Not a detective

Page 4

They were probably just tricked into revealing that they "didn't call the police," which shows they weren't careful enough.

He had intended to run away like this, but bullying someone with a leg disability was not something a martial artist would do...

"Let's go to the activity room."

Asakawa Riku slowed his pace, looking at the girl in front of him: "I will convince you, senpai, that you don't need to worry about this anymore."

"Great!"

Chizuko looked at him and smiled sweetly. She ran to Asakawa Riku in small steps, as if afraid he would take the opportunity to slip away:

"Hey, if Asakawa-kun obediently joins the mystery club, I can tell you the secret about what happened to her right leg."

The Spring of the Earth Spider: Chapter Six - Something Fake is Hidden Under the Skirt

The narrow, cramped activity room of the mystery club felt somewhat stuffy due to its enclosed space.

Perhaps it was because of the ambiguous atmosphere.

The door was closed and locked, and all the windows were shut. The room became very dark under the curtains.

The girl had set up a perfect location, like a "locked room murder," and she stood in front of Asakawa Riku.

Asakawa Riku swallowed hard; he must have felt his mouth was dry at that moment.

Chizuko slowly lifted the bottom hem of her skirt and pulled it up.

The school uniform skirts are dark gray, and the length must be below the knee as required by school rules. Chizuko should be a good student who doesn't cause trouble for the disciplinary committee, as her skirt has always been the standard length, unlike other fashionable girls or hot girls who roll it up shorter. But at this moment, her fair thighs are displayed without any obstruction.

Even in such a dark environment, she appears fair and radiant, with a perfectly slender figure and not an ounce of excess fat, truly embodying the ideal of "balanced body and bones".

It continued to rise, seemingly about to touch that forbidden territory.

Asakawa Riku stared intently, his hands obediently resting on his knees.

My own knees.

Just as I was about to reach the limit of my thigh, I suddenly saw something incongruous. The skin on both legs was originally perfectly symmetrical, but now there was something on my right leg.

It was a "gap," wedged between the flesh, like a circular leg ring.

But upon closer inspection, you'll find that it's a gap, a recessed connection.

"Okay, you can only take a look."

Chizuko let go, and her skirt cascaded down, covering her thighs once more.

She turned her back to draw the curtains, her unnatural tone revealing her barely concealed discomfort. With the room lit up, her small, burning red ears were clearly visible.

So she was just shy... Asakawa Riku thought she was so bold, but she was just putting on airs as a senior.

"That is?"

“A prosthetic leg, or rather, a prosthetic limb.” Chizuko looked out the window, catching her breath before turning back. “It’s made of carbon fiber inside, you know. Want to give it a tap and see?”

"It's better to forget it."

Riku Asakawa finally understood that the gap was left from the installation of the prosthetic leg; the torso above was the real body, while the leg below was actually a prosthesis.

It turned out he was disabled... He felt a wave of shame; he never imagined he would be racing against a disabled person—it was utterly humiliating.

But he didn't show any sympathy or pity, which actually hurt the other person more.

"It's really realistic."

"It's so precious!"

Chizuko patted her right leg. Although there was no excess fat, you could still see the skin jiggling when she patted it hard. The level of realism was truly exaggerated: "Especially during the growth period, it is said that you have to replace it every two years, otherwise the two legs will be uneven in height. Fortunately, the doctor said that it can still be used this year, so there is no need to waste money again."

Asakawa Riku knew he shouldn't laugh; he should show a pained expression at this moment.

It's just that I haven't grown taller.

But Chizuko was indeed very cheerful; she didn't seem to take it seriously and talked about it very casually.

This expression doesn't seem fake.

She's a really special girl.

"If this is why you walk like this, then don't you need a cane?"

Asakawa Riku asked a question.

He wasn't particularly knowledgeable about medicine, but because of his exercise, he had some basic understanding of how the human body works and the distribution of muscles.

During normal walking, various muscle groups in the lower limbs need to work alternately. In particular, the quadriceps and gluteus maximus need to have enough strength to extend the knee and hip to bear weight in order to complete the standing phase. Next, the hamstrings need to have enough strength to control the speed of knee extension and work in coordination with the quadriceps to complete the swinging phase.

Chizuko-senpai does not possess any of these conditions.

If only the lower leg is amputated, that's fine. As long as the body above the knee is intact, it's sufficient to perform most tasks.

Judging from the location of the cut, Chizuko's thigh was probably amputated, and her entire right leg was replaced, which would inevitably lead to a significant decrease in stability.

Even if one gets used to using prostheses, even high-tech knee joints with pneumatic, hydraulic, or intelligent control systems can never completely replace the body's original functions.

But Chizuko-senpai was unaffected and operated the prosthetic leg as freely as a real leg.

She was even able to run just now, and almost caught up with Asakawa Riku's pace!

If it weren't for his keen observation skills, he wouldn't have noticed anything unusual.

How did they manage to do that...? Has this world developed some groundbreaking cybernetic technology? Are we about to enter a cyberpunk timeline?

"I'm going to tell you a secret."

Chizuko sat down, lifted her right leg, and took off her smooth, shiny round-toed leather shoes.

Inside the shoes were white bubble socks that had no smell. This was not to say that Asakawa Riku smelled them, but there really was no odor in this cramped space.

Okay, that's not the point. The point is the sole of the little leather shoe, which has a transparent, fluffy ball, about the size of a baseball, but it looks very soft.

It had long, thin gray fur, with a large, bright eye peeking out from the middle, looking bewildered.

