“Listening to all of my classmates’ self-introductions, overflowing with personality, I waited eagerly. And then finally, it was my turn… I joyfully revealed my heart! I told them how much I loved murder, how wonderful I thought murder was, what kind of people I had killed up to then, in what situations, with what weapons, and using what methods. I talked about how I felt when I did it, how my victims acted on their deathbeds… I told them everything that I had held inside for so long—it was emotional! And when I finished, what do you think happened?”
Her bright face clouded over, and the tone of her voice dropped as if she was recalling her feelings from that time, and she continued mournfully. “…Every one of my classmates pulled away from me. Fear and shock and disgust… There was none of the longing and interest and empathy that I had expected. Bewildered and dejected, I called out to one female student. The girl, who had given her self-introduction before me, had said ‘killing is a supreme pleasure’ and had spoken boastfully about the murders that she herself had committed. Thinking that if we became friends, we could share the joys of killing to our hearts’ content, I immediately invited her to spend time with me. However—”
Shamaya’s voice sunk even lower. Her face was painted with sorrow and disappointment. “As soon as we were alone together, she suddenly completely changed her behavior, and apologized to me while crying. She had only been acting brave, trying to show that she was a little bit special at this school for murderers… It shouldn’t have come as that much of a surprise, really. Well, when I realized it, I almost butchered the girl right then and there! But before I could, I was nearly killed myself by Miss Kurumiya’s hand! Oh-ho-ho!”
“……”
As Shamaya stood laughing in a dry voice, Kyousuke and the others sank into silence. They shuddered, thinking how it must have been to be in the same class as Shamaya then. She says she’s been completely rehabilitated, but—
“After that, the passion for murder that burned inside me quickly cooled. A few others got closer to me, but every time, almost like a bad joke, they would eventually reveal their frail true faces, and drive me to depression. The intense discipline I frequently received caused me to wither even further. And before I knew it, my passion for murder had completely vanished…
“—I thought it had vanished,” she mumbled.
Shamaya clasped her hands behind her back, and began to walk slowly around Kyousuke and the others. Kyousuke, Eiri, Maina, Renko… She looked at their faces one by one in turn. “However, somehow or other I… It looks like I misunderstood one thing. What I was missing was not the urge to kill—it was the proper victims. If you don’t run across any books that you want to read—that you want to know the insides of—like a bibliomaniac… The only thing I had lost was the opportunity to run across people I wanted to kill, victims whose last moments I wanted to see!”
“……?!”
Tension sprang to life within Kyousuke and the others as they listened to Shamaya’s story. Only one of them, just Renko, laughed. “K-k-kksshh! So…to make a long story short, you’re planning to kill us now, right?”
—Shamaya’s pacing abruptly halted. A warm breeze blew, stirring like an ocean current. “Goodness no, Miss Hikawa. Planning to kill you? Oh my! I would never…”
Standing behind Renko, Shamaya smiled strangely.
“Not planning to… I will kill you. This is the shortcut to purgatory, after all.”
So she whispered. The next moment, Shamaya swung her right arm up toward Renko. In her hand, she gripped a hatchet with a blade of twelve inches or more. The dark gray metal was awash in moonlight, shining wetly.
“Watch out, Renko! Dodge—!”
Whump! Renko had turned to look when she heard Kyousuke’s shout. The hatchet struck her in the middle of the head.
As though she were chopping firewood, Shamaya had moved without hesitation. Throwing her full body weight behind the bulky weapon, she delivered a single blow that pulverized Renko’s skull with extreme ease.
Accompanying the dull sound of two hard objects striking one another, bright red liquid plumed from the right side of Renko’s head. She collapsed to the ground, unresponsive.
It really looked like she had died—she did not so much as twitch.
“…Oh? Did you already leave us, Miss Hikawa?” Tossing away her rucksack, which was a hindrance, Shamaya sounded disappointed.
Her silver hair streaked with fresh blood, Renko did not even groan.
Looking down suspiciously at the silent gas mask, Shamaya readied the hatchet again. Gripping the specialized weapon not with one hand but with two, she raised it as high as she could in the air. “I haven’t heard your death cries yet! Get back up!”
