4

I tell Tohko-san of the circumstance and have her protect Keita. She lets the boy who hasn’t slept since the night of the incident on her sofa and comes back to the office where Shiki and I are waiting. Tohko-san sits on her chair and Shiki is leaning against the wall. I am sitting at the sofa directly in front of Tohko-san. Finally calming down after Keita sleeps, they both tell me I am too good-natured. I take their words of criticism with a sullen face.

“I knew you guys were going to make fun of me like that.”

“If you knew, you shouldn’t have involved yourself in this mess. You’re easily taken advantage of by those kind of guys..”

“It can’t be helped. The situation was special.”

Tohko-san ponders to my response. She is using offensive words, but she did accept taking in Keita for protection. However, Shiki is against it. She might be really mad as she is glaring at me without saying anything.

“Special case, huh? I do admit this is an abnormal case but what are you going to do now? Are you thinking about looking for her and persuading her?”

“…… I’m thinking so. We can’t have him here forever and Asagami Fujino might continue killing people. I think I can only go see her and talk to her.”

“You idiot. That’s why we say you’re too good-natured.”

Shiki holds nothing back. She never does, but she is rather offensive today. She really is mad today.

“You won’t be able to talk to her, it’s too late. She won’t stop until she accomplishes her goal. No, I don’t even know if she’ll stop then. Her means and intention are reversed.”

“Shiki, you sound like you know her.”

“I know her and I’ve met her too. She was there with Azaka yesterday.”

I’m surprized. I wonder why Azaka would be with Asagami Fujino. They are totally unrelat…. I guess not. I only heard that she is a high schooler but it’s a different story if she is from Asagami Lady Academy.

“You’re pretty slow, Kokutoh. You haven’t investigated on Asagami Fujino yet?”

“Hey now, I only heard her name for the first time two hours ago. My purpose was to protect Minato Keita, so I didn’t have time to do such a thing.”

… But I have a bad feeling about this. It’s not that I’m worried that Azaka might be involved… it feels more like the impatience you feel when you are forced to think about what you’ve been avoiding.

“… Then is Asagami Fujino still going to school?”

“No, she hasn’t been home or back at the dorms since the night of the incident. She’s been skipping school too, she has completely disappeared. Azaka said she hasn’t seen her since yesterday.”

“Tohko-san, when did you research this?”

“Just a while ago. I received a search request from her parents. I heard Azaka was with Asagami Fujino yesterday from Shiki but it seems Azaka didn’t notice anything wrong with her friend.”

What an irony, if my promise with Azaka was a day later or if I found Keita faster, yesterday’s victim might not have been killed.

“So the protection of Minato Keita is not meaningless for us. If we cannot find her, we can use him as bait. It’ll get rough from there so you and Keita should stay here.”

With that, I finally understand… the reason why Shiki is here.

“Rough……? What are you going to do with Asagami Fujino?”

“Depending on the circumstance, we’ll have to resort to fighting. First of all, even the client is wishing for that. He doesn’t want her daughter reported as a killer. He told us to get rid of her before it all goes public.”

“What? It’s not like she’s commiting meaningless murders…! I think a discussion is possible.”

“Oh, that’s impossible. You haven’t heard the big truth. You don’t know the final blow she took when she killed them. I made Keita confess when I put him to sleep. I heard that his leader attacked Fujino on the last night with a knife. It seems she was stabbed. That’s what triggered her revenge.”

… Knife… so she was threatened with a knife even after being violated? So why would that be a reason she’s done for?

“The problem is right there. She was stabbed in her stomach on the night of the 20th. Shiki saw her two days later. At that time, she had no wound… she was completely healed.”

“Stabbed in the stomach……”

Hold on. Don’t think anymore. My mind tries to stop me but fails. On the night of 20th, student of the Reien Academy, stabbed in the stomach……

“I heard from Keita but she says on the phone that she cannot forget because the wound keeps on hurting. The wound that healed starts to hurt. Probably, whenever she has a flashback of the times when she was violated, the pain of being stabbed returns. The horrible memory brings back the horrible pain. I believe the pain is an illusion but it must be real for her. This is no different than a fit. Every time Asagami Fujino has a flashback of the pain that doesn’t even exist, she kills. Who can be sure that won’t happen while you’re talking with her?”

But that means we could talk to her if she doesn’t feel the pain. But before I could say that, Shiki speaks out.

“That’s wrong, Tohko. She really has pain. Her pain is still in her body.”

“That can’t be. Then Shiki, is it your mistake that her wound is completely healed?”

“Her stabbed wound is healed. There’s nothing like a piece of metal in her. Her pain really did appear and disappear. It’s already too late when she’s in pain but when she’s not, she’s too boring. I told you that I came back cause she wasn’t even worth killing.”

“Well, she would be already dead if a metal piece was still in her. But a wound that still hurts after it’s healed, huh?”

Tohko-san takes out a cigarette as if saying she doesn’t understand. I too can only wonder at Shiki’s words. It’s normal to be in pain until the wound heals. But why would a pain of a wound that’s already healed come back from time to time? That’s like having only the sense of pain remaining in your body.

“… Oh.”

And it hits me. It’s not an answer to her unknown symptoms, but I am able to understand why Keita called her weird.

“What Kokutoh, is it some new way of staying healthy by saying vowels out loud?”

… I don’t think anyone do such a thing even if it existed.

“No, about Asagami Fujino being weird.”

Tohko-san raises a brow. Oh, I only told her the summary of the story, so I guess I haven’t told her about this yet. I tell her about the strange condition of Fujino.

“Isn’t something strage? It was in the conversation with Minato Keita, but it seems she was unaffected by anything they did to her. I thought she was a firm girl at first, but I was wrong. She isn’t that strong of a girl.”

“…… You sound like you know her, Mikiya.”

Shiki glares at me. My instincts tell me ignore her. … I might put myself in the hole if I don’t.

“It’s possible… I don’t know that much about it, but I think she might be what you call pain insensitivity?”

Pain insensitivity is just as it sounds, a disease where one cannot feel any pain. It’s a very rare disease, so you never see it but if that happens to be the case, her strange symptoms might be possible.

“I see. Then that can explain some things, but there should be a reason. Even if she did get stabbed, if she is pain insensitive, there won’t be any pain to start out with. You also need to check if she was born with it and you also have to know if her nerves are dissociated. Well, even if she is pain insensitive, are there any reasons that might cause it to disfunction? Like hitting her back hard or taking lots of steroids?”

Hitting her back hard… it must be that.

“I don’t know how hard but I heard they hit her in the back with a bat.”

I say so unemotionally as possible. Tohko-san just laughs.

“I see. It’s them, they should have had a full swing. Then her backbone might have been broken. Even a crack is considered broken bone. And she was still violated even after her backbone was broken, not knowing what that feeling is. Geez, that’s the first pain she feels, huh? She must have not understood what her irritation is. Wow, I’m surprized you decided to protect Minato Keita.”

Tohko-san says so while making a grin. She has this bad habit of cornering someone with her words. I guess she likes to attack people mentally, and it usually ends up being me. I usually fight back, but I cannot answer right now. … I don’t have the confidence to answer. All I could do is look down and reject her response.

“… So Tohko-san, does the backbone and pain insensitivity have something in relation?”

“Yeah, your spine controls your nerves, right? When you have a problem with the sense of pain, you usually have something wrong in your spine. Do you know of Syringomyelia?”

… I would not know of such a technical medical term. Tohko-san lowers her shoulders in disappointment when I shake my head.

“Syringomyelia is the most known case of pain insensitivity. Listen Kokutoh, there are two types of senses. Superficial sensation that lets you feel such things as pain, temperature, and feeling. And there’s deep sensation that tells you of your body movements and general area. Normally, these two senses work at the same time. Do you know what it means to have no sense at all?”

“I can understand in words. You won’t feel anything when you touch, you don’t taste things even when you eat it, right?”

Tohko-san nods with a smile.

“That’s a natural response of a person with senses. You think they don’t have senses but has a body, so they are like you. But that’s wrong. To have no sense means that you cannot gain anything, Kokutoh.”

Cannot gain anything…? No way. They should still be able to hold things and talk to others. Then that would only mean that they cannot feel what they are touching. Why would that lead to not being able to gain anything? It’s not like they don’t have their body. I think it’s better than someone missing a part of their body or something.

Then I realize. …… No body. Even when they touch, they cannot feel that they are touching. They just look at it and confirm that they are “touching”. That is the same as reading a book. What’s so different about it from reading a book or imaging a story? Even when they walk, they are only moving their body. They do not feel the ground, but only feel their feet moving. No, even that feeling is barely comfirmed by looking at their own feet. To have no sense means not having a body. That would make them no different from ghosts. For them, all reality is what they see through their eyes. That’s the same as not being able to touch anything even if they could actually touch…!!

“So that’s pain insensitivity, huh.”

… That night, I met a girl who was unconfident about all of reality.

“That’s right. Let’s assume Asagami Fujino’s pain insensitivity temporary went away from being hit in the back. Then that would mean she knows what pain feels like. That sense she has never felt before must be her impulse for murder.”

Would that girl who found out what pain feels like hate the feeling of pain? No, it’s impossible for her to think so. … Since she is like a ghost, how happy must she have been when she found out the feeling of pain? She would have not understood the feeling of happiness either though.

“… Maybe the pain insensitivity went away temporary for her to feel pain and might have caused her to figure out the emotion of hate. The feeling of pain she finally obtained triggered her revenge…”

… What an irony.

