8-10 minutes

How lengthy had I been strolling?

I had misplaced my sense of time way back. It felt as if 100 years had handed, and on the similar time I’d solely walked for ten minutes. Often the bottom turned to quicksand and flowed between my ft. The following second, it grew to become a swamp, swallowing me as much as my ankles. The spirit world appeared completely different than earlier than. It was typically the case that the looks and textures didn’t match. Proper now it felt like I used to be strolling by way of mud, however the floor was stage as a tough flooring.

The goldfish alone remained unchanged because it swam. Whether or not I walked quick or gradual, the goldfish stayed on the similar place, flipping its tail fins just a bit forward of me.

As I walked deeper into the spirit world, I glanced on the pink wall beside me.

There was a deep tear within the wall. Crimson flickered inside, and a little bit of white mild spilled out.

I noticed a baby sitting down inside.

I froze in my tracks. The goldfish additionally stopped shifting. A small youngster was crouched on the opposite facet of the crevice. Curled up in a ball, hiding beneath the porch, it jogged my memory of a cat.

Clothed in a kimono, the kid appeared acquainted. Large eyes flickered.

It was a younger Yuri.

My breath caught. Why had been her recollections being projected within the spirit world? The surroundings shifted. It was like watching photographs by way of a digicam. Yuri crawled out of the dim house and climbed up onto the porch. She opened the shoji slightly and peeked inside.

Abruptly there was a loud cry.

Then it stopped.

Yuri shivered. She dashed beneath the porch. The shoji opened, and a person with menacing eyes appeared. He should have heard the noise.

The person appeared round warily. His palms had been moist with blood and amniotic fluid. Yuri was shaking violently. Moments later, she squeezed out an animalistic squeal from deep inside her throat.

Meow.

It didn’t sound human.

The person nodded to himself. “Only a cat.”

The footage ended. There was solely moist flesh within the tear. I stood there, surprised. I attempted to course of what I simply noticed, barely managing to cease my ft from shifting towards the tear. I pulled my eyes away and adopted the goldfish. The person’s bloodshot eyes appeared in my thoughts’s eye. The fox whispered in my ear, requested me a query.

An animal will give delivery to an animal. Don’t you assume so?

What was the purpose in asking me this?

I silently continued on my approach. I didn’t look to the facet any extra. I didn’t know what was being proven within the quite a few cracks. My chest was astir. The goldfish shifting at a continuing velocity was my solely supply of consolation.

Abruptly, the goldfish stopped, froze mid-air.

I lifted my head to see if I had made it to my vacation spot. Earlier than me was a slim path, like a delivery canal. My sense of distance was unreliable right here, however I ought to’ve lined various distance already.

However the fox was nowhere to be discovered.

Why did the goldfish cease?

“Hey… why did you—”

The second I attempted speaking to the goldfish, one thing handed in entrance of me.

Ting.

I heard what seemed like a bell. My imaginative and prescient momentarily blurred. I noticed white noise, like a broken videotape. It felt like my retinas had been burning. Body-by-frame, photographs had been seared into my eyes. And I noticed it.

An individual handed proper in entrance of me.

Ting.

It was a girl, dressed sensationally like a prostitute.

Free kimono uncovered her shoulders, partially revealing her ample breasts. Her milky, shiny pores and skin arrested consideration. Her lengthy black hair fluttered within the air, stirring elegantly within the absence of wind.

On her shoulder was a black parasol.

Large eyes turned to me. Her eyes narrowed, and her vermilion lips twisted.

I confronted her, forgetting even to breathe. Ache blazed by way of my burning retina. The footage went on frame-by-frame. The girl blinked. Tilting her head, she placed on a bewitching smile.

The parasol twirled. Black lace stirred.

A repulsive smile appeared on her pink lips.

“My, an uncommon visitor,” the lady mentioned, sporting an animalistic smile. “Good to fulfill you, Odagiri-kun.”

Her voice sounded acquainted. The girl got here nearer. I couldn’t hear her footsteps. She gave the impression to be gliding throughout the floor of the spirit world. She prolonged a pale hand, and her vermillion lips curled up.

Worry stuffed my thoughts. Worry of being eaten.

