Andry's Trashbin

チューリングラブ

2022-07-18T21:19:00.001+07:00

チュちゅーリングラブりんぐらぶ

)

あー、恋(こい)の定義(ていぎ)がわかんない

まずスキ(すき)って基準(きじゅん)もわかんない

要(よう)は、恋(こい)してるときが恋(こい)らしい

客観(きゃっかん)？　主観(しゅかん)？　エビデンスプリ(えびでんすぷり)ーズ(ず)！

愛(あい)は計算(けいさん)じゃ解(と)けない

まず普通(ふつう)の計算(けいさん)も解(と)けない

要(よう)は、そんな状態(じょうたい)が愛(あい)らしい

アイノウ(あいのう)？　ユ(ゆ)ーノウ(のう)？

もう大抵(たいてい)の事象(じしょう)において　Q があって A を出(だ)して解(と)けるのに

勘違って間違(まちが)って　解(かい)のないこの気持(きも)ちはなんだろう　(検証(けんしょう) is(ｉｓ) 不明瞭(ふめいりょう))

DAZING！！　モ(も)ーション(しょん)は相対性(そうたいせい)にステイ(すてい)

チュ(ちゅ)ーリングラブ(りんぐらぶ)　見(み)つめあったって解(と)けないメロウ(めろう)

ワットイズラブ(わっといずらぶ)　いま 123 で証(あかし)そうか

言葉(ことば)で生(う)み出(だ)すクエスチョン(くえすちょん)　(クエスチョン(くえすちょん)！)

ハ(は)ート(と)で高鳴(たかな)るアンサ(あんさ)ー　(アンサ(あんさ)ー！)

測(はか)ったって不確定性(ふかくていせい)　ぼくらの BPM

チュ(ちゅ)ーリングラブ(りんぐらぶ)　宙(ちゅう)に舞(ま)ったって信(しん)じないけど

フォ(ふぉ)ーリンラブ(りんらぶ)　いまは ABC すらバグ(ばぐ)りそうだ

なんでか教(おし)えてオイラ(おいら)ー　(オイラ(おいら)ー！)

感想(かんそう)きかせてフェルマ(ふぇるま)ー　(フェルマ(ふぇるま)ー！)

予測不可能性(よそくふかのうせい)　いま触(ふ)れてみる

さあ証明(しょうめい)しよう　(証明(しょうめい)しよう)　間違(まちが)いのないように

証明(しょうめい)しよう　(証明(しょうめい)しよう)　この感情全部全部(かんじょうぜんぶぜんぶ)

証明(しょうめい)しよう　(証明(しょうめい)しよう)　正解(せいかい)があるなら

証明(しょうめい)しよう　(証明(しょうめい)しよう)　シンプル(しんぷる)な Q.E.D.

今日(きょう)こそ証明(しょうめい)したい！(しよう！)

目(め)に視(み)えない　無理難題(むりなんだい)を

ASAP！

導(みちび)き出(だ)したい　たどり着(つ)きたい　最適解(さいてきかい)へ

何度空回(なんどそらまわ)ったって　ぶつかっちゃったって

不可思議(ふかしぎ)なこのアノマリ(あのまり)ーを

解(と)き明(あ)かす過程(かてい)さえ必要条件(ひつようじょうけん)です。

「3次元(じげん)(立体(りったい))における 2点(てん) AB 間(あいだ)の距離(きょり)を求(もと)めよ。」

的(てき)な感(かん)じだと思(おも)ってたのに

座標(ざひょう)も公式(こうしき)も見当(みあ)たらないし

参考資料(さんこうしりょう)にも載(の)っていないから

君(きみ)と生(う)み出(だ)してみせたいじゃん

3次元(じげん)(世界(せかい))におけるこの気持(きも)ちの求(もと)め方(かた)

○(まる)だって×(かける)だって　不安(ふあん)にとってイコ(いこ)ール(る)で

近(ちか)くなって遠(とお)くなって　揺(ゆ)れるこの気持(きも)ちの針(はり)も　(条件(じょうけん) is 明瞭(めいりょう))

Steppin’！！　エモ(えも)ーション(しょん)は相愛性(そうあいせい)ミステイク(みすていく)

チュ(ちゅ)ーリングラブ(りんぐらぶ)　騒(さわ)ぎ出(だ)した胸(むね)の痛(いた)くなるほど

証明(しょうめい)はいまも　確度(かくど)を増(ま)しているようだ

曖昧(あいまい)も除外(じょがい)して　最大(さいだい)の仮説(かせつ)を

いま、ふたりなら実証(じっしょう)できそう

チュ(ちゅ)ーリングラブ(りんぐらぶ)　見(み)つめあったってキリ(きり)ないメロウ(めろう)

ワットイズラブ(わっといずらぶ)　いま 123 で証(あかし)そうか

言葉(ことば)で生(う)み出(だ)すクエスチョン(くえすちょん)　(クエスチョン(くえすちょん)！)

ハ(は)ート(と)で高鳴(たかな)るアンサ(あんさ)ー　(アンサ(あんさ)ー！)

測(はか)ったって不確定性(ふかくていせい)　ぼくらの BPM

チュ(ちゅ)ーリングラブ(りんぐらぶ)　宙(ちゅう)に舞(ま)ったってその因果(いんが)も

フォ(ふぉ)ーリンラブ(りんらぶ)　いまは XYZ まで解(わか)りそうだ

確(たし)かめさせてピタゴラス(ぴたごらす)　(ピタゴラス(ぴたごらす)！)

確(たし)かにさせてリ(り)ーマン(まん)　(リ(り)ーマン(まん)！)

予測済(よそくず)み可変性(かへんせい)　いま触(ふ)れてみる

さあ証明(しょうめい)しよう　(証明(しょうめい)しよう)　間違(まちが)いのないように

証明(しょうめい)しよう　(証明(しょうめい)しよう)　この感情全部全部(かんじょうぜんぶぜんぶ)

証明(しょうめい)しよう　(証明(しょうめい)しよう)　正解(せいかい)があるなら

証明(しょうめい)しよう　(証明(しょうめい)しよう)　推測(すいそく)を超(こ)えて！

証明(しょうめい)しよう　(証明(しょうめい)しよう)　間違(まちが)いのないように

証明(しょうめい)しよう　(証明(しょうめい)しよう)　この感情全部全部(かんじょうぜんぶぜんぶ)

証明(しょうめい)しよう　(証明(しょうめい)しよう)　正解(せいかい)があるなら

証明(しょうめい)しよう　(証明(しょうめい)しよう)　シンプル(しんぷる)な Q.E.D.

愛言葉Ⅳ

2022-07-18T21:16:00.005+07:00

愛言葉あいことばⅣ

想像(そうぞう)なんてしてなかった現状(げんじょう)　君(きみ)もそう思(おも)った？

“最(さい)高(こう)”で止(と)まらないように更新(こうしん)したい

叶(かな)えたい夢(ゆめ)まであとどれくらい？　誰(だれ)も行(おこな)ったことがない場所(ばしょ)へ

たどり着(つ)くまでは“僕(ぼく)ら止(と)まれない”　たぶんしんどいけど、どうかよろしくね

ねえねえ　たまにメ(め)ーデ(で)ー　僕(ぼく)だけじゃ作(つく)れないモノ(もの)

僕(ぼく)とか君(きみ)とかあたしとか　恋(こい)とか愛(あい)とかまとめて全部(ぜんぶ)

君(きみ)を置(お)いてどっかに行(い)っちゃうとか　ありえないよ

君(きみ)がくれた音(おと)に　弾(はじ)けた火花(ひばな)に

初(はじ)めましてから　ずっと恋(こい)しちゃってるんだよ

君(きみ)のいない未来考(みらいかんが)えらんないよ　これから先(さき)も二人(ふたり)がいいじゃん

一途(いちず)になるほど　逃(に)げたくもなったよ

散々(さんざん)な僕(ぼく)のこと　呼(よ)んでくれてありがとう

君(きみ)のいない未来考(みらいかんが)えらんないよ　これから先(さき)も二人(ふたり)で、それがいいじゃん

妄想(もうそう)　膨(ふく)らんでくスト(すと)ーリ(り)ー

感傷(かんしょう)　やけに凹(へこ)んじゃって

代償(だいしょう)　求(もと)め過(す)ぎはやーよ

終(お)わんない愛(あい)の連盟(れんめい)、どうでしょ？

ねえねえ　おいでメ(め)ーデ(で)ー　僕(ぼく)が君(きみ)にできること

まだまだまだまだあるけど　驚(おどろ)かせたいから内緒(ないしょ)なんだ

君(きみ)の愛(あい)がいつも勝(まさ)っちゃうこと　許(ゆる)さないよ

君以外(きみいがい)はヤダ(やだ)　我儘(わがまま)はタダ(ただ)

変(か)わらないトキメキ(ときめき)を絶叫(ぜっきょう)しちゃうのはバカ(ばか)

君(きみ)がくれた音(おと)に　弾(はじ)けた火花(ひばな)に

初(はじ)めましてから　ずっと恋(こい)しちゃってるんだよ

君(きみ)のいない未来考(みらいかんが)えらんないよ　これから先(さき)も二人(ふたり)がいいじゃん

一途(いちず)になるほど　逃(に)げたくもなったよ

散々(さんざん)な僕(ぼく)のこと　呼(よ)んでくれてありがとう

君(きみ)のいない未来考(みらいかんが)えらんないよ　これから先(さき)も二人(ふたり)で、それがいいじゃん

乙女解剖(おとめかいぼう)で遊(あそ)ぼうよ　ドキドキ(どきどき)したいじゃんか誰(だれ)だって

アンドロイドガ(]あんどろいどが)ール(る)　をかしくなっちゃった　痛(いた)みのないキス(きす)が離(はな)れない

僕(ぼく)らヴァンパイア(ヴぁんぱいあ)　いいよ　吸(す)っちゃっていいよ

「もう無理(むり)もう無理(むり)」だって　悪(わる)い子(こ)じゃない

こんな歌歌(うたうた)ったんだって　君(きみ)が輝(かがや)けるように

AFTERWORD

2022-07-18T15:35:00.003+07:00

“Too Terrible to Look At”

Hello. JIN speaking.
Did you enjoy Kagerou Daze 2: A Headphone Actor?

   This novel was written in the middle of summer, with the temperature outside never going below the upper eighties—not unlike the story setting I was writing about. Of course, I had the AC set to seventy-three degrees and gorged myself on pizza throughout the project, but the point remains.
   I apologize for leeching off everyone at the office in the meantime.

   Which reminds me. In the afterword to my previous novel, Kagerou Daze: In a Daze, I wrote something along the lines of “If this winds up being a flop, I’ll have to write a school romance/comedy next!” Luckily, thanks to all of you, the response I received for that book exceeded all expectations. Thanks! *smile*
   As a result, the manifesto above is not the reason why this volume wound up being a bit school romance/comedy-ish.
   The real reason is simply that I have grown starved for affection. Rest assured about that, please!
   This volume, much like the last, was written in the midst of a busy schedule of music composing and live concerts. But it was no big deal…as long as you consider a breakneck, death-march schedule that made me feel like I was about to froth at the mouth no big deal.
   No, no, it really wasn’t hard at all, you know? It’s true.
   Just thinking about starting work on Volume 3 gets me so excited, it makes me want to release everything I’ve eaten today right into the toilet!

   My HP gauge, which has gradually been falling over time, recently went from yellow to red and flashing.
   I’m writing this Volume 2 afterword right after finishing the novel, amidst what I could only call a hazy sense of consciousness. I’m afraid I’m going to mess up and write something dirty without even realizing it. It makes me, and my big, luscious double Ds that just won’t quit, terribly frightened.

   Though I really don’t have to worry. I’m sure my editor (Ikebo) will clean up and de-curse everything before it reaches the readers’ hands, after all. I know he will. Yep.
   (* Editor’s note: This afterword is being published as-is per author request.)

   Speaking of dirty jokes, the way I kept writing “chin chin” (the name of a rose variety, not the name of a certain body part) in the last volume’s afterword nowadays makes me cringe every time my mom out in the country (age fifty-two) calls me up and says, “I’m telling everyone I know that my son’s written a novel, all right? So keep up the good work!”
   And yet, when my sister (age eighteen) told me, “You’ve be surprised how many of my friends are reading it!” I was instead filled with an alarming sense of excitement.
   Hey, sister’s friends, are you reading this? Yeah, I’m that girl’s brother! *grin*
   My sister also tells me I resemble Shintaro, the novel character, a lot.
   I can’t say I agree with her, and to be frank I consider Shintaro to be a pretty gross and distasteful character overall, so I was less than thrilled with this assessment. But then I took another perspective.

   Maybe, just maybe, I could take advantage of this.
   If I had Shintaro get friendly with some women in the novel, maybe that’d help me get a little more lovin’ attention from the ladies around me in real life. No, it has to! I’m sure! Maybe!
   I mean, remember how Shintaro busted up his PC in Volume 1? My computer just crashed and burned, too, giving me some kind of indecipherable error as it did. You have to admit it—there’s some kind of deep, intertwined connection going on here.
   Thus, Shintaro has more than a little bit of fun in this volume. So there you go. I’ll be expecting someone to send me amusement-park tickets in the mail before long. I can’t wait!

   Along similar lines, I’ve been sitting every day at my PC, pants down, wondering if today’s the day when a cute girl will appear on-screen, start talking to me, and never go away for me, too. But there’s no sign of her yet, weirdly. Why? It honestly baffles me.

   The other day, though, I stumbled upon an ad for an adult site that, no matter how many times I closed it, kept on popping up anyway.
   This isn’t exactly how I imagined things would unfold, but I’ve been keeping my mental state stable lately by talking to this ad on a daily basis. Thanks, God.

   Well, it’s just about time to say my good-byes again for now.
   I received gracious support from all kinds of wonderful people as I wrote this volume. Thanks very much for that.
   Also, thanks in advance to my readers for their continued support, of course!
   Let’s meet up in the afterword to Volume 3, all right? See you—’till then!

JIN (Shizen no Teki-P)

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Previous: Retrospect Forest
Title: Kagerou Daze, Vol2_ Headphone Actor

RETROSPECT FOREST

2022-07-18T15:21:00.003+07:00

August 15. The height of summer.
   The suburban road, well separated from the people and car noise you found in the city, was instead infected with the loud, echoing call of the nearby cicadas.
   The long, straight road was interrupted only by rusted-out signs and small houses, dotting the path for what seemed like the rest of the world.

   Next to the sidewalk, notably cracked and lacking in terms of solid pavement, the unkempt weeds extended toward the sky as high as they could.
   It was well into the afternoon by now. I felt like I had been walking down this path for hours, but I imagine it was only for twenty or thirty minutes in reality.
   When you’re faced with a never-ending onrush of catastrophic events, time always seems to pass a lot more slowly than it actually does.

   —It all started yesterday.

   I, Shintaro Kisaragi, have wound up getting shoved out into the outside world for some reason after approximately two years of the exciting, laugh-a-minute nerd shut-in lifestyle.
   Why? Well, thanks to the brazen acts of violence carried out by the evil virus known as Ene, I broke a few of my computer’s accessories and wound up having to visit the nearby department store to shop for replacements. That’s the simplest reason, at least.
   But once I reached that department store, I wound up being on the scene of a terrorist attack— something I had to have, like, a one-in-eighty-thousand chance of encountering. Then they took me hostage, and then they even went and shot me.
   …Given the tale this far, I already have some critical doubts as to whether anyone would believe a word of it. But the real story’s just getting started. Allow me to continue.

   After being shot with a handgun, I was rescued by this bizarre organization that happened to also be on the scene.
   It’s called the Mekakushi-dan, and it’s a group of, shall we say, “unique” individuals. An invisible woman, a Medusa, this chameleon kind of guy, you name it.
   …This gang is clearly far more of a threat than any run-of-the-mill terror group, but apparently they treated my injuries for me, and by the looks of things, they don’t seem like bad people at all.
   —So that was all fine and good. Up to that point.
   If I had resisted all the urges telling me to poke around this group some more, if I’d just said “Thank you very much, uh, see you later,” returned home, and enjoyed my triumphant return to the nerd shut-in life with gusto, I imagine I could have convinced myself to forget about all the questions I had.
   But when the guy they called “Kano” started prattling on and on about stuff, and when I decided to be polite enough to lend him an ear—butting in with “Huh, neat” every now and then, that kind of thing—they decided I knew too many of their secrets and couldn’t be allowed back home. The classic criminal gang, in other words.
   —I fired back, of course.
   Certainly, I appreciated their taking care of me overnight while I was unconscious.
   But I wasn’t about to blindly follow whatever orders they gave me, and the shock of leaving my room for the first time in ages had fatigued me greatly, physically and emotionally.
   Really, even if I wanted to blab about the secrets of this crazy gang to someone else, there’s no doubt they’d say, “Yeah, I’d say you’re the nuttiest out of all of ’em” in response.
   So of course I wouldn’t tell anyone else. I swore it to them.
`…But Ene, the plague-bearing rat residing in my computer, responded just as I thought she would—“Wow, all of this is really amazing, master!” and so on. Thus, she joined the Mekakushi-dan, she and all the secret info she had seized from my PC.
   My pleadings were all for nothing. I was very begrudgingly forced to join the group, and now I’m Shintaro, Mekakushi-dan Member No. 7.

   “Hey, Mom, I just made some new friends! I just joined this thing called the Mekakushi-dan! The made me Member No. 7! …Huh? How old am I? Oh, don’t tell me you forgot, Mom! I’m eighteen!”

   —It’d make me want to die. It really would. There’s no way I could tell her.

   “Uh, look, Shintaro, just looking at you is making me feel all gross…And that outfit is so lame too.”
   As I played out my internal monologue to myself, my sister Momo, who was walking alongside me, spoke up in a peeved voice.

   My sister is two years younger than me, making her sixteen this year. To think that just a bit ago… okay, more like a few years ago, but there was a time when she acted a lot cutesier to me, constantly pestering me about this and that for attention.
   The moment she became a high-school student, though, her mood toward me made a full U-turn.
   She began to take this domineering, high-handed attitude, the way a lot of teenage girls do.
   Then, thanks to some mistake or other, she actually became an idol singer, so the point where she’s become pretty well-known among the general public. Posters of her all around town, the works.
   I was glad to see my sister make such a breakthrough in her life, but since the gap between us had grown so large, we barely had the chance to even strike up a conversation as of late.
   But the life of an idol is a pretty stressful one, apparently, and her agency agreed to give her some time off yesterday after discussing things with them.
   She didn’t seem to have too many friends, but apparently she was chummy with the folks in the Mekakushi-dan, which—though, as her brother, I had my qualms—was a bit of a relief to see.

   “—Uh, hello? Are you listening? Just take that off already. You’re drenched in sweat. This isn’t some kind of contest to see how long you can hold out.”
   It was a fact. This temperature, along with the sweat pouring down my body, had made the hoodie I was wearing into a sort of portable sauna for my upper torso.
   Taking it off would have been fine, perhaps, but I didn’t want my pasty white skin to get sunburned, and discarding this hoodie—this pinnacle, this ultimate culmination of clothing culture—was impossible for someone like me who had grown so fond of that fashion accessory.

   The real reason was because this (female) friend I once had said, “You look really good in a hoodie, Shintaro” one time. But now it was starting to feel like a kind of curse upon me.

   “Hell-ooooooo? Hey! Are you listening, bro?! I said, you’re looking gross!”

   Judging by how dogged she was in her complaining, I figured she must have been spewing her frustration at the heat and fatigue or whatnot at me.
   I knew how she felt, but, hey, guess what, I’m in the same boat. All this verbal abuse was starting to get on my nerves, so I decided to take the bait and respond to my sister’s provocation.

   “It’s not causing you any trouble, Momo. And besides, what’s with your outfit, huh? Did they make you wear that after losing a bet in some stupid variety show?”
   The parka Momo was wearing, with ISOLATED written on it in large characters, was so hideous that even the most avant-garde of celebrities wouldn’t dare touch it.
   Anyone who caught sight of her would undoubtedly say to himself, “Wow, that has to be some kind of punishment for something bad she did.”
   “Uh, what? You don’t get this? This is cute. You have, like, no sense whatsoever, do you, Shintaro? And what about that hoodie? You look like a comedian doing some reality-show bit where he’s trying to hitchhike across the country. I can just imagine you getting taken in by some farmer and crying about how delicious his vegetables are and stuff.”
   Judging by the fangs behind this salvo, Momo was apparently a pretty big fan of her own look, too. But if I wanted to protect the dignity of my hoodie, I couldn’t afford to lose here.
   So I decided to strike Momo right where it hurt the most.
   “Oh, shut up, Momo. You know, I know what you do every night. You just sit in your room, laughing at Let’s Play videos. You know that’s freaky, right? Sitting there in that darkened room, eating those dried, shredded squid bits like some guy in his sixties…?”
   Momo, stunned by this unexpected attack, began to grow desperate.
   “Wha…How?! How do you know that?!”
   She may have been all gung-ho at first, but now Momo’s face was pale, quickly turning red out of shame.
   I continued, aiming to strike a combo blow.
   “Oh, you know, I was passing by your room on the way to the john, and I heard this really weird laugh, like ‘heh…heh-heh…’ You had the door, like, half-open, so it’s not like I could avoid seeing you.”
   Unable to say anything in response, Momo angrily shook a fist at me.
   I won. She is, after all, just my sister. No way could she ever beat her older brother.
   “You…You’re horrible, Shintaro! I can’t believe that! Plus, I’m sure you’re just looking at pervo images that whole time anyway! Ene told me, you know! She said ‘my master’s sexual drive is limitless’! That’s really embarrassing to me, you know!”
   The euphoria of victory dissolved in an instant as I was tossed into the bottom of a deep, humiliating pit. I started to break into a cold sweat, easily outpacing the sweat pouring out from the heat.
   “Y-you…You…What did she tell you…?”
   “Pretty much what I just said!”
   “W-what you said…?! Uh…well, look, that was just that one time, okay? That time I accidentally clicked on that weird banner ad! Everyone makes mistakes, you know!”
   “Oh, really? How many of them make the same mistake multiple times a day? Ene told me that you run out of the room in a nervous panic every time you click on a page, too…”
   The emergency alarm within my head began to ring painfully.
   I, Shintaro Kisaragi, was undeniably faced with danger. Mortal danger! I wanted to toss the mobile phone in my pocket straight into any nearby sewer grate, but more important than that, I needed to change the topic. Momo was already looking at me like I was a pile of putrid garbage, but I still had to have some kind of chance. Something…something else…
   “Hey, what’re you two going on about? Aw, it sure is nice to see you two siblings get along with each other!”
   “Oww!”
   I leaped into the air, surprised at having someone suddenly clap me on the back.
   Swiveling around, I saw a large young man in a green jumpsuit, a puffy white mound of something on his back. He flashed us a friendly smile.
   It was a man from the Mekakushi-dan I had joined a bit earlier.
   Come to think of it, he must have been behind us the whole time. He could have heard that whole conversation…Maybe he was extending a helping hand to free me from this barrage.
   “You were…uh, Zetto, right?”
   Trying to call him by name when I knew I hadn’t quite remembered it correctly was a mistake. By the way Momo instantly landed an arrowlike elbow on my side, I suppose I had it wrong.
   I groaned helplessly as the air rushed out of my mouth.
   “No, it’s Setto! You just got introduced to him this morning! Ugh, Shintaro, you never remember anybody’s name…!”
   Momo angrily glared at me, as if to visually demonstrate to me how rude I was being. But before she could continue landing blows on me, a peeved voice emanated out from the white, fluffy mass on the jumpsuited man’s back.

   “…No, it’s Seto…”
   A pair of pink eyes were staring at us from behind the man called Seto’s shoulders.
   Marie, the white, long-haired mass behind Seto, continued to correct us as she steeled her rankled gaze upon us.
   “It’s Seto, okay? If you mess up his name…that’s just mean.”
   Momo, under the full bore of Marie’s gaze, was frozen to the spot like an exposed criminal. For a moment, I could see her checking on my own facial expression from the side.
   “Ha-ha-ha-ha! It’s fine, Marie. Besides, I like Setto! Sounds kinda cool!” Seto tried to appease her, seemingly unfazed by any of this.
   Marie remained unconvinced, emitting an annoyed little mmffff before burying her face in Seto’s shoulder and falling silent.
   A moment of silence passed…Momo quietly stepped up her walking pace, trying to ignore everything, but I wasn’t about to let her.
   “…Hey.”
   I confronted Momo, my voice brimming with discontent. As it should be. She had messed up the name she elbowed me for messing up. That’d make anybody mad.
   “What’d you have to do that for?”
   “Well…well, you got it wrong, too, Shintaro! Didn’t you?! Besides, I was closer than you…”
   It’s not a matter of being close or not! Where the hell did you get ‘Setto’ from?!”
   “Ha-ha-ha!” laughed Seto, heartily, as he watched us continue our aimless argument.
   We had only met this morning, but already it seemed like Seto never got angry over anything, or that he was too magnanimous to let things bother him in general.
   Instead he just brushed it off with one of his belly laughs, leaving Momo and me tremendously embarrassed that we were sniping at each other over this.
   “Ngh…I’m sorry that I got your name wrong, Seto…And I’m sorry if I hurt you, too, Marie Okay…?”
   Momo turned toward the two of them and apologized.
   Marie’s head popped up from behind Seto’s shoulder. “Setto,” she said. “…I think it’s cool, too.”
   Momo breathed a sigh of relief.
   “You know, though, I’m impressed you can actually carry someone in this heat.”
   “Um? Oh, I’m totally fine. I carry around all kinds of stuff in my job, so it’s normal to me. In fact Marie’s easy. She’s so light!”
   Seto was built pretty well. Impressively so, considering that my sticklike arms, the fruits of two years of playing twenty-four-hour security guard inside my own room, were lucky if they could support the weight of a newborn, much less a grown girl.
   I pretended that I didn’t see Momo out the corner of my eye, looking at me and Seto before exhaling a light chuckle out of her nose.
   “But, you know, you can’t do that forever, Marie. You need to exercise more on a daily basis, or else you’ll keep getting too exhausted to move like this.”
   “I-I know…I’ll try to go on longer walks…”
   Marie was down for the count just a few minutes after leaving home, clinging to her spot on Seto’s back ever since.
   The girl didn’t get out much, it seemed.
|   I felt at least a hint of kinship with her, but in terms of ethnic groups, the difference between a sheltered young girl and a college-age unemployed shut-in was like heaven and earth. My case seemed a lot more hopeless.

   The cicadas chirping around us had grown louder and louder.
   We were already a decent distance away from the center of the city.
   We began to see small wooded areas here and there as we continued down the sidewalk. The number of houses began to plummet.
   It was amazing to think how rural things could get after just a little bit of walking. I thought about this yesterday, but it was still weird to me how much the central part of the city had developed.
   The somewhat outdated smartphone Momo had in her hand was apparently in its death throes after being doused in tea the previous day. It had allegedly sprung back to life after being tossed into a bag filled with silica-gel desiccant.

   “But, hey, I’m sorry for this, guys. Being forced to walk thanks to me…”
   Momo drooped her head a little as she murmured the words.
   Taking a bus would have certainly been faster, but Kido’s “concealing eyes” ability apparently has a weakness—it immediately stops working if someone bumps into any of us. That made it too difficult to try in an enclosed space like a bus, so we walked instead.
   Our original plan for the day was to go back to the department store we shopped at yesterday and have fun on the rooftop amusement park, but given the terrorist attack the previous day, there was no way they’d be open for business the following afternoon. Scratch that, then.
   But thanks to Ene’s selfish ranting (“It has to be now, or never!”), we decided to head for another amusement park out in the suburbs.
   Kido, leader of the gang, and Kano, another member, were going to be a little late, so the rest of us were on our way to the park by ourselves.
   Since we were walking down a road with nearly no traffic at all, it wasn’t a particular problem for Momo to be visible and outdoors here.
   “…Kano told us it was like they made an amusement park out of a national forest…but, hey, is that it? I think it is! I think that’s a Ferris wheel!”
   Momo, springing to life, pointed toward the right in front of us.
   A large forest spread itself out beyond. Among the trees, we could see roller-coaster tracks and other classic theme-park trappings.
   “Ooh, it looks like it! Hey, Marie, we made it!”
   Seto shook his back to alert Marie. “Wow, we did!” she said when she looked up, eyes aflame with delight. “It looks sooooo great!”
   “Ene’s gotten kinda quiet, hasn’t she? Is she all right? I haven’t heard anything from her lately.”
   “She told me to tell her when we arrived, then shut herself off. Something about wanting to conserve her batteries.”
   And I had expected another constant barrage of griping and wheedling today, too. It turns out she has a surprising weakness after all.
   “Ah. Makes sense. Better get her up soon, then…Oh, is that the boss?”
   A sign with FOREST PARKin big letters stood about forty meters ahead, right above a shuttle bus stop. Two of the people stepping off the bus alongside all the families and children looked familiar.
   “Ooh, it is! Wow, look at all the people getting off…! I better make a call!”
   Momo frantically put up her hood and started dialing.
   “Uh, hello, boss? We’re right nearby the gate…Okay! Sure, sure. We’ll be waiting right here, okay?”
   After hanging up, Momo took a quick look around the area. The visitors leaving the bus were herded into the park entrance, not taking a second look at us.
   We could see the two people we spotted before walking up to us.
   “So as long as we’ve got Kido’s ability, we can enjoy the theme park all we want to…right?”
   “Right! Totally!”
   Momo beamed from underneath her hood like an elated child.

—Out of breath, I found a nearby bench and sat myself down.
   It was shaded by the lush foliage above me, making the backrest a little damp and cool to the touch.
   I took a deep breath. I guess my sense of balance wasn’t working so well…I still felt like I was o a lurching cruise ship, and the feeling of nausea welled right back up my throat.

   “Are you all right, Shintaro? You know, guys, you’re taking all of this too quickly. You can’t just go on the roller coaster first thing like that…”
   Seto, seated on my left, slapped me on the back as he offered me a bottle of water.
   “Oh, man, Shintaro…Hee-hee! Try not to worry about it too much, okay? Heh-heh…”
   Kano, closing in on me from the right, clasped his hands behind his head as he attempted to cheer me up in the most mean-spirited way possible.
   “Quit being so rude, Kano. Not everyone’s as good at roller coasters as you are. Just because he threw up a bit doesn’t mean you should pick on him all day.”
   “Just…don’t say it anymore…Please…”
   Seto was just acting out of conscience, but when he reiterated that I had lost my lunch, it served to do nothing but mentally damage me even further. I wanted to die on the spot.
   “Sure, sure, sorry. Shintaro’s just a lot of fun to pick on, that’s all. Gotta say, though, I was surprised to see Marie having such a good time on there. Kido looked all tense, though, like I figured she’d be.”
   Kano’s assessment reminded me of the women in our midst, which made my sense of shame grow even larger. They all saw the whole thing. I’m so screwed.
   “Yeah, Kido likes to put on a bold front like that, I guess. This is pretty fun, though, huh? All of us, getting to play around a bit together!”
   That was about as profound as Seto could manage, it seemed, as he continued slapping me on the back.
   He calls this fun? Me, earning the nickname “Barfman” for life?
   “Yeah. It’s kinda the first time, too, really. You’re busy with your part-time work all day usually, Seto. You were pretty late gettin’ in yesterday, too, weren’t you?”
   “You got me there, yeah…But I tell ya, having all those dudes waiting for me when I got back! What a surprise!”
   “I’ll bet. Our first new members in years, after Marie joined up. The more the merrier, yeah? And if Kido’s happy about it, then so am I. But whadaya think about her, Seto? Momo, I mean?”
   Seto and Kano’s lighthearted conversation continued above my hunched-over back, forcing me to recall Momo’s frigid, aghast face. It made me utterly unable to join in the chatter.
   “Oh, she’s great! Really polite, too. I was pretty impressed that our shy li’l Marie introduced me to her. And, wow, a real pop celebrity, too!”
   “Yeah, you should’ve seen Kido when she brought her in for the first time. That utterly frazzled look on her face…Hee-hee!”
   Kano kept chuckling affably, unable to get enough of the mental image. On my end, I felt about ready to cry.
   “Oh, and Ene, too! Talk about one crazy character! But what’s, like, driving her, you think? Is she being controlled by someone?”
   “Yeah, the lady in the phone? Uh, who knows? To me, it looks like she’s honest-to-God living in that thing…”
   The tears flowed out of my eyes once the topic turned to Ene. She would never, ever forget this incident. No doubt she’d poke fun at me about it until I was six feet under.
   “I’d have to agree with you on that one, yeah. You know anything about what makes her tick, Shintaro?…Whoa, hey, what’re you crying for?!”
   The look on Kano’s face as he looked down to peer at me all but screamed “Ooh, look what I found!!” He could be downright insidious like that.|
   I couldn’t say I was a fan of the way he breezily put his hand on my back, either.

   “J-just shut up! It’s nothing!!…What did you say about Ene?”
   I mentally switched gears to reply to Kano’s question. Maybe getting involved in the conversation would help clear the dark cloud above me a little.
   “Huh? Oh! Yeah, yeah, Ene! How’d you come to know that girl, huh?! Did you find her through one of those whadayacallits? You know, those ‘casual encounters’ sites?!”
   “No! Of course not! I don’t really know why, but since a while back, she’s just been living in my computer…I don’t know who she is or where she came from. She won’t tell me anything, even when I ask her.”
   That failed to answer any of Kano’s queries, but he nodded in approval nonetheless.
   “I see…So it’s, like, one of those things, huh? You kept pestering Ene about her private past, and then she got angry about it. Right…?”
   “No! What’re you even asking me?! I don’t remember saying anything like that! I don’t care about her past. If she doesn’t wanna talk about it…”

   I poked at Kano for his utterly misunderstanding the point. “Hey, just joking, just joking!” he said as he guffawed to himself and slapped my back.
   How could I describe this feeling? It’s like if you joined this school club, and one of the guys running it is such a pain in the ass around you that you wind up leaving the club in the space of a few days. Exactly like that.
   “Hey, hey, let’s try not to make this an argument…Oh, you’re almost out of water, Shintaro! Let me go buy some more for you!”
   I didn’t notice until he pointed it out, but the bottle of water I carried was almost empty.
   “Oh, that’s fine. I’ll go buy it myself…”
   It’d bother me to get cared for like this all day, so I tried to stand up, only to be pulled back down by Seto.
   “No, no, I don’t mind! Just try to get a little rest, okay? I wanted to get a drink for myself besides.”
   He flashed a warm smile, like he was acting out some lame soft-drink ad, and hurried off.
   “Hey, wait! At least let me…give you some money…”
   I hurriedly took my wallet out of my pocket, but Seto, already a decent distance away, waved at me and shouted, “I’ll get it from you later!” before disappearing into the crowd.
   “That’s Seto for you, huh? Always running at full blast.”
   Kano let out a long, unhurried yawn and crossed his arms behind his head again.
   I fell silent, not particularly interested in further conversation. If I spoke to him, he’d probably use that as the seed for yet another massive gabfest. That game was getting seriously old to me by now, so I wanted to avoid communicating with him as much as possible if I could.

   That, in turn, reminded me of yesterday, when we were both sitting next to each other as hostages. Even in a life-threatening situation, Kano had been completely relaxed, much as he was now.
   Momo mentioned to me that everyone in the Mekakushi-dan was younger than I am.
   There was something childish, it had to be said, about the entire group taking an off day to visit a theme park.
   But given the way they dispatched those terrorists as a team, and given all the unique “abilities” each one apparently had, this was a lot more than just some clique of silly teens.

   —But what does this group even do? And why did they come together in the first place?

   They told me that, until Marie joined up, the group was only three people: Kido, Seto, and Kano.
   Now they were at seven, counting myself. And, except for myself, they all had some kind of special ability, or force, or whatever.
   Generally speaking, everyone in the group followed the orders of Kido, their boss.
   …Aaaand, that was about all I knew.
   Ene and Momo didn’t indicate to me that they cared much at all about this group’s activities, but given that they both had had severe deficiencies when it came to critical thought, I couldn’t rely on their judgment.

   With that in mind, the way we all joined this group of mystery kids and immediately hit it off without knowing anything previously struck me as oddly dangerous.

   It hadn’t been that long, but as much as I’ve interacted with them, they didn’t seem like bad people. Seeing them honestly and empathically take Momo’s side and worry about her “ability,” something I’d never been able to help her with, struck me as the makings of a true friendship.
   I didn’t want to face the prospect that the group’s chief mission was profiteering through some kind of illegal activity.

   There was also the fact that, for some unknown reason, the people in this gang knew an eerie amount about these “abilities.”
   Momo knew that she had started to stick out of the crowd a lot somewhere along the line, but neither she nor I knew exactly when this started to happen, nor what could have caused it.

   But the way they talked about it, it was almost as if they knew everything about her ability.
   And what does that mean about them? Who are they, anyway…?

   “Here ya go, Shintaro! One fresh water for you!”
   As I was lost in serious thought, trying to unravel the mystery of the Mekakushi-dan, Seto bounced a bottle of water straight off my neck.|
   “Yeeaagh!! You scared me! Eesh…You could’ve waited, you know! Didn’t you see how I was looking all serious and stuff?!”
   “Eh? Oh, well, sorry about that. You just kinda left yourself wide open and all, so…”
   Seto flashed me a beaming, totally guileless smile and raised a thumb into the air.
   “Wide open? What are you, an MMA fighter?! Ugh, now I’ve completely forgotten what I wa thinking about. Ergh…ah, well. Anyway…”
   I now felt a deep, overwhelming sinking feeling in my stomach, as intense as my thinking process a moment ago. I’m probably not well suited for being the “grimdark” member of the gang.
   “Aw, c’mon, Shintaro! Gotta enjoy yourself while you’re here, right? How ’bout I join you in a little roller-coaster training session?”
   I had no idea what indicated to him that there was any chance I’d take him up on the offer, but for some reason, his eyes were blazing like a gasoline fire.
   Kano, meanwhile, muttered, “You need to train for that by the time you hit eighteen…?” before breaking into a spasm of loud laughter.
   “Forget it! I’m not riding that thing again. Not inthis life, anyway…You don’t have to hang out with me or anything, though. Go do whatever you like…”
   I concluded to myself that nothing good would happen to me as long as I stuck with these guys. But he was right. I made it this far. Might as well enjoy a little “me” time while I’m here.
   But hang on. Ene was over on Momo’s phone right now. If I had any chance to be truly by mysel for a change…

   “—This is it!”

   The moment it crossed my lips, my mind suddenly burned with the overpowering desire to be alone.
   As it should. When you think about it, I’ve been constantly, constantly pestered by Ene this whole time. I haven’t had a true moment to myself in ages.
   In fact, maybe I should take this chance to spread my wings and focus fully on myself. The opportunity was here.
   My mind made up, I leaped off of the bench.
   Kano twitched upward in surprise, eyeing me suspiciously.
   “Hmm? What’s up? What’s got into you all of a sudden, Shintaro? Having a heart attack?”
   “What? No! Why would I have that? I just thought I’d wander around a bit by myself! Alone Sorry! See you!”
   With that, I briskly walked off and waded my way into the crowd.
   Jostling my way through the waves of people, I kept going until I was reasonably sure I was out o sight.

   I did it…! I managed to snare some time completely alone, and in the most unexpected of places.
   Ah, how long had it been since I enjoyed any truly private time like this?
   Thanks to Ene, every moment of my life that I didn’t spend bathing or on the toilet was spent in constant fear of something.
   If I lay down to sleep, she’d jar me awake. If I went on the net, she’d put up obstacles in my way If I tried visiting some of the “gentlemen’s sites” I was fond of, she tattled on me to my sister…

   —But today, I had finally been released from my curse.

   I resisted the urge to scream “Woo-hooooooooo!!” with all my might as I took another look around.
   With a theme park like this, surrounded by natural beauty on all sides, it’d be easy to find someplace to take a nice nap or something. Wait—if she’s not around, I could even play around on the net all I want!

   Ahhhh…Heaven on earth. I’m so happy I came here today…!
   The world is truly full of wonder. And this is going to be one damn wonderful day. I could feel it.
   This must be a present handed down from God above to reward all the effort I’ve gone through to

—

   “Uh, hey…”

   Hey, quiet down. I’m really enjoying myself right now. Don’t talk to me.

   Ahhhh, what a brilliant day this—!
   “Hello? Can you hear me, Shintaro?”

—Being referred to by name immediately brought me back down to earth.
The sheer sense of release I felt had almost made me take a step into a dangerous world, but that voice was kind enough to stop me from proceeding any further.
   …Who was it?
   I swiveled my head around, only to find a girl with instantly recognizable fluffy white hair standing in front of me, tears in her eyes.
   “…Why are you ignoring me…?”
   “Huh? Ah, ahhhhh, sorry, sorry! Umm…hey, Marie, no crying, okay? Okay?”
   Marie was looking extremely out of sorts. Was this just because I didn’t respond to her at first? I apologized quickly enough, but Marie’s face remained offput, tears still gathering in her eyes.
   “W-what’re you looking so angry for…? Is there something wrong?” Marie gave a single nod in response, pointing to the right of me.
   There stood a gigantic sign reading THE GREAT ICE LABYRINT,Hone of the theme park’s main attractions. Next to it loomed a massive building made up to resemble a frozen castle.
   “That? What about that? …Did you want to go in?”
   Marie feverishly nodded the moment I finished speaking.
   …To be honest, all I wanted to do was tell her “Well, get going, then” and walk off. Why do I have to have my precious free time eaten up by this children’s attraction?
   At least, the me from a little while ago would’ve done that.
   But! If I said that to this kid right now, she’d probably burst into tears.
   …And I knew what would follow after that. It was simple. To any bystander, I’d look like some deranged deviant about to commit a terrible act of violence on this poor, defenseless girl.

   I could picture the security guards carting me off already. The ensuing news reports would be plastered with my face, not to mention the keywords “dropout,” “unemployed,” “shut-in”…
   And once things went that far, I was as good as dead in this society.
   There’d be no talking my way out of it.

   “…All right, Marie. Would that make you happy, if we went in together?”
   “Yeah! I wanna go in! Can you come with me?”
   Marie’s face instantly brightened up, her clouded pink eyes now sparkling like flares as they took me in.
   It goes without saying that the sight was enough to make the heart of Shintaro, man, shut-in, and above all virgin, skip a beat.
   Dammit…I never had a chance.

   But, luckily for me, I already boasted a completely full skill set.
   There were just no free slots left to insert the “lolicon” skill into, sadly.
   So much for that upgrade.
   We’ll talk again once my “virgin” skill times out, though…

   —And so, with a guilt-free conscience, I joined Marie in line for the Great Ice Labyrinth
   It wasn’t that popular an attraction, it turned out, and judging by the size of the line, it wouldn’t take too long to get in.
   But something still bothered me. Ever since I…had lost…uh, my lunch, the women in our group had been sticking to themselves, hadn’t they?
   They hadn’t gotten into a…fight, had they? Because if they did, one look at Marie was all it took to believe there were a lot of tears going around.
   “Hey, Marie, where’s everyone else? How come you’re all by yourself?”
   “Me? Oh, uh, well, we took another ride on the roller coaster after that, but I got separated because I was standing in another line.”
   Marie looked away from me as she spoke, staring at the pamphlet she picked up at the entrance instead.
   Looking down at the pamphlet, I saw that she was drawing circles with a red pen on the attractions she wanted to visit.
   …I-I had no idea she could be so proactive like that. She wanted to hit every ride in the park, even if she had to go solo.
   In my mind, I pictured her wailing “I don’t wanna go on that unless we all go together” and so forth. Witnessing the truth shattered that image pretty quickly. It was a bit of a shock.
   “Oh? Well, Momo’s safe with Kido, I guess…but why’re you so intent on me joining you on this attraction?”
   Marie, still deeply focused on the pamphlet, didn’t reply. Instead she pointed at a sign near the entrance.
   Following her finger with my eyes, I saw a notice posted reading COUPLES ONLY. Ah. Makes sense. Some of the attractions weren’t meant for solo visitors, I guess.
   I figured something like this had to be reason for the invite…but, again, learning the truth was still a bit of a shock.

   The line slowly kicked into gear, and by the time we were next up, even I was starting to get a little excited.
   I couldn’t guess how many years it’s been since my last visit to an amusement park.
   …It goes without saying, too, that this is my first chance to visit an attraction with a member of the opposite sex.
   I took a glance down at Marie. She had already closed the pamphlet, unable to hide her excitemen at having the castle walls within arm’s reach.
   “This…this is gonna be a big labyrinth, right, Shintaro? We’d better drink some tea right now, just in case, right…?!”
   “Huh? Well, sure. Just in case, huh?”
   Marie took a bottle out from the purse on her shoulder, gave me a nod, and started to drink.
   She’s got a lot of quirks, but I guess she’s really a pure, honest girl at heart…oh, but still…
   Dammit…! Get out of my mind, you stupid “lolicon” skill! I said that I didn’t need you!!

   “Next couple, please!”
   The booth attendant opened the door to the attraction.
   Chilly air from inside burst out from the door, landing on our faces.

   While I was distracted, I guess our turn came up.
   I shook away the cobwebs and looked down at Marie. Just as I expected, she was freaking out, too excited to even figure out how to close her water bottle.
   “Whoa, Marie. You can put the cap on once we go inside. Don’t want to keep the people behind us waiting…”
   “All, all right…”
   Marie, attention successfully diverted, zoomed through the door.
   I followed after, only to find myself rewarded with a surprisingly well-designed and convincing ice maze.
   The corridors, lined with icicles large and small, made it feel like some kind of RPG dungeon something from another world.
   The frigid air around us, chillier than what I was picturing, quickly cooled down our sunbaked bodies.
   It had to be below zero, by my estimate.
   “Whoa! Pretty cold, huh? I know how hot you get all the time, Marie, so it must…”
   The unbelievable sight before me stopped me midsentence.
   We had only been inside for a few seconds, but Marie was already shivering, the blood drained from her face, her hand still on the bottle.

   “It…it-t-t-t’s…c-c-c-collldddd…I’m g-g-gonna d-d-d-dieeeee…”
   “…Uh, what did you even come in here for?”

   I was dumbfounded. That’s…really how cold she gets?
   So why did she even choose this attraction in the first place, then?
   “I…I, I didn’t th-th-think it’d be this c-c-cold…”
   “……”
   We hadn’t even rounded the first corner of the maze, but in her own way, Marie was already about to pass the finish line.
   “Oh, come on, it’s not cold enough to freeze you to death that fast! Here, let me have that bottle, okay? I don’t want you dropping it on the ground.”
   The bottle in Marie’s shivering hand was liable to slip away at any moment.
   The cap was still open, meaning the contents would all spill out the moment it hit the floor.
   And with the AC cranked up as high as it was, any liquid spilled on the floor would freeze on the spot, causing huge headaches for the other visitors.
“O-okay. Th-th-thank…ah…ahh-choooo!!”
   But with Marie’s mighty sneeze, the tea in the bottle rained down anyway—right on my head, bent slightly forward as I stooped over to grab the bottle.
   “—Gaaaaahhhhh!!”
   I jumped back in fright at the unexpected turn of events.
   Getting doused with cold tea in this temperature transformed the maze into a frozen hell in a matter of moments.
   “Wh-wh-what did you…Ahhh…ah…sssssso c-c-c-cold…”
   My entire body began to shiver in response to the sudden drop in internal temperature.
   “Ee-e-eek…! I, I’m sorry, I’m sorry! Uh, something to wipe with, something to wipe with…”
   Like an old woman looking for a breath mint in her purse, Marie fished out a virtual arsenal of random junk from her pouch. I could feel the tea absorbed by my hoodie start to freeze.

   “Aaaaaaahggghghhh!! My hoodie…My hoooooodiiiieeeee!!”
   “Agghh!! I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m…”

It was a disaster. Marie and I had to give up on the maze in the end, but once we were out the door, she disappeared before I could even yell at her.
   “Man, she’s a lot different from how I pictured her at first. A lot more…well, you know…”
   I had no doubt she was already getting worked up all over again in anticipation for the next attraction.

   Left alone once more, I wandered around the park in search of something to drink.
   That little unexpected anomaly had traumatized me, yes, but now I could fully enjoy my free, unhindered private time for—

   “Sh-Shintaro…Just who I needed…! G-get over here a sec…”

   Someone called my name again just as I passed by a crepe stand. It was a uniquely husky voice one I could identify well enough without turning around.
   “What is it, Kido…? Whoa, where’s Momo? If she isn’t with you…”

   Kido was there, out of breath and sweating profusely.
   She had taken the hood off her head—it was much too hot for that right now—and her long hair was free to waver in the wind.
   But Momo was nowhere to be seen. Without Kido, her “ability” would make huge crowds form wherever she went…

   “Yeah. Kisaragi’s kind of gotten herself into some trouble…Please! I need you to lend a hand. Just come with me…!”
   Momo, in trouble? I could pretty well imagine what sort of trouble Momo might get herself into but what could I do to help?
   If there was a mob of people surrounding her somewhere in the park, I don’t think my presence would contribute much…
   But Kido looked like she was at the end of her rope. Her face was hopeful—nothing like what she normally wore, as if I truly was the last person she could count on.

   …Well, so be it. Let’s head over there and see what’s going on.
   Besides, if someone says to me, “I need you to lend a hand,” I can never really find it in me to refuse.

—It took about three minutes for Kido to lead me through the park.

   We stood in front of another attraction, the Haunted Grotesque Dollhouse.
   It was the classic amusement park haunted house, replete with gravestones, axes, and all the other standard props lining the mansion’s outer walls.
   The screams you occasionally heard from inside—presumably from one of the visitors—only added to the creepy atmosphere.

   “Uh, so…what?”
   I sighed.

   “Wh-what? Shintaro, I can’t hear you. Speak up!”

   It took ten minutes to get through the line.
   With three groups left in front of us, Kido put on her earbuds.
   Afterward, she alternated between muttering something or other and tightly closing her eyes, as if trying to remind herself of something.

   “What, are you scared, or…?”

   I relayed the conclusion I had arrived at to Kido, raising my voice enough to ensure she heard me She arched her eyebrows upward.
   “What? Don’t be stupid! It’s not that or anything! It’s just that the screaming from the other visitors is annoying me! I-I’m not gonna let some dumb kiddie ride scare me…!”
   Kido refused to admit it, but the way she made herself red in the face with her fervent defense made her defense seem less than credible.
   “Ugh…So, if I have this right, you and Momo went into the haunted house together, but due to ‘circumstances,’ as you put it, you left by yourself, and due to other ‘circumstances,’ you can’t go back in alone. And since she’ll attract crowds if you aren’t around, she’s stuck in there. Right?”
   “Y-yes! Right! Glad I could count on you, Shintaro. You’re so quick on the uptake…”
   She snorted a little as she spoke, in an attempt to look cool that, in this situation, honestly couldn’t have been less convincing.
   “So what’re these ‘circumstances,’ then? What reason would you have to not go in a haunted house besides being too scared to—”
   “I swear, that’s not it! That’s not it, but…but look, I can’t tell you what’s in there, okay?!”
   That was the most I could extract from Kido after multiple attempts. She had no apparent interes in giving a straight answer.
   Considering the way the boss’s shoulders shook a little bit whenever the attendant at the front door shouted, “Next, please!” I doubted she was useful for much of anything right now.
   She was too scared to go in by herself, so she was looking for someone to join her.
   I could empathize. Even if she made herself invisible, that wouldn’t help much inside a haunted house.
   It’d hide whatever screaming she did inside, at least, but going solo didn’t seem like a feasible solution right now.

   Either way, as long as she refused to admit how scared she was, I didn’t have much right to try and convince her otherwise. So I decided to play along.

   “Looks like we’re up next, boss. Are you ready for this?”
   I tried asking Kido in front of the door, but she had already turned up the volume enough that I could hear the music where I was standing. Further conversation was going to be impossible.
   The attendant’s motions seemed to be enough of an indicator for her that we were next, though.
   As we approached the entrance, I noticed that Kido’s breathing began to grow more and more ragged.

   The attendant opened the door, revealing a room littered with ominous-looking European dolls and blood-spattered antiques—an even more classical approach than what I saw outside.
   The moment we laid eyes upon the scene, the sense of fear I had kept a tight lid on up to now began to swell within me.
   Kido was already near tears adjacent to me, but I was in no position to chide her. My own eyes were probably starting to cloud up, too.

   The door to the eerie manor creaked itself shut as the house welcomed our apprehensive, trembling selves with open arms.
   Once the door was closed, we were shut off from all outside light, the scene ominously lit by flickering candles and lamps.
   A chill air, cold in a different way from the ice maze earlier, cooled our bodies up from our legs.
   We were both overwhelmed by the scene, finding ourselves already all but unable to press forward.

   “Huh…huh. They did a pretty good job…huh, Kido…?”
   I turned around, holding my arm steady against the trembling fingers of the girl next to me, only to find Kido’s eyes shut tightly as she attempted to lose herself in the world of her music. I plucked the earbuds out of her head and confiscated them, along with the music player in her pocket.

   “Aaghhh!! What’re you doing, Shintaro?! G-g-give it back, now!”
   “What are you, stupid? How are we supposed to find Momo if I can’t even talk to you?!”
   “I-I know that…but…”
   The earbudless Kido began to visibly shiver, like a newborn goat. The sight of the normally composed, above-it-all boss now reduced to sheer uselessness made things all the more anxious for me.
   But standing still wasn’t going to accomplish anything.
   If we wanted to get out of here quickly, we had to keep pushing our legs forward, nose to the grindstone.
   I somehow got myself off and walking, Kido following a step behind.
Thanks to the uniquely haunted house–like smells and soundtrack, the path we made slow yet steady progress through was, in a word, terrifying.
   The hanging scythes and portraits of headless dolls lining the hallway fanned the fear within us that those blades could come flying forward at any moment.
   I squinted, attempting to keep them out of sight as much as I could, and tried to crouch down as I continued.
   Kido copied my stance as she followed behind. It probably looked ridiculous, someone our age acting like this, but I didn’t care. We were fighting for our lives here.

