Chapter 16: “I don’t want to die.”
When I dashed out of the classroom into the hallway, I encountered the student council members who had come to check on the situation.
Judging from their arrival from the upper floor, they must have been in the student council room.
The student council president, holding a flashlight like me, illuminated my face.
“You’re alive?”
A statement devoid of joy.
“Get that light out of my face, it’s annoying.”
I lowered the flashlight that was shining directly at the student council president. Next to the student council president was Kazuki.
“…Kazuki.”
Seeing Kazuki’s form, a pang of pain shot through my heart.
Kazuki looked uneasy and averted his gaze from me, turning his attention to the barricade.
“What’s that sound…? Does anyone know who it is?”
Satou nervously scanned the people around.
“There’s no way we’d know.”
Satou was right by the student council president’s side, sticking close like a sycophant, and the term “lapdog” came to mind.
“I thought you were crying yourself to sleep. Is it because you cut your hair? Did you feel refreshed after being coddled a lot?”
Mutsuki-san said provokingly.
“Or were you obscenely refreshed? Hypocrite-san.”
She looks down on me with her arms crossed, her arrogant attitude unchanged.
I thought about firing back, but I stopped myself. If I engaged, I wouldn’t be able to detach myself from the situation.
“You’re ignoring me? That’s something weak people often do.”
“Don’t you understand when you’re told to be quiet?!”
Satou, who was nearby, shook his shoulders as he heard the student council president’s loud voice.
“You sure talk well for a coward.”
The student council president’s eyebrows twitched.
“Mutsuki, you*…… are you going against your upperclassman?” (TN: Pres uses “kisama”, a rude way of saying “you”)
“‘You’? That’s a term I only read in a manga.”
Frustrated by Mutsuki-san’s endless complaints, the student council president raised his hand. Perhaps due to the darkness obscuring her vision, Mutsuki-san couldn’t avoid it, and she received a slap across her cheek.
The dry sound dissipated into the darkness.
“Hmph. Do you think I’ll obey you if you raise your hand against me? This is why men are-“
Mutsuki-san was going strong.
She showed no sign of giving in, nor any sign of being in shock. Just what kind of emotion strentgh does she have?
At a time like this, if it were Natsumi, she would stop the two of them while crying.
……However, Natsumi is gone. Thus, there’s no one who will stop them.
I shake my head sideways. Don’t think about it, part ways with it. That’s what I told myself.
The tense atmosphere was broken by Kazuki’s words.
“Please stop. Now isn’t the time to be doing that.”
“He…… He’s right. Please stop it.”
Hiding behind Kazuki’s back, Satou also called out.It’s just that, his voice was as low as a bug’s.
While they were arguing, the mysterious noises were getting louder.
And, the next moment, the desk that was part of the barricade flies towards me.
A desk flies between me and the student council president.
It was a relief that I didn’t have to dodge.
What kind of force was used to throw it? A desk thrown from the downstairs landing hit the ceiling of the hallway in a straight line and rolled over.
I was looking for the whereabouts of the desk.
The eerie red light of an emergency bell flickers next to the fallen desk.
The red floating in the darkness looked like a human soul.
“……M……om,my……” (TN: This one’s birdcall is “Mommy”)
It’s a male voice.
A voice was heard from the landing, which was enveloped in pitch black darkness. It’s safe to assume that the barricade has been destroyed. Something with enough power to easily throw a desk. That’s what’s in front of us now.
“……Mo,m?……my”
I timidly pointed the flashlight at it. The light illuminated the stairs, and then the light that stood on the landing.
“Hiih”
Satou shrieks. He falls on his butt and shrinks away.
It’s a male student with a bizarre appearance.
He has countless spiders attached to his upper body. There were so many that I couldn’t even see the uniform. I can tell he’s a boy by the absence of a skirt.
All of the spiders that were attached were writhing violently, and a huge number of tentacles were extending from their mouths. The eerie sound of spider legs touching each other. That is the true nature of that metallic sound.
