Chapter II

Chapter II

 

Her name was Orihata Aya.

She had big striking eyes, with large pupils—though, they almost never looked at you directly. Very beautiful, but an incredibly reckless personality, and she always spoke in a very terse fashion. She was the same age as me, which is, well, fifteen, but there was a sort of sobriety about her that even most adults never manage to develop.

“Masaki, why are interested in me?”

“Um, I just thought we could…I dunno, be friends, you know?”

“You want me?”

“Hunh?!”

“Do you want to have sex with me?”

“Hey, Orihata—!”

“We can if you want to.”

“…………”

Yeah, many of our conversations were a lot like this.

She seemed like she didn’t even have friends at her school, and until she met me, I had my own doubts whether she’d ever had a normal conversation before.

Oh, right… My name’s Taniguchi Masaki, and as you can probably guess, Orihata and I…we’re complete opposites. It’s funny, though; Orihata and I met in the most messed up kind of way.

At the time, I had just returned to Japan to get ready for high school after having lived abroad with my parents for a while, which was in this place called Phnom Penh. I was not really all that comfortable with my surroundings yet, and I’d heard horror stories from my parents about how other Japanese students had this tendency to keep their distance from returnees.

Luckily, I also have a sister—who isn’t actually related to me—who’s spent her entire life in Japan. She said, “Sadly, that’s true. They’re all pathetic losers, afraid of anyone who does something different or thinks about crap in a different way. You’d better be ready.”

So I was prepared for it and just kept quiet.

Even when I didn’t feel like it, I always tried to help people, and I was careful to always maintain an easy-going attitude. And somehow, I ended up getting really popular with all of the girls in class. If they had something they didn’t understand, or something in the study guide that didn’t make sense, they’d always come to me for help instead of the teacher.

“Oh, Masaki’s so smart! Must be all that studying abroad.”

I hadn’t really studied abroad in the traditional sense of the term, but for some reason, the idea stuck.

Honestly, I was a bit out of my league. I couldn’t push the girls away, but the guys in my class—in my entire school—all started to look at me funny.

By this point, high school entrance exams were right on top of us, so I wasn’t exactly bullied by anyone (not much, anyway), but when I left school grounds, things would get a little…argumentative. In school, lowerclassmen would never bug an upperclassman, but once school was over, that line just vanished. I got glares from all directions.

It wouldn’t have been so bad if I didn’t always have a group of girls crowding around me. But all they ever did was just squeal and treat me like their own little toy—never like a true friend. I was pretty fed up with it by then, but I stuck with it anyway.

Then one day, I slipped up. Guess I must’ve been tired or something.

I had to swing by the station, so I cut through a back alley, and found myself surrounded by five guys.

“So, Mr. Study Abroad. You’ve been doing pretty well for yourself, haven’t ya?”

“Getting a little bit too much attention, see?”

You’d think these guys would be dressed all trashy, but they weren’t. No, they were all wearing pretty expensive jackets and didn’t look like delinquents at all. So I hadn’t realized what they were up to until it was too late and I was already surrounded. And by then, they already had switchblades open.

I wasn’t sure how old they were, but they had to have been younger than me. One of the kids’ voices had barely even cracked. Still, that didn’t make the others any less menacing.

“Right,” I said. “I’ll be more cautious.”

I’d blown it. I’d been so careful not to let myself get into a situation like this that I had walked right smack dab into one…and now they had me.

“You’ll be careful? How are you gonna do that?”

“I’ll try not to get as much attention?”

They all cackled.

Then suddenly, one shouted, “Don’t you fuck with us!” And a hard punch connected with my cheek.

I saw his fist coming for me easily enough, but I let him hit me. I swung my body back a little and softened the blow.

The punch had connected enough to cut the inside of my cheek. There was blood in my mouth…but my teeth were fine. He hadn’t hit any key points, so I wasn’t even shaken.

