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Umi clapped her hands, signaling the end of their afternoon practice session. The sun had already disappeared behind the distant skyscrapers and the sky was now beginning to develop a dark blue tinge. The tired members of µ’s hurried to their bags beside the rooftop entrance to pack up and rejuvenate.
“Good work today, everyone. Let’s resume our practice tomorrow.”
“Umi-chan, when will we be teaching Nico-chan the new moves?” Honoka asked her friend, chugging her bottle of water.
“Nico-chan hasn’t shown up for practice today again…” added Hanayo.
“We’ll just have to teach her before we begin tomorrow afternoon,” Umi sighed, shaking her head. “Eli, did you already run her through the choreography that we learned yesterday?
“Not yet," she replied.
“Please teach her when you find the time. I don’t want her falling behind everyone else during practice…”
“I wonder what’s keeping her so busy after school lately. Every day after last period she takes off running out the school gates the moment the bell rings.”
“It can’t be helped.” Maki turned to the four, dabbing the beads of sweat on her forehead with a pink towel. “She’ll probably just spout excuses as to why she can’t attend practice like she always does whenever we catch her doing things she doesn’t like us knowing about. We’ll just have to teach her everything tomorrow, and hopefully, she masters the choreography before the Love Live preliminaries.”
“I agree with Maki,” nodded Nozomi, crossing her arms. “There’s simply no stopping Nico-cchi. If she still refuses to join us tomorrow, however, I’m going to have to give her a punishment for her unexcused absences.” She ended her sentence with a bawdy smirk.
Maki then turned to the watch on her wrist and checked the time. “Ah, I have to leave now.” She grabbed her bag and slung it around her arm, waving at the others. “See you tomorrow, everyone. It’s dark already, and I still have to make a stop in the supermarket on the way home.”
“Ah, no problem,” Umi waved, walking to the other girls to get ready to leave for home as well.
“See you tomorrow, Maki!” the other members of µ’s waved back. “Take care!”
It will likely be a long wait at the train station. Maki thought to herself as she traveled down the sidewalk beside busy roads already filled with bicycles and automobiles. It was well into rush hour evident by the mass of people present on both sides of the road. Most of the shops and restaurants along the way were already packed to the brim with customers. At each stoplight, a large crowd stood waiting for the light to turn green, either chattering with each other or typing away or watching on their phones. A lot of these were of the working-age group, but some of them were also students. Maki was even able to spot someone from her class in the crowd and wondered why she was also going home this late. Sure she could approach her and ask her why, but being the girl who mostly kept to herself, she paid no more attention to her and stared at the red light instead, which turned green a moment later.
Instead of going straight down the intersection to the station like she always did, she turned left into the entertainment streets, where she knew of a supermarket that had recently opened. Her mother insisted she go out and buy snacks for the entirety of µ’s since she noticed that her daughter always arrived home hungry and looking for something to eat. She said that after all the dancing and singing they do every day after school they deserved a delicious reward for their efforts. “You should at least buy your new friends something for them to eat tomorrow!” was what her mother told her before she left to go to school this morning.
“Hmm. How about I buy everyone sandwiches?” Maki was browsing the frozen food aisle section when she chanced upon a few types of premade sandwiches arranged near the edge of the refrigerated display shelves. She examined each one and ended up emptying the shelf of the most filling out of them all, the egg and sausage combo complete with fat servings of tomatoes, lettuce, and cheese. While waiting for her turn at the check-out counter, she chanced upon a magazine on a rack that featured her group µ’s printed on the front. We’re becoming more famous, huh… She took it and placed it in her shopping basket right before it was her turn.
“They will surely find these delicious,” she smiled, taking a look inside the bag as she left the supermarket.
And thus began her trip home. The street she was on was now disgustingly filled with so many people, and she didn’t want to squeeze through noisy groups of women and grungy old businessmen. So Maki decided to take the longer route and pass by the narrow single-lane roads between the tall buildings that surrounded the streets. Even if the pathways were dark, with only the light rays beaming out from windows illuminating them and the occasional streetlamps, it was still better than struggling to breathe among the horde of people out during the rush hour. Plus, her large plastic bag of food would make it more difficult for her to squeeze through everybody.
