Chapter 8 : Chapter 8
Chapter 08: Impossible! My Head-Patting Technique Is Unbeatable!
“Chang Rong-kun!? Y-you... how did you come out too...!?”
“Oh, do not worry, Classmate Sakura. On the way here I did not see any guards or cameras, so I was wondering whether this place might actually rely entirely on personal conscience for prison labor.”
“I-it probably is not that simple... Right, if possible, could I ask a favor of you?”
“Please... help Hiro-chan! Even if your first impression of her might be that she is a bit harsh, Hiro-chan is actually a very gentle person! And she is more upright than anyone else, and much braver and smarter than I am. I believe in Hiro-chan... I believe she can definitely lead everyone out of here together!”
“Yeah, definitely—ah, is that a guard coming over from there? Heh, you win. I surrender ^q^”
...
...
—Classmate Sakura, the dear, gentle Hiro-chan you described seems to be planning to send us off together in a rather different way.
The Nikaido Hiro that Emma Sakura had described from memory with her adorable little tiger teeth showing in a smile did not match the real one in the slightest. The disillusionment felt like meeting an online romance partner in person only to discover they were nothing like expected.
Chang Rong had never studied micro-expressions, nor did he know anything about so-called social manipulation, dark psychology, or whatever arbitrary tricks people liked to talk about. But even he could tell this much—
Nikaido Hiro was an 【incorrect】 existence.
Call her a multi-headed monster, call her a tyrant of righteous dogma, whatever. Her values were far too extreme. So extreme, in fact, that Chang Rong was already beginning to suspect she had long since started undergoing witchification.
How was one supposed to deal with this bloodthirsty landmine of a girl?
Surely everyone remembered the great elder of the general affairs clan, the wisdom-dispensing ninja master Old Yuan Kuan’s famous warning:
Leave it alone!
That was right. Leave it alone, hide somewhere, and do not let a landmine girl set her sights on you. That was the optimal solution, especially for a passing nobody like Chang Rong, who possessed neither “knowledge” nor “power.”
And yet...
Faced with the extraordinary girl before him, Chang Rong wanted to do something.
Not because he had to.
Because he wanted to.
From the moment he had been hauled out of that refrigerator by the blue-haired girl’s punch to the point of squatting in prison now and doing his involuntary sewing-machine time, this was the first time Chang Rong had genuinely wanted to act of his own accord.
I am a gal-game master! It is just one landmine girl. No problem.
“Scrrrk!”
“...What are you doing?”
The scraping noise was especially grating in the cramped disciplinary chamber. The sudden sound even interrupted Nikaido Hiro mid-thought. She glared viciously at Chang Rong, only to see the boy humming to himself as he dragged the mirror from earlier over in front of her.
“Just showing you a witch.”
After hauling the mirror into place, Chang Rong answered flatly, then adjusted the angle so that Nikaido Hiro’s reflection would appear perfectly within it.
“A witch...? What do you mean by th—ugh!”
The words of rebuke never fully left her lips. The “monster” she saw in the mirror jammed itself straight into her throat.
Inside the mirror stood something dressed in torn clothes stained with blood, spray paint, and grime, with tangled, disheveled hair and a twisted, ferocious face.
That thing was neither graceful nor composed. It looked more like some incomprehensible creature that bit and tore and vented its rage blindly, impossible to communicate with.
Incorrect. That appearance was absolutely incorrect.
That thing was not “Nikaido Hiro.”
It was some evil entity trying to devour her.
“...”
“...”
“No matter how strong-willed someone is, once they see how miserable they look in the mirror, they are bound to face reality—that is what you said, right, Classmate Nikaido?”
Seeing that Hiro had not immediately launched herself at him in a blood-crazed frenzy and torn him apart like strips of jerky, Chang Rong finally dared to poke half his head out from behind the mirror and ask the question in a small, half-joking voice.
“Yes. That is correct. Thank you.”
An elegant, courteous, yet coldly distant perfect smile once again rose at the corner of Hiro’s mouth. Looking at herself from a third-person perspective allowed the witch hunter to recover the pace that had always been hers, the composure she should have had.
“I have to admit that even I was affected by witchification... tch. I knew that better than anyone, and yet even so... especially after what happened before because of witchification...”
Hiro seemed to remember something. She gave a self-mocking smile, shook her head, and then looked toward Chang Rong.
—He is an idiot from top to bottom, that much is obvious, but somehow... how should I put it... unexpectedly, he is not that unpleasant. Like Emma was at first... Hm?
Chang Rong walked straight toward Hiro.
His manner was so open and confident that, for a moment, Hiro actually failed to react in time.
