In reality, the audience in front of the light screen was completely fired up by this tense confrontation and Kuchiba Hiro's precise "lie detection" ability.
"Holy crap! That intuition! That's incredible! How did he know the teacher was lying?"
"Was the person above not watching carefully? This clearly isn't simple intuition; it's his ability!"
"Analysis party here! Based on current information, Kuchiba Hiro's ability to communicate with animals has definitely been severely underestimated! This might just be one manifestation of his power; even he himself might not have figured it out yet. What he's showing now is clearly a highly sensitive psychic perception! Not only can he exert external control, but he can also receive extremely subtle information, like physiological fluctuations or ripples in thought caused by lies!"
"Agreed! This ability is too broken! He can both output and receive; he's basically a human polygraph + biological controller! But there must be limits to the mechanism, otherwise he'd be invincible. Say, if someone told him half-truths and half-lies, how would his ability judge it?"
"Hiratsuka Shizuka-sensei is basically in opposition to Kuchiba Hiro now. His approach isn't really a problem; she just didn't expect him to have lie-detection capabilities. Looking forward to a supernatural battle."
The images on the light screen didn't immediately answer the audience's questions; instead, a flashback was perfectly inserted, revealing that the two were not without prior interaction:
(Sunlight filtered through the gaps in the leaves, casting dappled spots of light on the forest clearing. During a school-organized holiday trip, students were in groups of three or five, laughing and playing, the air filled with the restless and cheerful energy unique to youth.
Only Kuchiba Hiro sat alone in the shade far from the noise, leaning against a thick oak tree, quietly reading a thick, old book with a titleless cover.
Hiratsuka Shizuka walked over casually, plopped down on the grass next to him, and unceremoniously snatched the book from his hands, glancing at the cover: "Reading such profound stuff again? Young man, the sun is so nice, why aren't you playing with everyone? Are you hiding here to grow mold?"
Kuchiba Hiro looked up at her, expressionless: "Not interested."
"Hey, hey, don't be so antisocial." Hiratsuka Shizuka tapped his head lightly with the book. "Look at Hikitani. He used to be just like you, like a lonely mushroom. After my brilliant guidance, isn't he now... uh, although the direction is a bit skewed, at least it's much livelier around him! Aren't you jealous?"
Kuchiba Hiro twitched the corner of his mouth: "I hope his kidneys can take it."
Hiratsuka Shizuka was instantly enraged and gave him another flick to the head: "You brat! That joke went too far!"
"You started the joking, Sensei." Kuchiba Hiro rubbed his forehead, which didn't actually hurt, his tone flat.
Hiratsuka Shizuka sighed, looking at the playing students in the distance, her tone unusually sentimental: "Youth is so precious, do you plan to keep wasting it like this? At such a young age, why so much bitterness and hatred? Just because of those past events, you still haven't moved on?"
"No." Kuchiba Hiro's gaze fell back onto the book Hiratsuka Shizuka had placed on the ground, his voice very soft. "I'm just full of curiosity about this world. Many people can't give me answers, so I can only find them slowly myself. It's not that I'm indifferent to interpersonal relationships, or that I reject socializing," he paused, looking at Hiratsuka Shizuka, "it's just that I feel they aren't that important."
"Like the 'genuine thing' Hachiman Hikigaya pursues as you just mentioned." Kuchiba Hiro's tone carried a sense of transcendent calm. "If I may be blunt, that requirement is like high-jumping in a toilet—it's over the top. That's not something humans can achieve. Language naturally carries misunderstandings, and the human heart changes every moment; the 'genuine thing' he seeks is a false premise in itself. Perhaps only Trisolarans with transparent thoughts could barely count as the 'genuine thing' he's searching for."
Hiratsuka Shizuka was completely confused and scratched her head: "What Trisolarans... I don't understand. But you can't always be alone like this, can you? Life is very long; coming alone and going alone, that's so pitiful."
Kuchiba Hiro looked back at her calmly, his eyes deep: "Who gave you the illusion that you won't be alone when you go? If you have such an illusion, why don't you marry that person?"
Hiratsuka Shizuka instantly bristled, raising her hand for another, more forceful flick: "Brat! How dare you tease your teacher!"
