“Me?”
Shiki pointed at himself, looking completely confused.
(Why did the conversation suddenly shift to me?)
However, with the entire class staring at him, he had to say something…
He decided to be humble.
“Uh…
I’m not very good with words, so maybe I should just pass.”
“It’s fine.
Just say whatever is on your mind.
Don’t hold back,” Yukimura encouraged him, fully believing that the guy with the perfect score was on his side.
“Well, alright then…”
Shiki sighed, looking slightly troubled.
He originally didn’t want to say anything, but since he was already put on the spot…
“I don’t have any complaints about being placed in Class D.
In a way, the school’s sorting system is completely reasonable.
After all, this school is basically a store selling products.
They obviously can’t sell defective goods.
So it makes perfect sense that defective products discovered during quality control are sorted out and thrown into the reject bin.”
Hearing Shiki’s words, Yukimura Teruhiko froze.
It took him a long moment to process the meaning, and when he did, he asked in sheer disbelief, “W-What do you mean by that?”
“Hmm?
I thought I explained it pretty clearly.
Do you want me to use different words?”
Shiki put on a thoughtful expression.
“Alright, I’ll be blunt.
Trash should act like trash.
Staying quietly in the trash can and not ruining other people’s lives seems to be our greatest value.”
“Therefore, I actually feel incredibly comforted being around you guys.
Every time I look at your ugly, unhinged, and shameless behavior, I feel my soul being cleansed.
It makes me realize that I’m actually not that bad of a person.”
The air in the classroom turned completely dead.
Everyone stared blankly at this guy who looked so innocent but spat the most vicious, venomous insults imaginable.
For a moment, nobody knew how to react.
“Aren’t you angry?!
Why are you accepting this so easily?!
And what the hell is that supposed to mean?!” Yukimura felt his brain short circuiting.
He found Shiki completely incomprehensible.
“Angry?
Why would I be angry?”
Question marks popped up over Shiki’s head.
He thought about it for a few seconds before finally understanding Yukimura’s logic.
“Oh, I get it.
You think that because my grades are so good, I should share your mindset, right?”
Yukimura stared at him blankly, unable to respond.
Shiki continued without a care, “Then you’ve completely misunderstood me.
My mindset is somewhat similar to Koenji’s, but also the exact opposite…
How should I explain it?
If Koenji views himself as absolutely perfect and loves himself to an extreme degree, then I view myself incredibly lowly.
I don’t think I’m anything special.
So being classified as trash is something I can accept peacefully.
The only thing I’m actually upset about is the points.” (TL:Bruh, what did my boy went through lol~ kinda edgy but still funny)
BANG—!
A heavy, violent crash shattered the dead silence of the classroom, startling everyone.
They all turned toward the source of the noise.
Sudou Ken had violently kicked his desk.
The metal legs screeched agonizingly against the floor, and several textbooks tumbled to the ground.
Sudou stood up abruptly, glaring furiously at Shiki.
“You bastard!
Are you looking down on us?!
You’re calling all of us trash!”
Shiki blinked, looking genuinely confused.
“Why are you so angry?
Did I say something factually incorrect?”
He put on a troubled expression.
“If me calling you trash offended you, I can apologize.”
“What did you just say?!”
Sudou flew into a blind rage.
His eyes went wide, looking as if he was going to charge over and beat Shiki to a pulp in the next second.
His violent aura terrified the students sitting near him.
“I said you are trash.
What’s the problem?
Do you want me to repeat it?
Or is your hearing failing, and you need me to speak louder?”
Shiki felt a real headache coming on.
The people in Class D can’t even understand basic human speech.
How is he supposed to communicate with them?
(Oh wait, I don’t plan on communicating with them anyway.
Never mind then.)
Hearing himself being looked down upon again, Sudou could no longer hold back his explosive temper.
He charged forward like a fired cannonball.
“Ahhh!!”
The students sitting in his path screamed in panic and scrambled out of the way, terrified of getting caught in Sudou’s rampage.
Shiki just sat obediently in his seat.
He didn’t react at all, looking almost as if he was too scared to move.
Behind him, Ayanokoji’s body instinctively tensed up.
Beneath his uniform, his muscles tightened, turning as hard as solid rock.
Horikita sat perfectly still in her seat, her cold eyes locked onto the charging Sudou.
However, just as the fight was about to break out, Hirata Yousuke suddenly rushed over from nowhere.
He tackled Sudou from behind, locking his arms around him in a tight bear hug, stopping him dead in his tracks.
He managed to firmly anchor the massive, muscular Sudou in place, completely halting his charge.
“Let me go!
I’m going to beat the crap out of this guy!”
