Time seemed to freeze at this moment.
Shiina Taki watched the violent scene before her in disbelief, her mind blank. The classmate who had been laughing and chatting just moments ago had, in the blink of an eye, punched the school doctor, who was a head taller than her, flying across the room.
Takagi Naoko licked the corner of her mouth, her gaze sweeping over the unconscious school doctor slumped on the office desk. A hint of unfulfilled brutality flashed in her eyes. She seemed to want to step forward and inflict more on this target who had already lost its threat.
"Stop!" Taki took a sudden step forward, her body trembling slightly from the dual effects of fear and adrenaline, but her eyes were fixed on Takagi Naoko.
"Your target is me, isn't it? Don't drag innocent people into this!"
Takagi Naoko's movements paused. She tilted her head, looking at Taki with interest.
"Oh? Shiina-san is finally willing to… look at me properly?" She sneered, her voice filled with a morbid sense of satisfaction. "How touching, but unfortunately, it's too late."
She slowly turned around, fully facing Taki, leaving the unconscious school doctor behind her.
"Do you know, Shiina Taki?" Takagi Naoko began, her voice no longer a hysterical shriek, but a chilling coldness that seeped into the bones, as if she were narrating a story unrelated to herself. "Ever since I was little, I was always the 'filler'."
Her gaze seemed to pierce through Taki, looking towards a distant, dim past.
"In class photos, I always stood at the very edge, my smile stiff, like the one who would be cropped out next second. The center of my friends' conversations would never be me; I just echoed their laughter from the side, making sure I was still in that circle."
"'Oh, Takagi? Hmm… she's pretty easy to get along with, right?' — This was the most common evaluation people had of me. Plain, unremarkable, like a pale background, existing only to highlight the vibrancy of others."
She took a small step forward, her voice particularly clear in the silence.
"I wasn't content being a background. I also wanted to be the focus of everyone's attention." A hint of uncontrollable venom began to seep into her voice. "So, before entering Haneoka Junior High, I meticulously crafted a perfect plan."
The girl's lips curved into a self-satisfied arc.
"I spent a whole month. Taking advantage of the lax management in the staff room, I obtained the roster of all new first-year students. Over two hundred names, over two hundred files."
"I was like the most diligent detective, searching for all kinds of information — their past schools, clubs, social platforms, even snippets of conversation from their neighbors — to understand them."
"Their likes, dislikes, family backgrounds, personality weaknesses… I knew everything like the back of my hand."
Takagi's eyes gleamed with a nearly fanatical light.
"I was twelve parts confident that within one semester… no, within one month, I would become the center of the class, the dazzling Takagi Naoko whom everyone needed and loved!"
"And things went just as I expected. Just two weeks into school, I achieved it!"
"I knew how to cater to everyone's topics, how to comfort people just right, and how to display the 'cuteness' and 'understanding' they wanted to see. I successfully wove a net, ensnaring most people… except for you, Shiina Taki."
Her gaze suddenly refocused on Taki's face, filled with feigned astonishment and confusion.
"You're so unsociable, you curl up like a hedgehog, living in your own world, as if battling something invisible. You don't even bother to understand who the people around you are."
"But why? Why do everyone's eyes still unconsciously linger on you? Discussing the new members of the brass band, talking about new developments in the brass band you're in… simply because you're 'Shiina Maki's younger sister'!"
Takagi Naoko's voice suddenly rose, laced with deep pain: "How wonderful… to have such an excellent sister, you don't have to do anything, and a halo automatically appears! And me? I sacrificed all my free time, lived up to everyone's ideal friend, yet I still can't compare to your inherent 'identity'! Is that fair?!"
She took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing her surging emotions, but the darkness in her eyes grew even thicker.
"But I won't give up. I believe effort can change everything, I believe time will prove who truly deserves attention. I told myself, there's always tomorrow!"
Takagi Naoko's expression instantly became extremely gloomy, as if seized by the deepest nightmare.
"Until two years ago… that night."
