novelFreeloaders Tend to Grow in Number - Cannibalization (1)
| ← Ch.148 | Ch.150 → |
Part 1
Kamijou Touma and Kamisato Kakeru.
Imagine Breaker and World Rejecter.
They saw each other down the dark road and ran along the shortest path toward each other.
The first to swing his arm was Kamisato.
"Do you wish for a new world?"
"!?"
They were still five meters apart, so Kamijou should have been out of the other boy's range.
However, he felt a chill race through his entire body. As if flinching from a nearby lightning strike, he lowered his upper body on a baseless reflex.
That thoughtless reaction did not actually dodge anything.
But a moment later, a disturbing explosion sounded directly behind him as if space itself was being torn into and swallowed up.
Thick tension traced along his skin. The impatience felt like a weak electric shock. Mysterious beads of sweat instantly covered his entire forehead.
(Dammit, does he not have to actually touch his opponent!? What conditions does he need and what exactly can he erase? Regardless, his looks way more convenient than mine!!)
But that attack had not been targeting Kamijou.
If it had, it would have blown away his upper body.
(—————) He sensed something flinching back behind him, but he did not look back.
Something had been approaching there, but he did not have time to check.
He clenched his right fist again.
He ran toward Kamisato Kakeru to attack his target... which was something else approaching from behind the other boy.
"Ah... ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!"
It had all been planned out.
As soon as Kamisato's silhouette casually swung his head to the side, Kamijou's fist passed by while clenched as hard as a rock. At the same time, it crossed paths with the "something else" that had been attacking the back of Kamisato's head.
They collided and it was negated.
Imagine Breaker worked perfectly, so whatever was attacking Kamisato must have used a supernatural power. Whether that was magic or an esper power was still a mystery, though.
Kamijou and Kamisato now stood back to back, but they both turned 180 degrees.
"Were you testing me to see if I would save you or not?"
"Well, if you hadn't, all I needed to do was swing my arm."
Violently bright headlights reached them from a different road once again. The flash briefly dazzled them and burned the scenery into their retinas like a photograph.
That was when they realized two different kinds of violence surrounded them.
One was pitch black. Even from close up, Kamijou could not tell what it was. It looked like an octopus floating in the deep sea, like a soft piece of fat cut away with a knife, or like a loose rubber film being melted from the inside. The more he stared at it, the more its meaning changed and the more confused he became. The surface was covered in ominous bubbles and some things that were not quite eyeballs and not quite suckers blinked with a damp yellow or green light that resembled glow-in-the-dark paint. It almost looked like the colors of a strange poisonous frog or lizard.
The other one was red. It seemed to have the texture of a deep pile carpet soaked with water and left to rot. Something like uneven teeth or tongues could be glimpsed deep in the thick carpet. Kamijou was filled with a sense of caution warning him not to look any deeper.
Neither one seemed to have a solid form and they surrounded the two boys from several meters away.
"At any rate, it looks like the main task will have to wait."
Kamisato Kakeru sounded relatively apathetic.
"Just to be sure, these things aren't with you, are they?"
"Does it look that way? And if it comes to that, you seem more suspect than me."
"Or rather..."
"Yes, what are they doing? Have they started cannibalizing each other!?"
The red and black amorphous monsters were acting oddly. With the disturbing sound of sludge flowing into a drain, they began wrapping around and chewing on each other.
Othinus narrowed her eyes from Kamijou's shoulder.
"This seems to be an accident for them too, but we can't just watch. In fact, a wounded beast is even more dangerous. They'll be fighting for their life, so the standard rules don't apply. Their routine becomes harder to predict and they go all out, so there's a larger risk of anything nearby getting caught in the middle."
"What a pain. I wanted to have a nice chat, but it looks like escaping here has to come first."
"Perhaps so, " spat out Kamijou.
On the one side was something with uneven teeth or tongues deep inside its rotten red carpet and on the other was something with black bubbles that resembled eyeballs or suckers. The two twisted around, sharpened, and split open their own bodies to send out something like sharp claws. Also giant maws lined with countless fangs opened all over them.
"Here they come!!" shouted Othinus.
Countless predatory tools that resembled spears and blades shot from the creatures surrounding them in a donut shape. Kamijou and Kamisato both gathered strength in their right fists to break through the maw of death.
Part 2
Kamijou was entirely absorbed by his activity.
His Imagine Breaker was extraordinarily destructive to supernatural powers, but its effective range was limited to his right hand, which made it weak against multiple simultaneous attacks. St. Germain had given him trouble by taking advantage of that.
He only managed to escape being surrounded here due to Kamisato's help.
He was honestly unsure what would have happened had he been alone.
"Pant, pant! Dammit!!"
He did not know how far he had to run before he could relax, so he just ran and ran. He clicked his tongue when he remembered he had left the supermarket bags behind.
Once he realized the ability to regret something like that meant he was subconsciously beginning to relax, he finally came to a stop.
Not even he was sure where he had ended up.
He was amazed that District 7 had a back alley like this.
He also realized Kamisato was gone.
He had been so focused on escaping that he had not been able to worry about the other's safety.
"What was that? Kamisato, natural enemy of the Magic Gods, was bad enough, but now another problem has shown up. And in a group of two!"
"You sure are kind. Did you not consider the possibility that Kamisato set this up himself? He did seem to be testing what you would do."
"Eh? But he said it wasn't."
"You really are stupid." Othinus pinched his earlobe."I don't know what exactly World Rejecter does or what conditions are needed to use it, but it defeated Magic Gods by the dozen, didn't it? Would he really run away when faced with just one or two attackers?"
"Then..."
"I'll admit I don't know whether they were working together or not, but he was definitely enjoying it. He was watching how you reacted with a serious look on his face. He was probably playing around and using a different form of communication for what couldn't be said with words."
As he listened to Othinus, Kamijou leaned his sweaty body against a nearby building wall to think.
"What even were those red and black attackers?"
"Who knows." The eyepatch girl sounded entirely casual."The red one had the scent of the Dark Continent, but the black one is a complete mystery. It may have been a conflict between magic and science."
"What's the Dark Continent? Some ancient civilization that sank into the ocean?"
"It means Africa. Expand your vocabulary."
Then why couldn't you just say Africa in the first place!? complained Kamijou in his heart.
"Othinus, you did some science-related stuff in addition to your Norse magic, right?"
"Yes, but that was mostly Bersi."
"But even you couldn't figure anything out about the black one?"
"I wouldn't say that... It's like it's on the tip of my tongue, and that's what makes it so strange. I'm the god that constructed every last part of this 'original world'. Although that was a lot like watching an infinitely-expanding snow crystal growing from a calculated core, so I didn't actually design every little thing..."
If asked whether Kamisato Kakeru or the black and red attackers were more powerful, Kamijou probably would have said Kamisato.
But based on what Othinus had just said, it may not have been that simple.
Which meant...
"Oh, no. Did Kamisato manage to get away safely?"
"... Human."
"I know I'm being naïve, being inconsistent, and getting my priorities backwards, but I won't be able to sleep tonight if I don't check. It would be no laughing matter if I was saved while he was captured and devoured."
"You're aware how foolish it is, yet you're still going back!? How am I supposed to control this idiot!?"
Despite Othinus's fierce protests, Kamijou hesitantly retraced his steps to revisit the scene of the attack. He did not know where he was, but he remembered the different landmarks more than he had expected. Eventually, he found the familiar location.
"Kamisato... isn't here."
"At the very least, it doesn't look like he was eaten as a human sacrifice."
He heard a rustling sound from the dimly lit road, so he quickly looked down.
"Hm? Hey, it's my supermarket bags!!"
"Don't tell me you're retrieving them. It may be December, but the ice cream will have melted."
"Othinus, the fact that they're on the road isn't what matters. It's whether they have germs on them or-..."
He trailed off because the heavy bags moved unnaturally.
Then a large cat hopped out.
"Human, the ingredients list has grown while we were gone."
