Stroking the exterior of the gas mask, she turned her head to face the setting sun. “There’s such a thing as a femme fatale, isn’t there? That’s how my good looks go. I seduce people’s hearts and drive them crazy. The people who have had their hearts stolen by me would need to steal something of mine in return, and we would both snatch away each others’ lives…so, I cannot remove my mask. I could not bear to see people get hurt on my account. Oh…I’m, I’m—”
“……Pff.”
Renko looked at Ayaka. “Hm?”
Ayaka had stopped walking, and now stood doubled over, her shoulders trembling. Then, as if she had reached the limit of her endurance, she exploded into laughter. “Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! Wh-what was that…? You’re so funny! That was from the narcissist school of acting, was it? Hee-hee…okay, I get it, you’re a real beauty! Though it’s a one-in-a-million chance that that’s true. Ah-ha-ha! You really are a weird one!”
Renko stood, looking perplexed. “Ummm…I feel a little bit like you’re making fun of me!”
Ayaka wiped away at tears welling up in the corners of her eyes. “It’s because you sounded so stuuuuuupid!! Really, a femme fatale?!” She continued laughing loudly.
Just when the conversation was getting too serious—that’s Renko’s style all right! Kyousuke felt like it was the first time since coming to the academy that Ayaka had shown anyone else her true smile. “…Thank you, Renko.”
“Hm?”
“Nothing…” Kyousuke turned away from his buxom classmate, who tilted her head in confusion. Embarrassed by the gratitude he had unconsciously expressed, he had a strange feeling in his chest. This emotion is warm and ticklish—
“Big brother!”
The feeling disappeared as Ayaka vigorously clung to him. She wrapped both arms around Kyousuke’s chest and smiled. “Tomorrow and the next day are school holidays, aren’t they? What do you want to do to spend time with me?”
“…Hm? Oh right, tomorrow’s Saturday…”
Purgatorium Remedial Academy followed a five-day weekly schedule. Students could choose from a number of various ways to spend the weekends when classes were not in session.
They could play sports on the school grounds, or read in their own rooms, or diligently work out, or stuff themselves in the cafeteria, or practice on instruments in the music room, or spend the whole day asleep in bed…
While restricted to school spaces, the students could make the most of their plentiful leisure time. However, this proved to be surprisingly difficult. Kyousuke and the other students, faced with time to kill, were always getting into trouble.
Faster than Kyousuke could answer, Renko suggested, “We have exams really soon, so let’s hold a study party with everyone!” She jumped at him from the side opposite Ayaka and grabbed hold of his arm in the same way. Kyousuke’s left arm slipped in between her abundant breasts and was buried.
“Huh?! Hang on, just what are you doing, taking advantage of him like that?!” Ayaka let go of Kyousuke’s arm long enough to tear Renko loose. Her eyes burned with hostility. “Stop squishing those things against my dear big brother!”
Her smile, which had been there until just a moment ago, was nowhere to be seen, and her mood had deteriorated instantly.
Heaving up her breasts, Renko sighed. “Kksshh…do my boobs really bother you that much, Ayaka baby?”
“No! You’re what’s bothering me!”
“Ehh?! And I thought we’d become friends…”
Ayaka stuck out her tongue at the crestfallen Renko with a “Bleh!” She held tight to the arm that Renko had grabbed, as if to reclaim it as her own. “You got carried away and got too close! It doesn’t matter how much of a fuss you make, please don’t touch him so casually. It’s way too familiar! Or are you a tart, too?”
“I’m not a tart—I’m a niche!”
“Yes, yes, that’s right. Girls wearing gas masks and stuff like that aren’t really in demand everywhere, are they? Of course, they’re mysterious…but I will not give my big brother to someone inscrutable like you! Absolutely no way will I ever give him over!” Ayaka squeezed tighter, emphasizing her determination.
Renko hung her head. “You’re a formidable sister-in-law, huh…” However, she promptly had her energy back: “But I’m not discouraged! If pushing is forbidden, I’ll pull, and if I can’t play it straight, I’ll play the fool. In order to open up your heart, first I have to open up my legs!”
“Once you open them, what then?”
