Murder Maiden and the Fatal Final
Page 4
“Ayaka is your actual little sister, though, isn’t she?! That’s wrong! That’s totally wrong!”
“Waaaaaahhh! Stupid, stupid, Kyousuke, you’re stupiiiiiiid! Picking your little sister over me, you incestuous pervert! Sister complex, sister complex, sister compleeeeeex!”
“Aaaaaargh, shut up!” Kyousuke yelled. “All of you, shut up for one secooooood!” He tried to brush off Eiri’s cold glare, to cover his ears against Maina’s prohibitions, to protect himself from Renko’s pummeling fists.
Other voices could be heard from around the classroom and in the hallway. “Sister complex…” “Did she say ‘sister complex’…?” “He’s seriously ill.” “Did he say he passed on GMK?!” “Mur-der-him! Mur-der-him!” “I understand his feelings… They’re so nice, younger sisters…” “—No, sisters-in-law are the best!” “I’ve reported you to the authorities…” And things had finally, just recently, begun to calm down. Now he had drawn the spotlight again.
“Big brother!” Ayaka jumped into the dejected Kyousuke’s arms. “Hey, hey, hey, hey. Big brother, do you love me? Could you possibly love me most in all the world, more than anyone else?!”
“”
The noisy students quieted down all at once, straining their ears to hear Kyousuke’s response.
“Uh, ummm…that’s, well……”
Ayaka looked up at Kyousuke, eyes brimming over with expectation.
I want to answer her, he thought. To him, Ayaka was an irreplaceable treasure. There was no falsehood in that feeling; there was only embarrassment. He didn’t need to think about which feeling was greater.
“……Big brother?”
“Of course.”
“Eh?”
“I love you, Ayaka! I love you most in all the world, more than anyone else! It’s true, I have a sister compleeeeeeeeeeeex!” Yelling from the bottom of his gut, he confessed his love for his sister. He had no other thoughts than If I cheer Ayaka up even just a little by doing this, it’s worth it.
“”
Sudden silence.
Kyousuke timidly opened his eyes, having closed them before.
“Oooooooooooooooooohhh!”
Thunderous cheering broke out. The students showered applause upon Kyousuke, who had given an honest reply that he was not ashamed of. Among the excited and curious onlookers, Eiri was shocked—“…Huh?”—and Maina was shaking: “Oh dear, oh my!”
“Big brother!” Ayaka shouted, in a voice loud enough to be heard over the racket. “I love you, too! I love you most in all the world, more than anyone else! I really love you, big brother… Eee-hee-hee. I have a brother complex, so it’s mutual love, isn’t it!” Ayaka embraced him with all her strength.
“Th-that’s right! It’s mutual love, huh…ha-ha-ha!” There was no hiding the embarrassment Kyousuke felt this time around.
“……Mutual love?”
Renko’s tears fell in heavy drops as she stood before the flirting siblings. A dark shadow had spread over her viewports, obscuring her expression…
“”
Clenching her fists tightly, Renko stood stock-still. The dreadful aura of jealousy rising from her body was obvious to anyone’s eyes.
“Big brother?”
“Hm?”
“I love you!”
“Aaaaaahhh!!”
Ayaka leaped at Kyousuke, nearly causing him to drop his rice bowl. He looked down at her as she rubbed her cheek against the arm she was embracing, and he righted his “daily special garbage rice bowl” on its tray.
“Geez, you… How many times is that now?”
“Forty-three times!”
“O-oh…”
The cafeteria was crowded with murderers eating lunch. Kyousuke and Ayaka ate together, sitting close. All eyes fell on her as she kept fawning over her brother without a care.
Whispered words like “brother complex” and “sister complex” were vaguely audible, but Ayaka paid no attention. Happily clinging to Kyousuke, she said “I love you” for the forty-fourth time.
Sitting across from them, Eiri pressed against her temples. “…What good terms you two are on.”
“They look more like sweethearts than siblings, don’t they…?” Maina, who was sitting next to Eiri, also stared vacantly at Kyousuke and Ayaka, chopsticks dangling from her mouth.
