29

Chapter 29 When the school bell rang that morning, everyone immediately became very busy getting their stuff together so that they could leave for class as soon as possible. Of course, there were a few students who had trouble doing so, as almost half of them forgot their pencils and notebooks in their rush to escape to their classroom, so by the time class began, most of the desks had already been pushed aside or removed by the time the class monitor arrived, leaving the classrooms almost devoid of any furniture and practically resembling an empty space. However, despite having been prepared to be late, Maki didn't notice this at first because she hadn't realised yet just how early she had overslept. She glanced hurriedly around the classroom as she noticed everyone else standing up from their seats, all eager to leave the room as fast as they could and hurry outside into the chilly air. When she finally managed to pick up her bag from underneath her seat and stand up, she made a beeline for the door, grabbing her coat on the way so that she could pull it on while she was walking. But as she was trying desperately to button the buttons that she was unfamiliar with, she bumped into somebody who was also rushing to get to the classroom. Although, unlike her clumsy friend, Maki noticed it, didn't even stop to apologise, or even say goodbye, and instead kept running past him, ignoring the strange looks he sent her way. Unfortunately for her, she ran straight into someone else as well and they both crashed right into each other. Fortunately, it wasn't too heavy, or else Maki probably would have received a lot more than just a slight bump, considering that the collision had been caused by the suddenness of the action, but unfortunately for her, she had knocked someone over, causing them both to fall backwards onto the ground. Before they hit the floor, however, Maki found herself looking directly at the boy sitting behind her. And she suddenly remembered exactly who she had collided with, even though the memory of the incident had long since escaped from her mind. The boy had fallen backwards with his arms thrown open in order to catch himself, but he hadn't been expecting that there was anyone else present in the classroom and thus hadn't been able to do it in time. His mouth fell wide open in surprise, and he quickly tried to get up, but when he did, he felt dizzy. As he leaned back against the teacher's desk, clutching the sides of its surface to prevent himself from sliding off, his knees gave up beneath him. He lost his balance and sat back down hard, almost falling to the floor. His heart raced violently inside of his chest and sweat rolled down his forehead as he struggled to breathe normally. His stomach was churning uncomfortably and he felt as if there was no air left in his lungs. He was so terrified that he felt faint and couldn't help but begin shaking violently, which only increased when he heard the familiar sound of a door closing loudly in the background. He slowly turned his head towards the sound of footsteps coming closer to his direction and saw two figures approaching him. Both of them seemed so far away. They stopped beside the table where he was seated and stared at him intensely as the boy shivered in pain. "...What kind of sick joke is that?" A deep, male voice asked coldly while looking at his student. "...K-kei..shi…" Maki whispered, not being able to move nor look up as she continued staring fixedly at the boy, feeling incredibly anxious and confused. "Why… wou…" She wanted to ask him why he had lied to her, but she still felt extremely nervous and scared to even speak the simplest word due to her fear. But Kei remained silent and simply kept glaring at her, as if he were warning her that she couldn't afford to talk at all. Even the slightest bit of movement caused him immense agony; it felt as if his entire body was being ripped apart from the inside and torn apart until it collapsed completely. His breathing grew shallow, and his vision started to blur, making it even harder to see everything in front of him. He felt his consciousness slipping rapidly from within, and as he stared at Maki's face, he knew that her eyes were filled with tears that threatened to spill from them. He could vaguely hear Akane's cries from nearby, as if they were coming from a great distance away. In fact, they were so distant that if he concentrated enough, he might've believed that he could barely make out any words coming from them. All of a sudden, a warm sensation spread across his chest, and as he looked down, he spotted a warm object lying in the palms of Maki's hands. He had somehow managed to squeeze them tight. It was as if they were his own hands, although it was difficult to discern whether that was due to his blurry vision, or if that warmth really was spreading throughout his body. All of a sudden, he felt himself falling downwards, but he managed to hold on to one of his hands tightly before his body finally decided to give up. As the warm feeling reached his head, he realized that it was his own blood flowing through his veins again, and that once his body completely succumbed to its fate, the last thing he was aware of was something warm covering his lips. Maki let go of Kei's hand and dropped the towel onto the ground. She wiped her wet hands along her pants as she stood there, watching her classmate's lifeless body slide down the wall and onto the ground. The girl stood there, frozen in place. Her body trembled and her hands were shaking, and it took a few seconds for her to realise that the person lying at her feet was actually... no, wasn't really... dead. He was just unconscious. But what about Akane? Hadn't she said something earlier that day about wanting to protect him? She crouched down beside her friend, who was kneeling on the ground now, trembling terribly. She held her trembling fingers under Akane's nose, and after a moment she confirmed her suspicions: her best friend was still alive, thank God. That meant she wouldn't die like that today. She would survive, despite her wounds. That thought eased the tension in Maki's shoulders, and she let out a sigh of relief as she stood up again and walked towards the door. Aoi waited for the two girls to exit the classroom before she followed behind them, quietly closing the door once she had stepped outside. It was quiet, and she hoped that none of the teachers would find her gone. With every step she made, it sounded louder and louder to