novelFreeloaders Tend to Grow in Number - Cannibalization (2)
| ← Ch.149 | Ch.151 → |
Part 8
It was an unbelievable sight.
Medicine had always had a grotesque and repulsive side if one looked only at the actions and ignored the intentions. Anesthetizing a patient, cutting them open, cutting out an organ, and placing in a new one was a "good" action when one knew it was saving a life.
"Ugh."
But when viewed directly, it was hardly surprising that Kamijou felt sick to his stomach.
"Urp!"
"Oh, was a lady's bare skin too much for you?"
Birdway smiled and buttoned up her blouse. Her expression looked strained and it was likely due to more than just passing out. For one thing, what if it had not been an attack by Kamisato Kakeru that had caused her to pass out?
"And while I'm talking about having her eat this organ, there's more to it than that."
She replaced the large brooch and put on a nonchalant look.
"Threads and sheets made from corn starch are used in medicine. When used to close or cover a wound, they attach to and fuse with the human body so they do not need to be later removed. I'm creating a new organ based on that material, so it really isn't that different from some corn potage."
"Also, African magic includes a way to escape a curse by making a doll of wheat to take your place as well as a way to curse someone to death by sacrificing a doll made of corn."
Birdway nodded at Index's explanation.
"The world is filled with stories of plants or grains arranged in human form to take someone's place. In fact, dolls made of animal matter are a lot rarer and you can't create a doll without adding some mystery into the mix. They act all high and might about their sacrificial ceremonies, but securing a full human body is a lot harder in this day and age. They've had to search out replacements, so they've developed methods of producing the same effect as the sacrifice by eating a doll made of wheat or corn. I'm using that for my own purposes."
Doll-sized Othinus sighed.
"That would explain why the supposedly green animal skin is red. Are you trying to grow an apple in your chest?"
It was psychedelic and grotesque.
That optimal answer seemed to rob one's willpower just by looking at it.
But at the same time, Birdway had done enough to keep Kamijou and the others from making any kind of complaint. If she created the organ and had Patricia eat it as planned, the entire problem would be solved.
It was just as Birdway had said in the beginning.
She was not going to ask for any help and she would move her game pieces around to resolve this personal problem on her own.
The small girl placed a hand on her throat.
"All this talking is making my throat hurt. Something sweet would be perfect.... Could you bring me a Shirley Temple? Hey, Mar-... !!"
She started calling someone out of habit, but she caught herself.
Kamijou, Index, Othinus, and Nephthys looked on in confusion as she cleared her throat.
Her face was a little red as she changed her target.
"Kamijou Touma, this is your home, so you have a duty to entertain your guests. You can find the instructions with a simple internet search for 'Shirley Temple', so don't worry. A child could make one, so you have two minutes."
"Oh, dear. It would seem spoiled little Birdway isn't aware of the situation here. This room is currently only stocked with tap water, miso, and soy sauce! If you're fine with some cold miso soup with no dashi, I could whip that up for you!!"
"This is even worse than I thought! This is unsuitable for human life!!"
"I completely agree, but let me add one more thing. If you hadn't interrupted with your fight, the ingredients for our hotpot might not have gone to waste!!!!!"
This was only a petty but noisy argument, but Birdway was still the intimidating leader of the Dawn-Colored Sunlight, Europe's largest Golden-style magic cabal. So if Kamijou Touma could drag that leader down to being a mere twelve-year-old girl, did he play the role of a joker?
Small Othinus sighed again and brown Nephthys shrugged.
"Since that solves your personal issue, can we get back to the Kamisato Kakeru issue?"
"I wish we could, " replied the fifteen centimeter Magic God with her arms crossed.
"The problem is Patricia, " explained Birdway with an irritated click of the tongue.
"Hm?"
"Didn't I tell you she doesn't know about magic? Even if I know this is the perfect answer using everything the magic side has to offer, I can't tell her that. And even if I could, I wouldn't recommend it. It would drag her to our side more than necessary."
Any supernatural phenomena would need to be explained scientifically.
No matter how distorted it might be, she did not want to show the world of magic to her sister.
However...
"I see. Patricia doesn't know how the magic works or how it would fix this, so from her point of view... '"
"How is she supposed to understand the logic of this cannibalization? Of course she's going to think her sister is growing some strange tumor inside her body and then trying to force it into her mouth. Anyone would be horrified and I can't figure out a way to convince her."
Also, that black thing wanted Patricia's body, so it would go on a rampage if anything tried to drive it out. That was what had led to the "sibling quarrel" Kamijou and Kamisato had been caught in the middle of. Not everything was going to go as planned.
"I'm calling this organ a fruit. Partly because I'm giving it nutrients so it will grow like a fruit, but also because it isn't made for long-term storage. Once it finishes growing, it will rot and wither. Even if we cut it out and place in the fridge. If it's wasted, there is no second chance. I need to make sure it grows, make sure I harvest it, and make sure it gets into my sister's mouth. That's the real problem here."
"..."
"There's one other thing I'm quite curious about and I would appreciate it if you answered me." Birdway raised a finger."Where did Patricia end up while I was unconscious?"
"Eh?"
Kamijou looked over at Othinus who only shrugged.
"At the very least, she wasn't at the scene of the battle..."
When she heard his answer, Birdway gave the look of someone suffering from a cavity in their back tooth.
"If she's wandering around alone, that isn't much of a problem."
Next, it all gathered together on a single point.
"But if that Kamisato person collected her, this could be trouble. I don't remember much, but there was one other person there and his right arm seemed to be as much of a joker as yours."
Part 9
"So Kamisato-han, do you prefer big or little boobs?"
Elsewhere in Academy City, someone else gave a completely different sort of serious expression.
After overcoming quite a lot, Kamisato had just finished the bath time that Claire and the others had insisted on.
He placed a hand on the side of his neck while speaking to a girl dragging a baggy lab coat behind her.
"What are you talking about?"
"We're talking about what happened in the bath just now, boss! You had the most unconcerned look in your eyes as you swept the fogged-up glasses girl's legs out from under her, sent her sliding along the wet floor to score a strike on Ellen, and finished it all off by grabbing my shoulders and throwing me!! How could you stay that calm? What do we have to do to get you all flustered and embarrassed!?"
"That's right. You had such a varied paradise laid out before you, so shouldn't one of us have gotten right in your strike zone?"
"Hmm?" said Kamisato as he tilted his head.
His neck would not crack.
He felt he needed to give some kind of answer, so he did.
"What does size matter as long as it fits with the rest of you?"
"Wah!! I don't think this is a case of being too embarrassed to answer properly!! I really think he just doesn't care!"
"You've gotta love someone who can speak excitedly about anything. I really do respect that. That's what it means to be passionate."
"Listen, boss, let's start by discussing our base definitions. We can't make these grow or shrink based on whether they 'fit the rest of us'!!"
"More importantly..."
"What could be more important!?" lamented the glasses and delinquent girls, but Kamisato continued on regardless.
"I went along with your demand, so can we get down to business now?"
Yes, Kamisato had a lot to deal with.
Patricia's incident needed attention and so did that of the other right hand user.
He was prepared to flip the switch and get to work, but...
"You're right, " said Ellen."How about we get something to eat?"
"...................................................................................................................................................................................."
One hand was not going to cut it any longer, so he covered his face with both hands and curled up on the nighttime road.
He truly could not understand how these girls thought.
Long-haired baggy lab coat forensics girl Ellen tilted her head despite having been the cause.
"Huh? Did I say something that weird?"
"No, not really.... Oh, no. Is he feeling dizzy?"
"How could someone think of getting right to work when they just arrived in a new town and haven't even tried to local food? Besides, we need to plan out what we're going to do. Do you expect us to chat out here in the freezing December air? C'mon, we just took a bath."
The only sensible one remaining, ten-year-old Patricia, only gently patted his shoulder.
Tears did not suit Kamisato Kakeru, so he gathered his strength and got back in the fight.
"What is this? Patricia's incident is already straying from the main task, so when did this subquest get started? What's next, defeating the Four Heavenly Kings who guard the barriers of the different continents and then gathering the seven crystals? Well, that's easy. We just need to save up a hundred thousand platinum, buy our own ship, set sail for the small island at the end of the world, climb to the top of the universe tree, and ask the goddess there what to do."
"Kamisato-han."
"Boss..."
"I don't know what's got you so worked up, but seriously thinking about being reincarnated in another world is a serious warning sign. If something's bothering you, you can always tell us."
