Mob Yandere

[Part 2/5]

'Why are you saying such things now? Are you trying to boast about your misfortune? How ridiculous.'

"P-Princess...?"

The scenery changed again. Before I knew it, I was in the forest, surrounded by numerous youkai nests. When I turned around, a peach-colored princess smiled and opened her fan, her eyes filled with mocking scorn.

'That's right, pretending to suffer like that is unnecessary. You think whatever you want, and you go with the flow that suits you, don't you? Otherwise, you wouldn't have saved me in such a critical moment. ...You sold your favor quite well, didn't you? Thanks to it, you got a new backer.'

She declared with a sneer, oozing with malicious intent.

"That's not true!! Are you saying that I pretended to save the princess, you, back then!?"

I raised my voice and protested. It was too offensive. I risked my life back then. And she...!!?

'Hehe. Such an embarrassing self-defense. It would have been nice if you had told me in advance that I was being set up.'

Before that incident, Aoi had believed in her father wholeheartedly. The sheltered girl was desperately trying to gain his attention. It was obvious that nothing I said would have any effect. I might have been beaten to near death if I said the wrong thing. I had no right to say such things.

'Stop making a fuss. ...Thanks to you, they came.'

"Huh...?"

I tilted my head in response to Aoi's words filled with disgust. I immediately understood what she meant.

'Clatter! Clatter!'

I sensed a presence. I heard a sound. A dry, bone-chilling noise echoed. It was close. I unconsciously looked down. At my feet...

"..."

I stared at it in silence. It was also silent.

...Dragging its decayed, flesh-corrupted body, the Gashadokuro looked up at me. An overwhelming foul smell invaded my nostrils. I was dumbfounded. Astonished. And... the next moment, it grabbed my ankle.

"Uwaaaahhh!!?"

The revolting sensation, combined with the fear, made me kick the grasping skeleton. Its hand was dislocated, as if the bones had rotted away. Its wrist flew off.

'Oh my, you're quite cold-hearted. Even though you killed your own kind, your own comrade. Shouldn't you at least utter a word of remorse?'

"Huh!? Killed my own kind!? What are you talking about!?"

I was confused and bewildered by Aoi's accusation. I looked at the skull which is still clinging to me even though it has lost its arm, and I realize it now. The lower half of the skull was missing. As if it had been bitten off by something.

"Oh...?"

And when our eyes met again, as I observed the shape of the skull... I finally realized who is it.

"You're... Yahiro?" (Note: cp1 and v4 epilogue 2)

Yes, I knew that face. Yahiro, who loved senbei and frequently sparred with me since we both used spears. He used the spears provided at the rivers to catch fish like fishing tools. He was scolded by the squad leader for that, but his cheerful personality made him popular among the group.

And... he was the Yahiro who was bitten in half by the giant wolf on the night of the full moon.

"Ah, ahh..."

Once I realized that fact, his body seemed to reverse, regaining its flesh as if going back in time. He appeared before me with the last image ingrained in my memory. Despairing, gazing at me with blood bubbles foaming from his mouth. His mouth trembled as if trying to say something. Seeking salvation. But I could do nothing in response. I couldn't say anything. I could only look down at him, extending his bloodied arm with no hand.

'Clatter! Clatter! Clatter!'

"...!!?"

My body instinctively reacted to the loud bone noises, and I swung my spear horizontally, trying to strike the crumbling skeletons creeping up from behind. But...

"Wh-why...?"

Although I swung with all my might, the spear failed to crush the crumbling bones and got stuck on a rib. The skeleton looked down at its chest where my spear was lodged, then looked at me.

"Kanoe...! Why are you here...!!?"

The second squad I belonged to after becoming a servant. I often worked together with him. The squad was annihilated, and we were the only two survivors. In the end, Kanoe died of exhaustion, despite my desperate attempts at treatment. He, who had lived, continued to stare at me. Bleeding, wordlessly, watching him impale with my spear...

"Huh!? No! This can't be...!!?"

I instinctively dropped my spear, desperately trying to justify the fact that I had hurt my comrades. I defended myself, apologized, and pleaded for forgiveness. However, there was no response, only condemning gazes shooting through me.

