De Omnibus Dubitandum.

You can go home without me. I just realized now that I left my things inside the classroom.

“Huh? I can get it for you if you want-”

Yua didn't give time for Tsubasa to finish his sentence as she started briskly walking towards the classroom. He had already helped her with so many things today that she had to get it herself.

They’ve been chatting with one another near the shoe box for an hour, while most students have already left to study for their midterm exams. She had many more questions to ask him about his reaper business or identity when she came back from getting her stuff.

Tsubasa sent her a message in the app.

Tsubasa Fushihara: Should I come after all?

Don’t move from that spot or else I’ll get mad.

I can get it myself. It’s just my bag.

Tsubasa sent a sticker of a cat saying ‘I’m sorry…’ in response.

Yua slid open the door of her classroom while panting, only for her eyes to meet a certain girl.

Ayumi was still inside the classroom. It was only the two of them.

What’s even worse is that she was holding her bag, and she could tell that she was furious.

“What made you get so chummy with Fushihara-kun all of a sudden, huh?”

For some reason, Ayumi was holding the pointed part of her compass like a weapon.

Ahh, this girl is actually insane.

Yua backed away slowly out of fear, but stopped dead in her tracks.

Ayumi and her goons have already done physical harm to her in several ways, such as pushing her into the pond near the school, cutting her hair off, or throwing random stuff at her to the point it led to bruises, but this is the first time she has actually threatened to use a weapon on her.

The fact that this is all because of a pretty boy who’s probably not even real is ridiculous. Did Tsubasa secretly have some kind of love charm that could make girls go crazy for him?!

Yua was baffled by how hostile this girl could be at random. She’s already been reported several times by several different students who were bullied, such as herself, but since she was a rich nepo baby whose mommy and daddy funded the school, it led to nothing, so she put up with it.

Yua thought of making a run for it, but a new idea struck her.

She was going to die in the next seven days anyway. Why is she acting all scared now? She’s got nothing to lose.

On the extreme side, if Ayumi actually murders her out of jealousy, she’ll win either way. Ayumi would be convicted of murder, and although the death might be painful, she would at least have some sort of revenge delivered to her…

…but she wasn’t going to go down without a fight. This school had cameras in the hallway. If she could get some hardcore evidence of attempted murder, she could bring this to court. Not even her parents can save her if she publicizes this online.

Yua slightly smirked at herself on the depraved thought she was having right now. Ayumi was caught off guard by her reaction.

“What the hell is wrong with you?! Smiling at a time like this, you really are a freak, huh? You really are broken in the head, as everyone says!”

Yua didn’t care about that derogatory remark. She’s heard it way more times than she can count.

“I wondered why I even put up with you back in middle school! All you’ve ever done is steal everything from me!”

She never stood a chance to stand up for herself because she was too afraid to get hurt, but for some reason, all of her fear was now gone because she now knows that her death is set in stone.

Yua had to enjoy her last seven days to the fullest.

She opened the voice memos app on her phone and silently recorded their entire conversation. She continued by calmly typing a response on her phone and raised it to her eye level.

Unfortunately for you, Tsubasa has completely fallen in love with me. He just confessed to me earlier. You’ve got no chance.

The moment her eyes finished scanning the text, she immediately came to pounce on her.

Seems like her ragebait worked. A little too well, to be honest.

A scream that’s enough to pierce Yua’s ears emanated across the empty classroom.

Yua braces herself and barely dodges the sharp object by just a few inches. She ran for the door and safely made it to the hallway. The madman behind her was running towards her at breakneck speed.

She dodged at the last second again. This time, the compass hit the wall, and it chipped a bit of the paint off. The adrenaline coursing through Yua’s body made her hyper aware of her surroundings as she dodged another swing from Ayumi.

“You’re great at everything but speaking, so why do I gotta be second to you in everything?! A freak like you has no merit to smile at me like that!”

Yua was still grinning at her screams of bloody murder. This further enraged her even more.

Their proximity was much closer than before, and she used this opportunity to push her back by using her elbow as she staggered back a bit. Yua had the advantage of being taller than the other girls in her grade. Most of the girls in Hida are short, so she stood out a bit. She could just push her back using her limbs if she got too close.

She took a glance at where the cameras were located as Ayumi tried getting back on her footing. They were just in the perfect range for the camera.

Ayumi ran towards her again. In a split-second decision, Yua trips on herself on purpose to put on a show for the camera.

“This…THIS IS WHAT YOU GET FOR MESSING WITH M-”

The girl stood still as she was about to give a devastating blow to Yua.

As if time froze upon itself, she stood still like a mannequin, unable to move with her arms up. The only thing she could do was look around with her eyes. Yua could move, but she was still on the ground staring at her in confusion.

A sound of metal dragging on the floor could be heard at the other side of the hallway. It was getting louder and louder as if it was coming towards them.

One by one, each window in the hallway turned pitch black as the screeching noise of metal inched closer to the two girls.

One window, two windows, three windows, four, five- until the last window beside Yua turned black. It wasn’t even night yet; nothing could be seen outside the window but the void.

Sparks flew from the object that was being dragged on the ground. It looked like a scythe.

Out of the darkness stood a young boy in a school uniform carrying that scythe.

It was Tsubasa. He was walking towards them.

“Yua, my dear…I left you for a few minutes, and you almost got murdered under my supervision? Your seven days aren’t even over yet!”

