Chapter 1: Ama-no-Iwato?

Chapter 1: Ama-no-Iwato?

The clattering of the cart reverberated through the hallway. I tried to walk quickly but carefully, making sure the food on the dish riding on the cart didn’t spill anywhere. When I brought food to his room, I covered it with a cloche to keep dust off, but it wouldn’t stop the food from gradually going cold, starting the moment I put it on the plate. It couldn’t reach him fast enough.

Shinichi-sama had said once that food was delicious when it was served so hot you had to blow on it while you ate, and so whenever I served anything grilled or fried, I made sure to heat the plate ahead of time by soaking it in hot water, and furthermore, I was careful to serve it in a timely manner.

“Shinichi-sama...”

In just a matter of moments, I was outside his door. A door I had become intimately used to seeing—or at least passing by. The door to the room of my master, Shinichi-sama.

And yet, I felt a hesitation as I went to knock. Obviously I couldn’t just stand out here; the food would go cold, and nothing good would come of that. So I took a deep breath, knocked, and called out. “Shinichi-sama, it’s Myusel. I’ve brought your dinner.”

Shinichi-sama was on the other side of the door; he had to be. He must have heard me speak to him. I strained my ears so as not to miss the slightest sound emanating from the room, and I detected motion within. My ears, the bequest of my elven blood, could hear Shinichi-sama getting up and coming over to the door.

Today—today, at last, he would let me see his face.

Such, at least, was the hope that flared faintly in my chest. But...

“Oh...”

The door didn’t open; instead, a single sheet of paper was slid out underneath it. I knelt and retrieved it. It contained a short sentence in Ja-panese. I haven’t any education, so I can’t read or write the Eldant language, but Shinichi-sama was kind enough to teach me his own, so that I can read hiragana easily.

Just leave it there, the note said. Please.

It was in Shinichi-sama’s handwriting; I would know it anywhere. He had been kind enough to write the whole thing in hiragana so it would be easy for me to read.

“U-Um... Sir...!” I spoke almost before I knew what I was doing, clutching the piece of paper. But I didn’t know how to continue, so I didn’t say anything at all. Trying to make excuses at this point would just be pitiful. All I could do was wait for Shinichi-sama’s anger to pass.

I only let out a sigh and parked the cart next to the wall. “It’s right beside the door,” I said, but as I expected, there was no answer. “Shinichi-sama...”

I turned and went toward the kitchen, back down the hallway the way I had come.

As I walked, I un-crinkled the note in my hand and looked at it again. How many was this now? Breakfast, lunch, and dinner—three notes a day. I had lost track of how long it had been since Shinichi-sama had shut himself up in his room. I got one of these pieces of paper each time I brought him a meal, but I never saw his face, or even heard his voice.

I was flooded with loneliness. And what was more, I was worried about Shinichi-sama’s health—though you might think it silly of me after I had subjected him to such violence.

“Shinichi-sama...” The whisper dropped from my lips and fell to the ground. The depression was almost like a physical presence behind me, pressing in, darkening the hallway as I walked along.

I pressed my ear to the door, listening carefully. I waited until I heard Myusel—Myusel Fourant, my maid who had so kindly brought me food—retreat safely down the hallway, and then I slowly counted to ten before I opened the door.

I glanced right, then left—no one around. Just as Myusel had said, the cart of food was positioned neatly next to the wall. It was the sort of thing commonly used to deliver fancy Western dishes, everything placed under a half-spherical metal covering—I guess it was called a cloche. I delicately picked it up and found my dinner, all neatly arranged on a single plate.

I pulled my dinner, the cart, and everything into my room and locked the door, then moved the plate to my desk along with a silver knife, fork, and spoon. I sat in my chair and clapped my hands together. “Itadakimasu,” I murmured, like any good Japanese does before a meal, and then I started in on the food Myusel had made for me.

Ahh... Delicious.

Myusel had always been an excellent cook. The food had cooled off a little, sure, but it was of such high quality that it was still good. Sure, it could add to the flavor to eat at the table with everybody jabbering around you, but savoring a meal all alone wasn’t bad, either.

That’s right. For the past week, I had been taking my meals alone in my room. Other than taking baths and using the bathroom—both of which I did in the dead of night, when everyone else was asleep—I didn’t emerge from my room. For a while, I’d had the excuse that bandages and muscular pain had kept me bedridden, but all that was better by now.

I spontaneously found myself a hikikomori, a shut-in, someone who wouldn’t come out of his room. This room.

The reason... well, it went back to a commotion from a good ten days ago.

Myusel Fourant.

Petralka an Eldant III.

And Elvia Harneiman.

The three girls had been in a war for the heart of Kanou Shinichi (that’s me). To be even more direct, I had discovered that love triangles (or would that be a love square?) are hell. Of course, I hadn’t touched any of them, so I’m not sure if you can call it any kind of love shape...

Something called “forbidden armor” had been found deep in the storehouses of Eldant Castle, and the girls had ended up wearing it. It caused them to spout their true feelings with no filter at all, and had ultimately led to a battle with me as the prize.

In hopes of stopping them, I had put on a suit of forbidden armor myself and jumped into the fray—but then I didn’t have any filter either, and the enraged girls ended up using me as a punching bag.

I had been on bed rest until the wounds healed. They hadn’t been hitting me so much as the forbidden armor, so despite some nasty bruises, I was back to normal in a couple of days. And honestly, the only reason it had taken that long was because, carried away by the exuberance of piloting a superweapon, I had put on a bit too much of a show and ended up unbearably sore. So being made a punching bag hadn’t actually been my main problem—although without the forbidden armor, which was designed to enhance people’s abilities in battle, taking a punch from another suit of forbidden armor would probably have caused me to explode.

But anyway.

Bed rest meant no school and no work, just stuck in my room reading manga and playing cell phone games to pass the time in between the meals Myusel brought me. I declined visitors, claiming I needed to focus on getting better. Since I had turned down a visit from Petralka, the Empress of the Eldant Empire, I could hardly go admitting anyone else.

I was, if you will, a completely legitimate (?) home security guard. And you know what? It was nicer than I had expected. Even when I turned down Petralka, it wasn’t so much because I was really afraid it would somehow interfere with my recovery, but rather because I was feeling so restless.

I had attracted the attentions of three different girls, and I found myself unable to choose any one of them. Then I had managed to tick them all off by saying everything I really thought. My heart wasn’t strong enough for me, after all that, to smile and say, “Hey, thanks for the visit!”

It was just too much, in any number of ways.

What other effects had the forbidden armor had? Well, maybe the girls felt better after beating me up together, because Myusel, Petralka, and Elvia were getting along famously, as if there had never been any argument, and it didn’t even seem like they were still mad at me. But... nonetheless, it was extremely difficult for me to face any of them.

“Sigh...”

Just the memory of it was enough to bring a sigh to my lips. And that wasn’t even the only problem I had. Apparently, when Loek and Romilda, two of my students, had come to check on me, somebody—maybe Minori-san or Hikaru-san—had spilled the beans to them about the forbidden armor. And then—in the style of a telephone game, with some details dropping out or changing and others being added—the story of the battle had spread among the other students.

And I could hardly go to school like that.

I could just imagine the scene if I did: the whispers, the pointing and laughing. I wouldn’t be able to endure it. I had come to a whole separate world—had hoped to do so many things differently, and sometimes had even managed it—and here I was, still a laughingstock.

Why does this have to happen to me?!

Er... Well, actually, I was painfully aware of why. But the point was, here in this other world, I was a shut-in once again. That was twice now, in two different worlds. Not that I was keeping score.

As I ate, silently, I kept my eyes fixed on the LCD monitor on my desk. It was showing the display from my computer, currently the interface screen of a gal game. An adorable 2D girl was looking at me, her eyes moist.

So cute. She was just so sweet.

A text window was open just below her picture, a cursor flashing as it awaited my choice. This game had been on my pile for a while, languishing with all the others I hadn’t been able to get to because I’d been busy. Now that I was finally starting it, I discovered how lovable and moe-able the heroines were.

“Oh, sweet Haruka-tan...” I whispered, leaning forward in my chair. I hadn’t had a character hit my moe buttons so hard in a long time. She was sweet and pure, totally committed, an upright leading lady of a kind you don’t see much of these days. Yet she deliberately avoided wearing her long, black hair down, keeping it in manageable twintails instead. It was transcendent, but at the same time, she was an excellent cook, loved to do housework—really the domestic type. But it was the occasional flashes of clumsiness that really lit my fire........................

Long pause.

What was this feeling of déjà vu I was getting? Eh, probably nothing.

“Anyway, I can hardly bear for this route to end! I wonder if they’ll make an anime out of this game. Or maybe we could get a sequel or a spinoff. Bah, but it would be pointless if the spinoff didn’t have Haruka-tan in it!”

The terrible truth... was that I was enjoying my shut-in life. I had my excuses, my reasons, my proximate causes, like being embarrassed to see Myusel and the others, or being afraid of being laughed at at school. But once I had settled into this lifestyle, I kind of got stuck in it—or maybe I should say it was so comfortingly familiar, so downright pleasant, that I had trouble getting out again.

Besides, I had all these games I hadn’t played, books I hadn’t read, DVDs I hadn’t watched. I just hadn’t had the free time. But now I had all the time I needed, and Myusel was bringing meals right to my door. I could do whatever I wanted. Okay, so I had to bathe after everyone had gone to sleep, like I mentioned, but other than that, staying shut away in my room really had no downsides.

“I even remembered how to use a water bottle!”

Some people might have frowned at that, but there was no one here to shoot back at me. I was alone in my room. I could eat in bed, play my gal games buck naked, it didn’t matter. No one would scold me. The girls on my monitor would just sit there smiling at me until I clicked on something.

What release! What freedom!

I sped through the meal Myusel had brought me, clapped my hands together again—“Go-chisou-sama!”—put the plate back on the cart, and reached for the mouse to resume my game.

“Hoo hoo hoo hoo hoo...” I couldn’t help chuckling to myself as I went back to working on the heroine.

Let me take this opportunity to be completely honest: the shut-in life is the best!

I looked up when I heard the long, heavy sigh. Minori-sama had her cheek pressed against the dinner table, looking rather melancholy.

“Um, Minori-sama, was the food not to your liking?”

“Huh?” She blinked in confusion, then shook her head quickly when she realized what I had asked. “No, no, that’s not it at all. Your cooking was the best, Myusel, just like it always is.” She smiled, although it wasn’t quite a happy one.