Ayaka pulled away from Kyousuke, and puffed up with pride. “Mmhmm. That’s because me and my big brother are family, and moreover we are in love! We’re connected by a bond muuuuuuch stronger than sweethearts—right, big brother?”
“O-oh…”
“That’s not a response! You haven’t said anything else!”
“…Really?”
“Really! That was the twenty-eighth time!”
“O-oh…”
“Twenty-nine! And yet, I’ve only heard you say ‘I love you’ seven times so far… You should say ‘I love you’ a lot more!” Puffing her cheeks out, Ayaka glared at Kyousuke, who was trying to think of a response to his angry little sister.
“How irritating.”
Renko, seated at the next table, muttered to herself, loudly enough to be easily overheard. “You think so, too, don’t you, Kyousuke? At least, that’s the impression that I get, hm?”
“……”
Kyousuke and Ayaka and everyone around them stopped eating and turned to look at Renko. Holding her tongue, Renko grimly accepted their silent stares as the cafeteria briefly lapsed into a strange and uneasy quiet.
“Big brother! Ignore the howling of the dog that lost the fight, and hurry up and eat!” Ayaka spoke with cheerful venom. She scooped up some of Kyousuke’s “daily special garbage rice bowl” with a spoon.
“Okay, open wide!”
She held it out toward Kyousuke’s lips.
“”
Renko’s gas mask was locked on them, her blazing, ice-blue eyes almost visible.
“…What is it, big brother? My arm is getting tired.” Hurrying her nervous-looking brother along, Ayaka shook the spoon.
Ayaka was growing impatient, and Renko was seething with anger. Kyousuke, stuck between the two of them, felt a sweat break out on his back as he wondered which one to favor.
“Nom.”
“Yay!”
Ayaka let out a cry of victory as she thrust the spoon into his mouth.
“Kksshh…”
Renko, who had not been chosen, was heartbroken and dejected. The other students at her table tried to comfort her as she laid out her jelly packs and straw tube, and sluggishly prepared to eat. Anyone could see that she was sad to the point of losing her energy.
Ayaka held out a second bite to Kyousuke, who was practicing apologies to Renko in his mind. “Okay, big brother. Say ‘ahh’!”
“A-again…?”
“Yep! You don’t like it?”
“I don’t hate it, but…”
It was really embarrassing to be fed by his little sister while everybody watched. Eiri and Maina looked at him with incredulous eyes as Kyousuke blushed, completely flustered.
“…He’s a hopeless sister complex case, isn’t he?”
“…A hopeless sister complex case.”
The two of them sighed at the same time, and each dug into their own junk-pile lunches. This was the first opportunity for the four of them to eat together, but Ayaka was concerning herself only with Kyousuke.
—But that was probably unavoidable. This was a long-awaited family reunion—one that she had been willing to kill for. It was no surprise that she wanted to fawn over him, regardless of how it looked. Renko had called it “irritating,” but Kyousuke disagreed. He was, somehow or another, happy to be adored by his little sister like this…
“Nom.”
“Yay!”
Kyousuke, no longer caring what anyone else thought, swallowed another spoonful.
Ayaka laughed happily, her voice high and shrill. “Tee-hee-hee. Is it tasty? Oh, sorry…it’s not tasty, is it? Garbage food like this…”
“It’s good.”
“As long as you’re the one feeding it to me, anything tastes good.”
“Really?! Thank you, I’m so glad!”
“You too… Come on, now. Say ‘ahh’…”
“Nom.”
“Tasty?”
“Yep, tasty! Even crap is delicious when you feed it to me, big brother!”
Eiri and the others had all stopped eating and now stared intensely at the pair as they continued to intimately feed each other their meals.
“Th-this is… They’re really fussing over each other, aren’t they? Does she have a brother complex, or a brother-feeding complex?”
“Just watching them is so embarrassing I could die… Oh, dear me.”
“”
Eiri’s face spasmed, Maina blushed, and Renko stayed stiff.
Just then, Ayaka cried out, “Ah?!” “You have rice stuck to your cheek! Really, you’re so much work to look after…lick.” She removed the grain of rice stuck to Kyousuke’s cheek.
“Hyah?! Hey, what are you doing?!”
