CHILDREN RECORD III

Ayano swiveled her head around, looking out for unwelcome ears, then spoke in a whisper:

“…That teacher has to be a space alien or something. I have, like, no idea what he’s going on about.”

It was a clear, sunny day outside.

It was also the dead of summer, with all the stereotypical traits involved—the searing heat, the constant whine of cicadas.

Ayano, sitting loosely on her window-side seat in the far rear of the classroom, turned to me, gauging my response.

“Uh, yeah. Yeah.”

I blurted it out, dreading the rant that was all but guaranteed to follow. Ayano shrugged and put her head on the desk.

“Aww. Why you gotta be so distant like that, Shintaro?”

“Well, ’cause you’re talking a bunch of BS again. Like, what do you mean, alien? It’s not my fault if you don’t understand the lecture.”

“No, but…”

Flipping through the textbook revealed nothing particularly tricky or difficult.

It’s just that she’s slow, is all. The only “aliens” around here are people like her who can’t breeze through this class like any normal person.

“The dumber you are, the more you pin the blame on other people, huh? I mean, you failed the last test, too, didn’t you? You’re probably on a one-way path to remedial classes if you keep that up. Besides, why are you—”

Normally she’d interrupt at this point to say, “Sorry, you’re right. I’m stupid. Give me a break.” Today she was being obstinate.

As I thought about this, I looked over to find Ayano sitting back up in her seat, eyes focused squarely upon me.

Considering her usual easygoing disposition, it was rare. I winced under her withering gaze.

“Wh-what? Did I hurt your feelings?”

Ayano declined to answer the question.

“You know, Shintaro, you say that stuff to me and all, but you know I know, right? About how you skip out on studying because you’re such a geeeenius and just browse porn on the Internet all day. I saw you doing it yesterday, even.”

My heart leaped out of my stomach at this unexpected (and, I should add, excessively high-volume) salvo.

My brain began processing the facts at the speed of light. How does she know about that? She couldn’t. I’ve never invited her into my room, and besides, I always erase my browsing history. Unless she has a surveillance camera or something…

One wonders how the brain can suddenly shift into turbo mode at times like these.

Chugging away faster than it ever did before, my mind bravely attempted to concoct a superior excuse I could give her.

Following orders from my head, my throat immediately set out to utter the explanation I had queued up. This oughta do it. It’ll be perfect!

“Wh-whaa?! What…what kind of crap is that? I’m not—like—I never look at that junk! I don’t care about porn or anything! I’ve never watched a porno in my whole life!”

The excuse I prepared never quite saw the light of day. Instead, an extremely implausible one emanated from my lips.

Even I could tell how much of a flaming lie it was. An uncomfortable sweat began to prevail over my body, accelerated by the “Oh, really?” Ayano greeted my defense with.

The next moment, Ayano’s chair scraped loudly against the floor as she shot to her feet, her scorning eyes still upon me.

Moving into a half crouch, she brought her face mere inches away from mine.

“What a pack of lies. I heard about everything.”

Her long hair, thanks in part to its distance from me, smelled a little too strongly like one brand of shampoo or another.

My brain, a helpless victim of this odor barrage, briskly switched to nonoperative status.

But, really, there’s no way she could’ve known about that. My history can’t be on there. I’d never make a careless error like that. That much, at least, I was supremely confident about.

“Y-you heard it from who?! Stop getting so close to me!”

I shouted it out in self-defense, but thanks to her point-blank range, I could neither speak very loudly nor look her in the eyes.

“From who…?”

Ayano smirked at me, then brought her lips closer to one of my ears.

The intense shampoo smell descended upon me, freezing me solid to my seat.

This was bad. I had absolutely no clue what she was trying to do. All I could do was shut my eyes tightly, otherwise totally defenseless.

The sense of urgency was finally broken by Ayano’s voice wafting its way into my ear.

“…Did you forget about me, master?”

“…Dude, Ene?!”

I opened my eyes to find…no Ene. Even Ayano was gone.

The classroom I was seated in had disappeared without a trace.

In its place was a ceiling lined with pipes, naked lightbulbs hanging down from it, and Kido staring down at me as she dried her hair with a towel.

“No. Kido. Not Ene.”

Kido, sporting a T-shirt as the smell of her shampoo enveloped her, must have just gotten out of the bath. She gave me an off-put look.

“…Oh. Um, sorry.”

“I don’t know what kinda dream you were having, but it’s morning. You gotta get up.”

Kido walked toward the front door, still rubbing her hair dry.

I stared up at the ceiling. “Hey, it’s morning,” I heard Kido say, raising her voice. “Get up. Why the hell’re you sleeping there?”

That explained her sudden trip to the front door. I figured going out with wet hair and a T-shirt was a little unprepared by Kido standards.

The order, as I expected, was quickly followed by Konoha groggily muttering “Oh, um, uh? Where am I?” I saw him sleeping on the sofa last night, but couldn’t guess what position he was taking now.

