CHILDREN RECORD 1

An emergency stretcher wheels its way past me, clattering loudly as it goes.

I was surprised at how close it was, but it was clear that now was no time to be concerned about that.

That bed was transporting what may be the heaviest thing in the world, not to mention the most fleeting.

That was why I was never good with hospitals: Because if I went to one, I had to face that.

Because it reminded you, no matter how much you were numbed to it in your daily life, that this, this, is the inescapable fear of death.

There was no way to tell how much time passed after that.

Thanks to my sudden sprint earlier, my legs, generally about as resilient as a particularly strong dandelion, were trembling. I doubted I could rely on them much for a while.

Of course I couldn’t. I generally never used my legs at all, except to transport myself to the shower and/or toilet. And yet here I am, having kicked off my journey with a shopping trip, continued by a day I was forced to spend in an amusement park, and capping it off with a full-on footrace. Nobody could keep up with that.

What was she even thinking, though? I had no idea. I had constant trouble reading her thoughts in general, but deep down, I didn’t really want to know what that impish, malicious virus was thinking anyway.

But something about her behavior today bothered me. On the way from the amusement park, she begged me to chase an ambulance. When we finally made it to the hospital, she made me hand over her cell phone to a total stranger. “I need to be alone with him for a bit,” she told me, and then she was taken away. I have no idea what’s going on.

So here I find myself, sitting bewildered in front of an examination room occupied by some unknown boy, no place to go really, waiting around for Ene after handing her off to the kid’s apparent guardian.

I felt like a beach ball in the river, tossed around from place to place before settling down here, and the more I thought about it, the more horribly out of place I felt. I knew nothing about the boy brought into that room. I didn’t have any business with him. I’m just sitting here, and that’s all.

And what if this boy’s parents showed up and asked me who I was? All I’d be able to do was grin awkwardly and say, “Uh, just this guy, you know…?”

These past two days have been hideous. I was used to Ene’s antics throwing me for a loop, but she’s been going way too far lately. Once she’s back in my hands, I wanted to march straight home and back to my normal life. Assuming these Mekakushi-dan dudes will let me.

All these irritations jumbled together before me at the same time; even attempting to think about them was starting to be too much.

“This makes absolutely no sense to me…”

I sighed heavily.

“If you think it doesn’t, what about me?”

The voice to my side, interlaced with the equally somber sigh of a third person, startled me out of my seat.

I yelped and whipped around. “S-since when were you there?!”

The white-haired young man I handed Ene to a moment ago sat there, looking blankly up at me from his chair, phone in hand.

“I’m sorry…I…” The man’s voice shook as he apologized. He must have thought I was angry at him.

The thing was, though, that his expression barely changed at all from his blank stare. There was a twinge of concern to it, maybe, if you squinted hard enough. But otherwise, nothing. I paused, taking a moment to figure out what he had said.

“Uh…Oh, no, not you. The girl in there.”

I snatched the phone out of his hand and peered at it. A familiar blue-haired girl was floating around on-screen, cheeks puffed up in irritation.

“Mm? What is it, master?”

She kept floating, her voice irritated, not even bothering to look at me.

“What is it? Well, for one, when did you get back here? And who was that guy, anyway? You must know him or something, right?”

Ene had batted me around from place to place all day with zero explanation. I figured I was entitled to ask why.

That was what inspired the question, but for some reason, it made Ene glare angrily at me, giving the phone two quick blurps of vibration to drive the point home.

For a moment, the glare took on a threatening sort of rage, a vast difference from her usual affable insanity. It was strange to see, yet something I could have sworn I saw before from her, somewhere, for some reason.

After confirming that her display of dominance put me in my place, Ene puffed up her cheeks once more.

“I had the wrong person. I don’t know this guy at all. Sorry I made you run around like that. Let’s just go home.”

As Ene’s words so clearly expressed her annoyed rage, the white-haired man seated adjacent let a hint of sorrow cross his stare a second time, apparently feeling at fault for this somehow.

“Dude, look…,” I began at Ene. “I mean, if it was your mistake, then oh well, but you can’t just butt in with people like that. This is an emergency!”

“I know, but…I…Ugghhh!! I told you, I just made a mistake!! This is why you’re so unpopular with people, master!”

The white-haired man’s eyebrows twitched a little at this tirade. Otherwise his face remained blank.

