novelIntroduction@Jinnai Shinobu & Yonsesaki Hiro (2)
| ← Ch.44 | Ch.46 → |
They all looked like they had been hit by a truck or by demolition equipment.
"Is this the centipede bite mark?"
The fallen tree had been moved to the side of the road for the time being, so I checked the break. Prepared to see some disturbing things, I used my cellphone to search some bug-obsessed sites and this did resemble the "bite marks" I found there. Although this mark was much, much bigger.
So was it really an Oomukade?
But at the same time, I tilted my head.
As mentioned during the day, the damage was scattered throughout the village instead of focused in one area. Moving from one to the other like this required going back and forth through the village.
And...
"There are cameras, aren't there?" I muttered as I looked up at the traffic signal.
Intellectual Village grapes cost thirty thousand yen a bunch, so there were surveillance cameras everywhere to protect those brand-name crops from boars and vegetable thieves.
I didn't know how big this Oomukade was, but if it had gone back and forth through the village, it would've been caught by that network of cameras somewhere.
Or did it have some way of keeping itself from being seen, like the Okuri-Suzume?
A normal Oomukade was not invisible.
If it had gained that ability, this wasn't just a Youkai acting on its own. Someone would have had to forcibly twist the Youkai's traits and swapped them out to create the desired effect.
In other words, a human would be involved.
I hadn't considered it since there was no apparent profit or planning, but could this be a criminal Package?
"..."
I instinctually turned off the flashlight.
It was as if I had realized how dangerous it was to reveal my location.
At the same time, a Package required dozens or even hundreds of people. I doubted that many people would gather together to knock over a tree on the side of the road.
Had they messed up the assembly?
Or was there some great benefit still hidden?
And how was it all related to Yonesaki Hiro?
No amount of thinking was going to reveal the answer and that meant I didn't have enough information. With that in mind, I raised my head again.
"...?"
I saw a figure moving unsteadily down the dark farm road.
However, it was quite small. They probably only reached my chest or stomach.
And then I saw what it was.
Part 10 (Yonesaki Hiro)
The lights were out as I sat up in my futon. A mixture of itching and pain crawled across my right hand. The itching that had begun at the end of my pinky had slowly spread, but I didn't have time to worry about that now.
My blanket and pillow moved on their own.
"What is it, Hiro-chan?"
"What is it, young master? Can you not sleep?"
It would be impossible to leave without anyone noticing. I felt a weight in my chest when I lied and said I had to use the bathroom, but I left my room in my pajamas all the same. I walked down the dark hallway and made my way to the front door. That was enough for the furniture to fidget, but they seemed to be letting me do as I pleased.
"My master, you're going, aren't you?"
"Are you going, Hiro-chan?"
"Yes."
Unlike the older Jinnai boy, my way of getting to the answer was probably cheating.
Instead of gathering the pieces of the puzzle one by one and calculating it all out, I reached the answer through vague intuition.
I began to make a strange connection between Ranzono-san's odd behavior and the uproar about the Oomukade.
The older Jinnai boy might settle everything eventually like that other time, but that scared me this time.
I was afraid getting my peaceful life back would mean Ranzono-san would disappear.
The lantern and umbrella were waiting at the front door.
"If you're going out at night, it wouldn't hurt to have a light."
"As an umbrella, it is my duty to protect you from any disaster that might pour down upon you."
I nodded, put on my shoes, and grabbed the two of them.
I then opened the front door and ran out into the dark outside world.
Part 11 (Jinnai Shinobu)
The figure swaying along the pitch black farm road was probably only in elementary school, so it was clearly unusual for them to be out this late. I was too far away to tell what they were wearing or even if they were a boy or a girl.
Why was it I didn't immediately turn on the flashlight and shine it on them?
An invisible tingling tension stopped me from taking that normal action.
"..."
What was this?
What was I so afraid of?
It was an issue of the atmosphere. This was clearly a small child, but they didn't seem at all harmless. Unpleasant sweat poured down my back as if I'd spotted a tiger, a bear, or another large carnivore in the mountains.
Meanwhile, the small form made a turn at an intersection dividing up the paddy fields, so it wasn't like they were approaching me after noticing me. I hesitated for a moment, but I decided to follow them.
Their pace varied and their head swayed back and forth, so they didn't seem to be looking in any set direction. Did they even have a destination in mind?
As if to answer that question, the figure came to a sudden stop.
It felt like they had been on their way somewhere but had given up.
We were near some vending machines set up next to the farm road. I was pretty sure they had recently been put in at the request of some people who had succumbed to heatstroke during the residual heat of September. Five vending machines for drinks and bread were lined up below a metal roof to keep off the rain.
Just like with an automatic door, the fluorescent lights were rigged to show off the products when someone approached.
When I saw what was illuminated by those bright white lights, I just about screamed.
They were only between 130 and 140 centimeters tall. Their frame alone wasn't enough to tell if they were a boy or a girl, but they were likely a girl since they were wearing a skirt. She may have been aiming for a kind of gap appeal because she wore a sports brand track suit jacket with a frilly miniskirt. I could guess this was probably an elementary student.
The problem was the face.
The neck up had transformed into a giant centipede with countless squirming legs.
What?
What...in the hell...is that!!!???
I stared in shock as the head - the centipede - stretched out. The bizarre movement was like an even more grotesque version of a Rokurokubi.
"Oh...oh..."
I couldn't tell you where it was coming from, but it gave a strangely distorted groan. Before long, the number of centipedes grew. It looked like a giant tropical flower now.
"O-oh.... oh...ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!"
Destruction followed.
It looked a lot like the headbanging often seen along with hard rock music. The young upper body moved violently back and forth and the countless centipedes (which were now longer than the body was tall) snapped like whips. They slammed into the vending machines. A violent wind blew through in the instant of contact and it struck me in the face. No, that wasn't it. Was the wind compressed as it wrapped around the centipedes? After I heard metal bending and electrical sparks flying, the fluorescent lights died. Sometimes the centipedes constricted their target with their body, sometimes they bit into them with their massive jaws, and sometimes they compressed them like the wind. Even as a silhouette, the destruction continued. The vending machines were supposed to be solid metal boxes, but they were crushed like balled up tissues and finally torn into several pieces. All that remained was the sound of the wind crushing them further.
Was this the source of it all?
Was this how the Oomukade's damage had crossed from one end of the village to the other without any people or cameras spotting it?
Was the Oomukade hidden inside the children's bodies?
Or...
"Ahh, ahh. So the secret's out."
I heard another girl's voice from directly behind me. Before I could turn around and shine my flashlight, the girl shined her own light on me. I covered my dazzled eyes with a hand and tried my best to see who it was.
It was hard to tell through the light, but the short silhouette looked like another elementary student. Her long chestnut hair was curled and all of her clothes were brand names from the city. She wore a white turtleneck sweater, a reddish jacket with the front open, a black miniskirt, a loose belt around her waist, tight jeans, and chocolate-colored boots. I didn't have any way of checking, but I was pretty sure she wasn't from the village. She would be from the cultural exchange group Tarou had mentioned. One look at the white rose corsage on the side of her head was enough to know she wasn't like the other kids.
