Ex4. The Story of How She Came to See What Right Love Is

Author: Kiki
Raw: https://novel18.syosetu.com/n2498fn/59/
Translator: Lilia v4
Editor: Yuriko AYA

“Ahhhh, I’m wiped.”
“Good work. Today was rough too, wasn’t it.”
“Yeah. It was rough. Praise me. And then spoil meee …”

Saying so, Ririka crumpled to the floor just inside the front door.
Her hair, dyed a bright brown, fanned across the boards the way hair does in a horror film.
Then she reached, pleading, toward the fiancé she lived with.
Toshiya took that hand with a wry smile and pulled her up.
The time was half past eleven at night.
Four and a half hours had already passed since the esthetic salon where Ririka worked had closed.
She had left the shop a little after eleven. Even allowing for work after closing, it was late.

“If my salary were higher, I wouldn’t have to make you push yourself like this.”
“I started it because I wanted to. It can’t be helped.”

After vocational school, she had been drawn in by a full two-day weekend, two months’ bonus, and the treatment of a regular employee. That had been the beginning of her bad luck.
The commission was high and the base pay was low, so the bonus came to barely a sparrow’s tear, and the two-day weekend had been honored only at first.
Now a schedule hard enough to demand ten days on without a blink was wearing down Ririka’s body and heart.

“All right, Toshiya!”

Ririka, who until then had been a limp heap of exhaustion, suddenly straightened her back, put force into her eyes, and spoke fiercely.

“Hug me!”

In short, she only wanted to be spoiled.
When Toshiya held her gently, she poured complaint after complaint into his chest, as if she would never run out.
Coworkers. The manager. Customers. Impossible quotas, and the company products she had been made to buy because she had failed to meet them.
This is ridiculous, this is ridiculous, she muttered, patting his chest.
Once it had been about once a month. Lately it was about once a week that she dropped into this clinging mode.
That was how much stress had piled up.
Able to do nothing but hold her and rub her back, Toshiya privately lamented how pathetic he was.

When she had been spoiled enough, Ririka sat at the table and fell on the meal Toshiya had prepared.
After eating she soaked in the bath, did her skin care, made ready for tomorrow, and got into bed.
When she woke she went to work again, and when she came home there was a meal—the same loop, day after day, until one had the illusion that the same day was stretching on forever.
Ririka dreamed of going independent someday, and she had wanted to study for that, but if this state of things continued, even that would be out of reach.
Or—perhaps that, too, was the point.
Ambition is not always convenient for the head of the pack.
With a head gone vague from fatigue, Ririka carried millet rice to her mouth and looked at the television.

“That’s unusual. You’re watching the news. Don’t you usually put on that late-night comedy thing?”
“Today’s Thursday. That’s Wednesdays.”
“Ah … was it? Heheh. Not good, not good. On a shift system you completely lose track of the days. Still, it’s unusual for you to watch the news, isn’t it? Did something happen?”
“Another murder in the neighborhood. And this time it’s three people.”
“Ugh. They found some at the school the other day too, right? Same culprit?”
“That was two before this. And there was one before that—two students killed near the park.”
“Wow, it’s increasing … so that’s six? And only men? Some kind of psychopath?”

Lately this town had been noisy, one way or another.
A corpse found at the school with the limbs torn off. A corpse split clean in two by something sharp.
None of it was a crime an ordinary person could have committed.
The police seemed to be investigating on the theory that some special tool had been used, but so far there were no useful witnesses, and no progress.
And now, in the midst of that, a third killing.

“I saw police on my way home too. They’re really throwing people at it, aren’t they?”
“A crime that bold, and they still haven’t found a face or a shape for the culprit. Of course the police are desperate.”
“And if something happens in the middle of that—”
“They’ll get even more desperate.”
“Well, more police means the town gets safer. I’m grateful, I am.”
“… Don’t say that outside, all right?”
“I know. I’ll have you know that at work I pass for serious, reliable Ririka-san.”
“That’s right, you did. When we started going out I thought you were a serious girl.”
“Nfufu. I’m a character actress, that’s what I am.”

For the two of them, the incidents on television were someone else’s affair.
Ririka seemed genuinely glad that the town’s safety would improve, and Toshiya had been wondering, until today, whether he ought to start walking her home—but her pleasure at the increase in police officers read, gently, as a refusal, and he chose not to say it.
That was all.
One flower among the many that colored an ordinary life.
That they themselves might be drawn in was something they had not imagined.

