Curtain Call

Goh was supposed to be dead. Fukei knew it. He was the one that ended the boy’s life. And yet, here he was, even being able to mock his stupidity all this time.

“F–For real?” Fukei could only ask that much.

“For real real,” Goh snickered. “I feel like new. Thanks, by the way.”

“But… why?”

“I guess Ichigo spilled the beans, right?”

Fukei tried to look over to the corpse on the road. However, Goh had already grabbed his face with an iron grip – a ridiculous strength that was clearly not that of a five-year old child, even enough to see the veins popping in his hand.

“Hey now. Eyes on me,” Goh chuckled. “Now answer.”

There was only silence.

“Oh, right, silly me,” Goh laughed once more. “You can’t answer with your mouth covered like that!”

Yet, he never let go of his hand. Instead, the child continued to soliloquy:

“Everything Ichigo has told you is true. Smile World is incomplete; it can partially increase some of our capabilities. Its side effect also includes turning us into monsters who laugh. But see, those effects are only partial. Or rather, temporary. We have lapses that we can’t figure out that our bodies experience this high unattainable for anyone normally. Where we feel like we can do anything.”

Goh then let out a sigh. True to his words, he had stopped smiling all of a sudden.

“But then something like this happens, and we’re back to normal. Like Ichigo said, we’re all failed products.”

But the boy’s face immediately contorted into a grin once more.

“But everything changed when you took that shot, Fukei.”

The one in question was in complete terror as the scene before him unfolded.

Goh’s mouth curled into a smile, then a frown, then a smile again. Repeatedly, willingly, with no sense of stopping at all.

“I don’t know what you did, but that shot would have killed me for real! Oh, but don’t blame yourself for that; I’m sure it’s the Commander that had it staged. But thanks to it, I’m finally able to control Smile World! Look, look! I can even lift this chain now! Cool, eh?”

The chain in question was the one that he used to drag Fukei with. It was gigantic – even each one of its links were as big as half of Goh’s arm, while its hook was clearly bigger than his head.

But Fukei didn’t even have time to be shocked, as another voice echoed beside him:

“And he wasn’t the only one, either.”

Stepping towards his vision were each and every one of the siblings that he thought he had killed. First, it was Shirou. Then, Miko and Fuutarou. And finally, Ichigo. Right in the order that Fukei killed them. All of them were still having their wounds open, their clothes reddened with blood and dirtied with mud and dirt, but they were undoubtedly all alive.

“But…”

Before he could answer, there was a sixth voice. One that was deeper, calmer, and more familiar to him than anyone else present.

“Near-death experience,” the voice sounded. “It’s a phenomenon associated with clinical death, often referring to the state where a human comes back when they’re thought to have died. It results in a fundamental change to the human brain, in various ways that even current science cannot comprehend fully.”

“This,” it continued, “is the key to the completion of Smile World. In a clinical death state, the heart stops beating and the lungs stops functioning. However, there is a very brief period of time that the brain yet lives. Smile World in a normal case cannot travel to the brain as the body’s immune system keeps it in place, but as the brain works tirelessly to keep the body alive for however short, it’s a perfect chance for Smile World to directly affect the frontal cortex of the brain, finally completing its invasion.”

As the voice became clearer, Fukei could see from the ground a pair of shiny, familiar shoes. The kind of fancy shoes worn by an adult reeking of cash,

“Took you long enough to show up,” the boy let out a bitter laugh as Kageyama, fully present with his same old getup, appeared in front of him.

“I was always here,” the man grinned, revealing his unblemished, shining teeth. “You just never saw me. After all, you kids are too precious for me to disregard. Only an idiot would think I’d leave you alone… like that one failed excuse of a detective, for instance.”

“So what?” Fukei scoffed. “Now that you have your super soldiers, what are you gonna do? Dispose of me?”

“Super soldiers?” Kageyama raised his brows. “What are you talking about?”

