Prologue: Natsuki Takeuchi Runs Away
Natsuki stood in the empty room with her uniform on.
She had gotten rid of everything as part of putting her affairs in order, but she had never had much in the way of possessions to begin with.
She had taken up her identity of Natsuki Takeuchi a year ago.
She had begun living in this place at that time, but since she knew she would have to leave someday, she hadn’t bought much to put in it.
It was a three-bedroom apartment; quite large for someone living alone. It should have been for a family, and in fact, she had stolen it from some family named Takeuchi that had lived there at some point.
Natsuki had never met the Takeuchi family that lived there before, and she didn’t know what had happened to them. She had purchased Natsuki Takeuchi’s identifying documents, and the apartment had come along with it.
It would be a lie to say that Natsuki felt nothing when she looked at that bare room. She felt lonely.
Natsuki walked out of the room.
Before leaving the apartment, she cast a glance into the next room. This was Sakiyama’s room.
Sakiyama was a strange man who had been hanging around Natsuki ever since she’d first come to this town. He hadn’t stopped following her even after learning that Natsuki was a serial killer, and intrigued by his stoicism, she had taken him in.
The walls of his room were covered in photographs of Natsuki.
He wasn’t exactly subtle about his interests, but Natsuki didn’t care. They were only photos; he could do what he liked with them.
Still, she was a bit galled at seeing a few pictures of Mutsuko Sakaki and Aiko Noro mixed in with the photos of her. A stalker was supposed to fixate upon one girl and follow her around forever. What kind of a stalker branched out?
Natsuki wasn’t telling Sakiyama that she was leaving. She felt no responsibility to do so. If he wanted to follow her, he could. Whatever he was off doing at the moment, when he returned, he would surely realize immediately that Natsuki wasn’t coming back.
Natsuki had been aware, for some time now, that it was in this town.
She had been afraid, at first, that it had come here after her, but she could detect no particular motive behind its actions — which suggested, at the least, that it wasn’t after Natsuki.
At the same time, she could not afford to let it find her.
Ever since she had sensed its presence, she had done her best to stay under the radar. She had commuted to school during rush hours only, and when class was over, she had blended into the crowd on the way home.
But as long as she remained in high school, she knew that she could be tracked with one glance. The Seishin High School uniform was unique. Once it knew she was attending that school, she would find it difficult to escape.
As long as it was moving around the city without any particular objective, there was always a chance it might happen upon her.
There was also a chance that it might leave town, but she couldn’t count on that. If she was going to get away, she had to do it now, before she was discovered.
Natsuki checked the clock in the apartment.
It was Friday at 2:00 PM in early December. Even if she went to school now, she wouldn’t make it in time for classes.
Of course, Natsuki had no intention of going to school. She was going to run away.
She had considered sending in her notice, but it would take time for it to be accepted. Besides, as long as she abandoned the Natsuki Takeuchi identity, it would probably work itself out.
Of course, in that case, there was no reason for her to have put on her uniform. The fact that she had put it on without thinking indicated some degree of lingering attachment.
She was just making plans about where to go after she left the city when suddenly the intercom buzzed.
She hadn’t had any plans to mail her things out, so perhaps it was someone selling something. She could have just ignored whoever-it-was, but she decided that the most efficient method would be to drive the person away quickly and then leave.
Natsuki opened the front door.
“Heya, Natsuki! Let’s walk to school!” a girl in a Seishin High uniform called out in a carefree voice.
It was Yurika Maruyama, who lived in the apartment next door.
Normally, Natsuki would run into her at the front door and they’d walk to school together; Natsuki would never have expected her to come to visit her, especially at this time of day. She assumed she’d gone to school a long time ago.
Yurika was Natsuki’s friend... or at least, that was what Yurika seemed to think, and Natsuki did have to admit she was probably closer to her than anyone else she knew at school.
“Why are you waiting until now to go?” Natsuki asked.
“I slept in,” Yurika admitted.
“Why don’t you just take the rest of the day off?”
Natsuki saw little point in going to school for its own sake. They probably wouldn’t even make it in time for last period if they left now.
“That would be unthinkable for a righteous hero like me,” the girl declared. “I might not be able to resist the call to oversleep, but that’s different from choosing to stay home, right?”
Natsuki was surprised. She had always read Yurika as a rather slovenly type, but it seemed she was actually quite earnest.
Natsuki thought for a moment, then picked up her bag.
✽✽✽✽✽
They left the station and headed for the school.
Natsuki had initially intended to find a place to ditch Yurika, yet she had remained with her instead, coming along this far. She could have also just begged off at the time, but she’d found a strange hesitation to do that.
Where they were right now, it would only be a five minute walk to school. Yurika walked with the leisurely pace of one who knew that hurrying wouldn’t do any good, and Natsuki matched that pace.
“By the way, how did you know I was at home?” Natsuki asked.
“Hmm, I sort of sensed someone was there.”
