novelPeace, or a Trap Laid — Board_Game (1)
| ← Ch.156 | Ch.158 → |
Part 1
"..."
"..."
Kamijou Touma and Kamisato Kakeru tensely confronted each other.
It was the lunch break and they were speaking in the cafeteria filled with a variety of uniforms.
Why was there a variety of uniforms? There were the uniforms of the original high school, Kamijou's school had poured in, Kamisato was wearing a blazer that did not go to this school, and boys and girls from the middle school were mixed in as well. The middle school always had a lunch supplied for them except on "bring-your-lunch days", but those growing boys and girls were still running down to the cafeteria after finishing off that first lunch.
But...
"Hey, rookie. Can't you act a little more like a final boss?"
"I think you're confused about something. We're only the kind of normal high school boy you can find anywhere. It's strange for people like us to be in this position in the first place."
With miraculous synchronization, they had both selected their new school's cheapest meal which was known as the Poor Meal.
In other words, the katsuobushi rice.
It did not come with soy sauce, so it really was just chilled stock rice on the verge of going bad with nearly powdered katsuobushi sprinkled on top from a clear package.
"You can't do that. You can't be copying me with the Poor Meal. The final boss needs to be looking down on me while chowing down on a steak. And this is the final stronghold for my finances, so if I have to fight you for it, I'll have nothing at all left. Why did you have to copy me and take my food away?"
"This isn't easy for me either. Academy City is an away game for me and I have to pay for more than just myself. There's Ellen, Claire, Elza... and well, I have to look after all of them."
Kamisato slowly sighed, but Kamijou hung his head for some reason.
His bangs covered his eyes, but a ferocious smile came to his lips.
"Finally..."
"?"
"Finally, finally, finally!! Someone here finally complained about being so popular he's surrounded by girls!! It finally happeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeened!!"
Kamijou very well may have put more into this yell than when they had nearly started a fight to the death after seeing each other at the stairs earlier.
"Ahh, ahh. You're hopeless. Do you wish for a new world?"
"Oh, shut up! This new life was such a letdown! Everyone was such a good person that it was just plain boring! But this is more like it!! You need the one intolerable person to keep things interesting!! Placing some orange juice next to a cake will just kill the flavor, but you need that bitterness! Okay, now keep it coming! Give me a cool look and act like what you said was perfectly normal, Mr. Popular!!"
"Can we please just get down to business?"
With a serious look, Kamisato reached for the condiments supplied at the center of the table.
With soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, sugar, pepper, and mayonnaise, it was a fairly standard lineup.
"As it is, we'll be eating hopelessly dry and flavorless katsuobushi rice. But this is where the fun begins. Now, what toppings will you use to dress up this cheap Poor Meal?"
"What? Can't you just put the soy sauce on it?"
"Didn't you just say you liked to keep things interesting? You can't go wrong with soy sauce on katsuobushi rice, but it can never rise above average either. If I called it a seaweed-less seaweed meal, you'd feel pretty blue, wouldn't you?"
School lunches were focused on cost effectiveness, so hoping for a surprising flavor and texture was pretty much a lost cause. Nevertheless, these two "normal high school boys" paddled off in their fruitless Age of Exploration.
First up: Kamisato Kakeru (beginner at being poor).
"I'll start off with some pepper."
"Isn't that a little spicy!? You haven't even decided if you're making this sweet or salty!"
"Then I'll settle on an overall direction with mayonnaise."
"You're escaping toward bitter!?"
When looking for a surprising flavor, mayonnaise was definitely the standard. As long as one liked mayonnaise, it could make most anything acceptable.
"And I'll finish it off with a quick sprinkle of Worcestershire sauce for the flavoring of takoyaki or okonomiyaki or something like that. Fwa ha ha. This was a nice curve ball that flew in perfectly for a strike, if I do say so myself."
But next up was Kamijou Touma (expert at being poor) who was on another level entirely.
"You have to start off with some pickled vegetables, right?"
"!? You have to? But... where did you get those from?"
"I got them from some students I've never met before. They come with the meals, but no one ever eats them."
Kamijou covered his katsuobushi rice with the contents of small plates he had gathered from three or four people at some point and he mixed it all together with his chopsticks.
"Eating the rice like this would be a little salty, so you have to get some shredded cabbage from the people eating chicken cutlets over there."
"Hey, you people aren't eating the cabbage before the cutlets? You all need to focus on your health."
"Then mix it all together for a weaker but crisper flavor and then finish it off by dripping on some mentsuyu borrowed from someone who ordered soba. It comes in a bottle, so there's usually some left in the bottom after they transfer it over to the bowl."
"Isn't that cheating? We were competing using the options here."
"No one ever said that. I don't care what it takes as long as I can make the Poor Meal before my eyes look a little richer. Listen, rookie, your mistake was thinking you could find the best possible answer using the ingredients right in front of you. You need to take a wider view of the world! Hah hah!!"
Utterly unable to get along, the two glared at each other while devouring their Poor Meals.
For some reason, a small girl was sitting at the same table as Kamijou and Kamisato.
She looked to be about the same size as Komoe-sensei.
She had a large ribbon in her long black hair and she looked back and forth between Kamijou and Kamisato.
"U-um, are you two... getting along?"
"What is it, little girl? It might look like these Poor Meals are pretty tasty after desperately adding onto them like this, but they don't taste good in the slightest and it actually adds in a ton of salt. My advice is to stay out of this game if you can. If you can eat a high society grilled fish meal every day, there's no reason to start down this path of carnage."
"Is it just me or did you just turn into a scoundrel?"
That was of course because he could not endure this any other way.
If he didn't go overboard here, all of his effort on his Poor Meal would be for naught. There was simply no way a bamboo spear could defeat a tank.
And that aside...
"I don't want my grated radish, so you can have it."
"Oh, thanks, thanks."
"Do you just put anything someone will lend you on there?"
"You get the fish off the bone really neatly. How elegant."
"Blush, blush."
Kamijou ignored the fidgeting little girl and spoke to Kamisato.
"Anyway, Kamisato, have you seen the person who reigns at the top of this school?"
"I'm pretty sure this school doesn't have Four Magical Lords who rule over the cardinal directions or a Queen of the Underground Esper Fighting Tournament."