It was the third morning since I first got involved with these guys.

Looking at the clock, I saw it was just about nine in the morning.

I usually slept for around fourteen hours at a time whenever I conked out, but falling back to sleep like this in someone else’s house made even someone like me feel a bit embarrassed.

I began to stir, trying to sit up, when I felt a dull pain in both of my thighs. I groaned a little in response and fell limply back on the sofa.

“Why are you moaning like that?” Kido asked suspiciously. She sounded clearly annoyed, so I pretended not to hear.

Who could blame me? All the walking I’d done yesterday and the day before was gonna take its toll on my spindly legs sooner or later.

But that was really all it took? The thought made me want to give up all hope for my life, but I tried to rally myself back to functionality.

It all reminded me of how, in comics and stuff, you see heroes get really pumped up and unleash powers beyond anything they ought to be capable of, only to pay the price in some cosmic, karmic way afterward.

Something that only happens, of course, to the hero of the story. I had a tendency to think of myself as the hero of an epic tale only I was aware of more often than I’d like to admit.

My mind filled up, as it often did, with the vast stores of anime and manga knowledge I had built up over the years. But it wasn’t enough to keep me from recalling the dream I just had.

Ayano.

She’s been in my dreams a few times before now, but her appearances were growing a lot more frequent in recent days.

Maybe it’s the heat getting to me. Or maybe it’s my mind naturally refusing to get close to anybody else.

Thinking about it, I went through largely the same process when Ene showed up.

When she was first starting to wriggle her way into my life, I dreamed about Ayano on practically a nightly basis.

I remember having an argument with Ene once, actually, because she forced me awake during one of those dreams.

It wasn’t one of our usual tit-for-tat squabbles, either. I went into an angry tirade, and she raised her voice at me, too, something that almost never happens.

What was I talking about with Ayano, though…? I didn’t remember very much, probably because it was the middle of the night and I was half-asleep anyway.

Either way, the next morning, feeling pretty bad about my behavior, I apologized profusely to Ene. I still clearly remember how she lorded it over me: “You’re forgiven,” she had said. “It feels kinda pointless to bully a virgin like you anyway.”

Why couldn’t I forget about that part of it all? Sometimes I truly resented the self-flagellating streak my brain had.

As I dwelt on this, I heard the sound of running water from the kitchen, followed by someone opening the refrigerator door. Breakfast must be coming soon.

“Oh, uh, sorry! Here, lemme help.”

I got up again, taking care not to overly tax the sore bits of my body. I was free of pain, so it must not have been as bad as I feared.

“Hm? Can you cook, Shintaro?”

The plates rattled in the sink as Kido washed them. I wanted to reply “well, yeah, duh,” but of course I’ve never prepared a full-on meal in my life.

Although it usually had the consistency of half-frozen cough syrup and the taste to match, at least Momo made an honest effort with her food.

The fact I was able to convince myself of that probably says all that needs to be said about my own skills.

“Huh. Well, okay. Have a seat.”

With that final glancing blow to my ego, Kido silently focused her attention back on the dishes.

The pain from being reminded of how unnecessary I was began to gradually fill my heart.

A shut-in like me is a delicate creature. They need to keep thinking that someone needs them, or else they’ll keel over.

Luckily, thanks to the man fast asleep on the floor by the front entrance, my sense of self-loathing was tempered somewhat.

In fact, nobody else was up yet, either. There wasn’t much need for me to be around, was there?

I felt a little bad about how completely dependent I was on Kido’s motherly kindness at the moment. But there’s no reason not to relax a bit more.

What’s gonna be for breakfast?

Some of the old standbys would be nice right now. Eggs, bacon, sausage, that kind of thing.

But wait. This is getting out of hand, isn’t it?

Sleeping under the same roof with a woman, then having her make breakfast for me?

Whoa whoa whoa. She’s here. She’s right here, and she’s headed my way.

……

…No. I should stop. I’d like to think it, but I can’t keep that line of thought going forever.

I have to get this aggressive streak out of my mind, or I’ll never be in any mood for breakfast.

The only people here right now are me and Kido.

If I’m going to ask it, now’s the time.

I stood up and headed for the kitchen.

Kido, standing in the kitchen, had her hair tied back and wore the same apron as yesterday. She was just about ready to heat up the frying pan.

“You got a second?”

“What?” she replied behind her back, cracking an egg into the pan with a practiced motion. “I told you to sit down.”

Part of me did want to sit down, badly. But no. Not gonna happen.

I opened my mouth, taking care not to bring up anything that’d rile her.

“Um, last night…late. I think Kano came back home. Did you notice him?”

“Kano? No, I didn’t see him at all.”

Kido began whipping the egg in the frying pan with a pair of metal chopsticks.

Scrambled eggs, huh? I continued on, even as my mind began taking a side route into the realm of food once more.

