The Lying Counselor’s Eloquent Reasoning - Chapter 11
That’s right, this time I’m going to properly spook her out.
Raising the utility knife in front of her, she checked the blade, making a slashing sound, and quickly exited the room with the knife in her hand. She headed for the bathroom. Her mother seemed to be in the kitchen at the moment and was not there. Tomomi switched on the bathroom light and filled the bathtub with water.
When she gets here, I am going to do it on my wrist??
Tomomi crouched by the bathtub and chuckled as she dipped her left hand into the water. Obviously, she wasn’t planning to seriously slit her wrist. She was using a stationery cutter to begin with. There was no way she could create a deep wound capable of being fatal. Even so, that woman would no doubt be horrified when she saw her slitting her wrist in the bathroom. If that happens, so be it. Now she won’t say she’s leaving the house anymore…
But shortly after imagining her mother’s face as such. She noticed that the color of the skin on her left hand had shifted to gray.
“W-Why??”
She was startled. It wasn’t only her left hand that had changed color. Even the skin on her right hand had already turned gray. The same was the case with her feet. Looking fearfully into the bathroom mirror, she saw the reflection of a girl with an eerie gray face…
“Lies… This is not??”
Dropping the cutter from her hand, she was left astonished. She thought she was all healed up.
“I-I am positive this is just the effects of the medicine wearing off.”
That’s right. It’s a coincidence that the effect of the medicine was weak today. If I take it again, it should go away soon. I still have plenty left. She immediately headed back to her room, picked up the bottle of medicine she had kept on her study table, and poured the contents into her mouth. Yes, dozens of pills, all at once.
But no amount of pills could restore the color of her skin.
“Why…”
When I first took it, it worked right away. It didn’t make any sense. How is it possible for a medicine to suddenly change how it works? I didn’t do anything, yet… no, come to think of it, back then?
Then she remembered. The promise she had made to Uroma upon receiving the medicine.
Yes, he had indeed warned her. Never attempt another imitation of suicide again. As long as she complied, the effects of the medicine would last.
“Don’t tell me it’s because I broke that promise that the medicine stopped working?”
She could not believe it, but that was all she could think of. The shock sent a dizzy sensation through her head. It wasn’t intentional. I was only trying to intimidate her a bit…
“O-Oh, yeah! I can simply go over there again and get some new pills!”
She was now grasping at straws. She left the room in a daze.
There, she bumped into her mother. It seemed that she had come to her room to call for Tomomi, presumably for dinner. Despite her refusal every time, she always made dinner for Tomomi.
“Tomomi, your body??”
Her mother also immediately noticed something strange about Tomomi and her face turned pale.
“W-What’s happening?”
“Shut up! Leave me alone!”
Tomomi lost her temper and shouted. She was the last person she wanted to be seen in her current state.
“Tomomi, let’s go to the hospital right away. It’s still open at this hour??”
“I told you before! Don’t approach me again! Stop talking to me! It’s all your fault that I’m like this!”
After screaming at her, Tomomi shook off her approaching mother and stormed out of the house. She had to hurry to Uroma’s place. It was 6:30 pm. Without even her shoes on, she ran through the city filled with the dusk light.
“Tomomi! Hold up!”
Then her mother also rushed out of the house and pursued her. She was without shoes either.
“Don’t follow me!”
“No! Where are you heading to with that body! Stop!”
Tomomi ran with all her energy, but her mother must have been desperate as well, for she could not scatter her easily. Why is she chasing after me so hard? Didn’t she already decide to abandon me and leave the house? Tomomi couldn’t figure out what was going on, and she was constantly irritated as she kept running.
“I told you to leave me alone!”
Eventually, she halted in the middle of the street and shouted to her mother behind her.
“Even without you, I can get along just fine as well??”
“Tomomi, watch out!”
“Eh…”
When Tomomi glanced in her mother’s direction, a motorcycle was right on the verge of crashing into her!
“Aah!”
“Tomomi!”
I’m going to be run over! Or so she thought – but right after that, Tomomi’s body was struck by something rushing at her from the side, and she was pushed towards the sidewalk.
“W-What…”
Amidst the sound of the motorcycle’s brakes, Tomomi raised up and opened her eyes. Then, right in front of her, on the road surface was the limp figure of her mother lying on the ground, apparently struck by the motorcycle.
“No way??”
What a disaster. Her mind completely went blank.