Part 5: Jamais Vu

Part 5 - Jamais Vu

Warning

This update will include the following:

A corpse, blood, cats


Last time, on Chaos;Head, Misumi-kun was just inviting Takumi to go rubberneck at a crime scene, then digressed into a fantasy where the New Gen killer (who's like, super hot) would be waiting there to kill Takumi for his 'sin' of being a shut-in (but don't worry, Misumi would be there to woo her...)

By the ways, you might want to watch this:
First Delusion Trigger




It wasn't a haunted mansion attraction or a horror film; people were being killed in real life, and the perpetrator still hadn't been caught.

I didn't want to go anywhere that might be even a tiny bit dangerous.

Even so, I found myself wondering about the New Gen criminal's motive.

Were the incidents pleasure killings by someone with a couple screws loose in his or her head? It might be most fitting to think along those lines.

Well, whatever. It had nothing to do with me.



That comparison alone is enough to prove that the 2-D world is unquestionably better than the real world.

While frantically turning down Misumi-kun's invitation, I internally pictured myself throwing one straight punch after another. "A murderer, you say? I'd smash a guy like that to pieces the second I met 'im."

By sinking into delusions like that, I was capable of killing or saving anyone.

Someone who tried to enact it in real life would be a pure idiot, for not thinking about the consequences.

Even the New Gen killer would have to get caught pretty soon. And after being put in jail for several decades, they'd get executed.

I wanted to tell that killer: -Aaa-ah, if only you'd stuck to doing it in your imagination, and left it at that.










These images, which appear in a series of blink-and-you'll-miss-it flashes, signals the start of a delusion.



I was on the road to the neighborhood convenience store I usually frequent. It's about three minutes from my base by foot.

Familiar scenery. A filthy street.

But unlike any other day, today I was attacked by the peculiar sensation that I had gotten lost in a different world altogether.

Although the scenery itself hadn't changed, it was as if I were setting foot in this place for the first time.

Also, the rotten stench of raw garbage was floating in the air.

The seeping moisture that clung to my skin was enough to make me mistakenly think it was raining. The air seemed to paste itself to me.

SFX: A strange noise rises in the distance. A sort of metal-on-metal banging noise. Ting, Ting, Ting...

With a brief glance, I saw that something had fallen at the end of the grimy road.

"......."



When I was several meters away-

I realized it was the corpse of a cat.

"Urgh..."

Blood and excreta ran from it as it lay on the ground, and I hurriedly averted my eyes.

Revulsion making my skin shudder with goose bumps, I turned on my heel.



"...Wh, what's going on..."

When I spoke, the cat nimbly leapt away, vanishing into the shadows. Something about it gave me a bad idea.

I'd better hurry up and head to the convenience store. But I couldn't use this road. The cat's body kept me from passing through. I had no choice but to take a detour.

...I noticed it as I was about to start walking. I had started getting the sense that I could hear a weird sound...

I jerkily sucked in my breath and listened intently.

SFX:The sound comes closer. Ting, Ting, TiNG, TING. A cat screams-



This image, resembling an old analogue TV turning off, signals the end of a delusion.



I was sitting in front of a PC monitor.

I poured some Coke in my mouth to wet my dry throat, and let out a sigh in my reclining chair.

I'd had a nasty flight of fancy...

It must have been because I'd heard all kinds of gory stuff from yesterday to today.

I often get influenced by my surroundings and end up imagining things that normally wouldn't even enter my mind. By and large, they make me sick, never mind the fact they're my own delusions.

My imaginative powers might be a tad too strong.

The less information I had, the greater the likelihood that those kinds of delusions would come floating into my head. There have been times when I got myself so scared, I screamed.

My base aside, if I did that kind of thing at school or a place like the net cafe I was currently in, it'd make an awful scene.



This is where the above video ends.

SFX:Computer Noises

It was located at the edge of Shibuya's shopping district, and as such, many of it's customers were delinquent 3-D girls or bleary salarymen. But all the rooms were meant for individual use, so it wasn't a problem.

By the way, the room I was currently in-Room 37-had been reserved for my use, and it was placed in the furthest-back part of the store. It was inconvenient for going to get juice refills, but because not many people went into the nearby seats, it was relatively quiet.

I went out of my way to come here once or twice a week on the way back from school, in order to log on to ESO with a different ID.

In other words, it was like taking a break. Neidhardt was a little too well known.

I didn't mind that, but having to be a paragon of heroic behavior day after day was pretty stressful.




