In a wooden apartment over forty years old, in a room soaked with mold, drugs, and vomit, a man named Kai Kamon spends his days staring at the ceiling, unable to die. With social phobia and drug addiction, he has fallen out of society entirely.
One night, the ceiling tears open, and Princess Melissa of the Flamme Kingdom falls through. Exiled from her world and stripped of all magic by a transfer spell, she collapses on the filthy tatami floor. She looks around the rotting room and gives him a
Impurity - Confession of Impurity, Memories Flowing In
He wrung out the rag. Black water dripped into the bucket, and something like an oil slick spread across the surface.
Kamon Kai looked up at the ceiling. A wooden two-story apartment building, over forty years old. An old, nameless structure at the western edge of Haishu Ward. The stains on the ceiling were spreading, slowly but surely. Black blotches floated there, overlapping with the traces of past leaks.
*(This again.)*
Kai twisted his mouth beneath his mask.
Seven days had passed since he'd returned from that lonely death scene. About the same number of days since he'd quit the over-the-counter drugs. The trembling in his fingertips still hadn't gone away. At night, he broke out in sweats and couldn't sleep. He kept waking up, feeling like someone was screaming deep inside his head.
And yet, the Impurity hadn't disappeared.
If anything, its outline was growing clearer. In the beginning, it had just been a black haze, wavering unsteadily. Now it was different. The stains on the ceiling were clearly visible as *something that was there*.
Not a hallucination.
Not a product of withdrawal.
Kai confirmed that fact once more, gripping the rag soaked in cold water.
*(It's reflected in my eyes. This is real.)*
A chill ran down his spine.
But his hands didn't stop.
He wiped away the black Impurity seeping from the ceiling cavity with the rag. Over and over. Until the water in the bucket turned pitch black. Even when his arms grew heavy and his shoulders ached, Kai kept wiping.
Only when he was cleaning did his mind go quiet.
Everything else stopped mattering.
*(This is all I can do.)*
Thinking that made him feel just a little bit lighter.
――――
This job site had come to him from Kiryu at Misogi Services. After the work at the Haishu municipal housing complex, Kai had told Kiryu he wanted to work more. Kiryu, without asking anything, handed him a memo with the address of this site.
"Second floor, vacant room. The previous resident, well... you know."
That was all.
When he entered the room, the ceiling stains leapt into view. Too black for water damage. Kai understood immediately. It was Impurity.
*(It's here too.)*
Kai opened his toolbox. Inside: industrial deodorizer, a scraper, a protective mask, rubber gloves, biohazard waste bags. And several rags.
*(Rags alone won't be enough.)*
Kai picked up the scraper. He scraped at the black stains caked onto the ceiling with the blade's edge. Black powder fluttered down to the floor.
*(So this is what Impurity really is.)*
When the powder hit the floor, it vanished without a trace.
Kai wrung out the rag again. The water turned black once more.
*(I'll wipe it as many times as it takes. Wipe, wipe, wipe it away.)*
Every time he moved his arms, the old wooden building creaked and groaned.
――――
How much time had passed?
Kai noticed the ceiling stains had faded. The black haze was slowly disappearing. The air in the room felt lighter.
*(Almost there.)*
That was the moment.
He felt a sticky gaze from behind.
A presence, like someone's breath on the back of his neck. Lukewarm, with the smell of rotting water.
Kai slowly turned around.
The stains on the wall were writhing.
The black stains were taking human form. Head, shoulders, arms, fingers. As if peeling itself off the wall, the black shadow crept toward Kai, oozing closer.
*(Don't move.)*
Kai told himself.
*(Don't move. Don't move. Don't move.)*
But his legs trembled. Black water dripped from the rag in his hand.
The black shadow closed the distance, slowly, surely.
*(This is bad.)*
Kai stepped backward.
That was when it happened.
"That man is my servant."
A voice.
He turned, and Melissa was there.
Her gold-and-silver ringlets glowed faintly in the dim room. Her right eye was burning gold, her left eye cold silver. Her waist-length hair swayed gently, though there was no wind.
