Kuro no Maou

Chapter 390: Oddity

Monday, the 14th of May. That was the fateful day when I fell unconscious in the literature club room, woke up in the infirmary, and ended up being confessed to by Shirasaki-san. And on Tuesday, that is, the very next day, I shared in her lovely handmade bento and made a promise to invite her home, my home, where I now lived alone.

“―― So, how does Friday sound? I’ll make dinner at your place, so that’ll be fun.”

And thus the promised date was decided upon. Friday, the 18th of May.

“I’ll tell my folks I’m staying over at a friends house, so don’t worry about that.”

Additionally, it was decided she would stay over.

“Also, Saturday, let’s go on a date!”

It felt a bit odd that she was already staying over before we had our first date.

“O-O-OK... looking forward to it.”

And despite all the implications, I had not the pureness of heart that would compel me to deny her requests.

That week was, tough. You couldn’t blame me for being out of whack in anticipation for what would clearly become one of the best days in my life. I didn’t know what to do with myself. The classroom lectures went over my head I, I couldn’t even remember what I had for dinner last night.

And yet, the time I spent with Shirasaki-san at lunch and after school, those moments were permanently seared into my mind. About what she’d make for dinner, what places we’d go for the date, all that sugary sweet-talk between boyfriend and girlfriend.

I was falling for her more and more every day, I knew that. I could think of her, only her.

“Haah... get a grip, man...”

I realized I was dazed in love, but the throbbing in my heart just wouldn’t settle down.

Especially today. Today was the day. The promised day. Friday the 18th. And currently, it was already 7th period. The weekend would start after this last class.

Any other Friday, I’d be bored to sleep in classic literature, but today was very different. I desperately leashed down my nerves so I could write down the notes from the blackboard.

And once the dreary lecture about uncommon conjugations started, I took that as my cue to look out the window.

My seat was in fact beside the window so I got a good view of the field outside where a multi-section gym class was being held.

Today was an uncharacteristically sunny day of Fall, and the guys outside were shedding sweat in an intense game of soccer. I was kind of jealous, I’d be a lot less worked up if I was out there running around instead of staying put in this boring class.

I enjoyed soccer. I wasn’t exactly good at the sport, but I had the fortune of being tall and well built, so I wasn’t too shabby either. Though, I kind of felt like the ref always fouled me way too much.

I was drifting into thought while calmly watching the soccer team boys absolutely crush the nerds. But then,

“... Wait, who’s,”

All of a sudden, at a corner of the soccer field, a little girl appeared. No, it clearly wasn’t someone returning the ball after someone kicked it far off field. No really, you could tell she wasn’t a student here at a glance.

“That’s... a maid?”

Because that little girl over there, was dressed in a maid uniform. Her long black hair was topped with a maid’s headpiece, a pure white apron that symbolizes cleanliness was wrapped around her deep blue dress that extended to a long skirt. No doubt about it, it was a maid uniform.

And this girl who was dressed in such maid attire looked to be no older than a grade schooler. Also, walking beside her was a small black puppy.

Maybe she’d wandered in here while taking that pet for a walk. But then, even children would realize it was a high school seeing all the classrooms and students. She was a pretty bold kid to be able to walk in here anyway. I wondered what her parents were teaching her. No, it couldn’t be anything good since they were making her cosplay like that.

This kind of felt really surreal. I mean, it’d be strange enough seeing a maid walking around town, but in a school setting, it was like, she was an oddity.

And obviously I wasn’t the only one to notice such a bizarre presence. Everyone playing soccer was staring inquisitively at the mysterious little girl maid and pet puppy.

And then, the one who approached her first was the gym teacher, the man who’d been overseeing the match. An outsider had wandered into the school grounds, so it was obviously a teacher’s duty to see to it.

“Hey there little miss, you can’t come here, this here’s a high school you know?”

I was just guessing what he said. The mean-looking gym teacher had quickly run over to the little maid girl.

Normally, a kid like her would either start crying or try to run away by now, but this girl was calm. She pulled on the puppy’s chain-like leash and walked towards the teacher herself.

And then, there was a scream.

“Huh!?”

The little puppy that the maid girl was leashing along suddenly brought its fangs to bear at the gym teacher. Then, faster than the eye could see, the animal leapt onto the man, biting down on his face. The teacher made a throaty scream as he got knocked down.

The rabid pet’s master, that is, the maid girl had let go of the leash before the attack and looked to have no intention of stopping the creature’s carnage.

“Oi, what the fuck is that?”

“Holy crap, that dog’s going crazy.”

The other kids in class had of course heard the loud scream and had started gathering to the window. I was no different, I too was already standing with my eyes glued to the scene happening outside.

The boys and girls who were there, as it was still gym class, seemed to also keep watching dumbfounded. If this puppy had attacked one of the girls, I’m sure some of the more gutsy boys would at least attempt a rescue, but the one under assault just so happened to be the tall and buff gym teacher.

The worst someone like him would get was a few scratches. A small pup like that shouldn’t hurt him at all―― was what everyone believed.

Right up until that same little pup bit off the teacher’s windpipe.

“Kyaaa!?”

“What the hell, he’s bleeding a fountain over there!?”

