In the three-legged race, Kyousuke and Ayaka were a sibling pair, Kitou and Kousaka were a GMK fanboy pair, and Shinji and Tomomi, resurrected from the infirmary, were a “romantic” pair. Though Class A fought hard in the three-legged race, both the tug-of-war and the ball-toss game, where numbers were everything, ended in defeat. They could do nothing to close the gap between their class and first-year Class B, which continued racking up points, much less the third-year classes.
And then they came to the fifth event of the afternoon—
“Okay, Crafty Cat, our victory depends on you!! If you lose, we won’t forgive you! Got it?! Absolutely, absolutely, absoluuuuuutely win, please!”
“The reason why we lost the group games was because you killed off most of our teammates! If you fail now, we’ll make sure that you’re the one who dies next time!!
“Hey, clumsy giiirl! You’d seriously better not fail, okay?! Keep screwing up and we’ll definitely lose! That would be, like, super-major lame! Get it, huh?!”
“……Oh no.”
Maina held a piece of lumber close as she listened to her classmates’ encouragement (and threats). Aside from Maina, twelve other students were on standby at the start line.
It was the long-distance race, the Thousand-Meter Slaughter Footrace.
Eiri was also competing for first-year Class A, while first-year Class B sent out Renko and Renji. Shamaya and Gosou, Kuroki and Haruyo Gevaudan Tanaka, and several others filled out the lineup.
“Ohhhh dear…” In the middle of the front line, Maina was beginning to panic.
—It was understandable. Before the match started, Maina had been thoroughly admonished by Ayaka, Shinji, Tomomi, and the others, and even now they continued to pour on the pressure. Maina was already at her limit. On both sides—
“Fua-ha-ha! Finally you came out to play, huh?! Allow me to pay you back in full for what happened during the Seek-and-Destroy Challenge. Prepare yourself! Don’t think that a miracle like that will save you twice, clumsy girl! This time, for sure, this time I will read you your last rites! Fua-ha-ha-ha!”
“……That’s right.”
Gosou arrogantly shouldered her double weapons, a wooden sword and wooden bat, and Kuroki twirled her tonfa around and around in both hands.
Caught between the two rank-A warriors—
“Ohhh gosh, ohhh no…”
Looking as though she was about to faint, Maina swayed left and right.
“…Miss Akabane. Is Miss Igarashi all right?”
“Of course she’s not. Sigh…”
Shamaya and Eiri, who were in the very back row, looked at Maina with concern. Kyousuke was also praying for Maina’s luck from the bleachers.
“Mic check, one, two, are you all set up, killers? Five laps around the track, it’s the start of the longest battle royale at the athletic festival! Who will be left alive in the end? How many people? When the rest of the program is over, one of these classes will snatch victory from a desperate struggle to the death! So do whatever it takes to stay alive!”
“Killing will deduct points from your score, however. Well then, take your places! Get readyyy…”
—Bang!
“It’s miiiiiiiiiiiine!”
“……That’s right!”
“You’re done for. Ah-cha-cha-cha-cha-cha-cha-cha-cha-cha!”
The moment the race began, Gosou carved big arcs through the air with her two weapons, Kuroki swung her tonfa, Haruyo lashed out with her fists, and—
“Whooooooooooooooooooooooooaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!”
—Maina fell over. Gosou’s and Kuroki’s weapons passed over the top of Maina’s head, and—
“Gyah?!” “Ubwuh?!” “Guhaaa?!”
—hit the students standing behind her very hard. The victim of Haruyo’s Assassin’s Fist spat up blood, and other students shrieked and cried out. As this was happening—
“Eee…eee, aiiiiiiiiiiiieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!”
The mass murderer, instigator of the worst disasters, Black Pandora unleashed her fury. Maina had fallen flat in the middle of the very front row, lumber in hand, and a hurricane of violence was forming around her.
“Absurd?!” “……?!” “What happened?!”
“Whooooooooooooooooooooooooaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!”
Maina had fallen on the ground, and it seemed as though she would be swallowed up by the crowd of students following behind her, when suddenly—
It was as if a bomb had gone off. Some students were sent flying, while others were dragged into the melee, overtaken by Maina’s bumbling cyclone. From the spectators’ seats, Kyousuke and the other observers could scarcely tell what was happening.
