After the shock of finding my little brother and boyfriend in such grotesque condition, I lost consciousness. That same night I woke up disoriented and lost, realizing that I was in my room, I opened my eyes wide.

A dream?

Yes, it was definitely that, there is no way I could have witnessed such a despicable act pulled out from the most twisted nightmares...

Wait... is it currently… dawn?

Looking at my chest as I searched for the sleeping body of my little Masashi, I couldn’t find him anywhere. When I saw my body, on the other hand, I realized that I still have my school uniform on so it’s impossible that I awoke in the morning… what time is it?

To verify that my fears were true, I tried to remove my phone from the pocket of my skirt, it was then that I felt a strange pain in my hand, when I brought it close to my face I realized that my palm was bandaged and my manicured nails were broken.

Striving to cast this fact into the corners of my mind, I checked the time at my cell phone and my heart skipped a beat. It can’t... it’s impossible, this can’t be happening... it can’t...

I entered the messaging app to find the last message I received from Masashi telling me that he would go to look for Seiichi at his classroom. Even so, that was not enough to convince me... starting to lose myself in despair, I entered the call log...

Unanswered calls:
> Seiichi.
> Masashi.

Was what I saw… real?

Dropping the phone on the fluffy surface of the sheets, I unwrapped myself and got out of bed, placing my socked feet into the slippers next to the bed.

Masashi and Seiichi are fine... that was just a nightmare... a nightmare... a...

As soon as I got out of bed in the middle of the darkness of the room I felt a slight pain in my knee, taking the cell phone to illuminate it with the flashlight, I discovered a bruise.

“Huh? When I fe..?”

That’s obvious, when I lost consciousness given the terrible scene I witnessed. A chill ran through my entire body, I got goosebumps and a lump formed in my throat, I also felt a pressure on my chest with that realization.

My throat burned intensely when I blurted out the whisper and my voice sounded terribly hoarse… do I need even more evidence?

***

Atrocious.

Attached to that wall, their limbs had been violently separated from their small and fragile bodies.

Their eyes ripped out of their faces, leaving an unsettling void in its place.

When I got close enough in silence, I was able to realize their identities.

Seiichi’s hazel hair, Masashi’s blonde hair.

And as if this nightmare had been telling me that there was still more to suffer, there was a red message written above them, letters written in blood.

To Miyashiro Yukiko: Can you give me my sweet limbs back? Oh... with which eyes I’ll see you now? I was a very bad boy for stealing your time...~
-With love, Nakahara Masashi.

I vomited.

“We are tough guys! We won’t die that easy~”

“Do you promise?”

“I promise.”

LIAR!

YOU’RE A FUCKING LIAR, MASASHI!

YOU PROMISED ME THAT YOU WON’T EVER ABANDONE ME LIKE THIS!

 Why...? WHY!?

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!”

A putrid smell that almost makes me cough appeared suddenly.

A dense fog that almost forced me to close my eyes too.

My throat cannot stop emitting that ominous and loud sound, it hurts a lot.

My hands are bleeding, blood drops resulting from spiking my nails into my palms fall to the floor.

I will never forget that sight...

Two of the people I loved the most were taken with horrible appearances from this world straight to the deepest hoop of hell.

And then my world went dark.

***

Almost in panic and with tears about to flow, enduring the urge to scream intensely, I quickly left my room and went into the living room.

A hauntingly realistic scene awaited me there, striking the finishing lunge right in my chest.

My mother sitting by the table with a shocked facial expression was talking with two micros on top of the table. When she heard me arrive she took her eyes off them and directed towards me.

What does this mean?

The expression on my mother’s face is… too sad… I… I’ve never seen her like this.

Suddenly she got up from her chair, leaving my father and the other micro of unknown identity to me and she pounced on me, wrapping her arms around my body.

“Yuki...”

Using the affectionate nickname that she always calls me by at specific times, my heart fluttered at the tone of her voice and the meaning behind that hug. Her voice with regret and the force with which she hugged me made me wake up from the placid dream that I had been having until now.

The dream in which Masashi and Seiichi were still alive.

They are gone.

A couple of minutes later, my mother released me with the corners of her eyes full of tears, somehow it seems that she was holding back the urge to cry...

“Are you okay?”

“Mom...”

My hoarse voice struggled to pronounce those words that hurt when trying to get out of my chest.

“Honey! What happened to your voice!?”

“Seiichi… Masashi…”

Her expression previously impressed by the hoarse tone of my voice was once again a downcast look of resignation.

“Yuk-“

“…”

I pulled away the arm that my mom dubiously reached toward me with a loud clap, then turned and ran to my room.

After slamming the door, I threw myself on the bed and hugged a full-body pillow, crying hard. There’s nothing I can do about everything that is happening… they… my brother and my boyfriend… they are both…

“A-aaah...”

My weak voice emitted a sob drowned out by the pillow that was put in my mouth, letting my feelings that were paralyzed until now flow, I could not believe everything that was developing so fast... if it weren’t because I saw that grotesque scene myself...

