Chapter 3: It’s Kind of Like a Prologue, I Guess

It was Saturday, a little while after noon. Yuichi had come alone to this restaurant, Nihao the China.

It was a Chinese restaurant near the back gate of the school, and it was where his classmate, Tomomi Hamasaki, lived.

He opened the old door and entered to find four people waiting inside.

One was a man, sitting past the counter in the kitchen and reading a newspaper. The label above his head was “Nihao the China,” the same name as the restaurant, and he wore his hair in a braid that seemed ridiculously inappropriate for both the time period and the country he lived in.

Two customers sat at a round table across from each other. One was Aiko Noro. The other was Monika Sakurazaki, leader of the Monika Army.

Monika was a girl dressed in an elementary school uniform, wearing her hair in a ponytail. She looked like a young girl, but only because she had stopped aging — her actual age was around Yuichi’s own. As an Outer, a being that existed outside of destiny, she had no label over her head.

The last person was the waitress, who was standing in the back, dressed in a cheongsam, looking restless. This was his classmate, Tomomi Hamasaki.

She lived upstairs and helped out at the restaurant. She wore glasses at school, but she seemed to take them off while she was working. Yuichi wasn’t sure why she wore the glasses, which appeared to be strictly for fashion purposes.

Above her head was the label “Real.”

Huh? Yuichi hesitated.

Normally, Tomomi’s label was “Fake,” and this had never changed in all the time he’d known her.

When he looked a bit closer, he noticed that she seemed restless and troubled somehow. And when he looked her over more closely, he sensed that her aura seemed a bit different from the Tomomi he usually saw in class. In other words, she was a different person.

Yuichi looked at Aiko. Aiko looked back at him with an uncomfortable frown.

“W-Welcome!” Tomomi called out, her voice slightly shrill. The voice itself was the same, but the tone was completely different.

Yuichi sat down next to Aiko.

“Sakaki! Doesn’t Tomomi seem weird somehow?” Aiko asked him immediately. She looked like she desperately wanted to talk to someone about it.

It was true that Monika didn’t know Tomomi very well, so she probably wasn’t well suited to talk to about it.

“Definitely weird,” said Yuichi. “Actually, I think she’s a totally different person from the one we usually talk to.”

“I think you’re right... but she looks just like her, doesn’t she?” Aiko asked.

“Yeah. Appearance-wise, they’re identical. Her body is just like it was when we saw her yesterday.”

“Her body... have you been staring at her, Sakaki?!” Aiko’s expression suggested he was looking at her in some improper way.

“I wasn’t staring!” Yuichi retorted. “She just puts herself in my line of sight, that’s all.”

“Well, fine. But why has she changed? Did the real Tomomi go off somewhere?”

“Well... this might complicate things, but the label on the Hamasaki we usually see is ‘Fake.’ The one standing here right now has the label ‘Real.’” It had occurred to him that if there was a fake, there must be a real one. Of course, he’d only ever seen the fake, so he’d never thought he’d end up meeting the real one at this point.

“Hey! Would you two knock off the insider chat already?” Monika seemed angry that she was being ignored now. “Yuichi, you said you called us here because you had something to talk about!”

“We’re trying to work out a mystery, but I guess it’s not that important right now,” Yuichi said. It was true that the presence of the “real” Tomomi wasn’t actually relevant to the subject at hand.

He decided he would just ask her about it later, and was about to move on, when he saw it: the “Fake” label.

Another Tomomi had appeared.

Nihao the China was a two-story building. The first floor was a store, while the second floor was their living space. The fake Tomomi was walking down the stairs from the second floor.

“Huh? Two Tomomis?” Aiko was openly surprised.

Wearing the same cheongsam, their hair in buns, they really were perfectly identical.

The fake Tomomi walked up to the real one and whispered something to her. The real one nodded in response and headed up to the second floor in her place.

“Um... do you have a... twin sister, Tomomi?” Aiko asked without hiding her surprise. That did seem to be the rational explanation.

“Oh, no, I don’t!” Tomomi said. “So, thanks for coming! What’ll you have?”

It was plainly suspicious, but Yuichi didn’t press the issue. He’d had plenty of chances to ask about the “Fake” label in the past. If he finally asked now, he’d feel like he’d lost some sort of battle. “I’ll have soy sauce ramen.”

“You’re not gonna ask? We were being really obvious about it...” Tomomi said, a little irritated.

“Because I’m pretty sure the story’s gonna be complicated, and I’m in no mood to get mixed up in it!”

“Tsk!” Tomomi clicked her tongue, behavior unbecoming of service staff.

“Besides, aren’t you trying to hide it? You shouldn’t try to be obvious about it...”

“I guess not,” she said. “If you’d asked, I was gonna put on airs about it, though.”

Yuichi winced in response to Tomomi’s frank words. It didn’t especially matter to him if Tomomi was a “fake,” anyway. If she was ever in trouble, then he’d be happy to help her, regardless.

Of course, I doubt she’d ever be willing to ask for help...

Aiko and Monika put in their orders, and Tomomi went to the kitchen to convey them.

“So, what was it?” Aiko asked, stunned.

“I’m not interested in asking. Noro, do you want to ask next time?”

“Hmm...”

“Hey, how long are you going to drag this out?” Monika said in annoyance, as if she’d finally snapped.

Yuichi had called Monika here because he had something to talk about. He’d told her most of it on the phone, but he’d wanted to reveal the details face to face.

“Sorry,” he said. “The first thing I wanted to say is that there was a resonance, like I told you on the phone.”

“Yeah,” she said. “No one seemed to come after me, though.”

Monika was hiding in the oni settlement for protection. He’d called her to tell her to be on her guard, but it seemed nothing had happened.

“Well, I’m glad to hear that, but you shouldn’t stay in the same place for too long,” he said. It was possible they’d found where she was living. Part of Divine Vessels War strategy was to move somewhere else after each resonance.

“Yeah,” she said. “It seems the oni people have a few different hideouts, so they’ll move me to another of them. What else did you learn?”

“There were two Divine Vessel hosts close to the school. That’s about all. The resonance died down after a few minutes, so I guess something got settled somewhere.”

Resonance took place between all Divine Vessels. Generally, hosts could use that as a guide to search out fellow hosts and fight. Any time something was settled between any two parties, the resonance would die down for a while.

“So me and Dannoura decided to explore the place those two seemed to have been,” Yuichi said.

Naturally, the Divine Vessel hosts might not be there anymore, but they still couldn’t just bring non-combatants along. That was why the two of them had gone there alone.

The site had been the pedestrian walkway about halfway between the school and the station. There had been clear signs of a fight there: the sign on a nearby building was bent inwards, and the tiles of the sidewalk were cracked.

The cracks in the tiles seemed to have been caused by someone stepping on them with great force, unleashing a strike powerful enough to send someone flying into a building.

“That was about all we learned,” said Yuichi. “We still didn’t know who had fought there, but then we saw this woman at the scene...”

“Serial God Killer” had been the label, and it had sent a genuine shock through Yuichi.

It had been an extremely disconcerting sight. Yuichi had watched the woman closely, wondering who she was.

She’d worn the uniform of a certain famous bank, and had been quite beautiful despite not wearing makeup. She had seemed to be searching for something, just as Yuichi was.

“Then we made eye contact...”

When they’d done that, for some reason, tears had fallen from the woman’s eyes. She’d turned her face away and then left quickly.

“And then you remembered?” Monika asked after a pause. The fact that she’d guessed what had happened suggested she had an idea who this woman was.

“I remembered the time I first met you, but I don’t know anything about what happened before or after,” Yuichi said. “So I need you to fill in the blanks. Now that I’ve remembered, you can do that without the whatsit ability’s restrictions holding you back, right?”

Yuichi was referring to Monika’s ability, “Distant Memories,” which came with her worldview, “A Hopelessly Romantic Little World.” It was the ability to erase memories, which she apparently used to make romances more interesting. As long as that ability was still functioning, even if someone explained the circumstances of his memory loss to him, he wouldn’t be able to understand it. Of course, the memories hadn’t actually disappeared, she had said at the time. They could be unlocked under the right conditions.

“Yeah, now that that’s done, I probably can explain,” she said. “And I probably should, too.”

Yuichi nodded. “At the time, I didn’t think anything of it, but now that I remember, I understand... That woman is one of the reasons I ended up with Soul Reader, right?”

