Eiri cast her eyes down in embarrassment and muttered quietly to herself. “Why are you here, Mother…? G-geez!”
And so the curtain rose on the Captivating Teacher Costume Contest.
By the results of an impartial lottery, Kyousuke’s class was to present last. Starting off the event, the first presentation came from third-year Class A’s Mihiro Mizuchi. Showcasing a pure white nurse’s outfit, Mizuchi used her special weapon, a pistol specially made to look like a syringe, to present a splendid “gun show.” Starting off strong, she nailed a high score of eighteen points.
Next was second-year Class B, Shidou Muguruma. In a purple school uniform, he gave a dance performance involving taiko drums. Second-year Class A’s Dahlia Barazono was costumed like a visual-kei vocalist and gave a short live performance. Neither class was able to score more than fifteen points; third-year Class A remained in the lead.
When it came to third-year Class B, however, their old teacher, Greyman, shuffled about moaning “Ohh, ohh” in a pointlessly realistic zombie costume… He put on a surreal masquerade and scored an unexpected five points.
Facing the ranking order of third-year Class A, second-year Class A, second-year Class B, and then third-year Class B, the fifth class—
“Heh-heh. Okay, okay, my turn, right?”
Appearing from the changing booth was first-year Class B’s temporary homeroom teacher, Reiko Hikawa. She wore her usual white lab coat. However, she held the front of it tightly closed from top to bottom with both hands. It looked as though she was wearing her costume underneath.
“All right, everyone, this image should certainly imprint itself onto your eyeballs…and also bewitch you!”
Wearing a bold smile, Reiko opened her white lab coat, then threw it off with a great flourish—revealing a dark blue school swimsuit.
Made of extremely thin material, it was an article of clothing meant to be worn by partially developed elementary and middle school girls. Now, however, it covered the body of a mature adult woman of particularly notable development.
J cups. She had forcibly shoved her large bust, easily several times over what a normal elementary or middle school student would possess, into an off-the-shelf swimsuit—the thin fabric was pulled even thinner, and the name tag reading REIKO on her chest was warped and distorted. The ill-fitting front and sides of the suit exposed her ample bosoms.
“““…………”””
The grounds fell silent in the presence of such overwhelming majesty.
The life went out of the eyes of Eiri, Ayaka, Kurisu, and the other mostly underdeveloped girls, while the boys’ eyes sparkled lustily. A few were practically moved to tears.
Reiko’s rack was peerless, and she wasn’t finished yet.
“Okaaay! Well then, I’ll get started on my exerciseees!”
Reiko started doing Purgatory-Style Warm-Up Exercises. Her body moved aggressively along to the progressive metal background music. Emphasizing her chest, waist, hips, and butt, the exercises seemed perversely seductive when performed by a woman with such bountiful proportions.
“One, two, three, four! One, two, three, four!”
She did exercises where she swung her arms and bent and stretched her legs, exercises where she moved her hips back and forth, exercises where she wrote the letters REN with her butt, exercises where she bent her body then whipped her hair straight back… Before she had finished, Reiko held everyone’s captive gazes—particularly when she did the exercises where she jumped up and down on both legs:
“Uhhyuuuh!” “Amazing shaking!” “Boing-boing-boing!” “The titty gods are going wild!” “Calm down.” “You calm down, stupid boy!” “Ohh…” “Boom-boom-boom!” “I want to bury my face in them.” “They haven’t fallen out yet?! Ah, amazing!” “Hey, somebody bring me my binoculars!” “Boobies! Boobies!” and so on.
The crowd erupted into excited cheering and revelry. It didn’t matter that they were first-year Class B’s rivals. All the boys at the event grounds stood in groups and applauded, showering praise on Reiko.
“Yaaaaaayyy! It’s a blessing, a blessing…”
In the cheering section for first-year Class A, Oonogi and Usami were both prostrating themselves, praying before Reiko’s mighty breasts.
However, in contrast to the wild enthusiasm of the male students—
“……She’s better off dead.”
“That’s right. They’re all better off dead, bunch of trash.”