"I'm talking about the student council president. She's called the Jumpy Bunny. That glasses guy said she was there this morning, but I couldn't figure out who she was. Not that I expect to need to know."
Kamijou stirred up his Poor Mix that now had grated radish on the top.
"I only know she's a girl because of what that glasses secretary said. You arrived here before I did, so have you seen her?"
"Well, yes, I have. I've helped out afterschool some."
"Hold it, Mr. Popular. If you're making frequent visits to the student council, you're hardly normal or ordinary! But anyway, what's she like? As the president, I'm betting she's like the consummate upperclassman girl, so is she full of tolerance? Y'know, the kind of sexy girl who would fit right in as a dorm manager when she grows up!!"
"Ah, ah, ah."
"Well..."
Kamisato pointed directly to the side.
He also looked over at the girl who could only be described as "palm sized" or "someone who removes fish bones really neatly".
"She's the preside-..."
"Like hell she is. I demand a do-over."
As soon as the spiky-haired idiot said that, the girl next to him hopped up in her chair.
She trembled with tears in her eyes.
"I'm sorry... I'm sorry I don't fit the part! But these things are generally decided in an election and someone nominated me half as a joke, so please don't force your image of the position onto me!! Ah, ah, ah. M-Mie-chaaaaaaan!!"
The palm-sized girl shouted a name with X's for eyes and a brown-haired middle school girl appeared from the crowd of high school and middle school students. This was the cafeteria, yet she held a wrapped lunchbox. She may have planned to trade food with a friend or acquaintance who got the school lunch. She was already in bourgeois territory.
"C'mon, what are you doing, Onee-cha-..."
The girl trailed off.
Her eyes widened in surprise as she stared at something: Kamijou Touma's face.
Kamisato Kakeru scooted away a little in his chair.
"(Count me out. I don't want to let my right hand mess with a girl here. )"
Kamijou ignored the muttering boy.
The middle school girl placed her hands on the small Jumpy Bunny's shoulders from behind and hesitantly spoke to him.
"U-um, I'm Akikawa Mie. Do you... remember me?"
After retreating outside their personal space, Kamisato watched with interest to see what Kamijou, his "predecessor", would do here.
The spiky-haired boy's answer was simple.
"Who?"
"Ahh!?" shouted the supposed student council president."Y-you can't say that to M-Mie-chan! She's at that adolescent age where she thinks she's something special, so you need to treat her kindly even when she starts acting like everyone knows who she is!! That's the standard!!"
"Yeah, but I'm not Index and I don't have a perfect memory recording everyone I pass by on the street."
"What a pain, " sighed Kamisato."But you could at least play along, you know? When someone asks if you remember them, you can't just say no. Are you the kind of person who ignores the looping dialogue and keeps choosing 'No' at the 'Will you go defeat the Demon King?' screen? Still, I guess this at least tells me you aren't the stereotypical type that tries to get close to every girl he lays eyes on."
"Um, aren't you two doing more damage to her than me? It looks like she's dehydrating down on the ground there. She's drying up."
Kamijou's senses appeared to be in working order, yet Akikawa Mie really did seem to be growing gray and dried out.
"I just had a bunch of stuff thrown at me at once and it's about as tangled up as power cables tend to get, but let's go over this one thing at a time. Is that little thing really the student council president? And of the high school!? Ehh!?"
"Why do you sound so disappointed!? This isn't about your school! And I was only nominated by someone else and everyone really only voted for me as a joke!!"
"Hmm. So it's something like that legend about sending your little brother to give the idol agency your resume and he ends up becoming an idol? So you too have an extreme 'characteristic' that gives you your own 'world'."
Kamisato was muttering something, but Kamijou had more pressing issues.
Namely, his dreams!
"This is a problem!"
"What is!?"
"A female student council president is supposed to be a trifecta of beautiful, a genius, and rich! And I don't mean a girly kind of beautiful! I mean the consummate upperclassman type who's a mature kind of sexy!! Now I know why I didn't see you when I looked around. You were too small!! Why are you palm-sized!? I don't get it!!"
"I-I already told you I'm not the president by choice... I was forced to do this..."
"Gasp!?... Wait! Do you maybe have a Metamorphosis power that gives you a dynamite body but only in dark pools during the full moon? It's a bit of a curveball, but you can't rule it out here in Academy City."
"Sorry, but I only have Level 2 pyrokinesis. Sorry I can only create fire like normal..."
"O-oh, no. That's so middle-of-the-road... Should I not have asked that? I mean, shouldn't the president be either a Level 0 or a Level 5?"
"Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah!!"
Unable to take it any longer, teary-eyed Jumpy Bunny (nickname) clenched her fists and began lightly pummeling him.
That brought a question to mind: who was she anyway?
Akikawa Mie finally recovered from her gray dried-out state, so she unsteadily got up and whispered to the palm-sized student council president.
"C'mon, Onee-chan. You need to introduce yourself."
"Oh. I'm Keshouin Asuka."
"Well, at least your name's big."
"Um, uh, I was trying to contact the two rumored problem students who were considered most likely to cause trouble among the transfer students. So... are you two getting along?"
Kamijou and Kamisato both grimaced.
In this case, they did not care if they were seen as a problem student liable to cause trouble.
They pointed at each other with their mysterious right hands.
"Are you saying I'm the same as this ******* bastard!?"
"Are you saying I'm the same as this ******* bastard!?"
"Eek!! Ah, ah, ah! Mie-chaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!!"
Not long after arriving at this school, both Kamijou Touma and Kamisato Kakeru earned the trophy of "Boy who Made the Student Council President Cry."
Part 2
He always got nervous in front of banks.
"Hamazura, what are you doing?"
"Well, I'm not wearing a knit hat and sunglasses, so I guess they won't sound the alarm."
It was well-known that a convenience store or bank would call the cops if you wore any kind of face-covering fashion. People had fallen victim to that with the black masks that were fashionable lately. But in his delinquent days, Hamazura Shiage had heard whispers of something else.
Namely, if a group with mohawks and shaved heads entered a store, the alarm could ring even if they were not covering their eyes or mouth.
Hamazura Shiage and Takitsubo Rikou were walking side by side.
