Chapter 30 — What Kind of Women Do You Like?
With a deafening bang, the classroom door was kicked open.
A towering, broad-shouldered man strode inside. Square-jawed, fierce-eyed, hair tied into a topknot—he wore the same school uniform as everyone else, yet the fabric strained to its limits over his bulging muscles, as if it might tear apart at any second.
Ren and Miwa Kasumi exchanged stunned looks.
"Who here is Ren?" the man demanded, his voice thick with aggression.
"Wait, Todo!"
Momo flew in right behind him, visibly flustered. She tried to restrain the man while frantically signaling Ren with her eyes to be careful.
"You're Ren?"
Ignoring her completely, the man shifted his gaze and locked onto the only other male in the classroom.
"Todo-senpai!" Miwa snapped to attention at once.
Todo…?
Ren studied the hostile figure before him. The name sounded familiar.
Then it clicked.
This was a Todo Aoi, a third-year—Momo's classmate.
The "boring musclehead," as Momo had once described him during casual conversation.
Although Ren had been at Kyoto Jujutsu High for months now—already in his second semester—the two had never crossed paths.
The reason?
The man was busy.
Todo Aoi was widely recognized as the strongest student at Kyoto Jujutsu High. During last year's curse terrorism incident orchestrated by Suguru Geto, he had single-handedly exorcised five Grade 1 curses and one Special Grade curse.
Because of that overwhelming strength, he was constantly assigned to high-risk missions others couldn't handle. Always at the front lines of curse extermination—rarely seen, even more rarely idle.
For someone like that, Ren naturally felt a degree of respect.
"Todo… senpai?" he greeted cautiously.
"Good," Todo rumbled with a coarse chuckle. "Since you already know who I am, I won't waste time introducing myself."
Then, without warning, his voice boomed through the room:
"Answer me, brat—"
"What kind of women do you like?!"
For a brief second, Ren felt as though a crow had flown over his head, cawing mockingly.
He was certain he'd misheard.
When this man had burst in so dramatically, Ren had imagined a thousand possible reasons. Maybe Todo bore him some grudge for an unknown offense. Maybe he had come to challenge him. Maybe his menacing aura was simply misleading.
But—
What kind of women do you like?
What kind of question was that?
"Answer me!" Todo roared again, as if volume would clarify meaning. "What kind of woman is your type?!"
Ren's expression darkened instantly.
"Are you insane?" he shot back coldly. "Why would I tell you what kind of woman I like?"
A complete stranger—someone he'd never even met before—stormed into a classroom and demanded to know his romantic preferences.
There was no logic to it whatsoever.
A complete stranger, meeting him for the very first time, asking something like this—utterly unreasonable.
"Your tastes reveal everything about you," the man continued in a low, deliberate voice, ignoring Ren's icy tone. "A man who likes boring women is, without exception, a boring man himself."
"I will judge your answer—and decide how I treat you based on it."
He cracked his knuckles.
"If your answer disappoints me, I might—beat you half to death right here."
Ren's eyelid twitched.
Is this guy insane? he thought. He barges in, interrogates people about their preferences, then decides their worth based on it? Who even asked for your approval?
"No comment," Ren replied coldly.
"Refusal is acceptable," Todo said confidently, tapping two fingers beneath his eyes. "These eyes of mine have already seen the truth."
He suddenly turned toward Miwa.
"You two—alone in here together. A man and a woman. You were on a date, weren't you?!"
"Eh?!" Miwa's forehead broke into cold sweat. "T-Todo-senpai, n-no, that's not—"
"I'm disappointed in you, Ren!" Todo roared, spinning back around, tiger-like eyes blazing.
"To think you like a woman with no curves, no height, no presence."
"It seems your measure as a man is equally lacking. Shallow. Narrow-minded!"
"N-no, no—!" Miwa's face turned crimson as she waved her hands frantically. "We—we weren't—"
Wait.
Her expression froze.
No curves? No height?
Miwa's eye twitched violently. Rage surged through her—but faced with Todo's massive, mountain-like physique, she could only manage a weak protest.
"T-Todo-senpai…?"
Then, in the very next second, Todo burst into tears.
The eight-foot-tall man wailed dramatically, thick arms trembling, tears and snot streaming down his broad, muscle-packed face.
"You have disappointed me beyond measure!"
"Momo spoke highly of you!"
"She called you the strongest underclassman!"
"She even said you might surpass me!"
"Th-that's not what I said!" protested Momo from behind him. "I said he might be stronger than you!"
"I came here with expectations!" Todo bellowed, ignoring her correction. "Before meeting you, I imagined that as the strongest second-year and the strongest third-year, we would understand one another!"
His tear-filled eyes glimmered with hope.
"We would fight side by side—brothers who could entrust each other with our lives!"
"And yet… you are such a dull man!"
"You have betrayed my expectations!"
"Now you shall pay with your life for your tasteless mediocrity!"
He paused, wiped away his tears, and suddenly grew solemn.
"As my final words to you…"
"I like tall women with big butts."
With a violent rip, he tore off his uniform top. The fabric shredded instantly, revealing a physique sculpted like a battle-hardened beast.
"This is the correct aesthetic guidance from a senior to a junior."
"My last lesson to you in the appreciation of beauty."
"In your next life, reflect deeply on it."
"Take this enlightenment—and become a proper man."
He pressed his palms together, rolled his neck, and a series of cracking pops echoed from his joints like gunfire.
Ren stared at him, speechless.
Are you actually insane?
What does my taste have to do with you? What does your taste have to do with me? And who in their right mind would want to be brothers with a lunatic like this? I haven't even argued about you slandering Miwa yet—
Suddenly, something clicked.
Wait.
"Final words"?
"Pay with your life"?
Ren's pupils contracted.
A fist the size of a casserole pot came hurtling toward his face, slicing through the air with a roaring wind.