A distant look filled the normal high school boy's eyes.
For some reason, he recalled a passage from a book about raising cats.
Give up on the idea of getting them to do anything or stop doing anything. Either learn to enjoy watching them do whatever they want, or do something to draw their attention away from whatever you don't want them to do.
That thought caused something to escape him.
He placed a hand on the side of his neck and words flowed from his mouth like they were his very soul.
"There might not be anything I can do..."
A hand patted his shoulder several times.
It was Patricia.
"You can't go crazy here. If you break, who will be there to give the sensible opinion? To be blunt, I've had enough of it myself."
She was exactly right.
A normal high school boy could not just silently accept this absurdity.
He did not need to actually win the argument. He only had to keep the retorts coming.
He mustered up some courage and tried speaking again.
"I doubt this will help, but I'll repeat myself. Kamisato Kakeru doesn't know when to give up, so I'll say it as many times as it takes. There's a girl here who holds some great secret and is caught in the middle of some kind of incident. Let's go. Let's save her. Why can't you get that into your heads? The quickest route is right in front of us, so I can't imagine why we would choose to take a detour."
But he did not get through to the girls.
Delinquent girl Elza shrugged with her wildly cut brown hair looking a bit like fox ears.
"You say that, but this is how the world works. When you reach a new land, you start with the local cuisine. How are you supposed to stay motivated without that?"
"And I can't understand how someone could choose not to take a bath when there's one right in front of them."
They seemed to be operating under a different set of rules.
While boys handled everything in the "coolest" way, girls handled everything in the "cutest" way, so there was a fundamental discrepancy in their thought processes. Since he did not know their rules, it all had a lazy, shallow, bland, and unprincipled scent to it, but it was apparently an important part of their ignition process.
"Is this the monstrous product of the Yutori Education?"
"Hey, you're our age, so don't act like it doesn't apply to you."
"What years does that cover anyway? I feel like the answer has as wide a scope as the four thousand years of Chinese history."
Realizing that persuading them with logic would be impossible, Kamisato gave up the fight. It was not that they had no logic to their argument; his logic and their logic were simply too incompatible. He decided that going with the flow would be faster than trying to install his own logic in each of them.
"So what do you want to eat?"
"Ehhhh!? That's your territory since you arrived here ahead of us, boss!! Isn't there... y'know, something good? An Academy City specialty or something that would give us a day's worth of material for a blog!?"
"I'm not sure what you're asking for... As you can see, Academy City is nothing but metal and concrete."
"Now, now. You need to actually look, boss. That kind of thing doesn't matter when it comes to regional specialties! Hakata has tonkotsu, Osaka has takoyaki, and Nagoya has... what does it have? Was it miso cutlets or Ogura toast? Regardless, it's got something! You have to have seen it already, but you just ignored it!! C'mon, dig through your memories!!"
"Sorry, but this city has everything from the salt butter ramen of the north to the soki soba of the south."
"Thaaaat's borrrring!! Having everything is the same as having nothing of your own! It's like the souvenir shops in Tokyo or Osaka train stations!!"
"How about you apologize to the station attendants?"
As Elza scratched at her head with both hands (which needlessly jiggled her breasts), gardening club member and glasses girl Claire tilted her head.
"Is there really nothing here? It's all like a national convenience store chain?"
"You can apparently get dishes from over 190 different countries in District 4, but I haven't heard anything about an Academy City original. They have normal fried eggs and toast for breakfast."
"Oh dear."
"Although I think the meat is all cloned and the vegetables are all automatically grown in agriculture buildings. Not counting what some of the rich eat."
Elza perked back up.
"I don't think you know how important what you just said was!! That's it, boss! That sounds as crazy as a burger made from a million worms! You couldn't experience that in any other city!!"
"You'd eat a worm burger if it was local specialty, Elza?"
Ellen sounded surprised, but the delinquent girl did not seem to get the point.
"Eh? Why not? If you go to China, you've gotta try the scorpion skewer. If you go to Australia, you've gotta see what the moth larva ice cream tastes like. And if you go to Mexico, you've gotta order the cactus steak. Why would you go to a Japanese restaurant after traveling to the other side of the world?"
With that, their dinner plans settled on the incredibly vague plan of "anything's fine".
Even buying a convenience store meal or going to a family restaurant would be enough to see what cloned meat tasted like, but...
"Wouldn't a supermarket still be open this late?
"Oh, nice choice. If the other option is a premade meal heated in the microwave and cooked a little in a frying pan, we should probably get Master Chef Elza to cook us up something good."
"S-stop that!! I-I'm not all that good at cooking! I only do it if I absolutely have to!!"
Elza blushed while holding the bottle of coins between her arms. She apparently had trouble with anything that did not fit her delinquent image.
Kamisato finally recalled that the pointy-haired boy had been carrying some plastic bags.
"Claire, Elza, you're exhausted from all this bickering, aren't you? We don't have to go all out today, so why not just go to some random gyudon shop and-..."
His collar was grabbed at Mach speed.
By who? By Ellen, Claire, and Elza at the same time.
The glasses girl in the shoulder-exposing dress spoke up with a smile.
"Some lovely high school girls are talking about home cooking in front of a boy. You can't compare that to 'some random' gyudon shop. Do you understand? Try to realize what's going on here, got it?☆"
Their aura had completely changed.
Kamisato Kakeru was hit by "Intimidate" and cannot move!!
Meanwhile, the girls quickly let go of his collar.
"Okay, let's find a supermarket to search for some ingredients. Elza will take the main role and I'll take the support role. Does that sound good?"
"D-don't just decide what I'll be doing!! But if you insist, I guess I've got no choice!!"
"Ehh? Wait, wait. Then what am I supposed to do?"
"Ellen, you're in charge of switching on the rice maker. That's an incredibly important job."
With that, they entered a nearby supermarket.
The sales were all over and only the wilting leftovers remained in the fresh food section, so Ellen and Elza spoke back and forth as they looked around.
"So are we making Japanese, Western, or Chinese food?"
"I'm thinking we should make whatever we can make with this sad lineup that looks like an oil crisis just hit. Dammit, the place is about to close, but someone with some decent housewife skills bought up all the relatively decent stuff. And that rundown apartment's gas range was pretty small, so I doubt it has much firepower. We need something easy to make, with a flavor we won't get tired of, but that has at least a little surprise to it... A meat and vegetable combo would be good.... Maybe stuffed cabbage or stuffed bell pepper."
That was when a groan reached them.
They turned around and found Patricia in her skintight jogging wear and down jacket. She was still keeping her silence despite supposedly being a part of the group.
She must have realized her mistake when they all turned her way, so she looked away and blushed a little.
"Ahem."
"Oh, what's the matter? Do you not like bell peppers?"
"Th-that isn't it! I'm definitely not a picky eater at my age!!"
Even adults were picky eaters, but Patricia apparently saw things differently. She may have been a bit of a perfectionist when it came to the idea of being "grown up".
"Don't worry. Leave it to our Master Chef Elza and the battle with your pickiness will be blasted beyond the horizon by a single beam blast."
"H-hey! How many times do I have to tell you I don't like housework!! And doesn't that make me sound kind of dangerous or massive!?"
"Which side are you going for, Elza? You don't want to seem like a maiden but you don't want to seem like a macho either, so I can't tell what you want to be."
The conversation log began scrolling downward again, so blonde forehead girl Patricia cut in before some weird assumptions were made about her.
"I said that isn't it!! I'm not a picky eater!!"
"Oh? Then I can just use a raw bell pepper. Maybe I'll wash one up and shove the whole thing in the middle of a salad."
"Mgh."
"Or if you want something healthy, I could throw five or ten of them in a blender to make a bell pepper smoothie. 100% pure vegetable juice! It might taste bad, but don't worry!!"
"Uuh!?"
Elza took pity on the tearfully trembling girl, so she let out a gentle sigh.
"... Fine, then."
"?"
"Listen, little girl, I'm going to make a prediction. You're going to overcome one of your dislikes today. I'll make sure of it. I'll rewrite your definition of bell peppers."
"Wh-why are you trying to sound so cool? Besides, I'm not a picky-..."
Patricia began waving her arms, but then she realized something.
At some point, she had joined their conversation.
She was no longer just watching the conversation log scroll by; her own name was included.
"... Huh?"
She had been the one to speak those lines, but she still tilted her head.
