hello everyone! i'm here for some sad news; unfortunately, this will be the last update i'll be posting for now, because i'll be going on (maybe another long-term) hiatus for a while.
the more i analysed my characters, the more i realised that they STILL don't make any fcking SENSE.
i've been stressing myself out and haven't been writing any drafts ever since i started posting this book.

first reason : i often need to find a thrill to write. i need to FEEL the deadline being close in order to feel THRILL and ANDREDALINE at writing, which is a constant struggle for me.

second reason : as you already know, i've been too busy editing the characters to make it MAKE SENSE for the PLOT, THEIR BEHAVIOUR, and THEIR GOALS.
I THOUGHT i was ready, but clearly that's some miscalculating and has been stressing me out because my thoughts always come in pieces like a puzzle that i have to solve, and i often write without plans, so that's why i'm always addicted to editings. :,)

another problem is that, due to the stress of constant rewriting, editing, changing plots, and just chasing perfection, i felt extremely exhausted both physically and mentally. so i'll be going on hiatus again and maybe finally write some one-shots that i've been wanting to do but didn't do because i kept feeling guilty, as in, if i have time to write one shot, why don't i use that time to write more drafts of RDV?
this guilt kept me from actually enjoying writing at all. so i will now try to listen to my heart and just write other stuff for fun, to cheer myself up (hopefully that works), and to de-stress myself before coming back to this.

also guys , i've stated it once, and i will state it again for people who have read this book before the rewrite.
please DON'T SPOIL THE BOOK !
you can spoil the anime, but please don't spoil the book for new readers!!

𝐁𝐀𝐂𝐊 𝐀𝐓 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐌𝐀𝐈𝐍 𝐂𝐀𝐌𝐏𝐔𝐒, 𝐂𝐋𝐀𝐒𝐒-𝐀 𝐖𝐀𝐒 gathered outside in the hallway, looking in despair.

a flashback of rio's words replays at the scene. "yeah, well. that's what they get. whoever you are, nobody can keep their bloodlust holds out for that long. even with daily assassination training," she explained. "it's next to impossible to stay in that frame of mind for an entire day."

class A was shown dumbstruck as they stared at their results. "if you expect a booster system for bloodlust, cramming isn't the way to go. you have to nurture it over time."

class A slowly made their way into homeroom."slow and steady."

back in the classroom, gakushu's hands were trembling badly as he stared at his results in disbelief. 'but i knew the answer...' he thought to himself. 'i...i figured it out...' he gritted his teeth.

the text showed 'final problem. asano gakushū : 17/20 points.'

at the front of the desk where gakushu sat, staring at his own paper at his desk with a scowl, trying his best to stop himself from getting too worked up. 'three points...' his scowl worsened. 'second place...'. his fingers curling.

the scene shifted to where a certain redhead once again managed to slip inside the main building like a sneaky raccoon without the knowledge of security. smirking proudly; oh, how he wishes to see the look on asano's face! with the results, he is so gonna eat his own damn words. so to make his wish come true, he tiptoed up the stairs with his test paper in hand but immediately paused when he sensed someone approaching from the other end of the hallway.

in a split second, karma dove behind a wall to hide himself as he listened closely to the heavy footsteps that were storming down the hallway, and he could feel the surrounding area suddenly seeming to grow darker. he poked his head out to take a peek, and what he saw made his eyes widen and his stomach lurch.

there, he spotted the principal walking in the hallway. his face was completely closed off, and the man's head was down, so it was hard to see what expression he had on, but karma could feel the man's bloodlust slipping through miles away as he stood by and watched the man warily as he walked towards the direction of class A with clenching teeth.

'imperfection. imperfection. must correct imperfection.' gakuho, whose feet were moving on their own towards class 3-A.

karma grimaced as he felt his stomach twist. as even an idiot could see, that certainly wasn't a good sign.

well, shit.

the scene shifted back to class A as four of the big five were hunched over their desks in complete silence. "...how did this happen?" seo questioned, his face buried in his hand. "how did we lose after everything we put ourselves through?"

overhearing this , the student council president straightened up and slowed his breathing, trying not to lose his cool. 'keep calm; you are a leader. you have to get yourself together and stay composed for the sake of class-A.'

"your study methods worked against you," gakushu replied evenly from his desk, drawing their attention. "you were set up to lose. that's what it comes down to..." he grimaced and curled his hands into fists. "not that my scores are anything to brag about either; rest assured, i'll put this frustration to work!"

he scowled and stood up to face them. "when high school comes, i'll be on top again, doing my damnedest to blaze a trail for the rest of you. so please..." he hesitated. "just...all i ask...is for your support."

they all stared at him in shock.

koyama looked taken aback. "asano..."

"asano-kun..." ren muttered. "you mean that?"

gakushu forced out a reassuring smile as he stared at them.

"...intriguing." the room darkened when the principal's voice seeped in, and centipedes curled around, making class A's leader tense. "strong words for someone who's lost the fight on which he had agreed to bet on his staked of his future."

"principal asano...." class A said faintly.

"all we may count on in this life is the great unknown." the man was staring at them intently. "will losing a battle mean losing your life as well ? what seems arbitrary can, in fact, be what costs you everything. one can't be sure until the battle is over."

class A grimaced and stared at him apprehensively.