◇◇◇

 

The next day, Ririka went to work in a body that had not yet recovered.
Another long day was beginning.
The manager would not stop her unreasonable, unintelligible remarks. The coworkers were needlessly high-handed. The customers would not buy the quota goods no matter how she recommended them.
How many times had she sighed already, in a place where no one was?
It was only just past two, and if she folded here she would not last until the end.
And yet it was also true that if she did not change the air even for a moment, she would not last until night.
Soon enough the next customer would come, and the work would turn over again.
“At least let me have a scrap of slacking,” she muttered, an excuse to no one.
Sick of it, and wearing a flawless sales smile all the same, Ririka went to the customer.
And then—the instant she saw that customer, she found herself standing still and staring.
A well-made figure. A face in which childishness and allure lived together, with a strange charm. And skin so white and clear it hardly seemed human.
The first thing Ririka thought, looking at that customer, was, No, you don’t need to come to a salon, do you?
She gave off that overwhelming a beauty.

“Is something the matter?”

The girl tilted her head and spoke to Ririka, who was still planted there.

“Ah … ah, I’m sorry. I couldn’t help staring. Um … Ms. Hinata, what treatment are you looking for today?”
“I am not very sure, but a friend told me the oil massage here feels nice.”
“Oh, a friend’s recommendation. I’m glad when word spreads and people come in that way. So that would be the body esthetic course, then.”
“Yes. That, please.”

To look at her, she was still young. High-school age, perhaps.
Coming to a salon alone at that age—kids these days were precocious … Feeling the generation gap, Ririka showed the customer to a private room.
A space for two.
The room was full of an aroma she knew by smell, and it warmed the body a little.
Before she lay on the table, the girl removed her clothes and bared her skin.
The usual draping was in place, of course, but the exposure was still high.
Customers undressing in front of her was an everyday matter. Even so, Ririka’s heart was beating hard, for reasons she could not name.

(I don’t have that kind of taste … I didn’t think I did. But there really are people this beautiful, even to another woman. And knowing I’m about to touch her is making it worse.)

The fineness of that skin was enough to fluster even Ririka, who had handled any number of customers.
Before the girl lying face-down on the table, she swallowed once, and reached toward the bared back.
The body temperature was oddly low.
She could not be called rosy, it was true, but even so, compared with an ordinary human the heat was quite low.
Perhaps a low temperature was the secret of beauty, Ririka thought, as she went on with the massage.
Ordinarily this was where conversation began, to help the customer relax—but the words would not come, as if she were a middle-school boy who did not know how to act.
Whenever she tried to wring something out, it was wiped away by the soft sounds that slipped, now and then, from Chigusa.

In the end, the treatment that day finished in silence from start to finish.
It was hardly a performance she could call a hundred points, and Ririka was sinking, wondering if she had been a disappointment—until, at the end,

“Thank you. It felt very nice. I will come again, Ririka.”

Chigusa said that, and Ririka was considerably saved.
And the smile she was shown at the last was so lovely it deserved to be called a girl of unearthly beauty. It burned itself into her mind and showed no sign of fading.
In the palm that had touched that body, the feel of the skin still remained.

 

◇◇◇

 

That customer came the next day as well.
To think she would come every day, when it was not cheap—and then she said, smiling, “Yesterday was so good,” and there was no way to feel badly about that.
Ririka put more spirit into the treatment than usual.
The girl was by no means thin. If anything she had some flesh, and a moderate amount of muscle as well.
Perhaps she played some sport.
When women sought beauty they tended to fixate on thinness, but in this customer’s case—there was far more allure in this, Ririka felt as she worked.
Men would not leave a woman this beautiful alone.
She must be fussed over at school. While Ririka was thinking that, Chigusa asked her, abruptly,

“Ms. Kokonoe, do you have a boyfriend, or someone like that?”
“Eh—me?”

She had not expected to be asked in return. A foolish sound slipped out.

“Forgive me for asking so suddenly. You are beautiful, so I thought you must have a wonderful boyfriend.”
“No, no—me, beautiful? Don’t be ridiculous.”

She said so, and it did not feel bad.

