“Hey, Minori. You’re in a good mood.”
“Yeppers, I got exactly what I wanted for White Day!”
With a twinkle in her eye, Minori twirled around the bathroom floor like a ballerina.
“She’s been like this every day this week.” Mafuyu’s eyes narrowed as she grimaced.
“Now that you mention it, I guess it is cherry blossom season already.”
March was the season for cherry blossoms. The season for love. Countless couples from this school were happily born right under the blossoming cherry trees on the last day of the school year. After having spent the past year pursuing Yukihiko on the soccer team, Minori was on the verge of being rewarded for her efforts.
Suddenly, Minori stopped twirling.
“Say, Mafuyu, Saika, I’m going shopping at Harajuku today to buy an outfit for my date the day after tomorrow. Wanna come?”
“Sorry,” I replied. “We’ve got a battle today.”
“Oh yeah. Friday. I forgot.” Minori stuck out her tongue. “But every week? Good grief!”
“No kidding. I want the experience of a happy ending beneath the cherry blossoms too, you know. But as long as I’m playing Silverfist, only otaku boys come a-knockin’, and I don’t have the time to be chasing after boys.” I let out a deep sigh. This was a serious problem for a young girl. “I’ve been at this for two years already. It’s time I passed the torch—hey, Minori.”
“Yeah?”
I pulled up my left sleeve and flashed the silver bracelet on my arm.
“Wanna give her a try in April?”
“Nooo!” Minori laughed and stuck out her tongue. “The next time I’m reborn, I’m definitely going the love-simulation route again! I’m going to keep on going after Yukihiko! See ya! Have fun at the battle!”
Minori pranced out the door just as cheerfully as she’d come in.
“Probably not a good idea to whine about playing Silverfist when you’re trying to pass her on to someone.”
As usual, Mafuyu’s remark was right on the mark.
“What about you?” I asked. “Are you all right being Parfait all the time?”
“It’s the way I was born…”
That’s right. Mafuyu can’t just trade off with someone like I can. I began to feel sorry for her for a second before I remembered that unlike me, she was always getting love letters from boys.
“Why are you so popular with the boys when they know you’re SI? I don’t get it.”
“Maybe your lack of appeal for the boys doesn’t have so much to do with Silver but with how you act in your normal life.”
“As cute as you look, you sure are harsh.”
“It’s the way I was born,” Mafuyu said, completely deadpan.
I decided to send Saeko a reply.
Who’s the sick bastard that’s doing this to you? And what’s the hero of your world waiting for anyway?
Lunch period came and went. Even after the school day was over, there was no word from Saeko. I wondered if she was busy.
Mafuyu and I rode the Seibu Ikebukuro Line downtown. We got off at Ikebukuro as usual and made our way up to the 720-foot-high observation deck on the roof of the Shunsign 60 Building. Based on prior experience, we knew that this was the best vantage point to get a full view of the city center on a late Friday afternoon. Once we knew where the event would take place, it would take no time at all to fly there from this location.
The security guard on duty knew us by now. He greeted us with a smile and told us to “Go knock ’em dead!” Even though I knew he was one of the extras, it still felt good to have someone cheering us on.
The sun was slanting westward, and the sky was beginning to turn a brilliant orange.
“About what we were talking about this morning…” Mafuyu said while we waited. “I wonder if the world Saeko and Yuma are from is the First World.”
“What?!”
Mafuyu was always thinking up stuff that I didn’t.
Although it wasn’t written in any textbook, it was common knowledge that there were many worlds. Alien invaders from other worlds appeared every now and then, and you often heard about heroes being summoned to other worlds only to be safely returned again. They were usually summoned to medieval fantasy worlds, but apparently there were worlds that were also similar to ours. The idea of Saeko living in one of those worlds didn’t sound strange in the least.
But the First World…
“Why—”
Before I could ask the question, a huge black shadow outside the window swooped past us. The shock wave shattered the glass.
