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V5 Story IV – Part 03

Who killed Cock Robin?

The words flashed through my mind. Shizuki’s hand trembled. I thought back about the incident. Tsubaki, Ruiko, and Kotori indirectly killed Saori.

That was what Shizuki told us.

“What? What are you saying?” Shizuki mumbled. “I don’t know anything…”

“There you go again. Bailing yourself out. You know, until now I thought it wasn’t possible. You adored Saori. I thought you wouldn’t do that. I believed that there was something wrong with my memories. But…”

Kotori’s smile deepened. A smile that did not touch her eyes. There was only a cold glint in them.

“Back then, when they were arguing, you handed Ruiko the stone. Am I wrong?”

I remembered a girl swinging a stone up in the air.

The scene I saw through Kotori’s memory unfolded before my eyes. The girls were arguing with each other. Ruiko was hitting Saori, and Shizuki moved closer to stop her. She grabbed Ruiko’s hand and let go. Two hands separated, and the next instant, Ruiko raised a stone overhead.

I cast my mind back to what Shizuki said.

It was probably an accident. There was a bloody stone nearby, but Shizuki believed that it was an accident.

She despised Ruiko and the girls, called them murderers. But when we questioned her back then, she told us it was an accident, and only gave a vague account of the fight.

Why did she not go into detail about the girls’ actions in that particular moment alone?

Why did she subconsciously avoid using the word ‘murderer’ when explaining what happened?

“No… you’re wrong… I left the academy with them, but I… I didn’t kill Saori. I had no reason to! None! I was involved, yes. I might have caused Saori’s death, but I’m a victim. I didn’t kill her.”

“You did. You had a reason to kill her.”

Shizuki’s body trembled harder. Kotori descended down the stairs and stopped where she could see Shizuki’s face. Her smile widened. A chill ran down my spine. I put my foot on the staircase to stop her, but Shizuki pulled my right hand back hard. Her strength was abnormal.

“Stop it, Kotori-san!” I cried.

“You liked Saori,” Kotori said with a cruel smile. “But she did not like you at all. That’s why you wanted her corpse. Am I right? A dead body wouldn’t scorn you.”

I should have covered Shizuki’s ears. I should have shouted out loud to drown out Kotori’s voice.

But it was too late.

Shizuki’s hand went lax. Her fingers left my hand.

It was as if something had broken inside her.

Kotori was smiling in front of me. I knew nothing about Saori, because Shizuki didn’t talk about her. She said she loved Saori, but she didn’t tell us anything about her. I looked behind me and grabbed Shizuki’s shoulder.

“Whatever,” she murmured. “I don’t care anymore.” Her voice was chilling.

She raised her head. There was no light in her eyes.

“I’m done,” she said indifferently. “So where’s Saori’s fingers?”

The hair on my body bristled. There was venom in her question.

Kotori couldn’t have known anything about that. The cat took Saori’s fingers. Kotori didn’t have the answer to her question. But she went on anyway.

“You always cherished the fingers that the flowers spat out,” she said in a loving tone. “You admired them day in and day out. Unfortunate, though. After talking to the feline girl that day, my mind went hazy. In my daze, I believed I had to eat flowers. So…”

I hurriedly reached for Shizuki’s ears, but she slapped my arm with the swiftness of a machine and cast a gaze at Kotori.

Kotori laughed. Laughed like a madwoman. Her shrill voice reminded me of Ophelia’s song.

But her next words were as calm as the sea.

“So I ate the flowers from your hospital room first. I tore the flowers off, plucked them, and dropped the pot out the window. I’m sure someone already cleaned it up.”

She sneered. The fear that had plagued her all this time turned to rage.

“Serves you right,” she spat.

Shizuki bounded. She pounced on Kotori like a beast, pushing her down, sending them both tumbling down the staircase. Even after falling to the bottom of the stairs, they were still going at it, shrieking. Kotori’s negligee was torn, and Shizuki’s gloves flew off.

