That was what any normal person would think, at least. But Yuichi saw what really happened. The fallen man had suddenly sat up, raised a meaty fist, and slammed her to the side. The girl’s light body had flown like a ragdoll, then crashed into the side of a building nearby.
“Dammit!” Yuichi had been too far away; he couldn’t go to help her.
He had underestimated the “Immortal” label.
The man’s heart had been penetrated. He had definitely been dead. Mutsuko had beaten warnings about opponents playing possum into his head over and over again, so Yuichi knew what to look for, and there was no question. But it was that certainty that had caused him to let his guard down.
“Ah, dammit! You made me lose one!” the man spat, looking down at the fallen girl. The number above his head now read “12.”
“Is that what ‘Immortal’ meant?” Yuichi asked.
There was a hole in the man’s clothing, but no wound in his chest. It had all healed over in an instant.
In other words, killing him heals all of his wounds right away, and restores him to normal, Yuichi thought. He didn’t get the logic of it, but that was the reality. He’d have to accept it.
The man raised a foot to step on the collapsed girl.
She quickly rolled over and swung outwards with her black flame-wreathed right arm, launching a rock out from that hand. She must have grabbed it when she’d fallen. It turned into a bullet of light as it flew at him.
A surprise attack. It would normally be impossible to dodge, given the timing with which the man was trying to step on her. But the man just brought his leg down and dodged it effortlessly.
Then he lifted his leg again, and mercilessly crushed the girl’s head beneath it. There was an unsettling bone-crunching sound, and a copious outpouring of blood. It was clear that there was no saving her.
“Surprise attacks won’t work as long as I can see you,” the man said. He seemed to be addressing to the dead girl, but he was probably actually saying it to invoke despair in Yuichi.
He was referring to his future vision. That was how his magical sight worked.
That was the foundation behind everything he did.
There was no benefit in his telling Yuichi about it, but he seemed to have absolute confidence that the information wouldn’t change what was to come. Just knowing that someone had future vision wouldn’t help you deal with it.
“Sorry for the wait,” the man said. “It’s finally your turn.” He cast a vicious smile at Yuichi, then took a step forward.
✽✽✽✽✽
He was lucky, the man thought. He could get two Divine Vessels in one fell swoop, with very little sacrifice on his end.
The right arm possessed by the girl had the power to enhance weapons and armor, it seemed. A combat power. That suited him.
He didn’t know the power of the Divine Vessel the boy had, but if it was an eye, he wouldn’t need to let it find host in him. He already had the best eye.
The preview eye, as he thought of it. It showed him what was going to happen a few seconds into the future, played as a faint overlay over his vision of the present.
The man approached the boy, intending to lash out with a high kick. As he did, he saw a vision of the boy raising his right arm beside his face to block. When he thought about punching instead of kicking, this time, he saw a vision of the boy raising his hand in front of his face.
He knew what his opponent would do in advance. No one could deny that that gave him an advantage in battle.
He had acquired magical sight, on top of the super strength and immortality he had been born with. The man had perfect confidence in what he could do in a fight. No matter what happened, there was no way that he could lose. He had never lost to a supernatural being before, let alone a mere human.
The man saw himself as a monster to transcend all monsters. If he felt anything towards the boy, it was pity that he should be born such a weakling by comparison. Of course, that was no reason to hold back. He would stomp on the ant, and be grateful that he was not born an ant himself.
The man was annoyed.
Just because he was a little faster, the boy had run all around, arrogantly thinking he could lose him. He was sure it was also this brat’s fault that he had been taken by surprise after cornering him.
He wouldn’t let his guard down again. There was no sign of another Divine Vessel bearer in the area, but now they’d know he was here. He’d have to finish things here quickly, then get moving again.
He looked a few seconds into the future, and saw that the boy had no intention of moving. He was apparently going to stand there until the man approached him.
