There is a reason for the bullied.
And the bully creates results.
1
What in the world is ant by strength? Similar to the basis of fortune and misfortune, if we consider that strength and weakness is simply a matter of personal perception, then one argunt could be made that rejecting everything other than yourself is strength, and supporting everything other than yourself is weakness. And if that is not the case, when you decide on sothing, then you require a basis and intervals.
Is is simple strength? Or perhaps it is a large existence? or perhaps physical durability, or perhaps ntal durability? Those who stand at the top of the stairs disdaining others cannot be called the strongest. Yet being able to perform every task, being talented in every skill, simply rits being called an all-rounder and not the high end. Perfecting a single ability becos simply a single genius. It is not acquiring what you want, nor the ability to eradicate all. Undefeated and invincible alone does not point toward the strongest. Honor and pride are both relational. Then what exactly, what is similar and what is equal, such that one can determine one to be the strongest -- the more you think about it, the more you end up in a thesis of your own making.
Yet if you put forth these reasonings, she would probably flash a nihilistic smile as always, and answer like this--
I am the strongest, and as the strongest there needs be no reason.
"You know..."
Aikawa-san raised both arms, as if to show off her pure red outfit, and looked at Hi-chan and I at once. Her face still had a cynical smile plastered.
"I need this for the climax, y'know? When it's showti, and I show up in black clothing, it just doesn't feel right. Nah nah, I left the academy for a mont and went back to the Cobra, and that ended up taking up more ti than I thought. Sorry I'm late, Ii-tan."
Hi-chan was shaking tat-tat-tat. Her entire body was shaking. Why Aikawa-san was there, no, why she was in a different place than Aikawa-san, as if she could not comprehend.
"I do not mind... buying ti at the last mont is the user of nonsense's expertise, right, Aikawa-san?"
"I said don't call by my surna... the only ones that do are enemies. --So," Aikawa-san did not stop smiling, as she fixed her gaze on Hi-chan. "So, which na are you going to call ?"
"Ah, uh--"
"What're you up to, hmm?"
"... ah..."
"I'm asking what you're up to? Eh?"
"Is this--"
Hi-chan.
"Is this the end, just like that?"
Hi-chan still shook.
"Why--"
With her shaking voice. But with all her might.
"-- why did it go bad?"
With a soft voice that threatened to disappear, she scread in pain.
"What was wrong? What?" Hi-chan asked, not Aikawa-san, but toward . "I thought... I thought a lot, and it should have gone well, but. Hi-chan, what -- did I do sothing bad?"
"... Hi-chan."
"Is that, why everything went so wrong?"
"Like that matters shit," Aikawa-san said, interrupting. "The more you plan, the more you succumb to your plan" -- you thought too much, and Ii-tan too. And that girl rolled around on the ground there. Ahh, ahh, the hallway's covered with blood now. Jeez -- do y'all have nothing better to do? Puh-lease, don't tell you think everything can be explained with logic?"
Aikawa-san scratched her head, her body language expressing how much she considered this all a pain in the ass, and also how much she didn't understand. And then she sighed, a short sigh that lasted forever.
"Logic only ans one plus one is two. Thesis just ans zero plus zero is zero. If you wanna see pretty logic then go read a math textbook for first-graders. Running off and leaving it to that elentary crap -- are you serious!?"
She shouted.
She was no longer laughing -- she was angry.
Extrely. She was intensely angry.
"It's over or this is the end or... stop howling and howling you pathetic loser! I'm just listening and you're making blush! The hell do you think you're doing making even redder! Ahh? If you survive alone you'll call it everything went well? You start it and then end it and are you kidding ? This idiotic play never had a chance retard! Brats without any reasonable trauma need to shut up and put up! Don't make punch you!"
"... ah. Auh..."
Hi-chan had tears flowing down her cheeks as she took a step back, pushed back by the imnse pressure. Already my body no longer had that discomfort of being covered by string. In front of Aikawa Jun, she had no composure to keep wrapping up -- and hostages would only backfire against Aikawa-san. Hi-chan must know that well. That was why she wanted to keep Aikawa-san on her side.
No -- that was not the reason.
There was that, too, but Hi-chan just wanted, simply.
