Chapter 4
The Love-Starved Monster, The Spring That Knows Love
(Part 2)
We demons, having been returned to the facility, all had utterly exhausted faces.
We had sustained some scratches, but wounds of this level didn’t warrant any treatment. If we were lucky, we’d get bandages, but not this time.
We were made to take cold showers to wash off the grime, then given a meal just to keep us alive—devoid of any enjoyment—consisting of lukewarm vegetable soup, hard bread, and a mysterious nutritional supplement. After that, we were sent to our rooms… our cells.
It seemed our work for the day was over.
The other demons who had been sent out elsewhere had already returned as well.
I was roughly shoved into Cell 07, and before I could even turn around, the door clanged shut and was locked.
The solitary cell contained only the bare minimum: old, worn-out changes of clothes, a frayed towel, a simple bed with a thin mattress and a thin blanket, a simple toilet, and water. The only other things were the study materials I’d asked the guards to bring me.
I put the beer-soaked clothes and towel into the laundry basket located near the cell entrance and collapsed weakly onto the bed.
Since it was also a space monitored by the guards, it was far better than outside, but we weren’t provided with heaters or hand warmers, so the winter cold was harsh.
I burrowed under the blanket, shivering my body to get even a little warmer.
Was I going to continue living like this from now on, until the day I die?
When I came to, it seemed I had fallen into a deep sleep.
I was woken by the sound of the morning bell, the signal for起床.
Guards, besides the watchmen, filed into the cell block. It was time for roll call.
I had to stand by the cell entrance quickly… I forced my heavy body up and walked on unsteady legs.
As usual, I stated my number and name, and while hoping yesterday’s events wouldn’t repeat, I waited for the explanation of today’s work.
“07, you’re assigned to combat training today.”
The assigned work was unexpected.
Training? For me, a demon, not a human?
The usual guards never put us through training.
Training is done to minimize damage and increase win rates, but these guys, who see us demons as mere cannon fodder, don’t allow it. Just like their words yesterday, they don’t consider a demon’s death a sacrifice.
“I really have high expectations for you, 07.”
A guard said this while gently placing a hand on my shoulder and grinning.
I couldn’t predict what would happen at all. But I realized this wasn’t just ordinary combat training.
Led by the guards, I was brought to a large laboratory I’d never been to before.
Pushed into the designated room, the shutter entrance closed firmly behind me immediately. Even when I tapped it lightly, it didn’t budge. It didn’t seem like I could open it from this side.
The room was about the size of a dodgeball court.
There was also a shutter on the opposite wall, and it looked like someone would come out from there too.
A large monitor was installed overhead, and as I stared at it, it powered on, displaying a video.
It showed the guard I had spoken with this morning, enlarged.
Behind him, people who appeared to be researchers held binders and pens, eagerly waiting for the experiment to start. All of them were smirking, looking down on me with contemptuous eyes.
Ah, this might be the most critical situation I’ve ever faced.
It was just a feeling, but that thought crossed my mind.
Something undoubtedly terrible was about to happen.
Just as I thought that, the shutter on the opposite side opened.
A single demon was shoved in, losing his balance and falling over. He was bound head to toe in chains, and a gag was stuffed in his mouth.
It was Number 13, the one who had helped me yesterday.
Following him, three researchers in white coats entered.
One of them held a syringe filled with a mysterious, fluorescent liquid.
The other two pinned down the fallen demon, and the researcher, without the slightest hesitation, plunged the syringe into the struggling, restrained demon and injected the liquid into his body.
Number 13 let out a moan so loud it was hard to believe he was gagged.
He thrashed about in apparent agony, but being restrained by chains and held down by the researchers, he could do nothing.
Once the syringe was empty, the three researchers hastily retreated behind the shutter, and the door closed.
“Alright, 07, preparations for your training are complete. Your opponent is the new arrival from yesterday. As his senior, show him an example of combat.”
I could hear the guard’s voice, but it didn’t register.
I was speechless, staring at the scene before me.
Number 13’s body, having just been injected with the drug, had grown larger; the muscles in his upper body had swollen to nearly twice their size.
The chains that had been coiled around him couldn’t withstand the force from within and burst apart, clattering noisily to the ground.
The abnormality wasn’t just the swollen muscles.
From the injection site, crimson, vein-like patterns spread across his arms, and sharp, bone-like protrusions pierced through his skin. His claws had elongated, each one like a giant knife. Large fangs sprouted from his mouth, shattering the gag into pieces. Drool dripped, and his eyes had rolled back, showing only the whites.
He seemed to have completely lost his sanity.
Immediately after, a bestial roar, unlike any word, echoed through the room.
Goosebumps covered my entire body. It signaled danger.
…That this was an opponent I couldn’t hope to match.
“Now, he’s been given a new drug and has become quite狂暴, but well, do your best.”
“No way…”
The moment I muttered that, Number 13 swung his arm up towards me, the only other person in the space.
I had no time to process the situation; I jumped back, dodging the grotesquely swollen arm.
The concrete floor where he struck erupted with a loud destructive sound. A large crack, about a meter long, appeared in the floor where I had been standing, the center deeply gouged.
Watching the concrete fragments fall from his arm, I felt the blood drain from my body.
This was incomparable to the gunfire from yesterday. Even a graze would be fatal, I was sure.
Thanks to the distance, I managed to dodge the first strike, but if I took a direct hit from an attack like that, I wouldn’t stand a chance. I’ve fought ordinary humans before, but I’ve never fought a demon that large.
His physique and arms were too big for me to even get into my effective range.
