Ch.107Chapter 17. Above the Neck (3)

Blood.

All I could see before me was blood.

What had clearly once been an ordinary lodging room was now soaked in red blood, as if someone had deliberately splattered it everywhere.

No, it was definitely deliberate.

After all, chunks of flesh were scattered all around.

There were severed arms and legs.

The cross-sections weren’t cleanly cut, but looked as if they had been forcibly twisted and torn off.

By something much larger than the victim.

Flesh and fat, blood and mucus, and entrails were spilled everywhere.

Did I… did I do something wrong?

Should I not have escaped from there?

Yuka clearly said there were no victims. Right before I lost consciousness, Yuka definitely said that. There were no victims. We had succeeded.

Could she have lied?

Over there, I could see hair. Black hair. If there had been a neck beneath it, it would have been cleanly severed right around that area, but now the neck was cut to match the hair.

Through the tangled hair, I could see a white ear and torn flesh.

I staggered toward it.

…This couldn’t be happening.

I had definitely moved much more efficiently than in the original story.

Could it be that this child ended up like this because of me? Because I didn’t follow the original storyline?

Or was this child meant to die anyway?

Tomorrow, we were supposed to go around together.

Splash.

Even when my legs gave out and I fell to my knees, the sound wasn’t a hard impact but a wet one.

Did blood splash? Can this much blood really come out of a human body?

My body was already covered in blood anyway, so getting wet didn’t matter.

With trembling hands, I grabbed the head.

Just before I turned the head over to see the face—

The small mouth visible through the tangled hair suddenly moved.

“—It’s time for you to wake up now.”

A voice completely different from Mako’s voice I knew said this to me.

And I screamed.

*

“Kotone! Kotone!”

As I suddenly started thrashing, a panicked Koko grabbed my body. As if she knew she needed to do something but didn’t know what.

“Kotone, what’s wrong!?”

I could hear Yuka’s voice too. She sounded just as startled as Koko.

My blood vessels felt like they were burning.

I moved my hand and forcibly pulled out the IV needle stuck in my arm. A little blood splattered. Had I been receiving a transfusion?

“Kotone—”

“Ugh.”

I quickly curled my body forward and got up.

Nausea rose from deep in my throat, and I vomited everything in my stomach.

Everything I had eaten today came pouring out. Things that hadn’t been digested yet—

And then something red poured out on top of it.

The voices calling me stopped. For a moment, all that could be heard was the sound of me vomiting something, occasionally sobbing, and groaning.

“Haa, haa…”

I forcibly wiped my eyes with my sleeve and tried somehow to calm my burning throat. My body in the hospital gown was completely damp and uncomfortable. I felt like crying like a child, forgetting my age from my previous life.

When my vision finally returned, I was dismayed by what I saw.

Vomit and blood were mixed together, soiling my clothes. The smell was terrible. The iron smell of blood and… well, it was bad.

“I’ll, I’ll go call the doctor. Koko, please take care of Kotone.”

Yuka said.

I couldn’t even manage to say I was fine.

Looking around and confirming that this was a hospital, I paradoxically felt relieved. Yes, that scene just now was a dream.

Thinking that Mako was safe, I felt some of the tension leave my body.

“Kotone…”

Koko gripped my arm tightly. I patted her hand and slowly lay back down on the bed.

“…”

Why?

I can understand having dreams. If there’s something you’re worried about right before falling asleep, it’s not strange to have nightmares about it.

But even so, why would Nirlas deliberately wake me up?

“…”

“I’m, fine.”

I answered Koko, who still looked like she might cry. It wasn’t very effective. My voice was extremely cracked.

It wouldn’t have been strange if Koko had become even more worried.

“Yuka, went to get help.”

But since staying silent seemed even more irresponsible, I at least managed to say that much.

We waited for a while without saying anything.

Actually, this happens quite often.

Despite her personality, Koko isn’t very talkative. Usually, the things Koko wants to talk about are simple topics without much deep thought, and naturally, such conversations don’t last long.

And when we’ve said all there is to say and the conversation ends, she doesn’t say anything else until I open up a new topic.

But this silence… it didn’t seem like she had nothing to say.

Rather, it felt like she had something to say but was holding back.

“…”

At times like this, it would be natural for me to speak first, but unfortunately, I wasn’t in any condition to do so. Neither physically nor mentally.

After a few minutes of silence.

As I was thinking that Yuka was taking a long time—

Bang!

The hospital room door opened abruptly.

Startled, I turned my head to look.

“…Kotone!”

Yuka shouted.

Yuka’s condition… she didn’t appear to be injured. She looked like she had run here in a hurry.

Yuka quickly entered the room and roughly closed the door. Then she locked it with the latch.

“Why…?”

“…It’s a yokai.”

“A yokai?”

I asked blankly.

But…

“Yes, it’s strange, right? There’s no ‘feeling.’ I wouldn’t have noticed until I saw the situation myself.”

“What do you mean you didn’t notice?”

