Kamase Aneki, upon receiving the group message from Shirogasaki, curled up on her bed at home, a grin spreading across her face as she thought, “This is getting interesting.”
She chuckled to herself, imagining her sister wearing a similar expression.
“It’s a perfect opportunity to teach that annoying Class Representative a lesson about her place as a friend.”
About two weeks prior, Aneki had taken Kiraboshi and Shirogasaki into a Dungeon.
Originally, Aneki had been planning to punish Kiraboshi for tattling, and she happened to come across a method of using a nearby Gate on social media.
It’s common for students to sneak into wild Dungeons for a thrill.
Just a prank.
“Any high schooler from the Dungeon Generation would do it,” she thought, luring Kiraboshi with Shirogasaki as bait.
Removing Shirogasaki from the group under the guise of buying Potions was also part of the plan.
…But, at first, she only intended to scare her a little.
If a Monster appeared, she’d give her a shove to make her panic.
That way, the Class Representative wouldn’t be so cheeky anymore.
However…
Seeing Kiraboshi bending down to check for a Pitfall, she suddenly had a thought.
Wouldn’t it be fun to push her in?
Like in movies and manga.
Stepping on the fingers of someone begging for their life, kicking them, and sending them to the bottom of the abyss must feel amazing.
Aneki was turning sixteen this year. She wanted to experience something like that at least once.
It was like seeing a delicious-looking new dessert at the convenience store.
Just an extension of a little game.
With that feeling, she pushed her.
She remembered it being a pretty good feeling.
…If it had ended there, everything would have been nicely resolved.
But she thought about unnecessary things like, “I should check if she’s alive, and if she is, I’ll pretend to help her and smooth things over…”
Ah. Just remembering it made her shudder.
Being blasted with fire by an invisible Monster and beaten all over with metal rods—that—
(The worst. Ugh, this is the worst…!)
All damage taken inside a Dungeon is converted into Magical Power.
So there’s no worry about clothes burning, and even if an arm is broken, it can be healed with recovery magic, but the pain is still felt realistically.
In the end, it seemed Kiraboshi was rescued safely—while they were the only ones beaten, burned, and treated unfairly by their parents.
Cowardly and unfair.
That’s why making Kiraboshi reflect on her actions was only natural as a friend.
…She heard from a friend that Kiraboshi had recently been seen in town with a man in a suit.
Apparently, she was just shopping, but—she couldn’t miss such a chance.
She started rumors and isolated that girl in class.
She also used Shirogasaki to deepen the suspicion by making it seem like she was giving that girl a chance to explain herself.
According to the message, she would explain everything properly tomorrow, but of course, she had no intention of listening seriously.
She intended to drag out the details of her relationship with the man until that girl cried and begged for forgiveness.
“I’m so looking forward to tomorrow…”
As she rolled around in bed, chuckling, a message arrived from her sister.
“Hey, Aneki. Why don’t we all welcome her together? You know, the upperclassmen who got ratted out too.”
That was perfect. It was an important opportunity to clear up her friend’s misunderstanding, and she would be happier if everyone heard it.
Unable to suppress her grin, Aneki replied, “That’s a great idea.”
Ah. She was so excited to see what kind of face that bespectacled girl would make—
*
“Oh? Kiraboshi-san doesn’t seem to be here,”
The next day after school, Aneki, as promised, had brought Shirogasaki, Imoutoya, and two upperclassmen to the back of the club building.
Shirogasaki looked puzzled at the presence of the upperclassmen, but she was convinced when Aneki explained, “I’m introducing you to reliable men, so we can take down any sugar daddies if necessary.”
Laughing at how stupid this girl was, she looked for Kiraboshi… but she wasn’t there.
Did she run away? Well, whatever.
“Hey, Ojou, don’t you think that girl is really doing it? If she could explain properly, there’s no need to run away, right?”
“That might be true… but I don’t think Kiraboshi-san is that kind of person…”
“Aneki and everyone made time for her, and this is a terrible betrayal. It’s like she’s confessing.”
Following Imoutoya, the upperclassmen nodded with smirks.
