Chapter 1: Endings and Beginnings part 1
Monday. The beginning of the week.
It was on such a day that the two of them met, and the "ordinary world" as Aoi Shirano had known it came to an end.
That day, on her way home from school, Aoi found herself visiting a certain apartment building in a somewhat indirect location on the map. Her teacher, Mr. Sato, had asked her to deliver some accumulated leaflets to a classmate she had hardly spoken to and who had been absent from school lately.
Aoi was a first-year middle school student in May, and although she had gradually become accustomed to her school uniform and the school itself, she lacked the social skills to befriend a girl who had been absent so frequently. Still, Aoi couldn't refuse the teacher's request to visit this almost complete stranger's house. It seemed like there could have been better candidates for the task, but the fact that Aoi was a member of the The Homecoming Club played a significant role.
After walking from school to the nearest station, she took a two-stop train journey. Although her nearest station was the same, the apartment building of her classmate, Makoto Mizukazuka, seemed to be in an entirely different direction from where Aoi lived.
Aoi took a detour, strolling through a shopping district near the station and passing by an arcade, walking along a road she had rarely ventured before. Finally, with a map in hand, Aoi found her way to the apartment building. By then, the sun had already started to set, casting an out-of-season harsh sunset that bathed the surroundings in a slightly blurred color palette.
"Miyazono Apartments, third floor, and..."
While looking at the map in front of the apartment building, Aoi muttered to herself. The open-style building had no security, and the hallway was accessible to everyone, up to each individual unit. It had an old-fashioned, somewhat rundown feel, and in Aoi's mind, it was more like a housing complex than an apartment building.
So Aoi entered the deserted apartment building and began climbing the stairs instead of taking the elevator. It was around this moment that she reached the landing between the second and third floors, with the local municipal speakers blaring the noisy, distorted tune of "Yuyake Koyake" (The song is used as a signal meaning Japanese children have finished school and are going home).
It was then that she unexpectedly stumbled upon a surreal scene.
A woman, with her eyes gouged out, stood at the top of the stairs.
The woman stood there, her hair disheveled, her movements deliberate and almost floating. Her empty eye sockets exposed a deep, dark void, and a viscous, blood-like fluid dripped down her pale cheeks from behind her disheveled bangs.
Koto...
thud...
she descended the stairs.
Red fluid oozed from her empty eye sockets.
"Huh?"
From Aoi's mouth came only that single word.
However, that solitary word drove a wedge of reality into this unnatural and frozen scene, breaking its mysterious silence.
"..."
The woman noticed Aoi's presence. She had been descending the stairs but stopped her steps, turned her eyeless, ghastly face toward Aoi, and gave a gentle smile.
"Hello," the woman casually greeted.
Then, without changing her posture, she leaned forward slowly and, as if throwing herself, toppled headfirst down the landing toward Aoi.
"Uwaaaah!"
"That! That! That! She fell down the stairs,"
banging her head on each step. Aoi screamed, and the lifeless body of the woman landed heavily at Aoi's feet. With a loud and dull noise, the woman fell onto the concrete landing like a broken doll.
Her head was facing the wrong way, an abnormal twist of the neck. The skin of her neck seemed to stretch like rubber, and the head, connected to the prone body, looked up at the ceiling. The pale, blood-smeared face appeared as if it were peering from behind the disheveled bangs.
Hollow eye sockets could be seen from behind her bangs, and her brain had been exposed. Blood flowed from her nose and half-open mouth, forming a puddle on the floor.
In the dim twilight, a puddle of blood slowly spread, staining the surroundings with red and black. The speakers had stopped playing "Yuyake Koyake," and the distorted noise in the air continued to assault eardrums and skin.
It felt like a different dimension, as if she were present somewhere else. This scene had lost much of its sense of reality.
However,
"...Ugh!"
A sudden wave of the smell of blood surged, and Aoi's senses were abruptly returned to the horrifying reality. She took a deep breath of the air, mixed with the scent of iron rust, feeling a sensation in her stomach that threatened to make her vomit. Aoi's legs gave way as her back hit the concrete railing, and her strength seemed to drain from her legs.
The impact reverberated through her body, making her stomach contents churn. Aoi had almost come down the stairs, but she desperately clung to the railing.
He couldn't comprehend what had just happened. Her mind went completely blank in the presence of the grotesque scene before her.
Her panic was overwhelming, and she couldn't even avert her gaze from the horrors in front of her. As a result, Aoi didn't fully notice the presence of another person standing at the top of the stairs.
And then,
"...Did you do this?"
Out of nowhere, a female voice addressed Aoi from above.
"...!"
Aoi gasped and looked up. She hadn't done this, of course, but being accused of such a heinous crime left her extremely agitated, almost overwhelmed by fear.
