Murder Anniversary and the Reverse Memorial

by Mizuki Mizushiro

  “…Yeah.”

  “Yeah, yeah! Well, but if I leave it on, I get stressed out, you know… Hmm, what should I do? Which would make you happier, Kyousuke?”

  “…Yeah.”

  “Don’t just say ‘yeah.’ Are you listening to what I’m saying?”

  “…Yeah.”

  “”

  Wordlessly, Renko sat up and glared at Kyousuke, whose eyes were glued to the variety program, the type of pleasure one couldn’t enjoy at the academy. His occasional snickers punctuated the jokes. He didn’t seem to even notice Renko.

  From somewhere around the temple of the gas mask came a snapping sound.

  “Ha-ha-ha! This Manson Hearts show sure is funny… Wait, they have a two-hour special next week?! But we won’t be able to watch it… What a letdown.”

  “I’m the one who’s being let doooooown!”

  “Awwwaaagh?!”

  Renko threw herself at Kyousuke in a frenzy. Catching him by surprise, she pushed him down onto the futon and straddled him. Her yukata was disheveled, very nearly revealing her chest. The strong scent of soap wafted from her body as she sat astride his stomach.

  “Me or the TV—which is more important?! Even though we have a rare moment alone!”

  “Y-you say that, but…first of all, could you move?”

  “No! I won’t move! I absolutely will not move until you say you like me!”

  “…Heh.”

  “Don’t watch the TV shoooooow!”

  Renko raged at Kyousuke, who had turned his head and was still watching TV even as she held him down. Then, putting her hands on the collar of her yukata, she started to strip naked.

  “Just a… Hey, stupid, stop it! What do you think you’re doing?!”

  “Kksshh. It was careless of you to get caught alone with me! If you won’t look at me, I’ll just have to make it so you can’t pull your eyes away. Come on, Kyousuke, take a good look… I’m telling you that I’ll let you do whatever you like with this body. You are a man, after all, so how can you object?”

  “……Uh.”

  Kyousuke was instantly overcome. His gaze was drawn back to Renko. It was more than just her chest. Her slightly wet silver hair and flushed skin, her seductive collarbone and slim shoulders, and on top of all that, the gas mask. Imagining the face that was under the mask, he couldn’t pull his eyes away.

  Even though he supposedly understood that reciprocating would mean his death…

  “Huh? You’re resisting less than I thought.” Renko extended a hand toward Kyousuke’s cheek, brushing her supple fingers across his skin. “See, I knew you really want to do it, too! Gooooood… As you can see, I can’t use my mouth, but I’ll make you feel plenty great using everything else—”

  “I’m back, big brother!”

  Right when he was about to be consumed, Ayaka returned, just in the nick of time. Fresh out of the bath, she had undone her pigtails and changed into a yukata. “The bath in Eiri’s house is amaaazing, isn’t it? I was surprised that they have an open-air bath. And the bathtub is made of cypress wood! Of course, I ended up staying a lot longer than I meant to—”

  Seeing Kyousuke and Renko, Ayaka froze, still smiling.

  One second, two seconds, three seconds, four seconds passed…

  “Excuse the intrusion.”

  —Slam! She shut the sliding door and left.

  Kyousuke quickly pushed Renko aside and dashed out into the hallway.

  “Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait up! You’ve got it all wrong—that was just a misunderstanding!”

  “……Hm, what was? Ayaka didn’t see anything.” Looking back at him, his sister’s eyes were blank, her voice quiet. She had clearly misunderstood the situation, 100 percent.

  “Tee-hee.” Ayaka smiled. “Anyway, I think you’d better get back to the room right away. It’s all right, big brother. I won’t let anyone get close for a while. I’ll stand watch right here, so you can do it all to your heart’s content.”

  “You’re totally misreading things!! First of all, come back!”

  “Ehh?!” Renko interjected. “A th-th-th-th-th-threesome?! We can’t do that all of a sudden—it’s too much! J-just hold on! At least let me prepare my miiiiiind!”

  “Don’t make the misunderstanding worse! Seriously, we weren’t doing anything!”

  “…What are you doing?”

  A voice tinged with disgust interrupted the siblings’ racket. Eiri scowled at them, fresh out of the bath like Ayaka.

