Murder Princess and the Summer Death Camp

by Mizuki Mizushiro

  After a brief silence came the sound of heavy breathing. “Kksshhhh…”

  Renko raised a middle finger at Kyousuke and the rest of the audience:

  “Let’s kill.”

  The next instant, a violent rush of sound engulfed the fire pit like a storm. The forceful drumbeat and intense bass sounded as if she was actually playing real instruments, even weaving in the stiff sounds of record scratches. With this blast of noise, the four of them, who had been standing stock-still, explosively came alive.

  From among them, Renko leaped forward first and began to perform a rap.

  “YO! Bursting on stage surrounded by hot flames! I’m black mask GMK! A public nuisance psychopath! I’ll kill you on the spot if you cross my path! I’ll blast you with my best rhymes! Charging in with words like knives! It’s our live show you’re listening to! If you want to be killed, it’s no takedown, come on!”

  Beckoning to the audience with her raised middle finger, Renko—GMK—returned to the lineup. Her every movement was wickedly cool.

  Next up, stepping forward to take the center, was an especially enormous female student wearing a flour sack on her head. She stomped hard, and as the ground shook, she began to sing in a deep voice that contrasted with GMK’s.

  “Hey! The ground is shaking, creating a very flashy sensation! When I come calling I make waves, like major devastation! I’m eight-hundred-pound Bob, with a sack on my head! With my megaton press I’ll crush you dead! I hide my complex face with a bag! HA-HA! I’ll smash the skull of anyone who laughs! BAM! Bam bam bam bam, go around smashing! A juggernaut that swallows up everything! I’ll get your heart, too!!”

  Using her intimidating stature to maximum effect, Bob—Sack-Head Bob—finished her frightful rap and returned to the group, signaling another fluid MC changeup.

  The girl who next stepped forward, slowly and quietly, seemed Bob’s exact opposite. Licking her lips with a tongue that was the same bright red as her eyes, the petite student let out her words in a mumbling whisper tone.

  “YO! I’ll devour every last one of y’all! I’m chika-chika-Chihiro the cannibal! I’m a dangerous, hazardous, people-chomping little bitch! Let’s start the carnival! I’m sicker than Hannibal! We’ll turn it up till everyone is dead on their feet! You’re prisoners to my devilish rhythm! And I’m a slave to your meat!”

  In contrast to her sweet voice, Chihiro—chika-chika-Chihiro—had dark eyes and sharp canine teeth. It was weird and more than a little scary that she had sung her whole verse without ever moving her gaze from Kyousuke…

  However, singing along with the human beatbox GMK, each of their skillful verses hit the crowd like a wave, carrying the audience away. Most of the students had stood up, and were pumping their fists in the air, chanting in unison.

  “Mur-der rap! Mur-der rap!”

  “Yeah! Stab to death, beat to death, strangle, poison! We’ll stop your heartbeat!”

  “Mur-der rap! Mur-der rap!”

  “Come on! Shooting death, ran over, drowning death, burned to death! You stop our heartbeats!”

  I’m not sure how singing the praises of murder at a murderer rehabilitation school is supposed to be instructive… Nobody else seemed to care, though. The enthusiasm in the fire pit was really heating up.

  Kuuga Makyouin, aka Michirou, the final squad member, had not yet performed a solo rap, and was only striking poses to the beat. It wasn’t clear what his purpose was for being there, but watching him off to the side, he was hitting one pose after another, like a dancer—a curious sight.

  Even the flames in the background seemed more energetic, casting their four shadows in wavy silhouettes. Before long—

  “…Fuck you very much.”

  With four middle fingers raised, the performance came to an abrupt stop. Having concluded their first song, GMK and the others received a standing ovation. They waited for the applause of the excited students to subside.

  “…What, do you still have breath left in you? If so, allow us to deliver the final blow. Next is—”

  That moment, she was about to yell out the title call.

  “……” Suddenly, GMK fell silent. Her body swayed back and forth, around and around and around until—crash!

  She collapsed on the spot.

  “GMKaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyy?!”

  The screams of the students echoed over the flames.

  Lying faceup, GMK—Renko—repeated a refrain of shallow breathing, “Kksshh…kksshh…,” and did not make any movement to rise.