Grrr. Maki clutched her growling stomach. She was starving, and by now, she wasn’t going to be able to make it back home in time for dinner. She turned to the bag of groceries she was holding and was immediately enticed to gobble down on her share for tomorrow’s right then. And as quickly as she stared at the delicious fat sandwiches, she gave in to temptation and sat her things down by a wall to eat.
“I’ll just buy another one on the way to school tomorrow.” Maki licked her lips as she dug her hand into the bag for a sandwich. She undid the plastic wrapping meticulously trying to keep her hands from becoming stained with the sauce and condiments and exposed one half to the air. The delectable smell of the sandwich spread wafted through the surroundings, driving her hunger pangs crazy. Food definitely smelled way better the hungrier one was. She then bent forward a little and took a big bite out of her now-dinner.
“Mmmm… nnff!”
Maki suddenly found herself flying forward into the wall from an unexpected forceful push to her back, her sandwich falling out of her hands. She managed to stretch out her arms in time and cushioned her fall with her palms, but another push sent her rolling on the ground. She turned her head to the sky fearing there was someone there to rob her, and indeed her suspicions were confirmed when a hooded person in a black face mask and shades lunged forward and began fishing her pockets for her wallet.
“Get off me!” shouted Maki, trying to swat the thief’s hands away from her body while she tried to stand up. This quickly escalated into a scrimmage when the attacker began jabbing at her face. Maki wasn’t about to let her things be stolen, so she steeled herself and fought back with blind punches and kicks, which luckily caused the thief to lose their balance. She then rose on her feet quickly and went after the attacker, landing a few punches before she was herself hit by one straight to the side of her face. After staggering for a bit, she successfully dodged a follow-up attack and returned with a counterattack. Her punch landed square in the attacker’s chest causing them to flinch. Finally, she tackled them to the ground and ripped the mask and shades off their face to reveal the true identity of the suspect. However, she would have never expected to see just who was underneath the disguise.
“Ni-Nico?!” she gasped, absolutely astounded to see µ’s absent member staring right up at them with vicious eyes. “What on earth are you doing?! Why are you robbing me?”
“So what if I was?” Nico shot back, glowering at Maki. “I need your money more than you do!”
“W-What do you even mean?! So you were trying to steal from me! You went as far as to beat me up even if you knew very well it was me who you were robbing! Part of the same idol group as you and also your underclassman!”
“Look! Just… just give me at least some of your money! Please!" Nico’s expression slowly began to mollify as she then turned away from Maki’s gaze. “I’m… I’m really in need of some right now…"
“No! Why would I give you any after what you just did to me? And the fact that you’re out here trying to steal from people-”
Nico shoved Maki off her and stood up, furious. “I-It’s for my family, okay!” she went up against her face and shouted. “We’re pretty tight on money right now and we desperately need some income-”
“Get off my face!” she seethed, pushing her away. “So you’re resorting to stealing because of that then, huh? Did your family tell you to go out and rob people? Did they teach you to do that?”
“Shut your mouth! They would never raise us to become criminals!” she fumed, stomping her foot and clenching her fists. “My mom taught me and my siblings how to grow up to become the very best people we can be, to care and watch over each other and work as hard as we can to succeed! Never in my life would I ever choose to become a delinquent! I’m just doing this because… we’re in a tough situation right now! I do not have the heart to talk about it, but you should get the point. We are in really deep trouble…”
Maki fixed her hair and picked up her things as her senior stared at her not with the livid expression she had before, but with a bitter look of dejection. A single teardrop streamed down the side of Nico’s cheek as the red-haired girl stepped backward. She closed her eyes and shook her head, picked up her things, and began walking back to the direction of the main street.
“Maki? Maki!” Nico tried to go after her, but a sudden clink caused her to stop and look at the ground. A coin spun around on the asphalt for a few times before coming to a rest, tossed by the girl now leaving the area. She picked up the coin and found out that it was worth only ten yen.
“Maki. What is this?” she called out.
“Isn’t money what you wanted?” she responded without looking back, putting her wallet bulging with bills back inside her bag. “There you go, Nico. Why don’t you stop being a criminal and do something that will actually get you money?”
