The Fifth Period Hot Spot
The international signal connected, and a digitized voice spoke up in English. “Hello,” it said politely. “You have reached the revolutionaries of homeland defense, friend of the soldiers who make tomorrow happen: Brilliant Safetech, Ltd. Your representative is currently unavailable. Please leave your name, message, and contact information after the tone. Thank you, and good luck.”
Beep.
“Béart, it’s Sagara. I received your package, but the contents are incorrect. I asked for a special ‘Homeboy’ sight from Birdman Weapons Systems, but you seem to have sent me some kind of strange canister. What is it, exactly?” Sagara Sousuke held a 500 milliliter, soda can-sized canister as he spoke into his cell phone. The cylinder was made of sturdy stainless steel and had covers on both sides made of reinforced plastic. It was plastered with stickers warning against strong impacts or exposure to heat, but otherwise had no specific instructions.
“It came with some sort of manual, but the manual is in French, so I can’t read it,” Sousuke continued. “Please return my call soon. Also, I’ve written a report refuting the claims in the complaint filed by the Miami Police. Please tell me where to send it. That is all.” With that, he hung up.
It was lunchtime in their classroom, and his fellow students were talking all around him and enjoying their meals. “Sousuke. What were you whispering about just now?” asked Chidori Kaname, who was sitting a few desks away and munching on a custard roll.
“I was on the phone.”
“Well, duh. With who?”
“The agency of an old arms dealer acquaintance,” Sousuke clarified. “He’s based in Belgium and facilitates arms trades as well as in-house development of new weapons. It’s a small company, but they can get most anything you ask for. He likes to say ‘if you have enough money, I can buy you the Kremlin.’”
“Huh...”
“He’s also recently begun dealing in illegal weapons leaked from the Soviet Union. The other day he asked if I wanted to buy plutonium.”
“Pfft!” Kaname spat out her custard.
Tokiwa Kyoko, who was sitting in front of her, shifted her chair with an uncomfortable expression as she complained, “Kana-chaaan...”
“Ugh, sorry,” said Kaname. “But... p-plutonium?”
“Yes, as used in nuclear missiles. Unfortunately, I have no use for nuclear weapons,” Sousuke lamented. “What I ordered were mere pistol parts... but Béart seems to have shipped out the wrong product. He sent me this mysterious canister instead.” He gazed sternly at the unknown canister and its documentation in French.
“Maybe you should rethink your friendships a little?” Kaname suggested.
“Why should I? Béart is stingy and frequently foolish, but he is a principled man. He’d never betray me.”
“That’s not what I—”
Just then, the chime of the school PA system sounded out. “Sagara-kun of Class 2-4! I have a question to ask you regarding the club building currently under repair! Please come to the staff office at once!” The hate-filled voice belonged to their homeroom teacher, Kagurazaka Eri.
“She sounds mad,” Kaname observed. “Did you do something again?”
“I’m afraid I don’t know.”
“She mentioned the club building under repair...”
Sousuke shook his head. “I just couldn’t say. There was barricade tape around the construction site yesterday, so I thought it would be considerate to reinforce it with high-voltage traps. But I can’t imagine why anyone would be angry about that.”
“She’s definitely angry about that!” Kaname’s fan came whistling down. Slap!
Sousuke rubbed the top of his head and clicked his tongue lightly. “I failed to catch it again. Tell me, Chidori. Where do you pull that weapon—”
“Shut up! For the love of... A construction worker probably triggered one of those traps, and that’s why she’s furious! Now get going! I’ll come with you to explain!”
“Hmm...”
Kaname grabbed Sousuke’s arm. “Just come on! Hurry!” She ran out of the room, pulling him along in her wake.
Kyoko watched them leave. “And there they go,” she reflected leisurely. “Despite what she says, Kana-chan sure seems to like looking after him...”
As the two of them were leaving, one of the class’s boys, Onodera Kotaro, was making his return. He walked with triumphant steps and seemed to be in a very good mood. “Ha ha!” he crowed triumphantly, “I bought it!”
