Volume 5 - CH 1.9

The flashlight cut through the darkness.

We stumbled through two plastic greenhouses looming eerily in the darkness. The walls surrounding the academy stretched on behind them. One area used to be out of range of the security cameras, but that was fixed after the girls’ escape.

I doubt all areas were being monitored in real time. Footage was kept, though. Why did these girls risk going out there again?

Psychological chains were what fettered these students. The academy was the only place for the girls. Even if they escaped, only a worse treatment awaited them. Yet they violated the rules once more.

They broke through the invisible cage and flew outside.

Why go to Saori now?

“I don’t remember how to get there,” Shizuki said. “We got lost, so…” Her breath caught.

The ground was dotted with red.

It was as if someone had wounded their arm, leaving a trail of blood.

Red flowers bloomed in the darkness. Their petals seemed to be emitting a faint light.

Shizuki started running along the eerie path created by the flowers. I quickly picked up Mayuzumi.

“Ah, you read my mind. Impressive,” she said, holding the flashlight to her chest.

“I’ve known you long enough. Hold on tight.”

The leaf-strewn path made for poor footing. Running with Mayuzumi in my arms, I almost tripped several times. Little by little, the red flowers increased in number. The further we went, the thicker they grew, until eventually we arrived at an area filled with flowers.

Mixed in with the soft fragrance was the smell of iron. It dawned on me.

The faint smell that filled the academy. The sweet, unpleasant scent was coming from here.

Rustle.

Red flowers were crushed under leather shoes. A sweet scent drifted in the air, and the smell of iron filled my nose. Flowers had completely blanketed the area, covering Shizuki’s ankles. When crimson filled her vision, she suddenly stopped.

A sea of bright-red flowers cascaded down the slope like a waterfall.

It was like a river of blood flowing down.

Except it wasn’t blood, but hundreds and thousands of flowers.

We stopped. Two people were standing before the slope.

Kotori and Ruiko were huddled together, staring at the bottom of the incline.

“Kotori… Ruiko…?” Shizuki called.

The girls turned around. Their faces were ashen. Ruiko was momentarily startled at the sight of us, then she shot us a glare. Kotori, however, showed no signs of being surprised; instead she raised a trembling finger.

Her gaze darted around as she pointed at the bottom of the slope.

“Over… there…”

I set Mayuzumi down and scurried to the slope. I studied the area closely, my knees buried deep in the sea of flowers.

The air was filled with the stench of rotting flesh.

At the bottom of the slope was a red sea. Flowers were huddled together like a pack of beasts, filling the ground, countless petals piled on top of the other. Deep red was etched into my retinas.

A different color sometimes mixed in with the crimson.

White rolling over the red before vanishing.

The flowers were spitting out flesh, one after another.

Petals expanded to the point of bursting, and mucus and white flesh fell from within. The shaking flowers brought to mind a fucked-up kind of childbirth. The spawned flesh slid down between the petals and fell to the ground. The ground was probably filled with all the flesh that had been spewed out so far. It smelled of putrefaction. Feeding on the fallen flesh, the flowers continued growing.

And the flowers continued spitting out flesh.

Giving birth to the corpse buried underneath.

The flowers spat out intestines. The organs, dripping with mucus, flailed as they fell on the dirt. The corpse should have decomposed already, but the flowers replicated the grotesque innards completely.

“Ugh…”

Kotori, snapping out of it, covered her mouth and threw up. Right then, I finally came to my senses. A pale red heart was rolling among the flowers.

It was an exceedingly disturbing sight.

Kotori groaned, cradling her head. I grabbed her shoulders and pulled her back. No one should be looking at this. We should have left as soon as possible.

Kotori retreated several steps and plopped down on the ground. But Ruiko remained standing. She clenched her fists as she stared down at the bottom of the slope.

There was anger in her eyes.

Not fear, disgust, or madness.

Pure rage.

“What is this… How long do you have to keep mocking us?!”

She bit her lip, and blood trickled down her chin. Her dark eyes were ablaze.

“Ruiko-san!” I called. “Get away from there! You shouldn’t be looking at it!”

“Shut the hell up!” she roared, turning around.

Her black hair billowed and fell over her cheeks. She glowered at Shizuki, then shifted her gaze to Kotori. I moved away from Kotori and stood up.

“Don’t touch me!” Ruiko snarled. “Come closer, and I’ll jump off. You don’t understand… You’ll never understand…!”

