My fingers swelled up from swimming in the morning, and it turned out that we were going to play on the attractions in the afternoon.
Well, I prefer it this way. Because in the morning, the number of nosebleeds I had was in the double digits. Suzutsuki is fearsome. I wonder if she is a vampire or something if she wants to see my blood that badly.
Even though inside this dome there were lots of attractions, according to Suzutsuki, the first place to go was the haunted mansion. Apparently, you can enter dressed in a swimsuit, so after eating lunch, the four of us would be going there…
“What is this…?”
I was just astonished.
[The silent sheep and her happy friends]
Such a thing was written in blood-red letters on the sign of the haunted mansion that was in front of my eyes now.
“Heh, do you know it?”
“No, it doesn’t matter whether I know or not…”
Silent Sheep.
I never thought it would appear again in such a place, even though I had wanted to never encounter it again. I even thought that the event that happened before at the game center was a curse of this guy.
Various illustrations of cute deformed sheep were painted on the building façade. As expected, all their mouths were red. Or rather, what’s going on with this slogan? [The Current Fashion: Scary and Cute! Your Heart Will Also Have a Heart Attack!] Rather, this is unlucky. It wouldn’t be strange if a lawsuit happened.
“Hey… Don’t you want to stop?”
“Why? Don’t tell me you are bad with scary things?”
“It’s not that, but…”
I just can’t like this character. Rather than surrealist, it was more ominous, especially considering the title. I don’t think it’s possible for this thing to have happy friends.
“Uuh, I am also kind of bad with this…”
Kureha was clinging to Suzutsuki, her face completely blue. Now that I remember, since a long time ago she used to be bad with occult related things. ‘I don’t feel like I can win against someone who doesn’t have a body’. If I said that this was a phrase that suited her, I would be right.
“But… Konoe-senpai is going to enter…”
“………”
I looked to my side while having a bad premonition. As usual, Konoe was gazing at the ominous sheep with a warm look. Uwaa, she sure became a fan of this stuff.
Since there was no helping it, we let Konoe wait in line first.
Perhaps so as not to be bored while waiting in line, you can see what is happening at the exit from here. The plan is to have fun while watching the reactions from the people that are leaving.
But the clients that were leaving the mansion kept screaming errant things like “Hiyaaa! I will be cursed!” or “Help me! They don’t want to leave my head!” or “Coming! They are coming! Hiyaaaa! You all can’t!!!”
There was even a little girl who had fainted that came out on a stretcher with her eyes completely white. There was a warning written, ‘People with weak hearts, please be cautious`, this is surely scary.
“Uwaaaa!” Kureha was clinging to Suzutsuki and trembling a lot. This is sure. There are even clients that leave the line with their physical conditions destroyed.
“Kureha-chan, isn’t it better for us to stop here?”
Suzutsuki whispered to Kureha, ‘Your face has already surpassed pale, and is now the color of the earth.’ Un, I agree. I feel like if she entered, she wouldn’t be able to come out again.
“How about we leave the line? I’ll go together with you. That’s why, Jirou-kun, you can go have fun with Subaru.”
“Yosh, gotcha! …Err, hey! I really have to enter!?”
“What? You are a guy, you can bear it. Or are you such a chicken that you are scared of things of this level?”
“Kuh… You…!
“If I am wrong, then go. We will wait in that shop where we just had lunch.”
Saying that quickly, she took Kureha’s hand and easily left the line.
Uuh, since it came to this, I have to decide. I feel like if I enter, I will probably have nightmares for three days, but I can’t stand being called something so low as a chicken. Even I have pride.
But.
Suddenly, one of the attendants of the attraction said over the loudspeaker that the attraction was going to stop operating.
Looks like a young couple disappeared inside of the attraction and now the staff is working together to search for them. This looks like the development of a B class horror movie. Don’t tell me they were eaten?
“Just a bit more and we could have entered.”
Konoe was heavily regretful, but I was sincerely relieved. Looks like the clients around me had the same sentiments and left the line without any objections.
We also left the line and went to meet with Suzutsuki.
“By the way, how was this morning? You were with Kureha the whole time, right?”
While walking towards the shop where we had eaten lunch, I talked to Konoe who was by my side. It was bothering me. I don’t think the relationship between Konoe and Kureha will grow too quickly, but there’s always a thing called ‘chance’.
“Aah, it was fun. It has been a long time since the last time I played with a girl.”
Konoe was making a happy face.
“She… Kureha-chan is a bright and good girl. You also have a good relationship with her, right?”
