“An ordinary girl? Not from where I stand. I know a cold-blooded scoundrel with no regard for human life when I see one. And I’ve seen many. You appear to be a scientist. How many subjects have been consumed by your brutal experiments?”
The girl who spoke had been standing silently until now, her arms crossed.
She was on the taller side, with distinctively narrow, almond-shaped eyes and long glossy hair gathered into a ponytail at the back of her head. She spoke like a character from a period drama about samurai, and she wore some sort of sword or katana at her waist. As she glared at the girl with the piercings, her eyes were as cold and as sharp as a blade.
Asahi had heard the phrase if looks could kill before, but this brought a whole new meaning to it.
The tension was painful.
“What’s your problem, Little Miss Samurai? So I’ve disposed of a few test subjects, so what? You clearly have no respect for human life, either. At least, not so long as you can convince yourself that the other person had it coming… Tell me, how many people have you cut down with that sword of yours?”
The girl with the piercings stood up slowly and stared back at the other girl.
‘Disposed of’? ‘Cut down’? What are they talking about? The only thing Asahi knew for sure was that whatever seedy part of Japan they had come from, it was part of the underworld.
“I’ve never bothered counting…but the number is about to go up by one.”
As Little Miss Samurai spoke, she drew her weapon from her waist. The black-lacquered blade gave off a dull sheen. The design was somewhat unusual, but it was obviously a traditional Japanese katana.
The two girls glared at each other, murderous hostility on one side versus repulsed disdain on the other. The tension had gone from painful to excruciating.
The small girl with the sickly complexion hid herself behind Asahi, apparently scared of the brewing hostility.
The last girl, who wore a strange pair of headphones on her head, did not react at all. She had yet to move a single inch since arriving. Calm might have been a virtue, but this was taking it overboard.
Now that a homicide was imminent, the Goddess seemed to finally realize that this was not going as planned.
“I…think I might have made a horrible mistake.”
“You’re telling me…”
The Goddess had supposedly gathered together five “ordinary” girls, but of the five, at least two seemed to be as far from sugar and spice as you could possibly get. More like danger itself in schoolgirl clothing. The Goddess couldn’t have chosen worse if she had tried.
Step by step, the combatants drew closer. The air was thick with hostility. Asahi had to do something before this nice white floor got stained completely red with blood.
“N-n-now, now, now! How about we introduce ourselves first?! This is probably all just a big misunderstanding. Come on, what do you say?”
The two froze and turned their daggerlike glares toward Asahi. Asahi felt the soul leave her body.
Farewell, living and breathing. Hello, impending death.
As the silence dragged on, Asahi felt the acid begin to rise into her throat. Her stomach felt like it was doing somersaults inside her. Instead of red, pretty soon the white floor was going to be stained vomit yellow.
Asahi had suggested they introduce themselves as a last-ditch effort to prevent Little Miss Samurai from going all Yojimbo on everyone, but surprisingly, it was Piercings who took Asahi up on the offer.
“Fine, if you insist… It’s Saiko,” she said, scratching her head as she spoke. She sounded put out.
“Huh?”
“My name. It’s Saiko.”
“Psycho… That makes sense…”
It was almost too on the nose.
“What do you mean, ‘that makes sense’?! It’s from kanji. Sai as in ‘talented’ and ko as in ‘girl.’ I’m half Japanese, in case you didn’t notice!”
“Oh no! I’m so sorry!” Asahi realized she had said something very rude. The girl’s name was Saiko, not Psycho. The two just sounded similar.
“Anyway, it’s true, I did use human lab rats… But my subjects were all death row inmates anyway, so I don’t see what the big deal is.”
Psycho it was.
“Indeed…? Well, in that case…” The girl with the sword seemed to be having trouble deciding on the degree of Psycho’s guilt. Committing heinous acts against heinous people apparently counted as a gray zone. For her own part, Asahi thought it sounded pretty criminal either way.
“At the end of the day, I was basically carrying out their sentences. I just happened to do it through my research instead. Think of it as their chance to finally be useful to society before death. In fact, you might even consider it an act of good.” Psycho shrugged as if to suggest that she could not begin to fathom how her activities would seem evil to someone. The corner of her mouth, however, twisted up into a smirk that made it obvious she didn’t truly believe what she was saying.
“Calling it ‘an act of good’ is a bit too far, but there is some sense in what you say. I will lower my blade, for now. I apologize for the affront.”
“Hey now, water under the bridge! Besides, I was egging you on.” Psycho flashed a goofy grin as Little Miss Samurai resheathed her sword.
“Are you…sure you’re both from Japan?”
To someone listening from the sidelines, everything they said sounded bonkers. As it turned out, most of the “misunderstanding” was actually true—Asahi felt like she had just stolen a peek at a side of Japan she wasn’t meant to see. What kind of research could Psycho possibly be carrying out on death row inmates? And why did Little Miss Samurai seem satisfied with her answer?