Chapter 11 Club Activities 2

After jumping directly from the window to the ground and using a few instant steps in the crowd, Kurosaki Utsuki finally caught up with his body at the door of a clinic in the shopping street.

Following the remaining spiritual power of the Annihilation Cross on her wrist, she was surprised to find that her body was being held in the arms of "A Promising Future".

Her first thought was that no matter what the other party wanted to do, she would just go back to her body first, and just deal with it casually with any explanation. It would even be okay if she didn't explain at all. After all, the two of them were not familiar enough to answer every question.

But when she saw the boy's expression, her movements of touching her body paused, and she froze in place.

She had witnessed many times what happened to humans after they lost their souls, but she had never considered the possibility of it happening to herself.

The answer is "corpse".

Her body, now held in the boy's arms, should have lost its breath and heartbeat, and its body temperature was gradually cooling down.

However, they had only known each other for a few days, to be exact, they had only met twice and exchanged a few words. Should he be so nervous about the "death" of such an ordinary classmate?

She felt a little sad when she saw the expression on his face, as if he was begging someone and about to cry.

No……

As a human being, she is actually the one who is abnormal.

Kurosaki Utsuki lowered her eyes, returned to her body before the boy rushed into the clinic without a free hand, and then suddenly opened her eyes.

Kenji Hagiwara, who had been keeping a close eye on the girl in his arms and was halfway up the stairs, suddenly met her eyes. His whole body trembled and he almost let go and dropped the person in his arms - fortunately, he reacted very quickly to regain his balance and held the girl in his arms tightly again.

"Angel, Kuro, Kurosaki-san?" The boy's eyes widened, surprise written all over his face, "You're alive?!"

The corner of Kurosaki Utsuki's mouth twitched almost inaudibly.

Since you thought she was dead, don't rush to send her body to the clinic - it's just a dermatology clinic and has nothing to do with emergency care. It would be better to call an ambulance and the police, and try to save her yourself while waiting... This guy shouldn't have performed artificial respiration on her, right?

…No, she didn't want to know.

And what did he say at the beginning? She seemed to hear someone call her "angel" or something like that...it must be an illusion.

"Alive?" The orange-haired girl raised her eyes and pretended to be stupid. "What happened just now?"

"Kurosaki-kun, you just fell into a deep sleep, like hibernation. It would be best to go to the hospital for a checkup. Is there anything wrong with your body?"

…Don’t tell her that she once “died”?

Kurosaki Utahi spoke quickly, with a hint of guilt in her voice, but her voice was full of confidence: "He just fell asleep, don't worry about it."

"But whether it was when I called Kurosaki-san's name, or when I picked her up and ran over with her, she didn't respond at all..." The boy asked doubtfully, his voice slightly drawn out, "So she's really just asleep?"

He stared into her eyes, his face full of the expression "Are you suffering from a sudden illness?"

The corner of Kurosaki Utsuki's mouth twitched slightly again: "...Isn't it just that I slept a little more deeply? It's not surprising."

"No, no, no, this is weird—"

He clearly wanted to tell her that she had just lost her breath and heartbeat and was already dead, but he didn't say it directly. He just reminded her subtly... Then she, who was pretending to be stupid, would never understand. After all, you can never wake up someone who is pretending to be asleep.

"What a fuss." There was a hint of disgust in his tone.

“…”

"You're making a mountain out of a molehill." His tone became increasingly aggressive.

“…”

Very good, she made the other party start to doubt himself.

Now it’s time to talk about the next thing—

"Hagiwara-san." Kurosaki Utsuki straightened her expression.

"……exist?"

"How long do you want to hold me?"

"Eh? Ah! Sorry, sorry..."

Hagiwara Kenji hurriedly put the girl down in his arms, took the initiative to keep a safe distance from her, rubbed his chin and thought about what happened not long ago for a while, and finally decided to give up.

He was so anxious that he could hardly think, and it was hard to say whether his memory was accurate.

The fact that a person who was alive just a few minutes ago turned into a corpse without any reaction in the blink of an eye was not until he saw the other person adjusting her skirt with the setting sun behind her, did his mood ease a little.

If you think about it carefully, if Kurosaki Utsuki really had no breathing and heartbeat just now, then her resurrection from the dead could be called a medical miracle... Could it be that he was really too nervous and didn't feel it out?

Anyway, no matter whether what Kurosaki Utsuki said was true or false, he could not and did not need to produce any evidence to prove what had just happened.

No matter whether the truth is that the other party is hiding a secret that he doesn't want others to know, or that he overreacted and caused trouble for the other party, the only important thing is -

"Anyway, I'm glad you're okay, Kurosaki-san." Hagiwara Kenji smiled again. "But why did Kurosaki-san fall asleep there? That should be a building that has been abandoned for a long time."

"I was asked to intercept you just now." Kurosaki Utsuki replied.

Her phone vibrated twice in her pocket. It was an email, most likely from Geto Suguru, who knew she was back and was urging her to get to work. She decided to quickly get to the point and end the conversation. Once this unexpected job was finished, she could move on to the next one.

...It has to be done anyway, so finish it early and go home to rest.

"Is Hagiwara a member of the Psychic Research Club? I don't know the name of your club's senior, the one with glasses, but he seemed to have run into some danger while scouting here last night, so he came to the activity room to look for you guys."