“Bought what, Ono-D?”
“The latest from Hanamaru Pan—okay, I kind of sounded like Sagara there, but never mind—the flaming hot God Curry Roll. They’re always sold out, and I finally got it!”
“That’s a strange name.” Kyoko said blankly.
Meanwhile, Kotaro broke the wrapping on the roll. “They say it’s pretty darn spicy, so I figured I’d give it a try. Here I go! Hamph...” He took a bite of the curry roll, and several seconds passed. His leisurely chewing suddenly stopped, and the color of his face turned slowly from white to crimson. Then, as Kyoko and the others watched, he began to arch his back, limbs flailing.
“Ah, knew it.”
“Is it that spicy?”
“W-Water...” Kotaro’s trembling hands grabbed one of the girls’ small water thermoses.
“Ah, sorry,” the owner apologized. “That’s empty.”
“Water!” he gasped. Whirling around, Kotaro reached for the stainless steel canister on the empty desk next to hers.
“Ah, that’s Sousuke-kun’s—”
“Hnnnngh!” Failing to heed Kyoko’s attempt at a warning, Kotaro began messing with the canister, eventually managing to get the seal off and twist the lid open.
Fwssssh... There was the sound of escaping air as Kotaro tilted the bottle towards his mouth to drink down the contents, but no water or tea came out. Instead, a sludgy fluid and a solid object the size of a thumb slid into his mouth.
“Geh?! Hrk!” He tried chewing the small object and discovered that it was some kind of plastic capsule. The fluid was also extremely bitter. Realizing that what was in the bottle wasn’t water at all, Kotaro spat it out into a bucket in the corner of the classroom. “What the hell was that?! Peh! Peh!”
“Wow, nasty.”
“Someone! Water, please!” Kotaro returned to his torment while the rest of his classmates laughed at him.
“Here, Ono-D, drink this,” said Kyoko, handing him a can of barley tea.
“Ah, thanks. Whew... Boy, that was close. This curry bread is way too dang spicy! I can’t handle it. I’ll never buy it again,” Kotaro declared. “What are those sellers thinking?”
“You knew it was spicy. What did you expect? What a stupid thing to do,” Kyoko said chipperly.
Kotaro rubbed his head meekly. “Hmm. Guess you’re right. That was pretty pathetic of me. Ha ha ha...”
The other students joined in his laughter.
“Just be more careful next time, okay?”
“But that’s Ono-D for you.”
“Yeah, that guy never thinks things through.”
“Hey, you guys are mean!” he complained. “I’m done with super-spicy stuff from now on, I swear!”
“Ha ha ha ha.”
In the leisurely manner typical to the resolution of a school drama episode, the whole class laughed and joked. These were good times among good friends. The weather outside the window was sunny and nice, with songbirds singing in the trees. It was as peaceful an afternoon as one could imagine...
Except for the broken capsule in the bucket in the corner of the classroom, which had begun to bubble ominously.
●
“I’m sorry to interrupt, but...” Sousuke stood up and loudly addressed the class midway through fifth period English. “Does anyone know what happened to the contents of this canister?” In his right hand he held the empty canister; in his left, a French dictionary he’d checked out from the library. His face was pale and greasy sweat hung on his brow. He seemed genuinely distraught.
“Sagara-kun, class is in session. Say what you have to say when it’s over!” their homeroom teacher, Kagurazaka Eri—who was also their English teacher—hissed at him.
“I’m unable to follow that order.”
“What do you—”
“This is an extremely urgent matter,” Sousuke insisted. “Someone please tell me—what happened to the contents of this canister? I promise I won’t be angry or litigious. Just say who it was!”
The gazes of the students all fell on Onodera Kotaro. He raised his hand meekly. “Ahh... Sorry, Sagara. I mistook it for a thermos.”
Sousuke’s response sounded more desperate than angry. “What did you do with what was inside it?!” he screamed.
