The next day started exactly the same as the previous one. Kenji didn't even realize he was going through his routine—whenever he tried to think of something else, his mind would drift to a certain someone. Before long, he was at the school entrance performing his checking duties.
He was consciously thinking of Saki and subconsciously doing his tasks when he had to swap those two, as Saki and her friends appeared in their disheveled forms.
"Shit, he's here!" Saki whispered loudly to her friends. However, it was audible to every student around them.
'Finally! Not a curse word nickname this time :D' Kenji thought, only for Saki to audibly add,
"Fucker."
';-;'
"Fix your appearance," Kenji said, his face remaining cool and indifferent.
Hearing this, all three just glared angrily at Kenji before complying. Then they started to walk away.
'How happy I would be if she would say those four letters + "you" to me.' Kenji started to shift his conscious and subconscious tasks once again, but before he could do so—
"Fuck you."
Saki turned around for a second, said that, then turned back and left.
'...'
◆◇◆
The next three school days went exactly like that. Kenji would stop Saki's gang, fix their appearance, and earn curses. Once, he again had to stop them from smoking, but there wasn't as much resistance as the first time—though the rage in Saki's eyes was more intense.
The following day, just as lunch break began, Saki was in the mood to eat something.
"Hey, Piggy!" she called out to a student who was relatively overweight but not excessively so. The student turned around to look and say something, but before he could, Saki continued.
"Go get me a bun."
Hearing this, the student wanted to refuse, but Saki's threatening expression was enough to scare him, not to mention Daiki and Yume appearing behind her.
"Y-Yes! Of course!" he mumbled, looking at Saki nervously.
"So? What are you waiting for? Go!"
"U-Um... I—"
"You got all day or something?!"
"MONEY! I mean, what about the money?" the student said, only for Saki to frown.
"Huh? Daiki, Yume, look at this guy!" Saki said, her face returning to a smirk.
"I'M SORRY! I'M GOING TO GET IT!" the student spoke terrifyingly before running off.
However, as the student was going to get the buns for Saki, he saw hope. The famous "Bully Killer Kenji" was walking nearby. There were rumors that Saki's gang didn't even mention his name due to fear. The student ran in front of him and said, "Nakayama-san! Help!"
"Hmm?" Kenji responded.
"Tanaka-san! She's making me buy her buns! Please help!" the student said very quickly.
Hearing this, Kenji wondered whether she was bullying him or if it was just a favor. But he didn't think long—this was a chance to give Saki something and improve his reputation, which was probably at rock bottom right now for some unknown reason.
"Ah, okay. Go do whatever you were doing. I'll take care of this," Kenji replied to the student as he turned around and went to buy buns.
"Thanks a lot!" the student called from behind.
◆◇◆
Kenji located Saki and her friends in the school courtyard and approached them with a bun in one hand and his own lunch in the other.
Yume was the first to notice him. "Ugh. Nerd's here," she said to the others. Then Saki and Daiki also turned around and made disgusted groan and "Tch" sounds.
Kenji ignored all that and approached them, stopping in front of Saki.
"What? We don't have any cigarettes today, and you can clearly see our appearance is fine, so go fuck yourself," Saki said.
"I know. I'm here to give you this," Kenji said, holding the bun out toward Saki.
In Kenji's mind, the current scene was straight out of a romance anime.
In Saki's mind, the scene was from a shounen.
She interpreted Kenji's action as clear mockery and a threat.
"...That fucking pig snitched!" Saki said before storming off with Yume and Daiki.
Kenji just stood there for a moment, thinking,
'...Was it too early for a gift?'
Then Kenji left to finish his lunch and the bun himself.
◆◇◆
Elsewhere, Saki was now boiling with rage.
"Okay, that asshole is definitely stalking us!" she said.
"Yeah, I think so too. He keeps appearing every break whenever we're 'breaking some rule,'" Yume added.
"Hmm, it's quite plausible. 93% probability, to be exact," Daiki said, trying to act cool but being ignored.
