Jami paid no heed to Shijima’s protestations. He bolted off and ran through the city with the speed of an athlete, carrying the weight of another full-grown man. Left behind, Shizuo and Tom could only stare at each other in bafflement. “…What the hell was that all about…?” “No idea…” Alleyway “Huff—huff…ha…ha…ha-ha-ha-ha! Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! Wow, Mr. Shijima, that was really scary and fun! Amazing! I’ve never had a thrill that good from a roller coaster or haunted mansion!” “Just put me down,” grumbled Shijima, who was still slung over Jami’s shoulder like a sack of potatoes. “Oh, sorry, Mr. Shijima, sorry. You’re really light, you know that? I bet that if Shizuo had punched me back there, I would have died in one hit. That was scary!” “…What happened? Why did you just run away like that?” “Well, I thought I was going to say something to that Shizuo guy and then just start hitting him. But then our eyes met when he turned around. And that’s when I saw it. The thing.” “What thing?” “You know, it’s like the thing that happens when you’re almost about to die… What is it again?” Jami said excitedly, his hands gesticulating wildly. “When your life flashes before your eyes?” Shijima sighed. “Yes! That!” “…Um, did you really need me to tell you what it’s called?” “Yes…? It’s why I asked… Anyway, my point is, that happened to me the moment our eyes met. I was, like, Uh-oh, I think I’m gonna die! All the hairs on my body stood on end, and the next thing I knew, I was running on the wall!” So basically, he freaked out when Shizuo looked at him? Why does he act like he enjoyed the experience so much? Shijima wondered. Jami twirled on the spot, eyes sparkling. “This city is such a fun place, Mr. Shijima! I’m so glad I came here!” “So you had a lot of fun fighting Snake Hands, but you’ll run away from Shizuo.” “They’re made of different stuff! Snake Hands had real snakelike danger, which made him worth beating, but that Shizuo guy is more like a bomb waiting to go off. You don’t fight something like that.” Recalling the mysterious and monstrous Snake Hands that he fought previously, Jami stared at his palms. “He was weird, but he was really enjoying unleashing his full deadly powers on me,” he said, an odd and violent way to describe their encounter. Jami smiled again. “So I think he’d be the better one to get into a fight with.” Storehouse, Sonohara-dou “…” Himeka noticed that Yahiro’s eyes were focused on his hands, palms up. “What is it?” she asked. “Oh, I cut my finger.” While helping clean up, he’d caught his finger on a splinter, and it was bleeding a little. “Are you all right? I have bandages if you want one.” “No, I’ll be fine. It’ll stop bleeding soon,” he said, clearly unconcerned. He pressed another finger against the wound for a few seconds. It didn’t make the cut disappear, but the bleeding more or less stopped. “See?” “…That’s amazing. You heal very fast.” “It’s because ever since I was young, I’ve gotten hurt many times…” “That’s not how that works.” Himeka would have said more, but she noticed the myriad of scars on the back of Yahiro’s hand and did not want to prod him too much on the subject. She’d already heard that the scars on Yahiro’s hands were from punching his opponents, not getting hurt himself, but either way, they certainly weren’t good memories for him, she decided. She was going to move on and keep cleaning up, but at that point, Anri spoke up from the doorway to the storehouse. “Oh, it’s all right—you can wrap up now.” The high schoolers followed her lead and walked outside. Because it was more that things had been scattered about rather than destroyed, they had more or less finished putting back all the stuff on the floor in about thirty minutes. The items hadn’t been stored in neat and organized groups in the first place, so just being able to walk through the shelves to reach the back was a significant enough improvement for Anri. “Thank you all so much. I think it’s even tidier than it was before,” said the Raira Academy alum, bowing. It didn’t feel like they’d done all that much, which made Yahiro feel uncomfortable with the show of gratitude. Next to him, Kuon asked, “So what’s up? We cleaned up the place. Anything seem missing?” “I don’t know… Many of the items were packed away in boxes…so some of these things I haven’t even seen before. I can’t be sure if anything was stolen…” “Uh-huh. Well, I’m sorry we weren’t able to help you figure that out.” “No, I’m not blaming you at