She giggled and spoke.
"We've finally managed to bring them out whenever we want, but a lot of us don't know how to use them. Well, it's just something you have to learn through practice. This probably wasn't the best time for the trip. We have a proper training ground back home."
She showed no concern about the size difference between an elementary student and a high school student.
Or even that I was a witness to what was happening.
After all...
"Do you have a Package that lets you fuse an Oomukade with your bodies?"
"Heh heh. What if we do?"
I heard a footstep in the grass. No, it was more than one. When I switched on my flashlight and pointed it all around me, I saw twenty to thirty children surrounding me on the farm road and the already harvested paddies.
"Why would you do that? And wait. Who put it together!? Assembling a Package takes dozens or even hundreds of grown adults with specialized knowledge!"
"If I said we'd done it ourselves, would it hurt your pride as a high schooler?"
And more importantly...
She was shining a bright light on me, but what was it? She wasn't holding a flashlight!
The chestnut hair girl seemed to be their leader and she swung her small right hand horizontally
A sticky sound followed and the arm transformed from the shoulder down. It became a giant tentacle-like object made of countless intertwined centipedes. The light came from the centipedes' legs. They were glowing like a torch's flame. No, that wasn't all. I could see some irregular movement inside her clothes, too. The movement inside the pants below her skirt was completely ignoring the joints of a leg.
Was this to gain physical strength? To gain a special power? To become something beyond human?
Whatever the reason, I couldn't imagine what kind of mind could accept something like this with a smile. Nevertheless, the rest of the kids surrounding me also transformed their arms and legs into centipedes. They all showed off their strange tentacles with some spreading wide to either side like wings and some hanging down around their neck like jellyfish tentacles. However, that was not the problem.
Each time the many centipedes wriggled, a gust of wind blew out. It was said the Oomukade could control storms, so were they controlling the wind or the air pressure? And the winds they produced seemed to have different effects. Some cut, some crushed, some dried out the plants, and some shook the dirt and rocks.
And this was not just a lone madman like with a serial killer. They all shared the same insane obsession.
"I'm sorry, mister."
The chestnut hair girl spoke while her many "legs" wriggled about.
"We still haven't reached the end. And until we do, we can't have anyone getting in our way. So I'm sorry...but we'll have to silence you."
At that moment, a thick presence almost like an invisible wall rushed toward me.
I frantically looked around, but I was completely surrounded and there was nowhere to run. And based on the destruction I'd seen around the village, those centipedes had enough power to break a thick tree truck or bring down a shed's wall. Would they crush me under their giant bodies or would they cut through me with their gusts of wind? I didn't know the actual method, but this was no different from having cars rushing toward me from all three hundred sixty degrees.
I didn't even have time to think it was pathetic I was losing to elementary school kids.
Pure fear rose from my gut and I could tell my legs weren't working properly.
It was just like running out onto the road and seeing a truck's bumper filling my vision.
And then something struck me in the side.
An unpleasant sound burst out, my feet immediately left the ground, and I flew through the air.
Part 12 (Jinnai Shinobu)
My mind was sent flying.
A neverending floating sensation came over me.
I even forgot how to link my memories in a sequential order.
"...?"
But once I questioned why I still wasn't dead, I finally realized what had happened.
A centipede had indeed hit me, but I wasn't dead. I wasn't even scratched.
The centipede that had rushed toward me first was not one of the kids led by that chestnut hair girl.
"Oomukade!!"
I heard the girl's shrill voice from the darkness behind me.
"Why are you getting in our way!? We're your friends!!"
The giant creature looked more like a dragon than a bug.
Countless legs carried it across the already harvested rice paddies.
Its head was reminiscent of the front of a train and its extremely bizarre jaws held my body.
It almost seemed to be taking me away from the children.
"Are you...the original Oomukade!?"
"How much of this do you understand?"
"There's been a lot of damage caused by centipedes in the village, but it was actually done by those kids from the city and they're only drawing out your power. Is that right?"
"I will give that fifty points. That is merely the result and you have yet to reach the true issue. I just hope we can find somewhere quiet to speak."
"Even though you're on those city kids' side?"
"Because I am on their side. Do you think I want them to be using my power and traits?"
The Oomukade said nothing more.
Footsteps that sounded like they were cutting through the grass and the low rumbling of violent gusts of wind were enough to know we had several pursuers. We were moving faster than your average car, but they were keeping up. I could see quite a few lights following us like will-o'-the-wisps. I no longer felt any inclination to shine my flashlight on them. I did not want to know what change had come over their bodies to pull this off.
"Looks like we need to lose Sachi's group first."
Sachi? Is that one of their names?
No, more importantly...
"Wait a second. What's that light? On the road through the paddy field!!"
I immediately found the answer to my own question.
This light was much softer than my flashlight. I was pretty sure it was a Lantern Obake and a small form was vaguely visible in its light.
"I do not recognize that child. He must not be part of Sachi's group."
"That's Yonesaki Hiro. He's a kid from the village!!"
This was bad. The chestnut hair girl had said she would kill anyone who saw them. Yonesaki Hiro would be no exception. His eyes opened wide when he saw me and it was obvious what would happen if the centipedes caught him.
This is dangerous.
This is so dangerous, but I have to say it, dammit!!
"Oomukade, don't worry about me! Leave me around here and take that kid with you!!"
"But..."
"Hurry!! I can manage on my own. The umbrella and lantern with him can't stand up to the power of a Youkai that can eat dragon gods!!"
He hesitated a little.
But then the jaws holding me loosened and I fell toward the paddies that seemed to be quickly flowing by below me. I clenched my teeth to bear with the pain as I rolled again and again and I heard the Oomukade speak as it lifted its head like a cobra.
"Don't die. I will need your help for Sachi's sake."
It didn't wait for me to reply to or question that.
The Oomukade whipped up the wind and used the spring-like power of its entire body to jump over and collect Yonesaki Hiro. I somehow managed to get up and ran in a different direction.
For better or for worse, the kids seemed to pursue the much more noticeable Oomukade. I could see the leg lights they were using as illumination and the blowing wind heading in that direction. This was not quite what I had expected, but Yonesaki Hiro wouldn't be killed that easily if the original Oomukade was helping him.
But what was I supposed to do? If I returned to my thatch-roof house, I would just be attacked there. There were at least a few dozen of them, but if every single kid from the city was involved, the number jumped to over one hundred. I was outnumbered, but they were relying on the occult. Since they were using a Package built around that Oomukade, I only had to destroy that system to rob them of their power like I had thrown a breaker. Once they lost the centipede power, they were nothing but powerless kids. It didn't look like there was any other way of escaping this alive.
"What do I need to do that?"
I needed information and time to think, so I decided to hide somewhere or hole up somewhere.
I looked around and spotted a large building.
