On the day of Totsuka’s adoptive father’s funeral, Suou and Kusanagi came.
Kusanagi was dressed properly, but Suou came towards the end of the ceremony wearing his usual outfit.
“You know, I’ve been called ‘cold-hearted’ by that man before.” After the simple ceremony ended and so did the cleanup, Totsuka was talking to Suou. Totsuka was smiling, as usual.
“At the time I was like ‘what’, but I might be cold-hearted after all.” Suou didn’t say anything, and just stood there with an expression that made it hard to tell whether he was listening or not.
“That man, well, honestly he was pretty hopeless, his wife ran away, and he was super poor, but he only did what he liked and didn’t have a bad life… I might really be heartless if that’s the kind of thing I think about rather than being sad.”
Totsuka had liked his father. He hadn’t felt any filial love, but he had liked the man as a pleasant person to live with. But even after he died, no tears would come out. Suddenly, Suou’s hand grabbed Totsuka’s head.
“Ow!” He was released right away. Totsuka held his head, with its hair now messed up from the rough handling, and stared.
“Come on.” Said Suou as he turned around and started walking away.
That night, Totsuka spent his time as usual in the bar HOMRA. After closing, when he tried to get behind the counter and help with the cleanup, Kusanagi tried to be thoughtful of him since he had just lost a relative and told him he could rest. But Totsuka somehow couldn’t bear that kind of consideration, and said “I’m bored” jokingly while helping out anyway.
For a while, the only sounds filling the dark bar were that of glasses being washed and silverware being stacked. Suou had already gone upstairs to sleep. While wiping off the dishes with a cloth, Totsuka listened to the upstairs. There wasn’t a single noise. “I wonder what kind of dream King is having” Totsuka thought quietly to himself.
“I wonder if King regrets it” Totsuka sighed with a vague smile. Kusanagi stopped what he was doing looked in Totsuka’s direction questioningly.
“Regrets what?”
“Becoming a king.” Totsuka had a faint smile on his face, but these were feelings that he had had secretly kept deep within his chest for a long time. Kusanagi frowned in a troubled way.
“…well, he was forcibly chosen by the “Slate”, so it ain’t like he had any choice in the matter.”
Totsuka was about to nod and say I suppose, but before he could, Kusanagi spoke again.
“What about you? Have you got some regrets?” Totsuka’s eyes widened a little as he looked at Kusanagi. Kusanagi was smiling wryly in a way that was even more mature than usual.
“That you called that guy somethin’ like ‘King’. That that guy wished to become a king.”
Totsuka wasn’t able to reply right away. Totsuka, who normally never became speechless, ended up clamming up for a few seconds, then finally smiled limply.
“…Well, you see, Kusanagi-san. I don’t regret it.” He again recalled the voice of his father when the man had called him cold-hearted.
…Even if I find something so important to me that I want to cling to it, in the end, I’m still cold-hearted and selfish.
“Ain’t that just fine, though?” Said Kusanagi with a small smile.
“Anyway, it ain’t like me and you made that guy into a king. We shouldn’t be so full of ourselves.” Kusanagi said it so jokingly, Totsuka also brightly replied mockingly.
“But, you know, they say there’s power in words, don’t they? Maybe the “Slate” noticed that person because I wouldn’t stop calling him a king.”
“You’re a moron, aren’t you.”
“…yeah, I’m a moron.” Said Totsuka while still smiling.
Totsuka was impolitely sitting on the couch with his feet up on it and his arms around his knees as he silently listened to Kusanagi and Suou’s argument.
Kusanagi’s hand was grabbing Suou’s collar, and he was shoving him up against the wall like he was trying to throw him against it. Suou didn’t resist, and allowed himself to be forced between Kusanagi and the wall.
“You…!” Throwing away his usual atmosphere and widening his often drooping eyes, Kusanagi glared at Suou, and spat out his words like vomiting blood. But, immediately, he shut up and clenched his teeth.
At that moment, Suou was covered in wounds. He’d received first aid, but many of them weren’t closed, and blood leaked out to stain the bandages red. But Suou’s eyes, as if in contrast to his body’s condition, were energetically- perhaps even dangerously, one might think- full of life. Like his soul alone was trying to run on ahead, leaving behind his physical body.
Totsuka didn’t try to stop Kusanagi from grabbing Suou, who was in bad shape. Totsuka also understood Kusanagi’s feelings, so much it was painful.
“Do you wanna die, Mikoto?” At Kusanagi’s expression, one he never usually wore which was a fierce look only a paper’s breadth away from looking like he was about to cry, Suou smiled in a wry, troubled way.
That scene was opposite from how things normally were.
Normally, Suou would always push annoying things off on and act so whimsically towards his elder, Kusanagi, it was almost like he was being spoiled in a way. Right then, it was Kusanagi who wasn’t able to control himself, and Suou was the one who was looking like he was watching over Kusanagi from some distant place. That also fanned Kusanagi’s worrying.
“Not really, I don’t intend to die.” Looking at Suou’s face as he said that, Kusanagi grimaced and let go of Suou’s collar.
“Kusanagi.” Suou called, but Kusanagi didn’t reply, and only irritably turned away. Still smiling bitterly, like his throat was tight (Kusanagi probably thought that even the fact that he was making such a face felt ominous), and after looking at Kusanagi’s face, he lightly layed his hand on the guy’s shoulder and left the bar.
Between Kusanagi and Totsuka, who were left alone in the empty bar, an awkward silence fell. While Kusanagi and Suou had been arguing, Totsuka had just sat there silently without opening his mouth or even looking over there. Even after Suou exited, Totsuka didn’t move and wondered what he should do for a little bit. In the end, while still not looking at Kusanagi, he asked directly.
“…should I leave you alone?”
“No.” Kusanagi also didn’t look in Totsuka’s direction, but he shook his head.
“Be there.”
“Okay.”
Totsuka nodded and closed his mouth again. Silently looking in different directions, they simply shared the same space.
Shizume City’s security was getting worse every time one looked at it. Disputes became an everyday deal, and Suou fought as the head of the team that had sprung up. What they were afraid of was how Suou was getting absorbed in those disputes. That he wouldn’t mind even if he were to lose his life during those disputes- not only that, but that they felt he was giving off a feeling as though he were charmed by the idea of burning up his life.
“You won’t say it today, huh.” Sighed Kusanagi. Totsuka raised his head and looked in Kusanagi’s direction.
“That ‘it’ll all work out somehow’.”
“…I felt like you’d get angry at me if I said it this time.” When Totsuka said that, Kusanagi smiled wryly. Totsuka opened his mouth after reading that tired expression.
“…hey, Kusanagi-san. Do you know the legend of the red king?” Kusanagi frowned questioningly.
“Come to think of it, before you said Mikoto was “a person who’d become a king” or somethin’, right… don’t tell me you were talkin’ about the red king.”
“It’s not like that. At that time I was more… I just vaguely thought ‘this guy might become someone amazing’. I thought that I wanted to see what this person sees from close by.” Thinking about it, he realized he had been a really nonsensical child. Suou, who had been followed around for such a ridiculous hunch, must have really been troubled.
But now, Suou was literally being called “King”. And somewhere inside his heart, Totsuka believed there was “something above that”.
“…it’s that story about a king with inhuman powers, right. The symbol of power, the personification of flames. That in the past, there existed a man like that, and he became king of those who lived with violence and became a deterrent in the underworld.”
“That’s it. That person was called the red king. His powers were… it wouldn’t be outrageous to say they could give birth to that crater.”
Kusanagi gave an exasperated sigh.
“That’s just a legend, ain’t it. I mean, that crater’s truth is still wrapped in mystery, and people say all kinda things about it, but still. Even in all that, the myth about the red king is still going way over the top.”
“King told me that too. He got all exasperated and asked if I was a kid.”
“You said it to Mikoto too…” Totsuka was given a look that said ‘for goodness’s sake’, but he was serious.
Stupid, a myth like a fairy tale. That may be the case.
“But, if it were really possible for there to be something like a ‘red king’… I don’t think there’s anyone as fitting for it as that person.” When Totsuka said that with eyes that looked straight off into the distance, Kusanagi put on a troubled expression.
It was right after this that Suou was chosen by the “Slate”.
[...] Suddenly, like a jellyfish’s corpse dissolving into the ocean, he felt as though his own world was melting away.
…King?
…Mikoto?
He heard Totsuka and Kusanagi calling him quizzically like they were far away. This isn’t the time to not be paying attention. Right then, Suou and the other two had been chased into a dead end. If they were to let their minds wander, likely the only thing waiting for them was death.
[...]
Slowly, Suou’s power converged. Leaving the red light leaking from his body as it was, Suou slowly turned around. Surrounding him, the asphalt had deep crevices, and the buildings around him were cooked and burnt, with smoldering flames. Within that, Totsuka and Kusanagi were standing in a daze. From what he could see, neither of them were particularly injured.
Suou let a desperate smile float up to his face.
“…Starting now, I’m going to say something that’s kinda stupid, ‘kay?”
When he carelessly threw those words out with a wry smile, Kusanagi, still looking taken aback, managed to smile with just his lips.
“Nah…. this situation’s already pretty stupid, so…” Kusanagi pointed up at the sky above them.
“You’ve gotta sword above your head.”
Suou laughed under his breath at Kusanagi’s still hesitant but droll way of saying it.
“Is this… the red king…?” Of course, Kusanagi would also know the local legend of the red king. Suou had also heard it from Totsuka. He didn’t know how seriously Totsuka had taken that myth. But, if such a thing really exists maybe you could become it, Totsuka had said in a way that may or may not have been joking.
Suou thought for a little while about where to start explaining from the information he had received from the “Slate”, but in the end that got to be a pain and he stopped. Suou closed his eyes, made both of his hands into fists, and held them up.
He focused his will into both of those fists. Like how he had tied his soul to the “Slate” and received power, Suou birthed the flames tied to the magma-like power within him in both hands. Slowly, he opened those fists. The flame born in his palms wrapped around his entire hands. Kusanagi and Totsuka watched the scene with held breath. Suou lightly held those hands wrapped in flames out towards the two of them.
Putting on a cynical smile, without explaining anything, he said,
“What’ll you do? Wanna try taking my hand?”
In this situation where nothing made sense, the two of them didn’t hesitate. They were hardly indecisive.
The right hand and the left hand that held Suou’s flames. Kusanagi took the right hand, and Totsuka took the left. Kusanagi gained a large power, and while Totsuka took flames into his body he hardly received any power at all. To Suou, Kusanagi would be a sword with reason, and Totsuka would become a chain to hold back Suou who would often be drawn in by his power. It isn’t sure whether that was simply because of the difference in their dispositions, or because Suou’s will and unconsciousness had something to do with it.
“Ahahah! King! Was seriously! Scolded! By a lady teacher!”
