UI> THERE’S NO NEED TO FEEL AWKWARD, ARITA. THIS IS MOST LIKELY OUT OF VIEW OF THE SOCIAL CAMERAS.
I-is it? So then isn’t that actually way worse?
Rather than giving voice to this fleeting thought, Haruyuki tried a more rational approach. “Uh, umm, I was walking along and I got a little dizzy, probably just from pushing too hard in gym class, but I’m okay now, sorry to worry—”
But as if seeing right through him, Utai cut off his speech with a gentle, sad smile. She stood up from where she was kneeling on the ground with him before moving her fingers once more at a slightly lower speed.
UI> YOU DON’T NEED TO PANIC LIKE THAT. I UNDERSTAND. WHAT YOU EXPERIENCED NOW IS MOST LIKELY SOMETHING CALLED “OVERFLOW.”
“O-over…flow?” He cocked his head at this word he was hearing, or rather seeing, for the first time. But the string of text that followed made Haruyuki open his eyes wide.
UI> THE HIGHER-LEVEL VERSION OF ZERO FILL. IF ZERO FILL IS AN EMPTY WILL—RESIGNATION AND HELPLESSNESS FILLING YOUR HEART, RENDERING YOU UNABLE TO MOVE—THEN OVERFLOW IS A NEGATIVE WILL: OVERFLOWING WITH RAGE, HATRED, AND DESPAIR, AND LOSING CONTROL. OF COURSE, THIS IS ESSENTIALLY A PHENOMENON THAT HAPPENS TO THE AVATAR IN THE ACCELERATED WORLD, BUT I’VE HEARD IT ALSO HAPPENS IN THE REAL WORLD, ALBEIT RARELY, TO BURST LINKERS WHO USE NEGATIVE INCARNATE.
“Negative…will,” he whispered, and gasped as he looked up at Utai. Shaking his head fiercely, he squeezed out, “Uh, um, I-I totally haven’t been practicing a negative Incarnate by myself…”
Once again, Utai smiled gently before stepping over to his side and placing her left hand on his plump cheek. At the same time, she typed with just her right, UI> I TOLD YOU, I UNDERSTAND. THAT WAS INTERFERENCE FROM THE ARAMOR, WASN’T IT?
He inhaled sharply, but if she had seen through him to that extent, he couldn’t exactly deny the statement. “Yes, it was. Something…Um, I remembered something someone said and it suddenly started raging.”
UI> SOMETHING SOMEONE SAID? WHAT EXACTLY WAS IT?
“Umm, I can’t remember who it was. Actually, I’m pretty sure it was the voice of someone I don’t know. But it was something like ‘the mental scar shell’ does whatever and then you ‘become a metal color.’ Or something.”
Twitch. Not Haruyuki, but Utai’s hand on his cheek.
The eyes with the crimson threads running through them opened as wide as possible. Lips trembled slightly but naturally, and instead of a voice crying out, her right hand tapped falteringly at her holokeyboard. UI> WHO WAS IT? ARITA, WHO SAID THAT TO YOU?
“Sorry, I’m trying as hard as I can to remember, but…I can’t. I don’t know. All I remember is that it was a girl’s voice.”
UI> IS THAT SO? I’M SORRY, PLEASE FORGET IT. ARE YOU FEELING ALL RIGHT NOW? She changed the subject rather suddenly, but Haruyuki quickly forgot the strangeness of it and nodded. When Utai pulled away her hand, he heaved himself to his feet and brushed off the knees of his uniform.
“Yeah, I’m okay now. Thanks. It’s almost like you can use Incarnate even in the real world, Shinomiya,” he said casually, in the way of a thank-you, and Utai seemed bashful in response, a rare display of age-appropriate behavior. Her cheeks colored slightly and she looked down as she filled the chat log all at once, typing at her fastest speed yet.
UI> I’M GLAD IT DIDN’T TURN INTO ANYTHING MORE SERIOUS. I DON’T THINK YOU NEED TO WORRY TOO MUCH ABOUT INTERFERENCE FROM THE ARMOR. IT WOULD ACTUALLY BE STRANGE FOR AN ENHANCED ARMAMENT WITH THAT SORT OF HISTORY NOT TO CAUSE ANY OVERFLOW. WHATEVER INTERFERENCE IT CAUSES, AS LONG AS YOU DON’T CALL OUT THE COMMAND TO EQUIP IT IN THE ACCELERATED WORLD, IT WON’T EXERT ANY CONTINUOUS INFLUENCE OVER YOU. EITHER WAY, IF WE SUCCEED IN THE ESCAPE MISSION, I’LL BE ABLE TO PURIFY THE PARASITIZING ELEMENT RIGHT THEN AND THERE.