Not even she knew how to define this.
Part 10
Leivinia Birdway stood out on the dorm room's balcony.
The dorm buildings were gathered together like bookcases in a library or shoe lockers at a school and she stared at the moon in the sliver of the night sky visible between those buildings.
The blue sheet was pulled back and Kamijou stepped out.
He wrapped his arms around himself to fight the cold and let out a white breath.
"What are you doing, Birdway?"
"Can't I at least enjoy the moonlight in peace?"
"I get that you're sulking over the lack of a hotpot, but come on in. Watching you is enough to make me feel like I'm freezing."
"You really are-... ! No, never mind. Complaining isn't going to change anything about you."
"?"
At any rate, Kamijou and Birdway returned to the room. It was still cold thanks to the broken window, but it was better than the exposed balcony.
Inside the room, bandage-covered Nephthys still had her sensual chocolate-colored body sprawled out on the ground as she crawled over and messed with the TV remote. Index and Othinus were watching in silence.
However, Kamijou called out to stop her.
"Wait, Nephthys! The variety shows on weekday nights are always... !"
"Um?"
"... food reports, cooking contest quizzes, and other shows meant to draw the attention of housewives!!"
It was too late.
The flat screen was filled with an entire chicken. And it was fried. It was completely fried. The golden breading produced crunching and sizzling sounds as small drops of oil burst out, steam gently rose against the black background, and the camera slowly rotated around it.
"The Christmas season is here, so the sales of chicken are on the rise! Yes, we're here at Maruichi, known for frying up an entire chicken in the fiercely fought food wars of District 15. You might think Christmas means turkey, but chicken and other birds are gaining ground and the rush of preorders has forced them to build up some emergency lines."
The first to burst into tears was Index.
She held a hand to her mouth, collapsed to the side, and began wailing.
"Fgoumaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!"
"Index, I know how you feel, but let's try to maintain our ability to communicate!!"
As Kamijou tried to calm the girl, fifteen centimeter Othinus pressed her index finger against her temple.
"So this is what the Japanese idiom 'poison for the eyes' refers to. I thought you needed the thought-process of Japan's culture of shame to understand it, but now I understand all too well."
"Yes. As a god, receiving insufficient offerings is not exactly fun."
"C'mon, can't we start seriously worrying about dinner now?" asked Kamijou."I know Birdway is in a lot of trouble, but doesn't that mean we need to be able to bring our A game!?... Ah."
Meanwhile Birdway gave an exasperated sigh.
"The amateur high school boy is one thing, but the rest of you are a grimoire library or a Magic God that was willing to kill herself for her ceremony. I'm pretty sure you can control your autonomic nerves and thus control your digestive system."
"..."
"What? Why do you look so lost in thought?"
Birdway looked to Kamijou in confusion as he silently looked down.
More specifically, he looked down at the hand on his pants pocket.
"This is... bad. I was hoping to save us, but I might have just thrown new fuel on the fire. However, even if it might help us get through this, keeping quiet isn't my style."
"Get to the point."
"What if... Hypothetically now, Birdway."
Kamijou Touma began speaking in a heavy, heavy voice as he slowly slid a hand into his pocket.
"What if the vacuum sealed fish sausage I got while trading with my classmates at an early lunch just so happened to still be right here in-..."
He was not allowed to finish.
The girls rushed forward to devour Kamijou Touma's sausage.
Part 11
Now, it's time to eat!!
But to make a long story short, Elza felt utterly disgraced after all her boasting.
After putting on the apron with practiced ease (while not wanting anyone to notice how practiced it was), the large breasted (she also did not want anyone to notice how large they were) delinquent girl had yet to complete a single dish in the rundown apartment's kitchen.
After all...
"Who keeps sneaking 'secret ingredients' in the second I turn my baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!?"
As Demon Lord Elza's eyes glowed red and her fox ear hair bristled, the first to avert her gaze was baggy lab coat forensics girl Ellen. Sweat poured down her face as she spoke up in a trembling voice.
"I-I have no idea what you're talking about."
"Liar!! Who else could it be!? Look, this thing coming out of the stuffed cabbage pot deserves a mosaic over it! What kind of chemical flavoring did you add to make that happen!? Is it some new weapon meant for the roaches that have grown resistant in the city!?"
"Come now. That isn't what this is at all! I thought through it all logically, put together the chemical formulas, and mixed it all up according to the equations, so it has to taste good!!"
"Don't bring hexagonal chemical formulas into the kitcheeeeeeeeeeen!! We're not trying to make mustard gas in this poooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooot!!"
Glasses girl Claire was collapsed by the wall in the cramped room. One shoulder strap of her apron-like white dress had slipped down and the giant tropical flowers growing from her head seemed to have wilted.
"Ah, it feels like I just had harsh undiluted American weed killer dumped over my head... How about we go somewhere else while we let the place air out? Leaving without locking up is dangerous, but the window was broken in the first place."
"If a burglar sticks his hand in the pot, we might get a reward for public service. Talk about easy."
"Are you even listening!? Just like with quantum theory, the idea is already complete. It's just that the experiment to reproduce it inside the device happened to fail this time! It isn't that I have no sense of taste!!"
"You need to rethink your idea from the second you started bringing up quantum theory where the result changes based on whether it's being observed or not!!"
And so they made an emergency evacuation.
The residents of the rundown apartment were drawn out by the sudden stench, so Kamisato Kakeru bowed down and explained the situation. Among them, an extremely short female teacher smiled bitterly and helped out, so they avoided making the news and ending up as a trending topic on websites.
Once he was finally freed from his apology press conference, Kamisato Kakeru breathed a heavy sigh.
"To sum up, this will all be over if we leave the room for about two hours. Unfortunately, it looks like we'll have to eat out tonight."
"That teacher sure was amazing. The instant she saw Ellen's cooking, she began searching for its weakness and sealed it off with that stuff that solidifies tempura oil. I could tell she wasn't your average person as soon as she faced that mosaic-deserving mass without running away."
"Huh? Does this mean I'm going to be teased about this for two or three days straight?"
"More importantly, where should we go? There are a lot of options for eating out."
They began thinking, but the first to hesitantly raise her hand and open her mouth was Patricia.
"U-um."
"?"
"I'm fine with anything, but I would like to try Japanese ramen. The last time I was here I didn't really have time."
Kamisato thought to himself that "Japanese ramen" had an interesting ring to it. That may have been how Westerners saw it. He remembered seeing an online news article about ramen encroaching on the territory of the previous Three Sacred Treasures that were sushi, tempura, and sukiyaki. Of course, anything in Japan was thoroughly localized for Japanese people, so there were all sorts of options that had never existed originally, much like eating pickled vegetables with curry rice. Regardless, it was an odd turn of a phrase in a number of ways.
And at the same time...
(Will the girl way of thinking allow ramen at night?)
Kamisato had no issue with heading out to a ramen place, but would Ellen and Claire be willing? He was honestly quite worried about that. He could imagine them saying they would only drink weird-colored mail-order smoothies after eight at night.
However...
"Hm, not a bad idea."
"Yes, I think it takes our situation into account quite well."
"Hmm?"
Kamisato's head filled with question marks, so he tried asking about it.
"Um, are you sure? Ramen is nothing but carbohydrates and the soup is full of oil. I mean, from the perspective of girls who never take down the 'dieting' sign year-round..."
"It's fine right now."
Elza puffed out her large chest as she readily answered.
She waved a hand and pointed toward him.
"After all, you're with us right now."
"?"
Kamisato left with the others, even though he still did not understand the situation.
With five people in all, they were too much of a crowd for a street cart, so they decided to visit a ramen shop a bit off the main road where they would not be seen from outside. It was even tucked away enough that it had not been caught in the midair breakup of the comet that day, so its windows were actually intact. The heated air inside felt like a true luxury.
There was no android waitress to see them to their seats and no holographic images of the food floating in midair. It was a perfectly normal ramen shop.
Once they settled down at their table, Elza toyed with her fox ear hair while answering the question that had been on Kamisato's mind.
"A lot of girls like ramen, but when it's just us... well, that information hasn't spread very far and it isn't very well known.... Simply put, it's hard for a group of girls to go to a stubborn old man's ramen shop."
"Oh?"
"But this time, we've got you with us, boss. As a boy, you can shield us while we try out some places we wouldn't normally be able to try. We can visit the restaurants we were interested in but seemed to have too high a barrier."
