It was over.
The following morning arrived.
"Onii-chan. It"s morning."
"Nn."
Ayumi obediently came to wake me, so I rubbed my eyes and got out of bed.
I had thought I wouldn"t be able to sleep, but my nerves must have been worn down despite how worked up my mind had been. I didn"t remember turning it off, but it was a little past the time I had set on the alarm clock. All that noise had apparently failed to rouse me.
I stepped out into the hallway with my little sister and pa.s.sed by my older sister in her uniform. However, she was not preparing to go to school. As a vampire, she was part of the night group and was actually getting back from school.
"Erika, you need to get in your coffin soon."
"Mhh. But I"m feeling faint because I"m so worried about you, Satori-kun…"
Erika really was wobbling on her feet on her way to her room which had thick light-blocking curtains on the window. Was she really going to change into her pajamas like that? It looked like she was only going to partially strip off her uniform and then climb into the coffin created in the storage s.p.a.ce below the bed.
As I watched her disappear through the door, Ayumi spoke up.
"It might be hard to tell since we"re the undead…"
"Yeah?"
"But you need to remember that your family is worried about you, Onii-chan. Ahh, this is when I hate being too healthy to get bags under my eyes…"
I felt bad.
But I couldn"t back off from this. I couldn"t let Itou Helen or the other Archenemies be tormented to death on camera.
I had to end this before Ayumi or Erika ended up in the middle of it. I couldn"t compromise on this.
We went downstairs where mom and dad were. Everyone but Erika ate breakfast together.
My stepmom lazily spoke up while watching the weather forecast.
"Oh? We"re going to have quite a few sunny days in a row. That"s unusual for this city. Maybe I should hang the laundry up to dry instead of using the dryer."
It seemed to only be a quick forecast between news segments because the camera moved back to the announcer. A sports commentator was speaking cheerfully on the TV. And along with the scores of baseball and soccer games…
"Man, that Colosseum has finally gotten started. Times really have changed. I never even liked doing the soccer lottery because it felt too much like betting on sports, but it looks like they aren"t running the business on just the owner system and priority broadcast rights anymore. Now, the first match was Itou Helen the Witch vs. Kuroyama Hinoki the Mermaid. And the winner was-…"
My dad spoke with his eyes on his folded-up newspaper and his chopsticks poking at his stir-fried vegetables.
"How unpleasant."
That was all he said, but it still felt like I had someone supporting me. After being thrown into the malicious and pa.s.sionate Colosseum, I had been on the verge of losing faith in humankind, but I wasn"t the only one that felt this way. That was all it was.
What about Ayumi?
What did she feel after hearing her family say that?
I stole a glance, but I didn"t notice any change to her expression.
After eating breakfast, I washed my face, brushed my teeth, and combed my hair. I prepared to go to school like normal.
Ayumi had changed into her sailor-style uniform and she was stuffing a bunch of deodorant spray into her school bag.
"It must be tough being a girl."
"Tell me about it. Fuguu. Did you think a girls school smells of sweets and tea? It"s mostly chemical smells! And it"s no laughing matter when parents" day rolls around."
I had meant it sarcastically, but she took it seriously. Please don"t crush my dreams about private girls schools. And then Ayumi circled around in front of me. In fact, she walked right up in front of me.
"You know how you can"t notice your own smell? And I"m a zombie on top of that. I-I smell all right, don"t I? I don"t smell weird?"
"…Oh, honestly."
The usual ritual had begun.
It wasn"t every single day, but this always happened when Ayumi started growing uneasy. And she couldn"t relax until the ritual was complete.
I had no choice but to pull Ayumi"s slender body in toward me. I brought my face to her neck like I was our vampire sister.
"Ah…"
Ayumi"s skinny shoulders jumped slightly.
But I wasn"t biting her to suck her blood.
Sniff, sniff.
"Wait. I know I was the one to ask, but don"t make any noise…"
She gave off the nice smell of a girl"s hair.
It was a sweet smell, like the soap, hairspray, and hint of sweat had triggered a chemical reaction.
But as a zombie, Ayumi was hypersensitive to being said she had any kind of smell at all, so I gave my standard response.
"I don"t smell anything."
"Really? You don"t have a stuffed-up nose or anything?"
"If you can"t believe anything I say, then I won"t even bother checking anymore."
"Fuguu. Well, as long as you aren"t just being nice…"
Ayumi looked kind of uncomfortable. Almost like a child who had gotten separated from her parents in a crowd.
That was when I realized she had never asked anyone else to perform this ritual. Not even Erika.
I didn"t really understand, but I knew rubbing her head would cheer her up. She was simple like that.
"Uuh… Wh-why are you doing that all of a sudden?"
"No reason. It just seemed like a good time for it."
"Well, stop it. I just finished with my hair and now you"re messing it up. Fuguu…"
That was generally how it went.
We left through the front door, but since we attended different schools, we didn"t take the same route.
While I undid the latch on my collapsible bike, Ayumi started to run.
"Bye, Onii-chan. I"ll be going."
"Bye."
She didn"t like smelling sweaty, but she did like jogging. Maybe she went right to the shower room after getting to school. As her big brother, I was mostly worried about how short her skirt was.
After she ran off, I dragged my collapsible bike out onto the road. That was when I came across an unexpected face.
"Huh? Cla.s.s Rep?"
"Good morning, Satori-kun."
She had long black hair, a prominent forehead, and gla.s.ses. She was skinny and slender, but the mounds on her chest were quite noticeable for how small they were. She was a childhood friend who felt like the perfect j.a.panese Cla.s.s Rep.
"Well, this is unusual. You usually get to school earlier than this. Did you oversleep?"
Just because she was the childhood friend next door did not mean we walked to school hand-in-hand every day. There was something different about her than Erika or Ayumi. There was some mysterious barrier around her that made my heart pound whenever I got close, so I couldn"t stand to be around her all the time!
But the Cla.s.s Rep completely ignored the secret pact we had made ever since entering middle school.
"Yes. I was waiting for you today."
"Ehh!? What do you mean!? …Um, actually I really would like to know why you were waiting outside my house with a wooden sword in hand. Y-you"re a 2nd Dan in kendo aren"t you?"
"Karate 1st Dan, Kendo 2nd Dan, Judo 2nd Dan, and Aikido 1st Dan. Got that!?"
…Why did the Cla.s.s rep end up being such an active person?
But no matter how I felt, she smiled at me (with wooden sword in hand).
And she said it.
"Hey, Satori-kun. What is the Forehead Gla.s.ses Cla.s.s Rep Swimsuit Dance File Set?"
Ma-…
"Maxwellllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll!!!???"
"C"mon, shut off your smartphone and get over here! Let"s take this out back, Satori-kun!!! You wouldn"t be so weak if you could get your fingers off those keys!!"
