Before I could figure out what Tsuji said, Runa spoke.
“You want to say I’m doing this because of the influence of the Blue World? Even if that’s true, if I’m not conscious of it happening, there’s nothing that I can do about it.”
“No... We might be able to do something,” I said, turning to look at Toriko. “A while back, we had a conversation about what Toriko’s left hand touches. We thought it might be the framework of the ghost stories. If that’s right, and she were to touch the ‘framework’ of the ghost story that’s affecting you, I think she’d be able to pull it away.”
Toriko looked down at her own hand and said, “Maybe your logic is sound, but it doesn’t seem like there’s anything I can touch right now. Can you see it, Sorawo?”
“I can’t...”
I took a fresh look at Runa with my right eye, but nothing caught my attention.
But when I thought about it, that was strange in and of itself. If Runa’s actions were being influenced by the Otherside, then I should have been able to perceive something. Or was it like Tsuji said during the daytime, and something was going on outside my threshold?
As I was mulling the question, Tsuji spoke. “Then why not have Urumi-kun do it herself?”
“Do what?” asked Runa.
“Perform an exorcism on yourself. Like I did, with the LBRP. By purifying your mind, you can overwrite reality.”
“I don’t even know what to say... I can’t perform that kind of weird ritual, though.”
“You have the Voice, right? I seem to recall it doesn’t just have the ability to control people, but can also scan the area around you. Or did I misremember?”
She was right. When we were doing Satsuki Uruma’s funeral, we’d had her use the Voice to do something akin to tuning for our Kokkuri-san.
Runa was visibly confused. “I can try it, but...isn’t that kind of different from an exorcism?”
“There’s no need to get caught up on form. You can do something like my roaring laughter too.”
“I can’t laugh like you, Tsuji-san.”
“Didn’t I tell you? You can use any release of powerful emotion. Voice is the ideal medium for carrying emotion. Try taking your feelings, your frustrations, and just letting them all out.”
Runa hung her head and was silent.
“How about it, Runa?” I asked, but instead of answering, Runa took a deep breath and—
She shouted.
It was incredible. The shout raced out of Runa’s throat, carrying anger, sadness, discontent, and every other kind of emotion. In my right eye, I saw a pale light shining in the back of her throat, and lines of shining silver exploded out of it. They pierced through all of us, spreading all throughout the endless white space.
It was a scream. Runa was crying out with her entire being, “Somebody, come help me.”
It wasn’t us that were affected by the Voice.
The silver lines changed course in midair, and just as they seemed to trace the outline of something, it happened. The space around us warped and twisted, as if it had been caught on thousands of needles, and some invisible mass, of which all I could tell was that it was incredibly massive, was pulled out of the air.
“Wh... What?!”
As we all looked on in shock, the massive invisible lump fell and bounced. The thing that had been caught by Runa’s Voice thrashed around inside the white space like it was a living creature. There were three red lights on top of the mass, and they were pointed towards us. In the center of the equilateral triangle formed by the lights, a hole opened, like the space was falling into it. And from that hole, there came a voice I could ascribe two possible meanings to.
Itowashi yanou. (How I loathe you.)
Itoshi yanou. (How I love you.)
“The Shishinoke...?!”
“So this was it!” Tsuji shouted. “This is what I’ve been sensing! We’ve been inside this thing ever since we came to the Farm!”
Runa was still screaming. Maybe she’d fallen into a trance state, because the whites of her eyes were showing, and her body had been pierced by many thin thorns. They were the thorns growing out of the Shishinoke.
“Toriko!”
Reacting quickly, I offered her the Makarov I’d taken away earlier. Toriko accepted the gun, and disengaged the safety. I ran towards the thrashing mass, and Toriko along came with me.
The hill-like head of the Shishinoke looked down at us. I glared back at it with my right eye, and the Shishinoke which I hadn’t been able to see before gradually appeared. Our channels matched—we had it now!
“Go ahead, Toriko. Shoot!”
Holding the Makarov with both of her hands, Toriko pointed it at the Shishinoke’s pitch-black hole and opened fire. The shots rang out continuously, and the Shishinoke’s massive body convulsed.
Once she’d dumped the entire magazine into it, the Shishinoke’s body grew haze around the edges, and then it dissipated into mist.
With the disappearance of the thing her Voice had caught, Runa’s scream faded out too. Tsuji caught her as she slumped forward.
“Ah...wha...? I...?”
“You did good. Real good.”
As Runa came out of her trance state, Tsuji gave her a pat on the back as a reward. I couldn’t see the thorns of the Shishinoke piercing Runa’s body anymore.
“Urumi-kun, do you know the etymology of the Japanese word ‘Itoshii’?” Tsuji asked Runa. “It comes from ‘Itou,’ meaning to hate, or dislike. It started to be used towards small, weak things, in a pitying sense, and then eventually took on the meaning of beloved. In short, the word meaning of loathing is always inside our word for something beloved.”
“What are you talking about...?”
“I’m saying that ‘like’ and ‘hate’ isn’t as simple as you think.”
Tsuji took Runa’s hand and helped her to her feet. Runa looked at me and Toriko, as if she were about to say something, then started coughing. It was hard to blame her after she’d just screamed her lungs out like that.
“What...even happened? I...” as Runa spoke with her hoarse voice, a single tear ran down her face.
“Huh? That’s weird,” Runa said, confusedly rubbing her eyes.
“It’s fine, you don’t need to hold them back,” I said, feeling kinder than I usually would be, but Runa sniffed and stopped her tears.
“I won’t cry. I’m not you, Kamikoshi-san.”
“Huh? I’m not crying, though.”
“But you did, while using my lap as a pillow—”
“You little?!”
Realizing her slip, Runa covered her mouth. “Sorry, it was nothing.”
Don’t apologize!!!
Reflexively, I looked beside me. Inevitably, my eyes met with Toriko’s. She looked straight at me.
“What’s this about a lap pillow?”