Murder Princess and the Summer Death Camp

by Mizuki Mizushiro

  “Kksshh. That was so great… We really made out well, didn’t we, Kyousuke? Mmhmm!”

  “…Yeah, we did. We made it out of the forest.” Skillfully sidestepping Renko’s attempt at a joke, Kyousuke wiped the sweat from his forehead. They had been walking for about an hour and a half through the dense woodland expanse. Thanks to Eiri’s leadership, they had made it safely through the forest, and Kyousuke and the others were at present headed for the House of Limbo. Daylight was already fading as the sun began to set.

  “…So, what should we do? Pass the night at the House of Limbo, or hurry on like this?” Walking in the lead, Eiri turned around, raising the question of how to proceed. “And by the way, I’m in favor of the second option. I’ve had more than enough of camping. I want to relax and rest after taking a good shower… I can’t sleep without taking off my makeup and stuff.” Nobody but Eiri could have been able to worry about such things in such a situation. “We probably won’t even be able to rest at the House of Limbo… It’s probably not open, right?”

  “In all likelihood, it’s been closed up…,” Kyousuke mused. “But just in case, let’s go check, and if we can’t find a place to stay, we’ll push on through the night toward the academy—any problems with that?”

  “…Sure, no problem for me. As far as the way back goes, I remember it just fine.”

  “Fine with me, too! A-as long a-as we take a break once in a while.”

  “Gotcha. And of course I don’t object, so…what about you, Renko?” Returning Eiri’s and Maina’s nods, Kyousuke looked back at Renko, who was bringing up the rear.

  Keeping her distance from Kyousuke and the others, Renko put her hands on her hips and turned her face away with a “hmph!” Her face was hidden by the gas mask, but her feelings were perfectly clear.

  “……What’re you mad about?”

  “Kyousuke, you’re cold. I’m trying to tempt you, but you won’t get involved with me! You used to be the kind of guy who would come on strong… How cruel, holding out on me!” Renko’s shoulders slumped sadly.

  Kyousuke and Eiri looked at each other, and sighed deeply.

  “Hey, Kyousuke…we don’t have to listen to Renko’s opinion, right?”

  “You’re right. Let’s continue on and leave Renko here—any problems with that?”

  “…Sure, no problem for me. It’s a total pain having her along anyway.”

  “Fine with me, too! …As long as we check in on her once in a while.”

  “Gotcha. No objections from me. What about you, Renko?”

  “Of course I objeeeeeect, waaaaaahhh!”

  Clapping Renko on the back several times, Kyousuke laughed sarcastically. “Sorry, sorry, it was a joke. But, well…try to control yourself a little more, huh?”

  They went on like this all the way back to the academy. Renko would make a bad joke, and everyone else, tired of playing the straight man to her fool, would shut her down.

  Renko’s energy was boundless, and Kyousuke was inevitably exhausted first. “Okay, I get it…you’re too caught up pursuing me in the name of lust. From now on, I’m simply going to endure it. And if I get to the point where I can’t endure…I’ll work hard on some ‘private power generation’!”

  “……”

  “A-are we just gonna let that one go? Whaddya mean by ‘private power generation’?!”

  “……”

  “Oh, h-how embarrassing… I’m so very ashamed to reveal the secret of my ‘private power generation’!”

  “……”

  Leaving Renko stranded as both the straight man and the fool, Kyousuke and the others hurried ahead. When they had advanced a little way down the woodland path overgrown with vegetation, they came to an area surrounded by a tall fence of barbed wire. Within its perimeter was the House of Limbo.

  ~ Welcome to limbo, fuckin’ pigs!!! ~

  Under the signboard that greeted visitors, the entrance stood firmly closed. As if that wasn’t enough, it was crisscrossed with several thick chains and adorned with enormous padlocks.

  “Just as I thought…huh. It looks like they’ve already cleared out.” The air beyond the chain-link fence was deathly quiet, without a single sound.

  It occurred to him that they did not know what had become of Mohawk, who had been put to bed in the infirmary. Around the time that Woodland Exploration had started, he had still been drifting between life and death. It was possible that he had been transported back along with the luggage. I don’t think they would have left him behind, but…

  In any case, there did not appear to be anyone left at the House of Limbo.

