Chương 77: Chapter 76
Chika's eyes lit up. "Oh, I know this one! It's India. My friend told me you can eat the entire periodic table there when we were having curry the other day."
"Good thing there aren't any Indian players here," Natsuki grumbled. "Otherwise I'd report you for discrimination."
The creepy spider lady didn't waste any time. "Correct," she announced.
Chika beamed as she scored a point, feeling the bone chair loosen its grip slightly. Meanwhile, Natsuki felt the skeletal fingers tighten around his neck.
"Fourth question, another easy one," Spider-lady continued. "Which country is the author of 'Journey to the Center of the Earth' from?"
"Jules Verne," Yukino answered coolly. "He's French."
"Correct again."
"Now for the fifth question - everyone has to answer this one." Spider-lady's voice took on an unsettling tone. "Have you ever gone to school without underwear?"
"Hey, wait a minute!" Natsuki shouted. "This isn't trivia anymore, it's just public humiliation!"
Spider-lady ignored him. "Everything can be shared. Let's start with you, boy. Answer."
Natsuki gritted his teeth. "Never."
One by one, the girls answered:
Kaguya: "No." Rikka: "No." Yukino: "Absolutely not."
Finally, it was Chika's turn. The pink-haired girl's face turned bright red as she squirmed in her chair.
Natsuki stared at her in disbelief. Surely she hadn't actually...
"I... I got wet cleaning the pool once," Chika blurted out, eyes squeezed shut. "So I had to take them off to dry. It was just one time, I swear!"
"Now for the results," Spider-lady's voice dripped with false sweetness. "Someone is lying."
A collective "Huh?" filled the room.
"You'll all be punished."
The bone chairs tightened again. Natsuki winced in pain. This was bad - only one person got the quick-fire question right, and they all seemed to be failing these group ones. At this rate, Chika would be the first to crack.
He leaned towards the trembling girl. "Chika," he whispered urgently. "It's time to use your special skill."
"What?" Chika looked at him, confused and miserable. "You mean turning Spider-lady into some random person? But I can't reach her from here!"
Natsuki shook his head. "No, your other skill. You know, the one you're really good at..."
"Another skill? Oh, you mean the sheep thing?" Chika's eyes lit up with understanding.
After all, she only had two tricks up her sleeve - turning people into outlaws or sheep.
Kaguya turned to Rikka, catching on to Natsuki's plan. "Hey, Rikka, where's your magic mirror?"
"In my pajama pocket," the younger girl replied innocently. "But I can't reach it."
"No need," Kaguya said. "Chika, use your sheep transformation. Quick!"
"Leave it to me!" Chika puffed out her cheeks, taking a deep breath. She fixed Natsuki with a wide-eyed stare, trying to work her magic.
After a moment, she deflated. "Ugh, it's not working. The game says I'm too far away. It only works up close."
Natsuki's eyes darted to Yukino. Feeling everyone's gaze on her, Yukino frowned slightly.
"What do you want me to do?" she asked warily.
Chika jumped in. "Oh, Yukino doesn't need to do anything. This is all me!" She pulled up her skill panel, invisible to the game's spirits.
[Skill: Baa, Be a Sheep for Me]
[Type: Active]
[Description: Only usable on allies. Turn a teammate into a sheep. Duration depends on their willpower.]
[Note: That jerk played with my feelings! What a scumbag!]
Yukino's lips tightened. "Sheep transformation... I see."
"Alright, let's try again!" Chika fixed Yukino with an unblinking stare, her blue eyes wide as saucers.
A prompt appeared for Yukino: "Someone is using a skill on you. Accept?"
"...Accept," she muttered.
In a blink, Natsuki saw a faint white light envelop Yukino. The dark-haired girl vanished, replaced by a fluffy white lamb perched on the bone chair. Its wool looked cloud-soft, with a little black bow on the right side of its head.
'That's one fancy sheep,' Natsuki thought. 'Must be some premium breed.'
"Whoa, amazing!" Rikka gasped, her eyes sparkling.
Yukino-the-sheep looked around awkwardly, clearly not used to her new form. She opened her mouth as if to speak, but only a soft "Baa" came out.
"Baa!"
Natsuki's heart skipped a beat. That was a real sheep sound! He found himself thinking that having a sheep for a girlfriend might not be so bad. Then he caught Kaguya's eye.
"Stare," she said flatlessly, eyes half-closed.
"I'm so sorry," Natsuki mumbled, thoroughly chastised.
"Yukino, hurry up," he urged, getting back on track.
Spider-lady hadn't moved from her perch on the ceiling, but that didn't mean she wasn't paying attention. They had to act fast.
Sheep-Yukino nodded, clearly still thinking like a human despite her woolly exterior. She awkwardly hopped down from the bone chair - after all, what threat could a cute little lamb pose?
Once on the ground, she shook herself and trotted over to Rikka. With her teeth, she fished the magic mirror out of the girl's pajama pocket.
"Rikka," Kaguya said quickly, "Look in the mirror and say it again - you didn't go without underwear earlier."
Rikka blinked, finally catching on. She shook her head. "I've never gone to school without underwear."
The mirror stayed silent. Truth.
"Humans, what are you up to?" Spider-lady's voice drifted down from above.
Natsuki looked up, cool as a cucumber. "Just discussing your hobbies, Miss Spider."
"I'm not deaf. You weren't talking about me at all." Spider-lady's eyes narrowed.
Natsuki feigned surprise. "Oh, you have ears?"
"Of course!"
"I heard spiders' ears are on their legs. Is that true?"
"You seem to know a lot about spiders, human."
Natsuki nodded seriously. "Well, I used to dream of being Spider-Man. But ever since I learned about Spider-Woman, I've wanted to be a Spider-Knight instead."
"Human, there's something wrong with you," Spider-lady said flatly.
While Natsuki kept Spider-lady distracted, Sheep-Yukino had made her way around to the others, magic mirror clamped firmly in her teeth.
Chika looked into the mirror, blushing. "I did take off my underwear at school once... why are you making me admit it again?"
The mirror stayed silent. Truth.
Kaguya's turn: "I've never taken off my underwear at school." Again, no reaction from the mirror.
"Humans, what's the point of this stalling?" Spider-lady scoffed. She clearly knew what they were up to but didn't seem bothered. "Time for the next group question. Listen carefully..."
"Some of you have generated your own electricity-"
"Shut up!" Natsuki thought. "You're really pushing it with these questions!"
Meanwhile, Sheep-Yukino had made her way to Natsuki. Being so small now, she had to hop onto his lap for him to see the mirror properly.
Up close, Natsuki noticed how different Yukino was from a regular sheep. Her eyes were large, bright, and unmistakably human - nothing like a sheep's rectangular pupils.
Natsuki quickly looked into the mirror and stated firmly, "I've never taken off my underwear at school."
The mirror remained inactive. Truth.
"We've all told the truth," Natsuki called out, looking up at Spider-lady. "The housekeeper hasn't spoken, so... you're the liar here, aren't you?"
Spider-lady went eerily quiet.
"Think about it," Natsuki pressed on. "You said no one in the room could lie, not just us five. And about those spider ears - you didn't correct me. So you're not really a spider, are you?"
As he finished speaking, the bone chairs began to crackle and shatter beneath them.
Suddenly, a zipper appeared on Spider-lady's back. It opened from the inside, and a tiny girl, no bigger than a thermos, crawled out.
Chika's eyes went wide with recognition. "Oh! I know this! It's just like that episode of Goosebumps I watched as a kid!"
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