Murder Maiden and the Fatal Final

by Mizuki Mizushiro

Shamaya apparently didn’t hear anything Kyousuke said. She continued to embrace him. “Kyousuke, Kyousuke darling…sniff. What a lovely smell…sniff.”

  “Die already.” A rolling savate kick smashed into Shamaya’s drooling mouth.

  “Gyaaahhh, mon Dieeeuuu!!” Shamaya collapsed, and writhed on the asphalt after taking the kick to the head.

  “Kksshh!” Renko struck a fighting pose. “Geez, what are you doing to Kyousuke? I thought you gave up already… Looks like you really want me to take you out, Shamaya dear!”

  “It’s heeeeeeeeere! The monsteeeeeeeeeeeeeeeer!!”

  “Who are you calling a monster?! That’s no way to speak to a young lady, you! Should I stab your brain in half?!”

  “Eeeeeeeeek! Mon Dieeeuuuuuuuuu!!” Nearly collapsing in fear, Shamaya drew back, clinging to a nearby student. As she trembled, a hand came to rest on her shoulder.

  “Miss?”

  “…Ehh? What is it?” Blinking tear-filled eyes, Shamaya lifted her face.

  The owner of the voice looked down with a grin at the upperclassman clinging to her leg. “What kind of relationship is it that you have with my big brother?”

  With both hands, the speaker grabbed Shamaya by the collar.

  “Whaaat?!” the blonde screeched, caught off guard by the contrast between the girl’s smiling face and the rough action.

  The area around Ayaka’s eyes twitched and spasmed as she heaved with all her strength. “I. Asked. You—What kind of relationship you have with my big brother?!”

  “B-brother? My dear Kyousuke is…your big brother?! That means you are—”

  “That doesn’t maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaatteeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeerrr!!!”

  Ayaka let lose a hysterical shriek, and shook Shamaya forcefully.

  “P-p-p-p-p-pardon meeeeee!” Jostled violently back and forth, Shamaya apologized without understanding why.

  “…Well? My big brother and you, what kind of—”

  Just as Ayaka was about to again demand her answers from the girl, who was by now reeling from a concussion, Renko, who had been waiting and watching, spoke up in a serious tone. “That upperclassman, by the way, Ayaka…is a brutal serial killer who has murdered twenty-one people.”

  “Ehh?!” Ayaka tossed Shamaya aside, and stepped back cautiously. “Twenty-one people? Th-that many… I can’t believe it.”

  “Yep. She has a face like she wouldn’t harm a fly, but she’s a deadly maniac who murders people as if they are flies. Known as the Killer Queen, she’s a scary, scaaary murderer! Boogie-oogie-oogie!!” Renko held her shoulders and trembled theatrically.

  Shamaya stared at the gas-masked girl, confused. “…Huh? Hey, you! Hiding your own nature, and so brazenly—!”

  “—What’s that?”

  “Eeek!! Nothing at all!” The moment Renko threatened her, Shamaya curled in on herself. The terror that had been etched into her mind during the prison school camping trip apparently still lingered.

  Ayaka pointed at Shamaya, who was biting her tongue in fear with a stunned expression. “…B-but she looks so ridiculously weak, though.”

  “It’s all an act. She’s a cunning trickster who will do anything it takes to kill. She’s using an old trick, acting like she’s very weak in order to catch her victims off guard. Most of what she says and does is fraudulent…in other words, you’re better off thinking everything she does is a trap.” Taking advantage of Shamaya’s stunned silence, Renko said all she had to say.

  Ayaka moved further away from the quivering blonde and covered her mouth with both hands. “Waaah…how wicked! What could she possibly want with my big brother—?”

  “She wants to kill him.”

  “Eh?!”

  “You see, little Ayaka,” Renko began, “this girl…she was planning to mislead pure Kyousuke with clever words, seduce him, and then snatch his life away! She would suddenly embrace him as she did just now, press her boobs against him, occasionally invade his bath naked, and attack him like that… She would do as she pleased! His heart and body and life—she was planning to snatch them all away.”

  “”

  The light extinguished from Ayaka’s eyes as she stared at Shamaya.

  “No, that was you…”

  Kyousuke’s jab went unnoticed.

  As expected, Shamaya could not remain silent. “Now you wait just a moment!” She interjected. “I absolutely shall not stay quiet and have you carry on as you please…” Glaring at Renko, she got to her feet and stepped in front of Ayaka.