Feelings had been catching as much as me. There weren’t purported to be folks within the spirit world. This realm was Mayuzumi’s playground. Nobody else might come to this place with no information.

Then who was this lady earlier than me? Was she a hallucination created by the spirit world?

The girl prolonged a hand.

Proper earlier than she touched me, somebody pulled my arm. The following second, the bottom beneath me collapsed. It felt as if I had stepped on glass. Lacking my footing, I fell by way of the smooth floor. The girl’s silhouette moved additional and additional away. Her determine unraveled like a thread and fell into darkness. The sunshine pale from round me, and I used to be engulfed in a sea of flesh and the odor of iron.

I looked for the crimson goldfish, however I couldn’t spot it. I couldn’t even inform which approach was up or down.

I had failed. I strayed from the trail proven by the goldfish. No human might survive within the depths of the spirit world.

I might maintain wandering round, misplaced, or worse, lose my thoughts.

Preventing it was pointless. I didn’t even know if I ought to arise or down on this place. There was nothing to information me. How might I even flounder round once I didn’t even know the place the bottom was? Like a bug thrown right into a gap within the floor, I continued fumbling.

Proper once I was forgetting even find out how to breathe, my ears caught a transparent voice.

“Do you need to eat my coronary heart, Hamlet?”

My eyes widened.

A second later, I fell into the sky.

I fell upward and slammed my shoulder laborious. The rotting flooring creaked. Delicate ripples—not like glass, however marks of wading by way of grass—appeared on the bottom. Respiration out in ache, I studied the lady standing earlier than me.

She appeared a bit blurry, her contours gone.

As if she had misplaced her bodily physique.

“…Ah.”

Reminiscence stirred.

She was already useless.

“You’re such a hopeless man, cutie.”

Yuri Jingu was wanting down at me with a smile.

“Howdy, cutie. You’re fairly the tenacious man, coming all the best way right here. Nobody likes clingy males. Particularly cat-like ladies like me.”

Yuri spoke in the identical indifferent tone she used when she was nonetheless alive.

I stared at her. She was watching me in the identical uniform I noticed her in earlier than. Her stomach was regular. It didn’t appear to be there was a baby inside. Her look was far completely different from her grotesquely bloated determine.

Holding my gaze, Yuri chuckled. “Don’t give me that look, cutie. It’s my physique that’s pregnant. I, the soul, fulfilled my obligation of strengthening the hyperlink between the spirit world and my physique. And now I’ve nothing to do. There’s nothing extra to be carried out both. I’m bored, so to talk. Aside from the womb, I’d been relieved from my put up.”

Yuri raised her palms. I recalled how her stomach swelled quickly instantly after her loss of life. By abandoning her physique, she moved to the spirit world to bolster its connection to her womb, however at the price of leaving her soul trapped within the spirit world.

She couldn’t even disappear.

“So I used to be wandering round this place once I noticed you. I sensed one thing unhealthy, so I pulled in your arm. I want to speak to you. Let’s take our time, we could? Hup!”

She sat down on the bottom. However her hips had been within the air. She crossed her legs and checked out me. I believed again to the second when she pulled my arm.

The pink lady was smiling within the spirit world. Picturing her lovely determine made chilly sweat trickle down my again.

Who was that lady? I attempted to assume laborious, however it felt like a fog was hanging over my head. After racking my brains for some time, I gave up.

There was no level in desirous about it.

Occasions that occurred within the spirit world had been greater than I might deal with.

“You need to discuss to me?”

“Sure. It’s best to go house,” Yuri mentioned, resting her hand on her chin.

She smiled. However her eyes had been pregnant with fierce rage.

“Be an excellent boy.” She seemed like she was persuading her personal youngster.

However my reply was apparent.

“No.”

Silence fell. Yuri regarded me quietly. A crooked smile appeared on her face.

“I see.”

Meow.

I heard a cat’s cry. A second later, one thing smooth brushed towards my leg.

I shortly appeared down and noticed a black cat with pretty fur rubbing its head towards me. I might hear it purring. It needed to be pampered. All of the hair on my physique stood on finish.

What was a cat doing right here?