  Kurumiya trotted over to check Renko’s condition, and gasped in surprise. She waved her iron pipe toward the students who were concerned about GMK’s well-being. “…It’s heatstroke. It looks like she got too excited, wearing her mask in this damned heat.”

  Even after Renko had been carried away on a stretcher, the Inferno Campfire continued into the night. Everyone enthusiastically sang the school song in a death metal growl, they performed acts of “recreational” penance, they appreciated the aesthetics of the Inferno Fire Dance performed by the Public Morals Committee…

  And then, at last, the final program. Awaiting the totally exhausted students was—

  —a completely ordinary folk dance.

  The students formed a circle and danced along to a familiar, middle tempo song—an ordinary rendition of “Oklahoma Mixer.” Mingling with the teachers and Public Morals Committee members, they took hands in couples, and harmoniously tapped out the steps.

  “…Fwah.” In the midst of it all, a female student, arms folded in to show her frank refusal to participate, paced about, yawning derisively. No question about it: It was Eiri Akabane.

  Each male student who was paired with Eiri cowered under her intimidating glare, before moving on to their next partner, dismayed and confused. Then the cycle repeated. It was pathetic to watch. As she once again unfastened her loosely folded arms and rubbed her heavy eyelids…

  “What are you doing? Let’s dance!” Kyousuke, who was her next partner, grabbed Eiri’s left hand without hesitation.

  Eiri, who shook with a start, looked at Kyousuke in a panic. “……Ah.”

  Kyousuke gripped her hand tightly as she promptly tried to shake him off. The nails applied to the tips of Eiri’s fingers dug into Kyousuke’s palm—

  But that was all. The knives normally mounted on the tips of her nails—the Japanese blades disguised as nail art, Eiri’s secret weapon as an assassin—did not slice through Kyousuke’s hand.

  At the present time, she didn’t have them equipped. Three months ago, when she had helped Kyousuke fight off a group of murderers, their existence had been revealed, and she could not continue wearing them. “When a secret weapon is found out, it loses its usefulness,” Eiri had said.

  Still, she couldn’t shake the feeling that she was wearing them. Even though Eiri had bowed her head when Kyousuke had taken her hand, she was now fidgeting restlessly. The movements of her feet as she performed the dance steps were also surprisingly clumsy.

  Eiri glanced with half-open eyes at Kyousuke, who unconsciously let out a strained laugh. “…What?”

  “Nothing,” Kyousuke responded, looking over his shoulder into her glaring eyes. “I was just thinking that you’re pretty unsophisticated is all.”

  “…Huh? What is that, are you trying to pick a fight?”

  “Not at all. It’s cute.”

  “……?!”

  Eiri’s cheeks suddenly flushed red. Her face, which had been listless, softened happily—or did it? The instant he thought that it might have, she screwed it back up in a scowl and turned her head.

  “…Hmph! Wh-what are you saying? Are you stupid? You womanizer.” She stared at the ground as she spat out accusations.

  “W-womanizer? You shouldn’t say scandalous things.”

  “…I didn’t! I just said the truth.”

  With that, the two gave up on exchanging words and continued dancing in silence. Even in the heat from the flames that filled the area, Eiri�
�s supple fingers were noticeably warm, and slightly sweaty.

  Under the starry sky illuminated a tangerine orange, the seconds seemed to stretch on and on and on.

  “Well, see you.”

  They bowed slightly. It was time to change partners, time for their hands to let go.

  “…I’m sorry, Kyousuke,” Eiri whispered in a vanishing voice.

  “Huh? Wh-what—” Kyousuke tried to ask what she had meant, but the flow of the dance had already carried her away, allowing no answer.

  While he grasped the hand of his next partner, Kyousuke glanced over at Eiri. She had folded her arms again, wrapping herself in an aura of intimidating solitude.

  “Heh-heh. Good evening, Miss Eiri. Won’t you please dance with me?”

  “Re. Ject. Ed.”

  “Huh?!”

  The partner who was extending his arm with a smiling face was—Eiri kicked upward with all her strength into Shinji’s crotch. Holding his demolished nether region, Shinji crumbled to the ground.