  There, Shamaya’s expression shifted from a devil’s anger to an angelic smile. “My darling Kyousuke’s younger sister… May I address you as such? Miss Hikawa’s words are nothing more than irresponsible nonsense. You must not take them seriously—they are unfounded lies.”

  “…Lies.”

  “Yes, they are all lies! From the bottom of my heart, I love Kyousuke—”

  “Liiiiiiiiiiiiiiieeeeeeeeeeees!” Ayaka screamed, pushing Shamaya away.

  “My word!”

  Shamaya tumbled over.

  “Did you think that you could fool Ayaka, Miss?” the girl continued coldly. “Saying that you love my big brother… Don’t run your mouth so thoughtlessly! Ayaka is disgusted.”

  “That’s right, that’s right! There are some things that you can say, and some you cannot!” Renko piled on, condemning Shamaya.

  “Whaaat?!” Shamaya straightened up, facing both of them. “Why are you attacking me like this?!”

  “Because you touched big brother.”

  “Because you embraced Kyousuke, of course.”

  “Ehh?! Just for that—”

  “‘Just that’?!” Renko’s and Ayaka’s voices shrieked together.

  “I told you, didn’t I, Ayaka? This girl thinks nothing of embracing a member of the opposite sex. Seems she’s accustomed to close physical relationships. She’s an unimaginable tart.”

  “She is, she is. She has no understanding of how valuable a hug with Ayaka’s big brother is, does she?! It’s like pearls before swine, or gold before a homewrecking cat! What a tart.”

  Shamaya, being abused by both of them, flushed red and tried to retort. “I…I am not a tart! I am still pure! I have no personal experience with XX or XX or XXX or XXXX, and XXX and XX and XXXX are still no more than wild ideas! Every night, I do XXX and XXXX for my darling Kyousuke, but that is part of being the lady he loves. And sooner or later, I will actually… Heh-heh-heh…”

  “Wh-whaaa…?” Ayaka and Renko were both stunned.

  “Why are you backing away?!”

  “S-sorry…that’s pretty seriously revolting.”

  “The ‘heh-heh-heh’ was especially bad. That’s not a face a lady should make.”

  “Well, I never!” Shamaya threw her head back in shock. Crumbling weakly, she asked herself, “Am I revolting?”

  “Yes. You’re gross.”

  “Yep. Gross!”

  “Whaaattt?!”

  The girls showed no mercy.

  Shamaya went white. She looked too pitiful.

  “…Hey. You two have gone too far! Drop it.” Kyousuke muscled in between them.

  “Kyousuke dear…” Shamaya’s eyes sparkled as Kyousuke extended a hand to her—

  “Eeek!”

  —But as she tried to stand, Ayaka attacked Shamaya from the side, breaking her grip on Kyousuke.

  Losing her support, Shamaya tumbled over. “Gyah—oh my!!”

  “Ow… Hey, what are you doing?!” Kyousuke snapped, shocked.

  Ayaka raised her elegant eyebrows. “Ayaka should ask you the same thing, big brother. What are you doing?! Helping this girl—?!”

  “Now, now, Ayaka dear.” Renko stepped in to pacify her. “Kyousuke is too kind, so he helps everyone without thinking. He’s a pure soul, so he’s easily fooled by deception… He thinks too highly of others and can’t tell them that their disagreeable traits are disagreeable. She’s just taking advantage of Kyousuke’s good natur
e.”

  “No way,” Kyousuke replied. And then: “You must really hate Miss Shamaya.”

  “Oh, so you like her, Kyousuke?” Ayaka asked.

  “Uh…” Kyousuke didn’t answer.

  Just as Shamaya had nearly been killed by Renko, Kyousuke and the others could also be killed at any time by Shamaya. However, since Shamaya, unlike Renko, did not have a limiter equipped, it wouldn’t be clear whether she was trying to kill them again. Kyousuke didn’t like her, so much as fear her.

  “Look, he can’t even give a reply! There’s your answer, Ayaka dear. Kksshh.”

  “I see. I understand perfectly well. She follows him around even though he really doesn’t like her and finds her annoying… Poor big brother. Taking advantage of his kindness to try to capture his attention… This upperclassman is the worst! Please don’t come near us ever again.”

