Kara no Kyoukai:Kyoukai Shiki-2

Anyway, let's find somebody to beat up!

Anybody will do, preferably someone I can beat up thoroughly without feeling guilty.

It must be somewhere where there's nobody around, firstly because I don't have to worry about the school rules, and secondly because I'm not used to attracting attention.

After one week of consideration, I've decided on the opponent and location.

The opponent is a kouhai from the same school as me, a blonde male student who once glared at me along the corridor.

The location will be near a game centre that he frequents often. Every week, that guy would be showing violence to total strangers, since he is so competitive in gaming that he will physically beat up anybody whom he loses to.

Of course, he wouldn't start a fight in the game centre. With some measure of slyness, he would stop his opponents just when they were leaving the game centre and pull them into the alley to vent his anger and embarrassment.

Because it would be an incident which nobody saw, no one would confront him about the matter.

Those conditions suited me perfectly.

◇

"---I hate weaklings."

When I plucked up my courage and confessed to her, she threw these words at me and left.

Indeed, I have never gotten into a fight since I was born.

While it may seem like I have no interest in these things, it is also an undeniable truth that I lack the courage or initiative to go against people.

That's why I'm a weakling.

To get rid of this weakness I have to beat people up. Not only because this is the fastest way to show my strength, but also because I find the act of 'beating people up' very entertaining. Since I've already lived seventeen years, the only things left that I've never done before would be things like these.

◇

Just like this, I managed to lure him out.

Going to the game centre at night and making him taste defeat time after time.

The moment I stepped out of the game centre, he glared at me and pulled me into the alley. He must be really mad this time, since he usually uses conversation to lure his victims, but acted without a word today.

...I'm relieved. Even though he often beats people up, I still feel a measure of guilt towards my own abuse of violence.

But now that problem is solved. Since he intends to beat me up, then there should be no question of sin or fault if I beat him up.

He pulled strongly at my hand, heading into the alley without stopping.

"Hey!" He turned his head back towards me.

Before that, I gave him a blow to the head.

Thwhack, he went down to the floor.

This lifeless and merciless style of falling, it's just like a puppet.

As he lay on the ground, blood kept gushing from his head.

"---Huh?"

How unbelievable.

With just a single blow from a piece of wood that I could hold in one hand, I killed him so easily.

"---What is this."

I could not help but grumble to myself.

Isn't it so? This is a purely accidental murder, without any hostility or killing intent. I didn't intend it to be like this!

"---I really don't understand..."

That's right, I don't understand. I didn't expect that these things called humans would be so fragile and so easily killed.

But, this is clearly what they have been doing all along, so why am I the only one who has killed a person?

These people, who have always been attacking others, and me, who has attacked someone only this once...

But, the only one who has killed is me.

I don't understand.

Am I too unlucky, or are they too lucky?

The one who was beaten died, was it only because of some bad luck somewhere?

I don't understand.

I don't understand.

I don't understand.

Even this difference, even the future that awaits me, even the question of whether it was right to kill him, even what I should do later --- I don't understand.

No, actually I do understand.

The killer will be arrested by the police as a murderer. I understand this piece of common sense.

That's right, even if I have committed no sin at all.

"---This cannot be. I'm not wrong at all. Because I'm not wrong, I shouldn't be arrested by the police."

Hm, this line of thinking isn't bad.

That's why I need to hide this murder.

Luckily there are no witnesses now. I only need to hide the body, and then I can continue my peaceful, ordinary life.

But how do I do it?

Not only is there no place for me to bury this body, even burning the body will be exposed sooner or later. In today's society, disposing a corpse perfectly is virtually an impossibility.

Damn it! If this were the forests or the deep mountains, the animals would have naturally eaten the body---

Naturally eaten...?

"Ah, that's right. Isn't it fine if I just eat it?"

When I thought of this overly simple solution, I was so delighted that I felt like jumping in joy. Why am I so clever tonight? That's right, I can get rid of the body easily with this method!

But how can I do it? In the first place, it's too large a piece of meat for me to eat. I can't finish this much meat by myself by tomorrow morning.

Then at least drink up the blood!

I moved my mouth to the wound in his head and started to drink his blood.

The sticky blood started to fill my entire throat.

After drinking for a while, I began to cough furiously.

...It's no good, I can't finish it. This blood sticks in my throat, I can't drink it down non-stop like water. If I mess up I might even suffocate to death.