“You’re far more beautiful, Ms. Hinata. I’ve never seen anyone with skin this clear.”
“Is that so. I find Ms. Kokonoe far more attractive.”
“Honestly, flattery won’t get you anything, you know? But I do have a boyfriend, for what it’s worth.”
“Oh? You live together, then?”
“You could tell? Was it on my face?”

As she spoke, Ririka pulled and squashed her own cheeks with her hands.

“Hehehe. Only a feeling.”

Chigusa said so, laughing.
She was face-down, so her expression was hard to see, but the sliver of profile that showed was frighteningly beautiful.
Ririka understood less and less.
Why this girl would pay money that was not cheap, on purpose, to come to a place like this.

“And what about you, Ms. Hinata? Cute as you are, the men of the world can’t be leaving you alone.”
“I am nothing of the kind. I have no boyfriend, and no man I am fond of.”
“Really? A cute girl like you, free? Nobody has any eyes.”
“I do not particularly wish to be looked at by men. I have a much better time being with someone like you, Ms. Kokonoe.”

Ririka had thought she was making herself beautiful for men, but that was not it either.
And when they talked further, she did not even seem especially interested in beauty—and still Chigusa came to the shop almost every day.

 

◇◇◇

 

Beyond the body treatments, Chigusa bought whatever Ririka recommended.
Ririka felt reluctant to push products on a minor, but if she said nothing, the girl would ask of her own accord, “Do you have anything you would recommend?”
The manager seemed to think of her as a mark, and told Ririka to sell her an expensive machine next.
Of course Ririka refused, saying the parents might find out and there could be trouble—but even as things stood, she was more than enough of a prized customer.
And then the fifth day since Chigusa had begun coming.
Around the time Ririka had begun, without noticing, to look forward to that hour.
Unable to bear the prick of conscience any longer, she made up her mind and asked.

“Ms. Hinata, why do you ask for me?”
“Because you are beautiful, Ms. Kokonoe, and your talk is interesting, and it is enjoyable to be with you … is why.”

Something in Ririka’s chest pulled tight.
If that was the reason, she felt the same.
Chigusa was more beautiful than anyone. Ririka grew talkative just trying to hold a little of that attention, and it made her helplessly glad that even her worthless stories were received with interest.

“Was I a bother, perhaps?”
“N-no! I’m glad, if anything … I have a good time with you too, Ms. Hinata.”
“I am glad. You seem so busy, Ms. Kokonoe. If I do not come to see you like this, it seems we would hardly be able to talk.”

To think she would pay money just to see her—Ririka’s eyes nearly filled.

“Ah. Of course, it also feels nice. That is part of it as well.”

Chigusa said it as if to cover.
But Ririka could not hold down the guilt welling up.
That this girl was spending money in order to see her.
Time with Chigusa had already become something like an oasis in the workday. If anything, Ririka would have paid to have her come.

“Um, Ms. Hinata. If it isn’t a bother … would you exchange contact information with me?”

By the time she noticed, she had said it.
An employee asking a customer for a number was the sort of slip that meant punishment the moment it was found out.
But that was only if it was found out.
If both agreed, there was no problem at all.

“Of course! And … the name tag only has a surname. May I ask your given name?”
“It’s Ririka. Ririka Kokonoe. Call me whatever you like—just the name is fine.”
“Then, Ririka. Please call me Chigusa as well.”
“Ms. Chigusa?”
“Hehe. That sounds like a mistress and a servant. And you may let your speech relax, if you like.”
“It’d be a problem if people thought we had a suspicious relationship. Then I’ll call you Chigusa-chan. Is that all right?”
“Yes. That is much better, Ririka.”

Only calling one another by name, and the distance seemed to close at a stroke.
In fact, exchanging contacts and using given names was as much as to say they were friends.
When the treatment was over, Ririka brought her phone over in secret and exchanged information with Chigusa.
And after work she checked the messages that had come from her.

“Thank you for your work today.”
“I will come to see you again tomorrow.”
“Is this arriving properly?”

Looking at a screen lined with such endearing words, Ririka’s cheeks could not help softening.

 

◇◇◇

 

When she returned to the apartment, Toshiya was waiting with dinner made.
She usually came home exhausted, so when he saw Ririka in unusually high spirits, he asked,

“Did something good happen?”

Ririka took out her phone at the table and smiled at the screen.

“Nnn, I guess you could say I made a friend.”
“A customer?”
“Yeah. An unbelievably cute girl. High-school age, probably. Her skin is so beautiful you wouldn’t believe it, and she says she doesn’t have a boyfriend or anything.”

