Chapter IV

Chapter IV

 

When I could sleep, I would go into a movie theater, and sit on the side in the very front row, where nobody would ever come. The times were always different; sometimes in the morning, sometimes at night. I doubt I ever snored. Nobody ever woke me up.

At night, I would find a 24-hour family restaurant and wait for sunrise. I’d sit there reading manga or something, to keep from being noticed. I was hardly the only one doing this, so I didn’t stand out too much.

I wondered if my sister had filed a missing person’s report with the police, so I started wearing glasses as a disguise—but I never met anyone who seemed to be looking for me.

And when I wasn’t resting…I was Boogiepop.

Kids my age would attack drunken businessmen in groups to steal their money and prove their strength. Suddenly, their attack would be interrupted by a dark, cloaked figure, which would spout haughty bullshit like, “How sad you are,” and then beat the crap out of them before fleeing like the wind.

Obviously, I did this because I didn’t want the people I saved to get a good look at my face. Half the time, though, I didn’t know which side was to blame, but I always took the side of the underdog.

But if the people I saved seemed like they were going to exact revenge, I’d put them down, too. Then I’d blow a whistle, like the kind police use, and vanish before anyone arrived.

As soon as I was safely away, I’d slip into the shadows, whip off my costume, and stuff it into my bag before walking away with as innocent an expression as I could muster, always thinking:

What am I doing?

Man, I’m certainly getting good at running away…

And the like.

I’d given up the makeup. It was dark, and no one would be able to recognize me anyway. Besides…it was always Orihata who was putting on the makeup. Without her here, I could never get it right.

“Ow…”

I glanced at my fist, and found I’d hurt it again.

My movements were becoming wild. My shishou always said there were no moves in karate that would allow you to injure yourself—and that if you did, that was a sign you had not yet trained enough, or you were losing control. Both were true for me now.

I put some cold spray on the bruise and put a pair of gloves over it, the sort of first aid Orihata had once done for me. Damn, I was thinking about her again.

“Argh…”

My opponents were nothing much, so I was just narrowly scraping by. If I actually ran into anyone dangerous, though, I’d be in serious trouble. Most weapons, like knives, I just had to dodge—but if someone had a gun, I’d be a goner.

And then what would happen to me? Would this be what Orihata needed?

Absently munching on spaghetti carbonara (plus salad), pondering things, a thought struck me.

Is this a roundabout way of killing myself…?

I knew I was pretty desperate, but did I really want to die?

“…………”

Carbonara sauce is made from soft-boiled eggs and tastes terrible cold, so my mouth never stopped moving the whole time I was thinking. I even asked a waiter for a refill on my coffee.

“…………”

I added a lot of cream and sugar, and took a sip.

Even I was amazed at how low my sense of danger was.

I was ultra calm.

I didn’t know what the hell I was trying to do and no one was ever going to praise me for it. I was gradually forgetting the correct movements for karate, flailing wildly and becoming a menace to myself.

(Hunh…)

I knew all of this, but I didn’t seem to care.

Why not? Was something wrong with me? Well, that much was obvious, but exactly what was wrong?

(Hmmm…)

I thought about Orihata. I felt no anger towards her. I wasn’t playing Boogiepop to get attention. I was actually hoping that she’d forgotten all about me.

When I remembered how I’d fawned over her, I was embarrassed. I couldn’t forget how pathetic I was with my head in the clouds.

(Okay…)

I think I’m playing Boogiepop to apologize to her. If what I’m doing is in any way useful to her… That was the thought that was driving me.

(Man, what self-centered logic.)

I was unable to suppress a self-deprecating giggle.

Here I was, fully aware that the girl I’d been going out with had never really been in love with me at all. Yet, I couldn’t stop letting her memory dictate my every move. God, I was a loser.

(So stupid…)

I giggled again, but by this point I was pretending to read a manga anthology so that nobody would look at me suspiciously. Damn, but I was getting too good at this.

The waiter passed by, and I ordered another cup of coffee.

 

***

 

“It’s him. No doubt about it,” Kinukawa Kotoe said, looking at Taniguchi Masaki, sitting in the window of a family restaurant.