Shocked by how blatantly selfish Maki portrayed herself to be by that churlish action, she became infuriated and took off running towards her, throwing a flying punch to the back of her head. That caught Maki by surprise, and consequently, she lost her footing. However, as her attack involved the use of her body weight Nico was unable to keep herself upright and tumbled into the ground together with her target. Maki was unfortunate to become the cushion to Nico’s fall if her head impacting the ground first wasn’t bad enough.
“Aagh!-” Maki’s yelp was cut off by a sudden punch to her face, followed by another, then another. She held her arms in front of her face in an attempt to shield herself from Nico’s punches, but she was rendered unable to after receiving a petrifying elbow to the center of her chest. She puffed out a gasp as her arms dropped like weights enabling her attacker to continue beating her mercilessly.
“One single coin?!” Nico syllabicated each word with every jab she dished at the now defenseless first year. “AND ONLY TEN YEN?!”
Bruises began to form around Maki’s face most prominently below her eyes, and the area around her cheeks began to turn red and swell. Only when trickles of blood began dripping out of her nostrils after a direct hit to the bridge of her nose did Nico finally stop to give herself a break. Maki gazed up at her attacker’s silhouette now panting from exhaustion, astounded at how such a petite girl was able to dish out such a painful beating.
“N… Nico…” she gritted her teeth, feeling the warm, humid air being exhaled into her face. “O-Okay, please stop! I’ll give you more; just leave me alone!”
“Then you’re going to rat on me after?”
“I… I won’t!”
“Oh, are you sure, Maki?” Nico replied, lifting herself off the ground and placing her hands on her hips. “Wouldn’t anybody ask why you look like someone beat you up? Because you were! And you’re going to be like ‘Yazawa Nico-san did this to me because she tried to steal from me!’ You won’t be reporting anyone about anything… My family will fall apart and ostracize me if they find out I was arrested for committing a crime.”
Noticing that a silhouette was approaching them from the streets, Nico lifted Maki’s body, trying to get her to stand. “Get up and grab your stupid bags. Now.”
Fearing that she would be threatened with violence if she didn’t heed her, Maki raised herself off the ground onto her feet with Nico’s help and was forced to turn the opposite direction by her to avoid her bloodied face being noticed by the incoming person. It worked, and the man walked past them, paying no more attention to the high school girls. Maki then trudged to pick up her school bag lying on the ground as well as the bag of sandwiches. She shot Nico a glare, thinking of a way to escape before more horrible things would be done to her.
Nico then stood beside Maki and wrapped her arm around the latter’s waist before forcing her to begin walking forward in the opposite direction of the station where she was headed. This situation was surely going to get worse, Maki thought, and she was beginning to get nervous. The personality and attitude that Nico had been exhibiting reminded her of a true criminal. What awaited her if she continued to be guided by her made her very anxious.
When the two of them turned into another side street, Nico began looking around cautiously seeing if there was anybody else in the vicinity, which gave Maki a chance to run for it. However, before she could prepare herself to drop her bag and sprint, Nico suddenly cupped her hand around her mouth, making her unable to breathe as her nose was still clogged with blood. She was then pushed into a stairwell between two three-story buildings and was made to climb down into the basement of the right building, ending at an unlocked door that led into some sort of surveillance room. There were no lights from the building they had entered, so Nico assumed that there was no one there to spot them; fortunately for her, there was indeed not a single soul. The CCTV feedback was still on, however, but it only monitored the dark insides of the building itself, so she was safe. She locked the door behind her and let go of the now-struggling girl.
“H-Help!” Maki banged her fists on the door but she was quickly subdued by Nico twisting and holding her arms behind her. She then pulled her away from the door and twisted her arms inward even more. Maki cried out as her shoulders rotated backward and held in place much farther than they were supposed to go, before having her head slammed into the tough concrete wall. While she pressed her head against the wall enduring the pain that had been dealt to her, Nico scoured the room for something she could tie her up with and found a couple of unused extension cords shoved into a corner. She set aside Maki’s bags and bound her wrists and ankles together with the strong copper-cored wires. She then rolled up her hanky into a gag and forced it inside Maki’s mouth before securing it in place by tying a video cable around her mouth to the back of her head.
