Chapter 89

CHAPTER 5 An Unchanging World and a Second Fall Well then, Kaito, I’ll see you tonight,” Mai said to me the next morning, after I’d spent an entire sleepless night tied to the bedposts. I had hoped a good night’s sleep might temper her outlook, but no luck. Mai still wore the same broken smile and refused to actually listen to what I was saying. There was nothing I could do but wait silently as she fed me breakfast and left the house for school. I listened carefully for the sound of the front door closing, so that I could be sure Mai wasn’t going to hear what I planned to do. “Rgh, I don’t have much time!” I planned to break the bedposts to get free. Mai wasn’t playing around. I thought of the bloodstained knife and counted myself lucky she hadn’t decided to stab my arms and legs. My sister was deeply disturbed right now. One wrong step, and she’d never be the same again. I had to stop her before she did something irrevocable, even if I had to tie her to the bed instead. “I need to get out of these restraints before Mai comes back. Then I need to hurry after her!” My wooden bed was one of Dad’s old hand-me-downs, and unbeknownst to Mai, one of the posts was a little loose. If I could pull it off, I could escape quite easily. With one hand free, I could reach the clicky pen by my bedside. Then I could use the spring from the clicky pen as a wire to jimmy the handcuffs open. I’d once been obsessed with this TV show about a jailbreak that I saw with Dad, so I’d taught myself how to pick handcuffs with a hairpin. It was actually surprisingly easy once I looked up tutorials online. It would take a little while, but I was confident I could do it one-handed as well. “Here goes nothing… Hrrrrrngh!” I pulled as hard as I could, and the wooden post just popped out. It must have been even more rotten than I’d assumed. Trying to stay calm, I unscrewed the pen with my free hand, removed the spring, and stuck one end into the lock mechanism. “Just a little more… Got it!” The handcuff fell away. I undid the cuffs around my right hand, left leg, and finally, my right leg in the same manner. “Damn, what time is it?” I was worried I’d taken too long and whirled around to see that according to the clock by my bed, it was already past ten. Mai told me to wait until tonight. But she also said she was going to school today. That means whatever she’s planning on doing, it’ll be there! “I gotta move fast!!” I didn’t know what I was going to do yet, but I knew I had to stop Mai and bring her home. I threw on some clothes and picked up my phone. “Who can I turn to…?” Mom and Dad were no longer around, and I couldn’t ask the two detectives, Miyagawa and Onishi, for help. There was also the hospital…but I couldn’t lead Mai to Dr. Maeno in her state. The only person I could think to call was Yuuto. “Come on…pick up…” Mai had not only taken naginata lessons, but also a little aikido. As shameful as it was to admit, she could tie me in knots any day of the week. I needed someone on my side. As I waited for Yuuto to pick up, wondering why he wasn’t answering, I put on my shoes and ran out the front door… “Ah, Mr. Ukei. I was just about to knock.” “Inspector Onishi?” The police detective was standing right outside my house, his black car parked on the street behind him. “We need to talk,” he said. “Do you have a minute?” “Uhh, sorry, I’m a little busy right now. Can this wait?” “Hmm, not really. Could you make time, do you think? It’s quite urgent.” I was a little surprised by Onishi’s uncharacteristic insistence. “Um, well, I’m sorry, but I really can’t right now…,” I replied. I didn’t know what this was about, but the only thing I was making time for right now was Mai. “That’s a shame. There’s no time. What if I told you your sister’s in danger? I think you’ll regret not hearing what I have to say.” “Wh…? What do you mean by that?!” Onishi looked gravely serious. Maybe I should hear him out after all, I thought. “We’re short on time. Join me in the vehicle over there, where we can speak privately.” “Just tell me right here!” “I can’t. We’re wasting time. If you want to save your sister, then shut your mouth and come with me.” He didn’t seem to be lying. Not that I could think of a single reason he would. Miyagawa and Onishi had both earned my trust. Perhaps Mai really was in danger after all. …rrrr. Bip. “The number you have dialed is not available…” I heard my call go to voicemail. “…Okay,” I said. “I will. But do you mind if I leave a message first? My friend