She and six others were standing on the other side of a four-lane road across from the restaurant.

From the side, they looked like they just happened to all be waiting for the light to change so they could cross.

The other six were all thin men. Their ages varied, as did their clothes, from suits to school uniforms, leather jackets and jeans. The only thing linking them together was their singular lack of expression. This was the only thing, yet this distinguishing feature made it plain to see—they were all Spooky E’s ‘terminals.’

“Heh…” Kotoe grinned, seeing Masaki’s glasses. “What a crappy disguise. Still, he was pretty good at running and hiding. Took some doing to track him down.”

“…………”

“…………”

The men behind her made no response.

The light changed, and a motorcycle pulled to a stop in front of them.

They stepped forward to cross the street, but Kotoe said softly, “No, wait…”

Masaki was about to leave the restaurant. It looked like he was going to prowl a little more tonight.

“He looks serious. Split into three groups and tail him.”

They started across the street, passing in front of the stopped motorcycle.

There was nothing strange about the motorcycle at first glance, but on closer inspection, the driver was a little unusual. She wore a leather jumpsuit and safety boots. The kind people wear in a factory to keep their feet intact even if several tons fall on them. There was a military style backpack slung over her shoulders.

Her face was hidden beneath a full face helmet, but she was clearly female.

Kotoe’s group reached the other side, and started following after Masaki. He had the Boogiepop disguise in a bag on his shoulder. Two of them took the lead, and the others took side streets, temporarily staying out of sight.

The signal changed.

“————”

The biker girl made a sudden sharp turn into the other side of the road, and roared off back the way she had come.

 

***

 

(Only two following me…?)

Of course, I had noticed.

The moment I saw that woman—the girl who had been so snide with Orihata, Kinukawa Kotoe—I knew the moment I’d been waiting for had come. Luckily, it looked like they didn’t know that I was on to them.

I made a show of heading to a deserted area of town, like I’m sure they hoped I would, and then turned into a shopping area and had some fun going up and down elevators for a while.

It looked like there were several of them trading off, but I wasn’t worried. I knew someone was after me the whole time, so I didn’t bother trying to distinguish between them.

(Okay. Now what?)

I was having trouble deciding. I did have an idea, but it was a tad…out there.

(Right, then—still not gonna change the fact that I’m pathetic.)

I left the main streets for a stretch of dimly lit back roads.

I knew the area well. It was the type of place I’d often patrol as Boogiepop. And the alley leading down to the station had a special place in my heart. I hadn’t been there in almost six months, though…

Yet it still smelled of stagnant water. You could never call it beautiful.

“…………”

It made me a little sad.

I was doubtless far too young to reminisce, but if I had no future, then who cared if I acted like an old man? I just went for it.

This was the place where I’d been surrounded by kouhai from my junior high school, where I’d been saved by Orihata Aya—where I first met her…

(Man, she sure bowled me over. I mean, just look at how she…)

I could feel my face turning red at the thought of that memory. I brushed it off with a chuckle to myself.

Footsteps came towards me from behind.

I grinned, and dove into the shadows.

The footsteps sped up. They were on the offensive. They weren’t going to just follow me around any longer.

Another set of footsteps came towards me from the opposite direction. They had me surrounded.

“Where is he?”

I could hear voices.

“He’s gotta be hiding somewhere!”

“Don’t panic. Every way out of here’s a dead end. He must be here somewhere!”

I started counting.

(One, two…six in all. Almost the same number I saw from the window.)

All men.

“We split up and search?”

“No. Wait. I have a plan.” This was Kinukawa Kotoe’s voice. That made seven.

They were all here.

I started to move, slowly and carefully. Her voice grew louder.

“Hey! Taniguchi Masaki-kun! Are you still in love with Orihata Aya?”

I didn’t answer.

“Do you know what she really is?” Kinukawa continued. “She never let you screw her, did she? Such a shame. After all the experience she’s had with those other guys… You know what they call her behind her back? The public toilet.”

She was trying to provoke me. Trying to make me mad.

I didn’t answer.

“You’ve got a pathetic sense of duty to a bitch like that? How can you be fooled by that little goody two-shoes exterior of hers?!”

