by Nisioisin
“Though his efforts were for naught.
“He neither gained nor found any results at all─’twas almost strange how little there was. In retrospect, that in itself was abnormal─’twas a time when aberrations…when the dark had a deeper, closer relationship to humans than today.
“’Twas unthinkable for there ‘to be nothing.’
“Though guilt beyond a reasonable doubt may be a suggested standard, there was not even anything about which to be doubtful. ’Twas as if…oh, how should I put it… Aye, there we go.
“’Twas like a perfect crime.
“While there may be no such thing as a perfect crime with aberrations, humans are capable of perfect crimes, so this was a perfect crime committed by a human, I decided in what now strikes me as a bit of a shallow syllogism, and washed my hands of a ‘spiriting away’ that I deemed to be the work of men─Aberration Slayer I did as well─but there was a flaw in this logic.
“The possibility that there may be perfect crimes committed by aberrations? Nay, we’re not trying to examine such a claim, there’s another possibility to consider before we start splitting hairs.
“Aye─the possibility that ’twas not the work of an aberration, nor the work of a human.
“A third possibility.
“It had taken us long enough, but we arrived at it─Aberration Slayer I and I. But rather than arrive, perhaps we’d been cornered into a position where we had no choice but to think it.
“Even so, given my devil-may-care, happy-go-lucky personality, I was not depressed─the way Aberration Slayer I was.
“Had it been caused by an aberration, ’twould have been one thing─or had a human been the culprit, but both he and I had not a clue how to deal with a case that was neither.
“’Twas beyond our expertise.
“While I eat aberrations and suck the blood of humans─I am a vampire who does that and nothing more, if I did also act as though I was a god then. As for Aberration Slayer I, though he had his knowledge, he had already lost the forty-nine underlings who acted as his arms and legs. His trusty enchanted blades, Kokorowatari and Yumewatari, were indeed valuable and divine items, but as one can tell from their names, Aberration Slayer and Aberration Savior, they could only be used on such.
“Aberration Slayer I was also a man in a position of power─but that power could only be demonstrated on humans.
“Our performance would have been impeccable had it been an aberration or a human─but we could do nothing in our situation. Rather, there was naught to do.
“What we could─had vanished.
“But as I’ve already said time and again, I was not diligent, and was not particularly saddened or depressed to find I had naught to do─but Aberration Slayer I was…and he wasn’t recovering.
“How weak the elite are in the face of setbacks.
“’Twas no time to be so depressed, in all honesty─myself aside, ’twas no time for Aberration Slayer I to be enjoying the full range of his states of mind so.
“After all─how could one see human after human disappearing, vanishing like smoke, and think that ye are the one exception? Then again.
“’Tis human to be able to do just that.”
017
“Able to do just that…”
“In other words, though Aberration Slayer I felt scared that all of his underlings had disappeared by the time he noticed, he felt no unease whatsoever about the possibility that he may be the next to vanish.”
“Huh… Your tone makes it sound like you’re criticizing him, but weren’t you the same? Despite your presence, no negative aura, none of the stuff that aberrations are made of, was gathering there─if you were to think of that as aberrations vanishing, wasn’t it just as likely for you to vanish too?”
“…”
I’d only voiced my straightforward impression, and honestly, I was expecting a logical counterargument from Shinobu, but she was giving me a stunned look.
Her expression eloquently stated─
Wow.
That’s true, isn’t it?
She really did live without a care… We’d been referring to concepts like “danger” and “fear” and “anxiety,” but maybe you didn’t have to deal with those kinds of things if you were as absurd (in more ways than one) as Shinobu at the height of her powers.
We sometimes talk about animal instincts, but maybe it’s only weak animals that have them…
Shinobu was too extreme to be an example, but maybe the strongest animals just lie around sleeping all day.
Just as humans lost their feral nature─
“W-Well. Well, well, well,” she openly fibbed, but she was just as bad at it as she was at narrating, and all she said was well─she wasn’t actually going to bother. “An existence on my level is able to handle any situation. Of course I remained cool, as I didn’t feel any pressure.”
“And didn’t Aberration Slayer I feel the same way? But you sounded like you were criticizing him for it…”
“I did not mean it as criticism─and by the way,” Shinobu changed the subject by brute force, “what would thou have done?”
“Huh?”
“If thou had been in that situation─in the same position, what would thou have done?”
“What could I have done? I’m not an expert like Aberration Slayer I, and I’m not a monster like you. In that position I’d be trembling like a normal person… I’d probably try to run away for real. To the other side of that boundary.”
“A wise decision. But the boundary I spoke of is but a convenient expression that arose as a result. The actual distinction was made not according to geography but knowledge. In other words, thy fate was sealed if ye knew me as a god─coming into that notion, what would thou have done?”
“Do my best to forget about you, I guess… Fiddle with my brain or whatever?”
While I said this half as a joke, Shinobu replied, “Indeed. Ye ought to,” and showed me a deep nod as if I’d read her mind. “That was most likely─the only method.”
“…?”
“Or so I say, as if I am giving it consideration, but in truth there was no time at all to make any sort of decision. I suppose ye could say the timing was the worst─it happened so suddenly.”
Suddenly─out of nowhere.
It appeared.