  “…Well, I don’t really care. I brought some ice cream, so let’s not waste time standing around in the hallway. It’ll melt.”

  “O-oh…?”

  Holding up ice cream bars by the wrappers, Eiri was dressed in a white yukata decorated with strawberries and hearts. The ribbonlike sash tied around the front of her body was printed with a red tartan pattern. This was not a guest yukata like Kyousuke and the others were wearing—it must have been Eiri’s personal attire. In addition to the overly childish pajamas, her ponytail had been let down and she wasn’t wearing any of her typical makeup. She looked much younger than usual.

  Kyousuke and Ayaka could not help but stare, and Eiri glared back at them.

  “What?”

  “N-nothing…”

  “Sorry, I don’t have any makeup on!” Eiri spit. “It can’t be helped, since I just got out of the bath… D-don’t stare at me like that! It’s embarrassing… It’s a-annoying!” She turned her face away as her cheeks, still flushed from the bath, grew slightly redder. Her prickly attitude was less intimidating without her usual made-up appearance.

  “Eiri, you—”

  “…Wh-what is it?”

  “You’re cuter without makeup on, you know?”

  “……?!”

  Eiri opened her eyes wide, momentarily frozen in surprise.

  “…Hmph,” she eventually snorted. “Wh-what kind of nonsense is this? You don’t have to…you don’t have to say that! Stop it. You’re too transparent. I’m not amused. Not at all. Did you think I’d be pleased by that kind of flattery? A-are you stupid?!” Eiri cursed at him, pointlessly smoothing her hair.

  Kyousuke shook his head in denial. “It’s not flattery!” he insisted earnestly. “When you’re wearing makeup, you look beautiful. Right now you look cute. Your eyes are softer, and it seems like you’re less grown-up. You’re plenty attractive just like this, so you don’t need to go to so much trouble, yeah?”

  “…………”

  Eiri hung her head.

  Kyousuke grew flustered, afraid that he had said something that hurt her feelings. “But, uh…umm…of course I think you’re cute how you normally look, too! The difference between your outward appearance and inner nature is cute—I mean, maybe I should say that it’s surprisingly charming. If you’re cute even without makeup, there’s no reason not to think that you don’t need to go to the trouble of putting it on—I mean…leaving that aside, your pajamas are also cute! What are those, strawberries? Hearts? And it even has flowers and sweets on it! It suits you too well. A cute yukata on cute you, it’s too cute, supercute!”

  “……Enough.”

  Eiri’s voice was quiet.

  Kyousuke had been trying to patch things up by praising her. Now he was perplexed. “Ah, um…Eiri? Why do you look so displeased—?”

  “Shut up, you idiot!” Eiri shouted, raising her eyes. Her face was flushed with rage, the same color as the strawberries on her yukata. “Cute, cute, cute, cute… What the hell? Is your vocabulary really that small? It hurts my ears, and it’s annoying, and it makes my skin crawl, so shut the hell up, stupiiiiiid!”

  Eiri jammed an ice cream bar, still in the wrapper, into Kyousuke’s mouth.

  “Bwuh?!”

  Leaving Kyousuke behind, suffocating in agony, she stormed off with a “hmph!”

  “Cough, cough, gaaa… What did you do that for?!” Kyousuke choked as he pulled the spit-covered Mr. Icee bar (banana flavor) out of his mouth.

  “Don�
�t worry about it, big brother.” Ayaka, who had done nothing but watch the scene play out, patted him on the back. “Miss Eiri is really innocent, huh…? Tee-hee!”

  “…What are you laughing at? Do you really think it’s that funny seeing your older brother with an ice cream bar crammed in his mouth?”

  “Uh-uh. No, I’m talking about something else! Indeed, indeed… Her family is rich, so maybe Miss Eiri is also, surprisingly, not a bad pick? But then, that’s counterbalanced by her stupidity and the fact that she can’t cook, so she doesn’t quite bump Miss Renko from first place. Though, from where I’m standing, it’s a pretty close contest…”

  Ayaka pulled a memo notebook and pen out from somewhere and wrote something down. Mumbling to herself, she started to walk back toward the direction of their rooms. She seemed to be ranking Renko and Eiri, but he couldn’t say for sure.

