The Nightlife (Part 2) (
Summary[]
The chapter starts with a flashback of a day during the Severance. We're looking through the eyes of Mitsuba, into the same room featured in the opening scene of Chapter 30—a dilapidated classroom with a giant gaping hole in its floorboards. The room is filled with various toys and a single full-body mirror. Mitsuba is staring down at his hands, where eyes are growing out of his flesh and on his sweater; his body is falling apart.
Standing in the doorway is Tsukasa, who calls Mitsuba's name. He asks him if he's hungry, and plops a bloody, spider-like supernatural onto the floor in front of him. Tsukasa asks if Mitsuba can do the rest on his own after he already got him "halfway there," and Mitsuba makes upset noises. In the face of Mitsuba's reaction, Tsukasa picks up the supernatural again, asking if Mitsuba doesn't want it; Mitsuba reaches out his hand for it.
The supernatural is back on the floor, and Tsukasa is instructing Mitsuba on where the heart is. He tells him that all Mitsuba has to do is dig out the heart and eat it.
The next panel focuses on the supernatural's singular giant eye as Mitsuba cradles it in his hands, and large heartbeat sound effects litter the page. As the supernatural wheezes, Mitsuba says it's impossible, and that he won't be able to eat it—Tsukasa hums, unconvinced.
Hands dirty with a blood-like substance, Tsukasa leans in and grabs Mitsuba's face. He says that Mitsuba must think the supernatural is tasty, because Mitsuba's face is telling him so; we see Mitsuba's face, and he's smiling while holding the supernatural with swirls in his eyes.
Back to the present, Kou is shaking Mitsuba and urging him to wake up. They're inside some sort of tub in a room filled with pipes and heavy machinery; Mitsuba's body is still a mess, looking much the same as he did at the end of the last chapter.
Mitsuba asks Kou where they are, and Kou explains that they're still in the Aquarium, and that he thinks they're inside of a passageway used by the staff. He also says he was freaked out by what happened, what with the fish supernaturals appearing, the guests turning out to be supernaturals, and Mitsuba's body falling apart; as he describes this, we see flashbacks from the last chapter of what he describes. Kou begins to say that they should get out of here, but then the anglerfish supernatural appears. It's using the shining light of its esca to search for them, and Kou and Mitsuba hold their breath and hide in their tub as they wait for it to leave.
After it leaves, Kou explains in a whisper that the anglerfish has been swimming around here for a while now. He says he's been hiding here, but that it's only a matter of time until the both of them are found. Mitsuba surmises they should hurry up and leave, then, and Kou agrees—but before that, he says Mitsuba needs to explain what happened to him. When he says this, we get a better look at Mitsuba: his body is covered in eyes, and the supernatural clumps that fell off of him are wriggling around the tub and making little noises.
With a gloomy look in his eyes, Mitsuba tells Kou that it's the fault of the Severance. After he split ways with Kou, Mitsuba's body completely fell apart. Even though Tsukasa helped return him to normal, Mitsuba hasn't been able to maintain his form very well since. Kou is shocked by this, and starts yelling and asking if there's anything they could do, or if "that runt" is the only one who can cure him. Mitsuba makes a humming noise, and tells Kou that he can gain power by eating other supernaturals—so if he eats a supernatural, like the time he ate No. 3, he can stay together a while longer.
But before Kou can get too excited, Mitsuba tells him that it's no use, and no matter how much he eats he stays hungry. Even when he doesn't want to eat something, he falls apart to the point where all he can think about is how hungry he is. He kills supernaturals, eats them, and gets better for a while—he never wants to do it again, but the cycle keeps repeating. With a pained smile on his face, he say's he's gotten sick of it—then his expression falls, and as he covers his face with his sleeves, he says that he only wanted to be human: but like this, he's nothing more than a monster.
Looking worried, Kou begins to say his name, but Mitsuba cuts him off, a tiny smile on his face. We see a flashback panel of him walking up to the Minamoto household, and he tells Kou that he came there to ask him for a favor today—but that his brother may have made things quicker. Kou asks what the favor was, and Mitsuba tells him that he was going to ask if he could exorcise him. Kou's eyes blow wide open, and before he can ask him what he means by that, Mitsuba butts in and laughs it off, saying that was just a joke. He tries to brush off what he said, telling Kou that he's too weak to defeat him, anyway, and focuses the conversation back on finding a way out of the aquarium. Kou won't have it, though, and tells Mitsuba straight-up that it wasn't a joke; Mitsuba goes silent, his face falling.
We see a flashback of Kou and Mitsuba on the street earlier that night, and later of them enjoying the aquarium. Kou asks if Mitsuba was thinking about how he wanted to get exorcised and disappear while dragging Kou around all night. Kou stares hard at the isopod keychain in his hand, and scoffs at the notion that Mitsuba had only wanted to have a "night out."
As we see a flashback of Mitsuba and Kou having fun with their keychains, Kou clenches the isopod keychain in his fist, his fist trembling from the exertion. He then says this is "dumb" and starts walking away as Mitsuba calls after him in confusion, wondering where he's going. There's no response, and Mitsuba groans, giving up and saying that everything is going to be "over" soon, anyway. He takes the penguin keychain out of his pocket and stares down at it sadly.
