Chapter 8: Baby
Gori, gori.
Go kin, goki.
Go rin, gori, baribari.
Such strange sounds of eating fall on the sandy beach at night.
The ghost of the poor pregnant woman, who remained trapped in the sea even after death, is being eaten. What spills out of her torn stomach is not a fetus, but disgusting fish eggs enveloped in a viscous liquid.
Her arms are neatly sliced off with a silver knife, her legs are torn off, her bre*sts are sliced off, and her head is bitten into. And so she gradually loses her original shape.
Boki poki, poki.
Gori. Garigari.
Bakibaki, pakin.
Guchi ~ya.
It wasn’t just the pregnant ghost that was being eaten, but the victims who had been clinging to her as well.
No matter how many ghosts he eats, it is meaningless to this evil spirit in the form of a silver-haired, red-eyed high school boy. He is always hungry, and no matter how many ghosts he eats, he always reaches for the next one.
While eating the pregnant ghost, he reaches out and grabs the leg of the ghost of a man whose name he does not even know. He thrusts the silver knife into the top of the resisting ghost’s foot, and a scream that could be heard from the pits of hell bursts from the ghost’s mouth.
Aaaaahhhh, aaaaahhhhh.
Aaaaaahhhh, aaaaaaahhhhhh.
We’re being eaten, we’re being eaten, he’s going to eat all of us.
How pitiful, having just been dragged into the sea by a pregnant woman.
Just when they thought they would finally be freed from the sea, they find themselves inside the stomach of a high school boy. No matter how much they resist, they have no choice but to be eaten.
“…….”
Houzuki watched Yuiru’s mealtime with a composed demeanor, as if she had grown accustomed to it.
How many times had she witnessed his meals by now?
Holding down the struggling ghosts, he would shove their legs and arms into his mouth, crunching bones and tearing flesh as he ate them. How many times had she seen him do this?
“I wonder what kind of eggs these are.”
Otoya muttered, looking down at the sticky, liquid-covered fish eggs scattered at his feet.
Each egg was about the size of a baseball. They were countless, littering the night beach and adding to the eerie atmosphere.
He tentatively touched the surface of one with his fingertip and felt something wriggling inside the shell. Quickly pulling his finger back, he wiped the slimy residue on his clothes.
“Are they some kind of creature’s eggs?”
“If something this strange is found on the beach, the locals will definitely report it.”
He grabbed one of the eggs firmly and then,
“There you~ go!”
He threw it into the night sea.
Pochan. (TN:Plop.)
The egg fell in an arc and disappeared into the water. Since it didn’t float back up, it likely sank into the sea.
Otoya continued tossing eggs into the sea one after another. Houzuki followed his example, throwing the eggs into the ocean as well.
Her hands felt slimy and unpleasant, and she wanted to get rid of the feeling as soon as possible.
“Aren’t you going to break those eggs?”
Yuiru, still eating, turned to Houzuki and asked over his shoulder.
“You’re also curious, aren’t you? About what will hatch from those eggs, about what this woman was nurturing inside her belly?”
Yuiru held up the ghost of the pregnant woman, now reduced to just a head.
This malevolent spirit, who believed her child would return if she dragged people into the sea, had lured numerous beachgoers to their deaths. Why she thought this would bring her deceased child back remained a mystery.
Houzuki was also curious about what was lurking inside the slimy eggs. She looked down at the egg in her hand, which seemed to demand attention.
Gently, she placed the egg on the sandy beach. She found a suitable stone nearby and, with a determined expression, prepared to break the egg open to uncover its secrets.
“You’re better off not doing that.”
Otoya stops her.
“Why is that?”
“It’s nothing good for sure. Even if Irune tells you to, you shouldn’t listen to him.”
She understand what Otoya means.
This egg is definitely bad news. It’s better not to break it, and she also understands that it’s better to throw it to the sea as is.
However,
“I’m curious.”
Houzuki raises the rock she’s holding up,
“I want to know so bad it’s unbearable.”
She struck the rough surface of the stone against the egg.
Pakin. (TN:Crack.)
A fracture appeared on the egg. The impact from the stone spread through the entire egg, and eventually, the thing that had been wriggling behind the hard shell began to reveal itself.
A small hand pushed aside the shell. Emerging covered in sticky fluid was a tiny baby.
“Hiih”
Houzuki let out a startled scream, tossing the stone away.
The baby crawling on the sand had no hair and was wrinkled all over. Its eyes were closed, and drool dripped from the corner of its half-open mouth.
Uttering strange, gurgling sounds, the unsettling infant wriggled towards the sea. A wet trail marked its path across the sand.
Aah, aah.
The small baby cried, as if calling out to something, moving towards the water’s edge. When it reached the shoreline, an incoming wave engulfed the baby, pulling it into the dark sea.
Houzuki could only stare in shock. To be honest, she had no idea what that baby was.
Then,
Pasha~n, pashan.
Pashan. Pasha.
Something small and round floated up to the surface of the sea.
Illuminated by the moonlight, these were identical to the baby from earlier. Their swollen, eyelid-covered faces turned toward Houzuki and the others on the beach, before swimming off into the cold night sea, endlessly.
“I see, the people this pregnant woman dragged into the sea turned into babies and returned to the ocean. In the end, she managed to ‘give birth’ after all. Though it was more like a forced C-section.”
Yuiru threw the last ghost clinging to the pregnant woman into his mouth. Clasping his hands together quietly, he uttered the words to conclude his meal.
“Go chi sou sa ma de shita”
