OVERTURE TO CLOSURE

Step by step, I made my way back to the hideout, the moon hanging in front of my face.

“This is kind of embarrassing, Gran—I mean, Momo.”

“Well, what do you want from me? You’re the one who passed out on me back there, Hibiya. Also, you messed that whole thing up, didn’t you?”

“No, I…I mean, it’s kind of hard, just doing it all of a sudden…!”

“Oh, stop whining at me! My feet are killing me too, you know. We’re almost there, okay?”

It was a pretty long distance between the park and our hideout.

My legs, heavy with the burden of Hibiya draped over my shoulders, were undoubtedly going to collapse into jelly the moment I sat down.

“…Do you think everyone will believe me? You think they’ll really help me…?”

“Are you still being suspicious? Of course they’ll believe you! We’re all friends here.”

“S-since when were we friends?!”

“Hmm? Uh, since today, I guess.”

Hibiya found himself at a total loss.

It wasn’t difficult to see why. He mouthed off at my brother yesterday, the way he described it, and he had some pretty nasty verbal abuse for Konoha as well.

And then he ran out of the hideout by himself. Kido was no doubt beside herself.

“But…ahhh, it’ll be fine, it’ll be fine.”

“The way you said that doesn’t make me real confident…”

“Oh, I’m just being mean! C’mon, they could care less about what you did.”

“Uh, don’t you mean they couldn’t care less? Which is it?”

Hibiya was still more than a tad dubious by the time our hideout came into view.

“There, see? There’s the hideout!”

“Y-yeah…”

“…Oh! And before I introduce you to everyone, we should probably give your ability some kinda name.”

“A name? Is that what you, uh, do?”

“That’s what we do!”

There wasn’t a rule or anything, of course. But it seemed to be common practice for the rest of the gang. It kind of felt right, too.

“Your skill lets you look at things from far away, so…hmmm…”

“…How about ‘Focusing’ Eyes?”

“Huh?”

“Oh, um, I mean, if nobody else has claimed ‘Focusing’ yet, I kinda liked the sound of that. You gotta focus a ton to make it work, too.”

“…Aww. I wanted to name it first. That’s cool and all, but…”

“…Why do you care so bad?”

We carried on in similar fashion until we reached the hideout door.

It was finally time to tell everyone about all the amazing things Hibiya and I accomplished today.

Heaving Hibiya off my shoulders, I briskly shoved the door open.

“Hey, we’re back! Momo and Hibiya are back…home…?”

The atmosphere around the hideout’s living room was more chaotic than what I expected.

The first thing that caught my eye was my brother, sprawled out on the sofa and dressed like he just got back from a mountain-climbing expedition, lifelessly breathing, “Yeah…Welcome back…” at me. Just a bit away, Konoha, completely topless, stared at me like a robot.

Marie was busily sewing up an enormous hole that was opened up on Konoha’s shirt. And Kido, for her part, was intently poring through some sort of old handwritten book.

Taking notice of me, Kido slammed the book shut and walked straight up to me by the door.

“Whoa, you were okay by yourself, Kisaragi? I was really worried about you. Oh, and Hibiya’s with you? Well, you both picked a great time to get back.”

“Um…boss? What happened to all of you…?”

Kido, in response, turned around and, without a shred of irony or sarcasm, said this to everyone in the room:

“Okay, gang. Kisaragi’s back, so starting from this moment, Operation: Conquer Kagerou Daze is under way! I want all of you to make sure you’re thoroughly prepared!”

“…What?”

“Hey, uh, Momo? What about me?”

I, of course, had no way of knowing at the time that Operation: Conquer Kagerou Daze, kicked off without a single word of explanation to me, would mark the Mekakushi-dan’s final mission…or more like the final time I’d ever be with any of its members.