Chapter 6: Yuichi Sakaki Eats a Lot

Takashi Jonouchi was walking around the Kukurizaka mansion.

There wasn’t much light. It was hard to see anything like this. But the faint light was enough for the people who lived in the mansion. Takashi understood that now.

Perhaps it was the awakening of his anthromorph nature, but he could see clearly even in the dark. All of his senses had become sharper, as well. Perhaps there were breeds of anthromorph that couldn’t see as well in the dark, but they probably had methods of their own to get around.

With every step he took, Yuri Konishi walking beside him, the corridor let out a sound like a scream. Before long, they arrived at the island chief’s room.

The Kukurizaka family were the rulers of Kurokami Island. In other words, the man who controlled the entirety of this isolated nation was in this room.

“I’m not particular. Just come in and sit down,” a voice said from deeper within as Takashi dithered about how to comport himself within.

Takashi did as he was told, moving further in to sit down. His companion did the same.

He thought he should sit in formal kneeling position, but Yuri was sitting at ease beside him, so Takashi shifted to a cross-legged posture.

“It worked, eh?” the wrinkly old man asked, addressing them. “It seems there’s a real difference between those with omens and those without.”

Dogen Kukurizaka, the island’s master, was a little old man in traditional Japanese dress.

Don’t offend him. That was what Takashi had been told, but who would dream about joking around in the presence of someone like this? Takashi felt a sense of ambition about the man that belied his old age. He felt like he’d been thrown naked in front of some kind of savage predator.

If this was a village of anthromorphs, then surely, this man had the power of some dangerous animal inside of him.

“Thank you for your assistance today,” Yuri said to Dogen.

The old man nodded placidly. “I believe you know, but I need you to stay here until tomorrow’s full moon. Is that acceptable?”

“Yes, that should not be a problem,” Yuri agreed. “But I am curious about the people I captured...”

“You said you wanted them dead, right? Tomorrow, they’ll be sacrificed to The Head of All. Is that acceptable? I would like as many sacrifices as possible. It’s the fulfillment of a centuries-old wish, so I want it to be done in grand style.”

“Yes. I don’t mind that, as long as you definitely finish them.” Yuri really wanted Aiko dead as soon as possible, but she couldn’t do it herself as long as her deal with Kukurizaka was still on. She had earned permission to use the bestialization modifier vats in exchange for finding sacrifices for him.

“Is it a sign of society’s moral decay?” the old man mused. “Truly sad. I didn’t think it would be so hard to find virgin girls for sacrifice...”

Just finding virgins alone wouldn’t necessarily have been so hard, but Kukurizaka had put specific conditions on age and beauty. Even so, Yuri hadn’t done much in the way of looking for sacrifices. She’d just known that Aiko and the others were coming, so she’d caught them when they arrived.

“You’ll be participating in the festival, too,” Dogen told her. “Your role won’t be anything difficult. Just be there, that’s all.”

“I’ll be honored to be present for the revival of The Head of All!” Yuri spoke up with her usual spirited voice, as if she really felt that way.

Takashi felt a sudden sense of unease. This man, Dogen, was not to be trusted.

That was what Takashi’s instincts were telling him.

✽✽✽✽✽

The cow-girl led Yuichi and Natsuki to her house.

It was a row house about ten minutes’ walk from the harbor, consisting of three single-floor households linked together. It looked rather rundown on the outside; perhaps the sea wind had taken its toll.

The girl led them to the house on the right. It was a long, narrow house, but not very large on the whole.

The first room they passed was the kitchen, beyond which lay two rooms lined up vertically and partitioned by a sliding door. The toilet and bath facilities were in the very back.

The group sat down at a low table in the middlemost room.

“Okay, just relax,” the girl said while she prepared a drink in the kitchen.

She was now fully human, and wearing Yoriko’s clothing. For some reason, she had been nearly naked before, and so she had borrowed a few things from Yoriko’s luggage. They were a little too small to fully contain her proportions, though.

