Chapter 2: Yuichi’s Peaceful School Life?

It was the Monday morning after that extremely eventful Sunday.

Mutsuko hadn’t been at the breakfast table.

That in itself was not unusual — Mutsuko often went missing for long stretches of time — so while Yuichi was worried that his getting her angry yesterday was the cause, he also went to school convinced that she’d be back soon enough.

“White Collar Worker” no longer hung over the head of the man next door, and there were no “Middle School Student” or “High School Student” labels in sight. A completely ordinary walk to school unfurled before Yuichi’s eyes.

The next thing he knew, Aiko was walking beside him. “Hey, you seem pretty happy. What happened?”

Yuichi squinted at her, but there was definitely no label over her head. “Huh? Oh, I guess I am. I must be pretty over the moon... I didn’t even notice you come up.” She’d always been someone he could let his guard down around, anyway; if someone malicious had approached him, he surely would have noticed them, no matter how pleased with himself he was. “The truth is, Soul Reader’s gone!”

Yuichi explained to Aiko everything that had happened yesterday.

“I see,” she said. “That’s pretty great, though I feel a little sad about it. I mean, Soul Reader was the reason you saved me, after all.”

Yuichi may have only gotten mixed up in all these strange incidents because of Soul Reader, and the start of it all had been Hiromichi Rokuhara’s attack on Aiko. It was true that it had been useful in a few situations, but Yuichi wasn’t about to say he wanted it back because of just that.

“Anyway, it’s fine if you don’t want to take part in the war, but what will we do about Monika?” she went on.

“That’s a good question,” Yuichi said. “I’m still looking into that. It’s taking place at another school, after all. It would usually be Sis’s field, but...”

Apparently, twelve psychopaths were fighting over Monika’s friend. Right now they were keeping each other in check, so she wasn’t in any immediate danger, but there was no telling how long that peace would last.

“Did something happen between you and your sister?” Aiko asked.

“I said I wasn’t going to get Soul Reader back, and she got pretty mad and ran off somewhere. She hasn’t been home since yesterday.”

“Huh? Are you sure she’s okay? Um, I don’t know what you’re thinking, but a girl in high school can’t just spend a night out without permission...” Aiko asked seriously, as if genuinely worried about something.

“She’s been gone days without coming home before, so I’m not worried about that part. Besides, I don’t think talking to her right now would do either of us any good anyway.”

“Monika’s friend attends Nagizawa Academy, right?” Aiko asked. “I have a friend who goes there. Should I talk to her?”

“That’s a good idea. It would be helpful to get some perspective on the situation. Hey, are you walking closer to me than usual?”

Aiko had nearly been pressed up against Yuichi’s side for a while now.

“A-Am I? I think this is how we usually do it...” Aiko said with feigned obliviousness.

Yuichi decided it wasn’t worth worrying about.

Yuichi arrived in the classroom, and once again, there were no labels in sight.

No witches or zombies here, just a perfectly ordinary high school classroom.

I wonder if it’ll be like I never had any interaction with them at all, or whether the fact that I saw them once will mean I’m connected to them for good...

The ex-“Witch,” An Katagiri, was glaring at Yuichi as always.

Well, whether she’s a witch or not, she’s always been that way. Yuichi forced himself not to worry.

They’d already had a bit of an interaction, so that wasn’t going to go away. At the very least, this would mean fewer chances to get drawn into bizarre incidents.

As Yuichi sat down, the boy in front of him, Shota Saeki, spoke up. “You’re looking pleased with yourself.”

Naturally, the “Ace Striker” label no longer hung above his head. But surely, just because he didn’t have the label didn’t change that he was still on the soccer team.

“Guess I am,” Yuichi said. “You could say I found a cure for my headaches. I’d been really worried about it, so it’s pretty great.”

“Wow, the migraines?” Shota asked. “Can you cure those? They really bother my mom on rainy days...”

“I’m not sure. It might be a case-by-case thing. There are specialist outpatient facilities for that stuff, so maybe she could visit one of those about it?”