“Whoa!”
I hadn’t been expecting a sudden attack. I crouched down on the floor as tiny shards of reinforced glass rained down around me.
When I looked up to survey the damage, the observation deck was a shambles. All of the windows were blown out, and the howling wind whipped across the deck.
“Are you hurt?” Mafuyu asked.
“I’m… fine!”
We rushed to the window. A black shadow circled the orange sky. The monster had wings like a bat and a long tail.
“Are we skipping the street fight and going straight to the monster battle?” I shrieked.
The Hell Xenocide had to be behind this bad boy!
“Looks like it’s Kento’s turn this week.”
“He’s been coming to the party late recently.”
We watched the monster drop down and land somewhere near Suidobashi. It didn’t look like we could just sit around waiting for Kento to arrive.
“Oh well. Let’s do this.”
“Okay.”
Mafuyu took out her baton. I pulled up my sleeve and flashed the bracelet on my left arm. There was a crowd gathered around us. Before, when I had yet to reveal my secret identity, I usually had to tell friends some lame excuse like, “Sorry, I just remembered something I had to do,” before sneaking off, but that wasn’t necessary anymore.
Mafuyu waved her baton and began her incantation. Assuming my usual pose, I pressed the button on the bracelet.
“Metal congelation!”
Congelation sequence launched. A brilliant light burst from the bracelet. A glittering cloud of silver particles materialized and whirled around me like a twister. A resistance field appeared, and my feet levitated several inches off the ground. The swirling particles gathered around my legs as if by some electrostatic force. My shoes and socks fell away, and the particles congealed around my bare feet to form a pair of metal boots.
The particles swarmed around my shins, knees, and thighs, covering them in an elastic metallic silver membrane. As my school uniform and underwear fell away one item after the next, the formfitting armor congealed around my body. Fortunately, no one was able to see me since the particles emitted a bright light during the congelation sequence. The hemispherical metallic cups felt snug around my breasts. The metal felt nice and cool against my skin.
The shoulder guards congealed. From there, the thin armor spread down both arms and covered my hands in bulky gauntlets. The remaining particles swarmed around my head and fastened against my orange hair like a hair band. From there, a tinted visor slid down in front of my eyes and morphed into a pair of goggles. Transformation complete.
Next to me, Mafuyu had already completed her transformation. Blue hair accented with a big ribbon shaped like rabbit’s ears. A colorful frilly dress and black tights.
No wonder it took me so long to realize Mafuyu Mido, the girl from the class next door, was Magical Girl Twinkle Parfait. She didn’t wear her glasses as her alter ego. She hadn’t realized I was Silverfist either because of the tinted goggles shielding my eyes.
“Here I go.”
With one wave of her baton, a broom appeared at Mafuyu’s feet. She hopped on the broom and swooshed away out through the broken window. She stood on the broom like a surfer. Modern witches didn’t straddle their brooms like in the olden days.
I shouted, “Come, Komet Yaeger!” and jumped out of the window. A
fighter jet came out of nowhere (it really did come out of nowhere) and plummeted toward me as it morphed into enormous wings that attached to my back.
“Go get ’em!”
“It’s up to you!”
The onlookers waved at us from the broken window of the Shunsign Building.
I hit my thrusters. Boom! I zoomed through the air, and in a matter of seconds, I was at Suidobashi. Back when I first took over the bracelet from my predecessor, I overshot my destination tons of times, but now I could gauge my distance and slam on the reverse thrusters to stop on a dime.
“Gyahhh!” The monster had put its foot through the white domed roof of Attraction Park Stadium. It had a face like one of those stone guardians at a shrine, and was about as tall as a ten-story building. Hundreds of people ran screaming out of the amusement park. The monster flapped its wings, kicking up a gale-force wind that sent women and children flying through the air like fallen leaves.