"A smartphone doesn"t really have keys…"
"Quit staring at me like I"m a legendary j.a.panese wolf and sit down! What have you been doing inside your disaster environment simulator!? And there"s no one to stop you there since Maxwell can"t say no!!"
As the wooden sword blazer forehead gla.s.ses Cla.s.s Rep (a childhood friend with way too many descriptors at this point) had me sit in front of her, sweat was pouring from my body. Oh, no. I think I"m going to shrivel up at this rate!!
"But how do you even know about that hidden file!? I thought I solved all of that on that vampire and zombie night. Ah!? Is this the Bright Cross"s revenge!?"
"Why would a peace organization that digs wells in Africa want to get back at you, Satori-kun? Honestly."
I was confident it would take an entire day to explain the details, but getting the Cla.s.s Rep caught in this city"s secrets was the last thing I wanted to do.
And more importantly…
"I heard some rather exciting voices coming from next door last night. It was those sisters of yours. Were you not with them?"
"I think they were yelling angrily at the TV, but I definitely heard them saying, "I can understand doing it for the Forehead Gla.s.ses Cla.s.s Rep Swimsuit Dance File Set, but you"re willing to risk your life for some random Archenemy you ran across!? Gnhh!!" "
Ah…
"Them…!!"
"Stop, stop. You"re not the one who"s angry here. I"m the one that deserves to be angry. …So what is this swimsuit dance file set? Depending on your answer, Satori-kun, you might just learn firsthand that Archenemies aren"t the only ones that can demonstrate surprising strength."
"Ah, ahhhh!?"
Not good. I"m about to get the cutest beating!
But I couldn"t escape even if I took off running now. Even with my collapsible bike, she would hit me with a men, do, and kote in the time it took me to climb onto the seat and start pedaling. What do I do? What am I supposed to do!? Dammit, am I really this powerless without Maxwell!?
I could only pray at this point.
I"m willing to take a hit or two, so at least give me a gust of wind! Blow the Cla.s.s Rep"s skirt nice and high!!
A moment later, a nice gust of wind really did blow right between the Cla.s.s Rep"s legs and the skirt before my eyes floated up to fully reveal everything below.
We both fell silent for a while.
It had happened so suddenly that the Cla.s.s Rep had not been able to hold down the fluttering cloth. She stood tall with her hands on her hips, so I could not have had a better view. By the way, the holy item was pure white. As a true j.a.panese Cla.s.s Rep, she did not unfaithfully go for some cheap stripes. Seeing the small red ribbon decorating the front was as refreshing as seeing the first sunrise of the year from a mountain peak.
Since I was sitting right in front of her, I had seen everything. And from a low angle.
I"ll be honest.
I wanted to thank G.o.d.
The Bright Cross, Colosseum, and Archenemy stuff might have been difficult, but I felt reinvigorated enough to keep going for another year.
After a few seconds, the skirt fluttered back down as if gravity had finally kicked back in. Today"s wonderfully cool and exciting event was over.
The Cla.s.s Rep hung her head and her long black hair seemed to ripple from invisible static electricity.
"…Satori-kun…?"
"No, wait! Wait, Cla.s.s Rep! It wouldn"t make sense to hit me with a men, do, and kote for this! There"s no scientific evidence to show our prayers can affect the wind!!"
"In other words, you were hoping that would happen? And here I thought we were having a serious discussion."
K-kyahh!! I shouldn"t have said that! I feel like anything I say is going to lead to major damage now!!
If my life starting flashing before my eyes as I trembled on the ground, I wondered if all I would see was the color white, that ribbon, those bright thighs, and the wrinkles in the cloth. That might be fun and it was the only positive thing my mind could find right now.
And then…
"Ahem!"
I heard someone clearing their throat.
I turned around along with the Cla.s.s Rep who had threatened me with a wooden sword, dragged me behind the house, and showed me her panties. (It sounds a lot more fun when I put it like that.)
We found…a girl?
She wore a plain varsity jacket and jeans, her long black hair was stuffed inside a hat, and her s.e.x was hard to tell with her face hidden behind sungla.s.ses and a mask. Or it would have been if not for the impressive volume of her chest. …And because a guy would probably get reported to the police if he dressed that suspiciously.
But who was it?
If she was not up to no good, why would she be dressed like that? It reminded me of the clichéd disguise of an entertainer or idol who wanted to keep her ident.i.ty hidden in a drama.
"Um, uh. As a girl, I really hate to stop this, but since she has a weapon, should I intervene? However it happened, you did save me, so I would like to pay you back."
"Wait a second… That black hair in the hat…"
It was still hard to tell with her face covered, but now that it occurred to me…
"Yes, I should have introduced myself first."
Didn"t I know one of the undead who had appeared before the TV cameras with her long, long hair wrapped around her body like a swimsuit and around her legs like a giant tail fin?
"I"m Kuroyama Hinoki. As you know, I am the mermaid Archenemy you defeated and rescued."
An Archenemy.
The term originally referred to Satan in a certain monotheistic religion. From there, it apparently started being used in reference to any "demon lord" in general.
It now referred to someone who had surpa.s.sed the concept of a lifespan or could spread that to the people around them. It was the general term for someone who was the source of an undead disease.
For example, my vampire older sister or my zombie younger sister.
"An Archenemy? Satori-kun, are you getting yourself into trouble again?"
The intrusion of this third party had cooled the Cla.s.s Rep"s head, so she tossed the wooden sword over the hedge…and thus into her own backyard.
Kuroyama Hinoki was surprised by this.
I felt the same way.
Had the Cla.s.s Rep not watched any TV the day before? Or had she been so focused on the contestants that she hadn"t seen me as the second?
Whatever the case, I was glad. That reduced the risk of her getting involved.
Kuroyama Hinoki the Mermaid gave me a glance through her sungla.s.ses.
…She was asking if we should continue discussing this here.
I shook my head.
No, we should not.
"Oh, honestly…"
The Cla.s.s Rep puffed out her white cheeks at being left out. She seemed more upset that she did not understand what that eye contact had meant than that we were discussing something in secret.
"Stupid Satori-kun. Oh, just you watch!! I"ll train even harder and learn some secret technique that lets me kick even an Archenemy"s b.u.t.t!!"
I really didn"t like the sound of that, but she stormed off.
"The scary part is she could probably find a way. What do I do now? If she shaves off one of her eyebrows, puts on a ratty sleeveless dogi, and says she"s going training in the mountains, I don"t think I can stop her."
I muttered to myself as I watched her leave, but the bipedal mermaid giggled while hiding her ident.i.ty with the Three Sacred Treasures of the hat, mask, and sungla.s.ses.