In the darkness, I grasped the Nike bag, now much lighter.

For a second, I closed my eyes.

In my mind’s eye, I pictured her.

You’re really strong, aren’t you?

Masaki…will you become him?

Orihata was wrong.

I’m strong at all. Truth is, I don’t have any idea what’s right. Only way I get by is from paying close attention to the expressions of the people around me.

But I think I can ‘become’ him. When you said that… When I was with you…

It might just have been a delusion. But I didn’t care if it was—even without evidence, without proof… Isn’t that what this is?

“That girl’s better than anyone at fooling men,” Kinukawa said. “I almost feel sorry for how you jumped right into her trap. You’re the saddest person in the world—”

As she was talking, there was a sudden noise from behind her.

The men rushed towards it. One of them kicked over a pile of wooden crates, exposing something hidden in the shadows.

The empty Nike bag, lying right where I’d flung it.

“——!”

The men stiffened—their backs to me.

Surprise attacks are over in seconds.

I kicked them in the back, right between the spine and ribs, three of them in less than two seconds.

“GUH!”

All three of them went flying.

The other three turned towards me. As I’d expected, they all had guns.

But I was very close to them. I could attack as fast as they could aim.

I bent down and swung my leg, sweeping the legs out from all three of them.

All three lost their balance and fell over.

I leapt on them, slamming my knee into two of them.

Leaving them crumpled, I slammed my elbow into the third.

When I stood up again, all six of them were unconscious.

“————”

I quickly picked up one of the dropped guns.

Spinning around, I released the safety, and aimed it right at Kinukawa Kotoe. And yes, I’d held a real gun before, back in Phnom Penh, and I was ready to use it.

She froze instantly. “…T-taniguchi Masaki,” she stammered. “I think I may have underestimated…”

“I’m not Taniguchi Masaki,” I interrupted, quietly.

I wore a black hat and cloak. In this outfit, “I am Boogiepop.”

I stepped slowly forward, and placed the barrel of the gun against her chin.

But she wasn’t the least bit frightened. She gave me a confident grin. “Okay, point for you. You’ve earned my respect. If I told Axis about you, they’d probably pick you up, convinced you were the real thing.”

I had no idea what she was talking about.

“Tell me what you did to Orihata,” I said, trying to suppress my anger, but well aware that I was failing. I was that close to the edge.

“But I just did. That was all true. She really has been with any number of men.”

“Did you make her do that?!”

“So what if I did? She still didn’t tell you; she still betrayed you.”

“Augh……” My eyes misted over.

I suddenly understood what she had meant all those times she’d said she was sorry.

But I was a fool. I hadn’t noticed. All this time, she’d been asking for help.

“I’ll ask you again… Where is Orihata?!”

“Wouldn’t you like to know?”

“Fuck you!” Ignoring the fact that she was a girl, I smacked her with the butt of the gun.

She spat blood and fell over into the ditch water.

Even then, she smiled.

“Hee hee hee hee… Go ahead, kill me. After all, I’ve had my way with your woman all along!”

“Graah!” I could feel my head ignite.

My hands were shaking so hard I could barely keep the gun pointed at her.

I could pull that trigger at any second.

“I’d planned to leave a corpse for everyone to blame, but I’m just as happy leaving you a murderer—how about it?” she wheedled, venomous.

“Sh-shit…!” Wave after wave of hatred poured out of me. I couldn’t stop it.

With a will of its own, my fingers pulled back the hammer.

With a click, it was ready to fire.

“Rrrrrrrrrr!” Grinding my teeth, I could hear my blood roaring in my ears.

“…Mm?” Kinukawa Kotoe frowned, puzzled.

Even though I looked ready to shoot her any second, her gaze was directed not at me, but at something behind me.

Alarmed, I spun around.

Too late.

Someone had snuck up behind me. They touched my neck, moving much faster than me. A shock ran through my body.

“GACK—?!”

Suddenly unable to move, I toppled over.

Electricity—a stun gun.

“Idiot,” said a voice I’d heard before—a young girl’s voice.

But could it really be her…?

I struggled to turn my head, and at last succeeded. It was her.

“I thought you were up to something dumb, but Christ… If I let you kill someone, how the hell could I ever face your parents?”

