Chapter 558: A Past That No Longer Matters

“…Hana, you okay?” Vanessa and Tsubasa appear, pulling me out of a shredder. Because of one wrong word from me, those damned things had strung my body up over some bizarre shredder that just kept grinding my legs and thighs every time they regenerated.

“I-I’m…” I say, gasping in pain as my body heals. Tsubasa hands me some new clothes, and I wonder why they came here.

“Pandora’s here.”

“Oh…”

“…” I put the clothes back on and follow the two of them out of this place. For some strange reason, the place has grown a lot in the last few days, and all those things have gotten smarter, more active…actually, I don’t think it’s that they’ve gotten smarter.

It’s more like they’ve become more ’emotional,’ which unfortunately means they get even more easily irritated by the smallest things.

“…She’s over there…” Vanessa points to Pandora, who’s at the school entrance talking to the principal. We end up heading over.

A bunch of other classmates are also drawing near, because if we don’t show our respects, we could be in trouble anytime, since Pandora is the goddess of these things and they demand respect.

There’s even a rule about worshiping Pandora, but it’s a very vague rule. They don’t force us to come here and worship her every time she shows up, but if we don’t worship her, they can, if they want, say we broke the rule, or they can just ignore it.

And even though they’d probably ignore it since they’re too busy worshiping Pandora, it’s still better to try and avoid that.

’What did that abomination come here for?’ I wonder as Pandora glances around and smiles maliciously. Her gaze pauses for a moment on my legs, stained with blood from just having gotten out of a torture session.

“I see most of you came to greet me. How…quaint. I trust you’re all enjoying your stay in my personal paradise, right?”

’Paradise?’ The irony and mockery in that phrase are unpleasant, but everyone just agrees with her while some of this place’s inhabitants watch Pandora curiously.

“Number one…”

“P-Please forgive me!! Let me out, Pandora!! Please!!” Suddenly, Kaori throws herself at Pandora’s feet, begging with tears in her eyes. Number one, who’s the school principal, glares at her like she wants to tear her apart for getting so close to Pandora.

’What the hell is that idiot doing!!!’ I’m terrified, and several other students flinch too, because what Kaori is doing could mean punishment for everyone.

“…” Pandora looks down at Kaori at her feet like she’s garbage, and it looks like she’s about to step on her head and crush it.

“Y-You’re Japanese too, aren’t you!!! Why can’t you just forgive us? I-If it’s about the bullying we did to you, p-please forgive me!! I-I understand now that I was wrong!” When Kaori says this, Pandora looks even more furious.

“Hahaha, so apparently all you little heroes know… My dear inhabitants… leave.” The moment Pandora says this, all the natural inhabitants of this place rush into the school, and even Number one, who’s usually so domineering, dashes right past us and disappears, leaving us alone with Pandora.

“There are twenty-three of you here. A few are missing, but that’s fine… Kaori, you’re begging for forgiveness, and I believe mentioning the fact that I’m ’Japanese’ is a way to appeal to sympathy because we’re from the same place…”

“…”

“But… Kaori… what are you sorry for?”

“H-Huh?” Kaori looks up, confused, and sees the disturbing look Pandora is giving her. It’s the look she would have seen if she wasn’t the stupid person who threw herself at Pandora’s feet.

“You’re not sorry, Kaori. You’re in so much pain that you’re confusing suffering with regret. But you’re not truly repentant; you just want the suffering to stop. So now you’re begging for a way out from the person who is your jailer.”

“But let’s do this, Kaori. Tell me who I am. Let’s play this little game. Since you were the only one who came to beg for forgiveness… if you guess who I was before, I’ll set you free from this place.”

“And if the others guess correctly, I’ll give them two months without being tortured here. And of course, I’ll have all the others tortured even more brutally for those two months.”

“That means, Kaori, you’ve earned your chance at salvation, but you’ve also condemned all your classmates to an even worse torment for the next two months.” When Pandora says this, everyone glares at Kaori with hatred.