Perhaps remembering the feel of that skin under her hands, Ririka closed her eyes and moved her fingers in the empty air.

“That’s a pretty indecent gesture … Don’t do anything weird to a high-school girl. Still, going to a salon at that age—a rich kid, maybe?”
“I think so. She comes every day, you know? And we’re not that cheap.”
“She’s taken a real liking to you. You ought to see her outside of work.”
“That’s what I thought, so I exchanged contacts. And the awkward way she writes is cute too!”

As if she had been waiting for this, Ririka shoved the screen at Toshiya, her eyes shining.
He looked at the words scrolling past and said, as if exasperated,

“You’re head over heels …”

He could not help a wry smile at Ririka, who was already lost in Chigusa.
Just then, another uneasy report came from the television.
—The bodies of two more men had been found.
At that news, even Ririka’s expression clouded.

“Another murder. How many is that now?”
“In this town, the first in a while since those three the other day. No—‘a while’ is a weird way to put it. But it seems like there’s a killing somewhere every day. And still no face or shape for the culprit.”
“Even more police, then. Are you all right, Toshiya? The victims are all men, they say. I’m worried.”
“At first I thought you were the one in more danger, coming home alone in the middle of the night. The way this is going, maybe I’m the one. Why does the culprit only go after men?”

Online, there were whispers that it was the work of someone with a grudge against men, and that the culprit might be a woman.
But a woman would not have the strength to split a man’s body with a sharp blade, or to tear one apart.
Then again, whether a man would have that strength was a doubtful matter too.

“There’s even a story that the culprit isn’t human.”
“Ah, that. I saw it too. The one about a vampire doing the killing.”
“Vampires are so last century. Vampires. If they’re going to do it, at least make it a werewolf, or an asura, or something stylish.”
“I never do understand your taste, Ririka …”

It is wasted effort to expect grounds from an urban legend.
But this time, that was precisely the truth—perhaps someone capable had sensed it, and put it on the net.
If that person had been a man, he would already be dead.
And if a woman, she would already be something other than human.

 

◇◇◇

 

Day by day, Ririka sank deeper into Chigusa.
She touched that skin every day, and never tired of it.
Caught by a charm whose bottom she could not see, she had begun to think that customers other than this girl no longer mattered.
And Chigusa, toward such a Ririka, made a proposal as if it were nothing.

“Nn … hah … if I asked for the sixty-minute course one after another … would I be able to stay with you longer, Ririka?”
“Pfft … well, ordinarily the manager would get angry, and it wouldn’t be allowed.”

Was it a thing that could be done, if one did it?
If it truly could, she would be able to stay with Chigusa through the workday, legally. It was not a bad proposal.
And yet it felt like becoming a kept woman to someone who was, in effect, younger, and she could not stand the thought.

“Honestly, you coming every day like this, and us mostly just talking while I massage you, is a problem too.”
“Even so … I have tried facial care, and a full-body pack, and a slimming course, and a head spa. I think I have covered most of it, haven’t I?”
“Normally you repeat them! Well, in your case, Chigusa-chan, almost nothing changed no matter what we did.”

The original was too beautiful. Doing anything was wasted.
Even so, Chigusa said it felt nice, so Ririka performed the treatments themselves.

“Even if you’re well off, money isn’t infinite, you know? I think seeing each other in private would be enough.”
“But … Ririka, you have so little time off … and work ends so late, doesn’t it?”
“You want to be with me that badly?”
“I do.”

The answer was immediate. Ririka’s cheeks went red.
She had understood, faintly, that Chigusa held no ordinary feeling toward her.
And Ririka, too—looking at that oiled back, wanting to be still closer—cared for Chigusa at least that much.

“Ririka … do you dislike me?”
“Of course I like you.”

The instant she said like, her chest hurt with guilt, probably because she thought of Toshiya.
Which meant—this feeling was not friendship.
Ririka’s hands stopped.
This was, without a doubt, cheating. And she had no intention of stopping it.
Even now, she was only thinking of getting closer to Chigusa.
And at the same time, she found herself thinking a cowardly thing as well.
If we only meet at work he won’t notice. And we’re both women. Toshiya would never suspect.

“I will speak to the manager myself. If she says yes, you will stay with me the whole time, won’t you?”