“That’s the question. Fujino said she is taking revenge because her wound is hurting, but I have to wonder. To be more accurate, her pain makes her recall the violations done to her which makes her want to take revenge. I think this is how it is but it just doesn’t feel right. First of all, according to Shiki, she’s back to pain insensitivity, right? Then that would take her reason for revenge away. Her wound should not hurt since it’s healed.”

“That’s wrong, Tohko-san. To have no feeling must mean she has no sexual feelings too. So she cannot feel anything even when they rape her. For her, it only means that her body was raped. But… no, because of that, instead of her body hurting, her heart was taking the pain. I think her wound is not on her body but rather on her heart. That’s why the pain comes back with the memory, because her heart is in pain.”

Tohko-san does not answer. In her place, Shiki starts to laugh.

“That’s impossible. There’s no such thing as a heart. How can something that’s not there hurt?”

… If she says so, I can’t think of any comebacks. Surely, sentimental things such as a heart is not something you can prove it exists. When I am just standing there silently, Tohko-san disagreees with Shiki.

“But people’s heart, their minds, are easily broken. I don’t think you can conclude that it can’t be hurt just because it has no shape. In reality, some people die because they are hurt mentally. No matter how bad of a illusion it is, as long as it is true for the person, the illusion can be called “pain”.”

That’s a rather ambiguous answer for her. But for me right now, she is someone on my side. Shiki gets mad.

“What Tohko, are you siding with Asagami Fujino too? She not like that.”

“Yeah, I feel the same way about that. I don’t think Asagami Fujino would be that sentimental. She takes revenge because her heart hurts? I don’t think so. Because, if you’re pain insensitive, even your heart won’t feel pain.”

She instantly sides against me.

“Look, personality is medically defined as “a phenomenon of which a person reacts to outside force”. A person’s emotion… such things as kindness and hate cannot just come from within. It would not function unless something from outside stimulates it. That’s why there is pain. To not have pain means this cannot happen. People with pain insensitivity lacks personality. They do not think like you or have tastes similar to us. They do not understand common sense. That’s why talking with her is meaningless.”

She casually tells me the conclusion of the idea of talking with her. Her casualness seems rather like a last warning and puts me on the edge.

“… Please don’t say that when you haven’t even met her.”

I stand up from the sofa not being able to take it.

“That’s all under the assumption that Asagami Fujino is pain insensitive since she was born. This might not be the case.”

“You’re the one who said she might be pain insensitive.”

She says so coldly. … This person really does not care about others. How can she be so cold to Asagami Fujino when she’s a woman? Or is it that she can be this cold because she is a woman?

“Well, I do have things that I’m concerned about too. Asagami Fujino might be just a victim. The question is which was first.”

… What does she mean by “which was first”? Tohko-san starts to ponder and does not explain anymore.

“What do you think, Shiki?”

I ask her without turning around. Shiki answers exactly as I expected.

“Same as Tohko. But I can’t forgive Asagami Fujino disregarding what Tohko thinks. I feel sick just by thinking that she might commit another murder.”

“Hate for those like you, huh? It does seem true that your kind doesn’t like to form groups.”

Tohko-san hears Shiki’s words. I know why Shiki said so. … When will Shiki realize herself that she really does not like murder? Asagami Fujino and Ryohgi Shiki, I do think the two are alike. Since they are similar, they cannot forgive the crutial difference. If the two does end up fighting… would Shiki realize her true feeling? No, I cannot let the two fight.

“…… I understand. I’ll look into her information my way. Can I see any data on her if you have any?”

Tohko-san hands it to me. Shiki looks away telling me to do as I want. Looking at the information, Asagami Fujino was living in Nagano until elementary school. Her last name there is not Asagami as in “shallow top” but Asagami as in “shallow God”. Her father right now is not her real father, meaning that she followed her mother when she remarried. I guess this would be the place to start my investigation.

“I have to travel a bit far. I might not come back today or tomorrow. Oh, and Tohko-san. Is there really such a thing as supernatural powers?”

“You don’t believe what Minato Keita said? Asagami Fujino surely has some sort of power in that category. that. The term supernatural power is too broad so it’s not that accurate. If you want to know about it, I can introduce you to a specialist.”

Saying that, Tohko-san writes the address of this supernatural power-specialist on the back of her business card.

“Wait, you don’t know much about it?”

“Of course not. Magic is a study. How can we associate ourselves with something inherent without history or theory violating the rule? Those kind of powers only given to the chosen ones is what I hate the most.”

She really must hate it as she sounds like she has her glasses on. I take her business card and then speak to Shiki.

“Shiki, I’m going but make sure you don’t push yourself.”

“You’re the one pushing yourself. I guess it really is true that stupidity can’t be fixed.”

Shiki uses offensive words like that but then nods saying she’ll try. I leave the office with relief. It’s all right, I’ve never died but I was almost killed once. I haven’t told her that the one which almost killed me is Shiki herself. It’s because she forgot about that incident after she recovered from her coma. It’s fine if she does not remember. I will probably never tell her about it.

“Shiki……… san?”

“Asagami Fujino… I see, you must have connection with the Asagami God.”

With a light footstep, Shiki takes a step forward. Shiki narrows her eyes at the smell of blood. Not from detest, but from happiness.

“Since when….”

Fujino stops her question. The answer is obvious.

“All this time. I followed you since you brought that piece of meat out here.”

Fujino feels a chill at her cold voice. Shiki has seen it all. She saw it, but she still came out. She saw it, but did not stop it. She knew this was going to happen, but just watched…

…… This person is abnormal……

“Please do not say piece of meat. This is a person. This is a human corpse.”

Fujino argues so in spite of what she is thinking about. It is because she feels Shiki is saying too much to call that man a piece of meat. Shiki nods.

“Yeah, a human is still a human even when it’s dead. It doesn’t become a piece of meat just by dying. But that’s not a human death, is it? Humans don’t die that way.”

Shiki takes another step forward.

“A human who did not end his life like a human is not human anymore. Even if the people you’ve killed still has their head remaining or have no wounds, you can’t treat it with common sense. Those removed from the boundary are deprived of all their meanings. That’s why that thing is just a piece of meat.”

Suddenly, Fujino feels a repulsion against this person. Shiki is saying that the corpse and I are out of the ordinary, just like Ryohgi Shiki, who is watching this tragedy right now without a change of expression.

“…… No. I am sane. I am not like you!’

Fujino screams out for no reason. Shiki laughs, like it is really funny.

“We are alike, Asagami.”

“Don’t be ridiculus.”

Fujino stares at Shiki. The vision in her eyes starts to distort. … The “power” she has as a child is used.

But the power suddenly fades away.

“………!?”

But the surprize is for both Shiki and Fujino. Asagami Fujino is surprized at her disappeared power. Ryohgi Shiki is surprized at the suddenly changed Asagami Fujino.

“Again…? What the hell is up with you?”

Shiki gets angry. She scratches her head like everything is ruined.

“I would have killed you if you stayed that way. You were like that too at the cafe. … Fine. You let me down. I don’t care about you now.”

Saying that, Shiki turns and walks away. The sound of her footsteps gets farther away.

“Go home. If you do so, we shouldn’t see each other again.”

Then her figure disappears. Fujino stands still in the pool of blood.

…… I’m back to my previous self. I feel nothing again.

Fujino looks down at the man once more. There is no feeling in her that was there before. Only the sense of guilt comes into her brain. What’s left are the words Shiki left. Those words saying that Fujino and Shiki are both alike, both killers.

“No……. I am not like you.”

Fujino murmurs as if crying. Truthfully, Fujino hates murder. She starts to tremble at the thought that she would have to continue such an act in order to find Minato Keita. Because killing people would be unforgivable. That is her true feeling.

… The pool of blood reflecting her face shows her mouth making a smile…

——————————————————-

Remaining Sense of Pain

3

In the early morning on July 23, I finally get to Minato Keita’s place. From the information from his friends, his limit on radius of action, and from his way of thinking, I was finally able to narrow down his hiding place after a whole day. In one of the mansions located far from the residential district… he is trespassing and staying in a room on the sixth floor. I ring the doorbell and call out in a semi-loud voice.

“Keita-kun. I came to help you on request from your Senpai. I’m coming in.”

The door is not locked so I enter quietly. There is no light on inside the room and it’s dark in here even though it is morning. I walk through the wooden hallway and reach the living room. From the empty living room, you can see the kitchen and the bedroom.

“You’re in the back, right? I’m coming in.”

There is another room beside the bedroom. I open the door to that room and find its pitch black inside. It is because all the curtains are down. A small scream comes out when I open the door. … Like I thought, there’s nothing in the room. A room without furniture is just like a box, there is no sign of life. In this room is a boy who looks to be about 16, trash from food, and a cell phone.

“You are Minato Keita-kun, right? It’s unhealthy for you to stay in here. And it’s bad to use a room even when nobody is using it. This can be treated as burglary, you know?”

When I enter the room, Keita backs up to the wall. … His face is terribly thin and worn-out. It’s only been three days since that incident but his cheeks are hollow and his eyes are red. It’s obvious he has not slept. I heard that he was doing drugs, but that’s wrong. He is going insane without the help of drugs. … Because of seeing a scene so tragic that he does not want to believe it. He is barely maintaining his sanity by staying in this dark room. It’s a really dangerous way to defend himself, but it might be useful at least for a few days. I let out a sigh of relief n my head as I have made it in time.

“…… Who are you?”

There is still a bit of intellegence left in his voice. I stop. He is still confused facing such a tragedy. He might be scared of the killer, so who knows what he would do if I get close. Doubt will make him think I am his enemy. But… it should be different if we can talk. If we talk, his intellegence should return. I decide to stand and talk instead of trying to calm him down near him.

“Who are you?”

I raise both my hands at his question.

