Yeah. She was such a nice girl. She was trying her best not to let the other members of the club worry about her.
I’m in love. Marry me, please.
Anyway, were they going to stream more of “Myu’s Nicco-Nico Live Fortune-Telling” today? There never seemed to be any rule about what day it aired, but it always began at about 6:00 PM and lasted a little under an hour. That was probably because the school closed around then. But that meant that if I wanted to talk to Myu-Pom, I’d need to wait here until about after 7:00 PM.
Now that I knew Myu Aikawa was a student at my school, I’d achieved my immediate goal, but, if I was going to be writing more about her on Kirikiri Basara, I wanted a little more of her private information. And if I could, I wanted to get an interview with her.
And maybe, if I could, I’d want to be her friend, too. Maybe. Possibly.
No, no, no! No way! No way! No way! How was I supposed to introduce myself to her?
—I’m a fan of yours. Please shake my hand.
Wait, that just makes me look like a groupie.
—I’ve come to wipe away your tears.
Yeah, that’s enough to make any girl fall in love! But only if the speaker is hot. In other words, I’d make that backfire completely.
—Milady, I am a millionaire who makes big bucks off my anti-occult affiliate blog, Kirikiri Basara!
Wait, that’s the worst thing I could say! I’m supposed to be talking to Myu-Pom, the fortune-teller from TV and magazines! Fortune-telling is part of the occult! If I told Myu-Pom I ran an anti-occult blog...
She’d hate me for sure! Okay, no telling her about Kirikiri Basara. Sounds good. That’s the safest route. First impressions are important.
But that would make it hard to write about Myu-Pom on Kirikiri Basara. I couldn’t run an interview without her permission.
Uwaaah! What am I supposed to do?!
“Ahem. Young samurai. Are you not going inside?”
“Huh?” I snapped back to my senses just as Ryotasu was about to open the door.
“Uwah! Time out! Time out!” I managed to grab her hand just in time.
“Po-yah-yah?”
“You can’t just walk in there.”
“But they’re just chatting, it seems like.”
“Yeah, but...”
“You came to talk to her, right?”
“Ugh... I’m not sure what to do about that.” I still wasn’t sure if I should tell her who I was or not. F-For now, I needed to make a strategic retreat.
And then I felt someone behind me, staring at me. I turned around, not really expecting to see much of anything.
“Uh...” Twenty-two pairs of angry eyes were staring at me and Ryotasu. All the other students in the hallway had surrounded me from a distance and were glaring at me. There was real hate in their eyes.
Did I do something wrong? I could hear whispers.
“Who are they?”
“If they’re planning to cut in line, we crush them.”
“These assholes probably don’t even know what they’re doing.”
“They’re not even saying a word to our Aikawa fan club, huh?”
I heard the voices, and finally understood who they were. They were all Myu-Pom fans! I hadn’t even considered that she might have fans in the school besides me. It was completely unexpected.
And I’d just walked right up to the door and ignored them. They’d decided that I was an enemy and interloper. If this were an idol concert, I would’ve been in big trouble. If Ryotasu and I tried to talk to Myu-Pom when she left the AV room, they’d interrupt me somehow for sure. At least, that’s what I would’ve done in their place.
M-Maybe I should just suck up to them and see if they’d let me join their club. But now that they’d already made their first impressions of me, it was impossible to imagine that working. And I didn’t have the communications skills necessary to bring them around to my side.
Grrh... I should’ve been more careful. But who the hell would’ve thought she’d have fans waiting for her to leave her room? She wasn’t an idol singer or anything. Did they think that since Myu-Pom was an amateur, she’d be more than happy to talk to them? Or were they like those guys who thought that they were cool because they were supporting an unknown singer?
I could understand the girls wanting to get closer to the fortune-teller everyone was talking about online, but while yuri in anime and manga was one thing, yuri in real life was just creepy. Go chase after some boy idols or something, girls.