“It’s over there. In the bucket in front of the cleaning closet—”
Before Kotaro could finish, Sousuke strode over to the bucket and looked inside. Here, he let out a gasp.
“Sousuke? What’s wrong?” Kaname asked, watching from the sidelines.
“I’ll explain later. Remain inside the classroom. I’m going to my locker. I’ll be right back. Listen to me—you must not leave this room, no matter what!”
“What? What the—”
Before anyone could stop him, Sousuke flew out of the room.
“What’s with him?” Kaname wondered.
“Just let him go, Chidori-san,” Kagurazaka Eri whispered, trembling. “Interrupting class and then running off... The absolute nerve! Maybe he did grow up overseas and doesn’t need to study English, but that’s no excuse to... to...”
While Eri was crackling with an aura of rage, the students continued talking and gossiping. “Quiet! Back to class now!” Eri declared, and English class resumed.
Three minutes later, Sousuke rushed back into the classroom.
“Sagara-kun?! You can’t just barge in and out of class as you please! What do you think you’re—” But as she saw the state Sousuke was in, Eri fell silent.
A brand-new gas mask and a yellow work suit—no, it looked like protective clothing—now covered him from head to toe. The silhouette was rotund, evocative of a firefighter’s gear; less “flashy” and more “sinister.”
“(Kssh... hahhh...) Sorry I’m back late, ma’am,” Sousuke said, his voice muffled through the suit.
“What are you wearing?”
“(Kssh... hahhh...) NBC protective clothing.” It wasn’t exactly a transparent answer.
“I just asked what you’re dressed in,” Eri said pointedly.
“Please wait. Before I explain...”
“H-Hang on!”
While the rest of the class watched, Sousuke walked towards the back of the room in his strange protective clothing. He opened the thick plastic bag he was carrying and carefully put the bucket in question inside of it. “Stand back, everyone.” He pulled out a canister similar to a fire extinguisher and sprayed some kind of cleansing fluid into the area around the bucket. Then he walked all around the classroom, sealing up cracks in windows and doors with black tape.
“What the...”
“Hang on a minute...”
For once, the class seemed to find Sousuke’s strange behavior truly intimidating instead of absurd.
Sousuke grabbed the bag with the bucket inside and returned to the class lectern.
“Sagara-kun, what do you think you are—” Eri began.
“I’ll explain now,” Sousuke spoke up harshly, interrupting her attempt to scold him. “Listen to me, members of Class 2-4. I’m sorry to say this, but English class is canceled for the day.”
“What are you talking about?!”
“Please remain calm and listen to me,” he continued. “A calamity has befallen our class. A bacteriological weapon, currently undergoing tests in a certain country’s research facility, has escaped its protective capsule.” With that, he held up the bucket inside its plastic bag.
“‘Bacteriological weapon’?” Eri asked tersely.
“Affirmative, ma’am. An extremely dangerous bacteria, created with cutting-edge biotechnology. It’s both ambitious and ferocious, infecting the body through aerosols, and doesn’t stop working until it devours its target... That’s what the manual says.”
“And it’s here?” she clarified. “Inside this classroom?”
“Yes.”
“Am I infected? And my students, too?”
“Yes, I’m afraid that’s very likely,” Sousuke responded gravely.
Eri looked around the room in silence for a few seconds, and then said, “Ah.” She collapsed on the spot and fell still.
“She merely passed out due to shock. Stay quiet! Everyone, calm down!” Sousuke shouted at the students, who had begun to make noise, all of them on the verge of panic.
“How the hell are we supposed to calm down?!”
“You said it was a killer virus!”
“What was that thing doing in our school?!”
“What’s going to happen to us?!”
The students shouted at him one after another, all of them sounding desperate.
“Keep your heads, everyone! You can’t leave this room, and panicking won’t fix the situation.”
“Shut up, Sagara!” One of the boys pointed at Sousuke in his dumpy costume. “You’re keeping that awesome protective suit and mask to yourself... and you tell us not to lose our heads?!”