"Not funny -- not funny at all, to ! If you're gonna oppose , make laugh! Everyone and everyone looks away from what they really gotta do, and then they make excuses and lie and try to cover shit up -- crawling around like dirty scum! Stop being a slob! It's simple, don't slack! Why don't you people stand up straight! Stop slouching!"
I said...
I said, we cannot do that.
Hi-chan, and myself.
Yet still, Aikawa-san's fury did not end.
"Stick out your chest, straighten your back, be proud of yourself, howl at the enemy don't bow down! Don't give up don't let go and don't end it yourself! Do you brats want to be sympathized over? Stop dragging other people into your own narcissism, and if you want to brood then brood by yourself, no one knows or cares about how you freaks feel! Stop rejecting everything for beans and stop carelessly accepting! I don't care about other stuff, at least decide your own stuff!"
"... shut up!"
Hi-chan seed to force her guts down and then stared -- at Aikawa-san. The tears were no longer there. Nowhere. She no longer had the eyes of a young girl -- but rather the eyes of Zig Zag, cut apart sowhere, and having no normal parts left after having been cut apart.
Everything was an act.
Innocence and recklessness. And action and fondness.
If everything was an act -- she could still have been saved.
"This is the end! Everything was found out... I killed people -- I broke a promise and I betrayed--"
Betrayed and betrayed and betrayed.
Deceiving allies before deceiving enemies.
Just repeating that over and over again.
Hi-chan was painful to look at. It was hard to look at her. Very, hard to just abandon her.
"Just... stop, Hi-chan--"
"Shut up shut the hell up and zip it! Stop calling by that na! You act so intimate!"
Hi-chan scread, and glared at . With her eyes wide open. Not a hint of innocence or cuteness. Yet, more than anything, her expression invited pity.
"Stop being kind! Stop acting up and trying to be friendly! That stuff -- is disgusting!"
"... Hi-chan."
"What's with that face? Is it sad? Are you trying to sympathize? You said you hate murderers... but that's a grateful story. But -- the dean and Saijou-chan, Hagihara-san aren't the only ones."
And then she flashed eyes that were filled with hatred from the bottom of her soul, such a mismatch for her, and with a look of pity.
"Why -- do you think faculty and security never showed up?"
They had no chance of showing up, because that had been taken care of before I snuck into the academy--
I imagined.
Faculty ward. Faculty room.
One floor beneath the dean's room -- in a closed location.
The mountain of death and rivers of blood that sprawled over the closed area.
Murderer, was not sufficient.
Serial killer, was also not right.
Restricted to this area.
Restrained by walls on four sides, there was no chance of seeing that appearance. The living -- nor the dead. Until the collapse, there is no chance of seeing.
And then --
When it collapses, it is too late.
"This school is over, either way."
"You're right, that might be true," Aikawa-san answered. "But I won't let you end."
She pointed at Hi-chan.
"I won't let it end."
"... I said! It's enough, Aikawa-san! That's enough of an end!"
Hi-chan shouted Aikawa-san in that way -- and then flung out both of her arms.
Fwip fwip fwip fwip -- like the cries of children, the sound of air being sliced echoed through the hallway, and at the end of it was Aikawa Jun. The size and the speed made it impossible to track them. Yes, the mont one stepped foor inside this hallway, the indisputable fact was that one stepped into Hi-chan's spider nest. In this visibility, even mankind's strongest, within this sealed, bumpy area, could not avoid the strings that attacked at full force from every angle.
Yet, the contractor--
Did not even try to dodge.
Invisible string wrapped around Aikawa-san's body. Hi-chan did not expect this either, and she froze. She looked at Aikawa-san in surprise, and Aikawa-san venomously answered.
"What? Did you want to dodge? Are you seriously still waffling now? Or is it sothing else, like, hahah, you wanted to finish you?"
"... uh, guh."
"Spot on was it? But too bad-. I loooooooove you. So I'm going to go easy on you at the easiest of the easy levels. Don't think I'll kill you that easily. I'm going to warmly loooooove you so that you'll never again be able to get away from . Hah, you're right, soone as stupid as you needs to die once to get fixed."
"Stop, screwing, around-!"
