The Cocoon of Malice

I sprinted through the streets, following the faint, lingering trace of energy. Beyond the pouring rain, I saw a woman stumbling as she fled from a man who was swinging a blunt weapon with vacant, hollow eyes.

"No! Please, someone help me!"

The woman, desperately crawling through the mud-slicked ground, shrieked at the sight of the man dragging his weapon toward her. I rushed over, struck the back of the neck of the man who was being controlled, and shouted, "It’s dangerous out here, get to a safe place!"

"Y-yes! Oh... ahh! My ankle..."

Relieved by my shout, she tried to stand up quickly, only to suddenly wince in pain. Looking at her ankle, it seemed she had injured it when she fell; it was already beginning to swell. She couldn't evacuate to safety on her own. And it wasn't just her—I couldn't leave the man I’d just knocked unconscious lying in the street, either. Just as I was about to lift them to move them to a shelter, the state of the city came into view.

"Aaaah! Help me!!"

"No... I don't want to die..."

The entire city was filled with people screaming and groaning in pain. Heroes and students who had rushed from somewhere were subduing the controlled individuals and rescuing citizens, but there were still far too many people in need of help. As time passed, the damage would only grow beyond control.

The girl who had disappeared, telling me to play hide-and-seek. She had said that if I followed her, she would tell me how to stop this situation. It might have been a lie, but for some reason, I knew. I knew she hadn't been lying. If that was the case, finding that method and ending this situation as quickly as possible was the only way to prevent greater casualties. To do that, it was impossible to help everyone I saw.

I clenched my fists tightly and opened my mouth. "...I'll call someone to help, so please stay here for a moment."

I said that to the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠woman with the injured leg, bolted from the spot, and shouted to a student who happened to be running nearby. "Please, take care of the injured person and the unconscious man over there!"

The student looked flustered for a moment but ran toward the direction I pointed. I watched the student’s retreating back for a second before turning my body back toward the direction I had been heading before I stopped to help the woman. The screams of people needing someone's help pierced my ears.

Suddenly, a famous ethics problem my teacher had mentioned in moral education class came to mind. The problem of a trolley heading toward a track where five people are tied up versus a track where one person is tied up—the choice of which track to let the trolley run on. The question of whether it is morally right to sacrifice the few to save the many. There is no right answer, but most people choose to save the greater number. I was the same.

But trying to apply that to reality made me feel like I was going insane. I knew that as time passed, more people would be sacrificed, and that if I chose the smaller group, the city would be finished—yet making that choice was agonizingly difficult. Still, I had to make a decision.

The metallic scent of blood spread in my mouth because I had bitten my lips until they tore. I desperately ignored the screams and squeezed my eyes shut. By focusing on helping the woman, I had lost the energy trail I was following. But I knew how to feel that energy again. I closed my eyes and listened to a different sound instead of the screams.

As the witch's voice rang louder and louder in my head, I began to feel the energy I had lost once again. Afraid of losing it, I focused even harder, listening to the voice, and ran toward the direction where the energy was felt.

As I listened to the voice, the guilt and hesitation seemed to vanish. Only rage filled my mind. I couldn't tell if that was a good thing or a bad thing. At some point, the screams I had been hearing no longer reached my ears.

*

The place where my footsteps stopped was not as far from the area my class was in charge of as I had thought. The point where the energy was felt was the park in District 15, where I always went. Was it a coincidence? It was certainly here that I had first encountered the girl with the dark purple hair.

I stopped and looked around, and heard slow, leisurely applause from in front of me. The girl, who had appeared out of nowhere, was looking at me and clapping with a smile.

"Heh, hide-and-seek is oooover. Even if you've changed a little, you're still Eva, aren't you? You couldn't help but follow me. You've been following me around like that for a long time, after all."

When I faced the girl, the witch's voice rang noisily in my head. An impulse to burn the girl right then and there surged up, but there was something more important, so I bit my lip hard and asked her, "I followed you like you said, so tell me. How to stop this. If you're lying, I won't let it slide."

At my words, the girl curled her lips upward and said, "You're still as hot-tempered as ever. Don't worry. I don't intend to break a promise I've made. Since you won at hide-and-seek, I'll tell you."

The girl slowly raised her arm and pointed her finger. In the direction she pointed, there was a flower bed in the park, and controlled people were wandering nearby. The girl muttered, "See that between the bushes? It's hidden well enough that it's hard to see, but if you look closely, you'll see it."

At the girl's words, I slowly examined the inside of the flower bed. Bushes, flowers, small saplings. And among those plants, which were full of life from the rain, there was something hideous exuding a sense of incongruity all by itself.

"...What is that..."

The thing hiding between the bushes looked like an egg, or perhaps a cocoon. But its size was not normal. It was large enough that it wouldn't be strange for an average adult male to fit inside, and it was glistening, wet from the rain, pulsing in a sickening way. When I asked about the identity of the thing that was clearly not normal, the girl replied, "There's a Maju inside there. From what I hear, it acts as a transmitter to send signals that control humans. If you destroy that, the people will stop, right?"