Suou grabbed Totsuka’s head with his bare hands while Tostuka was rolling around laughing until he was out of breath.
“Ah, ow! That hurts, king!” Kusanagi sighed deeply as he looked at Totsuka, who was writhing in pain while being pulled up by his head.
“Oh, stop that, Mikoto. He’s already missin’ a bunch of screws in that head of his, we don’t want even more to be fallin’ out.” Suou clicked his tongue and let go of Totsuka’s head. As Totsuka wiped away the tears that could have either been from laughing to hard or from pain, he incorrigibly smiled away.
“And anyway, Totsuka, don’t come into a bar when you’re just a middle schooler.”
“What about you, Kusanagi-san? Is it okay for you to be working in a bar even though you’re underage?” In reponse to Kusanagi’s candid words, Totsuka twisted his mouth and talked back.
The bar “HOMRA” was owned by Kusanagi’s uncle but he was an irresponsible person and only opened shop on a whim, living a dissipated life. Kusanagi, who couldn’t bear to just watch, started kind of helping out in the store, and all of a sudden at the age of eighteen he was something like halfway in charge of the store.
“Eighteen is mostly an adult, even if it’s still underage.”
“Ehh…” While Totsuka was leaking out a half joking, half displeased voice, Suou was sulkily leaning his elbow on the counter.
“So, why’d King get in trouble? A fight?”
“Shut it.”
“Yep, yep. Well, it seems like the other guys attacked first, though. Mikoto won’t pay attention to the hot blooded kinda teacher who scolds people without hearin’ their side of the story or tries to force niceness on ‘em, but he’s weak to that kinda fluffy type. Not that you’d think it.” At Kusanagi’s words, Totsuka’s eyes shone with curiosity. Suou clicked his tongue in an extremely bitter way.
“She’s a fluffy type?”
“She’s an airhead, that one. And on top of that, she’s a new teacher, and she’s young and pretty.”
“Ooh!” Right when Totsuka raised his voice cheerfully, the bar’s doorbell rang. Kusanagi looked up and was about to say ‘welcome’, but paused for a moment.
Speak of the devil, they say.
Kusanagi got ahold of himself right away, and smiled professionally as he greeted the customer.
“Honami-sensei, welcome to the cafe ‘HOMRA’.”
“Good afternoon.”
It was Suou’s teacher Kushina Honami, who had just been talked about. She had a soft smile on her face. She was a person who had the kind of warm, kind atmosphere that made you think she might smell like the sun.
“When did this shop become a cafe?” Totsuka whispered into Kusanagi’s ear.
“It wouldn’t be good for a minor to say they’re workin’ in a bar in front of their teacher.”
“…um, there’s a ton of alcohol lined up behind the counter.”
“It’s fine, sensei’s an airhead.” While Totsuka and Kusanagi were whispering back and forth, Honami entered the store and sat herself down next to Suou. Suou looked at her unhappily.
“What do you want?”
“I was passing by, so I thought I’d try stopping in. Since a little bird told me Kusanagi-kun was working here.”
“That so.” Suou gave a frustrated sigh and looked away.
“Honami-sensei, what’ll you have? For tea, we’ve got assam and earl grey.” Honami smiled and put a hand to her chin like she was thinking.
“Hmm, since I’m already off work for today, I suppose I’ll have a beer.”
“…Kusanagi-san, she’s on to you. She totally knows this is a bar.”
“Yeah… well, I guess that’s obvious.” After whispering with Totsuka, Kusanagi said “understood” and smiled to change the subject.
He poured beer into a chilled glass. White bubbles raised a ticklish noise while rising.
“Kusanagi-kun, how is work here?”
“Well, the master’s a relative of mine, so we do things loosely.” Kusanagi smiled and said that as he put the glass of beer raising pretty bubbles in front of Honami. Totsuka looking at Kusanagi and tilted his head.
“Kusanagi-san, are you going to inherit this bar or something?”
“I wonder… well, with that master’s uselessness, if I don’t take over this place’ll probably close down…”
Kusanagi looked thoughtful, before suddenly looking down at Totsuka.
“Come to think of it, Totsuka, I guess next year you’ll be takin’ high school exames, huh.”
“Nuh-uh. We don’t have any money, I’m not going to highschool.”
“…I see. Well, you’re talented, so you can do anythin’. Wanna just work here?”
“Can I?”
“If we get an open position… but, even if you don’t go to highschool, there’s nothin’ wrong with studying, so if you wanna I can teach you.”
“Eh, really?” Honami, who had been watching Kusanagi and Totsuka’s conversation, drank elegantly (though surprisingly quickly) while smiling and saying that she’d help too if they’d have her. As she was, Honami moved her gaze to Suou.
“What about Suou-kun?” At Honami’s softly voiced question, Suou raised one eyebrow and looked at her. “Do you have something you want to be in the future?” Twisting his face in a frustrated way, Suou leaned back in his chair.
“No.”
“Really? Even though you seem like you’d be able to become anything if you wanted to.” Honami said with a smile. When Suou looked annoyed and turned away, he ended up facing Totsuka who was in the opposite direction. Totsuka grinned.
“Right!”
Totsuka leaned up on the counter and talked to Honami with Suou between them.
“Right. Even though he seems like he could be anything, it’s such a waste.”
“It’s okay.” Totsuka said this with his characteristic cheerfulness and irresponsibility.
“I’m sure this person’s going to become even a king.”
“Oh, my.”
As though infected by Totsuka’s smile, Honami also laughed.
“A king, isn’t that nice.”
“Yeah!”
Being assaulted by smiles on both sides, Suou breathed a deep sigh. Kusanagi sent a sympathetic look at Suou, who was looking fed-up stuck between a cheery Honami and Totsuka.
Totsuka frowned at Kusanagi’s difficult expression as he hung up the phone.
“Kusanagi-san?”
“…Totsuka, don’t go wanderin’ around in deserted places by yourself for a while.” At Kusanagi’s words, Totsuka’s expression clouded.
“Did something happen again?”
“Some of the lower guys got attacked and were carried to the hospital. I’ll go check on ‘em later. Will you come too?”
“Yeah.” Totsuka nodded and looked out the window.
It was raining outside. The sound of raindrops hitting the window resonated in the silent store. Perhaps due to this weather, there weren’t many people walking down the street outside.
“…recently, the security’s been bad, hasn’t it.”
“Yeah.”
“There’s been more and more people who come to rely on Kusanagi-san, hasn’t there.”
“I wonder why they keep comin’ to me. Even though I can’t do anythin’.”
“Even though you say that, Kusanagi-san, you help them without throwing them out, don’t you. You’ve got information, and you’ve got a bunch of acquaintances, and-“
“-And I have Mikoto, yeah.”
As if to take Totsuka’s last words, Kusanagi smiled wryly. Now, Totsuka had become not the only one who called Suou “King”. There were people who, without a hint of teasing, innocently, single-mindedly called Suou King. To the delinquent boys living outside society on the streets, Shizume city, which was dangerous recently, was in a situation where they would constantly be beside danger.
They sought out someone who would protect them. And what reflected in their eyes was Suou, a man who had charisma known as strength. Now, regardless of Suou’s will, halfway naturally a team was being formed around him. “King, huh…” Totsuka said to himself as he leaned on his elbow and watched the rain outside.
A person who could even become a king. The one who said that was Totsuka. He had seriously thought that when he said it, and he had followed the guy around even though it was obviously a pain to him. It wasn’t that he thought think this current situation was his fault. He wasn’t that self-absorbed. But, even then, sometimes when he looked up at Suou who had been raised up into the seat of a king regardless of his own will, Totsuka felt an itch in his heart similar to guilt.
Suddenly, Kusanagi’s hand lightly hit Totsuka on the head. When he turned to see, Kusanagi was smiling wryly, as if troubled.
“Don’t feel down. If you’re feelin’ down, somehow even I feel bad.”
“Sorry.”
Even though they didn’t recall calling themselves that, the team that had formed with Suou at its center had come to be known as Team Homura from the bar’s name, “HOMRA”. After the death of the bar’s previous owner, Kusanagi’s uncle, it had been left to Kusanagi, but now, more than a normal bar it had stronger meaning as the gathering place for Homura.
Homura was in a state where it was barely able to hold on to its form as a team using Suou, its king who had powerful centripetal force, Kusanagi’s strategies, and Totsuka who was the grease who kept the broken up members together.
“At the moment, we should be extra-easy to aim for. Be careful.”
“Okay… what about King?”
When asked, Kusanagi made a face like he had bitten down on a lemon.
“I’ll try and warn him, but… I don’t think he’ll listen.” Totsuka laughed a little at Kusanagi, who mourned this in an over-the-top manner. Kusanagi put his finger on the tip of that smiling face’s nose.
“Totsuka. Smile irresponsibly. That’ll put me most at peace.”
Totsuka, doing as he was told, put on his usual smile, and said his usual phrase.
“It’s fine, it’s fine. It’ll all work out somehow.”
Anna was watching Suou silently from the shade of the counter.
With her small hands and feet folded and sitting while hugging her knees, the lower half of her body was hidden behind the counter as she softly peeked in Suou’s direction. It appeared as though Suou was using all of his power to ignore the little observer.
“Hey…” Suou’s deep voice filled the air. Kusanagi, who was cooking behind the counter, feigned an innocent smile.
“Yeah?”
“What’s up with that?”
“What do you think, she’s interested in you. Aren’t you popular. Isn’t it nice, bein’ watched by a cute girl.” When he said that cacklingly, Suou glared bullets at him.
Normally, Suou doesn’t care about other people. He was of course used to being payed attention to, having people try to gauge his expression, and having his every move scrutinized. He’d accepted it as a matter of course. But, when it came down to it, being stared at by a little girl with only half her face peeking out made it incredibly difficult for him to relax. Anna looked away in a manner that seemed very intentional, Suou moved his legs around irritably while leaning on his elbow, and Anna continued watching him as though it were deeply interesting.
Kusanagi’s expression softened. It wasn’t a terribly funny situation, but…
“Hahah, this is great. Been a while since I’ve seen you act so straightforwardly annoyed.”
“Shut up.”
Recently, Suou had been seeming to wear away at his emotions in order to keep the balance between his power and his mind. To Kusanagi, seeing that Suou make such an immature face because of a child was delightful.
Before anyone realized, Anna, who had been hiding half of her body in the shadow of the counter, had moved forward a little. She was still balling her small body up as usual, but she was a bit closer in Suou’s direction, and now she was watching Suou from behind a chair. Suou’s face screwed up.
“Hey, what happened to Totsuka and the others? Make them take care of her.”
“Ah, Totsuka’s off with Yata-chan to clean up some outside business.” From that alone, Suou seemed to understand. ‘Hmph’.
Then, a red marble fell from Anna’s pocket. Anna started, watched the marble with her eyes, and stood up. The marble rolled along to Suou’s feet. He leaned down slightly and picked it up.
