I, the spiritual mentor of beautiful girls from all over the world

She gripped the can of coffee tightly, as if trying to capture its warmth into her very soul.

Then, she took a deep breath and followed.

……

The school festival starts in 10 days.

Afternoon, Service Department.

The air was still filled with the delicate aroma of fine black tea, and an eerie calm before the storm.

Lynn sat listlessly on the sofa, listening to Yukino Yukinoshita and Yui Yuigahama discuss the specific layout of the school festival booth.

at this time.

"Squeak-"

The door to the activity room was pushed open.

All eyes immediately focused on the doorway.

Kasumigaoka Utaha stood there quietly.

Her aura was completely different from that of the prickly, arrogant, and sharp-tongued queen she was yesterday.

Her deep red eyes were strikingly bright.

There was no mockery, no alienation, only a kind of almost obsessive, predatory, scorching light.

"Kasumigaoka-senpai?" Yui Yuigahama was startled by her appearance.

Yukino Yukinoshita's brows furrowed almost imperceptibly.

Kasumigaoka Utaha ignored everyone.

From the moment she entered the room, her gaze was fixed on the man sitting on the sofa who hadn't even lifted his eyelids once.

She strode forward, the sound of her heels striking the ground exceptionally clear in the quiet activity room.

Step by step.

Instead of walking towards Yukinoshita, who was in charge, she went straight to Lynn.

She gently placed two printed A4 sheets, still warm from the printer, on the coffee table in front of him.

The movements were very light, yet they carried an undeniable, sacrificial sense of ritual.

"This is……"

Lynn finally raised her eyes, her eyes, which always carried a hint of laziness, calmly looking at her.

"This is the homework you assigned."

Kasumigaoka Utaha's voice, slightly hoarse from staying up all night, was exceptionally clear.

For the first time, a vivid expression, a mixture of "provocation" and "expectation," appeared on her face.

Lynn picked up the first document.

That was the promotional material for the school festival.

So-called youth may be a collective illusion dominated by hormones, filled with lies and self-satisfaction.

But precisely because it is an illusion, it is worth our utmost effort to weave the grandest and most splendid dream.

847

Sweat will evaporate, shouts will fade, and so-called bonds may also turn into a gray profile picture in your contacts, never to be contacted again, when the graduation bell rings.

But, so what?

At least for this moment, on this stage called the 'Sobu High School Festival,' everything we've given, every heartbeat we've felt, will become an indelible medal etched in time.

Come, come here.

Come witness a miracle of youth that will eventually come to an end, but will be made all the more beautiful by it.

……

The entire activity room was completely silent.

A look of disbelief and shock flashed in Yukino Yukinoshita's eyes.

Yui Yuigahama watched with her mouth slightly agape and her eyes welling up with tears.

This copy still retains Kasumigaoka Utaha's signature cool and even acerbic writing style.

But after piercing through all the false appearances, it blossomed from the ruins into an incomparably splendid flower called "hope".

It no longer mocks, but instead, after deconstruction, it completes a more advanced "reconstruction".

This is no longer promotional copy.

This is a declaration about "youth" that is worthy of being recorded in the history of Zongwu High School.

However, Lynn simply read it calmly.

He offered no praise, no comment, but simply nodded almost imperceptibly.

But this seemingly casual action caused Kasumigaoka Utaha's breath to catch in her throat for a moment.

She knew he approved.

Then, Kasumigaoka Utaha extended her slender fingers and gently pushed the second document toward him.

"And what is this?" Lynn asked.

Kasumigaoka Utaha's lips curled into a bewitching smile that could captivate all beings.

That smile held a hint of madness, a hint of gambler's resolve.

"That was the first question I asked you."

Lynn's gaze fell on the title of the document.

It was a line of text printed in bold black font, full of taboo and temptation.

【Love Metronome: A New Chapter】

Episode 1: The Day the Gods Fell to Earth

Lynn's pupils contracted almost imperceptibly.

He finally understood what kind of terrifying transformation the woman before him had undergone that night.

She is no longer a passive author awaiting judgment.

She transformed into the most dangerous hunter, taking the initiative and challenging him.

She wanted to use her pen to draw him into her story.

She transformed him into the most perfect male protagonist in her writing.

