Abyss Diva’s Lament

Of all the most gruesome punishments anyone could get, Kaito had been singled out and, like a Roman circus, the audience cheered on such a spectacle for brief, miserable communal delight at their massive display of idiocy. Every step he made was heavier than the previous one, marching to the possible site of his execution. His head is flooded with the torrent of cowardly, optimistic, and illusory thoughts with a slight touch of megalomania.

"She will kill me! I can feel her claws skinning me as soon as the mission is accomplished. They are all blind! They will only believe until my inert body ends up hanging on a wall as a trophy of her victory next to mountains of bones," he murmured excessively and with barely time to breathe as he continued on his way while his sweaty hands held the papers that the titular professor had requested be handed over to Haruka.

The sentence was handed down at the beginning of the day. The announcement that Haruka was ━ mysteriously ━ ill, an apparent cold had made it impossible for her to attend classes that day, immediately after the school festival, and a volunteer was required so that the notes would be delivered to her.

"Let that weird Kaito take it. They are always together," said the Gyaru with a disinterested tone, her gesture aspired to kindergarten mockery.

"Please, more respect among classmates," the Teacher snapped, but he did not object to the suggestion, which made Kaito break out in a cold sweat.

"What are you talking about!?" He said with an elevated and nervous voice, remembering Haruka's accusations pulled him between fear and disappointment, a lump in his throat..

"They are friends, right? I saw them talking at the school festival," the Absentee, Junko, coughed..

"We're not friends," Kaito contested, unheard over the delirious din. "She is a monster, an abysmal being of twisted origins," he spat, wanting to hide his fear of being sent alone to the enemy's fortress, unarmed.

"Yes, we know the story. You even arranged that cosplay presentation in the middle of the Sports Event," sounded the voice of Gendou, who exuded expert airs by raising his shoulders above the back of his seat.

Is it that, in addition to being blind, they are crazy? A bad taste joke? I have sought for her voice to be heard and screamed with terror at her every approach. They have witnessed her pain, they have heard her complain to me, and they have seen her in an environment without threads or mirrors. The evidence has been presented to them, and they have decided to throw it into the abyss, like a crazy town, Kaito’s mind went on a rampage.

Could they have already perceived the truth of her nature, but are too mediocre to openly admit that I am right? Or worse... Could it be that Haruka has begun to manipulate their minds with lies?

"It's true, they even eat together," Ishi said, without raising his head from the desk, while ignoring the most important part of the defense.

Kaito looked towards the Gamer, his little faith in Humanity that could harbor within him withered like a cherry blossom in a pedestrian crossing.

"TRUE!" the Absentee spluttered once again. "He even made her a bento."

"That was a return of favors!" Kaito justified himself, his guts on fire, nervous and dazed, unable to admit that she had shown a more human side to his eyes.

"They meet alone in the art room," Sports continued as he lazily raised his hand.

Stunned, Kaito turned to his classmate. His eyes almost popped out of their sockets in surprise at such nonsense, but the noisy hubbub of the class at the revelation, turned into a new vision.

"I ASKED FOR HELP!" He declared effusively while his lungs twisted from a lack of air due to social pressure.

His classmates' faces were, for a brief moment, as chilling as the last thing he had been able to perceive of Haruka's transformtation. There was evil in those eyes and smiles that were amused by his suffering.

"This conversation is over. Someone has to take the notes, and since Kaito seems to be the only one who talks to Haruka, he will take them. I don't want another word about it," declared the class tutor with a thick, deep voice, amplifying the force to be heard in every corner of the classroom, and bringing Kaito to the brink of madness as the countdown began, starting from that instance until a few hours before sunset.

Between ramblings, and the automated process of following GPS instructions on his smartphone, Kaito came to face the indicated house. Nobody could imagine such banality guarded by an insidious aberration.

"Just leave the papers in the mailbox. Yes, I'll just put the papers in the mailbox. I don't need to make contact. Not now" He whispered as his feet slowed their drag.

The hinge of the mailbox creaked, Kaito froze. While he carefully lowered the small door, a sudden wave of terror made him lose his balance as he heard the intercom, "Are you Haruka’s friend?" A voice, with a kind and curious tone sounds crackly. Kaito remained silent.

I was? Perhaps at some point I could have been, but that never took away from the fact of what we both are: she, possibly an inhabitant of the Underworld, and me, a fallen hero whose resolve was broken when faced with the result of his accomplished cause.

The door opened, and a more mature clone of Haruka appeared in the frame. An abysmal similarity, barely differentiated by a few lines of age, allowed Kaito to maintain his serenity before the mother of his classmate.

"Are you Kaito? Oh, well… I don't know," the woman looked worried and meditative, "Or do you prefer Kaidan? The Vehement Watcher? Oh, I can't keep up. What is OK for today's generation? Always playing with nicknames, changing what you’re called, and wearing cosplay," the woman said before sighing.

