He had said that shortly after they met, back when they were out walking together.
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She smiled faintly at the memory. That was enough, she thought.
✦ ✦ ✦
"........."
✦ ✦ ✦
Asukai Jin looked down at her wordlessly.
✦ ✦ ✦
This stability, even when facing her own end, was exactly what he needed.
✦ ✦ ✦
The phone in his breast pocket rang.
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“What?” he answered. Only his followers knew this number.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Someone’s approaching.”
✦ ✦ ✦
“Who?”
✦ ✦ ✦
“Him again-the boy playing ‘Boogiepop.”’
✦ ✦ ✦
“Okay. . .”Asukai frowned. ‘ So he did come,’ he thought. But his voice never lost its quiet. “Deal with him as planned.”
✦ ✦ ✦
The person replied, “Roger,” and hung up.
✦ ✦ ✦
Aya had not heard their conversation. She had not even appeared interested, as if nothing was worth paying attention to ever again.
✦ ✦ ✦
‘If I told her...’ Asukai thought, staring at her fragile profile.
✦ ✦ ✦
‘IfI told her, what would she do?’
✦ ✦ ✦
For a moment, he was tempted to find out.
✦ ✦ ✦
But of course, he said nothing. He just toyed with the notion in the back of his mind.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Shit...!” I swore, and dumped the bike. I climbed the rest of the way on foot.
✦ ✦ ✦
There was no green anywhere on the mountain. It had been completely cleared, and parts of it were already paved with asphalt.
✦ ✦ ✦
A big sign that read, “Paisley Park Construction Site” came into view, and behind it, I could see several towers and other constructions, glowing eerily in the light of the setting sun.
✦ ✦ ✦
It was surrounded by heavy-duty fences.
✦ ✦ ✦
They looked hard to climb. Too tall, and made of smooth vertical poles, leaving no footholds.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Shit, shit, shit!” I fretted, walking along the fence, looking for an opening.
✦ ✦ ✦
I had hoped that shaking the fence would dislodge it or knock it over, but it wouldn’t budge, even though it must have been here for years.
✦ ✦ ✦
I lost my temper again. “Damn it!” I yelled, kicking the fence.
✦ ✦ ✦
And about ten meters away, I heard a creak.
✦ ✦ ✦
I snapped my head towards the sound, and found a section of the fence slowly opening-an emergency exit of some kind.
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(Did the latch break when I kicked it?)
✦ ✦ ✦
I darted towards it...
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But I heard a faint rustle, and skidded to a stop.
✦ ✦ ✦
What was it?
✦ ✦ ✦
"..............."
✦ ✦ ✦
I moved forward again, slowly. . .carefully.
✦ ✦ ✦
The sound kept going, like whatever it was was increasing.
✦ ✦ ✦
I gritted my teeth.
✦ ✦ ✦
The door had been opened deliberately. They were waving me in.
✦ ✦ ✦
Common sense told me to retreat.
✦ ✦ ✦
But if I had had any of that, I never would have come here in the first place. The fact that someone was waiting for me was, really, proof that I had guessed correctly. Orihata was here.
✦ ✦ ✦
So I had to go in.
✦ ✦ ✦
"..............."
✦ ✦ ✦
I felt briefly like I was missing something. Which embarrassed me.
✦ ✦ ✦
Because I was missing my outfit.
✦ ✦ ✦
When I was wearing it, it was much easier to take on something unnatural, like I was now. It was easier to concentrate, kind of like I was hypnotizing myself into bravery.
✦ ✦ ✦
But it was gone now.
✦ ✦ ✦
I had to do this by my own force of will.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Let’s do this,” I said softly, and slipped through the fence into Paisley Park.
✦ ✦ ✦
The half-finished, skeletal buildings cast complicated and sinister line patterns across the ground in the near horizontal rays of the setting sun.
✦ ✦ ✦
Just walking on those patterns made me feel drunk.
✦ ✦ ✦
I hadn’t noticed on the motorcycle or while I was rushing forward, but the wind had gotten really strong.
✦ ✦ ✦
“...Orihata!” I shouted, but the wind stole my voice, and it went nowhere.
✦ ✦ ✦
I was gonna have to check every one of these buildings.
✦ ✦ ✦
I started walking.
✦ ✦ ✦
Behind me, a footstep crunched the sand that lay piled on the asphalt.
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Scrunch, scrunch...more than one. Several.
✦ ✦ ✦
"........." Ready for anything, I turned around.
✦ ✦ ✦
And was completely surprised.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Wh-what?! !” I blurted. The five figures behind me were...
✦ ✦ ✦
......A bear.
✦ ✦ ✦
......A panda.
✦ ✦ ✦
......A penguin.
✦ ✦ ✦
......A cat.
✦ ✦ ✦
......A dinosaur.
✦ ✦ ✦
Obviously, all costumes.
✦ ✦ ✦
And they were coming towards me.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Wh-what the hell?!” I shouted, confused. A second later, they all lunged at me, so I had to hurriedly dodge.
✦ ✦ ✦
"......!" They may have been dressed like a joke, but their movements were completely serious.
✦ ✦ ✦
Their kicks and punches were extremely accurate.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Unh...rah!” Moving backwards, I kicked the penguin in the stomach. p
✦ ✦ ✦
But the costume cushioned the blow, absorbing the impact.
✦ ✦ ✦
But it also twisted my foot...
