“Little Yukina~!”
Sunlight filtered through the gaps in the leaves, mottled light and shadow lightly dancing between the two sets of clean school uniforms.
“Hey hey hey~”
Ningning’s tail swayed back and forth behind her, occasionally bumping against Yukina’s elbow, as if testing whether she would fluff up in anger again.
“Little Yukina~, pay attention to me already. If this keeps up, your best friend Ningning-chan is going to die of boredom.”
“…Can’t you stay quiet for even one minute?”
The summer cicada cries combined with Ningning’s endless chatter made Yukina feel like she was about to suffer a nervous breakdown.
She really wanted to cover her ears, but both hands were occupied holding the schoolbag, leaving none free.
Honestly, she didn’t dislike Ningning.
Although this girl was also part of the bullying group, she was different from someone like Yumiko.
Ningning’s “evil” was less malice and more the kind of troublemaking that came from a child who loved joining in on the fun.
She never laid hands on anyone herself, only followed behind Yumiko’s butt stirring things up.
She was completely just the atmosphere crew.
Of course that didn’t mean she was without sin, just that the degree was a little lighter.
In most storylines anyway, she still couldn’t escape the ending of having her heart dug out.
“Speaking of which, little Yukina hasn’t come out to play with us much lately.”
Ningning reined in her smile a little, tilting her head as she looked at Yukina, her raccoon dog ears tilting slightly forward.
“Why is that?”
Because I’m not the Yukina you know. The real friend you had is already gone.
Yukina didn’t speak, only answered silently in her heart while hugging the schoolbag in her arms even tighter.
According to the original owner’s memories, her relationships with those friends, including Ningning, had never been anything more than a way to kill time.
They had never exchanged true feelings, so this relationship actually wasn’t that important.
Did Ningning think the same way?
Yukina couldn’t quite figure it out. She couldn’t read the other girl’s true thoughts from that mischievous face.
“Ah, I got it! Could it be—”
Ningning leaned in a little closer, narrowing her eyes.
Looking like a child on the outside yet with intelligence below average, she stared at Yukina’s face as if possessed by a great detective.
“Could it be because I did something that made little Yukina angry?”
“…” Yukina shot her a sideways glance. “What do you think?”
“Alright, alright, I’m sorry!”
Ningning pressed her palms together, her tail drooping along with them, striking a standard pose of admitting fault.
“I shouldn’t have used little Yukina’s photos to register on a same-sex dating website, and I shouldn’t have secretly mixed something into little Yukina’s drink out of curiosity about the effects, and I really shouldn’t have used little Yukina’s face to run that kind of borderline erotic AI and then accidentally posted it on the dark web where it couldn’t be deleted…”
She took a deep breath, her eyes more sincere than ever before.
“Anyway! Seeing how sincere I am, can you forgive me?”
“Let’s just cut ties.”
“Cut ties? What position is that?”
“…What the hell is even in your head.”
Yukina’s headache got worse.
Was this the legendary “evil people get worn down by other evil people”?
This Ningning might very well have been sent by heaven to punish her.
Ningning clapped her hands.
“Alright, alright, let’s just wipe the slate clean on the past and start over!”
“Who said anything about wiping the slate clean with you.”
“As an apology, I’ll show you something good!”
Ningning mysteriously lowered her voice, and while speaking, pulled a stack of photos out from under her skirt.
“I’ll only show these to you, okay?”
“…I’m calling the police.”
Yukina took half a step back, watching her warily.
Knowing Ningning’s nature, the so-called “something good” was most likely nothing proper.
It couldn’t be those weird pink mosaic photos, right?
Yukina was a little curious, but reason told her she must not look.
“What is little Yukina talking about? You’re in these, you know!”
“Eh?”
“Just look already!”
Ningning fanned the stack of photos open like a deck of cards and held them out in front of her.
Yukina lowered her head to look, and her pupils suddenly contracted.
The environment in the photos was dark, yet in the middle was a streak of white.
A familiar streak of white.
Under the dim lighting of the restroom, long silver-white hair was soaked through by water, clinging wetly to a face so pale it was nearly transparent.
The school uniform was drenched and clung tightly, outlining the slender figure’s contours.
Several blurred figures surrounded her, their expressions unclear, yet the oppressive sense of looking down from above could still be felt through the photos.
It was the scene from yesterday in the restroom, during the bullying.
When did she take these? Could it be—
Yukina stared at the photos and only then belatedly realized why Ningning always hid in the corners when the bullying was going on. So this was what she had been doing.
No wonder the artist had put a camera around her neck. That actually wasn’t a decoration.
“Hehe~ How is it, how is it? Pretty good shots, right! I’ve never told little Yukina, but my hobby is actually photographing beautiful girls!”
Ningning completely failed to notice the change in Yukina’s expression.
Instead, she flipped through the photos one by one for her as if showing off some kind of artwork.
“Look at this one, the lighting is so well handled, it completely captured that cold and fragile feeling! And this one, the composition is simply perfect! Haiya, as expected of Reizuki-san. No matter how she’s treated she can still keep that icy expression. As expected of the academy’s number one beauty, she’s just too perfect—”
Yukina stared at those empty red pupils of Mashiro in the photos, listening to Ningning’s endless talk by her ear, her expression sinking little by little.
“…Aren’t you afraid of getting revenge for doing something like this?”
“Revenge?”
Ningning blinked, looking completely blank.
“…For example, getting killed in one strike by the person in the photos or something.”
Yukina raised her eyes and looked at Ningning. For a moment, the blood-soaked death scene of the other girl from the game seemed to flash before her eyes.
The air went quiet for a second.
Then.
“Pfft hahahahaha~!”
Ningning suddenly burst out laughing, laughing so exaggeratedly that the photos in her hands nearly scattered all over the ground.
She bent over at the waist, her tail wildly swinging back and forth behind her.
“Killed in one strike by a beautiful girl? Wouldn’t that be the absolute highest!!”
She straightened up, two patches of flush on her face, overflowing with a completely genuine look of longing.
“Think about it. Dying on the road of collecting beautiful girl CGs, or better yet dying at the hands of a beautiful girl—isn’t that the most romantic way for a photographer to go? This life would be totally worth it!”
…
Villain.
Such a pure villain.
In this age where even children’s cartoons had started whitewashing villains and giving them tragic backstories, the fact that an existence like Ningning still existed—who hung low-level desires right out in the open, completely unashamed and even proud of it—was practically an endangered species.
“Of course, I have principles!”
Ningning proudly puffed out her chest, looking as if she took great pride in it.
“I only collect these photos for myself. I’ll never let anyone else taint them. Other than little Yukina, I haven’t shown them to a single person!”
“Hurry up and burn them all.”
“Is little Yukina a demon? How can a 37°C little mouth say such cold words!”
Ningning hurriedly stuffed the photos back under her skirt, clamping her tail tightly between her legs and striking a posture of fighting to the death.
This was the so-called “good words can’t persuade a ghost that is meant to die,” wasn’t it.
When this girl got liquidated by Mashiro and the male protagonist later, Yukina had no intention of speaking up for her either. Just let her return to nature.
“Oh right, there’s one special one here!”
Ningning suddenly seemed to remember something and pulled another photo out from her school uniform pocket, presenting it in front of Yukina like a treasure.
“This is my masterpiece! I only just developed it this morning. It’s a testament to our friendship!”
Yukina took it and looked.
In the photo, a person holding a water bucket was in the middle of falling forward.
Pinkish-white hair was scattered in the air, the skirt hem lifted uncontrollably, and the expression on the face was frozen in a moment of panic.
It was herself.
The instant from yesterday in the restroom when she had deliberately fallen.