He had heard from Totsuka that Anna may have clairvoyant abilities. Kusanagi and of course Suou had figured that the red marbles were likely the medium for the girl’s powers. Suou, in a way that implied it wouldn’t be exaggerating to say he was interested, looked into the marble.
Through the red glass, Suou looked at Anna. When he felt that their eyes had met through the marble, Kusanagi’s whole body shivered.
…They connected.
Without understanding why, Kusanagi felt that. Through the red marble, two different people named Kushina Anna and Suou Mikoto were set to the same channel and /connected/.
Suddenly, Anna’s body shuddered and twisted. Her small body then fell.
Before she hit the floor, Suou, who had kicked his chair aside and stood up, grabbed her in his arm.
“What!?” Kusanagi hurried out from behind the counter. While being held up by Suou, Anna twitched a little several times as though she were having convulsions, and then she went limp.
“I guess… we’ll need to call an ambulance, right…?”
“Yeah.” Kusanagi slowly let the strength escape from his tensed up body. He felt a cold sweat on his back.
“…what was that just now?”
All Suou had done was look at Anna through the marble he picked up. But at that moment, Kusanagi had felt that the two of them “connected”.
Suou clicked his tongue.
“That was careless.”
Kusanagi frowned, and looked between Suou and Anna’s white face.
“What happened just now?”
“Probably, this one’s /too sensitive/.” Suou gestured at Anna, and then looked at Kusanagi to question what he was going to do. Kusanagi wordlessly replied by indicating the ceiling. Suou obediently carried Anna up to the second floor, and put her on the bed he usually used.
It was hard to tell whether Anna, having lost consciousness, was even breathing or not without looking closely, and one would be concerned about whether she was really alive. Kusanagi properly covered Anna’s body with a blanket before turning to Suou. At the same time, Suou threw the red marble he had had clenched in his fist at Kusanagi. Barely catching it, Kusanagi held the marble up to the light. Looking through the red glass, the world was stained red. He remembered Honami saying that Anna was only able to sense the color red. Perhaps Anna looked at the world through this marble.
“This is…”
“That’s just a normal glass ball.” Suou threw this statement out and sat down on the sofa.
“But, to that brat, it’s probably a key for the sake of connecting to the world.”
“A key, huh… then, that was…” Suou pulled some cigarettes out of his pocket and put one in his mouth. He then spoke around the cigarette in a slightly muffled voice.
“She probably accidentally connected with me.”
Totsuka said that perhaps Anna had the power to “see” and “feel” something. If that power were to extend to a human’s inside and memories, then…
There was no way a seven year old girl would be able to look at Suou’s insides and be fine. Kusanagi sighed deeply, and also pulled out a cigarette.
“What should we do…”
Thinking of what would happen to the little princess their former teacher had entrusted them with, Kusanagi let out another sigh along with smoke.
The institution Anna was hospitalized in. Up front, it was just a medical research center. There was a hospital attached to it, and it was a general hospital that many civillians went in and out of.
But in truth, its real main goal was to treat those who had been harmed by incidents involving supernatural powers, and the research part of it focused on the research and education of Strains. It was a place like a combination of the golden king’s public and underground sides.
“It’s really fishy, how they’re secretly grabbing Strains from the shadows.”
Totsuka smiled wryly at Yata, who was already raring to invade enemy territory.
“Well, even if you say it like that, most Strains don’t know why they’ve got their powers. In order to keep civillians from finding out about powers and panicking, and to educate Strains and hide them from society, that kind of thing is needed… or so they say.” He’d been told that by Kusanagi. However, Totsuka was also not able to shake off his suspicions towards this “Center”.
“Anna-chan’s sleepin’ up there, so don’t be wakin’ her up!” Kusanagi said to Yata who was heading upstairs. Then, Kusanagi sighed and left the counter.
“Totsuka, Fushimi, sit down. I’ll give you first aid.” Getting out a kit, Kusanagi had Totsuka and Fushimi sit in chairs.
“Um… I’m sorry.” Kamamoto, who had come over with diffidence, suddenly bowed his head. Totsuka stared.
“Eh? For what?”
Kamamoto looked down ashamedly while mumbling towards his feet, “Even though I was with you, I let you get hurt…”
Totsuka still didn’t get what he meant for several seconds, then finally understood, and made a really pathetic face while smiling wryly.
“No no no no… let’s not do this… at this point, it’s totally my fault since I can’t protect myself.”
“But…”
Unable to bear the situation, Totsuka looked exhausted. Even though he’s part of “Homura”, he “cannot fight”. Generally, Totsuka wasn’t the type to sweat the details, and usually he didn’t feel any sort of complex about it, but at times like this it was a bit bad for his heart.
“S’fine, s’fine. This guy’s weak, but he’s surprisin’ly tough, so don’t worry about it.” Kusanagi rescued the two of them. Totsuka nodded in agreement. Right when Fushimi was looking at Kamamoto and Totsuka coldly, suddenly a voice that was a bit too deep to pierce the air came from upstairs.
“Kyaaaaaah!”
It was a male voice. More like, to say it directly, it was Yata’s voice. A boy’s voice that had long since gone through puberty shrieked “kyaaaaa” like a little girl.
Totsuka, to begin with, exchanged looks with Kamamoto who he was already facing. The only thing in their eyes was a pair of ?s.
After that, Totsuka looked at Fushimi who was sitting next to him. Fushimi was frowning in an unbearably questioning way, and looking up at the second floor.
“What was that…?”
Kusanagi stopped as he was about to open the first aid kit and, after all, exchanged questioning looks with Suou. No one there felt like they needed to rush in, but it bothered them too much to leave it alone, so first Fushimi got up looking annoyed. Totsuka, Kamamoto, Kusanagi, and Suou followed. They went up the stairs and to the shower room.
What the five of them first saw was the back of a girl standing at the door to the changing room. Then, looking further, there was a completely naked Yata who was blushing and standing surrounded by steam. Apparently, like a crow taking a quick wash, he had hurriedly taken a shower and came back out. He was soaked and perhaps because his hair was sticking to his scalp, he looked like a dog who appeared to have shrunk due to being drenched in rain.
The group understood the situation.
“Wha… what!? What is going on!?” In a voice and speech patterns that were flipped over, Yata talked to Anna. Looking at Yata’s naked body with such a perfectly emotionless and unmoved expression that one might feel sorry for the guy, she said, “I came to wash my hands.”
She had probably gone to the restroom or something. And then when she opened the door to the washroom, she had bumped into Yata.
“Wha… eehh!?”
But Yata still appeared to be confused, and didn’t even think to hide the important bits, and just kind of waved his hands around uselessly like he was doing some sort of weird dance.
“…stop making it obvious that you’re a huge virgin.”
As though to say he had just seen the most worthless thing in existence, Fushimi said this with a fed-up expression. “Bu, but, a girl suddenly came in…!”
“This isn’t a girl. It’s just a brat.”
“It, it’s bad for her upbringing!”
“Then hurry up and put away that thing that’s bad for her upbringing.”
While Yata and Fushimi were talking, Totsuka used his unharmed hand to turn Anna around so her back faced Yata.
“Hah, I figured it was somethin’ stupid, but that was even more stupid than I could’ve imagined.” Kusanagi sighed and left while rolling his shoulders. Suou said nothing, and acted as though the whole stupid thing hadn’t even entered his eyes.
“Yata-san…”
Kamamoto alone looked at Yata sympathetically and gently offered him a bath towel.
+++++++++++
While Yata was getting Kamamoto to treat his injuries while he was already undressed and Fushimi was showering, Totsuka was getting his shoulder treated in the closed bar.
It seemed like his shoulder had some internal bleeding, so the area around it was swollen and feverish. Totsuka spoke with Anna while he was cooling his shoulder with a bag full of ice water. He had already reported what happened in the Center to Kusanagi over the phone, and he had no intention of talking about it in front of Anna.
“What were you doing during the day?”
“…sleeping.”
“A nap, huh-. That’s nice. Did you sleep well?”
“I saw a dream about Mikoto.”
“Eh, what’s with that. Since when did you two get so close!? And you’re calling him Mikoto!?”
“…Tatara.”
“Ugh, oh no. My heart fluttered just now. Even though Anna’s age is really outside my range.”
“Hey, don’t say that even as a joke in front of Honami-sensei. We’d be in trouble if she felt like Anna was in danger.”
“Well, sensei’s a bit too unassuming, so it’d be good for her to feel a bit more suspicious in a lot of ways, I think…”
To Totsuka’s questions, Anna replied without showing any stiffness like she had when they first met, and while she didn’t laugh at his and Kusanagi’s jokes, she seemed to be trusting of them.
He thought this wasn’t bad.
Totsuka had heard that something had happened between Suou and Anna during the day from Kusanagi, but it seemed like that had actually gone well, so the walls she had built up between her and Suou, then the rest of the Homura members, were lowered quite a bit.
And also…
Totsuka glanced secretively at Suou.
Recently, he had been acting gloomy, but today he seemed to be feeling much better. Surely there was something between him and Anna that only they could share. Totsuka privately hoped that that would heal the both of them even slightly. Kusanagi taped up Totsuka’s shoulder, which was cooled off now thanks to the ice.
“Here, for now this’ll do. But you’ll be needin’ to go to the hospital.”
“Thanks. Nah, it’ll be fine. It’ll heal if I just leave it like this.”
“You… it’s not my fault if it goes weird.”
After the treatment was over, when Totsuka was about to put his shirt on, Anna suddenly looked at his back. [...]
“I feel bad, after all.” Honami looked around the room in an unsure way.
“It’s fine, it’s fine. More importantly, I’m sorry it’s such a foul room.”
“Oh, no, it’s a simple and splendid room… but this is the room Suou-kun uses, isn’t it?”
“Don’t worry about it. There’re other open rooms, so this guy can just sleep there. Like the closet, for example.” Kusanagi said with a smile to Honami, who was tilting her head in an unsure way at the entrance to the room. Suou was smoking while leaning against the wall of the hallway, without complaining.
Honami, looking at the bed which was covered in fresh new sheets, turned around in Suou’s direction.
“Suou-kun, do you want to sleep here, too?” Honami asked that in a completely serious way.
Suou looked at he like he just swallowed a lemon.
“Are you an idiot? I’ll attack you.”
Saying it roughly, Suou went into the room that was turned into a closet across the hall. Kusanagi smiled wryly at Honami, who had her eyes wide.
“Please don’t tease the young guys~”
“Oh, come on, of course I wouldn’t do something like that.” Honami said with a smile. It wasn’t like she was playing innocent, it was just from her trust and the easiness that came from Anna being there as well. Either way, it was just a pain for Suou, though.
