Chapter 33 - Kinoko RusubanWednesday, October 18th The aspirin went down fairly easy. After a few deep breaths, I screwed back on the light-blue bottle cap and waited for salvation to come. In the meantime, I did my utmost to suppress the dense, weighty pain that heaved upon my chest, instead looking to the text message conversation I had opened on my phone.

  [Tuesday, 19: 48]

  Kato: Been a while, Prince o7

  Kato: How’s life treating you?

  [Tuesday, 21: 23]

  Me: Exactly the way I want it to. Yourself?

  Kato: Why ruin the surprise? Anyway, you should do better to take me out and pamper me. I’m your senior, after all UwU

  Me: Not sure Yamamoto-san would approve of my kind gestures.

  Kato: Oh forget him…how about this Thursday, at that chic café on Takeshita Street?

  Me: Cutie Pies?

  Kato: Oh my! How many innocent, purehearted young girls have you sweet-talked into going there already?

  Me: I learned from the best, after all.

  Kato: You’re not wrong >v<

  Kato: Meet me there for 16:30. If you’re tardy, I’ll smack your eyes out of their sockets, k?

  To tell you the truth, I was more than a bit surprised to see her message. We hadn’t talked since she left the orphanage, and that would’ve been about a decade ago now.

  Why the sudden change of heart, Captain Kato?

  My ruminations were cut off, and quite rudely at that, by a series of raps against the flimsy cubicle door. When did anyone else walk in?

  “Rusuban,” A vaguely familiar voice called. “You okay in there? Minoru asked me to come check on you.”

  Makes sense, seeing as I’m one of the few people on the Council who actually get anything done.

  “I’m alright.” I replied calmly. “Must just be something I ate. I’ll come back out in a bit, thank you.”

  At my response, the voice huffed, “Alright,” before I heard the clicking of their shoes travel toward the entrance. Then I heard the door swing open, but to my amusement, it looked like somebody else was entering.

  “Wh-Whoa!” My benefactor (whose name I’d now remembered as Hidetaka, a third-year on the Council), excimed. “Kurogane! Wh-What happened?!”

  I nearly choked on my own breath. Of all pces to be, why did this scoundrel have to show his ugly face here and now?

  “Just a disagreement.” He replied, and left it that. Hidetaka then presumably left. I began to hear the subtle shifts of movement on the other side of the cubicle door, in front of the mirrors. The unwrapping of some kind of packet, running water, the opening of a bottle. Was he treating a wound?

  “So, Rusuban,” He called from the other side. “Looks like whatever you guys were up to yesterday went to shit.”

  For what felt like an eternity, I froze.

  “Come on, no need to act coy. I saw you walk in here a while ago, and considering how all the females within a 2-mile radius still have their skirts on, you’re probably still in here, right?”

  Still, I refused to utter a word.

  “…There’s also the fact that I overheard you talking to Hidetaka. Not to mention the other cubicles are empty. Need I go on?”

  By then, my teeth were gritted hard. Whatever sembnce of illness I was feeling had been overturned by an intoxicating rage. Even so, I collected myself and graciously decided to entertain the imp.

  “Congratutions,” I jeered. “I’m sure Conan-Doyle himself is in envy of your deductive capability. What do you want?”

  There was a pause. I could practically hear him smirking.

  “What do I want?” He echoed. “Simple, really. I want to survive. What else do you think that leaderboard is for?”

  He’s not wrong. We were sent out of the Hollow Night extremely suddenly st night, so there was no time to even review the new positions on the leaderboard, or even to verify that we…indeed lost someone.

  Regardless, I pushed those observations aside to reflect upon the words that were being spoken in the present moment.

  Survive…

  “Though I guess there’s more to it than just survival. To think of it metaphorically, I guess I want to make the rest of you understand.”

  “Understand what?” I scoffed.

  “What it means to be powerless. To be overlooked, ostracized, unloved, shit, the list could go on. There’s a word for it…ah, that’s right.”

  The sounds of his shuffling stopped abruptly then and there, and somehow, I felt as though he was looking right at me through the cubicle door.

  “Despair. I want to make every single one of you taste the despair I’ve had to live with since the day I was born.”

