Shinichi finally snapped out of it. The moment he looked up, the teacher was right in his face.
"Playing games during class, huh?"
The teacher held up Shinichi's phone, the game screen still on display.
Shinichi opened his mouth, ready to argue, but gave up halfway. Saying his hand had a mind of its own and wasn't under his control sounded way too ridiculous, even for him.
When the bell rang, Shinichi immediately asked for leave, claiming he felt unwell, and left early.
"Izumi was acting really weird today. Should we go check on him after school?"
Yuko Tachikawa rested her chin on her hand, staring at Shinichi's empty seat.
"Maybe he just couldn't think of a good way to apologize, so things got awkward with Satomi in class."
Ivan flipped through the class schedule on a sticky note while chatting with her.
"That's possible… but I don't think Izumi is the type to run away from things."
Yuko looked annoyed. "I even told him I'd help him apologize to Satomi."
Found it.
Ivan suddenly smiled.
There it was on the schedule. Chemistry class.
He didn't know much about chemistry, but he definitely knew sulfuric acid. With that stuff, killing a parasite would be a lot easier.
"By the way, Yuko, does our school have a kendo club? Or something similar?"
She thought for a moment before answering, "I think Yuji from our class is in that club. If you've got questions, you could ask him. Are you planning to join?"
Ivan folded up the schedule and smiled. "Yeah. I'm pretty interested in kendo."
After that, he just stared out the window, killing time with the passing scenery. He had zero interest in whatever the teacher was rambling about anyway.
Just like that, he waited until school was over.
"Yuji, hold on a second."
Seeing Yuji about to leave, Ivan called out to him.
Yuji looked a bit surprised but stopped anyway and turned to him. "Ivan, what's up?"
"I heard you're in the kendo club, so I wanted to ask if you're still recruiting."
"Oh, you want to join?" Yuji's face lit up immediately. "That's easy. I'll take you to the captain right now. Once you finish the paperwork, you're in."
With that, he led Ivan over to a tall, solidly built man standing nearby. The kendo club captain, Nakata Yuichi.
Nakata Yuichi was dressed in the standard kendo uniform, something that looked like a traditional samurai outfit.
"Any prior experience with kendo?"
He pulled out an application form and handed it over.
Ivan filled it out while answering, "Yeah, trained a bit before. It's a pretty good sport."
"Alright."
After checking the form and finding no issues, Nakata extended his hand.
"Welcome to the kendo club. We usually train starting at five in the afternoon. You can come by and get familiar with things."
"Got it. I'll be there."
After leaving the captain's room, Yuji started explaining how the club worked.
"Our kendo club is one of the biggest in the school. Over three hundred members, from all three grades. When you run into third-years, you're supposed to greet them as senpai."
He paused, then added with a serious look, "When you show up later, don't forget that. Some of them have pretty bad tempers."
From the look on his face, he'd clearly learned that the hard way.
"Got it, I'll remember." Ivan smiled. "Want me to treat you to a meal?"
"Nah, I usually go home for lunch."
After splitting up with Yuji, Ivan reached into his pocket and unexpectedly pulled out a few ten-thousand-yen bills. Looks like that was his allowance for the week. As long as he didn't go crazy spending, it would barely be enough.
He found a random ramen shop on the street, sat down, and ordered an upgraded tonkotsu ramen.
Ivan approached it like a proper food critic, taking his time with each bite. The noodles were a bit soft, but the broth was rich as hell. By the end, he didn't leave a single drop. The only downside was how greasy it got after a while, probably from all the fat in the soup.
In the afternoon, Shinichi still didn't show up for class.
Chemistry was different from the other subjects. It had its own dedicated lab. The teacher was a gentle-looking woman with black-framed glasses, currently running a small experiment at the front.
Ivan quickly noticed something important. Strong acids and bases, anything highly corrosive, were locked inside a cabinet. It required a key to open, tightly controlled. No normal student was getting near that stuff.
"Fuck, that's annoying… what, am I supposed to steal the key from the teacher?"
He frowned, unable to think of a better option.
Right now, there weren't many parasites in the school yet. If he dragged this out for a few days, things would only get worse.
"Ivan, are you feeling sick too?"
Yuko Tachikawa noticed his expression and leaned over to ask.
"I'm fine. Just thinking… if I asked the teacher for the cabinet key, what kind of excuse would even work?"
Ivan said it half-jokingly.
"You don't need an excuse."
Yuko casually pulled out a set of keys from her pocket.
"…What?"
Ivan stared at her. "You're kidding, right? Why the hell do you have the chemistry cabinet key?"
Yuko rolled her eyes, clearly annoyed. "Because I'm the vice class rep. I'm in charge of cleaning and managing that cabinet. So take a guess why I've got the key."
"Perfect."
Ivan hadn't expected Yuko to actually have the key to the chemical cabinet.
"Then… can you lend it to me? Please."
He looked straight into her eyes. He knew damn well that if anything went missing, she'd be the first one under suspicion.
"Those chemicals are dangerous. What do you even need them for?" Yuko frowned, confused.
"Got my reasons. You'll find out later."
There was no way he could just tell her the school was crawling with parasites. Without seeing it firsthand, no one would buy that kind of insanity.
"Here."
Yuko tossed him the key.
"Just be careful when you use it. Make sure the bottles are properly sealed."
Noticing the hesitation in his eyes, she smiled.
"I take stuff out for experiments all the time. As long as you don't grab too much at once, nobody's going to notice."