Ever since Honami had gotten off work and come to the bar, Anna was stuck right to her. Even now, they were holding hands, and Anna was halfway hidden behind Honami. While Anna appeared to have let her guard down towards the Homura guys a bit, it seemed as though she was able to relax most around Honami after all. Like this, she appeared to be a child fawning on her parent.
“Anyway, I’ll be leavin’ Totsuka here tonight, too, so if you need somethin’ or there’s a problem, go right ahead and ask him. Since Mikoto won’t pay attention to somethin’ like that.” When he said that clownishly, Honami smiled softly. Kusanagi was a bit unsettled by how that smile was not just kindly, but somehow kind of delicate.
“Really, thank you for everything. Even though I’m the teacher here, I’m just being helped by you guys.”
“…that’s not true.” As he replied, Kusanagi felt like he had seen Honami’s weak side for the first time.
To Kusanagi, ever since highschool Honami had been someone who, despite being fuzzy and hard to get ahold of, was an existence that never wavered. She could scold Suou, and she was airheaded and missing some screws, but she was profound and strong. That was the kind of person she was.
Even now, surely that hadn’t changed.
But Suou thought that probably, this person was also uneasy. Her brother and his wife had died, and even though she was single and working, she was suddenly turned into the guardian of a seven year old girl with a difficult illness, so there was no way she wasn’t feeling uneasy.
He thought that there wasn’t a shred of untruth in the love Honami showed Anna. You could tell that from how Anna, who had the power to ‘see’, innocently trusted Honami this much. But, because of that love, she must have been concerned about her ability to raise and protect the girl.
“…Honami-sensei.” When Kusanagi spoke up, Honami hid the delicateness she had shown just now, and tilted her head, returning to her usual smile.
“If there’s anythin’ we can ever help with, let us know.”
Honami thanked him with a happy expression. Anna pulled on the hand she was holding.
“Ah, I’m sorry, Anna. Are you sleepy already?” Honami kneeled down to be on the same eye level as Anna. Anna looked into Honami’s eyes and opened her mouth.
“Read me a story?”
There wasn’t any change from her usual tone, but Anna gave off the sweet atmosphere of a child her age. Honami replied to her request with a smile. From a large bag, she pulled out several books. Anna chose one picture book from them. Honami took that, and moved to the bed. The two of them sat on the bed, with Anna on Honami’s knees so she could see the book well, and began to read.
Honami’s voice seemed to flow softly. Kusanagi suddenly remembered his highschool days. Honami was the English teacher. Her voice as she read off the English literature was nice, and even amongst students who didn’t like the subject Honami’s voice as she read was popular. He thought it was a songlike voice.
The contents of the picturebook seemed to be a cliche fantasy. A story where a princess gets stolen away by an evil king. Anna quietly leaned up against Honami, and listened with a childlike face. That face of hers wasn’t a doll-like one that created walls between her and ther people, it was a young child’s natural expression.
Watching the lady and the girl sitting together and reading, Kusanagi felt oddly guilty, like he was peeping, and quietly said ‘goodnight’ so as to not interrupt and left the room.
In the bar after closing time, Kusanagi and Totsuka talked about today’s happenings and their plans for now on. In front of Totsuka was a new original cocktail supposed to be put on sale. He had his thoughts on it questioned, but since he usually only said ‘it’s delicious’, Kusanagi exasperatedly pointed out that that wasn’t very helpful.
“While you guys were in the Center, we also investigated usin’ an information broker, but, well, while there’s lots of dark rumors, there’s nothin’ that goes beyond the level of a rumor.”
“So, it’s pretty much the same as us, huh-…”
Inside the counter, Kusanagi poured some whiskey into a glass for himself. As he slowly drank the pretty amber-colored stuff, he lightly leaned on the counter.
“Mizuchi Koushi. A golden clansman, and head of a Strain research facility…” When Kusanagi said that in a whisper, Totsuka looked up while drinking his cocktail like soda.
“Did you find something out about him?”
“No, I just heard a simple profile. He became a golden clansman about ten years ago. Before that he was a docter- a research doctor, apparently… do you know about the golden clan’s ‘Installation’?”
‘Installation’. It’s referring to the ceremony where someone receives power from a king and becomes their clansman. In Homura they hardly ever use that term, and just call it a ‘Test’, but in their case they have the person take Suou’s hand with his flames in it, and if they can do that and take the flames into their body they can become a clansman. In most cases, a red clansman would receive the power of flames, high physical abilities… and the ‘Mark’.
“Gold… brings out ‘Talent’, right?”
“Yeah. I’ve been told that the golden ‘Installation’ brings out people’s talents to their limit. They say that it was because of the efforts of the people who had had their ‘Talent’ brought out by the golden king after the war that we have Japan today.”
As he spoke, Kusanagi pulled out a cigarette and lit it with his lighter. It crackled a bit, and lit up the end of the cigarette with a small red flame.
“…so, while the golden clan is huge, there’s only a small portion of members who have the ability to fight, and anyway there are lots of clansmen who only receive ‘Talent’ and don’t have any ‘Powers’ according to civillians.”
“Which is why they have people from Scepter 4 acting like security guards over there, I guess… what about the center’s head?”
“Apparently, he’s got powers. Something about healin’ and restoration. Well, I suppose it’s appropriate for someone who’s head of a facility for treatin’ patients involved in Strain incidents.”
“If you just heard that, it’d sound like a peaceful ability… you wouldn’t think someone whose ‘Talent’ unlocked by the golden king’s power was to heal others would be a bad person.” Said Totsuka as he swayed his glass and made noise with the ice. Kusanagi looked at his eyes.
“How was your impression of him?”
When asked, Totsuka replied with his usual smile.
“Bad, I guess.”
“That so. Then we’ll deal with him like that.”
“Is it okay to decide based on my first impression?”
He smiled wryly when Kusanagi nodded without hesitation.
“S’fine. Most of the people you say ‘this is no good’ about end up bein’ no good. Since you can get along normally with someone who’s just kinda hopeless.”
“Ehh-… even I have likes and dislikes when it comes to other people.”
“I’m sayin’ that if you dislike him, that’s all we need to know.”
That probably meant he was trusted. Totsuka smiled in a complicated way.
“But, I kinda want to talk to that other guy… the person from the blue clan.”
“The twins Yata and co fought with?”
“No, the one who almost did in my shoulder. Shiotsu Gen-san.”
“Ahh…” Kusanagi looked around as though trying to remember.
“That’s the name of the blue clan’s temporary commander.”
“Yeah.”
There was a space of several seconds between them.
“It must be tough, losin’ their king and then havin’ to sit in that seat, even as a temporary replacement.”
“Yeah… and on top of that, they were being treated like security guards by the golden clansman.”
Kusanagi sighed and looked down at the counter.
“It’s been ten years since the blue king passed away.”
Ten years without a king.
Thinking of those months and years, one couldn’t help but feel depressed.
Totsuka suddenly looked up as though he had finally realized something.
“Ah, come to think of it, even though the blue king passed away ten years ago, those twins were really young.”
“About how old were they?”
“Probably, just a bit older than me. I was nine when the Kagutsu crater happened.”
Meaning, the previous king had made children who were just past ten his clansmen.
“Hmm… but, you aren’t one to talk. Since you’ve been sayin’ stuff about taking Anna-chan into the red clan.”
“Ahaha. At the time, I just wanted to go ahead and see the other guy’s reaction… but, seriously, what do you think of that?”
“…do you wanna put Anna-chan in Homura?”
Being told that with a somewhat critical look, Totsuka smiled and scratched his cheek in a troubled way.
“Well, isn’t that one option?”
“You, do you wanna make a little kid like that go bad? I wouldn’t be able to face Honami-sensei.”
“But, if she were to join Homura, then not even a golden clansman would be able to touch her. She also wouldn’t be taken by the center while telling Honami-sensei she’s sick.”
“Even if you say that, Anna-chan herself says she’ll go back to the center. And anyway, we can’t confidently say we have proof that we could take care of her better than a facility for educatin’ Strains.”
“But, it’s true that that facility is suspicious, and…”
“Totsuka.”
Kusanagi called Totsuka’s name with a reproachful tone. Totsuka closed his mouth immediately.
“Puttin’ all that aside, try sayin’ what you really feel.”
At Kusanagi’s single sentence, Totsuka was at a loss for words, and just said he’d lost with a wry smile.
“…it’s true that I’m worried about Anna-chan. But, it’s also true that for my own selfish reasons, I think it’d be nice if that child were to stay with us.”
It would be nice if that child were to stay at Suou’s side. While saying it’s for Anna’s sake he was thinking that inwardly. Totsuka, being forced to realize how selfish he was, scratched his head uncomfortably.
Kusanagi sighed. He leisurely took a cigarrete from his pocket and put it in his mouth.
“…if we get in a situation where we can decide that it’d be best for that child to become Mikoto’s clansman, I’ll talk to Mikoto about it. Until then, don’t say anythin’ that’d lead the girl astray.”
“Got it.”
Totsuka nodded.
“Also.”
Kusanagi narrowed his eyes at Totsuka’s shoulder.
“Don’t be reckless. You said it yourself, but you generally can’t protect yourself, right?”
Having a nerve hit twice, Totsuka deepened his wry smile.
“Ah-…. yeah…” Saying that with a sigh, he faceplanted on the counter. Being apologized to by Kamamoto earlier still made his heart ache a little.
“Oh, that’s creepy. Isn’t not knowin’ how gloominess feels to the point that it’s irritating your specialty?” In response to Kusanagi’s exasperated voice, Totsuka twisted his mouth and looked up at Kusanagi while leaving one cheek on the counter.
“Even I have feelings-.”
“Stop that. If you feel down, somehow even I start feelin’ down.”
“Why would you?” Totsuka smiled wryly. Come to think of it, he recalled being told something like that in the past.
He raised his hand up as though to block out the shop’s light. With the light shining through it, the insides of his hand looked a bit red.
“…even though I’m supposed to have received powers from King like everyone else, I hardly have any use in fights.”
Totsuka not only had very little power, but his physical abilities were also almost no different than when he was a normal human. It was at a level that one could call him just a normal civilian who could use fire and heat for some little magic tricks.
“Honestly, you probably ain’t suited for Homura.”
Being told that frankly, Totsuka made a pathetic face.
“Kusanagi-san, that actually kind of seriously hurts my feelings.”
“Nah, I didn’t mean it in a bad way or anythin’.”
Kusanagi smiled and reached his hand out across the counter.
“That’s exactly why we need you, isn’t it?”
His hand stroked Totsuka’s head roughly. Totsuka smiled wryly and tried to lean away.
Back when they first met- back when Totsuka was a middleschooler younger than Yata and company, he felt like he had been treated this way a lot. At the time, to him Kusanagi had looked like an adult, but when Homura was born, and lots of boys joined up, all of a sudden Totsuka was categorized as an ‘adult’ along with Kusanagi.