"I hate this. It makes me as nervous as walking through the shoplifting prevention gate after buying an adult magazine. It's not like I've done anything wrong."
"Hamazura, a real gentleman wouldn't mention that in front of a girl."
The boy with hair dyed brown and a nose piercing walked through the glass automatic door as the pink track suit girl's words stabbed into him.
It was early afternoon, so more people were gathered at the ATMs than the reception counter. Due to the time, there were far more university students than middle and high school students. Were they receiving an allowance or depositing money somewhere? He could not tell what they were doing as they curled up their back and hit the buttons.
The reception counter was almost deserted. An afternoon talk show was playing on a flat screen TV next to all the posters for things like ISAs.
"I'll fill in the form, Hamazura, so you go get the paper with the reception number."
"Sure thing."
He walked away from short black-haired Takitsubo Rikou and approached the machine next to the counter. He pulled out the small paper that stuck out like a lantern monster's tongue and it looked like they only had to wait for three people.
(So today's guest is Hitotsui Hajime. I guess they target the housewives at this time of day. )
He had no interest in the TV, but he could not change the channel either.
He sat on the sofa and reached for the magazine rack. An auto magazine with a cover story about a motor show caught his interest, so he flipped through it.
They were at the bank for a simple reason. Mugino Shizuri, Kinuhata Saiai, Takitsubo Rikou, and the late Frenda Seivelun had all distributed their reward money from the main Item bank account to their individual ones, but they were canceling their contract with that main one and money not needed for living expenses would periodically be deposited in Takitsubo's personal account.
The processing done on the computer would be perfectly normal. It would be one task out of countless similar ones done every day in Japan and the entire world.
But it was a meaningful action.
Takitsubo was choosing to let go of the account that Item had used to receive payments for their dirty work. And by making periodic deposits, she was focusing on her future at least a little bit. Instead of grabbing at what money she could get in the moment, she was looking at the life made up by connecting those points into a line.
Those girls had a way of rising above the clouds if he let his guard down a little, so uncouth Hamazura had difficulty grasping what they were really after. But he was glad to have this slight sign, even if it was not as simple as a facial expression or actual words. His fingers felt light as he flipped through the magazine.
But then someone must have violently thrown themselves over onto the sofa. They sank deep down into the cushion right next to him.
He looked over, feeling a little pissed, and he saw something at about 120% on the danger meter.
It was a girl wearing translucent raincoats over her bare skin.
"Ah..."
At first, all normal emotions were blasted from his mind.
His blank mind could not come up with a proper reaction to this incredibly absurd girl.
"Abweh!?"
The girl had the waterproof hood over her head and swimsuit-like tan lines were visible through the raincoats, but she did not seem to care about the boy's eyes on her. She tossed aside a heavy-looking sports bag and elegantly crossed her slender legs. She was barefoot, so he could see her toes clenching and unclenching.
She held something in her mouth which he initially thought was the kind of lollipop Fremea liked, but then he realized it glittered with a dull silver light.
(A pizza... cutter... ?)
She rose another notch on his mental danger meter.
It may have looked surreal at first and it may not have seemed nearly as bad as a brutal and "professional-looking" knife combined with brass knuckles, but that was wrong.
From a cost-effectiveness standpoint, kitchen tools were much more efficient blades.
There were all sorts of knives and police batons, but most of those found online or in shops were just for show. The knives were often little better than paper knives, the batons would often bend after two or three hits, and the stun guns would often fry their circuitry the instant they were switched on. So instead of a big combat knife that costs twenty or thirty thousand yen, a thousand yen kitchen knife from the supermarket could be far sharper. And if it was something mass-produced, it was harder to trace back to you. His knowledge from his delinquent days (if he could call it that), was telling him this girl knew what she was doing.
She placed a hand on the grip and pulled the round blade from her mouth.
She was carefree enough to hum, so she looked like a resident of some fantasy world.
"Hamazura Shiage. If Sunny and Rain's information is accurate, I've gotta count you as a candidate."
"What... ?"
He did not care what this raincoat girl had to say.
This absurd person knew his name. That alone was a big deal.
She laughed with her skin color showing through.
"Well, that doesn't matter. It's none of your concern anyway, Hamazura-chan. So where are you headed today?"
She ignored the boy's confusion and her amethyst eyes glittered with belligerence and curiosity.
"Are you still an errand boy for Item or whatever it's called? It's like being a celebrity's tool. But Hamazura-chan, no matter how far you go, you'll still be Hamazura Shiage. Even if you crush yourself down to a powder, you can't become a part of Mugino Shizuri or Kinuhata Saiai. You haven't built up anything in your own life. You're more like the disposable engine that gets ejected from the rocket, don'tcha think? When the celebrity reaches the stars above, you'll be tumbling back to earth as nothing more than Hamazura Shiage. Make no mistake there."
"..."
Mugino Shizuri and Kinuhata Saiai.
The position and behavior of those within Item.
They had sealed their information off from the city's dark side as best they could, but she brought it up so easily.
"And you can say the same thing on a larger scale, don'tcha think?"
"What... ?"
"No matter how far you go, you'll still be Hamazura Shiage. You can stick with Mugino Shizuri or Takitsubo Rikou and you can face the same way as Kamijou Touma and resolve incidents like that, but that doesn't make you a force of good. You won't become the world's most powerful and you won't make everyone accept you. From birth to death, humans only exist as individuals in an organization. You can't ignore the whole to become a free individual and you can't ignore the individual to become the powerful whole."
"What... do you know?" Hamazura gulped."Unofficial documents wouldn't be enough for this. Mugino and Kinuhata, maybe. But just pursuing Item wouldn't show you the line connecting me to Takitsubo. So..."
"Hm? Oh, this isn't my information. It comes from Sunny and Rain, the Weather Girls."
The raincoat placed her arms on the sofa back and enjoyment filled her voice.
"Now, I've gotta assume I can't fool you by answering a question with a question. Plus, I'm betting you know I'm not just any old stranger. You've gotta be suspecting I'm someone far from friendly. So what'll it be, Extra-chan who acts big but hasn't left any footprints of his own? Now that I'm this close, there isn't much left you can do, don'tcha think? One: play your role as a tool and buy time for Takitsubo Rikou to escape. Two: abandon your role and run as fast as you can to survive. Three: yes, you could collapse bloodily in front of Kamijou Touma and pass on some kind of dying message. Yeah, I think that about sums it up."
