The Masks we Wear

Chapter 4 - The Other Me

Ayanokouji Kiyotaka

~

April 12th 2016

"This... is not the school." I deadpanned.

"Yeah, no shit."

What stood in front of Eiichiro and I wasn't the ANHS that we had been running towards, no instead what stood in front of us now was an enormous, army of circus tents.

I glanced around towards my surroundings, taking note of the extremely unusual colour of the sky. As I turned back to ask Eiichiro for advice on what we should do I noticed him approaching the tent.

"Where are you going?" I asked.

"I'm gonna go ask the staff here for directions. By my guess, we probably took a wrong turn by accident when we were rushing."

I nodded in agreement, it was a practically the only thing we could do now that we were here. 

As we approached the tent we parted the curtains to step inside, and what I saw inside confused me even more. Inside the tent was what appeared to be a series of set-pieces, resembling a those traditionally found within a circus carnival with bright, neon lights all around.

The part that perplexed me the most, however was how the interior of the tent seemed significantly larger than what it looked like from the outside.

"I see circuses these days have really stepped up their production."

"I guess." I replied.

As we approached the... counter? Entrance? We found a rather unique looking employee, they wore what appeared to be a black mask with a white spiral on it along with bright... white clothes with a red vest on top. 

"Yo. Sir? Ma'am? Do you know the way to the Advanced Nurturing High School from here?"

The employee remained silent.

.

"Hello..?"

"Shouldn't... Be... Here." The employee struggled to say.

"I-I know we shouldn't but we got lost and need directions-"

Before Eiichiro could finish his request, the figure pulled a cane from underneath it's desk before swinging it towards Eiichiro. 

I only just barely managed to pull him out the way.

So fast...

"W-What the hell!? We're just asking for some directions man!" Eiichiro shouted.

"Intruders... Entrance" The thing said.

As I whipped my head towards the direction of the way we came from a hoarde of other identical looking employees appeared

"H-Hey 'Taka, are those... Canes or batons!?" Eiichiro asked pointing at the blunt weapons each of the employees held in their hands.

"Run."

The simple command did not need to be repeated as we sprinted across the stage and into the next tent.

As we ran we bolted across a corner only to be met with the sight of an employee who struck Eiichiro directly across the head with it's cane; knocking him out instantly. 

This was bad.

From my minimal encounter with the Employees so far I could tell they were fast. Even with me sprinting as fast as I could they were still managing to keep up.

A single error here means instant defeat.

I dashed forwards to close the distance between the thing and I before delivering a swift kick to it's abdomen knocking it off balance.