Yurika had always been a person without shame, always seeming to ignore Natsuki’s continued rejections of her attempts at clinginess.
Once before, Natsuki had asked her why she was so persistent.
“Neighbors should be friends, shouldn’t they?” Yurika had answered.
Even if Natsuki ignored her completely, Yurika would walk next to her anyway, resulting in them always arriving at school together. At first, Natsuki had thought about killing her, but she viewed killing people close to her as a last resort. The walk together had happened again and again until she’d eventually stopped minding, and by now, she almost sort of liked it.
Natsuki thought, and said, after a pause, “Did you say ‘hero’?”
“Took you a while, huh?” Yurika asked. “Yeah, I’ve become a hero. I’m gonna beat up all the bad guys. Heroes are pretty rare, though, huh? I keep wondering if some monsters or a demon lord might show up soon.”
Natsuki wasn’t sure if she was serious or joking, but she decided to play along. “I see. I do know about heroes, though.”
“Huh? Really? You’re not just saying that?” Yurika asked.
“The enemies they defeat come back wanting to be their allies.”
“Isn’t that a monster tamer?” Yurika asked.
Natsuki felt a bit better seeing someone recognize her reference. To have silly little conversations, to laugh at trivial things... perhaps that was what Natsuki had been wanting all this time.
&nb
sp; But as of today, that was over, too.
She couldn’t stay in this city any longer. Every second she delayed increased the chance that she would be found. She had to get away as soon as possible.
Her decision, however, came too late. As she struggled with her own reluctance, destiny caught up with Natsuki.
A man was standing there, only a few meters ahead.
Natsuki hadn’t noticed it until it was this close. She hadn’t even considered that it might be suppressing its aura. It had never occurred to her that a being of such overwhelming power might resort to something so sneaky.
Her body locked up, her vision narrowed from fear... and then, she noticed something strange. The man was looking at her in surprise.
Perhaps Natsuki had been right that it wasn’t looking for her. That was why it was surprised.
As it took in the sight of Natsuki standing there, it paused. That was the one silver lining in this terrible situation.
Natsuki was hesitant to leave Yurika all alone, but she judged that it would be more dangerous to stay with her.
So Natsuki began running with all of her might.
Chapter 1: The Abrupt Final Boss Battle
“A love interest who can’t fight becomes invisible! That’s the law!” Mutsuko declared.
Yuichi Sakaki stared listlessly at his older sister, who was as high-strung as always.
As usual, their topic for the day had nothing to do with survival.
It was after school on a Friday. The members of the survival club, along with their advisor, had gathered in their club meeting room in the old school building. Yuichi was sitting at the long table, chin in his hands, making it clear that he wished he were somewhere else.
The phrase “The Future of Love Interests!” was written on the whiteboard. The hyperactive girl standing in front of it was Mutsuko Sakaki, the president of the survival club and Yuichi’s older sister.
She was a slender girl with long black hair that was decorated with accessories that looked like knives. She was considered one of the most beautiful girls in the school, but her eccentric personality tended to keep the boys away.
The label “Big Sister” hung over her head, visible to Yuichi’s eyes alone. This was thanks to an ability known as “Soul Reader,” which displayed a person’s role in the world.
“Mutsuko... that one really hurt!”
The one who spoke was a petite girl sitting next to Yuichi: Aiko Noro, whose label was “Love Interest.”
She had originally been “Vampire” and had briefly become “Vampire Princess,” but “Love Interest” appeared to be her current default setting.
“After that comment about having a love interest power level of five, too...” Aiko murmured a moment later.
Yuichi overheard her; it seemed she had taken the comment spoken by Chiharu Dannoura during the spirits incident personally.
“Sakaki! Why can’t I escape the feeling that you’re talking about me, too?” Kanako demanded.
Kanako Orihara was the club’s vice president, and she was sitting across from Yuichi. She had a gentle air about her. Her own label had previously been “Isekai Fanatic,” then “Isekai Writer,” but it was currently “Love Interest III.” She was a published light novel author, and was currently rather well known around the school as a result.
The last member of the club should have been “Love Interest II,” Natsuki Takeuchi, but she seemed to be absent today.
Of course, even if she had shown up for class, she probably wouldn’t have come to club afterwards. For some reason, recently, Natsuki seemed to be going home the moment class ended.
Natsuki’s label had originally been “Serial Killer,” so the thought occurred to him that she might be leaving to get up to no good, but there was no way he could ask her about it, so he wasn’t sure.
“I don’t have abilities, but I can certainly fight.” The woman who spoke up from some ways away was a bespectacled teacher: their club advisor, Makina Shikitani.
She had previously been their enemy, but for some reason, she had locked off her own abilities and was now taking part in their club. She was a being known as an Outer, a creature that existed outside of destiny — although Yuichi still didn’t know the full scope of the implications of that.
“You think you’re a love interest?” Yuichi asked in disgust.