   “…Hey, didn’t you already go through this once? You already know, like, what’s gonna come out and everything, right?”
   I turned around to look at Kido after realizing it, but she had her eyes shut and her hands against her ears, all but broadcasting that she didn’t want to talk right now.

   “Geez, you don’t have to ignore me,” I said as I extended a hand to Kido. The moment I did, one of the dolls tossed aside in the corridor began to speak.
   “Yeeaaagghhh!! What the hell?!”
   “The master of this mansion was a world-famous doll collector. But one day, he changed. He began inviting guests into his house…and murdering them so he could turn them into dolls! But I wonder if you’ll be able to make it out alive? Hee-hee-hee-hee-hee!!”

   I reeled backward, my heart about to leap out of my chest, and slumped down to the floor.
   You call that guy a murderer? I’m so delicate, I’m gonna die of shock thanks to your little performance long before I run into him.
   Kido, standing next to my slumped-over self, had an expression of relief on her face as she removed her hands from her ears and stared down at me piteously.
   “You…you had to have known about that…Is that why you covered your ears…?!”
   “Oh, um, sorry. I wanted to tell you, but I was too busy keeping my ears…uh, I mean, it’d be more fun if it was fresh for you, too, after all, so…”
   The sudden left turn Kido made midresponse did not go unnoticed.
   “Fun, my ass! You were freaking out and covering your ears!”
   “I-I’m not freaking out, okay?! I just happened to be…!”

   As she spoke, Kido noticed something in the distance, then quickly made her way deeper down the corridor.
  Has she experienced some sort of instantaneous freedom fromher anxieties? No, probably not. Judging by her behavior so far, she couldn’t be more freaking out right now.
   So, what…?
   As I thought it over, a terrible premonition began to haunt me.
   Slowing turning back the way we walked in from, I saw a group of people lumbering toward me, their clothes covered in blood, no doubt the hapless guests brutally murdered by the master of the house.

   “Aaaaaaaaahhhhh!! I’m sorry, I’m sorry! Please, let me go!!”

   With lightning-fast reflexes, I prostrated myself before the horde of zombies, then—reconsidering this tactic—sprang upward and sped away in the opposite direction. Where did those bastards come from?! I guess they were extras working for the haunted house, but their performance was so convincing, they left me literally begging for my life.
   I quickly caught up to Kido ahead of me, just in time to see her arm being grabbed by countless hands coming out from the wall. Her eyes had lolled almost all the way back inside her head.
   “Aaghh! L-let go! Stop it!”
   Kido was shouting at the top of her lungs, wholly forgetting that this was supposed to be entertainment.
   Once she did, the extras on the other side of the wall pulled their hands back.
   Good job, guys. Don’t come back again, please.

   “Huff…huff…Sorry about that, Shintaro. Thanks for the help…”
   “Yeah, how about you stop running away from me like that, all right?! That was really scary!”
   “Huh? Oh. Yeah, sorry. I just remembered this errand I had to run…”

   Kido awkwardly averted her eyes as she spoke.
   —Man, there’s something up with this girl. Talk about someone I can’t count on in a pinch.

   “So where did you get separated from Momo? Up ahead some more?”
   “…Uh, r-right around the next corner. I think…”

   Passing through the hands-in-the-wall zone, I turned the corner Kido pointed out, only to find the corridor ahead lined with large piles of coffins…The owner of this place turned his visitors into dolls, didn’t he?
   So what’s he even need coffins for, anyway?
   Of course, if I was going to start pointing out issues with this house, the zombies didn’t make much sense either. The hands popping out of the walls? Even more off-spec.
   There was a lot about this house you could make fun of, really. And look at the two of us, about ready to pee our pants in the middle of it. Putting it out of my mind, I moved onward. Behind one o the mountains of coffins on the right, I spotted a flash of brown hair.

   “…There she is!”

   Kido took several steps backward in fear.
   “Th-th-there what is?! W-where is she? Hey! Shintaro!”
   “It’s not a ghost or anything! I mean that Momo’s hiding in here!”

   I pointed it out, giving Kido a chance to see Momo’s hair for herself. She breathed a sigh of relief.
   “Oh, it’s Kisaragi…Well, good thing we finally tracked her down. Thanks for your help, Shintaro.”
   Kido stuck her hands in the pockets of her parka in a failed attempt to play it cool. It seemed like a gag by this point.

   “B-boss…”
   We heard Momo’s voice croak out from inside the coffin. I imagined she was waiting for Kido to come back for her before she dared emerge from it.
   …I wondered what she was waiting for. She wasn’t that far away, and besides, it was only the three of us in here.
   “Hey, Kisaragi!” Kido said as she approached the coffins. “It’s me! Sorry I left you behind. Let’s hurry up and get…!!”
   One look at Momo after she turned around was enough to make Kido faint on the spot.
   I was pretty surprised, too, looking on from afar, but I figure I deserve a medal for not screaming out loud, at least.

   “Uh…huh? Boss?! Did, did I frighten you too much…?”
   Momo’s face was splattered with blood as she climbed out of the coffin, an axe embedded in her skull.
   What’s worse, she was actually trying to give Kido a hug in that makeup. In Kido’s eyes, she mus have been a possessed monster ready to pounce on her.
   “Momo, are you crazy…?”
   She turned toward me as I approached. The look was even scarier up close.
   “Whoa! You actually went in here, bro? You’re such a fraidy-cat usually…”
   Momo honestly looked surprised underneath all the fake blood covering her face.
   “I can handle a stupid amusement park haunted house, Momo! But what’s with that? Why’re you all done up like that?”
   “Oh, this? Well, you know, the boss left me behind, so I hid behind those coffins, but then I found this axe prop, so I figured I’d take advantage and give the boss a scare once she came back. So I pu on this makeup, and I’ve been waiting here since. I didn’t think it’d be that effective…”
   I have to hand it to my sister. She’s so scary, she can make the boss faint at a single glance.
   But an unconscious Kido meant that we were now no closer to getting out of here.

   “Well, now what’re you gonna do?! We’re still stuck in here!”

   “Oh, no, you’re right! Oh, man…We need to wake up the boss…”
   Momo began to violently jostle Kido’s body.
   “No, I mean, get that junk off your face first, Momo! She’s gonna faint all over again if you don’t!” “Oh! Right!”
   Realizing the critical flaw behind her plan, Momo dove back into the mound of coffins.
   If I left Kido here, it’d probably cause a huge scene once the next group of visitors showed up. There wasn’t much I could do. Reluctantly, I dragged Kido into the area behind the coffins.
   Crouching down, Momo removed the axe, took out a wet napkin from her purse to remove the makeup, and began daubing it on her face.
   I sat down next to her and sighed.
   The moment gave me time to reflect over how my much-anticipated alone time never materialized in the end. So much for any privacy I deserved.

   “Man, this is really exhausting…”
   “I’m sorry…I didn’t mean to get everyone worked into a frenzy over me.”
   Momo, her face clear of makeup, gave me an apologetic look as she took out her phone.
   The wallpaper was set to a photo she took of the entire gang this morning to commemorate the resurrection of her phone. After she resized it for wallpaper purposes, though, I was cut off at the far edge of the screen, which didn’t exactly fill me with glee.
   “Wow, I spent a lot of time in here…but we’ve got some time left to have fun, right?”
   Momo put her phone away and began to shake Kido’s adjacent body once more.
   “Boss! Boss! Please, wake up! The amusement park’s gonna close on us!”
   “Nnn…gh…Huh?! Kisaragi! What am I doing in here?”
   Kido’s eyes flew open. She swiveled her head to take in her surroundings, apparently not remembering how Momo shocked her into unconsciousness earlier.
   “Well…uh…I dunno, you just kinda fainted all of a sudden?”
   I flashed a quick wink at Momo as she spoke, deliberately averting her eyes from Kido as she did.

   “Really…? Well, whatever. At least you’re here now, Kisaragi. Let’s hurry up and get outta here.”
   Kido’s pupils turned from black to red as she spoke.
   “I’m setting it up so that just Momo’s invisible. You and I need to keep going, Shintaro.”
   Turning my head toward where Momo was crouching down, I realized she was already gone.
   If I spent a few moments to focus on the exact site, I felt like I could see the faint contours of he body, at least. But even so, that was one useful tool Kido had at her fingertips.

   What kind of tools do I have that would compare? The power to go to a public bathhouse and not be embarrassed out of my skull?

   Regardless, we headed back out into the corridor. Our mission: to reach the exit in one piece.
   I could feel the onrush of depression as I realized it meant my heart would soon be working overtime again.
   The moment I set foot in the hallway, I suddenly felt a strange sense that something wasn’t quite right.
It was something that had taken up residence in my mind ever since we ran into Momo. But once gave it some thought, I immediately realized the cause.

   No. Wait a second. If that was the case, does that mean this entire afternoon was…?

   A bitter chill ran down my spine as it dawned on me. I decided to bounce the idea off the already- trembling Kido.
   I stopped in the middle of the corridor. She followed suit.
   “…Hmm? What’s up, Shintaro? Let’s get going.”
   Yep…I hated to think about it, but my hunch was probably right.
   In a way, I had already unconsciously confirmed it earlier.
   “Hey…Kido? After Ene rode the roller coaster…where’d she go after that?”
   Kido flashed me a confused expression.

   “Ene? She left right afterward. She said she’d be following you.”

  —As she spoke, the phone in my pocket vibrated for two quick bursts, as if chuckling to itself.

I was seated by myself on a bench.

   “Aaaaaaahggghghhh!! My hoooooodiiiieeeee!!”

   That haunted house was pretty frightening at first, but the second half wasn’t that bad at all.
   Yep. Just a plain old amusement-park attraction. Nothing too rough.

   After we escaped, Momo and Kido went off by themselves to round up the rest of our gang promising to contact me later on.
   The two other males in our group were one thing, but considering Marie probably didn’t have her own phone, I figured they’d need a fair amount of time.

   “Aaaaaaaaahhhhh!! I’m sorry, I’m sorry! Please, let me go!!”

   In the end, the private time I had lusted after so badly was nothing but an illusion.
   That’s what I get for trying to spread my wings a little…This is just pitiful.

   “Ngh…Oh, man, I don’t feel too good…Urk…urggh…”
   “—Aaagghh!! Stop it! Stop playing that back!!”

   My patience finally met its match. After I shouted at my phone, a blue-haired, twin-ponytailed girl appeared on-screen, flailing her legs in the air as she rolled around on the floor laughing.

   “Ooooh, my stomach hurts…! Aw, I’m really sorry, master. But, I mean, you’ve been giving me all this hilarious material today, so…Bah hah hah hah!!”
   “I’m not your ‘material,’ Ene! Ughh…If I knewyou were here with me, I would’ve sealed up my mouth with duct tape…”

   “Yeeaaaggghhhh!! Aaaaaarrrgghh!! You scared me!! What the hell?! I’m sorry, I’m sorry!!…Oh, man, I don’t feel too good…”

   Here I was, already cast forlornly against the rocks of despair, and meanwhile Ene was cracking herself up building a soundboard of my greatest screams to play around with.
   She had been inside my phone ever since I was speaking with Kano and Seto on that bench earlier She had taken advantage of this to record audio and video of every lowlight of the day, and now it was the latest plaything she was addicted to.

   “Oh, man, I can hardly breathe any longer…Whew! Anyway, master! Did you have fun today?”
   The question was innocent enough, the smile as her head occupied the entire screen happy enough, but I couldn’t sense a trace of goodwill on her face.
   “…Yeah…thanks to you, it was the worst day of my life. Thanks a bunch.”
   I had grown used to this treatment. I fully understood that flying into a rage would do nothing to improve my lot in life.
   But I still gripped the handset with so much force, I’m surprised I didn’t crack the display.
   “Oh, no, no need to thank me! Besides…I haven’t had a chance to play around at all today! We still got a lot of spots to visit, you know!”
   “Huhh?! Come on, you have to be tired out by now, right?! Let’s just go home…”
   “Nothing doing! I haven’t even had the slightest iota of fun! You promised that you’d be together with me, master. Don’t think that I’ve forgotten that!”
   Ene puffed up her face, the same way she always did when attempting to threaten me.
   I’ve been through this pattern before. She gets all mad, I say whatever comes to mind to try to deal with it, and I wind up paying for it big-time later on.
   One time, a while ago, she invited me to play this online game with her.
   My intention was to ignore her request from start to finish, but immediately afterward, I found my computer infested with viruses of every possible kind. She agreed to root them out, as long as I agreed to play with her…and pay for whatever extra in-game items she felt like she needed.

   …Contemplating all the crap I always have to deal with after every decision, it’d probably be smarter to make sure she doesn’t get angry at me in the first place.
   But, man, what a pain in the…

   “…If you don’t take me around the park with you, I’ll show your folder of innermost secrets to your sister…”
   “All righty! I am pumped to have some fun!! What should we tackle first, huh? Anything without a lot of G-forces is A-OK with me!”
   Well, time to see this through to the end. I stood up off the bench and looked at Ene. She looked eminently satisfied, gloating in the wake of her latest victory.
   It was a fact, though, that I hadn’t yet really enjoyed my first planned outing in years, either.
   Having to share it with her pained me, but hey, we were in an amusement park.
   I didn’t really mind checking out some of the attractions a bit longer.

   “Aw, that’s great to hear, master! What should we start with…? Oh! How about that thing? The one where you sit on a chair and blast away at aliens! You’re really good at shooters and stuff, right, master?”
   “Uh? How do you know that? Have we ever played a shooter together?”
   “Oh, no? Guess not. Well, like it matters. I know everything about you, master! Let’s just get going already, okay?”
   Ene whipped out a finger to navigate for me.
   “All right…Whatever. You’re the boss. Just try not to cause a scene, okay…?”
   “You got it!”
   Ene was all smiles as she answered.
   She was utterly self-centered,
   completely wicked,
   and absolutely impossible to get a grasp of.

   Something about the observation made a memory from the past reach the tip of my tongue, but I trundled it away before giving it any more thought.
   Right now, my mind was already fully occupied trying to deal with this girl and her high- maintenance ego.

   —How much fun can we have before sunset?
   I held my mobile phone like a compass and started walking in the direction Ene pointed.

Previous: Headphone Actor IV
Title: Kagerou Daze, Vol2_ Headphone Actor
Next: Afterword

HEADPHONE ACTOR IV

2022-07-18T14:11:00.006+07:00

Did my last words make it through?
   I no longer had any way of knowing, but they must have. It felt like they did.

   I felt oddly strange.
   As if I was flying through the sky, or was suspended in a body of lukewarm water…
   Indeed, as if I had just woken up from something or other.
   My near-exhausted breath, my legs racked with pain, the sense of drowsiness that seemed to forever frustrate me…I didn’t feel any of it now.

   Did I die, I wonder?
   Is this seemingly infinite darkness what the afterlife is supposed to be…?
   I had imagined something a bit more like a fairy tale, somehow. God must’ve fallen asleep at the wheel.
   He could have at least turned the lights on for me…
   “Ugh, this is making no sense at all to…Huh?! Ah! Ah, ahhh…! Wow, I can talk. Nngh…and I… have a body, too.”

   I patted down my body from head to toe, but it seemed I still retained full control of my body and voice.

   “Okay, so where am I, then? It doesn’t seem like I’m locked up in a box or anything…Was I jus having some kind of weird dream up to now…?”

   I suddenly recalled my dramatic, frenzied memories from before.
   The city, in a state of chaos.
   The sky, crashing to the ground.
   The voice, my second “self,” that suddenly rang out between my ears…
   The mere recollection brought goose bumps to my skin.
   Then I realized that I was capable of having goose bumps after all. Weird.
   Why did all that bizarre stuff happen to me, anyway?
   I can speak, at least, but it didn’t feel like I was breathing at all.
   I can touch things with my body, but I don’t feel any warmth from them.
   If this was proof that I’m dead, maybe I just had to accept it and move on, but there was one thing just couldn’t understand.

   What had happened to me before all this, before I woke up in that hallway?
   I’d experienced that feeling multiple times before now.
   The feeling that I’ve woken up after suddenly falling asleep.

   There were absolutely no memories I could recall from before I found myself in the hallway.
   I had probably lost consciousness due to my “illness” before waking up there.
   This had happened to me time and time again, so it wasn’t anything particularly surprising…but things were a lot different after I woke up this time.

   I had never experienced any of these dreamlike events before. And I certainly never found myself wandering in utter darkness.

   “Nnngh!! This is making no sense at all! Where the hell am I?! Hellooooo?! Is anyone around?!”
   I don’t know if my shouting had triggered it or not, but suddenly, a square object resembling a TV screen floated up from the darkness.
   The screen showed a seemingly infinite number of monitors, as well as a ceiling lined with wires that seemed to snake across each other like living creatures.

   “W-whoa! Where’d this come from…? What’s up with this stuff? Are those TVs?”

   Approaching it to take a closer look, I realized it was actually a dark room, something resembling a laboratory.

   Every one of the individual monitors displayed a numerical readout of times and parameters and so on.
   Perhaps this square frame I was watching the room through was just another monitor inside this lab.
   Not that I had any way of confirming even that.

   Total darkness surrounded me. The room I could see through the square, windowlike screen was the only thing left in my world.

   I still couldn’t help but wonder what was going on in the world from before. I was struck with the impression that the world I lived in had collapsed like some papier-mâché model.
   And in the end, I still had no solid idea why I felt so driven to communicate…whatever it was…to whoever it was.

   “Hmmm…It’s too dark to see much…but I think someone’s talking?”

   My perception of the room was limited, the light from the displays the only thing illuminating it.
   But, while only softly, I could make out some sound from my square window as well.

   “…ze One looks like a success, anyway. Hah-hah! I wasn’t expecting results like this on the first try. The year I spent preparing for this certainly seems worth it now!”

   The voice, audible only by bringing my ear right up to the screen, belonged to someone I knew very well.
   “…Mr. Tateyama? What’s he doing in there…?”
   I changed position to peer as deeply into the window as I could, straining to see who the voice belonged to.
   The volume bumped itself up just a bit, enough to make the sound fully clear and discernible.
   The dimly lit room, as well, gradually brightened up to the point where I could see everything clearly, as if my eyes had grown used to my surroundings.
   But what I saw unfolded before me was a sight I had trouble believing.

   Deeper inside the darkened room was a large device, something resembling an X-ray machine.
   There was a white, circular gate put in place over a sort of bed, neatly straddling the middle of it.
   I saw several buttons, as well as a readout that looked like a heart monitor without any needle. Cords snaking out from the gate had been attached to the body lying on the bed from head to toe, as if plugging in to outlets previously installed on it.

   “Wait, is that…me…?!”
   The person there had to be me. It was in a white outfit, like the clothes you’re given in a hospital, and a headphonelike machine was placed on its head.
   “W-what’s going on here?! I’m supposed to be right here…!”

   Then I realized.
   This isn’t what happens when you become, like, a ghost, is it?
   My consciousness is definitely right here, with me. But there’s no mistaking my body, either, and that’s on that bed over there.
   Which means…

   “Oh, no way, am I really dead…? Oh, man…”

   I fell to the floor at the shocking sight.
   Then, ridiculously, I mulled over the notion that I could still do something like “fall to the floor” in this…situation I found my consciousness in.
   How could I have ever known that I would become a ghost—something you never would’ve convinced me to believe in, no matter how hard you tried?
   Maybe that girl who paid the classroom a visit during the school festival was really a ghost after all, then.
   But that guy with her said it was “psychic powers” or something, didn’t he?
   Either way, I was forced to accept that the supernatural really did exist after all.

   But what was more remarkable was how calmly I seemed to take all this.
   I was surprised, yes, but my death apparently didn’t mean I was rubbed out of existence.
   I was right here, thinking to myself and perceiving the world around me, so there was no doubt that I…existed, at least.

   “…But what should I do now, though? That was definitely Mr. Tateyama’s voice. He’s got to be somewhere in there. Maybe I could get him to notice me somehow and help me out…”
   I brought my attention back to thoroughly examining the room. I thought I heard the voice from my right side before, but…
   I pushed my face into the square window as closely as I could, doing my level best to gain a view of the right side of the room.
   That rewarded me with a clearer view toward the right, previously a blind spot from my original position.
   There was an enormous water tank…or, really, a blown-up version of the formaldehyde tubes you see in science class. Mr. Tateyama was standing in front of it, but I was stunned less by his presence and more by what I saw inside the tank.

   “H-Haruka…?!”

   I thought I saw Haruka for a moment, but the figure inside the tank was different from the Haruka knew.
   Just like myself on the bed, tubes were attached to his body as he floated aimlessly, head down… but his hair was white, his eyes a light shade of pink.

   “Is…is that Konoha? The persona Haruka made for himself? But…but why…?!”

   My mind had ground itself to a halt upon experiencing all these unreal revelations, exposed one after the other.
   Why was I dead?
   Why is Konoha over there?
   And what is my teacher even doing…?
   I was still having trouble gathering my thoughts when Mr. Tateyama’s voice rang out from beyond the window.

   “Anyway, the ‘key’ is now firmly in my grasp. Now I can open up the next ‘Kagerou Daze.’ But Konoha…you still haven’t…”

   Suddenly he was cut off, as the square window erupted into what looked like a vast sandstorm.
   I put a hand on the window, wondering what it was. Then I saw that the silhouette of my hand, illuminated by the dim light, was gradually crumbling away at the edges, like a video image dissolving into a blocky mess.

   “Ahhh…! Yaagghhh!! W-what’s going on?! My body’s gonna…!”

   The next moment, the word REMOVE flashed across all the countless displays on the other side of the window.

   “Re…move…? What, right here?”

   Not aware of what the message meant exactly, I quickly decided it was ordering me to remove my clothes. I did so as much as I could possibly muster, given that my life apparently depended on it.

    —But nothing changed at all.
   So what was that order all about…?!

   “Nooooo! This isn’t doing anything at all! Ahhh, my feet are gone…!! And my chest…Not that had much down there in the first place, but…”

   As if a bystander in someone else’s dream, I looked on as my body dissolved before me.
   I was now completely baffled.
   But, probably, this meant I was going away. For good this time.
   I suppose this means I’m not going to wake up in bed at home, in mortal danger of being late for school again…No, probably not.
   As my mind dwelled on silly details like that, my body wiped itself away to the point of almost complete extinction.
   I whispered, “Oh, God!” to myself helplessly, but it was all for naught. The next moment—

   There was nothing but darkness before my eyes.

   “…Ah, my poor girl. You’ve already lost your body. What further point is there to living now?”

   Oh, great, my body really has gone away…I mean, I figured it had, but still.

   “Even if you went back, there’s no place left in the world for you, you know.”

   Well…well, I’ll make one, then. I can carve a niche for myself anywhere I feel like. It’ll be fine.

   “Well, well, someone’s acting a tad too big for her britches, isn’t she? That’s how badly you want to get out of here, is it?”

   Of…of course! I mean, I have no idea at all what’s happening to me here, so…

“Well, girl, if you want to get out…then open your eyes.”

—Wha?!…Like, who are you, even?

   The moment I attempted to ask, my eyes began to grow searing hot, as if they were burning in their sockets.
   At the same time, a bolt of lightning crashed across the darkened world.

   I was blinded for a moment. The next thing I knew—there was a login screen in front of me.
   To me, this was the most familiar sight of all.

   “—Huh! This must have been what he meant, I guess. Okay, then…Better find a place to live, fo starters. Someplace where I won’t be too bored would be nice.”
   With my usual speed, I typed my password into the screen.

   WELCOME

   With the relaxed joy of someone who has just awakened to full consciousness, I dove into the sea of text.
   The blue compass began to spin wildly. A sky of zeroes and ones spread out above me, dotted here and there with birds of pure lightning.

   —And thus, the tale of my long, long journey through the world of computers began.

Previous: Yuukei Yesterday III
Title: Kagerou Daze, Vol2_ Headphone Actor
Next: Retrospect Forest

YUUKEI YESTERDAY III

2022-07-18T13:50:00.004+07:00

The height of summer.
   The sky out the window was a clear, crisp shade of blue, a giant cumulonimbus cloud looming from afar.

   “…I give up. I don’t get any of this at all…”

   The austere brutality of summer school was wreaking its full havoc on the classroom.
   Haruka smiled briskly as he worked his way through the stack of assignment sheets in front of him, but from my perspective, I was faced with a painful battle, one where I could barely manage to comprehend each individual question.

   Weeks had passed since the school festival. We were now both second-year students at the high school.
   Which didn’t count for much. Our class still comprised merely the two of us, Haruka and me, and regrettably the school didn’t boot out Mr. Tateyama and replace him with another teacher for us.
   The new school year meant a slow, steady rise in difficulty, and since I (to be totally honest here) wasn’t exactly a brainiac, my grades on every test always trended below average.

   “Oh, are you stuck on something, Takane? Want me to show it to you again?”
   Haruka was already at least twice as many sheets ahead of me, and just a moment ago, I had already tasted the humiliation of having him explain a problem I had no chance of comprehending.
   “Sh-shut up! I think I’m gonna have it in a little bit, so just keep quiet!”
   I tried my best to focus upon the worksheet, but I frankly had a hard time understanding much of anything written on it.
   This was supposed to be a math class, but there was all this English text on it. They were asking me to give not just an answer, but a formula, even. It was ridiculous.
   “Ha-ha-ha! Sorry, sorry. Not much point to it unless you figure it out by yourself as much as you can, huh? Well, hang in there!”
   Haruka raised a fist as he spoke, in a futile attempt at encouragement, before rattling through his sheets once again.
   Damn it…He could’ve spent at least a little more time on each of them.
   This wasn’t looking good. If this kept up, I’ll wind up being the only one left in the classroom again.
   Once he finished up his work, Haruka would no doubt approach me and ask, “Want some help?” like he always did.
   He really did just want to give me a helping hand, I assumed, but if I kept letting this happen, I’d lose whatever status I had left in his mind.
   So today, just as always, I’ll probably shoo Haruka away, saying something like “Just go home! I want to do this myself!”
   Ughh…What am I even doing? Thanks to my lack of academic skills and weird stubborn streak my precious summer break was being eaten away before my eyes.
   If my original plan was still under way, I would have spent today holed up inside my room, preparing for the tournament taking place in a few days. Having my time occupied like this was something I never even dreamed of.
   “What am I gonna do? I must be so out of practice by now…I haven’t logged in for two days straight. Maybe I should just skip this championship…”
   As I griped to myself, head slapping against the stack of worksheets as I brought it down to the table, Haruka was busily preparing to turn in his own sheets, each one filled to brimming with his handwritten answers.
   “Wha?! You got done so quick! N-no way! Are you going home?!”
   Without thinking, the words shot out of my mouth, as if the idea of Haruka leaving would fill me with loneliness. In a panic, I tried to correct myself, but Haruka plopped his bag onto his desk apparently unfazed.
   “Oh, guess so, huh…? Well, go stuff your mouth as much as you want then, I guess. I can handle these problems by myself, you know?”
   I found myself going overboard trying to act like I didn’t care. But as I crossed my arms to drive the point home, Haruka next to me replied, “Huh? I’m not going anywhere,” as he took a laptop PC from his backpack.
   Shortly he turned it on, typing his password into the login screen like he’d done it thousands of times before. Once he wrapped that up, the title screen of a game flashed on, displaying a white- haired character with a black necklace captioned “Konoha” on the bottom.
   “W-whoa whoa whoa! What’re you doing?! You’re gonna start playing here? Right next to me?!”
   “Sure am! The championship’s coming up, right? Besides, if I play next to you, that oughta inspire you to get through those worksheets and join me, wouldn’t it?”
   “No! You’re just gonna distract me, and…ugghhh, I can’t take this anymore! I wanna play, too! Lemme borrow that a sec!”
   “Agh! Wait, you can’t! I gotta get you to finish that work first! Hey!!”

   Indeed—the game Haruka launched was the game I was trying to qualify for in the upcoming tournament.
   Ever since the school festival ended, Haruka began to explore topics he had no business exploring, eventually leading him to the realm of online gaming.
   I paid him no mind at first, reasoning that he’d get bored and quit within a few days. But Haruka grew more addicted the more time he invested in them. Then he began to post serious results.
   Now, he was a fairly famous player in this game, raising his skills to the point where he was actually one of the favorites to win it all in this next tournament.
   …And it all started the night after the school festival came to a close.

   “…Well, at the end of the day…it was kinda fun, wasn’t it? The festival.”
   “Yeah, well, there were a lot of traumatic experiences for me along the way, but…Ooh! Hey, this steamed bun is crazy good!”
   “Ooh, rrrph thinh tha’ looph riuhh goohh, too.”
   “Ew! Stop being gross, Haruka! You could at least swallow before you start talking! And Mr. Tateyama, how many drinks have you had? I don’t remember inviting you in here!”
   The three of us—myself, Haruka, and Mr. Tateyama—were here enjoying dinner together.
   Haruka had polished off all the food he picked up with astonishing speed, and he and I then hurriedly cleaned all the festival gear out of the classroom, marking a final rushed end to our school- festival experience.
   I made sure to kick Haruka every time he called me “Ene” during the cleaning work, but he didn’ seem to quite understand that I was angry at him. It served to enrage me even further.
   After that, just as we wrapped up the work, Mr. Tateyama appeared as if on cue. “Hey,” he said, “the hero of the day always arrives late, right?” I was just as liberal with the kicks for him as I was with Haruka, and to apologize for his late arrival, he made a dinner reservation for us.

   “Boy, that’s really something, though, yeah? Like, ‘Holy Nightmare’ and all that? The way you mow down all those bad guys, Ene?”
   “I told you, don’t call me by that name again! Ugghh…I hate this…”
   The Chinese restaurant we visited on my suggestion didn’t seem to be housing any of the wrap parties held by other classes, likely because it was a fair distance away from our school.
   I placed my elbows in what little space in front of me wasn’t stacked high with plates, burying my face in my hands as I groaned in agony.
   “Hah hah hah! You finally got exposed, huh, Takane? Well, you know, it’s not like you’re doing anything bad, so don’t get so worked up about it, Ene—oww !”
   I landed a punch on Mr. Tateyama’s upper arm and heaved out a sigh before draining the orange juice in front of me out of sheer abandon.
   “Yeah! You don’t have to hide it or anything! But you know, that name…You took ‘Ene’ from your own name, right? Like, the first ‘E’ from ‘Enomoto’ and the last ‘ne’ from ‘Takane.’”
   “Well…yeah, but…but what’s that matter?”
   “What’s it matter? I dunno, it just seemed kinda neat. Like, it seems sort of cool, having another name that isn’t your real one. I wanna come up with one, too!”
   Haruka’s voice was sprinkled with excitement as he eagerly awaited the next round of food. He’d easily eaten enough to feed an entire family and more, and yet he showed no ill effects. In fact, the mysterious forces lurking within his stomach had allowed him to keep his eating pace steady the entire night. It was downright creepy.
   “So what about the other one? ‘Dancing Flash’? Does that have something to do with you—whoa Wait, wait! I’m sorry! Just put your fist down!”
   I silenced the overly talkative Mr. Tateyama with the threat of coercive force. The clock was already nearing eight p.m., but with tomorrow the last day of a three-day weekend, we still had ample time on our hands.
   “Handle names are just something you make up on the fly, okay? You don’t have to analyze them like that. It’s just embarrassing.”
   I griped at the apparent abuse they were throwing at me, rapidly pecking away at the chili-infused shrimp put on my plate before Haruka ate it all up.
   “Hey, I wanna come up with one, too! I’m Haruka Kokonose, so…how about ‘Konoha’?” “Sure. Whatever. Great to meet you, Konoha.”
   I gave him as pat a response as I could, but Haruka was unexpectedly and very oddly impassioned by it. “Oooooh!” he chirped. “I really like the sound of that…! I think I’ll start spreading my name around tonight!”

—Which leads us to today.
   “But that’s not fair! You can’t just play by yourself and boost your skills without me…I wanna play, too!”
   “Well, that’s kinda your fault, isn’t it, Takane? I already got all my worksheets done, so…I’ll play together with you once you’re done, so get cracking, okay?”
   Haruka was right, no matter how you sliced it, and all I could do was whine like a child with my “but’s” and “come onnnn’s.”
   It was another stark reminder of the difference between myself, a below-average student out of sheer laziness, and Haruka, who fully devoted himself to studying but still had to attend summer school with me.
   No, Haruka wasn’t here in school for remedial classes. Anyone who could finish up those worksheets with that kind of speed would be considered near the top of his class—grade-wise, anyway.
   His behavior in class was impeccable, of course, and he certainly wasn’t special-needs in terms of the course work he could tackle. But Haruka lagged far behind his peers in one important field: attendance.

   In December of last year, Haruka organized an impromptu Christmas party, fielding myself and Mr. Tateyama to help out.
   It was right around Haruka’s birthday, too, so I remember making a serious effort to pick out a present for him, in hopes of giving him the surprise of his life. I saved up what little allowance I could, forcing myself to go through the heartbreaking task of spending it on someone else. But whenever the image of a grateful Haruka flashed into my mind, I felt an odd sense of excitement about it all.

   —But on the day of the party, Haruka had an attack of some sort and collapsed.

   Luckily, he was immediately taken to a hospital, preventing any serious consequences from happening.
   By the time Mr. Tateyama and I reached him, Haruka was already in the middle of eating his fifth tray of hospital food. Despite this obvious sign of good health, the clinic decided to admit him anyway.
   Haruka was discharged after about a week and was back to his usual healthy self at school after winter break, but a month later, he was readmitted to the hospital after another attack.
   This time around, he faced a much more arduous recovery, requiring him to remain under hospital treatment for about a month.
   But Haruka was concerned far less about his health than he was about the online game he was heavily into at the time. “I have to get outta here and start practicing again,” he’d tell me upon every visit.
   We both went up to the next class year soon afterward, but Haruka continued to have small episodes of poor health—not enough for a hospital stay, but enough to keep him out of class more and more over time.
   Now Haruka was stuck in summer school, making up for enough sick days to ensure he met the minimum attendance requirement.
   He never complained about it—“It’s actually a lot of fun,” he’d say, “as long as you’re in class with me”—but I couldn’t guess what he really thought about it, inside.

   —As for myself…I didn’t really know.
   “Ooh, hey, there’s a new weapon available! Must be some kinda pre-tournament bonus. Oh, man, should I buy it or what?”
   There was nothing that indicated Haruka was depressed, at least, as he excitedly stared at the screen in front of him.
   Though, looking back, I had never seen him anything even close to depressed. Not even once.
   Even when I was the only classmate he had left, even when we were benched from the sports meet he was looking forward to for lack of team members, even when he was forced out of class and into the hospital, he was always smiling.
   And watching him smile would always enrage me, exasperate me…and, gradually, enrapture me.
   “Hey, Haruka…?”
   “Hmm? What’s up? Uh, give me one sec, okay? I got a match starting up!”
   Haruka was devoted heart and soul to the fight, not taking his eyes off the screen for a moment.
   Watching him as he played, muttering to himself in a soft voice, was like watching an innocent child.
   …He really doesn’t have a care in the world, does he? But if he’s gonna stay late like this, it wouldn’t hurt him to pay at least a little more attention to me.
   With a sharp intake of breath, I affixed my gaze back to my worksheet, but the gunfire from the seat next to me made it frankly impossible to concentrate.
   This was proving to be no “inspiration” at all. In fact, the distraction was having the exact opposite effect.
   I glared at him, entertaining the idea of forcing him out of the classroom, but the sight of him paying no attention at all to his surroundings drained any anger I had within me.
   No longer interested in my assignments, I propped my head up with my hand as I rolled my mechanical pencil around. Suddenly, a great idea popped into my mind. I rose up, thrust a hand into the bag propped against my desk, and took out my headphones.
   …If I put these on and try to act like I don’t care about him, maybe that’ll throw him enough to stop playing.
   When someone goes into his own little world like that, anyone attempting to do anything with him is doomed to remain alone and unappreciated. And whatever world Haruka was in, it wasn’t this one anymore.
   Fitting the headphones on my head, I plugged the cord into the phone in my pocket.
   I thought a moment about what to listen to, but since nothing in particular came to mind, I turned on the radio app. Light, easy-listening jazz began to play.
   Turned away from Haruka, I put my face on the desk, closing my eyes as I turned my ears toward the music.
   Haruka has to notice this and speak up sooner or later. Then I could fire back with something like “Bother me later! I’m busy listening to the radio!”
   It was the perfect plan. I mentally patted myself on the back as a grin escaped my lips.
   …But, after a few moments, I heard nothing from Haruka.
   For the first few minutes, I serenely refused to think about him, figuring he would talk to me before too much longer.
   But once the minutes went into the teens, I came to realize exactly how impatient I truly was.
   …He’s late. Really late.
   I no longer paid any attention to the peppy jazz playing on the radio, continually fighting the ever- present urge to fling myself back toward Haruka’s direction.
   All too soon, after about twenty minutes, I had reached my limit. “Ugh…ugghhhh…this is so borrrrring. I should just go hoooome…”
   I muttered it to myself, not turning around, my last-ditch attempt at resisting the urge.
   The sense of embarrassment in my mind ballooned upon realizing just how childish and embarrassing it sounded.
   Crap. Why am I putting myself through all of this for his sake?
   It’s not like he’s an innocent bystander. In fact, he’s being downright cruel, still ignoring me after all this time.
   Or am I really that unattractive to him…?
   This new inroad my mind laid for me led to an odd sense of anxiety. I was gripped by a desire to check the still-silent Haruka’s facial expression.
   Forgetting my patience at the shock of this sudden impulse, I removed the headphones and turned toward Haruka.
   “Hey! Hellooooo?…Haruka?”
   Back in this world, with the headphones off and the music gone, the only thing I heard was the in- game soundtrack.
   The gunfire had abated, and I couldn’t even hear the sound of Haruka jabbing away at the controller.

   —Haruka was slumped in his seat, hands spread downward, head flopped to one side…and silent.

   “H-Haruka!!”
   In a flash, I realized this was an emergency. I stood up in a panic as I shook Haruka’s body.
   But he didn’t respond, his body losing its support as if all of his internals had suddenly gone off somewhere.
   My mind went blank. My knees began to shake, and tears began to fall out of pure terror. “No…no, you’re kidding me…! H-hey! Someone! Is anybody around?!”
   I shouted out the classroom door as I supported the slumped body of Haruka.
   But there was no response. It was summer break inside a nearly unpopulated school, and the area our classroom was in saw even less foot traffic. I wasn’t going to be that lucky.
   “Please, somebody…Somebody, help…!”
   My brain had already grown incapable of making rational decisions. All I could do was hold Haruka’s slumped body.
   That was because I felt like, if I took my hands off him now, he’d go off somewhere far away, someplace where I’d never see him again.
   “Oh, God…!”
   The moment after I let out that would-be prayer, the classroom door burst open. “It’s all right,” said the familiar man dressed in white,
   —as he slowly took a firm grasp on Haruka’s body.

The hospital waiting room was caught in the grasp of a dark, heavy air.
   Occasionally I could hear nurses scuttling to and fro, startling me every time they did.

   Haruka had been taken to a large general hospital, built on top of a hill several months ago.
   Mr. Tateyama and I sat atop a long bench placed in front of the emergency room.

   The handkerchief I gripped in my hand had long grown heavy with moisture, but the tears kept falling from both of my eyes.
   “Mr. Tateyama…do…do you think Haruka will wake up? Is…is he gonna get better?”
   I threw the question I had thrown at Mr. Tateyama I don’t know how many times before. I knew all I was doing was bothering my teacher with it by this point.
   But Mr. Tateyama smiled. “He’s made it this far,” he said as he smiled and gave me a pat on the back. “I’m sure he’ll be fine.”

   I wonder if my grandmother felt this same way, in the waiting room back when I was admitted to whatever hospital that was long ago.
   It felt like you were walking down a tunnel, face turned downward, and the exit was nowhere in sight.
   “I’m sure he’ll be fine.”
   I tried to turn my mind in that direction, but the terror I couldn’t wipe away forced me to imagine the worst despite myself.
   If I had noticed something, anything earlier than I did, maybe Haruka wouldn’t be like this righ now.
   Thanks to my idiotic stubbornness, Haruka was now suffering all by himself.
   Maybe, up to the point when he lost consciousness, Haruka was trying to get my help.
   And yet I…I just had to…!

   I had never loathed myself so much before now.
   Tears fell onto the hand holding my handkerchief, forming streams across my fingers as they made their way downward.

   —No. Someone like me, someone incapable of doing anything, had no right to be near Haruka, no right to worry about him.
   What could I possibly say to Haruka when he wakes up?
   Could I actually forgive myself for saying “I’m glad you’re okay” or “I was worried for you”?
   The only thing that mattered to me was myself. Pretending at a time like this that I always cared about him, passing myself off as some pure and innocent thing in front of the plain facts, was just one step beyond forgiving.

   If Mr. Tateyama hadn’t come for me, I wouldn’t have been able to do anything.
   I was so powerless, so selfish.

   The light on top of the emergency room flipped off.
   The automatic door opened, and Haruka’s doctor, dressed in surgery scrubs, appeared.
   Mr. Tateyama shot upward, running up to the doctor and starting to converse with him about something, but the anxiety and fear within my mind had frozen me to the bench.
   Unable to tell what they were saying, I simply watched the two of them as they spoke.

   “…I see. Well, all right. Do your best.”
   Mr. Tateyama bowed his head. The doctor whispered a few parting words before disappearing down the hallway.
   “Mr. Tateyama…Haruka…!”
   I tugged at the hem of my teacher’s white shirt, my mind still a blank. Mr. Tateyama looked a tad relieved.
   “…He’s still asleep, but I guess they managed to save his life.” He thunked himself heavily down next to me.
   The light sweat that covered his forehead dripped down onto his white collar.
   Hearing that brought me a great sense of relief.
   Haruka was alive. The thought elated me, to the point that nothing else seemed to matter.
   But then my stomach was gripped by an intense pain. Haruka’s smiling face, the familiar image that had etched itself into my mind, felt like something no longer within reach.

   …He might not even want to see me any longer.

   Maybe he hated me. He was suffering in that classroom, and I did nothing to help him.
   If he was awake right now, I wonder what kind of face he would’ve made upon catching sight of me.
   Dwelling on that scenario made me feel completely, frighteningly helpless.

   “Mr. Tateyama…I better go get Haruka’s things…”
   “Mm? Oh, yeah, I guess we left his wallet and phone back there, huh…? You gonna be okay by yourself, though?”
   “I’ll be fine…Just make sure you’re nearby Haruka in case he wakes up.”
   I stood up off the bench and headed for the emergency-room reception office.
   What am I running from here? Whatever it was, I simply had to get away.

The moment I left the reception area at the end of the hallway, I felt the murky outdoor air surround my body.

The tears just barely started to come back, now that I was alone, but I put on my headphones—still dangling from my neck—and walked on, not taking a single look back.

It was already nightfall by the time I reached school.
   The whine of the cicadas had died down compared to the afternoon, the temperature considerably lower from daytime.
   But thanks to my hurried pace on the way to school, the shirt of my uniform was wet with sweat, sticking uncomfortably to my back.

   Changing to my indoor school slippers, I went out into the hallway, heading down the right side into the lab wing.
   The school had grown even quieter than when we left it.
   Give it another hour, and it’d no doubt be completely covered in darkness.

   It was funny to think that nearly a year had passed since that crazy school festival, where we had dozens of people jostling each other up and down this hallway.
   Between all the weird gamer fans clamoring for a match and that ghostlike girl in the morning, that day was a roller-coaster ride from start to finish. It was the day Haruka first got into online gaming, too, not to mention the first time I had a chance to make a female friend. And then…

   “Oh, hey, Takane, haven’t seen you in a while. What’s up?”
   I removed my headphones, startled by the sudden voice.
   Turning around, I found a young woman standing there, bundled up in a red scarf despite the summer weather.
   “Oh! Hi, Ayano. Good to see you. But what’re you doing in school?”
   “Well…” she replied, acting oddly embarrassed.
   I didn’t know what she meant at first, but for someone like Ayano, who wasn’t involved in any extracurricular activities, there’s only one thing she’d be doing in school at a time like this.
   “…Are you in summer school, too, Ayano? Even though you’re a first-year student?”
   “Yeahhh, kind of. My grades are already looking pretty dire, so…”
   She ejected a strained, creepy little chuckle as she stared down on the floor.
   Judging by her dull, lifeless eyes, Ayano wasn’t lying—she must have been in serious academic trouble.
   “…Yeah, I’ve sure been there before.”
   “Oh, yeah, I guess my dad mentioned that you were taking summer classes, too, huh, Takane?”
   …That teacher just has no idea when to keep his mouth shut. It’s not like he has the right to say whatever crosses his mind just because it’s his own daughter.
   “Yeah, uh, better not dwell on it too much, okay? Not like either of us wants to be here, so…Oh, by the way, is he, like, not here today?”
   I looked around the hallway, checking to see if the creep who exuded that weird aura all the time was nearby. But everything seemed clear in that respect.
   “You mean Shintaro? No way. He’s way too smart to be going to something like summer school…”
   Ayano’s voice notably tensed up the moment the conversation turned toward Shintaro. She was beyond easy to read that way.
   “Oh yeah? That smart, huh? That must make it all the tougher for you, I bet…having to deal wit that selfish creep all the time.”
   “Huh? Ohhh, he’s not really like that, Takane. He’s really a good guy, once you start talking to him. Just kind of shy, is all.”
   Ayano capped off her evaluation with a grin.
   Oof. With that kind of personality, this girl’s gonna go through a lot of strife in the future. He seemed like nothing but a self-absorbed brat to me, but to her, it must have all seemed cute or something.
   “Really? Huh. Well, it’d be nice if he was a little more friendly and outgoing toward others, at least. You know? He must be really happy, having someone like you nearby to spoil him all day.”
   As I spoke, Ayano’s expression clouded a bit for some reason.
Perhaps I brought up something I shouldn’t have touched upon? That wasn’t my intention at all.
   “…Nah, I wouldn’t be any good for him. He needs someone even more self-absorbed than him someone with enough energy to pull him toward her. Myself, the best I do is latch on to him from behind. I can’t do anything like that.”
   Ayano squeaked out a laugh and scratched her head as she spoke. I had trouble believing that anyone could be more selfish than that guy. He was headstrong; he thought only about himself; he was frustratingly elusive, never revealing what he really thought about people…Hang on a minute…?
   “Oh, no way…”
   “Huh? What was that?”
   “Wha? N-no! No! Nothing! Just something I thought about! But, anyway, sorry to stop you here Ayano. Better get back home soon, right?”
   In a mad flurry, I waved my hand in an attempt to drop the topic.
   “Oh, no, I’m glad we got a chance to talk. You know…I was thinking about leaving in a moment, but since we’re here anyway, you wanna maybe go home together?”
   “Well, I kinda can’t…Haruka’s had an episode today. Our teacher’s at the hospital right now, but I have to go and get all his stuff from the classroom…”
   Ayano’s eyebrows arched as she heard this. She bowed courteously in response.
   “Oh! I-I’m sorry I stopped you, then! You better head back as soon as possible, right? Is Haruka doing all right…?”
   “Oh, no problem! He isn’t awake yet, but they said his life isn’t in danger or anything, and Mr. Tateyama’s there for him, so I’m good. Besides…I’d just be in the way over there anyway…”
   The words I blurted out pained me inside, proving to be far more self-deprecating than I intended. Why did I have to say that? It’s not like Ayano has anything to do with this.
   “…Is something wrong, Takane? I mean, no way Haruka would think you’re in the way or anything, right?”
   “Yeah, but…I dunno. I’d just feel weird, being near him right now. Really, I almost wish I could just deliver his stuff to the hospital and head home after that…”
   All this pointless moping was even exasperating me by now. This isn’t how I really felt. I couldn’t have been.
   I shot a glance at Ayano, only to find her normal, good-natured expression replaced with one of anger, her cheeks puffed out just a little.
   It was my first encounter with this face, and it startled me.
   “Takane, you’re being far too dishonest with yourself. With your own emotions. You know full well what you really want to do, but you’re pinning the blame on Haruka instead because you’re scared, aren’t you?”
   I was overwhelmed by the sharpness behind Ayano’s glare.
   “N-no, I…”
   “Yes. Yes, it is. You need to see Haruka and tell him how you honestly feel. And also…”
   Ayano began to look disconsolate, as if just remembering something.
   She took a short breath, giving her time to weave together the rest of the sentence.
   “…There are times you want to tell someone something, but you wind up being too late. That’s not gonna happen if you do it right now. So try to drum up a little courage, okay?”
   Her face returned to its normal serene expression.
   “Ayano…”
   “And, look, if he brushes you off, I got a shoulder you can cry on, you know? I better get going now.”
   I thought I had calmed myself down a bit, but Ayano’s send-off made my face glow red as my emotions swelled back up to the surface.
   I tried to make excuses for myself out of sheer embarrassment, but Ayano was already away, briskly walking over to the shoe lockers.
   “Wait, I…I…Man, she really told me off…”
   I sullenly dropped my head as Ayano left my sight before walking off toward the science storage room.

   …How I honestly feel.
   I had grown so accustomed to trying to cover it up, I honestly had trouble sizing up what I felt exactly.
   It was too thorny a problem for me. I had no idea what I wanted to do.
   Really, it was fine by me if things could be like they were before—the same classroom, the same day-in, day-out routine.
   So wouldn’t it be best if I didn’t try to make any waves? Just kept quiet and moved forward like normally would?
   —I could feel the conflict swirl and churn in my heart.
   It’s true. This has happened a million times before.
   And every time, I’d act like this, not telling him anything about my feelings, right up to this moment.
   But is this really the best thing for us…?

   The familiar door to the science storage room stood before me.
   Every day, I’d throw this door open, and another day full of stress and anxiety would unfold.
   I took a breath and opened it up.
   “Morning, Takane!”
   The moment I blinked…I was struck by the feeling he had spoken to me, but all that was in the empty classroom was the abandoned video game and the mountain of study guides we had left on our desks.
   My heart beat loudly and clearly in my mind.
   Perhaps this was what I was searching for the whole time.

   I flew out into the hallway.

   Now I finally understand…

   All this time, the thing I wanted to tell him.

   And now I can say it.

   Yes, I can finally say it now…

   A torrent of emotions flooded my chest as I tried to reach him before another second elapsed. I planted my foot down on the ground—

  …or I tried to.

   Suddenly, the hallway walls began to warp and bend before me, the floor approaching my head at alarming speed.
   My body crashed to the floor with enough force to generate a rebound.

   “Agh…ngh…Ah…!”
   I had trouble breathing well.
   I tried to move, but the best I could manage was to twitch my fingers a little.
   …No, not now, of all times…!
   The fear I had nearly forgotten now held absolute reign over my mind.
   At the same time, an unreasonably overpowering sense of drowsiness stole my consciousness away.
   …No. Stop it. Stop it!
   As my consciousness faded further and further, unable to put up any resistance, the last thing my eyes caught sight of was a hazy figure standing before me in the hallway.

   —What’s that guy doing here?
   There’s no way he should be here at all.
   I was no longer able to discern who it was. My time limit was about to run dry.
   Ayano’s prophetic words sprung back to mind: “There are times you want to tell someone something, but you wind up being too late.”
   I am such a complete idiot. I had the simplest of all things to tell him, and I took too much time for it.
   Until the final moment when my slipping consciousness flickered out, I kept repeating the words within myself.

“—Haruka, I love you.”

Previous: Headphone Actor III
Title: Kagerou Daze, Vol2_ Headphone Actor
Next: Headphone Actor IV

HEADPHONE ACTOR III

2022-07-18T11:19:00.003+07:00

There was no longer anyone around me.

The setting sun, cut off from view by the buildings up to now, was perfectly visible from here.
Its light, bathing the entire world in crimson, seemed like a furious flame, ready to burn everything in sight.

Running up a steep avenue, I made it to the apex of the hill, almost out of breath.

On the other end of the headphones, the voice that had guided me this far muttered something to me. But I couldn’t make it out. I was too focused on catching my breath once more.

I imagine it was just about the time I was told everything would expire, fade off into oblivion. Or maybe that time had already passed long ago.

But, at top of the hill I had clambered up, there was nothing.
To be more accurate, there was a massive sky spread before me, drawn atop an equally massive wall.

“…No. This isn’t it.”

I felt a tremendous sense of discomfort. There was something that should be here, exactly what I couldn’t quite remember—but it wasn’t.
My ragged breath gradually returned to its normal rhythm.
As it did, the cause behind this discomfort faintly began to grow clear.

—It wasn’t that something wasn’t here.
It’s that she wasn’t here.

“And I thought I could finally tell her, too…”

The words unconsciously fell out of my mouth.
My shadow, long and stretched out over the ground, began to dim. The sun was almost completely below the horizon.

“I guess…I guess this was doomed from the start. This was the last place left, the only place I could have ever told her, and now…”

The words coming from my headphones seemed to speak for my own mind, a mind still unable to recall everything.

“Everything’s already over! It’s…it’s just…everything! All over!”

—It’s time to give it up.
I will never have the chance to see her again.
I was already aware of that.

“If…if this is the kind of world I’m doomed to live in, then—!”

You don’t have to say that, do you?
Maybe you weren’t on time,
but at the very end of it all,
—you came to realize where your own emotions lay.

By the time I turned myself around, the city was experiencing its final moments. On the other side from the enclosed sky as it crumbled to the ground, I left my final words to her. “I’m sorry…Takane.”

I gazed at the carcass of the program as it burned itself away, my consciousness growing faint. The words I heard from the other side of the headphones were more than enough to lull me back to sleep.