"What"s wrong with having such a cute friend?"
"Maybe if it was all wasted effort, but you can"t let your guard down with her because she really will climb the ranks of whatever martial art she works at. She takes everything she does way to seriously."
I finally turned my smartphone back on and sighed as I connected to Maxwell.
But Kuroyama Hinoki still acted like she had seen something bright.
"She"s still cute. …Oh, I get it. She"s training her body because she"s afraid of having people like us take you away from her. In that case, maybe I shouldn"t have intruded on your fun."
I wasn"t sure what she meant, but did Archenemies think being attacked by a wooden sword was "fun"? Their sensibilities were a bit of a mystery.
I pushed my collapsible bike with both hands as I started down the road again.
"What do you need today? You"ve been freed from the Colosseum, haven"t you?"
"Remember what I said? I want to pay you back."
I forgot to climb onto the bike"s seat.
I fell silent and we stared at each other for a while.
"…Even if that means moving back toward the Bright Cross?"
"If not, then just leave. If so, then you"re treating this too lightly and it kind of p.i.s.ses me off. Listen, it wasn"t me that risked my life. It was Itou Helen. She literally bet her life on rescuing a complete stranger, so your debt is to her. So are you really going to waste the life she gave you? Think carefully about this. How would you feel if your situations were reversed? …Did you really get all the way here without realizing you deserve to be punched for this?"
"…That"s exactly why I want to do this."
Kuroyama Hinoki also placed her hands on the bike"s handlebars.
She seemed to be telling me she would not let me continue on.
"If our situations had been reversed, I have no idea if I would have been able to give so much thought to my opponent. In fact, when I was fighting, I was only focused on surviving. It wasn"t about what I could or couldn"t do. I never even considered anything else. So I think I understand how n.o.ble the witch"s…Itou Helen"s answer was. That was a fantasy I never even considered, but she made it a reality."
"The witch in the Little Mermaid was cruel, but to the very end, the mermaid must have been thankful of the witch who made her dream come true. I"m the same. And since she made a supposedly impossible dream come true, I can"t just ignore that. I can"t let her die while I live happily ever after up on land."
Kuroyama Hinoki stared right at me through her sungla.s.ses.
She was not looking away.
"If you want to punch me, then punch away. If that"s the rite of pa.s.sage needed to save that witch, I"ll go through with it. Now, what do I have to do to be a part of your group?"
"…Fine."
I mussed up my bangs with a hand and sighed.
"I appreciate your help. But you only get to work in the background. It"s Itou Helen and me that will actually take on the Bright Cross. …You"ve already "retired", so no matter what happens, you can"t return to those death matches. Make sure you understand that."
"Understood. …You really are a worrier. But that might be what"s drawn so many Archenemies to you. We tend to be tough, so no matter how reckless we get, people rarely worry for us like they do other people."
We exchanged a handshake.
Her hand was cold, like I was holding a fish caught on a hook.
"This might be sudden, but…since you"re in a school uniform, I take it you"re continuing with the normal cycle of school life?"
"Sorry. I know it really isn"t the time."
"It"s fine and I understand. If you let unusual circ.u.mstances drag you around, you can grow accustomed to them and you let them win. …But you do understand that we don"t know when Itou-san"s next match begins, right?"
Of course I understood that.
We had safely won the 1st match. But no one could guarantee how the next one would go. In fact, it was set up so the danger would increase with each consecutive match. Just like the odds in Russian roulette.
It was just like a prisoner on death row who wasn"t told when his execution was scheduled. Today might have been fine, but what about tomorrow? What about a week from now? When that moment of ruin could be coming at any time, they could never relax.
That was why I…no, we had to stop this.
Even if we opened a hole in the wall and dragged Itou Helen out, they could send out a bunch of hounds and take her back. So we had to stop this on a more fundamental level: the entire execution system.
"Even if we"re fighting the Bright Cross, it"s all for nothing if Itou-san is taken out on the way."
Kuroyama Hinoki nodded at the determination in my eyes.
"So even if it only extends the time limit for the time being, I think it"s important to gather as much information as we can: who her next opponent is, what kind of Archenemy they are, and what their traits are."
"Come to think of it, we had a lot of trouble yesterday because we didn"t have a chance to do that."
Both with the mermaid herself and with Itou Helen"s hidden power and true desire.
If we had known everything from the beginning, things would have gone a lot differently.
"I"d also like to know about the witch"s power. What are its limits and how adaptable is it? Simply put, what can it do and how far can it go?"
We wouldn"t be able to p.r.i.c.k the opponent with a venomous needle to fake their death every single time. But if we had a stock of other methods, we would have greater odds of rescuing the other Archenemies.
We were fighting on the stage set by the Bright Cross, so we were at an overwhelming disadvantage and trying to plot against them was truly foolish. But having some rescue methods stored up would still influence how confident we felt.
"Understood. So will your job primarily be investigating things?"
"I"ll give you a throwaway address. You can use it as casually as a search engine. Send a request and I"ll get to gathering info."
I also had to investigate the Bright Cross"s system and search out its weaknesses, but it would be best not to tell her that. I didn"t want to lose the life we had worked so hard to save.
Then I received a message from the smartphone stuck into the GPS navigation slot on the bike"s handlebars.
"No. I, Maxwell, am the user"s information gathering agent, so that will not be necessary."
"Hey, what is this? Is someone watching us from somewhere?"
The disguised mermaid looked around nervously.
"No, just think of it like an AI on the phone."
"Hm? An electric Archenemy? Is it like a gremlin?"
Kuroyama Hinoki did not quite seem to get it.
"But old books are much more useful than the internet when it comes to finding information on Archenemies. That"s better than putting your life in the hands of some random online encyclopedia, right? I know a lot about the libraries and used bookstores around here, so I"m perfect for the job."
"Maxwell, don"t send back an ellipsis as a message. If you have something to say, just come out and say it."
"Sure. Since I have your approval, I will follow the policy given to me. Boo 凸(´Д｀) "
"Maxwell, I don"t know what happened, but don"t flip off a girl."
"It"s fine. Oh, I know. I can show you around to the best library and used bookstore. There"s no point in hiding my sources. Are you free afterschool?"
"I am. Let"s meet up after my cla.s.ses let out."
With that, we parted ways.
Every little bit helped.
I was glad to know there were others who wanted to help Itou Helen.
I pedaled my collapsible bike to school and found most everyone discussing yesterday"s incident.
Namely, the live broadcast of the Level 4 Archenemy disposal system.
The Colosseum reborn as glamorous show business.
"That was so cool. Itou"s that girl in the 1st year, right? That was her national debut. If I got a photo with her, I could get so many likes on Counstagram!"
