Vol. 1 Chapter 6 – A Game of Darkness IN the Gym Storage Room

Our Hokominato Academy, whose mottos are『a free school spirit』and『rich international diversity』has quite a lot of annual functions and various events compared to other schools, apparently due to the policy of its ambitious chairwoman.

The『New Student Welcome Sports Tournament』held every May, is one of those events.

Around the time when the middle school’s new students and the high school’s external entrants have gradually started getting used to academy life, they set up an opportunity to deepen friendships with senior students and internal advancement students. Under that kind of stated purpose, the students compete in all sorts of sports matches.

Because of that, when the event date draws near, PE classes temporarily become joint class lessons aimed at preparing for the tournament. Multiple classes mingle together and devote themselves to practice for the matches.

I see. Building friendly relations through sports really is healthy and youth-like.

However, in this world, no matter what it is, there is always a『light』side and a “shadow』side.

Behind the『light』people who sweat together with their friends and fully enjoy the event, there are also 『shadow』people who cannot quite get into it because they have neither friends nor interest.

For example, yes. Right now, in one corner of the gymnasium adjacent to the main school building, there is a lifeless boy who is practicing only as much as appearances demand. Someone like him would be a good example.

…Well, as expected, I’m talking about myself though.

“Souta, are you doing any kind of part-time job right now?”

“Huh? What’s with that out of nowhere?”

It was during the fourth period on Wednesday. We were in a joint class PE lesson.

Higuchi, who had been practicing basketball passes with me, suddenly asked me that.

“Hup, and… I’m not really doing anything in particular. Why?”

Basically, I’m the indoor type who always wants to relax at home.

Even though I’ve become a high schooler, I don’t currently have any reason to actively earn money, and I don’t feel like going out of my way to spend my after-school time or holidays working.

Besides, the reason I don’t do a long-term part-time job is also because, believe it or not, I technically belong to a club.

Well, right now it’s pretty much in a state of suspended activity, and I only show my face in the clubroom once in a while.

“No, actually, last Saturday, on my way back from shopping, I felt like I saw you in the plaza in front of Sakuragicho Station, you know.”

“Huh? …Hebu!?”

Shaken by Higuchi’s words, I took the ball he passed me square in the face and collapsed.

After landing hard on my backside on the hard composite flooring, I rubbed my nose and butt at the same time.

“Uwah, that looked painful… Souta, are you okay?”

“Y-Yeah, I’m okay.”

While grabbing the hand Higuchi held out and getting back to my feet, inwardly I was panicking like crazy.

‘D-Did he see me…? That scene?’

Don’t tell me he even saw me together with Mizushima, right?

“S-So, what was that about Saturday?”

When I asked timidly, Higuchi shrugged and said it again.

“Like I said, I felt like I saw you in front of the station on Saturday. I think it was around evening? You were walking into the station from around the bus stop in the plaza.”

So that means it was after I parted ways with Mizushima. Apparently, he didn’t see the decisive scene.

…I’d let my guard down. I never imagined Higuchi had been there too.

“It’s rare for a true indoor type like you, Souta, to be out walking around on a day off, right? So I thought maybe you had been doing some kind of part-time job and were on your way home or else I’d simply mistaken someone else for you.”

I see. So that connects to his first question.

Still, how should I answer him? If he didn’t see me together with Mizushima, I feel like it’d be fine to admit I was there, but…

“But well, if it wasn’t a part-time job, then I guess I really did mistake someone else for you.”

While I was at a loss for an answer, it seemed he had ultimately reached that conclusion on his own.

Higuchi nodded as if he had convinced himself, then spoke in a teasing tone this time.

“After all, Souta, you going out on a holiday, especially to have fun, only happened when I invited you… Oh, right. Other than that, it was only when you were going on dates with Satomori-san.”

“Ugh… Come on, man, don’t say that to me when I still haven’t recovered.”

It was true that I, who hated going out, only started going out almost every weekend after I began dating Ena-chan.

We went to the movie theater, went to cafés, and really, it was only things on that level.

Even so, just being together with Ena-chan was fun.

“Oops. Speak of the devil, look, it’s Satomori-san.”

Just as my shoulders slumped heavily, Higuchi suddenly whispered into my ear.

