by Unknown
The edge of the plastic bag was filled with some liquid and it was there, hanging out swollen.
Giving a simple look, she told him,
"Don't open it yet!! Take it out to the garden."
Both of them went out to the garden. In reality the space was too tiny to be called a garden, but it was available for them so that's what they called it, The metal fence was as high as his shoulders and it surrounded the house completely. In the small space between the house and the fence two shadows were moving, illuminated sometimes by a small lamp post. There was enough cover for them to carry on their ghastly business.
Kikuchiyo placed the bag upside down and opened it. The sound of liquid pouring on the soft grass invaded the quiet night, as a river of dark water found it's way to the ground.
Spatters of dark water splattered onto his tiny legs, but this wasn't dark water...
It was blood.
[025]
An overwhelming stench of blood filled the air. After the blood poured from the bag, the bloody ax followed, falling into the deep pool of blood. It was still shining. Like something grotesque coming out from an empty shell, a heavy lump slided from the plastic bag, It was the lifeless head of that Mad white dog. It's tongue was hanging vertically to the ground and blood was dropping from the tip, it was a sinister sight and the stench was unbearable.
Kikuchiyo shook the bag some more and the full body of the dog fell into the pool of blood. The ax and head, making a heavy splash and a ghastly sound. Any normal human being would have thrown up by the sight and smell already.
But this was the beast that attacked the boy mercilessly and unprovoked.
"This is the one, Mom, I waited in the park until it came out with his owner"
"So this was the fucking dog that had the nerve to mess with us?"
The small lamp made Reiko's eyes shine with the tears that were about to flow.
The dog's head was open and something thick, red and gooey was coming out of it. Reiko squatted close to the body, grabbed the fur and moved it to retrieve the ax from underneath. Holding it with her right hand, she felt it was slippery, so she put the ax down and wiped the blood from her hand on the white fur that wasn't soiled with blood, feeling a better grip. She held the ax once again and stared at the head with contempt, looking at the sharp fangs that once hurt her son. She was the only one in the world that was allowed to hurt her son but her attacks were done with love. This beast or any other beast, human or otherwise that dared to hurt her or her own would share this fate.
"I won't be fooled!!"
She cocked the ax as high as she could, she was way too skinny to be holding the ax, but her wrath ignored the lack of power and making her shake all over, even the arm holding the ax, the beautiful face of Reiko Akuta turned into something evil and unearthly.
"Urrryyyaaahhhhh"
She struck down the ax while screaming loudly, the heavy edge struck the jaws of the dog, moving them out of place and making a "kchak" sound, cutting muscle and tendons.
The ax was lifted again...
She struck it down again...
[026]
"We are all alone!!" she screamed.
She struck it down again and this time, there was a bone-cracking sound: the edge has finally reached the bone. She kept striking it down incessantly until the jaws broke down from the head and something white flew and hit her cheeks. It was a piece of bone, but not just any bone, it was a big fang.
The same fang that bit Kikuchiyo and made him bleed. She destroyed it completely.
With lips raised upwards, eyes opening wide and forming a diabolic smile full of spattered blood,
That beautiful face was now nothing more than a vengeful demon.
She screamed for violence and jumped violently at the maimed face to finish it until there was nothing else to hack the ax into, Head pieces exploding all around a bloody pool, there was no reason, no common sense in it. Humanity had disappeared from the kind woman.
While in the hacking frenzy, she wondered how long she and her son would have to stand these ridiculous situations of abusive people and creatures that were owned by them, placing all the resentment and the fury for men and society itself in each swing and hack of the ax.
It was a violent scene, as if a demon living inside Reiko had no other way to escape or express
its feelings but possessing a poor crying woman and making her commit these atrocities.
Kikuchiyo loved this tearful woman, but didn't like it when she turned violent like this.
He silently stood still looking down at her. He would endure whatever pain, insult or tribulation she could inflict on him, still. He never clearly understood the "going away" thing.
[027]
~ ACT 4
It was a pleasant summer break but Kikuchiyo couldn't find a place interesting enough to hang out this time of year. The coastal town was beautiful and there were tourists and visitors everywhere, tons of kids of all ages playing around and it would only take him a fifteen minute walk to reach the coolest spot to swim an the beach. So many fun things to do and enjoy, but there wasn't a single person either on the beach or downtown that was his friend. He knew most of the local kids and the places they'd hang out, but none wanted to go with him to the river or to the sea.
[028]
He had a hard time speaking to people. He rarely talked to his classmates unless he was required to
and because of this, he had no friends.