“Gamonosuke? What are you mumbling about?”
Oh crap. Was I saying this stuff out loud? Ryotasu and I continued our conversation in a whisper.
“These people are all just jumping on the latest trend. I wish they wouldn’t get in our way.”
“You are too, Gamotan!”
“Wait, I’m doing what, too?”
“Jumping, jumping on the latest trend! ♪” Ryotasu pointed at me and suddenly started to sing in a louder volume. She spun her finger in a circle as she hummed a short melody.
“I’m... just following a trend, too?” I stood there in shock for a moment, and then looked at the other fans again.
The three girls from middle school were glaring at me particularly hard.
“Who’s that creepy kid? Is he a fan of Aikawa? What’s he doing, bringing another girl here?”
“What a jerk. I wish he’d just die.”
“If he tries to go after our Aikawa, we kill him.”
I can hear every word you’re saying! I’d love to hear those words from a middle school girl in an anime or something, but hearing them in real life was really depressing! Anyway, it was best to just not look at them.
All I wanted to do for today was stand in the corner and get a look at Myu-Pom from a distance. So I yanked Ryotasu away from the door and headed for the back of the line. And then the fans started to mutter and fidget.
Maybe the fortune-telling club was done with its meeting? When I’d looked inside a moment ago, it had seemed like they were mostly chatting.
I looked at the clock. It was still before 5:00 PM. Myu-Pom’s livestream was always held at 6:00 PM or so, so that would mean there was over an hour or two to go.
“Is she coming? Is she coming?”
The door to the AV room opened, and Myu-Pom came out.
“Wow, it’s really her!” I leaned forward and shouted, despite myself.
And then—
Our eyes met.
She looked just like she did on the livestream. No, her face might actually have been a little smaller, even.
The famous, just-right beauty, the fortune-teller that everyone loved, Myu Aikawa, was right there. And for some reason, she was looking at me, a NEET who ran an affiliate blog. Her eyes were open wide with surprise, and her lips were trembling a little.
“You’re—”
“Huh?”
And then the other fans surrounded Myu-Pom, and I lost sight of her.
Grr... They were seriously in the way. Not only had they treated me like an interloper, they wouldn’t even let me look at her from a distance! What a bunch of jerks. I cursed at them in my mind, but my heart was beating faster.
Myu-Pom was staring at me. She seemed surprised. It looked like she was trying to say something to me. What was she saying? Was I imagining it?
“Hey, hey, Gamonosuke. You sure you don’t want to do an interview?”
“N-No. That’s impossible. If I tried to talk to her like this, it would just be weird. I’m not the kind of normie who could just go up to a girl I’d never met and talk to her, anyway. The only reason I came here today was to see if Myu-Pom was a student at my school, and I didn’t actually plan on interviewing her. And anyway, if I wanted an interview, I’d just send you, Ryotasu. I’d just appointed you ‘Correspondent’ a little bit ago. She won’t be as nervous talking to you as she would be talking to a guy.”
“Gamotan.” Ryotasu put her hand on my shoulder, smiling. “You’re a pre
tty wimpy samurai today, huh, Gamonosuke?”
“Grr... Hearing that from a girl with a big grin on her face is really depressing.”
Anyway, those fans were getting right up in Myu-Pom’s face. Could she even move with all of them that close? And what did they want from her, anyway? A handshake? An autograph? A photo? Or did they want her to tell their fortunes?
“Stop blocking her! You’re bothering Miyuu!” The other members of the fortune-telling club were trying their best to push through the wall of fans, but it wasn’t working.
At this rate, it would take a half-hour for them to deal with all the fans. There was no point in waiting here. I should just go home. It was enough just to know that she was here.
Just when I was about to tell Ryotasu we were leaving—
“Let me through!” A sharp voice rose up through the crowd. The whole place went silent.
“I’m sorry. I’m really sorry. Just let me through, please.” The crowd parted to let Myu-Pom through.