When I looked in the direction of Higuchi’s gaze, the girls from the special advancement class had just started a practice volleyball match on the opposite side of the gym.

Ena-chan, dressed in Hokominato Academy’s designated tracksuit, had tied her long black hair back into one ponytail.

I could see the slender line of her neck and nape, which were usually hidden and for some reason, my heart stopped.

Ena-chan really is cute after all. I wanted to see her tracksuit appearance from much closer.

“Oh, Mizushima-san is with her too, huh? Heh, I didn’t know those two were close.”

When I lifted my face at Higuchi’s words, sure enough, Mizushima was beside Ena-chan. Apparently, the two of them had ended up on the same team and they were chatting with each other in a friendly way while also including the other members.

Mizushima was also wearing the academy-designated tracksuit but combined with her height, which stood out even among the girls, and her good figure, she had so much presence that it almost made me wonder if she alone was wearing a completely different outfit.

Naturally, she had become the center of attention not only for the boys practicing in the gym, but also for the female students.

It was nothing new, but Mizushima’s popularity really did seem to be considerable even within the academy.

If everyone found out that I was, even temporarily, her 『lover』…

Nope. I could only see a future where the sparkling guys and girls turned into glaring guys and girls and came attacking me.

“Come to think of it, Satomori-san and Mizushima-san were both in the special advancement class, weren’t they? When they’re lined up like that, they look like a pure, lovely princess and a gallant beauty in male clothing. Somehow, the two of them really make a picture.”

“…Yeah, you’re right.”

While giving Higuchi’s words a half-hearted reply, I stared vaguely at the girls as they chatted together.

※

“Then, Sakuhara, take these to the gym storage room for me. I’ll lock it later, so you can just leave it as it is.”

“…Yes, sir.”

Fourth period’s joint PE class had ended and most of the students had already cleared out of the gym.

Maybe I looked extremely free because the teacher ended up telling me to put away the several volleyballs everyone had failed to clean up in the gym storage room.

What a pain. I wanted to hurry up, change clothes and head straight to the cafeteria.

“Let’s see, the volleyball basket is… that one?”

I stepped into the indoor storage room inside the gymnasium and walked deeper into the dim storage room.

Before long, I found the basket I was looking for among the various pieces of equipment scattered about.

I put away the balls I had been holding in my arms, then clapped both hands together with a panpan.

“Alright, that should do it. Now then, time to hurry back and eat lunch.”

“Oops, I wonder about that?”

The voice that suddenly came from behind me made my shoulders jump without thinking.

When I timidly turned around, Mizushima, dressed in her tracksuit, was standing there before I knew it, blocking the entrance to the storage room.

“Uh…”

“Ah, it’s okay. You don’t have to pretend you don’t know me. There aren’t any other students left in the gym.”

As I warily checked our surroundings, Mizushima said that as if anticipating my reaction.

Sure enough, there didn’t seem to be any sign of anyone else in the gym.

I relaxed my guarded body and asked with a sigh mixed in.

“What do you want? Weren’t we supposed to avoid contact as much as possible at school?”

“Ahaha. Well, yeah, that’s true.”

After murmuring that without the slightest sign of guilt, Mizushima took one step into the storage room.

“No, see. These past few days, you and I have been going on dates after school every day, right, Souta?”

“…Only as part of the『match』though.”

It was true that these past few days, once school ended, the two of us had gone out into town together.

Whenever classes ended and I tried to go home, she would always be waiting in ambush and then we would head straight into what she called a date. That had become the usual pattern.

A pancake shop that was apparently popular on social media, window-shopping in the shopping street, and all sorts of other places. Well, she really dragged me all over the place.

Naturally, because we were wasting time like that, there were many times when we almost ran into people from the same school. Each time, we hid behind things or pretended to be strangers to get through it, but Mizushima seemed to enjoy even that.

『This has its own thrill, so it might be kind of nice』 she had said, completely carefree.

It made me feel stupid for being the only one getting nervous and restless.

“But at school, I can’t be together with you at all, Souta, right? We can’t let Ena-chan or everyone at the academy find out about us, so it can’t be helped, but… in the end, it’s been building up.”

As if she were about to lick her lips, Mizushima moistened her own lips once with her tongue.