“…Yeah, I guess so.” The slight delay in Haruyuki’s response was the momentary hesitation he felt about the mission to purify the armor, the most important matter before him at that moment—rescuing Ardor Maiden, escaping the Castle, all of it was nothing more than groundwork to that end.
But was there anything for him to hesitate about? If the Armor of Catastrophe wasn’t completely removed, then at the meeting of the Seven Kings in three days, a bounty would be placed on the head of Silver Crow by joint effort of the six major Legions. He absolutely couldn’t let that happen.
Fortunately, head still turned to the ground, Utai didn’t seem to notice the change in Haruyuki’s tone; her fingers continued to flash. UI> WELL THEN, SHALL WE TAKE CARE OF OUR CLUB DUTIES? I’M CERTAIN HOO IS QUITE HUNGRY.
She waved away her keyboard with one hand and picked up her bag from where it sat on the ground a little ways off. Without looking at Haruyuki, she began walking briskly toward the animal hutch in the northwestern corner of the school yard, and Haruyuki chased after her.
Hoo, the northern white-faced owl, had moved from Matsunogi Academy to Umesato Junior High only a mere three days earlier. But the small bird of prey drowsing on the wooden perch inside the hutch already seemed entirely at ease in his new environment. He didn’t even crack his eyes open when Haruyuki approached the hutch, but the instant he became aware of the sound of Utai’s feet after she set down her bag and backpack beside the sink, his round eyes flew open and his wings moved restlessly.
“He’s such a mercenary,” Haruyuki said with a wry smile, and unlocked the door’s electronic lock. He stepped quickly inside and collected the water-resistant paper that was spread out around the perch, along with the tub for bathing. In their place, Utai set out the paper they had washed and left to dry the previous day, before checking that Hoo’s weight and temperature were normal.
Haruyuki stepped outside once again, and as he splashed the paper with water from the tap sticking out from the side of the hutch, he caught sight of the white cooler peeking out of the bag off to one side.
Inside was Hoo’s food. From what he’d seen the previous day, it was some kind of meat, but according to Utai, it was not chicken or pork or beef. Which reminded him, at today’s feeding, she was supposed to show him how she dressed the meat, but she had noted that “a certain amount of mental damage can be expected, so please prepare yourself.” Cocking his head anew at just what exactly that was supposed to mean, Haruyuki quietly reached out his hand.
UI> YOU COULD EAT IT, ARITA, BUT YOU PROBABLY WOULDN’T LIKE IT.
The words scrolled across the chat window, and his hand froze. He turned around to find Utai grinning at him, having come out of the hutch at some point without his noticing.
“O-oh, uh, I wasn’t going to eat it as a snack or anything. I’m in eighth grade now, after all.” Haruyuki shook his head back and forth, forcibly forgetting the time he had come across fried eggplant and chicken meant for a curry and it had turned into a whole thing with Chiyuri, while he hung the freshly washed paper on small hangers. He dried his hands with a handkerchief and looked at Utai.
The elementary school girl, four grades lower than him, gave him a look as though she was carefully considering the situation, but soon she nodded crisply. UI> ALL RIGHT. I’M GOING TO PREPARE HOO’S DINNER.
She moved over to the sink, reached a hand into the bag there, and pulled out the cooler. She undid the clasps on all four sides and pulled off the lid. Spurred on by curiosity, Haruyuki poked his head forward to peer inside and, two seconds later, inhaled sharply.
Alongside the cooling packs were small light-pink creatures about five centimeters long, probably mice before they had grown any hair. Naturally, they weren’t alive, but they still looked like mice.
Plucking up one of the four creatures, Utai placed it on top of the cooler lid in the sink as she typed with her free hand, UI> HIS FOOD IS FROZEN PINKIE MICE. PET OWLS ARE BASICALLY FED MICE, CHICKS, OR INSECTS LIKE CRICKETS OR MEALWORMS. BUT THE MICE ARE TOO BIG LIKE THIS, SO YOU HAVE TO DRESS THEM.
Then she put her hand back into the bag and pulled out something that gave Haruyuki another start. It was very small, but
it was indeed a knife. She slid it out of the smooth natural-wood sheath, and a blade about six centimeters long appeared, glittering with a bluish sheen.
UI> NATURALLY, I HAVE A PERMIT TO CARRY AND USE THIS SMALL KNIFE. ALTHOUGH IF I PULLED IT OUT ON A PUBLIC ROAD OR ANYTHING, I’D STILL BE TAKEN INTO CUSTODY IMMEDIATELY.
Utai’s comment was definitely not an exaggeration. Presently, in 2047, carrying any kind of blade, regardless of size, was basically illegal. If you had a professional reason, you could obtain a permit from the public safety commission, but he remembered seeing on the news that the review you had to go through was pretty severe.
