Mushi to Medama

Chapter 14

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Start: The Girl Carrying a Head

28-year-old Minazuki Natsuko was the owner of the cafe Indian Bar in the shopping district. She opened this cafe three years ago, and the place was almost always completely deserted aside from a few regulars, possibly due to the gloomy atmosphere. However, Natsuko, remaining expressionless and silent to the point where people began to think that she was a decorative doll in the shop, continued with this unprofitable business. Furthermore -

"Heehee."

No one could tell what she was happy about, but every small thing would make her laugh.

Spring was a time when people a.s.similated into society and when students a.s.similated into schools; it was a time when people began a new life.

Just about everything about the season came too abruptly, ever-changing as if in defiance to humanity"s will, leaving people with no time to prepare. Sometimes, there were people who could not keep up and tried instead to confirm their own existences through odd actions.

Basically, "There are weird people", "Oh, that"s because it"s spring", that kind of thing.

She"s also one of the people who turned strange because of spring"s witchcraft, Natsuko thought as she looked at a girl who had been in the cafe for two hours already.

"Nom nom nom, slurp slurp, mmm."

She was probably a high school student, though she acted and felt more childish than she appeared, and even her clothes were childish, so it was hard to determine her actual age.

The most prominent part of her bizarre outfit was the hat she wore - one with giant round ears on top - over brown hair tied into two short pigtails. Another oddity was the curled tail hanging from her bottom. Further, though it was warm, her clothes were still too thin for early spring, showing her belly and thighs, though she also wore needlessly large, out-of-place gloves.

It truly was a strange outfit, something that seemed like cosplay.

"Gulp, nooom nooom... Nom."

For some unknown reason, this girl made bold onomatopoeias while she gleefully ate Indian Bar"s super-large sweet chocolate parfait that was rumoured to be sweet enough to kill a man. This chocolate parfait was one that made even dessert-loving high school girls surrender halfway through. However, the girl already had three empty cups in front of her.

"Oooom."

With an angelic smile, the girl brought her spoon to her mouth, and making that same noise she put the chocolate and fresh cream in her mouth. Then, with a slight shake of her body, she lowered her head for a while before quickly raising her face, red with excitement, enthusiastically shouting, "Mmm-"

"Bang, bang bang", she noisily knocked on the table.

"Mmm, mm! Mmm -- it"s so awesome! DELICIOUS! It"s sweet and it tastes so good!"

"Oom", "Ooom", with joy on her face she ate, one bite after another.

"Aah, the cherries are chewy, the cornflakes are crispy, the thick chocolate and fresh cream makes an unbelievable taste - Is it G.o.d? Is it an angel? Who could it be? Who could made food this wonderful-"

The girl stroked her cheeks with hands in giant gloves and wriggled about.

"Nooooo. My brain will melt if I eat this."

It would have been fine if she just ate it normally, but she kept making strange sounds to herself; such a troublesome customer. But there weren"t any other customers today, and she only made noises without causing trouble. It might be okay to leave her be.

Or so Natsuko thought to herself as she squinted at the girl eating the chocolate parfait.

Speaking of the parfait...how could someone possibly eat so much of that stuff?

That thing was triple the size and sweetness of any chocolate parfait found in a normal cafe, and she"d only placed it the menu as a joke - well, half a joke. Yet, this girl was eating parfaits non-stop - a worrisome sight indeed. Had she lost her sense of taste? It wouldn"t be odd to get diabetes after a single cup of that stuff - even those who weren"t doctors would be worried!

Furthermore, she would make a strange gesture every once in a while.

Sometimes, she would take a spoonful of cream or chocolate and bring it to her stomach rather than her mouth.

A place like that obviously would not have a mouth; normally, she would just be getting herself dirty. But when she brought her spoon back to the parfait, what was on it before would have mysteriously disappeared.

That wasn"t all. She would occasionally put the spoon in her backpack, which she had placed on the seat next to hers.

"Mmm, sis, you wanna try some? It"s a new taste, a new flavor, a new experience; a triple pleasure for you to enjoy."

Her spoon swayed as she said those incomprehensible words, but unlike when she brought the spoon to her stomach, the cream in the spoon did not disappear.

Noting this, the girl puffed her cheeks and unhappily put the spoon in her mouth.

"Really, you"re like this every time. You"ll never taste anything good if you"re so picky."

Suddenly, Natsuko noticed someone else"s response seemed to be mixed in the girl"s innocently mumbling.

"Ki-chan, I"m not like you, I"ve long since lost any enjoyment in eating. Besides, if I ate that thing - which I can tell is too sweet just by looking at it - I"d get sick. Mmm...though, even if I get sick, this body would immediately restore itself."

"Then you want some?"

The girl smiled and laughed, and dug her spoon into the parfait, scooping up a big helping of cream. But a cold voice rejected her.

