The school festival had ended without a hitch, and with less than a week left until winter break, the area in front of the bulletin board was even more crowded with students than usual.
First place: Miko Iino (500)
(As always, Miko is amazing... she got a perfect score this time. It seems Ishigami's score dropped a bit though...)
9th place Yu Ishigami (462)
(But it's still impressive that they made it into the top 10.)
"Ugh..."
"Ishigami... Are you okay? Are you feeling unwell?"
The Great Buddha approaches the drooping stone and speaks to it.
"No, it's nothing..."
That's a lie. Ever since meeting Kashiwagi Nagisa at last month's school festival, this guy has been plagued by mysterious nightmares. Sometimes he dreams of being chased in the dark, other times he dreams of being tied to a chair and being shown torture devices one after another, nightmares! Nightmares! Each time, he would wake up in terror, and Ishigami ended up spending most of his test period sleep-deprived.
"Haa..."
(Ah, this is tough... It reminds me of how scared I used to be of Shinomiya-senpai...)
"Ishigami... are you really okay?"
"Ah, it's alright... Iino got a perfect score, that's amazing."
"Yeah. It's amazing, Miko-chan."
"Have you found some kind of secret?"
"I just studied like I always do."
That's a lie. This girl had managed to increase her study time by about two hours since the end of the first semester. The Disciplinary Committee, which had been extremely busy due to a shortage of members, was joined by Ishigami Yu, an information processing expert, which drastically reduced their daily workload. Furthermore, after the Ogino incident in September, the harassment from those around her also decreased significantly. Her stress levels were reduced to an incomparable degree compared to before, and she was able to maintain good physical and mental condition throughout the second semester.
"Phew..."
"Ishigami, why don't you go rest in the infirmary?"
"Infirmary..."
The words of the Great Buddha trigger a flashback in Ishigami's mind of the humiliating experience of crying in front of Otomo Kyoko! That embarrassing feeling was burned into Ishigami's mind, and the keyword "infirmary" had evolved into a trigger that awakened that memory!
"Sorry, I can't really go to the nurse's office... I have a bit of a trauma related to that."
"Did something scary happen to you in the infirmary?"
"Scary eyes..."
(Now that I think about it... I encountered the "visiting skeleton," one of the seven mysteries, in the infirmary too... In two senses, I can't go to the infirmary anymore.)
Ishigami's traumas have increased.
"...It's nothing. Anyway, the nurse's office is a bit..."
"Then why don't you rest in the disciplinary committee's classroom?"
"...Is that okay?"
I couldn't help but ask Iino to repeat what she said.
"It's the end of the semester, so there's hardly any work to do. If I let them go home in that condition, it would be a problem if they got into an accident."
"I see... Well then, I'll take you up on your offer and rest."
"Okay, Ishigami, here's a spare key... Give it back to me when we meet tomorrow."
"Oh, thank you."
After receiving the key from Iino, I started walking towards the Disciplinary Committee room.
As soon as I entered the classroom, I lined up the chairs and lay down. Since there were no pillows, it was a little difficult to sleep, but I resigned myself to it and closed my eyes... and perhaps because I was so tired, I was overcome with sleepiness almost immediately.
"Sniff...sniff..."
Around the time when only Ishigami's breathing could be heard in the classroom...
"..." click, bang
One of the girls carefully sat down beside Ishigami's head as he lay asleep, making sure not to make any noise. Taking great care not to wake him, she rested Ishigami's head on her thigh, creating a lap pillow position.
"..."
If Ishigami were to open his eyes, they would be staring at each other, but the girl simply continued to look down at the sleeping Ishigami.
"...Mmm..."
"!" *startled*
After about an hour of this, the girl stopped giving him a lap pillow at the sound Ishigami made, and quickly left the classroom.
"Hmm, haa... I think I'm a little better now... I felt like someone was there, but maybe I was just imagining things?"
Ishigami quickly put away the chair and left the Disciplinary Committee room.