Murder Maiden and the Fatal Final

by Mizuki Mizushiro

  “W-well, no…” There was a certain part of that statement that Kyousuke wanted to refute, but he obediently nodded along with Renko. Never mind a bride, he just wanted his friends and his family to get along. “Ayaka’s not like me; she’s not physically strong… She really is an ordinary girl, so if you stand by her, you’ll be helping us both.”

  “Okay, leave it to me! I’m going to try to get along with her even better than Eiri and Maina!” Placing her hands on her hips and throwing out her chest, Renko was in high spirits.

  “Okay. I’m counting on you, Renko! …Anyway, do you think you could get off me already?”

  “No way.”

  “……Why not?”

  “Kksshh.” Renko laughed seductively. “Since I went to the trouble of pushing you down, I thought I’d better make a move while we’re here. When I think about you flirting with your little sister, it makes me want to make out with you, too, you know… How about it, Kyousuke? Instead of saying ‘ahh’ for her, you can ‘uhn, uhn’ with me—”

  “I’ll pass.”

  “……Why?” Renko, who was hanging over him, pulled away in evident dissatisfaction.

  Kyousuke pointed at Renko’s face. “…It’s limp, thanks to that.”

  “Oh, so that’s the obstacle…kksshh. The only thing preventing you from falling madly in love with me in my bikini on the prison camping trip was probably the mask, too, hmm… Good grief! This is a problem. When Mama comes back, I’ll have to get her to do me a favor somehow…” Renko stroked the surface of the gas mask, grumbling to herself.

  Despite her current appearance, Renko’s true face was peerlessly beautiful, so she was not necessarily wrong. Kyousuke, who would be butchered the moment he fell in love with her, was grateful for the mask.

  “…Well, whatever! I’ll show you I can overcome a handicap like this. Love burns stronger the more that stands in its way… If a direct assault won’t work, I’ll have to try a careful flanking maneuver. If I can improve my relationship with your little sister, get her to like me, and then win her over to my side, you’ll be that much easier to take down, won’t you? Kksshh.”

  Renko let out a strange laugh. Her voice was muffled, and he couldn’t hear her well, but…

  “Anyway! You can relax, Kyousuke. Now that I understand that she’s not my rival in love, I can become really great friends with your dear little sister. I’ll call it the ‘Capture Sister-In-Law AYAKA Strategy’! I’m telling you, I’m going to develop such a close relationship with her that you’ll be jealous of me! Kksshh!”

  Renko pumped her fist and spoke in high spirits. It seemed like her murderous energy had been transmuted into determination. Kyousuke felt grateful for any sense of assurance.

  The Silence Is Suicide?

  A DEADLY FLOWER IN EACH HAND

  QUESTION TWO

  “Hey, big brother. How come only the first-year students are stuck in a place like this?”

  The afternoon sunlight streaming through the window cast grid-patterned shadows as Ayaka walked around the ruined first-floor hallway of the old school building. Every inch of wall was covered in graffiti.

  There were three school buildings at Purgatorium Remedial Academy, two brand-new four-story buildings, and one old, crumbling, two-story structure. Of the three buildings, only the last was open to first-year students.

  Kyousuke had almost never entered the new school buildings. They were the territory of the upperclassmen. “Hm? Oh, well, that’s—”

  “Because we’re rotten oranges, you know!” Renko cheerfully interrupted Kyousuke’s answer. “The first-year students aren’t like the upperclassmen—we haven’t been reformed yet. We’d be bad for their education. Rotten oranges turn the others bad, after all. Isolating us is a measure to prevent that.”

  “…I believe I asked my big brother?” Ayaka’s smile disappeared, and she replaced it with a scornful glare.

  “Pleeease don’t be so prickly. I’m sorry about earlier, we just had a little misunderstanding is all. Can’t we be friends, Ayaka baaaby?!”

  “Ah, geez, don’t hang on me! It’s hard to walk!” Ayaka peeled Renko away and hid behind Kyousuke.

  “Aww.” Renko lowered her arms. “Looks like everyone hates me, huh…? Kksshh.”

  “Well, you made a terrible first impression…but you can still patch things up!”