"Enough with the black jokes, Miss God. And stop right there, stray cat! That's our precious dinn-..."
He was cut off by further movement.
He heard some mewing from a nearby alleyway and a few kittens approached the large cat. Based on the fur color, they were a family.
This truly cornered Kamijou Touma.
"No fair!! No fair!! This is like seeing a puppy being swept away in the river or a cat separated from its owner by war! I can't do anything about it now! All I can do is cry!!"
"It's grabbing the bags and calmly leaving. It probably does this all the time. The damn creature really knows how to live in the city."
"I know that! But knowing better doesn't help when it comes to emotion!!"
Kamijou was helpless against this strange barrier.
He was overwhelmed by sorrow and stood stock still for a while.
But if the bags were there, it meant this was definitely where he and Kamisato had clashed. And thus where those red and black creatures and interfered.
The area was poorly lit, but as he stared into the darkness his eyes adjusted to the light and he noticed something else lying on the ground.
"Ugh..."
"That cat is lucky it didn't try to take this with it too."
It resembled a rotten red carpet. It had seemed to spread out like an infinite sea when it had attacked, but it had been cruelly torn apart and pieces of it were stuck to the asphalt and concrete walls. The way it continued wriggling even then was disturbing, but that was not the main point.
Kamisato had done this.
His World Rejecter was real.
Just like Kamijou's Imagine Breaker, it most likely had some idiosyncratic and hard-to-use effect or conditions. After all, it had slaughtered Magic Gods by the dozen. Without something holding it back, the entire world – both science side and magic side – should have been slaughtered already.
But in the right environment, it was this incredibly destructive. Kamisato had claimed "escaping here has to come first", but if he had been alone, he might have been able to slaughter both of the creatures.
He had been playing around.
Kamijou was unsure how to react to that fact.
He viewed the horrific scene before him once more... and he noticed something.
"Wait a second..."
He had spotted something else amid the remains of the rotten red carpet.
At first, it only looked like a dense object, but a closer looked revealed that a relatively large piece of the rotten carpet was covering something. He began to flip it over, but it reacted to his right hand and vanished, revealing what lay below.
"This is..."
He found an unconscious girl of about twelve.
"This is what that red thing was?"
She had white skin and shoulder-length blonde hair. She wore a white blouse, a short skirt, and black stockings for the chic and luxurious look of a grand piano. She seemed ill-protected against the December chill, but the rotten red carpet may have acted as a coat.
Kamijou had a lot to be surprised about, but the biggest shock was that he recognized her.
As Othinus placed a hand on her forehead and sighed, he muttered the girl's name.
"Bird... way?"
Part 3
Meanwhile, Kamisato Kakeru gave a confused look of his own a short distance away.
He tried to crack his neck in the darkness, but it did not work. He tried a few more times, but he gave up because he felt like he was going to hurt the joint.
Instead, he spoke into his cellphone.
"I can't believe this."
"You getting caught in the middle of someone else's problems is hardly new. This is sure to be related to a cute girl as always. I bet a naked girl is going to appear from the monster's belly. I'd bet my virginity on it."
The voice on the other end had a certain elegance to it. Although Kamisato had no idea if she was using a proper Kyoto dialect or not.
"Don't bet that. Anyway, how long will your analysis take?"
"That depends on how accurate you want it."
Kamisato sounded carefree, but he was surrounded by a horrific scene.
The ground and walls were covered in the remains of the attacker that looked like a deep sea octopus instead of a rotten red carpet. Those remains resembled black clumps of fat or a loose rubber film being melted from the inside.
He heard what sounded like a tabletop fan, but it was actually the spinning of a small motor.
He looked up and saw what appeared to be a toy in the night sky. The device looked like a crane fly made as a craft over summer break and it had a transparent case on its stomach. That case contained a sample of the black substance.
"Taking a peek at Academy City's junk street proved useful. My container lab is doing better than it ever has. It's pretty cool that the kind of electron microscopes we use 'outside' is small enough to fit in your palm here. It was as much of a shock as seeing my first mirrorless camera. Just leave this to your tracer and the earliest results will be in within the hour."
"I see."
Kamisato pictured the short girl who had glossy black hair that reached the ground, let her baggy lab coat drag behind her, and laughed while covering her mouth with the sleeve.
"But Academy City isn't as different from the 'outside' as I'd heard, " said the girl."I thought we would be stuck acting like the old lady who can't figure out how to use the ticket machine."
"Yeah. At first, I thought there were going to be cars driving through tubes, but it doesn't seem that different. They even use the normal Japanese yen... or at least something that looks just like it."
He watched the handmade drone fly away. That girl never went outside and had a bad habit of ordering everything over the internet and picking up anything else with her drone's manipulator. The indoor girl was an incarnation of the magic that kept certain girls from gaining weight even though they mostly ate pizza and never went outside.
Also, she called herself a tracer.
Her specialty was using the same forensic and crime scene investigation skills as police to pursue and track down an individual from the microscopic trail they left. And the title was not wasted on her.
Even criminal organizations used people like that. Tracking down a target or traitor used to mean gathering witness information or using an information network (mostly made from loan shark client lists), but now they hired hackers to target the Juki Net and online shopping records, analyzed the many photographs and images on the internet in search of the face they wanted, or analyzed samples on the molecular level. These were of course all techniques invented by the police, but technology was just as effective no matter who was using it.
In other words, this girl could track someone down even if they were put into the witness protection program or treated as dead in official records, given cosmetic surgery, had their fingerprint changed, and even had all of their blood swapped out. It was much like hunting down a target in the jungle using the footprints and broken branches on the ground. She had the grim reaper known as data at her fingertips and it could be even more frightening than simple violence.
"Oh, since you had the UAV out, I wanted to have you do a scan to see if I'm being followed."
"Why?"
"I'm trying to figure out what to do now. I could return to the container house or I could use a different safe house in case I'm being followed. I was hoping for some extra information to make up my mind."
"Ah ha ha! Come on, this is Academy City. Their technology goes two or three steps further than anything we can even imagine. They say truth is stranger than fiction, but this goes beyond even that. They're probably tracking you in some really nasty way, so completely losing them would be impossible. Besides, they're scanning the entire city by satellite."
"Perhaps."
"I'm sure even this phone call is being intercepted. Of course, you knew that but you're confident you can shake them from your tail by force and escape."
"..."
Currently, Kamisato Kakeru – or rather, the Kamisato Faction that had gathered around him – was opposing the Magic Gods. Academy City and the science side had no reason to complain about that. That said, he had entered the city without permission and he had enough power to slaughter Magic Gods by the dozen. The city's ruler might not choose to ignore him, either because he would be profitable subject for research or because he was a frightening threat.
But what did that matter?
World Rejecter had enough power to deflect that conclusion.
It was the ultimate strike.
It was a truly definitive blow.
"Then I'll go to the spare safe house and see how things go."
"That sounds like a good idea. The other girls are going nuts after hearing you contacted the Imagine Breaker without bringing a bodyguard. Especially when you were attacked by some red and black things afterwards. That should scare you a lot more than Academy City or Kamijou Touma. You need to cool your head and think of a good way to placate some girls. Nya ha ha!"
"My head hurts... Anyway, the safe house is at-..."
"'Is that really something to say on a call that's being intercepted? Don't worry. I'm a tracer, remember? I'll track you down even if you don't tell me a thing. Bye bye☆"
She hung up.
A look of exhaustion briefly came over Kamisato Kakeru and he put his cellphone in his pocket.
Then he looked around the gruesome scene again.
The disturbing black substance was splattered everywhere, but one piece of what looked like bubbling fat was being pushed up by something below. He had no idea what kind of toxins it contained and, in the worst case, it could suddenly attack and began devouring him with its giant maw, but he did not hesitate to approach the creepily pulsating blackness.
"Do you wish for a new world?"
It sounded like some sort of password.
