14 ° Copper.

937 28 23
                                    

❝(WOW WOW WOW) CAN'T KEEP IT IN MUCH LONGER...❞

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

THE FACES OF DEMONS WHEN HUNTED WERE ALWAYS THE BEST. Oh, and did you know the very top of warmed milk is always gooey? (It's weird. But maybe he doesn't know what weird is, or how to describe weird.)

When a Demon is up against a wall, they always clench their teeth or open their lips slowly. Sometimes they shudder—from the cold they feel, from the dread in their stomachs, with their guts waiting to spill out. But in the end, when he kills them, they always open their lips and shudder like crazy. Like they're freezing, trapped within a meat locker with no exit, the door to the outside blocked out.

Anyways. The sound of the bell that rings when you enter a store is so cute sounding, right? It has a small chime to it, a peaceful one that rings in your ears for a while, like the breeze flowing past wind chimes on a cloudy day.

People who make those things must have bad personalities. People who make pretty or cute things have bad attitudes. On the other hand, he doesn't make pretty things—he makes horrible dioramas, but his face and his personality are horrible too!

(Is he the only one whose tummy hurts when they smell rice from a rice cooker?)

He always knew it—it's always the best to attack from both sides when hunting Demons. That way, even if they go left or right or go back, they always end up getting killed. The moment just when they all fall into despair and know they are going to die is really, always, splendid.

Splendid.

What a funny, silly word.

But did he use it correctly in this context? It's not as if he knew how to do anything worthy or valuable of anyone's time.

That was just the life of Jataro Kemuri, after all. Stars are already dead when you see them, and when you wish upon a star, it probably died lightyears ago. People wished he was dead, too. But he knew that already. He just didn't have the courage—or, rather, motivation to end it all for himself. It's not like anyone wanted him alive; he didn't want to be alive either, but here he was, living a useless, worthless existence, just contributing to the inevitable heat death of the universe.

And that was just the life of Jataro.


The cheer of a familiar audience rang in Jataro's ears.

"Um, hey... Why'd you guys run here?" Jataro said, watching Komaru and Toko stand in the elevator, dumbfounded. "Did you think you could escape if you went somewhere reaaal high up? But no matter where you run, it's pointless. The more you run from me, the closer you get. Cuz the world is rooound, right?"

The girls walked forward and to the center of the colosseum, Toko's hands curling into fists. "I knew it... You were waiting for us."

"Sooo? How'd it feel to have someone waiting for you? Were you even more grossed out? Or, or, maybe—do you hate me even more now?"

𝐋𝐈'𝐋 𝐒𝐂𝐈𝐄𝐍𝐂𝐄.Where stories live. Discover now