Chapter 1: Soul Reader Got Stolen, But It Doesn’t Change Much

Yuichi Sakaki stood in the hotel lobby, facing off with an older student from his school, Hiromichi Rokuhara.

Hiromichi was a slender boy with a sullen atmosphere to him. Yuichi had run into him after they’d returned to the surface after saving Natsuki in the underground.

Behind Yuichi stood three girls and one golden-furred cat: his big sister Mutsuko, his classmate Natsuki Takeuchi, “serial god killer” Aki Takizawa, and his classmate Yuri Konishi — she was the cat.

Hiromichi was standing a ways away, grinning. They hadn’t drawn much attention from the people in the lobby yet. There had been a bit of movement between them — Hiromichi had swung a hand at Yuichi and then quickly backed off — but most people probably just interpreted it as high school students goofing around.

Yuichi couldn’t see labels above anyone’s heads right now. Soul Reader, his ability to identify other people’s roles in life, was not functioning.

Something strange was going on.

But Yuichi immediately regained his cool. He checked his body’s condition, but sensed nothing physically wrong, besides a bit of the standard exhaustion that came from using the furukami.

In other words, the lack of Soul Reader was the only issue.

So, what should I do? he wondered.

It had happened after Hiromichi took a swing at him, which suggested Hiromichi was behind it.

Yuichi put up his guard. He didn’t know what Hiromichi had done, exactly, but he knew that he had to be careful.

“Oh? So it’s called Soul Reader, huh?” Hiromichi said mockingly. “I knew you had to have something, so I tried taking it, but I guess it was a miss.”

Yuichi didn’t know why the guy was going out of his way to narrate his thoughts out loud, but it did tell him a few things.

It told him that Hiromichi had stolen Soul Reader, and that in order to steal something, he had to be close enough — about the distance he had been at when he had swung his arm before.

“Yu! What happened?” Mutsuko asked from behind him, seeming to notice that Yuichi was acting strangely.

“Looks like he took Soul Reader,” Yuichi said. “I can’t see labels anymore.”

“Oh!” For some reason, there was joy mixed in with her surprise. “That’s right! There’s always someone who can steal powers! So if we want to steal it back, we’ve gotta figure out how he stole it! The conditions for stealing it seemed a little too simple, so maybe stealing it back will be simple, too? Anyway, you should probably beat him up and knock him out! If that’s all it takes to get it back, then you’re good! Then if that doesn’t work, we’ll tie him up and take him back with us, negotiate, and torture him! Then if he still won’t give it back of his own free will, we’ll think of something else!”

Mutsuko’s thoughts seemed to be trending in a “beat him up no matter what” direction.

Yuichi looked at Hiromichi. It would be easy enough to beat him up; his stance suggested he was a novice at fighting.

Yuichi had ways of bridging the gap to Hiromichi in an instant, and he had long-range attacks, too. He didn’t know what kind of abilities the other boy had, but he could probably dominate him in the instant before he could use any of them.

Well, all my sister ever says is to beat people and break stuff anyway...

As Yuichi was about to do what he’d been told, he realized something.

Did he even need to take back Soul Reader? As he thought about that, he flicked the coin he’d been hiding for a while with his finger.

Hiromichi couldn’t react in time. If it had hit his throat, it could have killed him, and if it had hit his eye, it could have significantly crippled his ability to fight. But Yuichi had only grazed it across his cheek.

“Eek!” Hiromichi let out a shriek of fear, apparently not sure what Yuichi had done.

“Hey! Yu! Why’d you miss intentionally?!” Mutsuko seemed angry about his unexpected action.

“I know that you can do something weird when you get close to someone,” Yuichi said. “But I don’t need to get close to attack you. So, what now?”

Hiromichi cackled. “You think you’ve won, do you? Fine, then! I’ll leave for now! But I won’t forget this! And I’m gonna get even stronger!”

Leaving behind a number of what mainly sounded like ass-covering excuses, Hiromichi retreated. It seemed he had no way to fight back against long-range attacks.

Knowing what he did about Hiromichi’s personality, Yuichi had judged him to be the type who would back off at the slightest threat. It seemed that was true. With his opponent completely demoralized, this was now a good chance to attack; instead, though, Yuichi just watched silently as Hiromichi ran away.