Ririka had thought her a quiet girl, but her push was unexpectedly strong.
It would never work anyway, Ririka thought, and nodded all the same.
Needless to say, that very day the manager was “persuaded” by Chigusa, and the wish was granted with ease.

 

◇◇◇

 

From that day, Ririka’s strange daily life began.
She left for work early, finished morning assembly and the meeting, and Chigusa arrived at once.
They went into a private room. For the first hour or so there was a massage, and for the rest of the time, until closing, they were alone.
Idle conversation. Small touches.
She had no sense at all that she was working.
And yet the manager was in unusually good humor, and the coworkers did not offer a single complaint.
Overtime had been cut as well.
When she returned to the apartment around nine, still full of energy, Toshiya looked a little glad—perhaps because she paid him attention.
There was not one thing to be dissatisfied with.
If she had to name something—it was all too convenient, and that, a little, was beginning to frighten her.

 

The next day, too, Chigusa came from the morning.
Only while she was with her could Ririka escape the unease.
She was simply happy.
Only being together, only listening to her talk, filled her more than being with anyone else.
Chigusa, calling it a return, imitated a massage; they linked fingers as if playing at being lovers; they held one another for no reason at all.
More than yesterday, Ririka felt that body temperature.
A little cool, and yet blood was certainly moving through it, and it was very pleasant.
A softness and a gentleness different from holding a man.
Chigusa whispered at her ear.

“When you hold Toshiya, and when you hold me—which is better?”

She was very unkind.
Ririka swallowed, and with trembling lips she spun the words.

“You, Chigusa-chan. Of course it’s better.”

Once you have betrayed, tearing the rest down is all too easy.
Rather, Ririka was beginning to take excitement from betraying Toshiya.
That day, Chigusa waited in front of the shop until Ririka finished work, on purpose.
The earnestness of it made Ririka’s chest pound.
They walked hand in hand as far as the front of Ririka’s apartment, and at the parting they found they had held one another, looked at one another, and set their mouths together.
And with the feel of that still on her, Ririka went inside and said, with a calm face, “I’m home,” to Toshiya.
After dinner, when she came out of the bath, he reached for her, which was unusual.
Lately she had looked tired, so he had given up—but she was home early, and she did not seem worn out, and he had thought perhaps now.
Of course, Ririka refused.
Toshiya, whom she had liked so much only a few days before, now seemed like nothing but a stepping-stone to strengthen her feeling for Chigusa.
Being touched was out of the question. She did not even want to live together anymore. She wanted to go to Chigusa that instant.
But it was still too soon.
To become that girl’s thing, she would have to hand over something much deeper in her heart first.

 

The next day, too, Chigusa came.
The moment they entered the room they held one another, and tumbled together onto the treatment table as if they had gotten tangled.
A meeting of mouths was not enough; they did not stop at the surface.
What Ririka took from Chigusa was unbelievably sweet, and she asked again and again for more.
That day, in the end, it went no further than that closeness through clothes, but at the parting Chigusa declared it clearly.

“Tomorrow, I will take you, Ririka.”

She said so, smiled without fear, and left. Ririka put her hands to her cheeks, folded from the knees, and could not move.
Walking the hallway, riding the elevator home, she kept repeating “Chigusa-chan,” the name, over and over.
If she did not, she could not bear it. Her head was that full of tomorrow, and of Chigusa.

Even after she entered the apartment, Ririka did not recover her calm.
Toshiya was already outside her field of vision. Nothing he said, nothing he did, drew a response.
She thought only of Chigusa, and now and then she took out her phone and stared, devouring, at the recent messages.
The figure was clearly abnormal. Toshiya’s unease mounted, but he concluded she must be tired, and did not force anything.
The news on television reported that five more male corpses had been found.

 

The next day, Ririka was elsewhere from the morning.
Today, at last, Chigusa would take her.
Only thinking it, the heat in her body would not settle. She had no room to think of Toshiya.
She only thought of Chigusa, yearned for Chigusa, kept asking for Chigusa.
Seeing Ririka in a state that could only be called pathological, Toshiya said more than once,

“Maybe you should take today off?”

His words never reached her ears.

