Part 19: Unnatural Mark

"Hm? That's all right. It's the weekend anyways. You should be hanging out with your friends, so don't worry about it."


"Huh? No, that's not it…! It's not like that. It's just a personal errand, and I'll be attending the club too! S-So you can come to the dojo if anything comes up!

Like an emergency craving for pancakes? I get those a lot.


I'm not going off to play because it's the weekend, so please don't misunderstand me."

"…Huh?"
Sakura's acting suspicious, and she looks very tense.
I don't really understand what she wants to say, but I guess she just means she can't come over this weekend.

"Okay. I'll go to the dojo if something comes up."


"Yes, it will make me happy if you do so."
Sakura looks relieved.
And when she looks down, her face suddenly stiffens.



"Hm?"
Sakura is staring at my left hand.
Looking down at it, it's bleeding.

"Huh?"
I pull up my sleeve.


There is certainly blood there.

"What's this? Maybe I cut it while fixing something last night."
But it doesn't hurt at all.
There's just a welt on there.
The welt goes straight from my shoulder down to the hand, and it looks kind of like a small snake running from my shoulder to my hand.

Yeah... must have cut yourself... the entire length of your arm... by accident... and it didn't start bleeding until today.