“Yeah, something like that. I’m Shin Karamori. Nice to meet you.” He put on his best smile to ease her nerves, but the girl just looked at him suspiciously.
He’d expected as much, though. She wouldn’t have expected the person sent to deal with the dangerous book to be a boy her age. Still, her expression did relax a little.
“I tried cutting the book and burning it, but it didn’t leave a mark. Are you really going to be able to do something about it…?”
The girl had asked Karamori, but Archive answered instead.
“You have nothing to worry about. As part of Canary, a special department within the Noary Group, there is no one better at handling supernatural objects.”
“…Please destroy it. I’m begging you!” Anguish filled the girl’s voice. “It… It erased everyone… It’s all my fault… It took Mom and Nao…”
“…!”
Karamori suddenly felt sick to his stomach. This girl had seen her friend and her mother disappear in an instant because of the book. It was impossible to understand how much pain she must be in.
He took her trembling hand and squeezed it tight.
“I promise you I will destroy it.”
The schoolgirl began to lead Karamori, Archive, and the scout toward the study.
The mansion was just as lavish inside as it was out. A marble statue of a child holding a plate welcomed people at the front door, and colorful oil paintings hung in the spacious hallways. It felt surreal to see this kind of wealth in such an ordinary residential area.
Untitled should have taken anything with a proper noun, but most of the contents of the house seemed to have been unaffected. Even so, there were signs that something unnatural had occurred.
Karamori looked at the plate in the hands of the sculpture next to the entrance. It held car keys and other small objects. He couldn’t help but chuckle at the absurdity of such a luxurious item being used as a key holder.
The two women they’d met at the house both looked gloomy. The scout would be okay, but any more strain on Fujinaka’s nerves might send her into a panic attack. That could be a problem if things escalated. Karamori wanted to put her mind at ease, but before he could, Archive spoke up.
“Look at this, Ms. Fujinaka. It is the Tokyo Skytree,” she said, showing the other girl a complex shape she’d made using the string in her fingers.
Archive seemed to have had the same idea as him, but he didn’t think her method was going to work. Fujinaka looked bewildered by the combination of the string and Archive’s blank expression.
That Tokyo Skytree is pretty impressive, though, Karamori thought.
He doubted there were many high school girls who were into cat’s cradle these days. And while he shouldn’t make assumptions, he thought it was especially unlikely for a trendy girl like Fujinaka.
“Uh, Archive, cat’s cradle fell out of fashion decades ago.” Karamori stepped out in front of Fujinaka as if to say he would handle it. “Check this out… Ta-da!”
Before Fujinaka’s very eyes, he produced a rose from out of nowhere. It was an everyday, ordinary magic trick.
“Don’t worry. We’ll sort this out!” He grinned at Fujinaka, trying to put her at ease.
“Um… Thank you…”
But unfortunately, Karamori’s little trick didn’t have the desired effect. It seemed the sentiment had gotten across to Fujinaka, though, because she gave him a strained smile.
Just then, Karamori heard a sigh from beside him.
“That was painfully corny. Of course she would have no idea how to react to that.”
“What do you mean, ‘painfully corny’? Your trick with the cat’s cradle bombed, too.”
“I simply chose the wrong shape. Look, Ms. Fujinaka. It’s Colonel Sanders.”
“Okay, that one’s pretty amazing, I have to admit!”
Archive had used her string to make a complex shape that resembled the face of a familiar old man. Her expression remained as blank as ever, of course.
“Hello there, Mr. Karamori,” she said, deepening her voice slightly and using the string to move the old man’s lips.
“God, that’s creepy! I hardly think she’s gonna—”
Karamori was suddenly interrupted by a “Pfft!” from beside him. He looked across to see Fujinaka laughing with a hand covering her mouth.
“Do you see that, Mr. Karamori? Colonel Sanders worked.”
But Fujinaka shook her head. “No… It’s the way you two talk to each other that made me laugh.”
Karamori and Archive both raised their eyebrows.
The group continued walking down the corridor, and a short while later, a portrait in one corner caught Karamori’s attention. It was a picture of a middle-aged man wearing an eyepatch over his right eye. The eyepatch had a wing symbol on it, and the skin around it was covered in burn scars. The man wore a terrifying expression with creases lining his forehead. It hardly seemed like the sort of portrait that would be hung in the hallway of a home.
“Asahi Fujinaka. He’s the man who built this house,” Fujinaka explained.
That is one sinister-looking man, Karamori thought. Of course, he kept that to himself. Between this portrait and the excessively lavish interior of the house, Asahi Fujinaka must have been an incredibly eccentric man.
Unsure of what to say, Karamori settled on a safe “…I-interesting.”
For some reason, Fujinaka gave a wry smile when she saw his reaction. “It’s okay. You don’t have to be so nice. He has a scary face.”
It seemed Karamori’s answer was so safe it had given away his actual thoughts. He felt a little bad.
Karamori and Archive’s clumsy efforts to cheer her up must have worked because the atmosphere surrounding Fujinaka seemed to have softened. At the very least, it didn’t look like she was about to have a breakdown anymore.
“This is it.”
She stopped at an ordinary wooden door. It was slightly bigger than those of an ordinary home and had a bit of ornamentation, but there was nothing else unusual about it.
The study was through that door, as was the book they were here for.
“It seems nothing out of the ordinary happens while the book is inside the study,” Archive said. “I assume that means the room functions as a kind of barrier.”
Karamori readied himself to step inside that barrier and put his hand on the doorknob. He thought it felt heavy but quickly dismissed that as just a figment of his imagination and threw the door open.
The word study didn’t feel quite right to describe the room. For one thing, it didn’t have many books. There was only a single bookshelf next to the large desk at the end of the room, and only a few volumes lined one shelf. The other shelves were occupied by ornaments, family pictures, and other miscellaneous items. This room housed a book that devoured text, after all, so it didn’t seem like a good idea to bring other written works here.
A single tome sat on the desk.
“That book is our target, Untitled,” the scout said, pointing at it.
Its worn cover had no words on it, yet the creases and loose fibers of its green binding conveyed how often it had been opened. The book looked harmless sitting upon the desk, but Karamori could tell this was the text-eating vanit.
Archive twisted her string into an intricate shape.
“Flower Charm.” At her words, Karamori’s body started to glow faintly. “I cast a concept barrier on you to prevent you from disappearing. Good luck. I will stay behind to protect these two in case something goes wrong.”
“Understood,” Karamori said.
He reached for the bag on his back and pulled out a Western-style sword. The jewels and golden decoration on the handle and sheath made it look like a ceremonial blade; the silver chains attached to the pommel wrapped around the entire weapon.
Karamori heard Fujinaka gasp behind him. The sword had such an intimidating air that simply drawing it was enough to elicit a reaction from those not used to the supernatural.
The excessive ornamentation, which looked unsuited to combat, was contrasted by the sinister pressure that emanated from the sword. Its very presence seemed to make all the air in the room grow heavier.
Karamori attached the chained sword to his waist, then took a step into the room. The moment he did, Untitled began to emit a dark-green light—and the book, which should have stayed closed, opened.
“…!”
Karamori reflexively jumped back just as a katana grazed his cheek. It hurtled toward the door where Archive and the others were waiting, so fast it was barely visible. But before it reached them, it was repelled by an invisible wall. Archive must have protected them.