The Morpheus Classroom, chapter 1 (part 2 out of ?)
This is currently on hold because I’ve found a more interesting thing to translate, so regard this as something of a preview for now.
The Morpheus Classroom by Mikami En
Chapter 1 (part 1/?) (volume 1, pages 19-68) Yomiji (The Road to Hell)
1
Kishimori Naoto always forgot what happened in that world.
It was a white world, as if drowning in thick fog.
He was in the middle of a long straight road.
As he walked briskly, eyes cast downward, he felt someone's shadow hanging heavily on his back.
Rows of teeth clacked together noisily. Naoto's legs were heavy, like they were sinking into mud, so it wasn't possible to move any faster. He could feel the tingling from a gaze on the scruff of his neck. Desperately, he was trying to escape from someone. Someone who'd catch up to him from behind momentarily.
'...Who might it be?' he wondered, face cloudy with dread. And what was this place?
Clack, clack, clack.
***
Countless teeth that definitely weren't his clanged together in unison, and countless arms grabbed him. That 'someone' wasn't just one being.
Getting knocked down by something heavy, he tumbled to the ground to sprawl on his his back. The moment he did, something pointed, both big and small in size, pierced into him on the whole length of his body. He shivered at the foreign chilly sensation.
"This is a dream," he tried to persuade himself, tightly shutting his eyes. With how this lacked any context or coherence but had plenty of vagueness to spare, it had to be a dream.
Strength was gradually surging into the jaws locked around him. His skin broke, and he writhed in agonizing pain. Sticky blood soaked his entire body.
"...It's just a dream."
There was no way it could be happening in reality. Except, the pain just kept on growing more and more unbearable. Was it even possible to feel pain so acutely in a dream?
"It's a dream, a dream, a dream, a dream, only a dream..."
A foul-smelling breath hit the lips that chanted the same word over and over. Someone was staring down at him from just above his head.
"...Remember," his captor whispered in a hoarse voice.
But Naoto had no presence of mind left to comprehend what was being demanded of him. Fresh blood welled up from deep within his throat. Swallowed by the vortex of intense pain, his five senses were fading rapidly.
***
Before he knew it, Kishimoto Naoto bolted upright in his bed, shoulders heaving with his heavy breathing. By reflex, the first thing he did was check his body for injuries. He found that he was completely drenched in sweat, but otherwise uninjured. He breathed an uncontrolled sigh of relief.
The moment he awoke, the memories of his dream started to fade away, as if slipping between his fingers. Where he was and what was done to him was all becoming vague suddenly.
What was left to him in the end was only a faint sensation of being chased and then attacked. And also the feeling of vivid dread that seemed to have engraved itself into his entire body.
Outside his closed curtains, it started to get light. When he listened carefully, he heard footsteps in the kitchen. His younger sister Mizuho must have been preparing breakfast.
With much effort, Naoto dragged his body that felt positively like lead out of the bed. There was a throbbing behind his eyelids - a clear indication of sleep deprivation. The thing was, whenever he tried to sleep, he saw a nightmare and ended up jerked awake almost instantly.
Sometimes, he went entire nights sleepless when a nightmare would leave him too distressed to fall asleep, like tonight. As far as he could tell, the dream he kept seeing was always the same.
Naoto drew the curtains open in one motion. Dazzling light filled the room. It was a refreshing beginning of a brand new day - to those who could get sleep at night, that is.
"...So tired."
No energy to draw on was forthcoming. He wished he could try and get some more sleep, but it was already time to go to school. Besides, even if he did fall asleep, who was to say he wouldn't just see that dream again?
He dressed in his school uniform and left the room. The room next to his was his father's, Takaomi, and that door remained closed. Naoto passed the short hallway and headed to the kitchen.
In front of the Japanese-style living room, he abruptly halted. Mizuho in her navy blue uniform sat on her knees in front of the family altar with the palms of her hands pressed together. Her hair braided in two lay on her shoulders, and her black-rimmed glasses didn't part an inch away from the middle school dress code regulations.
"Yo," Naoto called out. "...Good morning, brother," a feeble-sounding voice called back after a pause. "We're having some nice weather again today, yeah?" "..." Mizuho kept silent. His baby sister was always taciturn, but after Takaomi's death she barely spoke at all.
Naoto entered the living room, sat down next to Mizuho and put his hands together, too. The two no longer had parents. Their mother passed away about the time Naoto had started grade school. It was then that the family had bought this altar, but a year ago the mortuary tablet for his father, Takaomi, was also added to it.
Their father got in an incident and, after undergoing a surgery in the hospital, suddenly died. The police looked into it, but they'd found nothing to indicate it was due to a medical error by the hospital. His condition just took a sudden turn for the worse that was impossible to predict, apparently.
Naoto wasn't there to witness his father's death. But even now, he still couldn't forget the way Mizuho looked after she had. "I'm sorry," she kept apologizing to Naoto on and on and on. Even after he'd said it was okay, she just kept saying nothing but "I'm so sorry". And what she kept repeating after simply made no sense.
Maybe she blamed herself for leaving their father's bedside to make a call. The doctor told them that nothing would have changed even she'd been in the hospital room at the time, but it was unclear if Naoto's little sister agreed with that.
After their father's death, they continued to live in this apartment, just the two of them. The siblings didn't have close relatives - a fact that Naoto had realized for the first time during the funeral. After some disputes, a young distant relative of theirs came forward and became the siblings' legal guardian on paper, which was why the guardianship issue was settled without them having to leave this familiar neighborhood.
Luckily, there was no need for them to depend on anyone for money. The bank account in their father's name held a surprisingly large amount of savings. Although it wasn't quite enough to hold the two of them for the rest of their lives, the sum was still more than adequate for them to live together until coming of age. Apparently, their father had some sort of side job, as he was frequently out on weekends. Maybe that was the source of his savings.
"...Breakfast is ready."
Having said that, Mizuho got up. Naoto didn't have much appetite, but he still followed his little sister into the kitchen. Just as she said, breakfast consisting of toasts, plan omelet and salad was already on the table.
The siblings sat down at the table opposite of one another and started eating.
"Yummy," Naoto praised. Probably due to the lack of sleep, he couldn't really tell the flavor, but he had trust in Mizuho's cooking ability. "You should've woken me up to help you with it though. I always tell you this, you know." "Brother, you... would't really be of much help," Mizuho muttered, stabbing her omelet with a fork.
Her matter-of-fact reply backfired. Now Naoto was staring at his sister's face intently. But it looked like her statement wasn't meant as a complaint - she was simply being honest.
"I-Is that a fact...?"
Naoto had to admit the truth of her words. Housework wasn't his forte - actually, nothing worth mentioning was. He'd never really been good with his hands, neither was he particualrly smart or athletic. The reason why their life on their own even worked so far was because this little sister of his 3 years his junior handled everything in a quick and competent way.