Previous: Yuukei Yesterday II
Title: Kagerou Daze, Vol2_ Headphone Actor
Next: Yuukei Yesterday III

YUUKEI YESTERDAY II

2022-07-18T11:11:00.001+07:00

“Daaang…That girl’s beat thirty-seven in a row…”
  “Yeah, I heard from some guy that she actually placed second nationwide in a Dead Bullet -1989- tournament.”
  “Dude! Really?! You mean ‘Dancing Flash Ene’?! Man, no wonder she’s so dialed in like that. Whoa, check it out, she beat her high score again! …But why’s she crying, though?”

  The science storage room was undoubtedly witnessing the most exciting scene it had ever hosted since the school’s opening.
  I kept a firm grip on my controller, unable to wipe the tears away from my eyes.
  No matter how hard things got, once I picked up the controller, there was nothing that could take my hands off of it.
  That was the credo I lived by as a gamer, something that lay at the root of my personality, and I wasn’t sure I could do anything to break the habit any longer.

  The big-screen monitor displayed a hand holding a gun at the bottom, twisting left or right based on my controller input as it shot down the barrage of targets.
  The target monsters that roared dramatically with every hit were drawn like cutesy fairy-tale bears and rabbits and so on, but the explosion of blood and body parts that gushed forth with every shot was not exactly kid stuff.
  “Nice, Takane! Another win for us! …Though that was really more of an Ene move just now, wasn’t it?!”
  Haruka, all but serving as my ringside manager as he sat next to my competition seat, beamed brightly as his eyes shone in sheer wonder.
  “Uh. Ngh. Shut…up…dumb…ass…”
  I was already sobbing to the point where stringing together a sentence was proving difficult, but the audience surrounding us paid it no heed, showering me with applause as my win count continued to skyrocket upward.
  My competitor, a guy dressed in military gear and a crew cut, gave me an impassioned salute. “I appreciate this,” he said. “Such an honor! Getting to play against Dancing Flash Ene in person like this…!”
  It was to the point where the brawny men milling around the entrance were scuffling against each other for the chance to challenge me next. “Let me go first,” said one. “No! No, I’m more worthy of her!” said another.
  The students who had gathered around to take in the scene, along with the hard-core gamers who heard the rumors and ran over for this once-in-a-lifetime chance, had turned the room into a living hell.
  “Why is this happeningggggg…?”
  My vision blurred as the tears plopped down onto the controller.

The day of the school festival. The trigger for this whole ordeal began a few hours before.

  The usual desks were carted out from the center of the science storage room, the shooting-gallery booth looming large in their place.
  Though, really, the “booth” was little more than a pair of monitors on top of a long table, a cloth decorated with fluorescent paint draped over it. But turning off the lights and taping cardboard over the classroom windows left the room in total darkness except for the monitors and the faint glow of the paint.
  It didn’t seem like any kind of last-moment setup at all, in no small part thanks to Haruka’s artistic talent.
  “W-well, this is it, huh…? It’s kind of like a dream, isn’t it? Like, we actually did this…!”
  “Yep. Turned out pretty well, didn’t it? Great job, Haruka! Here, let me practice a little more before we open this up.”
Mr. Tateyama, deep rings around his eyes after pulling a series of death-march all-nighters to finish coding the game, and myself, with no rings around the eyes at all after getting ample sleep (fifteen hours) the night before, were busy making the final adjustments before the big reveal.
  Haruka turned on the PC lurking beneath the table, and in a few moments, the title screen for the game, the pride and joy of Haruka and Mr. Tateyama, appeared.
  The game, which featured a rogues’ gallery of plush animal monsters getting mown down by the player, was named Headphone Actor by Haruka.
  I didn’t know what the title was supposed to mean at first glance, until I found that the final boss, the evil mastermind controlling all these monsters, looked exactly like me. In other words, the object was to defeat the headphoned villain and the troupe of evil monsters (“actors”) she had under her control. Then I knew what it meant, and it irritated me more than a tad.
  It goes without saying that I floored Haruka with a single punch immediately afterward.
  “…This is really in bad taste, you know that? Why do I have to fight against myself?”
  “Well, I mean, the people who play this have to beat you in the game to win, right? So I figured, like, it’d be neat if the last boss looked kind of like you, Takane…though I guess I kinda forgot you’d be playing the whole time, too…”
  “…I should’ve guessed it’d never occur to you. Though it doesn’t look much like me anymore, now that you changed the colors.”
  The last boss, named “Takane V2” by Mr. Tateyama, used to be a dead ringer for me with her black hair. After I forced Haruka to change it, she was now in her “alternate Player 2 palette” with blue hair.
  “But even ignoring that, why’d you make this game into such a gorefest? Did we really need that?”
  Pressing the “Start” button on the title screen brought up an opening monologue. The game was apparently set in a small city, one that (once again due to Haruka’s meandering artistic spirit, no doubt) bore an eerie resemblance to the town we lived in.
  Proceeding through this townscape, gun in hand, the player is confronted with a gauntlet of cutesy stuffed animals, all eager to attack you. Your job is to shoot them down, but with every hit, the game rewarded you with blood spurts and grisly, moist sound effects, no doubt striking most players with intense pangs of guilt.
  “That was…You know, I borrowed it from that game you were talking about before, Takane! I figured that’s the kind of thing you’d like, so…”
  My fingers quivered in response. That error in judgment was all it took for a stuffed monkey to sink its teeth into my neck, bringing the game to a quick end.
  Streams of blood poured down from the top of the screen, followed by GAME OVER in block lettering.
  “D-did you hear about that from Mr. Tateyama?!”
  After several nights without sleep, Mr. Tateyama had apparently collapsed into bed after finishing up the game, leaving behind the words “Tell…the administrator…about this…”
  Haruka had apparently been staying over at our teacher’s house over the past week to get the game done. There was more than a passing chance Haruka had learned a lot more than he should have.
  “No, no, he didn’t tell me anything. I just remembered what you told me in class earlier, and I did some research from there.”
  “Oh! Well, that’s fine then, but…I mean, don’t you think all this blood is kind of a mismatch for

he theme of the game? It kind of, I dunno, puts a damper on things.”

  I started the game from the beginning again, but the sight of these cutesy plush animals getting gibbed with every shot just felt weird to me. If these were zombies, the whole package would’ve been a lot more attractive, I thought.
  “Heh-heh! Sorry about that. But, hey, it’s the school festival, so I wanted to make it something you’d like…”
  My hands slipped once again at this most uninvited of responses. This time, a plush pig trampled me to death for a quick GAME OVER.
“But…it’s not like I, like, enjoy all this gore or anything…”
  I deliberately kept my gaze away from Haruka as I started another game.
  “What? Ooh…uh, I’m sorry. I thought you liked this kind of rough stuff, so…But I guess you wouldn’t after all, huh, Takane? Guess I should’ve realized that sooner.”
  “Oof…Man, you really got the wrong idea with me, Haruka. Listen, do you know what makes for a good game? Excitement. You play a game because it’s fun and refreshing to be the hero, going around this amazing world and wishing you were more a part of it.”
  That was the attraction I looked for in games, at least.
  The real world could be a lot more unfair, but in the game world, if you have the talent, anyone can be a hero.
  That, more than anything else, was why I became a gamer.
  “Hohh…I see. I don’t really play games much, so I guess I wasn’t aware. So, uh, does that mean this game…isn’t very fun or whatever?”
  Haruka sounded cautious as he asked. I kept my eyes firmly on the screen, saying, “Oh, no, I kind of like it” after planting a shot between the eyes of a plush cat that flew into sight.
  I could hear a sigh of relief from my side.
  Given how much I already played the game yesterday, it only took ten minutes or so for me to get back into the groove.
  Unless Haruka threw me with his unwelcome commentary and ended my game early, I never made a mistake. There was no way I could lose in a competitive match against another player.
  One reason for this confidence was that I had easily tripled Mr. Tateyama’s high score of 45,000 with my first play—a score he had to work hard to achieve.
  “Wow, this is going to turn out great! No way could any of the challengers here beat you!”
  “Well, duh. I’ve got the skills, and I know it, too…Whoa, look at what time it is! The festival’s gonna start in five minutes! Are we okay with the rest of the prep, Haruka?!”
  “Oh, uh, yeah, all systems go! I set everything up yesterday so we’d be ready to go whenever. Ooh, but now I’m starting to get nervous…”
  Haruka had been his usual “yeah, whatever” self up to now. Now, with the school festival looming large, the pressure must have been getting to him. He got out of his seat, pacing around the classroom anxiously.
  “Hey! Quit freaking out on me! I’m not gonna lose to anyone, so it’s gonna be just fine!”
  “Y…yeah, I know, but you think anyone’s gonna show up…? What if they don’t like the game at all…?”
  I, too, had begun to get butterflies in my stomach. It was the same kind of nervousness, I recalled, that I felt before the game tournament I went to the other day.
  This time, though, the main challenge wasn’t to see how well I could perform—it was how much I could entertain the guests that showed up.
  We’d be entertaining everyone from kids to elderly women…Of course, we’d have to put in some age restrictions with all this gore, but either way, we’d be obliged to appeal to a broad audience.
  The game Mr. Tateyama and Haruka came up with was naturally pretty lacking in terms of gameplay depth and balance, but to be honest, I thought it was pretty fun. There was something really compelling to it that made you want to keep playing.
  My job was to bring this appeal across to the audience, helping them enjoy it as much as possible…and try to keep a smile on my face the whole time.
  “Aw, don’t worry about it. You put your heart and soul into this, right? They’re gonna love it!”
  I tried my best to placate the fretful Haruka. Just as I did, the speaker next to the clock squawked to life: “Ladies and gentlemen, the school festival is about to begin. All classes, follow your planning committee’s instructions and make this into the most exciting event you can!”
  The moment the voice fell quiet, my heartbeat accelerated.
  Haruka, for his part, was crouched down, intoning “It’ll be okay, it’ll be okay” to himself like a mantra.
  “Hey! Get up! We’re starting! People are gonna start coming in soon, so…uh, go stand in front of the door and guide them in! If anyone looks interested, go up to them and tell them what’s going on in here! Okay?!”
  “Uh, uh, yeahhh…Yeah! I…okay. It’ll be okay, it’ll be okay…”
  With that less-than-inspiring reply, Haruka stood up and staggered his way toward the door…and right into it, with a bang. “Ow, ow, ow…” he said as he finally exited the classroom.

  “…You think he’s gonna be okay?”
  The speaker that had just played the announcement was now broadcasting background music for the festival, letting everyone know that things were about to get under way.
  For the purposes of our setup, I turned down the volume on the science storage room’s speaker, shut off the lights, and decided to wait for Haruka to presumably bring in my first challenger.
With the lights out, the room was bathed in the faint light from the monitors and the fluorescent paint.
I sat down on the rightmost of the two chairs facing the monitors on the long table, staring blankly at my title screen.
  The Headphone Actor splash screen featured a dull, gray cityscape behind the title logo. The game must have been set around dusk, because a deep, purplish sky was visible through the tops of the buildings.
  “Man, this game is really in bad taste…I mean, Haruka and Mr. Tateyama really got into making it and all, but this is gonna freak you out if you’re a girl or something, isn’t it?”
  But I knew Haruka. I doubted he cared. If he found an interested-looking girl, I was sure he’d take her right into the room, like I told him to.
  —You know, this could actually turn out real bad. What if that lady is too much of a wimp for this kind of thing?
The first thing she’ll see when she opens the door is this gorefest of a shooting game, playing inside a dark, seedy storage room.
And she’d be playing against a dark, seedy, glarey-eyed me for her opponent…No. I should stop thinking about myself. That’ll just make me all depressed, and it’s not like I have any idea how to improve my life. I’d just start crying, is all.
But even ignoring me for the moment, the content of this game might be a little too much for women or children.
Perhaps I should have drilled this point into Haruka a little more carefully.
The moment I stood back up, no longer able to remain seated and alone with myself, the door opened.
Even though only a few minutes had passed, I still had to shield my eyes against the influx of sunlight. Our first customer was silhouetted in the brightness, making it impossible to see him, which flustered me a bit. In terms of height, I could tell he was an adult male, at least.
It’d be rude not to say anything, so I recited the little spiel I had come up with.
“Uh, welcome! So, um, in this class, we’ve got a target shooting game! If you can beat me, we’ve got a wonderful prize for—”
“Heh. You’re a girl? I was wondering who I’d see in here. I’d feel a lot better about whipping the guy by the door than a girl.”
The man abruptly cut me off as I tried to be as cute and bright in my intro as I could, smile plastered upon my face.
It was so unexpected that I froze at first, unable to process what had happened. Gradually, though, I realized that this man, for all his lack of politeness, sure seemed to be interested in some competition.
“Uh…umm…”
Thanks to this disastrous first contact—even in the best of times, I wasn’t used to interacting with people much—my heart began to race, my hands shaking a little from the nervousness.
The sales spiel I had prepared had been completely blanked away in my mind. My mouth continued to attempt speech nonetheless, emitting a series of bizarre sounds.
“Can’t say I’m too jealous of you right now, lady. My friend told me about his school’s festival, so we figured we’d stop on by, and then we heard about this cool game being shown. This guy’s, like, really good at shooters, so you can kiss your prize lineup good-bye in a few minutes, huh?”
My eyes, gradually getting used to the light, spotted another dopey-looking man behind the first one. Apparently they were a pair.
“Oh, uh, well, I’m gonna do my best at this game, so…”
I tried to retain some semblance of calmness as I smiled in response, feeling the sweat run down my back.
Judging by their introduction, there was no doubt that these visitors were pretty damn seedy themselves. But they were still our first guests.
They probably stopped by the festival just to poke fun at the stalls and have a little laugh with themselves. The so-called shooting-game whiz who showed up first had sunglasses on so I couldn’t gauge his expression, but man behind him was practically exuding malicious intent.
“Sure, yeah. I’m sure this is just some stupid homebrew game anyway. Kid stuff, you know? I feel bad for taking all your prizes early on like this, but hey, maybe it’ll teach you a lesson about life and stuff, yeah?”
With that, the man sidled up to me and, with a heavy flourish, sat down on the challenger’s seat.
“Ooh, you heard him. That guy shows no mercy when it comes to games, you know. I don’t know if you’ve heard of this or not, but he went all the way to the national semifinals in the Dead Bullet -1989- championships once. And that’s not the only tournament he’s entered either, so I doubt a girl like you could stand a—”
At this point in the sentence, the pissed-off guy stopped chatting away and emitted a gasp, or maybe a small, muffled eep!-type scream.
That might have been because I dropped the salesgirl smile and put on my meanest-looking glare again. Or maybe he cut his tongue by accident after all that incessant yapping.
“T-Takane…”
I heard a whiny, yet familiar voice. Haruka, looking in from the doorway with tears in his eyes, looked scared out of his wits. These men must have picked on him mercilessly before coming in.
I motioned for him to close the door. Haruka hesitated for a moment, but managed to squeak out a
“Good luck…” before slowly sliding it shut.
Checking to make sure it was closed, I walked back to our booth in the darkened room.
Settling into my seat next to the apparently eternally angry guy, I turned back toward the monitor showing the title screen and continued with my explanation.
“So, one final thing I need to mention. This is a shooting game with a point-based system. Whoever shoots down more enemies is the winner. I can set a difficulty level for you; do you have any preferences?”
“What do you think? As hard as you got it.”
“All right. Perfect. Now…”
Pressing a button on the title screen, I set the difficulty to “Extra.”
Mr. Tateyama mentioned that this level was “so hard, you’d have to be some kind of monster to get a perfect score on it.”
“Hey, wait a sec, lady. I ain’t accusing you of anything, but you aren’t gonna be cheating or nothin’, right?”
The eternally pissed dude spoke up again, acting a bit more threatening this time.
I couldn’t blame them for considering it. It would have been easy to ease the difficulty for my end only, or to rig the scoring system to my advantage if we wanted to.
“Oh, no cheating at all, sir. Actually, we could change places if you like. It’s all based on points, so I won’t complain if you beat me from either station.”
“This is fine,” said the grouch as he removed his sunglasses, “so let’s just get going.”
“…Certainly. Good luck.”

I placed a firm grip on my controller, relaxed it a bit…then gripped it hard again. Making sure I was 100-percent comfortable with it, I clicked on the “Game Start” button.

Enemy monsters swarmed out from the backdrop, completely covering the screen in an instant. The game lasted two minutes in competitive mode. Whoever managed to shoot down more enemies in that time walked away the winner.
The difference between this and single-player mode was that the game didn’t end if an enemy hit you—you were shut out of the game for a short period of time instead. You could also shoot certain bonus items to obscure your opponent’s view with a giant on-screen blood spatter.
Otherwise, nothing had changed. The gameplay couldn’t have been simpler: You see monsters, you shoot them. But that simplicity meant that the difference between a beginner and a seasoned player was obvious to anyone watching.
No. There was nothing “stupid” about this game at all.
And this guy acted like he was too good for it. I had to whip him, and soundly.
By the time ninety seconds had passed, I was so far ahead scorewise that my pissed-off opponent had no chance to make up the difference, no matter how much he struggled.
I couldn’t take my eyes off the screen so I couldn’t see how he was looking, but this was a sorry performance for someone who talked so tough a few minutes ago. I could imagine his expression easily enough right now.
Coldly, robotically, I kept tabs on the monsters appearing on-screen. I didn’t shoot any of the bonus items. All I cared about was blowing away my foes.
The end-of-game buzzer sounded, and the game displayed the final results screen.
But the pissed dude, perhaps because he already knew he lost big, was blankly staring at his controller. The guy behind him held his mouth open, dumbfounded.
Of course he was. Slashing apart such a massive number of monsters without a single mistake couldn’t be done by gaming the system, so to speak. It was a simple matter of talent.
I had even performed the old party trick of putting the controller down midway and letting myself get whaled upon for a little while. They couldn’t say I didn’t give them a fighting chance.
“Well, that’s the end of the game. Thanks for playing! I’m not allowed to play the same competitor twice in a row, so if you’d like to try again, feel free to come back half an hour from now.”
I smiled as I made the announcement. “No way…how could I have…” the angry man said. You couldn’t get a more traditional sore-loser script than that.
“Um…if you wouldn’t mind?” I said, trying to hurry them out of the room. My opponent immediately stood up and began wildly shouting at me.
“Wh-who the hell are you, anyway?! I’ve never seen such an awesome gamer in person like you! How on…?!”
It was such a typical, predictable response. To be honest, I was already getting annoyed by it.
“Well, you know,” I replied, “I practiced a lot.” It wasn’t much of a response, but I hoped it was enough to make them go away.
But looking at my face, illuminated by the results screen shining almost too brightly in the darkness, the men began to rear back a little. Just then, I realized I had made a terrible mistake.
The dopey guy just told me earlier that his surly companion was a champion-level Dead Bullet -1989- player.
Playing in the nationals was definitely nothing to sniff at. There was no doubt that I had just trounced a pretty seasoned gamer.
He had certainly demonstrated some flashes of talent during our match, so I doubt his slopeheaded friend was lying. But, if anything, I wished that he was.
“Are…are you…Dancing Flash Ene?!”
—This couldn’t be going any worse. If he made it to the semifinals—and, especially, if he qualified in the same region that I did—we had probably at least seen each other at the site of the regionals.
What’s more, I had misplaced the mask I had prepared for the day of the tournament. I played with my face visible for all the world to see.
I decimated the competition at the semis, easily scoring first place to punch my ticket to the final. They would later call it—and I’m serious here—the “Legend of the Dancing Flash.” To say the least, I stuck out a little bit.
I wasn’t concerned at first because the semifinals were thankfully not shown on TV, but, man, how could I have known this would happen?
I had been generally miffed all morning, so I was putting on this cool, composed gamer-girl image up to now, but this sudden development wiped my mind clean once more.
“Huh? Hey, is this girl famous or something?!”
“Famous? Dude, not just famous. You ever heard of ‘Dancing Flash: Eternal Rondo’? That’s the guild this lady built. They’re, like, legends in the tournament circuit. The scores they put up are nuts. They’re in the, like, top three of the team battles—”
“Aaahhhh!! Y-you’ve got the wrong person! Please, just give me a break! Like, just get out of here already!!”
The man’s blabbing away, revealing everything that was in the number-one spot of the “secrets I never want revealed” list, had brought me to the end of my rope.
“B-but…But I recognized your play style! That’s, like, the classic ‘Holy Nightmare’ technique that Ene came up with for Dead Bullet!”
I was plagued by the feeling that my guts were going to eject themselves out of my mouth. My face felt like it would start spewing magma at any moment.
I just wanted to stuff these two people into an oil drum, fill it with concrete, and go bury it in some mountain forest.
“That…that’s not me, okay?! Uh, please, I need you to get going! Pleeeease!!”
Thanks to this outburst, the door flung itself open, Haruka bursting into the room with a worried look on his face.
“T-Takane! Are you okay—!”
“Yaaagghh!! You go away, too! Please, all of you, leave—!!”
I pointed at the door as I shouted. The three of them murmured “Okay, okay!” as they obediently trundled themselves out of the room.

Sitting back down on my chair, I slouched my shoulders dejectedly.
This was a major miscalculation. I never imagined that my true identity would be revealed here, right now, of all places…
What would happen if that pissed-looking guy sent me a message later along the lines of “I apologize for being so rude to you earlier. It was a great honor to have the chance to compete against you…”?
He might do it, too, is the thing. It’d probably be a smart idea not to login for a few days.
—But Haruka’s the real problem. I don’t think he overheard any of that conversation, but if he did…The mere thought nauseated me.
I always found my handle pretty embarrassing. When the game asked me for an account name, I just kind of freestyled with it. That clan title was meant to be an ironic attempt to sound all spooky and mysterious.
Now it was all revealed…That, and the ridiculous name that people had given to my gameplay style.
“I should just delete my account and die…”
Tears of humiliation came down my face. After all this time of treating him like an idiot, if Haruka found out about how I went around online with all these teenage-fanfic-writer names, he’d probably freak.
My current circle of friends would almost certainly crumble. They’d all politely keep their distance from me, saying stuff like “Oh…uh, good morning, Enomoto…” like someone had just passed gas in the stairwell.
It’s all over. This is awful. What the hell is some tournament-level player doing bumping around a stupid school festival like this, anyway? It was just the most horrible luck.
For now, I had to assume Haruka heard everything and come up with the best excuses I possibly could.
But—wait a sec here—even if he did make out some of it, it was unlikely he’d understand much of what they said.
No. There was no way he could.
He wasn’t a gamer or anything. No way at all.
It’ll be okay, it’ll be okay.
“Takane, are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m okay, I’m okay…Aghh! Since when were you in here?!”
…Thanks to focusing so fervently on my internal conflicts, I had completely failed to notice that Haruka was there in the classroom, right by my side.
“Since when? Uh…around the point you said you should delete your account and die, but…”
My face instantly ran hot as an oven. He even overheard me talking to myself.
And talking to myself about something as stupid and embarrassing as my video-game account…
“No! No, I didn’t mean that! You know, the account…like, the thing you use to chat with friends and stuff, right?”
What else could I have meant? Haruka wasn’t even listening, but the sight of me, head down, trying to make excuses, would’ve aroused anyone’s suspicions. From the bottom of my heart, I wished someone would throw me in an oil drum and bury me in the mountains.

After a moment, I looked up, wondering how Haruka was reacting. For some reason, his eyes looked alive with energy, as if flames were burning in them.
“You really handled that great, Takane! I thought those guys were pretty scary at first, but they were all polite with me and stuff on the way out! I guess they must’ve given some respect for your skills once the game was over, huh?”
Haruka was acting amazingly passionate about this all of a sudden.
He was scared and blubbering a moment ago, and now he was going on about sportsmanship like some peewee soccer coach.
But this sudden shift didn’t matter. I felt a wave of relief, noting that he didn’t mention me once during his speech.
Haruka didn’t hear a thing after all. Thinking about it, no way he’d be the kind of guy who’d have his ear against the door anyway. I was all worked up over nothing.
“Wow…They were that nice to you, huh? Yeah, I sure hope I taught them not to mess with this school. Not that they had any chance against me in the first place!”
“Ha-ha! You said it! You know, I was really anxious about all this, but this is actually really fun! You’re being a huge help, Takane!”
Of course I was. There were a few unanticipated events, yes, but we had successfully entertained the first visitors to our booth.
And considering how easy it was to fend off a challenger as talented as that was, I was confident we would hold on to our prize—as long as the national #1 didn’t show up or anything.
If you focused on the results alone, we were off to a grand start. And if those two guys are already gone, there was nothing left to be concerned about.
Given the location of the science storage room, we could hardly expect to be as crowded as the festival stands outside. I should just sit back, enjoy the atmosphere, and wait for my next challenge.
All this anxiety had made me pretty thirsty. I took a swig from the sports drink I had ready under the desk, a small reward for my epic performance.

“I sure am impressed, though…And that name’s really cool, too! ‘Dancing Flash Ene,’ huh? I’d love to see you show off some of those ‘Holy Nightmare’ moves sometime!”

The sports drink in my mouth flew across the room, robbed of its chance to tour my stomach.
What liquid that didn’t spray out went straight down my windpipe. I began to choke loudly.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa, what just happened, Takane? Are you all right?!”
Haruka gave me a couple precautionary slaps on the back. I would have much preferred it if he suddenly blinked out of existence.
My skirt was drenched in sports drink, and the violent intensity of my coughing was causing my mind to zone out.
If anything, I wanted to just die right there, just as I was.
“Ngh…huff…huff…H-how did…you hear about…!”
Catching my breath, I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand as I asked. But it might have been too late by that point anyway. Haruka had just parroted my handle name and “special moves” (ugh) back to me, precisely, without error.
“Those guys told me. Man, the one dude was really excited about you, Takane! I’m glad I got to find out about it!”
“Ahh…ahhhh…”
I no longer had the energy to wipe myself dry. All I could do was hang my head and groan. It was all over.
Time to wave my school life good-bye. The school festival had been kind of fun, but now it was just another memory I wish I could erase.
“Hey…hey, why’re you acting all depressed? I mean, that’s really awesome, Takane! You’re like some kind of celebrity, right? All those fans! It’s like I’m in the same class with this huge big shot!”
Haruka gave me another pat or two on the back, but the term “big shot” mercilessly pierced deep into my heart.
He was right, though. Anyone who saw me would naturally conclude that I wasn’t exactly a normal girl. If my hobby was something humdrum like shopping, that would have been fine. Or if I had focused on extracurricular activities instead of all this, people might think I was a really active, energetic teenager or whatever.

But what kind of attraction was there to a teenage girl who spent hours and hours playing a game where you killed hordes of the undead? I couldn’t think of any.
Haruka was going on the way he was because he didn’t understand my viewpoint. The more he actually found out about my daily lifestyle, he more he’d want to edge away from me, that much was certain.
Then he might not even treat me like a friend any longer. The thought scared me on a primal level.

“Mmm…Well, Takane, I don’t know what’s making you so worried, but I’m not gonna start hating you just because you’re different, you know? So quit acting so down, all right?…Oh, right! Hey, can you maybe teach me a little sometime? I wanna start playing, too!…Uh, Takane? Are you listening?”
Haruka was rubbing my back as he spoke.
Whether he was aware of it or not, the worst thing about this was how he was talking about all this embarrassing stuff as if it weren’t embarrassing at all. He probably acted this way with everyone. There was nothing underhanded in his behavior, you could say. That, or you could say he was just too slow in the head to fake friendliness.
Still, through it all, there was something about him saying he wouldn’t hate me that I found very reassuring.
Thinking about it made me realize how dumb I was being.
Whether out of happiness or embarrassment, I was starting to feel more tears coming for reasons unknown to me. I was unable to answer Haruka, or even turn toward him.
“Um…Hello? I’d like to have a match?”
Suddenly, another visitor spoke up from behind the door. Oh. Right. The school festival’s only gotten started. No time to sit here staring into space.
I hurriedly wiped away my tears and turned toward the door, only to realize that my skirt was still soaking wet.
“Oh…ooh…”
I was frozen, pitched forward like a runner at the starting line. Haruka briskly walked past me and out the door.
There was something generally off about a lot of his personality, but he was always oddly generous to others at times like these.
I took out a handful of tissues from a box on top of the shelf, quickly wiping them on my skirt and the floor.
It wasn’t a great amount—just the sports drink I had in my mouth—and it was all wiped up in seconds.
Wadding up the tissues, I tossed them into the garbage can in the room and headed for the door, as if nothing were amiss.
Opening it a crack, I stuck my face out to tell Haruka that I was ready. There I saw our next visitor —a boy, around twelve or thirteen years old.
“Oh, is everything okay? I think this kid wants to play you, so knock yourself out!”
The fire had once again returned to Haruka’s eyes. This game wasn’t a sport or anything, but in terms of it being a competition where players tried to outdo each other, I suppose there was a sense of sportsmanship to it that appealed to him.
Maybe he understood me better than I thought. The idea brightened my soul as I began to get excited for my next match.
“Oh, are you the champion around here? Well, good luck.”
The young challenger, sporting a black parka and dyed brown hair, flashed a refreshing smile that seemed to have something lurking behind it before giving me a polite bow.
“Oh, uh, sure! Good luck to you, too! Here, come on in and I’ll explain the rules to you!”
I slid the door open and the boy entered, exclaiming “Coooool!” as he examined the décor.
“Okay, uh, we’ll be done in a sec.”
I turned back toward Haruka, eyes now blazing with competitive passion, and shut the door.
“Uh, so yeah, here are the rules! We’re gonna play each other in the game running over there, in the center of the room. Whoever beats more enemies and scores the most points is the winner! Easy, right?”
I tried to make the best big-sister impression I could as I spoke, the smile that failed me earlier gleaming like the sun. This visitor seemed perfectly normal. Or maybe my first opponent was so abnormal that everyone else seems tame by comparison.
“Whoa, that looks like fun! I guess our little friend isn’t here either, but…what do you think, Kido, wanna try it out?”
“Oh, it’s a lot of fun, trust me! Wait…Kido?…Wagh!!”
The boy I had just been giving the rules to suddenly began to speak to the empty space by his side.
I had no idea what he was doing at first, but the moment my eyes turned to where the boy’s attention was focused, I was greeted with the fright of my life.
Up until this moment, the only person in front of me was this boy.
But now there was a girl, too—about the same height as the boy and wearing a hoodie.
It was too dark to gauge her expression, but the soft “Yeah” she gave in response indicated she was indeed female.
“W-w-where, where did you…?”

The shock was enough to almost make me lose my balance. There was no way this girl was here before—not here, not in the hallway earlier.
There was no time for her to enter the room, except for the moment I had the door open. Considering that, she had to have gone in with the boy…but from my perspective, it was like she just teleported in, right in front of me.
“You all right, lady? Oh, this girl’s been here the whole time. She doesn’t project much of a presence, though, so people don’t even notice her a lot of the—Oww!”
The girl gave the boy a punch on the side, apparently unappreciative of her companion going on about this…what would you call it? Transparency?
Being a wallflower is one thing. What would it take to be so…unnoticeable? I had never experienced such an odd, disquieting feeling in my life.
—Maybe she was some kind of ghost. The thought seriously crossed my mind for a moment. But that would be even more unrealistic. For someone like me, who steadfastly refused to believe in ghosts or apparitions or the supernatural, the idea that I had just overlooked her seemed far more convincing.

“…Would you mind if we got started?”
“Agh…! Oh, sure, sure! If you could just take this seat here…!”
This girl’s existence presented countless questions to me, but regardless of who she was, it seemed wise to get this over with as soon as possible.
Even if she was a ghost, it didn’t matter as long as she didn’t hurt me or anything. I think.
…She didn’t strike me as the evil curse–giving kind of ghoul.
But if she picks up the controller using telekinesis or something instead of using her hands, I’m definitely getting outta here. That was the conclusion I settled upon as I headed for my chair.
The girl and I each took our seats, but my heart kept beating away at a breakneck clip.
Gingerly, I turned toward the girl. The light from the monitor in front of us just barely illuminated her face.
Her skin was pale but attractive, and her hair was on the long side. Her eyes were a bit too sharp and gloomy, but otherwise her face was well-balanced and worthy of the term “beautiful.”
But the ambient light was making her look like something right out of a ghost story.
I decided to hurry up and get the game started before I lost my nerve.
“Okay, uhhhh…so, like I said before, this is a shooting game where you try to score as much as you can. If you can beat my score, I’ll give you a fantastic prize! So…uh, what difficulty level would you like…?”
“…Normal.”
“Oh! Right! Certainly! Sorry! Okaaaay…right! Time to get starrr-ted!”
My tongue tripped on that final word out of sheer nervousness. The boy behind us tittered in response.
Seeing him made me feel utterly embarrassed.
A whirlpool of thoughts was churning in my mind, but I just focused on getting through this, and fast. Setting the difficulty to normal, I pushed the “Start” button. Monsters began to well up on-screen.
This mode offered far fewer monsters to shoot than the “Extra” mode last game, meaning that there were nowhere as many points on offer.
In my personal experience, this mode stuck out to me mainly because the game generated a lot more pig enemies here than in any other difficulty.

A minute passed.
The girl’s playing style was utterly normal, with no particular idiosyncrasies. She was just an average girl playing a game.
To me, having just taken on an elite player in the toughest mode the game had to offer, the challenge was lacking. But what should I expect from a regular girl, though?
I occasionally heard her squeak out an “Agh!” or “Whoa!” in response to the menacing monsters, but otherwise she just sat there, quietly playing.
If this pair started going on like “Nngh, this is soooo tough! I’m so terrible at this!” and “Aw, hang in there, girl, you can do it!” that’d be enough to wipe the smile from my face and jump out the window out of pure awkwardness. In that way, things were going far more smoothly than I expected.
But with about thirty seconds left in the game, something strange started happening on my screen.
Suddenly, the pigs in front of me began to disappear, the on-screen gunsight blinking on and off. The game began to bug out in unpredictable fashion.
“Hey…Hey! Is this thing crashing, or…?”
“Don’t get scared, Kido!” said the boy between his giggling. “Stay focused!”
I tried to hold out and keep killing foes, but there wasn’t much way of doing that if my target reticule was gone.
As time went on, the gap between our scores grew narrower and narrower. Who could have guessed that my going easy on her at first would come back to bite me like this…!
Just as I began to think I was in serious trouble, the closing buzzer went off.
Thanks to my frazzled reaction, I had lost track of my point score. I closed my eyes, praying to myself as the game prepared to show the results.
If she defeated me, I’ll have lost our one and only prize to our second visitor.
For the sake of our continued business, we needed to avoid that.
With a musical fanfare, the results screen flashed on. Opening my eyes and forcing myself to read it, I found the WIN mark next to my name. I eked out a victory by a mere one hundred points.
The sweat began to pour out of me. This bug or whatever nearly did me in back there…
But, jeez, Mr. Tateyama! Don’t tell me you didn’t bother beta-testing this stupid game!
As I thought over this, I heard the boy’s now-familiar giggling rev up again.
“Ha-ha-ha! Guess you narrowly lost that one, huh, Kido? Wouldn’t be very nice if you won by cheating, though, right? I think you probably owe her an apology.”
The boy’s face was illuminated by the computer screens as he spoke. It looked like he was trying to hold back tears as he continued to titter to himself.
“…Sorry.”
The girl’s voice wavered a bit as she spoke. She stood up and calmly walked toward the door.
“Wait, cheating…? I-I think that was just a program bug. She didn’t do anything wrong, did she?”

Indeed, there was no way anyone could have called that anything apart from a bug.
It’s not like she was hacking into the program or trying to mentally distract me. The girl never even had a chance to break the rules.
The boy continued to beam brightly at me, unfazed by my denial.
“Aw, I’m sorry to confuse you. This is, like, maybe kind of hard to believe, but that girl was actually using her psychic powers there. You can check it out it yourself if you like, but I’m sure the computer’s, like, fine and stuff. It’ll be back to normal now, so don’t worry about that happening again later.”
Having said his piece, the boy followed the girl toward the door and disappeared into the hallway without even turning his back to me.

The exaggerated “Aaaaiggh!” I heard from Haruka the moment the pair left no doubt indicated that he hadn’t seen the girl before, either.
I put down the controller and listlessly stared at the door they had just left through.
I felt like some kind of fox spirit had just played a trick on me.
That psychic ghost-girl, and that boy who kept smiling at me the whole time…
I’ve just had this experience which, if I ever told anyone about it, would make then say, “Ah, you’ve been watching too much anime.”
Haruka (as expected) came running through the door immediately afterward. “Was that girl there from the start?!” he asked (as expected). “I didn’t notice her at all!”
“Wasn’t she there…? I mean, look…”
The display I pointed at showed the score tallies from our pitched battle, the sole evidence I had that she even existed.

As the noon hour rolled around, the school began to grow more fragrant.
To the classes running cafés or food stalls, this was the high season. For those of us running attraction-type displays, it was time for a break.
Exiting the dark storage room and hanging a RETURNING 1:00 P.M. sign on the doorknob, Haruka and I set off for lunch.
I played against a dozen or so competitors in the morning, but after that wacky pair, I was blessed with refreshingly normal opponents the whole time, finally making it to lunch without further incident.
“I was really worried for a little while…Like, at first, I thought you were deliberately trying to find the weirdest people possible to play against me.”
“Whaa? Oh, come on, Takane! All I did was talk with anyone who passed by the door, so…”

The open space in front of the main entrance, a morass of blue plastic sheets and cardboard a little while ago, was now bustling with stalls and shops run by the school’s assorted classes.
From yakitori to hot dogs, from French fries to yakisoba noodles, the colorful signs that lined the area were enough to whet anyone’s appetite.
Wandering around as we reflected on the morning’s events, Haruka and I spotted an area just to the right of the entry gate where we could sit down and consume our purchases.
“Hey, how ’bout we head there to eat? I eat lunch in the prep room every single day, so this’ll be a nice change of—Hey!!”
“Mmh? Whuh?”
I realized that Haruka was already chowing down on some grilled squid, both arms already groaning with food.
“…You could have worked with me a little, you know. I thought we were gonna go shopping around together…Like, when did you even buy all that stuff?!”
“Mngh…Oof! There we go! Uh, sorry about that. It all looked so good, I couldn’t help myself…! You wanna have some, Takane? Here, take whatever you like!”
The bag Haruka was holding contained a vast variety of main dishes—boxes of yakisoba, okonomiyaki pancakes, and so forth.
“Wow…You made some good choices. Okay, how ’bout we go sit down and eat? There oughta be some empty seats at the far end.”
I turned around to point out an uncrowded table to Haruka, only to find his mouth already full of the hot dog that was his latest conquest. He nodded emphatically, unable to verbalize a response.

We took seats facing each other in a shady spot of the eating area. The weather outside couldn’t have been more perfect for the school festival.
If anything, it was almost a touch too warm outside. Many of the visitors were dressed in little more than T-shirts and jeans.
Haruka and I were lightly dressed as well, since we figured we’d be on our feet for most of the day.

The moment we settled down, Haruka, apparently unable to contain his bearlike appetite any longer, cracked an enormous smile as he laid his purchases out on the table.
The food he showed me earlier was apparently just the appetizer. One after the other, he arranged all the boxes neatly on the table—easily enough food for five or six people.
“Is that, like, a Bag of Holding or something…?”
Haruka looked over his personal smorgasbord, the sheer quantity of which made me wonder how on earth it all fit in his bag. After a few moments of uncertainty, he opted for the okonomiyaki first.
I was pretty hungry myself, so I grabbed a plastic box of yakisoba with sauce and brought it in front of me.
“Well, thanks very much…Oh, right, I haven’t paid you yet. How much was this?”
I would’ve felt bad eating on his dime, so I took my wallet out of my skirt pocket.
“Oh, don’t worry about it. You know, Mr. Tateyama this morning, he gave me some money and told me to eat whatever we wanted. Like, ten thousand yen or so. So go thank him, not me!”
“Ten thousand? That much?! Ugh…Our teacher basically embezzled our festival budget, but now he’s being crazy generous to us, huh?”
“Yeah, well, I guess he went to a pachinko parlor to take a break from working on the game, and he said he kinda hit the jackpot over there. He ordered takeout from some fancy sushi restaurant for us that night.”

Hearing that brought my recently improving opinion of Mr. Tateyama zooming back down into the abyss. The feast before me now seemed like nothing more than the by-products of a degenerative gambling habit, filling me with an odd sense of sympathetic sorrow.
“Hmm? Aren’t you gonna eat, Takane? ’Cause if not…”
“I’m eating, I’m eating! Like, how much of this are you actually gonna eat, anyway? You’re gonna gain so much weight!”
The stalls at school festivals are virtual odes to the art of high-calorie fast food. The sight of the fried-chicken booth was enough to make me start to smack my lips, but if I lost myself in the festival atmosphere today, I knew my body would make me pay tomorrow.
The calories I’d gleefully consume would definitely come back to haunt me in the days to come. That much was obvious.
And meanwhile, here was Haruka, plowing through the plates of boneless fried chicken, hot dogs, crepes, pizza sticks, fries, and chocolate-covered bananas with astonishing speed. The sheer quantities were out of this world, but picturing the churning slurry of grease and bread crumbs in his stomach was enough to give me heartburn.
“Well, so? It’s delicious. All of it. Oh, and you know, I pretty much never gain weight, no matter how much I eat. I don’t pack too big a lunch for school, but this is about what I eat at home, usually.”
Listening to Haruka while silently comparing the size of his lunch with his compact frame genuinely irked me.
Even going a little overboard with meals for a day had drastic effects on my weight. It just wasn’t fair.
“Ugghhh,” I groaned. “I wish I could go without a meal or two and not feel so hungry all the time…That, and I wish I didn’t have to sleep, either.”
“Well, that’d be kind of boring, don’t you think? ’Cause me, I really like to eat. And sleep, too.”
Haruka stuck another dagger in me as he expectantly eyed a burger he was in the process of unwrapping.
“…Well, I’m glad you’re happy, anyway.”
“Mm? What was that?”
Something about the way he responded, a spot of ketchup on one of his cheeks, made it impossible to hate him. I prayed to no one in particular for Haruka to gain twenty pounds overnight and rip all of his pant seams.

One thirty in the afternoon.
After reopening our shooting gallery on time, we were surprised to find our steady stream of visitors from the morning suddenly go dry.
“Weird, huh? I wonder what’s going on. It wasn’t anywhere near this dead in the morning. You think someone’s spreading bad rumors about us or something?”
I peeked out the door and checked the hallway. Haruka was still standing guard outside, waiting for visitors, but there weren’t many people roaming the halls at all, much less near our classroom.
As I experienced a sudden pang of anxiety, Haruka reached into his pocket, as if suddenly remembering something, and pulled out a piece of folded paper.
“Oh yeahhh…I think it’s probably because of this, Takane.”
The paper had a printout of the class presentation schedule for the day.
I lost my copy almost immediately after it was passed out, but I didn’t mention it because I didn’t want to subject myself to asking Haruka to show me his. Thanks to that, I didn’t have much of a grasp of the other classes’ plans.
“Oh…? So which of these would keep people from coming here?”
“Well, apparently the student council’s holding this thing from one to two over in the gymnasium. I guess most people are over there, checking it out.”
The entry Haruka pointed out read “Student Council Project: 1–2 p.m.” It was boxed in with heavy lines, giving it higher visibility on the schedule grid.
“Huh. You’re right. Man, the student council sure likes to stick out of the crowd, huh? They could’ve waited until the rest of the class booths were closed up, at least…I bet all the other classes are pretty pissed about this, too.”
The exhibitionist streak so clearly presented in the schedule’s design was certainly not giving me a very good impression of our student government, anyway.
And here I made sure to have a decent lunch and get myself mentally prepped for the afternoon’s combat session. Not much point to that if no one’s gonna show up.
“Ah, it’s no big deal. We’ll probably have a big rush in half an hour once it’s over. How ’bout we just take it easy until then?”
Haruka folded the printout back up, opened the door I stuck my head out of, and entered the room.
“Yeah, I guess so. Man, I wish we could get a real flood of visitors sooner or later. I’m ready to take on the world here.”
Just as I was about to stop whining and bring my head back into the room, I spied a figure at the edge of my vision.
It was on the left side of the hallway, near the front student entrance. There wasn’t a soul there earlier, but now I saw three men, all sporting the same getup.
They were wearing military-camo pants, headbands, and goggles, as if they had just returned from a rousing game of airsoft and stopped by the festival without changing.
“Whoa…Who’re those dudes? Are they in costume or something? I guess they’re visiting the festival, but is that what they normally wear…?”
It was all a little too perfectly done up to be their everyday outfits. The clothing was one thing, but there even appeared to be walkie-talkies Velcroed to the shoulder straps on the bags they carried.
“What’s up, Takane?”
“I dunno…There’re these weird guys down the hall. You think we should call for a teacher or something?”
“Weird guys? Here, lemme take a look.”
Haruka stuck his head out the door above mine and peered down the hall.
“You see? Really weird, huh? That’s definitely not the sort of thing you wear to a school festival…”
“Well, who knows? Maybe that’s just the new fashion or whatever. The military look, you know?”
Hearing Haruka use the word “fashion” threw me for a loop. Does he…actually know about that sort of thing? Like, a lot more than I thought?
Maybe these people I was repeatedly describing as “weird” were simply up on the latest trends… Would that mean I was the one being weird after all, with my so-last-year teenage look?
“Yeah, uh, I guess you do see that a lot lately. Must be getting pretty popular. Did it start in…uh, Tokyo or something?”
I had no choice but to play along and compliment the drill sergeants down the hall. I didn’t want anyone, particularly Haruka, to think I didn’t care about looking good.
“Oh, it is popular, huh? I have no idea about any of that stuff, so…Guess I should’ve known you would, Takane!”
Haruka’s guileless smile stung me inside. Thinking about it, someone willing to strip half-naked in class would have no business talking about fashion at all.
Yet again, my ego had been kind enough to shovel my grave for me. “Yeah, thanks,” I replied, which only served to further guilt my conscience.

“Um…would it be all right if I asked you a question, perhaps?”
“Huh?”
Looking upward at the sudden request, I was greeted by the platoon from before, now standing at attention right in front of us.
They had gotten worryingly close while I was distracted by my inane exchange with Haruka.
“Waugh! Y-yes! What is it?”
Up close, the group was terrifyingly intimidating.
Dressed beyond inappropriately for a high school, they had somehow multiplied since I first spotted them, now a full squadron of six.
Haruka noticed the same time I did. He yelped, reared back, and tried his best to hide behind my back to avoid them. Pathetic bastard.
“I apologize for surprising the two of you. You see, we’re searching for this one display…We heard there was a certain booth in this festival holding a shooting-gallery competition.”
“Uh, huh…Huh?! Oh, uh, I think you’re looking for us, but…”
I was surprised at first by how breathlessly polite this group of young men was, then surprised a second time by the fact they were looking for our booth.
The men began to murmur among themselves, as if taken aback themselves.
“Ohh, this is it, huh? B-by the way, who would our opponent be…?”
The moment they realized they had the right place, the men began to eagerly question me, as if they were about to challenge their commanding officer to close-quarters combat.
“Um? That…that would be me, but…?”
I peeked my head out the doorway just a small distance, trying to keep a safe zone between myself and this bizarre army.
The moment I replied, the group cried out joyously in unison.
The man in front speaking with me even began to sob uncontrollably. What’s this reaction all about…? I was starting to have a very bad feeling about this…

“P-pardon us, ma’am…! So, so you must be Dancing Flash Ene, then…? It’s such an honor to meet you in person—”
That was all I needed to hear. I slammed the door in their faces.
I knew it. They were fans of mine from the world of online gaming.
I should have realized it the moment I spotted their stupid uniforms.
They were dressed that exact way the last time I saw them, at one tournament or another.
If I was just a little quicker on the uptake, I could have hidden both my identity and our booth. And none of this would be happening! I am so damn stupid!
But how did they know…? Ah, that much was simple, at least. That eternally pissed-looking guy I played with this morning had to have posted something like “Dancing Flash Ene is running a shooting game! Any gamers nearby, check it out and send pix!”
That was the only way I could imagine word getting out. I knew I should have been a lot more firm with him when I still had the chance.
“T-Takane…who were those guys…?”
“Huh? Oh, nobody! They’re already gone!”
I smiled through my rapidly beading sweat as Haruka gave me a worried look. Immediately afterward, there was a heavy knock on the door behind me.
“Please! We just want to have a single match with you!” they mewled through the door. “Please! Whatever it takes!”
Who was the idiot who suggested the shooting gallery in the first place? Oh, right, it was me. If I had known this would happen, running a maid café would’ve been a thousand times better.
The commotion on the other side of the door grew louder. Judging by the voices, the squadron had grown into a full company of would-be soldiers gathering here after word got around.
“…Let’s get it over with.”
With a final oath to myself, I opened the door to find the warriors now numbering a dozen or so.
The moment I appeared, a wave of elated cheering erupted across the hall.
I flung the door wide open. “All right!” I shouted. “I’m Ene, and I’ll take all of you on one by one! Who wants to die first?!”
“Ene…So cool…” muttered one buck private in stark admiration. The stream of tears indicated to me, once and for all, that the years of my youth were over.

…Two hours or so passed.
The classroom was filled to the brim with onlookers, the crowd spilling out well into the hallway.
Right then, I was in the midst of creating a “New Legend of the Dancing Flash” with the several dozen people I had taken on. The tears, and my sense of humiliation, had all but dried up.
“…She won again! That’s forty-five in a row!!”
After what seemed like the eight-hundredth round of cheers and applause, my challenger complimented me and took his leave, weeping in joy at the opportunity to play against me.
The pool of challengers consisted of nothing but gamers now, the general public left to quizzically stare at the events from afar. It was a strange sight, a distinctly non-school-festival-like one.
“You still doing okay, Ene?! We’re closing up in ten minutes, so hang in there!”
Haruka, crouched down to my right, had started calling me “Ene” somewhere along the line, cheering me on like a boxer’s corner man.
“Yeah…it’ll be over…Though it’s been over for me for a while now…heh-heh…”
I leaned back in my chair, babbling incoherently. I couldn’t guess what kind of rumors would start going around school tomorrow.
Maybe I should just write “Ene” on a nameplate, hang it around my neck, and prance around the school grounds all day.
As I lost myself in dread and idle self-pity, a new challenger sat down next to me.
All the opponents up to now were big, burly (or just plain obese) men, but this time I was taking on a boy in a red jersey, about the same height as the teenage pair who visited this morning.
I was visibly bewildered. Haruka patted my shoulder from the side.
“Ene…I’m sorry to interrupt you while you’re in the groove, but we better give out our prize before we have to close. Would you mind much if you let this kid beat you…?”
Haruka seemed honestly reluctant to broach the topic. How long was he going to have the wrong idea like this? I’m not “in the groove.” Nothing even close to that.
But, timewise, it might be a good idea to throw a match sooner than later.
Losing to a boy would be something of a blow to my pride, yes, but this wasn’t really a competition—it was more of a service to our visitors.
And it sure beats having to lose against anyone in this gaggle of gamers…
If I wanted this event to end successfully, now was no time to try to show off. This was the final opponent, besides. I decided to paint a smile on my face for the first time in hours.
“Okay, you’re the next opponent, right? Great to meet you! Do you know the rules, or do you need a quick rundown?”
I somehow managed to drum up my “cutesy big sister” voice for him. Who knows if this experience might affect this kid’s taste in girls, after all. —I am such an evil woman.
“…You know, maybe you think you’re good, being number-two in the country and all, but you don’t look that tough to me at all. Your moves are so predictable, and you’re getting sloppy, too. It’s getting me pissed just watching you.”
The kid in the jersey didn’t even look at me as he spoke. It was the exact opposite of what I imagined.
“Huh…? Uh, I’m sorry, I don’t think I heard you quite right…”
I had to have misheard him. How could a cute little kid like this be so harsh with me?
“I said, you suck. Can we get started already? You can set the difficulty to whatever you want.”

—Something inside of my head cracked. There was no mistaking it the second time. He said that I “sucked.”
This snot-nosed kid was bashing my play. The gameplay that earned me worship and adulation as the Dancing Flash.
“Uh…you think I suck, huh? So you think you can beat me, oh?”
“Sure do. In fact, I’m guaranteed to win. You suck, remember?”
My temper was wearing thin. The blood in my face burned so hot, I was afraid it would burst out of my arteries.
But my opponent was younger than me. There was no point throwing a tantrum over him.
It’s nothing that really matters. Just beat him, and everything will be fine. Kids like these are all bark and no bite. Someone needs to teach him that the only thing that really matters in this world is the win/loss column.
“Oh, reeeeeally…? I see, I see…! In that case, how about we play a match at the highest difficulty? And just to inform you, I am not!!…going to lose.”
The controller in my hand was groaning and straining from the strength of my iron grip.
“Wait a sec, Takane,” Haruka whispered to me. “You have to lose this, remember?” But I was in no mind to pay attention to him any longer.

—I was staking my pride in this fight.
Right here, right now, the only way to keep my pride intact was to take this kid and his stupid red jersey and tear him limb from limb.

“Fine by me. If you beat me, I’ll do whatever you want me to. But what if you lose?”
For the first time, the boy looked me in the face. His eyes were sharp and a bit melancholy somehow. They seemed to see right through whatever they perceived, such was the frigid aura they presented.
“I-I’ll do anything you say! Anything! I’ll become your servant and call you ‘master’ and everything! But I’m not gonna lose!”
“Yeah? Man, you are so lame. Let’s do this.”
With that, the boy turned back toward his monitor.
I was agitated, to the point that I knew without checking a mirror that my face was bright red.
I’m gonna beat the crap out of him…! No matter what it takes, he’s going down!
Taking a deep breath, I selected the “Extra” difficulty and pressed the “Start” button.
“I’ll make you regret…treating me like an idiot…”
The duel had begun. The screen began to swarm with monsters.