He was a disposable tool to keep Item running smoothly.
He was someone who faced in the same direction as someone else to gain the same justification they had.
He was someone without a "self".
"Surely you don't think you can use this trouble to your advantage by protecting your girl and showing off how cool you are, normal person."
"..."
Hamazura Shiage slowly exhaled.
He spoke to the alternate world located just thirty centimeters away.
"None of that matters."
The raincoat girl looked at him in actual surprise.
If he had made a bluff to cut off their conversation, she would have mocked him. In fact, she might have even responded with direct violence.
"Back when I was a Skill Out leader, that probably would've really gotten to me. I really wanted some status for myself, I wanted everyone to think I was great, and I wanted their attention. I thought I couldn't maintain my 'self' otherwise."
But he had been wrong.
Hamazura Shiage spoke from the heart.
"But when you get down to it, your 'self' doesn't matter. Those people who wander around seriously talking about trying to 'find themselves' are a bunch of morons. 'Yourself'? What's that worth? Ignore it and it'll catch up to you on its own. People say they want to be something special, but I just want to ask them why they care."
"..."
"I mean, being normal is a hell of a thing." He breathed out."Just walking along the normal rails like normal is pretty damn amazing. People get derailed by the smallest pushes from the side. After all the stupid crap I did out on the streets at night, I know that all too well. And Mugino and Takitsubo were lurking in the shadows beyond that, so they were even worse. I'm probably the worst kind of person for acting so smug after taking someone else's lifestyle away from them, but I don't want to turn out like that and, if they start heading back in that direction, I'll do whatever it takes to stop them. Isn't that really important?"
Hamazura Shiage was colorless.
No one would notice him if he was not standing next to someone with incredible individuality.
That was his starting point, but he did not end there.
"No matter how far I go, I'll still be a Level 0. Nothing I can do will make me someone special, " he said."But so what? If you don't turn out special no matter what happens, you never stray from your path, and you can't be shaken from your position as 'normal', doesn't that make you more powerful than anyone?"
"Hmm. I see..."
The raincoat girl laughed.
It was a somewhat softer laugh than the earlier mocking laughter.
"You've got it worse than I thought. It sounds logical, but you're really just completely dependent on them, don'tcha think?"
"Probably.... Ahh, ahh. Even I realized that partway through saying it all. I'm probably just like those corporate slaves who only have their company logo to cling to. And I'm not even suffering and trying to escape it. I'm actually glad I'm a corporate slave, so I've got a terminal case."
Hamazura still did not try to make himself look good, so the girl slowly stood up with her translucent raincoats showing of her naked body and its tan lines.
The bottom of the double raincoats spread out like a jellyfish or clione floating in the ocean.
Hamazura gave her a puzzled look.
"What's this? You're not gonna do anything? I mean, I'd prefer not to have a fight to the death with a stranger here, but still."
"I decided not to. I doubt I'd gain much from attacking you. You don't fit my objective."
She grabbed the cheap children's pocket watch hanging from her neck.
She kissed it before continuing.
"But I'm not a kid running an errand, so I would like 'something else' instead."
"Something else?"
"A sign. You could call it a demonstration if you want. And a bank's gotta be convenient as far as that's concerned. Robbery, breaking into the vault, seducing some money out of them, exchanging counterfeit money, digging a tunnel in, and even hacking. The place is a symbol of security, so it's gotta give you a name as a criminal if you can attack a bank and get out safely. Maybe it's like a treacherous mountain that gives you plenty of prestige if you scale it."
"Hey!" yelled a deep voice.
Had no one noticed before or had they ignored her because she was being so bold about it? With only raincoats over her tan-lined naked body, the girl could not have been more suspicious and the guards were finally reacting to her.
"Here we go."
The girl looked around while lifting up the heavy sports bag that could have contained just about anything.
"Nonlethal? How boringly moral. If they put up a little bit more of a fight, I could enjoy this snack some more."
She had no interest in the men armed with police batons and stun guns.
She was staring beyond the counter.
The giant round door there led to the vault.
"Yes, if I'm gonna destroy something, it's gotta be that."
Hamazura felt a strange tremor run down his spine.
At the same time, his mind searched for and pulled out some information to help protect him during this crisis. It was a lot like his life flashing before his eyes. He had a quick flashback of memories and knowledge.
It was from when Fremea Seivelun was being pursued by Kuroyoru Umidori and Silvercross Alpha of the Freshmen. To protect that young girl from the Five Over Model Case Railgun, hadn't he taken her to a bank vault?
The lock, the rods, and the hinges.
She listed them off as if in praise, yet she ignored them all.
She stuck her tongue out again.
She licked along the edge of the pizza cutter's round blade and guided it between her lips.
A breaking sound followed.
The catastrophe spoke in human words.
"External Offering. I offer a weapon up to Sea God Manannán to receive his blessing."
Only the result will be provided here.
Ignoring both the door and the thick walls, the entire bank building tilted diagonally.
Part 3
The first afternoon class was gym and today that meant a marathon.
The boys and girls of Kamijou's class were driven out of the school.
"Pant, pant! This isn't right! Why is our long-distance race or marathon or whatever turning into a scene from a winter poem? I mean, don't even pro baseball players avoid training too hard in the winter because they'll hurt themselves!?"
"You can talk that much while you run? Pant, pant. Are you actually pretty fit, Kami-yan?"
"Is that thanks to being chased through the streets at night by strange delinquents all the time!? That doesn't make me at all happy!!"
Kamijou and Aogami Pierce were not the head of the pack; they were running more casually toward the tail end of the middle group. But they could keep running while yelling back and forth, so they had some decent stamina when compared to those in the back holding their sides after eating too splendid a lunch.
"Anyway, Kami-yan. Have you heard about the system this school uses? They have a tutoring system for the middle and high school."
"I think Fukiyose mentioned that. Getting a tutor for free sounds convenient, but I'm betting it's meant as a way to get more middle schoolers to stick around for high school. This'll stop them from choosing some other school after they graduate middle school. In that way, it's probably pretty restrictive."
