Usotsuki Mii-kun to Kowareta Maa-chan:Volume 1 Chapter 2

Chapter 2 "The Parents and the Diagnosis"

"I wonder what everyone else is doing."

"Who's everyone?"

"Like Nagase-san and Kawataki-san."

"School friends?"

"Yep."

"Then they're probably going to school like normal."

"I wonder if they're worried about us?"

"I'm sure they are."

But somewhere in my heart I knew they probably weren't.

"How about mum and dad?"

"…..I'm sure they are too."

There, our conversation stopped.

And as if to forget what we had just spoken about, we both fell asleep.

I woke up at seven in the morning, when the morning rays are at the brightest. I walked past the school gates at a time way too early for attending school, and continued to walk on to Mayu's apartment. It was in order to start living together from today. Due to that excitement, I woke up as early as an adult waking up for the release date of a game he had waited twelve years for since his childhood. Although it's a lie.

It was just that I did not want to come across my night-loving auntie who worked as a nurse. Last night, I involved myself in a large fight with her as soon as I came home. She threw words that denied my right to live along with the threat to oppress my basic human rights. Before the fight evolved in to torn flesh and broken bones though, my understanding uncle who worked as a doctor gave in, permitting my leaving with the conditions that I come to show my face every month. Auntie was against it the entire time. She was a bit over protective, but she wasn't a person as bad as me.

"I wonder if I'm too early….."

I got on the elevator and went all the way up to the third floor. There I stood in front of the door and thought for a while. Mayu was a girl who slept a lot. The only activities she dedicated herself to at school was sleeping with her head on the desk, and coming more than an hour late to class.

"I did promise her I'd come and pick her up but I wonder if she can wake up….."

I pressed the door bell with no expectations of her answering. If she doesn't answer the door I can just wait outside. The door opened and slammed in to my face.

"Huh, wha, ow!"

The emotion that failed to turn in to words flowed out of my noise as a red liquid instead.

"Hi! Mii-kun!"

I held my nose while Mayu greeted enthusiastically.

"Hellooo?" Mayu looked in to my face while retaining her smile. Then started forcefully wiping the nose bleed flowing between my fingers with the sleeves of her pyjamas.

"It's fine. It'll get dirty." I said.

"Don't worry. Mii-kun's is clean." She replied.

Her blue and white striped pyjamas added a third party of colours to its patterns. Upon seeing this, Mayu smiled with trance-like eyes.

"…..Since when have you been waiting in the entrance way?"

With goosebumps and patches of cold sweat peppered across my back, I hesitantly confirmed.

"Since yesterday." She replied.

"………….yesterday?"

"Yesterday."

"……Since when on yesterday?"

"After Mii-kun escaped and I had a bath."

The time in which I left the room was seven at night.

"You were waiting in front of the door?"

"Yep."

"Doing what?"

"Sleeping."

"…………………………."

Um.

I guess our relationship will depend on whether I tear up from her praiseworthy loyalty or shiver in the corner of the corridor from her excessive loyalty. But without even pondering the question, like the sourpuss I am, I decided on neither.

"I guess I should've come earlier. Sorry." I said with a fence-sitting apology. Mayu said don't worry with a frank attitude and then jumped on me and embraced me.

"Mii-kun." Mayu said in a fawning tone as she buried her face in my chest.

……Wait? I had something I wanted to ask this overly affectionate coinhabitor…

"Mmn? I smell the aroma of soap on you."

Mayu smelt sweet too. Because of the smell, I abandoned my reminder to question her.

"I like morning baths." I replied. Although it was my first time ever. I didn't have time to have a bath last night.

With Mayu still stuck on me, I walked inside. Mayu didn't bother to check whether or not I could move in with her. I guess there was no point in asking. And no point in telling her either, so I guess she was right in not asking.

I walked in to the same living room as yesterday and placed my school bag and my sports bag with my change in it on the floor. I glanced over to the Japanese style room and found that the fusuma door was sealed shut. I was impressed at how the children had not gone insane from living in there all day.

"Breakfast?" Mayu asked while still clinging on to my arm.

"I haven't had any today." I replied.

"No, I meant would you like bread or rice?"

Okay, so it seems it was already decided in her mind that I was having breakfast here. If you don't eat it I'll eat you with chopsticks like I did last night, I imagined Mayu saying. I guess these thoughts of mine makes me a crazy person, don't point it.

"Then I'll have bread. Since we're in western style rooms." I told her with a flawed and senseless logic. Despite Mayu replying ok, she continued to stick to my arm and not show any movement. From her satisfied looking face, I guess I passed as a hug pillow. We both fell in to the sofa and turned the thirty two inch television on.

"It's my first time watching TV in the morning." Mayu said.

Not unusual, nor long time since, but instead it was her first time.

The screen displayed a familiar scenery. It was the town we lived in. On screen a title in large letters appeared 'Mass Murderer Yet to be Caught', a title greatly lacking in originality.

"Someone got killed last night too."

"Yeah, I admit it's dangerous but people die everyday. They don't have to make such a big fuss of it." I said. This was something I knew about since yesterday.

The man who was murdered was the president of the resident's association who was out on a patrol. After his patrol, he was killed in the five minutes during the time he was waiting to switch duties with the next person. The cause of death was an orthodox death by stab wounds. One side of his head, however, was found with a large hole in it. The time of the crime was around eight o'clock at night, the location was near the elementary school. And there were no witnesses. Some people had begun to think that this was a crime without a criminal, and that the cause was something supernatural. This was probably because this was a town that had barely ever been involved in murders. Well, up until half year ago anyway.

"It seriously is scary though, isn't it... Mayu?"

Mayu showed no reaction to my flimsy opinion. Instead she stared intently at what the cathode ray tube displayed, wiping both her smile off her face and light from her eyes.

"……It's been a while."

She mumbled to her self while soaking herself in nostalgia. Which was something more repulsive than imagining sticking your bare leg into a bucket of maggots.

"Hey." Mayu suddenly looked up at me. Her dead eyes stared into mine.

"Was that done by Mii-kun?" She continued.

It was a question that came from nowhere. No reason nor rhyme. Despite that, having a question mark in that statement was almost meaningless.

"No." I lied.

"Maa-chan, you despise murderers the most in the world right?"

"Yep, I hate them."

Mayu's mouth formed a smile again. Then she proceeded to sit on my lap like she was protecting them from something. She put her cheek on mine and rubbed it together.

"And I l××e Mii-kun the most in the world."

"…….Cheers."

Naturally, I wouldn't feel embarrassed from just that.

"Oh, lookie. Mii-kun's cheeks are getting hot. Oh and you're getting goosebumps."

"………………….."

Although it was a lie.

"L, let's eat already. I'm in the mood to ingest wheat."

I was flustered beyond belief. Mayu, with a triumphant expression, patted my head while saying "Yes I'm sure.". It was humiliating to be treated like a child by a child. Even though I have a resistance against the word 'like' or any physical contact, the word which would be translated to 'Ai' in Chinese was my Achilles' heel. I forced a scowl on to my face and avoided embarrassing myself further.

Mayu parted from me and walked off to the kitchen. Mayu was walking as if she was sleepwalking. It seemed she had settled down more than yesterday, as she didn't run to the kitchen. I called out to her back.

"Let's say that if… if I was the criminal, what would you do?"

Mayu turned around and looked at me all puzzled.

"What do you mean what will I do?"

Like I don't know. Maybe take me to the cops, or think 'you're perverted and gross', or 'go kill yourself stupid' or…."

My own repertoire of expressions or lack of it made me pity myself. They were just insults. And ones at the level of elementary school kids at that.

"Umm……. I dun know."

Mayu said in poor Japanese and walked off.

"For example, what'll Mii-kun do if I dropped dead right now?"

A voice reached me all the way from the kitchen. Despite the words not being very loud, it resonated loudly in my ears.

"I would never think about things like that so I wouldn't know."

"Yep! It's the same for me!"