“Anyway, stay here tonight. I won’t be here tomorrow mornin’, so have the shop be closed.”
“…are you going out somewhere?”
“Pretty much.”
Kusanagi thinly exhaled some cigarette smoke, and smiled at Totsuka like he was plotting something.
“Totsuka, if you’re free tomorrow, take Anna-chan out somewhere and drag Mikoto along.”
“Eh?”
Kusanagi leaned out on the counter and whispered something into Totsuka’s ear.
Looking at that signboard, Kusanagi couldn’t help but let out a scornful laugh. No many how many times he saw it, he thought it was a weird name. The true identity of this building, which wore the skin of a proper government office, was the blue clan’s- Scepter 4’s headquarters.
Apparently, the name comes from how they claim up front to be dealing with ‘special foreigners’. But that’s just something like a metaphor. In actuality, they don’t deal in people who are from different countries, but rather those with different abilities- in other words, people with supernatural powers.
Even amongst that, the type they dealt with the most were people who naturally gained abilities without joining a clan or receiving power from a king, Strains. Because there were cases where Strains, who had neither an organization they were affiliated with or a king to listen to, used their powers to commit crimes.
When Scepter 4 discovered an unregistered Strain, they were to take them into custody, and send them to centers for education and research under the golden king’s jurisdiction. Because of that, from before the golden clan and the blue clan already had an intimate relationship. But…
“With one of ‘em without a king, there’s no way they’d be able to keep up an equal relationship.”
He didn’t know what things had been like before. But, now at least, one couldn’t see the blue clan as anything but a bunch of hired security guards being used by the golden clan.
“…it sure is tragic, ain’t it. A subject who’s lost their king.”
Saying that to himself, Kusanagi went through the forth ward’s gate.
Kusanagi was led into a meeting room further in by a person from Scepter 4 in blue clothes, even as they gave him painfully suspicious looks. One way or another, Scepter 4 was supposed to be an organization that considered protecting the law amongst those with superhuman powers to be their principle. He figured it would probably be alright, but if there was someone here who thought they might as well take the opportunity to squash a red clan executive, would he be able to return in one piece, Kusanagi thought to himself half whimsically. He supposed he’d be completely outnumbered, so it might be difficult. Sitting on the meeting room’s old sofa, the amount of time he had to wait was about as long as it took to smoke one cigarette.
A heavy knocked filled the air, and then door opened. Putting his shortened cigarette in the ash tray, Kusanagi stood up.
The person who appeared was a man who looked just over forty. One could figure that he was that old from his face, but from his blank expression that went beyond tiredness, and the way he moved as though even taking a single step was tiresome, one would think he were someone older, like an old man. His formal uniform also seemed to be neglected and worn-out.
“…So you’re that guy? The red clan’s adviser, Kusanagi Izumo.” Said the main in a heavy, weary-sounding tone. Kusanagi smiled.
“Well, I’m not somethin’ as big and important as an adviser… you’re Scepter 4’s deputy commander, Shiotsu Gen-san, correct?” In response to Kusanagi’s words, for some reason Shiotsu spat out a ‘ha!’ and smiled scornfully.
“Deputy commander, huh.”
“…am I wrong?”
“No, you’re not. Unfortunately, right now, there’s no one here who’s any better than this mediocre guy.” Saying that sullenly, the deputy commander sat down on the sofa across the low table. The old thing let out a stupid sounding ‘swoosh’ as air escaped from it.
“Want some tea?”
“No.”
“Figured. You shouldn’t put anything from enemy territory into your mouth carelessly.”
“Oh, is this enemy territory for me?”
“Isn’t it?”
Sinking into the sofa while leaning sloppily on the back, Shiotsu glared up at Kusanagi. Kusanagi didn’t confirm or deny it. “…today, I’ve come to apologize. Yesterday, our kids apparently caused you some trouble.”
Shiotsu didn’t try to respond immediately. He looked up at Kusanagi while his mouth stayed closed.
“It’s against the rules to trespass on another clan’s territory. It’s Scepter 4’s duty to punish those who deserve it.” Shiotsu said quietly, and as though he were chewing on sand. Kusanagi nodded.
“I understand.”
“…but, there was a problem with my subordinates who attacked first without properly assessing the situation, apparently. And anyway, chief Mizuchi doesn’t seem to want to make a fuss out of this case. There’s no need for you to apologize to me. If that’s all you wanted, leave.”
Kusanagi looked at Shiotsu’s expression silently for a moment, then got his cigarette box out from his pocket.
“Mind if I smoke?”
“…I told you to leave.” But, even as he said that grudgingly, he gave permission by gesturing with his chin.
Kusanagi took a cigarette out from the box and put it in his mouth, then lit it with his lighter. A small flame lit up its end. Smoke rose.
“Yesterday, the ones who got into trouble with our kids were the twins from your place. It sounds like they’re pretty young. Even younger than me, maybe?”
“So what?”
“Well. It’s just… it’s been ten years since the previous blue king passed away, hasn’t it? So I was just a bit interested, since if there were such young clansmen, then they must’ve been only children when they joined.”
Shiotsu clocked his tongue a little, and also got some cigarettes out from his pocket. When Kusanagi offered his lighter, Shiotsu paused for just a moment, before tiredly getting up from the back of the sofa and leaned out to use the fire.
“They were a special case.” Said Shiotsu as he held the cigarette between his thumb and forefinger and smoked it with a displeased face.
“Their parents were members of Scepter 4, you see. Then they died on duty during a certain incident. Those two were twelve at the time. Since they didn’t have anyone else to go to, Scepter 4 decided to take care of them as a group, but… those guys, they went to the previous king and asked to be made members of Scepter 4 themselves. Since they wanted to take over their parents’ dying will.” Only at the moment that he was speaking about the previous blue king did light appear in the tired-out deputy’s eyes. When the previous king was alive, he must have also been a member full of hope, one could feel from those eyes.
“And then…”
“He gave in. He made those two, who were still children, into clansmen. Of course, he hadn’t intended to let them work as actual members for a while. He probably just wanted to respect their wishes and raise them slowly.”
‘Probably just wanted to’, meaning that didn’t come to pass.
Kusanagi knew what happened after that. He knew, and he still asked.
“Then what?”
“…It was two weeks after those two became blue clansmen… that the Kagutsu incident happened.”
The Kagutsu incident. The incident that happened ten years ago when Japan’s geography changed. People who knew what had happened called the place that had been dug out in a circle the ‘Kagutsu Crater’ after the man who had been at the center of the explosion.
Kusanagi breathed slightly.
“If I recall correctly, the previous blue king passed away during the Kagutsu incident.”
At Kusanagi’s words, Shiotsu’s slack body which had been sinking into the sofa tensed slightly. Wrinkling his brow, he answered shortly. “Yeah.”
“It must have been such a shock for the brothers, who were children and had just become blue clansmen. Since right as they decided to take over their parents’ wills and decided on which back they should follow, it vanished.”
Shiotsu glared up at Kusanagi.
“…You’re not being sympathetic.”
“No, I’m not.”
“What are you trying to say?”
Kusanagi smiled like he would at a customer in his bar, and said, “What occurred ten years ago was really a tragedy, but I was wonderin’ what happened to the sense of justice you guys were surely holdin’ on to at first even then.”
Shiotsu didn’t change his sloppy posture. But, his eyes alone began to shine dangerously.
“…are you trying to provoke me?”
“I’m aware that I’m bein’ rude. However, from what I’ve heard, the brothers who got into trouble with our kids didn’t seem to care a whole lot about justice or anythin’.”
“Are you trying to gloss over what your comrades did?”
“What I’m tryin’ to say is,” Kusanagi raised his voice. He narrowed his eyes as he looked at Shiotsu.
“Can you guys vow to your own king that your actions are nothin’ to be ashamed of?”
The atmosphere in the room tensed. Kusanagi could clearly sense killing intent rise from the man who was sitting loosely in front of him.
Kusanagi focused on the cigarette still in his fingers. So that should the other guy get into ‘that mood’, he’d be able to respond right away. The shortened cigarette flame wavered slightly in response to Kusanagi’s thoughts.
“…you won’t respond right away?”
“We have no king anymore.”
Kusanagi breathed out slightly.
“That’s your answer, huh.”
Shiotsu smiled thinly, but his eyes still shone with the killing intent reflected within.
“Right now, no one here can vow to their king that they have nothing to be ashamed of… we’re just a group of cowards who couldn’t even be at their king’s side when Kagutsu happened.”
Kusanagi frowned slightly at the words that were spat out.
“It’s not cool to talk down on yourself like that.”
“Shut it.”
“You’re not cool, but you’re not really a bad guy, I guess.”
As he said that, Kusanagi shoved his shortened cigarette into the ashtray. The fire crackled and vanished. Standing up straight, he turned to look right into Shiotsu’s petulant eyes.
“I’ll take that as a warning to ‘not believe me’. You should know what we’re feeling. Even then, you don’t say one word of excuse… you don’t intend to defend what you’re protecting, and you don’t think the work you’re doing right now is what’s right.” Shiotsu didn’t reply, and only looked sullenly at Kusanagi. Kusanagi was smiling.
“You’re tryin’ to be shameless, but do you not wanna regain your honor? We’ve lost any intention of trusting chief Mizuchi, and if it comes to a fight over that girl, we plan to face it… would you still become our enemy if that happened?”
“That’s our work.” It was a deep voice with all expression deadened. Even the sulky atmosphere from earlier had vanished, and a wall that seemed to shut everything out had been born.
Kusanagi decided it was time to go.
“…excuse me. Even though I just came to apologize, I ended up startin’ a long conversation.”
Kusanagi bowed one and stood up. As he was walking to the door, Shiotsu’s voice came.
“Not to mention us, I can’t recommend making an enemy out of the golden clan.”
“Thank you for your concern.”
“You.” Shiotsu’s voice rose for a moment. Kusanagi turned to look at him without thinking. His greying head could be seen from behind, still seated on the couch.
“…what do you think about the Kagutsu story?”
“What do you mean?”
“Are you trying to act like it’s unrelated to you?”
Right then, Kusanagi shuddered slightly.
He inwardly clicked his tongue at the fact that he had.
“That your king, that Suou Mikoto is different from the previous red king, Kagutsu Genji… can you vow it?”
…He asked something unpleasant. Kusanagi made a complicated face somewhere between annoyance and a bitter smile. But, they had both asked something unpleasant. However, Kusanagi still didn’t feel the urge to talk self-deprecatingly like Shiotsu had.
“He’s different, our king.”
Shiotsu went ‘hmph’.
“I hate red kings. Their nature as king is too dangerous… Suou Mikoto might also become a Kagutsu at any little provocation.” “…by provocation, you mean?”
“Anything. A waver in his mentality, indulging in his power, strong interactions with another king… especially, killing another king.”
