Chapter 9 ” What a pathetic man.”
“Until the assembly started, school life was pretty normal. However, as the assembly approached, the gymnasium was closed off and even the curtains were closed…”
The edges of his glasses glittered in the light coming in through the student council room window.
“As the student council president, I hadn’t heard anything about that either. I had doubts and asked the teachers. However, the teachers remained silent and didn’t give me an answer.”
“Yes, I heard nothing either.”
“Yeah, most probably not a single student knew the reason. Even I, the student council president, don’t know, so it’s only natural.”
“……What a fully invidious guy.”
It’s the same for you, Mutsuki-san, there’s no such brave spirit in this room to say it.
“We were forced to wait in complete darkness with no light. And then, who know how much time passed…just as my senses started to dull, something strange happened.”
I swallow the spit that’s stuck in my mouth.
“Screams erupted from the students in the front row. Eventually, with the help of the darkness, the screams spread as a huge scare, and the entire gymnasium was in a state of panic. I was in the wings of the podium, so I don’t know the details. I didn’t, but…I think Mutsuki would understand that point better than me.”
When Mutsuki-san, who was playing with her hair, realizes that the conversion is being dumped at her, she begins talking without looking anywhere.
“I was in the last row, so I don’t know the details, but I heard the screams in front of me. Everyone panicked and ran to the back, leaving the back row in a mess. It’s the worst.”
She shrugs.
“But I remember everyone saying “something’s there” and “we’re gonna get killed”.
By something, I guess it was that spider-like monster.
“That’s right, we were all pushing each other. In the dark, we couldn’t tell left from right… Look, when you open your phone, the light from the display leaks out, right? It’s called the backlight function.”
Kazuki takes out his cell phone and explains.
“At first, after it got dark, no one opened their phones because they were afraid the teacher would find out, but after the commotion, they stopped worrying about it and ran in a panic, dropping their phones or opening it to call for help.,,,,,, The light from the cell phones were lit everywhere, and with the help of my good night vision, I was able to grasp the situation just from that light. There…that monster was there.”
“That thing shaped like a spider, huh.”
Mutsuki-san, with a grim face, draws the outline of a spider by hand.
“Yeah. It sticks to the student’s face, puts out something like a tentacle, and strangles the student’s neck. Then… when the student passes out, he forces the student to open his mouth and entered.”
“Inside, in the mouth?”
Kazuki nods.
“By the time it came out, it has already grown.”
“It grows?”
Everyone repeats that word.
Kazuki nodded twice with a marvelous look on his face.
“It waso nly the size of a fist. Up until it went inside the mouth that is. Since it was that size, it was still around the size fo a tarantula so it might have been able to pass through. But, the spider came out of the unconscious student’s mouth after a while.”
Everyone waits for Kazuki’s words.
Even though they were inside the gymnasium, not everyone was aware of the situation, so they probably had no choice but to hold their breath at this new fact.
“Ugh…… ugh……”
Satou covered his ears with his hands.
His body began to tremble and he seemed extremely frightened. Since the pipe chair is dragged into his shaking, he must be fairly terrified.
I, too, feel like my heart is going to jump out of my chest.
“From the student’s…… uh…… stomach.”
“Waaaaahh!”
Sato quickly knocked over the pipe chair and ran out of the student council room.
Almost everyone in the room was shocked by his madness and their shoulders trembled.
However, Kana remained as calm as ever and settled down in her pipe chair.
“I, I wondered what it is about. To run away just from something like this…… Is he that afraid of it?”
Mutsuki-san snorts.
“B, but, me…… too. Just by thinking about something like that……”
When I looked at Mizuno-san, I saw that she was gripping the skirt of her uniform tightly. She seems to be somehow resisting the urge to run away.
“Shall we stop talking about it?”
Kazuki is concerned about Mizuno-san.
“What, are you scared? Women have courage. Just shut up and at least listen to that. It’s unseemly. That’s why men look down on you.”
She provoked Mizuno-san, who was sitting diagonally across from her.
“That’s enough, let’s end it at that. Masaomi, let Mizuno-san out.”
“O, okay……”
Kazuki tries to end the conversation.
I didn’t expect the story I requested to go this far, so I was a little late in responding.
“Good for you. Having men take care of you.”
Her words are clearly that of mockery.
No matter how you put it, it’s too much.
“Mutsuki!”
