Villain: Your Heroines Were Delicious

Chapter 115: Chapter 36

Seijirou lay flat on his back, the white sand of the courtyard biting into his skin.

He stared up at the vast, indifferent blue of the mountain sky, his lungs burning and his vision swimming with dark spots.

The sequence of events was a blur of high-speed violence. The moment Retsu had declared the start of the spar, she had vanished from his sight.

He hadn’t even seen her move, he had only felt the sudden, vacuum-like displacement of air as she reappeared in his blind spot.

Before he can even react, a sharp, precise strike had connected with the back of his neck, and the next thing he knew, he was tasting grit and staring at the ground.

He had forced himself up, the silver mist of his newly awakened Ki flickering around his fists.

He felt faster and stronger than he ever had in his life.

He lunged at her, throwing a flurry of punches that should have been too fast for a human to track.

But Retsu didn’t even move her feet. She swayed her upper body with a casual, liquid grace, the air from his fists whistling past her ears without touching a single strand of her long hair.

She had dismantled him with clinical boredom.

Every time he overextended, she rewarded him with a palm strike or a sweep that sent him crashing back to the sand.

She wasn’t just faster than him, it was like she knew exactly where he was going to strike before his own muscles had even begun to twitch.

It was a total, humiliating domination.

After the tenth time his face hit the sand, Seijirou stayed down, staring at the sky in a daze while his pulse throbbed in his ears.

After a few minutes of heavy breathing, Seijirou pushed himself into a sitting position.

He wiped a streak of blood and sand from his lip, staring at Retsu, who stood perfectly still, not a single bead of sweat on her brow, her black Gi as pristine as it had been at the start.

“I was honestly surprised,” Seijirou admitted, his voice raspy. “I knew you were a master of acupuncture and medicine, but this… I didn’t think you were this strong.”

“Fufufu~,” Retsu chuckled, her eyes sparkling with a dark, playful light as she walked toward him, her movements light and airy. “You shouldn’t be so surprised, Seijirou-kun. I have spent my entire life mastering ki and training this body. I am probably the strongest person in the world right now.”

Seijirou raised an eyebrow, his skeptical nature surfacing. “Stronger than even your own grandfather? The King of Acupuncture?”

Retsu stopped in front of him, her shadow falling over his face. Her smile didn’t falter, but the temperature in the courtyard seemed to drop several degrees.

“Stronger than even a god,” she stated.

The statement was delivered with such flat, chilling conviction that Seijirou could only stare at her in disbelief.

The arrogance was staggering, yet after experiencing her speed, he couldn’t immediately dismiss it as a delusion.

“Seriously?” Seijirou asked, his voice low. “You really believe that?”

Retsu’s eyes crinkled as she let out a more natural, airy laugh. “Of course not. Don’t be so silly, Seijirou-kun. No mortal can truly beat a god. That’s just a bedtime story for children.”

Seijirou looked away, his mind flashing back to the lore of the games he used to play, and the strange, mythic power levels this world seemed to be leaning toward.

“Unless your name is Herios…” he muttered under his breath, referencing the legendary god-slayer and King of Heroes.

Retsu paused, the playful light in her eyes vanished, replaced by a sudden, razor-sharp focus.

She nodded slowly, her voice losing its warmth. “Yes. Unless your name is Herios.”

The silence that followed was heavy.

Seijirou stood up, brushing the sand from his trousers, feeling the humming energy of his Ki finally beginning to stabilize.

He looked at Retsu, realizing that the woman standing before him was far more dangerous than any “heroine” or “villain” he had ever read about.

She was a wild card that defied the very logic of the world he was trying to survive in.

“Well,” Seijirou said, breaking the tension. “Since the god-slayer isn’t here, I guess I’ll just have to settle for learning how to not get my face kicked into the sand again. Again, Shishou?”

Retsu’s bright smile returned instantly. “That’s the spirit! Let’s see if we can get those Spirit Circuits to stay open for more than ten seconds this time.”

*

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*

Back at Shunji High, the atmosphere was far less intense than a mountain training ground—until Tachibana Rei turned the corner of the second-floor hallway.

