Chapter 37: The Toxic Gift

I was dying.

Not metaphorically. Not dramatically. Literally dying in my desk while Mr. Tanaka droned on about feudal Japan’s tax systems. My body shook like a leaf in a hurricane. Sweat pooled under my blazer despite the freezing sensation crawling through my veins. My throat felt like someone had taken sandpaper to it overnight.​

This wasn’t a regular cold though. No way. Regular colds were for regular people who did regular things like sleep in warm beds instead of sitting in cooling bathwater for fifteen minutes while two supernatural entities discussed purification protocols.​

Mana exhaustion. That’s what this was. Post-mission fatigue from yesterday’s ritual. My body had expelled too much spiritual energy and now I was paying the price. Made perfect sense when you thought about it scientifically.

“You look like death.”

Kenji whispered from beside me, concern written all over his face.

I waved him off with a shaky hand, trying to project confidence despite my teeth chattering.

“Just tired. Late night gaming.”

He didn’t look convinced but dropped it. Smart guy. Knew when to leave well enough alone.

The nurse’s office lurked down the hallway like a trap waiting to spring. I could go there right now, get medicine, maybe lie down for an hour. But that would trigger something worse than this cold. The App lived for situations like this. Medical emergencies meant special events, mandatory quests, probably some nightmare scenario labeled “Medical Debt Arc” where I’d owe the girls healing sessions that would drain my nonexistent CP reserves.​

Better to suffer through class than risk whatever fresh hell the App would conjure from a nurse visit.

My phone sat heavy in my pocket, silent for now. The calm before the storm. I knew this peace wouldn’t last. Nothing good ever lasted when Seda and Elizabeth were in control.​

Another shiver wracked my body. My vision blurred slightly at the edges.

Focus. Just make it to lunch. Eat something. Rally your strength. You’re a dangerous man, remember? Dangerous men don’t get defeated by common colds.

The bell rang like salvation itself.

Lunchtime couldn’t have come faster. I stumbled toward my usual spot near the window, body moving on autopilot. Students flowed around me like water around a rock. My desk became home base, the only safe zone in enemy territory.

I pulled out my pathetic lunch. Rice balls that looked as sad as I felt. No appetite anyway. My stomach churned with every breath.

Footsteps approached from behind. Heavy, deliberate, expensive-shoe-on-linoleum footsteps.

“Alfred.”

Ryuuji Kanzaki’s voice hit different when you were delirious with fever. Smooth, concerned, genuinely kind in a way that immediately set off alarm bells.​

I turned slowly, movements careful to avoid triggering a dizzy spell.

He stood there holding a thermos and a small envelope. His uniform was immaculate as always, not a thread out of place. The thermos gleamed silver under the fluorescent lights, steam wisping from the top. That envelope though. That suspicious, dangerous, flag-raising envelope.

“You look terrible.”

“Thanks. Really feeling the love today.”

He smiled, that easy confident smile that probably made normal people feel comforted. On me it had the opposite effect.

“My grandmother makes this herbal soup. It’s supposed to help with colds and fatigue.”

He set the thermos on my desk with a gentle thud.

“Thought you could use it.”

The envelope landed next to it. White, unsealed, innocent looking. Except nothing was innocent in this cursed school.​

My hand trembled as I reached for the envelope. Politeness demanded I at least look at whatever was inside. Social protocols were chains I couldn’t break even while dying.

I opened it carefully, like it might explode.

A card slipped out. Handmade, construction paper, glitter glue forming the words “Get Well Soon” in shaky elementary school handwriting. And there, right in the center, placed with obvious care and completely devastating effect—a pink heart sticker with a smiling face.​

My brain short-circuited.

This was it. The moment every dating sim warned you about. The hidden route. The unexpected flag. The Boys Love path that you accidentally triggered through accumulated kindness points with the male best friend character.

Ryuuji must have noticed my expression because he laughed, the sound warm and completely platonic.

“My little sister insisted on making the card. She thinks everyone needs stickers to feel better.”

Relief crashed through me like a wave. Little sister. Innocent explanation. No hidden romance route. Just normal human kindness from a genuinely decent guy.

“Tell her thanks. It’s really thoughtful.”

I meant it too. The card was sweet in a way that had nothing to do with romance and everything to do with a kid who wanted to help.

Ryuuji nodded, seeming satisfied.

“Drink the soup while it’s hot. Trust me, it works miracles.”

He walked away before I could respond, leaving me alone with the thermos and the card and this weird warm feeling that had nothing to do with fever.