“What? I got the rice off your cheek, didn’t I? ‘Hyah?!’ you said! A cute reaction as always, hmm. Tee-hee!” Ayaka stuck out her tongue and laughed cheerfully.
“No, get it with your hand…” Kyousuke brushed his cheek.
—Squelch.
Renko crushed a jelly pack, splattering the lime-green, semisolid contents all over her uniform.
“My goodness. Renko, really…” The girl next to her took out a handkerchief and tried to wipe her clean. Slamming the table with her fist, Renko leaped to her feet.
“Gyah?!” The large girl was sent flying, the flour sack falling from her head as she toppled over. Renko ignored her completely. Throwing her jelly pack on the floor, she stormed out of the cafeteria, leaving the other students dumbfounded.
“”
Pausing for just a moment as she left, Renko turned and looked at Ayaka, who could feel the glaring, stabbing glint in her eyes even through the gas mask…
“Ah…big brother!” Clinging to Kyousuke’s shirt, Ayaka looked up at him as he got to his feet.
“Wait here.” Gently pulling her hands off him, he stroked her head. “I’m coming right back. Wait quietly with Eiri and Maina. Okay?”
“B-but…” Ayaka whined.
Leaving his sister and her objections behind, Kyousuke followed after Renko. She still had on her “safety device” gas mask; while she was wearing the device designed to suppress her vicious, violent urges, Renko didn’t seem to be capable of cold-blooded murder.
Kyousuke had no idea what he would do if that should ever change. Pushing past anyone in his way, he hurried after Renko.
“……What the hell did you come here for?” Renko demanded, looking back at him from the landing at the top of the stairs that led up to the second floor of the old school building.
Despite the gas mask obscuring Renko’s expression, Kyousuke got the feeling she was staring at him apathetically. Her voice, usually full of emotion, was quiet, and she seemed nothing like the bloodthirsty killer from earlier. “Weren’t you happy getting all lovey-dovey with your darling little Ayaka back there? Why would you go out of your way to follow after me? To follow a girl you don’t even love?”
“A girl I don’t even love—?”
“Oh, then, you do love me?”
“Uh, th-that’s…”
“…You don’t love me, do you? No, you love Ayaka. If that’s the case, then you should be with Ayaka. You should be with the girl who is the most important to you. You should leave me alone, since I’m not your number one, and the two of you can flirt…”
Renko clenched her fists. Her speech sounded cold and indifferent, but her hands betrayed violent emotions that she couldn’t conceal. “Maybe you thought that I was gonna kill Ayaka? That I would strangle that girl to death, and soothe this irritation…”
She scolded Kyousuke, who stood, overwhelmed by her intensity. “That’s why you came after me, isn’t it?”
“…Uh.”
“I see… It’s just like I thought. You didn’t come because you were worried about me. I must look like an idiot, holding out even the slightest hope…kksshh…” Sighing, Renko slowly descended the stairs. “…Yeah. To be sure, I want to kill Ayaka! Even though my limiter is in place, I feel like I want to kill. But you know, Kyousuke—”
After she had descended four steps, she paused. Bringing her hands close to her ears, Renko removed the headphones she always wore, and announced:
“I can’t hear my murderous melody.”
“……Huh?”
“I really want to kill her, but the tune just won’t play… This is the first time this has happened to me. When I was watching you and Ayaka, so happy together, I felt so sick and angry I couldn’t stand it! I wanted to cry, and scream, and rage, and smash, and kill! But I couldn’t hear anything. It was so quiet, and the quiet was frightening, and I couldn’t control it and I didn’t understand why… I just couldn’t stand it, so I had to get away…”
Groaning, Renko the Murder Maid looked distraught. Created to be a killing machine, Renko’s very nature tied every emotion to the act of murder—she was driven by a powerful need to kill, and she experienced those deadly impulses as an audible melody.
The gas mask that Renko wore acted as a safety device—a limiter—designed to suppress that melody. And yet Renko felt the urge to kill even without the killer tune. She must have been confused by this new situation.
“I’ve killed so many people! My melody plays and commands me to do it. But now, the melody is silent. Silently telling me to kill…? No. It’s not my murderous impulses driving me to do it, it’s my own genuine feelings. I want to kill.”