In elementary school, one of the kids had made a stupid joke that his name sounded like a girls and it had stuck. Even today he was still being teased for that. Since he was most of the time alone at night, he watched as much television as he pleased. There was nobody there to scold him or tell him what to watch. He didn't have to worry about the squabbles of Japanese families about what they wanted to watch, the television was his alone and he never missed any of his favorite shows.
He knew everything about all the anime series, concerts, idol shows and movies his classmates liked to talk about at school. When they would talk, he overheard conversations and knew that there was a lot that they missed and he had watched. Sometimes he was the only one that had watched. Knowing more than the rest was his pride but there never was an opportune moment to talk about it.
He always missed the chance due to his soft voice.
All he could mutter was the name of the show or his favorite Idol and everyone ignored him and moved on, After he talked about his favorite shows and singers, his turn to speak was over.
He couldn't express very well why he liked some artists in comparison to other idols or elaborate more about why this show would be better than that other show another kid liked, or spread gossips about what was coming up in the popular TV programs. He failed something as easy as that, communication always betrayed him.
His classmates cared little about him or his feelings.
He could feel that he froze the happy atmosphere of the group every time he opened his mouth to talk.
That was something that annoyed him to no end, he wanted to laugh and talk and have friends. But lately it was something that crushed his optimism, so he felt happier thinking that it would be easier not to talk to them instead. This worked at school but during the summer break, it was hard for his soul to see the same classmates hanging out, playing, talking and openly ignoring him when summer was in full swing. Furthermore, it would be really unpleasant and rude for him to not say anything to them when they were swimming in the sea or enjoying a day in the river. Even if he said "hi!" he'd have to keep talking, it would even appear that he was stalking them, even though, this was a tiny coastal town with a few places to have fun.
The only options available would be for him to swim along without saying anything, or to make interesting conversation which was out of the question. He tried hard enough to be nice to them but for him "being nice" was to be "quiet and invisible" around them, the very reason why he was shunned at school behind his back.
[029]
He knew his classmates thought he was weird and needed some serious help.
"It's so hard being around him" they would say openly, without making an effort to integrate him to the group. Some guys started spreading rumors that he was mentally challenged and just a plain idiot.
There was nothing wrong about him but he felt everything was wrong at all times, especially coming across groups of girls, he would hear small giggles and hidden looks. He knew they were talking about him, inventing stories, believing rumors and who knows what else.
To stop this destructive pattern, he would avoid the places they would be hanging out at in summer, hang out at places where nobody would know who he was or wondering what he was doing there.
A place where no kids that knew him would go? The answer was stupidly simple.
"I'll hang out at school"
If he stayed at home, he'd have to hang out with his mother for half a day and tolerate her quirks and mood swings but there was a place that the kids would avoid like the plague. It worked just great because it was a beautiful location.
Isogahara Junior High school was located right around the coast, a great place to swim at with little to no people hanging out, he'd be swimming alone without nobody annoying him. After swimming, there was a forest of pine trees not that far from there that he visited and would spend half a day lying down under the shade and breathing that sweet air.
That was his secret hideout to spend his last summer week in good spirits.
Something he loved doing in the forest was to catch all sorts of insects, there were so many.
He got excited just thinking about it, he found oriental long headed locusts, tetrigidae, lady bugs, praying mantis, damselflies, long horned grasshoppers, and various unknown leaf insects.
There were so many little insects under the trees that he spent hours catching them and the number
of bugs never decreased no matter how many he squashed or chased, or played with.
He would always find so many in the same place he caught them as the previous day.
The insects were everywhere as if these maggots grew underneath the grass.
Everyday he'd spend two hours catching cool looking bugs, but not to take them home as pets as kids usually do. No, he would look at them for a minute struggling and then, one by one, he'd start ripping out their legs, until there were no more legs, wings or antennae left.
[030]
He always saved crushing the head for last, no insect was to survive his hand grip.
He did this for the small and thin bugs, but his favorite ones to crush were the praying mantis
and grasshoppers, he enjoyed pulling their heads off after all their legs were gone. They came our easily after all the white stuff was wiped out. Strong and stinky grass fumes would stick to his nose and would also reek of dead insect blood but he made a discovery that woke a strange feeling within him.
After ripping the wings, legs, antennae, the praying mantis was the only one that was still alive. After its head was ripped open, looking like a mere green stick, it would do a weird dance on his palm for a few seconds. He knew it was something cruel and perverse but he felt that he was watching an indecent show just meant for him, watching how a life that was robbed of legs, wings, head and simply looking like a green stick would still carry a hopeless fight for survival.
That made him feel awful, but also, he felt a strange excitement about it, his crotch was hot and stiff and lifted hard, he felt good about being excited.
He'll still remember that day....