“Somewhat… If you just put aside the fact that she uses me as a sandbag every morning, the answer is yes.”
“…I am jealous. Because I don’t have such a good relationship with my family.”
Suddenly, a shadow fell over her face.
Maybe she is having a fight with her family?
“To tell the truth, yesterday, I fought with my father.”
“Is that so? But I don’t really think that your dad wanted to fight with you, right? He should have his reasons.”
Even though there are parents that punish their sons without reasons. And also little sisters.
“But I sincerely don’t know why he was so mad at that time. He even said that he would cut into pieces…”
Or rather, isn’t this dangerous? “Cut into pieces.” In my household, this was a phrase used as frequently as “Let’s eat”, but in a normal family this was not frequently used.
“I don’t understand, why Father acts like this when it comes to Jirou…”
“…Eh?”
“Bring that glasses boy to my front yard! I will cut him into pieces and hang them in the air!” He screamed things like that in a loud voice, but for the safety of your body I want to make peace with him soon.”
“Wa, wait a bit! Why is your father so enraged at me?”
I don’t understand anything here. What did I do?
“I don’t know, either. Even though I only told him about the first time I met you.”
“The first time we met?”
“I just told him that on the first day we met, you pushed me down in an empty classroom, touched my breasts, and had a nosebleed.”
“Of course he will misinterpret this!”
It is clear that he will go mad and crazy. From now on, I need to be sure that I don’t meet Konoe’s father no matter what. I don’t know whether I will be arrested by the cops or be hit by a car for being the criminal that harmed his daughter.
While chatting, we approached the wave pool.
This pool reproduced the ocean, and the bottom of it had sand; it was a structure that I could not believe. We were supposed to meet with Suzutsuki and Kureha after passing this pool.
“Hey, Jirou. Isn’t that a person?”
Suddenly, Konoe pointed to the pool side.
When I looked, far to the inside of the wave pool, there was a small figure sinking… Er, hey!
No matter how you looked, that was drowning.
“Bi- big problems! We have to call a staff member, fast!”
That said, Konoe started looking around for a staff member, but she couldn’t find one. It was such a big facility; so unfortunately, the area may be in a blind spot of the monitoring system. And to make it worse, the drowning person looked to be a small child.
“Konoe! Please, go search and bring a staff member here!”
Saying that, I removed my glasses and threw them into the zipper pocket of the swimsuit. The distance was about 30 meters. I think that I can go that far!
“Wait, Jirou! If we are going to save him, then I’ll g—”
I jumped in the pool before she finished her words.
Crawling, I pushed the water aside and proceeded with all my might.
I might not look like it, but I have confidence in my swimming skills. When I was a kid, I fell from a five meter bridge in the middle of winter while playing with Kureha, and I managed to come back alive and safe. Sometimes the waves bother me, but this much won’t be an obstacle.
“Hey, are you okay!?”
I screamed that while hugging the body of the drowning child. There was a kickboard floating nearby. It’s good that I could do this much using the kickboard, but I may have left a chance go. Fortunately, with my height I could reach the bottom. I will keep carrying like this until I reach the pool side…
“…Heh, are?”
The moment I tried to go back to the land—I perceived the disaster.
The water around me was dyed red.
“Wha…”
After two seconds, dumbfounded, I realized the reason.
Nosebleed.
The fresh blood spurting from my nose was dying the pool red.
“……..”
After becoming speechless, I fearfully checked on the child that I was carrying.
When I did that… For the worse, the child I was hugging was a girl in a school swimsuit. She looked to be in the lower grades of primary school.
“He, help me!”
Maybe it was out of panic, but the girl clung to my neck. A soft sensation. Undoubtedly, this was the soft sensation of a girl’s skin…
“Guhaa!”
I barely saved my consciousness that was about to fly away.
Damn… what a thing.
She is a primary schooler! A primary schooler dressed in a school swimsuit! Damn! To react to such a little girl… How much of a chicken am I?
“—Gu, uuuu!”
I desperately headed back to the pool side with my vision blurred.
This is dangerous.
My blood won’t stop. It is looking like the movies where the sharks appear in the pool.
I shouldn’t have eaten so much spinach and liver yesterday night!
I thought that would prepare a counter-attack for today, but it looks like it was having the opposite effect.
Faster and faster, my feet kept losing strength.
My body started to sink gradually in the water, and my vision was becoming faint.
“Jirou!”
I had the feeling that I heard my voice being called.
A silhouette was reflected in my blurry vision.
The moment I realized who it was—I lost consciousness.