...

The man’s eyes had begun to flicker with uncertainty. His perfect confidence from before was starting to waver. Yet he chose to keep fighting. With a roar, he threw himself at Yuichi.

A body blow. Simple as it was, merely throwing his entire weight on someone would surely be effective.

But Yuichi approached him without flinching, and snapped a foot into the man’s knee the instant his weight shifted to that leg. In Chinese martial arts, it was known as a fujin kick, and it smashed the man’s kneecap effortlessly. As the man came toppling towards him, Yuichi met him with his elbow, then struck the man’s jaw from the side, dislodging it.

Yuichi didn’t care that the man couldn’t die. He hadn’t intended to kill him from the start, so if he wouldn’t die, that just made things easier.

But that didn’t mean he couldn’t put him in pain.

In this short time, Yuichi had been learning what kinds of injuries would confound the man’s regeneration the most. Complex bone fractures wouldn’t heal very quickly, and severance of muscle tissue was debilitating if he struck the same place multiple times. Attacks to his meridians were also effective.

If he died, he’d heal instantly, so Yuichi just had to not kill him. But the man was completely at his mercy; with all four limbs smashed, he couldn’t even crawl away.

The man’s jaw was a mushy, immobile pulp after being broken so many times. It hadn’t been Yuichi’s intention, but in doing so, he had managed to prevent the man from biting his tongue to kill himself.

Finally, as if to finish off the fallen man, Yuichi kicked him in the head hard enough to jostle his brainpan. Even with his regenerative powers, that should render him inert for a while.

“I know a super doctor. I’ll introduce you to him,” Yuichi murmured, as if making an excuse. He was starting to think maybe he’d gone a little too far.

“Yuichi... just who are you? I knew you were pretty strong, but...” Monika walked over to him, staring dumbfounded at what he’d done.

“I’m no one special,” said Yuichi. “Just a high school student unlucky enough to have started getting used to things like this. So what do we do now? I knocked him out, but...”

Yuichi looked down at the man whose arms and legs were shattered and whose jaw was broken. It was a pain knowing that he’d revive if he died, but Yuichi was confident that he’d only half-killed him. He could tell from instinct that he had life left in him.

Monika crouched down and picked up something round that had fallen near the man’s face. It looked just like the Divine Vessel that Yuichi was carrying. The Evil God’s Left Eye, most likely.

Yuichi peered into the man’s face curiously. He had a left eye. Even losing the Divine Vessel didn’t make him lose the possessed feature, it seemed.

“How does it work?” Yuichi asked.

“Once things reach a turning point, the Divine Vessels move,” said Monika. “I don’t know exactly how they define ‘turning point,’ though. Most people try to kill each other, since they assume that would cover it, but...”

“So, is it possible my Soul Reader comes from one of those Divine Vessels?” Yuichi asked. The way the giant had acquired his magic sight felt a lot like Yuichi’s current situation, and it would explain why she wanted it back if she was gathering the Vessels.

“Soul Reader is different,” said Monika. “That’s a basic Outer ability. I knew about this man because I saw his info with Soul Reader.”

“You know a whole lot, though,” Yuichi said. “Soul Reader doesn’t tell you that much, does it? It just gives you words above a person’s head.”

“It shows that person’s role in their worldview and a short history and stuff,” Monika said. “It lets you identify important key items to a worldview, too. So it’s necessary for searching for Divine Vessels... is your Soul Reader atrophied or something?”

“‘Atrophied’ is a pretty ugly term for it.” Yuichi replied, feeling ruffled, then spoke quickly. “So why can I use Soul Reader? You changed the subject earlier, but is there something I forgot? Please tell me, if so.” Now that things were calmed down, he was brimming over with questions.

“Allow me to explain about that!” a high-pitched voice rang out abruptly, breaking into their conversation.

The voice had come from Monika’s shoulder. A spongy, round, white creature — it looked a bit like a daifuku mochi with eyes and a mouth — was speaking to him.

“...Hey. Is this a test of how much weird stuff I can accept at once?” Yuichi asked. He was starting to wish he could just slam the brakes on this nonstop parade of the bizarre.