At the end of that sentence, Kusanagi suddenly remembered something he had heard before.
“The previous blue king passed away while trying to stop Kagutsu’s rampage, correct?”
“…yeah. In truth, he should’ve killed Kagutsu before he became like that. But, even if he had been able to, then the Crater’s name would’ve just changed from the Kagutsu Crater to… the Habari Crater. Our previous king was pulled along by Kagutsu before that, and his own Weismann value got messed up. If he had killed Kagutsu, his own Sword of Damocles would’ve fallen.”
The smell of tobacco filled the room. Kusanagi thought that it was a weirdly quiet place. Suddenly, he felt homesick for the noisiness of his bar.
“Regardless, should something happen to a king, another king is required in order to stop it. Now, there’s no longer a blue king… do you think there’s something you can do when your king crumbles?”
Kusanagi didn’t reply. He excused himself in a flat voice and left the room.
Apparently, Anna intended to become the blue king.
As he finished hearing that from Totsuka, Kusanagi sighed. Kusanagi, Suou, and the others were in Honami’s school. The sun had gone down, and the nighttime school grounds were sunk down in a creepy darkness. Honami was apparently working overtime, and was still working in the office. Anna was supposed to be reading a book beside her.
When Kusanagi had been contacted by Suou and ran to Honami’s school, there was no presence of anything suspicious around her. While being suspicious of his surroundings, he went ahead and waited for and met up with Suou and the others, and then because Anna was lonely… they claimed, they pushed her off on Honami.
“By the way, is this really okay? If it’s found out that people like us came into the school, would Honami-sensei get fired?” Said Totsuka with a smile that made it hard to tell whether he was worried or not. As he said that, he was sitting cheekily on someone’s seat. Kusanagi was lightly sitting on the desk of Totsuka’s seat. Suou was leaning at the window, while Yata, Fushimi, and Kamamoto were standing broken up within the classroom, and they were all grimacing. “The blue king… huh.” Kusanagi whispered quietly.
“I wonder if at the center, Anna-chan is… being made into a test subject for the sake of pursuing the ‘Slate’.” He couldn’t believe that Anna wanted to become a king of her own will. Thinking of how Anna was often worried about Honami, it was natural to think that she was being made to cooperate with the experiments for Honami’s safety. If that was the case, then it would stop being a problem that would simply be solved if they didn’t give Anna back to the center.
“…We might have to make this into a big deal, I guess.” Kusanagi sighed, got a cigarette out of his chest pocket, and put it in his mouth. As he was about to light it, he stopped himself. This was a school.
Putting his lighter away, Kusanagi fell into thought while moving the unlit cigarette in his mouth around.
“Weren’t that kid’s parents killed by the center?” Suddenly, Fushimi, who had been quiet until then, spoke up in a cold tone.
“Hey!”
Yata kicked back his chair and stood. Raising his eyebrows, he glared at Fushimi in a reproachful way. Fushimi glanced at Yata particularly coldly.
“Maybe that kid didn’t want to go to the center at first. Her parents felt that the center was suspicious, and tried not to hand her over. That’d mean the center would lose a good test subject… so, they killed her parents who were in the way and made it look like an accident.”
“Don’t say random things based off of your imagination!”
Fushimi went ‘hmph’ at Yata, who had stood up suddenly.
“…Kusanagi-san and everyone were thinking the same thing too, right?”
Yata quickly turned to look in Kusanagi’s direction. Kusanagi sighed lightly, and took the unlit cigarette out of his mouth.
“I’m thinkin’ the possibility isn’t low.”
At Kusanagi’s words, Yata looked shocked. Fushimi looked between Yata and Kusanagi with an uneasy face.
“Hasn’t that kid herself realized? Because there was a past case with her parents, she seriously thinks there might be a danger to her aunt… no.” It’s a bit different, Fushimi said as though talking to himself. Beyond his glasses, his cold eyes narrowed.
“Even if she’s noticed the possibility, she might be trying not to see it.”
Suddenly, Kusanagi felt like he might have heard a slight noise out in the hall. He frowned and got down from the desk he was on, going over to the door. He stuck his head out the door, but there was nothing but a dark hall and no one was around.
“Kusanagi-san? Is something up?” Kamamoto said questioningly. Kusanagi shook his head.
“Nah. I just thought I heard somethin’.” Returning to the inside of the classroom and turning back around, Kusanagi’s eyes met Yata’s, whose fists were shaking.
“If… if what Saru said was true, then we can’t forgive that, can we!”
If Anna had vaguely come to realize the truth behind her parents’ deaths and was pretending not to see.
Kusanagi thought and his mood became heavy. To Anna, ‘pretending not to see’ was different from a normal person’s. Because Anna ‘Sees’ without acceptance or denial. To look away from that would be nothing but denial of reality.
He tried to imagine how the world, how the truth reflected in Anna’s eyes… and stopped. Even if he thought about it, it wasn’t something Kusanagi could understand. It was the same as how he couldn’t truly understand how a king… how Suou saw the world, even if he thought about it.
(Ah-, this is no good. I’m draggin’ it along.)
Remembering what he had talked about with Shiotsu during the day, Kusanagi scratched his head.
“What’ll you do, Mikoto?”
Suou slowly looked up when addressed, while still leaning against the window.
“This is how things are. Like Totsuka said, makin’ Anna your clansman is one option too.”
Suou frowned in a complicated way.
“…I can’t make someone into a clansman if they’re not interested.”
“Want to try and convince her?”
When Totsuka tilted his head and said that, Suou’s face got even more complicated and he looked away.
“…it can’t hurt to not make a brat go bad, can it.”
Totsuka smiled wryly at those words that could also sound like they weren’t like Suou.
“I guess.”
As Suou looked out the window at the dark school grounds, he said ‘and before that we might as well,’
“Crush it.”
To those words thrown out casually, Yata raised his clenched fist.
“That’s right! Let’s go, Mikoto-san! There’s nothing to do but crush that inhumane facility, right! They owe me, too!”
Watching Yata who was getting all excited, Kusanagi let out a long breath.
“For now, we can finish this talk when we get home… I’ll go check on Honami-sensei and Anna-chan.”
As his head hurt because he felt like this was getting to be a troublesome situation, Kusanagi went out into the dark hall. When he walked towards the office’s light at the end of the hall, he heard footsteps following him in a hurry.
“Totsuka, what’s wrong?”
“Nothing. I just thought I’d go too.” Smiling, Totsuka lined up beside Kusanagi.
“Kusanagi-san, you went to Scepter 4 today, didn’t you.” As he walked, Totsuka said this casually.
“Yeah.”
“Did something bad happen?”
Being asked that lightly, Kusanagi was at a loss for an answer momentarily. Stopping and looking to his side, Totsuka was watching him with a mysterious smile.
“It’s like, you’re a little tired, aren’t you.”
What a sharp-eyed guy, Kusanagi thought as he felt a complicated mix of being impressed and displeased.
“…not really. It wasn’t a real fun talk, so I just got a bit sentimental.”
“It must’ve been pretty big if it made Kusanagi-san sentimental.”
Being told that with a bright smile and teasing expression, he felt annoyed along with feeling a bit better. What a mysterious guy, Kusanagi thought rather late. He tried to start walking again, but his legs just wouldn’t move, so he opened his mouth while looking in the direction of the office.
“We can’t understand the world as Mikoto sees it.”
“Yeah.”
“We also can’t really understand the world as Anna-chan sees it, can we.”
“That’s true.”
“But… there might be just something between those two that they can share.”
“I think so, too.” Totsuka smiled transparently and nodded. Kusanagi felt like he could understand Totsuka’s feelings when he had wanted to bring Anna into Homura now.
They were holding down the things within them so that they wouldn’t spill out. That was what the two of them shared, most likely. There was no way to solve what those two were holding.
About the only thing they could do was offer momentary soothing, and continue to pull those two back from this side whenever they were almost swallowed up by what was inside.
Looking at Totsuka out of the corner of his eye, Kusanagi started walking again.
“I’m glad you’re here.”
“…what’s wrong, Kusanagi-san? Are you that seriously sentimental?”
“Shut it.”
When Kusanagi opened the office’s door, Honami was just getting ready to go home. She looked in Kusanagi and Totsuka’s direction while getting papers together and smiled.
“Ah, sorry to make you wait. I just finished my work. I can go ahead and leave…”
“Huh, Honami-sensei, what about Anna-chan?” Asked Totsuka, who had peeked into the office and realized that the small, doll-like form was nowhere to be seen. Right then, Honami’s smiling expression clouded uneasily.
“Eh? Anna hasn’t gone over there? She said she was going to go to Suou-kun and everyone, and left here just earlier…” Blood drained from Kusanagi’s face. When he reflexively looked beside him, Totsuka had also paled.
Anna had come to the classroom where they were talking.
At that time, what had they been speaking about?
“I’ll go look.” Totsuka said as he swiftly moved away.
Kusanagi soothed Honami, who was worried, and said he’d go check the classroom, then rushed back to where Suou and the others were.
…Weren’t that kid’s parents killed by the center.
…I’m thinkin’ that possibility isn’t low.
…Even if she’s realized the possibility, she might be trying not to see it.
If that conversation had entered Anna’s ears… cursing their own uncarefulness, Kusanagi ran down the hall.
Kamamoto looked at Kusanagi. Kusanagi nodded and said ‘probably’ while lighting his cigarette.
Last night, after Anna had vanished, there was an incident where several people at a nearby crossroad collapsed due to suffocation. After they had been carried to the hospital, they all said that they had been ‘suddenly trapped inside water’, apparently. Which meant that they had all seen the same illusion and passed out at the same time.
On top of that, in a place a few dozen meters away from that crossroad where there wasn’t any fire, there was an incident where several people suffered heavy burns. They suddenly felt pain in their skin, and directly afterwards, their skin burned red as though from the inside, apparently. The victims of both incidents had been carried to the Nanakamado hospital and were being treated.
“This mornin’, a report came from Scepter 4’s deputy commander.” Said Kusanagi with a heavy sigh. He remembered and repeated the words Shiotsu had gone out of his way to report over the phone.
“In accordance with the laws of administrating unnatural phenomenon, we have taken the Strain who caused danger to civilians, Kushina Anna, into our custody. Until it can be deemed that the risks have completely passed, we will hold her.”
Kusanagi looked up at the thin cigarette smoke that was rising towards the ceiling.
“This is apparently the duty of Scepter 4, which manages Strains… waitin’ for the other guys to make a mistake ended up causin’ us not be able to justify ourselves instead.”
It was two hours after Anna vanished that Honami was contacted by the center. Anna had been carried by an ambulance. She needed to be hospitalized immediately, and they couldn’t let Honami see her. Hearing that, Honami had tried to rush to the center, but Kusanagi and the others stopped her. It was hard to think that the guys from the center would cause Honami any harm right now, but thinking of Anna’s parents, they didn’t know what could happen. They couldn’t put her in danger.