Oh, I totally understand now!

I had no clue what her words meant but I was affected by Mayu's overflowing confidence and decided to understand. It wasn't like I meant anything by the question and so it was fine this way.

I got bored while waiting for Mayu to finish making breakfast, and so I went and slid open the doors to the Japanese style room. Just like my expectations, the dark room emitted a smell that not one person in the world could like. I covered my nose with my hand, then realised that my nose had stopped bleeding. I walked in to the room.

Inside, the two were sleeping side by side in the corner. Kouta-kun covered Anzu-chan as if he was protecting her, and Anzu-chan had rolled in to a ball like a cat in sunlight.

"…Hm."

It was an adorable sight. Yet the muscles on my face refused to budge. It only moved for specific things. By that I obviously meant fun things. Although it's a lie.

I walked out, then headed to what I figured was Mayu's room that I had yet to see. After walking across the corridor and opening the door, the sight before me made me want to cover my eyes instead of my nose. Textbooks covered the floor and the bed sheets were bundled up and left in the corner. On top of the desk were fancy and funky gadgets that formed a pyramid on the desk, forbidden from performing tasks they were made to do. However, because Mayu didn't read, there were no books or magazines in the room, let alone a book shelf.

I hopped over the pile of textbooks and opened the closet as I let out a sigh. The clothes inside were also roughly bundled on top of each other, as if to not care about any wrinkles they could form. I dug through Mayu's clothes and obtained a shabby blanket. After brushing off the small layer of dust that had formed on it, I walked out the room carrying the blanket.

"So the reason the living room isn't messy was because she wasn't using it, huh."

I headed in to the Japanese style room again while thinking how useless the living room was if no one lived in it. I opened up the blanket and as I tried to lay it on the two, Anzu-chan's fox like eyes reacted.

"……I don't need it." A sleepy Anzu-chan looked up at me with her eyes half shut.

"I don't need the almsgiving of a kidnapper…"

Congratulations for knowing such difficult words like 'almsgiving'.

Unlike the dinner from last night, due to her not having any physiological desires, she displayed a will of rejection. However.

"It's unfortunate but the only almsgiving you're going to get for now is from kidnappers so you should just choose to receive it."

I put the blanket over them. Anzu-chan objected in a muffled voice across the blanket. "I told you I don't need it." She said.

"If I accepted your opinion, then as a consequence you're brother might catch a cold. Is that okay with you?"

Anzu-chan clammed her mouth shut, made her eyes wander, then crawled under the blankets. I took that as a passive affirmation and turned around to leave the room.

"Thanks…"

It was a voice quieter than the hum of an insect. Maybe the mumble was not meant to have an audience. However, in the silence the mornings of the country side provided, it may have been better not to say it.

"……It's for yesterday. Kouta told me to say it ok…." She added as if to explain herself. "My pleasure." I mumbled in my mouth and left the room. I had completely forgotten how fulfilling acting like a hypocrite was.

After feeding each other breakfast by 'saying ahh' and the entire charade of playing the stupid couple, we left the room. Mayu had sealed her childish side up like yesterday. No words, nor emotion showed on her face as she walked beside me with a cold attitude. I wondered if walking out of a hotel as a couple committing adultery would act like this. I accepted that this was Mayu's method of defence against the world and I too worked at walking to school in silence. At the stairs of the school, I lent her my hand instead of the handrails when going up.

As soon as we arrived at the classroom, Mayu headed straight for her desk and hung her bag on the hook on the side. She then bent over her desk, and almost as if she was kissing it, went to sleep. The other half of the stupid couple thought to himself that the way she slept wasted her elegant looks.

Nobody dared to talk to her. Mayu's sleep never got interrupted until after school. With the class tutor Kaminuma-sensei as the head of the pack, the entire cohort of teachers pretend to not see her sleeping. As a result, Mayu never been told off for bad behaviour in class.

Should I wake her up at lunch break? Was I allowed to accompany her on the way out of school? I pondered as I rested my head on my elbow and gazed at Mayu sleeping in the shape of a C. In the end though, I decided to pretend she didn't exist, just like the teachers here.

For the entire day, Mayu slept and did not budge once.

And with nothing worthy of mention occurring, school had ended.

In the hustle and bustle, I checked the two handouts that we were given. One was a notice from the student council and the other was a pamphlet regarding the upcoming school trip.

The student council notice was full of announcements from the people with ill hearts that run this amazing school. It was exactly as it sounds. The contents included one line as a warning on the mass murder that is shaking up the entirety of Japan. It wrote 'If you encounter someone holding something dangerous, please be careful'. The phrase made me want to preach to them that what was really in danger was their brains. The rest was filled to the brim with the opinions, style and their respective heroic story of each member of the student council in different columns (the columns were ordered according to the hierarchy of the student council). As in the notice was carpeted with 'look at me, I'm amazing' articles. Since they were an organisation like that, I wouldn't want to fight them even if I were a mysterious transfer student. I folded the paper into an airplane and threw it in to the bin. Score.

The other handout, the pamphlet for the school trip, included destinations, suggested amount of money to bring and phone numbers, and was targeted at parents. After flicking through it, I folded it then put it away.

Three weeks from now, the plan was for us students to go on a trip. The destinations was Kyushu. About a month ago, Kaminuma-sensei explained negligently that over three nights and four days we were to travel across the entirety of Kyushu. When I had heard this, I thought to myself about how about much Sugawara Michizane would be made fun of at Dazaifu Tenmangu[1].

Now, the Mayu that usually automatically revived herself after school seemed to not show any signs of coming back to life. I hesitated slightly on my next action. But I placed that thought and the potential retaliation I would get if I left without her, on the two sides of a scale and took the lighter option.

I walked towards Mayu's desk through the back of the classroom to avoid attracting any attention, then shook her shoulders lightly. It was the first time anyone had done so and naturally the few gazes on me were unavoidable.

Mayu mumbled some incomprehensible noises as she looked up at me with sleepy eyes. And as she slurped up her drool, she slowly recognised me.

"……..Mii-kun?" "Yeah, let's go home, wha?" "Woohoo." With a celebratory cry, Mayu jumped at me. I caught Mayu with my entire body,

then Mayu and I smooched.

I was very surprised, exclamation mark.

"…………………………."

All the sound within the space called the classroom disappeared. The only sound echoed from inside of me. The movement of muscles, the creaking of the bones and the scraping of the joints. The beating of my heart. And the sound of Mayu's tongue squirming as if to collect all the saliva in my mouth. She caressed every inch of my mouth with her tongue, and slurped the saliva she had collected with an indecent sound. Around about there, she seemed to have woken up. She immediately stepped away from me in a flury.

"…..I made a mistake."

Mayu wiped the drool that was leaking out from the side of her mouth with her fingers. Employing a poker face, she looked up at me.

"…………..Say good morning to the new situation, I guess…………" I said.

I'm afraid I just built walls between me and my classmates. C'mon guys, there's couples like this everywhere, I thought of saying out loud but I decided against it since I felt that that would be digging my own grave. Although it's a lie.

With prompt movements, Mayu roughly grabbed the handouts at its centre, and without a second look, threw them in to her bag. And then immediately stood up. This was no longer our place to be. Despite the fact that I never intended for this place to be where I belonged, I was now rejected entry on top of that. Although I didn't ever expect for things such as friendship with a bunch of local students that knew about the kidnapping anyway.

I walked out to the corridor together with Mayu. Mayu showed no reaction regarding her mishap in the classroom. She was fixing her unkempt clothes and acted calm almost as if nothing had happened.

I gathered from her attitude that she only showed her childish side to me. I was the exception. If I were asked if that made me happy… well let's say yes for now.

On another note though, I observed something strange about Mayu's bag in the classroom. I asked her to show me what was inside once we got out in to the corridor.

"Sure?" She said as she handed me her bag. The bag she placed in my hands was feather weight. Inside, the bag was covered with discoloured handouts. Her textbooks and notebooks seemed to have made a mysterious disappearance and they were no where in sight. No wait, it's probably still left at home warming the floorboards of her room.