“What made you do this? Miss... um, Cowgirl?” Yuichi asked.

“Hey, are you making fun of me? Call me Rion, Rion Takamichi.”

“So, why are you doing this?” Yuichi asked. “You’re basically betraying your own people, right?

“Well, I suppose. They might kill me if they find out, but I’m only alive until tomorrow either way, so I figured, whatever.” Rion said all this in a completely matter-of-fact way as she brought in glasses of cold barley tea.

Yuichi drank his down in one gulp.

“Besides, I’ve kind of got it bad for strong men,” she said. “It’s instinct. The animal inside me, I guess. I feel like I need to obey strong guys.” She cast a fleeting glance at Yuichi.

“What’s happening tomorrow?” Natsuki asked as she took a sip of her tea.

“The festival,” Rion said. “It’s the biggest since the island’s founding. The people who run this island are crazy, see, so they’re talking about human sacrifices and stuff. All the young people on the island, including us, will be sacrificed, and we’re making up what we lack by kidnapping outsiders.”

“I guess that explains the betrayal, but don’t you care that we killed those guys?” Yuichi asked. He himself had no regrets about what they’d done, but there was something awkward about talking to the last surviving member of the group.

“It’s not like we really knew each other,” Rion said. “The group only formed yesterday, and I guess when they die looking like monsters, it doesn’t feel fully real.”

“What the heck is with this island?” Yuichi muttered. “Ever since we got here, it’s been one crazy thing after another...”

“I’ll explain the whole thing,” Rion said. “Ah, but do you mind if I do it while we’re cooking?” Rion brought a hot plate from the kitchen and set it up on top of the table. “First, the people who live on this island are the ones who... hey, what are your names, anyway?”

“I’m Yuichi Sakaki. And this is...”

“Natsuki Takeuchi.”

“We came to the island as a training camp for our club,” Yuichi finished.

“I see. Yuichi and Natsuki. Well, as you saw before, this island is full of monsters, myself included.” Rion brought large quantities of beef out of the refrigerator. She turned on the hot plate and began frying it up.

“Cannibalism?” Natsuki asked as she watched the smoke rise up from the beef.

“Hey, now... it’s not like I’m a real cow,” Rion protested. “Anyway, moving on. Monsters have always lived on this island, but we just live like normal humans do. I went to school like any normal kid, and starting with middle school I left the island... since we only have an elementary school here. Well, I was hoping that I’d be able to leave the island behind and live like a normal person, but after I got into high school, I was called back to the island during summer break.”

“What about your parents?” Yuichi asked.

“They stayed on the island. I was living in a dorm. Well, I said I was a monster, but I wasn’t much of one. I could grow cow horns — that was about it. Same for the other ones. The snake guy got scales, the elephant guy could grow his nose longer, that kind of stuff.”

“Is that why your chest is so large?” Natsuki asked flippantly.

“Shut up! You know how much it sucked during school, being called ‘Holstein’ and stuff? Well, I guess it is connected... like, the horse guy had a horse-face even when he was in human form.”

“Was he like a horse down there, too?” Natsuki asked interestedly.

“How would I know?!” Rion barked back, her face crimson.

“Takeuchi... we’re not getting anywhere. Please stop interjecting,” Yuichi said. Natsuki’s jokes were just impenetrable.

“Anyway,” Rion snapped, “we were called back to the island, taken to the basement of the Kukurizaka house, and locked up in these tank-like things, which filled with water. I thought I was going to drown, but for some reason, I could breathe inside. But it was driving me crazy, not knowing what was going on! Then, just as I was totally about to lose it, the water drained out. The next thing I knew, I had gained the ability to turn into a cow monster. Oh, and eat up!” Rion had prepared plates and sauces.

Yuichi began eating it without hesitation. He was too hungry to feel any sense of caution about the food.

