Our Little Forever

"Hi~na~ta! Hina~ta! Hinata, Hinata, Hi~na~ta!"

"Hmh? Mmm! Mmphg!""

My mouth is taped shut, and I can't move my limbs. Looking down - or should I say sideways, I realize I've been tied up.

"Mgh, mmhmgh!"

Chisaki is sitting in front of me as she gently sings my name to several small grey rats. She notices me, then pivots her head.

"Awake, sweetie? Hehe." She ignores me, then goes back to petting one of the rats' head. Then, with a sudden swift movement, she grabs it, and snaps the rat's neck.

The other rats don't seem to care.

"Gmughi, ghmm mm mgh!"

"You're so cute, trying to talk like that! But you know I can't understand you, right?" She cradles the rat's corpse, before tossing it on the ground.

After slowing my breaths and catching myself, I look around the room. Chisaki's basement.

There's a dozen statues lying around, but now, a lot of them are smashed. Some of their heads have been lopped off and are lying on the ground, making their agonized expressions look like the final moments of terror. Whatever catching I did to myself dissipates.

"Kggigi, gm gg gg!"

"You know, the game does a really good job simulating the environment." She picks up another rat, and pets it. "But it leaves out some crucial information." She snaps this rat's neck too, then drops it by the floor. "For one, the rats don't spread diseases or even poop. And they don't seem to panic when you kill one of them. So unrealistic."

She picks up the final rat. This one is white, unlike the others.

"But they do accurately simulate everything else. Out in the fields, there's a whole ecosystem. And this one, who I raise in the house, follows the same diet and feeding system as the others. That's what I've learned, from observing the environment the past decade." She allows the rat to run across her shoulders. "It's quite fascinating." Chisaki takes the rat and presses it close to her face. "You don't want to be with those filthy wild rats, do you? That's right, I'll use those two as snake food."

I watch Chisaki walk over to a small plastic container, into which she tenderly deposits the white rat, petting it on the head.

"Ghhm..."

"Oh, the tape. Hinata..." Chisaki walks over and touches my cheek tenderly, before harshly ripping the tape off. "Do you want to hang out with me? I'm bored, and I want to play."

"Are you seriously asking me that, right now, this very minute?" I look around the statues again. "What the hell is this..." Chisaki's face darkens as she bites her lip.

"This is what you wanted to see, Hinata. This is the result of your precious exploration. Why couldn't you just trust me?" She shakes her head. "Maybe I should have just left you back in that classroom then. Since that's where you're so desperate to be."

"You gotta be shitting me." I shake my head. "Don't tell me that was your initial reason for saving me back there." Chisaki frowns, a flash of anger on her face, but she quickly composes herself.

"I did it because I cared about you Hinata. Because I knew you couldn't survive on your own. And because..." She shakes her head. "Nevermind."

Several grey NPCs enter the room, each of them wearing butler suits. One of them takes the rat cage upstairs. The other four now stand by her side, looking down at me alongside her.

"Was that really you saving me then?" I toss out at her, unable to control my own anger. "Something tells me you just crafted that scenario to save me!" Chisaki bites her lip. "You're a liar, you're a fraud, you - you're the real monster here! Love? Give me a fucking break, you don't love anything, you psycho!"

"Hinata, sweetie, perhaps you should watch your tongue." Chisaki looks at me, her fake smile barely able to contain the fury, and perhaps even a bit of sadness within. "I'm not the one that's tied down in front of you, am I? One last chance. Hinata, you can choose to forget about all this, and come with me." She kneels down in front of me, pleading.

"After everything, you just want me to forget?" Chisaki looks back, a slightly guilty expression on her face, but then nods, hopeful confidence flooding her face once more. 

"Yes!" She strokes me cheek again, affectionately. "You don't know how long I've been waiting. Maybe you don't remember, but I do." Chisaki looks at me hopefully, into my eyes, but after my lack of reaction, looks away. "You can use me to make money and content. I'll edit videos for you. I'll be there by your side. Heck, you can even date other girls if you'd like. Go in and out of the world for all I care. I...just can't bear the thought of not being able to touch you on the other side..."

"So is this how you treat your beloved? By throwing them into endless danger?"

There's a small frown that appears on her face.

"You'll never grow if I baby you, Hinata. Isn't 'reality' what you wanted? How is all this -" She gets up. "- any different from reality?" Chisaki sighs. We are silent for a while as she tries to say something, but fails. After another pause, she starts talking again, her voice colder this time. "I've been taking the time to learn about the natural life of a desert mouse." Chisaki picks up the rat corpses and hangs them above my face by the tail. "It's not like the ones from that movie, but I figured it would be similar enough."

"And what did you learn?" Chisaki smiles, then begins to speak matter-of-factly.