Myu-Pom came walking up to me, unsteadily. She took a breath, and looked up, straight into my eyes. She looked sad, almost like she was about to cry.
“Huh? Huh?” Me? Why was she looking at me? She’d been doing that before, too. Did I know her? Maybe I’d forgotten it, but we used to play together a decade ago? Did things like that ever happen to me? No, they didn’t. I was sure of it.
Then why? Myu-Pom took a step forward, and then another. I was frozen in place. I wanted to run, but I couldn’t.
At last, she stood in front of me and froze in place. She smelled really good. Her soft white hand reached out and grabbed mine.
I heard what sounded like muffled gasps of shock coming from her fans. But Myu-Pom ignored them, and held my hand as she whispered.
“I’ve been waiting for you.”
site 18: Aria Kurenaino
Friday, February 19th
My house was a thirty-minute walk from Kichijoji Station. I always closed my black magic agency, the House of Crimson in Harmonica Alley, late at night. Typically, well past midnight.
Since it was within walking distance, I never worried about catching the last train. Actually, I looked forward to walking home through the quiet, chill air. Especially at this time of year, everything was so quiet that it was like the world itself was frozen.
The darkness was a gentle veil that could hide a tiny girl like me from sight. Inside the dark, I felt more peace than fear.
I especially felt this way when I passed by Zenpukuji Park, which was right next to my house. If the darkness were to come all the way up to my feet, I would gladly offer myself up to it.
I made it back to my house just in time to see Mr. Mishima, who lived across the way, come back home. His luxury car quietly parked in its spot. He emerged from the car, a middle-aged gentleman who I’d heard worked at a bank or something similar.
Since our eyes met, I gave him a small greeting, but he regarded me the same way you might a pile of garbage before he headed inside.
I was used to people acting that way. If you asked my neighbors, I and my house were something to be avoided, and something that would hopefully go away altogether someday.
Even in a wealthy area like this, my home was a mansion bigger than the others. But it only looked impressive on the outside. Since I lived alone, I wasn’t able to keep it up, and in places it was starting to show.
Every time there was a big earthquake, I was worried that this time, the whole place would just collapse. That wouldn’t be the worst way to go, of course.
In fall, nuts would fall off of the gingko trees, and generate a horrible smell. I didn’t like the smell, but I accepted it as just part of the way things were.
When I opened the front door, the squeak sounded like an old woman’s scream. Of course, inside, it was dark, and there was no sign of life.
I coughed a little when I entered. It was always dusty, but I had no intention of cleaning it up. If I did, the dark stagnation that swirled around this house would disappear. I would entrust myself to the stagnation, even when it was so thick I wanted to vomit.
That was what a black magic agent like me deserved.
I walked up the stairs to my room without even bothering to turn on the lights. “I’m home,” I spoke into the room.
Until two years ago, I would’ve always heard a voice saying, “Welcome back.”
Instead, I was met with row after row of silent dolls. I probably had over a hundred of them now. Even I, their creator, had forgotten their exact number. I’d just stopped counting.
I took off my coat and threw it aside, and then fell face-first into a rococo-style bed with a magnificent canopy. Lately, whenever I came home, I would fall straight into bed without taking a bath or even eating first.
I never woke up early. I would usually sleep until noon. Since I was lucky to get two customers a day at my black magic agency, I wasn’t exactly busy, either.
I’d liked to think that I was living the life I wanted, but maybe it was wearing me down and I just hadn’t realized it yet.
“Brother...” I whispered, with my eyes closed. It felt like if I did, I would hear my beloved brother answer me.
—You’ll catch cold if you sleep like that, Ria.
I missed him. But the man I loved was gone now.
Until just two years ago, my brother had been the only color in my life. I remembered those days, and how happy I was.
My parents had died when I was only ten years old. Ever since then, I’d lived alone with my brother in this huge mansion.
