“There won’t be any thunder in this area, right? Doesn’t this mean we’ve prevented the accident?”
“Assuming nothing happens before then, yes,” Sensei said ominously.
“I can’t imagine what could happen, though…”
But just as those words left Naomi’s mouth, he spotted something at the very edge of his vision. There was someone standing in the middle of the residential road not too far away.
At first, he thought the figure was a construction worker, mainly because it was wearing a bright yellow belt that looked like a reflective vest. On closer examination, though, there was something very odd about it. Naomi had never seen a construction worker wearing a kitsune mask before.
It was a stylized, painted fox mask, the kind of thing you could find for sale at the gift shops around the Fushimi Inari shrine. But this was Shimogamo, not Inari, and the festival wasn’t anywhere near this area. The person didn’t look like a parade performer, anyway.
Naomi lowered his glasses, trying to get a better look at the strange figure. But as soon as he did, the man disappeared entirely.
“Huh?”
When he put the glasses back on, the man was still standing there, exactly where he’d been a moment before. And he was beginning to trudge in Naomi’s direction.
He was invisible, except through the glasses. What did that mean?
“Damn it. They’re here,” growled Sensei.
“Wh-what is that thing?”
“It’s the Homeostatic System,” Sensei replied. The masked figure drew steadily closer as he spoke; Naomi couldn’t help but take a step back from that seriously creepy thing. “It detected an alteration to AllTale’s system files, and it’s here to protect their integrity. Those things will try to erase any discrepancies in the records, returning the simulation to its predetermined state.”
Those things, plural?
Naomi scanned the area, his heart thumping in his chest. Between one glance and the next, several identical masked figures materialized in the street around him. He quickly counted ten; more popped into existence by the second.
“In other words…” Naomi glanced up anxiously and met Sensei’s gaze. “They’re planning to drag you and your girlfriend to the Uji River, where you’re supposed to be.”
“What?! What should I do?!”
“Fight them, obviously.”
“You want me to fight a computer system? How?”
“Use the God Hand, idiot. Make yourself a weapon!”
Unsettled as he was, Naomi instantly crouched down and pressed his glove to the ground. He didn’t see weapons on a regular basis, unfortunately; they weren’t exactly necessary for a high schooler in modern Japan. It was hard for him to even picture one on the spur of the moment.
“Whatever you make, the God Hand will enhance its performance. Just focus on visualizing something powerful!”
Powerful? Powerful how? Uh…okay. Something you could hurt somebody with. Something you could swing at someone’s face. Something heavy. Something tough…
The glove trembled in response to Naomi’s thoughts. He wasn’t feeling too confident about the results this time, but in the next moment, there was something nice and thick and heavy in his hand.
He’d produced an encyclopedia.
Naomi was confused by this, even though it was entirely his own doing. You could certainly do some damage with a book if you swung it hard enough. But did it really qualify as a weapon?
He didn’t have time to think the matter over. The masked things were only a few paces away. Rising to his feet, Naomi brandished the hefty book; a second glance revealed that it had a cord attached to it, like some kind of throwing weapon.
He grabbed hold of that seriously oversized bookmark with both hands and swung the book into the air like a shotput hammer.
“Argh!”
The encyclopedia smashed directly into the face of the nearest masked thing. The figure flew backward with astonishing force, bounced off the ground, and kept flying. A split second later, its body froze in midair with a strange, staticky sound, and that was where it stayed, totally immobilized.
Wow. That was easier than I thought.
“Nice,” said Sensei, offering him a thumbs-up.
Pulling back his encyclopedia with a tug on the cord, Naomi saw a small flash of electricity as it zipped into his hands. Maybe this was the “performance enhancement” Sensei had mentioned.
One way or another, he had the ability to take these things out—to interfere directly with creatures that weren’t even part of his world.
Maybe he could do this after all.
“Naomi.”
The voice didn’t come through his glasses this time. Sensei had hopped down off the pole at some point; he was standing back-to-back with Naomi.
“You need to hold these things off until the time of the accident has passed. That’s how you keep her safe. Just hold out another thirteen minutes!”
“What happens after that?”
“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. Get moving!”
Naomi readied his weapon with a forceful nod—this wasn’t the time for lengthy explanations. The street was already full of masked enemies.
Clearing his mind as best he could, he swung his encyclopedia-hammer at the nearest group. Several masked figures were sent soaring into the sky, where they froze. The things were still very creepy, but that was probably for the best. It made it easier to hit them without hesitation.
“They’re moving inside! Get in the yard!” shouted Sensei from above. He’d returned to his perch on top of the utility pole.
The fox-masked things had breached the wall around the property and were making their way toward Ruri’s house. Naomi rushed to follow, clambering into the yard; he’d briefly considered opening a hole in the wall instead but decided it would take too long to close it behind him.
By the time he made it over, there were already dozens of the things in the yard. Most of them must have appeared in there.
“Get lost!” Naomi arced his encyclopedia into the crowd, sending the masked things flying. With every blow, a few more froze awkwardly in midair. But he couldn’t make a dent in their numbers; they spawned quicker than he could hit them. This wasn’t looking good at all.
With a few more swings of his weapon, Naomi cut himself a path forward. He was managing, just barely, to keep the things away from Ruri’s house.
Faster. Faster!