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khwxbeeda · 6 months

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The Almost Wedding (Ch.I)

Arjun was this close to murdering someone.

More specifically, he was close to grabbing his dear darling sister by her perfectly styled hair and sticking her neck onto a guillotine. At least then she would shut up and stop bothering him.

"Arjun I swear," Tanishka said for maybe the millionth time in the last two hours, "you had better be on your best behaviour, I won't have you- I don't know- flirting with anyone or something even stupider—"

"Aga majhi bai, I got it," he finally snapped, smacking his palms together in a sarcastic namaskar, making her click her jaw shut. "I'll be quiet the entire time. And Tai, why would I flirt with some random boy? He's probably homophobic, anyway."

Her hazel eyes narrowed in a glare, and he returned it with a flat look before turning around to look in the mirror, running his hands through his hair to separate the wavy black strands and checking his subtle eye makeup again. It looked good— just a little gold glitter on the lid and a smudge of kajal on the lower lash line, bringing out the soft golden specks in his eyes. His lip gloss was transparent, but it was enough to make his Cupid’s bow pop.

Tanishka, finally realising she was being ignored, huffed and strode away. Arjun snickered as the sound of her paayal grew fainter and fainter, then went back to applying concealer. College was a harrowing experience, especially for post graduate medical students, and Arjun was not getting enough sleep. At least the concealer helped hide the designer under-eye bags.

"ARJUN!"

He jerked in surprise, and glared at the open door of his room, cursing under his breath. He almost messed up his makeup, dammit!

"EK MINUTE ALO," he yelled back, twisting his concealer tube shut and throwing it onto the dresser, then slipped out into the hallway.

He rushed down the set of staircases three steps at a time, tugging at his collar and adjusting his jeans so the multi-coloured rhinestones on the back pockets arranged in the bi flag were visible.

He had chosen the basic white shirt and baggy jeans on purpose, because while the rest of the family was wearing traditional clothing, he did not have a single kurta to his name and he had been too busy with his studies to go out and buy one. He often thought he had made a mistake by saying he wanted to become a doctor. He really should have followed Krushna into the modelling industry. At least then he would not have to bust his brain— just his body, and he would have had his best friend with him instead of halfway across the world.

He jumped the last seven steps, and was immediately met with a resounding smack upside the head.

"Aai ga," he whined, rubbing his hand over the back of his head and scowling playfully at his snickering aunt as she walked past, the pallu of her baby pink saree swinging left to right. "Chinu Maushi, don't you get tired of being annoying?"

She tossed her hair over her shoulder and winked. "Nahi. Ata chal, get a move on, they'll be here soon."

Ah. Right. His sister’s suitor.

The Kulkarni family had agreed to a rendezvous to decide if their youngest was compatible with Tanishka, and Arjun’s mother had been going crazy setting the house to rights and getting the servants to clean out every single room of the mansion. Even the unused ones. Arjun had made the mistake of asking if the guests were to be hosted in the second basement, and had gotten a chappal thrown at his head for his troubles.

"Yeah, yeah, coming," he muttered, sticking his hands into his pockets and following her out into the kitchen, where his mother was already directing the servants to prepare food and drinks for the Ganpati festival, which was in less than a week, and for the guests that were set to come in about five minutes.

“Hi, Aai,” he said, leaning down to press a kiss to his mother’s temple, and grinned when he received the weird combination of a harried glare and a soft pat to his cheek.

Lavanya Deshpande was one of the most influential actresses in Bollywood, and at the ripe age of fifty-seven, was the richest producer of the Hindi film industry. Despite being married off at the young age of nineteen into a family that did not treat her well and popping out her first baby at twenty, she had risen to national fame and become a household name by the time she was twenty-six, having acted in over a hundred films and produced several blockbusters through the course of her career. She had divorced her husband at twenty-eight and taken her two kids away, changed her surname back to her maiden name, and proceeded to take the international film industry by storm in a short five years.

“Hi, babdi,” she replied, and promptly shoved something into his mouth. “How does it taste?”

Arjun chewed on the thing for two slow seconds, then brightened when he realised it was a gulaab jamun. He nodded enthusiastically and snapped off two quick finger guns.

“Kadak,” he said through the mouthful of the mithai, and she smacked him upside the head. He yelped, but she smacked him again, the look on her face halfway between fond and exasperated. “Swallow your morsel before you speak, murkha!”