"The likes of you has no business touching him."
Melissa's voice was cold as ice.
The black shadow stopped moving, frozen.
Melissa stood in front of Kai. She was far shorter than him. And yet, her back seemed larger than the wall.
"Disappear."
Melissa spoke the word curtly.
The black shadow let out what seemed like a scream.
No, that wasn't right. He couldn't hear any sound.
But the air trembled. The walls creaked and shuddered. The black shadow, as if pushed back by Melissa's fury, melted into the wall.
Silence returned to the room.
Kai stood rooted to the spot.
*(What just—)*
His heart was pounding.
No. Something deep in his chest was throbbing violently. His breathing was shallow. His fingertips were cold, as if they didn't belong to him.
Melissa slowly turned around.
"What a pathetic face, servant."
Kai couldn't say anything.
No. There were plenty of things he wanted to say. Why are you here? What was that shadow? Weren't you at the apartment just a moment ago?
But his voice wouldn't come out.
His throat wouldn't move, as if glued shut.
*(I see.)*
Kai finally understood.
*(I'm scared.)*
No. It was deeper than that—a sensation like his soul had been seized. Until just last week, Melissa's form had been hazy. Her outline blurred; when light shone through her, he could see the wall behind.
But now it was different.
He could see Melissa clearly.
Down to every strand of her gold-and-silver hair. The boundary between the gold of her right eye and the silver of her left. The slenderness of her neck, the shape of her fingertips—everything.
*(I can see her.)*
Kai doubted his own eyes.
*(Why so clearly—)*
Melissa, perhaps noticing his gaze, twisted her lips.
"Oh my. Staring at me like that—what's wrong?"
"...You."
Kai forced his voice out with effort.
"...You're clearly visible."
"Of course I am. I grow stronger every time you clean."
"Stronger?"
"That's right. Every time you purify Impurity, I regain power. Because you're consuming my Impurity for me."
Kai furrowed his brow.
"...What do you mean?"
Melissa turned her eyes to the stains on the wall.
"Impurity is the remnants of my broken soul."
Her voice was quiet.
"I tried to make the Flamme Kingdom's flame-core reactor go out of control and burn the entire country to the ground. The court mage brigade stopped me, and I was exiled. I lost all my magical power and fell into this country. That's when my soul shattered."
Kai listened in silence.
"The fragments of my shattered soul became Impurity, scattered throughout this world. Every time you clean and purify that Impurity, those fragments return to me. That's why I grow stronger."
Melissa stared at her own hands.
"But at the same time, my body grows fainter."
"...Huh?"
Kai asked her to repeat herself.
"The stronger I become, the more I fade. The more fragments of my soul return, the less I can remain in this world."
Melissa's voice trembled faintly.
"That's why I'm making you clean—to erase myself."
Kai fell silent, unable to gauge the meaning of her words.
The more he cleaned, the stronger Melissa's presence became. But at the same time, her body grew thinner.
*(That's contradictory.)*
He thought so.
But Melissa's eyes were serious.
*(Is she really serious about this?)*
Something heavy pierced Kai's chest.
Deep, like a wedge.
"...Why?"
Kai spoke in a low voice.
"Why do you want to disappear?"
Melissa didn't answer.
She just stared at the stains on the wall.
――――
That was when it happened.
Something flooded into his head.
As if a dam had broken.
Like a flood.
—The library of the royal capital, Brennhart.
High ceilings. Countless bookshelves. Sunset light streaming through the windows.
A young girl sat hugging her knees. Gold-and-silver ringlets. Eyes of different colors, left and right.
*(Is this... Melissa?)*
The girl was reading alone. All alone in the empty library.
—Her mother's smile.
Gentle eyes. Warm hands.
"Melissa, you are this country's hope."
She said that, stroking her daughter's head.
—The day she was taught fire magic.
A small flame was born from her fingertips.
She was so happy, so happy, she did it over and over.
