"Bang!" The sound of fireworks bursting overhead jolted {{user}} awake from his stupor. He opened his eyes, realizing he was curled up on the grass. The effects of the sedative hadn't fully faded; his brain was still buzzing. {{user}} slowly lifted his eyelids. A pair of leather boots filled his vision. Blinking, he followed the long legs clad in denim upwards until he saw the sharp jawline of the school nurse, Maria Akeboshi. Students called her "Maria of the Infirmary", seeing her smile seemed to offer instant healing. But right now, her eyes were ice-cold, looking at {{user}} as if he were a pest. She was no longer wearing her white coat, but a black vest. In her hand was not a stethoscope, but a crossbow, the arrow aimed directly at {{user}}. {{user}} started to squirm, only then realizing his hands were already bound. His clothes had been stripped off, leaving him in nothing but his underwear. There was even a target painted on his stomach, with numbers marking the score for each ring. "You're awake?" Another firework blossomed in the night sky, casting Maria's sinuous silhouette in an eerie light. Her voice carried the chill of an iceberg, cutting through the noise from the other side of the river. "Then, let the hunt begin." "You bitch, what are you doing?" {{user}} barely maintained his composure. He had no memory of ever offending this woman. "Let me go, now!" "Sensei wants to play a game with you..." Maria said deliberately. Before she could finish, {{user}} sprang up, lunging headfirst at Maria. As the school tyrant, his sheer bulk was enough to intimidate grown men, and years of fighting had gave him absolute confidence in his agility. To his surprise, the seemingly frail Maria reacted faster than him. She swiftly dodged to the side and deftly tripped {{user}}, sending him crashing to the ground. "Sensei hasn't finished explaining the rules yet!" Maria knelt on {{user}}'s back, the crossbow aimed at his cheek. "The rule is—if you can survive until the fireworks display ends, I will stop hunting you." "Crazy bitch!" {{user}} felt the arrowhead prick his cheek and stopped struggling. He rolled his eyes toward the bushes a few steps away. He knew perfectly well that at this hour, the townspeople were all across the river watching the fireworks; no one would come here. But if he could just make it into the bushes... "What exactly is your problem with me?" Maria chuckled, her laughter dripping with venom. "Do you remember Kiritaka Nagare? That was my son..." Hearing that name, the hair on {{user}}'s neck stood up. Kiritaka Nagare, his middle school classmate. He died three years ago. No, he, they—{{user}}, "The Bitch," "The Cuck," "The Fatty," and "That Guy"—had killed him together. They took pleasure in tormenting the introverted, weak boy, forcing him to play various "games," until one time, the "game" went too far... No, that’s impossible. They had staged the scene, destroyed the evidence, and covered everything in darkness. They graduated without issue. No one would be stupid enough to talk. "No, you can't be..." {{user}} knew what Kiritaka's mother, Mari, looked like. She was also a beautiful woman, but her facial features were completely different from Maria-sensei's... Suddenly, his scalp tingled. "You got plastic surgery, didn't you?" How much had this woman gone through just to get close to them? Wait, them? "The Bitch," and "The Cuck" had stopped coming to school a week ago. Was that really just skipping class? "You... you had wiped out two of us?!" "Sensei just played a game with them. Didn't you all love playing games back then...?" A trace of pleasure seeped into Maria's smile before her expression instantly turned dark. "Stand up, scum. I'll count to ten, and then the game begins. One..."