It was only then that a sense of how much danger I was in sent a shudder down my spine. They looked ready to chop me up at any moment. Unlike Minori-san’s gun, the swords they held at the ready made perfect sense to all involved. Fear ran through me unchecked.
Alessio’s subordinate slid something onto my finger. Wait—I knew what that was.
“So you are the mastermind here.”
It was a magic ring. I could understand what Alessio was saying. But actually, I might’ve been happier not knowing.
“Mastermind?!”
That sounded even worse than “all the blame”! It was like I was behind some really evil plan...
“Mastermind? Me? What have I—”
“It’s a little late to be playing the fool.” Alessio raised an eyebrow in annoyance. “We have eyes to see. This detestable building is itself testament to your crimes!”
“Huh...?” I frowned. He wasn’t making sense.
For some reason, Alessio smiled. “You teach the written word with no regard to race or species. As if that weren’t enough for you, you brainwash our impressionable young children to worship the culture of a foreign country! And above all, you make bold to encourage demi-humans to study alongside human nobles in the very same room! This we cannot forgive—this is a trespass upon the soul of our nation!”
“...Huh?” It took a second for his meaning to register with me.
“Consider: Why do races and tribes exist? Each race has its own assigned duty, which the gods have ordained. The elves possess strong magic; thus they were made less fertile, that they might not proliferate and overrun the land. The dwarves have immense physical strength, able to heft their mighty battle axes despite being no larger than children. The gods gave them this small stature so that they would be at a disadvantage in battle and not be able to commit undue violence. To humans, lacking in both magic and strength, was given the right to rule. Ours is headship over the demi-human races!” Alessio clenched his fist.
Yikes...
I wasn’t even scared so much as I was frustrated. I never thought I would hear someone preaching such an obvious, stereotypical system of discrimination between races with my own ears. Actually... Wait. I guess you hear that sort of thing all the time on the internet. But that’s just what people say in an anonymous space where they don’t have to take responsibility for their words. It might as well be graffiti in a bathroom stall. The net kept you hidden; that’s why they could say stuff like that. Most people wouldn’t dare to go out and proclaim it in public.
It looked like he had given my ring back because he wanted to accuse me to my face of being the destroyer of correct culture. I should have known it wasn’t because he wanted to have a discussion. Having someone stare at you dumbly while you deliver your victory speech probably takes all the fun out of it.
Maybe Alessio could tell what I was thinking, because he narrowed his eyes and demanded, “Why are you looking at me like that?”
Huh? Uh, no reason. No reason at all.
That’s probably what I should have said for my own safety. Instead, my memories of being tormented as an otaku decided to rear their ugly head, and I started to run my mouth.
“That is one classic chosen-people complex you’ve got there,” I said.
Wait, what am I saying?!
“What?!”
“Even a kid knows how to rationalize. All you’re really saying is, ‘I’m me, therefore I’m terrific.’ Right? You couldn’t become an elf or a dwarf even if you wanted to, so instead you make fun of them. You’ve never even thought about how much you owe to those people, have you?”
I’m a man, so... I’m a woman, so... I’m Japanese, so... I’m foreign, so... I’m from wherever, so... I went to such-and-such university, so...
They were everywhere—people who wanted to make themselves look better by looking down on those who were different from them. And otaku were an especially ripe target. That was one big reason why I hated people like that.
“Simple enough for an outlander to say,” Alessio growled. “I don’t know where you come from, but... I grant our current prosperity is due in part to the other races. But humans have spent endless years building up the institutions of the state. No other race has achieved this. Grateful to them we may be, but it is only natural that they should revere us.”
I thought of something Myusel had said a long time ago. The demi-humans didn’t reproduce as quickly as humans, so they lacked the ability to oversee or maintain large groups and were vulnerable to sudden famines or natural disasters. In contrast, humans were numerous, making them able to store up supplies via agriculture and form groups to protect them from external enemies. It gave them a lot of resilience in the face of potential extinction.
For that reason, demi-humans could live easier lives by allying themselves with human states. That was why they obeyed and served humans—in other words, exactly the Eldant Empire as I found it.
“The history our forebears have left to us has led naturally to our present prosperity,” Alessio said. “And the culture you and yours are bringing in will undermine it! You outlanders seek to destroy our traditional values! You damnable invaders!”
For an instant, even I didn’t have a comeback. Minori-san had warned me about this. We were in a feudalistic society; what had I thought would happen when I suddenly tried to introduce them to “freedom” and “equality”?
No question, those were the values that lay at the root of the otaku culture I was trying to introduce. Another way of looking at it was that discrimination and class systems were almost always viewed negatively in the entertainment I was bringing in. Can you imagine a main character saying, “So long as the foolish masses obey us of the ruling class and work as we demand, all is well”? Maybe as a gag, but never seriously.
What this all meant was that drumming up interest in otaku culture was practically the same as opposing—indeed, rebelling against—the basic structure of society here. If there was an outbreak of otaku-ism—if it became really popular—people would naturally start to absorb ideas like freedom and equality.
