It had been a full day since the Untitled case, but Karamori was still less than thrilled about the prospect of going right back to work.
He could have scolded Archive for not sharing that information sooner, but there was no point. She didn’t do anything that fate hadn’t decided for her. Even though she was perfectly capable of it…
“Give me the details.”
“The first mission concerns an ongoing case in Aichi Prefecture. The second is in relation to a detention center in Shizuoka. From here, we shall make for the former.”
Karamori felt the helicopter change course. It must be heading toward Aichi.
“People have been going missing in a certain region of Aichi, and it sounds like there is a high probability a vanit is behind it. We will be asked to investigate the target and destroy it.”
“Is it an Unbreakable?”
“Unclear. It is, however, quite violent and has mutated four mid-level investigators who tried to destroy it.”
“It mutated them?” Karamori asked, raising an eyebrow at the unsettling word.
“Yes. According to the report, the vanit is able to transform anyone it does sufficient harm to into a copy of itself.”
Karamori frowned. “So it’s a self-propagating vanit… We’ll have to take care of it quickly. We’ll leave Fujinaka with the other investigators and—”
“No,” Archive said, cutting him off. “We will have her accompany us.”
“Huh? Why?” Karamori asked.
Fujinaka’s eyes went wide.
“Because we will need her and Untitled for the second mission.”
“…”
Karamori crinkled his nose, looking displeased.
The disappearances were occurring in a perfectly ordinary town in Aichi Prefecture, which was lined with houses and apartment buildings.
Karamori, Archive, and Fujinaka were walking through a shopping arcade just outside the town limits. It was dusk, and yet the street was still crowded.
“Two weeks ago, a young man went missing. His friends testified that he was attacked by a monster. None of them was taken seriously at first, but those friends soon began to disappear in succession, and unfortunately, word of these disappearances reached the news. The abnormal nature of this case and consistent mention of monsters in witness testimony led undercover Noary agents to determine that a vanit is involved and implement a media blackout,” Archive reported.
“How do people describe the monsters?” Karamori asked.
“As the upper half of a person with a face that only features a single large right eye. Multiple people have claimed that the monsters begin as drawings that emerge from a wall.”
“Sounds like a vanit all right.”
Karamori felt a tinge of relief that news of these incidents hadn’t reached the wider public, which would have led to mass hysteria.
“You said the victims are disappearing, so…”
“It is as you imagine. With each passing incident, the number of eyewitness reports detailing the monsters has increased. The vanits are almost certainly the missing victims.”
“…”
Karamori sighed and shook his head.
“Um, Karamori? I can’t do this! I shouldn’t be here! What if the book eats all these people?!” Fujinaka cried out, walking behind them. She sounded terrified.
“There is no need for concern,” Archive reassured her. “I am devoting eighty percent of my power to binding Untitled. Even if it multiplied and there were ten of them, it would not be able to break free.”
The effort Archive was expending to keep Untitled in check meant that, like last time, Karamori would have to handle this mission almost entirely alone.
Yesterday, Fujinaka had been unwilling to take Untitled out of the study, no matter how many times they explained to her that the book was properly sealed. Archive had finally managed to set her at ease by flattening the entire study into a single sheet of paper and wrapping it around the book, saying, “There. It is still in the study.”
The effect of the study’s barrier had almost certainly vanished when the room was flattened, but Karamori didn’t say anything. Archive’s stunt had a strong visual impression and had only been done to convince Fujinaka that the book was safe to carry around.
“Why did you bring me with you anyway?” Fujinaka asked.
“As I explained in the helicopter, we could not leave you and Untitled unsupervised, nor could I let Karamori go on this mission alone. That is not an option on a mission like this, where combat is inevitable.”
“…”
Archive’s answer made Karamori grimace.
“Well, being around all these people is freaking me out…,” Fujinaka said. “Will those half-body things show up here?”
“Unclear. However, I do not think the vanits are attacking people at random. The victims all have certain traits in common, and I believe that is where we should begin our investigation.”
“What do they have in common?” she asked.
“Of the nine confirmed victims, six are second-year boys at Shujitsu High School. They are all the type people would commonly refer to as ‘delinquents.’”
Fujinaka went pale. It looked like hearing specific information about the victims had hit her hard. Karamori could sympathize.
“So there’s a pattern to the people who’ve been targeted?” he asked.
“It appears so. If the vanits attacked indiscriminately, significantly more of the town’s population would already be mutated. Those six Shujitsu High students were apparently close friends.”
“This is one picky vanit… If we’re right about the pattern, that is.”
There had been plenty of cases where a vanit made it look as if it was following some sort of a pattern while actually doing whatever it wanted. It wouldn’t have been surprising, for instance, to learn that Untitled could eat more than just writing. Trying to apply logic to an object containing distorted reason was futile.
“The other three confirmed victims are Noary employees who tried to capture the vanit, only to be attacked themselves and mutated. If we are looking for a pattern among the victims, I believe it logical to look exclusively at the second-year Shujitsu High students and consider the Noary employees as being exceptions on the basis of self-defense.”
“Agreed.”
“The target has been named ‘Half-wit.’ This seems to be a joke based on the shape of its body.”
As she spoke, Archive’s steps quickened, and she wandered away from the other two toward the side of the road.
““?””
Karamori and Fujinaka tilted their heads in confusion—but then he noticed a ramen shop on the side of the street Archive was headed for. It was dinner time, and the smell of tonkotsu was wafting out onto the street.
“Are you serious? Your fate is to eat ramen right now?”
“Of course not,” Archive said blankly. The other two had caught up by now, and true to her word, she passed by the ramen shop…though her head turned to face it the entire time.