“Listen, does that…? Do you think Kano maybe, um, has something against me? Did he say anything to you like that?” I asked.

That’s what remained stuck in my craw. That late-night incident with Kano.

He showed up in the dead of night, disguised himself as Momo in an attempt to trick me, then transformed into Ayano and disappeared somewhere.

My exhaustion at the time made me wonder if it was just some weird fever dream. The thought still seemed plausible enough.

There was no way Kano knew who Ayano even was, for that matter. I never mentioned her to these guys. And if I was curled up on the floor last night, why did I wake up on the sofa? Things didn’t really add up, realistically speaking.

But even though I logically knew all of that…it was such a real dream. Nauseatingly so.

It didn’t exactly make me comfortable, asking Kido something like this, but I wanted some more convincing proof that it was just my mind playing tricks on me.

Kido’s chopsticks stopped. She turned toward me.

“Did he say something to you yesterday?”

She twisted the gas heater off behind her, then crossed her arms, chopsticks still in one hand.

Maybe she gleaned from my voice that this topic deserved her full attention. She flashed me a slightly concerned expression.

“N-no, um…Not exactly. I mean, I’m still not entirely sure it wasn’t just some super-realistic dream or something. He can’t, like, read your mind or anything, can he?”

“Nuh-uh. Nothing like that. Plus, I think Kano likes you pretty well, so…I don’t remember anything that would’ve put him off against you.”

Kido’s eyes turned downward. Now she looked a touch forlorn.

As far I could tell from her behavior, she didn’t seem to be lying.

I kind of doubted Kano enjoyed any powers his long-term roommate wouldn’t have been aware of by now. And given his usual goofy, airheaded behavior, I wouldn’t figure he had that much of a cruel streak, either.

Must’ve been just another of the many vivid dreams I’ve had lately. The thought took a heavy weight off of my shoulders.

“I mean, you know how he behaves and all by now, so…I know the act can get kind of old after a while, but he’s really a sweet guy, deep down. I hope he doesn’t get too annoying, or…”

Now Kido was clearly looking forlorn. Her eyes dipped downward again.

“Dahh! No, it’s nothing like that! Really! I guess I had a bad dream last night after running around all day, you know? I couldn’t just hate him like that. Besides, he’s taking care of my sister, too.”

This brightened Kido up. “Really? Well, great,” she said, smiling a little.

The combination of the apron, the smell from the scrambled eggs, and the smile made my chest tighten. This was one serious act of woman-ry. It would have blown away your average virgin. Better keep my guard up.

“…Yeah, so, uh, sorry to bother you. Thanks for cooking breakfast, though. I’ll clean up afterward.”

“Sure thing. I’m pretty good at this stuff, so…”

Kido went back to her cooking. The combination of her grin as she turned around, her ponytail, and her apparent talent in the kitchen was like a wave-beam attack on my mind, one strong enough to almost defeat an elite-level virgin like myself, but I managed to stand my ground.

Better head back to the sofa and wait for breakfast.

Now I’m glad I brought it up. The misgivings I endured alone were all but gone now, replaced by a rumbling, empty stomach.

Not much to do until breakfast is ready, though. Might as well keep Ene entertained for a bit.

Been a while since I was motivated to do that, I thought, as I approached the sofa. There I saw a large, white ball of fluff perched on the seat, like a particularly hefty and aggressive barnyard sheep.

It had my phone in one hand, the other fervently jabbing away at the screen.

“…Marie, what’re you doing?”

Marie, startled, turned in my direction.

Her light pink eyes clashed against her lily-white skin and fleecy, frilly pajamas. At this range, she was finally beginning to look at least somewhat human.

Her normally bushy hair was even more disheveled than usual. She must have just risen from bed.

Whether out of friendship or because I really posed that little of a threat, Marie had already abandoned all sense of caution around me. Hopefully it’s the former.

“Shintaro…That girl with all the blue hair ’n all isn’t showing up.”

Without any further apology, she started pecking at the phone again.

“Ene? Here, lemme see.”

I took the phone from Marie and tried pushing the power button a few times. No response.

“…Oh, yeah, I haven’t recharged this since yesterday.”

Looking back, this phone had to put up with Ene’s rantings and ravings all day yesterday. She must’ve totally exhausted the battery. Poor guy.

I didn’t have anything like a recharger with me, but judging by how long it lasted yesterday, someone here must’ve charged it for me the day before that.

Maybe Momo asked someone for an adapter she could borrow or something.

“Is…she dead?”

The momentous question came from a visibly shaking Marie. I somehow doubted a dead phone would be enough to off her.

“Nah. It’ll take more than this to do her in, trust me. She’ll come back once we charge it up.”

“Charge it up?”

“Um? You know…We have to plug this into an outlet so it can get some more electricity. Otherwise, it won’t work.”

“Hohh,” Marie replied, eyes sparking. “She eats some weird stuff!”

