Chapter 101

CHILDREN RECORD SIDE -NO. 7- I’ve never made the mistake of thinking too highly of myself, but I had no idea I was this much of an idiot. I was always good at test taking. I was in the ninety-somethingth percentile in the national college test-prep exams we took at school. That’s why my dumb sister used to ask me for help on a lot of things. She’d always say, “Come onnn, Big Bro” like the impertinent little sister she is. I’d always take the hard-line approach, trying my best to offer her guidance. It’s not like I had any other choice, after all. All of this should have been enough of a sign that I wasn’t so dim-witted. And that’s not all. There was this girl who dyed her hair brown and joined one of the higher-level cliques in class, and one time she told me, “You’re, like, super-smart, Shintaro.” Hee-hee, fond memories. …No, wait, hang on. I messed up. Now I remember: I replied something like “Nrr…rpphh…” to her, didn’t I? I barely got out of bed for a while after that. Crap. That’s a shitty memory, then, isn’t it? Better forget all about it. Regardless. I think, or like to think, that my mind somewhat resembles the proverbial steel trap. I can gain a grasp of most concepts after having it explained once, and I was usually good at retaining that knowledge. Brainy. A brainiac, even. But something was starting to distress this beautiful mind. I was faced with a bit of a tricky situation…No. Not a bit of one. A pretty tricky one. A super, incredible, doomsday-level tricky one. Two in the morning on August 17. Underneath a dimly luminescent bulb, the living room of the Mekakushi-dan’s hideout was laden with a somber, oppressive atmosphere. We were face-to-face with one another, surrounded by an assortment of tacky toys and weird statues from countries I couldn’t venture a guess on naming. To an eyewitness, it might have looked like a meeting of high priests for some New Age cult. Though maybe that wasn’t so far from the truth. This was the Mekakushi-dan, after all—unusual characters, supernatural abilities, no real rules in place. In terms of its creepster aspect, it ranked right up there with your run-of-the-mill cult. It was Kido, leader of the group and one of the four members left in the living room, who cut through the tension first. “So,” she said, eyes swiveling between the others as she kept her voice low, “anyone got any last words?” Her stare settled on Kano, her most common target for abuse and whining so far that day. His shoulders shivered a little. “Well, uh…heh-heh…not really.” The usual easy-breezy smile on his face was gone. In fact, he was now white as a sheet and sweating profusely. I felt bad for him, but what could I do? I was honestly a little mad at him myself, besides. I mean, we’ve all got a skeleton or two in our closets, I supposed. Or, in my case, a hidden folder on my computer. Or two. Or five. It might actually be in the double digits by now. So yeah, a dozen skeletons or so. But. Transforming yourself into other people’s friends and family and acting like the real thing? That’s kind of hard to swallow. It all began late last night, when he turned into Momo and started provoking me. The real Momo didn’t seem too shocked or concerned by Kano’s little coming-out party, but I wasn’t much of a fan, to say the least. And what brother would want to see someone besides his sister doing God knows what while pretending to be her? No brother I know. And then it turns out he had been long-term prodding me as Ayano, exactly as she looked on that day two years ago. When Kano sprang that on me, well…It was rough. What she said back then made it impossible for me to so much as go outside. I’ve been obsessing about it ever since—it’s driven me to suicidal thoughts several times. Those were the kinds of games Kano was playing with me. And if the past couple of days encompassed strictly those two experiences, I’d probably never want to see the guy again. It’d give me enough depression fuel to keep the engine running for the rest of my life. But—another but—he then opened up about everything with me. It turns out, from that day two years ago up to the present, Kano had been running around the city doing whatever he could to rescue Ayano. He had had that monkey on his back ever since we were all in high school, and I never even noticed. And assuming that’s true, then what Kano told me in Ayano form—about how it was my fault for never noticing anything—well, it was actually pretty darn true, wasn’t it? There wasn’t a single thing wrong about that accusation. I failed to notice any aspect of Ayano and what she was caught up in. And knowing that your own father was being infected by some freaky monster that was putting your own siblings and school friends in danger…I wondered how that made Ayano feel. Maybe, in all the inane conversations we had, she was dropping little hints. Hints I could’ve seen as the pleas for help they undoubtedly were, if I was paying attention. But I didn’t. They went in one ear and out the other. …The regret was hard to grapple with. If we had noticed something, anything, maybe she’d still be with us. And not over there, in the other world: the Kagerou Daze that swallowed her up. The sight of Kano quivering like a fruity dessert under Kido’s withering gaze apparently blunted her appetite for further violent outbursts against him; she sighed and hung her head. Indeed, her feelings were no doubt mixed as well—some of the people she’d spent much of her life with had been hiding earth-shattering secrets from her. It might have been too much for her to swallow at once. Kano looked on worriedly as Kido’s eyes fell to the floor. It wasn’t hard to guess his feelings on the subject. It was about more than not wanting people to be angry at him. It was a huge, impossible- to-picture sense of desperation that he had shouldered solo for two years, all for the family in his life he wanted to protect. He was probably afraid he created an equally large helping of despair for Kido just now. Everyone has a secret or two. Most people, though, keep the secrets in order to protect themselves. This one, on the other hand…He wasn’t thinking about himself at all there. All those feelings he must have had for his sister, for his family…all while he was going toe-to-toe with a reality that must’ve made him want to pluck his eyes out. Kido raised her head back up. If she was going to continue with her mental games against Kano, I was just about ready to mediate between the two. I didn’t have to worry. “…You could’ve told me sooner, you idiot,” she drawled out in a monotone. “We’re family.” Then she sank back into the sofa and fell silent. Kano looked ready to cry for a moment in response but seemed to catch himself just in time. “I totally will next time,” he bashfully replied. The “supernatural” occurrences they…well, we…were dealing with probably weren’t the kind of thing we could tackle very easily. It came with a presupposition of our collective deaths, for one. The ensuing dread wasn’t fun to deal with, and for now, we had contrived exactly zero ideas for avoiding that fate. But seeing these family members interact with one another up close made me think of something. The way they discussed secrets, accepted them, and still joined hands and faced forward. That was the real strength of the Mekakushi-dan. They were struggling with fate, and unfairness—two incredibly powerful foes—and the strength they brought to the battle wasn’t fading at all. Even if this was an enemy none of us could handle alone, something told me we already had the best weapons in the world to deal with it.