Casualties (Yandere Males x Reader)

[15] Precarious Luminosity

What is this supposed to mean...?

You restrained yourself from allowing confusion to show on your expression, but that didn't stop the onslaught of thoughts that piled in your head. To the far left, there were a few rows that had majority of the students outlined in white. Given that Kasumi was present there, you assumed it was Shichirou's class. Thankfully, she didn't have any outlines.

Doing your best to be discrete, you looked around and continued your search. However, all the other students didn't have any outlines. Well, that was until your gaze fell onto Hayami. Your eyes widened and a foreboding feeling shackled your heart to the ground.

There was a red outline on her.

And it wasn't just her.

Kai?

You swallowed, you should've anticipated this. Why wouldn't someone you just met be involved? Considering it from a game-like perspective, it only made sense. However, what you saw next was something you would've never expected.

Why...

Why did Aimi have a red outline on her?

Before any means of panic could plague your thoughts, students began exchanging confused glances and subtle whispers arose. Ah, right. You needed to start your speech. With the pressure of so many eyes pinned onto your frame and the addition of your newfound information, it was impossible to compose yourself.

Any memorisation of your speech had been overwritten with contemplation regarding the outlines. Your mind instinctively tried sewing a conclusion together and you struggled to start your speech with how cluttered your head was.

Wait, didn't the feature also have a time limit?

The thought successfully snapped you out of your daze and you quickly turned off the feature from behind the podium. Thankfully, you were swift in accessing and deactivating your abilities now. Hours of practice were not done in vain.

Hope it hasn't been two minutes yet. At least you were confident that you examined the entire crowd of students.

Finally, you began your speech. It wasn't the best start, but it certainly could've gone worse. But, as you continued speaking, the questions you had regarding the outlines kept hanging over your mind, distracting and leaving you in an uneasy state.

You kept looking down at your palm cards and forgetting the contents of your speech despite your vigorous practice over the weekends. Every time you had finally managed to pick yourself up and maintain a relatively calm composure, just one quick glance at Kai, Aimi or Hayami broke down your equanimity like a fragile wall of glass.

Your gaze then met Kashi's. The male smiled brightly at you and mouthed an encouraging 'you can do it!'. From the simple action, you calmed down a little.

You'll have plenty of time to worry over it later. Just ignore it for now and finish the speech without too many regrets.

You engraved that thought into your head and repeated it whenever your thoughts began to drift away and think about the outlines again. Though you didn't magically become a proficient speaker, there was a noticeable improvement in your fluency and level of eye contact with the students.

To sprinkle in some insight on what your speech entailed, it mainly revolved around you assuring the safety of the students. For example, you included the idea of installing fences on the school rooftop; the incident with Kasumi and Kashi was enough of a reason why. Though you didn't promise anything substantial in your speech that would've captured the attention of the students, at least you were honest.