Even from this distance, I could see the blood splattering out and all over from the man’s neck. It was at this point that all the onlookers went into an uproar.

But the insane violence was far from over.

The teacher looked to be in excruciating pain as he desperately tried to hold down the bleeding wound on his neck. But the dog showed no mercy.

No, it wasn’t simply attacking, this dog was eating. I could clearly see the little dog bite into the teacher’s face, tear apart his flesh and gulp down the freshly procured meat.

“... What in the world,”

It was shocking enough to see a dog eating human flesh, but the absurdity didn’t end there. With every bite, the dog seemed to be consuming the man ever faster.

The first bite was not that deep, the second bit off a whole chunk, the third, the fourth―― and before I noticed, the dog had devoured the man’s head whole, bones and all.

This was unreal. That had to be some kind of monster disguised as a puppy. Or maybe some kind of man-eating alien or beast from hell.

Just now, a teacher of our school was reduced to nothing but a headless corpse. And as for the pup, it almost seemed to have gotten bigger in size.

No, I wasn’t just imagining things.

The bigger dog kept on eating the corpse, bones, clothes and everything in between. And once it was done, the pup had now become a very big dog. It looked like a Siberian Husky, no, that there was a true wolf.

“This is just, crazy...”

I muttered vacantly, not speaking to anyone in particular. I mean, really, that beast, it’d killed and eaten a grown man while it was still a pup. And now it was much bigger. I didn’t even want to imagine what this now doberman sized monstrosity could do.

It was a massacre.

The jet black wolf attacked the students one after another. The monster didn’t distinguish on sex, and so, it’s first victim ended up being a short girl who’d twisted her ankle and couldn’t run.

The wolf leapt and swooped down over the girl, knocking her to the ground. A piercing scream, was cut off. One bite was all it took to chomp off half of her head. The other half was swallowed up with the next bite, causing the wolf to further increase in size.

After gobbling up the rest of the dead girl in her blue tracksuit, the wolf began to seek out new prey.

The other students had scattered like mice, crying, screaming all the way. But mere human legs couldn’t possibly grant them escape. Humans normally can’t even outrun dogs, and those students had no hope whatsoever against the monster in disguise currently hunting them down.

The wolf that had finished devouring the girl had now grown large enough to bite off a human head whole.

There went another head. The muscle and bone of the neck that was supposed to hold it in place was gnawed off as if it were a thread of plastic rope split by scissors.

Once it was done with its third victim the wolf pounced into 3 more kids as they ran. Its claws, thick and sharp like cleaver knives, all 3 students collapsed onto the blood that had gushed out from their backs.

The monstrous canine kept growing as it ate. It’d already become taller than its prey before my eyes.

The beast’s maw could now swallow people whole, while its ferocious claws could scoop out earth as it saw fit.

It was almost like a giant monster now, a kaijuu.

“What the hell, is happening... I, must be having a nightmare...”

Eaten, devoured, slaughtered, killed―― I muttered in sheer disbelief at the atrocious hellscape laid out before me. I really didn’t feel like all this was real.

But no matter how hard I shut my eyes from reality, I wasn’t waking up.

Many of my classmates were howling in fear and anger, some girls had started crying from shock. I could still hear them.

I reopened my eyes. It was all still there. The soccer field drowned in blood. The remaining students still running furiously despite more than half their number having been culled.

I could say it was after around one and a half classroom’s worth of students. That’s when the kaijuu of a wolf had finally hit a plateau in its growth. The monster had feasted on people and had grown to a soaring 10 meters. I didn’t know if it couldn’t grow any more or just didn’t need to. Which ever it was, it brought no good news.

And it kept on doing what it did. The giant wolf was systematically hunting down the remaining students while all they could do was run away anywhere and everywhere. It was then that I recalled the other Oddity.

The one who set loose this hellish monster, the little maid girl.

“... What’s she up to?”

As if she was completely oblivious to the slaughterfest being carried out by her pet, the girl was quietly walking along the bloodstained ground. She was looking around restlessly, as if searching for something.

In different circumstances, I’d find that sort of mannerism adorable, but the scene behind her was one of insane carnage, a monstrous wolf was gobbling up a steadily decreasing supply of tracksuit wearing high school kids. The little girl felt just as terrifying.

There was no way she was just a normal girl. Hell, I doubted if she was even human. She could be a monster just as bad as that wolf, if not worse―― I was now focusing my attention on her, which, seemingly, wasn’t a good idea at all.

And then, our eyes met―― I think.

“―!?”

No, not ‘think’, she really did see me. The girl started running straight towards the building my class was in. Even the way she ran was cute and feminine, with a spring in her step.

Her eyes were fixed to me, looking beyond the 2nd floor window and right on my face. She was now close enough for me to get a detailed look at her.

The little maid girl’s long black hair, that was down to her waist, fluttered around as she ran closer, her face beaming with a smile as if she’d finally reunited with a long lost love. The right half of her face was hidden under long bangs but from the round yet sharp eye that peeked from her left, I could tell that she was making a lovely expression.

Then, her gaze never leaving me, the girl pointedly pointed at me, shouting,

“Goshujin-sama, there you are~!”