In the end, I managed to smash my previous top score for the day. My performance was terrific, something I could physically feel, and my sense of focus allowed me to put every ounce of strength I had into the match.
But on the results screen, the word LOSE was printed in blue over my name.
The boy, meanwhile, was marveling at the WIN in gold letters on his screen…as well as the word PERFECT!! in bright red below it.
“You’re…kidding me…?”
“Forget about the promise,” the boy said as I struggled to grasp the reality of it all. “You’d just get in the way, anyway.” And then he left the classroom.
Haruka, flustered, stood up to fetch the fish specimen prize.
“Uh…I gotta go give him this! Ene, that was awesome, right up to the end! Great work today!”
I was unable to offer Haruka so much as a single eye blink.
The debating was already under way around me. “Ahh, she let him win!” “But that was her highscore for the day, right? Which means that Ene actually lost?!” But it didn’t matter to me.
—I was mortified. It was the only emotion I could feel, as I found myself unable to put the controller down.
“Um…listen, I apologize that my friend was so rude to you…”
I was suddenly approached by a girl with midlength black hair.
Today wasn’t particularly cold at all, but she had on a red scarf for some reason, making her seem weirdly fragile.
“…You’re friends with that kid?”
I placed the controller on the desk. “…More or less,” the girl in the scarf replied sheepishly.
Which meant that guy in the jersey, with all that talent, even brought a girl along with him to the school festival?! I could feel pyres of rage about to erupt within me, but the girl’s honest, apologetic face quelled the flames.
“Huh…Well, it’s all right. He was really good. That was the most fun I’ve had in a while. But he should really watch that attitude a bit more! ’Cause he’s gonna have problems if he doesn’t.”
I snorted haughtily as I spoke. The girl smiled bitterly and sighed.
“I…I guess you’re right, yeah. He kind of has a tough time interacting with people, and he’s got kind of an ego, too, so…I’ll talk to him about it later. Again, sorry about that…”
“No, no, you don’t have to apologize…I mean, at that age, we all go through a lot of different stuff, so…just talk it over with him, okay?”
“Certainly. But, oh, he’s gone and left me behind in here! I’m sorry, I need to get going. We have to go meet my father in a little while, so…”
The girl bowed her head, then ran out of the room in a hurry.
With our sole prize gone, the crowd slowly began to disperse. Even my fans left the room with undue haste, as if berating me for taking the act too far in the end.
As I watched this take place in my seat, the school clock rang four p.m., the end of the school festival.
The speaker in the hallway squawked to life: “Ladies and gentlemen, the exhibition hours have ended. All classes, follow your planning committee’s instructions and begin the tear-down process.”
The announcement caused my entire body to be suddenly racked with fatigue. From the moment I arrived until right now, I felt awash in a torrent of unexpected and/or unwelcome events. It was utter chaos on more than one occasion, but now that it was all over…I guess it might have actually been pretty fun.
Now if people can be nice enough to gradually forget about the whole “Ene” thing without word getting spread any farther than it already has…
I pondered over this as I waited for Haruka to return.

I had to hand it to him today. He really outdid himself, helping out around the booth.
Maybe I could treat him to something on the way home…Wait, no. Treating him with my puny allowance would make my savings disappear in five minutes. We could split the tab evenly…No, let’s just buy our own stuff instead. That works.
Oh, wait, he probably still has a lot of money left over from Mr. Tateyama anyway.
Better make sure we use it all before he inevitably turns up and asks for a refund.

I put my head down on the table, playing around with the controller in my hand as I waited a quarter hour or so.
…Haruka didn’t come back.
He just went out to give the kid his prize. This was taking way too long.
Where on earth could he be, taking all this time?
The click-click-click of the second hand on the classroom clock was the only sound I could hear.
After the exhibition ended, all the classes needed to clean their homerooms and head home by five p.m.
We were no exception to this, but it’d take quite a while for just the two of us to get everything squared away
“…That bastard isn’t trying to skip out on the work, is he?”
—No, that seemed extremely unlikely for someone like him. He knew that I’d punch him out once I tracked him down, and besides, he was way too straight-and-narrow to pull something like that.
But if not, then it was unnatural for him to be gone for this long.
I thought over what might be taking up so much time when a worrisome concept crossed my mind.
Could it be that he had one of his attacks while running around, trying to catch up with the kid?
I knew from before that Haruka’s illness was life-threatening.
But what with his personality and the way he acted, it sure didn’t seem that way. I’ve never given even a second thought about it.
Still, think about it. He’s been working day and night on this stuff for the past while, was on his feet all day today with me, and now he’s running around like a chicken with its head cut off outside.
The more I thought it over, the larger my sense of dread ballooned. My heartbeat quickly began to accelerate.
I shot up off my chair, accidentally knocking it over in the process. It clattered to the floor with a loud, echoing bang.
But I wasn’t concerned about that any longer.
For all I knew, Haruka may be collapsed on the ground somewhere right now.
He might be in pain, struggling, someplace where nobody would notice him in time.
The thought made it impossible for me to just sit there.
I really should have realized it sooner. He was a weak guy. Very weak.
But I never paid him any concern whatsoever. I forced him to go through all of this hard work.

“Haruka…!”
I headed for the door and whisked it open…and as I flew out of the room, my body slammed against the person standing in front of me.

“Aghh!”
“Yeoww!”

I fell back toward the classroom, landing on my rear as I marveled at how far I had sent the other guy flying. I groaned in pain as I looked up, only to find a familiar pale-skinned man lying in the hallway, eyes rolling.
“H-Haruka?!”
“Oww…That was pretty rough. What’s up, Takane? You look like you’re in a panic or something.”
“—You idiot…! I was so worried…!”
Filled with relief and concern over knocking him down, I stood up and raced toward Haruka, all but ready to hug him tightly.

—But, noticing the sauce around his lips and the boxes of food that now littered the hallway floor, my emotions converted over to wanting to kick him through the wall.

“…What were you doing?”
I rubbed my rear end as I stopped in front of Haruka, looking down at him.
“What? What do you mean, what? The booths are all closed, so I figured I’d grab whatever food’s left before they threw it out! I mean, check out all this stuff I got! I could practically cater a house party with all of it! Isn’t that awesome?!”

I could feel the anger well uncontrollably within me.

I felt my fists and my cheeks burn. Giving even an ounce of concern for this guy made me feel like such a moron.
“…Takane? Are you mad or something?”
The moment Haruka asked the question, my fist landed directly upon his forehead.

Around the time I hit him, the school speakers reported that our class presentation had been awarded first prize among all the displays in the school festival.
It was sadly drowned out by my angry shouting and Haruka’s plaintive screaming, so it took several more days for us to hear the news.

Previous: Headphone Actor II
Title: Kagerou Daze, Vol2_ Headphone Actor
Next: Headphone Actor III

HEADPHONE ACTOR II

2022-07-18T05:10:00.005+07:00

I didn’t think I’d seen the landscape before me transform so wildly as this ever before in my life.
  With every step I took, another stoplight was sent flying, another building swayed wildly over its foundation.
  The air shifted and swirled before me, and my body propelled itself forward through the wind with every breath I took.

  The intersection was packed with people.
  The signals and signs had already lost all meaning to them, and the lawless roads were now host to a gaggle of colorful cars, abandoned in assorted unlikely locations and angles.

  Some people were screaming something or other.
  Some were punching and flailing at their fellow man.

  All of them looked petrified, wailing pitifully at the end of the world.
  The screaming infant I heard for just a moment almost made me stop running.

  “Keep going. This area’s going to be all over within twelve minutes, so don’t let yourself look back at them…Make a left at the next light.”
  The voice from my headphones, unlike the mad scene before my eyes, was calm and composed as it matter-of-factly provided navigation.
  So I kept going, following its directions as I thrust myself forward through the waves of people.

  I began to wonder how many times in my life I had truly ran with all my strength up to now.
  I led a sheltered childhood from early on, enough so that I was never given a chance to roam free outside.
  That was because I had an illness. One where I lose consciousness in a completely unpredictable manner. No reason, no warning.

  This wasn’t an illness that flared up all that often.
  But the problem was, I could never recall the exact moment when I fell to the ground.
  My memory clocked back into action from the point after I opened my eyes.
  My recollection from before I blacked out would always be hazy and undefined, as if I was having a long, extended dream.

  Cutting through the crowds, running through narrow alleys, I was ejected into a large, wide avenue.
  “Turn right here! There’s only one minute left…”
  The voice inside my headphones had gradually taken on a sense of urgency.
  Paying no attention to my aching legs, I immediately pivoted myself to the right, only to hear a sound like crumpling metal behind me.
  I became unable to resist the urge to turn around as I heard the screams follow in succession.
  “…Hurry! You have someone you need to see, right?! Please…”

  My consciousness began to grow hazy as my breathing accelerated. I felt my lungs begin to burn.
  I wonder if I’m going to black out again.
  Come to think of it, when was the last time I lost consciousness?

  …I grew unable to recall anything at all.

How did all of this even happen?
Who was I even trying to reach…?

And yet, I still felt like there was something extremely important waiting for me at the end.
  That feeling was the only thing that pushed my legs forward.
  —Turning forward, I saw the hill I had been running toward right in front of me.

Previous: Yuukei Yesterday I
Title: Kagerou Daze, Vol2_ Headphone Actor
Next: Yuukei Yesterday II

YUUKEI YESTERDAY I

2022-07-18T05:05:00.003+07:00

The piercing sound of the alarm woke me up.
  I craned a hand to the side, searching for the source of the noise, before grabbing my cell phone by the cord.
Then I shut off the alarm, checked the time, and with a heavy sigh, closed my eyes once more.

…Hang on. This is weird. Like, really, really weird.

According to the clock, I had slept for eleven whole hours today.
So why am I so deathly tired? This is such a rip-off. This high-school teenager, at the peak of her flowering, has just given up the entirety of her late night—a costly loss indeed—and yet the relief this had granted her body was downright paltry.

What could have gone wrong? Am I not as flowery as I’ve led myself to believe? Maybe there wasn’t much I did while awake besides play online games, but the price I had paid for this sleep was dear, too dear.

  A sense of malaise settled over my body, sending frantic danger signals: “Stop! Think it over! If you don’t sleep some more, you’re gonna die!”
  My brain, upon receiving this distress call, sprang into action, considering all methods available to avoid getting up out of the futon.

  For example, Plan A: Fake Sickness.

  Right now, I live alone with my grandmother. If I just told her something like “Ooh, I’m not feeling too well today…,” it’d be a cinch to take the day off from school.
  Tricking my grandmother wouldn’t win me any brownie points, no, but there wasn’t much to be done about it. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

  But this strategy possessed some critical flaws.
  If I went too far with complaining about feeling sick, my grandmother might whisk me away to the hospital.
  I’d be subject to examination, maybe even admitted…and just thinking about the concept made my heart plunge into my stomach.
  Lying in some hospital room, no video games, nothing to help pass the time at all? Not gonna happen.
  Besides, people are way too edgy about this sort of thing anyway. An “illness” like the one I have is hardly any matter of life and death. But some people just go nuts over anything.
  My dead grandfather, in particular. He was always on pins and needles about my illness, going through all these hoops and going way overboard for my sake—enough so to make the high school I was admitted to this year treat me like some kind of tumor.
  …Of course, from other people’s perspectives, I suppose my habit of suddenly fainting right away in the middle of class is a tad irritating. That, and embarrassing to me.
  “You know, if you think about all of that, things are probably best right now as they are.”

—It’s been six or so months since I started living under that credo. That might be one of the reasons why I have yet to make any kind of decent friends.

Be that as it may, Plan A was a nonstarter.

  Contemplating the issue and reaching this conclusion took approximately two minutes. Factoring in the Law of Real Time Versus Relative Time Experienced While In Bed, this speed had to be worthy of praise.

  Plan B: I Actually Have Off School Today.

  If I told my grandmother that today was an optional day or something…But then I remembered that she asked me, “Did you need a bento lunch tomorrow?” last night and I replied, “Yeah! Couldja make up some fried eggs?”

  …I am so stupid! Why fried eggs, of all things?! I didn’t need any bento—I should have requested a sleep-time extension ticket. Not that that exists or anything.

  As if to defy this thought, the inviting smell of eggs cooking over a burner wafted into the room. Chef Grandma must have been cooking my bento right now, giving everything she could to fulfill my request.

  “Nnnngh,” I muttered, full of guilt over expending all this effort to come up with an excuse to goof off. Could I possibly be any less considerate of my poor old grandmother?

  Rolling over, I burrowed my way back underneath the covers and pushed the reset button on my mind

  .…How can my grandmother even do that, anyway? The way she always wakes up at the crack of dawn, day in and day out, no alarm required? The only answer I had was that she had some kind of precision stopwatch installed in her body. My grandma’s a cyborg…

  —As my brain stumbled its way from one inane thought to the next, I heard the creaking and whining of someone climbing up the stairs. The creaking was straight out of horror movies, the kindyou only hear in old wooden houses, and it probably—no, definitely meant that I was about to be forced out of the futon.
  I tugged the sheets tighter over my body, making one final, noble struggle.
  Ughh…I’m out of time…Plan C…Plan C…Plan—
  “You gonna be in there all day or what?! Hurry up and get dressed before you wind up late!”
  “Ergh…yeah…”

  Mission failed.
  Blazing sunlight poured through the opened curtains. GAME OVER flashed in red lettering across my mind.

A balmy late-autumn morning.
  The haze-laden dog days of summer were behind us. Most of the fall was too, making my surroundings on the journey to school seem positively wintry by now. You could notice the extra layers beginning to appear on the bodies of other students. A few couples passed by in sweaters as they got friendly with each other.

  —I flashed obvious glares of animosity at these students, shutting out their asinine conversations with my headphones as I silently plodded toward school. I, Takane Enomoto, was in an extremely bad mood.
  Although maybe this isn’t even worth noting. To me, this is the default.
  Since I had grown accustomed to staying up late, I was generally tired and crabby throughout the prenoon hours, from the moment I opened my eyes in the morning.
  Perhaps due to that, my facial expression had grown into one of plain and apparent malice. People asked me if I was angry over something all the time.
  And that, of course, would only make me crabbier. It was a seriously vicious cycle.

  I wouldn’t mind more of a carefree life, giggling mindlessly at things and engaging in wacky teenage hijinks and so forth, but I never thought for a moment I could become that sort of girl, and I didn’t want to anyway.

  Even the delusions my mind conjured up about the ridiculous things I could become in the future annoyed me. Thus, I walked to school, just as peeved as any other day of my life.

  My only salvation is that it’s a fairly short way to school, one that doesn’t require a bus or train to speed up.

  That saves me from depleting my strength on the trip to school, and it also lets me sleep until the very last minute.
  Thanks to that, I had leisurely pulled myself out of bed while the rest of the student body were struggling to catch their train connections. I was on track to reach the school gates a good fifteen minutes before homeroom.

  Once I reached the road leading straight to my school, I spotted a sudden increase in the number of students wearing the same uniform I had on.
  My walking pace instinctively accelerated, and my eyes grew more menacing than ever.

  Removing my headphones just before the front gate, I rolled my coat up and placed it in my backpack.
  I really liked these headphones. They were a birthday gift from my grandmother. They had kind of a cute design, and the sound quality was nice. I say “nice” just because the earbuds I borrowed from my classmates seemed kind of tinny by comparison; it’s not like these were meant for rich audiophiles or anything.

  But now that I was used to them, they had become my inseparable partner in life.

  Giving a polite bow to the square-jawed gym teacher standing in front of the gate, I went inside to find the school grounds brimming with activity. All over, students were preparing for the school festival coming up in a week’s time.
  The spread-out path between the gate and the front entrance, several dozen meters in width, was dotted here and there with the booths allotted to each class for their festival activities.
  I spotted several posters taped over some of them, from warnings like WET PAINT! DO NOT TOUCH!! to requests like WE NEED CARDBOARD! IF YOU HAVE ANY, CONTACT THE 2-A CLASS PRESIDENT!

  Looking around, I spotted students everywhere—one who must have been working since dawn, what with all the paint spatters on his clothing; one who was already dressed up like some kind of movie monster; a girl whining about how “the guys in class never do anything for us”; the classic “rah rah, this school festival is sooo important, we gotta do our best!” kind of woman. It was all the splendors of boundless youth, writ large before my eyes.

  —But to someone like me, the classic “You spent all week making snide remarks about me, and now all of a sudden you’re acting like my friend? What’s with that?” kind of woman, all this festival prep was nothing but one giant obstacle on the way to class.

  The carnival atmosphere of the festival prep outside had revved up the noise and energy inside school as well. Some of the students had even stayed overnight, fooling around with each other in the most despicable ways until dawn. It was deplorable.
  And once all of this was over, the only thing the festival left behind was an unfathomable amount of garbage.
  What is with this pointless show? It’s so stupid. Brainless.
  And come to think of it, the printout handed out to Year 1, class B yesterday, the class I’m (ostensibly) part of, mentioned that they’d be doing perhaps the most hackneyed festival booth of them all—the “maid café” route.
  This kind of booth was something that I—who hardly attended my officially assigned class at all, much less the festival-planning conferences—was wholly unrelated to, a fact that I relished.
  If I let myself get caught up in some crazy whim and actually dressed up as a maid, it’d be a blemish I’d never be able to wipe away for the rest of my life. Who could even do something like that to themselves?
  As I dwelled upon this nasty state of business, I glared hard enough at a dopey-faced boy blocking the way ahead, standing between the legs of a giant dinosaur model, to make him scurry aside as I headed for the front door.

  Pushing a handle whose PUSH engraving had long disintegrated from overuse, I set foot inside the building, noticing that the heater was making the indoor temperature remarkably pleasant.
  Removing my outside shoes, I turned an eye toward my shoe locker in order to fetch my indoor slippers. The wooden shelves were pretty ancient.
  I had heard that the school building itself had a fair amount of history to it, a prestigious place of higher learning that birthed a wide variety of politicians, celebrities, and other famous people.
  But, to be frank, most of the students would sooner talk about how much they hoped the school building would receive a sorely needed renovation before they boasted about its illustrious past.
  During the typhoon that passed by this summer, our beloved alma mater had its gymnasium roof poked full of holes, the floor around the drinking fountain collapse within itself, and a whole variety of other pitiful disasters happen to it.
  The most serious issue, though, came when the entire building’s air conditioner blew itself up on the hottest summer day of the year. It was enough to make the majority of students eagerly hope for a school transfer.
  Still, thanks to the bare minimum of repairs the school shelled out for during summer break, the HVAC system was back online. A portion of the student body, hoping to use the breakdown as a tool to earn themselves an extended summer vacation, were forced to reluctantly trudge back to school for the second semester.

  Changing into my slippers atop the wooden grating by the front entrance, I briskly made my way down the hall.
  This was the one moment in school life that always grieved me the most. Right where everyone turned left from the corridor with the shoe lockers, happily chattering amongst each other as they went upstairs to their normal classrooms, I alone turned right, heading for the labs and other subjectspecific classrooms—in particular, a room with a distinctly chemical odor to it.
  Yes. That’s right. The “normal classroom” I reported to every day, thanks to the efforts of my assigned proctor, was the science storage room.
  Due to the rapid influx of new students into the local neighborhood over the past few years, all the nonspecialized classrooms had already been assigned to groups of students, which meant that there were no classrooms left for the “special” classes to use.
  In terms of equipment, any room would do as long as it had desks and a teacher’s chair, but I still wished they gave at least a little more thought to my situation. I mean, I’m spending the majority of my three years as a high schooler, a teenager in full flower, inside a room that always faintly smelled of formaldehyde.
  The thought would be enough to make anyone mope a bit, but since there were only two students (counting myself) assigned to this “classroom,” it was a joy to spend time there in terms of serene quietude. Considering my illness, and considering how much of a persona non grata I’d be if I went back to a normal classroom at this point, I found it difficult to complain about this state of affairs.

  Proceeding down the hall, I checked around me to ensure no one was near, then let out a long, dramatic sigh.
  I passed by the art room, the music room, the home-ec room, before reaching the SCIENCE STORAGE plate on the right side of a broad, left-curving corridor leading to the club-activity rooms.
  —Below the plate was a faded green sliding door I was all too familiar with.

  I may have my complaints, but there was something oddly soothing about a classroom with only a few people inside.
  My teacher was undoubtedly going to be late as always, and my sole classmate was the epitome of easygoing, spending the whole day drawing those pictures of his.
  I opened the door, contemplating a quick nap before my teacher showed up, only to have a sight thrust before me that instantly dissipated any sleepiness I still had.

  “Good morn…Aaaaggghhh!!”
  “Huh? Oh, hey, Takane. Morning!”

  There stood my sole classmate, Haruka Kokonose, not a single speck of malice lurking behind his broad smile.
  His skin was a sickly pale of white, his bearing unfussy and unpretentious. His sole hobby was drawing, as was his sole talent. That kind of background (along with the name) seems remarkably womanly, but he was just a regular guy.
  Except there was nothing “regular” about him right now.

  —No matter which way you sliced it…he had nothing on apart from his boxers.

  “W…wha…?!”
  I was rendered speechless at this otherworldly turn of affairs so early in the morning. I tried to focus my eyes on something else, but he briskly walked straight toward me, as near-naked as before.
  “Hey, uh, I can explain this…Earlier, over on the school grounds, there was this cat, right? And it kinda made a beeline for me, so I figured I’d pet it, but…like, it kept trying to dodge me and stuff, right? So then I lost my balance and fell into the fountain, so—”
  “That’s fine, that’s fine!! I don’t care why, okay?! Just…just put some clothes on!!”
  My fervent shouting stopped Haruka in his tracks as he attempted to tell the tale behind his nudist habits, an “oh, woe is me” expression on his face. He tilted his head quizzically at me.
  “Aw, come on. They aren’t even dry yet. You see?”
  He pointed at the school uniform drying in front of the heater, gesturing as if I was the one at fault here. He couldn’t have been more than fifty centimeters away from me.

  I reared back, unable to cope with this bizarre state of affairs, and tried my best to speak up for myself as my body banged against the sliding door I just closed.

  “Ah…okay, okay! All right! It doesn’t matter if it’s wet or not! Just put that stuff on! I’ll go find a jersey for you, so just put on everything else!!”
  “Really? Well, okaaay…but, uhmm…hang on, where’s my shirt? Shirt, shirt…”
  “You’re stepping on it, Haruka! Look down!…Ugh, just give it to me!”
  With all the speed of an elderly tortoise, Haruka began to clothe himself, apparently incapable of grasping the full import behind this “half-nude in front of a girl” situation.
  But I was in no shape to stand there and take it all in.
  Grabbing the shirt Haruka picked up, I closed my eyes, trying to avoid the sight of him as I all but forced him to put it on.
  “Whoa! Hey, I’m fine, I can put it on myself! Hey, that’s the wrong sleeve…!”
  “Aghh! Quit moving around! Don’t point yourself this way!!”
  No matter how you looked at it, this was not how normal people interacted with each other. Why do I have to force my only classmate to put his clothes back on, in school, first thing in the morning?
  If this guy hadn’t been the only other person in my class, I’d have no regrets turning him over to the police.
  But if someone happened to see us right now, it’d be an utter disaster.
  Who knows what kind of crazy shoujo manga-style misunderstandings this might lead to…? As I pondered over this, the absolute worst situation I envisioned came to life.
  “Hey-yo! Time to get started with homeroom…uh?”
  The leisurely voice chimed in as the door suddenly rattled open. On the other side stood our proctor, Kenjirou Tateyama, the teacher in charge of science classes at this school.
  Tateyama’s dumbfounded face likely provided a nice accompaniment to mine as his attendance record fell down to the floor.
  “Oh…uh…So, Mr. Tateyama, this isn’t what it…”
  “Oh, mornin’, Mr. Tateyama!”
  In stark contrast to the way I was frozen in place, the nearly bare Haruka greeted our proctor with a broad smile.
  From an impartial perspective, I imagine there was only one interpretation for this. Here was this meek, naive male student, and here was this evil-looking girl attempting to rip all the clothes off him.
  I imagine the moment lasted for only an instant, but the silence that followed felt like an eternity to me. Mr. Tateyama, apparently coming to some sort of internal conclusion in his mind, said, “Oh… sorry if I, uh, intruded…” and attempted to make his way back to the hallway.
  “Ahhhhh!! No! No, teacher! He was…he was going around without any clothes on, so I-I-I was just trying to help him get dressed!!”
  Mr. Tateyama, his face conflicted as he tried to leave the classroom, suddenly stopped.
  “Huh? Oh. Uh…okay, I get it. I just thought, you know, you guys couldn’t restrain yourselves any longer or something…”
  With a visible sigh of relief, our teacher flashed a smile at us as he picked the attendance ledger up off the floor.
  “Could you stop acting like we’re trying to go at each other all the time like that, sir? I mean, if we were, that’d be really bad news, wouldn’t it?! You were trying to run away from us right now!”
  “Yeahhh, well, you know, if something freaky’s going on, it’s always easiest if you pretend you were oblivious to it, right? You know what I mean…I just want you guys to grow and mature in as free an environment as I can give you, so…”
  “Ugh, come on! That’s totally awful, Mr. Tateyama! Can you at least help me get some clothes on this freak? I’m gonna call the administrator!”
  Mr. Tateyama scratched his head in distracted reluctance, but the moment I mentioned the administrator, he whispered, “Okay,” and with suddenly lightning-fast reflexes, he began to clothe Haruka.
  As far as grown-ups go, you couldn’t ask for much worse of a role model.
  For a fleeting moment, I reflected about how, in his own way, Mr. Tateyama has given me a master class in what to avoid becoming when I’m older.
  “Ergh…This is still all wet and clammy, sir…”
  Haruka, once again decent thanks to Mr. Tateyama’s nimble fingers, sounded utterly disgusted as he settled into his seat.
  I sat down as well, but the moment my rear end touched the chair, I felt a sudden influx of extreme fatigue.
  Who knows how many hit points I’ve already had to expend thanks to this idiot next to me?
  Somehow I doubted I’d be smiling much for the rest of the day…
  The teacher’s desk was directly across from and slightly above the two student stations, neatly arranged next to each other. Mr. Tateyama settled into the high-backed folding chair behind his desk as he opened his attendance record.
“All right, Haruka, all right. I’ll go find you a jersey later on…Uh, so anyway, good morning. Guess you’re both in attendance, so…check, and check. Gotta say, I’m glad you guys haven’t gotten bored of showing up here every day.”
  “That’s…not really something a teacher should be saying, sir.”
  With a heavy thud, Mr. Tateyama placed his head on the desk. “Well, I’m the teacher, aren’t I?” he whimpered. “So there you go, okay?”
  There must be some kind of chronic staff shortage if someone like this guy is allowed to be with students.
  It honestly gives me pause when I think about the future of this country.
  “Oh, yeah, so homeroom this morning…Uh, what was it…? I’m pretty sure I made a note of it… unless I didn’t…”
  “Just tell us, sir!”
  I was already irritated at the morning’s events, but just looking at my teacher was enough to make the negative emotions within me swell to bursting. Watching him doodle in small circles in his ledger with a red pen reminded me of a bored grade-schooler staring into space during math class.
  “Hang on, hang on…uh…Oh! That’s right. We gotta come up with some kinda booth for the school festival soon, or else. What’re you guys gonna do?”
  “Whaa?! Didn’t you say, like, ‘Oh, who says you had to do anything?’ the last time we asked about that, Mr. Tateyama?! We haven’t thought about anything! We never even talked about it since then!”
  I bolted out of my chair, pushing it back as I did, but Mr. Tateyama just stared at me with his zombielike eyes, unwilling to drum up the energy to stand himself
  “Well, yeahhhh, but…You know, last week, the administrator asked me what kind of booth my class was working on and stuff, so. I hadn’t thought about anything, of course, so I just said to him ‘Oh, we’re working on a special surprise that’ll knock your socks off, so watch out!’”
  “Geez, Mr. Tateyama, how much do you want to suck up to the administrator, anyway?! Don’t say we’ll ‘knock their socks off’! What’re we gonna do?! There’s only a week left…!”
  I slumped back into my chair and covered my face with my hands. Next to me, I heard Haruka say,
  “Oooh, I’d kinda like to run a shooting gallery”—a silly idea he tossed out without any consideration of supplies or budgets. It only served to fan the flames of despair within me.
  Honestly, I didn’t care one bit about this teacher. But if this “special surprise” we were allegedly working on (not that we had any plans yet) wound up being advertised as such in the flyers passed around school, we were completely screwed.
  Once that happened, all that awaited us was despair, darkness, and my final fall into the abyss of destruction…
  “Errrggghh…!”
  I couldn’t help but groan out loud as I contemplated a future too nauseating to imagine. If I had any sort of capable classmates, maybe this sort of adverse challenge would’ve pushed all of us to passionate creativity, but having this drenched dunderhead next to me and one of the most despicably lazy teachers in the universe in front of us, we were distinctly lacking in war power.
  Surely there was some kind of attack plan I could work on by myself…or so I thought. But thanks to my day-and-night gaming habit, or perhaps because I still hadn’t fully woken up, my brain wasn’t performing up to the standard I was hoping for.
  I rubbed my head, trying to come to grips with the cruel reality thrust upon me and the utterly hopeless hand I had to offer in response, when I noticed Mr. Tateyama staring awkwardly at me.
  “Uh…well, let’s just calm down, okay? You’re not gonna die or anything. We’re free to use this classroom any way we want, more or less, and I’ll be happy to help you guys out however I can. So could you just try to come up with something for me?”
  Whatever confidence remained was crushed when our teacher (if I could even will myself to call him “teacher” any longer) added “I’ll be happy to help you” to his feeble stab at a pep rally.
  I wasn’t remotely naive enough to have any faith in that.

  If we came up with some lame plan for the festival despite the “special surprise” ad copy, I knew that’d result in rumors. Bad ones. I’d probably be unable to function for my remaining two years as a student here.
  I doubt the thought even occurred in Haruka’s mind, of course, but to me, this was nothing short of a crisis.
  I was already persona non grata around school to some extent. Doing anything that’d make me stick out any further was something I had to avoid at all costs.
  But I realized that Mr. Tateyama’s offer to use this classroom as we wished opened up the slight possibility of a great breakthrough—some way out of this mess.
  This room had grown to seem all but normal to the three of us, but for the casual visitor, it was packed with rare and unusual curios. If we put up displays touting “Experiment X” or whatever with the scientific stuff lying around, that’d no doubt get people excited.
  “Well, gee, I hope we can come up with something interesting…Oh, but what about our budget? Each class gets a budget for their festival activities, right, Mr. Tateyama? How much can we get?”
  The moment I asked the question, Mr. Tateyama’s face froze—I could almost hear him nervously swallow—and he turned his eyes toward the equipment shelf behind us.
  “Huh? What’re you looking at—”
  The gaze didn’t escape my attention. I turned toward where I thought his eyes were pointed, only to find a bizarre, eerie-looking, yet oddly familiar fish specimen lying among the scientific equipment and bottles of chemicals.
  It was a rare ocean specimen, one I had noticed Mr. Tateyama staring at as he glossed through an educational-materials website, muttering, “This specimen’s so cool…but, ooh, it’s pretty expensive…” to himself.
  “Hmm? Hey, what’s that? Didn’t you say that specimen was too expensive, Mr. Tateyama?”
  It was relatively chilly in the classroom, but I could see a small forest of sweat beads form upon Mr. Tateyama’s forehead. He was unable to look me in the eye as I whipped out my trademark glare. He drooped downward silently, like a criminal in a detective manga just confronted with some kind of incontrovertible evidence, all but ready to reveal his motives and methods to the entire room
  “Mr. Tateyama, did…did you use up our festival budget?!”
  “It…it’s all that thing’s fault…!”
  He then went into an impassioned, unconvincingly acted defense of his crimes, which can be summarized as follows: Just as the budgets assigned to each class were being calculated, the rare specimen (i.e. “that thing”) went on sale for 40 percent off. If he was expecting us to understand his motives, he did so in vain.
  …That isn’t even a real motive in the first place.
  Watching him defend himself, as if he were the victim and the fish specimen was the real culprit, my emotions sped far beyond anger and revolution, eventually settling into something resembling sympathy.

  “So, like, what’re we gonna do? I mean…I still like the idea of a shooting gallery, but…”
  As our teacher shifted gears to explain how charming and attractive the fish specimen was, and as I thought over how to best confront the administrator about this, Haruka parroted his shooting-gallery request once again, doggedly sticking to the only idea he was capable of conceiving.
  “…If we do that, we’d need to have a lot of prizes to give out. It’d be a huge pain to prep. How could we pull that off with just the three of us? Plus, thanks to our stupid teacher, we don’t even have any money to work with.”
  “Hmmm…I dunno, I thought it was a good idea, is all. I checked out what all the other classes were working on, and I don’t think any of them were working on a shooting gallery, so…”

  Haruka’s tone was matter-of-fact, but it honestly seemed like a surprise to me. If no one else had a shooting gallery in the works, their budgets had to have something to do with it. With all the renovation issues the school’s had to deal with, it’s hard to imagine the administration gave enough of a budget to any class for a presentation that required fancy prizes to pull off.
  But an even more pressing issue was Haruka here. Haruka, who usually just sat there glassy-eyed, making it impossible to guess what he was thinking, apparently was interested enough in the school festival that he knew what all of the other classes’ presentations were going to be.
  “…Huh. You must be looking forward to the festival an awful lot.”
  “Kind of,” he replied, a little embarrassed. He didn’t act that way at all back when he was in his skivvies in front of me. His standards for feeling shame must diverge a bit from the average person.
  “That’s kind of surprising. I mean, like, when we thought we weren’t gonna do anything, you kept your mouth shut, so…”
  “Yeah, but, you know, I’m not very strong, and it’d be a big deal if I suddenly collapsed or something. Prepping a booth looked really hard when I was looking at all of them, so I thought, you know…oh, well, right?”
  Haruka flashed a fleeting smile as he spoke.

  I wasn’t up on the details, but I knew that Haruka’s “illness” was something far more dark and serious than anything I had.
  Something so severe, in fact, that if he had some kind of attack or whatever, it could easily lead to death. That kind of thing.
  Mr. Tateyama told me about that long after I joined this school, but thanks to Haruka’s easygoing, simpleminded approach to life, it just didn’t seem real, somehow.
  Haruka, for his part, seemed aware of it, as if he’d had some bad times in the past.
  Perhaps this entire experience of going to school and interacting with other people had been a trial for him, in a lot of ways. And I just didn’t notice it.

  “Yeah, fair enough. But you wanna do something, right?”
  “…I think I do, yeah. But, you know, I don’t wanna put a bunch of stuff on you, Takane…” Haruka still acted bashful as he spoke to me. I didn’t quite follow why this was making him act all fluttery like that.
  “…Well, I know our teacher doesn’t really give a crap either way, but you don’t have to put up with that, Haruka. Just try and do something, okay? If you screw it up, you can worry about it then.”
  “Sure, yeah, but I can’t do anything all by myself…I haven’t really done anything like this, either…I dunno if I can really do it, you know?”
  Watching Haruka hem and haw to himself as he rolled an eraser around his desktop made me unreasonably angry somehow. I slammed both palms against my desk table.
  “—Ugghhh!! Stop acting all wishy-washy like that!! You wanna run a shooting gallery, right? Well, great! Let’s do it! I’ll help you set it up! All right?!”
  I fully exercised my latent talent for glaring as I shouted at Haruka. “All right…” he whispered, a look of abject fear on his face.
  It wasn’t enough to placate me. Turning back toward Mr. Tateyama, I continued my tirade.
  “Mr. Tateyama, please, go withdraw some money for us! We’re gonna give out that specimen as a prize, too, okay? Okay?!”
  “Whaaa?! Wait, we…We don’t have to go that far! How much do you think that cost—”
  “…Administrator.
“Right! Roger that! Let’s go with that idea! Boy, this is starting to get exciting, huh?”
  Mr. Tateyama threw together the most elated, refreshed face he could muster. Even Haruka stared coldly at him, finally keying in to just how despicable our proctor really was.

  —Looking at the clock, over half an hour had passed since homeroom began. We were already well into the first period of class.
  In this school, classes were more or less shunted aside for the week before the school festival. Instead, the planning committee for each class took over, guiding the students as they prepped their festival presentations.
  First period was held in the homeroom for every class, but after that, the students were likely sent off to the classrooms where their festival prep work awaited them.
  The original idea was that Haruka and I would generally engage in self-study type stuff during this time, but since we were now tasked with coming up with a killer idea, we had to get to work. And fast.

  “Still, I dunno…Target shooting and all…How should we, like, get started?”
I knew I had just all but overwhelmed Haruka into the choice a moment ago, but really, how much could the two of us do to set up a shooting gallery in a week’s time?
  We’d need to buy some prizes, for one, as well as build a stand to display all of them. That, and the cork pop-guns. The more we thought about it, the more the tasks piled up before us.
  We’d need to use the art room and shop room to build the bigger props, but I figured that the classes who had planned a bit earlier than we did had already filled up all the available time slots.
  “Uhm…If you think we can’t do it, maybe we could do something else instead?”
  “No! Forget it! It’s only impossible if we think it is! You’re the one who wanted to go through with it. Think of something!”
  Haruka flinched again before crossing his arms together and nodding in agreement, eyes closed.
  It was his idea…at first, anyway. But I was a driven girl, my mind racing with the thought of showing everyone else that we weren’t like them, not like the others. Not all bubbly and ditzy and airheaded.

  If we were gonna go through with this, I didn’t want to do it half-cocked. My days and weeks of online gaming had forged in me a sense of high ambition, and now—for this, of all things—that ambition was starting to blaze.

  “One thing’s for sure, though—we can’t really build any kind of big, fancy stand or anything. You aren’t good at do-it-yourself stuff or anything, are you, Mr. Tateyama?”
  “Nope! Never tried any of it!”
  “—Yeah, I figured. Which means that you and I will have to do it ourselves, Haruka…”
  “Whoa, whoa, hang on a sec! Okay, I’ll admit I’m no handyman or anything, but, you know, I’m pretty good at programming and stuff!”
  Mr. Tateyama pointed a thumb at himself, flashing that asinine “I’m really great at this one thing you’d never understand!” aura you see a lot from otaku nerds.
  “Huh. Yeah, wow, neato. So, anyway, you’ll just get in the way, so why don’t you go code a dating simulator or—”
  Dealing with him was starting to exasperate me. I was just trying to humor him, but somewhere along the line, I had inadvertently said what I was thinking out loud.

  We were wholly incapable of fabricating anything large or elaborate.
  The only prize we had to offer was a rare fish specimen.
  Our goal: to create the most exciting shooting gallery that mankind ever saw.

  It was a gamble, but maybe, just maybe, it was something we could fabricate within a week.
  Before I knew what I was doing, my chair clattered backward as I stood up.
  “Whoa, whoa, whoa! T-Takane, just wait a sec! Look, I’m sorry about all this, okay? So let’s settle this peacefully! Violence isn’t gonna solve anything, all right?! There’s got to be some way to do this…!”
  Mr. Tateyama, surprised at this abrupt motion on my part, held his hands in front of him, whimpering his response like an evil RPG minion doomed to die for story purposes.
  As for Haruka next to me…I don’t know if he had fallen sleep as he attempted to at least pretend to think things over or if all of this had pushed his gentle psyche over the edge, but he had fallen to the floor, taking the loudly clattering chair with him.
  “I have an idea, Mr. Tateyama! I think we might be able to pull off the shooting gallery!”
  “Uh? Oh. Yeah, that. But that’s gonna be a huge pain to get together, right? I mean, like I told you earlier, I’ve never even successfully put a bookshelf together, so…”
  “No, no, I’m not relying on you at all for anything on that. But, like, you said you can program, right? Right, Mr. Tateyama…?”
  I smirked at my teacher. He blanched in response, plainly aware of where this conversation was going.
  “What…what’s with you, Takane?”
  There was still a bit of spittle on Haruka’s face as he spoke to me from behind the chair he was sitting behind. I decided not to bring it up.
  “Hee-hee-hee…I was just saying that we might be able to do this shooting gallery after all. You’re good at drawing, right…?”
  “Eeeep…!”
  I tried to smile as broadly as I could, but Haruka looked absolutely terrified, as if I was attempting to blackmail him. Why does every male (well, both of them) in this room have to be so pitiful?

  But, really, it didn’t matter how pitiful they were right now.
  …After all, they just had to do as I told them, and everything would be fine.

  “H-hang on, Takane…This ‘shooting gallery’ you’re thinking of…”
  Judging by his facial expression, Mr. Tateyama had likely already figured out what I was thinking.
  It was understandable, given that his share of the work to make this “shooting gallery” happen was nothing short of massive.
  “Hee-hee-hee…You guessed it. We don’t need a table saw or anything to make a shooting gallery game, right? Haruka could draw the characters and backgrounds, and if we went with that, one prize would be all we need.”
Once I finished, Mr. Tateyama’s shoulders dropped, as if he was saying “Ahh, I knew it…” with his entire body.
A single person creating a video game all by himself would be a fairly massive amount of work.
But Mr. Tateyama had been lazing around, doing his own thing in the classroom for long enough. Considering that, he owed us that much labor by now, if not more.
“Huh…? We’re gonna make a game? Starting now?!”
Even the normally placid Haruka seemed startled, a surprise given how hard it was to get him to react to anything. Unlike Mr. Tateyama, though, there was a palpable measure of excitement behind the response.
“Well, yeah! You can draw all of the graphics for the game, right? That’d be pretty exciting for you, I bet.”
Haruka energetically nodded in response. His unbelievably bright expression, something unlike anything he usually wore, gave him a distinctly different impression than usual.
“Well, I know it’s gonna be kinda tough, but hang in there, okay? Like, I’m sure Mr. Tateyama will figure something out in the end, so…”
“Whaa?! Why’s it gotta be me?! Do you have any idea how much it takes to code a whole—”
“Administr…”
“I’ll give it everything I’ve got! It’s gonna be the best gallery you ever saw!!”
Mr. Tateyama gave us a thumbs-up, his face one of pure, unadorned affirmation.
This “administrator” magic word was proving surprisingly useful.
There was no doubt that I’d be relying on it for the rest of my high-school career.
“But let me ask you something. What did you mean by ‘one prize would be all we need’? There’s no way we can predict how many people will beat the game, you know…And if we made the game so hard that nobody could beat it, that’d turn off people even more, wouldn’t it?”
“Oh, you don’t have to worry about that. Just have it so you’re trying to score points instead of finishing the whole game. Also, make it two-player only, okay?”
“Sure, that wouldn’t be any problem, but…you aren’t talking about…”
“Exactly! I’ll complete against anyone who shows up, and we’ll play for the highest score. Playing against a girl like me, you aren’t gonna get any complaints about the game’s difficulty then, right?”
The blood had returned to Mr. Tateyama’s face. Now his expression was one of sheer exasperation, the exact same face I had given to him a moment ago. I reveled in it for a second.
“You’re gonna play against everyone, Takane? But if you lose even once, we’re gonna have to give up our prize, aren’t we?”
“Yeah, assuming that ever happens. Who said I was ever gonna lose? I’ll just lose on purpose right toward the end of the school festival, and we’ll be the talk of the whole school. I’ll make sure that it works out that way.”

Listening to this, Haruka looked more and more anxious by the moment. I couldn’t blame him.
No one can predict what would happen in a video game. There was always a non-zero chance of me losing at any time.
And if I did lose and we had to give up our single prize (Rare Fish Specimen [Extremely Expensive]), that essentially meant the end of our festival booth. A pretty ambitious bet, in other words.
But I possessed a certain “special ability,” one I hadn’t gotten around to revealing to these guys.
…Actually, I hoped I’d never have to tell anyone about it, but that ability was what gave me so much confidence that we’d win this bet. Not that I ever want to breathe a word of it to anybody, but—
“You know, Haruka, she might just do it, too. She’s, like, a celebrity on the net. You know that game they keep showing ads for on TV? The one with the dude blowing away all those zombies?”
“Oh, yeah, I’ve seen that. One of those online games, right…? I think there was some kinda championship a bit ago…”
“Right, right. And Takane placed second in the nationals there.”
Just as I was expanding upon my internal monologue to myself, my teacher, much to my abject surprise, tossed me out of the closet.
“Ahhhghghhh!! W-w-what’re you talking about?! I-I’m not anything like…”
The name of the game was Dead Bullet -1989-, an online shooter where you mowed down wave after wave of zombies. It had attracted a vast swath of users since its launch a year or so ago, to the point where it was now one of the leading FPSes in the Japan market. I was kind of a veteran player, having made it to the top ranks approximately four hours after the game launched.
Thanks to the unique strategic approach I brought to the game, my name was famous enough that I boasted a fan community with several hundred members. But, thanks in part to the rather narrow channels of communication I retained with most people, my teacher was the only person in real life who knew about this. —Until now, that is.
It was a critical error in judgment. I was looking for someone I could share this game with in the real world, and since Mr. Tateyama demonstrated an ability to discuss even the finer details of Dead Bullet with me, I invited him into my community. Big mistake.

The thing about Dead Bullet -1989- is that it’s a grotesquely violent title, one with an overwhelmingly male audience—not the kind of thing a teenage girl would flock to over all other forms of entertainment.
To be honest, it was the sort of game that, if one of the other female students got addicted to it, I’d be hesitant to come near her.
And now the truth’s been revealed to my sole classmate…
“Wow, Takane! Second in the whole country? That’s really surprising! Why didn’t you tell me until now? Is it, like, really fun?”
But Haruka, completely unaware of my internal conflict, gave me a surprisingly favorable reaction, to the point where he acted like he wanted to know more.
No doubt that’s because he didn’t know what the game was all about. If he knew more about it, there’s no doubt the reaction would be more like “LOOOOOLLLL look at this scary chick playing this freaky horror game…stay away from her!!!!” or something.
As I winced at Haruka’s meek, questioning eyes, Mr. Tateyama suddenly let out a belly laugh as he revealed yet more horrifying secrets.
“There, you see, Takane? You were looking for friends to play with, weren’t you? I’m not really all that good at Dead Bullet, so I thought, hey, why not invite Haruka?”
“Huhh?! W-what’re you talking about?! It’s not like I play it all that much or anything…”
Which was a lie. Because I did. I fell asleep early due to exhaustion yesterday, but generally, I threw myself into the world of the game from four p.m., when I got home from school, until four a.m. the next morning.

Mr. Tateyama, still guffawing in front of me, was fully aware.
“Oh, reeeeally? I figured you’d play it a lot more if you were that into it. I mean, what was your handle? Something like ‘Dancing Flash’—”
“Agh! Nooooo!! Listen! I’m gonna call the administrator, okay?! I’ll tell him everything! All right?!”
“Whoa whoa whoa whoa! Hey, don’t joke about that sort of thing! I’m sorry, all right?!”
Someone watching the two of us jostle our desks around as we screamed at each other would undoubtedly find the whole scene quite hilarious.
But to us, this was a life-and-death battle.

The moment Haruka said, “Hey, uh, calm down…” as we glared at each other for several seconds, the school bell rang, as if to put a final end to our stalemate.
“…Oof. How ’bout we just agree to keep quiet, all right? About everything.”
“Yes…That sounds like the best thing to me. But don’t get me wrong, Mr. Tateyama. If you leak anything else about me…”
“And likewise for you, Takane. Breathe anything to the administrator, and you know what’ll happen, right?”
“…Right. I follow you. I’ll just bottle it up inside me…But I’m not gonna let you divulge anything else about me, okay?”
As my teacher and I attempted to stare each other into submission, exchanging a conversation that hardly seemed like a healthy educational exchange, the first-period homeroom class came to a close.
“Right…Well, I guess this is partly my fault, too. Guess I’ll see what kinda stuff I can come up with, huh? …So let’s spend this next period working out the details, all right? Feel free to go to the bathroom if you want.”
With that, Mr. Tateyama picked up the attendance ledger and left the classroom, index finger scratching his forehead. For just a moment, I could hear the footsteps and excited conversations from passing students from beyond the open door.

“Boy…You think we can really do this?”
Haruka made eye contact with me as I threw myself back into my desk chair, utterly drained.
“…You sure made a lot of promises, Takane, but I dunno…This is kinda really starting to get exciting, huh…? I think we can really do this! I’ll do my best, okay?”
Watching Haruka give a fist-forward “We can do it!” pose after his little declaration made me suddenly feel like my face was burning a bright red. I could only assume it was out of embarrassment at having my illustrious online career revealed to the world.

—I let out a light smile.

Then I realized I had become what I hated the most—one of those “rah rah, this school festival is sooo important, we gotta do our best!” girls. My smile was no doubt borne from the sheer shame of it all, rather than coming from any actual happiness.

“…Well, at least we won’t be bored.”

As I muttered it to no one in particular, my mind was already beginning to formulate a schedule of tasks to handle before our boundlessly exciting school festival began.

Previous: Headphone Actor I
Title: Kagerou Daze, Vol2_ Headphone Actor
Next: Headphone Actor II

HEADPHONE ACTOR I

2022-07-18T03:43:00.003+07:00

Within the dim, dusky corridor, I stood, accompanied only by my shadow.

Until just a moment ago, I could hear the radio station leaking out from the headphones hanging around my neck.

Now all I could hear was noise. That, and something that resembled a person’s voice.

Something had plainly changed. Concerned, I tried putting on my headphones.

—The crackling, intermittent voice slowly, gradually began to form coherent speech.

It sounded like a press conference held by the president of some country or other.

It was an exaggerated voice, affected for speech purposes, and a machinelike interpreter lagging a bit behind.

The static made listening difficult, but one could still manage to discern it.

“…It is with heartfelt regret that…by the…today…the Earth will…to an end.”

When the voice came to a stop, it was greeted with a steady stream of shouting and seemingly meaningless gibberish.

Even through the headphones, the blubbering, panic-driven desperation of the audience was all too clear.

Beyond the red-tinged window, a large flock of birds had completely blocked the newly risen crescent moon from the deep violet sky, like a horde of black ants.

Removing my headphones and shooting a glance at the room I just left, I saw an abandoned video game and a mountain of study guides, both shining orange from the setting sun.

What was I doing up to now?

I had the impression I was speaking with someone until just a minute ago, but I couldn’t even remember who.

“…This has to be some kind of joke.”

I whispered it to myself, trying to will myself into believing it, as I opened one of the windows lining the corridor. I was greeted with a loud, shrill siren, like none I had heard before, along with the screaming and ranting of people.

The din steadily grew louder and louder, enveloping the entire city.

My lips quivered as my teeth clattered against each other.

I am alone.

There’s nobody left here.

And before too long, I’ll be gone, too.

My pulse raced. Tears flowed across my cheeks.

—I don’t want to be alone. It’s too scary.

I put my enclosed headphones back on once more, to flee from the world as it was swallowed into its ultimate doom, to attempt to detach myself from it all.

The radio was already cut off. All that remained now was static.

“…It’s time to give it up. Everything…”

The moment I whispered it, I suddenly thought that I heard something.

Straining my ears, I found it was a voice. A voice speaking to me.

—Then, in a flash, I realized.

This was my voice. No one else’s.

“Hey, can you hear me? There’s something you still have to do before going…Something you have to tell him, right?”

I couldn’t remember what it was.

But, for whatever reason, I felt like I understood the meaning behind the warning.

“It’ll be okay. Trust me. If you can get over that hill, you’ll know what I’m talking about, whether you want to or not. If you stay where you are, you’re gonna disappear. Hey—”

I wiped away the tears threatening to run down my face once more, then took a deep breath.

“—You want to survive, don’t you?”

It was the day the earth came to an end.

I planted my foot down upon the undulating ground as hard as I could, just as my voice guided me to.

Title: Kagerou Daze, Vol2_ Headphone Actor
Next: Yuukei Yesterday I

Kagerou Daze, Vol. 2_ A Headphone Actor

2022-07-18T03:40:00.002+07:00

Copyright

KAGEROU DAZE, Volume 2
JIN (Shizen no Teki-P)

Translation by Kevin Gifford
Cover art by SIDU

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

Edited by BOOKWALKER Co., Ltd.

First published in Japan in 2012 by KADOKAWA CORPORATION ENTERBRAIN.

English translation rights arranged with KADOKAWA CORPORATION, Tokyo, through TUTTLEMORI

AGENCY, INC., Tokyo

All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher is unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.

Yen On
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Yen On is an imprint of Yen Press, LLC.
The Yen On name and logo are trademarks of Yen Press, LLC.
The publisher is not responsible for websites (or their content) that are not owned by the publisher.
First Yen On eBook Edition: September 2015
ISBN: 978-0-316-38469-8
E3-20170214-JV-PC

Cover
Insert
Title Page
Copyright

Afterword
Yen Newsletter

AFTERWORD

2020-08-16T18:09:00.002+07:00

“A Story that Makes You Want to Cover Your Eyes”

Hello. This is JIN.
    How did Kagerou Daze: In a Daze treat you?

    This project came about when I was invited to write a novel that linked up with “Mekakushi Daze,” my first album. I based it largely off the story elements of four of the tracks in that album.
    Going forward, I’m planning to write out the stories from the rest of the songs in future novels.
    Of course, if this novel winds up being a flop, I might end up writing an (only somewhat) sexy high-school slice-of-life comedy starring a harem of totally normal girls.
    …Not that I would complain too much about that, though.

    This novel marks the first time that the characters from the songs receive full names. I think I did a good job making them sound neat, giving them last names modeled after the Japanese words for flowers and so forth.

    As I was researching these names, I came upon a type of rose known as “chin chin.”
    Rather chic name, isn’t it? It reminded me a bit of “chin chin,” which is how you refer to a…uh, rather less elegant part of the body in Japanese.
    Apparently “chin chin” is how you make a toast in Italian, too.
    I can only guess they got that from the sound of the glasses clinking against each other.

    Getting back to the novel, writing it was a pretty arduous process.
    I thought it was going to kill me, in fact.
    Working on a novel and a new album at the same time, with assorted live events thrown in here and there, made for a packed schedule. I didn’t even have any time to enjoy my chin chin.

    As a result, now that I’m free and have more time on my hands, I’m spending some quality time with my chin chin right now while I write this afterword.
    In fact, I’ve been loving on my chin chin so much, it’s taken nearly two hours to get this far.
    Sorry I’m such a slow writer.

    Oh, I’m talking about the rose, by the way. Got that?