“…Normally, hospitals like this have nurses on duty in every corridor. That’s only natural. Patients who need hospitalization could develop more serious problems at any time. But there were none here.”

Yuka said this while drawing her sword from its scabbard.

“Do you know what’s even stranger? There were no patients either. In a hospital this large. On this floor, at least near where we are, there are no other patients.”

“Then?”

I said as I got up from my bed.

Normally, Yuka would have told me to stay lying down, but she didn’t now.

Well, it’s easier to run away standing than lying down.

Thud.

As soon as I got up and Koko supported me, a loud noise came from the door.

As if someone was trying to open it but found it blocked.

“…”

We looked in that direction, extremely tense.

Click, click.

The door moved slightly sideways as if someone wanted to slide it open, and there was a sound from the latch Yuka had set.

And as if to reassure us, the person on the other side spoke through the door.

[Is anyone in there?]

An ordinary male voice.

[I came because there was some commotion, but are you alright?]

“…”

We looked at each other.

I… trust Yuka.

In a situation like this, I can definitely trust her.

But at the same time, something felt a little strange.

At this distance, shouldn’t we be able to tell if the other person is a yokai or not? Surely both Yuka and I should have felt that chill.

“Yuka…”

“…No.”

As if reading my thoughts, Yuka cut me off.

“I definitely saw it. I didn’t see the yokai, but… blood and—”

Before Yuka could finish, the person on the other side of the door spoke again.

“Ms. Kurosawa, it’s time to change your medication. You woke up from sleep, right? Are you feeling unwell?”

“…”

Yuka’s eyes blinked.

“There was a bit of a disturbance at the hospital. A patient was causing trouble. I’m sorry, but would you please open the door first?”

“…”

I looked at Yuka.

“Yuka, did you meet the doctor?”

“…No.”

Right. I had just heard from Yuka. There was no one in the corridor. No hospital staff, and no patients either.

If there had been some monitoring machine on my body, they might have noticed.

Usually, transfusion patients are those who are immediately lacking blood. Naturally, many cases are urgent, so equipment to monitor the patient’s condition is often used.

But I’m a slightly different patient. Literally, I just lack blood, but if I have blood, I can recover without any wounds.

Besides, they don’t know how my body differs from normal people. Perhaps that’s why instead of connecting monitoring equipment to my body, Yuka was watching over my condition.

If Yuka went to call a doctor, my condition must have been that serious. She ignored everything to find a doctor first.

As for me, I was feeling a bit better now.

I wonder why.

…No, wait.

“…You.”

I opened my mouth. My throat was still painful and raw, but there was something I needed to confirm.

“How do you know that I was in pain?”

I turned my gaze to see traces of my thrashing.

The stand that had held the transfusion pack had completely fallen over, and the pack had burst. The red blood spreading everywhere looked somewhat grotesque, even if it hadn’t flowed from flesh.

And, that’s right.

How could they know from the other side that I was in pain? I was just a patient who had lost a lot of blood and was receiving a transfusion.

“…”

The man on the other side of the door fell silent for a moment.

And then—

Bang!

Something struck the door hard.

Yuka’s body tensed up again. She aimed her sword at the breaking door, gripping it tightly with both hands.

The hospital room door must have been made of ordinary wood, because it broke too easily when struck with what seemed like an axe.

Well, I suppose that makes sense. If there’s a fire and a patient locks the door, it would be difficult to rescue them. There might even be an easy way to open the latch itself.

Bang! Bang!

As the door broke, a hole appeared.

What was on the other side… couldn’t be seen. It was too dark beyond the door—

Grab!

“Ugh!?”

But the other person seemed to have somewhat ignored our presence in this room. Koko’s hair was enough to strike the opponent through that narrow gap.

The hair twisted wildly inside the hole. Screams could be heard from the other side.

And as this happened, Yuka’s face grew increasingly confused.

If the opponent were a yokai, they wouldn’t have done something so clumsy.

“Wait, Koko!”

When Yuka shouted at Koko, Koko’s eyes widened slightly.

Koko, who had somehow moved forward, looked back at us while withdrawing her hair.

“Wait… just wait.”

“…”

Watching the confused Yuka, I recalled another side of her.

Even that cannibalistic murderer, whom I had approached thinking was an Amanojaku, Yuka had told me not to cut him down.

Just hours ago, a horde of oni had swarmed in, so naturally she would think what’s happening in this hospital is an extension of that.

But what if the opponent isn’t a yokai but a person?

Can we cut down such people?

Should we let Koko cut them?

Bang! Crack!

The sound of the door’s wood breaking was heard, and the hole grew larger.

A hand reached in. A hand with many deep cuts.

And that hand slowly bent sideways, fumbling for the door latch.

Click.

The latch was released, and the door slowly slid open.

What appeared beyond it—

“…”

It was a person.

A person cut all over. Cuts on the cheeks, cuts on the face.

But something was a little strange.

“Patient, this is troublesome.”

