Funny how much of a sound sleeper the boss was.
Making it to the door, I found myself facing the brightly lit living room. It was finally starting to feel a little like morning.
The light was enough to rev me to action as I excitedly bounced toward the bathroom.
Turning downward for a moment, I saw both Konoha and my brother fast asleep, the former on the floor and the latter on the sofa across the table from him, clutching his phone.
“Hee-hee…All that fun he had outdoors must’ve exhausted the poor guy.”
He seemed to be pretty chummy with the rest of the Mekakushi-dan, at least. And I suppose I was doing my part to make him a contributing member of society again.
And once he recovered, maybe I could have him build a cute little house for all of us. That would be just darling.
Walking across the living room, I turned on the bathroom light and opened up the lower cabinet, moving the clothes I brought with me from home to the empty space by the sink.
Taking out a towel, I locked the door, removed the outfit I had on, and headed for the bath. Just as I did, there was a loud, violent rapping on the door.
“Gagghh!!”
In a huff, I wrapped the towel around me and edged away from the door.
“Um, excuse me! It’s Momo! I’m in the shower!”
But the loud knocking continued, completely ignoring my plea.
Something was starting to feel weird about this.
The gang who called this hideout home wouldn’t act like this once they knew I was in here. Dreadful images flashed across my mind.
“A, a break-in…?”
The person on the other side pounded on the door again. He must have heard me.
I was racked with surprised, startled fear.
“Aiiigh! I, I’m sorry! No, wait, I mean, ummmm, there’s nothing valuable in there, okay?! I’m serious! You know, one of them even called me a cow in broad daylight! Isn’t that just terrible…? Ha…ha-ha-ha…”
I slowly collapsed to the floor, administering last rites to myself, when I heard a familiar voice.
“Gran? …Wow, you’re awake?”
In an instant, I gave the door a board-splintering kick with all my might.
I could hear the voice on the other side yowl in surprise.
“…What are you doing out there?”
My voice noticeably shook as I seethed in disquietude. Why wouldn’t it? If this didn’t make me angry, what would?
“Whoa, whoa, chill out. I’m sorry…Um, is my vest in there?”
“Your vest?”
Looking at the topmost level of the cabinet I just took my clothes out from, I saw a white vest, neatly folded, that I assumed was Hibiya’s.
“Oh, yeah, I think this is it.”
“R-really?! Give it back! I got something important in there!”
“Something important? …Oho! So that’s what’s got you banging on the door, huh? That important to you…Gee, I wonder what could be in there, mmmmm?”
My pent-up resentment was probably pretty clear now, what with the spiteful tone of my voice. Hibiya, not picking up on this, gave me exactly the reaction I hoped for.
“Whoa, whoa, wait! Don’t steal it! That’s something really important I got from someone! You better not take it!”
“Well, boy, that just makes me wanna take it all the more. Let’s seeeeee here…”
“No! Really! Stop it!”
Turning a deaf ear to Hibiya’s door pounding, I thrust a hand into a vest pocket. It felt like there was some kind of paper bag inside.
“Ooh, bingo! I wonder what could be inside this bag…”
“N-noooooooooooooo!!”
I don’t remember very much about what happened after I took out the bag’s contents.
What I do remember is: me bursting out of the bathroom, all but shouting, “Please! Can you give this to me?!”; Hibiya turning tomato red as he saw me, and the light, delicate scent of a fish market. I could’ve been more discreet, I suppose, but otherwise I have zero regrets.
“A-haaa! I see. So you got swallowed up there, huh…? Boy, that’s a bad break…”
“Uh, Gran, you’re really not making any sense.”
“Hah-hah! Well, I think I’ve got the gist of it, anyway…”
We were a pretty fair distance from the hideout. The tree-lined sidewalks along the way offered just the right amount of sunlight, making it perfect for some friendly, urban summer hiking.
After our little early morning episode, Hibiya predictably tried to bust out of the hideout as soon as possible.
