Without understanding the meaning of those words, the door opened.
Ah, I see. The doorknob was broken, right?
Still, Sota, who had thought it would take time for the door to open, quickly turned his body around.
“Fukuda, Nanami, this way!”
“What, what is that!?”
While Nanami, who had already experienced the existence of Yōkai, reacted differently, Fukuda let out an absolutely terrified sound.
Something was crawling in from beyond the door.
To express this thing with any words more than ‘something’ seemed too presumptuous; it was something grotesque. At least to Sota, he couldn’t think of it as either a person or a Yōkai.
Flesh.
Like what Kurosawa’s mother had said, there was no other way to express it…
A mass the color of human skin.
It had arms and legs growing out in all directions. No, the arms and legs were just the most noticeable parts; parts of what looked like real human skin were inflamed or necrotic, as if they had ulcers or tumors, and there were also teeth, lips, eyes, a huge nose, and what looked like insides turned inside out.
And in between those, black hair, or should it be called strands of hair?
They were haphazardly growing.
Sota felt strange even having such thoughts, but to say those strands resembled Koto Ne’s hair—was that even plausible?
It was probably just because of what Kurosawa’s mother had said that such thoughts came to mind.
“Ah, ah… in the end… in the end…”
Kurosawa’s mother grabbed her hair. Snip, snip, the sound of her hair breaking was chilling.
“W-wait a moment. Just calm down…”
Nanami spoke, trying her best not to look that way. Fukuda was staring blankly in the direction of the sound.
Sota turned around again and threw a punch.
Bang!
His hand slammed against the window, and the part of the window tightly fitted into the frame shook violently.
From behind came a bone-chilling sound. It sounded like a knife slicing through something. It was a distinctly different sound than what one would hear at a butcher shop—it was a much more gruesome, grinding sound, quickly followed by the splattering of liquid.
And then, a scream.
The scream of something that wasn’t human overlapped just like a lot of people screaming at once. Since it didn’t have just one mouth—which one could even call a ‘mouth’?—it sounded horrific.
Bang!
Even for Sota, who had often encountered Yōkai, he could not help but fall into a panic at such a sound.
Yōkai were beings that at least resembled humans, or were they not animals? Sota had never imagined a Yōkai that looked like that. At least in the stories he had heard from Yuka, or in the old tales he had come across, there was nothing like that.
Moreover, he had never faced something like this in such a small space.
Once again, he threw his hand with all his might, and rather than dislodging the window frame, the window shattered.
“Sota!?”
Nanami gasped. For some reason, she seemed more terrified seeing Sota break the glass than when she looked at that mass of flesh.
Blood dripped from his hand, but Sota didn’t care much about it.
He quickly picked up the bag he had placed on the floor and started tidying up the window frame. Although he couldn’t completely clean up the shards of glass, it looked like it was enough for a person to get through.
“Nanami! Fukuda! Hurry!”
When Sota yelled like that, the two people came to the window frame with still dazed expressions.
It was indeed a bit dangerous due to the glass shards, but nonetheless, who would want to stay in this room in such a situation?
With Kurosawa’s mother, who was either weak in the knees or kept looking back over her shoulder, somehow lifted over the window frame, he then helped Nanami and Fukuda up.
“Are you okay? Can you go down?”
“Yes. There’s still a place to step on.”
Nanami said while firmly holding Kurosawa’s mother, who was perched on the window frame.
“And even if I fall, I don’t think it will hurt too much!”
The two of them perched on the window, and through the gap, Fukuda climbed down.
Of course, it meant taking a brief glance back at the room.
Fukuda’s gaze fixed on the door for a moment.
“…Goodness.”
After muttering that, Fukuda, in response to Nanami’s shout as she moved first, looked back at Sota.
“It’s okay. I’ll go down with Yuka.”
After saying that, Fukuda bit down on her lip and eventually slowly moved towards the window of the adjacent room. She might be going to a place that was safe; at least, there was somewhere to go down to—
“Yuka!”
Sota turned around.
Yuka was slowly backing away, swinging a knife. To an ordinary person, it would have just looked like a long shiny metal rod, but with each flash of that gleam, something was being cut and flying away.
But those flying parts crawled back to where they had been. No matter how much she cut, nothing seemed to change—
Sota quickly rushed over and swung his hand.
He was scratched by the shards of glass, and droplets of blood splattered from his hand.
“————!”
The grotesque mass stopped moving for a moment upon being splattered with Sota’s blood.
It was an action taken from recalling how other Yōkai had feared Sota’s blood; knowing that such strength was needed when Yuka pointed the sword, he willingly brought his hand forward.
However, he never anticipated that there would be such an effect.
It wasn’t that the blood had some power that made it stop; it seemed the mass was momentarily startled by the shower of blood.
The big and small eyes sprouting on its skin—at least those that looked like they could turn—stared at Sota.
“Yuka, let’s go…!”
Seeing that gaze made Sota shiver, and he shouted at Yuka.
“Okay!”
The two of them dashed towards the shattered window. Sota had no idea what had happened to Nanami, Fukuda, and Kurosawa’s mother. He could only hope that the reason for their absence was that they had safely made it down.
From behind came the sound of something moving.
It sounded like something bubbling and perhaps like phlegm crackling in a throat. It also sounded like feet scuffing against the floor and a sound that resembled fingers tapping on a table.
It was a strange sound to be heard all at once from one place, but having seen what that mass looked like, Sota could guess how it was moving.
The speed at which the sounds were getting closer was far faster than the speed at which Yuka and Sota were running towards the window.
Without a moment to turn around and check, Sota and Yuka leaped outside.
Ah, but wait, we’re on the second floor.
“Sota!?”
Yuka’s voice reached him. Sota instinctively grabbed Yuka’s arm.
And forgetting the fact that Yuka was holding a knife, he embraced her as if to protect her from the impact of the fall.
Right before the fall, he thought that maybe Yuka’s body could withstand it, but even in that brief moment, Sota thought again.
After all, isn’t it a bit strange to use a girl’s body as a cushion?
“Sota!”
He heard Nanami’s panicked shout—and then he felt a strong impact on his body.
He didn’t lose consciousness. His whole body hurt for sure.
Even though it was the second floor, he should have taken a hard fall on the concrete below without anything breaking his fall.
“Sota—”
As Yuka quickly sat up from Sota’s arms and called out, her voice sounded a bit stiff. Sota wondered whether she was surprised that she unwittingly called him by his name, or if it was because Sota was in pretty bad shape.
Nanami and Fukuda quickly came and helped Sota up.
Only after getting up did he realize that there was a mattress on the floor. Of course, it wasn’t in perfect condition; it was an old, worn-out mattress that had been left outside for a long time.
Had the three of them who came down first laid it out? Or was it just luck? Before he could think about that, Sota was already getting pulled by Yuka by the collar.
“Quickly!”
As Sota limped, Nanami and Yuka supported him from both sides. Kurosawa’s mother was being helped by Fukuda.
They all ran with all their strength.
As they ran, passersby looked at them oddly.
Should he tell those people to run?
However, even when he looked back while thinking that, all he could see was just a dilapidated apartment.
The door that Yuka and Fukuda had broken through was wide open. Inside, it looked dark, possibly due to the intense sunlight outside.
It seemed as if a beast was gaping wide, but nothing could be seen inside.
Even when the group had almost reached the nearby station, that wide mouth didn’t seem to flick a tongue.
As if it were a lie that everything just happened moments ago.
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