Your life savings? Nice one. But won’t offering all of it cause problems later? You could have at least kept enough to live on.
It’s okay. I have an idea. Monika could think now, at least, but the pain in her head hadn’t fully subsided. That meant she had to offer something else.
“Okay, I heard you out,” the boy said. “Are you okay now? And while I’m pretty sure you’re joking, I just want to make it clear that I’m not going to accept all that money from you, okay?”
“Okay. But I don’t think I’ve done enough, so can I offer one more thing?”
“Sure, if listening to it is all I have to do,” the boy replied, dumbfounded. He probably didn’t understand at all, but he seemed like a considerate enough person to indulge a little girl’s crazy story.
“Um... my body,” she said. “Despite how I look, I’m 15, so don’t worry about that. Then if you want to marry me after, I’ll be a good wife to you for the rest of my life!”
“That’s way too much for helping you out a little!” he shouted.
“Big Brother, would you mind going home without me?” the girl asked icily. There was something frightening about her eyes. But the pressure in Monika’s head had completely vanished, signaling that she’d reached the necessary quota.
Ah-ha... If you get married, you won’t need your savings, is that it? Well, I guess that does amount to offering something equivalent to your life. But now that you’ve made that promise, you’ll have to keep it, you know?
The boy sighed. “I don’t understand any of this, but are we done now? Can we go to the hospital?”
“Yeah. Ah, I feel better, so don’t worry... I can walk for myself.” Monika stood up under her own power.
She took the lead down the alleys, with the other two following.
Once they were out on the main thoroughfare, Monika turned her right hand to the two of them. “Now... I want you to forget everything that’s happened.”
It was “Distant Memories,” the power to make them forget they’d ever met. This had been Monika’s plan all along.
No matter how much she owed them, if she didn’t have to pay it immediately, she could make them forget everything. If they forgot about the loan, it might as well not exist. Monika had no intention of giving him her entire fortune, or of marrying him. With the power she’d focused while they were walking through the back alleys, she could easily erase the memories of the few minutes they’d spent together.
The two then wandered off into the shopping district, as if they didn’t know Monika at all and were completely unaware of what had happened.
“What are you doing?” At some point, the source of the voice had appeared on Monika’s shoulder. It was round and white and looked like a daifuku with eyes and a mouth.
“How do you like that, huh?” Monika said gleefully. “I outmaneuvered you! The headache’s not starting up again, which means I’m all good, right?”
“No... you’re not good at all...”
Monika ran back to Aki and retrieved the Evil God’s right eye that had fallen on the ground next to her unconscious form.
In Monika’s mind, everything was settled. Of course, she’d come to regret it very soon...
✽✽✽✽✽
“What do you mean, marry you?!” Aiko shouted.
“Why are you mad, Noro?” Yuichi asked. “It’s just childish nonsense...”
“I-I’m not mad. It’s none of my business anyway.” Aiko seemed to settle down immediately, though she was still a bit grudging about it.
“I could get angry about having my memory erased... but it didn’t cause any huge problems, so I’m not gonna bother,” said Yuichi. “Anyway, what does this have to do with Soul Reader?”
“Right.” The daifuku spoke proudly, descending from Monika’s shoulder to the center of the round table. “First off, let me explain that I’m the embodiment of Monika’s prayer. In other words, I exist to manage Monika’s payment for services rendered, and to make sure she adheres to her contract.”
“So you’re a little like a guarantor, or a manager?” Aiko asked, poking the daifuku mochi.
“Something like that. But when I think back on the story now, I must say... that was a nasty trick you played,” the daifuku said, glancing at Monika. “You’d better not keep this up out of elementary school. You’ll never become a proper adult.”
“Shut up! Besides, I’m not actually in elementary school!”
“Wasn’t your head going to explode if you resisted paying the price?” Yuichi asked. He remembered her saying that, but if it was true, then she should have died a long time ago.
“No way. She couldn’t pay the price if I killed her, after all. That was just a threat,” the daifuku proclaimed.
“Huh? Really? But my head really felt like it was gonna split in two!” Monika cried. She looked surprised; it must have been news to her, too.
“You offered your full savings and your body for life in exchange for his help,” said the daifuku. “That was a fair deal. But then you took away Yuichi’s memories, which upset the balance sheet. So I took it upon myself to confiscate an ability you considered indispensable, Soul Reader, and give it to Yuichi. Unlike your money and your body, that was something I could give on my own authority. In other words, Soul Reader was the price for his memories.”
“So I saved her life, and in exchange I got my memories stolen and a weird ability forced on me... I’m not really sure what I got out of this deal,” said Yuichi. “Oh, now that I have my memories again, can I give back Soul Reader?”
“As I said before, while I can give Monika’s powers to other people, I can’t take them away from you.”
Yuichi was dumbstruck by the arbitrariness of it all. “Okay, so. We only have one wish, and you’re gonna use it to save your friend, right?”
“Well... um...” Monika stammered.
It was starting to sound like participating in the Divine Vessels War wasn’t going to solve the Soul Reader problem.