“Then we were taken to meet the island head, Kukurizaka, and he told us we were going to be sacrifices to The Head of All,” Rion continued. “He said we should consider it an honor. Then he put me in a group with others like me, and asked us to keep an eye on the island. He said it was training in using our full beast forms. I hadn’t wanted to be turned into that thing, but it was like he didn’t even seem to consider that anyone would try to defy him or run away. After all, running away wouldn’t change anything, so what would it matter? I guess that’s what I thought... and that’s when you showed up.”

Yuichi was going through the meat with truly terrifying speed. Undaunted, Natsuki began packing it away, as well. Rion brought more from the fridge.

“By the way, why is there so much beef in your house?” Yuichi asked.

“Don’t tell me. The reason your parents aren’t here is...” Natsuki’s proposed.

Chilled by the thought, Yuichi stopped eating.

“What the hell?!” Rion exploded. “My parents are at Kukurizaka’s house, that’s all! I don’t know what they’re doing there... But anyway, the beef is kind of a last supper type of thing. We wanted to eat the most delicious stuff we could for our final meal...”

Rion sounded a bit solemn as she said it, but Yuichi resumed eating again, with gusto.

“Well, setting that aside, the reason I’m giving you this feast is because I was hoping you might save me,” Rion continued. “What do you think?”

“Sure thing.”

“Ah, I mean, I doubt you’d be willing to help me escape this bizarre island just in exchange for some food, but... what?” Rion looked at Yuichi, dumbstruck. She must not have really expected him to agree to it. “You’re sure?”

“You did feed me, after all,” Yuichi said. “If you hadn’t, I’d probably be pretty helpless right now. You helped me out. In my house, we have a rule that you always repay a good meal... well, that’s what my sister says, anyway.”

Yuichi kept on eating. The food he ate wouldn’t be digested and turned to nutrients right away, but the more he ate, the more he felt his strength coming back to him.

“R-Right! Keep eating, then! There’s still plenty left!” Rion cheerfully brought him more beef.

✽✽✽✽✽

“Byouin-zaka no Kubi-kukuri no Ie,” Mutsuko declared. It was the title of a book, also known as The House of Hanging, by Seishi Yokomizo.

“E...” Aiko considered, thinking over the last syllable of the phrase Mutsuko had used. “E... Emulsion! Ah...”

In declaring a word that ended with an N, Aiko had lost the game. They were playing Word Chain, Genre Version. Someone declared a word or phrase, and the next person had to state one of their own, starting with the last player’s last syllable. The twist was that they could only use words within their assigned genres. Mutsuko’s genre had been mystery novels, while Aiko had cooking, and Yoriko had fashion.

“Noro... if you’d give a little more thought to these things, you’d remember when a word ends in N before you say it,” Yoriko said, exasperated.

“Yeah... the minute something comes to mind, I just want to blurt it out...” Aiko responded, self-consciously.

Incidentally, an emulsion referred to a fusion of two liquids — such as water and oil — that normally didn’t mix. It was used to make recipes like spaghetti aglio e olio.

“Ah, but there’s nothing to do. I wonder when Yu is gonna come save us!” Mutsuko groaned, flopping back on the tatami mats.

Aiko was more or less keeping her calm by now, but she still couldn’t understand how Mutsuko could act so at home in a situation like this.

“Um... are you sure he’s coming?” she asked.

“Noro! Are you suggesting my brother would just abandon us?” Yoriko asked indignantly.

“Of course not! But what if he just doesn’t make it in time? They said that ritual thing is tonight.” A night had passed since their initial capture.

Anything they could use to tell time had been confiscated, so Aiko didn’t know exactly when it was, but she knew that some time had passed since breakfast. It was probably around noon by now.

“Y’know, I’ve always wondered what it would be like to be a captured princess, but it’s actually pretty boring,” Mutsuko complained. “There’s just nothing to do! Hey, Noro, was it like this for you when you were captured by Takeuchi?”

“What, me? I didn’t really have time to feel bored... I woke up and I talked with Takeuchi a bit, and then Sakaki came right away...”

Aiko had believed that Yuichi would come to save her then, but it had still been deeply moving when he actually did it. She could see why Mutsuko had such high hopes.