After a light movement of his right hand, the entire clump of black vanished and what slept below was revealed.
She appeared to be between ten and twelve. Her short blonde hair was pushed up with a hairband, leaving her forehead exposed. She wore a down jacket and jogging wear that was as skintight as a wetsuit. There was a slit below the arms, so it likely had temperature regulation for use in any season. The cordless headphones around her neck were most likely linked to the wearable smartwatch on her wrist. Based on her face and the brands of her clothing and accessories, she did not seem to be Japanese.
"Now, then."
Kamisato Kakeru placed a hand on one hip and sighed.
A girl had indeed appeared from within, but she was not naked. He felt that proved the world could be kind after all. He no longer had to worry about the virginity that the girl on the phone had bet.
(If possible, I want this girl to explain the situation as well. They'd probably claim my own testimony lacked objectivity and refuse to listen. )
In order to get their story straight ahead of time, he wanted to know about her.
He crouched down and checked through her pockets, but he found a card case instead of a wallet.
"A girl of around ten has multiple credit cards? And they're all black cards?"
The lineup looked like something a casino magnate from Macau would have. She might have been the type who had never seen an actual coin in her life. All of the card companies were from outside Academy City and each card had the same name printed on it.
"Pa... Patri..."
Kamisato traced his finger across it as he read the name aloud.
"Patricia Birdway? Is that it?"
Part 4
"..."
"..."
"..."
The broken window had only been covered by a plastic sheet, so the dorm room was chilly. Pressure bore down on Kamijou Touma as he silently sat on the wooden flooring of that room.
The pressure came from Index, Othinus, and Nephthys.
After eating all the pet food, the calico cat alone was satisfied and it had completely melted while lying on its belly. For some reason, the cute cat was reminiscent of a hopeless old man after having far too much to drink. The pet was sleeping so defenselessly that there was no hope of it making a gallant entry to rescue its owner.
The discussion was focused on a single issue.
"Touma, what are we going to do about dinner?"
"No, not that!! I know I shouldn't be restarting this argument, but isn't there something more important here!? Besides, whose fault do you think it is there's only miso and soy sauce in the fridge!?"
"Personally, I don't see why you would even keep soy sauce in the fridge, " added Nephthys."The Japanese put dashi and soy sauce in everything, so don't you go through the bottles pretty fast? Do you even have to worry about oxidation?"
"Huh? No one else cares? We're really focusing on this? O-okay, then!! You're wrong! Soy sauce goes on hiyayakko too, so it tastes better when it's chilled!! What kind of idiot would go to the trouble of chilling tofu and then adding room temperature soy sauce!? It makes no sense!!"
"More importantly, this girl."
Othinus alone was taking things seriously.
Kamijou was on all fours and pounding at the floor in frustration, but the eyepatch girl ignored him and kept the conversation going.
"That idiot picked up another one. There were two attackers, a red one and a black one, and this is apparently one of them. It's his usual sickness that makes him save anything he can call a 'girl'. And that means we have a problem beyond Kamisato Kakeru. So what should we do?"
"Hmm."
Index cutely vocalized her thinking.
They had a grimoire library with 103, 000 grimoires memorized and two legit Magic Gods. If this had anything to do with magic, there would be no hiding it.
They poked at the fragments of the rotten red carpet reluctantly clinging to Birdway's clothes as she lay on the floor.
"Nya-Nya Bulembu. That African Cinderella story had something like this. It's the story of a princess forced to wear an ugly animal skin. Everyone found her repulsive because of it, but it actually kept the men from attacking her and a beautiful princess filled with a mystical power was raised within the skin."
Kamijou quickly grew fed up with it.
"That sounds more like the Ugly Duckling than Cinderella. And it straight-up attacked us instead of acting as camouflage. Is that supposed to be how it keeps men from attacking her? What would make it take such a sharp turn towards offense!?"
"..."
"..."
"..."
That should have been a perfectly natural question, but all three girls(?) glared quite intensely at him. There was even a hint of scorn mixed in like they were looking at a dung beetle.
The small Othinus sighed.
"But its main focus was raising the princess inside it, not keeping the men away. And wasn't it supposed to be green and covered in moss?"
"There might be something else, " said Index as she moved her fingers a short distance above Birdway's slender form."Based on the symbols... there's more to this. Other African myths and legends have been broken down and implanted."
"Why Africa?" bluntly asked Kamijou."I don't know all that much about magic, but isn't Birdway from Europe? Doesn't she specialize in Western magic that uses the alphabet?"
"Hmm, I see."
Bandaged Nephthys seemed to have recovered a fair bit since she had first shown up, so she gave a bewitching smile while still sitting on the floor.
"This might be the usual pattern for Europeans."
"What?"
"It happens a lot." Othinus sounded annoyed."'Modern Western Magic' sounds like it's European magic put together by Europeans using European cultures, but that isn't quite accurate."
"It isn't?"
Hadn't Agnese once said that Western magic was essentially made up of tricks using Christianity and the cheating magicians made the serious worshippers look like fools? Hadn't she said that was why she could not allow them to use magic?
However, this was how the Magic Gods saw things.
"They try really hard for a while. Yes, for a while."
"But in the end, they realize there are wishes that they can't grant with their own rules. So what are those Europeans to do? The answer is simple. They begin innocently believing that the equation lies hidden in some as yet unseen paradise."
"Of course, it's usually nonsense like trying to find some strange grand master in distant Tibet and gaining the key to the gates of heaven through his teachings. Sometimes they even mention Atlantis, Mu, or some other continent that sank long ago. Oh, right. I think there's even one about receiving the knowledge and wisdom of god from the radio signals sent by the sun."
Othinus laughed as she explained.
As those who really did know the greatest secrets of the magic world, humans who thought they could pray to god and unconditionally receive knowledge may have seemed hopelessly shallow. There may indeed have been some secret Tibetan techniques in Tibet, but they would not be the convenient vending machine of knowledge that Europeans imagined them to be.
"One example was influenced by the introduction of foreign cultures during the colonial period. That includes Central and South America, the Pacific Islands, Southeast Asia, and India, but the biggest influence of all came from the Dark Continent aka Africa. After all, it's a large place with tons of different tribes, so it's overflowing with countless legends. It's a true melting pot. And from a European point of view, it's right across the Mediterranean and thus requires much less preparation than South America or India. This thinking worked its way deep into even the Golden Dawn which was called the world's largest magic cabal."
"One of the biggest names alongside Yeats and Mathers was Crowley. The tarot he used was known as Thoth Tarot which used the name of an Egyptian god. And when explaining his ideology, he refers to the Aeons of Isis, Osiris, and Horus, " easily explained chocolate-colored Nephthys."The standard Golden-style tarot told the story of the Son of God from his birth to his execution and his resurrection in order to draw on a portion of his power. The twenty-two cards of the Major Arcana from The Fool to The World are synchronized with the twenty-two paths connecting the Sephirot tree, so they are meant to acquire a technique of entering the realm of god with a human body. In other words, they're all miracles that can be explained through Christianity."
"But Thoth Tarot is a little different even though it's based on the same tree."
"It has a special sequence that starts at the birth of Christianity and follows it to its destruction – that is, the coming of Armageddon – and then to the 'new Aeon' that will arrive afterwards. The meaning of the Hanged Man is quite different and Judgment is replaced with The Aeon. In other words, you are not arriving at the realm of god, you are destroying the 'closed ceiling' that is god's territory and then bringing humanity to the next stage above that. Of course, that probably seems dreadfully arrogant from the Vatican's point of view."
"..."
Index, who was (technically) an Anglican nun, looked like she was unsure what to say.
Nephthys seductively adjusted her legs and continued her lecture.
"Now according to Crowley, the Aeon of Isis is the time of primitive religions before the establishment of Christianity, the Aeon of Osiris is the time of stagnation while Christianity spreads, and the Aeon of Horus is the time when mankind achieves a true awakening through the destruction of Christianity. However, that was a rather extreme view even among the Golden cabal, so apparently not everyone in the cabal supported it."