“Which means she’s hanging out around here again, huh?” Monika groaned.

Just then, a slightly smooshed little white sphere appeared from above her shoulder, looking like a daifuku mochi with eyes and a mouth. “Long time no see, Yuichi!”

“Oh yeah, I forgot about you...” he muttered.

It was apparently an imaginary creature that was the personification of the debt that Monika owed Yuichi. It would exist until Monika paid back what she owed him... which meant that she hadn’t yet done so.

“Well, let’s talk about what happened that day!” the daifuku announced.

“Wait a minute! Why are you leading the conversation?” Yuichi shot back.

“The thought of letting Monika handle the explanation by herself makes me nervous,” the daifuku said. “I think she might leave out things she doesn’t want you to hear. I’m a neutral party, so don’t worry!”

“Well, okay. It’s just a little unsettling to remember getting attacked out of the blue, and not know why.”

Knowing the reason why now might not change anything, necessarily, but he thought it might be useful reference in his decisions hereafter.

Together, the daifuku and Monika began to describe what had happened over spring vacation.

✽✽✽✽✽

Monika Sakurazaki thought back to how it had all gotten started.

It was hard to tell exactly what the triggering event had been.

Maybe it had been when Monika became an Outer, or when she’d decided to start participating in their world. Maybe the beginning of it all was something far earlier. But this was the story about how Monika had gotten involved with Yuichi Sakaki, so perhaps it would be best to start with the events that had directly led to him ending up with Soul Reader.

In that case, the start of it all was a girl named Ende.

“You want to go back to normal?” Ende called out to Monika.

She was walking down a hallway made from bookshelves on her way out from a gathering that Ende had arranged.

How long had she been there? The girl named Ende, red-haired and wearing an old dress, was leaning against one of the shelves, a book in one hand.

The perfection of her timing sent a chill up Monika’s spine; that was one of the traits those monstrous Outers possessed that had caused her to get disgusted and try to slip out.

For a long time, she’d been shouting, “No more! I want to go back to normal!” in her mind.

“What? Did you just read my mind or something?” she asked as she stopped and glared at Ende.

Apparently Ende had the power to influence worlds, so it wouldn’t be surprising for her to have the power to read minds.

“Oh, no,” said Ende. “You should know very well that I can’t do that. We may be treated as gods, but we can’t do as much as everyone thinks. It’s just that it’s so obvious what you’re thinking. I know it from experience... This is your fifth year, isn’t it, Monika? It’s just about the time for you to start to waver.”

“Don’t talk to me like you understand!” Monika snapped. “I’m fed up! Fed up with you guys, who don’t think of people as people, and with myself, for getting used to it! The thought that I might start becoming like you... an inhuman monster! A miscreant!”

The meetings Ende held didn’t have any particular agenda behind them, but they had naturally turned into participants telling stories of the worlds they’d gotten involved in and influenced.

“Yeah,” said Ende. “So you didn’t like that particular story, huh? But that kind of thing is popular lately, you know? Having allies die off one by one just like that. It might not seem fair, but it also includes foreshadowing that makes it necessary to solve the puzzle. It’s got lots of impact. Of course, personally, I think it gets boring if that’s all you do. Makina in particular likes to push for the bad end even if it means a loss of story cohesiveness... Although personally, I find it monotonous and predictable.”

It was an unsettling thing to say, and it made Monika want to clamp her hands over her ears. The way they told each other those stories so gleefully...

“How... how can you talk like that? These aren’t characters in a story that you’re killing! They’re real people who are just trying to live in peace! They’d be able to live long and happy lives if you people didn’t interfere!”

“Well, that’s the road everyone goes down,” said Ende, brushing off Monika’s anger. “But you get used to it, in a way. It becomes the only enjoyment you have. You should take a more objective view of the world. We’re bystanders. We should just enjoy the stories.”

Ende showed no signs of caring about what she had to say. Monika began to feel like she was speaking to a being from another dimension. Then again, perhaps they really were beings from another dimension... and Monika was starting to take her first steps down that road, as well.

“So? What do you want?” Monika demanded. “You can’t have come here to tell me that.”

She couldn’t imagine Ende would object so strongly to her sneaking out of the meeting. There must have been another reason.

“Normally I’d just leave you be... you’ll give in soon enough, either way. But I just happened to find this...” Ende tossed the book she was reading to Monika.

Monika always found it strange that Ende was so careless with her books. She caught the book and looked it over carefully. It was trade paperback size, and the cover was blank.

“What is this?”

“It’s a silly little story about a low-born girl named Wakana Morishita who falls in love with a prince-like rich boy. At least, it was supposed to be...”

“Wakana...” The mention of the name caused Monika to hesitate. Why did Ende know it? It was the name of the best friend Monika couldn’t forget, no matter how hard she tried.

“You’d know this if you read it, but she has a best friend named Monika Sakurazaki,” said Ende. “Around the time Wakana enters fifth grade, though, Monika stops appearing. She didn’t die, or disappear, or transfer schools... she just stops appearing. Of course, I’m sure you know the reason why. It’s because you were ejected from your world.”

“So what?!” Monika snapped.

One day, when she was in fifth grade, Monika had been abruptly ejected from her world. It had happened suddenly, without forewarning. All of a sudden, her parents and her friends had stopped acknowledging her existence.

It wasn’t that she’d been invisible; she’d been able to speak to them and interact with them. But they would treat her like a total stranger. If she introduced herself as Monika Sakurazaki, they would call her that, but their fundamental relationships would have changed.

“‘A Hopelessly Romantic Little World.’ That’s the name of the world you came from,” Ende said.

Ende gave names to the various worlds she had discovered. As far as Monika knew, Ende was the oldest of them, so almost nobody ever quarreled with her about her naming sense.

All worlds were governed by rules, which they referred to as “worldviews.” The embodiment of a worldview was known as a Worldview Holder, the person who dictated the direction of that world. Monika now knew that she was one of these special people. But it was realizing that, and realizing the ways in which she could actively manipulate her world, that had resulted in her ejection from it.

“That’s just the name you gave it, isn’t it?” Monika said.

“It’s a bittersweet story set in the modern day, a tale of ordinary girls and boys...” Ende wasn’t interested in listening to Monika’s pain. She was just saying what she wanted to say. “Thanks to your loss of influence there, the story has started to go a bit off the rails. Wakana Morishita is now 15 years old. She’ll be starting high school next month, but the environment around her has been growing exponentially more dangerous. The rich boy has disappeared, and the ones now in love with Wakana are twelve psychopaths.”

“What?!” The shocking development left Monika dumbstruck.

“See, I was hoping to enjoy Wakana’s sweet love affair as a comforting palate-cleanser,” said Ende. “Like I said before, there have been too many blood-and-guts stories lately. I’d like to enjoy the story as it was originally meant to be. But at this rate, Wakana... well, they’re in love with her, so I’m sure they won’t kill her immediately...”

Monika wasn’t listening to Ende at all. The only thing she could think about was that she had to save Wakana, somehow. But nothing was coming to mind. Her thoughts just kept racing in circles.

Being thrown out of the world she was associated with allowed her to exert influence on other worlds, but it meant that she couldn’t influence her old world in any way. Maybe she could ask the others for help, but she doubted that those monsters who didn’t think of people as people would really want to save Wakana.

“...So the only way is to put you back to normal,” Ende finished. “And that’s why I addressed you.”

“Is this supposed to be a joke?” Monika snapped. “There’s no way for me to go back to normal!”

“Oh, but there is,” Ende countered lightly.

“Then why don’t you people use it?!”

“Well, it’s like you said before. We’ve all become beings who take pleasure from peering in on other worlds and tinkering with them. The thought of going back to the way things were before, living out our lives as mere characters in a story, is not exactly appealing.”

“Can’t you save Wakana yourself?” Monika demanded. If she wanted to see how the story was supposed to unfold, then maybe Ende could do it. Monika wondered why she’d had to talk to her about it at all.

“I’m not great with romance. I doubt sticking my hand into the situation would improve it at all,” Ende said with theatrical defeatism.

“So... how do I go back to normal? You’re the ones who told me that once you’re thrust out of destiny, you can never return!” Monika said heatedly.

That was what she’d been told, and why she was so suspicious of Ende’s talk about being able to go back now. At the same time, those words were her only hope.