all. You’ve been a huge help.” Anri peered into the storehouse, then smiled back at the three of them. “If you’d like, I’ll let you have something from here. It’s not exactly payment for a job, but I’d like you to each have one item.” “What?! No, that’s way too generous of you!” Kuon protested, while his facial expression said, Whoo-hoo, score! Yahiro and Himeka gave him a sidelong look, then shared a conflicted moment. “No, we didn’t do this for gifts…,” Yahiro started to say. But at that point, Togusa appeared at the entrance to the building and said, “Just take what she’s offering. You’re kids; you shouldn’t be acting mature beyond your years.” “Saburo? Where have you been?” Yahiro asked. “Well, it seemed like you were going to be a while, so I moved the van to a nearby parking lot. But my point is, don’t act like you’re doing charity. Just accept the reward. This way, Anri won’t have to live with the guilt of taking high school students’ valuable time, making them work for free. This way, you’re both getting something out of it.” “But…I don’t know what’s really valuable,” Yahiro said, torn. “Oh, don’t worry about that,” Anri reassured him. “Everything I’ve added since opening is cheap…and the things that were already back here were too difficult to put a price to anyway. If it’s really not meant to go, I’ll tell you right away.” “Okay… Well, in that case…” Yahiro looked to Himeka again, and they nodded in unison. The three checked every shelf in the storehouse, thinking of what they wanted to take. Yahiro looked for something that wouldn’t hurt Anri to give away for free, Himeka looked for something practical, and Kuon looked for something that could be resold for good money or was strange enough to make for a good viral blog post. Within a few minutes, each one had selected an item that they showed to Anri. Kuon picked an ancient-looking wooden puzzle box. Himeka chose a fountain pen that had been in a small paulownia box. Yahiro chose a fossil of a huge shark tooth; it was impossible to say if it was real or a replica. “I didn’t know we had all these… I suppose I really should create a registry of them all,” Anri murmured to herself. She happily agreed to let all three of the items go. “Are you sure about this? It looks expensive to me…,” said Himeka apologetically. But Anri insisted, “It’s fine. I didn’t have any plans to put them into the shop yet, and I’m sure they’ll all be happier being used or displayed. Please treasure them.” She gave a saintly smile befitting the way she talked about what inanimate objects would “be happy” about. “Miss Sonohara…” “Thank you! We’ll take good care of them!” The teens thanked her, delighted. “…” Except for one: Kuon, who intended to sell the parquet box as soon as he found out what was inside. His eyes wandered nervously. Yahiro and Himeka knew what he was thinking, but they chose not to say anything about it. They knew that confronting him about his nature wasn’t going to change the way he lived his life. At a park, Ikebukuro “So what were you doing there?” “My contact in the police informed me that there was an incident at Sonohara-dou, which I frequent, so I went to take a look. And then I saw you for the first time in six months. That is all.” Celty and Kujiragi were sitting on a bench in a park a moderate distance away so as not to encounter Akabayashi, trying to see eye to eye once more. “In all honesty, I have no idea what you’re thinking. The police are after you, aren’t they?” “Yes, I’m wanted for questioning in a serial murder case. It seems that they consider Jinnai Yodogiri to be the main suspect, while I am suspected of being an accomplice in his escape.” “And…are you?” “No. But I am fine with it, either way. I arranged it that way. And I have no obligation to explain my reasons.” Celty considered this for a moment before typing, “I see… Well, that’s good.” “What is?” Kujiragi asked. “I’m saying it’s good that the person who fell in love with Shinra, and who is fairly friendly with Karisawa and Anri, isn’t despicably evil enough to commit multiple murders.” “If you say so—I am evil. And it might turn out that the actual killer is a more benevolent person than me, just with their own particular circumstances.” “Ah…good point. And I really can’t lecture anyone else about breaking the law… I spoke based on assumptions without knowing the identity of the culprit yet. I apologize.” “Why do you say that?” Kujiragi asked, mystified. “If you’re speaking up for the culprit, then it must be someone