IV. This world full of Mysteries, Oddities, Delusionals and Bullies II

A lamp was suddenly turned on from a view full of darkness with nothing to see. But it was just a small lamp which could focus on a single spot. Imagine an emcee at the stage of a program which was being focused by a single cylindrical ray of light. Not every source of light could simply light up an entire room until everything could be visible.

Under the focus of the light was Anemone.

She woke up. She noticed that she were tied at the chair she was sitting at. She looked at her body and still saw the clothes she had been wearing that day. She tried to break free from her bounds but as she struggled the tightness of the ropes strengthened too. The sudden change on the environment made her looked anxious. A while ago she was just playing at Fred’s studio with Kyrie and Ara but now she had been transferred to an abandoned warehouse near the port.

Will she be shipped to a foreign country?

Will she be sold off as a slave?

Will she be tortured by a mafia and sealed on a container with cement and be thrown off towards the coast?

Those were the thoughts that should be running at her mind at that moment.

She looked at her left

She looked at her right

But the darkness of the room in contrast to the pale light that had been focused on her was making it hard to fully determine the silhouette she had been seeing from the dark.

She had to go to her last resort.

“Hello?! Guuuuys? Don’t scare me like this…? Helloooo?”

---

(Few hours ago)

“Ah crap she passed out.” –Seria confirmed through checking the pulse of the passed out Anemone.

That was not a scene of a leader of a yankee group ganging up with a single helpless little girl just to extort money to buy food. In fact it was not also a scene where you actually caught the culprit lurking within the remaining alive members of your group in a mystery thriller film that you have to knock her unconscious.

It was just a straight act of bullying a defenseless little loner girl amongst the class full of meanies.

There were seven people at the room including the bullied one. As to their reasons why they did not stopped Kyrie even though seeing her bullying Anemone too much? I could just think myself of certain reasons and just didn’t asked them why.

Kyrie: She’s the root cause of her suffering. Should I even think why?

Fred: Quite not sure about him, he should still be quite wary of her ‘identity’ and she have gave him too much problems recently that’s why seeing her at a miserable state soothed him

Ara: She switched to her aneki-mode and helped Kyrie.

Seria: It didn’t concerned her, she’s not the editor.

Old Man: It didn’t concerned him, he wished he’s not the current editor.

As for me I think I had been quite influenced by Kyrie’s weirdness and just wanted to see someone get bullied every once in a while. Quite a shallow reason.

THUD!!

I chopped Kyrie’s head and talked to her as if I was protecting Anemone’s side.

“Come on now Kyrie. Look what you have done to our guest. You’ve gone too far playing with your friend. Make sure to apologize once she wakes up.”

“Eeeh? Sometimes I really want you to realize that you have been abusing your authority as a landlord already.”

“Hoooh~~ Also please stop talking like a mother. You’re not one yet.” –Ara(aneki) added.

“I-I-It’s not like that. I just got here with Fred by the time you were finished bullying poo Anemone. Hmp!” –I tried to talk my way out of being cornered. I needed to protect my integrity as the landlady. “Right, Fred?”

“Hmm… I guess? Well she’ll be fine. Given her identity she won’t die from something like that.”

Hey hey hey don’t mix delusions from reality!!! We got an unconscious bullied author-to-be here!!

“Gah! Just let her sleep for a while, she will wake up like nothing’s happened. I’ve tested it.”

“No no no you shut up Old man, you reek of alcohol already. Also what tested? You mean you have been bullying her already since day one?”

The conversation had been going nowhere and we’re just pointing out each other with our own mistakes. It was when Kyrie decided to speak up for the whole team of bullies.

“Humu. If I were to speak. I’ve got an idea.”

---

Anemone had been struggling and calling out for somebody available inside the room for about a minute already. She might think everybody’s out due to the darkness but we were actually just standing there circling around her. We have arranged the entire setup to make it look like the interrogation scenes from a detective series that Kyrie had been watching. Of course everything was her idea.

