Dragged into this?
She's looking at me with eyes that don't waver even in a situation like this.
The moment I met those eyes, the words wouldn't come.
'What am I supposed to answer?'
According to the Pond Snail, this place isn't reality but the inside of a Ghost Story.
And judging by the man who died a moment ago with his arms torn off, I'm not the only one who's come into the Ghost Story.
But...
Is it all right to just admit that I was dragged in too?
What if that question is a trap?
What if this woman is testing me?
In an instant, countless suspicions flash through me.
And after a brief hesitation, what I chose was to raise the corners of my mouth as high as they would go.
Like the other people who had been standing in the line.
Her brow furrows.
She looks at me and lets out a small sigh, as if I'm pathetic.
"What good is smiling now?"
"What?"
"I caught on back when you were lining up. After flailing around like that...."
"Ah...."
No denial comes to mind.
Because I really did flail around.
I felt a vibration in my pocket.
That Pond Snail bastard is probably laughing at me too.
I admit it myself: what I did was stupid.
"You came because of the flyer too, right?"
"Flyer?"
"You aren't here for CnR?"
"CnR...?"
"Cops and Robbers."
...?
What is she talking about all of a sudden?
When I stare at her with no idea what she means, she peers into my face.
As if trying to work out what I really mean.
"You're not?"
"Cops and Robbers... you mean the tag game?"
"If that's not it......."
That was when it happened.
The sound of a door opening behind us.
She pulled my hand and whispered by my ear.
"Meet me in the pool later."
Then she slips something into my pocket.
CLACK, CLACK, CLACK.
Footsteps approaching from behind.
The instant she hears them, she runs for the women's changing room.
The moment she goes in, a middle-aged woman appears from around the corner.
The woman looks at me, smiling.
Reflexively, I hauled both corners of my mouth up as far as they would go.
What I see when I open the changing room door.
An utterly, utterly ordinary sight.
Nobody screaming, nobody bleeding.
Normal enough to make everything up to now feel like a hidden-camera prank.
For a moment a sigh of relief almost escapes, but turn your eyes even slightly and you know.
That I'm still inside the Ghost Story.
Something sitting at the counter.
A being similar in appearance to the tall 'guard' I saw at the entrance.
Wearing a staff name tag, it's waving at me.
When I approached the counter, the staff member held something out to me.
A key.
A locker key with the number '23' written on it.
The same as my age.
Coincidence?
"Member! For a hygienic experience,"
The staff member looks at me and continues.
The skin around its mouth shifts, exposing glistening scales.
"please be sure to remove your skin before entering!"
...What?
For a second the corners of my mouth, forced up, nearly dropped.
I didn't mishear that, did I?
Remove my skin and go in?
The staff member watches me with a kindly expression stuffed and mounted on its face.
For now, I kept the smile up with effort and walked past it.
A few more steps, and I can see the people who went in ahead of me.
But....
They really are taking off their 'skin.'
The saving grace is that no blood sprays and no red muscle shows beneath.
The skin simply peels off along with the clothes, the way a molt comes away, and underneath there's another skin.
What's changed from before is that they're naked, and that the smiles that had filled their faces are gone.
Every one of those who has shed their skin wears an expression of extreme rage.
I turned my head quickly, before our eyes could meet.
It's terrifying....
Until a moment ago I hated the sight of those smiling faces so much...
Turns out smiling is better to look at.
When I carefully raised my head, I saw the restroom entrance.
I walked straight for it.
Only after I got into a stall and locked the door did I let out the breath I'd been holding.
First I took out what she'd put in my pocket.
A flyer.
Folded over and over until it was about the size of my palm.
I unfolded it, and this is what was on it.
Cops and Robbers!
Thank you for visiting our Olympic Sports Center again today!
For the fellowship and affection of our users, and in keeping with current trends, our center has prepared a simple recreational program.
▶ Game: Cops and Robbers
▶ Date and time: Every Wednesday, 8:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
▶ Eligible: All visitors
▶ Venue: Olympic Sports Center, 4th floor indoor swimming pool
[How to Play]
1. On entry, every participant is randomly assigned the role of 'Cop' or 'Robber.' (Check inside your locker!)
2. Cops must find the Robbers and take them to jail. Robbers must flee without being caught by the Cops for the duration of the time limit.
3. Roles may be changed mid-game if certain conditions are met. (Look for those conditions inside the game area!)
[What to Bring]
1. A healthy body and a healthy mind. (All supplies, swimwear included, are provided free of charge by the center!)
[Important Rules]
- For smooth operation, withdrawal after entry is not permitted.
- Acts of violence between participants are prohibited.
- Participants who break the rules forfeit their 'right of use.'
[Usage Information]
- This program is operated with member safety as the highest priority.
- Normal use of the pool is available after the game ends.
- For a pleasant memory, please cooperate actively with staff instructions.
※ The contents of this flyer may change without prior notice.
※ The flyer you are viewing was written on ●● month ●● day at ●● hours ●● minutes ●● seconds.
A riot of color that could pass for a rainbow, with tacky fonts laid over it.
A flyer anyone would guess an elementary schooler made as a joke.
Looking at it, I suddenly remembered something my classmates said a few days ago.
Cops and Robbers is trending again these days, wasn't that it?
