3 After school.
I was on the way to the second-year cla.s.s by myself.
As expected, she"s not here……
『——I guess. 』
Both me and Balor look into the cla.s.sroom, only to sigh out a disappointed voice.
This is the cla.s.s belonged to Emily Van Brad before her body got took over by Osiris.
I notice some people peeking through from the cla.s.sroom.
It piqued my interest, however since it"s too much trouble for its worth, I decided to leave the place quickly.
I suspected there is a possibility that Osiris is going to school but turn out it"s nothing more than a fool errand.
Well, I never really place my hope from the beginning.
I only drop by at this place by occasion.
This time, I bring my foot towards the third-year cla.s.sroom.
"Leon."
After I found the person that I"m looking for, I called out for him.
Leon heard my voices and steered his face this way.
When he saw my face, he quickly took out his notepad.
Perhaps, he might be wondering "who" this person is.
"……Shinzen Raika!"
Leon raised his face after a while and waved his hand with a smile.
I entered the third-year cla.s.sroom after heeding his permission.
Our exchange gathered the surrounding gaze.
"Leon. Do you mind?"
"Yeah. Sure."
Leon nods and stand up.
We avoided the stares and head to the roof.
The wind is blowing strongly on the rooftop after school.
I combed through my bang with my fingers, and then looked back at Leon who was following from behind.
"First, let me thank you for yesterday"s case. Thanks to Leon, I was able to save Maria. Thank you."
"Yesterday……?"
Leon"s limbs jolted, and he proceeds to open his notebook.
"……Yeah. Yesterday, both you and I were fighting together."
Retrograde Amnesia.
Leon"s cannot retain his memory for longer than a day.
Hence, he does not remember, the events that happened last night.
Even the word of grat.i.tude that I said just now would"ve sound like congratulating someone else"s work.
I should"ve conveyed it to him yesterday……so, I regretted.
"Is that all?"
"No……as for the matter of chasing after Osiris, I"d like to have a meeting hereafter."
I switch my feelings and get into the main subject.
"Osiris……the adversary G.o.d!"
Leon nodded after looking into his notepad.
Our enemy is Osiris. Her ability is as what was reported during yesterday incident.
He became furious after hearing that the enemy is a G.o.d.
Perhaps, it was due to his deep hatred towards G.o.d that enable him to remember his memories from the Myth War ten years ago.
Honestly, I don"t know whether this is something that we should be happy about or an unfortunate thing.
The only problem is, just how far should I explain the summary for the mythical representative war?
Especially, regarding the power of G.o.d that he currently held.
To be honest, Leon personality is striking too close to home——as if a look alike——a coincidence so close it"s a miracle.
It is impossible to shorten the explanation regarding what happened.
In an event that I explained it too intricately, there is a possibility that he might get confused in turn.
Not only that, the divine spirit has been residing inside his body for 8 years now.
For his sake,
"The power that you hold right now originated from the abominable G.o.d."
Frankly speaking, will he be able to honestly accept the truth?
Sometimes, even I feel nauseated about it.
Knowing a G.o.d is residing inside my own body……instantly made me chest hurt, and I"m filled with the urge to let go of everything inside.
For that reason, I omitted the detailed explanation.
As for Leon, he misjudged his own power as the "power of justice". I helped to clear his misunderstanding and tell him that we are the chosen person to wield the power of G.o.d.
In a way, I did lie to him, but I"m left with no choice. I had to obfuscate the information.
I blinked once and resumed thinking.
We have to make consensus as soon as possible regarding Leon and his future policy.
First, I"ve decided to start with confirmation of important matters.
"It seems like Leon always discover Osiris by intuition. Do you still able to right now?"
"Now?"
"Now. Just like yesterday, just a rough direction is sufficient."
Leon closes his eyes and tries to concentrate.
After a few moments.
"I"m sorry. Right now, I don"t know."
"……is that so."
I give a little thought.
"In order to know Osiris whereabouts, is there any requirement that need to be fulfilled?"
"Sorry. I don"t know about that either."
Leon answered dejectedly.
Right now, his abilities are our only clues left to search for Osiris.
Yet, due to the influence of his Retrograde Amnesia, he couldn"t remember the details of his own ability.
But, even without firm understanding, we can guess based on his past explanation.
I already heard about when he was using his power a little too often.
We can draw the information based on that and by combining the fragments, we might find out the method.
The fact that Leon intuition doesn"t work this time means that it is not an active skill. We should regard it as a trigger-activated skill which will only happen when the conditions are fulfilled.
