Previously:
"..." Mami was anxious. 'No! If this goes on… the vision will come true!' She remembered the vision of Yarai and Akira attacking each other with keys and a stone axe. "..." She realized it was different from what she was actually seeing. 'Eh? So-Something isn't right! This situation and that vision… there's something… That's right, it's weapons! In the vision both of them were fighting with weapons! But there are no axes around here! This one isn't it!? Could it be that after this, Something will happen again!?
At that time, back at the camp, Suzuki and his girlfriend were doing something they shouldn't.
"Ahh! Ryouichi-kun," Kashiwagi said as they approached two of the propped open trapdoors. "If we do it here other people might see."
"It's okay, everyone is busy eating," Suzuki said.
"You're really..." she said affectionately. There was a growling sound.
"Hm? What strange sounds are you making now?" Suzuki asked as he took off his pants.
"Eh? I didn't say anything!" Kashiwagi said, taking off her underwear.
"That's odd. I really heard some strange sound!" Suzuki said.
Chapter 12: Awakening Monster
"In order to save Sensei, I have no other choice," Yarai said. "You understand, right? So stand up, Sengoku!"
"Fuck!" Akira cursed. 'Take my life as an exchange to operate on Kurusu-sensei…? Do you hate us because of the incident that time? How deep is your grudge, Nishikiori!?'
"Is… Is there really no other option?" Mami asked.
"..." Akira gritted his teeth. He couldn't think of one.
"Oh yeah, I have a good idea!" Rion said.
"Eh!?" Akira said.
"How about us threatening Nishikiori?" Rion said.
"!?" Akira said.
"All of us surround the pyramid, and make him listen to us!"
"Ye-Yeah, that's right!" Akira said.
"Yarai-kun is very strong too, so even if we face the adults, it's not certain that we would lose!" Rion said.
"No, that won't work, right?" Yarai said.
"Eh?" Akira said.
"Fukui said it before. Threatening him won't work," Yarai said. "If we do something like this, that bastard will botch the operation intentionally to kill Sensei! He'll say, 'It was too late!'"
"..." Rion and Akira said.
'Shit! Is there really nothing we can do?' Akira wondered.
"Fu~ Kurusu is already like that..." a voice said.
"!" Akira said. "Who… Who is that?"
"It's my uncle," Torako said. "I see you're safe."
"Uncle?" Akira asked.
"It's me!" Kokonoe-sensei said, walking into view as he lit his cigarette. "I see you're safe, too," he told Torako. "I guess you didn't spot me earlier."
"!" Akira gasped. "Kokonoe-sensei!? Wait, uncle!?"
"That's not important right now," Torako said.
"Yeah, but don't go telling people," Kokone-sensei said. "It's 'Sensei', remember?" he told Torako.
"Why are you here?" Akira asked him.
"Hey, hey! Am I not considered as a teacher too?" Kokonoe-sensei asked. "I tailed my niece and the group who anxiously went into the forest just now. Basically I've heard what you guys said. I can't believe things turned out like this."
"Don't you have any ideas, Sensei?" Akira asked. "Any idea for saving Kurusu-sensei?"
"Hmm… That kind of thing is not written in the teaching manual," Kokonoe-sensei said.
"He-Hey!" Akira said.
"..." Kokonoe-sensei looked at his students. "Oh, right. Sengoku..."
"Eh?" Akira said.
"Why don't you guys just try to kill each other and see?" Kokonoe-sensei suggested, placing a hand on Akira's head.
"Eh!?" Akira exclaimed. "You… Hey! What are you talking about?"
"That's not funny," Torako told her uncle.
"..." Kokonoe looked at Yarai.
'Why did he say something like that?' Torako wondered. 'Could it be that he knows something about Yarai-kun that we don't!?' Her wrist throbbed. She winced, almost imperceptibly.
"Are you okay?" Rion asked her.
"Yes, but, Sensei, Yarai..." Torako said.
"Yeah… This guy had lost his mother twice!" Kokonoe-sensei said.
"Lost his mom twice?" Torako asked, surprised.
"Ho-How did that happen?" Akira asked.
"It's all right, Yarai, there's nothing to hide anymore," Kokonoe-sensei told him.
"..." Yarai didn't want to talk about it. Kokonoe-sensei sighed.
"I heard this from his elementary school teacher. And I sneaked a peek in his school's record book," Kokonoe-sensei said, taking a drag on his cigarette. "Well, this is a little complicated, so listen carefully. Yarai's father is a very rich businessman. He likes luxurious things and enjoys playing around with women. He is a man with quite a few lovers. He also had several children who were born, but not claimed. This guy is one of them!"
