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In the vast hall decorated with mirrors reflecting the fragments of Kamome Gakuen, only the sound of someone running down the wet floors was heard.
This boundary, known as the Hell of Mirrors to the students in this school, was ridiculously large. It worked as a database of all events that happened inside the school, only being in the form of a collection of mirrors on the wall. If one touched one of the mirrors, they could see a flash of a recorded moment of the past.
Other than that, the mirrors worked as portals that connected the boundary to various parts of the school. One could move from one place to another with ease as far as there were mirrors. The only bothersome fact was that there were supernatural hands that could appear at any time without warning.
It would have been impossible to exist as a boundary of school mystery No. 3 if it wasn’t enormous enough to handle all of the needed properties. The man running down the hall knew that. He was one of the school mysteries himself. But, for this time, he wished that the boundaries weren’t so broad.
“This kid… Where is he?” The man huffed under his breath as he rushed down the staircase. Even though he ran for a while, there were still countless floors that he needed to climb down and check for the existence of the “kid” he was looking for.
Drops of sweat ran down his cheeks and his breathing became ragged. Running at one’s full speed was challenging even for the supernaturals. There even was a thick book with a black cover in his arms. It seemed hefty and it was somehow leaking a sticky, red liquid that resembled blood between the pages.
The man wiped off the sweat with the back of his hand. His gloves were dirtied by the dark smudges made by the sweat and the red liquid. Not only that, his white lab coat was drenched in red. It was drying out and becoming reddish-brown. However, the man didn’t show a single sign of being concerned by them.
His head was filled with finding the kid only.
“Minamoto! Minamoto, are you there? Say something!” The man’s shout echoed through the empty floor. Nobody answered. But a crash and a noisy shattering of glass from downstairs caught the man’s attention. The number of the pieces of destroyed mirrors increased as he went downwards. Maybe the kid who the man was searching for was nearby.
The man placed his hand over his forehead. What he had seen in his boundary and the book in his hand still felt like a fever dream.
It was a normal school day in the afternoon. The last bell was ringing to warn the students to go home and alert the teachers to finish their work. The sky was painted in a magnificent gradation of bright orange and cobalt blue.
The man was walking between the tall bookshelves in the boundary that used to be his. His place as the No. 5 of the school mysteries was taken away by the Honorable No. 7 and his newly made friends. But, he was still able to access it and look through the books of the students in the school.
The books recorded everything about the life of the children for the time they stayed in the school as students. Most of them had white covers, meaning that they were alive and living their life. Some of them had black covers and dried-off bloodstains, meaning that they passed away. It hurt the man to see the books turn black at first. But, as the time he spent being the school mystery No. 5 became longer, he accepted that everyone had their fate and it was best for them to live up to their destined lifespan. Changing fate is almost impossible. He had only seen it once in his life and no more.
Mokkes jumped up and down to ask the man to make sugar candies for them, just to be stuck on the cobwebs all over the place. The man sighed grabbed the mokkes and pulled them off from the sticky strings. They were annoying, but the man didn’t hate them. Their random but lively traits reminded him of his students.
When he was about to leave the boundary as he finished checking all bookshelves, a mokke smaller than others made a loud squeaking noise, pointing at a book slowly darkening and leaking blood.
That was when the man found out that something was wrong.
A thunderous bang made the man come back to reality.
Adrenaline coursed through the man’s blood as he dashed to the handrails and looked down. A familiar set of two claws made of bones were thrashing through the air and colliding into the marble ceilings. The collision made the ceiling blast into heavy boulders and fall everywhere.
With a swift jump, the man hung on to the handrails with his other limbs that had grown from his back, still having the book secured in his grip.
He has already failed as a teacher once. He couldn’t manage to fail twice.
The man leaped into the air and landed on one of the marble boulders located not so far away from the silhouette of a boy slumped over with his head in his hands.
“... Minamoto, is that you? Can you hear me? Please, calm down and—”
One of the bone claws rose from the floor and slammed the man into the wall. The shock was big enough to make the air be pushed out from his lungs.
Coughing, the man gasped for air. However, the claw pressing him against the wall gained more force, making him harder to breathe.
The man gritted his teeth. Then, he squeezed out a scream he wished it could reach the boy and wake him up from whatever pain he was in.
“WAKE UP! MINAMOTO! IT’S ME, TSUCHIGOMORI!”
A few seconds later Tsuchigomori screamed, the claw retreated and fell back onto the floor. At the same time, he was dropped down to the hard marble. Through the blurry vision, he barely saw the boy regaining consciousness.