"When I heard about a system where upperclassmen give one-on-one lessons to their underclassmen, white lily flowers filled my mind. Does that mean I should go get an MRI done?"
"No, I'd recommend you get counselling or become a monk. And this isn't limited to girls, so there'd be man-to-man tutoring too."
"Gwah!? We're not talking about the leftovers at the folk dance here! Why... ? Why don't they allow boy/girl crossovers instead!?"
"Probably because they're worried about the exact scenario in your head."
But how would that really turn out?
Sure, receiving one-on-one lessons from a perfectly beautiful and kind dorm manager type with breasts about to burst from her top, a glimpse of a garter belt at her thighs, and whose usual elitism was balanced out by some airheadedness would be paradise, but what about the reality that did not allow for those sorts of dreams?
Kamijou and Aogami Pierce went straight home without any club activities, so would an upperclassman who mercilessly violated their private study time really be that welcome a presence?
"Well, I think it's about time for a serious spurt. I'm going on ahead!"
"Eh? What's got you so hot-blooded all of a sudden, Aogami!?"
"Don't be silly, Kami-yan. We're with the girls for gym today, and you know what a girl's marathon means, right? Lots of bouncing and jiggling!!"
"Y'know, I bet you could save a galaxy or two if you directed that power of yours in a worthwhile direction."
"In this world, defeating the Great Demon King and saving every galaxy in the universe won't even get you a single kiss as a reward. But I've realized something: You can't see bouncing and jiggling when following from behind! It's meaningless if you're not looking at it from up ahead!! Thus I must stand at the very top! To lay eyes on all the bouncing and jiggling!!!!!"
With intense footsteps, Aogami Pierce's back grew smaller up ahead. He was running like a sprinter even though this was a marathon, but his sense of pain had likely been numbed by all the dopamine and endorphins his brain was pumping out. He would probably pass out from oxygen deprivation before he reached the top, so Kamijou made a mental note to not step on him.
(Come to think of it, what ever happened to Tsuchimikado? I forgot to ask Kamisato about that. )
"Hey, human."
"Oh, the Othinus Hell. Something else I forgot about."
"Thanks for the kind greeting. I made sure to stay quiet in your pocket, if you didn't notice."
"Wait... no... no! Where were you while I was changing, Othinus? Don't tell me you saw everything... !!"
"~ ~ ~ ~!! That was your fault for forgetting about me and changing without warning! Do you have any idea how I felt with nowhere to run!?"
Their rank did not matter as long as they finished the marathon by the end of class, so Kamijou stopped by the side of the course to focus on his conversation with Othinus.
"That was peaceful. You contacted Kamisato Kakeru, didn't you?"
"Oh, yeah. If he'd noticed you in my pocket there, the world might've been destroyed a little."
He belatedly realized how dangerous the cafeteria scene had been.
"But do you really think Kamisato set all this up? Was he waiting for me and did he have anything to do with the selection of a new school for us? But it was the High Priest who destroyed our school and there would have been a large random aspect to the replacement school chosen by Komoe-sensei and the other teachers. Not to mention that he wouldn't have expected the conclusion of our run-in last night. If he thought that would happen, wouldn't he have come up with a different attack plan?"
"Yes. If he could think this far ahead, he could have laid in wait a little better and he would have set up a situation where he wouldn't have lost."
Othinus readily admitted it while sitting on his shoulder.
"But that doesn't matter if he's just really good at adlibbing. If this was just a stroke of good luck for him, I wouldn't be surprised if he uses it to its fullest and comes to tear down your stronghold. And luckily for him, you're sharing a school life now, so he can attack whenever he wants."
"..."
"You saw his methods last night. To be blunt, he's more like me than you. Do you remember Magic God Othinus who ruled Gremlin? I gathered both science and magic, toyed with enemy and ally alike, and treated the entire world as expendable to fulfill my objective. Kamisato Kakeru has no sanctuaries. You might want to say that's impossible, but you can't say things like that here. Remember that a god once razed the entire world and tore out its softer parts all to break you and you alone."
"It's that bad... ?"
"It is, " she insisted."Whether it was intentional or not, we both gained a unique power that created a distortion and then tried to revert that to the way it was. I know what that's like. To people like him, the world before his eyes looks shallow, so he has no interest in any sacrifices or damage done to his surroundings. He feels like he's living on a movie or drama set, so he feels no guilt. He will not hesitate to destroy anything within reach if it will accomplish his goal. If he needs to cause a citywide power outage to pry open a vault, he'll ignore the newborns in the hospital and the oxygen machines in the assisted living homes as he flips the switch."
Kamijou slowly breathed out.
"I don't think he would go that far."
"Oh? Can you tell me what you do think?"
"If he really felt nothing, I don't get why he would work to save the Birdway sisters."
"Like I said, he sees it like a movie or drama." Othinus sounded exasperated."This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.... Even so, you don't want to see a tragedy. If he can change it, he will. But that's all. If your score goes up or your remaining lives go down in a video game, it isn't going to affect your real life. But when you see those numbers on the screen, the blood rushes to your head, doesn't it? So be careful. His empathy and passion are light. He might sob with a handkerchief in hand at one point and then flip the switch for his own objective later on. Just like an entertainer that looks so surprised during each and every cup noodles ad. You need to assume yesterday's understanding won't necessarily be reflected in today's behavior."
Kamijou Touma did not know Kamisato Kakeru that well either.
He was not an expert profiler, so he could not determine the truth and depth of everything someone said.
But.
He found himself unable to agree with Othinus so easily. Kamisato was definitely an enemy. He was a danger who would not hesitate to destroy Kamijou Touma's right arm and mercilessly kill Othinus as the last remaining Magic God.
But could he deny the part of that boy that had worked to save the Birdway sisters?
Kamisato may have been misguided in his anger concerning the girls he wanted to protect, but wasn't that a line he wouldn't stray from unless he found something truly deserving of it?
Othinus gave an exasperated sigh on Kamijou's shoulder.
"Don't tell me you're letting Kamisato get to you."
"Eh?"
"You have to be kidding me... As you can see from the unique fighting force surrounding him, Kamisato Kakeru is quite adept at controlling people's hearts. And I bet it's more than him being a good talker. Heh. The kind of normal high school boy you can find anywhere, is it? He claims to be a representative of the common folk and he makes himself look weak to garner empathy, but this goes beyond that. Call it an aura or charisma if you like, but he has the look of someone with that invisible characteristic."
