Right now, I had been forcibly made to participate in a sudden test of courage.
“Eeek, I heard something over there!”
“Lower rank, lower rank.”
“What do you mean?! You’re not denying there’s something here!?”
Inside the movie theater, everything was in ruins. Sun-faded posters from who knew when and shattered glass were scattered all around.
Tools like the kind you’d see at a construction site were strewn everywhere, and the walls were covered in loud, attention-grabbing graffiti done with spray paint. There was almost nothing left of what this place once looked like.
If I hadn’t seen the word cinema at the start, there would’ve been no way to tell what kind of facility this was.
“This way.”
Sora walked on with a perfectly calm expression.
Following behind her, I carefully scanned the surroundings with the utmost caution.
Only now did I finally realize something: it seemed I hadn’t actually gotten used to ghosts or spirits at all.
Since it had already been decided that I would be eaten by a higher being named Sora, I had thought maybe I could get by with the whole emotionless-character act, but that wasn’t the case.
It seemed the fact that the time I spent with Sora was basically always during the daytime, and that she existed in the form of a young child, had been easing the fear.
In other words, an abandoned movie theater at night was insanely terrifying.
“The underground theater is good.”
“There’s no way it’s good.”
Even while resisting with words, all I could do was follow along.
There wasn’t a single good thing that would come from splitting up here.
Pathetic as it was, I had no choice but to have Sora protect me. Is this really what a reincarnated person looks like?
“Now then, we’re here.”
With that, what Sora led me to was pitch-black darkness.
Up until now, we had been lighting the way with the lantern, but this place was unnaturally dark.
It was so terrifying that it even gave me the illusion that something was waiting with its mouth open.
Was the way I instinctively held my breath and shrank back an instinctive reaction to darkness?
I could tell that there was something in the depths of that darkness.
I could tell.
“S-Sora, let’s not do this place.”
“It’s fine. If it’s only this much.”
Sora strode ahead without hesitation.
With one of my hands held by her, I too stepped into the underground theater with pathetic, faltering steps.
We opened the battered, rust-covered door and crossed the boundary between the hallway and the room.
It happened at that exact moment.
“……!?”
I was suddenly struck by the unmistakable sensation of something staring at my back, and I spun around on instinct.
But all that was there was the darkness spreading through the filthy, dim hallway.
“Then I guess we’ll do it around here. I brought a sheet with me, so I’ll spread it out.”
As if she hadn’t noticed anything, Sora took out a sheet from somewhere and spread it over one of the rotting seats.
And then, at that moment, I noticed something move on the stage.
I couldn’t see well in the darkness, but something was writhing there.
Using the lantern’s small light as my guide, I strained my eyes, and little by little I was able to make out its outline.
Something yellowish was stuck in a line along what looked like an oval-shaped hole.
Deep inside that hole, something red-black reflected the lantern light and glistened with an eerie shine.
What I saw was a gigantic mouth.
The moment I recognized it as that, I definitely met eyes with that thing which should have been a mouth.
“—”
I hurriedly tried to call out to Sora.
But that was when I finally realized it.
My body wouldn’t move at all.
More than that, I couldn’t even speak.
I could shift only my gaze slightly, but even then the gigantic mouth remained in the center.
Then the mouth slowly changed shape and formed something like a smile.
As if rejoicing that its prey had fallen into its trap, it licked its lips while keeping that smile on its face.
“—”
I desperately opened and closed my mouth, but I still couldn’t tell Sora anything.
Worse, I suddenly could no longer hear Sora’s voice, even though she should have been talking this whole time.
Silence enveloped the surroundings, and in front of me was the gigantic mouth.
Before long, it opened wide and slowly approached me.
As the mouth, huge like a wall, drew closer, I began to feel its cold, foul-smelling breath.
It wasn’t human bad breath.
It was far worse. It was such a rotting stench that stabbed at my nose that I reflexively wanted to grimace, but by then even that freedom had already been taken from me.
“—”
Before long, the mouth came right in front of me.
Its teeth, like rusted hatchets, even looked like a guillotine.
It took aim at my head and—
“Ei.”
Along with that innocent, adorable voice, the hot wind of summer blew.
At the same time, the mouth in front of me vanished in an instant.
The oppressive pressure covering the area disappeared, and the freedom of my body returned too, making me collapse to the ground without thinking.
“Ei is popular, isn’t she? As expected of my Sorautsushi.”
“…Well, thanks for that.”
Grasping the little hand extended toward me, I somehow stood back up.
In this case, was I supposed to be grateful?
She was the one who saved me, but she was also the reason this happened in the first place.
“Now then, let’s read! This one and this one… and this one too!”
Looking at Sora, all innocently excited, it somehow even started to feel like this had been fine after all.
For now, I guess I’d just read some manga.
“Can’t you make that lantern brighter? It’s kind of dark, so it’s hard to read.”
“I can. …Here you go. It’s brighter now, right? Well then, I’ll read the latest volume.”
Sora sat deeply in a chair with the stuffing leaking out, kicked her feet back and forth, and started reading manga.
Beside her, I too picked up a volume of manga.