In the quiet, Renko first removed her sweatshirt hood. Her long, silky, silver hair spilled out over her shoulders, filling the air with the sweet smell of her shampoo.
After that, she slowly pulled the front zipper down, opening the sweatshirt completely. Her chest, which strained the thin fabric of her shirt, swayed gently, looking soft. Next, she went ahead and grabbed the hem of her tank top with both hands, and when she started to lift it up, resolving herself—
“Hey, hey! Wait a second, will you? What do you think you’re doing?”
Renko tilted her head in confusion at Kyousuke’s interruption. Her skin was so pale it was almost transparent. Her tank top was rolled up as high as the bottom of her breasts, exposing her thin waist and small belly button. A thin border of black lace peeked out from beneath the hem of her shirt. Kyousuke stood still, stiff in every sense of the word. “What do you mean? I’m taking them off. You know, my clothes. The mask is really a pain to remove, so please forgive me if I just strip down… I-is that no good? Didn’t think so! Well, then, next is—”
“…Kyousuke Kamiya.”
“Hmm? Kyousukekamiya? What’s that? Some kind of new slang?”
“It’s Japanese! You said you wanted to know my name! First-year, Class A, Kyousuke Kamiya.”
“……Huh?”
Judging from Renko’s befuddled response, Kyousuke had thrown her off-balance. I thought for sure she meant she would take off her gas mask… That was misleading.
“First of all, put your clothes back on. Like that, you’re, how do I say it…too tempting.”
“You want me to put my clothes back? Oh, really? I thought surely you must be interested in my breasts, but maybe I was wrong? And here I was thinking that even if you hadn’t told me you wanted to see them, I would let you touch them as much as you wanted…but it looks like there’s no need for that.”
“Wha—?” In my fifteen years on this earth, I have never regretted a decision so much in my life. “I mean…sorry. The truth is, that was a fake name just now.”
“What did you saaayyy?! Before telling that bald-faced lie, didn’t you want to do things with my body?! I see, so your interest is so low…” She saw straight through Kyousuke’s shameful lie.
Correction. In my fifteen years on this earth, now I have never regretted a decision so much in my life.
“…Well, enough of that. I wonder if we’re okay on time, Kyousuke? Personally, I think we’re in a lot of trouble. The Class B teacher is an awful pervert, so if you’re even one second late, he makes you do this and that and even the other thing…”
Informed of this gut-wrenching fact, Kyousuke’s heart skipped a beat. In shock, he looked at Renko’s chest—no, at her face. “This and that?! You don’t mean…no way! We’ve gotta hurry back! Maybe that’s as far as it goes in your class, but in my class, I’ll be beaten to death, you know!!”
“W-wait a sec!! I don’t want to be made to do those sorts of things…it’s totally grooosss!”
“I asked you before, what are those thiiiiiingsss?!”
Kyousuke ran for his life toward the classroom. Renko followed, lagging behind.
The speaker hanging in the hallway shook as the chime began to sound.
“I know I told you, you little worm! If you aren’t in your seat by the start of class, you’ll be disciplined…that’s what I said. Have you prepared yourself, I wonder? Heh-heh-heh…”
Kurumiya’s sadistic laugh rang out in the classroom that had fallen silent. Absently fiddling with her iron pipe, she slowly stepped down from the podium. “You maggots were probably thinking: Oh, if I’m only a second late… or Oh, if something happened, and it was out of my control… or even Oh, since it’s only the first day…,” Kurumiya continued. “Surely she’ll have to overlook it! That’s what you thought, isn’t it? Well, my response is—”
Kurumiya stopped walking and stood silent for a moment. It was a heavy quiet filled with sadistic intentions, tense like the drawing of a bow and arrow. The tension and fear in the room grew deafening, and just when it was about to peak—Kurumiya snapped. “Hell no!”
From the back corner of the room, a confused shriek filled the room, along with the crash of Kurumiya’s target falling over, chair and all.
The atmosphere in the classroom remained tense, not a single student daring to move or make a sound, lest they incur their teacher’s wrath. Kyousuke shrunk in his chair, the most nervous of them all. He had reached his seat mere seconds before class had begun.