Koganuma Minori-sama. Shinichi-sama’s bodyguard and a member of an organization called the Jay Ess Dee Eff. This was, I gathered, the army of Ja-pan, though when I asked Minori-sama whether I understood that correctly, she just gave me a half-smile and said I should “think of it as something a little different.” I didn’t really understand.

But setting that aside...

“But that sigh...”

“Minori-san’s sigh can mean only one thing.”

This came from Ayasaki Hikaru-sama, likewise seated at the table. Like Shinichi-sama, Hikaru-sama came to spread Ja-pan’s otaku culture in the Eldant Empire. He was originally chosen to replace Shinichi-sama, but now he was more of a subordinate, almost a companion.

He sipped his tea luxuriously, putting the white ceramic cup to his lips, giving the slightest shake of his long, black hair. He looked quite beautiful and refined, radiating a sort of eroticism that appealed even to me, a woman. I would never be able to be as elegant as he was. Seeing him there, effortlessly beautiful, it felt like it must have been some kind of mistake that he was a man.

“You mean... Shinichi-sama?”

I poured him another cup of after-dinner tea, and Minori-sama gave another long sigh. “What else could it be?” she said.

“I’m very sorry...” I bent myself nearly in half in my bow of apology.

It was my fault that Shinichi-sama wouldn’t come out of his room.

But Minori-sama and Hikaru-sama both shook their heads and smiled.

“Why should you apologize, Myusel?” Minori-sama said.

“Yeah, it’s not your fault.”

“But—” I said, and stopped. I heard footsteps coming down the hall.

Elf ears are not just long for show. We have much better hearing than other races. I’m just half elf, but even so, I had the best hearing of anyone in the room. I could detect the approaching footsteps even though we were right in the middle of a conversation.

There were three people coming. I could even take a good guess who they were based on subtle differences in their footfalls.

“No reaction at all!”

The complaint came from a beautiful, but rather petite, girl with long, silver hair who appeared in the kitchen.

Empress Petralka an Eldant III. She was the ruler of the Holy Eldant Empire. Normally she would never even speak to someone of my station, let alone sit at the same table as me, but for a whole host of reasons, she had taken me into her fold and in fact treated me quite well.

“Are you certain Shinichi is in there?”

Behind the empress came a lovely man with silver hair just like hers. Minister Garius en Cordobal was Her Majesty’s cousin and head of the country’s military, including the royal guard. Finally there came...

“I could smell Shinichi-sama, I’m telling you!”

Elvia Harneiman-san. She had ears and a tail like those of an animal, because she was a beast person—a werewolf. She had also once been a spy for the neighboring Kingdom of Bahairam, but now she lived at this mansion (another rather long story). It seemed neither Her Majesty nor Minister Cordobal were suspicious of her any longer, hence why she could walk casually along with them.

Her Majesty. And Elvia-san. When it came to Shinichi-sama, they and I had... Well, we had fought. I still trembled to remember it. Elvia-san was one thing, but for me, a subject of the Eldant Empire, to do battle with the revered Empress, should have been unthinkable. It could easily have resulted in me being beheaded, but Her Majesty, in her mercy, had quickly proclaimed that I was not to be punished.

“She was under the control of the ‘forbidden armor.’ As we were.”

This “forbidden armor” had an unfortunate way of bringing out whatever was most deeply buried in the wearer. We aren’t normally used to announcing our deepest secrets to everyone within hearing, or to being privy to the secrets of others. Confusion was the result, and honesty began to sound like fighting words, until we were carried away by the madness of it all. That was the primary problem with the forbidden armor. It was a bit like getting drunk on very strong wine. Thinking of it that way, it was obvious why the armor would have been forbidden.

“Shinichi-kun can be such a handful when he wants to,” Minori-sama sighed. “Her Majesty and Garius-san specifically came here to visit him...”

“Perhaps he failed to respond because he is collapsed in his room. Are you quite certain he is okay?”

“Myusel brought him dinner just a few minutes ago, and got her usual ‘letter’ back.” Minori-sama showed Her Majesty and the others the note. I received one of them each time I brought food, assuring me at least that Shinichi-sama was still alive. But we hadn’t seen his face in over a week. It was possible he could be quite sick, and still be well enough to write a letter. The thought made me distinctly uncomfortable.

“I suspect he’s fine,” Hikaru-sama said. “He’s probably just sleeping, or maybe taking a stab at that tower of unread books he had.”

“Here you are,” I said, presenting Her Majesty, Minister Cordobal, and Elvia-san with fresh cups of tea. Incidentally, the cup for Minister Cordobal was steaming hot, but I let Her Majesty’s and Elvia-san’s cool for a few minutes before serving them. Elvia-san lived here, of course, and the other two visited with some regularity, so I had learned their preferred temperatures.

“But in one sense, he is very ill,” Minori-sama said, her smile widening. “Though I guess I don’t blame him for feeling a little traumatized.” Feeling more than seeing her glance in my direction, I instinctively looked at the ground. Minori-sama had been present for the denouement of the events with the forbidden armor, so she could guess why Shinichi-sama had retreated to his room.

It really was my fault, I felt. My spirits had been so high—or at any rate, when I looked back I could see how weirdly excited I had been—that it had led me to the unconscionable act of raising a hand against Shinichi-sama, even if it was at the instigation of Her Majesty. We weren’t striking Shinichi-sama personally, but rather the forbidden armor he was wearing, all in hopes of getting him out of it. But still... Her Majesty was one thing, but I, a mere maid, and Elvia-san, our household artist, had physically attacked our very master. Shinichi-sama himself had probably never expected us to do such a thing—of course it would have been a shock.

“Um... I...”

“I guess ’s all my fault...” Elvia-san said, her tail drooping.

“No. There’s one person at fault here, and it’s Shinichi-san,” Hikaru-sama said coolly. “He’s a yutz, he doesn’t know what he wants, and this is all his fault. Elvia, Myusel, you don’t have anything to feel bad about. Frankly, I’ve been wanting to smack him myself.”

“Uh...huh.” Elvia-san and I looked at each other.

Hikaru-sama took a sip of tea and continued, “But even so, we can’t leave him like this.”

“At the very least, we need him to do his job,” Minori-sama said, crossing her arms. “I know how busy he’s been, and I was leaving him alone because I thought this might be a nice break, but... You’re right. He can’t live in his room. It’s a pain in the neck, not being able to see him or even talk to him.”

“It’s like he thinks he’s in the Heavenly Cave,” Hikaru-sama said, his voice thick with sarcasm. “Although he’s got the gender backwards.”

“Heavenly Cave? Whazzat?” Elvia-san asked. This expression, ama-no-iwato in Japanese, was completely new to her—and to me, and Her Majesty, and Minister Cordobal. We looked at Hikaru-sama for an explanation.

“It’s a Japanese myth,” he said. “There was this goddess who got upset because of some unpleasant stuff that had happened to her. She shut herself up in her room and refused to come out, or so the story goes.”

“That does indeed sound like Shinichi.” Her Majesty, teacup in hand, pursed her lips.

Minori-sama gave a shrug. “It sure doesn’t help that he’s got experience doing this. He’s weirdly, like, talented at being a shut-in. You know his parents smashed through his door with a chainsaw to get him to come out last time? That’s what I heard, anyway. Now I believe it. Plus, the rooms around here have those magical locks on them.”

Just as Minori-sama said, each room of this house was equipped with a magical lock; if you didn’t have the key, the door would never open, no matter what you did. I had a backup key for each room, but when the door was also locked from the inside, there wasn’t much I could do. It would always be possible to use force: undo the magical lock with my backup key, then destroy the door—the entire wall, if necessary—to gain access to Shinichi-sama’s room. But I hesitated to do that, knowing it would only hurt Shinichi-sama worse.

“Unfortunately, even if we bust in there, it won’t solve the root problem,” Hikaru-sama said, as if he had been reading my mind.

“Yeah, we’ve got to get him to come out of his own free will. It really is like the Heavenly Cave.” Minori-sama didn’t seem to have any fresh ideas, either, and she trailed off into grumbling. A moment later, though, she exclaimed, “Oh!” and clapped her hands. “You know what they say—when pushing doesn’t work, try pulling.”

“Meaning?” Minister Cordobal asked.

“We send you into Shinichi-kun’s room, Garius-san. How about it?”

“Me?” Minister Cordobal gave her a quizzical look.

“That would bring Shinichi-kun rushing right out!”

For some reason, this seemed to make Minori-sama very happy. The minister was oddly warm towards the idea, too, to judge by the amused look on his face as he nodded and said, “I see, I see.” Then he added, “Wouldn’t that be opening a rather different door?”

“Let it open!”

“If mistrust of women is what’s keeping him in there, it’s not a great solution,” Hikaru-sama said with a dry smile. “Anyway, getting in won’t be easy.”

“How about breaking the door down, or crawling in through the air duct?” Minori-sama suggested.

“You think these medieval-style houses have air ducts? And I vote no on busting the door down, too. We might get him out of the room for a moment, but he’d only find another one,” Hikaru-sama replied.

“Boo.” Minori-sama looked disappointed, but she didn’t pursue the subject, or try to press her idea of sending the minister in. “If nothing else, I guess it’s not as bad as the last time he went shut-in around here.”

“Wait, there was a last time?” Hikaru-sama said. “Here in Eldant?”

“Oh yeah, I guess that was before you got here.”

I remembered that time, myself. It was just shortly after Shinichi-sama had arrived in Eldant. He had started referring to himself as an “invader” sent from Ja-pan. The idea seemed to distress him very much. All this had been well before Hikaru-sama had come here.

“To be fair, I think it’s just Myusel, Her Majesty, and Elvia that Shinichi-kun is terrified of, so if we really have to get in touch with him, I could do it. But I don’t think I could manage much just arguing with him through the door.”

“And you can’t just stand outside that door forever.”

“It would be nice if we could at least phone him, but there are no phones around h— oh.” Minori-sama clapped her hands as if she had just thought of something. “There’s no phone lines, but there is wireless LAN.”

“That’s right, an experimental network was introduced for this house and the school, wasn’t it? Although we’ve only been using it to back up the computers.”

“We could use a messenger program on there to fill in for a telephone.”

“That just might work...”

Minori-sama and Hikaru-sama were nodding at each other. I could only understand that they were talking about some sort of device from Ja-pan. “Wy-erless” and “meszenjers” didn’t mean much to me. Or any of the other locals in the room with me. All we could do was blink at each other.