Whump!
Once more, she struck Renko’s head with her full strength. A spray of blood leaped through the air, and new streaks dyed Renko’s hair. However, Renko did not move even slightly.
Placing a foot on Renko’s shoulder, Shamaya extracted the blade that she had stuck into her head and knit her eyebrows. “…Hm?”
She took a long look at the area around the wound, concealed as it was by Renko’s hair. “Don’t tell me you actually died? Perhaps I hit you in a bad spot. Even so, this is a strange response… Can human bones really be this hard? It’s been too long and I’m not quite sure. I’m terribly out of practice! This is a serious situation. In order to regain my sense for such things, after I cut at various places, I’ll take apart the pieces—”
“Ah……a……ah, ah……”
“…Hm?” Shamaya, hatchet raised aloft, sluggishly moved her head in response to the sudden voice. Her narrowed eyes opened wide, then narrowed again. “Ah, that’s right! I of all people forgot, carried away by all the excitement. There is still other prey to be had this evening, isn’t there? It’s my first time killing so many at once… I’m ever so excited! My heart is pounding! Oh-ho-ho! What kind of finale will you show me? What kind of screams will you let me hear—Miss Igarashi?”
“…Hyah?!” Faced with Shamaya’s freakish smile, Maina fell flat on her backside. Face twitching with fear, the girl trembled violently as her upperclassman slowly approached. Fresh blood trickled down to the tip of the lowered hatchet. “Ah…aa…Re, Rererere, Renko is…Renkoooooo…” Maina sobbed as her gaze traveled back and forth between the bloody hatchet and her fallen classmate.
Shamaya grimaced in irritation. “Hey, you…do you intend to continue keeping up that act at this late stage? You just don’t know when to give up! Cunning! Show me your true nature.”
“…H-huh? Act…true nature…c-cunning?”
“Yes, you’re cunning. Foolish, yet clever… During the cookout, you tried many times to kill me, did you not? You pretended it was a total accident! Then finally you used some trick on the food… Your every action, all of it was cunning.”
Maina shook her head in denial while Shamaya held her hand to the gauze on her cheek. “Ehh?! N-nnnn-no dat’s wwong! I-I just cooked normawwy, Miss Chamaya. I wadn’t twying…twying to kill you at all—”
“That’s how you made it seem, isn’t it? Don’t ‘ehh?!’ at me, you cunning little… Well, that’s fine. Everyone exposes their true face when they are on the verge of death. Refined, noble gentlemen throw grace to the wind and clumsily plead for their lives. Gentle, mild ladies make furious faces and spew abusive language. Thoughtless, laughable men accept their death with poise… This is what I believe: In their final moments, you can catch a glimpse of a person’s true nature. After the mind is stripped bare by fear and bitterness toward death, only then is it possible to thoroughly appreciate it…and that is the true pleasure of murder.”
So that’s why—
“And as I killed, again and again, witnessing the final moments of so many lives, a certain thought would sometimes creep into my mind. As an only child, my father and mother raised me with great love and care…but was that love truly real? I wondered. Would they continue loving me to the end, no matter what hardships they
met…or were made to meet? I wondered.”
That’s why Shamaya is—
“Oh, I want to kill…I want to kill. Once I accepted that thought, I was unable to contain myself, and immediately I killed the two of them. The outcome was—The outcome was the greatest! Bathed in fresh blood, still gripping the knife, I asked him…and my father still replied ‘I love you’! As gratitude for him opening his heart to me, I opened up my father! I was covered in blood, and my mother held me tightly and wailed. From my mother, who called my name again and again, I felt a deep love. And so, I focused all of my love in my fingers, and strangled my mother! I was so happy… I was immersed in happiness, feeling my parents’ real love! Words cannot properly describe the feeling…”
“”
Kyousuke and the others were at a loss for words. Shamaya looked like she was in a trance as she spoke of her gruesome past.
