Murderer in the Flower of Death (11 page)

She let Kyousuke’s worried question go without responding in retaliation for earlier, and Renko dug through her bag again. What she took out were three jelly drinks in a silver pack.

It seemed that this was Renko’s lunch.

With everyone watching, Renko attached the black tube to the right side of the gas mask, then inserted the pointed tip at the other end into an opened jelly drink.
“Sluurrp…sluurrp…slurpslurp…
” She began to steadily suck up the contents. Just like using a straw.

“You don’t even take the gas mask off a mealtimes?! That’s insanely
consistent!!” Kyousuke couldn’t resist making a jab at her. Renko laughed with a
kksshh
.

“Well, I’d like to take it off, too, in truth. I’d like to, but I can’t.”

“Uh…not that you won’t, but you
can’t
? What do you mean—?”

“Oh, well, it’s really no big deal. I’m allowed to take it off as I please when I’m in my dorm room.” Renko finished the first jelly drink and opened the second one as she answered.

Worried that he might intrude on her privacy by plainly asking her any more details, Kyousuke decided to hold his tongue. It was then that he realized he barely knew anything about this girl in the gas mask. He definitely had no idea why she was in this school, or how many people she had killed, or even—

“…Oh, that’s right.” Renko’s voice interrupted Kyousuke’s thoughts, keeping him from giving voice to his questions. “By the way, Maina…”

At the sound of her name being called, Maina jumped in her seat, her utensils clanging together. “Y-yes?! Wh-wwwh-what is it?!” The knife and fork that she had been using to cut her “daily special garbage hamburg steak” stopped and rattled against the top of her plate.

Renko tilted her head quizzically and slurped up her jelly. “Nothing, just that you look really tense. I was just thinking that, until you get used to the atmosphere of this place, it might be better to leave you alone. You’re not used to it yet, are you?”

“Eh?! Um…well, see…s-sowwy…sowwy!”

“
Kksshh.
You don’t have to be so nervous. I may look unusual on the outside, but you can relax. I’m not going to rub up against you, or lick you, or kiss you out of the blue…unlike Kyousuke.”

“Hey. Stop talking like I might rub her or lick her or kiss her.”

“…Hmm, am I wrong? Of course, if Kyousuke did those things to me, I wouldn’t mind a bit.”

“Seriously?!”

Renko had gotten her teeth into Kyousuke and let out a “
kksshh…
” sigh in his direction. “…There, you see? You really do want it, just as expected. Your eyes give you away…do you see that, Maina? This is Kyousuke Kamiya’s true nature. He’s not a manly man, he is what we call a lustful man.”

Taking advantage of the break in Renko’s speech, Eiri spit out, “…He’s a sleazebag is what you mean.”

I really wish she would just keep her mouth shut at times like this, instead of making things worse.

Kyousuke tried to save himself. “They’re having fun saying all this nonsense, but it’s just jokes. Please don’t take it seriousl—”

“Eeek!! Please don’t look at me! What would happen if I got pregnant?! You’re debauched! Filthy! Shameleeesss!”

“That’s it, you’ve got it exactly right. That story about him getting busy with twelve girls, and using ‘in utero’ power to get them pregnant just by looking at them, that’s all true. Kyousuke Kamiya…is a nasty guy!”

“…He’s an enemy to women. He should die.”

“……”

He didn’t feel like making another comeback. Kyousuke shut up and slurped his garbage udon. As the name indicated, it tasted as though the broth had been scooped out of the bottom of a soggy trash can. He grimaced at the flavor.

“Oh no, Kyousuke’s sulking. I got caught up in the moment, but did I go too far? At least I relieved a little bit of the tension… Moving on, next is to develop a beautiful love with Maina—”

Whizz!

A silver light sparkled on the edge of his vision.

Crassh!

Something solid struck Renko’s gas mask near the eyes, throwing her back.

“……Um,” Maina’s voice squeaked out.

Eiri, who had finished her meal and was yawning and stretching with boredom, bent backward with a start. Another flash whizzed by her throat.

The weapon that had impacted Renko’s mask—a small silver knife—fell to the floor with a clatter.