Honestly, it had nothing to do with me, so I hadn't paid it the slightest attention.
Playing Cops and Robbers with strangers, for an introvert like me that's simply unthinkable, you might say.
But...
One line on the flyer catches my eye.
'▶ Venue: Olympic Sports Center, 4th floor indoor swimming pool'
Cops and Robbers in a swimming pool?
There won't be anywhere to hide.
And if everyone who enters is eligible...
The faces smiling in the line at the entrance.
And those people shedding their skin in the changing room.
All of them are participants.
And I have to participate too.
"F*ck......."
The curse leaked out on its own.
I have to do something I couldn't face in reality, inside a Ghost Story?
And with those strange beings that are only human on the outer shell?
I took out the Pond Snail's shell at once.
"Pond Snail."
'Yes, Young Master.'
"Did you bring me here knowing it would be like this?"
'You have no need to worry at all, Young Master.'
Don't worry?
How the hell am I supposed to not worry?
I'm about to play tag with monsters!
"Cut the easygoing talk and tell me a method, a method to get out of here!"
'Take part in the game. And find the compass.'
"Where is that damn compass?!"
'I do not know exactly either.'
For an instant, the urge to crush the shell in my hand surges up.
Just as I was about to pour my rage into this small shell in my hand.
DING~A-LING
The speaker on the ceiling rang.
[The game begins in 30 minutes. Participants, please be sure to prepare without delay.]
.......
In thirty minutes.
In a swimsuit.
Barefoot on a slippery floor.
I really have to run around?
And with those bizarre beings?
"I definitely have to take part?"
'Of course.'
There's a strange ease in the Pond Snail's answer.
Was it always like this?
Wasn't it more polite than this?
"Hey, does this situation look like a joke to you?"
'Young Master. I am truly sorry, but for now, my words...'
The Pond Snail's voice suddenly cuts off.
"What is it, what's wrong, did something happen?"
'Young Master, it seems I must leave my post for a while.'
"What?"
'Please make your way through well, even alone.'
"Hey, hey! Don't go! Where are you going?!"
The vibration in the shell stopped.
I kept calling, but the Pond Snail didn't answer.
I really am left alone.
Just as it said, I have to get through this by myself.
Only then did I realize how much I'd been leaning on this small shell.
I carefully put the shell back in my pocket.
Right then the voice flows from the ceiling speaker.
[The game begins in 25 minutes.]
Fortunately everyone must have gone to the showers; there's nobody around.
I opened locker 23 with the key, and inside were a many-times-bent skin hanger and a pink swim bag.
The staff member at the counter definitely said to take off my skin before entering...
I checked my surroundings once more and was about to hurry out of my clothes when the sobering weight of reality hit me.
'What in the world am I doing right now....?'
That self-mocking lament, and despair at the reality that on top of this absurd situation I have to strip as well.
Caught up in those two emotions surging from somewhere deep inside, I hesitated for a moment.
Behind me came the sound of a locker door opening.
I glanced back, and a middle-aged man was already watching me with a smiling face.
'I'm f*cked...!'
I'm currently gripping my shirt to take it off.
Holding clothes proves that I can't shed my skin.
He must have realized it; he just watches me, corners of his mouth raised.
He passes his own locker and comes toward me.
Locker 23, where I'm standing, is in the corner, so there's nowhere to run.
He gets closer.
'Should I try taking him on?'
I've never traded blows with anyone in my life, but I don't think my physique loses to anyone's.
Compared to me, that smiling man is exactly average in height and build.
'Seems surprisingly doable.......'
The moment I clenched my fist, he stopped.
"Cop, or Robber?"
He asks with a smirk.
"What?"
"This."
He pulled down the zipper of the pink swim bag he was holding and took out a red swimsuit.
He waves it in front of me, his smile deepening.
"I'm a Cop."
At that I looked reflexively into my locker.
The pink swim bag inside.
I opened it, and what was inside was a white swimsuit.
"A Robber."
His low murmur from beside me.
He returns to his locker and begins shedding his skin.
And a furious face is revealed.
"See you inside."
With those words he walks toward the shower room.
.......
.......
Only after he was completely out of sight did I let out the breath I'd been holding.
Honestly, right up until he walked over, I thought I could handle him if it came to a fight.
But the moment I met his eyes, I couldn't bring myself to even consider it.
What was behind those curved eyelids was definitely not a human eye.
Eyes with nothing but black in them, like looking at the eyes of a dead fish with no emotion floating in them at all.
I looked down at the white swimsuit in my hand.
If the role given to me is Robber....
Does that mean I have to run from beings like that?
That damn Pond Snail.
Why the hell did it bring me here?!
No, if it was going to bring me, it should have seen it through to the end!
I called for the Pond Snail on the off chance, but there was still no response.
Hold on, let me put my thoughts in order for just a moment.
Assuming I trust the Pond Snail completely, what I have to do is find the compass.
I have no idea how finding a compass solves anything, but right now it's the only thing I have to lean on.
Ah!
There's one more.
The woman who gave me the flyer.
She definitely said to meet in the pool, didn't she?
She clearly seemed to know more about this place than I do.
And she looked strangely calm, too.
The compass and the woman.
To find them both, one way or another, I have no choice but to go to the pool.