  “……Hmph.” Ayaka puffed out her cheeks as Kyousuke tried to keep Renko from falling into despair. The two of them were giving Ayaka an after-school tour of the academy. Kyousuke would have been fine showing her around on his own, but Renko had come along, hoping it would be a chance to make peace.

  Ayaka appeared entirely unhappy with that fact, and sulked incessantly. “I wanted to go around with my big brother, just the two of us,” she grumbled. “And anyway, what’s with that getup? Is this your idea of a comedy routine? Are you trying to act like a fool?”

  “Ah, finally you dug into me! Yes, yes! I borrowed this from Kurumiya, hoping it would bring us together. You like it, right?” Renko pointed to the realistic horse mask. The same horse mask that Ayaka had worn that morning was now sitting on her head. With its glossy skin and silky forelocks, and left and right glass eyes that looked in different directions—it was revolting.

  Ayaka was puffing up ever larger. “I definitely do not like severed horse heads. It’s not like I wanted to wear the stupid thing—geez!”

  Moving nimbly, Ayaka stretched out a hand toward Renko’s head.

  “Wha—?! C-c-craaaaaappp!”

  Despite Renko’s attempt to defend herself, Ayaka stripped her of the headdress.

  “Tee-hee! Too bad for you. Your real face… I will finally—” Grinning triumphantly, Ayaka leaped around in front of Renko. “…Not see it.” Renko’s face was, as always, covered by a jet-black gas mask.

  Renko laughed theatrically, pretending to hide her face. “Kksshh! Too bad! I put it on top of my maaask. I foooled you, I foooled you~! I saw right throoough you~!”

  “……!”

  Ayaka’s face was bright red. She glared at Renko, who continued mocking her triumphantly but perhaps childishly, singing, “I’m gonna tell on you!” Wordlessly, Kyousuke knocked Renko on the head with a clenched fist.

  “Ow!! Kyousuke! Make love, not war!”

  “That’s for fooling around. I told you not to tease Ayaka.”

  “…Sister complex.”

  “Argh!”

  Renko shielded her head from Kyousuke as he raised another fist.

  Ayaka giggled with her usual glee and drew back behind Kyousuke. “Too bad for you! My big brother is on my side… Right, big brother?”

  “Yeah, of course. I’m on your side no matter what.”

  “Eee-hee-hee! Big brother, I love you! I love you soooooo much!” Dropping the horse mask, Ayaka embraced her one and only.

  Renko watched the girl fawn over Kyousuke, rubbing her face against his chest. “Kksshh…Ayaka dear, you really do love him, don’t you?”

  Her voice was filled with admiration.

  “……Hm?” Perhaps because she found that reaction surprising, Ayaka lifted her face from her brother’s chest and took a long, hard look at Renko before resuming her previous position. “Of course I do! Words can’t even express how much I LOOOOOOVE him! As long as I have my big brother I don’t need anything else. As long as my big brother is by my side, that’s enough for me—”

  “…Ayaka?”

  Ayaka clung tightly to Kyousuke’s body, mumbling something like an incantation as he stared down at her.

  Renko, undaunted, asserted her feelings as well: “Uh-huh, I get it. I understand your feelings perfectly! Because just like you, I L-L-L-L-LOOOOOOOVE Kyousuke! Kksshh.”

  “…What?” Ayaka spoke in a low voice. Separating her body from Kyousuke’s, she glared at the gas mask. “Just like me? What on earth are you saying? I’ll thank you not to compare the love I have for my big brother to your nasty desires.”

  “It’s not nast
y! My love is incredibly brutal…it’s heavy and intense. And it bothers me to have it compared to love that’s so light and shallow and emotional. It’s like the difference between death metal and pop music. My love’ll blow out your eardrums and blow your mind!”

  With Renko, there was also the possibility that she would literally blow your head off. Her love could be heavy enough to crush you, or intense enough to tear you to shreds…

  However, Ayaka, who did not know about Renko’s true nature, had no reason to be timid. “Oh, is that all? Really amazing…but I don’t listen to death metal or things like that,” Ayaka sneered. “That type of music, nothing but loud, dumb noise… I guess it’s perfect for you, isn’t it? Personally, I prefer approachable pop songs.”

