Shiki’s grandfather began to speak in a calm tone. His story was a bit lengthy, but to summarize:
On the same day our school’s mountain vanished into another world, that gigantic black sphere had appeared in the sky above where it had once stood. The structure hadn’t responded to any attempts at contact, but it had slowly drifted southward before moving to the Pacific side of the city.
By the morning of the second day, it had come to a halt over Tokyo Bay, where it was now.
Both the government and media had tried to approach the black sphere with helicopters, but they could only get so close, as if some force was preventing them from seeing what was inside, or warping the concept of distance itself. At least that’s what the experts on TV had said.
Drones had also failed to approach, which meant the interference wasn’t merely a psychological effect, but… well, magical in nature.
“The government hasn’t given any clear explanation of what kind of device that is,” Shiki’s grandfather sighed.
The girls and I exchanged looks, probably all wondering whether explaining the Demon Lord to Shiki’s family would make things better or worse. Shiki gave her head a subtle shake.
“Papa,” Kayla said suddenly. She had been sitting cross-legged on my lap, and now she looked up at me, as if bored with the long discussion. Her angelic smile was infectious, and I couldn’t help but smile back.
“What’s up, Kayla?”
“Demoooon Lord,” Kayla said.
“Ah, yeah, we’re having a bit of a complex discussion right now, so, uh, Shiki-san?” I looked to Shiki for help.
Immediately catching on, she suggested to Kayla, “Why don’t you go play in the garden over there?”
Kayla shook her head. “Mm-mm,” she said, pointing at the TV.
The screen was again showing the massive black sphere floating over Tokyo Bay. The connection made by the news between the skeletons that attacked Shibuya and the gigantic sphere was, of course, a logical conclusion.
“Let’s go defeat the Demon Lord!” Kayla proposed enthusiastically.
“Well, yes, but before that, we have a lot to… Uh, Arisu, Tamaki?”
“Right! Kayla-chan, let’s go over here?” Arisu suggested, and she and Tamaki quickly got up and each took one of Kayla’s hands, heading for the next room. Shiki had already told us that that room housed a family altar along with kids’ toys, probably for the neighborhood kids to play with. It seemed this house also served as a sort of community center.
“It’s probably best not to ask about that child or the foreigner over there,” Shiki’s grandfather said in a gentle voice.
Shiki smiled sheepishly. “Yeah, let’s leave it at that.”
It was no wonder he was curious. Kayla’s hair was a vivid shade of bright blue… uncommon for humans on Earth, to say the least.
“Long story short, we went to another world and just came back,” Shiki explained simply. “Apparently, the skeletons came back with us… well, it’s been quite an eventful time.”
At this, her grandfather relaxed his shoulders with a sigh. “Another world, huh?”
“Do you think I’m making this up, Grandpa?”
The old man shook his head, turning kind eyes and a gentle smile on Shiki. “If Yukariko says so, then it must be true.”
Ah… I think I just realized how important Yukariko Shiki is to this family.
“Thank you, Grandpa. So, besides that black sphere, was there anything else unusual that happened?” she asked.
“Well, not particularly… Ah, but now that you mention it,” her grandfather suddenly remembered, clapping his hands together, “there was that thing in New York.”
“Grandpa, ‘that thing’ isn’t very descriptive,” her grandmother said with a laugh and a dismissive wave of her hand.
What a nice old couple, I thought. It would have been amazing growing up in a family like this.
“Right, right, the jellyfish! Jellyfish were attacking cities all over the world; places like New York were in chaos!”
“Jellyfish? You mean, giant flying jellyfish?”
“Yeah, that’s it, that’s it!”
My companions and I gave each other another look. Flying Jellyfish, huh? When Rushia asked, “What’s New York?” I explained it was a city on the other side of the Earth.
“So, they attacked, as in they launched attacks?”
“Yes, they suddenly appeared and boom—dropped bombs everywhere. Even when airplanes went to attack them, missiles and guns didn’t work at all,” he explained.
Just as I’d feared, the giant jellyfish seemed to have an ability to completely nullify physical attacks.
✦ ✦ ✦
As we sipped tea, we continued the discussion. We were told that governments worldwide had mobilized their militaries to deal with the Flying Jellyfish, but all efforts had been in vain. Even nuclear weapons left them unscathed.
The Flying Jellyfish casually bombarded urban areas with missiles, massacring the fleeing populace. Every city they targeted had been wiped off the map.
Oddly, the Flying Jellyfish didn’t seem to operate with grand objectives like destroying nations or wiping out humanity. The day before yesterday, they had suddenly disappeared. Needless to say, a lot of people had a lot of questions.
All this time, the black sphere had remained floating over Tokyo Bay. Many suspected a connection between it and the Flying Jellyfish. However, with no way to approach it and spatial distortions disabling missile guidance systems, the authorities had no viable means of dealing with it. There had even been the idea of dropping a nuclear bomb in Tokyo Bay, but the argument that “nuclear weapons didn’t work on the Flying Jellyfish, so they wouldn’t work on their presumed boss, the black sphere,” was too persuasive.
“So, the thinking was that as long as we don’t provoke them, they won’t make a move,” Shiki summed up as she crunched on senbei crackers. Meanwhile, Rushia was eagerly asking for seconds of the water yokan jellied dessert that Shiki’s grandma had brought.
This princess… It’s like her mind is completely focused on food now.
Shiki’s grandmother laughed, bringing over more treats like dango and konpeito, all nostalgic sweets. “We’ve got lots of sweets left over,” she said. “Don’t be shy, help yourselves.”
Rushia, without any hesitation and seemingly oblivious to our conversation, eagerly began to demolish the mountain of sweets with a cheerful “OK!”
“Can I ask something?” I said. “With a thing like that in Tokyo Bay, it seems like people in Tokyo are going about their business as usual?”
“Well, if the trains are running, people go to work, and it’s not like schools are closed.”
Ah, yes. If the trains are running, salarymen have to go to work… The fact that Shibuya seemed unchanged until we appeared could reflect Japanese people’s—for better or worse—lack of a sense of crisis…
This indifference had also, inadvertently, led to a massacre by the skeletons.
“But surely now that those monsters have appeared in Shibuya, there will be a day off tomorrow.”
“Ah, that makes sense.”
“You all took care of them, right? Thank you.”
It hadn’t taken the family long to figure out what role we’d played today. Well, it wasn’t hard to guess, especially since Shiki had mentioned, “The skeletons came back with us,” and a bit of thought would lead one to that conclusion. Plus, Kayla’s appearance had been broadcast on TV. Honestly, if we were going to walk outside from now on, we would need to disguise her blue hair with some illusion or a wig.
“That child with the unusual hair, is she… from the other world?”
“Uh, it’s kind of complicated, but Kayla is essentially my kid,” I explained. And the person from the other world here eating sweets is Rushia.”
Shiki’s grandfather’s eyes widened in surprise. Rushia sat looking puzzled, a piece of senbei stuck to her cheek. Indeed, her hair was a beautiful silver, her eyes red, and her ears came to a point.