Only one girl talked like a boy and ran around in a leather jumpsuit and safety boots, heedless of how they looked.

“N-Nagi-neesan…?” My sister.

“I told you—don’t call me ‘Neesan,’” she snarled. No one else talked like her. “And why in god’s name are you dressed like that? I dunno who the hell put you up to it, but you are a grade A dumbass.” She spat out her words, tearing Boogiepop’s hat and cloak off me while I was still paralyzed.

“Who the hell are you?” Kinukawa Kotoe asked, trying to get to her feet. But Nagi poked her with her stungun, which was the rod kind, much like a police truncheon.

“You aren’t going anywhere, Kinukawa Kotoe.”

“Whaaat?! You know me?” Kotoe stared, amazed.

My sister snorted. “Thought so. Girl like Kinukawa Kotoe, suddenly acting crazy…”

“What do you mean?!”

“You aren’t Kinukawa,” she said quietly. “You’re just borrowing her face, or maybe you brainwashed her. I dunno, but absolutely every student at Shinyo Academy knows who I am.”

She looked awfully used to this.

“What are you?” Kotoe asked.

“I’m not big on giving out my name as much as he is. And I’m the one asking questions. Who’s controlling you?” she asked, pointedly.

I was confused now.

What the…?

Brainwashed?

So it wasn’t this woman who’d done something to Orihata?

“…………” Kotoe fell silent.

Then her face twisted into a smile again.“Oooooh… I get it,” she said. “I found you, buried down in Kinukawa Kotoe’s memories. You’re that ‘Fire Witch.’ Didn’t seem that important at the time—but I guess I blew it, not leaving that in the conscious registers. Never thought the class delinquent would be doing something like this.”

This was nothing like the way Kotoe had been talking—she sounded like a middle-aged man with the face of a girl.

“Answer me,” my sister said, unmoved. Was she always going around, doing stuff like this?

“My, my. First him, then the Imaginator, now you… Problems everywhere I turn.” Whatever was inside her grinned at us. Her eyes stayed perfectly round, which made the smile that much more sinister. “Good thing I took the precaution of sending in two teams.”

She snapped her fingers.

“……!”

My sister suddenly flung herself to the side.

And from above, something—no, someone—fell on her, first one and then another.

Punk-styled men were attacking from the air!

(WHAT—?!)

I looked up. From the building beside us, put of the second floor staircase window, came a swarm of punks, skinheads, and yakuza-looking men all leaping down into the alley. Like the first bunch, this motley crew seemed to have nothing to do with each other.

The six men I’d knocked out earlier were just the main course? These others had all been waiting on standby?!

“N-Nagi-neesa—!” I tried to tell her to run, but…

“Hmph!”

Making a noise somewhere between a grunt and a chuckle, she dodged every nail-ridden bat they swung at her. Then she kicked them, zapped them with her stungun, dodged a blow from behind without even looking…

It was all so fast…

She was taking on five or six at a time, never flinching, never hesitating—knocking them down like bowling pins. She was insanely strong.

(Wh-who the hell is she?)

By any standard, she was far stronger than me, and it wasn’t because she had a weapon. No, she was good without one—but with a weapon, it was like it became an extension of her own body, a clear sign of just how good she was.

Now that I thought about it, I remember once asking my shishou what my sister, the daughter of his friend, had been like as a child.

Shishou had laughed, and said only this: “I couldn’t keep up with her.”

But I’d never thought he meant it literally.

“…………”

Both body and mind now stunned and unable to move, Nagi suddenly grabbed me by the front of my shirt and flung me across the alley.

Aaah! I thought, and a second later a skinhead landed where I’d been lying. She’d saved me getting trampled.

Now that is true strength.

Bam, bam, all the punks went flying, kicked or zapped.

“……”

I no longer understood anything, but did my best to move, trying to keep out of my sister’s way.

Suddenly, a yakuza-looking guy landed right in front of me.

I panicked for a moment, but he was out cold. Wasn’t even twitching.

Just as I started to get angry with him for startling me, I noticed the key holder hanging from his alligator belt.