“I’m a friend of Gakuto. I am a Senpai too. I’m Kokutoh Mikiya, do you remember me?”

“Kokutoh…… Senpai?”

I must have been an unexpected visitor for him. He stands dumbfolded for a second and then starts to cry.

“Senpai. Why would you come for me?”

“I came to protect you since Gakuto came and asked me. We’re worried that you’re in some kind of trouble.”

I ask him if I could get near him and Keita shakes his head violently.

“I won’t get out of here. I’ll be killed if I do.”

“You’ll be killed if you stay in here too.”

Keita widens his eyes. He glares at me with enemity. I take a cigarette out and light it. … I don’t smoke but it’s an useful gesture to make you seem relaxed and helps calm down the other person.

“I heard about it. You know the killer, right Keita-kun?”

I ask him while blowing out the smoke, but he only stays quiet.

“Then I’ll just talk to myself for a while. On the night of the 20th, you guys were at your hangout place, Bar Shinkirou. It was raining that night. I happened to be out drinking too at that time, but I guess that doesn’t matter. I heard a lot of stories since Gakuto asked me to look for you. I think I know what you guys were doing on the night of the incident. I think the cops don’t know about it yet. Those people prefer not to help the cops.”

I shrug saying its troublesome. Keita is showing a different kind of fear now. It’s not fear of what is going to happen, but fear of being found out what he’s done.

“On the night of the incident, there was one other person beside you guys. The high school girl you guys were threatening. I don’t know her name but someone saw her going down to the bar. That girl has not showed up at the police station or anywhere for that matter since that incident. But it’s not like her corpse is found like the other four. Do you know what happened to her?”

“I don’t know… I don’t know such a person.”

“Then that would make you the killer. I’ll go call the police.”

“Wait, I didn’t do that…! There’s no way I could do such a thing…”

“Yeah, I feel the same way. So the girl was really there?”

After a brief silence, Keita nods.

“But that brings another question. That incident is not something a girl can accomplish by herself. Were you guys drugged?”

The boy shakes his head. Not to the question that the girl is the killer, but to the question of if they were insane or not.

“It’s impossible for five guys to be taken by just one girl.”

“But that’s the truth…! I thought she was weird from the start, but she was mad! Monster… she was a monster!”

I guess he is recalling the incident as he starts to tremble and covers his face with his hands.

“She was just standing there and everyone started to twist off. I heard their bones breaking and I didn’t know what the hell was going on. … I knew it when she killed two of us, I knew Fujino isn’t normal, that I’ll be killed if I stay there!”

Keita’s words are certainly abnormal. He is saying the girl… the one called Fujino tore off everyone’s limbs just by standing there and staring at them. I don’t know why he thinks so, but I guess Keita felt it on the spot… the difference of the one doing the killing and the ones getting killed. But… she bends stuff just by looking? I couldn’t quite believe it but I take the fact in. What can I deny after knowing Shiki, the one with killer eyes, and Tohko-san, the magus? Well, leaving that aside, there’s one word that caught my attention.

“All right. I’ll believe that this Fujino girl did it.”

“……… Huh?”

Keita raises his head in surprize.

“But… that’s a lie. No one would believe such a story! Please, tell me you’re telling a lie!”

“Then let’s just assume it’s a trick. Or should I say hypnosis or something? Either way, don’t think too hard about it. Don’t try to accept what you really don’t understand. But… what do you mean she was weird from the start?”

It seems Keita is losing his madness. The tension in him starts to fade away.

“It’s just she’s… weird. It seems like she’s acting out everything, like her reactions are always late. She won’t change her expression even when Leader threatens her. She won’t change even when she’s drugged and she doesn’t even show pain when being punched.”

“…… I see.”

I knew they were violating Fujino but when he comes out and says that, I’m speechless. That girl called Fujino was violated for half a year by them and killed them as revenge. Is there justice in that or does justice and law not get along? Well, I don’t want to think about it right now.

“So she looked great but it wasn’t fun doing her. It felt like doing a doll. Oh yeah, but that time was different. It’s recent but there was this messed up guy in our group. He found her fun because she wouldn’t change her expression no matter how much he punched her, so he finally brought out a bat and smacked her across her back. She was like WHACK! and smacked away. She did make a painful face. I felt a bit relieved cause I knew she was feeling pain too. I remember cause she was human-like that night.”

“You, shut up for a while.”

Keita shuts his mouth. I don’t know if I can keep my composure if I hear any more of this.

“I get the situation. I know someone in the police so we can go there. That’s about the second safest place I know.”

I near him to make him stand up, but Keita jumps back.

“No, I won’t go to the cops. Besides… I’ll be killed if go out. I’d rather stay here if I’m going to get torn to pieces!”

“Killed if you go out…?”

It’s worded a bit strangely. It seems there’s still one big misunderstanding between us. … I can understand him saying that he’ll be found if he goes out. But it’s strange for him to skip that and say he’s going to get killed. That’s like he’s being… watched. Then I finally realize what the cell phone by his feet means.

“…… You’re getting calls from Asagami Fujino.”

Keita starts to tremble once again at those words.

“Does she know of this place yet?”

The boy answers that he doesn’t know.

“I had Leader’s cell phone when I ran away. She called me after everyone was killed. She said she’s going to look for me no matter what! So I have to hide!”

“Why do you still have that cell phone?”

I know the answer but I still ask.

“Because she says she’s going to kill me if I get rid of it! She says I should hang on to it if I don’t wanna die! She says she’s gonna let me go as long as I have this!”

…… What a thing… Her curse is so strong.

“But she still calls me every night. … She’s insane. She saw Shono two days ago, Kouhei yesterday… she said she killed them because they didn’t know where I was. And she said kindly that it was good for me! She tells me I should go see her if I want my friends not killed, no way I can do that!!”

… What kind of fear would that be? The phone call he receives every night is a message from the one trying to kill him.
… I could not find you today.
One of your friends died in your place.
Come see me if you don’t want them killed.
You don’t have to come, but this murder will continue…
… and I will eventually find you…

“What should I do? I don’t wanna die. I don’t want to die like that! They were crying in pain! They were coughing up blood and their necks were twisted like nothing!”

“Let’s get rid of that phone. Or there will be more victims.”

“Don’t you get it!? I’m saying I’ll get killed if I do that!”

Two innocent people were killed because of that.
Asagami Fujino had to commit two meaningless murders because of that.

“You’ll be killed anyway if you stay like this.”

I push my cigarette on the ground and start to walk towards him. I forcefully pull on his arm.

“Senpai, please don’t do this. I can’t do anything now. Please leave me alone… leave me alone…… no, really, I’m scared. I don’t wanna be by myself anymore. Please help me…!”

I nod.

“I’ll help you. I won’t go to the cops. I’ll take you to the safest place I know.”

The only place that will be able to take him in would be Tohko-san’s place. Believing that is the best option, I leave the mansion with Keita.

“”Nii-san, please quickly break ties with such a woman.””

Azaka said so seriously to a woman in kimono, the one called Shiki. I feel rather uneasy due to the tight air surrounding them. It feels like they have a knife aimed at each other’s throat and looking for an opening to actually cut each other. I get timid within this tight air. Now, I can only pray that nothing will occur. Fortunately, they do not talk anymore and the woman wearing the kimono leaves gracefully. I stare at her back as she leaves. Shiki talked like a man. I couldn’t tell her age because of that, but maybe she’s around my age. Her last name was Ryohgi… maybe it’s that Ryohgi. Then her expensive looking kimono makes sense. I could see some worked out designs in her kimono. If she is of the Ryohgi, it’s no surprize she would have her own kimono maker.

“…… She was a beautiful person.”

Azaka nods to my murmur. I think she’s amazing for answering honestly even when she hates that person.

“But she is just as scary. … I don’t like that person.”

Azaka looks surprized. Her surprize is completely natural. Even I am surprized at my feeling. Because probably for the first time in my life, I feel a repulsion toward someone.

“That’s unexpected. I thought you were someone that wouldn’t hate anybody, but I guess I’m wrong.”

“Hate……?”

… Dislike is the same as hate? I never thought so. I just feel that I cannot get along with that person. I try closing my eyes. Ryohgi Shiki. Her ominous black hair, ominous white skin, and the ominous bottomless empty eyes. She was looking at me, so I looked back at her. That’s why we saw what was hiding behind us. She only has blood. She kills from her own will. She tries to hurt others. … That woman is a killer.

But I am different. I think I am different. Because I have never wanted to do such a thing. In the darkness behind my closed eyes, I repeat so over and over. But her figure would not disappear. … We have not talked even once, but her figure is engraved into my mind.

“I’m sorry Fujino. I ruined your day off.”

I open my eyes to Azaka’s words. I smile like I did in my practice.

“It’s all right. I did not feel like it anyways.”

“You do look pretty pale. It’s hard to tell because you’re pretty white to begin with.”

I did not feel like it for another reason, but I nod at her words anyways. … I know my body is not doing well by its reaction, but I did not notice that it is bad enough to show on my face.

“I guess it can’t be helped. I’ll ask Mikiya myself so do you want to go home for today?”

Azaka is worried about my health. I thank her.

“But is that message to your brother all right?”

“It’s fine. I don’t even know how many times I told him that anyways. He should be used to it. To tell you the truth, this a curse. Words that are repeated over and over can twist reality to lean towards that word. Really, a girlie curse. It’s sad and pitiful.”

I don’t know how serious she is but she explains so. I’m used to her unexpectedness. I decide to listen quietly to Azaka’s beautiful voice. … She is always the number one academically in our school and she even ranks in the top ten nationwide. Azaka is a bit strange and has this gentlemen-like side of her. Azaka is one of my friends from Reien Academy. Both of us entered that school from our high school. Since Reien is an “escalator” school from elementary school, it’s rare for people to come starting from high school like us. We met because of that and are close enough that we go out sometimes on weekends. Today, I was supposed to have her brother look for someone through Azaka.

