“...I believe you.” Natsuki’s eyes met Yuichi’s through the mirror before she gave her diagnosis.
“You believe me?” He was surprised that she accepted it so easily. He certainly wouldn’t, if someone said that to him.
“Yeah. There’s definitely a zombie here. A puppet, too, I think... ‘Witch’ I’m less certain about... but I wouldn’t be surprised.”
“...You make it all sound so matter-of-fact. How can you tell?”
“Wax food doesn’t make you hungry, does it? Even if it’s made to look just like the real thing.” She made that sound like it was the explanation, but it made no sense to Yuichi.
“I don’t get it! What is all this? Witches and vampires and serial killers? Where’d you all come from? Why are you congregating in my class?”
“Who knows? I’m sure it wasn’t intentional. There are quite a few others like me out there, so it probably only seems that way because you can identify us. But we usually try not to interfere in each others’ affairs, so you shouldn’t expect any problems.”
Natsuki withdrew her blade.
“Ah, well. It’s not as if I came here to kill you. But one word of warning: Don’t tell anyone else about me. If you do, I’ll kill everyone in this school, then disappear. If you want to see a bloodbath, go ahead and talk. But I’ve been looking forward to high school, and I don’t want to have you ruining my life here.”
And that was that, it seemed. Natsuki walked past the row of toilets and put her hand on the sill of the window to the outside.
“Best of luck to you this year, Yuichi Sakaki.”
With that, she leaped out the window.
“Huh?”
An instant later, the door opened, and a male student walked in.
His arrival must have been why she left so quickly. But he couldn’t believe she’d jumped out the window without a moment’s hesitation. The bathroom they were in was on the fourth floor!
Yuichi fled.
He knew he should have checked to make sure Natsuki hit the ground safely, but he couldn’t stand to stay there another second. His mind was a jumble of confusion.
Seeing a few words is no big deal? Of course it’s a big deal! He ran back to the classroom, grabbed his bag, then raced home at full speed. The speed itself caused heads to turn...
Chapter 2: The Vampire is Dying Somewhere Around There
The little girl, Mutsuko, gazed intently at Yuichi.
They were sitting on the porch of a classical Japanese house out in the country. It was the house they had lived in when Yuichi was still a small child.
It was nighttime, but the porch was brightly lit by the gentle glow of a full moon above.
It was late summer. The hum of the insects was noisy around them.
“Mom and Dad won’t make it.”
Yuichi didn’t understand what she meant, but being a child, he assumed it must be something lethal.
If his awesome big sister, who knew everything and could do everything, said so, it must be true.
But that was no reason to just accept it.
“Why not?” Yuichi asked.
“Some day, there’s going to be an explosive change... a catastrophe. Mom and Dad won’t be able to handle it. Adults never can. They aren’t equipped to deal with drastic changes in their lives.”
Yuichi screwed up his face, tears streaming down his cheeks. It was too much. The thought of never seeing his beloved parents again was like a clamp pressing down on his heart.
She continued in somber tones. “I know it hurts to hear it, but I can only tell a certain number of people. So I chose you.” She clearly wasn’t joking.
“Yori... What about Yori?” He looked back through the gap in the sliding door at their little sister, Yoriko, sleeping wrapped in a terrycloth blanket.
“Yori... she might not make it, either.” Mutsuko choked the words out.
“No way! How can you say that? She’s still so little! That’s not fair!”
“...I just don’t think she’ll be able to take it...”
“Don’t worry! I’ll beat up that stupid cat... that stupid cats-trophy thing! I’ll protect you and Yori and Dad and Mom and everyone!” Yuichi took a bold leap off the porch, throwing a fist into the air as he swore his oath.
Mutsuko’s eyes filled with tears, moved by his brave promise.
“Yes... That’s right. It’s not like me... I’m not the type to freeze in the face of despair. Okay! Leave it to your big sister! I’ll make you...”
And that was when he woke up.
“That was... a dream, right?” He thought he’d been remembering something, but it vanished into a mist the moment he woke up. The memory was now fuzzy, a million miles away...
He sat up and looked out the window. It was still dark outside.
He’d been tossing and turning in bed for hours, but he must have finally gotten to sleep. Now that he was awake, it was no good. He couldn’t get back to sleep. He instead headed out into the hallway, walked up to Mutsuko’s door, and knocked. She was the only person he could talk to about the cause of his insomnia: his “sight.”
Part of him expected her to be asleep already, but she answered the door right away.
She was in a Chinese outfit known as a pao — commonly referred to as “kung-fu clothes” — which she was apparently wearing as pajamas. “Is it time to talk about big sister fetish games?!”
“No! And why do you even want that?”
“Well, I’d be worried if they were little sister fetish games.”
“It’s neither!”
“Oh, well. Come on in!”
She beckoned him in, and he took a seat at the kotatsu once more. The room was as cluttered as ever.
“Hey... remind me what ‘catastrophe’ means?”
“It’s a mathematical theory. It’s used to describe orderly systems disrupted by abrupt chaotic phenomena. It can also refer to a disastrous change in an otherwise everyday life... Is that what you came here to ask me?”
