Volume 4 - CH 3.5

“The Lord has formed a community that resembles a religious group,” Aya, her hands tied behind her back, began. “I don’t know what to call them, actually. While the blind revere the Lord as a god, the Lord himself has no intention of offering salvation. He’s just keeping them in captivity.”

While at first she slurred her words, now she was speaking fluently. It was hard to tell whether it was the effect of the drug or her own will.

Wearing a self-deprecating smile, she continued. “That place is like a butcher’s rack. To the Lord… Ah, screw it! To him, his followers are merely a byproduct of coincidence. They witnessed his act of bringing the dead back to life, so some survivors gathered and started worshiping him.”

The fox demanded a high price, but apparently there were people in this world who still thought it cheap. It all started when a woman heard about a ‘miracle’ bestowed to an acquaintance. She offered a building she owned and started taking care of him. The followers grew in number, and now there were members who didn’t even know the reality of the situation.

“It’s my job to take care of them. Those annoying lumps of meat wish for actual spiritual guidance, but they’re mere expendable pawns for his stories. The Lord is just playing around. He just wants to switch the dead with the living and see what happens. But he’s also not actively driving them away either.”

I thought I understood why. Asato didn’t care about people blindly worshiping him, but he didn’t turn them away either. To him, a congregation was a necessity.

Mayuzumi Azaka was revered as a god.

But she offered salvation to no one.

“I got sick of looking after them. You get where I’m coming from, right? Humans are worthless, after all.”

Aya laughed contemptuously, and her voice took on a mocking tone.

“Monsters are better than them. At least they can think.”

Humans are sometimes stupid. I couldn’t deny that. But the fox was using deceit.

You can’t ridicule the blind when you’re covering their eyes.

“I understand the situation. Where’s the fox?” I asked.

Aya smirked. Her face slowly wriggled, flesh changing shape. I thought she was going to escape, but then she spat out a card from inside her mouth.

White paper fell from her cracked upper jaw.

“Handy, huh? I’ve got all kinds of stuff inside me. I don’t want it to get wrinkled in my pocket.”

The card, soaked in blood and bodily fluids, displayed a simple map, complete with an address and house number. She was too prepared, and the answer was too obvious.

“You’re kidding,” I muttered.

“I’m not. If you want, you can leave me here and go check the place out.” Aya cackled, twisting her body around and tapping her feet on the floor. “The drug impairs the mind and amplifies the unconscious desires of whoever ingests it. I used it to learn about the meats’ innermost desires. What do they want? What do they wish to do? Questions I asked so they could be cooked properly.” Aya raised her voice higher.

She laughed out loud, a laughter that exceeded the limits of human capacity. Shaking her head violently, she slammed her face onto the tatami.

Flesh squelched and caved in. Her eyes, nose, disappeared, leaving only her lips.

“I don’t care anymore,” she said. “I don’t care. I don’t care. I don’t care. Everything’s a drag. If you kill the fox, it’s over. If you get killed, it’s over. If Mayuzumi Azaka is killed, it’s over. That’s it. End of story. Sounds good to me. I’ve had enough of this nonsense. I don’t care what happens at this point.”

The unpleasant squelching of flesh ceased. Aya stopped moving. Face down on the floor, she said, “Tell me. Why am I alive?”

She was Aya’s desire brought to life. A pawn created by the fox.

How could a stranger know why she was alive?

“Why did that girl want me?”

But that much I could answer.

“Because you were the only friend that Aya had.”

Aya was nothing but an imitation of a human being. But to Aya, she must have been like no other.

So much so that she accepted the fox’s demands just for her.

She killed her mother for her friend, killed even herself.

“Living is boring,” she went on, her head down. “It’s more boring than I thought it would be. Lately, I’ve been thinking… Just a little bit.” Her voice was raspy, and sounded indifferent. It quavered as though she was begging for answers. “Maybe it would’ve been better if she was the one who lived, not me. Tell me. You know, don’t you? She put her trust in you. You should know the answer… Tell me, please.”

I said nothing. There was no way I could know. There was no one in the world who could answer her questions.

Curses, like chicken, come home to roost. Those who kill will carry the weight of their sins.

