Crap, I thought staring down the wooden blade. But it wasn’t Motoda’s battle stance that unnerved me—it was the fact that I saw his companion behind him, looking for a weapon so he could take up arms against me alongside Motoda. Never once taking his eyes off me, he reached slowly in the direction of the cleaning supply cabinet. Perhaps he thought that I wouldn’t notice.
What could I do? My heart and my brain were on fire. I needed to act, and yet I stood there, overthinking what my next move should be, and so I acted too late.
His hand reached the handle of the cabinet. Twice his fingers swept past it, but the third time he took hold and gently tried to open it.
However, the cabinet didn’t open. Yano-san was probably barring it from within. Just when I thought I could finally be at ease, however…
“Some…one’s…in here!”
Before I could shout, How stupid can you be?! the two boys jumped, trying to distance themselves from the cabinet from which they had suddenly heard a high-pitched voice. This was a boon to me. I swallowed back my scream and leapt over to the cabinet. This was it.
It all happened in the blink of an eye, so I couldn’t say that I had recalled Yano-san’s words or anything like that.
I opened my mouth up wide and chomped down with all my might onto the supply cabinet.
And then, I imagined.
Inside my body was a universe. A vast space was unfurling inside of me, greater than could be seen from outside. My mouth was the entrance to this space from which I could swallow up anything I chose. Those things would lie within me, and I could spit them back out whenever I wanted.
In a matter of seconds, I swallowed the supply cabinet up whole, like a bird swallowing a fish. I completed this task without even having the freedom to doubt whether I actually could, looking the two flabbergasted boys in the eye.
Once again, it felt as though time stopped.
“Waaaaaaaaaaaah!!!”
Apparently, seeing a monster swallow up something larger than them had given them quite the shock. The pair screamed and then rushed from the classroom, tripping over themselves.
With the power of imagination, anything is possible.
Of course, I had no reason to believe such a thing, but the question was always in the back of my mind: But what if I could? What if I could sprout wings and fly? What if I could sink into the ground? What if I could teleport? And from out of those flights of fancy came a pocket dimension. Though of course, I was a monster. Swallowing things up was just what we did.
And yet, I had never truly tested my power, still afraid of hearing those words.
If you can do anything, then rescue me.
No matter what power I had, that was not something I could do.
That said, at least during the nighttime, I would do all that I could. If I didn’t, that idiot would wind up revealing herself. That was exactly how hopeless she was.
At the very least, tonight, this monster could rescue her.
After standing the bamboo sword that Motoda had so violently tossed up against the shelf, I decided to give chase. I needed to at least force them off of the school grounds.
It was easy enough to pursue them as they tripped down the stairs. As I gave a roar from behind to let them know of my presence, the pair glanced back, let out a scream, and then ran with all they had.
I looked at Motoda, who cried pitifully, “Stay back!”
This was starting to get fun.
When they reached the first floor, the pair sensibly ran straight for the entrance and then directly outside. It was here that I realized that, unlike Yano-san, they had not bothered to change into their indoor shoes when sneaking in.
Now that we were outdoors, I could finally change myself to a size of my liking.
I found them running for the gate. As if he had been kindly awaiting the other two, Mr. Backside was there as well.
I vibrated my body up to a properly kaiju-like size and placed my first step down just where the trio were about to tread. With the writhing black drops as a cushion, the motion made no sound but still kicked up dust off of the ground.
They continued to the gates, falling over themselves at least twice. Now, for my insurance policy. Very carefully, making sure that no one was around, I breathed flames in the direction they were running. Just as I pictured it, a path of fire stretched until just beyond the gate, leaving them no route but the one by which they might escape. They rolled on the ground and looked up at me, eventually growing motionless. Was it simply too hot for them? They couldn’t even stand, it seemed.
As I stood there, puzzled by their sudden cowardice, Motoda screamed something.
I strained my ears to listen. It sounded like a curse. He was peering at me, wide-eyed. “Damn it! Just what the hell are you?!”
Your classmate, I obviously could not reply.
“We weren’t even doing anything!”
Sure, they hadn’t done anything…yet. But once again, I could not reply. Instead, I stamped my foot once, a warning that I could crush them at any moment.
Though I had countless times now shown them just what my shifting forms could do, Motoda persisted in his bluff, glaring daggers up at me despite the fear plain on his face.
Just then, as I felt my irritation rising, he said something he should not have.
“What d’you want with my school?!”
Suddenly, the brain that I was not certain was inside of me reached its boiling point.
“…It isn’t yours.”
There was no way to label the words but a mistake. I have no excuse. They just slipped out of me. By the time I cursed myself for it, it was already too late. Motoda appeared to have heard me loud and clear. He was frozen, his eyes open wide.
It’s all over, I thought. He heard my voice. They knew that I was a monster now.
However, the reason that I thought this was because I was inadvertently using Yano-san as the standard by which to judge our other classmates.
“You can talk…?” I was relieved to hear him squeak out those words. Of course. Of course that was the part he’d focus on. Who wouldn’t be surprised to learn that a monster who looked like me possessed the intelligence to use words? Or that they could understand those words? No one would be stupid enough to focus on figuring out just whose voice it was, especially not the first time they heard it.
“O-okay, I get it!” he shouted.
He got what?
“I won’t come back! I won’t come back again!”
Though he spoke as though prostrating himself before me, Motoda managed to clamber to his feet and began to run, leaving his companions behind. Somehow or other the boy from the next class made it to his feet as well. He ran behind, shouting, “Wait!”
It seemed that they hadn’t interpreted my words the way I meant them. To them, it probably appeared that I was the master of this school or something. Well, if so, that was good enough for my purposes. That meant that they would never return here at night.
With the speed that only a group of athletes could possess, the intruders were gone in the blink of an eye. I drew in as much air as I could into the lungs that I wasn’t certain I possessed and let out a sigh.
Apparently, it was all over.
Still a seeming kaiju, I looked up to the heavens. All the tension that had seized my body melted away.
Thank goodness. I had won. I’d chased them away. Motoda and the rest.
Suddenly, my whole body seized with a particular emotion, and once more I thought something that showed that very childishness Iguchi had accused me of.
I really was invincible at night.