“Oh… what’s wrong, Maki?” Nico whispered into the first-year’s ear when she noticed that she was on the verge of crying. “You shouldn’t be scared at all! This is your atonement for your selfish, greedy self! Yazawa Nico will help you realize that kindness is more valuable than any other currency in the world! Only a single coin? Shameless, especially for someone like you.”
Maki’s worst fear felt inevitable right then; she was going to die. At least that was what she thought, because judging from what Nico had said she was going to suffer a fate even worse than death. Blood and tears dripped from her face as she sniveled and hic-ed, unable to believe that she had gotten herself into a situation like this.
“Shh shh…” Nico gently caressed Maki’s shivering palms with her thumbs, feeling her soft, tender skin. “So these are the delicate hands of a pianist… Mmm, smooth hands are indeed a symptom of the rich, huh? Do you not do things by yourself at home? Do you have to depend on your family to do everything for you? Feel my thumbs, Maki… they’re much rougher than yours. Unlike you, I cook, I do the dishes, I clean the house. I have to play and take care of my little sisters and my baby brother.”
“And now it is time to start your process of reparation.” Nico stopped feeling all around Maki’s skin and focused on the little finger on the right hand. “Your hands need to be roughened up.”
She then held on tightly to its base with her left hand, and with her right, she gripped to the area directly above the proximal joint. Then, with one swift motion, Nico rotated her arm like she was turning a knob, causing the rest of Maki’s finger to bend back towards her wrist.
“Graaah!” Maki screamed from underneath her gag, her feet slipping backward causing her head to slide down the wall and her nose to collide with the floor, adding to the agony of having the joint of her little finger painfully dislocated. Nico was content to hear the satisfying cracking and “pop” sound that came with it, along with seeing the skin underneath the joint tear from being stretched too much. “That’s one out of ten, Maki,” she said with a grisly smile. “Ehehe!”
Maki shook her head frantically begging for Nico to stop, her soul crushed at the realization that not only was she likely going to be put to death, but also in a brutal, agonizing way. How sick of a human being was Nico to be able to do this to a person with little to no remorse? She was aghast that a regular high school girl would even think of doing this to others. She just wanted to teach Nico a lesson that thievery was inexcusable, but that completely backfired on her.
Without giving her time to recover Nico had already moved on to the next digit. When Maki tried to resist by curling her fingers inward as tightly as she could, Nico cupped her hand over them and pressed down as powerfully as she could while pulling them backward at the same time causing immense pressure to be applied to the distal joints. After a few seconds, she was not able to keep her fingers tucked any longer and released them.
“No matter how hard you try, you won’t escape your punishment,” she snickered before continuing with her malignant desires.
Maki was going through indescribable torment; she could only emit muffled screams and shed more tears each time paralyzing surges of pain shot up from her hand. Each awful sound of her fingers being forcefully dislocated further agonized her. What horrified her the most, however, was that as she was being tortured, Nico was humming the very songs that they as µ’s were practicing for the Love Live, implying that not only did she lack the feeling of contrition for what she was doing but also she was finding enjoyment from doing so. What clicked inside her brain that incited her to commit such violent and inhumane actions? It was simply unbelievable for someone to go this far over a little selfish move. She just could not understand at all.
By the time Nico was done with the eighth digit, Maki had lost a lot of her strength and her muffled screams were reduced to soft whimpers. Her nose had become clogged with mucus and coagulated blood which hindered her breathing so much she had to force herself to snort and swallow the disgusting mixture to keep her airways clear. Her right hand, whose fingers were now all broken, was blistered and swollen. She was only able to wiggle each finger back and forth as it was physically impossible for her to straighten it. Worse was her thumbs which were injured from the base joint rendering them completely paralyzed. Once Nico finished off the last two joints, she stood up and stretched her arms upward.
“So Maki, how are you enjoying your atonement?” she asked, kneeling next to her body with a virulent look on her face. “You don’t do that kind of cold-blooded act to a person like me. I’m sick of being surrounded by egotistic rich kids like you having everything easy in this world. I had to pull the budget I needed from my own tiny pockets when I first started the idol research club… and everyone who came and left blew most of it away! I had friends who were able to buy idol merch whenever they wanted whereas I had to save up for weeks! Well, at least they were kind enough to buy some merchandise for me! I bet you wouldn’t buy anything for your friends, you selfish… scum!”