"I hope I haven't hurt your feelings; that's not my intention. I try to understand Haruka but there are things that are beyond me. Have you come to see her? Could you keep an eye on her for a moment? I’ll be back soon." The woman thanked Kaito and walked towards her vehicle without allowing Kaito the chance to object. By the time the young man could react, he could barely see the car's roof disappearing down the street.

The inside of the house seemed to grow darker even though the amber sunset came in through the living room window. Feeling watched, Kaito looked up; a curtain was quickly drawn to hide back into the room.

The young man swallowed ━his ears were ringing, the air seemed thin, and his lungs felt cold━ he could hear his name between cries. He took the papers that fell to the floor and crossed the threshold, leaving his shoes at the entrance after closing the door behind him. He knew where to find who was calling him from the deepest corner of his mind, repeating his name with simultaneous echoes that resonated with his every breath.

The family photographs hanging on the wall gave Kaito a brief image of what Haruka mentioned: She was as normal as him and the others, who knows how long, to the point that her family did not understand her either. No one else but him had seen through the deception of her blatant attempt to ignore her dehumanization. Each pair of eyes in the images of the past had turned red, within a blackish sclera, and they turned to see the visitor, expressing a sinister expression of joy.

At the end of the hallway, a door opened slightly. Bizarre small quadrupedal creatures ran around his feet, a sweet sob attractive to his ear, and by the time he realized it, a waking dream, like sleepwalking, prompted him to enter the darkness of the night room. And, in the corner, far to the left, his delirious happiness was gone.

The sound of her crying caused ringing in his eardrums, her hair was a living wall paper. However, Kaito could feel how the surface seemed alive under the slippers’ soft soles, throbbing so hard that his feet were slightly moved. The eyes opened and closed disorderly all around, observing him almost obsessively.

"Welcome. What is Kurai doing here?" asked a pitiful amorphous lump, that could barely show its whitish eyes which melted on her face, looking at him sadly.

"Have you come to bring more misfortune?" The voice sounded like a broken synthesizer as its body approached him.

"Oh, tragedy… SPLENDID TRAGEDY!" echoes sounded from the little scratching minions that mimicked within the endless room.

"Sweet reward for the path you have taken and sidelined me, Kaidan." The figure gathered in one place to show an entity that covered Kaito with only its wings, blocking his path.

"Will you be the director of the trial of the Void Monarch too?" Claws delicately caressed the face of the pale young man, who was torn between the horror and misery at witnessing such bloody pain, giving shape to a body covered in darkness, "What more do you want to take from the Empress of Black Holes, that you haven't destroyed already?"

"FORGIVE ME!" the claws retracted from Kaito, "I ruined it! I just wanted to prove that I was right! That I wasn't just another simpleton and they were wrong for not listening to me!"

The once sharp smirk curved her lips in surprise as it tried to recover from that tiny ray of hope.

"Oh, sure. I am going to fall into your new vile trap while, deep down, there is nothing but a tragic comedy of lies and demise!”

"I BELIEVE!" a visceral apology gushed from him, "I always believed! I never doubted it, not even for a second." The truth spilled from his lips as his hands pressed against his chest in repentance of his envy and pride.

"And I was afraid!" As his tongue stuck in his throat, he said, "I still am."

The freakishness felt tiny, shrinking to a lump small enough to hide under the covers, among the stuffed animals in handmade gothic lolita dresses.

"I understand. Anyone would be terrified of a grotesque Nethertopian…"

"Of your words… Of how unknown it is to me to share a bento at lunch, enjoy a school festival, or chat with someone without feeling left behind, or their turning a deaf ear," he finally admitted, embarrassed.

The oddity peeked its cracked, almost normal, face out of the blankets and sat up.

"Are you sincere?" Haruka said in a human voice with sweet devilish eyes.

Kaito knelt right in front of her, lowered his head, and bowed with his hands on his knees.

"I'm really sorry."

She hid her nose behind the covers and laughed tenderly.

"Lift your face, Smarty-Pants of Justice. Your detriment has faded into Oblivion."

Kaito raised his head and smiled sheepishly. Then, a stuffed animal handed the papers to the boy, before returning the way it had come.

"I brought your not…" Kaito trailed off as he realized the strangeness of the room: stuffed toys tripping over pencils that appear at random, hair ornaments floating in the air like insects, sheets of paper from the garbage turning in origami figures and scatter around, and through the window ━as if it were five in the afternoon against the rays at dawn━ sunrise and golden hour all at once..

Haruka just shrugged and sneezed under the blanket, an action that may have had a strange relationship with her tail and her horns changing color, which now took on an admirable, curvaceous, demonic aesthetic.

"Er… Rice porridge or pudding?" Kaito asked, trying to take in the awkward Wonderland.

Haruka smiled honestly with a slight blush on her nose, showing her newly sharpened teeth.

"The Armageddon Bringer wants pudding."