“You’ve been driven out of your world,” said Ende. “You can’t return to your world. You can’t influence your own world... That’s the way it is, but there’s no reason that’s how it has to be. You are driven out from the world, but what you’ve been driven out into is just another world governed by different logic. You could say that the world we exist in now just exists on a meta level above our original worlds. But are the rules that govern us absolute? Might there be a rule that would let us influence our original worlds again?”

“You said before that there was a way, right? Stop putting on airs!”

“Aren’t you impatient? Ah, well...” Ende said with a shrug, then approached Monika. She took Monika’s hand and pressed something into it.

“What?” Monika looked at the object in her hand.

It was an eyeball.

“Eek!” Monika nearly threw it away reflexively.

“Hey! Don’t drop that. It’s pretty valuable. It’s probably not that easy to damage, but just in case, you know?”

“What is this thing?!” Monika shrieked.

“The Evil God’s eye. Well, the Evil God is just a name I give it... just imagine it as being a sort of nebulously bad entity. It’s your ticket to participate in the story of the Evil God, where the winner gets a wish. I’m giving it to you.”

Monika looked at the eyeball in surprise. Now that she mentioned it, it did look rather sinister, but it also looked artificial.

Right Eye of the Evil God (Eye of Red Cords)

Potential: B+

Description: Part of the Evil God’s body, also known as a Divine Vessel.

The host it possesses will be able to visualize the romantic connections of anyone they look at in the form of red lines.

Divine Vessels resonate with each other at odd intervals, telling their hosts the general location of the other Divine Vessels.

To become its host, you must press it into your own eye.

The vessel will be released if you lose a battle to another vessel host.

“Uh oh! You observed it, huh?” Ende said, again theatrically.

“Observing” was one power of an Outer’s eyes; they had the ability to see the roles that people and things held within their own worldview.

“What do you mean?” Monika asked suspiciously.

Ende had clearly held back on purpose. When looking at something suspicious, any Outer would unconsciously use the power of their eyes.

“Its power was determined the moment you observed it,” said Ende.

“Why didn’t you tell me that from the start?!”

“Well, I think it’s fine. It’s interesting in its own way, isn’t it?”

Eyes of Red Cords. Given its description, it must have been influenced by Monika’s worldview, “A Hopelessly Romantic Little World.” If she’d known that in advance, she would have picked a more useful ability. As it was now, it was effectively useless. Ende seemed to be doing what she did out of spite, or at least to surprise her.

“So, can making a wish really put me back to normal?” Monika asked, after recovering her calm.

“What do you think?”

Monika was getting fed up with Ende’s cryptic lack of answers. What was the point of saying all this if that wasn’t the case?

“I mean, no one’s ever tried it,” said Ende. “But it seems possible, doesn’t it? If it’s true that it can grant any wish, it should be able to grant a wish to turn you back to normal. If you can outmaneuver all the other participants and the Evil God himself, you can get your wish granted... though of course, that’s easier said than done.”

Ende smiled innocently.

Monika couldn’t help but think that she didn’t care about Wakana at all.

✽✽✽✽✽

Several days had passed since Monika had acquired the Evil God’s right eye.

She was starting to get desperate.

At the end of spring vacation, Wakana Morishita would be entering high school. She had to do something before that happened.

Wakana’s destiny was on hold for now, but when she entered high school, it would start moving again.

Apparently there would be twelve psychopaths attending Wakana’s new high school. Wakana’s world was about to change from a love story to a psycho thriller.

Monika wanted to save Wakana. To do that, she had to get her back to her original world, and put her best friend’s destiny back on track.

Even if she could do something about the guys coming after Wakana, if the world Wakana was involved in had fundamentally changed, someone else still might come after her.

Besides, an Outer could not interfere in their own original world in any way. She could get someone else to act as an intermediary, but there was no guarantee that that would work out. Therefore, she had no choice but to assemble the Divine Vessels to make that wish.

As a host to one of the Evil God’s body parts, she could use the resonance to hunt down the other parts. When all the parts came to dwell within one person, the Evil God would be revived, and then he would grant that person’s wish. That was what Ende had told her, at least.

Of course, Evil God is just something we call him for expedience, Ende had explained. In actuality, he’s a Worldview Holder with a powerful influence. If we let him roam free, he might destroy the world. And miscreants though we may be, we can’t let the world itself and the intelligent beings who live there be destroyed. We want to enjoy the world and the stories within it. That means we are, in essence, fundamentally opposed to the Evil God. So apparently, a long time ago, we all worked together to destroy the Evil God, but someone decided it would be a shame to eliminate his power entirely. Letting him revive partly or fully every now and then, to rampage and then get defeated again... it adds a little spice to life, don’t you think?

Her words had made it all the more clear that neither the Evil God nor the Outers were anyone she wanted to associate with.

In other words, they had orchestrated the entire thing. Outers loved stories about worlds getting destroyed.

But no matter how rotten the story behind it might be, it was Monika’s only option.

She had a vague feeling that Ende was manipulating her, but she couldn’t think of any other way to do what she needed to. So Monika went out into town, searching for someone to be a host to a Divine Vessel.

Ende and her fellow Outers likened the rules that governed worlds to stories. Monika could think about things that way too, and like all Outers, she had the ability to view trends in stories and identify roles and key items. She did this via an ability that Mutsuko Sakaki would later call Soul Reader, though at this point in time it was just a basic ability all Outers had, and no one had given it a name.

At this time, Monika’s eyes could still see labels. They hovered over a person’s head and explained their role in their affiliated story.

Things like “High School Student” “Office Worker” or “Housewife” didn’t mean much. Those labels meant that they didn’t play any significant role in their story.

These ordinary people — these “extras” — were out of bounds. She had to find someone special instead, but this was proving difficult.

The first issue was getting others to believe her story, although this had proven surprisingly simple.

Many of those she had talked to had already known the story about Divine Vessels, and those that didn’t had readily believed in the idea of getting a wish granted. The problem lay in the compensation that Monika could offer them.

Only one wish could be granted, and Monika intended to use that wish herself, which meant there was nothing in it for the host. Monika wasn’t good at lying, so she hadn’t been able to spin the offer in a convincing way.

Monika had certain powers as an Outer, but those were limited to helping people in love. It was possible there was someone out there who would risk their life to get a bit closer to someone they cared about, but so far, none of the people she had talked to were terribly passionate romantics.

That meant all that Monika had to offer was the Divine Vessel itself.

It was the Evil God’s right eye, also known as the Eye of Red Cords. It offered its host the ability to see threads of romantic destiny, the result of the eye being influenced by Monika’s powers the moment she had “observed” it.

Who would even want this ability? she thought.

It would be hard for her to ask someone to go into combat under these conditions.

That left only combat junkies interested in the fight itself as an option, but she had yet to meet anyone like that. Every negotiation Monika had tried so far had ended in failure.

I need to figure out something...

Panicked and restless, she was walking her patrol of the city around noon.

It would have looked suspicious for an apparent elementary school student like Monika to be wandering around in public during the day, but fortunately, Outers were fundamentally inconspicuous.

Unfortunately, few of the sorts of powerful beings that could be of use to Monika would be just wandering around in public during the day, either.

Perhaps she needed a more efficient way of searching.

Maybe I should go somewhere a little shiftier...

Walking around at night might increase her chances, and she could try visiting the sorts of abandoned buildings and graveyards where yokai and monsters tended to lurk. But there was a simple reason she hadn’t gone to places like that already: she was scared.

Her Outer status made her effectively impossible to kill, but she still only had the life experience of a fifth grader. No matter how mature she might claim to be, she remained childish in many ways.

Okay! If today proves to be a bust, I’ll expand my range tomorrow...

Just as Monika was coming to her decision, her eyes fell upon a label.

“Serial God Killer.”

It was a label she’d never seen before. She decided to investigate further.

“Serial God Killer” seemed to be a young woman dressed in the uniform of an employee of a prestigious bank. Her uniform was unadorned and her makeup was natural. Her hair was tied into a prim ponytail. It was probably the way bank employees usually dressed, but her plain mode of dress couldn’t hide the bewitching aura behind it.

It was around noon, so Monika assumed she must be out for lunch. Since there was no bank in the direction she was heading, she must not have eaten yet.

Monika tailed the Serial God Killer, keeping her distance as she pondered how best to approach her. She shouldn’t just address the woman on the street. She still looked like a child, after all, and the woman might just brush her off if she tried.