“...Hmm, there’s a chance that Yu might not make it in time if we just wait,” Mutsuko declared. “So if we want to escape, we should probably do it now, huh? There’s only one guard, after all.”

“Excuse me! I can hear you!” the guard shouted.

There was only one guard, but he was definitely paying attention. The guards took regular shifts, so there seemed to be no chance of him getting tired and falling asleep. He had overheard Mutsuko’s rebellious comments, which would probably put him even more on the alert.

“So what? You can’t stop us!” Mutsuko declared. “Now, to escape... I wonder how much fighting it would require, at minimum? That guy’s a definite, but if we keep it to bare minimums after that... plus, Noro probably can’t fight...” Mutsuko began rambling under her breath.

Fight.

Aiko probably wouldn’t be of any use in a fight. Mutsuko knew that, and so was eliminating her from the pool of potential fighters.

But... if I used that...

The transformation.

Aiko still didn’t know what had really happened back then. She remembered the events, but they felt like a dream, like she had been on the outside looking in. Even so, she had used that state to briefly beat back her rampaging brother, so it was probably a combat-capable form.

She’d probably need to drink some blood to transform. But she wasn’t sure if she could control it.

“Noro?” Yoriko asked, looking at her in concern.

“Oh, sorry. I was just thinking...”

“We’ve decided how to approach this,” Yoriko said.

“What’s the plan?” Aiko asked.

“We’re going to escape from here and meet up with my brother,” the girl explained, as if it were nothing.

“Huh? I’m all for that, but how do we get out?”

“We’ll decide it with rock paper scissors!” Mutsuko thrust out her fist.

“Huh? Decide what?” Aiko had no idea what the two sisters were plotting.

“Who fights first!” Mutsuko explained. “Because we can’t fight for long stretches like Yu does.”

“Don’t bother, Big Sis. I’ll go first,” Yoriko said. “It’s best if you’re the one who stays mobile to the end, right?”

“That’s a fair point... but are you sure, Yori?”

“If I end up immobilized, I’ll be counting on you, Noro,” Yoriko said, to Aiko’s complete bafflement.

“Um, sure, okay...” Aiko responded, despite still being extremely confused.

“I’d like to escape and take him out in one shot. You think I can do it?” Yoriko asked.

“It’s about time for lunch, right? Probably so, then,” Mutsuko said.

Aiko said nothing; Mutsuko and Yoriko seemed to know what they were doing.

It must be lunchtime now, because the guard was walking up to the prison with trays of food. He began to pass the trays through the space beneath the bars.

Yoriko casually approached the man.

“Hey, mister...” Yoriko said to him, a seductive tone in her voice.

The man hadn’t let down his guard. The minute she approached the bars, he knew he was in danger.

But what he didn’t know was how much of a threat Yoriko really was. Had he known, he would never have let himself get that close.

“Furukami,” Yoriko whispered.

She planted her foot, dropped her hips, focused her strength on a single point, and launched a hand straight forward.

Her palm burst through the bars and kept on going, straight into the man’s face.

It was enough to send him flying. He hit the wall with a violent crash, and then lay still.

“Um?” Aiko watched the scene unfold in a daze.

Even though the bars were only made of wood, Yoriko’s palm strike had still been enough to smash them and send the man outside them flying.

“Hey! But that... that was...” Aiko stammered.

It was a technique that Yuichi had used. A technique to focus one’s power to temporarily exceed human limits.

“Sis... I can’t move my right arm anymore,” Yoriko complained.

“Let me see.” Mutsuko checked Yoriko’s right arm. “Yori, you’re so lucky! It doesn’t look like a break. But yeah, I guess you won’t be able to use it for a while. Between you and me together, I bet we have about three fights left. Since we can’t do much if we immobilize our legs.”

Aiko shuddered as she realized the meaning of this exchange. “U-Um, does that mean...”

“Yeah. Unlike Yu, we have our limits,” Mutsuko said. “The tragedy of being born a woman! We just don’t have the same physical endurance.”