"N-No, it's not... ME..."
"Are you sure? Your reaction seems somewhat normal..."
The girl continued talking without listening to Aoi's defense.
"Ordinary people wouldn't just come here. You might be a 'different form.'"
"...!"
The cold, piercing gaze locked onto Aoi sent shivers down her spine. Aoi felt an overwhelming fear when she saw the mysterious presence of the girl and the gruesome death in front of her.
The view of the lifeless body and the girl with a deathly aura, along with the peculiar attire and strange behavior of the girl, left Aoi overwhelmed by emotions far from ordinary fear.
"Could it be that she's the culprit!?"
Within Aoi, a strong and growing suspicion emerged. The girl in front of her could be an aberration. The moment she thought this, tension like a tight noose wrapped around Aoi.
Profound anxiety and the fear of possibly facing an abnormal killer quickly contorted Aoi's expression. Cold sweat formed on her forehead, and the air around her grew tense to the point where she could hear her own breathing.
"...A killer?"
Aoi let out a small, trembling voice.
"!"
The moment the girl heard Aoi's words, her eyes narrowed sharply with an expression containing anger. the girl dressed in black took a step toward Aoi on the stairs. Her dark, shiny leather shoes made a disconcertingly calm rhythm as she descended the concrete steps.
Her calm walk contrasted sharply with the anger she had repressed. Feeling something abnormal approaching due to this imbalance, Aoi immediately felt overwhelmed by the desire to flee, but fear seemed to paralyze her body, preventing her from moving.
Step by step, the footsteps reached the final step.
Squelch.
The girl's shoe landed in the blood puddle that had spread on the landing.
"...................................."
"...................................."
And then, a terrible silence settled between the two, stretching on for a while.
Aoi felt paralyzed, unable to divert her gaze from the girl. The fear was so intense that she couldn't even breathe. The abnormal intruder had come closer, armed with a deadly weapon, and the lifeless body lay at her feet.
The tension and fear were so extreme that time seemed to stretch infinitely, but this fragile moment was shattered by the sudden appearance of another person.
"Yu-Yukino-san! Are you okay!?"
A panicked girl's voice echoed from below the stairs.
"Wha...!?"
"Satsuki-chan. It's too late. It's better if you don't come up," said the girl dressed in black, pausing her actions on the stairs as she briefly looked at the newly arrived girl.
"I see..."
The girl, known as Satsuhime, had a strange expression that couldn't decide if it was fear or sadness. She had run here, breathless, and stopped moving when she reached the stairs. Satsuhime seemed to be in high school, wearing a pleated skirt and a jacket, with short hair adorned with colorful hairpins. She looked like an ordinary girl in contrast to the girl in front of Aoi.
Satsuki then saw Aoi and let out a small cry.
"Ah! Ah! It's this person!"
"You know her?"
The girl dressed in black asked as she looked at Aoi.
"No...!"
"What is she doing here?"
Amidst this incomprehensible conversation, the girl dressed in black's gaze remained fixed on Aoi. Her expression became increasingly severe and stern.
"...This person entered my 'zone' just now!"
The girl explained.
The girl dressed in black furrowed her brow.
"...Within your 'zone'? Without consuming your memories?"
"Yes."
The conversation didn't make sense. However, as the girl dressed in black continued to scrutinize Aoi, her gaze grew more intense.
"Why didn't you contact me when she entered? I told you to call if anything unusual happened, right?"
"I'm sorry... My phone stopped working, and I was worried, so I hurried here..."
"I see..."
The girl apologized and shrugged. The conversation ended there.
Then, the girl dressed in black sharply narrowed her eyes.
"Is it settled... I wonder?"
As she spoke, the girl grabbed the bandage on her left wrist with the hand holding the box cutter and calmly stepped on the body at her feet, approaching Aoi.
"..."
It wasn't clear what she was trying to do, but Aoi could barely understand one thing: this disturbed girl was trying to make he the culprit of the corpse at her feet. Aoi couldn't help it, even though she knew it was futile.
"N-No! I have nothing to do with this!"
Aoi shouted.
It wasn't mere talk. It couldn't possibly be that something so horrifying had occurred.
Even from the outset, suspicion was a terrifying idea in itself. She wanted to escape from this place as quickly as possible, if possible within seconds.
It was a completely different place from what Aoi loved as "normal."
The girl in black slowly advanced toward Aoi. The sound of her wet steps as she stepped into the blood puddle. She remained silent, looking at Aoi without saying a word, as she stopped just a few meters away.
The girl stared at her and stopped abruptly, like a seasoned swordsman who had reached the right distance for her opponent.
