Chapter 3: Find the Can
The girl is just right there.
Right next to the teacher’s desk.
In the classroom dyed crimson by the sunset, her shadow sticks to the wall.
“Found~”
Tightly closing her eyes thinking that she’s found, Houzuki heard the girl’s shrill scream reach Houzuki’s ears.
“GYAA”
The desk is knocked over.
The girl with a split mouth, thrown by someone’s hand, struggles under the fallen desk. It must be difficult to escape from there.
As Houzuki, watching the girl blown away from under the teacher’s desk, wonders who could do such a thing, someone pulls her arm and forces her to stand up.
“Let’s run!!”
The one who grabbed Houzuki’s hand was Kuroomi Otoya.
The one who grabbed Houzuki’s hand was Kuroomi Otoya, Kurokai’s.
Overwhelmed by his desperate expression, Houzuki is pulled along without resistance.
They burst out of the classroom as the dusk deepens, running relentlessly down the empty hallway. They don’t know when the girl might start chasing them, but for now, they run until they reach a place where safety can be ensured.
Careful not to trip, Houzuki looks up at Otoya’s back, who is pulling her hand as they run.
“Kuroomi-sensei……!!”
“Let’s look for the can, for Irune as well!!”
Running around this vast school building to find a single rusty can would be a daunting task.
Still, there is another way for Houzuki and the others to triumph in this terrifying game of hide-and-seek within the school.
The existence of a ghost who eats ghosts – namely Yuiru Enen. If he could devour the ghostly girl playing hid-and-seek within the school, everything would be resolved.
However, he has disappeared somewhere, and his whereabouts are unknown. It seems more efficient to search for him in parallel.
“If only we can find Irune, we can have him eat the seeker.”
“But, where’s Yuiru……!!”
“Back when we were students, he played hide-and-seek inside the school several times. He said, ‘I heard rumors that some weirdos were mixed in when playing, so I want to investigate!'”
Otoya glares down the hallway.
“At that time, he hid in the same place several times!! He must be there again this time!!”
☆
On the third floor of the school building, at the far end, was the boys’ restroom.
This place was famous for rarely having any users, making it the perfect spot for students to skip classes. Just standing in front of the door gave off an eerie atmosphere.
Actually, there were rumors of a ghost appearing in this boys’ restroom. It was just rumors, and the truth remained unknown. Houzuki had never stormed into the boys’ restroom, so she had never seen any restroom ghosts.
When Otoya opened the door to the boys’ restroom…
“Irune, you’re here, aren’t you!!”
It was a typical restroom with about three cubicles lined up, no different in design from the girls’ restroom, perhaps.
The door of the cubicle farthest back, tightly closed, slowly opened, and a silver-haired, red-eyed male student peered out with a resentful expression. An elementary school girl suddenly appears from beneath him.
She never expected that he was actually really hiding here. It was also beyond her expectations that her best friend, Aoyagi Towako, was also hiding with him.
The silver-haired, red-eyed Yuiru Enen,
“You’re too noisy, Otoya. She’ll find us.”
“What bullshit about getting found are you talking!! Did you see the seeker!?”
“I didn’t. Hey, what’s up? You seem unusually excited.”
Unable to ignore Otoya’s unusually excited state, Yuiru reluctantly came out of the restroom cubicle.
“What on earth is going on? Was the seeker that terrifying?”
“It was like a mix of Kuchisake-onna and Hanako-san from the toilets!”
“What!? Is that true!?”
Contrary to the scared Houzuki and Otoya’s anxiety towards the Seeking girl, Yuiru grinned as if he couldn’t be happier. It was almost as if he was saying he was having the time of his life.
For him, as long as he could eat ghosts, everything was fine.
Whether he was found or not didn’t matter. If he could eat the Oni first, this game of hide-and-seek within the school would automatically end.
Playing with a silver knife he pulled from somewhere, Yuiru said…
“Where is that Oni? I will eat her for you.”
“Then――”
It was when Otoya was about to tell him her location.
“I found you~”
A voice echoed.
It was the voice of that girl.
From very close by.
“Where……!?”
As Houzuki turned around, a small girl walked elegantly from the other side of the hallway, dyed crimson by the sunset.
It was as if she were taking a leisurely stroll.
As if mocking her opponents, slowly.
“Yuiru, that’s her!!”
“Oh, that’s her? I see, I see. She looks too small to be satisfying, but it’ll do.”
Yuiru jumped out of the boys’ restroom and greeted the Seeker girl, who was slowly walking towards them, with a casual “Hello.”
“Fou~nd y-”
Inserting his silver knife into the girl’s mouth, where jagged teeth were neatly aligned, Yuiru announced the start of the meal with a cheerful voice.
“I ta da ki ma su.”
He cut the girl’s small body in half vertically. A black mist gushed out vigorously, and Yuiru grabbed the half of the girl’s body that rolled into the hallway.
With care and precision, he began to eat, starting with her arm.
Crunch, crunch.
The sound of bones being crushed.
“Mm, mm…?”
Yuiru, who had been about to put the girl’s arm into his mouth, abruptly stopped his hand mid-motion as if struck by something.
He chewed and swallowed the remaining arm in his mouth, bones and all, then tilted his head curiously.
What could have happened? The girl’s ghost had been eaten by Yuiru, so the game of hide-and-seek within the school should have ended.
Yet…
“Why isn’t the sound returning?”
Houzuki’s bewildered voice echoed in the eerily quiet school building.
The usual hustle and bustle of the school didn’t return. No teachers passed by, and there was no indication that anyone noticed Hozuki and the others’ commotion.
Could it be that the problem hadn’t been resolved after all?
“Hmm, I see.”
Yuiru, after discarding the bisected body of the girl, returned as if nothing had happened.
“Houzuki.”
His red gaze was unusually serious.
“We need to find that can.”
Then, that voice sounded again.
“One……”
