Chapter 6: Day 3 ②

My whole body cried out abnormally, and my consciousness was forcibly awakened.

I have to get up. I tried to put strength into my limbs following that will, but the fatigue, which felt like my entire body was buried in mud, acted as a restraint, making it difficult even to raise my upper body.

Using a considerable amount of energy, I managed to raise my body and slowly opened my eyes to find myself in a dimly lit hallway. It seemed I had been lying in the school building at night, which looked completely different from the daytime.

“...Why am I here?”

Suspecting something was wrong with my powerless legs, I leaned against the wall and somehow managed to stand up.

The fatigue wrapped around me, blurring even my five senses, as if all life force had drained from my body.

“—Ugh, gu!?”

Then, suddenly, the blurry sensation seemed to bare its fangs as it reversed, skewering my insides. A sickening sensation, as if the blood in my body was flowing backward. Nausea packed tightly in my chest, refusing to leave, as if trying to squeeze out my internal organs.

Caught off guard, I involuntarily put a hand over my mouth and bent down, and naturally, my eyes caught sight of something spread out on the ground.

“Is this...”

The entire floor around me was stained dark red. Countless bloodstains. No, should I even call them bloodstains—yes, they were indeed pools of blood.

Like puddles of water on a road after it has rained, or as if someone had been murdered, blood was pooled in the hallway.

“――――”

Even my perception was reversed. ...Ah, that’s right. This horrific sight had been in my line of sight from the beginning.

It must have been me who didn't want to acknowledge it more than anyone else. Even though it was visible, my brain refused to recognize it as such.

If I acknowledged that, my current state would become abnormal. That is why I had been deceiving myself into thinking that inconvenient abnormality did not exist.

However, once confronted directly, I couldn't help but acknowledge it. The battle between the blue man and the small, red figure suddenly came back to my memory. No, I remembered it.

I don't know much about the red one. That was partly because it was seen from a distance, and partly because the intense event that followed seemed to have painted over it.

But even so, I clearly remembered that blue guy—his face, his weapon, and his voice. Only he was deeply etched into my memory.

Yes. Because I was, without a doubt, killed by him.

At some point, my right hand was resting on my chest. My uniform had a hole and was bloody, but there was no wound, not even a scar, on my body.

“Did I really... get killed?”

My consciousness was hazy. I was short of oxygen. I couldn't breathe properly.

Without gathering my thoughts, I pulled a rag and a bucket from a classroom locker and started wiping up the blood.

If I didn't do something about this, it might become troublesome on Monday morning. Even though it wasn't the time for it, my thoughts actively tried to drift away.

“Ha, ah... why... this mess.”

The blood wouldn't come off. It wouldn't go away.

I rubbed the floor with the rag, venting my frustration at still being unable to grasp the situation.

After cleaning up sufficiently, I put away the rag and bucket, grabbed my bag, and left the school building.

The heart that should have been pierced... I put my hand on my chest again. It was rising and falling with my breath as if nothing had happened. Although it ached, there was almost no pain. I took a deep breath, as if to check if it was functioning properly.

“Gah! Guuuh! Cough!”

And naturally, I coughed violently. A sharp, heavy pain shot through my chest. Feeling something rise up in my chest, I quickly spat it out into a drain without a moment to stop it.

“It’s blood...”

Finally, my legs gave out, and I stumbled and sat down by the roadside.

I was definitely killed. Not ‘almost killed,’ but ‘killed.’

I don't know how I was saved—how I am alive like this.

But I should have been dead. I understood that my current existence was abnormal.

Before my consciousness completely faded, while my awareness was vague like a mist, I remembered only the hand that took my arm and the hand placed on my chest.

Two different kinds of warmth—it was probably the owner of those hands who saved me from my fate of death.

I leaned against the wall to stand up and started walking again.

As long as I didn't push myself too hard, I could move without issue, but there was no telling when the feeling of nausea might return. For now, I should go home and rest as soon as possible.

