〜Spider's Thought〜
In the 2000s, somewhere in Japan, there was an ominous forest known as "Hanging Suicide Forest." Among the trees, illuminated by the dim light of a crescent moon, a man was entangled in a giant spider's web... A gigantic spider-like shadow the size of a human approached the exhausted man, making a creaking sound. He let out a helpless scream when he saw the creature approaching.
"...Monster spider…”
The creature had a woman's face and body with spider legs, appearing to be half human, half insect. Its face looked like a cute woman you might find in the city, which only made the man more afraid.
"From our perspective, you're a much more terrifying monster than you are."
The man was surprised and slightly relieved to know she can speak intelligently.
"H-Help me... just save my life..."
"Did you stop your hand when you heard the screams of the insects in the forest that you violated?"
She tightened her thread around him, biting into his shoulder and injecting venom and digestive fluids. As his insides slowly dissolved and he was slowly sucked up by her like a shake, he regretted his involvement in nature development... until he died.
The forest was once filled with clear air and was a paradise where various creatures lived freely. However, the trees were cut down by human hands, the creatures were killed, and the forest was cut down to about 1/10 of its former size.
After one day, people who tried to clear the forest further began to die one after another in mysterious circumstances. They were found hanging and skeletal a few days after going missing. The unusual points that made it impossible to simply dismiss it as a suicide were that it was too early for the remains to have turned to skeletons, and that the thread used to hang the bodies was made of a material similar to spider webs spun in layers, which led to the area being eerily known as the "Hanging Suicide Forest" and rumors of a monster spider beginning to circulate.
Suspicious deaths occurred one after another, and surveillance cameras were placed everywhere to investigate the causes, but they were destroyed by someone without leaving any trace. Just before one development manager died, he was able to record a flash of the culprit, and the sight of a monster straight out of a B-movie sent chills down everyone's spine.
The damage even reached the police who were investigating, and the damage spread so much that the Metropolitan Police Department formed a special unit to deal with unidentified creatures.
No matter where they searched during daylight hours, they couldn't find even the slightest trace, and at night, they were wiped out one by one in the darkness... The unit had been defeated many times, but a skilled sniper changed the situation.
A tall man with scruffy beard, Mikimoto Masaki, studied the forest's ecology even during breaks, and clicked his tongue when he saw an area that had been cut down for development.
"Why do we have to protect people who do things like this..."
Returning to base, Mikimoto saw his colleague throw a cigarette butt nearby, and he put the colleague in a headlock,
"Hey, do I take you to the spider as a food?"
He threatened half-seriously, and his colleague tapped him,
"Sir.Mikimoto... I'm sorry..."
He said, apologizing with his tongue out, and picked up the cigarette butt.
Mikimoto was a well-liked man and was loved by his fellow unit members. All of them were especially in awe of his skill, concentration, and instincts when it came to handling firearms.
As night began to fall and the forest was enveloped in an eerie darkness, a scream of "Ahhhhh!" rang out from near the base.
Mikimoto reacted faster than anyone else. He sensed the monster spider's location as if he could hear the voice of the forest, and used his scope to confirm her attack on his comrades. The moment he confirmed her scary form, he hesitated for some reason to aim for her vital point, and instead shot her in the side. He felt a strong sense of guilt along with the satisfaction of his hit.
The next moment, the seriously injured spider girl leapt towards Mikimoto with such quickness that it was as if she had teleported, pinning him down and trying to kill him. At that moment, his face caught her eye, and she felt a strange sense of déjà vu and relief, which left her confused. In that moment, other members of the team came to her aid, and she left the scene without being able to deliver the final blow.
After that, the monster spider never showed up, despite the search that continued. The unit temporarily retreated from the forest to regroup.
Although she had managed to hide well, she was growing weak from not being able to secure food. As she rubbed the bleeding wound, she remembered the man she had known as Mikimoto, and a strange, warm emotion mixed with hatred. Originally possessing a half-human-like appearance, she transformed into a more fully human form and headed for the city to secure food.
At first, people would make a fuss over her strange appearance, but she learned steadily, and eventually she was able to fit into crowds without any sense of incongruity.
Perhaps to confuse people, her originally cute face in human form deceived many men, and they all became her food.
