Masou Shoujo Chapter 10

Chapter 10: The Rumored Mob

"Please do not follow me."

From those coldly spoken words, it was acutely felt that she really hated this.

"Please don't say that. We're just going home together, aren't we?"

After school hours are over, there are some of us who go to club activities or hang out with friends, while the rest of us just go home.

She seems to hate this quite as much, but I can't afford to worry about that. Although the stalker still hasn't come yet, it's important to be as sure as sure can be. 

There were also at least some irregularities even at the time with those delinquents. None of it was a big deal, but it doesn't change the fact that there are irregularities. Therefore, I must to follow her around until the bad ending is completely avoided.

"I don't like even that. I beg of you please don't follow me."

She walks briskly without even making eye contact with me.

....So she hates this that much, huh. That hurts me a little...

I'll walk a little behind, I guess. There's no other way but that to go about this. Since the person next to me (Kohaku) gives me a very unwelcome look after all.

And so I follow her while maintaining a regular interval.

After walking for a while, she stopped where there were few pedestrians and turned her face toward me.

"Like I said! I told you not to follow me didn't I!!"

"No, look, it just so happens that we're on the same way home..."

"Such lies don't work!! I'll say this clearly. I hate you!!!"

I kind of had a guess, but it's pretty heartbreaking to be told that face-to-face. The fact that she is a beauty alone makes it unnecessarily painful. When a cute girl says she hates you, it's mentally devastating.

"So please don't come near me."

After clearly declaring her hatred, she walked away again. Having said that much to me, I have no choice but to go home.... Yeah, that won't go.

Even after that, without minding it, I continued walking while I opened myself to a certain position [Tl note 1]. After a while she turned around again.

"I told you already!!! Please do not follow me!!!"

"Please don't put me to mind."

"That's impossible!!"

"Please think of me as a potato or something."

"That's impossible!!"

◆◆◆

This and that, and I followed her till her apartment. She went into the building angrily without even saying goodbye. If she hates me any more than this, I might be turned over to the police. That one thing alone I must avoid. No matter what.

When I'm thinking about such things carefreely...

――Suddenly, I felt a gaze on me.

I turned around and felt as if there was someone in a place hidden from view. No, they were there. I just couldn't see clearly because they were hiding. Probably for her, it's the worst stalker bastard. He's the worst kind of man to stalk women.

Good grief... as a man, it's garbage to stalk women. As the same male, it's embarrassing! It might be fine if the woman gave permission that it's okay to walk together, but stalking without permission should definitely not be allowed.

How come, he doesn't even know such a simple thing?? Even elementary school students must have understood that this is something they must not do.

But he was already putting his eyes on her, huh. I thought it would be a little later, but...

In the "if Story", he falls in love at first sight when he happens to see her, and after that, he follows her around. Characteristics of a stalker.

What I do know is that he is a crazy man with a knife. If my memory serves me right, I feel like the knife he has is a fruit knife. He must be unemployed and in his late twenties.

Though I think I'm superior in terms of pure combat power, I'm a little scared when someone wields an edged tool. If I get stabbed, I'll definitely die after all. If possible, I'd like to solve it ahead of time, but he probably won't go down that easy.

However, now that I know for a fact that the stalker is already there, I will probably have to protect her even more from now on.

From that day on, my countermeasures against the stalker began. I stalked her.... no, not that; I escorted her at short distance wherever practicable.

On the way, I was yelled at in anger and glared at by her many times, even then, I continued. When she went shopping, I was by her side as a basket handler.

"Please let me carry your basket."

"No need."

"Please let me walk you home."

"I'll call the police."

"It happens that our home direction is the same…"

"Then, I will take a detour and go home."

And those days continued for about a week....

◆◆◆

"Hey Izayoi"

"What up?"

One day, when I was preparing to go home, Sasamoto, who sat in front of me, came and talked to me.

"Is it true that, you've been stalking Kohaku-chan lately?"

