Chapter 24: Curtain

Yumiko’s pupils contracted sharply.

She instinctively tried to step back, yet her feet felt as if they had been nailed to the floor. 

The pen tip was far too close to her right eye—close enough that her eyelashes could feel the chill radiating from that tiny point of metal.

It was the first time she had ever noticed just how sharp the tip of a ballpoint pen could be.

The classroom was so quiet that the noise of the old ceiling fan turning could be clearly heard.

Lingsha was the first to react. 

Her hand had already been pulled from the hoodie pocket, her center of gravity leaning forward as she prepared to charge.

Yet she did not dare make any rash move.

The Mashiro standing before her right now was completely different from the one in her memory.

No longer the pitiful girl who had suffered under bullying, but a monster—an emotionless killing monster.

The movement just now had been far too fast. Even though it had happened right under her eyes, she had been completely unable to react. 

This already surpassed the realm of normal people.

The hand gripping the pen showed not the slightest tremor, steady as a surgical scalpel in a doctor’s hand, stopped at a distance that would just barely fail to pierce the eyeball. 

Life and death rested solely on her single thought.

Slowly, more and more people began to realize what had happened, yet still no one dared to speak. They only silently held their breath.

However.

“Haha.”

An abrupt laugh broke the silence.

It was Yumiko. She was laughing.

Not the usual contemptuous smile she wore from on high, but a dry, slightly trembling laugh squeezed out from the depths of her throat.

“Ha… haha…”

She lifted the corners of her mouth, shifting her gaze away from the pen tip to meet Mashiro’s hollow red eyes, forcing her voice to remain steady.

“Putting on airs, are we? You think something like this will scare me? Trash like you could never dare to—”

Click.

The button at the end of the ballpoint pen was pressed, producing a crisp sound.

“—!”

A hysterical scream echoed through the classroom.

Yumiko abruptly covered her right eye and slammed backward into the blackboard. 

Her spine crashed against the chalk tray with a dull thud, sending white chalk sticks clattering across the floor.

“My… my… my eye…”

She curled up in the corner beneath the blackboard, cold sweat dripping from her temples. The entire classroom was so quiet that only her heavy breathing remained.

However.

One second. Two seconds. Three seconds.

The pain never arrived.

There was no blood.

She moved her palm away and looked at it. It was completely clean, unmarked by any blood. Her right eye was still there; her vision had not gone dark. 

There was only a faint, itchy sensation on the surface of the eyeball, as if it had been lightly touched.

It had been stabbed—but not pierced.

The steel ball at the tip of the pen had briefly pressed into the surface of the eyeball. 

At the exact moment when surface tension was about to reach its limit and the next second would have seen it pierced through, the refill had retracted.

“You… you freak…!” Yumiko roared.

For the first time in her life—having always stood upon the throne of the “bully”—she tasted the humiliation of being publicly shamed. Shame burned through her veins, and her cheeks flushed bright red.

Mashiro’s attitude was the complete opposite, as calm as a sheet of ice. 

She simply placed the pen back in its original position, turned around, and did not even spare Yumiko a single extra glance.

“You…”

Yumiko propped herself up with her hands, intending to climb to her feet and thoroughly teach Mashiro a lesson—to make this sewer bat understand the consequences of angering the Queen, to force her to kneel and properly apologize. Yet…

She stopped.

Looking at Mashiro’s back, a sudden chill rose from the base of her tailbone and climbed upward vertebra by vertebra along her spine.

What was this?

The most primitive biological instinct inside her body was telling her…

She would die.

If she took even one step closer, she would die.

The emotion known as “fear” truly descended upon this Queen’s heart for the first time.

Mashiro did not stop walking. She continued forward along the aisle.

Her seat was in the second-to-last row by the window, and the path to that seat inevitably required her to pass right by Yukina.

Yukina was still standing there.

From the moment she had called out Mashiro’s name, she had remained standing.

Her fingers tightly gripped the edge of the desk. Her throat still carried the burning sensation left by that loud shout, and her heartbeat had yet to return to a normal rhythm.

Mashiro’s distance grew closer and closer.

Her long silver-white hair swayed gently with each step. 

Those blood-red eyes remained ice-cold, revealing not a single trace of emotion.

The students along the path all actively stepped aside. Only Yukina did not move.

Three steps. Two steps. One step.

In the instant they crossed paths, wind poured in through the open window.

The thin beige curtain was lifted high, like a soft, translucent veil that briefly enveloped the two of them and cut off every gaze inside the classroom.

Behind that curtain, in a space that could hold only the two of them.

Morning light fell through the glass onto Mashiro’s cheek, her skin gleaming with a fine luster like crystal scales. 

Those red eyes trembled ever so slightly, like thin ice that might shatter at any moment.

“…You too.”

Her voice was very light—so light that it could not escape this tiny veil.

In the brief moment they brushed past each other, she lowered her head slightly. 

Her lips nearly brushed against the hair on top of Yukina’s head, yet she left only a single sentence.

“Don’t come near me again.”

The curtain fell. The wind stopped.

Mashiro had already reached her own seat. She pulled out the chair, sat down, and turned her face toward the window as if nothing at all had happened.

Yukina remained standing in place. The fingers hanging by her skirt hem curled slightly, completely at a loss.

Ding ding ding————

The class bell rang.

Like a signal for a ceasefire, the taut atmosphere shattered within the sound of the bell, and the gunpowder scent rapidly dissipated.

The sounds of desks and chairs being moved rose once more. 

Someone nearby cleared their throat. Pages of books were turned. Everyone pretended that nothing had happened and began preparing for class.

“…Yumiko, are you all right?”

Over by the podium, Lingsha was the first to reach Yumiko’s side and ask about the situation.

Yumiko blinked, still looking somewhat dazed and clearly a little stunned.

“Aiyah aiyah, alright alright, Boss, calm down first. Come on, deep breaths—inhale, inhale, exhale~”

Huacai approached with a smiling face, still wearing that expression of someone waiting to watch a good show, and casually picked up a piece of chalk that had fallen onto Yumiko.

“That white-haired one was way too arrogant, daring to do something like that to Boss. But no rush. Boss is so amazing, she’ll definitely take fierce revenge later, right?”

She poked Yumiko’s forehead with the chalk.

“Of… of course.”

Yumiko finally came back to her senses. She slapped Huacai’s hand away, climbed up from the floor, and once again lifted the corners of her mouth into that smile that looked down on everything.

“An eye for an eye, repaid tenfold! That is the code of conduct for the young lady of Feilin Corporation. Those who dare overstep their bounds had better wash their necks clean and wait.”

She glared once in Mashiro’s direction, then strode toward her own seat.

The “nobles” of the class, seeing their Queen return to her place, hurriedly gathered around to curry favor—some offering wet tissues, some combing her hair—chattering noisily once more.

Lingsha looked at the tip of Yumiko’s tail that was still trembling and helplessly sighed.

As for Yukina’s side…

“What what what? What just happened? How did Boss Yumiko get taken down? How did Reizuki-san turn dark? Why did Little Yukina suddenly stand up? I don’t understand a single thing—hurry up and give me a ten-thousand-word analysis!”

Ningning had reconnected to the server, yet her brain had completely failed to keep up with the version update. 

Her eyes were still spinning with a Windows XP loading screen.

“…”

Yukina’s thoughts were also somewhat chaotic.

She could feel Ningning shaking her arm, but that voice seemed to be coming from very far away.