Chapter 38

At midnight, Bakuzou Hukusetsu finally returned home, her body speckled with blood. The extreme excitement followed by a sense of emptiness made her feel exhausted. Moreover, to cut off any possible tracking by police dogs, she had deliberately stopped at a park on her way home, filled a basin with water, and doused herself completely.

The wetness of her body made her feel even more hollow. Just a moment ago, she had killed two people—two thugs who were bullying a homeless man in the park.

Bakuzou Hukusetsu had always been controlling herself, trying not to kill ordinary people. She had been targeting those with a criminal record, but she feared that one day she would lose control.

As the number of people she killed increased, her desire to kill grew stronger. She used to go out every other night, but recently, she had started going out every night.

Furthermore, with the increasing number of killings, the police had started to notice her, which made it much more difficult for her to continue her killings.

To avoid waking her sleeping sister, Bakuzou Hukusetsu quietly opened the door and headed straight for the bathroom.

After washing away the lingering blood, Bakuzou Hukusetsu, feeling exhausted, returned to her room and fell asleep immediately.

The next morning, Bakuzou Hukusetsu got up as usual to do her daily exercise.

Even though her body was already exhausted, she did not allow herself to be weak. As a daughter of a martial family, she had to face difficulties head-on, not be defeated by them.

Thus, Bakuzou Hukusetsu completed her routine exercise, then woke her sister up and started preparing breakfast.

After having breakfast with her sister, the two of them went to school separately.

At lunchtime, in the school cafeteria, Aoba, who had come to have lunch with Ishihara Yuma, saw Bakuzou Hukusetsu again.

This time, Bakuzou Hukusetsu looked even more exhausted to Aoba, though she tried hard to hide it, it was impossible to escape Aoba's notice.

"Aoba, you said Bakuzou-san is dangerous, but I can't figure out why. Apart from her love for kendo, she seems no different from any other girl," Ishihara Yuma said, still secretly observing Bakuzou Hukusetsu and hoping Aoba would clear his doubts.

"It's because she practices kendo that she's dangerous!" Aoba said, giving him an exasperated look.

"What's so dangerous about practicing kendo?" Ishihara Yuma asked, puzzled.

"It's better if you don't know," Aoba said, looking at him and deciding not to tell him.

Seeing that he couldn't get any more information from Aoba, Ishihara Yuma gave up.

Aoba then turned to look at Bakuzou Hukusetsu, who was on the verge of breaking down, and decided to see her again. If they met, it was a matter of fate, and if he could help, he would.

After lunch, Aoba and Ishihara Yuma returned to their class.

However, they were unaware that on the rooftop, a blonde beauty who had been waiting for him for several days but never saw him, was now sulking and decided to give up on waiting.

Half an hour earlier, her family's servant had already changed the lock on the rooftop door. Although she felt reluctant, Miss Naniwa Natsu's time was precious, and she had no time to play hide and seek with a perverted thief. So, she had the lock changed, making it impossible for the person who had somehow obtained a key to enter again.

Though she had lost the chance to catch him, the blonde beauty no longer wanted to waste her time on this.

At that moment, the blonde beauty was sitting under a sunshade, elegantly sipping tea.

Of course, the cup had been replaced. She would never use a cup that someone else had used, and even the entire tea set had been thrown away. Even though each cup was worth millions of yen, the blonde beauty still discarded the entire set, which was worth at least tens of millions of yen. To her, even the best tea set was just an ordinary tea set.

Meanwhile, Aoba, whom she considered a perverted thief, had returned to the classroom, chatting and joking with his friend Ishihara Yuma while waiting for the afternoon classes to start.

The afternoon passed quickly. Aoba, who had been staring out the window, only regained his energy when the dismissal bell rang.

Ishihara Yuma, who lived in a different direction from Aoba, said goodbye and left first.

The classmates either went to their clubs for activities, went out together, or went home directly.

Aoba stretched lazily in his seat, suddenly feeling a whim to see what the club activities were like.

So, Aoba left the classroom and wandered around the school, passing by the club activity rooms and watching the students inside enthusiastically spend their youth. He eventually followed the stairs to the top floor of the teaching building and, on a whim, decided to go to the rooftop.

Aoba climbed the stairs to the rooftop door, gripped the handle, and with a click, the door opened. He entered the rooftop.

The rooftop was still empty, with only the sunshade and table and chairs in the center.

Just like the first time he came here, there was a teapot and teacups on the table, and it was clear that they were different from the last time.

However, the teapot still contained freshly brewed black tea.

Aoba walked to the table, scanned the surroundings with his senses, and, finding no one, sat down and picked up the teacup. "Just in time for afternoon tea, there's freshly brewed black tea. What a stroke of luck! Since it's unclaimed, I'll enjoy it." He said, taking a sip and nodding in satisfaction.

"Though I don't know who brewed it, the black tea is really good. Great skills! It would be even better with some tea snacks." Aoba stretched out in his chair, basking in the afternoon sun lazily.

At that moment, the door to the rooftop, which he had just closed, opened, and a blonde beauty entered, carrying several plates of tea snacks. She then saw Aoba sitting there, drinking tea.

"Did you prepare this black tea? I saw no one around and thought it was unclaimed, so I drank it. Sorry, but it really is delicious!" Aoba raised his cup and smiled.

Hearing Aoba's words, Naniwa Natsu, who had been staring at him in shock, finally reacted and walked towards Aoba with a fierce look.