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V12 Story I – Part 06

The gruesome shadow play continued. As people writhed in agony, Mayuzumi shrugged nonchalantly.

“This isn’t really important right now. What matters is the space between the mirrors.”

Tilting her parasol, Mayuzumi pointed at the red petals, which glistened in the light from the flames. It was almost as if they were burning themselves. Suddenly, a question popped in my mind.

The petals in the city were thinning out. Yet, the flowers brought here showed no signs of decay. The dense layers of petals were still glossy and red, like a single organ.

“You’ve noticed it too, haven’t you? The petals here are quite bright. The space between the mirrors is partially transformed into the spirit world. This place, wedged between supernatural phenomena, is somewhat cut off from the real world. It must have been a comfortable place for her, having become something other than human.”

Cryptic words. Before I could ask her questions, she continued.

“The owner of one of the buildings is related to the Mayuzumi clan. She might’ve thought that would come in handy. That’s why she chose this place as her resting spot and spread the petals like a bed.”

I recalled the scene I had witnessed earlier. Yamashita Yukiko in a white dress, lying on the red petals. But Mayuzumi shook her head slightly, as if to deny my memory.

“Indeed, the petals here were used as a bed. You must have seen it too. A girl lying as if on a bed. However, the person you saw and the person I saw are different.”

She twirled the parasol again, recreating the scene embedded in the place. The woman in the white dress appeared on the petals. Her beautifully moist eyes blinked as she slowly looked up at me.

Yamashita Yukiko smiled with motherly kindness.

“Look closely,” Mayuzumi said. “She is indeed someone you know. But she is not the woman who committed suicide.”

As her words took hold, my vision blurred significantly. Someone’s figure overlapped with Yamashita’s. Triggered by Mayuzumi’s words, I realized I was seeing two things at once.

It might work now. Driven by an unfounded confidence, I closed one of my overlapping visions. Until now, I had perceived the red petals, invisible to humans, through Uka’s sight.

I slowly closed the demon’s vision. Then, Yamashita’s figure disappeared, and in her place lay a small girl. A girl I knew.

A black cloak spread from her back. Her brown hair was tied back with a headband, and her large eyes were irritably narrowed. She was lying on the bed, looking bored.

Apparently, back when she was still alive, she had spent her time here when she had nothing to do. Studying the familiar figure, I bit my lip. Indeed, she did not commit suicide.

The girl I had killed, Kotori, lay on the red petals.

Mayuzumi closed her parasol, and the image of Kotori lying in the alleyway vanished. With Uka’s vision shut, the red petals disappeared as well. I panicked, not knowing how to bring her vision back, but it returned on its own. Keeping it closed seemed more difficult than letting it be.

Mayuzumi began to speak again. “What you saw was Uka consuming the emotions of a certain person left in this place, overlaying his memories on your vision. To him, Kotori lying in the alleyway looked like Yamashita Yukiko. You can guess who that vision belonged to, can’t you? Even in death, that madman had mistaken an unfamiliar girl for his beloved.”

I recalled the mystical and beautiful figure of Yamashita Yukiko I had seen earlier. The real Yamashita Yukiko was nothing like that. Her image had been altered, beautified to an unusual extent. The vision’s owner had idolized her so much that he lost sight of her real self.

And there was only one person I knew who had idealized her that much. It wasn’t Yamashita Kazue. She would have loved her sister, flaws and all.

It was Sugita Tomoyuki, her former lover who had hanged himself.

“After dying in prison, his soul couldn’t find peace and wandered, drawn to this city amidst a major aberration. Then, he mistook Kotori for Yamashita Yukiko. Having come into contact with her, he likely made some sort of a deal with the scarlet woman and was turned into some silly trap.”

“A silly trap?” I asked.

“Yes, a bear trap set in a spot that prey can easily access, complete with fresh meat.”

Smiling thinly, Mayuzumi took a few steps and stopped just before the pile of red petals. A petal fluttered down onto her leather shoe.

Not looking back, she asked, “So, can you figure it out yet, Odagiri-kun? Why do you think the organs are falling?”

Without waiting for my answer, she stepped into the flowers. One of her feet sank into the red petals. Flustered, I reached out toward her, but my hand fell short. Without thinking twice, Mayuzumi continued forward, walking into the petals.