“……”

A dumbfounded silence descended over the group.

“Uh…um…just now, that was…m-my hand…hand slipped, and…”

Kyousuke, Renko, and Eiri all fearfully turned to look.

Maina, color draining from her face, was frozen still, holding nothing but air in her right hand.

Kyousuke gulped loudly.

“Maina…did you
throw a knife
just now?”

“Yes!! S-sss-sowwy! It wasn’t on p-purpose…”

Whizz!
Again, a menacing silver flash.

“What the—?! Th-that’s dangerous…”

He reflexively dodged the fork, which Maina had thrust forward at the same time she’d turned to face him. By tilting his head, he had narrowly avoided the three-pronged spear flying at his eyeball… Having dodged it by a mere hair’s breadth, he broke into a cold sweat.

“Aaaaaahhh!! That one, too! Not on p-ppp-purpose… Waaahh!”

“Wha—?! I know that already! I know already, so calm do— Whoooaaa!!”

Whish! Whish! Whish! Whish!

Flapping the hand holding the fork in a panic, Maina thrust over and over again in Kyousuke’s direction, faster than he could see. The target was always that vital spot—the eye.

Kyousuke frantically ducked to avoid the shower of potential punctures. “…
Gasp
…hah… I th-thought I was gonna die…” By the time he managed to wrestle the dangerous utensil away from her, both Kyousuke and Maina were covered in sweat.

Maina, who had raised both hands and stood up, apologized while shedding fat tears. “Waahh…! S-sowwy! It wasn’t…
hic
…on purpose.”

“Yeah…I know! I get it, so relax already. Will you calm down for once, Maina? Somehow I’m not hurt, so… To start with, let’s sit down. Calm down. Okay?”

“O-okay…I’b sowwy…
sniff
…
hic.
” As Maina sat down and wiped her tears away, Kyousuke breathed a sigh of relief.

Renko and Eiri, completely dazed, looked at each other, then Maina.

“…Hmmm, what was that just now? You just straight up attacked me, didn’t you? If this mask hadn’t been here, that knife was on a direct course to hit my eye! I definitely would have gone blind.”

“…Honestly, I was in danger, too. Your throwing power was weak, but if I hadn’t been able to react, I don’t know what might have happened. Now I get it…this is the clumsiness that kills people.”

With her chin in her hand, Renko cocked her head. “…Clumsiness?”

“Yeah. That’s what it is, clumsiness!” Kyousuke interjected. “She doesn’t really want to hurt or kill anybody, it’s just—”

“Stop…you’ve said plenty, Kyousuke,” Maina interrupted. She blew her nose loudly and lifted her face from her handkerchief. “I can tell my own story…about my own clumsiness.” Bit by bit, in a penitent tone, Maina told them the reason why she had been thrown into the Purgatorium Remedial Academy. She began to talk slowly and quietly about the murders she had committed.

Maina Igarashi had killed three people. She had beaten two of them to death and killed one of them with
food
.

Her first victim was a boy in her school class, who gripped his chest in anguish the instant he took a bite of the bento box lunch Maina had made. Panic-stricken Maina let loose with her clumsiness.

She created a destructive hurricane in the classroom during lunchtime—as a result, there were eight casualties, including the teachers who had come running. Among them, two female students had died; Maina had caused a horrible, unprecedented accident.

Meanwhile, the boy who had originally eaten the bento had foamed at the mouth and also eventually passed away.

In agreement with Maina’s testimony that “it was just ordinary cooking…,” no poison was found in the omelet that was determined to be the cause of death. However, the presence of
extremely stimulating ingredients
was confirmed.

In other words, the moment that he ingested the omelet, the male student’s digestive organs were overrun by an unimaginable stimulus. It turned out that the boy who lost his life to a bento had died of shock—it was a case of “death by digestion.”

After the incident, when a researcher fed Maina’s cooking to laboratory mice, the death rate was recorded at a menacing 90 percent. It was just barely food and closer to poison.