The air stood still.
In front of Aoi, the black lace ribbon holding the girl's hair swayed.
"Me... I..."
Aoi tried to speak as if she were trying to find a voice in a place without air. But in the next moment, Aoi was forced to swallow her words and opened her eyes wide for a reason completely different from the ongoing conversation.
In the corner of Aoi's view as she looked at the girl, without any sign, a figure rose from nowhere, as if it were a shadow drawing.
She tilted her head deeply, letting her hair hang carelessly. The "shadow" rose in complete silence, in the corner of the growing darkness, behind the girl in black, making no sound or movement, as if it were a shadow drawing.
Several drops of blood fell like rain from her hair hanging beneath her face.
There was no doubt that she was dead: the woman whose eyeballs had been gouged out.
And Aoi saw something she hadn't noticed before, distracted by the most stunning appearance she had seen so far. In the girl's right hand, which Aoi had barely glanced at, she held two eyeballs gouged out like nuts, stained with blood and grease.
As the sharp scissors' edge slid, the barely audible sound mixed.
And in the next moment, the woman, with her broken neck, raised her face with a dull noise. She had a horrific smile on her pale face that looked as if it had been broken. She held bloodied scissors with one hand over yukino head.
"Dangerous!!!"
Aoi shouted without thinking. The scissors grazed the hair of the girl whose movements were mirrored, and the girl was pushed toward Aoi as if she had been pushed down the landing.
"Ahh!"
"Uaaah!"
Following the girl, Aoi also screamed. The woman who had knocked down the girl held the scissors and lunged at Aoi.
"............!!"
Without thinking, Aoi protected her face as she grabbed the woman's arm holding the scissors. Without giving her time to understand the threat, the sharp tip of the scissors came dangerously close to her left eye.
The tip of the scissors was too close to the eyes, and the image of the scissors in Aoi's left field of vision became blurry and fuzzy.
The horrifying smile of the woman looking at Aoi in that way. Her mouth opened slightly, and blood began to flow profusely from it, quickly staining her chin and worsening the already blood-soaked coat.
The woman, with a twisted smile, spoke as she let the blood flow from her mouth.
"...Sin."
Her hoarse voice escaped from her scarlet mouth at the same time as the air was released with a sigh, and bubbles began to emerge.
"Sin... sin... sin."
While spitting out bloody foam, she murmured from her mouth.
"Ahhhh!"
A chilling scream pierced Aoi's ears as she let out a terrifying scream.
Overcome by fear, Aoi desperately tried to push the woman away, but the woman's hand holding the scissors was soaked in blood and slippery, making even that difficult.
The blood-soaked hands slipped, and Aoi's hands were separated as the hand holding the scissors dangerously approached her eyeball.
The tip of the scissors touched the surface of the left eyeball.
There was a sharp and stabbing pain as the scissors scraped and pierced the eyeball.
"Ahhhh!"
However, fear prevented her eyelids from closing. Terrified and feeling overwhelming pain, Aoi screamed desperately while holding the woman's cold hand and being unable to move.
At that moment, a voice filled with anger from a young woman in black was heard.
"This..."
"Yukino-san!?"
Then, a girl's voice from below was heard. Aoi couldn't pay attention to that at the moment, but from the corner of her right field of vision, she saw the black-clad girl rise with the hand stained with the girl who had fallen into a pool of blood on the floor. The girl had bloodstains on the concrete railing she was leaning on, and her hand was also covered in blood. Then, she pulled a bloodstained white tape from around her hand, as if unwinding the content of a video tape. From that white tape, she revealed a white arm with horrible cut marks covering its entire surface, like decorations. Then, the sound of the cutter blade extending resonated in the air. And then, the girl whispered quietly.
"—My pain, burns the world."
In the next moment, the girl pressed the cutter blade against her own arm and cut it with all her strength. The thin blade slid through the skin as if it were a sheet of paper and penetrated the flesh. Along with a faint, muffled groan, the girl's body convulsed in pain and then...
"Ahhhhhhhhh!"
Immediately afterward, a scorching wind blew on Aoi's face, and the woman who was about to stab her with scissors was engulfed in flames as if doused in gasoline. Aoi screamed and covered her face as the woman was engulfed in an explosive fire, as if she were soaked in gasoline. The burning smell of her hair filled the air, and the intense heat scorched the confined space as if it were being cooked. The woman engulfed in flames, like a rolling object, raged on the landing, and the thrown scissors flew out, making a metallic sound as they hit the concrete floor.
"..."
The girl in black, with an intense expression that seemed twisted with anger, stared intensely at the scene of the woman burning in flames. There was an aura of murder, hatred, and distress in her gaze, but more than that, she seemed to fear the scene in front of her. Although Aoi didn't understand how it had happened, it seemed to her that the girl herself was deeply frightened by the scene she had somehow caused.
