Chapter 86 - Volume 5 (2/2)
As he had shot his last bullet, the girl had poked her finger in space as if there she was poking a forehead, and as if he had been shot by a gun, his head exploded.
“D-d-d-DIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!”
As the hoodlum thrust out his dagger wildly at the little girl, she grabbed the blade gently with her fingers, and flung the blade and its owner towards the men who were trying to escape through the other end of the corridor.
Seeing his companions who had run with him being toyed with and flung about like the pieces of some plastic toy, the man ran into the restrooms.
*katsun*…*katsun*… the sound of those tiny loafers pattered down the corridor.
The man hiding inside the bathroom held his breath as he waited for her to pass by, but the sound of the footsteps never got fainter, and with a *knockknock*, she began to knock on the doors of the toilet cubicles one by one.
*knock………*
“……ii”
The door he was hiding behind was knocked on, but the man clamped a hand over his mouth and held down his scream.
And then the door next to his cubicle was rapped on, and the man who had lost all of his strength from the tension sagged and leaned on the thin partition……
*DON!*
“HiyaaaaaaAAAAAAAAA!?”
Again, the cubicle door he was in was hit, and the man shrieked out instinctively.
*DONDONDONDONDONDONDONDONDONDONDONDONDON!*
“UAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!”
The door was hammered repeatedly with a terrifying power, and the hinges flew off, the door smashed, and a hole was opened in the panel boards.
Seeing that girl’s face from that hole smiling with her fangs bared, a scream that echoed throughout the school leaked out of the man’s mouth.
“Hiiiieee!?”
Hearing that scream of someone in their death throes, the fake taxi driver, Shinohara, yelled out and tried to draw attention.
“That brat, that brat, that brat, that brat aaAAAAAHHHHHH”
Curling up in the corner of the science classroom where he had barricaded himself, Shinohara waited for the fear to pass.
That damned, brazen child who had stabbed him with a pencil. He had planned to ask Kyoji to let him torture that girl to death with his own hands when the time came to get rid of her.
Shinohara had already crossed beyond the boundary of understanding into a world where a child was killing him.
“What is that……”
Shinohara was shaking while holding his head, unaware that he couldn’t hear any sound from the surroundings.
Had someone been killed? Had she killed everyone and gone away somewhere else……?
“………”
Shinohara chewed his nails and asked himself while trembling.
She might still be there. She might not even exist. Shinohara stooped over, hoping to not be seen as he hid under the science classroom table.
A little bit more…… surely, if there was nothing up to the door, that monster should have gone away somewhere else.
And just then, when he had relaxed and let his heart hope again,
“………”
His eyes met those of the girl, who was crouching under the table.
“HIYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!?”
Screaming like his throat was being torn out, Shinohara backpedaled on all fours and ran all the way.
“Yaiaaaaaa!”
A small hand was holding his ankle.
“……Hiyahhh…”
Shinohara leaked out a strange voice as his eyes rolled back into his head, and after one last quiver, his heart stopped.
＊＊＊
“The ghost story of the school……”
Excuse me, it seems I overdid it for a moment……
Hey, it’s that thing. It’s one of those test-of-courage things that people get strangely enthusiastic over… or something like that?
But it’s different from a test of courage from that if you get found, you die instantly.
Well, since their soul was being collected, isn’t it nice……?
Yes…… I am a [Demon].
I don’t think I did anything wrong when I laughed out explosively when I realized it.
My memory was still kind of jumbled, but I finally understood that I was not a [Human].
That was what that [Black Cat] wanted to tell me.
It told me what I really was……
Surely that [Black Cat] that knew of the [Truth] behind my clouded memory, and is the key to me recovering my memories.
Surely, I am “someone” that that black cat knows.
When I recalled the black cat, something clawed up from the depths of my heart, but it didn’t come out completely.
“……I will see you again.”
That’s what I thought. And there were things to do now.
A Demon feeds on the “souls” of humans.
I got excited by the malicious intent of others, because I subconsciously wanted that delicious soul.
I don’t want pure and innocent souls. I wanted a rich soul that had been steeped in malice and hatred.
I recovered the souls of the hoodlums and the black-clothed men, but their taste was monotonous and hollow like eating candy floss.
The soul of that uncle, Kidou, had a reasonably good taste. Still, although it had been aged, it wasn’t delicious enough, and it just stimulated the appetite after eating a soul for the first time in so long.
… I… seem to really have quit being a [Human Being].
“……Just two people left.”
Well, shall we proceed with the main dish of the day?
Author’s Notes:
The Demon appears.
Yuzu is a playfully mischievous girl.
Next time, what will she do with those two? Only a few chapters left in this volume.
The update will be scheduled tomorrow.