"Who"d want that! I have been freed from activities like eating and drinking, which allow so many impurities to enter my body - for that, I am thankful from the bottom of my heart. And again, Ki-chan, didn"t I tell you to not talk to me in public? I hate disobedient children."

Hearing those words, the girl"s face suddenly turned white, and she desperately shook her head. Tears appeared in the corners of her eyes.

"No, no... Sis, don"t hate me. I"m sorry, I just wanted you to eat something tasty."

"I know. Ki-chan, you"re a considerate child."

Those were whispers that could not be detected by a normal person"s sense of hearing. But Natsuko heard them, and she furrowed her eyebrows.

This voice was...

"Actually, our luggage still isn"t ready, right? Stop indulging in food, and let"s hurry up and go home!"

"Alright, sis. Just one more bite - Aahm."

The girl scooped up the remainder of the fresh cream and sent it down her mouth with an enchanted smile.

"Ah - this is great. The moment it"s in my mouth, it"s like being in heaven. Mm, I"m gonna come here again."

The girl spoke to herself, and stood up in high spirits. Then, like a small animal, she ran to Natuko who silently watched her. Placing her hand on the counter, she giggled as she said, "The bill, please."

Natsuko nodded, took out the bill and smoothly tapped at the register. Extra-large chocolate parfaits were rather expensive, and the girl had four, so the price would obviously be extremely high.

"It comes to 5400 yen in total."

"Whoa..." The girl"s eyes opened wide, and she poked her head.

"I ate too much, I need to reflect a bit... is this enough?"

With a rustle, the girl searched in her backpack. She was probably looking for her wallet, and Natsuko tried not to look in; but in that situation, it was impossible to hide.

Natsuko looked at the bag, and gasped after seeing what was inside.

"..."

A head.

It was a human head.

A female head. The bone-chilling head was turned backward, so its face could not be seen. But Natsuko knew, she understood, and she went on guard.

This head, this woman was --

"Ooh, I found it!" The girl slapped a bundle of notes on the counter, seeming to not notice Natsuko"s state.

A bundle of money?

"Keep the change."

Saying so, the girl briskly turned around. If those were 10,000 yen bills, then there would have been a hundred thousand, or possibly even a million yen. Natsuko calmly picked up the thick bundle of money and inspected it.

The top and bottom were two notes worth a thousand yen.

Everything else was folded-up newspaper.

"..."

As Natsuko looked at the stack of newspaper, the girl stopped walking. Probably realizing that she had been caught, she once again searched in her bag and took out a cute wallet, and she pulled out three thousand-yen bills and some change.

"Sorry."

Natsuko did not respond, and operated the register with a "Ding".

"I always thought you were a foolish child, but Ki-chan, you"re really an idiot. What was that back there? Don"t embarra.s.s me, okay?"

"It was because... because, I wanted to try it out. I wanted to try acting like a rich person."

The girl cried and wailed in her home as she tried to explain. It was a room in a lonely old apartment reached by crossing the street from Indian Bar and going all the way down the poorly maintained road.

The narrow room lacked anything of interest. There was no furniture, with unopened cardboard boxes strewn all around.

As she used the room"s gas stove to cook hotpot, the girl pouted. Though she was inside, she did not remove her hat or gloves. "Because I"m a girl, sometimes I wanna pretend to be rich."

"I can"t understand you at all. Whatever, we can worry about that later. Why did you want to move into this apartment?"

Like before, the voice came from the backpack placed to the side. The girl turned to look at the backpack that rolled on the ground, giving an angelic smile.

"Well, obviously, it"s to look for sis"s body and also the Greater Fragment that was stolen."

The girl tossed the soba noodles she just bought from a convenience store into the boiling water, and stirred with long chopsticks. The large bowls, long chopsticks, and disposable chopsticks had all been taken out of the cardboard boxes first.

"Sis had it tough. If I didn"t find you at the hospital, you would"ve been killed by The Weakest. Since I"m a horrible match for The Weakest, I ran away -- But next time I"ll definitely take her head-on and take back your Fragment."

"That"s too dangerous." That concerned voice said, "Ki-chan, The Weakest is cunning. Even if you"re the invincible Unpleasant Counter-Current -"

The girl smiled, and beat eggs into the pot. "Really sis, you keep treating me like a little kid. No problem, I"ll be careful. Just wait like you"re about to go on Noah"s Ark."

"That a.n.a.logy"s rather disturbing."

The girl smiled at the signing voice and put the finished soba noodles into a large bowl. She covered it with plastic wrap and placed disposable chopsticks on it. Then, with a nod and a "Mmm" sound, she picked it up with gloved hands.

"Besides -- we have plenty of time. I think The Weakest is only good at running away. It won"t be easy to find her, so I decided to move into this apartment to look for the one who attacked you... was it Gankyū?"

"Gankyū Eguriko?"

"Right, I wanna find that Gankyū person. She was the one who gouged out sis"s heart and took away the Greater Fragment. Even if she doesn"t know where your body is, she might just happen to know the whereabouts of the Fragment."