Yuichi worked up a fairly innocuous cover story, and just then, the teacher arrived.

“Hello, everyone! Your beloved teacher, Hanako Nodayama, is back!”

The class burst into whispers.

Early in the second term, Hanako had taken time off for poor health. Yuichi had heard that she would be coming back sooner or later, but most people had assumed she would wait until the start of third term to make the transition smoother.

As usual, she didn’t look like she belonged in the suit she was wearing, but her hair was now black and short. A change in her state of mind, perhaps.

I wonder if Shikitani did something for her...

Hanako’s condition had seemed to be primarily psychological; the cause of it had been a betrayal by her fiancé, which had in turn been caused by the Outer Makina Shikitani. But afterwards, Makina had said that she would find a way to make things right.

“Hey, it’s a little cruel to ignore your teacher when she’s back after so long,” Hanako complained. “I mean, I know it’s bad timing and all...”

The students weren’t actually looking at Hanako; they were looking at the boy in the high-collared uniform beside her.

“You may have already guessed this, but we have a transfer student today. Transfer students in high school are a thing you mainly see in dramas and manga, so this is quite the rarity! It feels like the sort of first-page-of-my-youth development you all love!”

The transfer student had blond hair and blue eyes, and there was something foreign about his features, which seemed to have piqued the girls’ interest a bit more than the boys’.

The transfer student had been casting glances at Yuichi for a while. Yuichi did recognize him, but he found himself getting more and more irritated.

“Hey-low. My nay-um is Kyow-shee-row Ee-buh-rah-kee. It is su-wuch a play-jore to meet yoo aw-ull!”

What was getting on Yuichi’s nerves was the stupid accent the guy was using.

Around lunchtime, Ibaraki came over to Yuichi’s seat. “Hey!”

“I wish you had died,” Yuichi responded without thinking.

“Hey, don’t start off with the punchline to an urban legend!”

“Let’s just say I was really hoping that losing Soul Reader might sever the connection between us.”

“What are you talking about? Isn’t Soul Reader the thing that lets you see labels? Wait, is it seriously gone?”

“I’ll explain later.”

“Huh? Sakaki, do you know the transfer student?” Shota asked while he was pushing their desks together.

“You could say that.” Yuichi brushed it off.

Even if he’d overheard the term “Soul Reader,” he probably wouldn’t understand it, but Yuichi also realized he probably shouldn’t talk about it publicly.

“Ibaraki, you’re really good at Japanese,” Shota added, impressed.

“Well, naturally. I was born in Japan and have lived here all my life. People just like it when I play the foreigner. It’s a little gag I do.”

“You think a little gag will make people accept an oni?” Yuichi muttered blackly. For some reason, everything Ibaraki did got on his nerves.

“I’m surprised, though. I wouldn’t have expected you to transfer here, Ibaraki,” Aiko said, bringing her lunch by as well.

Yuichi noticed with a hint of surprise that Aiko had brought two lunch boxes today. He didn’t remember her being much of a glutton.

“He couldn’t have transferred,” Yuichi said. “He said he just wears the uniform as a disguise and doesn’t actually go to school, right? Are you even on the national register?”

“Maybe we should save that talk for later?” Ibaraki asked.

“No, forget it. It’s not like I actually care.”

“Hey! I know that’s what you always say, but it still really stings!”

“By the way, what makes you think you can butt your way into eating with us?” Yuichi added. “Who gave you permission?”

“Sakaki, what’s the big deal?” Aiko said, mediating, and in the end, the four of them ended up eating together.

They all pulled out their lunch boxes, but Yuichi froze when he saw what lay inside of his.

“That’s a weird diet you’ve got,” Ibaraki said, peering over in disbelief.

“Wait... wait a minute. This is...”

There was a lead plate in his lunch box. It looked familiar to him; it was the same stuff he used to fine-tune his training weights.