After that last sentence, Maki broke down into sobs once again, remembering the sandwiches that she had bought for µ’s… her new friends. She could picture them seated in a circle happily munching on the food she bought them, chatting and laughing with each other. She had never found an opportunity in real life to cherish a beautiful moment like this because simply, she had few friends to even buy for, and they were not even that close to her. It was her chance to try and warm up with the group she assumed would bond with her during her whole high school life, but sadly, that will not be the case anymore. Death at the hands of a µ’s member herself felt like it was only a few marches away.
“And now look at where I am right now. We’re about to get evicted from our apartment! There’s simply no way for mom to pay all the bills at this point ever since the company that she was working for dissolved! So recently we had to allocate most of our food budget to rent to avoid losing our home! We’re hungry, Maki… we’re hungry! Have you never felt hungry before? It means watching your younger siblings cry every night because they only have little to eat!”
Nico then threw a fit, throwing everything off a nearby table including a keyboard and several stacks of paper. “And with the Love Live competition coming up, I don’t think I’ll be able to purchase everything I need for it… This was my dream, and it’s in danger of falling apart!” She then caressed the bottom of Maki’s chin with the tip of her index finger. “I’m sorry, Maki… I just can’t let you out of here. You will ruin my life if anyone knew about this.”
Before Nico could begin to throw more objects around, Maki began shaking her head and moving her jaw, trying to convey a message to the third year. “Mmff! Mmff!”
“What is it, Maki?!” Nico noticed Maki trying to speak and began untying the cable wrapped around Maki’s mouth. “Fine, let me take your gag off.”
Once the obstruction inside her mouth was removed, Maki gasped and coughed out some of the blood that got stuck in her throat. “I… I’m sorry, Nico!” she sobbed, pleading for mercy. “I now understand exactly how you feel! Take my money inside my wallet; take all of it if you want! I’ll even help your family pull through! Just please… please don’t kill me! I want to go home and see my family! I want to continue seeing my friends! µ’s!“
A short period of silence ensued. Nico turned Maki’s head her way. “Why? You’re still going to report me to the police, aren’t you?”
“No!” she answered almost immediately. “I just want this to be over! I won’t tell anyone it was you, I swear! You have already done so much harm to me and I know you’ll kill me if I ever tell on you! I promise! I promise I won’t tell anyone!”
“What will you tell your family when you come home tonight?”
“I-I’ll tell them that I was robbed and kidnapped!”
“Mhm. And what will you say when they ask for the suspects’ identity?”
“I don’t know!”
Nico placed her hands on her hips and stared at Maki, considering if she was going to put her trust in her victim. The tears in her eyes and her desperate pleas for mercy did seem genuine, but was it worth risking her name and reputation?
“Where’s your wallet?”
“I-In my school bag…”
Nico picked up Maki’s bag that was sitting in a corner and opened it. Inside were her notebooks, her phone, the magazine that she had bought featuring their upcoming idol group, and underneath that, her wallet. She flipped it open and took out the paper bills and the coins that were in there, totaling around six thousand yen. She pocketed these and threw the wallet back in the bag.
“Promise you won’t tell on me, Maki. You will regret everything if you ever do.” She then flashed Maki the grimmest, scariest smile she had ever seen.
“I won’t!” she shouted.
“Okay. Stand up.” Nico patted Maki’s back. “Or do you want me to help you?”
Maki did not respond to the nonsense question; of course she wouldn’t be able to because she was bound. Nico did not expect an answer anyway so she anchored her foot onto Maki’s and pulled her upward by the hand, not at the wrists, but at the very fingers she broke. Maki shouted from underneath her gag and shed more tears as immense pain shot up from her hand and coursed throughout her body. She was then pushed onto a table where the LCD screens and control area for the CCTV system were located. The edge of the table hit her stomach as she was thrown onto it and she fell forward.
"Urk…" she gagged, her upper body now lying flat on the table, head tilted to the side. “W-Will you let me go?”
“I will. Though, your program of reparation is not yet over. I will make sure that you understand the lesson that I am trying to teach you.”