"..."
"Kamisato Kakeru isn't as simple as he looks. If you're a natural diamond that has miraculously struck a nice balance, then he's an artificial diamond that reproduces that in a lab. They both shine just as bright, but let it charm you and you'll be swallowed up."
Kamijou gulped... and then looked puzzled.
"Wait, Othinus. That doesn't add up."
"What doesn't?"
"Well, if he's an artificial diamond and I'm a natural diamond, that would mean I have something just like he does. And you're not talking about a special right hand that draws people to you. Do you really think a normal high school boy like me has that kind of aura or charisma or whatever?"
"Okay, okay. I get it. You really are oblivious, aren't you?"
"?"
Just as Kamijou tilted his head, a girl spoke to him from behind.
"What is it, Kamijou? Are you feeling ill since we just had lun-... oh."
It was Fukiyose Seiri in her short-sleeve gym outfit.
That black-haired forehead classmate gave him a lukewarm look when she saw Othinus on his shoulder.
"Kamijou, that is a characteristic of yours, not a flaw. But can you please think more carefully about when you bring it out?"
"Okay, I'm just gonna say it now! Othinus is not a doll dressed in a risqué outfit. Come here and touch her. Then you'll see."
"I can understand liking to look at dolls, but touching them is going a little far... And isn't forcing a girl to do that a form of sexual harassment?"
"Human. Do you really think a god will let someone other than her Understander touch her?"
"And after demanding I do it, you reject me using ventriloquism? You're too far gone for me to interfere. And your cute doll calls herself a god? How am I supposed to approach a classmate like this?"
"Help me, god!! I'm about to be placed in some strange category!!"
Kamijou was nearly in tears, but despite claiming to be his Understander, Othinus stubbornly refused to leave his shoulder.
Meanwhile, Fukiyose seemed to realize pushing this was not going to help, so she changed the subject.
"By the way, Kamijou, do you know anything about the transfer student?"
"What? Aren't there a whole bunch of us?"
"We're only borrowing the building, so we're technically not transfer students." Fukiyose calmed her breathing."What was his name? Kamisato Kakeru I think. You know him, don't you? I heard some of your conversation in the cafeteria."
"..."
"Kamijou?"
"Well, " he stalled.
Hearing a classmate speak Kamisato's name caused his heart to jump more than he had expected. That name felt like it belonged in the realm where terms like "magic" and "Magic God" were normal.
"But from what I heard, it didn't seem like a very cheerful conversation. He seems like he would just get buried without the term 'transfer student' helping him out. I kind of feel bad with all of us pushing him out of the way."
"He doesn't like to stand out, so I bet he's actually thankful."
"I hope so."
She may have been worried about that.
She was a considerate classmate.
But if Kamijou did not get back to the marathon soon, he might not be able to finish by the end of class. He leisurely ran along the designated course with Fukiyose.
"Y'know, I would have thought you were used to jogging, Fukiyose. But since you were slower than me, are you actually below average?"
"This is to maintain my health. I'm not about to stress my body in a mad dash for the best time. I care more about maintaining my pace than getting a decent rank."
He realized she was not breathing heavily and her muscles did not look tensed. He guessed she could compete for a top spot if she took this seriously.
And when she noticed him watching her from the side, she gave him a suspicious look.
"Why are you staring at me?"
"————"
This was not entirely his own fault. Or he wanted to believe it was not.
This misfortune had come from his surroundings.
One: Fukiyose Seiri mentioning that he was "staring" directed his attention to what lay before his eyes.
Two: Before running off earlier, Aogami Pierce had repeated a certain phrase in his mad ravings: bouncing and jiggling.
His classmate's expression transformed from suspicious to blank and she asked a wooden question.
"Are they that fascinating?"
Kamijou Touma gave an honest answer.
"They are!!"
A truly honest headbutt reached him a moment later.
Part 4
The color orange was thick.
It was afterschool and, since it was December, the sun set early. Students were pouring out of the school building for club activities, committee activities, or to have fun outside of school. The entire scene was dyed in the orange of sunset.
Kamijou Touma was not a part of a club or committee and had nowhere else to go, so he was walking through the school's campus.
He held a large bag of burnable trash and another of non-burnable trash.
(Um, I just have to take it here, right?)
There was a trash dump near the back gate for faculty. He had been told where it was, but he was still a little nervous walking there for the first time. Fortunately this was not a special class or anything, so he had no time limit.
Since no one was there, Othinus poked her head out of his pocket.
"Nnn."
"Othinus."
"If you have a problem with this, ask yourself why that might be. And at least don't hold the bag of burnable trash on my side. It reeks of kitchen waste! What is in this container? Yakisoba? Fried chicken!?"
Othinus complained as she climbed his arm to his shoulder. His shoulder moved up and down a fair bit given her size and her balance was poor, but she seemed to have decided that was her spot.
"There wasn't anything like you were saying. Kamisato didn't show any sign of attacking me."
"I have no obligation to tell you this, but things are seriously wrong from the moment that Kamisato Kakeru is living a normal life in a city as strictly managed as this." Othinus sounded exasperated."It may be hard for you to grasp since you've lived here for so long, but that would put a large burden on him on the technological, informational, and monetary fronts. And that's even if the Board of Directors decided to overlook him. That means he must have some reason for being here. He couldn't do this just because he didn't feel like leaving quite yet."
"Is that really-... ?"
Kamijou trailed off and quickly rewrapped his scarf.
He wrapped it around Othinus to hide her inside. He thought he heard something like a "Bgh!?", but he had a more pressing issue.
Simply put, there was already someone at the trash dump.
The space was shared by the middle and high school, so there were some impressive piles of garbage bags. The space was the size of two classrooms, but the bags were piled up higher than a human being in some places. Someone could easily get buried if there was an earthquake.
Due to the drink packages and sweet bread wrappers from the school store, the entire place was surrounded by a sweet aroma.
The person he had seen was in the valley created between two mountains of trash.
She wore her uniform and had plastic gloves on her hands.
It was the student council president with long hair, a large ribbon, and the same small size as Komoe-sensei.
