Miss Maevis takes a step toward the monster, not a trace of emotion on her face. She tilts her head up at it and coldly says:
"Go away."
The centipede coils around the building, its head drifting toward the teacher.
I hope they tear each other to pieces.
I think, almost hopefully.
The teacher extends her arm.
"Bad boys like you need to be punished."
Just as she's about to touch the monster, Kika slams her hands down on the table.
"No!"
The teacher looks back at her, surprised.
"Oh, you know this one? An escaped pet, maybe?"
She says it with the same cold, vacant look.
"No, no, no."
Kika waves her arms, desperately trying to hide the excitement on her face.
"Miss Maevis, I think you should let the students handle this one. We need to avenge our wonderful school."
She smiles brightly.
"Don't you think it would also be a good learning experience?"
The teacher walks back to her desk.
"Very well. Just don't take too long. We are in the middle of a lesson."
Kika nods and shouts,
"Yashiro! Arisa! Let's do it!"
Yashiro reluctantly rises from her seat and leans toward Kika with an angry whisper.
"What the hell are you trying to pull here? You should've let the teacher handle it!"
Kika looks back at her with an innocent expression.
"All that sitting around is bad for our health. I thought it'd be nice to get some exercise. Tehehe."
Yashiro stares at her coldly.
"You can do that by yourself next time. Pull something like that again and you'll have bigger problems to worry about."
Kika takes a step back, looking genuinely scared, or at least pretending to.
"Wow, scary..."
Yes. Forget all about me. Fight among yourselves. Devour each other. For the first time since I came to this school, something good has happened.
I look at the centipede coiled around the building, just lying there in the sun, still and calm.
"Thank you," I mutter under my breath.
A loud crash tears through the classroom as the girl in the back shoves her chair so hard it slams into the wall.
"Let's do it!"
She strides toward the front of the classroom, where Kika and Yashiro are standing.
Her long black hair rustles as she passes us. As always, she's wearing a black suit. Her name is Arisa. She's one of the few kids in this school who doesn't mess with me, but not because she's nice or anything. It's simply because she's too busy picking fights with anyone willing to fight her. She's an absolute fighting-obsessed freak.
Arisa joins the other two.
"So, what's the plan?" she asks, arms crossed, looking completely unbothered by the giant monster coiled around our school.
Kika just shrugs innocently.
Yashiro steps forward.
"I'll try to paralyze it. Once it stops moving, you..."
She points at Kika.
"Smash it from above. I don't think my poison will affect something this size for very long, so we have to make it physically unable to move before it wears off."
Kika nods with a kind smile.
"Sounds good to me."
"And me?"
Arisa asks, pointing a finger at her face.
"Once it's on the ground, do your thing," Yashiro replies.
"Yes! I like it!" Arisa shouts back.
"Enough chatter. Let's go."
Yashiro steps toward the centipede. Her legs disappear, turning into a snake's tail. Her arms lengthen by at least ten inches, and her hands slowly transform into snake heads, their tongues flickering in the air.
Without a word, Kika and Arisa follow suit.
Four massive butterfly-like wings sprout from Kika's back, and two butterfly-like antlers appear on her forehead.
Arisa, on the other hand, is covered in tiger-patterned fur. Two large fangs jut from her mouth, making her look like some kind of saber-tooth. Her nails turn into massive claws, and she grows a long tiger-like tail.
Oh, right. I forgot to mention it before, but those three are blessed. Arisa has been blessed since birth, whereas Kika received her blessing at the start of this year. That was when her popularity shot through the roof. Yashiro? Well, no one really knows a thing about Yashiro. Me included, obviously. But from the way she acts, I'd guess she received her blessing in early childhood, just like her sister.
The three half-transformed girls stand before the massive centipede monster. They stare at it, and it stares right back without making a move.
"It's been a while since all three of us got together like this. Let's have some fun!"
Arisa says, her face bright with excitement.
I look at the three girls standing in front of that massive monster and can't help thinking,
I hope they get eaten. Wouldn't that be nice?
An ugly grin spreads across my face.
I bet Miss Maevis would rush in right after that to avenge her sister.
I glance around. The door isn't that far from me, just two rows of desks and a straight diagonal line away. I could easily make it while the monster is busy eating those other jerks.
As I daydream about the centipede solving all my life's problems, Yashiro dashes toward the monster. Fast. Too fast to really follow. I catch only a blur, and then she's right in front of it before it can even react. You'd think a snake would move slower. How is this fair?
I think, annoyed and pissed off at all the unfairness in the world.
I sigh.
I guess it's perfectly normal for some people to have everything while others have absolutely nothing.
Yashiro's arms stretch even farther and shoot straight at the centipede, the snake heads sinking their fangs into the soft parts of its body that aren't covered by armor.
"Checkmate. You're done for."
Yashiro says it with the same smug, condescending look she always gives me as she stares right at the centipede.
I wonder what the monster feels when she looks down at it. Does it feel the exact same way I felt? Does it even care? Or understand?
Yashiro glances back.
"All right, you can..."
The centipede suddenly springs up like a corpse jolted back to life and lunges straight at Yashiro while she's looking away.
Before any of us can react, a rush of wind blasts past at an incredible speed.
The centipede slams into the ground with a massive crash. It smashes through the floor. As far as I know, there's a biology lab below us, and it should've been empty at that time.
Not that I really cared if any of the jerks got injured. I didn't have a single person I could even call an acquaintance.
I look back to see what happened to Yashiro and see her being held like a damsel in distress by Kika. Tsch. If only that bitch hadn't stepped in, my life would've improved tenfold just like that. Yashiro looks so pissed off I can practically feel the killing intent radiating off her.
The centipede tears itself free of the concrete and springs back up, rubble and small rocks spilling off it as it rises.
"Put me down," Yashiro snaps.
Kika, feigning concern, carefully sets her down as if she's made of glass, which only pisses Yashiro off even more. Oh God. I hope I'm not the one who's going to suffer because of this debacle.
The centipede rushes straight at Yashiro again, but her slim half-snake body presses flat to the ground, dodging it with ease.
"Hmph."
She looks down at it.
"Not good enough."
Her lips part slightly as the cold words leave her mouth.
"Begone, you trash."
Her neck extends dozens of feet like a fire hose and shoots straight at the centipede. She isn't nearly as fast as Kika, maybe not even as fast as she is when moving normally, but her reflexes are insane. Her neck keeps snapping up and down, changing direction in an instant. She reacts perfectly to even the slightest movement the centipede makes. And she isn't just dodging. Every time she slips past it, she gets in a few dozen bites.
Ten, sixteen, twenty-four, forty...
I lose count within seconds.