I tried my best to stop him—Kido mentioned that sudden “ability” manifestations like this were dangerous—but he refused to listen to reason. He did eventually agree to let me come along with him, and the rest is history.
Hibiya began to open up a bit about the accident he got wrapped up in around the time we stopped by a convenience store and shared a sandwich for breakfast.
But something was odd about it.
The story, as Hibiya explained it, was something I had trouble comprehending.
First he was hit by a truck; then he suddenly found himself wandering around in another world.
And there, after witnessing his female friend die over and over again like a broken record, he got spat back out by himself.
Even figuring out this much required tracing through three forced repetitions of Hibiya’s story. I had to applaud him for making all that effort for me.
That, and I suppose I’m a bit slower in the head than I thought. It happens to the best of us.
“All right. So to summarize, you’re trying to track down that Hiyori girl you got separated from, right?”
“Unh?! Um…you kinda summarized a lot there.”
Hibiya looked like he wanted to scream something to me, or to the world in general, but it never came out. Maybe he thought it wasn’t worth the effort.
“So do you like her?”
“Yeah…Wait! Gah! Did you have to ask me that?!”
“Oooh, thought so! Aren’t you quite the little man!”
That elementary-age innocence behind the reaction made me grin to myself. But not for long. Anything that made me seem any more grandmotherly around him, I hoped to avoid.
“Wha…! Ugh. Well, yeah, okay? I’ve always had a thing for her…but she kinda dumped me, so…”
“Huhh?! She dumped you?! Ooooh, bummer!”
“Knock that off, Gran! Why’re you getting so all excited over this…?”
Even as he fired back, Hibiya turned his eyes downward in the most darling expression of embarrassment I’d ever seen.
Just a boy coming to age. That’s all he seemed like to me.
But even though I only picked up bits and pieces of the story so far, there was no doubting that Hibiya was caught up in some pretty terrifying events. There was no way a boy his age could handle this crisis all by himself.
“But I still need to help her.”
Hibiya’s voice was hushed but resolute, despite my concern.
“Well, we gotta save her then, right?”
“…Yeah. We gotta.”
Was there something we could do to help him?
More to the point, why was Hibiya so obsessed with going it alone?
“So, uh, Hibiya? I’m just wondering…I’m assuming you ran out of that hospital so you could look for that girl, but…that’s gonna be kinda difficult, isn’t it? Wouldn’t it be better if we all looked together instead of you going around by yourself?”
Hibiya heaved a mighty, frustrated sign in response.
“I mean, didn’t you just see how much time it took for you to get my story, Grandma? I’m in, like, a huge hurry right now, so can you blame me if I figure doing this alone would work better?”
“Oof…”
I had nothing to say in response. My suggestion couldn’t have been refuted more thoroughly.
“Besides…”
“Besides?”
“Besides, I don’t care
if you don’t believe me or whatever, but if you people start getting in my way, it’s gonna drive me nuts, okay? I mean, time is kinda of the essence. I gotta help her.”
Hibiya’s eyes, despite his youth, were pointed straight ahead, toward his own future. I felt like I could almost depend on them, somehow.
But along with that youth came an oversize suitcase full of fragility.
Hibiya, a fresh transplant from the countryside, didn’t really know the lay of the land. He had hardly any cash to work with.
That, and no way could he have mastered whatever eye ability was coming to life. If that went out of control, he wouldn’t be the only one in trouble.
“…Well, I’m still gonna be with you. I’m worried.”
Hibiya stopped walking, disbelieving eyes pointed toward mine.
I could never figure out how to deal with a stare like that. I found myself grinning awkwardly, trying to pretend I said nothing.
“How would helping me help you at all, Gran? You and those other guys, too. Why are you all so hell-bent on hounding me like this? That’s what I’m having trouble trusting in.”
There were a few painful barbs to his reply, but that made him sound all the more darling to me.