『——triggering means, there must be a switch that will activate the skill. 』
Correct. The switch is most likely correlated to Osiris behaviors.
『——was it a skill that allows him to sense and find out the location, whenever Osiris took an action? 』
Correct.
Leon has encountered multiple scenes of Osiris murdering the students.
However, even though it should be difficult to find Osiris on this broad island, to think that he encountered the same scene so many times shouldn"t be a coincidence?
With that said, there must be something that"s required to be met first.
And that, will be the condition to trigger Leon"s ability.
Now, what is the "action" from Osiris that could act as the switch?
『——he~y, how long are you going to keep silent. Don"t you need to answer? 』
……yeah.
『——huh? Then let me know. 』
Most likely, Leon said when Osiris intended to kill the other students, he perceived her malicious intents, or her evil, and his ability is activated.
『——are you sure about that? 』
I can"t say it for sure, but the possibility is the highest.
This is an inference derived from the conditions and the situations and the probability is 9 out of 10.
What Leon said last night.
When he was facing off against Osiris, he called her "the evil that I must purge".
At that time, I thought it was a weird thing to say given the situation. There is a good possibility that it is a speech influenced by his ability that was activated unconsciously.
『——why is the condition to activate his ability is "when the person intended to kill", instead of "the time the person killed"? 』
Yesterday, that time when I asked Leon regarding Osiris whereabouts, Maria was not killed yet.
Unless the ability is triggered "before" the deed, rescuing Maria would be impossible.
"Raika san?"
"Ah, my bad. I was lost in thought."
When Leon reached out to me, my train of thought stopped.
"For the time being, we"re relying on Leon"s intuition to search for Osiris. That"s why starting from now, let"s keep in touch and act together as much as possible. Is that okay?"
"Right. Let"s do that."
Leon accepted my proposal and jab it on his memo.
This operation warrants no hesitation.
Just like last night, I guess he will fight Osiris together with us.
I have a little suspicion on him being too obedient.
Suspicion, or to be more accurate, an uncomfortable feeling.
Why is he……
"Why did Leon want to kill Osiris that much?"
"Eh?"
"……Fuh"
Just when I"m trying to restraint my mouth from saying unnecessary thing, Leon caught what I said, and thus I"m unable to hide it any longer.
"Earlier, I heard that you were looking for a cla.s.smate who has disappeared. Were you familiar with that cla.s.smate?"
"Why are you asking such a thing?"
"Osiris is a kind of person who wouldn"t think twice before killing other human. Any ordinary people will never get involved directly with such a person."
It"s human nature to try to avoid getting dragged with bad situation unrelated to them as much as possible.
And for those who dare to fight against it must mean that they have good reason for it.
I, myself, have a strong reason.
Was he in the same boat?
He cannot acc.u.mulate new memories.
That means, he will always continue to have "first encounter" with any person that he met on this island.
Was he in good term with that said cla.s.smate?
Wrong.
It is impossible for Leon to become a close friend with other people.
A friendly relationship, this person cannot even retain the thing about himself.
He might be calling me his friend……but that"s too only for the sake of convenience.
So, where does his motives lies?
At first, he was looking for his cla.s.smate.
But that cla.s.smate is dead.
However, he continues looking for Osiris and keep on fighting with her again and again.
To destroy his foe?
Stopping the murders?
Objectively, there is no need for him to do so.
Then, was it for justice?
Or was it due to "the ability to become a hero of justices" that he got?
But it was when he first met Osiris that he realized his own power.
It is not as if his power was activated since the beginning.
But he still chooses to fight.
Personally, taking an action to look for his disappearing cla.s.smate.
Fighting against the murderer.
Cooperate with us to help recover back Maria.
Each and every one of those incidents are something that is unrelated to him.
Nevertheless, he keeps thrusting his neck forward each time he intervenes.
Why?
No, that"s wrong.
Why am I so curious about his motives?
As a matter of fact, his motive is not that important.
The important thing is that he is aperson of virtue, a human and is willing to cooperate with me.
There is no point taking a risk and spoiling his mood just for some mundane questions.
Then why did I run my mouth so……
"I……"
Leon who kept his mouth silent until now spoke, and I can sense that he is nervous.
His voice has sunken a little bit.
His facial expression too, the smile that he kept until now wavered.
Again, I have said something unnecessary.
However, he is not angry.
Just a little sad.
"Because I have problems with my head. If I don"t have people to help me, then I couldn"t survive."
And he was not wrong, so I thought.
The influence from his retrograde amnesia on his life is too great.