Which meant she’d just have to wait for her to arrive at her destination. Then she could sit down and focus her energies on trying to convince her.

There was no particular reason to be fixated on this woman. It was just that she hadn’t found any other suitable person to deal with, and if this woman killed gods, Monika assumed she must be strong. The thought of whether or not she could control her hadn’t even entered her mind.

If the woman said no, she’d just ask someone else, and as an Outer, Monika was nearly unkillable. No matter how strong this woman was, she could probably get away from her.

Besides, unlike the yokai and monsters who inhabited the world’s darker half, this woman seemed to have integrated into human society. That might make her more likely to listen.

The woman she was tailing eventually turned onto a side street. She turned again and again through the winding alleys until they wound up at a cul-de-sac.

Maybe this was a mistake... Monika wondered if she’d been led into a trap.

While she stewed over whether or not to run away, the woman kept walking forward, eventually descending a staircase at the end of the street.

Monika walked up to the staircase and peered down it. The woman was gone.

There was a door at the bottom of the staircase — a cafe, judging by the sign.

“Well, no point in turning back now...” Monika steeled her nerve and began to descend.

The cafe had dim lighting and a dingy sort of feel to it. It didn’t seem like the sort of place where a bank employee would eat lunch.

Just inside the entrance was a corridor that extended straight in front of her. To her left was bar seating. The kitchen lay beyond. Across from it, to her right, were five tables with seats.

The Serial God Killer woman was the cafe’s only customer, sitting at the rearmost table. The only other person there was an old man dressed in an apron who was standing behind the counter.

The label above the apparent barkeep’s head read “Serial Killer,” suggesting that the two likely knew each other. Serial God Killer and Serial Killer — it would be odd for such similar labels to end up in the same place purely by coincidence.

Maybe it really was a trap.

Despite that, though, Monika remained fairly calm. She really wasn’t very worried about the chance that they might hurt her. To put it simply, Outers were extremely lucky. They tended not to end up in situations that might prove fatal.

The woman and the old man looked at Monika standing in the entrance. But of course, a young girl coming alone to a seedy old cafe in the back alleys would attract attention.

“Welcome,” the man said softly, as if nothing at all were amiss.

“Did you want something from me?” the woman asked. “Please, do stop standing there and come over.”

It was a reasonable request; Monika had tailed her into the deserted back alleys, after all. She had been trying to be inconspicuous, but perhaps the woman had known she was there from the start.

Despite all of her preparation, though, Monika hadn’t actually thought through what she should do when they finally met. At the same time, she also couldn’t just remain standing there forever. Monika walked up to the woman’s table and took a seat across from her.

“All right,” the woman said. “I have to say, I found this all quite strange. I couldn’t think of any reason why a little girl like you might be following me.” The woman had her head tilted in an elegant way. She probably found it genuinely baffling.

Most people wouldn’t know she was a “Serial God Killer,” and even if they did, it would probably be hard to imagine anyone going out of their way to address someone so dangerous.

“I want you to join me,” Monika said.

She decided to charge right into the main subject. It was all about impact. If she could pique her interest from the start, that might make everything go more smoothly.

Snip.

There was a sudden sound near Monika’s ear. The woman was leaning over the table, her right hand close to Monika’s head. Monika hadn’t even seen her move. One moment the woman was sitting back; the next moment she was right beside her.

Monika slowly turned her head.

There was a pair of sewing shears in the woman’s hand, closed.

A moment later, Monika’s heart began to pound.

She couldn’t die. She knew that, but it was hard to remain calm while on the receiving end of this sort of open threat.

“Oh? I missed.” The woman looked genuinely surprised. “I wonder why...”

She hadn’t missed on purpose, then. She seemed extremely perplexed about the result, which suggested she had tremendous confidence in her skills.

There had been no room for discussion; this woman had tried to kill Monika right off the bat, acting with a terrifying degree of decisiveness.

“Th-That was pretty out of nowhere. But it won’t work, you know!” Monika said loudly, to try to cover the trembling in her voice.

“You see, there were all these questions going through my mind,” the woman said. “Why would an elementary school girl be following me? Why would she want me to join her? What benefit would it be to me? Did she know these are my hunting grounds? Does she know I’m a killer? Is she in the same profession? It was growing tiresome, so I decided I’d just kill you. Then I wouldn’t have to think about it anymore.”

“Didn’t you consider any of the consequences, ma’am?” Monika was starting to think she’d acted too hastily. There was no way she could keep such a short-tempered partner in line. Though decisiveness and speed like that could come in handy...

People could die in the Divine Vessels War. The event’s bloodthirsty nature demanded a strong playing piece.

To save Wakana, she’d have to look the other way about some terrible things. Monika decided to force herself to accept that.

“Don’t worry about that,” the woman said dismissively. “This area is my hunting grounds; I can dispose of a corpse or two easily enough. The fact that you called me ‘ma’am’ is making me want to kill you even more, but it seems that won’t be very easy, so I suppose I’ll hear you out.” The woman sat back in her seat.

Monika rubbed her chest to calm herself down. “Ma’am, are you human?”

“That’s a good question. I’m certainly called inhuman often enough.” Her words suggested that she was human.

“Okay, I’ll explain everything,” Monika said. “But will you please hear me out to the end? No trying to kill me halfway through?”

“Your name.”

“Huh?”

“Mine is Aki Takizawa. And yours?”

“Monika Sakurazaki.”

“All right, Monika dear. I’ll hear you out. But as you can see, I’m a bit impatient. Keep it brief.”

Monika found her more than a bit impatient, but she decided to keep that opinion to herself. She didn’t know what else she might try. “I’m a being that exists outside of destiny. Attacks from people who exist within destiny, like you, won’t hurt me. People like me can also see information about people who exist within destiny. That’s how I knew you were a Serial God Killer.”

“I’d like to dismiss you as just a crazy girl, but my attacks genuinely don’t work on you, so I’ll trust you there,” said the woman. “So, what would I get out of joining you?”

“I’ve been thinking about taking part in a game, and I need a piece to act on my behalf. As for what you get out of it... whoever wins this game will gain tremendous power. You’ll get a part of that, and I’d also be in a position to guarantee you a happy and full life. In addition—” Monika was hesitant to tell her about the wish, so instead, she was keeping it vague. Observing love connections could be helpful, and it wasn’t a lie to say that it might help you lead a happy life.

“A happy and full life? What does that include, exactly?” Aki seemed absolutely baffled by the concept.

“Well, you’d be able to marry a good man, have children, live comfortably, and die with contentment... more or less?” Monika said hesitantly. She could manipulate destiny to a certain degree even without the Evil God’s help, after all.

While Monika was thinking about that, a quiet smile appeared on Aki’s face.

Huh?! Monika suddenly realized she had misunderstood something.

“Marrying, having children, and living out a comfortable life... you call that happiness?!” Aki suddenly cried out, and Monika felt a chill rush down her spine.

It was a little frightening; she had no idea what she had done wrong.

“Huh? Why are you so mad?” Monika stuttered. “You don’t want a comfortable and happy family life?”

The woman shook her head. She didn’t seem terribly angry, but her expression was that of someone dealing with an unbelievably stupid child. “All right. I dislike misunderstandings, so allow me to explain. Happiness, to me... must be built on the happiness of others.”

“Um... you mean like, ‘If you’re happy, I’m happy’?” Monika was a bit surprised. This woman certainly didn’t seem like the deeply empathetic type.

The woman instantly dashed that. “Isn’t tormenting happy people just the most ecstatic feeling?”

“Oh, I see. People’s unhappiness is like ambrosia to you.” In her shock, Monika found herself resorting to politeness.

“You knew I killed people, didn’t you?” the woman asked. “But I particularly specialize in people who look happy. Flirting couples are a particular specialty of mine.”

“Um, my sight told me you were a Serial God Killer, so I assumed you only killed gods...”

“If I saw gods flirting, I’d kill them, too.”

If gods were flirting, she’d kill them. Monika suddenly realized she was dealing with a “normie” killer.

“You can’t be jealous, though, right?” Monika asked. “You’re beautiful. You could get any man you wanted.”

“Happiness is like a balloon. I’m the kind of person who delights in popping balloons. Happiness breaks so easily, after all. Why would I seek out something so fleeting? Why should I be dependent on something so easily destroyed?”

