The World's Strongest Little Brother

by Tsuyoshi Fujitaka

  “It’ll be fine! You need people to look at it! You won’t improve without feedback!”

  “...Okay. Umm... Er... I’m writing a novel,” she stammered bashfully.

  What am I supposed to say to that? There was nothing more awkward than having someone tell you, to your face, that they were writing a novel.

  “Whoa, cool!”

  But Ibaraki was apparently sincerely impressed.

  “Do you even read novels?” Yuichi asked. It was hard to imagine Ibaraki being all that into literature.

  “Sure, sometimes.”

  “Western books, right?”

  “Is that a crack about my looks? Let’s see... The most recent thing I read was The Travels of Prince Takaoka.”

  “Yeah, look, I know I asked, but I don’t actually care what you read.”

  “...Hey, that kind of hurt, y’know...”

  Yuichi ignored the sulking Ibaraki and resumed speaking to Kanako. “Um, are you writing one of those isekai novels? What’s the title?” Yuichi asked. He couldn’t just ignore her after dismissing Ibaraki’s interest.

  “Um, the title is My Demon Lord is Too Cute to Kill and Now the World is in Danger!”

  “I can’t really imagine what that would entail...” Yuichi felt a little disappointed. He’d been hoping she might have written something a little cuter.

  “Summarizing it is too embarrassing, so please, just read it.”

  His feelings sank. Now he’d have to read it and tell her what he thought.

  “Hey, how long are you gonna stick around, anyway?” Yuichi demanded of Ibaraki, who was was still sitting there. He didn’t like the how easily he was blending in with the group.

  “Hmm? Club’s over, right? Guess I’ll head home, then.”

  “I don’t know what you were trying to accomplish here, but remember your promise, okay? Never come after us again.”

  “Got it. I don’t feel like it anymore, anyway... oh hey, phone’s ringing.” Ibaraki picked up the cell phone Yuichi had taken out of his pocket and placed on the table when he undressed him.

  “Oh, it’s you. Huh? I couldn’t pick up before. What does it matter?” Ibaraki cast a surreptitious glance at Yuichi. “I just got bored. And I realized what a pain in the ass it’d be to clean up after killing him in a place like this, so that snapped me out of it. Yeah, you’d better believe that’s all. Later.” Ibaraki cut off the call in annoyance.

  Then it was Yuichi’s cell phone that rang. He recognized the number. It was Natsuki Takeuchi.

  “Hello, Sakaki.” Maybe the reception was bad, because her voice was mixed with static.

  “You took off today, right? I wanted to talk to you, so I’m glad you called.”

  “The reason I took off is because I’m preparing to slaughter everyone, just like I promised.”

  “Hey...”

  She giggled. “Just kidding. I could still do that if you force my hand... but right now it’s just you and Noro who know about it, right?”

  Yuichi clenched his teeth. So she did know about Aiko.

  “So, what will you do?”

  “If it were just you, Sakaki, I wouldn’t mind letting things stand. But... two or more people is a problem. The secret could continue to leak out.”

  “So what do you plan to do?”

  “Good question. I thought I might just kill you and Noro.”

  “Oh, come on!”

  “You’re the one who broke the promise. So you choose. Will you both die, or do I kill everyone connected to the school? Tomorrow’s the deadline.”

  “You do whatever you want to. Kill everyone? There’s no way you could.”

  “I see. I thought you might say that. And perhaps it would suit you to run away and leave the others to their fate.”

  “You can’t possibly kill everyone.”

  “I’m not lying, but I won’t try to convince you of that now. Let’s talk about you two instead. Killing everyone is just a last resort, reserved for when I reach a state of such despair that I’d happily see the world end. So I’d really prefer to just kill the two of you, if possible.”

  “Um, still, it’s not like we’re going to blindly submit to being killed.”

  “I told you I wouldn’t hunt people who I see in my everyday life. Is that why you think you can act like this? It is true, but at this rate, I’m thinking I may never get my peaceful, quiet life back at all.”

  “Like I care!”

  “So, Sakaki, I want you to come to my hunting ground. Anything goes there.”

  “You really think I’ll go there of my own free will?”

  “Well, Noro is already here.”

