Ignoring Sakayanagi Arisu's faintly teasing gaze, Chris kept his expression perfectly neutral — while quietly directing his full attention to the Black Sphere interface that only he could see.
As the one calling the shots, he'd naturally had GANTZ keeping watch around the clock.
Not just for the sake of human safety, either. For any guests that might be on their way — well, a good host had to extend at least some basic hospitality, didn't he?
As the map refreshed, several vivid red blips scattered across different corners of Tokyo.
On the screen:
There were Kabane from Koutetsujou no Kabaneri — hearts encased in blazing orange iron membranes, wholly ignorant of what fatigue even felt like. There were the Chimeras from Darwin Jihen — raised for years by humans, yet never having acquired anything resembling humanity, all antisocial instinct wrapped in an ape's body.
But what genuinely caught Chris off guard were the figures in black suits — pale-faced, their features blurred almost beyond recognition.
The Silence, from Doctor Who.
Creatures of pure horror: look away for even a second, and every memory of them evaporates instantly. Living cognitive disruptors.
Though in practice, they were mostly all bark and no bite. Beyond their ability to discharge electricity, their physical defense couldn't even stop a handgun round.
Classic glass cannons.
What Chris was actually worried about were the other monsters from the same universe.
Specifically... the Weeping Angels.
Quantum-locked into stone only when observed. The moment you blinked — the moment your gaze slipped even slightly — they'd exile their prey into the past and feed on the displaced temporal energy. Assassins of the cosmos.
"If those things show up, things could get a little... complicated," Chris muttered, rubbing his chin, sinking into thought.
He had rule-based trap and spell cards from Yu-Gi-Oh in his hand — but who knew if the Water Barrier could actually bounce creatures from that high a dimensional tier back to the Doctor's universe...
"Better play it safe. Keep another ace up my sleeve."
Against science-side monsters like these, if the trap cards fell short, he'd counter with gadgets from the same technological register.
After all, Doraemon's pocket dimension was a bottomless well.
Whether it was the Shape-Solidifying Lamp — capable of instantly freezing any object in place, locking it down far more thoroughly than quantum-lock ever could — or the Copy Mirror, which could create a duplicate Weeping Angel and force them to stare at each other indefinitely, trapping both in a permanent loop of mutual quantum entanglement...
As long as you played defensively, solutions always outnumbered problems.
And in the meantime — while he waited for his item rotation to refresh — he wasn't entirely opposed to showing these interdimensional visitors a little leniency.
For the Ghouls and the malevolent spirits that simply wanted to find a quiet corner of the world and stay there — the honest ones — he was even willing to offer them a shot at coexistence.
If they could keep their heads down and be model citizens, he was perfectly happy to be a hands-off landlord.
As for the Kabane and the Silence — pure, uncomplicated enemies of mankind by their very nature — they could earn their keep as the main attractions of the next trial.
"Before any of that, though, let's give everyone a couple of days to rest and recover."
"I'm not a demon who has to wipe everything out the moment it shows up, after all."
...
And so, four or five days passed in apparent peace.
Though in certain people's eyes, surface-level calm was a very different thing from actual calm.
---
Class 1-D's homeroom.
Ayanokoji Kiyotaka sat with one hand propped under his chin, looking for all the world like he was spacing out — while in reality, he was quietly cataloguing every shift in the class's social dynamics.
First: Horikita Suzune.
Ever since the last special exam ended, she'd been carrying something invisible and heavy — like a pair of shackles locked silently around her shoulders.
The prickling edges she used to project at all times had gone quiet. She'd become more withdrawn. Even when her classmates praised her, she responded with stiff, hollow echoes of acknowledgment. That desperate urgency to prove something — to prove herself — radiated off her so intensely it was practically visible.
Second: Chris.
Ayanokoji's gaze shifted slightly, landing on the boy slumped over his desk in the next seat, apparently sleeping off a sleep debt.
Lately, the closeness between Chris and Kushida Kikyo had become visible to anyone paying attention.
They maintained their distance in class — no overt clustering, no obvious clique. But Ayanokoji had caught it nonetheless: the wordless understanding that passed between them when their eyes met, the way Kushida leaned in just slightly more than necessary whenever she spoke to him.