  “Kksshh. I don’t see anyone else, so looks like we’re the first to arrive, huh?”

  “Yeah. Because we came straight back without getting turned around… About now I bet the other squads are beyond lost in the woods. Eiri saved us, for real.”

  “Yep, yep, Eiri’s amazing! She’s reliable, and so cool!”

  “Yo, tiny tits! Or, should I say, no tits! Number one example of a flat chest in all of Japaaaaaan!”

  After this rapid succession of praise and insults from Kyousuke and the others, Eiri hummed and put a finger to her cheek. “…N-not really? What I did was only normal. Those other guys who weren’t on their guard are idiots. So I’m not the least bit pleased to be praised! Also, Renko can just go die!”

  Her pleasant smile fading in an instant, Eiri lashed out with a powerful midheight kick.

  “Whaaa?! That’s dangerous, geez!! I oppose violence!” Renko shouted.

  Smiling bitterly at her, Kyousuke asked, “Well, what should we do? Keep walking until the sun goes down because the path will be hard to make out in the dark? Or rest for the night here…?”

  It was presently 6:30. They had less than thirty minutes before sunset.

  “Either is fine with me. Once the moon comes out, it probably won’t be that dark, but it’s also just fine to rest here for a while… How about you, Maina? If you’re tired, we’ll take a break.”

  “Uh, no…I’m fine! I’ll try to press on a little bit farther!” Maina clenched her fists with enthusiasm, but her bangs were soaked in sweat and stuck to her face.

  Renko laughed with a “kksshh!” and placed a hand on Maina’s shoulder. “You shouldn’t push yourself, Maina! If you don’t rest when you can, you won’t be able to deal with unexpected situations, will you? Our objective is not to arrive quickly at the goal…it’s to return safely all together. Relax, and let’s do our best!”

  Bewildered, Maina stared back at Renko’s black gas mask. Then she looked down like she was embarrassed and mumbled shyly, “Ah…o-okay. You’re right… Um, if that’s how it is, just a bit…just a tiny bit, would it be all right for me to take a break…? Sorry…”

  “Sure, I don’t mind. Actually, I’m also a very little bit tired…,” Eiri agreed.

  Nodding, Renko lifted her abundant breasts with both hands as if she was scooping them up. “Good grief. The fact that my boobs are so big is also worth considering… I’m walking with a handicap here. If I was compact and light like Eiri, I guess I wouldn’t have so much to carry, but…come to think of it, you’ve also got quite a rack, too, Maina. What cup size did you say you are?”

  “Eh?! Ah, um…I-I’m…well…” Maina nervously looked back and forth between Renko and Eiri, unprepared to discuss such a topic. As if to block the view of Kyousuke and the others, she hid her chest with both arms.

  “I-I’m…certainly not as flat as Eiri, but, um…I’m also not as stylish as Eiri, so, well…uh…and I lose to Miss Shamaya in both areas, so they’re really nothing special, I mean—”

  “What was that about me, Miss Igarashi?”

  “Ah, no…nothing! I was talking about how you completely defeat me in both style and breast size! Someone with a petite body like me can’t win no matter how hard I try, I was saying, uh……huh? Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhh!! Cha, chachachacha, Chamayaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa?! Sh-sh-she’s heeeeeeeeeeeere?!”

  Maina tumbled ov
er at the sight of Shamaya, who had suddenly appeared without warning from behind her. Unable to stand back up, she scooted away with great speed. Hiding behind Eiri’s back, Maina shook like she had a fever.

  “……?!”

  The air surrounding Kyousuke and the others was thick with tension.

  Shamaya on the other hand, as always, gave off an aura of serenity.

  “Oh-ho-ho. The moon is lovely this evening, no?”

  A smile spread across her pretty white face.

  Under a sky that had begun to turn the color of diluted ink, she stood still, wearing her school uniform and holding her rucksack. Combing her hair back with her fingers beneath the light of the moon, she looked like she belonged in a painting.

  “…Miss…Shamaya.” Shamaya’s joyful look intensified as Kyousuke called her name, entranced.

  “Good evening, Mr. Kyousuke Kamiya. Miss Eiri Akabane. Miss Renko Hikawa. And—Miss Maina Igarashi. You’ve arrived quite early! I’m rather surprised. Indeed, if you carry on like this you’ll soon be leaving the forest. You’ve done very well.”

