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V7 Story I – Part 06

“That’s enough, Yusuke-kun,” she said. “You may rest.”

“Argh, so heavy, darn it!” He dumped the books on the floor.

Mayuzumi opened her parasol, red blooming on her back. A swarm of butterflies flocked toward it.

The parasol started spinning. Wings seemed to dissolve into the air. Butterflies lost their shape like candy being boiled. Colors fused, dying the parasol in vibrant hues, searing my vision. I couldn’t tell if they were real or an illusion.

As the parasol twirled, the butterflies took off one after another, as if stirred up by the wind.

One of them landed on my cheek. It felt like a woman’s touch.

The baby in my belly started laughing. I gently brushed the butterfly away and stared at the hook.

Soon I heard the sound of a rope creaking, and a man’s body appeared in front of us, hanging in silence.

It was a decapitated corpse, with an ugly scar visible where the head should be. The rope had embedded into the bone, and the flesh around it had decayed, crumbling away. The man’s body swayed perilously.

Misaki gasped, and Yusuke let out a guttural growl. He was sneering at the sight of the corpse, but his eyes were as cold as the void. A sense of danger crept up my throat. I had to hide the body from him.

Suddenly the butterflies fluttered up in unison, countless wings beating rapidly as they closed in on the corpse, swarming around it like bees to a flower.

But they could not land on the illusory body, their delicate wings passing through the decaying flesh, legs floundering in futile attempts to grab on.

I watched in bewilderment, unable to comprehend why the butterflies would gather around a corpse.

The abnormal sight went on, but I couldn’t glean the truth behind the man’s death. As I wondered what to do, Mayuzumi twirled her parasol once again, and the butterflies adorning it took off into the air, revealing blood-red hue.

Crimson spun. It felt like my eyes were being painted over.

And then, the corpse changed completely.

“…Huh?”

Hanging from the hook was the corpse of a girl.

A white, plump, naked body swung from the rope like a fish on a line. Long hair obscured her face. Fresh, vomited blood stained her chest, and her smooth legs were soiled with excrement. Her fingers dug into the rope around her neck, her nails peeled and crushed.

The girl had been hanged.

Mayuzumi continued spinning her parasol.

Crimson twirled, and with each turn, the girl’s figure changed.

Her ribs protruded, her round belly flattened. Her legs lengthened, her waist tightened. Her buttocks swelled like bread, her chin grew gaunt. Her torso elongated, her hair color changed, and her fingers and nails grew longer.

Several different girls appeared and disappeared, all hanging naked.

The scene, playing behind the wings of the butterflies, seemed straight out of a nightmare. The sight of the hanging girls carried a disturbingly ritualistic and surreal aura. Flesh stretched and contracted, the frenzy continuing endlessly in silence.

Then suddenly, the repulsive transformation came to an end.

Mayuzumi closed her parasol, and the gruesome scene vanished. Only one butterfly, black as a mourning dress, remained, landing on the hook and spreading its huge wings wide.

A heavy silence descended upon us. I pressed down on my aching stomach. I now understood the purpose of the hook, and it left me nauseous and seething with rage, but the person I could vent it all out on was no longer around.

Fuck, fuck, fuck. How the fuck could you do this?!

“I see now why he deserved to die,” Yusuke growled.

His voice was so terrifying low, and his eyes were fixed on the hook, filled with uncontrollable rage.

Where did the young man’s girlfriends go? The answer was right here. It wasn’t just him who died in this room, but young girls as well, all hanged.

“Curses, like chickens, come home to roost,” Mayuzumi said. “If you keep hanging people, you’ll end up getting hanged too.”

Her words sent shivers down Misaki’s spine. The woman’s lips were pursed tight. Mayuzumi raised her index finger, and a red butterfly landed on it. She brought her lips close to its wings as if to kiss it.

“He probably bought those girls. Their identities were unknown, and they were all of various races. I believe he used all his money to buy them all up.”

Mayuzumi looked at Misaki, a smile on her lips, and released the butterfly into the air. Its red feathers fluttered away.

