Chapter 18: Teleportation Shifts the Tide, Leaping into the Rain to Shed Old Threads

“Hey… at a time like this, you’re thinking about that?”

Despite her words, Shizuku Sakurai’s smile didn’t fade as she heard Su Buyu’s odd remark.

She knew he had a plan.

But what next?

The classmates were closing in.

Their faces, like copied masks, stared blankly, eyes fogged, blindly following the commands they couldn’t resist.

“Seize Su Buyu and Shizuku Sakurai! They’re bad kids, they need punishment!”

Renyu Saiki’s roars filled the classroom, unloading all her fury on them.

She waved her hand, eyes blazing as if shooting lasers.

If looks could kill, she’d have obliterated them both—chest and all—a hundred times over.

Too bad her hypnosis was weakened.

No matter how she shouted, the students’ steps didn’t quicken.

But it was enough!

“How’s that, Su Buyu, Shizuku Sakurai? These are your classmates! Innocent bystanders, just poor souls I’ve controlled! What, gonna hurt them? Harm the innocent? Like me?”

Her crazed laughter, sharp with thunder, pierced their ears.

She had a point.

So what?

Who cares?

Su Buyu glanced at the classroom clock, its second hand past one and a half turns.

That meant…

Thirty seconds had passed!

His ability reset!

He had three teleports again.

In twenty seconds, he’d reset again!

No wasting this chance!

He needed faster, more efficient, precise moves to execute his plan!

No time to hesitate!

Taking a breath, ignoring the pain, Su Buyu pulled his arm from Shizuku Sakurai’s shoulder.

Time to act.

“Shizuku Sakurai, I need your help.”

He snatched the white tube from her, handing her the pen cap.

Pointing at the ceiling fan, he asked.

“With your fastest throw, toss the cap up there, catch it, then cover your mouth and nose with this. Can you do it?”

He stripped off his jacket, tossing it to her.

Shizuku Sakurai didn’t react in time, instinctively reaching out, only to have the oversized jacket cover her head.

The owner’s warmth flushed half her face.

Her cheeks burned.

She yanked the jacket off, holding it, swallowing hard.

She recalled his “choke play” comment.

The rain-soaked collar didn’t wash away his scent—it preserved it.

Faint.

But the smell at her nose outshone the gaudy pomegranate, sinking into her heart.

It was his unique scent.

Embarrassed, she pressed the jacket to her face. Each breath drew his scent into her nose, filling every airway, like it controlled her breathing.

It wasn’t just a jacket—it felt like his warm hand.

Choke play…

Her ears reddened, the stifled breathing dizzied her.

She was starting to get the appeal.

Maybe… later…

A sharp voice snapped her out of it like thunder.

“Now, Shizuku Sakurai! Move!”

Her eyes met Su Buyu’s, his resolve urging her on.

…Later. There’d be plenty of time.

No hesitation.

She swung her arm, thumb bracing the cap’s end, launching it.

The cap shot like a sniper bullet, shrieking through refracted pale light, aiming for the ceiling.

That move!

Guessing his plan, Renyu Saiki’s gaze shifted from Shizuku to the ceiling.

As expected.

The boy by the window vanished in a swirl of air, curtains writhing like snakes.

Water droplets fell from the ceiling.

His rain-soaked hair hung down.

Defying gravity like a spider, he clung near the fan rod, neck nearly touching the cold ceiling, fingers catching the cap meant for it.

“Good!”

Su Buyu smashed the white tube, liquid coating two-thirds of the fan blades.

Gravity grabbed him, pulling him down.

But he defied it.

Gripping the fan, he used its spin to fling himself forward.

He dashed for the classroom door.

But hypnotized students blocked it, preventing escape!

“Useless, Su Buyu! Trying to flee?”

“No… no way you’d run! Abandoning your partner to escape hell, you pathetic coward?”

“Haha! What were your bold words? Your resolve to crush me?”

“Su Buyu, you’re pitiful!”