And at last, the time came.
The moment the shop opened, Chigusa appeared, and went to the private room as if it were her own house.
Ririka was already waiting there, having set her work aside.
Chigusa came close to the woman who waited as if everything were ready, touched her throat, stroked up to her cheek, and drew her face in.
A greeting, first—their mouths met.
That alone made Ririka sound like a cat in heat.
While they were so close, Chigusa’s hand traveled, and she confirmed what she had come to confirm.
Ririka could not see it, but the Mark had risen there.
Satisfied, Chigusa pressed her down onto the treatment table.
Ririka lay back and offered an unguarded figure to a girl younger than herself.
Her eyes were wet, her cheeks red, her throat damp with sweat.
She was in an excitement she had never felt with Toshiya.
Her heart was pounding as if it might burst.
Looking at her, Chigusa smiled, took a case of massage oil from a nearby stand, and spread it on her own palm.
Then she began to work it over the skin Ririka had bared.

The throat. The side.
The arms. The belly.
The thighs, and even the calves.
Ririka answered the maddening tickle by tightening her stomach and tipping her head back.
Chigusa undressed as well, and what followed was only oil, closeness, and Ririka’s voice giving way.

Charm had already done its work. What came after that need not be lingered on.

 

◇◇◇

 

—Tomorrow was supposed to be their first day off together in a long while.
Toshiya had bought up travel magazines in advance, and had been planning where they might go.
To such a man, one message arrived.

“Staying over tonight. Don’t think I’ll be back until around evening tomorrow.”

The moment he saw that blunt sentence, so unlike Ririka, Toshiya crumpled at his desk at work.
It was a good thing this was after hours. If it had come in the middle, he would not have been able to touch the rest of the day’s work.

“What’s wrong, Nanao? Did your girl dump you?”

A well-built man said it, slapping his back.

“Something like that, Nozaki.”
“Whoa. It was actually that? That’s rare, Nanao. You two always got along, didn’t you?”
“That’s just it. She’s been acting strange lately. Tomorrow’s supposed to be a day off, and she says she’s going out overnight starting today.”
“Condolences. How about it—I’ll listen to you complain tonight.”
“… May I take you up on that?”

Nozaki had a way of looking after Toshiya.
If he was down, Nozaki would invite him for a drink like this, and yet he never shoved his nose too far into a private life.
Not only Toshiya—many of the coworkers relied on him. That sort of man.

Leaning on Nozaki’s words, Toshiya complained and complained at an izakaya.
Work. His girlfriend. The future. Whether marriage would actually go well.

“Why aren’t you two married yet, anyway?”
“We haven’t saved enough for the ceremony. We don’t want to trouble our parents, so we decided we’d put it all together ourselves first.”
“You’ve got it together. She’s an esthetician, right?”
“Yes. She’s so busy she gets home later than I do, almost every day.”
“I see. So that’s why Nanao cooks and waits for her. You really take care of her.”
“What about your place, Nozaki? You’re both working, if I remember.”
“My house, huh …”

The idle talk went on.
There was drink in him, so Toshiya was more talkative than usual.
He emptied everything out, and packed alcohol into the space he had emptied—and as a result, by around ten he had already drunk himself under.
Unsteady on his feet, he was put in a taxi Nozaki arranged and carried as far as the apartment.
He made it to the room at last, bracing himself on the wall, and tumbled onto the sofa.
He slept like that.
The brightness outside woke him. He opened his eyes holding a head that pounded with a hangover.
The moment he was up he reached for the phone nearby and checked the time.
Eleven in the morning. On an ordinary day he would have been up long since, and even if he overslept, Ririka would have woken him.
But she was not here now.

“There’s a message.”

It might be from her.
He opened it with that faint hope, saw the sender was a coworker, and his shoulders fell.
What could it be, this early on a day off. He had a bad feeling and nothing else.
If it was an order to come in, he would ignore it. He had decided that—and what leapt into his eyes was—

“Nozaki was found dead.”

—that unbelievable line.

“Looks like he got caught up in those incidents. The wake’s at eighteen today, so …”

There was more after that, but Toshiya did not see it.
The shock was such that the phone slipped from his hand.

“What is that … We only just drank together yesterday …”

He wanted to think it a vicious lie, but the tone was not that of a joke.

“Uu … uuuuu …!”

Toshiya clutched his head, buried his face in the sofa, and loosed a long, long groan, as if flinging it at all the injustices he could do nothing about alone.