That so-called 'special exam' last week...
Was Kushida's initial approach to Chris really just coincidence?
Ayanokoji pulled his gaze back.
He wasn't the type who craved the spotlight or went looking for other people's business to poke his nose into.
Even when his instincts were screaming that something enormous was buried beneath the surface, he had no intention of reaching in to pull at it.
Unfortunately, intent and outcome rarely cooperate.
There are things in this world that don't care whether you want to stay out of them — they find you anyway.
---
That afternoon's homeroom period.
Chabashira Sae returned wearing her usual expression — the one that made you want to wipe it off her face — and announced with the casual air of someone dropping a minor inconvenience: tonight's special exam would be resuming.
Under the full, feverish attention of the entire class, Horikita Suzune barely hesitated. She cited her top performance in the last exam and planted her flag on the single available slot with a firmness that left no room for argument.
Ayanokoji simply watched. He said nothing.
---
After the final bell.
Most students had already poured out toward the clubs or their dorms. Ayanokoji, on his way back to lie flat on his bed and do absolutely nothing, found his path blocked at the staircase landing by the woman who always smelled faintly of cigarettes.
"Something you need, Chabashira-sensei?"
Ayanokoji's tone was flat.
Chabashira Sae leaned against the wall, lit a slim cigarette, exhaled a slow ring of smoke — and then, with complete unhurriedness, spoke.
"A few days ago, a man made contact with the school."
"He applied pressure through certain channels, demanding that Ayanokoji Kiyotaka be unconditionally expelled."
Ayanokoji turned.
He looked at Chabashira Sae with a perfectly blank expression.
"That's rather pointless of them."
"I don't know who this person is — but the school wouldn't simply comply with an unreasonable demand like that and expel a student on a whim, would they?"
"Hm."
Chabashira gave a quiet, sardonic laugh and flicked her ash.
"Of course not."
"There is no one with the authority to overrule the school's will. Not right now."
"Not right now?"
Ayanokoji's attention sharpened on that particular turn of phrase — subtle, but loaded.
Before he could think it through, Chabashira pivoted:
"However — if trouble were to arise, that's a different story entirely. And beyond that..."
She paused. Something complicated moved across her eyes.
There was the usual mocking amusement — the look of someone watching a play — but underneath it, something else. Something that almost resembled pity, carefully suppressed.
"Actually, I'll just say it plainly."
"As long as you're a student of this school, and as long as you don't want to leave — no one can force you out. Of course, if you want to leave..." She let out a low, dry laugh. "Heh."
Chabashira stubbed out her cigarette and turned her head.
"One last piece of advice, Ayanokoji."
"Tonight — stay out of the academic building."
He stood there, watching his homeroom teacher's retreating back, brow furrowed slightly.
He could guess she was trying to extract some kind of value from him — but that parting warning made no sense to him.
A provocation? Or some kind of hint?
Despite the ambiguity gnawing at him, Ayanokoji didn't leave.
He had to admit — Chabashira Sae had managed to do something he hadn't expected. She'd woken up a curiosity in him that had been dormant for a long time.
So he stood there in the corridor, watching the sun sink slowly toward the horizon.
About ten minutes passed.
"Ayanokoji-kun?"
His classmate Hirata Yousuke happened to be passing through and stopped short at the sight of him standing there alone.
"Still here this late? Are you waiting for someone?"
Ayanokoji snapped back to the present, held up his phone with a casual wave, and lied without a flicker of hesitation:
"No — I just thought the scenery looked nice today. Wanted to get a photo."
Hirata followed his gaze out the window toward the vivid blaze of the evening clouds and nodded agreeably.
"It really is a beautiful sunset."
"Well, I won't interrupt you — I'll head off first—"
The two of them exchanged a polite nod, on the verge of parting ways.
And then.
"AAHH——!!"
A scream split the quiet of dusk like a blade.
Both of them lurched toward the railing at the same instant, scanning for the source.
Down at the ground-floor exit of the academic building.
A cluster of students who'd been trying to leave were shoving against each other — desperate to push through — and failing. Something invisible was holding them back. The air in front of them rippled faintly, like heat shimmer, like a barrier that simply would not break no matter how hard they pushed.