Seeing him rush the podium, Renyu Saiki sneered, laughing wildly.

She mocked him and the lone Shizuku Sakurai by the window!

Her venomous gaze hit Shizuku, lips curling down.

“Trust him? Think you can trust him forever? What’s the point, Shizuku Sakurai? When danger hits, the closest get ditched first! You look ridiculous now, don’t you?”

She laughed crazily, the pain in her fingers dulled by adrenaline.

But she couldn’t stand.

She could only mock, laugh, tears streaking her face under the pale light.

Right, no one could be trusted.

Only hypnosis. Only controlling everyone kept her safe.

Kept her… from being hurt again…

“Yah!”

A scream cut her lament.

Something pierced her, like a cannon loading, a heavy blow from behind, unavoidable, undefendable!

Renyu Saiki was forced to take it, like an unchangeable fact.

“How… how’d you do it…?”

Confusion, shock, fear—like vines crawling over her chest, the precise strike hitting her weakness, her stomach lurching.

This size, this weight?

No way!

“Right, what you did to that girl, I’m paying back!”

Su Buyu held the ding-dong chicken like a blade.

One thrust, and Renyu Saiki was immobilized by the strange sensation.

Damn it!

She miscalculated!

His goal wasn’t the door—it was the podium!

To grab the ding-dong chicken left by the girl!

How could she be so careless?

And since earlier, a warm current, like a python, coiled around her, the relentless heat making her cry out.

It hurt, yet her body didn’t resist—it embraced it.

Impossible! Absolutely impossible!

“Did you do something?”

She looked up, noticing the fan spinning.

A unique scent hit her nose, her body weakening, senses amplified unbearably!

Renyu Saiki screamed.

“You… you smashed that stuff and spread it through the room? You’re insane… truly insane!”

She didn’t know what it was.

But its effect—likely a perception amplifier!

What good did this do them?

“Don’t forget, you’re in the room too! This is pointless! I’ll still win! Hahaha!”

She screamed like a madwoman.

Su Buyu didn’t argue.

He pushed the ding-dong chicken, ensuring she couldn’t escape, then teleported to Shizuku Sakurai, opening the window behind her.

Outside, thunder rumbled, rain weaving a misty veil over the scene.

Inside, soft groans spread, like a terrifying germ infecting the air.

The Super Perception Potion could be applied or vaporized.

Now, it filled the room via the fan.

Renyu Saiki was right—this was risky.

If he and Shizuku Sakurai were affected…

No doubt.

It’d be a total loss, a defeat with no victor.

All paths seemed dead ends, possibilities exhausted.

No turning back.

But Su Buyu opened the window, rain soaking his clothes, wrinkling them.

He never liked set paths.

He preferred carving his own.

The clock had three seconds left for a half-turn.

His sneakers crushed the water on the sill. He turned, reaching for her amber eyes.

“Trust me?”

Cold rain slapped his face.

Her smile bloomed like a flower.

Shizuku Sakurai didn’t hesitate, her lips’ curve saying it all.

Her black boots stepped onto the sill, rain soaking her clothes, as if dyeing the wind brown.

She casually slung her arm over his shoulder.

The wind billowed their clothes, their eyelashes nearly touching, rain drifting between them.

They leaned close, like birds falling toward the sky.

So exhilarating, so thrilling, Shizuku Sakurai couldn’t help but laugh.

She met his shining eyes, shouting from her heart.

“My everything’s with you now. Tell me, what do I do?”

As three raised fingers touched the rain, she saw him crouch on the sill, his words searing into her heart, unforgettable.

“I’ll count to three, then…”

“Then?”

“One, two, three, jump!”

Into the rain!

The wind filled her open arms.

At the edge of weightlessness, Shizuku Sakurai felt countless raindrops hit her skin, shattering into fragments, slipping into her mouth, tasting her tongue.

Salty.

But holding his warm hand in the rain, she felt a sweetness from her heart.

Her first taste of freedom.