“Yu! What’s going on? This isn’t like you! Normally you’d run after a fleeing enemy, drag them to the ground, straddle them, and start beating them senseless while cackling the whole time!” Mutsuko exclaimed.

“The hell I would!”

“Wait! Did he hit you with a psychological attack?” Mutsuko asked with a theatrical gasp.

Yuichi smiled awkwardly. “Why would you assume that? Look, I can’t exactly fight with all these people around, can I?”

The people in the lobby were starting to look their way, likely noticing that something was off.

“True, but...”

“Besides, we need to take Takeuchi and Takizawa to the hospital first. And we can’t let Konishi stay a cat forever. If he’s gonna run, for now, let’s let him do it.” That wasn’t how he really felt, but it would do well enough to get her off his back for the time being.

“True... I guess that’s that, then. We’ll take Soul Reader back later.” Mutsuko sounded very reluctant about it, but she did give her assent.

The relevant players — Yuichi Sakaki, Mutsuko Sakaki, Yuri Konishi, and Monika Sakurazaki — had gathered in Nihao the China.

Yuri, having formerly taken the form of a cat, was now a blonde girl dressed in expensive-looking clothing. An old man who’d looked like a butler had brought the clothing to the hospital so that she could change there.

Monika was a young girl with her hair tied back with a scrunchy. Though she wore an elementary school uniform, she was actually 16 years old, the same age as Yuichi. She apparently had stopped aging after she’d become an Outer.

He’d strong-armed Natsuki and Aki Takizawa into checking in at the hospital, so they weren’t here right now.

A waitress in a cheongsam, Tomomi Hamasaki, though not exactly a relevant player, stood a little ways away, watching them.

On Sunday morning, a girl named Furu Shinomiya from the local shrine had asked him to go searching for an evil presence. He’d made it underground, fought the avatar of the Evil God, run into Hiromichi after he surfaced, and then taken the girls to the hospital. It had been just after noon when they’d gotten back. That was the busiest time for most restaurants, but as usual, there were no customers here.

“Why’d you call me here so suddenly? And who’s this person? I don’t want to get anyone involved who doesn’t need to be!” Monika was pointing peevishly at Yuri Konishi.

“It is true that I do not need to be involved, but now that I am, you are hardly in a position to throw me out,” Yuri shot back.

It was true that Yuri was a mere tag-along, uninvolved in the Evil God’s war. But having come this far, he had felt obligated to explain things to her to some degree.

“Well, she’s an anthromorph, so she can probably keep up with the weirdness,” Yuichi said.

“Okay, fine. So, what’s the important thing you had to tell me?” Monika demanded.

“Oh, right. I lost Soul Reader, actually.”

Soul Reader had originally belonged to Monika. It had been transferred to him as part of repaying a debt.

“So what?” she asked. Then suddenly, her jaw dropped. “Wait, what?!” It seemed it had taken her a moment to realize what he was saying.

“It’s true that I can’t sense Soul Reader in Yuichi right now,” said a thing that looked like a daifuku mochi with eyes and a mouth that had appeared on Monika’s shoulder.

It was an imaginary creature that managed the debt that Monika owed Yuichi, and was the one who had actually transferred Soul Reader to him.

Monika’s life had been threatened, and she had used an ability called “Save Me, My Prince” to try to save herself. It was an ability that warped the laws of causality to make sure that someone saved her, and in exchange, it came with a heavy price.

When Yuichi had appeared to save her, Monika had tried to welch on the deal, which had turned out to be a huge mistake; the daifuku mochi creature had appeared and without her permission had transferred her ability, Soul Reader, to Yuichi as payment.

“Huh? Huh? Huh? So what happens now?” Monika seemed completely panicked.

“The ability belonged to Yuichi, so it was his to throw away, destroy, or give to someone else... but could I ask exactly what happened?” the daifuku mochi asked.

“Yeah, looks like it was stolen.”

“‘Looks like it was stolen’? Give me a break! At least sound like you care!” Monika shouted.