“I understand what you mean,” Sousuke sympathized, “but I’m the only one who knows even the slightest bit about dealing with biological weapons. I may have already been infected, but if there’s even a chance—”
“Shut up! You’re just trying to save yourself! I thought you were a better guy than that!”
“Yeah! Yeah!”
“How could you do this to us?!”
The artillery of criticism volleyed at him from all sides. Sousuke simply stood there at the lectern for a while, silently, but finally worked up his nerve and said, “Very well.” He slowly and deliberately removed his gas mask. There was a rush of air and he revealed his face.
“Ah...”
“Do you see now? I’m not doing this to protect myself,” he insisted. “As an experienced battlefield professional, I’m just trying not to make the situation worse.”
The students watched him warily.
“Listen to me, all of you: abandon your hatred. Stop finding someone to blame and focus on what we must do. This tragedy isn’t anyone’s fault.” Sousuke spoke in an unusually sincere voice, trying fervently to convince them.
His classmates, who up until then had been silently furious, now looked down, trembling.
“Sagara...”
“You understand, everyone?” Sousuke asked hopefully.
Then they all fixed their glares on him. “This tragedy is your fault!”
About half the students present stormed the lectern, raining fists and kicks and fan strikes down on him. Unable to fight back against the worst violence he’d experienced in six whole volumes, Sousuke fell unconscious, blood dripping from his mouth.
“Darn it!” Kaname was huffing for breath after taking her rage out on Sousuke at the head of the crowd of students. “Guns and bombs are bad enough... but now, germ warfare?! Why’d he bring something so dangerous to school?!”
“Well, guns and bombs are pretty dangerous already...” Kyoko muttered from beside her.
“What even is this thing? Just saying it’s deadly bacteria doesn’t give us much information... Is anyone here not feeling well?!” Kaname asked the class.
Nobody raised their hands.
“Maybe we should go to the nurse’s office? We could ask Ms. Nishino for her—” Kaname started.
“I would advise not doing that,” Kazama Shinji interrupted grimly. After Sousuke, he was the most knowledgeable person in the class about such things.
“Why not?”
“The reason Sagara-kun told us not to leave was so that we didn’t spread the infection,” he explained. “He said it’s airborne, right? If we all flood out of the room, we could spread the disease to the other classes. We could contaminate the whole school.”
Hearing this dire prediction, Kaname and the others exchanged a nervous glance. “B-But we all seem fine, right?” she said. “He was probably just exaggerating.”
“One aspect of bacteriological weapons is that there’s a time gap between infection and the onset of symptoms,” Shinji said, his glasses reflecting the light. “That’s why, although extremely deadly, they’re poorly suited to military use. Tactical purposes aside, they’re strategically very serious and are known as the poor man’s nuclear weapon. I’ve even heard that a certain Middle Eastern country is attempting to cultivate the Ebola virus for military purposes. This could be that.”
“Ebola? The thing where you die bleeding from your pores?”
“Yes, also known as the flesh-eating virus. I can’t be sure, but one way or another, it’ll probably be pretty nasty... heh heh heh.” Shinji took advantage of his moment, letting out a creepy laugh.
The rest of the class, disturbed by Shinji’s abrupt turn into the macabre, felt a strange chill run through their bodies.
“That’s... that’s...”
“No! I don’t wanna die!”
“M-Mommy!”
A portion of them completely lost their heads and scrambled for the door. But the seal tape Sousuke had put there proved extremely sturdy, and the door refused to open.
“Wait, everyone! Didn’t you hear what he said? We can’t leave the classroom!” Kaname shouted at the students who were shoving at each other near the door, but the chaos didn’t die down. “Oh, come on! Just calm down!” Then she grabbed the lectern with both hands, and lifted it above her head all by herself. “Didn’t I tell you?!” She demanded angrily, and threw the lectern into the crowd.
“Wah!” the students cried, scattering, as the lectern knocked over desks and chairs.