"But Leon, you rather, it appears to me as if you are actively trying to help people. Moreover, at the price of your life too. And it happens pretty often. Why……"
"Of course, it"s to get help from other people."
When I tilt my head, Leon looks a bit troubled, and turn over his memo pad.
Then, he opened the first page and showed it to me.
What was written inside is a polite proverb.
"…Compa.s.sion for the sake of others…?"
I felt my stomach slightly churning.
Why was there a j.a.panese proverb in Leon"s memo pad, a person who are supposed to be from foreign country?
"My father was a j.a.panese."
"Is that so."
Knowing that Leon is a half, I am now convinced.
"This j.a.panese saying is something my father always said."
As he says so, Leon looks over the letters "Compa.s.sion for the sake of others".
"When I woke up that morning, this memo pad, this diary is the first thing that I noticed and read in that room. At that time, there is a page that I always read. It"s the diary of the day my father dead."
I silently listen to Leon.
"My dad told me before he died——[Leon. From now on, you are going to live by the help of the others. That"s why, always thanks the other and smiles. And, in order to get help from the other, you must first become a person who can help people on your own.]"
Leon has probably just recited the line that was written inside the diary.
It would have been his father"s will.
Compa.s.sion for the sake of others.
The proverb emphasizes on each the compa.s.sion that we have shown, the same compa.s.sion will go around and come back to us from the other.
It is a teaching that emphasizes on compa.s.sion for oneself and the other through self-interest and devotion at the same time.
It may be a word left by the father who thought about his son"s future, whose life is supported by the people around him.
"That"s why, I will always help when there is someone in trouble. Like a hero of justice."
"A hero of justice, huh?"
His father"s teaching, combined with his childlike idea, give birth to an answer which is "the hero of justice".
I guess, that"s the force driving behind Leon"s "justice".
『——Uhihihi. 』
What"s so funny, Balor.
『——well, I just had a thought about how that guy is in no way less distorted than you. Though, can"t say that I disliked that type. 』
I raised my eyebrows in a frown after listening to the way he speaks.
How can Leon, who is trying to protect his father will, having a distorted thought?
Despite it being unpleasant, I"m all aware how it is Balor nature to try to get in others nerve.
I ignored the devil"s nonsense and discussed with Leon about our future plan.
Everyone will gather in my room at night. We are all in standby for Osiris attack.
In case someone detected Osiris presence during the day, I had made sure they will contact me first.
I finished talking about everything important after I gave them a detailed explanation on what actions they need to take in case anything happened.
"Then, see you tonight."
After our meeting is concluded, Leon tries to leave the rooftop.
"……Leon!"
I called and stopped him.
"Hm?"
He stops and looks back.
A smile is plastered on his face.
Always with a smile.
Just like how it"s according to his father"s will.
The cheerful expressions that made him look as if he"s trying to rea.s.sure himself.
Those who saw his smiles must have think how he is a good guy.
However, now that I knew his circ.u.mstances more in depth, the smile looked a bit hollow.
He cannot preserve his relationship with others.
A relationship is to say, an emotion.
You can record the facts about what happened between you and others.
However, whatever come across the mind at a time can only be saved in one"s mind.
In order to like or dislike others, it is necessary to acc.u.mulate those feeling in their hearts.
Leon is not capable of doing that.
So, he cannot think of someone as his favorite or someone he hates.
His smile, was it really directed to me?
"Fu……"
Thinking about that, I, a feeling of sadness envelops my mind naturally.
Why is it that, a good person will always lead this kind of live?
Knowing that the divine being is the reason why he was put in the situation makes my hatred gathered.
At the same time, I finally understand why I wanted to know his motive.
I, was disgusted.
I"m using his good wills, without diving deeply into his circ.u.mstances and motives.
Well, what should I do?
Leon"s cooperation is essential.
We cannot stop Osiris unless we borrow his free good will and take him directly to the point of death.
At the very least, I should make sure that he can return back alive……
"Raikkun?"
Leon inclined his head to his side, looking at me who called and stopped him, then remained silent.
And I, somehow managed to squeeze out my voice.
"The day after tomorrow, on Sunday, I"m going swimming with everyone. Is Leon interested to go as well?"
So, I invited Leon.
Then, he was so happy that he was going to jump.
"Really!? Is that okay!?"
"Yeah."
"Wow……that makes me so happy."
Leon was genuinely happy, his cheeks reddened.
Even this emotion that he is feeling now, will be forgotten by tomorrow morning……
For the very least, I shall remember.
For his sake, too.
As his "friend".