Sing of 'Love' Above All Else, Episode 13: 'Contours'

Sing of 'Love' Above All Else, Episode 13: 'Contours'


1. Target
Mariko's room was already crowded with several older sisters and younger sisters. All of them were letting out low groans in unison, stagnating there.
"With this many family members, it should be enough, right? Besides, you have Papa, don't you?"
Fujimoto hugged Mariko from behind as she stood in her room and whispered into her ear.
Mariko skillfully turned around in his arms, wrapped her thin, delicate arms around his neck, and smiled mischievously. Then, she trailed her lips along his ear, gave it a lick with her bright red tongue, and whispered.
'Mama... aunt... ie, I want...'
"My, what a troublesome girl you are..."
He whispered that into Mariko's ear as well, then hugged her tightly once more. He let out a smile at the reflection in the full-length mirror of himself hugging her. And at that moment, the pupil of his right eye was once again dyed in pitch-black darkness.



Every time Mariko begged for family, Fujimoto would find a promising woman and devote himself to preparing her to be welcomed into the family.
Mariko's demands were strict.
She wanted a woman who was soft yet supple, with a strong core that would never break.
It would be best if he could judge by appearance, but everyone carries their own burdens and baggage. Even if they look strong, if they are tired somewhere in their heart, or have given up, such women were out of the question. Mariko wanted a woman who acted brave to keep that from being noticed. Fujimoto honestly felt that she was seeking a woman in her family who was somewhat reminiscent of Mikie.
However, such women are not just lying around in the city. Even after he finally managed to select one and make arrangements, Mariko would welcome her into the family in the blink of an eye. Because of that, the family just kept growing. It was only a matter of time before their love nest for two would become so crowded with strange family members that there would be no room to step.
Even so, as long as he could be with Mariko, Fujimoto was fine with that.

'I want an auntie.'

Fujimoto held his head in his hands, but he had already set his sights on a woman who would meet Mariko's wishes.





"Thank you for your hard work!"
Saori finally punched out on the time clock.
Because the evening register staff was absent today, she had no choice but to work the register until the 8:00 PM shift change. Having caused so many early departures and absences due to the Sumie incident, she was taking the initiative to respond to requests for shift support.
Perhaps thanks to that, her relationship with the part-time staff, who had been cold toward her, was gradually developing into something softer, chatting about things other than work or offering advice on work.

"Ms. Kasai, sorry for keeping you so late."
"No, I've only been causing trouble until now, so this is a piece of cake."
Saori struck a victory pose in front of the store manager, Kuramochi, who was in the office. Hesitating for a moment at her smile, Kuramochi opened his mouth in a landslide fashion.
"You must be tired, right? How about we go get something to eat? I'll treat you since you worked so hard!"
Kuramochi offered the dinner invitation as if it were a natural flow. Saori smiled brightly and said,
"Thank you for the invitation. But I'm very tired, and I have to be up early tomorrow, so I'll excuse myself today! Please don't stay too late yourself, Manager."
She flatly declined the invitation.
"O-oh, I see... See you tomorrow..."
"Yes! See you tomorrow!"
Kuramochi looked a bit awkward, but Saori left the office without acknowledging it.



The weather forecast said rain again today.
Saori had brought an umbrella believing it, but it only clears up or stops exactly when she brings one. Today was the latter, and the scent of rain was still slightly mixed into the night air.
This time of day is the most profitable for the shopping district in front of the station. The smells of ramen, fried food, yakiniku, and seafood overflowed from everywhere, tempting Saori's nostrils and empty stomach. That said, she had a bento left over from the time sale in her hand. Of course, she bought it herself. She couldn't bear to throw it away, and she quite frequently sees off a considerable number of bentos. Sometimes it even contains karaage she fried herself, so she even has a bit of an attachment to it. Today it was a set with nikujaga.

While dodging the delicious temptations, she walked toward the nearest station.