He was tall, and a good athlete, and he even said someone had scouted him as a model once. He got the best grades in his class, and he’d graduated K University as valedictorian. He was the person I admired more than anyone else in the world.
He was thirteen years older than myself, and I had no way of knowing how much he’d sacrificed to raise me when I was young. I had just been happy to be with my brother, the only family I had in the world.
I was always introverted, and I wasn’t really good at talking to people. Brother told me that I should go to school, so I did, but honestly, I would’ve rather spent every hour of the day at home with him.
Brother had to work. Our parents had left us a lot of money, but Brother didn’t think it was right to just live off of that instead of working. So he wasn’t able to spend all his time with me.
For the first few years, he often left for work early in the morning. He still managed to make it in time for dinner, but I was so lonely in this big mansion while I waited for him to come home.
Everything at school was terrible, too. My classmates were mean to me, and my teacher looked at me with creepy eyes, and sometimes touched me.
I knew my gentle brother was tired from work, but he still listened to all of my problems. I wanted to be alone with him, forever.
“I don’t want to go anywhere else. I don’t want you to go anywhere else. Brother, don’t go to work. If you go, I’ll bite off my own tongue and kill myself...”
“I feel the same way as you, Ria. I want to live with you quietly here, forever. But if we want to survive, I have to work. I’m sorry, Ria.” When I told him my selfish, crazy request, he just smiled like he wasn’t sure what to do.
That all suddenly changed around the time when I turned fourteen. One day, I started to hyperventilate on the way to school, and they took me to the hospital. After that, my brother quit his job and started to spend the whole day with me.
He would wait patiently for me to come home from school. He listened with deep interest, and not the slightest sign of revulsion, to me telling him about the things that I’d just learned about black magic. Morning and night, he’d smile and tell me the food I made was delicious.
When I went to bed, he would snuggle up next to me. He would gently rub my head as I lay on my pillow, and say, “Goodnight, Ria. Sweet dreams. I hope you have a wonderful tomorrow.”
My favorite thing in the morning was to get up earlier than he did
, and then wake him up.
That year was the happiest in my life. My wish ever since I was a child— to be with my brother forever— had come true. No matter what awful things happened outside, when I got home, my brother would be waiting for me in my room. No matter how much my classmates, the male teachers, or the strange men on the streets looked at me with dirty eyes, I was able to endure it.
“You’re a very charming girl, Ria, so perhaps those men can’t help but fall prey to your charms. I wish I could protect you, but I can’t really go with you to school.”
“It’s all right, Brother. As long as you’re here to hold me in your arms, I can endure anything.”
“You’re such a good girl, Ria. But if you really can’t handle something, tell me, okay? I’ll do whatever it takes to get revenge for you. And I’ll never let them get near you again.”
“Thank you, Brother. I love you.”
Only when Brother held me in his arms could I forget about the outside world.
But that happiness didn’t last long. It happened on a cold day, like this one. I had only a week or so to go before I graduated elementary school.
When I came back from school that day, my quiet house was filled with noise. There were lots of cars parked in front of the yard. Some of them were patrol cars and ambulances.
It was winter, but the house was filled with a terrible stench, probably from the gingko nuts in the yard. Confused, I went inside just in time to see my brother being carried out on a stretcher.
“Who are you people? What are you doing to my brother?! Don’t touch my brother!”
He was asleep, as if he’d been injected with some kind of drug, and he didn’t answer to my voice. The stretcher was surrounded by police officers and EMTs, and other people I didn’t know. They wouldn’t let me get close.
“You can’t just take my brother from me! This is kidnapping! I’ll call the police right now!”
“Ria! Calm down!”
“How can I calm down? You’re taking away the only family I’ve got left! Brother! Wake up! Brother! Brother!”
I grabbed onto the stretcher, knocking it over. My brother’s body fell to the floor. He didn’t move, but the other adults around me began to panic.
Occultic;Nine: Volume 1 Page 16