by J. J. Pavlov
"Hm, customers?" A male voice from the back of the store remarks. That voice certainly doesn't belong to Lady Nightwane, that much is for sure.
"... huh? What are you doing here?! You were supposed to keep watch outside, you dumbass!" Another male voice, albeit quite the high-pitched one, exclaims, directed at the owner of the previous voice.
Alright, that sounds like trouble.
"Who is there?" Luna asks in a slightly trembling voice. Even as a powerful mage, being alone without a front line can be quite scary. Nobody is here to keep her safe until she finishes chanting, after all.
In response to her reluctant inquiry, two men come through the door that most likely leads into storage rooms. They are carrying oil lamps, which illuminates their rough features and clothes.
They have the stereotypical appearances of thugs.
No, really! Those are textbook features of thugs of the 'brawns' variant: Bandanna pulled all the way down to the eyebrows, a scar somewhere on the face, evil expressions, and vests that were made by ripping off the sleeves to show off their burly, tattooed arms. One of them even holds a crude wooden club.
Yay, we stumbled into a side quest!
"Who are you? Where is Lady Nightwane?" Luna sounds a little scared as she brandishes her staff. You already lost, when you didn't start chanting a spell right away.
From the back of the store, one more man emerges. He's much smaller and thinner than the previous two thugs but has pale, almost gray skin, and an even more obviously evil face than the others. This one looks like he took all the brain matter of the other two, and traded his muscles in equivalent exchange. His eyes look like those of a dead fish when they stare at Luna and me.
If that's not a rape-face, I don't know what is.
"Ohhh, that one's a half-elf!" As expected, he's the owner of the high-pitched voice. It's incredibly fitting for such an unbelievably textbook ringleader character. The brainiac-type thug, huh?
Wait, half-elf? Luna, you're a half-elf? You never told me!
Now that I think about it, I never saw her ears because they're always hidden under her hair. It does explain her much lighter hair color and complexion, as well as her rather petite figure. She's actually quite beautiful, though her breasts are on the small side, which must come from her elven half.
How can this guy tell, though?
"Grab her, too." You just gave us some valuable information about yourself there, brainiac. These guys came here to take Lady Nightwane, who is a dark elf. And saying that they should grab Luna, who is a half-elf, he basically made it clear that they are after elves.
"Stay behind me, Miss Marcott." Luna points her staff at the thugs and places herself between them and me.
Oh, how dependable. But she's holding her staff like she wants to use it as a melee weapon. Does she even have any physical strength to fight that way? I feel like mages always maximize their time studying magic and never exercise, so I can't imagine that she'll start swinging the staff like an expert. Also, we're in a cramped space, and she'll just hit a pillar or a wall.
One of the muscular thugs, the one with the club, steps forward undeterred. His weapon is much more effective for fighting in this place, and he clearly knows it, as he looks at Luna's staff with a self-assured grin.
She performs an overhead swing with her staff, but as expected, it's stopped by a low-hanging roof beam. Upon seeing this, the man quickly bridges the space between him and Luna and draws back his club to bash her face in.
"Don't damage the merchandise, you idiot!" The brainiac shouts and stops the brawny thug in his tracks.
Yeah, he really is an idiot for aiming at a cute girl's face with a heavy wooden club. It would be a miracle if that didn't leave a scar if it doesn't outright kill her. And it's clear they don't want that to happen. He called Luna merchandise, so they must be kidnappers.
But I have to say, the muscle guy's reflexes are good enough to stop mid-swing upon hearing an order. I had expected that he would go all the way and then try to excuse himself afterward.
He instead punches Luna in the solar plexus with his free hand, and she folds over. Falling to the ground, she's out cold from just that.
Wow, so weak!
"And what do we have here? You have such white skin; you must be a noble." Finally, the attention falls on me, and the ringleader looks at me with a calculating gaze.