This guy was nothing much. In Phnom Penh, I’d been studying a sort of undisciplined form of karate—kind of a child’s self defense class, if you will—for a pretty long time. I’d learned to size up my opponents just by looking at them. Their shoulders alone were a good indicator of just how much damage a person could really do.

The most effective technique in this self-defense class was to yell for help as loud as you can. I considered this, briefly. If these were professional kidnappers, it might work—but this was Japan, and I felt that with opponents as inexperienced as these guys it would just provoke them. Plus, people tend to ignore cries for help, anyway. The only real way to get anyone’s attention is to just lie and scream, Fire!

What really had me worried was that these guys probably went to the same school as me. If I kicked their asses, they’d just come back in larger numbers, and then the trouble would never let up.

And just as I was trying to figure out if hitting them four or five times would settle things or not, someone spoke up.

“Hey,” they said.

She was talking to all of us at once. Both the attackers and little ol’ me—the victim.

“That looks boring.”

Surprised, we turned and found a girl just standing there.

The first thing I noticed was her unruly hair, which seemed to have been just left there at a sort of arbitrary length. It seemed to flow out of her.

We were in a dirty back alley that stank of piss and ditch water. The sky was dark and cloudy, and I was hunched down like a sad frightened rabbit.

No matter how you looked at it, my first meeting with Orihata Aya was…anything but perfect.

 

***

 

“…………”

I gaped at her for what seemed like an eternity.

The girl with her arbitrary hair never even glanced at me. She just walked briskly towards us.

“Wh-who are you? Study Abroad’s girlfriend?” one snarled.

She didn’t even blink. “What is your purpose? What failing of his caused this behavior?” Her voice was flat, devoid of emotion.

“Hunh? You don’t know this guy?”

“What do you think you’re doing here?” asked another classmate.

“I asked for a reason,” she insisted.

“Hey, this guy thinks he’s Don Juan. Looking like this, tricking girls into falling for him.”

Obviously lies, but I fought back the anger.

“Hunh…” she said, and at last looked at me.

For some reason, I found myself glaring back at her.

She frowned. She looked at me like I puzzled her.

I thought she was pitying me, which made me angrier. I could tell my expression was growing harsher as I fought against my feelings.

She frowned harder, put her head to one side, then sort of drooped before looking back at the group around me.

“So, he stole your girlfriends, then? The cause of your anger is sexual frustration?”

She didn’t even bat an eye at what she was saying.

It was so out there that we all just sort of stared.

“Uh…what? What did she say?”

“I’m asking if this attack is a way of forgetting that your sexual partners all hate you.”

Her tone was so level, it couldn’t be taken as deliberate provocation. She was just throwing the words out there.

They stood silently for a moment, but then their faces turned red, their fists shook. They were getting angry.

“You…bitch!” They all went for her, reaching out to grab her. And she did something none of us could have predicted.

She grabbed her own shirt, and tore it off, exposing her bare chest to the chilly night air. Her body was pale and beautiful, as if it was drinking in all the light that shone around it.

“If you have frustrated desires, I can fulfill them,” she said, still completely calm. The thing is, there was much more expression on her face just moments before when she had looked at me. At this moment, it was like she was wearing a mask.

“Uuuum…”

“H-hey…”

The boys froze in mid-lunge, bug-eyed.

“Whoa, wait a minute—!” I said, flustered. I didn’t know what the hell was going on, but I was not about to stand by and let them do as they pleased with her.

But at that moment, a loud voice came from the far end of the alley.

“Well, this is easy to figure out!”

We spun around, and there was a young man in white clothes standing there.

He strode towards us confidently.

“—! Wh-who are you?!”

“Just to make sure, I’d better ask. You there,” he pointed at me. “Do you want to save this girl?”

I quickly nodded, “Y-yes.”

“Then take her and run!” he snapped, strode right over to her, and took the bare-chested girl by the arm.

