The only ones who were earnestly listening were Kanako and Aiko. Natsuki was listening quietly, too, but her thoughts were as opaque as ever.
Yuichi definitely wasn’t listening. He checked the time — it was 4:00 — then turned his eyes back to the magazine.
Noticing the action, Aiko asked Yuichi a question. “Hey, isn’t it time?”
“Yeah, it is,” he grumbled. “I’m not going, though...”
Aiko’s statement had been encouraging, yet she seemed somehow relieved by this response.
“Huh? What happened? Actually, aren’t you acting pretty weird today, Yu? You’ve been totally self-centered this whole time!” Mutsuko declared.
“I don’t want to hear that from someone ranting about the fate of big sister characters...” Yuichi said as he averted his eyes. But she was right: he was feeling anxious.
It had all started with the love letter he’d found in his shoe cubby that morning.
✽✽✽✽✽
That morning, Yuichi had walked to school with Aiko like always.
The wolfman Nero, in dog form, walked beside her. His label was “Fenrir.” Apparently this had no direct connection to the giant wolf from Norse mythology, but as Nero had apparently killed gods before, they’d started calling him that after the myth.
Nero had appeared suddenly during Yuichi’s summer training camp. He’d referred to Aiko as “princess,” acted as her servant, and accompanied her to school as a bodyguard, as well. It was unnatural to see a dog walking around without a collar, but Aiko had said she didn’t want to put a collar on a sentient being.
“It’s getting pretty cold, huh?” Aiko commented.
“Not cold enough for coats yet, at least,” Yuichi replied. They’d started wearing their winter uniforms recently, and Yuichi could feel the weather growing more autumn-like.
“It’s about time for the culture festival, huh?” Aiko asked. “What’s the survival club gonna do?”
“No clue,” said Yuichi. “Sis might not have much interest in that kind of thing.”
Aiko looked surprised by that. “Really? I thought she liked big events like that.”
“Hmm, she does like a good party, but she’s also pretty considerate of others, despite everything,” said Yuichi. “She’s aware that she sticks out. Of course, she still does whatever she wants...”
“I see. It’s a shame that it doesn’t seem like we’re doing much as a class, either, though...” she murmured.
Yuichi’s class had decided to hold a movie screening. It didn’t require much preparation, and it was funded mostly by Yuri Konishi’s money, apparently. That meant there wasn’t much for Yuichi and the others to do.
“The year is a little over half finished,” said Aiko. “Have you started thinking about what you’ll do after graduation?”
It was around the time that the fact that they were in high school was really starting to sink in. It sounded like Aiko was starting to think about her career path.
“I dunno,” said Yuichi. “I was thinking of a doctor or a policeman...”
“Wow, you’ve already thought about it... but why those?” Aiko asked.
“Well... I want to be useful to people, and those seem like the best fields to make use of my talents.” Yuichi felt a little embarrassed to be talking about his future plans.
“You’re strong, so I can see why police,” said Aiko. “But why doctor?”
“It’s hard to explain... I can tell what’s wrong and how to fix it, instinctively. It’s because of the stuff my sister’s made me do.”
Doing old martial arts also came with in-depth knowledge about the human body. It seemed there really were martial artists who could improve people’s lives through their knowledge of healing.
Yuichi had confidence in his huo fa, techniques for helping people live better lives. It was like the other side of the coin from his killing techniques.
“And martial arts seems useful for police on the face of it, right?” he added.
“True... you won’t have to worry about violent criminals with handguns...” Aiko said thoughtfully, as if remembering something.
“I think you should join Precinct 0!” Mutsuko interrupted, having appeared beside them at some point.
“What the heck? I told you I didn’t want to walk to school with you!” Yuichi yelled at Mutsuko. He’d intentionally left the house at a different time, but now it meant nothing.
“They investigate impossible crimes, and they’re given special license to perform warrantless searches! They also have a murder license that lets them kill people!” Mutsuko exclaimed.