  “What?!” Yuichi looked around the room again. Aiko still hadn’t returned. She’d been gone far too long. She’d left her bag behind, too, so she couldn’t have just gone home without them...

  “Let me explain to you my plan. I’m going to kill Noro at midnight tonight. If you come before then, I’ll kill you with her. If you don’t come... I guess Noro will die, and things will go back to the way they were? I don’t mind if you’re the only one who knows my secret, and I think killing Noro should scare you into compliance. That’s my assumption, anyway.”

  “You... You’re crazy!” Who but a madwoman would say something like that so casually?

  “Oh, if you’re going to come, leave a letter behind, would you? It’s a little old-fashioned, but elopement makes for a nice cover story.”

  “Is Noro okay?” he demanded.

  “Yes. She’s unconscious. She would get annoying if I woke her up, so I can’t put her on the phone, but don’t worry. I won’t harm her in any way, aside from killing her later.”

  “...So where are your ‘hunting grounds’?”

  Natsuki told him the address. “So long. I hope you’ll come, but I won’t count on it.” With that, she hung up.

  “Hey, that sounded pretty tense. What’s going on?” Ibaraki asked, perhaps thinking Yuichi was acting oddly.

  “It’s pretty bad... She’s got Noro.”

  “Huh? You mean the shrimp? She’s only been gone a few minutes, though. Did she really come all the way to school?”

  “How should I know? But if Noro’s missing, then obviously she did!”

  She’d said Aiko was unconscious. If she wanted to keep her as a hostage, she should be fine for now. But Yuichi still felt anxious without confirmation.

  He was the one who had gotten Aiko mixed up in this. He couldn’t just let her die.

  “Maybe I could talk to her... She did say she could let it slide if I was the only one who knew. If I could make a case for the merits of not killing anyone...” Though their relationship had walked a knife’s edge from the start, Natsuki had always been civil, at least. If she thought there was a way to avoid anyone dying, she might be willing to talk it out.

  “Oh, please. You were more than happy to fight me.”

  “Yeah, because you never gave me time to talk!”

  “Haha, true ’nuff.”

  Yuichi sighed and hung his head. In his peripheral vision, he could see his sister fidgeting anxiously.

  Ah... She wants to comment...

  Yuichi looked to his sister. She had said before that she would let him decide how he wanted to handle things. She clearly wasn’t going to intervene unless Yuichi gave her permission first, but her entire body language screamed, “Let me speak!”

  Guess I don’t have a choice...

  “Sis, I need your help.”

  “Okay!” Her face burst into a smile.

  “My big sister has middle school syndrome,” Yuichi said, replying to Ibaraki’s question.

  “Yu, that’s horrible! Accusing your big sister of having middle school syndrome...” Mutsuko huffed angrily.

  That’s right, she doesn’t realize it... People with middle school syndrome often didn’t.

  They were in a family restaurant. Yuichi, in his uniform, sat side by side with Ibaraki, who was wearing Yuichi’s gym clothes. Mutsuko sat alone, acr
oss from them both.

  They had started heading for the place that Natsuki had told him to come, but when their stomachs began grumbling, they had found themselves here.

  Yuichi wasn’t really in the mood for a long meal, but Mutsuko had ordered a steak set for three, insisting that you couldn’t wage war on an empty stomach, and also that she would pay.

  “You mean the whole ‘I have the power of dark flames, my right arm’s going berserk’ deal?” Ibaraki asked, apparently rather educated about the subject.

  “Hey! I stopped doing that stuff in kindergarten. Give me a break!”

  “You believe in magic sight and oni!”

  “That’s different! It’s stupid to make up stuff that isn’t even happening!” Mutsuko said heatedly. It seemed she was oddly practical when it came to her fantasies. She was quick to dismiss things that were provably untrue.

  “See?” Yuichi sighed.

  “See what?” Ibaraki responded.

  Realizing that it was less than self-explanatory, Yuichi elaborated. “In other words, my sister pursues middle school-style daydreams within the realm of what can practically be accomplished. And most of the time, she uses me as her guinea pig!” He couldn’t exactly start screaming in a family restaurant, but he did raise his voice a little at the end. The cry of the long-suffering.