I stuck my hand in and scooped out all the handouts. I observed within the pile the leaflet for the entrance ceremony, indicating that she had them stored in her bag since her first year. I decided to scrunch it into a ball and throw it out.

"Wait."

I heard a voice reach out from the classroom and so I turned around. There Kaneko stood leaning on the door.

"What do you want, class rep."

Kaneko gave a vague smile in return to my frigid tone, and walked over to us. He kept his hands busy scratching his cheeks and putting it on his hips. Well if you're so busy don't bother us, I thought in my head.

"Not you. I'm talking to Misono-san." "What?" Mayu reacted instantly after hearing her name. She was not as hostile as she was yesterday, yet the cold attitude she masked herself with yesterday left an impression.

"Well, I was going to ask you yesterday, but what are some good features of our school?"

Mayu glanced at me for a moment, then simply replied "There aren't any".

"Uhhh….. So there aren't. Yeah, okay."

Due to the unsubstantial conversation consisting mostly of air, Kaneko pulled a pitiful expression. His drooping eyes stared hollowly right through Mayu and at me who was spectating the situation. It was a SOS signal sent from Kaneko. Along with the signal, however, was his lowly curiosity for the situation before. I pretended not to notice. When everything could end with a 'bye', I wondered why he couldn't say that.

"Uh, um, you're going to leave me in a tight spot if there's nothing. I need an opinion from everyone." He managed to squeeze out a reply.

"A free school attitude. Beautiful scenery. The satisfactory infrastructure. Are you satisfied now?"

"…Yeah. Sure."

Kaneko's expression did just it's job, fully conveying his regret in asking. However, he added "Then let me ask one more thing."

"Are you guys… Uh, dating?

Kaneko's face lit up with a sense of accomplishment, as if it was his main goal to ask that question. Yet, Mayu's answer remained just as frank.

"And what good would that do me if I answer that."

"….Uhhm." Kaneko mumbled, as he reached his limit.

"Hey, if you've got time to be hitting on girls, then go and work up a sweat swinging a bamboo sword." A student walked out of the classroom next door and spoke in a joking manner.

He was the student council president and the kendo[2] club president as well as multiple other titles. His name was Sugawara Michizane, the man with many titles and just as many boastful talks.

He wore the word omnipotent like a badge. It was hard for me to believe that he was human, just like I was.

With the unexpected help, Kaneko's face relaxed. However,

"That's not what we were talking about. Can you please not relate it to such senseless things." Mayu seemed to not have the ability to recognise jokes. Without a thought for others, Mayu replied in an attacking tone. The student council president flashed a face of surpass for a moment, then quickly brushed her off with a "Well then, sorry for that". He sent a sharp glance towards Kaneko, questioning what he was doing.

"Collecting ideas for the leaflet. Aren't these meant to be things that the club president takes the initiative and does?" Kaneko replied.

"Just write that they can see me along with a picture, and problem solved." Sugawara said.

"Haven't you ever heard of the 'customer attraction effect'?"

Despite his dumbfounded face from Sugawara Michizane's statement, Kaneko started a friendly conversation with him. A thin wall was put up. Through the obvious display of human relations, he prevented us from entering his conversation. With no longer any need for us stay here, I looked over to Mayu.

"Let's go home."

Mayu simply replied "Let's" and held my hand. Even after we had finished climbing down the stairs, our hands were placed over each others until we arrived at the shoe lockers.

As soon as we got home, Mayu happily announced "Let's do something naughty". But the Mayu who had enthusiastically jumped on to the sofa had already gone to dream land by the time I finished pulling my change of clothes out of my bag. She was sleeping on her face. Worried about her getting a crick while asleep, I carried her to her bed room and laid her rather small body on to the bed. With not even a hint of desire to do something erotic, I pulled the blanket over her and left the room.

"I wonder when she's going to wake up…."

Though embarrassing to admit, I had no ability to cook. I had to ready the two children their meals, even if I had to endure having none. After getting changed out of my school uniform, I slid open the fusuma door.

"Oh, welcome home."

A voice called out. I stopped myself from replying 'Is this your home now'. Instead I said "Yeah I'm back".

The two were still nestled together, just like yesterday. The only noticeable difference was that they now had a blanket across their laps, and that there was an empty plate which used to have breakfast on it.

"Um, thank you for this." Kouta-kun said while swinging his fringe up and down as he bowed. He shyly pinched the blanket up with two fingers and smiled. Anzu-chan was facing her best friend, the wall.

"Anzu, say thank you."

The older brother pulled on the sleeve of the younger sister. The younger sister scowled in discontent.

"Kouta are you stupid? This guy is a kidnapper. Why should we have to thank him?"

It was fair enough. Her statement was both simple yet logical.

"Oniisan wasn't the one who kidnapped us." Kouta-kun said.

This too was also true. Yet, it was not an argument I could ignore.

"Wait a second, I want you think of me as the one who kidnapped you."

The two both put on a puzzled expression. It was only natural though. Common sense said both Mayu and I would be guilty. Despite my kind façade, because of my tacit approval of the kidnapping, the blatant truth was that I was an accomplice in crime.

"And I don't need her to thank me. She already did this morning." I added.

"!"

Anzu-chan's mouth and eyes flapped open and shut. It was impressive how she could synchronise the movements of the two.

"Is that so?"

Anzu-chan, as if to hide from Kouta-kun's gaze, escaped to the corner of the room. Maybe she had yielded to self-hatred, for her cheeks and ears were bright pink.

"You guys are probably hungry, right?"

Kouta-kun honestly nodded. His fear must've lessened, as his head shaking movements had become less rapid.

"Could you wait a bit. Oneesan's asleep at the moment. If she doesn't wake up soon then I'll go buy some bentos[3]."

In my head, I was fussing between going to the convenience store with normal priced and normal tasting bentos thirty minutes away, or to the local supermarket with horrible tasting and expensive bentos.

"That oneesan sleeps a lot, doesn't she?" Kouta-kun made a wry smile.

"Last weekend, she went to sleep on Saturday and finally woke up on Monday morning." He continued.

……I wondered if it could be called living if she spent more time asleep than awake.

"Well that was unfortunate. But it should be fine this week since I'm here."

"Are you going to live here, Oniisan?"

"I guess so. I'm a new comer but please take good care of me."

I stuck my arm out for a handshake in a joking manner. Kouta-kun's arm hesitantly reached out and his hand touched mine. It was slightly slimy.

"Grime huh…… A bath would be… difficult. I would like to let you but I can't let you roam too freely……"

If I took their fetters off and they bolted because of that, that would make me the epitome of fools. However, that left me with no options, no plans nor a flash of genius.

"Um……."

Kouta-kuns hesitant voice invaded my train of thought.

"Is Oniisan, Oneesan's friend?"

"Not even close-la."

I pretended to be fluent in Singlish, but failed miserably. I continued on pretending that that didn't happen.

"I've never felt friendship for Mayu, and I'm sure neither has Mayu for me. She's just someone important to me."

"…….You're saying some embarrassing things." Anzu-chan mumbled. It must've been a statement that was categorised as embarrassing from society's point of view. My English translations were much more embarrassing to mouth than this though.

"So it's probably just like your relationship." I said.

"We're not like that!" Anzu-chan snapped, instantly destroying Kouta-kun's face of happiness from being able to relate to me. Kouta-kun attempted to hide his loneliness as he forced a smile and agreed with Anzu-chan with a "You're right". Due to the fact that Kouta-kun was saddened more than expected, Anzu-chan awkwardly looked down and went back to facing the wall.

"Uh, yeah…….. It's actually a lie. Yes, a lie. Mayu and I are just like a middle-aged couple. We're different from you guys who have only lived one digit worth of years. You're just like cicada larvae which had just crawled out of the dirt, while we're like bell crickets. You can't even compare to us. But male bell crickets get eaten by females in the end." Feeling responsible for the mood, I attempted to patch things up for the moment. Naturally, it had an adverse effect. I received only a small laugh out of pity from Kouta-kun, while Anzu-chan angrily glared at me. I didn't have the talents of a class rep, because I was on the clean up commitee.