It took me over an hour to finally reach home. Despite moving at about half my usual speed, I was breathless when I arrived.

The nausea had somewhat subsided with the passage of time. Dragging my body, I took off my shoes at the entrance and slowly entered the living room.

Looking at the room with no indoor lights on, I lost track of where I was standing.

I never usually felt this way, but today, this empty house felt lonely.

I felt anxious. Only the sound of the clock echoed in the living room. It was already past eleven o'clock at night. I turned on the light to brighten the room, and felt relieved that it distracted me.

I looked over my body again. My uniform was blood-soaked and in a terrible state, as if I had been shot with a gun. If anyone had seen me, I would have definitely been reported to the police.

I touched my chest through the hole in my uniform. I could feel my heart pulsating: thump-thump.

I was certain I had been killed. The spear released by the blue man had pierced my skin and gone through my heart. The pain from it definitely remained in my chest.

If what was accompanied by that pain had been a dream, it would go beyond a nightmare.

“Guu!”

Recalling that situation, the nausea intensified again. I concentrated my mind and slowly suppressed the urge to vomit.

“Hah! Ha, ah... hah... Phew.”

I managed to calm myself down while steadying my breath.

...What exactly were those people? I don't think they were human. Their movements were definitely outside the standard for a person. Could a human being achieve such movements, even with rigorous training?

Suddenly, a clattering sound, like a bell being rung, echoed throughout the house. It wasn't a familiar sound, but I knew its meaning.

“This sound...!”

It was the alarm for the anti-intruder boundary spell that my father had set up around the house. It had been installed but had never actually rung before, and now it was blaring.

A chill clung to my back and wouldn't leave. My body was screaming that death and danger were approaching.

Wasn't this unknown presence exactly the same as the one I felt at school? Does that mean it's that blue man...?

What should I do? If I stay like this, I'll just be killed without any resistance. There are few things I can do. The most effective method I can think of is—Reinforcement Magecraft. That's right. I have no choice but to somehow fight back with a reinforced weapon.

However, this is the living room. Unlike the dojo, this is not a place where wooden swords or anything similar would conveniently be placed. I have some sharp objects like kitchen knives, but their reach is simply too short. To fight that spear, I need at least a decent length or it won't even be a contest.

“Is this all I have?”

In my hand is a Self-Defense Force recruitment poster that Fujinee had left behind. It's incredibly unreliable. But since I have nothing that could serve as a substitute right now, I can't be picky.

“――――Synchronization, start.”

That was a self-suggestion to switch myself over to a magi. I channeled magical energy into the mere paper poster.

“――――Constituent material, decipher.”

I let the magical energy permeate every corner. I analyzed the substances that made up the poster to grasp its overall structure.

“――――Constituent material, reinforce.”

I found the weak points of the constituent material and channeled magical energy specifically into them. Like applying paint over already colored clay.

“――――All processes, complete.”

“I... did it.”

It was a Magecraft that I hadn't succeeded in since my father died. The feeling of a successful execution after a long time made me tremble.

No, this is not the time to be moved. Against that man, a poster reinforced with Magecraft probably wouldn't be much of a threat. It would be no joke if I let my guard down and found myself killed again.

“...!”

Immediately after steeling my resolve, I noticed that the air in the living room had subtly changed.

The killing intent had moved from outside. The sensation I was feeling right now was likely from above—before I could fully process the thought, I instinctively twisted my body away.

“...Tch! I was going to kill you before you even noticed.”

With the sound of floorboards being pierced, a red spear stabbed the exact spot where I had just been. Casting aside all pretense, I rolled across the floor, quickly got to my feet while holding the poster in position.

And there, the blue man was standing on the table with his spear, having appeared without me noticing.

“Honestly. What kind of karma makes me have to kill the same guy twice?”

Muttering this declaration of taking a life as if it were a trivial matter, the man casually launched his spear. That effortless blow rushed toward me at a speed I could barely perceive.