“Renko…”
When she had first revealed her true nature to Kyousuke, Renko had told him that even without her murderous melody, she could still feel real emotions, including the desire to kill a hated rival—that was also a splendid feeling, she had explained.
“Sorry. The truth is, there’s one thing I’ve misled you about.”
“……Eh?” Renko asked.
Facing her black gas mask, he looked into her hidden eyes. “The feelings that I hold toward Ayaka are not the kind of feelings that you think. I don’t love her as a member of the opposite sex, but as a family member. It’s true that I think of her as the most important thing in all the world, but…you can’t compare yourself to her.”
“What?! But, Kyousuke, you rejected my confession—”
“Yeah. That’s why, well…I’m sorry. I think I made it sound like Ayaka was the cause for that, but that’s not how it is. It had absolutely nothing to do with Ayaka. Whether Ayaka existed or not, I don’t think my answer would have changed.”
“…If that’s true, then why the hell did you make a point of rejecting me the way you did?”
“Because you misunderstood me—and it seemed like it stopped your murderous melody. And then I wasn’t able to clumsily correct myself. It’s not like I want to die…”
“”
Renko stared at the floor as Kyousuke explained.
“Kksshh…” A sigh escaped from her exhaust port. “Is that how it is? You recognized my misunderstanding and let it go uncorrected, then using Ayaka’s existence as a shield you tried to withstand the force of my affection—is that what you’re telling me?” Resuming her descent, Renko began making her way down the stairs.
“……S-sorry.” Feeling guilty, Kyousuke couldn’t bring himself to look at her.
“Now I see. I understand just fine. I understand what you wanted to say to me, what you wanted to apologize for. However, that’s too bad—”
At that moment, Renko’s demeanor changed.
“Rwaaaaaaaaahhh!!” Kicking powerfully off the stairs, she flew at Kyousuke, knocking him back across the landing.
“…Ugh?!”
Kyousuke grunted in agony as his head was smashed.
Pinning his body under her own, Renko sneered. �
�Kksshh. It’s too bad, isn’t it, Kyousukeee? You weren’t able to withstand the force of my affection! I won’t allow Ayaka, or anything else, to shield you from my feelings! Really, I’m the same as you. Whether Ayaka existed or not, my feelings wouldn’t change… I would still, without fail, entrance you and kill you. So you see, there’s no need to apologize.”
“……Renko.”
Her gloomy voice had completely changed, giving way to her usual cheery tone. “Instead, I want to thank you! I mean, even if there was a girl who was more important to you, I wasn’t planning on giving up! Just, when you put on such a lovey-dovey show, I got a little taste of heartbreak. ‘No matter how hard I try, I can never win,’ I thought. But I was wrong. That was wrong!”
Renko, still sitting astride him, leaned down, bringing her gas mask closer. In the viewports, Kyousuke’s own face was reflected. “There’s no need for me to defeat that girl, is there? You don’t see Ayaka as a member of the opposite sex, just as a family member. In other words, my greatest rival has disappeared without me even having to lift a hand! Now I can take you down without reserve, Kyousuke. Kksshh.”
“Uh, uuuh…” Kyousuke, keenly aware of the danger to his person, casually tried to change the subject. “That’s right! And since we cleared up that misunderstanding, you can make peace with Ayaka—”
“No way.”
“……”
His proposal was immediately shut down. Renko pulled her face away from Kyousuke’s and shook her head. “Until just now, I couldn’t think of anything but killing her! Getting close to someone like that would be beyond impossible. I could never do it! Even a tenderhearted maiden would have trouble!”
Renko shrugged to complete her objection.
“…I guess so,” Kyousuke groaned, reluctantly prepared to give up on the idea of a relationship between the two girls.
“—Well, that’s what I want to say, anyway.”
Renko’s voice was suddenly cheerful.
“Eh?” Kyousuke stared at her gas mask.
“That girl is your little sister…your family, right? She’s someone who I, as your bride-to-be, really ought to become good friends with. At the very least, I want to socialize with her as members of the same family. It wouldn’t do to have a strained atmosphere between a bride and her sister-in-law, now would it?”