Chapter 307: Glutton {1}
Chapter 307: Glutton {1}
Resurrection.
It is not an impossible tale, provided the conditions are met.
There are beings like Oxymoron, who distance themselves from death from the very beginning.
There is Calavera, who can pull something back from the clutches of death.
And there are those who can save a person from the threshold of the grave, as long as the soul still clings to the body.
Even the person standing before me was once a medical-type Magical Girl, someone who had transcended death through one means or another.
And yet.
“…Is she alive?”
Considering the power she possessed—the power of Happiness Drop—she shouldn't be able to bring back someone who had already departed.
“No, she’s perfectly dead. If my psychiatric license were still valid, I could write the death certificate myself. Her soul and everything else are already gone. That’s why I was able to come out, even though it was with A-bin’s consent.”
A-bin’s consent?
That phrase bothered me, but it wasn't the most important point right now.
“Being remodeled into one of your corpse dolls isn't called being brought back to life.”
Even if, by some chance...
Even if it were merely a meat-machine replaying actions based on memories left in a rotting brain.
It would still be nothing more than a machine made of flesh.
“Ah, I reflect on that too. Truly. But I’m not the one doing it. The important thing in this plan is you, you know?”
“I don’t have any special power like that.”
Before I knew it, we had begun a normal conversation.
However, my hostility toward Happiness Drop did not waver.
In stark contrast, Happiness Drop continued her explanation without showing any hostility toward me, her face fixed in a twisted smile. Then, suddenly—
“I know that well. But in this case, you’re the exception… Tsk.”
Happiness Drop clicked her tongue and summoned her scythe, soaring into the air.
I reacted instantly, flying into the void atop my hammer.
So it was all a trick after all.
Just as I was about to strike Happiness Drop’s hand to erase that perilous scythe—
“Don’t look at me, look down, you stupid boar!”
Down?
I immediately shifted my gaze.
And there.
My enemy stood.
An amorphous mass of tentacles, composed of countless dots.
No, calling it amorphous felt wrong.
It looked more like pitch-black dots stamped onto the fabric of the world.
Like… a hole.
It was as if someone had cut the world into a flat image, placed a void-like dot upon it, and then returned it to its original state.
Countless such dots gathered to form the shape of hollow tentacles, surging upward.
They moved faster than my hammer’s travel speed—at a velocity I couldn't possibly counter.
If I were on the ground...
If I had known they were coming, I might have reacted.
But in this state.
In that fleeting moment of regret.
The tip of a tentacle made of dots.
Just as it was about to pierce my face—
“Tch!”
Along with the sound of someone else clicking their tongue.
My vision spun violently.
Happiness Drop had grabbed me and was soaring further into the sky.
She clutched me tight, flying through the air at an incredible speed.
“…Why are you helping me?”
“Is this really the time to ask that? I’m busy enough resisting the whispers inside me telling me to make the world happy, okay?”
Then I should probably kill you.
“Stop talking nonsense. I can’t beat those tentacles, and neither can you, so just shut up and listen to my explanation.”
“The Enemy I’ve been looking for has shown itself. You expect me to hold back?”
I forced the words out, suppressing my emotions.
But rage flared within me.
The Enemy had appeared.
The Enemy who had orchestrated this entire situation.
Since they had shown themselves as they always did, I only needed to do what had to be done.
With that thought, I tried to shake off Happiness Drop’s hand, but—
“Please, ‘calm down.’ If you really want to fight, do it after I’m finished talking.”
Suddenly, my motivation plummeted. I hung limply from Happiness Drop’s hand, swaying in the air.
“First of all, that thing is your Adversary. It appeared because there’s a chance it can win. And right now, you can’t beat it.”
“How do you know that?”
“Because I saw A-bin die. I know what that thing eats and what special abilities it has. And you have no way to counter them.”
A cold fury radiated from me.
“You just stood there and watched A-bin die?”
Is it your fault, then? All of this?
“No, what was I supposed to do? Forcefully rip my way out of A-bin’s body? Huh? Could you please just listen to me? Don’t you want revenge?”
“Then give me the information. Stop dragging it out like this.”
If you don’t, you’re just an enemy, Happiness Drop.
“Aaaaagh! So annoying! I’m an outsider to the story, and if I speak, those guys up top will go wild. You won’t understand what I’m saying, but I’m barely toeing the line right now, you know?”
At my words, Happiness Drop scratched the remaining flesh on her face with her bony fingers, venting her irritation.
Perhaps because of that.
The Otherworldly Power suddenly surged, and I felt a strange impulse as I looked at her.
But ironically, that made me believe her words.
Because I knew what she meant by "those guys up top."
The High Ones.
The ones hiding above us.
The End.
“…Keep talking.”
“Ah? Why the sudden change of heart? Wouldn't it be better to just slice everything up and be happy? Maybe if we talk to the tentacles, we can reach an understanding?”
…She’s starting to break.
Did mentioning them, even indirectly, cause her sanity—which she was barely holding onto—to crumble under their influence?
It seemed Happiness Drop’s reason, and this escape, had reached their limit.
She was still narrowly avoiding the tentacles with her mid-air acrobatics.
But the speed at which the tentacles pursued us was slightly faster.
There was still some distance, but it was closing. Bit by bit.
“Hurry, before we’re caught.”
“Ah, really? Fine. Whatever. Being happy is a good thing, isn't it? Anyway. I only have one thing to tell you. No matter what happens, do not break. You are the reference point for everything. But always doubt. Doubt even my words. Doubt happiness. Doubt despair. Doubt death. In this moment, nothing in this world is right. Ah? Is that why I failed? Because happiness isn't absolute? Ah?”
…Was that mere nonsense? Or were those words spoken with a shred of sanity?