There were a bunch of keys that looked to go to various motorcycles and cars, and so on, but the one my eyes had latched on to, was…

“Th-that’s…”

I forced my frozen arm through horrible pain, and grabbed the key.

I’d seen that key before.

I’d seen her holding it, once.

“Oh god…”

It belonged to Orihata. It was her apartment key.

 

***

 

“Shit—! What is she?!” Kinukawa Kotoe snarled, watching the terminals get pulverized by one girl. Kotoe picked up the gun Taniguchi Masaki had dropped, and fired it in the girl’s direction.

It hit the girl square in the back.

“Unh!” She fell forwards…and turned it into a forwards somersault. She was back on her feet in a second flat.

Bulletproof clothing—!

She spun towards Kotoe, and glared at her.

“Sh-shit!” Kotoe fired the gun a few times. But the enemy was moving too fast, and none of the bullets hit her. Most of them hit her allies, the terminals, who were not bulletproof. They toppled over, spurting blood.

“Stop it!” the girl roared.

(I’m finished…!)

Kotoe fled, abandoning her allies.

“Wait!” the girl called, but that wasn’t going to happen.

“Keep her here!” Kotoe yelled at the terminals.

They did as they were told, flinging themselves at Taniguchi Masaki’s sister, despite their wounds.

 

***

 

“Argh!” she roared, knocking them aside, one after the other.

When the last one went down, she looked around her.

There was no sign of Kotoe.

“Damn,” she muttered. Then she noticed her brother was missing too. “That idiot!” she said, irritated, but her tone was more worried than annoyed.

“Okay. Guess I’ll have to take care of you boys first,” she said, looking down at the groaning terminal in front of her.

She poked her stun gun against his head.

“If this is the guy I think it is, this ought to fix things,” and a weaker burst of electricity coursed through the terminal’s head.

She repeated this with all of them. Even those with gunshot wounds—none of the wounds were fatal, so she let them be.

“Okay…” she said, looking up. She checked to see just how many power lines were running overhead.

Then she picked up the five guns lying on the ground. They all had silencers on them, so she unscrewed them and held the pieces in both hands.

She fired and fired until there were no bullets left, leaving the street echoing with more gunfire than a yakuza flick.

 

***

 

Kinukawa Kotoe heard the noise as well.

“What—?!”

She had already fled onto a different street, but the noise carried like the wind.

Everyone in earshot knew something was up.

(What is that crazy bitch thinking…?)

The people around her were turning their heads, and moving towards the noise. Presumably they had never heard real gunshots before. In this respect, Japan was still a peaceful country. Kotoe, however, had no intention of turning back and making sure of anything. She wanted to get away as quickly as humanly possible.

Kotoe started up the road in a temporary vacuum as everyone around her headed towards the noise, but then her feet suddenly stopped.

A man was standing in front of her.

He was not heading towards the noise, but looking right at her, waiting quietly.

He was wearing white.

“…………”

Kotoe could not understand why this had such an impact on her. To be strictly accurate, the surface consciousness Spooky E had imprinted on Kotoe did not understand.

(Who…is this again?)

She was mystified to find herself fretting because he’d seen her.

“…………”

The man in white moved slowly towards her.

He looked very sad. Kotoe felt that expression was very familiar.

Like something she had long since left behind…

“Wh… wh-who…are you?!” she shrieked.

Right there in the middle of the street, heedless as to who might see her, she pulled out her gun and pointed it at the man.

“…………” The man in white kept walking toward her.

Kotoe took a step backwards, helpless. She couldn’t let him get close to her. She couldn’t even look at his face.

She had to run away. She turned her back on him and took a step…

And he grabbed her hand.

“—Kotoe-chan,” he whispered.

When she heard his voice, Kotoe burst into tears. “L-let go!” she screamed, but it was a very feeble scream.

The man in white did as she asked.

Kotoe staggered, tripped over her own feet, no longer able to walk.

The man was in front of her again.

“I’ve known how you felt for a long time,” he said, quietly.

Kotoe could not answer. Consciously, she was unable to understand anything he said, but her body had frozen, unable to react.

“Wh-what…?” The word slipped out of her mouth despite her immobility, but he ignored it completely.