Arjun whined in outrage, but one sharp look from her and he subsided, muttering complaints under his breath and rubbing his head. The kitchen— a large white tiled room with two island counters and a whole baking station that was actually used for making festival faraal and mithai rather than cakes and pastries— had been overtaken by the two workers who were cooking up a storm for the festival, and Arjun sniffed appreciatively at a container filled with saffron milk, only to be pushed away by Aai.

“Nahi, Arjunie,” she said sternly. “This is for the guests, you can have as much as you’d like afterwards.”

Before he could reply, the bell rang.

His mother rose to her feet and glided out of the room, the skirts of her baby blue Anarkali flaring out behind her, and a minute later Arjun heard the front door open and the muffled sounds of greetings from the receiving hall. He exchanged a grimace with Chinu Maushi, and exhaled through his nose. She poked him in the back to make him straighten his posture to appear at least halfway polite, and beckoned him to follow her to the living room.

He took a stand next to one of the sofas and stuck his tongue out at Tanishka, just as Aai walked in with the guests.

Four people— siblings, because the parents had passed away. They walked in behind his mother, who had her socialite smile pasted on her beautiful face, and Arjun's breath caught.

All of them were utterly, absolutely gorgeous.

The two women and two men were wearing well fitted casual ethnic clothes, with the older man and woman dressed in identical royal purple kurta and trouser sets with delicate silver embroidery at the collar, and the younger two dressed in white with purple embroidery. They had matching arched eyebrows, smooth skin, oddly perfect noses, and pink lips that were pulled up into polite smiles that made their dark eyes crinkle at the edges, giving the impression that they were actually paying attention to whatever Arjun's mother was saying.

Bappa knew Arjun was not paying attention.

No, he was distracted by the visitors' sheer beauty as they pressed their hands together into a namaskar and bowed their heads. If Tanishka was marrying into this, he was envious, because those were some magnificent genetics. Yes, he grew up around big name actors and actresses walking in and out of his house on a daily basis, but that just made it easier for him to recognise real beauty when he saw it.

"—and of course, my son, Arjun." He snapped back into focus and sent his most charming smile towards them.

"Everyone," his mother said, "these are the Kulkarni siblings. Chandan, the oldest—" the criminally handsome man waved— "Charuta, Charita, and Chaitanya, the youngest."

A chorus of greetings echoed around the room, and they all sat down as the house workers placed trays piled with food and drinks on the teapoy in the middle of the set of sofas.

“So, Chaitanya,” Lavanya began, a large, genuine smile curving up her red-painted lips, “how are you, my child?”

Chaitanya gave her wide smile, and Arjun was pretty sure he felt butterflies in his stomach. The boy was pretty, with almond shaped deep brown eyes, pouty rosebud lips and a pointy chin that would have made him look delicate if not for the sharp cut of his jaw and the intelligent curve of his eyebrows. "Mi masta, Madame, what about you?"

The older actress’s smile widened. "Oh, no need to call me Madame, my dear. Lavanya is fine, and I’m doing good as well.” She extended her hand out towards the food. “Please, do eat your fill, and now, shall we begin with the ‘interrogation’?”

She winked at the last word, and the siblings let out identical amiable laughs. Charuta reached forward and picked a banana chip off one of the plates and popped it into her mouth, pretty glossy lips twisting into a pout as she crunched the thing between her teeth. Arjun forcefully dragged his eyes away from the visual and focused on Chandan, who had begun speaking.

"How are we to do this, then?"

He had a curious accent— somewhere between Indian and French, Arjun realised a second later. He exchanged a look with Chinu Maushi, who smirked at him like she knew exactly what was going through his mind. He turned away without giving her the honour of a reply, but he could feel his cheeks heat up. Thank the Gods for his dark complexion that made it difficult for his blush to be visible, or she would never let him live it down.

"How about you ask first?" Lavanya suggested. "Tanishka asks the next question. Both of you have to answer all the questions posed."

Chandan raised a perfectly sculpted eyebrow at Chaitanya, who somehow managed to make his shrug look elegant. Arjun honestly had no idea whether to be jealous of or attracted to the man. Both men.

"I don't mind if you don’t," he answered, in the same hot accent as his older brother, and Tanishka nodded.