"Well well. And did you just want to confirm that Mayu and I were friends?"

"Um, uh, um."

"Do you like Mayu?"

Falling for a kidnapper huh. Probably stockholm syndrome.

"N, no that's not it! That'll never happen!" Kouta-kun frantically shook his hands and head sideways, almost as if to rip them off, to display his denial. Hmm, how suspicious. Maybe he liked me. Although it's impossible.

Kouta-kun looked down with his bright pink face which was pink even to the tip of his ears. I wondered what he thought of Anzu-chan's cold glare. Kouta-kun mumbled "It's not like that".

"She's too scary." He continued.

There he paused for a moment.

"Falling for her is a bit……"

What? Then what about me!? I considered reacting in such hysteric manner.

"Her screaming is also questionable……"

"Hm? …….Screaming?"

I reacted to Kouta-kun's casual comment. Kouta-kun nervously nodded twice. Anzu-chan too, dipped her chin.

"How do I say this, she screams really loudly in the middle of the night. But…. uh, it's not everyday." Kouta-kun said.

"…….Hmm."

I put my hand on my chin and pretended to be troubled. But without even having to think, it was clearly what society would call the illness of the heart.

"It's probably a type of PTSD….."

I wondered if the doctor knew of this. Mayu never went to her periodic appointments.

"I guess the conclusion easiest to deal with would be that she was saying things while half asleep….."

But, that was impossible. Mayu didn't have the ability to wake up in the middle of the night. And even though she went to sleep easy, she was also a poor riser. She never had enough energy to talk, let alone scream.

"……..Didn't you know?" Kouta-kun asked in a surprised tone. But there was nothing surprising about it at all. After all, I knew nothing about Misono Mayu. All I knew was her name, nickname and pen name. Although obviously one is a lie.

"Well I didn't want to know." I answered Kouta-kun. I myself didn't know how much of that was a lie. The two just made some flat sounds of acknowledgement.

I lifted my body to go over to Mayu. But before that I decided to give the two another look. After observing the two from their hair whorl to the tip of their toe nails, I came to a decision to put my idea in to action.

"Although it is a bit like a drop of water on to parched ground, or a drop of wine in barrel of polluted water….. Take your clothes off. I'll go give it a wash."

Even though it would be much simpler if I gave them a dip in a bath, there was no way I could do that. The two widened their eyes, blinked multiple times, then finally reacted to my proposal.

"Is that really okay?"

"Why? Is it not okay with you?"

Is it really that surprising for me to do a good deed, you brat.

"I, it is okay with me………"

I seemed to have frightened him a little. I reflected on my actions. Like the international theme park, the land of dreams and happiness, I made the resolve to act politely to the customers.

"Well, please take off your clothes for me." I said in a soft tone as I reached out to them with my right hand. From Kouta-kun, I received his shirt, pants, and his undies which he took off with an embarrassed face. I moved my gaze towards Anzu-chan. She wriggled uncomfortably under the cover of the blanket. Then, she stuck out a bundle of clothes from underneath the blanket. I took the bundle then left the room.

With the ball of horrible smells in my arms I arrived at the bathroom. I threw them in to the washing machine. The water had turned black as soon as I poured it in, before I had even put the detergent in. The filth was cringe worthy. Reluctantly, I fished the clothes out and washed them there by hand. With the filth scrubbed off the surface of the clothes, I then rinsed them, then shoved them back into the machine along with detergent and had it start it's job. After watching over it for a little while, I move on to my next task. I headed to the bathroom. Then washed my hands of the grime. After that, I readied a tub and filled it to the brim with hot water. I soaked a couple of towels in the tub of water, then carried it to their room.

"Here, wipe your bodies with this." I said as I walked in.

It must've been quite a surprise, for their mouths were agape. As I had thought, good deeds don't suit me. Although I wasn't talented enough to do bad deeds either.

"Thanks you so, so much." Kouta-kun thanked me sincerely, almost as if he had forgotten our positions. Hm.

"It's most gracious of me, isn't it?" I joked.

"You're right."

Wait, you weren't supposed to agree.

Kouta-kun also crawled in to the blanket, then begun to wipe Anzu-chan's body. His over bearing behaviour was apparently the norm here. By the time the towel came out from underneath the blanket, it had discoloured itself to become ocherous. Kouta-kun dipped the towel back in to the hot water, then went back to wiping Anzu-chan. I couldn't see the efficiency of his work, however, I could tell that he was cleaning every inch of her body with care, just like he would an artwork. His gratis devotion reminded me of mandarine peeling.

I too had a younger sister. It was impossible for us to have such a good relationship, and we only shared half of the same blood. My selfish sister loved mandarines, and made it her main diet for the entire year. She had so much that her skin turned yellow. The peeling of the mandarines and the picking of the pith was my job. Although I never received a word of gratitude, I felt only nostalgia and no distaste for it now. Probably because I had no reason to hate her. It wasn't that I liked my sister though.

Kouta-kun crawled out of the blanket, indicating that he had finished polishing Anzu-chan. Anzu-chan too stuck her no longer filthy head out from underneath the blanket. I asked Anzu-chan, who now looked like a teruteru-bouzu[4], how she felt.

"Ikeda-san, are you feeling better?"

Anzu-chan, with eyes full of dissatisfaction, still gave a nod. Then she mumbled a word of forgiveness to me.

"……..Anzu is fine."

"Anzu? Oh, you mean how I call you. Is that okay?"

"…………………………"

Don't make me say it twice, Anzu-chan's eyes said.

"Okay, Anzu-chan."

"I don't need the chan!"

I shrugged from her remark opposite to that of Mayu's. It seemed that I had gained enough social link points to elevate me from negative two to the origin on the cartesian plane. In the next episode, I attempt to become a positive point on the graph.

"Stay tuned."

"Yes?"

I waved my hand to the older brother, indicating that it was nothing. Speaking of which, I had never heard Kouta-kun being addressed as an older brother. I wondered if they do that when they're alone.

After, flipping the towel over, Kouta-kun wrung the dirty water out and begun to wipe his own body. Unlike with Anzu-chan, he roughly went over his body, and finished faster than a lick and a promise.

"That was refreshing." Kouta-kun said lighting up with a smile on his already bright face.

"Glad you liked it." I said carelessly, as I went back to studying Kouta-kun's body. His skin was also pale blue, but something else had caught my eye.

That was something that usually hid itself under their clothes. Bruises dotted his body. They were discoloured and looked like colonies of bacteria.

"……I'll bring you your clothes when they're dry."

I snatched up the tub, then stood up. Their faces had a puzzled look, but I ignored it and hastily walked out. After closing the fusuma door, I walked as quietly as possible across the floor, poured the dirty water down the sink and rinsed the towel with cold water, wrung the towel, then finally mumbled to myself.

"What can I say……." You brought some pretty troublesome kids, Maa-chan.

Although it's definitely not my hobby to stick my nose in to other people's business, I can't deny the possibility of getting too involved over the piling up of trifling observations such as this. And that's dangerous. Despite how I seem, I'm a man of humanity. Or more like I can barely be called humane. Although they're both lies.

"They're probably not wounds that Mayu gave them……."

From what had happened last night, it's hard for me to claim her innocence for such a nauseating reason as 'I like her'. However, it was also hard to believe that Mayu would do such rational violence. To strike in areas which were usually not visible was not something I believed Mayu, with an int. of 19 points, could do. For example, if Anzu-chan showed signs of resistance, she would lift her feet and kick her across the face in a flash.

"……It really is a kidnapping that doesn't make sense."

In terms of the actual kidnapper, her only person of interest currently seemed to be me. I mean why did she even kidnap those children. Wait wait, that's it. I must get an exclusive coverage on this matter if I remember to by the time Mayu wakes up. It's not something I need to know, but just in case.