"As her teacher, I"d noticed a while back that she had the aura of someone special. And that she"s an Archenemy. Of course I"d noticed."
It was all like this.
From the undercla.s.smen to the uppercla.s.smen, everyone who loved gossip was discussing it like it was no more than the latest fad. Even the adult teachers were in on it.
This was what happened once she appeared on TV? It was like a clear line between those filled with anger and the targets of that anger. Couldn"t they tell they were talking about a normal girl who had studied at the same school as them until yesterday and who could smile or feel heartbroken from even the slightest comment!?
I couldn"t hide my anger, but I had something to take care of. I walked to Itou Helen"s undercla.s.smen cla.s.sroom.
I couldn"t actually meet with her.
I didn"t even know where she was.
But I was allowed to hold a video chat with her over my smartphone for a short predetermined amount of time every day.
"Um, I want you to make sure Pi-chan the parrot is okay."
The witch on the screen really had been worried about that. Even more than herself despite being stuffed inside a birdcage. That reminded me she was the one that looked after the animals.
"Pi-chan is surprisingly sensitive and, um, he sometimes learns weird words when I"m not looking…"
I didn"t intend to stay in the undercla.s.smen area for long.
I only had to check to see who would give the parrot food and water while Itou Helen was gone. That was all.
But that casual feeling was blown to pieces the instant I peeked through the cla.s.sroom door.
"Hah hah! This is the zombie parrot from that video, right!? Wow, it"s so creepy. Its wounds really do heal. That"s creepy as h.e.l.l!!"
Something was there.
It was a large boy. His cellphone"s flash was going off as he aimed it toward the birdcage by the window as he got worked up all on his own.
"Wow. Why isn"t this thing dead? Is it one of those birds that can come back from the dead? I bet this"ll make me famous. Talk about a scoop!! I"ve gotta get a close up! A real close up!! Ah hah hah!"
An odd smell came from the cla.s.sroom.
The bird"s food was splattered around the area and it gave off an unpleasant smell when mixed with the water.
An unrestrained male voice, bright flashes of light, and an awful mix of bird food and water.
This wasn"t someone to worry about too much.
And so I didn"t worry at all about the idiot"s human rights.
"Maxwell."
"No. This will accomplish nothing. Saving the parrot will not change Itou Helen"s situation. And the opponent has a larger build than you. Age-wise, he is probably your uppercla.s.sman. Do you want conflict?"
"I don"t care about that. …Help me here. That"s an order."
"Sure."
The members of this cla.s.s were not particularly protecting Itou Helen. They simply looked unsure how to deal with the sudden intrusion from an uppercla.s.sman.
So I would show them how to deal with idiots like this.
"Wow, I didn"t know it was possible to be that ugly. If you actually understand human language, then turn this way."
"Ah?"
From the sound of it, the idiot couldn"t speak human language after all. The instant he turned around, I set off my smartphone"s flash right in front of his face.
After blinding him, I bent back and slammed a full-power headb.u.t.t right into the forehead of that ape who hadn"t quite reached the level of humanity.
I was impressed by the nice crack of the impact.
With our foreheads pressed together, I made a superb suggestion.
"Let"s take this outside, sc.u.m. I"ll make sure you can never walk down the hallway with your head up again."
I didn"t wait for him to answer.
I used both hands to shove him right out the 2nd story window.
I was sure I would be suspended and had even planned to use the extra free time to focus on our research, but I got off surprisingly lightly. The school"s teachers may not have wanted to hurt the school"s brand by leaving any paper records of the incident.
After a lecture that amounted to a slap on the wrist, I left the guidance room and found the forehead gla.s.ses Cla.s.s Rep waiting for me in the hallway. She had her hands on her hips and held the parrot"s birdcage.
"Honestly, just because you can"t win in a straight fight is no reason to shove them out a window the second you meet them."
"He would"ve beaten me to a pulp if I hadn"t."
"Meaning?"
I silently held out my smartphone"s screen.
It showed a close up of someone"s ugly and swollen face.
"Sigh…"
Despite her exasperated sigh, the Cla.s.s Rep smiled.
I was hardly an expert at getting into fights.
Turning things around against someone bigger than you only happened in manga. Size was absolute, which was why most martial arts were divided out into weight cla.s.ses. But if your opponent"s mind had gone blank from fear and confusion, you could almost unilaterally kick them around. That was all this was.
Maxwell gave some additional information.
"Sure. He was apparently Okada Mitsuru of General Division Year 3 Cla.s.s 2. His user name on the school"s unofficial site seems to be trying to recruit people to help him gang up on the undercla.s.sman that p.i.s.sed him off, but it has worked against him. He is being flamed most severely. Of course, announcing a cowardly attempt at revenge after getting called out on tormenting a small animal and then getting beaten up by an undercla.s.sman was bound to make him a laughing stock. …Incidentally, his posts on the unofficial site were anonymously reported to every university in the country, so this will negatively affect his attempts at furthering his education. Take that 凸(｀^´) "
"What you two are doing is honestly pretty terrible, but you always take the shortest and optimal course, so it"s impossible to keep up." The Cla.s.s Rep sighed again. "I should really be scolding you here, but I can"t bring myself to do it when I see this."
The two of us walked through the school that was quiet now that cla.s.ses had begun.
"What do we do about the parrot?"
"I"ll take care of it," said the Cla.s.s Rep. "They didn"t seem to know what to do with it in the 1st year cla.s.sroom and they seemed afraid of having to deal with something like this morning, so I"ll look after it at my house."
"You don"t have to go that far. I can raise a small bird at my house."
"I"m afraid it would learn some unfortunate words if you took care of it."
…Is she still holding a grudge over that swimsuit dance file set? Stop giving me that look, Cla.s.s Rep!!
"Hey, Satori-kun."
"Yeah?"
"…Are you okay?"
The Cla.s.s Rep asked me that.
She had arrived at school before me, so she had to have heard everyone talking about the Colosseum. Even if she didn"t know how much I was involved, it had to be hurting her heart to know that Archenemies were being made to fight for some ugly show business.
And since I had a vampire older sister and a zombie little sister, she may have thought I had picked a fight with that uppercla.s.sman because I was so furious about it all.
And that may not have been entirely wrong.
Even if I was saving the parrot, had shoving him out the window and jumping down after him been the only way? Really?
She may have had a clearer picture of me than I did.
I smiled a little and answered.
"I"m fine. If things get really bad, I"ll discuss it with you."
"I see."
She did not ask anything more.
The way she moved in and pulled back to maintain the perfect distance may have been something only a childhood friend could pull off.
It may have been interrupted by some recreation, but the cla.s.ses themselves were running like normal. There had not actually been an announcement about the fight, so those who didn"t know about it seemed to just think I was late.
