On the rooftop of Senba Academy stood a lone girl.
Her vibrant purple hair cascaded down to her hips, tied into a high ponytail with a ribbon. She was tall and slender, with light violet eyes.
A black sailor uniform accentuated her graceful, well-proportioned figure. Her slender legs and full hips were wrapped in black pantyhose, which tightly hugged their form, outlining a pair of perfectly toned, sexy legs.
She wore no accessories, but her simple attire could not conceal the elegant aura that surrounded her.
However, her cherry lips were pressed into a thin line, and her refined face held a trace of confusion.
As if she were worrying about what to make for dinner tonight.
Her right hand rested on the slightly rusted railing as her violet eyes gazed down upon the entirety of Senba Academy.
A gentle breeze swept by, causing strands of her hair to dance and the hem of her skirt to flutter.
"Black... oh, they're safety shorts. Never mind then."
An out-of-place voice shattered the tranquil scene.
The girl named Raiden Mei turned her head. The door to the rooftop had been pushed open, and a man wearing a mask stepped out.
Otto looked at Raiden Mei and said with a smile.
"No matter how difficult life gets, I wouldn't recommend jumping. That's just a form of escapism."
Seeing Mei standing by the rooftop railing, Otto assumed she was contemplating suicide.
"I wasn't planning on jumping." Mei shook her head, her eyes exuding a chill that kept others at a thousand miles' distance. "You can have this place. I'm leaving."
Mei started walking toward the door. Since someone had arrived, she prepared to depart.
"Don't be in such a hurry to leave, Raiden Mei. Let's chat for a bit."
Otto smiled, then reached back and closed the rooftop door. He stood in front of it, blocking her path. Unless she pushed him aside, Mei could not leave.
Mei's brow furrowed. She watched Otto warily, her hand reaching behind her back.
She was carrying a long, narrow bag, and inside it was a bamboo sword.
"Who are you? Why are you... What do you want from me?"
Mei didn't ask how he knew who she was. Since her father's imprisonment, many powerful men coveting ME Corp had tried to get close to her through all sorts of means.
Her words were laced with indifference. Since her family's fall from grace, she had seen many things clearly. Those "friends" who had once flocked to her were only interested in the status of "Raiden Mei."
There wasn't a single genuine friend by her side.
So she gradually distanced herself from others, preferring to be alone, as a way to ease the torment in her heart.
All she needed now was to be by herself. That way, she wouldn't get hurt.
In the past, Raiden Mei used a mask of strength to hide her fragile heart. Now, she had donned another layer.
"I just feel that for a cute girl like you to suffer that kind of bullying... it makes me a little angry."
"I saw your desk. For someone to write such filthy words on it is truly disgusting."
"My desk?" Hearing Otto's words, Mei's frown deepened. "I don't understand what you're talking about."
"Aren't you being bullied? Aren't they hitting you, cursing you, picking on you, and stuffing dead rats in your desk?"
Looking at Mei's frosty expression, Otto also felt something was strange. The impression Mei gave off was simply one of a loner, not a child who was being bullied.
She was like a guarded turtle, warily watching everything around her.
How did a girl like this turn into the future head cook?
"Bullying? Perhaps." Mei drew the bamboo sword from its bag. "However, the bullying I've received would be what you call 'cold violence'."
No verbal abuse, no physical torment, just simple social isolation. But to Mei, that was even more painful.
That desk wasn't Mei's?
Otto was taken aback. He had assumed it was hers. It was a good thing he hadn't said so, or he would have made a fool of himself.
This school has some serious problems, though. There are other girls being bullied.
But that wasn't Otto's concern right now.
Otto looked at the bamboo sword in Mei's hand and said with a smile, "We're all civilized people here. There's no need for weapons."
He had a point. Although Raiden Mei looked like a delicate high school girl, she was actually a master swordswoman of the North Star One-Blade Style!
Anyone who wanted to bully her with violence would first have to see which was harder: their head or her bamboo sword.
"Besides, I mean you no harm."
"I'm a friend of your father, Raiden Ryoma. I came to see you because I want to help."
"Seven times." Mei looked at Otto, who was a bit confused. "I have heard that exact line seven times already."
Mei's face was a mask of indifference.
"Why do all of you use the same script? Do you really think I'm an idiot?"
Honestly, Mei was tired of it.
At first, she had truly believed them.
But she later discovered they were people with ill intentions. Thankfully, her combat skills were excellent, and she had managed to escape danger.
Deception after deception had made her stop trusting anyone who approached her.
Otto was internally collapsing. Good grief, had his lines all been used up by others?
This Mei was completely impenetrable. To get inside her heart, one needed Kiana's kind of boundless, fiery enthusiasm, coupled with a similarly lonely heart, to make Mei feel like she had found a kindred spirit.
"Get out of my way. I don't want to see you again."
Holding her bamboo sword, Mei's cold gaze locked onto Otto.
Otto realized that conventional methods wouldn't work with this girl.
"I just want to talk to you about Raiden Ryoma and your situation. I truly want to get your father out of prison."
In truth, Otto had already rescued him, only to lock him up in his own prison.
"I have nothing to talk to you about."
Another line she's heard before.
"You really don't want to talk?"
Otto asked again.
Mei didn't answer. She was already preparing to use a bit of force to make this person leave. If she didn't teach them a lesson, people like him would just keep pestering her.
Mei didn't want to get close to anyone, nor did she want anyone to get close to her.
"Well then... will this make us talk?"
Otto held up the USP45 and gestured toward Mei.
Mei's face stiffened. She had seen people pull guns before, but never on the first meeting.
This was the renowned Senba Academy. To pull out a gun here, was this person insane?
And he was wearing that strange mask. Could he really be a lunatic?
Interacting with a lunatic with a gun was extremely dangerous. You never knew when he might just shoot you.
Mei stared at the cold muzzle, her grip on the bamboo sword tightening. She was calculating the possibility of fighting back at this distance.
She was currently more than ten steps away from the man. If she could close the distance, she could use her sword to knock the pistol out of his hand.
"Beyond ten steps, the gun is fast."
"But..."
Like a magic trick, the pistol Otto was holding in his left hand suddenly vanished.
Mei could swear she hadn't blinked, but the gun had truly disappeared into thin air right before her eyes.
When it reappeared, the USP45 was in Otto's right hand.
This was Otto, flexibly using the System's equip and unequip function.
"Within ten steps, the gun is both accurate and fast."
"Miss Raiden Mei, why don't you guess which hand I'll use to hold the gun next."
"Left hand, or right hand? Make your choice with that bamboo sword of yours."
"Choose wrong, and I'll have to put a hole in you."