CHAPTER 12: True Meaning Of Friendship (Part 1)
Inside the canteen, the atmosphere had mutated into pure nightmare fuel.
Akuro had just humiliated Kenchon, forcing him to drop his pants in front of everyone.
The tension in the air was so thick it was suffocating.
On the ground, Renjiro lay half-dead.
BANG!!!
The heavy oak double doors of the canteen were violently kicked open.
A brutally beaten gang member collapsed near the door frame, gasping desperately for air.
"BOSS!
BOSS!"
he screamed.
"Outside...
there's a guy outside beating up all our gang members!"
The crowd's cruel laughter died instantly.
Kenchon froze in his tracks.
Akuro's sweet, innocent smile suddenly warped into icy shock.
"Kenchon!
Did you call the Thunder Bulls?!"
Akuro demanded, his voice laced with venom.
"No, Boss!"
the bleeding member on the floor interrupted, sobbing.
"It's not the Thunder Bulls!
It's just one guy!
He has stark white hair...
he's wearing a bright red hoodie...
and he's destroying everyone!"
The moment the words 'white hair' and 'red hoodie' echoed through the room, Akuro's eyes widened. But it wasn't fear.
The psychopath hiding beneath his skin suddenly awakened.
A cold, wicked energy began to seep into the air around him.
"Oh my..."
Akuro's smile returned, stretching even wider, almost unnaturally so.
His body began to tremble with a strange, dark excitement.
"...I didn't know I was going to hit the jackpot today.
Another new toy?
I can't wait anymore!"
Toma Kagetsu stepped forward, deep concern in his dead eyes.
"Boss, we don't know who he is or why he's attacking us.
He could be dangerous."
Daizen Mori cracked his thick knuckles.
"Let him come in here.
I'll tear him apart piece by piece."
Akuro suddenly snapped his head around and glared at the two of them.
For a split second, every sound in the canteen ceased to exist.
"Shut up, both of you,"
Akuro hissed, his voice sounding like a venomous snake preparing to strike.
"I will fight him.
And listen to me very carefully...
if anyone, absolutely anyone of you, gets between me and him...
I will kill you right here.
Do you understand me?"
Toma and Daizen's souls shivered.
"Y-Yes, Boss... he's all yours."
Akuro turned back toward the doors.
Today is going to be fun,
he thought to himself, his veins buzzing with adrenaline.
So many surprises in one place...
I can't wait any longer.
And at that exact moment—the dust settled at the kicked-open doors.
Raizen Kurotsuki,
with his stark white hair and his blood-red "I HATE TOXIC" hoodie, stepped into the canteen frame with perfectly calm footsteps.
His face bore that same Absolute Cold Expression.
When Akuro turned his neck and saw the white-haired boy standing at the door, an incredibly terrifying, evil, and devilish smile crept onto his face—a smile that would freeze the blood of anyone watching.
A Smiling Monster and a Red Storm were now standing directly face-to-face.
The main canteen of Hakuho Academy—where just moments ago a suffocating terror had been floating—was now engulfed in a graveyard-like silence.
Amidst the swirling dust at the doors stood Raizen Kurotsuki.
His stark white spiky hair and blood-red hoodie, screaming the words
"I HATE TOXIC",
had completely drawn the attention of the entire canteen.
After a long, terrifying silence, hushed whispers began among the surrounding students.
One boy whispered:
"Hey... who is this?
And where did he come from all of a sudden?
I swear, I am seeing him for the first time."
Another said:
"Bro, there's going to be an even bigger uproar here now..."
Meanwhile, a group of girls standing a little distance away were staring at Raizen.
"Wow, he is so hot!"
one girl whispered.
"But is he here to beat up this fat guy too?"
"I feel like he's definitely Akuro's rival!" a second girl replied.
Such whispers were going on everywhere in the entire canteen.
But the atmosphere at Kenta Ishida's table in the back was completely different.
His three friends were trembling like dry leaves out of fear.
Shoji Murakami pulled at his hair in panic and said,
"Oh man! Why is he scaring us?
We're already scared shitless just looking at this Akuro!"
Ryu Takeda stared at the door without blinking and asked,
"Who exactly is this red hoodie guy?
We've never seen him in school. And there hasn't been any new admission in school today either."
Tears of fear began floating in Reo Hayashi's eyes.
"Just looking at all this makes me want to go home,
man... I should just run away from here.
We might get beaten up too!
If we survive Akuro's hands, this new guy will kill us!"
Kenta Ishida placed his trembling hands firmly on the table and whispered in a low, yet extremely excited voice,
"Now shut your nonsense, you three!
