Lets cut to the chase. Finishing the explanations that matter, fully ready for random tales to come. How long does it take for one? It depends. From days to months. I'll try working on Death Arts Competition too.

Chapter 3

The Art of Life

Sanae and Daichi left the car parked in front of a house, carrying luggage, in order to head inside. What house? Technically, not their house.

“Saito-san!” Called a girl from the street. She was little older than Sanae, dark blonde wavy hair, tanned skin, and she was eating a popsicle. It was winter, but the region was warm and the sun shined. It was still somewhat chilly, but she wore a t-shirt and a summer skirt.
“Mikan-chan!” Daichi replied. “What a coincidence. I didn’t see you passing by.”
“It’s funny, Saito-san, I hear the truck and I know it would be you.”
“It could be any truck.”
“I know, but where’s the fun in that? Never looking forward to anything. You’re so dank, Saito-san! Are you moving in?”
“Yes, we are. Meet Shiro-chan.” He presented Sanae to Mikan.
“Shiro-chan!” Said Mikan happily, moving the popsicle to her left hand to give Mikan a European-style handshake. “You’re Saito-san’s niece, aren’t you?”
“Yes. I’m really nice to meet you, Mikan…?”
“Sumomo Mikan. Leave the surname, everybody call me Mikan-chan.”
“I’m Kaede Shiro.”
“Can I call you Shiro-chan?”
“Yes. I’d love that!”
“You two have such a nice surnames… Kaede. Sounds like a first name. I’m jealous.”
“Oh, Mikan-chan… You have such a sweet first name.”
“’Sweet’ you say, Shiro-chan?” Said Mikan in a teasing tome. “Where are you shooting at, girl?”
“You come by later and I’ll show you.” Said Sanae with a horny smile.
“Uhh! Creepy Shiro-chan!”
“Hahaha, just kidding, Mikan-chan.”
“I wouldn’t mind if you weren’t hehehehe… I’m just kidding too.”

Then Mikan was on her way.
“See you later, Shiro-chan! Can you go to the ZOO at 5 PM?”
“No problem! See you there.”
“Take care, Saito-san!”
“See you later, Mikan-chan! Have fun at school!”
“Uhh, horrible Saito-san! I’m not going to school today! See you later, bye-bye!”

Sanae and Daichi finally entered the house and threw the luggage on the floor. They opened a large bag where there was no luggage, but a box. And in a box were ropes, cuffs, tweezers… Everything required for trapping a person.

“Authorities here are weak.” Said Saito. “This area started developing recently. But we won’t go here often.”
“Can I help you, Shiro-san, or do I just prepare for the meeting?”
“Heh.” He smiled. “Why are you still calling me Shiro-san?”
“Shiro-kunnnnn….”
“Uhh…”
“Shero-pero-pero-pero…”
“Oh what, you wanna do the pero-pero?”
“What?!” Sanae yelled in a surprise. “No! You nuts?!”
“Shhh!” He interrupted. “You’re too loud!”
“But we’re already bells ringing.”
“Umm… Bells ringing?”
“I mean, after Mikan-san, everybody know we’re here.”
“Still… Shiro-chan…”
“Sanae-chan*.”
“Uhh… Fuck.” He smiled. “OK, you’re right. You’re… strange, today.”
“I’m hyped.” She said with her arms behind her back. And then she whispered loudly. “Mikan-chan is so pretty, are we really going to turn her to stone?”
“Oh, we will.” He said. “Just remember to bring her here this evening. Just like we said. And don’t interfere with my ceremony.”

Sanae had a feeling of a stage fright. Luckily, Mikan invited her to the ZOO herself. That saved her some effort.

Sanae was at the ZOO at 5 PM sharp. Mikan was happy to see her. They taked about their lives, to get to know each other better. Sanae’s story was, of course, fake. Born near a big river, once almost drowned, but managed to reach the other side anyway.
“It was so creepy!” She said. “The river was wide! I was 10!”
“Oh my God… The current could have pulled you… How far did you get?”
“I didn’t, I was entangled.”
“Entangled?!”
“Yes. As soon as I freed myself, I was already on another side. And current didn’t pull me, it was slow.”
“So… Wait… You fell in on the side of your house…?”
“Yes.”
“You got entangled instantly. Or not instantly.”
“Pretty quickly.”
“And as soon as you freed yourself, you were on the other side?”
“Yeah, I was there. I couldn’t have got there naturally.”
“It could be that you were swimming in panic so you don’t remember.”
“It could be… But I can’t know, nobody was there! I had to walk a kilometer to reach a bridge. My mum was worried sick.”
“Uhh…” Said Mikan. “I never said… How sorry I feel for your parents.”
“Don’t worry.” Said Sanae. “I prefer just not thinking about it. You know, life goes on.”
“Yeah, you gotta live.”

