Sakaki Yui, seventeen years old. Her only wish was to greet each tomorrow quietly, without ever being hurt by anyone. However, her daily life—corroded by domestic violence and isolation at school—is completely trampled by the trap of a human trafficking organization, and her body is sold into an illegal underground pleasure district. Amidst violence, drugs, and endless exploitation, Yui's heart disconnects from emotion to protect itself, transforming the very act of "living" into mere instinctua
The Corpse Flower Blooms at Night - "The Corpse Flower Blooms at Night" Episode 2: "The Parasitic Everyday, or a Vessel of the Night"
I
The deterioration of the world was insignificant compared to the aberrations occurring in her own body. They were merely trivial noise.
Sakaki Yui greeted another rust-colored morning as usual. Sitting deep in a cheap sofa placed in the basement waiting room, she scrolled aimlessly through her smartphone screen. Ten in the morning. The dull rotation of the ventilation fan carried faint headaches along with the stale air. Her daily life had not changed its form in any way. The manager's crude shouts, the unique stench of soap mixed with mold—everything was arranged on the same timeline as before that night.
Yet Yui's vision alone continued to perceive the "poison" seeping from the other side of the world.
Just hours before, in the alley of a desolate shopping street she had passed through on her way to the shop. It was there, in the dim gap of a vending machine. It bore the outline of a middle-aged man overall, but the skin visible through the gaps in its clothing had turned an inky black like mud weeks into decomposition, rippling ceaselessly. From the fissures in its face, countless thin, mucous-like tentacles peeked out, observing Yui's movements intently. A non-human thing wearing human skin almost carelessly—an existence that had been called a yokai or servant of forbidden arts since ancient times—lived naturally in the shadows of the modern city.
Yui simply turned her gaze away and passed by as though nothing had happened. There was no surprise, no fear. Her psyche, damaged by years of neglect and violence, was finely cracked in a way that allowed her to dismiss all abnormalities as "that's just how it is." Even if the irrationality of the world increased by one or two more, it should not affect her most basic desire—to simply breathe peacefully.
The changes to her body were similar. Last night, a violent customer had persistently pulled her hair and slammed her head against the wall. The sound of bone grinding had echoed, and fresh blood had gushed from her scalp. Yet, in the mere minutes it took for the customer to enter the shower room, the flowing blood had been absorbed into Yui's skin, and the wound had sealed cleanly at the cellular level. Now, there was neither pain nor a single bruise remaining. As if her body itself had been reborn as a cold, precise machine that rejected any injury.
"Well... this happens sometimes," Yui murmured softly, biting her lip. A body that didn't hurt was actually convenient for surviving in this place. Eyes that could see aberrations were harmless as long as their bearers recognized her and yielded instinctively. She forcibly pushed this extraordinary transformation into an ordinary drawer of her life, labeling it as merely a "convenient constitution." Without making waves, if she could simply get through each day quietly and peacefully, that would be enough.
II
However, a single madness—or perhaps the most urgent of all—refused to allow that stagnation to continue. It grew steadily within her.
It was an abnormal "hunger" that increased in ferocity with each passing day.
Past noon, Yui emotionlessly opened the plastic container of a cold convenience store bento the shop had provided. Solidified grease-coated fried chicken and dry white rice. Previously, such things had been enough to satisfy her stomach completely. But now, to her, they were no different from chewing "inorganic sand." She devoured two, three bentos, and even as her belly swelled physically, the thirst emanating from the depths of her brain and the root of her existence would not be sated. Rather, only discomfort accumulated, as if she had stuffed something foreign into her stomach, and the back of her throat constantly burned with heat. What does my body want? Yui's rationality refused to seek an answer to that question. She could only tremble slightly as her insides were tormented as if being kneaded by bare hands.
As night fell, that hunger finally began to approach its critical point. A sensation as if her body were being slowly burned by hot flames from within. Yui's consciousness grew increasingly hazy from the violent thirst.
Ah, I'm so hungry. Not mere emptiness of the stomach. It was a visceral, bewitching hunger—one where every fiber of bone and every cell of her internal organs writhed madly, exhaling hot breath. Deep in the depths of her lower abdomen, a heat so intense it would burn away human reason coiled and caused her slender body to tremble from within as if being caressed. The mucous membrane of her throat, moist like love juice yet desperately craving something, contracted repeatedly in an alluring manner. Just beneath her skin, the hot blood of emotion flooded like a torrent, and the tips of her breasts hardened with each breath, reacting sensitively to the friction of her clothes. Her brain, her thoughts, were dominated by a melting, sensual thirst, and Yui sought with wet eyes the presence of the "sweet prey" her body demanded. It was the very epitome of lust emanating from a non-human beast—a desire to devour a soul itself in the most obscene way.
Yui grasped her own thigh strongly, digging her fingernails in. Yet even this self-harm became no brake against the predatory impulse rising from within. Despite wanting only to be at peace, her body, her instincts, whispered sweetly, dragging her toward the abyss.
III
At eleven at night, the worst possible "prey" was ushered into the private room where Yui sat.
The man who entered was particularly notorious among the regulars—a violent man. He reeked of alcohol from head to toe and glared at Yui with bloodshot eyes. Today, he had suffered massive losses in some gambling operation in the underworld. Yui had been chosen as a convenient doll upon which to vent his directionless madness and stress.