The man got up for a moment and moved towards Ichigo’s group. Only now did Fukei notice the metal briefcase in his hand, but it was in the most violent way imaginable for him to know of the information.

Kageyama swung the suitcase straight at Ichigo’s face, knocking him down in one fell swoop. It was a strong throw as well – there was a small, white object that flew out of Ichigo’s mouth. One of his teeth, to be exact.

And yet, Ichigo did nothing but give the biggest grin possible, as if being hit for no reason was the greatest honor he could receive:

“Thank you, Commander! I couldn’t ask for a better way to test my newfound strength!”

Turning back to Fukei, Kageyama sneered.

“See that? A failed product is always a failed product. You might have unlocked the Smile World within them, but they’re still far too unstable. They’re too obedient, too unhuman to be used in a real life scenario.”

“Heh… then I guess your plan failed, old bastard.” Fukei snorted with contempt.

As if waiting for that taunt, Kageyama let out a bigger grin than he had ever made.

“Now, I wouldn’t say that,” replied the man. “Do you know why they failed?”

“I don’t know. Your drug sucks?”

“They were too happy. Soccer star, piano prodigy, medalist gymnast, son of policeman. Even the delinquent was of a normal, happy family. You get it, don’t you? They might say that they had their own worries, their own pressure, but they could never understand what it meant to hit real rock-borrom.”

Fukei didn’t answer. He knew it too well. That’s why he never understood them, why he always rejected them with all of his might.

They were never monsters. Or at least, they were never the type that would become a monster.

For if that kind of upbringing was enough to turn a human into a monster, then what would that make him?

Kageyama, meanwhile, continued:

“So I had to turn to another experimental subject. One that truly knew what it felt to be miserable. One that had an upbringing that could only be described as hell on earth. And I found him at last.”

At this point, Kageyama’s grin was clearer than ever. And Fukei knew why.

Perhaps, he had already realized it deep within his own subconsciousness. But he never admitted it. He kept deluding himself into thinking otherwise.

“He never had any parental love. He never had any friends. All he was known for was his ability to cause trouble to others, or his violent tendency against his peers.”

“No…”

“His constant rift with his own mother. His absent father. His utmost poverty.”

“Don’t say it!”

“It was all just smaller steps, of course. But when that foolish woman of a mother had had enough with him, so much that she would sell away her one and only child to me, I knew I had found my greatest masterpiece.”

“I’ll kill you!”

Kageyama suddenly stopped. From within his pocket, the man took out a hand mirror. Still with a conniving grin on his face, he turned the mirror towards Fukei.

And with that, his greatest fear was realized. It all made sense now.

How he suddenly gained so much proficiency in a gun.

How he could fight against physical monsters like those kids.

How he never felt any pain after the initial wound, enough to even fight in this beaten up body of his.

Fukei, all this time, was smiling ear to ear.

“Since when…?” He wanted to cry, but his face didn’t move. Not now. Not ever.

“I told you that she sold you to me, didn’t I?” Kageyama snickered. “What did you think was in the bottle in that hospital?”

Everything clicked. About why Kageyama was the one to appear in the hospital. How Fukei had to receive IV drip after just a simple face injury. It was all staged, just like the kids had said. All this time, he was nothing but a puppet dancing by Kageyama’s string.

And with that, the perpetrator declared loud and clear, in the most elated voice that he could sound:

“My greatest creation yet! The perfect body and mind for Smile World! It’s none other than you, Satou Fukei!”

“Kageyama!!!–”

Fukei’s scream stopped there. It was hard to make out a sound, but there was a sound before that indeed. In Kageyama’s other hand was a gun with a silencer – the same one that shot Fukei’s hand right before he attempted to kill himself.

Only this time, it aimed straight at his head.

Putting the still smoking gun away, Kageyama then took out his phone and quickly dialed a certain number.

“Hello?” On the other side, a voice sounded. “Tokyo Metropolitan Police speaking.”

“Hello. I would like to report a case…” As the devilish man spoke, on his face was a big, confident smile.