“Nothing to be done about it. I’m gonna head out for a bit.” Yuichi returned briefly to his seat and scavenged his bag for whatever might be useful.
“Where are you going?” Aiko asked, having followed, curious about what he was doing.
“The next class over. There’s a girl called Furu Shinomiya there. She may know something.”
“Huh? But you can’t get out, can you?”
“Not through the door, no.” Yuichi approached the window and opened it.
“Huh?! ...Actually, I guess this is what I’d expect from you...” Aiko seemed surprised at first, but moved immediately to acceptance.
He checked the athletic field again. They must have completely secured the area, because there were no monks there now.
Yuichi climbed out the window and steadied himself with finger strength alone. Then he jumped to the next classroom over, grabbed the windowsill, and stabilized himself again.
He peered into the classroom. Inside there were only the students and the teacher.
They seemed a little rattled, so the monk must have just finished his explanation.
Yuichi checked inside the classroom, but Furu wasn’t there.
If she was working with them, did they take her out somewhere?
He wondered what he should do. If this situation was related to the Evil God, his best move would be to head for the sacred territory, so he decided to move toward the roof.
There were plenty of handholds on the school’s exterior walls, including pipes, making it easy for someone with Yuichi’s prowess to climb, with the only snag being the lip around the edge of the roof.
Yuichi poked his head over the edge to size up the situation.
There was a large crowd of people there. It wasn’t just Buddhist monks; there was a diverse crowd of people in religious attire.
A large altar-like object had also been assembled on the roof. Yuichi couldn’t make out all the details, but the monks seemed to be moving restlessly around it.
The other thing that stood out was that part of the fence had been cut open, and an escape chute attached to it. The cloth tunnel was linking the roof to a window on the second floor.
He wondered why they couldn’t just set up a ladder from below, but maybe it didn’t work that way. Maybe you couldn’t reach the sacred territory unless you came at it from above.
The monks were piling into the escape chute one after another.
Are these the Evil God specialists?
If so, Yuichi didn’t mind leaving it to them, but he was concerned about the school being locked down like this. About half of the people who had been on the roof had ended up going down in the escape chute. The rest seemed to be preparing a ritual of some sort.
Yuichi spotted Furu Shinomiya among those still on the roof.
She was standing a ways away from the others, looking a bit like a loose end.
Yuichi slipped onto the roof, silenced his footsteps, and approached Furu from behind.
“Hey,” he addressed her in a low voice.
“Huh?” Furu spun around quickly. “How did you get here? I thought there was strict security all the way up to the roof...”
“Can we talk?”
“All right. Let’s go somewhere they won’t see. I’m not in charge of anything, so they probably won’t notice I’m gone...”
Furu headed to the other side of the stairwell block, and Yuichi followed.
Once they were in a blind spot, Furu bowed to him. “I’m sorry.”
“So this does have something to do with you?”
“It does, in that they are the top-class monster hunters I called to seal the Evil God.”
“So what’s going on?” he asked.
“Um, sealing the Evil God requires a powerful spell, which in turn requires a huge catalyst...”
Yuichi inferred the rest from Furu’s hesitant behavior. “So they’re gonna sacrifice the people in the school? That’s crazy! There are over a thousand people in this school!”
“What else are they supposed to do? A thousand people isn’t much against the entire population of the world...”
It was such a huge issue, he could barely comprehend it. But Furu seemed to believe it, and they clearly were preparing for some kind of big ritual here on the roof.
“So what happens next?” he demanded.
“One group is going to invade the Evil God’s sacred territory. If they can stop it before it’s revived, this all ends without incident. But if it does revive, they’ll use the sealing ritual...”
She probably had no obligation to tell Yuichi this, as an outsider, yet she was being completely honest with him. Perhaps it was guilt.
“Well, he probably will revive,” Yuichi said.
Mutsuko would make sure that would happen. She was probably gleefully playing the villain role right about now. Yuichi could be sure of that.
“This is probably going to be really inconvenient to you, so let me apologize in advance,” he said. He’d just have to enter the sacred territory. Yuichi steeled his resolve and began walking forward.
“Hey, what are you doing? The entrance is heavily guarded!”
“I’m going to force my way through. If they’re willing to kill a thousand people, they can’t complain if I punch them a little.”
“That’s not what I’m talking about! They aren’t ordinary monster hunters! An ordinary high school student can’t possibly hope to—”
Furu apparently had no intention of trying to stop him by force, so Yuichi just ignored her and broke into a run. He didn’t want to get reckless about it, but he couldn’t afford to take his time, either.
There were three men standing guard over the chute. They were all wearing monk’s habits, which probably offered defense against magic attacks. They were also holding shakujo, ornate staves topped with brass rings.
Yuichi ran, his footsteps silent. They didn’t even notice him until he was in range.
The nearest monk tried to ready his shakujo, but Yuichi hit him with a forceful kick, hoping to send him flying.
The monk did indeed fly back, hit the other two, and send them sprawling.
Before they could recover, Yuichi dove into the escape tube.