Chapter 50 – 6.2 Escape
The blade falls.
The blade that killed Shuji. The blade that killed me once.
To kill me again, I fall.
“Oops!”
I closed my eyes tightly.
Yuu.
Sorry.
Hi.
– Kang!
However.
I hear only the sound of metal being struck.
The pain never came.
“…… Fuck.”
A small, chewing voice.
Open your eyes carefully.
Knives’ face was right in front of him.
Because the face is lowered, the eyes cannot be seen.
Me…… Are you still alive?
Why?
– Seruk.
Knives sheathed his sword.
Then, suddenly, he started smashing and destroying laboratory props.
-Bang! Puck, Puck! Thud! Kwajik!
Are you trying to vent your anger instead of killing me?
My body trembled every time I heard a loud sound.
What? Why are you doing this? Weren’t you trying to kill me?
Or are you trying to scare me that you’re going to beat me to death from now on?
Huh. If that’s the case, you’ve succeeded. Can you see that I’m trembling right now?
I’m so scared right now scared to death You are amazing.
However, such sarcastic words only linger in my mind.
I couldn’t say anything with my mouth.
Because if Knives’ eyes looked at me again, it would kill me.
I don’t want to die.
Like a herbivore avoiding the eyes of a carnivore.
I closed my eyes, clench my teeth, and clenched my fists.
I hope that violence is not directed at me.
With the determination of not wanting to die, I waited for the storm to pass.
“Haaa…….”
…… Knives stopped.
He let out a long sigh as if to expel the heat accumulated inside his body.
The scenery inside the laboratory was bloody.
The solid stone pillar was broken, and the metal equipment was crumpled like a piece of paper.
It was a landscape that made me wonder if even a dinosaur had gone on a rampage.
And, just one word.
“──Apologize, do it yourself.”
Knives said so.
Without even looking at me.
…… Apologize? You mean to apologize to Yuu?
Maybe that…… You mean to save me?
“Knives!!”
And a person who jumps into such a bloody laboratory, calling Knives’ name.
…… Why is this person here?
Me and Knives’ homeroom teacher, Miss Naiad.
The teacher is our homeroom teacher, but she is also Knives’ older sister.
He was breathing heavily, probably because he was running fast.
“What?!”
Blood spilled on the floor. Decapitated corpse. Burnt corpse.
And, the chunk of meat that was once Shuji.
After Miss Naiad looked at them in turn, she turned to Knives.
“Knives! Are you okay? Where are you hurt?”
“It’s okay.”
Knives replied briefly and left the lab indifferently.
There was someone who came in as if crossing Knives.
It was Shinozaki-senpai, the head of the student council president’s bodyguard.
“Here…… ?”
Like her teacher, she looks blankly around the messy lab.
Knives, Miss Naiad, and the captain of the bodyguard there?
I can’t even imagine how this combination came about.
But whatever the reason, it didn’t matter to me.
“Knives! Go with me!”
Mr. Naiad tries to go out after Knives, who has left unintentionally.
You have to hold on to the teacher.
Miss Naiad was at least the only one who could help me here.
“Stop, sir! Miss Naiad!”
While Knives was away.
Shrinking, I summoned up the courage to call my teacher.
“…… Is it Tsukimiya?”
Miss Naiad looked back at me and opened her eyes wide.
Of course, I was surprised to see that the dead were alive and well.
“Tsukimiya! Are you okay?!”
Seeing the reaction of the teacher who is urgently approaching, I was relieved for the first time.
Ah. I’m alive.
You don’t have to die. You don’t have to go back into that darkness.
I lived.
…… Why didn’t Knives kill me?
* * *
It seems that the place I was in was a laboratory in an enclosed area.
The teacher released my handcuffs, and then followed the group to the student council president’s office.
I was wearing the doctor’s gown I picked up in the lab and changed into a spare uniform in the student council president’s office. Fortunately, I had a uniform that fit me.
…… What is Knives thinking right now?
On the surface, it seemed that he had lost interest in me.
He didn’t say a word all the way back. He didn’t even look I was treated like an absent person.
I was going to kill you a little while ago. While breaking and running like that.
I don’t even know why I didn’t kill him in the first place.
…… I don’t know what Knives is thinking.
“Then, Tsukimiya, let’s stay at the teacher’s house for a while.”
The teacher who heard my story suggested that.
It seemed that they sympathized with my situation as I was sold by my parents and had no place to go.
“What? Sister, are you insane?!”
Knives jumped up at the story.
Since Sensei and Knives are siblings, they will live in the same house, and staying at the teacher’s house is the same as living with Knives. No wonder Knives objected.
“No. To bring a grown-up girl into your house.”
“Why not?”
“Why, why! Of course not! What if something happens!”
“What is going on? Knives, are you trying to do something to Tsukimiya?”
“Ah! Really! Talk like a horse! Akane is the problem, not me! What if I set the house on fire?”
Knives jumped up again at the teacher’s playful question.
Until now, they were treating non-existent people, but now they are treating people as fire retardants.