They understood only one thing—
“Oh gosh! Oh nooo! Goodness graciouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuus!”
“Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa?!”
Maina had snapped, right at the start of the race, and was now drawing everyone around her into the chaos.
Watching the massacre, Ayaka clenched her fists. “That’s it, Crafty Cat!” she cheered. “Go, go, go! Get ’em, get ’em allllll!”
“Heh-heh-heh. The ‘Pressure Maina Until She Snaps and Slaughters Everyone’ strategy seems to be a splendid success. My goodness, watching from the sidelines is really fun!”
“Kya-ha-ha! It’s great, like super great! The upperclassmen are totally panicking! Good job, clumsy girl, kill ’em, kill ’em! Kya-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!”
“Oh nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!”
Everyone who didn’t know to avoid the disaster area surrounding Maina was being helplessly tossed about.
Taking a detour around the mosh pit of violence, Eiri grumbled, “…Awful.”
Shamaya, looking pale, also gave the Maina-melee a wide berth as she moved ahead. “Indeed, how terribly vulgar…”
“…Kksshh. Dangerous, dangerous. Well, if you aren’t in perfect form, Maina. Let’s stay in the top spot, Renji, and jump over her once we’ve gone around again.”
“…………”
Holding Renko in his arms, Renji, who had leaped clear over the other students’ heads from his starting position at the very back of the pack, silently nodded in assent.
Aside from Eiri, Shamaya, Renko, and Renji, the competitors were still stuck at the starting line, and more than half had already fallen. Gosou and Kuroki, who had started right next to Maina, had both collapsed, bleeding from their heads. It seemed like only a matter of time before the other students would join them in a crushing defeat.
However—
“Interesting. Interesting, little girl! Kyousuke, and the gas masks, and you… Really, this year’s first-years are a bunch of strong fighters, a bunch of skilled killers, it gives me a thrill!”
“……Ah?”
A fluffy costumed arm easily deflected a wayward blow from the piece of lumber. Then, just as Maina was regaining her senses, another plush fist lashed out at her face.
“Ah-cha!”
“Waah?! Ah—aiii?!”
Blood sprayed from Maina’s nose as Haruyo’s punch connected, laying her out flat. From the ground, Maina looked up with wide eyes at the Costumed Killer looming over her.
“Oh-ho-ho! Well then, are you going to let me have some fun? I’ll tell you now, blunt weapons won’t be much use on this fluffy body of mine! I can relish every blow and bathe in a fountain of blood!”
“Ah, aaaaaa…”
“Maina?!”
Eiri began retracing her course, rushing to come to Maina’s rescue.
“Wait right there!” Shamaya blocked her path. “I will be your opponent, Miss Akabane! Both you and Miss Igarashi have caused me quite some trouble. This is where you make your exit!”
“…Tch. You’re really annoying!” Eiri blew a raspberry and took up a combat stance.
Shamaya laughed—“Oh-ho-ho!”—and reached for something hidden inside her long white coat. Licking her lips, she spoke strangely. “We Pu
blic Morals Committee members each have a deadly weapon that we are permitted to carry…and mine has not yet been unveiled at the athletic festival, has it? Miss Kuroki has her batons, Miss Gosou has her wooden sword, and I have—”
Her emerald eyes blazing, Shamaya pulled out her special weapon.
“A •••••!”
The weapon she hoisted high in the air was long, and thin, and pink…
…a so-called adult toy.
“““”””
The crowd froze.
Kurisu, who had been wildly raving about Maina’s clumsy massacre, was flabbergasted by the new spectacle. “…Is she really the Public Morals Committee chair?”
Mizuchi, who was the Public Morals Committee advisor, prepared her sniper rifle.
Eiri stared in confusion at the thing Shamaya held in her hand. “…Huh? What’s that…a s-special weapon…or something?”
“Well now, well now, oh-ho-ho-ho. To not know what this is, Miss Akabane, you really are so delightfully naive, aren’t you? Very well, if you don’t know, then allow me to teach you! Using your body, fully…ha-ha. It’s all right, it only hurts at first…soon it will start to feel good! Ho-ho…oh-ho-ho-ho-ho-ho-ho, oh-ho-ho-ho-ho-ho-ho!”