The man held up his right arm, and pulled his fist back to his ear. A clearly telegraphed punching stance, but the man didn’t care. He knew in advance whether the punch would land or not, so no matter how he obvious he made it, he could see that it would surely hit.
The man would launch out with his fist. The boy would try to block it in front of his face. All the man could see was how his opponent would act; he couldn’t tell how far the boy would go flying after he was hit.
But he didn’t need future sight to know that his strike’s power would snap the boy’s thin arm, collapse his nose and face, and leave him a ragged heap on the pavement.
Satisfied, the man threw his fist forward.
✽✽✽✽✽
Yuichi grabbed the man’s fist just before it hit his face.
Without moving a step from where he was, he caught the fist with only his outstretched left hand.
Yuichi was annoyed.
There had been the attack with the truck, the people he had killed in town, and the indifferent way with which he had crushed that girl’s head. The man’s arrogance was intolerable.
That was why he decided to meet him head-on.
Match strength against strength, speed against speed, skill against skill. That was what Mutsuko had taught him.
Using skill to deal with strength was something Mutsuko thought was narrow-minded, and her way of thinking fit the competitive Yuichi perfectly.
The man froze up, agape, as if not quite sure what was going on. He was wide open. But Yuichi waited for the man to move.
The first thing the man tried to do was pull back his caught fist, so Yuichi began crushing it with his own finely honed grip strength.
The man’s face contorted in agony as his right fist was crushed. He unleashed a sort of hook with his left.
Yuichi closed in, stepped on the man’s left foot, caught his left knee between both of his own, struck his jaw with his palm, and launched his elbow into the man’s solar plexus. It all happened almost simultaneously; the man couldn’t even process what was happening. He was confused by the various pains that were suddenly coursing through his body.
As the man’s right fist healed, he launched out with another strike.
Yuichi arrested the hand down at his side, broke the man’s right elbow, then let out a strike of his own to break his nose. At the same time, he aimed a kick at the man’s crotch.
If this man could see the future, as he claimed, then right now he must be witnessing his own helpless defeat.
Out of all this man’s abilities, Yuichi had realized his future sight was not the one to be worried about. Even Yuichi could do what he did; predicting his opponent’s actions was something he did all the time.
In Chinese martial arts, it was known as “ting jin” — listening energy — the ability to detect your opponent’s movements before they came. To feel shifts in balance and tensing of muscle instinctively... it was, effectively, a form of future sight.
“Damn you!” the man screamed.
Even with his entire body broken, he stood up again. He was spitting out curses, his face contorted in confusion, and didn’t even seem to have thought about what he would do after he got up.
His twisted arm, broken ribs, and snapped jaw were all slowly recovering, but Yuichi decided this low level of regeneration
wouldn’t help him. He had fought Aiko’s brother Kyoya; the man would need to regenerate at least that quickly to be any threat to him.
The man’s eyes had begun to flicker with uncertainty. His perfect confidence from before was starting to waver. Yet he chose to keep fighting. With a roar, he threw himself at Yuichi.
A body blow. Simple as it was, merely throwing his entire weight on someone would surely be effective.
But Yuichi approached him without flinching, and snapped a foot into the man’s knee the instant his weight shifted to that leg. In Chinese martial arts, it was known as a fujin kick, and it smashed the man’s kneecap effortlessly. As the man came toppling towards him, Yuichi met him with his elbow, then struck the man’s jaw from the side, dislodging it.
Yuichi didn’t care that the man couldn’t die. He hadn’t intended to kill him from the start, so if he wouldn’t die, that just made things easier.
But that didn’t mean he couldn’t put him in pain.
In this short time, Yuichi had been learning what kinds of injuries would confound the man’s regeneration the most. Complex bone fractures wouldn’t heal very quickly, and severance of muscle tissue was debilitating if he struck the same place multiple times. Attacks to his meridians were also effective.
If he died, he’d heal instantly, so Yuichi just had to not kill him. But the man was completely at his mercy; with all four limbs smashed, he couldn’t even crawl away.
