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V8 Story I – Part 09

“Master, can’t we become human?” asked the girl in the middle. Her eyes were blank. “Despite all this suffering, can we not become human, or anything else?”

“No, you can’t. You cannot become anything else.”

Tears brimmed in the girl’s eyes, each pair shedding their own teardrops. They stood motionless, weeping. Tears glistened under the light.

“What’s going on here?” I asked the fox.

He remained silent, his empty gaze fixed on the girls.

“Answer me, Asato.”

“I remember. I imposed a certain condition on their families,” the fox said.

The girls rubbed their eyes with small hands. One pair of hands for all three faces. Their body wobbled.

“I trapped three couples who had lost their daughters in adjacent apartments. The doors would not open. They could only move between the apartments using the balcony. And I gave them a creature that resembled one of the daughters. She could become anyone of the three girls. In return, she could not become any of them unless they fulfilled a specific requirement.”

The fox had tried to recreate a situation similar to Haruhiro’s.

During Haruhiro’s game, the fox had demanded Haruhiro’s family to end their lives as a requirement for Haruhiro’s resurrection. Subsequently, when Haruhiro was revived, the fox instructed him to make me commit suicide if he wished to bring his family back to life.

First, he witnessed the tragedies himself, then he foisted it onto me.

He must have attempted something similar in this apartment. I braced myself for his words. The fox’s requirements were bound to be appalling. I fought to calm my mind, to prevent my stomach from splitting open.

“The daughter of the first couple who commit suicide will come back to life. They will die, but the daughter can reclaim the life they lost. Until someone fulfills that condition or until the daughter dies, the doors will remain closed.”

I gritted my teeth, feeling as if the blood vessels in my brain were ready to burst. Rage blazed within my gut.

How could he do such a thing? How could he toy with people’s hearts like that?

I surveyed the apartment. There were two corpses in each one, but the doors remained shut. The girls, too, were unable to become human. My eyes went to the machete, then to the bodies.

Their throats and bellies had been slashed. It was not suicide.

“Did you kill your parents?” I asked.

The three heads nodded in unison, pallid faces moving up and down. They regarded me with moist eyes. I glanced at the bodies then back.

“…Why?”

“Because our mother and father were planning to kill us.”

The voice was low and devoid of emotion. No tears remained in their eyes.

I stared at the lifeless bodies sprawled on the floor.

The emotionless voice continued its account. “At first, everyone was happy. But when they learned of the conditions, they looked upset. And they became sick of me. They called me a monster. They said this was wrong, that I was not the same child they once had. That I was not their real child. So, they decided it was enough. They wanted to kill their child and leave.”

I wanted to cover my ears. They had overheard that conversation. They were mere imitations, but they possessed emotions. How much suffering did they endure?

“They had to kill us three times to get rid of us completely. So they decided to cut the head of the child who was not their own. It was scary. Very scary.”

Her voice carried no inflection as she calmly recounted the immense fear they felt.

Then came the conclusion.

“So, we decided to do the same.”

And the girls killed them. With the machete provided by the fox, they killed the couple who were not their parents. Their inhuman bodies could swing the weapon without problem.

“They said we were monsters, not humans. In that case, those people were not our mothers or fathers either. In the end, we can only be ourselves. So we’re fine. We’re not sad,” they said with lifeless eyes.

There was no way they wouldn’t feel sad. Their hearts were dead. Their entire existence denied, their emotions withered away. But a sudden faint glimmer of sorrow flickered in their eyes.

“But we couldn’t leave,” she said wearily.

Even after killing their parents, the doors didn’t open.

I turned to Asato, seeking an answer.

“They made a mistake,” he said. “The conditions were either their parents’ suicide or her death. Unable to fulfill those conditions, they are now trapped. They can no longer be anything other than themselves.” He continued with cruel indifference. “They can’t become human and live. Even as perfected monsters, they can’t leave.”

The girls hung their heads. She crouched down slightly, retrieving the machete. This time, I didn’t feel like I could protect the fox. However, she thrust the weapon toward me without swinging it.

“Mister, would you kill us?” the three voices asked at the same time.

She handed me the machete. I accepted the heavy blade blankly. Three pale heads aligned, waiting to be severed.

“If we can’t leave, then whatever.”

“We waited.”

“Waited for the master to arrive.”

“We thought if we killed our creator, our real father…”

“We might be able to leave.”

“But if there’s no point…”

“If help won’t come…”

“If we’re destined to be killed, then you do it.”

