It seemed they weren’t even going to let them go to the bathroom. Apparently feeling like this answered the question, the monk checked the clipboard he was holding.
“Also: this is not a request, but a notification. Yuri Konishi, you are to leave this instant. Your family is waiting for you.”
“Excuse me? What does that mean?” Yuri seemed surprised to hear her name called.
“I told you to go home right now.” He didn’t seem to want to explain any more than that, but of course, no one was going to accept this without question.
“This is ridiculous! Why is it we can’t go to the bathroom, but Konishi can go home?” Ayanokoji complained.
The rest of the students burst out in similar complaints.
“Yeah! This is ridiculous!”
“An officer of the peace is like a cop, right? Just catch the criminal already!”
“And if you can’t catch them, just send us home with bodyguards!”
Just then, the monk’s attitude did a complete 180. “Shut the hell up, you brats! I told you to stay here! You can piss your pants if you need to!”
The monk reached for his breast pocket.
Yuichi sprung into action.
Fortunately, since they were in class, he had a number of objects in his desk that could be used as weapons. He threw the tactical pen he’d been using as a writing tool.
Just as the monk was pulling out a pistol, the pen struck him in the elbow. It was heavier and sturdier than a normal pen, and thrown with strength like Yuichi’s, there was no way it wouldn’t be debilitating.
The monk’s face contorted in pain and he was forced to drop the gun.
Then another of the boys took action.
He hit the monk against the blackboard, ran up to him, and thrust a fist into his solar plexus. The monk let out a short groan, then collapsed.
“Nice one, Kogan!” the boy’s friend called. “Is that Kogan Style?”
“Yeah, right. It’s called Yanagisawa Style.”
The boy who had defeated the monk was named Kogan Yanagisawa, and the praise had come from a friend of his.
Is that cun jin? Maybe more like an old-fashioned atemi...
Kogan cast a glance at Yuichi. Even though Yuichi had been holding back, he may have noticed what he’d done.
“Well, we beat him, but what do we do now? The others outside will probably notice soon,” Natsuki pointed out cool-headedly.
“I’m not sure what to do in a situation like this...” Hanako murmured, seemingly trying to escape responsibility.
“Leave it to me, okay?” The speaker was An Katagiri, who rose. She was the girl who had had the label “Witch” when he’d first looked at her with Soul Reader. “Sakaki, could you join me for a moment?”
“Why me?” Yuichi approached the lectern as he was called.
“His robe is likely a magic ward,” An muttered to him. “It’ll be hard to cast spells while he’s wearing it, so could you take it off for me?”
She had apparently chosen Yuichi thinking he’d be the type to follow orders.
“Fine. But why can’t you touch magic wards?” He was reminded of how Aiko was weak against Buddhist sutras.
He removed the monk’s kimono, stripping him down to his underwear. An crouched next to him and grabbed the monk’s head in both hands. Suddenly, the monk’s eyes snapped open, and he began murmuring something.
Wow, she really is scary!
“That should do it,” she said.
“How are we gonna explain this to the others in the class?”
“Just tell them I persuaded him to assist us.”
“I doubt that’ll work.”
The monk put his robe back on, stood, and wandered out of the classroom, swaying on his feet. There was no sound of commotion outside, so it seemed it must have worked.
“Wow! Katagiri cast a spell on him or something!” Shota shouted. The other classmates seemed to find this plausible, so that was one problem solved.
But we probably still can’t leave the classroom... The others are still on watch outside. They’d solved the immediate problem, but the fundamental issue hadn’t changed.
Yuichi approached Yuri. “You were told to go home earlier. Any idea what that was about?”
“No, none at all. But if they are officers of the peace, it was probably out of consideration for my family situation.”
“Hmm, but in that case, wouldn’t you be okay if you followed the order not to leave the classroom?”
They couldn’t necessarily trust the monk even if he was a real officer of the peace, but it seemed like their main priority was not having any students wandering the halls.
“Hey,” Yuichi murmured to her. “Could you get people to wait here for just an hour or so? You could say there may really be a killer on the loose, so it’s best if nobody leaves, or something.”
The class trusted Yuri a great deal, so Yuichi thought she could probably keep them under control, at least for a while.
“Certainly, but what will you do?”
“I’m going to investigate.”
Yuri stood up at the lectern and began to speak.
With all attention on her for now, Yuichi moved unobtrusively to the back of the classroom and glanced out the window to check the situation outside. There was a line of tanks on the athletic field, but not many people.
Aiko walked up to him and began pressing him for information. “Sakaki! What’s going on? Did you do this?”
“Why would you assume I’m the one behind it?” Yuichi scratched his head idly.
“So it has nothing to do with you?”
“It might, actually, which is why I’m gonna go check.” Yuichi pulled out his smartphone to try to call Furu Shinomiya. They’d been visited by a monk with a magic-warding kimono, so Yuichi suspected he might be connected to the monster hunters.
But his smartphone had no signal.
“Must be jamming them or something...”
“Ah, you’re right.” Aiko checked her own phone.