The lights at home were dazzlingly bright.
...Suddenly, they reminded me of how hungry I was.
I checked the clock... and saw that it was almost seven.
...I'd thought for sure it was two or three in the morning already.
...I was surprised at how messed up my biological clock had gotten just from this one night.
There was a warm light... coming from the curtains in the living room window.
...The worlds between here and what was beyond those curtains... were so different...
If only that man hadn't shown up... I would have been in that light.
...I'd still be excited from the festival... and I'd be talking to my parents about how much fun I had with all of my friends.
And then... even though they made a hot meal for me, I would have eaten way too much at the stalls, barely eaten any of it, and gone back to my room...
No doubt I'd crawl into my futon and easily let myself fall asleep.
But right now, I was completely different.
There wasn't a single ember of warmth from those weak street lights.
...Right now, I was unconnected to any time spent with my family... and there was neither warm food... nor the time to allow myself to sleep.
My body exposed to the cold rain... I knew... that I simply had to spur myself on to accomplish what I must.
......I realized how timid, how cowardly I was becoming.
...For what purpose... did I need to kill someone so badly... that it was worth feeling this terrible?
...I'd lost sight of that purpose.
I selected the fastest, most fundamental way of saving Satoko... and executed it without hesitation.
That man was dead.
He was gone.
...He would never, ever hurt Satoko again.
...We all thought frantically for days on end about Satoko's problem... and finally, with no options, we gave up... and I had solved it in one night.
...By myself, without anyone's help.
Right about now... Satoko would be making dinner for her uncle, despite not knowing when he'd return... and she might be spending the night trembling in fear of whether he'd yell at her for how it tasted.
But... her uncle wouldn't come home.
She wouldn't have to fear his wrath, nor let him make her feel sad.
.........I
......I see.........
I did it.
I successfully... saved Satoko.
...All I'd been thinking about for a long time... was killing that man... and I'd forgotten the feeling that it was actually all to save her.
"...I did.
...Aha... hahahahahaha..."
I... did something good.
...That's right.
...I did... something good, didn't I?
I felt hot tears... coming from my eyes...
and that's when I first realized that the exhaustion I'd been feeling was actually guilt.
The blade of guilt... for a while now... had just been scraping away with its tip... hurting my heart.
...It hurt so bad I couldn't stand it... It was throbbing painfully.
...It hurt so much, it was so painful, that I cried.
...I cried tears of joy at saving Satoko.
...I didn't know why, really, anymore—I just cried.
...My tears fell and fell.
As I stood there for a while... coming to terms with those warm tears... my heart was comforted a little.
...All right, Keiichi Maebara.
...That's enough.
There's nothing to regret or feel ashamed about.
Both my body and mind... were thoroughly exhausted, and that was a fact.
...It was only natural I couldn't feel anything.
Even tomorrow, and the day after that... I might not be able to feel anything for a while.
...But... there was one thing that was true.
...There was the indisputable fact that I had saved Satoko.
One day, we would surely be rewarded.
...One day, I would be proud of how distressing an enterprise I had undertaken to get Satoko's smile back.
And so that I could wait for that day... I had to put the finishing touches on this night.
If I left it undone... everything I'd accomplished today would be for naught.
I looked back up, up at the sky, which didn't look like it would stop raining anytime soon.
Then... I rubbed my eyes and summoned forth energy from my core again.
...How long... did I plan on spacing out?
This isn't the time for daydreaming.
Someone could find that corpse this very moment...
...That pessimistic thought was proof the very natural emotion of fear had returned to me.
...As I allowed the fear to spur me onwards... I went to look for the other shovel and the lantern inside the storage room...
It was fortunate... I remembered what it looked like around the street light the body was near.
...With how dark it was, it was quite possible I wouldn't have been able to look for it either.
...I didn't realize that when I left the place, so the idea of memorizing the spot hadn't even crossed my mind.
...And that's why I had to call it fortunate that I managed to get back to the body like this.
The corpse was now located in a big, muddy puddle.
...Half the thing had already sunk into the swamp-like pool of water.
I only realized afterward, but there was an unused irrigation channel right nearby clogged with fallen leaves and dirt, and there was rainwater flowing in from there.
My shoes had been awash with water for a long time now, so without any hesitation, I stepped into the puddle.