Those feelings were probably the clearest reason I could give why I couldn’t leave this kid to fend for himself.
“…Totally like my brother.”
“Huh? What’d you say?”
“Right! Where were we? Okay. If that’s your take, then how about we do this, Hibiya? I’ll work with you, and if we manage to find that girl, you have to stop calling me ‘Gran.’ Oh, and ‘cow,’ too. Also, if you could avoid the…the whole f-f-‘fat’ thing…”
I stuttered a bit at the end, over a word that always seemed to present me with a serious mental block.
That’s what I deserve for starting at such a breakneck clip. I have got to start picturing the whole sentence in my mind before I start blabbing away.
“Uh, what? What’s that all about? Is that what you’re getting out of this?”
“Yep! If I can make that happen, I’m happy as a clam! Oh, and it’d be nice if we became friends and stuff, too!”
I crossed my arms as I spoke, drumming up as much contrived confidence as I could. Hibiya, for the first time, offered me a smile.
“…You are so weird, Gran. What if I still can’t find her, even with you around? What’re you gonna do for me then?”
“Hmm…Well…”
I thought I would spout something off the top of my head again. But I didn’t need to. It was such a simple question:
What would the Mekakushi-dan do?
All I had to do was channel that thought, and the answer would make itself obvious.
Looking into Hibiya’s eyes, I spoke as clearly as I could.
“…I’ll give you support until we do.”
The members of the Mekakushi-dan knew all too well how hard it was to sit in anguish by yourself.
That’s why they helped me out…and why I’m able to smile a little now.
So now it’s my turn to support somebody else.
As a rookie member of the Gang, I knew that had to be my most important assignment right now.
“Uh, Gran, do you even realize how embarrassing that sounds?”
When he finished talking, Hibiya turned his quickly reddening face to the side.
I found myself doing the same thing, turning downward as I began to feel my head grow warm. I wasn’t deaf. I could hear how embarrassing it was, too, to be brutally honest with myself.
Why was I letting myself act all ashamed around this grade-schooler?
As I dwelled on it, I saw Hibiya stagger on the sidewalk.
I shot an arm out to support his back, helping him regain his balance as he held a hand against his head.
“Um, I…I’m getting all light-headed…”
“Wh-what’s going on…Ah!”
Peering into Hibiya’s face, I noticed that, while his right eye was hidden behind his palm, his left was now a bright shade of red.
Oh, no. That color. Crystal-clear evidence that Hibiya’s ability was grinding into motion.
None of the abilities I’d personally witnessed before were the kind of things that seriously hurt anyone. But they were all so different, so unrelated to one another, there was no way I could begin to predict what Hibiya wielded power over.
This sudden development quickly fanned the flames of terror burning in my heart.
So much for that. And right after I said I’d support him, too. I have to do better than this…!
“Hibiya! Do you feel anything strange going on with your body anywhere?!”
“N-no. I feel okay, but…it’s like I’m seeing this weird thing. What’s…Is that a clock tower…? It’s like a four-story building or something. Maybe a…school? I think I see some guys in gym clothes.”
Hibiya stared into empty space as he described the features of the building he perceived.
And the more details he gave, the more I realized that his description matched a place I knew pretty well myself.
“Th-that’s the school I go to, isn’t it?”
“What?! Here?! Oh, wait…Wow, it is. One of the shoe lockers has ‘Momo Kisaragi’ written on it. And is this…the teacher’s office? Oh, here’s one of your geography tests…Jeez, you got a one?! That’s not seriously out of one hundred, is it?”
“Aaghghhhhh!! W-why do you know that, Hibiya?!”
The test so suddenly rearing its ugly head into the conversation definitely belonged to me. There was no doubting it. I still remembered how badly I bombed that exam.
But why would Hibiya know about that? Between his red eyes and his testimony, even an idiot like me could figure out what his ability was.
“So you got…like, remote vision, or…?”
“…I think so.”