I unintentionally called out her name.
“What, are you trying to object to me even though you’re my shield?”
Mutsuki-san is fearless and speaks condescendingly.
“……St…… op it.”
“There are thing s that you should and shouldn’t say.”
“Aren’t I just telling the truth? Can you stop trying to act cool? You can’t even take responsibility for your own words.”
“I can at least take responsibility!”
“Please stop it!”
There were many tears in the corners of Mizuno-san’s eyes.
“Masaomi-kun… Mutsuki-san… please stop… Please stop fighting.”
“Masaomi, sit down.”
Kazuki grabbed me by the shoulders and made me sit on the pipe chair.
“Crying doesn’t make things better.”
While complaining verbally, she sat down looking embarrassed.
“Kazuki-kun, I…I’m okay. Please continue talking.”
“But”
“It’s fine. I want to listen. Please speak.”
Kazuki made a face as if he had bitten a bitter bug, then heaved a big sigh and resumed the conversation where he had left off.
When I suddenly looked at the student council president, I saw him holding his temples and furrowing his eyebrows.
My guess is that the argument between Mutsuki-san and I caused him a headache.
Kana is being herself, and she has a strange expression on her face that makes it hard to tell whether she’s interested or not.
When I realized that I was concerned about Kana’s state, I made eye contact with her and flashed her a big smile.
“So, I told you about the spider coming out of the student’s stomach…”
“Yeah, we heard up to there.”
The student council president takes off his glasses and wipes the lenses with a handkerchief.
This is the first time I’ve seen the student council president without his glasses, but he’s quite a looker.
The downside is that his eyes are too sharp, making him feel like he’s keeping people away.
“The size of the insect that came out was about twice as big. The shape remained the same, only the size had doubled. It was about the same size as the one that attacked Masaomi.”
I feel sick because I remember the teacher’s mouth being torn open and the spider crawling out from inside.
“Then it begant to attack the other students as well. One after another…”
“It seems like something a monster would do…”
She bites her thumbnail in disgust.
“So, was there only one?”
The student council president put his glasses back on and turned his sharp gaze towards Kazuki.
“If there was only one, the fatal wound to it would have ended things. I saw it struggling, scattering its contents.”
“Unfortunately, it wasn’t just one. There were at least three. I can’t tell you the details because it was dark, but I’m sure there were three that I saw.”
“I see……”
He folded his arms and was lost in thought. He is the student council president whose way of thinking is more picturesque than anyone else.
“But, if it doesn’t increase any more, maybe something can be done about it?”
I cling to a faint hope.
“You idiot, that can’t be true. A creature that doesn’t try to leave behind descendants is nonsense. There’s no use holding on to that kind of hope.”
“I think so too. Besides, they attacked all of us students. I can’t believe there were only three of them.”
Kazuki agrees with Mutsuki-san.
When Mutsuki-san heard that, she snorted at me.
“Naturally”, she said.
There is no doubt that she is on board with the agreement of Kazuki, who I thought was on my side.
“It’s the worst possibility, but we have to take that into consideration.”
“Then…… can’t we call for help. With a phone or something.”
Kazuki shakes his head.
“No matter where I went, there was no cell phone reception. At first I thought it was only in the gymnasium, but it wasn’t working inside the school either. It didn’t matter what model or manufacturer it was.”
I open my cell phone and check it, but as Kazuki said, there is no signal. It’s supposed to be within the range, but it says it’s out of range.
I knew it was ridiculous, but I tried the angle, the height, the window, everything to no avail.
“By the way, just checking the landline is also pointless.”
Those words were in anticipation of me, who had noticed the landline phone in the student council room.
“Is there such a thing?”
“Yes, it actually exists. Here and now. That’s the fact. It’s a reality that you have to accept.”
“But I sent a text message once after coming to school. Isn’t that right, Kana?”
“I don’t have my phone.”
I also remember leaving her bag in the classroom.
“If so, what about the sending time? Check it.”
I opened my phone to check the time it was sent.
When I announced the time out loud, the student council president let out a deep sigh.
“Right after the gathering started. It was dark, but I had an idea of the approximate time.”
“Masaomi-kun, until the meeting started, I was able to talk and send e-mails on my cell phone as usual.”
“That’s right. It went out of range all of a sudden.”
All I could do was sit in my seat and slump my shoulders.
