Ch.293If Side Story. Tokyo Slayers: Final Chapter (31)

Souta thought that their group looked quite disheveled right now.

No, disheveled wasn’t the right word. They looked almost like criminals.

Yuka was scratched and cut all over from fighting. Fortunately, there didn’t seem to be any major wounds, but they weren’t minor enough to ignore either.

There was even some blood seeping through her uniform.

And then there was Kurosawa’s mother—apparently her name was “Ms. Kagami”—who still hadn’t been able to remove the iron chain from her neck. That was understandable. There was no way a Japanese sword could cut through thick iron chains.

Her cheeks were sunken from starvation, and her arms and legs were extremely thin, but even in this condition, she had the air of an unfortunate beauty. Of course, this wasn’t really the appropriate situation to be thinking about such things.

“Souta.”

Nanami touched Souta’s hand with a very serious expression.

Blood was flowing from Souta’s hand as well. Looking at the wounds, they might even be worse than Yuka’s. There were irregular scratches all over, and some places still had small glass fragments embedded in them.

Nanami’s eyes welled up with tears as she looked at his hand, not knowing what to do. She couldn’t remove the glass stuck in his hand, nor did she have anything to bandage the wound with.

“Let’s go to the hospital first. We need to treat those wounds!”

Nanami said, looking around at the group.

Fukuda was still in a daze and couldn’t answer, but Yuka at least nodded in response.

Until just a moment ago, Souta had been in such a rush that he could barely feel the wounds on his hand, but as the tension eased a bit, his body began to tremble. As he felt the wounded areas gradually starting to sting, he thought that it would soon become unbearable.

What am I going to tell Shii when I get home?

The fact that he was thinking about that suggested that his tension had eased somewhat.

…There was still an enormous amount to do, but at least for now, it was okay to feel relieved that they had saved their lives.

*

When this group of people, who by any measure didn’t look normal, visited the clinic, the few people inside were all shocked.

Thinking they had just been in some life-or-death battle—which was somewhat accurate—the doctor asked various questions while removing glass fragments from Souta’s hand. He was told that some parts would need stitches, and if he was unlucky, there might be significant scarring.

Although Souta had to sit with the doctor for quite a long time, he couldn’t properly explain what had happened.

Yuka didn’t have wounds as severe as Souta’s. Naturally, her treatment didn’t take as long.

“…”

Sitting next to Souta, waiting for Ms. Kurosawa who had gone in last for treatment, Yuka suddenly spoke up.

“I’m sorry.”

“Huh?”

Surprised by the sudden apology, Souta looked at Yuka.

Yuka couldn’t meet Souta’s eyes and kept her gaze down, staring at the floor.

“I was careless. I guess I’ve been… too immersed in ordinary life.”

“Um, if I remember correctly, it hasn’t even been a year since you last fought those things.”

Souta thought his own words were quite reasonable, but Yuka shook her head.

“I should have known it would be dangerous to go to Kurosawa’s house. I was just… intoxicated by everyday life, I guess. I shouldn’t have visited like it was just a friend’s house.”

Yuka leaned forward and ran her hands over her face as she spoke.

“And the window. I could have broken it with something else.”

“There was nothing to throw inside.”

In fact, Souta only thought about his bag after breaking the window. If he had swung with his arm inside the bag, he wouldn’t have been injured this badly. Or if he had at least wrapped his outer clothing around his arm.

But that was all in the past now. Everyone had been in a panic, trying to escape, and they had succeeded.

Better to get a few scratches on his arm than to be eaten alive.

“The scabbard. Right. I could have handed you the scabbard.”

“Yuka.”

Souta said.

“It’s okay. It’s already over.”

“…”

After Souta said that, Yuka didn’t bring it up again.

A brief silence fell between them.

Souta quickly changed the subject, trying to ease the awkward atmosphere.

“By the way, what about the mattress that was below? Was it always there?”

“No, it was abandoned.”

Nanami said.

“Or put out for disposal. Anyway, it was standing right next to the building. Fukuda and I went down first and laid it flat. Kurosawa’s mother was just hanging there… though she eventually came down on her own. I’m glad it helped when you fell… But are your bones okay? Maybe we should have gone to an orthopedic clinic instead?”

“I’ll go there separately later.”

Seeing Yuka curl up even more at those words, Souta quickly changed the subject again.

“But that was impressive. I didn’t know Nanami could move like that.”

“You told me to go that way without knowing?”

“…Well, there was no other way out.”

“That’s true.”

Nanami exhaled briefly and answered with a slight smile.

“You’re right. I’ve been exercising hard. I figured it would be better if I was going to hang around with you, Souta. I might not be able to fight those monsters, but I can at least run away. It helped today, didn’t it?”

“I don’t know what would have happened without you, Nanami.”

“Hehe.”

“…Hey, you guys.”

Fukuda, who had been quietly listening to the conversation until then, joined in.

“How can you talk and laugh like that right now?”

“Huh?”

Nanami looked up at Fukuda, a bit taken aback.

Souta also looked up at Fukuda for the first time since entering the clinic.

Fukuda’s face was pale. His hands were trembling slightly, and his hair was a bit disheveled, making him look even more exhausted.

It wasn’t as bad as Kurosawa’s mother’s hair being pulled out, but Fukuda had clearly been running his hands through his hair quite a bit.

He must have had a lot to think about.

“You saw it earlier, right? It wasn’t human! What was that… thing? A monster? Is it okay to call it something so simple? How can something like that even exist in reality?”

That’s right.

This would be the normal reaction. When ordinary people see such things, it’s natural for them to panic and pull at their hair.

Even in modern society, many people die from animal attacks. In Japan alone, there are quite a few cases of people going into the mountains and being killed by bear attacks.

People would panic just from a bear appearing in the middle of the city, but if something far more vicious than a bear was roaming this city…

If you thought that at any moment it could climb through the window and start eating you from the toes up, it would be impossible not to be afraid.

“…”

Knowing this, Souta and Nanami were at a loss for words. What could they say? Telling him he’d get used to it soon wouldn’t be something he’d want to hear.

The nurses glanced in their direction at the sound of Fukuda’s voice. Since it was still a weekday afternoon, there were no other patients, but it was still a bit awkward.

“…”

Seeing no response from Souta and Nanami, Fukuda scratched his head again and then slumped down in a nearby seat.

Despite being in such a panic, Fukuda didn’t seem to be thinking of just leaving.

Perhaps he wasn’t running away because of what he had seen.

Kurosawa was his friend… probably that kind of relationship.

As they all sat in awkward silence again, Kurosawa’s mother came out from inside.

The chain that had been around her neck was already gone. She had bandages wrapped around her neck, perhaps because the skin underneath the chain had been injured.

Her clothes were still shabby, but just the absence of the chain made her much less conspicuous.

“I’d like you to wait here for a moment.”

The doctor followed her out and spoke to Souta.

“Pardon?”

“I’ve called the police. In this situation, I couldn’t just let it go—well, it’s actually mandatory. I’m not saying you students did anything wrong, but, um.”

“It’s okay.”

Yuka nodded.

“That’s what most people would think.”

Having apparently gathered her thoughts during the silence, Yuka exhaled deeply.

“…Is that okay?”

Fukuda asked somewhat cautiously. Yuka nodded to him.

“The person who told us to come here knows someone in the police.”

“…What, do you know someone important?”

“She does work that would involve knowing such people.”

The doctor and nurses’ expressions became a bit strange at this statement, but Yuka didn’t seem to mind.

Regardless of their expressions, Yuka seemed to be contemplating what facts she should tell Fukuda, then with a somewhat determined expression, she said:

“And it’s probably someone you know too.”