The school, huh?
That would be better than standing in the middle of the paddies like a scarecrow, so I pulled my aching body along to run there.
When I got closer, I realized it wasn't my usual high school. It was the elementary school I had graduated from long ago. But this was no time to be picky. It was all over if I was caught, so I climbed the metal fence, ran across the schoolyard, and ran up to the entranceway of the high-tech wooden school building that had air conditioning and internet access.
I didn't have time to check whether it was locked.
I swung down my flashlight to break the door's glass and I unlocked it from inside. That might have sounded an alarm at the security company, but that was actually a good thing.
I stepped inside.
Schools could be frightening places at night because it felt like a ghost was going to show up, but this was hardly the time to worry about that.
But then I heard the high-pitched sound of shattering glass coming from somewhere else.
"Don't tell me they're already here!"
I felt a squeezing in my chest, but the person who broke through the hallway window was Yonesaki Hiro who had been held in the Oomukade's jaws. The umbrella and lantern accompanied him.
The original Oomukade itself shrunk in size to only a few meters long and entered the hallway.
"Wh-what is going on!? When did this village turn into a kodoku jar!?"
"There's nothing we can do! If only we could contact the mortar or armor back home."
The umbrella and lantern were left to speak back and forth as the Oomukade spoke up.
"This is not good. Sachi intentionally guided us here."
"What do you mean? What does Ranzono-san have to do with this?"
Yonesaki Hiro sounded nervous and the Oomukade twisted around toward him.
"Sachi comes from the city, so she has never been in the mountains at night. She also doesn't know much about this village, so she probably decided she would have the easiest time in the school because it is built a lot like those in the city. She intends to finish you all off here."
"City schools and rural ones aren't exactly the same. Intellectual Villages rely on online shopping so much that we'd be isolated if a typhoon or landslide cut off the road. We have far more shelter equipment, " I cut in."The elementary school is like the house of bricks from The Three Little Pigs. It has the toughest disaster infrastructure. There should be a large-scale tornado shelter underground. Do you think that steel door can hold up against them?"
"I doubt it. Centipedes burrow through the earth, so hiding underground would only be taking this onto Sachi's home turf."
"I see. But we should still be able to use it."
I brushed a hand through my blond-dyed hair and asked about something more important.
"Sachi? Ranzono-san? To be honest, I don't know that much about this situation, so can you explain how everyone's involved in this? Otherwise, I can't grasp the big picture of this Package."
"Ranzono Sachi is the queen of her community. She stands at the top of every category around her: her class, her year, and her entire school."
"She's a girl from the city. She's really smart. She's athletic, she's fashionable, she can play the piano, and she can cook. She works as a model and writer for a fashion magazine and middle schoolers around the world look up to her."
"A fashion magazine?"
"It's called Autofocus. You've never heard of it?"
A magazine for kids? Come to think of it, the Yuki Onna and the Furutsubaki (small) were looking at that.
The umbrella and lantern opened their large mouths and spoke.
"Ohh, I saw that too! It was filled with these weird things called barcodes and matrix codes!!"
"I heard it was originally a web magazine, but it was successful enough to head back to the original paper format. That made it feel more linked to the internet than absolutely necessary, though."
I see. So that's what this is about.
A model was one thing, but it was impossible for an elementary student to write for a magazine. Before even talking about talent or skills, the Labor Standards Act prevented them from working.
When it was only on the web, she had probably been treated as someone updating a blog as a hobby rather than a job. Just like the prize exchanges for pachinko parlors, they probably gave her some "allowance" in a somewhat separate place. They may have been working around those issues for the physical magazine, too.
More importantly...
"Autofocus, hm?"
"What about it?"
"Well... They were gathering attention by creating a dream team from well-known figures on the internet, but that means they were gathering people who they'd never even seen before, right? Nothing says all the harsh critics giving everything one star on review sites actually know what they're talking about. They have to have seriously tried to recruit some kid claiming to be a well-known worker somewhere or, even worse, a bot that only posted automated text."
I didn't know if this had anything to do with the centipede Package, but I needed to get an idea of who Ranzono Sachi was since she seemed to be the mastermind.
For some reason, Yonesaki Hiro pouted his lips.
"That's not what happened here. Ranzono-san really is, um, mature and fashionable. There's no one else as, well, pretty in my class."
"What?" I frowned."Sorry, but are you seriously saying that?"
"Eh?"
He sounded confused, but that may have been because I sounded more exasperated than insulting.
"Just so you know, it's only natural they look perfect and mature. After all, they're Twelves."
"What's a Twelve?"
"Kasane_12 or Twelve for short. Simply put, it's a kind of trick art used on people. If you place white paper and black paper next to each other and look at them from a distance, the white paper will look closer to you. They use tricks like that with the colors of their outfits to give the illusion of an hourglass figure and they use makeup and their hairstyle to make their face look smaller."
The name of course was based on the traditional Japanese twelve-layer robe. But despite the designer's intentions, the term was now mostly used as an insult. It was seen as a misogynistic fashion that made the girl look pretty by covering her in so much makeup and clothing that they could barely move.
"Her looks...are fake?"
Yonesaki Hiro was dumbfounded.
The Oomukade twisted awkwardly next to him and remained silent.
"It's kind of like covering their entire body with a thin layer of special makeup. So if they get sweaty and the makeup comes off, it would apparently be far worse than losing an eyebrow. I've heard the perspective of their face would be thrown off and they would look something from a game of fukuwarai. They have to constantly check their face in a mirror, so it has to be a restrictive way to live."
"I see. So that's why she freaked out when I said something about her face."
The boy seemed to remember something.
Hearing that, the Oomukade finally spoke again.
"That is why Sachi...no, all of the Kasane_12 children are doing this."
"I still don't see it. What do the centipedes have to do with special makeup?"
"It is possible the fear of becoming a centipede has been numbed by the centipede's venom, but at the very least, Kasane_12 was the initial cause."
The deadly Youkai said to eat even other Youkai sounded troubled.
"Here is a hypothetical situation for you. Kasane_12 optimizes their looks, but those looks will completely fall apart if it fails. Now, what if they did not what to do this themselves? What if it was forced onto them by their parents or other adults? Just how much pressure do you think they would be under then?"
"Ah."
"People praise Sachi. They call her beautiful and they gather around her....But that is not her true self. They are all looking at the false outer layer and none of them are truly looking at her, praising her, or showing any kind of concern for her. Isn't that more than enough to destroy a growing personality?"
The girl and the centipede.
She was breaking the boundary between the beautiful and the ugly and mixing them together.
She hated and wanted to ruin what it was everyone praised about her.
The situation was slowly coming into focus.
Adults made Packages for simple money or fame, but this one was based on the values only held among these cornered kids.
"This is my fault, " confessed the Oomukade."It was wrong of me to feel sorry for her. It was irresponsible to try to cheer her up. That was what placed the final crack in the dam of her heart which she was only just barely keeping in balance."