I did brighten up my skin tone to sell the story of being a sheltered noble lady who doesn't know anything about the world better. My actual skin tone should be much darker due to my track and field activities, where I have to be outdoors all the time. Not like that matters in this world, where I started as a faceless tentacle monster.
"Even though you don't dress like one... a disguise?"
Oi, leave my clothes alone, at least I'm wearing normal ones.
"Take her as well. She doesn't look like she wants to fight, so you don't have to knock her out. Just tie her hands and feet. And gag her." With these words, the brainiac turns around to go back inside the storage rooms again.
So, time to decide: Do I want to fight here or let them bring me along so I can see what kind of thing they are running? Maybe it'll be more time-efficient if I ask them directly first.
"W-where do you want to bring us?" My voice came out just right, innocent, slightly shaking. I'm getting better at this acting thing. "My mother is a very powerful woman! You won't get away with this!"
"Hoh, is that so?" Stopping dead in his tracks, he turns around to look at me with renewed interest. "Then we'll deal with you separately and hold you for ransom. Your half-elf companion will end up as some rich noble's toy."
Thank you for taking the time to tell me about your evil plan.
"But do tell, who's your mother?" His confident smile shows that he doesn't suspect a thing from me.
I don't actually know Maou-mama's name, only her title. Well, it'll surely have much more of an impact if I tell him the latter, though.
"She's the demon queen." I state with a grin, straightening my back to look down on them with a haughty expression. They stare at me in surprise, and for a moment they're completely stunned by this announcement.
Oh, I know what's coming next.
"Hahahaha! I see I see; the lady's the daughter of the demon queen!" Joining in on the high-pitched voice of the brainiac are the two much deeper voices of the brawny thugs. They start to laugh without a care in the world.
But I join them in their laughter. This goes on for a bit until they finally realize that something is off about me laughing with them. The ringleader is the first to stop, looking at me with his head tilted and a nervous expression on his face.
"W-why are you laughing? What's so funny?" He points at me and stutters.
"What's funny?" My mouth cracks open into a grin wider than is possible with a human's anatomy. "What is about to happen next."
Then I cancel my human transformation and pull the clothes I'm wearing inside my body so that I don't damage them. I reveal my real appearance in its full, otherworldly glory, my presence alone seemingly snuffing out the light from the oil lamps - which they luckily placed on the shelves earlier. Because for a moment, the three look at me with big eyes and mouths ajar, each dropping what they were holding in their hands.
Then the first one lets his sanity slip, as he screams from the bottom of his soul. It's the thug that has been staying next to the brainiac so far. A dark stain spreads out on his beige pants from around his crotch, and his face fills with deathly terror, as he takes a step back and presses himself against the doorframe.
Then the other two join him in a choir of screams that are no different from how I always imagined the voices of tormented souls would sound. It feels like music to my ears. I can see madness growing in their eyes as they claw at their faces.
Why am I reveling in their terror so much? It feels incredible, being feared like that!
"Hahahaha!" I practically rip open my face from laughter, since I don't have a mouth i
n this form. My voice is not something a human being can make, and much less endure. It should give them a sensation akin to getting their ear canals inspected with an electric drill.
If I hadn't become familiar with my own body, this unnatural voice would have grated on my spine, too. That's why I know these three are feeling the full effect of my transformation. Maou-mama did say that this appearance drains the sanity of those who see it.
I can see it happening now, right before me.
The thug that tried to hit Luna in the face earlier rushes at me and tries to do the same to me with his bare fist in an unexpectedly valiant attempt at fighting back. But from his eyes, I can tell that it's driven by self-preservation instinct.
The knuckles connect with the side of my head, but I turn my matter into something akin to mud. Without the resistance that would come with hitting a solid target, he stumbles forward.
"Come into my embrace!" I split my arms into their individual tentacles and grab the muscle guy. He screams like a gutted pig and struggles with every fiber of his being, as his arms begin to sink into my chest. To me, these motions feel even weaker than the wriggling of a worm.