Hi-chan shook tat-tat as she bit down hard on her bottom lip. But that was no longer fear. It was rage -- at Aikawa-san. Or perhaps a warrior's excitent -- as a berserker.
"But you know, you've gotten better, I'll praise you there. You didn't even need to put weights at the end of the strings to throw them this accurately. ... you have a nice career in circuses waiting for you. What are you, Yamashiro Takuya? I can't believe you mastered this pain-in-the-ass skill. Or what is it? Has Hi-chan still not gotten over that?"
She was obviously goading, laughing at Hi-chan. And despite Hi-chan being in an inordinately superior position -- despite being in her own territory, her face twisted at the humiliation of being insulted, and she yelled.
"It's already checkmate, don't you get it, Aikawa-san!"
"Fresh-made Pawns shouldn't howl on their own. Unfortunately for you, I was born a Queen -- including kings, checkmates on lesser pieces don't matter to ."
Hi-chan set her resolve -- and yet for one mont, she hesitated. Still, the mont was nothing more than a single mont, and along with her resolve, she raised both arms at once--
"The end! Your line of thought--"
And then the end--
"Then first, despair. I've been pissed, fucking brat."
And then--, it must have been seeing things, but in a kind way, Aikawa-san smiled-- and then--
"And don't worry. You and I, there's no way we can be cut apart."
2
The end -- right before it was brought down, Hi-chan herself, crumpled to the floor of the hall. Or rather, she seed to have been pulled by the arm she was bringing down, as her upper body was tugged forth, knocking her off balance. With an expression of bewildernt, onto the floor of the hall she clumsily fell, face down.
"..... what? Huh?"
"What's wrong? Didja slip? Hmm?"
Aikawa-san -- of course, was not diced up. With an attitude of complete dominance, she had a thin smile. Hi-chan tried to quickly stand back up, but that failed, too, as if she was struggling with gravity, and once again fell face-first to the floor.
As for Aikawa-san -- it did not seem as though she had done anything. Of course, at this range, there was nothing that Aikawa-san could do. Since she had no projectile weapons, unless she used so sort of ESP, it was impossible for her to do anything to trip Hi-chan--
No.
Did she move a bit?
"It looks like you're using a lot of types of string to mix up the weight and speed and thickness -- but string user attacks always are the sa. In other words, cutting through speed and edge. The sa way you cut bread, I guess. Then there're two main ways of avoiding that -- the first is to move slowly. The other is to move quickly."
It was clearly paradoxical, what Aikawa-san said. Hi-chan paid it no heed, frantically trying to stand up, but every ti, as if she were being pulled by sothing, she would trip and fall without being able to brace herself. As if -- as if she were being manipulated by string you cannot see.
"-- Ah."
"Get it? Ii-tan. Yup, that's it. As long as I'm outside of the zone of string set up right there -- it ans the string that's wrapped around , regardless of where else it might be attached to, ends up at those gloves. Then it's simple, isn't it? Faster than Hi's fingers or arms, that's all I have to do. Stronger than her strength, and faster than her speed."
When I realized it -- again, Aikawa-san was standing in a different place. And at the sa ti, Hi-chan, as if her arms were being pulled, fell down again. It was the sa logic as a leash on a dog. However, Hi-chan just had to move her fingers, that was all the motion she needed. In that sense, Hi-chan's small stature and small reach was perfect for a string user. The speed of the motion to raise and lower her arms is lower than anyone else, so it gave her quite an advantage. By comparison Aikawa-san was not only wrapped entirely in string, but she also had to move her entire body. Because of this, it was not as simple as it may possibly sound.
"The vulnerability for strings as a tool of killing is that there's a ti lag between contact and impact. That ti lag is decisive against . No matter how fast your string is -- it's still one-hundred years too late for . If the speed is the sa, then whoever's stronger wins -- it's the sa as tug-of-war, Ichihi. It's a sha you're weak. Strength is necessary, eh? I don't know how much dangerous string is wrapped around , but as long as I move faster than the string, this is just an accessory. Hah, I toldja this is just a circus act. If all you can kill is sothing immobile, then you can't be a serial murderer, just the sa."