I spent a while listening to the whirl of the washing machine and staring at the ceiling. There weren't any stains that looked like a face. It was a clean and spotless scenery, but it was perfect for kick-starting my brain.

I imagined Mayu's sleeping face.

Her face, like a sculpture with no expressions.

I imagined Mayu asleep.

She laid there as if she had stopped breathing. Her body, she leaves entrusted to the land of dreams.

For her, who was only filled with silence, to shriek in the middle of the night was all but,

true. For I was to see it three days later.

It was a sound indescribable with words. The sharp-edged screech that seemed to slice through even the atmosphere, was similar to the howl of a beast. The outline of the room seemed to disfigurer itself under Mayu's scream.

"Mayu? Hey, Mayu!"

I rushed to Mayu's bedroom, leaving the midnight infomercial on the television as it was, and pulled the light switch. Mayu was screaming as she laid across the bed with opaque eyes. I ran over and shook her shoulders.

"IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS……."

She endlessly mouthed her curses. I sat her straight, and as if in response to it, Mayu held her own head and begun to tear at her scalp.

"Hey, stop that!"

"IT HURTS, MY HEAD HURTSSSS!"

Well of course it hurts!

With her blood shot eyes she stared at nowhere, and from her clenched teeth she spat out white foam. The thin arms, with the bones, strings of muscles and veins clearly defined, tried to fling me away. She whipped her hair back and forwards, and rampaged about in a chaotic manner. Mayu's hand hit me on the cheek and her nails tore at my skin leaving a fissure of heat in its stead. Blood trickled down from the cracks in my welt.

"IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTSSSS!"

"I get it, I get it! So calm down!"

My voice failed to reach her. If anything, it drove her further in to madness. Somewhere in my mind though, I understood that this was how our relationship was.

Mayu reached up to her face and dug in to the skin around her eyes with her nails. With strength that could overpower someone her own age, she attempted to tear her own face apart. I grabbed her wrists with almost enough power to crush it, and tried to hold her down. It was for the best, even if I had snapped her arms, but thankfully it didn't come to that.

"Uh, ooh, oooooooh."

Mayu's body suddenly gave way. Her body remained stiff, yet it was now directed at holding down the thing driving her insane. She growled, urging her own body to perspire.

"Mayu?"

I let go of Mayu's body, almost subconsciously. And as if that was the trigger, Mayu threw up on the spot.

With her limbs twitching, she sprayed out her gastric juices and insides on to the bed, accompanied by a horrendous sound. It rained even on my legs and knees, and enveloped the room with an acidic smell. Without being unable to move, let alone go and rub Mayu's back, I watched on as Mayu continued to throw up with tears streaming down her face.

After choking numerous times, Mayu went back to vomiting. Her insides escaped even from her nose, and Mayu rolled her eyes back and wheezed from being unable to breath. Despite that, she continued to lean forwards and puke.

A while later, Mayu finally stopped throwing up. Without even lifting her face once, she collapsed face first into the acid stained sheets. There, I finally went over to her. I sat her up, wiped her worn out face and hugged her close.

"It's okay now." I spoke meaningless words to Mayu as she still struggled to breath.

"There's only you and me here. The people who are cruel to you aren't going to come. They'll never come. So it's okay now."

As I rubbed her back, Mayu threw up a little again. The lukewarm liquid that ran down my neck gave me goose bumps. Yet, it didn't make me feel uncomfortable, and it didn't make me want to let her go either.

Suddenly, Mayu grabbed my wrist. Her unkempt nails dug in to my artery, almost penetrating inside.

"Stop it." Mayu said to someone. A few people she could've said it to came to mind.

What Mayu saw.

What Mayu felt.

Those were things that I too shared.

We stayed in that position for at least an hour. Mayu was still being tormented by her shaking, and held my wrist for the entire time. The hand was already congested with blood, and was producing a black colour from deep within the hand, coming extremely close to it becoming necrotic, or so I feared. But if that was what it took for Mayu to calm down, then there was no problem.

"Mii-kun, Mii-kun……."

"It's okay now."

As I wiped the sweat on her brows, the empty words I must've repeated a hundred times left my lips again.

"Your cheek, its scratched. What happened? You're bleeding. Does it hurt?"

Mayu pointed out my burning cheek as she squeezed some words out.

"This? I just scratched it on a tree branch." I said.

"Um, I see. Does it hurt?"

She stroked the wound with her finger tips. I decided that it was time to kill this topic and move on to the next.

"Rather than that Maa-chan. Do you have the medicine you got from the doctor?"

I spoke to her like a mother to her child. Mayu shook her head sideways a little.

"Why don't you go to the doctors?"

"Bu, but but, I don't like her. She always lies to me so I don't like her."

So you must hate me too Maa-chan. Well that's beside the point. I decided to give her the medicine I always carried around.

"I'll go get my medicine so stay pu….."

"N, no no no. I wan to go with Mii-kun too." She pleaded as she hung on to my hips. I gave her a pat on the head and took it in. I got off the bed, carrying Mayu. Like holding the hands of a child, I wrapped her hands in mine and calmed her down by constantly repeating 'it's okay'. I should've practiced making smiles, I regretted.

We headed to the living room, and pulled out the paper bag with the medicine in it out of the back pocket of my bag. I carried the paper bag in my mouth and walked towards the kitchen. After making Mayu, who looked uneasy, stand on her own feet, I pulled the glass cup out from within the shelf and filled it with water.

"Here, you'll feel better after taking this."

It wasn't some dangerous medicine. I took out two tablets and placed them on Mayu's hands. I attempted to hand over the glass of water to Mayu who was still shaking.

"Ah!"

Mayu accidentally flicked the cup out of my hands. The cup hurtled downwards, hitting the chair on the way and colliding with the floor. The glass tube made a dull thud as its final scream, and shattered into large pieces.

"I, i i, i, i'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry."

Mayu desperately pleaded for forgiveness from someone. She bent down in a fluster, rushing to clean the fragments littered across the floor. I stopped her from doing so and embraced her as I rubbed her back.

"It's fine, it's okay. No one's going to get angry at you."

The spilt water slid itself in between my toes. I stepped away in order to avoid stepping on the fragments, and patted Mayu's seemingly fragile shoulders. I brought out two new tablets, neglecting the ones littered on the floor, and placed them in her hands. Then I grabbed a new cup, filling that with water.

"Put the medicine in your mouth." I told Mayu.

Guiding her hands with my own, I made her thin lips part and placed the medicine on top of her pale peach coloured tongue. Then I placed Mayu's hand on my own this time, and slowly tilted the glass of water into her mouth. Her lips that were pushed up against the glass shook a little as the water ran down her throat. After watching her swallow it with a gulp, I let the glass go from her mouth.

"Mmn, good job." I said as I lightly patted her head. Mayu clung to my body and buried her face in to my chest. After pouring out the remaining water back into the sink, I placed the cup down. Then I dragged Mayu to the L of the 3LDK, and caressed her on the sofa.

"Do you want to watch some TV? I'll stay up until you fall asleep, Maa-chan." I said softly. On the screen, the program had moved on from introducing the onion slicer to the advertising of a golden pearl.

"Mii-kun, Mii-kun." Mayu called out. Her voice contained not even a trace of carefreeness, only desperation. I stroked her hair in the stead of a reply.

"Mii-kun will never bully me right?"

"I won't. I'll always be your ally."

"That's right, Mii-kun is an ally. Mii-kun is an ally….."

Mayu repeated the words as if she was sleep talking. As if she was trying to imprint it into her memory. I didn't say a word to avoid disrupting her.

"Mii-kun will help me. In kindergarten he helped me from the bee. In elementary school he helped me from that mean teacher. He has always helped me. He will always, always be my ally. That's why Mii-kun won't bully me he will stay with me he will stay with me never betray me never lie to me."

"……There there." I said in an attempt to evade the topic. Because, you know, the last one was a bit….

