What impressed me the most was how stubbornly the monster kept going.
I'd heard the stories about Yashiro's poison. Supposedly, one drop was enough to paralyze an elephant. But the centipede had probably been bitten hundreds of times by now, and even Yashiro looked shaken by how well it was enduring it. She was slowing down. Her breathing had turned ragged.
Yashiro's neck shrank back to normal, and her transformation unraveled as she bent over, sucking in air.
"Fuck, that thing's immune to poison. You two take over. I'm done."
I hadn't even realized how happy I looked. If everyone else hadn't been focused on the fight, I could've gotten myself into real trouble.
Yes. Yes. Yes. Kill them all.
I couldn't stop myself from rooting for the monster in my head. In a way, it felt a little too familiar. Cornered by three girls, getting picked on while everyone else stood around watching and cheering.
I slapped my cheeks. Get a grip, Yurui. How the hell are you relating to a giant bug monster?
Yeah, watching it fight was cool, but I was human. I wasn't about to throw that away just because life sucked. There was still hope left in the world. I had to believe that.
Below me, the crowd roared and chanted for the monster to die. As stupid as it sounded, seeing it get ganged up on cracked something in me, and before I knew it, tears were running down my face. I ducked my head so nobody would see and whispered,
"Go, centipede."
I wanted to believe my tiny bit of support might somehow reach it through all that noise and give it the push it needed to win.
But it wasn't happening.
Before Kika and Arisa could even move, the monster let out a horrible, pain-filled shriek and collapsed, hitting the ground hard and going still.
Yashiro straightened up and smiled down at it. She was still breathing a little harder than normal, sweat beading on her face, but her smug expression said it all.
I'm better than you.
She didn't need to say a word. Her smile already had.
"Is it dead?" Kika asked, inching closer.
Yashiro wiped the sweat from her forehead and shook her head.
"No. This thing's tough as hell. After all those bites, I barely managed to restrain it for a little while."
She pointed at the centipede's eyes, which were darting wildly as it stared back at them.
"Look. Parts of its body are already starting to move again. Looks like we'll have to stick to the plan after all."
Then she turned to Kika.
"Put it out of commission."
Kika gave her a sweet nod, leaned in, and said with an ugly little smile,
"When I put something down, it stays down. So there's nothing to worry about."
That caught Yashiro off guard for a second. For the first time, I saw real emotion on her face. Surprise. I could tell from the tiniest shift in her lips. And for some reason, that sent a little flicker of warmth through my chest right up until a horrible realization slammed into me.
I'd spent so much time in class staring at Yashiro's lips that I could read her emotions from the smallest twitch.
The thought hit me so hard my face burned red. Yashiro, unlike me, recovered immediately. Her expression smoothed back into that same wicked grin.
She rested a hand on Kika's shoulder and announced loudly,
"Shouldn't be too hard, considering it's already down and you haven't even done anything yet."
A few snickers and laughs spread through the class.
Kika went pale. She'd let that carefully built persona slip in front of everyone. Not only had she mouthed off to Yashiro like some jealous idiot, she'd gotten put in her place in front of the whole class.
She took a step back, stammering and flailing her hands.
"I-I'll go now. We wouldn't want the monster waking up while we stand here arguing, right?"
She bolted and vanished from sight, moving too fast for anyone to follow.
Anyone except Yashiro.
Yashiro tracked her the entire time, staring straight at her, and that only made Kika look more unsettled.
Kika knew exactly what kind of consequences a slip like that could bring. She also knew Yashiro wouldn't just let it go.
She flew as high as she could. Whenever she got scared or rattled, she went all the way up into the clouds, where she could calm down and collect herself in the quiet, empty sky, with the whole world far below and nobody around to bother her.
While Kika was gone, the centipede started moving again. Slowly.
"It's wearing off," Yashiro said, looking at Arisa.
Arisa glanced back at her.
"So what now?"
"Change of plans. I'll pin it down again, and you do as much damage as you can before it starts moving. It might take a while, but we shouldn't have any trouble killing it."
Arisa shrugged.
"Works for me."
The centipede pushed itself back up.
After drifting in the clouds for a while, Kika finally relaxed. She smiled, then dropped straight down at full force. The centipede didn't even get the chance to react before she smashed it into the ground hard enough to shake the whole school.
The impact site was horrific. The centipede was a mangled, bloody ruin, its armor plates crushed into mush.
"Sorry, I'm late. Tehehe."
She said it with that same sweet, innocent, adorable expression everyone in class had come to know so well by now.
Yashiro nodded.
"No worries. We know better than to expect punctuality from you at this point."
Kika kept smiling, though a vein had risen on her forehead from how hard she was trying not to scowl.
Arisa stepped forward, grinning.
"Finally, my turn."
She jumped onto the motionless centipede and started ripping it apart. Her claws tore into it. She yanked off chunks of flesh with her teeth. Blood and bits of meat sprayed everywhere. It was a total nightmare to look at.
And the students just kept cheering.
"Kill it!" "Death to the monster!"
Over and over again.
I couldn't help feeling bad for it. Nobody deserved to die like that. And the longer I watched everyone pile onto it, the more I saw myself in the thing on the ground.
I kept wishing it would get back up and fight back, kill them all, every last student and teacher. Hell, I honestly wouldn't even have minded if it killed me too, its pathetic lone supporter
But it wasn't happening. The centipede never moved while Arisa tore it to pieces and the crowd screamed in the background.
"Enough!"
The teacher's voice rang out, and everyone went still.
"That thing is long dead by now. I will not tolerate you making any more of a mess in my classroom."
Arisa stepped off the centipede's mangled remains and licked the blood off her face.
"Awww. It was just starting to get fun."
The teacher turned back to the class, still wearing that same bright, icy smile we'd all gotten very used to.
"Now comes the fun part. You're all cleaning this up."
The class immediately started grumbling. Sophia raised her hand.
"Um, miss teacher, shouldn't someone from the staff handle the cleaning?"
Sophie nodded along with her, and the rest of the class started complaining too.
The teacher looked at them with fake confusion.
"Oh my, did you really expect me to clean up after you?"
The room went quieter.
"Talk it over among yourselves. Before class ends, I want the names of five people who'll stay behind and clean."
Everyone started murmuring.
Everyone except me.
Nobody had to say anything to me. There was no need. I already knew I was one of the five. What they were really discussing was which other four they'd send with me.
I don't think anyone was going to volunteer.