"Sh- shut up-- shut up shut up--" Hi-chan glared at Aikawa-san, still sprawled on the floor. "Th- this--"
Of course. This is impossible. Moving an entire body faster than she can move her fingers is unbelievable. As if Aikawa-san were not fast but rather than I am just slow, as if Aikawa-san were not the one moving and that Hi-chan and I were simply observers, as if this instantaneous movent that was just like ESP were ordinary.
There was no ti lag at all between moving and beginning to move. The start and end were happening at the sa ti. It was not that her action was fast, but rather the action from the action to the action was fast.
"Ahh, ahh. I shoulda figured this is all there is to a brat," Aikawa-san raised her jaw and with a dry, malicious laugh looked down at Hi-chan sprawled on the ground. "I was right, a death match with you is boring, so I'm done."
"Done? Stop ssing around -- if that's the case, I can still work around it!" Hi-chan wailed. "And, even if you can block a direct attack, as long as you can't get inside this zone, Aikawa-san--"
"I said, listen to people. We're connected to the point that you can't even cut us apart, didn't I say that?"
Aikawa-san opened her closed fist, and revealed that stungun. Hi-chan's eyes widened in surprise, but it was too late. There was no chance of recovering string while lying down, and the string was being controlled by Aikawa-san's instantaneous movents anyways. Once Hi-chan realized that, she tried to remove her gloves, but--
As expected, it was too late.
She was a hundred years too slow to take on Aikawa Jun.
Aikawa-san pressed the tip of the stungun into her own arm, and then flicked the switch.
The spark was but a mont -- was not the case.
Before that mont, far before, specifically by the ti Hi-chan had decided to try to take on Aikawa-san, the match had been decided.
Still sprawled out, Hi-chan seed to freeze, as if ti had stopped. Then she jerked and arched like dried seaweed, and froze in that position -- after another mont her body began spewing black smoke, and plopped, like a puppet whose string was cut, back onto the floor. It seed she had completely lost consciousness, but as a natural reaction by her physical body, cramped into jerking motions.
"Jeez... right after I changed, too."
Aikawa-san seed to mourn her clothing, which had been fried and burnt like Hi-chan, and began tearing off bits and pieces. Her shoulder and stomach areas beca bare, so it was quite a pleasant sight, but I had no ti to stare, as I looked at Hi-chan again. Her muscles were still twitching. Especially her fingers, which took the full brunt of the electricity, were twitching pretty nastily. As if each finger had its own mind.
"Guah. I forgot, doesn't have conductivity. A bunch of them are still stuck. This one's Kevlar? Shit, I have to take off this ss? What a pain in the ass."
Aikawa-san grumbled as she un-knotted the string wrapped around her body that had not been fried by the electricity. The string had lost its master for recollection, so it seed to be troubleso. I thought that this sight of Aikawa-san was rather amusing as I asked, "So this was what the stungun was for." It is my job to ask these questions.
"Yeah. Didn't I say so? I needed to drag soone out unhard, or sothing."
"I thought you were talking about ."
"Oh? Why? I would never do such a cruel thing to my beloved Ii-tan."
Aikawa-san was engaging in self-concealnt.
"Well, taking care of short-sighted kids is my part of my job. If I were to take on this Zig Zag normally, I wouldn't be able to avoid hurting her."
This person gets weaker by using weapons.
An explanation may be unnecessary, but -- just in case. Aikawa-san took that palm-sized stungun and hamred electricity into Hi-chan's string, electricity that in her words were enough to knock out two, three days of soone's mories, with the safety restraints removed. She unleashed the absolute limits of its electricity and pumped more voltage than normal. It was no different than touching a high-electricity power line. It was not just a stungun attack... but rather like a gigantic spark that was made using gunpowder. Fireworks were happening at various points along the hall, and even I felt it to so level just by being close, that was how ridiculous the power was.
No matter how resilient those different types of string may be, most could not stand the voltage and amount at the sa ti, and exploded and burnt -- that mont for them to burn was enough. The master would take the maximum amount of damage. Aside from the string that did not conduct electricity, everything beca Aikawa-san's weapon.
If the opponent's card is speed, then to dominate with superior speed. If the opponent uses string, then to use the string against them. Hi-chan felt as though she had trapped Aikawa-san within her spider's nest -- but it was actually the opposite.