"I don't mind either. Ask away."

"What are you doing, currently?" he asked, tongue curling deliciously over his R's. Arjun had to forcefully drag his eyes away from that pretty mouth. Chinu Maushi gave him a significant look behind his mother's back that said he needed to stop, and he exhaled with a shake of his head— drop it. Thankfully, she did, but not before she gave him another look. Arjun rolled his eyes went back to the Q&A.

"I'm working as a freelance influencer and content creator as of now," Tanishka replied. “I won’t be signing onto Aai’s company, but hopefully in a few years I’ll take up a contract with a reputable agency as an actress. What about you?”

Charuta and Chandan exchanged discreet looks above Chaitanya's head, who was hilariously short compared to his older siblings. Even Charita was a couple inches taller than him. Arjun had no ground to stand on, however; he was the same height. He had no doubt that if Krushna met Chaitanya, he would tease him for his height the same way he did to Arjun.

Gods, he could not wait to tell Krushna about this.

"I'm in the last year of my Master’s degree,” Chaitanya said, leaning forward to wrap slender fingers covered in silver rings around a glass of chilled panha. Arjun’s eyes tracked the movement, only half focused on the rest of the words he spoke. He glimpsed a small tattoo on the inner side of the wrist, but the sleeves of the kurta shifted before he could get a proper look. “My subject is Physics.”

Oh, pretty and smart.

And so the interrogation proceeded, with Tanishka and Chaitanya taking turns in asking questions and answering them. By the end of the hour, half the plates and glasses had been wiped clean, and Arjun knew the general details and history of the Kulkarni family.

Chaitanya was twenty-five years old, and the youngest of the siblings. Chandan was thirty-nine and married with a seven year old daughter, and Charuta was not aiming to marry at all. She was thirty-five, had passed the UPSC exams on her first try after her LLB, and was working as a diplomat in Delhi at the Italian Embassy in India. Charita was a famous actress who mostly filmed in England and France, and had married her husband two years ago at the age of twenty-seven. Chaitanya was currently teaching maths and physics to school students when he was not working on his thesis for his Masters.

Their parents— Nayantara and Dhruv— had passed away in a car accident sixteen years ago, and Chandan had taken the younger two siblings to Paris to live with their maternal grandmother, while Charuta attended National Law University in Mumbai. The three siblings had stayed in Paris for ten years until Chaitanya completed his high school, and then moved to Pune for his Bachelors degree at Fergusson College.

“And what will you do after your Masters?” Tanishka asked him, leaning forward in her seat with a manicured finger subtly twirling with a strand of her hair. Arjun had seen her use that trick before, and he smirked when he noticed Chaitanya’s eyes follow the slide of the edge of the short square nail through the black curl before flicking back to her face.

“Ah, I’m hoping to continue on to a Ph.D,” he said, and picked up his glass of panha to take a sip. “What about you? Are you planning on getting another degree or—”

“On, no,” Tanishka replied, shaking her head so her curls bounced just enough to attract attention. “I have a masters, and that’s enough for me. Frankly, I’ve had enough of being yelled at by professors.” She chuckled faintly as if letting the others in on a joke, and Arjun stifled a snicker when Chaitanya echoed the sound, eyes never leaving his sister’s pretty face.

“Shall we talk alone?” He asked her, and Tanishka smiled her most charming smile, but there was a gleam in her eyes that Arjun recognised— the one that made an appearance when she had gotten what she wanted. “Why not? I know a cafe ten minutes from here that has excellent French press, if you’d like.”

Chaitanya glanced at Charuta for permission, grinning boyishly when she nodded. When he turned back to offer his hand to Tanishka, his grin was a little shy. It was endearing, and Arjun exchanged a look with his mother, who looked like she had won three Oscars in one go. He stifled another laugh.

Tanishka winked at Lavanya as she slipped out of the living room with her hand in Chaitanya’s, Arjun politely excused himself by citing his studies as a reason and slipped back up the stairs and into his room. He shut the door behind him and threw himself onto the bed, pushing aside the mass of textbooks, and unlocked his phone to hit the speed dial for his best friend.

“Haye tauba,” he breathed the minute Krushna picked up the phone, “they’re all so damn hot.”

The laugh that Krushna let out felt like it was setting off the butterfly effect.