"Hi, hi. How are you... liking our school? Some spaces are shared between the middle and high schools, so it can be more confusing than a normal school and you might get lost."
"Not to worry. The facilities are actually better than our old school."
She must have been relieved to hear that.
But...
"You told me your name, didn't you? What was it again?"
"Were you... tasked with cleaning up today?"
"Oh, right. It was Jumpy Bunny."
"Just so you know, that's slang or a type of unofficial- ow! I bit my tongue... A-anyway, that isn't the kind of nickname you should use in front of me!!"
She seemed to defy gravity when worked up over something because she started hopping up into the air.
Kamijou ignored Othinus as she squirmed inside his scarf and gave a curious look to the girl's plastic gloves.
"Why are you here, president?"
"You're not even trying to learn my name, are you!? M-M-..."
"?"
"Mie-chaaaaaan!! Wahhhhn!!"
The Jumpy Bunny seemed to call for that middle school girl when she grew too emotional because she began operating her cellphone with the plastic gloves still on. The response came with incredible speed. Even the predictive shortcuts did not explain that speed, so the conversation was probably being held with only symbols and emoticons.
And the president grew petrified as soon as she opened the email.
Worried about the unmoving palm-sized girl, Kamijou hesitantly peered over her shoulder at the phone.
"Mi-ke> You're running to me too easily, Onee-chan. (-_-+) Am I your servant? (／ロ°) ／～E *crashing tea table*"
"B-bgfh... wahhhh..."
"I really don't think this is worth sobbing like a pig and crying over, president. You said at lunch that she's an adolescent, right?"
"Fghfh. I'm going to ask Mie-chan to hang out with me to make up for this, so you be quiet. And this definitely isn't me going into beggar mode with a middle schooler because I'm afraid she'll run out of patience with me."
When he placed a soothing hand on her shoulder, her sobs gradually quieted down. And while the spiky-haired boy was acting like he knew what he was talking about, he too fell into the adolescent category.
At any rate, it seemed that shared troubles helped bring people together.
The Jumpy Bunny spoke while sniffling and rubbing her red nose.
"Sniff... A-anyway, um, this is part of my usual student council duties.... It's one of our odd jobs."
"Hm?"
"Separating the trash." She pointed here and there."It's generally divided between a burnable pile and a non-burnable pile, but some people dump aluminum foil and other things in because separating it out is too much work."
"Oh..."
Kamijou looked over at the trash bags, but he did not notice any real problems from what he could see through the translucent bags.
"Well, Academy City's garbage processing facilities do a lot of recycling too. They of course compost the kitchen waste and recycle old paper, metal, and plastic, but they also do urban mining... that is, recycling the micro-sized rare earths inside electronic circuits. They use air, magnetism, static electricity, and centrifugal separation.... But I'd still like to prevent anyone from throwing away a broken utility knife blade or a hairspray can."
"Ugh. People are that careless?"
It was easy enough for the person throwing it away, but in some cases, it could blow off a finger of the garbage man who came to collect it. After all, to increase efficiency as much as possible, the trash bags were crushed with a powerful press inside the garbage truck.
"Um, uh, there are over five hundred people here if you count both the middle and high school. And it might help that it can't be traced back to them like it can with household trash. It was suggested we write the class numbers on the bags, but for some reason there was a lot of opposition and it was denied..."
"But..."
Kamijou followed the Jumpy Bunny's pointed instructions to casually toss his two bags into the appropriate piles.
"This space is for both the middle and high school, right? I don't see why the high school student council president would have to go this far."
"The middle school is really just 'attached' to the high school, so all of the responsibility falls on the high school. Also..."
The plastic gloved president slowly exhaled.
"Even if I don't have to do it, um, the danger will be overlooked if no one does it. And that means someone has to do it."
"..."
Kamijou looked around the area now that he had finished his job.
It was the size of two classrooms and the piles were taller than he was in places.
"Do you want some help?"
"Ah hah hah. It's a hundred years too early for that. Plus, I'll be done for the day once I check the ones you just brought."
He looked at the extraordinary piles of trash once more.
She had already checked through all that on her own?
"I'm growing every day."
"Um... Sorry, but where?"
"Could you not leer all over my body like that? Especially when we just met today!!"
The Jumpy Bunny crossed her arms to protect her unimpressive chest and shrunk down with tears in her eyes.
"I did think about opening them all by hand at first, but, um, I pretty quickly realized that wouldn't work."
"Yeah, I would think so."
But she apparently did things differently now.
As for how...
"The really dangerous things like utility knife blades and spray cans are generally made of metal, right? So I ordered a cheap metal detector. That gives me a general idea of where they are just by bringing the device in close."
"I see."
"N-not that that actually separates it all perfectly! But as I said, Academy City does some really good recycling, bordering on urban mining, so it's all about give and take. And if you give me an impressed look like that, I can't help but agree with you!!"
"Oh, so you weren't using some kind of rare power..."
"Why do you keep taking jabs at me today!? Did I do something to you!?"
"Gyaaaah!! Don't grab at me with those dirty plastic gloves!! Is this a new kind of biochemical terrorism!?"
"Oh, sorry."
She let go of Kamijou's collar.
"Anyway, if you have no more business here, there's no reason for you to stick around. Um, do you have any club activities after this? Or do you work?"
"I just head on home."
"I see, " was all the president said.
For better or for worse, she did not seem interested. She was wasting her afterschool time on her most troublesome duty, but she apparently had no prejudice against people who simply went home.
"Then let's head on home."
"Huh? What about the student council?"
"Um, there are busy days and there are days with nothing at all. The awful part is that we can't choose which days are which."
The Jumpy Bunny laughed weakly and removed her plastic gloves.
That ceremony seemed to say her work for the day was complete.
With nothing to do, Kamijou noticed something almost buried in the trash.
It was a rusted metal box about the size of two vaulting boxes side by side and it had a smokestack attached.
"There's still an incinerator here in this day and age?"
"The bottom was apparently attached to the concrete ground, so removing it would have cost a ton of money."
There was a metal door on the top of the box, but it was locked shut with thick chains and a padlock. So was the small window on the bottom for letting ashes out.
"If no one's using it, why bother locking it up?"
"Um..."