Yuichi was aware he perhaps wasn’t giving it the gravity it deserved. But what else could he do? It was a mostly useless ability that had caused him more harm than good. Now it was gone, and he couldn’t be happier.

“Go get it back! It was mine to begin with! I was just loaning it to you!” Monika yelled.

“She’s right! You’re taking this way too lightly, Yu!” Mutsuko seemed to agree.

“Look, Soul Reader wasn’t even the thing I actually wanted to talk about,” Yuichi said. “I just thought I should probably let you know... but, fine. Assuming it’s even possible, I’ll try to get it back.” He realized the conversation wasn’t going to progress unless he said that. He really had no intention of playing host to Soul Reader again, but if he could find a way to give it back to Monika directly, he’d do it.

“Okay,” Monika said after a pause. “So what’s the real issue? Something more important than Soul Reader?”

“Um, I was thinking. Could we drop out of the Divine Vessels War?”

Everyone except for Yuichi froze up, shocked.

“What?! You mean that because you lost Soul Reader, you don’t need the wish anymore? What the heck?! You said you’d save my friend! You said that a human life was more important! Were you really just planning to use the wish to get rid of Soul Reader?”

“I’m not going to abandon your friend,” Yuichi said.

If you collected the Divine Vessels, you could get a wish granted — but only one. Yuichi knew that, and he certainly had said Monika could have his wish.

But Monika’s wish was to save her friend from psychopaths who were coming after her, and it seemed to him like there must be a way to save her without resorting to something as overblown as the Divine Vessels War.

Of course, it was true that he had come up with the idea because Soul Reader was gone, and he might not have thought of it otherwise.

“I was told that if the Evil God revives, humanity goes extinct,” Yuichi said. “Did you know that?”

“No way! No one mentioned that!”

“Well, I don’t know if that’s really true,” Yuichi said. “A guy calling himself the Evil God’s avatar said it. He did say he’d grant a wish, but that he’d move to kill off humanity the moment the Evil God was resurrected. So if that happens, what good would it do to save your friend?”

Yuichi’s instincts told him that the Evil God hadn’t been lying.

“But... what’s the point, then? No one’s wish could possibly matter, then!” Monika cried.

“That’s true. But the question is whether the participants in the war know that.”

The Evil God wanted them to fight, but if they knew what he had planned, they might lose the will to do so. That made it in his best interest not to tell them.

“Well, I don’t know the participants’ motivations,” Yuichi said. “But I do know that I don’t want to stay mixed up in this nonsense forever.”

“But then what about Wakana?!” Monika cried.

Wakana was Monika’s best friend, a denizen of Monika’s original worldview, now in her first year of high school.

Monika’s worldview had been “A Hopelessly Romantic Little World.” It had apparently been a worldview where shojo manga-like love stories played out, but because Monika had been expelled from her world as an Outer, her friend had ended up on an entirely different track. The ones pining for Wakana were now twelve psychopaths.

“You said things would get dicey once she got into high school,” Yuichi said. “How’s it looking?”

“It’s a stalemate right now, with a trepidatious balance. The twelve are sizing each other up rather than approaching Wakana directly. I don’t think she even realizes what’s going on yet.”

“Okay. I’ll take care of them, then. Once I give them a smackdown, things should probably work out.”

“As usual, you’re a violence-obsessed brute. It’s not as if you can kill them, so won’t they just come back for revenge?” Yuri had been listening quietly, but she apparently couldn’t stay silent through that.

“Good point. Sis, you think you can do something about that?” Yuichi looked to Mutsuko for backup, but she turned up her nose and ignored him. It was strange; this was usually the part where she’d start jabbering endless nonsense about what she could do to interfere.

“Well, perhaps I could be of assistance,” Yuri said. “I have no issue with burying a dozen high schoolers in darkness. And as your girlfriend, I’m happy to help.”

“What are you, the mafia? I don’t want a girlfriend who can do that kind of thing, and you’re not even my girlfriend anyway. Don’t think you can slip that stuff in when I’m not paying attention.”

“Well, I don’t actually have that level of influence just yet, anyway,” Yuri admitted. “You’ll need to secure my position as heir first.”

“You sure are trying to slip a lot in...” he muttered.