———————

Taglist: @orgasming-caterpillar @h0bg0blin-meat @musaafir-hun-yaaron @mrunmione @girlatreus @shanti-ashant-hai @yehsahihai (lmk if you wanna be added/removed)

#the almost wedding #arjun deshpande #tanishka deshpande #chaitanya kulkarni #amrut writes #chaptered fic #original character #original writing #original work

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inochinoyomikata · 1 year

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Inochi no Tabekata 2 ch 3-3 Translation

3-3 Otogiri Tobi– I wanted to meet but couldn't meet you

—Tobi Otogiri remembered the apartment where he and his brother lived together. The color of the outer wall was whitish, and it was a two story building with an outside staircase and an outside corridor. There was a black fence outside their window. His brother would often open the window, rest his elbows on the fence, and smoke.

Sometimes his brother would leave the room. Tobi was alone during that time. He was overjoyed when his brother returned.

They were occasionally visited by someone. That man wore a brimless hat and was larger than his tall brother. His hands were thick, frighteningly large, and he wore boots. The man did not enter the room. He went up to the door. The man was not empty-handed. He was holding something. He had it on his shoulders. Something like a bag.

Something like a backpack.

It seemed Tobi had never heard that man’s voice. He once asked his brother who he was. His brother pointed his finger up to his lips.

“Shhh.”

He had many conversations with his brother. The older brother told the younger brother various stories.

“Tobi— if you have a wish that you really want to fulfill, well–”

‘Don’t tell anyone about it’ his brother had said.

“Keep it a secret. It’s kind of like a prayer. Hide it, out of sight, and grow that wish on your own.”

“Should I not tell brother as well?”

“Oh. Don’t tell me either.”

“Does brother also have something to hide?”

“Do you think so?”

+++ + ++++

Halfway up the stairs, Shizukudani Rukana’s four-legged zingai, Cipher, was laying down and eating Hiiragi Itoha’s gigantic zingai butterfly. Greedily eating. It was trying to consume all of it. On the school announcements, a male teacher, not Monika, was repeating, “Please evacuate, please evacuate outside the school as soon as possible.” Haizaki was lying on the landing of the descending stairs. Hiiragi stood next to him. She managed to stand on her knees, bent at the waist, and was about to collapse.

Before Tobi knew it, Ryuuko was sitting on his left leg. Ryuuko was facing downwards. She didn’t want to see anything anymore, she didn’t want to hear anything, and so on. Tobi also had the urge to do so.

“Idiot bastard…!”

Even if Baku, who was next to him, yelled at him, Tobi still didn’t know what to do.

“Otogiri…!”

He was called, and when he looked in the direction of the voice, Asamiya came running from the third floor. He can’t. He needs to evacuate. He needs to go. Just thinking about that, Tobi couldn’t say anything. He was silent.

“It’s your fault, Itoha-!”

Shizukudani cried.

“Yours, your fault, all of it, yours! You left me alone! I thought you were my best friend! But, it’s fine, Itoha, there’s something more important to me, I met a wonderful person, like an angel, like God! Yes, God, to me that person is more than a god, I’ll be of help to that person, I’ll help fulfill that person’s wishes, I’ll do anything for that person, and that person will give me praise, that person will love me! I don’t care about Itoha….!”

“Forgive me!”

Hiiragi. It was Hiiragi’s voice. But it was not Hiiragi. Hiiragi was just barely on the verge of collapsing. She was not talking. Beside’s it was not Hiiragi, the voice came from closer, from Ryuuko. Of course, it was not Ryuuko. The voice was different.

Chinuraasha was poking out from the pochette that Ryuuko was hugging. Chinu also opened his mouth. He didn’t open his mouth like Tobi’s Baku or Shizukudani’s Cipher. Chinu’s mouth wasn't big. Chinu seemed to have grown somewhat. Even so, the size of his mouth was a few centimeters.

“Forgive me. Rukana, please. Forgive me.”

“Ehh..?”

Ryuuko nodded. She raised her head, turned her eyes to Chinu and, “Hu—” and held her breath. Tobi was also nervous.

His mouth was mostly hollow except for his teeth and tongue. That was not Chinu. Was it to start with? He didn’t know, but there was a foreign object in there anyway. A foreign substance was protruding from inside of Chinu and was about to spill out its mouth. It looked like that.

He could only say, a foreign object.