“Um... this is one of my powers, too. It doesn’t really have a name. It’s sort of like the debt I owe you given form...” Monika said with an uncomfortable expression.

“That’s right,” the spongy white creature said. “I am an embodiment of the debt Monika owes you. I wanted to let you know that Monika is the one who caused you to lose your memory of meeting her the first time. Monika has an ability called ‘Distant Memories’ that erases people’s memory of an event. She tried to use that to erase her obligation for the great debt she owed you!”

Yuichi shot a glare at Monika, who averted her eyes guiltily.

“And I’m very sorry to say this, but once she’s employed that ability, not even she can undo it,” the creature added. “Its purpose is to create developments where people forget the promises they made long ago in their childhood, only for the memory to return at a properly dramatic time. So the details of the matter will have to wait until after you regain your memory.”

“Can’t you just tell me what I’ve forgotten?” Yuichi asked.

“No, neither she nor I can tell you what you’ve forgotten. You see, it all started when @%@%$%$$&@@@$*%... and you didn’t understand a word of that, did you?”

It felt like the thing had been speaking in a foreign language. In other words, he had no idea what it had just said.

“Fine,” Yuichi said. “Forget the explanation; just take Soul Reader and go.”

“Then give it back!” Monika cried.

“...How?”

“How should I know?!”

“...Wait a minute... what the heck is going on here?” Yuichi felt a headache coming on. “You’re the one who gave me Soul Reader, aren’t you? I don’t understand!”

“More precisely, you took it as part of the debt she owed,” the daifuku offered helpfully.

“You gave it to me, so you should take it back!” Yuichi cried. “Why would I know how to give it back?”

“Actually, I am the one who gave Soul Reader to you, Yuichi. But while I can bestow it, I cannot return it!” the daifuku said, with inexplicable pride in its voice.

“Don’t tell me to give it back if you don’t know how I’m supposed to do it!” Yuichi’s temper hadn’t reached the level of anger yet, but there was a lot about this that was grating on his nerves.

“W-Well, anyway!” Monika said, changing the subject. “I feel sorry for the girl who came out here and got herself killed, but we should take the Divine Vessel on her right arm... huh?” As if only just remembering the existence of the other Divine Vessel, Monika turned to head for the dead girl by the wall. But suddenly, she stopped.

Yuichi immediately realized what had taken Monika by surprise.

The girl’s body was gone.

The girl who had crashed into the wall, fallen on the ground, and then had her head stomped on, was now nowhere to be seen. The area where she had been was pristine, with no sign of the pool of blood that had formed around her earlier.

“Does this have something to do with the Divine Vessels, too?” Yuichi asked.

“I don’t think so,” Monika said. “But Divine Vessels are often given to people with great strength or special abilities, so maybe she had some innate power of her own that saved her...”

The girl had seemed to know Yuichi, but he didn’t even know her name. He had no way of finding out if she was dead or alive. To be frank, he couldn’t be sure she had ever really existed.

“Anyway, we shouldn’t stay here much longer, I guess,” Yuichi said. “Even if the resonance has stopped, they’ll know that this was the last place we were.”

Leaving the unconscious man where he was, Yuichi and Monika quickly went back on the move.

They met back up with Aiko and Nero, and for a while after that, everything was normal.

✽✽✽✽✽

“That story took too long!” Tomomi complained.

“You’re the one who wanted to hear it!” Yuichi shot back, outraged.

They were in the Chinese restaurant Nihao the China, where Yuichi and his companions had gathered.

Yuichi was explaining what had happened over his summer vacation.

“Couldn’t you have just summarized it?” Tomomi asked.

“Oh, come on...”

“Well, I feel like I understand what happened now, so we can save the details for another time,” Tomomi added.

Her criticism made Yuichi wonder if he really had been telling it wrong. He felt a little frustrated.

“Anyway, you’re all participating in the Divine Vessel War, right?” Tomomi asked. “Monika wants to gather the Divine Vessels and wish to become human again, but you need Soul Reader to search for Divine Vessels, and since neither of you knows how to give it back, you’ve asked Sakaki for his help. And Sakaki’s such a soft touch, he’s helping you out despite not really understanding the situation.”