"So what does that mean?" Kamijou skipped the difficult parts and gave just his conclusion."The European magicians try to work within their own culture for a while, but when they hit a dead end, they have a bad habit of changing their way of thinking and digging through information from around the world to resolve whatever contradiction they're faced with?"
He vaguely pictured it as something like putting caviar or foie gras on top of a bowl of rice and claiming it was a new Japanese dish.
"And they even forget they asked for help afterwards. But that might just come naturally to the people who insist they were the ones to invent gunpowder and noodles. It makes me wonder if they ever get confused why it's so difficult to eat food shaped that way by wrapping it around a fork instead of just slurping it up."
"In that case..."
Kamijou looked back down at Birdway as she slept on the floor.
(That arrogant girl had incredible magic and a large organization at her disposal, but she still came across something that she didn't think she could deal with?)
He shuddered all the more.
This no longer looked like a trivial interruption in the Kamisato Kakeru issue. The further they dug into this, the heavier it seemed to get.
"What exactly is it?"
He knew he was digressing from the main task that was Kamisato, but he still asked the question.
"What is Birdway dealing with?"
"Well..."
Index moved her fingers through the empty space slightly above Birdway's sleeping body.
"Wheat... no, is this corn? Africa is pretty big and filled with different tribes, cultures, and legends, but this looks like bits and pieces were gathered from all over. Instead of a single system of mythology, it's more like she was gathering legends to fill in what she was missing."
"Meaning?"
"... Doll... fruit... ceremony abbreviation and cost reduction... sacrifice and destruction using a mechanical series of steps... an offering to a god... no, more like healing a sick patient by providing a corresponding part... the theory of predation..."
Index's fingers came to a stop.
They were pointed right at the center of Birdway's chest as the silver-haired nun said more.
"Cannibalization?"
But that was as far as she got.
Something grabbed her wrist as if to prevent her fingers from revealing more of the truth.
"Don't touch me."
It was Leivinia Birdway.
She did not get up and her face remained pale, but the corners of her lips still curved upward.
"An investigation isn't needed to know that I have more than you."
"..."
At first, Index was confused.
Next, she realized her fingers were pointing at the center of Birdway's flat chest.
Finally, she looked down at her own habit-covered chest.
"You're lying!! That has to be a lie!!"
"Give up. The system of this world is a cruel one."
"I don't want to hear that from a child who wouldn't even know how to put on a bra!!"
"Whaaat!? What do bras have to do with anything!? Besides, the idea that having breasts and wearing a bra are one and the same is nothing but a fantasy of those with no cup size to speak of!!"
Nephthys sighed at the fruitless conflict.
For the record, the brown beauty was not wearing a bra yet she clearly did have a cup size to speak of.
The world was a confusing place.
Part 5
First of all, the girl sent out the UAV that looked like a toy and like a crane fly.
After confirming the area was safe, she approached the building in her formal clothing and her baggy lab coat that dragged behind her. With her glossy black hair reaching her ankles and her large sleeves covering even her hands, the outfit was somewhat reminiscent of a ceremonial kimono.
However, she was lacking in the size needed to be called a charming beauty.
"Naitou, Joujima, Ganzan, Tsukuyomi... oh, here we go."
The solid sound of leather shoes on the floor continued as she walked down the corridor of the rundown District 7 apartment building while checking the nameplates. When she reached one with a blank nameplate suggesting the resident had only just moved in, she violently knocked instead of ringing the bell.
Without waiting for an answer, she applied a few reagents to the keyhole and used some wires to unlock the door in less than ten seconds. She opened the door to find a hellish scene contained within a 4. 5 tatami mat room without a bathroom.
"Grrrr!! Hiss hiss!!"
"Ow!! Ow ow ow ow ow ow!! Why is this girl acting like a wounded cat the second she wakes up!?"
In one corner, a blonde girl with her forehead showing had all her hair bristled as she scratched at the normal high school boy, Kamisato Kakeru. The window was broken and covered by a plastic sheet, but that was most likely unrelated to this.
The lab coat girl covered her mouth with a baggy sleeve and spoke with a faint smile in her voice.
"Come now. She woke up to find herself in an unfamiliar boy's apartment. You're clearly the one at fault here."
"No good deed goes unpunished in this age of mistrust, huh!?"
"Now, now, young lady."
The lab coat girl crouched down to get on eye level with Patricia Birdway whose caution was set to max and who had tears of anger in her eyes. The lab coat girl smiled while elegantly keeping her teeth hidden.
Then she dropped a tremendous bomb.
"I may not look it, but I specialize in unofficial forensic investigation. If you don't trust Kamisato-han and you're worried about your body, I can check to see if you're pregnant. If you just squeeze your eyes shut and spread your legs, it'll be over in no time."
"!?"
Patricia's entire body shook.
The lab coat girl was still smiling. In fact, the perfect smile was frozen on her face. She was not joking or being unreasonable. She was being intentionally cruel to this girl who had harmed Kamisato, no matter how legitimate her reasons might have been.
The boy sighed, placed a hand on his neck, and swung his head a little to the side. He was trying to crack the joint, but it was not working.
"Ellen."
"Yes, yes, hi, yes, hi! I'll leave my harassment at that. Honestly, if Claire and Elza learned how ungrateful she was being, they would seriously tear her to pieces, you know? You ran off without your bodyguards and now you're injured. What do you think is going to happen now, boss?"
"Oh, no... Maybe I should hide the injuries."
"Well, it's just a few welts from some scratches and she didn't draw any blood. A thick application of foundation should be enough."
That was when a strange aura of fear came from Patricia's entire body while she trembled in the corner of the room. A sharp crack seemed to run through her soft cheek and something like an octopus tentacle filled with bubbling eyeballs or suckers showed itself. There were also glimpses of the colors of a strange poisonous frog or lizard.
It bent, twisted, and formed a single sharp spear before shooting out like a bullet.
Its target was Ellen. It shot a bit below her evenly-cut bangs – that is, the center of her face.
However...
"Oops."
Kamisato reached his hand casually out from the side.
As soon as he grabbed it, a large chunk was torn from the spear and the bubbling mass frantically retreated back into Patricia's body.
An unpleasant sound followed.
It came from below the small girl's skin. Something as thick as a thumb seemed to slither from her cheek and down toward the neck holding her headphones.
The baggy lab coat girl reflexively tried to say something, but Kamisato Kakeru placed his index finger over her lips, then smiled toward Patricia in the corner.
"That... didn't seem to be under your control."
"..."
Patricia remained silent and a change came over her chest.
A pulsation was evident even through her puffy down jacket.
However, it clearly did not come from a human heart. Something else was wriggling at the center of her chest.
"To be honest, you're free to tell us what's going on or not. But if you don't tell us, we'll investigate it on our own. We will find the truth, but you can't choose the extent of that truth."
As Kamisato spoke, the pulsation grew smaller.
Or rather, it was hiding.
What had been gathered in one spot scattered in every direction to disperse and hide inside her body. Normally, she would not seem any different from a normal person.
"So you have the advantage here. If you tell us, you can choose the extent of the truth you want us to know."
Patricia thought, opened her mouth, said nothing, hung her head, and shook her head.
Then she lifted her head once more.
"Sorry."
"My response depends on what you're apologizing for."
Was it for injuring Kamisato and trying to harm the lab coat girl?
Or was it for brushing off his suggestion and rejecting his explanation?
But the girl had been apologizing for something else entirely.
"For my weak heart that's telling me it will be crushed by the anxiety if I don't tell you, even though I know telling you will drag you into this."
Kamisato smiled and responded.
"Then you don't need to apologize."
"Not even I know what this is. As a guest researcher from the university, I took part in a study of the largescale changes in the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Ocean currents due to the changes in ice levels at the poles. While we were investigating the South Pole, we found a new kind of parasite. Our team called it Sample Shoggoth."