“Oh, no, that’s not important. I came to ask about... what did you call it, my Soul Reader? I’m starting to see even weirder things...”
Yuichi described his first day at school.
Of course he left out his encounter with the “Serial Killer,” Natsuki Takeuchi. Her claim that she would slaughter everyone at school if he talked about it weighed heavily on him. And given what had happened at breakfast that morning, he had his doubts that Mutsuko could keep a secret. There was no way he could tell her.
“Very interesting!” Mutsuko’s eyes shone.
“Er, could you please not call it interesting?”
“So the labels changed?”
“Yeah. At first they all just said ‘Classmate,’ but then they started changing to stuff like ‘Ace Striker.’”
“And then your eyes started to hurt, and you started picking up scary stuff like ‘Zombie’ and ‘Vampire’? Any aliens, time travelers, or psychics?”
“Nothing that strange just yet...” Though he couldn’t pretend an alien was that much stranger than zombie.
“Well, you might see them soon enough!”
“I really hope not... So, does that tell you anything?”
“Good question. From what you told me before, the words seemed to represent something about a person’s relationship to you, but...”
“I can’t see what ‘Witch’ and ‘Vampire’ would have to do with me.”
Sure, “Big Sister” and “Friend” described relationships to Yuichi, but most of the labels didn’t fit that scheme at all.
“I see... that means we’re in Act 2! You’ve leveled up and reached a new stage of your abilities! But as for what the labels mean now... Hmm, I wish we could get a broader sample... It’s almost like the content of their soul... Their personality or something...” Mutsuko was drifting off into her own little world again.
“Hey, stay with me.”
“Oh, sorry. So, what does my label say? Same as before?”
&nb
sp; “It still says ‘Big Sister.’”
“What the heck? Could you at least give me a more interesting label?”
“It’s not my decision!”
“I’ll think over what Soul Reader means... but be careful, okay? You might start seeing things some people would rather keep unseen. And if they know you can see them, they might come after you.”
Yuichi gulped. He couldn’t help but think of “Serial Killer,” Natsuki Takeuchi.
“Come on, like that would happen. It’s not like they’re really zombies or witches, so why would they attack me?”
“What makes you think that?”
“Huh? Well, society couldn’t function with all those weird creatures around...” He tried to say it to convince himself, but the words felt hollow to him.
“Really? I figure they could make it work, so long as they all lived incognito.”
Natsuki had said something like that, too. Without sight like Yuichi’s, who would ever know?
“Well, it’s probably nothing to worry about. As long as you don’t tell anyone what you’re seeing, the people hiding their identities won’t have any reason to come after you!”
Yuichi was stunned into silence. Natsuki had already come after him, and she knew about Soul Reader...
“What’s wrong?”
“Oh, nothing. Got it. I won’t tell anyone.”
Yuichi headed back to his room.
It was a long time before he got back to sleep.
A few days had passed since that first day at school.
Yuichi had come to class, as usual.
He looked around the desks. The labels were still the same.
“Dating Sim Protagonist” and “Dating Sim Childhood Friend” were joined at the hip, as usual. “Serial Killer,” “Vampire,” and “Fake” were giggling about something. “Anthromorph,” the rich girl, was being fawned on by the groupies that had already clustered to her. The unsettling “Witch” was gazing at “Witch’s Beloved.”
Yuichi’s initial panic at the thought of being dragged into something incredible had eased as his days settled into routine. In other words, nothing had happened. No suspicious incidents at all.
“Serial Killer” Natsuki Takeuchi hadn’t come after him, and they hadn’t interacted beyond the superficial pleasantries expected of classmates. Their relationship was nothing more than that.
“Vampire,” “Zombie,” and “Anthromorph” seemed to just be ordinary students, too.
Their strange natures were obvious to Yuichi’s sight, but apparently not to each other. Even if they were, the policy seemed to be “live and let live.”
So I get to be the only one living in fear of a serial killer, huh?
It was absurd. Everything was at peace around him, but because he couldn’t stop seeing the labels, he couldn’t not think about it.
Shota came up to him while he was lost in thought. “Hey, your big sister’s super cute!” His voice strained with excitement. He must have seen Mutsuko when she and Yuichi were walking to school together.
“Yeah, people do say that about her.” But before Yuichi could add that he couldn’t really be objective on the subject, he felt someone watching him.
He glanced over at the seat to the left and in front of him. The gaze belonged to “Witch,” An Katagiri. It pierced eerily between the gaps in her long bangs. She hadn’t tried anything on him, but having her stare at him like that from time to time still sent a shiver up his spine.
Give me a break already! I’m having enough trouble with the serial killer!
Fortunately (well, for him), her attention was usually focused on Takuro in the seat next to hers. Yuichi broke from her gaze and looked ahead again.
He wanted to help Takuro, but he was worried that interfering might just cause more trouble. And anyway, she wasn’t doing anything all that awful to him that Yuichi could see. All she did was stare at him, occasionally talk to him, and bring him boxed lunches.