"this, you see, is why i insist on always playing to win. i have an obligation to prepare my students for the unknown." there was an off-looking look in the principal's eyes. "between now and graduation. you have much to learn."

the second those violet orbs met the enraged, dark eyes of his father, it reminded gakushu of when he was a child and his father would give him the same look whenever he made a mistake. he almost cowered down; it was embarrassing, but at that moment he didn't know any better. that man was angry, and he meant to submit because he deserved this. gakushu clenched his hands so tight into fists that his nails dug into his palms.

imperfections were unacceptable.

"principal asano, sir..." araki spoke up.

the principal's eyes narrowed. "hm?"

"with all due respect. it's clear to us now...."

"with your current methods..." ren grimaced. "aren't going to help us beat class E."

the principal's eyes widened, and gakushu looked over in surprise.

"the class E and asano-kun here both grew stronger through defeat, and asano's taken that lesson to heart," araki said, as flashbacks of the pole-topping defeat were shown.

"we're no match for them, sir. their strength is just too..." ren tried to find the right word. "what's the word? ... adaptable."

the rest of the class A bowed. "forgive us, sir. we apologize for falling short of our goal."

"if you think it's appropriate," ren said as the principal stared at them in shock. "you may transfer us down to class E. i think there's a lot to learn from their way of doing things and grow more there."

gakushu continued to gape at the big five in disbelief. he stared at them, surprised and a little apprehensive. he knew that man was just trying to destroy him for the longest time, claiming that he was just trying to help gakushu by breaking him apart just to put all the pieces back together again, like he was some sort of broken rubix cube.

the boy curled his hands tightly, touching his knuckle with his thumb as memory slowly resurfaced, followed by a voice with the words that forever nag him in the back of his mind as the scene cut to a flashback: "gakushu, sweetie, please...." the woman's voice was faint. "i need you to listen to me carefully. what your father did today was wrong, and if it happens again, you should cry for help, okay ? he's trying to break you-he's trying to make you just like him, but please.....don't you ever let him break you, sweetie..... once you're broken, it's hard to be fixed. so please..."

gakushu looked down for a moment, his bangs casting a shadow over his eyes as the memory faded. fist tigthed, taking a deep breath.

gakushu turned away to look back at the chairman. "well, sir, it looks like you have your answer-"

the principal backhanded his son so hard that he knocked over the desks and went slamming into a wall in a crumpled heap on the floor.

ren gasped and turned his head, eyes wide. "asano-kun ?!"

the class couldn't process what the fuck had just happened; the scene was played in slow mode as it showed the majority of them were paralyzed. was this the type of person their chairman really was ?

because the powerful force of impact was so hard that it caused the table and chair to go flying over the direction of the groaning gakushu, before the boy could even let his brain catch up on what was happening, he heard his classmate yelling something while at the same time completely missing a shadow that appeared out of nowhere from the corner and lunged towards him.

it all happened in the blink of an eye. gakushu quickly shut his eyes tight from the horror and braced himself for the pain to come.....but weirdly enough, a blow never came.

well, more accurately, it did came, but someone took it for him.

gakushu grimaced and carefully eased his eyes open, growing confused as he felt no other pain. his vision was a little blurred, but he could make out a shadow figure in front of him. his eyes immediately shot open in disbelief as he saw a glimpse of familiar red, and the realization set in as he stared at the shadow in front of gakushu that had blocked him from the hit.

there was a deafening silence from everyone that was broken by the strawberry-blonde boy himself, who stared with wide-eyed.

".....a-akabane..?!"

a/n :

well, these few chapters were a little stressful to write.

it took me a long time to write because i had to come up with a not-so-cringeworthy idea and deal with bad wifi service. writing this chapter really stresses me out because i want to try and put my best effort into it, but my battery of productivity needs a long time to recharge after hyper-focusing and using all my energy into writing 8 chapters (that contain 1,600+ to 2,200+ words per chapter; well, most chapters) in a span of 1 month. i'm just drained from it because i'm tempted to focus too much on details and 'perfection', which caused me to go unmotivated for a while.

after realising my planning sucked at the very last second, like just literally about two and a half months ago, i've been using all that time to rewrite and recreate my character's and plot's.
i still haven't finished with the plan and haven't finished rewriting my character, nor have i written any chapters yet after i posted my first chapter.

i have chapter 16 in my darfts, but i think i'm going to wait until i fully understand how to work out my characters and plot.

so.....anyways i've been rewriting and editing a lot of important OC characters that are important for the plot that revolves around the main characters.

🚧⬇️ important 🚧⬇️!!
please read !

i have an announcement to make for my old readers: will 'sher li' come back?

the answer is : no.

for new readers explanation of who "sher li" is, he is an OC i made in my OLD version of this book before the rewrite.

remember chapter 13, where karma talked about how he got injured before the test and met a mysterious silhouette of a person?
so, uh, yeah, that little scene would be deleted or edited later because i changed my mind in the last second.
i wasn't fully prepared for how i'm going to write the character back then, so yeah- 😅 👉👈

like i already stated, "sher li" or "styx" wouldn't be coming back.

to my old readers: i know you guys like my old OC sher li, but his name, his personality, and his appearance are just... lame as fuck. everything about him is going to be erased, but ( i'm might be making a new OC 👀. )

i think this chapter is a little too long so i'm gonna break it into two chapters. :D

also- GAKUHOE YOU AIN'T NO NIPPLE PIECE OF SHIT ! I WILL FUCK YOU UP WITH THESE FIST 👊 another thing is that being a writer , you can writer what you want. so beware you hoe ( gakuho ) i'mma gonna come back and beat ur ass

also this cat meme below me describe my life :

please don't forget to leave a little vote to support the story 🥺❤️🌟