“You had a vague idea of what happened to the girls, didn’t you?” Mayuzumi asked.

I recalled what Misaki said. She knew about her brother’s violent tendencies, but she ignored the girls he told her about. She hugged herself tightly, her fingers turning white.

“That’s why you wanted to know the truth about your brother’s death, right? You wanted to verify that the girl killed your brother to escape. That would mean he received his due punishment. You could rest assured that even when you ignored the matter, retribution came for him. Isn’t that right?”

“What of it?” Misaki replied with an icy voice, deflecting the criticism hurled at her. She let go of her shoulders and forced herself to stand tall, despite trembling. She addressed Mayuzumi with a harsh tone, “All I want to know is the truth behind his death. I didn’t ask you to expose all this. Are you having fun? Why are you revealing things I don’t want to know?”

“Do you only look at the legs of the beast and disregard its body? To know the full story of his death, you must know everything. Knowing is terrifying. You never know what might leap out of the box. That’s why even when you had your suspicions, you chose to feign ignorance. Am I wrong?”

Deep anguish flickered across Misaki’s face, then slowly dissipated. She cast a vacant gaze at the hook, a twisted smile creeping across her lips.

“You’re saying I had to see the hanged girls to know the truth. So my brother was killed by that girl, after all. He died because he abused others. It’s karma. I see. Yes, I understand. That’s enough for me.”

“I don’t think that’s the case,” Yusuke cut in. He sat cross-legged on the floor, gazing up at the ceiling, staring at the hook with a disgusted expression. In a calm voice, he continued, “Hanging someone is difficult, unless you’re physically bigger than them. Case in point: I couldn’t hang my own father. Well actually, I could have probably done it if I really tried. But anyway, she couldn’t have done it.”

He had a point. Misaki’s brother might have targeted young girls for that reason.

I wasn’t sure if hanging them was his objective or everything before that.

However, he selected this method because his targets were young girls. I heaved a sigh and roughly scratched my head. My hair tangled in my leather gloves and fell out. I wanted to rip my brain out of my skull for thinking worthless thoughts. Nevertheless, I continued to think.

The girl couldn’t have possibly killed him. But if it was suicide…

“Why did he die?” I blurted out.

I couldn’t grasp the reason. Why did he have to kill himself?

Suddenly, Mayuzumi snatched the bundle I was carrying. “There’s not a lot more left to uncover. In for a penny, in for a pound. Why did he die? Let’s find out, shall we?”

Milky fingertips removed the cloth, revealing the man’s skull.

Misaki gulped. She didn’t know that we had it. I panicked.

Mayuzumi raised the skull to the ceiling.

And then, a butterfly landed on it, soft as a kiss.

One after another, butterflies gathered around the skull, as if drawn to it.

Wings covered the dry surface, hiding the bone instead of skin. It was a similar reaction to when the man’s corpse appeared. For some reason, the butterflies tirelessly touched the man’s bones, feeling its presence.

Mayuzumi smiled faintly as she looked down at the wriggling mass in her arms. “They’re reacting, as expected. Odagiri-kun, could you hold this for me?”

“Huh? Uh, what?”

Mayuzumi handed me the bone without giving me a chance to refuse. The swarm of butterflies naturally transferred to my hand. I could feel them crawling on my skin, and it was repulsive. I held back the urge to let go.

Mayuzumi peered into my face. Her lips curled up.

“Now say the words that girl was saying,” she said tenderly. “Keep your voice as low as possible.”

“As low as possible?”

“Wh-What are you guys doing?” Misaki, understanding the situation, asked sharply.

She stepped forward, but Yusuke grabbed her shoulder. I didn’t know what Mayuzumi was up to, but we needed to finish this as soon as possible.

After frantically searching my vague memory, I remembered what the girl hiding in the office had said. I repeated the words she muttered with empty eyes.

“Fly, fly, flutter, flutter, poor thing.”

All the butterflies trembled. As if hearing a signal, they took flight.