“Hahh... hahh... I’ll say it one more time! Don’t disgrace yourselves!” Kaname shouted, her face taking on a ghastly visage and scaring the group into silence. “Do you want to infect the other classes in a moment of panic? You’ll just make more victims!”
“B-But...” one of the boys said, weeping.
“No buts! Think about it. How will history view what happened here today? Will they say we panicked and spread the disease through the school?” she demanded. “We’d go down in infamy. Is that what you want?!”
Kaname clasped her fists in front of her chest as if in prayer and spoke to her audience. “I’m scared, too. I always hoped that if I was gonna die, it’d be after I could first eat my fill of trident-yaki at the Ohio-ya in the shopping district. Or go to the soba place near the station and get every topping I could think of, from egg to croquettes to tempura to kaki-age to chikuwa-age to wakame seaweed, and enjoy the world’s most lavish soba. Then I could die without regret.”
“Your life comes pretty cheap,” Kyoko said snidely.
“However!” Ignoring her, Kaname clenched a fist. “It’s just not meant to be. In the face of destruction, you should keep your wits about you and confront it head-on. The willingness to lay down your own life in the name of destiny, to ensure the safety of your comrades... The shine of that noble spirit is what brings light to our darkest hours! Isn’t that what truly makes us human?!”
“Wow...” The whole group breathed in admiration and scattered applause rang out for Kaname at the lectern.
“Chidori-san. You may be right.”
“Yeah. We should really be more dignified than this.”
“It hurts, but we really do just have to endure it...”
The members of Class 2-4 nodded to each other, their eyes wet with tears.
Kaname rubbed at her own eyes with her sleeve. “Thank you, everyone. I’m so proud of all of you. I’m sorry for saying such harsh things to you.”
“Don’t say that, Chidori-san. We’re the ones at fault here.”
“Yeah. And we’re in this together, right?”
“And it’s not as if we’re dying alone. I’m not afraid!”
The beautiful and fleeting notes of friendship... Forty students cried and sobbed, arms around each other’s shoulders.
It was then that Sousuke, previously abandoned in a corner of the classroom, silently sat up. “Why is everyone crying?”
“Shut up, you,” Kaname snarled at him. “We’re basking in the goodness of humanity! And are you really still alive?”
“Of course I am. I haven’t even told you about the vaccine.”
“Vaccine?”
“The package came with a vaccine for the bioweapon. In case of emergency, I’m sure. Here it is.” Sousuke took out a small test tube and syringe. “But there’s only enough for one.”
All forty students in the classroom stopped crying in unison. Those with arms around each other’s shoulders backed away from each other, crouched down and prepared to pounce. Forty pairs of eyes locked on the one vial. Gazes met gazes with an air of challenge. A sign had been hung on the door of the metaphorical Beautiful Friendship Shop, and it read, “Out to Lunch.”
“What’s wrong, everyone?” Sousuke asked curiously.
Fountains poured from Kaname’s eyes beside him. “Sousuke. You are... a net negative to every situation you’re involved in.”
“Eh? What are you talking about?”
“Never mind.” Before the first desperate students could pounce on Sousuke, Kaname rapped the blackboard. “We’ll draw lots to decide!” she screamed, leaving no room for debate. “Then it’s all fair! And it means that at least one of us survives, right?”
“Ugh... well...”
“I guess that’s only fair...”
“Of course, it’s only fair. Let’s do it.”
After a few moments, the students all came around.
“Okay! Then let’s get it started!” Kaname prepared forty-two strips of paper, only one of which had a red circle drawn on it. Then she put them all in a paper bag and mixed the contents around carefully. The preparations were complete.
Next, students put their hands into the bag, which was being held by Kaname, and drew their lots one by one. No luck. No luck. No luck. For each failed draw, someone wailed in despair, cried out in agony, or let out a dry laugh.
“Ugh. I’m... I’m done for.”
“I’ve never had any luck with lotteries.”
“Ah, knew it. Ha ha ha...”