Yuichi had occasionally glanced into the lunches to see if there was anything suspicions in them, but no. No roast newt or roots carved to look like people. Just your standard handmade lunches. So for now, he would just watch and wait.
Of course, if Takuro were ever in real danger, he would try to intervene... but for now, this was between the two “lovebirds.” There was nothing he could do to stop it.
“Hey... What’s with that chick?” Shota whispered to Yuichi, apparently noticing An’s creepy gaze as well.
“How should I know?” He felt the same way, but that didn’t make it any easier to answer.
After class, Yuichi visited the roof, and gazed down at the courtyard between the four school buildings, deep in thought. The sight of it calmed him for some reason. Maybe it was all the greenery.
People didn’t go to the roof very often, so it was a perfect place to have a nice, quiet think. And as always, the object of his thoughts was Natsuki Takeuchi.
She had said she wouldn’t kill people she knew, but she had also said she killed people on a daily basis. What if she had killed someone recently?
He wasn’t the most righteous guy, but it didn’t seem right to let that stand.
She had said that if her identity ever got out, she’d kill everybody and run off. So what if it got out in some other way? He’d need a countermeasure in mind in case that came up.
But the real question is... how do you stop a serial killer?
If she were just a normal high school girl, he could probably beat her in a fight. But there was clearly more to her than that.
The day after she had jumped out the window, he had inspected the wall outside the bathroom. There had been a long gouge in it, leading from the window to the ground. She must have stuck something into the wall to slow her descent. No normal high school girl could do that.
He couldn’t see the whole picture. She’d stuck him in the back with a blade of some kind, so he assumed her preferred weapon was a knife, but it could be something else.
Maybe I should have told Mutsuko about this...
One of his classmates was a serial killer. What would Mutsuko say if he told her that?
Well, she would grin and ask a million questions, of course. And it was obvious what would follow: She’d want him to fight the serial killer.
He didn’t want to do that. Still, keeping it all to himself was hard. He wanted a confidant.
He pondered over who the ideal confidant would be. Someone tight-lipped, with the power to fight the serial killer if it came to it.
As if someone like that is just going to drop into my lap...
Yuichi sighed.
Who would even believe that there was a serial killer in their class? No one except his big sister.
Yuichi’s thoughts kept going around in circles.
Just then, he noticed a label hovering in the courtyard.
It read “Vampire.” It was moving. He’d never seen a label move around on its own.
He strained his eyes until he could make out a blurry form beneath the label, which he eventually realized was a person. More specifically, a girl.
It must be Aiko Noro, he realized. The girl from his class.
It was hard to tell what she was doing at this distance, but there was something strange about it. She seemed to be running circles around the courtyard. At first he assumed she was training, but realized that would be an odd thing for her to do in her school uniform. There was also a strangely desperate air about her.
What’s going on here?
Yuichi pulled a pair of binoculars out of his bag. They were military binoculars with a night-vision setting, and he wasn’t carrying them around by choice. They were another thing Mutsuko had pressed on him.
He used the binoculars to get a closer look.
Aiko’s face was twisted with fear. She kept glancing behind herself as if she were being chased, although Yuichi couldn’t see anything behind her.
Suddenly, something caught her leg, and she fell. A pool of blood began t
o spread around her.
“Huh?!” Yuichi seized his bag and broke out into a run.
✽✽✽✽✽
Aiko lay on the ground, screaming in pain.
Blood was pouring from her inner thigh and pooling on the ground.
A skeleton dressed in tattered clothing was pulling itself up from the earth below. Its hand was stained with blood. It must have been what had cut her.
School was over. She was out in the courtyard, being attacked by a skeleton monster. It was only late afternoon, yet the sky was pitch black. The powerful unreality of the situation only added to her feeling of helplessness.
I’ve got to get away.
She couldn’t even stand, yet she tried with all her might to get her distance.
Another strike like that would kill her. But for some reason, the attack didn’t come.
Maybe she was safe? She looked up again, hopefully.
The skeletons were there. There were four of them: the one that had just come out of the ground, and the three that had been chasing her around. They did nothing but stand there, gazing at Aiko with their empty eye sockets.
A boy a year or two older than her was standing behind them.
He was as white as a sheet, and for some reason, he seemed afraid. Perhaps it had been the sight of the blood pouring out of her.
“Wh-What’s going on here? This wasn’t the deal! Explain this!” the boy shouted angrily to the black kitten on his shoulder. The kitten meowed in response, the sound seeming completely out of place in the situation.
“Is it possible she’s just human? But that means...”
Their eyes met for a moment, in which she implored him silently to stop.
But that gesture only restored his bravado. He had noticed that her eyes had turned red.
“Ah-ha! I see. So you really aren’t human! Well? Are you about to give me all you’ve got?”
But she wasn’t about to give anything. She hadn’t turned her eyes red intentionally. It didn’t signify some sudden rush of power. It was just her vampiric regeneration activating to stop the loss of blood.
Aiko was terrified. Someone was about to kill her for reasons she didn’t understand. It was like a nightmare, and all she wanted to do was wake up.
The World's Strongest Little Brother Page 3