Chapter 31: ~Chapter 10~ Part 3

"I demand a rematch!" Joshua exclaimed at my side as we were collecting the balls and pads left behind by the other students. Our last lesson for the day was PE, and this time we were playing table tennis inside the school's pointlessly huge gymnasium. Needless to say, I paired up with Josh from the very beginning and we conducted a long and arduous campaign of inter-tabular ballistic warfare against each other. It was fun, though at least one of us had some gripes about the final tally.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes!" he growled at me while picking up another white ball from a corner. I shrugged my shoulders.

"Fine by me, but are we going with a clean slate or carry our current score?" I asked innocently as I used one of the paddles in my hand to try and fish out a stray ball trapped under the wall-bars.

"Clean slate. Definitely clean slate."

"Are you sure?" I teased as I finally managed to overcome the resistance of the stubborn white plastic fugitive and placed it into custody inside its cardboard prison cell. Once I was done I turned to Josh and grinned at him. "I mean, a rematch is nice and all, but wouldn't your victory be all the sweeter if you could overcome my initial score advantage? What was it again, fifty-seven to two?"

"It's because you were cheating," he grit his teeth and I could only shake my head in response.

"Just how can one even cheat in ping pong?"

"It's because of your—"

"Are you finished?" Josh's presumably well-reasoned and in no way acidic explanation was cut short by the class rep poking her head through the half-open door of the hall. She asked us to help her gather the discarded equipment beforehand and we agreed, though I really couldn't tell why we were doing it. Maybe cleanup was part of her duties as the class representative? Or maybe that was just the honor-studenty thing to do? Either way, I faced her and gave her a small wave.

"Yeah, we got all of them," I told her as I raised the filled cardboard box in my other hand.

"Good." She finally passed through the door with lithe steps and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't help but feel that her PE uniform was at least one size smaller than it should've been. Though, as I reflected on it, I supposed the same could've been said about the other girls as well. I wondered if that was the thing that Josh was hinting at the day before.

Anyways, she walked over to us and took the box of balls from me and the paddles from Josh.

"I'll put these away. Thank you for the help, you can go now."

"You are welcome." Josh smiled at her and gestured for me to follow, his previous saltiness over his abysmal score already filed in the annals of ancient history under ‘u' for ‘unimportant'.

"On second thought, Leo?" the class rep addressed me just as I was about to take the first step. "Before you go, could you help me with one last thing?"

"Sure, what is it?"

She fidgeted for a second, then sheepishly said, "The balls should be placed on the top shelf."

"Aaaaaah..." I couldn't help but chuckle at her request and nodded hard in response. "Of course, lead the way."

"Should I wait for you?" Josh inquired. I thought about it, but ultimately I shook my head.

"Nah, you should head for the princess' mansion. Tell her I said hi."

"I'm sure she will be riveted," my friend prodded me with an impish smile that would have been more at home on Angie's face. I rolled my eyes and I shooed him away with exaggerated motions. He gave me one last wave from the door before he left, after which I turned to the girl waiting at my side.

"Lead the way."

She nodded hard, and I actually had to quickly (and very inconspicuously) avert my eyes from her jiggling assets. Not that I paid much attention to them, of course. They were just hard to ignore. It was the fault of the gym clothes, I tell you.

Anyways, the important part was that I followed her to the storage room at the back. It was pretty much what I expected; a small room with a surprisingly high ceiling with only a small window about four, maybe even five meters above the ground. It was probably just for ventilation, as it barely provided any light and was too high up to serve any other purpose. The room itself was filled to the brim with sports equipment and the storage compartments for said sports equipment. Needless to say, everything was in mint new condition. I grimaced to myself and took the box from the class rep, which was kind of silly considering she just took them from me a minute ago, but I decided not to complain.

"Where to?" I asked, and she pointed at a tall cabinet at the back under the window. I opened it and found several identical boxes on its top shelf. I reached up and slid the box in my hands into place just as I heard a noise behind me. By the time I turned around the class rep was already walking towards me from the freshly closed door with a serious expression.

"Leo, we need to talk."

Uh-oh. That was her class representative voice. I silently gulped and straightened my back with an awkward smile.

"Am I in trouble?"

"Maybe," she answered enigmatically. "I just want to ask you a few questions."