"What... is that?" Hirata's pupils contracted.
What disturbed him even more was the scene behind those students.
In the deep shadows of the academic building, a group of figures in Edo-period clothing were closing in — grotesque, their chests pulsing with dull crimson light, their movements jagged and wrong in ways that no living human body could produce.
Ayanokoji narrowed his eyes. His extraordinary dynamic vision cut right through the distance and brought those figures into sharp clarity.
Savage. Bloodthirsty. Completely outside the boundaries of anything human.
So this is what Chabashira was warning him about?
A biological experiment? They're going this big?
Is this the same kind of deal as the White Room... zero humanity, pure product?
"ROOAAR——!!"
The lead creature let out a shriek and lunged toward the students pinned against the invisible wall.
"Run!! RUN!!"
Hirata Yousuke's eyes went wide with barely contained panic. Every instinct in him screamed to charge down there and do something.
But he was on the second floor. There was no way he'd make it in time.
Have to draw their attention. Buy the others some distance.
He looked at Ayanokoji — barely a second's pause — and his words came out in a rapid, urgent burst:
"Ayanokoji-kun! Find somewhere to hide — now! Those things are clearly way beyond anything we can handle!"
And then — without any intention whatsoever of running himself — Hirata Yousuke grabbed the railing with both hands, pulled in a breath from his core, and bellowed down at the monsters below:
"HEY!! YOU!! MONSTERS DOWN THERE!!"
"You want a fight?! Come pick on someone who can fight back! What kind of accomplishment is it to corner people who can't defend themselves?!"
"I'M RIGHT HERE!! COME GET ME!!"
His voice rang through the empty campus like a thunderclap.
The Kabane that had been mid-lunge all stopped.
As one.
One of them suddenly snapped its head upward. Crimson eyes locked onto the second floor. Then it dropped to all fours — and began scaling the wall at terrifying speed, like a spider.
Ayanokoji Kiyotaka: "..."
He looked at Hirata, who was still waving his arms like a lunatic trying to hold aggro.
The moment Hirata had opened his mouth, Ayanokoji had already quietly taken half a step back, placing his classmate neatly between himself and the climbing Kabane.
Even so — he couldn't help it.
He sighed.
Why bother.
——End of Chapter——
Author's Notes:
Note ①— Kabane: Essentially zombies with a brand name change. Their hearts are encased in steel membranes, and lore mandates that you can only truly kill one by destroying the heart. Conventional blades and steam-rifles barely scratch them — though decapitation via the right weapon still works. A classic of its era; the first episode has solid pacing, then the show immediately falls off a cliff.
Note ②— Chimera (Ape-Human): Half-human, half-chimpanzee hybrid. Semi-human in appearance, with physical strength, speed, and stamina far beyond human limits, retaining the chimpanzee's natural agility and explosive power.
Note ③— Water Barrier: Trap Card — Wave-Motion Guard / Wave Barrier. A Normal Trap. Effect: Can only be activated when the opponent's monster declares a direct attack. All attack-position monsters on the opponent's field are returned to the owner's Deck.
---
Side note: Koutetsujou is watchable enough for a couple of episodes when you're bored, but Darwin Jihen — I'll just say this: every single character on the so-called "protagonist's side" is a complete monster in their own right. If you're into that brand of suffering, go ahead and feast.
One more chapter coming shortly — six chapters total, around 17,000 characters. Asking for a few free monthly tickets isn't too much, right?
---
P.S. Recommendation:
"All the Heroines Who Transformed Are Yandere?"
Transmigrating and waking up in someone else's body is one thing — but why are all of mine the yandere versions?
Transformed into the Black-Gunner Alter, on the battlefield of the Fourth Holy Grail War, brutalizing the un-corrupted version of herself. Wait — why is the Rider that Waver summoned Mordred? And what do you mean "your father doesn't have a heart as big as mine"?!
As Stelle, the Herald of Destruction, carrying ruin to countless worlds across the stellar expanse. And what do you mean Aunt Himeko just showed up with the Void Archon's blade to give me one final lesson?!
In a false Holy Grail War, the Heroic Spirit known as "the Rejected One" is summoned.
"Any Servant you try to summon — I can summon an identical version, or an even stronger one~"
____
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