Chapter 18
Chapter 18
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 18
Chapter Title: Past Shadows Resurface
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"I'll put it in."
Screeech!
Song Woo-seop's blade grazed past my forearm.
Flesh tearing open.
Blood spilling out.
[Gaaah! Stop it, you bastard!]
[Oh? Fighting back? Hey, guys! Grab this punk!]
A couple of the idle punks latched onto Shin Yu-hyeon's limbs,
Slash! Riiip!
[Aaaargh!]
Gashes were left on his arms and legs. That was Song Woo-seop's vicious signature move. Rather than slicing clean through the flesh with the blade's edge, he'd flip the knife and rake the pointed tip across the skin like he was ripping it open.
With a blade that sharp, doing that would've caused fatal blood loss, so it was probably his disgusting way of covering his tracks.
Squeeze...
'That's going a bit too far.'
Shin Nari unwittingly clenched her fist, that thought flashing through her mind for a moment, but what was done was done.
[Jesus, Song Woo-seop, you psycho. Hey, what if he dies? We can't even beat him properly now without getting blood on us.]
About five minutes of that gruesome torment passed, and even Jin Kyung-pil, known around school as the psycho, grimaced and left the bathroom.
Song Woo-seop rinsed the blood off at the sink and followed after Jin Kyung-pil.
[Th-they went a bit overboard, huh? Ahaha. Yu-hyeon, you okay? Let me patch you up.]
All the pre-Awakeners carried emergency medical kits. They didn't do combat training, but high school courses taught basic life-saving skills before sending them to the Training Facility.
Shin Nari approached Yu-hyeon with suture thread and a needle to stitch his wounds, and he showed no real resistance.
'It... worked?'
Did it finally get through? The thrill of this boy, who'd resisted no matter how much she'd pushed, now accepting her touch was short-lived...
Flash.
[Hic!?]
[Y-you...]
That terrifying glare made her back away without thinking.
This kid wasn't broken yet.
He'd just exhausted himself thrashing and resisting with everything he had.
Those eyes promised he'd never forget the grudge.
[F-fuck... What're you staring at?]
She snatched back her trembling hand and fled.
After that, no matter how much she prodded Jin Kyung-pil to smash and shatter Shin Yu-hyeon, the hatred burning in his pupils never cooled.
What should she do...
How could she make this kid hers to toy with?
That's when 'she' appeared.
[Nari, why do you seem so down lately? Is it because of that loser?]
[H-huh? Uh, um... N-not exactly...]
[Hehe, you can be honest with me, Nari. I'm your friend... your best friend.]
[Y-yeah, you're right...]
[I've got a great idea. Wanna hear it? Just follow my lead, and your worries will vanish clean away... Heh.]
Whisper whisper.
Soon, a chilling plan spilled out in a hushed voice.
[!!]
Could she really go through with it?
She'd already gone too far, but following this would push Shin Yu-hyeon beyond recovery. Total social annihilation.
'He might even kill himself...'
For a fleeting moment, her last scrap of conscience made her hesitate, but someone listening nearby chimed in.
[Count me in on that plan. That trash lays his filthy hands on girls. I've hated him for ages. Heard he was filming upskirts the other day too.]
A girl with a kendo bag slung over her shoulder and her hair neatly tied in a ponytail stepped up to back the vicious scheme.
[Scum like that... better off gone.]
Aurora, captain of the kendo club. Rumor had it she hated men so much people wondered if she had misogyny—no, misandry.
The kendo club had zero guys. Back before Kaiju showed up, no sports team without boys would've made sense, but times had changed. Aurora was an Awakener. Her power let her transcend her gender.
.
.
.
Classic cold-weapon martial arts like kendo exploded in popularity once Awakeners entered the scene.
No one knew her exact ability, but every time she clashed blades, she ghosted right into her opponent's weak spot and claimed victory. Awakeners affiliated with agencies had to disclose their powers, but as a high school 'pre-Awakener,' she had no such obligation.
Rumor also said, like Shin Nari, she'd skip the agency to join a private firm and keep competing as an athlete. With tournament prizes in the hundreds of millions, no need to risk her life fighting monsters...
And Aurora, raking in prizes and fame, was a figure even teachers treaded carefully around.
Such a powerhouse was about to ruin a boy's life on hearsay alone.
[Ooooh! Laura! As expected of the kendo club captain? So righteous! Ahahaha! This is foolproof! Right, Nari?]
Swept up in the mood, Shin Nari made an irreversible choice without time to think deeply.
[Yeah... you're right...]
While rationalizing it away with nonsense like 'That bastard needs to get his head straight anyway!'
.
.
.
That face, those eyes.
"Y-y-you! You're!!"
'Loser' 'Trash' 'Urinal Boy'
"Uh, u-uuu-"
'Up skirt creep' 'Sex offender' 'School disgrace'
Thud!