—This girl is the real deal. She’s a true psychopath. The people she wanted to get to know…she couldn’t help killing them. All of the interests and affections that Shamaya had were tied up with the act of murder. That’s why Shamaya had killed her parents, and why next were Kyousuke and the others…
“Oh-ho-ho! Well, then, allow me to confirm once more, Miss Igarashi, your true self…by means of your death! In gratitude for you nearly killing me, I shall butcher you.” Turning toward Maina’s pale face, Shamaya brandished her bloody lethal weapon. Murderous intent dwelled in her emerald-colored eyes, and she gathered her strength into the hand that gripped the handle of the hatchet.
“Eee…eeeeeeeee!!” Maina shut her eyes tight and squealed, holding her head. It looked like, after Renko, the hatchet would next be wet by Maina’s spurting blood.
“…What the hell are you doing?”
A deep voice—
“…Hm?”
Faster than Shamaya could turn her head—
“What the hell are you doing, you biiiiiiiiiiiitch?!”
—A cry of rage resounded as a swift kick struck Shamaya on the side of the face.
“Gah, oh my!!” Staggered by the force, Shamaya dropped her weapon and stumbled backward. Shortly after her stance had collapsed, in no time, a body blow came down on the tops of her shoulders.
“…?!”
Pressing a very confused Shamaya down onto the ground, the person who had violently attacked her—was Eiri. Straddling her as if burdened by something unseen, the girl leaned over Shamaya’s body and groaned. “You killed her, didn’t you, how dare you…how dare you, to Renko…!” Eiri’s voice quivered, and in her hand was a small knife. She pressed the blade sideways against Shamaya’s windpipe, preventing her from moving.
With a befuddled expression, Shamaya stared back into Eiri’s eyes. “Y-you…you concealed a weapon—”
“Why?”
“…Come again?”
“Why did you go and kill Renko?! You’re the chair of the Public Morals Committee, aren’t you?! Shouldn’t you be fully rehabilitated?! You said so yourself, didn’t you…? You said that you wouldn’t raise a hand against us! That even though you were granted the authority to discipline, you would never do so—”
“Yes,” Shamaya answered with a blank look. “And as far as discipline is concerned, I never did! I cannot wield violence against those who I have no desire to kill. And what’s more, I am not even interested in violence! I appreciate murder. Things like discipline are half measures—violence that does not bring death is something that I absolutely cannot abide! Supposing that I was to try to discipline students…I would surely find it unbearable, and would kill them on the spot. Surely it would be a problem for me, as the chair of the Public Morals Committee, to brazenly kill students?”
Eiri bit her lip at Shamaya’s shameless boasting. “What the hell…? How are you rehabilitated…? You’re not the tiniest bit rehabilitated!”
“Rehabilitated…rehabilitated, hmm…? That’s right…oh-ho-ho!” Closing her eyes, as if reflecting on Eiri’s words, Shamaya smiled. “Improving my condition…from emotionally and socially unfavorable to completely normal—a rehabilitation like that I have certainly not achieved. However, Miss Akabane…rehabilitation can also mean the ‘reworking of something useless into something useful,’ can it not?”
“Wha……?” Eiri’s eyes widened at the implication. Reworking something useless and turning it into something useful. To someone who knew the academy’s true character, the significance of that phrase was impossible to miss.
Checking Eiri’s—and Kyousuke’s—reactions, Shamaya let her smile fade. “Goodness… You knew, didn’t you? Considering that you were able to conceal a deadly weapon without it being discovered, and considering your splendid physical abilities, and considering the fact that you were easily able to restrain even me…I get the feeling that you are not an amateur. Miss Akabane—you are already a professional killer, are you not? How is this possible?”
“……”
Eiri did not answer the question.
Shamaya asked again, trying not to raise her voice. “About the academy… Why do you know that?” As Kyousuke and the others knew, the true character of Purgatorium Remedial Academy was an institution that reworked murderers who were useless as they were, and “rehabilitated” them so that they became useful as professional killers. From her speech and conduct, it was clear that Shamaya knew the true nature of the academy as well.