Tsuchigomori stumbled up to his feet. The lab coat was wet with fresh blood which was not pouring out from the book. His entire torso ached and his limbs were hardly under his control. But Tsuchigomori dragged himself closer to the blond, even if that made his mushed-up organs splatter on the floor from the hole in his abdomen.
“Kid, are you okay? Do you recognize me or this place?” Tsuchigomori slumped down in front of the boy and held his shoulders, slightly wincing as another rush of blood leaked from the injury.
The boy lifted his head to see Tsuchigomori face-to-face. The blown pupils gradually shrank to their normal size as he became fully conscious.
“... Spider-face Sensei?” Tsuchigomori had never been so relieved to hear the nickname the boy gave him. “Why are you here…?”
The boy looked around him. The surroundings were messed up from the frantic thrashings of his claws. The gooey black substance was all over the floor and the walls as the supernatural hands were crushed. Any mirrors near him were broken into shards.
Then, his eyes were locked on his teacher. “Was, was I the one to do this to you? I, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean it–”
“Don’t care about me.” Tsuchigomori interrupted the boy. “What have you done? Why, why are you the No. 3 of the school mysteries?”
The boy froze for a moment and looked away from Tsuchigomori.
Tsuchigomori’s eyes darted across the boy in his grip, trying to scan him.
Minamoto Kou, the second son of the Minamoto clan and the younger brother of the school president, Minamoto Teru, looked somewhat different from his usual self.
His spiky blond hair was shorter and his face was slightly rounder with baby fat. The usual earring with his traffic safety amulet was turned into a necklace instead. His voice was higher too. The body in Tsuchigomori’s grip felt softer and thinner. The entire size of his body itself was smaller.
Does that mean that Kou’s physical age has regressed?
“I made a deal with god.” Kou spoke so quietly that Tsuchigomori almost couldn’t hear his words.
“What…?”
“I know that I shouldn’t have done that! But, there wasn’t any other way.”
“Minamoto. Not only that I don’t get what you are talking about now, but you made a deal with god? How–That was supposed to be forbidden since Kamome Gakuen was founded.”
Kou remained silent, staring at the floor. Tsuchigomori couldn’t continue to question him.
The silence that felt like an eternity lasted until Tsuchigomori let go of the boy’s shoulder and said “I don’t mean to scold you.”
A big hand gently ruffled Kou’s hair. “I just want to know what happened and why you have done it. Nothing else.”
A faint smile appeared on Kou’s face. “Have you ever felt like you are worth nothing, not even enough to be a spare?”
Tsuchigomori felt like his breath was stuck at the sudden asking of his student.
“I have felt like that for the entirety of my life. Well, it is because I am too weak and stupid to do anything.” Kou paused, then continued. “But, I have finally found my purpose.”
“... How does that tie into changing your fate?” Tsuchigomori asked.
Kou picked up one of the glass shards and made it show Mitsuba, fully revived as a perfect human and living his life. “You know Mitsuba, right? He was one of the students of this school.”
“I have befriended him. But he was killed by Hanako’s twin and was remade as an ‘artificial’ supernatural.”
“I know him and his past. His death is surely a tragedy, but that doesn’t explain why you and he are switched.”
“His wish was to be a real human, and I wanted to grant it.”
Tsuchigomori’s mouth was left hanging open.
“That’s why you made a deal with god, to exchange each other’s fates.”
“... Yes.” Kou nodded.
“That’s why I look different. Mitsuba was actually a year younger than me when he died. Because I replaced his fate, my body has regressed to the body of the fourteen-year-old me.”
Tsuchigomori couldn’t believe what he was hearing.
“What about the ones left behind? What about your friends like the Honorable No. 7 or Yashiro? What about your family? What about Mitsuba you died to save?”
Kou grinned from ear to ear. “They will forget everything. God was merciful enough to erase my existence from the memory of every person who remembers me, even my family. I will be remembered as a naturally occurring supernatural that had taken the place of No. 3 since this school was founded. On the other hand, Mitsuba would be a perfect teenager who has been living the most ordinary life possible.”
“That includes you too, Spider-face Sensei. Look, the book you were holding has Mitsuba’s name on it, not mine.”
Before Tsuchigmori could say anything, the supernatural hands rose from the ground and picked him up into the air.
“Wait! Please, Minamoto! There is a way that you two can both live!” The hoarse voice echoed through the space. But, Kou only waved his hand at his teacher.
“Bye-bye, Spider-face Sensei. See you soon.”