Was that how he expressed surprise, maybe? There was something unnatural to his blithe, unreadable face, like he was a cyborg waiting for a software upgrade.

The young man turned his barren countenance toward mine.

“Um…I’m sorry. I think it’s my fault that she’s angry. Probably.”

His voice was a whisper.

“She kept talking to me. Crying. Things like ‘I wanted to see you for so long’ and ‘I thought you had died.’ But I didn’t know what she was talking about at all…I think I may have kind of given her the wrong idea or something.”

It seemed like a good twenty seconds passed between the white-haired youth opening his mouth and finishing his thoughts. Considering Ene’s usual breakneck speaking pace, I felt like time slowed gradually to a crawl as he meandered his way toward the end of his speech.

So there was part of the story. This guy looked like one of Ene’s former friends.

There was definitely something distinctive to how the young man looked—something unusual. No wonder he captured the attention of someone like Ene. It seemed to add up.

But for the time being, I was far more concerned about how the phone in my hand wouldn’t stop vibrating after the man fell silent.

Slowly, reluctantly, I shot it a look. There I saw a trembling Ene, her usual light-blue tones now replaced by a crimson red, right up to her earlobes.

“Whoa, what’s up with—”

“Dahhhhhh!! Yeaaaggghhhh!! Just stop! It’s nothing! Don’t talk to me!!”

For a moment, the room froze. I noticed the man pulsate for a moment, startled, in the edge of my vision. Not even that was enough to change his expression.

Even for someone as used to her behavior as I was, watching Ene’s emotions bubble so bluntly to the surface like this was a first. It riveted me to the spot.

Ene was lying down onscreen, hands on her head and legs flailing furiously in the air. Then, suddenly noticing my gaze, she looked up, plastering a pained, sweaty smile on her face.

“…Please? Master?”

She was trying to compose herself, but the result was just an awkward silence. I didn’t know if this was her attempt to act like everything was normal or not, but it didn’t really work.

It was just as awkward for her, judging by the red tones that gradually reappeared on Ene’s face.

“Uh, is this a program bug or something…?”

I tried whacking my cell phone a few times. It sullenly whirred in response.

“Who do you think I am, master?! I’m not like that!!”

Watching Ene loudly bellow her surprise and shock convinced me she was in decent enough health. But if it wasn’t a bug, then what? Some kind of cold…? Okay, not a cold with her, but…

She was always more than a little weird, but today she was diving into completely new depths of weird.

“It, it’s a free country! Everyone’s got a right to get upset sometimes, right?! He looks a little bit like someone I knew, so I…Okay, I guess I said some weird things, or remembered them or…anticipated something…?”

“I don’t get what you’re saying, Ene, but is this, like, you getting all excited ’cause he looks like one of your kind?”

My observation was enough to quell her mumbled ramblings. She looked dumbfounded, or exasperated, or something else I couldn’t even gauge.

“Dahh…It’s getting so obvious why nobody ever wants to hang with you, master. You’ll probably be like that for the rest of your life. Well done.”

“Huh?! Did I really say something that bad?! And why am I that unpopular? Tell me why!”

“Um, could you just not talk for a while, m(dis)aster?”

“Hey! You just called me a disaster! You tried to kind of mix it into the end of the sentence, but I still heard it!”

“Shut up! You know I have ways of making you not talk to me—”

Just as Ene wrapped up her latest puffed-cheek threat, a loud clang! echoed from the examination room, the one with the boy who the white-haired young man had been cradling at the park.

It was accompanied by the sound of assorted medical equipment crashing down on the floor.

“Gah! Master! That sounds bad!”

“Yeah, I know…!”

I strode across the hall with a single step and opened the door, only to find the boy carted in earlier on the floor.

He had rumpled brown hair and a white vest, and judging by his size, I surmised him to be eleven or so. Thermometers and other medical equipment were strewn around him, and even as he tried to stand, lifting his torso up from all fours, he was having a rough time stringing the required motions together.

“Hey…Hey! What’re you doing?! I dunno what your problem is, but you gotta stay in bed…!”

I crouched next to him, extending a hand of support. He slapped it away, trembling in fear.

Taking a clear look at his face for the first time, I saw that it was covered in tears. His eyes were dark and flushed, as if faced with some unspeakable catastrophe, and were a deep jet-black in color.

“Who the hell’re you…? Stay out…of my way…!”