Yuri was part of a group of people competing to become the heir of the Sumeragi family, which were apparently the shadow rulers of Japan. She seemed to think that Yuichi would help her with that competition.

“The point is, we don’t need to take part in the Divine Vessels War to save your friend, so there’s no benefit to us in continuing with it,” he said. “We’d be more likely to save her if we go and interfere directly, anyway. Right?”

“Well... that... may be true, certainly...” Monika sounded a bit disoriented about the thought of just dropping out of the war, but she was also starting to come around to the idea.

“What are you talking about, Yu? Are you crazy? Once you’re in battle royal... I mean, battle royale, you can’t just drop out of it!” Mutsuko, by contrast, was not coming around. She stood up, slamming a fist on the table.

“Why did you correct yourself?” Yuichi asked, rhetorically. All she had done was change the pronunciation to sound more French, but that didn’t change the meaning.

“What kind of protagonist drops out of a game once it’s started? It’s bizarre!” she exclaimed. “This is a superpower bloodbath! It’s a melting pot of battle, betrayals, alliances, greed, and karmic retribution! Suddenly, a third faction appears! The whole universe is at stake, the life of all sentient beings on the line! And now what, you want to just quit?! You’ve ruined the storyline! The high concept is out the window! What’s wrong with you? This is like a weekly shonen manga that abruptly ends after ten weeks with ‘And so their battle continues!’”

“I’m telling you, I don’t want to do it!” Yuichi snapped. “Listen, the only reason I’ve gone along with fighting all these weirdos is because I had Soul Reader! I could see the Serial Killers and the Gods and stuff, so I felt like I had to do something about them! But now that’s all in the past! I just want to be an ordinary person who doesn’t have to deal with any of this ever again!”

It was the truth. Now that he was free of Soul Reader, he couldn’t understand why he had bothered getting involved with all the nonsense in the first place. It was like looking back on a fever dream.

“Are you kidding me?! Aren’t you the one who looked at an Outer and said that cool ‘I’m gonna kill every one of you’ line?!”

“That was just... the heat of the moment...” Yuichi averted his eyes.

It was true that he wanted them to pay for what they’d done. He wanted to kill them all. But realistically speaking, Yuichi was just an ordinary high school student. He couldn’t just go around hunting down and killing Outers. All he could do was wait for them to do something, and then react.

“That’s so uncool, Yu!” Mutsuko shouted. “It’s the uncoolest thing I’ve ever heard! So, what, are you just gonna hand in your protagonist credentials? Snap out of it, Yu! Collect all the Divine Vessels and face off against the Evil God!”

“Protagonist, huh? Well, if being a protagonist means I’ve gotta say ‘yare, yare’ and keep on with this stupid nonsense game, then I’d rather be a side character!” Yuichi rose to his feet, glaring at Mutsuko.

“Fine,” Mutsuko snapped back. “Let’s set aside the Divine Vessels thing for now. But you went out on that search because you knew there was an evil presence in this town, right? What are you gonna do about that? Are you just gonna leave an evil god who says he’s gonna destroy the world at large?”

“I’m gonna leave it to the specialists! We pretty much know the Evil God’s deal now: what he looks like, what he wants, and where his shrine is. If I just tell Shinomiya about it, her people will know how to handle it!”

The young man who claimed to be the avatar of Nergal had said that if he went too far, “allies of good” would come to stop him. That meant that there were forces who opposed the Evil God. Plus, even though he had run several Divine Vessels Wars in the past, the world hadn’t been destroyed, which meant that those opposing forces must have known what they were doing.

Furu Shinomiya was the daughter of a shrine priest. She was also a monster hunter, and she said she’d petitioned their main association for help, so they could probably handle it somehow.

“Fine... forget you! Do whatever you want!” Mutsuko turned away sulkily, then stormed angrily out of the shop.

“Dammit!” Yuichi threw himself down in his seat.

“H-Hey... aren’t you gonna go after her?” Monika asked in concern. “I don’t know exactly what you were arguing over, but I don’t want to be the cause of a sibling quarrel...”

“It’s okay,” Yuichi said. “This wasn’t any of her business anyway. I’ll help you out with your friend, don’t worry. Just give your Divine Vessel to me for now. You’re okay with dropping out, right?”

