I twiddled the Skysensor’s dials as I stared vaguely at Ryotasu’s heaving breasts.
I listened to the sounds of the meaningless white noise coming from the radio, and the meaningless songs that Ryotasu sang as she danced around.
This might be my favorite part of the day.
It was like this place wasn’t real.
Come to think of it, wasn’t this where I’d first met Ryotasu?
It was on a summer’s day about six months ago.
I’d been sitting on the bench alone, just like I was doing today. And then suddenly, without warning, she’d appeared on the slide.
“I’m your servant familiar, Gamotan!”
And from that day on, Ryotasu was my servant familiar. She didn’t do anything particularly familiar-ish. In fact, she didn’t even help with Kirikiri Basara. No enemies came for her to fight off with her Poyaya Gun.
I still hadn’t quite figured out what had happened with that strange meeting.
The one thing I knew for sure was that Ryotasu was cute. She was cute, and that was enough. Who cares about the rest of it? But since I’d remembered, I thought I may as well ask. I tried to make the question sound as natural as I could.
“Hey, Ryotasu. The first time we met, did you fall from the sky?”
“Ssh!” It happened without warning.
Ryotasu put her finger up to her lips and looked at me sharply.
“Wh-What...?”
Ryotasu slid down the slide and ran over to the bench I was sitting on.
She knelt down right in front of the Skysensor on the bench next to me, and stared right at my Zonko strap.
No, she was listening to the speaker, not staring at the strap.
The expression on her face wasn’t the usual dopey smile. She looked extremely serious.
“—ordered our government to communicate to... China and the Soviet Union that Our Empire... provisions of their Joint Declaration...”
I thought I could hear the voice of a man through the noise, speaking in a detached and dispassionate tone.
I quickly grabbed the volume knob and turned it up. With my other hand, I adjusted the tuner at nanometer increments. (Okay, not really.)
The voice gradually became clearer and more understandable.
“—an ultimate collapse and obliteration of the Japanese nation... lead to the total extinction of human civilization.”
“This is...”
“The Jewel Voice Broadcast,” Ryotasu said.
It was the broadcast from Emperor Hirohito that had brought an end to the last war Japan had ever fought.
“But why?”
Ryotasu ignored me and suddenly stood up.
“Your radio really is amazing, Gamotan. I knew it!” She smiled and left the park, leaving me behind.
Amazing how? And what did she mean by “I knew it”?
“And why did you just leave me here?!”
The Jewel Voice Broadcast happened over 50 years ago. Why did my radio pick it up now?
I sat there at the park for another half hour, completely confused. By the time I got home, the sun had set.
The sun set early in the winter. Spring was a long way off.
“Uwah!” When I grabbed the doorknob to unlock the front door, I felt a sharp pain in my hand.
“More static electricity? Maybe it’s because I got hit with the PYG today.” I actually heard a crackling sound, so it must have been pretty bad. I don’t know if my body just naturally built up electricity, but this happened a lot. It would be cool if I could use it as some kind of electrical attack. Every kid wants to be able to shoot fire or electricity from their hands, and maybe I could use it to fight back against Ryotasu’s PYG.
I grabbed the knob (it still stung a little) and opened the door.
“I’m home!” I shouted into the empty room. Of course, there was no answer.
I turned on the light switch, but my mom wasn’t there. She was probably still at work.
Mom had gotten a job after Dad died. She was raising me all by herself. Sometimes during busy times she would be gone when I got up in the morning and not get back until late at night.
I turned on the oil stove in the living room, shivering from the cold. I’d been talking with Ryotasu so long outside that my body felt like it was frozen solid.
“It’s so cold...” I lived in a condo three minutes’ walk from the Seimei Street intersection.
The red brick facade outside gave a clue to age of the building. It was 35 years old. Of course, there were no floor heaters, air conditioners, or anything like that.
I took my laptop out of the case and powered it on while I waited for the room to warm up. A laptop computer could be just as hot as your average pocket warmer, after all.
I suddenly remembered that Woodberrys place that Ryotasu had mentioned, and decided to look it up. I was primarily interested in how expensive it was.
“Hmm... a small is 320 yen. A medium is 390, and a double is 530 yen. That’s even cheaper than a suta-don. Of course, the great thing about a suta-don is the absolutely crazy portion size. The name means ‘stamina bowl,’ after all.”
If it was this cheap, I could take Ryotasu there, no problem. She really seemed to want it, after all. She was the rare 3D girl who actually hung out with me. I needed to treat her every once in a while. I wanted to make her happy. And I wanted to see her smile. If she was smiling at me, that made me happier than anything in the world.
“Wow! I’m thinking like a normie! That’s disgusting! It’s making my skin crawl! But I kind of feel like a grown-up.”
I rubbed my arm and decided to check out the comments on Kirikiri Basara. As the site admin, I wanted to be able to look at it at least 5 times a day. On school days I often didn’t get the chance, though.
“All right, did I get some more comments?” Like always, I started by checking the top comments on the most recent article.
“Sarai... hasn’t commented yet, huh? Slacker.” As I mumbled to myself, I saw a comment from an IP address that I didn’t recognize.
Check Out This Super-Sexy Genius Fortune-Teller with a 99% Accuracy Rate!!
http://live.nicovideo.jp/watch/lv13448XXXX?ref=rtrec&zroute=recent&tab=live&sort=view_counter&order=desc&tags=
“Did he say... Super-Sexy?” It had nothing to do with the article, but I was still interested. Kirikiri Basara sometimes dealt with light occult stuff like fortune-telling, right?
“No, no, wait. Wait. Don’t be fooled. How many times have you seen the words ‘super-sexy’ on the internet? She’s just an amateur. Compared to an idol or an actress, let alone a 2D character, she probably isn’t that great. The bar for ‘super-sexy’ is really high.” I had to be careful.
And there was a good chance that the link might lead to something nasty. It could just be a spam link to a porn site too
“Wait a second. Isn’t this address...”
It was an address that I recognized.
This was a link to a Niconico livestream. Every NEET knew about those. Hell, even people who weren’t NEETs knew.
“Hmm... It’s suspicious. It’s extremely suspicious. I feel like if I click on this, I’ll be admitting defeat.”
But... if she really was super-sexy, it would be a good article for Kirikiri Basara.
What to do?
“Well, whatever. I’ve got anti-virus installed. A free one, though.” I decided to give it a click.
Actually, I was really excited to discover where it led. Super-Sexy Genius Fortune-Teller, here we come!
When I clicked on the link, the familiar layout of a Niconico livestream appeared on my screen.
Let’s see... What’s the name?
“Myu’s Nicco-Nico Live Fortune-Telling. ☆” Was Myu the streamer’s name?
“Oh, looks like it’s just about to start.”
The screen had just switched to a live camera.
It was a dimly lit room, with the back wall covered in a black curtain.
A girl came into the frame from the left, and sat down in a chair in front of the camera. The screen showed her from the chest up.
She looked to be about my age, maybe? She was pretty cute. She was wearing a combination of a hoodie and a blazer. It made her look like a modern fortune-teller.
She smiled a little and waved at me— that is, at the camera.
“Sometimes I’m right, and sometimes I’m wrong! Believe, and be saved! Or maybe not?” She spoke in a high-pitched voice, like an anime character.
Her eyes narrowed on the other side of the screen. And then—
My heart skipped a beat as her voice became a hushed whisper.
“Show me your vision.”