At those words, I inhaled sharply and glared at the thing, whether it was an egg or a cocoon. If I just destroy that, if I just destroy that, I can stop it. Just as I clenched my fists and was about to run toward it, the gazes of the controlled people wandering around the park focused on me in unison. Women, children, men, the elderly. Dozens of pairs of eyes were reflecting me without a single blink. It was a gruesome scene that wouldn't have been strange to give me goosebumps. Only then did I realize how many people were around the park and felt something was off.

The other controlled individuals seemed to have the purpose of harming others, wandering around like zombies looking for places where people were. But why were so many people not doing that and instead just wandering around this park? There was only one reason I could think of. They were guarding it. In case something happened to that thing that looked like a cocoon. But even if there were dozens of them, if they were all ordinary people, I could subdue them somehow without harm. I had even trained to face 17 lower-class Maju alone.

I steadied my breathing and kicked off the ground to break through the wave of people coming at me and destroy the cocoon. At the same time, the people who had been staring at me like mannequins also began to ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠move ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠in unison. Several people nearby threw their bodies at me. It didn't even take a few seconds to subdue them. But in those few seconds it took to subdue them, I realized I had been played.

"You... crazy..."

In the place where the cocoon had been, another cocoon was being created to wrap around it. A cocoon made of people's bodies. I rushed toward it, but the dozens of people already near the cocoon were surrounding it, weaving their arms and legs together to hold on.

"Damn it! Get away from there!"

I tried to force them off, but it wasn't easy. They were literally holding on with all their might to keep from falling apart. I tried to pull the man on the outermost edge away with force, but I was startled and let go when I heard something snap. But the man didn't change his expression even though his arm was broken; he remained motionless, woven together with the others. They had become dolls that performed orders without feeling pain even when their fingers and limbs were broken. Literally, it seemed I couldn't pull them off the cocoon unless they died.

"Let go... please... pleaaase...!"

Even if I shouted and shook them, my voice didn't reach anyone. That made me so angry. At the malice of the witch who controlled people so horribly. I stepped back to distance myself, afraid that the flames that felt like they were about to burst out would hurt the people. At that moment, the girl watching the scene whispered from beside me, "Don't you want to stop it? Then, you can just destroy what's inside along with these humans."

As if giving advice to a child who didn't know the way. "At most, you just have to kill a few humans."

At the girl's words, I looked at the people in front of me.

Just as she said, it was only a few dozen people. Five people and one person. If it is human to choose to kill one person to save five, then wouldn't it be right to sacrifice a few dozen to save the thousands or tens of thousands who would die in the future? Actually, that didn't matter.

"Heh, poor Evangeline. You've been through something terrible. It's not your fault the children died. Bad people, they don't even know that. Huh? Wow, that's a huge fire. Playing with fire is fun."

I just wanted revenge. I didn't care if people got caught up in the process. That, too, was their karma. The jewel in my palm absorbed the flames and turned red. Red, red with burning fire. The left sleeve of my school uniform burned away in the fierce flames swirling from my left arm. Watching that, the girl smiled, clapped, and said, "As expected, don't stay among humans, let's play hide-and-seek and play with fire like we used to. Okay? Evangeline."

I extended my arm, where flames were flickering, toward the one who had given me that damn name. The eyes of the girl sitting on top of the people shone ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠brightly, reflecting the flames. The moment I was about to eject the flames I had gathered to the fullest, I saw a character engraved in flames on the prosthetic arm of my left arm. Flames erupted from the prosthetic arm. Not forward, but upward. The flames shot upward, illuminating the rainy sky before disappearing.

"Huh? Evangeline?"

To the girl who was puzzled, I muttered as if repeating the character I had just seen. "...My name isn't something like Evangeline."

Scarlet.

"...It's Scarlet Evande."

That was my name, the one I had promised to protect people with. The girl who had been sitting on top of the people stared at me blankly for a moment before opening her mouth. "Why did you shoot it upward if you're going to stop it without killing them?"

I looked up at the sky. A dark sky full of rain and storm clouds. No matter how blurry the view was, if something suddenly sparkled in such a sky, it would be easy to see even from a distance. Until just a moment ago, my head wasn't working because of what was whispering in my mind, but now that I had my senses back, it was a simple matter. I answered her question. "...If I can't stop it without killing them, I can just call someone who can stop it without killing them."

The flame I shot into the sky was a signal to the person who would be rescuing people near where I usually worked. Because she was someone who worried about me immensely. I thought that if it were her, she would run faster than anyone else upon seeing my flame. And that thought proved correct. I smiled slightly at the starlight twinkling in the distance.

"Heh, that's fun."

The girl smiled slyly, as if she had seen the light. She slowly stood up from on top of the people and said, "Did you say Scarlet Evande? I am Beatrice. The Witch of Sloth, as you call it."

Having introduced herself like that, Beatrice, the Witch of Sloth, who had jumped off the people and landed on the ground, curled her lips and smiled. "I'll be looking forward to seeing who you'll be next time we meet."

With those words, the witch vanished from the spot.