“What will you do with it?” Monika asked.

“I haven’t thought about it yet, but we need to get rid of them.”

Monika still seemed a bit tortured about it, but at last, reluctantly, she handed the glass ball over to Yuichi.

The Evil God’s eye. Yuichi already had one, which meant that he had two now. Divine Vessels resonated to communicate their location to each other, which meant he’d have to get rid of them to drop out of the war, but at the moment, Yuichi’s mind was on something else.

It was on how mad his sister had gotten.

Is she really mad?

Well, knowing her, she’ll probably forget soon enough, right? he mused.

Will she? another thought retorted. Have you ever seen her that mad before? Maybe I should run after her and apologize...

But why do I have to do what she tells me to all the time, anyway?

That’s right. I’m in high school now. Why do I have to do everything my big sister tells me?!

Yuichi tried to build up his courage, but it was no use. He’d never gone against his sister before.

Unbidden, the memories of all the things she’d done in the past were starting to rise up inside him.

Yuichi felt a chill run up his spine.

“Excuse me... are you all right?” Yuri of all people asked, snapping him out of his thoughts.

“Huh?” As he came back to himself, Yuichi realized he was cradling his head in his arms.

“Loathe as I am to simply mimic your sister, I agree that you were acting very uncool just now,” she said. “Why must I be saddled with such a hopeless boyfriend?”

“Shut up,” he said. “Besides, I’m not your boyfriend...”

But there was no force behind Yuichi’s words.

* * * * *

A little time had passed since the group’s discussion.

Aiko Noro was sitting in a cafe. It was the same cafe that had been hit by a truck earlier, but they seemed to be using it for a lot lately. Currently, Aiko was at the table next to the window. Across from her sat a middle school aged girl who appeared rather mature for her years, Yoriko Sakaki.

Yoriko was the one who called Aiko here.

“So, Yoriko, what is this about?” Aiko began. “You asked on the phone if I was with Sakaki...”

“That’s right,” Yoriko said. “My brother has gone missing, so I’m looking for him.”

“How long has he been missing?” Aiko asked, worried that something serious had happened. The last time she’d met Yuichi had been yesterday — Saturday, around noon. Had he not been home since then?

“Since this morning.”

“This morning?” Aiko repeated. “You don’t think he just went off somewhere... or does he always tell you before he goes anywhere?”

“Of course he doesn’t.” Yoriko sounded exasperated, but if that was the case, Aiko couldn’t see why she didn’t just assume he was running an errand or something.

“Um... in that case, why are you so anxious to know where he is today?”

“Because today is different! I assumed he’d gone out for morning training, but he stopped by the house, then went out somewhere else! He’s never done that before! I was hoping he’d go shopping with me today!”

Aiko couldn’t see what the problem was at all, so she just interpreted it as Yoriko really wanting to go shopping and feeling neglected. It didn’t sound like he’d promised her anything, so it was a bit odd that she was so upset about it. Still, Aiko could also sympathize a bit.

“Um, so today’s Sunday. How does Sakaki usually spend his Sundays?”

“What’s that? Are you trying to pry into my brother’s private life?” Yoriko glared at her.

“That’s not what I meant,” Aiko said. “I just thought it might offer a hint as to where he’s gone... and why did you call me, anyway?”

“Well... I thought that you might be hiding him, and that if I met you in person, I could get you to pony him up...” Yoriko said, hesitantly. It was hard to tell if that was how she really felt or not.

“Um, I really don’t know where he is, though,” Aiko said.

“Yes, that much is clear. I know you’re not capable of lying, Noro.”

Aiko didn’t feel like that was meant as a compliment at all.

“Now, you asked about how my brother spends his Sundays. As I said before, he has training in the morning. In the afternoon he reads, or plays games, or goes to meet with friends.”

“That sounds pretty normal... I thought he might do something more impressive.”

“Like what? You thought he went off to fight evil organizations?”

“A little, yeah.”

“It’s been this way since he entered high school. Back in middle school, he went around purging all the various factions around here — though I wouldn’t exactly call them evil organizations — on our big sister’s orders.”

