Memory 07

[itsalluseless]

Memory: The bodies in the shed [ep1] (Significant Negative)
Game: Cry Wolf with Jabberwock and Jacobi
Day: 171
Form: Memories come in the form of miniature iron maidens with soft rubber blades. 6/7 uses left.

The cousins are sleeping peacefully in the guesthouse until Maria decides IT IS TIME TO WAKE UP and starts jumping on Battler. She's upset because her mother's nowhere to be found. Hungry for breakfast and assuming Rosa simply woke up early and went ahead, the cousins all decide to go to the mansion. It turns out that not only Rosa, but some of the other adults and servants are missing and there is no breakfast. Still, it's not like things are terrible or anything - they still have TV!

Then things start to seem a little strange, though. The adults and servants seem distressed about something after going out to inspect something outside. After Genji comes in to fetch Nanjo and Natsuhi, the older cousins realise something is up and decide to go look, leaving Maria to watch a kids' program.

By the time the kids went outside, they had lost sight of the adults, who had left earlier. But it looked like Jessica had a pretty good idea of where they had gone from the direction they had been running. Following Jessica, we ran through the rain-soaked garden...

It felt like the wind suddenly got stronger. ...The malicious sound of thunder began to ring out like it had the previous night.

It felt like an eerie something had surrounded the island, and was trying to stop us from moving forward.

BATTLER: Jessica, is there something over this way?!

JESSICA: I'm pretty sure there's a storehouse for gardening tools or something.

GEORGE: What in the world could there be in a place like that...

Just as Jessica had said, they began to see a storehouse in front of them. They could also see the adults there.

The shutter to the storehouse was open, and several adults looked as though they were searching for something. For some reason, only Natsuhi was outside the storehouse. Without even holding an umbrella, she looked like she was hanging her head, and her back was facing them...

Genji, Nanjo, and Natsuhi, who had just left. Since Kanon, Eva, and Hideyoshi, who had left earlier, were also there, it appeared as though there was a large gathering of people, but there was absolutely no bustle of activity.

When Natsuhi realized that the children had come, a terrible expression rose to her face, and she ran at them with her arms spread wide.

NATSUHI: Don't come over here!!! Go back to the mansion!!!

......However, ...no, because of that, the kids saw that scene which Natsuhi was trying to keep them away from.

Inside the storehouse with the shutter wide open, a flickering fluorescent light shone down. And over there, ......,

JESSICA: KyaaaaaAAAAAAaaaaaAAaa!!!

Jessica's piercing shriek rang out. ...But that was just because Jessica's scream was the loudest. The same thing spilled out of Battler and George's mouths as well...

Eva, just like Natsuhi, spread her arms, and with a terrible expression roared at the kids.

EVA: George, take everyone and return to the mansion!!! Quickly!! Right now!!

When Natsuhi had spread her arms, I had thought that she was trying to prevent us from advancing any further. ...However, right now, that wasn't why Eva was spreading her arms.

...She was trying to hide that terrible scene from the kids. It was her mother's heart, trying to protect the eyes and hearts of us children by attempting to block our view of that terrible scene by at least the width of one of her arms!

BATTLER: ......Is this some kind of joke? Is it...?!

I had seen this kind of cheap scene all too often.

In manga, TV, anime, and movies, I had seen it over and over again... This was just...just seeing something appear in real life that I had seen plenty of times before in some of those more sensational movies, wasn'it it!!? That alone shouldn't, ...aaaaah, but that...that suit, ...it's that old bastard's isn't it...? I get it, then that's Krauss oji-san... And Kyrie-san, and Rosa-san, UwooOOOOOOoooooOOo!!!

JESSICA: Dad, DAD!!!

NATSUHI: You mustn't, Jessica!! You mustn't go in!! You mustn't look!!!

JESSICA: Dad, Dad!! HyaaaaaaAAAAAAa!!!

NANJO: .........Rigor mortis has set in across the entire body.........Probably, at least six hours have passed since death... As far as I can tell by looking at the damaged area, there is a high probability that they were damaged after their deaths..........No, I must watch what I say...! I'm a general practitioner...examining corpses is outside my area of expertise...!

HIDEYOSHI: ......So what does that mean? Just killin' them wasn't enough, so they went on to do somethin' like this?!! The devil, this here's the work of the devil!!

Natsuhi oba-san caught Jessica in her arms and Eva oba-san caught George-aniki, ......so I was the only one who could approach the entrance to the storehouse.

.............Aah, ...if only there had been someone there to catch me too, I wouldn't have needed to have this horrible, evil scene burned into my eyes...

