3 bar menu

V4 Story IV – Part 06

---

Translator: Kell

---

The floor number indicator lit up, and the elevator started climbing.

Hearing the vibrations of the elevator reminded me of a past incident. In an abandoned building, I parted ways with Mayuzumi and rode the elevator alone.

As the car rose, I felt more and more detached from the natural world. And that feeling was probably right on the mark. Getting off this cage was pointless.

I didn’t have a place to go.

Mayuzumi was gone. I would never see that sarcastic smile when I returned to the apartment ever again.

For so long I wished to get away from her. But when I thought about it, hers was the only place I could go back to.

Someone like me who conceived a demon couldn’t possibly live a normal life.

It was only through the supernatural being that was Mayuzumi that I was able to survive.

“I guess it’s a little too late to realize that.”

“That’s right, Odagiri-kun. You could’ve shown me a little more respect.”

In my mind I saw Mayuzumi smiling. I shook my head to rid myself of the image.

All I had left was Shirayuki. My only wish now was to save her.

I had one last firm purpose remaining.

Ding.

The door opened. I was about to take a step forward, but stopped.

Red flowed slowly into the elevator floor, and a stench drifted into my nostrils. I felt a sense of déjà vu. I closed my eyes tight, shrugged off the vertigo, and continued on my way.

Splat.

I felt an expected sensation under my feet. I opened my eyes.

Blood rippled like water on a pond. In the center of the crimson room was a small, black chair, where a figure wearing a fox mask sat. He was holding a pale, doll-like child in his arms.

He smiled. “Long time no see, Odagiri.”

The floor was wet with blood.

But there were no bodies around.

Suddenly, something fell out of the white child’s mouth. It bounced and rolled on the floor.

It was white, with a familiar shape.

I picked it up. I guessed she couldn’t chew it properly.

“Did she eat them?” I asked.

I shuddered. The people who fled the building headed out or up. They must have learned during Shirayuki’s assault.

That the Lord would take care of things.

What happened to the people who tried to take refuge up here?

The fox smiled thinly, looking bored. A black shadow behind him moved. My eyes widened. I didn’t know there were still living humans here.

But I immediately realized the truth. There were no humans in this room.

White skin was visible through their black robes. The five humanoids standing in a row were wearing fox masks over their faces. But unlike Asato’s mask, their eyes were painted over.

A pale figure in the middle of a red room, surrounded by black silhouettes.

The scene was too complete. Not only was the floor stained with blood, but the walls too were dyed red. The boundary between reality and the spirit world was completely gone. It felt like I was inside a human womb.

Invigorated, the child in my belly started lashing out. I didn’t rebuke her.

This was what I wanted. Instead I asked Asato once more.

“Answer me, Asato.”

He raised his head languidly and regarded me with drowsy eyes.

“You arrived very early,” he said in a singsong voice. “I thought you would be coming here much later, to the point that I would’ve missed you. I’m a little surprised, I suppose. And disappointed. It’s not fun when a game ends so soon. This world is so boring, you know? I thought I could play with you for a long time.”

The white child’s lips were pursed in displeasure. Moving her teeth as if chewing gum, she spat out something.

Shredded white flesh rolled across the red floor. The sight of it reminded me of what I saw earlier.

A man who had lost his ear, running away screaming.

“Yusuke…” he went on. “Quite the interesting fellow as well. Broken, yet wishes, more than anyone else, to not break. His rampage caused a panic among the people here, so they gathered in this room. They were so loud. So I had the stupid meat dealt with. Good thing meat don’t talk. I wouldn’t want them counting on me,” he finished arrogantly.

My throat cramped from anger.

“Because Mayuzumi Azaka doesn’t offer salvation to anyone?” I said in a mocking tone.

His argument was very similar to what she said.

For a moment, the expression vanished from Asato’s face.

Then he smiled again, gently. It was hard to discern the emotion on his face. I swallowed down the snide remarks rising up my throat.

And instead asked what needed to be asked.

“Where’s…. Where’s Shirayuki-san?”

Asato flashed a satisfied smile.