“…I guess, surprisingly, that kid being a “highly dangerous Strain” might not have just been an excuse to lock her up, huh.” Fushimi said that quietly, as he was sitting and looking at his toes. The way he twisted his face in an unsatisfied way and how he wouldn’t meet anyone’s eyes made him seem sulky, but it seemed like he might have been surprisingly putting up a front, going by how one could occasionally tell that his eyes would waver in uneasy restlessness.
“But… I can’t believe that Anna-chan would do something like that.” Kamamoto said with a frown. He had gone out to look for Anna, so he had also seen people collapsed in the road being carried off in ambulances. It had been an unnatural scene, seeing people being carried off for burns in a place with no fire. He just couldn’t imagine that quiet, little girl who seemed to just play with marbles doing it.
Totsuka brought his hand up in front of Kamamoto. On his fingers, a burn scar was still faintly remaining.
“This is a burn I got when I touched Anna-chan after she woke up from a bad dream. It’s the result of her being unable to control her powers due to agitation from her nightmare… an overflow of her powers.”
Totsuka lowered his hand and brought together the fingers that were still burnt.
“At that moment, I thought it was strange. Anna-chan’s powers are clairvoyance. If that’s the case, then why would I have been burned from an overflow of it, I wondered.” He slowly moved his eyes as though remembering that time.
“But that was really clairvoyant powers getting out of control.”
“…what do you mean?” Kamamoto tilted his head. Totsuka looked him in the eye.
“She sees all in the world, and feels it. She brings the outside world into her body. That’s that kid’s clairvoyant powers. But, in contrast, letting loose what’s inside her… that’s also, certainly, that kid’s ability.”
“So basically.” Said Kusanagi, taking Totsuka’s words.
“Memories of being burned, memories of drownin’. You mean they’re inside that kid, and when she’s disturbed mentally, they spill out through her clairvoyant powers.”
Kamamoto folded his thick arms and growled.
“Anna-chan, she’s had such a bad burn, or been choked before…” Those were words that came from him simply feeling sorry for her. But, Totsuka and Kusanagi, who had felt that the truth was in a more tragic place, for just a moment exchanged looks as though they were trying to shove the role of saying something unpleasant back and forth before Kusanagi heavily opened his mouth.
“Probably, she didn’t just get burned or almost drown because of an accident… it’s just a theory, but I think she had it happen to her at the center.”
Kamamoto was at a loss for words.
A silence like mud fell.
Yata, who seemed like he’d be the one to stand right up first, was for some reason quiet today. Even as he leaned on the counter and had only his eyes gleaming, he didn’t raise his voice in anger and stayed quiet.
“…If Mizuchi seriously wanted to make Anna-chan make contact with the ‘Slate’, then that isn’t ordinary. He wouldn’t have been picky about the methods to draw out her power… if that kid’s powers would be strongly drawn out by pain and sufferin’, then-“
Without listening to the end, Suou moved. He moved his back from the wall he had been leaning on and took one step forward.
“I’ll crush it.”
Those roughly thrown out words had no eagerness, or visible anger. But at the king’s single sentence, everyone’s faces twisted tightly.
“Alright.” Kusanagi replied lightly.
Within the members who were giving off murderous spirit, Fushimi still had an unchangingly sulky face. Like that, he tried to casually leave the bar. Right then, Yata, who had been still and quiet until then, went about two steps after Fushimi and called out, “Saruhiko!”
Fushimi stopped at the bar’s door and turned only half his face around towards Yata.
“It’s not your fault.”
Yata looked right at Fushimi. Fushimi fidgeted slightly as though surprised. Just for a moment, his eyes trembled, but he didn’t give a single word in reply and left the bar leaving behind only a click of his tongue.
The words that Anna had probably eavesdropped on- the words that had shaken Anna’s heart, and became the trigger for her powers running wild, were probably the ones that Fushimi had spat out.
“Totsuka.” Kusanagi quietly called Totsuka as usual for times like these, but Totsuka shook his head.
“Saru-kun probably wouldn’t like my followup.”
Totsuka looked between the door that Fushimi had gone out of and the side of Yata’s face, as Yata glared in the door’s direction while drawing himself up to his full height.
“Saru-kun is okay… for now, at least.” Totsuka said quietly, with a complicated expression.
Kusanagi and Totsuka faced each other over a map of the Center in the seats furthest back in the bar. Beside that, Suou was sitting on a sofa, and leaning back. The other members were noisily going in and out of the bar while getting ready for the attack by contacting each other, preparing things that could be used as weapons, and that sort of thing.
“We’ll also need to guard Honami-sensei. So we’d better leave a few guys here.” Said Kusanagi. Totsuka lightly folded his arms while looking over the map.
“Going by how things went when we infiltrated the Center, I think Anna-chan probably isn’t in one of the above ground floors. The place we got into was surprisingly open, so I’d think that the important Strains would all be put into the underground parts.”
“Can’t tell how to get into the basement from just this map. I guess we’ll just have to directly /have someone tell us/, huh.” Kusanagi looked up from the map, and looked out of the corner of his narrowed eyes at the king who didn’t even try to participate in the planning session.
“Mikoto. This time, don’t you be doin’ anythin’ too crazy.” Without moving his body at all, Suou just used his eyes to glance at Kusanagi.
“This is a pretty dangerous bridge, after all. We’re pickin’ a fight with the golden king of all people, and there’ll be a hospital full of civilians right by us. We can’t afford to mess up.”
“Yeah.” Suou replied vaguely, in a way that made it hard to tell whether he was listening or not. Kusanagi sighed, took a box of cigarettes from his pocket, and put one in his mouth.
“For starters, we’ll open the way. So don’t use your power until it’s absolutely necessary.”
“Yeah.” Suou was lying back on the sofa and, as usual, only replied carelessly. Kusanagi looked at Totsuka.
“Totsuka.” Suou called over to him while sloppily sinking into the sofa.
“Yeah?”
“Come with me.” Totsuka’s eyes widened a little.
“My, my. I thought I’d be stuck in the stay home group. If King says so, of course I’ll go, but won’t I totally be in the way?”
“You being in the way won’t even count as a handicap for me.”
“Well, that’s true, but.” Why? When Totsuka looked at Suou questioningly, he went ‘hmph’.
“That brat might run away if she sees my face. She’s gotten somewhat attached to you, right.” Looking at Suou who said that irritably, Totsuka smiled wryly.
“I don’t think that will be the case.”
“Anyway, I hate brats. You look after her.” Suou spat that out, then got up in the space of a breath and headed towards the door. He went out, saying only ‘let me know when the preparations are done’.
“…I guess he’s actually really holdin’ back.” Totsuka widened his eyes when Kusanagi said that with a wry smile.
“We pretty much had to do somethin’ like half threaten Honami-sensei to hold her back, right? …That guy’s actually pretty bad at stuff like that.”
“Yeah…” Totsuka also smiled wryly, and looked towards the bar’s door Suou had gone out of.
“Well, even if that guy hadn’t said it, I was plannin’ on makin’ you go with him anyway.” Totsuka tilted his head at Kusanagi’s words.
“You’re the stopper.” Kusanagi said this while spitting out some cigarette smoke and suddenly remembered what Totsuka had said before, while acting unusually down.
“…A while ago, you said you didn’t have any power, right.”
“Ah, yeah.”
“At that time, I said you weren’t suited for us, but. It’s actually a bit different. We need a ‘powerless one’, probably.” Totsuka blinked confusedly.
“We’re a breed of team where power is like our meanin’ for existence. And on top of that, we’ve got a bunch of guys together who let the blood rush to their heads. Someone who, within that, won’t let them drown in their power… who’ll keep everyone together using a method that isn’t forceful, is needed.” Kusanagi pulled the ashtray over and dropped the cigarette’s ash into it.
“The one who needs a stopper most is the king.” Saying that with a bitter smile, Kusanagi remembered the time he went to Scepter 4 and spoke with Shiotsu.
(When your king crumbles, do you think there’s anything you can do?)
The words that hit a sore spot returned to the front of his mind, and Kusanagi frowned shallowly.
There’s nothing he could do. At the very most, they could tie him down so that wouldn’t happen, that was their… especially this guy’s role.
Kusanagi remembered the past. This guy, from before, had been good at deflecting Suou’s annoyances. He’d take the spite out with a smile and make one feel like an idiot for being irritated. Come to think of it, the first time they’d met had been in a hospital. Totsuka, a middleschooler, had been hanging around Suou, and been carried to the hospital after being tortured by some people with grudges against Suou. Kusanagi, who had a lot of connections, was informed of this from a witness and went to the hospital with Suou.
Totsuka, despite being black and blue all over, smiled like he didn’t care. Even when asked who had done it, he just laughed and dodged the subject, and before they realized it he had made up with the attackers. He definitely hadn’t allowed Suou to get angry for his sake.
And even after Suou became king, Totsuka continued to smile the same way. With a smile, he had distracted Suou who was almost taken in by the seduction of power… of destruction.
“Ever since before, you’ve really acted so free it’s annoyin’… if you’re not like that at least, that role would be tough.”
There’s no way that even this guy wouldn’t have any objections towards this. Even then, on top of swallowing all of his negative feelings, he could smile and say ‘it’ll all work out’… and he would end up making those who heard him think that it might really all work out… if not for that mysterious formidability, he wouldn’t be able to stand in that place. “Kusanagi-san?” Totsuka tilted his head as he looked at Kusanagi.
“Sometimes, I’m jealous of that mentality of yours that makes me wonder if you’re missin’ some screws.”
“What’s with that, you’re not praising me, are you?”
“I’m not praisin’ you or anythin’. Anyway, you’re responsible for Mikoto.” Kusanagi passed this over as though lightly tossing something heavy, and looked back down at the map.
Outside the bar, his comrades were armed and waiting.
“Don’t be causin’ trouble for the neighbors.” Kusanagi called out to them in a relaxed way. Passerbys saw the foul-tempered looking boys armed with baseball bats, steel pipes, and that sort of thing and dodged them with a startled look. There were even some people who changed which path they went down. Kusanagi went hmm and looked around, arms folded.
“I sure hope we don’t get reported to the police.” He looked at his comrades’ faces. The members who would be barging in were mostly gathered. But there was a face amongst them missing, and Kusanagi spoke to Totsuka who was talking to the others.
“Totsuka, hasn’t Fushimi come back yet?” Totsuka looked up, waved lightly to the guys he was talking to and walked over to Kusanagi.
“Yata went to check on Saru-kun. I think they’ll be here soon.”
“That so.” Kusanagi said while thinking of that twisted boy. Totsuka, whose job was to always help when something happened to their comrades, had said about Fushimi that ‘he’d hate my followup’ and not tried anything.
“I… wonder what’s up with him.”