When our gazes met, the red faded from Hibiya’s eyes as they returned to their regular color.
“W-whoa! It’s gone, but…Why?!”
“Eesh…It’s just anything goes with these eyes, isn’t it?”
It looked like the ability birthed within Hibiya’s eyes was the power to see things from far away.
He accurately described my school, right down to my paltry test scores. Judging by that, he could control what he saw to some extent.
“That is so awesome…”
I couldn’t even hide my childish disappointment.
If there was some kind of Top Ten Wacky Eye Skills Today’s Youth Are Clamoring For list, Hibiya’s ability would definitely make it into the top three or so.
And look at my ability. Ooh, I stick out a lot. Yippeeeee. For the first time in my life, I wished my eyes could’ve done something more practical for me.
“Huh? What? What do you mean?!”
Hibiya’s head darted around, unable to comprehend what just happened.
I couldn’t blame him. With my ability, it took me a while to notice I even had it at all.
“Okay, well…Long story short, Hibiya, when your eyes turn red like that, you gain the ability to see faraway things…Probably.”
“Turn red…?”
“Yep. Your eyes were bright red just a second ago.”
Hibiya froze for a moment. Then, his face beamed brighter than anything I’d seen from him before.
“So it’s like ESP or something?!”
“Uh…yeah. I think so, probably.”
It wasn’t like I understood every nook and cranny of it, but I felt safe in confirming that much to him.
But why was Hibiya poking around my high school, anyway? Why would he—
“So, uh, I dunno if it’ll work or not, but do you think I could use this to find Hiyori?!”
Hibiya’s words brought me back to reality.
He was right. That was the perfect skill to track someone down with.
If we could harness it to figure out where Hiyori was…
“We totally could, Hibiya! That’s great! Here, try doing i
t again!”
“Um, okay! All right. Nnnnnnngh…c’mon, loooooooooook…”
Hibiya planted both feet on the ground and tensed his body, like a certain anime superhero trying to make his hairdo turn all blond and spiky.
“Rrrrrrnnnhh…”
“Right, right! Keep it going!”
“Grrrhh…aaaaahhhhhhh…”
“Hang in there! You got this!”
“Hsssskkkhhh…nrrraaaaahhhh…!!”
This went on for three minutes or so.
The sight of Hibiya flexing his muscles on the sidewalk was starting to seem a bit awkward.
“…Nothing yet?”
“Orrrrrggghhh…Nothiiiiiiing…yeeeeeettttt…!!”
The ability must have been too new for Hibiya to control at will quite yet.
It was kind of a shame. The perfect ability to make Hibiya’s most fervent wish come true, but it didn’t mean much if he couldn’t summon it.
I wish I could have done something to trigger it for him, but I surmised that it wasn’t the kind of thing that required intense concentration or anything.
“Well, that’s rough…Wish I could get it back, ’cause I think I was really on to something there…Uh?”
As Hibiya tensed his upper body one more time, a woman in a miniskirt passed by his side down the sidewalk. Then, everything fell into place.
A sudden breeze tossed the fringes of the skirt into the air. For a single instant, Hibiya’s gaze was transfixed on the sight.
“Agh! I, I think I can see it! A room…I think it’s that girl’s room? There’s a photo of her…A big pile of laundry, too…Yeoww!”
I punched Hibiya full-bore on the head, draining the red from his eyes in the process.
“Hey! Are you seriously trying here?! And that’s what triggers it?! You getting the hots for someone?!”
“What?! I don’t know! It just turned on by itself!”
“Yeah, that’s not all that got turned on, I bet…Guess you’re kind of an early starter, huh?”
“It’s not that! I swear! I have no idea what’s going on…”
Standing next to Hibiya as he vigorously attempted to defend himself, I felt a theory take form in my head.
Oh, dear. If that was the case, this wasn’t better at all. It was very, very bad.
“Hey, uh, Gran? How do you think I can see where Hiyori is…?”
The Children Reason Page 11