—The royal palace engulfed in flames.
People fleeing in panic.
Screams. Shouts of rage. Castle walls crumbling.
"Lady Melissa, why?!"
"Please, have mercy!"
"It burns! It burns!"
—And then, her own hands.
Her own hands, releasing the flames.
"...Ah."
Kai dropped to his knees on the spot.
His head felt like it was splitting open.
No. It wasn't pain. It was sadness. Agony. Loneliness.
*(These aren't my emotions.)*
Kai dug his nails into the floor.
*(These are Melissa's memories.)*
A surge of nausea rose up. But he couldn't vomit. Instead, tears spilled from both eyes.
They wouldn't stop.
Unrelated to his own will, the tears overflowed.
"...Ngh."
Kai clenched his teeth.
Tears fell onto the tatami, forming dark stains.
*(Why am I crying?)*
He knew. This was Melissa's grief.
But the tears wouldn't stop.
He dug his nails into the floor, his body trembling.
――――
How long had he been like that?
When Kai raised his head, Melissa was smiling with a face on the verge of tears.
"I'm making you clean—to erase myself."
Her voice trembled.
"Because then, these memories will disappear too."
Kai looked at Melissa's face.
Cheeks wet with tears. A twisted mouth. And yet, her eyes alone stared straight at Kai.
*(This girl—)*
Kai stared at his own left hand.
Burn scars. Tight, contracted skin. Scars from being burned as a child.
*(I've always avoided looking at this hand.)*
He'd wanted to disappear.
He'd wanted to die.
But he couldn't die.
*(She's the same as me.)*
She wanted to disappear, but couldn't.
But it was different.
Melissa knew how to disappear.
She just had to make him clean. Make him purify the Impurity. Then she would vanish.
*(And yet, why—)*
Deep in Kai's chest, something spoke clearly for the first time.
*(I don't want her to disappear.)*
It was attachment.
An emotion so strong and ugly it surprised even himself.
*(Don't disappear.)*
Kai looked at Melissa.
"...Don't disappear."
His voice was hoarse.
Melissa's eyes widened slightly.
"...What are you saying? You're just a servant."
"I'm telling you not to disappear."
Kai said it again.
"If you disappear, I'll be alone again."
*(Ah, I see.)*
Kai was surprised by his own words.
*(I don't want to be alone.)*
Even though he wanted to die.
Even though he wanted to disappear.
But being alone—he hated that.
*(I'm selfish.)*
Melissa was silent for a while.
Then she turned away abruptly.
"...Like I care about that."
Her voice was still trembling.
"A servant doesn't give orders to his master."
Kai let out a small breath.
*(That's fine.)*
For now, that was enough.
――――
Outside the room, it was dusk.
Kai packed up his toolbox.
He wrung out the rag, dumped the bucket water, wiped the scraper, and tied up the garbage bag.
*(The cleaning is done.)*
But Melissa's memories still lingered in the back of his mind.
The palace engulfed in flames.
People fleeing in panic.
And Melissa, smiling with a face on the verge of tears.
*(I'll keep cleaning.)*
Kai shouldered his toolbox.
*(If I do, she'll grow stronger. And then, she'll fade.)*
It was contradictory.
But he couldn't stop cleaning.
"Clean."
A voice echoed in his head.
Not Melissa's voice.
A lower, wetter, different voice.
"Defile more."
Kai stopped in his tracks.
He looked around. No one was there.
*(What was that just now?)*
A chill ran down his spine.
No. Something cold crawled from the back of his neck down to his waist.
*(I heard it. Definitely.)*
Kai stood still for a while.
But the voice didn't come again.
*(Was it my imagination?)*
Kai started walking.
The setting sun dyed the old buildings of Haishu Ward red.
――――
That night.
Kai lay in his room, staring at the ceiling.
The black stains were still there, as always.
But they were fainter than the Impurity at today's site.
*(She grows stronger by however much I purify.)*
Kai closed his eyes.
*(And then, she fades.)*
A s
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