Luckily, the whole muddy stream washed it all away.
...I couldn't leave any slight traces... like bloodstains.
...The rain was like a blessing from heaven.
I checked around me... paying very close attention... then turned off the lantern.
...It became pitch black... but my eyes got used to the darkness in a few moments... and once I managed to reach the streetlight on the other side, I was able to make out even faint lights...
I stuck the shovel into the puddle right next to the corpse.
...The ground was even looser here than I'd thought, and the shovel's tip easily slid inside it.
I had to hurry and dig.
...If I took too much time, I might lose my energy and strength again.
It felt almost like digging a hole in the sand at the beach.
It was easy to dig... but no matter what, the muddy water kept flowing in, covering the hole.
...The digging wasn't going as well as I'd hoped.
I dug and dug... and the water would go in... so I couldn't get a sense of how deep it was.
...The only way for me to measure it was to bury my own foot in the mud.
I'm digging just fine...
It's all right, don't be disheartened... dig... dig... dig.
Occasionally a car would come by on the road... and I'd hurry to hide myself in the trees.
...Everyone was only passing through.
They wouldn't have their eyes peeled in this kind of darkness.
...I understood it logically, but I still couldn't help but hide...
What I was really scared of... wasn't quite that one of those cars would coincidentally happen to witness me here...
...It was that the distance I could spot cars from was getting gradually shorter.
At first, I noticed the splashing sounds from really far away as cars drove through them.
...I started noticing them less and less... and with the car that just passed by, I didn't notice it until its headlights were upon me.
...I felt my senses growing duller by the second.
If someone... were to take a peek in secret... as I was burying the body, at the worst possible time... maybe I wouldn't even notice...
The moment I thought that... I took a good look all around me.
...I roused all my half-asleep senses... and searched for signs of presence nearby...
...What if... I found out someone was spying on me from the trees...?
.....................
A carnivorous feeling... snarled at me, glaring...
............If there was............ then I would dig another hole.
......I'd come this far already.
......In order to achieve perfection... I didn't care how much more I had to pay......
I didn't know what kind of face I was making at the time... but it was definitely a fervently glaring one...
".................."
...My five senses reached the conclusion...
that nobody was present.
...I didn't breathe a sigh of relief.
How long had I been digging this mud out of here?
...It was deep enough for it to go up to my knees.
Maybe this was enough.
...Maybe I'd throw the corpse in as a test...
"...Hah...... hah...... ngh..."
I swallow, getting my breathing under control...
Despite how much I'd beaten him... I was afraid of touching the corpse.
...So instead, I dragged it by the feet to the hole.
......It took more than just a waggle and a tug to do it.
...But of course it did.
...Considering this man's weight... was easily eighty kilograms.
I rallied all my strength... and dragged him...
At this point, my groundless fears that he might suddenly start moving again had vanished long ago.
His body fit perfectly into the muddy hole.
...It was more than deep enough.
All right... let's bury him.
...Quickly, quickly, quickly...
If I did a perfect job of burying it here... everything would be over.
...I would hide it in the hole, and none of this would have ever happened...!!
...When I realized I only had a little farther to go to finish everything... I was wracked with pointless anxiety, like I was in a race against time.
...It was like I was absorbed in a delusion... that if I didn't bury the body quickly, it might come back to life...
In any case... in a great rush, I poured mud and dirt into the hole.
If I didn't work efficiently... someone might find me here.
...Until now, I figured if someone saw, I'd just kill them... but not anymore.
...I was arrested with such absolute fear... that if someone saw me, it would all be over.
As I finished the work off... it was a total mess.
...Splish-splash, squish-squash.
...I drew the surface of the shovel across the ground, trying to make it flat.
...I was completely covered in mud at that point.
The rain washed the mud off my body... but not off my now-blackened clothing.
My body and mind were caked with panic, with fear, with rain and sweat and mud......
"...Hah... hah... hah...!!"
My shoulders heaving, I threw down the shovel and sat down in the mud.
...I was... so exhausted... that I wanted to lie down right here and sleep...
......It was over.
...This time.........
for real...
it was over...!
The man was now in the bottom of the wet dirt.
...Right this moment, there were traces that this place had been dug up, but the rain and flowing muddy water would completely cover it all within moments.
