41. Mm-hu-hu-hu-hu-huh!
…… Heck, maybe this is good.
I’ve been saving the world, but this time the midterm exam is bothering me.
No, I didn’t study for the test at all.
“Ugh, if I had known it would be like this, I would have had to study at dawn instead of training.”
Why did I forget about the exam period?
Kenichi grabbed his head and blamed his stupid memory.
Intermediate.Inter.Test.Exam.
In those four letters, the sense of reality that had grown distant after catching thousands of monsters came quickly.
How the hell do I do this-
“Hey, Kenichi. Are you worried about anything?”
“… ….”
In the meantime, a laughing voice came from the back seat.
When I turned my head, there was Ichimaru Shiki, smiling as usual.
Kenichi stared blankly at him for a moment, then his eyes widened as he glared at the guy he had been training with until dawn this morning.
“…… Did you know?! Why didn’t you tell me about taking the exam this week!”
“Eh, it’s not some kind of surprise note test, are there any students who don’t know they’re taking the test? I didn’t even mention it because I didn’t think it was necessary.”
“…… You are talking bullsh*t!”
“Whoops, Kenichi. Do you take the original test as usual? Are you insecure?”
The face of Ichimaru Shiki who said that was usually sloppy, but for some reason, it seemed more mocking today.
“…… Crunchy.”
If I had been a little stronger, I would have landed a punch in that unfortunate face.
Kenichi glared at Shiki with a blazing gaze as he let go of his anger.
After regaining his composure, he turned his head forward, trying to avoid his sloppy face.
‘…… This isn’t the time to get distracted by this sneaky guy. The midterm exam starts tomorrow!’
Yes. As the matter was very urgent, there was no time to focus on other things.
To be honest, I wondered if the end of the world that Shikino was talking about would be irrelevant, but…….
The midterm exam is a very nerve-wracking event even for a student who has thrown away half of his studies.
Ever since I didn’t do my math homework the other day, my homeroom teacher once glared at me with murderous intent.
…… If I completely kill myself until this test, I might really try to kill him.
On the other hand, it was also a matter of pride.
‘Because there’s a huge difference between not being able to study normally and being in last place in the whole school.’
‘Last place = Last place’ is a formula that has always been used from the time of the old Kamakura shogunate, the era of pottery, to the new emperor, and the Reiwa era.
So, even for the sake of a desirable image, I had to avoid grades that came in last place or equivalent.
However, after Kenichi came to high school, he was a strong candidate at the bottom of the school who did not study at all, and he was in a very urgent situation to cram.
‘…… If Hotaru were there, I’d study with him.’
Kenichi glanced at the empty seat next to him.
He said he was sick on the weekend, and even after the assembly, he still hadn’t arrived at the classroom.
Since it’s not drawn that the sincere Hotaru is late for oversleeping, I wonder if it’s still painful after all.
“mmm.”
Kenichi groaned as he suddenly became worried about both his fate and the fate of his childhood friend.
‘Should I just beat them all up?’
From noble mtl dot com
That was the moment I thought about it.
Drreuk-
Suddenly, the back door of the classroom before class opened.
When I turned my head, I saw a face more familiar than anyone else in this classroom.
Hotaru Ichinose.
At the sight of his childhood friend who had finally arrived, Kenichi was stunned for a moment, but soon realized her condition.
“…… hehehe, sorry for being late.”
Arriving late to her, Hotaru bowed her head with a big smile.
It wouldn’t matter if that was all, but her face turned red and the thick clothes she wore over her school uniform even though it was spring.
Her body was shaking little by little and it seemed that she was still in bad shape.
Tilted, tilted.
After walking with her uneasy steps, Hotaru slumped down in her seat, and she immediately slammed her head into her desk.
“…… Uhhhhh.”
She hears the voice of everyone dying.
Kenichi opened her mouth.
Anyway, it seems that Hotaru’s condition is more serious than imagined.
It was at that point that Ichimaru Shiki, who was sitting in the seat behind her, shook her head as if she had been waiting.
“Oh, Mr. Hotaru. Are you very unwell?”
“…… Yes.”
As Hotaru answered with slime spread across her desk, Shiki said, “That’s right.” I smiled and shook her head, then started to rummage through my bag.
“Whoops, these days I’m weak, so I’m taking restorative medicine.”
“…… You?”
“Yes, I get really hot after drinking this. Why don’t you try Hotaru too?”
“… ….”
I’m sure it wasn’t that his energy was running out of steam.
Kenichi inadvertently recalled it, but when he checked the liquid in the container Shiki had taken out, he was horrified.
He thought that his wit and courage had grown quite strong while defeating the monsters.
Boogle—Boogle—!
Looking at the jet-black liquid boiling ominously, only fear welled up in me.
‘…… Won’t you die if you eat that?’
No matter how insidious Shiki was, he wouldn’t poison Hotaru, but at first glance, that was a poison, not a restorative medicine.
A means to assassinate someone.
It looked even more like that when I added the sinister smile of Ichimaru Shiki, the owner of the drug.
“mmm, Hotaru. Do you believe me?”
No, I don’t believe it at all.