The sky above was rosy, and the girl’s eyes were moist as she looked at me.

“Uh... Um...” She seemed to be getting up her nerve. Was it the twilight that made her cheeks look so red, or...? “This might be my last chance to say anything. So I’m gonna say it. For real.”

Oh ho! And what might she have to say to me? I proceeded delicately, aware of the pounding of my heart.

She glanced down ever so slightly. “I... You know, Shinichi-kun, I’ve always...”

“Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaamn straight! Here it comes!!” I pounded the fist of my left hand into the open palm of my right. The shy voice I could hear through my speakers, that flushing face I could see on my display. There was nothing more touching than the sweet befuddlement of a girl about to confess.

Ahh, the route is complete!

I had worked my way through one obnoxious branch after another, save-scumming along, and now all my effort would finally bear fruit...! I had effectively cleared this game’s transfer-student path. The old-friend and kouhai routes were the first things I took care of; all that was left was the sempai path, notorious for being the most difficult in the game. I guess to end up with Sempai, you had to clear the transfer-student path first, then shoot her down on your next playthrough.

Meaning, in short, that this game didn’t allow a harem ending. Sure. Fair enough. Harem play, that was no good, right? No loyalty to your girl. Yep, uh-huh.

Pretty sure I feel a whole bunch of prickling in my heart right now, but I’m gonna ignore it!

“Ah, being a shut-in is great... And 2D is perfect...!” I clenched my fists in front of my chest, giving a rapturous sigh.

I’d been so busy with so many things recently that I hadn’t had time to just sit down and really play through a gal game. It led to a pile of about a dozen games in my room that I had managed to import from Japan, which was great and all, but which I hadn’t even cracked open the packaging on. Since I finally had a few minutes, I had opened one up and started in on it, only to be reminded how much fun it was.

“And they don’t hit you! And since it’s all branching paths, there’s never a moment where the main girls look at each other and turn the place into a battlefield!”

What a wonderful thing, two dimensions!

I was up to my neck in moe at the prospect of the confession by the girl on the other side of the screen, but as a battle-tested “gal gamer,” I knew that the first thing to do was keep a cool head. We were probably about to get into an avalanche of kiss scenes, but in order to be able to come back and enjoy this delicious moment in “memory mode” any time I wanted, it was imperative that I create a save.

Call up main menu. Click Save.

And that was when I noticed the flashing icon off to one side, outside the game window. Some kind of alert.

“What’s this thing?”

I really doubted it was a virus or anything. I clicked on the icon.

A new window opened—an oblong chat window from a messenger application. This app let you talk one-on-one with people. It came preloaded on the machine, so it was no surprise it was there, but I had never paid it much mind. Messenger apps don’t do a lot of good with no internet.

So why was I seeing it now?

The window indicated somebody was inviting me to chat.

“Oh,” I said when I saw the username: Minori_K. “Minori-san?”

That’s right—we’d had wireless LAN installed in the mansion as well as at the school not too long ago. There was too much interference trying to run a wire through the hyperspace wormhole, not to mention the risk of virus infection and information leakage, so there was no direct network connection between this world and Japan. Matoba-san—the bureaucrat who served as go-between for our company, Amutech, on this side of the hole and the Japanese government on the other—had to travel back and forth frequently because it was the surest and safest way to do things.

But that was only a problem where hyperspace wormholes were involved. On the assumption that something with a far more limited scope—something purely within the territory of the Eldant Empire, for example—would work just fine, we had recently laid some test wire. It was great for forwarding school papers and keeping records, and best of all, it finally let us indulge students’ demands to try the networking functions on systems like the 3TS.

At the moment, our “network” only really consisted of three places: this mansion, the school, and the JSDF garrison, all connected by optical fiber. We just had a server and a wireless access point in each building. That meant we’d had access to the messenger program for a while now, too, but since we all saw each other around the house, there wasn’t much cause to use it.

“But I guess with me being a shut-in now and all...”

When I opened the chat window, there was just one sentence:

“How about you come out of there already?”

It was just words on the screen, but I could practically see Minori-san rolling her eyes as she typed at her keyboard.

I responded with about the shortest possible answer:

“No.”

The words “Minori_K is typing” appeared and disappeared a few times, then another sentence finally showed up. I guess Minori-san had been kind enough to wait by her computer until I responded.

“Everyone’s worried about you.”

“Liar!” I replied, attaching a picture of a girl in a white one-piece holding a hatchet. “I know what you’ll do if I come out of this room. You’ll all point and laugh at me!”

“No, we won’t.”

“Then you’ll all hit me! My own father never hit me!” To this I attached a picture of a certain pilot.

“What, really? Never?”

“Hey, I was just trying to make a G*ndam reference! No fair taking it so seriously!”

“I was never that into the original series. I was all about Wing.”

Well, she was a fujoshi.

“Got smacked by my mom a few times, tho. (Also by my sister.)”

“Yeah, and by Her Majesty the first day you met. I guess there’s just something really smack-able about you, Shinichi-kun.”

“Smack-able!”

“Or maybe it’s, like, your destiny or something.”

“Feeling a lot of despair, here!”

And so on and so forth. After a bit more of this maybe-meaningful-maybe-not chitchat, I finally concluded:

“Anyway, I’m not coming out of my room! No way, no how!”

I thought that would be the end of it, but after a moment, another sentence appeared:

“Fine, then.”

Then her status icon changed to “Away.”

I guess she had finally given up.

“Phew...” I closed my eyes, and felt a huge smile spread across my face. “I won!”

I mean, even I didn’t really know what I had won, or how, but whatever.

“Back to work!”

I made sure I had my save point, then continued to attack the transfer-student route in my game.

Minori-sama sighed as she leaned away from her ‘lap-top com-puter.’ We had moved from the dining room into the living room, and had been trying to use the ‘meszenjer’ to contact Shinichi-sama, as we had discussed earlier.

“What happened?” Her Majesty demanded, leaning forward from her place on the sofa.

“Nothing happened,” Minori-sama said, shaking her head. “I couldn’t get him to come around.”

That caused Her Majesty to sigh as well, clearly just as dispirited as Minori-sama. I thought she must also have felt some responsibility for Shinichi-sama’s being shut up in his room.

“If he was going to come out just because you sent him some texts via instant messenger, I don’t think things would have gotten this bad in the first place,” Hikaru-sama said calmly. He seemed to have expected this outcome. He sipped his tea, looking quite fresh as he said, “I think using the messenger app is a good idea, though. Sometimes it gives you a sort of psychological cushion. Like, it can be a little easier to say what you’re really thinking when you can do it through text.”

“Maybe?” Minori-sama said.

“Let’s not write off talking to him this way.”

“These Ja-panese thingamabobs are really useful,” Elvia-san said, eyeing the ‘lap-top’ with curiosity. She had seen and even used such a device several times, but this was the first time she had seen it used in quite this way. I suppose I wasn’t one to talk: I was no more familiar with this ‘instant meszenjer’ than she was.

“This means we can make minimal contact at least, I guess,” Minori-sama said, sinking into the sofa. Another sigh. “The question is what we do from here. What’s the next step?”

“Yeah, it’s not like there’s best practices for dealing with shut-ins,” Hikaru-sama said, clearly troubled.

If the two of them couldn’t think of anything, then the rest of us here were as good as useless.

I was just about to heave a sigh myself when I had a thought. “Um, Hikaru-sama,” I said experimentally. “The god in the story of the Heavenly Cave that you told us—did she stay in there forever?”

“Nah, they got her out of there in the end,” he said with a smile. “The story goes that the other gods threw this huge party right outside the cave. They sounded like they were having so much fun that the goddess peeked out of the cave in spite of herself, and...” Hikaru-sama stopped in midsentence, as if he’d had a thought. He put one of his fingers to his chin, so delicate you could hardly believe it belonged to a man, and cocked his head. “You know, the Heavenly Cave makes a pretty good metaphor. That just might work.”

“What might work?” Minister Cordobal inquired.

Hikaru-sama held up one finger. “Having a crazy good time.”

“I get it,” Minori-sama said. “Have so much fun out here that Shinichi-kun won’t be able to help wanting to be part of it.” She nodded eagerly. “Make it as lively as possible...”

“You’re talkin’ about a party!” Elvia-san said, holding her hand up. “Everyone drinkin’ and eatin’! And eatin’ and drinkin’!”

“That’s how we always act at meal times, though,” Minori-sama said. “And sure, there’s usually drinking at parties, but we can’t go giving alcohol to minors...”

“Minors? To whom do you refer?” Her Majesty looked around pointedly. Elvia-san and I both shook our heads.

“Well, Your Majesty and Myusel and Elvia are all... I get it, we’re in Eldant, aren’t we?” Minori-sama shrugged.

In point of fact, the age of majority in the Holy Eldant Empire was sixteen years for most purposes. So myself, Her Majesty, and Elvia-san were all adults, and by the local standards, Minori-sama and Hikaru-sama were both very much of the age of majority as well.

“In Japan, you’re not allowed to drink until you’re twenty,” Hikaru-sama explained. “But I guess this is Eldant and there’s no reason we should worry too much about that.”

“It is quite possible to have a party without alcohol,” Her Majesty said, standing up from the sofa. “Leave it to Garius and ourselves. We will throw a party the entire nation will—”

“I don’t think we need to go that far,” Minori-sama said. “If it gets too big, it’ll defeat the point. We need to be able to wave it in Shinichi-kun’s face. Ideally, we could do it in the hallway, right outside his room.”

She was right that if the objective was to make the goings-on irresistibly fun for Shinichi-sama, there would be no purpose to holding a gathering somewhere far from his room. This mansion was on the outskirts of the capital. In the castle, we could make as much noise as we wanted, and I highly doubted it would carry this far.

“I mean, it doesn’t have to be in the hallway exactly,” Hikaru-sama said.

“Yeah,” Minori-sama added, “I could send him pictures of all the fun we’re having via instant messenger.” The two of them nodded at each other. “Of course, that would mean being close enough to use the wireless LAN, so we would either have to do it here in the house, or at school. Or at the garrison, I guess.”

“That narrows down the possible venues. What do we do at this party?”

Minori-sama cocked her head. “If all we do is serve food, how would it be any different from any of our dinners?”

“Let’s see, parties... Parties usually mean singing and dancing, right? Remember in the story of the Heavenly Cave, how Uzume...?”

Then Minori-sama and Hikaru-sama stared into thin air. After a long moment, once again, they both sighed.

