“Aaah…well.”
I maintained silence.
“If you try…to pretend you aren’t…Acchi-kun…then I…might have to start…spreading rumors.”
“Wai—! Ah, no, uh—!”
I inadvertently let my voice return to normal as I bristled at her threat. Her smile widened, as though perhaps she was pleased to have heard my voice.
“It’s…fiiine.”
What was fine?
“I won’t…t-tell…anyone!”
I had no idea what was supposed to be reassuring about those wholly untrustworthy words.
“And in re…turn, you can’t…tell anyone that I was…here.
O…kie dokie?”
I was a little startled at her proposition.
Bargaining terms. I’d thought she was some kind of idiot, someone who couldn’t read the situation. Apparently, I was wrong.
She stared at me with her great big eyes.
I had lost.
After thinking on it, I nodded. I figured it was better to agree to a bargain where both sides could blackmail the other, rather than leave myself open to uncertainty, not knowing what might happen next. It was far too dangerous to let her run loose—this girl who knew the me behind the monster. She was the kind of person who always said more than she needed to.
Thinking about it afterwards, perhaps I wanted someone to know that I could turn into a monster. Some part of me probably wanted to take pride in it.
I steeled myself, taking care that my voice would not betray me. “All right,” I said—and as I did, the girl once again gave that smile.
“Won…der…ful,” she replied.
I wasn’t sure I agreed. What would have been most wonderful was not getting caught by that girl at all.
…Right. Speaking of. What was this girl doing sneaking into school in the middle of the night? As I worried over whether or not to interrogate her, she spoke first. A peculiar question crossed her lips.
“Acchi-kun, is that…a…kigurumi?”
I swiftly dodged as she reached her arms out, trying to touch my front legs. I was unsure what might happen if a person touched me. Would anyone else really dare to touch me so suddenly? Who could imagine this form of mine to be a costume?
“It’s not.”
“Ah… I see. So…it isn’t. It doesn’t seem like you’re…wearing a kigurumi…right now.”
Though I tried to speak with a threatening edge to my voice, this girl was not one to be so easily intimidated. Once again, she tried to touch me. What was with her? She was such a…
Actually, what was with all the “Acchi-kun, Acchi-kun?”
“I don’t recall you ever calling me ‘Acchi’ before.”
In attempting to speak normally, caught up in the flow of the conversation, I inadvertently outed myself as “Acchi” out loud. However, this girl was already someone who spoke to a monster as though it were her normal classmate. She deliberately shook her head, like such small details did not concern her.
“I have…not. But that’s what…you’re called, isn’t it? I am…Yano Satsuki, don’t…you remember? Do you like to…use nicknames? Or…normal names?”
“…Full names. Yano-san, what are you doing here? In this classroom?”
“I came…to play. But this is…out of hand. Let’s…fix this.”
Without awaiting my reply, Yano-san began to right the desks that I had knocked over. I couldn’t just stand there and watch her fix the mess that I had made, so I began to straighten the desks one by one with my tail. “How…convenient,” she said, softly.
After rearranging the desks more neatly than they had been when I arrived and fixing the timetables back to the wall, she looked at me and then made a gesture as though wiping sweat from her brow.
“Thanks…for the help.”
“No big.”
We had never once been together in any group or student council or club. I felt no comfortable sense of accomplishment from working with this girl. I’d never even desired to speak to her before now.
Yano-san pounded her fist once. “That’s…right.”
I wasn’t sure what she was going to say, but I got the sense that something strange was going to come out of her mouth again. However, it was an unexpectedly straightforward question.
“You were ques…tioning me…but before that…I’m so curious to know, if that’s… not a kigu…rumi, then how is it you look…like that, Acchi…kun?”
I had no idea what to tell her, but I thought that I better at least say something and opened my mouth to speak. Just then, suddenly, a familiar sound rang throughout the classroom.
I must be sensitive to sounds, because I recoiled in shock.
I had no idea that the school bells chimed even at night. Though there were a few homes around the campus. You’d think that it would be considered a disturbance of the peace.
When I looked at Yano-san, however, she did not appear surprised at all. This must not have been the first time that she snuck into the school if she knew that the bells would chime. However, things were a little more complicated than that.
“Ah… Looks like…midnight break is…coming to an…end.”
She pulled her phone from her pocket and fiddled with it, and the chiming stopped.
“Wh-what was that noise?”
“That was…the warning bell. If I…don’t hear the…chime, I’ll… forget. Midnight…break will be over in ten…minutes.”
What on earth was “midnight break?” Just as I began to fume over Yano-san talking nonsense on top of her strange actions, she held both of her palms out towards me. Perhaps she couldn’t tell how disgruntled I was underneath my dark, monstrous face.
“Let’s…continue this…tomorrow.”
“T-tomorrow?”
Did she mean during school? No way. Absolutely, positively not. There was no way I would be seen speaking to Yano-san, let alone risk looking chummy with her.
“Um, Yano-san…”
“It’s…fiiine! I don’t mean during…the day. Try and come here…a little earlier…tomorrow night.”
“Here?”
“Yes…here. Can you…come?”
Though Yano-san didn’t say it, the threat was implied that if I did not come, she would start telling everyone. The effect of her holding that fact over me was immediate. Though we ostensibly had a mutual agreement, if that agreement was broken, the damage would fall disproportionately on my side.
Having no other choice, I nodded.
What an utter, tremendous turn this night had taken, that despite this monstrous form of mine, I should be ordered around by such a weird girl.
Annoyed at the look of joy on Yano-san’s face, I slipped through a tiny crack in the window and leapt outside without another word.
It wasn’t until the sun was rising and my human form returned that I realized I had forgotten my homework.
My entire evening had been an utter waste.