Kamisato guessed it was the opposite of a stern middle-aged man asking a girl to go with him because he could not exactly go out and eat a parfait on his own.
A cheap fifteen inch TV was placed in the perfect spot to claim "the customers are only catching glimpses of the owner's TV and thus it isn't an in-restaurant broadcast". It was apparently tuned to an extra-long two hour drama. A college boy with no real interests or skills was (for some reason) being served by several rather high-spec girls and he was using their powers like seven tools to defeat a crooked job-hunting official in a revenge story. The protagonist was played by Hitotsui Hajime. Given the crazy setting and pop culture jokes, it was probably an adaptation of a manga that was being used to raise the popularity of some of the actors.
Kamisato Kakeru narrowed his eyes a little and sighed.
"Everyone loves those simplistic things, don't they?"
"I don't want to hear that from you."
"I don't want to hear that from you."
"I don't want to hear that from you."
He sighed again at the united retort.
However, that peaceful time did not last long.
Ellen and Claire's argument over the menu soon spread to everyone else.
"What are you doing?"
"You want to know what she said? She said she was going to order salt ramen for all of us! Is she crazy!? I will only accept seafood soy sauce ramen!!"
"Ehhh? Salt ramen is obviously the ticket to happiness. Claire, I'm pretty sure you're ruining your life with that terrible choice."
"Ellen you asshole!! Let's take this outside!!"
As a Westerner, Patricia spat out the ice water in her mouth.
While patting Patricia's back to help stop her choking, Kamisato scolded the glasses girl and told her not to shout English swearwords in a restaurant.
Then he spoke to someone else.
Specifically, the delinquent girl who was resting her elbows and large breasts on the table.
"What about you, Elza?"
"Ehh? Arguing over what kind of ramen is best is like a religious debate. You're never going to get an answer. But as a personal opinion, I'd definitely go with miso ramen."
"Pft. Are you stupid?"
"Pft. Are you stupid?"
When Ellen and Claire spat out their comment in perfect stereo, Elza joined the scuffle. Meanwhile, Kamisato stared at the menu with a bitter look on his face. There was ample variety, which actually gave no sense of focus. This was clearly not a restaurant that had worked twenty years to perfect its soup. There was soup curry ramen and tomato cheese ramen on the list, so he could feel a history of wandering indecisiveness oozing from the menu.
He handed the menu over to Patricia and waited for a while.
Once he decided it was time, he spoke up.
"Okay, let's place our orders. Everyone just say what you want."
A male waiter with a bandanna around his head walked over and an avalanche of voices immediately followed.
"Salt! I want salt!!"
"Soy sauce please! And with seafood!!"
"One miso ramen. Hold the pork, but add in a bunch of green onions instead."
"Oh, then I'll have the tonkotsu."
"Oh, then I'll have the tonkotsu."
"Hm?"
Kamisato looked over at Patricia in confusion and found her just as surprised.
It looked like those two were the only ones whose tastes matched.
However, that was not the end of the conversation.
Claire and Elza started making a racket in order to recover.
"My tastes... aren't the same as Kamisato-san's!? I-I can't have that. The foundation of keeping a boyfriend or girlfriend is conquering their stomach. A difference in food preference doesn't look like much at first, but you can't ignore it since it builds up turn by turn like poison damage. B-but I can still recover. This wasn't anything as critical as a blood type horoscope! Right, Kamisato-san!?"
"C'mon, blood type horoscopes have no basis in fact whatsoever. And dividing the six or seven billion people on this planet into four categories sounds even more dangerous than discriminating based on race. But anyway, I've still got a chance here! We may have ordered different flavors, but that means we can try each other's dish, give each other bites, and mix some together on the plate!!"
"Okay, okay. I'll take control of that. Kamisato-han's plate is under my management. If you want to flirt with him, then take a number. You'll need my permission first."
"Damn you, Ellen!!"
"Oh, is it time for a girl's battle below the table while we smile at Kamisato-san above the table? Wait, who just stomped on my toes!? Elza, you son of a bitch, you betrayed me already!? Go kiss the devil's ass, you witch!!"
"Calm down, Claire. Why don't you cool down with some ice water?"
"Thank-... Ah, that was a close one! That's the jar of garlic, Ellen!"
"Peh heh heh. Maybe I should have dumped it over your head to make sure those flowers got some."
As she watched the girls arguing, Patricia felt like something was not quite right.
It was a sort of unease like they were freaking out over a supposed photo of a ghost but had not compared notes on where in the photo the ghost was.
She took a mental step back and observed the commotion at the table again.
And...
"?"
She finally caught on.
Kamisato Kakeru was smiling happily while surrounded by all those girls.
But to Patricia's eyes, his smile looked somehow twisted in pain.
Part 12
That golden retriever was a man who understood romance.
As such, Kihara Noukan's actions could not always be explained using logic and efficiency.
His walk through the nighttime streets and to a convenience store near a certain elementary school may have been one such example.
The convenience store's windows were broken and covered with blue plastic sheets, but that was not because of any kind of harassment. The midair explosion of the Arrowhead Comet had shattered most of the glass throughout Academy City.
(Perhaps I should have used a smarter method. )
A slightly bitter feeling rose within him, but the middle-aged store manager, who was sweeping up leaves near the entrance, immediately grinned when he saw the large dog with no owner.
"Oh, sensei, out of cigars?"
"Yes, the Cuban ones I have you order for me."
"You go through them fast. Are you sure you aren't smoking too much?"
"We don't have any standard values for dogs. No one has bothered to take any statistics."
"Based on body size, I would assume you could handle less than a human."
Speaking with a dog was an odd thing to do, but the convenience store manager did not seem to mind.
"Has anything odd happened around here?"
"No, not really. I haven't seen any kids using their clothes to hide more of their skin than necessary, kids who have been ignoring a cavity for too long, or kids who have been wearing the same clothes for over a week without washing them. The kids are sharing some shocking rumors, but innocent malice is impossible to avoid with kids that age. And they didn't seem to be attacking anyone in particular, so it isn't a problem."
This had not originally been the golden retriever's habit.
It was a different Kihara who had built up a network of adults who could pick up on the SOS signals in casual conversations of children where they gathered to enjoy their allowance: convenience stores, department stores, discount stores, etc.
That Kihara was Kihara Kagun.
Known as the "worst" Kihara, he had gotten involved in the realm of human lives and souls.
He ranked at the top of even the Kiharas when it came to the number of people he had killed, but his ultimate record dropped back to zero because he had resuscitated them all with 100% accuracy.
Even if he had worked in a different field, he had found an answer that Noukan had not, seen something there, and sealed it all away.
What he had done afterwards was unknown, but he had ultimately become a teacher at that elementary school.
Whatever had led up to that, Noukan doubted it could be explained using logic and efficiency.
He too had been a rare Kihara who knew of sentimentality.
"You've changed too, sensei."
"Have I?"
"Yes. How should I put it? You're mellower."
"Those who understand romance are blessed with opportunities to learn what is hidden in others' hearts. And that affects both sides of the equation. But to be honest, I wish I could have known him better."
"Kihara-sensei was an amazing person."
"Yes, he was."
If a dog could have formed expressions, the golden retriever would surely have been smiling.
It would have been a happy yet somehow sad smile.
"Amazing" was a clichéd word, but Kihara Noukan knew it contained infinite space between the lines. And the convenience store manager was also quite something to have readily agreed to help a certain teacher protect the children despite knowing that teacher was a Kihara.
It did not matter if he could fight or not.
His true strength lay somewhere else.
"But he was also a difficult person to be around, " said Noukan."There were always children running around him and they would always interrupt our conversations. They would step on my tail, pull on my ears and tongue, or even try to ride me. One in particular, a Kumokawa... yes, Kumokawa Maria-kun was something like my arch-nemesis. Just thinking back to those times is enough for my tail to tuck between my hind legs."
"You say that, but you never uttered a peep as you put up with them tugging on your fur or rubbing your belly."
"They were far too reckless. If I were not a gentleman, I might have bitten them."
That Kumokawa Maria was no longer in elementary school.
In fact, she had apparently grown up enough to watch over Kihara Kagun's final moments and continue moving forward.
For that reason, this nighttime walk was meaningless.
The golden retriever continued with his task even after all of the humans had left the stage.
But the fact remained that he could not bring it to an end.
"I'll be going now."
"I see.... Hey, sensei?"