“Umm, I have an impossible story to tell too.” Mikan said when they leaned on the outer fence of the elephant district. “I was once held down… By a spirit. Or a demon.”
“Oh… My… When?”
“You can ask my friends, they saw it… We were a little tipsy. Just tipsy, we were 13, we couldn’t get much alcohol. We were not drunk.”
“Yes. I see.”
“And… something pushed me. Girls were looking for who to blame, but as I was getting up, it pushed me again. It was obvious none of them did it.”
“Creepy…”
“But PUSHED me! I was… I still feel thrill when I think about it. I couldn’t get up for… A minute? Something like that. It just kept on pushing me.”
“That’s terrifying!”
“Do you really believe me? I mean, you can ask Riko or Haruna…”
“I would rather not believe, but… I believe you. I definitely do.”
“I’m sorry. Did I scare you?”
“Oh, don’t worry. I’d rather be found prepared than unprepared if something like that should happen to me.”
“You… Shiro-chan, you sound like you’re looking forward to it.”
“Do I?” Sanae really wondered, did her unique personality just slip? “I… Guess it’s because it never happened to me before.”
“Oh. And… Rin told me… Now this really creeps me out.”
“Told you what? Do you want to tell me?”
“I do. But… Whenever I talk about it, I have a hunch it would really happen.”
“I’m listening if you need me to.” Sanae said while supportively holding Mikan’s hand.
“Rin saw me turning to stone.”
“God…”
“Haruna said she sensed her thinking it, but didn’t see it.”

‘What a coincidence.’ Sanae thought. ‘This will be fun.’
“Nobody can the future, Mikan-chan. It’s future, it hasn’t even happened. Besides, body turned to stone… It’s too physically impossible.”
“Yeah, right? Even for a supernatural creature, right?”
“That’s correct. I mean… How could body simply turn into stone? Unless it’s fossilized or something, during thousands or millions of years.”
“Yeah. Hah, it’s so funny. There’s so many things we don’t know. Like these spirits or whatever they are.”

‘Mikan is a smart girl.’ Sanae thought. ‘If it weren’t for us for us, it would be shame she skips school. She’s got the potential.’ Which reminded her:
“Mikan-chan… What do you want to be when you grow up?”
“When I grow up?” She sighed. “Uhh… I should study more, and not skip school. I just can’t help myself.”
“You keep trying and you’ll get better.”
“I dunno… Life just… I have a feeling I lose something when I grow up. They told me I don’t, but I still have will to enjoy my teenage days more than I’m supposed to. But… I want to be an artist or a scientist.”
“That sounds great. Do you draw?”
“I draw, yeah. I draw, design, animate, do music…”
“For real?!”
“Yeah. I do it a lot.”
“Why would you want to be a scientist?”
“Oh. I don’t know. I had always been attracted to chemistry and biology. But art seems to be more natural choice.”

Sanae invited Mikan to her house. Mikan puts her stuff up on the Internet, and Sanae showed interest in seeing her art. They entered the house and saw Daichi making supper. Mikan greeted him as ‘Saito-san’. In Sanae’s supposed-to-be room, Mikan was granted a place on the computer. After all, she needed to show Sanae the art she made. There was a tweezer right under the bed. But Sanae didn’t take it up immediately. She wanted to know who she would doom.

“Mikan-chan…” Said Sanae while looking her art. “This looks… Professional.”
“Yea. I made this webpage too. HTML and CSS through PHP.”
“You’re kidding…”
“You don’t believe me?”
“I do! I’m just saying that because… I’m surprised!” Sanae had been honest. With this much potential, the story gets really sad. “HTML… That’s ICT.”
“I wish my parents cared more.” Said Mikan, still looking at the monitor, as Sanae took out the tweezer. “You don’t want to know how I earned the software I use. It’s like they hate me for ditching school. And they think it’s no work, just…”

Without Mikan even knowing, the tweezer touched her neck and struck her with its tiny lightning. Mikan shook and after several seconds dropped unconscious. Sanae took her downstairs.

The living room was clean.
“Daichi!” She called him, forgetting for the ‘-san’ honorific. “Here!”

