Stella, aren’t you stuck in the past?

Maybe I am.

But some things simply can’t be forgiven.

…

If there was one thing that all Outcomes held in common, it was their absolute faith in their own abilities. They trust themselves for than anything else in the world.

Not all of them~

I leaned down toward Giselle.

I didn’t need to kill her, or even expel her.

There was a much easier way to defeat them.

She laughed a little.

“You’re running out of time, prodigy.”

“No, I’m not.”

I had infinite time.

Grabbing her by her long brown hair, I ripped her face toward mine. As expected, she neither winced nor screamed, simply looking at me with the same smug expression. I strengthened my grip a little.

“Doesn’t it feel bad to be overpowered?”

“Not particularly~ maybe it’d feel better if it was from a boy though.”

She still had no problem joking about the situation.

Sigh.

Using a bit more of my strength, I slammed her entire body into the ground once again. Her arms crashed into the ground, lifting a cloud of dust. Blood began to smear onto the ground, staining the white floor.

Before she could smile and look at me again, I pulled her limp body up.

Standing up a little, I kicked her in the stomach, causing her to fall through the air. Crash. Thump. Whatever. She rolled a little before pulling herself up again.

That kick would definitely have hurt her.

Even an Outcome like her wouldn’t be able to sustain many of my attacks.

The five-minute timer had already passed, if she wanted to, she could easily forfeit.

But she wouldn’t.

Obviously, she wouldn’t.

She was an Outcome, after all.

This was getting boring.

Stolen novel; please report.

It hurts, doesn’t it, Giselle?

I simply leaned down and grabbed her soft hands. You’re just a normal person.

“What’s your plan now, prodigy? Are you going to see who has a higher pain tolerance?”

She smiled.

In an instant, she swung her body up and hooked her leg around my neck. Ah.

The awkward posture of my body meant that I couldn’t keep my balance. In a few movements, she pinned me to the ground and held her arms around my neck.

“Aren’t you underestimating me a little~?” she cooed.

“…not at all.”

You should be grabbing my hands, not my neck.

I raised my arm to my head and conjured my [Gun of Gluttony].

Feed me her ability.

!#$%(*#$&%#$*(

Now, let’s see who has a higher pain tolerance.

…

!#(*%$&%*(#$&

It hurts. Doesn’t it?

!#$)(%*#()$%*$#

Her body twitched violently.

Goodnight, Giselle.

The easiest way to defeat an Outcome was to show them what hopelessness felt like.

That was a bit more effort than I expected. Maybe I’ll leave the best till last, Akira.

[Stella POV END]

⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘

Sumire looked over at me.

“We’ve got plenty of spectators, don’t you think?”

“It’s rather unpleasant.”

Kai was making it as hard as possible for me to live a normal life as he waited for the day of the duel. That was fine.

I had a different plan.

Erika made her way over to us.

“So, Sumire, what type of clothes did you want to get?”

“The type that’s easy to move around in.”

“Huh…? Like activewear?”

We began walking around the centre as Erika looked at the various storefronts—like she did last time.

Sumire looked down at her phone.

“…Giselle? That’s a bit surprising…” she mumbled to herself.

“What’s the matter?” I asked.

“You wouldn’t happen to know a girl named Stella, would you?”

As a matter of fact I did. But still, I guess our paths are overlapping a little. She was an Outcome for sure, but for the time being, she was biding her time as Kai’s underling.

Sumire nudged me a little.

“You want to deal with those girls?”

“We’d probably have to start at the root.”

“Works for me.”

Two days was a little too long for me. I’d rather relax sooner than later.

*

Sumire was probably confronting some of the others.

Down a less populated section of the mall, I looked down at the short girl with a camera in her hand. She was probably the easiest one to get information out of.

“W-what do you want from me, Akira?”

“So you know my name? I didn’t see you with Kai the other day.”

“What… so what do you want?”

“Nothing much, could you call your boss down?”

“No. Why would I do that?”

“You might get a headache if you don’t.”

…

…

Only a few minutes later, Kai was down with us.

“Aren’t you a being a little hasty? The duel isn’t for two days.”

“I changed my mind. I’d rather fight now. You’re pretty good at annoying people.”

He laughed a little.

“No problem, I’ll reschedule it for today, saves us both time.”

“You know what would save us even more time?”

He took a step back.

Ah, I wasn’t trying to be intimidating.

“…what?”

“Why don’t I fight you? You know, just to save us some time.”

He hesitated for a moment.

“That wasn’t the terms.”

“Sure, but you can change them, can’t you? And besides, can you even get Stella to fight for you?”

There was a short moment before he suddenly froze. Looking up at me, his eyes twitched a little, realising what I just said.

“I guess you managed to figure out that I was going to send Stella. What gave it away?”

“Just a hunch.”

He laughed.

“Just a hunch you say. Oh well, but I can assure you that she’ll fight for me.”

“Is that so?”

I showed him the messages on my phone.

“You’ve been talking with Stella? That’s interesting. I’ll have to have a little chat with her after this. She should know better than to do that.”

“Sure, feel free to do that. But I’ll offer you this. Replace Stella with yourself, simple enough?”

He laughed a little.

“I guess this just goes to show that you’re really worth the effort.”