Her system of values was clearly an alien one. Monika was starting to think this wouldn’t work at all. It was hard to see how she could ever get along with someone like this.

“Um, maybe we really should just—” —call this off, she tried to say, but Aki interrupted.

“Earlier, you suggested that I would get something else out of this.”

“No, it was really nothing...” Monika tried to defer and leave, but Aki wouldn’t be dissuaded.

“I’ll be the judge of that.” It felt like the woman had taken total control of the conversation at this point.

Well, if she still wants to hear me out... Monika decided to continue.

“In order to participate in the game, you’ll need to become a host to a thing called a Divine Vessel. It’ll let you use a certain superpower, though the one I have to offer isn’t very good...”

“A superpower? If it would let me explode people’s heads with a thought, or set them on fire, I’d love it.”

Monika didn’t even want to think about how she intended to use such things. Even if she did have a power like that, she would never give it to someone like her. “It’s not like that. It’s called magic sight. The only ability I can give you is the ability to see red cords.”

Red cords: threads that indicated that two people would be together in the future. The magic sight had, for some reason, morphed into that ability.

“Oh? If that’s what it is, I’ll happily work with you. That’s all the reward I want, as well.”

Monika was shocked by Aki’s assent. “Maybe I shouldn’t say this, but it’s really not that impressive. Magic sight generally doesn’t let you see stuff about yourself, so you wouldn’t be able to see who you’re tied to...”

“I’m telling you, I don’t mind. Go ahead and hand it over.” Aki held out her hand expectantly.

“Huh?” Monika said. “Don’t you want to hear what kind of game it is, or what the conditions are? Accepting the magic sight means you’re participating in the game...”

Despite the woman’s enthusiasm, Monika found herself balking. Was it really okay to take this woman as her ally? Could she really trust her? If she couldn’t, could she find a way to make use of her?

That’s right. There’s no point in having someone innocent on my side.

Monika had to get all the Divine Vessels and have her wish granted, no matter what. She steeled herself and handed the Evil God’s right eye to Aki. “Just push it into your eye.”

Without hesitation, Aki took possession of the Evil God’s right eye.

“I’m surprised by how easily you took it... I mean, you believe the whole story?”

“I can’t see anything,” Aki said, looking at Monika while failing to answer her question.

“Of course you can’t. You can’t see your own red cords, and since I exist outside of destiny, I don’t have any.”

Upon hearing that, Aki looked past Monika to the corridor. “I see. The barkeeper does have them.” The old man who manned the bar had just arrived at their table with coffee, which Aki must have ordered before Monika arrived. “Hey, barkeep. Could you stay right there a moment?”

The barkeeper faithfully did as he was told. Aki whipped her scissors forward.

Snip.

The scissors sliced through thin air.

“What did you do?”

“Hmm? Oh, I just wanted to try something. It seems I can cut the red cords.”

“Hey! What are you trying to—” But her next movement was once again too swift for Monika’s eyes to follow.

There was another snip, and then pain.

Monika clamped a hand to her ear. The slimy sensation sent a chill down her spine.

Her ear had been cut open. Monika sat where she was, dumbfounded.

There was blood dripping down her neck.

Chapter 4: Let’s Finally Talk About Yuichi’s Spring Vacation

“How...” Monika cut off.

Aki shouldn’t have been able to hurt her, yet she clearly had.

The scissors were next to her ear, trembling from effort. Normally a weapon like that would break when used against an Outer, but these held their form.

“I’m sorry, Monika dear. I’m the type to lie for no good reason... I actually knew all about Outers and the Evil God and the Divine Vessel War.”

Monika’s eyes opened wide. So she really had been lured into a trap.

“Oh, and don’t think I missed the first time on purpose. It’s just that I need to try a few times before I finally hit. What did you think a God Killer was? Oh, or are you wondering why my scissors are still intact? That’s simple. I’m extremely good at wielding my scissors. They’re like an extension of my body.”

Monika sat there, dumbstruck. It was true that Outers were generally thought of as gods... so she was an Outer Killer, then? And that meant she could harm Monika...

Monika sprung out of her seat and went running.

The scissors whisked against her shoulder.

It wasn’t enough to kill her yet, but enough scratches like these would eventually take a toll.

The barkeeper — the old “Serial Killer” — moved to block her path.

“Forget!”

Monika invoked her Outer ability “Distant Memories,” the power to make others forget that they had met.

The ability had a number of restrictions, but it worked in this case. She had only just met the barkeeper today, in this cafe, which meant he would lose all memory of Monika ever arriving there.

The barkeeper stopped, confused by the sight of an unknown girl suddenly appearing before him. With him standing stock still, Monika could slip past him and run for the exit.

She climbed up the stairs and looked back. Aki wasn’t pursuing.

Monika took off into a run, trying to escape the back streets, but she suddenly tripped and fell onto her backside.

For a moment, she thought she’d just lost her balance in her haste, but then she felt a tug on her right arm and went pale.

“So sorry,” the woman said tauntingly. “I fastened a red cord to you before...”

It should have been impossible. The magical sight shouldn’t have that ability. Yet Aki was slowly climbing the stairway, her hand winding coquettishly as if playing with something.

“Wh-Who are you?! Why are you doing this?” Monika stammered.

“I’m just your average, garden variety killer... or God Killer, perhaps? But these eyes you gave me are just so useful. Originally I’d just thought they would help me to find flirting couples, but they seem to have so many other uses...”

Aki could cut the red cords, tie them, and pull on them. It was unbelievable, yet it was clearly true. Monika would have to take that into account with anything else she tried.

That meant she couldn’t just run away. As long as Aki had her hands on that cord, Monika was stuck.

That meant she had to create an opening. She had to make her forget, like she had done to the man in the coffee shop.

Without any time to concentrate, Monika could only steal a few minutes’ worth of memories from her — but that would be enough. A few minutes’ worth of memories would be enough to disorient her, at least.

“Forget!” She turned her bound right arm towards Aki and shouted.

Snip.

Aki sliced the scissors through the air once more.

“Oh, so sorry... I saw that before, you see.”

“Huh?” Monika stared in disbelief. All she could think was that she had cut “Distant Memories” itself.

“I’m sure you have a lot of questions right now, but we can finish that discussion in the coffee shop,” the woman smiled. “These alleys are my hunting grounds, so I could finish you off easily enough right here, but the disposal can be such a pain. Inside, I can break or spill whatever I want, without causing any trouble at all...” Aki laughed merrily.

Monika was slowly being dragged toward her by the invisible cord. She tried desperately to pull herself away, but she couldn’t. “I don’t understand! What’s going on here?”

“I thought, if I could see them, then naturally I could cut them. And if I could cut them, it was rational to imagine I could tie them, right? It’s so important to have common sense, you see...”

Monika grabbed onto an outdoor air conditioning unit affixed to the ground. Aki wasn’t especially strong, so she couldn’t pull her like this, but that didn’t actually solve the problem.

“You know that won’t do you any good, don’t you?” Aki walked closer.

Monika decided to use her last resort.

“Help me!” she screamed.

Monika’s scream echoed throughout the alleyways. But that was all.

The alleys were usually deserted anyway, and they were deep inside them... No matter how loudly she screamed here, it was certain that no one would hear her.

“Oh, I love it... the desperate screams of a brat who believed in her absolute superiority, and tried to hustle me into an uneven deal!” Aki shouted rapturously. “Still, it isn’t quite perfect... Not really my specialty. You’re not particularly happy, are you? You seem quite frazzled and miserable, in fact... which means that killing you will be no more than a minor diversion. Oh, and I’ve cleared everyone from the area, so no one will come save you. Scream as much as you like, all right?”

Aki continued talking as she slowly approached, perhaps hoping to fan the flames of her terror.

Aki could act this way because of her certainty that no help was coming. It was this leisurely overconfidence that would be Monika’s salvation.

As if Monika’s prayers had been answered, she heard a girl’s voice coming from around the corner. “Huh? I was sure this would take us all the way through...”

It was followed by a boy’s. “Yori, I told you there was no way we could get to the station area from here.”

“You think? But at least this way we can be all alone—”

A girl and boy, arm in arm, came around the corner. Above the girl’s head was the label “Yori,” and above the boy’s head was the label “Yu.”

“Tsk!” The girl clicked her tongue as she laid eyes on the two of them.

“What’s going on here?” the boy asked in surprise.

