Villain: Your Heroines Were Delicious-Chapter 219 - 7
The air in the classroom had become a pressurized tomb.
Tamaki’s lungs felt as though they were filling with wet ash, each breath an agonizing, shallow struggle.
"Hello, Tamaki..."
"Come back with us, Tamaki..."
Those creatures whispered, but the voices weren’t coming from the mouths of those things, instead they were just vibrating within her very marrow, like a rhythmic, wet chanting that pulsed in time with her frantic heartbeat.
"Tamaki..."
"Tamaki..."
"Tamaki..."
The voices were overlapping, some sounding like the gurgle of someone drowning in oil, others like the dry rasp of paper rubbing against a tombstone.
The distorted figures that had once been her classmates rose from their desks in a horrifying, synchronized motion.
Their limbs elongated, snapping and popping with the sound of breaking dry wood.
Their mouths, still split into those impossible, ear-to-ear grins, began to leak a thick, black bile that sizzled as it hit the floorboards.
"No! No! Leave me alone! Please!" Tamaki shrieked, her voice cracking into a raw, desperate wail.
She slammed her eyes shut, pulling her knees up to her chest and wrapping her arms around her head, trying to vanish into herself.
She prayed to any god that would listen, reciting fragments of childhood nursery rhymes just to drown out the wet, slithering sound of them approaching.
But the darkness behind her eyelids offered no sanctuary as she felt the temperature drop until her breath misted in the air.
Then, a hand touched her.
It wasn’t the warm, firm touch of a human.
No. It was cold—bitterly, impossibly cold—and felt like the damp, leathery skin of a drowned corpse.
The moment the fingers grazed her shoulder, a jolt of ice-cold agony shot through her nervous system, as if her very blood were turning into shards of glass.
"NOOOO!!!" She let out a final, lung-bursting scream, the sound echoing through the distorted reality.
"Tamaki..."
"Tamaki..."
"KUSANA TAMAKI!"
The voice was a thunderclap, a sharp, authoritative command that shattered the gray veil like a hammer through a mirror.
The freezing pressure vanished instantly, and Tamaki’s eyes snapped open, her vision blurred by tears and terror.
Despite that, she instantly noticed that zhe wasn’t in a bruised, purple purgatory, and the sun was still streaming through the windows, casting normal, golden light across the room.
Rindou was standing right over her, her blue eyes piercing and filled with a rare, sharp concern as her hand was firmly on Tamaki’s shoulder—a touch that was warm and grounding, pulsing with a faint, blue Ki that only they can see.
"Are you alright? Kusana-san, look at me. Yes, now breathe in, and out." Rindou urged, her voice low so as not to alert the entire room, though it was already too late.
Tamaki couldn’t speak, her jaw was trembling so violently that her teeth clicked together.
She turned her head slowly, looking around the room and sighed in relief seeing her classmates weren’t monsters, but were just ordinary teenagers.
They were looking at her with a mix of confusion, irritation, and genuine worry.
Some were whispering behind their hands; others were staring with wide, startled eyes.
The teacher, a middle-aged man with a shocked expression, stood frozen with a piece of chalk halfway to the board.
The reality was still normal, but the memory of those smiles was still burned into the back of her retinas.
As the realization hit her that she had screamed in the middle of a silent class, the dam finally broke, and tears began to pour down her cheeks in heavy, silent streams.
"President... I... I saw them... they were right here..." she whispered, her voice a broken thread.
Rindou’s expression hardened, her eyes turning toward the corners of the room as if she could still see the residual stains of the haunt.
She turned toward the teacher, her posture regal and unshakeable. "Sensei, I apologize for the interruption. Kusana-san is clearly suffering from a sudden and severe bout of illness. As the Student Council President, I will take responsibility and escort her to the infirmary immediately."
The teacher, clearly out of his depth and intimidated by Rindou’s aura, nodded frantically. "Yes... yes, of course, Kobayashi-san. Please, go ahead. I hope she feels better soon."
Rindou turned back to Tamaki, helping her stand.
Tamaki’s legs felt like they were made of water, and she had to lean heavily on the President as they walked out of the classroom.
The silence that followed them was heavy with the weight of the uncanny as every student couldn’t help but watched them as they leave.
Then, as they stepped into the hallway, the shadows seemed to loom over them, and the long stretch of the corridor felt unnaturally elongated.