Mutsuko looked over at Manaka and Akemi, who were staring, dumbstruck over what they’d just seen.

“If we get out, we’ll come to save you later, so do you want to stay here?” Mutsuko asked. “You can come with us if you want, but we can’t promise to look after you.”

“Oh, um, yes. The first thing, please...” Akemi nodded quickly.

“Okay, let’s hurry! Stay close, okay?” Mutsuko ordered.

Aiko and the Sakaki sisters left the prison behind, and began running to escape the mansion.

✽✽✽✽✽

Yuichi woke up a little after noon.

After dinner, Yuichi and Natsuki’s exhaustion caught up with them, and they fell fast asleep.

“Boy, you eat a lot, and you sleep a lot. It’s kinda impressive,” said Rion. “I made lunch. You want some?”

Rion had awakened before them and prepared lunch. Natsuki, who had been sleeping beside Yuichi, also woke up, and rubbed at her eyes.

“Yeah. Thanks. Food would be good,” Yuichi said.

Natsuki, for her part, just nodded wordlessly. Maybe she wasn’t a morning person.

It seemed there was still some beef left, which Rion had thrown together with some vegetables for an impromptu stir-fry.

“Hey, I know I asked you to save me and all, but do you know how that’s going to go down?” Rion asked. She didn’t seem to have a concrete idea of her own for how she wanted to be saved.

“We’ll just have to find a way off of this island,” Yuichi said. “Once we’re back in civilization, my sister can handle the rest.”

“Don’t you think you’re being rather irresponsible, Sakaki?” Natsuki commented. “You did the same thing when you fought me: never thinking more than one step ahead.”

“Uh...”

Natsuki’s observation struck Yuichi into silence. She was right. Anything he didn’t want to be bothered with, he always left to his sister.

But in order to leave things to his sister, first, he would need to save her.

“You mentioned Kukurizaka’s mansion, right?” Yuichi asked. “That should be our first stop. If they’ve been captured, they’ll be there. If they’re not there, they’ve probably escaped.”

“Kukurizaka’s mansion is right up the mountain,” Rion said. “But it’s pretty big, and there’s gonna be heavy security there just before the festival. I doubt it’ll be all that easy to just get inside and search it.”

“Where are they holding the festival? It’s not at the mansion, right?” Yuichi asked.

She had said the girls were going to be sacrificed, which meant that Mutsuko and the others would likely be brought alive to the festival location.

“The festival site,” said Rion. “But you can only get to them from the mansion...”

Rion thought for a minute, then seemed to remember something. She walked into the back room, and returned with an old sheet of paper.

“This is a map of the island. The festival site is here.”

The picture depicted the nearly circular island, broadly divided into upper and lower areas. They were currently in the lower area, the side commonly known as the “front.”

The festival site was on the back side, on the diametric opposite side of the mountain from Kukurizaka’s mansion.

“I’ve only ever gone there through the mansion, but if it’s the way it looks on this map, maybe you can get to it from the back,” Rion said. “But the back side is off limits to visitors, so I’ve never been there. I don’t know much about it.”

“The back side, huh?” Yuichi pondered. “If security’s as strict as you say, then it seems like it would be dangerous to go there from the mansion, so...”

Yuichi wanted to make it there as inconspicuously as possible.

“Security, eh?” Natsuki asked. “What exactly are they protecting it from? I can’t imagine the island gets many visitors.”

Yuichi was wondering the same thing as Natsuki. To get to the island, you’d need to charter your own boat. You couldn’t exactly get there on a whim.

“Oh, it’s like... There’s been rumors going around on the internet, see? About this secret festival we hold that people can’t talk about,” Rion explained. “It’s more than just rumors, too. Somehow, it got out that the festival is tomorrow. I mean, it’s not like there are all that many ways to get to the island anyway, but it’s the long-awaited festival of The Head of All’s revival and stuff. It’s, like, the moment the villagers have been waiting for ages, so if it fails, they’re nothing. The island might as well not exist anymore.”