    By the way, if you look up the chin chin on Internet rose databases, they’ll talk about how it has a “faint scent.” Elegant indeed. Like it’s afraid to expose its true self, you could say.

    All this talk about chin chins reminded me of something else. There’s a kind of snack food in Nigeria that’s called chin chin, too. It’s these little balls of dough, fried up so they’re like tiny round cookies.
    I like that name a lot. It makes it sound so…I don’t know. Deluxe.
    Kind of funny they’d give that name to a food, though.

    I’d love to take a trip to Nigeria sometime, taking in the chin chins (roses) while scarfing up as much chin chin (snack) as my mouth could take…Truly, the ideal way to spend an afternoon.

    …Oooops, out of space!
    That about wraps up this elegant, high-class afterword. Hopefully we’ll see each other in the afterword of the next volume…assuming we get the chance!
    Thanks, as always, for your continued support.

JIN (Shizen no Teki-P)

Thank you for buying this ebook, published by Yen On.

Previous: Epilogue
Title: Kagerou Daze, Vol1_ In a Daze

EPILOGUE

2020-08-16T17:55:00.003+07:00

August 15th. The end of a long, long day was at hand.
   I’d have never guessed we would actually spend all of it at the amusement park.
   Ene was one thing, but having my sister and her friends join me was something I never could’ve predicted.
   Something had to have gone terribly wrong somewhere.

Going back to this morning for a sec.
   I’d awoken feeling much more refreshed than I should have, given what I’d experienced the previous day.
   If I found myself in a hospital bed…that sort of thing I could follow.
   Instead, I woke up in a room within a secret hideout populated by Medusa and this invisible (?) guy; and what’s more, they had apparently saved my life; and what’s more, my sister had joined them somewhere along the line.
   …I’m sure you have no idea what I’m talking about, but don’t worry.
   You’re far more clued in than I’ll ever be, trust me on that one.
   The recap my sister gave me was so bizarre that it required a long Q&A session afterward, and even then I was still in the dark about most of it.
   But those guys my sister called her friends…Talking to them, I found they were actually pretty nice.
   Of course, given that I chiefly talk with a whacked-out demented AI girl day and night, I might have pretty low standards.

   Either way, though, that Kido girl has a good head on her shoulders.
   She made a mean breakfast for me, and I can picture her running a pretty tight family if she wanted.
   …If you can ignore that ice-cold gaze, she might be the most normal one out of all of us, including me.
   It was a crazy group overall, but apparently they’re helping my sister out with her “eye” problems. They’re real easy to get comfortable with, too. After all, these were the first people ever that my sister introduced as “friends.”
   Ene, on the other hand, was giving me a lot of grief.
   I had no idea she and my sister were connected to each other…
   Ene didn’t share anything from my private repository, did she…?
   Ugh…She totally must have…Man…Cut me a break…My sister will never respect me again…
   Even now, I am obsessed about my sexual proclivities getting exposed for all the world to see. We spent the whole day at the amusement park, and that was all I could think about. To be frank, I don’t exactly remember much of the stuff we did.

   All I did was sit on this ride, that ride, the other ride, following Ene’s instructions to the letter.
   Of course, maybe that’s not a bad thing, every now and then.
   I haven’t felt that way in a while.

After we left the amusement park, we kept walking around for a little while.
    I began to wonder what kind of shut-in life this girl I was carrying around led.
    I never thought I’d meet someone physically weaker than myself…
    “Hey, sorry about that. Guess Marie got herself a little too excited in the heat.”
    “Wow, Shintaro, this is, like, your big break, isn’t it? Giving a piggyback ride to a real girl! It might be your last chance forever!”
    “No kidding. My brother’s a big wimp and an anime perv, so this might really be his last chance. But, boy, wasn’t that amusement park fun, Ene?”
    “What a trip! I particularly liked how my master threw up in the middle of it, too! I’ll copy the photo over to everyone once we get home!”
    “Ooh, way to keep a sharp eye out, Ene! How ’bout I trade you for pics of some of Marie’s creepier moments?”
    “Ha-ha! Nice one, slit eyes! You’re on!”
    “N-no…No, don’t show her…”
    “Huh? Hey, if you’re awake, why don’t you walk by yourself? Shintaro’s probably about ready to collapse.”
    “Just…just a little farther…”
    “Ha-ha-ha…Huh?”
    “Mm?”
    “…That an accident?”
    As we took the first street off the main drag, we noticed a crowd forming in front of a small city park.
    An ambulance had just arrived on the scene, a pair of grim-faced paramedics cutting through the throng with a stretcher.

    Between all the people, we caught a glimpse of a young man, about the same age as us.
    He looked worried, hands on the ground, as he stared into the face of a boy lying next to him.
    It was hard to make out much of the kid, but he couldn’t have been more than…say, ten or so?

    “…Huh. Pretty young.”
    “You think he’s hurt…?”

    Kido and Kano bounced assorted theories off each other.
    I couldn’t see any obvious injuries on the boy, but he was definitely unconscious, lying listlessly on the ground.
    But there was nothing much we could do for him.
    As we passed by, not giving it any further attention, I noticed a change in Ene’s behavior.

    “…!”
   “…Ene? What’s wrong?”
   “…Konoha…?”
   “Huh? What was that? Ene?”
   The boy was carried into the ambulance, the young man climbing in behind him.
   The siren lit up as the ambulance began to drive away from the scene.
   “…Momo! Can we go chase after that guy just now?!”
   “W-wha?! Why?!”
   “Just do it! Please, hurry…!”
   “Sh-Shintaro…?!”
   “Ene, what’s up? Did something happen?”
   “…Why? Why would he…?”

   August 15th. The five p.m. children’s bell rang out from bullhorns strung up across town…

—And, for all of us, a long, long “day” was finally about to begin.

MEKAKUSHI CHORD

2020-08-16T17:50:00.005+07:00

The water softly coursed down my body, lapping at each and every curve. It was the shower I had longed for ever since early this morning, but I never expected it under these circumstances.

   Here I was, in a shadowy organization’s secret base, myself and my phone covered in hot tea, deluged with apologies all the way to the bathroom.

   It sounds all the more strange when put into text form. I suppose truth really is stranger than fiction…or a TV drama script.

   Once out of the shower, I returned to the main room, wiping my hair dry. TheF three of them turned toward me for a moment, but quickly returned to normal.
   The old clock hung on the wall ticked away, its pendulum swinging back and forth.
   It was just past eleven thirty in the morning.
   “Hey, thanks for lending me these clothes and everything…”
   “Nah, nah. This was our fault in the first place. But, man, what a dilemma…”
   “You sure said it…Ah! No! I mean, it’ll be fine! It’ll be totally okay! Right?!”
   Marie had been incessantly apologizing for the past while, but even at this point, she still looked about ready to bawl if I so much as sighed.
   “But…But…!”
   Marie’s hand was gripping a sealed bag filled with chemical drying agent
   —the stuff in those little “do not eat” bags. My phone, doused in tea a few moments ago, was safely ensconced inside.
   After wiping the phone dry, they had whipped through all their bags of candy and other snack foods to salvage every packet they could. The opened snacks were laid out on the table like an hors d’oeuvre spread.

   “I…I have to pay you back…”
   “Pay her back? Where’re you gonna get the money for that? You gonna sell your books?” Kido suddenly interjected, her body draped across the sofa as she read a magazine. That was all it took for tears to finally stream down Marie’s face.

   “Whoa, whoa! Take it easy on her, boss!”
   “It’s true, though. It’s not like she has any way to pay you.”
   “Well, maybe not, but still…L-listen, Marie, you really don’t have to worry about it, okay? There’s no need to cry!”
   I tried to comfort her, but to no avail. The tears continued to stream as she stood there, still tightly gripping the bag.
   “More to the point, though, getting shut out from the outside world is pretty bad news for you, huh, Kisaragi? Shouldn’t you at least, like, give them some kind of contact?”
   Kano let out a very deliberate shrug, all smiles as always.
   “Yeah…I guess you have a point.”
   That message I just sent was a disaster, no doubt about that.
   I had the sense it was going to blow up into a massive story. It was already starting to get on the news. The afternoon news shows were all running ads with narration like “Fans Shocked at Megastar Idol’s Sudden Disappearance!! Was She Kidnapped…or Worse?!”
   “Do you remember any of the phone numbers? Like, your manager’s, or at least your home phone?”
   Kano had already looked up my agency’s phone number. He tried giving a call, but never got anything but a busy signal. That seemed unlikely to change anytime soon.
   “I…uh…I don’t…”
   “Really? Eesh, Kisaragi…”
   “Well, I’m just…not good with numbers, okay? I…I know that if you add up all the numbers, you get fifty, but…!”
   “Yeah, that’s real helpful.”
   “Ugh…”
   Ever since I woke up this morning, I felt like people had been taking pity on my stupidity.
   “You know, the police are probably already on the move. If this keeps up, they might storm in here, like, any minute.”
   “Then we’ll all be arrested for kidnapping, huh…? We sure could use that phone.”
   Kido sighed and looked toward Marie. Her shoulders convulsed as she unloaded yet another trickle of tears.
   I could see the situation was serious, but for some reason, the two of them seemed to enjoy it. That, and bullying Marie.

   Suddenly, Kano pounded a fist against his palm, a bright smile on his face.
   “I know! We can just have Marie work as a day laborer until she gets the money to pay for a new phone!”
   “Good idea. Let’s see…Looks like there’re some jobs directing traffic. Ooh, and they’ll even take you if you don’t have any experience.”
   Kido chucked the job-search magazine on the desk. It was open to a page showing a cartoon construction worker waving a fluorescent light baton to and fro.
   Marie stopped crying at the sight, her face growing more and more devoid of color.
   “Hang on, this job looks better for her. ‘Get Fit on the Job! Work for Ishiburo Package Delivery!’ Hmm…That’s the guys with the penguin logo, huh? The pay’s pretty cheap, but hey, they’re an equal opportunity employer!”
   “Not bad. She could use a little muscle on her anyway…Whoa, wait, wait, wait.”

   Marie was quietly edging her way out of the room, the bag she so dearly clung to placed on the desk. Kido grabbed her by the collar before she made it, sitting her back down on the chair.

   “Where were you going?”
   Kido interrogated the poor girl, who seemed concerned less about the phone and more about the intense, frightening danger she suddenly faced.
   “I…I can’t do it…that sort of thing…”
   The magazine on the desk was open to an advertisement prominently featuring an illustration of a cute, pink penguin. It was apparently the mascot of the delivery service, a far cry from the picture spun by the ad copy. NO EXPERIENCE NECESSARY! MEN AND WOMEN WELCOME! IF YOU’RE STURDILY BUILT AND LOVE MOVING YOUR BODY, COME ON IN! You could smell the sweat just reading the ad.

   “Uh…Don’t you think you’re both being a little hard on Marie?”
   “No way! We’re just trying to help her learn about the real world! Oh, wow, the available work hours run from six a.m. to eleven p.m.! You can start working immediately, too. She could save enough to pay for that phone in no time flat!”
   Kano was staring directly at Marie, his smile really more of a demented smirk at this point.
   Marie, for her part, reacted to every new stunning revelation with a light “Ahh!” or “Eep!” or whatnot.
   There was something about this girl, apparently, that made it endless fun to pick on her.

   “Look, that’s enough! You’re just being mean to her! Can’t you see she’s in distress?”
   I took the job-search magazine off the desk. Marie piously looked up at me, as if I were some sort of goddess.
   “Well, yeah, but if you ask me, I think it’s time she learned a little about, like, how hard life can be. She can’t stay cooped up in here forever,” Kano, stretched out on the sofa, chimed in. Kido nodded her firm agreement.
   But do either of these guys have a job?
   “I…I’m working real hard, too…!”
   For once, Marie finally fired back at them.
   However, Kido and Kano both countered immediately, cutting her off.
   “Huh? You mean that job making artificial flowers at home? That pays, like, five hundred yen a month, doesn’t it?”
   “F-five hundred yen?!”
   I had to confirm I heard her right, unable to hide my shock at the idea of a job paying for maybe one Happy Meal monthly.
   Noticing my reaction, Marie’s face gradually turned red, presumably out of shame.

   “I know, but…but I make sure every flower’s made up right, so…”
   “Look, you know you get paid, like, five yen per flower, right? You can’t spend the entire day making three or four of them.”
   Kido sighed at the absurdity of it all.
   Kano stepped up to deal another telling blow.
   “You know, Marie, most normal people probably make, like, a hundred times what you do. Right, Kisaragi?”
   “Huh? Me?!”
   I could feel Marie’s gaze upon me, pleading for my aid. But, honestly, at five hundred yen per month, there wasn’t much defending her job efficiency.
   “Uhh…Well, I mean, everyone works at their own pace, I guess! I bet Marie probably does a great…job?”
   “…Even though she gets paid in coins? One per month?”
   “Even…even if it’s one per month!”
   I tried to stand strong against Kido’s commonsense question. Tentatively turning toward Marie, I was greeted with a supreme look of satisfied confidence.
   I had mixed feelings about it, but also a sense of relief. There was no doubt, though, that this girl’s future was uncertain.

   Kano sighed and turned to Kido.
   “Well, if that’s how Kisaragi feels about it, I guess she’ll have to cover the phone costs, huh?”
   Kido nodded silently.
   “Right! Excellent! Boy, isn’t that great news, Marie? Kisaragi’s agreed to pay for the whole thing!”
   “Huh?! Wait, when did I…? What?!”
   I was violently thrown by this harrowing conversation derail.
   “Oh, so you’ll have Marie pay for it?”
   Kano’s face beamed a little too brightly for my tastes as he asked.
   “…Ugh! I…I mean, I’ll pay, but…”
   “There! You hear that, Marie? Isn’t that wonderful?”
   “That settles that, then.”
   I had thought about covering the cost from the start, but now I felt like this whole discussion was one big trap. Was this how these people always treat each other…?
   This group was weird, right down to the core.
   “Uh…Are, are you sure it’s really okay…?”
   Marie still looked anxious as she stared at me.
   “Y-yeah! Sure! Absolutely okay!”
   The money I earned from my “work” wasn’t managed by me. I was still too young for that. There was an allowance I could use for whatever, but I wasn’t sure if I could cover the whole phone with this month’s stipend alone.
   But, thanks to not having any friends to waste money going out with, I had way too much saved up. Once I find someplace to withdraw it, that should—
   “Ooh, I don’t know, though…You think this is really enough, Kisaragi?”
   “Well, we’ll have to make do with…Hey! Why do you have my wallet?! When…How did you…?!”
   Kano was nonchalantly rifling through the wallet I thought I had stowed inside my bag.
   Checking inside the bag, I saw it definitely wasn’t there. When did he take it…?

   “Whoa! Man, Kisaragi, you should really start pitching these receipts! Also, wow, you eat a ton of dried mangoes, don’t you?”
   Kano placed all the receipts he snatched out of my wallet onto the desk. Kido joined the party.
   “These show you eating them every day…alongside these dried shredded squid snacks. You trying to strengthen your teeth, or…?”
   “Yeah, totally. Oh, eww, what’s this stuff you’re drinking? Red bean soup–flavored…soda? You start buying it every day starting with this one. Is it that good?”
   Marie tittered a little, looking from the side. My face felt so hot, I was ready to spew fire.
   “Aaaaaaggghhhhh!”
   In a rush, I snatched up the receipts from the desk, ripping the wallet out of Kano’s hands.
   “W-what are you doing to me?! You can’t just go looking into people’s wallets…!”
   “Huh? Oh, uh…guess I just wound up doing it?”
   Yeah, and you “just wound up” revealing my food and drink habits to the world, too!
   I should’ve just bought a clubhouse sandwich and tea every single day.

   “The squid and red bean idol, huh?”
   “W-what’s that mean…? What’s so bad about that?!”
   I looked at the receipts I had taken from Kano, wallowing in self-pity. Suddenly, Kano spoke in a much more serious tone.
   “I dunno…Like, I guess you had to deal with a lot of stuff, didn’t you? Sorry I kind of poked around in there.”
   “L-let’s just drop it, all right?! Ooooooh! Look at these snacks! That kind’s pretty rare, isn’t it? And such an attractive bag design, too! I can’t wait to dig in…”
   Attempting to change the subject any way I could, I picked up one of the bags on the desk that Marie didn’t get around to opening.
   It was a bag of dried, flavored radish slices. The front read THICK KELP SOUP STOCK FLAVOR! A SNACK FOR HARD-BODIED MEN!
   “Uh…yeah, go ahead. Dig in.”
   Kido’s reserved response contrasted with Kano’s uproarious laughter.
   I wanted to crawl into a hole, have someone shovel dirt over me, then keep on digging until I hit the Earth’s core.
   “But…but red bean soup can be yummy, too…I like it a lot…”
   “M-Marie…!”
   Marie was making a strenuous effort to back me up.
   I knew she was a nice girl at heart!
   “Yeah, but in soda form?”
   “Th-that might be kind of gross…”
   Well, that sure blew up in my face.
   I was utterly crestfallen after all of this emotional damage.
   “All right, all right…I know I’m a weirdo, okay? That’s why I could never make any friends.”
   Somehow I doubted that most of the country’s teenage girls would carry around wallets jam-packed with receipts for dried squid strips.
   “Oh, cheer up! There’s no need to be down about it.”
   “Yeah, but ‘Thick Kelp Soup Stock Flavor’? Ugh…my stomach…it hurts…”
   “Will you stop laughing at me already…?! Oh! Uh, I’m sorry…?”
   While I tried to tell off Kano, who was still holding his stomach and laughing his head off, Marie’s shoulders convulsed as a fearful expression spread across her face.
   “Yeah, sorry, sorry. Whew! Thought I was gonna die there for a moment. Anyway, enough chitchat. Ready to get going?”
   “Huh? Get going where…?”
   Kano stood up and stretched, arms high in the air.
   “We need to, like, get you a new phone, right? There’s a place right nearby here.”
   “Oh, yeah, that one…?”
   Kido’s response sounded distracted as she thumbed through a gadget magazine she had plucked from the rack next to the sofa.

   “Just to be sure, though…Would getting a new phone help me at this point?”
   “Well, I mean, you should be able to transfer your contacts, at least. Don’t know unless you ask.”
   “Yeah, but…but if I go outside again…”
   If I went outside again, seriously bad things would happen.
   The next time I attracted a crowd like that, I had a feeling that running would no longer be an option.
   “Oh, you’ll be fine if we’re along. Right, Kido?”
   “…Pretty much.”
   Kano looked at my bewildered expression and gave me an excited smile.

   “We showed you Kido’s ‘skill’ just now, but that’s just part of what she really is.”
   He continued to explain, arms open wide to emphasize his point.
   “To make a long story short, Kido can control not only her own sense of presence, but that of anyone around her she wants. We call that her ‘concealing eyes’ ability. Basically—”
   “Y-you mean she can make me disappear, too?!”
   I raised my voice, more than a bit enthused at the concept.
   “Not disappear, exactly. More like make your presence as utterly thin as possible, I guess. You probably already know how it works, actually. Like, it’s not like you’re just constantly attracting attention everywhere you go, right? You know you can do certain things, in certain ways, and that will draw people to you.”
   This did sound familiar to me. I could think of a few examples—the picture I drew during that class in elementary school, for one.
   “In other words, you could take that, like, ‘drawing eyes’ skill and apply it to the outside world. Whether you’re consciously aware of it or not, it gets set off and people react to it. Kido’s skill can completely neutralize that, so you’re gonna be just fine. You know, this may have been all Kido’s mistake, but, like, maybe you were destined to be here all along, huh?”
   Kido buried her face in her magazine, still embarrassed over the mix-up.
   “A mistake? What do you mean, mistake?”
   Marie looked toward Kano, a distressed expression on her face. He responded with another defiant smirk, like the one he gave her earlier.
   Kano must really enjoy tormenting this poor girl, deep down.
   “Well, like, look at her. I know she just spent the past little while bullying you, but really Kido’s just a—”
   “R-right! Right!! We all ready to go?! And don’t worry about it, Marie. It’s nothing.”
   With that, Kido tossed her magazine on the sofa and briskly stood up.
   “Ready to…go?”
   “Y-yeah. Just over to the phone store.”
   Kano seemed to suddenly tense up as he briskly answered Marie’s question.
   Kido, adjacent to him, must have been intimidating Kano with her presence, imploring him not to tell her.
   It was an interesting glimpse into who positioned themselves where on the social totem pole around here.
   “…Are we going by the park?”
   “That park? Yeah, I guess so. Why?”
   “Okay. I’ll come along too. I…I want to bury something.”
   Kano gave Marie a blank stare as she stood up and went toward the kitchen.
   Kido and I wore the same face, not expecting this reaction.
   “Bury…? Did Marie have a pet or something?”
   “God, if she’d lost a pet we’d have bigger problems than burying it. Anyway, she doesn’t have one.”
   “Yeah. I doubt Marie could pay to feed it, for one. For two, she would’ve had to be, like, hiding it from us this whole time.”
   “So why is she…?”

   As we discussed Marie’s announcement in hushed tones, a clinking sound came from the kitchen. She was placing the pieces of the cups she broke while making tea earlier into a cloth bag.
   “Oh…”

   It was at that point that I remembered. Marie had taken the effort to bring out her favorite teacups for me. She had taken the effort, and it led to them breaking when she tripped.
   Handling the shards of animal-print ceramic, Marie’s face gradually returned to the state it was before she started bawling the first time.

   “Huh. That’s what she means?”
   “Well, she really liked them, you know.”
   The clinking continued as she carefully transferred the pieces, one by one, from a plastic convenience-store bag into the festively patterned cloth sack.
   This wasn’t just a chore to her. It seemed like she was putting every effort possible into this, making sure it was an unforgettable moment.

   “Um, can I ask a question, boss?”
   “Mm? What?”
   “Would it be all right if we didn’t go to the nearest phone shop? Like, maybe if we went to a bigger department store with a phone section?”
   Kido looked confused for a moment, but soon relaxed her gaze, apparently sensing my motives.
   “Fine by me. We can go anyplace you like.”
   “G-great! Thank you so much!”
   Kano flashed me a smile—a sincere one this time, I felt.
   “Yeah, I’m all for it too. Marie’s never been to a department store, either. I bet she’d really like it. And with you around, Kido, she’ll be just fine, yeah?”
   “Assuming Marie’s up for it, anyway. Here, could you invite her for me?”
   I headed for the kitchen, half-pushed by Kido.
   By the time I arrived, Marie had already taken care of most of the large pieces. She stood there, wondering how to handle the tinier pebbles.
   The littler pieces were undoubtedly too sharp for her to pick up by hand.

   “Need some help there, Marie?”
   Hearing a voice next to her, Marie turned, a bit startled.

   “Huh…?”
   “You’ll hurt your fingers if you touch the smaller pieces. I can hold the bag, so how about you just pour them inside?”
   “O-okay…”

   After she consented to my offer, Marie handed me the attractively patterned cloth bag she was carrying.
   The glass pieces inside weighed about the same as four cups.
   She must have decided to bury the regular broken cups alongside her favorites.

   I opened the bag wide while Marie emptied the remaining contents of the plastic bag into the sack.

   “They must have been really important to you.”
   “Y-yeah…Mom gave them to me.”
   I hesitated for a moment. Judging by how Kano and Kido fretted over her future, I assumed that Marie’s parents were not a part of her life.
   I had no way of telling if that was temporary or they were never coming back, but for now, at least, there were no family members close to her.

   —I felt my chest tighten a bit at a memory I couldn’t forget, one I recalled despite myself.

   “Oh…”
   “But it’s okay. I’ll make sure I don’t forget, so…”
   I was concerned she would start crying again, but when I looked, Marie had a gentle smile on her face instead.
   The sight was enough to make me tear up a little instead.
   But Marie didn’t cry. She wouldn’t let herself make a sad face right now.

   “Well, that’s great, that’s great. Listen, would you like to go shopping with me afterward?”
   I decided to plunge forward with the idea I had earlier.
   “Shopping…? For the phone?”
   “No, not that…If you’d like, I was thinking we could all go shopping for a new set of teacups.”
   The moment I said it, Marie looked right up at my face.
   “A-a new set?! I can help choose, too…?”
   “Of course! Wouldn’t it be lots of fun if we could all drink tea with our matching cups?”
   Marie’s face turned bright with excitement, apparently delighted with the proposal.
   “…Okay!”
   “Really?! Wonderful. It’ll be a great day out!”
   “Uh-huh…! But how far are we going…?”
   “Well, today we’re going to the department store! It’s like a whole bunch of different shops in one! If you come along, I bet it’ll be a ton of fun!”
   “The department store…?!”
   Marie’s face shone with excitement and imagination.
   I had no idea this would make her so happy…!
   I had thought this was the unluckiest day of my life, but weirdly enough, it was starting to get pretty fun.
   A real shopping trip…The idea made my pulse quicken, too.

   “I, I’m gonna go get ready…!”
   Placing the cloth bag carefully on the kitchen counter, Marie scampered off to her room.
   Watching her bound across the hideout warmed my heart, making a smile organically curl across my lips.
   Oh…but look out, I don’t want you falling again…

   “Oh, did Kisaragi invite you along?”
   “Y-yeah…I’m gonna go get ready!”
   Marie’s expression was one of pure anticipation as Kano spoke to her.

   —Until Kano just had to keep talking.

   “Well, great! Oh, man, are you gonna go out in those socks?! Pff… khhh…!”
   Kano suddenly struggled to stifle his laughter, as if suddenly remembering some hilarious joke.
   Socks…?
   Did he mean Marie’s “weird socks” they were talking about a while ago?
   But that made no sense. Marie was barefoot in the kitchen.
   As I thought it over, the stifled chuckling awkwardly stopped midway.
   In fact, Kano himself stopped moving at all. It was as if time stopped for him alone.
   A concerned “now he’s done it” expression crossed Kido’s face.

   “K-Kano…? Is something wrong…?”

   As I approached him, I noticed the change in Marie first.
   She was a completely different girl from before, emitting cosmic waves of pure rage as her face tilted downward.
   The long hair that flowed off her shoulders stood edge to edge, wriggling like a living creature. The eyes I saw through her hair were completely different from the light pink ones I knew…They were red, pure red.

   “Aghh!!”
   I shouted, surprised at this sudden transformation.
   This obedient little girl I was just speaking with had a look of pure murder on her face, her hair writhing in midair.

   “Ughh…You idiot…”
   Kido rapped Kano on the head. Kano remained standing, completely unresponsive.
   His expression remained firmly unchanged, like a store mannequin.

   “W-what’s this about…?”
   “Oh, uh, Marie’s ‘locking eyes’ can turn anyone who looks at her into stone.”
   “S-stone?!”
   Kido knocked on Kano’s head a few more times as she explained. The sight was so surreal that I had trouble comprehending her.
   Turning people into stone was something on a wholly different dimension from being about to “draw” people’s eyes.
   This was something closer to magic.
   Marie continued to stare at Kano, her breathing taut and rapid.

   “What kind of…I mean, is Kano all right?!”
   I hated to say it, but Kano, his face still straining in unbearable laughter, was a ridiculous sight to see.
   “Nah. If he’s like this, it’s already too late. He’s staying like this the rest of his life.”
   “…Huh?”
   “Boy, that’s sure a pity…Oh, well! I guess we’ll just have to make him into a coatrack! Not that we even need one…” said Kido, her facial expression completely unchanged.
   Kano…We had only just met, and this is how you leave me…?
   But she was right. This kind of coatrack wouldn’t look right in anyone’s home.

   “How ’bout we just throw this piece of junk in the trash…? Oof! Here, can you take the other end, Marie?”
   “Yeah…Let’s get this garbage out of here…”
   “—Yagh! What’re you doing, Kido?! Don’t grab me from behind like that! Ngh!!”

   The moment the two of them were about to drag Kano off, he suddenly came back to life.
   Without missing a beat, Kido buried a knee into his side.
   I had figured from Kido’s sarcasm that he would unfreeze sooner or later, but that blow probably hurt a lot worse. He collapsed to the floor, groaning.
   “What is your problem?! Stop shooting your mouth off when we’re trying to go out!”
   “S-sorry, boss…”

   Even though he had to feebly reply to Kido from his curled-up position on the floor, Kano’s smile was still there.

   “You go get ready, Marie. It’s gonna close if you don’t hurry.”
   “Wha?! Oh, no! I’ll be back in just a second…!”

   Marie skipped over to her room.
   Kido shrugged bitterly.

   “Um…Is Marie…? What is she?”
   “We don’t really know much either…but apparently she’s descended from a Medusa.”
   “A M-Medusa?! As in turns-people-into-stone, that Medusa?!”
   “Yep. I couldn’t believe it myself at first, but no way she’s human, anyway.”
   Faced with one outrageous concept after another, my expression went completely blank.

   I had heard the name Medusa before, at least.
   Not that I knew anything anyone else didn’t. A legendary monster, snakes for hair, petrifies folks, etc., etc.

   I had just seen one, right here, using her skills before my very eyes.

   “She said her parents had told her from birth that they were a family of Medusas. Her mother really could stone people for good, supposedly, but I guess all Marie can do is stop them in their tracks for a bit.”
   “But…but this is so unreal…”
   “Mm-hmm. I hear you there. But there she is. Besides, we’re kind of similar, you and I. Ignoring whatever science is behind it for the moment, some people have some pretty weird abilities. You know that by now, right?”
   “Y-yeah, I guess, but…”
   “—Do you hate her?”
   “…Huh?”
   “Now that you know she might not be human, does that make you hate her?”
   “…No. I’m hoping I can be her friend…!”
   “…Great. In that case, don’t think about it for now. We’ll tell you about it sometime later. You can tell us about yourself, too, if you’d like.”
   “O-okay…!”

   “I…I’m ready, but…”
   Marie poked her face out the door she’d entered before.
   But she refused to go out any farther, an embarrassed look on her face.

   “What’s the problem? Let’s go.”
   “A-all right…”

   Marie opened the door and left her room, revealing…nothing out of the ordinary.
   The socks that Kano couldn’t resist making fun of were plain, old, normal white socks.
   “Huh? Is there something…odd with those socks at all?”
   “Nah, those are normal. But the ones she came out wearing earlier were those real loose, baggy socks.”
   “Those socks…?!”
   I tried to imagine matching her current outfit with the long, baggy socks popular back in the nineties. It would have been…unusual.
   Marie, her face reddened, stormed up to Kido.
   “W-why did you say that?! I put on normal ones this time…!”
   “Mm? Sorry. She asked, so…Those oughta be just fine.”
   “B-but…!”
   Marie’s eyes darted around the room. She had to have been hurt by her friends picking on her all day.
   But what could have driven her to try on socks like those…?
   “I mean, I…I saw them in your magazine, Kano…”
   “His magazine…? You mean this?”

   Picking up the magazine Kano was reading earlier, I was greeted by the sight of young women dressed in outfits that were all but parodies of street fashion a few decades ago. The headline above them read KICKIN’ IT OLDSCHOOL! NOSTALGIA FASHION BLOWOUT!

   “It was really cool, so I…I just…”
   There was some real retro fashion sense in this modern-day Medusa’s mind.
   “I spent all that time knitting them, too…”
   Oh, man, and they were even homemade.

Making our way through the tight path to the main street, we were greeted by the usual hustle and bustle of city life.
    We could see the restaurants that lined the opposite side of the road, all filled to the brim with families and large groups of customers.
    I didn’t think I would be back here right after attracting that mob of onlookers, but everything was completely different from before.

    I wasn’t hiding, I wasn’t wearing a disguise, and yet not only was a crowd not forming around me—nobody even spoke to me. Pedestrians didn’t so much as bat an eye as they went past, eyes forward, walking in a straight line.
    “This…This is so novel.”
    “Yep. I’ll bet. Not so much to me, though. But when the hell is Kano going to notice us?”

    Kano, walking a little ahead on the sidewalk, suddenly turned around.
    He strained his eyes, as if searching for a contact lens on the ground. A moment later he confidently strode toward us, a look of recognition finally crossing his face.

    “Yeah, you guys are perfect. I mean, I had to, like, seriously look for you.”
    “Sure took you long enough.”
    Kido sighed, as if stood up for a date.
    “Hey, what do you want me to do about it? I couldn’t see you.”
    The smile remained firmly planted on his face as he grumbled.
    “Wow…You really couldn’t. It’s like we’re totally invisible…”
    “Nah, it’s not like that. It’s like…I dunno, I can see you, but I can’t will myself to notice you? That sort of thing. Pretty unnerving when you’re on the receiving end of it.”
    The way Kido described it, she could erase the “presence” of anything she wanted within a two-to-three meter radius.
    She couldn’t literally make us invisible, however, so everything remained seemingly normal from our perspectives.
    “Wow…! Can I try finding you, too?”
    “What’re you, crazy? If you left my side, you’d be right back where you started…Come on, Marie, you’re too close to me! Gimme some space!”
    Kido wrested Marie away, keeping her from nervously clutching the bottom of her jacket.
    “So…soooooooo many people…”
    “Well, yeah. We’re on a busy street. Anyway, everything’s okay, I guess. On with the mission.”
    “O-okay!”
    Hearing her put it that way made it feel like we really were on some secret infiltration mission. I was starting to get a little excited.
    Of course, the mission—to sign up for a new phone and buy some teacups —wasn’t exactly black-ops material.

    Kido and Kano led the way as we began to walk down the wide street. It was like another world.
    I was walking freely, completely unobstructed. It was like watching a movie, except this one was being shown 360 degrees around me.
    Nobody around us seemed to notice our presence, and I almost had to be careful not to bump right into them. The sensation of seemingly turning invisible gave me a sense of profound relief like nothing before in my life.

    The road we walked along was laden with fast-moving traffic, something that did distress me a little. Concerned, I looked down at Marie, walking side-by-side with me. She was white as a sheet. I hadn’t noticed until now, but I could hear her deep in the midst of her “It’s okay…it’s okay…” incantation.

    “Um…Kano? I…”
    “Huh? What? You don’t have to whisper.”
    “I don’t know…I just…”
    “It’s okay to talk like normal, you know. Hell, you can even start singing if you want. How did your debut single go? Like, ‘my peach-colored’ something-or-other?”
    “Aaaaghhh!! Don’t talk about that all of a sudden! I’m gonna punch you!”
    “Whoa, when did punching enter the picture…? Anyway, did you notice? You just shouted, and nobody even flinched.”
    “Oh…You’re right. But that’s not what I’m asking about! Marie looks like she’s having a lot of problems.”

    Marie continued to recite her would-be calming mantra.
    Even if she were visible, I was confident people would still go out of their way to avoid her.
    “Ah…Yeah, I figured she’d be like that. Hey, uh, Marie? Hello? Yeah, that sure ain’t good.”
    Kano began to walk backward, waving his hand in front of Marie’s face. She remained unresponsive, her gaze transfixed at some faraway point in space.
    I was unsure it was completely safe for someone like Kano to walk backward down a busy street.
    Don’t we have to watch out for other people? They can’t see us at all, right?

    “Oop. Hang on. Halt.”
    Just as I was about to voice my concern, Kano suddenly stopped.
    Kido stopped walking at the same time, causing Marie to bump right into him.

    “Huh…?”
    Before I could ask what was going on, a child on a bicycle cut right in front of us from the left. If we kept going at our previous pace, it would have been a nasty collision.
    What’s more, the kid had come in from a blind angle. I was looking straight ahead and had not even I noticed him.

    “…Oww! Marie!”
    “Ngh…I, I’m sorry…”
    Kido turned around to find Marie bowing in apology.
    “Ugh. You really need to pay more attention.”
    “But I’m scared…! All these people…”
    “Yes. All these people. I told you, that’s why you need to be more careful. What are you, stupid?”
    “I, I’m not stupid…!”
    Marie tried to counter, but her voice trailed off toward the end.
    “…Well, all right. Let’s get going.”
    Kido began to walk. The rest of us followed her.
    Marie appeared calmer than before, but now she was whining under her breath at Kido—“Why’d she have to say that to me,” and so on.
    Kano, meanwhile, kept walking ahead, carefree as always.

    “Say, Kano, how did you notice that kid on the bike?”
    “Hmm? Oh. I dunno. Just a hunch.”
    “Just a hunch…? Can you see the future or something?”
    Honestly, at this point, I would have accepted it if he replied “Yeah, so?” to me. Instead, he responded with a corny joke. “The future?” he said. “Boy, wouldn’t that be nice? Then I wouldn’t have to read my horoscope!”

    The traffic began to grow thicker as we drew closer to the department store down the street.
    A lot of the cars seemed to be leaving the complex, too. I spotted a giant stuffed animal in the backseat of one sedan on the opposite side.

    “Hey. We gotta cross this intersection. Stay close to me.”
    Kido stopped in front of the stoplight, pointing the crosswalk out to us.
    We needed to be careful. Cars were turning in and out from both sides.

    “I’m…I’m scared to cross…”
    “Mm? Oh, it’s all right. Just stick to Kido’s side, okay?”
    “Yep. Just not so close. You’re…you’re dragging me down…”
    “But I…I can’t…!”

    Marie was tightly hugging Kido, as if preparing for her big German suplex finisher.
    Kido pried her off, clasping Marie’s hands around the bottom of her jacket instead.
    I found myself naturally sidling up to her as well.
    Seeing the trucks passing right in front of us, I could feel myself gripped by an uncertain stress.
    “Okay. Free over there.”
    “All right, let’s go. Follow me.”
    After the light turned green, Kido let two cars in front of her make a turn before setting off.
    Kano followed along behind her.
    I checked a few times for oncoming cars, but since we were far from the only pedestrians crossing, my brain shifted over to the task of dodging them instead.
    Once we crossed safely, we saw just a bit of the department store peeking between the buildings in front of us.
    Navigating another crosswalk beyond, we hung a quick left. It was a straight shot after that.
    I had passed nearby the store many times before, but every encounter gave me a new appreciation for how enormous it was.
    I always thought it looked like something out of an epic RPG or something.

    “Wow. This joint looks like something out of, like, an RPG, doesn’t it?”
    Kano suddenly struck up a conversation as we waited at the crosswalk for a green light.
    “H-huh? Whoa! How did you…?!”
    “Uh…what’s the deal? Did I say something weird…?”

    The sheer spot-on timing of it was enough to shock me into losing control of my motor functions.
    I could tell that Kano was plainly unnerved by this.
    It seemed like just a simple coincidence, but to be honest, it seemed like the guy was reading my mind. It scared me.
    “Oh, uh…Ha-ha-ha! Nothing that important.”
    “Mmm? Well, you sure weren’t acting that way. Oh, were you maybe thinking the same thing or something?”
    “Whoa! How did you know that…?”
    That, or he really could read my mind.
    So was he picking up on all the crazy thoughts that have crossed my mind so far today…? The idea sent a chill up my spine.

    “Oh, you were? It was just kind of a hunch, really. Guess great minds think alike, huh, Kisaragi?”
    “C-could you knock that off? It’s really weird.”
    I had to give Kano my honest take. He drooped his shoulders dejectedly, obviously put off by it.
    Or maybe he’s not reading my mind after all? This was getting confusing.

    “Oh, Kidoooo…You’re the only one who really understands me!”
    “Get away. I’ll kill you, I swear.”
    “Oh, all right…”
    Kano had tried to approach, but then Kido sent him reeling back through sheer force of will.
    There’s the boss for you. She knows her troops well.
    Once the light finally turned green and we crossed the street, the department store was almost upon us.
    As we walked down the opposite side of the street from before, Kano and I marching forward in a straight line, I noticed a large white van passing us by.

    Come to think of it, I wonder what’s going on with my drama shoot right now.
    I bet my manager was livid.
    The agency might have every employee out on the streets, combing the city for me.
    I really need to get in contact. We need to talk this over, and I need to get my true feelings across…

    “A-are you all right?”
    “Huh?”
    I looked where the voice came from, only to find Marie worriedly staring at me.
    “Ah! Y-yeah! Yeah, I’m just fine. Did…did I really look that bad?”
    Marie lightly nodded, not even trying to hide the truth.
    Yes. I think I am on the path to finally making a friend.
    I have a child here who worries about me. The normal me, not the girl on the idol pop charts.
    “I…I’m sorry. But, hey, we can see the department store now, Marie!
    There’s bound to be all kinds of neat stuff in there. Isn’t it exciting?!”
    “Huh…? Oh! Oh, you’re right! Ooh, it’s like an enchanted palace!”
    The line of buildings to the right suddenly gave way to the grand sight of the department store.
    It was a grand, opulent-looking edifice. Marie’s appraisal was far from an exaggeration.
    I had thought before about visiting the amusement park up on the roof, but it always felt a little awkward to go by myself.
    But today was different. The whole gang was here. Maybe we’d have a little time to see the sights.
    I could palpably feel the excitement bubbling in my heart.

    “It sure is, isn’t it? And it’s even more amazing inside!”
    “Ooh, I can’t wait!”
    Marie’s eyes were wide open and filled with wonder, like an excited child.
    Sneaking a glance at Kido, I could see her smiling a little.
    I began to feel a little embarrassed. My eyes were probably just as wide and childlike as hers.

    I walked up to Kido’s side and spoke, trying to keep my voice soft.
    “Why don’t we all go shopping together, boss?”
    “Mm? I don’t really have anything I need…”
    “Aw, but we already walked all the way over here. Let’s go look at some clothes! I could pick a cute outfit for you!”
    “You…?! I should probably pass.”
    “Oh, you don’t have to be polite! You know, I’ve got a pretty good eye for coordinating outfits, so…”
    “Well, no, I mean…Your outfits, they’re kind of garish. It’s not really my thing, so…Uh, something wrong?”

    We had just approached the entrance to the department store complex.
    I hadn’t noticed until we were practically touching, but I saw someone familiar standing there.
    You’re kidding me. That’s impossible. Why would he be here, and why now, of all the times…?!
    I doubted he was aware of any of this, but either way, I needed to get out of there, fast.

    “—Kisaragi? Something up?”
    “My brother…”
    “Your…What? Your brother?! How…Whoa!”
    My feet tripped over each other in my haste to escape, sending me careening into Kido at full speed.
    I threw her off balance, sending her straight in the direction of my brother, Shintaro.
    “Ow!”
    Oh, no. I’d gotten so freaked out that I’d just made things worse.
    “A-a-a-ahhhh!”
    Marie, just as surprised as I was over these events, had majestically stumbled to the ground herself, even though she was nowhere near us.

    Kido quickly gathered herself together and turned toward my brother.
    “Uh…umm…So, uh, I’m sorry for—”
    It was almost sad, hearing my brother try to interact with a woman using that limp, mumbling voice of his.
    He also had his head down practically to the ground, all but groveling to her. It surprised all of us.

    You have got to give me a break. I sighed, my body racked with regret at spurting out “my brother” to my friends.

    “…Oh, no biggie. Sorry about that.”

    After quickly apologizing, Kido turned back toward me.
    Standing back up straight, my brother suddenly spun his head around, confused, before putting his hands on his knees and hyperventilating.
    Oh, man. What a pathetic-looking creature this is.
    All he did was bump into a woman, but he was acting like he’d just walked straight into a grizzly bear.
    He didn’t seem to have noticed me, thankfully, but that was probably because Kido was focusing her powers on the rest of us.
    That, or maybe all that staring at his PC monitor finally made him go blind.
    Either way, I brought my hand to my face, too embarrassed to look.

    “Ugh…this is awful…”
    “Are you for real, Kisaragi? That guy’s your brother?!” As we returned to our neat little line, Kido—cool as a cucumber as she dealt with Shintaro—broke out in a cold sweat as she addressed me.
    “I…no, he’s not…He’s not. Please.”
    “No, I definitely heard you use the word ‘brother’ just now.”
    Kano, a cool observer to the whole catastrophe, chimed in as if on cue.
    “Ngh…! Uh, hey, Marie, are you okay?! Sorry if I surprised you…!”
    Marie had already stood back up, although there was a tear around the knee of one of her socks.
    “Agh…! Are, are you hurt?!”
    “Awww…This was the first time I wore these, too…”
    All Marie seemed to care about right now was her socks. I doubted she was too traumatized.

    “Whew! That’s good. Kano, why are you smirking at me like that? You’re creeping me out!”
    “Huh? Oh, no, no, I didn’t mean to…Uh, don’t worry about it, okay?”
    Kano looked exactly like a kid who had just found a new toy to play with. He is such a creep.

    “Arrrghhh! This is just the worst! What could he possibly be doing here…?”
    “S-so that was your brother over there? Really?”
    “Please, boss, stop reminding me! I don’t want to see him! Ugh, I hate this…”
    “O-oh…! Uh, sorry.”

    I looked back at my brother, apparently chatting with his cell phone by the entrance gate.
    Probably talking with her again.
    But what would bring them here?
    He hadn’t even tried to set foot outside of the house in nearly two years…

    “Look, let’s just get going, okay? How’s that sound, Marie?!”
    “Uh, yeah…Are you mad, Kisaragi?”
    “No! Not mad at all! You hurry up too, boss!!”
    “Um…okay…”
    Let’s just get in the store before my brother decides to follow me in.
    Pushing Kido through the gate, I scrambled inside the department store as quickly as I could.
    “Huh? Hey, do I get a push, too?”
    Kano stuck his nose between us, beaming brightly, an inquisitive finger pointed at himself as he walked alongside me.
    “Kano, why don’t you just go home and die?!”
    “Aww…Hey, maybe your brother wants to hang out with me, huh?”
    “Aaahhhhh!! Just kidding. Never mind! Come with me!!”
    “Oh, don’t be so shy, Kisaragi…If you want me to come along, like, say so, huh?”
    Repressing the murderous urges welling up from my stomach, I silently headed inside the department store.
    Let’s just get to the seventh floor. They’ve got to have phones in the electronics section.
    My brother might not even be going inside in the first place. Besides, this store is huge. Even if he did enter, no way would we be heading for the exact same place.
    I just have to get away from him, and I’m safe.
    We gotta get inside. We’re here to have a fun shopping trip, dammit!

The afternoon sun shone through the glass windows that lined the walls.
    The Obon holiday had brought a lot of families out of the house. Small children were playing around with the giant refrigerators on display, messing with the doors and hiding inside the freezer.
    I wished I could run around and shout like they could. Reality can be cruel like that. Sometimes I wonder if I’ve been possessed by some kind of demonic spirit.
    “K-Kisaragi…?”
    “Mmm? What is it, Marie?”
    “Eep! Uh…uh, cheer up, okay?”
    “Oh, don’t worry, Marie. I feel great! Isn’t this fun…? Heh-heh…”
    “Oh…uh, yeah…sorry…”
    The seventh floor.
    Up-tempo music filled the space, blaring out of speakers placed around the home-appliance section.
    Kano launched into a cheek-stretching yawn, acting oddly fatigued.
    He was apparently already tired of waiting for us. That was his problem, not mine.

    We had decided to take the stairs up to the seventh level. The elevators and escalators were too dense with people for Kido to have confidence in her skill. We haven’t really disappeared, after all. If someone touched us, that would immediately break the spell, so to speak.
    I tried to hurry the gang along, but Marie could only take the steps two at a time for short spurts before running out of breath. We were forced to take frequent rests, costing me untold amounts of time.
    The moment we finally reached the seventh floor and headed for the phone section, my brother strolled out of the elevator.
    I had thought this was a good day. Let me amend that. Today was absolutely, positively, the unluckiest day of my life.
    Some might find all of this romantic, the idea of me reaching the exact same destination as my brother on his first outing in two years. If the goddess of romance were here right now, I was ready to clock her.

    Incidentally, Kido would have to relax her ability a little bit if I wanted to replace my phone.
    By “relax,” she explained to me, I would be noticed by others, but still wouldn’t stand out that much.
    I would be just another face in the crowd, too humdrum and normal for anyone to recall me afterward.

    But, as Kido put it, my brother would be another matter.
    When it comes to family members and other people I shared a great deal of time with, if I made my presence even a little bit known, there was every possibility that he could sniff me out.
    My brother was far too obtuse and thick-headed for that, I figured, but just to be doubly sure, we decided to wait and scope out the scene until he went away.

    So here we were. Waiting for my brother, currently shuffling around in front of some stupid grenade-shaped water heater he surely had no intention of buying anyway, to log out of my life.

    “Why did this have to happen…?”
    I murmured it to myself softly as we waited, four in a line, in a relatively inconspicuous aisle.
    The Mekakushi-dan, on a covert mission to replace my cell phone, sidling this way and that to keep passersby from blundering into them. In my eyes, there was no simpler way to portray hell on earth.
    “You know, it’s like you’ve got the worst luck or something…”
    “Tell me about it. I’m really feeling it today, too…”
    “So what do you think he’s here to buy?”
    “I have no idea…Probably something for his computer. Who knows why he’d go out and buy it himself, though…”
    “Huh…Maybe it’s the holiday. You know, Obon? And the shopping sites are closed or something.”
    “Oooh…That sounds pretty likely, actually. But he just had to come here right now, didn’t he…?”
    “Well, the two of you do look kinda alike. Like, maybe you’re both groovin’ on the same wavelength or something?”
    “…I will hit you, I swear.”
    “Okay, maybe not that much alike. My bad.”
    “Ugh…I’m really sorry about this, Marie. I promise I’ll make it up to you, okay?”
    “Oh, no…This is all my fault anyway, so…Besides, this is really fun.”
    “Nghh…What is taking him so long?! Just buy whatever crap you need and go already…”
    “Well, you know, it’s only been about five minutes. Just hang tight!”
    “I can’t! I want to contact my agency and go shopping with Marie…! Ughh!”
    “Yeah! I want to go shopping, but I can wait, okay? So don’t worry!”
    “Oh, Marie, you are so nice to me! Wanna go to the sweets section later? Hmm?”
    “Okay…! Oh, here comes someone.”
    Marie moved away from a customer walking down the aisle, a large backpack slung behind him. This customer didn’t seem terribly keen on browsing, though. He came to a stop in the middle of the aisle, removing his sack and peering inside.
    “What’s with this guy? Why isn’t he going anywhere…?”

    I looked to my side, only to find Kano looking suddenly tense.
    Kido’s brows were furrowed, apparently noticing whatever Kano had.

    “Kido, this is bad.”
    “Yeah. Kisaragi, Marie, let’s get out of here.”
    “Uh…okay…?”

    We stepped back into the main aisle, Kido and Kano’s faces still racked with apprehension.

    “What now? Should we fall back?”
    “You get Kisaragi’s brother over here. Try not to scare him too much.”
    “Got it. You take care of these guys.”
    “Sure thing. Hurry,” said Kido, at which, Kano disappeared down the side aisle my brother had just stepped into.

    “Um, boss? What did you mean by ‘get my brother over here’? How am I gonna find a cell phone if we’re…”
    “That guy’s backpack stunk of gunpowder. I could smell it from here. He’s probably carrying weapons. I think I saw the barrel of a gun in there. Explosives, too.”
    “Huh?”
    “…Ah, crap! The guy who just walked down the opposite aisle must be with him. Hey, once Kano comes back, we’re getting out of here!”
    “W-what…? Kido, what’s going on…?”
    Marie was clearly shaken at Kido’s sudden change of tone.
    Probably less than half of what she told me had made it inside my head.
    I hadn’t gotten the full message, but the atmosphere had gotten so tense, so quickly, that I felt pangs of anxiety shoot up and down my body.
    My mind was having trouble keeping up. But the sight in front of me was shockingly clear as it burned into my retinas.
    “Boss…Look!”
    “Dammit…Just follow what I say for now, all right? We’re probably in a…”

    Suddenly, there was a loud, echoing bang.

    Screams rose up from across the floor, as if on cue.
    “Ah…!”
    Marie clung to my side, startled.
    The screams slowly, gradually grew in volume, forming an avalanche that buried the entire show floor.
    The man in the aisle from earlier removed his shirt, revealing an outfit resembling a special-forces military uniform. Grabbing a gun from the backpack, he leaped out from the aisle.
    “Ugh. Too late…?! Whoa!!”

    As I stared dumbfounded at the unfolding events, Kido grabbed both Marie’s and my arms, pulling us deeper into the showroom.
    Right after our momentum sent us to the ground, a large iron shutter fell over the spot we had just stood, completely shutting us away from the elevators we were facing.
    “Hey! You okay?”
    “I, I think so…! Are you all right, Marie?!”

    Marie, still in Kido’s arms, was quivering with fear.
    Luckily, she still had it together enough to follow Kido’s orders as we ran to a narrow aisle and hunkered down.

    “Calm down, Marie. It’s gonna be all right. They haven’t noticed us over there…but…”
    We could still hear screaming scattered across the showroom.
    In unison, there were loud footsteps as customers ran around, searching for an escape.

    “Great…We’re probably dealing with terrorists. They’re well trained, and they’ve got everything planned out, too. I’d guess they’re going to take everyone on this floor hostage.”
    I felt goose bumps on my arms.
    My brother was just on this floor.
    Which means that, right now…
    “Shintaro…!!”
    “Hold it! Kano’s over there right now, okay? If you go, you’re gonna get caught!”
    “But…!!”
    I allowed myself to imagine the worst-case scenario. Tears began to well in my eyes.
    He may be that kind of brother, but he’s still the only one I have.
    A shut-in, an unemployed geek, a thoughtless baboon; but he’s still family!

    Why did all of this have to happen?
    I had finally found a glimmer of hope that my body could be cured of… whatever it was.
    I had finally found a chance to make a new friend, a real friend.
    This must be what I get for causing so much trouble for so many people today.
    Maybe this whole thing, and all the people caught up in it, is my fault.

    “Kisaragi! Just stay calm for me. If they’re taking them hostage, they’re not gonna just kill them. There’s no point jumping in there unless we get a better bead on the situation, right?”
    “R-right…I…Sorry.”
    I tried to wipe away the tears, but they kept welling up on me.
    It was the second time I’d cried today, and given all the fun I’d had up until now, it felt like the first time in years.

    What are we supposed to do now…?
    After an extended silence, we heard a clamor of tense voices on the other side.
    It was the police, apparently, but the shutter had left them helpless.