What was with this perfect statuette of innocence and purity? —Great. My mind’s going all weird again.

Using my indomitable spirit to tame the evil thoughts bubbling from some dark enclave of my heart, I turned to Marie, successfully keeping it all bottled up.

“Marie, do you know where the adapter for this is, maybe? Kido must plug her phone in somewhere, too, right?”

Marie thought for a moment, then had a burst of inspiration.

“Ummmm…Oh! You mean that thin rope thingy?”

There was a fairly substantial difference between a rope and a phone charger, but that was probably it.

“Right, that thingy. Could you bring that over for me?”

“Sure! Okay!”

With that, she stood up and padded toward the hutch behind the sofa.

It was laden with a motley crew of bric-a-brac, from old-looking books to eerie-looking bits of pottery, with a few retro toys thrown in for good measure. I had trouble telling whose tastes in interior design I was witnessing here.

I had a hazy image of Kido being responsible for this, but Kano might have a keen eye for this kind of stuff, too.

Marie pawed through this antique shop of misfits, nearly knocking the whole thing over as she rifled through drawers chanting “Rope…rope…”

Who was this girl? You just can’t help but want to protect her…

Delicate as a lily, but so innocent and guileless. No description could have fit her better.

Compared to my sister, tromping around and grunting like a heavily armored tank, she was so, so much more feminine.

…No, no, no. I am such a virgin. I’m losing all sense of rationality.

Thanks to my total lack of interaction with the opposite sex, I’ve turned into the kind of man liable to cross the line at the slightest of provocations.

As an elite-level virgin, this was seriously bad news.

I have to regain my wits. My hermit’s will.

Marie, oblivious of this inner struggle, was having some trouble of her own. That happy rope song of hers was gone, replaced with an increasingly desperate-sounding groan.

“Hey, if you can’t find it, you don’t have to keep looking forever, okay? Besides, she’s just gonna start yelling at me again once she’s back, so I don’t mind at all if…”

As I spoke, Marie turned around and pouted at me.

“Why are you so mean to her?!”

My shoulders shuddered in the sizzle of this icy-hot burn. Being shaken by this girl reminded me yet again of what a wimp I was.

Marie could barely keep it together around me when we first met. Now she was acting surprisingly forceful.

She must have opened her heart to me a little. It wasn’t a bad feeling.

“It’s lonely, being by yourself. She has to be the same, too.”

Then she started scrounging around the hutch again, cheeks still puffed up in anger.

Ene must have gotten on her good side, judging by that act. I never liked Ene much normally, but I suppose I could have predicted they’d hit it off.

I should have picked up on that the moment she saw Ene…and expressed no surprise whatsoever at her.

Most normal people would pelt me with questions like “how does this girl work” and “who developed this thing” and so on.

If I was confronted with Ene, that’s what I’d almost certainly do.

But to these guys, all pretty far off the beaten path themselves, there wasn’t much point in trying to explain oneself. That kept everyone on the same, fairly friendly level.

Looking at it like that, I realized I had a lot to be thankful for right now.

“Great news, huh?”

I spoke softly as I rubbed the powerless phone’s screen.

I don’t know where it came from, but somewhere along the line, I guess I developed an affinity for Ene.

Her appearing in front of me, all alone in my room, could very well be my salvation when all’s said and done.

Running into all these guys, and opening up to them like I have, was kind of her doing, in a way.

“Shintaro, I found it! The charger! Wait just a second, okay? It’s kind of deep inside…”

I looked up to find Marie, hands buried deep in the hutch, trying to pull out the charger she found.

The heavy piece of furniture began to rock, making the collection perched on it wobble and clatter.

“Whoa, watch out, Marie. Take it nice and slow, okay?”

“Yeah. I’m okay, I’m okay…Oof!”

Marie extracted her hand from the clutter. The cable from the charger was clutched in it.

I was a bit worried about what we’d do if she really did pluck a plain old rope out from that mess, but it looked like my guess was correct.

“Ooh, nice! That’s the one! Thanks a lot.”

“Ee-hee-hee,” Marie said as she tilted her head at me, a bit bashfully.

Yep. She’s a cutie.

By the time Marie finally untangled the cord and padded her way back to me with it, Kido was just beginning to bring her breakfast plates out from the kitchen.

“All ready…Ooh, you’re up, Marie? Good job waking up by yourself.”

“Mm-hmm! Oh, and Shintaro said I was good, too. I found the charger for him!”

Marie held the charger high in the air, beaming. Something long and beltlike was tangled around the far end of the cord, something I had failed to notice from behind the sofa.

I couldn’t discern what it was at first, but the moment I did, I froze.

Simultaneously, Kido let out a shrill “Aiee!” and disappeared as my eyes were focused on Marie.

“Oh, what’s that? It was caught on it.”

Marie grabbed the object knotted to the end of the cord and gave it a studious look.