'Yarai-kun is...' Torako thought.
"But his mother was a very gentle person," Kokonoe-sensei continued. "The relationship between mother and son was really close. The Yarai of that time was very different from now. He was a cheerful and good kid who always smiled. But that didn't last very long."
"Eh?" Akira said.
"His mother suddenly passed away, due to a car accident!" Kokonoe-sensei explained. "For a six-year-old kid, that must've been a really big shock. After all, he had lost his only family. Yarai suddenly changed into a kid who didn't like to talk and concealed his heart. He turned into a kid who would occasionally get angry and hit people."
"..." Akira and Torako waited to hear more.
"But at that time, a woman appeared… that was his mother's younger sister, Kyouko-san. She adopted Yarai. Kyouko-san was a very active and cheerful person."
'That's the person that Yarai mentioned before!' Torako thought.
"Because of that cheerfulness, Yarai slowly opened his heart towards her," Kokonoe-sensei said. "But after a few years, she passed away too. She died suddenly due to internal bleeding around the lower part of the intestine. After that, just like what you now know… the people who could stop Yarai from getting out of control, no longer existed."
"… How could that happen?" Akira asked. "Both of them passed away?" He and Torako both thought of how Yarai was when he was with Kurusu-sensei.
'If that's so, what if Yarai is soon going to lose the third person?' Akira and Torako thought.
"..." Torako didn't know what to say.
"Fine, let's do it!" Akira said.
"Eh?" Rion and Mami said. Torako was surprised, too.
"A-Akira-kun!?" Rion asked.
"Let me be your opponent!" Akira said, standing tall. "Come on, Yarai!!" 'There's no other way, right? So this is the only thing I can do! I can only follow his way!'
"..." Yarai stared at Akira. He really didn't want to do this. But he had to.
'Yarai-kun...' Torako thought, concerned.
'Akira-kun...' Rion thought, also concerned.
"..." Kokonoe watched. A bead of sweat slid down his face. 'Shit! That jerk Nishikiori! I should've killed him at that time!! Oh, but if that's so, Kurusu will definitely die! Damn! Then what to do!? A way in which no one will die, is there such a thing!? But if one of these two guys actually...'
"Whooooah!!" Akira yelled, throwing a punch at Yarai as he aimed one at him.
—∞—
"Ahhahahahahahaha!" Nishikiori laughed back in his house at the pyramid. "That damn brat! I wonder what he's doing now?" He ripped apart a piece of meat to eat. "Well, I don't really know whether he will kill or not, but if he doesn't that woman is going to die! He-he-he! This is the punishment for defying me! You brats just need to understand that!" he grinned evilly. "No one can ever be my enemy! Hahahahaha!"
"Sorry to disturb you, Nishikiori-san," a man said, peeking through the door flaps. "We've found an elevator during the reinforcement of the underground! Just like those brats said!!"
"What!? Let's go immediately!" Nishikiori said. He went over to the coat rack he had and put on his jacket. "..." He glanced at the shelf on his wall where he kept the two mutant skulls they had found. 'Anyway, what kind of bone is this?' he wondered, picking one up. The skull was covered in scales, and the fangs were like a saber-tooth tiger's. 'According to that brat, this was made under the pyramid. It's a little different from those extinct animals… If that's true, then this is something like an experimental failure or something, right? Could it be that these kinds of animals are still out there somewhere?' "..." He put it back on the shelf. 'Hm… It shouldn't be. Things like that should already be destroyed somewhere!'
—∞—
At Akira's group's camp, more people had gathered by the trapdoor Suzuki and Kashiwagi were at. They had put their clothes back on and got the others.
"Hey, what was that voice you heard?" one of the guys asked.
"It wasn't your imagination, was it Suzuki?" another boy asked.
"It' strange, I really heard it, from somewhere under here!" Suzuki said, laying down on the ground to try to peek under the propped-open trapdoor with a torch. "It sounded uncomfortable."
"Eh? Let me see!" the vice president said, laying down next to him. Suzuki got excited. He could almost see her panties. He tried to look closer, not realizing that someone else had the same idea. He bumped heads with the monk. They were both shocked.
"Guwaa!!" they exclaimed.
"Suzuki-kun and Seigou-san, what were you guys doing!!" the vice president asked. She sighed and sat up again. "It's a mistake, right? There should be nothing down there. Even the trap isn't working." But there was something. They didn't know it, but it could sense them. It was a living thing with a strange shape. A huge body, and large claws. It was asleep a while ago, but because of the flow of fresh air that affects the still air underground, or because the weak beam of light that penetrated through the darkness. In a nutshell, that thing has awakened! The body that keeps on stretching, yet unable to move freely yet, that thing, while being attacked by a certain strong feeling… the feeling of hunger. Just like a bear that just woke up from hibernation, it is hungry! What's that smell coming from outside? It's a scent that partially remains in the creature's memory. It's food. Food that it needs!