“That sounds like an awful place to work!” Of course, Yuichi now knew about all the strange things happened in the world. The existence of such a place sounded all the more plausible.
“Anyway, off I go! Let the third wheel begone!” With that, Mutsuko began running towards the school.
“‘Let the third wheel begone’? What era are you from?” Yuichi muttered. It seemed like she did respect Yuichi’s desire to walk to school without her, though. Maybe she just hadn’t been able to help speaking up after overhearing their talk about police.
“I think being a doctor would be nice,” Aiko said happily. “Yeah, very peaceful. And you could work at our hospital, too! We’d pay you well!”
“Your hospital does seem pretty well off, Noro,” Yuichi agreed.
While they were discussing that, they arrived at school. They walked into the entryway hall and opened up their shoe cubbies to retrieve their indoor slippers.
“Hmm?” Yuichi tilted his head as he noticed something strange in his cubby.
There was a letter inside.
“Hey... isn’t that...” Clearly noticing Yuichi’s strange behavior, Aiko walked up to him and peeked inside.
Yuichi reached in and retrieved the object. It was definitely a letter. It was in a pink envelope sealed with a sticker that looked like a heart.
He turned it over and saw it addressed to “Mr. Yuichi Sakaki,” so there could be no confusion as to whom it was for.
“A love letter!” Aiko shouted, and the eyes of all the other students turned towards him.
✽✽✽✽✽
Yuichi finished telling the story about the shoe cubbies.
“I see,” said Mutsuko. “And the love letter asked to meet you in the courtyard at 4:00 today? So that’s why you seem so on edge!”
“I’m not on edge!” he snapped. Something about her tone was getting on his nerves.
“But why does Noro know what’s in the love letter?” Kanako asked suspiciously.
“Huh? Oh, well... I accidentally opened it...” Aiko said apologetically.
“You call that accidentally?” Yuichi asked.
Aiko had reddened, plunged in, and snatched the love letter away. Then she’d broken the seal and started reading it.
“Well, you know... I was curious, right?” Aiko fumbled. “You don’t see people write love letters very often nowadays, and I wanted to see what they wrote in it, and... sorry...”
She sounded like she was trying to excuse herself at first, then halfway through she’d just realized it wasn’t working and apologized instead.
“Nah, that’s okay,” said Yuichi. “I don’t really feel like going...”
“No, no, no! You need to go and hear them out!” Mutsuko proclaimed as she pounded on the whiteboard.
He had assumed she wouldn’t care about this sort of thing, but she seemed surprisingly invested in it.
“Huh? But...”
“No buts! There are some forms of selfishness that I can’t forgive! It takes courage to send somebody a love letter, and ignoring that is just rude! Now, hurry up and go!”
Yuichi stood up, as if driven out of his seat. He still wasn’t feeling it at all, but now that she’d mentioned it, maybe it would be rude to ignore it. If he was going to turn this person down, he should do it face-to-face.
“Okay. I’ll go.” Grudgingly, Yuichi left the roo
m and headed for the courtyard.
“Why are you coming along, Noro?” he asked.
“Wh-What’s the big deal? I need to make sure you don’t do anything to hurt her feelings,” Aiko said sulkily.
The two walked side by side down the corridor towards the courtyard.
“Well, okay...” If that was all it was, then Yuichi didn’t mind.
To be frank, he wasn’t fully confident he wouldn’t hurt the person’s feelings. As pathetic as it was, he thought, it might be nice to have her there to cover for him if he said anything stupid. When he thought about it that way, he was glad to have her with him.
The meeting time had been at 4:00 in the courtyard, but it was already ten minutes past. Part of Yuichi was hoping the love letter’s sender might have gone home already.
“Hey... what’s the person like?” Aiko asked.
“You didn’t see the letter?”
“I-It’s not like I read every single line!”
“They didn’t write their name,” Yuichi said. “Only their initials, C.D.”
“Don’t you think it’s a little fishy?” Aiko asked. “Most people would write their full name, don’t you think?”