“Uh, dude, that’s a snakeskin! Why do you have something like that in there?”

“Huh? Why…? I dunno why. I think Kano brought it in from somewhere…Agh! Kido, what’s wrong? Are you crying?”

Marie was talking into thin air. She must’ve been able to see her. Interesting.

Kido’s “concealing eyes” skill was pretty helpful at times. It allowed her to reduce her presence to a bare minimum at will, keeping people from recognizing or even noticing she was there.

For it to work, though, all other eyes had to be off her at the moment she chose to “disappear.” Marie never stopped looking at her, which must have been why she never noticed anything amiss.

“I-I’m sorry, Kido…Hmm? Does your stomach hurt?”

The look of concern was clear on Marie’s face, even as she still clutched the snakeskin in her hand.

Even though I still had no idea where she was, I had a pretty clear picture of her current state. Crouched over in mental anguish, no doubt.

“M-Marie? I don’t think Kido likes that snakeskin, okay?”

“This one? Uh, is that true, Kido? …Oh. Okay. I’ll put it back.”

The child then padded back to the hutch and hid the snakeskin behind a rather large model of a three-wheeled antique car. Kido must have told her to do that.

“Weirdo,” Marie muttered. None of this likely made sense to her.

“Hey, Kido, you okay?”

I tried talking into the empty space near us. I was rewarded with silence. She probably didn’t want me seeing her quivering in tears.

“She said ‘just a second,’” Marie said, interpreting for me after returning from the hutch.

For the second time since yesterday’s haunted house, her propensity for being spooked into submission at the drop of a hat made me wonder why she was the boss of this gang.

I mean, when it comes to freaking out over stuff, I consider myself something of a pro. But from what I knew about her, Kido was an all-star at it.

Having nothing better to do, I took the cable from Marie and waited for Kido to come back as I started charging the phone.

Marie and I sat there for a few minutes until Kido appeared from thin air with zero advance warning.

I surmised that it wasn’t the exertion of using her skill that made her eyes red and puffy.

“S-sorry to keep you. Ready for breakfast?”

I nodded and said “Yeah” as she awkwardly smiled. It was a bit late for her to pretend it was nothing, but I didn’t want to add insult to injury.

Making several trips back and forth, Kido had her breakfast menu out in the main room in the blink of an eye.

We were greeted with scrambled eggs, salt-grilled salmon, toasted seaweed sheets, natto soybeans—everything you’d expect for breakfast in Japan from a kind old grandmother.

“Wow. This is, like, the epitome of down-home cooking.”

“Oh? Well, it’s pretty much the routine around here.”

Kido placed a rice cooker on the side table as she replied.

This eminently traditional Japanese breakfast? In the middle of a hideout I could only describe as “atmospheric”? Consumed by this kind of crew?

It was a bizarre sight to picture.

I grumbled to myself about how a Western-style breakfast would’ve been more fitting, but the appetite-inducing aroma from Kido’s handmade miso soup made any lingering doubts instantly fly off.

Struck by the urge to slurp away at once, I suddenly noticed that there were only four settings on the table.

Just enough for the four people I had seen so far this morning. Not enough for Seto, Momo, and Hibiya, none of whom had emerged into the living room yet.

“Hm? Hey, uh, shouldn’t we wake the other guys up or something? They shouldn’t have to miss out on breakfast just because they overslept…”

“Oh, Momo and the other guys? I think they already went out.”

Kido placed her bowl on the desk, fished a folded piece of paper out of a pocket, and handed it to me with a nod.

I opened it up, not knowing what to expect. I was greeted with a child’s scrawl, like a line of ancient hieroglyphs on a wall painting somewhere.

I thought it was a secret code at first, but—just barely managing to spot the “Momo” signature on the bottom—I realized that this eerie message from beyond was from my sister.

“God, her handwriting’s messy…”

I couldn’t help but say it out loud.

“Yeah,” Kido followed. “I’d be kind of worried about her education at that level, but…let’s just interpret it as artistic license, huh?”

Once I realized whose hand I was reading, the rest of the message became clear much more quickly.

The general gist was, Hibiya and I are out looking for a girl named Hiyori. I’ll contact you if anything comes up, but we’ll be back for dinner.

“Hiyori’s the girl Hibiya talked about, right? They’re out pretty damn early looking for her…”

“Well, they fell asleep early last night, so…Seto probably went with ’em, too. They probably didn’t want to leave him alone.”

Kido stood up and hurried over to the front entrance, no doubt trying to figure out what to do with the still-unconscious man by the door.

“Hey, how long you plannin’ on lying there? You wanna get up?”

“Nngh…mmh, I’m fine…”

Konoha’s loose, stilted reply came in the trademark growling drone of a non-morning person.

It’s fair to say that someone refusing to wake up is far more preferable to someone unconsciously replying to you as he stayed asleep.