......No, that's not it. ...It isn't that there's no one here to catch me...
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The people who should catch me,
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
they're right there, aren't they!!

Just like Jessica had said, it did look like a storehouse used to keep gardening tools.

A lawn mower with extra blades, a grass sickle and a hammer, a saw and some construction tools... Piled up potted plants and bags of fertilizer. And treated just the same, the corpses of several people had been laid to rest there. No, had been thrown in there!

I could tell them by their clothes. ......That old bastard and Kyrie-san. ...Krauss oji-san and Rosa oba-san. ......Beyond that, ...Gohda-san and, ...there's still more of them? How many people died.........You're fucking kidding me! I can't even count them on one hand! Damn iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit!!!

I didn't know whether it had been one of these gardening tools, which if used for something other than their intended purpose could definitely be wielded with a naked brutality, or whether some horrible tool had been brought in here specifically for this.

......Anyway, .........the bodies which had been tumbled into here, each of them had been given an atrocious makeup. ...It wasn't makeup, ...it was more like..."their faces had been plowed"...!

Their faces were smashed, forced into an expression that a normal person couldn't make even after death. ...I couldn't tell where the eyes or the noses were, but I could find their mouths...because they were gaping wide, the ridges of their teeth exposed! But their front teeth were missing, and even the cheek that should have covered that was all torn up and exposed! Even as a man, the stylish makeup that I thoughtlessly worried bout was all useless...!!

BATTLER: ...UwoooOOOOoooooooohh!!! Daaaaaaaaaaad!! I always thought you were going to hell?! But still, not like this, right? You weren't such a son of a bitch that you should have to suffer so brutally!! And even Kyrie-san, ......didn't I tell you to stop going out with this guy......even you, ......there was no reason for even you to go through this, was there...... ...There's no face..., there's no face... Damn it damn it damn it damn it, hiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!!

NANJO: ......Battler-san, you mustn't look any more... There's no way that your mother and father would want you to see them like this...! For your mother and your father's sakes, ...you mustn't look any more!!

BATTLER: Dead people are supposed to have faces that look like they're sleeping peacefully, right?! There's no face, my dad and Kyrie-san have no faces!! I don't even know what kind of faces they were wearing when they died!! What's wrong with me!! Will I have to see these faces, smashed up like they're monsters, every time I remember Dad and the rest?! That's just great, I don't even want to remember that old bastard's smug face, just great, just great!! But you know, why even Kyrie-san's face...? Kyrie-san wasn't a bastard............I sometimes got a little sick of her, but..., she was a little cool, just like a big sister to me.............and then..., and then this......!! At least Krauss oji-san's better, isn't he!!? It's not his whole face, just the side!! He at least has half of his face left, doesn't he!! That's still better, that's still better!!

JESSICA: NooooooooooooooooooOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooooooOOOOOooooo!!!

Trying to shut out my reckless words, Jessica tried to fill her ears with the sound of her own screaming.

GEORGE: ...Stop it, Battler-kun...! Just stop it...just stop it......!

BATTLER: Aniki, Aniki!! UoooOoooOOOoooooooooo!!!

Disregarding age and appearance, ......I fell to my knees, clinging to Aniki's waist and sobbing.

It was as if I was crying on behalf of everyone there... Representing the feelings of everyone there, I screamed over and over.......

There were six people missing, but only the corpses of five are visible. At George's questioning, Hideyoshi confirms that there is indeed a sixth corpse in the shed, hidden behind a pile of stuff.

It's Shannon.

Heartbroken, George asks to see Shannon's face, but Hideyoshi refuses to let him into the shed - she wouldn't want him to see her in such a state. George accepts this, but there's one thing he still needs to know: is Shannon wearing a ring on her left ring finger? Hideyoshi confirms that she is. Eva is shocked at the implications, but Hideyoshi shuts her down - whoever gave Shannon that ring must have made her very happy, and that's all that matters.

There's some brief discussion about preserving the crime scene for the police, but Battler's still too wrapped up in his grief to pay attention. Eventually, the shed is locked again and they all return to the mansion.

What he learned:
+...oh
+that sure was a thing
+a thing involving lots of emotions
+100 getting upset at death because wow this is different from casual temporary deaths and actually people dying is really horrible!!
+I really don't like my dad, but even he doesn't deserve something like this
+so many sads for all the relatives, both the ones who died and the ones who lost someone ;;
+also I guess George and Shannon were engaged
+which makes things with Shannon a little more complicated
+not that I have time to think about that because baww