The boy wobbled a bit as he stood up but finally managed the feat as he turned toward the door.

“Whoa, wait a second! You can’t just go out by yourself!”

“Hiyori…I gotta get to Hiyori…”

The boy sounded delirious as he muttered to himself, paying my warning no mind as he left the room.

I followed him out, only to find him face-to-face with the white-haired youth beyond the door.

“This is your fault…It never would’ve happened without you…”

He stared the young man down as he spoke. Tears began to fall down his face anew.

It was finally enough to make the white-haired guy betray at least an attempt at emotion. He looked confused, unsure what to do next and unable to articulate a response.

“That’s it. I’m going…I have to go…”

The moment he stopped speaking, the boy turned his body around and tore off, running full-bore down the hospital corridor. With the lights dimmed for the night, it wasn’t long before he began to blend into the darkness.

“M-master, what’re you doing?! He’s gonna be in serious trouble if you don’t follow him!”

“Uh, y-yeeaaahhh, I know, but my legs are…”

My legs, now about as sturdy as a pair of day-old celery stalks, picked this exact moment to cramp up on me.

“Daahhh!! Come on, master! What are you, a newborn deer or something?! How can you be so useless at a time like this…?!”

“Hey, lay the hell off! This is all you guys’ fault anyway! I’m not some gofer, you know! I’m more delicate than that!”

The boy fell totally out of sight as we continued our inane debate.

If he kept running like that, he would be beyond the hospital grounds in a few minutes. Once he did, that was it. There was no guessing where he’d go.

“We’re probably too late for the nurse-call button…Look, man, could you at least try to help out a little, too?! I don’t know what’s up between the two of you, but you’re related to him, right?! You wanna see him just run away like that?!”

The white-haired man nodded to himself, chastised, as he spoke in his usual slow-paced monotone.

“Yeah…I made Hibiya really angry…I gotta do something…Can, can you come with me?”

The constant tempo changes to his voice were starting to aggravate me, but at least I knew that boy’s name now. That, and this guy seemed to appreciate, at long last, the danger in the situation. There was even a slight suggestion of suspense to his slack-jawed expression from before.

“Uh, yeah, sure, I don’t mind, but my legs aren’t in very good shape right—”

“Come on, master, you’re acting like you need a handicapped license plate or something. You’re just not getting enough exercise, is all.”

“—but I guess I could run a little more, if you…Uh?”

The white-haired young man very efficiently cut me off midsentence as he drew right up to me and gave me an overwhelming feeling of weightlessness, the likes of which I hadn’t felt in years.

“Wh-whoooaaa?!”

The man, picking me up as easily as a mother playing upsy-daisy with her toddler, propped me over a shoulder.

“Sorry…This might hurt a little.”

The moment he finished, there was an explosion, a shock wave, then the sight of the hospital hallway whizzing past my eyes.

It took about half a second for me to realize that the man had planted his feet down and sprung forward a good several dozen yards in one bound.

“Yaaaaggghhhh!!”

I lost my voice for a moment, but soon after, I found a scream leaping out from the pit of my stomach.

“L-l-let…let…me…Ooof!”

My feeble attempts at forming intelligible speech were silenced by the ensuing touchdown, leaving me gasping for air instead.

“S-sorry! Hang on just a bit more.”

The next moment, the scene jarringly shifted again. This time, instead of high-speed forward motion, I noticed the floor zooming away from me. He was jumping straight upward this time. The realization almost made me faint.

I turned toward the phone I clutched in my hand in an attempt to stay conscious. Ene was onscreen, holding a cushion over her head in preparation for the next landing as she kept her eyes tightly shut.

“What’s the point of thaaaaaaaaat?!!”

Just as I shouted, I heard a sudden whoosh of air as we soared into someplace notably chillier. The roof of the hospital was now below us, the open skylight we zipped through already small and distant.

This must be what skydiving feels like. Or, actually, it felt more like that roller coaster I lost my lunch on a few scant hours ago. They were roughly the same in that, once we reached our next landing point, I was undoubtedly going to be slingshotted back up, or down, or sideways toward more dazed nausea.

“Found him…!”

The man readjusted his grip on my waist as he whispered to himself, moving me from above his shoulders to underneath one side to brace me for the landing.

I was greeted by another zero-gravity experience for a moment. Then, the ground began to approach us.

“We’re gonna die if we fall from this high up,” I prayed to myself. “Thanks for everything, world.”