Her voice dropped, carrying a trance-like murmur.
"To capture the most beautiful super full moon, I set up my best equipment, adjusting the parameters… Then, I saw it. The moon… shattered."
Her pupils widened slightly, as if she was seeing that terrifying yet magnificent sight again.
"A crack, blooming from the center of the full moon, and what poured out wasn't moonlight, but stars! Like a roaring, brilliant torrent of a stellar river!"
"In that moment, I forgot to breathe, deeply drawn in by that indescribable beauty… But the next instant, that torrent poured into my eyes, into my mind! I saw… my [Future]."
Takagi Naoko's body began to tremble slightly, not from fear, but from a bone-deep despair and anger.
"No matter how hard I try! No matter how much sweat, how much effort I put in! In that future… I am still just a not-so-faint color on the background!"
"At class reunions, conversations about me would be over in a few words: 'Oh, Takagi, she went to an ordinary university later, right?' 'Yeah, just an ordinary person.' And you? Shiina Taki!"
Her finger suddenly pointed at Taki, her fingertip white from the force.
"In that future, everyone is talking about you! 'Taki works so hard,' 'Taki's performance in the brass band is amazing,' 'Taki actually quit the club, does she have a new goal?'…"
"Why, why? You're so reclusive, so unlikable! Why do you get to be the center of attention? Just because you have a good sister? Just because of that damned [innate talent]?!"
Takagi Naoko let out a low growl like a wounded beast, the last shred of rationality in her eyes devoured by madness.
"I don't believe it! I don't believe that [Future] cannot be changed!" she shrieked, her voice echoing in the small infirmary.
"I started to imitate you! Your hairstyle, your clothes, your taciturnity! I even followed you into the brass band, imitating your every expression, every movement during practice! I wanted to become you! I wanted to possess your [quality] that attracts attention!"
Her expression was contorted, filled with the pain of self-loathing.
"But the more I imitated, the more desperate I became… I saw the insurmountable chasm between us — that's not something effort can bridge! That's [talent]! It's something ingrained in the bones from birth! And you, and your dazzling sister, you were born to stand in the spotlight! Why?!"
Resentment, jealousy, and unwillingness, like thick venom, settled, condensed, and fermented in her heart day after day.
It was in this extreme darkness, in the darkest recesses of her mind, that a cold and brilliant light quietly emerged — a fragment that came with the torrent, deeply embedded in her soul.
It responded to the girl's twisted, extreme desire, granting her the longed-for, unique brilliance that belonged only to her.
"But…"
The girl's voice suddenly became unusually calm, a dead silence after all emotions had been incinerated.
"The [Future]… it's like a script already written. No matter what I do, no matter how I struggle, I cannot change that predetermined trajectory… I will never become the protagonist."
She looked at Taki, her eyes hollow, yet burning with the last flicker of destructive fire.
Having faced Takagi Naoko's hysteria, how could Taki not understand her despair? She too had always lived in the shadow of her dazzling sister's brilliance, so how could she not understand the other's pain? But she had never imagined that she, who had always buried herself in hard work, would also become someone else's cage.
However, this was no reason to hurt others!
"It's you! Umiri's condition is also your doing, isn't it?!"
Taki broke free from the other's muddy emotions, her voice trembling with anger. She stared intently at Takagi Naoko, trying to find an answer in her dead eyes.
Takagi Naoko did not answer immediately. She just walked steadily, step by step, towards Taki by the bedside.
In her mind flashed all her efforts, struggles, and despair along the way… those scenes that once made her wish for death now failed to stir any ripples in her heart, leaving only cold determination.
At this moment, her heart felt neither sorrow nor joy, only one clear thought:
She would personally cast Shiina Taki into the abyss of pain, utterly destroying everything she possessed — her pride, her friends, and even her very self!
'Will this… change that damned, predetermined future?'
'If only it were true…'
'But will everything… be that simple?'
A hint of almost self-mocking thought flickered in Takagi Naoko's heart, but the next moment it was crushed by a stronger desire for destruction.