“Sudou-kun, calm down!
We are in school!
This isn’t a place for fighting!
If you throw a punch, there’s a very high chance you’ll be expelled!”
Hirata desperately held onto the violently struggling Sudou, screaming at the top of his lungs to analyze the risks and force him to stop.
Hearing the word ‘expelled,’ a sliver of reason returned to Sudou’s bloodshot eyes, and his struggling noticeably weakened.
Chabashira calmly added, “Sudou, let me remind you.
Advanced Nurturing High School strictly forbids fighting and bullying.
Especially right in front of a teacher.”
“Hmph!
Consider yourself lucky, you bastard…”
Sudou calmed down slightly, using the teacher’s warning as an excuse to back down.
“I don’t know if I’m lucky or not, but I do know that if Hirata hadn’t stopped you just now, you’d be packing your bags and rolling out of this school in about five minutes.”
Shiki let out a sleepy yawn.
“What did you say?!
I dare you to say that again!”
Sudou instantly exploded again.
Hirata, who had just let go, was forced to put him in another desperate chokehold.
“I thought you were just a meathead with a simple brain, but it seems your ears are broken too.
Even though I usually don’t mind repeating myself, doing it too much is exhausting.”
Not giving Sudou a chance to keep raging, Shiki said calmly, “Why are you so angry?
Do you even have a right to be mad?
I’m the one who should be furious here.”
“Ever since school started in April, I have behaved perfectly in class.
I haven’t been late, I haven’t zoned out, I haven’t played on my phone, and I haven’t whispered to anyone.
I have focused 100% on listening to the teacher.
And the result?
I get zero points.
No matter how you look at it, I am the biggest victim here, and I have the most right to be angry.
What exactly are you mad about?” (TL:Yeah, talk to them, king)
“How many times did you arrive on time in April?
How many times did you stay awake?
How many times did you actually keep your mouth shut?
I didn’t even blame you for any of that, so why are you the one throwing a temper tantrum?”
Hearing this, the expressions of everyone in the room turned incredibly awkward.
It was true.
Looking at it objectively, Shiki was the biggest victim.
He hadn’t done a single thing wrong, yet he was collectively punished because of everyone else.
No matter how you thought about it, he had every right to feel wronged.
Sudou wasn’t buying it.
He immediately shot back, “You literally called us…”
“Called you trash, right?”
Shiki cut him off smoothly, putting on a perfectly innocent expression.
“But did I say anything wrong?
If you aren’t trash, why did we get this score?
Why are our points zero?
Even Class C, who got second to last, only lost about half their points.
But our Class D got a massive goose egg.
Is there a single flaw in my logic?”
“Besides, I even admitted that I’m trash too.
I launched an indiscriminate attack on the entire class, including myself.
I didn’t specifically target you, did I?”
Shiki’s impassioned, fully justified speech echoed through the classroom.
Nobody made a sound.
After all, when the guy insulting them had already dragged himself through the mud right alongside them, what was there left to argue about?
Sudou choked.
“I…
I…”
Hearing it put like that, it really did seem like he was overreacting.
Shiki had indiscriminately attacked everyone, including himself.
“Ah, I understand how you feel, Sudou.”
Shiki looked at him with an incredibly understanding, gentle smile.
“Because you hate studying, you belittle everything related to it.
You hate the basic rules of society, so you adopt a rebellious mindset just for the sake of being contrary.
The more people want you to follow the rules, the more you rebel against them.
To you, acting out is the only way to barely hold up your fragile, crumbling ego.”
“Whether it’s being late to class or acting violently, you know full well that your behavior disgusts your classmates.
But you refuse to change.
You convince yourself that the disgusted looks they give you are their fault.
‘They are looking down on me, it’s not my problem.'”
“You don’t want people to look down on you, yet you willingly act like garbage.
When you realize people are disgusted by you, you stubbornly blame them.
It’s a completely childish mindset of wanting to have your cake and eat it too.
Going around in circles like this forever…
Sudou, do you know what your behavior looks like?”
Sudou stared blankly and shook his head.
Shiki grinned widely.
“It’s like falling in love with a prostitute and then getting angry that she’s not a pure, innocent maiden!
You thirst for their bodies, but then complain that they’re dirty!
You’re nothing but a pathetic hypocrite!” (TL:Oof, what a burn)
Silence.
A silence so deep you could hear everyone’s breathing.
Everyone stared at the eloquently speaking Shiki in absolute shock, as if meeting this quiet, invisible classmate for the very first time.
You piece of shit!
I’ll kill you!”
Sudou completely lost his mind.
He thrashed violently against Hirata’s grip, his eyes bloodshot and his breathing ragged.