“What?” Her Majesty said. “What is it?”

“Oh, nothing.”

“She, uh... dances. Naked,” Hikaru-sama said.

“Dances naked?” Elvia-san asked.

“Yes. This goddess, Ama-no-Uzume, does a striptease to liven things up. I guess technically she doesn’t end up completely naked, but, well... just about. Everyone laughs because the whole thing is so funny, and the goddess in the cave finally peeks out to see what in the world is going on. Then Ame-no-Tajikarao—uh, this very powerful god, pulls her out of the cave.”

“So what you’re sayin’ is, I just hafta take off my clothes and dance in front of Shinichi-sama’s door, right?”

Elvia-san looked like she was going to set off right then and there, but Minori-sama grabbed her hand and stopped her.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“Why not?”

“Shinichi-kun is in that room because of the trauma of being beaten to a pulp by you, Myusel, and Her Majesty. I don’t think we can know for sure what effect your striptease would have on him.”

“I don’t know, I think it’d get him out here, if nothing else,” Hikaru-sama smirked.

Elvia-san spent a moment blinking, then finally said, “So, you’re sayin’ you should do the dance, Minori-sama?”

“Why would I do that?!”

“Well, y’ said it can’t be me or Myusel or Her Majesty. So it just has to be someone else, right?”

“I see your logic, but no. Not biting.”

“Minister Cordobal, then?”

Minori-sama’s eyes snapped open. “That’s it!”

“Oh, please,” Hikaru-sama said. “Don’t. Then he would really never come out of his room again. And Minister Cordobal, don’t you look too interested in this.”

“Er... Hm.” Minister Cordobal almost appeared disappointed, I thought. Perhaps it was my imagination.

“The story of the Heavenly Cave is a metaphor, not an instruction manual,” Hikaru-sama said, crossing his arms. “All we really need is something that will pique Shinichi-san’s interest. It doesn’t have to be right in the hallway, and it doesn’t have to be naked.”

“Fair enough,” Minori-sama said. “Okay, ways to attract someone who’s deliberately acting disinterested. Sound. Or maybe... smells?”

Hikaru-sama tilted his head in thought. “But our usual dinner isn’t doing the trick. We need something special, something unmissable...”

“How about something special and fun?” Elvia-san piped up. “Like, you know—that meat we had at Shinichi-sama’s house!”

“Oh, the yakiniku,” Minori-sama said.

“We wish to eat yakiniku again!” Her Majesty chimed in, leaning forward.

Yakiniku: basically a simple meat dish, but unlike the food I make, it isn’t prepared in the kitchen. Rather, it’s cooked on a small grill right at the table. The flavor is provided by a sauce, and perhaps a bit of marinade, but how cooked the meat gets is at the discretion of each person at the table, so it is difficult to produce a consistent flavor. In that way, it could be considered more difficult to cook than the average meat dish. But if you can bring yourself to ignore these little details, then it’s a fun time that gives everyone control over their own food.

“Huh, yeah,” Minori-sama said thoughtfully. “Shinichi-kun’s room has a window—we don’t have to do it in the hallway.”

“Oh ho, so we are indeed going to ‘do’ yakiniku?” Her Majesty asked, eyes shining. She certainly seemed to cherish the memory of having this dish with Shinichi-sama and his family when we had visited Ja-pan. I agreed with her; it was pleasant just to recall that day. Perhaps it would be enough to tempt Shinichi-sama...

“Of course, I guess it won’t exactly be yakiniku,” Minori-sama said with a shrug. Then she raised a finger like a teacher instructing her students. “We have another word for it when everyone eats outside, cooking and having fun.” She grinned. “Barbecue!”

I thought I could hear voices from the front yard. They sounded awfully rowdy, obviously having fun. I had the curtains closed, but the sound still carried to where I was flopped on my bed, reading manga.

The voices were followed by something else: a smell. A good smell.

“That’s...”

By Eldant standards, this house was very solidly built, but the airtightness left something to be desired in comparison with a modern Japanese home. In particular, there was a tendency for smells from outside to get in even when the window was closed.

But this smell...

I sat up in bed. Now I could see there was a notification from the messenger app flashing on my computer monitor. Probably Minori-san again. She should have known by now that I had no intention of leaving this room, no matter how many times she tried to cajole me. Still, I would feel a little bad just ignoring her, so I slid off the bed and headed over to my desk.

I clicked on the icon and saw:

“Barbecue is ON! ☆”

I contemplated the message. I guess Minori-san was outside with the others, having a barbecue. That would explain the pleasant aroma. I didn’t bother sending a response, but Minori-san sent me a picture anyway. She must have snapped it with her smartphone. They had piled up some rocks to make a stand, put a portable grill on top of it, loaded the grill full of ingredients, and were cooking away.

Also in the picture were Myusel, Petralka, Elvia, Garius, and Hikaru-san, all grinning happily as they ate grilled meat and vegetables.

Myusel was diligently arranging the food on the grill.

Petralka was happily watching it cook.

Elvia was chowing down on some meat like it was going out of style.

Garius watched over the three of them from a respectful distance. Beside him, Hikaru-san was enjoying some grilled vegetables with a pair of chopsticks.

I thought about it. It was certainly a classic barbecue scene.

The pictures kept coming, too: Loek and Romilda were there, students from my own school. I assumed Minori-san and Hikaru-san had invited them on the-more-the-merrier logic. Normally the elf and the dwarf spent all their time together fighting, but I guess the barbecue must have gotten the better of them, because they were both enjoying the grilled meat with big smiles on their faces. God, it really was the picture of a backyard barbecue.

Another message came along with the next picture:

“We’re having a blast out here. Wanna join us?”

This picture showed Minori-san herself. She seemed to have wrangled the picture with a selfie stick. When had she gotten one of those?

I paused. On a whim, I went over to the window and peeked out from behind the curtains.

“Huh...”

I saw Myusel and Loek with their hands up for some reason. They seemed to be using some kind of magic. Maybe they were making wind to stoke the fire? No... For one thing, they were both facing my window.

Ahh.

They were using wind magic, but just gently, to make sure the smell of the barbecue wafted into my room. And probably to send the babbling voices along with it. They hoped I would be tempted out of my room by the smell and the spectacle.

“Hoo hoo...” A chuckle dropped from my lips. “Hoo hoo hoo hoo...” This quiet laughter was followed by a declaration: “How naïve! You badly underestimate me, Minori-san!” I pointed at the computer screen so forcefully I could almost hear the sound effect, bishiri! “Sheer impudence, that’s what this is!” My fingers started racing along the keyboard. “A barbecue?!” I howled. “That’s for some damn real to attend! And featuring two hot men surrounded by women, no less! I’ll bet the ladies are for dessert (lol)! You know nothing, nothing of the feelings of a shut-in and nasty otaku like me!”

But all I wrote was: “Nope. Not coming.”

And then with a satisfying clack!, I hit the Enter key.

I felt oddly accomplished.

“Haaa ha ha ha! I win!”

Okay, so I still wasn’t sure what I had won. I guess.

I threw myself back on my bed and resumed reading my manga.

“Barbecue” turned out to be just as fun as yakiniku, and the time passed in a flash. Before we knew it, the sky was darkening into evening. All the food we had prepared was gone. Romilda-sama had left for home with a big smile on her face, proclaiming, “I didn’t really get what it was all about, but it sure was fun. Thanks for having me!” (Incidentally, Loek-sama had said he wanted to stay a little longer to chat with Minori-sama, but Romilda-sama grabbed him by the collar and dragged him off.)

In any event, both of them had come right over despite the suddenness of our invitation, and seemed to have enjoyed themselves tremendously. I saw them to the gate, then went back to the yard and helped Minori-sama clean up. We took down the grill, disassembled the pile of rocks we had put together, and poured water on the last of the coals, just to be safe. I piled our eating utensils on my cart so they could be taken inside later.

“I really thought this was a good idea,” Minori-sama lamented as she piled utensils on the cart.

“I enjoyed m’self!” Elvia-san exclaimed.

“As did we,” Her Majesty added. Both were smiling. Maybe they thought they were making Minori-sama feel better.

Hikaru-sama, though, smiled sadly. “It’s great everyone had fun, but that wasn’t the point.”

He was right. As pleasant as the barbecue had been, we had failed in our objective, which was to get Shinichi-sama to come out of his room. Minori-sama had tried talking to him via her ‘meszenjer,’ and Loek-sama and I had used wind magic to direct the aroma of the food towards his room, but in the end we never saw hide nor hair of Shinichi-sama. He didn’t even open the curtains on his window.

“So that’s a fail for Operation Heavenly Cave,” Hikaru-sama said. “What do we do next?”

Minori-sama crossed her arms and gazed up at Shinichi-sama’s window. “I didn’t expect Shinichi-kun to be such a fearsome opponent.”

“Is he fearsome, or just stubborn?”

“I’ve got to be honest... I really don’t know what to do next.”

“Perhaps we should try that naked dance?” Hikaru-san offered.

“Yeah, I’ll pass,” Minori-sama said.

“Pardon me very much.” Their conversation was interrupted by an unexpected speaker: Minister Cordobal. “I’m afraid we cannot stay here with you indefinitely. Her Majesty and I must return to the castle for the time being.”

“Yeah, sorry about that,” Minori-sama said, bowing. But Minister Cordobal shook his head with a wry smile.

“Not at all. Personally, I very much wish we could continue to enjoy your hospitality, but—”

“We do not wish to return home yet,” Her Majesty said, puffing her cheeks out slightly. “Until Shinichi comes out of his room...”

“Majesty, you forget the trouble that must be addressed at the castle,” Minister Cordobal said, letting a stern note enter his voice. Her Majesty seemed to be perfectly well aware of this “trouble,” because she stuck out her lip petulantly, but didn’t object further.

It was Hikaru-sama who asked curiously, “What kind of trouble?”

Minister Cordobal’s handsome face softened a little; then, sounding as if he might let out a sigh at any moment, he said: “There is an epidemic at the castle.”

“An epidemic, sir?”

“Several of those who serve at the castle have been felled by it. This sickness has no precedent that we know of, and the medicaments of our physicians show no effect on it. We’re at a loss how to deal with it. It doesn’t kill quickly, but produces a high fever. It could be quite dangerous for children and the elderly, those without much physical stamina.”

“My goodness...” Minori-sama said. It seemed this was quite a problem in the castle town. “I’m sorry, we didn’t know. We didn’t mean to call you away at a time like that.”