“I’m pretty sure Yori was supposed to make my lunch today...” he murmured. Yuichi’s lunches were usually packed either by his mother or his little sister, Yoriko; today it had been Yoriko’s job. “Did I do something to make her mad? Do both of my sisters hate me now?”

It was a natural thing to think, given the situation. He tried lifting the lunch box; the weight had been calculated perfectly to avert suspicion. She must have done it this way to keep him from realizing he didn’t have a lunch.

Now that he knew what was in it, of course, he could tell that the center of balance was off, but that wasn’t something he would have foreseen.

“I never would have believed there was just nothing inside it... this is way too elaborate for a nasty prank...” Yuichi wanted to clutch his head in his hands in confusion.

“Oh, um, Sakaki. I happened to bring two lunches today. Would you like one?” Aiko hesitantly offered.

“Noro, did you and Yori plan this?” Yuichi stared hard at Aiko. It was all too suspicious.

“O-Of course not. I just accidentally made too much for one, so I brought both along with me.”

“Well, I don’t have anything to eat, so thanks.”

Aiko was clearly acting suspiciously, but Yuichi decided to eat her lunch anyway. He was pretty sure she wouldn’t try to feed him anything weird, and even if she did have an ulterior motive, it was probably nothing sinister.

“Wow, I wish a girl would make lunch for me sometime,” Shota said enviously, though Yuichi didn’t find anything enviable about having a lunch forced on him under these bizarre circumstances.

“You’re the ace of the soccer club,” he responded. “Shouldn’t the girls be all over you?”

“No, I get nothing. To the point where I’d kind of like to know why.”

Even though he was the one who brought it up, Yuichi had no interest in why Shota was unpopular with women, and he turned his attention to Aiko’s lunch. It was full of his favorite foods — which, he suspected, Yoriko must have told her about. Aiko really was a great cook.

After lunch was over, Yuichi headed for the class next door, 1-A.

“Hey, you want to know why I’m here, right?” Ibaraki asked, following along.

Yuichi tried to ignore him, but he knew that if he left him alone, he’d probably just keep talking. “No, and please leave me alone. Excuse me, could you call Shinomiya here?” he said, addressing a student about to enter the room.

Soon after, a girl with long hair showed up.

This was Furu Shinomiya, the daughter of a shrine priest, and part of a monster hunter organization. They’d met during the incident with Noro’s vampire older brother, and they were currently working together to investigate an evil presence that had arrived in the city recently.

“What is it?” the girl asked. “Do we have to discuss it at school?”

“It’s about the thing we talked about. I figured sooner was better than later.” Yuichi could have gone to the shrine first thing in the morning, but now that they knew he was the one ruining their forests, he’d felt a little reluctant to stop by. He’d decided to talk to her at lunch that day instead.

“You learned something? Okay. Let’s go to the roof, then.”

“There might be a lot of people up there around lunchtime. Are you sure?”

“I can manage a spell to keep people away, at least. By the way, who’s that? You know he’s an oni, right? What’s he doing blending in with the students?” Furu glared at Ibaraki with obvious hostility.

“I’m not with him. He just follows me around,” Yuichi explained. “If you want to vanquish him, go ahead.”

“Not with you?” Ibaraki protested. “Well, I guess I’m not, but...”

Yuichi, completely uninterested in anything Ibaraki had to say, just turned and headed for the roof. Furu followed him, muttering something under her breath.

They climbed the stairs to the roof in time to find a crowd of students on the way down.

Furu’s spell must have worked, as there was no one up on the roof by the time they got there.

“Is this one of those barrier things?” Yuichi asked.

“Just a spell to drive people away. There’s not much power in it, just enough to make people think, ‘Ugh, I’m tired of being on the roof.’” Despite her words, Furu sounded a bit proud of it.

“I wish it had an effect that would send oni flying, too,” Yuichi said.

“Huh? Why do you hate me so much? It’s bizarre. What did I ever do to you?”

“It’s amazing,” Yuichi said. “You really think we can be friends after you tried to kill me the first time we met.”