I shot a look toward the door, dreading what may have to come next. But despite my expectations, the moment Kido said “We got food,” Konoha shot upward.

“Morning.”

“Yeah, good morning. Go take a seat. We’re eating.”

The two of them came back together, Kido sitting next to Marie and Konoha settling beside me.

“Seto’s gone, too?”

“Yeah, he sent a text earlier. He had work.”

“So this is all of us?”

“Yep, I guess so.”

There was no restraining my empty stomach any longer. I picked up a pair of chopsticks and placed my hands together in a gesture of thanks.

“Time to eat!”

We all began ferrying food to our mouths, each in our own unique way. Konoha, despite having just woken up, was chomping away at a remarkable clip.

It was all pretty simple fare—fish, eggs, miso soup—but none of it tasted bland or boring to me. Kido must have a talent after all.

And the amiable, nonconfrontational flavoring she added to the dishes was, in its own way, very Kido-like as well.

“You mind if I have some more?”

Konoha thrust his bowl toward Kido. Not a single grain of rice remained inside.

I doubted my own eyes at this sight, taking place not even a minute after we began eating. What kind of digestive system does this dude have?

“Oh, sure. Eat all you want.”

Kido, supremely satisfied, took the bowl, filling it with about twice the amount of rice as before.

She grinned evilly as she handed it back, all but saying “Well? Can’t get enough, can you?” with her eyes.

This was enough to make the normally inscrutable Konoha betray a look of captivation. If it were framed and drawn just right, it’d be scene right out of a girl’s comic.

We had to get through a lot to reach this point, but a nice meal with the gang isn’t so bad after all.

I reflected a bit as I sipped my miso soup. It felt like a great morning, thanks in no small part to our health-conscious menu. Then I noticed Marie trying to peel the skin off of her salmon.

You wouldn’t normally eat that part, no. Not that it ever stopped Momo, of course. Though if she ate something, that definitely couldn’t be the norm for everyone else.

Marie was doing an awfully thorough job at skinning this fish, though.

So intent she was at her work, delicately picking and pecking at the filet, that it left me staring at her plate in wonder. Once the skin was off, Marie picked it up, a satisfied look on her face, and thrust it right at mine.

“Shintaro, look, look! It’s just like that snakeskin!”

This unforeseen announcement made Kido, chewing her rice to the side, emit a baleful oooorggh.

It must have been a painful blow, especially after the trauma of just a few minutes ago, but I doubted Marie meant anything sinister by it.

“M-Marie! Come on, you really shouldn’t play with your food like…”

I tried to make her stop as softly as I could, having trouble finding the right words. Kido nodded briskly in response.

“Aww, but I got it just right and everything.”

Marie returned the skin to her table, put her chopsticks down, and gave us a crestfallen look.

Everything about her suggested that the mere sight of a reptile would make her faint on the spot. But here she was, displaying a much thicker skin than I expected.

Even if it was childish of them, most women don’t want to go near cold-blooded animals like that. Although Momo asked if we could keep a chameleon at home once. Though if she wants one, that definitely can’t be the norm.

“You really don’t mind those kinds of things, huh, Marie? You’re still a little girl and all, too.”

“I’d say so,” Kido muttered to the side as she blended some more natto into her rice. “She was living by herself in the mountains before she came here. It’d take a lot more than a snake to spook her.”

The matter-of-fact tone she took suggested that her observation was nothing particularly noteworthy. I had to bite.

“By herself? In the mountains? Her?! Come on. Where were her parents or…?”

The moment I said the word, Marie’s shoulders shook, her hands forming two fists on her knees.

Territory I wasn’t supposed to tread into, I supposed. That was sure inconsiderate of me.

Regret began to form in my soul as I opened my mouth, attempting to apologize. But before I could, Marie slowly began to speak.

“Daddy died when I was real small. I was with my mommy after that. But I didn’t do what Mommy told me to do. I went out, and there were these scary people, and they probably took Mommy away somewhere.”

“Wh-what do you mean…?”

“Um, well, my daddy wasn’t like this, but ever since she was born, Mommy’s eyes were bright red, and she said we were like the Medusa that you see in the picture books. She said people outside were afraid of us, ’cause we’re different. And that’s why Mommy said I shouldn’t go out, but…I did anyway…”

Her speech silenced the room. Even Konoha, still packing away the food like a well-oiled machine, stopped in rapt attention.

Was that why she lived by herself?

From the tone of her story, it sounded like Marie’s family was persecuted in some way by the people around them.

Maybe they were called Medusa to their faces, even.

Kido told me that Marie had the power to make anyone she locks eyes with freeze temporarily.

That was nothing any normal human could do. If the general public found out about it, I could understand why they’d treat her with fear and scorn.

“Marie…”

Kido broke the silence.

“That’s the first time you ever really told anyone, isn’t it?”

Apparently I wasn’t the only one surprised by the tale.

