Ch.292If Side Story. Tokyo Slayers: Final Chapter (30)

Before I could understand what those words meant, the door opened.

Ah, that’s right. The doorknob was broken!

Souta, who thought it would take time for the door to open, quickly turned around.

“Fukuda, Nanami, this way!”

“W-what is that thing!?”

Unlike Nanami, who had already experienced the existence of yokai, Fukuda let out a completely terrified cry.

Something was crawling through the doorway.

It was something so bizarre that calling it merely “something” seemed too casual. At least Souta couldn’t think of it as either human or yokai.

A mass of flesh.

Just as Kurosawa’s mother had said, it was… truly something that couldn’t be described with any other words.

A mass the color of human skin.

Hands and feet grew from it haphazardly. No, hands and feet were just the most noticeable parts. Like real human skin with ulcers or tumors, there were congested or necrotic areas here and there, along with teeth, lips, eyes, a giant nose, and what looked like intestines turned inside out.

And between them, black fur—or should it be called hair?

Such things grew randomly all over it.

Though Souta himself thought it strange to think this, that hair looked similar to Kotone’s—that couldn’t be right, could it?

Perhaps that thought had occurred to him because of what Kurosawa’s mother had said.

“Ah, aah, f-finally… finally…”

Kurosawa’s mother pulled at her hair. The sound of hair breaking—ttudeuk, ttudeuk—was eerie.

“J-just a moment. Please calm down, calm down a little…”

Nanami spoke while trying her best not to look in that direction. Fukuda was staring blankly with his mouth open.

Souta turned around again and threw a punch.

Bang!

His hand hit the window, and the part where the window was tightly fitted in its frame shook violently.

A chilling sound came from behind. Like a knife cutting through something. It was a bit different from the sound occasionally heard at butcher shops. It was a much more creepy scraping sound, immediately followed by the sound of liquid splashing.

And then, a scream.

Ironically, the scream from this non-human thing sounded like multiple people screaming at once. Since it had more than one mouth—if those could even be called “mouths”—the sound was all the more terrifying for being so plausible.

Bang!

No matter how often Souta had encountered yokai, he couldn’t help but panic at such sounds.

Weren’t yokai supposed to resemble either humans or beasts? Souta had never imagined a yokai that looked like this. At least nothing like this existed in the stories Yuka had told him or in any old tales he had heard.

Moreover, he had never encountered one in such a confined space.

When he struck out forcefully once more, instead of the window frame coming loose, the window shattered.

“Souta!?”

Nanami was shocked. Somehow, she seemed more startled by Souta breaking the glass with his hand than by seeing that flesh mass.

Blood flowed from his hand, but Souta didn’t pay much attention to it.

He quickly picked up the bag he had placed on the floor and cleared the windowsill. He couldn’t completely clear away all the broken glass pieces, but it seemed enough for people to climb through.

“Nanami! Fukuda! Hurry!”

When Souta shouted, the two approached the windowsill with still-dazed expressions.

It was certainly dangerous because of the glass fragments, but in this situation, no one wanted to stay in this room.

Whether her legs had given out or she was concerned about what was behind them, Kurosawa’s mother kept looking back as they somehow managed to get her onto the windowsill, followed by Nanami and Fukuda.

“Are you okay? Can you get down?”

“Yes. There are places to step on.”

Nanami replied while firmly holding onto Kurosawa’s mother, who was sitting on the windowsill.

“And even if we fall, I don’t think we’ll get seriously hurt!”

The two women positioned themselves at the window, and Fukuda descended through the gap between them.

Naturally, this meant he briefly looked back into the room.

Fukuda’s gaze fixed momentarily on the door.

“…My God.”

After muttering that, Fukuda—

“Fukuda!”

—came to his senses at Nanami’s shout as she started moving first, and looked at Souta.

“It’s okay. I’ll go down with Yuka.”

Seeing Souta say this, Fukuda bit his lip slightly and eventually moved slowly toward the window of the adjacent room. He didn’t know if it would be safe inside that room, but at least there was a place to descend—

“Yuka!”

Souta turned around.

Yuka was retreating step by step while swinging her sword. To an ordinary person, it would look like nothing more than a long piece of metal flashing, but with each flash of light, something was being cut and flying off.

But the severed parts crawled back to where the body was. No matter how much she cut, nothing seemed to change—

Souta quickly ran over and swung his hand.

Blood dripped from his hand, which was scratched and embedded with glass fragments.

“————!”

The flesh mass, which had been making strange noises, stopped moving momentarily when hit by Souta’s blood.

It was an action taken recalling how other yokai seemed to fear Souta’s blood. When Yuka had pointed her sword, he had willingly offered his hand, knowing that power was needed.

But he hadn’t expected this effect.

Rather than the blood having some power that stopped it, the flesh mass seemed startled by the shower of blood.

The pupils of the large and small eyes protruding from the skin—at least those that looked like they could move—looked at Souta.

“Yuka, let’s go…!”

Souta called out to Yuka, getting goosebumps from that gaze.

“Yes!”

The two ran with all their might toward the broken window. They couldn’t tell what had happened to Nanami, Fukuda, and Kurosawa’s mother who had been on the other side. They could only hope that the reason they weren’t visible was because they had safely descended.

The sound of something moving came from behind.

It sounded like something bubbling, or like phlegm gurgling in a throat. It also sounded like feet stomping on the floor, and like fingers tapping on a desk.

These were all sounds that seemed odd to hear simultaneously from one place, but having already seen what the flesh mass looked like, Souta could imagine how it moved.

The speed at which the sound was approaching was much faster than the speed at which Yuka and Souta were running to the window.

Without even having time to look back and check, Souta and Yuka jumped outside.

Oh, but this is the second floor.

“Souta!?”

Yuka’s voice was heard.

Almost instinctively, Souta was pulling Yuka’s arm.

And forgetting that Yuka was holding a sword, he embraced her. As if to protect her from the impact of the fall.

Just before falling, it occurred to him that Yuka’s body might be sturdier, but in that brief moment, Souta thought again.

No matter what, using a girl’s body as a cushion would be a bit strange, wouldn’t it?

“Souta!”

He heard Nanami cry out in alarm—and then felt a strong impact on his body.

He didn’t lose consciousness. Though his whole body certainly hurt.

Even though it was only the second floor, falling onto a concrete floor with nothing below would naturally cause serious injury.

“Souta—”

Yuka’s voice hardened slightly as she hurriedly got up from Souta’s arms while calling out. Souta briefly wondered if it was because she was embarrassed about calling him by name without realizing it, or if his condition was quite serious.

Nanami and Fukuda quickly came over and helped Souta up.

Only after standing did he realize there was a mattress on the ground. Of course, it wasn’t in good condition—it was a worn-out mattress that had been left outside for a long time.

Had the three who descended first laid it out? Or was it just luck? Before he could think about that, Souta was already being pulled by the collar by Yuka and moving.

“Hurry!”

When Souta limped, Nanami and Yuka supported him from both sides. Kurosawa’s mother was being supported by Fukuda.

Everyone ran with all their might.

Passersby looked strangely at the fleeing group.

Should they tell those people to run away too?

But looking back with that thought, all he saw was just a dilapidated apartment building.

The door that Yuka and Fukuda had broken was wide open. The inside looked dark, perhaps because of the intense sunlight outside.

It looked like a beast opening its jaws, but whatever was inside couldn’t be seen.

Even until the group had almost reached the nearby station, those jaws didn’t flick out a tongue.

As if everything that had just happened was a lie.