9. Brainstem!
Yukel's body collapsed to the floor.
The light of the holy sword had gone out.
My body was reaching its limit too. The black cube slipped from my hand and went rolling across the floor, bouncing again and again.
It landed somewhere beyond the reach of my fingers.
My vision snapped white. My mouth was full of blood. The taste made me sick.
The moment I spat it out, Sirin came sprinting over with a face full of concern.
"Senior, everyone who could get in our way is gone now~"
Sweet.
Unbearably, maddeningly sweet.
The blood pooling in my mouth tasted sweet. The voice reaching my ears tasted sweet. Everything felt sweet.
Crrrunch.
She came closer, stepping on the shattered glass.
—Why did I hesitate? I could have killed it, clearly. So why did I hesitate?
Through her shirt, torn apart moments ago by Yukel, I could see red flesh and blood vessels pulsing beneath.
Ah, I see. The type whose true body exists elsewhere—the flesh Lee Sirin is wearing right now is a fake.
"…Stop."
I tried to drag myself backward however I could, but my legs were already numb, refusing to move so much as an inch.
Sirin knelt down carefully, right in front of me.
She cradled my fallen head in one hand and laid it gently on her lap like a knee pillow.
Disgusting….
A cloying fragrance drifted up from beneath her skirt. Sweet fruit scent mingled with the smell of Yukel's blood… it made my head swim.
"Senior… you're exhausted, aren't you?"
"Let… go…!"
"Nope. We've come this far—how could I possibly let you go? I'm just going to pop inside your adorable little head for a moment, that's all."
"I said let go!"
Sirin's index finger crept toward my ear.
The fingertip split open.
The skin tore open in a long horizontal split, and from within it sprouted a slender stalk—a tendril, a terminus, a bundle of nerves made of red, damp, filthy, ominous, repulsive, corrupted flesh—emerging in the shape of a sharpened barb coiled into a spiral, and we must surely sing its praises.
Slippery liquid dripped from the tip of the stalk, pooling on the floor. The liquid was a vivid pink, and inside it I could see a powdery sediment.
"Y-you, that thing—!"
Fear.
I whipped my head away to block it from entering, but Sirin's other hand seized my jaw.
Her grip clamped down hard on my jawbone, locking my head in place.
"It'll hurt a little… but it'll feel good soon, so bear with it."
Sliick. Crunch.
The tendril began wriggling its way into my ear canal.
"Agh—aaaagh—! Agh—!"
Cold and damp. A slender sliver of flesh forced its way into the narrow passage, stretching it wider. My whole nervous system refused to obey me, gooseflesh erupting across my skin in waves.
The thin, soft, sensitive flesh inside my ear split apart with a wet pop, and damp fluid flooded my ear canal.
Crack.
My eardrum burst with a terrible sound.
"Aaaaagh! Kyaaaagh—!"
"Wow! So you could scream like a girl too!"
Thunder. Lightning struck my brain. Pain bloomed as my back arched high off the ground, lifted upward.
Srrrrk.
Her knees and hands had pinned my upper body perfectly still, so all I could do was scrape my nails against the floor and scream.
Despite having a mouth, I could do nothing but scream.
The tendril did not stop.
Piercing through my ruptured eardrum, it meticulously crushed the bone as it bored toward the membrane that sheathed my brain.
Along with that bizarre, grotesque sensation of something digging out the inside of my skull by hand, my eyes began rolling back.
Crunch. Pushik….
Inside my skull, Sirin's tendril lodged itself directly into the center of my brain.
Pshuck.
Blood erupted from my nose and ears.
Brain matter, blood, and the pink fluid spewing from the tendril mixed together and forced their way out of my body.
Blood spattered across my lips, my cheeks, and Sirin's skirt.
Pshuck. Pshuck.
Sirin watched the whole scene and smiled brightly.
"Ahaha… I had a feeling you'd be the type to bleed a lot during your period, Senior."
Her tendril began churning through the center of my brain.
Pshuck, crunch, pshuck….
Every time the tendril moved, clots of blood spurted from my nose.
Shudder. Shudder.
My whole body began convulsing.
My fingers and toes and thighs and spine and… everything.
Tremble….
Pink mucus flooded into my brain.
What followed the pain was pleasure….
"Ah… aah… ahh…? Aahng!"
An unregulated, animalistic wail spilled out. It kept spilling. It was still spilling.
The memories of my life as a man, my pride, my wariness, my fear—they were melting away. The impurities were being flushed out.
The pleasure Sirin was injecting directly into my brain began filling my head to the brim.
Pshuck!
Blood burst from my nose again.
Thick blood mixed with pink fluid ran down my chin and into the nape of my neck, staining my white coat a subtle, sickening shade.
Both eyes had rolled back to show nothing but whites, and blood-tinged tears streamed down, and down, and down….
Tremble.
My thighs spasmed like something possessed.
The tendril pumped and twisted inside my skull.
The worst orgasm of my entire life was coming.
Fluid burst between my legs, soaking my jeans through.