—most of the female students were looking down on the male students with cold eyes.
Kyousuke, meanwhile, was still sitting quietly in his seat. He was standing up in a different way and, feeling it was best not to expose his enthusiasm, decided to remain where he was.
Eventually—
“Haaah, haaah…haaah…I-I’m exhausted…phew…!”
Reiko, dripping with sweat, sank down to the ground, finished with her performance. Purgatory-Style Warm-Up Exercises went from level one to level seven, gradually increasing in intensity with each step.
Reiko had gone up to level three, but even so, she appeared completely spent. Staring up at the sky with unfocused eyes, breathing hard, Reiko looked as if she had just finished a different, particularly vigorous activity.
As she continued to excite the males, the judges presented her score…
“Ehhh?! Six-sixteen?! No waaaaaay?!”
Taken aback by the unexpectedly low total, Reiko shouted hysterically. When she looked, four out of the five judges—the four men—had all given her full marks, while the last person—the woman wearing the Noh mask—had given her a zero.
“But why?!” she protested.
The woman gave her a brief, nonchalant answer. “…No reason, really. I’m just acting on behalf of all the girls’ feelings, you see?”
“HA-HA-HA! She tried too hard to be popular with the guys, and her enormous breasts turned into suicide bombs! Blunt seduction is no good for being popular with girls, stupid, stupid, stuuupid, HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!”
“…I see. So it was the jealousy of those who are lacking.”
While the female students showered the female judge with applause and admiration and booed Busujima, first-year Class A’s turn came.
Eiri and the other girls had decided on the details of the costume, so Kyousuke and the boys in the class had no idea what kind of cosplay Kurumiya was going to present. Changing booths were lined up on the grounds, and everyone eagerly looked to the one on the far right, with the only curtain that remained closed.
Their first prediction was that she would be in S&M gear. Or maybe a demonic military uniform…
Kyousuke and the rest of first-year Class A were now in fourth place overall. If they couldn’t take victory in this event, the possibility of them advancing to the final event, the All-Out Knock-Down Brawl, would all but disappear. Kurumiya herself was surely taking this very seriously, and the students were genuinely looking forward to seeing just what kind of costume their teacher would wear.
“Well, we’ve seen some truly impressive displays so far, but at long last we come to the final entry! Capping it off for us is first-year Class A, Miss Hijiri Kurumiya! The year before last, she made her students dress up as lions and pretended to be a lion tamer, and last year she acted out the part of an S&M queen in bondage gear, so what kind of performance will we see this yeeeaaar?! For a secret masochist like me, her costume is sure to be the most intriguing!”
“Huh. Well then, Miss Kurumiya, come on out!”
“…………”
“……”
“…”
“Hmm?” Busujima looked bewildered as Kurumiya did not appear, no matter how much time passed. After giving Kurisu a confused look, he yelled, “Heeey, Miss Kurumiya, what’s wrong? Each contestant is allotted a total of five minutes, and yours have already started. If you stay in there and don’t come out, you’ll score zero—”
“Shut the fuck up and don’t rush me, pencil dick! I also ha
ve to prepare myself mentally…,” Kurumiya shouted back. Then—“Ohh, I’ll just kill you!” she roared as the curtain opened violently.
Kurumiya’s costume was finally revealed—
“D-damn it… I won’t forget this humiliation!”
A red gothic Lolita outfit.
The poofy skirt had a pannier under it, and if that wasn’t enough, it was edged with frills. Her narrow waist was bound by a corset, and both of her shoulders were puffed up like flower buds. Large bows sat atop her head.
“““”””
Stares poured down onto Kurumiya from every direction as she stood bashfully biting her lip and trembling slightly. Silence descended over the festival grounds, a very different silence than when Reiko had performed.
Shock, amazement, confusion, captivation…
“……Cute.”