...Several skulls staggered towards me from the side. I turned to face them, and they immediately regained their flesh.

"H-Higashimura!! You're... Kashiwagi!?"

I shouted the names of the subordinates I had inadvertently killed. It wasn't just them; as time passed, the surrounding corpses filled my field of vision. When I looked at them closely, I recognized who they were based on their features. They regained their flesh and stared at me, filled with eyes of hatred. It was enough to make me despair. I wanted to avert my gaze, but I couldn't. I had no right to do so.

'Oh my, it seems they all want to gather around you first. Hehe, it looks like the time for reckoning has come.'

Surrounded by countless skeletons, Onitsuki's Second Princess remarked, her words dripping with malice.

"Reckoning!? You call this reckoning...!? You're joking! While it's true that some of them might have survived if I had handled things better, I never... I never killed anyone willingly!!"

My cries were almost cries of agony. I desperately and defiantly proclaimed my innocence. It was too much to bear. I was always on the brink of death because of my position. I couldn't handle being accused to this extent. I wasn't almighty or omnipotent. Wasn't it too much to be burdened with all of this!?

'Ahahaha! Are you serious about that? Do you think I'm blaming you for that? Stop playing dumb! Or do you really not understand?'

"What are you trying to say!? Stop beating around the bush and say it clearly!!?"

I raised my voice in anger and questioned her, unable to stand her mocking remarks. I demanded to know her true intentions.

'Be quiet. Don't you still understand? Why they died? Because you're incompetent? It's true that you're incompetent, but that's not what I mean. It's not such a straightforward story.'

"Then what...!?"

I gasped as I almost voiced it. I finally understood what she was trying to tell me. Sensing that I had arrived at an answer, the princess smiled arrogantly.

'Yes. That's right. It's not about your competence. Of course not. You're an anomaly here. ...How many people's fates have you changed, including your own family? I wonder?'

The princess's words struck me right in the heart. It was the same on the night of the full moon. Conspiracies, intrigues, traps, factional struggles... I had been treated as a pawn, used as a pawn. Fortunately, I survived. But what about those who got caught up in it? Could their deaths have occurred in the original story? How many people were influenced by me? How many suffered misfortune? How many lost their lives?

"!? Hikorokurō (Yamamba arc)!? Are you all... also affected!?"

As the skeletons crawled towards me, some of them dressed in the uniforms of Imperial Army soldiers, my face twisted in disgust. Among the approaching skeletons, there was a group wearing military uniforms of the Legion. Some faces I recognized, but many others I didn't.

...And all of them clearly resented me. They were angry at me for leading them to a fate of death, for disrupting their destinies, for taking their lives.

"Ah, aah..."

I opened and closed my mouth like a fish out of water. I wanted to say something, but I couldn't. There was nothing to say. There was no escape, no way to run, no excuse. It was meaningless. All that remained was the fact that my very existence had caused them to die.

'Finally, do you realize your sins?'

Feeling her presence behind me, I slowly turned around. I felt her presence and turned around. There was a woman wearing a Hannya mask. That person was staring at me.

...As I gazed at the strangulation marks on her slender neck, I remembered everything from that day. I remembered the truth of that day.

"No... it's a lie..."

'It's not a lie.'

"Lies...!!"

't's not a lie.'

"I don't believe you! Don't lie to me like that!"

'I would never lie. Do you think I'm lying to you?'

"...!!"

As if trying to escape from the unbearable reality, I almost reflexively strangled her neck to get rid of her presence, to push her away. I tightened my grip on her pale, slender neck with all my strength.

The next moment, her head rolled off easily, as if a ball had fallen off. It happened so quickly and effortlessly.

"Ah...?"

The head rolled to my feet. For a moment, I was dumbfounded, then I screamed. I crouched down, picked up the skull, held it close, and begged for forgiveness, apologizing frantically. I kept begging for forgiveness while crying, not even caring about the skeletons that clung to me one after another.

The skull wriggled, trembled, and looked frightened. Without being told, I used some invisible thread to peel off the mask stuck to the head. And then...

'Why? Why did you kill me?'

The decaying, maggot-infested head of my benefactor questioned me as if blaming me to death.

"...!!!"

'Where's the bad bug that's been tormenting you?'

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