He stopped in front of her, breathed into his right hand, then lifted it and placed it on her head, rubbing it gently.
“I get that the pressure in this kind of situation is overwhelming, but do not push yourself too hard, okay? That will only backfire.”
“—Wh-what are you doing!?”
Only after the fourth circle of rubbing did Hiro finally come back to herself. She immediately slapped Chang Rong’s arm away, jumped back two steps, and glared fiercely at the white-haired boy as she shouted at him.
But the expression on her face was no longer that terrifying “I will mince you into meat paste” look from before.
Instead, it was the flustered embarrassment that should have belonged to a girl her age.
—Huh, hissing? Could it be that my head-patting technique is not actually invincible? Impossible. My head-patting technique is unbeatable!
Chang Rong looked even more shocked than Hiro at having been rejected.
“But Noah gets really happy whenever I pat her head...!”
“Hah!? Even I have not patted Noah’s head yet, you bastard!!”
“Eh? What is that supposed to mea—”
“As expected, you are the greatest 【incorrectness】 of all. I am going to correct you!”
“Gwah!!??”
And so the two of them once again began rehearsing a sword-fight stage drama right there on the spot. If Prince Charming had been present, she probably would have clapped and praised Chang Rong for his rapid improvement. The feedback from getting beaten up looked far more realistic this time around.
After another round of warm and friendly academic exchange, Chang Rong, now with his hair thoroughly disheveled, suddenly thought of something. He wriggled around on the floor and looked toward Nikaido Hiro, who was wiping grime from herself.
“By the way, Classmate Nikaido, do you want to form an alliance with me?”
“An alliance?”
The abrupt question made Hiro pause for a moment, then she let out a cold snort.
“Was that Emma Sakura’s suggestion too?”
“No, it has nothing to do with Classmate Sakura. This is entirely my own judgment. I am basically certain now that you are not the mastermind. Of course, if you really are the final boss after all, then I can only accept my loss. That would just mean my intelligence got completely crushed. Nothing to be done about that.”
“Interesting. Unfortunately, I do not trust you yet.”
Hiro rejected him coldly.
“That is fine. Even a one-sided alliance is enough. I will not actively demand anything from you, and I will do my best to carry out your requests instead. Treat it as me showing my sincerity. What do you think?”
“...Let us talk after the witch trial.”
After a brief hesitation, Nikaido Hiro neither refused nor accepted this time.
How ironic. She had been thrown into this cell because “no one trusted her,” and yet, because of that very fact, someone now wanted to ally with her?
A boy covered in mysteries. Abrupt. Completely lacking in a sense of boundaries...
Nikaido Hiro cast Chang Rong a sidelong glance, then immediately turned her head away again and furrowed her brow.
First, she needed to find a way to survive the trial before her.
In the end, Hiro made a decision she almost never would have made—
She left it alone for now.
After an unknown amount of time, a dull bell suddenly rang through the prison.
Dong— Dong— Dong—
“That sound is...”
The cell door opened. Accompanied by the bell, the guard appeared before Nikaido Hiro, confirming her suspicion.
The 【Witch Trial】 was about to begin.
The monster hiding among the crowd with a smile on its face was already waiting for her in the courtroom.
Hiro straightened her collar, smoothed the hair resting over her shoulders, and walked toward the battlefield that belonged to her in the most perfect posture possible.
...
“...”
Hiro had gone out, but the other cellmate showed no sign of moving. The guard had no choice but to stoop down and squeeze into the cell. The moment he entered, he saw Chang Rong lying motionless in the corner like a rabbit that had been one-shot on the roadside by a hissing kitty.
The guard poked him. Only then did Chang Rong slowly raise his head and meet the guard’s eyes with a thoroughly battered expression.
“...?”
“Uh, Classmate Nikaido was changing clothes, and I told her, ‘I do not know why, but I feel strangely confident about changing other people’s clothes. Need a hand?’ And then I got...”
Chang Rong pointed at the old set of clothes folded on the table. The guard fell silent for a moment, then picked up the old clothes, grabbed Chang Rong by the back of the neck, and hauled him out.
Although Chang Rong could not understand what the guard was saying, he somehow had the distinct feeling this fellow was calling him an idiot who deserved the beating.
No matter what, in any case... the 【Witch Trial】, huh?
A death debate where one careless move would get someone killed. A debate where, by the time it ended, someone was certain to die. A debate overflowing with lies and truth.
As he walked toward the courtroom, Chang Rong could clearly feel his heartbeat accelerating.
Fear. Tension. Unease.
And something else—
Excitement.
Perhaps he was looking forward to this slaughter more than he had realized.