On the fateful day of May 14, which was a Monday, I collapsed in the literature club room, awoke in the nurse’s office, and was confessed to by Shirasaki-san. The next day, on Tuesday, I promised her that I would eat her homemade bento and invited her to my house, where I would be alone.
“—Then, I’ll come this Friday. I’ll make dinner, so look forward to it.”
Thus, May 18 was decided as the date.
“Don’t worry, I’ll tell my parents that I’m staying at a friend’s house.”
Additionally, the sleepover was confirmed.
“Let’s go on a date on Saturday!”
I wondered how it felt to have a first sleepover before a first date.
“I-I understand… I’m looking forward to it.”
Just thinking about it, I realized I didn’t possess the noble spirit to refuse.
The following week was torturous. With such a significant event in my life ahead, it was impossible to remain calm. I couldn’t concentrate on anything; the lesson content went in one ear and out the other, and I couldn’t even remember what I had for dinner the night before.
Nonetheless, the time spent with Shirasaki-san during lunch and after school was vividly etched in my mind. Discussions about what to have for dinner and where to go on our date. Sweet exchanges between lovers.
Day by day, I could feel myself becoming more captivated by her. I could think of nothing but her.
“Ah… This is bad for me…”
Even while being aware of my infatuation, I couldn’t suppress the racing of my heart.
But, at this point, there was no helping it. After all, today was the promised day, Friday the 18th. And now, it was during the seventh period. Once that was over, it would finally be after school.
Normally, classical literature class would make me sleepy, but I was unusually alert. While diligently copying the notes written on the board, I desperately tried to maintain my composure.
As the explanation of irregular conjugations faded from memory, I absentmindedly turned my gaze toward the window.
I was seated by the window, and the classroom was arranged facing the grounds, allowing me to see the physical education class being conducted with two classes combined.
Under the rare clear blue sky during the rainy season, the sight of students energetically playing soccer was comforting and a bit enviable. Rather than just passively listening to class, moving my body would probably help clear my mind.
Though I wasn’t particularly good at soccer, I could do fairly well thanks to my height and physique, so I enjoyed it. However, it felt like I was always unfairly penalized for fouls—was that just paranoia?
As I blankly pondered such trivial thoughts, I watched the boys’ soccer team thoroughly dominate the nerdy boys’ team when suddenly—
“…What’s that girl?”
I noticed a girl who had appeared unexpectedly at the edge of the field. It wasn’t that she had gone to retrieve a soccer ball that flew far away; rather, it was clear at a glance that she was not a student.
“That’s a maid, isn’t it?”
Because she was wearing a maid outfit. With a headpiece on her long black hair, a pristine white apron, and a dark blue vest paired with a long skirt. If that wasn’t a maid outfit, then what was it?
This girl, likely around elementary school age, donned that maid cosplay with a black-haired puppy at her side.
Had she wandered onto the field while walking her pet? Even a child could understand that this was a high school just by seeing the students in class, yet here she was, stepping onto the field—she had quite the nerve. What kind of education were her parents providing her? No, if they allowed their daughter to wear such a costume, it was easy to infer.
Still, she stood out abominably. I mean, anyone in that outfit would stand out anywhere, but particularly in this high school setting, the sense of incongruity was even stronger.
With such a girl present, it was hard not to be noticed by others. The students who had been engrossed in soccer began directing curious glances at the cute maid and her puppy.
Ultimately, the first to approach her was the physical education teacher. Since an outsider had suddenly entered the school, it was a natural course of action for him to intervene.
“Hey there, little girl, you can’t come in here; this is a high school.”
What was he saying? The sturdy male teacher strode toward the maid girl.
Normally, a regular kid would either cry or run away at this point, but she approached him calmly, pulling the chain leash attached to her pet’s collar.
The next moment, a scream echoed.
“What!?”
The puppy she was holding unexpectedly bared its fangs at the physical education teacher. It jumped at him with tremendous speed, latching onto his face. Even a puppy’s fangs and claws could be sharp enough to inflict serious wounds. The teacher let out a deep, booming scream as he fell to the ground, writhing in agony.
The maid girl, now the owner, had long since let go of the leash and seemed entirely indifferent to her pet’s rampage.
“Hey, what was that?”
“Seriously, is that dog attacking someone?”
Hearing the teacher’s booming scream, my classmates began to gather at the windows, wondering what was happening. I too had already stood up and was glued to the window, unable to look away.
Those students participating in physical education remained passive spectators as well. If the victim had been a female student, the eager boys would have rushed to help, but the person being tackled was a muscular male teacher.
He might have been injured, but there was no way a full-grown adult could lose to a puppy—everyone optimistically thought that.
That is, until the puppy tore into the teacher’s throat.
“Ahh!?”
“Whoa, is that a lot of blood?!”
Even from this distance, I could see bright red blood suddenly spurting from the teacher’s neck. The bystanders transformed from mere curious onlookers into a scene of pandemonium.