In other words, the teachers wanted to avoid any trouble.
Good or evil. They were not going to judge my actions either way. Turning me into a hero or a target of bullying were both negative outcomes in their minds.
It was a lot like how the cla.s.ses were running like normal even though one of their students had been abducted.
It was said you could see a wider world once you grew up, but that apparently did not apply to everyone. Some of the teachers were actively talking and laughing about the Colosseum to get the students to listen.
Part of that had to do with not knowing it was a real fight to the death. Even if the host talked of cardiac arrest or retrieving the body, they would a.s.sume it was all just an act.
But I still ground my back teeth together.
I wished all the adults like that would just die. Even after another decade pa.s.sed, I would never become someone who used other people"s misfortune to my advantage.
And as I felt a squeezing in my stomach, my smartphone vibrated in my pocket.
Was it Maxwell or the address Kuroyama Hinoki had given me?
Both guesses were wrong.
The small video chat screen was taken up by her.
"Ha ha ha! I"m everyone"s lover and your partner on lonely nights!! Please feel free to use this video of the embodiment of coquettishness, Bunny Girl Karen-chan!!"
I stood my world history book up to hide my smartphone just like someone sneaking their lunch early.
In the next desk over, the Cla.s.s Rep gave me a puzzled look as she copied the text on the blackboard into her notes, but I couldn"t explain this one. She was already erupting with anger from the swimsuit dance file set and now I was having a video chat with a hot woman in a bunny costume during cla.s.s!? That misunderstanding would never go away!
So I was forced to whisper my end of the conversation.
"(Why are you here!?)"
"Is that any way to greet me? I"m your contact on the management side and you"re Itou Helen"s second, making you the contact on that side. We need to try to get along."
"I will provide you some information on your next opponent. You don"t want to go into this blind, do you?"
"(What proof do I have that data is real?)"
After all, this was the Bright Cross we were talking about. They were about as far as you could get from playing fair and sportsmanship. It would be strange not to be suspicious.
"Nooot to worry. You have my word on this one. I won"t lie about information on your opponents. Oh, I know. How about this? If I break my promise, you can do whatever you want with my s.e.xy body for 3 days and 3 nights."
"Bff!? …Cough, cough."
I spat out the contents of my mouth, gathering the attention of everyone in the cla.s.sroom. The Cla.s.s Rep was so suspicious she was pushing on the side of her gla.s.ses. I was afraid of being told to go stand out in the hall, so I coughed to disguise what had happened.
The blue bunny girl on the screen used her arms to squeeze her b.r.e.a.s.t.s together and accentuate her cleavage while she opened her eyes wide.
…She"s making fun of me! Dammit, I at least need to keep a mental snapshot of this for later!!
"Ah ha ha! But, but! I"m not joking. We want all of the combatants to make the Colosseum as exciting as possible. We want death matches that will get the blood pumping and we want both sides to be in a dead heat! So we"ll give you all the information you need for that to happen."
"(How can you laugh about all this?)"
I knew it was hopeless, but I asked a question that seemed to question her sanity.
"(You know Archenemies laugh and cry just like we do, don"t you? These aren"t just rumors; you"ve seen it for yourself, haven"t you? Then how can you do something so evil?)"
It made no sense.
Could someone raise their fist against Erika or Ayumi after seeing them? Even if you"d been taught that Archenemies aren"t human, could you really wield violence against girls like that when one was standing right in front of you?
I couldn"t.
There was no way I could.
No matter what I"d been taught or indoctrinated with, I would always end up thinking about how much it would hurt them and how sad it would make them. It didn"t matter how powerful a weapon they held and it didn"t matter if I could pose any kind of a threat to an Archenemy. I couldn"t believe that anyone could so readily choose to attack those girls.
Your hostility would normally shrivel up, wouldn"t it?
You"d break at some point, wouldn"t you?
Wasn"t it exhausting to maintain all that malice?
Or was there something wrong with me? No, it couldn"t be that. What I was feeling was what you called "normal" and "ordinary". Not wanting to make someone cry and preferring a smile over tears wasn"t anything special.
And yet that blue bunny girl was still smiling.
That smile seemed somehow frozen in place.
"Well, you see…"
"What would you say if I said I was a monster who was once forced to leave the straight and narrow because of my belief in the infection sources we call Archenemies?"
I gasped.
Her voice made me feel like a rusty knife had been stabbed into the center of my chest.
"Just kidding! Ah ha ha! You should really seal away that kindness that makes you believe anything someone tells you. Otherwise you won"t survive the Colosseum which is crawling with literal monsters."
The dried atmosphere was blown away in an instant.
What was that?
Had she been telling the truth? Or was it a bluff meant to get me to sympathize with her?
"You want to know about Itou Helen"s next opponent more than about me, don"t you?"
"(…If you want to tell me, then tell me. I won"t believe you, though.)"
"Ah ha ha! Suit yourself, you d.a.m.n tsundere. You"re so cute. Now, then. Time for the announcement. Who will be Itou Helen"s next opponent!? Zazan!!"
She even made her own sound effects.
…It was a real shame that someone so hot had to be an enemy.
"Her opponent in Round 2 will be a fairy named Hanesaki Minori! Make sure she gives it her best shot."
…What?
A fairy?
"(Wait a minute. What do you mean!?)"
"Ehh? I mean a fairy like the ones in children"s picture books. They"re a pretty major Archenemy, but are you really not familiar with them?"
It was true that fairies were as well-known as vampires and zombies. It was even said the victims abducted by fairies would lose their humanity and become fairies, so they fit the conditions for being an Archenemy.
But even so…
"(That"s way too broad. It"s barely a hint! That could mean anything from a palm-sized pixie to a non-humanoid unicorn!)"
"Of course it does. This is the problem with you silly millennials. If I gave you all the answers from the beginning, it wouldn"t be a very exciting match, now would it? Don"t forget that we can choose what information we give and what information we don"t for our own benefit. Besides, some data on Itou Helen will be going to the fairy"s side as well. You"d be pretty mad if we told them all of her weaknesses, wouldn"t you?"
That was a good point.
And it confirmed that the witch data was going to the other side. But how much? Not knowing that was another source of concern.
"Of course, an Archenemy that"s already fought can have its weaknesses researched and revealed from the recorded footage. The disadvantage of fighting consecutive battles is more than just an issue of stamina. Ah ha ha!"
Dammit.
This woman really does understand our Achilles" heel!!
I worked to stay cool and forced my seething mind to draw out as much information as I could.
"(When does the next match begin?)"
"Non non. Telling you that wouldn"t be any fun. Not knowing what tomorrow holds is part of being a death row prisoner. Otherwise executions would be the same for someone who killed a single person and someone who killed 10 people, and how would that be fair? Ah ha ha! From the look on your face, you must be feeling the pressure in your stomach, so that"s good!!"