Each losing student reacted in a different way: one slumped over to work on their last words; one started sending goodbye messages to their families via cell phone; one confessed their love to a classmate; a member of the manga club decided to get to work on their unfinished manuscript. But not one of them complained of unfairness. They each endeavored to accept their fate with nobility—truly admirable students.
Kyoko drew a dud as well. She gave a sad smile and said, “It’s tough, but I’m okay. I had a lot of fun,” with confidence.
Kaname couldn’t help but start crying at this. “I’m sorry, Kyoko. It really is awful. It’s just... It’s just...”
“It’s okay. You draw too, Kana-chan.”
“No. I’ll go last,” she sobbed. “I think there’s about fifteen left. Sousuke?”
“All right.” Sousuke placed his hand slowly into the bag. And when he looked at the paper slip he’d drawn... “Hmm.” It contained a red circle. “I won.”
“You won?”
“Yeah. I won.”
Everyone in the class turned to stare at him with dropped jaws. Sousuke nodded a few times, then turned to them and spoke, with great sympathy. “It’s decided, then. I’m sorry, everyone.”
To hear the start of all their trouble say those words so casually... An aura of rage filled the classroom, an emanation of violence so potent that it would bring down any mosquito unlucky enough to be flying by.
“Look. The thing is, there’s actually no way we’re gonna accept that...”
“I can take a whole lot with good grace... but this...”
“Before I die of a bacterial disease, I’m going to die at the cruelty of this universe...”
They all spoke in low, hateful voices.
Sousuke, his expression as blank as ever, held up his hands and spoke placatingly. “I understand how you feel. But I promise you this: I will not forget this tragedy. I’m going to send this data to the weapons developers and write a harshly worded letter to ensure nothing like this ever happens again. So—”
“So what?!”
“Please accept your fate and quietly—” he began to say, but was quickly cut off.
“You can die first!”
The students fell on Sousuke, who was holding the vaccine, from all sides. Realizing they really might kill him this time, Sousuke used a nearby desk to vault lithely over the charging crowd. “Wait,” he cried out. “There are more important things to—”
“Shut up!” someone yelled.
There was no talking his way out of this. Some were trying to give Sousuke his just deserts, others were trying to stop them, and still others were just trying to snatch up the vaccine in the chaos that ensued. They came and went, grabbing and screaming. Sousuke ran around the classroom as the other students chased after him madly. It was pure pandemonium.
“You wanna resist, huh, asshole?!”
“Gimme that vaccine!”
“Give back my lost youth!”
They’d reached the point where not even Kaname could quiet the classmates who had given in to bloodlust. No matter how she screamed, they failed to hear her. “Stop it, everyone! Don’t disgrace yourselves any further! We can redo the drawing! Which is to say—get a grip, you idiots!” But at last, even she gave in to her rage and began to swing a folding chair she’d picked up. Even the weak-willed students who’d just been watching things in horror now began tearing around, unable to escape the chaos.
Just then...
“Quiet down in here!” The classroom door on the teacher’s side opened with a bang. The seal that Sousuke had placed there had ripped free from the repetitive beatings it had taken. Standing in the door was the classic lit teacher, Mr. Fujisaki. He would’ve been teaching at Class 2-3 next door.
“What’s all this ruckus?! This isn’t some elementary school! Education is serious business! Do you want me to fail every single one of you?!” Fujisaki, a vein throbbing in his forehead, glared across the entirety of Class 2-4. “I swear, this is what happens when you don’t allow corporal punishment!”
“Ah, he opened it. The airborne bacteria...” Kazama Shinji whispered in despair.
“What have you done?”
“Fujisaki... what the hell were you thinking?!”
“We’re finished!”
These were not the reactions he was expecting at all, and Fujisaki drew back in non-comprehension. “Wh-What’s going on?”
“I... I don’t care about contaminating the school anymore!”
A few students plowed into the classic literature teacher and ran past him into the halls.