“I’ve helped you a lot since then, though,” Ibaraki protested. “You need to learn to let the trivial stuff go.”

“Yeah, whatever. Anyway, I learned what that ‘great evil’ in the city is. There might be others, but this is the big one, I think.” Ignoring Ibaraki, Yuichi explained to Furu what had happened yesterday.

“I see,” she said. “Nergal, eh? The god of Babylonian myth, trying to revive himself... Thank you for your assistance. You’ve provided some very helpful information.”

“So if you tell that monster hunter organization about it, they can handle it?”

“Yes, it should be fine. We wouldn’t be able to handle it by ourselves, but they’ve solved a lot of situations at least this bad in the past.”

“Okay! Then I can leave it all to you guys?”

“Yes. Um, I thought you’d be the nosy sort, but you really don’t seem to be interested in this at all, do you? I was gonna give you a warning not to get involved with us again, but...” Furu seemed surprised, and almost a little bit disappointed.

“I’m just an ordinary guy in high school, so this is all a little over my head,” Yuichi said. “If there are specialists out there, I think we should leave this to them. I won’t train at your shrine anymore, and I don’t think I’ll get involved with you over any more of this dangerous stuff. That’s good for you, right?”

“You lost your sight, right? That’s probably for the best. Spirits mainly tend to go after people who can see them.”

“See you, then.” With that, Yuichi headed off the roof.

“Wait a minute!” Ibaraki shouted, running after him.

“What?” Yuichi groaned in reply.

“What are you gonna do? Just bow out?”

“That was the plan. They’ve got specialists to deal with what’s going on; I don’t need to be involved. Leave it to the pros, like they say.”

“Oh, come on, you don’t think it’s a little late now? You’re already involved in a ton of stuff.”

“I probably can’t ever fully get out, yeah. But I can get rid of as many connections as possible, right?”

“I get it. So that’s why you’re brushing me off?”

“No, I’m pretty sure this is how I’ve always treated you...”

“And why are you walking so fast?” Ibaraki demanded. “I’m an oni, you know. There’s an oni in the school. Most people would want to know what that was foreshadowing!”

“I doubt it’s anything that serious. Anyway, class is about to start, so I’m heading back. If I ever get bored enough to play word games with myself, maybe I’ll ask for your story.”

There were so many other dangerous things around, the addition of one oni didn’t really change much. Yuichi decided to return to the classroom and attend his afternoon classes.

After class, Yuichi poked his face into the club room. He was with Aiko, who was a member of the club, and Ibaraki, who wasn’t but had come along anyway. The only person in the club room was the vice president, Kanako Orihara.

“Um, did my big sister show up today?” Yuichi asked.

“No, she didn’t. I think we’ll have to cancel club for today... Has something happened to her?”

The club tended to be about whatever Mutsuko, as president, wanted to talk about, so they couldn’t really do anything without her.

“She hasn’t been home since yesterday,” Yuichi explained. “Not that I’m all that worried. Knowing her, she’ll be fine...”

“Hey. I really think it’s a little weird for her not to come home at all...” Aiko said worriedly, furrowing her brow.

“Still, if she’s decided to go into hiding, there’s not much chance of finding her,” Yuichi said.

“Sakaki, can you be so sure she hasn’t been in an accident, or kidnapped by someone?” Aiko seemed to be getting tremendously upset about Yuichi’s laissez-faire attitude.

“Noro, the elder Sakaki called in this morning to let the school know that she’d be out sick,” said Kanako. “I don’t think it’s anything to be worried about.”

“Really?” Aiko sounded relieved. Yuichi was a little relieved to hear that, too. But if that was the case, it also meant that she was actively choosing not to come home or go to school.

Does that mean she really was that mad? Yuichi couldn’t be sure what Mutsuko’s motives were, but he couldn’t help but connect it to the incident from yesterday.

“Well, I guess we’ll be on our way home, then,” he said. “What will you do, Orihara?”