  “Oh, Yu! All I’m doing is training you to be the strongest man in the world. It makes me sad to hear you talk that way.” Mutsuko shot him an exaggerated pout.

  “Yeah... Well... Sounds like you’ve had a rough life.” Ibaraki patted Yuichi’s shoulder in sympathy.

  Just then, a plate was deposited in front of him, containing an ostentatiously thick slab of steak. Mutsuko seemed to want Yuichi to eat meat. Or at least, fill him with protein.

  “There’re a few things I want to ask you, too,” Yuichi said to Ibaraki. If he was going to be forced to sit and eat, he wanted to make good use of his time.

  “Sure, ask me anything. No point in hiding things now.”

  “First, about the place we’re going. Do you know anything about it?” Yuichi showed him the address he’d written down. It was the place Natsuki had told him to go.

  “It’s full of shabby old guys rambling around. Awful place. But you live in the area, so you probably know that much, right?” The place Natsuki had invited them to was one of Japan’s few true slums. It was a nest of day laborers and homeless people, and famous for the occasional outbreaks of violence that happened there.

  “That’s her hunting ground, huh?”

  It wouldn’t be unusual for one or two people to die or go missing in the area, thought Yuichi.

  “I know what you’re probably thinking, so let me make one thing clear,” Ibaraki said. “I’d never hunt grimy types like that. The hunting grounds I asked her for were somewhere else.”

  “Um, I was thinking about Takeuchi. Why would I ever be thinking about you?”

  “Why are you so mean to me all the time?!”

  “You kill people and eat them. We’re never gonna be friends.”

  Mutsuko watched the two argue with amusement.

  “Okay, next. I didn’t hear all the details at the school, but you said Takeuchi was a foreign breed of whatever you are, right? So she’s like an oni or a vampire or a yokai; she should have a weak point.”

  “Sure, but if I knew it, she wouldn’t be able to boss me around.”

  “So what’s the name of her race? Do you know?”

  If he did, Yuichi hoped, Mutsuko might be able to offer up some advice.

  “She’s a Jack the Ripper.”

  Yuichi stared for a moment in silence. Jack the Ripper was a serial killer, sure, but he was from the past, and from another country. What did that have to do with anything? After the brief hesitation, he prompted, “Sorry, I don’t understand what that means.”

  “Yeah, well, neither do I,” Ibaraki smirked.

  “You asshole!” Annoyed with his carefree attitude, Yuichi gave Ibaraki a light smack.

  “Oh, the friendship which sprouts after a hard-fought battle!” Mutsuko said cheerfully.

  “What friendship?!” Yuichi cried.

  “Yeah! I like him, y’know?” Ibaraki put his arm around Yuichi’s shoulders, while Yuichi scowled openly.

  “Well, I honestly don’t know. Neither does my clan. She just has a similar nature, what with having turf and prey and stuff just like us. We figure there’s gotta be a connection. That’s what the others say, so it must be true, right? I mean, there are other serial killers, like that Ed Gein guy, right? Maybe she’s a reincarnation of him or something? But when it came to him, I don’t know if the killing was the point or just a way to make his sick works of art.”

  “Ed Gein!” Mutsuko’s eyes sparkled.

  “Uh, Sis, I know it’s one of your favorite subjects, but let’s not get hung up on that right now.”

  “The legendary serial killer who inspired Silence of the Lambs and Psycho! He chopped up people’s bodies and made things from them! He had lampshades made from skin and soup bowls made from skulls! And vests made from human skin, and he really wore them! And—”

  “Stop! This is no topic for a family restaurant!” Yuichi leaned over the table and clamped a hand over Mutsuko’s mouth. Mutsuko kept talking even with her mouth covered, seeming to enjoy herself.

  “Anyway, back to the subject at hand. You’re saying Takeuchi is a reincarnation of Jack the Ripper?”

  “I’m telling you, I don’t know!” Ibaraki shot back. Whether he didn’t know any more or just refused to say, the subject seemed to be over as far as Ibaraki was concerned.

  “So? Are you a foreigner or what?” Since the subject was closed, Yuichi decided to satisfy his other curiosity. The guy was blond with blue eyes and deep-set features. He definitely looked foreign, but he spoke Japanese fluently.