“Did you do something, dearie?” Aki asked, looking at Monika in suspicion. She must have been sure that no one would be here.

“‘Save Me, My Prince.’ It’s my most powerful ability!” Monika told her. It twisted their surroundings as well as fate to make sure that someone would conveniently arrive to save her in time. It was a true last resort.

She’d heard it came with a high price, but Monika wasn’t worried. Whatever happened would surely be better than dying.

“Hmm, well, the interruption is irrelevant... and she does look quite happy.” Aki looked at the newly arriving girl and licked her lips, seeming to forget about Monika entirely. “Yes, yes... perhaps I’ll smash up her boyfriend a little bit first. Yes, that sounds just wonderful!”

Aki laughed merrily, and Monika didn’t want to know what she was thinking. But their reaction to hearing the God Killer’s wicked intentions was contrary to what she would expect.

“See? She called you my boyfriend! I wonder if we really look like a couple!” Yori cried.

“I’m sure we don’t,” Yu responded.

The girl was smiling happily, while the boy seemed to be wincing.

Aki seemed to interpret their reactions as a simple inability to grasp the situation they were in. She disappeared.

The next instant, she was hanging in midair, the boy’s foot planted smack in her jaw.

Monika had no idea what had just happened.

He’d shown no signs of preparation for the kick; the next thing she knew, his leg was over his head. It was like time-lapse photography.

Later, Monika would sort out events as such:

Aki had charged at the boy faster than the eye could see, just as she had done with Monika. She arrived in front of him at supernatural speed, then leaped to the side, kicked off the wall of a building, and thrust her scissors at him from midair. Then, the boy had counterattacked.

“Who’s this lady?” the boy asked in puzzlement as he watched Aki topple over, unconscious.

✽✽✽✽✽

Now that Yuichi had finally appeared in the story, Monika took a brief pause in the telling.

“Sakaki... even without Soul Reader, you still beat up a Serial Killer?” Aiko said with a sigh.

“Well, sure... but she attacked me out of nowhere,” Yuichi responded. “Was I not supposed to fight back?”

“I could barely believe my eyes, too,” Monika said. “I had no idea what had just happened. Yuichi, could you really see her move?”

“Look, there’s no way I’m not gonna see someone charging at me at full tilt...” he said.

“I couldn’t see it,” Monika cried. “There was no way you could!”

Yuichi shrugged. Since she was a woman, he’d held back just a bit, using just enough power to jostle her brainpan rather than breaking her jaw outright. He could only have done that if he’d been able to predict her every movement.

“But that can’t be the end of the story, right?” he said. “I remember coming there with Yori, kicking a strange woman out of the air, then carrying you away. But I don’t see how that leads to me ending up with Soul Reader.”

“It’s because Monika tried to do something underhanded, and she doesn’t want to say it outright,” the daifuku spoke up.

Monika glared at the interrupting daifuku. It had been chiming in here and there since the story started.

“I’ll tell, okay?” she said. “I’ll tell... just don’t get mad at me.”

“Did you do something that would get me mad?” he asked. “Fine, though. I won’t get mad about anything you say... I don’t think. I’ll try not to get mad, at least.”

“It’s okay, Monika,” Aiko assured her. “Sakaki’s not the kind of person to get really mad at a little girl.”

Monika seemed to take Aiko at her word, and continued the story grudgingly.

✽✽✽✽✽

The boy and girl ran up to the fallen Monika.

The boy crouched down and peered into her face, while the girl watched with slightly peevish expression.

“Are you okay?” the boy asked.

When Monika heard the boy’s voice, her first thought was to run away. Even though he was the one who had saved her, she didn’t want to bother explaining what was going on.

“Yeah, I’m just fine. Um, I ought to be going...” Monika stood up and was about to take her leave, when she suddenly staggered, dizzy on her feet. Her head was aching. At first she thought it was just the result of coming down from the adrenaline, but then she heard a voice.

Hey, are you trying to run off?

“Huh?” Monika looked at the boy and the girl. Neither showed any signs of having spoken; Aki was unconscious, too. She kept looking around, but nobody else was there.

Please don’t speak aloud. They’ll think you’re crazy. I live inside you, so if you want to speak with me, do it in your mind.

The boy and the girl were looking at Monika in concern. They didn’t seem to hear the voice. It was all completely in her own head.

Who...? What the heck are you? she asked in her mind, without speaking aloud.

It’s hard to describe it exactly. I’m basically a side effect of your “Save Me, My Prince” power. Use of this ability requires paying a price, and I’m the one who makes sure that happens.

What do you mean, a price? she demanded.

Um, look... you really should have died back there. The power to twist fate like that isn’t something that can be used without consequences. You’re basically just putting off the problem into the future.

Huh? Monika asked.

Using her abilities typically made her tired, so she had thought that it would this time, too. She’d thought that was all it would be. Since it was a major ability, she’d thought it might knock her unconsciousness at most; she’d never thought she would have to offer up anything more than that.

So what kind of price am I supposed to pay?

Well, he saved your life, so you should give up something just as valuable, the voice told her. Oh, and you’ll pay it to him, since he saved you.

But what should that be, exactly? And how do I pay it? And if you yelling at me is the worst that’ll happen, can’t I just skip it?

The voice was certainly irritating, but nothing more. The moment she thought that, though, the headache grew worse. It was intense pain, like someone grabbing her brain in a vise. It soon grew bad enough that she could no longer stay on her feet.

You can ignore it if you want, but the headaches will grow worse. Eventually, your head will explode and you’ll die, the voice said, mercilessly, as Monika fell to her knees.

“She doesn’t look okay... She’s gone really pale.” The boy walked up beside her and spoke as he touched her. “The wound to her shoulder doesn’t look that bad, but her ear’s in bad shape. Yori, have you got anything?”

“I’m not our big sis, so I don’t just happen to have a first-aid kit on me, no.”

It hurts! It hurts! What should I do? I can’t do anything at all like this, you know! The pain in her head was so intense that Monika couldn’t even move. There was no way she could pay any price like this.

...Monika, really. What should you say when someone saves you? the voice prodded. Use your common sense. You know what it is, right?

“Oh, um, th-thank you for saving me...” Urged by the voice, Monika thanked the boy.

The pain subsided just a little. Apparently the thanks had sufficed as a part of the price.

“Did I really save you?” the boy asked. “I don’t know what was going on, but... well, we’d better get you to a hospital, anyway. Can you stand?” The boy offered his hand.

While she was vacillating over whether or not to take it, the pain in Monika’s head turned severe once again. But I thanked him!

A simple thank you isn’t sufficient payment for saving your life. Try to offer him the biggest reward you can think of. Of course, if you don’t have it on hand right now, the promise to pay it later is enough.

This was getting ridiculous. She cried at the boy as if to struggle against the splitting pain in her head. “Wait a minute! Let me... let me reward you!”

“Don’t worry about that now,” he said. “We need to get you to the hospital.”

“I’m telling you to wait! I need to reward you, or else... or else my head will explode!” Monika begged him, her face pale.

She didn’t have time to think about anything else. Her head was actually starting to creak.

“Are you being serious?” The boy looked at her dubiously. It was only natural; most people would have their doubts when someone said their head was going to explode.

The boy seemed rather exasperated, but the girl was looking at Monika with calmer eyes. “Big Brother, I think she’s serious...”

“You can decide if you want to accept it later!” Monika cried. “Just let me offer it!”

“You look like you’re really in trouble... I don’t really get it, but okay. Say it.”

“My life savings.”

“That’s a big offer.”

“Three hundred sixty million yen.”

“That’s too much!”

It was the result of things she’d done on a whim since becoming an Outer. She’d realized that a girl with no family or friends would need a lot of money to live on, and while she felt like she might have overdone it, she now had a comfortable nest egg.

The boy didn’t seem like he was going to accept the offer, but just making it had relieved her headache. Apparently it was the gesture that mattered more than the result.

Your life savings? Nice one. But won’t offering all of it cause problems later? You could have at least kept enough to live on.

It’s okay. I have an idea. Monika could think now, at least, but the pain in her head hadn’t fully subsided. That meant she had to offer something else.

“Okay, I heard you out,” the boy said. “Are you okay now? And while I’m pretty sure you’re joking, I just want to make it clear that I’m not going to accept all that money from you, okay?”

“Okay. But I don’t think I’ve done enough, so can I offer one more thing?”