"I"ll tell you one thing. The next stage will not be at Kukyou 1st Broadcasting." The blue bunny girl seemed to be mocking me. "Our information and impression manipulation more than gets the job done, but there are some people with unshakeable hearts like you. Just to be safe, we aren"t going to stay in one place."
That meant I did not know where Itou Helen was being imprisoned.
But that also meant the Bright Cross was afraid. They weren"t an absolute barrier. If they screwed up, they could lose or be destroyed. She had told me that herself.
Yes.
Just like when they had detected me and Maxwell and quickly left that vast subterranean facility.
"Now, where exactly might we have moved? Feel free to make some guesses, but we"ll definitely surprise you. Ah ha ha! That"s all from the official PR mascot, Bunny Girl Karen-chan☆"
Our next opponent was a fairy.
Her name was Hanesaki Minori.
I hated acting based on information from that bunny girl, but that was all I had at the moment. I made a mental note to seriously make her pay up with that hot body if she was lying.
"3 days and 3 nights, bunny costume included!! Just to be sure, I need to stop by the drug store and buy some condoms!! I wonder if energy drinks really help with that!"
"User, please tell me what exactly it is these preparations are for."
As I left school with new determination in my chest, Maxwell asked me an oddly cold question.
I stuck the smartphone in the collapsible bike"s GPS holder and set it to speakerphone.
"Maxwell, check for any personal information on Hanesaki Minori."
"Sure. She did indeed go missing about a week ago. Her family submitted a search request. It was treated as a normal case, so she was a.s.sumed to have voluntarily run away from home and no real search was performed."
I climbed onto the bike seat and pressed my weight on the pedals to move forward.
"Any traces of the Bright Cross intervening?"
"Sure. A detective from the life safety division of the Kukyou Police was working on the case of his own volition, but he suddenly stopped. There is no data suggesting why, but…"
"Pressure from the higher ups, huh? Dammit, that"s only supposed to happen in dramas."
I didn"t trust the bunny girl named Karen, but it was true that Hanesaki Minori sounded likely.
a.s.suming they weren"t so monstrous that they would make a completely unrelated person "disappear" just to bait me.
Maxwell found a photo of Hanesaki Minori on the worldwide SNS named Counstagram. She looked like a plain indoorsy gla.s.ses girl with two unrefined braids. The gla.s.ses were the same, but she was a different type of gla.s.ses from the determined and unrelenting Cla.s.s Rep. She seemed to be a fairy Archenemy, but she was human-sized and did not have wings growing from her back or a single horn growing from an equine face.
To be blunt, there was nothing there to suggest what kind of fairy she was. In fact, she looked so normal I wasn"t confident she was even an Archenemy.
…It was possible she had the hardest time believing that herself.
"Sorry about the wait."
After arriving at the meeting spot, a voice eventually called out to me.
It was the surprisingly curvy girl with her long, long black hair forced inside a hat and her ident.i.ty hidden by sungla.s.ses and a mask like an idol trying to sneak around.
It was the mermaid Archenemy named Kuroyama Hinoki.
"I didn"t think I was that late, but were you waiting long? You seem on edge."
"No, you"re fine. Sorry."
I obediently bowed while still sitting on my bike.
"As I explained in the email, our next opponent is a girl named Hanesaki Minori. She seems to be a fairy Archenemy, but the details are unknown. That could be anything from a palm-sized pixie to a non-humanoid unicorn. Please help me. We need to split up and investigate this. If we can"t figure this out, it"s hopeless."
"Fine by me. As long as this can repay you two and help that girl survive."
That settled it.
But no matter what I said, there was not much I could do. Texts on Archenemies were often more difficult to find for a cutting-edge machine like Maxwell. We had somehow managed with the mermaid, but if you gathered all the information on the internet about vampires and zombies, 80% of it would be data on video games and horror movies and the remaining 20% would be from dubious sources. It wasn"t uncommon to find a site that looked nicely academic, but to later find that the administrator"s bible was an RPG guide.
That meant leaving all this to Kuroyama Hinoki the Mermaid. She had said she would show me an a.n.a.log library or used book store that was good for Archenemy information.
We rode the collapsible bike together. The soft mounds pressing against my back caused my heartrate to needlessly increase as she guided me to the shopping district.
This is…urp.
Mixing reality with virtual reality was not a good idea, but we were near where I had beaten up that toy poodle zombie in the simulation.
But…
"Surprised, aren"t you? Walk just a bit into the shade and there"s a used bookstore."
As Kuroyama Hinoki had said, we walked into a narrow alley that most people did not walk down. We were a long way off from the imported goods supermarket with plenty of strange spices and tea leaves that (most importantly to Erika) was open late into the night or the lingerie shop where Ayumi would buy some insane underwear when she wanted to force herself to look more adult.
I had heard on some quiz show or something that used bookstores tended to place their entrances where the setting sun could not get in because direct sunlight was bad for books, but it seemed like everything would get damp if you took it this far.
I stopped the bike and Kuroyama Hinoki spoke as she got down.
"Yes, this is the place. The Bizarre Shop. This is the best place to find out about Archenemies, so keep it in mind."
She opened the door which did not fit its frame properly and entered the small half-tilted shop.
After placing a chain lock on my bike, I hurried after her so as not to be left behind.
Then my smartphone vibrated.
I checked the screen to see the following message:
"Warning: The signal is weak. I will likely be unable to provide full support from here on."
"What? Are you upset because I said I couldn"t investigate this with a search engine?"
Again, don"t bother sending an ellipsis message.
I sighed and entered the used bookstore that seemed left behind by the modern age.
It was even smaller than it looked from the outside.
It really was crammed full of bookcases and I had to turn sideways to get through the aisles. There were also several heavy-looking cardboard boxes on the floor and on top of the bookcases and they were all stuffed full of books.
I did not see a single cheap light novel or manga volume that I felt comfortable touching. Everything was bound in leather. A lot of them made me wonder if they used papyrus or parchment instead of actual paper made from pulp. In addition to j.a.panese, I saw English, German, Chinese, and some in a language I didn"t recognize. Was it Latin? Or maybe a Scandinavian or Eastern European language?
"Welcome. Sorry about all the dust."
Instead of a proper register, there was only a calculator and a small drawer. The tiny old lady sitting there looked like she had been born to fit in such a small shop.
And…
"H-hey, how much do these books cost? They all look like they must have markups for their rarity and would probably cost you all your New Year"s money. We have to gather information, but I"m in high school. There"s only so much I can do."
"Heh heh. The internet is generally free and can"t be beat."
Shut up, Maxwell.
Why do you sound so happy that your master is in trouble?