No matter how large a nest a spider spins,
Eagles can rip right through it.
"....."
..... of course, that ant that Aikawa Jun, who was connected to the string, was under the sa condition, but in Aikawa-san's case (what was she thinking) she had placed the stungun to her own arm, so she had eaten the sa high-powered, no, you might say she had eaten even more of the high-powered electricity, so this was supposed to be like the conclusion wrought by a suicide terrorist, but Aikawa-san seed to be perfectly fine. Neither her consciousness nor her mories seed to have been flung, and aside from her clothing she did not seem to have taken any damage. Because the underside of the clothing she had switched into was made of a non-conducive strands -- that Aikawa Jun had gone through the effort of changing into it for this purpose... or so sort of explanation like that would make this more reasonable, but I could not imagine this contractor feeling the need to make anything reasonable. This person could probably fly a plane into the barrel of a cannon and co ho safe. Trying to explain sothing unreasonable with reason is self-destructive. The next number of zero is not reason but one.
"Woah! The string got caught! And it's digging into my skin, ow! Hey, you, stop watching and help! Are you so demon!?"
"..............."
I wordlessly walked to Aikawa-san and tediously untied one string at a ti. The tips of my fingers were cut a bit, but I was able to un-knot the string enough for Aikawa-san to be able to move freely.
"Uni-. Thank you Ii-chan. Wa-i. Ii-chan I love you!"
"Stop that."
Seriously, no.
"Nah, but I was just trying to give the cast more equal screenti..."
"Then imitate Akari-san's voice."
"What's with the specific na..."
"... however, for you to be angered. That was unexpected," I said, looking at the fallen Hi-chan. "Not accusing, not forgiving, but just simple anger."
"I hate you! I do not want to even see your face so please die, pig!"
".....?"
"Chiga Akari."
"No, can we drop that?"
Although I was a bit pleased.
"..... Hah. I'm absurdly tolerant, but I've got a short temper. Unlike you. Actually, a week ago I turned into Super Saiyan Jun."
"Huh....."
It may be true.
"It's fun taking on soone like Zerozaki-kun, a simple-minded idiot. But people like you, these dawdling, logic-focused idiots piss off the most."
".... you make it sound like a school-life drama. Although this place does not feel like a high school..."
"Teacher, I just wanted you to look at , or sothing? What era is that drama from? But you know, Ii-tan. It actually doesn't matter, that." Aikawa-san smiled, and continued. "A lecture from wouldn't get through to that. You were the one that finished the lecture. No matter what I say, it'd just co across as an untouchable perspective. It's like walking up to a starving guy and saying thou shalt live with only bread, they'd just be like "fuck off! right? You're in a similar place, so you already ended the lecture. All I had to do was clean up afterwards."
Was that so?
I felt like that was not the case, but if that were the case... then even if just a bit, maybe I was able to save Hi-chan. I, an existence that could not save, and the existence who could not be saved, Hi-chan. Even if that were to be a broken paradox.
"Of course, hahah, no matter what cool line you might spew, you're dressed in a skirt, so it doesn't have any impact."
"If only you stayed silent about this, no one would have to know. ... in any case, it is finally over."
"I said," Aikawa-san lightly punched my head. "Don't try to end things on your own. You know-. Understand this, alright? Life doesn't end even if you die."
"Even if you die," what a fresh opinion.
"Yeah. Even if you die, your effects remain. A true end doesn't exist anywhere. It's the sa for that... but she'll figure it out when she becos a bit more of an adult, maybe? And if you don't get it, just act like you do. That's enough to make a big difference."
"Although I do not want to understand." And then I lowered my gaze to Hi-chan. "... What will Hi-chan do, now? If this school is a dead body, ... but with such a large incident, I feel like it is no longer a question of escaping or being expelled? She killed the dean."
"How should I know? My job was to take Ichihi outside, and after that it'd be overti -- I'd love to say that. But I guess I can't really. It's not like I don't know her, so, I know, I'll just figure sothing out."
"Is that so."
Indeed, this person was soft on friends.
That, however, that was definitely part of what made the strongest the strongest.
"In any case, let's hand her over to the police."
"You're scum!"