  Immediately, Renko raised her voice. “Nothing but noise?! Nothing but noise?! Kksshh…looks like you don’t understand a thing, Ayaka dear. Of course, even in the performance of a death growl, which, to an amateur, may sound like simple screaming, there are many subtle nuances—”

  Renko launched into a fervent speech. Growls versus gutturals, screams versus screeches, sewer vocals versus drowning vocals, inhaling versus exhaling…

  Eventually, after Renko had talked on and on, thoroughly covering the subject at length, Ayaka managed to get in a few words. “I don’t understand one bit of what you’re saying.”

  “Whaaaaaaaaat?!” Renko screamed in her death growl voice. She flew full speed at Ayaka like she was moshing.

  “What are you doing to Ayakaaaaaa?!”

  Kyousuke caught Renko with a headbutt like he was headbanging.

  “Gyah!!”

  Renko tumbled to the ground.

  While helping Ayaka up, Kyousuke turned to her with scornful eyes. “…Geez. I thought you wanted to get along.”

  “Ugh…I absolutely refuse to get along with this girl! She’s planning to act friendly, and then kill me when she gets the chance! She’s wearing a brutal smile underneath that mask!”

  “You’re the one who doesn’t want to get along, Ayaka… Well, whatever,” Renko grumbled, brushing the dirt off her body.

  Since they had already reached the exit, Kyousuke decided to continue the tour anyway. They changed from indoor slippers to outdoor shoes, and then went outside. As they toured the sprawling campus, Kyousuke showed Ayaka the gymnasium and martial arts arena, the small nature preserve called Purgatory Park, and all the other features of the school, one by one.

  While he did, Renko and Ayaka were—

  “Hey, hey. Do you have any sports or anything that you’re especially good at, Ayaka dear?”

  “I’m good at all kinds of individual sports. I’m bad at group sports, though. Like ball games.”

  “Oh, I’m not good at ball games, either. See, ’cause I’ve got heavy balls attached to my chest already.”

  “…Ah. They’re gross if they’re too big, though. Isn’t that right, big brother?”

  “O-oh…”

  “There you go again.” Renko sighed. “Even though you’re always playing with my balls.”

  “Hang on, don’t spew nonsense! Ayaka’s glare hurts, you know!! In fact, she’s got a dark look in her eyes…umm, Ayaka darling? What are you planning to do with that bat—?”

  “Big brother, you…idiooooooooot!”

  “Eeep!!”

  “Your balls are dead!”

  “Many animals are raised in Purgatory Park. Chickens and rabbits and—”

  “And snakes like this?” Ayaka asked Renko.

  “Uaaagh!! Th-thhhh-that snake is…eeeeeek!!”

  “Tee-hee. Why are you screaming like that? It’s pink, and I think it’s lovely… Oh, are you afraid of snakes? Look, look, looooook.”

  “Ehh?! St-stop…don’t do that! That snake contains a dangerous poison!”

  “Whoops, my hand slipped.”

  —Chomp.

  “Aaaaaahhh!! I-I’ve been biiiiiiiiiiiit!!”

  “Renko?!” Kyousuke shouted. “Wait here, I’m going right now to find Mr. Busujima, and bring the antidote—”

  “Don’t be such a wimp, big brother! Don’t you think it would be faster to suck the poison out?”

  “Ehh?! No way I could, uhh…s-suck it oooooouuut!!”

  At every stage of the tour, something would happen to cause an uproar. By the end, Kyousuke and Renko were exhausted and covered in wounds. They currently lay sprawled out, flat on their backs in two beds in the infirmary, where they had gone for treatment.

  Ayaka alone was lively. “Hey, big brother. Are we not allowed to go see the new school buildings?” She stared at the map in her student notebook, brimming with curiosity.

  Kyousuke groaned “…Unh” and tried to sit up. “No, there’s no rule that says we can’t go…but we would definitely be out of place. We’re first-years… I think we would just stand out, and not in a good way. Give it up.”

  “Hmph—” Ayaka stuck her lip out in a pout. “If it’s not against the rules, then let’s go!” She shook Kyousuke’s shoulder.

  Seeing this, Renko leaped up without a moment’s delay and shook him from the other side. “Yeah, yeah, let’s go!” She was probably trying to foster goodwill by agreeing with Ayaka.

  “Aah, okay, okay…geez, I get it.” Thus Kyousuke folded, outnumbered two to one.

  Ayaka shouted for joy. “Hooray!”