"Let's go the doctors tomorrow." I said.

Mayu shook her head sideways like a small animal. She looked like a chihuahua and it made me impressed how attractive people can look good in any situation.

"It's fine. I'll go with you. Then we can go on a date afterwards."

It was like convincing a child who disliked syringes. Mayu extracted one word from the sentence and ruminated it.

"Date."

"Yes, a date. You don't want to go out with me?"

Again she chihuahua-ed her head and accepted my invite. The shake of the head was more exaggerated this time around.

"I want to go play with Mii-kun."

"Yep. Let's go to where you want to go and we can play."

Although the only thing in the neighbourhood was a park. The sad thing about living in the country was that there weren't many options.

"So we're going to the doctors right?"

Since the two things were irrelevant, using 'so' didn't even make sense. Yet Mayu nodded up and down. She got hooked on my bait easier than a goby.

"Okay, I'll endure it. I'll go see that liar. Mii-kun's coming too right?"

"Of course" I replied. Then, as if she had finally calmed down, Mayu relaxed her body on to the sofa like a plant that was given too much water. She watched as the television screen introduced an exercise machine that burned twice as much calories as a normal one, then finally closed her eyelids. With silent breaths, Mayu stopped her movements like someone had flicked her switch off.

I went and flicked the television switch off as well. While leaving Mayu asleep on the sofa, I headed to her bed room. I pulled the dirty sheets off and bundled it up like how I had found it in the beginning. Then I brought out my blankets, which were free of vomit, and returned the room back to the embrace of the darkness and headed back to Mayu. I placed the blankets over Mayu, and after gazing at her sleeping face for a while I whispered good night to her like usual. And just like usual, there was no reply from Mayu. Then I turned the light off in the room.

….I'm sure it's needless to say, but Mayu and I shared a bed. Naturally, all we do in the bed was sleep. A very healthy relationship. Our relationship was far from a R rating.

The cold air made me shiver a little. The coldness of the floor was like that of the shadow of winter. I quickly chose to escape in to sleep, and pondered on where I could sleep.

"Umm…" Kouta-kun's hesitant voice was transmitted to me from through the fusuma door. I turned around, opened the fusuma door and stepped on to the tatami mats. I pulled the string hanging from the low ceiling and turned on the fluorescent lights.

The two sat huddled together under the cover of the blanket. However, their expressions were sleepy and they constantly scratched their eyes.

"You have a stain on your shirt." Kouta-kun said.

"I was on a merry-go-round all night with a hangover. But rather than that, did I wake you up?"

"Oh it's fine. We're used to it."

"Used to it?"

It was a strange thing to say. It must've been a slip of the tongue for those two though, for Anzu-chan mumbled "You idiot, Kouta." and pinched his belly. Kouta-kun tried to quietly laugh his way out of being questioned. Again. Again, I was overcome by the feeling of something piling up. Actually, I was ninety percent sure what the disaster these two were going through was at this point. Even though I am a person who doesn't like to get involved, I wished that they stopped dropping so many hints.

I had to change the topic. I had to create an offset to deviate myself from where I was headed.

"But it really is surprising, how we don't get an eviction warning when we made so much noise…….."

Suddenly it clicked. So much so that I wanted to strap a light bulb on to my head and express it to the world.

"Oniisan?"

I finally realised the reason for my sense of discomfort. Their situation didn't overlap with mine, and so I was unable to see through it despite it being right in front of my face. That was a measure that we too didn't have to go through, but only because it was unnecessary in our situation.

"Why is that?"

To my question directed at nobody, Kouta-kun looked up with a dubious face. Anzu-chan made no reaction at all.

It was something so simple. I was having a conversation with these children. That meant that they're mouthes weren't gagged nor blocked in any way. If Mayu's rampage hadn't been reported then it would mean that the walls had decent sound proofing. However, it was also a fact that the children had their limbs free. If they slammed on the walls and screamed at the top of their lungs, it was most likely that it would reach the room next door. And if this room was checked even once, the fetters would ironically become immovable proof that we were guilty, and their cuffs on their wrists would be transferred over to our wrists.

"It's so full of holes." I voiced my surprise. This kidnapping was poorly planned and poorly carried out. Just like Mayu from moments back, I felt like tearing out my hair. I didn't want to see the reality.

"Um, you guys…." I paused my sentence midday. Um, you guys, why are you even here. I felt like asking. But at the same time, I felt that the moment I asked would be the moment my suspicions became reality.

Kouta-kun had his eyes widened in surprise from my overly suspicious behaviour. Maybe he was faithfully waiting for me to say something. On the other hand, Anzu-chan didn't have her usual frown on her face, and instead had a sleepy expression.

"Hey." She mumbled lazily.

"That woman."

"She's not 'that woman', call her Oneechan." I urged in a slightly threatening tone. How dare she call her 'that woman'. 'That woman' is my woman. Although it's a lie.

Anzu-chan complied without objection, possibly due to her being overwhelmed or maybe because she was sleepy.

"Is that Oneechan funny in the head?"

It was an extremely straight forward and true statement. I had absolutely no intention of yelling 'Watch your tongue you brat'.

"Anzu, you can't just say that." Kouta-kun warned her.

However although you couldn't just say that, it was also the most accurate description of Mayu.

"No, it's fine. If someone asked me if that was a karaoke competition, then they would also belong in the same category as Mayu. ……Although I'm pretty sure the screws in her head were tight enough."

I acknowledged Anzu-chan's words. But it wasn't that I had negative opinions on Mayu however. The fact was that I had felt a certain amount of attraction to those elements of her. Mayu lacked control over her emotions, but because of that it was possible for her to give birth to a sensibility different to normal people. Although the difference between unique brilliance and something insane was paper thin. And so it was difficult for me to decide which category to place Mayu in.

If these children get to know her better, they would probably understand too…… But, before that.

"….She has enough screws but she failed in the construction phase. Someone interfered you see."

Though I didn't make a hobby out of telling people's past.

For some reason I couldn't help but explain.

And so I exposed the past to these outsiders.

"Mayu's parents were killed right in front of our eyes." I spoke with no emotion in my voice. Actually I couldn't. I was unsure of which emotion to use.

"I guess it was at that moment that both Mayu and my screws came a bit loose. Mayu's loose enough to tell at a glance. ……But mine too are a bit….."

Because I don't find the faults in Mayu's actions, nor do I feel guilt.

I put my heart to sleep, so that I could stay this way.

I observed the two's expressions. Kouta-kun looked slightly frightened, while Anzu-chan showed no reaction at all. Since they were pretty casual reactions, I decided to conclude casually as well.

"So, if you ever speak ill of her, I would rather you abuse me in her stead. I don't mean it in a perverted way. It's just that me being bad-mouthed is more bearable. Yeah that's it."

I concluded quickly towards the end. I was embarrassed enough to dig myself a hole and hide in it. I can't believe I said 'abuse me'.

With the story time over, I had no intention to head into question time, however the slightly awake Anzu-chan threw a simple question at me.

"Why do you protect that Oneechan to that extent?"

Because I like her so, so, so much, and I l××e her. Although it's a lie, maybe.

"It's because she's important to him, Anzu." Kouta-kun replied instead of me.

Sensing that the conversation was heading in a direction I preferred not to go down, I decided to change the topic.

"A while back, someone was asked a similar question."

"……? Who was?" Kouta-kun asked.

Without using a specific name I gave an answer.

"Somebody's mum. She was killed protecting her child. She, despite being frightened to the point of shaking, didn't hesitate to say this."

I paused for a moment, then repeated the words I had once heard word for word.

"Because I'm her mum."

The two frowned a little. Maybe they thought it was a made up story.

But this wasn't a lie.

I could remember her mum say that like it was yesterday.

That was one of the few memories I could never lie to.

And that was my biggest reason as to why I protected Mayu.

The heavy metal blasting at full volume pierced through the doors and into my ears.