But Kuroyama Hinoki readily smiled.
"We"re free to read them here, so that won"t be a problem."
"…Read these?"
I hesitantly looked to the bookcases.
You aren"t supposed to judge a book by its cover, but I was reluctant to touch these old books with leather binding, gold lettering, and parchment pages. This wasn"t just about tearing a page. I was afraid I"d get in trouble for getting the oil from my fingers on them.
Yes.
They seemed more like antiques or museum exhibits than mere books.
But the mermaid girl readily pulled a book from a shelf. She easily flipped through a book thicker than a phonebook that was protected by the kind of thin oil paper that covered the surface of a castella.
"It would be weird to insist people buy a book costing tens of thousands of yen without touching it first. That would just be asking for people to come back with complaints after buying it. It"s like a car dealership. The prices are so high that they have to offer a lot more before you make a deal. That isn"t always readily obvious when that stubborn old man is running the shop though," she added. "More importantly, you want to investigate fairies, right? This Hanesaki Minori girl looks just like a normal human, so she"s probably a species that has a human appearance or one that can transform into a human. You can see all the different species in this fairy encyclopedia, so isn"t there any way to narrow it down further than that?"
"Hmm…"
The problem was that I knew nothing at all about Hanesaki Minori.
Anyway…
"Well, if we don"t have enough information, we"ll just have to find some. For now, I"ll finish showing you around. Remember where the Bizarre Shop is. Let"s get to the next place."
"The next place?"
The mermaid girl winked through her sungla.s.ses.
"The library."
She had said it was a library with a lot of Archenemy information, so I was imagining goat-horned demon statues on either side of the entrance, magic circles drawn in blood covering the floor, or a building located in a gap between dimensions.
But I was way off.
"Wait, wait, wait. This is the normal city library! I go here to study before tests!! Or when that idiot Ayumi came crying to me about her summer homework!"
It was like asking about a really good hole-in-the-wall restaurant and being taken to the nearest gyudon shop. Sure, it tasted good, but it wasn"t what I wanted!!
But Kuroyama Hinoki confidently pushed out her (surprisingly large) chest.
…Even though the place felt like a gyudon shop?
Was there a secret code word like ordering the gyudon "soupy with extra green onions"? I skeptically followed the mermaid.
"It is a normal library, but did you know there"s a donated books section in the back? In other words, they have a bookcase full of the old books normal citizens have donated them."
I didn"t really understand.
It wasn"t some hard-to-find location. It was sitting there right between two perfectly normal bookcases.
It was chaos.
It wasn"t just about Archenemies. There were books about the secret of Loch Ness, about the warriors of Atlantis who had crossed time and s.p.a.ce, about the truth of Nostradamus, about the face on Mars, and about anything really. It would be hard to divide the fact from fiction on this bookcase.
"We seem to have a lot of people with odd interests living here. Or maybe they moved here to be closer to real Archenemies."
Kuroyama Hinoki smiled bitterly as she introduced it all to me.
"Anyway, we are thankful. The type of knowledge is a little biased, but it"s useful. What is a mermaid and what can one do? This is where I learned all that."
Oh, right.
It wasn"t just the fairy. If we looked more deeply into witches, we could find more that Itou Helen could do.
She had essentially been thrown into a fighting game tournament without even reading the instruction manual. She had managed to b.u.t.ton-mash her way into a special attack, but there was no guarantee there. It was a lot like not knowing what the different colored gauges and numbers meant. And she did not have time to figure it all out through trial and error. Failure and defeat meant execution.
"I"m sure there are also experts on biology and folklore at the university and research inst.i.tutes, but the Bizarre Shop and the city library are the two primary places you can use without some kind of connection."
"I imagine so."
I probably had less of a chance of knowing a folklorist than I did an idol. I couldn"t even imagine what they were paid to do.
"User, please tell me what your plans are."
"If we"re going to find out what Hanesaki Minori"s traits are, we need to know what kind of fairy she is. Maxwell, we only have her name and a photo. How much can you find with that?"
"Sure. As much as you need."
Kuroyama Hinoki the Mermaid shrugged.
"Then are we just waiting for the results?"
"Of course not. The next match could be tomorrow…or even today. There"s no time to waste. Let"s work ahead. We need to make a list of all fairy species that look just like humans or can transform into one. Figuring out which one she is can wait. Once we learn some things about Hanesaki Minori - like if she doesn"t eat food at night or is afraid of water - we should naturally find our answer."
The rest was a battle with text.
I honestly felt like I was wasting time at school. Cutting that out of my life might have been logical, but it felt like it would mean accepting this abnormality. And that would let it win. It was apparently important to me that I did not lose sight of my humanity like the Bright Cross had done.
We used the Bizarre Shop and the normal city library.
As soon as school let out, I rode my bike over and lost myself in the books until just before my curfew. Once home, I pinned notes up on a corkboard, connected related items with string, and recorded any ideas I had in a notebook. I couldn"t meet up with Kuroyama Hinoki everywhere I went. As long as we could share our information via email, we could continue our research uninterrupted. That had become our implicit understanding.
"The Silky, a white maid that protects the home like a Zashiki Warashi. The Tylwyth Teg that kidnaps only blonde children. The Gruagach that appears soaking wet at your door on rainy days to test your kindness. …There are an awful lot of fairies that look just like humans."
And all of them were beautiful women or girls. A lot of them had stories about marrying or having children with them but then having them vanish if you broke some rules.
"All fairies are weak to…iron? To make sure a mischievous fairy doesn"t enter your house, you just have to hang a U-shaped horseshoe over your front entrance. Is that like silver weapons for Erika?"
The tricky part was how these occult books often included what the compiler hoped was true alongside the simple facts. For example, that most every Western monster was weakened by holding a cross out toward it. …Including with the monsters that had existed in BCE times and thus before the cross had any special meaning. If it was that simple, I doubted anyone would still be so afraid of them that all the different species had their own names. If they could all be easily defeated with the exact same method, they would all be summed up with terms like "ghost" or "monster".
So was "fairies and iron" a case like that?
It would be best not to just a.s.sume that kind of all-purpose method worked.
"We call them all fairies, but they all seem to have different origins. Some were a species like that from the beginning, some are the forgotten G.o.ds of ancient religions, and some are humans who became fairies…"
The used bookstore and the library weren"t our only information sources.
When at home, I did not hesitate to ask Erika and Ayumi. They really didn"t like letting me have anything to do with the Bright Cross, but they still answered my questions.
"The Colosseum format has changed a lot, but if the underlying theory is the same, there"s one unwritten rule: the Five Battles Precipice."
"As you can probably imagine, that means that any Archenemy fighting 5 consecutive battles in the Colosseum will die somewhere along the line and will never reach the 6th battle. The two of us are exceptions, so we were feared as statistical demons."
