Hariyama-san, Center of the World 1
Hariyama-san, Center of the Miracles (Genre: "Medley")
2/3
A warehouse under the jurisdiction of the Amida-gumi “Is this really the right warehouse?” In response to the man’s uneasy query, the woman beside him answered immediately. “…Yes, there’s no mistaking it.” Night had long ago fallen here on the outskirts of Tokorozawa. Unlike the town, which was filled with light and the clamor of people, this road was only spa.r.s.ely lined with streetlamps and was completely enveloped in darkness and silence. Within that darkness, several people were lined up in front of a building with a man at their center. Save for this man, all were female, and each and every one of them had a distinctly non-j.a.panese face. If one were to ask which country they were from, even that was not evident from their faces; it would be most accurate to say they were faces with no nationality. “d.a.m.n… why do we have to sneak around like common thieves!? The person truly at fault here is… No, that little girl can’t even be called a person, and she’s living without a care in the world!” “Please calm down.” However, their conversation was unmistakably in j.a.panese, and the phrases the man spoke with an irritated expression were unmistakably those of a j.a.panese. The man somehow calmed down, thanks to the women who seemed to be his subordinates. However, he spat out without bothering to hide his usual sullen expression, “We don’t have records in this country! We’ve even gone so far as working in illegal pubs just to survive! Those young hoodlums worked us to the bone!” “…Though we were the ones who did all the work.” Ignoring the woman’s calm reb.u.t.tal, the man quietly turned to face the warehouse. “…Anyway, this is the right place?” “No, we haven’t been able to confirm it. However, we have concluded that those hooligans hid all of our precious tools within this warehouse. …In addition, we checked the landfill proximate to the Amida-gumi territory, but they are not something that could be discarded there. They are not of a substance that can be incinerated, so there is no need to worry that they have been disposed of in that manner.” “I see… At any rate, we must recover our ‘staffs’ at any cost. Even if they were cut clean in two, they should not have lost their abilities as catalysts of magical power.” Magical power. The man suddenly spoke those words far removed from reality, blurting out something that transcended the ordinary world and veered into the absurd. The context itself was normal enough, but he continued to expand on those words, about something that did not exist anywhere on Earth. “Those staffs are absolutely essential to return to… ∮ … Б£‡∗ … our homeland.” ○★♪☆● A lone young man picked up his cell phone as he observed the strange group from afar. His face and demeanor were still that of a boy, and his bleached hair was covered by a knit cap. A skateboard was leaning against the wall beside him. Wearing an indecipherable smile, he opened his mouth. “Chief~ Chief~ Those guys went into the Amida-gumi’s warehouse.” There was a momentary silence – and then a low voice came from the other end of the line. “…Got it. I thought they were suspicious, but they’re with the Amida-gumi, huh. …They kinda remind me of the brat who blew up the office, so I figured maybe…” “Hey. If the Amida-gumi’s picking up guys from weird countries, maybe they’re, uh, what’s the word? Spies? They’re spies, right? S’what you call ‘em, right? Anyway, maybe that’s what they are. …But, Chief. Did a weird brat seriously jump through the window and blow up the office with bombs? Seriously? She wasn’t just pretending with a gas line break or something?” The youth cackled as he spoke, and the man, his boss, replied on the phone. “If you weren’t such a talented little s.h.i.t, you’d be sinking in Tama Lake for that comment just now. …Anyway, let’s get serious. Grab ‘em the second they step out of that warehouse.” “Got it. …Hup.” With a complete lack of seriousness, the skateboarder man hung up and turned around, smiling brightly. “Okay, time to get to work. We won’t be killing them, but I’m still looking forward to hearing what they’re gonna squeal.” Behind him, a number of youths were lined up in the alleyway as if hiding. One of them had a skateboard in one hand, like the young man who had been on the phone, while his other hand toyed with a long-handled folding knife. The knife-wielding boy cracked his neck and muttered in a slightly dissatisfied voice, “It’s ‘cause we didn’t finish off that Ginjima last time, huh?” “Yeah. That was my bad. Sorry, sorry.” The young man on the phone, who appeared only a little older than the knife-wielding boy, withdrew a black object from his pocket and, smiling, began to reminisce. “I should’ve… shot him right through the head.” ○★♪☆● “If they’re not in this warehouse, that leaves no choice but that mansion…” “Though I want to avoid that at all costs…” The ones conversing uneasily as they trespa.s.sed into the warehouse were the “land of magic”’s warden and his female subordinates. After their clash with the Amida-gumi, they had lost the staffs that acted as catalysts to allow them to perform magic, not to mention their magic itself, and they were even unable to return to their own world. If they didn’t return, other government officials might have realized something was wrong, but if they themselves didn’t use magic, the others would not be able to pinpoint their exact location. Back then, they had sensed Number 893’s magical power and had rushed to come here, leaving only the name of the country of “j.a.pan” in the official doc.u.ments – and so their precise coordinates would not be known to those in the other world. Considering it rationally, it was an unthinkable blunder on the part of the government officials. However, crimes almost never occurred and most problems were solved by magic. It was only natural that they were lacking that sense of caution. In the end, they of unknown nationality were rounded up by one of the touts in town and ended up working at one of the foreigner pubs, but– They withstood it for several weeks. Using the information they had steadily gathered about the Amida-gumi, they finally snuck into this warehouse. “There… There they are!” They couldn’t simply turn on the lights and instead spent a few minutes searching with flashlights. After a short time, one of the women called out, surprising even herself. “What!?” They hadn’t thought they would find what they sought so quickly within the unusually complex warehouse. The black suit-clad “warden” cried out, his voice a mix of surprise and joy. When he rushed over, the guardswoman pulled out a jute bag that had been carelessly tossed atop a shelf. The warden shone his flashlight into the bag. The “staffs” they used really were contained within, but they were still cleaved in two. “Okay… Well? How are they? Can they amplify magic?” At the warden’s words, the guardswoman held the staff for a while, concentrating, but…
