Chapter 4: Underground Waterways
SPLASH!
The hole was quite deep, and I, falling in an awkward position, took quite a shock.
“Sensei!”
Kimijima, who had jumped into another hole before me, approaches. Thank goodness. They were indeed connected. While I’m glad to reunite with Kimijima, looking up, I see monsters pressing their nostrils against the hole, growling “grr grr.” Enduring the pain in my body, I desperately stand up.
“Let’s get away from here for now.”
I might have hurt my foot a bit too. I limp slightly as I flee from that spot.
Fortunately, it seems the monsters can’t enter through the hole. As we move forward for a while, the sounds of the monsters fade away and become inaudible. Finally catching my breath, I sit down.
“What is this place?”
Kimijima asks, looking around. Oh, I see. Kimijima hasn’t realized yet.
“Probably the sewers,”
“Huh? The sewers?”
“Don’t worry, no one has used the bathroom in this town for fifty years. It should be clean.”
“I-I see…”
“In fifty years, Kimijima’s toi—”
“Sensei.”
Kimijima’s ice-cold voice stops my words. I seem to have said something unnecessary.
“Ah, um… S-sorry. L-look.”
“What is it?”
“L-look at the size of this cavity. If there’s a rainy season like the plum rains, it probably floods quite a bit. After fifty years, everything would have been washed away.”
“…I see.”
Instead of creating Japanese-style flush toilets, they probably designed the town’s layout with sewage channels and aligned the buildings accordingly. Small lights can be seen along the waterway. We were lucky that the crater from earlier had created a hole big enough for us to enter.
“Sensei, let me see your foot.”
“Eh? N-no, it’s fine.”
“No, it’s not. You were limping earlier, weren’t you?”
Pressured by Kimijima, I show her my twisted foot as instructed.
“It’s starting to swell a bit…”
Kimijima says this and gently wraps both hands around my ankle.
“Eh, w-what?”
“It’s an application of wood magic. I can enhance human healing abilities. I was told that if you can use recovery-related magic, you should learn it, so I was taught by the priest…”
“H-healing? That’s amazing…”
“Compared to someone like Nishina, it’s probably just slightly faster healing…”
“No, this is plenty helpful. It feels warm.”
“A little more… If you can’t run, Sensei, we won’t be able to escape.”
For a while after that, I receive this healing magic. Even as a Teacher, having my ankle touched by such a beautiful high school girl inevitably makes my consciousness a bit unstable. Glancing towards Kimijima, who is healing my ankle, I can’t help but notice her slender nape, exposed due to her tied-up hair. Damn it. This is tough in its own way.
Desperately averting my gaze, I count the number of toilets above. The amount of light coming in seems to have decreased a bit, perhaps because the day is waning.
“I-isn’t this good enough? Shall we go?”
“Yes… How does it feel? Try standing up.”
“Alright, let’s see… Yeah, oh. It feels good. Thank you.”
“I’m glad…”
It’s impressive. Although it feels fundamentally different from the healing magic used for the burns inflicted by Kohinata, this certainly seems to enhance healing abilities as claimed. Even when I jump lightly, the pain from earlier is gone.
The underground waterway was already dim, but now the light coming from the toilets has almost completely disappeared.
“We can’t see the monsters anymore. Shall we rest here for today?”
We still need to eat something. I’m sure there was a magical tool like a flashlight in my backpack. I take it out and light it up. Under its light, I open the set of portable food.
“Is it okay if we eat the remaining half I nibbled on earlier? …It’s not particularly tasty, but…”
“That’s fine. But this is like, ‘I want to eat a whole boot full,’ right?”
“Huh? Haha. I guess it was kind of like that underground in that movie too.”
It’s a good sign that we can joke a little even in this situation. Then Kimijima’s face becomes a bit more serious, and she stares intently at my face.
“But… Thank you so much. If you hadn’t come, I would have…”
“Well, that’s… I have my pride, you know. I came to this world as your advisor. That doesn’t mean I’ve been relieved of my duties as an advisor…”
“…I haven’t really talked much with you before, Sensei… None of us have… I’m sorry.”
“Hm? Don’t worry about it. I’ve come to terms with the fact that teaching is that kind of job. More importantly, go to sleep first. I think it’s better if one of us stays awake. I’ll wake you if anything happens.”
“Yes, and make sure to wake me up properly when you get sleepy too, Sensei.”
“Yeah, I’ll count on you then.”