“…Eh?” Eiri stared at Shamaya, who was wiping her drool away with ragged breaths. “Nn…noooooooooooo!!” Jaw agape in panic, she turned on her heel and ran.
Shamaya followed after her, swinging her special weapon. “Don’t run awaaaaaay!”
Renko turned and looked back and tugged on Renji’s sleeve.
“Kksshh?! This is bad, Renji—they’re gonna catch up. Go faster!”
“…………”
Still holding Renko, Renji began picking up speed, trying to stay ahead of the frantic Eiri and the fierce Shamaya. Completing a lap around the track, he kicked off the ground, leaping through the air. Below him, Maina was suffering Haruyo’s fierce assault.
“Eee, eeeeee?! Aiee?! I-I’m gonna be killeeeeeed?!”
“Ah-cha! Ah-cha-cha-cha, ah-cha-cha-cha-cha! You never stop moving…but it’s no matter! Run away as long as you can—in the end you cannot win, little girl! What now, what now, won’t you even try a counterattack? Come on! Ah-cha-cha-cha-cha-cha-cha-cha-cha-cha!”
“Mai—”
“Eiriiiiiiiii! Whew!”
“Eeeeee! Give it up, you pervert! Just die already!”
Eiri’s efforts to reach Maina were quickly obstructed by Shamaya holding up the intensely vibrating •••••. Running past the starting line, she moved farther away from Maina and the others.
Haruyo’s right arm swept over Maina’s head as she stumbled: “Whoooaaa?!”
In a flash, Haruyo followed up by lashing out with her left arm, but Maina dodged the blow as she fell. “Aieee?!”
One way or another, Haruyo’s first attack was still the only one that had hit. On the other hand—
“Gyaaaaaahhh?!” “Uwah?! Hey, don’t come over he—hyeee?!” “Gbwuh?!” “Hgeee?!” “R-run—bgyoeh?!”
—The other students, swept up in the turbulence of Maina’s frantic flight and Haruyo’s furious pursuit, suffered considerable collateral damage. Anyone too slow to escape the area of the twin storms, including the students who had been pulled down and trampled at the start of the race, was tossed about like a ship in a fierce hurricane, battered again and again.
“Heey, stubborn girl!”
“Buh?!”
Haruyo’s furious attack didn’t even come close to hitting her target, and she instead dealt a backhand blow to a nearby male student. As he tumbled to the ground, she grabbed him by the heel and, wielding his body like a weapon, swung him through the air.
“Uh, uwaaaaaahhh—gah?!” “Gyah?!”
The unfortunate boy’s body passed by Mania and crashed into the face of another female student who was just getting back on her feet. When the girl fell again, Haruyo grabbed her by the leg and furiously rushed after Maina with her new weapon.
“Try this on for size, fwah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!”
“Hwuh?!”
“Gyan?!”
And, at last, the back of the female student’s head connected with the side of Maina’s face. Maina was knocked off her feet, eyes spinning, and sprawled out feebly on the ground.
“Ow-ow-ow…”
Tossing aside the pair of weaponized students, Haruyo laughed and approached Maina. “Oh-ho-ho, I’ve finally got you, little girl! Well then, shall I finish you off?”
“Ghuh—!”
Looking down at the trembling girl, Haruyo raised a fluffy costumed arm. Renji ran past, just to the side of her. Renko did not stop to help; for now, she was one of the enemies.
“Maina! Wait, I’m coming now to help you, so—” “An opening, mon Dieeeuuu!” “Hyaaaaaahhh?!” “Eh-heh-heh-heh-heh-heh-heh…”
This time, Shamaya leaped at Eiri, who was trying to dash over to help, and dragged her down. Eiri grabbed Shamaya’s wrists, refusing to surrender, even as she turned her face away from the drool dangling from her assailant’s lips.
Both Maina and Eiri were in desperate predicaments.
“W-waaa…waaahh.”
“Oh-ho. You fought well. However, it looks like you are still below me, doesn’t it? I do praise your honest efforts and will at least try to send you off without suffering. Sacred Friendship-Destroying Slaughter Fist! Ah-cha—”
“Uh…uwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhh!”
The instant that Haruyo lashed out with her deadly Assassin’s Fist, Maina leaped to her feet, shouting a battle cry as she launched a savage counterattack.