  Renko gave a banzai cheer: “We did it, Ayaka! Yay for—”

  “Well, shall we go, big brother?”

  “…Kksshh.” Renko’s banzai high five was pointedly ignored. She slowly, deliberately dropped her right hand, which had been left hanging, and followed behind Kyousuke and Ayaka, looking dejected. “Aaawww… You just wait, Ayaka baaaby! Don’t forget about me!”

  “…Oh, sorry. Come to think of it, what was your name again?”

  “Ehh?! I’m Renko Hikawa! Although you’ve certainly never called me that!”

  “I never have, and I never will.”

  “Heartless! You’re heartless, little Ayaka…sob, sob…”

  “Don’t say ‘sob, sob’ with your mouth. You’re not crying at all, are you?”

  It seemed like it would take some time yet before these two got along.

  “Wow…what a beautiful building! It’s completely different from the first-years’.”

  The sparkling white school building had an elegant facade. It looked brand-new, and had been built a good distance away from the older building. Well-tended rows of trees and flowers trimmed the exterior, and not a single piece of garbage could be seen littering the walkway. Even the air seemed different from the crumbling ruin of the older building.

  They came to a halt in the plaza in front of the entryway, and Kyousuke surveyed his surroundings. “…Okay. Well, then…”

  “Let’s go inside!”

  Just as Kyousuke had turned to leave, Ayaka caught him by the collar and began dragging him toward the entrance, kicking and screaming.

  “Wait, wait! You’re going the wrong way!! We’re not going in, we’re leeeaving!”

  “…Why?”

  “Why…?” Repeating the question, Kyousuke looked around them. Classes has ended, and they were surrounded by students coming and going. Without exception, all eyes fell on Kyousuke and the girls. Or, more accurately, they fell on—

  “Kksshh. We’ve already come this far, might as well check out the inside, too. Hey, if we just act confident, nobody will notice that we’re first-years, right? Puff up your chests, your chests!” Renko’s thrust her voluptuous bust forward. It bounced and shook as she spoke, looking soft.

  Most of the upperclassmen who passed them stared at her breasts and face. “Hey, there’s a girl over there wearing a gas mask!!” “Is she into bondage?” “Could it be a poison gas attack?” “Someone contact the Public Morals Committee!” “Her boobs are too huge!!” “What cup size are they?” “Haven’t we seen that mask and those boobs before?” “I haven’t.” “If I had, there’s no way I would forget!” “…Anyway, are they first-years?” �
��They must be.” “Oh, they’re first-years, no doubt.” The upperclassmen continued murmuring among themselves.

  Renko, with her gas mask and huge breasts, stood out even in the new school building. Drawing attention whether they wanted it or not, Kyousuke and the others had already been exposed as first-years.

  Going inside now would be awkward, no matter what. The upperclassmen would have their eyes on them, and if they tried to start any trouble—

  “Kyousuke?! Is that my darling Kyousuke?!”

  A shrill, feminine, and all-too-familiar voice echoed across the plaza. The whispering of the other upperclassmen abruptly ceased, and silence descended upon the crowd. A startled Kyousuke, rigid, turned timidly to face the voice.

  “Ah, it is Kyousuke after all! Kyousuke, Kyousuke darliiiiiiiiing!” A female student dangled out of a second-floor window, waving frantically.

  “Gah?! Miss Shamaya…”

  The moment she made eye contact with Kyousuke, she jumped—as if going through the building would have been too much trouble—and subsequently landed gracefully outside. She then ran toward him at full tilt. “Kyousukeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!”

  “Guh?!”

  She embraced him without slowing. “Two weeks have passed since the prison school camping trip, and I had yet to be presented with a single opportunity to see your darling face again! Oh, I was ever so loooooonely! So very loooneleeey!! And yet I never dared imagine that you would do me the honor of coming to see me! Oh-ho-ho! I’m ever so happy… Oh, Kyousuke darling! How I have pined for you, my dearest Kyousukeeeeee!”

  Rubbing her cheek against his chest, the girl was overcome with joy. She had honey-colored hair with a slight wave, and emerald-colored eyes like jewels.

  This was Saki Shamaya. Kyousuke and the others had met her on the camping trip. She was their senior and a third-year student to boot.

  “Just a… Calm down, please! C-calm down—”