Chapter 10: Taken Away
“I was wondering which bug wandered inside.”
The student with hair that is long for a male high school student, Irune Yuen, tilts his head and says with a grin.
“I didn’t expect you shitty bastard to still be alive.”
Houzuki stood there, motionless.
The male high school student before her was the spitting image of a silver-haired, red-eyed male high school student, Yuiru Enen. In fact, it was him.
It was unclear whether the demon that inhabited the old school building had taken over Yuiru’s body, or whether the demon that inhabited the old school building had only copied his appearance and placed his body somewhere else. Even so, she could tell that the person before her was Irune Yuen.
Yuiru silently narrowed his red eyes and said,
“I’m tenaciously staying alive. Just to eat you, you damned old school building.”
“Oh, you want to eat me? That’s a bold claim.”
Irune Yuen chuckled happily, then looked at Houzuki, who was standing stiffly behind Yuiru.
Houzuki stiffened as those obsidian eyes fixed on her.
His gaze roamed all over Houzuki’s body as if licking it. He studied her closely from head to toe, then his brows furrowed.
“Who is that woman?”
Irune Yuen’s tone of voice had clearly changed.
His voice was filled with caution in every word.
His expression was also full of suspicion and wariness towards Houzuki, as if he refused to acknowledge Houzuki’s presence here.
Yuiru pulled out a silver knife from out of nowhere and clutched it in his other hand, wary of his opponent’s move. Houzuki also adjusted the plastic container she was holding and glared at Irune Yuen.
“――Aah.”
Irune Yuen, who seemed to have been on guard,
said,
“What, she just a sacrifice. So there’s still some left.”
“――――What?”
Houzuki tilted her head at the words she couldn’t understand.
Sacrifice?
Could it be her?
She had no intention of taking on such a role. There was no reason for her to be called a sacrifice.
So why did the word “sacrifice” make her feel so sick?
“You’re a pain to be around.”
Irune Yuen gently stretched out his arm.
There was a distance between them, so no matter how far he stretched his arm, he wouldn’t be able to touch Houzuki. The only way to touch her was to walk closer.
However, if he walked closer, he would become Yuiru’s prey. He had been boasting about eating the old school building, but he hadn’t eaten anything up until now. He should be very hungry by now.
–That was Houzuki’s carelessness.
“Let me take you there.”
But then,
She sensed the presence of something heavy wriggling behind her.
She turned around with a jump, and the darkness that should have been lurking at the end of the corridor was now right there.
From the other side of the darkness, several pure white arms reached out.
When the white fingertips of these warm, white arms touched Houzuki, they grabbed her to stop her from running away.
Houzuki was dragged into the darkness without even being able to scream as her arms, legs, waist and hair were grabbed.
☆
“―― HOUZUKI!!”
Yuiru frantically reaches out to Houzuki, who has been pulled into the darkness.
He tries to grab the hem of her uniform that’s barely there, but unfortunately his fingertips miss the air.
Houzuki is dragged into the darkness right before his eyes, disappearing. He can no longer hear her voice.
“It’s your fault.”
The demon, who has made his base out of the old school building modeled after himself, chuckles with amusement.
“That woman is just like you used to be. You probably don’t remember.”
“You’re just a mere ingredient who is about to be my food, stop talking nonsense!!”
Yuiru roared at the demon, brandishing his silver knife.
Before the tip of the knife could rip the demon’s throat out, it was stopped by something. A pure white arm reached out from the depths of the darkness and grabbed Yuiru’s arm.
As Yuiru clicked his tongue in frustration, the demon from the old school building laughed with genuine amusement.
“If you want to help, then go find her. Don’t worry, you’ll find her soon enough.”
The demon from the old school building slowly steps back.
Gyi, gyii~.
Gishi~, gyi~.
The demon creaks the floorboards exaggeratedly as he disappears into the darkness.
“This is hell, you see.”
The demon that imitated him disappeared, leaving a chuckle behind.
Yuiru, standing alone, immediately turns on his heels.
The demon was right. He could tell immediately where Houzuki had been taken. If he said that, it couldn’t be anywhere else.
Yuiru glared at the roiling darkness at the end of the corridor, his rough footsteps echoing through the old school building in the middle of the night, as if he didn’t mind the floorboards coming out.
“Hell? Did you say hell? I know it better than anyone.”
He steps into the old school building and has no memory of what happens after that. When he comes to, he has silver hair and red eyes, looking like a ghost from one of his novels.
After that, he gets bored for a long time, so he explores the old school building, observing the minor ghosts that appear there. He feels like he’s seen every nook and cranny, but there was one place he just couldn’t see.
The reason he couldn’t eat the ghosts that infested the old school building, and couldn’t go to that one place, is because Yuiru, who was just born as a ghost, couldn’t compete with them.
“Wait for me, old school building.”
Yuiru licks his lips and says.
“I’ll definitely eat you.”
–Oh, just imagining the taste is making me salivate!
