Ch.397IF Side Story: Seems I’ve Arrived a Bit Early (94)

“Wait, Yuka, wait a minute, listen to me!”

“…What is there to talk about?”

When I shouted while somehow cradling my head, Yuka asked back.

Yuka was still holding her sword.

There was no determination in her expression. After all, this creature resembling my face had somehow prevented Yuka from attacking it.

No, perhaps it was even more so because the appearance it had copied was my head. If it had just been a sculpture resembling my head, Yuka could have easily destroyed it, but this creature was, at least, alive and moving.

Plus, it was making strange sounds with my voice.

“Woo?”

Seeing it make such sounds while looking up at me from my arms, I pondered several times.

When I first met it, it was a giant human nose. Not even a real nose, but a nose the size of my head. Anyone could see it wasn’t an ordinary creature.

The fleshy mass that had felt squishy, as if it had no bones inside, had changed its form into a human head.

At a glance, it seemed like a yokai, but—

“Y-yokai, I didn’t feel anything like that at all!”

For some reason, I was shouting like that while protecting this fleshy mass.

“There’s no nest, and we didn’t feel that unique sensation we usually get. So, this might not be a yokai at all.”

“You call that an explanation?”

But even as Yuka said that, she didn’t seem ready to rush at me and snatch this thing away.

Just a voice with a subtle emotion, as if somewhat tired.

Perhaps Yuka also felt that something was very strange.

Why could the government suddenly find such a house? What was this fleshy mass inside the house? Why were such things in a place that clearly seemed inhabited by people?

What had spilled out of the refrigerator looked like the remains of a dismembered murder. Randomly grown human limbs. Or heads. It was like those failed human clones from that alien movie, all chopped up randomly and wrapped tightly in plastic.

And this creature had absorbed the flesh that had popped out of that wrap. As if it were its own body.

I thought it might be dangerous. What if it was just pretending to be harmless for its own survival?

But at the same time, having seen its hair move, I also wondered why it wasn’t attacking us. Couldn’t it hit us with its hair? Judging by how solid it felt in my arms, as if there was a skull inside, it could surely attack us by moving like a whip.

If it was a flesh mass that wouldn’t die when cut, couldn’t part of it escape?

I looked down.

The head was looking up at me.

The emotion I should have felt looking at that head was probably “creepiness.” A disembodied head looking up at me was something straight out of a ghost story or horror movie.

But—

“What are you?”

“What are youuu?”

When I spoke to it, it answered like that.

“……”

When it was a “nose,” it seemed unable to see the light we shone. But now that it had eyes, things were a bit different. It was looking up at me with those two eyes.

Was it imitating me who sees with my eyes? Or had it somehow gained functional aspects through the imitation process?

At the very least, Koko’s appearance as it looked up at me seemed utterly innocent.

“Can you, speak?”

“Can you— speeeak?”

Kyahaha.

The head-shaped thing that imitated my words laughed. That laughter also seemed completely harmless. Could even this be an act?

“Yokai can speak too.”

“Yookai? Speeak?”

It imitated Yuka’s words too, looking at her as she stood at a distance with her sword.

…Suddenly, a thought occurred to me.

That light novel I never finished reading. A common harem story mixed with the somewhat cruel settings that were popular at that time.

Were there only four heroines in it? Were there no additional heroines to be added?

It’s a bit awkward for me to say this myself, but I, “Kotone Kurosawa,” have enough backstory to be added as a heroine. Perhaps I appeared in the latter part of the novel that I didn’t read. The same goes for Kagami.

In a novel about hunting yokai, it’s not that unusual for a yokai heroine to appear.

…No, I’m not even sure if it’s a yokai in the first place.

I took a deep breath while holding the head, then turned toward Yuka.

“Yuka, just a moment. It’s okay to keep holding your sword.”

“……”

Yuka didn’t answer.

But I interpreted her lack of warning as “I don’t plan to cut it for now,” and slowly bent down to put the head down.

“Woo?”

The head looked up at me.

I pulled up my raincoat and searched my pockets. For food… I had one thing. A few candies I’d brought in case I got bored on the way here.

When I took out a hard candy and unwrapped it,

“Wah!”

The head, identical to my face, shouted with my voice.

Seeing it bounce up and down, I felt something indescribable. Should I call it bizarre, or cute?

