Volume 8, 4: Bloodstained Zashiki Warashi by ???(5/5)
The black vortex took the shape of a small canine Youkai.
It was the Sunekosuri named Ohatsu.
“You knew this would happen from the beginning, didn’t you?” she asked.
“I am not that farsighted. I truly did not predict what Shinobu-kun was after and it was entirely my own error that we failed to suppress the Ver. 39. Then again, I won’t deny that I set things up so some hope would remain no matter who won.”
Even now, the Hyakki Yakou Special-Made Ver. 40 Zashiki Warashi said nothing.
Perhaps she had been altered to the point that she couldn’t.
She had a thin veil covering half her face and a head-mounted display around her neck. Most importantly of all, she wore the white kimono, a symbol of normality that she could not escape.
Majina glanced over at his partner who could not and was not allowed to change her expression.
“True to my name, I will cast a curse on you.”
“What are you-...?”
“Take care of my wife and daughter. I won’t ask that you return them to a proper path in life. I only ask that you do enough to keep them smiling in the narrow field over which Hyakki Yakou rules. I know I am being selfish, but I will soon be crushed between the gears of history in order to protect your dream of walking alongside the Ver. 39. I can at least wish that you will get along with any Youkai, can’t I?”
I felt something run down my spine.
I couldn’t explain what exactly it was, but something invisible seemed to seep out from Majina’s smile. It was entirely different from the zombie purple.
It may have been what they call the shadow of death.
“Screw that...”
I didn’t care how irrational my argument was. Anything was fine.
No matter what, I had to sweep aside that pallor spreading across Majina’s face!
“After everything you’ve done, you’re just going to disappear at your own convenience!? That’s just quitting while you’re ahead! Don’t you try to look cool by dying!! Live on and make up for what you’ve done!! I’m not going to allow this! I’m going to drag you to somewhere you can be judged! No matter what!!”
I finally understood this man named Majina, at least a little bit.
He had not swapped an eye with Mei for some disturbing benefit or ideology. A Zashiki Warashi would remain with or leave their family depending on that family’s prosperity or decline. He had wanted some kind of eternal bond and he had wanted to be a normal family, so like exchanging rings, they had exchanged a part of their bodies.
He was the same as me.
He was the end result of a man who had been willing to make an enemy of the world to grasp a life of happiness with the Zashiki Warashi he had fallen for.
He was a living corpse that had been left behind by history.
And even though I finally understood him...
“Oh, and one other thing. Please pass a message on to that girl. Tell her I’m sorry I never had a chance to celebrate her birthday. But assure her that Mei and I never forgot her face even once. Tell her she was our greatest treasure.”
“Majinaaaaaaa!!!!!”
“Such a beautiful light.”
At first, I had no idea what he was talking about.
But...
“I see. So the Kasha was a chariot that carries the souls of criminals to hell.”
The bright light that had been released to the surface once more descended into the great pit. It bared its fangs in its proper role. That beam of light swallowed up everything, tore Majina’s hand from my own, and carried that man, who had committed great crimes out of love for his family, into the lava-filled depths of the earth.
Once the light vanished, I was a human rather than a zombie.
No trace remained of the hole in my chest and I was among the living rather than the dead.
My archenemy had been eliminated.
History had been corrected and the zombie outbreak was over, so it was the ultimate happy ending.
And yet I still felt like an invisible hole remained somewhere in my chest.