Kryptonians: Man of Steel

Chapter 1559 Murder to Silence Hiratsuka Shizuka
A figure stood in the shadows.

He stood there blankly, holding a longsword with an ancient design, its blade reflecting a cold metallic luster in the dim light.

That face was all too familiar to Shizuka Hiratsuka—it was one of her students, Hachiman Hikigaya, whose eyes were always half-dead and who exuded a strong "rotten smell"!
At this moment, Hachiman Hikigaya's mind felt like it had been stuffed into a high-speed, completely out-of-control washing machine.

He stood there stiffly, as if his soul had been forcibly ripped from his body, crushed, and then haphazardly stuffed back in by everything he had just witnessed.

The cold, emotionless mechanical voice of the Hero System still buzzed deep within his consciousness: "Emergency Rescue Mission: High-risk energy reaction and distress signal detected at the target point, suspected civilians are trapped. Hero, please proceed to the rescue immediately..."

The results of it?
What did he see?
The Hiratsuka Shizuka before him was a version that Hachiman Hikigaya had never known before.

With her back to him, her slender yet explosively powerful body was encased in an indescribable "combat suit."

The material shimmered with a faint, stardust-like blue light, clinging to the body like a second skin, outlining breathtaking curves.

The shoulder armor and arm guards are made of some kind of silvery-white metal with sharp lines, and the hands are covered with gauntlets with energy channels.

The most lethal design is the lower half – beneath the high-slit skirt armor are equally shimmering high-top combat boots that blend almost seamlessly with the skin tone, extending into the absolute territory.

This outfit is less for combat and more like a performance costume with a strong visual impact and taboo connotations.

Hachiman's brain hadn't even had time to process this disruptive visual information.

His deeply ingrained, acute radar for all social death scenarios screamed wildly, and a completely uncontrollable, instinctive critique instantly formed in his chaotic brain circuits.

The moment this thought surfaced, a chilling sensation, originating from the biological instinct for survival and capable of freezing one's bones, exploded from the tailbone, surged wildly up the spine, and rushed straight to the top of the head!
The hairs on his entire body stood on end like those of a frightened hedgehog!

Oh no! Pills!
He could even clearly "see"—not in a physical sense, but because fear amplified his perception to the extreme—the pupils of Hiratsuka-sensei's eyes, which already retained a violent aura, suddenly contracted the moment they caught his eye out of the corner of their eye and, in a rapid reflex, confirmed his identity!
Immediately afterwards, a strange, molten, scarlet light suddenly surged in her eyes!

That wasn't just simple killing intent; what surged within it was a raging inferno of extreme shame and fury, a mixture of the deepest secrets being exposed and the overwhelming ferocity that was enough to incinerate the entire world!

A kind of madness where "existence itself is completely denied"!

The brain completely shuts down in extreme terror, all logical thinking is instantly cleared, leaving only the most primal biological instinct—escape!
Driven by the absolute will to survive, the body reacts directly without any thought.

"Ugh—!" Hachiman Hikigaya jolted violently, letting out a short, distorted scream, almost a piercing howl. His voice was completely distorted by extreme fear and spasms in his throat muscles, carrying a shrill, broken tone that sounded particularly eerie in the deathly silent alleyway.

"T-Teacher! I...I was just passing by! Really! I didn't see anything! I'm blind! I swear I can't see anything!"

Before he could finish speaking, he was like a firecracker with a lit fuse, violently thrown up by an invisible fear!
He even forgot that he was still dragging that demonic sword. Relying on instinct, he used all his strength to grip the cold hilt tightly with his five fingers, as if it were his only lifeline. He lowered his head in the direction he came from, and his legs burst forth with unprecedented power, starting a frantic sprint!
"Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!"

The heavy footsteps, mixed with the ear-piercing noise of the demonic sword dragging and scraping the ground, echoed desperately and chaotically in the narrow, enclosed alleyway.

Each step he took on the cold ground felt like stepping on the second hand of his life's countdown, the sound relentlessly hammering at his nerves, which were already stretched to their limit.

"lie--!!!"

Hiratsuka Shizuka's roar was like a thunderclap from a clear sky, carrying boundless shame and fury and violent magic, slamming hard onto Hikigaya Hachiman's running figure, making the entire alleyway seem to tremble.

"Then why did you run away—!!!"

Been seen!

This student saw it!

Clear and transparent, without any concealment!
I saw her at her most wretched, most pathetic, and most desperate to be buried in the dark abyss where no one knows her! I saw her wearing this damn, incredibly shameful "battle suit" that rivals lingerie!
Seeing her swing her fists like a monster, smashing those filthy things to pieces!
Seeing all her pretense, all her reserve, and all the dignity she used to maintain as a teacher stripped away completely and exposed nakedly before a student's eyes!

It's over. It's all over.

Social death? No, that's an understatement.

This is no longer a public execution; it's nailing her to the most conspicuous pillar of shame in the history of human civilization, repeatedly whipping her corpse with the most vicious words, and broadcasting it live across the entire universe!
Her teaching career? Her personal life? The meaning of her existence as "Hiratsuka Shizuka"? In this moment, all of it turned to dust!
Destroy it!
This world, along with herself, should just end!
But before that... before that, she absolutely, absolutely, absolutely could not let this witness leave alive! She couldn't let anything those eyes had seen leak out in the slightest!

Any explanation, any threat, any guarantee is utterly powerless in the face of living, breathing witnesses!

Only the dead! Only the mouths of the dead are truly secure!
Only by completely erasing this "mistake" can... can the fire of shame and anger that was enough to burn her soul to ashes be extinguished even a little bit!
This murderous intent, a mixture of extreme shame, destructive rage, and despair, exploded within her like the most potent accelerant!
Om-!
The diamond-shaped gemstone embedded in the back of her left hand suddenly burst forth with an unprecedentedly dazzling light! The light, like a miniature star on the verge of going out of control, instantly turned incandescent white, and then transformed into a furious deep blue!
A massive torrent of magic surged forth from the gem, like a raging torrent bursting its banks, instantly flowing throughout her entire body!
Visible deep blue arcs of electricity crackled across her body, wrapping around her silver-white arm armor and gauntlets, emitting a high-frequency hum that made one's teeth ache and seemed to vibrate the very space itself!

(End of this chapter)