As scripted, I was the very first one to approach her.

“Wha—Landlady? What’s with this? Why have I been tied up? This is practically abuse! I’m going to report you!”

“Hoooh~~ go ahead and try.”

As I tried to make Anemone even more anxious than how she already was feeling, Ara entered the scene too to further amplify the effect.

“My, My, it seems our little queen here still hadn’t got the gist of the situation.”

Kyrie entered too.

“Humu. Barging in her enemy’s domain like it was nothing, and not bringing anything that could protect her. Fu fu fu”

“Ky-Ky-Kyrie-senpai? What’s this about?”

As confused as she was of the current situation, she tried to deduce why were we acting and talking within her same wavelength. It seemed like a part of her being just a normal-normal high school girl and a mangaka had been trying to get in the way of her ‘proper’ decision-making. Several different expressions could be seen from her face.

“Hoooh… So the so-called ‘Queen of Darkness’ was really this weak? I never imagined she would try to pick up a fight with me despite having such little power and small resource.”

“…”

She remained silent for a while and started giggling.

“…Fu fu fu. Fu ha ha ha ha ha!!! You may seems to have underestimated me, Former Maou from a different world.” –She started talking like she usually did. It seemed that she understood our intentions to play longer.

“You might not know, but I have took control of one of your previous highest generals that have been rumoured even stronger than your current pitiful state as of now!”

“Oh, you mean him?”

I took the small lamp, and focused it on the direction where Old man was lying at the floor. He was not defeated though, he was just sleeping due to the alcohol he drank.

“Hahaha… Naïve… NAÏVE!!!”

I was shocked at Fred’s acting. It came in very natural. I wondered if that was just the way he used to talked back at Mytherion. Without any more delay, he moved so close towards Anemone that she could already hear any slightest whisper Fred was about to make.

“Did you really think… Bringing Old man here… will really help the Queen of Darkness… defeat me?”

He sounded evil and sinister yet it was just an act. I wondered how much of those were real. Words alone contained power, by adding an appropriate tone, a whole sentence like that could mentally damage anyone at Anemnone’s situation. She’s fastened at when she was sitting, without anything to defend herself with.

“Humu. I’ve told you already Anemone. Maou Spence is not someone you could just take lightly. It seems like you really took a wrong turn and picked the shortest straw.” –Kyrie added to the pressure Anemone’s already feeling.

“Fwoooosh...” –Ara blew some cold air at her nape.

“Uuuuuu….”

Anemone’s eyes were already swirling with the images of us swirling around her and teasing her. The room’s temperature was cold due to the AC but she had been sweating lots already. Aside from being bound and unable to move, the atmosphere around her indicated she was in a very dangerous situation. The very core of her normal human form and even her eight-grader syndrome form had been telling her to escape already.

But she could not.

Common sense and human ethics could not justify the things we were doing. We won’t be able to get away with justice with what we were doing, but the thing was, there won’t be anyone among us that will help Anemone and testify everything that’s happening within my Apartment complex. I was pretty sure this extent of teasing* won’t escalate that much.

We approached her…

And we approached her again now with more evil intent

And we approached her again smiling mercilessly like predators baring their fangs towards their prey.

And then…

“Uuuu…. UWAAAAAAAAAH!!!!”

A CRAP.

She let out a loud cry.

It was a cry so loud that it could be heard from all over the apartment complex.

The lights were suddenly turned on.

“So. What do we do now? We made a defenseless little girl cry.” –said Seria, who turned the lights on.

“Oh I don’t want to hear that from the one who made the sole idea possible.”

“Oh I don’t want to hear that from the Landlady that still agreed wholeheartedly.”

I was shut down.

Honestly, Seria had been the only one I could not win an argument over. Kyrie could be tough at times but there were times I could score some against her. I’ve tried several times already. She’s always one step ahead of me. It was like, she never engage me on an argument if she knows she’s at a disadvantage. She’s quite a safe player and I’m quite no match from her experience. Just how old was she?