  Following after her, Kyousuke scratched the back of his head. “Agh?! It’s already melting…” He peeled the wrapper off the ice cream and headed back to the room, eating it.

  “And that’s revolution! I win!”

  “Aw, too bad, I’ve got counterrevolution! It won’t be that easy, Miss Renko!”

  “Counter-counterrevolutioooooon!”

  “Wh-wwwwh-what did you say?!”

  “Kksshh. Looks like I did you one better, little Ayaka!”

  “…Counter-counter-counterrevolution.”

  “No way!! That’s too many turnarounds! Crap, I can’t counter it…kksshh. There’s nothing more I can do with this hand.”

  Renko tossed away her remaining two cards and threw herself down on the futon. They were a three of hearts and a four of spades.

  “…Okay, get up. You’d better flee the capital,” Eiri gloated as she nonchalantly placed her last card.

  “Grrrrrr…” Sitting up, Renko ground her teeth in frustration. “This is crap, it’s all because of Miss Big Tiny Breasts!”

  “Big tiny breasts? Are they big or small? Which is it?”

  “Isn’t it obvious…?”

  “…S-sure is.”

  “Both of you can go to hell together.”

  Glaring, Eiri grabbed some snacks.

  It was ten o’clock at night. Kyousuke and the others were gathered in one room, playing cards. Old Maid, Sevens, Concentration, Pig’s Tail, Extreme Needy… As they played, they drank the juice and ate the snacks that Eiri had brought.

  It was a luxury that would absolutely not have been permitted at Purgatorium Remedial Academy. Kyousuke and the others enjoyed their vacation to the fullest, partying enough for Maina, who had not been able to come with them.

  Meanwhile, their probation officer, Busujima, was—

  “Ah-ha-ha! Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha! Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! These spoiled children!” He was playing and fooling around with his poisonous creatures in the next room. Since they had closed the sliding screens to hide the ugly animals, they could only hear his voice.

  Fortunately, Eiri would be sleeping in her own bedroom, which allowed Kyousuke and Ayaka to stay together in one guest room, with Busujima alone in the other. They were thoroughly relieved not to have to be alone with a man like that.

  “By the way, what time are you guys planning to go to sleep tonight?” Renko asked as she shuffled the cards.

  “…Well, we should go to sleep whenever we get tired, shouldn’t we?”

  “Hmm…I guess we shouldn’t stay up too late, huh? Miss Renko probably wants to go to the storehouse and take off her mask, after all.”

  “That’s right. Although I can bear it for one night…”

  “Not me. Sleepless nights are bad for the skin.”

  “Ohh, just as I thought, you’re fussy about that, aren’t you? It’s because your looks are your only strong suit.”

  “Right, right. Eiri’s cute, isn’t she? And twice as cute without makeup!”

  “…?! C-cu—?”

  Dropping her snacks, Eiri’s face went red.

  “Cute, cute, Miss Eiri is cute! And three times as cute in a yukata!”

  “Yo, yukata beauty! Japanese clothes suit you really well! You’re four times as cute because of your tiny mounds!”

  “Huh?! S-stop that… What the hell?! Every one of you is making fun of me!! Saying I’m cute, that’s—”

  “I’m going to the bathroom.”

  “”

  The moment he started to stand, Kyousuke felt the cold stares of all three girls bearing down on him. “Eh?!” He froze in place, half standing, wondering what he’d done wrong. Since they all seemed to be preoccupied, I thought I’d go take care of that now, but…

  “Wh-what is it? Why are you looking at me like that?”

  “……No reason.”

  “Ahh, Kyousuke…you blew your chance to make Eiri blush.”

  “You had the perfect chance to deliver a knockout blow! It would have been great… You really can’t read the room, can you, big brother?”

  “Uh…? I don’t get it, but…can I go now?”

  “Why do you even feel the need to ask something like that?! You can’t piss here, so if you’re going, get gone, you latecomer!”

  “…Latecomer? All things considered, doesn’t Kyousuke seem more like an early comer?”

  “Um, excuse me, aren’t you forgetting Ayaka, who has seen her big brother’s thing with her own eyes—?”

  “Shut up! Don’t get all worked up over a weird topic…” Wincing at the girl talk mixed with dirty jokes, Kyousuke made a swift exit. He walked down the deserted hallway toward the bathroom at the far end.

