Lovebomb Massacre

Mai didn’t save before the confession scene. Leaning into her pearl-pink DS, she watched her boss approach her in the highschool classroom.

“I’ll do anything you want! Please go out with me!”

Her Mii’s robot chipmunk voice was only met with silence as her coworker Emi stepped out onto the scene. It did not matter to the game how ugly Mai had made her- in that moment, the committed employee knew she had lost.

“YOSHINAGA, which one of us do you choose?”

Still, she waited to see her boss’ decision, the first frame of which sent her chipped cherry fingernail to the off switch.

❌

“I cried all night… why must Mr. Yoshinaga always overlook me, even in Tomodachi Collection?”

“Guys only want submissive waifs and expys for their moms.” Tomoko Kubo, her senior, while deadpan to the point of parody, was more worldly than the girl in more than a few ways. She crossed her stilt-like legs as her downturned lips consumed the yakisoba. Her Mii hadn’t even liked that food, but nothing was going to stop young Mai from believing in her store-bought simulation.

“Isn’t that what everyone wants?”

“You’re so gay, why are you even into him?”

“He’s strict… I do so much work for him…”

“If I ask you to clean up after my dog, are you gonna fall for me too?” In a real office, Kubo wouldn’t have to be putting up with a nineteen-year old, but their formal white-button ups and sleek black pants were only for show. The only workplace they’d be returning to after their outing was a large but plain building full of pretty much nothing else past the lobby except more of the flyers they were handing out.

“I like feeling needed!” Mai retorted, no more useful to anyone now than she had been dropping out of high school. “You wouldn’t understand…”

“You’re in this for the wrong reasons. I work for myself, not for Kenta.”

“Don’t use his name so lightly…”

“We knew each other, it’s not a big deal. He wasn’t always some… whatever he is now, you’re the only one young enough that you don’t know how he used to be.”

“I don’t want to know!”

“You are sad.” The long-haired lady paid for them both, coldly patting her own thigh to tear the domesticated girl from her seat and away from her half-eaten meal. “Come on, we’re going to see that boy now.”

“Noooo…” Mai moaned out in an annoyed daze, following nonetheless. “I don’t ever wanna see him again!”

“You put him down as a prospect!” Spat the senior as she led her coworker outside. She huffed at the washed-out city streets, breathing out Autumn air.

“I put lots of names down!”

“And half of them came back blank! Did you just fill it in with your head?”

“It’s not like I know many people… I just wanted a good report!”

“Well, you’ll be lucky if I don’t tell him you’re a liar. Just do your job.”

“Yes ma’am…”

❌

They approached his house just as they had the previous, Kubo leaving her stoic demeanor somewhere back on the road. Both girls readied their best smiles as she touched her thumb to the doorbell.

“H-hello?” The door was opened by a boy pretending to be a man, a bespeckled thing about Mai’s age with only marginally more maturity. Despite this, even through her retail-worker’s snake oil smile, she looked down on him like a lesser breed.

“Ogawa! It’s been so long. Are you doing well after school?” She glimmered.

“S-Saito…? Is that really you? W-well yes! I… why… what brings you here?”

“Please, call me Mai!” Gritting her teeth and bearing it, the puppet introduced her string-bound big sister. “This is Ms. Kubo, she’s my senior in our organization.”

“Oh, is it… some… some sort of charity?” Ogawa’s smile was genuine in a way that caught Ms. Mai Saito off guard and no one else. “That’s great, that’s amazing! I’m so happy you’re getting work, I… you know, everyone had a lot of things to say about you after you left, but I.. you know, I always stuck up for you, I hope you know that.”

“How sweet.” Kubo mercifully interrupted, mostly trying to reign in her increasingly bitter-looking protege. “But yes, you might call it a charity. However, we aren’t just asking for donations, we’re a charity of the people. And after Mai told me so much about you, I really think you’d be a good fit with us.”

The offer of brief skinship was enough motivation for Ogawa to take the paper the woman handed to him, and while not much of the document immediately made sense, he missed the forest of red flags for the pretty-looking trees smiling in front of his door.

❌

“Just one?”

“Y-yes, sir.“

Yoshinaga reclined in his chair, exhaling a dragon’s breath, his suit struggling against the tense muscles Mai wished she could massage into butter. He set a finger to his coarse jaw, looking at her. Boring into her eyes. She couldn’t bear it when he stared at her, and he knew it. He waited until she began to shiver, her eyes starting to flee. He waited for the first whimper. When it came, he struck.

Mai exited the office a failure, hands bolted to her face. Kubo approached her as she fled down the hallway, her stature making it easy to catch up even to the girl’s desperate speed-walking.

“Mai! Mai, tell me what happened.” She walked alongside the prey, trying to make out syllables from a sea of tears. “Mai talk to me!”

“N-no… Kubo not now…”

The second they turned the first corner away from their boss’ office, the senior grabbed her partner’s limp wrists and forced them violently against the nearest cork board, push-pinning them against it and revealing the girl’s sticky-red face.

“Why are you crying? Did he yell at you? You have to fight back when he does that!” Kubo reprimanded, having done this many times before. “You know that!”