“It’s no use… In this state, it can’t even amplify half as much as usual. Spatial translocation is impossible. However, it is possible that it will repair itself, given enough time.” The warden looked slightly dejected at his subordinate’s slow confession. However, he shook his head and decided to look on the bright side. “…I see. But this is good enough for now. We’re fortunate enough that they may repair themselves. All right… on to our next order of business. Isn’t there anything we can use as criminal evidence? If we find anything, we’ll tip off the police as retaliation against that man and Number 893.” He thought up a rather petty revenge, perhaps because he had not grown used to living in the human world. “I still don’t know much about this country’s laws, but it’s probably enough if it comes out they have some kind of drugs or too many weapons…” With that in mind, he cast his gaze over their surroundings and realized there was an axe left atop one of the other shelves. “An axe, huh… There’s nothing else it can be but a lethal weapon.” As he looked at the axe, which had a short blade but a long handle– He opened his mouth to summon the guardswomen searching elsewhere in the warehouse, but– In the next instant, before the man could call out, a sharp scream echoed through the building. “Aaaaaaaaaaaaaah!” “…W-What’s wrong!?” Startled, the warden and the other guardswomen ran toward the source of the scream. The warehouse contained many shelves laid out in a complicated fashion and the scream came from the very back. They opened a door hidden behind the shelves. Before them was one of the guardswomen, who had sunk to the floor, unable to stand. “What is it…?” At the sound of the warden’s voice, the guardswoman, her teeth chattering, squeezed out her words, her gaze never leaving what lay beyond the door. “Uh, um, behind the shelves… I found a hidden door! A-And then, I thought maybe this was the place, so I opened the door and—!” “…?” Without waiting to hear the end of her explanation, the warden shone his flashlight on what lay beyond the door. “…Huh!?” And what he saw was– The figure of a human tied to a chair, agony carved into every inch of his body. “W-Who… is this?” “I-I don’t know!” The person was so covered in wounds that one couldn’t tell at first glance if he was male or female, but it could be deduced from his build that he was male. What was most unusual was that thick chains were wrapped around his body, tied to what seemed to be water pipes that ran through the room, shelves, and stakes driven into the floor. There were also huge burn scars running from his head down his back, and deep wounds from a blade were left on his shoulders and his legs. The bleeding looked to be forcibly stopped with bandages, and gangrene was beginning to set in his injuries. In addition, there were wounds across his body that seemed to be from some kind of torture device. In the darkness, he could be mistaken for a zombie. “A-Anyway, murder is a felony in this country. We found evidence of a much bigger crime than I expected…” Before, the warden had told Number 893 they would “burn the Amida-gumi to death” to torment her, but even though this was a different world, he actually didn’t have the courage, resolve, or motivation to commit murder. He could be infinitely cruel to the praying mantis and the girl born of magic, but he balked when it came to humans. It was in his nature. In the end, he was on the “side of the law” in the land of magic, and when something like this was brought before him, he was more than a little shaken. And then, as if to top off the situation– “Ugh… Ahh, ugh, uhh, ahh…” A faint moan emerged from the mouth of the corpselike man. “!?” “W-Warden! H-H-He’s still alive!?” Even though abnormal events kept unfolding one after another, and even though the warden was surprised that the thing in front of him was not a corpse, deep within his heart, he felt relieved. ‘Is he a debtor or something kidnapped by the Amida-gumi? Or an investigator who infiltrated their group, or maybe someone from an enemy organization?’ In any case, if he was an enemy of the Amida-gumi, he might be of use to them if they healed him or he might provide information. With that in mind, the warden held out the jute bag to his subordinate guardswomen and issued an order. “Good timing… How well are these broken staffs able to amplify magical power? We’ll try casting healing magic on this man. …Let’s try having four of us each hold one staff fragment and combine our magic. We may be able to output approximately the original power of one staff.” However… there was something they did not consider. The possibility that the man in front of them was even more dangerous than the Amida-gumi or Number 893. To them, the Amida-gumi were law-breaking evildoers. They believed healing and releasing the Amida-gumi’s enemy would be to their advantage only because they were from the “land of magic”, where crimes were few to begin with. In any case, using a power foreign to this world, the warden and his companions healed the body of the man still bound by chains, who was beyond the ability of modern medicine to treat. And then— The man silently opened his eyes. The serial killer who had once plunged the city into terror opened his eyes. Along with a greater madness than ever before, fed by the pain and fear imposed on him during his punishment by the Amida-gumi. Along with a healed, abnormally strong body, forged by the melding together of warped magical power— ○★♪☆● “Got it? Pin ‘em down as soon as the door opens. There are four women and one man. It’ll be easy, huh?” Laughing lightly, the young man with the gun gave orders to the youths who stood around the entrance to the warehouse. The boy with the knife continued to spin it around expressionlessly, but the other youths surrounded the entrance with no wasted movements, quieted down, and listened to what was going on inside the building. At first glance, they appeared to be behaving normally, but the atmosphere around them clearly differed from that of respectable people, and their eyes gleamed as if in antic.i.p.ation of bloodshed. And thus they would again complete their job without any mercy or hesitation. Someone might end up dying in the end, but their orders were not to kill, just to capture the five, and so there was no need for guilt. As the gun-wielding youth looked at his subordinates, he was convinced that they would be able to complete this job without any problems. However – at that moment, his conviction was destroyed by a thunderous roar. GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAOoooooooooaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAOOOOOoooooooooooAAAAAAAAAAAAAAoooooooo