There were different symptoms depending on the type of food, including excessive perspiration, diarrhea and vomiting, breathing difficulties, heart attack, and even general paralysis and full-body
convulsions. It wasn’t clear which one of these was the cause of death, and not one of them appeared if anyone other than Maina prepared the food, even using the same ingredients and following the same preparation procedures.

In awe, they had given her the nickname “Black Pandora.”

And so it was that Maina had been shipped off to Purgatorium Remedial.

Kyousuke’s first impressions when he finished listening to Maina’s story was: “…No way, that must be an exaggeration! Especially the part about your cooking.”

At any rate, it was way too absurd. However—

“It’s all true… Everything, really…it’s the truth.” A sob escaped from Maina’s deeply downcast mouth. Her tearful voice, along with the clenched fists that were shaking on her lap, gave credence to the truth of her story.

“That’s why you can’t get too close to me…it’s dangerous! I don’t want to hurt anybody… I don’t want to kill anybody, so you can’t. I’m sorry. If you get mixed up with me, anything could—”

“Sure. But we don’t care about that, so it’s fine, right?” Renko interrupted. She seemed quite indifferent to the whole explanation.

“That’s right. As I expected, it’s better for me to be alone, so—wait, whaaaaaat?!” Lifting her dejected face, Maina stared at Renko, who was leisurely unfastening the tube connected to the side of her gas mask.

“Well, you can’t cook here, and you’re not going to go out of your way to kill anyone, right? Even if you are dangerously clumsy, if we know that’s how you are, we can support you and cope with you as we like, can’t we? We’re just surprised is all, since we didn’t know about your past.”

“Easier said than done,” remarked Kyousuke. “It’s not like everything will be okay just because you think you understand the danger.”

Eiri gave Kyousuke a scornful “
hmph
.” His eyebrows were knitted in unease. “…You’re an idiot, Kyousuke. It’s meaningful precisely because her deadly weapon is hidden, don’t you see? If an opponent knows from the beginning that ‘she has a knife’ or whatever, then they
might run away, or at least be more vigilant. They become more aware. However, if she stuffs herself to the gills with hidden weapons, and then someone gets too close… Well, being cut up with no warning is much scarier. In other words, the first attack is the most dangerous, because after that you can prepare. Understand?”

Renko nodded her agreement with the uncharacteristically talkative Eiri. “That’s right. That’s our Eiri! You understand it perfectly. So Kyousuke, I don’t think you need to worry, either! Maina can’t help that she makes blunders. But we can lend Maina our support so that she can try her best not to make so many of them. That’s probably what Eiri meant when she said ‘vigilant,’ see?”

“Hmm…I see. That’s right. It’s just as the two of you say, probably…”

Kyousuke had known about Maina before now. Her clumsiness could lead to all kinds of destruction and certainly posed a threat… However, he had relaxed some while talking with Renko and Eiri, and he had probably been slacking in his vigilance against Maina’s antics. Maybe he hadn’t been considerate enough when it came to relieving Maina’s nervousness.

Given the timing of the last two incidents of lethal clumsiness, Kyousuke was beginning to suspect that it was triggered by critical stress. They would need to take care to practice vigilance and consideration toward Maina.

“Um…but that doesn’t change the fact that I’m dangerous, so…still…” Hanging her head again, Maina pressed the tips of her index fingers together. Surely, she thought only that she had been rejected.

Eiri smiled bitterly at Maina’s confusion. “You know…you can say that you’re dangerous as much as you like, but isn’t everyone around you dangerous, too? There’s nothing but murderers in here. There’s no doubt that you’re not safe here, but we can relax around you. It’s those other assholes with concealed weapons and hidden insanity that are truly dangerous. They’re who we have to watch out for, right?” Eiri’s sharp gaze fell on Renko.

Ignoring the piercing glint in Eiri’s eyes, the freakish girl in the black gas mask laughed with a dull “
kksshh
.” “Yeah, that’s right. I’m in agreement, Eiri. …By the way, you already know all about my deadly weapons, don’t you? Especially Kyousuke. Because you’ve been
nearly killed by me
many times already.”

“…Wha—? Me by you? You must be joking, Renko…?”