✦ ✦ ✦
‘Uh oh,’ I thought.
✦ ✦ ✦
They weren’t dressed up like this to mess with me. It was for protection! And just as I had with my own outfit, they were also using theirs to remain focused. They had probably found them stored somewhere in the park. The stranger you look, the easier it is to do something crazy.
✦ ✦ ✦
(So, the people inside these things are. . .normal?!) Who was attacking me?
✦ ✦ ✦
I tripped the bear, and tried to run away to give myself time to figure things out. I figured the costumes would be hard to run in.
✦ ✦ ✦
I figured wrong. "
✦ ✦ ✦
My passage was blocked by a group of clowns.
✦ ✦ ✦
“G-gimme me a break. . . !”
✦ ✦ ✦
I understood the logic behind it, but it was still bad for my heart.
✦ ✦ ✦
I changed direction, and dashed off again.
✦ ✦ ✦
But again and again, wave after wave, people in bizarre costumes and clothing, with their faces painted purple, or yellow, or some other weird ass color, just kept coming at me.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Augh! Get away!”
✦ ✦ ✦
I scrambled to avoid them.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Nothing to be afraid of, Boogiepop-kun,” one of them...too many to tell which-said.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Nothing to be afraid of.”
✦ ✦ ✦
“Don’t be scared!”
✦ ✦ ✦
The others joined in, like a relay race, or a game of telephone.
✦ ✦ ✦
“St-stay away!” I shouted, finding myself surrounded.
✦ ✦ ✦
“There’s no reason to be frightened, Boogiepop-kun......”
✦ ✦ ✦
they said, the same thing, over and over.
✦ ✦ ✦
“You’ll understand soon......”
✦ ✦ ✦
No matter how many I punched or kicked, they kept on coming. It was as if they’d never heard of using caution.
✦ ✦ ✦
“St-stop this...!” I shouted, trying to punch a new guy in the face, but he just grinned at me.
✦ ✦ ✦
"......!"
✦ ✦ ✦
The face under the makeup was that of a girl’s. Young, probably high school.
✦ ✦ ✦
Thrown completely, I stopped moving.
✦ ✦ ✦
Seizing the chance, several others piled on me from behind.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Sh-shit! Let go!!”
✦ ✦ ✦
I slammed my elbow into them, but they were the guys in costumes, and my blows had no effect.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Don’t be afraid......”
✦ ✦ ✦
“It’ll be over soon......”
✦ ✦ ✦
Each of my limbs was pinned down by at least three people, and I was completely unable to move.
✦ ✦ ✦
“D-damn it!”
✦ ✦ ✦
As I struggled, a male clown brought something towards me.
✦ ✦ ✦
A needle.
✦ ✦ ✦
Some sort of drug inside it.
✦ ✦ ✦
"........." I gulped
✦ ✦ ✦
“Don’t worry, Boogiepop-kun. When you wake up, you’ll be one of us......” he said, as he stuck the needle in my arm.
✦ ✦ ✦
“N-noooo!” I screamed. But the clown’s fingers pushed the end of the needle relentlessly, injecting the liquid inside into my a veins.
✦ ✦ ✦
(O-orihata......!)
✦ ✦ ✦
Filled with rage and despair, the world grew dim before my eyes.
✦ ✦ ✦
There was a sudden pain in my arm.
✦ ✦ ✦
I swung my gaze that way, and the needle, still stuck in my arm, was broken in two.
✦ ✦ ✦
The clown was staring at his empty hands in surprise.
✦ ✦ ✦
Half the needle was still stuck in me-but the other half was I floating in the air above my chest.
✦ ✦ ✦
“......Eh?”
✦ ✦ ✦
The needle suddenly leapt away, like something was pulling on it.
✦ ✦ ✦
I looked in that direction......
✦ ✦ ✦
And the needle fell to the ground in front of a shadowy figure. i Before I even realized what it was, I thought, ‘.........Oh, I get it. He must’ve yanked the needle out with some sort of micro-filament wire, and that’s what caused it to break and go flying towards him.’
✦ ✦ ✦
Why was I suddenly able to make such a calm analysis? My only explanation is that my brain was in such a state of panic that it couldn’t figure out what else to think about.
✦ ✦ ✦
Why? Because the shadowy figure......
✦ ✦ ✦
Standing there, looking more like a pipe than a person, as if it had risen directly out of the dark ground, was a figure I knew all loo well. Too well, in fact, as now I had no earthly idea of what was happening.
✦ ✦ ✦
Did I know it?
✦ ✦ ✦
How could I not?
✦ ✦ ✦
After all the time I’d spent......
✦ ✦ ✦
“Wh-who are you?” the clown screamed.
✦ ✦ ✦
The figure in the black cloak answered quietly, “You already know who I am.”
✦ ✦ ✦
From the voice, it was impossible to tell if it was a man or a woman.
✦ ✦ ✦
He reached his hand out from under the cloak. There was a stopwatch in it. Glancing down at it, the cloaked figure said, “3, 2, 1......” then waved his hand.
✦ ✦ ✦
And a horrifically loud noise rocked Paisley Park.
✦ ✦ ✦
It was......
✦ ✦ ✦
At first, they had been opposed to me even getting a license, but once I started going to cram school and coming home so late, I was able to easily convince them it was much safer at night if was driving something. It’s at moments like this that you realiz just how strangely useful it is to have such a horrible thing happen to you in the past.