But from the way he was talking, it didn’t sound like some unexpected fainting spell. It sounded like the shell-shocked drone of a boy who had Seen Things. Which made it all the more important that he went to the police.
“It’s not like anyone would believe me. If you’re that curious, why don’t you ask him? He spent the whole damn time just looking at us.”
The boy pointed at the white-haired youth, who nervously grabbed at his sleeve in response.
“What, am I wrong? You just stood there and watched! If you couldn’t do anything then, you could at least tell them about it now!”
“N-no! That’s not how it was! I tried to help you guys…but…but there was nothing I could do…!”
The boy gritted his teeth, all but baring his fangs toward the young man.
The young man’s eyes floated downward in response, no longer able to withstand the withering, accusing gaze.
After a short sigh, the boy turned toward the hospital gate again.
“…Whatever. If you can’t do anything, I’m going by myself. Stay out of my…way…”
Just as he took a step forward, the boy’s body lurched to the side, hurtling rapidly toward the ground.
“H-hey!”
I tried to lend a hand of support, but I was too far to reach him. The guy who exhibited superherolike powers just a bit ago reacted even later than I did, so dazed was he by the boy’s abuse.
There was no sign that the boy was preparing for the fall. His head hung lower than the rest of his body as it hurtled to the ground.
“Dammit…!”
Just as I prepared for the worst, Hibiya’s body stopped in midair on its back, as if hanging by a set of strings.
It took a moment to figure out what had happened, but by the time I spotted Momo falling on her rear end out of the corner of my eye, the force keeping her in place no longer there, everything was making sense.
“Shintaro, this guy…I don’t think he should go back in there.”
The air around Hibiya seemed to shimmer a bit before Kido appeared, her face obscured by the purple hood she drew over her head.
Her expression, underneath the long hair snaking out from the sides of her hood, was a mixture of surprise and panic.
“Huh. Nice catch. But what’re you talking about? He’s kind of falling apart on us. I know he’s involved in some crazy junk, but shouldn’t we leave this to the hospital? Or the cops?”
“…I don’t think either of them are gonna be much use. The way he is now, we’re probably the ones who can help him out the most.”
Kido, her eyes fixed on Hibiya as she held him up, looked like she was chewing on something bitter and disagreeable as she spoke.
I approached Kido, looking at the boy’s face as I attempted to see what concerned her. The color in his glassy, half-open eyes was beginning to acquire a red tinge, as if filling with blood.
“Whoa…What’s…”
“Yeah. I heard the story. This is kind of gonna be a pain.”
Now Kido sounded like she was recalling some kind of bad memory.
The change to the boy’s eye color was familiar to all of us. The Mekakushi-dan’s eyes all did the same thing whenever they used their “abilities.”
That’s what Kido probably meant when she said the authorities would be no use. None of them would be much interested in a supernatural phenomenon like this.
“W-well…so, what now? Is this guy even okay?!”
“I don’t know what kind of ability this boy has…but it’s too dangerous to put him back in there. Let’s take him back to the hideout.”
Lifting the hand she was using to support Hibiya’s hips, Kido hoisted the boy upward, bringing his face by her shoulder.
“Right. Kisaragi, tell Kano to get a bed ready for him. Oh, and I don’t want Marie freaking out, so have her stay in her room with Seto for me, okay?”
Momo, still on the ground, shot upward in response to Kido’s orders. She saluted.
“R-right! Roger that!”
“Ha-ha…You don’t have to act so stiff like that.”
Kido looked confused for a moment, then flashed an extremely uncharacteristic smile. Her eyes were as sharp and searching as they always were, but her grin brought some level of warmth to them, like a mother with her child.
“Oh—right. What’s your name?”
As if suddenly recalling something, Kido turned toward the white-haired young man, Hibiya still in her arms.
“M-me? …Konoha. I think.”