“Think nothing of it,” Her Majesty replied. “Once we have ascertained the situation and given orders to deal with it, we will come again. In the meantime, we entrust Shinichi to your care.” Then she and Minister Cordobal boarded a carriage waiting just outside the gate of the mansion along with a contingent of royal guards, and they all left for the castle.

We were surrounded by enemies.

There was no way out.

We stood with our backs to each other and got ready to fight.

We were facing down several Sabre Beasts, creatures like a wolf but black as night, with eyes the color of blood. They stared us down, then opened their huge, fanged jaws and attacked.

I brought up my halberd and stabbed at one of the monsters.

Critical hit!

The creature expired with only a short yelp. They were unnatural things, man-made, and when they died they didn’t leave behind so much as a skeleton. I made sure the Sabre Beast was completely gone, then turned to the next enemy.

Or at least, I had planned to. But the next instant, the Sabre Beast came back to life.

No, that wasn’t quite it—no sooner had I killed the last one than another came up to take its place, attacking me when my attention lapsed.

I tried to counterattack, but it was too late.

I’m done for...!

Even as the thought crossed my mind, though, the new Sabre Beast died, too, the victim of a massive metal hammer that came swinging in from the side.

Gen’ei Setsuna: “Thanks, GalGaiGar. You saved my neck.”

I said gratefully. The wielder of the giant hammer was one of my party members, GalGaiGar. She was a diminutive girl; the hammer she carried was taller than she was and much, much heavier, and could dish out one-hit-kill attacks.

GalGaiGar, though, didn’t answer me. She just silently went about smashing more monsters.

Behind her, the martial artist Yakiniku and the swordsman Kyouya were putting on a great show. Kyouya would get a foe’s attention with a quick feint, then when he had them right where he wanted them, he would strike one swift, fatal blow. He’d be turning to the next enemy almost before I had time to be impressed, but Yakiniku launched a ball of chi over his shoulder, blowing the monster away before Kyouya even got to it.

Miyuu: “Setsuna-sama, let me heal you.”

Gen’ei Setsuna: “Thanks.”

Behind us, we diligently kept our monk-healer, Miyuu, safe. In return, she kept us in good health. My HP had dropped to almost half, but in a flash I got it all back.

If we could just get through these Sabre Beasts, we’d be almost at the boss. But every enemy we had to defeat sapped our strength.

†Obsidian Fallen Angel†: “I’m ready, everyone.”

We had another protector with us, the wizard †Obsidian Fallen Angel†. We’d been warned: we scrambled to get out of the area of effect of her immensely powerful spell.

†Obsidian Fallen Angel†: “Eternal Force Blizzard!”

She invoked the forbidden ice magic, the most powerful of its kind. It was almost unstoppable, and there were few who could use it. Our foes were suddenly encased in ice. They died instantly.

........................

So, basically, the Sabre Beasts surrounding us were wiped out in one fell swoop. Man, Eternal Force Blizzard was something else. The kanji name of the spell alone was enough to be intimidating.

Gen’ei Setsuna: “Yes! Great work, that was a team victory. Thanks everyone.”

Miyuu: “We really did it, Shinichi-sama.”

The instant those words appeared on the display, I groaned.

Gen’ei Setsuna: “Buzz! Myusel!”

Miyuu: “Oh! S-Sorry...”

I could practically hear the rush of apology in the words. I looked at the screen, sighed, then grabbed the drink sitting next to my computer and took a swig. Then I went back to typing:

Gen’ei Setsuna: “No OOC talk allowed! That’s the rule in online games!”

†Obsidian Fallen Angel†: “Whatever, Shinichi-san. I know these games are about escapism, but seriously—Gen’ei Setsuna? I’ve known actual middle schoolers who didn’t have chuunibyou so bad, haha.”

Gen’ei Setsuna: “Last thing I wanna hear from a guy who looks like his idea of a wizard came from the doodles he did during math class ten years ago, Hikaru-san. †Obsidian Fallen Angel†, lolololol”

†Obsidian Fallen Angel†: “Sure you want to go down that road? Pretty sure I have the better name here.”

Kyouya: “All right, both of you, that’s enough. There is to be no arguing online.”

GalGaiGar: “We are a great brave! A king among braves!”

Gen’ei Setsuna: “Oops, that’s enough of that, GalGaiGar.”

Come to think of it, I’d lent Petralka a few DVDs last month when she’d asked me for some new recommendations. I guess she had really gotten into them, which was nice.

Yakiniku: “meat! like!”

Miyuu: “i wanted to have a japanese name. i asked minorisama for help.”

Kyouya: “This is actually the name I use when I’m doing cosplay.”

Oh yeah, Minori-san always cosplayed as a guy, didn’t she? Hence the male avatar, I guessed.

Gen’ei Setsuna: “OK, enough irl stuff! Everybody stay in character!”

We were playing the very first online game—the very first MMORPG—in the entire Eldant Empire.

I was on day fourteen of my new life as a shut-in. Minori-san messaged me every day, pretty frequently at that, and I chatted with her a little. But once everyone got the idea that I was open to “conversations” as long as they were via text, they all started pinging me.

Somehow the inert letters on the screen didn’t raise my guard quite like a face-to-face conversation, and gradually I started to answer them. Via chat, I could manage it.

I could practically picture Myusel and the other girls, hunting and pecking their way around the unfamiliar keyboard as they typed up messages in hiragana. I could tell how much time and effort it took, and my heart prickled at the thought of just ignoring them.

But even so, it still made me a little queasy to think of seeing them face-to-face. I didn’t know exactly what Minori-san and Hikaru-san thought about the dribble of answers I was sending to the girls, but all of a sudden they invited me to play an online game. They had loaded some special software onto the mansion’s server and set up a simple MMO.

“Don’t even have to leave your room to play it,” Minori-san had messaged me. True enough. I was starting to get a little tired of mainlining one gal game after another, so I decided to play along with her. You could enjoy an MMO without having to actually see anyone, and our avatars would provide a kind of buffer for dealing with the others. Some people acted so different online that you could talk about an “irl personality” and an “online persona.”

So here we were. I was getting sucked into an online game for the first time in ages. Heck, MMOs were the one thing I’d had absolutely, totally no access to ever since coming here. But now that I was back on the wagon, I was finding it pretty fun.

I imposed just one condition on Minori-san and her plan: that we not talk about real-life things while we were playing. We had to completely become our alter egos.

Setting conditions? I know, even I sort of wanted to snap You’ve got some nerve! at myself. But Minori-san was surprisingly quick to accept the idea, and we got things rolling. Anyway, no better way to get the most out of an MMO than some good role-playing.

Kyouya (Minori-san): “Okay, the boss is up next. Everybody ready?”

As our warrior, Minori-san was on top of this. After a second, the chat balloons began popping up.

Miyuu (Myusel): “yes!”

GalGaiGar (Petralka): “any time.”

Yakiniku (Elvia): “meat!”

The Eldant contingent generally wrote only in short sentences composed entirely in the simple hiragana script. Myusel and Petralka could read and even write some kanji, but it looked like they weren’t entirely comfortable yet typing on a Japanese keyboard. They were probably over there somewhere, poking away at the keys with one finger at a time.

I paused. They were making this effort out of consideration for me, and I have to admit it made me feel a little guilty. It was really my own indecision and dithering that had ultimately led to me being used as a punching bag.

“No, no, no, no, no!” I shook my head vigorously to chase away the guilt.

Right now, I had a boss fight to worry about.

Gen’ei Setsuna (me): “Let’s go!”

I—or rather my avatar, Gen’ei Setsuna—headed for the 3D shadow looming on the horizon. My perspective was looking sort of downward at my character, so running beside Gen’ei Setsuna I could see Yakiniku (Elvia) and GalGaiGar (Petralka), along with Kyouya (Minori-san). I assumed that Miyuu (Myusel) and †Obsidian Fallen Angel† (Hikaru-san) were bringing up the rear.

Gen’ei Setsuna (me): “Yaaaahhh!”

Gen’ei Setsuna rushed in to strike the first blow. The dragon targeted me and got ready to attack, at which point Yakiniku came barreling up, drawing aggro so Kyouya and GalGaiGar could hit the monster from both sides. The dragon lashed out with its tail and front legs. I knew those things could take a chunk out of your health even with just a glancing blow. Miyuu would try to heal us, but for the dragon, simply sweeping with its tail was essentially an area-of-effect attack, and there was no way she would be able to heal us all fast enough. These boss characters were nothing to sneeze at.

Meanwhile...

GalGaiGar (Petralka): “by our renown as a brave we shall defeat you! Go-lu-den Earth Han-mer!”

Geez, Petralka was really into this. I remembered how back when she played the lead role in our movie, she almost seemed to forget she was supposed to be an empress, and threw herself into the part. It was almost like some sort of game to her. Stress relief, if you will. Even if the movie itself did end up banned by royal decree, a chapter of her history she wished would be forgotten.

It seemed like Myusel was enjoying herself just as much as Petralka. She had deliberately taken a Japanese name, with kanji and everything. Unlike Elvia, who called herself... Yakiniku. Yeesh. I could just picture it: her sitting at the computer, saying, “Name? Don’t really care. Hey, how about my favorite food?”

Yakiniku (Elvia): “meat! like! so good!”

Don’t you have anything else to say?

At least you knew who you were talking to.

This boss, though. We were pounding away at it, but it had such massive HP that it just wouldn’t go down. Myusel was healing left, right, and center, but the dragon’s attacks did a little more damage than her spells could heal, and those of us on the front row were left to watch our health drain slowly but surely.

I wished Hikaru-san would hurry up with that spell and hopefully turn the tide. Even a powerful magic attack probably wouldn’t one-hit a boss, but it might eliminate his tail or horns and take a chunk out of his attack power. But instead...

“What the hell is Hikaru-san doing back there? I mean, uh, †Obsidian Fallen Angel†?”

He was our spellcaster, so why wasn’t he casting any spells? We weren’t even getting buffs up here. I set my character to attack semi-automatically, then let go of the mouse and pounded out a message on my keyboard.

Gen’ei Setsuna (me): “Angel, buff? need atk or def”

There was no answer from Hikaru-san, and his avatar didn’t move. Was he lagging? But how much traffic could there possibly be on a game that didn’t even have ten players? What was happening?

Whatever was going on with Hikaru-san, our party was headed for a total wipe if something didn’t change. I could see the dragon getting ready to unleash a spell.

