"Hey, kid."
A voice pierced through. As Akusha slowly drifted back, he saw a middle-aged woman staring at him.
"You... you're actually awake?" she said, her voice trembling with disbelief.
"Is there something wrong with that?" Akusha asked, his voice blunt and flat.
"There's a kid alive!" someone else yelled. Akusha looked around, stunned. Hundreds of children lay slumped around the mouth of the Voidabyss. "Why is everyone so shocked? And why are they all just... sleeping like that?"
The woman shook her head, exhausted. "Ever since the expedition went down into the Voidabyss, the children in this village—whether at home or near the pit—have been asleep for three days."
But Akusha didn't feel like they were just sleeping. He smelled it. A stench of "rot."
"They don't look like they're sleeping. I... I think they—"
The woman cut him off. "You've got a sharp gut, kid. The ones near the Voidabyss got the worst of it. Their brains were cooked inside their heads until they turned to soup."
To prove it, she grabbed the body of a child right at Akusha's feet. She gave the head a hard shake. Slowly, a thick, pinkish sludge began to leak from the ears, the nose, and the eye sockets.
"That stuff coming out of their ears... that's their brain. The ones at home aren't as bad, but... they'll never wake up again." Her voice cracked as she fought a surge of vomit. "You're damn lucky, kid."
Akusha was unnerved by how unnaturally calm she was. "How can you be so thản nhiên (casual) about this?"
"I was terrified at first," she said. "But you get used to it. After three months of looking at these piles of meat, the fear just dies out."
"Three months? What month is it now?"
"November 9th, 1320. Don't tell me you forgot even that?"
Panic hit Akusha like a physical blow. How was he still alive after sleeping for three months? Was this an illusion? Was he even... human?
"Don't just stand there like a statue. Go home. The town will handle the corpses."
"Wait," Akusha called out. "The very tall woman in the expedition... what was her name?"
"Are you talking about Leo? She's a big-shot explorer and alchemist, but the records say her real name is... well, I don't know. Why the hell are you asking about a terrifying woman like her?"
"Just personal business," Akusha snapped back. "But why do you think she's scary?"
"I wouldn't say 'scary,' exactly... she just gives me the chills, no matter what she's doing." Just then, a book fell from a shelf in the shop behind her. She rushed to pick it up.
"Is this your bookstore?"
"Yeah, why?" she replied, shoving the book back. Akusha caught a glimpse of the title. To be sure, he asked, "What was the name of that book?"
"Man and Fear. You're asking too many damn questions!"
Akusha didn't care. "Do you think the answers about Leo are in that book?"
"The book is about something called the Uncanny Valley. It explains why humans are afraid of things that look almost human. But what does that have to do with Leo? She's a pureblood; she has ears, eyes, a nose, a mouth. Her face isn't even that bad."
Akusha countered coldly, "The things humans fear also have ears, eyes, and noses. How can you be so sure Leo is... human?"
The woman smirked, a flicker of surprise in her eyes. "You've been raised well, kid. Here, take the book. It's not a bad one."
"Why? I just met you."
"Every kid is special, but you... you're the special of the specials. I usually hate small talk, but with you, it's different. I can't explain this feeling."
Akusha reached out and took the book with both hands. As he turned to go, she called him back. "Fate brought us together, but I feel a massive disaster heading your way. Here."
She began to chant.
"Manifest: Divine Protection. Shelter the ignorance and folly of this child." A sickeningly strange sigil appeared on his hand, looking like a talismanic seal. Akusha then began the lonely trek home.
"Hey, Koromachi! Get over here!" the Mayor barked, wanting her to wrap the dead in shrouds. But she froze, noticing a detail. "This one is twenty years old? This isn't a kid."
"The death toll is rising," the Mayor said, his face a mask of grim reality. "In numbers and in age. If this keeps up, the whole town will..."
Koromachi couldn't even imagine it. Suddenly, the sigil in her palm flared. A sensation like her head was exploding hit her. She looked instinctively toward the Endsilver estate.
"The Feng Shui is perfect. Every placement is flawless," she whispered. "So why do I feel something 'filthy' dwelling inside that place?"
Akusha strolled down the trail. The birdsong, the babbling brook, and the screams of families who had lost their kids blended into a "beautiful" melody.
"I'm home, Mother," Akusha said out of habit, but the house was empty. His face dropped instantly. Then, he saw a Greedrabbit. It sat at his door, waiting.
He picked it up, rubbing its head. "Were you waiting for me? Thanks." But as he tried to open the door, the rabbit shook its head violently. He tried to force it inside, but he couldn't.
Akusha stepped in. He wanted to read. He went to the library, choosing a corner. Suddenly, a massive grinding of teeth echoed from the window. He turned. Nothing.
"What is this book?"
Before him sat a tome: The Beauty of Alchemy. He looked up at the shelves—the same book was perched high up.
He went to get a ladder, but the book on the table flipped open by itself. It showed a picture of... Endsilver.
"Everything possesses an energy called Kan. The source of all alchemy." The more Akusha read, the more he felt a sickening arousal coil within him. The illustrations were all of Endsilver, but she was in a white pinafore dress that clung tight to her body. A perverse urge surged. He wanted to... chew the book. The sound of paper being torn, shredded, and swallowed echoed through the silent library.
WAKE UP.
Akusha jolted, his hand still stroking the rabbit. "Thank god, just a dream. I didn't actually do that to her. That's deviant, just like she taught me... but that feeling..."
He coughed, his chest burning. He felt... floating. He spun in the air while his body stayed still. He vomited up a white pinafore dress. "I'm dreaming. I have to be."
Following his mother's advice for dreams, he looked for the musket. He opened the drawer—no gun. Just another white dress. A strange, alluring smell drifted from down the hall.
He followed the scent. He saw the shattered window on the second floor and the talisman on the ground. He didn't care. He walked to the bedroom, but inside was only another white dress.
He opened his mother's wardrobe. There it was. He pulled it out, but the smell was wrong. This wasn't the scent.
He stepped back out. The window was fixed, but the talisman was still there. Then, Akusha collapsed.
Blackness. A voice boomed: "Does the defendant know his crime? A mind that did not break. Guilty. Guilty."
A rabbit appeared, with another rabbit crawling out of its mouth. The inner rabbit held the ears of a third rabbit, using it as a gavel to strike a verdict.
A crowd of other rabbits clapped. "Guilty! Guilty!" Their heads detached and flew up, shattering the night to reveal his home once more.
Akusha fell because his legs had been gnawed clean off by the Greedrabbits.
Smoke rose from the stumps as his legs regrew, only to be eaten again. The rabbits were faster than his flesh.
The man appeared in the bedroom, three clocks stacked on his head. A grandfather clock crushed him. Another twin appeared, jumping onto the clock and juggling the timepieces on his head.
Akusha was everywhere. Parts of him were scattered in the kitchen, the living room, the bedroom.
"You took five months, and your mind is still whole," one of the clocks spoke. "Give it back to us."
One year... two years... three billion, four hundred and forty million years of being shredded and remade. The punishment wouldn't end. This dream was more real than life.
Tears soaked his face. Blood soaked his shirt. Akusha looked at the clock.
"Only five seconds have passed, you idiot," all three clocks said. "Only five seconds. Only five seconds."
He wanted to cry, but he couldn't. He wanted to struggle, but he was paralyzed. He wanted to run, but he had no legs.
The rabbits tore out his throat. He had to escape. He has no throat, and he must scream. A silent scream, that scream was like the way he struggled within the depths of the profound darkness."