Part 6: Strike the Stake

Part 6 - Strike the Stake

Warning

This update contains content that is not necessarily disturbing, but nonetheless NSFW. Please proceed with caution. This update contains:

Shogun's photo, Orgel Seira





SFX:Computer Noises

I was sitting in front of my PC monitor. My whole body was drenched in sweat, and it had soaked through to my clothes.

What had happened just now? Had I imagined it?

I was about to lose control of my nausea. To suppress it, I took some Coke out of the fridge and poured it in my mouth.

It was a very real-seeming delusion, if I do say so myself, but way too guro.

I still couldn't catch my breath. Would a delusion leave me without enough air? ...Like hell it would.

Something about my right hand felt out of place. I was gripping my fist so tightly that my fingers turned white. I had been utterly unaware I was doing it.

My heart pounding, I relaxed my muscles and slowly opened my hand.



A single stake rested on the palm of my hand.





But why was it here? Hadn't that been a hallucination!?

I don't understand, I don't understand, I don't understand.
That's impossible, that's impossible, that's impossible.





What I grasped was the edge of the shelf where my wives were lined up.



Unable to support myself, I collapsed on the floor. Above me, my prettily arranged figures came pouring down in huge numbers.

Uuuh, goddamit... This was as bad as it got. Everything was at its absolute worst.




It had broken neatly in half. Despite the fact that I'd bought this in an online auction at a premium price!



I tried to sort of piece the sword back together, but even if I could line up the broken parts, it would be impossible to completely restore it. With this, it had lost all its value.

"Give me a frigging break! D, dammit..."

Pissed off, I kicked at my chair. My eyes welled with tears.

Why did this kind of thing have to happen to me? When did I do anything wrong?

Plopping heartbrokenly in place, I spent some time looking at my swordless Ignis and getting depressed.




When the storm of rage and confusion finished passing through me, "Her" face and the tableau of the "objet d'art" finally rose up at the back of my brain.

The fact that I still had the stake meant it had been reality, not my imagination.

I didn't want to, but I had no choice but to acknowledge it. Tomorrow, no doubt, the mass media would be in an uproar.

I definitely didn't want to get wrapped up in something like this.

Make no mistake, I'd be ruined if I got involved with someone like "Her"... No, rather, with that demon. I was already well on the way to self-destruction, to begin with.

Because I'd brought home a deadly weapon, a precious piece of evidence. It wouldn't be odd for people to suspect me of being the perpetrator.

On top of it all... on top of it all, that demon had seen my face...

I couldn't run away from this whole affair...
Next time... the demon would come after me...

For now, I should put my own thoughts in order... For my own sake.
For the sake of surviving, I had to get organized...




"That photo was like a message giving advance notice of the incident."

If not, there was no way she would duplicate the killing method so faithfully.

That girl must've begun by using composite photos to meticulously simulate the scene of the crime. And then on to the crime itself- although she'd probably call it her "work of art."

That's what it means to be a psycho-she must have tried to carry everything out to perfection.

"...It's so messed up."
"But why show that to me... Besides, how did she know I'm Neidhardt? How'd she find out my name?"

Uuuh, what should I do?

That demon would come to kill me soon, I knew it. If she knew my name and email, there was a strong chance that she's also found my address.

Seated in my chair, I hugged my knees and buried my face in them. The abnormal killing method I'd seen yesterday. When I thought that I might be killed the same way, I couldn't keep my cool in the slightest.




Delusion Start!



"Eh?"

OST:SEIRA

Almost certainly Not Safe For Work:
Orgel Seira

Seira-tan lay in front of my monitor and smiled at me.

"Takkii, you should shut yourself up here in this room. Then that demon won't be able to get her hands on you, right-o?"
"In the meantime, the police will catch her for us~"
"Until then, you mustn't trust in anyone. You mustn't heed what anyone says."
"Demons, you know, they like using the gaps in people's hearts~ Being caught off guard is a NO!"
"You can do it, Takkii."
"But, Seira..."
"They say that running away is the same as winning."
"Forget all about the third dimension. Think of it as being totally unrelated to you, and things'll be easier, right-o?"
"No point in thinking about things that have zero-zero to do with you~"
"I'll tell you something good. Hikikomori are the strongest, did you know? Cause they don't meet with anyone, right-o? That means no one attacks them. It's the strongest kind of self defense."
"So Takkii, you should become a hikikomori. It's simple, right-o?"
"...Th, that might be so."

Well said. As expected from a wife of mine.

Facing forward, I gently picked Seira-tan up by her slender waist. No matter how close I brought her to my face, she kept smiling without making a single expression of disgust.

"Thank you, Seira. Thanks to you, I've worked up my courage."
"That's right, the third dimension can eat shit. That demon doesn't care a whit about a creepy otaku like me."
"I'm secure. There'll be no problem if I feel relieved, and play ESO everyday, and watch my favorite anime."
"But like I said before, you're not allowed to get caught off-guard!"
"Yeah, I know."

I won't trust in anyone. I won't listen to anyone.

I'll be wary of everything about the third dimension. Do all that, and things would turn out okay.

"I'm happy you're so worried about me, Seira. Hehehe."
"Now then, how about some ESO-ing to get my mind off things?"

OST:END



The Delusion has ended...but what's with this transition?

We're doing something a little different from the usual. An intermission of sorts.



Watching this is recommended:
Strike the Stake



A clear voice resounded late at night, in Miyashita park.



Leaning against the bridge's railing, and showing no signs of being disturbed by the noise of the traffic, the girl they called FES was singing.



There wasn't a single spectator. If she sang in the streets, over a hundred people would stop, wanting to hear more of her voice.

But now FES was deliberately, peacefully letting her existence melt away into the curtain of the night.



She was content to simply stand quietly here in this place.

By doing so, she might become one with the darkness and be released, if only for a second, from the tainted air of this city called Shibuya. That was the feeling FES had.



FES glanced up at the night sky.

The clouds that previously covered it in it's entirety were clearing up, little by little, and a trace of moonlight shone through them.

But the stars' hesitant winking was erased by Shibuya's blazing city lights.



FES closed her mouth and slowly raised her hand toward the sky.