“By the way, you keep mentioning ‘The Head of All.’ What is that, exactly?” Yuichi asked.

“They say it’s a god, that it fell from the sky long ago, and it was just a head, like the name suggests. They say it gave the people of the island the power to change into animals, and ever since, all the kids on the island have been born with that power. The ‘revival’ thing is about the head wanting a body again. We exist to give it that body. Once a year, a lot of people are offered as sacrifices. The Head of All absorbs them to recover its body.”

“So, does it really exist?” Yuichi asked. To him, a god was an invisible figure in the sky, looking down on the people and protecting them from on high. But Rion was clearly talking about something far more tangible.

“Yeah, and everyone believes it’s a god,” Rion said. “I don’t buy into it myself, but they say this whole world is all a dream by The Head of All. They say this is his dreaming time.”

“Dreaming time, huh? That reminds me of an Aboriginal legend. In ancient days, when half-man, half-beasts roamed the world, the people would go there when they slept.” Yuichi thought back to Tomomi’s words. She had mentioned, in the talk about worldviews, something about a faction that believed the world was just someone else’s dream.

“Wow... you know a lot about stuff like that, huh, Yuichi?” Rion said in admiration.

“I don’t know a lot about it,” he said. “I’m just remembering things my sister told me. Anyway, I doubt Australian legends have anything to do with this island. So what kind of guy is this ‘Head of All’?”

“I’ve only ever seen it through a screen,” Rion said. “It’s pretty big... well, whenever I look at it, I feel so scared, I can barely move. Same goes for most people. Anyway, the people who live here have been doing this for a long time. And it seems it’s finally almost time for The Head of All’s body to fully recover.”

“What will The Head of All do once it’s fully recovered, or revived, or whatever?”

“They say it’ll destroy humanity, and create a planet where anthromorphs rule.”

“That’s a pretty big deal.” It was hard for Yuichi to know how seriously he should take all of this. But god or not, it was worth committing it all to memory. “Anyway, let’s go to the festival site and see what’s there. Takamichi, could you stay here? We’ll come get you later.”

“Do you have a cell phone?” Rion asked.

“Huh? You mean this island gets reception? I don’t, though. It was in the ocean for so long...” He had realized his phone was broken when he changed clothes, so he’d just left it there.

“Got it,” she said. “I’ll wait here. But you’d better come for me, okay?”

“What about your parents, by the way?” he asked.

“...I doubt they’ll go along. They’re really all-in on the island’s way of doing things. I doubt they’d ever be willing to live anywhere else.”

“Got it,” Yuichi said. “Everyone’s got their circumstances. But I promise I’ll come back for you.”

“Ah, wait. Take this, if you like.” As they were about to leave, Rion called out.

She gave him the map from before, as well as a ring of keys.

“What’s this?” Yuichi asked.

“The key to a mini-truck,” she said. “It might come in handy.”

Yuichi had no experience driving cars. He looked over at Natsuki.

“I can drive.”

Yuichi took the gifts gratefully, and despite a deep sense of foreboding about it, he allowed Natsuki to handle the driving.

✽✽✽✽✽

Mutsuko strode forward purposefully through the large mansion. Aiko and Yoriko followed behind her.

Fortunately, it seemed rather deserted despite its large size, because they didn’t run into anyone. That also meant they had avoided any more fights.

“Um, do you know the way out?” Aiko asked.

“Oh, don’t worry! I remember it all, easy as pie! I could see it, after all,” Mutsuko said with perfect confidence. “I can see even through a blindfold! I have perfect direction, even in a car!”

“To catch you up, my big sister runs a lot of ‘what if I were kidnapped?’ simulations,” Yoriko explained. “Would you like to learn how to do it, too? You seem to have a very ‘kidnap me’ sort of face.”

“A what sort of face?!” Aiko fired back at Yoriko’s mocking words.

She glared at Yoriko for a moment. But as she noticed the way Yoriko’s right arm dangled uselessly at her side, the glare turned into a look of concern.