“I-I couldn’t…”

“Were you scared…?” She gave the girl an out, dropping her harshness in a manner not unlike she did talking to a prospect, but she didn’t get the answer she was looking for.

“N-no… I… I… I wouldn’t… yell… at Mr. Yoshinaga…” She croaked, teeth fluttering over breathy sobs.

“Why not?”

“H-he… that’s… I would never… I would never do that, I… I… I deserved… what he…”

The palm that slammed down next to her head was so impactful it left a slight ringing in her ears and knocked some papers lose. Kubo leaned in for a retraction, but again, it didn’t come.

“Mai!”

“I-I deserved it…”

“Just what is wrong with you? Did you get ignored as a kid? As long as you get attention, you’re so complacent with being in pain. With being treated like shit. I don’t fucking get you.”

“I… I… I’m…”

“You’re what, Mai? You’re what?”

“I-I’m human. Leave me be.”

Kubo slid the child off the wall and watched her fall.

❌

“You’re so good at this, Saito!”

Mai growled a vacant response below tired eyes. Emi was a ball of skin-melting sunshine as usual, making the slacker feel like she was guzzling mouthwash.

“Next house is this one. Let me handle it.”

“Are you sure…? But you’ve done all the work today!” She forced an exaggerated blink with her grass-green eyes, exuding a wretch from Mai.

“And I plan on doing the rest of it too. Just flash him your tits if you insist on being helpful.”

“What?”

Mai rarely fought back against the cheerful coworker she envied so much, but the door was already open and she knew the star employee wouldn’t get a chance to say anything.

“Uhhhhuhuh… hey, girls…” The man in the doorway smelled like excrement. People like Kubo and Mai had masks they put on when they found their prospects, but if Emi did too then she never took hers off. She only had to become marginally more sweet to ignore the scent of rot emanating from him.

“H-Hiya mister! We’d like to tell you about our cause. Yoshinaga’s House of Excellence! We’re looking for those in need and those willing to provide for them! Could you tell us which you might be?”

“Aha… first, uh… lemme hear your names, who’s the quiet one here… she’s sweet…”

“Mai. Mai Saito.” She’d lost her mask somewhere in her purse. The girl looked like she could explode at any moment.

“Ahaha, is that so…? Say… do I know you…?”

“I’m the dropout.”

“Oh! Oh. Oh my, you really have grown… say, do you two maybe wanna… come in? I’ve got the TV on… there’s, uh… chicken in the fridge…”

“T-that’s fine!” Emi fearfully giggled, trying to cover for her partner, begging she’d snap out of it. Mai just stared at her ex-teacher’s body. Why was his swollen belly looking so firm all of a sudden? Why had his balding head suddenly sprouted such dark hair?

“Are you sure? Haha… uh, you know, my kids aren’t home…”

“JUST GIVE US YOUR FUCKING MONEY ALREADY!”

Mai‘s tiny body tackled the creepy slab of useless flesh to the ground and made him whimper. She pressed her nails into his neck until they started to sink in.

“M-Mai!”

Her breath became a continuous gurgling inhale that sounded fairly similar to the bastard’s desperate choking. She felt her fists act on their own, losing control as she made sure her nail struck true on his eye when her hand flew down. She almost laughed when she felt so much wetness, saw it spray out onto the already-stained carpet. This felt so good. If only she had done this all those times in class he was looking at her.

“Mai stop it! Mai!”

Emi only just barely managed to pull the child away from his crying body. He was still alive, made obvious from the spasms of pain that overtook him.

“F-fucking kill- fucking, fucking- Yos-“

“Mai…!”

She breathed, feeling Emi pressed against her back as she regained her sense of place. She looked at her, expecting to see her smile, only to look upon the most terrified woman she’d ever had the displeasure of seeing. Her first thought was honestly that the prospect had done something, not her.

“W-what happened?”

❌

Kubo stopped her in the hallway one evening. They hadn't been on a job together in a bit and business was booming. Despite everything, the cult had grown by about 50%.

“Hey.” Mai tasted unfamiliar respect in her voice, looking over to the experienced woman instead of up at. “You’ve been so quiet lately, what’s up?”

“I… got yelled at again.”

“Oh? Why?”

“I… keep losing my temper.” They took a seat in the lobby together, for once singing in the same tune. “It’s… gotten us a lot of cash but Mr. Yoshinaga is just… never happy.”

“That’s always been his problem.” Her senior breathed a reluctant nostalgia. “He’s… ambitious. I’ll give him that.”

“I just… like… I don’t feel angry at him. I feel.. angry at everyone I see, but not… him. Why is that?”

“Stockholm syndrome, I dunno. Look… you’re not… very professional. But… if this is what it takes for you to grow a spine, I welcome it.”

“You value that a lot, don’t you… I threatened a teenager yesterday and you want me to “grow a spine.”

“Well… yeah. Fuck, if I cared who we stepped on to get where we were, I’d be nowhere, just like you. But… I care about you. That’s what keeps me human. That’s why I want you to stand up for yourself, even at that cost.”

Mai’s eyes didn’t meet hers. She never saw the compassionate reflection waiting for her in them.