’You stupid fucking bitch!!’ Kaori instantly became a target. If she’s wrong, everyone here is going to hurt her the moment they can for making our situation worse. She’s undoubtedly become a giant target.

And Pandora knows it. She used this chance to sow hatred among us, and it worked, because even I want to beat the shit out of this stupid whore who just needed to keep her mouth shut.

“W-Who are you? I-I…” Kaori looks around at everyone. It’s obvious this bitch doesn’t know, because everyone here bullied a lot of people. There’s no way to know who Pandora is, because she doesn’t look like anyone we knew in the past.

“Come on, Kaori. Don’t tell me you bullied so many people that you’ve already forgotten me? That… makes me angry. Am I that forgettable? Was my life worth so little back then that you can’t even remember me now?” Pandora presses, a diabolical smile on her face.

“K-Kyritsuga?”

“…” When Kaori says a name, everything falls into an uncomfortable silence. Some hope she’s wrong, but a few already know she is.

And the reason she’s wrong is obvious. A lot of people here don’t even know who this girl she mentioned is. Pandora could only be one of the people this whole class bullied. So, there’s a limited number, even if it’s large, since we had pretty extensive bullying groups with a variety of targets.

“Too bad… you’re wrong. Honestly, it’s kinda pathetic… The rest of the students here can start naming names. Each of you gets one chance.” Kaori’s face shows desperate realization that she’s lost her chance at freedom. She collapses in tears while Pandora ignores her.

A few start rattling off names quickly, while others think carefully, because two months without torture would be wonderful.

’Who is Pandora? Who the hell is this girl? There can’t possibly be this many options, right?’ I bite my lip, looking at my brother. I can’t believe we hurt so many people that with over twenty people here, no one can figure out who Pandora is.

“You know, this is truly pathetic… but I guess it was to be expected. You see, heroes, the victim of bullying never forgets being a target, but the aggressor always forgets the victims, because the victims never really mattered.”

“What’s the point of begging me for forgiveness if you don’t even know what you did to me? Hehehe, but it’s fun to see you trying so hard… Unfortunately, the ten of you who said ten different names were all wrong. Those of you who haven’t said anything yet, be careful.” Pandora toys with our psyches, making some cry from the stress of the torture to come.

“…” Those who have already figured out that Pandora must be someone who was affected in some way by everyone here start listing names, and Pandora tells them they’re wrong. This gives the next person a better chance of being right.

’…’ I stare at Tsubasa, as if the answer could be found in him. He stares back at me, and I can see he’s scared of what’s coming.

In the end, everyone takes their guesses and fails, leaving only me and Tsubasa, who didn’t say anything because fear outweighed the desire to speak.

“So it’s just you two left. Tsubasa and Hana, the ’smart ones’ of your little group. Can you tell me who I am? Let’s be brief, I’m busy expanding this universe and I’d like to send you off to some painful torture soon.”

“Are you Fujimoto?” Tsubasa says a girl’s name, his voice tense. Pandora gives an evil grin.

“Wrong.”

“…” Tsubasa looks at me, then looks away. Now Pandora stares at me with that demonic smile while I think over the options.

’There are still five girls left… How the hell would I know which of these five girls… Wait, she said me and Tsubasa were the smart ones in the little group?’ I look Pandora right in the eyes.

Now that I think about it, Pandora focused too much on my group. She clearly tortured everyone here brutally, but she had an extra focus on my group.

’Someone who would have a special hatred for my group, and a strong hatred for the whole class… Is there really one… wait…’ I think about Amiya. Amiya didn’t come to this place to be tortured.

And what really catches my attention is Amiya’s ability, which changed her gender. What if… Pandora wasn’t a girl in the past? What if we were aiming in the wrong direction?

’A guy… Pandora could have been a guy in her past life… What guy could have hated us this much?… Maybe…’ The options are fewer than before, even though it’s now between five girls and six different guys.