"Shoggoth, hm?" Kamisato exhaled slowly."I'd like to hear how you got from Antarctica to Academy City."
"O-okay. It might not be all that important, though. While visiting different medical institutions to find a way to deal with this, I eventually found myself in Academy City. That's all."
"If you were undergoing treatment, why were you walking around outside?"
"While it's a parasite, it doesn't spread indiscriminately or anything. Oh, but I can't guarantee it won't cause you any problems."
"Yes, it did just attack me."
"Ellen."
"I'm a victim!!"
The upset lab coat girl brought a finger to her lips again and Kamisato prompted Patricia to continue.
"Apparently, even Academy City's technology has little chance of safely removing it. However, that's not what I'm worried about. The problem is my sister."
"Your sister?"
Kamisato placed a hand on his neck as he asked and Patricia nodded.
"The red one."
That short answer held significant meaning.
"My sister seems to be searching for a way to save me with her own methods, but I can't rely on that. I can never accept that method, so I can't just sit around and wait. I need to stop her and have her give up on that method immediately."
"Why?"
He did not understand, so he simply asked about it.
"It might not work, but just like with the lottery, having as many options as possible raises the odds of a miracle happening, right? Although if you're talking about having an amateur cut you open with a rusty scalpel and no anesthetic, then yeah, you should probably say no to that."
"If only that was what it was."
Patricia shook her head and Kamisato's frown deepened.
"It's something worse?"
"If she does use her method, there's no guarantee it will save me from this. That's a complete unknown."
Patricia admitted that first.
And then she cut to the heart of the matter.
"But if she uses that method, there's a risk of her dying. She knows that and is still offering herself up to me, but that's exactly why I have to reject it."
Part 6
Birdway sat up and looked around the room.
"The window is broken here too? That would explain why it's so cold."
"The entire city's like this thanks to the High Priest. At least be thankful there's a plastic sheet covering it."
"And why is the kotatsu over there? Isn't that my seat?"
"It isn't anyone's seat. We just felt like using it today is all.... Hey, quite forcing your way in here! There isn't enough room!!"
"You're the one that stole my seat."
She was pouting her lips for some reason, so she may have been picky about her position, just like a cat.
"Fine, I'll explain everything from the beginning."
After sitting right next to Kamijou, Birdway finally got down to business.
Her face looked pale, but having the others worry over her seemed to hurt her pride. She blocked Kamijou's hand when he tried to support her back.
"But first, promise me something, Kamijou Touma. Do not touch me. There shouldn't be an issue since you claim to have carried me here, but I want to be as cautious as I can. I don't want one casual move from you ruining everything."
"What?"
"I'm telling you not to touch my chest."
"Quick question, Birdway. What kind of person do you think I am?"
"You have to ask? I'm only so afraid because it's you!!"
She looked at him like he was a wild animal, which depressed him a fair bit.
"Let me be blunt, this is a personal issue. It's nothing for you all to get involved in and you don't need to worry about it affecting the entire world. Just to be clear, this is about my life."
"And I still want to know even after hearing that. Besides, you already said you would explain everything from the beginning."
"Tch."
She clicked her tongue before continuing.
"It's about my sister."
"Umm?"
"Patricia Birdway. Oh, right. I guess you wouldn't be familiar with her. She was only involved in a fight between Anglican magicians that took place behind the scenes of an incident you and I dealt with together."
She looked up to the ceiling as if thinking back to the past.
She may have been sorting between what she knew and what Kamijou most likely knew.
"She uses the Birdway name, but she is not a magician. While I have been exclusively focused on magic, she has a more scientific way of thinking. She is my little sister, which should give you a guess at her age, but she already has a PhD and works on university-run projects. She has also been sponsored by Academy City or its cooperative institutions to join labs and research ships as a guest researcher. She has more than twenty published papers and the media reacts entirely differently when a paper is announced with her name on it, so plenty of schools are looking for a chance to bring her in. To sum it up, she's my wonderful little sister. I can only say this while she isn't here, but she's one of the few people I don't mind having around."
"Why am I picturing two sadistic little girls glaring down at me with identical smirks?"
"Her personality is the polar opposite of mine."
"Wow, she must be an angel!! I'd actually be a little afraid to meet someone that perfect!!"
"I don't like what you're implying there." Birdway sounded a little upset."Of course, Patricia knows nothing of the cabal. To be exact, I've made sure of it. And her success isn't because we've been putting in a good word for her. She knows I lead some kind of organization related to the Birdway family, but she isn't actually aware that it's a magic cabal. She probably thinks it's a salon that dates back to the old noble days or something. It's only just barely, but she still qualifies as a normal person."
"What about it? What does that have to do with you wandering around Academy City as some kind of animal skin monster?"
"Animal sk-... Whatever. There was someone else there besides me, wasn't there?"
"You mean Kamisato?"
"Kamisato?"
Birdway sounded confused, so that must not have been the answer.
"You mean the black one, don't you?" cut in Othinus.
"Wait... You mean there was a human inside that one too!?"
"That's the problem." Birdway sighed."That was my sister Patricia. But needless to say, she wasn't born like that. There was apparently some trouble on an Antarctic investigation. Some weird parasite got inside her and transformed her into that."
"Are you serious?"
"Quite serious. I initially balled up the report and threw it at Mark's head, but once I started taking it seriously, I realized how bad this is. I checked through each of the cards the cabal holds and eventually took a step into the realm of the Dark Continent. You understand what that means, don't you? Even with my organization, there was nothing I could do."
If someone claimed a fleet of UFOs was going to attack tomorrow, everyone would laugh it off.
But how was everyone supposed to react once readings actually filled the radars and the many shapes were spotted on the photos taken with telescopes?
The moment when the ridiculous became no laughing matter was when everything one knew crumbled away.
"Academy City was apparently backing the project, so she was first sent to 'outside' cooperative institutions and then to an Academy City medical facility. But you can see the results.
She escaped the bed she was restrained to and is on a rampage outside. Even the science side sees little chance of healing that illness."
"So that means you're trying to... ?"
"Heal her using magic. Do you get a little of what's going on now?"
He did a little, but the full outline of the situation had not quite come into focus.
"However, this is no easy task. That grimoire library will probably have revealed most of it already, but this cannibalization is a hybrid from the Dark Continent. As the leader of a Golden organization, I don't want the men who rely on me seeing me like this. And when it has to do with something even more important than my own life, my reputation is at stake. Well, to be technical, the Dawn-Colored Sunlight isn't a pure Golden cabal and it isn't even a magic cabal in the truest sense of the term... but that means it isn't as powerful as it once was and sometimes has issues at the extremities of the organization. At any rate, I didn't want to spread unnecessary confusion during this difficult time, so I had no choice but to act alone."
"Talking to an average high school boy about leading an organization isn't going to help much. Sorry, but I've never even had a part-time job."
"... You're not the most considerate person, are you?"
"Anyway, what is that black thing? You said something about the Antarctic and a parasite, but does it spread from person to person?"
"I don't know, but if it was highly contagious, I doubt Academy City would bring it inside the city... or at least I sincerely hope they wouldn't. It apparently won't leave my sister's body now that she's its host. Of course, it might seek out a new host if her vitals grew unstable."
"Sounds more like a hairworm than influenza."
"I don't like the sound of either comparison, " spat out Birdway."That thing has dissolved all of the fat in Patricia's body and slips inside the empty space to maintain her human silhouette. It also handles the storage and distribution of nutrients that the fat would have. In other words, that thing holds my sister's life in its hands. Try to extract it and it will go nuts and tear her body to shreds. And even if you did successfully suck it out, all that would remain is an empty skin-and-bones shell of my sister. She would die before she could recover her strength. In other words, she can't be saved by normal means."
"... That's awful."
"That's just how parasites work. They latch onto their host and won't let go. That thing is probably doing its best to survive in its own way. Anyway, everything I told you was in Mark's report, but he couldn't come up with an actual solution. That's why I left the organization to act on my own."
