The Multi-Car Rear-End Collision

Due to the differences in our start times and running speeds, the four of us had already created a considerable distance between each other in the corridor. But this ladder to the rooftop acted like a speed bump, bringing us all together again.

Saber was the first to climb. Her little leather shoes clattered on the U-shaped metal bars. Her agile movements didn’t seem human, more like some kind of humanoid ape. However, her outfit of trousers, shirt, and vest wasn’t exactly suited for activity. The shirt and vest, in particular, weren’t as loose and elastic as sportswear. When she raised her arms to grab the ladder, the form-fitting clothes were pulled up, revealing a sliver of her soft waist.

From behind, Saber’s waist was very slender. Her exquisite spine created a shallow contour, and her skin had both the fairness of a Westerner and the delicacy of an Easterner. Compared to some plumper girls, Saber’s waist had beautiful and sexy muscle lines that moved with her stretching and climbing, possessing an extraordinary attraction.

And Saber, that one, had continued her pre-transformation habit of wearing her pants low. In short, she didn’t pull them up high or fasten her belt tightly, but let them hang loosely on her hip bones. The advantage of this was that her style didn’t look too rigid and had a cool feel to it. The not-necessarily-a-disadvantage was that it could lead to a bit of a wardrobe malfunction.

Just like right now. The waistband of Saber’s navy blue trousers was hanging on her hip bones, and you could almost see the contour of her spine passing through that dazzlingly white waist and down to her tailbone.

Following closely behind Saber was Yukino.

She brushed her long black hair, which was obstructing her vision, behind her head with a slender white hand and also started climbing the ladder. She had probably learned from Saber’s precedent. As she climbed, she would occasionally put one small hand behind her back to gently pull down the hem of her shirt, which was under her thin woolen sweater.

Honestly… everyone here is one of us four. Who hasn’t seen all that? Why worry so much about a wardrobe malfunction? I guessed that the lovely and elegant Miss Yukino wasn’t afraid of us seeing anything we shouldn’t. After all, in the dorm this morning, we had already seen everything. There was nothing left that we shouldn’t see. The reason she cared so much about the neatness of her clothes was probably just that she felt it looked messy and indecent, a simple subconscious attention to her personal image.

Looking at the delicate and slender white ankles below Yukino’s cuffed pants, I realized I couldn’t just stand here and watch. So, I also started climbing the cold U-shaped bars with both my hands and feet, just like them.

The problem was, when I climbed, I was single-mindedly focused on getting up as fast as possible. But Yukino, who was above me, would occasionally stop to adjust her clothes for the sake of her personal image. This caused her climbing speed to be significantly slower than mine.

What happens when the car in front is slow and the car behind is fast?

Of course, with a BANG, it’s a rear-end collision.

In reality, Yukino and I weren’t cars, so of course, we didn’t make such a loud noise. But what happened was no different from a rear-end collision. In a car accident, the front of the rear car hits the back of the front car. It was the same for us… My head hit Yukino’s butt.

Now, how to describe that feeling… it was like you pounced headfirst onto a bolster pillow. The cotton on the outside was soft, but the inside was solid and hard. My hit was… solid, I could even feel the bone inside.

Being hit by me, Yukino’s climbing movements paused for a moment. Then I could feel her lower her head, and her soft, snow-like voice came down to me. “Stop rushing me, I’m climbing as fast as I can.”

I was stunned for a moment, then I realized.

…You think I’m deliberately using my head to bump your butt just to urge you to climb faster??

Just how messed up do you think I am to use such a method—bumping your butt with my head—to rush you?!

It felt like I had just been in a rear-end collision, and when the traffic police arrived, I told them, “This isn’t a rear-end collision, I was just bumping him with the front of my car to urge him on.” If I really said that to the traffic police, I would probably get more than just a ticket and a warm invitation to a wrestling match. What would likely follow would be a visit from the chief physician of a mental hospital. My driver’s license would be revoked for being diagnosed with a mental illness. As an old driver, I would never be able to drive again.

On the ladder that seemed to lead to heaven, Yukino, after speaking, continued to climb up with her hands and feet. I was just hanging on the ladder, thinking about whether I should slow down. I had just reached out a hand to follow when I felt my own butt being bumped.

That’s right. After the slow car in front was hit by the fast car behind, both cars stopped, which caused the car further back, unable to brake in time, to crash as well. This was a multi-car pile-up.

I looked down. Below me was Exusiai. Her Fuji-apple-red hair was pressed against me, showing no signs of moving away. She even rubbed against me, lifted her head, and laughed heartily. “Haha… this hat feels pretty good!”

That’s not a hat, it’s my as—!

I was suddenly a little grateful that the transformed Exusiai didn’t have a shiny, hot incandescent halo above her head, otherwise, she would be barbecuing me right now.

I felt that this one, Exusiai, was nine-tenths doing it on purpose. So I looked down, puffed out my cheeks, and glared at her, before continuing to climb up.

The open skylight was like a portal connecting the starry sky and the ruins. As soon as my head emerged from it, the fresh and slightly cold night air blew against me, lifting my long, slender ponytail.

Yukino, standing by the skylight, was bent over, one hand on her slender knee, the other reaching down to me. I grabbed her soft, delicate, yet strong little hand and pulled myself up. Then, together, we pulled up the last one, Exusiai.

The school was in a remote area with little pollution, so the starry sky looked particularly brilliant. The twinkling stars were like the eye-patterns on a peacock’s tail, blinking and watching the world. The night wind was slightly cold.

The rooftop was empty. There were no miscellaneous objects or extra facilities. All you could see was a dirty concrete floor covered in dust. A rusty guardrail surrounded the rooftop, and it was very obvious that a section of the guardrail was broken, leaving a gap.

I looked at Saber, who had been the first to climb up. She was confronting the cowering figure that had been hiding outside the door just now, the one that was impossible to tell if it was human or ghost.