Sure enough, Shamaya turned the question of Eiri’s presence over in her mind. “Why could that be…? For my part, I cannot hide my surprise at the fact that you all know the truth, but…well, it’s fine. Since you tried so hard, I shall tell you the rest. Everyone, why are only the first-year students isolated…do you know?” Her emerald-colored eyes were fixed on Maina.
“Ehh?!” Maina started, a question mark practically floating above her head. She had been the only one who did not know the true nature of the academy. “Th-that’s probably…um…because everyone in the first-year class just entered school, and are not very rehabilitated yet… It would be dangewous…”
“Wrong. The second-years are even more dangerous than the first-years, and we third-year students are far and away more frightful yet! Oh-ho-ho! The reason is simple—” Negating Maina’s answer with a smile, Shamaya looked at Kyousuke, who stood stock-still, not yet recovered from the tragedy of Renko.
“It is because the curriculum is different for first-years and for second-and third-years. While you are a first-year student, the teachers beat your warped nature into shape and reform you; at the same time, you follow a curriculum to build up a foundation of physical strength. The fatigue duty that you work morning and night, the teacher’s rod wielded without restraint, ‘training camps’ like this prison camping trip… After they mold and temper your body and mind through these methods, only at the start of the second year does the true ‘curriculum to cultivate professional killers’ actually begin! The world that we graduate into, after being trained for a full two years in the art of murder, is not polite society but the criminal underworld. We flap our wings and fly away as fine hit men!”
“……?!”
Shamaya had spoken the surprising truth.
“…Eh? K-killers? U-underworld…? Wh-what are you talking about…”
“”
Naturally, Maina, who was hearing about the true character of the academy for the first time, could not hide her shock. Neither could Kyousuke. It can’t be true that they hold classes on killing…! He couldn’t even imagine such a thing.
The condition that Kurumiya had imposed on Kyousuke’s graduation into polite society was to “make it through three years without killing anyone, and without being killed.” But with this curriculum—
“…Hmm? Learning murder techniques from the second year, huh…? Well, I suppose that means we’re going to be forced to kill? That we…will have classes where we test out the techniques we have learned, and so on…?”
The questions that Eiri had thrown out addressed the concerns that Kyousuke had. If by
chance such classes existed, it would be impossible to graduate without killing anyone. The graduation condition that had been imposed on Kyousuke could not possibly be met.
“Committing actual murder, hm…? At present, no such class is being conducted. It’s basically training. Practice so that we amateurs can skillfully carry out murders as professionals—when it comes to murder, we all experienced that before entering school, didn’t we? Finally, like you first-year students, we also regularly take general education classes.”
“……”
Kyousuke felt relieved at Shamaya’s answer. Both Eiri, who was not able to kill people, and Maina, who did not want to kill people, also relaxed just the slightest bit.
Shamaya seemed to be giving off mixed signals. She stared at Eiri, who was still straddling her, with gloomy eyes. “Well, then, I also have questions. Continuing what we were just discussing—this academy is a place created to cultivate murderers into full-fledged professional killers. But this is baffling, Miss Akabane… Why might you be here in such a school?”
“……Um…”
Again Shamaya posed the question, and Eiri hesitated, her weak point exposed.
“You, who are already a professional assassin… Why on earth are you at a vocational school for killers? You seem to be quite finished with your education. Despite that, here you are… Why? There is no way that the teachers don’t know—”
“Shut up.” Eiri pressed down on the knife that she held to Shamaya’s throat, a threat. “Do you understand your situation? You had better quietly answer my questions. If you speak again without permission, I’ll kill you. I’ll pull on this knife, and slice right through your carotid artery.”
“”
Looking into Eiri’s bloodthirsty eyes, Shamaya shut her mouth. She stared suspiciously into those rust-red orbs, almost close enough to touch. “……Ah, I see. That’s how it is.” She smiled ferociously. In the openings between the raised corners of her mouth, delicate white teeth shone wetly. “That’s why you were able to conceal a weapon, is it? It’s not that it wasn’t detected, but rather that it was overlooked… Oh-ho-ho! I see, I see, now I understand! Oh-ho ho-ho-ho!”
Murder Princess and the Summer Death Camp Page 17