Sleeping on the cold stone, with our backs against the wall. We can’t sleep properly, but it feels much safer compared to being in the town above. Kimijima must be tired too; after a while, I can hear her soft breathing. Perhaps afraid to let go, she’s still gripping my right arm tightly.
“Sigh…”
I don’t even know the detailed map. Can I really deliver this girl safely? In the pitch-black darkness, I desperately tried to hold back the overwhelming anxiety.
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“Sensei. Sensei?”
As I wake up to Kimijima’s call, I see several streaks of light coming down from the ceiling. Perhaps because most of the buildings have been destroyed, more light is coming in than I thought.
“Ah… Sorry, did I sleep for long?”
“No, but I thought it might be good to wake you up soon. Are you okay?”
“Thank you, I’m fine.”
I sit up and stretch. My joints feel a bit sore. I stand up and loosen my body further, then nibble on some more portable food.
I was a bit hesitant to sleep while leaving the night watch to my student, Kimijima, but if I kept worrying about such things, I’d never be able to sleep. Taking turns to sleep is probably the right thing to do. It seems she let me sleep for quite a while.
For now, today we’ll follow this waterway. I expect it to lead out of the town and merge with the main river. And the river should connect from inland to the sea. It can also serve as a landmark for our escape.
The waterway has water flowing in the middle, with slightly elevated flat areas along the walls for people to walk. We walk along there. The clothes that got wet when we fell yesterday have dried enough not to be bothersome.
Although light leaks into the dim underground waterway, we can’t see clearly into the water. Unseen things tend to instill a certain amount of fear.
Hm? As we walk for a while, I feel like the light leaking from the holes above has weakened somewhat. Eventually, water starts dripping from the holes with a “plop plop” sound.
“It’s not… the toilets, right? Rain?”
“Seems like it. It’s good we won’t get wet here.”
“Y-yeah…”
After that, perhaps because the rain intensified a bit, the amount of water falling from above gradually increases. It’s true we won’t get wet here, but…
Eventually, we seem to have reached a place where we’re leaving the town, as the toilet holes that were dotted above the waterway disappear, and it gets a bit darker ahead. We take out the flashlight magic tools from our backpacks and continue walking.
We have no sense of time. At some point, we sit down leaning against the wall to rest, and nibble on the portable food again. It feels like one pack might last for a day. Well, it would be helpful if at least that much calorie intake is possible.
“Are you okay? Not tired?”
“I’m not… not tired, but I’m fine.”
“I see… Well, don’t push yourself too hard. We can only escape if we can keep moving.”
Perhaps due to fatigue, we rest with few words between us. Only the sound of flowing water fills the space.
“…Sensei?”
“Hm?”
“Doesn’t the water flow seem to be getting a bit more intense?”
“…You think so too?”
“Yes…”
“Should we hurry a bit…?”
Is it still raining outside? We don’t know what’s happening in the mountains, but we prepare to depart again, turning on the lights. Checking the water in the channel, the water level has risen a bit too. There’s still about a meter and a half of clearance to where we’re walking, but…
It’ll be fine, right? Surely… Telling myself this, we move forward.
As we walk for a while, we start to hear a stronger water flow sound, like a roar, coming from ahead. Moving further, we find that another similar sewer waterway seems to have merged from the right, with two waterways converging.
…Wait a minute?
Considering the town’s layout, there should be several such waterways dug vertically. We’ve been walking along the left wall. Therefore, merging with the waterway on the right isn’t a problem, but…
I have a bad feeling.
Still, we have no choice but to move forward. As we continue, we reach another convergence point of waterways. Unfortunately, my bad feeling turns out to be correct. This time, it’s a merger with a waterway on the left side. This means the left-side walkway we’ve been using ends at the convergence point, and we can’t proceed further.
Damn it… This is bad.
The convergence point is also where waterways from the right side merge in a complex manner, with a generous amount of water forming whirlpools. Looking at the wall of the merged left-side waterway, there’s a ledge-like step at about the same height.
“Shall we climb a bit to the left from here?”
“We don’t have any other choice, do we?”
“I think once the rain stops, the water level will probably go down to how it was at the beginning.”
The confluence of multiple streams creates different currents forming whirlpools, and the turbid stream becomes a threat no different from monsters. We cling to the wall to avoid falling as we sharply turn back at the convergence part. The foothold at the convergence point becomes quite narrow, and I involuntarily twist my body in fear.
We successfully turn back and slowly move forward along the waterway.
The foothold gradually becomes wider. Letting my guard down a bit was a mistake.
RUMBLE RUMBLE CRASH!
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