The soup smelled incredible. Rich, herbal, the kind of thing that probably cost more per bowl than my entire lunch budget for the week. Steam curled upward in delicate spirals.

I unscrewed the lid fully, letting the aroma wash over me. My stomach growled despite the nausea. Maybe food would help. Maybe this would be the thing that pulled me back from death’s door.

I raised the thermos to my lips and took a careful sip.

Warmth flooded my mouth, spread down my throat, settled in my chest like liquid comfort. Holy hell, this was good. This was legitimately magical. Whatever herbs Ryuuji’s grandmother used, they worked on a molecular level.​

I took another sip, larger this time, feeling strength return to my limbs.

My phone exploded in my pocket.

Not literally. But the vibration was so violent, so aggressive, that it might as well have been an actual explosion. The buzzing didn’t stop. Just kept going, pulsing against my leg like an angry hornet’s nest.​

I fumbled for it with shaking hands, nearly dropping the thermos in the process.

The screen glowed blood red. Text scrolled across in rapid-fire succession, each word more alarming than the last.

【CRITICAL ALERT】
BIOLOGICAL CONTAMINATION DETECTED
FOREIGN PHEROMONES IDENTIFIED
SOURCE: EXTERNAL MALE ENTITY
THREAT LEVEL: MAXIMUM
INITIATING EMERGENCY PROTOCOLS

My blood turned to ice. Foreign pheromones? What the actual hell did that mean?

More text appeared, each line worse than the last.

【MANDATORY DIRECTIVE】
EMERGENCY EXTRACTION REQUIRED
TOXIN PURGE NECESSARY
SUBJECTS: SEDA HARTLEY / ELIZABETH ASHFORD
STATUS: COMBAT READY
HAZARD PAY ACTIVATED
CP DEBT: +500 POINTS

Five hundred points. Five hundred. For what? For drinking soup that a friend gave me? For accepting basic human kindness?

Movement caught my eye across the classroom.

Elizabeth and Seda stood simultaneously. Their chairs scraped backward in perfect unison, the sound cutting through every conversation in the room. Students turned to stare.​

Their eyes locked onto me with laser focus. Not glowing yet, but something shifted in their expressions. Something predatory. Something that said “you messed up and now you’re going to pay”.​

Elizabeth’s hand moved to her phone. Seda’s fingers twitched at her side.

The App buzzed again, a new message appearing.

【EXTRACTION TEAM DEPLOYED】
【ESTIMATED ARRIVAL: 15 SECONDS
【COOPERATION MANDATORY
【RESISTANCE WILL INCREASE DEBT

Fifteen seconds. I had fifteen seconds before whatever nightmare scenario they’d planned reached me.

The thermos sat on my desk, innocent and damning all at once. The soup that had tasted like heaven now felt like poison in my stomach. Not because it was actually toxic, but because Ryuuji’s kindness had somehow violated invisible rules I didn’t know existed.​

This was insane. This was beyond insane. I’d been hit with a charm spell. A high-level, friendship-stat-boosting, affection-point-accumulating charm spell disguised as homemade soup. And the App registered it as a threat, as contamination, as something that required immediate and forceful correction.

Seda moved first, weaving between desks with practiced ease.

Elizabeth followed from the other side, cutting off potential escape routes.

Students watched with interest, probably thinking this was another one of our weird relationship dynamics. If only they knew the truth. If only they understood the supernatural prison I’d trapped myself in.​

Ten seconds.

My options were limited. I could run, but running would increase the debt. I could stay and cooperate, but cooperation meant whatever “purge” they had planned. I could try explaining that Ryuuji was just being nice, but the App didn’t care about explanations.​

Five seconds.

Seda reached my desk first, her hand landing on the thermos.

“You drank this?”

Her voice carried an edge I recognized. Barely controlled rage mixed with something deeper. Something possessive.​

“It was just soup. A friend gave me soup because I’m sick.”

Elizabeth arrived on my other side, boxing me in completely.

“Foreign substances require screening. You know the rules.”

What rules? What possible rules covered drinking soup given by a platonic friend?

The App vibrated once more, final and absolute.

【EXTRACTION CONFIRMED】
【DESTINATION: PURIFICATION ZONE】
【DURATION: EXTENDED】
【PREPARE FOR PROCESSING】

Seda’s hand closed around my arm with iron grip strength.

My phone screen faded to black, mission complete, my fate sealed by a thermos of herbal soup and a card with a heart sticker made by someone’s little sister.