"But, still, I find it wrong to leave everything about the house to you, you know?" "...It's fine." "No, don't give me that. What I want you to tell me is if there's anything at all I can help with? Something you'd want me to do?" "Then shopping, maybe..." "I'm already in charge of that."
Since Mizuho always gave him a detailed list of what to buy, technically this task would usually turn into something uncomfortably similar to a kindergartner's first errand.
"What I'm talking about is something besides that."
Mizuho's fork stopped moving, and she turned her eyes upward and thought for a moment. "There's nothing... I think."
Naoto's shoulders surreptitiously dropped in disappointment when he heard that. The asparagus from his salad that he was carrying to his mouth moved especially slowly. It looked like his breakfast would take longer than usual today. Mizuho, on the other hand, almost finished her meal.
"Brother." "Hm?" "Last night... you couldn't sleep again?"
For a second, Naoto didn't know what to say. Earlier, when he took a look in the mirror, he didn't find anything particularly unusual about his appearance, and he made sure not yawn in front of his sister. But apparently, fooling the eyes of someone you'd lived with for a long time was impossible.
"...Sort of."
Mizuho's expression clouded momentarily, and Naoto instantly regretted he'd said that.
"Are you in any shape to go to school today?" "I am." "Really...?" "I'm fine, I'm telling you," Naoto asserted as cheerfully as he could. "It's just a little sleep deprivation. Common as common gets, never killed no one."
He never told Mizuho that the reason for his sleepless nights was nightmares. He'd pass it off as simple lack of sleep, he decided, because he really didn't want to give Mizuho even more causes for worries.
"You should try... going to counseling, I think." "...It's no use."
Those nightmares had started torturing him about 3 months ago. He'd already tried going to hospital and even attending counseling, to no effect whatsoever.
The couselor persistently bombarded him with questions about his parents and his thoughts on them. For some reason, that good sir became convinced that Naoto had been subjected to something at the hands of his father that had turned into a psychological trauma, and said medical specialist started to draw a treatment plan to that end. Apparently, saying that his father was taciturn and aloof was not a good idea. Takaomi wasn't exactly the type to start a heart-to-heart talk with his kids, but treating each instance of something that trivial as a cause for a trauma was just too much. Naoto got sick of it and stopped attending.
"But that just means... only counseling didn't work, right?" "Well... maybe..." "What about talking to someone who... isn't a counselor?" "...I'll think about it." 'But I'm not likely to go through with it,' he added in his heart of hearts. "Either way, I'm still going to school today."
Mizuho kept eyeing his face with intensity and unease.
"...It's better to go to school when you can't sleep, you see." "Eh?" Head tilting to one side in puzzlement, Mizuho made a questioning noise.
To dodge having to elaborate, Naoto sent the remains of his breakfast into his mouth all at once.
"In any case, don't worry too much about me. I'm fine." As he was saying that, Naoto rose from the table.
2
To get to the Iimi town that the Kishimori siblings lived in, one would need to board a train at the central terminal station and ride it for about half an hour. Actually, to be precise, one would also have to transfer trains at a station just before the town and board an ordinary train, so the trip would probably take a little longer than that. For what it was worth, the town's residential address was considered to be within the borders of the Tokyo metropolis, but the eyes of a first timer at the Iimi station would surely open wide in surprise. Since this town wasn't too far from the heart of the metropolis, one couldn't help but wonder how such a desolate neighborhood could exist so close to it.
For one, there were very few tall buildings around the station. The tallest construct was an old 5-storey department store, and the chimney of a public bathhouse was also plainly visible from the station's platform. The shopping district was reasonably large, but, save for the main shopping arcade, it was mostly made up of small privately-run stores tackled between the complicated net of alleyways. It was all too likely that the townscape here didn't change at all since as far back as the Shouwa era.
Further away from the station, one would find a rather typical residential district, except here and there it was peppered with wooded areas and cultivated fields.
There was a number of reasons why this town had been spared large-scale development until now. First, no big transfer stations were to be found near the Iimi town, and it was oddly removed from big roads, too, so compared to the peripheral areas, the main dooming drawback had to be the inconvenience of access and transportation. It also lacked amusement facilities and big shopping centers. The town was like a blank spot on the map of the great metropolis.
That said, it was quite loved by those who lived there. You could buy most of the daily living necessities in front of the station, and it was such a quiet neighborhood that it was hard to believe it was part of Tokyo. Due to the town being situated right on the border between the mountainous region and plains, the landscape was quite hilly, but even having made allowance for that, it was still really easy to live in.
The apartment building Naoto and his sisters lived in was in a relatively new residential district close the station. In the past they lived in a stand-alone house near a mountain, but 10 years prior they'd moved here. Needless to say, it was when the Kishimori family still consisted of 4 people.
Naoto left through his apartment building's main entrance, and started walking slowly, headed for the bus stop. Usually he commuted to school by bicycle, but this time he was going to take a bus. Because of the lack of deep sleep, both his head and body felt positively leaden. It wouldn't be strange if he got in some kind of incident in a state like this.
When he raised his eyes skyward, the weather was perfectly clear and the sky completely cloudless. The Golden Week was over, and the sunshine gradually started getting warmer. Before long, it would be warm enough to make school children want to take off their blazers.
Creaking of a gate reached Naoto's ears and instinctively made him halt.
"Whoa?!"
All of a sudden, the front wheel of a bicycle appeared before him. If he hadn't stopped a moment earlier, he'd've crashed into it.
"Oh, careful there," said a girl's voice he knew. Naoto fixed his gaze on the owner of the voice.
There stood a girl in the uniform of the same high school as Naoto. She was a little taller than average, standing close to Naoto's eye level, and wore her long brownish hair straight. Her moist-looking eyes were adorned with long eyelashes. A smallish face and long slender limbs completed the image of your typical pretty girl.
She had a hold on the handlebar of a brightly orange crossroad bicycle. It seemed they almost bumped into each other as she came out of the house, pulling her bike along. Behind her was a gate with a nameplate attached that read 'Kuze', and beyond the gate there stood a small old house. The originally white mortar of the walls faded, and cracks ran across it here and there.
That house stood there unchanged in the least since the time Naoto and his family had moved into their current apartment. To see it when it was a new building one probably had to go back 50 years or so into the past. In this neighborhood, this house was the oldest.
"...A little more, and we would've crashed."
The girl's name was Kuze Ayano. Naoto and her knew each other for a long time and almost too sickeningly well. Their parents were friends since they were young, and even before the two's families started living close to one another, they sometimes visited each other.
Technically, they would be childhood friends living closeby, but Naoto couldn't help feeling resistant to define them as such. They weren't on nearly good enough terms to validate using such an endearing word.