“Wasn’t that sour…” Without missing a beat, Renko turned the joke around. Kyousuke was stunned. The strength visibly went out of Ayaka’s arms. “Kksshh. Well, that’s how it is, so let’s do our best! I don’t know what you think, Ayaka, but I want us to become good friends! Come on, let’s go together!” Renko extended a hand toward Ayaka.
There was a fork in the road right ahead of them. To the right was the girls’ dorms, and the left continued on to the boys’ dorms. The dorms of the opposite sex were strictly off limits, so Kyousuke would have to separate from the two of them there. Ayaka trembled and squeezed his arm ever tighter.
“Big brother…”
“It’s okay. Renko is my friend. You’re not going to be snatched away and eaten.”
“Yeah. I’m exceedingly normal, you know. I don’t attack and eat girls or anything.”
“…Do you attack and eat boys?”
Renko laughed—“kksshh”—and did not answer further.
Ayaka sighed, and let go of Kyousuke’s arm. “Well fine. There are all kinds of things I want to ask Miss Mask anyway…”
“Things you want to ask? Well, my cup size is G…”
“…Big brother.” Letting Renko’s response slide, Ayaka fixed her gaze on Kyousuke. Her dark eyes wavered anxiously, like the surface of the water at night. “I’m going to see you again soon, right? I can see you the day after tomorrow, and the day after that, right?”
“Yes, of course. I’ll be waiting for you right here every morning.” Nodding, he stroked her head.
Ayaka narrowed her eyes like she was embarrassed. “…Okay, I understand. In that case, it’s all right.” Smiling, she walked over to Renko, ignoring her extended hand as a matter of course. “See you tomorrow, big brother! Don’t you dare skip out on studying for the tests!”
“I know, I know… You try to get along with everyone, okay? And—” He turned to look at Renko, who had withdrawn her hand dejectedly. “I’m entrusting Ayaka to you! Together with Eiri and Maina, help her out with everything.”
So saying, he finished with a bow.
Renko’s sighs gave way to high spirits as she sprang back. “Kksshh! Leave it to me, Kyousuke! There’s no need to get Eiri’s and Maina’s help…as long as I, Renko, am in this world, no one will be allowed to lay a finger on dear Ayaka!”
“You’re not allowed to lay a finger on her, either, you know.”
“Wh-wh-what are you saying?! Hyah!!” Renko thrust her fingers toward Ayaka.
“Oh, too baaad,” Ayaka teased as she dodged Renko’s attack. “You missed! Tee-hee!”
Kyousuke smiled wryly, and pointed to the fork in the road ahead. “Well, I’ll be going, then. Don’t fight too much, okay, you two?”
“Okay, good night! You don’t have to worry, we won’t fight.”
“Good night, big brother! Let’s spend all of tomorrow together, just the two of us, okay?”
“Objection! You can’t hog him, Ayaka! Tomorrow we’ll have a study party with everybody—”
“No we won’t.”
“What did you saaayyy?! Outside with you, brother complex!”
“I am outside, though. Don’t say stupid stuff, let’s get going already!”
“Ah, okay.”
“…I take back what I said. I’m entrusting Renko to you, okay?”
With Ayaka in the lead, they headed off toward the girls’ dorms.
Please, don’t let any trouble happen while I’m not around… Wishing hard,
Kyousuke started down the path toward the boys’ dorms.
“……Hmph.”
Gripping a mechanical pencil, Ayaka puffed out her cheeks.
Saturday morning—the next morning—saw Ayaka in a foul mood. “But I wanted to spend time alone with my big brother, especially now…”
“Now, now,” Renko pacified the grumbling girl. “Isn’t this nice? Surely we’ll all make more progress studying together! Kksshh.”
“She’s right, she’s right! If two beds are better than one, then five must be even greater! There’s no problem we can’t solve!”
“I think you mean ‘two heads are better than one’…unless you think the answers are going to come to you in your dreams!”
Maina enthusiastically waved her pencil as Kyousuke poked fun at her.
“…Fwah.” Eiri, meanwhile, let out a yawn.
“Grrr…” Ayaka ground her teeth. “We won’t make any progress like this!” she shouted, pointing sternly at Renko, Eiri, and Maina. “In fact, we’re making the opposite of progress. You’re all deadweight! Anchors A, B, and C!”
