The girl Saotome Masami fell in love with was a second year student, Kirima nagi. He told her this in May.
She rejected him quite harshly.
"Sorry, but I don't have the time," was all she said.
"Is... Is it because I'm younger?"
"No, not really... You're normal, right? Me? I'm nothing but trouble. Thanks, but sorry.
"O-okay."
He was far less hurt by this than he'd expected. Quite the opposite; he found himself rather relieved to be brushed off coldly.
It was two months before he identified the source of those feelings.
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"Hey, Saotome, you take Akiko home. I'll take care of Noguchi," Sakamoto whispered in Masami's ear as their time in the karaoke box ran low.
"Sure. Good luck," Masami whispered back.
As the four of them left the shop, Kusatsu Akiko suddenly proclaimed, "I... I don't feel so good." Her face was white as a sheet.
"That's too bad. I'd better take you home," Masami said, putting his arm around her shoulders.
"Uh, hang on! Saotome-kun!" Sachiko cried, all flustered. She was about to be left alone by Sakamoto.
"You two have fun. Don't worry, I'll look after her."
"Er, but..."
"You heard the man. Let him go," Sakamoto said, cajoling.
As the men had planned, they split off into two pairs. Noguchi Sachiko was steamrolled under Sakamoto's promises that he wouldn't "try anything."
Afterwards, he did get her to a hotel, where they had relations, but Noguchi Sachiko's parents found out and her old-fashioned father stormed the school, tracked Sakamoto down, and cursed him out in front of everyone. But in all the fuss, the two of them never had a moment to notice the events that followed. They had completely forgotten they were ever with Saotome Masami that night.
"Bye!"
"Yeah," Masami replied, as the four became two.
"I feel sick..." Kusatsu Akiko's voice grew gradually weaker in Masami's arms.
Masami never spoke a word. He simply hauled her along as if she were a piece of luggage. The silence was deafening.
Akiko was in no condition to be insulted. Her face was well beyond pale; you could see the blood vessels under her skin.
Not caring, Masami dragged her into the backroads. All they did was leave the lights and noise of the main drag for a narrow backroad, but it was as silent as a graveyard, seemingly light years from the bustle of the city.
Before them was a giant parking garage that had failed in its bid to reopen and been abandoned. The land was intended to become an office building, but the owner had been unable to find any clients, and he had no other choice but to make it into a parking garage. As luck would have it, the owner had then gone bankrupt, and it was now just another one of the country's forgotten bad debts.
Masami slipped between the railings of the surrounding fence, holding Akiko under his arm. She said nothing. She had already stopped breathing.
He dragged her up to the seventh floor of the parking lot. This far up, there was no chance of them being disturbed by thrill seekers.
Leaving Akiko on the ground, Masami stuck his face outside. It was pitch black all around them. Even if a normal human on the ground had been looking upwards, they could never have seen him.
He looked at his watch. It was a digital watch with backlit screen. Unlike radical watches, it had the advantage of not making a sound.
The time confirmed, he nodded to himself.
Staring into the blackness below him, he waved his hands. There was a small noise from far below him, like someone pushing a tack into a board.
Within an instant, a human shape appeared in the air in front of Masami.
It was a girl.
The shape slid past Masami, entering the parking lot. It landed right at the top of its arc, and there was no sound as its feet touched the floor.
The girl had jumped all the way to the seventh floor.
She turned towards Masami. She had long, bountiful, black hair plastered to her head. She had a cram school bag in her hand.
It was Yurihara Minako.
"Were you successful?" she asked.
Masami nodded. "Over there," he said, pointing to Akiko's corpse, which lay on its side, no longer moving.
"That one? The other girl was better," Yurihara said, frowning. Agitation could not be farther from her mind.
"Not really. This girl has friends all over. Lots of friends from Junior High," Masami replied, voice devoid of warmth.
"Does she? The fine. You know more than I do, Saotome-kun." Yurihara handed her bag to Masami. He took it like an obedient little hotel bellboy whose only job is to serve.
Yurihara stooped down in front of Akiko.
"Mmm... Seems like a waste not to eat her now," she said, her beautiful face contorting.
"Yeah, but if we use her, you'll be able to assmilate four or five more in no time," Masami chuckled. "For now, we wait, Manticore."
"Human society makes it hard to move." Yurihara the Manticore said, sighing.
She lowered her face next to Akiko's.
Her long hair started to get in the way, so she held it back with her fingers, and kissed the corpse tenderly.
Her tongue pried the body's mouth open, forcing a gaseous form of the essence manufactured inside her body in Akiko.
Watching this monstrous, sinister spectacle unfolding in the darkness, Masami was entranced. As if he felt sexual pleasure, his face was even more ecstatic than at the moment of ejaculation.
For thirty long seconds, Yurihara kept her lips pressed to the corpse's.
Finally, she pulled away, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. Her lips were bright red, but not from lipstick - the color did not rub off on her hands.
The color of her skin was so sleek that she appeared to be wearing makeup, but this was also her natural state. When she had copied the real Yurihara Minako, she had copied the makeup as well.
"She should be revitalized momentarily," Yurihara said, with a satisfied smile.
"Hmm..." Masami said doubtfully. To make sure, he kicked the corpse lightly. Its fingers twitched. "Good."
Bit by bit, the entire body began shaking violently, as if it were lying on top of a high voltage electric fence.
Then the torso shot upwards, as if on a spring.
The eyes and mouth popped open, and a blue liquid, neither tears nor saliva, came pouring out of them.
"Woah! Can't let that touch me," Masami said, backing away from the sweet scent wafting off of the volatile liquid.
"Yes. For humans, it will work like a drug. It would not do for you to become addicted as well, Saotome-kun." Yurihara placed herself between Masami and Akiko. "Look here, woman," she ordered.
The no longer dead Akiko did as she was told, slowly rolling her head towards Yurihara. The flow of liquid had stopped.
"I have given you power. Power to corrupt humans. Use this power to supply me with more humans."
In human society, Yurihara's words were unthinkable, but the previously dead girl nodded.
"Corrupt them well. When they suddenly vanish, we want the humans around them to assume that this was the logical next stage of their recent poor behavior. Include yourself."
Behind her, Masami nodded proudly, like a parent whose son had just correctly answered a question on visitor's day.
Yurihara whispered, "You have no memories of what happened here. You went bad of your own free will..."