"Shut up, Baka-Rei. Let me finish talking, okay? Anyway, that's what I thought at first. But he genuinely cares a lot about the two of us. And we've known him for quite a while now. If he really were a ghoul, he would have already acted and eaten us, right?"
Rei nods a couple of times. It seems she has misunderstood Saya.
The pink-haired girl with twin pigtails continues talking as she discreetly pokes her head forward to look ahead. She sees Arata start walking again without looking in their direction.
"Aside from his pale skin, his body is extremely thin. And at the same time, he's very short for a boy his age. Don't you think that's very strange? In this situation, the first thing that comes to mind is that he is severely malnourished. That's why I wanted to follow him and see what kind of life he leads. I'm just worried about our friend, okay? So I'm definitely not a weird stalker!"
"Ah, so that's it..."
Rei finally fully understands what Saya means and nods her head.
Arata does indeed look like a very malnourished child when you look at him closely. That's why she was constantly worried about him too. In fact, it's the main reason she always brought him extra bento boxes when they met at the park to play. She wanted to make sure he ate at least something nutritious when they were together.
But for some reason she has never understood, Arata doesn't seem to be gaining weight or growing.
Well, they only see each other a few times a week at the park. And if the serious nutrition problem is at home, with his family not giving him enough food, then those few times she gives him bentos wouldn't help much in the long run. A growing child needs to eat properly and regularly every day.
Rei looks at Saya with a serious expression.
"Do you also suspect that Arata has serious family problems? Or that his family is very poor and can't afford to feed him properly?"
Saya snorts as she crosses her arms.
"That's most likely based on all the evidence. That's why I want to see where he lives, to confirm my suspicions."
At the same time, both girls realize that Arata has already walked quite far down the street while they were talking. He almost disappears as he turns a corner.
"Ah-ah! He's getting away! Saya-chan! Let's follow him!"
They quickly get up from their hiding place and start following him again, keeping a distance of thirty meters to avoid being detected.
As they walk behind Arata, they see a group of four or five children ahead shouting insults at Arata when he crosses paths with them on the street.
"Look! It's the monster!"
"Stay away from us, ghoul-kun! Hahaha!"
"Your skin is disgusting!"
The children point and cruelly taunt Arata as he passes by.
Rei immediately becomes angry upon hearing these insults, clenching her hands into fists at her sides.
"Those kids are so stupid and ignorant. They always treat Arata like that for no reason. Just because he looks different doesn't mean he's a monster."
This is the first time Saya has directly witnessed this kind of bullying towards her friend. She frowns as she looks ahead with a disapproving expression.
"Always? Does this happen often?"
It's true that Arata's skin is considerably paler than normal children. Also, something Saya noticed once when she rested her head on his shoulder is that his heart beats at a noticeably slower rate than normal.
But that definitely doesn't give those cruel children the right to yell horrible insults at her friend.
Rei nods sadly as she recalls.
"When we first met years ago, a boy had shot him with a stone while yelling that he was a monster. Also, sometimes when I'm not around to protect him, when I find him later, I find some children teasing him and pushing him around. But then he acts like a zombie to scare them away and makes them run."
Arata is quite well known in this part of town, but not in a good way. Gossiping adults make their children stay away from him because of his strange appearance. And children start teasing and harassing him when they see him alone.
Since ghouls have been talked about more on television, the children keep calling him that, to the point where even adults cross the street when he walks by so they don't bump into him.
"Pff. With an appearance as pale as a zombie, it would really be quite scary for small children if he suddenly acted like one."
"You're cruel, Saya-chan!"
Rei hits Saya on the head.
Of course, Saya didn't tell Rei the whole reason for this mission to follow Arata. In fact, she seriously thinks he may be a ghoul, considering everything she's seen so far. Whether it's his pale skin, his slow heartbeat, or how cold his body is to the touch.
What if Arata turns out to be a real ghoul? What would Saya do? She fears what might happen in that situation.
That's why she can't shake the fear in her heart of discovering the truth today.
Saya snaps out of that thought.
Both of them focus on what's happening ahead and wonder if Arata will start acting like a zombie again to scare these children too. But to both girls' surprise, Arata doesn't even glance at those who attacked him with words.
He walks past them, seemingly deep in thought about something that has him absorbed in his thoughts.
Because Arata didn't react at all to their insults and taunts, one of the children becomes frustrated. He picks up a small stone from the ground and throws it hard at Arata.
The stone flies through the air and hits him squarely on the back of the head with a thud.
But incredibly, the stone bounces off his skull as if it had hit a concrete wall. It doesn't seem to do anything to him as Arata doesn't stagger or show any signs of pain.
Saya and Rei freeze as they witness this, their eyes widening in shock as they did not expect him to be attacked in such a way.
Seeing that nothing serious has happened to him, they snap out of their shock and direct angry glances at the cruel children who threw the stone.
They then see Arata slowly turn his head toward the children. And for some reason they can't see from their angle, the children become so frightened that their faces turn paler than Arata's.
"Ahhhh!"
"M-monster!"
They all start running in different directions while screaming in fear. Some trip over their own feet, and others start crying as they run away.
It's as if they've seen something terrifying.
Rei and Saya look at each other with confused expressions.
"What did Arata do to scare them so much?"
Rei closes her eyes with a smug expression before speaking.
"He probably showed them his zombie expression. You haven't seen it yet, right? The face he makes with his eyes rolled back and his mouth open. It always works to scare annoying kids, hehe. But it doesn't scare me at all!"
Then they silently resume following Arata.
But as they continue to follow him, both girls begin to notice something increasingly strange about the direction Arata is heading.
As they walk and walk, they gradually leave behind the residential area with pretty houses and clean streets. They enter an area that appears to be a long-abandoned construction site.
There are half-finished buildings with exposed concrete structures, other buildings that have already been partially demolished with debris scattered around. There is no one else walking around here, making the place feel desolate and dangerous.
Then they see Arata enter a destroyed abandoned building. The building has countless holes in its exterior walls. The wall looks as if it has been repeatedly shot at with a machine gun. The windows are all broken with no glass, and the front door hangs crookedly from its hinges.
"Why is Arata coming to a place as dangerous as this?"
Rei whispers with a worried expression.
With a serious face, Saya begins to walk carefully among the debris on the ground so as not to make any noise.
Followed closely by Rei, they silently approach the building and peer carefully through one of the broken windows.
The interior of the room is covered in dust, cobwebs hang from the corners, and there is only an old, dirty bed with torn sheets, a wardrobe with cracked mirrored doors, and a broken wooden chair.
They see Arata lying on his side on that dirty bed. He is curled up in a fetal position, with his back to them.
Rei immediately covers her mouth with both hands to stifle a scream of horror.
Saya's expression hardens as her hands tremble while clinging to the edge of the window.
Is this where Arata lives? In this horrible, dangerous place?
Where are his parents? Where is his family?
Does he live all alone in a place like this, being just a small child? How long has he been living like this?
Thinking about all those unanswered questions, tears begin to fall silently from Rei's eyes, rolling down her cheeks.
×××
20 advanced chapters on Pá treon.
pá treon.com/OlwinMoriarty