“I...”
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“You can’t tell me?” Masaki said, sadly.
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“It. . .it’s all my fault,” she managed.
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“Okay,” Masaki nodded, like he had made up his mind about something.
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Aya hoped that this had made Masaki hate her. After all, Spooky E had said her orders (to not be hated and to not make trouble) were no longer active. There was no one to criticize her for being hated. If hating her saved him, then she wanted him to hate her.
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Her own feelings were another problem.
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“In that case, we should stop playing Boogiepop,” Masaki said, curtly.
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“Yes,” Aya said, still staring at the ground. This was for the best, she thought.
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But his next words shocked her...
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“So, I’ll take that,” he said, and took the Nike bag out of Aya’s hands.
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“Hunh?” Aya’s eyes widened. The Boogiepop costume and makeup were in the bag.
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“I’m going to keep doing this without you,” Masaki said.
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Ultimately, I was just angry.
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Kinukawa’s attitude had pissed me off, and I was annoyed that Orihata couldn’t tell me about it. But more than anything, I was furious with myself for happily dressing up as Boogiepop without once trying to figure out why Orihata wanted me to.
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“M-Masaki?” Orihata asked, surprised. “What do you mean?”
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“Like I said...I’m going on alone. I don’t need your help anymore,” I snapped.
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I had assumed I was playing Boogiepop because Orihata wanted me to.
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But judging from that Kinukawa woman’s attitude, Orihata had not been doing that of her own free will.
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I’d been useless. By trying to make her happy, I’d simply driven her into a corner.
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“But why?! You don’t have to do anything anymore, Masaki!
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“No, you don’t!” I shouted, angry. “Why didn’t you ever tell me you really didn’t want me to be Boogiepop? If you’d just said something, you never would’ve had to have been bait!”
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“I...” Orihata stammered.
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“I didn’t want to put you in danger like that! But I thought it was what you wanted, so. . . !” I trailed off, losing track of what I wanted to say.
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Both of us stood there in the darkness, glaring at each other stupidly, shaking.
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Finally, “Why. . .why are you. . .I just...” Orihata whispered, sounding exhausted.
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For no real reason, this made me angry again.
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“Goodbye!” I roared, turning my back on her, and walking away. I couldn’t bear to be in this conversation another second.
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All she’d done was use me, and for something she hadn’t even wanted. That’s how I understood the situation. So what did that make me?
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All I’d done was to think cheerily that being with her was all I needed.
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“Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit!”
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I swung the bag filled with Boogiepop stuff around me as I ran, tears streaming down my cheeks. I was incredibly ashamed.
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Dressing up as Boogiepop was far less embarrassing than this.
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Right then, I screamed inside.
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‘I’ll be a superhero as long as I damn well feel like it!’
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But someone grabbed her shoulder roughly from behind.
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“Wait, Camille,” he said. It was Spooky E. He had been secretly watching the entire time.
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“L-let go of me!” She tried to fling him off. But Spooky E
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was inhumanly strong, and Aya’s body might as well have been in a vise for all the freedom of movement he’d left her.
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“Change of orders. Forget about him,” Spooky E sneered.
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“Eh?”
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“Looks like he’s going to keep doing Boogiepop on his own.
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Saves us the bother.”
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“What do you mean?”
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“Sooner or later, they’re gonna find Boogiepop’s corpse lying in an alley somewhere. Then everyone’ll know the truth behind the legends. It was just some heartbroken idiot!” Spooky E guffawed.
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Aya’s face turned white. “W-was. . . !”
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Was that what ‘cut him loose’ meant?
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Kill Masaki as the ‘real’ one publicly, and make the real one
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‘fake.’ Was that Spooky E’s plan?
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If that drew the real Boogiepop out of hiding, then great. If not, well, at least Spooky E would have cheered himself up.
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He planned to kill Masaki!
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“Y-you can’t!” Aya cried, grabbing Spooky E. The shoulder he was holding felt like it was going to pop.
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A second later, electricity ran from Spooky E’s hands, coursing through Aya’s body. It rattled her bones, her spinal cord, her brain.