"Hey, take off your clothes already. What are you just standing there for, you bitch?"
The moment the man roughly shut the door, he grabbed Yui's slender wrist and threw her onto the bed. Yui did not resist. As always, she let her consciousness drift toward the ceiling, trying to endure this time as merely a vessel. But the man's violence was relentless. A heavy slap exploded across her cheek as if to express his displeasure at her expressionless face.
"I don't like that look in your eyes! I'm paying for this, so cry more, show more pain!"
The man then grabbed a heavy glass ashtray that had been placed on the bedside table. Naked cruelty, an abhorrent "hostility" that seemed to negate Yui's very existence—it rose from his entire body. In that instant, the space behind the man was reflected in Yui's golden eyes as a deep black aura of hatred.
Twang—something thin snapped inside Yui's mind.
It was the end of fear and the collapse of reason. The naked hostility and violence directed at her from the man suddenly inverted into something unbelievably "aromatic and sweet delicacy" in Yui's perception. The back of her starved, maddened throat trembled with joy, secreting vast amounts of saliva. The pitiful human before her, attempting to torment her, now appeared as nothing but exquisite, sensual prey.
"Ga... ahhh!"
The moment the man brought down the ashtray, Yui's hand moved. Her slender fingers extended at eye-blurring speed, stopping his wrist head-on with a firm grip. A hard sound echoed through the room.
"Wh... what are you—"
The man's words went no further. Yui's small hand mercilessly crushed the bones in his wrist. Crack, snap—flesh and bone deformed unnaturally. The man attempted to scream, but Yui's other hand was already firmly, deeply positioned at his throat. His massive body was pinned easily onto the bed by inhuman strength.
Yui looked down at the man. Deep within her eyes, the golden ring at the boundary of her irises flickered ominously and beautifully in the darkness. Her lips curved into a vivid smile, twisted unconsciously by joy and hunger. I can't endure it. Not even one more second.
Yui slowly brought her face closer and pressed her split lips to the man's neck. The pulsating warmth of his blood—the prey's desperate heartbeat—sweetly moistened her eardrums. She tore through his clothing, and her fangs sank deep, so very deep into the exposed flesh of his body. In that instant, the gushing torrent of life—thick, iron-rich, hot liquid—caressed her parched throat as it slid down. Yes, this. This was what her body and soul craved—the obscene pleasure of life itself. Each time Yui swallowed her prey, her throat trembled with fine shivers of ecstasy, and her limbs convulsed with supreme pleasure. Pure, high-density energy poured directly from the man's flesh, from his very existence, into her organs, and every cell in her body awakened with wet cries of joy. It was an abhorrent yet overwhelmingly bewitching inhuman exchange—where predator and prey melted together and became one.
Strength rapidly drained from the man's body. After violent convulsions, the light faded from his eyes, and he transformed into mere matter. Yet Yui's "meal" did not end there.
IV
The inhuman instinct dwelling within Yui was extremely voracious, and at the same time, coldly "rational."
"...No leaving leftovers," Yui murmured softly to herself in the silent room as she came to. It was not some strange manifestation of an old memory from her broken home, where her mother had irrationally beaten her for wasting food. Rather, her instinct coldly understood the danger of leaving "evidence" in this room. If the man's corpse remained, the police would act, the shop would close, and the "ordinary hiding place where she could live unseen" that she had finally obtained would completely collapse.
I just want to live quietly, peacefully.
For that, I must make this reality never have happened in the first place. Expressionless, Yui turned back toward the man's body. Grinding bone, chewing flesh, accepting even the fibers of his clothing—her body rejected nothing. Her small stomach, like a black hole, completely contained the man's mass, and the black threads beneath her skin instantaneously converted it into pure energy. Not a single fragment of bone, not a drop of blood could be allowed to remain on floor or wall.
The meal was completely finished around two in the morning.
On the bed lay only the metal watch the man had worn, his wallet, and a few coins. Not only his body but even his clothing had completely vanished into Yui. She rose from the bed, fetched a wet rag from the shower room, and began meticulously wiping the floor and walls. So thoroughly, again and again, that even luminol would produce no reaction. Her sharp sense of smell detected every minute droplet of blood that had scattered when she grabbed the man's wrist, and she wiped it all away completely. The remaining metal items were bundled into a plastic bag and stuffed into the depths of her bag to be disposed of in a deep river later.
She smoothed the wrinkles from the sheets and adjusted the pillow's position. The air in the room was completely reset. There remained nothing to indicate that a man had here committed arbitrary violence and completely vanished from the world. It was perfect cleanup.
Yui stared at her own hands. Not a trace of blood remained, not even in the gaps of her nails. The face reflected in the mirror was still that of an ordinary seventeen-year-old girl with sallow complexion. Only the golden ring deep within her eyes grew quietly deeper in its intensity. There was satisfaction. The devouring hunger that had tormented her so intensely—that sensation of her insides being burned—had vanished like a lie. The heat that had made her feet unsteady faded, and her body felt incredibly full.
V
But peace did not last long. Two nights later, Yui would again notice those ominous signs.
"...No. That can't be," Yui murmured in despair from a corner of the waiting room, pressing her hand to her abdomen. Deep in the pit of her stomach, that terrifying, searing heat was beginning to smolder once more, crackling like
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