 

◇◇◇

 

At about that same time, Ririka was in front of a love hotel in town.
Her expression was dreamy. She had her arm through Chigusa’s, and was pressed close.
Yesterday in the salon’s private room, after closing at a nearby love hotel, and after that at Chigusa’s room—today’s schedule was filled in that fashion.
Chigusa started walking toward the room she was renting, but Ririka’s legs shook so badly it was unsettling to watch.

“Are you all right? You fainted four times. You must not push yourself.”
“I don’t want to look pathetic, not even able to walk because my hips are gone …”
“Isn’t it a little late for that, after the figure you already showed me?”
“Uuu, that’s true, but …!”

She had gone into the love hotel determined, for once, to show an older woman’s side. The result, as anyone could see, had been Chigusa’s crushing victory.
And still, a thing called adult pride remained.
Her hips were already so gone that walking itself was hard, but this time she would take the initiative.
So she resolved, as they headed for Chigusa’s room.

It was an apartment not so far from the shop.
When she followed Chigusa in, a space of surprising bleakness spread out, with no sense of a life being lived.
The only thing that could be called furniture was a bed. Other than that, there was a garbage bag of something in the corner, and a refrigerator.
She had hoped that coming to the room might solve the mystery of what Chigusa was. Instead the mystery had deepened.

“You live here?”
“No. This is only one base. I do not live here.”
“… Base?”

Ririka tilted her head. Chigusa only smiled, and answered nothing.
As if to say that none of that mattered, she pushed Ririka’s back, guided her near the bed, and at once clung to her and pressed her down.

“W-wait, stop!”
“Is something the matter?”

If this went on, she would be put at a disadvantage again.
That, at least, she wanted to avoid.
And yet, having stopped it, it was not as if Ririka had a plan for turning the tables.
She had thought of nothing. She had only stopped it for now.

“Um … my throat’s dry.”
“Ah. In that case, there is something in the refrigerator. Please choose whatever you like.”

Chigusa withdrew from above her for the moment.
With that, at least, the line of being pressed down and then used as Chigusa pleased had been cut off.
Ririka was relieved.
That her throat was dry was not entirely a lie. She wanted a cold tea, if only to settle herself and cool down.
She moved to the kitchen, crouched in front of a small refrigerator of the sort meant for someone living alone, and opened the door.
The freshly severed head of a man of about thirty was looking at her, eyes open.

“Hih …!?”

A cramped sound came from Ririka’s throat before she could help it.
It took a little time to understand that it was a severed head, so there was a lag before that sound became a scream.

“Hyaaaaaaaaa!”

Still sitting, she scrambled backward, shaking her head hard.

“He’s—he’s dead—a corpse—Chigusa-chan, Chigusa-chan!”
“Ah. That is right, I had put a corpse in there. Forgive me. It seems we are out of drinks.”

Chigusa, coming closer, showed no agitation at all.

“You—knew …? You knew there was a corpse in there …”
“Yes. Because I killed him.”

She said it so lightly that Ririka could not believe it.
The act of killing a person was not supposed to be so light a thing.

“Incidentally, that garbage bag over there has the parts of the body in it.”
“Why? How? Why would you do that!”
“Because the culprit in the recent murders is us.”

A mass killing on a scale never seen, aimed only at men.
It had filled the wide shows and the news. Reporters and police officers had hunted desperately for evidence, and found none. A perfect crime.
And the culprit—to think it was a girl this lovely.
No one would imagine it. Ririka, of course, had not.

“I wonder who started it. The rumor that a vampire is the culprit. I was surprised. Because that is true.”
“True?”
“Yes. I am a vampire. To be precise, a Demi-Vamp. I died once, but I have come back in order to bring peace to the world.”

From first to last, Ririka could not understand.
A vampire? A Demi-Vamp? Died once? World peace?
All of it lay on the far side of her knowledge. No matter how she twisted her mind, no satisfactory accounting would come.

“Ririka, your head is in confusion now, and the meaning will not come, but the matter is simple. You may entrust yourself to me, or you may choose Toshiya.”
“Chigusa, or Toshiya …”
“If you choose me, I will invite you into a world where you can be happy forever. And as for pleasure, it will not compare with what came before.”
“Better than before?”
“Many times. Tens of times. And I want you to taste that pleasantness, Ririka. Because I am fond of you.”

