Reiju Tenjin was cursed.

Maybe she had pissed off a Tatarigami or even Susanoo himself. Heaven knows how many times she had vandalized shrines during her childhood. This must be her punishment.

Otherwise, how could she keep meeting someone who reeked of danger?

Professor Shah had ordered the three of them to come to his office during lunch break. The campus had loose rules about fighting but classrooms are different. The rules were founded around the professor's likes and dislikes. And everyone knew that Professor Shah loathed unnecessary noises.

Reiju squirmed in her seat in the center of the sofa while Dion and Gio stuck to both ends. She met the professor's glare. "What do you want?"

"You're still talking like that?" he scoffed. "Do you even know what position you're in?"

"Yeah. A sitting position," she answered.

Dion looked away while Gio disguised his laugh with a loud cough. Reiju frowned. These boys were great fighters. And yet, they cowered in front of the devil professor. It wasn't just her that noticed the sinister air around him.

Professor Shah grabbed three books from the shelves. He dropped them in front of the students before snatching a yellow pad and a pen holder from his desk. "Choose a book and summarize it within an hour. I'll give out points for great papers."

He yanked his sleeve up to reveal his watch. "And start... now."

Dion reached for one of the books and snatched several pages from the pad. He glanced at the title and wrote his report straightaway.

Reiju blinked. "You haven't even read it yet!"

"I already did."

And she realized that Dion had anticipated this. He had known what type of punishments the professor was most likely to give. She gritted her teeth in annoyance. The fact that she was nothing but a naive child hit her in the face again.

Dion was better than her.

But she dared challenge the professor.

Ridiculous.

Despite the dent in her confidence, Reiju vowed to move forward. She had a lot to do than wallow in her self-pity and confidence issues. She had to get much better than Dion and a hundred times better than Professor Shah.

She read the book titled 'After Assassination'. Her neurons fired faster than normal as she drowned in the information.

But Gio yawned.

"What the fuck?" she muttered. The boy was on the verge of falling asleep, disregarding the task in front of him. She smacked his face. "Gio! Baka!"

"What?" he muttered, sounding annoyed that she slapped him again. "Aw, what the hell, man?"

Reiju clenched her teeth. This was the result of her short-sightedness. If she had prodded Dion further, she would've known that Giovanni was an idiot. His dumbness must be a side effect of his remarkable power. "You will owe me for this."

Gio frowned as she seized the book assigned to him. It was about the factors that affect a long-distance assassination.

"Cara... you don't mean to...?" Dion asked beside her.

"Shut up," she hissed. Reiju took a deep breath and skimmed Gio's book. She sorted all of the information into three topics. Weapon type, location, and ballistics. The last one would include the subtopic of gravity, drag, and wind. She explained each topic before setting up a scenario with a 99% success rate of the bullet hitting the target from 2, 200 yards.

In this way, there was no need to write using words for the subtopics. Everything was in the illustration.

"Rei..." Gio mumbled.

"Don't distract me."

"Your nose is bleeding."

"Because I'm stressed!" Reiju wiped the blood with the back of her palm and continued the task.

"Helping Gio has no merit, Reiju. Such  a stupid move," Dion stated before he stood up and passed his paper.

Reiju glared at him. "It's because you don't know the definition of allies."

Dion shrugged. He exited the office without sparing her another glance. Reiju clicked her tongue and slapped the paper on Gio's chest. "Here."

"How about you?" he asked.

"I'm fine. Go." Reiju started on her book. She scanned the chapter titles and did the same process of picking out the essential topics. Exit, time, witnesses, and evidence.

She got stuck in the witness part for a second. If someone witnessed an assassination, what then?

Reiju pondered on it. She settled on distraction and decided to pass her paper.

But Professor Shah didn't even raise his head. He grabbed the essay and threw it in the trash. "You're late."

She glanced at the wall clock. "For two minutes!"

"Still late," he answered, eyes trained on the papers he was checking.

Reiju scoffed and dug out her paper from the trash. She set it down on the desk. "Accept it!"

The professor glared at her under two black strands that escaped from his styled hair. He flicked the paper back to her. "When I say you didn't make it, I mean it. I will mark you absent for today."

"No!" She shot back. Reiju slapped the paper on the desk using her hands and glowered at the man. "You're being unreasonable, professor!"

"Unreasonable?" he echoed. A small frown appeared on his forehead. "And why am I unreasonable now?"

"You are!" Reiju exclaimed. All of the things she had heard between him and Aliyah came back along with the blood trail that he had refused to acknowledge. "Because you're nothing but a heartless tyrant!"

Rohan Shah raised an eyebrow. "I'm a what now?"

"A tyrant! You may call yourself an educator for all I care but we all know that you are not! You don't care about anyone much less your students! You're someone who likes seeing people in pain instead of telling them their mistakes and straighten their path towards the future!" Reiju huffed as she lowered her head and mumbled her next words. "But what's worse is that I actually expected something from you."

Reiju was met by silence. She slowly lifted her head, expecting his fury but the professor was quiet. He grabbed her paper and began to read it. She gasped at his actions but kept quiet in case he lashed out at her.

"You wouldn't kill witnesses?" Rohan leaned against his chair, shooting her a pointed look. "Really?"

"Uhm..." Reiju bit her lip. She didn't expect that he would scrutinize her work. "Well, if the assassin had taken the proper measures, there wouldn't be witnesses in the first place."

"Is that so?"

Reiju frowned. She racked her brain for more information. "Sir, I believe more killing will only draw attention. That's why I thought that distraction and then blending in would be enough. Humans' span of attention is after all, very fickle."

"Alright." Professor Shah rated her paper.

A resounding ninety-eight.

"What? Did I get minus points for being late?" Reiju didn't bother to hide the irritation in her voice.

He smirked at her. "You didn't specify the difference between day and night."

"If not for that, would I have gotten a perfect score?" she asked.

After today's event, she desperately needed a win.

"Why wouldn't you?" Rohan straightened up before he let out a small sigh and adjusted his rolled up sleeves. He looked up at her as admiration glistened in his eyes. "You gave me two outstanding papers. And you did that within an hour. I admit I am quick to hand out punishments but... your efforts today are hard to deny. I will look away just this once."

Reiju licked her lips as glee seeped into her skin. His praises were rare that her previous apprehensions vanished in a snap.

"Because you are a very good student, Miss Tenjin."

Not knowing how to handle the amiable side of her devil professor, Reiju decided that jeers were still the way to go. "Nah, I'd rather be called a good girl."

But perhaps that was the wrong move because Professor Shah's golden-brown eyes glinted with wickedness that made her heart pound. "Trust me. You couldn't handle it."

"Is that so?" She breathed out, feeling the sudden heat that crept up her neck. "Maybe you're the one who couldn't handle it."

Rohan folded his arms tight against his chest. His eyes darkened despite the finality of his words. "You may leave, Miss Tenjin."