Then I shut my eyes, copying Ene’s pointless act.

Then, with a violent bang, I felt an impact—one far lighter than the splat I expected. It was nonetheless more than enough to bring my thoroughly agitated stomach to its knees. Once he recovered from the landing, the young man flashed me an ever-so-slightly concerned look.

“You okay?”

“Pfaaahh!!” I whooped loudly in response, still cradled by his arm.

“Ur…urrgghhh…”

…Then I got an inside look at my stomach contents. So much for dinner.

“Aagghh!! Watch your aim, master! That’s gross!!”

“Huff…huff…You could at least pretend you’re worried about me…”

“I’m sorry. I figured we needed to hurry. I must have scared you…”

How many people were there in the world capable of leaping the length of a football field into the air just because they were a bit pressed for time?

I removed myself from his grasp and gave the young man a sideways look as I attempted to regain my balance. The eyes on his desolate face shone a very light pink color.

“Those eyes…There’s something up with you, too, isn’t there? This is just getting ridiculous…”

I had suspected something even before this performance, but between his eye color and that shockingly unadvised behavior, he must be “special” the way Momo and the Mekakushi-dan guys were.

My previous experiences with Momo and Ene had given me a false sense of security. I figured I could deal with well near anything by now. But running into all these “special” cases in a single twenty-four-hour period? This was nuts.

And what is with those eyes, anyway? I know I shouldn’t let my idle curiosity make me even further involved with him, but…

“Who…are you…?”

“Master! That kid’s getting away!”

My attention hurriedly turned toward the direction Ene pointed. At the end of the long path between the hospital’s main gate and front entrance, I could see the boy from earlier running away.

He was far enough that he’d easily make it through the gate before very long.

“Hibiya…I’m going to lose you again…!”

The young man placed a hand on my shoulder as he spoke. I knew what was coming next.

“Aaahhhh!! No, no, no! I can’t do that anymore! Seriously, stop!”

“Ah…sorry. I won’t.”

The youth, startled by my outburst, removed his hand. I was freed from another ride on his one-man scream machine, which I appreciated, but he was right—we were about to lose the boy. Once he made it to the city streets, we’d have some serious issues.

“Look, just stop him yourself! We’ll catch up with you afterward!”

“I, I can’t! I’m too scared to do it by myself…nngh…”

The movie-star man of action I knew a second ago was gone, replaced by an indecisive, namby-pamby coward.

“Yeah, but if he gets away…”

I flashed another look at the front gate as I attempted to give chase. My legs, as expected, refused to cooperate.

Just as I was ready to give up, a certain fact popped into mind. My eyes shot back toward the phone in my hand.

“Hey, Ene! Call up Momo for me!”

“Eh? Your sister? …Oh! I gotcha! Comin’ right up!”

With an “Aha!” clap of the hands, Ene made a cross in the air with her fingers. The screen switched over to phone mode.

After about two-and-a-half rings, the screen flashed “Connected” in green.

“Uh, hello? Shintaro? Did Ene wrap up whatever she had to do?”

“Yeah, but, uh, we’re kinda in the middle of some other crap right now. Where are you right now, Momo?”

“Me? Uhh…Hey, boss, where are we at the moment? Oh, thanks. Um, Shintaro? So, uh, we’re under this tree that’s right next to the front gate of this hospital…Whoa, who’s that kid? Man, look at him run.”

Momo’s boneheadedness notwithstanding, I saw that my hunch was right.

“Yeah, him! Stop that kid for me! Now!”

“What?! Why?!”

“It’s urgent, all right?! Just do it!”

“Urgent?! Ummm…All right! I’ll try!”

CALL COMPLETE flashed in red onscreen. Momo had shut off on her end.

“Do you think your sister will be all right?”

“Well, she’s kind of an idiot, but once she moves, she really moves.”

“Really…? I suppose we have something in common.”

Squinting, I could see the boy right by the gate, just about through. Then, just before reaching it, he lost his balance, as if tripping over something.

The next moment, I saw Momo appear, practically out of nowhere. The boy, stunned by this sudden development, attempted to wriggle his way out of her grasp, but Momo’s grip was too much for him to escape.

“Whoa! Nice job, Momo! Ooh, man, she’s practically smothering him…”

“Yeah, looks like she roadblocked him right when she had to. Better get over there quick, though…”

“I would if you weren’t so slow, master.”

