Chapter 127 Kibakura and Kondou
Edited by: Kanaa-senpai
”Morning, Kibakura-kun.”
The lazy, familiar voice confused Kibakura Reiji. He felt like someone had shaken him awake while he was half-asleep.
Was this… their classroom on a normal morning?
With a groggy mind, he checked his surroundings. Cold stone walls. A dark passage where shadows of the dead moved along the floor. It seemed he had not escaped the nightmare.
A pale blue light ball floated in the hallway outside the room. Thanks to its soft glow, the undead stayed away from the door.
He remembered he had been so hungry that he almost left to look for food. Right then, his mind had snapped awake.
He looked at his right hand as a sharp pain ran through it. A monster’s clawed hand met his eyes.
”Are you awake?” the voice asked.
Kibakura looked down toward the sound and let out a sigh.
”Why in the world are you here, Kondou? You’re not even my friend.”
A short boy with glasses, only up to Kibakura’s waist now, smiled up at him.
Kondou Isaki. He looked plain and quiet, the type of student who should have had nothing to do with Kibakura.
Kibakura sniffed the air with his sharpened nose, but there was no scent. He decided this was only a trick of his own mind.
”Oh? That’s cold. We talk every day,” Kondou said.
”You talk at me. I never asked for it.”
When the new school year began, seating was arranged by student number, and Kondou sat behind Kibakura. Because Kibakura was huge and blocked the board, Kondou had asked to switch seats. Kibakura had agreed, since he liked the back anyway. But for some reason, Kondou started talking to him every day after that.
Class B, Kibakura’s class, had many high scorers except for the special top group. Sadly, most of Kibakura’s friends had bad grades, so only Fumioka ended up with him. In the end, Kibakura got stuck listening to Kondou’s small talk almost daily.
”What is that light?” Kibakura asked, staring at the strange blue-white ball in the hallway. It was not his skill or magic.
”That light keeps the monsters away,” Kondou explained. “You should not leave this room. You will get lost in the dungeon (cave maze).”
”You made it?” Kibakura asked with doubt.
Kibakura eyed him suspiciously.
”This is all I can do now,” Kondou said with a sad smile. “I dropped out, so I don’t have much power left.”
”Better to walk deep into the dungeon and vanish than turn into a full monster here, right?”
”The King Ogre’s senses are like a cheat. I would come back one day. It’s safer to stay here than return at a bad time.”
”So I need to deal with myself somehow…” Kibakura muttered.
”It’s impossible,” Kondou said gently. “Your defense and healing are a cheat too. The King Ogre I knew came back even after someone crushed his heart.”
Kibakura sighed and glared down the hallway.
”Still, I need to do something. I don’t want to cause more trouble.”
”Don’t give up. My kouhai (junior) will come soon. If it’s him… maybe…”
”He can kill me?” Kibakura asked.
Kondou’s face twisted with pain, and he looked down.
”I’m sorry… I killed you, Kibakura-kun,” he whispered. “I had no other way. And not only you… I killed Asagiri-san, Shitone-san, and Sogahara-kun. Even Amahara-san… I weighed her life against everyone else and left her to die. In the end, I could not save anyone. And the one who trusted me most had to make the worst choice because of me. I thought it ended there, but then someone told me to ‘try again.’ I can’t. So I threw everything away and ran…”
”You really are a vision,” Kibakura snorted. “Talking nonsense now.”
He reached out and moved his hand through the air.
”Oh? What’s this…?”
His fingers closed around something, and a large clay jug appeared. He grabbed its handle.
He sat down by the wall, happy now, and drank in big gulps.
The drink tasted like weak, sweet beer—maybe ale. It was warm, but after a bit, it was not bad.
”Hey, don’t make that sad face,” Kibakura said. “You’ll ruin the drink. If you killed me, then I’m thankful. What’s done is done. Just tell your silly stories like always.”
Kibakura waved him off and reached into the air for snacks.
Kondou forced a smile and raised his head.
”Yeah… you’re right,” he said. “I could not save anyone. But he saved Asagiri-san! He did what I could not! Maybe he can open the future I dreamed of!”
”That’s the spirit. Now you’re talking.”
Kibakura laughed and took another long drink.
Notes:
• Kibakura – Leader of Demiurge. Described as huge, with a monster’s clawed hand and sharpened nose, midway through transforming into a King Ogre. A physical match would be like a half-ogre version of **Ryūji Goda (Yakuza)** in early monster mutation form.
• Kondou Isaki – Quiet, plain Class B boy once sitting behind Kibakura, chatty yet distant. A small, glasses-wearing “mob student” now shrunken with exhaustion and guilt after losing power and failing to save classmates like Mitsuba (Saiki K)** but with heavy exhaustion.
• Fumioka – One of Kibakura’s close friend
• Amahara-san – Student Council President
• Sogahara – Student Council Vice President
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Edited by Kanaa-senpai.
Thanks for reading.
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