However, the situation continued to deteriorate at an even faster pace.
While desperately trying to suppress the blood gushing from his neck, the teacher squirmed in agony as the dog continued its assault.
No, it was less an attack and more of a feeding frenzy. I clearly saw the puppy tear into the teacher’s face, gnawing on flesh and swallowing it whole.
“…There’s no way.”
A dog eating human flesh—what an astonishing situation. Yet, it was even more shocking that the speed at which it devoured increased with every bite.
The first bite broke through skin and the outer layer of flesh; the second bite dug deeper, and by the third and fourth bites—before long, it was gulping down flesh in such large quantities that it could crush bones with a single bite.
Impossible, that was no ordinary puppy but a monster disguised as one. Otherwise, it had to be a vicious alien or malicious creature.
In no time, the teacher’s head was consumed, leaving a headless corpse behind. I noticed that the puppy seemed to have grown slightly larger at that point.
In truth, that wasn’t just my imagination.
Continuing to feast upon the corpse, consuming bones and clothes alike, the creature transformed not merely into a larger dog but into a formidable wolf, something akin to a Siberian Husky—or rather, it was undoubtedly a wolf.
“Hey, this is bad…”
I didn’t say it to anyone in particular, yet such words slipped out naturally. After all, if a small puppy could kill a large adult man, what would happen if it grew to the size of a Doberman or Golden Retriever? I didn’t want to think about it, but the reality remained unchanged.
The massacre had begun.
The pitch-black starving wolf attacked students one after another. The creature made no distinction between genders. The first victim among the students was a petite girl who froze in fear.
Bouncing off the ground, the wolf easily knocked her over. I felt like I heard a high-pitched scream. In the first bite, it tore off the right half of her head, and by the second, her head was completely gone. The wolf grew larger once more.
With the body of the girl in her navy tracksuit clamped in its jaws, the wolf surged toward its next victim.
Students screamed and scattered in terror to escape, but the speed at which a human can run is limited. Even a regular dog would be hard to outrun, let alone this abnormal wolf creature.
Having devoured the girl’s body, the wolf had finally reached the point where it could swallow a head whole in one bite.
Another head vanished. Though they should have been connected by a thick neck bone, the wolf’s teeth tore through with ease, as if cutting through a plastic cord with scissors.
The third victim fell. At the same time, the wolf slashed with its foreleg, rending the backs of three students. Its claws must have boasted sharpness equivalent to those of a large knife. Inflicting deep cuts through their tracksuits, it mercilessly sank three victims into a sea of blood with a single strike.
Thus, as the wolf consumed human flesh, it continued to grow larger, rapidly surpassing the height of an average person.
Once that happened, it became utterly uncontrollable. With sharp fangs bared and a gaping maw dripping with fresh blood, it could easily swallow a human whole. Its claws became long and sharp enough to slice through a torso with a single swipe.
A true monster; it could be called a kaiju.
“What the hell is this… This must be a nightmare…”
To eat, feast, die, and kill—confronted with the hellish tableau before me, what emerged from my lips was a statement of escapism. In reality, it felt extraordinarily surreal.
However, even if I tightly closed my eyes in an attempt to shut out my vision, the dream did not fade.
Shouts of excitement and anger from my classmates filled the classroom, and I heard the voice of a girl who had burst into tears at the shocking sight. Such commotion reached my ears.
When I opened my eyes again, the ground had transformed into a bloody hellscape and I could see the remaining students, now scattered and desperately fleeing.
If there were a class and a half, that meant around fifty people had been consumed. It seemed that at that point, the wolf’s growth had ceased, remaining at a ten-meter size capable of eating humans whole. Whether it could not grow any larger or didn’t need to, either way, it was a grim situation.
As it continued to race across the grounds, hunting down fleeing students, I suddenly recalled the being that had brought this monster here.
The maid girl.
“…What is she doing?”
Seemingly oblivious to her pet’s rampage, she walked across the blood-soaked grounds, looking around as if searching for something.
Her mannerisms radiated childishness, almost endearing in spite of everything. But with the monstrous wolf behind her voraciously devouring students in tracksuits, there was no possible way to feel anything but terror.
No matter how you looked at it, she was not a typical child. In fact, she was likely not even human. Was she also a monster like the wolf? I mused, perhaps it was a mistake to have observed her so closely.
At that moment, our eyes met—I felt it.
“Ah!?”
No, it was true; she had definitely noticed me. She ran straight toward this school building, waving her hands as she dashed.
Her gaze was fixed straight on me, at the second-floor window where I was peering out. She was already close enough for me to see her face clearly.
With super-long black hair flowing down to her waist as she approached, she wore a smile like that of someone who had found their long-awaited beloved. Although her right half of the face was covered by long bangs, the glimpse of her elongated eyes revealed a charming smile.
And then, as she stared at me, she pointed and shouted.
“Master, I found you!”