Ignoring Ene’s hushed stab at me, I made my way to the gate, where I saw my sister all but suffocating the child as she struggled to keep hold of him.

“Ah! Shintaro! Who is this kid…Ow! Will you stop squirming like that…!”

“Thanks, Momo. Hey! Kid! I don’t know what’s going on, but you’ve got to calm down, all right?! What do you think the hospital’s gonna do when they find you missing?”

“Whaaa? This kid’s a hospital patient?!”

Momo’s surprise made her relax her iron grip just enough for the boy to slip out. He took a deep breath, the redness still evident on his face, but his breathing was still ragged as he stared Momo down.

“What are you doing, you fat old granny?! Why’re you gettin’ in my way?!”

Momo stared back blankly for a moment as her brain went through the slow process of parsing the boy’s words. Once it completed the program and output the results, her face turned just as red as his.

“H-huhhh?! F-fat old…What was that?!”

“What, am I speakin’ a foreign language?! I said, you’re a fat! Old! Granny!! I’m in a hurry right—”

Before the boy could take off again, Momo reacted before anyone else, grabbing him by the hood and thrusting him back toward her.

“Look…you’re sick, all right?! You can’t just run from the hospital like this!! That and I’m not a…f-fat…”

Momo was shaking, her breathing audibly quicker. That blow must have hit home.

Flashing another glare at Momo, the boy pulled his hood back up and turned back toward her.

“I told you…!! Stay out of my way! I’m not sick, and I’m not a patient here!! If anyone needs a doctor, it’s you, gran! You look like a cow! That’s gotta be some kinda disease!”

The boy attempted to point toward Momo’s chest. I heard Ene snicker “Pfft! …Uh, sorry,” from the phone in my hand, not to mention the sound of Momo’s brain literally crackling with rage.

“I, I stopped you because I was worried about you!! You stupid little…!”

Momo, her face bright red as the grade-school kid brought her to the brink of tears, made another grab at the boy. This time, the back of Momo’s own hoodie was pulled back by some invisible force, stopping her bull rush before it started.

“L-lemme go, boss! This kid’s a villain! A total villain! The Mekakushi-dan needs to take action! Let me goooooo…!!”

The effect of the boy’s verbal barrage, coupled by the sight of Momo bucking like a rodeo bull, made me snort despite myself. Momo must have heard it. Instantly, her eyes bore into my face.

“What are you laughing about, Shintaro?! Who is this freak?! Why do I have to put up with all this crap?!”

“Uh…Okay, okay. I’m sorry, all right? Chill out. Hey…your name’s Hibiya, right? What are you in such a hurry for, anyway? Do you have to go right now?”

Hibiya stared at me. He showed no signs of running now, but it was clear by his sneer that he still viewed us as the enemy. He spoke in a calm deadpan.

“…There’s this girl. I think she may have died. She’s really important to me…but I was the only one who got away. I have to go help her, now!”

Everyone within earshot gasped.

Even Momo, seething with primal rage a second ago, looked on in shock, her mouth still half-open.

“Um…hang on a sec. She’s dead…? Were you both in some kind of accident? ’Cause if so, you should really talk to the police or a doctor or something first, right? Where were you planning to go by yourself?”

Before Ene forced me toward the hospital, I saw no sign of an auto accident at the site where we first came across Hibiya. He had no noticeable injuries, and if you looked at him, it didn’t seem like he suffered from anything more serious than heat exhaustion. That was my take, at least.

But from the way he was talking, it didn’t sound like some unexpected fainting spell. It sounded like the shell-shocked drone of a boy who had Seen Things. Which made it all the more important that he went to the police.

“It’s not like anyone would believe me. If you’re that curious, why don’t you ask him? He spent the whole damn time just looking at us.”

The boy pointed at the white-haired youth, who nervously grabbed at his sleeve in response.

“What, am I wrong? You just stood there and watched! If you couldn’t do anything then, you could at least tell them about it now!”

“N-no! That’s not how it was! I tried to help you guys…but…but there was nothing I could do…!”

The boy gritted his teeth, all but baring his fangs toward the young man.

The young man’s eyes floated downward in response, no longer able to withstand the withering, accusing gaze.

After a short sigh, the boy turned toward the hospital gate again.

