I couldn't believe what I was witnessing. For the first time in my life, someone had stood up for me. It wasn't a teacher or a lifelong friend; it was the exchange student I had barely spoken to, the girl whose friendship I had just rejected with a crumpled note.
"C-Chizuru?" I whispered, my voice lost in the sudden silence of the room.
"Chizuru? What are you doing?" Ssatihs asked, her face a mask of pure confusion.
"What do you think I'm doing?" Chizuru replied. Her voice was like dry ice: sharp and freezing. "You boast about being so smart to your friends, Ssatihs. You sit right in front of me; I hear everything. Surely someone as 'brilliant' as you can figure out what's happening."
Ssatihs scoffed, trying to wrench her wrist from Chizuru's iron grip. When she failed, she pivoted to a sickening, condescending smile. "You? A princess like you saving a peasant like her? She's useless, Chizuru. Don't waste your energy. Sit back, relax, and watch me slap her. I'll even do it with style for you."
Chizuru let out a low, dark chuckle and released Ssatihs's hand.
"So... I should sit back and let you have all the 'fun'?"
"Exactly!" Ssatihs grinned, thinking she'd won an ally.
"You're right," Chizuru said, her eyes glinting. "I shouldn't waste my energy on useless things. And since you're so pretty, you shouldn't waste yours either. Let me do the slapping."
The class erupted in cheers. My heart sank. I should have known, I thought bitterly. She's just another bully.
"Move to the side, then," Chizuru said sweetly. "I want you to have the best view."
Ssatihs moved to my left, leaning in eagerly. Chizuru placed a gentle palm on my already swollen cheek. For a split second, our eyes met. She gave me a tiny, almost imperceptible wink.
"Count with me!" Chizuru shouted to the class.
"ONE!" the students roared. I heaved a sigh and closed my eyes.
"TWO!" "Dude this is gonna be intense I'll record this" other whispers in excitement.
"THREE!"
SLAP!
The sound echoed like a gunshot. I opened my eyes, but the pain hadn't come. Instead, Ssatihs was reeling backward, clutching her face.
"Oops," Chizuru said, her voice dripping with mock innocence. "I think I slapped the 'wrong' person. But you were in the way, so I don't really feel the need to apologize."
"You bitch!" Ssatihs screamed, lunging forward.
But Chizuru was a blur of motion. She wasn't just tall; she was trained. She caught Ssatihs's arm, twisted it, and slammed her face-first onto my desk. The classroom turned into a battlefield. Kiro and the others charged, but Chizuru moved like a dancer. A roundhouse kick sent one girl flying across the room, and a precise punch to the nose left Kiro bleeding on the floor.
"Who's the weak one now?" Chizuru whispered into Ssatihs's ear.
"Why do you care?!" Kiro spat, wiping blood from his lip. "You don't even know this freak!"
"Because," Chizuru said, looking around the room at the students who had previously been laughing, "I'd rather protect someone being mistreated than stand by like a coward pretending I don't see it."
The room went silent. The "oblivious" students hung their heads.
"You'll regret this," Ssatihs hissed. "The rest of your time here will be hell."
Chizuru gasped, mock-trembling. "Mada mada? Really? I'm so scared! What should I do?"
"Leave her," Ssatihs suggested, regaining her confidence. "Join us."
Chizuru's face went blank. "Hmmm... no. I'd rather be with a 'useless girl' than a group of mutated harvest mites. My mother told me not to play with feces. Your faces are okay...pretty, actually, but your hearts are so dirty no toothbrush could ever clean them. I'm just trying to stay hygienic."
Before the second wave of the fight could break out, the door burst open. Ms. Missouri stood there, eyes glaring on each and every one of us. "Guidance! All of you! Now!"
The Masterpiece of Deception
In Ms. Pillarion's office, the air was thick with the sound of six bullies shouting over one another in a chaotic, unintelligible mess of accusations.
"ENOUGH!" Ms. Pillarion slammed her hand on the desk. "One at a time. Ssatihs, speak."
Ssatihs put on her "Class President" mask, her voice trembling with fake sincerity. "Miss Counselor, they started it. We were just trying to maintain the reputation of our section, and they became unruly. I have the whole class as witnesses."
"Is that so?" Ms. Pillarion turned to us.
I opened my mouth to defend us, but a soft, broken sniffle stopped me. I turned to see Chizuru. Her eyes were red, and crystal tears were streaming down her face.
"It's just... not fair," Chizuru sobbed. "I came here to learn your culture. I worked so hard on my accent just so I can interact with you guys because I heard people here were kind and lovely. But they were so mean. They were... they were racist. I just want to go home to Japan."
Ms. Pillarion's expression shifted. "Is this true?"
"She's lying!" Kiro shouted. "She beat us up!"
"Proof?" Ms. Pillarion asked. She then looked at Chizuru. "Miss Katsura, do you have proof that they were resorting to such violent actions?"
Chizuru nodded weakly. With trembling hands, she began to unbutton her long-sleeved polo. A collective gasp rippled through the room. I stepped forward to stop her, but the fabric slid from her shoulders.
The room went tomb-quiet. We weren't looking at skin; we were looking at a map of violence. Deep purples, sickly yellows, and angry, mottled reds bloomed across her ribs and shoulders. It was a masterpiece of makeup and technical deception.
"I believe they intended to hit only my body," Chizuru whispered, "so the product of violence wouldn't show on my face."
"Your 'injuries' are non-existent compared to this," Ms. Pillarion sneered at the bullies. "One week suspension for bullying... and another week for hurting a foreign guest. You are all banned from the premises for fourteen days."
"You b*tch!" Ssatihs screamed at Chizuru. "If you hadn't played the hero, we could have just finished beating this useless girl and none of this would have happened!"
The room went deathly silent. Ssatihs had just confessed.
"Who is she even anyway?!" Ssatihs lashed out. "She's just an exchange student!"
Ms. Pillarion chuckled. "Just an exchange student? Ms. Verbione, your ignorance is staggering. Chizuru is the daughter of the General and founder of the Katsura Heavy Industries and Military Power in Tokyo. She is also the heiress to the Katsura National Research University. If her father finds out his daughter was maltreated, this school loses its primary foreign funding."
The bullies froze. The blood drained from their faces. Chizuru finished buttoning her shirt, the "victim" persona vanishing, replaced by the quiet confidence of a girl who knew exactly how much power she wielded.
After the bullies were ushered out, Chizuru looked at the Counselor.
"I will stay," Chizuru said. "But I have one request. I want to change my section. Section Dream-2."
I blinked. Dream-2? That was the section that had just been vandalized. It was the rival section of my bullies.