When I dropped the candy, it caught and ate it.

Crunch.

Watching it happily chew the hard candy without any difficulty, I felt that strange sensation once again.

I silently looked up at Yuka.

Yuka was also looking down at my head with an expression that suggested she felt odd.

“Wah!”

Having finished the candy, the head bounced toward me again.

In the end, I put another candy, meant for Yuka, into its mouth.

*

“…So, what are we going to do now?”

Yuka asked.

In the end, she couldn’t bring herself to cut it down.

If it had looked like a dog instead of a human head… no, that would have been extremely unsettling in its own way. Perhaps it’s better that it looks so obviously disturbing.

While it looked like my head, it didn’t seem entirely unintelligent. Seeing how it learned our words and consistently repeated a few phrases while smiling, it seemed even more so.

I hadn’t shown a smiling face since encountering this thing, yet it often laughed with gleeful cheers.

Just like a dog that had been abandoned for a long time and finally saw people again.

It had also learned from being embraced by me once, and kept trying to climb onto my lap as I sat, which made me feel even stranger.

“…Let’s try opening one more of those things over there.”

I said, pointing at the refrigerator.

A head alone is too much. It seemed like its hair had grown longer after absorbing that flesh mass earlier, but since it had copied my face, I thought it might be able to copy my body too.

We couldn’t show something with just a head to people outside, could we?

Or maybe we could wrap it tightly in the leftover plastic and take it out…

But why am I even thinking about taking it with us?

“Wah?”

Looking at the face gazing up at me, I felt strange again. Is this the feeling of seeing a lost puppy?

“Kya! Kya!”

Seeing me point at the refrigerator, it tried to bounce toward it, but I grabbed it and held it back. I said that, but honestly, right now…

Besides, if its hair could move, why couldn’t it open the refrigerator itself?

“……”

Looking down at the floor, I felt like I understood something.

There was something like a magic circle drawn in red on the floor. The entire room seemed to be wrapped in plastic for protection, but part of it had broken when we fell from the ceiling.

Perhaps that nose form was also cut from something that had grown randomly. It must have lost part of its body. Whoever the humans were who sealed such a thing here.

“That seems problematic.”

Yuka, sitting beside me, said.

“Who knows what it might do if it gets bigger.”

“Get—big—ger?”

“…Yes, if it gets bigger.”

Yuka sighed deeply, as if she didn’t know why she was even responding.

“Woo?”

We were silent for a moment.

“…Alright.”

Yuka, who had been thinking for a while, stood up and said.

“For now—”

Bang!

But before Yuka could make any proposal to me, a very suspicious, loud noise rang out from outside.

“Kya!?”

The head screamed as if startled.

We quickly got to our feet. Yuka flung the door open and went outside—

“Ugh!?”

She ducked her head urgently.

Crack!

Something invisible flew and hit where Yuka’s head had been just moments before. Part of the doorframe shattered, sending wood splinters flying, and a deep gash appeared on the adjacent wall.

“Ah…!”

I had seen that before.

“Yuka!”

Before I could stop her, Yuka was already jumping down from the second-floor railing. Bang, bang, gunshots rang out again.

Followed by a chill down my spine.

Nest? Yokai? I’m not sure—

But somehow, something seemed to be emerging from a long-forgotten memory.

Back then, I was too busy running away to notice such feelings or recall any sense of discomfort.

“…This sensation.”

Yes. The sensation I felt whenever I encountered this yokai was similar to the aura I felt from the woman who had chased me and Kagami as we fled.

So that’s it.

“Woo… woo…”

In my arms, the head trembled.

“…Are you afraid of that person too?”

“Afraid?”

It was probably just imitating my words again. It likely held no particular meaning.

But its attitude suggested otherwise.

Somehow, I felt like I understood a little.

That this creature was also related to that woman.

…That it might be something broken, just like me and Kagami.

“Wait here.”

“Wait?”

“…I can’t leave Yuka alone.”

I could hear the sounds of fighting outside.

…Yuka had gotten involved in my affairs.

The people outside too.

“Woo! Woo!”

The head bounced up.

Was it trying to stop me? I wasn’t sure. But there was no time to figure out its intentions.

I rushed outside and slammed the door shut.

And then, I ran with all my might.