I went to a local middle school and when I was there, a Senpai from a different school talked to me at an event. … I am depressed recently, but I am saved by thinking about this Senpai. When I told Azaka about it, she said we should look for this person. It happens that her brother is also from this area and he knows a lot of people around here. She said he is really good at looking for people our age. … It’s not that I really wanted to see him, but we end up deciding to look for this person with me not being able to refuse the pushing Azaka. We were waiting for her brother today but it seems he cannot come today. … I am relieved in a way.

I am not really into this whole thing because… I accidentally ran into him two days ago. At that time, I was able to say what I couldn’t say three years ago. Since I have done what I wanted to do, there is no point in looking for this person anymore. Maybe Azaka’s brother couldn’t come because God knew I didn’t need him anymore.

“Let’s get going. It’s hard to stay here over an hour buying just drinks.”

Azaka gets up. Even though she should be sad about not being able to see her brother, she still gets up gracefully. Sometimes, she is really manly. Maybe because of the way she talks. Her formal tone disappears like just now and becomes cool like a man. It’s not that she’s disguising herself, but that’s just a part of her. I really like this friend of mine. …… That’s why I shouldn’t see her anymore.

“Azaka. Please go back to the dorm by yourself. I will be staying at my parents house tonight again.”

“Really? That’s fine but Sister would be glaring at you if you stay out too much. You should restrain yourself.”

Waving her hand, Azaka leaves the cafe. Being alone, I take a glance at the sign. “Ahnenerbe”: it means inheritance in German.

***

After Azaka leaves, I start walking aimlessly. It is a lie that I am going back to my parents’ house. There is no place for me to go back to now. From that night two days ago, I have not even been to school. My father has probably been contacted already for unexcused absenses. They will ask me what I was doing if I do go back home. I am not good at telling lies so I might slip everything out. If that happens… father will contempt me.

I am my mother’s child from her former marriage. Father only needed mother’s house and land, so I was just something on the side since that time. That is why I worked hard not to be hated.
A faithful woman like my mother, a student my father can be proud of, a normal girl nobody would suspect about………
…… I always wanted to be that way.

Not for someone else, but for myself. I always dreamed that and the dream has protected me. But it came to an end. Such magic is not around me no matter how much I look. I continue walking, the sun is starting to set. I walk past many people irrevalent to me and many stoplights which blink insensibly. People older than me, people younger than me, everyone looks so happy. My heart contracts in pain. I think of something and pinch my cheek. …… I do not feel anything. I pinch harder. ………… Nothing. When I give up and let go, I notice that my fingertips are red. I guess I pinched hard enough that my nails dug into my skin. But I still feel nothing. I do not feel that I am alive.

“Fufu…”

I laugh thinking it’s funny. Why does my heart feel pain when I myself do not feel any pain? First of all, what is heart? Is it my heart that’s hurt or my brain? When the brain receives any words that is directed to attack an individual called Asagami Fujino, it creates a wound as a protection. Since a wound lets a person know it hurts, whatever story I come up with is only a medicine that soothes the pain. That is why even though I cannot feel pain, I still understand pain in my heart. But that is probably just an illusion. Probably a illusion for sure. A real pain cannot be cured just by words. One quickly forgets a pain in their heart because it is so trivial. But a wound on your body gives you pain as long as the wound is there. That is a strong proof of life.

If my heart is my brain, then my brain should get a wound. Then I should be able to feel pain. Like my days up to now. If the memories of the days I was violated by those people became wounds…

….. I remember again their laughter and their scary faces. All those times I was violated and threatened. When that guy with the knife jumped on me, my stomach felt hot and the cloth around my stomach area was cut. When I thought I was going to get stabbed, I became violent. After I was done with them, I realized that the heat in my stomach is pain. My heart shrinks once more. “I won’t forgive them.” Those words repeat in my head over and over.

“Guh……”

My knee wobbles. It comes again. My stomach is burning. It feels like an invisible hand is grabbing inside of me.

I feel like vomiting. ……… I do not feel that way normally.
I feel dizzy. ……… I abruptly lose consciousness in this situation normally.
My arm is numb. ……… I confirm by looking at it normally.
It really hurts. ……… Yes, I feel alive.

The place I was stabbed is starting to hurt. The pain of the already-healed wound breaks out unexpectedly like this. A long time ago, mother said that wounds will not hurt once they heal. But that is a lie. The wound made by that knife is still hurting me even after the wound has healed.

… But mother, I like this pain. For me who has never felt that I was alive, there is nothing else that makes me feel more alive than this sensation. This remaining sense of pain is not an illusion.

“I have to look for him quickly.”

I murmur under my ragged breath. I have to get my revenge. I have to kill the boy that got away. It is irritating, but if I don’t do so, people will find out that I am a murderer. I don’t want that since I finally obtained the sense of pain. I want to keep on feeling the pleasure of feeling alive. I take my body that hurts every time I move it and start to walk toward their hangout place. I cry at the remaining sense of pain in my stomach. But right now, even that discomfort is lovely.

/3

Parting with Azaka, I return to my place. When night comes, I go out into town. There were 5 people killed so far. 4 in that basement bar two days ago. According to Tohko, another one at a construction site yesterday night. Leaving the 4 killed two days ago, I do not see any relevance to the one killed last night. But I cannot say it is a total stranger. Mikiya once said that ones that hang around at night have many connections. Maybe there is a high probability that the 4 and the one killed last night is connected.

“That girl…”

I suddenly recall the girl that was with Azaka. …… The feeling of death that is planted around her like capillary. Since I am not used to my eyes yet, I saw it without any preparation. … That was abnormal. It might be more abnormal than me. But that girl was normal. She smelled of blood, and she had eyes like me that seem like she did not know which boundary she is standing on. She must be my pray for sure, but I still cannot be confident in myself. It is because that girl has no cause. She has no reason to kill for pleasure like I do, no darkness that takes pleasure in murder.

Take pleasure in murder… How would Kokutoh Mikiya think if he hears that? Would he scold me telling me that murder is bad?

“Idiot.”

I do not really know if that word is directed at him or me. Kokutoh Mikiya said I have not changed from before. I guess I am no different than I am before I went into that coma. Then, did I used to take a walk at night too? … Like an abnormal person that searches for someone to fight with to kill?

“……….”

No, that’s wrong. Shiki did not have such a taste. She did, but it was not prioritized. Then this is SHIKI’s sensibility. Of the man Ryohgi SHIKI, the yan, in side the woman Ryohgi Shiki, the yang. I wonder at my conclusion. I used to have him inside of me, but he is not anymore. Not being there must mean that he is dead. Then……… this will of wanting to kill cannot be anyone else’s but mine. As Tohko said, this job is just for me. Because I am certainly happy about being able to kill someone.

…… The time is almost midnight.
I take the train and arrive at a station I rarely come to.
From this always-awake noisy town,
I can see a big port in the distance.

***

After I part with Azaka, I change my destination. I do not know where the last one would run to, but I think there is a way to search for him. The only ones directly involved with me were the four that I killed and the one that escaped, but I was taken to many places by them. If I go there and ask where the last one went, I should be able to find where he escaped to. Since they cannot trust the police or the school, the only ones they can depend on should be their kind. I hold my burning stomach as I walk through the night town. I had some resistance about going into indecent places, but it is trivial to me as I am more tormented by the pain and my memories of being violated.

At my third place, I meet a guy that says he is a friend of Minato Keita. He was working at at a big building made into a big karaoke place, and gives me an unpleasant smile as he agrees to talk with me for a while. He sneaks out of his work and starts to walk telling me we should go to a quiet place to talk. … From the long experience I had, I can tell this man is taking me to their hangout place. These people can smell out weak people. This person with a good put-on smile must have seen through me as an easy victim to violate. … He probably knows I was violated by Minato Keita’s group too. That is why he takes me without concern. Even though I know that, I still did not refuse to follow him. This man that is a few years older than me heads to a quieter area. I hold my stomach as it starts to hurt even more, and I prepare myself.

…… The time is almost midnight.
I walk with this man as I curse the repeated violations in my head.
From this always-awake noisy town,
I can see a big port in the distance.

***

The man is feeling his own luckiness. He knew from the boasting Keita that Keita’s group is playing around with this girl from a all-girl school. It is because it is Keita’s habit to do as he wanted to that girl and to brag about it. To this man, it had nothing to do with him. He does not have a big connection with Keita’s group, and they were from different areas. That’s why he always listened to Keita’s story without concern. But for that girl to actually come to him!!

You have to take what is given to you. The man decides to get out of work and take Fujino somewhere. … It’s not that the man is hungry for sex. It’s not an unusual event for people like him to rape a girl with four or five guys. There is a reason why this man does not call for his friends. It is because Fujino is the daughter of the Asagami Construction. He should be able to get lots of money if he violated her and threatened them that he would make the matter public. The group Keita is in is rather stupid when it comes to such matters. Maybe because their leader is not that smart. Or is it that they did not need money because they were smart? Well, it does not matter. Either way, the man is happy right now. He did not contact his friends because he thinks that he will get the largest pay if he does not share it.

The girl who came to ask about Minato Keita… Asagami Fujino is following him silently. It will be bad taking her to the usual hangout place. The man heads to the warehouse area of the port. Since it’s almost midnight, the warehouse area is empty. As all warehouses are made the same way and arranged the same way, it seems like a giant factory. There aren’t many streetlights and nobody should come if he goes in between the warehouses. The only things that will be irritating would be the sound of waves and the lights from Broad Bridge currently under construction on the other side of the water. Bringing Fujino into such darkness, the man finally opens his mouth.

