Chapter 19: “You must not fight!”
Death swings down on me like a breeze.
However, I was alive. The monster’s brutal right arm was sunk into the floor, and pieces of the floor fell on my head.
“I’ll give you credit for your courage.”
When Mutsuki-san was finished, she almost overbearingly pulled my uniform.
“But I have no intention of running away.”
She pulls me over and thrusts her face near me, glaring at me.
“If you’re not going to run away then watch from over there..”
She raised her thinly drawn eyebrows.
“You must not fight!”
Mutsuki-san picked up a backless chair in the laboratory and approached the monster, whose hand were still stuck in the floor.
“Mutsuki-san!”
I whip my trembling legs that won’t stop shaking.
The fear from just moments ago, when my life was in the hands of the monster, continues to linger, and my legs refuse to gain strength.
The giant body glowed red with over 100 spider eyes.
Mutsuki-san narrows her eyes for a moment due to the dazzling sight, but undeterred, she swings a chair down onto the monster. The wooden chair is powerless against the monster, who had previously snapped a metal bat with its head. It shatters miserably, and wooden fragments scatter.
“This stonehead……!”
I heard Mutsuki-san click her tongue. The monster swung its left arm down at her, who landed in front of him. Mutsuki-san, still on her knees, rotates sideways to evade. Picking up the rolling bat and standing up, she takes a lower stance.
Her quick thinking incorporates the action of picking up the bat into the rolling movement, showing her resourcefulness.
While the blow is powerful, it’s practically an archenemy for the sluggish monster.
However, if the attacks don’t work, it becomes meaningless.
“Mm, oomm……”
The spiders’ movements become more active.
The spiders, which were just clinging to the monster and clicking their legs, began to move violently all at once.
“Are you going to do something again?”
I leverage the hand of another intact experiment table to stand up, keeping an eye on the monster’s movements.
“Omom……-om,myy” (TN: from “Mommy”)
The spiders that clung to the monster peel away.
One, two…their numbers increase. The space cleared by eliminating the experiment table is now filled with spiders, their red eyes gleaming.
The monster is giving birth to monsters.”
“No way, this much……”
“Isn’t this just perfect.”
She readjusts the grip on the bat.
Already, dozens of spiders have detached from the monster. From where they’ve fallen, patches of human skin intermittently appear. It’s a dark shade with swollen, thick veins. What flows inside is not blood; it’s something thin and dirty, like heavy oil.
The spiders start moving in order of detachment.
The swarm of spiders splits into two directions and rushes towards Mutsuki-san and me. When they reach a certain distance, they leap and pounce. With fear in my heart, I dash through the window.
A swarm of spiders breaking through the windows one after another.
I can hear the sound of wind cutting through my ears. Spider legs tear through my uniform.
On the other hand, Mutsuki-san is skillfully repelling the leaping spiders one by one with the bat. She slams the front-approaching spider into the ceiling with an upward swing, deflects the sideways ones by deftly moving her body and knocking them down, and kicks away the ones from below with her left foot without using the bat.
It was a splendid display of combat skills.
However, even Mutsuki-san, with such prowess, is undoubtedly consuming her stamina. Additionally, there’s the pain in her right leg, the accumulated damage.
The Mutsuki-san I saw right after entering the laboratory is clearly moving like a different person.
The fact that the repelled spiders can resume their activity is evidence of that.
There’s a lack of force in the attacks that should have been pulverized in a single blow. The spider legs that were skillfully dodged with ease before are now hanging by a thread. Furthermore, dealing with blind spots has become neglected.
Mutsuki-san, who has eliminated blind spots by maximizing her field of vision, is now inadvertently creating blind spots.
The ceiling and behind her.
Mutsuki-san is unaware of the movements of the spiders in those two areas.
Three red eyes serve as the signal for an attack. While all the spiders within Mutsuki-san’s field of vision gleam with radiant eyes, the spiders in her blind spots don’t shine.
A diversion.
Those two words floated in my mind.
However, as if to erase those words that came to mind, a spider brushes against my head. The spider, clinging to a pillar without jumping out of the window, leaps towards me. Distracted by Mutsuki-san’s battle, I failed to notice the spider leaping from the pillar.
In the moment it flashed at the edge of my field of vision, I hurriedly twisted my body, but it was already too late.
The spider clung to my back.
It felt like wearing a backpack, and in an instant, the sensation shifted as the spider crawled up towards my head. A continuous, needle-like pain surged up my back along with fear.
Its eight legs captured me, unwilling to let go.
No matter if I run or jump, it doesn’t come off.
I consciously fell onto the floor from my back while still jumping.
The spider was caught between its back and the floor, making a sound like an egg cracking.
The spider’s body fluids seep into my back.
I quickly stood up, grabbing a chair. As if shaking off fear, I knocked down the spiders that were coming at me one after another. Then, after throwing the chair at the spider chasing me, I sprinted towards Mutsuki-san.
A spider looks down at Mutsuki from the ceiling. A spider licking its tongue from behind.
The two spiders’ six eyes in total emitted an intense red light.
“Above you!”
Mutsuki-san seemed to understand just from my words.
Her white neck was exposed. With the bent tip of the bat, Mutsuki-san pierced the abdomen of the spider that had fallen. The impaled spider writhed on the end of the bat.
Complacency and openings―”
I saw a relaxation in Mutsuki-san’s cheeks.
