She didn’t wait for Wataru to respond. Suddenly her body began to shrink rapidly. Wataru stared. Where Kaori had stood only moments before, now there was only a small, warped shadow on the floor. Then a slick, black arm came out of the shadow. It was thick and round as a log. A hand like a large fan groped in the air, first to the right, then the left. It was no human hand—though it bore some some similarities. Another arm followed, and together they clutched at the floor, pulling.
“My face…” A large head emerged from the shadows.
Wataru gasped and took a step back.
“My true face. Does it not please you?” Only the sweet voice remained the same. But the mouth was that of a giant bullfrog. Giant lips flapped in the cool air of the tower. Eyes the size of basketballs protruded from its forehead. Ugly warts dotted its forest-green hide.
“Well? Tell me.” As it spoke, the frog worked its arms, pulling the rest of its body out of the shadow. A thick hind leg slapped wetly against the floor. There was something oddly familiar in the pattern on its skin. It was like a wallpaper print covered with the moving, writhing figures of…
The winged skeletal demonkin. Miniature demonkin writhed all over the skin of the giant bullfrog.
So this is my fairy.
“You seem surprised, dear little Wataru,” the frog said, the loose flaps of skin at its throat trembling as it spoke. “Yet this is only what you asked for. This is the truth you dragged out of me. Look well, Wataru. For this is how I truly am.”
“Who are…”
“Did Wayfinder Lau not tell you? Do you not know of me? Yes, the very same misfortune you bore in the real world, the same sadness, I have borne here in Vision. My name is Onba.” A dark, heavy croaking sound joined the voice of the little girl, making every word a discordant harmony in two parts. “I am the manifestation of all that is ugly, all that is unwanted, all that was cut away as unnecessary by the Goddess at the time Vision was made. I am the darkness where there is light, the negative pole.”
The manifestation of everything unwanted…
“My sweet, young Traveler. You who have come this far know the meaning of unwanted. What is unwanted is everything that does not meet the hopes and desires of this world, that falls short of its dreams. It is ugliness where beauty is sought, misfortune where happiness is desired, injustice where justice must be done. All the anger and greed and regret for what might have been—that is me.”
Wataru stepped slowly backward, shaking his head, feeling Onba’s giant eyes burning into him. “No, I don’t understand.”
“But you must!” The thick, gravelly voice gained strength, dominating the familiar voice of the girl. That’s what she really sounds like. “Pitiful child of man. I know the bitter fate you were fed in the real world, I know. That is why I approached you. I knew an unfair fate would destroy what you held precious so that you would curse the real world and come here, to Vision. I knew.”
Indeed, the first time the sweet voice had talked to him, Wataru had been living in ignorant bliss, not even knowing about his father and Rikako Tanaka. He had no inkling that the fabric of his daily life was about to be torn in two.
“I pity you, Wataru, I truly do. That is why I wanted to help,” Onba said, her voice suddenly switching back to the little girl.
“Stop!” Wataru yelled suddenly. “Don’t talk to me like that!”
Then Onba began to laugh, her eyes rolling as her voice dropped two octaves. Soon her great mouth was opened wide, bellowing with laughter. “You should know! Why is one person blessed with happiness, while another must know misfortune? Why must you suffer when it is your parents who have failed? Why you? Why not somebody else? Doesn’t it make you angry? Don’t you want to use your rage to undo this injustice?”
Wataru merely shook his head. Onba took one lumbering step forward, closing the distance between them. “We are angry when others are given what is not given to us. We are jealous of what we possess when it is given away to others. Our bellies burn with desire and envy. This is our true nature. The negativity that is me should, by all rights, have been scattered throughout Vision, like the shards of the Mirror of Truth. We could have been broken into countless, harmless fragments living peacefully among the masses. Yet the fools wouldn’t accept the darkness in their own hearts, they wanted it out. They pretended we didn’t belong to them…that they couldn’t see us. Like the Goddess before them, they tried to banish us forever!” The great frog’s voice crescendoed into a primal howl. “Lost, wandering, we fell into the Dark. Yet the Dark gave us strength, and I was born. I returned to Vision.”
So Onba, like the demonkin, had come to Vision from that place, that Dark that hated Vision, and would devour it if it got the chance.
“That is why I wanted someone, a child of man. I belong in your heart. Your heart is my home.” Onba’s eyes stared at Wataru, her head tilting inquisitively. “Were you not my friend? Have you forgotten how much I helped you?”
Wataru tried to control his trembling, but couldn’t. He didn’t know if he was scared or sad. If he was sad, he didn’t know why—perhaps somewhere in his heart he knew, but he couldn’t put it into words. He shook his head, shut his eyes, and clenched his fists. “I didn’t know who you were, really. I didn’t know what you wanted.”
“Who I really am?” Onba’s voice was a low, guttural growl. “I am you. I am that unwanted thing, that dark negativity that crouches, hidden deep inside. It is only because I exist within you that you are able to talk to me in this way.”
Something unwanted inside me? Wataru had never thought about it—he hadn’t really had time. But now that he did, he found that it was there. Deep in his heart, a part of him was furious at his misfortune. A part of him wondered, Why me?
Just like his hate had become a double of himself, walking free, the negativity within Wataru had called out to Onba. She was the manifestation of all that wasn’t wanted, and she was coming home to him.