CH 1

Prologue

Orifushi Shiki began to experience bullying when he entered high school.

He himself was not the type of boy who would be bullied, and in fact, until junior high school, he had lived a life free from bullying.

He is only slightly shorter than the average height of his age group, and he is reasonably athletic.

He is not outstandingly smart, being in the bottom half of the class in the junior high school he attended.

He has a good sense of justice, and a more-than-slightly good-natured personality, so he is rarely alienated by others.

The reason why Shiki was bullied as soon as he entered high school… was quite simple.

As a result of a combination of various misfortunes, Shiki ended up attending a famous delinquent school――St. Lukimantz Academy, a school that is ridiculed as the [End of century school] because of its poor security. Shiki was a herbivore thrown into the cage of a predator called [Delinquents.]

(End of century, a period of degeneration, and sometimes simultaneously a time of hope for a new beginning.)

“Haa… haa… haah…”

During the break before the second period, Shiki runs down the stairs, out of breath.

He was ordered by a group of delinquents who were bullying him to go to the vending machine corner on the first floor of the school building to buy a drink.

And that, too, with a time limit of 100 seconds.

The classrooms that were on the fourth floor in the first year are now on the third floor in the second year. Although he would say that this has made things a little better, it has actually doubled the burden on Shiki, as the time limit is now 30 seconds shorter, and the number of times he has been forced to do so has increased.

Considering that it had been less than half a month since the start of the school year, he didn’t even want to think about how much worse the treatment would get in the future.

He went down the stairs and arrived at the vending machine corner, but unfortunately, he had to wait because one of the students had come to buy juice at the vending machine he was looking for.

After the student buys juice and leave, Shiki immediately puts the money into the vending machine.

He first buys oolong tea for Kawato, the leader of the delinquent group, and then buys barley tea and orange juice for his two cronies.

He collects the change and holds the can with both hands, then turns around and tries to run out as fast as he can, but just when he is about to do so――

“Whoa!? “

He almost hit a red-haired female student who was standing in line behind him, and while turning pale, he tried to forcefully dodge her――Then he fell down, and the can he was holding in both hands also went flying through the air.

Shiki sees a future where the can will fall to the floor in a few moments; he will be forced to buy a new drink with his own money and be beaten up for the time penalty, which makes him feel gloomy.

“Whoops… “

Shiki involuntarily widens his eyes when he sees the female student catching all three cans with a fan in her hand.

Because even though she caught them, she did it in such a way that she stacked the three cans vertically on top of the closed fan, a feat that would make even a street performer pale in comparison.

Moreover, he was sure that he would have collided with thar female student earlier, but thanks to her extraordinarily quick reaction and body movement, they were able to avoid the collision.

Shiki, who is still having a hard time taking in all these events, lies on his back and looks up at the student with a blank stare.

The girl was, to put it simply, a Yankee.

Her hair was dyed a passionate shade of red and tied in a ponytail, and she was chewing a white stick in her mouth, which he hoped was not a cigarette.

There’s no way someone of this kind would wear a uniform properly, she was sloppily dressed as if she did not even know the school rules existed.

Her skirts are especially short, she wears loose socks, and her legs are exposed as much as possible.

This makes Shiki, who is lying on his back, have a hard time looking at her.

If we take away the fact that she is a Yankee, it is no exaggeration to say she is a very beautiful girl.

The name of this female student is Kohinata Karin.

She is a Yankee girl in the same grade as Shiki, who, in just six months since her enrollment, has beaten all the fierce students of St. Lukimantz Academy, which is known as a bad school, and become the head of the school in both name and reality.

Her nickname is――

“Empress…”

The words that unintentionally came out of his mouth made Karin’s eyes widen, then she responded with a frown.

“Don’t call me by that lame nickname. Rather, just pick this up quickly.”

Karin holds up the iron fan with three cans on it with both hands.

Her hands are still trembling slightly, probably because the weight is concentrated on one point.

Karin’s iron fan is an all-iron fan, meaning that the whole fan part is made of iron.

Relieved for no reason that just because he was the head of the school did not mean that she was a gorilla in terms of arm strength, Shiki hurriedly stood up and accepted the three cans.

“Err… about this… sorry! “

Holding the cans, he bowed deeply and ran away from Karin like a hare.

He knows this is not a very admirable attitude, but he still can’t resist the desire to escape the [Empress] as soon as possible.

Shiki knows that Karin is not the type of person who bullies the weak but the type of person who helps the weak and crushes the strong since she is, in a sense, the most famous person in the school.

She says [I’m just beating those I don’t like.], but he knows that many of those she doesn’t like were delinquents who oppress the weak and worshipped the strong.

He knows that as a result of her efforts to eliminate the delinquents, the school’s security, which is ridiculed as a school of the End of the century, has become somewhat better, and that’s why she is quite popular within the school.

――However

Even if he takes all these things into consideration, Kohinata Karin is still an object of awe and fear for Shiki, who is still threatened by delinquents.

Kawato, who bullies Shiki, is strong enough to beat Shiki up.

Kawato is also said to be beaten up by a senior delinquent.

And Karin is strong enough to beat up that senior delinquent.

Shiki’s nerves weren’t strong enough to remain calm in front of the [Empress], who was able to beat up the senior delinquent who could beat the delinquent who bullied him.

As if to show his inner terror in front of the [Empress], as soon as he reached the staircase, Shiki jumped up the stairs in a five-step leap.

“Hmm…? “

For some reason, Karin looked at his back while raising her eyebrows a little with a slight frown.