Nico placed Maki’s gag back on and trotted around the room thinking about the next befitting punishment she was going to dish out, all the while her victim was praying for everything to be all over. Eventually, she formulated a devilish plan and began scouring the room for a certain item. Before that, she took off her hoodie and wrapped Maki’s head with it. It was placed because if Maki was capable of seeing everything she was doing, she might end up so frightened that she will have to try and fight her way out of it. Plus, she felt it was better for her to be blind to the “procedure” she had in plan for her.
“You can breathe, right? You should; I didn’t wrap the sleeves that tightly around your nose.”
Maki indeed was pretty oblivious to the world around her with the dark-colored hoodie around her head; the only details she was able to discern was the splotches of light in certain areas in her field of vision where light sources were. A few moments later she saw some of these splotches dim followed by the clattering of metal and plastic, after which the sounds of something being placed on the table were heard. Several impacts then followed with each vibrating the table substantially like something was being hammered into the table. Finally, after what seemed to be a full minute of this, the sounds stopped and Nico was heard whispering “...these seem sharp enough.” She was then flipped over such that her chest was now oriented towards the ceiling, and her hands were kept bound and tucked underneath her back. The wire around her ankles was removed and her legs were pushed inward towards the center of the table so that her lower legs were left dangling.
“You do not need to see this, Maki. This might just be the most painful part of your treatment. At least the next generation of people won’t keep the negative traits you have! If you ever feel like the agony will end up killing you, just remember to Nico Nico Smile! It might help ease the pain a little bit!"
Maki’s heart began racing when she felt her skirt being folded over her hips followed by her panties being pulled down her legs. Before she could do something to prevent any more torture from happening, Nico placed her hand on Maki’s chest and pressed her down on the table, also locking her legs in between hers to prevent those from moving around as well. Maki felt her thighs being spread apart before she felt something cold prod the area around her genitalia. With each passing second the intense anxiety she was feeling of what was to come only became worse.
“When you get home, why don’t you add to your story that you were also raped ?”
All of a sudden, what felt like a sharp metal rod was driven straight inside her vagina, bringing forth unbearable suffering to the poor girl. Maki’s body jolted the instant Nico forcefully pushed the screwdriver she was holding all the way in, but she managed to keep her victim’s body firmly on the table. Underneath the hoodie and her gag, Maki was screaming and crying but these only reached her tormentor in the form of muted mumbles. Once she felt the tip could not travel any further, she went and picked up another one, this time with a thinner and longer shank.
Nico then repeated the procedure, pushing the second screwdriver in until it reached the end, but this time she attempted to force it even further. With a little bit of precision and the help of the single ceiling light, she managed to push the blade inside the orifice that led into the womb where she began to execute her barbaric idea. By then, however, Maki was beginning to get jittery and was convulsing energetically from the extreme pain that was pulsing from her lower torso. She had to replace her hand with her elbow to allow more of her body weight to pin her down while she pushed the first screwdriver inside as well using the second as a guide. The loudest cry that came out of Maki occurred then when Nico tilted the bigger screwdriver to the side forcing her cervix to stretch and distend, where after that had happened the redhead did not make noise nor move as vigorously anymore. Maki had finally become too exhausted from experiencing all the suffering.
But she was still responsive. That was all that mattered to Nico.
With the sharper tip of the second screwdriver, she began ramming it repeatedly inside Maki making scraping motions in a circle each time, rupturing her endometrium and causing severe damage to her uterine wall. Profuse amounts of deep red blood flowed out in between the screwdrivers and dripped to the floor onto Nico’s shoes. All Maki was able to do was gnash her teeth together in a futile attempt to endure the excruciating pain, where she felt like her teeth were going to shatter. For a full minute, Nico mercilessly tore apart and perforated Maki’s insides as if she was performing an amateur abortion, where at the end of it the multiple lacerations all around her birth canal plus the unstoppable hemorrhaging was too grisly a sight for anyone to bear to look at.
“That’s… that’s a lot of blood… urk…” Nico turned her head away and clutched her throat trying not to retch. “I can’t continue this any longer; this is too much for me to handle… You know what? You’re free now, Maki! I just might end up killing you!”
When she did not hear any response from the first year, Nico approached her body and tapped her on the forehead. “Maki?”