“Come on.” Kyousuke made her lower her pen. “Didn’t you all get a little friendly in the dorms…?”
“No way!”
“Yep!”
“Would have been nice.”
“Not yet…”
“Your answers are all different…”
This had started an hour earlier. Early that morning, Kyousuke had joined up with Ayaka and they had gone to an open classroom to study for the tests. They had talked about the girls’ dorms—about how her room appeared to be a single-occupancy cell, about how the bed was so uncomfortable, about how the jailers were neurotic and bothersome, about how she had bathed with Eiri and Maina, about how Renko did not remove her mask even in the dorms, and so on. Ayaka had told him all of this while they studied.
The morning had been a success up to that point. But then, less than an hour after Kyousuke and Ayaka had begun their study session, Renko and the others had appeared with materials in hand and joined in. As a result…
“…Hmph.” Ayaka was sulking, tearing her eraser to pieces.
Kyousuke and the others each had their study materials spread out over an island made of four desks pushed together. Kyousuke and Ayaka were next to each other, and across from them sat Renko and Maina, respectively. Eiri alone was at her own separate desk, elbows propped up on it in boredom.
“Your manners are poor, Miss Washboard.”
“I don’t want to hear anything from you.”
The “Miss Washboard” to whom Ayaka had referred was, of course, Eiri. Ayaka had apparently given her the nickname in the bath the night before.
“Kksshh… Don’t tell me a girl two years younger than you is more developed?”
“…I meant about manners!” With her elbows still on the desk, Eiri nodded at what Ayaka’s hands were doing.
Dropping the torn and crumbled eraser, Ayaka laughed. “Tee-hee! Miss Washboard, you’re totally flat, aren’t you? I could have mistaken you for a boy or something.”
“…What did you say?”
“H-hey…quit it, Ayaka! Boobs are a sore subject for Eiri…”
“Oh, so she’s sensitive about it? I found Miss Washboard’s soft spot!”
“Come to think of it, aren’t you even flatter, Ayaka? I know you’re still thirteen, but still—you don’t have any curves at all! You’re not much different from Eiri…” Maina chimed in.
“You’re being annoying, Crafty Cat! Saying you look great with your clothes off is too cunning.” Ayaka threw a fragment of eraser at Maina.
The “crafty” in Crafty Cat referred to Maina’s “cunning,” and adding “cat” to the end was a way to make it sound cute. It was a mean nickname, like calling Eiri Miss Washboard.
“Oh, goodness me, I’m sorry, Ayaka… I look smaller than I really am when I’m dressed.”
Even in low spirits, Maina maintained a somewhat cheerful demeanor. She clearly didn’t understand the origin of the nickname, though she seemed happy with the idea.
“Oh, wow…how nice! I wanted to get in the bath with everyone, too. And then I would have been able to show off my bodacious body to my heart’s content. Kksshh…”
“Your audacious body isn’t important, Miss Mask,” Ayaka snipped. “I’m way more interested in seeing your bare face. You’ve got to take the gask mask off when you have a bath, right?”
“Kksshh. Of course not. I leave it on even when I take a bath.”
“Liar,” Kyousuke teased. “You took it off, diiiiiidn’t you?”
“……?!”
Everyone turned to look at Kyousuke all at once, eyes and mouths open wide in surprise—and anger.
“…Huh? She ‘took it off’? What do you…? Don’t tell me you peeped on the girls’ baths—”
“Immoral! Shameless! Criminaaaaaal! I misjudged you…”
“Hey, big brother…there’s something I want you to tell me that’s more important than studying!”
Eiri was surprised, Maina was disappointed, and Ayaka had her mechanical pencil ready. Kyousuke finally realized his slip of the tongue.
“Ah?! Wait, that’s not it! What I said just now, that’s not what I meant—”
“We got in the bath together.”
“Yeah, yeah, that’s right! I had gotten in the bath alone, when she barged in and pressed her naked chest on…never mind!”
It wouldn’t be wise to share that experience. Kyousuke suddenly found himself drenched in sweat.