"Who said that? Such a thing?"

"No, it has become quite a rumor, you know? You've been following her around lately, it said."

As one would expect, I seem to have become famous.

I feel a little complicated, but things are a little while more before long, so I haven't else but to endure it.

"...Well, I won't deny it."

"Eeh? Are you serious? She'll of course back off from a stalker, you know...?"

"I'm not a stalker, though..."

"That's what all stalkers say. You'd better be careful. I don't want to see news about the guy in the back seat behind me getting caught by the police."

After that, I then followed after Gindou Kohaku. 

I was feeling pretty depressed while I was at it.

◆◆◆

"Recently, I'd heard there have emerged rumors that you are stalking me, you know?"

"It seems so."

"...If you're feeling so depressed about it, then wouldn't it be fine to just stop?"

It seems it shows on my face a lot that I'm feeling depressed, and she told me that dubiously. Rumors seem to have reached even her. Could it be, was it spread throughout the school?

If so, that's quite severe. Though even if there's no need to guess, at the point where there are rumors, it's harsh.

Things might turn tough after the situation is resolved. Imagining what's to come gives me a headache. For now, let's leave it alone.

"At this rate, your school life will be hindered. Since it still hasn’t even been a month since you entered the school, and yet, you’re already being treated as a weirdo."

"Yeah, I suppose so...."

"What is it that you want to do? You?"

Even while I'm depressed, I walk close to her. Though the steps are heavy.

It seems that she is exasperated by such me.

"!!"

I looked back again. It's been increasing a lot lately. Someone has put their gaze on her nearly twenty times in this past week. Gindou Kohaku doesn't seem to notice at all, but I know everything.

"The usual eccentricity, is it?"

Because I suddenly looked behind me, it seems that she judged it as a weirdo's eccentric behaviour.

She sighs and continues walking.

The bad end is getting closer after all. But it's all going according to plan. After walking her home, I'll settle this worst "if story". And for that, I have made preparations.

We arrived near her apartment building. When we finally arrived, she looked at me with a weary expression.

"I don't want to be thankful at all, but thank you for your hard work."

"Yes...."

"?? Then, goodbye"

"Yes"

I briefly gave my reply and confirmed that she was entering the apartment.

After that, be conscious of what's behind, take a deep breath for a moment, and start walking out again.

Wait for the light to turn green at the crosswalk. I'm just waiting, but the sweat is coming out of me with tension and fear. My heart's beating fast. But, I have and must do it here, or things won't go.

The light at the crosswalk turns green. And thus I made up my resolve and started walking.

◆◆◆

Something's weird. 

I saw through his unusual atmosphere.

As usual, I enter the apartment and he goes home, but today I secretly went outside the building and watched him without going up to the floor where I lived.

...It's not that I'm curious. It just, this is, uh, surveillance of potential criminals!!

He's a man who constantly carries a super-spicy water gun around and stalks me. A man like an embodiment of abnormality. I don't know what he will do, but it probably wouldn't hurt to keep an eye on him.

His behavior has been abnormal these days.

He's weird to begin with, but he insists that not only does he want to follow me to and from school, but he also wants to carry my shopping bags. He follows me around the clock. That's normally strange.

He's waiting patiently at the crosswalk, but I can see he looks somewhat restless. He looks extremely reluctant, but I somehow understood the things about him.

A freak, weirdo, stalker. I could probably say crazy.

However, when I'm with him every day, naturally, I'll be able to grasp some differences in his face. The look on his face just now was extremely reluctant, but it was a face that was tormenting himself with the thought of something.

As I'm checking on him from a place hidden from view, he walks on. Then behind him, it felt as if the man with a hood was following him. I could have also thought of it as a coincidence, a mere groundless fear, but my intuition told me otherwise.

Let's go and try to take a look, I guess....

I tail the hooded man who follows him.