Just as the large dog started to leave with a small package on his back, the store manager called out to him. The golden retriever looked back and spoke with his artificial voice.
"What is it?"
"I'm sure you have your own path to walk down, but make no mistake. Your framework of being a Kihara or whatever else isn't what truly matters. What matters is what's in your heart. That passionate current that tells you what you want to do will never lie to you."
"..."
"And Kagun-sensei has already shown us just how great a power it can give us. Isn't that right, sensei? He cast aside being a Kihara, protected the smiles of so many children, and apparently even settled his grudge with Kihara Byouri in Baggage City. That's what matters, not what you're born as or what group you belong to. So, sensei, you don't have to act so tough."
The dog made no rebuttal.
He accepted what the manager said as meaningful.
He was a man who understood romance and the original seven had given a mere dog that sensibility.
"If you're ever tired of your role as a Kihara, you can come to my place. You might think I'm talking big for a convenience store's hired manager, but I'm always living right alongside everyone's lives. Kagun-sensei was the same. Everyone has worries and there's nothing shameful about admitting it. People aren't made well enough to come up with the perfect answer the first time around. I doubt you're an exception, sensei, so there's no need for you to insist on continuing to be a 'sensei'. If it gets too painful, you can always set down that burden at least for a while."
"I will keep that in mind."
After giving his respectful thanks, the golden retriever left the convenience store.
He looked up into the night sky.
With all the lights of the city, there were almost no stars visible in that dark canopy. Only the round moon shined there.
To repeat, he was a man who understood romance.
And so he spat out the next words based on that sensibility, not based on logic or efficiency.
"What an unpleasant light. It feels like an ill omen."
Part 13
After taking a bath and eating dinner, it had grown quite late.
If this were an RPG, this was when they had walked from one end of the world to another, found a continent they could not reach, acquired a ship, switched to an airship, defeated the Four Heavenly Kings, flown to the alternate world, gathered the seven crystals, and broken the barrier around the demon king's castle.
So what were they to do now?
As soon as they returned to the rundown apartment (after checking to make sure it was safe), fox ear delinquent girl Elza spoke up.
"Ahh, I'm exhausted. We should probably get to sleep for tonight, don't you think?"
In that instant, the tiny person inside Kamisato Kakeru's head peeled away all of its skin and transformed into a muscular demon.
He completely forgot to place a hand on the side of his neck and his tone dropped a pitch.
"Holllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllld it."
"Oh, no. Kamisato-san just entered a wonderful but embarrassing punishment mode. What landmine did you step on, Elza? But I can't help but feel jeal- bgyah!? Kamisa- wait, don't pluck those! Please don't pull out my head flowers!!"
After her unwanted interruption, Claire was left with tears in her eyes. She did not seem to realize that raising her arms to protect her head left her underarms and chest entirely defenseless thanks to her dress.
Kamisato got back on topic.
"I have one question here. What magical space is this? Have we been thrown into the kind of space-time that girls use to always be starting their diet 'tomorrow'?"
But Elza was unfazed.
"Who cares? Kamijou Touma isn't about to run away from Academy City and disappear in the next few days. And as for Patricia? Her problem isn't going to cause the world to explode if it isn't resolved before midnight, right? If we can do it tomorrow, then let's put it off. After warming myself in the bath and filling my stomach, I've been feeling pretty sleepy."
That "who cares" was the problem.
That crude dismissal was common among girls these days.
Kamisato's mouth flapped opened and closed as he turned to Ellen and Claire. He used silent eye contact to search for a reliable comrade to help him out, but...
"Th-that's right. I'm feeling tired too. The weariness is really hitting me now.... Although I think that might have more to do with you plucking out my flowers just now."
"Either way, we're mostly waiting for the results of the analysis running in my container lab. Plus, I'm really not the type for direct combat, so go off and do that on your own if you want. I'll take care of things here."
Majority rule could be a frightening thing.
No matter how wrong the answer was, it ended up looking like the standard way of the world. And with those girls holding three of the votes, Kamisato and Patricia had no chance.
So...
"Okay, let's take turns brushing our teeth and then lay out the futons. The window's broken, so be careful not to catch cold.... Oh, no!? What are we supposed to do! How do we lay out five futons in a 4. 5 tatami room!?"
"Yeah, there isn't room for one of them."
"Someone's obviously going to have to sleep in someone else's futon."
They tried a variety of layouts, but eventually ended up laying four futons along the outer edges like a windmill or shuriken.
This of course did not leave enough room for the fifth one, but...
"Did you know that the 4. 5 tatami room has its origins in Ginkaku-ji's tea room? It wasn't originally a room for poor people. Instead, it was for the rich who enjoyed condensing all of their luxury into a small space."
"Yes."
"But by arranging the four tatami mats like a shuriken, the half tatami space in the middle was used to place the tea set. That way everyone could sit around the room and enjoy the tea."
"I already knew that."
Kamisato still looked pale as he stopped them.
"But why am I in the center space? All I can do there is curl up in the fetal position."
"Um, isn't that because you lost the game of rock-paper-scissors?"
He could hardly argue against that, so covering his face in his hands and sobbing was his only option.
Baggy lab coat girl Ellen covered her mouth with a sleeve and laughed.
"Heh heh heh. If it's too cramped for you, feel free to join me in my futon. I always have space for you in there!!"
"Stop being so blunt. The boss doesn't know how to react."
"Oh, and if Elza tosses and turns too much, come take refuge in my futon. If you don't have a shelter prepared, you'll be in trouble."
"I-I do not toss and turn that much!!"
Elza blushed and argued back, but no one was listening. The disinterested mood hanging in the room was enough to know who was telling the truth.
Before long, it was time for lights out.
Patricia's situation had not changed and he had yet to contact Kamijou Touma again. He had plenty of problems, but there was little he could do when the girls refused to move. For the time being, he went along with it all.
...
...
...
And after about an hour, a small form got up in the dark room.
It was Patricia who had not gotten a wink of sleep.
In her short time with them, she had started conversing with them a little and she had learned something.
They were not especially bad people.
That did not mean they would not fight with someone, but she at least knew they had not initially approached her in order to harm her. They had their own objective and her problem did not fit into that objective, but they had gone out of their way to interfere in her issues. In other words, they were kind people.
However...
(That won't make it in time. )
Elza had claimed Patricia's problem would not cause the world to explode if it was not resolved before midnight, but it might as well have meant that for Patricia.
She could not afford any lost time. A human life was all or nothing. If she was the slightest bit too late – an hour, a minute, or even a second – she would lose everything.
And once that happened, the world might as well have exploded as far as she was concerned.
This was the pillar that supported her life and she could not allow it to be broken.
She would not insist that someone help her. She had started this on her own to protect her own life.
So she slowly and silently got up and tiptoed through the dark room while being careful not to step on the boy and girls tangled up on the floor.
She put on her shoes and faced the locked front door.
For some reason, she looked back just once.
Had she gained something from her interaction with them that made her hesitant to leave?
She decided the answer was yes.
It had all been too sudden and they had lacked delicacy and words and actions, but they were not bad people. She had shared a bath with those girls and she had been able to eat at a ramen shop she would have had difficulty visiting otherwise. Once she removed her initial caution, they were all valuable memories that she would never have experienced in England.
She had not accepted them, she had shaken them off, and she had ignored how they worried for her regardless of their own interests and how they had welcomed her in with good will. But she had done so because of her own selfishness.
She could not trust them.
They had tried to help her relax and to get closer to her, but she had ignored their efforts, justified her actions with her lack of trust, and taken advantage of her weakness by playing the victim and gaining an unlimited forgiveness for her actions.
She was aware of that, but she still shook herself free of it and slowly unlocked the front door.
She then slipped outside into that lonely world.
She left the rundown apartment and entered the nighttime city. Even with that strange black bubbling thing inside her, she thought of who mattered most to her and who she wanted to protect no matter what. That other girl had currently turned into a different monster based on a set of rules Patricia did not understand.
She did not know where that other girl was.
Nor did she know how to draw her out.
Patricia had been the one on the run because she had wanted to stay as far away from what her sister believed to be a disturbing solution to the problem.
But during their clash today, she had realized something.
Simply running away would not end this. She would be too late.
Her sister's limit was much closer than she had thought. If she ran away, her sister would not give up and remove that thing. She did not know what kind of heretical science paper her sister had found that in, but that tumor-like thing would press on her sister's organs within a day's time and possibly even kill her. She had not performed an accurate ultrasound echo, but the rate of growth visible from the outside was enough to know it was straining her sister's skeleton.