"...Look, you," Naoto said with a sigh. "Don't you have anything to say to me after almost flattening me?" "Eh...? Oh yeah, right. Look where you're going, will ya! What would you do if you broke my bike?!" "I would be the broken one! Why the hell are you worried about a bike in this situation?!" "Well, aren't you being cranky first thing in the morning. If you're so worried about yourself, you could always just dodge before the collision. That's what the reflexes are for, you know?" Ayano asserted bluntly.
It was utterly unreasonable, but her frame with her chest thrown out overflowed with such uselessly wasted persuasiveness that Naoto couldn't say anything back. His conflict-averse disposition was partly to blame, but with Ayano he felt like he was especially outclassed. Rather than his reason, it was his instincts that alerted him that he should never try to oppose Ayano.
'Can't take much more of this.'
Naoto turned his back on the girl and started walking. He felt his dizziness getting progressively worse.
"What's with you? If there's something you want to say, come out and say it to my face!"
Naoto heard her click her tongue at the lack of a reply. Just as he thought how she'd stooped to tongue-clicking, of all things, there came another attack launched at her fleeing enemy.
"...Damn wuss."
The abusive tint of the two's relationship was clearly Ayano's fault, no matter how you sliced it. Since being little she was always strong-willed, wilful and never one to give a damn about antagonizing others, but with Naoto she was especially brutal. Ayano's moody verbal abuse and Naoto's half-hearted retorts comprised more than a half of the pair's exchanges.
Naoto also had a feeling that in the last few years the wickedness of Ayano's tongue had reached new heights. The only time she'd pulled her punches was when his father died. When it happened, even she acted subdued, Naoto mused.
When he rounded a corner of the road, the sign of the bus stop came into view. At the moment, there was no one waiting for a bus there. Naoto just finished taking the bag off his shoulder and putting it on the bench when Ayano's bicycle halted in front of him.
"Have you seen a weather forecast that promised rain today or something?" "...No, I haven't." "In that case, why aren't you going to school by bike?" "What does that matter anyway?" Naoto replied, pretending to be checking the bus schedule. He couldn't exactly come out and say that he thought it a little dangerous going by bike when he was this sleep deprived. "Hmm. So it's something you can't tell me." Ayano's voice dropped an octave.
Taking a ginger look at Ayano's expression, Naoto found her brows rising in displeasure. In Naoto's brain, an alarm went off. If that suspicion of hers was left unattended, no one knew what might happen as a result.
Just as he was about to cave, promptly deciding that if he had to say something anyway, it'd be better to just tell the truth, suddenly Ayano's lips stretched in a dazzling smile. It was such a flawless smile that for a moment, even Naoto couldn't help but stare admiringly.
"Ah, I know. When you woke up early in the morning today, you found your bike so messed up it was unrecognizable, right? And then, on the ground there was a message written in the blood of some mysterious animal, 'This is a warning', and when you looked closer---" "Don't spout your disturbing fantasies with a smile! Why the hell would I receive a creepy warning like that, anyway?!" "Oops, was I off the mark?" "Of course you were! Just because I'm taking bus today doesn't mean you can go and jump to totally outrageous conclusions like---" Suddenly, Naoto fell silent. Before he knew it, his heartbeat sped up. Apparently, his body was reacting to the image of bloodshed. He had a feeling he was subjected to something similar in that nightmare. 'Someone' had attacked him, and then his whole body...
"Seriously, what's wrong? You keep spacing out."
The sound of Ayano's voice jerked Naoto back to reality. The girl eyed him intently, still mounted in her bike's saddle.
"...It's nothing."
The memories of his bad dream that'd just started gaining clarity blurred back again. If he was honest, Naoto was a little relieved at that. He didn't really want to remember the details of that nightmare.
"Nothing, you say, but for 'nothing' you sure look awfully drowsy. You're suffering from the lack of sleep, yeah?"
Naoto's hand rubbed his face before he could check the motion. His features supposedly were such that they prevented his physical condition from easily showing on his face, but the people he had talked to since getting up this morning both had seen right through him.
"Does it show?" "It's written all over your mug. Along the lines 'I'm terribly sleepy! Somebody, punch me!'"
Naoto wanted to snap back that his wishes weren't that drastic, but couldn't find the energy to anymore. The conversation petered to a stop, and the two just kept staring at one another in silence. The uncomfortable silence stretched for a while until Ayano suddenly remembered to check the watch in her phone.
"Uh-oh. I've wasted way too much of my precious lifetime on talking to some wuss like you."
Her white knee rose as she stepped on the pedal with all her might. That caused her short skirt to ride up, and Naoto hurriedly looked away - really, it wouldn't kill her to be more cautious about these things.
"Well then, do take your time and see ya when that rocking and crowded bus from Hell delivers you to your destination."
With that snappy signoff line, the girl started riding her crossroad bike in the earnest. Suddenly, Naoto remembered that he had a question to ask her.
"Ayano!"
When he called out to her in a loud voice, she stepped on the brakes so hard she almost pitched forward and whirled around.
"Oh shut up, what is it now?" "You gonna show up for classes today?"
Ayano mostly came to school on time, but that didn't mean she attended all her classes properly. Her pet theory sounded as follows: 'So long as your attendance meets the baseline, you can do whatever you want'. As such, she could just vanish from the classroom whenever she wasn't in the mood to study. The reason why she hardly ever got warnings from teachers was because she always placed near the top of their year on tests - wholly unlike Naoto who only got average scores despite attending all of his classes.
"I haven't decided yet. And come to think of it, it's none of your business. You're not a teacher."
She sped off. Naoto didn't mean to reproach her, although her speedy exit left him no time to explain that. The real question he had for her was far more important than her attendance.
3
The bus Naoto boarded was full of students in the same uniform as his. It was headed to the high school situated some distance away from the center of the Iimi city.
Naoto stood near the rear door, gripping a handrail and vacantly gazing outside the window. Walls of gray concrete blocks and guardrails floated by and disappeared from view. The scenery sparkled dazzlingly, lacking the sense of perspective. To Naoto's eyes, it looked like a projection on the window instead of real landscape.
It was probably due to his sleep deprivation though.
The bus came to a sudden halt, jerking Naoto back to reality. Several students came in through the opened rear door. When Naoto tried to relocate a bit further into the back, someone unexpectedly tapped him on the shoulder.
"Good morning, Kishimori-kun."
The voice came from below and a little to the side. Naoto found a petite school girl there standing next to him, and he had no idea when she got there. She was only tall enough to reach his shoulder at best. Her pale pink cheeks loosed in a smile, she was looking up at him with big and round eyes reminiscent of a small animal.
"...Ah, it's you, Kurano."
