The World's Strongest Little Brother

by Tsuyoshi Fujitaka

  “It’s fine, but what, are you guys dating or something?” Shota sounded jealous.

  Aiko looked flustered. She hadn’t thought of a cover story, apparently. “No! Um, the truth is, I was passing by and caught sight of Sakaki helping my grandmother who was passed out on the street, and then Sakaki passed out too... I guess from sympathy pains... so I picked them both up and took them to our place... um, that is, the hospital we run... A-And I was so moved by what he did, I was all, ‘What are we, kindred spirits?’ And that’s how we became friends!” Aiko looked at Shota with upturned eyes. She’d tried to improvise the story on the spot, but it had devolved into nonsense somewhere around the middle.

  “I see. You’re amazing, Noro. You carried two people at once?”

  Yuichi stared at Shota in disbelief. He didn’t seem to doubt her story at all. He seriously believed that?

  “Y-Yeah, she’s really strong,” Yuichi said in desperation. If Shota didn’t doubt the story, he might as well back her up.

  Aiko just glared at him. Even though it was her own story, she apparently didn’t like being called “strong.”

  “Hey, let’s eat lunch!” she said.

  “Shota, sometimes I think you’re just a really amazing person,” Yuichi said. He meant every word.

  “Huh, I am?”

  The three of them resumed their lunch together. Yuichi was shoveling down his food, but Shota seemed to be struggling with the awkwardness. There was nothing for the three of them to talk about.

  After sitting in discomfort for a while, Shota suddenly pointed at Yuichi. “Hey, Noro, did you know this guy carries around a ton of weird stuff?”

  “Huh? Like what?” Aiko latched on to the subject eagerly, apparently hoping to dispel the awkwardness.

  “Sakaki, show her what you’ve got in your pen case.”

  “Why?”

  “Just do it!”

  Shota didn’t wait. He was sitting across from Yuichi, so he was in a position to reach into the bag himself. After a little rummaging, he pulled out a leather pen case. There was nothing special about the case itself, but it was stuffed so full, it was bursting at the seams. Shota undid the clasp and scattered the contents onto the desk.

  “Hey!”

  “Oh, chill.”

  “Don’t tell me to chill!”

  “See? Look!” Shota picked up a pen and showed it to Aiko.

  “So what?” she asked, looking confused. She stared at the ordinary-looking pen.

  “Sakaki, explain.”

  “No!”

  “Fine. You notice anything weird about it?” Shota asked.

  He handed her the pen, and she began to investigate.

  “Weird...” she murmured to herself after playing with it for a while.

  “Right? It’s called a tactical pen. It’s a weapon.”

  A tactical pen was indeed a pen that could be used as a weapon. It was designed for self-defense: heavy, and made from durable hard plastic that could be stabbed into a joint or a vital point.

  “Now, you see this on the back of the pen?”

  “Yeah.” She touched the protrusion that a person probably wouldn’t notice unless they were holding it.

  “That’s a glass breaker. Apparently it’s for breaking car windows.”

  In other words, Yuichi thought, if you were trapped in a car, you could use a glass breaker to get away. As a high school student, Yuichi didn’t need one, but Mutsuko had still put it in because it was “totally awesome.”

  “Sakaki... why do you have these?” Aiko asked.

  “It’s my big sister! She just puts this stuff in there!” Yuichi cried.

  Mutsuko had a tendency to pick out the strangest things and stuff them in his bag without asking. No matter how often he threw them out, she wouldn’t stop, so he had eventually just given up.

  “There’s this one, too.” Shota pulled out another pen. He pulled off the tip to reveal a sharp blade.

  “Huh? A knife?”

  “There’s a knife attached to the cartridge. He says it’s called a pen knife. He’s got all kinds of weird stuff like that. I can’t help but remember them.”

  Shota picked up another of the alleged pens. There was a clicking noise, and a flame lit up at the top of it.

  “Huh?” Aiko let out a stunned noise.

  Yuichi sympathized. He’d feel the same way if it were someone else’s stuff.

