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There’s a lot of blood in this chapter, so be mindful if you’re squeamish.

Kou lived in a suburban area, and her high school was also in a suburban area, so there were not many people taking the train between the stations closest to both places. More often than not, there would be plenty of seats for her and her friends.

That also meant that Hijiri would be able to sit next to her every morning, and when that happened, Hijiri would start playing and rearranging Kou’s hair. The other passengers would often watch that with warm gazes, like they were two sisters who were really close with each other.

“Hijiri, you’re always messing around with my hair, is it really that fun?”
“Kou, what did we say about your speech?”
“Oh… I mean, you don’t get tired of changing my hairstyle?”
“Nope, your hair is so long I can test out a bunch of hairstyles that I can’t pull off myself,” Hijiri replied, clearly in a good mood as she played with Kou’s hair.

Kou could not really understand what Hijiri found so fun about it, but she looked like she truly enjoyed it, so Kou knew she was not pretending.

“Hmm…that’s it?”
“That’s it~♪”

Hijiri began to hum as she took out a pair of rubber bands to tie Kou’s hair. She had decided that Kou would be having half-up pigtails that day. They stopped talking after that, and Kou only focused on the slight rattling of the train as it moved along its tracks. She also felt Hijiri’s hands gently moving her head around and gently arranging her hair.

“…Hm? Hey, Kou?”

On Kou’s other side was Subaru, who spoke to Kou with worry, but she had gotten too sleepy to really know how to reply. All she could think of was how comfortable her seat was, and that she needed to lean a bit to the side to sleep. Dragged away by those thoughts, Kou’s mind was soon wandering amongst her dreams.

◇◇◇

Something’s definitely wrong, I just know it.

Since they had upcoming exams, they only had classes in the morning. And during the last one, which was Japanese History, Kou began to consider that seriously.

“Hey, Mitsuki, wake up~”

The teacher’s gentle voice and his almost too-gentle knock on Kou’s head made her snap awake, lifting her face from the books she had fallen asleep on top of.

“Ah… I’m sorry…”
“How odd, I never thought I’d find you sleeping during class.”

The teacher did not sound exactly angry, but rather concerned with Kou’s health, which was something she appreciated. Some of her classmates also giggled a little. But they were not doing that out of malice or mockery; it was more like they had witnessed something adorable, which made Kou’s face turn red with embarrassment.

“Well, you’ve always been paying a lot of attention during class, so I can see you overworking yourself preparing for the exams. I’ll wrap up soon, so just try to stay with us for a bit longer, alright?” Saying that, the teacher patted Kou’s head where he had knocked earlier, and then went to resume the lesson.

Somehow I feel like the teacher and everyone else treats me with a lot more kindness after I started looking like this.

While it was true that Kou usually was really attentive in class and always had good scores, she could not help but wonder if she would have been treated with so much kindness if she had fallen asleep in class back during middle school.

But more curiously, she could not figure out why she had fallen asleep during class, considering she went to bed earlier than usual the night before, and even took a nap during her train ride.

◇◇◇

“Crim… Maybe you should take today off?”
“…Hm? Ah, sorry prez, I spaced out for a bit.”
“I really wish I could say that’s all…”

That night, they were gathered in a room of Castle Seyfert in Destiny Unchain Online again. They were all studying together like the night before, but before long Crim noticed that everyone was looking at her with worry.

She could admit that she had been a bit distracted, but she could not understand why they were all looking at her so worried, so she just tilted her head when…

“Crim, your finger…”
“Finger..?”
“This really isn’t like you. Usually, you’d never do anything that could disturb others.”
“Huh? Ah…I’m…I’m sorry.”

When Freya and Frey pointed that out, Crim finally realized what she was doing, and had to apologize for it. She had been tapping the table with her finger in an obnoxious way the entire time she had been distracted.

“Right… I probably should go rest for a bit. Good luck, everyone.”

For the umpteenth time that day, Crim was made aware of how bizarrely she was acting. So she could only wish everyone the best and log out, escaping into the real world and secluding herself in her room.

It was already dark outside, so she just threw herself onto her bed and heaved a deep sigh, disappointed by her own actions.

“Ugh… Just what the hell is wrong with me.”

She felt like nothing had worked out that day. At the same time, her stomach felt bloated and made her feel queasy, so she rolled around her bed in discomfort, repeatedly stretching out and then rolling up again.

Ah…I’m so sleepy.

Then she was assaulted by a sudden drowsiness, which she could not fight back and made her fall asleep. Right before she was unconscious, she felt something between her legs, but she was too sleepy to think or care about it.

◇◇◇

“Owww…ack…”

When she woke up the next morning, she felt deplorable. A sharp pain like her innards were being shredded made her writhe in pain on her bed while holding her lower stomach.

“Eugh…wh…what’s…happening…”

A cold sweat formed on her forehead, and she let out strained breaths as she tried to fight back the pain. While she felt completely exhausted, her stomach experienced a type of pain she had never encountered before, like something had taken hold of her guts and was wringing them out.

Trying to escape the pain at least a bit, she tried to roll to the other side, but the moment her hips moved, she felt something wet and sticky, which made her whole body tense up.

“..?!”

That felt extremely unpleasant, making her even forget the pain, and she crawled out of her bed. Her whole underwear felt drenched.

“No…no way…I’m already in high school…”

Struggling to accept the situation, she got on her feet. All she could do was pray that her father had fallen asleep in the living room and would not wake up like the day before, as he was scheduled to be home that day too. Desperately, she tried to think of a way to get rid of all the evidence before anyone saw.

Back when she woke up in the hospital, her muscles had all been weakened, and she struggled to contain her bowel movements in all sorts of uncomfortable ways. But she had undergone plenty of rehabilitation, which included how to properly use a toilet again, so she believed she would never run into a situation like this.

Or at least she hoped so. But she knew the drenched and sticky feeling of her underwear was real, so it had happened, even at her age. Just to make absolutely sure, she took a deep breath and looked at her bed where her hips had been resting.

“…What?”

Why is it red?

That was the first thing she noticed. Her brain had been expecting to see a brown stain, but when she saw something else, all her thoughts froze. As she stared at that red stain, the pain made itself known again, which combined with the faint smell of blood, told her that this was not a dream.

With a trembling hand, she covered her mouth and tried to stop her stomach from revolting due to the nausea she was feeling.

She did not mind blood as an effect used within games, but in real life, she could not handle any amount of blood, except for the time once a week when she drank Hijiri’s blood. So when confronted with the sight of her bloodied thighs, white panties dyed red, and a large red stain on her bed sheets, her entire consciousness began to fade as everything turned black.

◇◇◇

Around ten minutes later, in the house next to the Mitsuki home.

“helpmehijiriimdying”
“Huh, what, Kou?!”

Hijiri received a strange short message devoid of any punctuation or capitalization.

“Hijiri, we’ll be late if you-”
“Sorry Subaru, don’t wait for me and just go to school!”

She had been getting ready to go to school when she received that message, and just as Subaru was about to remind her to eat breakfast, she interrupted him and left the house in a hurry, her hair still halfway disheveled as she rushed to the house of her childhood friend.