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Every nerve in her body shook, and her skin quivered.
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“Aaaauuuugh!”
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Her headflung back, the walls of her nostrils tore open, and blood shot out.
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(M-Masaki...!)
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Even now, her immobile body was struggling to escape Spooky E’s shocking grasp.
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Electricity raced through her again.
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"............!" She fell unconscious.
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“Bwa ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!”
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Spooky E laughed on and on, echoing through the deserted space below the bridge.
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But what was Boogiepop?
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“Hah. . .hah. . .hah. . .” I ran till I was gasping for breath, then collapsed on the sidewalk, and started thinking.
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Orihata had no family, apparently. There had to be some sort of reason why she could live in such a nice apartment building.
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And if that reason had some connection to the crazy legends of a black cloaked shinigami boy...
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(...Then what?)
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How the hell did that have anything to do with that ludicrous r outfit?
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Certainly not money. She’d thrown away drugs worth millions without so much as a second thought. If it was that type of syndicate, then they’d hardly do something so wasteful. But her actions themselves did seem productive as far as cleaning up the city.
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“You’re a hero, Masaki,” Aya had said to me once, and these words suddenly echoed through my head again.
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(Damn it!)
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Tears welled up once more. She’d been acting, but I couldn’t stop the burning feeling in my chest.
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But this was no time for crying.
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I had to calm down, and decide what to do.
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I looked around myself, and made sure no one else was there, then sat cross-legged on the pavement. I closed my eyes, and began meditating.
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My shishou once said, “When you are in trouble, at least maintain the appearance of control. Pretend to be calm. This may actually trick you into cooling down.”
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For a karate instructor, he never once said anything about spirit or mental focus. He’d get angry every time he saw me frowning.
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All in all, I must say, it was a rather strange way of learning.
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“Imagine a staff in your heart. Decide your direction by letting it topple over. The less logic you force into your imagination, the better the results.”
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...But the staff in my heart just spun round and round, and never even started to fall.
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“At times like this, the way you are tackling the problem is mistaken. You are trying to decide something that cannot be decided. The first thing you need to do is look for that which you can.”
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...I was starting to feel like Shishou was whispering in my ear.
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(Okaaay...)
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Did I hate Orihata?
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...No, I didn’t.
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Did I dislike being Boogiepop?
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...Not true either.
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Was I trying to poke my nose in something way over my head?
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...Yeah, probably.
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Was this because I wanted to be Boogiepop, so I could beat up people?
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...No, not really. Not that at all.
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Then what?
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...I don’t know. But I can’t just do nothing. I think I have to do something.
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What was it I had to be careful of?
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Don’t get carried away. Shishou always said that. And...
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“-Nagi-neesan.”
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I opened my eyes.
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“Then I can’t go home.”
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I couldn’t get her mixed up in this. That had been bugging me.
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(She’ll be pissed...)
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I stood up, dusted myself off, and managed a feeble grin.
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Here I was, just starting high school, and already I was gonna be skipping.
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If I’d known I was gonna end up like this, I wouldn’t have been so careful in junior high...
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“Ha ha! I sure was an idiot!”
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Hoisting the Boogiepop bag over my back, I headed off down the street.
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"What is it, Suema?"
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We were waiting in line at the bus stop in front of our school when I suddenly stepped out of line, much to the surprise of my friend Miyashita Touka, who was standing behind me.
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I didn’t answer. I just kept walking forward, abandoning my place in line.
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“Wait, Kazuko!” Touka yelled, grabbing my sleeve.
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“Just remembered something, Touka. I’m skipping cram school today,” I said, not even turning around to look.
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“Hunh? Why?”
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“Just let me borrow your notes later, okay?!” I said airlessly, and quickly ran away.
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If I didn’t hurry, I’d lose sight of her.
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Walking down the hill that our school is on was unmistakably one of the girls I’d seen with Asukai J in.
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Her name, I’m sure, was “Kitahara Misaki.” She went to our school?
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No, I’m sure the last time I saw her, she was wearing a different uniform. Which means...
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(She’s in disguise? Sneaking in?)
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Why on earth would she do something like that?