“Hey!” one of the boys said, and moved towards him—but with blinding speed, he reached out toward the boy’s chest…and that alone sent him flying.

Even I couldn’t see what the man had done. This guy was something else.

While I was still stunned, he shoved the girl towards me.

“Go! Get out of here!!”

I managed to say, “Th-thank you,” as I took the girl’s arm and ran. She followed, unresisting.

When we were almost on the main street, I quickly shrugged off my jacket and covered her body with it.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

She seemed a little out of it. She stared back at me, and asked, “Why?”

“Eh?”

“Didn’t you hate me?” She looked puzzled again.

I didn’t get it, but I couldn’t leave that man to handle those boys all by himself, so I put her on a bench in front of the station, which seemed safe enough, told her to wait for me, and hurried back.

But halfway there a hand grabbed me from behind.

I turned around, and it was the young man.

“Hey,” he said, smiling. There was not a scratch on him. No dirt…not even so much as a wrinkle on his crisp white suit. Who was this guy?!

“Are…you okay?!”

“Yeah, it’s all taken care of. I doubt they’ll bother you again,” he said airily.

I gaped at him. I’d been gone less than two or three minutes. And there’d been five of them.

“Um, y-you…”

“I think you ought to worry more about her than me. How’s she doing?”

“Um, I don’t…”

“Better hurry back. The girl’s much less secure than she looks. Her roots and stem have merged, and you can’t tell them apart. Plus, she’s got very few leaves and just a hardened bud in place of a flower.”

He’d lost me completely. All I could manage was a dumbfounded, “What?”

“It’s not important. If she says horrible things to you, I wouldn’t pay too much attention. That’s the trick for getting along with her. Bye.” Leaving this further cryptic comment behind him, the man in white turned and walked away.

“…………”

I stood there stunned for a moment, but soon collected myself, and hurried back to the girl.

She was sitting in exactly the same position as I’d left her, with both hands on the front of the jacket, holding it closed.

“—Um, are you feeling better?” I asked rather stupidly, unable to think of anything else.

“…………” She didn’t answer.

I didn’t know what to do, but now that I thought about it, she had effectively rescued me, so I said, “Uh, th-thanks. For, uh…for back there.”

“Why?” she asked, looking up at me. She looked puzzled again.

Man, I couldn’t get this conversation rolling at all.

“Well, you saved me, didn’t you?” I said, smiling hopefully.

Her eyes widened, then for some reason she looked down, and mumbled, “…I thought you hated me.”

“Hunh?” I gaped back at her. “Why? Why would I hate you?”

“I can’t be hated by anyone. Not by any normal humans,” she said, oddly intense. Her eyes were serious.

“…I don’t hate you.”

“But you glared at me…” she said, very sadly.

“I did? Oh…but that wasn’t about you. I just was angry with myself, so…I… I mean…” I stumbled, trying to clear things up.

Still looking at the ground, she whispered, “I’m sorry.”

“Why are you apologizing? It’s all my fault! I was worried that you hated me!”

She looked up. “—Why?”

“I mean, that was pretty pathetic back there, right? That’s why I was angry at myself. Nothing to do with you. I was so angry because I was sure you hated me.” The more I babbled, the more pathetic I came across.

She quietly watched me flail about, but said nothing.

“And then because I couldn’t make up my mind, you…” I trailed off, shoulders slumping. “But it’s over now. I’ll pay for your clothes. Um…”

I reached for my wallet, and remembered that the reason I’d been heading for the station in the first place was that I had no money and needed to swing by an ATM.

“Ugh, crap…the ATM’s already closed…!”

“Don’t worry about money. I have some,” she answered as she stood up.

“But I can’t just do nothing…”

“Really. If you could lend me this jacket…I’ll give it back.”

“Oh, no—take it! But that doesn’t really pay you back at all…could you at least give me your address? Or phone number? I’ll call you later and I’ll pay you for the clothes then…”

“………” She stared at me levelly. I was taller than her, so she had to look up at me slightly. It could be taken as a glare.