I wonder whether or not this is pretty surreal. Especially as long as he (Izayoi) walks indifferently without looking back. But I still feel like something is kind of weird. It must be a done deal that that hooded man is following him.

How is it that he doesn't notice the man?

Even though every day, even after I tell him to stop because it is embarrassing, he checks the east, west, north, south, front, back, left, and right, and so much to the extent that I would think, "Are you sick in the head?" There is nothing but bad feeling from this.

After walking for a while, he goes into the park. 

This park is an old park with a lot of rust, so no one is there. 

He turned around in the middle of the park.

The hooded man also goes into the park.

Neither of them seemed to notice me hiding in a place with long dense grass.

"So you've been having your eyes on Gindou-san lately."

He turns to the hooded man and speaks the words to him. As they face each other, the hooded man pulls a fruit knife out of his pocket.

Eh? Knife? What, what do you mean?

He was following me the whole time? That hooded man was?

"What's the matter? I could feel your bloodlust like awful you know?"

"It's because you follow my goddess around that I always thought of killing you!!"

I was listening in secret, but now, it's all connected. He had realized. That there was a real stalker. So that's the reason why he was by my side all the time.

"I've been waiting for you to come to a deserted place to kill you!!!"

He shouts while pointing the knife at him. That man is real bad. A genuine madman, not a metaphor or a joke.

Normally, one would be so scared by fear that they would become unable to do anything, but he snorted derisively and laughed.

"A phrase that makes it seem like you entrap me, but it's the other way around. I lured you by deliberately coming to a deserted place."

He's kind of, cool... maybe. Though his legs are trembling great...

He is scared, the truth is. But he came here alone so that I wouldn't get dragged into it. To protect me, without anyone knowing.

Even if weird rumors are spread around the school, even if I say terrible things. Still, he's fighting now just to protect me.

He pulled out a water gun from his pocket, then another. The other one doesn't look like a water gun; it looks like a full-fledged gun, but it probably isn't.

"What can you do with a toy!"

The man rush in with the knife. 

He responded with a dual-gun style.

Firing the water gun and the toy gun. 

The BB bullet from the toy gun hits the man's body, but there's almost no damage. 

Since the man has long sleeves, it's almost not working. 

But when the water from the water gun hits his face...

"GUAAAAAAAAAAAA!! MY EYEEEEEEEESSSSSSS!!"

That water gun... I wonder if it's not too strong?

"So I didn't need this one gun..."

He murmured just a few words while looking at the full-fledged gun. I agree too. The super-spicy water gun is too strong.

He calls the police on his cell phone while being wary of the man. While occasionally firing the water gun at the stalker.

The stalker is crouching down while covering his eyes. I was hiding in the grass, but I was also caught off guard when things were over and ended up stepping on a branch at my feet.

"Is someone there?"

He turned to the place where I was hiding. There is no problem even if I am found out, so I get out of the grassy place.

"It's me"

"Why are you here?"

"No, I just happen to, have something to do in this direction..."

"Aah, is that so."

I think it will be quite difficult for this excuse to work after coming out of the grassy place. 

I was caught in an instant lying. And he looked at me with an exasperated face. 

What is it I wonder? It pisses me off when he looks at me like that.

"You fool!! Got some nerve letting your guard down!!"

The stalker man pointed the knife again at Izayoi-kun, who had let his guard down after talking to me. It's probably not that his eyes have completely recovered, but he must have mostly decided to point the knife in the direction our voice was coming from.

"!!!"

"Izayoi-kun!!"

He was so distracted by me that he reacted too late, and the knife stuck into his abdomen.

TL: Maza Miya

Editor: Maza Miya

[Tl note 1: Like, going after utility pole-to-utility pole, kinda like how Persona 5 shadow tailing works or just like how a stalker does their thing.] 

[Just in case someone got confused like me. "Exasperated" means "tired". They are semantically related. Source: https://thesaurus.plus/related/exasperated/tired]

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