The girl was Kurano Natsume, a classmate of his.
Naoto's face was starting to burn a little. Maybe he was overthinking it, but he seemed to have forgotten to say good morning to her in turn, his voice sounded bumbling and the reply itself was curt. Was at least greeting a person properly beyond his ability now? As he stood there in silence, diligently wallowing in self-blaming, the girl took it upon herself to speak up.
"It's unusual for you to take a bus, Kishimori-kun. You always commute by bicycle, right?" "...I just thought I'd be better off not riding it today," Naoto mumbled by way of a reply.
She looked down, casting a quick glance at his legs. The neatly cut black hair swayed once by his shoulder, and the scent of flowers the name of which he didn't know tickled his nose.
"Huh...? What's wrong?" "Ah, sorry. I just wondered if maybe you're injured somewhere." "It's not because of an injury... there's no deep reason." "Really? Good, then, You had me worried here."
The image of Ayano's whole face smile as she shouted "This is a warning!" suddenly crossed Naoto's mind. Although both girls noticed the same thing, the conclusions their imagination took them to make were completely different. Needless to say, it was due to the difference in the two's personalities: assuming Ayano was the watchdog of Hell with the veritable tongue of flames, then Natsume was a divine messenger sporting white wings.
Natsume was kind to anyone and, by her nature, just couldn't turn her back on someone troubled. In short, she was the class representative, a honor student and an all-rounder in sports. Her diminutive form scampering about was cute, and everyone in their class adored her. Especially boys who always sent passionate gazes her way.
Naoto wasn't an exception. The two were in the same class since their first year, and he was always conscious of her presence. Despite that, he still couldn't talk without reserve to her. Partly it was due to Naoto's own sheepishness, but there was a more important reason at play, too.
Even this nearly impeccable angel had but one mystery about her. And that was...
"Oh, it's Ayano." Natsume waved her hand suddenly, seemingly overjoyed.
Giving a start, Naoto followed the girl's line of sight and found Ayano's crossroad bike running parallel to their bus by the side. The rider wore a prominent pout.
'Geez, what kind of face is she riding a bike with?'
The razor sharp glint in Ayano's eye wasn't quite the same as when she talked to Naoto earlier. With the edge it had now, she might not even raise a single brow even if she ran someone over. Just as Naoto thought that, Ayano suddenly raised her head and turned it towards the bus, as if hearing his thoughts.
'Whoa.'
She glared at Naoto with the eyes of a hunter looking at her prey. But it only lasted an instance, as the girl on the bike immediately took notice of Natsume next to Naoto. Her lips slackened in a smile, as she gave a big wave with her hand - addressed only to Natsume.
"Ah! Amazing! She actually noticed us... Good morning!"
It's not like the rider would hear her, but Natsume still energetically greeted the other girl. 'See you', mouthed Ayano and, cutting the handlebar to the side, drove across a narrow bridge along the irrigation canal. That was a shortcut that a bus couldn't take.
Natsume kept waving at Ayano's dwindling back.
The only mystery regarding her was exactly that - namely, her being friends with Kuze Ayano. Their personalities were nothing alike, but the two were famous throughout the school as the ultimate beauties pair.
Still, even if both were considered beauties, with one of them being a messenger of Heaven and the other a watchdog of Hell, their popularity among guys was literally worlds apart, like heaven and hell. The emotion directed at Ayano was mainly not affection but awed fear, and there were even those among guys who hurried to get out of her way if they happened to cross paths at school.
She had nothing but abrasiveness for guys in general, and with those who came on too strong, she was merciless, hurling unhinged abuse or derision at them. She even caused an uproar soon after entering high school by actually brawling with a third year guy who'd snapped from too much trash-talking she'd thrown his way. For the record, just until taking the high school exam, Ayano practiced martial arts, and she was much stronger than your typical guy. In the aforementioned scuffle, too, if they'd stopped her just a second later, her upper right kick would've landed squarely on the bridge of the senpai's nose.
Ayano could always be found by Natsume's side. Trying to get close to Natsume automatically meant drawing nearer the watchdog of Hell. While Ayano wasn't the type to actively meddle in others' personal relationships, the braves who could overcome the invisible pressure she lavishly exuded were few and far between.
***
Just like its name suggested, the Metropolitan Iimigawa High school that Naoto and the others attended was located on the bank of a river. Once upon a time it was hailed as one of the top schools focused on preparing its students for college, but that position had been taken away long ago by a newly established private school that combined middle and high school divisions. It wasn't like this public school was sports-oriented either. In other words, presently it was considered just another run-of-the-mill school that was neither good nor bad.
At one time, abolition of the school uniform was considered, but in the end, they just redesigned it and stopped at that. Due to the redesigned uniform being popular, the proposal to allow students to attend school in plain clothes was shelved, leading to the present.
The bus that came to a halt at a bus stop a short distance off the school gate kept spitting one student after another who were then swallowed by the uniformed wave flowing towards the gate.
Natsume got off the bus before Naoto. Someone called out to her, and the voices exchanging greetings reached all the way to the top of the bus's steps. When Naoto took a look outside, a ponytailed girl with a big quiver in hand was facing Natsume. She was another classmate of his, by the name of Makino Yayoi. Naoto personally barely ever spoke to her, but she seemed to be on fairly good terms with Natsume.
As such, naturally assuming that from here on out Natsume was going to proceed to the school building in Yayoi's company, he started walking alone. Now that the string of tension slackened, his drowsiness made a comeback.
Stiffling a yawn as he walked, suddenly he felt the sleeve of his blazer being pulled. Turning, he found Natsume looking up at him. Naoto languidly wondered why she was here. Maybe she forgot something?
"Let's walk to the school building together."
It looked like she actually waited for him. Naoto felt like his heart was ready to leap out of his chest.
"Ah... sure," he barely managed to squeeze out by way of reply, and the two passed though the school gate together. It went without saying that Naoto wasn't nearly foolish enough to assume that Natsume might like him just from that. All he probably thought was that it was inconsiderate of him to take off on her without giving some sort of notice.
The first school building in front of them was getting closer. Iimigawa High had 2 school buildings that were connected by an overpass. The first building mainly housed special classrooms and 2nd year classrooms, while the second was allocated to 1st and 3rd year classrooms.
The buildings were utterly ordinary except for the mesh fences protruding from below windows of each floor like roofs. Those had been installed on short notice only last year, after an incident saw a student fall from the third floor.
The two passed by a roofed parking for bicycles. Natsume looked all around, inspecting the cluster of bicycles.
"I wonder if Ayano's already arrived..." "Probably."
The conversation broke off. The self in Naoto's head scolded him, demanding he speak up and talk more. That said, it wasn't exactly easy to come up with a tasteful conversation topic. Desperately forcing his heavy head to work, Naoto finally opened his mouth.