The one I use over here is a female character called "Liselotte." However, Liselotte's battle history was pretty terrible. I only used her to make those around her look better in comparison.

Today, too, I released my stress by playing for about three laid-back hours. Afterward, I chatted with my guild friends for a while, getting worked up over stupid and/or ero topics.


SFX:End



Around this time of night, there tends to be an especially large number of juvie types in the shopping district.

I got the urge to vomit when I saw them sitting here and there along the road like it belonged to them, or grinning crudely while eating fast food hamburgers.

If I made the mistake of meeting their eyes, those imbeciles would soon react by attacking me. What savages.

People like that aren't human beings. They're just males and females. They don't have a single fragment of social intelligence. Guys like that should go die. Seriously, they should go off and die.

Is what I kept thinking, but when you got down to it, it was pointless to respond to them. So I planned to hastily remove myself from the shopping district.



Deciding I would go to "Animeight" today, I headed for the subway's southern entrance.

When you come this way, the number of delinquents sharply decreases.

The central district was seriously chaotic. Just walking there almost made it hard to breathe. If it were possible, I wouldn't want to take a single step closer.

I want it all to get destroyed, leaving behind only "@Cafe" and "Mangadarake."

Now then, I'll trawl through the comics and doujinshi today as well.

Ah, come to think of it, preorders for the fifth Burachu DVD should be opening soon, shouldn't they?

You should definitely watch this (Warning: Not Safe For Work):
Jamais Vu



SFX:A dull ring, reminiscent of tinnitus.

I blinked multiple times.

I took a peek inside my bag. Several textbooks and a portable console were the only things inside.

I hadn't bought anything at Animeight today. Despite the fact that I always buy something there, without fail.

I let out a sigh and begin walking again. From here, it would take less than 15 minutes to get back to my base.

Merely moving a little ways away from the station was enough to make the dazzling lights and neon vanish, and the presences of other people grow scarce.

If I had to put it one way or the other, it wasn't very active. At most I saw middle-aged couples on their way to the hotel district, and once in a while, a salaryman returning to his nearby home.

I had a hard time thinking it was the same Shibuya as the shopping district, which overflowed with those delinquents.

It seemed that clouds had come out now that it was night, and the moon was hidden from view, making the road darker than usual.



Familiar scenery. A filthy street.

Yet I was attacked by the peculiar sensation that I had gotten lost in a different world altogether.

Although the scenery itself hadn't changed, it was as if I were setting foot in this place for the first time.

Also, the rotten stench of raw garbage was floating in the air.

The seeping moisture that clung to my skin was enough to make me mistakenly think it was raining. The air seemed to paste itself to me.

"No, wait a second..."



When had I previously experienced jamais vu?


Dammit, reality and my delusions were getting mixed together. Now my thoughts were starting to resemble the stereotypical analysis offered by some sketchy expert on a TV variety show, weren't they?

Anyway, I was certainly experiencing jamais vu at this very moment.

And, that wasn't all.

That prickling along the muscles of my neck. The sensation that someone is looking down on me from the heavens.

It wasn't a hallucination. No matter how I sped up my pace, the "gaze" followed me wherever I went.



I wanted to turn around. But in the end, I didn't.

This was a game I challenged myself with every once in a while.

When I heard some small noise, even if I had the feeling that someone was watching me, I played the "It'll more than that to make me turn around" game. If I turned around, I would lose.

The visions that usually appeared in my head when I sensed the gaze were ghosts with horrifying faces, monsters... things like that.

Well, whatever the case, in these past 17 years, there wasn't a single instance of me turning around and actually finding something there.

With that limited guarantee of safety attached to it, I came to enjoy this single-player mental game.

I would carefully listen to the wind, raise one eyebrow and make a dubious face, try saying manga-esque lines.

Because the reason I didn't turn around wasn't because I was scared or anything.

"Y, you bastard, you're watching me."
"Whose eyes are those eyes?"
"Just kidding~"

I had meant to make an urgent show of my nonchalance. But before I realized it, my feet had stopped.

Sensing a faint alteration in the strained air, I cowered. At some point, my face had become soaked with sweat, and my knees seemed about to start knocking.

Unable to bear it any longer, I turned around.

I lost the game. But there was no one behind me, after all. There weren't even cars passing.

What was this sense of displacement...

SFX:Noise stops. It's quiet

"Ah..."




Up until then, I had completely failed to recognize the fact that they were ringing.