“Fine,” Yuichi said. “That’s okay. You can save your friend. I’ll manage somehow.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. Having to see a few weird things is a small price to pay to save a human life.”
“Thanks...” Monika said after a pause, in a rare show of graciousness.
“So, now I know how we got here,” said Yuichi. “Let’s talk about what we’re going to do now. A resonance has started, and as Makina said, it doesn’t rain, but it pours. In other words, it’s gonna continue for a while. That means you need to give the Divine Vessels to me.”
Monika had two Divine Vessels: the right and left eyes of the Evil God.
“Huh? But then you...”
Monika had left them with Yuichi at one time, but she seemed hesitant to let go of them now. Perhaps she was worried that if he had the Divine Vessels, it would throw his life into disarray, and that was why she had taken them and hidden in the oni settlement.
“I accepted your terms before because you seemed hesitant about handing them over, but I really think it’s too dangerous for you to hold onto them,” Yuichi said.
He’d been thinking this over since hearing the story and learning that Outers weren’t necessarily invincible. Monika had been grazed during an incident over summer vacation, too, but in the situation she’d described, she had nearly died. He couldn’t just leave her with the Divine Vessels.
“Okay,” Monika said. “But I can’t put everything on you, Yuichi. We can each hold on to one.” She handed what seemed to be a glass eye to him.
“But even if you only have one, they’ll still come after you,” Yuichi objected.
“I’m risking everything I have on this. I can’t just leave it all to someone else. This is the best compromise I can do; splitting them up will reduce the chance of them coming after me, and it means that even if one’s stolen, we still have a chance.”
“Okay,” said Yuichi. “It stinks that we can’t detect the resonance... but at least we n
ow have Dannoura getting in touch with us when it starts up.”
Monika seemed determined, so Yuichi gave up on trying to persuade her any further.
✽✽✽✽✽
By the time Monika’s long tale was wrapping up, Ryoma Takei’s fight with the Evil God was nearing its end, too.
The park was in a wretched state. It was practically unrecognizable.
The ground had been scorched, with deep gouges taken out of it. In places, what had once been dirt or sand was now luminous glass. This phenomenon — the result of vitrification caused by high heat — was one sign of the fierce battle that had been raging here for some time.
The ground was also littered with machines. Lumps of metal-like substances, possibly parts of a vehicle, were scattered all around, billowing smoke and sparking from their broken ends. They were clearly beyond use.
There were people lying on the ground, too.
People in armor, people in robes, people in outfits that resembled spacesuits. Some had animal ears, tails, or wings (which called into question whether or not they were actually “people”), while others were revealed, via severed and broken limbs, to be at least partially mechanical.
All had either been summoned by Ryoma, or had joined him under their own power.
All had been defeated.
Ryoma himself had been battered and cut, and it took all his strength just to stay standing, propping himself on the sacred sword, the Ame-no-Ohabari.
Meanwhile, the young man who had called himself the Evil God remained unharmed, as did the boy who was his ally.
Ryoma dug deep inside him, then raised his sword up high. The Ame-no-Ohabari. It was the goddess Ame-no-Ohabari-no-Mikoto, incarnated as a sword.
Ryoma raised the sword high over his head, puffing out his chest. It was a stance that left him completely vulnerable, but he didn’t care about that. The difference in ability had been made abundantly clear by now; there was no point in prioritizing defense.
“Let’s go, Mikoto!” he called. “Give it all you’ve got!”
“I shall, Ryoma!” Ame-no-Ohabari-no-Mikoto responded. The sword’s blade began to glow white.
“Graaaaah!” With an ear-splitting howl, Ryoma swung the sword forward.
He was about ten meters away from the target, but that was well within the sword’s range.
The slash tore through the ground as it drew closer to the man, but he brushed it aside with one hand. The force of the deflection changed the swing’s trajectory. It kept going, further distorting the terrain of the park, until it collided with the barrier wall in a fruitless explosion of power.
Ryoma’s legs gave out. He slumped into a heap.
It was no exaggeration to say he had given it absolutely everything he had. Most of the power came from the sword itself, but the attack had also drained Ryoma’s stamina greatly.
“Wow, I didn’t think you’d be so much weaker than him...” The leisurely comment came from Ende, who walked up to stand beside Ryoma. Since she hadn’t participated in the battle, she still sounded perfectly energetic.
“Hey, you... little help here?” Ryoma snapped. “You’ve just been reading books the whole damn time...”
“Sorry, but this is pretty much all I can do for you,” said Ende. “I don’t know any martial arts, so I can’t fight directly.”
“So... what am I supposed to do? I’m seriously out of options, here...”
He had called every ally he had. He’d used hougu, paopei, hihou, and artifacts. Not one of them had worked on the man.
“Eh, it should work out,” Ende said flippantly.
“How do you know?!” Ryoma shouted angrily.
“You pass.” Now it was the young man who sounded flippant. “No need to worry, by the way. They’re all still alive. The robot girls probably just need a little fixing, too. Well, the unmanned vehicles are probably beyond repair... I didn’t bother holding back with them.”
“What the heck?” Ryoma burst out.
“I’ll permit your participation in the Divine Vessel War. You still have a lot to learn, but I hope the battles to come will make you strong enough to keep you in the fight.”