“Fushimi… you’re always gettin’ along with new blood right away, but this time you’re havin’ a lot of trouble, aren’t you.”
“Saru-kun might be no good!” When Totsuka said that, Kusanagi looked incredibly exasperated.
“You… that was a really extreme way of rejection all of a sudden! Don’t surprise me like that!”
“Ah, sorry, sorry. It’s not like I meant that Saru-kun himself is hopeless or anything… it’s just, I think he’ll have trouble fitting in, is all.”
“Fitting in?”
“That kid’s interest… or maybe I should say his focus, he’s just clinging way too hard to one single thing.”
Kusanagi thought for a couple of seconds, then had a vague, troubled look on his face.
“…for you, that’s a pretty roundabout way of sayin’ it.”
Totsuka smiled wryly, and narrowed his eyes as though looking far away.
“It’s not like I’m being roundabout, but… I feel like if he has something he can cling to that much, he’s fine just like that.”
“Hmm?” Kusanagi tilted his head, and Totsuka just changed his wry smile into his usual carefree smile while looking at Kusanagi.
“Well, putting that aside, Saru-kun is an interesting guy, so I want to be friendly with him to the extent that he won’t be annoyed!”
Kusanagi said ‘what a troublesome guy’ along with a sigh. Right then, speak of the devil, Yata came up the road with Fushimi. Totsuka welcomed with with a wave.
“Sorry for being late! Are we leaving already?” Yata asked breathlessly as he ran up. Kusanagi nodded.
“Yeah, now all we need is our boss-“
“Everyone’s here, huh.”
A deep voice resounded from behind them.
They turned around.
Suou was standing in a place slightly separated from the Homura group. Like a slender lion, despite being lightweight he was a man who gave off a heavy pressure. Red light overflowed from his body, like power bubbling over from inside.
Suou stepped forward and came closer. When his feet connected with the ground, sparks flew with a small crackle. “Someone’s fired up.” Kusanagi said that teasingly, making Suou go ‘hmph’.
All the members of Homura shut their mouths, and waited for Suou’s next move. The eyes watching him were glittering expectation, heat, pride towards Homura, and anger towards their enemy.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
light novels
small k side:red translation
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another side:red translation
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k side:red pages 253~259
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k side:red translation (two interval chapters)
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k side:red translation (the golden cage)
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k side: red translation (a rainbow dream, part 1)
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(part 3)
k side:red translation monochrome reality
(part 1)
(part 2)
“We’ll also need to guard Honami-sensei. So we’d better leave a few guys here.” Said Kusanagi. Totsuka lightly folded his arms while looking over the map.
“Going by how things went when we infiltrated the Center, I think Anna-chan probably isn’t in one of the above ground floors. The place we got into was surprisingly open, so I’d think that the important Strains would all be put into the underground parts.”
“Can’t tell how to get into the basement from just this map. I guess we’ll just have to directly /have someone tell us/, huh.” Kusanagi looked up from the map, and looked out of the corner of his narrowed eyes at the king who didn’t even try to participate in the planning session.
“Mikoto. This time, don’t you be doin’ anythin’ too crazy.” Without moving his body at all, Suou just used his eyes to glance at Kusanagi.
“This is a pretty dangerous bridge, after all. We’re pickin’ a fight with the golden king of all people, and there’ll be a hospital full of civilians right by us. We can’t afford to mess up.”
“Yeah.” Suou replied vaguely, in a way that made it hard to tell whether he was listening or not. Kusanagi sighed, took a box of cigarettes from his pocket, and put one in his mouth.
“For starters, we’ll open the way. So don’t use your power until it’s absolutely necessary.”
“Yeah.” Suou was lying back on the sofa and, as usual, only replied carelessly. Kusanagi looked at Totsuka.
“Totsuka.” Suou called over to him while sloppily sinking into the sofa.
“Yeah?”
“Come with me.” Totsuka’s eyes widened a little.
“My, my. I thought I’d be stuck in the stay home group. If King says so, of course I’ll go, but won’t I totally be in the way?”
“You being in the way won’t even count as a handicap for me.”
“Well, that’s true, but.” Why? When Totsuka looked at Suou questioningly, he went ‘hmph’.
“That brat might run away if she sees my face. She’s gotten somewhat attached to you, right.” Looking at Suou who said that irritably, Totsuka smiled wryly.
“I don’t think that will be the case.”
“Anyway, I hate brats. You look after her.” Suou spat that out, then got up in the space of a breath and headed towards the door. He went out, saying only ‘let me know when the preparations are done’.
“…I guess he’s actually really holdin’ back.” Totsuka widened his eyes when Kusanagi said that with a wry smile.
“We pretty much had to do somethin’ like half threaten Honami-sensei to hold her back, right? …That guy’s actually pretty bad at stuff like that.”
“Yeah…” Totsuka also smiled wryly, and looked towards the bar’s door Suou had gone out of.
“Well, even if that guy hadn’t said it, I was plannin’ on makin’ you go with him anyway.” Totsuka tilted his head at Kusanagi’s words.
“You’re the stopper.” Kusanagi said this while spitting out some cigarette smoke and suddenly remembered what Totsuka had said before, while acting unusually down.
“…A while ago, you said you didn’t have any power, right.”
“Ah, yeah.”
“At that time, I said you weren’t suited for us, but. It’s actually a bit different. We need a ‘powerless one’, probably.” Totsuka blinked confusedly.
“We’re a breed of team where power is like our meanin’ for existence. And on top of that, we’ve got a bunch of guys together who let the blood rush to their heads. Someone who, within that, won’t let them drown in their power… who’ll keep everyone together using a method that isn’t forceful, is needed.” Kusanagi pulled the ashtray over and dropped the cigarette’s ash into it.
“The one who needs a stopper most is the king.” Saying that with a bitter smile, Kusanagi remembered the time he went to Scepter 4 and spoke with Shiotsu.
(When your king crumbles, do you think there’s anything you can do?)
The words that hit a sore spot returned to the front of his mind, and Kusanagi frowned shallowly.
There’s nothing he could do. At the very most, they could tie him down so that wouldn’t happen, that was their… especially this guy’s role.
Kusanagi remembered the past. This guy, from before, had been good at deflecting Suou’s annoyances. He’d take the spite out with a smile and make one feel like an idiot for being irritated. Come to think of it, the first time they’d met had been in a hospital. Totsuka, a middleschooler, had been hanging around Suou, and been carried to the hospital after being tortured by some people with grudges against Suou. Kusanagi, who had a lot of connections, was informed of this from a witness and went to the hospital with Suou.
Totsuka, despite being black and blue all over, smiled like he didn’t care. Even when asked who had done it, he just laughed and dodged the subject, and before they realized it he had made up with the attackers. He definitely hadn’t allowed Suou to get angry for his sake.
And even after Suou became king, Totsuka continued to smile the same way. With a smile, he had distracted Suou who was almost taken in by the seduction of power… of destruction.
“Ever since before, you’ve really acted so free it’s annoyin’… if you’re not like that at least, that role would be tough.”
There’s no way that even this guy wouldn’t have any objections towards this. Even then, on top of swallowing all of his negative feelings, he could smile and say ‘it’ll all work out’… and he would end up making those who heard him think that it might really all work out… if not for that mysterious formidability, he wouldn’t be able to stand in that place.
“Kusanagi-san?” Totsuka tilted his head as he looked at Kusanagi.
“Sometimes, I’m jealous of that mentality of yours that makes me wonder if you’re missin’ some screws.”
“What’s with that, you’re not praising me, are you?”
“I’m not praisin’ you or anythin’. Anyway, you’re responsible for Mikoto.” Kusanagi passed this over as though lightly tossing something heavy, and looked back down at the map.
no subject
“Don’t be causin’ trouble for the neighbors.” Kusanagi called out to them in a relaxed way. Passerbys saw the foul-tempered looking boys armed with baseball bats, steel pipes, and that sort of thing and dodged them with a startled look. There were even some people who changed which path they went down. Kusanagi went hmm and looked around, arms folded.
“I sure hope we don’t get reported to the police.” He looked at his comrades’ faces. The members who would be barging in were mostly gathered. But there was a face amongst them missing, and Kusanagi spoke to Totsuka who was talking to the others.
“Totsuka, hasn’t Fushimi come back yet?” Totsuka looked up, waved lightly to the guys he was talking to and walked over to Kusanagi.
“Yata went to check on Saru-kun. I think they’ll be here soon.”
“That so.” Kusanagi said while thinking of that twisted boy. Totsuka, whose job was to always help when something happened to their comrades, had said about Fushimi that ‘he’d hate my followup’ and not tried anything.
“I… wonder what’s up with him.”
“Fushimi… you’re always gettin’ along with new blood right away, but this time you’re havin’ a lot of trouble, aren’t you.”
“Saru-kun might be no good!” When Totsuka said that, Kusanagi looked incredibly exasperated.
“You… that was a really extreme way of rejection all of a sudden! Don’t surprise me like that!”
“Ah, sorry, sorry. It’s not like I meant that Saru-kun himself is hopeless or anything… it’s just, I think he’ll have trouble fitting in, is all.”
“Fitting in?”
“That kid’s interest… or maybe I should say his focus, he’s just clinging way too hard to one single thing.”
Kusanagi thought for a couple of seconds, then had a vague, troubled look on his face.
“…for you, that’s a pretty roundabout way of sayin’ it.”
Totsuka smiled wryly, and narrowed his eyes as though looking far away.
“It’s not like I’m being roundabout, but… I feel like if he has something he can cling to that much, he’s fine just like that.”
“Hmm?” Kusanagi tilted his head, and Totsuka just changed his wry smile into his usual carefree smile while looking at Kusanagi.
“Well, putting that aside, Saru-kun is an interesting guy, so I want to be friendly with him to the extent that he won’t be annoyed!”
Kusanagi said ‘what a troublesome guy’ along with a sigh. Right then, speak of the devil, Yata came up the road with Fushimi. Totsuka welcomed with with a wave.
“Sorry for being late! Are we leaving already?” Yata asked breathlessly as he ran up. Kusanagi nodded.
“Yeah, now all we need is our boss-“
“Everyone’s here, huh.”
A deep voice resounded from behind them.
They turned around.
Suou was standing in a place slightly separated from the Homura group. Like a slender lion, despite being lightweight he was a man who gave off a heavy pressure. Red light overflowed from his body, like power bubbling over from inside.
Suou stepped forward and came closer. When his feet connected with the ground, sparks flew with a small crackle.
“Someone’s fired up.” Kusanagi said that teasingly, making Suou go ‘hmph’.
All the members of Homura shut their mouths, and waited for Suou’s next move. The eyes watching him were glittering expectation, heat, pride towards Homura, and anger towards their enemy.
“Let’s go.”
Suou made a low announcement.
Homura replied with a shout.