He's not some ordinary thug...
That is Raizen Kurotsuki !
The Karate Black Belt Champion of Kurogami High School!"
The three friends gasped in shock in unison.
"What?
What nonsense are you talking about?"
Ryo Takeda held his breath and said,
"Bro, I've heard that there hasn't been a single guy in Kurogami High to date who has ever gotten beaten up by anyone.
The gangs there are even more dangerous and powerful than our academy, bro!"
Shoji Murakami's face turned completely white with fear.
"Then what the hell has this demon come here to do?!"
Just then, a strange, wicked smirk appeared on Kenta Ishida's lips.
"If I knew that, you idiots,
I wouldn't be this surprised! But now the fun begins,
friends... now the entire story is going to change.
When Akuro and Raizen clash with each other,
their explosion will shake the very foundation of the entire school!"
Standing at the door,
Raizen slowly began to walk towards the exact center of the canteen with cold steps.
Just then, Kaito Arashima came in his way.
This was the same lower-rank lackey that Meiko had sent to fetch ice cream for Renjiro.
Kaito still had that strawberry ice cream in his hand, which was melting due to fear.
"Hey you!" Kaito yelled, filling his voice with fake arrogance and thrusting the hand with the ice cream forward.
"Can't you see the Black Blazers are having a meeting here?
Step back or else—"
Raizen didn't even consider it necessary to raise his eyes to look at him.
Without decreasing his walking speed,
Raizen slightly lifted his left hand and delivered a casual,
yet terrifyingly high-impact palm strike to Kaito's chest.
BAM!
All the air was knocked out of Kaito's chest in a single jolt.
Like a lifeless mannequin,
he flew backward through the air,
crashed into a heavy steel table, and collapsed to the ground.
The strawberry ice cream flew into the air and spread across the floor in a blood-red color.
Raizen's footsteps didn't stop for even a second.
At the most premium corner table of the canteen,
Meiko Fujiwara was seated on her chair like a queen.
When Raizen swatted Kaito away like a fly,
a strange gleam appeared in Meiko's beautiful, blood-red eyes.
She elegantly crossed her legs and brought an 'Entertainment'-filled mocking smile to her lips.
"Oh my..."
Meiko purred in her soft,
sweet voice, every word filled with venom.
"A new guest? And look at his eyes... they are so cold.
It seems as if there are no emotions left inside him at all. Fascinating."
Raizen walked straight and stood right in front of Akuro,
Toma, and Daizen.
He cast a cold glance at the half-dead Renjiro lying on the ground and the naked,
fearfully weeping Kenchon, and then his emotionless eyes locked onto Akuro.
"Now..." Raizen's voice was completely soft,
yet as sharp as the edge of a knife.
"...Tell me, which of you four beat up Akira-kun?"
Toma Kagetsu (The Strategic Enforcer) put his hands in his pants pockets and glared at Raizen with his 'dead eyes'.
"Who is Akira?
We don't know any Akira."
Daizen Mori (The Predatory Fighter), whose hair was blood-red and who was habitually gnawing on his thumbnail, stepped forward with a dangerous smile.
"Well now... why don't you tell me who you are first."
There was a zero-degree coldness in Raizen's eyes.
"Keep your garbage to yourself.
Tell me clearly, which of you four beat Akira-kun in this very canteen."
And what will you do if we don't, you bastard?!
Daizen growled right in his face.
Toma added in his lifeless, monotone voice,
"So are you going to beat us up now?
Little chick, you think you're some hero,
bastard."
Piercing through this heavy silence,
Akuro Yoshibe stepped forward.
He casually adjusted his white leather jacket.
His face still held that same Calm and Dangerous smile.
"Yes... I beat him,"
Akuro confessed
in an incredibly slow, soft voice.
Then he suddenly started laughing loudly like a psycho.
"I did... I did... I did! I beat him while laughing!"
Hearing this, Raizen Kurotsuki's hands suddenly clenched tightly into fists.
He tilted his head down slightly, causing a deep shadow from his white hair to fall over his eyes.
" Why..."
For the first time, a dangerous, suppressed vibration was felt in Raizen's voice.
"...Why exactly did you beat him?
What mistake did he make that you beat him so much that the bones of his ribs cracked?
Just because of you, he is still lying in the ICU like a living corpse! "
Toma Kagetsu took a heavy step forward.
" Hey, stay in your limits, you pigeon.
Or else we'll refer you to the exact same hospital along with your friend."
Daizen Mori laughed loudly.
To be continue Next