“Tsuah!”

I deflected the oncoming spear's trajectory with the poster. A loud metallic clang echoed in the room, delivering a heavy shock to the hand gripping the poster. The force was strong enough that if I misjudged the distribution of force in my arm, my shoulder might have been dislocated.

“Hoh, what kind of trick is that? Interesting.”

The man who delivered that strike seemed quite surprised that it had been blocked by something like a paper tube. Before the sound of the clash could fade, the next sound was born.

The blue man was 'swinging' the spear, not just 'thrusting' it. Disregarding the common sense that long-handled weapons are a disadvantage in a narrow indoor space, the spear was swung freely in every direction without being obstructed by the house.

The iron-like poster managed to receive the spear swung at the absolute limit of its reach, but it gradually bent under the pressure.

“...I can feel a faint amount of magical energy. So that's why you could survive having your heart pierced by this—because you were a Magus.”

A beast-like killing intent was directed at me. If I let my guard down, my legs would buckle and become useless.

To think that I was 'fighting back' was a gross overestimation. If he increased his swinging speed even slightly, that spear would pierce me. The only reason it hadn't happened yet was that he was playing with me. Even now, as he wielded his spear with lightning speed and masterful skill, he wasn't using even a fraction of his true power.

“Here, take this!”

“Kuh!”

Looking at the poster clenched in my right hand, my panic increased. The object that should have been turned into iron was bent after only a few exchanges.

I needed a substitute weapon, anything to replace this poster. Frantically looking around, I couldn't find anything that could even serve as a substitute. If I were in the storehouse, there would have been something better than a poster, at least.

I decided to make a break for it when the man showed a momentary gap, shattering the glass door leading to the garden and leaping outside.

The man, who had stopped his attack, seemed to be expecting a counterattack, as he followed me out a moment later.

“Good judgment. If you know you can't win, you try to change the situation. You might have had potential if you'd trained.”

The red spear came rushing up from below. The sound of it cutting through the air, whoosh, wasn't heard until the very end.

Unable to react fully to the sudden vertical attack, I instinctively fixed the now-bent poster with both hands and received the blow. The momentum of the raised spear exceeded my own body weight, and I was effortlessly thrown into the air.

After a long, drawn-out moment of flight, I smashed into the wall of the storehouse, back first.

“Gah—hah!”

The impact squeezed the air from my lungs. I couldn't breathe. I involuntarily choked and nearly collapsed.

...But I didn't have time for that. Luckily, my body had been blown toward the storehouse. The door was right in front of my eyes.

By the time I managed to painfully slide into the storehouse, Lancer was right upon me. Spreading the poster as a final resistance, I used it to receive the thrust he delivered.

“Checkmate. I think you did well for a Magus, against me.”

But that was the limit. The pierced poster reverted to mere paper, was pulled from the spear, and fluttered down to the floor.

“――――!”

I couldn't take my eyes off the man to look for a weapon. Even without looking away, I wouldn't be able to react to his strike. But if I looked away for even a second, I would die instantly.

“You might have been the seventh person after all, unexpectedly. ...Well, it doesn't matter now. You truly had no luck, kid, to die twice in one lifetime.”

With a slow movement, the man positioned his spear. Even during that motion, I couldn't move.

I'm... going to die this easily again? Even though I was saved, I have a duty to live!

The spear rushed toward me. The target was my heart. A scene I had already witnessed once. And I knew the outcome firsthand.

Slowly, my vision turned to slow motion.

To be killed twice in a day. Killed. Saved, and then killed again.

How could such an absurd thing be allowed? No matter the circumstances, there's no justification for killing a person!

That’s why I absolutely won't let you kill me—!

...Just as the spear was about to pierce my chest, a light overflowing from the ground illuminated the storehouse.

In that light, the sound of metal clashing was heard. The spear closing in on my chest was definitely deflected.