“Really, this year’s class is getting some terrible marks, isn’t it? Hmm?!” Krak. “Having to discipline two of you on the very first day is…well?!” Krak. “Mohawk this morning and now you… Just because I’m a pretty girl, you think you can take me lightly? Still don’t take me seriously? I’ll grind up the two of you together like raw meeeeaaaaat!!” Krak. Krak. Krak. Crunch!
“Eeek!” “She’s really not a little girl—!” “Wha—?!” “Gyaaahhh!!”
Abusive language, the sound of blows, harsh cries, and the spatter of spurting blood together formed a violent quartet.
Sitting ramrod straight, his unmoving gaze fixed directly ahead, Kyousuke shook like a rattle. That was really close! If I hadn’t made it in time…that could have been me! He exhaled sharply in a mix of fear and slight relief. I wonder if Renko made it in time?
In his mad rush to get to class, Kyousuke had lost track of Renko somewhere behind him in the hallway. He had no idea how she’d ended up, but considering that he’d just barely made it himself, then almost certainly…
Don’t tell me that right now she’s in the middle of being made to do this thing and that thing and the other thing?! In front of her classmates, those boobs… Shit!! No, Kyousuke, don’t imagine it! But then again, I’m interested. I’m definitely interested… No, wait! She’s just in the next-door classroom, so if I listen carefully, I can probably hear someth—
“Hey, Kamiya, what are you smirking at, you bastard? Do you enjoy it that much when your classmates are being disciplined? Hmm…I see. As expected, you’re rotten to the core.”
“…Huh? Wh-what is it?” Kyousuke’s consciousness had slipped through the wall and taken a trip to a delusional world, and he was brought back to reality by Kurumiya’s growling voice. He gaped in the shock of the transition.
By the time he came to his senses, Kurumiya, who had long since finished with the “discipline,” had shouldered the blood-spattered pipe and was looking down at Kyousuke from the lectern with an icy glare.
“…Hmm? Did you say, ‘What is it?’ To me? That’s a fine way to behave in class for someone who intentionally took his seat only moments before we started! You must really want to be disciplined.”
“Eh? W-wait, please! That’s not what I mea—”
“…Oh? Then, what did you mean? Why did you have such a joyful look on your face? I’m just dying to hear, so please explain. And before you do that, stand up.”
“E-explain?! I mean, if I could just stay seated…”
“I won’t allow it. I thought I told you that I will absolutely not allow back talk? Are you making fun of me?”
“N-no, ma’mb…sorryeh…ugu!! I understanmb…ndu!!” Kyousuke nodded in assent, even with Kurumiya reaching down from her post to tortuously grind the end of the bloody iron pipe into his cheek.
…Wh-what the hell is this! Even if I try to avert my eyes, her iron pipe comes after me. Is she going to beat me? Hit me with the pipe and then lick up the blood? I underestimated her after all. It’s like a bad joke.
The timing couldn’t be worse, dammit… How am I supposed to explain this?
Of course, there was no way that he could honestly confess that “I suddenly broke into a grin imagining that a girl from Class B who I just met was being made to do this and that as her punishment for being late to class. My apologies,” nor continue on to honestly say that “Because of that I am not standing, but I am indeed erect,” absolutely not. Forget being “disciplined,” she
’d beat him to death.
However, since Eiri was beside him to the left, if he were to stand up, the fact that he was hard would be obvious to her. And it just so happened that, at this one moment of all moments, she was not fiddling with her manicure, but instead watching him with puzzled eyes, waiting to see what he would do. On the other hand, embarrassment and humiliation was still preferable to death by blunt force trauma.
Resolving himself to the inevitable scorn and disgust of his female classmates, Kyousuke slowly, resignedly stood—
“Aaah!! Not that…n-noooooo!!”
From the other side of the classroom wall, a coquettish voice belonging to someone in Class B cried out suddenly.
…Wha—? That high-pitched voice…it c-couldn’t be…her?! “Little Kyousuke,” who had just been starting to quiet down, suddenly got his energy back. Kyousuke reflexively lowered himself back down into his seat.
“…I see. I totally understand, Kamiya. That’s your choice, is it?” Reaching the limit of her patience, Kurumiya once again descended from the lectern. Tossing the crushed iron pipe aside, she pulled new ones out from somewhere. There are two pipes now. Carrying a deadly weapon in each hand, Kurumiya drew closer to Kyousuke.