That meant Birdway had snuck into Academy City to do something about Patricia who could not be saved with surgery.
She had even left her subordinates and cast aside the Western magic she excelled at.
"Then what is your trump card?"
"My body. That's why I told you not to touch me with Imagine Breaker."
Birdway lightly tapped the center of her flat chest.
"This animal skin is based on the African legend of a princess. It's a medium that fosters growth while providing defense and concealment so the beautiful princess could grow up without anyone getting in her way. I've been using it to grow a certain something."
Birdway was of course not just wearing the animal skin for her health and beauty.
But then what was it for?
"That girl mentioned cannibalization, didn't she?" A note of resignation entered Birdway's voice."A certain concept occasionally shows up in legends concerning food. If your eye is sick, eat an eye. If your arms or legs are lame, eat an arm or a leg. If your heart is bad, eat a heart. That way, you will regain a healthy body. Of course, another mammal like a pig or cow is often used, but it sometimes means eating body parts of another human."
"Wait... you don't mean..."
"I needed a way to save my sister."
As she spoke, Birdway removed her large brooch and unbuttoned her blouse.
She was not wearing a bra, but a thin slip hung from shoulder straps and covered her from the chest to below the navel.
But that was not what caught Kamijou's attention.
In addition to the two lovely mounds, there was something grotesque growing near the center of her flat chest.
It pulsated like a living creature, but it was clearly entirely separate from Birdway's own pulse.
"I told you I have more than you, didn't I?" Birdway gave a self-deprecating laugh."I have created a new organ in my body that is meant to be eaten. If Patricia eats this once it's fully grown, this will all be over."
Part 7
In the rundown apartment, Patricia placed a hand over the center of her chest.
The foreign object there was obvious even over her puffy down jacket.
The thing must have realized she was feeling for it because it changed shape to slip below her skin. It split apart and the protruding bump vanished. It was like a diving submarine or like an octopus monster shifting its volume from its fist-sized main body to its eight legs.
That was when the nearly broken doorbell rang.
Kamisato and Ellen seemed carefree.
"I wonder who that is."
"Hard to tell when only knowing it's one of your fans still leaves about one hundred different options. You should probably make a list of all the girl's you've won. I could combine that with facial recognition software to make a Kamisato App that automatically gives you their name and profile."
It sounded like a joke, but Kamisato only sighed.
Meanwhile, the front door opened from the outside and two girls walked in.
They were Elza and Claire.
They both belonged to the unofficial "Kamisato Faction".
Elza had long brown hair that was wildly cut away and she had the overall atmosphere of a delinquent. Due to the way her hair was cut, she almost seemed to have fox ears on the sides of her head. She wore a white sweater and a red pleated skirt, but the skirt was extremely long, which made her look like an old school delinquent or a shrine maiden. The girl's image hit both extremes and she held a large plastic bottle in her hands. The clear container had its label removed and it contained old discolored ten yen coins instead of a liquid. She also had a baby carrier attached by a belt which pushed up and accentuated her already large breasts, but their size apparently bothered her and she would get mad if someone mentioned it.
Claire wore thick glasses and had long black hair tied back. She wore a white apron-like dress that left her back bare and she was an obedient gardening club girl... or she should have been. She looked plain and inconspicuous, but that impression was entirely overturned by the giant tropical flowers blooming on either side of her head. It almost looked like her twintails had exploded. Even more colorful flower petals adorned her back.
As soon as the two opened the thin door without knocking, they looked around and started speaking.
"Hm, so is this our new hideout? This is awful. The previous clubroom we'd occupied was filled with plenty of convenient items. I doubt there's a computer and microwave in here."
"But Elza, you don't see a 4. 5 tatami room every day, so isn't it kind of exciting? Like a poor but happy couple pressing their shoulders together for warmth and reconfirming their love for each other. Kyah☆"
"C'mon, Claire, that's probably the same kind of excitement you get from a Columbian prison tour or a Thai military torture tour. You're paying money to enjoy a lack of freedom."
"Please don't say that! The visuals of collars, handcuffs, and creaking ropes hanging from hooks are encroaching on my Showa song paradise!!"
"You've got a surprisingly detailed imagination. I bet this teacher's pet is secretly quite the perv-..."
"Ei☆"
After the glasses girl gathered strength in her stocking-covered legs and hips to deliver a punch to the delinquent girl's side, one of the girls doubled over. Even through the sweater, her large breasts jiggled a needless amount.
Claire ignored her choking companion and turned toward Kamisato.
"You told us a little over the phone, but what exactly is going on here?"
Patricia noticeably put her guard up in the corner of the room and short Ellen only shrugged while dragging her baggy lab coat behind her like a ceremonial kimono, so Kamisato had no choice but to answer.
He placed a hand on the side of his neck and shook his head to the side a little, but the joint would not crack.
"Try to contain your surprise when you hear this."
"Sure, sure."
"I was just being threatened a little bit. She said she has some horrible secret and I'll get dragged into some awful incident if I get any more involved."
"Ohh..."
"Ohh..."
The glasses and delinquent girls both rubbed their index finger against their temple and spoke up in harmony.
Ellen then chimed in with her ankle-length black hair swaying behind her.
"In other words, the setup is complete."
"Y'know, did she really think a hot-blooded boy was going to back off when he heard that? Are you sure she isn't sitting there waiting for the boss to jump at the opportunity?"
"She only draws Kamisato-san in because she isn't aware what she's doing. You know, just like always."
There seemed to be some hidden meaning to that, but...
"Yeah, it was especially bad with you, Claire. You were outside and in public, but you were still nude when you turned that corner and ran right into the boss. Talk about cheating. Thinking back, you really were the queen of cheating."
"I-I don't want to hear that from you! Who meets a guy by suddenly falling from the sky in this day and age!? What dimension did you even come from!? And not only did you manage to land right on top of Kamisato-san's face, but what happened to your panties!? Did you leave them in that other dimension!?"
"I did have something on! It was a large band-aid though!!"
"Come now. You need to thank Ellen-chan here for using my unofficial forensic investigation skills to solve that earthshattering incident. I bet that bastard never imagined those initial missing panties would end up being the key to ending it all. Nice job, me. And Kamisato-han was of course a real hero."
They had moved their conversation along and left him behind, so Kamisato Kakeru lightly scratched at his head and tried making a rebuttal.
"I'm not doing any of this because I want to."
"Don't be silly."
"Don't be silly."
"Don't be silly."
It took them less than half a second.
He himself was apparently not the one who decided who "Kamisato Kakeru" was.
Ellen waved her baggy lab coat sleeve as she said more.
"This might stray somewhat from the main task, but we all know Kamisato-han can't ignore it. Even if we decided to ignore it, he'd run off to the other side of the world to save her on his own if he had to. So it would be best if we helped him out so he can finish it as quickly as possible and get back to the main task. Is that okay with you?"
"Sure is, " said Elza.
"I don't mind, " agreed Claire."Instead of attaching a bell to a cat's collar and letting it wander around, we're holding the dog's leash and taking a walk with it, right? I'd feel more comfortable that way and I personally prefer it."
"That taste. You really are a special kind of perv-..."
"Ei!! Ei ei!!"
The violent rush from the teacher's pet silenced Elza's diaphragm.
However, Kamisato was not the only one who had been left behind. As the older girls' conversation continued without her, Patricia's hands nervously wandered through the air.
Kamisato lightly shrugged as he too had been abandoned.
"Don't worry about it. They're always like this."
"Eh? Oh."
Patricia tried to say something, but the others cut in first.
"The weirdest one of us all is trying to act normal."
"And he has guts hitting on a girl right in front of us! Honestly, could this be following the standard script any closer!?"
"This is how Kamisato Kakeru gathered one hundred girls to construct his personal empire. Now, we need to organize things, so let's make a list of what we need to do and sort it by priority."