    Marie was curled up on the floor, shaking in fear.
    Kido’s eyes were closed, as if she was thinking something over.

    “Agh…!”
    “Eep…!”
    Without a word of warning, Kido suddenly sprang forward. Marie, surprised, jumped out of her way.
    The cause was the jingling cell phone inside Kido’s jacket.
    “A text…?!”
    Kido extracted her cell phone, muscles still tensed.
    A moment later, her face loosened up into one of near disgust.
    Marie and I were both bewildered. Her expression was a major mismatch for the situation we were in.
    “Um…who’s it from?”
    “From that idiot…”
    Kido tossed her phone at me.
    The screen was still showing the text. Kano’s name was up top.

“Subject: Got caught!
Hey, how’s it going over there? We’re managing over here somehow! They’ve got us all sitting in a row! It’s like, wow, first hostage experience! Oh, they got Kisaragi’s big brother, too! And he’s sitting right next to me! Here, check out the selfie [IMAGE ATTACHED]! Anyway, that’s the situation here!”

    I read the message text, then opened the attached photo. There was my brother, hands bound, back to the camera. Kano was front and center behind him, flashing a peace sign. Nervous-looking hostages filled in both sides of the picture.
    It was an absolutely perfect shot. Not even the slightest bit out of focus.
    “Boss, is…is something wrong with his head, or…?”
    “Pretty much. He’s beyond help at this point.”
    “Uh, K-Kido? Is he…is he in trouble?”
    “Trouble? Hell, Marie, he’s mentally unstable. I need to take him to the doctor so he can get his brain dissected.”
    “…How is he typing on his cell phone if he’s been caught?”
    “Ooh, wow, you’re right, Kisaragi! Everyone around him’s all tied up, but he’s giving us the peace sign and everything!”
    “The terrorists must’ve thought he was too much of an idiot to waste the rope on.”
    “……”

    Silence fell over the three of us. Suddenly things seemed far less serious.
    For some reason, I was seized by the notion that I was in the middle of some screwball comedy about a bunch of bumbling crooks.

    “So, uh…boss?”
    “…This is still a pretty bad situation. I think.”
    “Aw, but Kano’s having so much fun!”
    Marie had a point. I sighed as I stared at the photo, which for all the world looked like it was from a particularly crazy night during senior field trip. What kind of situation is this, anyway? I was starting to lose my grip on reality.
    “Really, though, why isn’t he tied up? Stupid or not, they’d do that, at least.”
    “Kano’s bound up along with the rest of them. Or at least it looks that way. To everyone else.”
    “Ooh, so he’s disguised himself again?”
    “Wait, what? What do you mean…?”
    “To put it simply, he has the ‘deceiving eyes’ ability. He can make them see something other than what’s actually there.”
    “I don’t…How does that…?”
    “Well, imagine you find this cute kitten on the street. You take it home, and whoops! It’s actually a huge Rottweiler. It’s kind of like that.”
    “Aw, that’s such a cute example, Kido!”
    Marie giggled to herself. Kido turned red in the face. It was a rare sight to see her this embarrassed.
    “No, I…Quit it, Marie. W-we’re not getting any pets, okay…?”
    “So he can make…optical illusions or something?”
    “Yeah, that’s close enough. It doesn’t have much range, though. He can only do it on himself.”
    “Huh…”
    “Remember when we were walking here? He didn’t look it, but he was actually running lookout duty for us the whole time. That’s how he spotted that bike.”
    “…Oh.”
    So when I thought he was walking backward, he was actually watching the whole street for us?
    Did he not want us to notice, or…?

    “That’s pretty amazing, but still…uh…”
    “Oh yeah. He’s still an idiot.”

    The man with his fingers in a V in the photo was flashing a healthy, contented smile, only serving to further emphasize how silly the whole thing looked.
    But I had to hand it to him—he did calm us down. There wasn’t even a sniffle from Marie any longer.
    He might be a more amazing person than even he lets on.
    Especially compared to that idiot brother of mine behind him. All he ever does is make me worry.
    The first time he goes out in forever, and look what happens. We’re never gonna get him out of his room now.

    As I looked at the photo, pondering over this, an idea sprang to mind.
    The idea quickly began to spawn other ideas, and before long, a plan began to form in my head.
    “Ah…ah…!!”
    “Mm? What? What is it?”
    “With your ‘concealing eyes,’ and my…”
    “Huh? What are you going on about?”
    Kido’s vote of complete nonconfidence made me feel a tad abashed, I had to admit.
    But this plan I had just conceived might be our only chance out of this situation.
    “Listen, boss. I’m not totally sure, but I think we might be able to beat these guys.”
    “…What do you mean?”
    “Well, it’s like this…uh. It’s kind of hard to put into words…Can I borrow your cell phone? I want to brainstorm a bit while I try writing it out.”
    “Oh? Sure, but…”
    “So, here’s the basic idea…”
    As I tapped away at Kido’s cell phone, a man’s voice suddenly sprang forth from the department store speakers. The terrorist leader, I imagined.
    “A one-billion-yen ransom…? Man, these guys are pretty stupid, too.”
    “One billion does sound a little stupid, doesn’t it? It’s like what a child would imagine when he tries to think of a really big pile of money.”
    Perhaps because of the sheer lunacy we had just seen among the hostages, the terrorists themselves were starting to look pretty dumb as well.
    “Hey, uh, how much is one billion?”
    “Imagine you made two flowers a day, Marie. Then do that for the next one hundred million days.”
    “One hundred…huh? I don’t get it.”
    “Ah, forget about it…”
    I struggled to write out my plan in concrete form as I cast a less-thanfocused ear toward the terrorists’ verbal manifesto.
    Using the reply window from Kano’s text, I silently typed away at the software keyboard.
    “Uh, hang on, give me just one second…This goes here, and…”
    “Take your time, but…are you sure you really got something?”
    “Yeah, I think so…Wait. Huh? Oh, okay. Uhhh…”
    Halfway through writing it out, I realized I had forgotten the last part.
    Uh-oh. Ending too early would lead to casualties, a lot of them. I had to avoid that, no matter what…
    “Oh, no…Maybe not?”
    “What?! Don’t give me that!”
    “Ahhh, just give me another second…ummm…”
    “Hey, hey, what’re you two talking about?”
    Marie, listening in from the side, suddenly ducked her head close to mine.
    I hadn’t noticed before as I spoke with Kido all this time, but Marie was acting remarkably calm at this point.
    “Oh, um…just kind of putting together a plan of operations, so…”
    “Oooh, an operation? Coooool…!”
    “Hey, shut up for a second, Marie. You’re not helping.”
    “Aww…”
    “Hmm? Well, hang on a second…My ‘drawing eyes,’ Marie’s ‘locking eyes’…”
    “Huh? What was that, Kisaragi? Hey, tell me too!”
    “…Yeah!…Yeah, I think this could work! All set!”
    It was finally all typed in. I showed off my cell-phone treatise to Kido, with Marie craning her neck to read along.

    “Hmm…Whoa, hang on. Who’s this girl showing up midway?”
    “Uh, it’s someone I know, and…well, it’s just like I have it written, so…”
    “And she’ll do that?”
    “She will…or should…probably. No, definitely! B-but that’s what I want Kano to check on!”
    “Oooh, that’s my name there at the end!”
    “So, so is it all right if I just text this to him…?!”
    “Hmm…assuming she’s actually over there, then maybe…”
    “Huh…?”
    Kido remained where she was, mulling things over within her mind. Suddenly, she looked back toward me.
    “No…This is a good plan. Assuming she’s really there, I mean. It might be the only course of action we have right now…Not bad, rookie.”
    “…Great! Thanks, boss! Here, let me send this…!”

    I was elated.
    None of the compliments I’ve received in my life ever made me happier, maybe.
    I was so glad I joined the Mekakushi-dan.

    “Hey, um, what’s the operation? I don’t get it.”
    “Oh…uh, I’ll give you a signal! So just stick close to me until then, okay, Marie?”
    “Um? O-okay! I’ll try to be ready!”
    Marie made two fists, trying her hardest to make a tiny, waifish “Let’s do this!” muscle flex for us.
    She and I needed to work in perfect tandem for this operation to have any chance, but there was no time to rehearse. All I could hope was that things would work out once we got started.
    I was still a tad nervous, but it was going to work…We had to make it work!

    A new text arrived on Kido’s phone.
    It hadn’t been that long since I sent mine, but it was from Kano nonetheless.

       “Subject: Fun!
       Kisaragi, your plan sounds so fun! I think the girl you were talking about is here, too. I heard her voice earlier. Such a brave lass! I’ll try to make sure, but can you get closer without getting caught? Also I had some time to kill so I took another selfie—”

    Once I made it to that point, I clicked “yes” on “Delete?” without even thinking about looking at the attached photos.

    “I think it’s A-OK on his end!”
    “Yeah? Good.”
    Kido had probably assumed Kano’s text was just as insipid as the last one.
    “But do you think we’ll be safe if we try getting closer?”
    “As long as we don’t bump into anyone, no problem. But keep a sharp lookout. They’re armed with guns.”
    “Right!”
    It was time to begin operations. Bunching together, the three of us emerged into the main aisle.
    Looking across the showroom, I saw the hostages gathered in front of the wall.

    “Wow…they really were taken hostage, weren’t they? It didn’t really feel real to me until now.”
    “Me neither. Don’t go too far away from us, Marie.”
    “I won’t!”

    Earlier, Marie had been terrified of the crowds, but now that we were facing actual, literal terrorists with real guns, she seemed more or less fine. I was starting to think she might be something pretty special.

    Getting as close as I could, hugging the edge of the aisle, I finally reached a safe angle to spot Kano and my brother sitting on the floor.

    “Ugh. That fool’s grinning ear to ear. At least try to conceal yourself, you idiot.”
    “Look at Shintaro. All serious like that…He’s usually a massive wimp, too…I have this sneaking suspicion he’s thinking the same thing I am.”
    “Yeah? Maybe you resemble each other in more ways than one…Marie, what are you doing?”
    “Oh, uh, I thought this looked really neat, so…”
    Marie was carrying a handheld electric massager.
    Judging by her expression, she must have thought it was some sort of weapon.

    “…Sure, fine. Put it back later, okay?”
    “ ’Kay, I will!”
    “Ha-ha-ha…Right. Let’s go around through this aisle.”

    Ducking into a smaller side corridor, we saw a stubble-bearded man, the apparent leader of the group, sitting on a bench. He was playing with his cell phone as he seemingly idled away the time. The confidence he exuded indicated that everything was going according to his devious plan.

    “That’s the main guy, isn’t it? He sure looks like a meanie.”
    “Yeah, it’s gotta be. That beard makes him seem positively deranged.”
    “Wow, he’s scary…”
    He likely wasn’t expecting a gaggle of young women critiquing his looks as he sat there.
    Still, this was it. A terrifying criminal mastermind, right before our eyes.
    The stubbly, unkempt beard only served to complete the “vicious, rampaging maniac” image.
    “Oh, there’s Kano…”
    “You just noticed now?”
    “Yeah. I went and got this first, so…Whoa! Huh…? A-a-a-ahhh!!”
    “Hey, what’re…?!”

    As Marie held the massager into the air, she tripped over the electrical cord she had been dragging behind the whole time. As she tumbled to the ground, the massager flew in the air, straight for the stubble-bearded man.

    “Aaaahhhhhhhhh!!”

    Kido’s and my scream sounded out in perfect harmony. We tried to reach for the massager, but it managed to strike the man right on the back of his head.
    The man’s expression instantly twisted in pain. Just as it did, Kido slid in, catching the massager just in time before it clanged to the floor. The deed done, we all scurried back into a side aisle.

    “Are you stupid?! Do you want to die here?!”
    “Eep…I, I’m sorry…”
    “Phew…I thought for sure we were dead. I didn’t think you’d actually see all those flashbacks and everything…”
    Sitting down in the aisle, we could hear the stubble-bearded man’s minions groan in pain as their leader flew into a psychotic rage.
    We’re really sorry about that, minions…Not that you don’t deserve to be punished, but…

    After a moment, another text from Kano reached Kido’s phone.

         “Subject: Good to go!
       Your bro says if he gets a chance it’ll be 100 percent OK! This is starting to get fun! Oh, and that thing you just did…It was amazing, lol.”

    Looking up from the aisle toward the hostages, I spotted my brother, his face still oddly solemn. Waiting for the right chance I supposed. A grinning Kano sat behind him.
    The text continued:

       “Anyway, I’m starting to get bored. Wanna go home. Oh, and don’t worry, I told your bro to wait until the beard guy starts broadcasting again.”

    “I think it’s all good over there. Let’s keep this operation going!”
    “All right…I’m ready!”
    “Good. I really don’t want to see any more of that bearded guy…!”
    “Hey, um, don’t you think I should apologize to him…?”
    “Look, don’t go away from me until I say it’s okay, all right?”
    “Uh, okay!”
    Marie’s hand was clamped upon Kido’s jacket, just like before.
    “Well, here we go…”
    “Uh-huh…Whoa! He’s got another message?!”
    Just as we had walked into the main aisle, the PA system came to life once more.
    “Huh…?! He’s too early! C’mon, Marie! Hurry!”
    “Wha? Huh…? Ahh!”

    We made our way toward the TV section, me taking the lead while Kido half-dragged Marie along with her.
   Cutting across the main aisle, we reached the opposite side of the stubble-bearded guy and his men, the hostages located between us.
   I could see several dozen big-screen TVs on display across the right-hand wall.

   “Great! We’re in ti—”
   The next sight that crossed my eyes was the still-enraged stubble-bearded man picking my brother up by the hair.
   “Sh-Shintaro…”
   “Wait! I told you, don’t go by yourself! You’re the only one who knows how we’re timing this thing!”
   “…!!”
   She was right. But look at him! Right in front of me…!
   “…K-Kisaragi!”
   “Huh…?”
   Without warning, Marie had grabbed my hand.
   “I don’t really get it…but it’s all right!”
   She applied more force to my hand as she continued, eyes pointed straight at mine.

   “…This is gonna work!!”

   The moment she said it, all sound disappeared from my world.
   I could feel an intense heat from within my eyes, as if every nerve in my body was pointed toward my vision.
   Suddenly, I could tell exactly where the eyes of every person in the showroom were looking.

   “…Okay!”

   I took a deep breath and focused.
   There were nine terrorists on this floor. I could easily spot their positions from here.
   “Boss! The forty-two-inch TV, third from the left! We’ll start with that!”
   “Got it. Marie, let’s go.”
   “Uh, okay…!”

   The three of us lined up in front of the television I marked out, placing our hands behind it.
   Now it all comes down to timing.
   And I, more than anyone else, knew the exact moment people’s eyes would be upon us.

   “…for life…”

   …Keep waiting…hold on…!

   “I hope all you bastards get shut into a jail cell for life!”

   Shintaro was suddenly being pretty cool for someone who was normally so useless.

   The moment his voice echoed across the showroom floor, all eyes focused upon him.
   All those eyes, and now I can draw every one of them!
   “Now! Go!”

   The television smashed to the ground with a loud crash.
   At that moment, everyone focused on the TV’s shattered carcass.
   The moment every single one of them began to gasp, we knocked over the speakers lying beneath it.

   “Where next?!”
   “Next is…There! That shelf!”
   “…That’s more taking a potshot than attracting attention, no?”
   “Ha-ha…Maybe a little.”
   The stubble-bearded man approached, pistol in his hand.
   “There somebody in—?!”
   “Two, and three!”
   On three, we all kicked the merchandise shelf over in unison.
   “Ngh! Whoa!”
   An avalanche of heavy electronics flew off the shelf, effectively burying the man.
   “Now…!”
   Looking across the collapsed shelf, I saw my brother stand up and start running.
   He ran right past my side, not giving me a moment’s notice, a stern look of resolve on his face.
   “—You’re up, Ene.”
   I found myself murmuring it out loud.
   There was no way I’d get a response. I wasn’t expecting one.

   I heard my brother call for Ene as her image floated across screen after screen.
   Just as I thought it was all over…

   —I heard a single gunshot.

   “…?!”

   Turning around, I saw my brother on the ground in front of the computer.

   “…Huh…?”
   “Dammit! They got him…!”

   A large motor rumbled to life, and the shutter began to clatter its way upward.

   “…Shintaro!!”
   My brother had fallen facedown. He wasn’t getting up.
   Kano ran up to his side.
   “Come on, Kisaragi! The shutter’s open! Hurry!”
   “—!!”
   Once the shutter was about eight inches open, I could see the feet of the police squadron as they prepared to storm in from the other side.
   Kido, noticing them, let out a panicked yelp.
   The showroom floor was the loudest it had ever been.
   Several terrorists pointed toward the shutter, shouting something in loud, frazzled voices.

   If the shutter kept opening and a gun battle erupted between the cops and the terrorists, we could have dozens of injuries on our hands.

   “Kisaragiiiii!”
   “I know…!”

   I need to get my brother out of here. Now. I have to do this!

   “Marie!”
   “Yeah!”
   “…Let’s go!”

   I nodded to Kido, and then she released her ability from me.

   At that moment, I could feel the eyes of everyone in the area, including the terrorists, focus upon me—no meaning to it, no reason, no matter of preference; just nothing but unrelenting stares.

   “This…this is Kisaragi. Momo Kisaragi. Sixteen years old.—And I’m a pop idol!”

   —Silence.
   At that moment, my “drawing eyes” had ensnared them all.

   “It’s all you now, Marie!!”

   Before my eyes, Marie began to walk forward.
   She stopped right between myself and all the eyes pointed toward me.

   Marie’s “locking eyes” locked upon every gaze except for mine. Her hair began to writhe, and with her deep, deep red eyes, she said:

   “Sorry.”

   —It sounded almost like a magical time-stopping incantation.
   “Charrrrrrrrge!…Ah?!”

   I could hear the shutter clatter. A chaotic drumbeat of footsteps spontaneously erupted.
   The police squadron were past the shutter.
   But not only were the hostages safe—the terrorists offered them zero resistance, their eyes still fixated upon a single point in space.

   Nobody was there.
   Or, to be exact, no one could recognize the presence of anyone there.

   “Blindfold complete, I guess.”

   Kido sighed raspily in apparent relief.
   Her eyes had a red tinge to them, the fatigue all too clear on her face.

   “…! Shintaro!”
   I ran up to my brother, lying on the ground nearby.
   “…Kano! How is he?!”
   Kano, watching over him, had a profoundly serious look on his face, like none I’d seen before.
   “…Sadly…”
   No…! It can’t be…!!
   “—Sadly, I think he just fainted. Must’ve gotten, like, grazed, you know?”

    My brother was muttering in his sleep, his face pained. “Give me a break…” he moaned. “I just had a crazy impulse…”

    …Ugh. He acted so cool just now, too. I take it all back.
    —My idiot brother was just that all along. An idiot.

    The police squadron had the situation with the terrorists fully under control, although their statuesque behavior was an obvious surprise to them. It was understandable. Even the hostages sat completely motionless.
    “Hey! You all right? Hey! Hello?!”
    “Just…Just get them under arrest! There’s one under that shelf, too! Get him secure!”
    As the squadron fanned out across the showroom floor, Kido, Kano, and I congratulated one another on a mission well done.
    “That was some pretty impressive thinking, you know? Like, getting everyone to focus on Marie like that.”
    “Yeah…I figured Shintaro would get the shutter open for us, but I didn’t want the terrorists to start trading fire with the cops. So I was trying to figure out how to keep everyone where they were, and then I remembered Kano getting petrified like he did, so…”
    “Huh. Sounds like that dumbass actually came in handy.”
    “Hey, quit being so mean! Oh, did you see the photos, Kido? You know, the ones I sent?”
    “Deleted ’em.”

    We could all breathe a sigh of relief now. The police, their terrorist mop-up work complete, were now frantically trying to figure out how to get them moving and talking again.

    “Well…that’s that, isn’t it?”
    “Yep…You did good, Kisaragi. It’s all thanks to you.”
    “Huh? Aww…heh-heh-heh. Oh, speaking of, where did Marie—”
    Realizing that Marie was no longer nearby, I took a look around, only to find a terrifying sight unfold before me.
    Marie, electric massager still firmly in hand, was being pelted with a barrage of questions from one of the police officers.

    “Aaaagghh!!”
    Just as before, I shouted alongside Kido in unison.
    “That stupid little…! She went to put that thing back!”
    “Oh man oh man oh man…Now what? This is pretty bad, isn’t it?!”
    “Ha-ha-ha! That’s the massager she bopped that stubble-bearded guy with, huh? Like, of all the weapons she had to pick! She’s a comedic genius! Oh, man, I’m gonna bust a gut…”
    “Will you shut up for a minute?! Dammit…Now what…?”
    Kano fell to the floor at the force of Kido’s well-timed punch.

    As we bickered with one another, Marie was gradually surrounded by a herd of officers.
    She was doing her best to plead with them about something, looking ready to cry at any moment.
    “Uh…boss, did Marie just point at us…?”
    “Oh, you have to be kidding—”
    “W-whoa! They’re coming this way! Ah…Dammit, Kano, stand up! You’re in the way!!”
    “You knocked…the wind…outta me…”
    “I…You…Ugh, just get up!…Oh no…”

    The moment after Kido groaned pathetically at his assailant, one of the approaching officers tripped over Kano’s body. Shouting in abject surprise, he flailed for balance before falling flat on the floor.

    “Let’s…” “Let’s…”
    “Run!!” “Get outta here!!”

    I took off right alongside Kido as I made a beeline for Marie.
    She finally noticed me once I reached in between the cops to grab her hand, an expression of relief spreading across her face.
    I could hear the officers left around her shouting things like “Where are you going?!” and “Wait, little girl!” but I was in no mood to stop running.
    But what now…?!

    Just as I felt my mind beginning to panic, the showroom floor was suddenly filled with noise. Marie’s petrification had finally run its course. The policemen immediately turned their eyes to the crowd. Kido was ready for it.

    Presumably we had gone unnoticed once more.
    One of the officers looked back. “She’s…gone?!” he blurted out apprehensively.

    “Kisaragi! We can’t stay here! Let’s get going!”
    “R-right!…Oh, but…!”
    “…Kano!! Pick up Kisaragi’s brother and get moving!”
    “Whaa? Man, what a pain in the…er, nothing! No pain whatsoever! Like, I can’t wait to carry this dude around!”
    “That’s a bad cover-up job, Kano…”

    Thanks to the ominous fist clenched above Kido’s head, Kano was kind enough to carry my brother away.
    As he did, I could hear my brother murmuring, “Nnngh…Give me a break, man…” into Kano’s ear, over and over again. It made me pray for sudden deafness.

    “Oh! Wait!…Ene! You there?”
    I took the cell phone connected to the computer and was greeted by a cheerful girl’s voice.
    “Ohh! Is that you, Momo?! Wow, are you out shopping, too?! What happened to my master?!”
    “Uhh…I’ll explain later, okay? Do you mind coming with us for now?”
    “Oh, absolutely! To the amusement park?”
    “Uh…no, not exactly…?”
    “C’mon! We’re going!”
    “O-okay!!”

    I ran as fast as I could for the stairwell.
    What on earth did I even come here for? I still don’t have a new phone, and we didn’t so much as look at any tea sets.

    Of course, if I did accomplish anything here…
    I looked toward Marie. Her breathing was already accelerated from all the excitement.
    “Hey, Marie?”
    “Y-yeah, Kisa…I mean, Momo?”
    “—!…You know, I’m really starting to love this day!”

    Marie looked confused for a moment. Then she beamed at me. “Me too,” she said softly.

    “…Thanks!”
    “—Hey! Momo, Momo!”

    I heard Ene’s voice from the phone in my pocket.

    “Mm? What is it, Ene?”
    “What’s with you two? Is it one of those yuri things? You know, girl-ongirl romance and—”
    I shut off the phone’s power and stuck the handset as deep as my pocket would go.
    “ ‘Yuri’? As in lily flowers? Ooh, they’re so beautiful, aren’t they?”
    “N-no! Forget about it! It’s no big deal, Marie!”
    “…?”
    I started to sweat, this time for reasons besides our running pace.
    The utter lack of tact that Ene showed on a regular basis may be one of the few things she and my brother have in common.
    “All right! Start going down!”
    Just as we reached the stairwell, I heard a mighty sigh behind me.
    “Uh…are you really expecting me to carry this guy all the way down? This is the seventh floor!”
    “Yep. And then outside.”
    Kido’s reply was enough to even make Kano’s face turn desperate.
    “Gehh…”
    “I’m sorry I have such an idiot brother, Kano. Let’s, uh, try to take it slow down—”
    “I’m telling you, it was her! Momo, in the flesh! I’m not lying to you!!”
    Just as I made the suggestion, I began to hear ominous-sounding testimony as the police interrogated the hostages. We exchanged worried glances.
    “She’s got to be somewhere nearby still! I swear, she saved us!”
    The voices gradually grew louder, ignoring the officers’ attempts at preserving the peace.
    “Looks like taking it slow isn’t an option, huh?”
    “I, I’m sorry…um…”
    “Ughh…What a day this turned out to be…”
    “I, I can’t hold him anymore…”

    The sun filtering in through the windows was as powerful and punishing as always.
    It was still chokingly hot outside, no doubt.
    The cicadas had to still be blaring as loudly as they could, and I could already picture the haze rising up off the white-hot asphalt.

    It was enough to fill me with more than a little bit of dread, but it was far, far different from the kind I felt before.

    August 14th.
    No way am I ever going to forget what happened today.

KAGEROU DAZE III

2020-08-16T17:19:00.008+07:00

When did it begin?
   When did it all originally begin?

   I was supposed to travel from the countryside to the house of Hiyori’s relative for my summer courses.
   That was what was supposed to happen, I think.

   What was the name of that guy with the white hair in that house?
   I seem to remember it being something really weird.

   Not that I have any business saying that. My name—Hibiya—that’s pretty weird to some people, too.

   He was really tall and laid-back.
   Maybe I should ask Hiyori. She probably remembers the name.

   But I feel like I asked her a thousand times already, a long time ago.
   What was that name again…? Ah, it doesn’t matter.

   Come to think of it, where did Hiyori go?
   I know we left the house together.
   Have I ever wound up by myself like this before?
   I feel like I have…or maybe I haven’t.

   Huh…Now it’s starting to rain.
   I’m pretty sure this is the first time…

   Amid my constantly repeating dream,
   the unanticipated rain painted the town in a new light.
   The cicadas that cried out so loudly up until now,
   and the hot haze in the distance; they were both hidden today.
   “Hey…You.”
   “Yes?”
   “Did you come here by yourself?”
   “No…I came with a friend, but we got separated.”
   “A friend?”
   “Yeah. We’re always together. But I’m starting to feel like I won’t see her today…”
   “I see. Do you want to?”
   “…I do.”
   “Good. I wouldn’t worry, then. You, and her, you’re both…”
   “…Where are you going?”
   “Follow me if you want, but no regrets, all right?”
   “All right.”
   “Perfect. Let’s get going. I’m sure there are others waiting for us, ready to cooperate, just like you.”
   “Cooperate…?”
   “I know there’s something out there that their ‘eyes,’ and your ‘eyes,’ can see…”

“—So whatever you do, never forget about today.”

KISARAGI ATTENTION

2020-08-16T17:00:00.006+07:00

“Oh! Mornin’, Momo! Lookin’ cute as always today!”
   “Hee-hee-hee! Yeah…”
   After a quick greeting, we passed each other by. That was the thirty-seventh encounter today.
   It was early morning as I walked through the nearly empty shopping center, far removed from the shortest, most direct route to school. Right now, there were no shops open, no customers milling about—or there shouldn’t have been. But the place was quickly beginning to come alive.
   A steady stream of people flew out of the stores I passed, as if waiting for just this moment to try to strike up a conversation.
   “Ooh, Momo! Off to school again? Try to enjoy summer break at least a little, eh?”
   “Uh…yeah. Thanks. Ha-ha…”
   Number thirty-eight.
   I gave an awkward greeting to the produce seller who popped out from behind his stand. Looking ahead, I noticed the road begin to swell up with people.
   “Ngh…!”
   I recoiled for a moment, but there was no time to sit and ponder over it. I made a right at the shuttered drugstore adjacent to the produce stand, attempting to escape down a narrow side path.

   I checked my watch as I began to trot along.
   If anything, I had it pretty lucky this morning.
   Usually, I’d screw up and have to retreat back in the direction of home by now.
   If everything went right, I might actually make it through the school gate with time to spare today.

   As I made a left at the T intersection, my legs gradually quickening their pace, I realized how wrong I really was.
   The line of people at the bus stop was long enough that not even two buses would be enough to hold them all. They must have been running behind schedule. A man in the back noticed me. The moment he raised his voice, everyone’s eyes were immediately upon me.

   —Oh, no. This is bad.
   Shrinking back at the chorus of cheers, my face turned ashen when I saw the clock hanging from the bus stop.

   My drawn-out groan was quashed by the drone of the cicadas.

    “Dahhh! I knew it…”
   The school gate was already closed, not offering enough space for a single straggler to get through.
   Of course, if it did allow people to get through, it wouldn’t serve much purpose as a gate. Thinking about it that way, it was doing a hell of a job.

   August 14th, 9:10 a.m.
   It was no longer a matter of being on time. I was so late, I had cut out the entire first period of summer school.
   I had successfully dodged all the autograph-seekers at the bus stop, but by then, my schedule was already ruined.
   My luck ran out for good when I started running down the main thoroughfare, the shortest route—a truly desperate decision.
   On the street, one of my lovey-dovey songs, the sort of thing I couldn’t deny was far too over-the-top, was being played at high volume. Posters advertising my new single were tacked up all over the place.
   A large plasma screen showed me dancing in an outfit that looked bent on smothering me in frills. The record shop underneath the screen was selling my new CD (debuting today, of course), and a line of people snaked out the door, hoping for a chance at the free limited-edition poster on offer.
   “If I hadn’t been passing by just then, who knows what would’ve happened to you…”
   My manager’s car, parked in front of the school, was a miniature utopia of air-conditioning. The short-haired woman in the driver’s seat had her arms draped over the steering wheel. She mumbled with the drone of a woman exhausted after a hard day’s work, even though it was still morning.
   “I…I’m sorry. But it wasn’t my fault! I think the buses were running late today or something, so there were all these students…”
   I tried my best to defend myself, but was stopped by a long, fatigued sigh.
   “Listen, I understand how you feel…and I know you think commuting by car would make you stand out too much.”
   “Um…yeah…”
   “I want to respect your wishes as much as I can, but…Well, I’m just not sure it’s practical any longer. I think we’re going to have to talk about this again soon.”
   She seemed terribly apologetic about it. I felt terribly apologetic about myself.

   After a moment of quiet, I looked at my watch. The first period was just about to end.
   “…Ah! I need to go…! Uh, I’ll call you later! Sorry!”
   I hopped out the passenger door, turned around, and bowed at my manager in apology. She waved me off, a resigned smile on her face.
   After bowing one more time as she turned off the hazard lights and drove away, I walked along the wall encompassing the school grounds and building, headed for the employee entrance. I could feel beads of sweat on my forehead, formed by the temperature difference between the brisk car interior and outside. The furor of the morning’s events had already made me sweaty to the point that my uniform shirt was sticking to my back, so it wasn’t much of an issue. Running around in this heat would make anyone perspire, no matter how much of a glittery sixteen-year-old your branding makes you out to be.
   Awful. Just awful. I want to go home and take a shower.
   The bell began to ring just as I reached the edge of the school wall.
   Crap. My second remedial class was starting in just ten minutes.
   I jogged up to the employee entrance and pushed the small intercom button. After a few seconds, the speaker crackled to life.
   Even through this cheap speaker, you could still hear a subdued, alien murmur of noise in the background, that classic trademark of school life. The thought of spending the whole day in that clamor was easily enough to fill my heart with gloom.
   “Can I help you?”
   “Oh, hello! Momo Kisaragi, year one…I’m late to my remedial classes, but would I be able to get in…?”
   I couldn’t guess how many times I’ve spoken with this office receptionist.
   It’s been about four months since I came here, but this may be the woman I’ve spoken to the most. It was sad to think that these little intercom chats were taking up more than ninety percent of my school conversations.
   “Ah, yes, Miss Kisaragi. I’ll unlock the door, so head over to the faculty room for me, please.”
   If there was anything I could take comfort in, it lay in how she didn’t ask me why, or get angry at me, or even make any unusual note of it any longer.
   “Thanks…Sorry.”
   The lock made a clunking sound, and I pushed open the door to the school grounds.
   The door closed automatically, locking itself shut with another clunk.

   The school grounds were infused with a sort of cool, refreshing atmosphere you never found outside. It was summer break, but the place was still open for club activities and summer-school students.
   —I had only just enrolled this spring.
   The school building, freshly renovated two years ago, had a fetching Western-style design to it, almost too gaudy for its intended purpose. It wasn’t quite up to the level of the glittering all-girl private academies you saw in shoujo manga, but it had everything from a needlessly elegant clock tower to little creeks, fountains, and nude bronze statues dotting the grounds.
   As if that weren’t enough, these weird tunnels made out of vines and grass and so forth seemed to be everywhere you looked.
   I don’t know who came up with this, but setting up this mistaken attempt at a fancy boarding school in the middle of a crowded cityscape was, I thought, just adding more chaos to the landscape. But—and it should have been expected—it was apparently a hit with young women, enough so that the school was constantly near the top of the prefecture in application count.
   This school caught my attention for very non-fairy-tale reasons (it was close to my house), but really, for someone like me with an overwhelming lack of study skills, getting accepted was nothing but pure coincidence.
   There were already a hopeless number of absences and tardies in my record, so I was going to summer school to make up for it. But even if I won the perfect-attendance award yearly, I’d probably still be forced into these remedial courses. That much, at least, I was confident of.
   I was also out of time.
   Scrambling for the faculty room as fast as I could, I clambered up three flights of stairs before reaching the glass door. Opening it brought me back to a blissful world of air-conditioned comfort once more. Standing in a chilly room made me all the more aware of how much sweat was dripping off me.
   I picked up my bag and slippers next to the shoe locker and hurriedly changed into my indoor footwear.
   “Agh! It can’t be that late already!…Oww!”
   As I folded up my slipper bag and bent over to remove the one for my outdoor shoes, something hard hit me on the head.
   Surprised, I looked up at a large man in a lab coat carrying an attendance ledger.
   “Uh…Ha-ha-ha! I…um, good morning?”
   “Was that meant as a question? If so, then yeah, it is still morning. Barely.”
   “Y-yeah…”
   Oh, no. I forgot that my first period today was taught by my homeroom teacher.
   I could slip past the other teachers, but this was one man I couldn’t fool.
   “You know, I’m not the sort of guy who likes to quibble about lateness, but I think you should have a look at this.”
   “Hmm? What’s this…? Whaaaaa?!”

   He took a paper out from the attendance ledger and handed it to me. It was enough to make me turn white.
   “You know what this is, right? Is that much clear enough?”
   “It’s my Biology I test…The one from last week.”
   “Ah, good. Glad that’s understood. Now, do you know what the number written next to your name means?”
   “Um…heh-heh. I’m not sure I do, actually…Ow!”
   He hit me with his ledger again. His expression never changes, so I always have to stay on my guard around him. He’s impossible to dodge, too.
   “Look. Your handwriting’s a bit…unique. Nonscientific, I could say. That I don’t mind, but after two weeks of remedial courses, you get a two? Are wegonna have to be here a hundred weeks before you get a perfect score?”
   The result of the test in my hands was devastating.
   I made the effort to write an answer down for every single question. Not a single one went unnoticed. But, save for one, there was a red X next to each response.
   The sight was unreal. I could feel myself getting dizzy.
   “But…but I studied and everything…”
   “What? Are you kidding?! You call this ‘studying’?! Look at this. ‘Question: Name one type of mammal. Answer: Crab or salmon.’ That’s studying?!”
   “W-well, my mother ate a lot of those back when she grew up on the coast in Hokkaido, so…I, I mean, I was wavering between that and ‘Deer or bear,’ so…”
   “Yes! Them! That’s right!…Why are you going on about your mother’s homeland in a bio test?! And why are you giving me pairs?! It says only one!”
   “What’s wrong with that? That’d be too lonely, having only one of them!”
   “Why are you trying to get all fancy with your test answers? You’re making no sense at all! Besides, if you put a deer and a bear together, the deer’s gonna get eaten!”
   “E-eaten…?!”
   Wavering against this barrage of criticism, I took another look at my test paper.
   I was completely befuddled by what could have caused this. I put every fiber of my body into taking this test, and the results were just brutal. What would my mom say if I showed this to her…? I didn’t even want to imagine it.

   —It’s always like this.
   No matter what I do, I wind up with these crazy results. And every time, I can feel people’s eyes honing in on me.

   Back in fourth or fifth grade, I drew a picture in class that happened to catch the eye of a famous author. He put it on the cover of his novel, and that novel wound up being a huge bestseller.

   Once I reached middle school I was recruited by the art club, and the work I submitted to a contest held at the beginning of my first year completely dominated the club president’s submission on its way to winning first prize nationwide. It was around that time when I began to feel the eyes of people around me gathering around not just my work, but myself.
   In my second year, I quit the art club; it was getting too uncomfortable for me and the other members. My afternoons were suddenly free, and while on a meandering after-school shopping trip, I began to get scouted more and more often by talent agents. I turned them down at first. The agency that reps me now just happened to call me up while my mother was having a few problems with work. I figured I would try to help keep the lights on a little.

   That was really the only reason. I had no particular interest in television or music. But even I had to admit it—I adored the idea of being a pop idol, going onstage and singing for the masses.

   My first gig as a would-be idol was to serve as the warm-up for one of the more established acts at the agency, basically chatting with the audience for a little bit. Even now, I don’t think I’m exactly gifted when it comes to public speaking but, at the time, the only thing running through my mind was “our household is riding on this; I’ve got to keep from getting fired, no matter what.”

   Once up onstage, I was so nervous that I honestly don’t remember what I talked about, but I suppose you could say I was an instant success. A perfect ten, results-wise.
   I had revved that audience to unheard-of levels of excitement, to the point where I was the subject of feature articles in magazines and tabloids. If there was any negative aspect, it was that I wound up becoming the main talking point of the show, not the main act I was supposed to be fronting.

   So there you have it. This girl chatting onstage, not singing or dancing or anything, an anonymous rookie idol, suddenly earning a massive, rabid fan base. The agency couldn’t have been happier with me, but ever since that day, the number of job offers has grown to positively scary levels, barely giving me time to breathe in between phone calls.
   It defied any measure of logic or common sense. There was no reason for it. I had no attractions to speak of. But everybody’s eyes grew increasingly fixated upon me.

   It made me realize all over again that I was far from a “normal” girl.

   “Hello? Are you listening to me?”
   “…Huh?! Uh, yes, sir!”
   “No, you weren’t. I’m not blind, you know. Is the summer heat making you faint or something?”
   “No, uh, it’s just that…that test was just, like, too much for me, so…Haha…”
   “That much I could tell, yes. I’ll give you a chance at a retest next week, so…just try your best, okay?”
   He looked at me with the downtrodden eyes of a man looking at a pitiful, wayward child.
   “Next week?! Ughh…I’ll try…”
   I thought I’d tried hard enough with this test.
   How am I supposed to try even harder…?
   “Try not to get too tense or anything, all right? I’m sure you’re still getting used to things around the school…and you’ve got a concert next week, right?”
   “Ah…! Y-yes…I do…”
   My face could not have been a very healthy-looking shade at this point. I held it down as much as I could, to not much avail.
   The teacher sighed and looked at me again, this time with gentle eyes that belied his exasperation.
   “Well, try not to work too hard…You can go home now, if you like. You mentioned you were shooting that TV drama today, didn’t you?”
   “Y-yes…Wait, no! I’ll go to class, okay? There’s still lots of time!”
   “Didn’t you see the remedial-course schedule? It’s the Obon holiday, so the first-year students are only here for first period today. Class will start up again in three days. You should really be keeping track, you know.”

    “Whaaa?! Oh, right…”
   I took out my schedule sheet. He wasn’t lying. I was only scheduled for the first period today.
   Of all the shameful ways to reveal to my teacher that I had been going to summer school without even looking at my schedule…
   “Uh…Well, okay! See you in three days!”
   “Yep. Hang in there. It can’t be fun, getting no rest during the holiday like that. I need to get back to work, so be careful on the way home, all right?”
   “Of course! I’ll be just fine! See you later, sir!”
   After a short bow, I crammed the test paper deep into my cubbyhole and stuck my slippers on top of it. Throwing on the outdoor shoes left abandoned on the faculty-room floor, I made my way out the door.

   Once outside, I was greeted with a chaotic symphony of cicadas.
   The sunlight I was suddenly reacquainted with mercilessly slung its murderous rays of heat upon me.
   The thought of having to walk the whole way back home from here caused me to let out a dejected sigh.

   “Ooooh…I should at least get something to drink first…”

   There was a vending machine on the path between the faculty room and the main school grounds. Once the mere thought of thirst entered my brain, it was impossible to drive it back out. Listlessly, I proceeded down the colorful gravel path to the vending machine.

   Next to the machine was one of those large, open public spaces, the kind you see in parks a lot, with an open roof made out of tree branches and vines and so on. Around the tables dotted underneath, several prim-looking female students were giggling with one another over something. They had probably just returned from watching one sports club or another hold a practice game.
   The gravel path ended underneath the open space, turning into plain dirt. The moment I set foot inside, every one of the girls immediately turned toward me.
   “Ah…!”
   I shrank back for a moment, but they didn’t appear to regard me with too much enmity or excessive interest. They gave me light smiles, then briskly exited the open space, whispering to one another in hushed voices.
   They were already gone by the time I tried to smile back at them. I could feel the sweat flow out of me, out of embarrassment or whatever else it was.

   With a sigh, I walked up to the vending machine.
   All the charmingly colorful labels pulled my attention in multiple directions, but I was firmly resolute. Only one drink could possibly wipe away the emotions I was dealing with right now.
   My eyes lit up when I caught sight of the black soda inside the plastic bottle, one whose shape was particularly unique among all the other selections.
   I took the pig-shaped change purse I had used for many years from my bag’s side pocket, flipped open the rear, and checked to make sure I had the right amount.
   Sticking my hand inside the pig’s back, I thrust the coins I found into the machine slot.
   The moment they fell inside, the buttons all lit up red, almost like a “go” sign for my throat.
   My aim was focused on one button in particular. Like the first alien-encounter scene in that one Western film I saw as a kid, I slowly brought my finger forward. When I pushed the button in, there was a beep, and in too short a time for me to measure or comprehend, the bottle appeared in the receptacle.
   I resisted the urge to glug down the entire bottle right there, one hand sassily resting on a cocked hip, every inch the lovely sixteen-year-old sitting down to enjoy her drink. The shaken-up bottle of carbonated drink product dangled from my fingers—but when in Rome, you know?
   Sitting at a table a distance removed from the vending machine, I unscrewed the cap on my much-anticipated soda.
   I had managed to keep my expression neutral up until now, but for this instant of bliss, there was nothing I could do. With the light psshh, my nostrils instinctively flared at the trademark lightly sweet scent from the lip of the bottle. If I had a mirror to look at right now, my face probably would have been unfilmable, something that would’ve horrified my agency. With that, I let the soda flow down my throat.
   Ahh…Whoever invented this drink must have absolutely hated summer…
   In fact, it seemed almost insulting to call this something as common as “soda.”
   It was mankind’s only tool for defending itself against the looming rage of the season’s heat.
   I felt something hot well up around my eyes. The first sip was complete.
   It would’ve been refreshingly satisfying to then slam the bottle on the table, a low, guttural groan of delight escaping my lips. But that, at the very least, I had to restrain myself from.
   An impartial observer would have noticed nothing unusual. Just an innocent girl having a drink and replacing the cap on the bottle. But my heart was filled with a sense of achievement, like a bent-over old man polishing off a pint of strawberry milk after a soak at the local public bath. I felt an urge to shout “Ooh, that really hit the spot!”

   Once my refreshment session was complete, I took a deep breath. Here, in the shade, the heat seemed more tolerable than before. I began to think about my plans for the rest of the day.
   “I’ve got some free time now, so I…um…?”
   I looked at my watch. It still read fifteen minutes after eight. I recoiled for a moment, then remembered that it was stopped when I woke up this morning. My mother bought it for my birthday last year. I kind of liked it. It was far too soon for it to die on me, and I didn’t recall abusing it to the point where it’d break on me, so the batteries must have been dead. I could have my idiot brother look at it when I get home.
   Reluctantly, I took out my touchscreen phone, pink cover attached. I always carried it around, but it saw use almost exclusively for work-related contacts.
   I supposed I would be using this phone like a pro-level high schooler if I spent every night talking with my besties about my favorite TV programs, or what true love is, or whatever. But I didn’t watch much TV—samurai dramas were about it—and I would need to make some friends first before I could start talking about love.
   I was fully aware of why this was so, but it never struck me as a particularly inconvenient state of affairs. Still, I never liked using this phone much. Every time I picked it up, my mind would fill up with this sort of abject emptiness. I didn’t know why.
   “Nine thirty…We start shooting at two, so I need to be home by one, but…”
   Tapping the schedule app on my phone, I was rewarded with a dizzying array of business appointments.
   August 14th was busy as always. I had the TV drama shoot at two p.m., an appearance at a live talk–radio show starting at six, and a concert rehearsal after that.
   My manager was scheduled to drive over and pick me up at one.
   I was used to it, but the sheer congestion of my schedule as of late was enough to trigger my depression. After that first stage act, I was bombarded with all kinds of offers. The work that arose from that single appearance had completely changed my life. My concert next week was meant to commemorate the single that launched today. Apparently it was almost unheard of for a singer to score a solo show so soon after her CD debut.

   It was all great. It made me happy and everything, but that song was filled with all kinds of bad memories for me.
   Chiefly, this was because I caught a terrible cold on the day of recording. My manager chewed me out, and as if that wasn’t bad enough, the extremely nasal voice I had to use during recording made my producer explode with glee. I had “beautifully expressed the dilemma of a young girl’s unrequited romance,” he told me, and that was the take they used on the CD.
   I was too dazed by the fever to really notice anything at the time, but later on, when I heard my nasal-voiced song start to play across town, my appetite immediately dropped to half its normal level. Summer vacation is one thing, but thinking about how I was supposed to go around school once the new semester started made me grow even more morose.
   I sighed, tensed up by my thoughts. The boiling heat was dragging my spirits further downward.
   I could feel the sweat, which had busily cycled between nothing and free-flow all day, once again gradually bead up on my forehead.
   “I should just go home…”
   No point sticking around here. I put the phone in my pocket and stood up.
   Feeling a lightly cool sensation from my legs as they freed themselves from the chair, I turned my eyes toward a faraway point. Across the school building, all around the fairly large fields that lay beyond, I could hear shouts echoing from all the sports clubs as they practiced.
   This must be what they call “youth.” It felt like something foreign to me, like something was rushing me right past it.
   After a sigh (I couldn’t guess how many that made it today), I began to walk off. As I did, I saw a flyer placed on the table where the girls had been sitting earlier.
   The colorful, cartoony lettering and lineup of typically cutesy characters you see everywhere in ads revealed that it was a flyer for a new “fancy goods” shop near the rail station.
   They were apparently holding a big launch event today and yesterday, with 13TH and 14TH written in large, splashy numbers.
   After looking around and very carefully crossing over, I picked up the flyer, only half-interested in what it had to say.
   The next moment, I couldn’t believe my eyes.

   “…Ahh!”

   To be honest, I was never one for cutesy girl-power accessories like this store sold, but there was one photo, likely placed on the far corner of the flyer just so every square inch of the ad could be filled with something. LIL’ SOCKEYE STRAP, the caption said. It was absolutely, unbelievably cute.
   The thing was printed so small on the flyer that you could really only get an idea of its shape and general atmosphere, but judging solely by the silhouetted legs growing out of an extremely unlikely part of its body, it was definitely a shining light in the phone-strap genre.
   Swallowing nervously, I turned my head around, making sure the coast was clear.
   Looking at the flyer, I noticed the words LIMITED TIME ONLY! front and center, although it wasn’t clear what they referred to exactly.
   I took a breath, then jammed the flyer into my bag.

   Glugging down the rest of the bottle, one hand sassily rested on a hip, I tossed it into the trash and hastily left the school grounds…

    —I was dizzy, no doubt from running full-bore under the punishing sun.

   The alley I had ducked into was lined with a jumble of uniformly gray buildings, likely part of a larger apartment complex. It felt like a labyrinth. The air was a little cooler, probably thanks to the shade, but I had no time to spend mulling over it.

   I couldn’t catch my breath.
   Hunching downward, I put one hand on the wall, sweat drip-dripping off my face and leaving wet marks on the ground.
   Removing my bag, I collapsed in a heap.

   “Huff…huff…”

   Slowly, my breathing regained its normal tempo.
   My head, still not quite caught up with current events, gradually shuddered back into operation. I recalled the conversation I had just experienced, and now tears began to drop out of my eyes.

   I leaned back against the wall, curling myself up, knees against my chest.
   Something in me wanted to cry out with every decibel I could muster, but bad things would happen right now if I made any noise.
   I pressed my face against my bag, but my eyes were still a flash flood of tears. I had no idea what would happen to me.

   Why did it have to turn out like this?
   I wish I never had this kind of body.
   I want to speak normally, to go shopping normally, to live normally.
   I have no idea what I am, and I wish I could just erase it all.
   I wish I could’ve just died alone! Alone, with nobody ever finding me!

Let’s go back a little.
   After leaving school, I visited a public bathroom to change into what I hoped were my drab, unremarkable street clothes.
   But the moment I arrived at the main street on the way to the rail station, several dozen people turned their eyes toward me at once.
   I couldn’t have looked more different from the frilly girl on the giant plasma screen looming over town, but one by one, they came closer to me, calling my name.

   Oh, crap. The moment the thought flashed across my mind, it was too late.
   The street would just begin to get crowded around this time of day. I hadn’t thought my plan out far enough.

   In a moment, a crowd had formed. I couldn’t go anywhere, forward or backward.
   They all had their phones in hand, trying to take pictures of me with their cameras.

   In a flash, the crowd grew even deeper. All I could do was stare at the 360-degree wall of cameras pointed at me.

   Did I do something wrong?
   I didn’t have enough self-awareness. That much was my fault.

   But still, I wanted to at least try to act like a normal girl, just a little more. That’s all.

   The noise of the constantly clicking shutters, coupled with the murmur from the growing crowd, was a harsh static like none I’d heard before. The suddenness of it all nauseated me. Just as I thought I was about to collapse, a police siren washed out the sound instantly.
   It was not that narrow a sidewalk, but apparently the crowd had bubbled out into traffic to the point where someone called the authorities. But they still didn’t let me through. If anything, I felt like the siren was a huge billboard in itself, beckoning yet more onlookers to snuff me out.

   But I was the one calling them all to me.
   The eyes of everyone on this street were locked in.

   A number of police officers clawed their way toward me through the crowd.
   One of them placed a hand on my shoulder, barking some command. The next moment, I plunged into the ever-so-small hole in the crowd they had created.

   I tried to keep going forward, but it was like an endless tunnel to me.
   I felt like the writhing masses were going to crush me, and the road ahead grew narrower and narrower.
   Groping around for purchase, I felt someone pulling my hand forward.
   The next thing I knew, the way was clear before me, giving me a full view of the wide street.
   I wondered who had rescued me. I had no time to find out.
   Hurriedly, I broke into a run, but when I turned around, I could see the throng chasing after me, like they had all merged into one larger creature.
   I escaped down a side alley, which reduced their numbers, but now they had scattered, pursuing me with phones in hand.
   Pressing down the road, I kept running, no destination in mind, choosing whatever twist and turn seemed the most convoluted and hidden.
   I could no longer tell up from down. All that mattered was running.

   “Ah…!”

   I ran down a narrow path, only to find it terminate at a dead end.
   Turning around in a panic, I found that retracing my steps was not an option.

   —My chest burned. I could hardly breathe.
   I stood there, spent, my thought processes shut down, and then my phone began to ring.
   Flustered, I looked at the screen. It was my manager.
   I tentatively answered the call. From a room alive with the sounds of phone conversations, my manager began to speak, almost in a snarl.
   “Hello?! Where are you?!”
   “I, I don’t know…I, uh…”
   “The police just called the agency. This entire place is in a panic! Ugh… Why did you have to do this now, of all times?”
   “Um, I…I’m sorry that—”
   “Do you even realize what you are right now?! Listen! You aren’t a ‘normal’ girl, all right? You should have known that this would happen!”
   “…ormal?”
   “Hmm? What did you say? Speak up so I can hear you…!”
   “Am…am I really that abnormal?! I changed clothes and everything…but they all…they all looked at me, like I was some weird thing…! I, I can’t take this! I’m not going back anymore…! Thank you for everything!”
   “What…? Wait, wait a—”
   I ended the call, not bothering to hear her response.
   What did I just say? I had only barely caught my breath. My mind was still subfunctional.
   All I knew was that I had done something very, very bad, and I thought I understood how much trouble I had just put upon so many people. But, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t will myself to call back and apologize. Anything but that.

   Amid the incessant whine of the cicadas, the faraway sounds of traffic, and the feeble vibration I felt from the air vent along the wall, time passed. How much, I didn’t know.
   I didn’t think anyone had pursued me into the alley I was slumped down inside, but I could no longer move, sitting there as the seconds floated on by.
   I wondered if my mother had heard about what happened yet.
   She had always cheered me on, no matter what. Nobody was happier for me when news of my CD release broke.
   I was so happy to see that. It made everything else seem worth it.
   And now I’ve gone and stabbed her in the back, too.
   All I thought about was myself, and now I’ve messed up all these other people’s lives…
   These emotions I was powerless to repress welled up into tears, one after the other, flowing out of my eyes.
   I thought about going off to some faraway land, but no matter where I went, there was probably no escaping other people’s eyes. I knew that much already. I knew how “abnormal” I was by this point…

   Suddenly, a deeper sense of anxiety coursed across my heart.
   Casually, I removed my face from the bag and turned to the side. The sight I saw there made my heart jump out of my throat.

