WARNING: THE FOLLOWING CHAPTER IS M RATED FOR GORE AND BLOOD CONTENT.
I'm back! Sooner than I thought I would. Before we going into another trip, I would like to say a few things relate to the warning above and the content of this chapter. As you can already tell, this story is basically a combination of horror and tragedy stories from many perspectives of every character in the To Aru world and they experience it due to the change of heart of a certain spiky haired boy. Some scenarios in the story might be a little bit too much or even disturbing so I just want give you a head-up first and this time I will apply that to this one chapter. Yes, you have been warned.
About this chapter, it is definitely short and chapters like these will mostly based on the character you know and describe the emotions, the insight view they have toward Kamijou's change of heart. Since this is an experiment story, I don't plan to make these chapters long as it just to explain enough what happened to them during his rampage, both before and after. By the way, last time I did say that this will definitely last about 5 - 7 chapters, didn't I?...uh...well, this idea suddenly came to my head so let's forget about that numbers. (embarassed)
Rafael Da Silva: right, about the second number, I intent to use the comma for that one because when I saved the document while using dot instead of comma, the first ten numbers was automatically deleted by the editor. I don't know the reason why it happened so I decided to just stick to comma. Thank you for telling me, from now on I should just use comma instead of dot for these numbers.
As you said so, this story could be hard to swallow since this is about a hero decided to change his way of life and make everyone around him know what is feel like to experience hell on earth. The theme is pretty dark and this story won't end on a happy note, that is a fact. It might not suit to the liking of many readers so that's why I want this to be an experiment story, partly to explore character and add in another important explanation to the other...yes, for now, it's just to explore.
vietnamese guy: thanks bro, but worry not, I usually go at my own pace so I'm kinda having fun writing these stories, no pressure and no overwork, just pure fun.
Anyway, enjoy~.
Disclaimer: I do not own To Aru Majutsu No Index series.
Through_their_VIEW, IT_reveals
NIGHTMARE_Of_Sphinx
On a certain night…..
Around the time that Academy City residences had gone to their sleep.
A feline named Sphinx was doing the same as he lied comfortably on top the bookshelves that neatly fit into one corner of the room. In the middle of the night, everything was still, dead silence. But the tiny breathing noise of a certain young nun on the bed could always be heard in the cat's sensitive ears.
Like a gentle lullaby, Index's cute sound when she was sleeping made the calico cat feel at peace and it was good. Not to mention a doll sized girl was leaning on his side, taking his fur as a pillow.
The night was peaceful, like usual. The cat enjoyed it.
However, that enjoyment quickly came to an end as the bathroom door in the kitchen made a creepy creaking sound.
Curiosity tickled all five senses, Sphinx woke up and stared at the door slowly opened.
The annoyed creaking sound stopped ringing. A certain spiky haired boy walked out the bathroom in silence.
In a moment, the cat noticed its owner's walking figure seemed staggered and acted strangely. For some reason, Kamijou the owner was clutching a side of his head with his right hand. The scowl on his expression made it looked like he was experiencing some sort of severe pain.
Sphinx observed the boy in pure silence as Kamijou stood in the kitchen for quite a while before he steadily turned his head toward the feline's sleeping spot and the nun on the bed. It felt like he was checking on them.
Cold sweat was dripping on his forehead, something was happening to him, something unexplainable.
With a small sigh let out as he watched Index sleeping soundly, he turned to the cat.
The calico cat flinched when the eyes contact was made.
Somehow, Sphinx had this thrilled feeling crawling up and down on his spine while he stared straight into his eyes. There was something different about it. Those eyes of his owner were abnormal. They were red, blood vessels expanded all over the surface.
A sharp, white slit was visible and it can be seen in the place where the pupil should have been. The color of his iris also disappeared.
No, it changed.
Instead of the color of a bright yet deep blue sea, his iris now carried the darkest shade of a pitch black night sky.
"..ah….it's juSt…..you, SphInx." Sphinx the calico cat heard his owner mumbling something like that under his breath.
His voice was cold, deep. He spoke in the kind of low-key tone that made it sounded like his throat was awfully dried and something was stuck inside it.
Breaking the eyes contact, just like that, he turned away, ignoring the calico cat's presence. Unexpectedly, his hand reached toward a sharp knife placed next to those unwashed dishes.
Holding the object firmly in his hand, the boy stared down at the pointy tip that shot out a gleaming light into his abnormal eyes. Almost as if it was captivating him, telling him to use it right at that moment.
Sphinx kept staring, all he could see was that his owner pointed that sharp knife right at his own face. One thing the cat didn't aware and probably never really saw it coming.