“Wow, so he really did do that...” Aiko murmured.

“That’s why there hadn’t been many yakuza in the area until that recent incident,” said Yoriko. “Groups like the one that tried to cause trouble for me are effectively trying to fill the vacuum he created.”

“I was curious, but I guess that doesn’t give us any clues as to where he is,” Aiko said.

“If that was all it took to figure it out, I wouldn’t need to ask you.”

Aiko bristled a bit at her condescension, but decided to attack the conversation from another angle. “Hmm, Sakaki’s helping Monika out now, so maybe it’s something to do with that? Which means he could be with Monika, or with Dannoura...”

Yuichi had recently gotten involved with the Divine Vessels War. Monika was the central figure of that, and Chiharu Dannoura had a Divine Vessel.

“I see,” Yoriko mused. “He’s still doing that... very well. Then, Noro, please come shopping with me.”

“Huh? Why?”

“Because that’s what I wanted to do?”

“Well, okay,” Aiko said. “I don’t have anything else to do, anyway... Hey, isn’t that Sakaki there?”

While wondering why she had to go shopping with Yoriko, Aiko had glanced out the window, only to notice Yuichi was passing in front of the cafe.

“That woman! The one from the beach!” Yoriko said in a barely-repressed scream.

Walking next to Yuichi was Yuri Konishi, the girl they had met her during their summer trip to the ocean. She had been their enemy at that time, so Yoriko likely didn’t think very highly of her.

“What’s going on here, Noro?!” Yoriko yelled.

“Um, how should I know? But Konishi did ask Sakaki out, and she wanted him to learn more about her...”

“What? What do you mean, she asked him out? No one mentioned this to me!”

“Well, Sakaki beat that anthromorph god thing, which meant all the anthromorph women fell for him, and then Konishi asked him out—”

“And what did he say?!” Yoriko shouted, forgetting herself. She was the kind of girl who stood out to begin with, and her behavior would only attract more attention.

“Yoriko, you should probably keep your voice down.”

“I’m sorry,” Yoriko said, a trifle quieter. “So, what did he say?”

“Sakaki turned her down, but Konishi basically said she hadn’t given up yet.”

“I see. This might be quite bad. Look at how close they’re walking! That’s within the boundaries of personal space. And what’s with my brother?! How can he let an enemy get that close?”

“Well, I don’t think she’s an enemy... wait, actually, is she?” Aiko couldn’t say for sure, given recent events, whether or not she really would count as an enemy.

Yuri was walking next to Yuichi. Aiko also thought they were a bit too close, and she felt a bit sour about it.

“I didn’t know my brother was so vulnerable to a hard sell... if this keeps up, they’ll slide right into dating,” Yoriko muttered.

“Y-You think?” Aiko didn’t want to believe that was the case, but she felt a little nervous, not knowing how Yuichi would respond to a come-on from a girl.

“Noro, would you work with me?” Yoriko asked. “She’s dangerous! We can’t just ignore this!”

“Work with you? How?”

“If he’s vulnerable to a hard sell, then you need to throw yourself at him, too! Our first task is to halt her monopoly!”

“Um, you’re sure you’re all right with me doing that?”

“Yes,” Yoriko said. “Tying you to my brother to avert a worst case scenario was within the scope of my plans from the start.”

“It’s a little scary to hear that you have plans, but that aside, what should we do? Go after him?”

“No. As I said before, I won’t get in the way of someone going after my brother. Putting in reactionary effort is a waste. So first we need to think of a way to get him together with you.”

“Um, are you really sure it’s okay?”

“You don’t like the idea?”

“It’s not that I don’t like it...”

“Don’t worry,” Yoriko assured her. “Someone as innocent and gullible as you can be easily dealt with later.”

“R-Really?” Aiko was indeed as innocent as Yoriko suggested, and therefore could not imagine what she was secretly planning.

At any rate, she decided to work with her.

* * * * *

Yuichi and Yuri walked among the throng.

After the meeting at Nihao the China had dispersed, Yuichi had headed for the shopping district, and Yuri had come along with him.

“I see you’ve gotten over your earlier depression,” she said. “You look so satisfied with yourself, it’s a bit repulsive.”

