Having survived another day at school, I’m currently on my way home in the evening glow.
I didn’t have a specific school I wanted to go to, so I advanced to the nearest one, making me the star player of the go-home club. Despite walking, it takes me an astonishing ten minutes to get home.
I leave the classroom while erasing my presence so the lump of meat won’t call out to me, and about five minutes after passing through the school gate, I can finally breathe easy.
I basically leave my textbooks and such behind, so my bag is light.
It’s a rectangular shape that looks like it could hold a lot of things, but it has never had the chance to shine.
I watch elementary school students who happened to be going home at the same time, walking only on the white line.
They’re normal humans. Definitely not lumps of meat or zombies.
Just that makes my favorability skyrocket. There might not be many people as easy as me.
If I were in a gal game or otome game, I’d probably be able to clear the route after two conversations.
While thinking about such trivial things, I quickly arrive home.
I take out the key from my pocket and unlock the door.
I silently pass through the empty entrance, as both my parents work.
My room is on the second floor. After climbing a narrow, steep staircase like a castle, my room is at the end of an unusually long corridor.
I pass through a door covered with talismans as if gone mad and turn the doorknob with a plate hanging that says “You’s Room”.
「That’s strange.」
It was only then that I realized.
I retrace my steps and look at the door covered with talismans as if gone mad.
「These weren’t here yesterday.」
The types of talismans are varied.
From ones composed of hiragana that even elementary school students can read, to ones with difficult kanji that even college students would find hard to read, and even some that aren’t in Japanese at all.
They are nailed to the wooden door.
「This is a rental, right?」
According to my memory, this house is a rental.
Thinking about the landlord, you wouldn’t want to nail things to the door.
Unless you’re planning to replace the door when you move out.
For now, I tried peeling off the talismans.
Whether the nails weren’t driven in well or for some other reason, the talismans come off quite easily.
Peel, peel.
Peel, peel.
Peel, peel.
Peel, peel.
Peel, thud.
A jet-black hand stretches out from the gap that had somehow opened.
It squeezed as if trying to crush my hand.
「Itai itai itai itai. If you were sealed, aren’t I your benefactor for releasing you?」
I had no intention of releasing some kind of monster, I was just curious because there was something strange next to my room. I didn’t expect an arm to come out.
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As I complain, the jet-black arm weakens its grip.
It seems to be an understanding arm.
As I gently remove each finger, it trembled slightly, as if my hand was ticklish.
I almost tremble too, now that I realize I’m touching something creepy.
If this had happened when I was in middle school, I would have definitely gone mad. It’s sad, but I’ve developed a tolerance now that I’m in high school.
Amazingly, it’s only been a week since I became a high school student.
Like a leash attached to a dog that got too excited on a walk and can’t move, the black arm hangs limply.
For now, we’re shaking hands, but the chills are incredible.
I might even get sick at this rate.
The black arm continued to stretch out from the narrow gap in the door.
Peeking through the gap, it’s pitch black. Maybe the darkness itself is a monster.
After peeling off all the talismans, I try opening the door.
It was still pitch black.
「Ehh…」
There’s physically no place to step. Or rather, I can’t enter.
When I try to enter the room, a soft sensation rejects me.
It seems the darkness is forming a wall.
If I remember correctly, this room was prepared for my sister who was supposed to be born. My parents had bought baby futons, child seats, strollers, and such for my sister who was miscarried.
However, because they couldn’t bear to see those things after she lost her life so soon after conception, they sealed them in this room.
Actually, I had never entered this room either──hearing such a story from my parents, even I wouldn’t be curious enough to want to enter──but I never expected monsters to have moved in. It’s quite a surprise.
「Sorry, Onii-chan.」
「Ah, you can talk.」
A mouth had somehow grown on the jet-black palm, apologizing with a regretful tone. It didn’t look like it could converse at all, but apparently, it can grow one.
Moreover, the black arm claims to be my sister.
Well, with lumps of meat and zombies around, it’s not surprising my sister ended up like this.
No way.
「Why were there talismans?」
「That’s because my power got too strong, and if I didn’t do that, miasma would leak out… Has anything strange happened recently? If it did, it’s probably my fault.」
I see.
I was wondering why I couldn’t see Kusakabe Nanaka, renowned as a beautiful girl, and Kusakabe Yuna, who should be a beautiful girl based on my classmates’ reactions, as humans.
It seems it was because of my sister who grew up healthy and strong. Come to think of it, I had a fever of nearly forty degrees a while ago. Was that a precursor?
「By the way, there’s a lump of meat among my classmates.」
「Yeah.」
「Is that a human? Or is my vision just messed up?」
「Umm, when you inhale my miasma, you get closer to a world of strange forms. That’s why monsters start to look like monsters. Probably, that person is just normally a lump of meat.」
So she was just normally a lump of meat, huh.