So, there were three of them?
I just had to frighten this trio, so that they would never come near this place again. That was my mission. I silently burned it into my mind. Without hesitation, I leapt over the boy who’d fallen, getting all three of them into my field of vision. The one on the ground let out another shriek, rolling.
As I let out a low growl, the fallen one managed to get to his feet, tripped over himself, and fled toward the stairs that I had just come up. Scaring him off was just what I wanted, but it seemed like it would be more fun to dispatch all three of them at once.
“Eek!”
Just then, my clone arrived from below. As the clone approached the scrambling one from the stairs, I advanced from behind him, trapping the three boys between us. Having them shut themselves up in the music room would be a bother.
Leaving my clone to keep an eye on them, I leapt out the window, slipped around into the music room, and locked the door. Hearing a miserable, almost girlish voice stammering behind me, I leapt back outside.
Going straight back out into the hallway from here would hardly be exciting.
I was sure that the guards would merely think that this was all a dream. Out in the courtyard, I enlarged myself to a size that would truly be worthy of a “kaiju,” glaring in at the boys through a window with my elevated gaze.
For a moment, it was so quiet that time seemed to stop. Then, from within, there was a scream. I watched and laughed as the three boys tried to run, terror on their faces, looking like they might crumble at any moment. Naturally, I did so in a monstrous cry, careful not to let out any hint of my human voice.
In order to guide them to the stairs, I left the clone where he was and slipped back into the building myself. They’d go exactly where I wanted, whether they wanted to or not. Partway down, Mr. Backside tripped and tumbled on the landing. I menaced them from the floor above, skulking like a beast stalking prey. Meanwhile, I sent my clone running to the floor below, halting Motoda and the other on the fourth floor.
“Stay back!”
Mr. Backside scrambled again to his feet and rushed to the fourth floor, joining back up with the rest of his party. My clone glared at them from the hallway while I glared at them from the stairs, leaving them a clear path to the third floor and making it obvious to the intruders where they could run.
Was there no special technique I could think of here to threaten them? I growled again, pondering, when there came the harsh sound of Motoda clicking his tongue.
“There’s two of them?” I thought I heard him mutter, when suddenly he did something unbelievable.
He took the bat that he had been gripping with his left hand the whole time into his right and went swinging at the clone.
“Take that!”
Not knowing what might happen if the clone were to take a hit, I had it back up while I shook my body intimidatingly at him. Seeing this full display of anger, Motoda took a step back. As he did so, both I and the clone each advanced in turn, closing in around him.
What was with this guy? Though I would never show it, the heart I wasn’t quite sure I had felt like it was thundering in my chest.
Seriously, to just go swinging at a monster when you didn’t even know the extent of its power? Motoda returned to his two companions and readied his bat again. He seemed to come to a conclusion based on the fact that the clone had avoided his swing, not attacked in return, and conversely how the attack appeared to anger me. He smiled his usual unpleasant grin, looked towards the clone, and muttered, “That one must be its kid.”
Though his declaration was both incorrect and absurd, for my purposes it was perhaps rather useful. I knew exactly what it was he intended to do next.
“Take that!”
Once again, Motoda swung the bat towards the clone, and when the clone dodged, he swung again, just as I suspected he might. He was exactly the sort of person who would happily attack what he identified as the weakest enemy. He stared at the clone, who he had determined to be a child, with the exact same expression as when he looked at Yano-san during the day.
Avoiding his attacks was no problem. If I needed to, I could run away too fast for them to ever catch me. The other two behind Motoda were frozen in place. Thus, there were only two real problems here.
First off, Motoda had realized that the clone was not going to return his attacks. Truth be told, I had been commanding the clone to smack his bat away, but the clone had not budged. Perhaps it was because I hadn’t imbued it with the image of attacking the first time that I summoned it.
Second, I couldn’t allow them to touch my main form. I still had no idea what would happen if they did. The tables would be turned on me if the black drops were to turn Motoda into a monster as well.
What was with this guy?! I’d never imagined Motoda would be so reckless! As the clone retreated farther and farther back, I had no choice but to show them that I had full intention to strike.
Recalling that night on the roof, I ignited the black droplets within me, with a far more restrained image than before, opened my mouth, and let out a small flame. Carefully, carefully, so as not to burn them.
“Wah!”
The other two boys had been watching Motoda fight the clone. Feeling the heat from the flame, they jumped back from me. It was apparently effective, as they went running over to Motoda.
“It can breathe fire!”
“Dude, this is bad!”
“We gotta get outta here!”
I continued to close the gap, inch by inch, as they shouted, forming a pincer of sorts with my clone. Of course, the clone was still capable only of defense, so it wasn’t as if I could keep this up forever. I needed them to scamper off home.
I maybe got a bit careless from there, frantic in my execution.
I should have had my clone pop outside, and come back over to me, but I underestimated my enemy. Just as Motoda’s attack stance seemed to slacken, I instead made the clone leap towards me, up over the three boys’ heads.
I really hadn’t expected Motoda to be so thoughtless.
I don’t know if he knew what the clone was going to do, but he almost reflexively tossed the bat in my direction. The bat arced towards me, so close that it nearly struck the other two boys, and to my dismay, grazed the tail of my clone.
The clone vanished instantaneously, like smoke. Then, one of the fluorescent lamps in the hallway shattered, making an impressive sound. For a moment, it felt as though time stopped.
“…Crapcrapcrapcrapcrap!” Mr. Backside babbled, dashing in the opposite direction from me.
I felt exactly the same way. Oh crap.
Besides me, he seemed to be the only one here with a honed sense of danger. As I faced down the other two, something cold, like sweat, dripped down my skin. It was bad that the lamp had shattered. However, I was far more concerned that they had seen that my clone could be defeated with a weapon. I couldn’t assume that such an attack wouldn’t also work on me. In fact, it was possible that anything that struck me with ill intent could have an effect.
In other words, even if I sent them packing tonight, there was a chance that they might come back to the school some other night to hunt me again.