...Yes... It was over.
"I did it...
I did it......
I did it,
you motherfuckerrrrrrrr...!!!"
And then I fell over backwards, face-up in the mud.
...Raindrops pelted my face without mercy, but I didn't care.
...After staying there for a while... resting my mind... I got up again.
It was over.
...So let's go home.
...You already buried the whole thing.
So now it's like it's never happened.
It never happened... so there's no reason for me to stay out here... and get rained on.
I wobbled to my feet.
...I wouldn't use the shovel anymore.
I considered disassembling it... but I didn't have the strength in my absolute exhaustion.
...I didn't... really need to take it apart anyway.
...Dragging the shovel behind me... I headed towards the light.
I stood up my bike; it had been laying in the grass by the road.
...I didn't know how I was going to get the still-assembled shovel into the front basket.
...I put the shovel down the back of my shirt like I'd done with the baseball bat.
...Unlike the bat, the corner of it was on my back, making it very painful.
Plus, if I relaxed my posture even a little, it would fall out behind me.
...I ended up having to carry the shovel in my left hand and ride my bike using only my right hand.
Not only was I in a state of total exhaustion—this was a downpour.
One hand on the handlebars.
...I was swaying to and fro like a drunk.
...But I didn't care.
...Even swaying like this, I got a little closer to home every time I pedaled.
...I saw two lights swaying slowly in front of me.
...A car was approaching.
...Oh no... I need to get out of the way......
From far away in the shadows of the darkness, a car appeared.
Its dazzling lights washed over me.
...The driver made a short honk of the horn to inform me I was in the middle of the road.
...I have to get out of the way.
...I kept telling myself that... but not only was I riding one-handed, I was exhausted, so I couldn't do anything.
...Wobble, wobble, wobble, wobble...
I meandered about... not going to the right or to the left.
...The driver decided to swerve out of the way right in front of me, and without lowering its speed much, steadily came towards me.
...Its outline grew larger in my vision... and telling myself again that I really needed to get out of the way, I jerked the handlebars in one direction, then lost my balance and fell over, bike and all.
My whole body splayed out, and one foot got caught in the bike.
...This was... seriously bad...!!
My drowsiness quickly vanished, and just as a cold sweat broke out on my skin...
the driver recklessly spun the wheel to the left, made a counterclockwise U-turn... and came right up to me and stopped...
...The driver's seat door opened... and the driver came out.
You idiot—what are you doing here?!
...I was pretty sure someone would yell at me like that.
"...Oh, oh my.
...Look who it is."
...It was a woman's voice—and one I knew.
...I lifted my face off the ground... and looked at her.
".........T...... Takano-san..."
"Good evening.
The moon is very pretty tonight...
Maebara-kun."
It was raining far too hard to see the moon.
...Takano-san unfolded an umbrella and smiled as she spoke.
...That smile... was, for some reason, uncanny... like she'd seen right through me.
...Out of all the people I could have met... I got the sudden feeling that this was the one I wanted to see the least...
"What are you doing out so late?
And you're soaked and covered in mud, and no umbrella, either.
...What is that?
...A shovel?"
...She had come here via car.
...She wouldn't have known what I was just doing.
...And yet... she smiled... as though she knew everything.
...Calm down, Keiichi Maebara.
...She always makes that mysterious-looking smile, remember?
...Don't let her on to anything, lest you dig your own grave...
"...The rumors say you were playing baseball with a golf club.
Is that what the shovel's for, too?
Hee-hee-hee... You're using it as an umbrella?"
...I should... tell a good lie here.
...If I could just do that... things would work out.
"......When I went with Rena... to go digging for treasure at the dam... we forgot this there."
"...Hmm.
And you went to get it in this downpour...?"
"...When I left my house, I didn't think it would rain, so..."
"...Oh, it's been raining for a while, though.
...You've been out for quite some time, haven't you?"
"...Well... yes... I was kind of wandering around..."
"Even so.
...You came from that direction, didn't you?
The dam is in the opposite direction, you know.
...Hee-hee-hee-hee..."
Takano-san... was clearly aware that something exceedingly abnormal was happening with me.
...And as she played her little word games, she was enjoying driving me into a corner.
......Maybe she had a vague guess, just from the situation... of what I'd been doing...