Ellen clapped her hands to gather attention.
The girl named Patricia had some sort of large problem and a few steps were needed to solve it. Kamisato Kakeru began thinking about the aspects of these girls that were just as unique as his own right hand, but...
"First, we need to take a bath, but this rundown apartment has a shared bathroom and no bath. I wonder how the other residents get by."
It came so suddenly. Ellen's thought seemed to fly in from the farthest reaches of the universe.
However, this was apparently not simply a case of her being out of her mind.
"Yeah, I asked around and there's apparently a bathhouse around here that they usually use. That's what this tiny teacher told me."
"A bathhouse! Oh, that has a wonderfully retro ring to it!! It has so much more charm than some dull Western term like 'hot spa'!! And it's one of the checkpoints any couple in love simply has to try out at least once! Pant, pant. Huh? Why is everything getting so blurry? Pant, pant!!"
"Quit going into full bloom, you pervert. You're steaming up your glasses with a self-powered thermal power plant."
"Wait, wait, wait, wait, " cut in Kamisato.
He could not believe that no one was opposing the idea. That meant he had to do it himself.
And he still could not crack his neck.
"Why are we about to go take a bath all of a sudden?"
"Come now. Because we're preparing for battle, of course."
Ellen looked entirely nonchalant as she answered, so Kamisato covered his face with a hand. He could not tell how these girls' minds were reaching this conclusion.
"Is this what I think it is? Is it some kind of code that seems entirely incomprehensible if you don't have the kind of mind that can view the world exclusively in terms of 'amazing', 'awesome', and 'cute'?"
"What's got you so quiet, boss?" asked Elza."We ran right on over here as soon as we got inside Academy City. We weren't hanging around setting up a hideout like you. Plus, we're approaching the limits of what deodorant can accomplish. It's like sports practice after PE. Listen, if we begin a new sweaty battle without a shower, it's going to damage our pride as girls, which is more important than the world itself!!"
They forced their opinion on him.
They got by on momentum alone.
That was generally how Kamisato Kakeru's everyday life went.
He shook his head in exasperation and started to join the girls, but something else stopped him. Yes, they had Patricia, an outsider, with them. She seemed unwilling to have Kamisato Kakeru, the final normal person, leave her.
"Wh-why are you all talking about taking a bath all of a sudden!? I don't want to take one. This really isn't the time for that!!"
"Ohhhh, right. Foreigners don't have a bath culture like us. I hear a lot of them feel pretty turned off by the idea of an open-air hot spring."
"... I really don't think that's the problem here."
Kamisato gave a mild retort.
Patricia was clearly in the right on this one. She had been thrown into an entire group of strangers and, not ten minutes after meeting them, she was being asked to go take a bath with them. That thought process was completely broken.
Or it should have been.
Once again, it came down to the thought processes of a girl that a "normal high school boy" like Kamisato Kakeru found so incomprehensible.
"Well, we won't force you to do anything."
"But with your best interests in mind, I have to ask if you're sure you want that. From what I've heard, some kind of goopy black octopus came out of you. This isn't really an issue of individual taste. I'm just amazed you would show your face in front of a boy after that. And while I don't know what that goopy thing was, what if it starts to smell after a while? Can you put up with that? Are you sure you want a boy to find out that kind of stuff comes from a girl's body or that a girl is that kind of creature? If you say you don't mind, then you can curl up in the corner and stay here, but I'd be about ready to bite my tongue at that point. And not just because it's the boss I'm talking about. Isn't it normally all over as soon as the general category of 'boys' finds out?"
"Wha-?"
In her jogging wear and down jacket, Patricia's face blushed and then grew pale. Claire, the gardening club member in glasses, casually cut in. Because she was messing with the flowers on her head, her breasts were visible through the sides of her white dress.
"If that's just the type of girl she is, then what does it matter? I know we're not one to talk, but Kamisato-san is surrounded by girls and they all want to show off with something that no one else has.... Maybe she's trying to be the smell-fetish girl. H-hm... Going that route certainly would be a courageous decision."
"You're really picking up on the worst side of Japanese culture to look at it like that. You truly are a hopeless perv-..."
"Ei!!!!!"
With a solid sound, Elza was silenced (as her breasts jiggled), but Patricia had bigger things to worry about.
She did not want them to force that identity on her.
"N-no!! Don't place me on those weird rails!!"
She desperately protested, but it was not enough to stop forensic lab coat girl Ellen.
"But if you keep this up, you'll be there whether you like it or not. We'll all be washing away our sweat in the bath while you're here all alone and stinky. Oh, but Kamisato-han is nice, so he won't let it show if it bothers him. He might even take pity on you and be extra nice. See, it doesn't matter what you want. You have no say. It isn't up to you. You'll be placed on those rails Elza and Claire mentioned regardless. Do you understand now?"
"Wh-wh-wh-wh-why do I have to follow that kind of-..."
"But wouldn't it be painful? Come now. I don't know your exact age..."
Ellen gave a cruel smile and spoke her next words like she was stabbing a knife into the girl.
"But people look down on someone who can't take a bath on their own by your age."
Kamisato very nearly voiced his surprise.
He had a vivid vision of an invisible lever being thrown.
Blonde forehead girl Patricia shouted back on reflex.
"I can take a bath on my own!! A Japanese bathhouse isn't a problem! D-don't mock me like that!!!!"
Patricia pressed a fist against the center of the down jacket covering her flat chest.
That represented the disturbing pulsation that had been there not long before.
It had dived down through her entire body, but it would gather back in one spot and surface like an eight-legged monster from the dark sea.
Elza had not heard the details of the situation, but she seemed to have good instincts for this kind of thing.
"Is something the matter?"
"Eh? No, nothing. It... it doesn't appear when I'm just sitting around..."
The delinquent girl with roughly cut hair scratched her head at Patricia's hesitant answer.
She seemed to be a caring person because she pointed her thumb at Claire next to her.
"I don't know what your problem is, but the world is a big place. You can even find glasses girls with tropical flowers growing from their heads smiling in the shopping district like it's nothing. You're free to believe whatever you want, even if that leads to some kind of complex, but try thinking through it again. Is that obstacle really insurmountable? And what would be the perfect time to overcome it?"
"Elza, you seem to think you're being helpful, but can we speak out back later? And I don't think a psychedelic girl who always carries around a bottle of coins like it's her baby has any right to talk about what's normal."
"Oh? What's that, Claire? Do you want me to bring out the herbicide or the lawnmower?"
The conversation jumped from place to place, moving the eye of the storm in the process. Patricia had been left behind once again, but that casual treatment may have been proof she was not being too much trouble.
At any rate, they all left the rundown apartment.
Kamisato had entered the city before the others, so he knew where the bathhouse was. He briefly considered intentionally taking a wrong turn to make a large circle back to the rundown apartment, but he could tell this was something of a life-or-death issue for Claire and Elza and he knew he would probably end up beaten to a pulp if he tried that. Obediently doing as asked seemed the best course of action.
As they walked along the nighttime street, he placed a hand on the side of his neck.
He was apparently trying to crack the joint, but it did not seem to be working.
When he noticed Patricia giving him a puzzled look, he smiled and explained.
"It has no real meaning."
His voice sounded kind yet somehow hollow.
"I wanted some kind of continual obsession. It could have been spinning a pen, whistling, or anything else. I wanted some small spice to leave the category of dull and uninteresting, so I ended up with this habit."
After a short while, a likely building came into view.
"There it is. See the chimney?"
"Hey, isn't this supposed to be Academy City, the town of cutting-edge science? Isn't the technology supposed to two or three decades ahead of things 'outside'?"
"It must be a cutting-edge bathhouse with a cutting-edge boiler connected to that cutting-edge chimney. Now, let's get inside. We're not photographers in search of retro scenery."
For some reason, Ellen grabbed Kamisato's hand and began pulling him inside.
Confused, he came to a stop.