The only person scowling at the background music unfit for the peaceful daytime scenery outside the waiting room windows was me. It was because I was the sole person in the vicinity. The building, which stood at the base of an uninhabited mountain and a fair distance away from the barely populated town, didn't smell too much of disinfectant. This was because this was a hospital for the heart.

The white door with faded paint opened. Mayu shut the door loudly behind her with discontent written all over her face. She collapsed in to the chair next to mine.

"Hey. How was it?" I spoke to her raising my voice a little. If I didn't do so, my voice would've been drowned out by another sound.

"i'm never coming again. I hate that liar." Without bothering to hide her own childish behaviour, Mayu spat out her disapproval. Today, Mayu was wearing her Sunday's best that I washed for her, while wearing her beret over her eyes.

"What did she lie about?" I asked.

"I don't know. A liar's words aren't worth remembering." She replied.

But for some reason you remember mine. And I can't understand why.

After fixing the position of Mayu's hat that tilted a little when she had sat down, I stood up from my seat.

"Can you wait while I'm gone? It's my turn next."

"Definitely not."

Mayu kicked like a child throwing a tantrum. In that instant, her skirt flicked up a little and I caught sight of the distinct outline of a long and thin scar on the insides of her thighs. So, I see you've been well. It's good to see you again… not.

"You said we're going to go on a date. There's no point in staying here." Mayu complained.

Her brown boots repeatedly hit the floor and the sound echoed through the corridors. However, that too was overwritten by the sounds of music.

"Today's my appointment too. Please be patient for a bit." I pleaded with my hands clasped together like a prayer. Straight away, my prayer was answered as Mayu reluctantly nodded with her face still brimming with discontent.

"Date tomorrow too."

"Okay."

"And the day after as well."

"If you're fine with it being at the school labs or in the gymnasium."

Just like that, I received permission to enter the room from the girl who didn't own the room.

I opened the creaky doors. In the room was a woman with a ponytail sitting beside the window. She moved her gaze to me as I walked in. She wore a spotless white coat with a blue miniskirt. Her slippers were littered on the floor, and her legs were placed on the desk.

"She hash't changed a bit, has she." That was the first thing she mouthed.

"Really hasn't changed at all since she was a child. Oh but I guess the 'where's Mii-kun' changed in to a 'Mii-kun's here'. Although that's not a change for the better." She continued.

She yawned as she carelessly threw Mayu's medical records on to her desk. I wondered why this no-good doctor relaxed every time I walked in. Was she confusing me as some drinking buddy of hers.

"So I wonder what you want by bringing back the selfish girl that forcefully discharged herself from this hospital, 'Mii-kun'?"

"That name is for exclusive use by Mayu."

"Yeah yeah, you stupid couple."

She scratched her eyes and turned around on her creaky chair, finally facing me.

Dr. Sakashita Koibi. A psychiatrist who became thirty just recently, but still was single. The only reading she ever did was manga.

"And I wonder what came over you. Revealing yourself to Misono."

She crossed her arms and looked at me from head to toe like she was appraising an art work. It was a gesture that suited her intelligent and beautiful looks. If only she wasn't bear feet.

"Can I choose to only answer your first query?"

"Whatever. You only lie anyway."

She could see right through me. Due to our relationship dating back to my days in elementary school, she seemed to know my personality inside out.

"Mayu became a girl with a hurting head in the middle of the night. I was worried so I came to see you so you could diagnose it. That's all."

"In the middle of the night….. Are you living together?"

Dr. Koibi narrowed her eyes in reaction to my statement as she questioned me in an interrogating tone. If you're a psychiatrist, shouldn't you at least react a little to the word 'head'?

"We just eat and sleep under the same roof" "which is called living together." Dr. Koibi finished my sentence.

"In the limited space we have on planet earth and living as a Japanese citizen on this small island, in the spirit of the efficient use of land we decided to share the same living space for effective practical use of the land" "which is why you're living together. I get it okay."

"…..Are you angry?"

"Very."

She tapped her temple with her fingertips in time with the music, while rhythmically tapping the floor with her toes.

"Although it's a lie." She said, copying my usual line. But with such anger in her voice, it was most likely that her lie itself was a lie. Dr. Koibi had her eyes closed for a few moments, then shook her head putting an end to her internal discord.

"I thought this might happen when you and Misono came in here side by side."

"Did we look like the perfect couple?"

"Are you stupid?" She scorned at me. Then she sighed as pushed her fingers up against her forehead.

"I feel like I just had my pet dog stolen by a stray cat." She added.

"That's some dramatic situation."

"You were so adorable when we first met. Instead of Dr. Koibi, you used to say 'doctorr' and you followed me around everywhere….. I wonder if this is what it feels like to have a teenaged kid." She complained in a lamenting tone.

"Well your life isn't mine to control so theres nothing I can say, I guess. Even if you were to fester or rot. But I do have to question if it'll be helpful to Misono's conditions." She continued, saying the first doctor like thing today.

"The fact that you're there for her isn't necessarily full of positives. If anything it's just the opposite. If you give it too much fertiliser then it'll kill it you know."

"But our relationship is brimming with l××e. And l××e is the most precious emotion."

"You lie."

"Correct." Not even for a second did I really believe what I said. The doctor made an expression that looked like a mix of slight disgust and wryness.

"You've made a habit of lying. Almost beyond repair. At least try and abstain from it a little."

"But Dr. Koibi, asking a person not to lie is like asking a soccer player not to kick something or to tell a mountaineer not to climb mountains because it's dangerous."

"You're perfectly right, I'll agree with that. But that doesn't apply for you. A soccer lover or a mountain maniac have something that makes them a little different from you. A soccer player would choose what to kick. Mostly soccer balls, and maybe some people and vending machines. But that's about it. Even a mountaineer wouldn't try and conquer a mountain of food. What I'm saying is, it's controlled. That's the difference between them and you. For someone like you whose existence itself is a lie, this theory that only applies to normal humans obviously can't be applied to you."

She just casually said I'm not a human. Was that an insult. It was hard to decide.

Choosing to leave that issue until later, I decided to get back to the main topic of this conversation.

"So, about Mayu."

"Her hips were damaged. Keep the rough hanky panky to a minimum."

"Stop making things up. We've only kissed in public."

"That's more of a public nuisance to the good citizen then what I said." She teased with a smug look. In response I replied in a more stern tone in an attempt to get on with the main issue.

"I want to talk about Mayu's mental condition, Dr. Sakashita Koibi."

Dr. Koibi glared at me with scornful eyes, then spoke in a cold tone

"People are all liars. Especially me. Mii-kun is the only truth." She spat out the cluster of words which hadn't changed one bit from a long time ago, and voiced her surrender.

"It's impossible for me to treat that girl. I'll prescribe you some medicine, so make sure you feed her them everyday. And when you put Mayu to bed, make sure to turn on the lights. That should hopefully stop her compulsive rampages."

From the solution the doctor gave me, I sensed one thing. Mayu's rampage was compulsive. Yet, it didn't happen during the day at school. The reason it was limited to night was probably because she had a trauma concerning darkness.

I see. I could relate.

"Misono isn't conscious of her own scars from her past. That's why she goes to bed with the light off. I've only prescribed her medicine twice in the past as well. I wonder how long she's been suffering."

Her voice insinuated that she didn't really care. Well Mayu kept telling her to shut up and constantly called her a liar, so I guess it's reasonable that she didn't feel too happy about her.

But.

"Even if you tell me it's impossible….. This doesn't mean that other doctors could heal her right?"

Dr. Koibi lifted the corner of her mouth in the shape of a smirk. But she was in no way smiling.

"I wonder how low you think of me as a doctor, I should interrogate it out of you one day. Well, leaving that aside for now, Misono's treatment huh….. Hey, I wonder what 'to treat' means." Dr. Koibi returned a question to my question. It didn't sound like a teacher-like question, but instead sounded as if she was asking a high school friend something that just popped in to her mind.