The white child opened her mouth and laughed innocently in a high-pitched voice. Her hands, fiddling with her hair, were stained crimson. I was reminded of the blood on the curtains.

“Ah, yes. Hope must lie at the bottom of Pandora’s box. Even if the only thing left in the real box is the tragedy of knowing the future. You have no desire to live, and you’ve lost my sister. Yet it would seem she’s special to you. Everyone has at least that someone who becomes a spider’s thread when they’re in the pits of despair.”

Asato waved his hand like a conductor. The humanoids standing around him stirred, and they dragged a woman out from behind them. A person clothed in a white kimono appeared between the figures wrapped in black cloth. Shock and relief filled my heart.

Minase Shirayuki.

She looked haggard, but she was still breathing.

It was painful seeing her arms held tight, spread wide to both sides. It looked as if she was being crucified. I balled my fists and suppressed my discomposure. I needed to be as calm as possible. I shifted my gaze to Asato and the white child. There was pure joy in their eyes.

Their smiles were those of animals. The white child seemed to have no intellect; she was just sucking her bloody fingers.

“Then let us begin the final story,” Asato said tenderly.

The white child clapped her hands innocently. As if narrating a tale, Asato’s voice echoed sonorously throughout the red room. He used the same tone as he did back then.

“This is a story of the end.

Once there was a captive princess.

And once there was a prince who couldn’t save anyone.

He had always wanted to help others.

She had always wanted to help him.

It is a very sad tale.

But both of their wishes can’t come true.

Which of the two wishes will come true? The princess’s or the prince’s?

What do you think, dear listener?”

His voice was alluring. He tossed something, and the sea of red rippled. It slid across the sticky blood and stopped before me.

A silver blade glinted in the crimson.

“I have only one condition for you, Odagiri.”

The expression vanished from the fox’s face. He looked at me with an icy gaze.

I could easily guess his next words. Under the circumstances, there was only one thing the fox would say.

“Kill yourself. If she’s really important to you, you wouldn’t hesitate to do it, would you?”

Asato smiled.

There were two weights on the scale.

The fox was telling me to tip it one way, that it was up to me which direction to tip it.

And he reveled in these choices.

“I don’t know how you feel about it, Odagiri, but it was definitely you who drove Shizuka to suicide. I only set the stage, while you write the script. You’re the one who pressured Makihara, abandoned Aya, and killed Akari and Higasa. No amount of denial will ever change that fact.”

An image from the past crossed my mind. Shizuka’s body disappearing at my fingertips. A blue sea rising, and hands clinging to my sleeves. Images I’d seen over and over flashed through my head. Silently, I bent down.

I closed my eyes tight and gripped the knife.

“Yet you still believe that your words were not lies. Prove it, then, Odagiri Tsutomu. For once, would you die for someone? It would serve as conclusive evidence that would substantiate your claim of wanting to help others. You can easily prove that you weren’t lying. Execute yourself, and you will be acquitted on all counts.”

I recalled the grief that burned in my chest. In the blazing mansion, I kept screaming that I wasn’t just all talk.

I took a deep breath and exhaled.

“Now I know why you hated Mayu-san,” I said, not responding to his question.

Asato’s eyes narrowed a little. The white child stopped clapping. Amid the heavy silence, I tossed the knife up in the air.

The handle settled into my hand.

“Mayuzumi Azaka, and Mayuzumi Asato. Their relationship,” I went on. “I can imagine the humiliation you suffered in the past. But even if that didn’t happen, I’m sure you would’ve hated Mayuzumi Azaka anyway.”

The fox kept spinning tales over and over, dragging her into them.

But why did he never show himself?

Why lay meticulous traps from a distance and make her taste defeat indirectly?

I studied the sight before me. In the center of the scarlet room, the fox sat like a king, holding a doll-like child in his hands. The walls, merging with the spirit world, pulsated. The black figures standing in a row were holding Shirayuki, the princess, like a sacrifice.

It was a picture-perfect scene.

An awe-inspiring, meticulously-crafted space.

Laughter rose in my throat. I tried so hard to suppress the urge to burst out laughing.

---

---