This is the result of analyzing the information just obtained from Xu. From last night to just now, the young man whose soul was partially devoured was most likely in a coma.

"Wearing glasses, are you talking about Vice President Irie-senpai?" Hagiwara Kenji was stunned for a moment. He subconsciously looked towards the entrance of the shopping street, then looked back after a moment. "I'm not a member of the club, Matsuda is. It's just that I didn't have a part-time job scheduled today, so he dragged me here to explore."

"Where are the others?"

"We were all waiting for Irie-san outside the convenience store over there. Since I couldn't get through to him on the phone, I wanted to see if he'd already gone to the building where the paranormal activity was happening. And that's when we ran into Kurosaki-san." He continued, raising the question again, "Why is Kurosaki-san sleeping there? Didn't he come to see us?"

"I don't know." Kurosaki Utsuki said simply, "I don't remember."

"Huh?"

"It's probably a supernatural event." She waved her hand, leaving the other party with only a light back silhouette against the sunset. "You should return to school as soon as possible. That Irie-senpai doesn't seem to be in good condition."

...I don't know if he just picked up the broken phone on the ground next to him.

If not, that miserable senior Irie would probably have to go again.

But anyway, the trouble has been solved by her...

Recalling the nervous expression of "The Future is Promising" before, she unconsciously raised the corners of her mouth.

Monday, April 20th

Kurosaki Utsuki becomes the deputy director of the Supernatural Research Department.

To be precise, Kurosaki Utsuki joined the Psychic Research Club as she had hoped. As soon as her name was added to the club's roster, she was promoted from a rookie to a vice-chairman.

The previous vice-chairman, the bespectacled boy Irie Shoichi, whom she had met earlier, had resigned due to physical and psychological trauma. The current captain, third-year Rokudo Mukuro, was currently preparing for university entrance exams, rarely attending events and had no time for any management. Now, with the vice-chairman's departure and Kurosaki Utaki's arrival, the captain had unhesitatingly given her the title.

"If everyone except the president is a freshman, then there's no problem for me to manage as the vice-president." The orange-haired girl, who held the title of vice-president but sat in the president's chair, nodded slightly at the eyepatch girl who was delivering the message to her. "You are Rokudo Nagi, right? And the president is..."

"Master Mukuro is my elder brother."

As expected, the middle school feeling of the brother's name and the middle school feeling of the sister's eye patch pattern complement each other perfectly.

Kurosaki Utsuki nodded: "I see. Besides you and Matsuda from our class, the other member is... Yuji-san?"

"Yes, it's Yuji Itadori from my class. But his grandfather is in the hospital, and I have to visit him after school, so I can only participate in club activities occasionally." The petite and cute girl with an eyepatch explained, "I don't attend daily activities either. I only participate in outings like last night."

It really is a free club...but she likes it.

"I see."

The orange-haired girl, feeling increasingly comfortable with the naturalness of high school life, watched Rokudo Nagi leave and briefly glanced through the materials on the table. While there wasn't much, they were neatly organized. It seemed the former head, Irie-senpai, had been a very responsible vice-president.

...This highlights what a ghostly presence the minister is.

Next, she was about to fill out the relevant forms for the ministerial transition, but just as she picked up the pen, she heard a knock on the door, followed by Matsuda Jinpei's voice: "Just come in."

This means that from now on, only she and Jinpei Matsuda will be involved in club activities... It's a good opportunity for him to manage the room keys.

The door opened, and Hagiwara Kenji's surprised face appeared before her: "Eh? Kurosaki-san?"

He was holding a piece of paper in his hand. From her angle, she could only vaguely see the word "application" on the title. If she guessed correctly, it was most likely an application for joining the department.

Kurosaki Utsuki pointed to the vice-chairman's seat next to her and said, "Irie-senpai has resigned from the club, and I am the current vice-chairman and person in charge. If you, Hagiwara-san, had submitted your application before me at noon, you would probably have been the vice-chairman."

Matsuda, who was standing a little further back, continued, "Hagi saw you submit your application, so that's why I wanted to join... How's Irie-senpai doing?"

It seemed that the other party had no objection to her promotion. Kurosaki Utsuki took the application for joining the department handed to her by Hagiwara Kenji and took a few seconds to understand what Matsuda meant.

...No way, she's being targeted? Because of that "sudden illness" last Friday?

"I heard from Rokudo that Irie-senpai is fine and has come to school today, but the supernatural incident has left a significant psychological scar." At this point, Kurosaki Utsuki pretended to be dumb and said, "Although I don't know what kind of supernatural incident it is..."

【Friday, April 24】

The Spiritual Research Club's new expedition has been decided.

The destination, decided by the elusive minister Rokudo Mukuro, is a two-story apartment building that was abandoned after a murder occurred.

Kurosaki Utsuki, who was the first to learn the news, stared at the location indicated on the map for a long time, his mouth twitching and unable to say a word.

That was the gathering place of wild cats near Hagiwara's house, and the so-called supernatural events were real because there was a ground-bound spirit living on the roof of the apartment building.

But since it's just an earthbound spirit, it doesn't matter if we don't deal with it in advance, right?