"Kasumigaoka-san, ohayou gozaimasu!"
"Ohayou."
"Winter-sensei, good morning~!"
"Ah… ohayou.""..."
From the moment Kasumigaoka Touji set foot on school grounds that Monday morning, he was the center of an orbiting constellation of attention. The news that he was the culinary and musical sensation 'Winter' had fully metastasized across the campus forum over the weekend. It wasn't just idle gossip anymore; it was accepted fact.
This time, Kani Nayuta got swept up in the spotlight as well. Her secret identity as the author of the popular light novel 'Silver Season' had been thoroughly outed.
Upon arriving at the entrance of First-Year Class G—
Kasumigaoka Touji was immediately treated like a visiting celebrity. A small crowd had already gathered. Some enterprising, or perhaps just starstruck, students had even brought brand new notebooks specifically to ask for his autograph. Then, as if a dam had broken, a wave of imitation followed—or maybe it was just the infectious energy of the crowd. They were… too enthusiastic.
"Ooh~! Kani Nayuta-sensei is here! Can I… can I also get your autograph? I really, really love 'Silver Season'!"
"Eh…?"
"Uhh… okay!"
"Please… just a moment…"
Kani Nayuta blinked in surprise at the unfamiliar female student who had approached her, a mixture of fluster and a faint, warm pleasure coloring her cheeks. She agreed, her voice a little soft. She placed her school bag and the two cloth totes she was carrying onto her desk (seat 13), then accepted the proffered pen and notebook.
"Thank you for your support!" she murmured, signing her pen name with a practiced yet slightly self-conscious flourish before handing them back.
Aida Rina took the notebook with a bright smile, glanced at the signature, and hugged it to her chest. Her eyes then drifted curiously to the several plush toys peeking out of the totes on the desk. "Are these…?"
"Hmm… they're some small return gifts for my friends in the club," Kani Nayuta explained.
"Kani Nayuta-sensei, could I get an autograph too…?" Another student materialized at her elbow, pen and notebook in hand.
"Uhh… sure!" She took them, still not quite accustomed to this new level of attention.
"..."
Kasumigaoka Touji glanced through the throng of bodies in Kani Nayuta's direction. Thanks to her arrival, the pressure around him had eased somewhat, the human wall thinning as some diverted to the new 'celebrity.'
His gaze, cool and analytical, swept across the classroom to another corner, where a cluster of gyaru girls—their uniforms modified, makeup heavy, and postures deliberately casual—held court. A faint, cold smirk touched his lips.
He focused his will, the newly acquired power thrumming quietly within him. [Taunt].
He targeted the ringleader of the pack, the one with the deepest tan and the most aggressive makeup: Inohara Miyako.
The effect was instantaneous.
"THAT'S ENOUGH!"
A furious, ear-splitting shriek ripped through the classroom's morning chatter, silencing everyone instantly. All heads snapped towards the source.
They saw Inohara Miyako, her face twisted with inexplicable rage, screaming at a utterly bewildered Takahashi Yako, who had been standing right next to her.
"So what if you managed to line up a couple of ikemen to go on a trip with you during Golden Week!? You're so damn annoying! What is there to brag about!?"
She took a step forward, her voice dripping with venomous contempt. "You're just a slut who loves throwing orgies! You think I don't know!?"
The explosive, filthy content of the accusation, delivered with such vicious, public audacity, left the entire class dumbstruck. A stunned silence descended, broken only by the faint, shocked intake of breaths.
Throwing… orgies?
We're all high school students… are they already playing at that level?
Even Kasumigaoka Touji, the instigator, felt a jolt of genuine surprise. Well. That escalated quickly.
"I-Inohara! What the hell are you spouting!? Who loves orgies!? What's wrong with you!?"
Takahashi Yako, backstabbed out of nowhere, felt the blood rush to her head. Her vision swam, her ears buzzed. She staggered back a step, her face deathly pale with shock and fury. Her chest heaved violently, and her finger trembled as she pointed accusingly at her former friend. She looked on the verge of passing out from sheer rage.
"Heh." Inohara Miyako planted a hand on her hip, thrust out her chest, and delivered an utterly disdainful sneer. "Talking nonsense? You dare to do it but won't admit it! How dare you come show off in front of me, you trash!"
"Inohara, what's going on with you and Yako-chan? Why are you slandering her like this?"