Tsubasa lifted his scythe from the ground and brought it near Ayumi’s neck. The girl couldn’t move, so she just stood there sweating bullets. Tsubasa leaned in beside her, his breath fanning her hair.

“René Descartes quotes: De Omnibus Dubitandum. Do you know what this means?”

Ayumi couldn’t even respond because she was stuck in place. She simply closed her eyes in fear.

“Hah, of course an imp like you wouldn’t know. It’s a Latin phrase which translates to "everything must be doubted.”

The scythe closed in on Ayumi’s neck. A small cut formed from it, and blood slowly dripped down to the collar of her uniform.

“I should’ve taken his words to heart to know that you humans should be doubted from the start. To do such a thing out of jealousy to your own classmate…how preposterous. I knew you would be in the classroom, but I thought you were smart enough to talk things out with Yua here, so I left you two alone.”

Tsubasa glanced at Yua. She had no idea what was happening at the moment, but there were too many things happening in front of her that she could not react accordingly.

For the time being, she stood up and grabbed his arm, which was holding the scythe. She shook her head, clearly trying to tell him not to do anything rash, but all he did was stare at her.

“How admirable that you try to stop me Yua, but don’t you get it? She did all of these things to you. She tried killing you just a few seconds ago as well…and you want me to spare her?”

Yua nods.

Tsubasa chuckles, “Ah, I see now! Are you worried about me getting caught for murder, right? You don’t have to worry about that because if I kill her now, she will only be spirited away; logic doesn’t apply to this space. It will only look like you came to get your stuff back from the classroom.”

Yua shakes her head again. She squeezes his arm even tighter. He still doesn’t get what she’s trying to say, so she pulls out her phone from her hand yet again.

I hate her as much as you do, but killing her is too much! Is there any other way for you to solve this?!?!

You don’t have to do all of this for me. I had a plan to use this as an opportunity for attempted murder so that she could be punished in court!

Tsubasa looked up as he was thinking for a moment.

“I know. That’s why I stopped it.”

Yua looked at him with a face that can only be described as absolute fear from those words. Tsubasa’s scythe sank a little bit deeper into Ayumi’s neck, and more blood dripped down as it spread to the front of her collarbone now. He still didn’t let go of the scythe that was now lodged deeper into Ayumi.

“I must explain. Even if you did bring it to court, all she would get out of it is a slap on the wrist. If you died from it, which you most likely would, it would still not be revenge in the slightest. Even if you did survive, you would be injured. You wouldn’t be able to spend your last seven days properly while wasting your precious time trying to explain yourself.”

Yua’s head hung low. He was right.

Tsubasa flinched from seeing her face contorted in pain. He raised his voice in anger.

“I don’t get it at all! Wouldn’t it be easier for you? I’m doing you a favor by erasing her existence from this world! Yet you hesitate?!”

Yua didn’t move at all after he raised his voice at her. She weakly pinches the sleeve of his uniform.

She held her phone in her other hand. It seems like she had typed something else. Yua shows her phone to him once again.

I knew Ayumi when we were kids. I used to be close to her, but she changed. I can’t bring myself to fully hate her.

As much as I don’t want to admit it…I still care about her. I don’t want her to die.

She was only made to be this way because her parents were constantly comparing her to me.

Ayumi is only seventeen. She wouldn’t know any better.

Her eyes were full of tears.

If you were to blame someone, blame the adults.

Tsubasa lowered the scythe in his hands. It was no longer lodged in Ayumi’s neck.

The scythe disappeared into the shadows.

“Okay. I think I get it now.”

Yua sighed with relief.

“But that doesn’t mean that I forgive her.”

Before Yua could even react, Tsubasa grabbed her by the neck and started choking her with his hands. His hands were now stained with red, which came from her neck.

Ayumi passed out immediately. Her body dropped limply to the ground.

Yua fell on her knees. She had no words. She couldn’t even scream.

Tsubasa kneeled in front of her. They were in the same position again when they first met.

Instead of cupping Yua’s hands again, this time he reached for her face. Blood was smeared across it. His hands were cold to the touch.

“I understand your situation now. No need to look at me that way Yua.”

“She’s not dead, she simply passed out. I just instilled fear within her so she wouldn’t bother you again. Once she wakes up in the hallway, she won’t remember any of this! She will just be scared of you and me.”

Yua was locked in a stalemate with this entity. Her point did not get across to him at all.

“So? How about we go home? I’ll buy a few things from the convenience store, and I’ll cook you a nice meal tomorrow! That’s another goal to check off your bucket list.”

Yua’s mouth hung open. She wanted to scream, but nothing came out yet again.

Tsubasa just stared at her in silence, patiently waiting as if she was going to speak for once.

Yua did not know how to react to all of this. It was as if he had no empathy at all.

She couldn’t get mad at him. He was simply trying to protect her. He didn’t even kill her.

So she stood up, followed him silently to the convenience store throughout the day, and they were suddenly shopping for groceries as if nothing had happened.

She didn’t even bother to look back at her former friend, who was passed out on the floor.

After an hour of processing what just happened, she got over what Tsubasa did to her.

Maybe she was the inhumane one this entire time.

For some reason, she was relieved that she wasn’t killed…but she was ecstatic that she was now feared by Ayumi.

She wouldn’t hurt her anymore. That girl was out of her life for good.

Yua did not realize it, but she was smiling to herself on the way home.