The Amphisbaena Read Online Free PDF

scratched her head in disappointment as she gazed at the blank sketchbook. “It’s not finished at all. It’s all because you were dragging your feet.”
    “This is my fault?! It’s ’cause you pulled out all that weird stuff!”
    “This is bad… Mm, and I have something I need to do tomorrow,” Asagi murmured, seriously conflicted for once. Of course, Kojou felt somewhat guilty, too.
    After all, the whole reason Asagi had to do extra homework was because she’d gotten wrapped up in the terror incident; it was no fault of hers whatsoever. Besides, Kojou himself was hardly unrelated to that incident.
    “…So how about we do it on the weekend?”
    Kojou made the proposal, lacking other options. Either way, it wouldn’t be easy to finish a likeness in just the time after class was dismissed. Besides, if the work was being done at Kojou’s apartment, he wouldn’t have to worry about dressing up in weird outfits.
    “You’re sure?”
    “Yeah. My mom said she probably wasn’t gonna be back for a while still, and Nagisa has club during the day, so there’s no toes to worry about stepping on.”
    “…J-just the two of us, then…?” Asagi murmured in a voice so faint that it was hard to pick up. Kojou felt like he’d committed some kind of fatal mistake, but he couldn’t just say, “Okay, forget it,” at that point. “All right, sorry, but thanks. Saturday, okay?” Asagi said as she looked up at Kojou, a smile all over her face. And so it was.
5
    Having returned the key to the art classroom and parted ways with Asagi, Kojou was standing in front of a washstand along the corridor. He was there to wash off the doodles Asagi had drawn on his face.
    “Aww, crap… There, finally got it off…”
    Having finished taking pains to wash the stubborn grime off his face, Kojou exhaled in relief.
    As he stood like that, a towel was thrust in front of him. It was a clean-looking, pale blue towel.
    “Here.”
    “Ahh, thanks.”
    On reflex, Kojou responded to stimulus and wiped off his dripping wet face.
    “…Wait, Himeragi?!”
    Kojou froze in place when he realized who had handed him the towel.
    Yukina, in her middle school uniform with her guitar case over her back, was standing right beside Kojou without letting her presence be felt. Kojou had absolutely no idea how long she’d been standing right there.
    “What have you been doing at this late hour, senpai?” Yukina asked in a composed tone. She was in the shadow of a pillar, making her expression impossible to read. Yukina’s voice was gentle, but that only served to rattle Kojou all the more.
    The root of Kojou’s defeat was that Asagi had so filled his head that he’d completely forgotten that Yukina existed. She, a self-styled watcher,i.e., a government-approved stalker, would of course have been monitoring his movements after class.
    “Ah… Er, sorry, a classmate had me help her with some art homework until just earlier there.”
    Kojou maintained a cool composure as he made an awkward laugh. Since he had no idea just how much of the situation Yukina grasped, making a clumsy apology would be a fatal mistake.
    “It’s nothing you need to apologize for, although…”
    Yukina let out a soft sigh as she accepted the towel back from Kojou.
    “…did the homework you are referring to include having Aiba dress up in a waitress outfit and taking pictures of her?”
    “So you
were
watching?!”
    “I
am
your watcher, after all,” Yukina said as if stating the obvious. Her voice had its usual clear tone, but Kojou could not fail to pick up the echo of faint dissatisfaction in it. Although Yukina’s moods were difficult to read at a glance, Kojou had somewhat improved his grasp of them to a certain degree from having spent a lot of time with her over the last month.
    “Then, you get it already. That was Asagi playing a prank; all she really asked me to do was model for a likeness.”
    “…For a prank, you both seemed to be enjoying yourselves a