Part 13 (Ranzono Sachi)
"Sachi-chan, why are you smiling?"
That casual comment led me to realize my face was falling apart.
I was not allowed to sweat carelessly, I was not allowed to shed tears carelessly, and I was not allowed to let the rain hit me carelessly. When I went outside, I always had to have a mirror on hand and I had to constantly check my face no matter where I was.
And I could not quit either.
My status and the expectations of me were still on the rise. No matter how much I told people I couldn't do anymore, they kept pumping in more and more expectations. The higher I ended up, the greater the damage if I fell. There was no way I could land safely anymore. The expectations of my parents, my friends, my teachers, and even of complete strangers were just too heavy. A single mistake and I knew unbearable pain would press in on me.
I lived in a soft living hell, like being strangled by luxurious silk.
That was when I found it.
It was a spot of green seemingly cut off from the hustle and bustle of the city. It was the remains of a shrine that seemed almost buried by the buildings around it. It was like the secret place in the donkey ears story.
I found the Oomukade there.
No, a Tsuchigumo and Nue were there too. The Youkai were all so strange looking.
To be honest, I was scared at first.
But despite not looking remotely human, they didn't seem to care, joked with each other, and worked together to pick the fruits in the trees. I was jealous when I saw them.
I didn't take long to start fitting in.
In that world, your looks didn't matter. Those friends would look at who you were on the inside.
I had gained something that should have been normal. I felt like I was regaining myself after I had started to fade away. They truly did save my life.
And yet...
"Sachi! Why would you get anywhere near those creepy things!?"
Something set foot into my world.
"It's okay. It's okay, Sachi-chan. We'll call a famous expert for you."
Something brought unwelcome help into my world.
"It looks like they are affecting her. But not to worry. I can handle this easily."
Something approached with a smile after catching the scent of money.
If the Oomukade, Tsuchigumo, and Nue had seriously resisted him, they could have torn that fraud of a medium to pieces, but they didn't.
When I arrived at the usual place, gasping for breath, nothing was left. They had not even wanted to harm the person coming for them, so they had given up their home. That was how it seemed to me.
But...
But...
But...
I simply could not allow it to end like that.
What had the Oomukade done? What was wrong with a Tsuchigumo being ugly? Was a Nue's inhuman appearance any reason to proudly rob them of everything they had? They understood human feelings, they could communicate using words, and they had enough of a heart to care for even those who opposed them, so why did they have to be treated like that?
What was beauty?
What did it mean for the beautiful to exterminate the ugly?
If that logic actually held up, then it was obvious who should truly be exterminating who.
Everything needed to become the same.
Everyone needed to become centipedes.
Humans were not beautiful or ugly. It only came down to whether they hid it or not. In that case, I just had to drag it all out into the light. If everyone looked the same, we would finally be able to compare who we were on the inside. If we did that, we humans were sure to realize just how inferior we were.
If I had lost sight of my true self inside the cocoon of the manmade Kasane_12 and I had become a mere doll, I may never have had these feelings. I would probably have become a disturbing empty shell that only gave the answers that would delight the adults and live up to my parents and teachers' expectations.
But I had regained myself. Those kind Youkai had brought me back.
So I couldn't bear it. I would use myself for their sake.
I would use myself up to the very end.
Part 14 (Jinnai Shinobu)
"It comes down to an issue of affinity. As humans grow, they come to hate bugs. There is nothing cruel about it; it is completely normal. Sachi just so happened to develop that later than others. That allowed her to fit in with us, but the adults around her would not allow it. I had predicted she would be pulled away from us, but it seemed to be quite a shock to her. Her hatred did not die down, so it continued to quietly burn within her and she ended up building this Package with the other children."
The Oomukade's story was strange, but it was not that I couldn't understand it.
That may have been because I lived in an Intellectual Village full of Youkai.
Then again, I didn't exactly like giant spiders or roaches. If a rhinoceros beetle was flipped over and I saw its soft belly, I would flinch back. It didn't feel quite the same when I could speak with it like with the Oomukade, though. If you could tell them to go away and they would, there wasn't anything to be afraid of.
"I had no direct contact with the children other than Sachi. After we left, she must have spread her story to others with similar worries. Unfortunately, the ones who haven't seen us probably had an easier time glorifying us in their imagination. We aren't creatures meant to be looked up to after all."
The Oomukade had said it had been wrong.
It had said cheering her up had been irresponsible.
But...
"I think you have that a little wrong."
"?"
"It's true you messed up, but that doesn't mean the beginning was wrong. The problem was the ending where you vanished without saying a thing and left it all unsettled. Accepting Ranzono Sachi when she was in such a bind was clearly the right thing to do. Who knows what might have happened to her otherwise. It scares me just to think about it."
"At the very least, this would not have happened to her."
"You'd rather she was a soulless teacher's pet? She might have even hung herself. I'm betting you took on the seeds of this trouble because you saw those possibilities in her future."
"..."
"If 'right' and 'wrong' are the only options, then you pulled the lever toward 'right'. You did something you can be proud of. And if Ranzono Sachi still hasn't been saved, it means she derailed from the 'right' track. All you have to do is help her recover. If the train is brought back on track and carries her to the goal, then this will all work out. That's the best possible option, right?"
The Oomukade remained silent for a while.
But finally, it looked between me and Yonesaki Hiro and dropped its raised head. To put that another way, it bowed toward us.
"I must ask you again....Will you help me save Sachi... and the rest of those children? I need to save them before they cross the point of no return and really do kill someone."
I didn't even need to answer. I had been the one trying to get this going.
For some reason, Yonesaki Hiro held out his small clenched fist, so I lightly clenched my own fist and pressed it against his.
That was when the umbrella asked a question.
"But could those small children really assemble a Package? They might have the dozens of people necessary, but still."
"Those children had another worry besides Kasane_12. It is commonly known as a manmade genius project. A business that acts more like a seminar than a cram school artificially remakes the structure of their brains. I believe the business was known as Medical Camp."
"You've gotta be kidding me. That's the thing they call trauma disconnection, isn't it? They apply pain to close off the unnecessary synapse connections, leaving only the connections for academics and other lessons. It's been showing up on talk shows and the online news, so it's more of a gray area than anything fully illegal."
If what I'd heard on TV was accurate, the man who founded the business was constantly moving between countless different businesses. He had made all sorts of crazy seminars and cram schools that would drag kids in and lock them in bomb shelters as "punishment" if they stopped showing up.
"I had thought Ranzono-san was amazing because she was great at school, sports, fashion, music, and cooking, but it seemed strange to me, " said Yonesaki Hiro, another kid."How did she fit all that into only twenty-four hours a day? ...But I was wrong. There was no way she could fit it all in."
Those children had been fully remade, inside and out, for the convenience and vanity of the adults.
They were robbed of any sense of self and were displayed by their parents as a medal or a trophy.
The Oomukade's group had definitely been right to accept Ranzono Sachi. If things had continued without their intervention, she would have met a fate worse than becoming a creepy stuffed human trophy.