"Wahwah! Ikkun got mad! I only said the obvious! Like strip poker, except the tournant is filled with heat and wounds!"
"Can you just drop that!?"
No one could stop Aikawa Jun anymore.
"Kahaha. Well it's a pretty good masterpiece."
This ti, Aikawa-san acted like a human failure as she sat down by Hi-chan's side. And then, looking resigned and saddened, she slid her hand along Hi-chan's sleeping face, as she had finally stopped twitching.
"If you look at her sleeping, she's just a cute brat... jeez. Fucking brat."
She mumbled.
Aikawa-san was like an older sister being lovingly exasperated by a troubleso little sister, and it was a bit heartwarming, I felt. Aikawa-san was absolutely not a kind person, and she was totally not soone who brought happiness, but even so, probably, she was not the type of person who could leave behind a girl like Hi-chan.
"... Hm."
"What is it?"
"Whoops. Her heart's stopped."
"That's an endless sleep!"
Please be careful when handling stunguns.
But seriously.
"Ahh, ahh, how can she just die?"
"What the hell!"
"The suspect is sowhere here!"
"It's only you! And what point was there in taking off the stungun limiter in the first place!? The normal amount was enough for knocking her out!"
"But then the string wouldn't burn up."
It was because taking care of the string was a pain in the butt!
"Don't worry. I'll revive her in a bit... don't get so disheveled. Ii-tan your selling point is your dryness. Take care of your rare characteristic."
She said, as Aikawa-san prepared to start heart massage, but then she looked at , as if she had changed her mind.
"Ii-tan, you wanna try? It's a good chance to gain the title of a pedo."
"Please stop playing with peoples' lives! Please, it is a serious mont!"
"What, no? I guess resuscitation is a bit necrophiliac."
"Yes yes, even I do not have corpses within my allowable bounds -- no, really!"
The user of nonsense, out of pure montum, did a on-and-off jab for the first ti in his life.
"Please stop fooling around! Do you have an illness where you can only be serious for five seconds!?"
"You're so boring... boring. Idiot. Dumbass. I hate Ikkun!"
And then finally, Aikawa-san began rescue operations. As she perford heart massage, I heard the sound of ribs cracking, but that could not be helped, I made myself believe. Five minutes, ten minutes she continued, and then she finally stood up, "alright, done."
"She's revived, she's revived."
"How light..."
Dying and living, killing or being killed, even those things could be re-done or restarted by this mankind's strongest. This went straight past exasperation and into feeling hollow.
Really -- to this person, it was nothing. Acting and lying, counterfeit and fraud, everything and anything, was irrelevant to Aikawa Jun. Even if there were relevancy -- there was no aning.
Aikawa-san lifted Hi-chan onto her back, then stood up.
"Shall I carry her? Jun-san might be tired."
"... Nyah."
Aikawa-san shook her head.
"This is my job."
And carrying Hi-chan on her back, Aikawa-san walked down the halls. I walked next to her, and confird, "in any case, this is the end of one interval."
"This academy no longer has a dean or a strategist -- so all that remains is to escape, correct?"
"…………"
"Why is your response just four three-point ellipses?"
Was she imitating Teruko-san?
Even I can do that.
"No, Ichihi," Aikawa-san said, without looking at . "Was able to manipulate, hide information from the students inside, but it seems she did nothing for outside. There're so people who found out about what happened inside the academy."
"..... what do you an?"
"The alumni of Hanging High School whom are working in Rule right now. Ah, and the Origami household's smarties. And of course everyone who supports Sumiyuri Academy around the country."
"Why are you saying this all of a sudden?"
"If everyone is gathered outside the school gate."
"..........."
Was... that why she was late in changing?
Then, right now the first floor, would be the biggest problem...
"Oh well. Ti to clean up after the party. Let's charge through like a bold hurricane right up front before they start pouring in."
Aikawa-san said, enjoying this, and walked down the dark, low-visibility hallway. Leisurely, truly in an open-hearted manner, without any trace of anxiety, she walked.
"-- you make laugh."
I simply, simply followed behind that mankind's strongest, with a sigh mixed with sothing like nonsense.
Noritsukkomi in Japanese, ans to go with the fool's joke for a mont and then imdiately shoot the straightman line.
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