“This should be fine. So, what did you want to ask about?”

The man decides to answer her question first. It is his aesthetic that it’s not smart to attack from the start.

“Yes, would you happen to know where Keita-san is?”

Fujino is looking down while holding her stomach. The man cannot see her face with her cleanly-cut hair in front of her.

“I haven’t seen him lately. He doesn’t even have his own place so he’s been going around people’s places. You won’t be able to contact him cause he doesn’t have a cell phone.”

“No…… I can contact him.”

“Huh?”

This girl’s words are strange. She can contact him but doesn’t know where he is? Has this girl gone crazy from being raped too much? Well, if that’s the case, it should make things easier but it’s also true that the man is let down a bit. The man calms down again.

“All right. If you can contact him, then just ask where he is.”

“Well….. Keita-san does not want to tell me where he is hiding. That is why I am going around asking his friends. Please answer me… I do not care if you know or do not know.”

“Whoa, wait a sec. What do you mean he’s hiding? Did he get into some deep shit?”

The man gets irritated by the girls strange words. He’s hiding… does that mean that the cops know about them raping Fujino? No, if that’s the case, she wouldn’t come herself. The man thinks, but cannot come up with an answer, because…
… Because he has not seen the news.

“Well, who cares. But what do you mean you don’t care if I know or not? Was that your intention to begin with? Keita’s not your intention but you came to find a new man or something?!”

The man laughs from his heart this time – I really am in luck, I should be able to get the money without even threatening. And besides, Asagami Fujino is a beautiful girl that he would not easily obtain. He will be able to obtain prize of money and beauty. What else can you call this but luck?

“Sorry, I should have took you to my place from the start then. Or you like this kinda place better, perhaps?”

The girl in the black uniform nods.

“But before that, please tell me if you know where Keita-san is.”

“Hey dumbass, you can quit your excuse for coming here. First of all, I wouldn’t know where he would go.”

The girl looks up as if satisfied. The eyes looking at the man are abnormal. There is no emotion in her amber eyes that fire up the spiral.

…… It is not normal….

“……?”

The man who does not notice that madness encounters a strange circumstance. His arm is moving on its own! His joint bends. His elbow bends to about 90 degrees, and it keeps bending…
… And it finally breaks.

“W-what……!?”

A stupid scream. The fate of the man ends here. Certainly, he did have luck. Back luck is luck indeed.

In a dark alley not even lit up by the moonlight, a tragedy raises its curtains.

***

“………!!”

The scream only becomes a beast-like groan. The man’s arms are already not like arms anymore. It’s like a puzzle ring… or a rubber band twisted around to make a model airplane fly. … Either way, it should not function as human arms anymore.

“H-h-help…!”

The man runs away from the girl who is only standing in front of him. In that instant, his body floats and his right leg is torn off from his knee. Blood splashes as if emptying a full bucket. The blood that sprays along the wall seems like some kind of art. Asagami Fujino keeps watching with her emotionless eyes.

“I-i-it’s twi… twist-t-t-t-t-ed…!!!”

His words are incomprehensible. Fujino decides to ignore them.

…… She murmurs, “Bend.”

That is the same word she has been saying all this time. Her friend has told her that a repeated word can become a curse. The man is on the ground, only moving his neck. Both his hands are twisted and his right leg is gone. The blood from his leg is soaking the ground. Fujino steps into it thinking that it’s like a red carpet. Her shoes sink into the red liquid. A summer night is hot and the humid air stick to the skin and becomes annoying. The air of the blood has a similar feeling.

“…….. *Sigh*”

Looking down at the man that is acting like a green caterpiller, Fujino sighs. She hates herself for doing such a thing. But she also thinks this is what she intended to do from the start. She knew from the way he acted that this man did not know what happened in that basement bar. But he will find out in time. Then, he will grow suspicious of Fujino for searching Keita. So this is something that cannot be helped. This man intended to do that from the start. This will be indirect, but this is part of Asagami Fujino’s revenge. Only a revenge to those who violated her. It’s just that her ability to violate.far surpassed their ability to violate.

“I am sorry…. but I have to do this.”

The man’s remaining left leg is torn off. And that causes the remaining life in him to cut off as well. Fujino looks down at the convulsing body. Now, she knows how the man feels. Until now, she did not know. She could not understand people’s reaction to pain. But now that she knows pain, she can strongly sympathize with this man. That makes her happy. To be alive means to get hurt.

“And finally… I can be normal.”

My pain, other’s pain. I am the one who made him this way. I am the one that gave him these wounds. It means Asagami Fujino is superior. This is what it means to be alive. The ugly self that cannot feel the pleasure of life unless commiting such actions.

“….. Mother. Am I so ugly that I have to go this far?”

The thing in her stomach becomes unbearable. Her heart starts to beat rapidly. A chill runs up her spine…

“I do not want to kill people…”

“You’re wrong.”

Fujino turns around to the sudden voice. At the entrance of the alley between the warehouses, a girl in kimono stands. With the port reflecting the quiet moonlight behind her…

… Ryohgi Shiki is there…

/2

The phone starts to ring. It stops ringing after five times and switches to the answering machine. After a beep noise, I hear a familiar voice come from the answering machine.

“Good morning Shiki. Can you do me a favor? I’m supposed to meet Azaka at a cafe called Ahnenerbe near the station at noon but I don’t think I can make it. You have nothing to do, right? Can you go there and tell her I can’t come?”

The caller hangs up. … I move my tired body and look at the clock by the bed… July 22, 7:23AM. It’s only been about four hours since I came home. My body is still wanting sleep, maybe because I’ve been walking around town until three in the morning after accepting Tohko’s job. I pull up my sheets. The summer hotness does not really matter for me. I was able to tolerate hot and cold weather rather well as a kid and it still seems that way. As I lay there for a while, the phone rings again. It switches to the answering machine and this time, I hear a voice I’d rather not hear.

“It’s me. Did you see the news? You didn’t see it, right? You don’t have to see it. I didn’t see it either.”

… I always thought so, but now I’m confident. The way she thinks is far from the way I think. One should not understand the real meaning behind Tohko’s words.

“There were three deaths last night. Another one of those suicides jumping off a bulding and two, a crime from passion. None of these are in the news so I’m guessing they were all treated as accidents. But there’s one strange case. If you want to know more, come to my place. Actually, you don’t have to. Come to think of it, this will do. All right… to put it simply so even you would understand with that sleepy head of yours, there was just another victim.”

The caller hangs up. I get pissed off. It has nothing to do with me even if there’s another victim. Even the things around me are uncertain, so such a thing is useless information for me. Death of someone I don’t even know about is less impressive than the sunlight hitting me right now.

I get up when the tiredness in me goes away. I make breakfast just like the previous Shiki has learned so in her 16 years of life. I eat it and get ready to go outside. I put on a orange simple kimono today. Since I’ll be walking around town, this is what I prefer. …… Even my choice of cloth is only a habit from the past. I bite my tongue at the feeling I get like I’m looking at someone else from outside. Two years ago, when Ryohgi Shiki was still 17, I wasn’t like this. It’s not that the two years of coma changed me. … The empty two years brought me something else. It feels like I am not moving out of my will. I always get this feeling that the strings called “16 years as Ryohgi Shiki” is moving me like a puppet. But it has to be just my feelings. No matter how much I curse at myself for being empty and fictitious, in the end, I am moving out of my own will. It is impossible for anything other than me to interfere with that.

When I finish changing, the time is almost eleven. I repeat the first message on the answering machine. The voice I have heard many times in the past repeats itself. The voice that was lost in the air is recorded like this.

… Kokutoh Mikiya

The last person I saw two years ago…

The classmate that I let my guards down two years ago…

I know my past with him, but only the vision of our last moment is not there. No, the memory of the year since I got to know him is full of holes. Many important parts are missing. Why Shiki got in that accident…. Why she was looking at Mikiya’s face at that moment… It would be really handy if the forgotten memories were recorded somewhere. I am concerned about the missing memories and it is causing me not to be able to talk to Mikiya naturally.

… The answring machine stops. It’s strange why my worries go away a bit when I hear his voice. It makes me feel like I have a firm foundation, but there’s no way something like a voice could be a foundation. That should be an illusion too. It probably is an illusion. The only reality I can feel now is the burning excitement I get when I kill people.

***

Ahnenerbe turns out to be an antique cafe. I check the name written in German and go inside. It’s past noon but there aren’t many customers inside. I don’t know how they built it but it is dark inside. Only the tables near the door is light and the back of the cafe, the counters, is rather dark. The only light is coming through the four square windows on the wall. Only the tables by those windows are light as if cut out of the darkness. Maybe it’s because of the strong sunlight but the contrast feels rather majestic. Kokutoh Azaka is sitting at the table in the very back. Two girls in a western-style uniform is waiting for Mikiya side by side.

“Two…?”

That’s not what I heard. According to Mikiya, only Azaka should be waiting. I didn’t hear about this other girl. I look at them as I walk towards them. They both have long straight black hair. They have similar features and they are beautiful, fit for students at a Lady Academy. Even though the impressions are totally the opposite. Azaka has firm eyes and has the strength to face anything. You can’t hide her strength even with her lady-like attitude. Mikiya was liked because of his personal charm, but Azaka would be the one that would be admired because of her strictness. The girl next to Azaka looks rather weak. Her posture looks firm and graceful but she has this feeling that she might break down any second.

“Azaka.”

I come close to their table and call out. Azaka looks at me and frowns.

“Ryohgi… Shiki.”