"Come to think of it, Kurano, why do you take the bus to school?"
Most of the students who rode the bus lived so far they usually first had to take a train before they could even reach the bus. But Natsume's house was even closer to the school than Naoto's or Ayano's, so in theory, it should've been much easier for her to commute to school by bike without having to be tied to the bus schedule.
"...W-Well, it's just, I don't have my own bicycle, you see." "Ohh?" Naoto elongated, tilting his head to the side a little. Perhaps due to his drowsiness, he didn't quite get her reply. "...Then you can just buy one?" "B-But, you know, it's... it's pretty expensive." "The housewife type bikes are cheap. I think it'd be cheaper than buying a commutation pass every month."
Naoto hardly understood why he was suddenly encouraging Natsume to buy a bike, but since the conversation seemed to flow smoothly, he decided it was all good either way.
"Yeah... That's true, but..."
Her answer was strangely evasive. When he tossed a quick glance down at her profile, he found her flushed to the tips of her ears.
"Kurano?" he called, but she kept her head down, making it impossible to see her face.
'Did I make her mad...? Don't tell I made her... cry?'
Panic-struck in the earnest, Naoto examined the short conversation they'd had until now. Did he make some kind of big screwup that couldn't be undone? However, he absolutely couldn't see how asking about someone's choice between a bus and a bike as their means of transportation to school could bring someone to tears.
"Kishimori-kun," the girl muttered. Her voice was colored by neither tears nor anger. "Y-Yes?" Naoto replied, jumping to attention. "I try to keep it a secret, you see..."
Naoto swallowed hard. The two stood facing each other in a corner of the bike parking area. Students who happened to pass by were giving them suspicious looks. If Naoto were to stoop, it would look like the two of them stood face-to-face. Suddenly, Natsume drew herself up to stand on her tiptoes and put her mouth close to Naoto's ear. When he felt her breathing on his cheek, it was like a stroke of lightning hit him, rendering him unable to move.
"You see, I... can't ride a bicycle," she said in a quiet voice barely above what was audible to human ear.
It took sometime for the meaning of her words to sink in Naoto's brain.
".........Huh?" "It's embarrassing, I know, but no matter how I practiced, it was just no use." "And it still holds true even now?"
Natsume nodded a few times. "I even asked Ayano to teach me, but in the end even though we both ended up all battered and bruised, it was to no avail at all. When the training wheels come off, no matter how I try, I just..."
The face of the girl before him was dead-serious. Kurano Natsume, who was perfect at anything and everything she did, including studies and sports, to the point where she had been nicknamed the Perfect Little Superhuman, couldn't ride a bicycle without training wheels, of all things...!
"Pfft." Naoto let a snicker he tried to choke back escape in spite of himself.
Natsume's cheeks turned an even deeper shade of red. "Please don't tell anyone about it." "I won't... And sorry I laughed."
Somehow succeeding in getting his snickering under control, Naoto took the lead and resumed walking. Even Natsume, the invincible honor student, had a weakness she couldn't tell anyone about, just like the rest of them mortals. If anything, that knowledge seemed to make him feel closer to her.
'Hm?' Suddenly, Naoto turned to her.
"Is it really okay with you to have shared that kind of secret with someone like me?"
Natsume broke into a smile. "Yes, it is. Because you're my precious friend, Kishimori-kun."
From this point on, for a while two thoughts kept colliding in Naoto's head. What she said could mean she thought of him as someone as close to her as Ayano - or her words could also be interpreted as her considering him to be the same to her as any of her same sex friends and nothing more than that. Naoto kept asking himself which one it was, but for all of his racking his brain, he couldn't reach a decisive conclusion.
When he returned to his senses, he was already inside the school building, starting up the stairs side by side with Natsume. And then he tripped on the very first step, falling over lamely and propping himself on both elbows around the fourth step or so.
"A-Are you okay, Kishimori-kun?"
Grasping Naoto's arm, Natsume tried to pull him to help him get up. When something soft and supple pressed against Naoto's upper arm, he jumped back in panic, recalling once again the talk stating while Kurano Natsume's frame was petite, her breast was by no means the same.
'...Oh, right. My sleep deprivation didn't go anywhere.'
He almost went straight to the classroom, just like he always did. Except if he did it in his present state, he'd be sleeping like a log the moment homeroom started. And he'd be lucky if that's all there would be to it, because the chances of his seeing that nightmare again were no small.
"I'm going to the infirmary." "Eh? Are you injured somewhere?" "That's not it, I'm just sleep deprived. I hardly slept yesterday." "Is that so...?" Natsume blinked wonderingly. Unlike Ayano or Mizuho, she didn't seem to have noticed Naoto's sleep deprived state until now at all. "See ya later." "I'm going with you."
Just then, the first warning bell sounded, coming from the speakers mounted close to the ceiling. When they passed through the gate, there still was a comfortable cushion of time, but it appeared they spent more time talking in the bike parking area than Naoto had thought. If a student failed to make it to their classroom by the time the next bell rang, it would count as being late.
"No need. It's not like I'm sick or anything."
Naoto tried to make his exit as fast as he could. Stopping by the infirmary first meant the bell would ring before it was possible to reach the classroom. Naoto refused to cause Natsume trouble on his account.
"I'll explain your absense to Komae-sensei," he heard Natsume's voice from behind.
Komae was the name of the homeroom teacher for Natsume and Naoto's class. Maybe the teacher wouldn't think of Naoto's absence as his cutting class if Natsume was the one to inform him.
"...Sorry. And thank you."
Naoto started walking, headed towards the infirmary. When he turned to look back once more before rounding the corner, he saw Natsume standing at the bottom of the stairs and watching him go.
4
In front of the infirmary, found on the first floor of the first school building, Naoto halted.
No sounds could be heard from inside, but the lights were on as they were supposed to.
'She must be in, I guess.'
He opened the door quietly. There was no one on either of the two beds set in the room. Few students would want to spend their time there even before morning homeroom. But of course, every rule has an exception.
"What are you doing here?" came a displeased voice from the back of the room. In a chair by the window, there sat Ayano.
'She really is here, huh.'
In her lap, there lay a book with a hard cover left open. Seeing as it had a vinyl coating, she must have borrowed it from the library. When she wanted to skip class, Ayano would often sit here reading. Her reading material of choice was mostly old books that majority of general populace hadn't even heard about.
"Um, where is Sahara-sensei?"
No answer was forthcoming. Ayano already went back to reading.
"Did sensei step out somewhere?" Naoto pressed the issue.
Technically, to sleep here one needed permission from the school nurse by the name Sahara. And Naoto was sure he would find her here without fail at this time.