"This is a 'Yamawara,' a type of yokai. In their complete form, they can stand and walk like humans, but in their juvenile form, they are small balls with abundant body hair and only one eye. It is said that they were once a variant of the Kappa. In spring and summer, they are Kappas in the river, and in autumn and winter, they are Yamawaras in the mountains. However, due to the continuation of the legend, they gradually became two different types of yokai."

Chizuko introduced the creature with great interest, even reaching out to tease the fluffy ball with her finger, as if she were feeding a pet:

"Don't let their small size fool you, they are incredibly strong and can easily support my weight. They are relatively friendly monsters, and I use them to walk. In the past, woodcutters in the mountains have received their help, but they occasionally play pranks on people. As long as I give them their favorite rice balls every night, they won't throw me off and drop me to the ground."

She even used her fingers to mimic stick figures to demonstrate how she walks.

When the left leg lands normally, the prosthetic leg cannot exert force on its own when the right leg lands; instead, the mountain child lifts it up to complete one alternation.

This process is repeated continuously, eventually forming the normal walking movements of an average person.

Riku Asakawa finally understood, and realized why he thought Chizuko's walking posture was strange.

As previously thought, she wasn't exerting any effort herself; rather, something was supporting her.

Asakawa Riku seemed to understand, but he still looked surprised...

"What exactly are you talking about...?"

In his eyes, the "mountain boy" that Chizuko-senpai mentioned was not a thing at all. The soles of the shoes were spotless, and there was no monster there!

The girl was teasing the air with her outstretched finger, excitedly introducing it, but it was nothing more than air...

The Spring of the Earth Spider: Chapter Seven - I Had Absolutely No Feeling

Is this little guy mentally ill? Or is he delusional?

Asakawa Riku vaguely felt that this was a more serious symptom than "chuunibyou" (middle school syndrome), because her description was so vivid, as were her actions and expressions.

It was as if there were truly inhuman beings there!

No matter how wide he stared, there was nothing there. Even a ninja skilled in holding their breath shouldn't have been able to escape his observation...

"This is normal. People without inspiration cannot observe the location of monsters unless they have experienced special circumstances or are within the boundaries of special time and place."

Chizuko, as if anticipating this, smiled and then presented the shoes with both hands:

"please!"

Her movements were so devout, it was almost as if she were offering sacrifices.

"I'm not going to use it for anything..." Asakawa Riku muttered to himself, but his curiosity overcame his wild thoughts and he accepted it for the time being.

Chizuko kept her uniform shoes very clean; there wasn't a speck of dust on the soles, so there was no resistance to touching them with bare hands.

Asakawa Riku thought that if there really were monsters, they were probably the ones who served as "shoe covers."

I picked up the small, black, round-toed leather shoe and examined it closely, but I still couldn't see anything through it, so I simply reached out and touched it—

"can not be like this!"

Chizuko was suddenly terrified and cried out.

She even forgot that she was sitting in a chair and couldn't support herself on one leg, so when she stood up in a panic, she lost her balance!

Like a runaway roly-poly toy about to fall to the ground, a strange force suddenly rose up from the earth.

"Eh?"

Chizuko only had time to utter a question before she suddenly returned to her seat.

She sat firmly, as if the loss of balance just now was merely a daydream, leaving her with a bewildered and dazed feeling.

What happened? What just happened?

Just as she was about to fall, Asakawa Riku reacted, pressed on her chest, and pushed her back into her seat.

But is this really something that can be done?

Chizuko didn't even realize how it happened; it was as if she had skipped the process and fast-forwarded directly to the result.

It even returned to the same sitting posture as before, and didn't fall backward due to the huge force...

To achieve such precise force control under extreme reaction conditions.

"you……"

Chizuko clutched the collar of her uniform and asked cautiously.

“I’m sorry for the offense, but I didn’t have time to think at the time. If I didn’t push your chest, I was afraid that if I pressed your head back down, your spine might break accidentally.”

Asakawa Riku was still staring at the shoe, his hands still on it, as if he hadn't made a move at all.

"I don't blame you... Thank you, but please don't use such terrible language."

Chizuko couldn't help but laugh. Actually, she didn't care much. After all, it was an emergency, and the other party had saved her once, not on purpose.

Asakawa Riku glanced at him out of the corner of his eye. He was putting on an air of expertise, but he was actually a little guilty.

If she directly said that "I didn't feel anything just now," it's hard to say whether Chizuko-senpai could still maintain such a calm and composed demeanor.

He changed the subject: "So, when you said 'don't do this,' what did you mean by 'don't do this'?"

"Ah." Distracted like this, Chizuko almost forgot the important matter: "Asakawa-san, I wasn't talking to you, I was talking to Yamawaro."

"Mountain Boy?"

Asakawa Riku held up the shoe.

He had just tried, whether by staring at it or by touching it directly, but he couldn't find any such furry monster.

Touching the sole of the shoe, it's just a hard, solid sole plate.

"Eh?"

This time, it was Chizuko who covered her mouth in surprise: "What happened...?"

"Kazamatsuri-senpai, is it normal that I can't touch youkai?"

"Well... Logically speaking, if you touch a monster, your senses are so low that most people wouldn't feel anything, but at the very least, they would sense some uncomfortable sensation."

"How uncomfortable are you?"

"It's like smelling leftovers that have been fermenting for three days, or seeing a dense array of holes, or hearing the sound of glass rubbing against a blackboard."

"...Very accurate, I've already started to feel unwell."

Asakawa Riku twitched the corner of his mouth: "But that's because of your description, Kazamatsuri-senpai. When I touch this shoe, I don't feel anything at all."

He wasn't lying; it was just an ordinary shoe.