The voice is filled with enemity. She doesn’t even try to hide it. Her Lady-like feeling is just like her disguise.

“I am waiting for Nii-san. I have nothing to do with you.”

Azaka says so, staying calm.

“I have a message from that Nii-san of yours. He said he can’t make it. He ditched you.”

Azaka gasps. Maybe because the fact that he could not come is a big shock, or maybe because I was the one to come tell her that.

“Shiki, it must be your doing…!”

Azaka trembles her fist. I guess she’s shocked that I came.

“Don’t be stupid. I’m a victim too. He just selfishly told me to tell you that he can’t make it.”

Azaka looks at me with flame in her eyes. The girl next to her tries to calm Azaka as she might start throwing things if she wasn’t calmed down.

“Kokutoh-san, everyone’s surprized.”

A thin voice. I step back.

“…… You’re right, today was supposed to be for you. Sorry Fujino, it was wrong for me to get angry.”

Azaka apologizes to the girl called Fujino. I look at the calm-looking girl. She is looking at me too.

“Does it…… not hurt?”

I say so unconsciously. The girl does not answer but just stares at me. Showing no interest like watching a scenary, and inorganic like a bug. I get two convictions in me. An intuition that she is my enemy and the actual feeling that she cannot be.

“… No, it can’t be you.”

In the end, I trust my feeling. There is no way this girl called Fujino would be able to enjoy murder. Because there is no reason for her to. No, first of all, it’s impossible for her thin arms to tear off things like human limbs. It would be a different story if she has abnormal eyes like me… I lose interest in the girl and talk to Azaka.

“That’s all. Do you have any message for him?”

“”Nii-san, please quickly break ties with such a woman.””

Azaka really leaves such a message.

2

After the incident with the unknown girl, I head to my workplace. There is no official name for the place I work for. It’s specialty is doll-making, but most of the job we get are construction-related. The president, Aozaki Tohko, is a woman in her late twenties and she is a weirdo that would buy an abandoned building to make into her office. It means that this is not a company, but rather an extension of her hobby. There are many reasons why I decided to work here, but this is my daily life now. I have complaints but I have no troubles. I rather think I am fortunate. There are problems but they are all things I can bear.

… While I’m thinking, I arrive at the building. The building is four-stories high and the office is on the fourth floor. This building situated between the residential and the industrial district feels rather empty. It’s not that tall, yet it puts pressure on the ones looking up to it. There are no elevators, so I go up the stairs.

When I enter the office, I see an unusual person within the usual junk scattered about. A girl with sharp eyes wearing a black kimono turns to me. … The kimono has some fish pattern on it…

“Huh, Shiki? Why are you here at such a place?”

“Sorry this place is “such a place”. This happens to be your workplace, Kokutoh.”

Tohko-san, who is sitting behind Shiki glares at me. She is dressed plainly like always with a cigarette in her mouth. She is wearing black pants with a white shirt. She’s wearing an earring in one of her ear. The color of course is orange. I don’t know why, but she seems to have this habit of wearing one thing that is orange on her.

“But you sure are here early today. I told you there’s no jobs for a while, so to show up around noon.”

“No, I can’t do that.”

That’s right. My wallet is not allowing me to do that. I feel rather uneasy when the only thing in my wallet are my train pass and a telephone card.

“By the way, why is Shiki here?”

“I called for her. I got something I need her for.”

Shiki does not say anything but rubs her eyes sleepily. … Was she walking around at night again? … It’s only been about a month since she recovered from her coma. For some reason, we are finding it rather uncomfortable to talk to each other. It seems Shiki does not want to talk so I sit down at my own desk. …There’s nothing to do, so I decide to talk. Fortunately, there is a topic handy.

“Tohko-san, did you see the news this morning?”

“You must mean the Broad Bridge. It’s not like some foreign country, I don’t think Japan needs that big of a bridge.”

I pull back at her comment. What she is talking about is a big bridge that is about 800 meters long planned to finish constuction next year. The town we live in is close to the port. If you drive for about 20 minutes, you can get to the port, but the shape itself is troublesome. To put it simply, there is another side of it. If you look at it on a map, it looks like a crecent moon and a long roundabout is forced if you want to get from the top to the bottom. The city’s construction group teamed up with a big construction company and put into action what they said is the solution for public complaints. They are building a straight route across the tips of the crecent shape in the form of a bridge. … Of course, most of the money to build this is coming from our taxes. I think it is a typical case of government saying they are solving public complaints which did not exist from the start, only resulting in creating more public complaints. The bridge is also to have museums, aquariums, big parking lots and such, and you can’t tell if its a bridge or an amusement park. It was called Baybridge until recently but according to what Tohko-san is saying, I guess it’s officially announced its name as Broad Bridge. Both Tohko-san and I do not like the idea of this bridge.

“But Tohko-san, even though you hate the idea, you already have a space in there for your gallery.”

“It’s not under my will. A person I knew just gave me that space as a pay. I can just sell it off but since I have some relationship with the Asagami construction company, I can’t just do that. Geez, a place that won’t make me money is worthless.”

From the say she’s talking, she seems to be having trouble with money. I get a really bad feeling.

“Um, I don’t want to say this so bluntly, but can I have my pay?”

“Kokutoh, about that… unfortunately, I don’t have any money. It’s an unfortunate thing but I’ll have to pay you all next month.”

Tohko-san declares so calmly. She sounds like I’m the bad guy instead.

“Wait a minute! You had 1.12 million yen in the bank yesterday! How could you say it’s all gone!?”

Tohko-san replies while rocking on her chair that it’s because she used it all. Shiki is looking at Tohko-san with some jealousy. …Certainly, Tohko-san looks like she’s having fun in the chair. No, I don’t care about that right now.

“What did you use the money on, Tohko-san?”

“Oh, what I bought was a boring thing. It’s an Ouija Board from the Victoria Age. I can’t expect much out of its effect but it’s not totally worthless because it’s over a hundred years old. No matter how uninteresting it is, some mana and long time will give it some additional value. Well, it still makes no difference that it’s useless. If I have to give a reason for buying it, you could say it’s part of my hobby.”

I just don’t understand this person. This person called Aozaki Tohko is a magus. I always think how much better it would have been if she was just a magician or something, but that’s the truth so I have to accept it. The magus continues her excuse.

“It was a sudden thing on sale, so I bought it out of impulse. Don’t get so angry. I’m out of money too.”

… Don’t be angry? That’s asking too much. As I have seen many miracles from her, I thought this part of her is rather playful, but I cannot be that tolerant today.

“So is that it? I’m not getting paid this month?”

“Yeah. Get some money from somewhere else.”

I get up from my seat.

“Then I’m going to go find some money to live off of this month so I’m leaving early. Is that all right?”

“Fine. By the way Kokutoh, I need to ask you a favor.”

Tohko-san says so in a different tone. Maybe it has to do something with the fact that Shiki’s here… I calm down and stop.

“What is it, Tohko-san?”

“Can you lend me some money? I’m broke as you can see.”

“…… I refuse with all my might.”

I close the door hard and leave the office.

***

After looking at the conversation between Mikiya and Tohko for a while, Shiki finally opens her mouth.

“Tohko, about that thing.”

“That’s right. I don’t really like to accept this kind of a job but I won’t be able to live without money. …… Geez, I’m going mad over money when I’m not an Alchemist. This is all because Kokutoh won’t lend me any money.”

Tohko sticks her cigarette into the ashtray saying she’s in a bad mood. Shiki thinks Mikiya probably is in a worse mood than her.

“Well, about that incident last night…”

“I’ve heard enough. I know what’s going on.”

“I see…… I only explained to you the scene of the crime, but you already know? You’re pretty sharp.”

Tohko looks meaningfully at Shiki. Tohko has only explained the results of the murder that occured between 7PM and 8PM last night and Shiki is saying she understood what kind of crime it was. This is definite proof that Shiki is a person closer to the world Tohko.lives in.

“The client has some idea of the killer. Your job is to take the killer under your care if possible. But if the killer happens to fight back even slightly… the client said to kill her.”

Shiki just nods. The jod description is easy. Find the killer and kill her.

“But what about after that?”

“If you happen to kill her, they will clean it up and treat it as an accident. For the client, she is already socially dead. It is not against the law to kill a dead person. What do you want to do? I think this job rather suits you.”

“I don’t even need to answer that question.”

Saying that, Shiki starts walking out the office.

“You’re in such a hurry. Were you hungry, Shiki?”

Shiki does not answer.

“Here, it’s her picture and her status. What were you going to do without knowing what she looks like?”

Shiki only looks at Tohko, who throws her the file containing the information. The file drops to the floor.

“I don’t need it. That killer is definitely of my kind. … So if we meet, we’ll start to kill each other at that instant.”

Shiki leaves the office, leaving the sound of her kimono and a cold glare.

***

After I leave the office, I couldn’t help it, so I decide to borrow some money from a friend of mine. We decide to meet at the college cafeteria which I quit in June. A bit after noontime, Gakuto comes. He has grown much bigger since high school. When I tell him what I came for, he makes a troubled face.

“I’m surprized. Calling for someone just to borrow money? Are you really Kokutoh Mikiya?”

“Yeah. You’re special to me. You can be happy about that.”

“Heh, who would. Besides, why don’t you go borrow from your relatives?”

“I haven’t seen my parents ever since that fight I got into with them when I dropped out of college. How do you expect me to go back and ask such a thing now?”

“Haha, you’re pretty stubborn. Was it a pretty big fight?”

“That has nothing to do with you. So are you going to lend me some money or not?”

“Hm? You’re in a pretty bad mood today.”

I glare at him saying it’s none of his business, but Gakuto agrees to lending me some money.

