Report.
On July 2, XXXX, Vanit Research Facility F-9 was assaulted by Afterglow, a subordinate organization of Grave Nest.
Due to the facility’s cognitive barrier, the assault was unable to be noticed immediately from the outside. It took three days for investigators to realize that an attack had occurred and send aid. The researchers and Canaries in the facility at the time appear to have fought back; however, it seems they were vastly overwhelmed.
When the deployed troops arrived at the facility, they found enemy forces and facility employees alike brutally slaughtered. The corpses were mutilated to such an extent that very few remained in one piece. It was suspected that a vanit stored in the facility had run amok.
The ensuing investigation determined that the slash wounds were inflicted by a vanit named Tyrfing. Concerningly, it had been taken from the facility.
After the incident, frequent instances of mass slaughter began to occur at facilities connected with Afterglow. This continued for one month until a Canary named Yuto Hinosaki took a boy into custody, who had been found in possession of Tyrfing at an Afterglow facility in which all of the members had been killed.
The boy had sustained gunshot wounds and lacerations all over his body, and he had more than ten blisters on his palms that had burst and become infected. He had clearly continued to wield Tyrfing long past when he should have been physically able. His sanitary and nutritional status had deteriorated, leaving him in a critically weakened condition when he was taken into custody.
The boy was identified as the son of Makoto Karamori, an employee who had worked at the assaulted Noary research facility. Evidence suggests that his father brought him along that day to show him his workplace.
Upon questioning, the boy testified that he picked up Tyrfing by chance during the Afterglow assault. His abnormal survival skills and murderous abilities likely came from the sword. We believe that Tyrfing bent fate to make him attack the Afterglow facilities, as well as to prevent us from finding him for close to a month.
It is currently unclear what the boy wished for. Further questioning is planned for after he recovers.
Having suffered tremendous losses, Afterglow seems to have since been dismantled by Grave Nest, who—
“Whew, that sure is one terrifying sword.”
The speaker was a smiling older man who was standing in a hospital lobby with a cell phone to his ear.
He wore a white suit that fit snugly to his thinner-than-thin frame. His suit and the white patterned button-down he wore underneath made him look quite professional—if you ignored the rest of his appearance, that is. His bright blue hair and strong Western facial features, combined with his clothing, gave him the impression of a clown or magician. He could hardly have been more conspicuous.
All passersby ended up looking his way only to quickly avert their eyes, then turn their heads to look at him again once they were past.
The hospital was massive. The entrance was shaped like a large atrium, and the footsteps and voices of those in the lobby bounced back and forth between the ceiling and floor.
Dim sunlight from a cloudy sky lit the room. It was noon on a weekday, which meant the hospital was incredibly busy, but the building was so large that it still managed to look half empty.
The man could hear every word of a friendly chat between a group of elderly women near reception. He shrugged in response to one particularly frank comment and focused on the voice coming through his phone.
“I can hardly believe it enabled a thirteen-year-old boy to perform such slaughter. Those facilities were full of people trained for combat,” a woman said, her discomfort clear through her tone.
“Did he kill them all with brute force?” the man asked.
“No. That’s what makes the massacres even more terrifying. He employed stealth, staged ambushes, and set traps to kill entire groups at once… The assaults were carried out with exceeding cleverness.”
“Oh-ho. So it didn’t send him into a mindless battle frenzy.”
“It appears not…”
There was nothing scarier than a strong opponent who managed to stay composed and fight strategically with cold cunning. The man knew that from personal experience.
“Now I’m even more curious to know what he asked the sword for.”
“They actually got him to share that during yesterday’s counseling session.”
“Whoa, hold the phone! I thought we agreed not to press him further until his mental state stabilized.”
“Please don’t be angry. It may have been harsh, but we needed to learn what he wished for as soon as possible. The nature of his wish could very well lead to more people getting hurt, after all.”
The man snorted, but his smile didn’t waver.
“Well? Gonna fill me in? What’d he wish for?”
“‘I want to live’… That is what he told the sword when he drew it.”
“…”
An investigation conducted after the slaughter spree revealed that Afterglow had been trying to obtain Tyrfing. If its members learned the boy was in possession of the sword, they would never have stopped pursuing him. Tyrfing must have decided that they needed to be eliminated to ensure his survival and had driven him to kill as many Afterglow members as he could. It had gifted him the knowledge and skill required to do so—the spark that had led to the chain of terrible massacres.
“Hmm, but isn’t that…?”
“Yes, his wish to live contradicts the sword’s tendency to bring suffering and death to its wielder. This makes the boy’s future very hard to predict.”
“…I think there are plenty of ways to make a person suffer without killing them.”
Everyone who lived in their world had heard of an unpleasant number of such cases. The man hoped that the boy wouldn’t be subjected to such a fate.
“Anyhow, let him rest for now. We’ll save inquiries for after he settles down.”
“Of course. Please take care of yourself as well, Mr. Nanba.”
“Yeah, yeah. I know.”
The man hung up. He’d reached the hospital room.
Nanba made sure he was ready, then swung open the door.
“Hello, how are you? It’s so nice to see you again! I’m from Noary. Are you awake, Shin?” the man said, his tone so light the words could have blown away on the wind. It stood in stark contrast to the room’s oppressively heavy air.
There was one young boy in the room. He was hooked up to multiple IVs and had bandages wrapped around his hands and head. His physical state was tough to look at, but nothing pained Nanba more than the kid’s expression.
It was hollow.
He was awake, but there was no light in his eyes, which stared unseeingly at the ceiling. The puffy skin around his eyelids suggested that he had been crying.
Nanba’s pained expression lasted only a moment before he put on a big smile.
“You remember me, right? Blue hair? Affable smile? I’m not a serial killer here to off you in your sleep, I swear,” he said, sitting on a stool next to the bed.
It was only then that the boy—Shin Karamori—finally looked at him.
“…Hello…again.”
His voice was so quiet it seemed to evaporate. He was looking at Nanba, but his eyes remained unfocused.
It was clear that the kid’s mind was terribly frayed. Having had a front-row seat for such slaughter would do that to anyone. It had been two weeks since he was taken into custody and one week since he regained consciousness, but counseling hadn’t yet done much to heal the deep wound in his heart.
“Let me introduce myself again. My name is Jasper Nanba. I know that sounds like a fake name, but it’s not. I’m half-Japanese, half-British. See, I even have a business card.”
Nanba snapped his fingers and made a business card appear in his hand. His name was written the Western way, with his given name first.
“It sounds much better in that order. Here, take it,” Nanba said, holding out the business card respectfully. Karamori took it with the bare minimum of movement. “I’m here to check on you and see if I can be your friend.”
“…”
“You’re recovering nicely, kid. Your life’s not in danger anymore.”
“Okay…”