Kouya Hijiri: CHAPTER 9

Deliriously I imagined the end of the world coming to mankind, not by fire or flood or tidal waves, but from here - this forest of blood suckers - melting into a tsunami of leeches consuming the world of the living.

I had entered the forest as absent mindedly and innocent as an animal stepping into the hunters snare. But now in the midst of the forest I was assailed by leeches, and if I went deeper, and who could say how far on this forest extended, all the trees might be made of leeches. I was thinking of these fantasies because I knew I was going to my death, death by leeches. But I thought to myself, even if I am doomed to death, I will go further to know more of what Hell is. So determined I ran wildly through the forest, snatching and flinging away anything I felt touch me. As I ran and ran, at first I felt fat and itching all over my body, then lean and aching all over. I felt all these thinsg as I ran and ran for my life.