[Fantasy Ending] Chainsaw Man: Reze Chapter - Fujimoto Tsuki's Fantasy Novel : Makima and Denji 's Fictional Paradise

 

[Fantasy Ending] Chainsaw Man: Reze Chapter - Fujimoto Tsuki's Fantasy Novel : Makima and Denji 's Fictional Paradise

 

Chapter Four: The Forest of Nothingness

 

When Denji opened his eyes again, the world had completely lost the bright, modern, and clean feel of the Shinkansen.

The scenery outside the villa underwent a bizarre transformation overnight. The once shimmering sea was now obscured by a thick, almost solid, grayish-white fog. The fog wasn't naturally formed; it was viscous , cold, and carried the smell of rotting vegetation and old newspapers. The once neatly manicured courtyard vanished, replaced by an endless, wildly rising, deep gray forest.

The trees were twisted in a nauseating way, their trunks covered with patterns resembling human ribs, their branches thin and dry, like the fingers of countless drowning people reaching for the sky in their final moments.

" Denji-kun , let's play hide-and-seek."

Makima stood at the entrance to the forest, her long red braid standing out starkly against the gray background, almost cruelly so, like the only flowing blood in this desolate world. She wasn't wearing a heavy coat, just a thin white shirt, which seemed perfectly at ease in the biting wind that could freeze the skin.

Yodo followed behind her blankly. The wound on his thigh from last night had long since healed, leaving only a few patches of pale pink new flesh —a testament to the beast-like regenerative abilities of a "weapon man." But compared to his physical body, his spirit presented a vast, desolate emptiness. The name he had managed to utter from the depths of his soul last night— " Reige " —now seemed like a stone sunk into an abyss, no longer capable of causing a ripple.

"If I get caught, will I be punished?" Denji asked softly. His voice didn't sound like his own; it sounded like a broken phonograph.

"No, if Denji gets caught, I'll give you a reward." Makima turned around, her fingertips lightly tracing the bridge of his nose, the touch so cold it made him shiver. "I'll help you clear all that 'useless noise' from your head. That way, you won't feel any pain anymore."

Dianzhi walked into the forest.

The sense of space in the forest is extremely distorted. Even after walking less than ten steps, turning back reveals no longer the villa's entrance; only endless gray tree shadows sway in the mist. The sounds here are very strange, a mixture of faint noises in the silence—sometimes like a distant, low explosion, sometimes like the hum of a coffee machine , and even the splashing of a girl's bare feet running through a puddle .

" Yoji- kun ... "

A faint, trembling voice came from behind a dead tree. Denji turned his head sharply , his heart pounding violently in his chest, the shock causing him pain .

There, he saw Rachel .

She wore the sleeveless vest that haunted his dreams, and the iconic black ribbon around her neck. She didn't speak, but stood silently in the mist , watching him with a sorrow and disappointment that almost suffocated him.

"Rei... " Just as Denji was about to speak, Rei's figure began to distort violently, like a shattered mirror.

Her face began to drip blood like burning candles, her once bright eyes turned into charred, empty holes, and her voice became sharp and shrill: " Denji-kun... why did n't you come to the station? Why... did you go with that woman? You killed me ... you killed me again ... "

"I didn't! I just forgot! I didn't mean to!" Denji knelt on the ground, the damp, cold soil mixed with the smell of decaying leaves piercing his knees.

Just then, another figure emerged from the shadows of the forest. It was Hayakawa Aki , dressed in a neat suit and with a small braid . There was a large, transparent hole in his chest, and blood was dripping onto the gray grass, but he was clutching a train ticket to Hokkaido tightly in his hand.

" Yoji , didn't you say... we were going to live together?" Aki's voice was as cold as ice. "What are you doing now ? Playing hide-and-seek under this woman's spell? Look me in the eyes, Yoji . After you killed me, is this the only happiness you got in return?"

"A-Chiu... No , that's not how it is ... "

Immediately afterward, Pava appeared in the shadows of the trees. She was tightly clutching the cat named " Nyanko " in her arms, but her body was crumbling like a withered leaf. She didn't speak, but stared intently at Denji with an abandoned look in her eyes .

These people, the most important in his life, had now become vengeful ghosts. They surrounded Denji , questioning him again and again in that calm yet malicious tone why he had chosen this "peace of being fed." Denji felt like his brain was about to explode; the memories that Makima had forcibly suppressed were like steel nails piercing his skull from the inside out.

"Enough... Stop talking... Stop talking!!"

Denji frantically waved his hands, even trying to pull the ring on his chest, attempting to drown out the souls' questions with noise. Just as he was about to collapse and his spirit shatter, a pair of warm, faintly fragrant hands gently embraced him from behind.

In that instant, all the ghosts, all the screams, all the guilt seemed to be muted .

"See, Denji-kun ," Makima's voice rang in his ear, as gentle as a spring breeze at dawn, "Remembering these things only causes you pain. You didn't have to bear this. It's these memories that are hurting you, not me."

Denji trembled and huddled in her arms, tears streaming down his face. "Miss Makima... I feel so bad ... My head hurts so much ... I feel like... I 'm not even fit to be human ... "

"You don't need to be human, Denji ." Makima gently kissed the back of his neck, a kiss that seemed to inject a potent anesthetic, quickly numbing every nerve in his body. "Humans feel sadness, humans betray, humans die. But dogs don't. Just leave them to me, no need to think, no need to feel guilty. Just look at me, just rely on me. I'll kill all the noise in this forest for you."

Dianzhi 's gaze gradually became unfocused.

Those sharp senses of incongruity , under Makima's rhythmic soothing, transformed into a near-dead, nihilistic tranquility.

" ... Okay," Denji murmured.

He stood up. The mist in the forest seemed to dissipate somewhat at that moment, but he no longer cared what was hidden behind the shadows of the trees. He took Makima's cold hand in his own, the hand that had once tried to push the whole world away, but now held it tighter than anyone else's.

Behind him , the "forest of nothingness" woven from guilt was slowly collapsing. Reige's flowers, Qiu's train ticket, Pava's laughter—all turned into meaningless gray dust. Denji had completely surrendered his sovereignty, in exchange for this subjugated, pale freedom.

He stopped struggling.

Because the price of struggling is clarity, and clarity is far too painful . (...To be continued...)