After being thrown into the teacher’s lounge, that was the only last words Tsuchigomori heard from Kou.
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The bell signaling that lunch had started rang in the entire school.
“Alright. You are dismissed, go and enjoy your lunch.” Tsuchigomori erased the last question off the blackboard and picked up his files from the lectern.
As soon as Tsuchigomori’s words ended, the students jumped out of their seats and stormed out of the classroom.
Smirking, Tsuchigomori waited for all the students to leave. But, a boy stared into his textbook and then walked up to the teacher.
“Mitsuba? Do you have any questions about the lesson?”
Mitsuba was a pink-haired boy with bangs hiding one of his eyes and a tiny ponytail. He was a quiet, shy student, but Tsuchigomori always had a feeling that it wasn’t his real character.
“No, not about the lesson, but about something else.” The pink-haired boy formed a sneaky smile on his face. “Have you ever heard about the spirit of a dead student in the Hell of Mirrors?”
Tsuchigomori gulped. Of course, he knew as he was one of the school mysteries. The spirit Mitsuba was talking about was his co-worker, Kou. Students spreading rumors about supernaturals was very common in Kagome Gakuen and a lot of them had come up to him to tell him the newly made ones. But, he didn’t expect Mitsuba to be interested in them.
“Oh, no, never. What is that about?”
“There was a boy who was neglected by his family and school authorities a long time ago. It is said that he lost his hope in life and he wanted to give up.” Mitsuba whispered.
Tsuchigomori was startled on the inside. He never heard of Kou being a human in his past. Wasn’t Kou one of the naturally occurring supernaturals?
“Eventually, he found the love of his life. However, his crush rejected him, which made him end his own life. If you summon him in front of any mirrors in this school, he will drag you into the Hell of Mirrors and make you into his lover.” Mitsuba lowered his voice even more, making it harder for the teacher to listen to what he was saying.
“Wow, that’s tragic but interesting at the same time. I wonder who started that rumor.”
“Actually, I don’t know who spread this rumor around the school. I found it entertaining and I wanted to share it with you.” Mitsuba giggled as he covered his mouth with his sleeve.
“Haha, thank you, Mitsuba.” Tsuchigomori grinned. “Are you interested in supernaturals by any chance?”
“Hm? No, not really. I don’t think they are real. Anyone who believes in them is a loser.”
Tsuchigomori couldn’t do anything but laugh.
“Ah, Mitsuba. Aren’t you going to lunch? I need to get prepared for my next lesson.”
“Huh? Ah, yes. I have spent an hour making my own bento! See you next time Mr. Tsuchigomori!”
Mitsuba ran out of the class as Tsuchigomori waved him goodbye. Then, his eyes narrowed to stare at the reflection of the classroom window.
“... You can come out, you know. I’ve already seen you even before Mitsuba came up to me to talk about you.”
“Wow, nice eyesight, Spider-face Sensei!” A blond boy floated out of the window and landed gracefully on the floor. “So, how was talking with Mitsuba? He is a nice student right?”
“Mmhm. I don’t really get why you follow him around but anyways, aside from that, what happened to your rumor?”
“What do you mean?” Kou tilted his head with a questioning look.
“About the family and suicide… You were the one to spread your own rumor in the school, weren’t you?”
“Ah, yes. Using sympathy makes students fall into my rumor easier.”
“And about the lover.”
“That’s also totally made up. I never had a crush on someone.”
Kou searched under the desks and found a hiding mokke. With a swift, he pulled it out.
“Eh, this one was hiding here! The Honorable No. 7 should increase his mokke hunting time.” Kou pulled out a candy out of his pocket and handed it to the pink rabbit. “Here, take this and give me whatever you stole from the students.”
The mokke frowned. But it gave into its instinct and gave Kou the stolen mechanical pencil, then took the candy.
“Thanks! Bye, little mokke!” Kou let the mokke go and stared at it disappear into the boundary of his. His boundary was a playground of mokkes, it was perfect to roam around the school and steal stuff.
“Aren’t you going to follow Mitsuba around? Or, are you planning to visit the school president today?” Tsuchigomori pushed open the classroom door.
“Hm, I’m going to mess with you today, Spider-face Sensei.”
“Don’t call me by that nickname, No. 3.” Tsuchigomori sighed. He knew that Kou wasn’t going to stop. He had been calling him “Spider-face Sensei” since the day they met.
“Hehe, you know that I won’t stop.”
“Just don’t interrupt me during class, okay?”
“Sure, I won’t!”
The two supernaturals disappeared into the hallways, lightened up with autumn sunlight.
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