“I’m going to think a little bit about the subject of my next story, then head home. You can go on ahead without me.”

Now that she mentioned it, Yuichi noticed that Kanako had had a notebook open the entire time, and had been writing things in it occasionally. It was probably better not to interrupt her.

“I’m worried about Kureha, so I’d better get home,” Ibaraki said. “Sorry, I can’t walk back with you.”

“No problem. I didn’t want to walk back with you anyway.” Yuichi mustered the most cheerful smile he could.

Ibaraki left with an awkward smile on his face.

Aiko sidled up to Yuichi as they left the school. “Sakaki, you’re really hard on Ibaraki.”

“No, seriously, do I really have a single reason to be his friend?” he demanded. “Maybe you forgot, but he’s a man-eating oni, remember? You never know what he might be getting up to.”

“But he’s helped us a lot.”

She was talking about how he had helped transport things for them, and how he’d looked after Monika for a while. He did feel a little bad about using him like that, but he couldn’t help that the way Ibaraki acted like his friend still grated on his nerves.

“It’s not like I wanted him to help us,” Yuichi said. “We just didn’t have any other options.”

“Well, okay. So, how did you like going through school without Soul Reader today?”

“You know, the whole world felt a little brighter. It was great. I feel like my school life has finally really gotten started.” Yuichi looked all around him.

The students walking home from school here and there had no labels over their heads. That was their natural state, of course, yet Yuichi was realizing for the first time what a wonderful thing that was.

The labels might not have seemed like much, but you couldn’t understand it unless you’d been through it how distracting they were. It was upsetting to have all that useless information floating right in your line of sight. He’d been picking up methods to divert his attention away from the labels of late, but that wasn’t perfect either, and the fact that he’d still seen them had been a constant source of stress.

“I mean, the truth is, I still remember what everyone’s labels were, so I can’t totally ignore that stuff. But I won’t have to worry about it for people I meet in the future, and—”

Someone in the crowd spoke up, apparently overhearing them. “Oh, but you should worry. It’s so more fun that way, you know?”

“Huh?” Yuichi said.

The comment had come from a girl who had been walking ahead of him. She had actually stopped and turned back in order to address him.

They were on the pedestrian walkway heading from school to the residential district, and it was wide enough that if he wanted to, he could just step aside and walk past her. But there was something about the way the girl looked straight at Yuichi that suggested he shouldn’t ignore her. So Yuichi stopped, a short distance away.

She had red hair and wore a high school uniform that Yuichi recognized, though she looked a bit young to be in high school.

“Then I would have just been able to walk in front of you, and you’d be all, ‘There’s no label! She’s an Outer!’” the girl explained. “It’s ridiculous... but I guess Makina did something similar, so that would just be a rehash. Then again, I do love my clichés...”

“Who are you?” Yuichi stepped in front of Aiko protectively. The girl projected no hostility at the moment, but the way she spoke suggested she was connected with the Outers. That meant he could safely assume they were enemies.

“My name’s Ende,” the girl said. “As you’ve guessed, I’m an Outer. Did Monika or Makina ever mention me?”

“Dunno,” he said. “So? What is it you want?”

“Right. I’ve known about you guys so long that I feel like we’re friends, but we’ve never actually met face to face. Since I’m taking part in the fight, too, I thought I’d come and say hello.”

“Sorry to tell you, but I don’t have any Divine Vessels.” Yuichi assumed “the fight” referred to the Divine Vessels War, but he’d already given his Divine Vessels away, so there shouldn’t be any reason for its participants to come after him ever again.

“Yeah, I’m aware that you were trying to drop out,” said Ende. “I just never thought you’d really go through with it. You made your big sister furious, you know.”

“You...”

“Sakaki,” Aiko whispered nervously, probably worried that Yuichi might lose his temper.

“I’m not happy about it either,” Ende said. “I made special plans especially to beat you, see?”

“Are you trying to pick a fight?” Yuichi demanded.