might want to get back to me.” “Of course. Go right ahead.” Onishi nodded, and I left a message, saying, “I can’t explain now, but give me a call when Mai’s not around.” “All right,” said Onishi when I was done. “Now get in the back.” “C-come on! Will you tell me what’s going on already? Where are we now?!” We had been driving for about an hour. I’d begged Onishi to explain the entire time, but he never said a word. As I watched the scenery become more and more rustic and unpopulated, I began to grow suspicious. When at last he stopped the car and got out, we were in what looked like an abandoned factory in the countryside. I’d had enough of him dodging my questions and demanded an immediate explanation. “Is this your definition of somewhere private? We’re in the middle of nowhere!” “Well, you can’t get more private than that, can you?” The place looked like a deserted aircraft hangar and was cluttered with machines so old and rusted it was hard to discern their purpose. The roof had partially collapsed at one point, crushing several of the machines with debris and leaving a hole in the ceiling from which sunlight filtered through. Onishi immediately walked over to one of those crushed machines and started moving rocks out of the way, attempting to unearth something. “What…?” I asked, dumbfounded. The air was full of dust, and it was obvious that no one had been here recently. I had to admit that Onishi had a point about privacy, but I wasn’t convinced this whole ordeal was necessary. “What about the police station? That would have done just as well!” “Not so, I’m afraid. Our enemy has eyes and ears there.” “Enemy? What do you—? No, you know what, just tell me about Mai!” “Hmm? Aah, that. Are you sure you want to know?” Onishi didn’t even turn away from his work, hunting through the debris. “Wh-what?! Why the hell do you think I agreed to come here?! And what are you doing over there anyway?!” “Just a second, please. Ah, there it is.” “I thought I made it pretty clear I was in a hurry, didn’t I? If you’re not going to talk, then take…me…” “Just a second, I said.” I felt an abrupt dull pain in my leg that quickly spread across my body. Onishi had retrieved what he was looking for, a black contraption of some kind, and turned back to me. “Huh? Wh-what’s…that…?” “Why, a bowgun, of course. Or perhaps ‘crossbow’ is a more familiar term? I just used it to shoot you in the leg.” He shot me. He shot me. He shot me! I looked down to see a black stick about the width of a marker pen, and a stream of blood running down my ankle. And as soon as I realized what I was looking at, the shock subsided, and the pain hit me full force. “Agh! Aaaaaaaggghhh?!” “Everyone screams at first. It’s enough to wake the dead, for crying out loud.” “Ghh! Grgh?! Gaaaaaagh!!” Another shot whizzed through the air, landing in my other ankle. Unable even to stagger, I immediately fell backward onto my rear, and then onto my side. The pain was so unbearable that it seemed like my eyes were going to turn back in their sockets. As I struggled to maintain consciousness, my addled mind brought only a single question to my lips. “Rgghh! Why…?” “I promised to bring you back alive this time, and I can’t have you running away,” Onishi explained. “I have a feeling there’s more to you than meets the eye, so I needed to make sure you couldn’t fight back. Security’s been tight recently, and I wasn’t able to get my usual drugs. So I came here to retrieve the weapon I stashed away for a rainy day. A shelter for every storm, as they say.” Onishi patted the metal frame of his crossbow as he spoke. My eyes grew misty through the pain-induced tears, but Onishi went on speaking without a shred of affectation. “Now, you asked me why I brought you here. I guess I’ll enlighten you while we wait for my client to arrive.” Onishi whipped out a cigarette and placed it in his mouth, dexterously lighting it with only one hand. “Though there’s not much to say, to be honest. You see, I do a few odd jobs and favors here and there, in addition to my public sector gig. My client asked me to deliver you to them alive, before the police got to you.” “Wh-who? And…before the police got to me? Wh-what do you mean?” The pain was so intense that my senses were going dull. Fortunately, that caused the pain to abate somewhat. Or perhaps my leg itself was going numb. Either way, it allowed me to talk. “I’m surprised you can speak,” said Onishi. “Is that the adrenaline kicking in, I wonder? Well, no matter. Since you