“I—I can’t believe you got a permit,” Haruyuki murmured unconsciously, and Utai simply smiled faintly.
She held the pinkie on the lid with her left hand and brought the tip of the knife down onto it deftly with her right. She guided the blade, and its target was neatly split in two. And it didn’t look like she had even scratched the plastic of the lid. The knife moved two more times, and the mouse was instantly transformed into four thin pieces of meat. The color was indeed the same as that of the meat Hoo had happily downed the day before. Apparently, the internal organs had already been disposed of, but a little blood did flow out and wet the knife.
As she worked, Utai radiated a tension that seemed to change even the air pressure around her, and Haruyuki couldn’t bring himself to speak to her. Although right from the start, he hadn’t had the courage to ask her to let him do it. The remaining mice were dressed one after the other until, in not even a full two minutes, the contents of the cooler were transformed into the state he had seen the previous day.
Having finished her work, Utai washed the small knife and dried it carefully with what appeared to be a piece of cotton before slipping it into its sheath. She wrapped the fabric around the knife and the sheath, put the whole thing in her bag, and stood back up. Without looking at Haruyuki, she typed on her holokeyboard, UI> NORMALLY, YOU USE SCISSORS TO DO THIS. IT’S EASIER THAT WAY.
“So then why the knife?” he asked softly.
Utai cast her eyes downward as if in thought before replying. UI> I THOUGHT IT MIGHT AT LEAST BE A WAY OF PAYING RESPECT, BUT THAT MIGHT IN THE END BE MEANINGLESS CONCEIT. NOW THEN, LET’S GO FEED HOO.
Haruyuki followed Utai as she picked up the cooler and the leather glove, and returned to the hutch with her, contemplating the sentence still displayed in the chat window. But no matter how he explained it to himself, he felt like he was a little off somehow.
The pair entered the enclosure and the owl on the perch flapped his wings as if to express his impatience. The instant Utai raised her gloved left hand, he flew over, almost circling the interior space.
Just like the day before, Haruyuki held the cooler with both hands while Utai picked up the pieces of meat and fed them to Hoo. In the end, the answer to his homework question had been “mouse,” but now that he was thinking about it, he was pretty sure all the owls that showed up in fiction caught mice. There was no reason Hoo would be eating pigs or cows.
Staring at the owl intently swallowing one piece of meat after another, Haruyuki wondered absently at the very obvious fact that Hoo was also alive.
Although Hoo was of a species not native to Japan, sold only as a pet, he still wasn’t an artificial protein synthesized in a factory, much less a polygonal object. Inside this four-square-meter cage, every day, he ate, slept, and felt things. Things Haruyuki couldn’t even imagine…
Perhaps sensing him biting his lip, Utai looked back and cocked her head. Haruyuki hurriedly shook his head and said quietly, “Oh! S-sorry. It’s nothing big. It’s just, I was thinking maybe I was kinda rude yesterday when I said he looked happy when I was watching him with the water.”
Here he realized he was maybe being rude to Utai now rather than Hoo, and he panicked further. “Oh! Um, I—I don’t mean that he’s, like, unhappy or anything with you taking care of him. I’m sure he’s pretty happy about that. I mean, I’d want you to take care of me—Aah, that’s not what I mean. Umm.”
At this point, Haruyuki’s “run-away meter” had climbed fairly high, but he couldn’t do that while holding the cooler in both hands, so he earnestly focused on putting words together.
“Umm, Hoo was probably born through artificial breeding, so I guess he’s never known anything outside of a birdcage. But he is still a bird. And birds want to fly high…I guess. Oh! Of course, I’m not saying let him go or anything. I don’t mean he’s, like, unhappy here. But at the very least, it’s not great for me to just decide how he’s probably feeling or whatever.”
The more he talked, the more incoherent he became, so here, Haruyuki reluctantly closed his mouth.
However, whatever he was trying to say seemed to have reached Utai, to some degree at least. She nodded once and started feeding Hoo again with a thoughtful look on her face. Four pinkie mice worth of meat slices disappeared one after another into the beak, and finally, after some gentle petting on his head, the screech owl, looking deeply satisfied, spread its wings and lifted off from Utai’s left hand. It carved out a counterclockwise arc in the hutch, flying leisurely through the air.
No matter how many times Haruyuki saw the owl in flight, the sight was still so beautiful as to take his breath away. As he watched, fascinated and somehow at peace, text scrolled across the chat window with a modest sound effect.
UI> I THINK WHAT YOU WERE TRYING TO SAY IS “RESPECT,” ARITA.
The instant he saw the word in quotation marks, Haruyuki bobbed his head up and down several times. Yes, that was exactly what he had been feeling earlier.
