Chapter 9: Demon
The second floor gave the impression of being relatively dim.
The corridor creaked as they walked, and the classroom doors lined the street opened and closed repeatedly as Houzuki and Yuiru passed by.
It was probably because of the vacant eyes of the children peering out from the other side of the door. Their pure white uniform looked like funeral attire, and their glass-like eyeballs stared intently at Houzuki.
Karakara1…… Tan~2. (TN: 1 crack/ rattle/ clack … 2 soft impact, like a rubber stamp
Karakara…… Karakara…… Tan~.
The door to a classroom nearby kept closing and opening again and again. The ghosts of the children also seemed to be playing, not trying to scare anyone.
“So many ghosts gathering there… Was the site of the old school a cemetery?”
“I don’t know. It’s shrouded in mystery.”
Yuiru, leading the way down the dimly lit corridor, glances at the ghost of a male teacher who is dragging his feet and apologizing profusely. “He looks tasty,” he says, not missing what he’s saying.
Come to think of it, that’s unusual.
Even though there are so many ghosts, Yuiru hasn’t touched any of them. His goal is the so-and-so who lives in the old school building, so perhaps he won’t eat anything until he’s eaten the old school building.
“……I can have a little taste, no I can’t, I decided to not eat anything until I’ve eaten the old school building. I won’t be able to digest it.”
“You don’t get indigestion, do you?”
“The old school building is something that even I couldn’t eat before. I might feel some stomach upset.”
“Even after eating the evil god?”
It’s a strange feeling. Even if it has been forgotten by the people, he has eaten a former deity turned evil god. Is it that difficult to eat the old school building?
“This isn’t the first time ghosts have gathered in the old school building. I don’t know the reason though.”
“Even you have things you don’t know about.”
“The old school building has existed as itself way before my time. The old school building where ghosts appear was spoken of as a place that you should never enter.”
If Yuiru was still alive, he would be the same age as Kuroomi Otoya, in his 30s or 40s.
Could it have existed as the old school building even longer than that? It’s possible to imagine since it’s a wooden school building.
–The idea that the old school building is older makes it seem somehow unpleasant.
“I know what’s in the old school building.”
“Eh?”
“I was in the old school building, after all. I’ve seen it a few times, but it’s only a guess.”
Yuiru stopped in his tracks, gazing into the darkness that lies at the end of the corridor.
Houzuki followed suit and stopped in her tracks.
She sensed something terrifying about the man’s back, with his flowing pure silver hair. It was as if he was glaring at something beyond.
“It’s a demon,”
Yuiru said briefly.
“A demon is nesting in the old school building.”
“A demon…”
As if to confirm its presence, Houzuki rolled the words around in his mouth,
“Ho,u, yu ku-bun katsuta na”3
A familiar voice resounded from the depths of the darkness, and Houzuki’s heart sank.
It was unmistakably similar to the silver-haired, red-eyed high school boy present.
Even the arrogant-sounding tone of voice made him think of Yuiru Enen — no, Irune Yuen himself.
Gyi, gyii~.
Footsteps echoed from the other side of the darkness.
A black-haired high school boy appeared from the other side of the bottomless darkness, creaking the floorboards that had rotted with age.
He was wearing the boys’ uniform of XX High School, very similar to Yuiru’s, and his black hair, which reached his shoulders, swayed with every step. His obsidian eyes were gazing at Houzuki and Yuiru, and his handsome features would not leave a female student who only cared about appearances alone.
The hair color, the eye color, everything was different.
But even so, Houzuki remembered the photo in the graduation album that Kuroomi Otoya had shown him.
“Irune, Yuen.”
The person who Yuiru Enen was based on – Irune Yuen – was there.
TN: 3- I can’t figure out what the Japanese words are trying to form so I’m leaving it as is. These must be broken off words.