"Look, you..." Seemingly unable to bear it any longer, Ayano slammed her book shut with a resounding bang. "Answer my question before asking one of your own, will you? Not answering a question with a question is basic common sense! Didn't your parents tea..."
She shut her mouth, apparently remembering that Naoto's parents could no longer teach him anything anymore. Shaken, unusually for her, she averted her eyes.
She would bitch and grumble at every opportunity whenever they saw each other, but she never said anything bad about Naoto's family - especially about his father Takaomi. Ayano lived with her mother, just the two of them; Naoto heard her father died a long time ago. Takaomi used to drop by sometimes Kuze's house on his was back from work and talk to Ayano in private. Ayano stated it was mostly to lecture her, but for all that, Naoto was under the impression that she listened to him relatively closely.
Once, Naoto did ask his father why he was so concerned about Ayano. Takaomi took a while to think before curtly replying, "We've known her for ages." Maybe he saw her as another daughter or something. He often asked Naoto and Mizho to be as friendly with her as possible. "What she says is mostly correct," he would even say.
But since being little, his blood-related daughter Mizuho and Ayano were never on good terms. Needless to say, their personalities that didn't mesh well were partly to blame, but Mizuho's loathing for what she probably perceived as father-stealing played a role, too. Come to think of it, if Naoto's memory served, Mizuho said something about Takaomi calling Ayano's name just before passing away. Naoto had thought Mizuho'd simply heard wrong, but at the same time, it was a solid fact that their father hadn't called the names of neither of his two children. Naoto did think that their father was somewhat distant and reserved even with his children.
"I'm here to get some sleep. If the nurse's here, not getting her permission first can't end well," Naoto said. What Ayano said about not answering a question with a question was true, he deemed.
For a while, Ayano just sat there with her face turned to the window, but then finally offered in a low voice, "...Sahara-sensei's out for now. Some first year felt sick, and she went to escort him to the hospital."
That was sure to take time. Naoto came up to one of the beds and put his school bag on the floor next to it. When they couldn't get permission due to circumstances, it was allowed for students to use the bed within the bounds of common sense.
"Which reminds me, what were you talking about with Natsume in the bike parking area?" Ayano spoke up out of the blue. "How come you know about it?"
Ayano tapped her fingers on the window pane. Indeed, from this window, the edge of the bike parking area was visible - the very same spot when Naoto and Natsume stood earlier.
"I saw you from here. Looked like it was a pretty serious talk. Did you do something?" "Well..." Then he noticed there was no need to falter. Ayano was Natsume's best friend, and from what Natsume said, she helped with her training to learn to ride a bicycle. "Kurano was telling me she couldn't ride a bike."
Ayano's eyes flew wide open. The book in her lap was on the verge of falling. It was highly unusual for her to be that disturbed.
"...Did you threaten Natsume?" "Huh?" "How did you manage to pry that secret out of Natsume? There's no way she just told you out of her own volition, now is there?"
Faced with the naked menace in her gaze, Naoto got agitated. He sifted through his memories frantically, but no matter how he looked, nothing he said or did classified as 'prying'.
"Sh-she told me of her own volition. Is it that unbelievable?" "Yes, it is. Only Natsume's family and me are privy to that secret."
Naoto was lost for words. He'd never imagined it was that big of a secret. "...Are you for real?" "Oh, I am. None of the kids who've been with Natsume since middle school know. Natsume told me she was too embarrassed to tell anyone, except for me, and she could only tell me because I was her precious best friend..." "B-But she went and told me herself in the natural progress of the conversation... because I, too, was her precious friend, she said..."
Silence followed. It was only broken by the ringing of the bell signalling the official start of the school day. It was time for morning homeroom. Only after the chime had completely died out did Ayano finally open her mouth.
"Uh, what I want to hear here is not your wild delusions..." "It happened in reality! Kurano really said that!" "How come you've become her precious friend all of a sudden?" "Well, that's..." Naoto wanted to explain, but no words came. "...Actually, I don't really get it myself... As anyone can see, it's not like me and Kurano are particularly close, yeah...?"
Naoto's voice was becoming quieter and quieter as he spoke. He didn't understand at all why Natsume would consider him a precious friend of hers. He had a feeling it might be some kind of mistake.
"Do you have any idea what could make her think so?" It felt weird having to ask Ayano that, but since Naoto had no clue himself, it couldn't be helped.
Eyes closed and index fingers pressed to her temples, Ayano appeared to be thoroughly searching her memory.
"Last year, when your scores on the end-of-term tests were on the failing side considerably more than usual, Natsume was helping you with remedial classes, right? At the time, you two looked pretty close." "And the same Kurano was also helping Nagata from the kendo club and Sawamura from the girls' basketball club when they failed their tests."
All the students in their class whose grades were not good had help from Natsume in one way or another. It didn't make it anything special. To begin with, Naoto just got helped one-sidedly, which was not quite the same as being close.
"Oh, well, she called you her precious friend, good for you. There's nothing in it for Natsume, but for you it's a great honor."
Contrary to what she was saying, she didn't sound good-humored, what with having to hear that Naoto who barely even talked to Natsume was considered to be a precious friend on the same level as her. Mixed feelings were par for the course, and Naoto understood that, somehow or other.
"Only, you're a just 'friend', and nothing more. I trust you know what's in store for you if you get too full of yourself and try putting weird moves on Natsume, yeah?" Ayano declared in a threatening tone.
Naoto felt a weird draft around his stomach at that. "..." "I'll put you through what you've just imagined, only multiplied by 20. To describe in detail what exactly---" "No... don't bother. I'll go sleep now."
Naoto drew the curtain over his chosen bed shut. If that talk continued, napping would become the farthest thing from his mind. Taking off his indoor school shoes, he was about to climb into the bed when a voice came from beyond the curtain.
"Lately, you've been sleeping in the infirmary a lot." "...Have I?" Pushing the blanket down towards the foot of the bed, Naoto lied down on his back. "You're not targeting the times I'm here on purpose, are you?"
Naoto's shoulders jumped. To loosen the tension, he took a deep long breath.
"Why would I do that? There's no point at all." "...I guess."
The questioning stopped surprisingly easily, and Naoto silently closed his eyes. He supposed it was true that sometimes what Ayano said was correct. He came here because this was where Ayano was. The question that he'd asked before boarding bus about whether she planned to attend her classes today was for that end.
When he slept with Ayano by his side, curiously enough he didn't see any dreams. No matter how much he mulled over why it was so, in the end, he had no slightest idea.
His nightmares first started during the test period at the end of his first year of high school. Unable to get fitful sleep at day and at night, he was in no shape to prepare for his tests, which is why he ended up flanking and having to take remedial tests to begin with.