Rindou kept a firm grip on Tamaki’s arm, her Ki radiating a protective warmth that acted as a barrier against the encroaching chill.
"So? Tell me. What exactly did you see?" Rindou asked, her voice clinical but sharp.
"T-They were there! Right in their seats!" Tamaki sobbed, her hand clutching at Rindou’s blazer. "Their faces... their eyes were gone, President! They were all smiling at me! They said... they said they missed my eyes! I can’t do this anymore... please... please help me, President... I feel like I’m losing my mind!"
Rindou let out a long, heavy sigh, her gaze fixed on the hallway ahead. "I know. That’s what we planned to do, anyway. But this is troublesome. To think that those things would ignore my presence even when I’m deliberately releasing my Ki just to reach you... that spirit doesn’t seem to just have an interest in you, Kusana-san, but has a fixation that borders on extreme obsession."
She reached into her pocket with her free hand and pulled out her phone as her thumbs moved in a blur as she sent a high-priority message to Seijirou.
[Change of plans. The situation is escalating faster than anticipated. The entity is manifesting even in daylight and even ignored my presence. We cannot wait until evening. Can we meet at the Student Council room immediately? We are heading to the Otsuka Sanatorium now.]
Once done, she pocketed the phone with a sharp click. "Let’s to go to my office, it’s so much safer than it is anywhere in the school."
Well, the infirmary should be the safest place, but because she doesn’t really want to encounter Retsu, she decided to just head to her office.
*
*
*
In a different wing of the school, the afternoon sun was painting the classroom Class 1-A in warm, sleepy oranges.
Miyamura Hana was standing at the chalkboard, a bright, cheerful smile on her face as she explained a complex historical event.
She moved with a rhythmic, practiced grace, her voice melodic and engaging.
Seijirou was leaning back in his seat, his eyes half-closed.
He wasn’t paying attention to the lecture; his mind was still occupied with the "fragments" and how to even start searching for them.
Just then, his gaze drifted to the empty seat usually occupied by Tadano Taro.
He wondered briefly where the boy had disappeared to—he hadn’t seen him since the mister incident—but his interest was fleeting, or rather, he couldn’t even muster any interest to ask about it.
After all, he had larger things to worry about.
Suddenly, his phone vibrated against the wood of his desk, the sound was sharp in the quiet room.
Some people noticed as they turned their gaze towards him, but they didn’t dare say anything and turned their eyes back on the board.
Seijirou picked up his phone and opened it and saw that Rindou had sent a message, then, as he read on, his eyes slowly narrowed.
’Now?’ he thought, his jaw tightening. ’She seems rattled. That isn’t like her.’
He typed a quick "OK" in response.
Then, he opened the group chat with Suzune and the others, his fingers moving quickly as he sent a message.
[Sorry, Rindou and I have something important to do. I won’t be going back home with you later]
He sent the message and pocketed the phone and stood up in one fluid motion, the chair scraped against the floor, drawing the attention of every student in the room.
"Sensei," Seijirou said, his voice calm but possessing a weight that made everyone go still. "I’m heading home early."
The class went silent.
For any other student, such a blunt declaration would have resulted in detention or a trip to the principal’s office.
But this was Kageyama Seijirou.
Hana stopped mid-sentence, the chalk hovering over the board as she turned toward him, her smile softening into a look of genuine concern.
"Ah, Seijirou-kun... are you still not feeling well? Are the injuries bothering you?" She didn’t wait for an answer, as she nodded at him. "Alright, don’t worry about the attendance. I’ll handle the paperwork and tell the office you had a medical relapse. Go home and rest. Don’t push yourself too hard, okay?" 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂
"Thank you, sensei," Seijirou said, nodding respectfully.
He then slung his bag over his shoulder and walked out of the room without looking back, his footsteps echoing with a singular, focused purpose.
As the door clicked shut, Rei and Haruka both looked up from their desks after reading the message Seijirou had just sent in the group chat.
They then looked at each other, their eyes reflecting a shared, deep-seated worry.
"He just got out of the hospital," Rei whispered, her hand gripping her phone so hard the screen threatened to crack. "And now he’s running off to do something with Rindou? He’s going to get himself killed at this rate."
Haruka said nothing, her gaze was fixed on the door, her analytical mind already calculating the risks of him fighting if something goes wrong while his Ki channels were still healing.
She sighed.
That man, he really likes to worry those who care about him.