"That means they gathered their genius minds together and used them to assemble a Package better than any adults could have."
"In that case..." I chose my words carefully."This Package turns people into centipedes, so the core has to be the Oomukade. You must have had your power and traits stolen without even knowing it. But the components have to be something else. The Package would have been assembled from things those city kids could get their hands on."
"But since they're from the city, wouldn't the core be outside the village?"
"Even if it is, the leader must have some kind of controller. Otherwise, one of the other kids could overthrow her....It must be really close by. This is the elementary school, so we might find a hint here. What would Ranzono Sachi be free to bring in and use here?"
As I wondered about that, I also went over the traits of the Oomukade at the source of the Package.
-The Oomukade is a large centipede Youkai.
But it wasn't explained why it was so large or violent.
-The Oomukade can eat other Youkai such as a clan of dragon gods.
But it wasn't explained whether it ate them due to hunger, hatred, or whatever else.
-The Oomukade is immune to normal blades, but it is weak to weapons with human spit on them.
But it wasn't explained why human spit was effective.
Those unknowns were very important. One could substitute in any parameters they wanted when assembling the Package. A clear weakness made a safety device easier to add in, so this was actually a pretty easy to use species.
"Um, since it's Ranzono-san, wouldn't it be this?"
"?"
I heard a rustling sound as Yonesaki Hiro pulled out a magazine larger than A4 size.
That's Autofocus, but...huh? Where did he pull that from?
"You can find them all over the school. It's a big fad right now. This one was on top of the shoe lockers."
"That helped us out too. Heh heh."
First the Yuki Onna and now the lantern. The magazine seemed pretty popular with Youkai.
I placed the magazine on the floor and flipped through it with my flashlight in one hand. Despite being a fashion magazine, it barely had any photos. It was all barcodes and AR marker and it was real pain having to hold up my cellphone every time.
"That's some odd taste. Well, maybe she was forced to do it for work."
"Eh? But..."
"Did you think a model in a fashion magazine was some kind of god that's always right? These are really just fancy banner advertisements. She wears the clothes from the makers and brands affiliated with the editors so they can sell as much clothing as possible. That's how this is set up. They don't introduce things because they're the latest trend; they introduce them to make them the latest trend. Apparently, some magazines make more from the money the clothing makers give them than from selling the magazine."
"..."
"If I use a more modern word like 'affiliate', do you get why Autofocus would recruit well-known online figures? You can reference the magazines if you want, but don't just accept what they say at face value."
Including Ranzono Sachi, they had about twenty dedicated models of various types.
They were all wearing some pretty forced outfits that were supposed to make you want to click the banner ad for a shopping site, but Ranzono Sachi seemed a little different from the rest.
There was definitely something odd about her.
While the other models were clearly playing their part with dollar signs in their eyes, I couldn't sense any obvious benefit for her. I couldn't figure out why she was wearing those mismatched clothes.
"I don't believe you."
Yonesaki Hiro pouted his lips a little. It looked like he had more of a problem with me saying these things about Ranzono Sachi than with the facts themselves.
"Ranzono-san really is the center of her school. She's in some unreachable place like the distant moon and everyone wanted to hear the things she says. You can say those things all you want, but she still seems perfectly mature to me."
I just about told him distinguishing between what you wanted to think and the truth was the sign of maturity, but then I froze up.
Wait a second.
"The Oomukade is an enlarged centipede. Its threat grows with its size."
"What about it?" asked the Oomukade.
"And Ranzono Sachi's group is turning their own bodies into centipedes. They're turning themselves into a special being that grows more powerful the larger it grows."
I pointed at the magazine on the floor and the umbrella gave an "ah" of realization.
"She's a model and writer for a fashion magazine. She's an unreachable existence like Kaguya-hime on the distant moon....She is in elementary school just like our master, but she's also a celebrity with a clear line drawn between her and the other children."
"The two fit together. The Oomukade is an enlarged centipede and that city girl has enlarged her status with the magazine. Do you think Ranzono Sachi used Autofocus to make herself seem bigger and therefore combine with the Oomukade?"
"B-but..." The lantern cut in."What about the other centipedes with her? I believe she is the only one directly connected to Autofocus. How did the centipede power infect those other children as well?"
"Did they reference Autofocus? Did they read it? No, that isn't it. They have to make themselves look bigger. There has to be a trigger for that. If it applies to more than just the actual writer..."
I had no guarantee here and we had no time to gather evidence.
I could only present my theories.
"There has to be a condition for her gallery to make themselves look bigger. Are they doing it through Ranzono Sachi? Did they follow her fashion to stand on the forefront of their own classes? Yes, they didn't question those mismatched outfits, chose their clothes on baseless information, and felt a misguided pride in it all."
Otherwise, Ranzono Sachi wouldn't have any reason to wear those mismatched outfits in the magazine.
If her success through Autofocus was the trigger, then she would have worn proper outfits. That would have been the way to increase the number of centipedes.
"Wait, " said the Oomukade."If that is the case..."
"Yes. The centipede transformations won't be limited to her class or year. This might have spread throughout Japan. A lot of them are probably hiding it because they're afraid of revealing something so grotesque."
Yonesaki Hiro seemed bothered by something and he hid his right hand behind his back.
That caught my interest, but I didn't have time to ask about it.
I heard a clattering like a sudden downpour striking the roof. Each individual sound was a leg and they spread through the darkness like a ripple. Knowing they were approaching from outside the window was enough for a chill to run down my spine. Storm-like winds blew against the glass and several points of light turned toward us.
It had to be a group of centipedes large enough to envelop the surface, but I didn't have the guts to shine the flashlight toward it. In fact, I couldn't imagine how a human being could transform into something that would make noises like that.
"Ranzono-san and the others are here!"
"What should we do?" asked the Oomukade."As sturdy as this school is, it has a lot of windows and they will completely fill the building at this rate."
"W-we need to hide somewhere!"
"No, " I cut in."Just running isn't enough. Oomukade, Ranzono Sachi shouldn't think you're a definite enemy yet. That means you can maintain an ambiguous position without running or hiding. Can you stay out here as a scout?"
"I can, but wouldn't I be more useful to help you fight?"
"No....Yonesaki, right? You come with me. I need to know the layout of the school. I don't want to find out they've made additions or changes since I graduated."
"Wh-what are you going to do?" asked the umbrella while glancing out the dark window again and again.
"I'm going to spit on an arrowhead."
"What?"
"That's how you defeat an Oomukade. But now that we know how Ranzono Sachi has set up the process using the fashion magazine, I obviously don't mean it literally. If I get my hands on that arrowhead, we might be able to turn this around."
"What exactly should I do to help Sachi and the other children?" asked the Oomukade.
"I'm going to do something, but afterwards, I want you to see if they're using cellphones. You can tell us by... yeah, let's do it like a fake medium. For yes, do nothing. For no, go on enough of a rampage for the noise and shaking to reach us. That's what I'll use to decide what to do next."