The girl smiled, and with unsteady steps brought out the steaming bowl.

"To achieve this goal, I decided to infiltrate Gankyū"s high school as a student. Though I"ve been cla.s.sified as dead a long time ago and don"t have any doc.u.mentation, that kind of thing is simple. I can just use the fragment"s power to twist reality a little."

Inside this girl resided a power called a "Fragment of G.o.d", so she could do things like this.

But this didn"t really make the girl special. Whether it was a Greater Fragment or one of the Lesser Fragments known as "Apples", pretty much anyone with a Fragment could do things like this.

Those with Fragments had the world"s blessing.

If one wished, infiltrating a school or company would be easy. As for the reason, even the girl wasn"t too sure.

It was like -- one only needed to go to someone important in the school and say, "I want to attend this school starting tomorrow", and it would be treated as a routine enrollment.

That girl with an incomprehensible name, Gankyū Eguriko, had probably used this ability of the Fragments to enter school.

Thinking of this while making sure not to spill the bowl, the girl opened the door. From the backpack left behind came a worried voice.

"Wait, Ki-chan, where are you going?"

"I"m bringing soba noodles to our neighbors and letting them know we"ve recently moved in. It"s j.a.pan"s wonderful custom."

"Heehee", she laughed and closed the door with her hands in the giant gloves.

Though it was spring, it was still cold at night.

After cutting off her sensory neurons, the girl knocked on the door of the third-floor apartment next to hers. "Nageki" was written on the nameplate, with the strange words "Currently imprisoning a beautiful girl" underneath.

"Excuse me - " She knocked on the door with one hand while holding onto the bowl with the other. She felt a human presence behind the door but no one came to answer her, as if pretending to be out. The girl was confused, and after deciding to meet this neighbor later she went down a floor. After all, if she didn"t hurry, the soba noodles would get cold.

This building had three floors, with two apartments each. The second floor seemed to have at one point been an office for some business, but now it was empty with a "Bankrupt" sign on the door.

""Bankrupt"... They should"ve used a more tactful term."

So the girl mumbled to herself, as she went down to the first floor - which should still be occupied. The floor had two rooms: a room A and a room B. The nameplate on room B said "Breaksun Hanselmine". The girl knocked - but there was no response.

Another one pretending to be out! Why didn"t anyone want to answer the door? Thinking how annoying it was, the girl frowned.

Room A was her last hope.

She walked to the door with a nameplate simply saying "Usagawa" while the old washing machine next to her clanked and rumbled rather loudly.

"h.e.l.lo - "

She pressed the doorbell that her own room did not have, resulting in a "Dong - " like a clock"s chime. The bell"s sound pierced the dusk, and birds resting on power cords were frightened away by the noise.

After a while, the door was opened slowly.

Sakaki and Meat Doll Rinne

"Ah -- "

Out came a girl who seemed lost. Her beautiful pink hair was adorned with a cute b.u.t.terfly knot, while her slightly disordered clothes showed her collarbone.

Did she just get up? The girl looked ahead of her, thinking.

"Uuuum..."

Looking closely, the girl made a moaning noise as she mechanically tilted her head.

Seeing that, the girl wearing the round-eared hat frowned slightly.

"Meat... Doll."

"Who is it?"

Suddenly, a tall youth appeared behind the stupefied girl.

His handsome appearance was breathtaking. With blond hair and blue eyes, his features seemed to be a work of art. But the dark rings under his eyes diminished his beautiful looks and a short, out-of-place stubble had grown on his face.

This haggard-looking man looked out the door with suspicion.

The girl was perplexed and stepped back slightly, and then introduced herself with a bow while holding out the bowl.

"I just m-moved over and I came to introduce myself. These are soba noodles to announce my arrival here."

"I see..."

Seeming like he recalled something, the youth calmly received the bowl. He also pulled back his hand, which was stretched towards a shelf in the entrance aiming for an object resembling a pistol, and his expression softened.

"The landlord announced it. Are you the one who moved to the third floor? I was only cautious because of that surname... but she"s not that person? No, I still can"t be careless."

"Eh?"

As this incomprehensible monologue confused the girl, the youth sincerely introduced himself. "My name is Sakaki Guryū, and due to some circ.u.mstances I"ve moved into her - Usagawa Rinne"s home. As you can see, she"s a bit unwell, and might act a bit strange, but please don"t mind her. Hey, milady, greet her."

"Greet her." The girl who was called "milady" repeated the words like a child, and imitated a smile. "h.e.l.lo."

"Say "Nice to meet you"."

"Nice to meet you -- "

Though she already figured out the truth about the girl from her movements, the other girl pretended not to notice and nodded. "Pleasure to meet you, Sakaki-san, Rinne."

Then she bowed deeply and stated her name.

Her tail swayed with her body, and her hair also fluttered.

"My name is Saibara Mitsuki."

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