Finally, Kurisu muttered a single word. Then, as if unable to maintain any semblance of self-control: “What is with this cuteness—Miss Kurumiya is freakin’ adorable?! Ohhhhhhhhh, shiiiiiiiiit! What is with that doll? Angel? Fairy? Well, whatever, anyway, it’s crazy! Fantastiiiiiic! Miss Kurumiya is too cuuuute!”
Kurisu’s yelling kickstarted the crowd, which burst into cheers.
“Muahah! This infatuation is killing me! Who the hell is that adorable creature?! M-my nosebleed won’t stop…” “A frigid teacher is okay, too, but a cute teacher is the best!” “I want to hug her.” “Th-this is a precious moment!” “Loli-miya is wearing Lolita clothes!” “Kurumiya, honeeeeeeeeeeeey! ” And so on.
“Y-you bastards…that’s enough—” Quickly, Kurumiya gritted her teeth as if to prevent herself from showering the crowd with any more angry abuse. She clenched fists that were adorned with flower-and sweets-shaped rings.
“If…if you don’t give it a rest, Sweetiri will get super mad!! Hmph-hmph!”
Putting her fists on the sides of her hips, she puffed out her cheeks. The raucous students instantly fell silent.
Looking around at all the astonished people, Kurumiya pouted her lips. “Really, come on… It’s not like I’m wearing clothes like this because I like them, you know? I have to wear them, because of circumstances beyond my control. It can’t be helped, so I want you to stop saying those things. If you don’t…I’ll cry… Sweetie Hijiri will cry! Waaaaaa…”
Reiko stared at her good friend, her eyes so wide they looked as if they might fall out. “…‘Sweeti…ri’…?”
Adopting a coaxing tone, Kurumiya made her sweet, childish voice sound even sweeter as she continued, “Mm-hmm… This is all for the sake of winning. In order for my class to win a real victory at the athletic festival, I’m trying my very best. And so, everyone…please give us victory! Please give victory to sweet Hijiri and her friends in first-year Class A—I’m asking you. Pweease! …Ah, I fumbled it.”
Laughing with embarrassment and sticking out her tongue, Kurumiya knocked herself on the head.
The scene was enough to make anyone doubt their own sanity.
Busujima, looking dazed, asked timidly, “U-ummm… Is this your performance, Miss Kurumiya?”
“Yeah, that’s right! Can’t you tell by looking, you son of a bitch? I’ll stick my iron pipe up your ass and churn up your intestines! I’ll. Put. You. To. Death. ” She was not doing a very good job staying in character.
Behind her sweet facial expression, one could sense Kurumiya’s roiling bloodlust—Busujima, himself an elite killer, shuddered with fear and made a hurried announcement.
“O-okay! W-well then… Um, judges, give your scores!”
“You bastards have to win. If you don’t, I’ll kill you.”
Sitting on the sofa in the spectators’ seats, holding her knees to her chest, Kurumiya addressed them in a hollow voice. She was still wearing the Lolita dress, as if she had not even had the energy to change.
Eiri, who had been the one in charge of making her costume (she was no good at cooking, but apparently sewing was her specialty), played with the ends of her hair. “…Sure, sure. But it really does suit you, Miss Sweetiri!”
“She’s right, she’s right—you were super cute!”
“Yeah, yeah, that was really clever. So clever we got the full twenty points!”
“Hey, hey! You guys, on top of that—”
“Gaaaaaaaaahhh!” Kurumiya couldn’t take it anymore and went crazy, tearing at her hair with both hands. “I’ll kill you! Listen here, assholes… I won’t forgive you if you lose after putting me through this, you hear?! Win! No matter what happens, you win this thing. That is all.”
And so Kurumiya buried her face in her lap in silence.
Still, at present the scoreboard was—
Third-year Class A
281 points
Third-year Class B
265 points
Second-year Class A
221 points
Second-year Class B
217 points
First-year Class A
270 points
First-year Class B
308 points
First-year Class A was in third place out of the six classes, thanks to Kurumiya scoring a perfect twenty points in the Captivating Teacher Costume Contest and moving them up a spot.
Since the two classes with the highest score would participate in the All-Out Knock-Down Brawl, they needed to advance one more rank in the final event to even have a chance at overall victory. For this reason, they could not afford to lose the next relay race.