So she had to find her. She had to take action. There were probably only a few hours left until the tumor's growth overwhelmed her sister's skeleton and "the world exploded".
"Leivinia..."
She spoke the name aloud without realizing it.
She had no clues. She did not even have the first hint to take the proper steps toward approaching the answer. Still, she looked all around her as if searching through the grass.
She searched with her feet.
She seemed to be searching for a ring thrown into the dark sea.
"Leivinia!!"
This was a never-ending open world.
No linear path was prepared for her, she could take as many shortcuts as she wanted, she could wander as much as she wanted, and infinite possibilities were contained within. If she made the wrong kind of effort or chose the wrong initial direction, even continuing for one million years would not produce any results.
There was nothing she could do.
And as clever as she was, the worst possible prediction began to appear somewhere in her heart. She became aware of it, grew to hate it, sealed it away, and resumed moving her feet while clinging to the temporary hope inside her.
Before long, a dull throbbing pain filled the soles of her feet.
Her breathing grew shallow and her chest felt tight.
Impatience and pain spiraled through her head.
Her smartwatch began emitting a warning color.
That health management app monitored her heartrate and blood pressure, but they had been a complete mess already.
However, a wicked side of her whispered in a corner of her heart. Part of her was rejoicing as the number of hurdles grew. Haven't you done enough? it asked. You did your best and you let everyone in the city see how hard you worked despite how powerless you are. So give up. You left some scars and marks behind, so just give up. Do that and you can enter that sweet position of the "poor little girl" who wanted to protect something precious, did her very best, yet couldn't quite manage it. You'll get a special position as the person everyone unconditionally gives treats to, pities, and always gives top priority to.
That was the joy of being weak.
It was the special privilege of the weakest.
She shook her head, faced forward again, and continued walking to every place she could think of.
As her weariness grew, as her pain grew, and as she continued to not find her sister in place after place, that part of herself began whispering again. It asked her if she truly, truly intended to save her sister. Was any of this effort real? Or was she simply making a show of trying to save her so that others would praise her for being so heroic?
"No..."
She clenched her teeth, let out a rough breath, and leaned against the pillar of a wind turbine.
Her legs were exhausted and she had trouble walking, not to mention running.
And yet, she still had not searched even a quarter of District 7. That was hardly surprising once she thought about it. Academy City had 2. 3 million residents and that number only increased when adding in travelers and business visitors. How far was a one-girl search even going to get her? That was not even enough to find a cellphone dropped in a small shopping district.
So...
You knew that from the beginning, didn't you?
Wearing yourself out, hanging your head, and clenching your teeth while leaning against that pillar is all a part of the lovely show you're putting on, isn't it?
You don't really care about your sister, do you?
Say it.
You're afraid of being seen as the wrongdoer who abandoned her sister, so you want to be seen as the victim who was crushed by remorse.
"No! No!! Nooooo!!!!!!"
Patricia collapsed to the base of the pillar while facing the weakness in her own heart. Had she truly run out of strength or was she putting on a heroic show now that she had decided she could give up? Not even she knew anymore.
There was nothing she could do.
She could only win the participation award or the effort award now.
Besides, what could she even do if she was miraculously reunited with her sister?
Did she have a way to remove that "bomb" in her sister's chest?
"Uuh..."
She could not even stand up, so she sobbed in a ball on the ground.
"Uuh... !"
If she had been a little dumber, she might have continued her useless effort without any of these idle thoughts and she might have been satisfied with that.
If she had been a little smarter, she might have immediately located her sister and extracted that "bomb" in a way no one else in the world had ever considered.
But she did not have what it took.
So...
"What, are you not going to struggle any longer?"
Still on the ground, Patricia looked up toward that voice.
Someone had arrived to make up for what she lacked.
He was the kind of normal high school boy one could find anywhere.
He was someone so bland he seemed to blend into the background.
He was Kamisato Kakeru.
"How long... have you been here?"
"How long indeed."
"How much... do you know?"
"How much indeed."
Had it all been playing out according to his wishes? Had their trip to the bath and to get something to eat been a plan to incite Patricia to movement with the time limit approaching? Had forcing five futons into a 4. 5 tatami room been a way to make sure a member of his group would notice if she did take action? And had he continued observing her after setting things up so she would reveal the truth of her problem that she was not telling them?
Or had he truly not given it any thought? Had the trip to the bath and to get something to eat simply been inconsiderate actions? Had forcing five futons into a 4. 5 tatami room been a pure coincidence and was he only a pathetic boy who was completely whipped by the girls around him? Had his appearance here been yet another coincidence with no real meaning behind it?
It could have been either and it did not really matter which it was.
What mattered was the fact that Kamisato Kakeru was here.
"Didn't I tell you that we would investigate if you didn't tell us? If you had told us, you could have chosen the extent of the truth and only told us what we needed to know, but when it comes to us investigating, you can't choose the truth we learn. So we saw it. You have a tendency to passively go along with anything, but we saw the impatience that made you leave those preset rails and take action."
"..."
"What are you going to do? Continue like this? You have two simple commands: tell us or have us investigate. Ellen has a personal lab and her analysis of that black thing that came from you is already underway. I'm sure a few more truths will present themselves in the short time until that's complete. Are you sure you want that? As I said, when we investigate, you can't choose the extent of the truth we learn. If you hide this, something more than what you fear will show up. Are you sure you want that?"
Patricia thought about what he meant.
And she was indeed clever.
"That's... not fair."
"No, I suppose not. I haven't been doing this long, but I hear that a lot."
"That doesn't really give me an option. Whether I say yes or no doesn't matter. Once you say you'll save me, you saving me is the only option left. I'm stuck on those rails no matter how much I complain that you're meddling or that I don't want your help."
"True."
He was not the kind of person that started worrying after he said he would save someone.
By the time he said he would save someone, he had already set everything up. Even if she tried to run away, grew defiant, pushed him away, or whatever else, he had sealed off all options except for sitting idly by as he saved her.
Even if she refused to explain her situation or ran off into the night, he was sure to reach her regardless. He would approach the core of the issue via a different route than her and step nonchalantly onto the final stage.
And the normal high school boy who made that sound like a forgone conclusion said more.
"But is that a problem?"
He gave no excuses when it came to saving people.
If he did provide any alternative explanations for what he was doing, they were sure to be lies.
And when it came to saving people, any amount of greed was permissible. No matter how unfair, despicable, or cheap his methods were, it was all forgiven by the final result.
Forgiven by who?
That went without saying.
He would proudly say that he forgave himself.
"I have this thing in my body."
Still sitting on the ground, Patricia spoke up in resignation.
Inside her young yet well-formed face, something seemed to wriggle and tug at the soft skin of her cheek. It was surfacing from its dive. It looked like a slithering snake or a mollusk tentacle. It was covered in tons of bubbling protrusions that resembled eyeballs or suckers glowing like wet glow-in-the-dark paint. It permeated her neck, her collarbone, and within her clothing.
Even through her thick down jacket, an ominous pulsation was visible at the center of her flat chest.
"It's a parasite from the Antarctic. It's an unknown type that dissolves the fat of the human body and slips inside that empty space. It's not very contagious, but it's extremely lethal. If it were forcibly removed, I would definitely die."
"I see."
"My sister is trying to do something about this. I don't know if it's supposed to be a repellent or something to transplant. I don't know how it works or even if it would really work, but I can't rely on my sister's method."
"Because you would die if it failed?"
Patricia shook her head.
"Because even if it worked perfectly, my sister would die as soon as the method was complete. I mentioned a risk before, but... the odds of her death are 100%. It's certain."
"..."
"She holds a bomb in her chest. It's like a tumor... but not really. From what I've seen with long-distance ultrasound scans, its rate of growth is highly abnormal. At this rate, it will place pressure on her heart and lungs... no, it could even cause her to burst open. The limit is... probably before tomorrow morning. And she doesn't seem to care."
"I see." Kamisato placed a hand on his chin."So saving you means your sister's death, but saving your sister leaves no way to heal you."
"You believe me?"
"It honestly doesn't matter if what you just told me is true or not. Either way, we will eventually learn the truth and arrive at the conclusion whether you like it or not. So you don't need to convince me. I'll step onto your rails for now."
He sounded incredibly careless.