Mafuyu flew into the wind on her broom. She waved her baton. The falling people were showered in a rainbow of light that transformed into an enormous balloon, carrying them to safety.
Several people went crashing down on the asphalt or were slammed against buildings. Even though I knew most of them were extras, I wasn’t too crazy about seeing them hurtled to their deaths. Some of them might have been main characters on the verge of clearing their sims—now their programs would have to be reset. That blasted Xenocide!
“Cut that out!”
I dove down and delivered a punch to the monster’s head. There was a dull sound, but it didn’t look like the monster felt it. It turned around and opened its big mouth. Come and get me!
A red-hot beam shot out of its mouth. I aimed with my gauntlet and fired my axion beam at the same time. Sparks flew as the two beams—one red, one white—collided in midair.
“Bastard!”
My beam was stronger. The white beam slowly pushed back the red one and exploded in the monster’s face. The monster disappeared in a cloud of smoke and flames.
“Take that!” I shouted triumphantly.
But then the monster came out of the smoke unscathed.
“Whoops, you’re tougher than you look.”
The monster climbed out of what remained of the domed stadium, flattened the merry-go-round to a pancake, and knocked down the nearby Ferris wheel and parachute towers as it surged toward me. It flailed its short arms like some spoiled brat but missed me by a mile.
Throwing a hissy fit, the monster snatched the train from a roller coaster, ripping it from the rails. There were people still inside the cars!
“Stop that right this minute!” I shouted.
Grabbing the train by the tail end, the monster whirled it around like nunchucks and charged me. I could hear the passengers screaming hysterically as they hung on for dear life. There was no way I could attack the monster now without killing the innocent civilians.
The monster reared back and swung down at me with its newly found weapon. If I dodged the attack, the roller coaster would be smashed to smithereens. I had no choice but to stop it.
“Grf!”
I tried to absorb the blow with my body. Boy, did he pack a wallop! I was on a collision course with the ground. I gritted my teeth and slammed on the thrusters. Somehow I managed to stop mere inches short of the pavement.
“You can do it, Silverfist!” A little boy on the coaster cheered me on, wiping away his tears.
“Right!”
I blasted off at full power and hoisted the roller coaster above my head. The monster tried to reclaim its weapon, but I refused to let go. Just then, Mafuyu swooped in on her broom and made a giant can of inflammatory spray appear. She sprayed the monster in the eyes (use only as directed).
The air instantly became pungent with the smell of menthol. The monster let go of the roller coaster and clawed at its face in agony. I flew the roller coaster to Koishikawa Garden and set it down gently next to the pond.
“Thanks, Silverfist!”
Heartened by the boy’s cheers, I flew back into the fray.
The monster was now chasing Mafuyu around—staggering blindly after her was more like it.
“Marco!” Mafuyu was trying to lure the monster in the direction of Suidobashi Station.
The monster slammed one foot through Suidobashi Bridge and straight into the Kandagawa River below. Losing its balance, the monster fell over onto the train tracks with an earth-rattling thud. It got tangled in the intricate network of wires and couldn’t get up.
I flew back toward the amusement park.
“Hrrgh!” I grabbed hold of the roller-coaster track and pulled with all my might. I tore up a length of track from the ground and wrapped it around the monster. It was completely tied up in the steel rails, unable to break free, but how long would that last?
We have to get him to a place where he can’t do any more damage!
“Give me a hand!”
With one wave of Mafuyu’s baton, the monster was showered in a rainbow of magic, and from it appeared hundreds of colorful balloons tied to the monster. He might not be weightless, but it was going to be a lot easier to move him now.
“Lead the way!”
Even before I said it, Mafuyu was already heading down Hakusan Street zapping the people and cars on the street out of harm’s way. Having known each other for a while now, she knew exactly what I was thinking. We were completely on the same wavelength.