"Oooookay..." I leaned my back on the cabinet behind me and crossed my arms. "Shoot."

She seemed confused for a second, but then the seriousness returned to her eyes.

"Why did you lie to us?"

"Pardon?"

"I asked why did you—"

"No no, I heard the question; I just need you to be more specific."

She looked at me dubiously, her face practically screaming ‘Is he lying so often he needs me to pinpoint which lie I am talking about?', which wasn't exactly flattering, but at the same time wasn't entirely untrue either. It made me sad.

"During lunch, you said you were home browsing the internet yesterday." I nodded in response. "That was a lie."

"Errr... No, not really. That's what I was doing."

"Then why were you outside after dark? In the park?"

"Ahhhh!" I smiled at her in sudden realization. "Now I get it!" A moment later my smile faded though, replaced by an inquisitively raised eyebrow and a curious smirk. "Speaking of which, what were you doing outside at that hour?"

"I... I was going home from Angie's place. After the show was over." The mask of the class representative fell away in a flustered scamper as she tried to explain herself.

"And Josh didn't even offer to take you home? Damn, I need to have a talk with that guy about being a gentleman."

"That's beside the point!" Her authoritarian manner reasserted and she scowled at me again. "We are talking about why you have lied to us about it."

"I didn't lie, I just omitted information. It's not the same," I corrected her, but she didn't seem to care about the nuances. I sighed and uncrossed my arms. "You are making this seem a bigger deal than it actually is. I was outside because I met with an..." I paused thoughtfully. "... Well, I suppose I can call her an acquaintance. Anyways, it doesn't really concern you guys."

"Then why lie about it?"

"I told you, I didn't lie, I just didn't go out of my way to mention her."

The furrows on the class rep's forehead deepened even further as she took a step towards me.

"Listen Leo, that girl is dangerous. You shouldn't involve yourself with her."

I blinked in surprise at her harsh words and cocked my head to the side.

"Snowy? Dangerous? Are you sure we are talking about the same person?"

"Snowy?" The creases on her forehead gave way to a surprised look and I almost snickered at the sudden change in her facial expression.

"Right, you probably don't know her name. It's the girl the princess tackled yesterday. And the day before too, if we are at that. Anyways, I was meeting with her in the park. Her name is..." I paused for a moment and scratched the nape of my neck in embarrassment. "Actually, I can't remember her name. I'm kind of bad with those, but I do remember that it means ‘snow' in French, so I just call her Snowy."

"Neige?"

"Yeah, that one!" I snapped a finger. "I didn't know you speak French."

"A little." She looked away sheepishly, but then she actually remembered that she was interrogating me and so she hastily reaffirmed her scowl. Unfortunately for her, by this point I knew it was so paper-thin it had absolutely no effect. "Why were you meeting her?"

"To return her phone." The answer seemed to take her aback, as she only blinked at me uncomprehendingly, so I elaborated. "Yesterday, when the princess tackled her, she lost her phone. I picked it up, called her brother on it, we set up a meeting time and I gave it back to her."

"You talked with her brother...?"

"Yeah." I rolled my eyes at the mere mention of the guy. "Sounded like one smug asshole."

The class rep shook herself and looked at me with harsh eyes.

"Leo, you really don't know what you involved yourself in. Those people are bad news."

"Really?" I was doubtful and it really showed in my voice. "I mean, yeah, her brother sounded like a piece of work, but Snowy seemed pretty harmless to me."

"You shouldn't let appearances fool you," the class rep warned me sternly. "She is a seducer."

I blinked at her and then immediately and uncontrollably laughed out loud. The weirded-out look she gave me afterward didn't help my laughing fit either. At last, I managed to get my diaphragm under control and wiped the tears from the corners of my eyes.

"A seducer? Her? Oh please, that girl couldn't seduce a virgin at a prom night if her life depended on it!"

Once again the class rep looked at me funny and I almost entered into another laughing fit, but I forced it down.

"You mean that?"

"Yeah!" I answered with a grin. "She was absolutely horrible at it. It was like watching a really bad rendition of one of those noir femme-fatale characters." I paused again and exhaled sharply. "Though, I suppose if one is really into that kind of thing... I'm not judging anyone, but I personally liked her better after she dropped the act."

"Dropped the act..." It wasn't a question, but instead she seemed to be thinking aloud. "What was she like then?"