It was a horror sight.
The knife that spiky haired boy often used to make food for everyone in this room was right now thrusting deep into his face, by his own hand. Kamijou carved that knife into his flesh, his left cheek which was hidden from the cat's view. The calico cat's owner had accepted the dangerous temptation from what supposed to be a harmless thing in his hand.
The sound of a human's skin being peeled off echoed loudly in Sphinx's ears and it happened non-stop.
The cat was petrified. But unfortunately, the disturbance won't just consist of that one noise.
As he was hurting himself, Kamijou grinded his teeth in pain while he endured. What could be heard from that was not a pleasant thing to listen, yet Sphinx's sensitive ears refused to ignore it. The cat was forced to hear those horrible sounds for a while until the boy decided to stop his torturous act.
Finally, he did stopped. But the cat came out completely horrified with his hair raising all over his body.
"…daMn it….thisIs no good…." Quietly mumbled again Kamijou Touma.
In exhaustion, the spiky haired boy leaned toward the kitchen sink. The wet, deep red liquid glided down his cheek, dripping onto the cold floor in small drops as the boy tried to control his heavy breaths. That knife he held now became bloody but the boy didn't seem to have any intention of letting it go.
The place where he stabbed the pointy head of that object on his face, Sphinx couldn't see it well but the cat knew his night vision had never played a trick on him. He could smell the blood.
The horror wasn't over yet though.
Kamijou grabbed the tip of the peeled off skin that was hanging halfway on his left cheek and without a moment of hesitation, he pulled.
On the verge of his endurance stepped over the edge of limit, Sphinx was ready to run out of there right that instant. It didn't matter if he had to let the doll sized girl, who was sleeping on his side, hit her head on the ground, he just wanted to get away from that insane owner of his and this nightmare as fast as possible.
But thank goodness, Kamijou still got some sane left to consider and realize what he was doing. He stopped his trembling hands before he could tear off a part of his face as he noticed the frightened look Sphinx directed at him.
"….sorRy,Sphinx…." There was regret in his eyes when he said those words to the calico cat.
Kamijou staggered back into his tub in the bathroom, bringing the knife along with him. The door began closing behind him as he weakly grabbed the doorknob and once again distanced himself from the rest of the world in that small room.
The nightmare came to an end.
However, after seeing all of that, Sphinx could never sleep well for the rest of the night.
…..
….
Morning came.
Sphinx sat in front of the bathroom, staring at the door in curious. The time was still early in the morning, Sun had just risen. Therefore, the other two freeloaders were not going to wake up anytime soon.
The calico cat was tired, but he waited in patience.
Despite what he had seen last night, Sphinx still felt worried for his owner.
As a cat, his senses were very sensitive. The enhanced abilities of an indoor predator gave him a better understanding toward his home. His nose had been tickling for a while by a dense, rusty smell from behind the door. It smelled the same as these dried bloodstains on the floor behind him, the blood that fell down from Kamijou's torn left cheek.
"Nya~."
A water splashing sound came to his ear, Sphinx moved closer to the door frame and kept his nose under the small gap. He could smell a sweet odor of shampoo on the other side.
That spiky haired boy seemed to be in the middle of an early shower in the morning, a rather rare sight for someone who always complaint about misfortune and always goes to class late.
For his owner to wake up this soon, something about that boy was changing. At the time, Sphinx never knew what kind of change that was.
The door opened, causing the pet cat to jolt and jumped back.
Kamijou stood there, looking at the calico cat while he cleaned his soaked hair with a towel.
"Hm? Sphinx, I didn't know you would wake up this soon in the morning." The boy spoke as he hang the towel on his shoulder. Surprisingly, his tone was a lot different than last night.
It was normal and so did his eyes. The white, vertical slit in his pupil had gone and it was covered in the usual, deep blue sea color instead of the dark one.
"Are you feeling hungry? I'm going to start making breakfast right now since I woke up a little bit sooner than expected."
The cat stared at him in silence.
"What's wrong? Is there something you want to say to this Kamijou-san?"
Kamijou bended down in an attempt to pat the cat's head but in an instance, his action was rejected.
"Hisss!" Sphinx the calico cat hissed.
He was lying.
Even though Sphinx's eyesight was poor during the day, but the cat could tell his owner's eyes was swollen with bags appeared under them. A bandage was on his left face, slightly wet.
He didn't sleep at all, he stayed up through the whole night. The hand he stretched out toward the cat to give a pat, even though it had been washed, it still reeked a faint smell of blood. In the corner of his eyes, Sphinx saw the knife on the floor.