“If I put your name out, I bet I would be able to collect 50000, 60000 yen quickly… and if you still need more, I can lend you some of my money. But, not for free.”

… It seems he also has a favor to ask of me. Gakuto looks around and makes sure no one is listening.

“Well, to put it simply, I want for you to look forsomeone. It’s one of our lower-classman, but he hasn’t returned home. It seems he’s involved in a strange crime.”

Gakuto’s story is not peaceful at all. The name of the missing lower-classman is Minato Keita. He is missing from last night and Gakuto says he is a member of the group that was killed last night. Minato Keita has contacted one of his friend last night but it seems he was acting strangely, so that friend came to Gakuto for help.

“Keita was saying something like he’s going to get killed. That’s the only call he made and he doesn’t even answer his cell phone now. According to the guy who talked to him, he was really screwed up.”

Screwed up… he must mean drugs by that. Easy drugs for beginners are cheap and relatively easy to get now. Even a high schooler can get his hands on L if they try, but they shouldn’t try…

“… Hey now. Do you think such a violent world suits me?”

“What are you saying? Looking for people is your specialty.”

I grow quiet.

“That guy Keita, does he do drugs?”

“No, the ones who used them were the ones that were killed. Don’t you remember Keita? He’s one of the kid that liked you.”

… During high school, I was liked by some lower-classmen for some reason. Maybe because I’m a friend of Gakuto or something.

“It would make things easy if he is just tripping from a new drug. Which kind of drugs do they use? Upper or downer?”

There are two types of drugs: Upper, the ones that make you mentally high and feel good and downer, the ones that make you depressed. The one Gakuto names is an upper.

“It’s bad if he’s using drugs to run away from fear. The killer really might be after this kid. All right, I’ll look into this. Tell me about his friends.”

Gakuto hands me an address book as if he was ready for me to say so. Having lots of friends is a characteristic of the member of that group and it seems he’s no exception. Many names with their cell phone numbers along with each group’s hangout place is written.

“I’ll contact you once I find him. I might get him under my protection but you wouldn’t care, would you?”

By protection, I mean handing him over to Daisuke Nii-san, a cop. Gakuto nods, understanding what I mean. We reach an agreement. To start off my search, I borrow about 20000 yen from him. After saying goodbye to Gakuto, I decide to go to the murder scene. It’s because I feel that I’ll have to really try if I’m to find him. Even though I know I shouldn’t concern myself, I also know this kid is in danger, so I could not decline Gakuto..

Remaining Sense of Pain

1

July nears its end and my surrounding has started to fill with events. Like a friend who has been in a coma for two years regaining conciousness, like finishing the second big job at my workplace, and like my sister whom I haven’t seen for five years coming to see me. The nineteenth summer of I, Kokutoh Mikiya, started in such a commotion.

Today is a rare off day I had, but I accompanied my high school friend to go drink and when I noticed, I have missed the last train. Others took cabs home but as my payday is tomorrow, I do not have such extra money. It can’t be helped, so I decide to walk home. Fortunately, my house is only two stations away from here. The date has just changed from July 20 to July 21.

Past midnight, I walk through the night town alone. Being a weekday tomorrow, the shopping district is fast asleep. It has rained hard tonight. The rain stopped by midnight but the asphalt still shows remains of the rain as the wet ground makes splashing sounds. It is the middle of summer and the temperature is way above 30 degrees. The hot night air and the humid air from the rain irritates me… and then I see a girl crouched on the sidewalk. A girl wearing a black school uniform is holding her stomach in pain as she is crouching on the guardrail. … I notice the church’s sister-like uniform. That plain but party dress-like fancy design is of the Asagami Lady Academy. According to Gakuto, it’s really famous to those kinds of people… as they say it’s like a maid’s costume. …It’s not that I’m one of those people, but I know because my sister goes there.

“I heard all the students there lived in dorms…”

But to see her here at this time is too strange. She must be in some kind of trouble or just a bad student that doesn’t follow the school rules. With my sister going to the same school and all, I decide to talk to her. When I call to her, she slowly turns to me and her long hair sways.

“……….”

It seems the girl gasped really faintly. She has really long hair. Her eyes look calm and she too looks calm. Her face is small… it’s cute but she has some handsomeness in her features. That balance is more like Japanese beauty. Her long hair is cast straight behind her and a small piece of it is seperated around her ears to drape down to her chests. It seems the left side of her hair is cut though. The front hair is cut straight and it reminds me of a good lady from a respected family.

“Yes? What is it?”

The girl says with a pale face. Her lips are purple. It’s obvious she has cyanosis. She has one of her hands on her stomach, her face twisted in pain.

“Does your stomach hurt?”

“No, um… I, um…”

She tries to act calm yet her words are not. The girl looks rather fragile. She has the feeling that she’s going to break down any second, just like Shiki when I first met her.

“You’re a student of the Reien Academy, right? Did you miss your train? That place is far from here. Do you want me to go get a taxi for you?”

“No, it’s all right. I don’t have any money.”

“Yeah, I don’t have any too.”

The girl looks at me in surprize. … I notice that I gave a surprizingly stupid reply.

“I see. Then your house must be near here. I heard everyone there lived in a dorm but I guess you’re allowed to go out.”

“No, my house is far from here.”

I tilt my head in wonder.

“Then is it something like running away?”

“Yes, I think that is what I have to resort to.”

… I’m troubled. Looking at her, the girl is soaked. Maybe she didn’t find cover in that rain before but she is dripping wet. … Since that time, I hated girls wet with rain. That must be why these words came out of my mouth.

“You want to come to my place just for tonight?”

“Can I…?”

Still sitting down, she looks at me as if she’s desperate. I nod.

“I live alone, so there’s no problem. But I won’t make any gurantees. I don’t have any intentions but if anything weird happens, I might get in the mood. I’m a healthy man so put that into consideration too. If you’re still okay with that, then come along. Unfortunately, it’s before my payday so I don’t have anything, but I should at least have some painkillers.”

The girl becomes happy. The defenceless and the pure smile also makes me happy. When I extend my hands to her, she gracefully gets up.

… It seemed there was red stains where the girl has been sitting…

I take this unknown girl and start walking through the night town again.

“We’re going to walk a bit but tell me if you’re suffering. I should at least be able to carry a girl on my back.”

“Yes, but my wound is healed so it doesn’t hurt.”

She says so but her hand is still on her stomach. It’s obvious she’s in some kind of pain. I ask her again.

“Does your stomach hurt?”

The girl denies it and grows silent again. We walk a bit more. After a small silence, the girl shakes her head.

“… Yes. It really, really hurts. I’m about to cry… can I cry?”

When I nod, the girl closes her eyes looking satisfied. It looks as if she is watching a dream.

***

The girl did not tell me her name so I decide not to either. I feel that it’s more romantic that way. Once we get to the apartment, the girl says she wants to borrow the shower. She also says she wants to dry her cloth so I decide to stay outside. Giving her a cheap excuse that I’m going to go buy some smokes, I leave the room. I feel I am really good natured as I’m going out to buy something I would not smoke.

After spending about an hour outside and coming back, I find her asleep on the sofa. I set my alarm clock to seven thirty and lay on my bed. As I fall asleep, I worry about the cut in her uniform around the stomach area.

***

When I wake up the next morning, the girl is sitting in the living room as she has nothing to do. She gives me a bow once she notices I’m awake.

“Thank you for last night. I cannot do anything in return but I am really thankful.”

The girl gets up and starts to leave. … I feel a bit bad about making her sit and wait just to say that to me.

“Wait, at least wait and get some breakfast.”

The girl obediently follows what I say. The only thing left are pasta and olive oil so naturally, our breakfast becomes spagetti. I quickly make it for the two of us and carry it to the table to eat. Since it’s so quiet, I turn on the TV and see a terrible news.

“… Wow, this is the kind of story Tohko-san would like.”

I murmur something aloud that if she was there, she’ll be throwing something at me. … But that’s how weird the content of the news is. I listen to the newscaster who talks about what happened last night.

Last night, in the basement of a bar that has been abandoned for half a year, four dead bodies were found. It seems all four victims had their limbs torn off and the scene of the crime was a pool of blood. The place is pretty close to here, maybe around four stations away from last night’s place. It’s strange that they said the limbs were torn off rather than cut off, but the news does not go into detail about it, but rather goes into the information on the victims.

All four of the victims were high-schoolers and they were just kids that played around near that place. It seems they did some drugs too and a person who has the newscater’s mike pointed at them is talking about the victim’s personal lives.

…… I think they deserved to die, those kids.

Those words flow from the TV and I get annoyed by those words that seems to talk bad about the dead, so I turn off the TV. Looking at the girl, she is placing her hand on her stomach painfully. Seeing that she hasn’t taken a bite of food, she might be really hurt. I can’t tell her expression as she is looking down.

‘…… There’s nobody that deserves to die.”

She says so with ragged breath.

“Why… I’m healed, so why…?!”

The girl gets up from the chair and runs to the door. I quickly follow her but she raises her hand to stop me. It shows she does not want me to go near her.

“Wait. I think you should calm down.”

“It’s all right. I knew it… I cannot go back.”

Her face twists in pain. The face that bears the pain seems similar to Shiki. The girl calms down and bows at me before she opens the door.

“Good bye. I never want to see you again.”

The girl leaves just like that. Her face like a Japanese doll, only her eyes seemed like it was about to cry.

/1
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　
Still a bit dazed, Asagami Fujino raises herself up. There is no one here, Fujino is in a room. The room’s light is off… no, there is no such thing to begin with. Only darkness surrounds her.

“Hmm….”