took great pains to ask, I suppose I can answer. I don’t need to tell you who my client is—you’ll meet them soon enough. As for why the police are after you, I can certainly tell you that. You inconvenience them, you see, and so does that big-mouthed detective. That’s why they tried to kill you both with that little ‘gas explosion.’” “Wh-what? What?” The words circled my ears, as though my brain didn’t want to take them in. Yet they seeped through my skin like poison, a hundred knife blades jutting into my heart. “You see, the government wanted that cosplay getup you reappeared in. A treasure trove of technology, they called it. But Miyagawa refused to hand it over. He thought it was the key to unlocking your memories and cracking the case. Plus, there’s been a lot more Rebirther activity since word got out about you, hasn’t there? The department decided to get to you first to kill the both of you and make it look like an accident, while snatching your confiscated items in all the fuss. Poor Miyagawa, always the fool,” he added with a shrug. …What the hell is going on? Is this a joke? It all sounded so audacious that I wondered if the pain wasn’t causing me to hallucinate. And yet somehow, it felt like I’d heard it all before. “It’s stupid, if you ask me. And look, they got the items they were after, but they didn’t manage to kill either of you. A half-baked plan leads to a half-baked outcome, that’s what I say. Anyway, that got my client panicking, so they asked me to bring you as quickly as possible. This was originally supposed to happen next week, you see, but I was contacted last night and told to move it to today. Not that you’ll hear me complaining. I get to charge my emergency rates just for getting one dumb kid to shut up and come with me.” “…Grhhhh!” I was starting to lose the plot of what Onishi was saying. The pain had crossed a threshold, and my mind was beginning to blur. However, for some reason I couldn’t explain, I was getting the same headache as I would when I tried to remember my past. The bottom line was…I was sold out…? “The original plan was to get your sister as well,” Onishi went on, “then use her as bait to lure you in. But just as I was ready to act, my client told me to ignore her and take you alone. It’s just not fair, is it? I worked on that plan for days, and to see it all go down the drain is just…well, it’s a bummer. Still, I asked for three times my usual rate on top of an urgency fee, so I can’t complain, can I? Jackpot.” Onishi chuckled to himself like a hyena. All I could tell was that he had been close to kidnapping Mai. “…a…e…” Shut the fuck up. Don’t touch her. That’s what I wanted to say, but my throbbing head reduced me to a hyperventilating mess, unable to get out a single word. “Stay right where you are,” said Onishi. “We can talk, but I can’t let you struggle.” “Ggh?! Rrghh!!” As soon as I tried to stand up, there was another whistle from the crossbow in Onishi’s hands, and a third agonizing spike landed in my right leg. Just as I was beginning to fall into a numb stupor, the shock threw my eyelids wide. It hurt. It hurt. It hurt. The pain of Onishi’s merciless crossbow bolt. My splitting headache. The humiliation of having fallen for his lies so readily. It all mixed together to fuel a flame in the pit of my heart. “…I…trusted you… You…betrayed me…you bastard…” And to think I had thought of his name when looking for someone to rely on. What a joke. “C’mon now,” Onishi said. “I feel for you, believe me. All your friends and family bit the dust, and now there’s some psycho after you who thinks they can travel to other worlds. It’s just so sad, you know?” But he showed neither sorrow nor glee at my plight; he only gave a slight frown, like he was considering what to have for dinner. “But still,” he went on. “It’s only business. Nothing personal. I mean, the only reason I spoke to you in the first place was because I thought it might make the job a little easier. That’s hardly a betrayal, is it?” I felt a crack, as if my head had just split in two, ear-to-ear. This had happened before. They’d betrayed me. They’d taken everything away from me. I detested them so bitterly that I’d needed to forsake my sanity just to look them in the eye. And when I’d lain before them, facedown in the dirt, I’d made a vow. I had. It had always been right here with me. That was why the simmering force inside me exuded such animosity. What have I been doing…? “Well, you’ll probably be dead by then, but if it’s any