"It's really strange!" Suzuki said, still trying to peer down into the darkness with his torch. "I did hear something! Something that made me feel uncomfortable!"
"Hm… You must have imagined it," Mariya said.
"That's right! Let's go back now..." Miyauchi said.
"!?" They were all startled when the ground shook beneath them.
"Uwaaa!" a boy cried.
"Kyaaaa!" a girl screamed.
"Wha… What… is this? An earthquake!?" Seigou asked.
"At any rate, it's a tremor!" Miyauchi said.
"He-Hey! Look at that!" Mariya said, pointing to where the trapdoor used to be. There were dust clouds swirling around in the open hole.
"The… the trapdoor fell down?" the vice president asked.
"Was it do to the vibration just now? But why was it only this one?" Suzuki asked.
'Is it because the fulcrum supporting the trap was rotten?' Mariya wondered, leaning down to inspect it. 'But even so, this is...'
"Grrrr…" a sound came from below the dust clouds.
"!!" Mariya said. "Wa-Wait a minute! Something is moving!"
"Eh?" Miyauchi said.
"..." Mariya and the others stared down into the hole. "Th-The hole over here! There is something..." He could see a large silhouette.
Back with Yarai and Akira and the others, something unexpected was happening.
"Un… Unbelievable!" Torako said. Rion was surprised, too.
"..." A bead of sweat slid down Kokonoe-sensei's face. Mami stared with wide eyes.
"… It's an equal match..." Torako said, watching them fight. Both Yarai and Akira were breathing hard, and both of them were wounded. 'I knew it…!' she thought, gritting her teeth. 'Yarai-kun can't use his full strength!'
"Haa haa," Yarai panted, clenching his hand into a fist. "Fuck!" He threw another punch at Akira. Akira dodged and punched Yarai on the side of his face.
"Damn!" Yarai cursed. He delivered a swift kick to Akira, who managed to block it with his arm.
"Gah! Aah!" Akira groaned, wincing from the pain of the harsh blow. Akira braced himself and head-butted Yarai in the gut.
"..." A bead of sweat slid down Torako's face as she watched, feeling conflicted. She didn't want Akira to die, but she didn't want to see Yarai take that kind of damage. He was usually so indomitable.
"Uwooo!" Akira yelled. "Gahaaa!" he grunted.
"..." Rion was stunned. "A-Akira-kun! When did he become so strong?"
"That's not it," Torako said, furrowing her brow. "It's Yarai-kun who has become weaker!"
"Eh?" Rion said.
"Wh-What's going on?" Mami asked.
"Yarai-kun's mind is messed up right now," Torako said. She watched Yarai struggling to fight. "To save Sensei, he must kill Sengoku-kun. But, but..." She clenched her fists.
"… Doesn't he want to kill Sengoku?" Kokonoe asked.
"You don't understand him!" Torako said, trembling a little from the effort of holding herself back. "For him, this kind of thing is a first. It's impossible, to punch your good friend with your full strength." Akira and Yarai had grabbed each other by the fronts of their jackets. They stood there panting, glaring at each other. "After all, Sengoku-kun is Yarai-kun's… first close friend!"
"Oooh!" they yelled as they headbutted each other. Yarai's eyes rolled back in his head, and he fell to his knees. Akira, who was bleeding from his forehead, was shocked.
"Ah… Yarai-kun's..." Torako said.
"Knees are..." Rion said.
"At their end!" Kokonoe-sensei said, just as shocked as his students.
"..." Akira stared at Yarai. "Yarai..." Yarai was breathing hard. He had blood running down from his forehead, too.
'It's useless!' Yarai thought, letting his arms hang limply at his sides. 'I couldn't use all my strength! I can't kill this guy! Am I… Am I… Am I that weak?' He bowed his head. 'I'm sorry… I'm sorry, Sensei! I am unable to do it!'
'Yarai...' Torako thought as tears formed in her eyes again. 'You've always been so confident! You've been so strong, just like a superman!' Her tears fell. 'You must be in shock, thinking you're weak… but you aren't weak! As I thought, you're a kind person!'
"A-Akira-kun, are you all right?" Rion asked.
"Ah, yeah..." Akira said, wiping some of the sweat and blood from his face. They all stared at Yarai, who kept kneeling there, defeated.
"..." Kokonoe-sensei looked back toward the camp. 'It seems like it was a little shaky just now.'