“Last time, the body parts were returning bit by bit to where the soul was. But this time, it’s different. The organs were extracted by the scarlet woman and collected in the spirit world. They’re still being used. Think about what changed when the organs fell. The answer is simple.”

The alleyway was short, but I couldn’t reach Mayuzumi without going in. I stared at the red sea before me. A chill ran down my spine. I didn’t want to go in there. But leaving her alone in the flowers was too dangerous. Reluctantly, I steeled myself and stepped in. My feet sank into the red sea. The red flowers were untouchable by humans. I felt nothing against my legs.

Suddenly, goosebumps rose all over my body. My senses—sight, hearing, touch—were assaulted by something. It exploded, tearing my brain to shreds. A red scene appeared before my eyes. Thousands of petals, a car in the flowers, a lying Mikage, Shirayuki jumping out of the car, two pale arms sprouting from eye sockets, Kotori’s scream, the sharp pain in my left arm, Aya’s light body, her smile, and her final words.

When I came to, I had fallen forward. Red petals swayed before my nose. I didn’t even manage to break my fall; my knees hurt like hell. Tears and snot flowed. I realized I was experiencing a flashback of recent events.

“It’s simple: We came.” Mayuzumi’s voice sounded distant. “The organs were the fresh meat on the bear trap. If an aberration occurred near a building owned by someone related to the Mayuzumis, I would inevitably be informed. Moreover, if it closely resembled a past case, it was highly likely to attract my interest. This is a mimicry of a past incident, nothing more than a half-baked reproduction. There’s no deeper meaning to it. Well, maybe just one. It’s more of a purpose than a meaning. What to do with the humans caught in the trap?”

I consciously took deep breaths. Confirming that I had calmed down, I stood up. The aberration by the window had subsided. The flames were gone, but the flowers still gleamed. The sight was maddening. The alleyway looked like a coffin blanketed with flowers. Half-buried in the petals, Mayuzumi, black dress stirring, turned to face me.

“It was to make someone who didn’t want to jump, jump.”

But we were on solid ground. There was no way to fly. Confused, I desperately tried to process the information I had received. Something was nagging at my mind. What did Mayuzumi say earlier?

“He was turned into some silly trap. A bear trap set in a spot that prey can easily access. Think about what changed when the organs fell. It’s simple: we came.”

I finally understood. The organs were nothing more than bait to lure us.

We, the prey, were drawn to the organs and came to the alleyway. After that, there was no need for the organs to be discovered by someone else and have information about the aberration spread around. In fact, if someone found them now, it would cause a commotion and prevent us from getting close. So, the last organ disappeared before anyone else could find it. The organs were just bait on the bear trap to lure us.

Now that we were interested in the trap itself, the bait was no longer needed.

Where were we right now?

My gut stirred, and I looked up. Above me was the night sky filled with swirling red petals. A few of them rapidly grew larger. In an instant, red filled my vision.

Plop. Plop. Plop. Plop. Plop. Plop. Plop. Plop. Plop. Plop. Plop. Plop. Plop. Plop.

Something soft hit my face. A warm lump slapped my cheek and fell to the ground. Blood dripped into my eye, staining my vision red. Something long struck my shoulder and slid down, catching on my arm, swinging. What fell near my leather shoes looked like a brain.

The pattering of organs at my feet sounded like a round of applause.

Covered in the stench of blood, I slowly turned my head to look at Mayuzumi.

She stood there protected by her parasol, completely untouched. Like she was in a flower garden, Mayuzumi calmly stood as entrails fell on her parasol.

Seeing her cool, unchanged demeanor, I remembered an important fact too late. We had stepped into a trap. But aberrations couldn’t kill Mayuzumi Azaka.

Then what about Tsutomu Odagiri?

Papa!

Uka cried sharply. Feeling a dreadful presence, I snapped my head up.

It was shockingly close. A human’s hanging corpse, arms outstretched, floated in the air.

I locked eyes with the swollen head. Embedded in its neck was an impossibly long towel, stretching into the void between the buildings.

Sugita, who had turned into an evil spirit like Saga Yusuke’s father, descended upon me. I couldn’t help but avert my eyes from the approaching face etched with agony. I turned to Mayuzumi, who was standing quietly.

She watched me with a bored expression. The same indifferent look she always had.

In the next moment, a chilling sensation enveloped me, and my consciousness slipped into darkness.