I didn’t even know if my claws could tear through Number 13’s current muscles.
I’m the weakest demon, with no special abilities…
My claws are just a bit sturdy and sharp, and I have no wings, so no flight capability. I can’t use any magic that seems useful for attack, nor any magic to manipulate an opponent’s movements.
In contrast, the current Number 13, due to the drug, had more than double my physique.
His arms were already formidable weapons in themselves, and judging from that earlier strike, his speed was considerable too.
His face seemed completely insane, his gaze unfocused. He didn’t seem to distinguish who I was, thrashing about wildly as if in a frenzy, destroying the walls and floor.
It seemed his eyesight was poor, and he was reacting to sound. I thought if I stayed still, I might avoid harm, but it wasn’t that simple. He destroyed everything around him indiscriminately, throwing broken concrete pieces to cause further destruction. Fragments with enough force to break walls came flying my way. I had no choice but to dodge.
And if I dodged, the sound would make him attack me.
I was barely managing to escape.
“Number 13!! Stop it!!”
It wasn’t about whether I could win or not; I didn’t want to fight him.
He was clearly suffering, and this rampage wasn’t his will. Just being in this space was dangerous enough anyway. Knowing the risk, I called out to him loudly.
I pleaded with him to stop, to calm down.
“I… am… not… Number 13!!”
That seemed to be the wrong choice.
I didn’t know his real name, so I called him by his number.
Just like the guards here did…
Whether that touched a nerve, or he thought I was one of the guards, I didn’t know, but he revealed his anger and charged straight at me.
My stamina was already nearly spent.
I tried to dodge backwards, but it was too late. His claw tore through my body… slashing diagonally from my left shoulder down to my right waist. Because I had jumped back just before impact, it wasn’t instantly fatal, but the pain and impact were so immense I couldn’t even scream as I was sent flying.
“Ugh… Gah… Aah…”
The pain was too much; all I could do was moan. I crouched on the spot, trying to hold the wound, but it was too large to manage. Both my arms were stained crimson with my own blood, and my forehead was drenched in cold sweat.
If I got treatment immediately, would I be okay? No, who would do that for me?
Even with my pain-addled mind trying to think of something, no good ideas came to me. I was at a dead end.
I could hear the guards on the other side of the monitor laughing, sounding amused.
I couldn’t even curse or glare back; I resigned myself to being killed by Number 13 next.
But several seconds passed, and he didn’t come for me.
Wondering what happened, I looked at him. He was moaning and suffering.
His drug-swollen body began to shrink back to its original size, and as he scattered drool, he collapsed on the spot.
As I felt a wave of relief seeing his distorted arms shrink and him return to his original form, an irritated voice came from the other side of the monitor.
“Tch, and it was just getting good. Did the effect wear off? You demons are truly boring. You can’t even properly entertain us humans…”
“Why…!”
As I squeezed out the words, the guards looked down at me with disinterest.
My limbs were going numb, and I couldn’t breathe properly.
Even so, I mustered the loudest voice I could.
“You said… if we worked, you’d accept us as friends!! For nearly 15 years, I’ve worked desperately, I’ve studied hard, I’ve done my best at my job!! So why… why are you doing this?! When… when will you finally show us… affection…?”
My last words faded into a weak, barely audible whisper.
Ever since I was brought here… every single day has been painful.
Even so, I never cried. Not once.
But now, with death staring me in the face, and the guards just hurling insults… What was the point of all my effort… my whole life? From the bitterness and frustration, even though I didn’t want to cry, tears overflowed.
Hearing my words, the guards laughed with a volume I’d never heard before. Not just the guards, but the researchers behind them too seemed unable to hold back their laughter, snickering.
“Bwahaha!! You really are, truly, an idiot!! You actually believed those words? Priceless!! Who could ever love you murderous monsters?! You demons are all just creatures whose only value is to entertain us humans!! …Oh, but I forgot, you’re the dunce who can’t even manage that properly.”
“……”
I had no energy left to retort.
I just wept quietly, powerless.
I knew. I knew it would come to this. I knew I would never be saved. I knew it all.
I knew perfectly well that even a spider’s thread-thin strand of hope was just an illusion.
So then, why did my heart hurt so much?
I think the guards kept saying something to me after that. But their words no longer reached my ears at all.
Just lying on the cold concrete, I gave up on everything, resigning myself to my life ending in despair.
As all sounds grew distant, I heard the sound of the shutter opening.
A few seconds later, my arm was grabbed, and I was hauled up roughly. They paid no mind to the large wound on my chest.
After being carried for a while, I was put into something.
As I was thrown in back-first, writhing in pain, the door in front of me closed, an engine roared to life, and the thing I was in started moving. A truck, perhaps? It was dark, and I couldn’t see well, but I could make out what looked like garbage bags.
I had a vague idea of where I was being taken.
Sometime later, the door in front of me opened.
The moment it opened, a cold blizzard hit my entire body.
It seemed we were outside. The weather was exceptionally bad today; my vision was pure white and unclear. My arm was grabbed roughly, and I was dragged and thrown out.
I instinctively tried to land, stretching out my legs, but my feet found no ground, cutting through empty air.
Then, a sensation of being pulled towards the ground…
Craning my neck back, I saw the feet of the guards in front of me.
I had been thrown off a steep cliff. The guards, hidden by the blizzard until the last moment, looked down at me, laughing until the very end.
I, unlike some demons, cannot fly.
Even if I stretched out my arms, I couldn’t grab onto anything, and I just fell downward, downward, with great momentum.