“What?!”
Risking everything, Maina threw her arms around Haruyo in a surprise tackle.
“Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhh!”
“Nooooooooo!”
Unprepared for Maina’s sudden assault, Haruyo frantically lost her balance and went sprawling.
“Guh…gnnh, you just don’t know when to give up, do you?! It’s a useless struggle—”
“““Aaa?!”””
“—Ah?”
Maina was befuddled, and Kurisu was befuddled, and the students who had been watching their battle were befuddled, and finally Haruyo was befuddled.
Ever so slowly, Haruyo looked around her surroundings, and her eyes—her round, cute, reddish-brown eyes grew wide. Patting her face in confusion, she looked off toward the edge of the competition grounds.
Sitting there was a freshly severed head—it had popped off when she fell, and rolled away. It was the head of her kigurumi costume.
“………………Ah.”
Haruyo froze.
Her gaze shifted from the kigurumi head back to the students who were staring at her bare face. “F-fah…faaa-aaaaa-aa-a-aa-aa…” She began to tremble. Her pale complexion flushed red in the blink of an eye, and her spasms quickly grew violent.
“—Dead meat.” Abruptly, her shaking calmed, and Haruyo began muttering. “Dead meat, dead meat, dead meat, dead meat, dead meat, dead meat, dead meat, dead meat, dead meat, dead meat, dead meat, dead meat, dead meat, dead meat, dead meat, dead meat, dead meat—”
Turning her head to look at each and every person who was staring at her, Haruyo announced her murderous intent. Finally she pointed at Maina and, in a voice thick with resentment, declared, “Dead meat.”
“Kyeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!” With a strange scream, Haruyo leaped up.
Maina, who had been straddling her, was sent sprawling. “Hwah?!”
The third-year students began to scream, and Kurisu shouted into the microphone. “Oh shiiiiiit, Haruyo’s entered berserk mode! Run away! Everyone who laid eyes on her bare face, run awaaaaaay, or every single one of you will die!!”
“Kyeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!”
Haruyo, who continued emitting the same strange scream, hopped up and down, recklessly swinging her arms and legs and shaking her head as though she’d gone mad. Her bright red face was warped with rage, and her eyes spun around in their
sockets.
“D-dead embarrassing…… ”
—Whabammm!
Abruptly, Haruyo collapsed. Crashing to the ground, she did not so much as twitch.
“……Eh? U-um…m-maybe we’re saved…?” Kurisu, who had tossed aside the microphone during her retreat, nervously looked back toward the festival grounds.
Busujima, who was relaxing in the broadcasting booth, smiled bitterly. “My, my. It looks like the shock of so many people seeing her bare face caused her to faint… You see, she’s a very sensitive girl, Miss Haruyo.”
Maina’s impressive showing had cut down the strength of the other classes, and first-year Class A had been able to score some points during the last race, but the situation still looked dire.
The final event, the All-Out Knock-Down Brawl, was to be held between the two classes with the highest scores. That left two regular matches remaining: the Eight-Hundred-Meter Pandemonium Relay and—
“It’s here, it’s here, it’s here, it’s fiiiiiinally here! The only event at the athletic festival involving faculty participation, also known as the Captivating Teacher Costume Contest! The rules are very simple. The homeroom teacher for each class will wear a costume incorporating their respective class’s colors and put on a performance! Our panel of five judges will evaluate the contents of the performance, awarding up to twenty points! At the end of this generous match, on top of the points scored by each class during the event, the current score of the victorious class will be doubled! Now, let’s meet our judges for today!”
Kurisu pointed to five people who were lined up next to the broadcasting booth. They were visitors wearing a Noh mask, a wolf mask, a tengu mask, a “Jason” mask, and a horse head mask.
“Yes, for various reasons, we have asked them all to cover their faces, but every one of them is a special guest deeply connected to this academy. Take care not to be rude to them.”
“……Um.”
“I know. Don’t tell everyone…”
Checking Kyousuke before he could say something, Eiri wore a complicated expression. Among the five judges, the person wearing the Noh mask had white hair and wore a white funeral robe and red haori—Kyousuke was sure he recognized the woman. In one hand she held a video camera, and its lens had been pointed at them the whole time.
Murder Machine and the Catastrophic Athletic Festival Page 14