A gentle and delicate voice that at the same time was masculine spoke into my ear after I could feel the bed partially sag to one side which I didn’t paid much attention to. That voice however was as familiar as mom’s.

“Yuki… honey… can you… look at me for a moment?”

Hearing my father’s voice at first I did not want to turn my head for him to see my pathetic face full of tears and snot with a shameful expression… however, a moment later I changed my mind due to a simple factor. My brother and boyfriend just died, but for Miyashiro Orochi, his son was brutally murdered by someone hundreds of times his size.

Closing my mouth, I pulled my face away from the pillow I was hugging and directed my face towards him, standing on the mattress very close to my head.

“Wow... look at you... there are many snot and tears on your cute face. This reminds me of when you were younger and you cried about any number of things…” Dad forced an awkward giggle.

I didn’t know what to answer, I just want to cry… I want to mourn the death of two of the most important people in my life… there’s nothing that I can say at this moment that is worthwhile, so pouting, I nodded softly.

“You know... Yuki” getting closer and closer, dad approached so much to my face that it got complicated to see him, I could feel his hands touching my wet cheek just to fill his own hands with tears that at his scale must be a big water source—. Do you know that if a micro and a normal-sized person were trapped on a desert island… and the regular person cried, the micro would never have to worry about water? —His barely perceptible little hands caressed my cheek covered by tears that did not stop flowing.

Somewhat surprised by his sudden question, I did not see fortuitously answer something related.

“Aren’t you sad...?”

That was the last thing I wanted to ask him, but for a moment I felt a bit angry… your son died in a grotesque way! This is not the moment for... questions like that...

“Yuki... your mother and I have been preparing for this moment since we met you...”

“Huh...?”

When I opened my eyes more than before, surprised, I sat up in bed without clearly understanding the meaning behind his words, crossing my legs I sat down and took his tiny shape between my thumb and index finger with extreme delicacy to release him on my free palm a moment later.

“Uoh, thanks.”

Then I raised my hands to bring him to the level of my face to see and hear him clearly.

“Yukiko, I’ll be honest with you ... we’ve never told you this but... the day Seiichi was born as a micro, we didn’t celebrate his birth... instead, we cried for him.”

They… cried?

“You... didn’t you loved him?”

My mother now in front of me shook her head in silence as my father spoke with his masculine voice contrary to his small size.

“Of course we do... we loved him like you have no idea, Yukiko, as much as we love you.”

His fragile figure standing on my hands made it difficult to imagine that this tiny person was the father of a person like me since I surely look gigantic from his perspective, just by forming a fist I could...

“So… why…?” Focusing my gaze on him, I brought my face full of doubt closer, probably bathing him in my irregular breathing from crying.

“That’s because... your mother and I know perfectly the fate of micros in this society... the cruel fate that many of us have... that’s why from the day Seiichi was born we began to prepare for this moment...”

“But no matter how hard we try, it’s impossible not to suffer, darling, losing a son is not something you can prepare for even after a lifetime repeating to yourself ‘this is probably the last day of your child’s life’” the voice of my mother broke, falling silent and looking down.

Then I understood what these two people were referring to...

Some time ago, just when I started dating Masashi, my parents told the two of us about the day they met. Apparently when my father was in high school and my mother in college, a normal-sized girl was about to end my father’s life, that’s when my mother (who was just passing by, visiting an ex-teacher of hers in said high school) appeared to save him. My mother always hated the inequality between micros and regular people. Since then he fell in love with her… I can’t blame him… when she saved his life she probably looked like the most beautiful and kind person at his eyes; at first my mother was not very interested on him but after a while he managed to captivate her heart after hanging out during a couple of months. It was then that they both started dating.

That’s why they know the fragility of the life of a micro in this world... it’s because that was the reason that brought them together, the inequality that exists between the two sizes that a person can possibly have.

Not being able to bear it anymore, I delicately brought the hand with which I was holding dad to my face and closing my eyes, I pressed him softly against my cheek... to which he responded with a barely perceptible hug.

My sobs broke out again, I couldn’t hold it back any longer and I burst into tears once more now with my father on my cheek. My mother hugged me protectively as soon as I started to cry, sobbing weakly next to me and leaning her head from mine.

I… miss you…

“A-aaaaah...”

But they will not return.

***

The micro that was next to my mother and father in the living room was a professor at my school, he explained more details about what happened with Seiichi and Masashi but although I didn’t want to listen, I forced myself to recognize their cruel fates.

As I knew, their bodies were in gloomy states, however, the unknown fact to me was that both corpses were covered in a transparent, sticky liquid with a characteristic smell. That was horrible information that I wish I hadn’t known because it brought me a little closer to knowing how agonizing their final moments were...

***

Back to present. Hanichi high school, Miyashiro Yukiko’s third year.

“Are you... Miyashiro Yuki...ko?!” When she spoke that last syllable, the small body in her fist exploded into a mixture of blood and organs scrambled by the tremendous pressure of her grip.

This is not good... I’m going to lose control...

Crimson.

My eyes are stained with that color since that day...

Somebody help this girl before...