“You really don’t want me to like you, do you?” But Yuichi was so happy, he didn’t even mind the insult. He was, in fact, smiling a little.

As he walked, he scanned the people around him to be sure. There were no annoying labels above their heads. It was such a refreshing feeling.

He felt as though his mind was clear again for the first time in a long time. He hadn’t realized how much of a burden Soul Reader had been until it was gone.

He was still a little worried about having made Mutsuko mad, but that was starting to feel more and more like a trivial matter. His feeling of liberation was more than enough to let him dismiss his sister’s bad mood. He had no intention of taking back Soul Reader as Mutsuko wanted, anyway; he never wanted to use it again.

“So, did you come here to confirm that you can’t see any labels?” Yuri asked.

“Mainly. But there’s one other thing.” Yuichi pointed to his destination, a shop for “wagashi,” Japanese sweets.

He bought some mitarashi dango, rice flour dumplings covered in sweet sauce. It was Mutsuko’s favorite food, and a cheap way to buy his way back into her favor.

“Big Sis is really predictable,” he said. “If I feed her, she’ll forget all about it.”

“You think this will suffice to make her forget about it?” Yuri asked. “She seemed a bit too angry for that, to me.”

“I-It’ll be fine! She can really erupt when she gets mad, but she also calms down really quickly.” That was how it had always been. She immediately lost her temper when things didn’t go her way, but if you offered a little compromise, she’d quickly come around.

Of course, this isn’t much of a compromise...

Mutsuko’s request had been for him to recover Soul Reader, and this wasn’t doing anything to solve that. Still, it was the best he could think of.

“Well, I’d better head home,” Yuichi said. “I’m pretty tired.”

His day had started that morning at the shrine, and he’d been through a lot since then. He was genuinely ready to take a break.

Yuichi waved to Yuri as they left the wagashi shop and started walking towards home. But he soon found Yuri still walking beside him as if it was a matter of course.

“I see,” she said. “Will this be one of those at-home dates I hear penniless commoners so often engage in?”

“What makes you think you’re invited back with me?”

“It’s true that if I were to pay, it might insult your masculine sense of honor, so I don’t mind at all!” Yuri declared. “Do you have a game system at your home, Yuichi Sakaki? I’m rather good at games, you see. I can win at any fighting game!”

“Listen to me!” he snapped. “I said I’m tired, so I’m going home and going to bed. I’m not hanging around with you!”

“Bed? My, you do move quickly, Yuichi Sakaki! But such plans are also in my favor. It’s not my mating season, but that doesn’t mean we can’t do it!”

Yuichi hated dealing with one-track minds like this. While he was stewing over how to respond, he realized that the area around them was completely deserted.

It was Sunday afternoon in the shopping district, which certainly meant that business could lag from time to time. But it still seemed a little unnatural. Yuichi slowed to a stop and looked all around him.

There was nothing.

Then, there was the sound of wings.

It was coming from the sky above.

“That guy...”

“Yes, the one we saw this morning.”

A boy dressed like a mountain monk with black wings on his back — in other words, a tengu — dropped down from the sky to land in front of Yuichi and Yuri.

“Hey. It’s been a while.” The boy, who looked about Monika’s age, smiled casually yet confidently at him.

Yuri seemed unimpressed. “Oh? Wasn’t your tier placement already decided? You lost to the man who looked like a priest, and then Yuichi Sakaki beat the priest. That puts you at the bottom of the hierarchy.”

“Shut up! I let my guard down back then, that’s all.”

“So, what do you want?” Yuichi demanded. He assumed the guy was here about the Divine Vessels War, but the priest had probably already taken his Divine Vessel, which meant he should already be out of the game.

“Huh? You can’t feel the resonance?”

“Hmm? Is there a resonance right now?”

“You’re not a host?”

The Divine Vessels resonated, communicating their location to one another. But as Yuichi wasn’t host to a vessel, he wasn’t aware of when it was going on.

Yuichi had both of Monika’s Divine Vessels — the Evil God’s right and left eyes — in his possession, but they both already had hosts, so he couldn’t use them himself.

Even if he could, he probably wouldn’t, since he was trying to drop out of the fight.