In that smile, in those words, she could not feel a lie.
Chigusa was in earnest. She had fallen in love with Ririka in earnest, loved Ririka in earnest, and that was why she had laid everything bare.
The nature of a murderer. The desire of an inhuman being.
Those were, without a doubt, negative elements.
Ordinarily, the fact of a killer would cool a love at once, and it would be no time for fleshly desire to rise.
But the Ririka of now was different.
The shock of the severed head, and the confession of murder, had cooled her for an instant—but already her body was beginning to heat again.
Tens of times the pleasure. A world where she could be happy forever. She was drawn to that invitation into the inhuman.

“Ririka.”

Chigusa straddled Ririka’s legs, crouched directly in front of her, set her hands on both cheeks, and looked straight into her eyes.
In those red pupils, Ririka’s face was reflected.
Looking at that small figure of herself, she understood.
She had understood.
Her head was thinking all sorts of things, but—ah. If you looked at the expression, it was obvious at a glance—

 

◇◇◇

 

When the wake was over, Toshiya went straight back to the room.
The death of a senior who had been drinking with him only yesterday, who had always been good to him.
There was no way he would not be down.

“I’m home …”

The lights in the room were on. Ririka must already have come back.
There were any number of things he wanted to ask, but today he could not even summon the will.

He would take a shower and sleep.
Thinking so, he went into the living room—and what he saw there was the figures of two women tangled on the sofa.
One was a girl he did not know.
And the one pinned beneath that girl, clinging to her mouth as if her life depended on it, wet from the lips down the throat, was, without a doubt, Ririka.

There was clearly pleasure in her face as they tangled.
Of course Toshiya flared.
This was not ordinary cheating. The two of them were going on with it as if to show him.

“Wh-what are you doing … Hey, Ririka, what is that thing!”

Hearing the loud, shouting voice, Ririka and Chigusa noticed him for the first time.
They stopped the kiss with disappointed looks, and drew back what they had had in one another’s mouths.

They arched, and loosed loud cries.

“… Huh?”

Seeing a tongue far too long slide out of a mouth with a wet sound, Toshiya was struck dumb.
It was not a human shape.
The girl was one thing—but even Ririka, from any angle, had the form of something other than human.
The blood drained from him at a stroke.
He had seen something he should not have seen. In that instant, Toshiya finally understood.
But it was too late.
No—from the moment he was Ririka’s lover, and Ririka had been marked by Chigusa, the fate had already been decided.
Ririka took the tongue back in as if swallowing it, and returned to a human-looking shape.
Then, without a word, she let her nails grow, and took one step, two steps, toward Toshiya.
And at the same time, he retreated the same number of steps.

“What kind of joke is this …? Hey, Ririka. Wake up. Ririka!”

Staking a last thread of hope, Toshiya called to her desperately.
And she—

“U … uuu …”

—clutched her head and began to suffer.
Not yet. There was still a human part left in her.
Sure of that, Toshiya spun more words.

“Ririka, I love you. From the bottom of my heart, more than anyone in the world! You did too, didn’t you!? From the time we started going out, we’ve always loved each other!”
“Uuu, uaaaaaa!”
“Don’t lose to some woman you don’t even know, Ririka! I’m here. I’m right here. I’ll support you for life! So, together with me—”
“Ugaaaaaaa! Toshi—ya. Toshiyaaaa!”
“Ririkaaaa!”

Toshiya reached out, shouting.
Ririka, her face twisted in anguish, tried to take that hand.
Their hands were just about to touch—and then—

“As if anything that convenient would happen. Idiot.”
“Eh?”

Ririka laughed nastily, and tore the head of Toshiya, whose mouth had fallen open, cleanly sideways.
The upper half of the face was cut away and dropped to the floor.
A beat later, Toshiya’s body, already dead, fell.
The Ririka who had killed him looked away from the corpse at once, turned, and trotted to Chigusa.
She clung to her, and sought her mouth again with that remade tongue.

The next morning, the male corpses discovered numbered seven.
On the news, a woman caster read out, with no particular interest, the names of those among the dead whose identities had been confirmed.
Toshiya’s name, of course, was among them.

 

◇◇◇

 

In this town there is a popular esthetic salon.
They say that if you go there, anyone can obtain a beauty that is no longer human—a place like magic.
Word of the shop spread in a blink, and before anyone noticed it had become a famous shop that drew customers from outside the prefecture.
The women increased, women with a beauty clearly different from other people’s.
And on the other side, the men were slaughtered, thoroughly and without mercy.
That Demi-Vamps were ruling this town was something people would notice only after it was already too late.