Our opponents were getting close. If they rushed into the school building before I could take action, it was all over. I didn't have time to explain everything, so we parted ways with the Oomukade and ran through the dark building.
"Where are we going?"
"That's what I need to ask about. Do they still have a device in the faculty room that looks like a giant fridge?"
"A fridge?"
"Intellectual Villages are reliant on online shopping, so we'd dry up in no time if a typhoon or landslide blocked off the road through the mountains. So just in case, we have ample disaster infrastructure. Especially in the community center, the schools, and anywhere else a lot of people can take shelter inside....And the elementary school is the best of the best. It has water, food, sleeping bags, and everything you need to sleep over here. I'm interested in one of those things."
We didn't have time to worry about locks, so I kicked down the door to the faculty room.
I pointed my flashlight at what was inside.
"An emergency wired communications server and a large-scale antenna tower. These are to maintain the communications infrastructure."
Ranzono Sachi's ability to make herself look big was reliant on the fashion magazine Autofocus. And Autofocus was filled with barcodes and AR markers, so you couldn't tell what was inside just by looking at it.
She had to be using the magazine and the website together to gain allies from her fans around the country. With the support of those online friends, she thoroughly turned herself into a celebrity. For her, one hundred legs was nothing.
But if her communications were cut off, what would happen to Kaguya-hime on the moon? If she fell to the earth, she would be no different from any other child. Without her fans and online friends, she would be nothing but a human being. Wouldn't I be able to tear out her hundred legs then?
I opened the door to the switchboard and worked on it while I explained all that.
The umbrella groaned and spoke up.
"The Oomukade's weakness is a weapon with spit on it. You could switch that around to say it's weak to being spit on, can't you? You're going to isolate Ranzono Sachi to rob her of her celebrity status and then you're going to reject her clothing. That will remove her power as a centipede."
I was calling it Operation Emperor's New Clothes.
However, there was no guarantee it would go as well as the picture book. A failure would mean being decapitated in the public square.
"B-but, you're messing with the spare server for emergencies, right? The Intellectual Village is filled with a spider web of countless pieces of communications equipment, so destroying one or two of them isn't going to bring it all down."
"I don't have to destroy them, " I corrected."When the Zashiki Warashi messed with the router's settings, her signals got mixed in with those from my room. That shut down communications from both rooms and it took until morning to get it all running again."
"?"
"This is the same. Causing a malfunction will create more trouble than physically destroying it. I'm messing with the spare server's settings to send out a bunch of data that intentionally interferes with the village's normal lines. That will bring down all communications."
I flipped a switch.
"Okay. That just leaves the wireless communications. If I have the emergency antenna tower send out the same frequencies used for cellphones and wireless LANs, I can seal off the communications by force. If this works, it will tear the centipede legs from Ranzono Sachi. This is Step 1. We're finally stepping up onto the same stage as her."
Part 15 (3rd person)
Late at night in the sanatorium, day trader Kotemitsu Madoka was facing her computer wearing her red bloomers (perhaps for good luck). She let out a scream when the connection suddenly died.
"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!???"
Part 16 (3rd person)
As Ranzono Sachi watched, many children used the light of their centipede legs to break the windows and enter the high-tech wooden school building. Violent wind was blowing down the hallways. However, no one would have thought these were human children anymore. A lot of them were more centipede than human now. Some had gathered centipedes to form great wings and others had half their body completely covered like a hermit crab. Of course, not all of that would be effective. Even if they transformed their arms, they wouldn't be able to secure the lift needed to fly. They still had enough of a heart left to care about how they looked, but that was gradually fading away. They would become a formless swarm of centipedes. They would be nothing but centipedes. They used slicing wind, crushing wind, wind that corroded with oxidation, and wind that produced electricity. They found plenty of new things to fascinate themselves.
After the soldiers leveled the ground, the queen would continue forward. But that ended when Ranzono suddenly came to a stop.
A familiar deadly Youkai showed its face through a broken window.
"Oomukade!!"
She briefly forgot everything and called its name with a high-pitched voice appropriate for a girl her age.
She ran over, spread her arms, and jumped toward the large head.
"You big dummy!! Don't worry me so much!! Our centipede transformation has progressed enough to harm your skin and a lot of the kids can't control their power, so this is really dangerous!"
"..."
"But don't worry. Heh heh. It'll all be over soon. Once the transformation crosses a certain line...once this night is over, it'll all come tumbling down like when the water in a cup passes the limits of its surface tension. All of Japan will become like us. No one will be hurt by the phony ideas of beauty and ugliness and the world will be a kinder place."
"..."
The Oomukade decided shaking its head here would not reach Ranzono Sachi.
She looked down at her smartphone. Instead of the actual phone, she was using a free texting service limited to 100 characters. More and more word balloon windows opened to tell her what those in the school were finding.
Then she looked back up.
"Oomukade, you're acting as a spy for the ones trying to escape, aren't you?"
"So you noticed."
"Heh heh. I know everything about you. And I don't mind if that's what you're doing. Even if we're enemies, we're still friends. I believe you'll eventually know I was right."
Noukotsu Village's wired and wireless communications should have been down, but as far as the Oomukade could see, the children had constructed a personal communication network using the special kind of service used for wireless keyboards and printers.
Its range was only fifty to one hundred meters, but they could exchange data without being monitored because it did not require going through a server or cellphone tower. Its misuse in America for terrorist plots and drug trades had led some to argue the maker should limit its abilities.
"Wait here."
Ranzono Sachi shut her eyes while embracing the Oomukade's head as if to offer herself up to that great maw.
"I'll create a place for you, so let's talk about more stupid stuff together afterwards."
"Sachi."
"But first, I need to get rid of the people standing in our way."
"Sachi!!"
The Youkai shouted, but it was too late.
It tried to close its jaws to restrain the girl's body, but she slipped away. With a truly bizarre sound, she quickly made her way into the dark school building. The sounds and movements she made would not have been possible using two human legs. The pants below her skirt bent oddly and the two centipedes sticking out of her skirt wrapped around each other. But even that was not enough. The countless legs were likely cutting at the air to create a violent wind that propelled her forward. She moved like a nimble snake and it reminded the Oomukade of the stories found in the East and the West of grudges transforming girls into monsters.
As soon as Sachi stepped into the hallway through the window, static came from all of the school's speakers. A high school boy's voice followed.
"Hi!! You're Ranzono Sachi, I assume. I have no intention of letting you kill me, so I think I'll put up a useless fight now!!"
(...)
Sachi operated her small screen with her thumb to instruct the others to find the broadcast room and break into it.
Meanwhile, the voice continued.
"I saw the magazine you're in. And the clothes you're wearing now. Why are they so mismatched? White shows up the best, so if you wear red over white, it makes the inside portion look bigger and makes your chest look bigger. The black skirt is probably meant to make your waist look thinner and it matches the chocolate color of your brown boots. But the jeans are clearly unnecessary. I can't figure out why you would add blue into the mix. The arrangement of colors is a mess."