  I paused for a moment, simply because I didn’t know whether to ugh or cry at the pure banality of what had just left his mouth.

  “…Seriously? You’re doing all of this over being ignored?” It was proving too difficult to hide the amusement from my voice. “I wonder how many times you rehearsed that little speech of yours. Would you do it before or after stimuting yourself to pictures of that friend of yours from Tipsy Tose Hall the other day?”

  He didn’t reply, but I sensed something beginning to bubble up on the other side of the door. The momentum wanted to carry me, and I allowed it to.

  “I imagine she never even paid you a gnce – even after you went up to their little table and everything. Judging by her actions, I’d say you hadn’t talked for a while, hm? Still, it was admirable of you to stand your ground for as long as you did – even if you got tossed around like a cheap punching bag afterwards.”

  Still, nothing. In hindsight, perhaps now would’ve been the most opportune time to halt my tirade – but in truth, I think the damage had already been done. I wouldn’t know the extent of it until it was already far too te.

  “Still, she is quite pleasing to the eye, if you understand my meaning. Nice face, long legs – and sizable chest to boot. Who knows? Maybe I’ll have a turn with her next. You’re welcome to watch.“

  I was so pleased with myself that I almost didn’t jump out of my seat when Kurogane kicked the door hard enough for the lock to break, causing a loud bang to silence my assault, the now defunct barrier swaying in the wake of his fury.

  As ashamed as I am to admit it, my hands were shaking. Make no mistake, Daisuke has never been a threat – neither in the real world, nor in the Hollow Night.

  It was the look he gave me.

  It was the first time I’d experienced true murderous intent from another human being, and it felt revolting. The unkemptness of his hair and uniform didn’t help either, signifying he’d likely been in some kind of altercation prior to coming here.

  If not for the sound of the bathroom door being pushed open gently, accompanied by the easy jangling of keys, only god knows what might have occurred in the boys’ bathroom that day.

  “Uh, everything okay here, sonny?” The Janitor inquired curiously. “If you’re not doing the business, could you kindly leave? Have to sort this pce out.”

  It seemed Daisuke hadn’t even registered the new party’s presence, for his eyes, wide and unblinking with hostility, stayed fixed on my own.

  After a while, he pointed a finger straight at me and spat, “You’re st. I’ll save you for st.”

  Whilst an empty threat by all means, it was the unexpected dissonance between the wrath dispyed on his face, and the pure emotionlessness of his voice, that would soon begin to haunt me.

  With that, he trudged off, practically shoving the poor janitor aside before disappearing to the left. It was then made clear to me that I had been holding my breath for far too long, and eventually my lungs seized control, drawing gulps of oxygen into my system.

  “It seems he is not very pleased with you,” The Janitor commented in a tone notably more sarcastic than prior, a tone I had come to recognize him by, as he locked the bathroom door shut.

  “Somebody needed to put him in his pce.” I replied, my heartrate still having trouble settling down. “As usual, the duty fell to me.”

  Once I felt presence of mind come back to me, I lifted myself off of the lidded toilet seat, and walked toward the mirror, fixing my various imperfections.

  “Did you do that on purpose?" I mused without looking at him.

  “Do what?” He replied absently.

  “Enter at that specific time. You don’t seem like the type who does coincidences.”

  He shrugged, and I surmised that was as much as I was going to get. Once I was done with my grooming, I turned to face him. He was looking at me.

  “You’re starting to feel it now, aren’t you?” He remarked, looking me over. “The effects I warned you about.”

  I shook my head, looping my schoolbag around my shoulder.

  “I have no intent of kicking the bucket over something as miniscule as this,” I stated. “Besides, you need me.”

  “Indeed, you make the trials more interesting, if nothing else, Kinoko Rusuban.” He admitted with a particurly iniquitous smirk. “I wonder, how will these events affect the ‘bonds’ of your so-called ‘allies’?”

  “I have no allies,” I corrected. “Only pieces to move across the board as I please. If I were you, I wouldn’t pull off another stunt like this. Not unless you’d like the others to figure out who you are too, if they gather all their collective braincells together anyhow.”

  At Juno’s sadistic ughter, he unlocked the bathroom door, and I made my exit. But the sound of his cackles, alongside Daisuke’s promise, bedevilled me for the rest of the day.