Hoo—or rather, all pets, including Hoo—was not simply a thing for people to keep. Pets lived alongside their humans. And it didn’t make sense to decide whether they were happy or not by human measures. All you could do was treat them with respect.
And it wasn’t just pets. Rather than taking the easy way with scissors, Utai had used a properly sharpened knife and dressed the pinkie mice with the utmost seriousness. She didn’t forget to respect even mice who were destined to be a meal.
Looking up at Hoo back on his perch, Haruyuki was struck deeply by the text that began to scroll a little slower across the chat window.
UI> I BELIEVE IT’S VERY IMPORTANT TO HAVE RESPECT FOR ALL THINGS. “RESPECT” HERE MEANING NOT IGNORING OR SLIGHTING ANYTHING. THE SUBJECT OF THAT RESPECT ALSO MUST INCLUDE EVEN YOUR OWN SELF.
“Huh? Respect for yourself?” Haruyuki took his eyes off Hoo and stared at the girl standing at his side. “Isn’t it…different for yourself? Like, isn’t that being conceited…or narcissistic?”
This was all Haruyuki could say, given that, far from respecting his own self, he honestly preferred to avoid even looking at his own reflection in the mirror. But Utai paused for a moment before moving her fingers again, gentle smile still on her face.
UI> PERHAPS IT MIGHT END UP LIKE THAT IF YOU TAKE IT TOO FAR, BUT I THINK THAT BY DISRESPECTING YOURSELF, YOU ALSO DISRESPECT THE PATH YOU’VE WALKED UNTIL NOW, THE HOURS YOU’VE SPENT, THE PEOPLE YOU’VE KNOWN. I’M SURE YOU ALSO HAVE INSIDE YOU, ARITA, A FLAME THAT CANNOT BE PUT OUT NO MATTER HOW MUCH WATER IS POURED ON IT, NO MATTER HOW THE WIND BLOWS IT.
The girl gently reached out with her right hand and placed it neatly in the center of Haruyuki’s chest, directly above his heart.
UI> THAT FLAME USES YOUR PAST EXPERIENCES AND MEMORIES AS FUEL—AND EVEN YOUR SINS AND MISTAKES. IF YOU PROBE INTO A PERSON’S MIND, THE FIRING OF A NEURON—THAT FLAME, BOTH INSTANTANEOUS AND ETERNAL, IS THE ESSENCE OF LIFE. I BELIEVE THAT CAREFULLY CONTINUING TO BURN THIS FLAME WHILE REMEMBERING TO RESPECT YOURSELF AND OTHERS WILL ILLUMINATE THE PATH YOU ARE TO TAKE.
Utai Shinomiya didn’t even look at the long, difficult text or her holokeyboard as she typed with her left hand. The whole time, the crimson sparks of her eyes were focused on Haruyuki. From her small palm still pressed against his chest, Haruyuki felt like some kind of energy—perhaps even a real flame—was being generated and poured
into his heart.
“My flame…The path I should walk down…” The heat in his veins raced around his body and finally collected in his back, between his shoulder blades.
The real-world Haruyuki, of course, did not have wings. On the contrary. He was round and short, and he was so lacking in any real physical abilities that he collapsed if he tried even the slightest bit in gym class.
But he could move forward. He could keep a modest flame burning in his heart to light his way, and he could put one foot in front of the other. Instead of running hard and looking backward—look forward. Move forward. It was all a matter of imagination. If he had the image of moving his feet forward in the real world, those steps would be doubled and increase tenfold in the Accelerated World.
“My image…my will,” he murmured before he took a deep breath and changed tones completely. In a clear voice he offered, “Thanks, Shinomiya. I feel like I can find the answer to something I’ve been wrestling with for a while now.”
Utai took her hand off his chest, and a rare, clear smile spread across her lips, allowing teeth like pearls to peek out.
Leaving the animal hutch, they washed their hands at the tap and then signed the club log file to indicate that the work was complete. After that, they submitted it to the in-school net.
It was four fifteen PM. The meeting at Nega Nebulus’s temporary headquarters aka Haruyuki’s house was at six PM, so even taking into consideration the time it would take for them to get there, they had a little time to spare.
Maybe I’ll go to the student council office with Shinomiya today and chat with Kuroyukihime and wait for Taku and Chiyu to finish practice. This thought rolling through his head, Haruyuki went to pick up his school bag sitting beside the sink.
Suddenly, Utai’s entire body stiffened and froze in the middle of drying her hands with a handkerchief next to him. And then Haruyuki felt the presence of something creeping up behind him.
Bloodlust…!
He started to whirl around, but before he could, two arms stretched out around the shoulders of Utai and caught her firmly. At the same time, a cheerful voice sang, “I got you, Uiuiiiiiiii!”
The Binary Stars of Destiny Page 15
