The Deities of Hell

Mizuki Yumeno woke up in bed, dirty all over.

He strangely felt sick, and his head was throbbing.

Yua noticed a chain connecting her and Mizuki’s hands to each of their handcuffs.

“It won’t come off.”

It looked like it might be removable, but since it wasn’t possible, she gave up.

To think about something else, she opened the medical supply box and took out gauze and medical tape.

“Come on, I’ll tend to your… Ears.”

Pointing at her own ears, she moved her mouth, so Mizuki could understand what she said.

Mizuki understood the gesturing and obediently brushed the hair by his ears away.

The medical care finished after a few minutes.

The throbbing seemed to have mellowed down as well.

“It’s strange how you have no ears and can’t hear… I thought you’d be able to hear as long as your eardrums were fine,”

Yua muttered to herself as she looked at where his ears were supposed to be.

“Hmm, they’ll probably come off with only the tape.”

Yua continued muttering while putting on Mizuki’s headphones that hung around his neck over his ears.

Just looking at it like this, it didn’t seem unnatural.

It was hiding the wound well, and the gauze did its part of pressing on the wounds.

Although Mizuki seemed perplexed, he touched the headphones with his hands and showed a relieved expression, as if he liked it.

Yua handed a note over to him.

“After we check the luggage, let’s go look outside.”

Mizuki nodded in reply and checked the contents of one of the shoulder bags.

He found chocolate, two cans of food, a PET bottle with water, a pencil, and notepad, a flashlight, a bloody knife, a bag with two ears in it, a broken video camera with an SD card.

Yua found chocolate, two cans of food, a PET bottle with water, a pencil, and notepad, a flashlight, a medical supply box, and a tiny key in the other bag.

“What kind of key is it?”

She picked up the key and looked it over curiously.

“I checked it.”

“Then… Let’s go.”

The two moved clumsily with the chain binding them together.

It was because they still couldn’t fully trust the other person yet.

Mizuki, who was barefoot, and Yua, who almost was in her socks, chose an even road to walk on and stepped on it slowly to not hurt themselves.

In this world where everything was strange, they doubted it was the real world.

After walking for some time, they saw a faint light further ahead in the broken-down townscape.

In the center of the rough wall, there was a gap the two could get through.

Heading in that direction with faint hope, they entered through a door toward the light.

They doubted their own eyes.

Proceeding past the gap, the first thing the two witnessed was a giant snake crossing the road in front of them.

Though they called it a snake, it had a human-like head and long dirty hair, and its size was equal to a whale shark.

It was about 200 m long.

On top of that, several human-like arms sprouted from its body.

It didn’t seem like something of the world they lived in, and was an existence worthy of being called a monster.

It used the arms as legs creepily and moved forward on the ground like it was crawling.

Fortunately, only part of its body passed the two of them, so it hadn’t noticed them yet.

They waited silently for the monster to leave.

The monster left, and they could finally breathe.

Having fallen completely silent, Yua couldn’t stand due to fear and sat down on the ground.

“What was that? What in the world is this?”

Her voice was trembling, and her breathing was uneven.

Yua made an expression as if she was about to cry, and ended up curling herself up because of the fear.

Her shoulders and teeth clattered and she was about to cry any moment now.

Mizuki saw her and regained his calm.

Seeing Yua like that made his sense of responsibility and courage grow.

“Yu…a, it’s okay.”

Mizuki lent her his hand.

Yua squeezed her eye shut in confusion, but took his hand.

Her legs trembled, and her body refused to move.

“Aren’t you scared?”

“What… did you say?”

“Never mind.”

Mizuki understood she said “never mind” through her gesturing.

“That monster… let’s walk slowly… so it won’t find us,”

Mizuki suggested.

However, Yua didn’t react to his words and kept looking at their hands.

“Oh, sorry.”

Feeling guilty, Mizuki immediately let go of her hand.

“I didn’t notice.”

Without looking at Yua, he started walking forward.

Because they were no longer holding hands, Yua felt more scared again.

After walking a little, they noticed something.

Unlike the scenery they had seen so far, their surroundings were now well-lit, and they saw familiar furniture like a huge desk and stairway instead of the crumbling townscape.

They looked like things humans would use, but something was wrong.

It was as though the warped shape was made to imitate the actual objects.

Instead of describing this place as outside, it felt more like inside a house.

“Is this Snakey’s… Home?”

Yua tilted her head at Mizuki‘s murmuring.

Yua walked while holding the pen and notepad in her hands.

“Snakey?” She wrote on the notepad and handed it to Mizuki.

The letters she wrote were wobbly.

“What I call the… Monster… From a while ago”

“You’re weird.”

Yua looked like she was laughing at him.

She couldn’t help but smile at the unsuitable name.

“Let’s go up… The stairs.”

What Mizuki called stairs was hard to go up.

Planks to step on were lined up to look like a staircase, but ‘going up them’ didn’t really fit.

Since the size wasn’t for humans, it didn’t actually look like they could use it.

“I will… Carry… You.”

Mizuki lifted Yua up on his shoulders, and Yua saw everything from a much higher place.

Since it looked like she could fall through the crevices in the planks, she held her breath.

Next, Yua pulled Mizuki up.

Repeating this seven times, they finally reached the top.

“... I’m exhausted.”

Both of them were out of breath.

“There are a few rooms. Let’s go.”

Mizuki stood up and was about to go toward a huge door.

However, Yua didn’t move.

“Yua?”

“Snakey can’t go up these stairs with that body… and even if it managed with those arms, these worn-out planks would break under its weight.”

“What… did you say?”

Yua couldn’t do anything out of doubt.