  Shamaya looked around at each one of them in turn, clapping her hands in front of her chest. Her air of composure was no different from usual. But it was still strange…

  What is Shamaya doing, hanging around by herself in a place like this?

  “…Where are the teachers and the other members of the Public Morals Committee?” Eiri asked in a dry voice. “Are they still around here?”

  Shamaya shook her head in response. “We Public Morals Committee members, after explaining the situation to each squad, naturally separated… Just like all of you, we are to return to the academy by sunset tomorrow. Likely there is no one here. By this time the teachers will have long since arrived at the academy, and I imagine they are resting and relaxing there.”

  “…Well, why are you here?” Eiri fired off the same question on Kyousuke’s mind.

  Self-satisfied, Shamaya looked directly back into her sharp eyes. “I love nature! Especially at night… Moreover, this evening there is a magnificent full moon. I was intending to leisurely head back while enjoying a moonlight bath. Then, by chance, I came across you all. Oh-ho-ho-ho! Yes…by chance.”

  Shamaya placed a hand on her lower lip. Tilting her head slightly to the side, with a smiling face overflowing with affection, it was as though she were trying to lure in Kyousuke and the others.

  “However, perhaps this was not a coincidence but rather an inevitability… I wonder. What do you think, everyone—? It is said that a meeting by chance is preordained. As a reward for getting out of the dense woodland the fastest, I shall show you the ‘shortcut to purgatory’! Oh-ho-ho! Once we return to the academy, we will not have many opportunities to see one another. All I want is to be allowed to travel back with you. I have taken quite a liking to you all. More and more deeply…I want to know all kinds of things about you.”

  She smiled as if to say, “Please?”

  Yet in her emerald-colored eyes was a devilishness that was impossible to resist.

  “Everyone, run toward that full moon. Readyyy…go!” Pointing at the moon shining through the breaks in the foliage, Shamaya broke into a sprint. Following behind her, watching her quickly grow distant, went—not a single one of them.

  “She’s still a major pain, huh…”

  “…Why do we have to go back with that girl?”

  “Oh dear… I-it’s fine…right? Nothing’s going to happen?”

  “Kksshh. If the Public Morals Committee chair is here, does that mean I can’t perform obscene acts with Kyousuke?”

  Kyousuke and the others had eventually accepted Shamaya’s plan at her insistence. They were walking along a mountain trail following behind her. Though he was no longer worried about being attacked by Renko, Kyousuke still had to be watchful of Shamaya; it was not at all clear what she was thinking. He was doubly anxious. However—

  “Really! What are you all doing over there?! Please stay with me. It’s sure to be hard going if you insist on acting like that! Cheer up, come on!” Looking back at Kyousuke and the others from far ahead, Shamaya pumped her fist. Her mood seemed recklessly enthusiastic.

  “Miss Shamaya…why are you so energetic?” Kyousuke asked quickly, tiredly.

  “Oh-ho-ho! Isn’t it obvious?” Shamaya answered him with a lively smile. “It is because I had a chance encounter with all of you! The time we spend on the prison camping trip is a precious opportunity for us upperclassmen to intermingle with the new students…and that opportunity has brought us to this! It’s only natural that I would feel uplifted!”

  “I-is that so…?” Kyousuke was momentarily overwhelmed by her kind sentiment.

  Shamaya nodded vigorously. “Yes! Even among all the new students, with you four in particular…I want to discuss so many things. For example, let’s see—” Placing her index finger on her cheek, she looked up at the night sky. From the gap between her lips, pure white teeth and pale pink gums peeked out.

  “What kind of murders did each of you commit?”

  Glittering in the moonlight, her eyes set upon each one of the four of them in turn. Shamaya placed a hand on her chest, closed her eyes, and quietly spoke her mind: “Personally, I indulged in a great variety. In my killing methods, in the people I killed, in the places where I killed them, variety… However, there was only one motive. Why do you think I did it? Why? My former self committed murders… Oh-ho-ho! The reason is exceedingly simple and amazingly clear!”

  That reason was—

  “Because it was fun.”

  She wore a carefree smile, and a clear light filled her now-open eyes. She had spoken so casually that they didn’t immediately grasp what she had said.