Gen’ei Setsuna (me): “Tactical retreat! Use your Angel Feathers and get out of here!”

Boss characters’ attacks usually had wide areas of effect, but their magic spells tended to be outright MAP weapons, if you will, vast waves of destruction that filled the screen and could easily take out an entire party at once.

I activated my item and warped out, returning to the town that served as our base. “That was a close call...” I mumbled as the scenery changed from the craggy dungeon to the innocuous little city.

Miyuu (Myusel), Yakiniku (Elvia), GalGaiGar (Petralka), and Kyouya (Minori-san) soon followed me.

“Huh?”

There was one person I didn’t see. †Obsidian Fallen Angel† (Hikaru-san) didn’t show up. In fact...

“Oh...”

Then †Obsidian Fallen Angel† (Hikaru-san) returned. But he was just a transparent, spirit version of himself—i.e., he had been killed. I guess he had just stayed there, not doing anything, while the dragon murdered him with its magic. He didn’t come back to town by using his item; his avatar had just reappeared at his last save point after he died.

“Arrgh...”

What was he even doing?

Gen’ei Setsuna (me): “†Obsidian Fallen Angel†, what happened?”

Hikaru-san didn’t respond, not that I expected him to. He’d been talking to us just a few minutes ago, though.

Kyouya (Minori-san): “Think he got booted?”

Gen’ei Setsuna (me): “But then wouldn’t it have happened to all of us?”

If there was some kind of problem with the server or the network, I would have expected all of us to be affected. We probably wouldn’t even have been able to play the game or use the chat app. So maybe it was an issue with Hikaru-san’s computer.

Yakiniku (Elvia): “wonder whabs up.”

Miyuu (Myusel): “i will go look at him. i have his key.”

Elvia had clearly made a typo, but Myusel hardly seemed to notice. She must have gotten up to check on Hikaru-san without waiting for an answer from us, because her avatar was standing stock still.

Gen’ei Setsuna (me): “Something weird is going on.”

GalGaiGar (Petralka): “Mm.”

I typed the sentence, looked at the screen—and then I stopped.

........................

This was a problem. I had nothing to say.

When you couldn’t see each other, but you ran out of discussion topics, you were left not even knowing if the other person was still sitting at their screen or not. Our avatars, waiting for something to happen, didn’t move. Working the keyboard was hard enough for Petralka and the others that she couldn’t just toss in some chitchat, either.

But the thought of just sitting there, not saying a word—it was strangely... lonely.

Gen’ei Setsuna (me): “Say, GalGaiGar, is it even okay for you to be here?”

When I thought about it, I realized Petralka had been at our mansion playing this game ever since this morning. Should she really be away from the castle for that long? Maybe she had snuck out again. I knew I was breaking my own rule about real-life topics, but I was at a loss. I would shelve the role-playing until Myusel got back.

GalGaiGar (Petralka): “we are a brave. fighting is what we do.”

Er, that was certainly true of her, uh, character, at least.

Gen’ei Setsuna (me): “I mean for real. I mean you, Petralka.”

GalGaiGar (Petralka): “hm? did you not forbid talk of the real world?”

Gen’ei Setsuna (me): “Pretend I didn’t. Just for now.”

Huh. When a hiragana-only sentence got too long, it started to turn really difficult to read. I decided to throw in a few kanji, just to make life a tiny bit easier.

Me: “Are you really okay spending all your time here, Petralka? Isn’t Garius going to be angry?”

Petralka: “Garius does not have time to worry about us. there is strange plague at the castle and he is responding to it.”

Me: “Wow. What kind of plague? Geez, are you guys okay?”

Petralka: “there are no deaths yet, so we think okay.”

Elvia: “scary”

Elvia knew even less about the keyboard—or for that matter, the Japanese language—than Myusel and Petralka, so it was all she could do to offer a word here and there.

Minori-san: “Frankly, I think it’s scarier that no one has died yet.”

Me: “Stop that.”

She made it sound like we were just waiting for the real trouble to start, when people would be dropping like flies.

Me: “Seriously, what kind of illness is it?”

I was feeling pretty anxious as I typed the question. Then...

........................

........................

Me: “Petralka?”

Huh...?

I waited a moment, thinking maybe she was struggling to type out an especially long sentence, but no matter how long I waited, there was no response from her.

Minori-san: “Hey, don’t you think Myusel’s been a while?”

Minori-san had a point. It had been a good five minutes since Myusel had left her keyboard. I would have thought that was more than enough time to go to Hikaru-san’s room and back. Had something happened? I figured that even if, say, Hikaru-san had collapsed or something, Myusel would have come rushing back to call Minori-san and Elvia. The fact that she didn’t come back at all was... strange.

Elvia: “majesty, no talk”

Yep. When you’re right, you’re right.

But what the heck was going on?

Minori-san: “I just had a thought.”

Me: “Yeah?”

Minori-san: “We’re downwind of the castle. If that sickness is airborne, maybe it could reach us here.”

Me: “Please... don’t threaten me.”

But even as I typed out the words, my mind was spinning. An infectious disease. Okay, so even most airborne pathogens couldn’t survive a trip of several kilometers. I was pretty sure I had seen a movie once where they’d explained that with an airborne illness, it wasn’t like the virus or bacteria went around flying after people. Instead, the pathogen was capable of surviving outside the body temporarily, and drifted along on the breeze for as long as it survived. If someone breathed on you while you were talking to them—or for that matter, got saliva on you—the pathogen might get around that way. It could also be in sweat. But none of those things, I figured, was going to just fly through the air forever. So it wasn’t going to spread explosively for miles around by air or anything. I thought.

But... Petralka. She had come from the castle this morning. The castle that was at the epicenter of this infection. And an infection usually has an incubation period.

“No way...”

What if Petralka, or one of her bodyguards, had been an asymptomatic carrier? And then they had come into the mansion, and...?

“No, no way. Can’t be.” I was just overthinking it. I shook my head.

Me: “Pretty sure that’s just overthinking it.”

Elvia: “yeah!”

.......

......

Me: “Minori-san?”

Minori-san was at least as quick a typist as I was. So why wasn’t I getting any answer from her? There was no reaction at all. Her avatar, Kyouya, just stood there, still as a stone.

.............

Me: “Hey, Minori-san? Don’t scare me like this. What’s going on?”

I typed as fast as I could, but there was still no answer. Hang on, could something seriously be wrong?

Elvia: “what’s wrong minori-sama”

That was what I wanted to know!

Elvia: “everyone not come back why?”

Me: “No idea. Can you tell what’s going on, Elvia?”

Elvia: “nob know”

Her response seemed a little off. Maybe a sign of how uneasy she was. What in the world was happening?

......... Wait.

I furrowed my brow as a possibility occurred to me. For the last two weeks, I had been shut up in my room. Hadn’t opened the doors or windows, hadn’t had physical contact with anybody. Including Petralka, of course. But what about the others? Say for the sake of argument that Petralka, or maybe Garius or one of the royal guards, was a carrier of the disease. Could the infection have spread while everyone was together in the house? Petralka and Garius, in particular, shared meals, had tea, and participated in other social niceties with the rest of the household, or so I had heard. Maybe the infection could have spread... then...?

The members of the household had dropped out of the game in the order: Hikaru-san, Myusel, Minori-san. Elvia and I were the only ones left. Was everyone (excluding me, having never left my room) succumbing in order from weakest to strongest?

Hikaru-san was a guy, but he was awfully slight (helped with his cosplaying, at least), and didn’t come across as the hardy type. Myusel, on the other hand, was surprisingly tough: she used a lot of energy doing housework, and had even been in the military for a while.

All that led to just one conclusion...

Me: “Elvia, you okay?”

I was starting to feel really uneasy.

Elvia: “Yes. hTT”

Me: “Elvia?”

What kind of response was that? And a moment later:

Elvia: “mi oky”

Her messages were hardly even making sense anymore. I knew she was prone to typos, but this...

Elvia: “okk”

She seemed to be trying to type I’m okay, but she kept sending it when she was only halfway through. I waited for what I hoped would be a complete, coherent sentence, but nothing showed up.

Me: “Elvia...?”

There was no answer.

Me: “?”

I tried sending this one, lone symbol, but nobody responded. Everyone’s avatars just stood there, looking weirdly almost lifelike the way they breathed in and out as they waited. It was like they were in some strange place between alive and not alive, and I found it unsettling.

Could this really be...?

Just as I was starting to seriously worry, another message from Elvia popped up.

Elvia: “Itchy. Tasty.”

And that really was the last thing I got out of her.

I could only stare stupidly at the screen. All the avatars were there, but they might as well have been empty husks.

“I can’t believe it...”

Had the epidemic spread to our mansion? Had every single other person caught it and collapsed? And if they had... this was, like, really serious, wasn’t it? I didn’t know exactly what disease we were dealing with, but I did know this was a different world. I had no idea what kind of bizarre, terrifying illnesses might be lurking here. What if this was an emergency, something that was deadly if not treated immediately?

This is bad. This is so bad.

I jumped up from my chair and headed straight for the door. I already had a hand on it when I froze.

The whole reason I was still healthy was because I hadn’t taken a single step outside my room. So if I went through this door, what then? Whatever this bug was, it was so infectious that everyone else in the house had caught it. I might catch it, too. From a safety standpoint, maybe it was best for me to stay shut up in here.

“But...”

Could I really live with myself if I didn’t do anything? If I just abandoned everybody? Maybe they were all down with fevers. Maybe they were in pain. Maybe they were suffering.

Myusel. Petralka. Elvia. Minori-san. Hikaru-san.

Out of concern for me, locked away in my room, they had tried everything to get me outside—holding a barbecue, even setting up a special MMO just for us. Myusel had dutifully brought me my meals every day, even though I never opened the door. Petralka could be prickly sometimes, but she could also be as innocent and lovely as a child. And Elvia—she could go a little over-the-top sometimes, but I found her generous spirit really comforting.

There was Minori-san, who, at the end of the day, was dedicated to keeping me safe. And I couldn’t forget...

“..................”

Uhhh.

Well.

I liked Hikaru-san’s.......... I liked Hikaru-san. Pretty much. I guess.

In any event, images of each of their smiling faces flashed through my mind (yes, including Hikaru-san’s taunting grin). It tore me up inside to think they might be suffering. It hurt so bad.

“Brace yourself, Kanou Shinichi,” I told myself, and clenched my fists. You’re the only one who can help them. The only one who can save them. If you abandon them to this plague, you’ll be forever doomed to know you’re a coward, a weakling, a yellow-bellied, lily-livered scaredy-cat!