Hell, and here he hoped he just saw a nightmare, turned out it was real.
"….ah, I scared you last night, didn't I?" Kamijou smiled wryly as he went and picked up the kitchen tool."Sorry, I didn't mean to. There was some issue I need to take care of."
"Nya!" (What kind of issue requires you to peel off your skin?!) Was what the cat meowed or retorted for its own sake to question the boy's mental stability.
As it he would understand his language, but the cat didn't care, last night was too much too handle. For an owner to treat his pet like that, he needed to take responsible for Sphinx's sleepless night.
The cat kept meowing non-stop, Kamijou didn't know what those vocalizations mean so he walked past Sphinx and threw the knife in a trash can.
The towel on his shoulder, he took it to clean the dried bloodstains on the floor. After that, the slightly red towel was also going into the trash can like the one before.
The boy acted so nonchalant like nothing happened. It gave you the feeling that bandage he put there on his cheek was just a decoration.
Kamijou dusted off both hands and strangely stared at Sphinx.
"Sphinx, are you afraid of me?" he asked with his right hand slowly went toward the cat's direction.
Sphinx took back a few steps and continued hissing, he didn't like the rusty smell coming from Kamijou's hand, not at all.
Just what did this boy do in the bathroom last night with that knife?
Kamijou remained silence at Sphinx's reaction. Without anything to say from both sides, he turned to the kitchen and started cooking.
The cat earned an early breakfast that day.
By the time he finished his meal, the young silver haired nun had woke up and her stomach rang as the delicious smell rose all over the room.
"Touma, is breakfast ready?!" Never mind the manner, Index quickly rushed into the kitchen. Her eyes shined and sparkled while she looked at Kamijou with full of expectation.
In return, the boy gave her a blank look, not at her face but at the state of her pajama.
"Hey, Index."
"What is it?"
"I know you are excited and all about the food but mind what you are wearing after you woke up for me."
"?"
Index stared down at herself. Her shirt was loosened, revealing a side of her shoulder, which caused her cheek to redden and she didn't wear any pant. The sight embarrassed Index to no end and it didn't help her much that she realized it was on the bed.
Covering herself and the pure white undergarment displayed in broad daylight, Index's face became like that of a tomato. She bit her lip and looked at the boy with her eyes narrowed, pouting.
Kamijou didn't really care what she was doing though. He was deadpanned.
"You know, Index. It's okay if you start having a habit of showing your skin during your sleep, they do say that human are mostly free to their desire when dreaming." He was clearly misunderstood."I don't know how in the world things become like this to you but to me, I'm fine with it. If you want to be an exhibitionist like Othinus then I won't stop you, I don't have the right to do that."
A "I heard that, human!" came from somewhere on the bookshelves. Regardless, Kamijou continued.
"Of course, I said I'm fine but it's not like there aren't any restrictions to how much you want to get back to our ancestor's lifestyle. There is just one thing I want to say….." Kamijou gently rubbed Index's head."Try not to catch a cold while you are wearing like that."
Later on, instead of the alarming clocks, a sudden scream woke up all the residents in District 7.
Standing on a side, Sphinx watched his owner entered his normal routine of the day with the young nun, who was giving the boy a good bite on the head.
What happened last night didn't make sense. Right now, he acted just like how he usually would.
"Hm? Touma, your hair smell like shampoo. Did you just take a bath?"
"Heh? Year, I did. What about it?"
"This smell…..Touma! This is my shampoo!" She bit him harder.
"I'm sorry, Kamijou-san was in a pinch so he didn't have much choice! Ouch! Ouch! Such misfortuneeeeee!"
Sphinx wondered, at least he was still the same owner like the cat knew he would. Maybe last night was a dream that mixed up with reality. A cat could dream but it didn't happen often so the confusion might have took place.
"What's with that bandage on your cheek, human?" Othinus the former Magic God asked as she sat on top the bookshelves.
"Oh, this." Kamijou touched the bandage on his left cheek."I was careless and cut myself last night."
He didn't lie, but the way he phrased it didn't seem right either.
The calico began making its way toward the group of residents he had lived with. It was confusing but maybe it was alright to let that nightmare past and forget about it.
There was something strange about his owner yet his normal antic and reaction didn't change much. It all went like how it would usually go.
Sphinx decided he could trust in Kamijou Touma one more time to be under his care.
Hopefully, this life the cat shared with them will not be changed, not by the horror he saw yesterday.
...