Saki thought for a second before saying, "I think he has some personal problem with us—specifically me."
"Maybe that, or he's just an idiot trying to play hero," Yume said.
"Whatever it is, he messed with the wrong person," Saki declared.
"What are we gonna do then? We're clearly outmatched in fighting," Daiki said as his thoughts replayed his fight with Kenji. He hated Kenji, but he respected his fighting ability. He was about to suggest they train together when Saki said with a wicked smile,
"Let's set a trap! He follows us anyway."
Daiki didn't like this method much, but he agreed.
That evening, all three of them planned on their smartphones. They didn't want to kill Kenji, but they wanted to strip him of his reputation. After much discussion, they settled on a plan: they would stage a fake emergency to lure Kenji to the back of the school building, where they'd prepared a bucket of muddy water positioned to fall on him when he opened a maintenance door. Daiki would film it for evidence of his humiliation.
◆◇◆
The next day, they reached school with their appearance almost perfect.
As Kenji saw them approach, he didn't stop them. Although Saki's skirt was still shorter than regulation allowed, she'd already been warned, so he was giving her time to get a proper replacement.
During lunch break, Daiki went to find Kenji eating his lunch alone. Daiki approached Kenji, trying to look as sincere as possible.
"Nakayama-san, can you help me with something?" he said.
'...That's clearly acting,' Kenji thought before saying, "With what?"
"It's about Saki. She's—" Daiki began, but Kenji immediately stood up.
"Let's go," Kenji said, closing his lunchbox and leaving it behind.
Daiki had planned to say that Saki was in some kind of trouble near the maintenance building. With Kenji cutting him off, Daiki thought Kenji had understood the urgency just from hearing Saki's name.
Kenji, however, got a completely different picture. He thought Saki was in danger.
Daiki led Kenji toward the back of the school building, where Saki and Yume were hidden around the corner. The plan was for Daiki to get Kenji to open the maintenance door, triggering the bucket to fall on him while Yume filmed it.
However, as they approached the area, Kenji's instincts kicked in. Something felt wrong about the situation—Daiki's nervous energy, the overly convenient timing, the isolated location. Instead of going directly to the door as Daiki expected, Kenji stopped and scanned the area.
"Where exactly is she?" Kenji asked suspiciously.
"Just—just around the corner, by the maintenance door," Daiki stammered.
Kenji's eyes narrowed. He could sense movement from around the corner and realized this was likely a setup. However, his concern for Saki overrode his caution. He moved quickly around the corner—but instead of walking into their trap, he approached from an unexpected angle.
Saki and Yume, positioned to watch the door, were caught off guard when Kenji appeared beside them. Yume fumbled with her phone while Saki, startled, accidentally knocked over the bucket they'd prepared. Muddy water splashed everywhere, soaking Saki's uniform and shoes.
Seeing Saki covered in dirty water, Kenji immediately sprang into action. Without thinking, he removed his blazer and wrapped it around her shoulders to keep her warm, then used his handkerchief to try cleaning the mud from her face.
'No no no, what if she gets a cold????'
"Are you hurt? What happened here?" he asked with genuine concern.
The entire scene had happened so fast that Saki, Daiki, and Yume couldn't even process what had gone wrong with their plan.
Realizing that their trap had not only failed but had backfired spectacularly, and that Kenji was now treating her like a victim after recognizing the setup to mock her, Saki's embarrassment and anger reached a boiling point. She tried to punch Kenji, who was still fussing over her condition.
Kenji caught her fist gently. "You should get to the nurse's office and clean up properly. Do you need help getting there?"
That was the final straw. Saki, now soaked, humiliated, and wearing Kenji's blazer, ran off in a mixture of anger and shame as Yume and Daiki followed her.
Kenji just stood there, still holding his muddy handkerchief, thinking,
'I hope she will be okay...'
Saki later burned Kenji's blazer. He didn't ask for it back either.