Suddenly, Kou starts yelling, and there's a "kaboom" sound effect with several zappy, electrical noises. Mitsuba turns around in shock, only to see Kou looming over him with one of the boney supernatural fishes in his hand. He's holding his Raiteijou staff up, and asks which part of the fish Mitsuba needs to eat; Mitsuba is too shocked to respond at first, but after Kou throws the fish on the ground, he tells him he needs the heart.
Kou begins opening up the fish with Raiteijou, all while Mitsuba yells and asks him what he's doing. He manages to pry the heart out of the fish, and when he does, he holds the bloody, beating heart out towards Mitsuba and tells him to eat it. Mitsuba's eyes go swirly as he looks at it, and he swallows, but quickly shuts his eyes and looks away; he tells Kou that it's gross, and he doesn't want to eat it.
Frustrated, Kou yanks Mitsuba by his scarf, and begins shoving the heart in his face. He tells him to stop being selfish, and that eating this is supposed to make him better. Mitsuba tells him to stop, but Kou won't budge, and keeps telling him to eat it as he forces his jaws open. He yells in Mitsuba's face and tells him to open his mouth, and Mitsuba finally kicks out at him, knocking him on his backside. Mitsuba yells back, telling him to stop and asking him what got into him. Wobbly on his feet, he asks if Kou was trying to be considerate, and tells him he didn't ask for him to do that. Clutching the heart in his hand, Mitsuba is about to chuck it away somewhere, but Kou grabs him by the ankle and trips him before he can.
Pinning Mitsuba to the floor, Kou snatches the heart in his hand, and tells Mitsuba to stop messing around by asking Kou to "exorcise" him. Breathing heavily, Mitsuba asks why Kou is so mad about this, looking visibly confused. In response, Kou sticks his fingers in Mitsuba's mouth, trying to pry it open again. Mitsuba begins thrashing underneath him, making muffled grunting noises as Kou begins to speak. He's yelling and asking why it's such a big deal that Mitsuba has to eat abnormal things, and that it's not weird that Mitsuba has to keep eating all the time because Kou himself will die if he doesn't eat, too.
Finally, Mitsuba bites Kou's fingers, causing Kou to yell out in pain and jerk backwards. He pauses, and as he clutches his arm, he comments on the fact that Mitsuba bit him. Mitsuba is breathing heavily, and tells Kou that it was his fault for sticking his fingers in someone else's mouth in the first place.
We see a close-up of Kou's hand against a dark background, and blood is dripping from the gash in his fingers where Mitsuba bit him. Mitsuba's eyes are dark as he clutches his head, and he says that he was trying to hold himself back, but what Kou did made him hungry. Mitsuba immediately gasps after realizing what he said, and his face goes pale. He says this sucks, and tells Kou not to come near him again—Kou, finally processing his words, asks if Mitsuba doesn't only eat supernaturals. Mitsuba is looking away, expression hidden, and tells Kou that this is why he wanted to ask him to exorcise him.
Kou stares down, looking upset, and picks up the heart again. He asks Mitsuba why he didn't explain all of this to him from the start. He knows he's unreliable and weak, so there's no point in coming to him for advice, but he's hurt that Mitsuba would trust Tsukasa more than him with this kind of issue. Kou holds out the heart to Mitsuba, who gets angry and tells him to give it up—before he sees the tears falling down Kou's face.
Mitsuba's attitude changes immediately, becoming panicked, and Kou curls up into a ball so Mitsuba can't see him. Mitsuba asks why he's crying, and if it's because he bit him—Kou stays silent, and Mitsuba apologizes anyway. His hand reaches out to Kou, but Kou raises his arms and yells, telling Mitsuba not to look at him. Mitsuba shrinks back and tells him he won't, and Kou holds out the heart to him and once again tells him to eat it. Reluctantly, Mitsuba does, and once he's done, his body is restored. He excitedly poses for Kou, telling him to look, but Kou keeps his head down and only groans sadly in response.
Patting his head, Mitsuba asks him what's wrong, and Kou says he doesn't know—just that he got fed up with how stupid Mitsuba was and started crying. He begins insulting Mitsuba, saying he sucks and that he can't deal with him, which annoys Mitsuba. But, as he's wiping his tears away, Kou tells Mitsuba that even if he does suck and even if he is a monster, it would trouble Kou if he disappeared. Rather humorously, though, Kou comments that Mitsuba is the source of his problems—so Mitsuba disappearing would actually lead to Kou's troubles disappearing.
Kou starts saying "But..." but grows silent, unwilling to finish. A little annoyed from Kou's verbal abuse, Mitsuba jokingly asks if Kou would be lonely without him. These words surprise Kou, causing more tears to sprout from his eyes. He fixes his watery eyes on Mitsuba, who looks surprised himself. Kou's head lowers again, and as the chapter ends, he weakly denies what Mitsuba said.
Characters in order of appearance[]
- Mitsuba Sousuke
- Yugi Tsukasa (flashback)
- Minamoto Kou
- No. 3 (flashback)