The president blushed and fidgeted for some reason. She also tapped her index fingers together in front of her (small, or rather, flat) chest.
Kamijou's expression vanished at this unexpected response.
Was there really any kind of "pink" element to what they were talking about?
"Are you saying this had to do with some bondage-obsessed person who goes around putting chains on everything or someone who loves sealing off enclosed spaces so no one can get in or out? Or maybe someone who wants to run a death game in the future?"
"Aren't you letting your imagination run a little too wild!?"
"Then what is it?"
"Uuh..."
She started fidgeting again.
And then she answered him as if making a confession.
"Well... If the incinerator is left open, um, it seems students will sneak things into it at night and burn them.... For example, um, an inappropriate magazine they worked up their courage to take to the register but were disappointed by and don't know what to do with. Or a life-size doll or body pillow cover they got carried away and ordered online late at night."
Kamijou felt a bolt of lightning run through his mind.
The struggling inside his scarf refused to stay quiet.
"(Don't tell me that sounded like a good idea to you. )"
"O-of course not. I can't believe you would think that."
"Um, y-you can't do that! It ends up causing a bunch of smoke, so you can't do it secretly, and the sparks and smoke might even set off the school's fire alarm! You'll end up in tears as you're charged with illegal entry and attempted arson. Even if you didn't mean it, if people catch sight of a realistic doll's burnt face or arm, it can cause a panic and get you charged forcible obstruction of business too! You'll only be left with some baffling official records of the incident!!"
"I promise you I didn't think it was a good idea!!"
It seemed to be more out of habit than to make sure it was locked, but the minimum president shook the padlock connected to the chains.
"No problem today either. Okay, let's get home."
"Sure."
Kamijou and the Jumpy Bunny left the trash dump.
Another day of hard work was complete.
Part 5
After parting ways with the Jumpy Bunny at the school gate, Kamijou had a special mission.
"It's finally time to visit the supermarket. Let's do this! Let's buy a full week's worth of food!!"
"There's something wrong with you when you have to announce that with so much conviction."
The evening colors quickly became those of night.
Kamijou walked along the unfamiliar path home with Othinus on his shoulder. Their breath appeared white in the air.
"By the way, human. What do you think that starving nun is doing right now? You only had enough food in the dorm to make breakfast, right?"
"You didn't know? Her perfect memory has memorized Maid-in-Training Maika's route, so she can find food just by wandering around town if she has to."
"And people don't find that suspicious?"
"Speaking of Maika, what ever happened to Tsuchimikado? He wasn't at school today and I was only vaguely told that the Kamisato Faction beat him up."
They arrived at a certain street as they spoke.
"Wait, this is the shopping district's main street. Isn't everything here pretty expensive?"
"You'd think so, wouldn't you? Everyone thinks so, so the stores end up with a lot of unsold stuff. But at the same time, it would hurt their brand name if they advertised the leftovers, so not many people learn about the sales on stuff that's about to go bad and needs to be thrown out. This is the perfect time to go for a high-quality supermarket filled with imported food that's usually ridiculously expensive!!"
"Hold on. It's about to go bad? But didn't you say this is for a whole week?"
"Othinus, I have a word of advice for a god like you."
"?"
Othinus looked puzzled and Kamijou put on a gentle smile.
"Humans are pretty hard to kill."
"You're sorely mistaken if you think everyone's as tough as you!!"
Each of Academy City's districts was unique in its own way, but District 7 was fairly average or normal, for better or for worse. Kamijou and Othinus passed by restaurants such as family restaurants and hamburger shops, entertainment facilities like karaoke and arcades, and fashionable stores selling clothes or musical instruments. It all looked expensive, none of it looked like it would provide more than average satisfaction, and it was all chain stores, so it was kind of sad. The target demographic must have been students on the way back from school because boys and girls wearing a variety of uniforms were walking around.
And...
"Huh?"
"What is it, human?"
"I spotted some familiar faces. Um, it's four-eyes, the Jumpy Bunny, and the less memorable student council members. Oh, and what's-her-name from the middle school."
"Are you sure you actually know these people!?"
If they saw Othinus on his shoulder (and thought she was a doll), they would start treating him in an unpleasantly warm way, so he quickly rewrapped his scarf and trapped Othinus in the wool hurricane.
"(You-... ! This is super itchy, so don't wrap it so tightly around me!)"
"We don't have much choice. And shut up, god."
After whispering back to her, he narrowed his eyes.
"Kamisato's with them. I don't want him to know you're here."
"..."
Even Othinus quieted down at that.
"(Can't you just leave without saying anything?)"
"I've already stepped on the landmine. The only reason it hasn't blown up yet is that I haven't lifted my foot. One way to give the police probable cause to question you is to suddenly turn back for no apparent reason. In other words, I want to avoid standing out and causing unnecessary trouble. The best option is to follow the crowd on through."
The student council and Kamisato were gathered around a crane game near the entrance of an arcade.
Kamijou's Imagine Breaker could not defeat Kamisato's World Rejecter.
That had been proven the previous night.
And there was unconfirmed information saying some other "thing" would burst out if Kamisato destroyed Kamijou's right arm. That scared Kamijou because he did not know the exact conditions for it.
The cheerful voices around him transformed into unintelligible static.
What if "that" burst out inside this crowd?
He was scared, but not because he could imagine it.
He was scared because he could not imagine it.
"Oh."
The boy in glasses caught sight of him.
The Jumpy Bunny and student council president named... what was it again? Anyway, she had her hands pressed against the crane game's glass, so the boy waved in her stead.
"It's Problem Student #2."
"You're pretty awful yourself. And does that mean Kamisato's #1 and I'm #2!?"
Kamijou shouted back without thinking, but Kamisato only shrugged and smiled thinly when he noticed.
"Well, I did arrive before you did."
"Can't argue with that."
At any rate, Kamijou approached the crane game.
Modern Middle School Girl Akikawa Mie was half hiding behind the palm-sized Jumpy Bunny. She poked out from behind that living hedge to maintain her defenses while facing Kamijou.
"U-um, uh... Thanks for before..."
"Before?"
"..."
"In fact, who even are you?"
"M-Mie-chan? Please don't lean on me after drying out like that!"
| ← Ch. 156 | Ch. 158 → |