Episode 120 – Noise

The girl slowly approaches me. Although I can’t see her expression because of the rabbit mask attached to her face, the girl gives off an eerie vibe. But even without the mask, my alertness level is still near max.

(That’s not Yukihana…….)

She is wearing a girl’s uniform and is slightly taller than Yukihana. In addition, it is impossible for her to emit this kind of pressure. The girl stops at a distance of about 5 meters from me and looks at me carefully.

[ [……] ]

There is no action from either of us, we just stare at each other. Normally I’m the one who guesses what kind of person the other person is, but I cannot read anything about the psychological aspect of this person, such as what she is thinking. On the contrary, as I stare at her, I gradually feel as if my vision is being enveloped by noise.

[…….]

–Thud

Damn, another headache at a time like this. The discomfort and pain coursing through my brain makes me involuntarily squint. I’ve never had a headache like this recently, so I was caught off guard. I was dazed for a moment, and then I saw a girl approaching me with slow steps. And then……

[Look, face it properly.]

(!?)

I was startled by those words and noticed that the girl was already about a meter away from me and reaching for my hand. I couldn’t move back because there was a safety fence behind me. So I did what I could as quickly as I could.

“……!”

I quickly played the girl’s outstretched hand with my left hand and shifted my body to the right in a side-step motion. The girl who was hit by my hand also reflexively back-stepped and moved away from me. Apparently, she is very wary of me.

(The way she moves now…..)

A trivial movement for a moment. And once again, I see her alertness and reflex speed. I was even more alarmed by her movements, which are not possible for ordinary athletes to make.

(Nanase? No, she’s obviously different from her.)

Nanase’s athleticism is remarkable in the sense that she can move, but the girl in front of me is a different animal. She reacted immediately to my movements and performed almost optimal movements in no time. She is probably better than Nanase in terms of pure ability. She might even come close to me.

“……”

The girl with the rabbit mask still did not utter a single word. The mask’s eyes are also blackened, so I can’t even ask about the eyes. The mask was casually worn at the time, but I didn’t expect it to shut out so much information. The only way to determine her identity is by her pure physique, hairstyle, voice, or breathing.

“……Phew !”

It seems that my taunt has ignited the other side as well, and she is stepping toward me more sharply than she did earlier. Her speed was so fast that it couldn’t be compared to earlier, and it closed the distance with the two of us.

(……This guy)

I switched my attention to the fact that she was stepping toward me. I quickly left the scene and dodged as if passing by the girl. In doing so, I lightly impacted her back, causing her to stumble, and using that as a cue, I tried to get further away from her at once than before. However, the girl’s backside was slightly impacted and she staggered back.

“Ugh……”

The girl put her hands on the ground and turned her body to take a passive stance. And that’s not all. In the middle of her defensive stance, she almost swept me away with her foot. I jumped and avoided her foot. However, I failed to keep my distance because of my unnecessary movement.

(This guy is….strong.)

I don’t know if this is a good comparison, but she probably has more fighting sense than Nanase and about the same level of fighting sense as Hisui. No, it’s not just sense. The move is impossible without experience.

[Hey, why are you looking away?]

(You’ve been noisy for a while now !)

I shake off the noise echoing through my brain and take another look at my situation.

Behind me is a staircase leading down. However, from the sound I heard earlier, it is probably locked from the inside. In other words, there is a possibility that there is a third person behind the door, other than the girl in front of me. And the girl in front of me has no known purpose. She doesn’t speak, she just tries to get close to me. And her power is approaching me.

(Did Yukihana…send her?)

The face of the person who lured me into this place, Yukihana, comes to my mind. It was probably Yukihana who invited this unidentified girl to this place. But what on earth is Yukihana’s purpose for doing this kind of incomprehensible thing?

[You already know (Shut up)]

Even if I disable her, I can’t get out of this rooftop without the key. Since it’s locked from the inside, it definitely needs someone’s help. But the girl in front of me won’t give me freedom.

“Haa !”

She kicks the ground and reaches for me again. But the motion is too big. She is probably trying to draw attention to her upper body, and as her main goal, she is trying to do something like a foot strike as before. It seems that she wants to take some kind of action to restrain or frighten me rather than attacking me. Once I know that, it’s easy to deal with it.

[You’ll probably just take a step back and do something like blinding (Shut up)]

I shook off her arm without thinking, and just like before, I ducked as we passed each other. Then, as I expected, she came at me with a foot swipe. And, unlike before, her foot floated a little higher than before. If that’s the case, all I had to do was jump higher than before.

“…….Opps.”

After I made the leap, I immediately turned toward the girl. Then, this time she stretches her five fingers toward my face. After all, it seems that she’s aiming for something beyond that, pretending to do something like blinding.

(Sorry, it’s getting boring)

I flick my outstretched arm downwards. The girl stumbles slightly downward. But I don’t let her get back up. I reached for the girl’s shoulder and applied a single downward thrust.

“What !?”

She may have been surprised by the unexpected turn of events, but she let out an involuntary yelp and went down to her hands on the ground. After I saw this, I ran to the door leading to the bottom of the rooftop. I twisted the doorknob, but the door still wouldn’t open. It seemed that someone had locked the door from the inside. I think the keyhole should be on the inside of the door, not the outside.

(I guess worrying about such things doesn’t change anything.)

“Haaaa ! !”

I heard the sound of the girl from earlier getting back up and coming toward me. The difference from the previous one is that she is raising her voice in a rough and tumultuous manner.

[Listen to this voice more carefully (Just disappear)]

The girl steps in once more, a few steps ahead of me. But she doesn’t try any tricks, she just pretends to hit me. I thought she had been through the mill earlier, but all at once I felt she had lost that pretense. She has power, but she is not accustomed to wielding it. That’s the impression I got.

[…….]

That’s how I caught the fist that was aimed at my face.