He looked exactly like a rabid, raging bull.
“Calm down, Sudou-kun!
You need to calm down!”
Hirata screamed until his voice cracked, desperately holding Sudou back.
He then turned his desperate plea toward Shiki, who still looked completely unfazed.
“Tsugikuni-kun, please stop talking!
Please don’t provoke Sudou-kun anymore!
If this keeps up, we won’t be able to get along as a class!”
“Get along?
Who wants to get along with him?
Do you honestly think he possesses any value that makes him worth getting along with?” Shiki looked genuinely confused.
Hirata choked.
“E-Even so…
we’re all classmates…”
“Classmates?
Is that supposed to be some kind of intimate, sacred bond?
Being ‘classmates’ is just a necessary sorting process, no different from separating recyclables from actual garbage.
It’s not worth anything.”
Shiki cut him off ruthlessly.
“B-But…”
“Hirata, with what kind of resolve are you saying these things?
I admit you are a genuinely good guy, but you are way too stubborn about certain things.
To you…” Shiki stared at him with calm, bottomless eyes.
“As long as everyone stays ‘together,’ everything is fine, right?
You don’t care if people actually like each other.
You don’t care how chaotic the class environment gets.
As long as everyone peacefully makes it through these three years exactly the way you want them to, you’ll be completely satisfied.
Isn’t that right?”
Hirata’s entire body froze.
His grip loosened for a split second, almost letting Sudou break free, but he instantly snapped back and locked him down again.
“Hey!
Isn’t that enough already?!”
An unexpected voice rang out from somewhere in the classroom.
Everyone turned to look and saw Karuizawa Kei, the leader of the class’s gyaru group, standing up with a highly displeased expression.
Seeing this, many confused students suddenly understood.
They had been wondering who could possibly be stupid enough to step into the line of fire after watching Shiki completely massacre Sudou and Hirata.
But since it was Karuizawa, it made sense.
(TL:Kewk)
Shortly after school started, Karuizawa Kei had started dating Hirata Yousuke, the most popular guy in class.
She was obviously standing up for her boyfriend.
Her gyaru group held massive influence in the class, arguably second only to Hirata and Kushida.
But unlike those two, who used gentle, friendly approaches, Karuizawa was aggressive, domineering, and unreasonable.
Very few people in class dared to cross her.
Many bloodthirsty students who loved watching drama unfold eagerly waited for the incoming clash of titans.
“Regardless of anything else, Yousuke is helping you!
He’s protecting you from Sudou’s fists!
Do you really have to say such horrible things to him?!”
Karuizawa’s words sounded aggressive, but the actual content was surprisingly weak.
It made many students drop their jaws.
They seriously wondered if they had misheard her.
Was this really the same arrogant, bossy gyaru they knew?
“Hmm?”
Shiki’s attention successfully shifted.
The moment his dead panda eyes locked onto her, Karuizawa Kei’s arms and legs subconsciously went weak.
The sheer panic exploding in her heart almost made her collapse into her chair.
He stared at her for a moment before suddenly smiling.
“If I were you, I would just stay completely quiet.
A mask that isn’t supported by reality is nothing but a castle in the sky.
If you aren’t careful, someone might just rip it right off and expose your true face.
Don’t you agree?”
Karuizawa Kei began to tremble violently.
“I heard you and Hirata are dating, right?
Even though Hirata and I haven’t spoken more than a few words before today, I genuinely believe I understand him much better than you do.”
To Karuizawa, Shiki’s smile looked exactly like that of a terrifying demon.
A freezing chill shot up her spine, turning her entire body ice cold.
“Hirata isn’t like a certain monkey who spends all day acting like he’s in heat.
To him, the most important thing is keeping the ‘class’ perfectly intact.
You understand what I mean, don’t you?”
“So don’t panic and try to play the ‘beauty saving the hero’ the second you feel your shield wavering.
It’s a bad look.”
(He…
He knows that my relationship with Hirata is fake?!
Does he even know the reason why?!)
(Could he have been from my middle school?!)
Karuizawa Kei trembled in absolute terror.
Her pupils shook violently.
She didn’t even realize when she had completely collapsed back into her chair.
Aside from a very small handful of students who looked thoughtful, the vast majority of the class had absolutely no idea what had just happened.
All they saw was Shiki completely silencing the terrifying Karuizawa with just a few sentences.
A deep, inexplicable fear of Tsugikuni Shiki instantly took root in their hearts.
On top of his perfect grades and amazing athletic ability, a brand new, terrifying tag was firmly attached to him: Absolutely Ruthless Tongue.
(TL:kewk)
(TL:such a funny chapter lmao)