her, so loud that her heart pounded wildly. Eventually, the noise faded away, and Aoi breathed out in relief as she walked down the corridor and into the bathroom to clean herself off. She then washed her hands thoroughly and headed back out into the hallway to continue her trip to her class. Once the class bell rang, Akane stood up and walked towards the door, following closely behind Aoi. The girl stopped at the doorway, turned back, and stared blankly for a moment at her surroundings, until something suddenly caught her eye. There wasn't anything particularly remarkable about this particular part of the hallways. There weren't too many doors here, so there was hardly ever anyone else here, and nothing of particularly importance had happened to the corridors anyway. But what had caught her attention was just about the centre of the entire hall, located at the end of the corridor. There was one particular door that hung right at the edge of the corner, which was slightly opened. Akane couldn't help but feel a sense of familiarity about it as she watched it swing open, revealing a set of stairs descending down into pitch black darkness. At first, she thought that perhaps someone was hiding there waiting to attack her, and that the reason they had opened the door was in hopes of scaring her to death. And if that was the case, why were they acting so oddly all of a sudden? What kind of trap was this? But before she could figure it out for herself, she heard footsteps walking up behind her and instinctively turned around, only to come face to face with Maki. "Maki." Akane said in an alarmed tone, immediately turning her gaze back upon spotting the blonde heading towards the stairs without saying another word. Maki was silent for a moment as she walked slowly down the staircase, holding tightly onto the handrail as she proceeded to descend the steps. Just a couple of steps down from the bottom step, she stopped and looked around to check that nobody else had overheard her. Once she satisfied herself that nobody had seen her, she continued walking towards the next landing, stopping once she arrived at the third floor. Akane continued trailing behind her silently as she slowly ascended the stairway as well, not daring to say anything, but keeping her eyes trained firmly on Maki's back. At the same time, the boy who had tripped and fallen to the floor was lying on the floor, feeling rather dazed from the fall. He couldn't quite remember the exact circumstances of it either. After that, he remembered seeing his reflection in the mirror. Then he remembered hearing footsteps approaching. Shortly afterwards, his classmates had entered the classroom. He had looked towards the source of the sounds and had noticed the girl who had bumped into him standing near the back of the room. And after looking away for a moment, he had turned back towards the door where the strange boy had exited from the classroom a few minutes ago. His vision had begun to become a little blurry again, and the sound of his heartbeat pounding inside of his ears was so loud that he was sure that anybody could easily overhear it if they focused their ears hard enough. However, he didn't care. For some reason, he felt extremely uncomfortable and worried when his sight became unclear. Something had definitely happened to him, and he wasn't entirely certain what. His heartbeat seemed to be getting quicker, more rapid, and eventually he could feel his pulse beating against his fingertips as a result. The sound of it seemed to become louder and louder, and soon enough, he began to worry that it might explode. Suddenly, he heard the distinct sound of laughter from somewhere above him. This caused him to snap back to reality and his heartbeat slowed down again. He looked towards the stairs. He still didn't know what had happened. How could he have possibly fallen down the stairs? Why had he fainted? Was he okay? Did something happen to his friends? Or maybe the other guy hadn' been kidding?! He was about to stand up to investigate when he saw a silhouette appear from above. He could tell by its attire that the stranger seemed rather young. The stranger glanced down at him momentarily before walking off towards the stairs leading down to the school grounds. As a single glance told him that this mysterious person had already disappeared from the top of the stairs, he found his heart racing once again. The dark shadows which obscured his view from below vanished almost instantly as he squinted his eyes, trying to determine what exactly had appeared there previously. But he was unable to do so as he couldn't see it clearly enough, and instead, he ended up just thinking about it as he continued to lie sprawled on the ground. "Hey, are you alright? Do you need anything?" Aoi called out. Akane replied back with a weak mumble which sounded more like a groan than a response. The girl approached Akane carefully, careful to avoid stepping over her and the injured boy laying on the floor, and gently sat down next to the latter. After checking his temperature again, she looked down at the boy's face and realised how pale he looked. Although he had already died before he had fallen, his complexion had changed greatly in color since then, and Aoi feared he may be dangerously ill. If anything bad should happen to him in the meantime, it'd most likely be her fault. She didn't want that to happen, not when she knew that, unlike her, he didn't have any family to look after him or support him. "Do you feel like vomiting?" "... No," Akane murmured, closing her eyes briefly. She wasn't quite sure what else to say. In fact, the idea of puking was honestly so foreign that she had no idea how to even start doing that, especially if she wanted it to stay in her stomach. "I feel fine," she repeated a bit louder, lifting herself up to a seated position. The pain in her head had receded somewhat during the short period she had spent on the floor and now throbbed painfully whenever she moved her head too much, but aside from that, she didn't even seem to notice anything wrong. She still found herself shivering though, and she could also feel cold sweat dripping down the side of her neck. "Are you alright?" "Yeah, don't worry about me," Aoi answered with a quick nod, then she looked over at him again, frowning as she observed the way he was lying on the ground, and wondered what could have happened to him. The bleeding from his forehead had subsided some, but his injuries were still evident to hereyes