“…Y-You─” Ka-chunk. As if to talk over me, Senjogahara made an overlapping sound with the stapler, clamping it in the air. A deformed staple fell before my eyes. I couldn’t help but flinch. A reflex, if you will. I’d been classically conditioned in a single go. “Okay, Araragi. Be sure to ignore me starting tomorrow. Fare thee well!” With that, uninterested in my response, Senjogahara turned her heels and began walking down the hall. Before I could even get up from my balled position, she turned a corner and vanished from sight. “Sh-She’s like some devil.” Our brains were structured in─fundamentally different ways. Despite the situation and despite her words, some part of me had assumed that she wouldn’t really. In which case, maybe I should be blessing my good fortune that she had chosen the stapler and not the box cutter. I gently brushed my cheek again, not to ease the pain this time, but to check on it. “………” Good. I was okay, it hadn’t punched through.