In other words, that was the limit.
That would explain why the blue bunny girl had been giving me so many hints. To them, it didn"t matter which side won. As long as it was an intense battle where both sides were badly injured, the following Archenemies would go right for that wound.
I had simply been delighted at getting past the 1st battle, but the grim reaper"s clock was ticking. There was no getting off now that the ride had begun, so I could not let Itou Helen reach the solid wall of that 5th match. That mean we only had the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th matches to work with. And each of them was a true fight to the death that would wear down her life.
If they had matches 4 days in a row, that meant we were out of time on the 4th day.
That gave us at least half a week.
Could we really stop the Colosseum? Could we really crush the Bright Cross? I was far from confident. But I had to do it. At the very least, there was no hope at all if I gave up.
"Sure. I have gathered a certain level of information on the fairy named Hanesaki Minori, so I have compiled a report. Hanesaki Minori is registered with Private Elixir Girls High School. Her academic and athletic records are average. She does not stand out in her cla.s.s and her name occurs in the blog and SNS posts of the other students below the average rate. This is only based on my a.n.a.lysis of those posts, but she seems to be known as a girl with many love affairs and there are suspicions that she has been in relationships with other students and even teachers at the school. They were all genius girls with a promising future or elite female teachers, but it is all far too gossipy to say anything for certain. Whether it is true or not, I can only say that girls schools have their own issues."
Elixir. That meant she attended the high school division of Ayumi"s middle school.
And not standing out seemed at odds with all the rumors about relationships. I couldn"t imagine how people talked about someone like that.
I must have been staring at the smartphone screen for too long because my vision wavered sometimes. It felt like an invisible hand was grabbing at my brain.
I took some short breaks to hold that at bay, but I wanted to use all the time I had to keep working.
When I met Kuroyama Hinoki the Mermaid at the library, she was still wearing the hat, sungla.s.ses, and mask set. That seemed to make her stand out more, but it may have been like Ayumi"s scent ritual. If it helped her relax, I couldn"t exactly take it away from her.
She spread out a college notebook filled with pen and highlighter and explained.
"If you"re going to use the witch to her fullest, you should probably have her use the potions on the fairy as well as herself. A powdered potion can be thrown at her in a small bag and an ointment can be thrown at her in a small bottle. You could use a tranquilizer gun for an injection type, but who knows if they"d let her bring one of those in with her. If she can make an antidote or vaccine for herself, she could also fill the entire bug cage with gas. Maybe she could also rub the potion on a blade? Whatever the case, this looks really adaptable. It can be long-, middle-, or close-range and she can attack a single enemy or the entire area around her. Show Itou Helen this notebook and have her see what she can actually do. Even if she thinks she can"t do something, she might make a breakthrough with one of our ideas."
I was also able to speak with Itou Helen.
Not directly, of course. Just like with the blue bunny girl, I had no idea where she was. Once a day, I was allowed a short smartphone video chat at a predetermined time.
But that was better than nothing.
It let me get our results to her and she could prepare before the fight began.
"Boo. All you do is talk about Kuroyama Hinoki. Oh, I"m doing fine. My body feels kind of heavy, but I"m probably just too nervous to sleep well."
We had worn ourselves down physically and mentally, but we had worked together to gather a lot of information.
And we used that to sort through everything.
We had a college notebook containing a list of every fairy in that occult fairy encyclopedia that was identical to a human or could transform into one.
And we compared that with the information Maxwell had gathered about Hanesaki Minori.
We didn"t need to find the answer right away.
She was indistinguishable from a normal human at first glance. It had likely been a surprise for her when she was taken away to the Colosseum. She might have been more shocked than anyone.
So.
She was not a Baobhan Sith that looked like a blood-sucking beautiful woman but had hooves.
She was not a Skogsnufra that looked like a beautiful woman and seduced men but had what looked like a large tree hole on her back.
She was clearly not a headless Dullahan, a palm-sized Pixie, or a single-horned Unicorn.
"Human, female, goes unnoticed, lots of love affairs, prefers geniuses and elites…"
I divided up the information we had as much as possible and kept trying to search by hand.
It felt like carving down a large rock to find the speck of diamond hidden inside.
I had started with several dozen candidates, but I soon found myself with only 2 or 3.
The sense of accomplishment was accompanied by exhaustion bearing down on my body. I just about curled up and fell asleep right there.
But I had to give the answer first.
Yes.
I had found the answer!
"The Leanan Sídhe. Isn"t this it? She possesses people by falling in love with them and she"s beautiful but can only be seen by the person she"s possessing. And in exchange for providing her lover with great talent and inspiration, she absorbs their life force and lifespan…until they…die…!?"
My head was spinning.
Why hadn"t I noticed it until now? Had I really arrived at this truth with only my own ability? Who had given me the inspiration I used to get this far? It had all gone too well. The used bookstore, the library, all the information on Archenemies. It was all too convenient.
And this exhaustion.
Our next opponent was a Leanan Sídhe.
In exchange for great inspiration, that Archenemy robbed her lover of their life force and lifespan, leading to an early death.
Then what if the weight bearing down on our bodies - yes, most likely on Itou Helen"s too while she was trapped somewhere else - was more than just the exhaustion of all those late nights?
The air-conditioned library was silent. In that vast s.p.a.ce which felt as dead and cold as a sarcophagus in some ancient ruins, I belatedly looked over at my partner.
A hat, sungla.s.ses, and a mask.
That girl was unnaturally hiding her ident.i.ty and she smiled thinly at me from across the table.
"Kh…!"
With enough force to kick over the table between us, I practically collapsed forward as I grabbed at Kuroyama Hinoki.
No.
No!?
I heard a rustling sound.
The hat and some large ma.s.s slipped away. It should have been enough black hair to wrap all around her body. I had thought it was all shoved inside the hat, but that was wrong.
It all came away.
It was a wig. Which meant…
"So you figured it out."
The girl stepped back as I collapsed weakly to the floor.
The hat and wig had fallen away and she removed the sungla.s.ses and mask herself.
That revealed someone who looked nothing like Kuroyama Hinoki.
She giggled as she tied up her short brown hair with a hair tie. It wasn"t as much as Ayumi. Her hair seemed to emerge from two candy wrapper bows on either side of her head.
"A Leanan Sídhe…? But I doubt Hanesaki Minori is free to walk around outside…"
"Are you sure you want me to give you the answer? Each piece of inspiration I give you will only weaken you further."
Dammit…!
If it wasn"t actually her, it must have been a friend or family member. She didn"t talk like she was her either. Was she the Archenemy"s second just like me? Even so, I couldn"t believe she had started a fight outside t