consolation, your sister will be along soon. No doubt I can get her with the same trick I used on you.” He laughed, a spiteful ringing in my ears. The pain racked my skull, eliminating my ability to think and transforming my emotions into dripping magma, mixed with an uncontrollable, growing fury. “…you.” This man wants to hurt Mai. “Hmm? You say something?” The magma filled the innermost reaches of my heart, just as it had always done. Yes, it had been a part of me for so very long now. “…ll you.” This man wants to take everything away from me. “Speak up. I can’t hear you when you mumble to yourself like that.” Hot. And viscous. And dark. I knew what that magma was. It was the grounds on which I’d once sworn a solemn vow. “…kill you.” As soon as I said it, the scorching earth filling my body cried out, like a pot of boiling water threatening to bubble over. “Oh yeah, yeah. You’ll kill me. That’s what everyone says. Sore losers, all of you. You know what, I’m not sympathetic anymore. I try to throw you a bone, and this is the thanks I get?” I finally remembered. It was all coming back. This fury, this hate; it was my very oath made manifest. The chains that bound me to the task I’d sworn to complete. “I remember now. I’m…” “Hmm? What do you mean, you rem—?” “I swore an oath. I promised to kill every last one of you.” At that moment, something snapped. “Huh? Excuse me? Have you lost it?” “Yeah, I’ve lost it. A long time ago, actually. I just forgot about it.” With my oath regained, my splitting headache vanished, and the sordid memories of my past life came bubbling up between my brain cells like mud. I recalled the time I’d spent as a hero in a faraway land, warring with the demon lord and her dark armies in search of a way home. I remembered the day I’d wept for Leticia, and my inability to save her. I remembered my betrayal, and the oath I’d sworn to those who wronged me. I remembered the day I’d died, and I remembered my miraculous rebirth. I remembered my new partners in crime, the inimitable duo of Minnalis and Shuria. And I remembered that there were still those in that world I had sworn to kill. I rose to my feet and stared upward. “Just look at that sky…” How many times had I lain in the gutter like this, gazing at the stars? Of all the blunders I’d made, this one had to be in the top five. The very first thought I plucked from the whirling maelstrom of my mind was… “Guess I’ve given Leticia one more reason to be upset.” She’d once told me I was to think of her and cry when I returned to my world. I couldn’t believe I’d forgotten that. I’d forgotten about my unfinished business. I’d forgotten about the two partners in crime I’d left behind. I’d forgotten everything and lived a carefree life. I’d lost the searing oath I branded upon my soul, afraid to look because I was scared of what I might find. “I really am pathetic. What have I been doing this whole time…?” I clenched my teeth and grimaced. It was my own naïveté that was to blame, an old habit I just couldn’t shake. Whenever I was faced with something I didn’t want to deal with, I just put it off, pretended I didn’t notice. That habit had led to my downfall once, and now it had done so again. But he’d said that after me, my sister was next. “…You must be a real adrenaline junkie if you can still stand after all that. Guess it’s better than screaming your lungs out.” I turned my gaze upon Onishi, who had nonchalantly lit a second cigarette. “You know, like that other girl, what’s-her-name. Your sister’s friend…oh yeah, Yuuki. She was a real crybaby, let me tell you. I had to bring her in alive, so I went to tie her up, and what did she do? She scratched the back of my neck! Can you believe that? Of course, when Miyagawa saw it, he laughed and said, ‘Did a woman do that to you?’ so I had to be careful after that. That girl was a real piece of work, let me tell you.” “…Ah-ha-ha! Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha! Wow, you’re a real selfish bastard, aren’t you? I know somewhere you’d fit right in.” Unlike Dr. Maeno, there was no trace of malice in Onishi’s words. No murderous glee, no rage, and no guilt. He was just the kind of cold-blooded killer Grond would have died for. There was no way I ever could have spotted the evil in his eyes when it hadn’t been there to begin with. At least, not without my memories and all the painful experiences therein. “Selfish bastard? That’s a little harsh, wouldn’t you say? I mean, who wouldn’t do what I did for the amount of money I was offered? We’re talking tens of millions, kid. Just for a little kidnapping and corpse-ferrying.” Onishi’s speech was completely genuine. He seriously believed that he was in the right, and that his behavior was only logical. “Man, and I thought this world was supposed to be the good one. Why do I always seem to get the assholes? Like attracts like, I guess,” I spat. “You just don’t get it, do you? It’s all about the money. You know how many years I’d have to work to save up this kind of cash? A student like you just wouldn’t understand, I guess.” I couldn’t believe how proud the man looked while spouting such a clichéd ideology. He couldn’t have failed to realize my transformation, but it probably didn’t bother him, seeing as how he still held all the cards. Or at least he thought he did. Still, he wasn’t relaxing his guard, and he was still keeping his crossbow trained on me. He hadn’t taken his eyes off me for an instant. I’d read somewhere online that the most heinous killers always seemed the most normal at first glance. I could believe it, because if Onishi was anything to go by, they truly believed they were normal. “So tell me,” he went on. “You said you remembered. Does that mean you got back your memories of what happened after you disappeared? Did you really go to a parallel world or something?” “Yeah, I did. I remember everything that happened there.” “Wow, that’s neat! Tell me, what’s it like there? Is there, like, magic and stuff? That’s what my client said. They think they can use you to somehow get magic in this—” “It’s exactly the same as this one,” I said, interrupting him. “It’s beautiful and dirty, filled with all kinds of people, with just enough good to outweigh the bad—exactly the same as here.” “…No, no, no. That’s not what I mean. What I’m trying to say is…” Onishi tried to rephrase his question, ignorant of what I’d just done. “…It’s exactly the same,” I repeated. “Exactly the same people, and exactly the same ways of breaking them.” Onishi froze, dumbfounded. “Huh? What?” His crossbow fell to the floor, along with the hand that held it. There was a lengthy pause. “See? Even hands come off in the same way.” “Aaaaaaaaaghhh?!” Onishi’s red stump spurted blood, staining the white bone and pooling on the ground. “And you even bleed the same color.” “Blood? Blood! Aaaagh?!” Onishi’s confidence of only a few moments prior had completely drained away, along with all the blood from his arm, as he desperately clutched his other hand over the wound. “I’m dying. I’m dyiiiing!!” “Hah. Even the way you gutter trash squeal is the same.” It was music to my ears. The screams of a disemboweled pig who’d tried to steal everything I held dear. But I couldn’t let him bleed out and get off so lightly. “Don’t worry, you won’t die…yet.” Grunting through the pain, I pulled the crossbow bolts free of my legs. Then, with a little more trouble than I was used to, I conjured up the Nephrite Blade of Verdure. “…O sacred protectors of the forest, whose voice travels on the wind as it whistles through the leaves, whose power is channeled through great boughs. Come to me. Verdant Healing.” Its soft light sealed my wounds and stopped the bleeding. To Onishi, that light must have seemed akin to that of heaven, appearing by the grace of God to grant him salvation. “Is…is that…magic?! U-use it on me, please!!” “Heh. Guess humans aren’t so different after all, no matter what world we’re from.” Onishi reacted exactly as I’d predicted, changing his tune immediately when presented with a chance at life. I felt the black water fill the cup of roaring flame in my heart. “Wh-what are you doing?! You said you would let me live, didn’t you?! Hurry up and heal me already!!” “Ha-ha-ha-ha!! Who do you think you are? I think you’ve got the wrong end of the stick.” “Eep?!” Standing up on my healed legs, I glared down at Onishi, who was now kneeling in pain on the floor. “You don’t seem to have realized it yet, but the place you now stand is the mouth of hell.” “Huh?” I conjured up the Flaming Sword of Wheels, which consisted of a simple hilt with a blade formed entirely of fire. Channeling mana into it made the flame burn so hot that it would instantly char everything it passed through. I sliced Onishi’s arm again at the elbow, searing the wound closed. His severed forearm fell alongside his hand from before. “Gaaaaaaaaagh?!” “See? That stopped the bleeding, didn’t it? Now I can keep cutting off your limbs without it killing you. Oh, come on. Don’t pass out now.”