Chase of Friendship
It was like a scene often seen in large supermarkets that were having a massive sale. Some people push the other person out of the way and run off. But instead of peaceful cries of "please don't push others" or "please don't run," all I heard were screams of terror.
"Help me!"
One of them, a young-looking boy who must have been in middle school, clung to my foot.
"Please stop that. Please!"
I looked in the direction he pointed and saw a clone with the same face as the student heading toward me with slow steps.
"Aaaah!"
The screams of a girl roared in my ears.
When I looked where the voice came from, I saw a female student sitting in the hallway, staring at her clone standing in front of her with tears in her eyes.
"Please. Help me. I will do anything for you. I can give you money. So…"
The clone bent at the waist with a blank expression on its face, approached the student, and gently placed its hand on her shoulder.
"Noooo! Aaaah!"
Once touched by her hand, the girl released a strange cry, holding her own head.
"A…aaa..."
She crawled on the floor, bent her body into a crouch, and stopped moving.
Even Shōta and Keisuke did not make such a joke statement like if you only listen to the voice, it makes me feel somewhat exciting.
"See? So help me."
"Then, hurry and run! We will try to stop him."
The boy, with a bit of brightness returning to his expression, ran as fast as he could down the hallway opposite to the clone. He collided head-on with a clone who had just caught a female student and fell down, but he quickly got up and continued to run away.
"You said like that, but you’re not going to stay here forever, aren’t you?"
Risa was asking me as I stood in front of the clone.
"Yes. We have to run too."
"Hey, look!"
Minami pointed to a clone of the female student whom the male student had just knocked down. The clone was lying on the ground.
"The clone isn’t moving."
"Probably set to shut down once it's accomplished its purpose."
"Oh my god. There are people running around outside."
"And the clones are very fast."
Shōta and Keisuke had opened the hallway window and were looking out.
"Hey, how long are you going to keep doing that?"
"What?"
Risa looked at me standing there with my arms outstretched.
"Because I have to stop the clone…huh?"
"The clone is already gone. It noticed that its target is not here anymore."
"Hey, but that clone run slower than the others."
Shōta pointed to a female student clone running outside.
"You’re right."
Kazuhiro responded to Shōta and Keisuke's words.
"Perhaps the bodies of the clones are duplicate of the people themselves. So the clone of the fast guy runs as fast as the same guy. But she is a girl, so the clone will be slow too.
"Wow. The clones are well made."
"If they were all the same in intelligence, though, that would be tough."
Risa then looked at Shōta and Keisuke and smiled a little mockingly.
"Where are our clones be?"
"Maybe around the cafeteria. That's where we beat them in the first experiment. The clones don't seem to know where we are, so I guess they won’t come here in a straight forward."
"Then I guess it's safe to stay to be here for a while."
"We’re on the third floor anyway."
Shōta and Keisuke, as always were a bit optimistic. Maybe they aren't quite understand how serious the situation is just yet.
"Hey, can’t we help the others?"
Minami gave a dull look.
"In a crisis situation like this, people think only of themselves."
Risa answered bitterly.
"But I want to save the others."
"But you didn't try to help the guy who was outside running. That’s because we are not willing to put ourselves in danger to help others."
Kazuhiro rejected Keisuke's heroic opinion.
"That's right. Now that we're in the safe zone, no one wants to move from here. That's the way humans are."
Risa's words sounded somehow badly distorted.
"I think the real purpose of this experiment is to bring out the bad part of people just like that."
When I finished saying this, I seemed to have a thought that was somehow far away from my usual self.
Did I lose my mind when I saw the large number of dead bodies? Or…
"Then Shūhei is not appropriate for the experiment. Because you're the only one who tried to protect the boy earlier."
"Yeah, I think Shūhei is awesome. I can't believe that you helped a middle school student that you don't really know. I don't have that kind of courage."
Everyone nodded at Minami's words and then looked at me.
"Don’t look at me like that. I'm a little embarrassed."
I could feel the heat rising to my face.
"Damn. Only Shūhei is unfair. I'll swear to too. I can't protect all the students, but I'll protect the five of you even if it costs my life."
Kazuhiro chuckled at Shōta's sudden declaration.
"That's a good mindset. But don't get too caught up in that idea and lose yourself."
Kazuhiro's expression was no different from usual, but his words sounded disgustingly cruel.
"Then I decided to protect only Minami and Risa."
Keisuke was inspired by Shōta to say so.
"Oh, that’s a nice thing for you to say."
"If I can protect you guys in return, can you be my gir…Ow."
Risa hit Keisuke with an evil smile on her face.
"That was a mistake. I want your bra…Ouch."
"No. I mean under…"
"Then at least your boo…"
"But…"
Risa's fist finally made Keisuke's nose bleed.
I’m glad that Shōta and Keisuke look mentally fine still.