Daichi left the kitchen and saw passed out Mikan.
“Good.” He said. He took the rope out of the bag and tied up her hands and her feet together.
“I want to see her naked.” Said Sanae as she took the knife from the kitchen and started ripping off Mikan’s clothes.
“I already saw her naked.”
“You’re kidding.”
“Well, just her boobs. She needed money.”
“I’m so jealous…” Said Sanae.
“By the way… Sanae… Do you swing ‘that’ way?”
Sanae looked at him with a short pause.
“I don’t know how I swing.” She said. “She’s cute. I want to see her naked. I don’t want to think about how I might swing.”

Sanae revealed her dark, orange breasts.
“Mikan…” She said. “Real mandarin…”
“She’s not so orange.” He said. “Never seen a tanned girl naked before?”
“Uhh!” Sanae compained. “Dad wouldn’t even let me take group baths with girls from my class! Yes, I don’t know how a naked tanned person looks like. I mean… not in real life.”
“Why so nervous?”
“I’m not nervous.” She nervously said. “I’m… I am. I’m molesting a girl, wow…”

She kept on cutting and ripping off her clothes. Amazed by her vagina, she turned her around.
“Wow…” She said. “That… pussy. From reverse perspective. Looks even better than in porn. And… Under this ass…” She touched her ass, admiring how firm it was.

Then she needed to talk to Daichi, but didn’t stop shamelessly touching a girl she just met in front of the 50yo man she recently met. Young pervert, young abuser.
“So… Anything I need to know?”
“I’ll share some facts. There are 2 ways to turn a person to stone. This is the harder way. You kidnap them and perform the rituals for the demons. There is no prayer. It’s more of a feeling, communication. Letting yourself be taken over and then taking over the victim. I can’t explain that. It can be hard only because the victim resists, and can run away. That’s why we’re doing it this way. I want to show you the harder path first. At some point during the ritual you start sensing her experience and hearing her thoughts.

Easier way, but harder in its own manner, is making a close friend. Gaining a person’s maximum trust. Then you can do a subtle ritual of taking over their soul. As days go by, you start sensing and hearing their mind. That’s when you’re ready to make a move.”

He took a jar of pills.
“You see these pills? They do nothing. They melt in water in an instant. But they perfectly bind a demonic essence. You can even use sugar instead. You can get these possessed for several hours. Then you put a few of them in a drink you’ll both drink. No need to be worried, the drink only affects the victim.

At one point, the victim will yawn or have a big sigh. Several seconds later they start turning to stone. To a life statue. I’ll show you how it works, but not how I normally do it. I’d normally make her suffer.”

“I see… For how long do you feel their mind?”
“For several days. You can hold it up to 8 days if you know how. But even afterwards you can sense their aura if you touch them, knowing how they feel.”

Sanae lifted Mikan’s ass in the air, getting it supported by Mikan’s knees.
“This looks so… Good…”
Sanae started licking passed out Mikan’s pussy. Daichi went on drawing a large pentagram on the floor.
“Why do you need a pentagram, Daichi?”
“It helps the mind concentrate on possessing a person. It’s not crucial.”
“Hah…” Said Sanae before continuing to lick. “I thought eating pussy would feel better. I mean, it looks so pretty…”

After a while Sanae would stop doing that. She put the poor girl in the pentagram, setting her up on her knees. Mikan woke up.

“What? Saito-san? Shiro-chan? Why am I naked?”

Mikan got into quite a shock. Her hands were tied in front of her body, so she hid her boobs, and squeezed her legs so they wouldn’t see her most sensitive spot.
“Untie me! What’s going on?”

Daichi came closer.
“My name is Daichi. And I’ll be straight with you. I am going to turn you into stone.”
“Umm… Is this a prank?!” She asked with a mixture of anger and fear.
“Hah…” Said Sanae. “She actually told me her friends saw her being turned into stone.”
“What a coincidence.” Said Daichi, looking deep into Mikan. “They probably lied… You don’t need to believe me, however.”
“What?!” She could feel his gaze. “Why are you looking at me like this?! Please… Let me go!”

As Daichi kept walking around her, shoving his gaze deep into her essence, Mikan’s behavior would change from begging to fury to reason to begging to anger… Until one moment.

“Oh… No!” She whimpered, feeling a strong and dark presence penetrating her stomach, entering her soul. Like a demon. “No! What is this?! Daichi, please stop, it’s terrifying me!!”
“That is going to turn you into a rock statue.” Said Sanae.
“No! Shiro-chan, help me!”
“It’s Sanae. I lied to you. Your friends were right. What they saw was right.”
“No! Sanae-chan, please help me! I don’t want to die, save me!”
“Oh. You wouldn’t die.” Sanae giggled. “What your friends didn’t tell you is that you would be trapped forever.”
“No…” Mikan now started peeing. Her face for completely distorted from fear and crying. “Nothing is forever… Please, no…”
“This is, Mikan. We’ve got plenty of people like that back home.”
“No… Something’s taking over me!”