One day, after her wounds had healed considerably, she was staking out a house. The moment the door slammed shut and Mikimoto appeared, her heart started beating fast and she quickly hid. How did she know where he lived?
Spider thread is five times stronger than steel and has the elasticity of nylon. When she attacked him the other day, she had attached a highly transparent thread to the heel of his boot. At her size, the thread can be stretched out for about ten miles, so she was able to identify him by the thread.
Following Mikimoto's back, she ended up in the "Hanging Suicide Forest", where contractors was trying to resume development despite the case still unsolved. Mikimoto grabbed at the manager.
"Don't mess with me! Haven't you learned your lesson yet? We haven't even gotten rid of that creature... In the first place, it was born because you guys kept on trampling on this beautiful forest...!"
The manager brushed aside his hand as he roared.
"Your failure not to get rid of monster is bringing us so much trouble. Turn your violence towards the monster in the forest, you such a lapdog."
Hearing the man's words, Mikimoto raised his fist, but then lowered his trembling hands and entered the forest.
As he was investigating the forest's ecology and searching for clues about the monster spider, someone spoke to him from behind.
"Why do you want to protect this forest?"
Surprised by a voice that came from behind him without any sign of it, he turned around with his knife at the ready. He saw a cute woman crouched there, and hastily put his knife away.
"Sorry... I seem to have shown you our ugly argument earlier... This is the most beautiful forest in Japan. It is not a place that should be cut down because of some stupid human's ego, that's all. Who are you...?"
She opened her mouth in response to his question.
"I'm Kogane. I've always lived near this forest. I love this forest just as much as you do... oh!"
Suddenly she crouched down and closed the distance that her cheek were touching his cheek, and they were in a semi-hugging position.
"Wh-w-what's wrong?"
She held and show the viper by its neck in front of his panicked eyes.
"The vipers in this forest are highly poisonous. Go over there."
She threw the viper far away.
He was amazed at her speed and the courage she had in grabbing the viper with her bare hands, and the next moment he was laughing out loud.
"It makes sense that you've been living around here for a long time.
You saved my life. Please let me do something in return!"
Her motive of "I'm going to get close to him, the man at the center of the unit that will come to annihilate me again, and destroy the unit from the inside..."
helped her avoid realizing her true feelings of joy at being invited by a him, and her strange affection for him by herself.
From then on, the two hit it off and began to meet frequently. He had grown up near this forest, and had been abandoned in the mountains many times by his father, a born naturalist, and had many experiences where he had spent days alone there.
The fear and beauty of nature, the gratitude for eating other life, and the feeling of being part of something a large, smooth flow - these were the core ways of thinking he developed there.
"If only humans were like you, this forest could have remained as it was before, even more spacious..."
To her words,
"I feel the same way about Kogane. You smell like the clear forest that I love."
He replied, stroking her cheek. He came to his senses and tried to pull his hand away, but she grabbed it and slowly pulled him towards her. They looked at each other and kissed. Her heart was beating so hard that she worried he might hear it.
The moment he put his hands around her waist, she let out a dull voice and pushed him away. He spoke hastily.
"I'm sorry! Please forgive me, I jumped the gun..."
"N-No, it's just that I was a bit surprised...Sorry"
She rubbed the old wound given by Mikimoto from her ribs to her side, protecting it through her clothes. Seeing her mysterious aura in her innocence, and the way she rubbed the same spot where he'd shot the monster spider, he felt a bit strange.
After a while, the forest development was resumed with the special forces. It was at that moment that he learned for the first time that it was being done under orders from the state which is his head. Realizing his own foolishness in grabbing the contractor who had been commissioned to do the development from state by the collar and talking about the preciousness of nature, Mikimoto collapsed to his knees.
While he was preparing for the next day in despair, Kogane was furious. He shook off her hand, hesitantly, and said,
"I don't want to either! But... if that spider appears again, the unit will definitely be wiped out without me... we've been through hard times together... I can't just leave them to die..."
As he bit his lower lip, she said,
"I got it. I was stupid to think you were different from other idiotic human."
She spat out those words and ran out of his house.
The next day, development resumed in the forest. She knew that attacking the special forces during the day would put her at high risk, so she listened to the screams in the forest, biting her lip and enduring it. Meanwhile, Mikimoto could not bear the sight either, so he held his head and bit his lip the whole time inside the prefab.