“Sure, if listening to it is all I have to do,” the boy replied, dumbfounded. He probably didn’t understand at all, but he seemed like a considerate enough person to indulge a little girl’s crazy story.

“Um... my body,” she said. “Despite how I look, I’m 15, so don’t worry about that. Then if you want to marry me after, I’ll be a good wife to you for the rest of my life!”

“That’s way too much for helping you out a little!” he shouted.

“Big Brother, would you mind going home without me?” the girl asked icily. There was something frightening about her eyes. But the pressure in Monika’s head had completely vanished, signaling that she’d reached the necessary quota.

Ah-ha... If you get married, you won’t need your savings, is that it? Well, I guess that does amount to offering something equivalent to your life. But now that you’ve made that promise, you’ll have to keep it, you know?

The boy sighed. “I don’t understand any of this, but are we done now? Can we go to the hospital?”

“Yeah. Ah, I feel better, so don’t worry... I can walk for myself.” Monika stood up under her own power.

She took the lead down the alleys, with the other two following.

Once they were out on the main thoroughfare, Monika turned her right hand to the two of them. “Now... I want you to forget everything that’s happened.”

It was “Distant Memories,” the power to make them forget they’d ever met. This had been Monika’s plan all along.

No matter how much she owed them, if she didn’t have to pay it immediately, she could make them forget everything. If they forgot about the loan, it might as well not exist. Monika had no intention of giving him her entire fortune, or of marrying him. With the power she’d focused while they were walking through the back alleys, she could easily erase the memories of the few minutes they’d spent together.

The two then wandered off into the shopping district, as if they didn’t know Monika at all and were completely unaware of what had happened.

“What are you doing?” At some point, the source of the voice had appeared on Monika’s shoulder. It was round and white and looked like a daifuku with eyes and a mouth.

“How do you like that, huh?” Monika said gleefully. “I outmaneuvered you! The headache’s not starting up again, which means I’m all good, right?”

“No... you’re not good at all...”

Monika ran back to Aki and retrieved the Evil God’s right eye that had fallen on the ground next to her unconscious form.

In Monika’s mind, everything was settled. Of course, she’d come to regret it very soon...

✽✽✽✽✽

“What do you mean, marry you?!” Aiko shouted.

“Why are you mad, Noro?” Yuichi asked. “It’s just childish nonsense...”

“I-I’m not mad. It’s none of my business anyway.” Aiko seemed to settle down immediately, though she was still a bit grudging about it.

“I could get angry about having my memory erased... but it didn’t cause any huge problems, so I’m not gonna bother,” said Yuichi. “Anyway, what does this have to do with Soul Reader?”

“Right.” The daifuku spoke proudly, descending from Monika’s shoulder to the center of the round table. “First off, let me explain that I’m the embodiment of Monika’s prayer. In other words, I exist to manage Monika’s payment for services rendered, and to make sure she adheres to her contract.”

“So you’re a little like a guarantor, or a manager?” Aiko asked, poking the daifuku mochi.

“Something like that. But when I think back on the story now, I must say... that was a nasty trick you played,” the daifuku said, glancing at Monika. “You’d better not keep this up out of elementary school. You’ll never become a proper adult.”

“Shut up! Besides, I’m not actually in elementary school!”

“Wasn’t your head going to explode if you resisted paying the price?” Yuichi asked. He remembered her saying that, but if it was true, then she should have died a long time ago.

“No way. She couldn’t pay the price if I killed her, after all. That was just a threat,” the daifuku proclaimed.

“Huh? Really? But my head really felt like it was gonna split in two!” Monika cried. She looked surprised; it must have been news to her, too.

“You offered your full savings and your body for life in exchange for his help,” said the daifuku. “That was a fair deal. But then you took away Yuichi’s memories, which upset the balance sheet. So I took it upon myself to confiscate an ability you considered indispensable, Soul Reader, and give it to Yuichi. Unlike your money and your body, that was something I could give on my own authority. In other words, Soul Reader was the price for his memories.”

“So I saved her life, and in exchange I got my memories stolen and a weird ability forced on me... I’m not really sure what I got out of this deal,” said Yuichi. “Oh, now that I have my memories again, can I give back Soul Reader?”

“As I said before, while I can give Monika’s powers to other people, I can’t take them away from you.”

Yuichi was dumbstruck by the arbitrariness of it all. “Okay, so. We only have one wish, and you’re gonna use it to save your friend, right?”

“Well... um...” Monika stammered.

It was starting to sound like participating in the Divine Vessels War wasn’t going to solve the Soul Reader problem.

“Fine,” Yuichi said. “That’s okay. You can save your friend. I’ll manage somehow.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. Having to see a few weird things is a small price to pay to save a human life.”

“Thanks...” Monika said after a pause, in a rare show of graciousness.

“So, now I know how we got here,” said Yuichi. “Let’s talk about what we’re going to do now. A resonance has started, and as Makina said, it doesn’t rain, but it pours. In other words, it’s gonna continue for a while. That means you need to give the Divine Vessels to me.”

Monika had two Divine Vessels: the right and left eyes of the Evil God.

“Huh? But then you...”

Monika had left them with Yuichi at one time, but she seemed hesitant to let go of them now. Perhaps she was worried that if he had the Divine Vessels, it would throw his life into disarray, and that was why she had taken them and hidden in the oni settlement.

“I accepted your terms before because you seemed hesitant about handing them over, but I really think it’s too dangerous for you to hold onto them,” Yuichi said.

He’d been thinking this over since hearing the story and learning that Outers weren’t necessarily invincible. Monika had been grazed during an incident over summer vacation, too, but in the situation she’d described, she had nearly died. He couldn’t just leave her with the Divine Vessels.

“Okay,” Monika said. “But I can’t put everything on you, Yuichi. We can each hold on to one.” She handed what seemed to be a glass eye to him.

“But even if you only have one, they’ll still come after you,” Yuichi objected.

“I’m risking everything I have on this. I can’t just leave it all to someone else. This is the best compromise I can do; splitting them up will reduce the chance of them coming after me, and it means that even if one’s stolen, we still have a chance.”

“Okay,” said Yuichi. “It stinks that we can’t detect the resonance... but at least we now have Dannoura getting in touch with us when it starts up.”

Monika seemed determined, so Yuichi gave up on trying to persuade her any further.

✽✽✽✽✽

By the time Monika’s long tale was wrapping up, Ryoma Takei’s fight with the Evil God was nearing its end, too.

The park was in a wretched state. It was practically unrecognizable.

The ground had been scorched, with deep gouges taken out of it. In places, what had once been dirt or sand was now luminous glass. This phenomenon — the result of vitrification caused by high heat — was one sign of the fierce battle that had been raging here for some time.

The ground was also littered with machines. Lumps of metal-like substances, possibly parts of a vehicle, were scattered all around, billowing smoke and sparking from their broken ends. They were clearly beyond use.

There were people lying on the ground, too.

People in armor, people in robes, people in outfits that resembled spacesuits. Some had animal ears, tails, or wings (which called into question whether or not they were actually “people”), while others were revealed, via severed and broken limbs, to be at least partially mechanical.

All had either been summoned by Ryoma, or had joined him under their own power.

All had been defeated.

Ryoma himself had been battered and cut, and it took all his strength just to stay standing, propping himself on the sacred sword, the Ame-no-Ohabari.

Meanwhile, the young man who had called himself the Evil God remained unharmed, as did the boy who was his ally.

Ryoma dug deep inside him, then raised his sword up high. The Ame-no-Ohabari. It was the goddess Ame-no-Ohabari-no-Mikoto, incarnated as a sword.

Ryoma raised the sword high over his head, puffing out his chest. It was a stance that left him completely vulnerable, but he didn’t care about that. The difference in ability had been made abundantly clear by now; there was no point in prioritizing defense.

“Let’s go, Mikoto!” he called. “Give it all you’ve got!”

“I shall, Ryoma!” Ame-no-Ohabari-no-Mikoto responded. The sword’s blade began to glow white.

“Graaaaah!” With an ear-splitting howl, Ryoma swung the sword forward.

He was about ten meters away from the target, but that was well within the sword’s range.

The slash tore through the ground as it drew closer to the man, but he brushed it aside with one hand. The force of the deflection changed the swing’s trajectory. It kept going, further distorting the terrain of the park, until it collided with the barrier wall in a fruitless explosion of power.

