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High School Hack and Slash Chapter 165 Part 1

Keishoushinki (Praise be to New Onis)

　Well then, the staple New Year’s Eve events have passed smoothly.

On New Year’s Eve, we made soba noodles in human wave tactics from the morning, held a raid to subjugate the death metal biwa instead of listening to a singing contest, and had New Year’s Eve soba noodles with everyone instead of launching a celebration party.

In the academy, it seems that instead of ringing the New Year’s bell, they ring the bell in the clock tower 108 times.

The sound is Western-style, so the atmosphere is not very solemn.

Even as we welcome the New Year’s Day, everything is the same as usual.

However, the date has just changed and the night hasn’t yet dawned.

Those who are awake to welcome the New Year aren’t that great in number.

During the Biwa Raid, which is becoming a regular event, bit by bit, the dorm residents who are taking on the Biwa side are gradually increasing in number.

The unity of the followers, brainwashed or rather indoctrinated by death metal, is unusually strong.

Every time the raid is held, it turns into a bit of a festival.

Somehow or another, they seem to be having a lot of fun, so I try not to get too involved in it.

Perhaps exhausted, most of the dormitory students who participated are sleeping soundly, paying no heeds to the ringing of the bell.

Most of the members of the Adept Orders didn’t last to welcome the New Year, either.

The Senpais have worked hard to prepare for the New Year, so all the more so.

The Osechi meals (traditional food for New Year), which are served in a jyubako (multi-tiered food box), prepared by Kurumi-senpai and the others are also a full-fledged one.

They have also made some Otoso (New Year’s sake), so it looks like this year we’re going to have parties from New Year’s Day.

For all the hecticness during the preparations, I hope they can take it easy at least on the first three days of the New Year.

I’ve heard that originally, Osechi meal is something akin to bento that lasts for a long time and is prepared so that they can spend the first three days of the New Year without having to cook.

「If I remember correctly, it should also have significance as an offering to welcome Toshigami (New Year’s God), or to let the God of the hearth take some rest, or something like that.」

「Hoh. You sure know a lot about it.」

That’s a bit of unexpected trivia, I must say.

Seiichi, hands tucked into his coat and scarf coiled around his neck, shrugs his shoulders.

「Well, when I was a kid, I was in a house that liked such old-fashioned traditional events, after all….」

It doesn’t seem to be a very good memory.

So I won’t deliberately pry into the matter, either.

「Oh. So Osechi food has various meanings, huh… Hya.」

「Watch out.」

I catch Subaru-kun in the nick of time as he slips.

「Y, yes. Thank you, Touma-kun.」

Somehow, Subaru-kun seems to have the clumsy child attribute.

As we, the three boys, act together like this, doesn’t he even look like a heroine?

The street at night is dangerous and the snow is also dancing in the air.

I guess the female members have made the right choice in not coming along.

Then, if asked what the three of us are doing out here, the answer would be that we’re in the middle of doing ninen-mairi (visiting a shrine on New Year’s Eve and returning on New Year’s Day).

It’s already past midnight, though, so strictly speaking we don’t really cross over to the next year.

But for this kind of thing, all that matters is the mood.

We walk along the night road from Asagi-sou, steadily heading towards the academy.

At first, Shizuka was also planning to accompany us, but in the end Subaru-kun accompanied us in her stead.

The one who was planning to go for a ninen-mairi from the beginning was Seiichi.

There, the talk developed into me accompanying him, and Shizuka deciding to come along.

However, just as Shizuka was groaning *uu~ uu~* in the face of the snowy scenery, Subaru-kun’s girlfriends came to invite her to go to the bath.

Shizuka getting defeated by the cold and choosing to stay at the dormitory was fine and all, but for some reason, Subaru-kun decided to come with us.

Well, it’s not that I don’t understand his feelings.

The way the dorm residents, especially the older girls, look at Subaru-kun is very fishy.

Those are completely the eyes of someone aiming for their prey.

For places such as the bath, it seems that unless he’s with us he’s too scared to come in there.

If not for his card girlfriends and us, without a doubt he would have been kidnapped to the Onee-samas’ rooms before anything else.

「Ah. There are quite a few people who come here, huh.」

「Yeah. Talk about unexpected.」

The lights lit in the school building illuminate the outside.

At the entrance of the classroom building, the figures of students wearing heavy clothes can be seen.

The entrance hall leads to the 24-hour purchasing department, the student cafeteria, and the destination.

「They’re even opening stalls, huh. Talk about opportunists!」

After brushing off the piled-up snow and going in, we find that special sales stands have been set up at the entrance in front of the purchasing department.

From lucky charms such as hamaya (evil-warding arrow) and daruma dolls to omikuji (fortune slip) and fukubukuro (good luck bags), there are all kinds of goods for sale.

Hmm, let’s buy a fukubukuro on our way home.

I’d surely regret it as I find something in it that I don’t need, though.

「Now then, well… Let’s quickly pay our respects and go back.」

「Yeah.」

There are no shrines in the surrounding area of Toyoashihara Academy.

That’s also the reason why the clock tower rings the New Year’s bell.

Instead, the place at which we pay our respects is 『Rashomon』 located in the underground of the academy.

True enough, the mysterious wooden structure may not look unlike a shrine, but, well, it’s so like this academy, I should say.

However, since it is the starting point for diving into the dungeon, it’s a facility that we make use of frequently.

Even if I can’t feel any solemnness about it at this point, it’s not a bad idea to pay our respects there since we’ll be in its care from now on as well.

Joining the other students at the entrance, we descend the stairs to the underground floor where Rashomon is located.

But who should I put it….

「I feel somewhat out of place, though.」

「… What a coincidence. More or less, I’ve got the same feeling, too.」

「… We seem cut off from those around us, don’t we?」

Seiichi and Subaru-kun seem to be of the same opinion as me.

Unlike those of us who are wearing normal winter clothes, the other students are dressed for battles, equipped with armor, cloaks, and weapons.

To put it bluntly, they’re clad in earnest battle equipment, like they’re going to dive into the dungeon as they are.

If it were after school on weekdays, this would be a natural sight.

However, right now, it’s midnight right after stepping into the New Year’s Day.

When we arrive at the large underground cavern where Rashomon is located, the sense of discomfort becomes definite.

Roughly more than a hundred students are gathering there, fully armed.

「These guys… Are they going to dive into the dungeon from now on?」

Most likely Seiichi’s guess is correct.

I can’t think of any other reason.

There are still students coming down the stairs, so we move to the corner.

We take a break at the vending machine corner, or rather, try checking out the situation.

Looking closely, I notice that the Rashomon floor has been redesigned to look more like New Year’s.

The shimenawa on the gate is brand new, there’s also a kadomatsu(New Year’s pine decoration)-like object, a pile of sake, and a sumptuous feast offered on the installed altar.

Illuminated by the light of the bonfire are four 『Kijin (Oni Gods)』 dressed in old-fashioned clothing.

I’ve seen them on the Rashomon floor from time to time, but this is the first time I have seen all four of them together.

They look as if they’re wearing oni masks, but on the contrary, I guess that’s their real faces.