“…Whatever. If you can’t do anything, I’m going by myself. Stay out of my…way…”

Just as he took a step forward, the boy’s body lurched to the side, hurtling rapidly toward the ground.

“H-hey!”

I tried to lend a hand of support, but I was too far to reach him. The guy who exhibited superherolike powers just a bit ago reacted even later than I did, so dazed was he by the boy’s abuse.

There was no sign that the boy was preparing for the fall. His head hung lower than the rest of his body as it hurtled to the ground.

“Dammit…!”

Just as I prepared for the worst, Hibiya’s body stopped in midair on its back, as if hanging by a set of strings.

It took a moment to figure out what had happened, but by the time I spotted Momo falling on her rear end out of the corner of my eye, the force keeping her in place no longer there, everything was making sense.

“Shintaro, this guy…I don’t think he should go back in there.”

The air around Hibiya seemed to shimmer a bit before Kido appeared, her face obscured by the purple hood she drew over her head.

Her expression, underneath the long hair snaking out from the sides of her hood, was a mixture of surprise and panic.

“Huh. Nice catch. But what’re you talking about? He’s kind of falling apart on us. I know he’s involved in some crazy junk, but shouldn’t we leave this to the hospital? Or the cops?”

“…I don’t think either of them are gonna be much use. The way he is now, we’re probably the ones who can help him out the most.”

Kido, her eyes fixed on Hibiya as she held him up, looked like she was chewing on something bitter and disagreeable as she spoke.

I approached Kido, looking at the boy’s face as I attempted to see what concerned her. The color in his glassy, half-open eyes was beginning to acquire a red tinge, as if filling with blood.

“Whoa…What’s…”

“Yeah. I heard the story. This is kind of gonna be a pain.”

Now Kido sounded like she was recalling some kind of bad memory.

The change to the boy’s eye color was familiar to all of us. The Mekakushi-dan’s eyes all did the same thing whenever they used their “abilities.”

That’s what Kido probably meant when she said the authorities would be no use. None of them would be much interested in a supernatural phenomenon like this.

“W-well…so, what now? Is this guy even okay?!”

“I don’t know what kind of ability this boy has…but it’s too dangerous to put him back in there. Let’s take him back to the hideout.”

Lifting the hand she was using to support Hibiya’s hips, Kido hoisted the boy upward, bringing his face by her shoulder.

“Right. Kisaragi, tell Kano to get a bed ready for him. Oh, and I don’t want Marie freaking out, so have her stay in her room with Seto for me, okay?”

Momo, still on the ground, shot upward in response to Kido’s orders. She saluted.

“R-right! Roger that!”

“Ha-ha…You don’t have to act so stiff like that.”

Kido looked confused for a moment, then flashed an extremely uncharacteristic smile. Her eyes were as sharp and searching as they always were, but her grin brought some level of warmth to them, like a mother with her child.

“Oh—right. What’s your name?”

As if suddenly recalling something, Kido turned toward the white-haired young man, Hibiya still in her arms.

“M-me? …Konoha. I think.”

It may not have been intentional, but the guy’s self-introduction, delivered in his now-trademark warble, didn’t exactly exude confidence.

The moment he gave his name, the phone in my hand vibrated. Ene was flailing around on-screen again, clearly in an agitated state.

“Huh. Konoha? Listen, judging by what I heard, I think we can help you guys out with…whatever happened to you. Or at least we can watch over this kid until he’s stable again. Would you mind coming along? Just so we could learn a little more about this?”

Konoha nodded deeply, his face as resolute as I had seen it up to now.

“Great. Let’s get going…I’m kinda hungry, though. Maybe I could have Kano make some dinner…Hey, Kisaragi, did you contact Kano yet?”

“Uh, Kano didn’t pick up, so I’m calling Seto right now…Oh! Hello? This is Momo!”

Even though no one was physically there, Momo suddenly stood straight as a board as she began speaking.

“Hey, sorry to bother you, but we’ve got this sick young boy we’re taking in there, so we were hoping Kano could get a bed set up for…He’s not there? Umm…Okay! That works! Also, if we could get dinner going…And once that’s done, she wanted you to go on standby with Marie in her room! Sound good? See you soon!”

Momo’s pace noticeably accelerated toward the second half. I pondered over whether Seto comprehended it all.

Putting her phone away, Momo breathed a sigh of relief, as if just completing some perilous high-stakes mission.

“Thanks, Kisaragi. Did Kano go somewhere?”

