Yuno Gasai hadn't believed anyone would save her.
Or rather, she no longer intended to live with the hope of being'saved'.
She hadn't expected Sen Getsusa to actually come.
"Didn't you know how to survive on your own?"
"No," Yuno Gasai laughed. "I didn't expect to be locked up so suddenly. I didn't even have a chance to call the police."
She blinked and toyed with Sen Getsusa's hair, making it tickle.
"You should have called the police long ago. So I wasn't mistaken; you really did have bruises on you that day."
Sen Getsusa was very certain.
"Yes. That was the plan: accumulate more and more injuries, and then perhaps solve it all at once to make them lose custody."
Yuno Gasai explained her plan. "Just as I was about to call the police, Father found out."
"And then he locked you in the Underground Room?"
Yuno Gasai nodded. "Probably because it was too much trouble, so he wanted to make me 'disappear'?"
Returning to the first floor, Yuno Gasai looked at this home where she had lived for many years, but a sense of estrangement welled up in her heart.
"I'm never coming back," she murmured.
The two of them chatted relaxedly. Sen Getsusa took out her phone, preparing to call an ambulance and report to the police.
"Where are you going?"
Suddenly.
A third voice rang out abruptly in the house.
"Where are you going, my dear daughter?"
The security door at the entrance had been opened at some point.
Looking from the dim interior, two figures stood at the doorway.
Their necks, connecting to their heads, were bent at an unnatural angle, their faces turned almost 180 degrees.
The mild-mannered couple walked in with their heads dangling. They changed their clothes and slippers as if it were normal, casually greeting Sen Getsusa and Yuno Gasai as they were about to leave.
"Where are you going?" Seeing no reply, the couple's heads turned in unison.
Their necks grew longer and longer, their faces hanging upside down in front of their chests, looking coldly at Yuno Gasai in Sen Getsusa's arms.
"Where are you going?" they asked repeatedly.
"Going to eat. Do you want to come?" Sen Getsusa nodded nonchalantly. "Sorry to intrude, I'm Nobi Nobita. Yuno's friend. We made plans long ago to eat together today."
"Eat? Eat. Tea? Pour tea, pour tea!" The man muttered to himself, his incoherent words spilling out like lines from a star in a low-quality idol drama—a boring, robotic delivery that only Sen Getsusa and Yuno Gasai could sense.
The woman beside the man seemed oblivious, or perhaps she herself was part of the abnormality.
She suddenly stretched her neck, her head crossing several meters of distance to stop right in front of the two!
"Mother..." Yuno Gasai gripped Sen Getsusa's arm tightly, her palms unknowingly drenched in sweat.
Her mother's gaze was just as it was on ordinary days, gentle yet critical—if one ignored that long neck. Yuno Gasai might even have thought it was all an illusion.
The woman's face floated before them, her long neck twitching impatiently like a tail, as if indicating her patience was running thin.
She moved forward, closer and closer, pressing right against Yuno Gasai's face, her eyeballs scanning the girl's face back and forth.
"Tea?" She smiled stiffly.
"Then, excuse the intrusion."
As soon as Sen Getsusa finished speaking, the neck pulled the woman's head and began moving frantically. Her body followed with large strides, stumbling and knocking over countless items before finally dragging itself into the pantry.
"Please, have a seat," the man said politely to Sen Getsusa.
"Those aren't your parents anymore," Sen Getsusa whispered softly to Yuno Gasai in her arms. "Or at least, not entirely. We can't leave now; we have to stay. Trust me."
Sen Getsusa could feel Yuno Gasai's fingers still gripping her arm tightly; she felt certain her skin had been scratched open.
But the girl's gaze was firm.
When she looked up, there were still traces of tears mixed with blood at the corners of her eyes, running down to her chin, giving her a strange, tragic beauty in this situation.
"I trust you," she said softly. Then she let Sen Getsusa put her down, slowly moving to the seat Sen Getsusa indicated—a large sofa with a high back and high armrests that almost semi-enclosed her.
Yuno Gasai sat inside, looking like a little squirrel nestled in a giant tree hollow.
"See, that's better." The man ignored their whispering. He reached out, and his wife's head flew out of the pantry, carrying a teacup in her mouth.
"I won't hurt you, as long as you leave her here."
The woman stumbled out and fumbled her way to a seat beside the man. Their heads swapped positions in front of Sen Getsusa, taking turns staring at her.
"Chaos?" Sen Getsusa tested.
The man nodded, his head swaying along with his neck. "I was wondering why a normal person would be so calm. So, you've seen us before? What a lucky 'Contactee'. So, what is your choice?"
He changed his posture and crossed his legs, seemingly thinking of a way to persuade Sen Getsusa. "You shouldn't be of age yet. It would be such a pity to die here so young."
After saying that, the man suddenly chuckled.
Along with the raspy sound, clouds of grayish-white mist appeared, spreading rapidly like waves. Within seconds, the entire hall was filled with thick fog.
The two heads in front of Sen Getsusa swayed in the smoke, their necks twisting together, gradually coiling into a rope made of flesh.
The man stared fixedly into Sen Getsusa's eyes, his face becoming distorted as he tightened his neck with force, causing the expression of the woman entangled with him to change, clearly in extreme pain.
"Look, she's going to die! Hahahahahahaha!" The man's head laughed strangely like this, watching the woman who was bit by bit losing her life.
Her eyes rolled back, and she began to instinctively tear at the man with a mouth full of shark-like teeth, screaming shrilly and trying to thrash him; the body connected to the neck began to twitch, and her arms waved and grasped unconsciously.
Unfortunately, she only caught clumps of mist, then watched helplessly as they dissipated in her palms.
The woman's head and body lost their life just like that; the head went limp beneath the man's neck, drooping like an exquisite human-head pendant.
"Dear daughter, I killed the mother who abused you. Am I a good father?" The man panted heavily. His eyeballs moved up and down, and his face flickered between distorted and calm.
"Praise Chaos!" As if receiving some instruction, he suddenly raised his head high and shouted with all his might!
"Praise—"
Sen Getsusa, who had been watching the lunatic's performance with an expressionless face for a long time, suddenly sprang up from the sofa and kicked over Yuno Gasai's chair!
The girl covered her mouth, her eyes wide open, seemingly trying to see every one of Sen Getsusa's movements clearly.
She fell straight back, carried by the sofa, the huge sofa covering her like a fortress.
The posture was unsightly, but safe.
Sen Getsusa glanced at Yuno Gasai, who was protected by the sofa, and then unhurriedly pulled a silver, shimmering steak knife from her pocket.
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