Chapter 161: Fired Up
"Again! I refuse to believe this." Kiana slammed her hands on the table, her blue eyes burning with an uncharacteristic intensity. "With my luck, there is absolutely no way I can lose every single round!"
For some inexplicable reason, a fierce fighting spirit ignited within the white-haired Valkyrie. Or perhaps, she simply harbored a burning desire to watch Rovel hug a table leg and giggle like an absolute fool for ten straight seconds.
As fate would have it, Kiana's latent 'Goddess of Luck' constitution finally decided to activate. However, the target of her misfortune was not the one she aimed for.
"Is it actually me?" Himeko stared at the last remaining Joker card in her hand, her lips twitching before she offered a helpless shrug. "I will choose Truth, then."
She preferred Truth over Dare. The Dare deck contained far too many insidious, dignity-destroying tasks. There was no way a grown woman like her could maintain her authority as a teacher after giggling like an idiot while humping a table leg. With Truth, she could at least employ her intellect and weave a convincing half-truth to survive the round.
Himeko reached out and plucked a card from the Truth pile.
A sharp hiss escaped her lips. The instant her amber eyes scanned the text, she slammed her palm down, completely concealing the card against the tabletop.
"I am changing this!" she declared, her voice an octave higher than usual.
Before she could toss it back, Kiana lunged forward and clamped a hand over Himeko's wrist. "Aunt Himeko, you cannot cheat. Look at the massive sacrifice I just made in the last round..."
"No, this is entirely different." Himeko stared at the young Kaslana, her eyes completely devoid of light. "Please, Kiana. I will let you skip all my classes from now on. I will give you passing grades. Just do not make me read this."
The sheer desperation in her teacher's voice only poured gasoline on Kiana's curiosity. "What on earth is it? Let me see!"
"Absolutely not!" Himeko gripped the card as if her life depended on it.
Despite her valiant struggle, the combined physical strength of the Valkyries easily overpowered her. The card was flipped face-up for all to see.
[Question: When was the last time you 'comforted' yourself?]
Kiana tilted her head, a mask of pure, unadulterated confusion spreading across her face. "Comforted yourself? What is the big deal about that? Aunt Himeko has always been super resilient. Could she really be so depressed that she needs to do psychological self-adjustment in private?"
Around the table, several pairs of large, innocent eyes blinked at the red-haired woman, completely failing to grasp why she had reacted with such sheer terror.
Himeko cleared her throat loudly. A faint blush crept up her neck, but she forced her posture to relax, leaning back into her chair as if she had the situation entirely under control. "Just... livening up the atmosphere, girls. If we are talking about the last time I had to, ah, self-adjust... it should have been yesterday."
Theresa rested her chin on her hands, gazing at her old friend with newfound sympathy. "I never expected you to have such a fragile side behind closed doors, Himeko."
"Tell me about it," Himeko sighed softly, internally wiping a bucket of cold sweat from her brow. She had successfully bluffed her way through the innocent minds of her students.
'Yesterday, huh...' Rovel nodded slowly. He rested his cheek against his knuckles, shooting Himeko an incredibly meaningful, heavy gaze.
Himeko's heart skipped a beat. She had momentarily forgotten the sole male presence in the room. Kiana and the younger girls might possess minds too pure to decipher the adult phrasing, but there was zero chance a guy like Rovel missed the actual context.
Watching the corner of Rovel's mouth twitch as he desperately held back a knowing smirk, Himeko felt a vein throb violently at her temple.
"Next round!" she roared, slamming her hand on the table. The red-haired teacher was now radiating the exact same terrifying fighting spirit as Kiana. Since her dignity had just been dragged through the mud, she was going to drag everyone else down into the abyss with her. Especially Rovel.
"Is it my turn this time?" Theresa puffed out her small chest and planted her hands firmly on her hips. "Hmph, the Headmaster fears nothing! I choose Dare!"
She snatched a card from the Dare pile with absolute confidence. The instant her blue eyes registered the text, she slammed it face-down with the exact same panicked velocity Himeko had demonstrated just moments prior.
"Auntie, didn't you just say you were completely unafraid?" Kiana teased, leaning over the table.
"Th-This one will not do! Absolutely not!" Theresa squeaked, her face flushing a brilliant shade of crimson.
"You have to flip it over, Theresa." Himeko materialized behind the small principal, flashing a predatory smile as she clamped heavy hands down onto Theresa's shoulders. The more someone fought to hide their card, the higher the quality of the blackmail material. If Theresa ever tried to bring up Himeko's 'self-comforting' incident, Himeko needed maximum ammunition for a counter-attack.
Crushed beneath the collective peer pressure of the entire room, Theresa whimpered and slowly turned the card over.
[Please perform the transformation sequence of Magical Girl TeRiRi in front of everyone.]
Out of all the cards in the deck, how had she managed to draw this specific nightmare? Theresa felt her brain physically tremble inside her skull. She took a deep, shuddering breath. It was fine. Aside from herself, no one in this room actually knew her secret identity as the world-famous idol. To them, she would just be acting out a popular anime routine. It would be over in a few seconds.
"Ah... I feel like all of your dares are so easy," Kiana complained, puffing out her cheeks in deep dissatisfaction.
Theresa stepped away from the table. She lowered her head, letting her silver hair shadow her deeply flushed face, and began to chant in a soft, melodic voice.
