[Fantasy Ending] Chainsaw Man: Reze Chapter - Fujimoto Tsuki's
Fantasy Novel : Makima and Denji 's Fictional Paradise
Chapter 3: The Blank Space on the Shinkansen
Inside
the Nozomi Shinkansen carriage, a clean scent of premium leather mingled with
the air conditioning filter filled the air . The scenery outside the window was
blurring backward at 300 kilometers per hour, towns, farmland, and telephone
poles all turning into blurry blocks of color.
Denji
sat in the window seat , his body sinking deep into the unreal, soft blue
cushions. His mind, like the view outside the window, was in a state of
"blank" after a period of high-speed processing.
" Denji-kun
, what are you thinking about?"
Makima
sat very close, so close that Yodo could feel the faint warmth of her thigh.
Today she was wearing a soft, light-colored trench coat, and was elegantly
unpacking an exquisite train bento box. The ingredients in the bento box were
crystal clear; the salmon roe shimmered like rubies, and the Wagyu beef fat was
distributed like a work of art.
"Hehe,
it's nothing, Miss Makima!" Denji turned around, revealing his signature
toothless, goofy grin. He took the bento box Makima handed him and began to
devour it without a care for appearances. "I'm just thinking, this feels
like a dream. A trip! And with Miss Makima alone! I must have saved the galaxy
in my past life!"
"Really?
Then Denji-kun should eat more. You're too thin. If you don't eat enough, you
won't be able to protect me properly." Makima took out a lightly scented
handkerchief from her bag and gently wiped the sauce off Denji's lips.
At that
moment, Denji 's heart pounded; it was the treatment he had always dreamed of.
To be needed, to be cared for, to be loved.
But
strangely, deep within that intense throbbing, a chilling sensation was quietly
spreading. It felt like a tiny, yet hard grain of sand had gotten stuck in a
finely tuned gear at full speed. Whenever he felt his most "happiest"
moment, that grain of sand would rub against his nerves, reminding him that
something was missing.
Denji
turned to look out the window, just as they passed an unnamed station platform.
For a fleeting moment, an afterimage seemed to appear on his retina: a girl
wearing a sleeveless vest, her arms wrapped in bandages, standing alone in the
rain. Her lips were moving, as if she were calling his name.
" Denji-kun , let's run away."
These
words struck him like a bolt of lightning . Denji 's hand jerked violently ,
and the salmon roe in the bento box rolled to the ground.
" Denji-kun
?" Makima's voice was still gentle, but her pale yellow eyes were like
bottomless whirlpools, fixed on him.
"Ah...
I 'm sorry, Miss Makima, my hand slipped!" Denji hurriedly bent down to
pick it up, his heart pounding so hard it felt like it was going to jump out of
his throat.
He
began to feel fear. Not fear of Makima, but fear of the ever-emerging memory.
Who was that girl? Why did thinking of her cause a tearing pain in his chest?
"Lei... " His tongue instinctively tried to utter that syllable, but
the moment the name was about to take shape, a sharp pain shot through his
cerebral cortex, as if a thin steel needle had pierced the core of his
consciousness.
" Denji-kun
, are you thinking about the scenery you saw at the station just now?"
Makima reached out, her cold fingers gently smoothing his messy blond hair.
"Those meaningless noises will only interfere with your happiness . Just
look at me, just think... I will give you everything you want."
Her
voice carried an almost magical, hypnotic frequency. Yodo looked up at her, her
overlapping pupils widening before him, gradually filling his entire field of vision.
In those eyes, he couldn't see the scenery outside the window, the girl in the
rain , or even the past version of himself scavenging for food in the garbage
dump.
"No
... meaningless noise," Denji muttered to himself, his eyes gradually
becoming unfocused.
The
grain of sand in his heart was ground down by Makima's gentleness, turning into
powder and eventually disappearing. That " discomfort " was forcibly
flattened, replaced by a false sense of peace, like being immersed in warm
water.
"Miss
Makima, I'm full." Yodo put down his bento box and, like a docile cat,
rested his head on Makima's shoulder. "I'm so sleepy ."
"
If you're sleepy , go to sleep, Denji-kun . When you wake up, we'll have
reached the finish line."
Makima
looked out the window, a faint smile playing on her lips. On the reflective
glass, Denji 's face appeared blurry, as if his soul were slowly dissipating in
the wind with the high-speed movement of the Shinkansen.
As the
Shinkansen swayed smoothly, Denji fell into a deep sleep . In his dream, he saw
a blooming flower, but just as he reached out to catch it, the flower turned
into a burning flame, leaving not even ashes.
Beside
him, the red- haired ruler was quietly guarding this murder, woven by her own
hands, under the gaze of someone looking at a beloved collectible, a murder she
herself had orchestrated called "happiness."
(...To be continued...)