Her right leg was melting.
The head of a light bullet had melted a lump of iron, and it was flowing like lava, eating into her skin, digging deeper and deeper. She’d gotten her DM activated so the fire that had burned her leg was out, but liquid metal was eating into her thigh through the Witch Bubble.
She was burning, her head in a daze. She tried to move her hands, but her body wouldn’t listen to her. She couldn’t move at all. But it was her body! This was weird. She managed to move her eyes and saw a dark red sky through the holes in the ceiling. There were desks and chairs and pieces of wall scattered all around her, all on fire. There was someone lying next to her, but she couldn’t move her head. So hot melting, oh, someone, Hanabi, Okayama, Fuji, Kyuu-kun, anyone my leg, clean it off…
Can’t say that now. They’re all really busy. We’re lying here and the classmates who got their Maneuvers out in time are all desperately fighting off the monsters, yeah, like they’re protecting us. Someone grabbed her left hand and yelled “Rin!” There was a whistling sound like a punctured lung, and it must be impossibly painful for them to talk, so why were they trying? She wanted to ask, but first they said…
“Look after…Jin for me…”
Who was Jin? She’d heard that name before. Who was it? After that she didn’t hear anyone calling her name. Just the roars of the monsters and the screams and sobs of her classmates, ceaseless. The hand holding hers slid away, going limp. Her leg was still melting. Won’t someone please clean my leg? You can rub a high school girl’s leg all you like for free, right now. Probably too late, though. Poor leg. Oh, I know Jin! Squad Leader Fuji. His name was Fuji Jindo, right? Then the one next to me is…
Darkness.
Her eyes opened, and the ruined classroom ceiling was now a sterile white hospital ceiling.
“Unh…” Everything hurt. She moved her head. Sat up a little. And saw…
“Ah…ah…”
She knew it. The sheets on the right side down there were awfully flat.
“Ah…ahh…ahhh…ahhhhhhhhh…”
She’d thought as much. She covered her face with her hands. If only she could have moved them then.
Everything from Rin’s right thigh on down was gone.
✦ ✦ ✦
The next day, they started cleaning the school.
People treated as “missing” were ones where they hadn’t found a body; odds were high they’d been eaten during the fighting.
A hundred first-year students had entered junior high six months before. Of these, seventy-two were dead or missing, and twenty-eight were wounded.
Seventy percent of the Lunatic Order were MIA. The Fuji Squad was the only squad with all members still alive, but their sniper had lost a leg. Three members of the Sagara Squad, including the squad leader, were dead. One attacker, Okayama, had survived with injuries.
There was one more name Kuon was looking for. He scrolled mechanically down the list of the dead until he found her name.
Murakawa Squad, Control, Gotenba Nao.
Fuji was still picking a wedding dress, as if it hadn’t hit him yet.