  “That one’s called a pen lighter,” Yuichi said. His pen case was full of such long, thin tools, all designed to look like pens.

  “Where do you even buy this stuff, y’know?” Shota really seemed to be enjoying himself.

  “Shut up! Leave me alone!” Yuichi responded in anguish.

  “Sakaki... Don’t get arrested, okay? Be careful, especially at night.” Aiko sounded concerned for him.

  Yuichi was at a loss for words. Being caught and questioned was his greatest fear. He always tried to avoid policemen when he could.

  “You’re the one who pulled them all out! Put them all back! Oh, be careful with that!”

  Shota had obediently begun to return the materials to the pen case. But as he reached for the ruler, Yuichi reached out to stop him.

  “That could cut you. It’s sharpened on one side,” he explained.

  “Uh, that’s a little too dangerous...”

  One side of the steel ruler had been sharpened to a razor’s edge. You could get hurt if you touched it unknowingly.

  “My sister reads a lot of old manga. It’s a bad influence on her.”

  “Just what the hell kind of manga is it? I’ve never heard of anything like this.”

  “...I’ve also got sharpened bike spokes and stuff...”

  Shota was flabbergasted. “Sakaki, I think you need to have a good, long talk with your sister.”

  “I try, but it never works,” Yuichi mumbled.

  They finished their lunches, and Yuichi parted ways with Aiko and headed for the second-year classrooms by himself.

  He went to 2-A. It was his sister Mutsuko’s classroom. He opened the door and looked inside.

  “Ah, Yu!” Mutsuko saw him immediately, although Yuichi hadn’t actually come here to see her. “Were you lonely for your big sister? You just couldn’t wait until after school, so you came to see me at lunch!” she cried out, delighted.

  “That’s not it!” Yuichi protested.

  Mutsuko had a habit of monitoring anyone who entered and left a room. According to her, it was a survival technique; you had to always be watching to make sure no one suspicious got in.

  The girls quickly gathered around. “Hey, what, that’s your little brother? He’s cute!”

  “Hey! Don’t butt in just because he’s hot! He’s mine!”

  “No, I’m not yours, actually... um. Excuse me. Could I ask a question? Is there someone in this class named Rokuhara?”

  “Rokuhara’s right over there,” someone said.

  Yuichi pushed through the second-year girls to make it into the classroom. He walked around in front of a boy sitting at a desk in the middle of the room. The boy had his head on his desk, and his face was covered. But it was definitely him. The guy who’d attacked Noro.

  “Hey. Could I talk to you for a minute?” Yuichi said.

  The boy’s face twisted in shock as he saw Yuichi. “Y-You’re...”

  The two of them headed for the courtyard. A number of students were there, eating lunch, but they avoided those students and headed for an isolated corner.

  “Rokuhara. I was rather surprised to see you come to school like nothing happened...”

  Hiromichi Rokuhara. Here in the light of day, he seemed somewhat on the timid side.

  Yuichi was initially convinced that the name on the letter Aiko had mentioned would be a pseudonym, that her attacker might not even be a student at that school, which would make him harder to track down. This made the truth feel almost like an anticlimax.

  “What do you want?” Rokuhara asked fearfully. Above his head was t
he word “Upperclassman.” It had been “Apprentice Monster Hunter” the day before...

  “Look, I’ve got some questions about what went down yesterday.” Yuichi decided to skip the politeness and get right to the intimidation. This guy had attacked Aiko. Why stand on formality?

  “It has nothing to do with me anymore! I failed! So just leave me alone already!”

  “Huh? ...Hang on a minute, here. What do you mean, you failed?”

  “I couldn’t slay a monster in time! It’s crap! It’s so wrong! I thought I’d get to leave this stupid world behind! I thought I was special!”

  “How selfish can you get? You hurt Noro, you know. Aren’t you even going to apologize?” Yuichi demanded, drawing closer to Rokuhara. This casual talk of killing people set his blood boiling.

  “Who cares? She’s a monster!”

  “Shut the hell up! What the hell excuse is that?!”

  Rokuhara sucked a short breath and cringed in the face of Yuichi’s hostility.

