As she gave herself over to the safety of their arms, she realized that the burst of light had come from Yuji-san’s camera flash. Rumi turned to look at the photographer when suddenly she screamed.
Standing just behind Yuji was the man, and in his hand was the knife.
The moment Rumi screamed, Yuji spun to confront him, squaring off against the unearthly monster with the skinless face.
Without any hesitation, Yuji lowered his center of gravity and rushed at him, ducking around the knife. Yuji drove his shoulder into the man’s solar plexus and tackled him with such force that the photographer could have been mistaken for an American linebacker.
The man grunted and spewed frothy blood from his lipless mouth. He teetered for a moment before falling over forward, knife still in hand. It was on that knife he landed. It drove into his throat, right near his Adam’s apple.
Coughing up massive amounts of blood, redness leaking through his teeth, the man rose unsteadily to his feet. Even with the knife jutting from his throat, he came on, shuffling zombielike toward the three. A normal person would certainly have died by now, but this was a monster, beyond the rules of nature.
Yuji crouched again. He aimed his shoulder carefully, then tackled once again, sending the man flying back.
The man tumbled into the darkness of the hallway. He struck the wall, head cracking against it in impact.
This time, he remained still.
Attempting a reassuring smile, Yuji said, “Rumi-chan, are you all right?”
Her face a mess, Rumi leaned against the cameraman, who gently put his arms around her. She asked, “Is he dead? Tell me he’s dead.”
“He’s dead,” Yuji said, softly brushing her hair. “You don’t need to worry anymore. Look, he’s not moving.”
Tadokoro asked with concern in his voice, “Where’s Mima? Did anything happen to her?”
Rumi’s eyes went wide. Her sudden rescue had pushed Mima from her mind.
She looked up at Tadokoro and said, “I think she’s all right. But she’s probably still running around the building trying to escape that monster. She has no way of knowing he’s dead. She’s probably terrified right now, the poor thing….”
Yuji said, “Tadokoro-san, let’s find the main breaker and get the power back on in this place. We need light first.” He gritted his teeth. “This musty darkness is too depressing.”
II
Mima felt herself floating in the air.
A moment later, her body slammed against the concrete floor. With the wind knocked out of her, she remained still for a minute, nursing her pain.
It was too dark for her to see anything, but she knew she had fallen down some steps—four or five, she thought. She imagined what could have happened had it been a whole flight of stairs, and the terror of the thought made all the hairs on her body stand on end.
At the top of the steps, she could see the faint outline of an object, but nothing more. This was as close to total darkness as it could get, as if the air itself had turned to black.
Mima got on her hands and knees and proceeded slowly, feeling about with her hands, searching for more steps or other dangerous obstacles in her path.
After a short time, her hand touched something. The object was firm and round and about the size of a rugby ball. Here and there it had little bumps and valleys, and on the top there was something akin to hair.
It seemed to be a mannequin head.
She searched around with her hands and quickly found several more of the heads scattered about. Apparently, Mima was in some kind of storage area.
Now that she thought about it, she recalled seeing a male idol singing some song with several mannequins behind him. The props had likely been left behind after the recording.
Next to the mannequin heads was a pile of scrap lumber, which Mima suspected had been used to construct the set. She circled around the lumber pile to proceeded ahead, but her way was soon blocked by a large object that occupied the floor.
Her hand brushed against its cold metal surface. Feeling around, she found a large, curving metal fin, and then several more. Mima quickly concluded it was a giant industrial fan used for special effects. The fan must have tipped over flat on its back.
She had seen this fan before, during the taping of her song, “Innocence Forever!” The machine had been used to blow the cherry blossoms through the air.
Mima found herself flooded with memories of her debut. For a moment, all thoughts of that stalker left her mind, and she relived the path her career had taken her and the emotions she’d felt along the way.
Some of it had been painful. Some of it had been sad. But those were outnumbered by times of fun and happiness.
I’m not sorry I became an idol, she convinced herself in the dark.
Tadokoro and Yuji supported Rumi on either side as the three went deeper into the studio building.
Holding out a disposable lighter to light the way, the manager said, “The breaker room should be downstairs, if I remember right.”
Together, they searched for a staircase down.
III
Mima’s body went stiff.
She could hear a strange sound. It was like a giant cockroach rustling across the floor.
Was it Rumi?
Mima dismissed the idea. Though she had no proof, she knew it wasn’t.
Mima kept moving, trying to put distance between her and the source of the noise.
Along with the scratching crawl, she started to hear something that sounded like a person trying to clear their throat. Whatever the thing was, it was alive.