“Ah, no, I don’t mean it like that. Uh…if you’d prefer to call me…yeah, we should do it that way.”

“Orihata.”

“Mm?”

“My name. Orihata Aya. You are…?”

“Oh, uh, I’m Taniguchi Masaki.”

“Masaki…that’s a nice name,” I said, and at last she smiled. A very small smile, the corners of her mouth turning up ever so slightly—but there was enough power in it to grab me by the heart.

Was this what they called love at first sight?

 

***

 

“I… I got tickets to a movie that’s supposed to be really good. You… You wanna come?” I asked, finally working up the nerve to ask out Orihata. It was over the phone, but you have to go with what you have.

“Are you sure? With me?” The voice on the other end of the line said, faintly.

Hiding my tension, I replied cheerily, “I still haven’t thanked you for last time. If you’ve got other plans, I… I understand, but…”

“…Thank you. Okay.”

“You’ll… You’ll come?! Awesome!!!”

“But Masaki, I’m really…”

“Mm? What?”

“No…never mind.” And she fell silent.

Further details were basically all decided by me, and she simply agreed to everything I suggested. I couldn’t think of any clever way to say good-bye and ended the call by hanging up awkwardly.

I heard someone giggle behind me. At some point, my sister had come downstairs. My parents were still living abroad, so the two of us were alone in the house.

“And here I thought you were a playboy. Awfully stressed for a simple date, aren’t we?”

“It’s not nice to eavesdrop.”

“I couldn’t not hear you. Your voice was so loud, I heard it upstairs. I thought something had happened.”

Considering that she spent basically all her time poking at computers in her room, she was awfully nosy at times like this.

“None of your business, Nagi! Leave me alone.”

“Okay, okay. I’m not that bored,” she said, playing dumb.

 

***

 

On the day of our date, we got to the movie theater and realized we had underestimated the situation a bit. There was a huge crowd with the line snaking all around the theater and back out onto the street.

“The end of the line starts here,” shouted a theater employee at the end of the line. “Please be advised that there is a four-hour wait!”

“Oh, wow… What should we do?” I clutched my head. I’d blown our first date. “Should we try some other day?” I asked.

Orihata looked puzzled. “Why?” she asked.

“We’ll have to wait a really long time. It’ll blow our whole day.”

“You don’t want to wait?”

“Well…doesn’t it make you tired?”

“Then I’ll wait in line. You go play somewhere,” she said calmly, and took her place at the end of the line.

I was a mess. “What?! I can’t do that! I should be the one who waits!”

“I don’t mind. I’m used to doing nothing.”

“No, I mean… This is supposed to be me…thanking you.” Even as I spoke, several people got in line behind her.

“Right!” I made up my mind. I turned and ran back towards the station.

The road was filled with people. I looked around me as I ran.

“Oh, Study Abroad. What are you doing here?” someone asked. I spun around. It was one of the guys from my class, Anou.

“Ah, um, you know.”

“Yeah, I do. You’re making some chick wait for you, huh?”

The boys in my school didn’t like me in the first place, but this Anou guy was one of the most aggressive. Usually, I could handle him okay, but I had no time for it today.

“Sorry, in kind of a hurry,” I said, brushing him off, and dove into a fast food joint. I bought an assortment of food and drinks, and hurried back.

“Excuse me! Excuse me! Coming through…” I wormed my way through the line, earning the hatred of every single person I passed, and finally caught up with Orihata. “Sorry to keep you waiting, heh heh…”

“I thought you weren’t coming back.”

“We need an endurance strategy for this. Thought we ought to at least have lunch.” I showed her the bag.

“But you didn’t like waiting.”

“Not really. But if…” But if I’m with you, I’ve got no time to be bored, I started to say, but got embarrassed, and fell silent.