“Y-yeah. I guess having more friends…It makes me feel safer. I don’t think it’s so scary for me to say it anymore.”

Marie flashed a fleeting smile.

It made sense. Marie hadn’t been here for that long, the way I heard it. She must not have talked about herself much before now.

“Oh. Well, that’s great. I doubt anyone filed a…missing-persons report for you, huh? …Oh, hell.”

The anger was clear on Kido’s face. She must have had the same thought I did.

If Marie’s mother had those “red eyes,” she must have had the same kind of powers this gang all possessed.

And if Marie was still with us after presumably being kidnapped when she went outside, she must have protected Marie from people in the outside world. In other words, she acted the scapegoat so she could live in peace. That made sense.

If her mother was killed in the process, that was one thing. But if she was “taken away” instead—that implied there was something in this for the people on the outside besides purely defending their own hides.

A man’s curiosity can be so easily stoked by the bizarre at times.

This was pure guesswork, but perhaps it meant Marie’s mother was taken away by those with more malevolent things on their mind than simply murder. Someone seeking to profit from their situation, somehow.

The thought made a dull feeling of disgust manifest itself inside of me.

Marie and her mother were living all by themselves, trying to cling to whatever happiness they had left.

And despite that, not only did no one lend a helping hand to them—they ripped them apart from each other. It was horrifying to think of.

“How could they do that to her…?”

My genuine feelings poured out of my mouth.

It was nothing I’d ever be able to understand. Before she came here, Marie was all alone, by herself, never cared for by anyone.

When she talked about Ene being all lonely…she must have meant it. Seriously.

I felt the emotions clutch at my stomach, incapable of going anywhere else.

I tried to process them in my mind—“there has to be something I can do for her”—but the idea was promptly crushed by my overall sense of powerlessness.

“Do you remember any of the faces of the guys who took her? Any kind of unique features at all?”

“…I don’t really remember. It was a real long time ago, and one of them knocked me out, so I didn’t see their faces. And when I woke up, they and my mom were gone…”

Marie looked part perturbed, part apologetic. I couldn’t blame her. She was a victim of a violent crime. At such a young age, too.

“All right…Do you remember how long ago it was, at least?”

Marie hemmed and hawed to herself, trying to remember, before answering.

“Ummm, well, I used to like counting the summers, and there’s been a hundred or so of ’em, so I think it’s been around a hundred years. But I forgot to count them after that, so it might be more, but…”

Mm. Makes sense. I’d have trouble remembering things from a hundred years ago, too. Even just a few years ago can be pretty tough some—

“A hundred years?!”

The words shot out of my and Kido’s mouth in perfect unison.

A hundred years?

There was no way that could be possible.

If a hundred people heard this girl say “I’m a hundred or so years old,” the reply would unanimously be along the lines of “Bwa-ha-ha! Aww, isn’t that cute?”

“Eeek! I’m sorry!” Marie replied, shrugging her shoulders in response to our dual reactions.

“Y-you’re joking, right? I mean, a hundred is just too…You don’t look like it, so…”

“No! I’m telling the truth! My mom taught me how to count and everything! Oh, but when I asked her how old I was, she got angry and said ‘Don’t talk to me about age anymore,’ so I wouldn’t really know unless I counted, so…”

Marie defended herself in a clearly peeved tone, but this still wasn’t something we could just say “Okay, we believe you” to.

Still, given that we were currently sharing the room with The Amazing Invisible Woman, I couldn’t deny it out of hand either.

Kido, for her part, furrowed her brows in confusion.

“Yeah, but that kind of thing…”

The ability to live past a century. Mad Marie stumbled across the power of immortality somehow?

No. That’s just silly.

That kind of thing couldn’t possibly exist…

Just then Kido’s story from yesterday crossed my mind. How she gained her own skills.

It was the same with Kano, Seto, and Momo. They had a near-death experience…and then they awoke to their powers.

And judging by Hibiya’s behavior yesterday, it must’ve happened to him, too.

But Marie, meanwhile, claims that she was born with those eyes of hers. She clearly took a different path from the rest of them.

“Hey, uh, Marie? So were you really born with your powers?”

“Hmm? Um…uh-huh. My mom always told me. She said ‘Oh, don’t you ever go using that, Marie’…”

This was becoming more and more cryptic.

Yesterday’s conversation gave me a fairly clear impression of how these powers…happened. But Marie was such an extreme case, it made everything else fall apart.

The fact she had that power from the start. Without going to…that world.

The fact that her mother was awakened to her skills, too.

And the fact that I’m sharing a roof with a one-hundred-year-old Medusa.

It was a bewildering fairy tale. Were there really all these bizarre events taking place worldwide? We were practically tripping over them.

All of the strange and mysterious things I’d seen or heard of, including the traumatic experiences of Kido and the others, seemed to all boil down to a single…thing. A thing that’d lasted over a hundred years.