(Is he trying to destroy the centipede Package by attacking what makes me "look bigger"?)
Her smartphone received a response.
It was from the boys who had broken into the broadcast room, but they had not found anything.
"No one was there. The lights weren't even on."
"Is there any other broadcast equipment? Check the gym or anywhere else the school would gather."
Not knowing how to respond would give this boy more time.
Ranzono Sachi looked down the dark hallway and the boy's voice stabbed into her ears whether she liked it or not.
"For one thing, the curls of your chestnut hair are really soft and honestly more suited for some high-class girl. The white rose corsage matches that perfectly, yet the combination of a miniskirt and jeans is obviously more of a street outfit. Your belt is wilder and butts heads with the hair. They don't go together, yet they don't have enough of an impact for gap appeal. It just looks like a failed outfit to me."
(But that isn't enough. Heh heh. It's supposed to be a wrong. They're supposed to know it's wrong but still do it because I told them to. That's how I make myself 'look bigger'. So pointing out my mistakes won't ruin my enlarged status!)
The girl gave a fierce smile in the hallway of broken glass.
More and more text message responses reached the centipede queen.
"No one in the gym."
"I doubt there's any other broadcast equipment."
"There's a door leading underground. It might be the kind of tornado shelter I've seen on TV."
One of Ranzono Sachi's eyebrows shot up.
She operated the device with her thumb.
"That would be the gym-sized shelter in case of a disaster. It probably has broadcast equipment to prevent a panic and to organize personnel. Tell me where the door is. It's time to attack."
A rumbling much like TV static filled the school.
Part 17 (Jinnai Shinobu)
Tarou had called it a bomb shelter dungeon, but it was really just a big warehouse filled with stacks of cardboard boxes. The boxes all contained canned food and sleeping bags. They were stacked two or three stories tall, so they formed perfect walls, turning the large space into a labyrinth.
Something was surrounding us from all directions on the other side of the walls made from stainless steel.
Something was scraping at the walls with ferocious speed. No, it was scraping through the walls. It was probably that wind. The deluge of sound reminded me of a heavy downpour. The tornado shelter walls were meant to withstand a tornado with wind speeds of one hundred meters per second, but they quickly crumbled and large holes appeared.
Something like clumps of black seaweed poured in along with intense blasts of wind. Most of them had lost their human forms. The arms and legs sticking out through the gaps just barely let me know what they had originally been. And that wasn't all. The weird wind that wrapped around the centipedes may have been sharp enough or powerful enough to kill someone without ever touching them.
The only one who still looked human was Ranzono Sachi because she had complete control of her transformation. When she walked in, the swarm of black centipedes split to the left and right to make a path for her.
"Heh heh. I suppose this would be checkmate."
The antennae of the countless bugs focused our way.
The lantern and umbrella stood in front of Yonesaki Hiro and tried to puff themselves up, but it was plain as day what would happen to them if an actual clash began.
"The Oomukade calls in storms. The lightning and steel-like toughness both originated from control of air pressure. That gives me plenty of options. I could bite you and fill you with venom, I could constrict you with its large body, or I could crush your eardrums and organs using great wind pressure from every direction. Oh, but..."
As soon as she said that, Ranzono Sachi casually swung the centipede she had as an arm. The creature was wrapped in a whirlwind of orange flames.
"Heh heh. That might start a fire. Like with diesel."
Dammit, I really don't have any time left. Underground really is the centipede's home turf!!
Still, my only option was to smile as I held the emergency broadcast radio microphone.
"I wouldn't be so sure. Your brand is already falling apart. Using fashion magazines is fine, but you can't accept everything they say. The people around you will be figuring that out before long."
"But I'm not going to wait around for that. So die to help me create a free and kind world."
She snapped her fingers and the seaweed-like darkness rushed in from all directions.
Part 18 (Yonesaki Hiro)
I saw darkness rushing in.
The lantern shouted something in my ear and the umbrella opened up to protect me.
But I was fine. There was no need for that.
After all, I too had looked up to Ranzono-san.
I gave a horizontal swing of my right hand that was still itching.
That was enough to transform it from shoulder to fingertips. I gently pushed the lantern and umbrella out of the way and forcibly swung my insect arm like a whip toward the approaching centipedes.
A clump of air exploded like it had contained a bomb and the sea of centipedes flew apart.
Ranzono-san looked surprised.
"What...?"
"I'm the same as these kids. I thought you looked cool when I saw your pictures in Autofocus. Or would you rather I said you looked cute? But either way, I looked up to you. That let the centipede power infect me."
The many scraping sounds came from my one hundred legs. Those were a part of me now. I didn't just strike with them. I sliced through the wind, controlled the air, and produced small storms.
"And even if that older Jinnai boy revealed everything, I still think you're cool. After all, I also decided I want to be a Youkai once. But I relied on the adults, let them manipulate me, and that was the end of it. I can't believe someone could put together all this on their own and manipulate the world of adults like you've done. I think we should look up to you for caring for your friends so much. I'd get mad if someone was mean to the umbrella or lantern, but I wouldn't be able to tell you how much I'd actually be able to do. But you found an answer! And a great enough one to reject the world of adults! So!!"
More than one centipede extended from my shoulder now. More and more heads grew like Yamata-no-Orochi. I clenched and opened them like a giant hand and wind wrapped around them.
"I won't lose. If it was the power of my feelings for you that gave me this centipede transformation, then I won't lose to the rest of these kids! I won't be shaken!"
"Wha-?"
"I know more good things about you than even you do!!"
"What are you saying!?"
She may have been angry because her face grew red and she charged toward me. The legs in her pants transformed into long centipedes and moved like snakes. Lots more centipedes burst from below her skirt. She beat the air with them, built up the wind, and produced flames. I responded by stepping forward. The other kids between us were knocked out of the way as our giant centipedes moved like muddy rivers and collided. Tearing at the ear created vacuums which exploded and blew everything away. My wind wrapped around Ranzono-san's flames.
As we fought, I gradually learned more about the centipedes. It wasn't the size or shape that mattered. Nor was it creating fancy-looking winds or flames. The older Jinnai boy had said Oomukade venom was used to make curses.
Curses had to be about feelings.
The Oomukade was a Youkai that grew larger when filled with feelings, so this was a battle to see who could turn the most powerful feelings toward the other and who could pour those feelings into the other.
"What could you understand about me!? My face is fake and my heart was torn to pieces, so there's nothing of myself left! Looking up to a doll like me and innocently following me is the same as obsessing over a corpse! You don't understand anything about me!!"
"If you can hate yourself like that, it means that you have a self. You're trying to dirty yourself for the Oomukade, so you must care about your friends! And that means you can't do this. A heart that cares for its friends would never decide it's okay to hurt your classmates or parents. You've only frozen over and numbed yourself!! If you stay numb and follow through with this, you'll definitely come to regret it!!!!!"