Her gaze went to the sea of flowers, then rested on Shizuki, who was down on the ground, crying.

“You were right, Shizuki,” she said. “It’s a miracle that no one has found this until now. Tell me, what is this?”

She was staring at the flowers vacantly. But the next moment, anger filled her eyes once more.

“We were cursed. I knew. I knew all along! But I made up my mind. I told myself that I would bear it. If this is my punishment, I will accept it. So why are there so many of those damned flowers? How much more of this do we have to take before she’s satisfied?!”

Ruiko trampled the flowers at her feet. Over and over she raised her foot and crushed them. She screamed like a mad woman. She pretended to be calm, but deep inside her was a weak mind.

“Why don’t you fucking say something?! Say something, Saori!”

“How could she say anything?”

Snap.

A cool voice interrupted her shrieks, followed by the sound of someone biting chocolate.

Ruiko raised her stiff face. Mayuzumi was looking down at the sea of flowers with bored eyes. She nonchalantly bit into her chocolate as she watched the twisted scene.

A red flower fluttered up in the air. Mayuzumi smiled as she put the petals on her cheeks.

“She’s dead,” she said. “She can’t speak. Hence the flowers blooming.”

The dead can’t utter their grievances.

So they curse others instead.

Speechless, Ruiko’s mouth flapped open and shut. She shook her head repeatedly.

While she had let her guard down, I dashed toward her and grabbed her.

Rolling on the ground, I pulled Ruiko away from the sea of flowers. I moved away from the slope, crushing the flowers underneath, and let out the breath I’d been holding. Ruiko bit down on my arm as she flailed about.

“Let me go! Let me go! I said let me go, you bastard!” she screamed.

Her teeth sank into my flesh. But I wasn’t going to let her go.

I couldn’t let her see any more of that. Whatever was happening with the pots was also happening in that sea of red, only on a larger scale. Something was clearly different, however.

The oddity that simply spat out flesh bore unfathomable spite.

None should ever peer inside it.

“I don’t care what you say!” I snapped back. “You need to leave now! We’ll listen to what you have to say later, but right now you need to calm down!”

Ruiko growled in response. Her teeth on my skin, she burst into tears.

Her body relaxed. She shook her head like a child lamenting her helplessness.

“…Ruiko.”

Shizuki crawled up to her, nestling close. She held Ruiko’s hand, and without saying a word, they started crying. I breathed a sigh of relief and looked to the sky.

Pain jolted through my palm. I quickly looked down. I couldn’t believe my eyes for a moment.

A knife had pierced through my hands.

Ruiko was looking at me with wide, red eyes. There were no more tears in them. Her mouth opened like a mechanical doll.

“Don’t touch me,” she growled.

Ruiko slipped out of my arms. I grabbed the knife and pulled the blade out of my flesh. Biting back the disgusting feeling, I tossed the knife away.

I reached out to grab Ruiko’s arm.

I couldn’t let go of her. Not now. Never.

The red sea appeared before my eyes. The fox’s lips curled up in a smile.

I touched her shoulder to get rid of the image.

“Odagiri-san!” Shizuki cried, pulling my arm.

A knife grazed my cheek. Ruiko had another knife. She ran, swinging the knife around. In her eyes was a red sea. She returned to the slope and took something out of her chest pocket.

A matchbox fell into her hand.

“Goodbye,” she muttered as she struck a match. “Go to sleep, Saori. Good night.”

An orange fire lit up her face.

Ruiko was crying like a little child.

With trembling hands, she tried to toss the flame, discard the match in the red sea.

A flower shook at her feet. Its petals swelled up like a pregnant woman’s belly, and something slipped out of it.

The red flower spat out a finger.

It touched Ruiko’s ankle. Mucus dripped down her skin, and dead flesh brushed her feet.

She let out a yelp. As she lifted her foot, she lost her balance.

That was all.

That was all it took.

The flame went out.

A slender figure fell into the red flowers.

Oddly enough, I heard no screams. Ruiko’s body disappeared without a sound.

And then there was none.

The flower stirred. Its bud silently drooped and closed.

Petals closed one after another. I looked away from the darkening sea of flowers.

Even without looking, I knew.

“Haha… Hahahahaha!”

Kotori burst out laughing like a madwoman. Shizuki wrapped her arms around her head and cried.

Mayuzumi pulled out a piece of chocolate, and bit into it.

The flowers, now mere buds, swayed quietly.

Unaware that a person died.