’A guy that everyone here bullied… maybe…’

“Were you Takashi Nakamura?” When I say that name, everyone looks at me confused, but Pandora’s eyes fly wide open and her expression loses that sadistic smile.

“…” Everyone stares at Pandora, shocked. Her reaction shows I’m right, and what shocks everyone the most isn’t just that I guessed correctly, but who Pandora was in the past.

“H-Hahaha, you gotta be kidding me, right?” Kaito says incredulously, staring at Pandora, whose expression has turned dark. She looks at me with such immense hatred that I take a step back.

“Congratulations, Hana Watanabe… you’ve earned two months of protection from torture in my personal paradise.” Her tone makes me regret getting it right.

“You know, Hana… it’s curious that you were the only one to get it right.” She starts walking towards me. Everyone moves away from me as I stumble backward, tears falling. Each step she takes towards me terrifies me more.

“What gave me away? I thought everyone here was too self-centered, arrogant, and conceited to think a little outside the box, but of course, you’re smart. You were always smart, so it makes sense you’d get it.” She crouches down to almost my eye level, but still slightly above.

“I-I’m sorry…”

“Why are you apologizing, Hana? You should be happy. You earned two months of protection. That’s good, isn’t it? You can do pretty much anything, enjoy it like a wonderful vacation.” She smiles again, an almost gentle smile.

And with that, I understand. This being isn’t Takashi Nakamura. Maybe it once was, a long time ago, but not anymore. Now it’s just a monster with memories of a past that doesn’t matter.

“Scared because you revealed my past? I’m not an unfair person. You earned your protection. I won’t hurt you.” She touches her finger to my stomach, her finger slowly sliding up until it passes over my throat like a death sentence.

“Actually, I congratulate you. It shows you have some sense of self-awareness. You understand your mistakes well. You understand well that you hurt a lot of people, and you understand who it was you hurt the most.”

“It’s true, I’m surprised someone figured out who I am. I never planned to reveal myself, but now that it’s happened, there’s not much to be done about it, is there? But, Hana… actions have consequences… you know how it is, right?” When Pandora says this, a huge black bubble appears, covering the whole school and a bit beyond.

“…”

“This is a reality bubble. You will never leave the school grounds again. I don’t want any other guests I bring to this universe to know about you.”

“Hana, since you couldn’t forget me, now I’ll make this whole universe forget you exist. You’ll stay inside this reality bubble, trapped in this school forever.”

“Before, you had the benefit of exploring the city, seeking entertainment, or whatever else.”

“But thanks to you and your big mouth, no one will see the outside ever again. Only the natural inhabitants of this universe can enter or leave this reality bubble.”

“Hana, you are the weak monsters who started this game when you thought you had power. And I am the monster who learned, grew, and became the best player in the games you taught me. And with that, I created my own game, where I will always be the absolute top.”

“After all, weren’t you the ones who always had games where only you could win? Be happy—you managed to create something so terrible that it spiraled out of control. Isn’t that funny?”

“So, to everyone here, I hope you enjoy your eternal stay in the most painful, repetitive, and monotonous hell in existence.” Pandora stands up and starts to leave, laughing at us.

“…” And I realize I’ve condemned us all even more by telling them who she was. One of the few things we still had was being able to leave here and see the city with all its different things. But now, we’ll only have this school and nothing else.

And most of them realize this immediately. They start looking at me with as much hatred as they looked at Kaori. It’s obvious no one here would have had the courage to reveal that Pandora was Takashi Nakamura to anyone, but Pandora doesn’t care and used that as an excuse to screw us over even more.

She ’prevented’ anyone here from revealing who she was to any outside visitor like Akari or Velvet. She really buried us with the past, as if we were nothing more than old trash.

“I-I’m sorry… e-everyone…” I apologize, crying, as despair hits me hard because of the even worse future we’ve just created. And all because of that bitch Kaori, who didn’t know how to keep her mouth shut.

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