“Even in this amusement park, there are traces of Kousuke trying to go after us.” Without minding that I haven’t given any indication that I was still listening, Kurashima talked on. “The parliament building imitation and the merry-go-round were both set on fire, and weren’t you guys attacked by monsters? Those things, the living things that look like they’ve been combined with a screen, they listen to us, to an extent. Like an obedient pet.”
True, as I recall Kousuke was using that smartbug— the thing that looked like a screen combined with a bug— very easily. That part makes sense, I think. If that was the case, I wish he’d told me that sooner. If those monsters had listened to us, we might have been able to deal with them. It’s too late now, though.
Now that he mentioned it, I get the feeling that that giant monkey monster stopped assaulting Torii as soon as Utena yelled for it to. If only she’d done that earlier. At the very least, Torii would have been ok.
“He tried to kill you by provoking those monsters,” Kurashima explained. “In reality, Torii-chan was gravely wounded... It’s a miracle she’s still alive, as she was clearly attacked with intent to kill.” By Kousuke-kun, or so Kurashima kept repeating at me, filling that phrase with spite.
He was pointing Kousuke out as the culprit. “He’s just suspicious in general, he is. He keeps going off on his own; he calls it investigation but, really, I bet he’s just trying to find a chance to end us. And he’s attacked us several times already. The two of us have survived narrowly, but Torii-chan is greatly injured, and now Utena-chan is dead.”
That’s right, Utena is dead. As I thought, if you die in this dimension, you die for real. There is no salvation.
“This is just my conjecture...” Kurashima said. “But Utena-chan was tricked by Kousuke-kun. It looked like the two of them were very close friends. Whatever he says, well, she would believe it over something I said.”
Friends. It shouldn’t have been a relationship that could be summed up so easily. He doesn’t know anything.
“Utena was probably tricked by Kousuke, who was giving her false information,” Kurashima concluded.
At that point, I couldn’t stand to listen to any more. I plugged my ears.
“—told her a way to escape,” he continued. “A way to escape from this bizarre amusement park, that is... It probably went like this: ‘If you die, you’ll get out.’” That’s why she jumped to her death, or so Kurashima said.
I stood up. I looked at Kurashima vacantly. At his refreshing, attractive looks. Feminine long hair— balanced physique that I could only discern because of the riding suit that complimented his body line— An actor that came from the city, from beyond the TV.
I glared at the outsider. “Kousuke is my childhood friend.” I clearly put into words what I probably hadn’t told Kurashima yet. “That’s why, when it comes to him...I know him better than you. He’s not the awful type of person that would drive a girl who confessed to him further down into hell. He’s the type of idiot who would drag her along, care for her, and at least try to protect her.” I reached my hand out to grab Kurashima’s rider suit while he was dumbfounded. I pulled down at the zipper that ran down his body’s center line with all my strength. It wasn’t like I had any proof. I just thought, if there was any place on him to hide something disgusting, it would be there— he was reeking of blood the whole time, too.
“You’re a liar, and a killer.” I said, done using polite speech. His clothes, which had been hidden by the riding suit, were soaked with blood. The huge amount of blood, which was dried and sticky, was blackened and strange. It would’ve been fine if he had just changed, but I guess he hated the idea of putting on an unknown school uniform.
Troubled, the outsider— Kurashima, let out a bitter laugh. “You’re a stupid girl, aren’t you? More than I thought. Although you looked more clever than the other girls...”
“You don’t know me.” I pushed him away. I tried to step back a little, but I couldn’t. There was a creepy, soft sensation on the back of my head. Like I touched a marshmallow.
Timidly, I looked up. There, was the giant slug or sea slug-like thing I saw last night. There were specks all over its body, and they opened and closed bizarrely to expose its interior screens. When did it get close, I wondered. It didn’t make any sound at all, so I didn’t notice.
No. Kurashima was distracting me until it could get close. While he spoke of appropriate, but meaningless things, enough that even I felt something was wrong.
The slug dripped mucus down onto the nape of my neck, dirtying it. I found the answer to another irrelevant question: the cooking that I ate earlier with Utena and Kurashima was...probably this thing’s meat, because the texture was the exact same. When I looked, I could see traces where parts of it had been cut off around the tail end of the slug. Now that I think about it, Kurashima didn’t touch the cooking at all. I did wonder where he got the materials for the food.
The monster restricted my movements by doing its body’s equivalent of leaning over on top of me. I was basically buried under this giant slug. My back hurt like it was being toasted. Is it trying to kill me, bit by bit, with its digestive fluids? It’s a slow thing, I should be able to get away if I run, but it’s all over if I trip and fall. Kurashima probably doesn’t intend to let me get away, either. I can’t win in a chase over an older man.
This was the situation to run desperately, but before that there was something that I was curious about. “Why?” In a daze, I asked while gazing at the monster that was coming closer to me. “Why are you doing all these terrible things to us?”
“I don’t really have any feelings towards you, that’s why I was trying to convince you. I was thinking that it would be fine if I let only you live,” Kurashima said, pulling up the zipper on his suit in an easygoing fashion. “Although, it was more like it didn’t matter to me if you lived or died.” He was knocked onto his butt when I pushed him away, but he slowly stood back up. At some point, he had pulled out a large knife. There was some blood stuck on it. He didn’t talk about his thoughts like a villain from some cheap detective novel. He just bared his intent to kill me without any explanation.
It’s to be expected; I’m neither a policewoman nor am I a famous detective. In terms of roles, I’d be a minor or supporting role with nothing to do with the main plot— a victim, at best. I wouldn’t be able to get him to kindly reveal his circumstances. He just wants to quickly take care of me before moving on to the next step.