Huh. Do you hate me that much? I hate it too. I’d rather sleep on the street than stay with you.
…… I can’t speak openly because I’m scared.
“Hoo. Then shall I take over?”
The chairman who was listening next to him showed interest.
“I am also interested in the mechanism by which the dead come back to life. No, it’s not just me. Any doctor or scientist would want a sample like Miss Tsukimiya. If you want, I can put you in touch with the person in charge.”
The corner of the chairman’s mouth rises cruelly.
‘Sample’. My name was the same as that mad scientist.
The student council president, Kyoko Mizuki, is kind to those below her, but has no mercy towards her enemies her. She is said to be a person without blood or tears, and she is also called the ‘iron-blooded student council president’.
A person in the medical and scientific world that such a person connects with.
What are you trying to do by sending me to such people?
Are you going to be dissected alive? Or are you making it into a monster like Shuji was there?
…… No. Scared. I don’t want to go there
But I don’t think my situation will change if I cry and cling to it.
Rather, it was obvious that they would send it there because it was annoying.
Now I had no choice but to wait patiently for the results to come out.
My fingers were trembling as I waited for the conclusion.
…… Please. Please don’t leave me
“Yes. You see. Instead, please dispose of it somewhere I don’t know about in some way.”
“Oh…… !”
Fingers twitch and tremble.
…… It’s a disposition
I thought he might have sympathy for saving me.
I was a fool for believing Knives. The fact that there is no blood or tears is the same here as well.
“Knives!”
The teacher calls such Knives scolding.
Knives chuckled and lightly clicked his tongue.
The teacher said to Chairman Mizuki with a determined expression.
“Student president. I will take on Tsukimiya Akane. As a homeroom teacher, I have a duty to protect my students.”
The kind words of the teacher honestly made me happy.
Naiad was the only person who genuinely wanted to help me in this position.
She inadvertently wanted to rely on such a teacher.
“After. That is strange, Miss Naiad Windsor.”
But the president laughed at the teacher and said,
Such a proud pose suited President Mizuki to the point of being disgusting.
“Isn’t your student, Akane Tsukimiya, already dead? The person here right now is ‘something wearing the mask of Akane Tsukimiya’, not ‘Akane Tsukimiya’.”
“…… Akane Tsukimiya is Akane Tsukimiya. This child is my student.”
I…… This is Akane Tsukimiya.
My consciousness definitely belonged to “Tsukimiya Akane.”
However, can we be sure that it is not “Something else that inherits the memories of Akane Tsukimiya”? Can the dead really come back to life?
…… What am I?
“Even if they are the same person, Akane Tsukimiya has a criminal record. Like Knives said, what would you do if you set your house on fire? What if I stab you while you sleep? What if you get bitten and become a zombie? Are you prepared to take responsibility for everything?”
“That…”
The teacher was speechless.
…… Well, maybe something like that. No matter how hard you try, you can’t trust others 100%. Even ex-convicts like me.
──But.
If it were Yuu who was here.
If it were Yuu, he would have told me that he would trust me 100% and that he would take responsibility for everything even if things went wrong.
…… Okay.
Let’s go to Yuu.
If it was Yuu, he would protect me, and he would also find a way to safely fill up with magic.
Because Yuu can do anything.
“──You have to protect the students, there is no way that our students will do bad things, you don’t intend to endanger your family with such complacent beliefs, do you? Then, even if the family dies——”
“Chairman. Do it in moderation.”
The story was heating up.
The chairman pushes the teacher, and Knives cuts off the president’s words.
I am the party to the story.
No one cared about me here.
“After. Sorry, I got a little excited. A person like me.”
“I.”
I couldn’t listen any longer.
I made up my mind and opened my mouth.
“Thank you for caring me. But it’s okay. I have a place to go.”
Okay.
I have a place to go There is someone who will accept me.
Even if you were abandoned by your parents, it doesn’t matter if your teachers don’t believe you.
Because I have Yuu.
“…… Akane. Are you thinking of going to Yuuki?”
“Don’t Knives know anything?”
“Do you seriously think that Yuuki will forgive you?”
Forgiveness? Forgive in the first place and sleep, but there is nothing to do.
Yuu will surely regret and grieve for my death, so when I return, I will cry and be happy.
“Of course. Because Yuu is different from someone like you.”
But should I apologize out of politeness?
Even if we fight, we become closer after apologizing and reconciling. Isn’t that what friends are?
“Under…”
Knives sighed in amazement.
It’s me who is amazing. What do you know about Yuu?
…… No.
There was no time to be wasted by Knives like this.
I had to hurry.
Because I really don’t have much magic left.
“Then I will go. Thank you for your help.”
I bowed my head and left the president’s room.
Naturally, no one caught me.
A small voice came from inside the door.
– Knives. Is it okay if I don’t chase you? I heard that it was my first love, Miss Tsukimiya.
It was Chairman Mizuki’s voice.
…… I’m Knives’ first………… ?
…… Nonsense talk.
I turned off my nerves and quickly descended the stairs.
It was raining outside the building.