The sun finally set, and the forest transformed into a "Hanging Suicides Forest".
"Ahhhhhhhh!!!!"
A tremendous number of screams rang out at once. Most of the people had stepped on the thread traps that had been set up across the ground during the midnight in advance, and they were all pulled up between the trees and hung in mid-air. Wary of Mikimoto, Kogane remained hiding and spewed threads from afar, suffocating each person to death.
Mikimoto quickly shot the threads of some of the team members with his gun and somehow managed to get things back in order. Just as the humans were being cornered and helpless, they heard the sound of a helicopter from above. Mikimoto, who had not been informed of anything, was forced to wear a gas mask by one of the team members.
"What is this?! I haven't heard anything about this! You can't be..."
"Sorry Mikimoto! We received orders from above not to inform you in advance... please just accept it!"
The team members somehow managed to calm the enraged Mikimoto.
Seeing that, she realized the true nature of the powder being sprayed from the sky. It was a deadly poison with a fast-acting effect that would kill the forest and all living things. She let out a scream in deep rage and headed in rapid towards the helicopter.
However fast she was, her movements that losing her temper were in a straight line, making her the target of the helicopter's machine gun. After being hit by multiple bullets and the deadly poison, she fell to the ground, breathing like an insect.
One of the special forces ran up to her
"Damn, you monster! You're my colleague's enemy! You'll learn your lesson with death!"
He stepped on her and aimed his gun. She tried to catch her breath, but it was too late, and the next moment a gunshot rang out.
"M... Mikimoto...?"
The gunshot sound was the man being shot in the shoulder by Mikimoto. He glanced at the fallen man and said, "I'm sorry..." and put his gas mask on Kogane.
"I'm really sorry... Kogane... I... cough cough"
She couldn't understand what was happening in front of her, but thanks to the mask she was able to catch her breath, and she carried him through the forest, and somehow managed to reach a place where the poison was less effective.
"Why... why did you realize that I’m Kogane?”
She asked as she put the gas mask back on him.
"...I somehow realized...from your conversation and the way you protected your abdomen..."
"Why didn't you kill me when you realized?! I'm an ugly monster that you're supposed to defeat."
"You're not an ugly monster..."
"I was just trying to use you! Why did you do something so stupid..."
He wiped away her large tears with his fingers and said,
"You have a purer heart than humans...you're not good at lying..."
She forcibly held down his hand as he tried to remove his mask for her, and said with her face crumpled,
"If I'm going to be killed... I want it to be Masaki. Your shooting at that man can be covered up as an accidental shot... A lot of extra personnel are sent into the forest. I won't be saved anyway... At least you'll be alive..."
She pointed the tip of his rifle at her forehead.
"I'm glad there's someone like Masaki. I hope this forest will be remain a little at least..."
He put his finger on the trigger with a determined look on his face. She smiled while crying.
In the next moment, he fired his rifle into the sky. The helicopter that had been spraying poison exploded in the air. He removed his gas mask and kissed her.
"I love this forest... I love you. We've always been together. Until the end... we'll be together."
She opened her eyes wide at his unexpected action, and the next moment she was laughing and crying loudly.
"Though it's sacrilegious of me, I can't help feeling so happy about this. Let's go to hell together, Masaki."
"How stupid of you to think that is. Let's keep pushing them away until the humans give up. And, you didn't forget? I've always been good at surviving in the forest..."
Like incarnations of the forest, the two of them faced the threats of the forest, covered in wounds but with big smiles on their faces.
~fin~
[Afterword]
Kogane is an incarnation of the forest born from the excessive ego of humans, and she is unaware of it. Before she gained his half-human, half-insect body, she had vague memories of the past that happened in the forest, and that is why she remembered Masaki, who grew up with the forest. It was because Masaki, who was in nature and had sharpened his five senses, that he realized that she was the forest itself. In fact, this meaning was included in the lyric "We've been together for so long and finally we've met."
What happened to them in the end... Did they die without being able to do anything in despair, when it seemed they could not survive no matter how hard they tried... Or did they grab a thread of luck that was hanging from the sky and save their lives... I will leave the ending to your imagination.