"Uwaaa!" a voice cried in the distance.
Torako heard it. She looked in the camp's direction, too.
"Hey, did you hear something just now?" Kokonoe-sensei asked.
"That sounded like a scream," Torako said.
"Eh?" Akira said.
"A sound just like screaming, from the tower over there!" Kokonoe-sensei said.
Back at the camp, Suzuki had fallen down.
"Uwaa! Uwaaa!" he yelled.
"Kyaaa!" Yuki screamed.
'That… what is that!?' Mariya wondered, staring at the thing before him with wide eyes. It had five toes with claws. 'A paw!?'
"..." Seigou and the vice president were shocked. The paw was enormous. It stepped up. The thing inside the trap was climbing up.
"Ah! Ah!" Kashiwagi gasped, horrified.
"Uwaaa!" Murayama cried.
'Impossible! How big is it!?' Mariya thought, sweat sliding down his face. It climbed up fully, putting its back paws on the ground.
"Eek!" Yuki cried as Mariya reared back.
"Eeek!" Miyauchi said. It was a massive creature with one head that had five eyes, three noses, three mouths with four fangs on one head. It's body was covered in a mixture of fur and scales.
"Uwaaaa!" people yelled.
"Kyaaaaaaa!" they screamed.
'What on earth… What on earth is this strange beast!?' Mariya wondered anxiously.
"From the direction of the tower… screaming…!?" Akira said. They were all looking toward the camp now.
"Waaaaaaaa!"
"Kyaaaaaaaa!"
"!!" Akira gasped. "You're… You're right. It really does sound like a screaming voice..."
"Some… Something really serious might be going on…" Rion said. "Let's go back, Akira-kun!"
"Ah… Yeah..." Akira agreed.
"Wait, Sengoku! I'm going too!!" Kokonoe-sensei said. "Torako, I'm leaving Yarai to you. Who knows what this guy might do now, after all."
"Ye-Yes," Torako said, determined to take care of him.
'Yarai...' Akira thought, looking back at him. He faced forward, and marched toward camp with Kokonoe-sensei, Mami, and Rion went with him.
"..." Mami paused to look back at Yarai and Torako.
At the camp, the beast roared.
"ROOOOOAAARR! GAAAH!"
"Eek!" Murayama said, falling over.
"Eek!" Yuki said, trembling.
"ROOOOAAAAR!" the beast roared again.
'What in the world is this animal!?' Mariya thought, stunned. 'The head portion is like a fusion of three heads! The back is covered with scales like a fish! And the front limbs… rather than those of a four-limbed beast, they more closely resemble those of a human being! Im… Impossible! Isn't this like a chimera!?' The beast growled at them. "… Eh? 'This thing… isn't there something strange about it!? I don't know what it is, but the movements are slow!' "Then… Everyone, now's our chance! If we go now, it looks like we can escape!" The beast's tongue suddenly shot out at them.
"!?" Mariya and the others gasped in alarm. Its tongue was freakishly long. It hit Yuki.
"Kya!" she cried.
"Sakuma!?" Miyauchi yelled. Yuki was thrown by the force of the attack. She sailed into the trap hole.
"Kyaaaaaaaaaaaa!" Miyauchi screamed.
"Sakumaaaaaaa!" the president yelled.
"She fell into the trap hole!" Miyauchi exclaimed.
"We… We have to save her!" the president said anxiously.
"..." Mariya stared at the beast. 'What… Was that its tongue!? What an incredibly long tongue!! It's like a giant anteater! Giant anteaters have long tongues half the length of their bodies, but… this thing's tongue is over five meters long! The length is almost its total body length! To think it was even hiding something like this! Just what is this animal!?' The beast whipped its tongue around, knocking down more people.
"Uaaa!"
"Gyaaaaa!"
"Kyaaa!" Oomori cried as she was hit.
"Onee-chan!" Miina exclaimed as he and Isurugi Miina dodged.
"Gah!" Tooru yelled as he was hit shielding Rei.
"T-Tooru!!" Rei cried.
"Aaah!" another girl cried, staggering away with tears streaming down her face. She was hit hard in the back by the beast's tongue and slammed into the ground. "Ouch!"
"Are… Are you okay, Koyomi-chan?" Seigou asked, helping her up. "Calm down!! Everyone calm down!" he called to the others. "Let's observe the opponent carefully and act accordingly. Everyone that's okay, help the injured!!"
"Ru-Run away!" Yamato told Airi as Morita hit the ground.
"Damn!" Miyauchi said. "Mariya, what do we do!? Don't you have any ideas, damn it!"
"We can't do anything in a chaotic situation like this! Let's pull back, for now!!" Mariya said.