"Hm? Fairly normal, I suppose. A little awkward and fidgety, though that might've been just the cold. Otherwise, she seemed like a nice girl. Maybe a little sheltered. Actually, her vamp act could have been just chuunibyou, and..." I trailed off as I noticed that the class rep wasn't even looking at me anymore but staring a hole in the cabinet behind me. I tried to figure out if there was something there, but it seemed like she was just so deep in thought she didn't even notice. I waited for her to ask her next question for a minute or two, but after she didn't react and the silence got uncomfortable, I pointedly cleared my throat. She was startled for a moment and looked at me like a deer in the headlights, but then she remembered where we were and put on her game face again.

"Y-Yes?"

"I was just wondering why you keep insisting that Snowy is dangerous. I mean, you obviously know more about her background than I do, and I can't help but feel curious."

She looked me in the eye for a good five seconds, but ultimately she shook her head.

"No. The less you know about her, the better. You shouldn't get involved."

"Well, I already am. Kind of."

"No," she stated firmly, turned around, and headed for the exit. "You really should take better care of—"

Just then there was a dull metallic clank and the class rep's final words were abruptly cut off by the air being squeezed out of her lungs as she ran headlong into the closed door. She wobbled for a moment and then abruptly fell on her butt while cradling her forehead.

"Ow-ow-ow!" she cried while I rushed to her side.

"Whoa there! Are you all right?"

"Nooooo," she answered in a long, childish whimper as thick beads of tears started flowing down her cheeks. I gently moved her hands from her forehead, but thankfully there was only a small bump there, nothing serious.

You are reading story The Simulacrum at novel35.com

"There, there. It's just a small bruise; it will get better in no time." I patted her head to comfort her before I turned my attention to the door. It was big, brown and a few knocks affirmed that it was made of surprisingly thick metal plates. Furthermore, it was obviously locked. I rattled the knob a few times and I could only groan and roll my eyes at the result. "Dammit, I should have known. This is so..."

"What?" The class rep looked up at me from the ground, her teary eyes partially obscured by her bangs.

"This is such a stereotypical development. I should've seen it coming." I complained to no one in particular as I tried to force the door open. It didn't budge. "Damn... This is the kind of situation Josh should be involved in, not me!"

"What do you mean?" my fellow storage-room prisoner asked as she got onto her feet. She seemed to finally regain her composure. Not only that, but she finally stopped trying to sound like a teacher, so at least that was a plus.

"Nothing. It would take too long to explain and it wouldn't help the situation."

Though apparently unconvinced, she didn't press any further. Instead, she got next to me and tried the doorknob as well.

"It's locked."

"Yeah, I already figured that out."

"Maybe the latch fell down when I closed the door..." she theorized.

"Okay, does that help us? Can we open the latch from the inside?" She considered our options and shook her head. "Great, so what do we do now?"

"Ours was the last PE class, so..."

It didn't take a genius to connect the dots.

"You want to tell me we would be trapped here until Monday?"

"No, only until tomorrow morning!" she corrected me hastily. "The sports clubs would need to get their equipment for their weekend practice."

"Well, that isn't much better either," I griped and raised my eyes to the small window. It was high up, but if I tried really hard I would've probably been able to squeeze through. I looked around in the room and after a few seconds of planning I nodded to myself. "Okay, that should work."

I turned to the expectant-looking girl at my side and pointed at a cluster of containers in the far corner.

"Can you help me move a few things?"

"Why?" she asked, but she moved immediately and began stacking boxes at my side.

"We are going to make a ramp to the window using these equipment boxes and the cabinet. I will climb up, go through the window, circle around the building, and open the door from the outside to let you out."

She glanced up at the window and then back at me. There was an uncertain glint in her eyes.

"Can you fit through?"

"I will worry about that when I get there," I answered with what I hoped to be a reassuring smile. "Hand me that box, please." She nodded and tried to lift a large cardboard box filled with basketballs, but she couldn't even get it to budge. I smiled ruefully and pointed at a smaller box. "On second thought, I will get this one. Bring over that instead."

Like that we managed to put together a ramp in less than five minutes. A wobbly and decidedly dangerous-looking ramp, but hey, beggars can't be picky.