“What?” Orihata asked, head to one side.

“…So, uh, what’ll you have?” I said. “I brought a bunch so you could choose…what do you like?”

“Anything.”

“You like everything?”

“I have no right to dislike anything.”

There she went again with the cryptic stuff. I couldn’t get her to explain this. It was like her heart was locked down somewhere, and I couldn’t get in.

So I grabbed a double cheeseburger at random and handed it to her and began scarfing down a hot dog myself.

She began nibbling at the burger, neither reluctantly nor happily. I felt like I was feeding a rabbit, which made me uncomfortable.

I finished my hot dog in three bites, and had nothing left to do. My eyes wandered upwards towards the sky.

Suddenly, Orihata looked at my face, and exclaimed, “Ah!” Before I even had time to wonder why, she reached up, her face came close to mine, and she licked the ketchup off the side of my mouth…with her tongue!

I was stunned. She looked like nothing at all had happened.

“Now you’re clean,” she said. She wasn’t at all embarrassed, and she wasn’t joking around, either. It was as if she had decided her tongue would be the most effective tool, since her hands were busy holding the burger. Her job complete, she turned her attention back to eating again.

Meanwhile, I had turned bright, bright red.

I’m not sure how many hours we waited, but at some point we finally managed to make it into the theater. Before I knew it, the movie was over. I couldn’t tell you a single thing that happened—I spent the entire time in a complete daze.

When I snapped out of it, we were outside, and it was already night.

All it took was Orihata telling me, “Bye,” outside the theater to bring my attention crashing back to reality.

“Eh? Going home already?” I’m sure I sounded a little whiney.

Orihata looked a little surprised. “But…we already saw the movie.”

“Yeah, but…we could go to a cafe or something,” I said, wistfully.

“Really?”

“Of course! It’ll be on me!”

“Not the money… You don’t think I’m boring?”

“No, not at all!” I said, flustered. I thought she must be angry with me, since I’d been so out of it.

But Orihata looked relieved, and said, “Good. I was worried. I thought you hated me.”

I never in a million years thought she would say that, so I panicked a little. We somehow made it into a nearby cafe, Tristan, ordered some coffee, and at last, I settled down. This was the chance I needed to sort everything out, so I tried talking with her.

“Orihata, you don’t think…I’m boring?” Oh god, that was terrible. Still, I couldn’t not ask that.

But Orihata didn’t answer. Instead, she suddenly took my hand. Her gentle touch wrapped around my wrist.

I was taken aback, but I couldn’t snatch my hand away, so I just sort of jumped in my seat dramatically.

“Masaki…your skin is warm,” she said with a peaceful expression on her face, like an old lady who had just sipped some really good tea.

She was a mystery. I understood nothing about her.

 

***

 

And that’s basically how Orihata and I started going out, although it was a strange sort of relationship, and I’m not really sure you could call it dating.

First of all, her house…

No matter when I called, she always answered instantly—right in the middle of the first ring. I had barely finished dialing, and the call was connected, and BAM! There she was, saying, “Orihata,” with absolutely no emotion at all.

“Um, it’s Taniguchi…” No matter how many times I called, I always started out tongue-tied.

“What?” she always said, curtly.

“Um, well, I thought this Saturday…”

Our relationship was awfully like this phone call. I got all excited and chased after her, but she was completely neutral.

But even though the high school entrance exams were right in front of me, I spent all of my free time with her. In my case, I had already been successfully admitted to a private high school a year before—but on the condition that I graduate from a Japanese junior high, which was why I’d moved back here—so I had nothing to worry about. Still, I was a little worried about her. I asked once, but she just shrugged.

“You haven’t decided?” It was already mid-January.

“I’ll be taking a test, but I don’t know which school yet,” she said, as if she was talking about someone else.

“Are your parents strict?”

“I don’t have any.”

“Hunh? What?”

“Parents.”