She had been humming a cheerful tune, finally feeling a bit of her old rhythm back, when her heart nearly skipped a beat.

Stepping out of the faculty office was a petite girl with waist-length, deep purple hair and sharp, violet eyes that seemed to hold a permanent glint of mischief.

She leaned slightly on an elegant, obsidian-topped cane, her movements slow but deliberate.

Rei froze, her jaw dropped, as she pointed at the girl, “You! Kurosaki Erina!”

Erina stopped, her head tilting to the side like a curious bird. She blinked several times, before a slow, teasing smirk spreading across her face.

“Oh? If it isn’t the walking disaster zone. Tachibana Rei. I see you’ve managed to survive another morning without accidentally walking into a manhole.”

“What are you doing here?!” Rei shrieked, pointing a finger at her. “I thought you were still ’recovering’ in that private hospital! Did you run out of nurses to torment, or did the hospital finally realize you’re the one making everyone else sick with your presence and decided to send you away?”

Erina chuckled, letting out a dry, melodic sound as she tapped her cane against the tiles. “The doctors said I was too healthy to stay, and I have been so good the nurses started a petition to have me canonized as a saint. But eventually, I got bored and decided to come back to see how my favorite ’scammer’s victim’ was doing. I see you’re still as loud as a megaphone with a low battery.”

“Scammer’s victim?!” Rei’s face turned a brilliant shade of crimson. “You gremlin! Isn’t that your fault!? You’re the one who scammed me out of my lunch money for an entire month by telling me you needed it for ’experimental life-saving surgery,’ only for me to find you the next day buying a limited-edition designer bag!”

“It was life-saving, Rei,” Erina said, her voice dripping with mock-seriousness. “The sheer depression of seeing that designer bag and not being able to get it was slowly weighing on my heart, thankfully I was able to get it. You should be proud, you saved a cute girl from a life threatening depression.”

“You scamming gremlin!” Rei growled, stepping closer, her temper flaring.

She looked at Erina’s cane and decided to go for a low blow. “Well, look at you! Still hobbling around like an old grandma. What’s the matter, Erina? Did your legs finally realize they’re attached to a devil and decided to stop working out of protest?”

Erina didn’t even flinch, she simply adjusted her grip on her cane and looked Rei up and down with a pitying expression. “My legs are simply resting, dear. They have a lot of work to do carrying my massive intellect. Unlike yours, which clearly have to do all the heavy lifting since your brain decided to take a permanent sabbatical in middle school.”

“My brain is perfectly fine!” Rei yelled, her voice echoing down the hall.

“Is it?” Erina raised an eyebrow. “Is it really? Remind me who is the one who got tricked into thinking a laxative laced juice was a protein drink and spent the entire day in the bathroom?”

“That doesn’t count! I trusted you back then and you tricked me! It will never happen again!” Rei stammered, her eyes watering from frustration. “Besides, at least I can actually walk to the cafeteria without needing a tactical map and three rest stops! Unlike you, who is so fragile, a strong sneeze from the gym teacher would probably send you into a coma!”

Erina leaned in, her purple eyes sparkling with sharp wit. “I may be fragile, Rei, but I’m still the one who talked you into buying that ’lucky’ charm last year that turned out to be a piece of dried ginger. And you ate it. You ate the ’luck,’ Rei. How does it feel to know that even on my deathbed, I could still outmaneuver you while taking a nap?”

Rei opened her mouth to retort, but no words came out.

She just made a frustrated, strangled noise in the back of her throat, her face turning from red to purple.

“Don’t worry,” Erina patted Rei’s arm with a gloved hand as she began to limp past her. “I’ll be in class 1-C. Stop by if you need someone to explain the big words on the lunch menu to you. It’s a tragedy to see you struggle with ’Sandwich.’”

Rei spun around, shaking her fist. “I hate you, Erina! I hope you trip and couldn’t get up! I hope you you lose your cane and cry because you couldn’t find it!”

Erina’s laughter drifted back down the hallway, leaving a fuming Rei behind.