“Not me. I’m not the fighting type. Of course, if I just wanted to kill you, I could do it easily enough. But that would be totally boring, no fun at all!”

“I doubt it would be that simple.” Yuichi felt annoyed by the way she said it, not as a challenge, but as a simple statement of fact. “Well? You introduced yourself, so now get lost.”

“Oh, don’t be like that,” Ende said. “Hey, as long as we’re both here, why don’t we grab a cup of tea and get to know each other better?”

“I thought you were my enemy.”

“Enemy?” Ende said. “How could someone so harmless be your enemy? You know I have absolutely no combat ability, don’t you?”

“Yeah. I can tell you don’t do martial arts and you’re not physically strong. But Outers aren’t about that, are they?”

Monika had the ability to erase people’s memories, and Makina could create enclosed spaces where others would be forced to play games under the rules she set. All Outers had abilities based on the worldviews they came from.

“Oh, yeah, but I don’t have that stuff, either,” Ende assured him. “I can’t do a thing all by myself. I think you probably know that, too.”

“What do you mean?” he demanded.

“Just what I said. Even when you’re fighting a magic user or someone with superpowers, you can predict any attack they’re about to use, and pinpoint their weak points and stuff. I don’t know how it works exactly, but I bet that same instinct is telling you that I’m completely harmless.”

Ende was right about that. Yuichi could anticipate anything, even magic he’d never seen before. He could read intent from his opponents, and any attack, even magic and superpowers, was presaged by intent. Some sign of what they were about to do would always show itself somewhere on their body in a way that told him that something was coming.

“In a real match, you never get a second chance” was a philosophy that his sister had drummed into his head. No matter who you were facing, even if you had no idea what they could do, you had to immediately ascertain their intent, and find a way to deal with it. It was the only way to win. If you couldn’t do that, you would die.

This unreasonable training of his sister’s had driven him to the brink of death many times, but the process had also raised his combat awareness to superhuman levels. That same awareness was telling him that Ende was completely harmless.

“Well, it’s not so much about getting to know each other as it is about giving you a bit of advice... a warning,” Ende said. “If you want to hang on to your peaceful high school life, you’d better hear me out.”

He didn’t know what she was after, but she didn’t seem to be lying.

“Nero! Are you here?” Yuichi called to nowhere in particular. Soon, a canine shape came around a corner and trotted toward them.

“What is it?” It was the werewolf Nero. He was one of the vampire Aiko’s retainers, and had sworn his loyalty to her. He could take human, wolfman, and wolf forms, and in the city, he disguised himself as a wolf-dog.

“Take Noro home,” Yuichi ordered. “I’m going to hear Ende out.”

“Huh?” Aiko stared in surprise, perhaps not expecting to hear him say that.

“She’s an Outer,” Yuichi said. “We don’t know what she might try, and I’m the only one she’s after.”

“Fine,” she said, after a pause. “Let’s go, Nero.”

After thinking it over a little, she must have realized that she’d just hold him back if things came to a fight, so she did as she was told and went off ahead.

“Now, shall we have some tea and a little chat?” Ende said. “Though I’m surely insufficient compared to the beautiful girls who usually surround you.”

She and Yuichi headed back toward the station.

“I’ve always wanted to come here once,” Ende told him. “It’s had a lot of mentions since I started following you.”

They were sitting in the cafe near the station, the same one that the runaway truck had crashed into during summer vacation. Yuichi had come here often since then.

“It’s really not all that special...” Yuichi said, feeling deflated.

It was starting to seem like she really didn’t have any combat abilities. He had intentionally given her a few obvious openings, and even made like he was going to attack her, yet she hadn’t reacted once. It wasn’t that he had let his guard down, but he was starting to feel foolish for keeping it up all the time.

“Anyway, we’re here now. What do you want to talk about?” he asked.

He was sitting in his usual seat by the window, with Ende sitting across from him. He had a feeling they’d never get to the main subject unless he forced it, so he tried to nudge her in that direction.