  “Eh? You two, wait a—”

  “Big brother, she’s a serial killer who murdered twenty-one people! I’m worried about you… I’m worried about your life! But you just ignore my feelings… Ignore me and make friends with this murdering upperclassman?! How cruel.”

  “…Um.” Kyousuke faltered under Ayaka’s tearful gaze. When he looked around for an escape route, he saw Shamaya staring right at him.

  “Kyousuke darling? What she said…about you hating me… It’s a lie…isn’t it?”

  Her tone of voice and facial expression were blank and lifeless.

  Kyousuke found that alarming. He spoke carefully, sure he was inviting trouble. “Ah, well…to be honest, hate is—”

  “Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhh, nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!”

  —is not the right word!

  Before he could finish speaking, Shamaya leaped up and ran away, leaving Kyousuke and the others behind. Trailing tears, in the blink of an eye she had faded away into the distance.

  “The Killer Queen brought to tears by…a first-year boy?”

  One of the upperclassmen watching the scene muttered in surprise. The silence that had descended upon them broke, and the plaza filled with commotion.

  “Miss Shamaya is…u-unbelievable. I mean, what is their relationship?!”

  “Were the rumors true? That Saki’s fallen in love with a first-year…”

  “Stuuupid!! She’s everyone’s idol… She’s our Madonnaaaaaa!”

  “Her fan club won’t stand by, either! They’re all gonna die!”

  “I’ll go get a Tokarev pistol.” “I’ll get an AK-47.” “I shall fetch my katana.” “I’ll bring an iron maiden.” “Let’s sort it out before the teachers get here.” “Okay, when will we kill them?” “Now!”

  “Ruuuuuuuuuuuun!”

  As he shouted, Kyousuke grabbed Ayaka’s hand and ran with all his strength.

  “Wah! Big brother, you’re fast—”

  “Ayaka, hurry! If they catch us, we’ll be killed!!”

  Following behind Kyousuke and the others, a crowd of upperclassmen gave chase in a fit of rage. Their eyes were filled with anger, and many of them carried weapons. As Renko had said, if the mob caught up with them, they would not fail to take their revenge.

  Their after-school period had turned into a game of very high-stakes tag.

  “Damn, they sure can run fast… Where the hell did they go?! I’ll fill ’em with holes!”

  “Free time’s gonna end. We won’t have time to torture ’em right?!”

  “Hya-haaaaaa! Where oh where oh where are you, ya bastards?! I’m cooomiiing!”

  “Whoa! W-watch out—Was that a modified motorcycle just now? Hella old-school…”

  “Hey, you asshooole, you! Worthless Mohawk! Don’t ride my precious bike arooouuund!”

  “Huh…it’s Loli-miya! Everyone, drop your weapons and run!! If she finds them we’re screwed!”

  “Whaaat?!” she roared in an angry bellow. “Which one of you pigs just squealed ‘Loli’? Do you want me to smash you up?!”

  “……”

  The tumult faded away. They all kept still, holding their breaths for a long while, until they couldn’t hear anything. It seemed the upperclassmen had all been chased off by Kurumiya’s rampage.

  “…Do you think it’s okay now, big brother?”

  “Yeah, probably. Let’s get out of here before they come back—cough, cough.”

  “Ahh?! Kyo-Kyousuke…where are you touching?! Don’t do that, that’s where…”

  “Big brotheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeerrr?!”

  “Just a… Don’t get violent, Ayaka! The ash is—cough, cough, cough.”

  Unable to stand it any longer, Kyousuke pried open the lid. They burst free into the open air, rolling out into a square of light. Kyousuke and Ayaka both were covered in white from the tops of their heads to the tips of their toes.

  “Heave-ho!” Following after the desperately choking siblings, Renko, her whole body white just like the other two, casually wormed her way out. “You two look like you’re having a hard time. Did the ashes get in your lungs, I wonder? Just kidding!”

  “Ugh. No fair, you have a gas mask…cough, cough.” Ayaka, teary-eyed from too much violent coughing, glared at Renko bitterly.

  Renko laughed, “Kksshh,” and brushed off her ash-covered clothes. “Your thrashing only made it worse, Ayaka! Inside an incinerator, you have to stay still.”

  “Excuse me! Whose fault was it that I was—cough, cough. Uuugh!”

