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High School Hack and Slash Chapter 155 Part 1

Underworld

　Well then, everyone has started to move in preparations for the Christmas party.

It’s not just us, but all the Asagi dorm residents are helping out.

Working together for a single goal, everyone’s mood inevitably goes up.

The role I’ve been assigned with is to procure the Christmas tree.

Speaking of Christmas trees, I guess it’s a fir tree, huh.

I’ve been told to go and pick a coniferous tree as I see fit, but as expected, I’d like a nice looking, splendid tree.

In fact, though, even if I go to the mountains, it’s difficult to tell which tree is a fir tree.

At times like this, I’d like to borrow the wisdom of the well-informed Shizuka-san.

But when I pull her away from the stove, she starts crying, so I leave her there.

The other members seem to be busy, so I can’t bring myself to ask them for help either.

So let’s summon a reliable helper here.

「…..」

Yuki-chan, taken out of the Item Box, is bundled up in cotton hanten (traditional short winter coat), scarf, and haramaki (bellyband) equipment.

It’s that, she seems to be as sensitive to cold as Shizuka.

She doesn’t burst into tears, but she’s boring at me with a protesting gaze.

I wonder if she was warming herself in the kotatsu or something.

Yuki-chan, slipping into my down jacket, lets out a satisfied huff.

No, well, I don’t mind, but for the time being, I’ll try consulting with her.

「… n.」

Yuki-chan, who ponders for a while, gives a small nod.

She seems to have an idea.

It seems that she’s going to show me the way, so I move along with Yuki-chan, who is refusing to come out of my jacket.

It’s like she’s wholly enclosed in my long jacket.

Even as I walk down the hallway, I guess the shy Yuki-chan wouldn’t be seen.

I thought we were going to go outside, but she leads me toward the stairs instead.

Not to the second floor, but to the underground floor, which the Senpais have added to the building.

It’s a slightly dubious area equipped with rooms such as a workshop and a prison.

But we move past all of those and come all the way to a place that looks like it’s under construction.

It’s an area that Umeka-senpai, our resident troublemaker endowed with the rare class of『Labyrinth Creator (Dungeon Creator)』, has been continuing to expand as she sees fit.

「Hmm.」

There’s bare bedrock, but no matter how you look at it, it doesn’t look like a place where there could be fir trees.

I mean, it’s not like they’re tomatoes or palms, so if they were to grow in such a place, I think I’d go: what in the world.

「…..」

Yuki-chan gives me an instruction from inside the jacket, saying: that way.

She must have sensed that there’s no sign of anyone around.

She pops her head out of the jacket with a poof.

Yuki-chan is smaller than Doggy-senpai, so it’s easy to carry her around.

What Yuki-chan is pointing to is a passageway that has been sloppily sealed off with ropes and planks.

I think the fancy words『No Trespassing』 on the poster were probably handwritten by Umeka-senpai.

I don’t intend to overstay anyway, so let’s try passing through without worrying about it.

As we proceed through the downward sloping tunnel, we soon arrive at a small room-like dead-end space.

There are no electric lights, but it’s dimly lit enough to ensure visibility.

Growing on the surrounding bedrock is probably light moss (neon moss), just like in the shallow stratums of the dungeon.

In the center of the room sits a dubious-looking stone coffin.

No, something that used to be a stone burial chamber, I guess.

A stone slab that seems like a lid, with old ofuda(charm)-like things stuck all over it, had been sloppily broken and thrown away, for some reason.

Looking at this massive sloppy-ish carelessness, as expected, I get the feeling that it was Umeka-senpai’s doing.

Going my own way is a trait shared by all the Senpais, but among them, it’s Umeka-senpai who has a strong sense of: for the time being, let’s try to do it.

She’s the kind of person who would build a waterfall in the entranceways on a whim, so you can never let your guard down.

At that time, the underground floor was almost submerged due to a water leakage.

Ah, maybe it’s a drainage tunnel she made at that time.

As I peer into the stone coffin, I see a hole surrounded with a circular stonework.

It feels like she has surrounded the well-like hole with stone slabs.

The bottom of the hole is so dark that you can’t see it, though.

「…..」

Hands suddenly stretch out from inside and grasp the stone rim.

They’re not human hands, or rather, I guess they’re probably tanuki paws.

What comes out from inside is a teakettle with a raccoon head, limbs, and a tail.

Perhaps the teakettle is heavy, it’s floundering about, so I pull it up.

After bowing its head politely, Teakettle tanuki-kun walks away in the direction of the dormitory.

Could it be that Konnyaku-man and the others that are popping inside the dormitory come out of this hole?

Why such a hole is located in the underground of a girls’ dormitory, I wonder.

Well, it doesn’t really matter, but what Yuki-chan is pointing at is the inside of the hole.

「Are you by any chance telling me to jump in?」

「…..」

Yuki-chan gives a small nod.

Honestly speaking, it’s too dubious that I’d like to refrain from doing so.

It’s not that I don’t feel like Yuki-chan’s eyes, as she looks up fixedly at me, are cursing me, like: you sissy.

Well, it’s not like I have any other choice anyway, moreover, it’s Yuki-chan’s recommendation.

For the time being, let’s try going in.

◇ ◇ ◇

―― Episode『Asagi-sou Daily Phase』 ――

「… Ahh.」

Shizuka, trembling with a twith and her gaze wandering, put her hand on her chest.

「Shizu-nee-sama?」

Miharu, who was holding her hands over the orange-colored blazing stove, tilted her head.

The three of them, with Natsumi in addition, had turned into the guardians of the heater (Stovekeeper).

Otoha had also been a member of the group until just a moment ago, but she had been taken away as the dorm leader.

The way she flailed and resisted like a spoiled child did not look very much like the adolescent maiden she was.

「Touma-san is…」

The sense of loss that she clearly felt told her that he had disappeared from the dormitory.

She was assailed with the urge to go looking for him, but the gravitational pull of the stove was mighty.

Shizuka also knew what might have caused him to disappear.

Besides, it wasn’t that she was completely disconnected from him, as the synchronization of the two was continuing on, albeit faintly.

The fact that messages were notified in Shizuka’s mind was proof of that.

「… Well, if the pipsqueak is with him, then I guess there should be no danger.」

She didn’t like her tiny white arch-enemy, but she wasn’t the kind of being who would cause harm to Touma.

For better or worse, they had also signed a cease-fire agreement.

「The mochi, is done.」

「Sugar and soy sauce.」

On the stove top covered with aluminum foil, rectangular kirimochis are puffing up.

「Ah, Shizuka-chan and the others are eating something some delicious-looking things!」

「No can do, I will not give them to you. We should raise our own mochi.」

「Mochi, mochi. Put a lot of mochi on it~」

「Doggy-chan-senpai. You’re putting on too many.」

「If you put the mochi directly on the stove, they will melt down.」

「I’ve brought some kinako (soybean flour)~. On top of that, I also have extra nori (seaweed) and mayonnaise.」

Akehi, holding an obon tray in her hands, supplied provisions to the Stovekeepers.

In a way, this was a spoiling method that would sink humans into depravity.

「Mayonnaise, was it? … Looks like we have discovered a new frontier. Let’s put it on top and grill it together, shall we?」

「Shizuka-chan, please put mayonnaise on this one too.」

「Mayo isobe-maki.」

「This one is pollock mayo isobe-maki.」

「Ah~, mochi is filled with calories, so you’d better off be careful not to eat too much, I suppose.」

They were clearly a nuisance bunch, but Rinko simply smiled wryly as she gave them tacit approval.