"...!"
The moment she arrived at the station, Saori sensed some kind of presence.
"What? What is it? This feeling..."
She muttered to herself and looked around.
The area was overflowing with customers heading to the station and customers coming out of the station. Looking around 360 degrees, Saori strained her eyes into the gaps between the shoulders and feet of the people passing by.
As far as she could see, there was nothing particularly unusual. She looked back behind her once more.
At that instant!
Behind her, a woman with a face covered in blood—no, a face that was crushed and covered in blood—was standing there again.

"Kyaaaa!"
Letting out a loud scream, she collapsed on the spot. The woman still stood there blankly, visible only to her.
'W-what... do you want to... say?'
While trembling with fear, Saori mustered her courage and asked the woman with her inner voice.

'Gi... ve...'
'What?'
'Ha... nd...!'
"Are you okay?"
When she realized it, a good-natured, chubby middle-aged man was peering at her from behind with concern.
"Ah! Y-yes! I-I'm sorry..."
As Saori said that and looked back in front of her, the blood-covered woman was gone.
She stood up and picked up the bento she had dropped.
The middle-aged man also picked up something she must have dropped and tried to hand it to her.
"S-sorry..."
The moment she took the man's hand as she said that, a shock similar to a violent electric current ran through Saori's entire body.





②Warning
'Don't get in the way... you are the same... lonely... otherwise... you will disappear...'

The girl who appeared before Sotaro threatened him with a voice like a cesspool.
Her appearance was exactly Mariko. However, it was different from the Mariko he saw that day. The aura was clearly different. The Mariko from that time was a fleeting aura that appeared by squeezing out a little bit of power. The girl in the form of Mariko before his eyes harbored unfathomable obsession. She must be a different vengeful spirit, not Mariko. Sotaro realized that.
Unable to move a single step, he glared at the vengeful spirit. A sinister grudge, the likes of which he had never felt before, was swirling within it. If he let his guard down even a little, his body would likely be shredded to pieces. And the obsession was so powerful that it could invade through every gap in his heart and possess him all at once.
Even for the 'someone' inside Sotaro, swallowing that would be a difficult task, Sotaro felt.
'What is your goal!'
He confronted the vengeful spirit resolutely.
'Lo... ve... eternal... lo... ve...'
The vengeful spirit whispered that in a low voice.
'Love, you say?'
The moment Sotaro raised his inner voice, all the vulgar spirits writhing around the vengeful spirit formed a party and began to surround Sotaro. Knowing that Sotaro could not move, the vulgar spirits all began to hurl abuse at him.
When he was a child, he was terrified of those voices, but now it was an everyday occurrence. Their nonsense was not worth listening to.
Facing the rabble that was getting worked up, Sotaro gripped his left hand, which had begun to heat up, tightly. At that moment, as if being sucked in, the miscellaneous vulgar spirits instantly disappeared into his left hand.
The vengeful spirit watched the entourage disappear from its surroundings as if it were someone else's business. At that composed demeanor, Sotaro felt impatience and fear in his heart.
Gradually, the gust of wind subsided, and only Sotaro and the vengeful spirit remained in the darkness.
'Don't be afraid... it's... okay... you and I... are... together...'
With a voice like mud that contradicted her appearance, the vengeful spirit opened her mouth.
"Don't lump me in with you."
'It's not... you... it's the you... inside you... you are merely a vessel, nothing more than a container...'
The vengeful spirit said that and passed through Sotaro in an instant.
And...
She poured all sorts of images into him like a flashback.

"Guh! Haaaa!"
Unable to withstand the overwhelming force, Sotaro knelt on the spot.
What was projected in his mind were the final moments of dozens, no, hundreds of people having their lives taken.
The anxiety and fear of potentially dying while longing to live. The thread of life being cruelly severed in the midst of that. The fear, anxiety, pain, and despair that flashed in that instant.
Re-experiencing those moments over and over again in an instant, Sotaro collapsed on the spot, foaming at the mouth. Then he repeatedly convulsed and writhed.
"Aaaaaah!"
He struggled and suffered while repeating sobs that resembled vomiting. And it did not end in an 'instant,' which had likely taken the lives of many people over a long period of time. Over and over, repeatedly, he was slammed into the despair called 'death.' It felt as if it would last for 'eternity.'

