第６０４堀：定番のトイレの噂 (Part1)
### Chapter 604: The Classic Toilet Rumor
**Side: Amanda**
"U-um, Master Deryu, why are you keeping such a distance?"
I asked this, feeling puzzled as I watched Master Deryu, who was—well, not exactly *far* away, but certainly keeping her distance from Yuki-san.
After all, we were here to investigate the rumors about the girls' restroom. I didn't understand why Master Deryu, who is so capable, wasn't coming closer. I mean, we were a large group—Ria, Rurua, Kirue, Cleena, Shuten, Dressa, Vilia, Hiiro, Princess Stasia, Kagura, Micos, and Kanna-san—but surely there was room for the Master, too. She had the strongest fists of us all, after all.
As I pondered this, Master Deryu spoke a single sentence.
"I do not care for the sort of things that are ghosts. They are frightening. Therefore, I shall not go."
"……Ah, I see."
Seeing her clutching Yuki-san’s arm the whole time, I had suspected she was scared, but it turned out to be exactly that. Once she stated it so clearly, there was nothing I could say. I was scared too, so I had been hoping that the strongest hand-to-hand fighter among us would be right there with me. If a ghost appeared, I could have just asked her to collapse the entire building along with it.
Actually, there had been a suggestion early on to skip investigating the remaining three ghost stories and just destroy the locations themselves. However, the Principal and Sota-san had given us bitter smiles and asked us to refrain from doing that if possible, so we decided to determine whether to demolish them only after conducting an investigation.
By the way, this all-female lineup was, of course, chosen to match the location of the ghost story. Since a man couldn't exactly enter the girls' restroom, we were the ones tasked with the job. The men would rush in if things got desperate, but for now, this was strictly an investigation.
"I wonder if I should have just been as honest as the Master..."
I muttered that to myself, and Cleena, who was next to me, must have heard.
"There is no need to force yourself. You may join the standby group. You can abandon Kagura and Micos."
"Ugh."
When I looked at Kagura and Micos, they were staring at me as if to say, *"...Aren't you coming with us?"* It was great that we’d become friends, but in times like this, it was a disadvantage. Both of them were officially part of the ghost story investigation team as students of this academy. They were both quite unfortunate.
Actually, the one most at fault was Yuki-san and the others for stoking our fear by talking about the restroom ghost story. The four Japanese men—Yuki-san, Taiki-san, Taizo-san, and Sota-san—had been having a grand time telling ghost stories, but to those of us listening, it was just a direct injection of terror. From their perspective, discussing the origins and historical backgrounds might have been fun, but I wished they had considered the feelings of the people they were sending off with a "You might have a terrifying experience, but good luck!"
"Why did they have to tell such scary stories..."
"……Don't you know? It's a common rumor that those who know such stories have a higher encounter rate."
"Was it on purpose!?"
"Naturally. Yuki would never do something pointless. He wouldn't... do something that scares people for no reason."
"There was a pause there, wasn't there!?"
"Yuki is human, too. It is fine for him to have a bit of mischief."
"Mischief, you say..."
Isn't something wrong with that? The direction of that "mischief."
"Even if Yuki makes a joke, it doesn't sound like a joke, so it's inevitable that things turn out this way. For example, if he says, 'I'm in a bad mood, I wonder if a war will break out so I can jump in from the side and beat both sides to a pulp'..."
"That doesn't sound like a joke at all. Yuki-san sounds like he could actually do it."
"Mm. Conversely, it would be troublesome if he said he wouldn't work even as a joke. Every country would be in trouble."
"……That's true. Things are moving forward with Weed at the center, so it would be no laughing matter if the leader didn't move."
...Yuki-san. What a terrifying person!
"Yes, yes. You two, don't say things that make me sound bad. I wouldn't do that."
"Mm. I know that."
"Well, as Kagura and the others have heard, it is said that these kinds of ghost stories appear more often to those who are excessively afraid."
"S-such a thing..."
"U-um, Yuki-sensei. Surely, that... that can't be true, right?"
Kagura and Micos said this, shrinking their bodies in fear.
"Calm down. I will provide support, and it is common to see things that aren't there or misunderstand things because you are too scared."
"Then, shouldn't you have avoided scaring us in the first place..."
"There is a possibility they are real, so I wanted to raise the probability of an encounter whether you like it or not. Kagura and Micos are scared, but Ria, Kirue, Cleena, and Shuten probably aren't. By comparing the two, I intend to determine whether it is a hallucination or the real thing."
I see. They told those stories to investigate whether it was just a hallucination caused by fear or if there was something truly there.
"Well, I did think it was questionable to send women to verify these scary stories, but given the location..."
"It's said that the spirit of a female student appears, right? If that's the case, it wouldn't appear even if we men entered."
"And it would look bad for our reputation. Male teachers hanging around the girls' restroom under the guise of 'ghost story verification'."
"That is true. We certainly want to avoid that..."
I suppose that's true. If someone said men were hanging around the girls' restroom to investigate such vague rumors, people would only think it was strange. If Eoid said with a serious face, "I'm conducting an investigation in the girls' restroom," I would punch him first.
"I thought about starting with other locations, but the remaining two ghost stories have time constraints. Moreover, we don't even know the location of the classroom one. This was the best place to start."
Indeed, the other rumors have time constraints:
* An unknown classroom appears in the evening.
* A ghost appears in the basement of the dormitory at night.
They are limited to the evening and night, but this girls' restroom rumor...
* Do not use the second-floor east girls' restroom.
It seems to be an all-time, 24/7 restriction.
"Actually, what is the rumor about this east girls' restroom? Taiki-san said a ghost appears, but..."
Come to think of it, I’d only heard the title of the rumor, not the details. Because, given the layout, the east girls' restroom isn't a place we use very often. ...Actually, this academy is fully equipped with restrooms, isn't it? Well, since Sota-san, who is Japanese, built it, that's only natural. The academy finally has restrooms, but the town of Lancer is still lacking. I hadn't thought much of it before because I didn't know what a restroom was, but once you use one with proper plumbing, regions without them look terribly dirty. Well, they *are* dirty, actually.
But that’s beside the point. Back to the ghost story.
"Oh? Amanda, you didn't know? Let's see... The story about not using the east girls' restroom is that a female student committed suicide there. And that she keeps crying there forever..."
"Did that actually happen?"
"Um, I haven't heard about that part..."
When I turned to look at Yuki-san and the others, Yuki-san shifted his gaze to the Principal. When we followed his lead and looked at the Principal, he showed a moment of hesitation before opening his mouth.
"……Well, this investigation will reveal whether a ghost exists or not, and it will be dealt with either way, so it is fine. ...What Micos-kun said is true. However, the details... I should not be the one to say them to a woman. Kanna-kun."