   “Ah…Aaahhhh!!”

   I lost my balance, my body unprepared for sudden physical activity, and I landed sprawled out on the ground.
   Someone was standing at the exit of the dead-end alley.
   It was the middle of summer, but the hood on his long-sleeved jacket was covering his head, his long hair flowing out from the sides.
   The surprise was that this man was close enough to me that I could have reached out and touched him.
   Did he silently make his way all the way over here? If he did, I was in deep trouble.
   I opened my mouth, but nothing came out.
   On the ground, unable to move or defend myself, I was in what I suppose you’d call “dire straits.”

   “Oh, uh…Sorry. I wasn’t trying to surprise you or anything like that…”
   I heard a slightly husky, yet warm female voice emanate from the hood.
   “…Eh?”
   I was already seeing my life flash before my eyes, prepared for whatever horrible fate would befall me. I could barely manage a pathetic reply to her kind words.
   Looking up at her again, I spotted a refined-looking face and pale white skin.
   By the way she carried herself I assumed she was a man, but she was female…and one who most people would classify as beautiful.
   I was still on the ground. She knelt down so our eyes could meet, took another look around our surroundings, then spoke in hushed tones.
   “I saw all that…stuff that just happened. That was quite a show you put on there.”
   “That…stuff?”
   “The crowd on the sidewalk. I didn’t think it’d erupt into such a huge thing like that, though.”
   If she had caught all that, that meant she had pursued me all the way from the massive mob to this empty alleyway.
   So was she just another one of the rabble, another curious onlooker hoping for a peek at me…?
   The bleak depression from before returned to the forefront, this time mixed with a smattering of anger.

   “I…I’m quitting all of this, okay? So please…please, stop chasing me! Uh…I mean, if you want an autograph, then okay, but…”

   Huh. Look at that. I really could say what I really thought sometimes.
   And if I got that much across, that should hopefully make her understand. She seemed like a sensible enough woman.
   For an emergency like this, I could whip up an autograph no problem. I prayed it was enough to make her happy.
   Gingerly, I opened my eyes to gauge her response. She looked blankly at me, her stare indicating she had no idea what I was talking about.
   “Um…No, I mean, I wasn’t chasing you, and I don’t need your autograph either. But you quit your career for this…?”

    The response was wildly off the mark from the reaction I expected.
   She wasn’t pursuing me? So if she’s not a fan of mine, then…
   I felt my anxiety ease off a little bit before tightening once more.
   If she wasn’t a fan, then was she here to kidnap me or something like that?
   Does she want to take me for ransom?! I don’t have anywhere to run! This is really, really bad!

   But the woman didn’t attack me. She simply stood there, hands thrust into her pockets.
   She then took out a cell phone, no cover, completely unadorned.
   “It’s still a bit before the appointed time. I guess it’s just an accident that you showed up here, but this actually works out great. We’re right nearby, too.”
   “Huh? The appointed time…?”
   “Hmm? I’m pretty sure I was told one p.m. Or did I get that wrong?”
   I took out my own phone and looked at the screen. The amount of missed calls and messages waiting for me on the standby screen was getting a tad out of hand.
   The reality facing me was now exposed in plain, digital form, making me feel like I had taken a heavy ball of iron and swallowed it whole.
   The readout notified me that it was exactly half past ten.
   One p.m…The appointed time…

   “Oh…”
   Now it all made sense to me.

   This woman was part of the film crew for the TV drama.
   That would explain why she followed me all the way from the initial chaos, even though she swore she wasn’t part of the crowd.
   The fact that she was aware of the one p.m. meet-up time with my manager made it all the more likely. The agency probably sent her over once they heard about the chaos to make sure I would make it to shooting on time.
   Still, I was no longer in any mood to say “Oh, sure, no problem, I hear you loud and clear.”
   I had just clearly told this woman that I had decided to quit.
   Yet she was still intent on taking me with her…which was her job, yes, but I was no longer interested in blindly following orders.
   I forced myself up to my feet and spoke to this woman, already walking toward the alley exit.
   “Um…I decided to quit my job. And I don’t want to go back home for a while, either, so…like, do you understand what I mean?”
   This time, I was calmer, more collected with my words. Surely she would get the message this time.
   “…Sure, sure, I know you’ve made up your mind. So would you mind just following me for now?”
   Her expression was gentler as she looked me in the eye and began walking again.
   I could see the wisdom in fleeing from this woman and finding another hole to hide in. But I couldn’t. She seemed to understand me. She knew my mind was made up, and her expression made her seem trustworthy enough.

   If I went to the studio, my manager would be waiting for me.
   She would be absolutely livid, no doubt about that.
   Imagining the all-time mother of lectures looming in my future, I could feel my tear ducts loosening up already.

   But I had to tell her. I had to make it clear.
   I wanted this to end today.
   I would explain everything about how I felt, I would accept all the rage that I’d get for it, and that would be that.

   My resolve fully regained, I followed in the woman’s footsteps.
   Once I was by her side, I realized that the segment of my face I had pushed into the bag was a wet mess of tears and sweat and…whatever else.
   “Ugh…”
   “Mm? Something wrong?”
   “No, uh…It’s nothing.”
   “…You sure? I mean, you’ll definitely want to wash that bag and your clothing later.”
   I could feel my face burn like fire, as if someone had taken a match to it.
   “Y…yeah…”
   Her perception was sharp. Whoever she was, she was no doubt gifted in her job.
   After spending what seemed like the entire day running from this, running from that, I wanted nothing more than a cold shower.
   I let this desire occupy my brain as I walked, keeping a little distance behind the woman in the jacket.
   We made a right out of the dead end, then a left at the second intersection afterward. Next we took the first small pathway on the right, followed it to the end, made a left…
   I followed the woman as she silently kept walking, not exchanging a word of conversation.
   It felt like we were diving deep into the far reaches of town. I’d had no idea any of these streets existed.

   If I recalled correctly, the scene we were scheduled to shoot today involved me visiting the house of a “less-than-wealthy” friend.
   It made sense. The multifamily units and apartment buildings that lined the streets were not exactly breathtaking.
   The crew was no doubt busily preparing for the shoot right now. I was unsure how I would broach the subject of my decision.
   My stomach hurt terribly.
   “Over here.”
   Without warning, the woman in the jacket stopped and changed direction.
   She was pointing toward a narrow, dimly lit corridor, one that made the twisty passages we were navigating up until now seem like opulent multilane boulevards.
   The pathway, just barely wide enough for a person to travel through, was lined on both sides by thin wooden fencing and the walls of apartment complexes.

   “Wow, this is pretty narrow…”

   Without answering, the woman plunged down the path, inducing me to reluctantly follow her. A shortcut to our shoot location, perhaps? It was starting to seem a bit odd.

   Once inside the corridor, the sensation of being a lab rat in a maze was overwhelming.
   If I turned a corner and a giant insect or something was waiting to attack me, where could I escape to?
   I was carefully advancing forward, taking care with each step, when I came to an abrupt halt. The sneakers of the woman I was following were stopped in front of me.

   “Here we are.”

   She pointed to a door, the number 107 on it, nearby the halfway point of the corridor. The wooden fencing stopped just long enough to allow for the door.
   “What? Here?!”
   Before I could finish, she opened the door and went inside.
   “H-hey, wait a…Hey!”
   The door closed, leaving me completely alone outside.
   Taking a more careful look at the building, I saw nothing but a sheer wall of concrete above the wooden fence. No windows, no nothing.
   It looked like no residence I was aware of; it was more like a warehouse or aboveground fallout shelter. And yet there was the number 107 on the door, its purpose an enigma.
   “This…this really isn’t my ‘friend’s house,’ is it?”
   If this was my friend’s house in the TV show, her parents must be moonlighting as mad scientists. A trip to my friend and her dad’s illegal human-experimentation lab wouldn’t have been completely out of the question for episode two of the series, but given that this was still the premiere we were shooting, you’d expect at least a little more background plot first.

   The building obviously looked sketchy, but for some reason, I was gripped by the urge to try opening the door.
   There were no other entrances to the building, no other nearby addresses, and yet this was 107. It piqued me, somehow.

   “Well…not like I know how to get back anyway. Guess I got no choice.”

   Unable to bottle my curiosity, I took a breath and opened the door. As I expected, this definitely wasn’t the house of my teen girlfriend.
   The moment the door was opened, I was greeted by a long, rectangular space, around the size of a roomy living room.
   Bare pipes ran across the ceiling, and the room was lit by a large number of unadorned lightbulbs hanging freely below the piping. Otherwise, the space was well adorned with fancy furniture—a table, a sofa, a small wooden armoire with a globe on top of it. For all the world, it looked every bit like a secret hideout was supposed to look.
   I could see all the usual home appliances around the complex, from the TV and microwave to the computer and refrigerator. The air conditioner was on, and the place certainly felt lived in.
   The atmosphere was still odd, however, what with the old, plainly non-Japanese volumes that lined a beat-up bookcase. It might be more accurately described as a witches’ coven, assuming the witches didn’t want to give up their modern conveniences.

   Four doors were spaced evenly across the far wall. The idea that there were more rooms to discover deeper inside made me ponder what kind of structural plan this building had.

   The woman from earlier was standing in front of the kitchen next to the entrance, fully stocked with an array of cooking tools. Taking another look around, I once again failed to find any TV staff or filming equipment.
   The sense of foreboding I felt ever since we arrived slowly began to take center stage in my mind.
   “Er…Could I ask where we’re…?”
   “Hey, Kano, here she is. You mind giving her the whole spiel for me…? Hey, wake up!”
   The hooded woman, just as uninterested in my questions as before, prodded the figure lying on the sofa.
   His body shuddered slightly, and I heard a slow, drowsy voice respond.
   “Mmmnghh…Mmm? Whudda you mean, ‘she’?”
   Moving his face away from the magazine that was covering it, a tired-looking man with narrow, catlike eyes revealed himself.
   “The new girl. The one you said would be showing up today? You’re the one who made all the arrangements.”
   “Oh, uh…Yeah, but…like, why is she…?”
   “You mind shaking the cobwebs out for me, man? Just give her the story.”
   “Huh. Well, okay. Whatever.”
   The man she called Kano sat up on the sofa. He took a look at me and flashed an eerie smile, as if just remembering something.
   “Um…Can I…um…?”
   “Welcome, newbie, to the Mekakushi-dan! Thank you very much for helping us out with our operation!”
   Standing up and giving me a brisk, gentler smile than before, he began to energetically regale me, talking over my stilted question.
   “Currently, we’re involved with things like evading the ‘eyes’ of the police as we infiltrate really dangerous places and, you know, borrow a couple things. Stuff like that. I’ll fill you in on all the details later…Well, okay, not all the details, maybe. You know what I mean. Like, I want to fill you in on everything I can, though. Anyway, this is our hideout. Maybe you guessed this already, but you thank that lady sitting there with that death stare of hers—oh, don’t give me that look! Yeah, yeah. Kido, then. She’s our boss. But don’t let her scare you—it’s real comfy in here, once you get used to stuff. Anyway, all this decor is her doing. As far as our member roster goes, there’s her, there’s me…Oh, I’m Kano, by the way. Us, and around two others…well, maybe three, if things turn out. That’s about all of us. We don’t usually do much in, like, the public eye, so to speak, but, you know, we like to keep things loose around here. Uh, what else…?”
   “W-wait! Wait a second! Um…the meka-what? Dangerous places…? We’re, we’re still talking about today’s drama shoot, right? Where’s the director? I…I came here to tell you I’m not gonna be an idol anymore! But you…You…Who are you guys?!”
   My mind had completely failed to catch up with this sudden turn of events. I had far too much to ask.
   Was this all part of some scene or another…? It couldn’t be.
   The script handed to me a few days ago was just your textbook high-school romance story.
   There was nothing in it about hideouts or “infiltration” or anything.

   I had to speak up because he was giving me this whole tale in the most matter-of-fact tone of voice. They’ve definitely got the wrong girl here. Help out with their “operation”…? I had entertained aspirations of trying a little part-time work for a change of pace, but nothing like this.

   “…Hang on a second. You’re a pop idol…? Kano, what is going on here?”
   The hooded woman—Kido, the boss, whatever you wanted to call her— stormed up to Kano, who did nothing but nod and smile at every question I had just asked.
   “What do you mean, what? She’s, like, all the rage right now. See? Look.”
   Kano opened up the magazine he’d shielded his head with earlier and showed the boss a page.

   The issue had a special feature devoted to the single I was debuting today. Oh, lord, I hated that photo they took of me. They used the pic for the two-page opening spread, and my eyes are half-closed. Awful.
   The hooded woman snatched the magazine away and peered at it, the color gradually leaving her face as she cycled her gaze between me and the article.
   “You…She…You told me you had promised to meet this new candidate today and wanted to check up on her first…You said you wanted her to join up if we liked her…”
   “Yep. Sure did. All lies.”
   “You said she had ‘potential’…! You made me drag a public celebrity over here, Kano!…And you lied to me?!”
   She repeatedly rapped her knuckles on my face in the article as she continued her griping.
   I’m right here, you know…She could have at least a little courtesy.
   “Yeah, I know I lied, but I didn’t think you were listening. You just sat there listening to your music. Like, you didn’t even acknowledge I was talking to you! Then you go out by yourself and bring her back here on your own volition? If you ask me, this is more your fault than mine.”
   “I went out by myself because I kept shaking you and you wouldn’t wake up! If you were awake that whole time, why didn’t you at least call me?!”
   “Because you never pick up! You’re, like, always listening to music on that thing anyway! Like some sad, friendless nerd, you know? That, and I didn’t feel like bothering.”
   “Oh, so instead you made me go out and—”
   “—Um, excuse me!”
   The two of them simultaneously turned toward me. The man called Kano was smiling as always, but the other woman looked far more hostile at the moment.

   “Um…so, is it fair to say this is all a big mistake, then…?”

   After I hesitantly asked the question, the woman called Kido rubbed a frustrated hand on her hooded head, sighed, and answered.
   “Well…it looks that way. Sorry for the confusion. You can go ahead and leave if—”

   She stopped midway, suddenly realizing something. The color drained from her face all over again.
   Simultaneously, Kano, who had sat back down on the sofa, began to softly giggle to himself.

   “You! You knew this was the wrong girl the whole time and you just told her everything! We can’t let her go if she knows what we’re doing, can we?!”
   “Ha-ha-ha…Well, come on, Kido! You kept bugging me to give her the story, right? Oh, man, what a trip this is—”
   Kano was sadly prevented from any further gloating by a sudden fist to the head.
   Kido, so calm and emotionless for most of the short time I had known her, had transformed. Her expression belied panic and rage. The casual thought came to me that she couldn’t have been too far removed from me agewise, maybe a little older.
   I imagine I should have been a bit more anxious, but if anything, I felt fairly serene. It was as if these people were incapable of instilling fear or nervousness in others. They were odd, of course, what with calling themselves a “dan” like they were a gang or something and living in an oddly well-decorated hideout, but I somehow couldn’t will myself to see them as bad people.

   “Um…”
   I opened my mouth to ask a question, but was cut off once again.
   “Ughh…Look, what’s your name?”
   “Huh?”
   Kido, sighing as she asked the question, took a seat next to her cohort.
   “I said, your name. Mine’s Kido. This dingbat over here is Kano.”
   She was female, no doubt, but her manner of speaking was more gender-neutral than anything else. It was hard to gauge her personality.
   The man next to her, still smiling gleefully despite the “dingbat” evaluation, looked fairly mature at first glance, but upon further review, he couldn’t have been that much older than me either.
   “Oh, uh, my name’s Momo Kisaragi. I’m sixteen years old, and…”
   I instinctively gave my age alongside my name. It was not something I would call a habit per se, but she reminded me of the judges I dealt with during my auditions.
   Ugh. I did not need to be reminded of that. I fretted over the idea they would treat me like some bubble-headed idol, all too ready to flout her fame around others.
   “Kisaragi, huh? You sure are an idol, I guess, what with giving your age alongside your name and all.”
   See? This is awful.
   “No! I didn’t mean that! It was just an accident! I’m not in the habit of doing that or acting like this is an audition or anything! I mean, I don’t have any friends or anything, so when I get talking, I kind of get carried away and say weird things sometimes! Ha-ha…ha-ha-ha…”
   —The silence was painful. I wanted to crawl into a hole and have someone shovel dirt over me.
   “Yeah? Hmm. Must be pretty tough.”
   “Y-yeah…”
   Now they’re taking pity on me.
   Kano began snickering again. Kido silenced him, this time with a shot to the stomach.
   “I’m not really sure what to do…Really, to be honest, I’d love to just send you back home right now, but now that we’ve revealed all of this to you, that would be kind of bad for us.”
   “I guess so…now that I’ve heard all that…”
   “Thanks to this idiot here.”
   “Ha-ha-ha! I told you, Kido, this is all your fault by this…Okay! Maybe not!”
   The moment Kido turned her head, Kano immediately began to backpedal, arms held to the side to protect his stomach.
   “You know, though, maybe this isn’t as terrible as you think. I was looking at this live feed on the net earlier, and, like, that ‘trait’ you have is amazing.”
   The net…? Live feed? Video from that horror show out on the street? I had no idea so many people saw that.
   “Amazing? Her?”
   “Oh, for sure. Hey, did you always have a tendency to attract attention to yourself? Like, even before you started being an idol?”
   “Huh? Uh…yes. Yes, I did.”
   Something about way he used the word “trait” agitated me.
   Noting my response, Kano lightened her stare, her attention diverted to this new discovery.
   “Judging by the scene out there, it’s a pretty strong trait, too, right? I’m impressed you decided to be an idol at all.”
   He acted like he knew everything about me. I drew my eyes downward, feeling like he had a direct link to my heart.
   “My mother was having a lot of trouble workwise for a while. I thought I would help out a little. But why…?”
   “Hmm? Oh, just a hunch. ’Cause, like, even by celebrity standards, that’s not normal. How much people are drawn to you, I mean. It’s like the total opposite of Kido. Man, if Marie were anything like you, I bet she woulda offed herself by now. Ha-ha-ha!”
   “Marie’s special. Anyway, that’s a whole different thing.”
   “Yeah, true. Speaking of which, where is she? Do you think she’s still angry?”
   “Um…I think I’ve kind of lost track here…”
   That was understating it. I was in a state of utter confusion. They didn’t seem like bad people, but I still had no idea who they were, no idea what would happen to me next.
   “Oh! Sorry, sorry. Um…well, just have a seat, all right?”
   “Okay…”
   The two of them pointed me to a sofa between themselves and the table.
   Sitting directly across from Kano, I began to feel like this was turning into a very unexpected intervention.
   “To put it as simply as possible…like, how Kido mentioned earlier too, letting you go home right now would present us with a few problems. So I want you to stay with us for a little while. I know that’s, like, an enormous inconvenience to you, so in exchange, you could say, we have a proposal.”
   “A…proposal?”
   “Yeah. To sum up, we can cure you of your body’s, uh, tendencies. More like ‘suppress’ them, maybe? I think we can help with that. If you need us to, of course…That’s about all we can offer, right, Kido?”
   “Looks like it, yes. But either way, right now, we can’t let you leave.”

   This was the most unbelievable thing I had heard all day.
   It was the first time I ever met someone who offered to do something about my “tendency.”
   But it went without saying that I couldn’t easily accept it.
   Judging by this conversation, it was entirely possible they were just trying to get on my good side.
   How could they “cure” me of anything in the first place? It’s not like I was sick, exactly.
   If I could have done anything about it, I would have long ago. But I didn’t have a clue.

   “Well…um…If you could cure it, that’d be great, but…”
   “Yeah, see? I figured you wanted to be rid of it. You sure can’t control it, I can tell that much. Everybody’s got their own natural traits, of course, so we’re gonna have to test out a few different approaches as we go, but…”
   “Test out?”
   Could I really place my trust upon these people?
   I had just met them, I knew nothing about their backgrounds, and they were definitely into something bad.
   But at the same time, I had never met anyone before who understood what my body was doing to me.
   That faint hope—“if I could ever get to be normal”—was now so strong, it drove me to rely upon these perfect strangers at my time of need.
   “You know, though, this kind of brings back memories. Remember that conversation we had, Kido?”
   Peering into my face, Kano closed his eyes, as if trying to remember something.
   “Yeah…I do, maybe.”
   “You were still pretty cute back then, Kido. All, like, ‘Oooh, I’m gonna disappear if this keeps up, help meeee’ and—ow ow ow!”
   Before he could finish, Kido grabbed Kano, taking a firm grip of his side. I wondered if he would be all right. She did seem to like hitting there the most.
   “I shoulda made you disappear first.”
   Despite the death grip on his side, Kano kept smiling.
   “Heh-heh. All sweet memories now, aren’t they…? You know, though, she isn’t gonna believe us if we just, like, say we’ll cure her. You mind showing her, Kido?”
   “Why me? You do it.”
   “Yeah, but mine isn’t as obvious as yours, right? It’d be easier if we had Marie here to show her, but I ain’t gonna poke a stick in that hornet’s nest yet.”
   “Ugh…All right. Guess it’s my fault too, a little.”
   With that, Kido rose with a sigh and walked to the doors on the far side of the room. Opening the second one from the right, I could see something shaped like a cot inside.
   “Um…what are you gonna show me?”
   “Well, you know, some evidence to show why we might be able to cure that trait of yours. You’ll see what I mean once she gets started.”
   Evidence? What kind of evidence? Is she going to cart out someone more captivating than even I am before he got these guys’ treatment or whatever?
   Come on. This isn’t a late-night ad for some diet plan. It’s not like they could show me some before/after pictures.
   As I pondered this, the door closed as Kido disappeared into the room.
   Kano was beaming as always. Presumably he was waiting for Kido to bring someone (?) out from the room.
   I decided to wait with him, wondering what I should be expecting.

   …But, after more than a minute of silence, Kido failed to return.
   I turned my eyes toward the cuckoo clock on the wall, then a modern digital one nearby. Really, there’s nothing that makes time go slower than waiting for something when you have no idea what it is.
   His smile nailed to his face, Kano began reading a magazine as if nothing was amiss. The door stubbornly stayed shut. What was I even doing here?

   “Um, could I—Ahhhhh!!”
   I had just turned to Kano, ready to ask him what we were waiting for, when an unbelievable sight shook a scream out of me.
   Next to Kano, as he flipped through the pages, was Kido, sitting just as she was before.
   There was nothing she could have hid behind between us and the door. I didn’t move out of my seat the whole time.

   “Wh…wha…huh? W-why? When did you…?!”
   I had leaped out of the sofa, almost sending both it and myself toppling backward. Kido looked at me coldly, telling me with her eyes that I was a tad out of line.
   “Well, there you have it! Quite a surprise, huh?”
   Kano, watching me grip the sofa’s backrest tightly, looked like he couldn’t be enjoying this more.
   Kido sighed. “That was kind of over-the-top, wasn’t it? Stop looking at me like you’ve seen a ghost or something.”
   “That wouldn’t be far from the truth, though—oww!”
   Kano’s smile held steady against yet another punch in the side. It made me wonder if he took pride or something in his ability to keep a smile painted on at all times.

   “So…so what was that?”
   Sitting back down on the sofa, I asked about the phenomenon I had just seen.
   To be honest, the sense of lingering fear made me reluctant to look directly at Kido.
   “Well, Kido…You know, she’s the same as you. Okay, more like the exact opposite, but her thing was that, ever since she was a kid, she couldn’t ‘get’ anyone to look at her.”
   I listened to Kano’s explanation in sheer disbelief.
   “I think you probably get the picture, but you, like, totally didn’t notice her, right? It’s kind of like she can keep that going forever.”

   She had completely escaped my notice.
   It was as if I had averted my gaze for one moment, and suddenly, she was there.
   It felt like some kind of Houdini-style magic trick.

   “Somewhere along the line she started training herself to control it, and that’s where we are today. So, like, that’s why I think we can help you maybe take control of your own traits a little more, so—”
   I shot upward, my palms slamming against the table.
   “I’ll do it! I’m staying here! If…if you need any chores done, I’ll do anything you need! And that…uh, “operation”? Lemme help you with that, too! So…please, please let me into the Mekameka-dan!!”

   There’s always hope left in the world, I guess.
   I had to go through a lot of bad situations with this body of mine, but never in my life had my heart been so full of hope and excitement for the future.
   If I stay here, I know they can cure me.
   I can go out shopping like a normal girl, I can talk to people like a normal girl, I can even make friends like a normal girl!
   “Oh, uh…well, great! Super! By the way, it’s Mekakushi-dan. That’s kind of important.”
   “Mekakushi-dan! Yes!! I’m ready!!”
   “I really wish you’d stop using that stupid name. It’s not like you’re gonna have a chance to tell the general public.”
   Kido’s muttered interjection stopped Kano and me in our tracks. I realized that my pulse had quickened in the excitement.
   “Eesh, Kido, way to pee on our parade…But anyway! Welcome to the group, Kisaragi.”
   “Th-thank you!”
   “Pretty momentous occasion, huh? Or at least it would be if the boss wasn’t here to mess it all up for—ow! Hey, that hurt!”
   I was reasonably certain his arm wasn’t supposed to bend that way. But he was still smiling!
   Kano must really be proud of that…habit. Or whatever.
   I cracked a smile as I watched the exchange. It hadn’t taken me long to get used to their antics. As I smiled, the rightmost door on the far wall suddenly opened.
   In it appeared a small girl, her hair white as snow, almost as if she had just stepped out of a picture-book world.
   “Mm? Oh, look who finally came out! Hey, Marie…”
   The girl turned toward us as her name was called. She jumped slightly, like she had seen a monster, before scurrying back into the room she came from.
   “…Figures.”
   “Just like you’d expect, huh? Marie’s so easy to predict sometimes.”
   “Uh, sorry about that. That was Marie just now. I’d like to get you acquainted as soon as we can, but…”
   “Um…Did I do something to make her hate me?”
   I was used to people looking at me with furtive, prying eyes, but that reaction was enough to make even me feel ashamed of myself.
   “Nah. Don’t worry about it. She’s that way around everyone. Kano, could you try to get her in here for me?”
   “Whaaa? No way, man. I don’t wanna deal with you-know-what if I end up pissing her off.”
   “Well, it’s your own fault she’s in a snit like that in the first place. Just because she was wearing different socks than usual doesn’t give you the right to laugh in her face.”
   “But they just looked so, like, weird! Besides, Kido, you didn’t react to them at all. You sat there like a rock!”
   “Well, that beats laughing maniacally at her, doesn’t it?! Better not to react at all than react like that.”
   “Yeah, but Marie was looking for a reaction. That’s why she came out wearing those socks in the first place. Same difference, if you ask me…But this ain’t doing us any good. You go get her, okay? She’s a lot more likely to come out if you do it.”
   “Kano, you have got to be—”
   “Come on. I’m right, aren’t I? This job calls for a woman’s touch. Otherwise we’d be rocking the boat too much.”
   “…Ugh. All right. But don’t blame me if something happens to you afterward.”

   Kido stood up, traveled to the far end of the room, and opened the door the girl they called Marie had peeked out from earlier.

   “Agh…?!”
   The moment the door was open, there was a dull thud, followed by a short yelp of surprise. Beyond the door, I could see the girl from before, teary-eyed and holding her forehead.
   She had apparently stayed right by the door after returning to her room, causing it to bang her in the head when Kido opened it. The boss, her back turned to us, pointed a thumb back toward where we were seated. After a quick peek, she shook her head, tears still welled around her eyes.
   “Umm…She—she obviously hates me, so…”
   “Nah, nah, she’s just…like, super shy around other people. Though it’s kinda worse than usual today.”
   Kano returned to his magazine, rapidly flipping through the pages, apparently not too disturbed at the sight.
   The door was still open, letting me hear bits of the muted conversation as Kido tried her best to coax the girl out of the room. I couldn’t decipher all of it, but the words I could make out from the girl—“scared” and “I can’t” being among them—all had negative connotations, each of which cut me to the quick.
   “Um…if you think it’s not gonna happen…”
   The moment I started speaking to Kano, I heard the door slam shut.
   In front of it were Kido with the girl they called Marie, still hiding behind her.
   The white hair that came down to her hips looked soft and fluffy, like the fur of some creature from the snowfields. I could image how nice it would feel if I buried my face in it.
   “Ooh, great job fishing her out of there, boss.”
   Kano closed the magazine he was reading long enough to give Kido a light round of applause.
   Kido returned to her original seat, the young girl sitting right in between her and Kano.
   Up close like this, she looked like a doll come to life…Her eyes were a light shade of pink, her skin a paler white than even Kido’s, and her long, mesmerizing white hair gave her the air of a forlorn woodcutter’s daughter from a rustic folktale.
   But she still tried to conceal her face from me, her eyes swiveling between random empty points on the table in front of her. She recited to herself “It’s okay…It’s okay…” over and over again like an incantation, and she must have known that I could hear it from here.
   “Anyway, here’s Marie. Sorry it took a while to get her out here.”
   The girl’s shoulders tensed up when her name was called. Gingerly, she looked up at me.
   “Shy” wasn’t the half of it. As the new woman in town, I felt obliged to give the best first impression I could.
   “G-good to meet you, Marie! I, uh, my name’s Kisaragi! I guess we’ll be living together for a little while, so…so I’ll try my best to help out, so, uh, thanks in advance!”
   Her shoulders stiffened once more when I began to speak, but apparently the message came through, because by the time I had finished, her expression was notably less strained.
   “……”
   But she was still frozen in place.
   “Uh…Ha-ha-ha! So, uh, that’s pretty much the story, so…”
   To avoid diving headlong into silence, I made a feeble attempt at breaking the ice further. My lack of verbal skills made me all but defenseless whenever silence fell upon a conversation. I really need to buy a book on communication skills sometime…
   Despite my expectations, however, the silence didn’t last long.
   “My…My name is Marie…It’s, it’s nice to meet you…”
   She spoke very, very softly. It took a moment to realize that she was attempting to introduce herself.
   Her eyes began to swivel around again, her white skin turning a shade of red all the way to her ears.
   “I, um, I’ll go make some tea!”
   She had apparently reached her tolerance limit. Marie got up off the couch and hurriedly skipped over to the kitchen.
   “Oh, um, no need to go to the trouble!”
   Great. Just when I thought we had something going, she runs off on me.
   “Man, look at Marie! What a trooper.”
   “I’ll say. She’s never talked that much with a stranger before, has she?”
   Both of them had nothing but kind words for Marie’s performance.
   “R-really?!”
   I couldn’t hide my surprise at that very unconversational conversation being so worthy of praise.
   “Well, you know, you’re maybe the fourth person she’s ever spoken directly to, so you probably don’t know what the baseline is.”
   “The fourth person?! W-what does Marie usually do, then…?”
   “What’s she do? Hmm…Well, to put it in a modern way, she’s kind of… unemployed, I guess.”
   Kano looked to Kido for support as he spoke.
   “Yeah. Usually she never leaves her room at all, so maybe ‘shut-in’ is more appropriate.”
   “Oh…I, I see.”
   I suppose it was my fault for prying, but I felt a little sorry for Marie being freely called a shut-in by the very people she lived with.
   “Though, you know, it’s probably about time Marie started, like, doing something, don’t you think? I mean, she’s in her second year of life as a full-time acrophobic.”
   “We’ve been through that a thousand times. You know how she clams up for a while whenever we bring it up.”
   “Yeah, but…Hmm? Something up, Kisaragi?”
   “Ah! N-no, no! It’s…nothing…”
   All this talk about a two-year unemployed shut-in was hitting a bit close to home. Kano probably noticed it in my helpless-looking expression.

    He looked a bit puzzled, but apparently decided against prying any further.

   “You know, maybe Kisaragi joining up won’t be such a bad thing for her, huh?”
   “Maybe. She seemed really excited about it.”
   “Huh? Excited? In…what way, exactly?”
   “Well, I mean, look. She’s gonna bring in two of her favorite teacups. She never lets us use those, so it’s gotta be for you, Kisaragi.”
   Looking over toward the kitchen, I spotted Marie busily clinking and clanking away as she made a batch of hot tea. There were four white cups lined up on a nearby tray.
   It was hard to tell if they were valuable at first sight, but two of them were plain, while the other two featured a fancy pattern of animal pictures.
   “Ah…”
   The sight honestly overjoyed me.
   Here was Marie, a girl who wasn’t exactly a social butterfly by any measure, bringing out her favorite cups purely for my sake.
   It was no doubt her way of welcoming me to the household.
   I could feel a pang of gratitude somewhere around my chest.
   Thinking about it, it seemed like ages since I had last spoken with a girl anywhere near my age.
   Thanks to my odd work hours and my body’s unique “traits,” I almost never found myself in a one-on-one conversation at school.
   “You know, I was kinda worried at first, but I think she’s really opening up to you. I just love seeing you girls interact with each other! It’s about time we got a little feminine glamour around this—”
   Kano looked over to Kido as he spoke, only to be greeted by her sullen, petulant expression.
   I immediately recognized the cause of it, just as Kano said “Oh…” to himself.
   “You think so, huh? Well, you got me, okay? Absolutely nothing ladylike about me, so…you want me to apologize, or what?”
   “Whoa! No, no, no! I know you change your hair conditioner sometimes, Kido, and you’ve got that really frilly skirt you pose in front of the mirror wearing—ow ow ow!!”
   Kano had to have seen that one coming.
   “By the way, Kisaragi, don’t you think you should contact the agency or your parents or something? We probably don’t want this blowing up too big.”
   “Oh! Right, right! I totally forgot!”
   “Ngh! Kido, get your hand off me first! I’m tapping out, I’m tapping out…!”
   Without a twitch in her facial expression, Kido had clamped her vise grip around Kano’s arm.

   I should start by calling my manager…Actually, forget that. Too scary. But maybe send a message, at least…
   Plucking my phone out of my pocket, I saw that the flood of calls, texts, and voice messages had ballooned to an apocalyptic torrent.
   My stomach churned in pain.
   How should I tell them about this? Thinking about it, this has been a pretty bizarre turn of events.

   I decided to just let the words flow as I composed my message.
   “I’m currently in the hideout of a group called the Mekakushi-dan. I think they can cure this condition I have. Please don’t worry about me. Tell my family not to worry, either. I’m really sorr—”

   —Getting this far into the message, I heaved the biggest sigh of the day so far.

   My recipients would probably think I ingested some weird mushrooms or something.
   Reading this out of context, this was plainly not a message a sane person would send.

   “How do you think I should put this? This…situation?”
   “Um…I don’t know. I’m sorry…”
   I turned toward Kido, hoping for some guidance, but all she did was sit there, looking distressed. Perhaps she felt indebted to me for accidentally taking me here.

   “Mmm…Well, this message isn’t gonna cut it. There has to be some better way of putting it…”
   “The tea’s all set to…Wa-a-a-ahhh!!”

   Just as my eyes turned back to the phone screen to take another stab at my farewell message, tea rained down from above on my right.
   A fairly sizable amount of liquid poured over my head and the phone.
   “Yaahhhhhhh!!”
   It was all so startling that, for the nth time today, I let out the loudest scream I could.
   Getting splashed with all that tea was one reason, yes. The other major culprit was the “Sending…” window on my screen.

   “Ahhh! Nooo! I, I’m sorry! I’m so sorry!!”
   “I-it’s fine! Just get something to wipe this up!”
   In a panic, Kido pointed Marie, still sprawled on the floor, toward the kitchen.

   I furiously tapped my finger on my phone’s “Cancel” button. No response.
   Nothing could be done any longer. The phone completed the send, and then, as if wrapping up the final task of its cursed life, quietly breathed its last. What had this girl done to me…?

   “Okay, here’s a—a-a-a-ahhh!”
   This time, my head was draped with an unwringed, sopping-wet towel.
   The bitterly cold liquid ran down my hair, pooling around my seat.
   I looked around me, washcloth still atop my head.
   There was Marie, white as a sheet, ready to cry at any minute—
   and Kano, snickering, that smile still on his face—
   and Kido, scratching her hair through her jacket hood, looking embarrassed.

   —Man…What a pain. But, you know, it didn’t really matter.

   I was beginning to feel like all of this was just too much fun. I hadn’t felt this way in far too long.
   This may be a bit (okay, more than a bit) of a twisted way of thinking, but at that moment, I thought to myself: This must be what “youth” is like.
   Is this how it feels when you’re messing around with the guys in your school clubs?

   No doubt the sun’s blinding rays were still shining outside, the whining drone of the cicadas still as loud as always.

   On that summer’s day, I made up my mind.
   And to make my resolve clear, I said it out loud.

“—I swear I’ll do my best for the Mekakushi-dan!”

KAGEROU DAZE II

2020-08-16T16:22:00.008+07:00

I had a terrible, hateful dream. A dream where you went away, right before my eyes.
   I had it time, and time, and time again.
   I had it yesterday. I saw everything.

   How many times will I have seen it today?
   How many times does yesterday make?

   How many times have we talked to each other in this park?
   It’s the first time for you, maybe, but I lost count long ago.
   I remember talking to you about this before.
   Many times before. And you always believed in me.
   You were always so seriously concerned.

   But every time, you always die in the end.
   When I bring up this topic with you, you get worried for me. You get sad.
   So I decided to stop talking about it any longer.

   It’s all right. Now, it’s all right.
   I’ve even started to like talking to you, here in the park.

   Just listening to you speak is enough.
   You’ve told me the same thing so many times, I’ve memorized every word.
   But that’s fine.
   That’s fine, so I just wanted you to keep talking.

   Because when I hear your voice, I don’t have to listen to the cicadas’ noise.
   Because I can focus on nothing but that voice.
   I look at my watch. It was just about half past noon.

   “Wanna head home?”

   I extended a hand and you grabbed it, looking terribly embarrassed as you did.
   So uncomfortable with me, right up to the end…
   No wonder I was never popular.

   Well, our time’s just about up. Better get going.
   Thanks for everything, Hibiya.

   The noisy cicadas,
   the haze shimmering across the road

   …I hate everything about summer.

—As I looked up, the steel pole was just about to land on my face.

JINZOU ENEMY

2020-08-16T16:21:00.007+07:00

I was jarred awake by the sound of a blaring siren. My heartbeat shot upward as I was greeted by the plain white ceiling above me. Still unaware of my surroundings, I flailed around, knocking over the small desk by my side, and fell out of bed.
   “…Ngh!”
   I banged my right shin, hard. A beat, and then the burning discomfort was relayed to my brain.
   My eyes tearing up in fear from the pain and the furious noise, I pulled the sprawled-out comforter toward me, cocooning myself inside. Then the siren stopped.

   “Good morning, master!”

   The moment I heard that voice, I finally understood the situation I was in.

   Here I was, Shintaro Kisaragi, body unnaturally twisted on the floor, clad in underpants and bedsheets, tears in my eyes. And there she was, Ene, looking on from inside the monitor display, tears in her eyes as she tried to choke back her laughter.

It was the height of summer. Just a little while ago, everyone was going nuts over meteor strikes and the Mayans or whoever predicting the end of the world. Now? It’s back to business as usual, the top headlines all stuff like “Guess which breakout idol is about to make her TV drama debut?!”
    For someone with a vocation like mine, someone who prides himself on keeping up with the latest news and who engaged in heated front-line debates about the Apocalypse all across the net, I had to admit that things, in general, were failing to wow me lately.
    Of course, maybe “vocation” is overstating it. Normally, I would be a regular old eighteen-year-old high-school student. But instead I have generously volunteered to remain at home, keeping close watch over my domestic domain during those times when I haven’t devoted myself to the free exchange of opinion with other denizens of the Internet. My primary work duties involve creating amateur music, a hobby I started completely from scratch, and posting my erstwhile, insightful reviews, day and night, in the comments section of whatever’s just been posted to my preferred video site. I’ve been on the job for two years.

    I haven’t quite made any songs, keep in mind.

    But! But! Look out, world, because today (for a change) I’m ready to do this!
    Plopping down at my computer desk, I crammed the sandwich my mother supplied me this morning into my mouth and stared at the music sequencer window in front of me. My mission: to reach number one on the video site rankings, to get my song out on ringtones and in karaoke rooms, to release my first major album…!
    Basically, I want to be lavished with attention.

    Most days, this lofty ambition sadly gets sidetracked, falling to dust after half an hour or so as I push forward with my pressing video-commenter obligations. But no, today will not be like most. This sandwich is filled with more than just my mother’s love—there must be something else in it that drives me now, filling me to overflowing with catchy musical riffs, like the Muses themselves have possessed me.
    “Oh, this is gonna explode!” I said to myself as I began punching in notes. This composition work was going so unbelievably smoothly that it was unnerving. But there was something else flitting around the display—a kind of virus, if you will, one plainly bent on interfering with my mission.
    “Looks like it’ll be a scorcher today. Wow! They’re saying it’s gonna get up to ninety-five downtown!”
    “Ooh, look out! They’ve already taken ten or so people to the hospital for heat stroke. Better take ample precautions when you go outside, master!”
    I have no idea why anyone would go outside on a day like this.
    Though, really, I have no idea why anyone would go outside, period.
    “Oh, speaking of which, master, today’s siren was an alert used by certain nations in case of threat-level-four-or-higher incidents. I boosted the frequency bands I thought you’d find the most grating, and—”
    “The hell do you mean, ‘today’s siren’? You got one for tomorrow, too…? Uh.”
    Oh, great. I just had to sass back at her.

    She had been shifting to and fro across the display, futilely trying to engage me in inane conversation. Now she was stopped, standing tall, the smile providing the cherry to top the look of utter victory on her face. She was front and center on the screen now as she joyfully continued.
    “Oops! Guess I let the cat out of the bag! Now I’ll have to find something even more exciting for tomorrow! Oh, and no need to thank me, of course. Seeing a happy customer’s smiling face is all the thanks I need!”
    “I didn’t ask for a sales rep! You know this is gonna bruise, right? This is aggravated assault we’re talking about!”
    I pointed out the soon-to-be blunt-force trauma on my shin, plaintively stating my case as she cackled like a witch, furtively rubbing her hands together.
    It was a futile effort. A question mark popped up over her head as she tilted her head in a brazen attempt at shocked confusion.

    It was August 14th. Three in the morning, by the way. The siren that so suddenly blared across the house had beaten not just myself, but my mother out of bed. She rushed over to my room, only to find her son ranting and raving at this cute virtual cyber-girl on the computer display.
    As the shouting intensified, causing far more consternation for the neighbors than any siren, and as I found myself receiving a face-to-fist greeting from good ol’ Mom for the effort, morning slowly crept across the landscape.

    Which brings us to now. I haven’t looked in the mirror yet, but I assumed I had a bruise on my face as well by now.
    “Guh. You have got to be kidding me. What the hell am I gonna do if she destroys my computer? I’d, like, die.”
    “Ohhh, master, you are so kind to me! Putting your concern for me above your own! And you even came right to me the moment you woke up this morning!”
    She zoomed herself in on-screen, her eyes shining like a reject from some old shoujo manga. I flew into yet another violent rage.
    “Yeah, ’cause I’m gonna delete your ass! If I lose my computer, that’s gonna kill me, not you!”
    “Oh, there you go again! You can’t fool me! I know how thoughtful and caring a master you really are. Yep! Every day with you, nothing but bliss!”
    This was getting nowhere.
    It never, ever gets anywhere with her. I’m sick of it.
    How did this wind up happening to me? Let me think…

    About a year ago, I received an enigmatic e-mail from an unknown sender. I opened it, something I would never dare do today, and the result made my life the stressful farce it is now.
    The moment this thing lurking in the mail attachment wriggled its way into my computer, it commandeered every single square inch of my hard drive.
    At the time, I had no idea what had happened. I saw these geometric shapes pop up on my desktop, on top of all the application windows, and then this girl appeared, her blue hair done up in twin pigtails, a faint glow covering her entire body.
    I thought it was cute at first. I really did.
    It’s hard to believe now.

    This girl I was suddenly presented with exuded mystery. My mind conjured up images of some distressed heroine going on, like, “Oh, you finally saved me, we must fight together for justice,” etc.
    It was more than enough for someone like me, a troll in a troll cave, the utter dregs of society, to think I had finally drawn the “world-beating hero” card. The encounter was too perfect, driving me to flights of terribly mistaken fancy. Soon we would be battling a shadowy organization, investigating supernatural incidents nationwide, uniting with our stalwart band of friends as we fought off hideous monsters! The first episode of a rip-snorting adventure!

    But.

    No supernatural incidents took place. Remarkably, I didn’t grow a magical demon eye or anything. A band of friends was out of the question; I was lucky if I could get my mail-order packages delivered right. Monsters? Well, there were some cockroaches. And I don’t think I ever heard of an adventure tale where the first line was: “Oh, uh, nice to meet you!” Followed by: “Uh, yeah…”

    To start out, I told her about my life. Nothing too deep, but at least we could still sustain a normal conversation back then.
    “Could I ask who you are?” I said. I was taking pains to be polite to her for some reason. “It’s just that I’ve never heard of any kind of software package like this.”
    “Well,” she replied, “I don’t really know myself.” A lot of that kind of thing.

    And that, really, was a lot healthier than now. I could ask her things, and she’d actually give me a reply.
    But I guess she got used to things after about a week. Her behavior grew notably more bizarre, and she began to both interfere with my noble work and just plain screw around with me. She renamed the folder with all my embarrassingly heartfelt song lyrics and such as “Pig’s Feet.” The repository of cherished, handpicked images I had spent my life collecting and observing had its name changed to “~~Carnal Graveyard~~.”
    After a month, the renaming binge had spread across my entire PC. Even the file names of all the demo data for the tracks I was building had been overwritten with rather more sensitive titles. The sort of titles that, if I built an album out of them, might kick off a completely new genre.
    I won’t bother going into the throat-burning tirades that followed each incident. None of them had any notable effect on her.
    “Hey…You changed my log-in and password, didn’t you?”
    Here we go again. My log-in for the video site was refusing to work this morning. I didn’t remember changing the password. Which, nine times out of ten, meant it was her work.
    “Oooh! Well done, master! I’m so happy you spotted it so quickly!”
    “Change it back. Now.”
    “Oh, don’t get in such a lather! Look what I’ve got for you!”
    The “No” button silently selected itself in the “Save changes?” window. Every single window on the display closed (not minimized, closed) in an instant.
    “Aaaahhhhh!!!”
    Then, like the climax of some terrible ’80s game show, a multiple-choice quiz came up on-screen.
    “Right, question one! Get this correct, and I’ll give you the first password to—”
    “Are you crazy?! I’m gonna kill you! Gimme my song! Give it back!!”
    Anyone watching from afar as I shot out of my chair and yelled hysterically at the display probably would have found it hilarious. She herself looked put off, wearing a kind of “whoa, who’s this guy, this ain’t good” kind of expression. Even though it was her damn fault.
    “Ugggghhhhh…”
    I had lost the strength to go on. I cradled my head in my hands, preparing to bang it against the desk in agony, when I felt something ominous around my elbow.
    “Ahh! Master, master! Your drink!”
    “Huh?”

    The soda I was in the middle of drinking was pouring itself out over my keyboard and mouse.

    A second scream thundered across my room as I, in a panic, beat the keyboard senseless with my ever-handy tissues.
    I feared the worst, visions of my hardware getting drenched in high-fructose corn syrup dancing in my head.
    But I couldn’t allow myself to entertain thoughts like that. Body and soul, I had to focus on rescuing this endangered, vulnerable life. C’mon, live!

    Everything I could wipe was wiped. Hurriedly, I tested out the keys. The only ones that responded were o, r, and t.
    Apparently I was too late. Tears of frustrated resignation ran down my cheeks.
    “Master! Mouse, mouse!”
    Her voice snapped me back to reality.
    Yes! She’s right! I still had another life to save!
    Holding back the tears, I took the mouse in hand.
    “Please…! Please, come back to me…!”
    I found myself gurgling out loud as I single-mindedly buried the mouse in a flurry of tissues. I couldn’t say how long I spent on the task, but when I was done, all that worked was the right mouse button. The context menu popped on-screen, cruelly, hatefully.
    Why does this world have to be so heartless?
    What did these poor wretches do to anyone? It was just too horrible to contemplate.
    “Oh! Hey, master, you can still type ‘rot’ all right! That’s one word, at least!”
    “Just…Just shut up. Please…”
    I was possessed by a sudden urge to trash the entire computer setup. But doing that would kill me. Nobody else. Covering my face with my hands, I stood strong against the crashing torrents of hopelessness, bottling up my rage, as there was nowhere else for it to go.

    For a while, there was silence. The whir of the AC unit filled the room, the air flowing in near my feet before gradually wafting upward and cooling my head. This is it. The absolute worst thing that could happen. With all of her past pranks, I reacted with abject fury, deleting her time, and time, and time again. But she must have had some backup of herself on the net, because as long as I was online, she would resurrect herself, reoccupying my screen the moment after her deletion like nothing had happened. But, you ask, wouldn’t staying offline solve the problem? Perhaps. But I couldn’t bear the thought of living in that particular hell for even a few hours. So, each time, the cycle began anew.
    Truly, she was an enemy of mankind, one created by human hands. Ene, the enemy. I don’t know who it was, but whoever instilled this hypercharged AI with that insane personality must have been some kind of sociopath.

    I sighed. We had gone through this chain of wanton destruction multiple times by this point. But today there was just too much happening at once. Her myopic bouts of sadism would have driven anyone weaker than me to insanity by now. If you asked me, I think I’ve held out pretty well.
    I wouldn’t have minded getting a little appreciation for it, in fact. But no. I’m alone. An unemployed shut-in. Worthless.

    It was hard to say how many minutes had passed as all of these desperate thoughts flashed through my mind. I suddenly noticed an eerie sense of quiet around me. I told her to shut up, yes, but it was rare for her to actually listen to me for so long. I turned an eye toward the display, only to find a shocking sight beaming back at me.

    The screen displayed a list of estimated delivery dates from assorted online electronics sites. This wasn’t the surprising thing. She was, moping apologetically on-screen, trying to gauge my reaction.
    Our eyes met. “Oh, uh…” she said, averting her gaze as she pointed out the keyboard and mouse I had all but set up a wake for. “I just…I dunno. I wasn’t expecting this to happen. It was just kind of a joke, you know…”
    I was stupefied. Where the hell did that come from…? Then I realized why she was trying to fish a response from me.
    “You…you’re not actually sorry, are you?”
    “I…!”
    She seemed to come to attention, but quickly turned back downward.
    As I saw her shyly swing her legs back and forth, I began to feel how I did the first few days after we met. I found myself looking aside as well, a strange nervous energy dominating my mind. I, uh…Ugh. I had to say something—!
    “Well, there’s no point crying over spilled milk…I guess…Plus, they were both pretty old. I was kind of thinking about replacing them anyway…uh…”
    That was about all I had. I looked back at the display. Her back was turned to me as she furiously flipped through all the shopping sites she could find.
    “Yes! Exactly what I thought! I was just thinking it was time for a big upgrade! I mean, I’m shocked they lasted as long as they did! Talk about durable!”
    I was speechless.
    I don’t think I’ve ever experienced such a strange, nonsensical feeling before.
    There was no more anger, no more sadness; instead, my heart was filled with sheer emptiness.
    “Hmm? Oh. Huh. That’s rough.”
    My body was still savoring the profound void in my chest when her words stopped me.
    “Rough? What’s the problem? Just look for anyplace with same-day delivery. As long as it’s usable, I don’t care.”
    “Well, about that…I know this is kind of my fault too, but…”
    “Kind of all your fault.”
    “I know you’ll probably die unless you get this stuff today or tomorrow…”
    “Pretty much.”
    “Yeah, see? So I’m looking around and all…but do you know what day this is, master?”
    “Hmm? The fourteenth, isn’t it? Probably…? Ahh!”
    Startled, I scanned the search results opened full-screen on the display.
    Every one of them read “Same-day delivery unavailable.”
    “It’s the Obon holiday. Every business in Japan is closed for the Obon break. Most of them can’t even ship out until the day after tomorrow.”
    I could feel myself growing dizzy.
    “The day after tomorrow…? Two whole days…?”
    I slumped deep into my desk chair.
    Two days. To normal people, that’s nothing.
    But to me, this was a matter of life and death.
    If you asked me to go on a hunger strike, I could probably handle that for two days.
    If you asked me to go without sleep, I could probably stay awake for two days.

    But this is different.

    This is like oxygen to me. It’s literally telling me to stop breathing.
    Can you hold your breath for two days? Of course you can’t.
    After two years of this lifestyle, that was how much, how badly I had to fuse myself, heart and soul, with the Internet. I had a cell phone, yes, but for whatever reason, we never got any bars inside the house. In fact, I used it so rarely that I wasn’t entirely sure if it worked any longer.
    The computer itself wasn’t broken, which was great, but as long as its control interface was completely dead, that metal box was as good as useless. If, for example, this girl sitting in my display were a little more understanding, it wouldn’t be that devastating an issue. I could give her voice commands, she could handle them for me, we could somehow work it out.
    But if I had to deal with her for two whole days, I’d probably get a bleeding ulcer from the stress or whatever. I’d be dead within twenty-four hours.
    I had kept myself free of a horrible bloody death up until now by sticking to a strict “ignore her” policy whenever she spoke to me. And now you want me to give her requests? If I suggested that to her, she’d no doubt eagerly agree, eyes shining bright, like a kid with a new toy.
    Even now she was staring at me intently. I could almost hear her voice already. “Well? Not much choice left, is there? Is there? Come onnnnnn…!”
    I had only two options.

    Give up the computer and die, or become her toy and die.