"Well, here goes nothing!" I grinned fearlessly (or at least I hoped that was the impression I gave off) and began scaling our construction.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Ammy stopped me with a whisper. I looked back at her and awarded her a critical frown.

"I'm already halfway there. Don't you think it's a little too late to ask that question?"

"Oh, right..."

With that, I returned to climbing. Getting to the top of the storage cabinet was fairly easy, but getting onto the unstable boxes we piled onto the top of that? Now that was a different story. I somehow managed to gain a somewhat stable footing and crawled onto the top of the first box. It creaked ominously under my weight, the balls inside bulging out the sides of the box like a balloon that was about to pop, but slow and steady did its magic and in a minute I was on the top of the pile with the windowsill roughly in line with my chest.

I reached out for the latch and immediately cursed under my breath. How the hell is it that everything in this bloody world was brand new except this single rusty latch?! I groaned loudly and got on my tiptoes to get a better view, which unfortunately made the entire ramp wobble under me.

"Whoa!"

"Careful!" the class rep called out, but by then I already regained my balance and let out a sigh.

"I'm fine, don't worry... but on second thought, you might want to take a step back. Just to be on the safe side."

"You are jinxing it," she muttered even as she obediently backed away until her back hit the wall right next to the door.

I tried to reassure her with a smile before I returned to my contest with the rusty latch. Even as I worked on different angles, I let my mind wander about why this bolt in particular was rusty in the first place. Sure, if one only considered its position, maybe it was because moisture in the air tends to condense on windows and it would trickle down, rusting the metal. But then again, the window itself showed no signs of this; it was as brand new as everything else.

The other, and far more likely, option was that this was a ‘plot device', or at least was supposed to be under different circumstances. As I have alluded to, a boy and a girl getting locked into a storage room (or in case of outdoor activities, a storage shed) is a bread-and-butter cliché of school-life romance stories. Of course, if I presumed that it applied here, it would've meant that this situation, or at least a similar one, was meant for Josh. In that case, the positioning of the window and the rusty latch made sense, as they were just there to further the romantic development between the people trapped inside by making sure they cannot easily leave the room and instead force them to spend quality time together.

Just then I pushed against the window and the latch finally moved. Unfortunately, it also unbalanced me and for a second or two I teetered on the edge of tumbling down.

"Wait Leo, I'll help!" Ammy cried out and I immediately snapped at her.

"No, stay where you are!"

She froze mid-motion. Thankfully I also managed to regain my balance once again and exhaled. Yeah, we almost quite literally fell into the second clichéd development, where I would have fallen onto her in some kind of compromising position. That's kind of like the whole ‘girl falls down the stairs, guy accidentally gropes her' deal, and I wasn't a fan of either. At any rate, I tried the latch again and it indeed moved, though only a little. If only we had some kind of lubricant...

"Oh well..." I mumbled under my breath as I placed one hand against the window and grabbed the bolt with the other. As a wise man had once said, ‘when out of options, use brute force'. Well, okay, the original saying was a bit more eloquent, but the point remains the same. "Here goes nothing, again..."

I tried to plant my feet as best as I could on the unsteady boxes and took a deep breath, held it in for a moment, then exhaled sharply as I pushed against the window with all my might while simultaneously pulling on the latch to dislodge it. To my sincerest surprise, it worked. In fact... it worked too well...

"Sonova...!" The curse got trapped in my throat as the bolt gave way and the window swung outwards. Since it happened so unexpectedly I completely lost my footing and fell forwards, hitting my forehead on the top of the frame. I could distantly hear the class rep gasp in horror, but a moment later I found myself outside, tumbling through the air like a crash-test dummy that just got flung out of a speeding car's windshield.

For a very long moment, everything seemed to blur together and I felt nauseous, which I attributed to the weird spinning feeling I experienced at the time, but just as I was about to grasp the gravity of the situation, I found myself landing on my butt with a surprisingly painless thud. For a couple of seconds all I could do was to blink blankly at my surroundings, but at last my brain caught up and I jumped to my feet like I was sitting on fire.