“So… I thought I’d let it out a little.”

No sooner had she said that than Mizushima closed the iron door of the gym storage room tightly behind her.

The light from the gymnasium was blocked off, and the inside of the storage room was now only faintly lit by the sunlight coming through the small window high up near the wall. It wasn’t pitch-black darkness, but visibility wasn’t very good.

“H-Hey? What are you doing…?”

“Shh. Quiet, Souta.”

Cutting off my words, Mizushima lowered the volume of her voice.

Pulled along by Mizushima, I reflexively held my breath too, and then something even more outrageous happened.

Gachagacha, gachan.

“…Huh?”

Unbelievably, from behind Mizushima, I heard the sound of the padlock on the gym storage room door being locked.

By the time I thought『damn it』in two different meanings, it was already too late.

Of all things, I had fallen into a manga-like situation where I had been locked inside the school gym storage room.

And on top of that, I was alone with Mizushima, which made it feel like a state of hell.

“Heeeeeey!? What the hell have you done!?”

While keeping my voice as low as possible, I closed in on Mizushima.

“No, no, I’m not the one who locked it. So even if you blame me like that, I don’t really know what to say.”

“Liar! You absolutely did this on purpose!”

Knowing her, she had probably seen the teacher ask me to do this earlier.

So while keeping me delayed inside the storage room, she must have timed it for when the teacher came to lock the door and then closed it. All for the sake of creating this situation.

“Fufufu… We’re all alone, aren’t we?”

Even though she had been locked in too, Mizushima looked up at me with an expression of pure amusement.

“No way in hell. Like I can stay together with you in a place like this! I’m going back to the classroom.”

“That’s the kind of line that becomes a death flag in detective stories, you know?”

“Shut up! …Um, excuse me! There are still people in──”

I tried to raise my voice toward whoever had locked the door, since they probably had not gone too far yet.

“Wait.”

“Hey, why are you stopping me? You’ll be in trouble too if you can’t get out of here, right?”

“It’s fine to call for help but how exactly do you plan to explain this current situation?”

“Ugh? T-That’s…”

Mizushima Shizuno was a perfect superhuman with excellent grades, skilled in both academics and sports, balancing her studies and modeling career.

She was a charismatic high school girl admired by everyone in the academy. If a rumor spread that a girl like her had been in a dim gym storage room alone with a male student… what would happen?

Naturally, everyone would immediately make a huge fuss over the『shadow of a man』hovering around the academy’s idol.

If that were all, it would still be better, but from this situation, there might even be people who thought, 『Some scumbag who had gotten hold of Mizushima Shizuno’s weakness forcibly locked her in the gym storage room and tried to assault her.』

If that happened, what would begin next would be an all-Hokominato-students search for the『scumbag.』

Once he was smoked out, caught, and done for, the pitiful 『scumbag』would no doubt be strung up on the large ginkgo tree in the schoolyard. No matter how he struggled, it would be despair.

Did Mizushima actually calculate that far ahead?

“I told you, right? That I don’t have time to be picky about my methods.”

“S-Stop it, don’t. Don’t come any closer to me than that!”

“Ahaha, what’s with that face? Do you think I’m some kind of monster from a horror movie?”

With her back to the door, Mizushima slowly edged closer and closer.

Inside the cramped gym storage room, there was barely anywhere to run. About the most I could do was place the basket full of volleyballs between me and Mizushima as a makeshift barricade.

“Don’t be so scared. It’s not like I’m planning to suddenly attack you or anything.”

“Hah! As if. You think I’m going to believe that?”

I mean, does that mean you do intend to attack me eventually? Is that it? Is that what you mean?

“Really, really. Right now, I just want to play a little『game』with you, Souta.”

“G-Game?”

No sooner had I tilted my head than Mizushima once again did something shocking.

“Still, isn’t it a little stuffy in here? I think I’ll just take off my tracksuit already.”

“Eeh!?”

For some insane reason, Mizushima suddenly put her hands on the pants of her tracksuit.

My eyes widened in astonishment, and in the next moment, I hurriedly crouched down behind the basket.

“What are you doing!? Seriously, what the hell are you doing!?”

“Hm? No, I’m not good with stuffy heat, so I thought I’d take it off.”

