Still chattering, Nakajima Saki brushed Yuno Gasai's leg.
Her five fingers clamped around Yuno's ankle; her single remaining eye stared upward.
Blood clouded her sight.
In the silent changing room, the only sound was the wet squelch of insects burrowing through muscle.
A mirror of blood reflected Yuno's indifferent face as she toyed with the knife, twirling the wooden handle between her fingers.
She looked down at the half-face curiously. "Nakajima, do you hate Sen Getsusa?"
Silence.
"No special reason." Yuno's gaze stayed fixed on the blade. "I'm not that interested in your mist."
"Just curious…"
Yuno grinned, silver flashing along the edge. "Do you hate Sen Getsusa?"
She asked it a second time.
Nakijima's grip on the ankle tightened.
"Yes." The girl answered sullenly. "So what?"
"the mist's—"
Yuno snapped her fingers, cutting her off. "How much?"
How much?
The half-face writhed; Nakajima stared in bewilderment.
"How much? Enough to want to stab her with a knife?"
Nakajima gave a self-mocking laugh. "No, if you mean hatred—none."
"Sen Getsusa and I have no grudge."
"Then why—"
"But I just want to kill her!"
The half-face twisted in sudden ferocity!
Skin bunched as insects swarmed beneath it, bulging under the girl's pale cheek.
"Why should she have so much!"
"Wealth, beauty, and—"
Insect legs poked through Nakajima's distorted face, bristles like thick hairs sprouting black tendrils across her skin.
"I want to kill her—what's wrong with that?"
"Mortals are prey!"
Parroting something she must have heard, Nakajima looked proudly at Yuno. "I can promise to spare Sen Getsusa. After the mist descends, I'll persuade—"
She spoke a name.
"—to let you two remain as Contactees under me, servants of the mist…"
Yuno flicked the blade with a happy finger; the steel chimed.
"Wonderful!"
She flashed white teeth. "You hate her so much—wonderful!"
While Nakajima gaped, Yuno suddenly stood.
She swung a leg over Nakajima's back—
One hand seized the girl's long hair, yanking the scalp upward;
the other pressed the knife to her throat. "Yuno!!"
Nakajima shrieked, thrashing wildly!
She already guessed what Yuno intended to do!
"Hehe…"
"Hold still—time to saw some wood."
With that eerie singsong, Yuno's right hand began to move.
Her left fist kept the hair taut, forcing Nakajima's head back to expose the tender neck—
while the right drew the blade back and forth like a tiny saw.
Pfft—
Shhk—
The sound of steel parting skin, of windpipe ripping open.
"Yuno… I…"
Gurgle, gurgle.
Arterial blood flooded the airway.
Unable to make a sound, Nakajima felt the crimson tide from her own heart slowly drown her breath.
Yuno kept sawing, unconcerned.
Unlike a heavy cleaver, a domestic carving knife can't sever thick flesh at one stroke—
so she stretched the neck straight and sawed, back and forth, again and again.
"I'm sawing wood, sawing wood today…"
"A great tree stood for centuries, now I saw it away…"
Humming, Yuno let warm, slippery blood drench her right hand.
Nakajima convulsed; her eyes dulled, her gaping mouth producing only a hoarse rattle.
"Sawing wood, sawing wood, left and right we go…"
"Can't finish? Then forward, back, and so…"
Arm swinging left and right, she sliced through skin, throat; when the blade met the cervical spine, a gritty grinding joined the liquid gurgle as blood pooled across the floor, a crimson mirror reflecting the victim's despair and the killer's delight.
Crack, crack, crack.
Nakajima Saki had long since gone still.
Straddling the corpse, Yuno could now lift the head until only a scrap of flesh held it to the body.
With a practiced flick, she gripped the hair, gave the head a casual swing, and dropped the knife.
Disgusted, she wiped her blood-slick palm down the girl's skirt.
In that hellscape of gore she rose, set the head on the bench, then stood on tiptoe to unhook her backpack from the wall.
She pulled out a notebook.
Blindness (Preliminary III):
Those who envy the one I love are my foes!
By precise judgment, slay a creature that bitterly 'loves' your beloved.
The target must hate the 'beloved' to the utmost, or the ritual fails.
You must still conceal your deed.
You have only one chance.
The words on the page slowly faded.
A fourth passage appeared on the next sheet.
Yuno wet her lips and turned the page—this would be the last preliminary.
Because this time… True Love Like Blood (Preliminary IV):
Die once for him/her.
With a love both deep and dark, plunge into death. From the maiden's wound, a rotting flower shall bloom.
Transform—or embrace death.
A girl who spins webs like a spider...
Can she pass this trial?
She quietly closed the notebook.
After a long silence, Yuno Gasai burst into laughter!
"Hahahahahaha!"
Her mouth stretched wide in a monstrous grin she didn't even notice.
The girl didn't care about the blood running down her as she rose onto her tiptoes—
She spun cheerfully in the crimson puddle and struck an elegant curtain-call pose.
The hem of her skirt lifted by the spin, the blood-soaked tips of her high heels, made her look like a bewitching bloom sprouting from rotting flesh.
Yuno Gasai seemed absolutely delighted.
"This was way too easy!!"
"Too easy!"
As she danced she flicked the hilt; the long blade flashed under the light, bits of fat and skin still clinging to the edge.
She wiped the steel clean on Nakajima Saki's corpse, then reversed her grip, letting the light play along the blade.
The icy point drifted closer until it rested just left of center—
Right above her heart.
The iron tip pricked her skin; her brain screamed at her to stop.
Yuno bared her teeth, her face twisted, frantic and burning.
"I'm the one who loves her most."
With that she drove both hands inward!
The blade punched through everything.
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