  Yuichi decided to swallow his rage for now. He had come to ask questions, after all. They wouldn’t make any progress like this.

  “I need to ask you about some things. Ready?” he asked.

  “No! I don’t have anything to say!” Rokuhara cried.

  The guy was stonewalling. Realizing that he wouldn’t buckle to threats, Yuichi tried a new tactic.

  “...Look, my name’s Yuichi Sakaki. I’m Mutsuko Sakaki’s little brother.”

  “You’re Sakaki’s... little brother?”

  “Yeah. If you won’t talk to me, I’ll just have to ask her for help.”

  “Okay, fine! I’ll talk!”

  Sis... what the hell are you doing in that class? Rokuhara’s sudden attitude switch was a little alarming. He’d expected her to be causing trouble for her classmates, but not enough to provoke such a dramatic reaction.

  “Why did you attack Noro?” Yuichi demanded, knowing that would be the first step to figuring out countermeasures.

  “It was a test. To pass, I just had to slay one monster, any monster, by yesterday.”

  “What made you think Noro was a monster?”

  “I can see it. Monsters have a black aura around them. I have a special power!”

  What utter nonsense. Or so Yuichi would have thought, if it hadn’t been for recent events. Now that he himself had special sight that tipped him off to the existence of vampires and serial killers, he couldn’t dismiss it so easily.

  “Hey, how long have you had that? Since you were born?”

  “...Since the last day of spring vacation. That’s the day they came to me and started up the test.”

  The same day I started seeing words? Someone else had started seeing strange things on the same day Yuichi had. There could be a connection.

  “Who are ‘they’? What was the test?”

  “The Monster Hunter Society. If I’d passed the test, I could have joined them.”

  “Did they know about Noro?”

  “I don’t think so. The test was for me to find and slay a monster myself. I haven’t had any contact with them since the test started.”

  “Okay, then. Don’t tell anyone about Noro or about this society of yours.”

  “Yeah, I won’t. Now that I failed, they’re through with me. Bet I’ll never see them again,” Rokuhara said self-consciously.

  “I’ve got a few more questions,” Yuichi responded. “What was up with those skeletons? And what was up with the courtyard?” It was seeming like Rokuhara himself wasn’t a threat anymore, but they might still have to deal with those mysterious phenomena again.

  “The skeletons were familiars. I was borrowing them. A spellcaster can forge them out of dirt and order them around. Of course, I learned quickly enough that they weren’t all that tough...”

  Yuichi checked the underbrush that had hidden the skeletons yesterday. All that remained were mounds of earth. It seemed they had been made out of dirt, just as Rokuhara said.

  “What about the courtyard?”

  “I was getting to that! Chill! That was a barrier. Remember that kitten on my shoulder? It was a familiar that specialized in magical barriers. Barriers keep monsters sealed in, and you can’t see what’s going on in one from the outside.”

  Yuichi remembered his failed attempt to escape with Aiko. Maybe he would have been able to get out if he hadn’t been carrying her. It could have been his special sight that had allowed him to see what was going on inside.

  “What happened to the familiars? Are they still around somewhere?”

  “Like I said, they weren’t very tough. They got taken out in no time. Without any familiars, I couldn’t fight. That was when I knew I’d failed.” Rokuhara ground his teeth in frustration.

  The mention of the familiars being “taken out” got Yuichi’s attention.

  “Was there another monster around here besides Noro?” As someone else who had been dragged into this world of non-humans, he probably ought to know.

  “Yeah. It had a horn, so probably an oni. He was in this high-collared, button-up school uniform. Looked about our age. He had this really black, really sinister aura...”

  “But he was a monster? How did you make it out alive after he beat you?”

  Rokuhara laughed bitterly. “He said he didn’t eat men! Let me go on gentlemanly principle. Dammit... Are we done yet? I’m sick of talking about this.” Rokuhara moved to leave, but then he shot back one last thought. “And don’t tell your sister about me!”

  Familiars, barriers, auras, monsters, and a monster hunter society...

  It was like one of Mutsuko’s fantasies come to life. Yuichi was sick of it already.