............

“Pfft, yeah, right,” I mumbled, even as I put my hand on the doorknob. The whole fired-up-hero thing didn’t really work for me. “If nothing else... I can stay in here, but I guess Myusel won’t be around to bring me my food. I’d just starve to death.”

So I could come out now, or I could come out days from now. And if I waited until I was weak with hunger, it would be too late. I had to move while I still had the energy and the stamina. If I acted now, there might be something I could do for the girls (plus Hikaru-san).

I steeled myself, opened the door, and walked out into the hallway.

Outside my room, it was dead silent.

Our mansion was a pretty big place. So big that even with all of us in there, there were still plenty of rooms we didn’t use. My family’s house in Japan was a four-bedroom home, and it probably would have fit in here several times over.

As big as this place was, though, it never felt oppressively quiet. There were always people around, and if you listened closely enough, you could almost always hear someone in another room. It felt very lived-in. Even when I snuck to the bathroom in the middle of the night, I knew there were people there.

But now... Now, I couldn’t sense anyone at all from the hallway. It was like walking through an abandoned building. It wasn’t dark—there were electric lights and a few lamps for good measure—but it was unnaturally quiet, and I thought I felt a chill.

I’d never been in a house quite like this before. I swallowed in spite of myself. Come to think of it, it had been quite a while since I’d left my room for anything except a midnight bath.

Look to the right. Look to the left. Then I closed the door behind me, deciding to go to Hikaru-san’s room. He was the first to drop out of contact, and his room was right next to mine—both good reasons to start there, but the truth is, I really picked it because Myusel was there.

Myusel carried the spare keys for each of our rooms. As long as Hikaru-san hadn’t locked his door from the inside (like I had done while I was being a shut-in), Myusel wouldn’t have had any trouble getting in. If they’d both collapsed from illness, at least his door ought to be open. And if I could actually join forces with Myusel, we would be able to get into the other rooms.

The thoughts raced through my head. For some reason, it scared me not to have sound logic for whatever I was doing. Otherwise, I was afraid I would make a wrong move, and end up looking back and wishing I had done something differently. Of course, if I was so worried about regret, I suppose one could suggest that I shouldn’t have shut myself up in my room to begin with.

But anyway...

As I walked along, I found myself trying not to breathe. In this too-quiet house, the sound of my own breath seemed weirdly loud. And if there were an airborne pathogen hanging around, it might be best not to breathe too deep, or anyway, so I thought.

Just to be safe, I held a tissue that I had grabbed from my room over my mouth. I seemed to remember that tissues had first been mass-produced during World War I, to be used as filters in gas masks, but that after the war they were turned into a general consumer item. I also seemed to recall, though, that it was questionable how much they actually kept viruses or bacteria from getting into your mouth.

Before long, I was standing in front of Hikaru-san’s room. The door was open, sure enough, but only slightly ajar. It wasn’t locked.

I decided to see if anyone was in there before I burst in. “Myusel? Hikaru-san?” But there was no response.

I got up my nerve and put a hand on the door. That hesitation I felt must have come from the fear. What if I opened the door and discovered the worst? But when I really thought about it, I wasn’t even sure what “the worst” would be. If Myusel and Hikaru-san really were out cold in there, I would be glad I had found them sooner rather than later. But they wouldn’t have both just dropped dead... I didn’t think.

Right?

After a lengthy pause, I nudged open the door and peeked inside.

“Wha...?”

The room was... empty.

Not empty of stuff, I mean. The closet was still full, and the sewing machine, bed, and desk were all still there. Hikaru-san’s laptop, which had put itself into sleep mode, was open on the desk, and a half-drunk cup of tea sat beside it, but Hikaru-san himself was nowhere to be seen. Neither was Myusel, who had supposedly come in here.

Had Hikaru-san had to leave his room urgently for some reason? And then maybe Myusel had shown up, discovered he wasn’t there, and went off looking for him?

“But what on earth could have...?” I mumbled, scanning the room once more, just to be extra sure Hikaru-san and Myusel weren’t hiding in the wardrobe or under the desk or something. Then I went back to the hall.

Next up, Myusel’s room. That was downstairs. The creaking of the staircase didn’t usually bother me, but now it seemed portentous and eerie, and once I was downstairs I hurried to Myusel’s room as quickly as I could. Maybe she had brought Hikaru-san there to give him first aid. And then maybe she had started to feel ill herself and collapsed.

When I got to Myusel’s door, it was the same thing: cracked open, a little space between the door and the wall.

“Myusel!” Gripped by a wave of foreboding, I bounded into Myusel’s room without a second thought. But...

“Huh?”

There was nobody there. Again.

On the desk, there were two laptops, power still on.

Huh? Two laptops? Why two of them?

Then it hit me: the other one was for Petralka to use. A glance at the screens confirmed my suspicions. The computer on the left showed a window centered on the avatar GalGaiGar, while the computer on the right was centered on Miyuu.

Petralka didn’t have a room of her own in our mansion. She must have settled in her friend Myusel’s room to play the game. But... that meant Petralka was gone, too. In fact, I didn’t even see any trace of the royal guards, who were supposed to stay close to her at all times. They weren’t usually in the same room, but they would always be somewhere they could show up in an instant—like the hallway outside, say.

“What’s going on...?”

Seriously, what was this?

I could feel my mind starting to go to some dark places. “Stay calm, Kanou Shinichi!” I urged myself before the gloom could get a grip on me, and headed for the next room. That would be Elvia’s. I went down the hallway, up the stairs, and arrived at her room, running all the way. There was no time for a nice, calm walk anymore.

“Elvia! Are you there?!” I shouted, even as I pushed on the door. But this room was still locked, and the door didn’t budge. I pounded on it, but there was no answer from inside. I pressed my ear to the door, straining to hear even the smallest sound, but there was nothing. I didn’t even get the sense that there was anyone in there. “Elvia...”

The last message she had sent flashed through my mind.

No. It couldn’t be.

The mysterious words. The meaningless adjectives.

It was almost like she had lost her mind. Like her rational faculties had abandoned her. It was eerily similar—in fact identical—to a diary entry from a certain horror game, an entry penned by someone writing his last words as a terrifying virus turned him into a slavering monster.

An illness of unknown origin. Here in another world. Meaning...

“Grr...!”

With the door locked, I had no way to see what was inside. I wouldn’t learn anything new just standing here. I turned to strike out for the last room—Minori-san’s. Immediately after which...

“Eeyikes?!”

Everything around me went dark, and I stumbled to the ground in a heap. Luckily, I was able to curl up so I didn’t hit anything too vulnerable too hard, but with no light to see by, I couldn’t be sure I wasn’t injured. There were still lamps burning in the hallway, but they didn’t give nearly enough light to chase away the darkness that had settled over the mansion.

Electricity for the house was provided by the solar- and wind-power generators over by the school, along with a large battery. Did that mean the power line from there to here had been cut? But why so suddenly? And would it really be so easy to cut a power line that only went directly from point A to point B?

“Hrk...” I stood up, feeling a dull pain in a few places around my body. In Japan, street lamps and twenty-four-hour convenience stores gave most places a healthy glow even in the middle of the night, but here in Eldant, the night darkness was of a different magnitude. The light of the lamps was just a flicker against it, not even enough to tell exactly what was going on around you. Although it would at least enable you to walk once your eyes adjusted.

I reached into my pocket, thinking I could use the flashlight on my phone. But I guess in my rush, I had left my phone in my room. No choice. I would just have to walk very carefully.

I was still completely befuddled about what could be happening. I decided to start by trying to get to the storage shed where we kept the emergency lights and flashlights. Even if I went to Minori-san’s room right now, I wouldn’t be able to see anything.

The human body is a mysterious thing: when you no longer have your vision to rely on, your hearing becomes startlingly acute. I could hear my own breathing, my footsteps, my clothing rustling as I walked. Every sound seemed inordinately loud to me. Maybe it was the fear that made my mouth feel so dry with every breath. I found myself panting, like an animal. My heart seemed to be going way faster than necessary, and I wished it would slow down.

“Wait...”

I detected a noise, but I wasn’t the one who had made it. I stopped and listened. It sounded like... footsteps. But it wasn’t. It was just a scraping, like the sound of a hard-soled shoe against wooden floorboards. It was accompanied by a creaking noise, and even what sounded like something soft being dragged along.

What was this?

What was this what was this what was this?!

My bad feeling got a lot worse. The sound rounded the corner of the hallway and started coming toward me. Something was approaching in the dark. A shape so huge it nearly filled the hallway, shambling slowly toward me.

“Heeek...?!”

I have to run.

I had the thought, but my body was rooted to the spot and refused to move.

Everyone was gone. The lights were out. And a dark shadow was dragging something toward me through the murk.

What is going on in this mansion?

What had happened out here while I was shut away in my room? Was this really all because of that epidemic? Or... was this the true face of the illness? This was an entirely separate world. A fantasy land of magic and elves and dragons. Why should I expect a sickness here to look anything like anything I was used to in Japan? Diseases here might be completely different.

They might turn you into a monster, for example. Or they might cause your desiccated corpse to wander around after you were gone.

“Oh... God...”

Magic, I thought desperately. I raised my right hand, but I was shaking so hard I could barely say the words. It was probably for the best. I was trapped in an enclosed space; busting out Tifu Murottsu here would probably take me down along with whatever that thing was.

At last the dark shape emerged into the lamplight, revealing itself. It had to be less than three meters away...!

“Yaaaaaargh!” Instead of a spell, I let out a scream.

Crap, I’m gonna die!

“Oh, hullo, Master. Come out of your room?”

“Aaaaahh—huh?”

I blinked at the familiar voice. Then I took another, closer look at what was standing there in the hazy light of the lamp. It was a bipedal creature covered in scales. To a modern Japanese, it—no, he—probably looked like the very picture of an inhuman monster, but he could use tools and even speak. He was very much considered a person in this world. He was a lizardman.

“Brooke...?”

“Yessir.”

“And Cerise-san...”

“Yes, sir.”

Standing in front of me were the lizardman couple that lived in this house: Brooke, the gardener, and his wife Cerise-san, who was now one of our maids. I knew them perfectly well, but when they walked together, their shadows melded into each other and looked like some other, even bigger and more terrifying beast.

“G-Geez, wow...” I felt myself go weak, and finally just sat down right there on the floor.