It was a few centimeters. Not big. But it was uneven, and it moved finely.

It kind of looked like a human face.

A small, tiny human was inside Chinu and trying to come out of his mouth. It was calling out.

“Forgive me. Please, Rukana. Forgive me,” it said.

It was Hiiragi. Chinu voiced Hiiragi Itoha. Hiiragi was inside Chinu. A very small Itoha.

“—hhhhha….!”

It wasn’t the little Hiiragi that squeezed out some kind of sound from the back of her throat, rather than a voice, it was the real thing. Hiiragi was crying, as well as Shizukudani. But it was not tears that flowed from her holed eyes. It was like dozens, or more, of caterpillars. As they traveled down her cheeks, they became pupae, emerged, and flew away.

“Still….!?”

Shizukudani held her glasses down and cried. What was ‘still’? Was she saying they were emerging? The zingai, from Hiiragi.

Hiiragi was giving life to more and more zingai.

It was then.

“Get down, follow me…!”

Haizaki reached out and grabbed Haizaki’s ankle. Hiiragi looked down at Haizaki. Immediately, Hiiragi’s tears, something like caterpillars, stopped. They stopped coming out.

“You have– an ally, gah…!”

Hiiragi shook her head. The things like caterpillars overflowed from her eyes again. The emerging zingai butterflies remained small, two, or three, or more grew together. There were zingai butterflies that landed on Hiiragi’s hair and there were zingai butterflies that flew around Hiiragi. Several, dozens of zingai butterflies attacked Haizaki.

“—AAah…”

Some, but not a few, zingai butterflies flew over to them.

“Otogiri!”

Someone touched him back. It was Asamiya. He shouldn’t. Here. Tobi turned around and tried to tell Asamiya. Why did he come? Why had he come? Because Tobi didn’t stop him. Stop him before he comes. He had that opportunity.

“Oh…!”

Baku bit the zingai butterflies that flew in and grabbed several with his right hand. A relatively large zingai butterfly that he tried to catch with his left hand slipped by in an acrobatic flight.

The semi-transparent zingai slipped away from Asamiya’s neck and entwined with the butterfly zingai. Tobi witnessed that moment. Asamiya’s zingai tried to protect its master. Like a thin string, the snake-like semi-transparent zingai fell to the floor, tangled with the zingai butterfly.

Other zingai butterflies flocked there. In the blink of an eye, many small zingai butterflied had gathered, and the translucent zingai, which was already difficult to see, was completely invisible.

“Ah…—”

Asamiya’s eyes became hollow and his eyelids closed. Falling. He was falling. Tobi immediately supported Asamiya. Asamiya was very heavy. His whole body was relaxed. He didn’t put any strength into his body. That’s why it was so heavy.

“Kuh…!”

Baku tried to step on the zingai butterflies. The zingai butterflies that covered and may be eating Asamiya’s translucent zingai.

“Stop!”

Even if Tobi hadn’t given the order with a hoarse voice, Baku would have surely stopped. Perhaps it would have been a fatal act for Asamiya. Baku should know that much. If Asamiya’s zingai hadn’t been devoured by the zingai butterflies yet. If it wasn't already too late.

“This—”

Ryuuko tightly hugged her pochette with Chinu and screamed.

“You can’t do this…! Hiiragi-san, listen to my voice…!”

Hiiragi suddenly looked up and pronounced, “shhh….” Her eyes, which were like holes, were filled with tears. The things like caterpillars stopped appearing. “Shi-ra, Shiratama-san? Shiratama-san, Shiratama—” the small, tiny Hiiragi repeated.

“Shiratama-san? Shiratama-san’s voice? Oh, forgive me, help me, forgive me, please, please, forgive—”

“I will forgive you! I will not blame anyone! I will not blame you! I want to help you, what should I do, aren’t we friends, Hiiragi-san!”

“Me, aa, me, me, aaa, how, what do I do, aah, what should I do, help me—”

It was no longer just the tiny Hiiragi. Hiiragi, or rather, the main body of Hiiragi, was also speaking. Hiiragi and Ryuuko were yelling at each other. What was going on? Was this Chinu’s power? Wasn’t Chinu just speaking for voices that couldn’t be heard?

The zingai butterflies that were flying around fell down. Like withered leaves. The zingai butterflies lost even the color of dead leaves. Rather than their color, their presence had faded.