He was completely ignoring her feelings, but that was the reverse-side of an unconditional trust that would force no responsibility onto her if he failed. It was to remove the possibility of him saying, "It was because you lied and kept things from me that I didn't make it in time at the very end. You essentially killed her."
"What matters is what you want to do based on that scenario. You want to save you sister. Since you're searching randomly around here, I assume she's somewhere in Academy City. So. What would you do if you did happen across her? How would you save her?"
"Well..."
"You have to have had an image in your mind, no matter how absurd it might have been. Otherwise, you would not have 'given up' on us. There had to have been a set of scales in your mind when you left the room. You were weighing A against B, obeying us against acting on your own. You were thinking about which would be more effective."
"..."
"Removing the bomb in your sister's chest is your top priority, even if that leaves you with no way to survive, " declared Kamisato Kakeru."But you don't actually have a way of doing that. Not many people have the skills to surgically remove something. And it would probably be difficult if you relied on that Antarctic thing inside you. That wasn't what you were relying on. So what means of saving your sister were you thinking of besides removing the bomb in her chest?"
Patricia did not answer.
If she did not tell him, he would investigate on his own. And when he did that, she could not decide what truth he found.
It was just as he had said.
"The answer is simple. You were trying to remove the motivation behind your sister's actions. The quickest method would be to eliminate yourself so she no longer had any reason to hold that bomb inside her. You intended to sacrifice yourself from the beginning. And even if you have no means of removing that bomb, the sister who placed it inside herself most likely does. So you were trying to throw your own life away to get your sister to act. Would that be checkmate?"
"Uuh..."
"That would explain your previous actions. It would explain why you looked somewhat heroic and yet seemed to be enjoying the pain of harming yourself. You were working up the resolve to take your own life or perhaps losing yourself in the role to weaken the realistic fear. You weren't trying to find your sister. You were showing yourself that you're a small person who could never find her no matter how hard you tried. You were holding a dark smile at the fact that you didn't even deserve to live and it was all a way to prepare to take that final step. Your time limit was not about when you had to find and rescue your sister. It was when you had to prepare yourself to die."
"Uuuuh!!"
Patricia bit her lip and sobbed.
Think of it from her perspective. This was why she had gone along with the Kamisato Faction's carefree trips to the bath and ramen shop. She had wanted to live it up and make some nice memories in preparation for the very, very end. Because she had no future, she had joined those strangers without thinking of the consequences. That was why she had stuck with them to the very end. Whether she had wanted it or not, she had decided that lively atmosphere would be her "final day".
Changing the initial assumptions could shine a completely different light on things. No matter how cruel the truth might be, it could not remain hidden once it was investigated and discovered. It would all be revealed.
"But you couldn't do it, could you?" Kamisato let out a quiet breath."No matter how much you set the mood and no matter how romantic, sentimental, and heroic you made yourself feel, you couldn't choose to throw away your own life, could you?"
Let your sister live.
Throw away your life for your family's sake.
Even the most noble of reasons did not mean one would be able to go through with it. And Patricia had been unable to do so. Would she hang herself, slit her wrists, or jump in front of a train? Only she knew what end she had pictured in her mind, but she had been unable to do whatever it was.
And that had made her feel all the more pathetic.
Her sister was risking her life to save her family. She was constantly fighting the fear of growing a tumor(?) inside her at such an abnormal rate that it was sure to burst out from within. But Patricia had been unable to respond in kind. She was taking a shortcut that would take her life instantly, yet she still could not keep her hands from trembling.
So...
"Hey, can you tell me one thing? How do you define salvation?"
"?"
"I have a power known as World Rejecter."
As he spoke, Kamisato Kakeru casually closed the loosely opened fingers of his right hand.
And a moment later, the wind turbine Patricia was leaning against was "devoured" from partway up.
She had no idea what had just happened.
She was so confused that she did not even feel fear as the remnants collapsed in another direction.
She felt something intense prickling on her skin.
Kamisato continued speaking without a change of expression.
"You can see how powerful it is. Although the conditions it needs can be a little tricky. But as long as those conditions are met, I can erase anything from this world, even a Magic God.... It technically isn't killing them, but the result is pretty much the same. If separating two people so they can never see each other again is what you would call death, then World Rejecter brings death to all things."
"Ah."
"I can guarantee you it brings no pain. I've never tried it on myself, but based on those who have been kept alive for a bit, hope for a new world fills their heart. It can't fail. As long as the conditions are met, it can erase even the sun or a black hole in a single blow. And it does not leave a gruesome corpse. No one will have to discover you. And while I can't tell you what lies on 'the other side', I can at least tell you there's something there. Death does not take away everything and erase every last trace of you."
"Ahhh!!"
"So, what will you do?"
Kamisato Kakeru waved his right hand in front of the girl.
Patricia's eyes were glued to it like it was a hypnotist's pendulum.
"It only takes an instant. It truly is the ideal tool for suicide. I've erased plenty of things, so I would know. As long as you meet the conditions, I cannot fail. So I want to know your definition. What is salvation to you? If it is liberation from the weakness that prevents you from taking the final step even though suicide would save your sister, then I present to you the most efficient method. I will erase your existence in a single blow and rob your sister of her motivation to carry that bomb. So what will you do? Is this salvation to you?"
Kamisato Kakeru continued waving his right hand as he took a step toward the girl sitting carelessly on the ground.
With incredible pressure, that all-erasing right hand slowly arrived over Patricia's head. It blocked her view of the open starry sky. She could do nothing as she looked up at it. If he moved his hand even slightly, she would be torn from this world just like the wind turbine.
"Do you wish for a new world?"
This was right.
It was the best method of protecting someone important to her.
She would feel no pain or suffering. It would all be over in an instant.
If she accepted this wonderful method, he truly would be her savior.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
That's right.
But...
"... No."
Patricia suddenly found herself speaking.
Her weak self was making another appearance. Someone else was going to see it. The intense shame and disgust scorched her body, but she could not stop the words from escaping.
"I don't want that. I don't want to die here!! I don't care if it's selfish or useless. But this is just taking the easy way out! I'm dying so I don't have to see what comes next! That wouldn't save my sister. I couldn't be proud of that decision!!"
At the very, very last second, Kamisato Kakeru heard those words.
He heard the words of this desperate girl who no longer cared what anyone thought and had tears and snot dripping down her face.
"I have to save my sister. I can't let her plan continue because the tumor inside her will kill her, but if I die first to rob her of her motivation, she'll have to live with the label of someone who abandoned her family! Neither of those options will save her!! Neither of us can die!! No matter how much I have to struggle, no matter how pathetic it might be, and no matter how cheap it has to be!! If I don't find a third option, I can't save her!!"
She was still sitting down and her legs were too weak to support her, but she still looked up into the absolute power of Kamisato Kakeru's eyes and raised her voice.
"So!! I don't need your salvation. I don't need an easy way out and I don't want a new world! I won't throw anything away and I'll continue to struggle in this world. If my sister is going to throw everything away for me, then I'll find an option that doesn't require that!! It doesn't matter what options I have now! If I don't have one, I just have to make a new one! I'll create one!! And to do that, I don't need a power to help me run away and avert my gaze from the harsh reality! I need a power to break through it all and continue forward! I need a power to oppose it head-on!!!!!"
He heard her.
Her words reached him.
He accepted the cries of her soul.
And once he did, he simply placed his right hand on top of her head.
There was no pain.
There was no fear.
But why would there be? He had touched her with the right hand holding the great power known as World Rejecter, but her body remained intact.
"My power requires certain conditions to activate, " he explained with a gentle smile."The biggest one seems to be conflicting desires. For example, saying you want to escape your closed environment yet not wanting to give up your life surrounded by girls, fearing your weapon yet delighting in how different it is from those around you, or whispering that you want to live happily with your girlfriend yet not wanting to destroy your harem. It also works on anything created by people like that. People with those conflicting desires want to cling to this world yet also wish for its destruction, so I guess it's easier to find a starting point with them.... On the other hand, it seems to have difficulty with people who have a single goal in mind and never waver. No matter what I do, the exiling power doesn't work on them."
"Ah."
Clever Patricia gradually realized what that meant.
The readings on her smartwatch shot up.
It seemed to have captured a kind pulse.
But at the same time, Kamisato Kakeru continued giving his answers. It did not matter whether she told him or not or whether she told the truth or not. He would continue toward the conclusion on his own, just like he had said.