  Eiri clicked her tongue in irritation, “…Tch,” and walked off by herself. Her profile, staring off into the distance to avoid meeting Kyousuke’s eye, formed a familiar, sullen pout.

  “Damn that’s hot!!”

  With the campfire finished, it was now bath time.

  As soon as he dipped a foot into the bathtub, Kyousuke jumped from the scalding heat.

  The tips of his toes smarted. It seemed like they might have been burned.

  The temperature of the water was 150 degrees. And when he decided to give up on getting in the bath and tried turning on the shower—“Damn it!!”—it, too, was hot enough to make Kyousuke curse and writhe in pain.

  Standing in the center of the overly wide bathroom, he found himself at a loss. “…What should I do?” He wanted to wash away the sweat that had been pouring off of him like a waterfall all day, but since the water was way too hot, he couldn’t even shower satisfactorily. For now, I guess I’ll just wet a towel and wipe my body down, Kyousuke thought and again headed for the bathtub.

  “Yoo-hoo! Hellooo! I’m coming in now, okay?”

  The sliding door at the entrance rattled open, and someone entered the bathroom. The voice was unmistakably feminine, a clear soprano. This was, of course, not a mixed-gender bath.

  The voice had a familiar ring to it. It had been three months since Kyousuke had heard that voice, but he remembered. Reminiscent of unclouded glass, or maybe a frozen river, it was a bright, clear voice.

  It was truly beautiful, and every hair on Kyousuke’s body stood on end as the blood drained from his stiff face. …I have a bad feeling about this. The worst possible feeling. With wooden movements, he turned to look behind him. There stood—

  “Yoo-hoo! Kyousuke! Have I kept you waiting? It’s your beloved Renkoooo! Hee-hee-hee!” She was unbelievably beautiful, the gas mask nowhere to be seen. Aside from a single bath towel, she was in an immodest state.

  “Wha…what did you come in here for?! This is the men’s bath, you know!!”

  Renko, her silver-colored hair tied up, stared at Kyousuke with a wide smile as he tried to hide the key parts of his nude body with a washbasin. Laughter, unfiltered by any exhaust ports, spilled from her lush, cherry-blossom pink lips. “Heh-heh. You ask what I’m here for, even though you surely already know… Since I went to the trouble of getting us alone, I came to do the kinds of things that we can do only when it’s just the two of us, Kyousuke!” Renko’s bewitching words echoed through the large, otherwise-empty bathhouse.

  The students had been assigned to bathe one room at a time, so Kyousuke, who had a single room, had come alone.

  And it was only toward Kyousuke that Renko could not embrace her innate murderous impulse. In other words, if she was alone together with him, even if she removed her gas mask—her limiter—Renko would not rush to commit murder.

  “I asked Miss Kurumiya, and she agreed to remove my mask. I have no intention of wasting this chance! I’m going to let you fully savor it… I’m going to use all of my charms to make you fall madly in love! Starting not with your heart but your body. Hee-hee-hee!”

  “…Kurumiya.” Kyousuke spat out the loathsome name. She knew this would happen, and still intentionally unfastened her safety device?!

  Renko slowly approached Kyousuke, who was searching the bathroom for an escape route. Her body, covered only by the thin towel, was so alluring it made him dizzy, and even though he tried with all his willpower to avert his gaze, it had a gravitational pull that he could absolutely not resist.

  The appeal of her abundant breasts went without saying, but there was also great beauty in the shapely curves of her body line, and in the softness of her skin, which all seemed even more fantastically pale and smooth next to the cloth of the bath towel. Her face emphasized all her other charms a hundred times over; she was a perfect model of absolute beauty…

  “Uh…d-don’t come over heeeeeere!” Turning on his heel to escape from Renko, Kyousuke leaped into the steaming tub behind him. As he splashed into the scalding water, a red-hot rush of pain assaulted him from head to toe.

  He clenched his teeth and endured the agony. It felt like he was being boiled alive, but thanks to the pain, the passionate desires that seeing Renko had aroused completely evaporated. He closed his eyes, back still turned to Renko, and sat down inside the bathtub.

  “…What on earth are you doing? Jumping into the bathtub is definitely a breach of etiquette. First you have to rinse your body with hot water, then gently slip into the tub.” She picked up the washbasin that Kyousuke had dropped, and he could hear the sound of her filling it with hot water.