“No more…!”

Shizukudani stomped the ground. Not once. Shizukudani kicked the stairs twice, three times in a row with all her strength.

“What are you doing, you bastards! Why are you getting in my way!? You’re an eyesore, you’re brainless, go away, get lost, all of you, fuck you, idiotsss…!”

“It was you.”

Tobi was holding Asamiya in his arms. He was alive. He was breathing. But he was exhausted. Whose fault is this? The zingai butterflies? Does that mean Hiiragi Itoha? Could tobi himself have prevented this from happening? Even so, even if Hiiragi and Tobi were also to blame, the number one was—

“It’s you.”

Tobi gently, as quietly as possible, laid Asamiya down on the floor. During that time, he never took his eyes off Shizukudani Rukana. From Shizukudani, and that zingai.

Shizukudani’s zingai, that four legged Cipher, seemed to have already finished eating the giant butterfly zingai. Cipher was in front of Shizukudani, two steps down the stairs. It was bigger than before. Probably as big as Tobi. It was not just his size. Cipher was different. The four arm-like legs were muscled, the skin was blackened, and a faint whitish band pattern was floating. The head, which was like a mannequin with four eyes, now looked like a man-eating shark with four eyes.

Cipher may be threatening Tobi before his master. Cipher was also a zingai, so he must be trying to protect his master, Shizukudani.

“Baku.”

If you can do it, do it. If you can protect the master, do so. At most, struggle. Resist. But it was no use.

He was hungry. Baku and Tobi were also training. He couldn’t ignore that feeling of hunger, as if the cells in his body were drying up. He couldn’t stand it. No need to hold back. What he should do. It was obvious.

“Eat him.”

“Sure…!”

As Baku stepped forward, Shizukudani went up the stairs with her body facing toward them. She stepped back. Shizukudani twitched her face. The muscles all over her body were contracting. Her heart stretched violently like it was convulsing. For some reason, Tobi felt Shizukudani’s pulse. It was as if these hands were gripping Shizukudani’s heart. Even crushing her, he seemed to be able to do that if he felt like it.

“H…—”

Shizukudani turned around. She ran up the stairs. Cipher also followed Shizukudani. They ran away. Were they running away? Something of an escape? Baku started chasing them first.

“Ryuuko!”

Tobi yelled as he also went up the stairs by skipping two steps.

“Asamiya and the others…!”

“Yes!”

Ryuuko and Chinu stopped Hiiragi. Otherwise, Hiiragi would have continued to produce more zingai butterflies, and the damage would have increased and spread. It was Shizukudani’s fault. What did she do? Tobi didn’t know. Shizukudani must have set it up. Shizukudani and that zingai. Eat those guys. I’m just hungry. That zingai named Cipher is disgusting. It’s creepy. I’m not scared. It’s not scary at all. Baku can easily eat a zingai like that. Tobi understood. I am sure. I know my opponent. That they can’t win against Baku. Baku is a lion, and Cipher is a hare. They are different ranks. If a lion chases, the poor hare can only run away.

Tobi and Baku went up to the third floor. Shizukudani was faster than they thought, and they still couldn’t catch up. That should be it. Shizukudani was not running on her own feet. It was Cipher. Shizukudani clung to Cipher. Cipher ran on four legs.

“Aren’t you running away fast…!”

Unlike Baku, Tobi didn’t waste his words. He moved his feet more than his mouth. He hadn’t caught up, but he hadn’t fallen behind either. Shizukudani glanced back. She worried a lot about Tobi and Baku. She was afraid. She wondered when she would be eaten.

With Shizukudani on board, Cipher dashed through an empty hallway and headed from the classroom building to the special classroom building. Tobi should follow Baku. Quickly. It won’t take long. I want to eat it. Haven’t I already eaten? Those zingai. They were not enough. If I don’t eat more, I won’t be satisfied. Anyway, I can’t help but be hungry, and I only have to eat him.

Someone was standing in front of Shizukudani, who was riding Cipher. Who? Why were they not evacuating? Shizukudani raised a high pitched voice.

“Janitor…!”

“Wh–”

Baku suddenly slowed down. Tobi was also stunned. Who are you? Who is that man? Why, here, now?