Shin Nari, the Toilet Bitch, recoiled in terror and fell away from me into the opposite tub, landing hard on her ass. Her bare, body-wash-slicked buttocks slapped loudly against the tub's material. The impact rippled up her body, making her massive tits jiggle like pudding or konnyaku.
"Mm... 'You'?"
"Gasp, n-no, I mean, n-no... M-Master? Huh...? It's Master... why? S-Shin Yu-hyeon?"
"'Shin Yu-hyeon'?"
I planted my feet firmly in the tub and stood.
I lowered my gaze to her level, looking down at the vermin as if she were mere filth. Without a word, I grabbed a fistful of her hair. This level of insolence demanded immediate punishment.
"Hic?"
Slap!!
"Ack!"
Slap! Slaaap!
Merciless slaps rained down on her pale cheeks like they might burst them open.
Her brain rattled, saliva and blood mixing in her mouth and spraying out. Blood droplets scattered across the white-beige tub interior.
The sudden onslaught of primal violence sorted out the tangled mess in Shin Nari's head in an instant.
Raw brutality smashed through her momentary doubts.
"Dogs too dumb to get it need a good beating."
Slap!
"Who"
Slap!
"am"
Slap!
"I?"
Her once-pretty face twisted grotesquely. Her cheeks swelled, eyelids puffing up. Sure, as an Awakener she had superior durability and healing, but she was a mental-type. With my recent Strength stat boost, these slaps hit way harder than the one on day one of her kidnapping.
"Guhk, kuh! W-wait just...!"
Slap!
Her eyes lost focus. Nosebleed gushing. Thick saliva mixed with drool trickled from her mouth, grazing her nipple before dripping off. The sticky red trail on her freshly washed, rice-cake-white breast stirred something odd.
"Toilet Bitch. Say it again. Who am I?"
I tightened my grip on her hair, yanking her head up. Then I leaned down to meet her eyes.
Get a good look at who I am.
And remember exactly who you see reflected there.
"M-Master! You're Master! Master, s-sorry! I'm sorry!"
Splash!
Finally, the answer I wanted came out, and I kicked her chest with my foot, shoving her back. My sole sank into the soft give as she toppled over, too off-balance to recover. Between the mental shock and the barrage of slaps rattling her brain, she couldn't resist.
Not that her current headspace would've let her fight back even if she had the strength.
"Hnggh... hnggh... kuh, kuh..."
The tub's backrest curved gently at 45 degrees with no faucet in the way, so no risk of her cracking her skull and dying unluckily. But the impact to her back squeezed the air from her lungs, leaving her wheezing thin breaths.
"Toilet Bitch."
"Y-yes!!"
Scramble!
Covered in spit and blood, endlessly sobbing, she somehow mustered the strength to bolt upright at my low call. She knelt before me, hands politely clasped on my thighs, head bowed.
"Answer properly. Who are you?"
"Eh...? I'm obviously... T-Toi... let... ugh."
Her condition was worse than expected.
'This... isn't just from the beating, is it?'
"I-I'm... n-no, I... I'm... I-I...! Uuugh-!"
Her head trembled side to side like a Parkinson's patient.
Clearly abnormal.
Think.
The moment she faced me, she must've recalled her high school days.
Herself as a high schooler, as 'Shin Nari.' And that was eroding the Toilet Bitch identity force-fed into her over the past few days, resisting my Exploiter trait's unique skill 'Oath Compulsion' alongside her 'Mental Barrier' trait.
C- rank or not, Mental Barrier's rarity was sky-high. Me? A total newbie who'd Awakened Exploiter less than a day ago.
Like I had a diamond- or gold-forged net, but my skills weren't refined enough—the weave too loose and gappy.
So her eel-like trait was wriggling through every hole to escape.
Well...
No rush, though.
My Exploiter trait had no explicit rank, which was odd, but with its insane permanent stat-boost effect, it had to be A+ or higher ultra-rare. No way its 'Oath Compulsion' skill would fail against some half-dead pre-Awakeners trait.
Proof? If seeing my face had nullified the conditioning and restored her identity, she wouldn't signal so obviously 'Hey, I'm snapping back to sanity!' Oath Compulsion was working fine.
So... before she fully regained her senses, time to make her mine completely.
Twist out that last thread of her past, stuff my essence into her ruptured heart.
Fill every hole in her fractured mind with dependence, love, and loyalty to me.
With that intent,
I swung full force at her still-pale opposite cheek.
Slap!
"Hnnngaaaa-"
The relentless abuse finally knocked her out cold, sprawling limp in the tub.
'You must never recall your high school days, Shin Nari.'
You have to be 'Toilet Bitch' for me to keep you around.
If you try reverting to high school Shin Nari, I won't be able to hold back from killing you.
I roughly rinsed her unconscious body, carried her out, laid her on the sofa, and waited for her to wake.
A deep, sticky talk was in order.