  “…Huh? Wh-wha…? F-fun…?”

  The words tumbled from Eiri’s dumbfounded mouth.

  Shamaya nodded, and calmly replied, “Yes. Surely you all feel the same? Everyone has something they love that allows them to forget themselves and fall into a trance. Reading, music, movies, exercise, cooking, love-making… In my case, that thing was murder, and nothing else. Killing was fun, so I killed. There was nothing more to it—a simple motive. My methods, the victims I killed, where I killed them… I changed these things frequently so that I could enjoy a variety of murderous acts. For example—”

  Shamaya went on, recounting her previous murders.

  With a kitchen knife, with an ice pick, with an ax, with a golf club, with utility scissors, with a wine bottle, with a ribbon, with potassium cyanide, with a brick, with a rifle, with an electric drill, with gasoline, with a bathtub, with sulfuric acid, with an electric guitar, with a chainsaw, with a spoon, with a bow and arrow, with a katana, with a bush knife, with her bare hands—she told them of the people she had murdered.

  She talked and she talked and she talked and she talked, and they listened. With animated gestures, she spoke as if possessed. “—For example, take reading. When you finish reading one story, you want to read a different sort next, right? A different story in the same genre, or a different kind of story from a different genre… A true bibliomaniac wouldn’t want to continue reading the same book forever and ever. In exactly the same way, after experiencing one murder, I want to try a different kind of murder. Stabbing, beating, strangulation, poisoning, shooting, running over, drowning, burning… Or perhaps I want to try out the same killing method on a different victim. Gender, age, social status, occupation, nationality, race, religion… I want to enjoy these subtle variations! Oh-ho-ho! Formerly called the Murder Princess, the reason that I have dispensed with as many as twenty-one different people using many different weapons, and many different methods, in many different places, is simply that. The feelings of the type of people who commit murder without being passionate about it are unintelligible to me… How about you all? Why did you kill?”

  As she asked, Shamaya looked at Kyousuke. In her eyes was a thoroughly genuine inquisitiveness. There was fundamentally no difference between Shamaya as she was now and th
e bibliomaniac she had mentioned when talking about reading.

  However, to love not reading but murder—that was a pure killing mania.

  This girl who loved murder more than anything else spoke as if she was talking to others of her kind. “Mr. Kamiya…you killed twelve people, did you not? Why did you do it? Surely because you enjoyed it? You couldn’t kill that many if you weren’t having any fun. And you did it all at once. I murdered twenty-one people over the course of nearly ten years, but the most I ever killed at once was two… I have not had the experience of killing so many at once. I’m extremely curious about it… Won’t you allow me to hear that story in detail?”

  She peered at him from point-blank range, her pupils fully dilated. Kyousuke gasped. “Ah……d-details…you say?”

  “Yes, in detail. I want to know all about you…”

  “—Don’t touch him.” As Shamaya stretched out her hand toward Kyousuke’s cheek, her wrist was grabbed from the side. Furious, Eiri glared at Shamaya. “Don’t touch Kyousuke.”

  “……”

  Struck by her naked hostility, Shamaya stared at Eiri with surprise. Her wide-open eyes narrowed, and the corners of her mouth curled up. “…My goodness, oh-ho-ho! I beg your pardon! That reminds me, you also had an interest in Mr. Kamiya, didn’t you, Miss Akabane? I am more than a little interested in you as well, you killer of six people. For example, let us discuss your confident attitude. You know that I have murdered twenty-one, and yet you do not act the least bit shy, do you? That is not something I have seen in any other student! Oh-ho-ho-ho!” With her wrist still caught, Shamaya laughed carelessly.

  Eiri’s eyebrows raised in surprise. “Huh? Wh-what are you saying…? Doesn’t that mean the people around you have all been cowards?” She sounded angry—both at Shamaya, and at herself for flinching.

  “Indeed it does! As a matter of fact, that’s exactly the case!” Shamaya nodded assent in response to Eiri’s prickly words. Turning to face Eiri, she continued, “My first day of school here—when I heard from my homeroom teacher, Kurumiya, that this was an academy for murderers, my heart danced for joy! That meant that here I would find many people my own age who shared my tastes and interests. I was delighted, you see, because on the outside I could never speak with anyone about murder—it was completely taboo.