It may not have been intentional, but the guy’s self-introduction, delivered in his now-trademark warble, didn’t exactly exude confidence.
The moment he gave his name, the phone in my hand vibrated. Ene was flailing around on-screen again, clearly in an agitated state.
“Huh. Konoha? Listen, judging by what I heard, I think we can help you guys out with…whatever happened to you. Or at least we can watch over this kid until he’s stable again. Would you mind coming along? Just so we could learn a little more about this?”
Konoha nodded deeply, his face as resolute as I had seen it up to now.
“Great. Let’s get going…I’m kinda hungry, though. Maybe I could have Kano make some dinner…Hey, Kisaragi, did you contact Kano yet?”
“Uh, Kano didn’t pick up, so I’m calling Seto right now…Oh! Hello? This is Momo!”
Even though no one was physically there, Momo suddenly stood straight as a board as she began speaking.
“Hey, sorry to bother you, but we’ve got this sick young boy we’re taking in there, so we were hoping Kano could get a bed set up for…He’s not there? Umm…Okay! That works! Also, if we could get dinner going…And once that’s done, she wanted you to go on standby with Marie in her room! Sound good? See you soon!”
Momo’s pace noticeably accelerated toward the second half. I pondered over whether Seto comprehended it all.
Putting her phone away, Momo breathed a sigh of relief, as if just completing some perilous high-stakes mission.
“Thanks, Kisaragi. Did Kano go somewhere?”
“Uh, yeah. I guess he told Seto he wouldn’t be back today.”
“Ugh…Every time you need him, he’s just useless.”
My heart stung a bit. Ene said the exact same thing to me earlier.
What kind of errand would Kano be running at a time like this? Given his aloof, easygoing personality, I could picture him having a lot of friends. Out partying the night away? Oof. I hate seeing people younger than me be so much more successful at life.
“Okay, let’s go back. It shouldn’t be too far from here. Let’s try to hurry.”
With that, Kido’s eyes turned red: Turning on her ability for Momo’s sake, I figured.
Thanks to Kido, none of us were visible to the outside world. This, despite the fact that everything looked normal to me. It was weird.
“Uh, master?”
As I passed under the hospital gate and marched behind Kido, my phone suddenly gave me a faint buzz.
“Mm? What?”
Looking at the screen, I saw Ene standing there, her face serene—a total one-eighty from a moment ago.
“Um…do you think maybe we could go home now? Along with Momo, too? I’m kind of worried. I feel like something bad’s gonna happen…”
It was rare for Ene to act so shy and passive, rubbing the oversize sleeves of her top together as she spoke.
If I went to a circus and there was a ring of fire in front of me, she was the sort of girl who’d shout, “C’mon, let’s try hopping that go-kart through it, master!” She was undeniably off her game today.
“What? This is all kind of your doing in the first place, man. I mean, I wanna go home just as bad as you, but…”
“Well…why not…?!”
“I dunno, I’m kind of wondering about that boy. That, and I doubt Momo’s in any hurry to leave. Besides, no way the ‘boss’ is gonna let us go just like that.”
“You…don’t think?”
The disappointment was written on her face. I racked my brain, trying to figure out what she was trying to hint at, before I noticed something else.
“Wait, are you…”
“What? What, what?! No! No no no! I’m Ene, all right?! I’m not any kind of girl like that! You get the craziest ideas sometimes, master…”
“Are you running out of battery juice?”
“…Huh?”
I wasn’t sure what Ene was shouting about for a moment, but my question immediately froze her in her tracks.
Then, she hurriedly erupted into a smile, batting her arms around in joy.
“…Ohhh! Oh! Right! The battery! Exactly! Once it runs down, boy, does that take the wind outta my sails!”
“Yeah! Yeah, that’s what I figured! I’ll plug you in once we make it to the hideout, okay? So cheer up a little!”
It was the battery all along. The battery display in the corner was looking pretty feeble; she must have expended a lot of power at the amusement park.