“But that…” Apparently she had no parents, and lived alone. In high school, sure, I could see that—but in junior high? “No relatives at all?”

“…………” No answer.

“Sorry, I… I shouldn’t have asked,” I said apologetically.

She turned towards me suddenly. “Sorry, Masaki,” she said, rather urgently.

“About what?” I asked, surprised.

She looked at the ground. “I’m sorry. I can’t tell you,” she murmured.

I couldn’t ask further. It hurt me to see her sad. Whenever she did, I would get really cheery and try to slide past it. “Gosh, the sky is really beautiful today, huh?!” I might say, in a stupidly loud voice.

She almost never smiled, but when we separated, she always asked if we could meet again, so I guess she didn’t hate me. At least, that’s what I kept telling myself.

Eventually, I don’t know how, she decided to go to high school at Shinyo Academy.

“Oh! Congratulations!” I said happily, when she told me on the phone that she had passed the test.

“I’m glad you’re happy, Masaki,” she replied. She almost never sounded like she was having fun, but that day…she did.

“We should do something to celebrate. What do you think? Meet in a few at the usual place?”

“Yes, okay.”

Happily, I rushed out to the park where we always met. I had no idea what was waiting for me.

 

***

 

“Yes, okay. Mmhmm…mmhmm…bye.”

Orihata Aya hung up her cell phone after her conversation with Taniguchi Masaki.

It had been the first time she had ever called him. Until now, she had always waited for him to call, but Masaki had been worried about what high school she was going to, so she thought she should let him know.

He had been happy. That made Aya happy. He was unaware that “higher education” was merely a camouflage for her “mission.” She was not happy about it. She did not feel anything about it. But if something she did made Masaki happy, then Aya was happy too.

She moved quickly towards her closet.

Since she met Masaki, her wardrobe had increased dramatically. If she wore something nice, Masaki would tell her it was cute, so Aya began paying attention to her clothes.

There was nothing else in her room. With the exception of the furniture provided by the building’s landlord, there were no other furnishings. No TV, no table, not even a bed. There was but a single sleeping bag lying on the floor.

She changed, and went out, allowing the muscles in her cheeks to relax slightly.

People hardly ever came to the park where they always met. It was a large green belt surrounded by three highways, which made it a little scary for parents to take their children out to play. Unfortunately, it was also a tad too out in the open for young people, so it was like an empty air pocket smack dab in the center of the city.

Aya sat down on a bench.

Waiting for Masaki as the rays of the afternoon sun came through the trees above her, Aya entertained the brief fantasy that she was a normal, happy girl.

She didn’t know exactly what Masaki thought of her. But when she thought of the secrets she was keeping from him…she knew that, no matter what he wanted from her, he would still be important to her.

If he knew the truth, would he still be her friend? This was her greatest fear.

With her head down, Aya waited for Masaki, not moving.

She was always worried that he wouldn’t come. But she couldn’t possibly arrive after him. It would be awful if he hated her because of that. So she always came an hour before they were supposed to meet. But today’s meeting had come up quite sudden, so she only had to wait another ten minutes or so.

As Aya glanced at her watch, a shadow stood before her.

She thought it was Masaki, and looked up, blushing slightly.

Her expression froze.

“———!”

It wasn’t him. It was a very fat man, with graying hair and a broad grin. Big, round, glittering eyes.

“What are you doing, ‘Camille’?” the man said to Aya, in a high, reedy voice. The black leather jacket he wore was open at the front, but looked ready to burst apart at the seams at any moment. It shone with a tasteless gleam. There was a belt round his waist with a number of pockets hanging from it, each of which had a cell phone in it.

“Nothing of any purpose,” Aya replied, dutifully answering to the name ‘Camille,’ eyes down towards the ground.

“Meeting a boy?” The fat man sneered. “Remember who you are.” His eyes didn’t budge as he laughed, but stayed perfectly round.

