As weeks went by, Tokino felt the numbness in her heart more. She cried less with every lesson her mother gave her.

Every day, a tortured prisoner screamed before her. Every time, she wished for deafness. “Shut up… I hate your voice.” Her eyes and face went blank throughout her education.

Airi gave her a hug and a smile after the sessions. Every day, she became happier. She accompanied her daughter to her room and pulled out a box set. “Here you go, my sweet darling. I brought you more crayons.” She kissed her cheek before exiting.

Tokino favored red more than any other; her drawings became monotone in style. She would shade the whole paper. Sometimes, she became a bit more creative. She drew stick figures of bloodied prisoners who died recently. Even then, she used red and nothing else. Sun, moon, grass, trees, it did not matter.

Three hundred stacks of A4s got used in under five hours. Tokino broke multiple crayons in frustration; red got spared. She rang the doorbell in her bedroom. It beckoned her mother. “What’s the matter, darling?” she looked down.

She slowly moved her head up. “Paper. I want more paper, Mama….”

She gasped and covered her mouth upon seeing the mounds of paper shaded red. “Oh, my… You have to slow down, my Tokino. The economy might crash if you draw at this pace….”

She did not respond to her mother. She looked back at the floor and began drawing on it.

Airi sighed with her eyes closed. “I guess it can’t be helped.” She put her daughter’s lunch on the table. “I’ll give you anything you wish, darling. Don’t worry.” She opened the door. “Please never forget to eat. It pains me to see you that way.”

Tokino refused her meals for seven days. She asked for only water time after time. Starvation loomed closer to her as it went on. Her cheekbones turned jagged, and her limbs looked no better than dead branches. Her dress kept lowering down.

She could barely breathe in her state. No matter how hydrated she was, she still felt like drying up in a desert. Her stomach cried endlessly for even the smallest morsels. Sadly, her mind refused every time. It took an hour for it to change.

Emaciated beyond belief, she crawled to the table and forcibly helped herself with a moldy plate of blood sausages. Unable to vomit, gag reflexes occurred for twenty minutes. “Eat more, Tokino. More!” At that moment, she did not care how much her body rejected the spoiled meals.

That night, her hunger came back. Any nutritional value she could have gained disappeared long ago. As rats scurried about, her rage festered. She wished only for a good night’s sleep. She grabbed her knife and killed each with the help of her foresight. Curiosity teamed up with hunger at that moment. Their raw flesh was more palatable than any moldy food. However, she gagged a little. “Enough, Tokino. You need the energy.” She forced herself with more dead helpings.

Airi became surprised by her weight as more weeks went by. “That’s it, my darling,” she patted her head. “Grow big and strong.” She walked her to the torture chamber for another session.

She began drawing the walls of her bedroom. Once again, she preferred red. At first, her mother gasped at the sight, but her love never wavered. She hugged her and put more blood sausages on the table. Tokino still refused behind the scenes. Luckily, rodents became more plentiful. “I hate you, Mama… More than anything. But I hate everything, too….” She scarfed one down at night on the floor.

During every lesson of the day, her blank face became more pronounced. As a prisoner’s nails got removed individually, she only found annoyance with their screams. Tokino shed no tears over a victim’s last breath for the first time.

Airi saw this as a sign. Her eyes and smile widened with pure joy, and she hugged her tightly. “Oh, I’m so proud of you, darling. A month from now, you’ll finally be me. You’ll truly be mine….” She kissed both cheeks this time.

For many nights, Tokino’s face became more blank. She never thought about escaping and looked forward to shading more paper red. To quell anticipation, she drew on the walls every midnight. As she did her third, she turned to her stuffed animals nearby. “What are you looking at?” her eyes glared. She walked with heavy steps. “You think I’m funny? Huh, Mr. Fuzzies!” She ripped its limbs and cut open its belly with a bread knife. She continued until it was unrecognizable.

Throughout the night, Tokino turned to her other toys one by one. Even the rocking horse did not get spared. She cared not for the splinters.

Golden rays shone through the mansion, and snow blanketed its roofs. Airi supervised a hundred men decorating the grand hall. Chefs prepared a massive feast, and the new butler guided the guests inside. Most were politicians and barely any relatives.

After the party, Airi hugged Tokino with a smile. “Happy birthday, my sweet darling. I brought every present any child could wish for in a lifetime.

“But I saved the best for last.” She unwrapped a small package and presented her prized kitchen knife. “It’s yours now, darling. You hold my will in the palm of your hands.” She sniffled. “I’m so blessed….”

Tokino held the knife tightly and was surprised at how good it felt. It gave her feelings of invincibility. Her mother accompanied her to the dinner table. She pulled out a rabbit in a cage and ordered the maids to strap it on a wooden board. “Today’s your initiation, darling,” she smiled with her eyes closed. “We’ll start small for now. But fear not. Graduation will come soon.”

She heard the heavy panting of the little creature. It triggered her temper; she now had no hesitation in using the knife. She slowly sliced each limb. Its cries annoyed her more, so she stabbed its anus and exposed its back. Lastly, she flayed it alive until the screams stopped.

Airi patted her head and kissed her cheek. “I love you so much….”