But if it was all related, then solving the riddle behind Marie’s story could be one way to arrive at the big answers we needed.

Even if we tried searching for Marie’s mother, though, it’d be a daunting task. Calling the police and saying “We’re looking for the mother of this girl here; she went missing a hundred years ago” wouldn’t accomplish much.

That, and Marie’s memories were a little too hazy to seem reliable. It was hard to say what the next step should—

“Um…I just had this thought…”

Out of nowhere, Konoha raised a wavering hand as I stewed in my confusion.

“Oh? What’s up?”

Kido looked a little surprised at this unexpected statement.

Konoha, his expression inscrutable as always, slowly began to speak.

“This might not be anything important, but would it be okay to maybe try going to this girl’s home?”

“Huh?”

Kido and I looked at him, perplexed.

“No, I, uh, I was just wondering if it’d be bad to check out her home. Oh, I don’t mean her home here. The place she was living before. Um…”

“That’s it!”

Kido and I exclaimed in unison, cutting off Konoha just as he found himself at wit’s end attempting to conclude his thought.

Thinking about it, it made sense.

If Marie’s mother referred to the both of them as Medusa, she must have had some kind of knowledge of her own abilities.

Even if it didn’t lead to the big answers we sought, we might still find some info on these powers in Marie’s house.

“I think it’d be worth our time to check out. Shintaro, how about you?”

“I’d say it’s about the only thing we got. Maybe it’ll help us find an answer to all this stuff that happened to you all.”

This startled Konoha. “D-do you think it’ll help us rescue Hiyori, too, maybe?” he said breathlessly.

“I can’t really say yet…but maybe we could find some hints, at least.”

Konoha’s face clearly began to grow sterner.

Looking back, that was about the only thing Hibiya yelled at him about yesterday.

He said that Konoha failed to rescue this girl named Hiyori. Maybe that really moved Konoha after all, although it never registered on his face.

“Well, if we’re going, let’s go. Marie, do you mind showing your place to us a little bit?” Kido stood up as she spoke.

“For you guys, it’s not a problem at all,” Marie replied with a smile.

“Cool. In that case, let’s get this cleaned up. I don’t want Kido to do all the work, so lemme clear the…”

I tried standing up as I spoke, forgetting exactly how sore my legs still were.

I froze in a semicrouching position, not wanting to make the dull sense of pain get any worse.

Kido, probably picking up on this, flashed a spiteful grin. “Okay, I’ll start getting our stuff ready,” she said as she returned to her room. “I’ll be counting on you, Shintaro!”

Hang on a sec.

I know we kind of threw ourselves into this headlong, but I’m afraid I forgot something important.

This shade of uncertainty began to write itself large in my mind, its importance now all too obvious. I cautiously turned toward Marie.

“Uh, Marie? Where was your home, anyway?”

She grinned back. “It’s kind of far away from here. In a forest! I think maybe two hours’ walking from the station?”

I crumpled off my feet and to the ground.

Two hours?!

No. No, no, no. Not happening. I was a ninety-pound weakling already. How much walking did I have to do, day after day?

I’m out.

Yep. I’m out.

Better go to Kido’s room and tell her—

“But oh, boy, we’re going out today, too? This is going to be great, Shintaro! Oh, and, uh, is he coming along, too? I can’t wait!”

Marie smiled from ear to ear.

I don’t think anyone could have said “no” to a smile like that.

“Oh…yeah. Me neither…”

I felt my face start to twitch as I dragged myself back up to the sofa.

But the girl’s enthusiasm reminded me that my phone should be charged by now.

When I unplugged it from the outlet nearby, the phone indicated it had nearly a full charge. Though, when I turned on the power, I realized something was odd.

“…Huh?”

I didn’t see Ene in the middle of the screen.

I tried shaking it, muttering “Helloooooo?” a few times, but she still didn’t show up.

She must have been paying a visit to Momo’s phone.

This was a girl who survived me picking up my computer and dropping it on the floor. No way she’d simply disappear over a dead phone.

I slipped it into my pocket, fully satisfied by my own logic.

With a deep breath, I looked across the table in front of me.

First, I gotta clear this table. Then, we got another long hike ahead. Both concepts filled me with dread, but there was no point whining about it now.

It was weird, though, these past few days. Like it’s all been a special curriculum designed to re-form me into a decent human being.

Maybe someone really did devise all of this for me.

Someone with the power to mess around with people’s destinies, or something…

I smiled to myself a bit. The thought seemed oddly comforting.

What a crazy situation I’m in.

If I wasn’t experiencing it for myself, I’d laugh it off with a chiding “Yeah, right.”

But here I am. Filled with an oddly passionate desire to get to the bottom of all this.

For the sake of…someone.

It wouldn’t help me atone for anything I’d done in the past.

But still, if there’s anything I can do right now, I guess I need to try and take the plunge.

I thought it over as I began cleaning up the fully eaten breakfast.