Chapter 7: The Cat Followed The Dragon's Tracks
TL: Akabane
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-- Time marches on, and after the end of third and fourth period.
"Let's go, Komakoma!"
"Yes, yes. Let's hurry up, hurry up."
At the chime signaling lunch break, Akane, still holding the hand of her friend sitting next to her, rushed out of the classroom like a gust of wind.
At the same time, the other students in the class were also setting up their lunch boxes on their desks one after another, and putting their desks together amongst their close friends. While they were having lunch in their own ways.
-- ......Good, let's started.
Nekomaru also got up from his seat and left the place gallantly.
The destination hasn't been decided. But he does have a target in mind.
As soon as he left the classroom, Nekomaru saw the girl out of the corner of his eye and, keeping a certain distance from her so as not to be noticed by her, he continued to follow her.
When he saw the girl climbing the stairs, he continued his pursuit without making any footsteps.
"Akane really likes that place, doesn't she?"
"Yes, because the wind that blows there gives me wings."
From above, I can hear the target and her companion talking.
I listen carefully and manage to eavesdrop on the conversation, but am prevented from doing so by what sounds like a door opening and closing that appears in the middle of the conversation.
The sound of their voices, which should have been echoing in my direction only a few seconds before, was suddenly lost.
Nekomaru rushed up the stairs, and sure enough, there was a door that appeared to have been opened just a moment ago.
-- Is it over there, huh....
With his hand on the doorknob, Nekomaru gently pushed the door open, being extremely careful -- and just then, a cool spring breeze caressed his skin.
The cool spring breeze caressed his skin and the white light from the sky dazzled his eyes, and her reflection appeared in his vision ......
"Huhahahaha! Oh wind! The sky! Bow down in adoration to my majesty and shiver in awe of my ministry!"
The target was laughing and screaming from the bottom of her stomach as she spread her arms toward the sky where the cotton clouds swam.
What in the world is she doing while facing the sky? What is she howling about? What was she laughing about?
Nekomaru was so mystified that he stood still with a blank stare.
--Oi! Don't blabber on. Get out of sight, before they figure out what's going on!
As soon as he closed the door quietly so as not to make a sound, Nekomaru hastily ducked into the shadows.
As luck would have it, the two girls Nekomaru was chasing were facing the opposite direction from the entrance, and his hiding spot was well positioned in their blind spot.
Nekomaru, being extremely careful not to be noticed, listens carefully and looks closely to observe what the two girls are talking about and what his target is thinking.
From the outside, he would look like a mere stalker, following the two girls around.
The way he breaks off his presence and makes his eyes memorize the backs of the high school girls is so advanced that one can only assume that he is used to it.
Akane, who was feeling the wind with her whole body, was completely oblivious to such an expert.
"Why don't you join us, Komakoma? It's uplifting."
"I'd rather not. I don't want to, because I'm afraid I'll have an unforgivable dark history in my life."
Feeling disappointed that her friend outright rejected her invitation, "Oh, really? I feel good about it, though," she muttered quietly.
Later, as soon as they cooperated in spreading out the sheet on the floor, they sat down to lunch together under the clear blue sky at broad daylight.
At first glance, it looked like an ordinary meal, just like anywhere else.
There was nothing strange or funny about it, it was just an ordinary high school girl's time.
-- This ...... is still as motionless as ever. Was it my imagination, after all?
In addition to the class time, Akane hasn't shown any remarkable behavior, which only makes Nekomaru more suspicious.
No, her words and actions were unexpectedly - or rather, so conspicuously crazy that they might have passed the threshold of abnormality - but she was relatively quiet the rest of the time.
Too quiet. To the point of being strange.
Even though there was a person sitting next to her who lived in the same world of the darkness, there was no movement from Akane at all.
What in the world was going on here, even though she had made a comment to my face in the morning that made me wary of her?
And above all, that second period. The same thing happened during PE class.
Distracted. Athletically inept. To tell the truth, I don't feel like I could easily kill her at any time.
Even though she knows who we are, she still has that attitude and confidence. She talks as if she is as good as Nekomaru.
All of this seemed to have been a lie in the past four hours.
Was she simply making a big show of herself? Or was I just being played by her and it was simply a misunderstanding on my part?
-- Misconception .......
Nekomaru's head was troubled, and he was repeating the consideration which didn't produce an answer.
After a while, he came to a conclusion in his mind.
"Well, whatever she is after all, it's dangerous to let ger go unchecked. She was the one who planned to tell everyone about my true identity in the morning, and she did it. I can't let her live like this."
And so, Nekomaru, with a knife and piano wire clutched in each of his left and right hands, continues to watch Akane's movements.
The moment he sees an opening, he will surely cut off her life.
In this short time, she seems to have been the center of attention many times.
If she suddenly disappeared, there would definitely be an uproar. ......
But it would be more dangerous to keep her alive all this time and have to spend a year with her.
I don't know when she will say something unnecessary and leak unnecessary information to the people around us. I can't even predict it.
I am sorry for the girl with glasses who is nearby, but after putting her to sleep, I will arrange to have her memory of that woman erased.
Even though my father's selfishness was the trigger, she is inevitably an obstacle to my remaining in this school.
I have to kill her, I have to kill her.
Now ...... here--!
Nekomaru made up his mind, and finally thought only of putting her in his hands without question.
In the dim shadows, a silver light shines dully.
Nekomaru focused his eyes and ears so as not to miss the conversation of the girls enjoying their meal.
On the other hand.
"--Yes, Akane, there's something I've been meaning to tell you for a while now. ......"
"......? Something you wanted to say?"
The girl, whose glasses were shining dazzlingly white due to the reflected light of the sun, broached a new topic as if she had just remembered.
As soon as she took her mouth off the straw stuck in the paper packet, the words emitted from her mouth made Akane, sitting directly across from her, tilt her head.
"Is it always rather than today ......? Akane always wears those bandages even during PE, right?"
Apparently, she was talking about the bandages wrapped around Akane's arms.
To this question, Akane nodded energetically.
"Ah! Of course. I do it every time, any time! What's wrong with that?"
She returned the question, stroking the white area covered over her skin.
To which the bespectacled girl responded with a straight face that showed no emotion.
"Why don't you take those off?"
"What nonsense!"
The word was said so casually that Akane was astonished, as if she could not believe it.
A set of chopsticks made a clanking sound and were rolling around on the sheeted floor.
Thinking that the chopsticks were going to get dirty, the glasses girl quickly picked them up, while Akane remained frozen at her friend's words.
"Komakoma, what are you suddenly spouting ......? You want me to take off this bandage? I thought for a moment that I had been struck by lightning!"
"Because that's how it should be, right? Akane isn't particularly injured, and no matter how I look at it, it's unnecessary."
The glasses girl continues to tell her in an indifferent manner.
-- Indeed, she's been wearing bandages all day today ....... and with that arm, she was playing sports as usual.
Nekomaru, watching from afar, agrees with the girl's statement.
As she said, the bandages wrapped around Akane's arms didn't serve as bandages at all.
Rather, they only bound her arms and were nothing more than a tight fit.
So why was she wearing bandages?
Such a question suddenly came to Nekomaru's mind.
"It's not unnecessary! Komakoma, there is no way I am wearing a bandage around my arm for no reason whatsoever!"
"What do you mean?"
As if to answer such a question.
"Not on this arm! The power of the mighty ability that lies within me is sealed in this arm!"
Akane replied in a loud and proud voice that even the distant Nekomaru could hear clearly.
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