"Um, I arrived here a few days ago, so the situation isn't the same for me. To be honest, I don't really feel any need for a bath."
"Sigh. Well, you don't have to and I guess it's allowable for a boy to be the one sweaty person in a group of girls. I suppose it makes you the wild type. Ah ha ha. That's not you at all."
"Eh?"
Kamisato brought his nose to his upper arm.
While Ellen hid her smile behind her baggy lab coat sleeve, Elza spoke up in annoyance while holding her plastic bottle in both hands.
"I vote no to that. I don't want to get anywhere near the guys on the baseball or judo team who claim it's a virtue and a treasure of youth or whatever. I'm not going to flat out reject everything that sweats, but at least pay some attention to your surroundings."
"You're such a romantic, Elza. Or rather, you have high standards. Is your ideal guy the dashing prince on horseba-..."
"D-don't be ridiculous!! I-I-I-I don't dr-dr-dream about th-th-things like that, y-y-y-y-you moron!!"
"Elzaaa, I know you're panicking, but if you beat that broken glasses girl with your bottle of coins any longer, I'm gonna have to break out my crime scene investigation toolset."
"Ah!?"
The delinquent girl came back to her senses and finally let go of the glasses girl's collar. Claire collapsed limply to the ground, her dress's shoulder straps slipped down, and a few petals fell from the giant twintail-like flowers.
Staying outside was not going to help, so they entered the building.
The old lady at the attendant booth tilted her head at the extremely strange grouping of a boy and four girls, but she still invited them in as customers. They had been prepared for some kind of high-tech payment system, but they apparently only had to hand change to the old lady. For a high school boy like Kamisato, this actually felt stranger than something high-tech.
Kamisato alone made his way to the men's bath.
"See you all later."
"Oh, right.... Heh heh. But that 'later' might be a lot sooner than you think."
A chill ran down his spine, but he decided to assume he was imagining things. The highly unique Kamisato Faction could be cruel in their words, but they were also quite caring. Ellen tended to take on the role of organizing things, so she held Patricia's hand as she waved and started toward the women's bath.
Inside the changing room, Kamisato found no other male customers. He did not hear any voices through the frosted glass divider either, so he may have been the only one there.
He bought shampoo and soap from a vending machine, removed his clothes, and entered the bath area. As he had expected, he was the only one in the large area, so he felt somehow lonely.
However, he was the kind of normal high school boy one could find anywhere, so being alone did not mean he started jumping into or swimming through the tub.
He sat on the small bath chair and began diligently washing his body.
It was easy to lose track of time with the lively girls around, but when alone, he tended to get lost in thought.
For example, his thoughts turned to Kamijou Touma.
He had been interrupted by the incident involving those red and black creatures and the two girls, but he could not ignore that boy either. For his group, the Kamijou issue was the main task.
He looked down at his soapy right hand.
"Do you wish for a new world?"
As soon as he muttered those words, everything vanished.
He thought quietly while narrowing his eyes at the clean hand that appeared as the soap bubbles disappeared.
He would find the answer.
He would make sure of it.
He then looked at himself in the mirror on the wall and he sighed.
(That's more skinny than normal. I might be in trouble if I don't start working out a little. )
How exactly would he would be in trouble?
After some thought, he realized something unpleasant was rising in his chest.
I'm not doing any of this because I want to.
He said that so often that it was losing all meaning and becoming a catch phrase, but it nearly escaped his lips again.
And then...
"... Eh heh heh."
"?"
"Oh, what's with the serious look in front of the mirror? You're quite the narcissist when you're alone, Kamisato-san.... H-huh? I can't see. Ahhh!! Why are my glasses fogging up now!? Don't tell me it's because I switched to my cheap spares after the lenses broke earlier!!!"
"Claire?"
Kamisato turned toward the absurd voice. As a modern teenager, he was unfamiliar with the exact layout of a bathhouse, but it seemed the dividing wall between the men's and women's baths did not reach the ceiling, leaving a gap at the top. The pervert with fogged-up glasses was poking her head out from there.
Being a girl has its advantages, he thought with a distant look in his eyes.
If the roles were reversed, he would likely have had his head split open without a chance to explain himself.
He placed a hand on the side of his neck and asked a question.
"What are you doing?"
"Eh heh heh. I sent out some cable sensor roots, so I already know there aren't any customers besides us. And even if someone else tries to approach, I set them to automatically intercept, so we're safe. That means we don't need to worry about the distinction between men's and women's baths. What I'm saying is, how about I wash your ba-... kyah!?"
Before she could finish speaking, the glasses girl was pulled back to the other side of the wall.
The sudden disappearance looked like someone had grabbed her leg.
Then Elza's voice came from beyond the wall.
"Don't worry, boss! I'll protect your chastity!... Huh? Ellen's missing. Did she slip away during the confusion!?"
"U-um, she went running out of the girl's bath earlier without even putting on a towel."
Just as a bad feeling came over Kamisato, the frosted glass door to the men's bath slid open.
The girl stood boldly in the entrance.
She must have been loved by god because her long hair was plastered to her wet skin in a way that perfectly covered all the important bits. This was a new feeling. Could hair become clothing for mankind? A distant look filled Kamisato's eyes as he recalled a saying as old as asking if a banana counted as a snack. He wanted to believe that thinking of that fruit after seeing this scene was not a metaphor for anything inappropriate.
Even now, Ellen hid her smile behind her hand in a misguided attempt at elegance.
"Hah hahhh!! Blame yourselves for not keeping up with me! Now, Kamisato-han, let us get to know each other a lot better!!"
"Damn her!! Now that she's crossed that line, I'll have to act as a human shield. I am the boss's bodyguard, after all! I have no choice! That's right, I have no choice!!"
"N-no fair!! I'm his bodyguard too, aren't I!? So why was I the only one pulled away!?"
The situation was a complete mess.
Kamisato turned around and searched for an escape route, but the main entrance was blocked by Ellen while Elza and Claire were beginning to climb over the dividing wall like zombies.
He was completely cornered and Ellen slowly approached him with a smile on her face.
"You know what, Kamisato-han?"
"Yes?"
"I think you should just place the blame on us and go along with this pink situation."
What happened next will be described in a fairly abstract fashion.
—The Fisherman Shakes Off the Kraken's Tentacles and Escapes by the Skin of His Teeth. (In the style of a Greek sculpture)
"..."
Left all alone, Patricia quickly washed herself, returned to the changing room, and put her clothes back on. Part of it was being culturally unaccustomed to letting others see her skin, but it also had to do with Sample Shoggoth living below her skin. It was being calm now, but whenever she saw her own white skin and the blood vessels showing through, she would remember that thing that was covered in indescribable objects reminiscent of eyeballs or suckers. She would remember the fist-sized mass and the branching tentacles.
She wanted to avoid looking at it even if that did not solve anything.
The smartwatch on her wrist displayed her heartrate and blood pressure. It had originally been a health management app, but anyone who did not know about her condition would assume it was broken and needed to be reinstalled.
With nothing to do, she stood in front of the fruit milk vending machine.
(Is it a mixture of milk and a few fruit juices? Come to think of it, Leivinia likes Cinderellas and Shirley Temples, doesn't she?)
Her sister had bragged about them by calling them non-alcoholic cocktails, but they were really just mixed drinks. Seeing this reminded her of that sister.
The sentimental feeling caused her to reach out her hand, but it apparently did not take cards. She had plenty of black cards that could be used to pay tens or even hundreds of millions of yen, but she had no loose change.
A heavy depression filled her.
She saw no ill will in the conversations among the community built around Kamisato Kakeru.
They may have had their own kind of goodness and justice.
However, that did not mean it was directed toward her.
"..."
She quietly placed her fist at the center of the down jacket covering her flat chest.
There was sweat on her bare forehead.
She hated the mere fact that this action had become a habit.
It felt the same as when a parasite spread its territory by manipulating a snail into being eaten by a bird.
| ← Ch. 148 | Ch. 150 → |