“You know, I’m surprised you came right along,” Ende said. “You must be very confident...”

“Can I go now?” Yuichi stood up, a little irritated by her belittling manner.

“Well, you know, it’s about the Divine Vessels War. Would you mind rejoining it?” Ende asked, as if it were a simple enough request.

“Absolutely not,” Yuichi answered immediately, having expected this to happen.

“Please, reconsider. As I said earlier, I’ve made special arrangements to beat you. If you won’t take part in the Divine Vessels War, I’ll have to resort to other measures.”

At a glance, it sounded like a threat, but Yuichi felt no malice or provocation in her words. It was a maddening feeling; he knew she was his enemy, but she jabbered on like they were old friends.

“I don’t know why you want to beat me so badly,” Yuichi shot back. “I’ve never even met you before. What do you have against me?”

He’d certainly earned his share of enmity in his time, so it was possible he’d done something to earn her resentment without realizing it. But he couldn’t remember ever meeting a girl named Ende before.

Her response was a dismissive laugh. “Come on, you heard from Makina about what Outers were, didn’t you? Generally we just like to kill time. At first, I was just trying to kill your big sister out of annoyance. But when that didn’t go well, I developed more interest in the both of you.”

“So you’re after my sister, huh?” Yuichi asked. “What’s your beef with her, exactly?”

“Soul Reader.”

“I told you, I don’t have it anymore... and besides, it belonged to Monika first. You shouldn’t have any reason to care about it.”

“Oh, but I do. You know that Soul Reader is a fundamental ability that all Outers possess, don’t you?”

“She did mention that, yeah...”

“The ability didn’t originally have a name. It was just something all Outers could do, so there was no need for one. But then your sister gave it a name!”

“Um, so?” he said. It was true that it was a ridiculous name, but Yuichi couldn’t see why Outers cared what his big sister called it.

“Call it a blind spot, I guess,” Ende said. “No one ever named it; no one ever invoked their right to name it. But then your sister did, and now it’s Soul Reader in perpetuity. It’s ridiculous!”

“Why can’t you just call it something else?”

“I can. I can call it whatever I want. But I’m still stuck with the feeling that no matter how I try to fight it, it’s just ‘Soul Reader’ by another name. The power to read things is called Soul Reader, and no matter how I try to change that, I can’t. It’s very annoying.”

“I don’t quite understand what you mean,” Yuichi said. “Is it a first-come-first-serve thing? So if I just give a random name to something, that’s what the name becomes?”

“Not you. Your sister can do it because she’s a Worldview Holder.” Ende smiled a knowing smile and watched Yuichi’s reaction curiously. “Hmm,” she said, after a moment. “You don’t seem very surprised. Wasn’t that a shocking revelation?”

“Eh... we’ve been through a lot,” he said. “I’d be more surprised by the revelation that she was a completely ordinary person. Telling me she has a worldview and that she can use it to influence things around her seems a lot more in tune with what I’ve observed.”

“Well, all right. The point is, I’m annoyed that she put a name on something without asking anyone. So I tried to kill you all, but I failed.”

“Are you the one who sent Makina after us?” he demanded. That was the only time an Outer had gone after them directly, so Yuichi wondered if Ende was behind that.

“No, it was earlier than that,” Ende said. “I’m the one who arranged things so that you’d go to Kurokami Island. I never thought you’d actually kill that anthromorph god... Anyway, that’s when I started to have interest in you, and seeing you in action made me want to start to meddle.”

“Then it’s all over, right? Now that I’ve lost Soul Reader, I’ll never do anything interesting again.”

“I see,” she said. “It sounds like I’ll have to find a way to motivate you.”

So that was that, in the end. She just didn’t want to have to cancel the plan or whatever that she’d set up to kill time, and that was why she’d gone out of her way to appear before Yuichi.

“Let’s see. If you refuse to participate, maybe I should just kill you right now,” Ende said, casually.

Yuichi could tell she wasn’t lying.