The effects of the Forget-Me-Not Grass had only recently worn off.
As a student council member, Kaede's sense of unease caused by the missing memories had finally been resolved.
Once her memories returned, she immediately recalled the strange events in the old school building.
The giant snake monster.
The mysterious classmate.
And the loss of her memories.
"Aaaahhh!"
Beside her stood her younger sister Suzu, who looked identical to her, as well as her childhood friend Hayato.
Seeing her leaning against a tree and screaming in distress, Hayato looked worried.
"What's wrong?"
"...Kazuma!!!"
Kaede didn't answer. Clutching her head, she finally understood why she had wet herself that day.
The mystery that had troubled her for so long was finally solved. And all of it had been caused by the mysterious boy named Kazuma. So she rushed to school and found him.
"Wait! You can't leave!"
To outsiders, it almost looked as though they shared some secret relationship.
Hayato, who knew nothing about the truth, could only watch in confusion. He saw his childhood friend arguing with another boy and continuously trying to stop him.
His expression gradually became tense.
What was Kaede's relationship with him?
When had they met?
Why didn't he know anything about it?
As someone who had feelings for his childhood friend, jealousy naturally began to stir inside him.
Suzu, meanwhile, noticed the subtle changes in Hayato's expression and silently glanced at him.
Blocked by the beautiful blue-haired girl, who had even grabbed his arm, Kazuma was about to shake her off when his extraordinary senses detected something unusual.
Someone was watching him.
Interesting.
Casually glancing toward the source, his sharp eyes instantly pierced through the disguise.
A cleaner wearing a mask.
The hidden assassin.
"Kazuma, how did you do that? And what exactly happened in the old school building?"
Faced with Kaede's questions, Kazuma's expression suddenly turned serious.
"Kaede, those are my secrets. But don't worry. I never meant you any harm. I only wanted to get your attention."
"Huh?"
"Actually..."
Kazuma's eyes suddenly became deep and affectionate. "I've liked you for a long time."
"The moment I saw you when school started, I was captivated."
"You're beautiful, intelligent, and a member of the student council."
"I admire you deeply. Ever since meeting you, I haven't been able to eat or sleep properly."
"So..."
"I want you to become my girlfriend, Kaede."
"Please go out with me."
His passionate confession left everyone speechless.
"...?"
Kaede herself was completely stunned. She had come to confront him. How had this become a confession?
Did he really like her that much?
Hayato stared with widened eyes, while Suzu's expressionless face finally showed signs of disturbance.
He's lying. Suzu could tell immediately. Not a single word he said was true.
And yet... Her sister believed everything.
"Um..."
Being confessed to for the first time, Kaede became nervous and embarrassed beneath Kazuma's intense gaze.
After a long silence, she finally spoke softly. "I'm sorry, Kazuma. We don't know each other very well, and I don't have those feelings. I understand what happened in the old school building, and I'm not angry anymore."
"But... I can't agree to dating."
*Sigh.*
Hayato finally relaxed, he had been afraid Kaede would accept.
As expected, the one Kaede liked should be him.
Kazuma's face immediately turned pale, as though he had suffered a devastating blow. Lowering his head sadly, he spoke with a bitter smile.
"I understand. So that's how it is. I'm sorry for troubling you, Kaede."
Watching his lonely figure disappear into the distance, Kaede sighed.
"But Kazuma-kun really did manage to attract my attention in this way."
"So I suppose he succeeded."
You actually believed him?!
Suzu was speechless. This foolish girl had been completely fooled by Kazuma.
However, why would Kazuma tell such a lie? Was it merely to divert her sister's attention? Suzu instinctively felt that something was wrong, but no matter how hard she thought, she couldn't figure it out. The expressionless girl, who lacked any real sense of self, frowned and fell into deep thought.
"Kaede, I thought you'd agree right away."
"Why would I agree? I wasn't that familiar with Kazuma. In fact, we'd only met once."
"But he seems quite popular, and he's also very handsome, isn't he?"
"...That's true, but dating isn't just about those things."