Lynn looked into her burning eyes and after a long while, slowly uttered a sentence.

His voice was soft, yet it was like a boulder thrown into the lifeless lake of the Service Department.

"Kasumigaoka Utaha."

"You want to become my student?"

Meanwhile, Kasugano Sora, in the corner, added another name to her phone's memo app after "Yukino Yukinoshita, Yui Yuigahama, Eriri Sawamura Spencer": "Kasumigaoka Utaha," and marked it with a black cross.

Chapter 54: Shinobu Kocho: My teacher is a gentle person

Demons destroy the world.

It has been a full year since that "door" last opened for her.

Three hundred and sixty-five days and nights, eight thousand seven hundred and sixty hours.

The name of the Flower Pillar has long been sealed in the history books of the Demon Slayer Corps, dying along with that girl who always wore a gentle mask.

Today, what walks through the world is the "pillar of karma".

A title that, if uttered merely, would send chills down the spines of vicious demons.

……

During that year, she slew countless demons with such ruthlessness and astonishing efficiency that even her colleagues within the Demon Slayer Corps felt a chill run down their spines.

She wielded her knife frantically every day, filling all her waking hours with the wails of demons and blood.

She tried countless methods, calling out the man's name a million times in her heart, calling out the "teacher" who had pulled her back from the brink of hell.

The only response she received was the ceaseless, desolate sound of the wind.

She can't go back to that place.

That warm courtyard that could isolate her from all cause and effect, allowing her to let down her guard, sit quietly under the eaves, and listen to teachings.

A sense of panic at being abandoned by the world, mixed with anger at her own powerlessness, almost consumed her.

"Emotions" are variables that need to be analyzed, not the basis for decision-making. This was the first lesson her teacher taught her.

She forced herself to calm down and used the logic he had taught her to deconstruct the panic of being "abandoned".

She repeatedly pondered every word, every look, and every gesture her teacher had made.

Finally, on a night of blood moon, Shinobu Kocho, covered in demon blood, came to a chilling conclusion.

Her "interim assignment" is not yet complete.

She wasn't qualified to go back to that man.

Her "graduation project" must be, and can only be—

[Slay one of the Twelve Demon Moons - Upper Moon].

This is the only ticket she can obtain to return to the "Eternal Garden".

The Butterfly House, once a warm place filled with the aroma of medicine and the groans of the wounded, has now completely changed.

It was transformed by Shinobu Kocho into a huge toxicology laboratory that exudes a dangerous aura.

The air was filled with the pungent smell of chemicals, and the walls were covered with anatomical diagrams of the human body, down to every muscle fiber, as well as physiological structure analysis reports of various ghosts.

In the rows of neat glass cabinets, instead of healing ointments, there were tubes of strangely colored, highly toxic liquid labeled with skulls.

Wisteria flower poison, neurotoxin, cell lysate...

These products of death, which she developed through tens of thousands of frantic experiments using modern chemical knowledge and materials from this world, guided by her teacher, are displayed quietly, like tombstones prepared for ghosts.

She calmly analyzed all the intelligence about the Upper Moons; those scattered, bloody battle records turned into strings of cold data in her eyes.

Upper Moon Two: Douma.

The enemy who killed my sister, the monster whose face always wore a hypocritical smile.

His Blood Demon Arts include terrifying ice that can dissolve all toxins.

He almost never acted alone; he was always surrounded by fervent followers.

With his current [Breath of Karma], he was not yet able to break through the defenses of his Blood Demon Art.

Forcing a challenge is just a futile act of suicide.

My teacher once said, "Impulsiveness is the epitaph of the incompetent."

Therefore, she needs a suitable "whetstone".

A powerful enough Upper Moon to test the limits of her "karmic poison," yet logically flawed.

However, the whereabouts of other Upper Moons are elusive and rare, appearing only once every hundred years.

The intelligence deadlock is like an insurmountable wall.

This helpless waiting fueled her anger and anxiety.

Deep within Shinobu Kocho's purple eyes lay a karmic fire about to erupt, enough to incinerate everything.

……

Demon Slayer Corps Headquarters, Training Grounds.

The afternoon sun was scorching, baking the ground until it was burning hot.