Ryoma’s legs gave out. He slumped into a heap.

It was no exaggeration to say he had given it absolutely everything he had. Most of the power came from the sword itself, but the attack had also drained Ryoma’s stamina greatly.

“Wow, I didn’t think you’d be so much weaker than him...” The leisurely comment came from Ende, who walked up to stand beside Ryoma. Since she hadn’t participated in the battle, she still sounded perfectly energetic.

“Hey, you... little help here?” Ryoma snapped. “You’ve just been reading books the whole damn time...”

“Sorry, but this is pretty much all I can do for you,” said Ende. “I don’t know any martial arts, so I can’t fight directly.”

“So... what am I supposed to do? I’m seriously out of options, here...”

He had called every ally he had. He’d used hougu, paopei, hihou, and artifacts. Not one of them had worked on the man.

“Eh, it should work out,” Ende said flippantly.

“How do you know?!” Ryoma shouted angrily.

“You pass.” Now it was the young man who sounded flippant. “No need to worry, by the way. They’re all still alive. The robot girls probably just need a little fixing, too. Well, the unmanned vehicles are probably beyond repair... I didn’t bother holding back with them.”

“What the heck?” Ryoma burst out.

“I’ll permit your participation in the Divine Vessel War. You still have a lot to learn, but I hope the battles to come will make you strong enough to keep you in the fight.”

The things the young man was saying suggested he hadn’t even been giving it everything he had. He wouldn’t have had the presence of mind to merely disable his opponents if he hadn’t been massively more powerful than them.

The walls of darkness covering the park suddenly collapsed. The sun was now hanging in midair, a little past its zenith, illuminating the park as if it had never been gone. The young man and his partner were nowhere to be seen.

“Past noon already, huh? I’ve totally missed school...” Ryoma muttered.

Saturday classes were morning only. There was no point in his going to school now.

“I thought you’d be wiped out, but you sound like you’re in pretty good shape,” Ende commented.

“Not as good as you. So, did you know he was going to let us go?”

“Well, when an enemy appears in the prologue who’s so powerful you don’t have a prayer of winning, they’ll usually come up with an excuse to let you go. Otherwise the story would be over before it even started.”

Ryoma was dumbfounded by the baselessness of her statement.

“But seriously, it only worked out that way because you’re a protagonist. If you’d just been some nobody, he’d have used you as a demonstration of his power or his cruelty or something.” As usual, Ende’s baffling explanations went in one ear and out the other for Ryoma.

After he’d calmed down a little bit, he couldn’t help but realize just how bad things were around him. The park was beyond salvation, so Ryoma decided to leave it as it was. But he couldn’t just abandon his comrades.

The questions of where to take them and how to treat them were giving him a headache.

✽✽✽✽✽

It was around noon, just after Ryoma’s battle had finished.

In the abandoned hospital, Natsuki and Alberta’s eyes had been abruptly diverted to the new woman who had appeared. She was wearing the uniform of an employee of a large bank, and she held blood-stained scissors in one hand.

Her deportment was perhaps what was standard in her profession: light makeup and hair neatly tied at the back of her head. She seemed to be going for “prim,” but she couldn’t hide the erotic aura that seemed to pour off of her.

There was no one in the serial killer world — Natsuki included — who didn’t know this woman’s name.

Aki Takizawa.

She was known by the appellation “the happiness seeker,” but her true nature couldn’t be further from what that innocuous label implied.

There was a rumor that she hadn’t been seen around town lately, but Natsuki would never have expected to see her turn up here.

“Aki, dear! We must not be on the same page somehow... why would you do that?” Alberta complained as she returned to her senses.

It was natural that she’d want to complain, but the wording itself was bizarre, given that Aki had cut off her right arm.

Natsuki watched both women carefully.

Alberta’s focus was on Aki. She didn’t seem like she’d attack Natsuki right away, but Natsuki’s arm and leg were still immobilized thanks to Albert’s curse.

Natsuki didn’t know what was going on, but she wasn’t about to assume that Aki was on her side. That didn’t necessarily mean that she was on Alberta’s side, though.

“Stay away from Aki, no matter what.” That was what underworld denizens said to each other.

She was powerful, but that wasn’t the root of the problem. A strong killer could still be useful to others.

The real problem, as they saw it, was her personality.

She was capricious. There was no way of knowing what might set off her temper. One minute you’d be talking, and then for some reason you could never understand, she’d fly into a rage.

Then, she might kill you on the spot, or she might not say a word, then come back to kill you years later, as if on a whim.

This made her impossible to deal with, and as a result, even in the underworld, she was kept at arm’s length.

Natsuki knew all this, and so she kept quiet, watching.

The situation that she’d come from had been the worst possible scenario. Things couldn’t actually get any worse, so there was a chance that whatever happened here might turn things in her favor.

“You know that our orders were to bring Natsuki back alive!” Alberta paused, and thought. “Wait, were you trying to stop me because you thought I was trying to kill her?”

“Sorry. I misunderstood,” Aki said, as light as could be.

“I see. Well, misunderstandings happen.” Alberta, seeming not to mind, went to pick up her severed right arm. The bleeding had stopped at some point.

Alberta pressed the severed arm against its stump, and incredibly, the fingertip of the hand moved. She formed a fist with it, then opened it. She flexed the elbow a few times, then rolled the shoulder to test the range of motion.

“Hmm? Natsuki dear, why the slack jaw? You must have known I could do this, right? Of course, I can’t grow new ones...”

The incredible speed of her recovery was causing Natsuki to stare in disbelief. Just what kind of abilities had she received from him? What did he need with a monster this powerful?

“Hmm, actually... what did you come here to do, anyway, Aki? Surely you know that I can handle Natsuki by my—” Alberta was interrupted — this time, it was her left arm that went flying.

Aki, who had been standing close to Natsuki, was now in front of Alberta. Fresh blood trailed from the scissors in her right hand, and it was easy to see that she’d just used them, but Natsuki hadn’t even seen the movement happen.

“I beg your pardon!” Alberta snapped. “Stop this right now, before I get angry!”

Even if she could restore her lost limbs, it surely wasn’t without risk. At the least, she could probably feel the pain.

“Go ahead,” Aki retorted, indifferently.

The entirely one-sided “fight” proceeded.

Natsuki couldn’t follow Aki’s movements at all, and it was likely that Alberta couldn’t, either.

She was dissecting Alberta.

Her head, her shoulders, her elbows, her waist, her ankles... human body parts, cleaved at the joints, lay scattered across the blood-stained floor.

“Has her curse lifted?” Aki, who had not been touched by a single drop of blood, addressed Natsuki.

The curse did seem to have lifted; Natsuki had regained control of her right arm and leg. But Natsuki couldn’t move right away. Not without knowing what Aki was here for.

As a denizen of the local underworld, she knew the common knowledge about Aki: her haunts, her active times, her appearance, age, name — all the necessary information to avoid her. But this was her first time actually meeting her.

Even if Aki knew about Natsuki, it was probably only what any of them knew about the neighborhood serial killers, and the two of them had no points of contact in common.

“Why...” Natsuki began.

Could Aki really have saved her? From what the rumors said, Natsuki couldn’t be sure if she could take this at face value or not.

“What’s wrong? Does it still hurt? The wounds don’t look bad... even you should be able to heal from them soon enough.” Aki walked up to her, crouched down, and examined Natsuki’s shoulder. She almost seemed worried about her.

“Why did you save me?” Even that innocuous question might be enough to upset the woman, but Natsuki had to ask it.

“Yuichi...” Aki said, then trailed off, blushing.

Natsuki was not sure how to react to hearing that name in this context.

“You’re friends with Yuichi, aren’t you? Don’t worry. Leave everything to me. I’ll help you. I’ll even kill him for you, if I have to.”

“Huh? But... what... what are you planning?” Natsuki burst out. Perhaps it was pointless to ask such a straightforward question, but again, she couldn’t help but ask it.

Aki had no reason to save Natsuki. To do so would be making him her enemy.

Which suggested she must have some ulterior motive for her actions.

“Nothing,” said the woman airily. “I just want to be of use to Yuichi, that’s all... if you’re his friend, and I help you, he’ll surely praise me.”

Natsuki couldn’t figure out what Yuichi had to do with any of this. But right now, however precarious the situation may be, Aki was apparently on Natsuki’s side.