“(Am I…still alive…?)”

Utsurogi Kyosuke came to his senses while his mind was still spinning.

He tried to raise his body so that he could view his surrounding, but his field of vision would not clear. Grasping his head with his hands, Kyosuke noticed something odd.

…I have no hair!

I’m bald!? In just one moment too!? That’s what I thought but I immediately understood that was not the case.

It was not just my hair that was gone. In the first place, the sensation just from touching were not there, rather it was more cold and firm.

There were no skin on my head too. I don’t think its a serious wound. There were no blood flowing, no flesh and the sensation of touch were gone as well. I easily became confused on this situation.

Wait… let’s re-organize this situation.

For now, lets take a deep breath (*breaths in* although the sensation of inhaling is non-existent), as I tried to recall what happened.

Everyone in Jindai Highschool 2nd year cla.s.s 4 was in the middle of a field trip. While the bus was in transit, students were doing karaoke, playing trump, having idle chit-chats, and doing as they enjoyed to pa.s.s the time. I also took part in pa.s.sing the time. The otaku group, which was on the lower end of the cla.s.s caste system and the group I belonged in, took part in idle chattering as to not be conspicuous. The conversation itself was fun in its own way too.

However, that was short lived as h.e.l.l was swiftly approaching. The mountain contained many slopes with sharp curves. Adding to that, the road became slippery due to the rain. While trying to navigate the curves on the highway, a motorcyclist suddenly appeared out the corner of the curve. The driver turned the steering wheel in a hurry, attempting to avoid a collision, causing the bus to crash through the guardrail.
Screams was resonating in the bus; it was at that moment I could no longer recall what happened.

Anyways, the bus accident has already occurred. Fortunately, I seemed to have survived the accident.

No wait…How does that explain why I’m bald? I became confused and tried to rub my eye lids, when I realized something terrible.

I have no eye lids…

My fingers timidly crept towards my eyes and found edges. My fingers began tracing the edges, confirming the size.

It’s my eye socket. This…

What’s the meaning of this? My eyes, nose, lips and ears are all gone!?

Resolving myself, I plunged my fingers into my eyes. Yet my brain were not there as well.

“c.r.a.p! I thought I had survived, but surely I’m dead?!!”

While shouting, my field of vision began to clear. How can I see when I have no eyes, as I just had time for a self-tsukkomi.

First of all, I should check my hands to confirm something.

“What the h.e.l.l?! My hands are just bones!”

It’s not just my hands that became bones, my ribcage was fully visible too. Originally, my body was slender and whenever I was at the pool, I was made to be a fool due to my chest standing out but those days are gone. My ribs were exposing itself grandly.

Did I die? I really did die!? Moreover, not a single piece of flesh remained!?

To begin with, where am I? I checked my surrounding. It’s obvious that the bus fell in the middle of the mountains, but the scenery was different. The conifers were not lined up on the mountain’s slope and the ground was discolored, rocky and rumbling.

Could it be that this is the afterworld? Or possibly that I am in a b.u.t.terfly dream; however, in reality I should have fallen with the bus and crushed

While my thoughts were going in a circle, a shadow came from the rock, a blue semi-liquid object crawled out *nubaa*. Reflexively I became startled.

Surprisingly, that sticky object had a beautiful voice, pointed at me and screamed.

“Kyaaa! It’s a monster!!”

Honestly, that was unexpected

Certainly I was somehow a skeleton, yet I still kept a human form. And yet being called a monster, by a monster made no sense.

Iya, wait a minute…

I immediately reconsidered it. Its voice was something I recognized!

“You…. aren’t you Himemizu…?”
“Ee…….?”
The sticky-like monster who ran behind the rock suddenly stopped its movement. It then timidly crawled out towards my location.

Himemizu・ Rin, my cla.s.smate. She was a member of the track and field club, and one of the three bishoujo. In the past, my conversation with Himemizu was barely non-existence. I remember that in our cla.s.s, she has the most promising voice.

It is pretty well that I have changed entirely too.

“Eeto, you are… you are……eeto”

I made a bitter smile reflexively. After all, I’m placed in the bottom of the cla.s.s while Rin, who was popular, had her own circle of friends and it was impossible to not just remember her just by her voice.

However, Rin’s body sprang up with a *Tapon*, as she realized my name. (TL: My attempt at SFX.)

“I remember! Karaki-Kun!”
“Its Utsurogi…”
“Unn, unn! Right right!”

I replied in a sympathetic voice, while Rin’s body was shaking *tapon* *tapon*. Even when becoming a semi-liquid sticky monster, Rin promising future still seemed unchanged.

How should I say, after seeing how she does not resemble a human, I seemed to have calmed down.

I’m surprised that Rin recognized me, even after mistaking my name. Even in cla.s.s, I was barely mentioned.
Looks like it’s the genuine Himemizu Rin that’s in front of me. It’s rea.s.suring to know that there is another person here.

“What are we going to do, Utsurogi-Kun. We surely rode on the bus?”
“Uh huh. The bus surely got into an accident causing us to fall and we should have died or so I thought…And here we are in this place”

“This is like a nightmare. Utsurogi-Kun is a skeleton, and I am….”

As we were having a casual conversation, something audible could be heard from another rock. Frightened, Rin jumped towards my back, as if to hide, but since my body was only a skeleton, there was no use in hiding.

“U….gee,OOOOOOOO……!”

A sound similar to a roar came from behind the rock’s shadow. With it emerged a 3-meter giant slowly rising. Having a muscular body, three sharp eyes, and a mouth with uneven fangs growing, it’s an ogre.

And that’s not all.

From the rock’s shadow appeared a girl possessing the lower half of the body similar to a snake, slithered out. A pig faced monster came out, its body covered in bandages 「mummy man」, a monster who had its whole body covered in tentacles, etc etc… Our surrounding suddenly changed into a monster house.

My heart became stiff, as I became taken aback by being surrounded.
Iya, I have no heart and innards but its similar to the feeling of having a heart and then it becoming stiff.

I can’t run away from this.

Thinking so, the ogre’s eyes turned towards us. We both shuddered in fear and began trembling.

“Utsurogi and….Himemizu??”

I, having no eyelids, reflexively twinkled my eyes.

“….By any chance, are you Goubayas.h.i.+?”

“Yea, that’s me.”

While folding its arm, the ogre nodded. Immediately after that, the snake girl’s lower half looked like it twitched.

“Wai-, wha-, what! What’s thisss! What’s with my lower half!?”

“S, Strange debu! Our bodies changed before we knew it, and I became a pig debu!”

“Ahh….. I wonder what day it is? Where is this place even? It seems befitting that this is like sleeping.”

“M…My body…growing out my body… it can’t be…tentacles!?”

Not only the snake woman, everywhere monsters started speaking. One by one, they viewed my body and their own. Then after viewing their surrounding, their faces showed full surprise and screams were uttered due to fear. I began to understand that it was my cla.s.smates voice

So it seems, even with the bus accident we are all still alive

And then we all somehow have bodies with the shapes of monsters

What the h.e.l.l is going on? Rin and I exchanged glances, immediately after that, I could no longer recall Rin’s face anymore.