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V9 Story III – Part 03

Back at the Karakuri residence, after Kugutsu showed us the Tale of the Dog, Maihime had called him over.

As she patted Kugutsu’s head, she said, “You really love the tale of the dog, don’t you?”

“I like common stories more, Kugutsu. Simple fairy tales, where people can be happy together, knights and princesses. People have grown tired of these repetitive stories, but I think they’re wonderful.”

I couldn’t fathom what went on in her mind. But if those words were genuinely true…

“I would never. I’m someone who’s easily misunderstood. Though it might not look it, more often than not, I genuinely mean what I say.”

Did Kugutsu really need to live as a dog?

“I always felt like there was an invisible wall around me,” Maihime said softly.

She gently lifted the doll onto her lap. The doll stood up again. Its small legs jumped. Bathed in the light from the outdoor lamp, the doll danced alone.

“Amidst those perpetually indistinct days, I stumbled upon the only anomaly: Kugutsu. Even to this day, I can’t put into words how I felt at that moment. He suddenly appeared in the puppeteer’s sacred workshop, just like in a story. A puppeteer leads a solitary life, and I had never lamented that. But who could have predicted that a fate already set in stone would take such a twist? It was as if the thick glass pane right in front of me had been shattered.”

She smiled slightly, reminiscing about the past.

“We don’t allow non-espers in the workshop. It’s not a rule, but an unspoken agreement. But I brought him inside. Not because he’s a dog.”

Maihime caressed the puppet’s head. The puppet danced more gleefully in response.

“I petted him because he was happy when I did. If that made him happy, then it was a good thing. But I have never thought of him as a dog, let alone scorned him.”

Maihime ran her hand over her shoulder. For a brief moment, she brought her lips to her coat. I was left bewildered.

“I have to marry an esper and bear a child,” she continued dreamily. “But I also wanted to keep him by my side after. No, I believed that he would never leave me.”

The doll fell silently onto her lap. It showed no sign of getting up again.

Gazing at the motionless doll, Maihime closed her eyes once more. “I wanted to be with him. I wished to have him by my side and spend our lives together. Regardless of any illnesses or hardships that may come, having him made me happy. I deeply longed to grow old together with him. I’m actually quite a dreamer. Are you surprised?”

Her face showed no emotion. She neither smiled nor cried. Maihime simply enumerated what was self-evident to her.

I closed my eyes and analyzed what she had just said.

“Regardless of any illnesses or hardships that may come, having him made me happy. I deeply longed to grow old together with him.”

The moment I heard those words, a suspicion crossed my mind. Her words resembled marriage vows. Her voice as she spoke about wanting to be with him carried powerful emotions.

I couldn’t tell whether she was aware of it or if it was just my misunderstanding.

“It sounds to me like you loved Kugutsu,” I said cautiously.

I observed Maihime’s reaction. Her eyes widened, then she fell silent. I anxiously waited for her words. After a while, Maihime tilted her head slightly, blinking several times.

“Me? Loved Kugutsu?” she muttered curiously.

Maihime seemed perplexed. She pressed her lips and closed her eyes. Agonizing seconds ticked by.

She nodded, clapping her hands lightly, as if coming to terms with something.

Then, Maihime wore a smile as bright as a blooming flower.

“Yes, I believe people call this emotion love.”

“I like common stories more, Kugutsu. Simple fairy tales, where people can be happy together, knights and princesses. People have grown tired of these repetitive stories, but I think they’re wonderful.”

I recalled her words once again. I pictured a simple story in my mind.

It was a story where people could be happy. A wonderful tale that everyone had grown tired of.

I clenched my right fist tightly. If he could hear my voice, I would scream.

He didn’t need to be a dog. He didn’t need to bind himself in chains. His wish, his desire he had once resigned to impossibility had, in reality, been fulfilled long ago.

---

“Maihime-san, could you talk to him?”

Only his master’s voice could reach Kugutsu now. He might not change his mind on getting revenge, but through this, he might be able to return from being a dog to a human.

Maihime hung her head in response. She stroked her legs, her delicate fingertips traveling back and forth on her fair skin.

“Would my words reach him?” she said hesitantly. “He has left my side. I don’t think anything I say will matter at this point.”

“I disagree. He—”

I paused, swallowed hard. I couldn’t pull my eyes away from her legs.

I was too overwhelmed to be perplexed by my own state of mind. The disgust and anxiety that I had vaguely felt suddenly exploded. My head was filled with revulsion, leaving me speechless. I gasped for air like an oxygen-deprived fish, my mouth opening and closing.

Her pale legs appeared strangely vivid in the darkness.

If I strained my eyes, it felt like I could see even the tiny hairs. The smooth curves seemed oddly repulsive, evoking creatures that dwelt in the deep sea. Feeling dizzy, I closed my eyes.

Confusion and fear struck me. Something had been bothering me in the back of my mind. I searched desperately for the cause of the nagging sensation, when suddenly, I remembered what Mayuzumi said about scales.

If one side of the scale is heavier, the balance tips. The fox imposed a heavy weight on the person who made a wish. However, both sides of the scale were never empty.

The fox turned people into bubbles. He implanted a uterus in me. Among other things, he had completely healed Tachibana Kotoko’s crushed legs. However, he didn’t create something from nothing. When bringing back the dead, there was always the white child by his side, who provided the fox with the necessary flesh.

The child had provided the something. But she was nowhere to be found now.

The fox’s cryptic words now tore at my ears.

“Yes, people turn into bubbles. A girl’s womb sticks to a man’s stomach. Lifeless babies become demons. It’s likely that passing through the spirit world transmutes the human body into a form influenced by human emotions. Like replacing cells through an infinitesimally small window.”

In this case, there was nothing to pass through the spirit world. Maihime’s legs were already amputated when Kyugutsu made his wish. Nevertheless, something was created out of nothing.

The mermaid princess’s tail didn’t exist. But in exchange for the tail, the girl obtained legs.

An uncontrollable fear gripped me. Something was wrong.

Just as I was about to speak, there was a ring, and the cell phone vibrated. I pressed it to my ear.

“Kugutsu? Is that you?”

“Oh, hello, sir. So you were alive, after all.”

“I would have died if I were alone. Where are you? Is Mayu-san safe? And there’s something I want to tell you.”

Kugutsu didn’t respond. There was an overwhelming silence on the other end of the call.

“Kugutsu… Hey, Kugutsu? Are you there, Kugutsu?” Something was amiss. Frowning, I asked, “Is something wrong, Kugutsu?”

Zzz, shhh, zzz… Hehe… zzz…

Suddenly, I heard soft static. Someone was laughing sweetly and softly. It was as if they were saying that exchanging words at this point was overly comedic.

“I see. It’s finally connected, huh?”

My eyes widened. It was a woman’s voice, one filled with delight.

The next moment, the world turned upside down.

Suddenly, my perception of the world changed. The roads, the hospital, the streetlights, the shrubs, the human body—all their contours seemed like a tangle of wire-like lines. Then, as if someone pulled them from one end, all the lines unraveled simultaneously. The contours broke into fine pieces, dissolving into darkness. All that remained was a straight horizon. The world transformed into a flat expanse. Everything became entirely new within the darkness, and I found myself standing there.

“What… is this?”