[Rachel] A secret between us

"That..." She pointed at the finger, or more precisely, pointed at the black string around the finger. "...Must have come from Mother's silk dress."

"Wawa, are you okay looking at this?" The one who asked the question was me. 

"Yeah, I am," she replied after a pause. "It's not that I can't handle gore. I don't understand the emotions inside my heart right now."

That much was understandable. For someone who had had cuts, bruises, and violent acts performed on by her flesh and blood, it was nothing new that Wawa was used to pain and the act of inflicting pain. After indulging in those dark fantasy novels, she could at least imagine the horrible aspects blood and gore could bring. And although the reality was different from books and imagination, we, the characters of this wretched game world, had grown accustomed to it. We were designed to feel like so.

In addition, this bookworm was like me. The current Wawa had memories of the past by C's side. And if her past with him consisted of various things that the Kurokawa in my past did, then there was no reason for me to think she could not stand the sight of her mother's finger. 

"Do you want me to leave you alone for a second or two?" 

With wavering yet unmovable eyes, Kurokawa shook her head and replied: "No need." She then took a deep breath and closed her green eyes, contemplating something. "With your expertise, is there anything I should know about this finger?"

Hearing her question, a soft smile formed on my face. "For your information, this looks like it has just been cut. It should be within a few hours. Furthermore, there was likely no struggle or a fight happening to the victim." 

"So either the perpetrator was extremely fast, or she wanted it to happen." 

"Exactly." I nodded. "Usually, we would see body tissues such as blood or skin stuck on the fingertips. Since no one likes being tortured to death, a fight would be the case. Even when the patient is drugged with a piece of cloth filled with chloroform, trust me, it does not work like how people think. And I don't think they can get chloroform here." 

"Got it. Thank you." Kurokawa returned her gaze toward the finger on the ground. With one hand placed under the chin, the bookworm was seemingly in deep thought.

"There are two scenarios that I'm thinking about," Wawa spoke up after a brief silence. "What we have here is either a declaration of war or a gesture of peace."

Honestly, seeing her being so calculative despite not knowing her birth-giver was dead or alive, only seeing a bloodstained severed finger, baffled me a little. What kind of mental power would one need so that they could still be like her in such a dire situation?

"I could understand the first part. But peace? This...thing doesn't say anything like peace. Then again, you must have a good reason for that." Glancing over at the bookworm, I could see her gleaming green eyes shining with brilliance. 

"If you already understand half of it, I'll save both of us the time to talk about the second part." Kurokawa sat down, still concentrating on the finger on the ground. "I know you're smart, Rachel. But what you're thinking about is limited by the knowledge of this iteration. This is why my mom's finger could be a gesture of peace was off-putting to you. Let's put it this way. If everything and everyone is linked in just this current iteration, then the appearance of this finger is less peaceful." 

Wawa continued to point her finger over at my side. 

"Chronologically speaking, An is the next character to appear in our world. And if my memory serves me right, then you and An already had a deep history around the protagonist, Han. Judging by the alleged past that the two of you shared, it would be normal to think this act is merely a grudge."

"..."

Then, it struck me. The bookworm's words made perfect sense. Only until Kurokawa pointed that out did I realize how wrong I was, confined to a biased and narrow train of thought. However, everything was not yet finished. The more the bookworm continued to analyze, the more formidable this girl became to me.

"The finger was severed hours ago. This means the girl must have spawned into this world sooner than that. What makes you think she did not appear inside the school when we talked? What makes you think she did not appear at A's house this morning? The An in my past never had to come to my place. Yet she came here to bang on the door, meaning she had followed us since the beginning. Perhaps she was somewhere inside the train we boarded, hiding in plain sight because all of us were following C's thoughts rather than our own!" 

What even...Never had I thought about those things at all!

"C's limited distance from Han was detrimental in this situation. The fact that he could never leave that guy's side by a certain distance meant that as long as the event did not occur near Han, he would never figure out if that character had appeared yet!"

Kurokawa continued to explain while I was trying to digest what she said. Each word was concrete evidence of why she would be crucial to C. I could not even fathom how much of a person she would be if she was given a combat ability.

"An, or whoever the perpetrator is, left this to warn us. And,...perhaps...to make an alliance. It could have been a head, a heart, anything that showed my Mother was dead. But she chose a pinky, which was not that important, in my opinion. She thought I would be thrilled to do the rest, to have my revenge. That's what I think, so take it with a grain of salt."

Soon after, the bookworm picked it up. "We need to hide this. No, we need to dispose of it completely. No trace of this pinky should be left if we want to hide this incident from C." 

Shaking my head to get the creeping feeling off, I nodded. "Yep. We both agree on that one. Should I take it from you then? I can throw it away alongside the headless garbage half-finished at school. This will be our little secret! Hehe!" 

She stared at the finger silently for several seconds before finally answering and handing me the finger, "Yes, please. I'd love to learn how to do it as well. If you don't mind, of course. I used to read books about those processes, yet never had the chance to actually try them out." 

"Even in your past?" I asked while putting the severed pinky away from sight into a place I knew C would not dare to stare at this point. It was dirtying my whole chest with blood, yet I would choose to take a bath rather than C have a panic attack. Still, such pity for this super alluring bra I got just in case Darling wanted to jump on me. It came with a set, too! What was I going to do with just panties?! 

Into the fire, I guessed... 

"Yes. Most of the time we spent together was to hide while you people continued to take down each other. I was never the type to fight. C...well... you know how he is." 

"Hehe... Yeah, I guess something never changes. Darling's physical weakness, although a curse for him, is a blessing for us." I said and smiled, reminiscing the beautiful ending of ours. Unconsciously, my thighs started to rub against one another as my body heated up. The chilling winds of the night could hardly suppress me.

"...What are you doing?" Kurokawa rolled her disappointed eyes. "In front of the house, too?"

"Nothing at all." I lied and turned my back to her. 

However, she did not ask me any further questions. Wawa probably thought it was pointless to pursue my actions. Instead, she took out a handkerchief and wiped the blood off her hands. "I'll go get bleach and some scrubs. Better clean the stains as much as possible before C notices. It's not very big, but I don't want to take a risk at something like that."

"Yep, agreed, Wawa. The sooner, the better. Darling can be coming down any second despite everyone's effort in keeping him in your room." 

Wawa smiled softly. "Yeah. He can be quite spontaneous sometimes. Wait here a bit." 

After a few seconds, Kurokawa returns with a water bucket and cleaning supplies.

"Here we are. Everything you need to clean up the blood. By the way, is it okay if I leave you to it? There's still dinner that I need to finish." 

"Sure, no pro-ble-mo! Unless C suddenly comes and I can't do anything in front of him, I can be your guardian. Easy peasy!" 

"Thanks. I really appreciate the gesture!"

"Actually, one thing, Wawa. Are you really okay with cooking alone? With your hand and all?" 

Hearing that, Kuro lifted her wounded hand, still wrapped in bandages. " It's going to be alright. I've had worse. Anyway, please wait out here a while. Who knows if the other person 

Seeing Kurokawa turning her back on me, I called out to her one last time. "Wait! Don't do anything weird to the food, though! I don't want him to sleep while eating!" 

"..."

Ga-chak

With a face that clearly said: What the hell are you blabbing about, Kurokawa went back inside, leaving me on the street. 

(Miss me?)