully not a cigarette—was held between her lips.
Of course, people like her never wore their uniforms properly. Her outfit was a perfect statement that she didn’t even acknowledge the existence of school rules.
Her skirt was dangerously short, and her socks were small, loose “petit loose” ones that only made the healthy whiteness of her thighs and calves stand out even more.
From his position on the floor, Shiki had two reasons to not know where to look.
If you ignored the delinquent part, she was, without exaggeration, stunningly beautiful—and that only made it worse.
Her name was Kohinata Karin.
Within just half a year of enrolling, she’d beaten down every notorious delinquent at St. Lukimantz Academy, the so-called “bad school,” becoming its undisputed top dog.
And the nickname she’d earned was—
“Th-the… ‘Empress’…”
The words slipped from his mouth before he could stop them.
Karin narrowed her sharp, slightly upturned eyes, clearly irritated.
“Don’t call me by that lame nickname. And hurry up and take these already.”
Saying that, she readjusted her grip on the fan that still had the three cans stacked on it.
The weight, all focused on one spot, made her hands tremble slightly as she held it.
Apparently, the fan wasn’t just partly made of metal—it was a fully iron fan, making it even heavier.
Realising that being the school’s top fighter didn’t necessarily mean she had gorilla-level strength, Shiki felt a meaningless flicker of relief. He quickly stood up and took the three cans.
“Uh… um… I’m sorry!”
After bowing deeply with the cans in his arms, he bolted away like a rabbit fleeing for its life.
He knew perfectly well that it wasn’t a commendable way to act, but even so, the urge to get away from the Empress as fast as possible was overwhelming.
To be fair, she wasn’t the type to bully the weak. In fact, Shiki knew she was the kind who helped the weak and crushed the strong.
She herself claimed, “I just beat up people I don’t like, that’s all,” but most of the people she “didn’t like” were bullies who preyed on the weak—so it was only natural that she’d gained that kind of reputation.
Thanks to her efforts, the once-terrible St. Lukimantz Academy had become somewhat more peaceful. She’d even become incredibly popular among the students because of it.
However—
Even knowing all that, to someone like Shiki, who was still being tormented by delinquents, Kohinata Karin was nothing short of terrifying.
Kawato, the one who bullied Shiki, was strong enough to beat him senseless.
But even Kawato got beaten up by his upperclassman delinquents.
And Karin was strong enough to beat those upperclassmen.
Facing someone who could beat up the person who could beat up the person who could beat him up—a chain of beatdowns so long it almost broke his brain—there was no way Shiki could remain calm.
Reflecting his inner panic, as soon as he reached the staircase, he sprinted up five steps at a time.
Watching his retreating back, Karin furrowed her brows slightly and muttered,
“Hm…?”
