Mayumi looked out the window. The silver rain stabbed like needles against the charcoal gray streets. Her heart felt the same color as the city. A girl of not yet twenty, remembering everything her body had aroused thus far, such a conclusion was inevitable.
Four men had sex with her. Four men died, among them her father. She’d killed her mother, stabbed her to death with a knife. True, her mother was trying to kill her, but dead was dead. Then there were the biker gang members who’d raped her. They were all corpses by now.
Then sold to the Death Match organizers, who’d experimented on her with that junkie werewolf. She killed him, too.
Even lacking the intent, her body had nevertheless done the deed, the same as with her own two hands. However “justifiable self-defense” might stand her in good stead with the law, such rationalizations did little for her conscience.
Mayumi had no idea how to proceed from here. Those two men in the Coliseum—the most handsome she’d ever seen—fought over her, and one of them referred to her as the “seal.” It must be connected to the supernatural phenomenon arising inside her. But the deeper reasons, how everything was connected, she couldn’t comprehend.
And what did it matter anyway? Staring out at the rain-drenched city, Mayumi finally came to an understanding of what she must do. Though the joy she’d felt after killing her mother and leaving home was long gone, the desire to go far, far away burned all the stronger inside of her.
A knock came at the door. The nurse—the one with the cool, pale skin—had arrived for her noon checkup. The nurse only saw the shadows surging at her from the right of the door frame a split-second before the silver vase smashed against the side of her head.
Mayumi watched her drop without a flicker of guilt.
The nurse hadn’t hit the ground before turning into a mummy and breaking apart in a cloud of gray dust. Even then Mayumi barely registered any surprise. She’d heard of wizards and witches who fashioned furniture and household implements out of ectoplasm. Apparently the maker of this nurse shared similar talents.
Mayumi changed into the nurse’s uniform. She tucked her clothing under her arm and was about to slip out of the room when another nurse and an orderly came in, both sporting the same pale faces.
“Resistance is futile. The monitors always know where you are and what you are doing.”
Mayumi picked up a chair and swung it at her as hard as she could. The unfazed nurse took it from her and set it down. The orderly grabbed her around the shoulders and pressed a jet injector against her neck.
A cool, relaxing tide swept through her body. Mayumi slumped to her knees.
“What a troublesome patient,” said the orderly, indicating the pile of ash on the floor.
“Happens all the time,” said the nurse, and she spit onto the floor.
Whatever chemical change this aroused, the ash on the floor rose like a raised pole and in almost the same instant assumed the shape of a human being. Though the resurrected nurse looked a tad paler and cooler than before.
The three left the room. Mayumi fell into a deep sleep.
✦ ✦ ✦
She opened her eyes to find a beautiful face peering down at her. It belonged to the man who’d saved her at the Coliseum. His name was Setsura Aki.
“So you’re awake?” he said with a friendly smile that set Mayumi’s mind at ease. At the Coliseum, the drugs having muddled her thoughts, she’d keenly felt a harsh and unforgiving air about him—that now had completely evaporated. Replaced by that of a well-bred child.
“I heard you clobbered one of the nurses. At this hospital, a good seventy percent of the staff are them. One is said to be as strong as seven ordinary people. You must have really struck the mark.”
“Pure luck,” answered Mayumi, as if under his spell. “What’s going to happen to me?”
“You’ll have to stay in the hospital for a little while longer. After that, the police want to take you into custody.”
“I don’t mean that. What do the two of you want from me?”
“We don’t really know,” Setsura said, scratching his head.
“He called me the seal. What does that mean?”
“I was hoping that I would know,” Setsura said, feigning complete ignorance. “But as for me, haven’t a clue.”
Mayumi turned toward the window. Dusk was falling. The garish glow of the neon lights from Kabuki-cho and Shinjuku Nichome lit up the darkening gloom. The next question from Setsura took her by surprise.
“You want to go there?”
“What, are you some sort of superman?”
“I own a senbei shop.”
A curious look rose to Mayumi’s face. “You have an interesting taste in fashion.”
“You want out of here?”
“Yeah.” She nodded.
“Not a bad idea. The living is tough, but when it comes to getting by on your own, this city is easier than the outside world.”
“My mother said the same thing. The world out there, she liked to say, is a bear. People who live in this city have it the best. You may not find happiness here. But in exchange, no one’s going to give you grief for just about anything you do. That’s what I want for myself right now.”
“Sounds pretty darn close to happiness to me.”
Setsura looked out the window as well. Demon City was stained in India ink. People went everywhere and lived everywhere, to the ends of the earth. They lived in Demon City. They came to Demon City to shuck off all the constraints that once defined them as human. And if their wishes came true, wouldn’t they call that the pursuit of happiness?
In this city they harbored rage and sadness and suffering, were afflicted in body and spirit. And they lived.
In Demon City Shinjuku.
“You were good enough to bring me here,” Mayumi said, softly fixing her eyes on Setsura’s profile. “Do you know what my illness is?”
Setsura nodded.
Mayumi looked back at him silently. His eyes seemed to draw her into their endless depths. Seeing herself reflected in them, she felt a scorching sadness well up inside of her.
“I don’t want to know, but I can’t help knowing. Any man that sleeps with me dies. Or even tries. Despite any intentions of my own. They turn into slobbering ogres. You’re the one who brought me here—”
“Yeah.”
“When all this is over and done with, could you take me somewhere out there? Somewhere peaceful and quiet, where there aren’t many men around.”
Mayumi looked into his eyes. Perhaps she saw the gray city floating there in the depths of that endless black.
“I don’t care what the seal means, or what’s going to happen after this. Everything comes to an end eventually. And when it does—”
Setsura nodded. “I promise.”
“I’m counting on it. What do you think I should do after this?”
“Stay here for a while longer. There’s another man I’m looking for, and the syndicate that runs the Death Match is on the move. No matter who might be after you, this hospital is hell’s gate for them. They wouldn’t get past the lobby. You won’t find a safer refuge anywhere else.”
“That’s right. Mephisto Hospital is safer than Hades itself.” Mayumi smiled a mature and knowing smile. Children here, it was said, aged a few years faster than in the outside world. A real world more real than any other had that effect.
A city that a girl of not yet twenty called hell.
The phone next to the bed rang. Mayumi picked it up. “It’s for you,” she said, handing it to Setsura.
A familiar voice announced that he had returned. Mephisto was back.