“Yoriko, is your arm okay?”

“Yeah. It’s nothing much. What, are you worried about me?”

“More like... concerned,” Aiko said.

“I’m fine. I injured my right hand, and I’m right-handed. That means I’ll have a hard time eating.”

“But isn’t that...” Aiko had a hard time seeing how that was “fine.”

“Yes. That means I get to make my brother feed me! I’m sure he’d indulge me if he knew I’d wrecked my good hand! ‘Say ah, say ah,’ he’d say! He might even be willing to do mouth-to-mouth feeding! Ah, I don’t suppose I’ll end up so bad off that it would require mouth-to-mouth feeding, do you?”

“What?” It took Aiko a few seconds to understand exactly what Yoriko was talking about. “Wait, are you saying you used your right hand because...”

The thought that she had immobilized her good hand, on purpose, for something like that... it gave Aiko a new respect for Yoriko’s sheer nerve.

“This will also make it hard to get dressed! I’ll need my brother to help me with that, too,” Yoriko declared. “‘Oh, what a bother! I just can’t do it! Whenever I try to dress myself, the pain just gets so bad’... and then I can make him hold me, and guide his hands, and collapse on him, and lie on top of him, and he can’t shake me off! Because I’m injured! He can’t say no to his dear sister’s requests at a time like this!” Yoriko’s eyes glimmered like never before at the thought of having the foolproof excuse.

Aiko narrowed her eyes at her.

“Of course, it doesn’t actually hurt very much,” Yoriko said. “I’m using the effect of furukami to dull the pain. Once you’re as good as my brother is, you can completely sever all sensation.”

Perhaps realizing she had gone too far, or just feeling awkward about having Aiko stare at her, Yoriko walked the subject back.

“Even so...” Aiko said. Yoriko couldn’t move her arm below the shoulder, and painful-looking purple welts were visible on the exposed flesh. It was hard to believe it didn’t hurt, as she’d claimed.

“Oh, remember the ‘pain, pain, fly away’ chant? That really works,” Aiko said. “Did you know that?”

“Really? I always thought it was a placebo effect,” Yoriko said.

“That’s part of it, but poking the part that hurts also lets you reroute the pain signals. It’s called Gate Control Theory. The words have an effect, too. The way a person thinks about pain can make it feel better or worse. So if you tell them that the pain has gone away, it actually sort of does.”

“Hey! Noro, are you interested in Gate Control, too?” Mutsuko interrupted, bubbling with curiosity.

“Huh? No, I’m not actually—”

“Gate control theory! The ‘gate’ refers to the substantia gelatinosa cells of the dorsolateral fasciculus near the entrance to the spinal cord! Pain travels through that to reach the brain! Thin nerves called the A-delta fiber and the C fiber carry the pain through the gate! A-delta fibers handle short pain, while C fibers handle lingering pain! But the momentary pressure stimulation used in ‘pain, pain, fly away’ increases the signals traveling through the thick A-beta fibers, which send pressure information! The gate can allow information from multiple fibers through at once, but since the A-beta fiber is thicker, overloading it can overwhelm the gate and keep the thin fibers’ information from getting through! That in turn keeps pain signals from reaching—”

Aiko stopped listening halfway through.

Mutsuko seemed to have an impressive memory, though, and they arrived at the mansion’s entrance without a single wrong turn. The shoes they had taken off were still there, so Aiko put hers back on.

Aiko was on her guard, but as she looked around, she didn’t see anyone in sight.

“There were two guards here when we got in, but I don’t see them now! Thank goodness!” Overjoyed, Aiko and the others flew out the door.

Aiko didn’t learn this until later, but preparations for the ritual were complete, so the two guards were already on their way to the festival site. The island patrols were on their way there, as well.

Four groups of six guards each. In other words, twenty-four anthromorphs on their way to the festival site had just returned to Kukurizaka’s mansion.

This meant that the moment they flew out of the mansion’s front door, they were greeted by a mass of anthromorphs, all glaring at them with cold eyes.