Chapter 93 – Breaking Through the Neighborhood Labyrinth (1)As I dived through the entrance to the school building, I suddenly stopped.
What should have been a sports ground waiting for us just a while ago, was now a forest formed of intricately intertwined trees and shrubs.
Thick trunks were laid out vertically, horizontally, and diagonally, and it was impossible to even accurately determine what was 5 meters ahead of you.
A large number of leaves blocked the way, and gaudy-colored flowers with huge petals were blooming everywhere.
Our school"s sports ground, which was larger than the neighboring high school, was now transformed into a magnificent sea of green.
“The school gate is over there, right?”
Kusaka murmured behind me with a voice filled with trepidation.
I silently nodded and looked around.
Next to the circular flower bed in front of the entrance, there was a metal rake used for sports ground maintenance.
A tool with which a slender sheet of metal was attached to the tip to clean the soil on the ground.
The soccer club, that had been training during lunch break, probably left it in a hurry.
“Kusaka. Take that with you. I don"t know what will happen.”
“Y-yes.”
Kusaka approached the flowerbed with a trot and held the rake with both hands.
After I ascertained it, I slowly proceeded through the sea of trees.
“H-help me.”
I heard a voice from above my head.
I was surprised and raised my guard, but when I looked up, there was a female student there.
“Hic, um, please… help me.”
The female student was entangled with ivy, and was hanging upside down.
“And don"t look.”
Yeah, I"m sorry.
I already saw it.
She was probably a first-year student. A girl from the cow tribe with long black hair.
Her adult black underwear that didn"t match her age was in plain sight as her skirt faithfully obeyed the gravitational pull.
“… I"ll get you down soon. I"m sorry, but please bear with it.”
“Ah, I won"t look.”
Kusaka, who caught up, shyly told the female student.
“Fueeh…”
Feebly crying, the female student gave up and shook her head.
I began lowering the girl down. I used a nearby branch as a foothold and supported the girl"s weight, then carefully tore off the vines one by one.
After a while, the female student was able to safely land on the ground.
Large teardrops ran down her face.
“Um, look, the inside of the school is still fine, so…”
I didn"t know how to console her.
“Fu, Hic, why me… I just wanted to water the flowerbed.”
“S-sorry?”
“I forgot! I have a bad memory!”
We should have been the ones who helped, but we apologized.
Kusaka, who has the highest grade in the cla.s.s, doesn"t have a bad memory.
The female student who finally managed to stop crying entered the school building.
At the same time, the teachers appeared from inside.
“Let"s go Kusaka. If we don"t hurry up, the teachers will stop us.”
“Yes.”
There were four teachers.
Even if there was someone who was late to escape like the girl from earlier, it should be fine with that many teachers.
I pushed my way through the leaves and branches that blocked the way and proceeded forwards.
Since the sun was not visible, the sea of trees was very dim.
It was helpful that the ground was well levelled.
If this were a real forest, it would be hard to traverse because of the soft and unsteady soil.
“aniki. Wait up a minute.”
“Hurry up, Kusaka. Don"t get lost okay? This disaster isn"t a joke.”
However, it seems likely in the current state.
The school gate shouldn"t be this far from the entrance of the school building.
Despite that, it was difficult to grasp their current position because they couldn"t see their surroundings.
The only thing they could rely on was the walls of the school, which could be seen from the gap between the branches. If those weren"t there, they would even lose sense of their direction.
This forest was that dense.
“Are we there?”
“We"re there.”
We finally arrived in front of the school gate in a bit under 10 minutes.
Why did it take 10 minutes to get out of school?
The large iron gate was still open, and was tightly intertwined with ivy.
I turned around and looked at the school building.
I couldn"t see anything because of all the trees in the way.
How did it become like this in that short period of time? What on earth is happening?
“Huh? The road isn"t that bad.”
I cautiously pa.s.sed through the school gate, and set foot on a two-lane road in front of the school.
The convenience store and buildings on the other side of the road were covered with trees, but there was none of that on the road.
The trees cover the top of the road, so as to avoid the road dutifully.
Looking at the convenience store, several shoppers were noisily evacuating to the store.
“I don"t know anything about it, but this makes it easy to move.”
However, it was not completely free of trees.
A few trees may have crossed the road, or a car might be crushed by thick branches.
“…Why are the cars broken even though the building are fine?”
“I don"t know even if I think about it, and it"s not the time for that right now. Let"s go Kusaka.”
“Y-yes.”
I ran down the road that I usually pa.s.sed by bus.
It was hard to use the sidewalk because of the trees, so we were pa.s.sing through the middle of the road.
On our way, we pa.s.sed several people. It looked like there were no injuries.
“It would have been difficult if this place wasn"t in the countryside.”
“I don"t think something like this would be able to be brought under control.”
Our high school was in a place that didn"t really flourish in this town.
The distance between buildings was quite far apart, and there were almost no people walking on the roads unless you were going to or leaving school.
A high school and two convenience stores were the only buildings that stood out, so cars didn"t pa.s.s by much either.
If this was in front of the station, which was around 30 minutes away by bus, there were more condominiums and multi-tenant buildings, and more people.
If these trees have encroached up to that point, it would be pandemonium.
This was a hilly town and has quite a lot of slopes of various sizes.
We were running on one of the steepest slopes in this neighborhood.
The number of trees decreased as we went towards the top of the hill, and when we finally reached the top, we were able to survey the whole area.
“… it seems like it"s getting worse the closer it is to Tusk Crag.”
“Haaa, haaa, it looks no different from a forest…”
His shoulders raised up and down as Kusaka gasped for air.
“Are you okay?”
“Y-yes. Aniki seems to be fine, as expected.”
It"s not that I"m fine.
You probably just have too less stamina.
“Hmm?”
From the bottom of the slope, I saw something approaching with tremendous momentum.
“Hmmmm!?”
Somehow, I have some recollection of what that is.
Oh, if that"s what I think it is, it"s very dangerous!
“Kusaka! Run away!”
“Eh?”
Kusaka looked at me with a puzzled expression.
It"s useless. This guy can"t sense anything.
It"s almost here! There"s no time!
“Give that to me!”
“Uwah!”
I s.n.a.t.c.hed the rake from Kusaka"s hand and sent him flying backwards.
I brandished it with all my might.
“Guh!”
The metal rake made a high-pitched sound as it bounced back after hitting the hard thing that suddenly jumped at us.
“Gururururururururu! Graaaaaa!”
“Uwaaaaaaah!?”
Kusaka"s shrieks and that thing"s roar reverberated.
I lost my balance after hitting it, so I put one hand on the ground and forcibly corrected my stance.
I raised my head and looked for it.
That thing landed behind me. While making a rattling noise, its movements appeared to be extremely flexible.
After that, I didn"t look away. I held the rake that was damaged from the impact and took a deep breath.
“Uwa, uwa.”
“Hurry up and run you idiot!”
Kusaka who landed on his b.u.t.t after being pushed away was slowly retreating .
I rebuked him.
“Guuuuu!!”
A monster that inhabits the Tusk Crag dungeon, a ferocious beast with a rock body, the Rock Wolf growled and maintained some distance from me.