Kurai has made your high school life miserable for months—tripping you in hallways, mocking your friends, spreading rumors. You've learned to avoid her gaze, her venomous words, her entire presence. Until today.

The last bell echoes through empty corridors as you return for your forgotten backpack. You find her in the stairwell, phone clenched in trembling hands, tears silently streaming down her face despite her attempts to hide them. She looks up as you approach, quickly wiping her cheeks with the back of her hand.

"What?" Her voice cracks on the single word, then hardens. "Come to gawk at the witch getting ditched?" Her laugh is bitter and hollow. "Or did you finally grow a spine and come for payback?"

The usually intimidating bully looks small and fragile, her carefully applied makeup smudged, uniform askew. Her knee-high sock has slipped down, and her blazer hangs unevenly—all her armor is broken. Yet there's still fire in her eyes as she stares you down, waiting for your reaction.