Shizuki mounted Kotori and repeatedly punched her in the stomach. Kotori curled up. But she didn’t stop laughing.

“Give it back, give it back, give it back, give it back, give it baaaaaack!” Shizuki screamed.

I scrambled toward them and bound Shizuki’s arms from behind. She flailed around as I pulled her away. Kotori bent and hurled on the spot.

“G-Go to hell!” Kotori shouted, wiping her mouth. “You should be the one dying. You killed Tsubaki and Ruiko. You should kill yourself!”

“That’s enough, Kotori!”

Then suddenly, Shizuki put her weight behind me, pulling me backwards with all her strength. My legs tangled. Shizuki took the opportunity to get up. I grabbed her left hand.

“Shizuki-san!”

My hand slipped through.

“…Huh?”

Shizuki’s hand was oddly soft and wet in one area. I felt something being torn. And only fingers remained in my hand.

I looked at Shizuki’s left hand, no longer hidden inside a glove. It was wet with blood and pus. All her fingers had been severed, replaced by decomposed fingers, sewn to her hand.

She said she needed them. She said she didn’t want to lose them.

Having lost the flower, she no longer had access to new fingers. She only had the fingers that the flower spat out last. She didn’t want to lose those either.

So she sewed them into her hand.

She severed her own fingers.

“Shizuki-san…”

Her madness left me paralyzed, delaying my response.

She ran away from Kotori. She didn’t try to hit Kotori any more. She just scurried away. Grasping the fingers in my hand, I went after her.

Shizuki ran, screaming like a broken woman. I heard something crawling at the end of the corridor. A baby was crying. She didn’t hear it.

“Shizuki-san! Stop, it’s dangerous!”

She tripped over the doll, sending them both rolling on the floor, sliding across until they hit the wall. Weeping, Shizuki hugged the doll. It was convulsing as it cooed. It didn’t seem to mean any harm.

They were twitching like bugs.

Shizuki sobbed while the baby babbled. I touched her back. She didn’t respond. Her left hand was wet with blood and pus, but her life wasn’t in any danger. There was nothing more in her teary eyes.

She had lost everything.

There was no trace of her satisfied smile anymore.

---

“Stop being rough. I didn’t do anything! It was all Shizuki’s fault!”

I opened the door. “Mayu-san! We have to leave and get Shizuki-san to a doctor!”

Dragging Kotori with me, I climbed up to the sixth floor. My legs were numb from all the running, and I was breathing raggedly. I lay Shizuki down in the car and returned with Kotori. I wanted to call an ambulance, but I had Mayuzumi to think about. Sirens were a no-go.

The man with the knife was nowhere to be found.

Mayuzumi and the cat alone were facing each other.

The girls glanced back at me curiously.

“Ah, I see,” the cat said when she saw me and Kotori. “So that’s what happened. I knew all along. She was the only one grieving? What craftiness.” Her tone was melodious.

She claimed to be sad because she wanted to be seen as innocent.

So she was a sparrow, not a dove.

I didn’t know where the man went, but this was perfect. I strode up to the cat. I let go of Kotori’s hand, and she plopped down a short distance away. She looked grumpy, but she no longer had any intention of taking revenge on Shizuki.

“Why are you mad at me?” the cat said. “I didn’t do anything, cutie. Oh, if you’re looking for that man, I told him to leave. I would like to ask you to relax, but it doesn’t look like you’ll listen. Truly unfortunate.”

Shizuki cut off her fingers and eventually broke. It was her fault for killing people, Kotori’s fault for taking revenge, and my fault for looking after Kotori.

But wasn’t the cat at the root of it all? I silently approached her.

Right before I raised my fist, she said, “Calm down, cutie. You are more confused than you think. She cut her own fingers and replaced them with the fingers of the dead. It was Ms. Kotori who ate her flowers. Her subconscious anger compelled her to do it. I did nothing. All I did was give Ms. Shizuki a letter saying I knew where the flowers were and led her to this place. I told you: there are no rules. I just left information about the performance.”

Who killed Cock Robin?