When I shot a stern glare at her with all eight of my eyes, Yano-san chuckled. Now that she was accustomed to them, it must have looked a bit more comical than it would have coming from a more human stare.
“That’s…no good.”
“Right? Also, he seems to have figured out how easy it is to sneak into here.”
“Then he knows about…midnight break.”
“I don’t know about that, but even if we avoid coming here until those guys get bored of hunting a kaiju, what if this place ends up becoming a long-term hangout for them? Even laying low wouldn’t fix the problem.”
“What if…you scared them away…at the gates?”
“That would be fine if I could come here early and lie in wait for them, but I’m never sure exactly what time I’m going to change into a monster each night.”
I tried to direct her away from any plans that relied solely on my effort. This was the nighttime. No one should be seeing me.
Yano-san folded her arms and grumbled. “If they come…at any time outside of midnight break…the guard will catch them, so it should be…fine. And…if they come during midnight break…you’ll just have to make sure they never think of sneaking in…ever again.”
“I guess so. Scaring them off outside of the school wouldn’t stop them from wanting to sneak in, anyway.”
Suddenly, a creepy laugh erupted from Yano-san. “Eeheeheeheeheehee!”
“What is it?” I asked.
“No, it’s just… I’m so…happy to have you protecting this place…Acchi-kun.”
Though I had purposely tried to ignore that fact, hearing it said out loud was a bit embarrassing.
It wasn’t like that. It was merely that I, being a monster, might actually have the ability to drive them away.
But another strange thought crossed my mind: that I might somehow be trying to atone for things I had done during the day.
“Well, anyway, if I can get more details about their plans, then you probably shouldn’t come here on the day it goes down,” I said.
“And just how will you let me know…the timing?”
“I, uh…”
If I only found out on the day they planned to do it, there wouldn’t be enough time to get word to her. As I told her before, the time which I turned into a monster every night was not set—and I couldn’t talk to her during the daytime.
“And…also…”
“Hm?”
“What would you do? If it was…today?”
As if perfectly timed to Yano-san’s words, when I tried to respond to the thought, there came a sound like a large bell ringing from outside the window.
The alarm. My body trembled, oversensitive to the noise. We looked to one another and both immediately crouched down. We’ve been spotted, I thought. The alarm bell was sudden.
My eight eyes darted back and forth wildly as I crept towards the front door alongside Yano-san, when suddenly, the bell stopped. As it did, Yano-san immediately turned to me.
“That seems…strange.”
“What does?” I asked, my voice strained.
Yano-san stood. “I figured we might have been spotted by some…teacher…who came here and didn’t know about midnight break… Since…the guards shouldn’t have a problem with us. But…the alarm only rang…over in the other building. And it…was quiet.”
She was clearly flustered. As I thought about it, besides the whole “midnight break” thing, everything she said was correct, so I summoned up a Shadow and sent it flying out into the courtyard. Naturally, there was no one there. When I snuck into the opposing building and had a thorough look around, there was no one there either. A light was on in the guard room, but there was no indication of anything actually going on. I moved outside, looked out across the fields and then turned towards the gates.
There, through the Shadow’s eyes, I caught a glimpse of movement.
It was only for a moment, and there was barely enough time to confirm that it was a human passing through the gates before they vanished out of sight. I hurried to chase after them, but the second I passed through the gates, my connection to the Shadow’s sight was severed.
“What’s…wrong?” Yano-san asked.
“The Shadow vanished.”
“Oh, you call that thing…Shadow? How embarassing.”
“Yeah, whatever. Anyway, I saw someone,” I told her.
“Who?”
Who indeed. I’d at least seen that they were wearing a jersey, had shorter hair, and were not very tall. Still, it was only for an instant that I saw them. As I described what I’d seen, Yano-san flopped into her chair, grumbling.
“Maybe…it was someone from outside the school…who came because they heard the bell. Maybe the guard or the teacher…or whoever… rang it.”
“No, it looked like they were wearing one of our school’s jerseys.”
“Well, this is midnight break…so if that’s true, then they’re probably some total idiot who let their own alarm go off…or something,” she said wearily, conveniently ignoring her own idiocy in sneaking into the school every night. Hearing the word “idiot,” however, it occurred to me that it might have been someone from Motoda’s squad, an individual sent ahead for reconnaissance. Or worse, there might already be more of them hanging around in the school…
Ever the worrywart, I once more summoned up my Shad…er, my clone self and checked out the interiors of both buildings. In the end, however, I found no one but the guards.
“Did Mister Shadow…find anything?”
“…No, nothing.”
Honestly, in what world does a monster get teased by a little girl?
There was no way that we were going to be able to get any more information about who I had seen. Instead, Yano-san and I discussed how to deal with Motoda and company. I silently continued my surveillance throughout. Unfortunately, we were unable to come up with any sort of special measures, and in the end, we decided that I would chase them down with a clone if they snuck in during midnight break, menacing them with fire like some sort of wild beast.
Though I said that this was a discussion, it was mostly just me offering up ideas while Yano-san chattered about nonsense in between.
Finding myself at a loss in the midst of it, I confessed: “You know, Yano-san, I’m doing this for you.”
To which she peevishly replied, “Well…that’s patronizing.”
Finally, as always, came the chime that signaled the end of midnight break.
“Time…to go home.”
As I lifted up my shrunken body, Yano-san stood as well and then stared hard at me.
“What’s up?”
“Will you come again…tomorrow?”
I hadn’t heard that question in a while. I started to wonder why it was that she had asked me that again today, but then stopped myself.
“They might show up without warning, so I’ll be here. Hide yourself somewhere while I’m not here.”
It really would be for the best, I thought, if she learned to be more cautious. To Yano-san, there was nothing that caused her more uneasiness than the thought of her midnight break being ruined.
I could not see her face as she waved me away on parting, and my heart filled with worry about what would happen tomorrow.