Ayaka thrust the tip of her pencil toward his left eye. So that he couldn’t escape, she held the back of his head with her opposite hand. “…What are you talking about, big brother?”
Click. With a smile, she extended the thin shaft of graphite.
“A-Ayaka…? Um, I’m afraid for my eye, so—”
“I want you to answer me quickly. Come on, quickly! If not…”
Click. Still smiling, she extended the graphite again, inching it closer to his eyeball.
“Hey, wait, joke…it’s a joke, Ayaka! A f-figure of speech—”
“Oh, really? If you’re lying, Ayaka…will get angry!”
Click, click. Her smile disappeared. The black needlelike tip was just millimeters away.
“……”
Ayaka’s eyes were peaceful, like the surface of calm water, but beneath them lurked a shadow of rage that seemed ready to explode at any moment. Gulping loudly with a dry throat, Kyousuke was about to open his mouth, when—
“Just kiddiiing!”
—A fingertip thrust between them broke the graphite shaft off at the base. “Of course it’s not true. As difficult as it is to get into the opposite sex dorms, there’s no way to peek into the bath. Getting in together would be entirely out of the question! It would be impossible.” Placing both hands on the desk and leaning forward, Renko flatly denied the whole affair.
Kyousuke, who didn’t want anyone to know the truth, followed her lead immediately. “Yeah, yeah, entirely out of the question! It was a joke. Don’t take it seriously…ha-ha-ha…”
“Hrrrm.” Ayaka scrutinized the two of them suspiciously.
“What? Of course it was a joke!!”
“…It’s okay, I was joking, too.” Ayaka flashed them a broad smile and abruptly released Kyousuke, lowering the mechanical pencil.
“Kksshh…” Renko also sat back down. The uproar seemed over—for now.
“…Geez. Even if you were joking, you went too far, Ayaka! Your pencil is not meant for stabbing eyeballs. It’s for writing. I thought you were really going to do me in, geez…”
“Yep. If it had been true, I was planning to push it in just like this!”
“Uh…”
“It’s a joke, I said! Tee-hee!”
“……”
A bad joke.
Kyousuke grimaced. Ayaka leaned her shoulder against him, peering at their spread-out problem sheets and notebooks. “Never mind all that. Let’s get to studying,
big brother. You don’t want to get failing marks, right?”
“…Yeah.” They had gathered today to study, after all. They couldn’t just get caught up chatting all day.
The Purgatorium Remedial Academy tests were not examinations so much as deathinations. The thin red line separating life and death was drawn at “less than half of the average score,” which was a worrisome situation. Any student who wanted to avoid Kurumiya’s discipline was sure to be studying as if their life depended on it. If everyone studied, the average score would be high, and if the average score was high, there would be more room for failure. To make matters worse, Kurumiya was the one in charge of the tests. They had no way of knowing what kind of cruel trick questions might appear.
Coming back to his senses, Kyousuke took up his pencil. “…The tests cover a lot, so we’d better start taking this seriously.”
“Right.” Ayaka nodded. “If there’s anything you don’t understand, just ask! I can teach you.”
“Teach us? You? Did you forget that you just transferred in?”
“Of course!” Ayaka answered, sticking out her chest. “The classes at this school are middle school level, right? Then it’s no problem for me. The material might be different, but the main points are the same. Besides, it looks like it’s mostly review.”
“Oh, yeah…?”
Purgatorium Remedial Academy followed the compulsory middle school curriculum. Since the ages of the students varied, the material was geared toward the lowest levels, but there were many students who had completed their schooling in the outside world, and these would be the first big exams since the semester had started.
Ayaka smiled sweetly at Kyousuke, who looked satisfied with her answer. “So, big brother. Why don’t you aim to rank in the top three of our year, along with me?”
What an outrageous goal!
Kyousuke was about to ask “Why would you try for such a thing?!”—but he quickly reached his own conclusion. The top three students of their year would be granted off-campus parole. Without the desire to see Ayaka motivating him, Kyousuke had lost any ambition to score well, but…
“If we’re both granted parole together, we can go on a date! We can sing karaoke, or go to an amusement park, or go shopping. We can go wherever we like, all to our hearts’ content!”
Murder Maiden and the Fatal Final Page 7