“Uh, yeah. I guess he told Seto he wouldn’t be back today.”

“Ugh…Every time you need him, he’s just useless.”

My heart stung a bit. Ene said the exact same thing to me earlier.

What kind of errand would Kano be running at a time like this? Given his aloof, easygoing personality, I could picture him having a lot of friends. Out partying the night away? Oof. I hate seeing people younger than me be so much more successful at life.

“Okay, let’s go back. It shouldn’t be too far from here. Let’s try to hurry.”

With that, Kido’s eyes turned red: Turning on her ability for Momo’s sake, I figured.

Thanks to Kido, none of us were visible to the outside world. This, despite the fact that everything looked normal to me. It was weird.

“Uh, master?”

As I passed under the hospital gate and marched behind Kido, my phone suddenly gave me a faint buzz.

“Mm? What?”

Looking at the screen, I saw Ene standing there, her face serene—a total one-eighty from a moment ago.

“Um…do you think maybe we could go home now? Along with Momo, too? I’m kind of worried. I feel like something bad’s gonna happen…”

It was rare for Ene to act so shy and passive, rubbing the oversize sleeves of her top together as she spoke.

If I went to a circus and there was a ring of fire in front of me, she was the sort of girl who’d shout, “C’mon, let’s try hopping that go-kart through it, master!” She was undeniably off her game today.

“What? This is all kind of your doing in the first place, man. I mean, I wanna go home just as bad as you, but…”

“Well…why not…?!”

“I dunno, I’m kind of wondering about that boy. That, and I doubt Momo’s in any hurry to leave. Besides, no way the ‘boss’ is gonna let us go just like that.”

“You…don’t think?”

The disappointment was written on her face. I racked my brain, trying to figure out what she was trying to hint at, before I noticed something else.

“Wait, are you…”

“What? What, what?! No! No no no! I’m Ene, all right?! I’m not any kind of girl like that! You get the craziest ideas sometimes, master…”

“Are you running out of battery juice?”

“…Huh?”

I wasn’t sure what Ene was shouting about for a moment, but my question immediately froze her in her tracks.

Then, she hurriedly erupted into a smile, batting her arms around in joy.

“…Ohhh! Oh! Right! The battery! Exactly! Once it runs down, boy, does that take the wind outta my sails!”

“Yeah! Yeah, that’s what I figured! I’ll plug you in once we make it to the hideout, okay? So cheer up a little!”

It was the battery all along. The battery display in the corner was looking pretty feeble; she must have expended a lot of power at the amusement park.

I couldn’t say how she was running around in my phone, to be exact, but given her unpredictable behavior over the past few hours, it’d be great if a little charging was all it took to fix her up.

If it didn’t, and she started going even crazier on me, I didn’t know what I’d do.

“Ah-ha-ha…Ughh. You know, though…I think you’ve changed a lot, master.”

“Oh? You think so? I can’t really tell, myself.”

“I dunno, you just look like you’re having fun. It’s nice, isn’t it? You’re making friends, too.”

“Uhh? You call these guys ‘friends’? It feels more like they’re dragging me halfway across Japan and back, pretty much.”

The idea of referring to these weirdos I met just a few hours ago as “friends” was something I was reluctant to warm to.

Certainly, though, they seemed like nice enough folks.

Seeing them extend a hand to a boy they never met before, trying to help him through his problems…You don’t see that kind of Good Samaritan stuff much these days.

“But that’s good, though, isn’t it? Having people boss you around kind of suits you, I think, master.”

Ene gave me a gentle, but somewhat forlorn, smile.

Suddenly, my mind unexpectedly flashed up a smiling face from my past. A smile I lost some time ago. A smile that always rattled around somewhere in my skull.

“Yeah, maybe so.”

I placed the smile back in the mental file cabinet I kept it in. It wasn’t that I was trying to forget it. Not that, exactly.

“Oh, absolutely so! And, you know, I think I’m kinda like that, too. A girl who keeps pushing people forward, to bigger and better things. What do you think? Kinda startin’ to fall for me, maybe?”

“Uh, before that, could I technically even call you a ‘girl’?”

“Whaaaat?! That’s awful, master! I’m totally a girl, okay? All girl, all the time!”

Faced with regular old Ene, shouting and carrying on in the palm of my hand, I hurried my stride a bit, figuring I’d better transport her to an AC adapter pronto.