"O Hyper-dimensional Staff that seals the dark forces, manifest your true power here!"
She brought her hands together, intertwining her fingers in a perfect, practiced prayer.
"The power of miracles turns into stars; the magic of light gathers in my heart."
With a graceful sweep, she spread her arms wide, tilting her head back to gaze toward an imaginary sky.
"Dimension Sonata!"
Her hands shifted, perfectly miming the grip of a magical wand as she thrust it high into the air.
"I will TeRiTeRi you!"
She bent her left leg, rising onto the toes of her right foot to simulate a floating posture, winked her right eye shut, and flashed a flawless peace sign beside her cheek.
The entire sequence of movements flowed like water. There was not a single microsecond of hesitation, awkwardness, or missed timing. It was a masterclass in idol choreography.
"Wow. The Headmaster's performance is incredibly realistic," Bronya noted, her stoic face showing a rare flicker of genuine surprise.
"And she did not even need to check the reference video beforehand," Mei added, clapping her hands softly in admiration.
Magical Girl TeRiRi was a world-class idol phenomenon. Half the current generation had grown up listening to her catchy, upbeat songs. Hearing the innocent praise from her students, Theresa exhaled a massive sigh of relief. Thank goodness no one possessed the deductive reasoning to link the principal of St. Freya to the magical girl herself.
If they had... a second Tragedy of Binding might have unfolded right here in the dorm room to silence the witnesses.
"Mm, recorded in high definition. I can watch this whenever I need a good laugh in the future." Rovel casually tapped his screen and slipped his smartphone back into his pocket.
Theresa's neck snapped toward him. Her head turned with the stiff, jerky motion of a malfunctioning robot. Her blue eyes locked onto his pocket, her mind rapidly calculating the collateral damage of summoning the Oath of Judah indoors just to crush him into paste.
"Next round!" Theresa shrieked, her voice cracking as she threw herself back into her seat, desperate for vengeance.
"Is it my turn?" Fu Hua adjusted her glasses, her normally calm heart thumping against her ribs. Seeing the absolute carnage the previous cards had wrought, she cautiously reached out. "I will choose Truth."
She flipped the card.
[Question: Which part of your body are you dissatisfied with?]
Fu Hua let out a quiet breath. What an incredibly normal, safe question.
"Let me see what it is!" Kiana lunged across the table, craning her neck to read the text. Her elbow caught the edge of the Truth deck, sending a cascade of cards fluttering off the table and scattering across the floor.
"Really, Kiana, you need to be more careful," Mei lectured gently, already pushing her chair back to help.
"Sorry, sorry..." Kiana chuckled nervously, rubbing the back of her head.
Fu Hua knelt down to gather the scattered cards, her mind simultaneously pondering the answer to her prompt. Was there a part of her body she was dissatisfied with? As a martial artist who had honed her physique for centuries, her body was a perfectly tuned instrument. There did not seem to be any glaring flaws...
Mei knelt beside her, sweeping up a handful of cards from the carpet.
"That should be all of them. There shouldn't be any missing, right?" Mei smiled, placing her stack back onto the table.
"There is still one resting on your thigh," Fu Hua pointed out, gesturing toward Mei's lap.
"Ah?" Mei looked down, blinking in surprise. "Oh, sorry. My view was accidentally blocked. I completely missed it just now." She delicately plucked the card from her thigh and added it to the deck.
Fu Hua tilted her head, a frown creasing her brow. Shouldn't a card resting on one's own thigh be visible at a mere glance? How could Mei possibly not see it?
Blocked?
Blocked by what?
Fu Hua slowly lowered her chin. She looked down at her own thighs, which were perfectly, entirely visible without a single obstruction in her line of sight. Then, she slowly turned her gaze back to Mei's chest.
The realization hit her like a freight train. The Class Monitor's entire posture crumbled, an aura of deep, soul-crushing dejection radiating from her slumping shoulders. She had never truly cared about it before, but having the sheer logistical difference demonstrated so casually had shattered her defenses.
"Whoa. Even Fu Hua can make an expression like that?" Himeko muttered, genuinely amazed by the utter despair painting the stoic girl's face.
"If..." Fu Hua choked out, her voice trembling as she stared blankly at the floor. "If I have to answer the question... it would be... my... my chest size..."
The moment the words left her lips, Fu Hua felt her pride turn to ash, scattering into the wind.
She had no idea why she had ever agreed to participate in this childish game. At this exact moment, she felt that stepping outside and unleashing the Taixu Sword God upon a mountain range would be infinitely better for her mental health than sitting in this room for another second.
"Uh... it is okay, Class Monitor." Mei leaned over and gently patted Fu Hua's shoulder, offering a warm, comforting smile. "You look so young. There is definitely still plenty of room for growth!"
However, as Mei leaned in to pat her shoulder, the motion caused her own heavy assets to sway and tremble right in Fu Hua's peripheral vision.
It was a second, devastating critical hit directly to Fu Hua's soul.
"Next round!" Fu Hua shouted, her eyes snapping open with a terrifying, bloodshot intensity.
The stoic Class Monitor had been successfully assimilated into the cycle of hatred.
Rovel watched the four women glaring daggers at the deck of cards, a bead of sweat rolling down his cheek. 'It is just a party game... why is everyone so violently fired up?'
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