“Hamasaki, you know about the Evil God and the Divine Vessels?” Yuichi asked.

They called it an Evil God, but apparently Monika didn’t actually know if it was really evil, or a god. Whatever it was, she’d told Yuichi, its body had been cut up into many small parts, and anyone who collected them all could have a wish granted.

“Yeah,” Tomomi said. “I’d heard rumors that someone was trying to resurrect the Evil God in this city. Now, I know about Aiko and Sakaki’s little sister, but who’s the blond over there?” Tomomi pointed to Ibaraki, who was reclining in his chair with a superior attitude.

“He’s an oni,” Yuichi said. “He’s looking after Monika right now. There’s a chance the Divine Vessels could start resonating out of the blue and she could get ambushed, after all. Since we can’t tell when they resonate, we need to be on our guard at all times.”

“Yeah, it was a real surprise that he asked me,” Ibaraki said. “Knowing Yuichi, I thought he’d be more like, ‘Ambushes? Yeah, bring it on!’”

“What kind of person do you think I am?” Yuichi asked, feeling slightly hurt.

“Okay, so I know all the members of your party,” Tomomi said. “Now, what are you doing here at my restaurant?”

“It’s an information meeting about Evil God stuff, obviously,” said Monika. “Everyone, make your reports!”

The disembodied parts of the Evil God were known as Divine Vessels. They resonated from time to time, which made it possible to know the locations of other Divine Vessels. But you could only sense the resonance if a Vessel had taken you as a host.

The Vessels in Monika’s possession already had hosts somewhere else, which meant she couldn’t feel them resonating. Instead, she had asked Yuichi and the others to be on the lookout for suspicious people who seemed like they might have Vessels.

But nobody responded to Monika’s call.

“Wait a minute! No one has anything?!” Monika acted surprised, but Yuichi found it only natural.

“Well, how are we even supposed to tell?” Ibaraki complained. “You told us to look for suspicious people, but everyone’s suspicious in our business, y’know? I mean, I did keep an eye out for extra-suspicious people...” He trailed off with a sigh.

“Monika never thinks these things through...” Yoriko joined in with a sigh of her own.

“Actually, there’s someone suspicious at our school I was thinking of mentioning,” said Yuichi. “She’s a teacher named Makina Shikitani.”

“Wait a minute! What’s she doing there?” Monika asked, having an immediate reaction to the name.

“She said the guy who crashed the truck into the cafe was working for her,” said Yuichi. “What do you think it means?”

Makina had appeared abruptly as a teacher at Seishin High. It seemed to Yuichi that she must be involved with the Divine Vessels business somehow.

“He only had one Divine Vessel, so he’s probably out of the fight, but...” Monika frowned.

“The new teacher, Shikitani? She’s a substitute, right? Does she really have a connection to the Divine Vessels?” Tomomi asked dubiously.

“She’s an Outer,” Yuichi said. “She seems to have some kind of plan for the school. I don’t know if it’s connected to the Divine Vessels, but... be careful around her, okay, Hamasaki?”

“But can Outers even use Divine Vessels?” Tomomi asked. “I thought event items like those were off limits for them.”

Yuichi had been told that Outers existed outside of destiny — outside of stories. Even if they could influence events in destiny, they themselves couldn’t get directly involved. That should mean that they couldn’t become hosts for Divine Vessels. At least, that was what Tomomi seemed to be thinking.

“Yeah, so she must have a proxy she’s acting through,” Monika said. “Outers often get involved in stories in ‘helper’ roles.”

“Then if we defeated her proxy and recovered the Divine Vessel, would it be safe to assume she’s not involved anymore?” Yuichi asked. There was a chance she might get a new one, of course, but if they started down that road, there would be no end to it.

“Even if she’s not connected to the Divine Vessels, you should still watch out for Makina! She’s gotta be plotting something bad!” Monika said, as if trying to keep Yuichi from getting too optimistic.

“She made it pretty clear that she’s a bad person, yeah...” Yuichi grimaced as he remembered the way Makina seemed to like toying with people.

“Yuichi. I think you’re probably underestimating her,” Monika said. “Outers are garbage people who view everyone else as disposable characters in stories, but she’s especially dangerous.”