And some people would see that as an assault on particular values. A moral hazard. In fact, if it were being done deliberately, it could even be considered a disaster.
“We shall protect our nation, and the culture of our fathers, from the malign influence of invaders!” Alessio drew the sword at his hip. I froze at the chill steel at my neck. “Before it is too late, we, the assembly of patriots, shall warn the Eldant Empire of its foolishness!”
I couldn’t say anything.
“To begin with, we will make you an example and kill you!”
“Master—! Shinichi-sama!” Myusel cried from over by the wall.
Just when I thought my throat was about to be split...
“Will you not cease?” The voice that saved my life, sounding both exasperated and sad, was that of Petralka. “This is ridiculous. Have you done all this merely to kill Shinichi? If so, you’ve wasted your effort. He is a mere figurehead.”
This seemed to shake the men far more than any begging or shouting would have done.
“What do you mean?” Alessio said, turning to Petralka.
She smiled sadly and said, “He is but a messenger, retained by the country of Japan. As is this woman.” She indicated Minori-san. “They are neither aristocrats nor nobles in their country. To kill them would do Japan no harm. It would hardly be noticed. They would simply send someone else. Indeed, if such a thing happened in my country, I would raise up the murdered ones as tragic heroes and use them to stir up my servants. ‘These inhuman monsters have killed those who sought only to bring us peace and pleasant diversion,’ I would say. ‘Murdered them! This unscrupulous band of self-proclaimed patriots must not be allowed to exist!’”
The men looked at each other, startled. Then, with a disgusted noise, Alessio took his blade away from my neck. They let me go with violent force; I tumbled to the ground and crawled back to Myusel and the others.
“You are all right, Master? Are you hurt?!” Myusel looked like she might burst into tears. I felt the strength drain out of me, just thankful to have escaped with my life. I stole a glance at the terrorists and found them huddled up, whispering about something. Presumably they were talking about what to do next.
I was safe, for the moment. That thought was foremost in my mind, but...
“Are you okay, Shinichi-kun?” Minori-san asked.
I couldn’t bring myself to meet her eye. What Alessio and Petralka had said had caused me to realize something.
Was it possible we were—
“Shinichi-kun? Are you okay?”
“...I’m okay.”
This wasn’t the time for that question. I set aside my doubts for the moment and said, “Um... Any chance you can call in the special forces or something?”
I wasn’t sure about Eldant, but in Japan we had pros to deal with situations like this. Minori-san shook her head in frustration and said, “There are problems of jurisdiction.”
According to what she said next, the JSDF was well-equipped and well-trained, but because of the laws or something their hands were basically tied; there were restrictions that kept them from being able to respond to our situation. It didn’t help that all this stuff involving another world was not public. Anyway, even if they’d sent in the special forces, they wouldn’t have made it in time.
“We’ll have to do something on our own,” Minori-san said. “Shinichi-kun. Could you shove your face into my chest?”
“Huh?!”
I found myself doubting her sanity. Did she realize the position we were in? Not that I wasn’t extremely happy about her request.
“Y-You mean like this?!”
“Yes, right! H-Hey... You could afford to protest a little, you know!”
“Sorry,” I said. At the same moment, I realized I could feel something hard against my cheek. It was...
“Hrn...”
“Donf sob so buried (Don’t sound so worried),” I said. I had found what we were looking for.
“Shinichi?!” Petralka said. “What do you think you’re doing? At a time like this?!”
“Master?!
She and Myusel both seem to have the wrong idea—but now was hardly the time to explain. With the thing I had found still in my mouth, I lowered my head—crap, now it was going to look like I was trying to go for her butt as well as her boobs!—and when I felt her fingers brush my cheek, I opened my mouth.
“Thanks,” she smiled.
What had we transferred from my mouth to her hand? A fountain pen.
But I was sure she wouldn’t hide just any old fountain pen in the cleft of her breasts. The positioning of my body kept Alessio and his men from seeing what was going on as Minori-san worked the pen with her fingers, pulling off the barrel, where you would normally find the ink reservoir, to reveal a small knife, not quite ten centimeters long. A real pen knife!
I didn’t suppose that was standard-issue gear in the JSDF. It must have been a bit of private property.
“Where on earth did you...?”
“Heh. I thought something like this could happen, so I asked myself, ‘What would Fujiko do?’”
“What a question...”
I wouldn’t really expect younger otaku to get that one.
Here she was, carrying a knife designed not to look like a knife—someone had some strange hobbies.
“You’re so dense,” she said, working the knife in between the loops of rope around my hands. She wasn’t trying to cut them, just get the knife in there—so Alessio hadn’t noticed us yet.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
Petralka and Myusel were watching wide-eyed, but of course they knew better than to say anything that might attract Alessio’s attention.
“What are you planning?” Petralka whispered. “Cutting the rope will achieve nothing.”
“Yeah, fair enough.”
We were unarmed. They had swords, not to mention a bomb.