“That is true,” he agreed. “It’s a bit strange that they wouldn’t reveal their identity.”
Aiko stopped at the exit to the courtyard.
“You aren’t coming with me?” Yuichi asked, finding it curious. He had assumed she would stick by him the whole time.
“Um, I’m not that rude,” said Aiko. “I’ll just watch quietly from the sidelines.”
“Yeah, I guess it would be weird if two people came to meet them.” And so, Yuichi entered the courtyard alone.
He headed for the designated spot, a clock tower near the center of the courtyard. Nobody was there waiting for him.
I guess they went home, after all...
Still, it would be a little cruel to just leave right away, so he just sat down on a nearby bench. But after a few minutes of waiting, there was no sign of anybody coming.
I wonder if it was all a prank...
That thought had never entered Yuichi’s mind when he was on the way, but now, he fell into vague self-recrimination. He sighed and hung his head. He had thought maybe he was worthy of receiving a love letter, but perhaps he was just being conceited.
Yuichi decided to focus his senses on the surrounding area. If it was a prank, somebody might be watching him, but he was hesitant to just start looking all around.
He sensed two presences nearby. One of them was Aiko, who was still inside the school, watching.
The other was at the entrance to the school on the opposite side. That person seemed to be watching him, too. If this was a prank, this person might be the one behind it.
What should he do now, then? Just as he started thinking that over, the presence began to come closer.
It was heading straight for Yuichi.
As Yuichi looked up, he was shocked by what he saw.
What do you have to eat to look like that?! was Yuichi’s first impression upon seeing the approaching girl.
Heavyset people’s bodies were often likened to beer barrels, but in this case, the resemblance was uncanny.
She was shorter than Yuichi, and far thicker. To get that heavy, you’d need a near religious devotion to eating.
Her blazer must have been special order, and even then, seemed like it was on the verge of bursting — which meant that she had gotten even bigger since the uniform had first been made for her.
Did we have someone like her in the school? Yuichi thought. He was sure that if he’d seen someone like this walking around the halls, he would remember, which suggested they must have never crossed paths before.
Yuichi quickly tore his eyes away from the girl’s body to look her in the face. Her hair was dyed brown, done up in a short bob with gentle waves, and her eyes were large and clear. By itself, her face seemed like it might be rather attractive, but it was hard to think about anything but her weight.
Maybe she just happens to be passing by... he thought. Just because she was heavyset was no reason to assume she had set him up.
Still, he had an uneasy feeling about this: her walk was the picture of confidence. Mutsuko walked like that, too. It sparked a feeling in his gut that this girl was going to be a real handful. He’d rather not get involved with her if he could avoid it.
Yuichi kept up his vain hopes, right until the moment the girl was standing right in front of him. Then she met his eyes confidently.
“Yuichi Sakaki... it was bold of you to meet my challenge!”
“Huh?” Her dramatic intonation left Yuichi confused.
Huh? So this wasn’t about a love confession, or a prank? he thought.
“Truly, my plan was perfect,” the girl declared. “To such a shallow man as you, a letter like that would be the perfect bait!”
Is she trying to be “Supreme Ruler of the Century’s End”? wondered Yuichi. Though she looks more like Fudou of the Mountains...
Yuichi remained seated, staring up at the girl’s face in disbelief. Then his eyes strayed a bit higher. The word “Heir” hung above her head.
Heir... that could refer to a lot of things, he thought. A martial art, maybe?
Doubts rose up in his mind, though. There were lots of things in Japan that you could be heir to. It wasn’t necessarily something violent.
“Uh... so you’re the one who asked me out here, huh? What’s the deal?” Yuichi would never usually be so informal with a girl he’d just met, but he would feel like a fool responding with polite speech to the kinds of things she was saying.
“The deal, eh?” The girl let out a cocky laugh. “Don’t play dumb with me. I’ve got these eyes, see! Nobody fools my Apocalypse Eyes!”