The man’s jaw was a mushy, immobile pulp after being broken so many times. It hadn’t been Yuichi’s intention, but in doing so, he had managed to prevent the man from biting his tongue to kill himself.
Finally, as if to finish off the fallen man, Yuichi kicked him in the head hard enough to jostle his brainpan. Even with his regenerative powers, that should render him inert for a while.
“I know a super doctor. I’ll introduce you to him,” Yuichi murmured, as if making an excuse. He was starting to think maybe he’d gone a little too far.
“Yuichi... just who are you? I knew you were pretty strong, but...” Monika walked over to him, staring dumbfounded at what he’d done.
“I’m no one special,” said Yuichi. “Just a high school student unlucky enough to have started getting used to things like this. So what do we do now? I knocked him out, but...”
Yuichi looked down at the man whose arms and legs were shattered and whose jaw was broken. It was a pain knowing that he’d revive if he died, but Yuichi was confident that he’d only half-killed him. He could tell from instinct that he had life left in him.
Monika crouched down and picked up something round that had fallen near the man’s face. It looked just like the Divine Vessel that Yuichi was carrying. The Evil God’s Left Eye, most likely.
Yuichi peered into the man’s face curiously. He had a left eye. Even losing the Divine Vessel didn’t make him lose the possessed feature, it seemed.
“How does it work?” Yuichi asked.
“Once things reach a turning point, the Divine Vessels move,” said Monika. “I don’t know exactly how they define ‘turning point,’ though. Most people try to kill each other, since they assume that would cover it, but...”
“So, is it possible my Soul Reader comes from one of those Divine Vessels?” Yuichi asked. The way the giant had acquired his magic sight felt a lot like Yuichi’s current situation, and it would explain why she wanted it back if she was gathering the Vessels.
“Soul Reader is different,” said Monika. “That’s a basic Outer ability. I knew about this man because I saw his info with Soul Reader.”
“You know a whole lot, though,” Yuichi said. “Soul Reader doesn’t tell you that much, does it? It just gives you words above a person’s head.”
“It shows that person’s role in their worldview and a short history and stuff,” Monika said. “It lets you identify important key items to a worldview, too. So it’s necessary for searching for Divine Vessels... is your Soul Reader atrophied or something?”
“‘Atrophied’ is a pretty ugly term for it.” Yuichi replied, feeling ruffled, then spoke quickly. “So why can I use Soul Reader? You changed the subject earlier, but is there something I forgot? Please tell me, if so.” Now that things were calmed down, he was brimming over with questions.
“Allow me to explain about that!” a high-pitched voice rang out abruptly, breaking into their conversation.
The voice had come from Monika’s shoulder. A spongy, round, white creature — it looked a bit like a daifuku mochi with eyes and a mouth — was speaking to him.
“...Hey. Is this a test of how much weird stuff I can accept at once?” Yuichi asked. He was starting to wish he could just slam the brakes on this nonstop parade of the bizarre.
“Um... this is one of my powers, too. It doesn’t really have a name. It’s sort of like the debt I owe you given form...” Monika said with an uncomfortable expression.
“That’s right,” the spongy white creature said. “I am an embodiment of the debt Monika owes you. I wanted to let you know that Monika is the one who caused you to lose your memory of meeting her the first time. Monika has an ability called ‘Distant Memories’ that erases people’s memory of an event. She tried to use that to erase her obligation for the great debt she owed you!”
Yuichi shot a glare at Monika, who averted her eyes guiltily.
“And I’m very sorry to say this, but once she’s employed that ability, not even she can undo it,” the creature added. “Its purpose is to create developments where people forget the promises they made long ago in their childhood, only for the memory to return at a properly dramatic time. So the details of the matter will have to wait until after you regain your memory.”
“Can’t you just tell me what I’ve forgotten?” Yuichi asked.
