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[...] –Have you ever seen a video? One with kids like me in it,
I mean?
“A few times. In experiments to determine my sex drive. I
didn’t really get what all the fuss was about.”
–Do you know what S&M is? And fetishes, that sort of
thing?
“A little, not in detail—what about them?”
–One of the favorites at the house where I worked—she
was called Queen Bee. She told me that I wasn’t suited for
S&M. Clients who liked that sort of thing wanted their girls
to be kicking and screaming, whereas my selling point was
playing dead. I really liked that girl. Even though she was
the cause of the last place I worked going bankrupt, no one
had a bad word to say about her.
“Hmm.”
–Once I saw a Show where she appeared as the star.
Alongside a number of M girls—masochists who received
the punishment she dished out. She trussed them up,
spanked them, whipped them, that sort of thing. Everyone in
the Show was very pretty. One of the M girls liked needles,
so she had these needles stuck crosswise through her
nipples while she was tied up. “These are disposable syringes,”
Queen Bee said. No one else had used them previously,
so there was no chance of catching any diseases.
Also, normal needles actually have quite serrated edges, so
they’d be unnecessarily painful. That’s why disposable
needles were best.
“I see. And then?” Oeufcoque spoke in a serious tone that
encouraged Balot to continue with her monologue.
–After the needles were removed she was tied up tighter,
with blood pouring from her nipples. She was such a paleskinned
girl that she looked incredibly beautiful just then,
as if her nipples were weeping blood. I think the reason that
it seemed so beautiful was that Queen Bee acted the way she
did. The M girl said so too. As the M girl was bound tighter
she said it was like being held by someone who loved her.
No one else could make her feel that way, only Queen Bee.
Queen Bee made the ropes feel like the arms of her mother
and father. She didn’t like being tied up roughly by men,
though, she told me after the Show. She said they didn’t
understand.
“And that’s why you wear your clothes so tight?”
–Maybe. I remembered what the girl said back then at
the Show. “It’s like being embraced.” Oh, by the way, she
died in the end, that girl—some time after Queen Bee was
arrested. The M girl was on drugs, getting paid to be tied up
by this guy. He was high and strangled her to death. There
was a trial then, too, even though they ended up deciding
that the man hadn’t done anything wrong.
“And were you there at that trial?”
–Yup. The manager of the brothel—the woman who gave
me my name—brought the prosecution, but in the end she
lost her case. As a result the Broilerhouse put a mark on us,
and the Hunters came and arrested all the clients on our
books, that’s what she told me. Those people—and that
shop—weren’t really that bad. There were plenty of places
that were much worse. In particular the video work—there
was a guy who could film it really well—and everyone was
clean and gentle. I heard of plenty of places that were terrible,
but no one the manager introduced us to was that bad.
I was even told that if I could remember how to smile I
could become a legitimate actress, a real star. Well, that
production company went bankrupt, but still…and have you
seen any of the videos that I was in?
“No.”
–Would you like to?
“I’m not sure… I don’t really know. But let’s go back a
little—you said arrested? Why was Queen Bee arrested?”
–Flashbacks.
Balot stopped to think for a moment. About how she could
best explain the gravity of this word.
–We’re talking about a girl who earned a thousand, two
thousand a night. Very beautiful—in face and body. She
could do anything and would let anyone do anything to her.
She never sold herself short, but on those rare occasions
when she did have to go cheap she did so cheerfully, without
fuss. Even though most people are very worried, both before
and after the deed. Do you understand? Yet this girl ended
up killing one of her customers. With a concealed gun. Premeditated.
After tying him up she shot him over thirty times,
apparently. In a soundproof room, the sort you often get in
specialist hotels. She kept on firing rounds into him long
after he was dead.
“Why?”
–Flashbacks. That’s what she told them when she was in
the holding cells, anyway. She didn’t say anything at the trial.
I watched Queen Bee’s trial. With the rest of the girls.
And after that we watched the trial of the M girl case I was
talking about earlier. Neither trial went on for long. Nothing
to them. Just men working for pride and money. Really
pathetic. A lousy Show. That’s what all the girls were saying.
I thought so too. No one found out why Queen Bee
flipped out. The men just kept arguing with each other.
Queen Bee was grinning and laughing all through her trial.
Flashbacks. The men tried desperately to ask if something
had happened when she was younger, but Queen Bee
wouldn’t tell them anything. At the end the manager gave
Queen Bee a kiss and said, “I’m really sorry.” Queen Bee
replied, “That’s okay, love you.” And, “Goodbye.”
“First degree murder…so it was a life sentence for premeditated
homicide, I suppose? The women were lovers,
were they?”
–Queen Bee and the manager weren’t an item, if that’s
what you mean. Not a lesbian couple. They loved each other
like family. I sometimes yearn to see the girls from back
then myself. As if they were family. In the end, everyone
drifted out of town and ended up here in Mardock City.
’Cause this is the city where you can earn the most. But also
the cruelest city. I don’t know what’s happened to the girls
who escaped from the institute with me, but I’d like to see
them again too.
“And you’ll be able to. You can see them as much as you
want once this case is resolved.”
–But I bet if I did go and see them I’d only get jealous—
or be envied myself. We’ll end up competing to see
who is the most beloved. So it might be better that I don’t go
and see them after all. [...]
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