“Hrmph!” I grabbed the monster by the neck and powered my thrusters on full. It was slow going at first, but gradually we picked up speed as I dragged him down Hakusan Street. The monster struggled desperately to break free. Its serrated dorsal fin scraped and dug up the asphalt. Traffic lights, billboards, and trees were knocked down in our wake. Every time one of its arms or wings struck a building, the glass and concrete flew in every direction, accompanied by a thunderous boom. Some buildings were completely flattened. It was a horrible sight, but I had to overlook it today. It was all going to be back to its original state by tomorrow morning anyway.
We zoomed past the main intersection of Jimbocho at a hundred kilometers an hour. Just when we were about to reach our destination, the monster broke free. I loosened my grip. The monster went sliding down the street, destroying every building in its path until it crashed into the Hitotsubashi viaduct and stopped.
Shaking off the bits of concrete from its body, it stood up and clawed at the balloons tangled around it.
“Gyaahh!”
Ooh, now he’s really ticked off!
Luckily for Mafuyu and me, that made it easier for us to lure the monster to where we wanted. It splashed across the moat and entered the garden grounds. Now that there were no people around, we could battle to our heart’s content.
The place was nicknamed Monster Plaza. No one knew its official name or why there was such a big clearing in the middle of the city, but it was a convenient battleground, so we made of use it.
The monster spread its wings and looked ready to pounce. Just then, missiles rained down on the monster and sent him crashing to the ground.
“Sorry to keep you waiting!” said a cheerful voice.
A human silhouette descended from the sunset sky and touched down in front of the monster. It was a giant robot forty meters high.
“What took you so long, Kento?”
“Sorry, guys! Leave the rest to me!”
With that, the Super Robot Dangan-oh, with Kento Hagane at the controls, charged the monster.
Leaving the rest to Kento, Mafuyu and I landed on the roof of the Palace Hotel to take a breather. We sat on the edge of the roof and watched Kento do his thing.
“About what you said earlier,” I said to Mafuyu. We stared at Dangan-oh wrestling the monster with the sun setting behind them. “Why do you think Saeko is from the First World?”
“There were times when it seemed Yuma knew exactly what I was up to, including my being Parfait.”
“So?”
“I read a rumo
r on the Internet that people from the First World can peek into our world whenever they want. They have some sort of crystal ball they look through.”
News to me!
“The First World…”
Apparently each of the many worlds in existence had laws of physics that were just a tiny bit different. I had also heard a rumor that there were some worlds where a fifteen-year-old could actually turn sixteen on her birthday. High school sophomores advanced to their junior year in April. What was life like then? I couldn’t imagine. I wondered whether you just started over from age ten if you died.
Somewhere there was a world that was the foundation for all the other worlds—I had heard this urban legend before. This world had many names, like the First World, Original World, and Zero-Zero World. All the other worlds had branched off and originated from the First World. Of course, these were only rumors. No one had ever seen this world or any physical evidence of its existence. But there was plenty of circumstantial evidence.
There were some odd gaps in our world. Actually, our world had quite a few gaps.
Take the bathrooms at school, for example. Every time we had a break between classes, we—especially the girls—always got the urge to run to the bathroom. It was the perfect place to talk about this and that with just us girls. Nothing wrong with that. What was strange were the toilets in each of the stalls. They had lids and pipes running from them and didn’t look like just ordinary chairs. They also had levers that didn’t move. They were probably very handy contraptions, but no one knew just what they were good for.
Then there was the radius of action. I always rode the Seibu Ikebukuro Line, but I’d never been able to go farther west than Shakujii Park. Whenever I tried to get on the westbound train for Tokorozawa, I was assaulted by an overwhelming desire not to go. It was the same with a lot of the buildings along the streets. You were able to enter only a fraction of the buildings, like certain train stations, department stores, supermarkets, and restaurants. If you tried to go into any of the other buildings, you were hit with the urge not to go. When you took a good look at the buildings knocked down by the monsters, they didn’t seem to have anything in them.
The Stories of Ibis Page 15