  “I was born and bred in Japan, okay? I guess our ancestors might have been foreigners who washed ashore, though.” Ibaraki spoke emphatically, apparently happy to get asked about himself.

  “Oh, sorry. I figured I’d ask, but I wasn’t actually that interested.”

  “Why, you...” Ibaraki slumped in disappointment.

  “Speaking of which, he had ‘Serial Killer’ over his head at first just like Takeuchi, right? Is there any connection?” Mutsuko spoke up, a little late to the party.

  Yuichi glanced over. Right now, it said “Ibaraki-doji” over his head, but originally, it had said “Serial Killer II.”

  “It must, right? Jack the Ripper is definitely a serial killer, and Ibaraki is an Ibaraki-doji... in other words, an oni who needs to kill people to eat them, so that basically makes him a serial killer. I guess they’re two forms of the same thing. One does monstrous things, while the other is a literal monster...”

  Mutsuko added her own commentary, but she couldn’t help in unraveling the mystery. Yuichi’s labels were just too imprecise.

  “How can we have multiple serial killers living here, anyway?” he asked. “Someone dying should be a huge story. Why don’t we hear all about it when you kill someone?”

  “Come on, man. Do you know how many people go missing across Japan every year? About 80,000. About 20% of those are children, most of them runaways. If someone goes missing out of the blue one day and doesn’t come back, you don’t necessarily find out what happened to them. Well, as it happens, a lot of them get eaten by us. So in a way, they’re bringing it on themselves. If you walk the straight and narrow, you don’t ever cross paths with people like us. And of course, we work hard to make sure no one finds out about us, either.”

  Ibaraki seemed to really believe what he was saying. It was like he was living in a world with a completely different moral code.

  “So where does attacking a straight-and-narrow teenager in the middle of his high school fit into this?”

  “Well, I figured I could do it without causing much fuss.”

  “Well you sure failed at that! You trashed the school!”

&nb
sp; “Huh? Pretty sure you’re the one who did the trashing, man...”

  Yuichi immediately looked away, trying to play innocent.

  “Well, I’m heading home,” Ibaraki announced as they were leaving the restaurant.

  “Oh, yeah? About time,” Yuichi commented.

  “Man, you’re so cold. Aren’t you picking up my love beams?”

  “Sorry, Yu, but I’m not into BL! I hope you’ll consider a pure and true hetero relationship!” Mutsuko said cheerfully.

  Yuichi took a conspicuous step back.

  “Huh? Hey, don’t take that seriously! But aren’t you gonna ask why I’m leaving?”

  “No, but I bet you’re gonna tell us,” Yuichi muttered. “Let’s get this over with.”

  “...Hey, Yuichi’s sis, is your little brother always like this?”

  “I think he’s just bashful!”

  “I’m not. So what’s the reason?”

  “Because I like you guys. If I head up to Takeuchi’s place, I’ll have to turn on you. I got a reputation to think about, after all. But if I tell her I just went home on a whim, it’s probably fine. So long. I’ll wash the uniform and return i—”

  “Keep it and stay out of my life.”

  Ibaraki sighed. “So unapproachable. Oh, well. See you later.” With that, Ibaraki left.

  “Later. Wait, what ever happened to ‘keep away forever’?”

  Still, Ibaraki acted like he’d see them again... That meant he didn’t think Yuichi was about to die. There was something reassuring about that.

  “Now, this is no time for tearful goodbyes! Let’s track down that serial killer!” Mutsuko proclaimed, merrily.

  ✽✽✽✽✽

  When she woke up, Aiko found herself on her side, her cheek pressed up against a cold, hard floor.

  There was a low, whirring noise in the air. There was a strange bright light in front of her, but she couldn’t quite tell what she was looking at.

  Her vision was hazy and her thoughts were jumbled.

  “Oh, you’re awake?” Aiko slowly sat up and looked in the direction of the voice. As her eyes focused, she could just make out someone standing in the light. It was a girl wearing the Seishin High School uniform.

  Natsuki Takeuchi was looking down at Aiko.

  Aiko couldn’t figure out what was going on. She had no idea where she was, and her memories of getting there were in a total fog.