“How can you do something like that in this situation!? Do you have no sense of shame at all!?”

“There’s nothing I’d be embarrassed about you seeing, Souta.”

Even as she answered so frankly, I could hear the sound of Mizushima lowering the zipper of her tracksuit from the other side of the basket.

Hey, hey, what the hell is with this situation? I’m already in a crisis where I’ve been locked inside a closed room, and on top of that, the person in the room with me is an exhibitionist targeting me! Is this a nightmare? Is this actually a nightmare?

“Alright, undressing complete. You can look this way now, Souta.”

“Like hell I can! Why would I be happy about having to see you in your underwear!?”

“Underwear…? Jeez, Souta, what exactly do you think I am?”

“I think you’re a cheap woman who just hasn’t been caught yet.”

“That’s so mean. I’m not in my underwear. I’m properly wearing clothes.”

“No, no, no, so why are you telling such an obvious lie…?”

“I’m telling you, it’s not a lie. I was wearing another layer under my tracksuit. Here, take a look.”

It was hard to believe right away… but it was also true that staying like this wasn’t going to get me anywhere.

Even if I kept crouching here forever, I wouldn’t be able to properly search for a way to escape the storage room.

Judging from Mizushima’s relaxed attitude, she must have prepared some way to escape. Maybe that『game』she mentioned earlier had something to do with it.

…Aah, whatever happens, happens!

After hesitating for a while, I timidly peeked out from behind the basket.

“Huh? Y-You, that’s…?”

“Ta-dah. Actually, under my tracksuit was Hokominato’s cheer club uniform.”

Just as Mizushima said, what she was wearing was the uniform of Hokominato Academy’s cheerleading team, the『Golden Dolphins.』

The whole outfit was based on a two-tone color scheme of blue and yellow, with a sleeveless top and a pleated miniskirt. In both hands, she held golden pom-poms made of fluttering bundled tape. It was the orthodox style that would come to mind when someone mentioned a so-called『cheer outfit』.

However, when Mizushima, the owner of a glamorous body far beyond that of a high schooler, wore it, its destructive power multiplied several times over. Her legs showed several times more skin than when she wore her usual uniform, and as for the top, because of Mizushima’s overly large chest, there was a considerable gap between the hem and her body.

To be blunt, it was an outfit that made it just as hard to know where to look as underwear did.

“I borrowed it from an acquaintance in the cheer club earlier. It’s cool and easy to move in, so it’s nice, isn’t it? If I weren’t working as a model, joining the cheer club might not have been bad either.”

While looking down once more at herself in the cheer outfit, Mizushima shook the pom-poms with a sharashara.

Certainly, with her, she would probably be able to aim for the top even in the world of cheerleading. Though the people being cheered on by Mizushima dressed like this might be in no state to practice or compete at all…

No, that doesn’t matter right now.

“I’ve got a lot of things I want to say, but… why a cheer outfit?”

“Because of course, it has to do with the『game』we’re about to play.”

“That’s it. Hurry up and explain this『game』already.”

“Okay, okay. That said, the rules are very simple.”

Mizushima took her smartphone from the pocket of the tracksuit folded at her feet and showed me the timer watch screen. The timer was set to five minutes.

“Starting now, within five minutes, you have to find a way to escape from this gym storage room, Souta. If you find it within five minutes, you clear the game.”

“…What happens if I can’t escape within five minutes?”

“I’ll attack you, Souta.”

“This really is a game of darkness, isn’t it!?”

So that was what she meant when she said she had no intention of suddenly attacking me!

Still, so that was it after all. In this space that looked like nothing but a locked room at first glance, Mizushima had prepared a way to escape. I had absolutely no idea what that method could be at this point, though.

“Now then, what will you do, Souta? Want to try challenging this game? Well, personally, I wouldn’t mind at all if we stayed here alone together forever.”

“Don’t joke around. I’ll do it, that game. I’m absolutely getting out of here alive!”

“I mean, it’s not like you’ll die even if you don’t clear it, you know?”

Mizushima gave a wry smile, but to me, it was that much of a crisis.

“By the way, this escape method is something that can actually be done within five minutes, right?”

“Of course. Once you figure it out, it’s easy.”