At first he thought it was a siren or something, but it was undoubtedly a human voice. It was a shout that did not contain anger, sadness, or fear. An unnatural shriek resounded from within the warehouse, someone screaming emotionlessly at the top of his lungs, so loudly it could be heard dozens of feet away. “What was that!?” The shrieks became disjointed as they drew closer to the entrance of the warehouse and ceased completely several meters away, enveloping them in a brief silence. It was no longer a situation in which they could afford to relax. The young man withdrew his gun from his pocket and prepared himself to fire shots into the warehouse at any moment. The knife boy also lightly gripped the knife he had been toying with and halted a little ways away from the rest of the group, as if observing the situation. However, their goal had not changed. They just had to capture the people who emerged from the entrance by any means necessary. The youths held their breaths as the tension mounted and concentrated all of their senses on the door, the only exit to the warehouse. And then – “he” leapt out, as if to ridicule them. Not from the door – but from the adjacent wall, smashing through it from inside the warehouse. “!?” Before the youths could adjust their stances, “he” who had leapt out from inside swung his arms wildly. In the next moment, red liquid splattered against the wall, painting it with an expanse of red dots. “Aaaaaaaah!?” One of the youths who had surrounded the entrance screamed. His sleeves were rolled up; there was blood gushing uncontrollably from one of his arms. “He” did not flinch at the spurt of blood; rather, it was as if the sight of blood only spurred him on, and “he” swung his arms even faster. At the same moment, another youth screamed, and a new pattern of dots was painted across the wall. The youths with the gun and the knife, watching from a slight distance, were able to calmly a.n.a.lyze the appearance of the man who had jumped out of the warehouse. He was clad in tattered rags and was not of large build. They couldn’t make out his face through the darkness of the night and his wild movements, but they knew what he held in his hand. It was an axe with a long handle, such as could be bought at a home improvement center. A strong person would wield it with both hands for outdoor activities, but the man in front of them was using it as a weapon against them. They didn’t know why such a person had come out from inside the warehouse. He was clearly different from the people who had entered, and they couldn’t a.s.sume that he had been using the warehouse. What was certain was that the shriek from before had come from this man. And that at this rate, their panicked subordinates would be completely annihilated. The young man with the gun and the boy with the knife reached this conclusion at the same time and immediately took action, so as to complete the job a.s.signed to them. The boy stepped up beside the axe man, weaving through a momentary opening, and gouged the man’s side with his knife while his arms were raised overhead. The axe man’s movements stopped for a second, and without missing a beat, the young man fired off several shots from where he stood a short distance away. There was no time to attach a silencer, and the loud bangs of gunfire echoed into the night sky. Several bullets embedded themselves in the axe man’s back; each time a red hole was drilled into him, his body shuddered, the axe still held aloft. OOOOOOoooooooooaaaaaaaAAAAAaaaOOOOOOOooooooooAAAAAAAAAAAooooooooooOOOOOOOoooo— Still, the man did not fall. They thought he would scream just as he had before, when— He glared at the young man with the gun and the boy with the knife as if memorizing their faces and disappeared into the night with startling vigor, moving with a speed that surpa.s.sed human limits. In addition to the way he had previously broken through the wall, the young man with the gun was so dumbfounded at the man’s physical prowess that he even forgot to give chase. The knife boy checked on the youths who had been cut by the axe, but it seemed none had died instantly. He glanced at the youth with the gun, as if to ask whether they should call an ambulance or treat them themselves, but— As he twirled his gun, the corners of the young man’s mouth were more twisted than before – he was smiling. “Well, ain’t this fun?” “…Bro?” It was unclear they were really brothers or whether it was an honorary t.i.tle. In any case, the young man with the gun smiled at the knife boy who addressed him as an older brother, as if truly enjoying himself. “Listen up. We were just pa.s.sing by here. But one of those Amida-gumi b.a.s.t.a.r.ds jumped out of their warehouse – suddenly started swinging an axe around, cut down our friends, and ran off. Even though we didn’t do anything.” The boy held his silence, perhaps understanding what the young man was saying, and once again began to spin the knife in his hand. “We’ve got an excuse for Chief and Boss. An’ just like that, we’ve got the perfect setup to get revenge on the Amida-gumi… on Ginjima, right? …The guys in the group can do what they want with that. Yeah, and that axe guy… Well, just leave him for now.” ○★♪☆● Tokorozawa, a certain back alley ‘I sense it. Close, close, really close by. A little, just a little more. ‘Great G.o.d Nambaja.’ ‘After I left the island… I saw it on the news. Hikarijima… To think such a thing would happen on Hikarijima… They said everyone’s disappeared, but they’ve just been kidnapped, right? Isn’t that right? Great G.o.d Nambaja. ‘Letmuj’s demons are here in this city. We will clash at night. I – and the seeds of darkness that have taken root in the world. ‘Please. Please give me strength. Please give me the strength to save the world… everyone on the island, and my mother and father. ‘No, just one person is enough… Even if it’s just Shouma… please give me the power to save him. ‘…I know I’m asking something incredibly greedy. I’m prioritizing the safety of one person over world peace. But… but! Oh, please, forgive me one selfish act, just this once. Great G.o.d Nambaja.’ As she soliloquized, the girl – Maya Isojima – ran through the night. However, to the girl, her soliloquy was a full-fledged conversation with the great G.o.d Nambaja. But to anyone else, the G.o.d named Nambaja was nothing but complete and utter nonsense. The first time she heard the G.o.d’s voice, she had already begun to realize that something abnormal was happening within her. It was on that night she wrote a letter to a boy, her childhood friend… Shouma, to whom she had not confessed her feelings. The moment she had heard the G.o.d’s voice, she truly awakened. Just as if everything that had happened to her up to now had been a dream, she had felt that “saving the world was her duty,” mingled with a sense of doubt; it was carved into her heart just as if it had been her destiny from even before the moment of her birth. Along with imaginary memories of her past life. And now the G.o.d’s voice was echoing within her mind, just as it had back then. “Take hold of your blade of light. Cleave through and purify the magic of Letmuj, the darkness that leads people astray and obscures the light, in every age that has pa.s.sed and every age to come.” The decree was quite roundabout and difficult to understand, but Maya understood perfectly what it was that she was meant to do. She sensed the presence of darkness close by. She would use every last ounce of her strength to repel the darkness waiting in these alleys. ‘Even if it costs me my life.’ At about the same time as she confirmed her resolve, she was able to determine the exact location of the darkness. If she turned at the next corner, she would find herself in an alley containing no signs of life. The buildings on either side might have been factories or might have been something else. There was no way anyone other than herself would be walking around here. ‘Shouma… I have to save Shouma…’ As the G.o.d’s voice resounded in her head and brought back the “memories of her past life”, Maya’s memories of living on the island and the memories of all her experiences had immediately been locked away in a corner of her mind. Even so, she could still clearly remember the face of the boy she had gotten along with in her childhood. The boy who had risked his own life to save her when she had been attacked by a stray dog. Maya had become a hero who would save the world. If Maya was the world’s hero, then her own hero was none other than Shouma. ‘Shouma… Please, give me strength—’ She rounded the corner, imagining his face – and there, her punishment awaited. The G.o.d Nambaja brought divine punishment upon her, who had dared to ask some other being to grant her power. Whether it was by design or sheer coincidence, no one would ever know. When she turned the corner, what she saw straight ahead, in the alley illuminated by streetlamps, was— ○★♪☆● Blood sprayed out under the streetlamps. Several kilometers away from the heart of the city, in a back alley halfway between the woods and the residential areas, Shouma Zakojima smashed in a man’s head with an iron pipe. The first blow was a direct hit right above his eyes, and as the body bent back and turned over, he delivered the next blow to the back of the head facing him. After that was easy. Shouma struck the other man’s temple with the folded end of the iron pipe as he lay collapsed on the ground. He didn’t give him time to shield his head with his hands or crouch facedown. Of course, it seemed he had already sustained a concussion from the first blow: the “hero” was no longer moving. Even so, Shouma continued to swing the iron pipe. OverAnd overAnd overAnd overAnd over and over andoverandoverandover He swung down the iron pipe rhythmically. Each time a dull thump rang out, red liquid splattered across the rusted silver surface, until it was no longer recognizable as an iron pipe. Finally the thumping sounds became squishing sounds, and the “hero”, who had collapsed face-up, stopped breathing. Once he was completely sure that his opponent was dead, Shouma let the iron pipe hang lifelessly toward the ground. As he stood under the streetlamps, covered in the back spatter of blood, Shouma silently looked down at the body and pondered. What would he do with the corpse? Should he hide it? ‘It doesn’t need to stay hidden until morning.’ The boy mulled over the same questions as always as he slowly ran his eyes across the body. ‘It’s fine as long as it isn’t found overnight.’ The boy considered such strange things and reached out, thinking of carrying the body to the woods nearby. In that instant, Shouma heard footsteps behind him. They were a little ways away, but the moment the footsteps stopped, he heard someone breathing hard. They had most likely run here and stopped the moment they turned the corner. ‘Who is it? A civilian? No, there shouldn’t be anyone jogging here at this time of night.’ He tried to figure out the other person’s ident.i.ty without turning around. Normally he would be able to feel the aura of Hikarijima, but right now the corpse at his feet still clogged the air with the scent of Hikarijima and he couldn’t tell for sure. If they were a normal person, he should just run away without showing his face, right? But if they were a new “hero” – then he had to finish them off right here and now. The moment he decided he had to wait for them to react, the intruder yelled so quickly there was really no need to wait. It was the speech of a hero, loud and majestic. “…Hold it right there! Evil demon of Letmuj! In the name of Nambaja, tonight you shall return to the void from whence you came!” ‘? ‘? !? ‘? …!? ??!!?!??!?!???!?!??!??!?!!?!??!??! ‘!!??!?!?!??!?!?!??!?!?!??!?!’ In a single instant, his heart was thrown into confusion. He stood still as if time had frozen. First the voice had a.s.saulted his ears. Then the word Nambaja, which he couldn’t forget even if he wanted to, had reached his eardrums. And then – it had shown clear hostility towards him, but the moment he heard that voice, everything else ceased to affect him. It really took just a moment. Tears spilled from his eyes before he even understood what was going on in his own heart. His vision immediately blurred, reflecting the twinkle twinkle twinkle of the streetlamps, and his world filled with dazzling light. The next thing he knew, the iron pipe had fallen to the ground with a clatter. His sole weapon left his hand, rolling to a stop against the head of the “hero” he had just killed a moment ago. But he no longer cared about any of that. Or that his childhood friend had slandered him and called him a demon. Or even that the girl might kill him after this. He turned around. Slowly, slowly, so as not to break this moment, even if it was nothing but a dream. Silently, the boy turned and looked at the girl – Maya Isojima – with tears streaming down his face. “Finally…. We finally meet, Maya.” “Huh…?” When she saw the face illuminated by the streetlamps, Maya froze for a moment. The voice that called her name was familiar, an unforgettable reverberation. And the face that had given voice to those words – it was a face damp with tears, the face of the “hero” that she had been imagining not long ago. In the next moment, her heart accelerated. Maybe, if this had been Hikarijima— The girl would have rushed over to him, tears streaming down her own face, and said with her very best smile, “I’m home.” Maybe, if she did not sense the evil aura emanating from his body— She would have confessed her feelings for him frankly. Maybe, if there had not been a b.l.o.o.d.y corpse lying at his feet—
