Phalanx's Drabbles

Niji-Punch! Ch. 2

Shizuka Rin had nearly fainted when she caught sight of them.

She knew that that sudden field trip had been a bad idea; her gut instinct told her so, even while she texted Tsukino to have a safe trip. At the time, she had waved the sudden dread off and refocused back on her studies, now stressed for an entirely different kind of monster: Mid-term tests.

When the field trip had come, and the trio all waved their respective goodbyes, Rin still ignored that cloying feeling at her chest, the abnormally accurate—almost prescient—alarm clawing itself into the center of her thoughts. But she had merely misattributed it as fair, friendly worry; 'It was natural, after all, for her to worry about her best friends going to a new place', she had thought.

She wished she hadn't. She wished that she had just trusted her gut. She wished that she could go back in time. She wished, more than anything—even if it was likely fruitless—that back then, she could've chosen action over inaction; walk the talk, instead of simply talking and thinking.

And now she had to pay a cruel price, one shown to her through the laptop of their teacher, herself huddled at the center of the crowd of pale-faced students and their sensei as they all stared blankly towards the disaster. The event had gone down like a row of ever-increasing dominoes; Rin's seatmate to her left was just idly tapping away her phone, their lunch finished and looking to pass the time, before their face scrunched up, the student leaning in almost exaggeratedly as they hurriedly tapped on their smartphone.

It was their recess, and so Rin had enough mindfulness to notice, asking her a question to hop onto the jovial mood the rest of the class was in. "What? Did you find something?" she queried lightly, a slight smirk on her face, to which her classmate only replied with deafening silence, face pale and sweating as they cupped their mouth in shock. The smirk on her face disappeared as fast as lightning, Rin moving to stand up from her desk before her classmate beat her to it, abruptly standing up and bolting towards the teacher's table in front. The suddenness of her departure creaked their chair, and a chorus of scrapes was heard as their classmate, in their haste, clumsily tumbled the desks and chairs in her path.

Her journey to the teacher's place was unmolested, Rin following behind as most of the class looked towards both of them in curiosity, some even joining trailing behind the panicked classmate. Soon, an enitre crowd surrounded their teacher's desk, with the classmate from before trying hurriedly connect her phone towards the opened laptop's screen.

"Hey! Don't touch that! We'll get scolded by the teacher!" Norito, a male classmate of Rin exclaimed, gesticulating towards both himself and the opened laptop in a panic. His cries were to no avail, however, his pleas deaf as their classmate still continued to fiddle it at a feverish pace.

"... Hey, what's the matter? Are you sick? I'll escort you to the nurse's office if you want." Diplomatically said Rin, a worried frown on her face as the rest of the class silently echoed her anxiety. The panicked classmate jolted, looking back towards the rest of their classmates, her mouth quivering as she stuttered out her next words. Akane was a peppy girl, extroverted and sociable, caught up on all the latest modern trends and the center of her very own clique of highschool girls. But despite looking like she was spending the majority of her time tapping away at her phone, Akane had consistently achieved an above average grade, far better given her time on the screen. She looked to be on the verge of vomiting, her blonde hair quickly losing it's infective luster, and just as Shizuka Rin was about to forcibly drag her towards the nurse's office, regardless if she had her permission or not, the highschool girl had locked up at Akane's proclamation, face rapidly paling as she thought of a single, horrifying scenario.

"T-There's been an incident on the field trip..." Her classmate muttered, head hung low, and Shizuka's gnawing pit on her stomach grew.

Rin was silent as Akane continued her work, entire body unresponsive as her mind stumbled through thought after thought, each more negative than the last. Her tongue was tied, her muscles locked in place as her diaphragm filled itself with bile. The rest of the class echoed her behavior, the room's atmosphere rapidly darkening in the face of Akane's admittedly cryptic message.