“Hey! Wait, everyone!” Kaname tried to stop them, but they wouldn’t listen.
“Shut up! I want to tell Saeki-san in Class 1 how I feel!”
“A-And I want to confess to Mikihara-san in Class 6!”
One by one, the students shouted out the confessions of their souls without regret.
“I want to die looking up at the sky from the roof!”
“I at least want a cup of tea before I go!”
“I wanna go trash the teachers’ office!”
Each of them, with their own dying wish, ran and ran and ran. One might be forced to say they were running a little too hard, even.
Dodging around the group still interested in the vaccine, Sousuke called out in warning. “Stop it! The bacteriological weapon— ah!”
“Shut up!”
A French-Japanese dictionary hit Sousuke square in the head and knocked him out. As it did, the vaccine in his hand fell to the floor and broke open with a clink.
“The vaccine!” someone wailed.
“We’re finished!”
“Oh, how could we have let this happen?!” the students cried out. After a few moments of staring at the ceiling, they all immediately reconsidered their objectives and went running out of the classroom. It was as if they’d forgotten about Sousuke entirely.
The ability to so swiftly change on a dime...
“Hmm... truly impressive situational awareness,” Sousuke said.
“This is no time to be admiring them! You just let infected people loose in the school!” Kaname screamed at him. “What are you going to do?!”
The next thing they knew, the classroom was empty. Everyone had left except for Kagurazaka Eri, who was still passed out in the corner.
“Give up,” Sousuke said, helplessly.
“You can’t give up!” Kaname shouted, kicking him back to the ground. “What is it that made you this way? What kind of life leads you to this moment? At least I’ll finally be free of your troublemaking. I don’t know if I’m happy or sad...” said Kaname, letting out a sob.
While Kaname wept her eyes out, Sousuke quietly opened his French-to-English dictionary and began re-reading the manual in French.
“What are you doing?”
“I don’t know French, so I was only able to get through part of the manual. Further investigation might reveal additional countermeasures. I don’t even know what, specifically, this bacteriological weapon does.” Sousuke continued flipping through the manual until suddenly, he stopped. With the help of the dictionary, he read the contents of one page very carefully. “Chidori.”
“What?”
“Come with me. Right now.”
“Eh? H-Hang on a minute...”
“Hurry!” Sousuke grabbed Kaname’s hand and pulled her swiftly down the hall. They headed down the stairs to the nurse’s office in the southern school building. The usual nurse seemed to be out, so there was nobody there.
Sousuke pulled back a partitioning curtain and told Kaname, “Take off your uniform.”
“Huh?”
“Take it off,” he insisted.
She hesitated, looking back and forth between his face and the white bed. “Wh-What are you talking about?! I-I don’t think I’m emotionally ready for this... And in a place like this... I can’t. I don’t want to. It’s just too—”
“Just take it off! Now!” Sousuke said desperately.
Tokiwa Kyoko was wandering around the school building unsteadily. The familiar school building, the atmosphere she knew so well... the thought that this would be her last time seeing it filled her with an almost mysterious degree of affection and sorrow.
The idea that she was infected with a bacteriological weapon still didn’t feel real. Although she did feel like she was developing a fever... Was this the killer virus at work?
“Mm... ohh...” came a voice just then. She spotted a student at a nearby drinking fountain, collapsed on his knees. It was Onodera Kotaro.
“O-Ono-D?” Noticing Kotaro’s desperate state, she began to approach him.
“H-Hey, Tokiwa...” Kotaro said, sounding like he was in the grips of the fever.
Kyoko made the connection immediately. Who was it who had taken the first dose of the bacteria from the canister Sousuke had brought in? Who had even had it in his mouth? The symptoms were finally manifesting. “Ono-D!” she wailed, “Hang in there!”
“That’s... a pretty tall order right now, y’know?” he choked out.
“Onodera-kun!”
“Sucks being the first in line, huh? I don’t think I’ve ever seen you cry before...”