His fat lay entirely on his head and belly, which were perfectly round, but his arms and legs were thin and long like poles. He looked very unhealthy. He had almost no neck and strongly defined features and swollen cheeks, like he’d placed pads on the sides of his face.

At that moment, a gust of wind swept by, lifting his long, greying hair. His right ear was missing. There was only a jagged wound, like it had been torn off.

The man straightened his hair, hiding the injury.

“………” Aya’s head was still down.

“Look up,” the man said, and she obeyed, moving jerkily.

He glared down at her frostily. “Have you done him?”

“…No, not yet.”

“What are you waiting for? Let him have you. You’re in no position to make a big deal out of something like that.”

“Yes…”

“Well, not like that mission has to be in any hurry…but the other one does. Have you found any clues?”

“No, I—” Aya started to say, but was abruptly cut off as the man punched her in the face.

Aya fell off the bench, and sprawled on the pavement. Her lip was split and bleeding.

“…………”

But her expression registered neither pain nor anger.

“You just don’t get it, Camille, do you? What are you? Mm? You don’t perform your duty. You’re nothing but a defective product.”

He waddled over to her slowly and kicked her in the side. He kicked her again and again, and each time her body shook.

“…………”

Even so, her expression never changed.

“You see? I’m not letting you stay alive out of pity. If you aren’t useful to the Towa Organization…if you aren’t useful to me…I’ll dispose of you whenever I wish. We’ve got a lot more where you came from!”

He grabbed Aya’s collar, and yanked her upwards, putting his face right in hers.

“Now you listen to me. He’s in this area.” His voice went low and quiet, like a knife twisting in her gut. “I don’t know why, but all the young girls in this area know about him. It’s idle gossip, but they know of him. There must be something. Finding out what that is…is your job. Not walking around and just wasting time with a guy you’re not even having sex with. Got me?”

“I understand, Spooky E.” Aya answered quietly, emotionless.

And then, someone called out, “Hey! What are you doing?!”

Spooky E twisted his head towards the voice. It was Taniguchi Masaki.

“Let go of her!” he screamed, running towards them.

“……! N-no!” Aya cried, terrified.

“Mm?” Spooky E frowned at her emotion, but quickly grinned, and dropped her. “You must be lover boy.”

He turned towards Masaki, on his guard.

“What did you do to her?!” Masaki yelled, furious, and uncharacteristically came right at Spooky E, swinging his fist.

“No, Masaki! Run away!” Aya screamed, desperate.

“Hunh…” Spooky E made a light step sideways, dodging the blow.

Spooky E tried to punch Masaki in the back, but Masaki had read the movement and was able to twist his body enough to dodge the blow and recover his distance.

“……!” Spooky E looked alarmed.

Masaki got his balance back, and hit a stance.

But he was far more tense than the fat man.

(…this guy’s pulling back…but I still barely dodged him.)

He should never have been able to move like that at his weight. However…

Masaki’s instincts told him to ignore common sense. This was clearly no ordinary opponent.

“…Mmph…” Cold sweat ran down his brow.

Spooky E spoke to the fallen Aya. “Is this guy some sort of stupid martial artist? Or is he an MPLS? Is he an enemy of the Towa Organization?!”

“——!” Aya’s face turned white. “Nothing like that! Masaki’s a normal human!” she almost shrieked, like Masaki’s life depended on her answer.

“Ah, so he’s just some average Joe that thought he’d learn a little kung fu.”

“……?” Masaki glanced at Aya. These two knew each other?

Aya avoided his eyes.

Spooky E took advantage of this drop in his guard and lunged at him.

Too fast for the eye to follow, he closed the gap between them.

“Wah!” Instincts screamed danger as Masaki made no attempt to guard. He simply fled the attack.

He rolled on the ground.

But this took him farther away from Aya.

“———! Oh no!” He wasn’t thinking clearly.

He tried to get near her quickly, but Spooky E was right there in his way.

