The Taste of Betrayal Do ESP"ers Long for Fantasy?
Part 2
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"Huh? What? Um, "Ekkyuzu mi"? Um, young lady, uh, "pulizu, spiku, j.a.panizu?""1
The language she"s speaking sounds vaguely familiar. It"s almost English, but not quite. Shoutkun, like most middle-school students, is suspicious of this strange foreigner who has suddenly run up to him and started talking. But where did this girl come from?
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Well, I guess it"s not that unusual these days for an elf-like child to be wandering around Tokyo. The day before yesterday, I saw on the news a shinigami-like2 man who was nothing but skin and bones. His name was Charles Smith, age 32, from Wisconsin, USA. He was wandering around an alley with a scythe in tattered black clothes, and was arrested by the police for violating the Swords and Firearms Control Law and the Narcotics Control Law. Due to the recent supernatural events, weirdos from all over the world are flocking to Tokyo en ma.s.se. Since there was someone who looked like a shinigami, why can"t there be a kid who looks like an elf? That"s not the problem. The problem is that she somehow slipped past my surveillance net.
But… hmmm. I"m quickly beginning to doubt my memory. I feel that, recently, I haven"t been taking the unmanned surveillance seriously, and because she"s a small child, it"s possible that she just managed to slip through a narrow gap in my surveillance. And, when I tried touching her mind with my psychokinesis, I definitely didn"t feel that she had an origin point for superpowers. I"m pretty sure it"s not a sudden appearance of a random ESP"er. In that case, it just means that she somehow was hidden from my surveillance or something. I relaxed. Since I"m not a police officer or anything, it"s not really a big deal. It helps that she"s just a nice, foreign little girl that doesn"t speak j.a.panese. At least, I think. And even if she does tell someone about how she saw an ice-user fighting with the world"s darkness, people will think that it"s nothing more than a child"s delusion.
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While I was trying to rea.s.sure myself, Shotkun, who was stuck with a little girl and was at a loss of what to do, had decided to take her back to Amanoiwato with him. She had seen him, after all, so he thought that he shouldn"t just leave her with the police. In addition, the excited little girl had made a troubled expression and clung to him when he had said the word "police". And besides, Shoutkun himself had been recruited to Amaterasu after witnessing Toukchan and being brought to Amanoiwato.In light of his own experience, he thought that he should respond in the same way, even if she was just a little girl. Shoutkun continues to amaze me. He"s able to learn and grow from his experiences. However, Shoutkun seems to have forgotten that in his case, Toukchan called Kaburagi-san before their actual arrival at Amanoiwato. It"s fine to bring someone with you, but you really should let us know in advance. Shoutkun has become pretty reliable, but he still has a long way to go.
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While Shoutkun took the girl"s hand and led her to Amanoiwato, I called Kaburagi-san, who was in the middle of work. When I told her about the situation, she laughed and told me that she was going to Amanoiwato to see it for herself. She wanted to see this foreign "elf" girl, who could slip past my psychokinetic surveillance and seemed to be a ESP"er hunter – based on how excited she was when she witnessed Shoutkun"s powers – with her own eyes. To Kaburagi-san, the little girl seemed competent, promising, and enthusiastic. If she clears the background check, she"s more than qualified to become a member of Amaterasu.
But there"s one thing. I am a little worried that the average age of Amaterasu would fall too much if this little girl joined it. Right now, the ages are: 24 (Kaburagi), 25 (Sago), 15 (Touka), 15 (Shouta), 10 (Ig), and 9 (little girl approx. age). Everyone is rather young. I can"t help but feel like Amaterasu is becoming a youth group. It"s a little early, but in addition to the little girl, let"s find a candidate that"s an old man who"s quiet but impressive. It"s likely that the battle against Kaburagi-san to determine to final candidate will start again.
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Along the way to Amanoiwato, Shoutkun and the little girl are trying to overcome the language barrier and learn each other"s names. Though, even with a language barrier, it"s usually pretty easy to learn names. You just have to point to yourself and repeat your name, then get the other person to do the same.