Once she removed the hoodie covering her face, she was surprised to see her staring upwards with wide-open eyes and dilated pupils, seemingly unresponsive. She was still breathing weakly, however. Nico waved her hands over her face to try and elicit movement from her eyes but nothing happened. It appeared she had fallen into a state of reverie from all the physical and mental torment she had to experience. Nico shrugged and pulled the screwdrivers out of her victim, having had her fill of senseless violence. She removed her gag and untied the cables that bound her limbs together. She then spread her arms out over the table and dragged her legs such that they were also resting on the table. Blood continued to trickle out of Maki’s vagina, flowing towards the edge of the table where it dripped and gradually formed a puddle on the ground.
Nico checked her phone for the time; it was approaching eight o’clock. She needed to get home soon or else her mother and siblings would begin to worry.
“Psst, Maki,” Nico snapped her finger. “Are you going to move or what?”
No response.
“I know you’re still awake, Move or you won’t just be bleeding from one hole!”
With blood streaming down her legs, Maki slowly raised herself from the table with her elbows as support and set her feet on the floor. Her legs were still weak and could not bear her weight, but she eventually regained her energy and was soon standing upright. She stared phlegmatically at her tormentor as she tossed everything she used to injure her into one side of the table. Nico then helped Maki put her underwear back on as well as sling her bags around her arm.
“Can you walk?” asked Nico.
Maki replied with a weak, emotionless nod.
“Good. Now go home. I still have to clean the mess up here. Hopefully you come out of this room knowing NEVER to act arrogantly ever again, especially to people like me. And don’t forget your fake story, ehehe…”
Nico was about to open the door for Maki when all of a sudden Maki approached her and locked her arms tightly around her neck trying to choke and kill her in an act of revenge. It was a ridiculous move on her part which she knew but at this point, all she wanted was for Nico to be dead for inflicting so much pain to her. She still had some strength left in her so she decided to go for it. Surely a girl like her wouldn’t be able to pry her arms open, wouldn’t it?
But she thought wrong. Nico managed to struggle her way to the table where she had left the screwdrivers and managed to pick one up. With a sudden thrusting motion, she was able to hit one of Maki’s eyes, causing her to fall bringing Nico down with her. Nico desperately continued to blindly push the screwdriver into Maki’s skin hoping that would cause her to let go. She found success by going after her cheeks, and when piercing those made her flinch, she pried her arms off her, turned around, and plunged the screwdriver down the middle of the base of her neck. Blood splattered onto Nico’s face as Maki’s eyes shot open and her arms fell to the floor. She repeatedly stabbed her in the same area as hard as she could until she was sure the first year did not move anymore. After almost twenty such stabbings, Nico dropped the screwdriver and stood up, with Maki’s lifeless eyes gazing up at her.
“M-Maki…” she whispered, gazing at her bloody hands realizing what she had done. “I… I already gave you a chance to go home! Yet you chose to end it like this? What were you thinking?! You were indeed planning to report me to the police, weren’t you? I trusted you, Maki… I even told you so much about me and my current situation… At least now you’re dead! I should have ended your life more painfully had I known that was your plan all along!”
Nico looked at the girl lying motionless on the floor in a pool of her own blood, the girl she had tortured and dehumanized without mercy. What went on inside her brain the whole time she was doing that? How did becoming a petty thief lead to her becoming a murderer? She had already lost the urge to kill her; all she wanted was to make sure she learned to become a better human being. But because she tried to fight back after all that, she went and brutally ended her life without even thinking twice. If she was ever caught in the future, it was going to be much more than her reputation that was going to be ruined.
Before she left the security room, Nico was careful to get rid of the evidence that could link her to the crime. She nudged Maki’s body with her foot several times to make sure that she was truly dead. She then took all the wires and tools she used and placed it inside Maki’s school bag. She wiped the blood off her skin and shoes with Maki’s uniform. She noticed that her other bag was filled with sandwiches, so she slung it around her arm together with the other bags and left the area. Finally, she wrapped Maki’s school bag with her bloodied hoodie and threw it into the nearby river.
As she was walking home, she stopped by a convenience store to buy multivitamins for Cotaro and several instant ramen packs for breakfast tomorrow with Maki’s money, and then once she arrived home, she proceeded to feed her siblings the sandwiches Maki had originally bought for µ’s to share.