No one knew the weight of Aya’s questions.

Or whether they were heavier than the blade she gave to Aya.

“Haha… Hahahaha…”

Aya laughed softly, unmoving. I turned my back to her and opened the door. Nanami and Yusuke, sitting side by side, lifted their heads and looked at me. Yusuke’s shoes were dirty, like they were stepped on violently.

“Did you get anything?” Yusuke asked.

I showed the card Aya gave me. He took it, then frowned.

“Are you serious? This is clearly bull.”

“No. I think we can trust it.”

Her voice was laced with a familiar anguish.

Even if she was lying, it was worth checking out. We had nothing else to go on anyway.

“Well, if you say so, that’s fine by me. You’re going anyway, right?”

“Yeah. We have no other choice.”

The image of a white child flashed through my mind. I swallowed. Even Uka was no match for that child. The same goes for the Shirayuki’s dragons. There was no way to beat him.

That pale child was an absolutely deadly weapon, capable of easily killing people.

I couldn’t think of a way to get rid of her, but I had to go. Whatever happens, happens. As long as I could save Shirayuki, that was all that mattered to me.

Yusuke burst into laughter. He was probably thinking of coming with me. But heading to the fox was too dangerous.

It would be in anyone’s best interest not to enter a nonhuman’s den.

“Don’t you tag along, Yusuke.”

“I won’t. I’m just going wherever I want.”

As always, he didn’t listen to anyone. Not to me. He simply did whatever he wanted. When I asked about Aya, Nanami grabbed the hem of her skirt and bowed.

“Looks like she’s not moving, so it should be fine,” she said. “I’ll keep an eye on her. Please don’t forget about our deal, okay?”

I bowed, then left the place. Before heading back to the office, I went up the stairs and headed to my room. Dusty air rushed in as I opened the broken door. I’d have to get Nanami to arrange for repairs later. I went down on my knees and searched for an item.

Yusuke said he cleaned the tatami mats. There was a chance that he threw it away.

But I found it in the corner of the room.

A locket with a melted edge glowed eerily in my hand.

Grasping it tightly, I put the broken chain around my neck and tied it. I pulled the chain so hard that it dug into my skin. That way, it should never snap again.

Akari and Higasa.

I had to bring with me what they left behind.

No matter what the consequences.

After taking the bus and train once more, I arrived back at Mayuzumi’s office, with Yusuke casually following me. It was late in the afternoon, but the summer sun showed no sign of setting just yet. I grabbed the doorknob tight. I got the key that Mayuzumi was talking about. With the card in one hand, I opened the door.

“I’m back.”

Cool air and the aroma of chocolate wafted toward me.

At the same time, my nose caught the intense smell of iron.

It smelled of blood, of a living being.

My eyes widened. Seconds later, my body started shaking before my brain could even comprehend what happened.

But the sight before me was the same as it had always been.

I went inside, one step at a time. I still couldn’t see the back of who was supposed to be sitting on the couch. The room was wrapped in silence. When I went around to the front, there was no familiar figure on the sofa. The spot where Mayuzumi usually sat was empty.

Instead, a torso wearing a gothic Lolita dress was lying on the floor.

It had no head, arms, or legs.

Fine shreds of flesh littered the area.

There was a man, a very untidy man,

Whose fingers could nowhere be found to put in his tomb.

He had rolled his head far underneath the bed.

He had left legs and arms lying all over the room.

A familiar Mother Goose poem played in my mind. The scene in front of me was too removed from reality. It looked like a cruel nursery rhyme reenactment. I shifted a vacant gaze to the broken bones, at the crushed flesh. The curtains were closed, and on them were red letters.

“Welcome back.”

A welcome message written in English.

There were small palm prints next to the words.

As though a young child had wiped their hands with the cloth after playing.

“Mayu-san?” I muttered blankly.

There was no reply, of course. Yusuke exhaled like a beast. Looking around the room, I found a torn scalp with a headdress still attached. Tangled intestines peeked out from the edge of the black dress. Glazed eyeballs sat in the empty box of chocolate truffles. As I stared hard at them, I slowly, then rapidly understood what happened.

A straightforward fact, evident at first glance.

Mayuzumi Azaka was dead.