you know, isn’t it?” Celty asked directly. “I shouldn’t have said that they were despicable without knowing their background.” “…I’m stunned. You’re even softer than I imagined.” “That’s not exactly true. I’m actually fairly furious about you abducting Shinra, and that has not lessened,” Celty said, leaning closer to Kujiragi with her screen. As usual, the other woman was completely unfazed. “…I will not apologize for that, nor do I regret it. But I also will not refuse to suffer punishment or insult for it. Speak your mind. Let me have it.” “…No, it’s too late for that. But I will answer your earlier question.” “My question?” “Shinra is doing very well. Even better than before. He says that he’s happy just being with me, and he’s full of smiles every single day,” she typed, her answer to Kujiragi’s initial question (“How is Shinra?”) dripping with sarcasm. “…I take back my comment. You are just a little bit nasty.” “More than a little. I’m taunting you—don’t you get it? You should be more chagrined at your defeat.” Celty felt a little unfulfilled, as though Kujiragi had made the faintest suggestion of a smirk. “Ugh, now I’m just like one of those horrible romance movie women who brags about her boyfriend! Oh, well… Shinra is doing fine. He’s probably doing well because you lent him Saika. It’s foolish of me to still be mad about it, so I choose not to be. But…if I can say one other thing: You’re free to get caught, but don’t cause trouble for Karisawa and Anri.” “That won’t be a problem. As I said earlier, I have pawns among the police and the media.” “Pawns…? How is that possible when Shinra’s in possession of your Saika?” Celty asked, her helmet tipping. Kujiragi glanced at a cat near the bench. “I don’t need Saika for that. I have plenty of ways to persuade people to do what I want.” “Yeah, I really do feel like you’re evil… So there are still tons more Saika-like folks out there…?” Celty typed, mostly to herself. Then something occurred to her, and she asked, “Speaking of which, during the recent street attacks, Shinra was saying something about a wicked, cursed hammer named Bannanjin. You’re not using something like that, are you?” “I’m surprised that he knew. He’s very knowledgeable.” “…What do you mean?” “I mean that I was previously in possession of that hammer. It currently rests in the storehouse of Sonohara-dou, however,” Kujiragi admitted, dropping a bombshell. Celty practically scream-typed, “What?! Why is it with Anri?!” “It was an apology after what I did to her over Saika. It wasn’t part of our usual paid dealings. I left a few of my items in her storehouse without permission.” “Without permission?!” “She would refuse if I tried to give them to her without asking for anything in return, wouldn’t she? I made them look like they’d always been there, so there’s no problem with it,” Kujiragi admitted. Once again, Celty cradled her helmet, despite the lack of any head inside of it. “There’s nothing but problems! And just after I told you not to cause trouble for her! He said that it was a hammer that possesses people and accelerates their desires! Why would you leave something so dangerous…?” But she lost steam when she noticed that Kujiragi seemed confused by this. The woman’s eyes narrowed. “That is incorrect information. To be precise, Bannanjin is not a cursed hammer with a mind of its own, like Saika. It’s just a normal hammer crafted by a blacksmith from the late Edo period, who modeled it after a work hammer created by the Western artist and blacksmith Karnard Strasburg.” “Huh?” “But it matches the original piece by Karnard Strasburg so closely that it possesses the same quality…which is that the perfection of the grip, the stimulation of the grooves, the visual pattern of the hammer itself—all these things have a hypnotic effect on the wielder. Those who noticed this must have started the rumor that it was a cursed hammer that possesses minds. Someone with a dull mind will receive no effect at all.” She reached down to pet the cat, which had wandered over to her feet. “But if someone who’s sensitive by nature but also petty and mean finds it, the effect will be amplified. It will be an especially large difference from their ordinary demeanor, which makes the ‘possessed’ explanation a bit more convincing…” Rental office, Saitama Prefecture Yukihiko Natsugawara was not blessed with anything you would call a talent. Talent is not everything in life, and if he searched hard enough, he might have discovered something he had