And me? I was a middle-class kid, and a shut-in to boot. Not to brag, but I totally lacked anything resembling fighting skills, and I didn’t have any convenient special powers I could activate during a situation like this. Sure, Minori-san was JSDF, but I figured even she couldn’t take on nine guys by herself. If only we had something, anything, that could serve as a weapon.
“Wait, I’ve got it,” I said. “There is a way we can fight.”
Petralka looked at me, puzzled. “What’s that?”
I looked out the window. In the distance, the dark of the night was broken up by lights—signal fires. The fires, built at set intervals, reflected off soldiers clad in body armor. I didn’t even have to look at the emblem on the flags they held—I knew it was the Eldant army.
They already had the school building surrounded. But they were keeping their distance, observing the situation, with no sign of doing more. I couldn’t really blame them—with the empress here, they couldn’t afford to do anything too forceful.
As for our situation, things were a little calmer for the time being. The terrorists had jumped at every little sound at first, but the more time passed and the more things settled down, the more they seemed to relax. They spent less time staring at us now, and some had even sheathed their swords. I had read someplace that humans can’t remain in a state of high alertness for very long. Our bodies are just built that way—even neurochemically.
“I wonder how long they plan to keep this up.”
It was a simple remark, and I hadn’t really been looking for an answer, but Petralka whispered back to me. “Traditionally, the hostage-takers send out a messenger at dawn,” she said. “But they also frequently kill one of the hostages to show how serious they are.”
“Y-Yikes...”
In other words, we had to do something before the sun came up. It probably wasn’t quite midnight yet, so we had some time, but we couldn’t afford to dawdle.
“U-Um...!” Myusel spoke up reluctantly.
“What is it?” the guard growled.
The maid was bright red and looking at the ground. “P-Please... let me go use the... the facilities...”
As a matter of fact, none of us had used the toilet since this whole ordeal began. It was understandable that some people might be reaching their limit. Several of the other students also looked hopefully at our captors.
“No,” the man said. “You can just go right here. It’s as much as a vile half-elf deserves.”
“Please...” she said. “For pity’s sake!”
“Shut your mouth!” the man shot back. “It’s no concern of mine.” Then he turned his back on Myusel, pointedly ignoring her.
“Well... What about me?”
All eyes in the room turned to me. The man turned around again and spat out, “Weren’t you listening? Do it right here!”
“Right, you said, ‘It’s as much as a vile half-elf deserves,’” I reminded him. “But I’m human.”
“Screw you. I don’t care if you’re—”
“Disgusting half-breeds aside,” Petralka put in, “are you really going to treat even Shinichi, a human, like that? It sounds like this vaunted ‘traditional class society’ of yours is an awfully selective place.”
The man turned red but couldn’t offer a comeback.
“Regardless of station,” Petralka went on, “by your own logic, any human is more to be respected than any elf, isn’t that right? If you claim he should simply sit here and wet himself like livestock in a field, right in front of all these people—well, it can only suggest that you men aren’t afraid to bend your own self-proclaimed rules.”
There was no one who could best the loli empress when it came to giving people a sarcastic dressing-down. Her childish looks no doubt made her words sting all the more. I guess there are some “M” types in the world who enjoy that sort of thing, but these terrorists weren’t among them. Probably.
“Hrgh...” The man’s face twisted in frustration.
<
br /> “Just take him.” A voice came from the entryway. It was Alessio. He was glaring at me and my friends. “It’s obvious they won’t shut up otherwise, and it’s depressing to have someone wet themselves in one’s presence, anyway.” He gestured with his chin, and the guard got up dejectedly. He came over to me and took me roughly by the arm.
“Come on. If you try anything funny, I’ll kill you.”
I was dizzy; he handled me about as gently as a suitcase.
He dragged me away from the wall. Right when we reached the door to the classroom, I stopped dead.
“What are you doing?!” the man demanded. “Hurry up and—”
This was my moment.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~!!
The quiet in the room was shattered by the music and singing that suddenly boomed from my pocket. My smart phone, which I had turned up to maximum volume, was playing its ringtone: the theme song from Rental☆Madoka.
Alessio looked as dumbfounded as the rest of his crew.
While Myusel had been distracting the guard, I had set the timer on my phone. Even people from my world, used to modern technology, would be surprised by a cell phone suddenly going off in a quiet library. So you can guess how much it startled these patriots, who knew nothing about such things.
“What the hell is that?!”
“This guy’s body is making some kind of weird music!”
The guard let go of me as fast as if he had realized he was holding onto a poisonous snake. Totally freaked out. Perfect.
“Don’t move,” I said, putting on my most menacing expression. This was it. I wasn’t much of an actor, but it was now or never. “I’ve already finished chanting my spell,” I said. “I can tear you guys apart anytime I feel like it.”
Think about the lyrics in that theme song: these people had never heard of rock or pop and couldn’t tell Japanese from English; if I said this was the incantation for a spell, who were they to deny it? And I was an outlander—they knew I had some special items not to be found in this world.
“No! He’s bluffing!” Alessio was looking at the crystal on his belt. “There’s no magic power here!”
The Power of Moe Page 17
