Editing City Series:Volume7 Layer 11 (section)

===Record 90: What are You So Afraid Of?===
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'''11/03/1998

'''14:42

The school festival was reaching its peak. Its peak what, you ask?

“Its peak noise, definitely.”

For whatever reason, I was wandering the general school building partway through the afternoon.

“Eek!”

I heard Sensei screaming, so I sighed and ran over. The scream had come from the supply room on the 2nd floor. I arrived to find her seated in front of the dark supply room with a blank look on her face. Was that a ghost house? She did have a knack for getting involved in the very things she would be best off avoiding.

“Hey, Sensei, you’ll get your butt dirty if you sit there.”

I successfully snapped her out of it with a slap on the cheek.

“Eh? Ah, wait, why are you hitting me?”

“Now that you mention it, I’m not sure. Just because, I guess.”

“D-don’t, um, hit people ‘just because’. A-and stop already.”

Oops. I’d forgotten to stop.

I quickly removed my hand from her cheek and she started crying, presumably out of relief. Everyone gave me icy stares, but in my defense, it was the supply room that made her cry, not me.

Then the supply room door opened behind me and the Professor emerged.

Before I could say anything to defend myself, he looked at me crouched in front of Sensei while she sobbed and held her red cheek.

“I see.” He took a deep breath and shouted at the top of his lungs. “Rapist!!!”

I sent him flying with an uppercut. He bounced off the hallway ceiling and bounced off the floor, but he still sprang to his feet and looked to me.

“So what are you doing here? Doing to Sensei, I mean.”

“That’s my line. What were you doing in the dark there?”

“You will get no spoilers out of me. Step in and find out for yourself.”

I grabbed his head, spun him around 180 degrees, and shoved him into the dark supply room.

He screamed in a way I had never heard from him until the screaming abruptly stopped.

“I see. Whatever it is must be terrifying.”

I shut the door and locked it from the outside. I figured things would have settled down in there by tonight.

The people gathered outside left and I decided to continue my patrol. But just as I started to leave, I felt a tug at the hem of my shirt.

I looked back to see Sensei had stopped crying.

“What do you want now?”

“I dropped my wallet i-inside there. S-so…”

I unlocked the supply room door, picked her up by the collar like a kitten, and dropped her inside.

“Eek!”

I pulled my hand back to find her clinging to and dangling down from it. There was no way she could retrieve her wallet.

“Hey, what the hell do you think you’re doing!?”

I looked back to see Little Boy who had been on patrol just like me. I could think of only one reason he would take issue with my actions here.

“You want to help out Sensei, don’t you? Good luck.”

I kicked him into the supply room. I heard some noises inside for about 3 seconds before they abruptly stopped.

Not even Little Boy could handle it? This had to be scary indeed. I flicked Sensei on the forehead while she dangled from my hand.

“Ow! Wh-what was that for!?”

“It’s no use. We just have to abandon the room.”

“B-but there are still a few people in there.”

“And we will never forget their sacrifice. Now, I did make you cry, so I’ll treat you to something nice. Let’s visit the rumored butoh café called Thrill.”

Still dangling from my arm, she pointed toward the supply room.

“We can eat here. They say it’s the best anmitsu place in the country.”

I silently nodded and shoved her into the darkness.

'''Author Comment:

Sensei cries a lot, but I don’t think it only happens when the protagonist is around.

She just interacts with him more, so when she cries around someone, it ends up being him more often than anyone else. That was a bit of a complicated way of saying that.

I feel like the Professor is enjoying his school life more than anyone else. He only enjoys a narrow sliver of that life, but he seems the most stress free.