...My timing really sucked... to run into her, of all people, of all the times...
......At the very end... I could only be frustrated at my terrible luck...
I'd done so much... and the end was literally right around the corner...
...So why... why, at the very, very end... did I run into... her, of all people...?!
......What do you do, Keiichi Maebara?
...You're still holding something that could be a dangerous weapon.
.........Will you... silence Takano-san...?
"........................"
...Even if it would be simple to kill Takano-san... dealing with the car she'd come in afterward would be an issue.
...I couldn't drive a car.
It was completely different from a motorbike.
...But... even if the car was here... as long as there was no proof I killed her...
...Yes... In tonight's downpour... without any prior planning, all by coincidence... a hit and run.
...As long as I didn't drop any handkerchiefs with my initials on them...... they would never know I killed her.........
A black flame... quietly smoldered and raged... in the core of my body...
"............That's a scary look.
Did I tease you too much? Hee-hee!"
Takano-san started to laugh by herself, then thankfully stopped talking about it.
......But the dark clouds in my mind didn't go away...
"Leaving that aside...
How long are you planning on crawling on the ground with your bike like that...?
Would you mind moving out of the way?"
If I moved, she would leave...
...So I tried to get the bicycle up and out of the way... but then twisted my ankle in it and fell over.
"...Agh... ow, shit, ahhhh...!!
...Urgghh...!!"
There was a sharp pain in the ankle I'd twisted...
This is nonsense...
A sprained ankle... now...?
"Oh, my......... Are you all right...?
Did you twist your ankle...?"
Takano-san squats down and takes a good look at the ankle I keep rubbing.
...She compares it to my facial expression, apparently trying to gauge how bad the wound was.
"Can you stand?"
"...Ugh............ guh...!"
I didn't expect to... but I couldn't even stand up.
It was all I could do to shamelessly wriggle on the ground like a caterpillar...
Takano-san looked at her watch, then at her car, and after thinking for a moment, opened the passenger's seat door.
And then... gave me her shoulder to stand up with.
"...I'll take you home.
I do feel bad, since it's almost like I hit you."
"......Ugh...... I... I'm sorry..."
"I wouldn't just leave you there.
...It's a good thing I'm a nice person! Hee-hee-hee..."
...Nobody good has ever called themselves a nice person... but that would have been a terrible thing to say to someone holding me up like this.
I took Takano's hands and sat down in the passenger's seat.
...Takano-san went around the back and looked at my bike on the ground.
"...I don't suppose we could take the bicycle home tomorrow?"
I could clearly tell from her face that she thought it would be a pain, since it would be heavy, and it would get her car dirty.
...But... my bike has the name Maebara written on it.
...I couldn't leave it out here like this.
"Umm... well... can you somehow put it in the car...?
I sort of... need it."
"The trunk is already full.
If I put it in the back seat, it'll get the seats dirty with mud.
...Well, given how you're already in here, it's already dirty, I suppose."
I turn back to the back seat... and see someone's folding bicycle there already.
...It still looked big enough to fit my bike in there as well.
My expression reflected my thoughts, and the exact thought seemed to get through to her.
"...All right, all right.
I'll put it in here for you.
...I'll be really nice, but just for tonight, okay? ...Hee-hee-hee-hee..."
Takano-san continued with her mean jokes, but she hoisted my bike and loaded it into the back seat for me.
The mean jokes were one thing, but couldn't she do something about that eerie smile of hers...?
...And... even more importantly than the bike... I didn't want to leave the shovel here.
...The shovel could be directly connected to the buried body and to me.
"...Umm... Sorry to ask another favor... but could you get my shovel too?"
Takano-san gave me a clearly dubious expression.
"...............Your shovel?
......That's fine with me.
...Is it important?"
".................."
The more I talk, the worse it gets for me...
That's how I felt, so I didn't force myself to answer her...
...Eventually, outlasted by my silence, Takano-san gave a short shrug and sighed.
"...All right, I understand.
You need your shovel, right?
...You don't need to make such a mean face."
Takano-san brought over the shovel that was lying in the middle of the road.
...I clutched it like I'd never let go of it again.
...Takano-san watched me with a puzzled look.
"Okay, let's be off.
...Maebara-kun, you live at the Maebara mansion, don't you?"