"Hahaha, that's impossible... this is a nightmare. Yes, I'm having a nightmare..." The brainiac tears open the skin of his face with his nails, and laughs madly, trying to escape the reality of this situation by explaining it away into fantasy.
I guess the humans don't know anything about the nature of a Crawling Chaos, yet they still dare to challenge my mother.
"Yes, this is a nightmare." I speak and fully swallow the thug that attacked me. "One you will never wake up from. Welcome to your new reality."
Upon hearing my words, spoken in an otherworldly reverb, he screams.
Ahhh, this feels great.
The thug who pissed himself earlier has fainted and slumped to the ground with his eyes rolled back in their sockets. Wait, his body is completely still, and it looks like he isn't breathing.
Wow, it was this effective? His mind decided to shut the body down instead of suffering insanity - and possibly a fate worse than death.
"Now, tell me who you work for, and I'll put an end to your torment." Waves of shivers run through the brainiac's body upon hearing my proposal, and he falls to his knees. His eyes are glued to me, unable to avert his gaze from my otherworldly appearance despite its effect on his mind.
"We-were-hired-by-a-merchant-called-Sveinn-Itkonen-he-is-a-slave-smuggler-who-transports-elves-and-other-rare-species-to-be-sold-on-auctions." He rattles down his response without a break or taking a breath.
Sveinn Itkonen, huh? How convenient that this leads straight to the guy I heard about just earlier for the first time.
"Thank you very much. That's all I needed from you." I slither forward, and he flinches at my unnatural movements. But it's clear that his mind is no longer capable of giving commands to his body, so focused is he on staring at me.
I grab him and stuff him inside me unceremoniously. He doesn't even try to fight back and closes his eyes with a strangely peaceful smile as if welcoming my embrace and the certain death it promises. Maybe he prefers to die rather than live with the knowledge of my existence in this reality.
Looking at the soiled corpse of the last guy, I feel some reluctance to eat him; yet, I can't leave behind any evidence. It's not like it makes a difference whether his filth is outside or inside his body. It all dissolves inside me anyway, and it's not like I have a human sense of taste. The same happened with the vularen and the sheep I swallowed, so a human isn't any different.
With this, all the evidence is gone.
"Hey." Suddenly, a female voice calls out to me from behind.
AAAAAA-
Chapter 9 - ... And The Fourth Wall
-AAAAAAH!!!
Whose voice was that!? I nearly breathed out my soul!
I quickly transform back into my human appearance. But I'm naked since I pulled my clothes into my body so that they wouldn't be dirtied or destroyed. If that voice belonged to Luna, there's no way to explain this situation to her.
When I turn around, I find that the half-elf is still unconscious on the ground and there's nobody else besides her left in this store.
Wait, don't tell me...
"Yes, it's me, the creepy doll." The voice remarks and my eyes snap towards the unmoving doll sitting on the sofa chair. So, you're aware of the fact that you're a creepy doll.
That's not the point here! Why can you talk? Are you actually a human who just looks like a doll?
"Can you give me some blood?" Even though she's not moving, it's obvious that the voice is coming from her direction.
Nopenopenopenopenope!
That's going to end up in a curse!
"But preferably not yours, I don't think I'd like what will happen to me, if I ingested your blood... if you have any in the first place, that is."
"Hey, that's rude." But I can understand where she's coming from. Wait, if she's a human, why didn't she go mad at seeing me? Don't tell me she's really a ghost possessing a doll? "... what are you?"
"That's rude, too. I'm a proper human, you know? Well, not anymore, but I used to be." The doll responds in an indignant tone. Didn't she basically just admit that she's a ghost? "I'm just... out of juice. Give me some blood from one of those inside you. I need someone who's still alive."
"How do you know they're still alive? I ate them, you know?" They both are alive, though. I found that fear and insanity is food for me, so I'll milk them until they die on their own inside me.
