Chapter 17:

Bet

The Cursed Manuscript


Keta's eyes squinted at the sharp bright yellow light almost burning his eyelashes and cheeks. He stopped, only a few steps away from the border office.

"Ugh..."

Keta raised a finger, rigorously rubbing his eye until everything became orangish.

Great.

The Sector-border guard stood casually, beside movable barricade. Seeing Keta stop so suddenly, he waved high, "What happened?" The yell reverbed around the street walls.

"Huh... Nothing."

Keta closed his left eye for now, and relied on the right one to navigate forward.

"Its pretty hot today isn't it?"

The guard spoke, lowering himself to Keta as he entered the office for checking.

"Maybe... I can't really say."

If you can't feel it, that's a good thing.

Keta stood at the small podium, automatically spreading his arms.

BEEP. BEEP.

"Good to go, kid."

The guard patted his back as he moved past Keta, back to his place.

Keta stepped down, and moved away. The burning sensation started to fade away, his cheeks returned to its original tone.

"Can I wait inside?"

Keta suddenly paused and turned to ask. Outside, the road seemed to burn.

The guard flicked his brow, despite being far away, the voice reached him.

"Fine by me, but don't touch anything."

The guard turned back after Keta nodded,

"And yes, if Makoto returns, you are to leave."

He added, coming a bit closer to the gate.

"Without hesitation. "

Keta affirmed and sat on a chair, under the ceiling fan.

Makoto, the one who resides this desk?

There was a empty metal chair behind the cluttered metal desk. The chair was covered with a cushion.

HONK.

"Ishin, c'mere!"

A familiar grumpy old voice yelled from the outside. From the sound, a truck was being parked somewhere.

Immediately Keta's eyes shifted directions— the guard, probably the one named Ishin, ran across the corner and then entered through the door in Keta's front.

"Kid." He held a box, a 'Fragile' box, which covered almost half of his torso.

"Yeah. Going."

Keta stepped down from the chair, strolling past Ishin and then outside the door.

"At least, now it's tolerable."

Murmured Keta, ignoring the faint smell of his black hair burning. Moving forward, there were two directions: North and South.

Keta turned towards North, before pausing mid-step.

"I hate 'em, always putting in charge of these bodies."

A familiar grunt reached his ears. It was a faint whisper, to be precise but the modulation and tone were distinguishable.

Bodies... Like dead bodies?

The phrase was jarring. 'In-charge' of these bodies.

'these bodies'...

Although a number of scenarios began to boil inside his mind, Keta preferred not to jump into conclusions.

"Not my... Business."

Keta's pinky finger shook again, the voice lingered for a while before fading. Some meters away, Keta finally seemed disappeared after a corner.

"I think... He heard you."

Just then a single whisper echoed. It came from the border office, the sound... So familiar.

DAY 3

Compared to the previous day, today the sun was merciful— letting rain clouds take the lead and cover the entire sky, while he Keta was on his way to School.

"Its.."

Keta murmured, pushing the class-door open. Immediately from behind, Orahashi popped up, pulling his tie.

"Keta-kun!"

And there was Kawaguchi, standing beside him, smirking and grinning widely at Keta...

"... empty?"

Keta's eyes shifted, scanning the whole room once. Not a single window was opened— not a single desk occupied.

There was no Orahashi or Kawaguchi standing behind. The class was dead silent.

Even the air felt thin— breathless.

"Haah..."

"Side."

Something touched his ankle. His head turned before he could think.

"Miori-san? So early?"

Miori was standing at the gate, she wanted to pass through. Keta let her.

"I should be asking you that."

Her voice was devoid of her signature smile and tone. It did nothing except to reverb.

The steps echoed louder and louder, until she stopped by second last desk of the row at right.

CLICK, BEEP.The sound ringed in his ears along with a small beep.

She left it on hibernation?

It was odd for any student to leave a desk hibernating for the entire night unless power supply wasn't turned off.

"I stayed up all night."

Keta responded a while later, walking towards his desk.

CLICK.

"Logging in. Please wait."

He pushed the chair and sat down, getting ready for the routine check-up.

"That's unexpected. Were you pulling an all-nighter?"

When Keta to speak, Miori was already seated her hand held a bankoben sized novel.

"No. Watching anime."

He let that slip out in a casual tone. Then none of them spoke for a while. Keta continued to inspect the settings and desktop as usual.

"Figures..." Though sarcastic Miori let out a small laugh a while later.

Figures?

Keta noted the way she framed that word, having not seen the expression, it was difficult to discern what she actually thought of him.

"Are you prepared for the semester test?"

Miori interrupted him again. Her voice was direct.

She hasn't read a single word.

Keta glanced up, feeling her staring at him.

"Yes."

With a last tap, Keta fully turned to her.

"Really.. because the test's hard and—"

"Do you want to compete?"

Both of them went silent. Miori stuttered, "W-What's this, all of a sudden?"

That tone change scared her.

Keta noted and spoke in a lighter tone this time. "I haven't been in a competition in a while and then you said if I could really..."

Keta trailed, as soon as her signature smile returned.

"Oh, my bad. I hit your pride, didn't I?"

"You most certainly didn't and I'm just curious how I stand against you."

Keta's eyes shifted towards Miori's hair.

Black? He noted a brief change of colour at the pointed end of the pony tail curled down on her chest.

"That sounds serious enough. Alright, I accept."

A bit later Miori called him again.

"What's the score, you're aiming for?"

"Maybe a fifty or sixty." His head partially rose, looking away from the Wikipedia article on his screen.

"Sixty, then." Miori announced. It sounded like a decision made final, so Keta turned back and leaned down to resume reading when—

"On all subjects. No matter the difficulty or no. Of study leaves between the exams."

I think I can manage that. Keta thought, and nodded to her.

But even that...

"Also, no in-class preparation with notes. Only the PDFs given to us at the starting of this class."

... didn't seem to satisfy her. Miori leaned towards him, legs popping out.

"It wouldn't feel like a competition, if these weren't there."

With that, she sealed the deal herself. Reluctant enough, Keta agreed. Afterall he's the one who proposed it.