“I know that you were, in your own fashion, quite serious about me. But at the same time, I could see you. So I knew very well that, even if you loved me, you would never become happy.” His voice droned on and on, like some sort of machine.

“Ahhhh…” Kotoe began shaking.

“Your feelings are, sadly, nothing more than childish admiration, Kotoe-chan. You will never be able to truly love anything. That’s the way you are. Half of your feelings for me were nothing more than pity. You were only able to convince yourself that this was love because you are still a child.”

“Aaaah…”

“And you will always be lonely. You will never understand why you seem to be incapable of being truly passionate about anything…which will be an eternal source of sorrow. That’s why I interested you. I appeared to be sad, and you wondered if I was the same as you—but that was a delusion.”

“Aaaaaaaahhhh…”

“I never really felt sadness. Only despair. I lacked a future, but had no feelings like yours. Whatever you wanted from me, I could have given you nothing.”

“Aaaaaaahhhhh… Aahhh…”

From the moment he started talking, Kotoe had been bawling. Her face was frozen and expressionless, but her tears were pouring down her cheeks.

“There is no world where we can be together,” he said and closed his mouth at last.

“Ah… Aaaaah… Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhh…”

Kotoe shook so hard she almost fell over and had to grab onto the man for support.

“…H… he……help……” her expression shattered, and she struggled to say something through her tears. “…Help… help me… help me, Jin-niisan…… Help me!”

A name she should not have been able to say escaped her lips.

Like a lost child who has at last found its parents, she clung to the man—to her beloved Asukai Jin.

“—If I only could,” he said, in the same quiet voice. “I’ve been hoping I could for a long time now. If only I could help you—but I can’t. I still have no idea what to do for you. I know that you should not be with me. Regardless of what you felt that night you spoke to me, when I was waiting for snow alone outside.”

Only this last line showed any trace of warmth.

Kotoe was well beyond her stress limits, and was unable to stop her consciousness from fading away. “Jin…nii…sa…n……”

The world in front of her darkened. From the darkness, she heard a voice, unchanged from a moment before, ask, “Where is Spooky E?”

Kotoe might have said something in reply. But she was no longer capable of knowing what.

For a second, she felt as if she were being embraced, but it may just have been her imagination.

“I’m sorry. Goodbye,” came a voice from so far away it may well have been in the next world. It was the last time she ever heard it……

 

***

 

When people came back, they found a girl lying in the middle of the road. She was taken away in an ambulance and regained consciousness a few hours later. She attempted to explain herself to the policeman sitting by her side, but he only nodded kindly.

“We’ve figured out most of it by now.”

The gunfire incident concluded in a rather odd manner, since almost everyone involved had received an electric shock, and was unable to remember anything about it. The forensics team believed that one of the bullets had struck a power line, which in turn had sent a current running through the ditch water left standing in the alley. The area was a mess, and they were unable to find any further evidence.

There were a few witnesses, but all of them just said stuff like, “I didn’t see anyone else come out of there.” So they were forced to conclude that the scuffle had ended in this extremely unusual fashion.

The reason for the scuffle was lost in a sea of confusion, but at least a few of the people lying there were known drug dealers, which made things simple. The punks, skinheads, and indie musicians lying around them remembered being asked by the girl to look for something. The police in turn concluded that she had been the leader, and had been investigating ties to a possible drug syndicate. As further evidence, a strange outfit often described by recently arrested drug dealers was found lying at the scene.

“The only thing left is motive, which we heard as well. Your cousin cooperated with us once before. He was involved in a case where one of your friends died. He told us you were unable to let that situation rest.”

“Really?”

“Yep. It was pretty bad. She was so far into withdrawal, the pain led her to stab herself in the throat. I know just how you feel.”

“My friend…” she said absently, lying still in her hospital bed.

She was a little out of it.

The police were not surprised. “You’ve done a few things we could probably charge you for, but really—why? Mitigating circumstances are good enough for me. The people who helped you will get off with a suspended sentence as well, I think. After all, you have managed to completely destroy a drug operation.”

“…………”

“I’m gonna let you take it easy and start recovering from shock now,” the policeman said kindly.

All she could do was thank him, in a voice without emotion.