Mikan crawled on her knees to the edge of the circle with the same distorted crying face. She put her hands together, crossing her fingers.
“Please don’t turn me into stone!!! I want to live!!! I’m not a bad person!!! Am I A bad person?!!”
“On the contrary.” Said Daichi. “That’s the point. Punishing evil is… Boring. Normal.”
“No!!! Please!!! I believe in God!!! I want to go to heaven!!!”
“From what I know, there is no heaven. Just souls swirling around, barely aware of themselves moving to the uninhabited baby bodies, becoming new people.”
“No!!! I want to die!!! Please kill me, Saito-san, I will become a beautiful statue!!! You don’t need me alive to turn me into stone!!! I’ll be pretty when I’m dead!!! I promise!!! Please!!! Pleeeaaaseee!!!”

Her whimpers suddenly stopped. Suddenly. One second you’d think she’s been calming down, but the very next second you’d realize she hasn’t even had a shiver.”

“You can touch her now, Sanae.” He said.

Sanae touched her. ‘Her skin… it’s hard. It’s getting harder. It… She’s… This is…’ Sanae dropped back, breathing in large shock, choking on the drops of her own saliva. It was unbelieveable. Very slowly, Mikan was becoming gray.

“Mikan-chan… *cough cough*” She started crying from shock. “This… This is it… This… Help…”
“Sanae-chan…” Daichi said. “It’s too late to have second thoughts. The demons are doing their job.”

Mikan was getting grayer and grayer. 2 minutes must have passed. Mikan was completely stone. No explosion, no smoke as in that trick that Daichi had set up. Just a sudden complete stop and then slow petrification.

As Sanae was still in shock, she couldn’t help Daichi. What he did was smear Mikan with a substance of the same color, explaining it’s supposed to make her look like mediocre art of a scrabblier. It would be washed off later.

They first carried the statue to the truck. Surprisingly, it wasn’t heavy as Sanae expected it to be. Daichi explained it’s because the mineral itself isn’t too heavy, and her body is full of empty spaces. Her organs preserved their shape, they were just completely turned to mineral.

“It’s a form of live. Living body is full of… air. Tiny holes and stuff.”

They drove in the car to the truck and put her there. They’d be on the road for 2 more days because Daichi had both legal and drug work to do. At some point Sanae asked:

“She said nothing can be forever. What do you think about it?”
“I don’t know exactly. I once melted a life statue. While I could still hear it. You know, it completely changed its chemical structure. I thought it could help me find the answer, because I’d prefer it to be forever. They couldn’t melt these back in the days. Connection between me and her remained but disappeared much faster. But demons told me she’s still in the same state, regardless.”
“So… Demons say it’s forever.”
“Yes, they do. They’re probably right, soul changes inside a body. But even if it weren't eternal, the Sun would need to die out and swallow the Earth up. It would take millions of years to happen.”

“Umm... She was an artist.”
“Was she?” He sighed. “It feels great getting to know someone before fucking them up.”
“She was an artist… And now she’s art.”
“That’s right. Art.” He agreed. “The art of life.”
“The art of history… Of one moment in life. But… The art of life is cruel. Even the art of normal life. I mean, you re-live the same struggle over and over again.”
“You don’t remember it, though. And you feel joy. And it’s natural for a human soul.”
“Oh… You’re right.”
“No greater suffering for a dynamic soul than static life, Sanae.”

They had completely dropped the honorifics. What for? They didn’t have feelings for each other. It just felt right to them.

When they came back and Sanae had a good sleep, she went to the basement to find Mikan. Mikan was… It was a statue of a girl on her knees, begging with her hands together. The statue was so good, you could see every pore she used to have. She was all but in more than 1 color. Her face was distorted by the crying, just like before turning, you could feel the redness just by looking at it. ‘She probably still feels the pressure in her eyes and her stomach. From crying.’ Only Daichi could know that. He did that to her. He hears and feels her right now. ‘This is… Truly art… The best art I’ve ever seen…”

Not even looking if Daichi might be coming downstairs, she took off her pants, her underpants and started shamelessly playing with her pussy.
‘I love empathy…’ She said. ‘Daichi probably feels it too. That doesn’t mean we are healthy human beings. I just… This high position is the one I would be in. I’d soon be in. A witch, dooming a girl who trusted me… How does it feel, Mikan? How will it feel in the eternity? I want to know, Mikan. Let me know? Please let me know? How would it be if you were still in pain? Mikan-chan… You’ll make me cum…”