The centipedes moved in accordance with my will and created countless forms. They punched as a giant fist, they surrounded themselves in swirls of wind and flames, they stabbed like spears, and they exploded again and again. As time passed, it became clear who had the advantage.
Unsurprisingly, Ranzono-san was more powerful. And not just in how well she used the centipedes. It didn't matter if she could shoot fire at me. The feelings, the curse, and the centipede venom at the base of it all were much, much more powerful and heavier. That was just how intense her feelings for her friends were.
"Heh heh. Is that all you have? You can't stop me!!"
"...Maybe not."
But have you forgotten, Ranzono-san?
I don't have the lead role here.
There's an older boy who knows a whole lot about Youkai behind me.
Part 19 (Jinnai Shinobu)
The scene before my eyes reminded me of the Okuri-Suzume's words that had been the start of this whole affair.
(Hiro-chan is in trouble. Save him before the Oomukade eats him, hm?)
Was this what it meant by "eat"?
In all honesty, Ranzono Sachi was dangerous. Compressing air and creating explosive flames using dust was completely insane. I wouldn't even be able to stand up to Yonesaki Hiro who was facing her alone using wind as his weapon.
And there was no need to give into sentimentality here. I only had to make use of the time he had given me.
"Don't make me laugh, you brat!! You're making yourself look bigger? You're making yourself bigger than any adult? No matter how much you stretch your back, a kid's still a kid. Do you really think you can beat a high schooler!?"
"!!"
Ranzono Sachi had been about to push Yonesaki Hiro back, but she seemed to realize something and came to a complete stop.
Yes. I was using the microphone even though she was right in front of us.
"It might've been easy to feel proud when surrounded by other elementary school kids. Autofocus is mainly read by middle schoolers, so you might have them beat, too. But I'm in high school, the step above that. When I look down from above, I can see your flaws immediately!!"
My argument may have seemed inconsistent or like I was refusing to admit defeat, but there was a reason for it.
Yonesaki Hiro had said a few things to me before coming here:
"But you might be able to finish off Ranzono-san."
"To us, a single grade difference feels like an infinite barrier. The gap between elementary school and middle school feels as distant as the moon from the earth. Ranzono-san is on that moon, but you're even higher."
"Ranzono-san's status is in the world of middle schoolers, so it won't reach you. The words of a high schooler hold a lot of weight, especially about fashion."
I haven't let go of the microphone because it's not you I'm speaking to.
I was speaking to Ranzono Sachi's hangers-on, believers, gallery, and online friends who were filling the entire school grounds.
It didn't really matter what I said.
I just had to use the difference in age and school level to build uncertainty.
After all...
"Spit on its own is meaningless. No matter how much you spit on someone, it isn't going to damage them. It only works as the Oomukade's weakness if you use some other tool as well to make it an arrowhead with spit on it."
In other words, the act of "spitting on" the weapon meant something had to be carried to the centipede.
But then what was that?
"Oh, no."
Ranzono Sachi had the answer, not me.
Yes. It was the cellphones and smartphones they had been using to contact each other!
Part 20 (3rd person)
"Oh, no."
Ranzono Sachi quickly pulled out her smartphone.
She had built in a safety measure. If there was a split in the group, she had prepared an "arrowhead" to rob a member of their centipede power.
She tried to quickly block all of their addresses, but it was too late.
The text messages arrived.
"He's saying our plan is going to fail."
They came from other members of her own group.
"Will this really work?"
They seemed to be doubting her.
"I had thought this was a problem from the beginning."
It was like they were spitting on her.
"This is a high schooler that's saying it."
It was like they were spitting on their weapon and firing it at the centipede.
Dozens or even hundreds of text message complaints rushed toward Ranzono Sachi, their leader.
She did not even have time to scream.
The giant centipede her arm had become burst apart. A slender, feminine arm appeared from within. After that, the darkness surrounding her began to burst, bit by bit. The objects that no longer looked human reverted to being boys and girls.
"Ah...ahh..."
Her vision wavered and a voice escaped her.
She had been a step away from a world where she was free to smile with the Oomukade and the other Youkai, but now it was growing eternally distant.
"Ahhhhhh!! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!"
"Now, that would be checkmate."
The absolutely unreachable being that was a high schooler spoke into the microphone again.
As if it had been waiting for this moment, her friend the Oomukade poked its head down from the stairs leading to the surface.
"It doesn't matter how many of you there are. We've got a high schooler who might as well be on the moon and a real deadly Youkai....Now, what will you do, elementary school kids? Do any of you still want to take us on?"
Part 21 (3rd person)
Jinnai Shinobu and the others climbed the stairs to the surface where some police cars waited. Instead of the old man from the village's police box, several police cars had been sent in from the next rural city over.
But that was not because they knew about the trouble caused by Ranzono Sachi and her group.
"Illegal trespassing, property damage, violation of the Radio Law, and, um, what else was there? Anyway, messing with the antenna tower stood out too much. That even affected the next town over. Well, just pray you don't get kidnapping, abduction of a minor, or some other perverted charge tacked on there as well, high schooler."
"You're kidding!! You're handcuffing me!? And why is it all on me!? How is a human supposed to destroy the walls of a tornado shelter!?"
There was no system to charge the Youkai themselves with a crime, but it was possible to charge Ranzono Sachi's group that had misused one's power. If he could prove he had been under attack by dozens of individuals and that he had been fighting to protect Yonesaki Hiro, his actions would qualify as justified self-defense or an emergency escape and the charges would be dropped, but that was another story.
Ranzono Sachi had been taken into custody by uniformed police officers and Yonesaki Hiro ran over to her with the umbrella and lantern following him.
She looked away from him, but he clearly heard her speak.
"I did the right thing, so I'll try again as many times as it takes. I'll keep at it until our beauty and ugliness have melted away and we all become the same."
"Then I'll stop you as many times as it takes. I know the real you can't do something like that."
The exchange sounded something like Izanagi and Izanami from Japanese mythology.
Just as the police officers began to carry the girl toward a police car, Yonesaki Hiro said one more thing.
"Ranzono-san! Can I ask you just one more thing?"
"What?"
He breathed in and then out.
He looked her straight in the eye and asked.
"Will you show me your face?"
He did not mean it literally. She was a Kasane_12. Human trick art was used to thoroughly alter the impression she gave people, so that question had special meaning for her.
In fact, her eyes opened wide.
Then she smiled just a little. She covered her face with her hands and moved them like drying it with a towel after washing it. It looked like a scene from a classic ghost story where a Nopperabou would appear.
Finally, she moved her hands out of the way.
She exposed the unadorned face that her classmates, neighbors, and even parents had rejected.
She then asked a cruelly ironic question.
"Am I pretty?"
And this time, Yonesaki Hiro's immediate response caught her completely off guard.
"Yes. Very."
Notes
1. ↑ Idiomatically, an Okuri-Ookami refers to a man who feigns kindness to get a woman to let her guard down enough for him to attack her.
| ← Ch. 44 | Ch. 46 → |