However, this perception lasted only for a moment, as the black-clad girl immediately turned her gaze away from the woman who showed no signs of life.
At that very moment, the flames that burned on the woman's body with astonishing force disappeared as if they had been extinguished like candles, absorbed into the air in a matter of seconds.
It was an incomprehensible phenomenon.
But the black-clad girl, as if she had completely lost interest in these events and in the now charred body, turned immediately and looked at Aoi with alert eyes.
"... ... ..."
"… … …!"
Faced with her intensity, Aoi couldn't help but tense up.
In the deepening darkness of the night, the black-clad girl stood firm like an assassin, with the blood flowing from her left arm regardless of it, looking at Aoi with a sinister and expressionless face, having lost the flush of life.
"I'm next." Feeling the lingering heat in the air and smelling the burning hair, Aoi had that thought. Looking up in astonishment, the black-clad girl stared at her for a while, but finally, she put away the knife she held and spoke to Aoi in a low voice.
"Are you safe?"
"... ... ... Eh?"
For a moment, Aoi didn't understand what had been said. He remained stunned as he looked at the girl. However, after a while, he realized that they were expressing concern for her well-being. Unable to help it, he let out an astonished voice.
"Why...?"
"You seem to be safe."
The girl ignored Aoi's question and said that with a smile.
It seems like you've been rescued. Although the mere existence of this fact seemed incredible, Aoi was relieved in some way, though he couldn't help but feel tense. Finally, Aoi sat down on the concrete floor, with her back against the railing, with a lifeless expression.
"Ugh..."
The sharp pain in her left eye, which had been touched by the scissors, made her moan softly, and Aoi covered her eye.
The girl's eyebrows furrowed.
"...Your eye? You should have it checked."
With an expression that seemed angry, the girl knelt down and looked at Aoi.
Then, looking down, she said:
"Satsuki-chan. Call the <God Hunter> immediately. Ask the <Funeral Home> to take care of the body and make sure to secure one of the <Possessed> or <Holders>."
"Also , make sure to call a doctor. He might have hurt her eyes, so we might need an ophthalmic consultation."
"Ah, yes!"
From below the stairs, a hurried voice from a girl. However, the girl in black stopped her as she was about to rush out. She took a cute, pale pink mobile phone from her pocket and extended it to the girl below the stairs.
"It looks like you lost your phone, didn't you?"
"Oh, yes... I'm sorry!"
The girl who had hurriedly climbed the stairs accepted the phone from the girl.
Then, the girl sighed softly as she watched the girl rushing down again.
"Anyway..."
The girl in black muttered quietly.
Aoi, with her eyes still covered, said with a muffled voice.
"...Let's go to the hospital..."
"I know. I've requested it right away, so be patient."
The girl replied to Aoi's apologetic tone. It seemed as if Aoi were about to cry. But that was a misunderstanding.
"No, it's not...! Your arms...!"
"...Eh?"
When the young woman heard this, she looked at her own arm as if it had been pricked. Then, she looked away, avoiding the sight of the countless scars and the two new bleeding wounds on her arm with an expression that sounded like an apology.
"This is not important. Let it be."
"Eh...? But you have more wounds than me..."
"You're very annoying. More importantly, worry about yourself. I don't know if you are "the target now" or if you "have ever been a target" in the past, but either way, you won't be able to lead a normal life. Are you affiliated with any "Order"?"
Rejection, enchantment, or deviation, the young woman asked Aoi.
"..."
"I thought as much. You don't understand a thing."
The young woman sighed at Aoi's puzzled silence. Then, she stood up and spoke to Aoi.
"Welcome to the 'dark side of the world' filled with nightmares. I won't welcome you with open arms."
What the young woman conveyed in her words was determination and a hint of pity.
"Unfortunately, you've encountered a 'Divine Nightmare.' What you saw was a 'world devoured by nightmares.' I am a member of a group that works to save people trapped in that. We call ourselves the 'Order of Knights.'"
"That's... It's just..."
"From now on, you'll come with me. And you'll have to learn the truth of this 'dark side of the world.' And you'll have to choose whether to fight and die or just die. You probably won't have the right to refuse."
The young woman spoke firmly.
"..."
Aoi looked at the young woman in silence, surprised.
And the young woman looked down at him with a stern expression, saying nothing.
That was the first meeting between Aoi Shirano and Tsubaki Yukino. It was the first meeting, filled with a terrible and fateful coincidence, between Aoi, Yukino, and all the tragedies that awaited them.
(The other part will be released tomorrow or Saturday.)
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