Instead of heading to the classroom, they planned to visit the student council room first. As Hayato and Kaede chatted while walking along the stone path through the woods, a masked cleaner approached them. Hayato paid no attention to the cleaner, still secretly delighted by what had just happened.
Sure enough, Kaede is still—
Bang!
A sudden heavy blow struck his waist. His eyes widened in pain as he clutched his side and collapsed to the ground. Looking up, he saw that Kaede had already been captured, her slender neck tightly gripped. The dark muzzle of the gun sent a chill through Hayato's entire body.
What's going on?
What happened?
That's a gun!
"W-What are you going to do?!"
"Shut up!"
Bang—
As the bullet kicked up a cloud of dust near his feet, Hayato's pain was instantly overwhelmed by the fear of death.
This... I'm going to die.
I'm really going to die.
This person is going to kill me!
"W-Who are you? Let me go!"
Compared to Hayato, Kaede felt the threat of death even more acutely. With her neck tightly restrained, she could barely breathe.
"Your life is in my hands now. I don't want to kill you myself. Just come with me obediently, and I won't hurt you. You're all just a bunch of weak students."
The man released some pressure from his grip and sneered. Having witnessed the confession scene earlier, he had concluded that kidnapping this young girl would be an easy task.
But for Kaede, she had never imagined something like this would happen to her—that she would be attacked by a terrifying gunman at school.
The shadow of death loomed over her, and her fear continued to grow.
"What do you want? Money?"
"Stop talking nonsense! You'll understand when you meet my employer. And don't cause me any trouble."
The man suddenly turned around and punched Suzu in the face as she rushed toward him. Seeing her younger sister struggling to lift her head from the ground, Kaede panicked.
"Suzu!!"
Hayato collapsed to the ground, his legs trembling. Blood trickled from the corner of Suzu's usually emotionless mouth, yet she still wore a ferocious expression. Hayato trembled even more violently.
He was worried about Kaede. He wanted to save her.
But...
He couldn't. He truly couldn't.
His body was shaking so badly that he couldn't even stand. He couldn't recklessly rush forward like Suzu had.
He would die.
That man had a gun.
He would be shot.
"You wouldn't act like this girl, would you, you brat?"
Hayato, who didn't dare move, became the center of attention. Under the gazes of the twin sisters, a wave of shame washed over him. Kaede was the girl he loved, and she was about to be taken away, yet he could only watch helplessly and didn't even dare resist.
Despite the humiliation, he still didn't dare charge forward like Suzu and could only lower his head.
At that moment, something seemed to fade from Kaede's eyes.
"Since you won't behave, then die!"
Annoyed by Suzu's fierce glare, the man raised his pistol.
"No! I'll go with you! Just don't hurt Suzu—!"
Despite being consumed by despair and fear, Kaede saw the blood at the corner of her sister's mouth and the gunman preparing to kill her. Tears welled up in her eyes.
"Don't hurt Suzu! I'll go with you!"
"That's more like it. I hate trouble, and obedient people are the best. Ahhhhh—!!"
A dark shadow suddenly leaped down from the tree, moving so quickly that it was almost invisible. It passed through the man's hand, and accompanied by his agonized scream, the twin sisters and Hayato all looked up in shock.
A cute black cat landed lightly on the ground. Its little paws were stained with blood, and the pistol hung from its mouth.
The situation reversed so quickly that they couldn't even react.
"Bastard!!!"
Blood covered the assassin's hands. Cursing loudly, he reached for a second gun with his remaining hand.
However, Luna transformed into a black grim reaper. Moving at astonishing speed, she pounced on him and tore a long wound across his body, ripping through flesh and skin.
The terrifying killer who had driven Kaede into despair was now being utterly overwhelmed by a black cat.
What was that? What kind of monster was it?
Filled with terror, the man watched the black cat calmly licking away the blood. Then he looked at Kazuma, who was slowly approaching, and his pupils contracted.
"It's you?! You... you knew my identity all along?!"
The moment they saw Kazuma, Kaede, Suzu, and their childhood friend froze in place.
*****
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