“……Mo……om……?”
Only his hollow right eye could be seen through the gap between the spiders that were so tightly attached to him. That eye caught Sato, who blurted out fear.
“……N, no…… I don’t want to die……”
An abnormally swollen arm. Ordinary feet that don’t match that. The student carrying a multitude of spiders is no longer human.
The spiders’ three eyes begin to glow crimson. Hundreds of eyeballs, shining clearly even in the darkness, looked just like the Grim Reaper.
“……mmy?……mom……”
He climbs up the stares with his heavy upper body rocking. Its tail trailed in the direction of the swaying bright red light spot.
“What on earth…… this?”
Even the courageous Mutsuki-san was no exception.
She didn’t fall on her bum but her face looks very pale.
The student council president didn’t even notice that his glasses had slipped off, and was unable to stand steadily.
He was only able to remain standing thanks to the handrail on the stairs.
“Let’s run away…….”
“……Agreed.”
Mutsuki-san agreed with Kazuki. I moved to cover Kana behind me.
“Thank you, Masaomi.”
Kana is able to smile happily even in this worst situation.
I can’t understand that kind of insensitivity.
“I agree with running away. But, before that……we won’t know until we tried it.”
“Are you stupid!? We can’t possibly win!”
Kazuki shouted in disbelief as Mutsuki-san tried to take combat stance.
“…… I don’t wanna die…… I don’t wanna die……”
Satou huddles at the end of the hallway, chanting prayers. It seemed like he could no longer stand. Still, he begins to struggle to escape. Like a crawling baby, he turns his back on his enemy and crawls into the opposite hallway.
“Hey! Help me!”
The student council president, unable to stand still, shouted. He almost drops his glasses, hastily catches them, and puts them back on.
I guess he can’t see anything without glasses.
The panic he felt when his glasses fell off was amazing. There was no trace of the usual wise student council president there.
Even the flashlight was dropped and it rolled towards the monster. The monster crushes it and climbs the stairs.
The light illuminating the surrounding area has decreased.
“How ridiculous.”
Mutsuki-san’s mouth turned up in a mocking tone.
“YOUUUUUUU!” (tn: Again,he used “kisama”.)
The scream was so loud that I thought his blood vessels were going to burst. Spit flew out of his mouth and he glared at Mutsuki-san as if to kill her. Still, she doesn’t care about the student council president’s yelling. Kazuki clicked his tongue and made the student council president stand up.
Immediately after, the monster’s large tree-like arms moved.
He grabbed the spiders that was clinging to his body. The spiders that wer grabbed curled up and stopped moving.
I wonder if the monster also has the will to get rid of the spider.
…But that wasn’t the case.
He held a spider in both hands and threw it at us. Everyone present was unable to react to the monster’s unexpected actions. The spider shot from the monster’s right hand turned into a bullet and hit Mutsuki-san directly in the right leg.
He throws the second one.
Mutsuki-san uses her natural athleticism to manage herself. The spider that was thrown broke through the glass of the hallway at the same speed and was swallowed up by the darkness outside.
“…I’ll kill you, no matter what.”
The spider covered in hard skin is strong. Mutsuki-san, who stomps at it in the hallway, proves this.
The first spider that attacked Mutsuki-san spread its legs as soon as it landed on the ground and started attacking us individually.
The second wave is coming soon. A secondary attack in anticipation of being dodged.
It was an action that I can only assume was because it was expecting to be thrown. Does that intelligence reside in this monster? Or maybe it’s learned it?
The first spider attacks Mutsuki-san.
Instead of going in a straight line, it tries to use the wall to attach to her from a blind spot. A dark situation with no light source. Only the red eyes of the spider were shining brightly and eerily. The red light traced a triangular orbit.
Jumping, it reaches the ceiling, then behind Mutsuki-san.
Mutsuki-san falls to her knees and loses sight of the spider.