“D-Don’t say that. Please... Onodera-kun...” Kyoko clung to him, tears spilling from her large eyes.
“Since it’s the end, I might as well tell you how I feel about you,” Kotaro said falteringly. “I think... I think I...”
“Onodera-kun...”
Kotaro told lots of girls he loved them, but of course, these could be his last words. Kyoko was waiting sincerely for him to finish, when suddenly his brow furrowed and the tenor of his voice changed. “Gotta tell you how I feel... Mm. Huh?” He suddenly stood up and cracked his neck back and forth.
Kyoko, in tears, looked up at him wistfully. “How do you feel about me? And what’s going on?”
“Hmm? Oh... it’s just weird. My shoulders and back suddenly feel really loose. Actually, I feel kinda great... huh?” Kotaro stood up suddenly. A moment later, the right sleeve of his uniform rolled down and hit the floor.
“Huh?” said Kyoko.
And it wasn’t just his right sleeve. The left arm, both legs, the chest, the waistband... every part of his uniform was melting away like cotton candy. “What the... hey, hey! Hey!” All that was left was his striped trunks and white tank top. “M-My uniform...”
“Wh-What in the world?” Kyoko blushed bright red and began to dither around.
Just then, the half-naked Kotaro’s eyes went wide and he pointed at her. “H-Hey, Tokiwa!”
“What?” she asked, but then she heard it.
Rustle.
Kyoko’s own uniform began falling apart the same way. Her jacket, her blouse, her skirt... “What? What? What?! No!” Leaving only her checkered undies behind, nearly all of the clothing she’d been wearing fell to the floor. Kyoko’s delicate, pale body was entirely revealed before Kotaro’s eyes.
Kyoko’s wail of despair echoed out all around the water fountain.
“You get it, Sagara? It’s not a virus, it’s a bacteria!” President Béart of Brilliant Safetech stressed on the other end of the phone.
“How do the two differ?”
“Haven’t you heard? They’ve been studying bacteria that can break down plastics and other petroleum-derived substances,” he explained further. “There’s even a few fool researchers who think they can use it for military purposes. In the process, they created a bacteria with a very strange property.”
“And that’s the bacteriological weapon you sent me?” Sousuke checked.
“Yes! That bacteria is mostly inert at room temperature, but with enough heat—around 36 degrees Celsius—it begins to rapidly propagate and activate. In other words, with human body heat, this ‘Full Monty Bacteria’ clings to its host and eats away aggressively at any nearby oil-based substances... specifically, polyester and nylon. And once that bacteria gets going, it’s extremely aggressive!”
Polyester and nylon: needless to say, these were fibers that made up people’s clothes.
“What can be done about it?”
“Nothing! Nothing but the vaccine! It dies on its own after about twelve hours, so just don’t wear petroleum-derived fabrics until then,” President Béart advised. “Cotton or silk only! In particular, polyester is a favorite food of the Full Monty Bacteria!”
“I see. So that’s it...”
“But be glad. As a side effect, it relieves stiff shoulders and back pain. So...”
“I’ll settle this with you later,” Sousuke promised. Then he hung up. It was clear that his own uniform was in shreds beneath the NBC protective suit.
“So? What does it mean?” Kaname asked from behind the curtain.
She’d removed her uniform, which now hung on a hanger nearby. The terrycloth blankets that the nurse’s office used were 100% cotton, so she’d been told to keep one around her, but...
“At the very least, it’s not a deadly disease,” said Sousuke.
“Oh? It isn’t?”
“But one way or another...” he trailed off, as screams of anger rang out all around the school—the agonies of the bacteriological weapon’s victims. The PA chime rang out as fifth period ended, and students from the other classes emerged noisily out into the halls. It was time for the bacteria to spread even further.
Who could say what kind of hell would spread around the school for the next hour? After it was all over, what kind of beating would he receive?
“One way or another... I personally expect to die very soon,” Sousuke said in deepest despair.
〈The Fifth Period Hot Spot — The End〉
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