What to do, what to do, I can't finish the meat, I can't even drink up all the blood...!

I hugged my head and gritted my teeth.

The present me could only shiver non-stop.

...I've killed someone.

...I can't even do such a thing as hiding the evidence.

...I've killed someone.

...My life is going to end here.

I descended into chaos, not even managing to find an escape.

"---Why do you not finish drinking?"

Such a voice came from behind me.

I turned to behold a man in a black trenchcoat.

He had a tall, lean build with a solid physique. He carried a depressed expression on his face, as though he was troubled about something.

"Young man, are you being trapped by human morals?"

Without a glance at the corpse, the man continued to stare at me.

"...Morals?"

After saying so, I began to think.

Come to think of it --- why did I suddenly decide to eat him? I didn't particularly dislike the taste of blood, and I didn't feel disgusted at the wound that I had been chewing on until it rotted...what has happened to me?

Isn't eating someone...something that's even more forbidden than killing someone? Even the most evil of murderers wouldn't eat a person. They wouldn't even think of such a horrible thing.

Because, the act of eating someone is clearly a strange act.

"But...I think it is natural to do so."

"Is that so? That is because you are special.

When meeting this dead end situation of killing someone, no other choice exists. The majority of people would have escaped their sins at that moment, but you handled it in your unique way. Even if it is an 'unnatural act' from a normal point of view, you do not consider it to be a sin."

The man in black took one more step towards me.

Even more than the terror of having been seen at a murder scene, I felt the joy of having been chosen.

"---You say that I am special?"

"That is right, normality no longer exists in you. In a so-called normal world, the exceptional have no sin. Because it is natural for the exceptional to act out of normality, normality cannot be used to judge them."

The man came even closer, putting a hand on my face.

Abnormal. Mad. Insane. Absent-minded.

I'm not that kind of person, not someone who has left normality.

But --- if I am already insane, then wouldn't killing someone be an act that can't be helped?

"I'm strange, not...not normal."

The man nodded his silently, and spoke.

"Yes, you are not normal. You are insane, correct? If that is so---"

Then be thoroughly insane.

The man's voice seeped into my body comfortably.

Ah, so it's like this.

Why is this so? Purely from accepting this act, the trembling in my body and my doubts about the future have all turned into comfortable bliss.

I can't see anything past the whiteness before my eyes.

There's a deep thirst in my throat. I can't even moan out.

The pain that comes from within my body feels better than any drug I've ever tried before.

That's right, this bliss is unreachable even if I were to inject my entire body with drugs.

Without reason, my face held by the man, I cried for the first time in my life.

I felt such heat, such joy, such emotion that I wanted to scream out.

So, I chose to become insane here.

◇

The young man spend an hour eating the corpse.

He didn't use any tools, just his teeth and mouth, and finished the organism which was even larger than himself.

He couldn't even tell if the human meat was tasty or not. All he did was use his strength to chew the meat.

"---One hour? How splendid."

After the young man finished his meal, the man in the black coat spoke to him.

The young man turned his head, his mouth stained with blood. That was not the blood of the human he was eating; rather, the incessant chewing has broken his jaw bones and torn his muscles.

Even so --- the young man ate the corpse without a single pause. Finally, the corpse disappeared totally from the alley.

"But it still has its limits. If only self-awareness goes back to its own source, only this much can be accomplished. If the source itself is not awakened, it will never become reality."

The youth listened to the man's words blankly.

"If this goes on you will be trapped by normality, be regarded as an insane cannibal, and so end your life. But that cannot be the end you wish. Would you like to possess power that cannot be held back by anything, a being unique and apart from all normal life?"

The voice of the man in black was more like a written script than a voice.

That script burned itself into the young man's already numb conciousness, bringing with it a powerful, subtle curse.

His throat wet with his own blood, the young man nodded his head as though in supplication to a god who had stretched out his hand before him.

"The contract is sealed; you are the first."

The man nodded and raised his right hand.

But before that --- he asked just one thing.

"What are you?"

The man in black answered without even twitching his eyebrows.

"Magus --- Araya Souren."

Those few words, spoken with such heavy depression, echoed around the alley like the words of a god.

◇

At the last, the magus asked for the young man's name.

The young man spoke his name.

The magus, pulling a straight face, smiled slightly.

"Lio --- what a pity. With just one more character, you could be a lion."

A truly regretful, dreary ridicule.