"The desert mouse is a nocturnal herbivore. They live in their burrows to avoid the heat of the day, then emerge at night to scavenge for leaves, seeds, and insects, all while avoiding owls, snakes, coyotes..." She turns to me.

"Amazing. Truly amazing. I am awed by your genius, for what was likely a thirty second online search." I scoff. Then, I am struggling to get out of my restraints once more, at this point more as a display of defiance than any attempt to get out. 

"In a way, you could argue that the wild desert mouse is no more free than the captive one. Don't you think?" Chisaki frowns again. "One last chance Hinata." She kneels down and gives me a hug. "Please. I'll do everything for you. You just need to ask."

"Go fuck yourself." I say, and I spit. Chisaki looks at me with an expression that almost seems like she's about to cry as she wipes it off of her face, but it quickly turns into a pained laugh, then soon, a hysteric one.

"Wrong answer, dearie." The four butlers by her side, previously unmoving, all converge upon me, and I am strung up on a pedestal. "Now be quiet. I need to ensure that your viewers will enjoy this." Chisaki turns to leave. "Make sure he's strung up tight. I need to go get the camera."

"Chisaki, damn you!" I scream as she leaves. "Chisaki! Chisaki, I'll get you someday! Chisaki!"

***

I can't feel my legs.

No, they aren't there at all. My legs are indeed gone. They've been replaced with marble. I look at my arms. Marble arms. And when I look into the mirror that lies in the dim, flickering fluorescent lights, half of my face is already gone.

The door to the basement opens.

"Hinata? My love?" Chisaki looks at me, her face full of pretend concern. "Are you uncomfortable?"

She walks up to me, her hand on her face as she looks at me with those eyes. I try to say something, but the lower half of my face is sculpted.

I want to tell her to fuck off. If I could move I'd just step out and pummel her to death. Those stupid twintails, that stupid face, and that-

I can't feel my waist anymore.

There's a ping from my helmet. A small superchat pops up, but I can't read it, since my right eye is no longer functional. You'd be surprised at just how obstructive the human nose can be when you need to see something close to your face and you only have one eye.

"Oh my, another donation!" She bends to the side, clasping her hands together. "Dr. Waffles, thanks for the supa!" Several more pop up to the side as Chisaki jots her hip out, one hand on waist, another on her face.

God dammit.

She reaches for my helmet - which I can't do anything about - and taps on the chat.

"'Wow, super realistic acting. I can't wait for the full release of the game!" A comment says.

"Mhm!" Chisaki says. "And there's more coming on the way, so please, show both me and Hinata support!" 

"CHISAKI MARRY ME!!!" Another comment goes.

"Sorry everyone, but I'm already taken by Hinata. If you want your own Chisaki, you'll have to buy the game yourself. And please...please do take care of your Chisaki."

There are more comments, some of them declaring that they'll take care of Chisaki better than me, but I don't care at this point, and Chisaki removes the HUD helmet from my head anyways as I gradually crystalize into stone.

"Quite a journey, wasn't it?" Chisaki looks around the room and waves her hands, sending the butlers standing by her upstairs. "And we've made so much progress too." She leans forward, like she usually likes doing, then gently pats my head, one of the last places that is still flesh, as she ruffles my hair, but as she does, even that begins to solidify into marble. "Only if we had more time. Only if we could have each other for just a little longer. I'm...I'm sorry Hinata. For everything."

"Uuuuhhhh." It's the last noise I can make, as my vocal chords cease to function, then I am silent forevermore.

"Goodbye, Hinata. I'll never forget you. My love."

Chisaki steps up, and pulls me into a deep, passionate kiss. Had I been the Hinata of old, I would have killed to be able to experience such a situation. And yet now, I can feel the life from my body fading as more and more is replaced with stone.

I'm disappearing.

Chisaki presses her body onto mine harder, and yet, I cannot feel a thing. I can faintly see her supple waist, her slender shoulders, and something larger in between pressed up to me, and yet, I cannot feel a thing.

"Mhm." Chisaki drives her tongue in further, as I slip further and further away from my flesh. The marble is taking over. I can barely even breathe.

I finally give in, and accept her kiss. Despite my tongue being mostly marble, I can feel the warmness of her breath on mine. It warms the cold interior my mouth has become.

Though even my eyes are starting to disappear on me, I can make out Chisaki's eyes, which now seem to be full of joy.

She detaches, a small trail of saliva connecting us, before it finally breaks. She licks her lips and gives me a warm, sweet expression, before even my very eyes cease to see.

"Hinata." Chisaki looks at me once last time. "Please tell me, we'll be together in the next life, right? Forever and ever?"

I scream, yet there is no noise. The ever-encroaching tide of marble has finally reached my brain. Five thousand, six thousand, seven thousand. SaekiKatanaBlade only continues to grow. And yet, I have ceased to think.

"Goodbye everyone." Chisaki says. "I hope you enjoyed our show."