Miraculously, he'd gotten through them all till the end, and then, having used up all of his energy, went to the infirmary. Nightmares or not, at that point he just wanted to rest at least a little. Just like today, at the time he'd found Ayano sitting by the window. Believing he'd wake up right away anyway, in the end he wound up sleeping like a log till dusk.
With the start of the new school term, every time nightmares assaulted him, he tried doing the same over and over again. It went without saying that no one, including, of course, Ayano, knew what he was doing.
'I have to tell her soon...'
That's what he'd always intended to do, but first, he'd have to explain about how he was tortured by nightmares. And he didn't want to be fussed over too much. Above all, his story was too crazy to easily believe it. He didn't even know if it really was thanks to Ayano that he didn't see nightmares.
'I'll... watch things for a while longer, and after that...'
Naoto was sinking into a comfortable sleep. From somewhere very far away Ayano started talking, but he no longer could hear what she was saying.
Before long, his consciousness shut down completely.
5
Naoto was in the classroom taking a class, the fact making him cock his head to the side in puzzlement.
On his desk, there was a textbook and an opened notebook as he was duly taking notes on the lesson taught.
'Huh?'
He couldn't read the characters he himself had supposedly written. They simply looked like black lines twisting and crossing randomly. Naoto must've been half-asleep when he scribbled them.
Wanting to check when his notes lost intelligibility, he turned to the previous page. But that page too turned out to be fully filled with strange lines. As he leafed through the notebook, he started feeling creeped out. Not a single page contained characters he could read. Some of them had weird drawings with arrows and patterns, but none of them made any sense.
'What the hell.'
He didn't remember writing anything like that. But at the same time it was impossible to deny his own writing idiosyncrasies showed through here and there in how the lines were drawn.Jeez, what was he even doing during XXXX class? If someone saw him, what would they think of him...?
'...Wait, what class, again?'
He picked up the textbook found next to the notebook. Upon a closer look, it turned out there was written characters on or in it. Just a few squares of several varieties lined up vertically, almost like when one wrote vertically. Like with his notebook, he couldn't read those at all.
The voice of the teacher who continued to drone today's lesson sounded muffled like it was coming through water. It was impossible to hear what he was saying.
Naoto raised his head and took a look around.
'...Huh?'
He occupied the front seat of the row by the window. This seat was his usual.
The classroom was dim, as if in the evening, and there were no other students. The voice of the teacher he was sure he could hear just moments ago had petered out.
Naoto was the only one in the classroom anymore.
On the blackboard, strings of densely packed characters were written. But like with Naoto's notebook and textbook, they were rubbish impossible to read.
'So this is a dream, huh.'
Naoto had calmed down at last. This didn't seem like a continuation of his nightmare from the night before, anyhow. The real him probably still slept in the school's infirmary.
This place resembled the real classroom a great deal, but when you looked closer, there were discrepancies in the details. For example, there was no door connecting the classroom to the hallway, only white wall stretched opposite the window.
Thick fog enveloped the world outside, making it impossible to see anything. Only, the windowpane right next to Naoto was open partway, and it bothered him.
Inside the classroom it was so quiet that it was probably possible to hear your own breathing if you tried.
Suddenly, Naoto felt a human presence moving, and he turned to look at the opposite corner of the classroom.
In the backmost seat by the wall, out of the blue a girl was seated. Her ponytail swishing to and fro, she was looking around wildly.
'...Makino?'
She was Makino Yayoi, a classmate of Naoto's. He saw her up close at the bus stop only this morning.
A grating scratching noise came, and Naoto shifted his eyes to the floor. Something was drawing closer from down below. Instinctively, Naoto tried to stand up, but his body was unexpectedly heavy as if he was moving through mud.
'..Oh right, this is a dream.'
It wasn't so strange for one's body not to move in a dream world the way one wanted.
Just then, a sound like a flapping of a wet rag came from the window. A grayish semi-transparent lump was clinging to the other side of the glass-pane. At a first glance, it looked like a giant slug of sorts.
However, when it slipped through the crack left open in the window and plopped on the floor of the classroom, Naoto realized that the monster's shape could just barely classify as humanoid.
"Whoa..." Naoto abhorred aloud quietly.
The gray blob that seemed to be sitting kneeling on the floor, turned its face to him, though strictly speaking, it was hard to call that a face. A big void yawning in the middle of that countenance was apparently a mouth. Above it there was nothing save for 2 points of red light. The grotesque creature resembled a child's very first attempt at making a clay figure.
'Red... eyes...'
And then, the gray monster got on all fours and with a speed that was hard to believe proceeded to the back of the classroom. Switching direction to head to the farthest back row of the seats, it disappeared from Naoto's field of vision briefly.
'Where did it go?'
His question was answered almost immediately. Behind Yayoi seated in the backmost seat by the wall a swaying gray shape not unlike a shadow slowly rose. Chin still on her hand, the girl stared at the blackboard, not noticing the monster's presence at all.
"Ah..."
Two flabby arms sandwiched Yayoi's face between them. She started twisting and struggling violently. The monster's upper half dipped forward sharply as it pressed its countenance to the crown of Yayoi's head.
In the next instant, Yayoi's limbs started kicking even more wildly. The desks and chairs around her crashed with resounding bangs as they got flung and flipped. Before long, she'd spent all her energy and it became quiet.
The monster raised its grotesque head and busily looked around as if sensing a presence. Its semi-transparent body was now tinged red, like an artist's paint with another color mixed in. The head of the girl squeezed between two gray hands was now shaped oddly, calling to mind a bowl. Her hair drawn back into a ponytail was nowhere to be found.
That's when Naoto finally understood what had just happened.
Yayoi's head was robbed of its top half.
'...It was eaten.'
All her limbs did anymore was only twitch every now and then. The monster went back to looming over the girl, starting to vigorously move its head again. Naoto could hear the slurping sounds clearly.
Every time the monster took a bite, the red within its body grew thicker.
'It's blood!'
The moment he thought that, it was like a spell binding Naoto got undone and a scream issued from his mouth.
***
Naoto leaped up in his bed in the infirmary.
Curling up on himself, he waited for the trembling from his dream to stop. This was his first time seeing a dream like that in the infirmary.
'It wasn't the usual dream though.'
Unlike with the recurring nightmare from the night before, he remembered the contents with clarity. Besides, he was certain a gray monster like that didn't appear in his previous nightmares. When Naoto turned over the watch he'd left by his pillow, he saw it was about time for the second period to be over.
"What even was it...? Really..."
That was Makino Yayoi, he was sure. No, actually, he couldn't be sure. Perhaps due to how scarring what had occurred was, he couldn't really remember much of anything else.
Even when he tried to convince himself it was only a dream, the gnawing creepiness of it didn't vanish. The feeling that he'd really witnessed a person being devoured alive still persisted.