That’s right. There were two residents of this mansion I hadn’t been accounting for. Our lizardmen didn’t live in the main house—it was more convenient for them to stay in a separate building—so I very rarely saw them around the mansion after dinner, let alone in the middle of the night. And they didn’t use computers, so I hadn’t spoken a word to them for two entire weeks. I had practically forgotten about them.

“Are you all right, sir?” Cerise-san said, reaching out to help me up.

“Thanks...” I took her hand and stood unsteadily. That was when I spotted Cerise-san’s tail, a distinctive feature of lizardman physiology, behind her. That would explain the dragging noise I’d heard. Plus, the two normally went around barefoot, which was why I hadn’t heard any shoes.

I tried to consciously slow my heart, still pounding with the lingering adrenaline, but I had never been so relieved to run into some friendly faces.

“W-Wait,” I said, “you two are okay?!”

“Sir...?” Cerise-san said.

“Shouldn’t we be?” Brooke asked.

The two of them weren’t very expressive, but by the tone of their voices and the way their tongues slid in and out of their mouths, I could take a good guess at how they were feeling. Right now, they seemed to be surprised.

“I mean... the sickness... Everyone else...”

They had all collapsed and disappeared. I thought...

“Sickness, sir?” Brooke said. He looked at his wife.

“You know, I did hear something about an outbreak in the vicinity of the castle,” she said. Apparently they were both feeling perfectly normal. I guess whatever this thing was, it didn’t affect lizardmen. Or maybe...

“Hang on... Wait a second,” I said, almost to myself.

Had everyone really collapsed from illness? Even if they had all been infected, would they really all succumb at the same time, in the same way, in less than an hour? And with no warning at all?

Obviously, I had only seen Myusel and the others online, via their avatars, so it was always possible the illness had been steadily progressing as we played. But... would they really be playing a video game if they felt that bad? My head was spinning.

That was when Brooke said: “By the by, Master, all the others seem to be gathered in the yard. Is something the matter?”

“Excuse me?”

Ex-cuse me?

“Yard” is such a small word, but the one at our mansion was pretty darn big. Just about anything a building wasn’t actively standing on could be considered a yard, so by sheer land area, there was more “yard” than house around here. Some parts of it had neat, geometrical arrangements of flower plots or fountain ponds, but get far enough out and it became hard to tell the so-called yard from the forest beyond. Thanks to Brooke’s consistent hard work, at least it never got to looking like an abandoned lot or anything.

Now I was behind the house, on the other side from the main gate and entryway. There was a bush, about waist-high... and from behind it came the faint glow of an electric light.

I got a little closer: it was the monitor of a laptop computer. A tarp had been laid on the ground, under the computer; and I could see several shadows surrounding the machine. It was Myusel, Petralka, Elvia, Minori-san, and Hikaru-san. Not far off, I spotted the royal guard, too.

And...

“See, Shinichi-kun went to your room first, right, Hikaru-kun?”

Minori-san pressed a button on the laptop. Just like she said, the screen showed me leaving my room and heading for Hikaru-san’s. She was obviously playing back a recording from one of the mansion’s cameras.

“So this indicates that Shinichi considers Hikaru most important of all to him...?”

“I don’t think so,” Minori-san said with a smile. “He was going to where Myusel was. He knew she’d gone to Hikaru-kun’s room. If he’d thought she was in her own room, I guarantee he would’ve gone there first.”

“Hrm,” Petralka grumbled.

“Soooo,” Minori-san said, turning to Myusel and grinning. I’d never seen her so happy about anything that wasn’t BL. “I’m thinking you really are the most important to Shinichi-kun, Myusel.”

“G-Gosh, I wonder...” Myusel turned red and put her hands to her cheeks.

Wow, what’s with the adorable gesture?! Some kind of special move—is that what this is? Does everyone who sees it die (of moe)?!

................................................Er, nope. Never mind.

“I disagree,” Hikaru-san said. “Shinichi-san was just going in the order we disappeared. After all, he couldn’t be sure Myusel would be in my room, right?”

“Yes, that is indeed the case!” Petralka exclaimed, clenching her fist. “Behold the face of Shinichi when he enters Myusel’s room and discovers we are not there. His expression at that moment reveals precisely whom he cares for the most!”

“If ya really believe that, then get a look at his face when he pounds on my door! He’s totally freaked! Way worse than for any of the rest of ya!” Elvia practically squirmed with happiness.

“I don’t know, I really think he was looking for Myusel first... Ah.” That was when Minori-san turned toward me. Being the accomplished martial artist she was, maybe she could sense that I was there. “...Well, well.” She gave me a lopsided grin.

That prompted Myusel and the others to look my way, too.

“Shinichi!” Petralka was the first to speak. Followed by—

“Amazin’! It’s just like Minori-sama and Hikaru-sama said!” Elvia’s tail wagged.

“Shinichi-sama...” Myusel was the last to speak, her voice a whisper of wonder. Naturally, all of them—all three girls, plus the amused Minori-san and Hikaru-san—looked in perfectly good health, no sign of illness anywhere. Which meant...

“You’re awful, all of you!” I shouted, my clenched fists trembling. “You tricked me?!”

And here I had been so worried about them! All of them! I had been wracked with anxiety about what was going on! And the whole thing, all of it, had been made up!

“You even killed the power and everything! What did you think you were going to get out of it?!”

“We just figured that if a push didn’t work, we’d try a pull,” Minori-san said with a shrug. “If you wouldn’t come out for something fun, we thought maybe you’d come out for something scary.”

“That was crazy! How could you lie to me like that?!”

“Nobody lied. There is an epidemic near the castle, that much is true. And then we each just stopped playing the game and came out into the yard. Right, Hikaru-kun?”

“Sure is!” he said. I could practically imagine him giggling like a schoolgirl chatting with her BFF. But they couldn’t get rid of me that easily.

“That’s just semantics!”

I mean, strictly speaking, what Minori-san said was true. They hadn’t deliberately lied to me. But the way they had each gone silent and left the game one after another, the way they mentioned the epidemic right when it would most fan the flames of my worry, and then going so far as to cause a power outage—it was obviously all a ploy to scare the crap out of me!

“And then there was that Itchy. Tasty. chat message from Elvia!”

“That was just to help set the mood,” Hikaru-san said.

“You did that, Hikaru-san?!”

“Yeah, although I admit I was a little worried it’d tip you off that we were just playing with you.”

“Grrrrrr!”

“Still not a lie,” Hikaru-san said, pointedly looking away from me. Wow, it was really adorable the way he—no, no!

“Don’t act all cute with me!” This was bad enough already. I wasn’t so much upset about being tricked; I just wanted to die from embarrassment at the thought that everyone had been watching me the whole time I rushed all over the house in complete terror. I was sure they’d seen me screaming like a little girl when I thought Brooke and Cerise were a monster, too.

And to record the whole thing!

I glanced in the direction of the royal guard, but they collectively refused to look at me. Clearly, I was too pitiful for them to even bear to see me.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!

Gah! If there was a hole here, I would have dreaded-spinning-drill-jumped right into it!

“U-Uh, Shinichi-sama...” Myusel said hesitantly. “I—I really w-wanted to... to apologize to you, Shinichi-sama. So I wished... you would... come out of your room...”

“Myusel, you are one dedicated girl,” Minori-san said with a laugh.

“Again...” I whispered, my eyes on the ground.

“What...?” Myusel looked at me, perplexed; Petralka and Elvia glanced at each other; while Minori-san and Hikaru-san regarded me skeptically. I turned my back on them all... and set off running as fast as a frightened rabbit.

“I’ll shut myself in agaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiiinn!”

“Oh, Shinichi-sama...!”

I ignored Myusel, making a beeline for my room. I didn’t have it in me to stay in that spot one moment longer.

A while later. After less than half an hour, the mansion’s power came back on, which meant I had my computer back. My messenger was full of apologies from the others, but I didn’t see them until the next morning. I had pulled the covers over my head and gone to sleep.

And so we came to the next day. Through the chat Petralka and Garius, back for another visit, gave me the details on this epidemic. Sufferers experienced a high fever and a feeling of lethargy, while some also presented with runny noses, coughs, headaches, nausea or vomiting, diarrhea—the list went on. Eldant had its own endemic diseases, but none of their medicines seemed to work very well on this current outbreak. Garius and the others didn’t know what to do.

The solution, finally, came from an unexpected source: the JSDF garrison. The base’s doctor evaluated several people who had the illness, and discovered what it really was: influenza.

The influenza virus, it turned out, hadn’t existed in Eldant. I.e., most people had no immunity, and there were no medicines to combat it. It was as simple as that: the bug had never existed in this world, and we had brought it with us from Japan.

Here I thought they had tested the hell out of us to make sure we wouldn’t bring any unknown viruses back from the other world, but I guess they hadn’t tested us enough after all. I didn’t know who the carrier had been, but Matoba-san made more back-and-forth journeys than any of us, and there was a good chance it was him.

It wouldn’t be the first time this sort of thing had happened in history. But things moved quickly after that. The JSDF requisitioned and distributed medicine from Japan, as well as flu vaccines for all of us and anyone else who wanted one. Everyone seemed to think the furor about the epidemic would die down before long.

And then...

“Morning...”

I came into the dining area, scratching my cheek in embarrassment. Everyone else was already there; I was the last to arrive.

Despite my declaration that I was going to go back to being a shut-in, I had eventually given up on it. I assumed Minori-san and Hikaru-san would continue to try everything they could think of to get me out of my room, and I wouldn’t have put it past them to finally resort to violent force, like my parents had done. Frankly, I was afraid they might invent some even more humiliating plan. And I didn’t think I could endure any more humiliation.

So, farewell, shut-in life! It was good while it lasted. Lounging around in bed, reading whatever manga I wanted, playing games when I got tired of that, having delicious food brought right to my door.

But now...

“Um...” Myusel interrupted serving and rushed over to me—but then her shyness seemed to catch up with her, and she looked at the ground. “G-Good morning, Sh-Shinichi-sama.” She sounded like she could hardly get the words out.

“Yeah, morning...”

“Your food... It’s ready, so...”

“Yeah. Let’s eat. Together.”

“...Yes, sir!”

The shut-in life was a fun time; I’m not gonna lie. But I have to admit, too, that meals do taste better when you share them with someone. And they taste even better than that when they’re also made by a girl like Myusel.

And so...

“Itadakimasu!” I was grateful, but not just for the food on my plate. I looked at Myusel, sitting across from me—I was grateful for her, too.