Source
https://kakuyomu.jp/works/16817330662140414210/episodes/16817330662757848638
The classroom was empty except for me and Rika.
I put my luggage on the floor and Rika approached me.
“What are you doing suddenly?”
“I’m trying to heal your wounds.”
I asked her what she meant, but she didn’t respond. I moved backward, slowly. The wall was getting closer and closer.
I couldn’t make eye contact. I’m sure Rika has the same look like she did when she was in the haunted house. I don’t want to see her like that.
“You’re scary Rika. All you have to do is tell me what you’re going to do. Don’t just walk up to me quietly.”
“That’s an impossible order, Masatoshi.”
I resisted in vain, and my back was stuck firmly against the wall.
Her hand reached out and placed it under my chin. She lifted it up with a snap.
I can’t even look away when someone stares at me like that. It is like a herbivore facing a predator. I could not do anything carelessly.
“You’re cute, Masatoshi. What a poor thing. I don’t like it when you look like that.”
Starting from the chin, Rika’s fingers stroke the contours of my face. She only touched slightly. It tickles me, and I almost make a funny noise.
“But it’s okay. The end of Kisaki Saki is near. I could tell by the way Kisaragi was looking at her. What is directed at that lowlife is not love, but pity.”
I only got half of what she was saying. I was preoccupied with Rika, who has gone out of control and is trapped in her own world.
No, this is not Rika. She is supposed to be a childhood friend who keeps a good distance from me.
Even if she make a mistake, she won’t do anything she doesn’t like.
“……Hmm……”
Her face comes closer. She smells me with her nose.
“Ah,…..that’s Masatoshi’s smell. It’s still the same, it’s calming.”
“Rika, please come back to this world. It’s obviously not right. Look me in the eye and come to your senses.”
It took courage, but I looked into Rika’s eyes.
The highlights were gone from her eyes. Even more so than when she was arguing with Kisaki Saki. It was as if her soul had been drained and possessed by an evil spirit. She was stunned, or rather, ecstatic.
“What nice eyes. Poor eyes that don’t believe in people.”
Rika took my hair in her hands and played with it as she spoke to me.
“Poor eyes, huh. I did not feel good about Kisaki and the others earlier. It was a bad reunion. I pity her.”
“No, not just earlier, but all the time. Masatoshi lives a life where he always falls into pitfalls. Poor guy.”
“I managed so far.”
“What if I hadn’t been there? Would you have made it?”
“T-that’s.”
I couldn’t deny it.
If Rika had not been there, who would I have relied on? Would I have been able to recover? Would I have made it to high school?
“It would have been tough. It’s not my arrogance. I have been exterminating oversized pests. If I had been attacked as I was…..I wouldn’t be here right now.”
“I understand that Rika is important. But that doesn’t mean you’re being forced to do it unilaterally–“
When she let go of my hair, she put her mouth next to my ear.
“–Then, all I have to do is get consent, right?”
A whisper.
Even over the phone, it was an extremely pleasant sensation. Now it was raw. The destructive power was incomparable to the previous one.
My legs started shaking again. This time, it was not because of fear.
“Masatoshi wants me to do this to him.”
“N-no. I don’t.”
“Do you want me to stop?”
A breath of warm air blew into me.
“I don’t want you to stop.”
“Because it’s comfortable, right?”
“Y-yeah.”
I didn’t want to escape from this situation. I was becoming controlled by a devastating desire to be whispered to and melted down to my brain.
“Then, you don’t mind being comforted by me, do you?”
“T-that’s.”
“Don’t you like it when I whisper to you?”
“I don’t hate it, I love it.”
“Then you will accept me, won’t you? You only have to say yes or no. Nod your head for yes. Shake your head for no. Now answer me.”
My ears have been buzzing the whole time.
It’s like a guided interrogation. It’s like yes or no from the start. What little reason I have left screams at me that I’m doing something I shouldn’t do.
The scream is drowned out by Rika’s call. She is ready. All that was left was for me to give the okay.
Slowly, I nod my head. There was no reason to refuse.
“You’re a good boy, Masatoshi. It seems that you, like me, are a childhood friend who never disappoints.”
“Yeah.”
I had lost the will to have a proper conversation. I was not interested in the rest, as long as I could stay in this space.
“Well, first, let’s sit on the chair. Bring it from behind.”
As ordered, I took out a chair. Desks and chairs had been relegated to the back half of the classroom. I borrowed one of the seats in the front row and set it up in the center of the front half of the classroom.
“Next.”
“Right……”
Rinka looked around the classroom and found what she was looking for. With light steps, she took it and held it by both ends.
“I found a string in a place like this. I thought it would take a lot of work. Must be because of the festival.”
It was a sturdy-looking string that would not break at the slightest chance.
“Why the string?”
“You know it. What is the string used for?”
She grabbed it with both hands from the edge, a little closer to the center, and pulled it.
“–To tie you up, Masatoshi.”
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