Regret began to pile up once more.
Because I hadn't trusted Happiness Drop.
I only received an incomplete answer after her mind had already begun to shatter.
An answer that was likely The Key to resolving this incident.
“Still. Just a little longer. Don’t trust me. But listen. Because you need to. You have to survive. It’s okay if you don’t become happy. We have to survive. If we survive, we can become happy. Even if we’re miserable now, the future can be happy. So you have to live. No matter what. So, ah. Dammit, you crazy brain. Calm down. Stop thinking about happiness!”
Thwack.
She struck her own head with her hand.
Chunks of her head were torn away, and rounded bits of flesh flew through the sky.
However, as a result.
The headless Magical Girl quickly restored her head.
“Good. That cleared things up. This won't last long, so remember this. Everything you experience is reality; they are phenomena that actually occur. A-bin’s death. Un-ho’s death. Your wandering through the forest.”
Rage surged, but I listened to her. This woman, who was facing the same enemy as I was, was discarding her very essence and resisting the Otherworld just to deliver this long message.
“However, not everything you experience is the truth, nor is it the ultimate principle. You must remember this. Like I said at first, doubt everything happening around you. Except for your own will.”
…What does that mean?
I couldn't understand it, but I etched it into my heart.
Still, I felt I could ask at least one question.
“…How does that lead to A-bin and Un-ho coming back to life?”
“That is the result after everything is over. Not the process.”
I don't understand.
Everything is shrouded in mystery.
Even as we spoke, the tentacles made of dots steadily approached, positioning themselves beside us.
Just as I was about to raise my hammer and strike The Enemy—
Whoosh.
The sound of air being sliced reached my ears.
My vision spun wildly.
I soon realized what had happened.
Happiness Drop had hurled me into the void.
She placed herself between me and the tentacles.
“And. This will probably be my last word. Because this is a line I shouldn't cross. ‘You will forget the conversation we had.’ This is the most fatal secret in your story of fighting this enemy. Even so. Keep it in your heart. Because that is the only path to victory.”
With those final words.
The Otherworldly Power exploded.
A mana capable of destroying the world erupted from within a single Magical Girl.
“Kyahahahahaha! What’s this? Tentacles that kill people? Ha-ram’s enemy? Ah, right, that’s what they were. I saw them just a moment ago. Then. Die. For A-bin’s sake too.”
Her clothes stained even darker.
Red blood began to pour from her entire body.
The appearance of the Magical Girl who had once been an enemy to humanity, just as I had seen in the past.
But something was different.
Since the image was so strongly seared into my memory, I could quickly tell what had changed.
Only one thing was different.
She wore a black veil.
A veil so thick it obscured her gaze.
Shedding tears of blood.
She raised a massive scythe.
A giant Red Scythe that blotted out the sky and covered the world.
“Die for the sake of happiness!”
Whoosh.
It swung down toward the tentacles.
Boom!
The earth, the forest, and the fog were split asunder.
A massive severance, perhaps even more intense than my hammer.
It struck the tentacles.
A flicker of hope rose within me.
That perhaps she had neutralized the tentacles.
That perhaps she had sliced through this mysterious space.
But that expectation was betrayed.
“Ah, as expected, it didn't work. Can’t be helped. I knew it wouldn't.”
In the wake of the giant Red Scythe—a weapon even I considered dangerous.
The tentacles made of dots remained.
The severed parts had split like a hydra, their numbers only increasing.
“Right. That’s what an Adversary is. An enemy capable of handling the opponent. That applies to both sides.”
Through my spinning vision, I saw Happiness Drop standing blankly.
But I could do nothing. Even when I fired my boosters, my flight speed only slowed down.
“An Awakened is prepared as an Adversary to handle The Enemy of the story, and an enemy of the story is prepared as an Adversary to handle that Awakened. To break my will. Just as a powerless slaughterer hid in a civilian settlement. They strike… the weakness.”
She let the Blood Scythe fall from her hand.
Smiling, she fixed her rotting eyes on me.
“Back then, I just laughed while holding the children’s intestines. I did. Because that was all I could do. And this time, too. I could only watch as The Child was pierced by the tentacles.”
The tentacles made of dots swarmed over her body.
Holes multiplied across her form.
Yet, she did not break.
Because that was her strength.
“I am a being that cannot change. A being obsessed with a delusion, unable to change. That’s why I can’t do anything. Not now, not in the past, and not in the future.”
With her crumbling body, she grabbed the tentacles.
As if trying to hold them back for even a moment longer.
More tentacles plunged into her.
“So. Ha-ram. I’m sorry. I’m truly, truly sorry. And, I leave the rest to you.”
Squelch.
A light sound, like something being punctured, echoed.
Her presence vanished.
Without leaving a single scrap of flesh behind, her entire body was pierced and erased by the dot tentacles.
And so, the tentacles that had annihilated my old acquaintance.
Flew toward me as their next target.
As if Happiness Drop’s sacrifice had been for nothing.
Helpless in the void, I could do nothing.
In a final act of desperation, I swung my hammer, destroying space.
I struggled to block the flood of tentacles.
“Fuck. This is bullshit.”
But I couldn't stop the countless dots that had intruded upon the world.
“I’m sorry. Everyone.”
I, too, was pierced.
By the dots and the holes.
I grit my teeth.
* * *
『A broken clock does not tick, so do not wonder at it.』
『On the day the clock is set right again, four who open their mouths shall appear. This is the new beginning.』
『Is it right for infinity to vanish to create one? Only the one standing at the end shall know.』
Why did Macbeth’s prophecy, which I had read once before—the one whose subject no one knew—come to mind now?
Amidst the oblivion consuming me, I wondered.