“You can’t leave her and run away alone, eh? What a hero.”

“…………”

“If you were an MPLS, I might have to be careful…but an ordinary human? Let me show you why they call me…Spooky Electric.” He opened his fists.

On his palms, his blood vessels stood out unnaturally. Blue and red lines ran all across them.

Masaki thought he could hear a crackle coming from them…

“O-Orihata! Run!” he yelled, sensing danger.

But Aya just slumped, making no attempt to stand.

“Shit…!” Masaki rushed forward, desperately.

Grinning, Spooky E waited for him.

Inside, Masaki thought, To hell with it, and, grinding his teeth, he aimed a kick right at Spooky E’s unguarded crotch.

His karate master had told him, If you really need to, don’t hesitate.

Masaki’s toes struck directly at every man’s weakest point.

But…the sensation his foot met with was all wrong.

“—Hunh?!” He looked up at his enemy’s face.

The grin was still there, the same as ever.

“Too baaaad,” Spooky E said, and with a quick little jitterbug of a step, he put his palms on Masaki’s head, one on each side.

Everything went black before Masaki’s eyes, and he passed out.

 

***

 

My head throbbed.

I could hear voices, but they seemed so far away…

“Please, let him be. We haven’t yet. There’s still a chance…”

“He got to you pretty good, huh? But if that boy knew what you’ve been up to, he won’t think the same…”

“I know…but please…spare him.”

“Huh? You aren’t even human. What are you thinking?”

“Please…”

“Okay, then. I’ll let him live…on that one condition.”

“Thank you.”

“But don’t forget, Camille. Your primary mission is to find him. Find that——”

That was all I heard. After that, I knew nothing more.

 

***

 

And when I woke up, it felt very warm all around me.

“Uh……?” I opened my eyes, stretching. Orihata’s face was right above me.

“You woke up,” she said, gently.

Surprised, I sat up, looking around. We were in the park where I had apparently fallen asleep on a bench.

On her lap no less.

“Wh-what? Why am I sleeping here?”

I shook my head, but the last thing I could remember was getting a phone call from Orihata and suggesting we celebrate her getting accepted into high school. I couldn’t remember what I’d done after that. I couldn’t even remember arriving at the park.

“I think you got sunstroke. When I got here, you were already asleep,” Orihata said calmly.

“Really? I was sleeping?”

“It surprised me. I thought you were dead…”

“Wow… I’m s-sorry. But sunstroke?” It was sunny enough, but it was barely spring. Much too early to get sunstroke, right?

“Sorry, this is all my fault…” she said.

“N-no it isn’t! I’m the one who passed out!” I said hurriedly. It seemed like I was always showing her these awkward undignified moments. “S-so we were going to celebrate, right? Is there anything you’d like me to do? Go ahead, ask me anything,” I said, cheerfully, grinning, trying desperately to cover.

She looked suddenly very sad.

She stood up from the bench, turning her back on me.

There was a long silence.

“…………”

Her figure seemed to absorb the rays of the setting sun, like she was melting into the backlight.

She looked very fragile, almost like a ghost.

After a minute of silence, I gingerly asked, “Wh-what’s wrong?”

“Masaki…you’re really strong, aren’t you?” she whispered, not turning around.

“Um?”

“When we first met…if I hadn’t saved you, you’d have been able to get out of that on your own, right?”

Suddenly, I found myself in a very awkward position. “Uh, w-well, that’s not…”

“Masaki, can I ask you a favor?” Her voice came over her shoulders.

“Yes. Anything!”

“Masaki, you’re friends with the girls in this area, right?”

“Uh, yeah…I-I guess.”

“I wonder if you’ve heard anything from them…rumors of a mysterious shinigami.”

“Rumors?”

“Nobody knows where he appears, but all the girls know his name.” She turned around. The backlight hid her face, and I couldn’t make out her expression. “They all know about Boogiepop.”