Chapter 37

PROLOGUE Let’s Take One Giant Leap It wandered the city without a real destination in mind. One more step. Just for that single, meager step that would change itself. If it did so of its own accord, it could step over that pale, little line created by its own brain. Or perhaps—stomp directly on it. Tokyo—midnight “Huh? Hey, look at that, over there.” Night had long since fallen in the twenty-three wards of Tokyo. Even in the middle of the big city, darkness still lurked in the corners. An adult couple was making their way down a path to the park when both parties just so happened to encounter it, walking along the edge of the street. “Oh…? What is that?” “Look, it’s, um… What’s it called? You know, the one from the zombie movie or whatever.” “Oh! Oh! Oh! The Ikebukuro one!” On the otherwise empty street, they were talking about a figure wearing full-body pajamas designed in a way to look like an owl, with a special hood that could fit entirely over the head. The unknown entity inside was wearing the hood, which completely covered their face, aside from their eyes. As the two walked past the figure, assuming it was dressed up as a character from a movie, they wondered to each other, “What’s it called again? Dark something or other. It’s the bad guy, the evil zombie.” “So I guess that’s a cosplayer?” It wasn’t unprecedented for people in Ikebukuro to walk around dressed as fictional characters or to wear kigurumi pajamas fashioned after bunnies or cats. There didn’t even need to be some particular event going on; you could see them now and then on an ordinary day on Sunshine 60 Street. The couple assumed this person was someone on the way home from a party or perhaps filming some kind of attempt at a viral video. They were quickly proved wrong. The first to be shocked was the man, but the first to notice the anomaly was the woman. That was because it was the man who felt a shock in his head and fell unconscious before he could register that something was wrong. “Huh…? Wha…? Eh?” At the same moment she heard a dull thud, the woman witnessed the man topple forward. She also witnessed the pajama-clad person practically teleport behind the man as they clutched a hammer wrapped in several layers of bandages. “…” Silently, the figure in the kigurumi lifted the hammer overhead. “Wait… Stoppp!” The woman screamed and tried to run away, but she tripped over the fallen body of her boyfriend. She scrambled away, trying to stand again, and looked back at the figure of her attacker. I remember now. Her entire body felt like it was paralyzed, making the flow of time slow to a crawl. Within that headspace she recalled, with crystal clarity, exactly what those costume pajamas were based upon. That’s right. I remember. It wasn’t a movie; it was an anime or a manga of some kind. The woman worked at a hostess club in Ikebukuro. A younger hostess coworker who had recently been hired was a fan of that series. She often brought anime merchandise and manga volumes into the break room in the back. A few years ago, the series was adapted into a live-action film to moderate success, so the woman had learned the general gist of the plot as a topic of conversation with the club’s clients. She thought it would be worth knowing about because the original anime took place in a city based on Ikebukuro, where the hostess club was, and most of the locations in the movie were shot in the area. And the name was… Despite her struggle to get away, the woman’s mind was occupied with recalling this totally inconsequential piece of information as if it was the key to her escape. But while she might have been hoping that learning the name of her mysterious attacker would ease her fear, ultimately no one aside from her could have said what was in her chaotic thoughts. That’s it! I remember! I remember! “Da… D-Da…Dark Owl—brgah!” The name left her lips at the same moment the hammer came down upon her head. The next day “We have new information pertaining to the random street attack that occurred in Tokyo. “According to a statement given by a victim once she came to, the attacker was wearing a costume resembling an animated character. The police are seeking further eyewitnesses…” Ten days later “There has been another person attacked on the street in Tokyo. A man in Toshima Ward was bludgeoned by another man from behind. His injuries are serious enough to take an estimated two months to heal… “Based on what officials believe to be the weapon, corroborated by eyewitness information, police think it is possible this attack was carried out by the same perpetrator of an attack earlier this month… “Eyewitness accounts described the attacker as being dressed like a character out of a movie.” Fifteen days later “We have an update on the string of attacks in Tokyo. There has been another incident. “The attacker was seen disguised as a character from a popular anime that was turned into a movie this February… “That puts the total number of victims at seven. “Maou Publishing, the publisher of the original manga the anime is based upon, said in a statement, ‘We pray for a swift recovery for the victims of these attacks. We are outraged by these incidents and ask the police to resolve these events as soon as possible.’” “In a previous news segment, we mistakenly described Maou as being the publisher of the ‘original manga.’ To be accurate, the manga is not the original work but an adaptation. We regret any confusion our mistake might have caused.” Twenty days later “The franchise in question is Owl of the Peeping Dead, often abbreviated as OPD. It’s the multimedia product of a creative collective called Walking with Wizards, or WWW, and it’s the animation in particular that has attracted quite a following. “Joining us as an expert for this segment will be the anime columnist and writer Jackson Ushidaira.” “Thank you for having me.” “Mr. Ushidaira, this is the piece of merchandise the attacker has been seen wearing, a set of pajamas called Dark Owl. Is this kigurumi set meant to resemble the character in the story?” “Actually, it’s less that it resembles the character and more that the character wears a set of costume pajamas that look exactly like these. In fact, their face has never been revealed in the story, so to the fans, the kigurumi might as well be the character itself.” “Thank you for that explanation. The series is quite a hit, having a successful live-action film and popularity abroad. However, it must be noted that even before these attacks began, the anime, manga, and live-action versions were controversial for their violent content…” Ikebukuro West Gate Park—private room of Pasela Karaoke “It’s not OPD’s fault! OPD is innocent!” protested a narrow-eyed man, waving his arms frantically. “Yes, it’s the most violent among all the adult-oriented manga in Maou’s stable, but it’s only depicted against the zombies; plus, the whole point of the story is that it’s about a man who gets killed and turned into a zombie but retains his mind and practices strict nonviolence against the human beings who are trying to kill him! Whoever’s using a hammer to attack humans doesn’t understand the slightest bit of the spirit of the work!” The woman sitting next to him calmly opined, “Maybe they were inspired by the villain. Supposedly, the attacker was dressed as the Dark Owl.” “Damn… Well, it’s true that the Dark Owl plots to take over Ikebukuro using zombified bodies…but that’s a villain! I mean, if you’re gonna practice evil and say you’re becoming the villain, then you were already messed up from the start! You can’t blame the manga for influencing you! Anyway, my point is…OPD is awesome!” The reaction of the person sitting across from the passionate, narrow-eyed man was almost diametrically opposite. He was wearing a Raira Academy uniform, and his name was Yahiro Mizuchi. “Uh-huh.” His reaction wasn’t meant to insult the man’s enthusiasm in any way; it was pure bafflement. It meant, I don’t know how I should react to this, so I might as well murmur in understanding. Yahiro didn’t have any particular feeling toward the manga the man was preaching about, but he wasn’t going to ignore the story, either. He just listened closely. This was Yahiro’s first time meeting this eccentric man. Typically, this was the sort of scenario in which you would ignore what the man was saying, but Yahiro listened as intently as though he were in class, receiving a lecture. Why was a high schooler like him listening to this unfamiliar man’s complaints in a karaoke room? It was his job. Simple as that. It was part of the job he’d decided to undertake just minutes earlier.