an aptitude for. But at the very least, he hadn’t found what that was yet. Being raised as the son of a very wealthy family, he had the circumstances on his side to produce above-average results in both scholastic and athletic pursuits—if he just took advantage of his ample resources with hard work. That said, he’d found wealth to be a very comfortable and secure thing, falling under the mistaken assumption that he, too, would be fabulously successful without any effort required. Everything started to go wrong when his parents took in the foster son. His foster brother, who had all the same resources on his side but with a strong ambition to succeed, soon proved himself to be superior to Yukihiko in every facet. Yukihiko scorned his new brother and tried to throw his weight around, but the boy even had more talent for fighting. The eldest son was now truly a loser in every regard, and rather than attempting to get back through diligent hard work, he threw in his lot with the option of raising hell instead. He started visiting hangouts of delinquent youth and assumed he was making a name for himself there—but by the time he realized that they were only approaching him because they knew that being the son of the Natsugawara Group meant he had tons of money, it was already too late for him to extract himself from their grip. Now that he had run away from home, he immediately found himself in trouble with the delinquent group and was therefore desperately trying to escape them completely on his own. “Well, well. The rich little Natsugawara boy came crawlin’ back on his own,” said a voice in a run-down old building. The voice belonged to a young man still in his early twenties. Even an amateur would be able to tell at a glance that he was not a good person to associate with. Meanwhile, the person he was talking to was a young man with a cynical look in his eyes but who nonetheless couldn’t shake the general air of being a comfortable rich boy. In the classic delinquent relationship, he was going to be the guy getting shaken down for pocket money. “The truth is, I’m just tired of running around.” “You’re wasting our time. So? Where is it? We gotta get in touch with them once we see it, so whip it out.” “…I’ve got it stored somewhere. I’ll go back and get it later.” “What? You useless piece of shit! Bring it the first time! Or what? Do you still think you can strike some kinda deal with us?” the man demanded. But the bourgeois boy, Yukihiko Natsugawara, simply grinned and took a step closer. “No, that’s not it at all. I just have something to do first.” “Huh? What’s that?” “Well, it’s very important, but I don’t want anyone else to hear. Can I whisper into your ear?” “?” The man was suspicious, but he leaned his head closer. And in response, Yukihiko Natsugawara grabbed a strangely patterned hammer stuck into his belt and smashed it against the man’s temple. “Gah!” The air shot from the young man’s lungs, and he fell to the floor, convulsing. The other men in the room were stunned for a moment, then roared all at once. “H-hey! What the fuck are you doing?!” “Are you insane?!” But Yukihiko roared back, gripping the hammer, in a voice that drowned out theirs: “You sons of bitches! How much money did he pay you?!” he demanded, jabbing the tip of the hammer toward the man on the ground. “Are you happy, working like slaves for chump change?! You shouldn’t be!” The men stirred and rustled uneasily. “I’m Yukihiko Natsugawara! The son of the powerful Natsugawara Group! I’ve got far more money, and nothing he offers will come anywhere close to what I could give you!” Then he pulled a wad of bills out of his pocket and scattered it through the air. Several million yen filled their surroundings, and Yukihiko carefully watched the reaction of the other men. The thugs were briefly taken aback, but after a quick look at the convulsing man who had been their leader until moments ago, they started collecting the money. As of that very moment, their situation had reversed itself. The young man who’d been nothing but an ignorant source of money had become the one in control, manipulating others with that same money. It was a transformation as whole as a cocoon revealing a butterfly. The man held up the hammer and shouted again. But this time, it felt less like a message to them and more like he was trying to convince himself of what he was. “From now on, I’m the boss of Heaven’s Slave! If you got a problem with that, money will clear that up!”
Chapter 53
17 min read