We had already considered the risks and benefits of visiting Shiki’s family… including the possibility that they would report us to the police. I mean, our group did look quite suspicious, especially with Rushia and Kayla, and our hidden weapons like swords and spears—which we’d stashed in the underbrush of a nearby park. As a precaution, we’d asked Coeurl to wait outside Shiki’s house. In our situation, getting involved with the government in any way would simply be too risky.
Clearly, sitting here and having a leisurely chat was no longer an option.
“Kazu-kun, go,” Shiki urged without getting up. “Let’s do what needs to be done.”
“Got it. You take care of things here. Rushia, let’s go.”
Just as Rushia and I stood up, Shiki’s grandfather spoke. “Wait a minute, please. That call wasn’t to the police. I’m sorry for not saying anything… but it was a request from the other party.”
“The other party? Wait, Grandpa, what do you mean by that…?”
Just then, the doorbell rang, and Shiki’s grandmother hurried to answer it. “Yes, yes, coming!”
Ah, well, the way she’s acting doesn’t really scream “police”… right?
When the front door opened, I heard the raspy voice of an older man. So, someone else was inside the house now… but I couldn’t hear any footsteps.
“Be careful, Kazu. This person is a master,” Rushia whispered, tension written plainly across her face.
The seriousness of her warning might have been more impactful if not for the whipped cream smeared across her cheek.
“A master? What do you mean?”
“Let’s at least see who we’re dealing with,” suggested Shiki. None of us objected. After all, if we truly exerted ourselves, we could probably handle even an Olympic level judo or kendo champion.
A moment later, an elderly man walked in, dressed in a suit. Though a head shorter than me, he stood straight with his arms behind his back. His head was completely shaven, but he sported a full beard. His face was stern, marked by a deep scar on his forehead, and his slightly reddened eyes glared intensely at each of us in turn before he shifted his gaze toward our backs.
Turning around, we saw Arisu, Tamaki, and Kayla returning to the room. Arisu and Tamaki looked immediately wary of the old man. Meanwhile, Kayla pointed sharply at him.
“Ninja!”
“That’s not it, not quite,” the old man said, chuckling. “That’s just what my disciples claim to be.”
“So, a ninja master!”
“Hmm, that’s a good title,” he mused, and suddenly he looked much more like a friendly grandfather.
“Wait, did you just say… ninja?”
Could this really be a coincidence? But that’s just too much for coincidence. What’s going on here?
My mind was a whirl of confusion. Shiki slammed the table and stood up in frustration.
“Hey, wait a minute, Grandpa, Grandma, what’s going on here?” she demanded, but her grandparents seemed as baffled as she was.
Shiki’s voice rose almost to a shriek as she demanded, “Why is Keiko-san’s master here? Do you two know this person? Why is he acting like he knew we were coming here?!”
The man laughed warmly, unfazed by Shiki’s outburst. “Please, take a seat,” he invited as he himself settled on the opposite side of the table. Even sitting in seiza on the cushion and keeping his back straight, resting his posterior on his ankles as he kneeled, he was shorter than Shiki. He took a sip of the tea Shiki’s grandmother had brought, lighting up as if it was the most delicious thing he’d had all week.
This man… Everything about him seems different from when he first came in. Is he really Keiko-san’s master? He speaks fluent Japanese, but didn’t Keiko say he was a Chinese Aikido master?
After Shiki’s grandparents excused themselves with a “We’ll leave the rest to you,” the old man began to speak.
“Is Keiko doing well?”
Okay, so he is the master Keiko-san mentioned… What should we talk about with him?
“Papa,” Kayla greeted me as she cleverly slid into my lap. Arisu and Tamaki stood behind me, quietly observing the ninja master.
Just as I was about to start the conversation, Shiki halted me with a look. Then she said, “She’s doing very well, fighting monsters alongside Yuuki-senpai, even without combat skills.”
“Is that so, is that so. I don’t quite understand what you mean by ‘without combat skills,’ but I’m glad to hear it. It seems the training was worth it.”
I understood exactly what Shiki was trying to do: to find out if the elderly man was aware of monsters and skills.
“I’ll ask you directly,” she continued, “are you our enemy or our ally?”
“Ally, of course,” the old man replied easily, showing a friendly smile.
All of us felt the tension leave our bodies.
“That’s why I came here. I knew you would visit this place within a few days. And no, you don’t need to doubt anything about Yukariko-san’s family.”
While words can easily be manipulated, there was a strangely persuasive power in the old man’s speech that made us feel like we could trust him. Yet, Shiki still seemed unsatisfied.
“How did you know we would come?”
“It was a prophecy. Told by a shrine maiden. Oh, and please, call me Wan.”
Wan, a common enough name for a Chinese person… though it sounded like it could be an alias. But that wasn’t really our concern. But what about this prophecy and shrine maiden? Our understanding of the world seemed to crumble a little more with each new piece of information.
“So, Mr. Wan, how much do you know about what’s happened to us, and what’s happening in the world right now?”
“How much, you ask? It’s difficult to summarize in a few words. But to put it briefly, this world is under invasion. The source of the invasion is that black sphere floating above Tokyo Bay…”
Invasion—that was a critical piece of information. It indicated that Wan was fully aware of the existence of other worlds.
“That entity, turned into a World Eater, will soon consume this world, that much I can tell you.”
Ah, another new term has appeared: World Eater. Literally, an entity that consumes worlds… right?
“I believe it’s an entity from the world we were in just a while ago,” Shiki told him. “It seemed to have lost interest in that world. Why does it need to consume this one?”
“Because this world doesn’t have a ‘Wedge.’”
Ah, a wedge. It all comes back to that, but…
Suddenly, it struck me. Could we all have had a colossal misunderstanding? Assuming the myths of that other world were entirely true?
“What exactly is a ‘wedge’ in this context?” Shiki asked the question before I could. The old man smirked.
“Literally, it’s something that binds. It’s a restraint that anchors worlds adrift in the void. It has immense energy by nature, but it’s also utilized by those who traverse worlds—Planeswalkers—for its energy. They use a tremendous amount of energy to move between worlds.”
Behind me, I could sense Arisu and Tamaki’s confusion. Even Rushia looked somewhat perplexed.
Kayla, sitting on my lap, was blissfully eating Baumkuchen.
“So, what exactly are these world-traveling entities… Planeswalkers? That black sphere… the Demon Lord, is it one of those, or is it something else?”
“I can’t say for certain. However, this world has experienced visits from such beings multiple times in the past. Once every few hundred years, so this is the first time in the modern era. Each time, people like us have repelled their invasions.”
“So, then…”
“But this one is quite special. How it grew into something like that… We have no way of dealing with it.”
For the first time, Mr. Wan’s tone showed a hint of perplexity.
Wait, hold on. Are we at a dead end here? Aren’t you supposed to be the helper character prepared for us?