"He-Hey! Aren't we going to save Sakuma-kun!?" the president asked, holding his ribs. Miina was helping Oomori stand up.
"There's a whole mountain of people I want to save, but it's impossible now! All we can do is run away!!" Mariya said. "We shouldn't have to worry about that thing coming after us. For now, at least. As long as his attention is directed over there, that is!" As long as it was still distracted by the people who didn't manage to run away.
"..." Miyauchi gritted her teeth as she watched. "Hey, Mariya! That thing… don't you think its movements are kinda slow…?"
"Yeah… I felt that way as well," Mariya agreed. "Only the tongue is fast. The legs can only move slowly. Possibly, that animal was shut up in the trap for a long period of time, in a state of hibernation… or near death. If that were the case, maybe if it's just woken up, then its bodily functions still aren't operating normally."
"..." Miyauchi furrowed her brow.
"Miyauchi, what's the matter?" Mariya asked.
"If that's the case, isn't this our chance?" she said.
"Chance…?" he asked. She stepped forward.
"To kick its ass!" Miyauchi yelled. "That monster's!"
"De-Defeat it!?" Mariya said. "No way! It's hopeless. Stop it!!"
"We don't know it's hopeless unless we try, right!!" Miyauchi said. "If it can't move freely, now's our chance to beat it down!!"
"Bu… But… if you're alone by yourself..." Mariya said.
"Don't worry. I'll bring that one too," Miyauchi said, nodding her head at another girl.
"That one…?" Mariya asked, looking in the same direction. "Tokiwa…!?" She dodged the tongue, something no one else had been able to do.
"Be… Be careful, Aya-chan!" Morita told her.
"Yeah... she has great reflexes, after all!" Miyauchi said.
"… Me?" Tokiwa asked.
"What is it? Don't want to do it?" Miyauchi asked.
"… Well, it can't be helped, huh?" Tokiwa said.
"?" Miyauchi said.
"Iyaaaa!" a girl cried as she and Oomori were hit by the tongue.
"Aah!" Oomori exclaimed.
"Mi… Miyauchi-san, I'll do it too!" another girl said, holding a long, pointed stick.
"Kirino!!" Miyauchi said. "That's right! You were on the kendo team, huh… Then I have a good plan. Listen up! Got it? The plan is..." She lowered her voice so only they could hear. "… Got it, the two of you!?"
"Yes!" Kirino said, while Tokiwa nodded. The three of them faced the beast.
"All right! Let's do it!" Miyauchi said, clenching her fist.
"Haa, haa," Akira, Rion and Kokonoe-sensei panted as they ran back to camp. "Haa, haa."
"Uwah!" someone cried.
"Wha-What the hell?" Akira asked. "!?" he gasped when he saw a massive silhouette in the distance. "Wha… What is that? That animal!? … Eh?" two girls were running toward the creature. "Isn't that… Miyauchi and the others!? Let's get closer! What are they trying to do!?"
Miyauchi and Tokiwa dodged the tongue.
"ROOOOOOOOAAAAAAAR!" the beast roared. Tokiwa jumped while holding her skirt down.
"Shit!" Tokiwa cursed when it nearly got her. Miyauchi just barely dodged by a hair. "Ow!" Its tongue brushed against the top of Tokiwa's head.
'Just dodging takes everything I've got!' Miyauchi thought as she dodged again. 'As expected, I can't get any closer, but… that's just fine!'
"ROOOAAAAR!" the beast roared again.
"Ow!" Tokiwa said as its tongue grazed her. 'Hmm, as expected, I can't concentrate, huh. And to be not wearing that at a time like this...' Her skirt flew up in the back, revealing her panties. She wasn't wearing her bloomers, as she usually did. "Oops!"
"!!" Miyauchi gasped. "Hey, Tokiwa!!"
"Eh?" Tokiwa said as the tongue descended upon her. "Kyaaaaaa!" she cried as she was slammed into the ground.
"To-Tokiwaaa!!" Miyauchi yelled.
"Ugh!" Tokiwa groaned.
"That's enough already, the two of you…!" Kirino said. She was right behind the beast. She glared at her target.
"Kirino!!" Miyauchi said. "You made it in time!!" She kneeled down next to Tokiwa. 'The two of us were decoys! While we're diverting its attention, Kirino will circle around and attack it from behind! That was the strategy plan!' "Gooooooooooo Kirinoooooo!"
"Tooooooooo!!" Kirino unleashed her battle cry as she charged at the beast. 'I'm going to target its leg tendon! From this distance, there's no way I can miss!' Her eyes widened. "!?" she gasped.