Sigh

I breathed out a sigh and admitted my fault too. It was out idea at the very first place. It was just a little plot to tease Anemone a little. It was not our intention to make her feel so scared at first place. We just got carried away by the amusement being brought upon us by ganging up with a delusional girl like her.

With all that’s said and done, we looked again at the crying Anemone and look towards each other. Seria was trying to escape the accused squad just by looking at us and putting on the “I am your editor” look upon her, so we let her off the hook.

“Whistles… I kind of have to fix some illustrations on my draft… So I’m going to bail out for a while.”

“Eh—We haven’t done anything yet?”

“Awawa… I remembered I’ve got to cook for our dinner!!”

“It’s just mid-afternoon!”

“Humu… My pride is absolute and I won’t yield.”

“Why you—”

At the end only I was the one left to confront Anemone who was currently having a usual tantrum after being bullied. Each and every one of my apprenticed bailed out on me… Even Fred which I put all my life’s trust as partners in crime.

“UWAAAAAAAAH!!”

Oh God she’s crying like a baby.

“Errr… It’s just a joke come on. I’ll free you now.”

“UUU… UUU… UWAAAAAAH!!!”

“Oof… You made her cry Miss Landlady.” –Kyrie’s said an unpleasant comment which really made the veins on my head pop.

Me exploding was inevitable. First I was left out for good by my conspirators to clean up our mess, then I would be hearing an unnecessary useless nonsense joke from the very person which the Idea of the bullying came from.

“Huuuuuh??”

“Humu… Miss Landlady? It was just a joke. A joke. Hehehe… I’ll help untying Anemone now. I’ll make her stop crying too.”

“Call those two and bring your harisen here.”

That late afternoon at Fred’s studio, three consecutive loud critical hits from a strong fan weapon could be heard hitting human body parts.

---

“Awawawa… I’m sorry Anemone.”

“Humu, I’m sorry Anemone.”

“I’m very sorry for all trouble me and my tenants caused”

“Hah?! Why would I apologize from a person who I really don’t know who or where really came fro—”

SLAM!!

I slammed Fred’s forehead towards the table to make him bow down and apologize towards Anemone. He forced his way up to speak.

“Ouch!! What was that for?!”

SLAM!!

I slammed his forehead again of course.

“Alright alright! Just this once!”

All four of us then rose up. Kyrie and Ara had lumps on their foreheads, of course those were critical hits from Kyrie (originally mine’s) harisen*. Fred was the only one different. Besides from the newly added lump at his forehead due to the table slamming, he also had a slap mark on his left cheek and a harisen* hit mark at the right. He was the one damaged the most.

“Uuuu… Hic! Hic!” –Anemone still was unable to talk, and was still sobering.

“Humu. Come on now Anemone, Miss Landlady already scolded us. We won’t do it again. Pff…”

“Hey.”

“Really~~”

I would not want to trust Kyrie even though she confirmed she won’t repeat it again. That moment I wondered if she knew I wouldn’t be able to resist the feeling I once had when teasing Anemone. What made me became such a person. If Tenji was still alive I’m sure he would bite my leg until I acted appropriately.

“YAAAAAAWN!!”

A huge roar of a sleeping lion was heard on the room. Old man had awoken.

“What time is it hon? Oooh I have to cook breakfast.” –Yes he was still half-asleep. It seemed like he’s been talking to his wife that’s not at the current roster of people at Fred’s studio.

It had been a few hours since they gathered at Fred’s studio and during that time Old man and Seria did nothing but drink the stock beer at Fred’s fridge. I’ve asked them to at least replace the stock or bring theirs whenever they would gather here. Old man agreed to and told me he would transfer the payment to Fred’s account. I’ve asked them to, knowing that there would be increasing number of times that they will gather within my apartment complex. Just another woman’s intuition.

“HAH!! HA HA HA!! You’re half asleep you geezer! Who have you been talking to?”