Before I knew it, my body moved quickly towards her, raising my arm quickly, my hand took her throat and I hit the girl against the wall with a blow from her head. An enormous force took control of my body and then I began to choke her.

“W-what the...” Trying to speak, the words could not come out properly due to me tightening her throat, realizing this, I lightened my grip a little, keeping her pressed against the wall behind her.

Realizing that I was able to control my own impulses, I sighed deeply in order to calm myself a bit.

“Sekira… isn’t it?”

“W-what’s your problem!?” Coughing a couple of times, I didn’t pay attention to her even though a bit of her saliva landed on my face.

“Do you find fun... killing people?”

“Huh? People? Ah… you mean those pests?”

“… Yes.”

“Don’t tell me you’re another one of those defender of micros...” Smiling in a devilish way, she spoke arrogantly. “Although… it makes sense, with what I’ve heard from yo-“

“Huh? And what is that shitty smile about?” Her smile irritated me. “Uuh? Do you think I’m afraid of you? Too bad but I’m not a miserable centimeter high so you can’t make me explode under your slippers… but… you know what? You should be the one afraid... if only I knew that you are the damn piece of shit that ended the life of my boyfriend and my little brother... I would start to dissect you like the damn horrible frog that you are...”

The smile on her face faded.

“What are you talking about...? I-it’s not easy to hide the death of someone my size, besides, you would become a murderer!”

“Murderer? Haha... hahahahahaha...” I could not help laughing from the bottom of my heart, turning the expression of the girl in front of me in a dismayed one. “Look who’s talking, is the great Sekira afraid and started to babble? I don’t give a shit about being caught, I’ll kill myself before those idiots arrive, I would kill you and then I would suicide...”

“Wh...” I could hear a lump down the throat of the girl, panicking.

“But I’m not interested in you... I know what you do, I know about all the pipsqueaks you’ve killed... you and all those fucking psychotic girls are crazy, I know your history very well, you bitches... but I’m not interested, it’s not you who I am looking for, I have verified that you didn’t killed them” when I released my grip on her, her legs trembled. “But make sure in case you know who it was… tell him, or her, or they… this, ‘Miyashiro Yukiko, the girl whose life you ruined is going after you. I swore on my life that I’ll kill you, you piece of garbage, I’m going to open your guts like a dammed frog and expose your organs at the school entrance... then I’m going to vomit on them and I’m going to kill myself... I’ll make your disgusting death as miserable as the one you provided to those two micros you mercilessly killed... after or before using them to masturbate...’”

The expression on Sekira’s face was difficult to describe, a mixture of fear and confusion filling her trembling countenance.

“And you... I don’t care if you kill someone just because they’re small because that seems to be normal in this shitty world...” I could feel my eyes burning with rage as I spoke.

“What the hell happens wit-!?”

“But...” A blow stopped any replicas, throwing her to the ground. A punch strong enough in the face to send her straight to the floor, luckily, this place was alone at the moment and there was no one around who could witness this spectacle. “If I see something like what you did before happening again, I assure you that something worse than this will happen to you...” Without giving her time to reply, I turned around and continued on my way.

Am I the only human in this hell?

Why is no one else showing their frustration? Why aren’t they mad at someone like her?

She’s a killer! Do something! I know that micros can’t do anything against her but… what about the rest? The people that lost somebody important to them due to psychos like her?

Was that blow… unjustified?

“HEY! T-THAT HUR-!”

Her voice was silenced as I pulled something out of a small purse in my pocket and tossed it next to her, without even turning around, I spat out a few last words.

“Oh, and if something from this meeting comes to light... prepare yourself because tomorrow those photos of you will be hanging even at the entrance... so consider well what suits you best before saying unnecessary things.”

“Huh?”

A variety of small photos of Sekira about to kill micros were scattered on the ground in front of her. Photos taken at the right time that serve as evidence for many unsolved cases of missing or murdered micros.

“H-how…?”

“I’ve been some time doing my work, I’m only asking you not to do nastiness as you did just now, in front of me... I’m fine with just that…” Raising one hand I waved a goodbye and walked away from the perplexed girl still rubbing the place where she received the blow.

I’ve been able to control my impulses better lately, the fact that that girl received just one hit is living proof of that and I’m happy with the hold I’ve gained over my emotions lately.

On my way to buy a drink for me and Inohara, the babbling from Sekira stayed behind while the only sound accompanying me was my slippers crashing on the floor and eventually the voices of other students.

How have I gotten so arrogant in this last year?

***

A year before. Miyashiro Yukiko’s apartment.

A couple of tall guys standing in front of the entrance of my house blocked my way as I was about to leave. Without understanding what was happening, I just stood there staring at them.

“Miyashiro Yukiko?”

“That’s right...”

“We need you to come with us for now.”

This can’t be happening...

“You’re detained due to...”

My head hurts.

“... Being suspected of the murder of Miyashiro Seiichi and Nakahara Masashi.”

My ears, ringing once more.

“…rder of… na…”

My vision is distorted.

“...tack... “

This is a joke… it has to… it has to be… this is impossible… I… I…

Please, stop it…