    “Ugh, they both suck…”
    The sense of hopelessness was strong enough to take word form as a sigh escaped my lips.
    It honestly sounded stupid when I thought about it, but I was quite confident that if I ever went offline, I really would die. No exaggeration. Seeing myself faced with this ridiculous situation, with death the only feasible method of escape, made me want to cry.
    “Ummm…”
    “What?”
    “Well…I imagine you have your own feelings about this, but I think I probably went just a little too far this time—”
    She had already started her mopey little show again, nervously swinging her legs—the same angle that had already tricked me once before.

    “Ugh. Is that the only variation in your ‘apology’ routine, or what? I’m not falling for that crap twice!”
   “N-no! No! I mean it, so just give me a second! I’m really sorry, okay? Three days, four days, no matter how long it takes! I can serve as your eyes and ears!”
   Her zoomed-in face loomed on-screen as she made her enigmatic plea.
   “Huh?”
   “So, until your stuff comes in the mail, you can feel free to use me as your keyboard and stuff! I won’t mess around or anything! I’ll do exactly what you tell me to do. I mean it!”
   She went even more extreme with the close-up, her eyes welling up a little.
   Damn…! I didn’t know she had that variation, too!
   That was all it took to get an eighteen-year-old virgin’s heart racing. I was helpless.

   Hang on, though. I’m not about to fold that easily. Or maybe I was. I was having trouble thinking straight. She did search the shopping sites for me, and she really seems to be…sorry? Is that the right word?
   As I contemplated this, I spotted some text on the screen behind her.
   Hang on…?
   On the bottom left of the screen, behind her massive zoomed-in face, if you squinted, you could see the question on the multiple-choice quiz app from earlier being rewritten.
   [Question 1:
   Answer this, master, and you can input one character of your search term!
   But be careful, because if you get it wrong, I’ll start posting “cherished images” from your secret repository one by one to—]

   “…No.”

   She tilted her head quizzically, her eyes still welling up with tears, as cute as she could muster.
   But the days of her eliciting emotions, of any kind, from me were over.
   “Behind you.”
   “Mm…? Gah!”
   Turning around in a whirl, she closed the app, then peered back with her welled-up eyes, as if nothing were amiss. She was a bit shaken, having trouble perpetuating the act, but her tears were welling up to a higher point than ever, as if to make up the difference.
   “Ergh.”
   “Um…?”
   “…Quit it.”
   “Quit what?”
   Two years. Looking back on everything that’s transpired did make me emotional in some ways, but I knew that I had only one option left to survive.
   I stood up and opened the closet door. I never even so much as took a walk around the block, so normally I rotated between only a few articles of clothing. The idea of a full-on clothes dresser seemed silly to me.
   But today, and today alone, I’m going to open this up.
   “M-master?!”
   The voice behind me was filled with shocked surprise at this unbelievable turn of events.
   I opened the first drawer, revealing a well-folded hoodie and Windbreaker.
   Memories, long tucked away, from the era when I still wore this stuff regularly, flowed in a heavy stream.
   “Oof…”
   Recalling a variety of incidents from my past, I could feel the aches from old wounds come pounding back to the forefront. I shook the cobwebs from my head, took the tracksuit jacket folded up top on the far right, and closed the drawer.
   The second drawer contained a lovingly arranged selection of cargo pants and shorts. I selected a set of khaki pants and briskly pushed the knob back in.
   “Master! Master, what’s happening to you?!”
   Removing the sweatpants I had on, I started putting on my outfit. As I did, my mind began to feel distressed, as if faced with some sudden, insurmountable crisis.
   “I’ve never seen you wear anything like that before! What are you doing…?”
   “…Shopping.”
   “…Huh?”
   “I’m going out shopping! Something wrong with that?!”
   “Sh-shopping…?”
   This was apparently not the reply she expected.
   Well, what the hell did she think I’d be doing?
   “Yeah. Shopping. I’m not gonna rely on you, so I’m gonna go buy it all myself.”
   “Shopping…! Boy, what a relief that is! I thought you were going to commit suicide or something for a moment!”
   “I’m not committing suicide! What kind of freak kills himself because he spilled a drink on his keyboard?”
   “You, master.”
   “…Yeah, but…”
   It wasn’t outside the realm of impossibility. I hated to admit it, but I could understand the impulse.
   Amid this mindless chatter, I continued to dress myself.

   “…I guess this’ll do.”
   With the Windbreaker zipped up to the very top, my wardrobe was complete.
   These clothes all felt a little stiff. I hadn’t worn them in a while. I felt oddly nervous, as if wearing them for the first time.
   “Heyyy! That actually looks pretty good on you! Like, normally you’re a hopeless case, but…”
   “Oh? You think so? I hope this is okay.”
   “Totally okay! A real man’s man!”
   “Yeah? You’re gonna make me blush.”
   It was embarrassing, but I felt more than a little satisfied with myself as I turned toward the display. There, I saw a window filled with images of perfect-looking male models in an array of top-shelf fashions. Behind this display, I could hear her voice. “You look so, so cool! I always knew you had some fashion sense in you!”
   “Come on…You’re gonna make me lose my nerve.”
   “Hmm? What do you mean?”
   “Forget it. I know I look okay, all right?”
   I was quickly losing any nerve I might have had to go outside. But there was no turning back now.
   I took down the bag hanging in the closet and slung it around my head.
   I was set, more or less. Now for the accessories.
   “Uh, I need my wallet, and…and that’s kind of it, huh?”
   I plucked the wallet, which normally saw use only when shopping online, from near the pillows on my bed.
   “That should do it. Whew…Well, I’m off.”
   I took a deep breath, then approached the bedroom door.
   “H-hang on a minute, master!!”
   Just when my hand was on the knob, her voice made me turn back toward the computer.
   “What? Haven’t you done enough for one day? Seriously.”
   “I know, I just…um, this is your first time out in a while, right? I just figured…you know, maybe two would be better than one, so…”
   “Two? You think I got someone I can invite over?”
   Thanks to my unflagging dedication to my craft over the past two years, I didn’t have a single friend I could make contact with. Even if I did, I wasn’t about to invite anyone along.
   “I didn’t mean that, master. I mean…Well, if I were with you, I could help navigate and stuff, so…”
   She was plainly waiting for me to get the picture. I wasn’t dense enough to miss the “take me along” message, but did she want me to lug the computer with me?
   “How’re you gonna come along? If you want to join me, you’re gonna have to jump out of there first.”
   “Wha? You mean it?! Okay, I’m coming out! One, two…!”
   Smiling, she pointed at a small chest of drawers next to the bed.

   Atop it sat my touchscreen cell phone, covered in dust.

The height of summer. “Height” was the only way you could put it. I had no clue summer was even supposed to get this hot.
    My body, generously blessed with the glory of air-conditioning until just a moment ago, was all but making breakfast-griddle sizzling sounds as the sweat poured off me.
    All of this in the space of just twenty seconds. I had begun my journey at a confident saunter, but I could feel my hit points quickly being drained.
    “Uhh, testing, testing. Can you hear me, master? Check one, two…”
    “…How about we go back home…?”
    “What? What was that? Hey, can you bring me a little closer when you talk, please?”
    “Uh…never mind.”
    The owner of that nagging voice probably didn’t know how to feel heat. I couldn’t have been more jealous.
    With my ear-canal earphones on as I gripped my phone like some kind of walkie-talkie, I must have looked like an agent on some kind of mission.
    She had all but forced me to bring her along in the end, threatening to play that siren sound from the morning again or go on my high school’s online forum and place a personal ad using my real name.
    She was beaming as she strolled around my phone’s standby screen. Somehow I doubted she would be accepting any calls that showed up.

    I never imagined that software would be operating me one day, not the other way around.
    Although the “operator” in question is really more of a modern-day plague-spirit.

    Out on the street, I was faced with the full brunt of summer’s brutal barrage.
    Haze was shimmering off the far end of the road.
    I felt like an arctic (or antarctic, for that matter) creature suddenly thrown into the savanna.
    It was hot. Temperature, humidity; the exact statistics mattered little. It was just hot.
    “You have to be kidding me…This is what summer’s like?”
    “Weren’t you listening to me earlier? People were going to the hospital for heat stroke!…Oh, did you bring your insurance card, master?”
    “Sure did. All set for the ambulance. Eesh.”
    Before I left, I had brought along a few things to ensure I was ready for anything that happened.
    If worse came to worst and I collapsed in a pile of molten goo, at least they’d know who I am. Or was.
    “Perfect! Nothing to worry about, then! Let’s get truckin’!”
    “Yeah…Wait, no! Why are you bossing me around?! This is all your fault I’m here in the—”
    “Oh! Hey, go right at this stoplight! Right!”
    “Huh? This street? Sorry…Man, I don’t remember these roads at all. I don’t even know where I am any longer.”
    “Well, you never go outside, master. It’s been two years since you left the house, right? It looks like the local map’s changed completely since then.”
    The crushing heat prevented me from noticing, but things really had changed a lot.
    I could see a new and unfamiliar midrise building in front of me, there were a couple of new condos here and there, and what few memories of the area that remained were quickly being overwritten in my mind. Must’ve been some of that urban development they’re talking about. I’ve lived in this town for a while now, but I don’t remember it changing this quickly in just two years. That, or maybe shutting myself in my room made the gap seem that much more gaping when I finally tiptoed out.

    I was seized by the feeling that someone, somewhere, was gradually replacing my city, piece by piece.
    Maybe everyone who lives here, including me, just didn’t notice until now.
    I mulled the idea as I turned back and made a right at the intersection, finding myself on a larger street. My home was in a surprisingly handy location. There was a variety of transportation options, and the streets saw a decent amount of foot traffic. Watching the people crossing from left to right, right to left between the two buildings that flanked the street ahead didn’t seem different at all from the display I usually spent my time staring at.
    “Okay, make a left onto the main street and keep following it. Then go right and…um, master?”
    “Hmm? Oh. Yeah. Got it. So, which way next?”
    “I said, go left onto the main street! Then make a right! You sure are spacing out on me, master…Oh no! You aren’t having heat stroke, are you?!”
    “No, nothing like that. It just feels kind of…weird. Is there really a department store in that area?”
    There definitely wasn’t one two years ago. Not a big one, at least. It used to take kind of a field trip to find any electronics nearby.
    “No doubt about it. See? Here’s what it says on the website: “Your hometown department store! From home appliances and electronics to our vast array of kitchen accessories, we’ve got everything you need!”…Ooh, but they only built it this spring, I guess.”
    “Oh…No wonder I didn’t know. But why here, though…?”
    “Well, it looks like they’ve been pretty aggressively developing this neighborhood lately. If you go right here a little ways, there’s this huge hospital, and then a new school after that. A big library, too, across the street. That all got built up from the end of last year to this one.”
    “All of that?! Man, this place has really changed…Anyway, here’s the main street.”

    Leaving the side street, I was greeted with a panoramic view of my town.
    Billboards and trees lining the road. Office buildings and restaurants.
    Students in uniforms. Company staffers apologizing into their phones.
    That, and all the noise, noise, noise they were making.
    I felt something akin to light-headedness at all the emotions it conjured up at once.

    “Whoa…I think I gotta bail. Wanna go home? Yeah, let’s go home.”
    “Sure are a lot of people, huh? That’s the Obon holiday for you, I suppose. Better hang in there!”
    “You’re not even listening to me, are you…? Oh, man, look at all these people…”
    The shade from the trees that dotted the sidewalk, wider and better put together than the one on the side road, made walking a bit less of a chore, at least.
    But all the people on the road and cars passing from one end to the other were making the heat index skyrocket for me.
    I pressed on down the road, muttering into my phone, before reaching a massive intersection.
    “If you go back home, master, you know you’ll just be like ‘oooh, I’m gonna die, I’m gonna die.’ Tough it out a little longer!”
    “Look, can you…ugh. I can’t do it. Talking to you just makes me more tired. Oh, it’s green. Better cross…”
    After crossing the intersection, I could see a park a small distance ahead. It was filled with playground equipment—swings, a jungle gym, a fountain, and lots of other stuff a kid would kill to play on. Moving ahead, I could see just a bit of classic big-department-store signage on top of the right-hand building, previously hidden by the sidewalk trees and such.
    “Whoa. It’s even bigger than I thought. I had no idea this was here…”
    “It’s the largest department store in the neighborhood, apparently! Why don’t you take a look through the clothing section while you’re at it?”
    “What’re you, nuts? I told you, I’m going out today and today only. I’m sick of all this damn heat already.”
    “Yep! Called it! I knew that’s what you’d say! If you’d told me you were going out to buy clothes, it would’ve been time to dial 911!”
    “What am I, a caveman? I can buy clothes, dumbass!”
    “Oh? So go browse a little.”
    “W-well, maybe not today…but…”
    Before I could finish, I heard an ominous “keh-heh-heh” from my phone.
    I could already feel my face turning red as I put it back in my pocket.
    “Agh! Master, I was joking! We can do it next time! Okay?”
    The phone stayed firmly inside my pocket.
    “Yeah,” I whispered to no one in particular. “Next time.”
    I doubt she could have heard my voice.

    Making my way toward the advertising signage, I stumbled into another four-lane intersection.
    The line of buildings on the right came to an end, revealing the full department store across the street.
    …The scope of it could be described only as gigantic.
    The jam-packed parking lot was large enough to make an untold number of tennis courts out of. Cars constantly circulated in and out.
    Beyond the multihued traffic, the department store was made up of two buildings, both around ten floors tall, with arched walkways connecting them every few floors.
    “Wow. What a sight. You can build something like this in two years or so…?”
    “Oh! You there already? Master? Helloooooo?”
    “I just crossed the intersection. Not yet.”
    “Lemme see, too! Come onnnnn, master!”
    “Ugh, all right, all right! Shut up!”
    Having enough of being ranted at on full blast, I nimbly took the phone out of my pocket and pointed the rear camera at the store. An impartial onlooker would probably guess I was taking a souvenir photo.
    “Wowwwww…! That’s amazing! It’s like some kind of castle!”
    “You know, that’s not a bad way of putting it. Especially when it’s done up all like this.”
    “Huh…Oh! Hey, I think there’s an amusement park or something on the roof! Let’s go look!”
    She used the phone’s vibrate function to express her unbridled glee. Just as high intensity as always. More so, in fact.
    “No, how ’bout we not go look?! It’s not like you could try anything up there anyway.”
    “Laaaame.”
    The phone erupted with a couple of short bursts of vibration, followed by the new-text-message jingle.
    I knew it was her doing, of course. It wasn’t like there was anyone who would’ve actually been texting me.
    “Mmm? What?”
    I looked at the screen, only to find her staring back at me, a peeved expression on her face.
    Her aggressive, furrowed gaze was enough to genuinely startle me.
    “You could at least try to be a little more considerate, master! There’s all kinds of places I want to go!”
    “Yeah, that’s great. You know you can’t go on any of the rides, right? What’s so fun about that? It’d be boring.”
    “…Ugh! All right! Forget it! Just go on your dumb little shopping trip! Go ride the merry-go-round by yourself for all I care!”
    “You’re not catching me dead on that, okay?!”
    She flashed a look at me, and with that, the power shut off…Or not. The clock in the background was still on. Energy-save mode, maybe? Either way, the screen was totally black.
    “Huh? Oh, come on. Hello?”
    I pushed some buttons and shook the phone around a bit. Nothing. Slowly, inexorably, the clock continued its advance.
    It was currently just past twelve thirty.
    “What’re you acting like this for? I really don’t get why—Ow!”
    Someone bumped into me. I had it coming, maybe. I was stopped just after the intersection, nearby the entrance to the store grounds.
    “Oh, uh, sorry about—”

    I turned upward, involuntarily looking into those eyes…and for a moment, time froze.

    Even though it was midsummer, he was wearing a long-sleeved, light purple coat. His eyes were only just visible from deep within the drawn hood, but they were cold as ice, the eyes of some dead, inorganic beast.
    I was seized in fright, as if looking at some forbidden bauble, and I felt the sweat jetting out of every pore in my body.
    “Uh…umm…So, uh, I’m sorry for—”
    I bowed my head down, making my self-diagnosed social anxiety disorder plain to the world with my stilted apology. This is it. He’s going to kill me. Thanks for everything, Mom. Wish I could’ve gotten a girlfriend, at least.
    “…Oh, no biggie. Sorry about that.”
    “Huh…?”
    The moment I looked back up, not a trace of him could be found.
    The front entrance was crowded, but not crowded enough for someone to disappear in a flash like that. There was nothing immediately nearby that he could have concealed himself behind. Not that quickly.

    I braced my arms against my knees, my body ready to collapse on the spot. My heart pulsed loudly in my ears, and the sweat oozed out on cue. This wasn’t just because it was the first time I interacted with another human being in ages. Those were absolutely the coldest eyes I had ever encountered in my entire life.
    And not because he was angry I bumped into him, either. They were deeper than that. They emitted a sense of intense calmness, a calm beyond anything I could imagine.

    “…right?”
    “…Huh?”
    “I said, are you all right?”
    Taking out my phone, I looked at the screen to find her perched in the center, apparently back in business but just as pouty as before.
    “Oh…You’re still there? I had hoped you finally left me alone to…uh.”
    Somewhere around the moment I was about to finish the sentence, her face began to glow bright red. Was this bad? Yeah, this was bad. I had never seen her truly in a rage before, but either way, this definitely wasn’t her cheerful side.
    “No! Uh, sorry! I’m just joking! I’m sorry, okay? Hey, let’s go to the roof later! Up to that amusement park! Okay?”
    In an instant, the red that had stormed across her face disappeared, and her eyes shined so brightly that I could almost hear the sparkly sound effects.
    Great. I was scrambling for words, I know, but that was one button I absolutely should not have pushed.
    “The amusement park?! Really? You just said we’re going?!”
    The phone practically vibrated itself out of my grip. The sparklies I heard in my mind were starting to get out of hand.
    “Uh…? Um…S-sure, yeah! Great! It’ll be a nice change of pace!”
    “That’s a promise, right?! Ummm…Oh! Hey, let’s go on that thing that goes up and down and stuff! And after that…ooh, after that…!”
    Part of me felt a twinge of regret at the reaction I was getting, but I figured it was harmless enough.
    I had already begun to file away my earlier encounter as nothing to concern myself about.
    This was more interesting anyway. The outside world was just as much a wondrous surprise for her as it was for me.
    She can’t smell the city or feel the heat steaming out from it, and maybe it’s made her far more enraptured with this world than I am, or ever will be.
    I went through the entryway, nodding in vague agreement to all her giggling requests for tour stops as I proceeded in.

    The design on the paved stone path leading in from the entrance must have cost a staggering amount of cash. It was hopelessly, thoroughly ornate, a mesh of rectangular stones in a dazzling variety of colors.
    No doubt it was meant to symbolize some grand, murky spiritual something-or-other mere plebeians like me could never hope to understand.
    Tromping across this inscrutable creation of a no doubt lofty-minded artistic genius, I reached the building that loomed on the left side of the path.
    From directly underneath, it seemed impossibly high, giving the illusion of extending all the way into the cosmos.
    An information map, again done up in gilded, ornate fashion, stood in front of the enormous glass door.
    It was encased in an exquisite frame, one that would be right at home surrounding some great cultural masterpiece.
    “Electronics, electronics…Oh, seventh floor.”
    “Once we’re done on that up-’n’-down thing, I want to go on the roller coaster, okay? We can save the Ferris wheel for later, so…”
    “All right! I hear you! We’re going!”
    She kept repeating her itinerary like some magical incantation, to the point where I could imagine “up-’n’-down thing” and “roller coaster” leapfrogging each other in my mind, one springing along after the other for eternity.
    “Great! So let’s get the shopping over with! Mouse! Keyboard!”
    “I need something to drink first…”

    The door automatically opened as I stood in front of it. In an instant, frigid air greeted me with its blessed presence.

    “Hnnaahhhhh…”
    The pleasant rush was enough to make me audibly moan.
    “You make it sound so dirty, master!”
    “That’s the first thing you have to say to your master after he’s come so far?”
    Oh, crap.
    I had yelled out loud at her. A family of customers browsing around a display of summer gear stared right at me. The youngest boy pointed toward me, laughing innocently.
    “Um…uh. Yeah. Ha-ha-ha.”
    I was sure they saw me as some kind of demented invalid. Putting on a less-than-believable smile, I let the boy watch me as I hurried myself toward the elevators and out of sight.
    Don’t end up like me, kid.

    The elevators were in a room detached a small distance from the shopping space, one that featured a bench and some vending machines lined up on the wall. An elderly man was sitting there, next to a woman with a baby in her arms.
    “Oooooh, vending machines…!”
    It had finally come. The moment when I would get the beverage I had thus far denied myself for some reason, waiting until I’d arrived at this exact place.
    My throat was so dry, I was afraid my esophageal walls would glue themselves together with every breath I took.
    I took a thousand-yen bill out of my wallet—I’m a high roller, I know— and fed it to the drinks machine.
    That carbonated beverage was all mine.
    The thought of the liquefied sugar osmosing into every cell of my body filled my heart with childlike excitement.
    The moment the button lit up, I jammed my thumb into it. There was just 0.3 seconds’ worth of difference. I’ve got supernatural reflexes when I need ’em.
    The sound of the thudding soda can filled my ears with its blunt melody. That thud was surely one of the joys of the vending-machine experience. I was almost moved to tears by the clunk sound I’d gone so long without hearing.
    The can I eventually plucked out was blistering cold to the touch, like something from another world. It was sheer bliss, and my only regret was that this wondrous delight could only be savored by the palm of my hand. I was seized by the impulse to run this can across every inch of my drenched body, but that really would make me a pervert.
    Enough of that. The time had finally come. I pulled the tab and opened the can. The psshh sound serenaded my ears anew, the aroma of the carbonated beverage ruthlessly, thoroughly caressing my nostrils. Without a moment’s hesitation, I brought it to my lips and poured it down my throat. Then I let it soak in…No. That hardly begins to explain the feeling. I let it fill me, in every way possible.
    “You should stop panting like that, master. It’s gross.”
    “Gnnhh. Ahhh…”
    “Now it’s beyond gross.”
    “Shut up! If you could drink this, you’d do the exact same thing!”
    “I would not. By the way, master, the elevator’s waiting!”
    Out of the four elevators that lined the wall, the one on the far left was open, people quickly streaming out of it. Once emptied, it briskly began to fill with impatient customers.
    “Huh? Oh. Yeah, I’ll take the next one. Once I’m done drinking this.”
    With that, I slurped down the soda, enjoying the fragrant carbonation as its sugary payload infiltrated every cell of my—
    “Ahhhh! It’s closing! Hurry up and drink it!”
    “We’ll go on the next one, for chrissake! I’m busy!”
    “Come onnnn…Hurry! What if it’s closed when we get up there?!”
    “They’re not gonna close the damn amusement park in the middle of the day! That elevator’s full anyway.”
    The remainder of the elevator line had already opted against joining the pack of sardines inside the car.
    “Just hang tight for a sec. I’ll get us on the next one.”
    Ignoring her as she put the phone on a low rumble, I examined the elevator a bit more closely.
    The up and down buttons were the kind that lit up with just a light touch, the arrows done in a fancy font that revealed the interior designer’s thoroughness. A short introduction to the store was written on a plaque next to the left-hand elevator.
    “Huh…‘The building’s state-of-the-art, computer-controlled disaster-prevention technology provides the maximum level of safety possible in every corner of the store.’ Neat.”
    “State-of-the-art, huh? They better erase the ‘state-of-the-art’ bit next year.”
    “Yeah. Nice attention to detail there. You never know; maybe they’ll put some new state-of-the-art stuff in next year. Besides, they’re just bragging, is all. All they’re saying here is ‘We got all this fancy junk on the outside, but the inside’s full of high-tech crap, too,’ you know?”
    “Huh…Sounds like a pain to keep running.”
    “I’ll bet. Oh, here it is.”
    The “1” light on the nearest elevator flashed, and just as before, the riders flowed through the open doors. Once everyone was spat out, the elevator was once again inundated with a steady stream of waiting shoppers.
    From where I was located, I would have no difficulty getting on this time. Tossing the empty can into a nearby garbage bin, I followed the flow into the elevator.
    The “7” button for electronics was already lit up in orange; some previous passenger must have pressed it. I appreciated the gesture, given that the crush of people was making the button panel difficult to reach. Once the elevator approached its maximum weight load, the doors silently slid shut and we began to go upward. The air-conditioning was on, but all these riders in a cramped space still made things sticky and uncomfortable. I wanted to get off as soon as possible, but we stopped at nearly every floor before the seventh, my body getting squeezed and kneaded at every stop before I finally reached my destination.
    Finally, the door opened, and I filed out with a few other customers.
    Compared to the summerwear, swimsuits, and food that spread across the first floor, it was a completely different world.

    The entire space was surrounded by large panes of glass, filling the floor with bright sunlight.
    The sense of fresh, inviting openness that filled it seemed strange for an electronics department. It exuded high-class stateliness, like an elite office building.

    The first thing that caught my eye was the kitchen-goods department. It was lined with enormous refrigerators, all but daring customers to hang an entire pig’s carcass from its roof, something I would never fit into my place in a million years. I noticed a line of metallic, weapon-like rice cookers, all of which seemed far too complex for simply cooking rice. Colorful signs shouted NEW INVENTORY! and HOT PRODUCT! in huge lettering. For someone like me with no interest whatsoever in this stuff, it all seemed totally alien.
    A large aisle—it had to be fortyish meters in length—slashed its way across the entire floor. On the far end, I could see fancy-looking audio systems and the latest flat-screen TVs displayed on the wall.
    “Whoa! This is huge! I bet this floor alone is bigger than most specialty electronics shops, huh?”
    Not wishing to get screamed at any more than I had already, I pointed my phone’s camera straight ahead as I hit the aisles. There was nothing but large appliances at the forefront, and judging by the length of the aisles and the size of the building, you could probably find almost anything electrical you wanted in here. There must have been ten or so employees milling around, all wearing vests with catchy sales slogans sewn on.
    “Master! What’s that? It looks like a bomb!”
    “That…? What is that? Some kind of water heater? It looks like a huge hand grenade.”
    With its rough, rugged design and uniform dark-teal color, it must have been deliberately designed to resemble a weapon. If it weren’t for the meter on the side showing the current water level, someone would have called the bomb squad by now.
    “That is soooo cool! Hey, master, you mentioned you wanted some hot water earlier, didn’t you?!”
    “Yeah, but I just didn’t feel like going downstairs to make some instant ramen, okay? I don’t need that piece of junk in my room. That, and I’d still need to go downstairs to fill it up.”
    “Aww, why not? It’d make a great conversation piece when you get a visitor or—uh. I’m sorry. Said too much.”
    A pall descended between us. Her expression was solemn, as if she had accidentally brought up a friend’s horrible incontinence problem at a dinner party.
    “Let’s just drop it.”
    “I apologize! I just wasn’t thinking, so…I’ll be more careful next time.”
    “Just drop it! Okay?!…But oh, hey, check this thing out! That design is nuts!”
    I frantically tried changing the topic to the microwave ovens lined up next to us along the aisle. Not only were they perfectly normal, but they were also from a brand I’d never heard of. A sign reading INVENTORY CLEARANCE! was tacked to the wall, and they had all been discounted two-thirds off their list price.
    “How ’bout it, huh? Nice and simple, but that’s what makes it so avantgarde, right? What do you think? Huh?! Wanna take one home?!”
    “Master, you need that even less than the last thing! That bomb was a lot cooler than this!…Oh, also, what did you come here to buy in the first place?!”
    “Oh. Yeah, the mouse. Let’s get it and go home.”
    “…Master?”
    Two quick jolts of vibration signaled her suddenly serious tone.
    “No! Yeah, I know! The amusement park! I didn’t forget, all right? Uh, where’s the computer stuff…?”
    I peeked at the signs hanging from the ceiling, pointing out all the assorted electronics available. They were a little too specific to help me find what I wanted.
    “Computer goods, compu—Oof!”
    I was so busy staring upward as I wandered around that I bumped right into a sales employee. It had been a very bump-into-guys kind of day. I wasn’t much of a fan.
    “Excuse me! Uh…Could, could you tell me where the computer equipment is?”
    I removed an earbud as I spoke, trying my best to sound apologetic to the employee while I did. Once I had a good look at her face, I realized that she was…well, pretty beautiful. She had to have a boyfriend. The sheer femininity she exuded told me that much.
    “Umm…?” the employee said, confused for a moment. “Oh! Right! Computers! Just go straight down this aisle, then go right down the secondto-last aisle before the wall.”
    “Oh. Uh…uh, th-thank you…”
    My first decent conversation with another human being since time immemorial made me nervous, but the relief at pulling it off—and with such a pretty woman, too!—filled me with satisfied smugness. Yes. I like this store. I could feel my feet growing lighter as I traipsed down the aisle she pointed out.
    “Umm, master?”
    “Hmm? What’s up?”
    My response sounded even more upbeat than I intended. Does talking to a woman really change a person this much? I felt like I had uncovered one of the great secrets of life.
    “About this…”
    Suddenly, I heard a stream of ambient noise broadcast into my ear.
    “Huh? What’re you…”
    Just as I was about to ask, I heard the murmur of background noise hiss in my headphones. Then—
    “Ahhh…ex-cuuuuse me…?…Uh. Uhhh…C-c-could you tell me…Where… where the computer equipment…?…Is?” said the creepily hushed voice of a young man.
    This was followed by a plainly confused (though still clear and refreshing) “Umm…” from a young woman.
    Then the recording ended.
    “That was how it sounded, master. No wonder it took her a second to understand you.”
    The results of spending the past year engaging in mumbly conversations with a mysterious computer AI were now crystal clear.
    I felt like someone had driven a cold, stonelike object into my stomach. I had to resist the impulse to scream at the top of my lungs.
    “I’m pretty much used to it by now, you know, but for normal people, that’s gonna be pretty tough to decipher.”
    “Let’s…let’s just go home.”
    “No, master! We haven’t gone to the amusement park yet!”
    “Oh, who cares anymore…? This whole thing’s been like a roller coaster to me anyway.”
    I was afraid the tears would fall out if I looked down, so I kept walking with my head tilted upward. I was never coming back here again.
    “Oh, don’t worry about it so much! If you want to talk, you know, I’m always happy to listen!”
    “Great, ’cause once we get home, I’m gonna need some counseling. I want to die…”
    “Hee-hee-hee! You got it! So just hang in there for now, all right, master? Look! We’re almost at the computer section, aren’t we?”
    To my right, I was greeted with an array of Internet-ready headsets and cameras. They probably set up this display to cash in on the big video-streaming craze. It was so stupid. Why can’t we as a species all just stop talking to each other?
    The aisle beyond was radiant with superthin notebook PCs and high-spec computers for online gaming, the sort of machines that would normally make me squeal with delight.
    But now, I just wanted to get my mouse and stuff, get on the up-’n’-down thing, get on the roller coaster, and get home.
    “I gotta get back home…”
    “Master?!”
    “All right, all right…ugh…”
    I plodded on, toward the mice display, signs on both sides inviting me to GET ON THE NET QUICKLY AND EASILY! and CONNECT YOUR PHONE TO YOUR PC FOR VIDEO CHAT! and so on. It was honestly just tiring to look at.
    Working my way through the gaudy showroom, I finally reached the mouse and keyboard section.
    It was packed with all the latest gadgets. Wireless, trackballs, you name it.
    “Sure are a lot of ’em. Guess it doesn’t really matter what I get, but I might as well go for a durable model—”

    —It was so sudden.

    With no advance warning, a loud boom echoed across the entire floor, even blaring through my earbuds.
    It was a muffled, otherworldly kind of sound, but one I had heard before.

    On cue, I heard screams all around me.
    In an instant, my heart was racing.
    I impulsively ripped an earbud out. It added a vital sense of realism to the shouting and the chaos that ruled showroom-wide.
    “What the hell’s—?!”
    I was in too narrow of an aisle to get the full picture. As I tried to reach the main aisle, the sound of something heavy and metallic thudding downward echoed across the floor once again.
    I looked back toward the elevators, only to find the corridor I had just walked down blocked by a white metal wall.
    It was as if the shutter was designed to cut the floor cleanly in half—the side with the elevators, and this side. I was completely sealed off, the shutter not touching a single merchandise shelf and not leaving a single exit.
    Looking toward the shutter, at the far end of the now-blocked main aisle, I instantly realized what was making the noise. I could hardly believe it at first, but once I grasped the reality of it, the blood drained impossibly quickly from my face.

    That thing must’ve caused the first blast, along with the screaming.
    The female employee I had just asked directions from was lying there.
    A red puddle was slowly expanding beneath her, from her healthy-looking thighs to the white tiled floor.
    The twisted look of pain on her face contained not a trace of the cheerful smile that was once there.
    A large man stood nearby. He wore a stubbly beard and the sort of sheer, body-hugging suit you see special-forces guys wear in the movies.
    He had a pistol in his hand and grenades hanging from his hips—real ones, a far cry from the water heater earlier—and yet he acted strangely nonchalant, as if nothing was at all amiss.
    Several other men were around him, all dressed alike. They encircled the stubble-bearded man, guns pointed at the shoppers stuck in each aisle. Mine was in their blind spot, and from it, I could hear the screams of the shoppers, along with the strident, shouted commands from the men keeping them at bay. The employees were apparently just as helpless as the customers. There were likely more men besides the ones I could see.

    Everyone who heard the initial explosion and gunshot. Everyone who actually saw it.
    Everyone else who was running in a panic around the floor—all of us were corralled together at frightening speed.
    It couldn’t have taken more than a few minutes.
    This group had the showroom floor completely under their control with astonishing speed.
    “…That all of them?”
    “Yes, sir. That’s everyone on this side of the floor, including the shoppers.”
    “Good. Aww, I suppose all of you were busy enjoying a little shopping on your holiday or whatever. Well, too bad. Guess you’re out of luck today, huh?”
    The stubble-bearded man bombarded those of us beneath him with his crass, unsettling voice.
    Several dozen of us were gathered into a corner of the TV department on the far side of the seventh floor. We had all been made to sit on the ground, our hands bound with some kind of superstrong adhesive tape.
    The glass windows the sunlight had been seeping through just a moment ago were covered in white shutters, the kind the employees lower down after the store closes. A cacophony of patrol sirens faintly whined in the background, and we could hear the voices of what we assumed to be police negotiators on the other side of the giant floor-splitting shutter.
    Nine men stood in front of us, all of them dressed like walking definitions of the word “terrorist.” Three of them had their guns drawn upon us, three of them toward the shutter, and another two were close by the presumed leader, the stubble-bearded man, engaged in conversation.
    “Thirteen hundred hours. It’s time.”
    “Right.”
    At the signal of his partner, who had been keeping a close eye on his watch, the stubble-bearded man took out his cell phone. He began to talk, the picture of calmness, like he was ordering a pizza.
    Suddenly, the voice emanated not from the man in front of us, but from the building’s PA system at high volume.
    “Uhh, test, test, test. Oh, can you hear me? Hello, officers. Another boring day on patrol, huh? I’m only gonna say this once, so pay attention.”
    The moment he began to speak, the negotiators across the shutter fell silent.
    The man took a breath, the faraway sirens the only noise we could hear.

    “As you probably noticed, we’ve taken over this floor. We’ve got several dozen hostages, and, ah, they’re all right for now…for now. So let’s make this quick. We have one demand. We want one billion yen within thirty minutes.”

    The man continued in his matter-of-fact tone, not giving notice to the reactions around him, as if he was simply asking for a side of cheese bread.

    “The handover will take place half an hour from now, on the roof of this building. One of our men is already stationed up there. You will drop the money to him from a helicopter. Don’t bother with counterfeit bills or tracking devices or anything; you’ll be wasting your time. Also, and I’m sure you can guess this, but if I start hearing things like ‘We need more time’ or ‘Release the hostages first,’ we’re going to immediately kill everybody here.”

    This caused an instant clamor from the captured customers, one that was just as quickly halted by the barrels of the three men’s guns. Several customers were quietly choking back their sobs.

    “…Well, that about wraps it up. So try and act accordingly, all right? If you don’t follow what I told you, no matter what it is…ah, I suppose you know. Catch you later.”

    After the man finished, his voice no more excited than if he were chatting with a friend, he sat down on a nearby bench, acting like this whole business was terribly annoying to him.
    How many people ever become terrorist hostages in their lives? It can’t be that high a percentage.
    Now, how about people who get taken hostage after stepping out of their home for the first time in two years? Anyone besides me?
    I was disgusted with my utter and complete lack of good fortune. If today wasn’t the very definition of an unlucky day, then I didn’t know what was.
    “Ugh. We have got nothing to do right now. You think I shoulda made it fifteen minutes?”
    The man had a leg on one knee, playing with his cell phone, not a care in the world. I thought that the ringleader of a gang about to commit the crime of the century would be…I don’t know. Less lethargic?
    “It’s only a little longer now, sir,” said one of his nearby cronies, trying his best to tactfully appease him.
    They were already acting like they got away with the perfect crime…What were they planning to do after this? Do they have an escape helicopter coming? No way. They’d get tracked down and rounded up in one fell swoop. There had to be at least one more gang member, the guy who lowered the shutter and set up the PA announcement, besides the handover man on the roof. So much for that “state-of-the-art, maximum level of safety” crap. This is a total disaster! That fancy-schmancy system gave them exactly the tools they needed. If all the security equipment was controlled by computer, anyone who seized that computer could have this entire structure at their fingertips from the control room.
    I had no idea how they did it, but judging by how calm they were, they must have been confident about their escape. They didn’t make it look perfect, but everything had been handled perfectly so far. They had to have something planned.

    —But I didn’t feel like quietly waiting for it.
    Will they release us? These men didn’t look like they cared about human lives any more than a stray bug on their leg.
    And now they had our lives in their hands.
    A situation as unstable as this could fall apart at any moment.

    A catalyst.
    If there was just some kind of catalyst, we could flip this completely over.

    “Ngh!”

    Suddenly, the stubble-bearded man stood up, his face twisted in pain, holding the back of his head.
    “Hey…!”
    “Huh…? Grhhh!”
    The man approached one of his cronies and punched him full in the stomach.
    “Don’t ‘huh’ me…Who the hell you think you’re punching in the head? Huh?! C’mon, tell me!”
    He launched a swift kick at the crony, still writhing on the floor.
    Everyone nearby tensed up at this odd turn of events.
    Not even the men guarding us could fully conceal their agitation.
    “What the hell’s going on…?” I whispered to myself.
    “Heh-heh-heh…”
    As the ringleader’s angry voice boomed across the floor, the man sitting behind me to the left suddenly began to snicker.
    “Huh…?”
    Surprised, I turned to look at the man who erupted in this sudden, incredibly inappropriate laughter.
    “Mm? Oh, uh, sorry. Like, it was just so funny, I couldn’t help myself.”
    I supposed he was a little younger than me. His large, catlike eyes were situated underneath short, light brown hair, his frame covered by a gray sports jacket.
    “Something funny to you…?”
    “What? Oh, sure, this and that. You know, I can’t help but notice you’ve got some very interesting-looking eyes. Lemme guess: You’re thinking about doing something, but, like, you haven’t spotted a good chance yet. Right?”
    The shouting continued. Everyone, terrorist and hostage, was completely on edge, and yet this guy acted like he couldn’t care less, as if this were a movie and he was watching it on TV.
    “How do you…?”
    Our hushed conversation was drowned out by all the terrorist ranting. The man with the catlike eyes continued.
    “Oh, just a hunch. But how about it…? You have some kind of secret plan, maybe?”
    “…Guys like these, if I could get my hands free, I could make their eyes bug out in half a minute.”
    “Yeah? Huh. Wow. You don’t look like you’re lying, either. So, like, what kind of chances are you giving yourself?”
    “Um…not to brag…but 100 percent.”
    He began to snicker derisively again.
    “You don’t have to believe me. I doubt I can get this tape off anyway.”
    “No, no, sorry. It’s not that I don’t believe you; I just love that crazy confidence you have. Yeah. Neat.”
    He did not look like he believed me at all. In fact, he looked like this entire crisis was the greatest matinee show ever. But this wasn’t a crazed man, driven into a mad panic by the ordeal. His words were strangely soothing.
    “You know, I think if we wait a bit, that guy’s probably gonna talk over the PA system again. You’d be, like, guaranteed to see a chance after that. And then…well, it’d be up to you, I guess. Good luck, okay?”
    “Huh? What’re you talking about? Don’t you remember? I can’t even get my hands—”

    “God, this is pissing me off. Hey, get me on the mike again. I got something I want to say to these idiots.”
    “Y-yes, sir!”
    Punching out his cronies, one by one, as they tried to plead their cases to him apparently failed to quell the stubble-bearded man’s anger. The veins on his forehead bulged visibly as he ordered one of his men to get him back on the PA.
    It couldn’t have been more than ten minutes since the last announcement, and here we go again.
    The cat-eyed man took in the scene, basking in every minute of it. Whether it was coincidence or not, he had predicted all of this. But will that give me a chance? And even if it did, unless I could get this tape off my hands, there was no way to take advantage of it.
    After his minion reported back, the man took out his phone and began his second broadcast.
    “Uh…You guys hear me? I’m taking ten minutes off the time limit. You now have ten minutes left. You start whining about how that’s not enough, I’m killing half the hostages. Got that?”
    Once more, the hostages began to shout and scream. The terrorists guarding them, so quick to silence the group earlier, seemed just as nervous and confused at this sudden change of plans.
    “Also, I’m gonna say this now, but after we get the money, we’re all leaving by helicopter. I’d advise against trying to track us. If we go down, the bomb we got in there’s gonna take a nice chunk of the city out with us. If we notice even the slightest hint of any pursuit, we’re gonna drop that sucker.”
    A commotion rose up among the police on the other side of the shutter. I couldn’t blame them. They were taking the entire town hostage.

    Whoever these men were, they were a tightly structured group, one with a scrupulously designed plan. They were willing to stake the lives of everyone in town to make their escape. And given how well armed they apparently were, no way the police alone could handle them. Not in this short a time.

    “What is he thinking…?”
    My house could very well be within their bomb range. If my mother or my little sister was back home right now, no way they could escape the blast.
    “Damn…This has got to stop.”
    I could feel myself growing increasingly unable to contain my bubbling frustration.
    The cat-eyed man spoke to me, as if he saw this coming.
    “Stay cool. This’ll be just a little bit longer, so stay cool.”

    I couldn’t take his laid-back idiocy anymore.

    “…Why are you so goddamn relaxed?! My family might die in a few minutes!”

    I had screamed at the top of my lungs. The entire floor fell completely silent. Even the men guarding us looked bewildered for a moment.
    The cat-eyed man made an “oh dear, now you’ve done it” face for a moment, but still didn’t look particularly disturbed.
    The stubble-bearded man turned his sharp gaze toward me. Then he started walking my way.
    When he reached me, he stooped down and brought his face close to mine.

    “Who the hell do you think you are?”

    The moment he spoke, visions of all the man’s previous violent behavior flashed across my eyes.
    My body was filled with a kind of fear that was completely alien to me. I began to shiver convulsively.
    “Hey, what’re you shaking for? Where’d all that macho BS go, huh?”
    Smirking, he took me by the hair and pulled me up.
    “All skin and bones, aren’t you…? I bet you don’t even go outside at all. A wimpy little shut-in puss like you, nobody’s gonna miss you when you’re dead! Huh? Will they?!”
    The man erupted in a burst of laughter, then turned to speak with his crew.
    His loud voice literally rang in my mind.

    …Good thing I only had to listen to him at full blast with one of my ears.

    “…for life…”
    “Huh? You say something? Speak up. I can’t hear you.”

    I looked him in the eye as I tried to articulate as much as possible.

    “I hope all you bastards get shut into a jail cell for life!”

    “Ooh! Nice! That was a good one!”

    The moment after my would-be critic stopped talking, a large television hanging just behind the man fell to the ground with a tremendous crash. It was so sudden that everyone instantly turned toward the sound.
    After that, the oversized speakers beneath it began toppling over, one after the other, even though nothing had even touched them.
    “Whoa! What the hell…?!”
    The stubble-bearded man tossed me away like a rag and walked toward the mess, gun in hand.
    “There somebody in—?!”
    Before he could finish, the shelf adjacent to the man suddenly tipped over, the merchandise it was holding falling on him in an avalanche.
    “Ngh! Whoa!”
    Beyond the fallen shelf, I could see the computer department I’d been holed up in when this all began.

    I had no idea why all of this was happening so suddenly, but this had to be my “chance.”
    A moment later, all the tension drained from my body.

    “Off you go. Looking forward to it!”

    I turned to the cat-eyed man next to me. He was waving a hand at me, smiling. Somehow we were both unbound.

    My heart pulsed louder than ever before on that day.
    Even louder than when the siren jarred me awake that morning.

    I placed a hand on the floor and nimbly pushed myself up to my feet in a single motion.
    The gun-toting terrorists were completely taken aback, unable to follow what was going on. I could commiserate. I didn’t really understand what I was doing, either.
    —But I knew what I had to accomplish.

    I jumped over to the mound of merchandise covering the stubble-bearded man, used him as a springboard to make sure he stayed there, and leaped for the computer display beyond.

    The other men finally reacted, turning their guns toward me.
    I could hear screaming and “Look out!” from the group of hostages.

    But all these reactions were too late. The target of my mission was right in front of me.
   Before my final leap, I gripped the phone I had taken out of my pocket and, for the first time in what seemed like ages, called for her.

   “Ene…Do it!”

   “Once I’m done, we’re going to the amusement park, okay?!”
   Through the earbud in my right ear, I heard the young girl’s voice, perky as always.

   I had taken the phone in the display demonstrating the computer-cell phone connector cable and replaced it with my own. In the blink of an eye, I could see a familiar form suddenly occupying every display in the room.
   As I saw it unfold, my stomach was suddenly racked by a force I had never experienced before.
   A force like someone driving a hammer into my torso.
   Then, the world faded out of focus.

   I crumpled to the ground, unable to cushion my fall. My unprotected face hit the white tiled floor.
   I could feel all the strength rapidly drain from my entire body.
   As my consciousness ebbed, I could hear all the shutters open up at once.
   My body was bathed in warm sunlight.

   It reminded me of sitting in my desk by the classroom window, napping. I swore I could hear a certain voice from the past talking to me.

    …How long was I out? I woke to find myself lying in bed within a book-filled room. I looked over to find a sink and a towel. Someone must have been taking care of me. My mind was still hazy as I felt around my pocket, but my cell phone was nowhere to be found.
   —Back there. When we were taken hostage.

   Through the earbud that I had kept in my ear, Ene had never stopped talking to me.
   To be honest, I think she was annoying me far more than that stubble-bearded guy.
   Right after they rounded me up, she was functioning as a sort of off-kilter cheerleader, along the lines of “Ooooh, this isn’t good. Better keep yourself cool, master! I know we can survive this!” But by the second half, when the stubble-bearded man was bearing down on me, she had transformed into a white-hot ball of rage: “Can we kill this guy, master? Can we?! We can, right?!”
   The entire building was under computer control. As long as I could get Ene into the system, it didn’t matter who occupied the control room. It was obvious that no hacker could have outwitted her.
   But amid the hostages, unable to use the camera or talk to me directly, it was really a shock how she could figure out what was going on strictly by audio cues and occupy the whole system in milliseconds. I always thought her head was a little buggy, but I guess she had it more together than I ever knew.

   In a way, I suppose, I’m still alive right now thanks to Ene.
   I was still a little foggy on the details, but I guess I should thank her…I never got to take her to the amusement park, either…
   But if my phone isn’t here, did I leave it in the store? I’m sure she could easily find her way back out, but…
   For now, however, I had best take advantage of this time I suddenly seem to have all to myself.
   Today I think I’ll just sleep all day and—
   “…Where the hell am I?!”
   I shot up in bed and tried to gauge my surroundings.
   “Ah…!”
   I heard a clang, and then I saw her. A girl with long, white, fluffy hair. Was she my nurse or whatever here? Apparently startled by my sudden outburst, she had fallen out of her chair.
   “Oh. Uh…um.”
   “Ah! I-I-I’m sorry!”
   For some reason, she apologized to me. Then, for some other reason, she hid behind the chair.
   Once my head cooled down and I had a grip of the situation, I noticed that my body was almost entirely pain-free.
   I seemed to remember being shot in the stomach…
   “Um…Could I ask who you—”
   “Master, you’re awake?!”
   The moment I tried to speak to her, I heard an incredibly familiar voice. What was less familiar were the three figures that walked through the open door.
   There I saw the cat-eyed man, the guy from the entrance with the purple coat—at the time I’d been sure he was a guy, but upon closer examination she was definitely female—and Momo, my younger sister, holding my cell phone.
   “Oh, master! I’m so glad to see you in good shape! Now we can all go to the amusement park together!”
   Ene, bubbly as always, called to me from the phone speaker.
   “Huh…? Momo? And you? That guy from…Huh?”
   “Ugh, you are so stupid, bro! I was so worried about you! And, Ene, you really can’t expect us to hit the roller coaster after a day like that…”
   Momo and Ene had apparently gotten acquainted with each other. They already sounded like good friends.
   “Um…huh? I guess I wouldn’t mind going, but…Well, first off, what am I —”
   “See? See?! Oh, master, what a rough-and-tough movie hero you are! A real man always sticks to his word! Let’s go! Right now! C’mon!”
   “Hang on, what?” the cat-eyed man chimed in. “People are going to the amusement park? Like, count me in, too! Let’s do it!”
   “W-we’re going out again…?”
   The white-haired girl, still sitting on the floor, seemed startled by the concept.
   “Uh…yeah. Sorry for all the commotion. Luckily that shot only grazed you, so we decided to bring you back here for now. Didn’t want to attract too much attention to ourselves.”
   “W…what?”
   The hooded woman seemed different from before. Especially those eyes.

   “Master! We gotta hurry! The park’s gonna close!”

   There were too many conversations chaotically flying around at once. My brain was over capacity. I decided to stop thinking for a bit.

   “Just…whatever.”

   No rest for the wicked, I suppose. Never should have expected any.
   I was hoping they would let me be for just a little bit longer, but Ene’s pleading high-pitched voice refused to allow me even that.
   I think I probably let a vague kind of half smile cross my lips.

   —The cacophony of cicadas buzzed beyond the window, just as loud today.
   A long, long August 15th was just about to begin.

KAGEROU DAZE I

2020-08-16T15:08:00.010+07:00

My eyes are blinded. In an instant, the world flashes to monochrome. Amid it all, the blue of a clear, cloudless sky, and a red…a red sign, and then…! Those two colors alone, bursting in stark contrast, burning themselves deep into my retinas.

   This sight now spread out before me—what is this?

   The sound of the cicadas’ mindless, frenetic cry stabs into my ears.
   The smell of iron intermingles with your scent.
Every one of my senses pounds directly into my brain, bypassing my consciousness completely.

   A set of tire tracks, burned across the pedestrian crosswalk, along with a line of red, as red as your tiny body. There’s nothing I can do, not now, but when I run to the scene anyway, choking heat sears my eyes, my nose, my head, beating the reality home all the more.
   This isn’t you here.
   This isn’t the girl I was speaking with just now.
   This is just a red lump of something.
   I don’t care what anyone says. This—this isn’t you.

   …Nausea wells up in my throat. My head is killing me. My vision blurs like I’ve opened my eyes underwater, and droplets began to fall, drip by drip, onto the asphalt. They were trickling out, I suppose, from both of my eyes.

   I open my mouth, trying to speak, but I couldn’t hear a single word. Perhaps my voice was drowned out by the cicadas, or perhaps I never made a sound in the first place.

   I have to tell you.
   I had finally just resolved to tell you.
   I have to tell you now.

   The heat haze drifted up from the street, strangely close as it shimmered in the hot air.
   It just hung there, ever present, as if laughing at me, as if trying to come between us.

   Leave us alone. I’m finally about to tell her.
   You can laugh at me all you want later. Just stay out of my way for now.

   I know I’m pretty late on this. I know this could make things weird. But you…

   your kind of selfish attitude
   the way you get violent when someone makes you blush
   the way your hair smelled in the breeze
   everything

   —I loved all of it, and you.

Title: Kagerou Daze, Vol1_ In a Daze
Next: Jinzou Enemy

Kagerou Daze, Vol. 1_ In a Daze

2020-08-16T15:05:00.008+07:00

Copyright

KAGEROU DAZE, Volume 1
JIN (Shizen no Teki-P)

Translation by Kevin Gifford
Cover art by SIDU

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

Kagerou Daze -in a daze© 2012–2014 KAGEROU PROJECT/ 1st PLACE

Edited by BOOKWALKER Co., Ltd.

First published in Japan in 2012 by KADOKAWA CORPORATION ENTERBRAIN.

English translation rights arranged with KADOKAWA CORPORATION, Tokyo. through TUTTLEMORI AGENCY, INC., Tokyo.

English translation © 2015 by Yen Press, LLC.

All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher is unlawful piracy
and theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.

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The Yen On name and logo are trademarks of Yen Press, LLC.
The publisher is not responsible for websites (or their content) that are not owned by the publisher.
First Yen On eBook Edition: May 2015
ISBN: 978-0-316-38468-1
E3-20170111-JV-PC

Cover
Insert
Title Page
Copyright

Afterword
Yen Newsletter

Andry's Trashbin

チューリングラブ

愛言葉Ⅳ

AFTERWORD

Thank you for buying this ebook, published by Yen On.

RETROSPECT FOREST

HEADPHONE ACTOR IV

YUUKEI YESTERDAY III

HEADPHONE ACTOR III

YUUKEI YESTERDAY II

HEADPHONE ACTOR II

YUUKEI YESTERDAY I

HEADPHONE ACTOR I

Kagerou Daze, Vol. 2_ A Headphone Actor

Copyright

TABLE OF CONTENTS

AFTERWORD

Thank you for buying this ebook, published by Yen On.

EPILOGUE

MEKAKUSHI CHORD

KAGEROU DAZE III

KISARAGI ATTENTION

KAGEROU DAZE II

JINZOU ENEMY

KAGEROU DAZE I

Kagerou Daze, Vol. 1_ In a Daze

Copyright

TABLE OF CONTENTS