Chapter 86: I Ask You—Make it, make sense?
Shio's first encounter with Shiyue had been on day one, during lunch.
Transfer age requirements meant Shio could only enter as a third-year middle schooler. The class social structure was already established. No easy way in.
That was fine. Middle school let out early anyway. Making friends mattered less than getting home to spend time with her brother.
Shio sat alone on the rooftop, eating bread and planning to coast through lunch peacefully.
Then she heard unpleasant sounds from the shaded area.
Three students from her class—two girls, one boy—were doing something unwelcome to another classmate.
Inside Eden Tower, violence was prohibited. But that restriction relaxed significantly in the mid-level districts.
The girl being bullied—Shio had no memory of her. Probably one of the invisible students who sat in the back corners.
"Hey! You three!" Even though she didn't know the victim, Shio spoke up. "Keep doing that and I'm getting a teacher!"
Telling the teacher. One of the few cards available to kids.
Shio's sudden appearance clearly wasn't in the trio's script.
Facing an unknown transfer student—identity unclear, family background unclear—even Akiyama, whose family ran a transport business, didn't dare act rashly.
He called his two companions and left without incident.
Shio approached the girl crouched on the ground and brushed dirty water from her black hair.
"What's your name?"
"Shiyue."
The girl's bangs were long—long enough to partially cover her eyes. But her skin was pale, her features delicate and cute. That paleness made the bruises stand out even more starkly.
She was clearly bullied regularly.
"Why don't you fight back, Shiyue?"
"I—I don't dare."
A timid response. The kind of personality that invited bullying.
"What about telling the teacher?"
"Teachers don't care."
"That's a problem."
Shio hadn't personally experienced school bullying, but she'd seen it in novels and movies. The worst part about school bullying was encountering irresponsible, do-nothing teachers.
"Don't—don't get involved with me, Amano-san."
Surprisingly, Shiyue knew Shio's name. Made sense—the transfer student had done self-introductions that morning.
"If you get involved with me, they'll bully you too."
"Me? I don't think they—"
Shio had underestimated human malice.
When lunch ended and she returned to her desk, it was already covered in crude graffiti—slurs and insults scrawled across the surface.
And despite this happening in a room full of students, everyone acted like they'd seen nothing. Heads down, focused on their own business.
Only Akiyama's trio, clustered together, smirked at her with open provocation.
They really went after me.
Shio started toward them to "discuss" the matter—
The class bell rang, inconveniently timed.
First period after lunch was homeroom teacher Nakajima's math class.
Nakajima, the Class 3-7 homeroom teacher, was a woman in her forties. Walking to the podium, she clearly noticed Shio standing beside her vandalized desk. But she only frowned and said nothing.
"Everyone take out your textbooks. Turn to page fifteen—"
"Teacher!" Shio interrupted. "Someone tore up my textbook!"
Nakajima's frown deepened, obvious displeasure in her voice. "Then share with the person next to you."
"Teacher!" Shio pressed. "My desk is full of garbage. I can't sit down!"
"Today we're covering quantitative relationships—" Nakajima ignored her completely.
A student like Shiyue would have given up at this point. Lost the courage to keep resisting.
But Shio wasn't built that way.
"NAKAJIMA!"
Shio dropped the honorific entirely. Her voice was loud enough to be heard in the neighboring classroom. The whole class flinched.
"This kind of problem happens and you're not going to handle it?" Shio demanded.
The situation had escalated beyond what ignoring could solve. Nakajima tapped the podium impatiently, signaling for quiet.
"What exactly do you want me to do, Amano?"
"Make the people who did this clean it up. And apologize."
"Do you know who did it?"
"Them." Shio pointed directly at Akiyama's trio, still looking smug.
"Huh? What proof do you have it was us? Can anyone testify for you?"
Akiyama was clearly experienced. His family had local influence. Even if he did these things openly, no other students would dare testify. Testifying meant becoming the next target.
"I saw it myself." Shio threw out the false testimony directly.
"Impossible."
"Do you have proof I didn't see it?"
At this point it had devolved into a children's argument. Reasons and evidence no longer mattered.
"Enough." Nakajima cut in angrily. "Class is not the place for your petty disputes! Amano Shio, on your first day transferring here, this happens—have you considered whether you're part of the problem?"
"I'm part of the problem?" The logic was so absurd Shio wondered if the old woman's brain was malfunctioning.
"Why hasn't this happened to any other student? Only you, on your first day. That's it—stop arguing. It takes two to make a problem. Go think about your own behavior."
Classic rhetoric. So classic that Shio had already prepared her response.
In front of the entire class, she walked directly up to homeroom teacher Nakajima.
And slapped her across the face.
The crisp sound echoed through the suddenly silent classroom.
"Make it, make sense?"
"Amano Shio, you—you—"
The slap sent Nakajima's glasses flying. Face burning, having taught for years, this was the first time a student had struck her.
Simultaneously, Shio's Eva terminal blared an alarm.
The force had clearly been judged as violent behavior by the Eva system.
Honestly, this was Shio's first time actually hitting someone.
[VIOLENT BEHAVIOR DETECTED: SIN VALUE +40]
[MINOR STATUS: SIN VALUE REDUCTION (-20)]
[SEVERE DISABILITY STATUS: SIN VALUE REDUCTION (-20)]
[CURRENT SIN VALUE: 0]
Shio froze for a moment. Minor status plus disabled legs—she'd accidentally found a loophole in the Eva system.
One slap. Zero sin value gained.
Surprise gave way to something else. Excitement, almost.
Thinking about Nakajima's comments just now. Thinking about Shiyue's suffering being ignored all this time.
Shio's hand flew again. Multiple slaps. A percussive symphony blooming across the classroom.
Sin value remained at zero.
"I ask you—MAKE IT, MAKE SENSE?!"
The repeated strikes sent Nakajima into a rage that overrode reason. Rationality snapped.
"You little brat from the lower districts—how DARE you hit me!"
Nakajima struck back.
The moment she landed the slap, she realized what she'd done. Too late for regret.
Eva terminal alarms wailed.
[VIOLENT BEHAVIOR DETECTED: SIN VALUE +40]
[TARGET IS MINOR: SIN VALUE INCREASE (+20)]
[TARGET HAS SEVERE DISABILITY: SIN VALUE INCREASE (+20)]
[PERPETRATOR IS EDUCATIONAL STAFF: SIN VALUE INCREASE (+20)]
[CURRENT SIN VALUE: 112]
[FIRST VIOLATION OVER 100 SIN DETECTED: 112 DAYS IMPRISONMENT, IMMEDIATE EXECUTION]
"Wait—no—hold on!"
One hundred twelve days imprisonment. For a single slap. Nakajima couldn't have imagined this consequence.
This was her first offense over one hundred sin points—otherwise the penalty would have been exile, not imprisonment.
But even imprisonment for violence would ruin her career. She'd likely never work as a teacher again.
"Let me explain—please let me explain!"
Who would listen?
Even if someone wanted to, it meant nothing before Eva's cold, emotionless system judgment.
The system only saw numbers. No room for human considerations.
"Your turn now!"
Shio cracked her knuckles and advanced on Akiyama's group.
With the disability buff, even mutual brawling worked in her favor—she dealt damage without accumulating sin value.
The other side lacked that buff. They couldn't fight back without consequences. As sin values accumulated, the fight became one-sided output from Shio.
Over the following week, rumors spread through the middle school.
A bully transferred in from the lower districts. She beat teachers. She bullied students. And the academy and principal couldn't do anything about her.
In Academy City, where most governance ran through Eva's systems, even schools punishing students relied on Eva-provided sin values for judgment.
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