"Senior! How is it? Feels good, right?"
Crunch, crunch.
Even as she said it, Sirin never stopped moving the tendril.
Pumping. Pistoning.
Ah, whatever. I just want it to stop.
Grrgl….
A froth of saliva and blood sprayed from my mouth.
I couldn't even moan anymore.
I gripped Sirin's thigh with my hand. I needed something to hold onto and endure, something to keep me from falling into this pleasure—it was pure instinct.
Shudder-shudder… tremble….
My hips bucked straight up into the air.
Climax slammed through my entire body.
Pshuck…!
The last of the blood and pink fluid spurted from my nose.
My brain melted.
Who am I? Where is this? I couldn't tell.
My body kept convulsing helplessly, spraying fluid in every direction, over and over.
"Perfect!"
Sirin slowly withdrew the tendril from my ear.
Sliick….
The moment it came free, blood and fluid gushed from the ruined ear.
My head lolled limply to the floor.
Me, gazing blankly at the ceiling with eyes that had lost all focus. Me, bleeding from my left nostril and ear. Me, a wreck with my mouth smeared in saliva and blood. Me, still buried in the afterglow of pleasure, shivering wretchedly and unable to stop.
"Team Leader, can you see me?"
Sirin laid me out flat on the floor and leaned her face over mine. Her golden hair brushed against my bloodstained cheek.
My rolled-back eyes drifted down.
Swish, swish.
Sirin wiped my abdomen clean with her coat sleeve. Carefully tidying the blood and pink fluid. She lowered my arms, which had been hanging up in the air, and then observed Seolrin for a very, very long time. Grinning from ear to ear, though at what exactly, only she could say.
Only the broken remained.
"Sirin…."
"Yes! Team Leader!"
"Feels good…. Do… more… my head, my head, more…."
"Oh no! You broke! Let me fix you right up! Broken toys don't interest me~"
"Something about a mental discipline… Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah!"
She stuck out her tongue, long and slow.
Lap. Lap.
Like a cat licking its owner.
With my head cradled tight in her arms, Sirin lapped at my face again and again—my face smeared with my own blood and spit.
Everything went hazy.
I open my eyes.
Not an unfamiliar ceiling… a familiar one….
The smell of antiseptic.
Ugh. I scrunched up my face.
I rolled my eyes to survey my surroundings. An IV needle in my left arm, thick bandages wrapped around my entire head… my ears throbbed.
When I tried to sit up, a heavy weight pressed down on my chest.
Sirin's golden hair.
…Again?
"Good morning! Team Leader!"
"Why are you here…?"
"I was nursing you back to health~"
"Nursing…? Pressing down on my chest with your head counts as nursing?"
"Ah! I was watching over you all night and fell asleep by accident…!"
Sirin smiled, the picture of innocence.
Maybe because her golden hair was coiled around my neck, it felt a little itchy.
I pushed Sirin away with one hand and slowly raised my upper body. My head ached, and the pain inside my ear kept pulsing.
In the next bed lay Yukel.
Bandages wrapped over both eyes and both ears.
Dried blood had crusted into a hard scab beneath her nose, left untended.
And the holy sword, robbed of its light.
…It had come to the point of drawing the holy sword?
"What happened?"
"That operating table exploded!"
"What…?"
"Yep! You and Team Leader Yukel even used your Objects to try to block it, but you couldn't."
"Yukel and I couldn't block it? A mere explosion?"
"Nope…! They said your brains got shaken up and you blacked out…."
Hm….
Is that so?
The next moment, a groan drifted over from the next bed. Yukel was stirring.
"Ungh…."
"Yukel, you're awake?"
"Yeah."
"Do you remember roughly what happened?"
"The operating table exploded. Glass shards tore into my eyes and ears. I'm mid-recovery, so I'll be fine."
It matched Sirin's explanation exactly. Fine. I'd accept it.
The moment she finished speaking, Yukel drifted back to sleep.
On the bedside table, I could see the black cube. One of its six faces was cracked… it looked like it had been used far too hard. Had I really been that desperate?
"Senior! Want me to hoo~ you?"
"No."
"Boo-hoo… that makes me sad."
Sirin retreated backward, grinning.
My chest felt a little lighter.
The pain kept throbbing in my head. Was it a concussion? That didn't quite add up.
A sweet fruity scent kept tormenting my nose. There was no fruit basket anywhere—so where on earth was that smell coming from?
I couldn't get my thoughts to string together.
Sirin's fingers—beneath her nails, I could see pink stains. Too bright a color to be blood. Should I ask her what it was?
—Do not doubt.
The unease that had been pressing on my chest vanished all at once.
Breathing became easy.
"Team Leader! Get well soon, okay?"
"…Yeah."
Sirin's star-shaped pupils glittered.
Throb. Throb. Throb….
Straighten the mind, hold the way — a perfect hexahedron, the black cube, my Object.
Hope for no stroke of luck; always seek the correct move. Follow the appointed duty and give your utmost.
Even if the road winds far from here, I was always, always by your side.