Chapter Seven
1.
“WHAT?” Naomi choked out.
The thing was staring in at them from the hospital’s hallway. It was instantly recognizable, with its oddly shaped humanoid body, road construction outfit, yellow safety vest, black boots...and the kitsune mask.
It was an avatar of the Homeostatic System, an entity from the AllTale’s quantum-record world.
These things only existed inside the simulation. It wasn’t possible for it to be present in the real world.
In the bed beside him, Ruri screamed.
He could hear more footsteps in the hallway, and a second fox-mask appeared behind the first, followed quickly by two more. In only a few moments, there was a swarm of them.
A strange shadow fell across the room. Naomi’s head jerked around to the window.
One of the masked things was clinging to the glass from the outside like a lizard. A moment later, there were four of them, then eight, then sixteen. Within seconds, they had covered every inch of the enormous window.
This can’t be happening, Naomi thought. They can’t be here. It makes no sense! It’s insane!
But even as he tried to deny what he was seeing, the scientist inside him was steadily, inexorably piecing the facts together.
“This world is a complete, perfect copy of reality, preserved inside the AllTale system.”
“Since this world is your reality, you can’t tell it’s simulated.”
His own words guided him to the truth.
“Oh my God…is this...?”
He couldn’t believe it...but it didn’t matter what he believed.
The lead fox-mask began to sway slightly back and forth. Then, all at once, they poured into the hospital room. The first made a beeline for Ruri’s bed, ignoring Naomi completely.
“Stop it!”
Naomi lashed out, sending it sprawling off to one side. But the second thing in line followed close behind, aiming for Ruri as well.
Grabbing his cane, Naomi punched the second attacker before it could reach her. But as he turned toward the third, a great gloved hand smacked into the side of his face and sent him tumbling to the ground.
One of the bulky fox-masks landed on top of him, pressing him against the cold tile floor with enormous force. The damn thing was heavy. He thrashed, trying to knock it off him. But it was larger and heavier than him, and one of his legs was disabled—it only took one of those creatures to keep him pinned.
Having dealt with their only obstacle, the fox-masks returned to their task. The first in line leapt up onto Ruri’s bed, straddling her slender body.
Naomi struggled frantically, but it was no use.
More of the fox-masks gathered around the bed, seizing her limbs and holding them down. As she lay there, totally immobilized, the one above her reached down and gripped her slender neck.
Naomi instantly realized what was happening. If this world itself was a simulation…then anything that wasn’t present in the quantum records would be deleted. The Homeostatic System would destroy anything that didn’t belong.
Ichigyou Ruri was a normal part of this world. But if the system detected her consciousness, her sixteen-year-old mind, as something brought here from outside…
Naomi could faintly hear her gasp as the thing’s hands closed around her neck. She was going to be erased right in front of him. Those things were going to kill her.
“Stop!” he screamed wildly. “Stop it! Get off her, you bastard!”
The fox-mask ignored his cries. Its thick arms flexed as it pressed down on Ruri’s neck.
She was going to die. There was nothing he could do to save her. He was just going to lie here on the floor and watch the woman he loved disappear forever.
This was what all his plans had come to.
“Katagaki…san…”
Her last, feeble words faded into silence.
“Aaah…”
His answer was a cry of absolute despair.
“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaagh!”
In that moment, Katagaki Naomi went completely mad.
A bizarre series of images streamed past his eyes. He saw Ruri being murdered, countless fox-masks, his city ripped apart and turned upside down.
He saw a hole that swallowed everything into its maw.
What? Wait. No. Is this…
He saw a shrine. A bird. A glove. A string. A rainbow tunnel.
Unfamiliar images spun through his mind...but he recognized them. They were memories of the past. Memories that belonged to a different Naomi.
Suddenly, his field of vision opened up again, and one final memory flashed before his eyes.
He was in Ruri’s hospital room, and the fox-masks flew through the air.
From his spot on the floor, Naomi watched the masked thing that had been strangling Ruri get smashed against the far wall. Twenty others went soaring off in all directions, smashing hard into the ceiling and the walls.
They were pinned in place where they hit, bear traps materializing, clutching their limbs and holding them fast to the walls.
“Hcck! Haah!” Ruri coughed loudly and painfully, trying to catch her breath.
She was still alive.
Somehow, Katagaki Naomi was standing at her side.
2.
NAOMI LOOKED AROUND.
He’d taken care of all the fox-masks in the room itself, but there were still many of them in the hallway. The mass of bodies latched on to the window were still wriggling around like a ball of insects.
Naomi raised his right hand.
First, he waved a finger gently toward the hallway. A rainbow-colored crystalline wall rose up out of the floor, sealing the entrance shut.
Next, he raised his arm a little higher, then swept it to the side, as if wiping the dust off the top of a bookshelf. A wave of liquid crystal swept past outside the window, tossing the fox-masks away. The wave then solidified into another solid defensive wall.
He closed his hand into a fist, testing the feeling of the glove against his skin.
He hadn’t been capable of anything like this before. He’d never managed to create something his glove wasn’t touching, and summoning up objects this big had been an enormous strain on his mind.
But now, it wasn’t a problem. He felt like he could do almost anything. With this new glove, he was ready to try some things he’d never risked doing before.
“Katagaki…san…”
He turned to face Ruri, and their eyes met. She was struggling to sit up in bed, wincing in pain.
He hurried over to her, reaching out with both hands. She reached out to him, too.
They ended up in each other’s arms.