Murderer in the Flower of Death Read Online Free PDF Page A

breathing.
    “Maina Igarashi, fourteen years old! My favorite foods are fluffy things and springy things and sweet things, and my least favorite foods are crunchy things and sticky things and bitter things—I meeeaaan—ah, um, what was it…o-oh yeah! The number of people you killed! I’ve killed…”
    Tears filled the small girl’s—Maina’s—eyes once more. She bit her lip and continued in a shaky voice, “…Three people. But that was an accident…because I’m stupid. Because of me, everyone…” She’d begun to sob now in short, high-pitched shudders. “I didn’t kill them because I wanted to…
hic
…I’m sorry. I’m sorry I’m an idiot, I’m so sowwy…I didn’t say that right. I’m incompetent, but nice to meetchu…I didn’t say id wight agwain. Ah, I messed ub the mess ub!” Maina dejectedly returned to her desk, her tear-soaked face showing an awareness of profound sin.
    Looking at Maina, who sobbed convulsively in her seat, Kyousukefelt his heart lighten.
There is one, a decent person! Murder is murder, but…
The impression given by the first girl had been so jarring that he’d thought for sure that his classmates were nothing but deviants incapable of contemplating anything other than cold-blooded murder…but thinking it over, Kyousuke realized that there were probably a handful who’d committed crimes of passion.
    Maina had said that it was an “accident.” She had said that she didn’t kill them because she wanted to. She seemed just like a normal schoolgirl, this young woman who had killed people through no intention of her own and who now trembled under the terrible weight of her crime. Why, if you took her out of this obscene circumstance…
Igarashi must also be uneasy in this place…that’s it!
    Kyousuke resolved to try to talk with her as soon as possible. And if there were any other normal classmates, they could all form a group together and oppose dangerous people like Eiri. It seemed like the best idea he had.
    “Okay, okay, next! There’s thirteen of you left, so let’s get on with it already!” Despite Kurumiya’s impatient tone, Kyousuke relaxed, letting some of the tension slip from his shoulders. He didn’t know how the next hour would go, but surprisingly, he thought he could manage.

    …There was no way he would manage.
    Two more classmates had given their self-introductions after Maina, and they very much belonged here. Kyousuke could feel his earlier sense of relief rapidly slipping away.
    The first had been a small hunchbacked boy surrounded by an aura of melancholy who introduced himself as Kagerou Usami. Most of his face had been hidden by long, greasy bangs, and he’d mumbled in a low voice that made him difficult to understand. From what little Kyousuke had been able to make out, Usami had killed one person, but he’d mostly spent his time at the podium reciting strange names that Kyousuke didn’t recognize, like “Jeffrey Dahmer” and “Ed Gein.”
…Maybe they’re actors?
The strange hunchback oozed a curious grotesqueness, and Kyousuke made a note to avoid him as much as possible.
    After Usami was a tall boy with dark skin who wore thick dreadlocks and sunglasses even indoors; Arata Oonogi, he’d said his name was, before proudly boasting about how he’d “broken up two lovebirds with his knife.” Nothing close to remorse had passed over his face as he’d recounted the murders: He didn’t even seem to be aware that he’d committed a crime. Another student that Kyousuke would have to try his best to avoid.
    And after Oonogi…
    “Next is the asshole in the very front row! Go on up!” Kyousuke’s turn had arrived. Swallowing audibly, he stood—fists clenched, brow dripping with sweat—and, trying to keep his body’s trembling in check, ascended to the podium. With a deep breath, he turned to face the room.
    The scene was like something out of a hallucination…or a nightmare. Inside the graffiti-covered ruins of a high school