Kikuchiyo arrived really late at the school yard that day. The guys from the sports clubs were gone
for the day and it was almost sunset, but somehow he was still there.
He was waiting for someone, there was a girl that he was waiting to meet.
Her name was Naoko Izawa, a sophomore that was attending class B. They didn't arrange this meeting previously, he just saw her entering the school building because she was a member of the library committee. The students at Isogahara junior high were allowed to check out books twice a week during their summer break. Every week, two members of the library committee would come at 1 pm and would stay a few hours until the other members arrived, they had about twenty members and they took turns to keep the library running smoothly.
[031]
That day was Noriko's turn to work in the library and he was waiting for her to end her shift and come out of the library to talk to her. He had nice conversations with her a few times and she took the time to listen without making him feel weird.
This girl was about 5' 6 ft. which it was pretty tall for a junior high school kid but her intelligence gave her an aura that made her more beautiful than she already was. Her dark straight hair fell around her shoulders, her nose, very cute and shapely, made her delicate face match with her wide eyes.
Her lips, without lipstick, were very soft and gave her a mature look.
There was a subtle innocence in her looks but her body was well developed for her age.
She was pretty smart but not the outgoing, overly talkative type. She wouldn't raise her hand to answer teacher's questions but she was capable of giving assertive answers when asked in class.
She was also a bit eccentric and didn't talk to Kikuchiyo's classmates, but for different reasons than him. A few kids tried to ask her out on dates and talk to her but she would always cut the conversation short and while hanging out with her circle of friends, she would feel detached of the conversation no matter how hard they tried to integrate her.
For her, Kikuchiyo wasn't "the weird creature" that everyone gossiped about, he was just
another kid in school like all the others and it made him feel relieved that he can interact with her without prejudices.
He saw her during class and she would smile when they eyes meet, that made him feel a sweet warmth in his chest and his heartbeat started speeding up.
Noriko was in the school now, he was planning of seeing her walking home and going to his own home afterwards. It was a few minutes before sunset when she came out from the building. Unfortunately,
she wasn't alone. She was walking with Seto, another committee member.
[032]
Kikuchiyo felt that his body's temperature started rising out of control. For how many hours were they talking alone in the library? A river of black fire started running within his veins. It was unmistakably the dark flame of jealously but that didn't force an expression on his face either.
The only thing he felt in his face was that his lips stiffened as if he was swallowing a heavy metallic stick.
He wasn't going to announce himself being there but he felt this guy at her side betrayed his own expectations.
Kikuchiyo kept his distance and waited until both of them went out the gate and turned the corner a block from the school. He started walking as if he was going somewhere close, but in reality
he was following them.
He wasn't wearing his usual short pants today, he was wearing a pair of comfy jeans and a blue checked short-sleeved shirt. Curiously he was also carrying two carton boxes in his arms and dry noises were coming out from the carton boxes.
The street around the corner led to a path along the beach and a little further, the pine trees followed. The street was full of pine trees but you still could see the sea between the sparse branches of the trees.
He was walking down the street looking at the gorgeous scenery of the sea on his left.
The scent of pine trees and salty sea breeze tickled his nose. He could see a few people fishing on the pier. Nobody was swimming at this hour but there was an old gentleman walking his dog and some couples sitting down or walking and holding hands while looking at the sea.
The reflection of the afterglow from the sunset was painting the waves, changing them with different colors. One could believe that the waves were reflecting every color around them, the green of the pine trees, the blue, dark blue and orange of the sky, th
e white of the sand, the color of the houses, the t-shirt of the little kid running along the beach, the ships at sea, a very nostalgic palette of summer.
[033]
All these colors dissolved inside the waves and combined with the tide to be ultimately washed out to the open sea. Many students frequented this particular street when school was in session, so it would not arise any suspicions if the couple were to spot him, so he kept walking naturally.
Suddenly, a tall man passed Kikuchiyo from behind. He was wearing a sweatshirt, he was jogging but his pace was fast and frenetic. He quickly passed Noriko and Seto that were walking about 65 feet from Kikuchiyo. The man captured his attention because he was running barefoot and you could see his feet darkened by the mud. What kind of man would run like that?
Someone yelled at him while he was looking at the running man.
"Hey---!!
It was a raspy voice. Maybe it wasn't for him, but he turned around anyway.
He knew that guy: he was Takashi Shimamura, his fellow classmate. He was standing along three other guys. He noticed two more classmates of his, Kenji Shimizu and Ryoichi Kato, that were enrolled in class C. He had no idea who the other guy was, but he was burly and taller than his classmates. Maybe that guy was in high school.
"Hey Kiku...!!" Shimamura was calling him and getting closer.