“Then fine. Let’s start already. It’s about to become lunch break soon.”

“Roger that. Well then… game start.”

Together with that call, Mizushima started the timer.

That said, if I just wandered around the storage room blindly, time would run out in no time.

First, narrowing down the possibilities to some extent would be the best move.

I stood in the middle of the storage room and quickly looked around the inside.

First was the front door. It was the only entrance-like entrance, but since it was locked, it was naturally excluded.

Next was the window. High up on the wall opposite the front door, there was a small window connected to the outside. If I made a foothold, I could somehow reach it, and it was big enough for one person to pass through, but iron bars were fitted into it, so escaping through it was impossible.

That left the walls, the floor, or the ceiling, but unfortunately, none of them had anything that looked like an escape hatch.

Hmm… Looking at it like this, it really did look like nothing but a locked room after all.

“Let’s go, Souta♪ Do your best, Souta♪ L, O, V, E, So-u-ta♪”

“Shut up! I can’t concentrate!”

Beside me as I racked my brains, Mizushima started dancing while waving her pom-poms around.

Damn it. To think she’d even set up interference tactics. How cowardly, Mizushima!

“Actually, what even is that cheer outfit in the end? What does it have to do with the game?”

“Huh? Isn’t it obvious? It’s to cheer on Souta while he’s doing his best like this.”

“No, even if you make a face like,『Isn’t that obvious?』I’m not going to be fooled, okay?”

In the first place, after driving me into a corner herself, what the hell did she mean by cheering me on?

“Come on, come on, while you’re doing this and that, there are only three minutes left, you know? You’d better hurry up and find the escape method.”

“I-I know! I’ll find it any second now, so shut up and watch!”

However, no matter how fired up I got, it wasn’t as if an escape route would appear on its own.

After that, without finding even the first hint of a clue, time passed by moment by moment.

“…Three, two, one, zero. Too bad. Escape failed.”

“D-Damn it…”

“Fufufu. Then, just as promised… I’ll attack you, Souta, okay?”

As I reached an anticlimactic game over, Mizushima in her cheer outfit slowly edged closer to me.

Kon, kon.

“…Shizuno-chan? Are you in there?”

However, at the voice that came from outside the door, Mizushima and I both opened our eyes wide at the same time.

‘That voice… Ena-chan!? W-Why is she in a place like this!?’

This. Is. Seriously. Bad!

The person who, more than anyone else, must never find out about my relationship with Mizushima. That was, of course, Ena-chan.

If Ena-chan saw this situation? There was no need to even think about it. It would be an instant out.

Even if it had been another student, it would still be a huge crisis, but of all people, Ena-chan had to come here!

“H-Hey, Mizushima? Don’t tell me this was part of your setup too…?”

“No way. Even I’m surprised.”

Mizushima showed a rare panicked expression. I also finally broke into a cold sweat at just how serious the situation was.

Even though there were all kinds of equipment in here, it was still a cramped storage room. There were hardly any places where two people could hide.

If Ena-chan had the key to the gym storage room and used it to come inside, getting through this unnoticed would be almost impossible.

Bad, bad, bad! Isn’t this seriously the end!?

“Souta, that.”

While I was doing nothing but panicking, Mizushima, who had quickly put her tracksuit back on, called out to me.

Then she pointed at a vaulting box, about eight sections high, stored in one corner of the room.

Guessing what Mizushima was trying to say, I lifted the top two or three sections of the vaulting box and shifted them to the side.

“Souta, hurry.”

“O-Okay!”

“And take these too.”

Mizushima tossed the cheer pom-poms over to me after I climbed inside the vaulting box, then put the shifted sections back in place.

Almost at the same time, the iron door of the storage room opened.

When I peeked out through a gap in the vaulting box, sure enough, the one who came in was Ena-chan, dressed in her tracksuit.

However, she wasn’t holding anything that looked like the storage room key in her hand.

What was going on? Because of Mizushima’s scheme, the door should have been locked.

“Oh, it’s Ena-chan. What’s wrong? Coming to a place like this.”

“Ah, Shizuno-chan. I knew you were here.”

“The teacher asked me to clean up a little. Did you maybe come looking for me?”