"...Why does everyone call my house the Maebara mansion?"
"Because it's actually a mansion!
It must be nice to be rich."
...As she spoke, Takano-san pulled the hand break and stepped on the gas.
...After making a skillful U-turn using the shoulder of the road, she steadily increased in speed...
...From the rear-view mirror, that accursed place seemed to melt into the darkness.
"...ried?"
"Huh?
...I'm sorry, I didn't quite hear you.
...What was that?"
Takano-san suddenly tried to say something to me... but thoughtlessly, I didn't catch it.
Looking ahead, Takano-san... said the same thing one more time.
"The body."
"......Uh......"
"...How well was it buried?"
".................."
............I thought my heart might beat out of my chest, but I didn't let it show.
...But... my lungs were squeezed tight... and I couldn't breathe.
"...Wha......... what... are you talking... about...?"
"...When burying bodies in mountains like these...
You have to bury it fairly deep, because wild dogs will often smell the corpse and dig it out.
...Some human bone a wild dog brings back in its mouth leads to an incident being uncovered, the police head out to a stretch of mountains... It actually happens pretty often, you know?
...Hee-hee..."
Pound, pound... clang, clang...
...Huge, rusted bells start ringing in my head...
...Had I buried it... so deep that I could say it absolutely wouldn't be found...?
...The answer was no.
......I was in such a rush to bury him and get it over with... that I couldn't deny having possibly buried it too close to the surface...
No, wait, wait, wait, wait... That's not, wait, anyway...
...This woman... how... how does she know...?!
...She had just passed by here in her car by coincidence.
...And we ran into each other... by coincidence.
...If she had been watching the entire thing from the trees...
and once I left,
she came back in her car? ...It didn't make logical sense.
......So then...... why...
...............Keiichi Maebara...
...That's it... You need... to kill... her...
My entire body reawakened... and I could feel my pupils dilate.
...I couldn't possibly beat her to death with the shovel in such a small car.
...Then... I would use my hands...... and strangle her.........
...But... she was driving right now...
If I strangled her... we might get into an accident......
Then, suddenly, Takano-san turned and looked at me.
".........What, no witty retort?"
...For a moment, I was surprised—what was she talking about?
"...It would seem we're not a very good match."
Takano-san said, disappointed, returning her gaze ahead.
...I repeated the words she'd said... a few times in my head... and finally realized she'd meant it as an off-color joke...
I didn't know whether it was really... a joke, but...
I wouldn't be able to fool her, no matter how many lies I told.
......Right now, with her driving the car like this... I couldn't kill her.
...I would have an even harder time doing it when we got back to my house.
...That moment we met—that had been my best chance.
...And to have missed it so easily... it hurt.
After that... Takano-san didn't say a single word.
...The car was completely buried in an almost suffocating silence.
...What... kind of woman had I run into...
...With everything that happened today... I managed to pull it off.. and at the very end of it all... I just had to go home and go back to sleep... What bad luck...
"....................."
As my sleepiness gradually overtook me... the anxiety I felt... steadily started to matter less and less...
............Is this all right, Keiichi Maebara...?
......You probably... should not leave this woman alive.
..................Right now... I'm tired.
She stepped on the brakes, and I jerked against my seatbelt.
...That woke me up.
...I thought I must have fallen asleep by accident.
I looked out the window... and there was a big building with faint lights on.
...It was really dark out, but I knew immediately it was my house.
"I'll go get your folks for you.
Would you mind the place for a few moments while I'm gone?
Hee-hee-hee..."
"...Don't make fun of me, please.
...Besides, look.
...I'm fine now.
I can walk by myself."
"...Oh, my.
You were in such pain before that you had to get me to carry you.
Did you just want a pretty lady to be nice to you?
...Hee-hee-hee."
As Takano-san spoke, she left the car and opened up her umbrella.
...The sound of falling raindrops was fierce, as always.
I carefully reached down and rubbed the ankle I'd twisted.
...There was still some pain and a little weirdness... but they weren't that bad anymore.
...Rather than being happy about how light the wound was... I first regretted this whole thing... If I hadn't twisted my ankle, I could have still taken the option of killing Takano-san right then and there.
......There probably wasn't much doubt... that Takano-san was convinced I was involved in some sort of crime.