Seria bursted out laughing due to Old man’s pitiable state. It seemed that they have a long-running teasing competition already since they have started working together.

Having realized that he just went sober and was not really waking up from a good night sleep together with his wife, Old man immediate stood up and gained his composure. We just acted that we did not saw what just happened in fear of Old man’s fury.

Having noticed the sobbing Anemone, Old man clicked his tongue out of irritation and threw a pillow towards the ganged-up and crying Anemone.

“What happened? Geez you’re already an old girl. You won’t survive for long in this industry if you will just cry your way out in every situation.”

He voiced out his opinion without even asking why or what happened.

What a nice guardian.

Imagine an irresponsible parent just playing mahjong while letting his kids roam freely everywhere. That’s the kind of situation I saw upon looking onto those two.

“Bu-but… They were the first—” –Anemone tried to reason out but.

“No buts! Whatever situation you encounter, you put upon yourself. You reap what you sow.”

Either it seemed that Old man had been knowledgeable of Anemone’s real intentions as to why she wanted to meet Fred, or it’s just that Old man had just gotten used to Anemone’s delusions.

“Hm-Hmp!! Quite cocky for just a humble servant of the Queen of Darkness. And where were you when I needed assistance? You have been wandering at your lucid dreams. It’s pretty obvious from the way you wake up.”

“Heh. Whatever you say.”

Without us noticing, Anemone was back to her normal smug-delusional character which we quite found annoying at times, but amusing to bully. We didn’t know of anything that could stop Anemone’s child-like crying but Old man reverted her back without even trying.

At that moment I kind of knew already why Old man had been assigned as Anemone’s Editor. It should be the same as to when he was assigned to Fred. Fred grew, not only with his career, but also as a person. Old man was tasked with the very same task.

“Well we did our part, no regrets.” –I spoke up.

“Ah it’s fine it’s fine. I’m sorry too for bringing such an abomination to your unit at a very busy day.”

“Awawawa!! Please don’t refer to Anemone with such. She’s a human being too” –Ara butted in and stopped the ‘Anemone bullying conversation’.

“…” –There was suddenly an awkwardly deafening silence.

“Ah speaking of busy day. I just remembered why we went here at the very first place.”

“It’s way past the proper time already for you to remember something so important. A lot has happened already and it’s waaaaaay past the time you brought that up. Who even goes at somebody else’s apartment unit and immediately goes drinking right away and forgetting their purpose for visit?!”

I ranted towards Old man for something so irresponsible. We also had our share of responsibilities at that day but it was irrelevant to what Old man opened up.

Old man then stood up and approached his carry bag that was suspended on the coat stand. He got something that I supposed to as a draft. He then threw the draft towards the table in front of us and started stating the real purpose of their visit.

“Read this. This is a dummy draft that I asked Anemone to create. I felt like I still have responsibility towards you and at least show you the skill of your potential… no… rival in the upcoming months or years.”

It was a draft.

Fred started reading it. Ara and Kyrie felt the seriousness on the ambiance and went quiet. They have let Fred do the initial actions himself. I could only get a few glances of what he was reading but I could only take quick glances towards what’s on the draft.

From what I could tell Anemone’s strong points were:

Action

Brutality

Profanity

Gore

Everything that has explicit content and not suitable for ages below certain range.

“This…” –Fred let out an expression of interest.

“But the thing here Fred is, contrary to that, she’s quite a bit of a fan of your work, and quite… obsessed with Kyrie.” –Old man pointed out Fred and Kyrie, whom he mentioned Anemone’s points of interest.

“Then why this genre?”

“Fu fu fu. Insolent being… The truth is—”

THUD! – Fred hit Anemone with her very own draft, rolled towards a thick mass of hard booklet stick that would surely hurt if you got hit.

“Ouch! Why did you hit me?!”

“Nothing. I just felt the need. Continue talking.”

“The truth is… Whatever genre I’m trying to write, it always turns out like this.”