Oh God… Am I going to get beaten down like that asshole earlier? But there’s no helping it… Renko’s also receiving her punishment, so I, too… What is this crap? And here I had decided I wasn’t going to let myself get killed.
Wiping the blood around his mouth away, even as he steeled his innermost thoughts, Kyousuke couldn’t stop shaking.
Kurumiya stood in front of his desk. A pair of eyes housing an agitated light stared down Kyousuke head-on.
“…Any last words?”
Surrounded by a haze of anger, Kurumiya raised her deadly weapons.
In his terror, Kyousuke couldn’t move a muscle. Wordlessly looking down, he clenched his teeth.
“Hmm…I see. In that case, I’ll send you to the next life right no—”
“Yoo-hoo! I’m back from the shores of the River Styx, little miss! Gya-ha-ha!”
The door at the front of the classroom was thrown off its hinges as a lone male student came crashing in. Trampling over the broken door, raising his voice in loud, raucous laughter, was—
“…Mohawk,” Kurumiya snarled. “You came back already, you bastard? I guess I didn’t punish you enough!” Sticking out from the mummy-like bandages that covered the intruder’s head was his bright red Mohawk.
Kurumiya’s attention had turned away from Kyousuke with the flashy return of the student who had, just earlier that day, been dragged to the school infirmary. A thick vein bulged on her temple as she turned about to face Mohawk. “…We are in the middle of class, you know. In addition, that door…are you making fun of me? Hmm?! I’ll send you straight back to hell if you keep screwing around! Unfortunately for you, I’m in a bad mood right now… You might be injured, but I won’t go easy on you! Hope you’re ready!”
Recoiling for a moment from the bloodthirsty glint in Kurumiya’s eyes, Mohawk quickly regathered his courage and raised his voice in unpleasant laughter. “Gya-ha-ha-ha! Is that so? Well, fine by me! I ain’t gonna take it easy on ya this time, either, little miss! I’m gonna shred that stumpy little body of yours! I’m gonna put all my strength into it! Ready or not, here I come! Gya-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!”
“Stumpy? Stumpy?! Why you little…!” Kurumiya’s expression grew cold as she stepped toward the still-laughing Mohawk. “…I’ll teach you a lesson from the underworld. The pigs who have called me ‘stumpy’ or ‘pip-squeak’ or ‘kiddo’ or ‘kindergartner’…they’re all dead now.”
It seemed that Kurumiya, whose eyes now bulged with bloody rage, had entirely forgotten about Kyousuke.
“Fwah… That’s great, isn’t it, Kyousuke?” yawned Eiri from beside him. “You’re saved.”
Saved? I’ve just got a stay of execution is all…
However, because of Mohawk’s clumsy provocation, Kurumiya’s temper was getting worse and worse. An aura of dark bloodlust radiated about her. Mohawk, who was facing her down, should have been shaking in terror, but—
“Gya-ha-ha-ha! Is that so, little miss stumpy kindergartner? Or was that elementary schooler? You’re too shrimpy, so that’s my mistake! Sooo sowwy.”
“…WHAT?!”
Every student in the room got goose bumps at the same time.
They all stared at their reckless classmate with expressions of utter shock.
Only Eiri offered a quiet comment. “…He’s a dead man.”
Kurumiya’s shoulders, which had been rigid and tight, began to tremble like Maina’s. “Ha…ha-ha-ha-ha…fwa…fwa-ha-ha-ha… HAA-ha-ha-ha-ha!” Her voice grew loud as she broke into frantic laughter, holding her stomach.
Perhaps put at ease by Kurumiya’s laugh, Mohawk also opened his mouth wide. “Gya-ha…gya-ha-ha-ha! GYA-ha-ha-ha-HA-HA!” For a short moment, the two of them laughed like good friends.
“Well, that was a good laugh,” Kurumiya eventually said. “Hee-hee-hee…it’s been a long time since someone made me laugh like that.” Wiping away the slight tears that had welled up in her eyes, Kurumiya dropped her iron pipes. Approaching Mohawk, she stretched up on her toes and placed both hands on his shoulders, her smile falling away.
“—Do you want to be beaten to death ten million times over?”
With all her strength, she wrenched his shoulders out of their sockets.
“Gyeaaaaaahhhhhhh!!”