Akizuki Yuna, another member of their circle, finally found her voice, utterly confused by the sudden, nuclear meltdown. They'd been chatting normally just seconds ago. How did it turn into this? The ship of friendship hadn't just capsized; it had exploded and sunk in the harbor without warning. One second smiling, the next stabbing with a verbal knife aimed straight for the heart…
Akizuki Yuna felt a cold trickle of fear towards Inohara Miyako. At the same time, she tried to play peacemaker, to smooth things over. Otherwise, Takahashi Yako would be socially obliterated.
"Akizuki," Inohara Miyako's head swiveled, her gaze landing on the mediator with the same terrifying intensity, "it's not your place, a compensated dating girl, to lecture me!"
Another feather-light sentence. Another direct hit.
The classroom erupted into a fresh wave of whispers.
"En… enjo kosai?"
"Is that true? Is Akizuki doing that?"
Several boys looked at Akizuki Yuna—with her very put-together appearance, great figure, and bold fashion sense that showed ample cleavage and thigh—with suddenly very subtle, calculating expressions.
I wonder how much it would cost to 'assist' this 'poor' classmate… Do classmates get a discount?
"INO HARA MI YA KO—!"
Akizuki Yuna, her pretty face now ashen, completely lost her composure. Her hand lashed out in a vicious slap across Inohara's cheek. "You've really lost your mind! Biting anyone you see now, huh!?"
"I'll teach you to spout nonsense!" Takahashi Yako, the first victim, saw her opening and immediately pounced, her hands going straight for Inohara Miyako's meticulously styled hair.
"Who's spouting nonsense!? You two dare to do it but won't admit it, is that it!?" Inohara Miyako, seemingly fueled by supernatural aggression, showed no fear, fighting back against both of them. The three gyaru devolved into a shrieking, slapping, hair-pulling wrestling match right there between the desks.
"U-uhm… everyone, calm down! Please stop fighting!" As the class representative, Asakawa Saori knew she had to step in, however reluctantly. It was her duty. She looked around frantically. "Everyone, come help! Separate them!"
"Hai!" Several other class officers and Asakawa's friends responded, moving forward to intervene.
Just as they closed in, Takahashi Yako, in a move of sheer, furious desperation, suddenly squatted down and yanked Inohara Miyako's short, pleated skirt straight down to her ankles.
"I'LL TEACH YOU TO TALK NONSENSE, YOU FILTHY BITCH!"
"..."
The surroundings plunged into a dead, horrified silence.
Every eye in the vicinity was involuntarily drawn to Inohara Miyako's exposed lower half. They saw the skin of her buttocks was tanned the same deep, uniform brown as the rest of her body. Only a minuscule, neon-pink triangle of fabric in the center preserved the last shred of her dignity.
The boys' eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets. They instinctively tried to look away, but their gazes, as if pulled by a magnet, kept drifting back…
The girls present mentally cursed 'kuso onna!' but rushed forward with renewed urgency, finally managing to pull the three screaming, scratching harpies apart.
At that exact moment, the one-minute duration of [Taunt] expired. Inohara Miyako's mind cleared in an instant.
Realizing what she had just said, what she had just done, and what had just been done to her, she froze. Then, a wave of utter panic, confusion, helplessness, and shame washed over her. Flustered and trembling, she yanked her skirt back up, her face a mask of mortified horror.
"Inohara… you just wait! This isn't over!" Akizuki Yuna shot her a final, venomous glare, then turned and stormed out of the classroom, her face buried in her hands.
Takahashi Yako followed, throwing one last hate-filled look over her shoulder before fleeing the scene.
"..."
Inohara Miyako stood alone in the middle of the classroom, surrounded by the wreckage of her social life, looking utterly lost and alone.
And all around her, the classroom buzzed back to life, not with morning greetings, but with the frenzied, hushed, scandalized discussion of what had just transpired.
Kasumigaoka Touji calmly withdrew his gaze from the ruined gyaru. She messed with Kani Nayuta once. I messed with her once. Fair's fair.
He felt not a twinge of guilt over Akizuki Yuna and Takahashi Yako being caught in the crossfire. From what had just been revealed, none of them were exactly paragons of virtue. Their own dirty laundry was now flapping in the public breeze.
Still, he had to admit he was taken aback. He hadn't expected the girls in this particular circle to be quite so… adventurous. It was genuinely shocking.
Although Inohara Miyako's own specific secrets hadn't been aired, Kasumigaoka Touji could make an educated guess. Birds of a feather…
He shook his head, a quiet sigh escaping his lips as he finally took his seat, the morning's drama settling around him.
"The gyaru circle… is truly a chaotic mess."