"This right hand did nothing to you because you have the strength to see a single path to follow in this shitty world, Patricia. I admire that strength. I honestly think it's amazing.... You did well. You overcame the negative ideas held by humanity."
He kindly rubbed her head.
When he removed his hand, she wished he would have kept it there a while longer.
But this too was a necessary ritual.
As he continued, he held his right hand out toward the small girl.
He directly faced her as someone he considered an equal or even greater.
"So I want to shake hands with you, who can hold this hand. And could I maybe help with the work you need to do? I won't be saving you. I will simply be a part of your legend."
Shaking hands was a simple action anyone could do.
But at the same time, it was the ultimate signal only allowed of the truly worthy who had overcome the conditions for World Rejecter's activation by finding a single path after overcoming the conflicting desires that did not let one simply say yes or no.
Patricia hesitantly reached out her hand.
Kamisato simply waited.
Finally, the young girl grabbed the hilt of that ultimate weapon.
"Please... do."
"I know I shouldn't be saying this after setting you in this direction, but this won't be easy."
"I want to save my sister no matter what it takes. I want to repay her for not hesitating to throw away her life for me. Even if I don't know how to solve this and even if it means cutting my own lifeline, I want to live a life I'm proud of to the very, very last moment!!"
"Even if you follow that path to the end, you will not find peace."
"That's why I want your help. I have no idea how to remove that bomb from my sister's chest, so I want to use everything available to me. It doesn't matter if you can actually do anything. Please join me to help me... no, to help my sister!!"
"If that is enough. If you will maintain that superior heart that holds to a single path no matter how much it is shaken and no matter how many easier desires are laid out before it."
Kamisato Kakeru smiled as he took the girl's hand.
His grip was truly strong.
"I respect you and I won't hold back when it comes to helping someone I respect. I will use everything I have and fight the entire world for you."
Part 14
Several girls were gathered on a rooftop a short distance away.
They were Ellen, Claire, and Elza.
"See? I told you it would turn out this way."
"Well, this is how it always goes. To be honest, I personally resent it a fair bit, but if we told him to stop, he wouldn't listen and he'd just run off on his own."
"It looks like the others are here too. They're busy finding positions on all the rooftops around here."
While holding her plastic bottle full of ten yen coins like a baby, the delinquent girl with fox ear hair glanced over at the other buildings.
There were several... no, a great number of them.
The countless presences filled the darkness with an intimidating pressure.
"So the Kamisato Faction has gathered, has it?"
They were not aware of it because this was normal to them, but all of them contained a powerful light that was, in a way, greater than that inside a Magic God.
They claimed they wanted to protect the world and they did not hesitate to cause destruction toward that unwavering end. They did not contain the kind of conflicting desire that led one to create another option because Imagine Breaker's possessor seemed uncertain.
"Umm, I'm more about logistical support and tend to stay behind, but both of you are his direct bodyguards, right? Kamisato-han looks ready to rush onto the front line without a thought to his original objective, so what are you two going to do?"
When the girl with long black hair and a baggy lab coat dangling behind her asked that exasperated question, the glasses and delinquent girls both shrugged.
"We'll just do what we always do."
"That's right. We'll destroy anything that gets in the way. Won't that be enough?"
Today's Hotpot Party, Ingredients List 3
Soy sauce. Miso.
Chicken breast, daikon, bok choy, cabbage, bean sprouts, shirataki, tofu.
Bouillon, salt, sugar, pepper, champon noodles
Bargain vanilla ice cream, canned yellow peaches, canned pineapple, canned mandarin oranges. (For dessert)
Fish sausage.
Cannibalization Fruit (Made by Leivinia Birdway, rare item)
(Quick Memo)
Othinus: "Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaait!!"
Index: "Who did this? How did this happen!?"
Kamijou Touma: "This is insane!! What kind of hotpot is this supposed to be!?"
Birdway: "Don't freak out. It's just an offal hotpot. Besides, didn't I tell you it's made from corn? It doesn't matter as far as the magic is concerned, but I had a fake one grown on the outside to test the shape and composition. Now, how should we cook it so a picky eater like Patricia will eat it?"
Nephthys: "A fist-sized mass floating in the middle of a giant pot? I just don't get Japanese food."
Between the Lines 2
A kingdom fell and its culture vanished, but its rituals remained.
Because it was not protected by the world at large, its interpretations grew more secret, grew more focused, and generally escalated.
For example, during an extreme drought when a single cup of water was impossible to find.
For example, during a plague when the value of human life became as flimsy as paper.
For example, when all of the stored grains were devoured by a swarm of insects in a single night.
Or when fear permeated someone and they wanted a way to ensure they would never feel that way again.
Looking through the legends of the world's religions and mythologies would reveal plenty of cruel stories. People were decapitated, had their hearts removed, were burned at the stake, etc. etc. Even the very foundation of the world's largest religion was an execution. Then came the initial period of persecution and later the witch hunts in the middle ages. But even looking past those, there were stories of a nun gouging out her own eyes or people gathering the brains of a saint after his head was split open.
Simply viewing the actions was not enough to judge the essence of the matter.
There were reasons and thoughts that led to those results.
But among the extremely focused rituals, that kind of essence tended to be lost. They grew more sensational and grotesque as people saw special meaning in doing something no one else was doing.
"Ah... ahhh..."
Somewhere sometime, a man was weeping.
"Ahhhhh! Ahhhhhh!!"
It had been an experiment to prove the existence of heaven. Egyptian mythology was a religion that believed in being reborn, resurrected, and reincarnated. Mummies were made to preserve the physical body for when the dead's soul would return from its temporary time in the underworld.
That meant one could manage their body and soul.
One faction decided to prove it. A young maiden was given a sheltered upbringing in a clean environment to maintain her purity until a certain age. She was to be killed based on a certain ritual, have all of her organs save her heart removed and stored in containers, be filled with sawdust to maintain her shape, and be wrapped in linen soaked in medicines. To ensure she was not assaulted in the afterlife, her crotch would be sewed shut. In Egyptian mythology, one's heart was removed and weighed to judge whether they were good or evil, but this experiment was using that heart like a signal to see where "a certain something" went after it left the body.
Would the gods detect their wicked thoughts and close the gates of heaven?
Or would the gates of heaven be opened because the sacrificed maiden herself was free of sin?
"Uuuuuuuuuuuuuhhhhhh!!"
The girl was known as the genealogy of sinners.
By the faction's values, she was a sinner, so it may have been only natural for her to offer up her life.
The girl herself wished for that.
She believed a burden would be lowered from her shoulders on that day.
She had no complaints.
That tragedy alone may have spread through them all.
"Maybe no one will stop it. Maybe no one questions it anymore. Maybe most of the world isn't even aware of this misfortune and maybe no one would care what's happening on the other side of the planet even if they did."
The man who was collapsed on the ground spoke under his breath as if cursing something or clinging to something.
He knew that girl would smile at and greet anyone, would smile as she ate any food without being picky, and would respect anyone who knew what she did not. He knew she was a human being who could laugh and cry, and not just an entry in some paperwork.
Although that may have only been due to the twisted purity inputted into her by the project.
However, did those behind this project really understand?
Did they know she had taken a step beyond that?
Did they know about the small flower she grew behind the building?
There alone, she would be honest to her preferences. She would pout her lips depending on how the flower was blooming and she would uproot the surrounding plants if necessary.
That was a sign of something not in the prepared plan.
It was evidence that she was no longer the doll she was made to be and was constructing her own identity.
And yet he had no choice but to trample it underfoot.
"I should have been able to say this is wrong! So won't someone please weep with me? Won't someone stand with me as I lament how wrong this is!?"
The "work" would soon begin.
The girl's entire body would be altered by a mechanical process.
The journey would begin.
Just as so many magicians had hit a roadblock here in the past, this would most likely fail to control or measure the soul itself and it would simply waste a life.
But just before it began....
"Yes, your voice has reached me."
Something was there.
Even the man who saw the miracle could not determine when the miracle had begun. He simply saw a brown goddess wrapped in bandages standing before him and he saw the tears welling up in her eyes.
"I am Nephthys, " she said."I am a goddess who objects to the legends of death that are treated as necessary sacrifices in our mythology. So let us weep, no matter how pitiful it might be. Let us accuse all that claims perfection yet could not reject death."
A moment later, a shrill cry caused all matter to vibrate so intensely that the entire faction was instantly turned to ash.
| ← Ch. 149 | Ch. 151 → |