“Ah, yes. You still hadn’t returned to the classroom, so…”

“Ahaha, did I make you worry? I should’ve said something first. Sorry, sorry.”

Mizushima looked perfectly calm, as if nothing had happened, to the point that it was hard to believe she had been messing around with talk of『games』and『attacking』me just moments ago.

That quick change of attitude. As for that acting ability, I had no choice but to admit it was impressive.

“In that case, I’ll help with something too…”

“It’s okay, it’s okay. I’ll be back soon, so Ena-chan, you go ahead and change in the changing room.”

“R-Really?”

“Yeah, yeah. I’ll catch up right away, and after that, let’s go to the cafeteria together.”

“…All right. Then I’ll head back first.”

Prompted by Mizushima, Ena-chan turned on her heel without noticing me.

That had made my heart pound, but apparently, we had somehow managed to get through it safely.

“…………?”

“Ena-chan? Is something wrong?”

However, Ena-chan, who had been about to leave the storage room, suddenly stopped there.

Or so I thought, but then for some reason, she faintly twitched her nose.

“No, it’s just… For a moment, I thought I smelled something very familiar…”

“Uweh?”

Mizushima’s voice cracked, as if she couldn’t help it.

As for me inside the vaulting box, my heart stopped.

“A smell? What smell?”

“Yes. Um… Like Souta-kun…”

My heart performed a magnificent double jump.

My smell? What does she mean, my smell? How can you even say something like that, Ena-chan!?

Actually, do I smell that much!? That’s kind of… shocking.

“…No, I’m sorry. I’m sure it was just my imagination.”

But in the end, she seemed to reconsider it that way.

Ena-chan shook her head furufuru, and this time, she finally left the gym storage room.

“…Has she gone? You can come out now, Souta.”

Once Ena-chan had completely left, Mizushima called out to me, and I wriggled out of the vaulting box.

“Man, that was close, that was close. Ena-chan has a surprisingly sharp nose, huh?”

With a fuu, Mizushima let out a breath and stroked down her full chest through her tracksuit in relief.

Then, after collecting the pom-poms I was holding, she strode toward the entrance of the storage room.

“It’s too bad, but I guess that’s it for the game. We somehow got through it for now, but if we don’t go back soon, people will get suspicious. Still, it was fun, so let’s do it again sometime, Souta.”

Mizushima was about to leave quickly after saying that, but I stopped her with,『Wait.』

“…Why was the door unlocked? You’re hiding something, aren’t you?”

There were plenty of other things I wanted to say, but for the moment, I questioned her about the biggest mystery.

Mizushima’s answer to that was more than enough to leave me dumbfounded.

“Ah, that. To tell you the truth, the door was never locked from the start.”

“Huh? No, no, that can’t be right. I mean, earlier, it was locked from outside…”

“That was just a sound I played from the phone I hid behind my back.”

“…What did you say?”

In front of me, who had ended up showing a stupid expression, Mizushima lifted up her smartphone and showed it to me.

Before long, what came from the smartphone was the exact same locking sound I had heard earlier.

‘Ah, I see… So I was in the palm of her hand from the very beginning.’

Burning with frustration at having been completely played by Mizushima yet again, all I could do was grit my teeth.

“Now then, you should get out of here quickly too, Souta. The teacher will probably really come to lock the door soon.”

Leaving behind a『Bye-bye』Mizushima quickly left the gymnasium.

I’ve decided. I’ve completely decided. I’m not going to trust anything she says anymore!

“Still, well, at least Ena-chan didn’t find me… Huh?”

After wiping the sweat from my forehead again, however, I suddenly felt something was off.

Come to think of it, why did Ena-chan call Mizushima 『Shizuno-chan』earlier?

If I remember correctly, until now, I feel like Ena-chan had been calling Mizushima by her name without any honorific…

“Hmm… Well, whatever.”

Maybe when the two of them are alone, she calls her that way.

Besides, in the first place, how Ena-chan chooses to address Mizushima, her lover, is her own freedom. It would be wrong for me to worry about it every little time.

“…The cafeteria’s probably pretty crowded by now.”

Because I had been dragged into Mizushima’s farce, lunch break had already started.

Praying that there would somehow be an empty seat, I trudged back to the classroom.