“Hmm? Of course I do. If I could have a label above my head, it would surely read ‘Love Interest,’” she said.
She didn’t have a label because she was an Outer; labels revealed a person’s role in the world, and Outers had no role.
Well, at least it makes it easy to identify who my enemies are... Yuichi had decided that he had no qualms writing off any Outer he met as an enemy.
“So when you say they become invisible, you mean they’re not popular?” Yuichi asked.
Mutsuko often spoke as if everyone knew what all her slang and abbreviations meant, so Yuichi had gotten into the habit of immediately confirming any time he had the slightest doubt.
“It’s not about popularity!” Mutsuko declared. “It’s more that you don’t even realize they exist!”
“But what does that have to do with their inability to fight?” Aiko asked. “I think love interests usually don’t fight, do they?”
“Oh, I forgot to mention! I’m only talking about battle stories,” said Mutsuko. “Of course you don’t need to fight in love comedies and stuff! You can assert yourself well enough just by flirting! But in a battle story, it’s easy to turn invisible if you don’t have any combat abilities. If you’re in a battle manga and you can’t fight, you never get any screentime! If you can’t be a love interest who supports the protagonist in battle, you’ll get forgotten, little by little!”
“Screentime, huh?” Aiko murmured.
“Screentime...” Kanako whispered to herself thoughtfully.
“Like the team assistant in a sports manga, you know?” Mutsuko asked. “Sports manga is usually about the friendship between the men, so the love interest ends up feeling superfluous!”
Now that she mentioned it, that reminded Yuichi of an extremely popular sports manga. There had been a female assistant at the start, but at some point people had stopped caring about her, and she had more or less vanished as a result.
“Does that mean... I should learn how to fight?” Aiko asked, as if making up her mind about something.
“Hey, hey. What are you planning to fight, and how?” Yuichi asked.
“Well... um, you know, like how my brother did,” Aiko said. She was trying to keep it vague in front of Kanako, but she was referring to her vampiric powers, which could indeed make her quite a powerful fighter.
“I... I think I can use magic!” Kanako insisted, adding to the bizarre things being said.
Kanako had actually used magic in the past, but her memories of that incident seemed to have grown hazy since then. She had always been the type of girl to run from any sort of unrealistic phenomena she encountered, so when something happened that she didn’t understand, she probably rewrote the events in her mind after the fact.
“Well, setting aside the screentime stuff, feelings of intimacy between a man and a woman can really be affected by time spent together!” Mutsuko declared. “The closer you are and the more time you spend together, the more intimate you become! This is called the mere-exposure effect, also known as Zajonc’s Law, since it was first proposed in an essay by American psychologist, Robert Zajonc! It states that the human brain develops a fondness for the familiar!”
“Doesn’t that go without saying?” Yuichi asked.
“Yes, it does go without saying,” his big sister said. “But most people don’t actively think about it, do they? Whether or not you’re conscious of something makes a huge difference! So if you want a member of the opposite sex to like you, it’s important to keep close to them for as long as you possibly can! You also need direct contact!”
“Not sure how much I trust what you have to say abou
t romance, Sis...” he muttered. She hadn’t been in any relationships as far as he knew, and she didn’t have any prospects in that regard, either.
“Um, but... if they don’t like you from the start, won’t it have the opposite effect?” Aiko asked, raising her hand.
“Well, they get used to you,” said Mutsuko. “Even if they’re thinking, ‘I can’t stand that jerk!’ If you spend enough time together, you might eventually develop an attachment!”
“Does it really work like that?” Yuichi asked suspiciously.
“The human mind is really simple,” Mutsuko said confidently. “It thinks, ‘I’m with them all the time. If I didn’t like them, I wouldn’t let them get so close.’ So it fools itself into thinking that it must like them. It’s similar to the suspension bridge effect: that it’s easy to get someone to accept a proposal if you make it while standing on a suspension bridge. It’s because the mind mistakes the excitement of being in a high place for the excitement of love.”
“Um, does that mean your feelings for someone could just be a misunderstanding?” Yuichi asked.
“In an extreme sense, yes. It’s all an illusion, a figment. Romantic feelings are just the necessary side effect of humans acquiring higher brain functions. As animals, humans could really pick anyone to pair off with in order to procreate, although genetic diversity is best. But humans have become intelligent, so we can’t bring ourselves to accept just anyone. We had to start developing reasons to accept them, so we came up with love... at least, that’s my thought on it, but I acknowledge there are counterarguments against that.”
Aiko seemed skeptical, but Mutsuko’s explanation didn’t seem to be over yet.
“There are actually romantic techniques based off of this human tendency,” Mutsuko said. “Want to hear them?”
“I don’t buy into your theory, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t curious,” Aiko said intensely.
Kanako also feigned a lack of curiosity while leaning forward a little bit.
“Well, one is getting them to give you presents and help you out.”
“The present strategy?” Aiko tilted her head in confusion at the mention of this strategy, which didn’t sound novel at all.
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