Summary
One day at school a group of friends admire the cute plush souvenirs one of them brought back from Zekkyou Land. All of them match except for one, and Kurumi offers to take it to avoid a disagreement. She also agrees to let another friend copy her homework. Both scenario end with her friends thanking her.
By now it's become expected of Kurumi to make sacrifices like this. She is a nice, agreeable girl.
Until she gets home, in which her persistent smile is replaced with a scowl. She runs upstairs and complains while laying in bed. As much as she wants to be honest she worries over how her friends would take it. They never hold back anymore. She begins to angrily squeeze and old, worn out sheep plush until realizing how beaten up it's gotten from her stress pummeling as of late. When she takes it to her mom, she gets scolded for being too rough. She won't buy Kurumi another one until she learns to take better care of her things.
While wondering what she can do about this Kurumi happens to spot a perfectly usable stuffed bear on the shelf. She picks it up and recalls the many times she used to play with her plush toys. She loved them so much, she doesn't understand what the problem is with her venting using them now. She begins to pull on its cheeks until her mom catches her, then she puts it back down.
The following day at school Kurumi is working with her friends on a group project. It dons on the girls that they forgot to finish their parts of the work and they beg for Kurumi's help. While astonished that they would dump such a large task on her, she can't imagine turning them down so she hesitantly puts on a smile. She assures them everything will be fine.
As soon as she gets home Kurumi takes out her frustrations over a male classmate who made fun of her. She unwinds on her teddy bear with everything she can, until she's lost all of her energy. But despite how violently she beat it up, the teddy bear is still in great condition. With that in mind, she spends the next few days taking out her pent-up anger on the stuffed bear; over things like a teacher yelling at her or friends asking for more help.
Then one day, her friends notice that lately Kurumi's face appears to be more relaxed. As if she's been refreshed. She thinks it over while making her way home and comes to the realization that because of Teddy, she's not in such a bad mood anymore.
Kurumi arrives home to discover her mom has been injured. She explains that she missed a stair earlier, but she'll be fine since she didn't break anything. Kurumi is confused by this because her mom usually doesn't space out, but as she reaches the top of the stairs to find Teddy, she picks it up and heads to her room. That night, she hears a scratching sound, and the following morning the the stuffed bear is missing. She overhears her mom yelling and rushes downstairs to find out that her dad has become violently ill.
Kurumi heads into the kitchen after they leave and worriedly finds Teddy next to a bottle of soap, near the soup pot. She contemplates how it got there but doesn't believe Teddy could be responsible, picking it up to put it into a box- which she then tapes up before convincing herself she's being silly. She heads to school and worriedly confides to her friends. One of them suggests that as thanks for everything she's done, they can take over for her during cleaning duty. Kurumi is shocked as they go on to express that as of late they realized they were taking advantage of her kindness, to the point they were thinking that she might have been upset with them. So they want to lend Kurumi the strength that she's put forth to help them out. They even convince the boys to lend a hand.
Kurumi is very thankful to realize how kind her friends truly are and she hurries home, but nobody is there. She finds a message left to her from her mom, who explains that her dad will be going through various health checks so they won't be home until late. Kurumi is startled when she sees the box has been ripped open, and seeing a shadow loom over her just then, she swats at Teddy, causing it to fly into a glass cabinet. She watches with disbelief as it rises up, and she realizes that her theories were correct: Teddy was harming her parents. She grabs a pair of scissors and cuts the teddy bear in half, stuffing spewing everywhere.
As she attempts to figure out who can help her, she's assaulted by several ceramic cups and saucers from a nearby shelf. Kurumi looks to find her torn up, mutilated stuffed animals from the past. She doesn't understand why they are still here though, she thought her mom would have been throwing them away. She turns to see Teddy drag itself over to Kurumi and it begins to speak, and as she observes how badly injured it is, she starts to recall her fond memories from childhood. When she used to play with them, and loved them so much. But as she grew older she began to neglect and abuse them.
Did they just want the love they used to receive?
Kurumi begins to weep with remorse, but she is horrified to discover its not that easy for them to forgive her. All of them are wielding sharp objects and mallets, and before she can react the last thing she sees is a large knife coming towards her; wielded by her Teddy Bear.
Time has passed and by now the plush have been discarded. A little girl named Uka approaches her mother with a stuffed bear she found, and she pleads with her to let her keep it. Her mother eventually gives in when Uka says he is her friend, unaware of the bear reaching up to grasp her sleeve.
Tropes
- Death of a Child: Kurumi dies at the end.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Because of Kurumi neglecting her stuffed animals they messily kill her.
- Gory Discretion Shot: The stuffed animals aren't shown killing Kurumi, but there is an aftermath shot.
- Expy: The Teddy Bear shares similarities with Emily-chan, from an earlier chapter:
- They're both toys who were originally beloved by their owners.
- They both end up turning on their owners for neglecting them.
- Both stories end with them gaining a new owner.
- Hoist by His Own Petard
- Hope Spot: Kurumi begins to remember her precious memories with her toys when she was little. She cries, realizing that they just wanted to be loved again and she feels heavy remorse for abusing them. Unfortunately for her, they weren't willing to forgive her.
- Kids Are Cruel: Kurumi is trying to avert this in herself by taking her anger and frustration on her stuffed toys, rather than the people she's angry with.
- Poor Communication Kills
- Space Whale Aesop: Be nice to your toys, or they'll kill you.