...If she knew about everything happening with Satoko... then she might have even guessed I'd killed somebody.
Ka-click.
...Takano-san opened the passenger side door for me.
"You're sure you don't need my shoulders?
I wouldn't mind doing it for you again.
Hee-hee..."
I ignored her and answered by getting out of the car by myself.
...The rain was still pretty intense.
I got my bicycle out of the back seat.
...I was a bit curious who the other bike belonged to, but that didn't matter right now...
I let Takano-san hold the umbrella over me, then pushed my bicycle up to the front door.
"...Thank you, very much.
I'll be fine now."
My ankle hurt so much earlier... and it still did, but it aggravated me that it hadn't even been that bad.
...It was really, seriously... terrible luck.
"All right... I will be leaving, then.
Keep it a secret... that we had a nice evening drive together by ourselves, okay?
Hee-hee... Especially from Jirou-san."
Jirou-san...?
Oh... she meant Tomitake-san.
...I supposed she calls him by his first name.
...His full name must be Jirou Tomitake, then.
And then...... the other bike, the folding one in the back seat, that I didn't care about at first... suddenly came to mind.
"Hey, excuse me. You're from Hinamizawa, right?"
...On the day before yesterday... as I walked near the dam, half-asleep, Tomitake-san had talked to me.
...And the bicycle he'd been riding......... It was......
"That bicycle in the back... belongs to Tomitake-san, doesn't it...?"
Takano-san's eyes... I think they sharpened for a moment.
"............And why do you think that...?"
"...I saw it when I met him before.
...The frame stood out to me."
"..................Hmm.
...But... wouldn't that be odd...?
Do you think it's possible for this to be Jirou-san's bike...?"
"...Odd......... huh...?"
Takano-san, her hair elegantly fluttering... peers into my eyes.
"...Well...
There are no bed and breakfasts in Hinamizawa, are there?
Jirou-san would need to be staying in town."
"......Is that so...?
...Well... I guess that's right, huh...?"
"...You can't really walk from town to Hinamizawa, can you?
And there are no buses, either.
...You at least need a bicycle."
She didn't need to tell me that.
...That's why Jirou-san was riding a bike.
"...For Jirou-san's bicycle to be stowed in my car...
and him not in there...
That would be strange, wouldn't it?
...It would mean Jirou-san was in Hinamizawa... without a bike.
I'd have to have left Jirou-san somewhere and put his bike in the car, wouldn't I?
It wouldn't make sense."
......As she spoke, Takano-san made eyes like a hawk...
...Unfortunately, I didn't really understand...
what was so odd.
"...What about that is odd?
...Aren't you and Tomitake-san friends?
...I don't really think it would be strange for there to be some reason you had his bicycle in your car..."
"But it would be.
...What I mean is, Jirou-san and his bicycle being in different places in Hinamizawa wouldn't make sense.
...And for those reasons, it means this bicycle can't be his.
...Do you understand now...?"
...Takano-san's roundabout way of talking was hard to comprehend... but that eeriness I could feel, that vague dreadfulness... I didn't like it at all.
...But...... the most wild, instinctive part of me... warned me not to pry.
"That's my bicycle.
...Jirou-san picked it out for me, though, so I can't deny that it looks alike."
"...Ah... I see now.
...I thought it looked similar."
"You and I never saw each other tonight."
And now she was talking about something completely different...
"...What are you talking about?"
"You and I never saw each other tonight."
I stayed there, not knowing what to say... and Takano-san repeated her eerie, succinct phrase to me again.
"You and I never met this night."
"........."
"...You and I...
never saw each other tonight."
Something cold and unpleasant... crawled up my spine.
...I knew... because I'd killed a person with my own hands before.
...Before, I came to the conclusion that I only had one chance to beat this woman to death to keep her quiet, and I couldn't hesitate... so I could tell... that she'd arrived at the very same conclusion.
My instincts warned me again.
...I wish I'd never met this woman.
The faint sense, like a rotten smell... drifting from this woman... was no doubt the exact same sense... that I was giving off right now.
...The very peculiar aspiration... the lack of uncertainty at taking a human's life for a purpose, one that only those who have risen above everything had.
...Actually... maybe I should have called it a nausea.
It meant... and I didn't know how to explain this very well... but Takano-san was the same as me.