  “It was dark and cramped, in there, all right? It’s not my fault, either. A few mishaps were bound to happen, Ayaka dear.” Renko patted Ayaka’s back to soothe her coughing fit.

  When their breathing finally settled, Kyousuke and his sister brushed the ashes off each other.

  “But it was a bright idea to hide inside the incinerator, wasn’t it?” Renko said.

  “Yep, yep. Very clever! We escaped death—narrowly—thanks to that,” Kyousuke replied.

  “Eee-hee-hee.” Ayaka beamed. “I don’t have any stamina, so I thought I would be caught in that game of tag…but I’m confident in my hide-and-seek abilities! But…how come there’s so much ash?”

  “Um. Th-that’s because…”

  Because the incinerators are used for more than just garbage…

  That was the rumor, but he thought it would frighten her, so he held his tongue. Surely they must have imagined those long, narrow, white shapes buried in the ashes…

  “Kksshh…well, then. Now that we’ve got the mess off, let’s get moving before we’re found out.”

  “Right, we should hurry back!” Kyousuke announced. “Even those guys probably won’t come as far as the old school building…”

  “I hope you’re right, but they probably hate the thought of giving up!”

  “I just wish I could catch that upper-crust tart alone,” Ayaka muttered. “Her followers seem really persistent, though.”

  “Yeah, yeah. It stinks of bitch to conveniently manipulate them like that,” Renko agreed.

  “Stinky, stinkyyy! Tee-hee.”

  “…You two have no remorse, do you?”

  Along the way back to the old school building, Ayaka and Renko worked themselves up over the topic of Shamaya. The content of the conversation was a little questionable, but—they had made a common enemy in Shamaya, and by cooperating to escape from the juniors and seniors, the gulf between the two girls had naturally closed. Kyousuke was happy to see the two of them talking harmoniously, though he couldn’t help but feel a little sorry for Shamaya. He would have to try to work things out and get them to apologize later.

  “Hey, Kyousuke. Free time is going to end soon, you know?” Renko pointed to the campus clock.

  “…Yeah.” It was 5:39 PM. Free time after classes ended when the evening’s manual labor started at 6:00 PM. The students were expected to assemble, change into their tracksuits, and be ready to work, no later than five minutes to 6:00. “Is it already that late? We don’t want to be tardy, so let’s head to the locker rooms—”
>
  Breaking off midsentence, he suddenly remembered that, because it was exam week, correctional duty had been canceled, starting this afternoon. Instead, all students were obligated to return to their dorm rooms no later than 6:00 PM to study. “…No, let’s go back to the dorms.”

  Thankfully, since they had left their bags in the student dorms, there was no need to stop by the classroom. All the upperclassmen seemed to have gone back to their area, too, so all that was left was to leisurely make their way back.

  Renko stretched—“kksshh”—and both her abundant breasts and her cheerful voice bounced vigorously. “Wooow, it’s so great not to have to do any manual labor! This mask is really suffocating, and it kills my field of vision, so I suffer no matter what I’m doing.”

  “Then wouldn’t it be all right to take it off…? It’s a pretty good gag, even if you don’t carry it any further. Are you a comedian? Or is your bare face just that ugly?” Looking at Renko’s gas mask, Ayaka tilted her head. As usual, she had struck hard, likely because she was still wary of her tentative ally.

  However, Renko did not seem upset, and wagged her finger. “Tsk, tsk, tsk. Quite the opposite, my little Ayaka.”

  “…Meaning?”

  “My real face is too beautiful, so I’m deliberately concealing it!”

  “…Ah, okay, sure. You’re joking.”

  “No. It’s not a joke, it’s the truth. It’s not that I won’t take my mask off—I can’t take it off. No matter how inconvenient or sweltering it might get. Do you know why that is?”

  “Hey, Renko! That topic is—”

  With the palm of her hand, Renko stifled Kyousuke’s interruption.

  If they touched on the subject of the gas mask, they would not be able to avoid disclosing Renko’s true nature. It was an overwhelming topic to discuss, especially now that Ayaka had finally begun to open up to her. The distance that they had tried so hard to close would surely widen again, and it would place a needless burden on Ayaka’s mind.

  However, Renko spoke without hesitation:

  “The reason why I cannot take off this mask: It is because my bare face is too dangerous.”

  “…Huh?”

  “Kksshh.” Renko sighed at the siblings, a pair of gaping mouths.