Eiri, Shinji, Maina, Kyousuke—their classmates sent off four competitors to this most crucially important match.
“Do your best, big brother! Everyone else, you do your best, too…especially you, Crafty Cat.”
“Our fate is in your hands. We’ll really be cheering for you! Never surrender, even if it costs you your lives!”
“Oh yeah, you gotta get us ragin’ out in the All-Out Knock-Down Brawl!!”
“H-hee-hee… Please kill to your hearts’ content… H-hee-hee-hee.”
“I don’t really mind if you lose! I’m lookin’ forward to my Kurumiya’s punishment when she goes totally berserk! Ah, but also to the prize that I get when we win—”
And so on. Surrounded by the voices of their comrades, the team left the bleachers, heading for the entry gate. Kyousuke and the others were quiet. Eiri let out a yawn: “…Fwah.” Shinji, who had opposed adding Maina to the team right up until the last second, wore a sullen expression on his bandage-covered face. Maina mumbled to herself, repeating, “Can’t let it happen, can’t let it happen, can’t let it happen…”
Kyousuke—
“……Kyousuke.”
“Hmm?”
Suddenly, Eiri pulled at the sleeve of his gym uniform. She quickly brought her face close to his. He raised his eyebrows curiously.
“—Hey, do you want to win?”
“Huh?”
Anyone else would have said, “How can you ask me that at this point?” but Kyousuke paused. Eiri’s question had hit on the very issue that Kyousuke had been mulling over.
Currently in first place was first-year Class B. The way things were going, Kyousuke’s class was truly likely to lose. They would lose—and he would be separated from Renko.
He remembered Reiko’s words: “If you don’t want to be separated from my daughter, you’d better try your hardest. But if you do want to be separated, then just don’t try at all. Heh-heh. You’re free to choose whichever option you like—”
“……What are you saying? Of course I want to win.” Shaking off the doubt that had been weighing him down, Kyousuke smiled bitterly. “We’ve come this far—we can’t lose now. We have to win, for everyone who worked so hard, and for Kurumiya.”
“……I see.” Eiri turned away, seeming just a little displeased. “That’s right, isn’t it? No one would want to make a half-assed finish…sigh. I understand. In that case, I’ll also make a serious effort…though reluctantly, on my part.” She looked back at him with scornful, troubled eyes. “Let’
s win, Kyousuke—for Renko’s sake.”
“HELL YEEEEEEEEEEAH! Our mental monumental hell-coaster of an athletic festival finally comes down to this! Which classes, their hands filthy with sweat and dust and blood, will be able to grab hold of a ticket to the final event?! For some of you, this will be your last battle, so kill to your hearts’ content, you fuckin’ motherfuckers!”
There was palpable excitement in the clear autumn sky. In front of Kurisu, who was as enthusiastic as ever, the first runners for each team were lined up on the white starting line.
Lane 1 Chihiro Andou (First-year Class B) Rank: C+
Lane 2 Anji Gosou (Third-year Class A) Rank: A
Lane 3 Eiri Akabane (First-year Class A)
Lane 4 Mei Kuroki (Third-year Class B) Rank: A+
Lane 5 Ronaldo Gacey (Second-year Class A) Rank: B
Lane 6 Sou Takei (Second-year Class B) Rank: B+
Each competitor at the front gripped batons in their class colors.
Passing these batons between four people, each team would go around the track four times, with points assigned based on the position of the final runner. First place would get fifty points, second place forty points, third place thirty points—fourth place minus thirty points, fifth place minus forty points, sixth place minus fifty points, and minus one hundred points for being eliminated or disqualified.
Since there was currently a difference of less than one hundred points between the first-place and last-place class, it was entirely possible that the results of the Eight-Hundred-Meter Pandemonium Relay could cause a major upset.
“Heh-heh-heh, I’ll finally get to enact the revenge I’ve been waiting for!”
Murder Machine and the Catastrophic Athletic Festival Page 15