Chapter 396: Sensei... It's me

Although the room could be said to be big, traversing the distance from the door to the farthest stall where I was in only more or less fifteen steps.

At each step Orimura-sensei took, the sense of urgency began to well up inside me.

There’s no escape for me now except that sliver of a chance that I could successfully convince the PE teacher and Volleyball Club’s coach to keep quiet and let me off with my excuse for being inside here.

The chance was so small that it could be said to be negligible at best. I may have helped them with their PE Class but that’s certainly not enough for me to have an Immunity Card in her or Eguchi-sensei’s eyes.

Moreover, with eleven students that’s also inside this room, it would be a challenge for me to convince Orimura-sensei to turn a blind eye without any of them finding out.

Even until now, those girls were all waiting in bated breaths on what would be the result of Orimura-sensei’s investigation. If they didn’t hear from her after coming in, they would surely rush towards this stall, especially that Volleyball Girl, to check on their coach.

But before I worry about any of the subsequent parts of this one-shot at leaving this room without anything happening, I needed to thoroughly convince her that I wasn’t here to peep on them first.

By the Orimura-sensei reached the last three steps, I stopped playing with the shower knob and left it open. It was to mask my voice when I began conversing with her.

I also moved back just behind the door while letting my feet step into the small puddle of water for Orimura-sensei to hear.

Although she said that there’s no such thing as ghosts, no matter how brave everyone seemed to me, there would always be a slight fear of the unknown.

That’s why, when she finally reached in front of the door, Orimura-sensei carefully knocked on it followed by her voice that was slightly ridden with uneasiness.

Knock! Knock! Knock!

“...The student inside this stall… Open this or if you don’t want to, answer me and stop scaring my students!”

Unlike some other shower rooms wherein the stall had a small gap beneath, this didn’t have that feature.

Thanks to that, they couldn’t check if there was a pair of feet inside.

Moreover, the door was about seven feet tall, if Orimura-sensei wanted to check from above it, she needed to jump and climb onto it before she could peek inside.

That’s what Orimura-sensei would do if I didn’t answer her.

In any case, I have already steeled myself to be caught and formulated the words I would use to make an excuse.

Truly, if they found the strangeness before Orimura-sensei arrived, that Volleyball Girl would be the one to check in here.

If that’s what happened, forget making an excuse, there’s no chance for me to persuade her to keep it quiet.

I don’t know if I will be thankful or not for Orimura-sensei to arrive here but for now, she’s my best bet.

Placing myself behind the door, I slowly reached to unlock it.

And as the ominous creaking sound made by the opening door slowly rang out, I hid behind it to wait for Orimura-sensei to step inside.

Since I hid myself, there was no way for me to see what kind of reaction she had upon seeing no one inside.

It was a necessary move. I needed her to step inside before I exposed myself to her.

“... W-what’s this? N-no one’s inside.” Orimura-sensei said in a voice so low that even if I was the one nearest to her, it was barely audible.

And judging from how she almost stuttered, it was clear to see that her fear of the unknown went up a notch.

Well, it was an expected reaction and it was a gamble if she would still enter the stall.

“What’s wrong, sensei? Is there someone in there?”

“Is it really a ghost?”

“Sensei was frozen in place… do you think?”

“Stop that. Sachi, go and check on sensei.”

“Ugh… Senpai, don’t tell me you’re scared too?”

“I am… Wait… Sensei’s going in.”

Perhaps seeing Orimura-sensei frozen at her spot, those girls began talking among themselves again but luckily, before the Volleyball Girl could be persuaded to check on Orimura-sensei, the PE teacher finally moved.

Since she’s near, I could sense her presence as she began stepping inside.

I was hiding behind the opened door so… she would only be able to see me if she walked past it and I pushed the door close.

Will she scream if I suddenly called out to her? I don’t know.

But there’s no other choice.

One step.

Two steps.

Three steps.

At this point, I finally see her figure reaching the middle of the stall and before the spot where the water was sprinkling.

Orimura-sensei was currently wearing a maroon tracksuit and there was a white towel slung on her shoulder. Most likely that’s what she would use after showering.

With her attention fully captured by the opened shower, I used these few seconds to observe her.

Despite standing straight, she’s slightly trembling and it was even more noticeable on her lower body, specifically her knees.

She’s scared.

However, with her students outside depending on her. She was probably thinking of braving it even if there’s truly a ghost to show how capable and dependable she was as a teacher.

Using this chance that she’s occupied by running shower, I slowly pushed the door closed.

Perhaps sensing my presence or just the closing door, Orimura-sensei’s shoulder instantly flinched before freezing on her spot.

“...Wwww-who are you?”

Without even looking back to see if there’s someone behind her, Orimura-sensei’s extremely frightened voice reached my ear.

However, instead of answering her, I closed in to her back, restrained her body by circling one of my arms to her front and covering her mouth with my free hand.

As soon as I did that, her arms instantly moved to grab onto mine. Gripping onto my arm tightly. Orimura-sensei began trying to pull my arm away from her.

Nonetheless, I was prepared to respond to this kind of reflexive reaction from her.

I already knew that her body was well-maintained and she could surely pack a punch with her compact arm muscles so I used all my strength to thoroughly subdue her.

“Gmmmhh!”

She also tried to scream but with my hand blocking her mouth, it resulted in that muffled voice. Furthermore, with the sound of shower, it managed to drown that attempt of hers.

However, subduing her like this was not enough. I needed to calm her down before she could forcefully pull herself away from me.

As I tightened my arms to restrict her movements, I put my mouth next to her ears. “Sensei… It’s me.”

Whispering those words, instead of stopping her struggle, it was even intensified.

It was probably because what she heard was a male voice.

However, a few seconds later, when she finally recognized the owner of the voice, her head slowly turned to the side to check who was behind her.

And as soon as our gazes met, Orimura-sensei’s eyes narrowed into a glare and her eyebrows furrowed.