A Cheeky Junior Denied Me My Entire Life, so I Tested What Would Happen if I Jumped off a Rooftop to Vent My Anger
“Just in case, Shiga-san. Why are you here?”
Asama-san steps forward as if to protect me. The puppet master still looks at me with colourless eyes.
“It’s been a long time, Shinigami. It’s been two years since we saw each other like this.”
“Answer the question. The man who is the puppet messenger also looks at us with colourless eyes. Why are you here?”
Hearing Asama-san’s words, the man brushes the dust from his clothes with a resolute, military-like gesture and replies.
“…… ravens are a nuisance, but they are not unkillable. There will be some victims, but time will eventually solve that one. That is not the one to kill now.”
“Isn’t it your job to keep those victims out?”
“No, Shinigami. Our job is to eliminate the immortal …… deathless monsters from the world. Therefore, we must dispose of the boy before she becomes as unkillable as you.”
“How can you do that when I’m here?”
“Do you really think that I came here without taking any precautions?”
The man takes out of his pocket the little doll he showed me last night. …… If you look closely, it is not just a person, but it has the frightening appearance of a zombie.
“- My soul, my sacrifice.”
The man mutters something like that and sticks a knife into the doll.
“…. again?”
I, who had learned my lesson from the dog’s surprise attack yesterday, immediately noticed the abnormality. Asama-san should have immediately noticed the anomaly too, but she still laughed like she could afford to.
“Shiga-san, as ever, has bad taste. What is this doll? Do you intend to kill me with …… this?”
Where did it appear from? The zombie hordes are writhing around in the dark night, filling up the abandoned building. As usual, they do not speak or speak. This makes them all the more eerie.
The man exhales with cold eyes.
“I don’t think this is enough to kill you. …… But it will buy some time. In the meantime, I will kill the boy myself.”
“Impossible. You can’t kill Aoi-kun. …… or rather, Imina-chan is still alive, too. That girl is sleeping comfortably, right?”
The girl in front of Asama-san’s gaze is a long-haired girl with black wings. She is indeed sleeping comfortably.
“No problem. This girl still has a role to play. …… a role, working as my hands and feet.”
So saying, the man plunges a knife into the heart of the sleeping girl.
“Kaha……!”
The girl vomits blood and opens her eyes. …… her eyes are bright red and I gasp.
“A-Aaaaahhhhh!!!!”
A girl with wings kicks the ground. As if as a cue, a swarm of zombies attacks towards Asama-san.
“…… Will, Asama-san will be alright. The problem is …..”
Me and Asama-san are separated. The man approaches me, moving very slowly.
“Are you afraid of me? Boy.”
The man said. I shake my head.
“You look scared to me.”
“Yeah. I’m scared. I’m scared of dying and of not dying. Death, for me, is the unknown. …… I need it to remain unknown!”
“……!”
The man’s fist hits me directly in the stomach. The tuna bowl that I just ate is flailing around in my stomach. I couldn’t see any …… movement. There is too much difference in physical ability. If I hadn’t been immortal, I would have been knocked unconscious by the blow.
The man tells me in a solemn voice.
“Asama Iion is a monster. You seem to think she’s some kind of saviour or something, but she’s the worst kind of god of death. She is not a being that should be allowed to live in the world.”
“…… From my point of view, you’re a monster enough.”
“Yes. And you’re a monster enough. …… If you go any further astray, you won’t have a proper way to die, will you?”
“Ha, I never thought I could do that in the first place.”
I spits out the blood that had collected in my mouth and kick the ground. Ever since my father and mother died, I thought that someday I would be punished. …Or if this is the punishment…
“Why am I having so much fun, ……!”
I hit the man back. I’ve never hit a …… man before. I, who would hesitate to kill an insect in my room …… and yet I feel no remorse.
“…… hmm.”
But, to the extent that I punched him, is there not much damage? The man exhales, not seeming to care.
“You seem to be enjoying yourself, boy. For you, who only knew the ordinary world not so long ago, this world must be fun and enjoyable. …… But when the unknown is replaced by the known, you will surely despair. …… boy, I can’t help feeling sorry for you.”
“……!”
A knife rips my throat out. I cannot …… breathe. My body stops moving.
“…… I knew it, you feel no pain, don’t you? Ordinary immortals may become accustomed to pain, but they never cease to feel it. …… you are special, after all?”
The man points the tip of a knife at my eyeball. The knife glows dully. …… Oh no, he’s going to kill me. Realising this, I desperately reach out to distance myself from the man, but …… it’s no use. I can’t reach
“Sleep, boy.”
A man’s knife goes through my eyeballs and screw my brain. There is no …… pain. Just an irresistible feeling of discomfort running through my body.
—I am dead.
But I am alive. A body that dies, but does not die. I thought …….
“…… I knew I wouldn’t understand.”
The words are out of place. The heart jumps with a thump. The man pulls out his knife to give chase. …… Immediately after that
“——Aoi kun. I’m going to show you my magic now.”
“……!”
The man takes a large distance away. …… Then, finally, my body moves.
“Ouch”
I put my hand on the closed wound around my eye, then turned my gaze towards Asama-san. Asama san is surrounded by many dolls. Still, blood drips from her fingertips as she smiles, looking relaxed. Slowly, as if time had stopped, red blood soaked the ground.
I blink for a moment, a moment that lasts less than a second. Asama-san disappears from my sight.
“…… Eh?”
─ ─ ─ The next moment, the world was red and dyed.
Red blood dripped from the ceiling. When I realised, the area was dyed red with blood. No matter how you look at it, it’s not enough blood for one person.