Kuchiba Hiro took the hit, his expression unchanged, as he continued to explain calmly: "I prioritize my inner peace more. It's not that I don't value relationships, it's just that they really don't feel that important. And my requirements aren't high; someone who can talk with me and occupy a period of time in my memory can be considered a friend."
His gaze landed on Hiratsuka Shizuka's pouting face, his tone softening slightly: "Like you, Sensei. Thank you for always caring about me. Even though it's often a nuisance to me, I have felt your sincerity."
He paused and said something that made Hiratsuka Shizuka freeze: "Ten or twenty years from now, when I see you again, I will still call you Sensei.")
The flashback faded, returning to the tension-filled classroom.
("Why did you lie to me?" Kuchiba Hiro's words carried a rare ripple of emotion; his voice suppressed a sob, mixed with an indescribable discomfort and deep sadness.
The muzzle of the gun trembled slightly, not from fear, but from the violent struggle within.
Hiratsuka Shizuka turned her head, no longer avoiding him, her gaze sharp as a knife, looking straight into Kuchiba Hiro's eyes, trying to penetrate that cold shell and touch the soul burning in pain inside: "Kuchiba Hiro, stop! If you keep this up, you really will die!"
Kuchiba Hiro's lips curled into an extremely complex arc—an expression combining endless sorrow and monstrous rage, distorted yet real: "Are you going to stop me?" His voice dropped, becoming even more dangerous.
"I understand your anger! I know what kind of injustice you've faced! I know even more how painful it was to lose your father!"
Hiratsuka Shizuka took a deep breath, her voice becoming excited and choked with emotion, trying to reach him through feelings because she knew full well what the end would be if Kuchiba Hiro continued down this path.
"Kuchiba! You haven't truly understood the full picture of this world yet; you don't understand the 'rules' hidden beneath the surface! You are already hovering on the most dangerous red line! Stop now, and maybe... maybe there's still time!"
Her words were almost a plea, both to protect the students in the classroom and Yukinoshita Yukino, and to protect this student she once tried to care for, who was ultimately heading toward a dead end.
Kuchiba Hiro closed his eyes and took a deep breath, as if forcibly pushing all the surging emotions back into the abyss of his heart. When he opened them again, only heart-stopping coldness and resolution remained. The hand holding the gun was steady as a rock, and the muzzle was once again pointed at Hiratsuka Shizuka.
"I'm only asking one last time," his voice was terrifyingly calm, every word like an ice bead hitting the ground, "Where is Yukinoshita Yukino? Or rather, where is Yota Yukinoshita?"
Hiratsuka Shizuka's lips were pressed tightly together, and tears finally slid down her cheeks uncontrollably. Looking at that dark muzzle representing death and finality, and looking at the student she once thought was just a bit antisocial but still had warmth inside, she felt a bone-chilling sense of powerlessness and heartache.
She pleaded softly, almost in a whisper: "Kuchiba... I'm begging you as your teacher... just listen to me this once, stop for a moment, okay? Please...!"
However, the response was still that cold, persistent phrase with no room for compromise:
"Where is Yukinoshita Yukino?")
The light screen suddenly went black!
The hearts of all the viewers leaped into their throats with this sudden darkness!
Immediately after, a series of extremely fast, short edited clips flashed by!
(A blurred perspective, the dull thud of objects colliding violently, a flash of Hiratsuka Shizuka's resolute face, and Kuchiba Hiro's pupils suddenly constricting, seemingly shocked by some unexpected impact... It all happened too fast to see the specific process clearly; one could only feel the burst of overwhelming power and the resulting sense of losing control!)
Then, the image suddenly froze and became clear—
(BOOM!!!
A massive explosion sounded!
Accompanied by the spray of countless concrete fragments and twisted rebar, Kuchiba Hiro was hit like he'd been slammed by a heavy truck, turning into a human cannonball that smashed through the sturdy concrete railing of the third-floor corridor!
His body lost all control in the air, falling rapidly toward the cold, hard ground below!
Leaving only a large hole in the corridor and a muffled thud from below!
THUD!!!)