The little girl learns quickly and before long was easily calling him "Shouta". Shoutkun was struggling. He pointed at the little girl and repeatedly called her "Baba" 3.
Baba? Does Shoutkun even know j.a.panese? What sort of name is he giving her, "baba" means "old woman" in j.a.panese, you know? I guess it"s fine. Neither of us can p.r.o.nounce her real name correctly anyway.
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Babchan (temporary name) was odd. As soon as we saw a tree, she indicated that she wanted a branch, so Shoutkun broke one off for her. Then, as we walked to Amanoiwato, each time we pa.s.sed by a woman, her face would turn bright red for some reason. But we managed to safely arrive at Amanoiwato, with Kaburagi-san arriving right behind us. Feigning ignorance, Kaburagi-san inquired about the new person while enjoying her afternoon tea. Ig listened in to the conversation about Babchan from her perch on the top of my head.
"*Ara*, who"s this cute little girl? What"s going on?"
"Sorry, Kaburagi-san. She witnessed my battle with the world"s darkness. I didn"t know what to do, so I decided to bring her here."
"Well, that"s a good decision. But it would have been better if you contacted me in advance."
"Oh, that"s good. This is the girl."
"Wos ih siht maown?" (Who is this woman?)
"I have no idea what she"s saying."
Shoutkun made a troubled expression and put her arm around Babchan"s shoulder. Babchan said nothing, she just stared at Kaburagi-san with great interest while pulling on her sleeve. Kaburagi-san told them to leave it to her; she put down her teacup and crouched in front of Babchan, made eye contact while smiling gently, then slowly started to speak in many different languages. At first, Babchan was confused, but she immediately twitched her ears and began to listen intently (it seems she can independently move both ears). But, we soon realized it. Babchan had no reaction to anything at all.
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Kaburagi-san talked for a while, then eventually stood up and made a helpless gesture. She had given up.
"This girl is probably speaking a pidgin/creole language."4
"Huh?"
To Shoutkun, who looked at her as if she was speaking some alien language, Kaburagi-san raised an index finger and put her other hand on her waist. She started to explain while in this "onee-san" pose.
"Simply put, it"s a minor hybrid language that doesn"t appear in the dictionary. For example, when the United States and China trade, in a port city where that trade is thriving, a unique dialect language that"s a mixture of English and Chinese may be born. This child language of English and Chinese is a pidgin language. When the pidgin language is established and used as a native language, it changes to a creole language. Together these are called pidgin/creole languages."
"Oh, I see… that knowledge doesn"t seem very useful."
"It"s useful right now, isn"t it? I think this girl is speaking a pidgin/creole language that"s a mix of several major and minor languages. I"ve learned greetings in about 800 languages, in descending order of speaker population. She didn"t react to any of them, so that"s probably the case."
I see, as expected of a Tokyo University graduate. Her knowledge is quite extensive. I"m thoroughly convinced by her argument. In other words, this child came from some small, distant country. Since we don"t understand each other"s language, it"ll be difficult to invite her into Amaterasu. Well, I hope Kaburagi-san can do something about it (I"m relying completely on her for this matter).
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While looking at Baba who is hugging and playing with Ig at his feet, Shoutkun says timidly.
"Um, err… I, uh, I think this girl may be an elf. I mean, she has long, pointy ears, you know?"
Involuntarily, Kaburagi-san and I looked at each other and burst into laughter.
An elf.
An elf!
That"s quite the dream he has there!
But unfortunately, there are no elves in this world.
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This is Shouta speaking very poor English (young lady is in j.a.panese though). He"s asking her to please speak j.a.panese. ↩ Shinigami = Death G.o.d, grim reaper ↩ Her last name is "Vava", but j.a.panese people sometimes have a hard time distinguishing between the "v" and "b" sound, so Shouta mistakenly calls her "Baba". ↩ Pidgin/creole languages are incomplete forms of a language that"s based on one or several other languages. A creole develops from a pidgin ⇒ ↩