“Well, it’s time to end this.”
In a landscape that looks like hell. The white-haired girl laughs. A solemn, yet very joyful smile. A shiver runs down …… my spine.
“-Pierce.”
Instantly, the blood in the area turns into spears. The black winged girl and the numerous dolls, wet with blood, are unable to put up any resistance and are skewered by the spears.
“Aaaa-aaaaahhhh….!!”
The doll fizzles out and the winged girl screams in agony. The sight of her reminds me of what I said last night. To kill an immortal, the man said, you have to keep wounding them faster than they regenerate.
Then, if she continues, the girl with the wings will die. I wonder if I should stop her, but for some reason I can’t find my voice.
“Don’t worry. I really don’t intend to kill her”
Asama-san laughed. A chilling smile that felt like a knife was stuck in my back. …The status is different. Somewhere in my life, I was proud of myself, thinking that I had become a special person. In fact, I have gained a power that is different from the norm and is like a monster.
But Asama-san was such a unique monster that even from my point of view, there was no way to compare her. She is different from this puppeteer man and the girl with black wings in front of her. Asama-san is different from me.
“Hahaha …….”
When I saw her, I realized. There is no such thing as a special world. This world she lives in is special.
Then I blink again. At that moment, the blood that had covered the area completely disappeared. It’s like magic.
“So, Shiga-san. Are you still planning on playing with me?”
The winged girl collapsed and all the dolls disappeared. Yet, even after seeing that hellish scene, the man still does not seem upset. The man is still calm and tells her the words.
“…… you open the gates so lightly. …… Alright, I’ll pull back for now. If you’re that fixated on that boy, then he must be special too.”
Then the man looks at me.
“But boy, if you want to die, come to me anytime. I will kill you, …… anytime.”
With that, the man’s figure dissolves into the darkness and disappears. Late at night, the abandoned building is enveloped in an ear-splitting silence.
“…… I’m glad my clothes didn’t get too dirty this time.”
I exhale tiredly, thinking how unimportant it is. Asama-san looked at me like that and laughed.
“Thanks for your hard work. It was a little different from what I had planned, but you saw some interesting things, didn’t you?”
“I wouldn’t say interesting, …… well, I did get to see some amazing things. Is that magic too, as Asama-san says?”
“Yes. I wanted to show Aoi-kun something good, so I went a bit overboard.”
Asama-san laughs again. Her smile was like that of a small child showing off her toy, and I let out a small breath. She continued speaking while looking up at the night sky outside the window.
“When I first met Aoi-kun, you were …… covered in blood and dead.”
Asama san slowly approaches me.
“Immortals, you see, they all died once. People who die and still can’t die become immortals. …… So Aoi-kun was certainly dead at that time.”
“…… I still can’t remember that time clearly.”
But I’ve remembered some things. Yesterday, the Puppet Master killed me, and just now, when he pierced me with a knife, I understood.
“You know, just before I entered …… this building, I thought that if I died, I would understand how …… my father and mother felt who died because of me. …… but that can’t be true, can it? Because I have no idea how Usa-san, who lives, feels, how Rengo feels, how Kamiya-san feels…”
There’s no way you can understand the feelings of a dead person just because you’re dead. That’s just …… an illusion.
‘…… I see. That’s why you were crying then.
“…I see. That’s why you were crying at that time. You weren’t mourning your own death, you were lamenting the injustice of this world. … That’s why you were so beautiful. ”
“I’m just pathetic, that’s all.”
“Even so, I like that about you…….Yeah, after all, I also want to see the pictures that Aoi-kun drew once.”
“The picture I drew is the one that won an award? If so, I’m sure some foundation is managing it–.”
“No, no. I’m not interested in your past. On the contrary, I want to see the picture you will draw from now on.”
Asama-san’s hand touches my cheek. Her hands are still cold.
“…… I don’t know when it’s going to be, you know? Maybe I won’t be able to paint anymore.”
“I’ll wait a hundred or two hundred years. You and I both have unlimited time.”
Asama-san removes her hand from my cheek. Then, with the expression of a child before mischief, she points her finger at an empty wall.
“Nn……?”
I look at the wall she pointed to, as if caught by Asama-san. What was there was …….
“Could this be …… me?”
There was a portrait of me drawn in blood. It was so stylish that I couldn’t help but blurt it out.
“I was just trying to be playful. How’s it coming along?”
“…… Asama-san, you’re not very good at drawing.”
“That’s terrible, even though it’s a masterpiece. ……If you’re going to say that, next time show me the pictures you drew, Aoi-kun, properly. …..You promised, didn’t you?”
“……I understand. I promise.”
Asama san laughs. I laughed too. When I’m next to this girl, I feel like I’ve changed somehow. It was probably just my imagination, but I was just happy that I could think that way now.
“…………”
And when I meditate, I remember that bright red world of blood. I thought it was …… beautiful. It was overwhelming. A world where it had been raining since my dad and mom died. I had always given up on the idea that I would continue to live in such a world.
—But she was certainly beautiful.
The moment I saw that view, the rain stopped. If I could have painted her then, my …… heart would have leapt with joy. For the first time in a long time, I wanted to paint.
“I’ll give it a go.”
And I’m about to find out. What kind of world the beings called immortals live in, how special Asama-san is and what …… she wants from me.
“…… but I’ve got to go to school tomorrow, as expected”
Saying this, I exhaled heavily.
[TLN: Haaa…where’s the romance, I feel like I could drop this novel at any time….]