She would have held his hand tightly. So that she would feel the warmth of a human. So that she would feel with her own hands the proof that Shouma was alive and well. Only the reality laid out before her pierced through and shattered the girl’s heart. “Shou…ma?” Her voice was shaky. The girl realized that her whole body was trembling, not just her voice. She was completely unable to accept the reality she was presented with. However, the girl was not even given the time to hesitate. [Destroy him.] As if to forcibly coerce the confused girl, the “G.o.d” telepathically instructed her in an emotionless voice. Firmly, firmly, more forcefully than ever before. At the same time, she felt the dark aura from Shouma’s body grow even more p.r.o.nounced. It was as if it was responding to the G.o.d’s voice echoing within her heart alone. [Destroy him and the world will be freed from darkness.] ‘Wait, please wait, Great G.o.d Nambaja. What… What is the meaning of this!?’ However, the voice only repeated the same words and made no response to her question. ‘Maybe the boy in front of me is an imposter.’ Just now, she had been imagining Shouma’s face. Maybe the demon had read her mind and a.s.sumed that form to appear before her. Even as she hoped that was it, Maya was completely puzzled by the tears running down his cheeks. Was he under a spell? In that case, would she be able to break it? Maybe Shouma, who had been spirited away from the island, was just being manipulated? Maya formulated several possibilities and courses of action, but she was forgetting an important fact. No, it might have been more accurate to say she had completely rejected the idea. ‘If he… If Shouma really is a demon. ‘If Shouma was the one who kidnapped everyone on the island.’ She once again found herself unable to consider the explanation that should have been the first to come to mind. [Now, cleave through and purify the earth sullied by the avatar of darkness and bring light to the world.] But the G.o.d’s voice bore down upon her heart even more strongly, as if to scold her. [Bring light bring light bring light bring light bring light bring light bring light bring light bring light bring light bring light bring light bring light bring light bring light bring light bring light bring light bring light bring light bring light bring light bring light bring light bring light bring light bring light bring light bring light bring light bring light bring light bring light bring light bring light bring light bring light bring light bring light bring light bring light light light light light light light light light light light light light light light light light light light light light light light light light light light light light light light light light light light light light light light light light light light light light light light light light light light light light light light light light light light light light light light light light light—] It was no longer anything but noise. The noise echoed through her whole body to destroy her heart, which doubted the G.o.d’s words. As if noticing her distress, the thing in front of her which had taken Shouma’s form wiped at his tears with both hands and quietly began to speak. “…Oh, finally… You’ve finally come, Maya.” The voice she had wanted to hear. The smile she had wanted to see. All of it was right in front of her, but instead, it terrified and bemused her. “The fruit knife you’re holding… Is that your holy sword, Maya?” The boy took a step closer to her as he murmured in a quiet voice. The aura he emanated and the confusion within her escalated, and Maya jumped back without thinking. “Don’t… Don’t come any closer!” “…” “You… W-Who are you? You look like Shouma, but… you’re not Shouma! Because, when I left the island, I didn’t feel such an evil aura from Shouma…! And… And Shouma would never kill anyone!” Rather than making the logical conclusion from the situation before her, Maya’s voice as she spoke was laden with her own hopes. As if to fashion them into the truth, and – praying that the real Shouma was still safe. “You’ve taken Shouma’s form and intend to kill me, right…? How… Just how many humans have you killed with that same trick…!? …You killed that man there the same way, didn’t you!? By changing into someone important to him… like the way you look to me now!” Faced with his childhood friend who spouted words even she could not have believed, Shouma smiled quietly. And then he withdrew an envelope from his pocket and held it out toward her. The envelope was familiar to her. But she had completely forgotten about the existence of the envelope until just now. Just before she had heard the G.o.d’s voice, she had written out her feelings in a letter to Shouma and placed it inside that envelope. Why did I forget about it until now? Why did I even write those things to begin with? I questioned the great G.o.d Nambaja. Even though Nambaja has always watched over and protected us, even in our past lives. ‘But what I wrote in that letter… My feelings toward Shouma haven’t changed…’ Though she once again affirmed the feelings she harbored toward her childhood friend, she felt a chill run through her at the fact that the letter was held by the evil before her. The thought crossed her mind: it couldn’t be. What if the evil in front of her really was Shouma, in the flesh? “…You know, I… read this letter.” As if reading her mind, the boy slowly began to speak. His eyes were filled with something akin to regret, or perhaps it was pity for Maya. “But… sorry. It was already too late when I read it… So I wasn’t able to carry out your request, Maya.” Not understanding what he meant, Maya recalled the details of what she had written in the letter. The moment a certain line came to mind, a sudden anxiety welled up within her. And the evil slowly spoke up, as if to give life to that anxiety. “Maya, your father and mother are already—” “Stop! Are you—are you still trying to confuse me!? Where… where is the real Shouma!?” “…I am the real Shouma. But… I’ve become the evil you’re talking about. …No, maybe I should say I was made into it. By… that Hikarijima.” Maya didn’t drop her guard at the evil’s strange words, instead holding the small knife at the ready. But she was unable to bring herself to charge toward the wide-open evil and instead continued to listen to him speak with a serious expression. But that calmness came to an end with his next words. “Ever since… the old man… Ever since I killed your father, Maya.” “—!” Killed. The corpse at his feet lent an inarguable reality to that absurd word. Maya’s body froze up for just an instant, and then, her eyes blank, she opened her mouth. “…You’re lying.” ‘No. No no no. There’s no way this is Shouma! It can’t be Shouma! This guy – everything he says is a lie!’ “I’m not lying. I killed your father, Maya. And I’m the real… no, it doesn’t matter if I’m a fake. It’s not really related to this. And, your mother… she’s probably… dead too–” “Stooooooop!” Lies lies lies lies lies lies lies lies lies lies lies lies lies lies lies lies lies lies lies lies lies lies lies lies lies lies lies lies lies lies lies lies lies lies lies lies lies lies lies lies lies [Bring light bring light bring light bring light bring light bring light bring light bring light bring light bring light bring light bring light bring light bring light bring light bring light bring light bring light bring light bring light bring light bring light bring light bring light bring light bring light bring light bring light bring light bring light bring light bring light bring light bring light bring light bring light bring light bring light bring light bring light bring light] Lies lies lies lies lies lies lies lies lies lies lies lies lies lies lies lies lies lies lies lies lies lies lies lies lies lies lies lies lies lies lies lies lies lies lies lies lies lies lies lies [Light light light light light light light light light light light light light light light light light light light light light light light light light light light light light light light light light light light light light light light light] Lies [light] lies [light] lies [light] lies [light] lies [light] lies [light] lies [light] [light] lies [light] lies [light] lies [light] lies [light] lies [light] lies [light] lies The G.o.d’s warped voice fell into sync with her own heart and twisted her disarrayed thoughts in one particular direction. However, it did nothing but return her to her previous goal. “Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!” Maya raised her voice, which was incredibly weak compared to the other hero’s – and pointed the knife in her hand and charged straight forward. The “demon” made no attempt to avoid it, spreading his arms wide and awaiting her arrival. But Maya’s eyes were already shut tight as she charged and she could no longer see the figure of her old friend. Just when it seemed the short blade would be plunged into his chest, the demon murmured with a gentle smile: “Ah… so this… will end it.” However… those words were swallowed up by a moan from behind him. “Wo…man…” In the next instant, the demon sensed the weak aura behind him. It was not a hero. Shouma could not sense the aura of a hero. But it was an aura distinct from that of a human. When he’d left Hikarijima, the strange “power” he’d sensed in this town… A sharp, heavy power, similar to the one that had made him come to this town, flared up behind him. “…Huh?” The moment he spoke, the demon was swept sideways and sent flying. Hearing the sound of the attack, Maya opened her eyes without thinking– “Wooooooomaaaaaaaaaaan.” Shouma’s figure, which had been standing before her up until now, had vanished – and in his place, she saw a ghastly man who looked nothing like Shouma, facing her and raising an axe high into the air. ‘Oh, good.’ As she looked at the line of silver heading towards her, Maya only smiled vacantly. ‘I knew it… That just now was only a fake Shouma.’ Carried forward by momentum, the girl was unable to stop. And as if the body struck by the axe was his own– “Mayaaaaaaaaaaaaa!” The boy’s scream and the spurt of blood from the girl’s body simultaneously whirled through the back alley. ○★♪☆● A certain place in Tokorozawa, Amida-gumi residence The axe man had fled. Upon receiving that report, Ginjima had mobilized the members of the Amida-gumi in pursuit of the axe man. “d.a.m.n… the h.e.l.l is this?” Ginjima mulled over what they would do now as he stood on standby in the Amida-gumi mansion on the outskirts of Tokorozawa. ‘We really should’ve ended it fast…’ The axe man had concealed himself in Shibazato’s home and gone after his life. Shibazato and the others had caught him, and after that they had punished him “just a little bit” in one of their warehouses and looked into his background a bit. But when Ginjima had met him, he did not have the mental capacity to talk straight, whether he’d been that way from the beginning or if it was the result of experiencing such pain and fear. There was the possibility that he was one of the Marubatsu-gumi’s men, but what came to mind was the demonic serial killer that had been stirring up the town lately. He fit the criterion of carrying an axe, and more importantly, if he was a hitman, there would be no sense in him hiding underneath the bed. But if he really was the serial killer – on top of doing as he pleased on their turf, he’d gone so far as to lift a hand against one of their group. In any case, they couldn’t just let him go or hand him over to the police. To begin with, when Ginjima had arrived, Shibazato and the others had inflicted unreasonable “restraints” on him, far beyond simple self-defense. If they’d handed him over to the police, it wouldn’t have been clear who the wrong-doer was. It would’ve been a different story if they’d had concrete evidence that the man was a serial killer. In any case, they took Ginjima’s stance: “…The leader hasn’t got much time left, so I wanna keep this b.l.o.o.d.y matter away from him.” They kept him confined and took a wait-and-see approach for the time being, but to think he still had the strength to escape. Gangrene was setting into his legs; they’d thought he wouldn’t even be able to walk. ‘This’s turned into a huge pain in the a.s.s.’ As he pondered over their current situation, Ginjima regretted not putting an end to the axe man immediately. He had hesitated to outright kill him not just because of their leader, but also because he was trying to go straight and selfishly didn’t want to dirty his own hands. Every time he wanted to kill, the face of a certain girl came to mind. It was not the face of his fiancée, the daughter of their leader. She had long ago stepped into this world and was prepared to kill or be killed. Rather, the one he thought of was the girl for whom he had decided to go straight. The one who had fallen from the sky and called herself a “magical girl” – it was the face of the gla.s.ses-wearing girl who was now his daughter. “…Ah, d.a.m.n. So in the end it turned out like this, huh…” It wasn’t only that he’d been set loose. In the end, it was possible that his daughter would be exposed to danger. She’d gone over to play at a friend’s house; worried, he’d given them a call, and that friend’s parent would drive her back to the mansion. In any case, relieved that his daughter was safe, Ginjima mulled over the current situation. Upon learning that gunshots had been heard, some of the gang members had hastened to the warehouse, only to find it already surrounded by police, with countless men being taken away by ambulance. Long ago, it would’ve been trouble had the police investigated that warehouse, but now that the group’s finances were in decline, all of those things should have been disposed of. But it would be slightly troublesome if the police discovered the bloodstains in that hidden room. They used to get in a lot of trouble like this, but with their current lack of power, hushing it up would be a pain. For now, the man who was acting as that warehouse’s temporary owner told the police, “The warehouse hasn’t been used much recently, but it seems like some suspicious guys move in and out of it at night.” In truth, it was no secret that that warehouse was under the control of the Amida-gumi, but it was also true that they hadn’t used it recently. They’d even thought about renting it out to pull in a bit more money. ‘Who’s been there lately who wasn’t guarding or torturing or looking after the axe man… Oh, maybe when we tossed in those land of magic guys’ staffs?’ That day, after he’d cut through all the staffs and driven the enemy away, they were unsure whether to burn or throw away those tools from the “land of magic”, so for now, they’d tossed them in the warehouse. But the police weren’t fools either. It would be impossible to pin everything on imaginary delinquents trespa.s.sing in the warehouse. The phone in his pocket rang as he thought up ways to dodge the question of the hidden room. “Hey, Boss.” The voice coming through the phone was that of a young group member. It sounded like the skinhead. “Masa? What is it?” “From what I hear, when the police got here, there were five people of unknown ethnicity leaving the warehouse who panicked and ran off. Apparently they didn’t look j.a.panese at all…” “…Five people? And foreigners… There’s a lot of kinds, you know, like Arabs and Chinese.” “Uhh, but it seems like they were Caucasians. But their hair and eye color and stuff were weird.” A certain group surfaced in Ginjima’s mind at Masa’s words. To confirm it, he turned toward the receiver, and wearing a serious expression, he uttered a single order. “The crime scene investigators with the police… Get them to check if the jute bag on the very last shelf on the left side is gone.” “Looks like it’ll be hard to work with them… We’ll manage somehow. So what’s in the bag?” “…Staffs like Summer’s ‘Piriolim’. …Well, if the cops ask, just tell ‘em they’re toys Sis really loved as a kid.” With that said, he hung up and waited impatiently for the reports of the group members scattered across the city to search for the axe man. However, he didn’t have long to wait. The moment he placed the phone on the desk, the ringtone went off. It was a different person: the phone number was that of the crew cut man, one of their high-ranking members. When he pushed the “call” b.u.t.ton and heard the other man’s tense voice, Ginjima braced himself and listened closely to what he had to say. “This is Shibazato.” “What is it?” “…Right now I’m in one of the back alleys near the cemetery… I heard a weird scream, so I got excited and rushed in… and found them.” “That axe b.a.s.t.a.r.d!?” Ginjima was prepared to hear some good news, but the answer he received could not have been any worse. “No, there’s no one here but the victims.” “What…? Victims?” “A kid and a salaryman. The kid’s a girl, and… how do I say it. I dunno if they were meeting secretly in this alley or something, but the guy’s face is beaten to a pulp. He’s dead. The girl’s shoulder’s cut open… but it doesn’t look very deep.” Dead. Upon hearing those words, Ginjima’s grip tightened on the phone. He deduced that innocent people had become casualties, but even so, Ginjima kept his mouth shut and did not lose his cool. It was not just because his moral compa.s.s was not that strong, but also that he realized with a growing sense of guilt that the situation was only getting worse. Ginjima kept listening to his subordinate’s report to confirm the details, and Shibazato continued in an even tenser voice. “…There was another kid, a boy, but he… he went chasing after the axe man and disappeared.” “Huh? What do you mean?” “No… I don’t really get it, but when we reached the alley where we heard the scream, that axe b.a.s.t.a.r.d and the kid were fighting… When I ran up, the axe b.a.s.t.a.r.d ran away really d.a.m.n fast… He was so fast I couldn’t believe he was even human. But I was sure I mangled the tendons in his legs…” Shibazato spoke without even trying to hide his frustration, but soon enough his tone reverted and he resumed speaking. “So when that kid saw me, he yelled, ‘Please, call an ambulance for her…!’ and went chasing off after the axe b.a.s.t.a.r.d. ‘Course, two other guys with me went after him, but… putting aside the brat, dunno if they can catch up with the axe b.a.s.t.a.r.d… We’ve got one other guy still here.” “…I see. Got it… Call an ambulance from a pay phone. Don’t use your cell. It’s the worst possible timing for them to find out the Amida-gumi were first on the scene…” “Was there a pay phone around here?” “If there isn’t, drive them to a hospital and get lost before anyone notices you.” He stopped just short of saying “leave them there”, but that was Ginjima’s… or rather, the group’s kindness showing through. On the one hand, Shibazato felt disgusted; this was why their group was in decline. But he remembered his much younger sister, smiled brightly, and responded with just a single word: “Yes.” Ginjima thought as he hung up the phone. What in the world was happening around them? To begin with, the axe man shouldn’t even have been able to move. And yet his movements were now better than before, to the point that he could be called “superhuman”. What was this all about? To begin with, who had set the axe man free? They’d said a number of youngsters were taken away by ambulance, but why had they been by the warehouse so late at night? As all the information swirled about in his mind, Ginjima worried over the group of men and women who had seemed to be foreigners. If they really were the people from the land of magic from before, then it was possible that Summer would also become involved in this incident. His fists clenched tighter and tighter as he recalled the face of his absent daughter. And within his solid fists, stronger than anyone’s, he felt his own powerlessness. ○★♪☆● Just before she woke up from the pain of her wound, Maya had a dream. What she had seen just before she lost consciousness became a dream and repeated within her mind. After she had been cut by the axe-wielding demon and pain ran through her whole body – a human figure had leapt at the demon who had cut her. That figure’s yell reached her ears. “Maya.” It had called her name. She knew that the voice was unmistakably Shouma’s. It was the same voice as the demon that had a.s.sumed Shouma’s name and form. However, she felt that this was truly Shouma’s voice. It was because Shouma had been fighting. He had been fighting desperately with a discarded pole against a larger opponent, one wielding an axe many, many times more lethal than her own holy sword. It actually wasn’t discarded, but an iron pipe he had prepared, but the truth had been distorted in her dream and was recorded in her memories as reality. Most of it was faithful to reality, which only engraved that lie even deeper upon her heart. ‘Oh. It’s the same. ‘It’s the same as when I was attacked by that dog. Shouma… Shouma saved me. ‘Shouma really is… my hero.’ The moment she thought that, her faded consciousness was brought back to reality by the pain running through her whole body. For a while she didn’t know what had happened, but she seemed to be sitting in some sort of seat, still gripping the knife in her hand. Her eyes picked up the interior of a car she’d never seen before. …No, to be more precise, Maya remembered. She had been brought to this car before she completely lost consciousness. When she looked outside, she found they were on the premises of a mansion somewhere. When she noticed that, she began to recall exactly what had happened in her dream and in reality. ‘After I was cut, they took me to this car…’ Just when her consciousness returned, she heard the voices of two men having a conversation outside. “Hey, wait, Shibazato. What were you thinking, bringing her here? Huh?” “Nothing we could do about it, Boss. The b.i.t.c.h held a knife to her own neck, was going on and on about the hospital and the police being full of enemies… She was yelling that she’d rather kill herself than get killed by the demon at the hospital, so we didn’t really…” ‘That’s right. I was hurt and the man with the crew cut came and saved me… But he was saying he’d take me to the hospital… No, no. The hospital and the police have already fallen under the influence of Letmuj’s monsters. So I absolutely can’t go there.’ It seemed she had displayed a deep suspicion of the medical and public facilities. Of course, if the police had known she was from Hikarijima, things would take a completely different turn and she would be relentlessly questioned. It would be the same at the hospital. On top of that, she could well imagine what would happen if she told them, “I must swiftly dispatch of Letmuj’s demons on the Great G.o.d Nambaja’s orders.” Now that she had completely returned to her senses, she noticed something unsettling by her feet. She remembered that the floor of the car had seemed abnormally high, and when she looked down, she found the body of a man kneeling by her feet. “Ahh…” At the sight of the lifeless hunk of flesh, she started to scream, but she immediately remembered that it was her own fault he had been taken along. At the same time, she could hear the argument continuing from right beside the car. Rather than calling it an argument, it seemed more like a reprimand and a lot of excuses in reply. “…Even if she made you do it, why’d you have to bring the corpse along!? The police will be here soon, you know!?” “That’s what I thought too! But that b.i.t.c.h was saying things like ‘He might still be alive’ and ‘We can’t just abandon one of Letmuj’s holy warriors…’” “Huh? What’s a holy warrior…” “No, well, I thought it was stupid too… but then I remembered Nacchan.” The crewcut man was making awkward excuses to the dreadful man with the long scar running across his face. However, the moment the crewcut man uttered the word “Nacchan,” the dreadfulness of that scarred face relaxed for an instant. As she wondered why that was, Maya concentrated on the collapsed body at her feet. Right, even if he was dead, it was possible that his soul would return and grant him life through the divine grace of the Great G.o.d Nambaja. The inconvenient G.o.d continued to transmit their voice into her mind. And yet, with not a shred of spite toward that G.o.d, only faith, she decided to pray for the resurrection of the man before her. But the moment she looked at the man’s body again, preparing to offer up a prayer– “Anyway, the problem is how we get rid of it now. Let’s take the knife from the kid and get her to the hospital—” “No… noooooo!” At about the same time as Ginjima regained his composure and muttered, a scream came from within the car. Wondering what had happened, they opened the back door of the car – and there was the girl, looking down with her hand covering her mouth, shaking. Was she screaming at the body? That was what Ginjima thought for a moment, but when he looked at the corpse, he realized that didn’t seem to be the case. A clear change was coming over the body, which shouldn’t have been moving at all. “…What?” The corpse crammed between the seats looked unnaturally dark. No, to be more specific, the clothes were the same, but it looked like some sort of shadow was dyeing the exposed skin. Even as Ginjima watched, the shadow swiftly spread across the man’s skin– In the next instant, it was as if a faint particle of light had shot into the air. The body, swallowed by shadows and completely smooth, was unable to bear its own weight and crumbled. To Ginjima, it was as if the man’s body was smashed into small pieces: the dancing particles scattered and disappeared like fireworks, dissolving into the air. Left behind were only the clothes, shoes, and wrist.w.a.tch the man had been wearing. The silver lump rolling near where his head had been was most likely a tooth filling. Most unsettling was that the blood plastered thick across his clothes, the proof that he had existed, had completely vanished. “…What happened?” Ginjima murmured as if to himself and knitted his eyebrows, but the girl sitting in the back seat seemed to be in shock. “What… happened? Is this… also part of Letmuj’s magic!?” The girl trembled violently as she muttered such strange words. She was probably around sixteen years old. Ginjima hesitated, unsure whether he should speak to her – but with perfect timing, the cell phone in his pocket rang. He considered ignoring it, but he decided the matter of the axe man was more important right now, and he walked a little ways away from the car and pushed the call b.u.t.ton. “This is bad, Boss.” “…? What is it?” The voice he heard through the phone receiver was that of the skinhead, Masa. Ginjima thought it would be information about the jute bag, but his voice was laced with unusually strong anxiety. “The axe b.a.s.t.a.r.d cut down some pretty young guys, right?” “Yeah… did they die?” If someone died, the situation would become even more serious; Ginjima guessed that was what Masa was referring to when he said it was “bad”. But the “badness” of which Masa spoke was completely different from what Ginjima imagined. “Seems like they were guys from the Marubatsu-gumi.” “…!” At that moment, he felt a sharp pain from the stab wound in his back and the gunshot wound in his stomach. As Ginjima digested thos