“Nah,” Yuichi said. “But didn’t the priest take your Divine Vessel?”

“Yeah, but when I woke up, he was knocked out, so I took it back from him. Never mind about that, though. I went there to beat you, which means I can’t just leave things unsettled, and I bet you can’t either!”

“No, I absolutely can.”

“Indeed,” Yuri said. “You are clearly the weakest of the three.”

“We won’t know that until we fight!” the tengu shouted. “Sometimes it’s like rock-paper-scissors. I lost to him, but that might have just been a bad match-up! I haven’t actually lost to you!”

“Fine. Let’s get this over with. Just don’t give me any more ‘I let my guard down’ crap later.” Yuichi could have attacked at any point while they were talking, but he’d specifically decided to wait for the conversation to be over. It was an annoying situation, but walking away might offend him, and if he took him by surprise, he might come back again to complain later. He clearly just wanted to have a fair fight.

“I won’t let my guard down again, so no problem!” As the tengu boasted, his body seemed to slide to the side. There had been not the slightest movement in his limbs; it was just his wings that were moving.

That’s creepy!

An enhancement of aerial mobility seemed to be the ability granted by his Divine Vessel.

Yuichi didn’t know what the tengu was trying to do, exactly, but he was rushing all around in an ostentatious display of his mobility. He’d move to the right, then pivot, streak upwards without warning, then plummet back down. The way the creature moved seemed to defy both gravity and momentum.

“Well? Can you keep up with me?”

Yuichi watched the tengu dispassionately. His body offered no signs that allowed Yuichi to predict what he’d do next. His wings seemed to be what propelled him, but it was hard to tell from the movement of those wings exactly what his next move was going to be. He could learn, perhaps, but he’d need a little time. It might be trouble if the tengu made use of some projectile weapon on top of his mobility, but it seemed there was no need to worry about that.

As the tengu moved around wildly, he slowly closed the gap between them. He flew around Yuichi, drawing closer, then abruptly vanished from his sight. Yuichi lashed out behind him with a kick.

The counter hit the charging tengu in the solar plexus. Then, as his foot was sinking in, Yuichi pivoted on his standing leg to face the tengu again, then slammed him down onto the ground with his foot.

The tengu, charging in at such a high speed, couldn’t react at all, and was helplessly pinned to the ground by Yuichi.

“Ngh!” The tengu let out a pained cry.

“Your movements were so basic, they didn’t serve as any kind of distraction,” Yuichi said coolly. He hadn’t been able to anticipate the tengu’s actions through his body movements, but the pattern had been obvious enough. It was easy for an attacker to fall into simple patterns while moving rapidly, and the tengu hadn’t seemed to be thinking about that at all.

“I would expect a flier to stay up in the air and drop things down on you,” Yuri commented. “The easiest thing to prepare would have been boiling water.”

“Well, that’s true,” Yuichi said. “But you have some pretty vicious thoughts...”

“Sh-Shut up!” the tengu shouted. “This is why I hate women! A competition between men can’t be like that.”

“Well, you have good timing, anyway. Here, these are for you.” Still keeping his foot firmly planted, Yuichi retrieved the two eyes from his breast pocket, and set them down next to the tengu. “I don’t need them anymore, and I wasn’t sure what to do with them. I thought about pissing everyone off by throwing them into a volcano somewhere, but that would also be more effort than I want to expend...”

The tengu looked taken aback. “W-Wait a minute... then there was no need for us to fight...”

“You’re the one who challenged me. Now, I’m not gonna indulge this crap any more, so leave me alone.” Yuichi lifted his foot off the tengu.

“Merciless, even against a child,” Yuri commented. “But I’m also impressed that you could deal so calmly with a flying monster like that. Truly astonishing.”

“He surprised me at first, but I’ve gotten used to supernatural surprises like his by now,” Yuichi shrugged. “Anyway, now I’m totally disconnected from the Divine Vessels War!”

Still feeling like he was forgetting something, Yuichi headed triumphantly for home.

Yuri tried to follow him, but he eventually managed to drive her off. When he arrived home, though, Mutsuko hadn’t been back yet.

She didn’t come home for the rest of the day, either.