Suddenly, alarm bells sounded out in Yuichi’s mind. Not long ago, he would have just taken that as the mad rantings of middle school syndrome. But now it was different. Now that he had Soul Reader, he knew that things like vampires and supernatural beings really existed. He had also heard that there were people being given strange powers through the Divine Vessels, parts of the Evil God.
“What are you talking about?” Yuichi asked cautiously. Maybe she was just feeling him out; he wouldn’t want to give her information she didn’t already have by blurting things out carelessly.
“Mine eyes speak to me of thy power!” the girl exclaimed. “Thine is 18,000... ne’er have I seen another higher at this school!”
“Not that I care, but could you keep your speech pattern straight?!” Yuichi blurted out. It was really annoying, the way she kept changing it.
But she merely laughed it off. “Such willpower you show! Impressed am I!”
“Okay, so you’re telling me that these ‘Apocalypse Eyes’ of yours can read someone’s battle power level?” he asked. It didn’t seem like she was going to spring an attack on him abruptly, so he decided to start with that.
His ability to hold a conversation with such obnoxiousness was thanks to his interactions with Mutsuko. It wasn’t something he was proud of.
“But of course!” the girl declared. “I can see ze numbers above a person’s head. Zis ability is what proves I am ze chosen one!”
“Okay. So, what’s with the threatening name?” he asked. “Why can’t you just call it a Scouter or something?”
Silence fell.
The girl just stood there, an embarrassed expression on her face. Yuichi was starting to feel a little awkward.
“S-Silence, rabble! We call our eyes Apocalypse Eyes!” she protested, suddenly.
What was with the royal we?
He sighed. “So, what do you want? And what’s your name, anyway?”
“I have no name for trash like you!” she snapped.
You’re the one who called me out here...
This was starting to get ridiculous, Yuichi thought. Maybe if he just walked away, she would turn out to be harmless.
“Oh, hey, Chiharu!” a voice was calling
out from the school building. “We’re going out to karaoke. Wanna come?”
There was a group of three girls calling out to the fat girl standing in front of him. Apparently, her name was Chiharu.
“I’ll have to catch up later! Sorry! I’ll email you, ’kay?” Chiharu called back amiably. “Now, as regards my business with you...”
She turned back to Yuichi, her expression becoming theatrically intense.
“What the hell?!” he exploded. “You were talking like a normal person just now!”
“You expect me to speak as friends with one I am about to fight?!” she thundered.
“So it’s Chiharu, huh?” he asked. “What’s your full name?”
She scoffed. “So, with foul tricks, you have revealed my name! Chiharu Dannoura is my name! The name of she who will slaughter you! And when you arrive in hell, you may tell the demons the tale!”
“What did you mean when you said we would fight? Do we even have a reason to do that?” Yuichi asked.
“A reason, eh? ’Tis little of merit. I can’t see my own power level with my power. Thus, I must test it in deadly combat!”
Yuichi couldn’t use his own power on himself, either, so that made a strange sort of sense. Maybe that was just a general property of magic sight.
“Dannoura,” he said, “if you want to fight, can I assume you practice something?”
There was something unusual in the way Chiharu stood. He had seen it when she’d walked up to him; she had a very stable gait. She wasn’t just some ordinary fat girl.
“My art is Dannoura Archery!” Chiharu declared. “The invincible form of archery founded by Nasu no Yoichi, specialized for close-range combat! Yuichi Sakaki, you are the perfect test target to establish my skill level!”
Yuichi didn’t know much about it, but he did know there were forms of archery that specialized in close combat. It was an Uchine-jutsu technique that allowed the user to use their bow as a spear. This allowed archers to protect themselves on the battlefield after they ran out of arrows. There was a weapon called a hazuyari that involved a spear tip being applied to the nock of the bow.
“Archery, huh?” he asked. “So where’s your bow?”
The Strongest Little Brother’s Commonplace Encounters with the Bizarre?! Page 5