'If you get involved... any more than this... you will lose... something precious! Big brother...'

The vengeful spirit smiled brightly with an expression and voice like Mariko's, then grabbed Sotaro's head and lifted him up. Sotaro floated in the air, left to her mercy. The vengeful spirit twisted her lips at the sight of him huddling, writhing, and foaming at the mouth.
And at that moment, a crunching sound began to echo in Sotaro's head. And the intense pain that followed.
The vengeful spirit was trying to crush his head.
Sotaro's reality before his eyes and the images in his head became blurred, and he was completely consumed by the fear of 'death.'
Confirming Sotaro's 'fallen' expression, the vengeful spirit immediately let go. Sotaro collapsed to the ground. He landed hard on his buttocks and slammed the back of his head against the asphalt.
With the images in his head still continuing and the intense pain in his head, he lay face down on the ground as if he were already dead.
'What will you do about what's precious?'
The vengeful spirit sat down and whispered into Sotaro's ear. Then, with a smile, she blended into the night darkness and disappeared.

And Sotaro stopped moving altogether.






③Discovery
"What! What is this..."
Mikie was speechless.
She had discovered something in Mariko's room.
It was a 'Secret Diary' that she said she wrote when she was still in kindergarten.
Mikie remembered Mariko saying she was imitating a character from a girl's anime who wrote one in the show.
'Never look at it!'
The fact that Mariko had emphasized this to her also suddenly flashed through her mind. Come to think of it, Mikie had also looked for that notebook several times. However, time had passed without her knowing where it was hidden.

It had been stuffed into the gap between the study desk and the wall, and now that the owner was gone, one of them was peeking out from that gap. Noticing this, Mikie pulled out everything that was there and read through it all.
The diary started from her kindergarten days and was written in almost every day. And it seemed the frequency decreased from around the fifth grade of elementary school, and it had not been updated since she entered junior high school.
And it contained a fact she did not want to acknowledge.
In that diary, a man named 'Papa' appeared frequently. He seemed to appear before her about once a week to share snacks and toys.
Who on earth was he? It was difficult to determine just from her writing. For just a fleeting moment, a bad premonition raced through her mind.
"No... no..."
Without any confirmation, she kept shaking her head. And as if to verify it, she kept flipping through the pages in a hurry.
In the diary, Mariko also wrote about that 'Papa' as if he were family. And furthermore, she let him into her room and also visited his home.
Mikie had absolutely no knowledge of that fact.
As mentioned in the diary, their relationship was a secret between the two of them. However, Mikie sighed at her daughter's perfect secret management ability and her own failure to see through it.
It was true that she was busy with work and had not been able to spend as much time with Mariko as she wanted. And in order to live a slightly more affluent life, she had continued to maintain relationships with many men. Because of that, she was often away from home.
Was that why?
Was Mariko seeing a father figure in that 'Papa'? Perhaps she was clinging to the kindness right in front of her, the kindness she could see, to distract herself from the loneliness that could not be filled. Yet, she was a failure as a mother for not noticing that.
The confidence she had had until now that she had raised her daughter with care and without any hardship collapsed silently within her now that her daughter was gone.

"!... This person!"
As she read on, several purikura photos were tucked into the middle page. In them was Mariko with friends who looked like classmates, and her carefree smile reminded her that that moment had been fun. Judging by her appearance, it was from about six years ago, when she was in the fifth grade of elementary school.
And there was one among them that was clearly unnatural.
'Papa' was written in the middle of the photo, and next to her daughter, who was smiling with a peace sign, a sloppily fat middle-aged man was standing looking lost.
And Mikie recognized that man.
It had been over fifteen years since she had seen his face, and his appearance had changed a little, and the 'big eye' filter meant his original eyes were no longer recognizable, but that man she would never forget...

Yes, it was that man who had humiliated Mikie that day...