I couldn’t say how she was running around in my phone, to be exact, but given her unpredictable behavior over the past few hours, it’d be great if a little charging was all it took to fix her up.
If it didn’t, and she started going even crazier on me, I didn’t know what I’d do.
“Ah-ha-ha…Ughh. You know, though…I think you’ve changed a lot, master.”
“Oh? You think so? I can’t really tell, myself.”
“I dunno, you just look like you’re having fun. It’s nice, isn’t it? You’re making friends, too.”
“Uhh? You call these guys ‘friends’? It feels more like they’re dragging me halfway across Japan and back, pretty much.”
The idea of referring to these weirdos I met just a few hours ago as “friends” was something I was reluctant to warm to.
Certainly, though, they seemed like nice enough folks.
Seeing them extend a hand to a boy they never met before, trying to help him through his problems…You don’t see that kind of Good Samaritan stuff much these days.
“But that’s good, though, isn’t it? Having people boss you around kind of suits you, I think, master.”
Ene gave me a gentle, but somewhat forlorn, smile.
Suddenly, my mind unexpectedly flashed up a smiling face from my past. A smile I lost some time ago. A smile that always rattled around somewhere in my skull.
“Yeah, maybe so.”
I placed the smile back in the mental file cabinet I kept it in. It wasn’t that I was trying to forget it. Not that, exactly.
“Oh, absolutely so! And, you know, I think I’m kinda like that, too. A girl who keeps pushing people forward, to bigger and better things. What do you think? Kinda startin’ to fall for me, maybe?”
“Uh, before that, could I technically even call you a ‘girl’?”
“Whaaaat?! That’s awful, master! I’m totally a girl, okay? All girl, all the time!”
Faced with regular old Ene, shouting and carrying on in the palm of my hand, I hurried my stride a bit, figuring I’d better transport her to an AC adapter pronto.
KAGEROU DAZE 02
In the swaying train car, a slightly humid, yet comfortable breeze blew through the cracked-open window.
The view beyond it was morphing from the earlier endless string of mountains. Now it was mountains of gray asphalt and metal—the signs of civilization.
“Woww…This is great. Really great.”
I couldn’t help but smile. Who could blame me? Has there ever been a more exciting summer vacation for anyone, anywhere in the world?
The world outside the rural wasteland I was born and raised in was far larger, and far more charming, than anything I conjured in my mind.
The views that flashed by the window, things I had only seen on TV before now, stoked my curiosity like a well-stocked toy store’s window.
And the one thing that excited me the most was sitting right before my eyes.
“Uh, gross? Why’re you so, like, enthralled by that view? Are you crazy or something?”
“Hee-hee-hee! Well, what, it’s exciting, isn’t it? Whoa! Look how huge that building is! Hey, did you see that, Hiyori?!”
“Ugh, can you just shut up for a sec? I used to act like that, but this is, like, so boring now.”
Hiyori, facing me in the opposite seat, stared out the window with me, her attitude as frigid and off-putting as always.
Oooh, I just wish I could capture this in a photograph.
Before we left, I fell on my knees and begged my father to lend me that which I longed for most—a digital SLR camera.
I could hear it whispering at me now, from underneath my seat. “If not now,” it muttered at me, “when?” That was how picture-perfect Hiyori was, every instant that she lived and breathed.
“This is gonna be so great, though. I mean, there’re so many places I want to check out! What should I see first?”
“First…? Uh, how ’bout you just, like, walk around town a little? If this is enough to floor you, wait’ll you’re all walking in it and stuff.”
Hiyori didn’t offer so much as a glance at me, making the distracted proposal as she kept staring at the vista she just described as “boring.”
“Y-you mean, uh, together…?”
“Huh? Uh, who said anything about being together? Just, like, go out yourself whenever I’m not doing anything.”
“Oh. Okay…”
The conversation was over. And I never captured her attention even once.