  Creak, creak… The sound of his footsteps on the floorboards echoed through the quiet darkness. The mansion must have been built a long time ago, judging by the poor condition of the wooden floor.

  Even without imagining that the whole house reeked of blood, Kyousuke couldn’t help but feel like something was always about to jump out at him. Of course, it was possible that the Akabane family was just waiting for the perfect moment to attack him when he was all alone. The thought made him feel helpless.

  Kyousuke quickened his pace and peered back and forth as if it would make any difference. I was right—someone must be coming after me! He was starting to regret setting out on his own.

  When he turned back around, there stood a figure clad in deep crimson.

  “Aaaaaaaaaaaahhh!!”

  Kyousuke screamed and tried to retreat, but his feet got tangled up and he toppled over onto his backside. Rust-red eyes peered down at him.

  “……What was that reaction?” It was Eiri’s younger sister—Kagura. Her tone was as hard and dry as her gaze. She must have come from around the corner while he was looking in the other direction.

  The young woman, wearing a dark red yukata, clicked her tongue audibly. “…Tch. Screaming when you see someone’s face… You sure are rude. And on top of that, you act like an utter coward. I have no taste for raising my hand against a weakling, so you don’t need to be frightened!” She laughed at him derisively, then started to turn back.

  “Hey, Kagura! Wait a sec—”

  “…Yes?” She stopped walking and looked back. Her distant, half-lidded eyes fixed on him. “And please do not be so familiar with me. It’s uncomfortable.”

  “Oh. S-sorry…then, Akabane?”

  “Please do not speak my family name. It’s inappropriate.”

  “R-really…? My bad, Kagura…dear?”

  “Please stop. It makes my skin crawl to hear you call me ‘dear.’”

  “……Eiri’s little sister.”

  “Rejected. Please do not bring the dunce’s name into this.”

  “What should I call you…?”

  “Please don’t call me.”

  “Just hang on.”

  —She’s so hateful. Since her clash with Ayaka at the dinner table, Kagura had been hostile toward Kyousuke as well. She and Ayaka had yet to make peace.

  Kagura heaved a sigh at Kyousuke’s obvious bemusement. “Where is the good in a guy like this…?” she muttered, s
tarting to walk quickly away in the direction she had come from just a moment before.

  “…Huh? What are you doing here, anyway?” Kyousuke inquired. Kagura should not have normally had any reason to visit the wing of the mansion containing the guest rooms. Even assuming that she was visiting on some errand, he didn’t understand why she would turn back the moment they ran into each other.

  “…Tch.” Kagura clicked her tongue at Kyousuke as he thought the question over. Her mannerisms reminded him almost exactly of her older sister, Eiri. “…Nothing in particular. Certainly nothing to do with you.”

  “Right, of course. Just curious.”

  At any rate, Kagura was an assassin. She being who she was, Kyousuke suspected that, among other things, she might have been figuring out what to do about them.

  “…You sure are suspicious. I thought I told you it has nothing to do with you. It’s not for you to worry about. Please go back to your silly pillow fights.”

  The atmosphere was undeniably melancholy.

  —Pillow fights? Is this a school trip?

  “Well, we’re not having any pillow fights, but…right now everyone’s playing cards. If you like, why don’t you play with us? Eiri’s there, too.”

  “I’m fine.” Kagura’s response was immediate. He had only tried inviting her because there was nothing to lose by it, but… “Why would I want to spend any time with you all…? And your sister, that impertinent little girl, is there, too, right? I’m likely to kill her if I see her again.”

  “Little girl…? Aren’t you and Ayaka the same age? Plus, didn’t you just say that you ‘have no taste for raising your hand against a weakling’?”

  “You sure are talkative.” Kagura glared at Kyousuke with scornful eyes. “…If we’re talking about mental age, I’m older. I have no intention of raising my hand against a weakling, but if a hand is raised against me, that’s another matter. I will counterattack without mercy!”

  “Please forgive her. I’ve apologized for my little sister’s rudeness.”

  “…Hmph. I’m still bothered by it even if you apologized.” Kagura brushed her hair back, unsatisfied. “Conversing with you only causes me undue stress, so I’ll be taking my leave. Please tell my sister I said that if she has time to cut playing cards, she ought to work on being able to cut down people. Well, then—”