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V13 Story III – Part 06

“The night of the séance, the plushie moved, but you didn’t expect it to pounce on you. You thought it was dull. So you tried again—this time with a sack stuffed with carrion, a device that supplies electricity, and a magic circle. I can pretty much guess what you were up to. Whether it was spirit summoning, chemistry, or some twisted Frankenstein attempt, you cobbled together whatever bits of knowledge you had to make flesh that moves according to your will—to recreate the aberration that the fox caused the other day.”

It was easy to piece together. The scene in front of me and the meat sack that had just plummeted from the roof indicated her objective. And the outcome was predictable.

“But it didn’t work. The sack you painstakingly hauled up here didn’t move. So you stomped on it in frustration and threw it off the roof. You really need to work on that temper. Otherwise, people like us will keep showing up.”

The girl shrugged again. Failure was inevitable. Only the fox could pull off something like that. It was beyond the ability of an ordinary person. But when I looked into her eyes, a chill ran down my spine.

Despite failing, her eyes gleamed brightly. Her mind was filled with curiosity about the unknown. I’d seen this before—people veering off the path of humanity. With a simple trigger, they inflict harm on others as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

“Well, yeah. But I don’t see how this concerns you. Aren’t you going to ask me why? It’s weird not hearing the usual questions.”

“If you’re looking for a reason, I have a good guess. But if you want me to spell it out, I can.”

“Oh? Go ahead,” she said cheerfully. “And you too, miss.”

I glanced at Shirayuki. She looked even more confused, unable to grasp the girl’s motives. And that was fine. I didn’t want her to understand why the girl was doing this. But for me, the reason was glaringly obvious. So obvious it made me sick.

One, two, three.

“Because you were bored.”

“Because I was bored.”

I let out a heavy sigh. The answer was all too clear. This girl was bored with her mundane life. As Asato had pointed out before, she lacked something important—a basic sense of ethics.

Not long ago, she had eagerly attempted to summon her friend’s soul using a repulsive toy stuffed with meat. Her curiosity was insatiable. If it amused her, she would go to any lengths.

I studied her, her eyes mocking through her glasses. Killing animals and discarding dolls were crimes. She had probably already faced reprimand from her teachers for the séance, but she seemed indifferent to the fact that we had witnessed her actions.

Erasing the magic circle with her shoe, she spoke in a sing-song voice, “When I tried this at home, it didn’t move. So, I came to school, where it had worked before. They took the spare key to the classroom, but I still had keys to other areas. With the moon being so close, I figured the rooftop would be a good spot. But I still need to leave before anyone shows up. Can you move aside? I wanna go home. It’s still cold at night.”

“Don’t you care that we found you?”

“So? Given the previous incident with the plushie, if this gets out, it’ll be clear it was me. Before that happens, I plan to dump this in the ditch at the back. It’ll be found in a few days, nicely decomposed. The school will likely write it off as the work of an intruder. I have good grades, you know. Even if they suspect me, they’ll want to avoid conflict with my parents and sweep it under the rug. That, and they want to boost their graduation rates. Make it easy for them to turn a blind eye, and they will do just that.”

“There’s a trick to it,” she added. “You just need to create a way out. Then they’ll look the other way. By the looks of it, you two are trespassers. You can report this to the administration or try to force them to see the truth, but people don’t look at things they don’t want to see. Besides, what’s the point of making them believe it? We’re practically strangers. Morals? You might as well feed that to the dogs.” She licked her red lips.

She was right. I would gain nothing by reporting her. It wouldn’t matter to me if she faced charges or if her future was impacted. I doubted the adults around her could handle her appropriately. We were here merely to revisit old memories. If I chose to ignore her, that would be the end of it.

I sighed inwardly. Why did I have to encounter something like this at this point? Why did I have to come across this situation now?

Why couldn’t one encounter be enough? Why did it have to happen again?

I recalled Asato’s words: what kind of person would she turn out to be? She was currently gazing at the abyss with sparkling eyes. And one day, simply out of boredom, she would dive right in. Her experiments with animal flesh would inevitably escalate.

I heaved another sigh. I realized that people like her were the ones who sparked the kind of cases Mayuzumi relished. I’d seen many like her, individuals deliberately causing tragic events. Perhaps it was fate that led us to meet again.

And now was the crucial moment. I had to change her. I needed to stop her from causing future incidents. I agreed with Asato’s earlier assessment—I’ve got the worst luck with women.

“You’re right. There’s nothing in it for me. But I can’t just leave you like this. I’ve seen many people like you, yet entirely different. None of them met a good end. If you keep going down this path, you’ll likely meet a similar fate in the near future.”

“What’s that supposed to mean? You’re not making any sense. How can someone be similar yet different?”

“I’ve met people who chose to become nonhuman for various reasons. But you—you have no reason at all. And because you have no reason, you can still go back. That’s also why all of this is utterly pointless.”

“Pointless?”

The girl arched an eyebrow. She was a proud girl. I thought back to the previous séance. Her abnormal behavior had intimidated me then. But looking back now, I realized there was no reason to be afraid. There was no rhyme or reason to her conduct.

I took a deep breath. Ignoring her would have been easier and less troublesome. But my mind was filled with the smiles of people from my past.

A girl devoured by others. A girl who chose to become a cat. Girls broken in a miniature garden. I wasn’t going to let someone who’d never experienced pain trample on people who lead normal lives out of something as trivial as boredom.

I took a deep breath and exhaled, then looked around the rooftop. Only the current me could have voiced these questions.

“Have you ever had human organs implanted inside you?”

“Huh?”

“Had your belly tear open regularly? Had a baby come out of your stomach and eat people? Had your left hand stop working properly? Had it cut off? Seen someone kill others? Confronted with the fact that you felt nothing when witnessing someone’s death?”

“Huh, wait, what are you saying?”

I stepped forward. The girl retreated a step, her face showing clear disdain. But gradually, her expression hardened. She was as perceptive as a wild animal. She must have sensed that everything I just said was true.

I stared into her eyes. Casually, with no particular emotion, I asked, “Have you ever had to feed your own flesh? Been on the brink of death at someone’s hands? Taken a life? If you had experienced all that, you might find life less boring.”

“W-Wait a minute. You’re not saying you’ve been through all that, are you? That’s ridiculous. I’m not buying such a bald-faced lie. Maybe if you were the fox, I’d believe it, but someone as unremarkable as you? It just doesn’t make sense. I mean, having organs implanted inside and carrying a baby? Come on, now. Even if it were true, I wouldn’t brag about it.”

“I’m not bragging. In fact, I’m ashamed of it all. And I’m not lying either. Want to see for yourself?”

“What?”

I placed my hand on my shirt and began undoing the buttons, one by one. The girl looked at me with disgust. Then, her expression instantly changed. Her face stiffened, not from fear but from a deep sense of visceral revulsion.

Shirayuki, standing beside me, frowned in confusion. My abdomen usually had only a faint tear, not something that would draw attention. She peered at my stomach, wondering what was going on.

Her eyes widened in disbelief. She looked at my face. I would have loved to keep it hidden a bit longer. Although I had kept this to myself while we traveled all over the place, I knew I’d have to tell her eventually. I needed to ask Shirayuki if she would listen to what I had to say even after knowing the truth. But that was a concern for another time.