Another week went by. Tokino’s mother gave her more animals to work with in the backyard. Each one became much larger than the last. She twisted a short-beaked seagull’s neck, cut the Achilles tendons of a shrub deer, and lobotomized a Kelpie mare.

Trainers had a hard time taming a Coelestian white elephant from afar. NGOs considered it critically endangered for eighty years. Eventually, they pinned it down via Runuc Art. Airi encouraged her daughter to move closer. “Cut open its belly, darling. It bears new life inside.”

Doing as told, Tokino took a step further and pushed her knife deep into its brain. She pulled out her bloody arm and walked toward the calf. “No, no, my darling!” Airi stepped in. “You passed the test for today. We spare the little ones in my house.” She gave it to the trainers and held her daughter’s shoulders. “Sorry for never telling you before. We’re going back home. The war’s over.” She stroked her hair.

Her eyes narrowed a little. “But, Mama… I want more…” she said faintly.

She hugged her with her eyes closed. “Don’t worry. There’s always more for my little Tokino.”

She accompanied her to a flying car. The mansion’s staff went inside their ride as well.

When explorers discovered what would become the nation of Hiver, they found out it perpetually snowed. Some speculated it began even before Pantaiyanilam came to be. Because of the harsh climate, massive bulldozers sprawled the land. They shoveled show into shoots that led to water-distilling factories. Its economy depended on crimson Palladium. It was a rarer and more valuable kind but unusable for weaponry.

Back home in their mansion, Airi continued Tokino’s initiation. Before going to a larger torture chamber, she toured her into a new room underground.

It was a hallway of “enhanced interrogation methods.” In one room, criminals in chairs had water tubes forced down their throats. Tokino saw their bodies looking as if they would explode anytime. She walked away uninterested.

In another, guards forced people to fall down an area that sparked lethal electricity. The walls’ runic arrays healed them every time they neared death.

Tokino saw a woman strapped into a chair. She had a torture device mounted on her head. Guards called it a “reverse bear trap.” It pried open her jaw into a bloody mess. Then, it went back into its original state, and the runes fully healed her. Tokino witnessed the process twelve times over.

After the tour, she and her mother went upstairs to the torture chamber. “Did you remember those methods, my sweet darling?” Airi looked down and saw her nodding. “Good. We executioners perfected creativity long ago. It’s subjective, after all. So, pay no mind to those hooligan protestors. Creativity will come for them, too.” She smiled faintly and closed the door.

Tokino would now torture her first human: a thief who violated probation. “Go on, darling. Don’t be shy,” she pushed her gently.

She pulled out her knife and slowly walked closer to the thief. He cried and begged for merch, yet it all fell on deaf ears.

Airi breathed heavily. “Do it… Do it! Do— Huh?” She saw the unexpected with widened eyes. Her daughter stopped in her tracks.

Due to her innate ability, Tokino foresaw herself doing the deed. When it came to animals, she never cared. Human screams were nothing new either. What made her stop was a mental image of her doing the “blood eagle” method on the thief.

She dropped her knife, and her will collapsed. Tears welled up as she panted. “No… I won’t do that. Papa….” She backed away.

Airi did not want her potential wasted. She held her shoulders from behind. “Don’t worry, my Tokino. I knew this would happen, but I know how to encourage you.” She moved to her ear. “You see that man? He’s not only a thief….” She revealed his other crimes; one involved four women and five children.

Tokino’s eyes widened beyond belief. Her breath became louder by the second. She tried to fathom such horrific acts, but it almost made her vomit.

She whispered more. “…Do you see now, my sweet darling Tokino? Never show them mercy. The world gave them time to better themselves and live among the civilized. Instead, they chose to prey on the innocent. Now their days are numbered, and their time to repent vanished.” She gave the knife back to her. “Strike them where it hurts the most! Make them rot in pieces—and make me proud.” She kissed her cheek and pushed her again.

Tokino’s expression turned from blank to relentless fury. On that day, a bear cub was born. Airi hoped it would become the ultimate predator in the future. She slowly walked to the thief. “No, wait, please. Please! Don’t kill me!!” Once again, his pleas fell deaf before her.

To end his inane babble, she held his chin up and pointed her knife. “Die…” she muttered—and slowly pulled each tooth. Next, she cut off his fingers and toes. She made sure every procedure was sluggish, including castration. Sadistically, the thief’s agony did not stop there.

Tokino decided to flay her victim and asked her mother for salt and rubbing alcohol. She nodded with a smile. Even with the thief’s mouth tied up, every servant heard screams outside the mansion.

Miraculously, he survived the ordeal. In annoyance, Tokino gouged out his eyeballs and carved up his ears, nose, and tongue. Outside, the grandfather rang at midnight. He stopped moving, and the chamber’s floor got painted red.

Airi covered her mouth with both hands and cried tears of joy. She hugged her tightly with her eyes closed. “Oh, my sweet, sweet, sweet, sweet, little darling Tokino! You’re finally mine now.” She stroked her hair endlessly. “What beautiful wings you have, my only sunshine. I love you—a billion deaths….”

Unbeknownst to her, she did not return the feeling. Her face remained blank, and her demeanor annoyed.

“Shut up… Get off me….”