Fake
"Haaaah!"
Shōta knocked down the clone with all his might using a mop.
"Damn, I cannot hit them."
I tried to follow Shota's example and hit the clone as hard as I could with a makeshift stick made of five or so rulers, but it was easily evaded.
"Only four of them, but…"
"Our clones are useless."
Our clone was in the back doing nothing but watching us.
"No, maybe that's how they're programmed. If the clone defeats the clone, it's against orders."
"'Damn, then we'll just focus on one point and break through."
Mr. Nabeshima grabbed the right shoulder of one clone and pushed him down.
"Now, let’s go!"
"Hurry!"
I called Minami and Ms. Shinjō, who were hiding behind us. Two middle school students followed, then me and Shōta. Finally, Shōta reached out to Mr. Nabeshima, who was holding back the clone.
"We did it, teacher!"
We managed to escape the crisis and let out a sigh of relief.
"Yeah."
I checked to make sure everyone was present and urged them to run.
"But we've separated from our clones."
"They'll be okay. Let's just get away for now."
It was an excuse with no basis whatsoever, but it was the result of logical thinking that prioritized human life over robots.
The opponent clones are still chasing us. They consist of one girl and three boys. In the long run, the two women in our team would quickly got caught up by them. We have to wind up somewhere while we still can.
"Guys, let's split up into four and three here. Collective action stands out."
"Yes."
Tsutomu replied with a look that still seemed to have plenty of energy on his face.
"I will form a trio with the high school students. Teachers, please work with the middle school students."
"Okay."
"Order accepted."
A mechanical voice came from somewhere.
"Huh, what was that?"
"No way…"
I looked back.
A short distance away, clones with bloodshot red eyes were closing in on us at a speed unmatched by anything we had seen earlier.
"Hey, we can't get away with that."
Minami shouted.
"What on the earth is happening?"
Hiroyuki turned his back on them and sprinted away at full speed.
"I don't think we're able to stop them."
Mr. Nabeshima, having calmly reached that conclusion, also threw all his energy into his escape plan.
Did they suddenly speed up? Does that mean someone is controlling the clone? That means Suguru Anzai is watching us from somewhere. In that case we…