The things the young man was saying suggested he hadn’t even been giving it everything he had. He wouldn’t have had the presence of mind to merely disable his opponents if he hadn’t been massively more powerful than them.
The walls of darkness covering the park suddenly collapsed. The sun was now hanging in midair, a little past its zenith, illuminating the park as if it had never been gone. The young man and his partner were nowhere to be seen.
“Past noon already, huh? I’ve totally missed school...” Ryoma muttered.
Saturday classes were morning only. There was no point in his going to school now.
“I thought you’d be wiped out, but you sound like you’re in pretty good shape,” Ende commented.
“Not as good as you. So, did you know he was going to let us go?”
“Well, when an enemy appears in the prologue who’s so powerful you don’t have a prayer of winning, they’ll usually come up with an excuse to let you go. Otherwise the story would be over before it even started.”
Ryoma was dumbfounded by the baselessness of her statement.
“But seriously, it only worked out that way because you’re a protagonist. If you’d just been some nobody, he’d have used you as a demonstration of his power or his cruelty or something.” As usual, Ende’s baffling explanations went in one ear and out the other for Ryoma.
After he’d calmed down a little bit, he couldn’t help but realize just how bad things were around him. The park was beyond salvation, so Ryoma decided to leave it as it was. But he couldn’t just abandon his comrades.
The questions of where to take them and how to treat them were giving him a headache.
✽✽✽✽✽
It was around noon, just after Ryoma’s battle had finished.
In the abandoned hospital, Natsuki and Alberta’s eyes had been abruptly diverted to the new woman who had appeared. She was wearing the uniform of an employee of a large bank, and she held blood-stained scissors in one hand.
Her deportment was perhaps what was standard in her profession: light makeup and hair neatly tied at the back of her head. She seemed to be going for “prim,” but she couldn’t hide the erotic aura that seemed to pour off of her.
There was no one in the serial killer world — Natsuki included — who didn’t know this woman’s name.
Aki Takizawa.
She was known by the appellation “the happiness seeker,” but her true nature couldn’t be further from what that innocuous label implied.
There was a rumor that she hadn’t been seen around town lately, but Natsuki would never have expected to see her turn up here.
“Aki, dear! We must not be on the same page somehow... why would you do that?” Alberta complained as she returned to her senses.
It was natural that she’d want to complain, but the wording itself was bizarre, given that Aki had cut off her right arm.
Natsuki watched both women carefully.
Alberta’s focus was on Aki. She didn’t seem like she’d attack Natsuki right away, but Natsuki’s arm and leg were still immobilized thanks to Albert’s curse.
Natsuki didn’t know what was going on, but she wasn’t about to assume that Aki was on her side. That didn’t necessarily mean that she was on Alberta’s side, though.
“Stay away from Aki, no matter what.” That was what underworld denizens said to each other.
She was powerful, but that wasn’t the root of the problem. A strong killer could still be useful to others.
The real problem, as they saw it, was her personality.
She was capricious. There was no way of knowing what might set off her temper. One minute you’d be talking, and then for some reason you could never understand, she’d fly into a rage.
Then, she might kill you on the spot, or she might not say a word, then come back to kil
l you years later, as if on a whim.
This made her impossible to deal with, and as a result, even in the underworld, she was kept at arm’s length.
Natsuki knew all this, and so she kept quiet, watching.
The situation that she’d come from had been the worst possible scenario. Things couldn’t actually get any worse, so there was a chance that whatever happened here might turn things in her favor.
“You know that our orders were to bring Natsuki back alive!” Alberta paused, and thought. “Wait, were you trying to stop me because you thought I was trying to kill her?”
“Sorry. I misunderstood,” Aki said, as light as could be.
“I see. Well, misunderstandings happen.” Alberta, seeming not to mind, went to pick up her severed right arm. The bleeding had stopped at some point.
Alberta pressed the severed arm against its stump, and incredibly, the fingertip of the hand moved. She formed a fist with it, then opened it. She flexed the elbow a few times, then rolled the shoulder to test the range of motion.
“Hmm? Natsuki dear, why the slack jaw? You must have known I could do this, right? Of course, I can’t grow new ones...”
The incredible speed of her recovery was causing Natsuki to stare in disbelief. Just what kind of abilities had she received from him? What did he need with a monster this powerful?
“Hmm, actually... what did you come here to do, anyway, Aki? Surely you know that I can handle Natsuki by my—” Alberta was interrupted — this time, it was her left arm that went flying.
Aki, who had been standing close to Natsuki, was now in front of Alberta. Fresh blood trailed from the scissors in her right hand, and it was easy to see that she’d just used them, but Natsuki hadn’t even seen the movement happen.
“I beg your pardon!” Alberta snapped. “Stop this right now, before I get angry!”
Even if she could restore her lost limbs, it surely wasn’t without risk. At the least, she could probably feel the pain.
“Go ahead,” Aki retorted, indifferently.
The entirely one-sided “fight” proceeded.
Natsuki couldn’t follow Aki’s movements at all, and it was likely that Alberta couldn’t, either.
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