Kicking Mohawk with her heel and stamping down on top of him as he fainted from the pain, Kurumiya surveyed the classroom.
“Listen up, you maggots. For your first afternoon lesson, I was planning a nice little tour of the grounds and an introduction to the facilities. Too bad that had to go and change, hmm? No worries, though, I’ve got a great demonstration of numerous bare-handed torture techniques lined up instead! Well, then, let’s begin with the extremities, eh? Starting with the fingernails—”
“…And finally, we get to the scalp. Oh, would you look at that! It seems like I got a little bit too engrossed in my demonstration. If you ask me, we’ve still got quite a bit of ground to cover, but…hmm… Well, we’ll just have to leave it at this for today. After all, I am a busy lady. I can’t just play around with you scum all day.” Wiping her blood-soaked hands on Mohawk’s jacket, Kurumiya, who had carried out the sadistic lesson with frightening enthusiasm, looked tired.
Flinging the filthy blazer aside, she took a few idle golf swings with the iron pipe at the pixelated mass lying on the floor—the shuddering wreck that had been Mohawk. Once his eyes had rolled back and he’d stopped moving, she finally turned away, allowing the medical team waiting on standby to scoop the unrecognizable figure onto a stretcher and shuffle him away.
“…Well, then. It is now four o’clock. Class time will be over before you know it. Change your clothes and assemble on the sports field by six o’clock. From there, you’ll do physical labor until nightfall. Healthy minds dwell in healthy bodies…so instead of extracurricular activities, you’ll work correctional duty twice a day, morning and night. Be sure to attend! Strict punctuality is expected. Got it?”
In response to Kurumiya’s words, the class collectively responded in an energetic voice, “Yes, ma’am!” The hellish torture show had planted a sense of terrified loyalty in every one of them.
“Heh-heh-heh…good answer. Well, then, see you later.” Nodding in satisfaction, she took her pile of handouts under one arm. “…Hmm? I feel like I’m forgetting something important, but…oh well. Right now, I feel like going straight back to the staff room and having a drink. I think I’ll go for a milk shake and egg shortbread cookies.”
Did she say milk shake and egg shortbread cookies? That’s strangely cute.
“…No, wait a second. I can’t discount the chocolate chip cookies…hmm, hmm…” Thinking with her chin in her hand, Kurumiya left the classroom.
“I-I’m s-saaaaaaved!” Kyousuke shouted as soon as she
was gone, throwing himself down over his desk. His whole body felt weak. “That’s what they call a narrow escape… I thought I was done for.”
The “something important” that Kurumiya had forgotten was, of course, Kyousuke’s “discipline.” After watching her demonstrate so many cruel methods of torment, one after the other, with no other thought than that he was next, Kyousuke finally took a moment to relax.
“…Isn’t that great, Kyousuke? You were saved by that birdbrain.”
“Yeah, you’re right…I’m still alive now thanks to him.” Kyousuke almost felt like he should have some words of gratitude toward Mohawk, who had unknowingly helped him out of his predicament. Farewell, Mohawk, thank you, Mohawk. At least, rest in peace…
“…Well? What are you planning to do now, Kyousuke?” asked Eiri.
Kyousuke leaned forward and thought about it. “Now? Well, come to think of it, it’s after school right? I wonder…” After the end of fifth period, they had a full two hours before manual labor began. Each student was free to spend this rest time as they liked. As long as they assembled on time and in their work jerseys, no one cared where they went or what they did. Kyousuke had a hard time imagining what to do with his free time.
“…Say, isn’t that the guy? The butcher who killed twelve people?”
An unfamiliar male voice spoke from the hallway.
Kyousuke felt the blood drain from his face as the corridor erupted into noise. I’ve got a bad feeling about this. He turned to face the door.
“Huh?! Look at his eyes…so intense! I thought my heart was gonna stop just now!”
“Hey, I told you not to do that! You’ll be killed! Come here and kneel down with a mind to die!!”
“You mean, he’s responsible for that pool of blood? And the door’s busted in, too…”
“Aah, how cool…I want to kill him. And then eat him…I’ll make a stew.”
“No! The one who’s going to take him down and eat him is me! ME! My left arm, Azrael, is throbbing, Kyousuke Kamiya… It’s saying, ‘I want to kill you, I want to eat you.’”
Murderer in the Flower of Death Page 6