No matter the outcome, she had to try!
This was the only possibility she believed in to break the shackles of fate!
As she approached, an invisible, cold sense of oppression surged towards Taki like a tangible tide, making her almost gasp for breath.
Taki felt all the hairs on her body stand on end. A primal fear, stemming from biological instinct when facing a fatal threat, gripped her. She had no doubt that if she didn't act soon, she would be the next to fall like Umiri and the school doctor, or even suffer a more terrible fate.
Taki forced herself to calm down, her brain working at high speed under immense pressure.
Fight head-on? The superhuman strength the other party displayed left her with no chance of winning.
Call for help? It was lunchtime now; people outside wouldn't be able to get here in time, and it might even attract more victims.
What to do? Where was the breakthrough?
Her gaze was locked on Takagi Naoko's approaching face, trying to find a flaw in her expression, her eyes.
In this life-or-death confrontation, Taki's gaze inadvertently swept over the dark green bangs falling across Takagi Naoko's forehead.
'Wait… what is that?'
In the gap where the bangs met the skin of her temple, in the instant a few strands of hair inadvertently parted, Taki keenly caught a glimpse of an unnatural… reflection?
It was definitely not the sheen of skin or hair; it was a cold, metallic… silver-white?
Taki's pupils constricted sharply, her heart almost skipped a beat.
'A small part of a… disc… protruding from her head?!'
'What is that? An implant? Or… something more terrifying?'
'Is it related to Takagi Naoko's terrifying strength?'
Just as Taki was shocked by this discovery, Takagi Naoko had already walked to within three steps of her.
"Shiina-san…" Takagi Naoko began in an almost sighing tone. At the same time, the air beside her began to distort and ripple unnaturally.
An invisible force field spread out, carrying a cold metallic scent and… a sweet, indescribable smell of some biological hormone. A blurred outline appeared out of thin air.
It was a headless robot, covered entirely in a cold, bright blue coating.
Its torso had sleek yet eerie lines, its joints were unexpectedly slender, and two thick metal tubes were inserted into its back, slowly and silently exhaling a pale white, pungent-smelling steam, like some living organism breathing.
Its arms hung at its sides, its hands not human-shaped, but composed of several gleaming, precisely crafted metal claws, like surgical instruments.
Maximum The Hormone — this was the name Takagi Naoko gave to her unique "talent."
Under her will, the headless robot raised one cold metal claw, precisely and with a chilling "gentleness," reaching towards Taki's beautiful face, which was pale with shock.
However, Taki's gaze remained fixed on Takagi Naoko's face, so close now, staring at that small, faintly visible metal disc beneath her bangs.
'Sure enough…'
Takagi Naoko watched Taki completely ignore the deadly metal claw, instead staring intently at her forehead. She instantly understood, and at the same time, a twisted pleasure and… deeper sorrow welled up within her.
'She can't see… she can't see Maximum The Hormone!'
'This power, this only true glimmer of brilliance that I possess… only I can see it in the end!'
'How ironic! I long to be seen by everyone, yet the only power that proves my 'existence' is unrecognized by anyone!'
These complex emotions churned within her, but quickly subsided, replaced by a firmer, colder determination.
'I'm sorry, Shiina-san.'
Takagi Naoko murmured in her heart, the cold metal claw less than ten centimeters from Taki's cheek.
'I still… can't accept it.'
'Let your body, your pain, your future… verify the possibility of this [change] for me!'
Taki suddenly felt enveloped by the aura of death. The Takagi Naoko before her seemed to have made some kind of decision, a determination to achieve her goal even if it meant crossing the boundary of what society accepted.
The metal claw, with a faint, sharp hiss of tearing air, suddenly accelerated, slashing fiercely towards Taki's cheek! The tip of the claw seemed not just to aim for flesh, but to directly seize her soul!
The eerie metal disc beneath Takagi Naoko's bangs, and the deadly threat, though unseen, perceived by instinct, frantically intertwined in the girl's mind!
A moment of life and death!
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