The girls smiled at me, their legs trembling ever so slightly.

“Okay?” they all said.

I met their gaze head-on. My belly was splitting.

The girls closed their eyes. Something cold and white, carried by the chilling wind, brushed against their cheeks.

It landed on my skin and melted. And then, it struck me.

It was snowing.

“Just kill them, Odagiri,” the fox said.

I turned around, fighting the urge to strike him with the machete.

“If we don’t kill them, we won’t be able to leave either. They’re nothing but monsters. And if we don’t kill them, they won’t find salvation.” His words carried an uncharacteristic weight, but his tone remained devoid of emotion. “I’m the one who created them. It’s not for me to say this, but they can’t become what they desire. They can only be monsters. Can you understand their pain?”

My hand trembled violently. How could I, I thought bitterly. I could not bring myself to believe that death was the preferable option.

Death was terrifying. It was painful. It should be. But they wanted me to kill. They claimed that the pain was better. I gazed down at the girls. Tsugumi’s eyes were tightly shut. Yumi was biting her lips. And Tsubaki was smiling.

She tried her best to smile, tears streaming down her face.

I held the machete high, and with all my might, brought it down.

Thud!

The spinning machete embedded itself into the wall. A splendid blow, if I may say so myself. The three girls had their eyes wide open.

I took a deep breath, trying to hold back tears threatening to burst forth.

I tensed my stomach and shouted. “I can’t do it. I will not do it!”

The girls gave a start. I looked at the balcony. Anger burned within me. It would be better to gamble on a very slim chance than to kill them.

“Screw this shit! I’m gonna do it. I’m familiar with the spirit world. I will land on the ground even if I break my legs. Then, all I need to do is open the door. If it’s not possible, I’ll break it down! That’ll work, right?! I just have to physically destroy it from the outside.”

“It’s not possible, Odagiri,” the fox interrupted in a calm tone. “There’s a clear boundary between the outside and the inside. Breaking the door can’t be done. Do you believe you can fracture this space by striking the spirit world? Impossible.”

I looked back at him. “Then I’ll drag Mayu-san here. She can—”

“Unless the conditions are lifted, leaving will be difficult, even for her. Plus, if those girls take even a single step outside, their incomplete body will crumble. Bodies that failed to fulfill the conditions will disintegrate.”

Still, there must be something.

Then, something collided with my foot. I looked down to see the girls clinging to my knees. They tugged at my clothes, telling me to bend down, so I did.

Yumi’s lips touched my cheek. The three girls smiled delightfully.

“Thank you.”

“It’s enough.”

“Goodbye.”

In the next instant, she darted away. As she reached the balcony, her body began to melt.

A mass of white flesh coiled around the railing at astonishing speed. She must have done the same when she followed me earlier. The mass of flesh reached the top of the railing.

The girl materialized once more. She spread her arms wide and stood upon the railing.

A hair ornament fell to the floor and bounced. It belonged to Yumi. The length of the hair said it was Tsugumi, but the height was closer to Tsubaki. I couldn’t tell whose face she was wearing at that moment.

She leaped from the railing. Her small body hovered under the snowy sky. With outstretched arms, she tumbled through the air, her body drifting away from the room.

In an instant, her form disintegrated. White flesh scattered and was swept away by the wind. Her body mingled with the falling white snow.

Watching the falling nuggets of white, a thought came to me. In that very moment, she became something else. Something different.

She became a part of the pure-white snow.

My knees gave way, and I sank to the floor. Tears streamed down my cheeks. I couldn’t breathe properly. Pressing down on my ripped belly, I looked up at the gray sky. I felt like a suffocating fish, howling silently.

“There’s no need to cry, Odagiri.”

I raised my head. He stood above me, his face devoid of emotion.

A face reminiscent of a fox mask. I rose to my feet and grabbed his shoulder. Putting all my weight into it, I pushed him.

The fox groaned as his back slammed hard. I raised my first. My bones creaked with each strike to his face. I might have actually broken it this time. I continued my onslaught against the fox.

Broken teeth clattered to the floor. Blood splattered across my leather gloves. But I didn’t stop.

The baby cried out, clapping her hands in delight.

As my hand moved to crush his eyes, I froze. The words I had heard earlier resurfaced in my mind.

“To escape the unbearable rage, it’s much easier to kill others than to kill oneself.”

Ah… I realized then that I was trying to kill the fox.