The man was large and wore a hat with no brim. He wore a blouson like a flight jacket, he wore boots, and he had big hands. His eyes were fake, and he wore a mask. A strange mask, with a picture of a mouth with bared teeth.

The masked man slowly turned on his heel. He kept walking. Where was he going? The stairs? He did not go down the stairs into the special classroom building. He went up. This was the first floor. Certainly, it was possible to go up to the roof from the third floor of the special classroom building. There were stairs. However, the rooftop was normally off limits. The door to the roof was locked.

With Shizukudani on board, Cipher followed the masked man. Tobi and Baku had no choice but to follow. What else were they supposed to do?

The door to the roof had no knob. It was locked. It seemed that someone turned the knob by force and pulled it out. The knob was lying in the middle of the stairs.

Tobi and Baku went to the roof. It was light outside. The concrete floor was wet. But it was not raining, Clouds still hung over most of the sky, but there were still gaps here and there. From those, thin pillars of light thrust diagonally towards the ground.

“T-that guy is…”

Baku groaned and grabbed his head. He got on his knees and crouched down.

“That guy is… um, the masked bastard is…”

The masked man was perched on the low raised wall of the roof trim. He was big, so it wasn’t much bigger than sitting directly on the floor. He looked a little cramped.

Shizukudani was no longer clinging onto Cipher. She was next to Cipher, with her back toward them.

Another person was there.

Besides the masked man, Shizukudani and Cipher, there was one more person on the rooftop.

Was he looking at the pillars of light tearing through the clouds? Like the masked man, he did not sit on the raised wall called a parapet. His right foot was hanging from the parapet and his hands were in his pockets.

He was tall and slender. He wore a white shirt.

“S-sama.”

Shizukudani called. It was a strange name, but Shizukudani wasn’t joking. He knew it by her voice. It was a sincere, yet overly sweet voice, like a lump of sugar.

He turned around. He didn’t look at Shizukudani. At Tobi. He was looking straight at Tobi.

Tobi knew that face. He knew it very well. He remembered very clearly. It wasn’t too different from his memories. He hadn’t seen it in a long time. It had been many years since they parted. He smiled softly. The way he smiled hadn’t changed.

“...Big brother?”

“Hey.”

Seki Otogiri narrowed his eyes.

“You’ve grown, Tobi.”

“You know—”

Shizukudani threw a sharp glance at Tobi. She immediately turned to Seki, to Tobi’s older brother.

“...You…know him? S-sama, knows about Tobi Otogiri…… Eh? Big brother… he said, Tobi Otogiri is S-sama’s younger brother?”

“Of course I know him.”

Even though Seki replied, he didn’t look at Shizukudani.

“For a long time. Tobi is special.”

“...Special—”

Shizukudani’s breathing became rough. She seemed to be very confused. Of course, Tobi was also not calm.

How upset he was, Tobi didn’t even know.

“Well, S-sama, I am…?”

“I’m sorry, Rukana.”

“I’m not special…?”

“Tobi is even more special.”

“More— That kind of thing…”

“But, Rukana, didn’t I tell you? You have potential. There’s so much potential.”

“Potential…”

“Rukana.”

“Y-yes, S-sama.”

“Do you want to become really, truly special?”

“I want to be.”

Shizukudani hugged herself with her arms. It was like she was trying to destroy herself for not being so special.

“I really want to be special! Truly, a special thing. Because, if I’m not special, I mean nothing…!

“I see.”

Seki pulled out his right hand from his pocket. His hand was outstretched towards Shizukudani. Shizukudani walked like she was drawn to it. Like a paper doll with no bones, no joints, no muscles, and almost no weight, it was an unsteady gait. Seki’s right hand was placed against Shizukudani’s left cheek.

“Then let him eat.”

“Eh…”

“Let Cipher eat you.”

“Let Cipher, eat me—”

“Do you really want to be special? You can be, Rukana. Be special. You have the potential. Look.”

Seki never pushed Shizukudani strongly with his hands. But he let her go. It seemed so to Tobi. She turned around. She was laughing. At least, she was trying to laugh. She spread her arms wide and said–

“Cipher, eat me.”

Her zingai opened his mouth. Unless he opened his mouth, he couldn’t eat her. She nodded. She then dove into Cipher’s mouth like she was tainted meat. As expected, she was not an easy meal. When Cipher closed his mouth, she protruded from the waist down. She shouted something. Her legs fluttered. Cipher held her down with his four arm-like legs. He was trying to force her into his mouth.