First, I quickly patted myself down. I didn't seem to be injured. Even the spot where I hit my head on the window frame only stung when I poked it, so it didn't seem serious. Once I made sure I still had all my limbs and organs, I focused on my surroundings. I was standing outside, by the back wall of the gym, and as I looked up I couldn't help but whistle. The entire building had an elevated foundation, so from the outside, the window I just fell through was a good five meters above the ground. Sure, the soil I fell on wasn't particularly packed, but damn, getting out of a fall like that with a sore butt was pretty miraculous.

Just then I remembered why I was climbing out in the first place and raised my hands around my mouth to form a funnel. "Hey, class rep! Are you okay in there?!"

"I'm fine!" came the hasty reply. "I should be the one asking that question! Are you okay?!"

"Perfectly fine! I will let you out in a minute!"

I didn't wait for her to answer, instead I immediately began jogging to the left... only to stop and go the other way around as I remembered that the entrance is on the other side. This small, embarrassing intermezzo aside I quickly found my way into the gym and rushed up to the door. On closer inspection, it turned out only the tip of the hook of the latch was in its socket, so in retrospect shaking the door a bit more could have possibly dislodged it and let us out. Oh well, spilled milk and all.

After undoing said lock I opened the door and the class rep all but jumped through.

"How did you do that?!" she leveled the question at me with a strangely intense expression.

"I undid the latch. See, it's—"

"No, not that!" She shook her hand vigorously to halt me. "The window! You fell through the window!"

"Yes, I did that," I answered a tad hesitantly. I really didn't know why she was making such a big deal out of it. Maybe she was just still in shock after my sudden exit?

"How? How did you do that?"

"I really can't follow your questions."

"You fell through the window!" she repeated herself, obviously frustrated with my incomprehension.

"Yes, I opened it, lost my balance, and then fell through the opening. What about it?"

"But you fell through the frame too!"

Now it was my turn to look at her funny.

"That's just silly."

"I saw what I saw," she stood her ground. I, on the other hand, could only shake my head. She was probably still in a shock of fright over my unintentional stunt, and I couldn't blame her.

"Now, now. I'm not saying you lied, only that you might have seen it wrong. It happened fast and you were probably pretty tense, so you might've mistaken something. For example, I hit my head when I tumbled forwards. Maybe that looked like my head went through the frame from your point of view?"

"... Maybe," she answered hesitantly, and I smiled to reassure her.

"It had to be. It's not like people can phase through walls."

"Not unless they are part of the First Earth Battalion."

"The what?"

Suddenly the class rep perked up.

"They were an elite psychic unit of soldiers. They could phase through walls and use ESP and even kill goats by staring at them."

"Uh-huh." I tried to nod politely while also grasping for a quick excuse to change the topic.

"I see, so... Oh, wow... Look at that mess!"

I pointed behind her and she fell silent with a frown. The inside of the storage room was a mess indeed. Our makeshift ramp obviously tumbled over during my escape and the contents of the boxes were strewn all over the floor in a giant heap of balls, rackets, and assorted whatchamacallits. While falling on the outside had me drop from higher, looking at all the sharp edges on some of those things made me think that if I fell down with them I would have not escaped with just a bruised bottom.

"I guess we better clean this up, huh?" She looked at me funny for a few seconds in return, but after a while she nodded, and so I passed by her and returned to the storage room. I glanced behind me and I grinned at her. "If possible, please leave the door open this time."

She frowned at me at first, but then she relaxed and sighed as she picked up one of the dented boxes. However, the moment she gave it to me she suddenly told me, "You see, according to some research, people with psychic powers can move through walls, so maybe you did just that."

I feigned polite interest but then stealthily rolled my eyes when I turned back to put the box away.

"I don't think I can do something like that."

"But you seem to have great psychic potential! We already saw it!"

I gave her a flat look upon receiving the next box. "I told you, that was just a joke. I'm not psychic."

"I see..." She thoughtfully nodded to herself. "Right, you are not psychic. Don't worry; your secret is safe with me. Anyways, according to the First Earth Battalion Training Manual, one can..."

I silently exhaled with a hidden grimace, but ultimately gave up. I decided I might as well let her talk while we worked. She seemed really enthusiastic and I didn't have the heart to stop her. As such we kept piling boxes while I learned more about defunct military psychic operations than I ever wanted to.

You can find story with these keywords: The Simulacrum, Read The Simulacrum, The Simulacrum novel, The Simulacrum book, The Simulacrum story, The Simulacrum full, The Simulacrum Latest Chapter