Letting out a breath, Fujino feels her own hair. The tuft on her left side is cut off. It’s probably from the guy with a knife who was on her a second ago. Remembering that, she finally looks around the room. This place is a bar made in a basement. It was abandoned half a year ago due to bankruptcy and became a place where bad kids hang out. …In the corner of the room is a pipe chair. …In the middle of the room is a pool table. …Food from convienience stores are scattered around, and there is a pile of trash stacked up. It seems these things are creating the disturbing odor. Fujino feels unpleasant from the sickening smell in the room. This place is a ruin… or is it some back alley of a faraway country? One cannot even imagine that a normal city exists on the other side of the stairway. The only normal thing you could say is the smell of the alcohol lamp they brought in.

“Umm….”

She looks around in a rather well-mannered fashion. Fujino’s mind is not fully functional yet. …She still has not taken in what has been happening until now. She picks up a wrist that happens to be by her feet. There is a watch on the wrist which was torn off. The digital screen shows July 20, 1998. Time is 8PM, not even an hour after that incident.

“Guh…!”

Fujino groans from the sudden pain. A great pain is in her stomach area. She twists her body, not able to withstand the squeezing pain. The hands that touch the floor make a splashing sound. Looking, the whole room is filled with liquid.

“Yes, come to think of it, it is raining today.”

Talking to herself, Fujino stands up. She looks at her stomach. There is a trace of blood there… the place where she was stabbed by these people scattered around here.

***

The one who stabbed Fujino was a famous person in town. He stood out more than most of the others that dropped out of high school and was known as a leader-like person for the people who played around. He gathered people that liked the same thing as he did and did what they wanted. As part of the fun, they raped Fujino. Not much reason were there. Probably because Fujino was a student of the Reien Lady Academy and was also beautiful. As they were violent and selfish, they were not done by just once. It seems they knew they could be accused for their actions, but they changed their mind when they found out that Fujino did not tell anyone. They found out they were the ones in power and they brought Fujino into this place many times. Tonight was another one of those times and they were completely relaxed, and also getting bored of the action. The guy probably brought out the knife to bring some excitement into this repeated habit. The leader of the kids had his pride hurt since Fujino lived normally even after they have raped her. He wanted a definite proof that he was the one who ruled over her. As an extreme violence, he readied a knife, but the girl only made a cool face. He got angry at the girl whose expression didn’t change even after showing the knife, so he pushed her down and…

***

“I can’t walk outside like this.”

Fujino downcasts her eyes as she feels her blood-soaked self. The only blood that is from herself is the one on her stomach, but from the top of her hair to the bottom of her shoes is dirtied by someone else’s blood. It seems the blood on her cannot be easily washed off. Fujino murmurs to herself.

“How stupid of me… getting this dirty.”

And she kicks at one of the limbs scattered around the floor. Am I more angry at getting dirtied by their blood than the fact that they have violated me up to now? Fujino thinks as she is surprized by her own violentness. It’s raining outside… there should be less people walking about in about an hour. Even though it’s raining, it’s summertime so it shouldn’t be too cold. I’ll soak myself in the rain and then wash off the blood at some park. …As she reaches that solution, she suddenly calms down. She walks away from the pool of blood and finally counts the corpses scattered around. One, two, three, four… four…… four…… four, no matter how many times it’s counted!! She is astonished. …One is missing…

“One has gotten away, huh…?”

She murmurs faintly. Then I will be caught by the police. If he goes to them, I will be arrested. But… will he go to the police? How will he be able to explain the situation? Will he start from telling them about raping me, Asagami Fujino, and threatening her not to tell anyone? Not possible. Such a thing is impossible, and these people should not have the brains to come up with a convincing story. Fujino relaxes a bit and lights the lamp on the pool table. The light from the lamp lights the whole room. The 16 scattered arms and legs show up clearly. If you look for it, you should also find four bodies and heads. Lightened up by the orange light, the room is painted anew with red paint like it has gone mad. Fujino did not care much about this disastrous scene. … One has escaped. Her revenge is not completed yet… Fortunately, it has not ended.

“Would I have to take revenge…?”

Fujino fears at the idea of having to kill another person. Her body trembles, telling her such a thing is impossible to do. But she herself would be in danger if she doesn’t. But still, she does not want to do any more bad things… That is her true feeling.

… The pool of blood reflecting her face shows her mouth making a smile…

When I was still small, I once cut my hand while playing house.
Borrowed things, fake things, made things…
It is because a real one was mixed in within all those cooking utensils.
While I was playing with this pretty sharp object, I have cut myself between the fingers.
When I returned to my mother with a red hand,
I remember her scolding me, then crying, and then kindly embracing me.
Mother said it must have hurt.
More than those words that I did not understand, I was more happy about the fact that mother embraced me, and I started crying with my mother.
Fujino, the pain would go away once the cut heals…
Mother said so as she wrapped bandages around me.
I do not know what those words mean…
Because not even once did I feel any pain.

3. Remaining Sense of Pain (Ever cry, never life) -Asagami Fujino-

——————————————————

/5

“You brought an unusual letter of introduction.”

I’m at a laboratory at an university. An old man whose white lab coat suited him offers me a handshake with a reptile-like smile.

“Wow, supernatural powers? You’re interested in such a thing?”

“No, I just want to know what kind of a thing it is.”

“That’s what you call interest. But who cares though. To use her card as a letter… that’s just like her. She was an outstanding student of mine, so I’m concerned about her. This place is getting less people who can be used, so we don’t have enough human resource. Yup, not enough is not good.”

“Um, about the supernatural powers…”

“Oh yeah, supernatural powers… But there are many different kinds of powers. We don’t measure them genuinely here, so I don’t know if I could help you. In this occupation, this is the ominous subject, so there’s only several laboratories that study this subject in Japan. This thing is a blackbox, you know? So the real details doesn’t get to me. Yeah, I heard it’s getting practical, but I have to wonder. That thing is, you know, something you have to have since you are born…”

“I really don’t care about the classification. I think it’s PK anyways. What I want to know is how people end up with these powers.”

“It’s channels. You watch TV?”

“Well, yeah… but what about it?”

“You compare human brain to channels. Which channel do you usually watch?”

“… Let’s see, I guess it’s channel 8.”

“That’s it. That should be the channel with the highest rating, right? Let’s say there are 12 channels in a human brain. The brain of you and me are always on channel 8, the channel with the highest rating. There are other channels but we can’t go there. The channel that everyone watches… should I say common sense? Channel 8 is the channel we have as we can live within that common sense. Do you understand?”

“… Um, so you’re saying we’re made to watch the safest programs?”

“No no. That’s for the best. The common sense of the 19th century, the channel with the highest rating is channel 8. Since we can be there, that’s the most peaceful, right? We live in that common sense and we are protected by that common sense… isn’t it beautiful?”

“You’re saying other channels are not peaceful?”

“I don’t know. Let’s say channel 3 is a channel that receives the words of plants instead of people. Let’s say that on channel 4, the brain waves to make your body move actually moves something else. It’s amazing to have these kinds of channels. There, the common sense airing on channel 8 doesn’t exist. Since the most popular channel 8 shows the common sense needed to live in this current world, other channels do not show such a thing. At the very least, the morals in channel 8 is not shown.”

“So you mean not having channel 8 would make you mentally abnormal?”

“Yup. Say there’s someone that only has channel 3. That person can talk to plants, but in turn, cannot talk to people. As a result, society treats that person as mentally disabled and locks them up in a hospital. That’s what it means to have supernatural powers. It’s people who have different channels then everyone else from the time they are born. But most people with supernatural powers have such channels as 4 and 8 at the same time and can switch between them. It’s channels so you can switch between them when you want to, right? When you watch channel 4, you can’t watch channel 8. When you watch channel 8, you can’t watch channel 4. People with supernatural powers in society lives by using both of them, the usual self and the abnormal self.”

“I see. So that’s why common sense is useless for the person who only has channel 4… because they don’t have such a thing to begin with.”

“That’s right. Society calls these people as maniacs or killers but we call them “unfit existence”. There are many people unfit for society but these people are unfit right from their existence. They are people who shouldn’t exist… no, they cannot exist. If, this is a what if story, okay? If there was someone who had both channel 4 and 8 and something happened to that person to destroy its body causing that person to be permanently on channel 4, that person is done for. Even though that person knew all the common sense, if they cannot be on the same channel as us, they cannot communicate with us… because they are on a different channel.”

“Is there a way to make the unfit into a fit existence?”

“You can just stop their life. To put it more precisely, you have to destroy the abnormal channel. But to do so means to destroy their brain, so it comes down to killing them. There’s no such thing as killing the channel without killing the body. If there is, that’s what you would really call supernatural powers. That’s around channel 12, I think? That channel can pretty much do anything.”

The professor laughs like it is really funny.

“That was helpful. By the way, is the most popular power in PK bending spoons?”

“What? Spoons can bend?”

“I don’t know about spoons but at least human arms.”

“You mean arms of an adult? That’s pretty amazing. “Distortion” depends on the objects size rather than its hardness. I would think it should take about seven days to bend something like a human arm. So, which way is it? Right? Left?”

“Does that matter?”

“Of course. It has to do with the fulcrum. Even Earth has a direction of rotation, right? What, it’s not constant? Hmm… does that power actually exist? Then you shouldn’t have anything to do with this person. This person has more than two channels. That unfit existence probably can rotate things in both directions. I have never heard of a case of someone having two channels and is able to use them both at once. This is too powerful.”

“Um… I don’t have much time so I should get going. I have to get to Nagano by today… so thank you for all your help.”

“It’s all right. You can come as much as you want if it’s her introduction. Oh, and by the way… is Aozaki-kun doing well?”