The day after the phone call, I loudly greeted her in the school hallway, laboring under the mistaken notion that we enjoyed a closer relationship now. “Good morning!” I yelled. “Isn’t this weather great?!” She walked right past me, making me the laughingstock of the school and reminding me of my position on her totem pole.
No, Hiyori held no special appreciation for my presence. I looked potentially useful to her, and that was quite literally it. That was the only reason she invited me on her summer vacation trip.
Perhaps due to that, the frequency of our conversations was the same as always, i.e. zilch. Right up until the day we left, the only communication we shared came through spontaneous, patchwork phone calls from Hiyori. It was oppressive.
For my part, I always loyally sat by our hallway telephone, on vigilant guard duty to ensure I never missed a single call.
Sometimes a week would go by with no contact. Sometimes, she’d call me twice on the same day.
All the conversations were purely business, but every one of our exchanges were burnt photographically into my memory, to the point that I could close my eyes and recite every word.
This quiet warfare dragged on, heaping incalculable strain and exhaustion on my shoulders as it did. I could go on about it for ages. But I fought bravely—to the point where even my mother, worried over my health at first, was soon pouring me tea in the hallway and wishing me a good night.
And convincing my parents took just as much of an effort. If not more.
On the evening I told my parents “I want to see the city on my summer break” for the first time, they locked me out of the house and I had to sit there, trembling in fear after every howl from a distant mongrel. This’ll never work, I thought. I had to come up with some kind of believable reason. So I concocted what I thought was the perfect excuse—a special summer school session I could attend.
But they kicked me out again. “You wanna study that much,” they said, “do it at home!” I was forced to fend for myself against the raccoons that lurked around the farm, always ready for a free meal.
So I went back to the drawing board, reading through whatever relevant resources I could find. Soon, I had another test balloon to toss their way:
“There’s this culture from someplace in India (I don’t recall exactly where) that I want to study, and there’s this school holding a special course about them, but they’re only holding it in this one region of Japan, and this summer only; they’re having a famous r
esearcher from India run the course, and they don’t sell the textbooks or anything here either, so I’ve got to go, you see?”
Nobody could accuse me of not trying.
Final negotiations with my parents extended to three in the morning, to the point where I was forced to make outrageous declarations like “All I can think about is India” and “If you wanna stop me, you’re gonna have to wipe India off the map first.” In the end—and with a final “Where did I go wrong with you” deathblow from my father—they agreed to my trip.
So here I am, a weird kid obsessed with studying the culture of a certain region of India (I’ll need to look up where sometime), willing to go at least halfway toward cutting off ties with my parents to earn a seat on this train.
I had all but abandoned myself to the fates for this, completely through my own doing, but the real surprise to me was Hiyori.
I was far too ashamed, of course, to tell Hiyori I slogged through all of that for her sake. “It just so happened there’s this seminar where I could study Indian culture happening at the same time,” I told her, “so my parents gave me permission.” I was expecting the full bore of her quiet scorn in response, but when I told her, she gave me the most positive response I heard from her yet. “That’s pretty neat,” she said. “I just love, you know, researching and stuff?”
You can never guess what kind of things people are into. After everything I went through, her appraisal was easily enough to change my life. I made sure to record and edit up the “I…love, you” bits, of course, saving it to make an all-important upgrade to Talking Hiyori holding down the fort in my bedroom.
As I recalled my past glories, I noticed our train sliding past a long platform.
It was packed with people scurrying to and fro, like some of the bigger county fairs I attended.
“Oh, uh, we’re getting off next stop, Hibiya.”
“Huh? Oh! Oh, okay!”
I stood up to prepare.
Struggling to fetch Hiyori’s shockingly huge suitcase from the upper shelf, I hoisted my comparatively minuscule backpack up on my shoulder.
“Okay, ready to go!”
The train rapidly decelerated, taking my legs with it.
The Children Reason Page 5