In other words... someone who shouldn't have been here.
Someone I couldn't have let anybody know was here.
......Someone who nobody would have wanted to see.
...And, now that we had... we could calmly pretend... as though we never met.
Yes.
...Which meant that... just like I wanted to have nothing else to do with her... she didn't want anything to do with me, either.
And... she, too, wanted to make it so that we'd never met.
...Both of us wished for the same thing.
...Our desires were the same... which meant Takano-san's suggestion was extremely practical...
...And that I couldn't outright refuse...
"...If that's fine with you, then sure, whatever.
...You and I didn't meet this night."
"You're right.
...That would be best for you too, wouldn't it?"
"...Why do you think that?"
"Are you seriously asking me that?
...You can't figure that out on your own, boy?"
......She cut me off with the condescending word "boy."
Right in front of my house... in a place most unsuited to killing.
...And yet... there was a frozen thirst for blood... coming from both of us.
...I would be...
killed, right here, right now.........
...Yeah... Then I should have definitely... beaten her as we passed each other...
A damp, greasy sweat broke out on my body...
......That's fine... If you want me... then you can come anytime......
And when I made up my mind......
She shook her hair elegantly and turned on her heel.
"...Good.
...I am a kind person, after all."
What was good? How?
...Because she was a kind person? Was that it?
...I didn't get it...
Takano-san got into her car.
...We didn't exchange any words of parting.
...I had performed a massive feat: the killing of Satoko's uncle... and yet I didn't feel any accomplishment.
......On the holy night of Oyashiro-sama's curse, on which the taking of another's life was allowed.
......On the terribly rainy night when the demons wandered... as agents of Oyashiro-sama's will.
...The demons were never supposed to meet... but suddenly... they did.
The demons... parted ways triumphantly.
...There was no reason for them to fight.
...Both their objectives... had already been accomplished...
...With the rain hitting me like a waterfall, my eyes met with Takano-san's through the car window.
The female demon... Her mouth twisted into a distorted, fearless smile.
.........It was too late to kill her.
...Far too late.
...That first moment, the very first moment we saw each other, had been my best chance.
...And now that we had parted like this, I was acutely aware of it.
...I... s h o u l d n o t h a v e l e t h e r l i v e...!
She beeped her horn quickly... then her car drove away into the deluge.
...The one woman who knew what really happened tonight... disappeared into the dark.
As long as she was alive... this night would never really end.
......Just get into an accident... I thought to myself.
In this downpour... Slip on some mud or something... and fly face first into a tree... and die.
...That wasn't a delusion, a wild flight of fantasy.
...It was an earnest wish.
......Yes.
......It was a command.
Die.
...Die!
...And keep your mouth shut for eternity.
...Because I have no doubt... you're wishing for me to die all the same.
My curse upon her faded emptily as Takano-san's tail lights disappeared into the utter darkness...
"....................."
...Her car's lights were completely out of sight now.
Even the sound of the engine faded into the sound of the heavy rain, and was inaudible now.
...I, too, turned on my heel.
...To draw the curtains on this insane night.
To open my front door and end it all.
I began walking towards the front door.
...I was covered in mud, and I made a squishing sound with every step I took.
...Squish.
...Squish.
............Don't worry, Keiichi Maebara.
"............"
...Squish.
...Squish.
............She'll die.
"............"
...Squish.
...Squish.
............Her end will be as miserable as she is.
...I'll throw her into some flames alive and let her dance until she's burned to a crisp.
I'll burn her to ashes in the fires of hell itself until she's roasted as much as she deserves.
"...I wish.
...I really do."
Squish.
........................Huh?
...Just now,
I...
hadn't taken a step...
And yet...
a footstep.........
......Without emotion... I turned around.
...If there was a footprint that wasn't my own... then it was obvious someone else was behind me.
...Was somebody else there......?
I was sick of this.
Whoever it was, I was sick of everything tonight.
This time... I would kill them.
I'd kill them without a second thought.
...I wouldn't hesitate... to turn around and dig another hole.
"........................"
...But... fortunately............ there was nobody there.
...I wasn't going to have to kill any more people tonight...
This night... I couldn't handle any more of it.
Even if I heard an extra footstep each time I stopped... I put it down to me just being tired...