"Because you're a Crawling Chaos, and your kind finds pleasure in making them suffer for as long as possible." She replies in a matter of fact tone, with no hint of judgment. That's one way to put what I'm doing to them, I guess.
So, she knows what I am, and she's not afraid. Who or what exactly is she?
"Give me some of their blood, and I'll be able to move again."
"And what makes you think I want you to be able to move?"
"Because you can just as well call me Exposition Doll, with all the knowledge I can give you. Also, you're not the first of your kind I've met. Though, I guess you are the first one in this world." I could practically see her shrug, even though she didn't move at all.
In this world? Don't tell me this doll is also a reincarnated human from another world. Maybe even from my world?
"Umm... could we maybe make this less complicated? I mean, let's just skip this whole introduction part and get to info-dumping." Her voice sounds annoyed, like that of an adult getting pestered by a child.
"Huh, what do you mean by that?" I know what 'info-dumping' means, but why would she say it like that?
"Ahhh, it's so difficult now... it was much easier when I was talking to a third person narrator..."
You what? Did she just break the fourth wall? I look around but don't see anything like text bubbles or borders. This isn't a comic featuring a red-hooded mercenary, is it?
"Whatever, just give me some blood, and I'll give you some good info in exchange. There's nothing to lose for you."
Well, color me interested. She clearly knows something about this world that I don't. And giving her some blood from one of the guys inside me shouldn't cause me any problems. They're doomed to die anyway.
Thus, I make the forearm of the thug peek out from my stomach, turn one of my tentacles into a blade and make a cut on his wrist. He struggles, but at this angle, he can't even move anything but his fingers. Letting his blood flow into the cleanest container I can find in this room, I put it to the doll's mouth and let it trickle into her parted lips.
For a moment, there's only silence.
"Did it work?" I tilt my head to look at the stitched doll's face. Suddenly, I feel the thug inside me cease all his movements, even though he was lively moments ago. His heart has stopped, not from blood loss, being suffocated or from shock. He simply died.
"Hey, what did you do?" I'm not really angry, just surprised. There's no other explanation for his sudden deat
h than that she did something because he kept struggling until the very last moment. Also, the brainiac is still alive, and the two of them should have had the same conditions within my body.
The horror doll suddenly snaps her head around and stares at me with big blue eyes.
"I just took his life force." Explaining in a matter of fact tone and with a wholly unconcerned expression, she looks me in the eyes emotionlessly. At least she's properly using her lips to speak, instead of what she did before.
"Stop that!" I flinch and exclaim at her jump scare.
"And next time, just a few drops of blood is enough." She slides down from the chair and begins to do some stretching as if she just woke up from a long sleep. I hear creaking in her joints, making it sound like she's made of metal and wood.
"So, it's like a voodoo curse?" I inquire about the method by which she killed the man inside me remotely.
"I wish... Maybe you'll understand if I tell you that it's a certain curse technique which duplicates your wounds onto someone whom you become connected with by ingesting their blood." Clicking her tongue, the doll girl looks away in annoyance. "Yes, that's how lame my setting is."
"I don't really understand what you mean." And what's that about a setting? She's been speaking like someone from my time period for a while now.
"It's better that you don't know. It had the most clichéd ending and was just a waste of time. Well, I guess at least it wasn't as bad as that other one, where every other page was just completely black or white." Her words don't make much sense to me. "But in this world, my powers changed a little to be more convenient to the plot."
Please don't break my fourth wall any more than that...
"My name is Ootsuki Senka. Appearance-wise I'm the cheap knockoff of the Kuchisake-Onna, and ability-wise the even cheaper knockoff of a certain immortal." She finally introduces herself with a bow that's accompanied by the actual sound effect of a bow, because her spine cracks at the perfect moment. That's unexpectedly cute!
Wait, that's a Japanese name! And the Kuchisake-Onna is a Japanese urban legend about a vengeful ghost-