If Shiki told him to swallow that poison, Kenichi would have been willing to escape from this classroom.
I’d rather get a few hits.
That’s a liquid that doesn’t look good no matter how you look at it.
But I wonder if my mind went out of my mind because I was sick?
Slowly raising his head, Hotaru looked blankly at Shiki and the liquid in the thermos he held out, then nodded and replied.
“…… Eh, I want to eat.”
“No! Hotaru!”
“Oh, what a wise choice!”
What terrible things are happening.
Kenichi covered his mouth with his hands, and Hotaru held the thermos bottle that Shiki had given him in his hand while staggering.
Then it will be gulp, gulp, and swallow.
That unidentified liquid.
“Mum hu hu hu hu hu hu hu hu hu hu hu hu.”
Ichimaru Shiki started giggling with an unprecedentedly sinister expression while watching Hotaru gulping down the liquid without any suspicion.
‘…… Was it a real poison?’
Just when that certainty was formed, Hotaru, who had been drinking while holding on to the thermos bottle, suddenly stopped.
Creeping, she tilted her head as she put her barrel down with an unnatural gesture of hers.
“…… Oh, it’s better.”
Kenichi’s eyes widened at those words, and he looked around at his childhood friend’s face.
The heat on his face, which had definitely turned red, had disappeared in an instant.
Kenichi opened his mouth slightly in shock and glanced sideways at Ichimaru Shiki in the back seat.
“Mum hoo hoo hoo hoo hoo!”
He was still laughing like a sly villain.
***
After that, Hotaru became active as usual, listened to the lessons diligently, and talked.
I thought I was going to be taken to the hospital before the first period was over, but when I drank the ‘mysterious medicine’, I maintained my energy until the end of school.
‘It’s definitely a good thing.’
Why does everything seem to have an ulterior motive when it comes to Shiki?
If that’s a skill, then it’s a very strange skill.
Hotaru Ichinose shook the shoulder of Kenichi, who was lost in thought for a moment.
“…… Why why.”
“Kenichi, you said you didn’t even know there was a test tomorrow! Does it make sense that I lost my eye for a moment? I will stop playing today and only study until the exam is over, so be prepared.”
“…… No, I never really played.”
It’s unfair, it’s unfair.
Kenichi swallowed the tears inside and shook his head slowly.
It was definitely a welcome thing for Hotaru, an honor student, to help her study for the exam, but when she started studying, she didn’t feel like it.
What’s more, I’ve come here after exterminating the monsters, but I’m treated like I’ve been playing around!
Hotaru stuck his head out and asked Kenichi, who was dragging his steps heavily for various reasons.
“So why didn’t Miss Sawamura come today?”
“Umm, I heard it’s a recuperation in name.”
Sento Sawamura, who had been confined to his room all weekend, did not come to school today.
Honestly, I thought he would be in better condition than Hotaru I saw earlier, but I heard that Sento was sick not in his body, but in his mind.
“It is a time to make important choices in life. So they decided to rest at home today.”
“Hey. Then what about Ichimaru-kun? I heard earlier that I was not participating in the study group because I had business to do.”
Perhaps because his body had regenerated, Hotaru’s motivation soared, and when Shiki told him that he would not be attending the conversion study, he seemed to be a little bit offended.
Kenichi, who knew halfway about him, gave the same halfway answer.
“I don’t know, they say there is something very important.”
Anyway, I heard that.
***
A banquet hall in a mansion in Nerima Ward, Tokyo.
One of Japan’s three major exorcism families and a symbol of martial arts that hone the body of steel.
A great family founded by the founder of Gaepa, who was called the god of war in the past, and still continues the power.
Kenju, the samurai.
There, in the mansion’s banquet hall, all the influential exorcist families and celebrities in Tokyo gathered together.
The manager of the shrine located in the sacred mountain of fire was seated, and the head of Shihei, whose reputation has recently skyrocketed, also attended the meeting.
Even the messenger of Hashimoto, a distant place in Kyoto, has filled the position.
Aka, Exorcism Summit.
It was a gathering to talk about the ‘Hundred Ghost Night Trips’ that happened just a while ago.
To be precise, the follow-up.
Since it was a massive raid that was unprecedented in history, there were many issues to sort out.
The casualties of each family, as well as the damage to the city left by the monsters that could not be eradicated, belonged to it.
Also, about the informant.
“So that guy.”
A muscular old man sitting at the top of the table in the banquet hall.
Kenju Kozaburo, the current head of the Kenju family and the person in charge, was brainwashed with his face distorted.
“When will the White Night Tea come?”
As Kozaburo glared at him, Shihei Lin, the head of Shihei, who is said to have stayed as a diner for the White Yacha, raised the corner of her mouth and said.
“I’m here now.”
At that moment, the door to the banquet hall opened.
When I turned my head, there was indeed a white-haired, sinister-looking man standing there.
The man who arrived later than anyone else at the table leisurely came to the center of the banquet hall and said,
“Did you find me?”
Ichimaru Shiki leaned forward like a polite gentleman with a serious smile on his face.
“Here you go.”
It was a very brazen response.