  Renko didn’t seem to feel the heat in the slightest. She slipped into the tub, sending out gentle ripples, and slid over to Kyousuke, who was chanting the Heart Sutra.

  “When the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara was practicing the profound perfection of wisdom, he perceived clearly that all five skandhas are empty, and thus overcame hardship and suffering—”

  “Really…you don’t need to be that frightened. There’s nothing to worry about. It’s not like I’m going to suddenly attack and eat you or something. For something like this, the process is important, right? First, we need to close the distance between us, don’t we? The distance between our hearts, and the distance between our bodies…”

  From behind Kyousuke, there was the sound of rustling cloth. Kyousuke knew exactly what it was. The only thing Renko had been wearing was a single thin bath towel. If she had taken that off, then that meant—

  “……?!”

  At that moment, the carnal desires that had been quieted by the heat of the water returned, surging up like rushing water. His pulse raced. I want to turn around. I want to turn around right now. Despite the power of his desires, Kyousuke managed to hold on to some semblance of reason, and squeezed his eyes shut tighter than before.

  Squish.

  Something soft pressed against his back.

  “Aaaaaahhh!!”

  Renko had embraced him.

  She laughed impishly at Kyousuke, who couldn’t help but scream. “Hee-hee-hee! There’s nothing between us now… How do you like it? Doesn’t it feel good? It feels good to me, Kyousuke. Your back is so rugged and firm… Like this, I can feel the strong rhythm of your heart… Thump, thump… Like that! Oh, I wish I could stop that heartbeat, even for just a moment! I don’t want to hand it over to anyone else. Not by anybody else but by my own hand… I want to stop your heart!”

  Whispering close to his ear, Renko squeezed him tightly. Her arms encircled Kyousuke’s neck, strangling him, and the two soft bulges were squashed against his back.

  With nothing covering them, Renko’s breasts felt unbelievably nice and delicate, and Kyousuke could feel his willpower ebbing. Crap! If this keeps up, I’m really going to go off. If I push Renko away and she doesn’t resist— he thought, but his body was frozen stiff.

  Breathing gently in Kyousuke’s ear, Renko whispered seductively. “Hey, Kyousuke�
��your skin is really warm. I wonder if it’s because of Busujima’s poisons? Inside, my body is tingling… The tingling has gotten really strong with you, the one I love, sitting naked before my eyes. It feels like my head is going to melt…”

  As she spoke, Renko began to move slowly, rubbing her bare breasts against his back. The two bountiful bulges pressed between their bodies, deforming softly in the depressions between his muscles as she stroked them up and down, right and left on Kyousuke’s back. Renko sighed lasciviously, rubbing her cheek against him as she had her chest.

  “Ahh…hot…stop…quickly, stop, Kyousuke…with your hands, quickly…!”

  “”

  Kyousuke answered Renko’s request with silence. His breathing had become ragged. As the speed at which she moved her body slowed, the pointed tips of the bulges that rubbed against his back—

  Aahh…this is no good. I think I’m dead.

  And then, finally, Kyousuke burst.

  Staring at the ceiling with lifeless eyes, a faint smile crept across his lips.

  —I’m spouting fresh blood.

  The whole surface of the wall behind the bathtub was stained with crimson. His limbs hung limply as Kyousuke sagged in the water. Bright red blood pooled around his partially submerged face.

  “Kyousuke?! Oh nooo, Kyousuke…Kyousuke! He…sprang a nosebleed and collapsed!” Renko’s hysterical shout sounded very far away. With his face still in the water, still gushing blood from his nose, Kyousuke felt his consciousness begin to fade.

  Renko rushed to lift him up out of the water, trying to pull him out of the tub. As she did, Kyousuke’s face was pressed softly into her naked breasts.

  “—Mmph?!”

  “Kyousukeeeeee?!”

  A surge of blood, and a resounding soprano scream.

  Kyousuke’s memory cut out there.

  “That was seriously awful, geez…”

  Several tens of minutes later: Uninjured and conscious once again, Kyousuke walked down the deserted corridor that led from the infirmary to his room. He grumbled as he changed the tissues stuffed up his nose. “Renko, you idiot, you went too far… Show some damn restraint.”