“Tobi, for me.”

Seki was not looking at her. Seki’s gaze was directed towards Tobi.

“I have a wish that I want to fulfill.”

“...Is that why brother kept secret without telling anyone?”

“Do you think so?”

I don’t know. I just don’t know. Tobi knew nothing. They finally met. He missed him. He was always searching aimlessly. Tobi only remembered his brother. Did he have parents? He was always without them. Where were his parents? The only clue he had was the name “Otogiri” and his older brother. If he is his brother, he would know something.

Before he knew it, Baku was lying at his feet. He was just like a backpack. Tobi was scared. What if Baku really was just a Backpack? What if Baku didn’t answer when Tobi called out? That wouldn’t happen. Something like that couldn’t happen. He would like to think so. But, what was real, what was an illusion, what was true, and what was a lie, Tobi didn’t know. He didn’t understand anymore.

“Zingai who eat their masters become something referred to as ‘charred’(1).”

He heard the voice of Seki. His only brother was right there. But was that even his brother? Was he real?

Shizukudani had been eaten by her zingai. She must be inside the swollen and bursting Cipher. Cipher had four eyes. That had increased by two, to six. From its four arm-like legs, it was trying to grow something. Raising up, it became new arms. Two arms that were thinner than the others. The epidermis had darkened, and now had a lead-like color. Cipher was originally a monster. He no longer looked like a complete monster. He looked like he was a nightmare. Was this a dream?

“Amazing, Rukana is. You had the qualities.”

Seki stroked the top of the nightmarish Cipher’s head. Cipher closed their six eyes and quivered their strangely glossy, oversized lips. “S-sama,” Cipher said. It was Shizukudani’s voice.

“Even though you became charred, you’re still conscious. It’s amazing.”

To be continued.

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(1) The term used is 「燼」 which seems to mean fire or ember, but those aren’t really a term to describe something, so I went with ‘charred.’

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Afterword

In the case of poetry, it is written as lyrics, but this is a field that I am not good at. Actually, I have no experience. In the past, I used to sing on the street while playing the guitar, and I also wrote lyrics. I wrote more than a hundred songs, arranged them at home, and even created the sound source by myself. To be honest, at one point, I was trying to establish myself on that path. I gave up and started writing novels.

The reason I gave up was because I didn’t really like my singing voice. In retrospect, I started singing without a microphone on the street, so my priority was to sing loudly rather than be technical. I don’t think it was very good.

And the other thing was that I wasn’t sophisticated with my own composition. The song was bad and the lyrics were unsophisticated, so I thought to myself that it was impossible. No matter how hard you try, it will be in vain. I gave up because I had no talent.

So I wrote a novel, and it was somewhat better than lyrics. Besides, I had no idea what to do with the lyrics, but the novel was different. Looking back on it, I had read quite a few books since I was a child, so there were many things I could refer to. I’d been listening to music for a long time, but mainly Western music because of my uncle’s influence. On the streets, I often sang standard numbers by The Beatles, Oasis, and Oldies, you might not know them because they’re a bit old, but passersby were suspicious of my when I sang intense songs by Nirvana, Aerosmith, and Red Hot Chili Peppers. I didn’t really understand the meanings of the English lyrics. I just kind of sang. Also, for some reason, I couldn’t memorize the lyrics of songs I’d sung hundreds of times. I wasn’t interested in poetry, but the poetry anthologies of famous poets. Haiku and waka(2) poems don’t fit perfectly. I guess I don’t have the so-called poetic spirit.

That’s why I have a very weak awareness of lyrics (poetry). However, it was absolutely necessary for the structure and development of the story, so I had no choice but to try to write the lyrics this time. I don’t know myself if they were good or bad. In any case, S (and I) take full responsibility for the quality of the lyrics in this work. Really, once again I was keenly aware of how amazing Eve-san is.

Finally, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to Eve-san and his staff, Mariyasu-san, Lack-san, who was in charge of the illustrations, Nakamichi-san, the editor in charge, and everyone who has read this novel. I hope to see you again in the next volume.

Jyūmonji Ao

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(2) This is a kind of classical Japanese poem.

#inochi no tabekata #inochi no tabekata translation #e ve

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