Even so, the Class Representative was stupid.
Even if she pretended not to know here, they would meet at school tomorrow. There was no escape.
Well, even if she explained here, there was no escape either.
That girl was already cornered—
“…? Aneki. Something’s on the ground.”
Poked by Imoutoya, Aneki also noticed “it” lying behind the club building.
“A shoe?”
A loafer, slipped off only one foot, lay rolling on the gravel.
“What’s this?” she said, raising her face to see another shoe a little further ahead.
Beyond that, there was a sock, as if it had been carelessly discarded, only one of them lying limp.
Aneki approached the sock as if being beckoned, and—was stopped by yellow tape.
When she looked up, a swirling silver Gate was within easy reach, and she flinched.
…Come to think of it, they said a Dungeon had appeared behind the school building.
Honestly, Dungeons only brought back bad memories, so she didn’t want to get close, but—
“Hey. Could that girl be in that Dungeon?”
“Huh?”
“If they wanted to talk somewhere private, a Dungeon would be perfect, right? And this Dungeon is new, so the Monsters are weak, right?”
Certainly, consulting inside a Dungeon wasn’t a bad idea.
Rather, it was something that gloomy Class Representative would think of.
Fortunately, the Dungeon had just appeared, and the difficulty was low—said to be low-ranked D or E—and she had heard rumors that there was no need to call in contractors.
In that case… no, rather, wouldn’t it be easier in a Dungeon where no one could see them?
“Hmm? Is that so? Class Representative, are you in here? You want to talk where no one can see you, huh?”
“Do you think so? I don’t think Kiraboshi-san would do anything that violates school rules…”
“A conversation you don’t want people to hear. In other words, a shady conversation. The Class Representative might already be admitting her guilt.”
Imoutoya muttered, and Aneki twisted her cheeks, thinking this would be an interesting show.
The truth didn’t matter.
She could come up with any number of false accusations without even thinking about it.
“Well, let’s take a peek for now, shall we? Ojou, can you go first?”
“M-Me?”
“It’s for the sake of discussion, okay?”
Making Shirogasaki go ahead because it was necessary, Aneki also stepped through the Gate.
A “cave” stage type of one-way street. There was one iron door at the far end.
There were side paths to the left and right, but since another sock had fallen in front of the iron door, there was no mistake.
“Class Representative, are you in there~? Come on, don’t hide, come out~”
Aneki deliberately raised her voice to incite fear.
The voice echoing in the Dungeon would sound like the footsteps of the Grim Reaper to Kiraboshi.
Ah. Just imagining it made her shiver.
Just thinking that the Class Representative was trembling like a frightened Rat behind this door was enough.
“Come on, Class Representative. Where are you~?”
“Aneki. Is she trying to play hide-and-seek?”
“Maybe… What do you say at times like this again? Ah, that’s right. —’Here comes the ogre, follow the sound of my hands,’ just kidding?”
While clapping her hands to provoke her, she had Shirogasaki open the door.
Now, how would she react?
She would desperately think of excuses, but still be unable to speak properly and turn pale, or maybe even collapse.
That would be the best, Aneki thought with a smirk as she stepped through the door—
“…Huh?”
She wasn’t there.
The place, as big as a school classroom, was just an empty void.
“Aneki, she’s not here.”
“That’s strange, I thought it was this way.”
What a waste of time.
Clicking her tongue, she vowed to make her pay dearly when they met—the moment,
“GYAAAAAAAAAAH!”
Huh? What?
Shrinking back, she turned around with her sister—
“…Eh?”
She doubted her eyes at the scene before her.
Instead of Kiraboshi Yoshiko, her classmate who had disappeared into the Dungeon, what was there was—…
A helmet covering her face like a full-face helmet, and Steel Armor covering her upper body from her torso to her fingertips.
In contrast to the armored upper body, her lower body was wearing a perfectly aligned red pleated skirt that didn’t violate any school rules.
It clanked the hard metal armor.
For some reason, she was gripping bright red Chainsaws in both hands.
The Creature, its white bib flapping with the word “friend” scrawled on it, was busy slicing up the senpai at the very back.