Ficorpio
Chapter 1
A stray little spider moved into my apartment.
After we stared at each other for a moment, it dropped a coin and fled.
That night, a tiny black spider crept into my dreams looking utterly pathetic.
“Um… hello. I left you some money, so could you please stop destroying my webs?”
Its voice trembled as it added, “A-and please don’t poke my abdomen anymore. It scares me!”
“I know I’m supposed to contribute to the household if I live in a human’s home. I’ll work hard and pay my share.”
The little spider peeked up at me, showing only the tiniest sliver of its eyes.
I lowered my gaze and stared at it.
After a long silence, I managed to say, “Wait… you look kind of familiar.”
This was the second time.
Another coin had appeared on my vanity.
Not only that, but the clutter I’d left there the night before had been carefully sorted and arranged into neat, orderly rows.
This time, however, I caught the culprit in the act.
“A… spider?”
The tiny spider had its back to me and was struggling to drag a coin across the vanity. At the sound of my voice, its whole body went rigid.
Slowly, it turned around.
Its cluster of oOOo eyes widened in utter disbelief at the sight of me.
We stared at each other.
Then all eight of its furry legs sprang outward in fright, making it look like a startled kitten with its fur standing on end.
It dropped the coin and ran.
One moment it was there; the next, it had shot nearly two feet across the room and vanished.
Silently, I walked out of the bedroom.
Then I walked back in.
“Maybe I cleaned the vanity before I went to bed last night,” I told myself, my face perfectly blank. “I just don’t remember doing it.”
I pretended not to see the extra coin.
Then I grabbed my bag and scrambled out the door for work.
Not because I was scared. If I didn’t leave right then, I was going to lose my perfect-attendance bonus!
That evening, I came home exhausted after a full day at the office. I had no energy left to think about the absurd thing I’d witnessed that morning.
I still boiled a bundle of traditional cleansing herbs and took a bath with the water, though. Just in case.
Afterward, I lay in bed and stared at the spotless ceiling for a long time.
At last, I was certain.
The dust in the corners had been swept away.
So I spoke to the empty room. “I don’t know whether you’re actually a spider or some ghost controlling one, but thank you.”
“The corners of the ceiling are clean now. They’re much nicer to look at.”
Silence surrounded me.
I hadn’t expected an answer anyway.
Then a voice as faint as a mosquito’s drifted from one corner.
“…You’re welcome.”
I stared at the ceiling.
Well.
At least it had manners.
That night, I had a dream.
Chapter 2
A small, fuzzy spider with black fur shot through with purple stood awkwardly in front of me, keeping a full three feet between us.
“I’m sorry to contact you this way, but I really didn’t have a choice.”
The little spider covered its face with both forelegs and made the most pathetic plea imaginable.
“…Hello. I’ll pay you. Could you please stop destroying the webs I make?”
Its voice trembled as it added, “A-and don’t poke my abdomen anymore. I’m scared!”
“I know I’m supposed to contribute to the household expenses if I’m living in a human’s home. I’ll work hard and pay my share.”
He hadn’t covered his face completely. A tiny sliver of one eye peeked through.
I looked down at him.
After a long pause, I managed to say, “Wait… you look kind of familiar.”
My gaze drifted helplessly to the little spider’s fuzzy, solid, oval abdomen.
I felt like I’d seen it somewhere before.
Then it hit me.
“Oh. You’re the spider who built that incredibly precise but terribly shabby web in the corner of my balcony!”
The little spider went rigid. The terror of being manhandled came rushing back.
He burst into tears and ran away.
“Pervert!”
The little spider had arrived a week earlier.
When I first spotted him, he was frantically pulling in the web he’d just finished spinning, like someone rushing to bring in the laundry when thunder starts rolling in.
I hadn’t noticed him at first. I nearly put him to sleep with one slap.
Of course, I wasn’t a pervert.
I’d simply finished watering the plants on my balcony and was zoning out when I noticed the small, furry spider quietly spinning a web in the corner.
His rear end was impossible to ignore. His back four legs moved at astonishing speed.
On impulse, I found a disposable glove and reached out to poke him.
Unlike ordinary spiders, this one was deep black with a hint of purple. Faint stripes ran along the edge of his abdomen, and he was exceptionally furry.
Most spiders that found their way indoors weren’t venomous. Even if they were, their venom was usually too weak to matter.
So I wasn’t worried about getting bitten.
That fuzzy spider abdomen really was plump and solid.
I stared at my gloved fingertip, then couldn’t resist rubbing it between my fingers.
“Just as I thought. Heavy, a little soft, and incredibly pleasant to touch.”
“No wonder they call you the kitten of the spider world.”
The little spider had probably never experienced anything like this before.
He turned around stiffly and met my eager gaze as I prepared to reach out again.
“Uh… sorry?”
Had he just glared at me?
“…”
The furry little spider walked away with his legs moving awkwardly in pairs, swallowing his anger in silence.
The rest of the week passed peacefully enough.
Chapter 3
Every now and then, curiosity got the better of me and I poked a hole in the little spider’s web. He never seemed angry.
He would simply wait until I left, then silently wiggle his abdomen and repair the damage.
“Huh… That’s really sticky.”
The little spider blinked his adorably vacant oOOo eyes and turned toward my voice.
His gaze settled on my fingertip. A torn scrap of the web he had just finished spinning clung to it.
I’d done it again.
I withdrew my hand, embarrassed.
The little spider didn’t run away.
Instead, he thrust his abdomen at me and frantically waved his tiny legs.
I hesitated.
“You want me to pet you? All right.”
I reached out.
“!!”
The little spider clapped his legs over his abdomen in horror and shot away.
I had thought he was asking me to touch him.
Apparently, that was not the case.
I hurriedly raised both hands. “I’m not a pervert.”
The normally mild-mannered spider burst into tearful accusations.
He scuttled as far away from me as possible, sniffling under his breath.
“Don’t come any closer.” He seemed even less capable of coping with the word than I was. “You touched me… and you still claim you’re not a pervert!”
“I warned you!”
I frowned. “You did?”
My bewilderment infuriated him.
He marched out of the corner on tapping feet and repeated the same pose as before.
“Are you blind?” he choked out. “This is my attack stance. I was warning you last time!”
“When spiders are frightened, we raise our abdomens to make ourselves look bigger and scare off our enemies.”
“But you… you didn’t say a word. You just reached over and touched me!”
“And you keep destroying my webs. I can’t even catch enough food.”
“If this continues, I might as well die.”
The little spider broke down sobbing.
So I had misunderstood him.
I’d thought he was presenting his abdomen for me to poke.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t know.” I gave him a sincere apology and promised never to ruin another web he had worked so hard to spin. I even offered to compensate him.
The little spider trembled with sobs. In a hoarse voice, he asked, “Really?”
“Really.”
“Next time, I’ll use my electric bug zapper racket to catch mosquitoes for you. I’ll toss them onto your web and give you a proper feast.”
The little spider wiped away his tears.
Then he told me I was a good person.
“Maybe serving a sentence here won’t be so unbearable after all. You’re nothing like the corrections officer said. She made you sound terrifying.”
I stared at him.
“Excuse me?”
So the little spider had committed a crime and been sentenced to community service in my apartment.
I’d only asked out of idle curiosity. I hadn’t actually expected him to answer.
He lifted his head and glanced at me cautiously.
“I… I killed my stepfather,” he said softly.