“Yeah, she locked me up, which was pretty rough,” Yuichi responded lightly. She did seem like an inherently cruel person, but it was hard to imagine she could be that much of a threat. If he ever had to fight her, he could probably win, so it wouldn’t be hard to just force her out of their lives if things ever got desperate.

“Huh? She did what?! I’m surprised you made it out alive!” Monika exclaimed. “Listen, the world she comes from is ‘A World of Brooding Isolation.’ Put simply, it’s a death game thriller world. She locks people away and forces them into extreme situations to kill them!”

“Really? She didn’t seem like she’d go that far to me...” Yuichi thought back, and she hadn’t seemed particularly bloodthirsty.

“The goal of most Outers isn’t to kill,” Monika said. “They usually just want to play around with the stories. But she’s different. When she gets involved, people always die. Most of the time, everyone involved dies, except once in a while, when a single ‘protagonist’ gets to survive!”

If that was the case, then she really had taken it easy on Yuichi. There had been no death condition in the game Makina had set up for him.

“But all she can do is lock you in,” Yuichi said. “She can’t force people to kill each other.”

All she’d done was to make it impossible for him to leave the room. If he’d been stuck in there for a really long time, maybe it would have come to that, but most people wouldn’t get that desperate that quickly.

“I told you before that Worldview Holders known as Outers have abilities that let them to impose their worldviews on others, right?” Monika asked. “Her ability is ‘Sealed Room Game.’ She can impose rules on the people she locks up in her rooms.”

“How much can those rules make you do, though?” Yuichi asked. “I don’t think she did anything to me.”

Yuichi had been locked inside the student guidance room and made to play her game, but he didn’t remember feeling any sort of compulsion.

“It’s kind of like an irresistible hypnosis, I guess,” Monika said. “All sentient life inside the closed space must follow the rules. In extreme situations, it can even be things like, ‘If you move, you die.’”

“Then what can you even do against her?” Yuichi demanded. If she could make up rules like that, she could do literally anything.

“Well, she does them so she can enjoy the ‘game,’” Monika responded, “I doubt she’d find ‘if you move, you die’ very much fun. But it does basically leave you subject to her whims.”

“Which means if you get sealed inside, it’s over. What if you try to destroy the room?” Yuichi asked.

If the ability could only be used in a closed space, it seemed to Yuichi, destroying the room would be your best option to break out.

“Not possible,” said Monika. “She has another ability called ‘Inviolable Domain.’ It’s a protective field she uses to keep items necessary to the game from being destroyed, which includes the enclosed space, as well as herself. In other words, when she’s in her own world, she’s invincible.”

“That’s crazy...” Yuichi was stunned. If that was true, then there was no way to deal with Makina but to play along with her games.

“I told you she was dangerous! You have to be really careful! As long as you remain on your guard, you can probably avoid getting stuck in her closed spaces.” Monika’s tone was extremely serious.

“Of course, just because she’s invincible doesn’t mean there’s no way to deal with her,” Tomomi chimed in. “I mean, it stands to reason, right? If people like her could just do whatever they wanted, the world would be in chaos.”

“That may be true, but then how do you deal with her?” Monika asked.

“There are limitations that keep an Outer’s abilities from being too overpowered,” said Tomomi. “They’re more like objections than anything else, really, but what it comes down to is that they can’t activate their effects within a story without fulfilling certain restrictions. It’s what keeps them from using their abilities limitlessly.”

“So... Tomomi, was it? I don’t know Makina’s restrictions. Do you?” Monika stared at her intently.

“Of course not.” Tomomi brushed the question off.

“Actually... she mentioned something about that,” Yuichi said. “That she couldn’t use the ability in closed spaces she made herself, and she had to be inside them.” The word “restrictions” had triggered a memory; he was pretty sure Makina had mentioned something like that.

“That sounds about right,” Tomomi mused. “But if those are the only restrictions, it’s still unbalanced. There must be more to it.”

She was probably right. Still, they had no way of knowing what else there might be, which meant they had to stay on their guard about Makina.

Yuichi would take Monika’s warning to heart.