Inside the school trip bus, the students are divided into several groups.
There are groups that are making a ruckus, groups that are sleeping, groups that are quietly listening to music or reading, and then there’s the group that’s just zoning out.
I, Toma Isurugi, belong to the fourth group—the zoning out group.
Since it’s my first time visiting this place, looking at the scenery is somewhat enjoyable.
As we drive through a lush green valley, the bus shakes. It seems to be swaying heavily from side to side.
“What the hell!?”
“Hey, driver! Drive more carefully!”
That voice didn’t reach the driver.
What I saw was the driver, his face buried in the steering wheel, slumped over weakly. It looked like he had lost consciousness.
The moment I recognized that, the bus broke through the guardrail.
“Waaahhh!”
“Whoa-oh-oh-oh!”
I felt a sensation of floating and heard the screams of my classmates.
Below the cliff, there were stones scattered on the riverbed.
The ground was rushing towards us.
“Ah, I’m definitely going to die.”
At that moment, I closed my eyes, thinking this was how I would die.
Then a violent impact pierced through my body.
It felt extremely cold.
When I opened my eyes, a hellish scene unfolded before me.
The bus was upside down at the front, crumpled up.
Classmates were piled on top of each other, bleeding.
I was wearing my seatbelt, but it seemed like everyone else wasn’t, and the situation was horrific.
But even with a seatbelt on, I would still die.
“Cough!”
I spat out blood.
What a terrible thing this is. There’s a metal rod piercing through my stomach.
It pierced through the seat in front of me and impaled me as well. I’m skewered.
“I really am going to die.”
I don’t feel pain.
But it’s cold, as if I were in the Arctic.
At this rate, I will definitely die.
It’s a matter of whether rescue comes first or death.
Even if I were to be rescued with this rod piercing through my stomach, there’s a chance I could die afterward.
“Ah, what a short life it was.”
More than that, I should say it’s finally time to die.
I was abused by my parents.
It was during my second year of middle school that I ended up in the hospital because of it, which led to a report from the hospital, and I was taken to a children’s welfare facility.
I haven’t seen my parents since then. I don’t even know what happened to them.
At the middle school I attended after the children’s welfare facility, I was mocked as “parent-less.” The same thing continued into high school.
My classmates would often call me “parent-less.”
Compared to the abuse I suffered from my parents, that was nothing significant. I thought I could endure it until I graduated high school, but now I’m going to die here…
Life really is a strange thing.
As I thought about that, my vision started to turn white.
I thought I was really going to die.
At the same time, pain assaulted me. A pain like I had never experienced before. It was agony that made me want to writhe, but I couldn’t move a muscle.
Even on the verge of death, I can’t escape the pain. It’s unbearable.