Not yet. It’s not the time to let your guard down.
At the same time as the spider that fell from the ceiling was dealt with, another spider that had been waiting behind Mutsuki-san leaped towards her. I couldn’t utter a sound in the brief pause for breath.
A spider clung to Mutsuki-san’s flowing hair.
“Mutsuki!”
I no longer cared that I called without honorifics.
Mutsuki-san throws away her bat and tries to peel off the spider.
“This guy……!”
I could see the hint of impatience.
For the first time, her beautiful face contorted with fear. The fear that comes from being penetrated in the chest is unimaginable. What the spider grasps is not Mutsuki-san’s hair. It is grasping her life, firmly in its talons.
Mutsuki-san lies on her back. Attempting a similar action to mine, she tries to slam the spider firmly grasping the back of her head onto the floor. However, due to the nature of the head, it doesn’t go as planned. In the event that she were to lose consciousness, it would undoubtedly be fatal, and even if it induces a concussion, a decrease in cognitive function would be inevitable.
Either way, Mutsuki-san’s life will be trampled by the spider.
Without swatting away the spider that leaped onto my back, I crouch beside Mutsuki-san. I place my hand on the spider gripping the back of Mutsuki-san’s head.
“God……dammit!”
The spider’s claws dig into Mutsuki-san’s head. Her flowing hair is wet with her own blood. The blood that ran down her hair left marks on the floor like letters drawn with a brush.
The monster was still looking down at us. Spiders were falling off his body one after another, and I couldn’t even count them anymore. They bared their fangs at me and Mutsuki-san in droves.
The spider that stuck to my back also wrapped around my chest and covered my mouth like a mask.
“Run away! Aren’t you a hypocrite!?”
“Not until…… I saved you.”
“Are you stupid?”
A massive swarm of spiders surges towards the two humans, leaping simultaneously like an intense downpour.
In the blink of an eye, my back is covered with spiders. The spider’s claws pierce through my entire body, feeling as if I’ve been stabbed all over with needles.
It’s an excruciating pain that makes one want to go insane.
“Why!”
My back feels heavy.
This weight and pain are all caused by spiders. I can’t do anything on my own anymore. I can’t even peel it off. Since I’m covering Mutsuki-san, the only spider attached to her is the one on the back of her head.
That was my only salvation.
“I want to help!”
With this, at least I can save Mutsuki-san.
“That’s meaningless!”
My whole body is now full of spiders.
My arms, waist, back, stomach, and face are all under the spider’s control.
I can only see spiders now.
Even my vision was obstructed by the spider’s belly, so I couldn’t look at Mutsuki-san satisfactorily. It looks like I’m wearing a spider’s eyepatch.
“Even so!”
I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t scared. I’m scared from the bottom of my heart. My legs are shaking, my whole body is shaking.
A spider trying to fix itself in my mouth. Looks like it’s trying to get in.
…My whole body feels heavy. I can’t even writhe in agony. Nevertheless.
“Run away!”
Mutsuki-san glared at me and shouted. There is something shining in her eyes.
“Don’t worry about me! All you have to do is think about yourself!”
The spiders that covered me weren’t satisfied with just me; they were also attempting to attach themselves to Mutsuki-san. Using sheer willpower, I manage to shake off the spider. There’s only one spider that has attached itself to Mutsuki-san so far.
I continue to protect Mutsuki-san.
I use my arm to brush away the spider trying to attach itself to her face and kick away the spider attempting to grab onto her legs.
I couldn’t let them touch Mutsuki-san, no matter what. That was an absolute certainty.
“Why won’t you understand!”
A nauseating odor wafts through the air. It emanates from the direction of the experimental table that the monster had pulled out. In the corner of my field of vision, I see the hose of a gas burner rolling on the floor.
With a primal scream, Mutsuki-san tears the spiders clinging to her hair. Due to getting caught in the spider’s legs, a significant amount of hair is pulled out.
The red-stained strands of hair roll on the floor along with the spider.
“……Even so, I”
A flashlight rolls out from Mutsuki-san’s pocket. It’s something I handed her when the choice of whether to go to the rooftop was looming.
“You’re just a hypocrite……Even though you’re just a hypocrite!”
A single tear rolls down Mutsuki-san’s cheek. It is more beautiful and ephemeral than any tears I have seen before.
“Even so, I…”
Overwhelmed by an enormous number of spiders, unable to move, and with no strength left to endure, it feels like consciousness is drifting far away.
Nevertheless, I summon my last reserves of willpower, reach out my arm, and somehow manage to grab hold of the flashlight.
“I want to save you!”
I flip the switch and, in a frenzy, throw the flashlight at the monstrous entity supplying the spiders.
It spins as it heads towards the spiders. Despite narrowly avoiding colliding with the spiders leaping one after another, it continues flying towards the target.
“… Foolish hypocrite.”
Mutsuki-san’s whisper and the shattering of the flashlight’s glass upon hitting the monster happened simultaneously.
The moment the heating element became visible, sparks scattered.
In an instant, a flash enveloped the surroundings.
A vortex of flames engulfed Mutsuki-san and me.
The monster disappeared in the flames, and the spiders that covered the floor were blown towards us.
Covered in spiders, I used my body as a shield to protect Mutsuki-san.
The scorching inferno consumed both Mutsuki-san and me.
TN: Me in the last parts be like “MF stop talking, a spider’s trying to get inside your mouth!!!
