Hey there. I’m Hitsugi Fujinaka, a perfectly ordinary high school student. At least, that was what I thought until I learned that apparently I’m not even human.
That came as a shock at first, but so much has happened that I don’t really feel anything anymore. Or maybe…I’m just scared to actually slow down and think about it.
Do I see the world differently from normal people? Are my feelings different? Am I even really alive…?
I shake my head, trying to clear those thoughts away. I don’t want to go down that path right now.
Right now, I’m in my living room. Anyone who comes to the house always calls it luxurious, but now, it just looks sad. A lot of our stuff disappeared when I opened Untitled the day before yesterday.
All our home appliances with a name written on them are gone. So is my mobile device. Every packaged food in the fridge—natto, candy, you name it—went poof, but surprisingly, the refrigerator and TV are still here. Weirdly, their official names aren’t written on them anywhere.
Restarting my life in this house feels like it will be really hard…though I guess I won’t have to do that. Untitled is being taken to a safe place, and I’m apparently going with it because I can control it… This is all moving too quickly for me to keep up.
I feel like my heart has become hollow. When they told me I’m moving, I barely felt any desire to refuse. I don’t know if that’s because I’m in shock or because I’m not a person…
I’m currently using a mobile device the investigators gave me to call my friends and tell them about suddenly having to move. It’s come as a shock to all of them; people don’t just up and move out of nowhere like this. I’m doing my best to lie and convince everyone that nothing’s wrong, but Karamori and Archive forbade me from telling anyone what really happened.
They’re staying at my house tonight because I can’t be moved to the protection zone until some paperwork is taken care of. I still have to prepare for the move, too. The area around my house has been evacuated, and we don’t know when Untitled might go berserk again, so I think it’s for the best that they’re here.
Archive is in the living room with me. Her blond hair is so pretty. She’s been sitting on the same couch as me for a little while, playing cat’s cradle with a blank expression the whole time.
Honestly…it’s a little creepy.
The TV is uncomfortably loud. I wish I could switch the channel from the variety show that’s on right now, but I feel like that would give away how awkward I’m feeling.
Karamori is out buying dinner. Pretty much all the food in the house is gone except for the fruits and vegetables. That means Archive and I are all alone here.
I steal a glance at her out of the corner of my eye. She’s still silently playing with that string of hers. I don’t think I’d ever seen cat’s cradle before today.
Archive’s thin fingers overlap and move apart as she forms the strings into different shapes… It might just be because I’ve never seen this game before, but it feels like she’s performing some kind of holy ritual. Her beautiful doll-like appearance is probably contributing to that.
On that note, I’m super jealous of her long eyelashes. They’re gorgeous and the same golden color as her hair. Her face looks Japanese, but her red eyes and blond hair—which I swear must be her natural color—make her look like a fantasy character come to life. You know what, I think I’m most jealous of her hair. For girls, it really comes down to the hair, doesn’t it? Hers is so blond and fine and silky, while mine is all frizzy…
“…Do you need something?” she asks.
“Oh! Uh, no…”
Shoot, she noticed me.
Her red eyes are staring my way.
Archive kinda scares me… I don’t think I’ve seen her emote yet. She couldn’t be any more different than Karamori, who’s always so bright and friendly. She didn’t hesitate to say that Karamori should destroy Untitled, even though it meant I would disappear… She seems like a really cold person…
“D-do you like cat’s cradle?” I ask.
“Not particularly. I need it for my Distortionism, so I play with it whenever I can.”
“Distortionism…?”
Archive’s red eyes glance my way.
“You can call it ‘magic’ if you wish. The people in our circles call it Distortionism, but everyone has their own name for it. Essentially, it’s an art that utilizes distortions of the world’s reason.”
“Distortions? What does that even mean?”
It’s obvious that Untitled is supernatural, given all the crazy things it can do, so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised to hear about magic…
“Hmm. I suppose I should explain.”
Archive stops playing with her string.
“The concept is actually quite simple. This world is imperfect. Those blemishes are what we call distortions. That is all. A vanit is an object that possesses such a distortion… Do you play video games, Ms. Fujinaka?”
“Uh, a little…”
“Then this should be easy to understand. A distortion of reason is similar to a bug in a video game. Bugged items are the vanits. Distortionism involves intentionally activating a bug and using it. All supernatural phenomena in the world stem from these distortions—magic, spirits, supernatural powers…and your Untitled.”
I shiver at her mention of Untitled.
A distortion of reason. That’s where Untitled gets its powers from. And from what Archive said, there are apparently a lot of other objects that also contain distortions.
She said the world isn’t perfect, but fear creeps up my legs at the thought of just how many of those distortions there are out there. Suddenly, I feel like there’s no guarantee the floor beneath us won’t just crumble at any moment.
“Finding and dealing with vanits is our job as special investigators for Noary.”
She says all this so casually, you’d think we were discussing the weather. Archive clearly lives in a completely different world, one that I know nothing about.
“Haah… You’re amazing. I can’t believe you and Mr. Karamori are my age and doing such a dangerous job…”
“We both have our own circumstances… Now, please pick one.”
Archive holds the red string out toward me. It’s intertwined around her fingers on both hands to form a net.
“Uh, why…?”
“Divination. Please pull one string.”
Confused, I tug on the string around her right ring finger, and it quietly slides off. Archive then moves the string back and forth between her hands multiple times until it creates a slightly different shape. It looks to me like another net, just with a different number of holes…
“It’s a coin.”
“A coin?”
“Yes,” Archive replies. “It mainly represents wealth and desire but can also refer to fate and the two sides of a coin.”
“Two sides of the same coin…?”
“Precisely. Every coin consists of two sides—a fact that is used to signify that something can have a meaning that is simultaneously good and bad. One interpretation of this could be that something in your future will bring about both fortune and misfortune.”
Hearing that from Archive, who can use—what was it called again?—Distortionism, makes it feel like this fortune is guaranteed to come true.
“Is this a magical divination?” I ask.
“No, it is not. Nor am I an expert on fortune-telling, so take it as you wish.”
“Oh, really? I thought for sure you just used some amazing power. Are you the type of person who believes in fortune-telling?”
“No, not at all.”
Seriously…?
It’s pretty hard to keep the conversation going after that, but surprisingly, Archive continues where she left off.
“Knowing that there are people like me and Karamori, whose fates are decided for them, makes it difficult to see ordinary divination as anything other than child’s play. Yet even so…no, because of that, irresponsibly divining the future gives me hope.”
“…”
I might be imagining things, but I feel like I felt a tiny flicker of emotion in Archive’s detached tone. She’s frowning, but I’m sure she actually enjoys telling people’s fortunes.
“I like fortune-telling, too. A long time ago, my dad taught me how to read tarot cards, but now I…”
The words stick in my throat, and Archive cocks her head at me.
“…I’m not normal. I just learned that my dad was in possession of that weird object and used it to do bad things. But I…I still love him…”