"No, seriously, what the hell was that?" "Huh?" a voice came from somewhere very close.
He didn't know when, but at some point the curtain around the bed got open, and now there sat Ayano with her arms folded across her chest staring down at Naoto.
"You were making so much noise I couldn't read my book in peace." "I was being loud?" "Yes, you were. You kept groaning loudly in your sleep and even scared me. Like you were on the verge of giving birth to some new life or something..." "I'm not a woman on her last month pregnancy!"
Suddenly, he noticed a blue hand-towel lying in his lap. It didn't belong to Naoto. Picking it up, he realized it was cool and damp. Until now, it probably rested on his head.
"What's this?"
Ayano's hand instantly moved and snatched the towel away.
"Th-that's mine," she said, sounding somewhat peeved. "Eh?" "It's just, the nurse's not here... and you groaned like you were in pain, so I got this towel wet with water and..."
Naoto was taken by honest-to-god surprise. Not even in his wildest dreams could he imagine this abuse-spitting childhood friend of his looking after him. That was just...
"...thought about plugging your nose and mouth with it, but it proved a surprisingly difficult task."
...too good to be true, as expected.
"Were you trying to kill me...?"
Completely ignoring his murmured words, Ayano continued. "So, what kind of dream did you see?" "What kind, huh... I was in the classroom in the middle of a lesson, then a creature that crawled up the wall of the school building slipped in through the window... it was a weird monster with red eyes, and then it..." When he recalled witnessing a human being eaten from the head down, Naoto broke into shivers. He couldn't bring himself to relive it again by describing. "Well, let's say I knew it was a dream, but it felt so gory and so real.s.." "You said "red eyes"? A monster with red eyes appeared in it?" Ayano interrupted him. "Yeah... It did. What about it?"
Quite a while had passed before he got any answer to that. The towel Ayano had just taken back fell off her knees, but she didn't appear to take notice.
"...No, it's nothing," the girl finally muttered without looking at Naoto. Contrary to what she'd just said, she was clearly shaken.
Just then, from the speaker on the ceiling a chime rang out. The second period was over.
"Are you planning to go to the next class?"
Naoto's head was much clearer than before. Although he did have an unpleasant dream, his lack of sleep was elevated somewhat. "Yeah, I think I will." "I see."
Ayano stood up from the bed and returned to her chair by the window, though she didn't try to get back to reading. Lacing the fingers of the hands resting on her knees together, she stared at the ceiling vacantly.
Normally, she would never ask something like what Naoto was going to do next. She probably didn't realize it herself, but sudden trivial statements like that were her giveaway habit before a serious talk of grave importance. However, there was no way she would easily divulge the information even if Naoto asked her what was wrong. If she just could be more upfront like that, it would so much easier for Naoto.
'So what do I do...?'
Skipping the next class to stay here and wait for her to speak was probably the only way.
As far as Naoto was concerned, he wasn't fond of the idea of skipping classes and school events. Even if others didn't think much of it, for him doing things he shouldn't was never easy.
That said, just taking his leave here didn't sit right with him either. After all, this matter seemed to do with him, so he should probably hear out what Ayano had to say.
"I think I'll stay here a little lo---"
Suddenly, the door opened, and a tall man ducked as he entered.
"Excuse me, Sahara-sensei, but... wait, what are you people doing here?" The man in glasses knit his brows. He was in his mid-thirties, wearing a dress shirt, though without a tie, and suit pants. It was Naoto and Ayano's homeroom teacher Komae. "If you're here because you're feeling sick, then I don't mind, but if you're fine, then go study, will you! We've gone through the questions today that will be on the test, so make sure you ask someone to show you the notes."
Come to think of it, the second period was classic literature that Komae was in charge of.
"Erm... Sorry," Naoto apologized without thinking, but Ayano by his side was still lost in pensiveness. "No, I wasn't really talking about you, Kishimori... Kuze, you're the one skipping class without reason, aren't you!"
Ayano finally raised her head, looking like she only just now noticed the new arrival.
"Oh, sensei. Good morning." "It's not morning anymore. Goodness, it won't kill you to listen to what people to you once in a while... I understand that high school is not compulsory education and that it might seem like too much trouble to attend every one of your classes, but you have to learn some social etiquette, or in the future..."
Once Komae-sensei got started, he wouldn't stop for some time. While it was true that he was more serious than necessarily and with a propensity to nag, he was also empathetic, feeling warmly about his students. By no means students harbored him any ill will.
Ayano who skipped a lot of her classes warranted his special concern. It was not rare for him to stop her as she wandered about the school and sternly reprimand her. This year after a long while he finally decided to take charge of a class, so it was no wonder that he was so enthusiastic about his job as a homeroom teacher.
"I'm not asking you to prioritize my class for attendance, but for your own health, do attend PE at least..." "Excuse me, sensei," Naoto finally interrupted. He had to, as there was something he'd been quite worried about. "Is the person on your back okay?"
Komae-sensei came to the infirmary carrying the small frame of a female student on his back. Her face was hidden from view, limply pressed into his shirt-clad shoulder.
"Oh, right." It appeared he really had forgotten about her, too caught up in lecturing Ayano.
Komae laid the student down on the bed Naoto had slept in. The hair from her undone ponytail fanned across the sheets.
"...Makino?"
Naoto was very surprised to see Makino Yayoi laid out on the bed. "Is she not feeling well?" "Well, I'm not sure... She just fell asleep during my class and now doesn't wake up no matter how I try to shake her awake. I decided to carry her to the infirmary just in case... Hey, Kuze, where do you think you're going?" "Huh?"
Ayano who was previously seated in the chair by the window was gone. Apparently, she took off when Komae was busy laying Yayoi on the bed.
"That girl is hopeless." Komae-sensei clicked his tongue. For Ayano to escape without listening to his scolding till the end was, too, business like usual. "...Oh well, for now Makino takes priority. Do you know where Sahara-sensei is?" "Ummm, I heard she was out escorting someone to the hospital... Ah, but I don't know where she's at the moment though."
After all, it'd been about 2 hours since Sahara had left for the hospital. Maybe she came back while Naoto was sleeping.
"I see. Then I'll drop by the staff room quickly to check while you watch Makino here, okay?" "Ah, sure."
With that, Komae-sensei exited, breaking into a jog.
With nothing better to do, Naoto, left behind in the infirmary, shifted his eyes to watch over Yayoi. Her complexion wasn't pale or anything. She simply breathed quietly in her sleep.
As he looked at her, Naoto remembered the tragedy that'd taken place in his dream. It was after that dream that Yayoi's condition had taken this weird turn. Almost as if the dream foreshadowed something...
'No, that's just impossible.'
Naoto shook his head to refute that train of thought.
It was just a dream. He really needed to stop overthinking these trifle things.