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On the sky, a powerful bloody-red beam of light shot down from above the clouds. Before the beam could make an impact with the surface, a sound similar to a broken glass echoed and the massive column of red light disappeared almost instantly.
Several thousand waves of 50 arrows each appeared next and rained down the sky like a heavy downpour. However, like the attack from before, every single arrow was dispelled with just a simple sweep of a right hand.
From afar, in a city burned in flame, standing on one of many pile of rubbles, the calico cat watched the inevitable battle between the two persons he was closest to. Somewhere in the distant clouds, a silver haired girl with angelic wings behind her back kept sending down her magic spell continuously without a stop.
Hence, somewhere behind many broken down streets and buildings, a certain spiky haired boy casually made his way through the desolate paths while he blocked the angel's offensive magic. The boy never took a moment of hesitation to cease her attack effortlessly and unleash the power within his right hand to fight back the girl.
He was on the defensive, the tide of that battle made it pretty much clear to those who witnessed it, including the cat. Yet, little did they know, it was the angelic silver haired girl who was on the defensive. She threw countless high-class magic spells at the monster, who made a havoc of the entire region in less than a day, just so he won't find the opportunity to drag her down from the sky.
The angel couldn't defeat him. For that reason, this fight was more or less a one-sided battle.
Sphinx the calico cat gave a sudden jolt at the shaking ground beneath his feet. One moment, the air was suddenly twisted. People who was trying to get away from the death zone where the battle took place all collapsed on the street.
Somehow, no one could breathe, their throat was strangled like fish on land as if oxygen in the air has been completely drained.
Lying on the floor with a weak lung, Sphinx forced himself to stand up on its four leg. But his body didn't listen, it felt like the gravity just become heavier.
Shortly after, the cat succumbed to its fate and passed out.
In his view, the last sight he caught….
The angelic silver haired nun fell down from the sky with her wings made of magic slowly disintegrated into many particles of light.
…..
...
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He thought he could trust his owner.
He thought nothing would change even after seeing that terrifying act of the boy.
He thought it was alright to ignore and forget about that night.
How sad and mistaken those thoughts was.
Sphinx opened his eyes and woke up, his body was tattered with cuts and dirty.
Aside from the burning flame across the streets, the air was dead silence. The battle was over but the outcome was unknown.
The cat decided to go see what happened to his owner and the young nun. He moved down the street. While on its way to the destination, Sphinx saw the sight of many bodies lying lifelessly on the cold ground filled with dust and ashes.
They were all gone, no one survived the hypoxia. By a miracle, he was the luckiest one to still be breathing and alive.
Finally arrived at the place where the battle took place, Sphinx tried to search for the young nun. The cat went to all the locations he could get to.
Eventually, he discovered a figure walking by behind a thick layer of dust and smoke. The cat hurriedly went over and he stopped dead in his track, growling.
It was Kamijou Touma.
He was right there, he tilted his head a little as he saw the cat observed him while making a low guttural sound of hostility.
His owner can't no longer be trust, he was the cause of all this.
"Grrrr…"
Seeing Sphinx, Kamijou didn't make any movement at all, he just stared at his pet.
The expression his face was making was unreadable, more than passive and less emotional. A moment later, that boy kept walking down the road in silence and disappeared.
The calico walked the opposite way and it didn't take long for him to find the young nun Index. Within his view, he saw her.
She was lying in between ton of rough fragment of concretes that fell out from nearby houses.
"Nya~!"
Sphinx meowed, an attempt to call out to his care taker that he was coming. He didn't know if the girl heard it or not, she didn't move.
The cat stopped right next to her.
Her eyes closed, her habit was tattered and covered in dust. A trail of red liquid can be seen gliding down her face and it has already dried. Around her small neck, a pair of handprint can be seen but Sphinx didn't pay much attention to it, he called her as he kept meowing.
The calico cat tried to lick her hands in hope she would open her eyes and wake up. But there was no respond, there was no reaction from Index.
The girl was sleeping, yet the sound of a gentle lullaby didn't come.
Sphinx thought it like that and he changed to a new tactic, the cat moved closer to her face and touched her cold cheek with its paw.
The cat tried anything, then again nothing he did could make Index opened her eyes.
The young nun wouldn't wake up any time soon.
And probably, she never will…
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Author's note: What do you think?
The whole chapter was told through Sphinx's point of view about the unexplainable nightmare that ruins his world. That calico cat was the closest to him and Index so I decided to explore that connection between him and the boy first.
The next chapter could be based on someone else view and could be chapter 01 so I guess we just have to wait and find out for that.
That's all, review this chapter if you please. I'll see you in the next note.