The mangled doctor spoke calmly, as if someone had interfered with what he needed to do.

As if that’s how it should be.

“Didn’t you vomit all your medicine?”

Looking at my blood-soaked hospital gown, he said this.

“…Medicine?”

Is that what he’s talking about?

So it wasn’t real blood after all?

The doctor had a scarf around his neck. His body was standing perfectly upright, but somehow his neck area looked a bit awkward. It was slightly off to the side—

The moment the doctor took a step toward me, Yuka moved without hesitation.

Yuka’s sword flashed.

With a slicing sound, she cut the man’s neck, but.

There was nothing in between.

The scarf was cut above and below, but.

“…I see.”

Yuka’s voice trembled as she stepped back.

“You’re yokai without a nest.”

“Yokai?”

The doctor tilted his head.

…

While I wasn’t the type to be scared by seeing corpses, as I’d seen them quite frequently, this was still very… unpleasant to look at.

The head floating above the body wasn’t tilting because muscles and bones were moving; the entire head and neck were tilted about 45 degrees.

“What are you talking about? Yokai? There’s no such thing in this world.”

The opponent spoke as if he had heard a joke.

And took a step toward us.

“…”

We stepped back.

Even Yuka was somehow hesitating.

Is there a reason to hesitate?

“…”

I closed my eyes. I thought for a very brief moment.

Whether it would be right for me to join the fight in this condition.

But, yes.

If Yuka is hesitating, it means that cutting down the opponent is not an easy decision.

If so, it would be right for me to take the burden now.

Because I’m the more mature one.

I glanced to the side.

And spotted a metal object.

Near the bed, there was a small table good for placing things, and on it was a pen.

While I was gauging the distance, the opponent took another step closer.

There was no time to delay further.

I gathered all my remaining strength and ran toward it. Yuka, Koko, and the doctor with the detached head all looked at me.

And they all moved toward me.

But none of them reached me.

Yuka had swords in both hands, and the doctor was simply a bit far from me.

Koko changed her direction when she saw the doctor lunging at me.

Thanks to that, I was able to quickly grab the pen.

“Kotone!”

My body flinched momentarily at Yuka’s call, but I quickly pressed the pen button and pulled out the tip. The pen was sharp enough for fine writing.

Sharp enough to cut open my wrist.

I felt an intense pain. The reason it hurt more than usual might be because I was that sensitive now. Or because I was weakened? It might simply be due to the different state of the wound. After all, this was the bluntest object I had ever used to scratch my wrist.

Blood flowed from my wrist, and my palm faced the sky.

The wound split sideways, then opened up and down.

The eye that formed in the center of the pentagram met my gaze.

“Was it you who woke me up?”

“That would be correct.”

I spoke before the other could, but Nirlas seemed willing to overlook my rudeness.

“…You knew this would happen, didn’t you?”

“Wouldn’t it be strange to think I didn’t know?”

Nirlas answered in a pleased voice.

“…”

There’s much I want to ask. There will probably be enough time. Since “time” is stopped right now.

But I wasn’t in the mood.

“What is that?”

Bizarrely, that thing, which was a yokai but didn’t emit that distinctive feeling at all, had frozen in the middle of lunging at me.

Its body was almost horizontal in the air as it rushed toward me, but its gritted face was facing me directly.

Naturally, its neck and body were separated.

“I wonder what you think the sensation is that you feel when you see yokai.”

“…”

Whether I answered or not, Nirlas explained in a very kind voice—an exaggeratedly kind voice—with pleasure.

“I think you feel a chilling sensation. Isn’t there something else similar to that?”

When seeing insects. When a snake suddenly jumps out from the grass while walking on the street. When narrowly escaping the danger of a traffic accident. When accidentally discovering a human corpse.

When discovering a fire scene.

“…”

But if you see it too often, you become numb.

“Yes, that’s right. You might become numb. But even so, there are still instinctive aversions that everyone has.”

“So, that thing isn’t like that?”

More than that, I was surprised that Nirlas was giving me this explanation.

An outer god wouldn’t even try to understand humans. Isn’t that the main point of Cthulhu mythology or cosmic horror?

Or could there be such beings for Nirlas too? Terrifying beings that make even Nirlas tremble?

“I should give you a hint.”

Nirlas said.

“If there is a world where you live, what world do you think exists beyond that?”

“…”

“Isn’t there something that all living things should fear?”

“…”

“Have you thought about what will happen to your soul at that inevitable end?”

…Yokai come from far away places where humans don’t live. And among humans, there are those who can detect such yokai.

“But, surely yokai come from a place that is neither this world nor the afterlife—”

“Do they?”

Nirlas asked.

“If they can come to this world, I wonder if it’s impossible for them to go to the afterlife.”

“…Then, the reason why not everyone feels it—”

“If ghosts and spirits don’t exist, I wonder why you become terrified when imagining such beings.”

Nirlas smiled.

“And why you don’t feel such emotions toward that thing.”

“…”

I had nothing to say.