Who is the Real Femme Fatale?

The campus was still bustling, but night had already fallen.

The affectionate couple, arm in arm, stood by a streetlight that cast a milky white glow, looking as perfect as a photograph.

The girl was very pretty, with light makeup and long, flowing hair. Her figure was slender, fitting the image of a “campus belle” you often see online. Her name was Coco. I didn’t remember her last name because Yukino always called her intimately by her nickname, “Coco.”

She was Yukino’s girlfriend—or more accurately, ex-girlfriend. Although she was supposedly pregnant, it must have been recent, as her figure hadn’t changed. She still looked youthful and beautiful.

As for the male student whose arm she was holding, he was also very handsome and stylish. Even though the sky was dark and a cool evening breeze drifted through the remote campus like a wandering ghost, the man was wearing only a gym tank top. The muscles of his arms, shoulders, and chest were clearly defined, giving him a very masculine feel.

I remember Exusiai once saying that just as a girl’s chest is attractive to boys, a boy’s muscles are attractive to girls. She had even lamented at the time that it was a pity she didn’t have much muscles. If Exusiai’s theory was correct, then this brawny man could probably charm thousands of women and become the kind of “toy boy” that Saber had once dreamed of being.

I didn’t know this man, but it was obvious that he was the one who had cucked Yukino.

Saber, Exusiai, and I all stopped in our tracks. We hadn’t expected to suddenly run into the other two protagonists of the famous painting, “Yukinoshita Yukino is in Class.”

As for Yukino, she was like a cat with its fur on end at first, but she quickly calmed down. Her dark eyes were like a bottomless, serene pool, and it was impossible to tell what deep emotions were buried within.

Her ex-girlfriend Coco seemed a little guilty after seeing Yukino, as if she was ashamed to face her. But her way of expressing guilt was to bury her “campus belle” face in the brawny man’s chest muscles, playing the ostrich by showing off their affection.

As for the brawny man, he wore the disgusting smile of a victor. He pulled Coco along and slowly walked towards us, or rather, towards Yukino.

Coco remained like an ostrich, her head buried in his chest, not stopping him, just following his every step. The brawny man stood in front of Yukino, looked at her elegant appearance, and the corners of his mouth curved into a smile that no normal person would ever make. Perhaps to some infatuated girls, this smile was “roguishly handsome,” but in my eyes, it was just plain disgusting.

He looked down at Yukino, raised an eyebrow, and said slowly, “You’re not bad looking yourself. If you still want to be with Coco, it’s not impossible. You just have to be my girlfriend too, hahahahahaha…”

Yukino’s face was cold as ice, but Saber couldn’t hold back anymore.

“You bastard!”

Her verdant eyes glared, her jaw tightened, and she raised a fist to strike the muscular man, but was held back by Yukino.

Yukino’s hand, as translucent as a snow lotus, held Saber’s wrist. Her dark eyes were fixed on the man in front of her, her gaze as cold as an eternal iceberg in the inaccessible Antarctic.

The brawny man seemed to have been about to say something more, but being stared at by Yukino’s gaze, which seemed to come from the end of life itself, the words got stuck in his throat. He “hmphed,” as if feeling that he was already the victor and didn’t need to get entangled with this loser any further. He turned his head away and, pulling along Coco who hadn’t said a word and whose face was barely visible, brushed past us.

We stood in the middle of the school path. People came and went on both sides, full of laughter and chatter. Only the small space where we stood was as heavy as iron.

I had a feeling that this was very much like a scene from the King of Fighters arcade game. No matter how fiercely or tragically the fighters in the middle of the road fought, the bystanders just went on with their own lives, as if it had nothing to do with them. Some were watching, cheering, while others couldn’t even be bothered to look.

Saber’s fair brow furrowed. She looked at Yukino, completely bewildered. “He said that to you, and you still stopped me?”

Yukino opened her thin lips, but before she could reply, a plain-looking girl holding a stack of flyers ran towards us. The girl stopped excitedly in front of Yukino and asked with a beaming smile, “Isn’t the captain of our martial arts club super handsome?!”

“Huh?” Yukino was taken aback, her mind not quite processing it.

The plain-looking girl was still beaming, her eyes wide as she said to Yukino, “The one who was just talking to you, that’s the captain of our martial arts club. Super handsome, right~ Oh, right, this is our club’s flyer. We’re having an event later. If you want to join, just find our person in charge at the event. If you join the martial arts club, you can see the captain almost every day~~”

A look of admiration shone in the plain girl’s eyes. She stuffed a flyer from her stack into Yukino’s hand and then ran off cheerfully.

I rested my head on Yukino’s slender shoulder and glanced at the flyer. It was gaudy, like one of those little ads you’d be a fool to believe. It said that the martial arts club would be holding a martial arts demonstration in the gymnasium after 7 PM tonight, and that they welcomed challengers and new members.

It was clear. That brawny “toy boy” was the captain of the martial arts club. The plain-looking girl was an infatuated fan attracted only by his looks, and had joined the club because of it.

Yukino’s eyes were fixed on the flyer. I had a feeling that what she was staring at was the word “challenge.”

I knew that Yukino had obtained the “Karate” skill from System-Hime, and her physical fitness had been enhanced accordingly, but whether she could actually beat that brawny man was another matter. But as her good brother from the same dorm, I would naturally not stand in the way of her determination to get revenge herself. So I looked at the time on my phone and said, “There’s still some time before 7 PM. Should we fill our stomachs first?”

Yukino nodded without a word.

We went to the “old spot,” ordered some meat dishes to replenish the energy Yukino would need for her challenge later. The food that would normally have made her mouth water was now being swallowed expressionlessly, one bite after another. She looked like a character from One Piece eating a Devil Fruit. To become stronger, even if it was a fruit that tasted like shit, you had to eat it.

After replenishing her energy and sitting for a while to let it digest, at 7:21 PM, we left the “old spot,” ignoring the mess left behind at a neighboring table where two guys who had drunk too much wanted to talk to us but didn’t dare, and ended up pushing each other to be the guinea pig, which led to a fight.

Truly, the real femme fatale.