“No, neither she nor I can tell you what you’ve forgotten. You see, it all started when @%@%$%$$&@@@$*%... and you didn’t understand a word of that, did you?”
It felt like the thing had been speaking in a foreign language. In other words, he had no idea what it had just said.
“Fine,” Yuichi said. “Forget the explanation; just take Soul Reader and go.”
“Then give it back!” Monika cried.
“...How?”
“How should I know?!”
“...Wait a minute... what the heck is going on here?” Yuichi felt a headache coming on. “You’re the one who gave me Soul Reader, aren’t you? I don’t understand!”
“More precisely, you took it as part of the debt she owed,” the daifuku offered helpfully.
“You gave it to me, so you should take it back!” Yuichi cried. “Why would I know how to give it back?”
“Actually, I am the one who gave Soul Reader to you, Yuichi. But while I can bestow it, I cannot return it!” the daifuku said, with inexplicable pride in its voice.
“Don’t tell me to give it back if you don’t know how I’m supposed to do it!” Yuichi’s temper hadn’t reached the level of anger yet, but there was a lot about this that was grating on his nerves.
“W-Well, anyway!” Monika said, changing the subject. “I feel sorry for the girl who came out here and got herself killed, but we should take the Divine Vessel on her right arm... huh?” As if only just remembering the existence of the other Divine Vessel, Monika turned to head for the dead girl by the wall. But suddenly, she stopped.
Yuichi immediately realized what had taken Monika by surprise.
The girl’s body was gone.
The girl who had crashed into the wall, fallen on the ground, and then had her head stomped on, was now nowhere to be seen. The area where she had been was pristine, with no sign of the pool of blood that had formed around her earlier.
“Does this have something to do with the Divine Vessels, too?” Yuichi asked.
“I don’t think so,” Monika said. “But Divine Vessels are often given to people with great strength or special abilities, so maybe she had some innate power of her own that saved her...”
The girl had
seemed to know Yuichi, but he didn’t even know her name. He had no way of finding out if she was dead or alive. To be frank, he couldn’t be sure she had ever really existed.
“Anyway, we shouldn’t stay here much longer, I guess,” Yuichi said. “Even if the resonance has stopped, they’ll know that this was the last place we were.”
Leaving the unconscious man where he was, Yuichi and Monika quickly went back on the move.
They met back up with Aiko and Nero, and for a while after that, everything was normal.
✽✽✽✽✽
“That story took too long!” Tomomi complained.
“You’re the one who wanted to hear it!” Yuichi shot back, outraged.
They were in the Chinese restaurant Nihao the China, where Yuichi and his companions had gathered.
Yuichi was explaining what had happened over his summer vacation.
“Couldn’t you have just summarized it?” Tomomi asked.
“Oh, come on...”
“Well, I feel like I understand what happened now, so we can save the details for another time,” Tomomi added.
Her criticism made Yuichi wonder if he really had been telling it wrong. He felt a little frustrated.
“Anyway, you’re all participating in the Divine Vessel War, right?” Tomomi asked. “Monika wants to gather the Divine Vessels and wish to become human again, but you need Soul Reader to search for Divine Vessels, and since neither of you knows how to give it back, you’ve asked Sakaki for his help. And Sakaki’s such a soft touch, he’s helping you out despite not really understanding the situation.”
“Hamasaki, you know about the Evil God and the Divine Vessels?” Yuichi asked.
They called it an Evil God, but apparently Monika didn’t actually know if it was really evil, or a god. Whatever it was, she’d told Yuichi, its body had been cut up into many small parts, and anyone who collected them all could have a wish granted.
“Yeah,” Tomomi said. “I’d heard rumors that someone was trying to resurrect the Evil God in this city. Now, I know about Aiko and Sakaki’s little sister, but who’s the blond over there?” Tomomi pointed to Ibaraki, who was reclining in his chair with a superior attitude.
The Melancholy of the High School Girl Light Novel Author?! Page 10
