Chaoskouji

Arc 4 Chapter 1 - Daily life on a cruise

"We're underneath our cabin."

Almost right, although there was a rather large margin for error, so it was understandable that he hadn't quite got it right.

"Close. We're actually underneath our neighbours' cabin."

Yukimura made a face at the mention of our disgusting class perverts. Like all people in Class D, he had his own defect, but Yamauchi and Ike were on another level. Sudou had shaped up somewhat, and Sotomura was his own brand of loveable weird, but the first two were irredeemable.

I moved to the pipe that Kouenji had indicated, and sure enough, it was the pipe coming from their room. I felt bad for the cleaners, but something had to be done.

"Woah, you're not actually gonna do something are you?"

"Sometimes, Yukimura, you have to stand up for what you believe in."

And with that, I twisted the valve on the pipe, cutting off the outflow from their room. I estimated it would take about half an hour before their pipes backed up, and their toilet began to overflow. It was disgusting, but it would get them out of their room, and get cleaners in. A small price to pay for salvation.

"Congratulations, demon-boy, you now carry the honour of saving one such as perfect as me. Now, I must return to the pool. My body will degrade if I remain in this filth any longer."

And with that, the strange man left, without a care in the world. Yukimura was staring at me with a strange expression on his face, one I couldn't understand.

"What did you just do?"

"I got the room across from us to be cleaned. Let's go, I'd rather not be seen down here."

Saying that, I followed after Kouenji, and after a moment's hesitation, Yukimura did too, leaving the valve shut, not messing with my work. Luckily, it seemed no one was down here at this time of day, and I hadn't spotted any security cameras on our way here, so it was unlikely that we would get into any trouble for this.

Realistically, most people would just assume that the boys clogged the pipes themselves, and even when the valve was found to be shut, there wouldn't be any evidence leading back to us.

We moved back in silence, Yukimura not sure what to say, probably thinking of some way to complain about our actions, me having nothing to say to him. The passages were quite long, branching off often, but as I explored through them, taking a slightly less efficient route back, it became clear that they had been cleverly designed.

Getting to one point from another on the ship would be much easier using these. There were private elevators for staff only, and without unnecessary winds and bends around fancy but useless designs, it was a lot quicker to move around. Although using these came with the added risk of discovery, if I ever had a need to get from one end of the ship to the other in a short amount of time, knowing how they worked would be handy.

Yukimura, deaf to the world as usual, was about to move around a corner when the sound of footsteps reached my ears. I grabbed him, and dragged him by the collar back around, clamping my hand over his mouth so we wouldn't be heard.

"Stupid smug student thinks he's so amazing. God, there's no way to deal with him, it's ridiculous."

A bellhop was muttering to himself, apparently fed up with one of my year mates. He passed right by our hiding place, and although we weren't concealed all that well, he seemed so caught up in his thoughts that he didn't notice us.

"Thinks he can get away with anything by signing his name on a piece of paper? What sort of delusion is that? And what kind of name is Kouenji Rokusuke?"