And now, I heard nothing. A silence so sudden it seemed like a lie, especially smack in the middle of a city.

I had the feeling that I should be able to hear any sounds out there with incredible clarity.

I shut my eyes tight and focused on my hearing.

But of course I heard nothing.

Strange.

This was really strange...

Normally, I would surely hear things like trains running in the distance and car horns beeping-

Why...? Had something gone wrong with my ears?

I wanted to shout out loud. I felt like I'd go crazy if I didn't.

But I couldn't do it.

It was too quiet, and the thought that breaking this silence might bring about something terrible made me hesitate.

SFX:A sound in the distance. Banging of metal on metal. Ting, Ting, Ting...
OST:Silence



A single sound unexpectedly entered my soundless world.



"...Crosses?"

The instant I recognized them as such, my feet, which before had refused to so much as twitch, spontaneously stepped forward.

Upon picking up one of the scattered crosses, I found that it was made of metal, and its lengthy point sharpened into something like a needle.



Because it was shaped strangely, I had mistaken it for a cross. I felt buoyant as I gripped the stake in my hand.



My feet wouldn't stop. I continued walking as though my consciousness were being sucked in that sound's direction.

Was I being driven by morbid curiosity? Or was it because I wanted someone to save me? Because I wanted to be lifted out of that soundless world?

This was turning out almost like a German folk tale.

How did it go... That's right, the Pied Piper of Hamelin. Over one hundred children were lured away by the sound of his pipe.

The sound didn't stop. The unpleasant sound of something being hammered grew closer and closer as I continued forward.

The sound was coming from the depths of a narrow alleyway to my left. If I turned the corner, I would discover its source.

Why didn't I think of drawing back? The idea didn't even occur to me. It was as though I was being made to move by something outside me.

So I turned the corner, and what leapt into my eyes was-

Warning
Everything below this point is potentially disturbing, likely NSFW and (due to the number of images) uncensored. Proceed at your own risk!









My first reaction was to think, "I've seen this objet d'art somewhere before." That, and, "It doesn't look real."

Some of the screws holding together my heart might have gotten blasted away; my senses might have gone numb. If I were my usual self, terror would have made me let out a pathetic scream, collapse, and urinate on the spot.

An objet d'art like a hedgehog or a bunch of flower-arranging needles. A myriad stakes kept it stuck to the wall. As I gazed mindlessly at it, I realized that a huge quantity of red blood was flowing from the mountain of stakes.

The brilliant red I had initially seen was a puddle of blood. Lit by the weakened light of the streetlamps that just barely reached it, that red let off a slick luster.

Moreover, a bunch of shiny, flesh-like lumps that I couldn't identify were lying around.

I started to suck in my breath, but at some point my throat had dried up, and not a single drop of saliva ran down it.

I had realized.

That the thing pinned by the stakes-

Was a human corpse...

It was done too immorally.
Too mercilessly.
Too thoroughly.

And the one who had done so, who had driven this many stakes into the concrete,

Was a single girl.

If I were to say how I knew that-



Since her back was to me, I couldn't tell what kind of expression she was making.

But the uniform she wore... was from Suimei.

The rotten garbage-like smell I had sensed earlier reached my nose more and more vividly, making nausea come at me in intervals.

Unable to tolerate it, I covered my mouth and struggled to keep my stomach acid from bursting out.

At that point, I finally remembered the origin of my jamais vu- the feeling that "I had seen this somewhere before."



"That one time... the photo... Shogun linked to...!"



At the sound of my voice, "Her" blood-dyed shoulders shivered.

And she slowly turned to face me-



She had- Killed somebody-



"She" looked at me, widening her eyes as though shocked, then shifted to a tearful smile and squeezed her voice out-



She murmured.

Glad? What was there to be glad about?

More importantly, in a situation like this, why would she see me and smile?

Her meaning was unclear. It was so unclear that something cold ran down my spine, and I hastily averted my eyes.

I reflexively thought, "I don't want to get caught up in anything weird."

I couldn't talk to real girls while looking them in the eye, and even setting that aside, she was unmistakably a murderer. The police would come soon, and I was hungry...

Right, that's why I should go home. I should leave right this second. If not, I'll-

Go insane-



"!?"

She abruptly called my name. Even though it was the first time we'd met, and I hadn't given her my name.



As she watched me, her lips twisted in a horrifically fearless smile. Like those of a demon-

"UWAAAAAGGHHHH!"



I turned just once to look behind me, but "She" hadn't come chasing after me.