"Wouldn't it just be to heal a wound through a medical cure?"

"Yep, one hundred points for you."

But despite that she still let out a sigh. She never said full marks so maybe the upper limit was two hundred points.

"So all that needs to be done is to heal the wound right?"

"I believe so."

"Then if the treatment to cure the wound killed the patient in the process, would he still be 'treated' if the wound closed as a result?"

"…….No, I think that's wrong."

Without reacting to my words, she changed her position in her chair and fell in to deep thought. Her fingertips incessantly tapped at her crossed knees, and with her other hand she leant on her elbow. It was a habit of hers to tap at things with her fingers and feet.

Wiping my existence from her consciousness, she stayed absorbed in her thoughts. Well there was no need for her to treat me as a patient today so I guess I couldn't complain.

"……Um, I think I'll leave for today." I said as I prepared to stand up. There, Dr. Koibi spoke to me.

"Let me tell you a something."

It was a strange way to start a conversation. With her posture unchanged, she directed her melancholic eyes to me. I sat my half-raised bum back in to the seat.

In a casual tone, she spoke.

"You guys are being suspected as murderers."

I nearly spurted something out but I managed to suppress it along with the shaking of my fingers.

"Recently it seems theres been some cases of murder around here."

Dr. Koibi, the uncivilised member of society who only used the television as a mirror and the news paper as an insect killing weapon, proudly said so as if she was leaking top secret information. Was I meant to point out to her that she lived under a rock?

"You watch out too if you encounter someone holding something dangerous."

"…….Were you ever in the student council?"

"I never did anything other than the clean up committee."

Well that's strange. ……But back on topic.

"Who may suspect someone as innocent as me?"

"Obviously a detective or a police officer. Only psychoes like them can be happily chatting with someone while suspecting them to be a murderer."

"That's true. And, so who's that person spreading such fanatic lies."

"The easy-chair police."

That just sounded like a neglect of duty.

"Were you friendly with the police?" I asked. I was pretty sure I remembered her abusing them to no end when she had been caught speeding last time.

"Hm. I wish you wouldn't ask this psychometric mind assassin such foolish questions."

What was this liar even talking about. The doctor continued to talk without a care to my reactions.

"My high school friend is a female cop that's not a sukeban[5]. She asked me quite a bit about you guys. She'd always been a strange one. In her writing piece in elementary school she wrote that she wanted to be a detective."

Without sounding nostalgic at all, she stated bluntly. Maybe for her, the memories she had of high school were as fresh as yesterday, disregarding her age.

"She did say that she was the only one that suspected you though. I guess you're suspect candidates now."

Suspect candidates huh. That sounds a little redundant.

"Oh dear." I said, trying to sound as relaxed as possible.

"They must really be having trouble with their investigation if their suspecting such modest law-abiding citizens like us."

"Theres a lot of reasons to suspect you, you know. People who had been involved in a crime in the past are likelier to become a criminal themselves. You're also close to a psychiatrist. You have no social life. You're the animal caretaker at school. Although one of them is a lie."

Are you sure that's one. And how are you copying my catchphrase so accurately.

"Well if you ask me, personally I wouldn't be too surprised if Misono's suspected."

"How could anyone suspect someone as innocent, childish and slow at running away as Mayu?"

"You're not doing a very good job of protecting her. What with all your low opinions of her. Anyway, she said she'd like to talk to you guys about it."

"Not in the interrogation rooms, I hope."

"Maybe it'll be in the cells."

A joke that's not funny can't be called a joke. Instead it's called the truth.

"As the potential victim, I would rather not meet her whether it be for private or business purposes." Although it was a subtle lie.

"Well thats up to you so you can reject it if you'd like. She's an interesting person though. She's a little like you." She smiled softly as she said so.

Someone a little like me huh.

…….She must be some twisted person then.

"The only difference is that you're just a liar, but she mixes the truth and lies as she speaks."

"Oh great."

I can bet on it. She's twisted.

With the music blaring its climax, I lifted my self from the chair. There, I asked her a question that just popped in to my mind.

"Don't you get complaints?" I asked as I pointed the audio system.

Dr. Koibi just lazily replied "Nah".

"It's popular with the death metal lady." She added.

It's great that its popular but try not let the death get to her.

"I play the music requested by the patients so it's generally welcomed. Although, when there aren't any requests, I either don't play anything or I play what I want."

"Is that so. Strange how I've never been asked. Not even once. Anyway, I think I'll go now. I've got a date."

"Lucky you. Want to trade with my weekend?"

"Not one bit." I rejected straight away. I had no desire to sit in a manga cafe all day. I bowed down further than usual, then quickly raised my head. I turned around, nearly tripping on my own foot, then I hurriedly headed to the exit. I placed my hand on the door knob, then paused.

"Dr. Koibi."

"Mmn?"

"I've killed a person before."

The reply didn't come for a while. Maybe she didn't hear me. But that was fine too. I twisted the door knob and pushed the door open. Once I was out on to the corridor a voice reached me from behind.

"You lie."

Without saying 'correct', I headed away from the room. In the corridor seats sat the death metal lady, humming to the music despite turning blue from the lack of oxygen. If she were to introduce herself as a ghost it wouldn't have caught me by surprise. Mayu was asleep on the seats, detached from all of the racket.

"……………………….."

I went and picked up the prescribed medicine, then piggybacked her back to her apartment.

And I sat beside her, pondering which lies to tell her for when she woke up.

The Ninth Person "the pensive murder"

A murder is a bit like an excursion. Or maybe even travelling. What I mean is, the planning stage is when the heart flutters the most. That's why I choose to plan for every little detail before I actually burst into action. When I finally make my plan a reality, all I had to do was entrust my body to my subconscious for it to do the work. That way it was more stable. Yes, stability. As people repeat their behavioural patterns on a daily basis, it was only natural that they yearned for stability. When it came to the repetition of actions with considerable risk, stability is extremely important. For example, the buying of illegal goods, or stealing, or murder. I, too, am not an exception. I desire stability in my life. Because of that, I thirst for a partner. I hunger for a partner. To find a partner in which we could accept each other, where the urge to kill was almost as natural as breathing or blinking was my priority in life. For years, I continued to search in this country-side town. Without being unable to distinguish a suitable partner in this cramped world of common sense the search was difficult. And Naturally such a person did not appear in front of me. I was not looking for someone who would only kill their person of hate, only under the condition that they would not be found guilty. A person who would never regret a murder even if they were to be executed, or a person who would choose to kill or not to kill according to their moods were the types of people I yearned for. People who had a set of rules within themselves that they followed. People who lacked or had extra emotions. I desperately wanted to meet someone like that, and talk with them, or maybe even kill each other over something trivial. So I decided to change my tactics when I had come here. I deeded to commit murder. Hoping for people similar to me to wander like moths attracted to the flame. The result was disastrous. i had become the main provider for material for the media. I was no different from a dog that could walk on two feet or a beached whale. If someone were to mock me and call me a dumb animal, I would gladly accept that. I would perform on two feet and lie across a bed of sand. Unfortunately though, this neighbourhood didn't have any beaches. Although there's an excess of rivers. But let's return to the main subject. The man next to me is smiling to himself as he reads a porn magazine and is being extremely creepy. Seriously, back to the main topic for reals this time. I wonder how long I have left. From what I observed of the police, it seemed that if this was a three minute match, then I would still have more than two minutes left. Now, I wonder if a fateful meeting would befall me before my time is up. I placed the magazine I was reading back in to the shelf and walked towards the shelf with the freshly arrived bentos.

• [1]Dazaifu Tenmangu - A shrine in Dazaifu, Fukuoka.
• [2]kendo - A modern Japanese martial art involving sword fighting
• [3]bento - A Japanese lunchbox
• [4]teruteru-bouzu - A white doll that's thought to bring good weather
• [5]sukeban - A female delinquent. Also a reference to the manga Sukeban Deka (Female delinquent cop)
  • If you want to know more about these then wikipedia has more information on these.

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