  ✽✽✽✽✽

  “And that’s how it went down.”

  Aiko had met up with Yuichi on the roof after class. She was leaning against the chain-link fence, staring up at the sky. Yuichi was beside her, doing the same.

  “So it seems pretty unlikely that he’ll come after you again,” he finished.

  “But it also sounds like... someone else might?” Aiko said. He’d mentioned a society of monster hunters. That meant someone else might try to attack her.

  “Yeah, you might want to avoid being alone for a while.”

  Yuichi had walked Aiko home the day before, and walked her to school that morning. He must have been really worried about her. She was grateful for the kindness.

  “But I guess I can’t be with you all the time... If anything happens, give me a call,” Yuichi said. He pulled out his cell phone, and Aiko did the same. They exchanged numbers.

  It’s weird how... Sakaki doesn’t seem bashful around women at all... she thought. Yuichi had taken her number as though it were nothing out of the ordinary.

  “Monsters aside, what about Takeuchi? Are you doing anything in particular about her?”

  “All I can do for now is keep an eye on her. Noro, have you heard of any grisly murders taking place in the area recently?”

  “I don’t... think so.” She thought back on what she’d heard on the news lately. There had been no reports of murders or unexplained deaths that she could remember.

  “Yeah, guess not. You think she really kills people?”

  “Beats me. You’re the only person I know who thinks she’s a serial killer.” Aiko wasn’t fully convinced that Yuichi’s abilities were real, but she wasn’t planning on trying to confirm them. If the two of them looked deeper and it turned out to be true, they could end up making things even worse.

  “Well, she did admit to it,” he said.

  “Well, I wasn’t there. But, I mean, I do believe you saw what you say you saw.”

  “Yeah, I hear you. There’s no proof or anything.”

  This had been intended to be a strategy meeting, but they’d quickly run out of material.

  “There’s nothing we can do about my problem right away, so let’s talk about your brother. Is he working on anything? Regarding his, um... world domination?”

  “...He bought a black cape with
red lining...” Aiko was embarrassed to even say the words. Where had he even bought that, anyway?

  “Um, so he’s the type who likes to get the look right first?”

  “He was practicing flapping it in front of the mirror...”

  “Look... maybe he’ll be fine if we just let him be?”

  “I’m starting to think you’re right... At least, I’m starting to realize why you wanted someone to talk with. It feels a lot better than just turning it over and over in your own mind.”

  “No problem. I’m just glad I could help... I mean, it sounds like we both have family troubles.”

  Aiko was just about to offer her heartfelt agreement, when the door to the roof jerked open, and a female student rushed out of it.

  She was slender, tall, and beautiful, her long hair held in place by a rack of hairpins. Those honestly seemed a little excessive to Aiko, but they did look good on her.

  The girl saw Yuichi and walked straight toward him. “There you are, Yu! I told you to come to the club room!”

  Yuichi met the girl’s eyes with a sigh. “Sis... I was on my way, but...”

  “Um, is this your big sister, Sakaki?” Aiko asked.

  “Yeah,” Yuichi admitted, with an air of resignation.

  Aiko felt another blow to her self-confidence. It was a little galling just how beautiful both of his sisters were.

  Mutsuko Sakaki. Yuichi’s older sister. The one who filled his bag with all those bizarre tools...

  “Huh? You’re with a girl? ...Congrats! Don’t worry, I won’t get in your way. I know how it goes! Yeah, I just knew you’d get a girlfriend the minute you were in high school!”

  “That’s not it!”

  “Forget about club today! You two go and be happy! This is the day’s material, so just look over it in your own time, okay?”

  Mutsuko shoved a thick packet at Yuichi. It looked like a photocopy of some kind of manual.

  “Can’t you just give that to me at home?” he protested. Aiko tried to sneak a peek, but Yuichi just handed it to her instead.

  “Huh? Are you sure?” Aiko asked.

  “I don’t want it,” Yuichi retorted.

  Aiko didn’t especially want it either, but now that she was holding it in her hands it was too late. She glanced through the packet. Every page was filled with diagrams and jargon.