“…He’s putting me on security.”

“What?” Kubo rocketed up from her seat, towering over Ms. Saito’s resigned, hung head. “Mai.”

“I’m… going to do it. It’s a better place for me, he said.”

“You’re not his guard dog! Do you know what he uses those thugs for? Cleaning, Mai! Getting rid of threats!” She spat. “Y-You might be sick, but you’re not a killer.”

“But… what if I could be…? He said… he saw something in me, like the best of his fighters…”

“He’s still using you!” She scooped the child up by the collar and cried into her face. “He knows you can’t defend yourself against praise! Don’t fall for something so fucking cheap! Can’t you see he’s lying?”

It hurt more than anything for Kubo to confirm it.

“I… I know he was lying, Tomo.”

“So why listen?”

“It… it’s all I can get. His lies.” She stifled a snotty inhale. “I… feel kinda honored. That he’d lie for me.”

She grit her own teeth, staring at something horrible. All of a sudden, the woman saw herself instead of her foolish coworker.

“Are you fucking stupid? He’d do that for anyone!” Her grip tightened, empathy becoming fear before boiling up into anger.

“I-I know he would-“

“He’s still just as bad for you!” She shook the girl, trying to jog her brain into working.

“I-I don’t care!”

“He’s hurting you!” She spoke the obvious, trying to convince her with whatever she had-

“I WANT HIM TO HURT ME!”

…Kubo watched the girl slowly realize her own words.

“Here I thought you were human.”

That was the last time they spoke for awhile.

❌

“What’s it feel like?”

For the first time all year, she was making casual conversation with Yoshinaga. She sat stiffly across from him, no longer a desk in the middle to divide them. They were close enough to kiss, and in the serene silence of his spacious office.

“It’s… like it… I don’t know. It doesn’t… feel like anything. I… close my eyes, and they go red.”

“Your eyes?”

“No I mean… like literally, when I see the red. That’s when I realize they’re dead.”

“Oh.” The leader sat back in his chair, getting more of a story than he’d bargained for. “Well. That’s… I suppose that’s not too different from what you hear on TV.”

“I-I want to quit.”

“Oh, yeah?” He’d programmed himself to never sound surprised, to always seem one step ahead. It forced him to always live ten seconds in the past. “Why is that?”

“I…”

He had never had to do much to keep Mai in his palm until now. It had barely occurred to him what he was doing to her. But now, about to lose his strongest soldier, he had to push down his rising guilt in the same way he always did to justify his operation, not considering the consequences.

He stroked his fingers under her chin.

“I’m sure it’s hard on you. The… violence. It’s not the place of a woman. But… I’m proud of you for wading in it. All the blood. The obstacles I can’t traverse by myself. I’m so lucky to have you.”

To his surprise, instead of heating up into a blush or thanking him, the girl broke down crying.

“What’s wrong?”

He leaned in to hear her muttering.

“I-I know you’re lying. Not… cause… what Kubo told me… cause. Cause you… cause no one… ever said… a single word like that… and meant it… to me.”

“What do you mean?” He tilted his head, only having started listening once she mentioned Kubo’s name. It was long after he was dead by the time he would have noticed the knife.

He’d been a fool to soundproof the room, the silent assassin becoming a cacophony in the presence of the only person she’d really wanted to hurt. He had no room to scream under her wails, frying her own throat as she slashed his. The blade fucked him like a pig, a reverse violation so unfamiliar he barely felt the pain or the warmth of his own blood as it ruined his suit.

He only watched Mai’s face, and wondered who he was looking at.

❌

Kubo gasped when Mai came dashing out of the office like spurting blood from a gaping wound.

“Mai? Mai!” She stopped her in the hall. She’d been waiting on her to get out, hoping to eat with her on her birthday.

“I… I…” She was covered in red. Kubo wasn’t sure where to look before her eyes darted to inside the office room. Her hand fell over her own mouth.

“Kenta…! Oh… oh my God… oh my God…”

“D-don’t look so fucking sad.”

Shocked, she turned her head up to Mai, and saw someone else’s face.

“Didn’t he DESERVE IT? Isn’t this what NEEDED to happen?”

“M-Mai…”

“THIS IS WHAT YOU SAID TO DO! WHAT YOU TOLD ME TO DO!

“Y-you need to calm down!” Kubo cried, lost in fear.

“YOU TOLD ME TO FIGHT BACK… THIS IS FIGHTING BACK! Now you want me to LIE DOWN AND TAKE IT?!”

“H-HE WAS STILL OUR FRIEND.”

Kubo shivered in the silence.

“…You liked him too.”

“What?” She watched the murderer slowly turn the knife on her. What could she do? Her mind was racing so fast that the playground accusation flew past her.

“Don’t “What.” You liked him too. You were jealous of me.”

“Mai, you don’t get what’s-“

“I’ll kill you too.” She held her. The power was in her hands now. Her partner was in her hands.

“Mai-“

“I’ll kill you, too.”

She fell to her knees, and submitted to her friend.

“I-I’m so sor-“

But in the wake of Mai’s singleminded wrath, it was already too late for anyone to apologize.