“Once we visited the last home of the last village and discovered that ’twas uninhabited─at the very site where Aberration Slayer I acted so depressed and delicately wounded. It appeared there. To quote thee, the Darkness─for no good reason whatsoever, despite it being the middle of the day.”
“──”
And so it finally appeared.
We’d reached the main subject.
I wasn’t getting free rein over Hachikuji’s chest.
018
“There it was.
“Or there it existed?
“Were it an aberration, the former would be fine─but embarrassingly enough, I had nary a guess as to it’s existence.
“I thought ’twas a weather phenomenon at first, to be honest─while I may be able to go out into the sun, ’tis my natural-born enemy all the same, and I was not intimately familiar with it. Perhaps ’twas a phenomenon that occurred when sunlight was reflected, I thought─when.
“When I witnessed that Darkness.
“That black mass─feels like the best way to express it, but it did not seem solid enough to call a mass. In fact, it seemed to spread vaguely about─its size about the same, human height as thou saw.
“But even that was uncertain.
“I could not gauge our distance, so how could I know its size?
“Its identity was entirely unknown to me. I lacked any idea─in fact, ’twas as if I was missing a part of my vision. As if I simply could not see a portion of the sight before me…
“Like ’twas empty.
“Thou said thou intuited something dangerous about it the moment thou saw it and darted away… But unfortunately, I had no suc
h intuition.
“What in the world is this, I thought as I looked at it like a fool.
“Ye could say I was as curious as one could be seeing this new sight─’tis rare for me to experience something novel. In fact, I nearly felt joy.
“I’d lost my feral nature? That may indeed be appropriate─lacking any sense of danger sounds like mockery, but perhaps thou art right.
“And Aberration Slayer I was the same─and no, not because of his dampened spirits. Emaciated, enfeebled, down, or depressed, an expert hunter from a fine pedigree he was all the same─his body would have reacted on its own had an aberrational phenomenon occurred.
“Yet he did not react.
“As though he were dumbfounded─while in my case ’twas an excess of experience, ’twas the excess of knowledge in Aberration Slayer I’s mind that left him unable to move, dazed and vacant.
“He knew not what it was─and.
“He erred in trying to understand this thing he knew not.
“Thou art an amateur who does not even attempt to flaunt his smatterings of knowledge, and it must be this amateurism that allows thee to up and leave without a second thought when faced with the unknown.
“That may sound as though I am calling thee a fool, but nay, this is praise─in fact, thy decision was the correct one.
“I was the mistaken one─we were.
“And before we could even recognize our error─it engulfed.
“Thy bicycle was too, was it not? Likewise, it engulfed. Not sucked up into blackness or absorbed into shadows─I can only describe it as being engulfed by the darkness.
“Who was? Well, the both of us.
“Both of us were engulfed.
“The legendary vampire Kissshot Acerolaorion Heartunderblade and Aberration Slayer I, wielder of the two enchanted blades─together.
“Ah, now I see.
“So this was the truth behind the spiriting away─I realized, however late. Aye, however late. For half of my body had already been engulfed by the Darkness. Nay, not merely half. About three quarters─come to think of it, I’d met a worse fate than having all four of my limbs taken from me.
“But of course, I still had a quarter remaining, and that was more than enough─to flee, that is.
“Wait, no, not flee, I did no such thing. I’ve never once fled in my life─um, so as I was saying, a quarter of my body was more than enough to disengage from the scene.
“Ye spoke of the Unlimited Rulebook’s Disengagement Edition─but I disengaged, allow me to repeat, with a disengagement far exceeding that poor excuse for one. I would never pale in comparison to that tsukumogami girl, no matter the activity. I surpass her in everything.
“In that sense, I was not entirely joking when I spoke to thee about circling the earth seven and a half times in a single leap.
“In any case, I left the scene behind. Or not the scene so much as─that Darkness.
“Hm? The tsukumogami girl’s withdrawals could only reach a few dozen miles at best, no? ’Tis cute to call it disengagement─for I flew to the South Pole.
“Yes, to the same South Pole I’d saved as a vacation home.
“Those three quarters engulfed included a leg of mine─so I flew a hundred thousand miles with what thou may call a one-legged jump. On a different level, am I not?
“…’Tis not a hundred thousand miles to the South Pole? ’Tis only ten thousand at most? Hmph. How boorish of thee to make such minute corrections for the sake of comedy when I clearly speak of my perceptions.
“In any case, I disengaged. With all my might.
“Even after I reached the South Pole, I was convinced ’twould come after me. I was not able to feel as though I’d truly gotten away─I simply wanted some time, even a moment, to renew the parts of my body that had been swallowed up.
“And that is why I escaped─my plan was to jump elsewhere next, perhaps even Mars. I’d know I was in a safe place if I could withdraw to space…though going beyond the stratosphere offered no guarantee.
“Even I had never experienced having my body shaved away thus, so my first instinct was to get some distance from the thing.
“But moving on, there was no need to go so far─once I’d arrived in the Antarctic, once I’d reached the South Pole and instantaneously regenerated my body, and lay in wait─the Darkness never came after me.
“No matter how long I waited.
“Aye, I did wait for it. For I craved a powerful enemy─I was starved for an opportunity to display my full powers, or rather, I barely had any chances to do so in the first place.
“So in a sense, I did enjoy this game of tag─yet never received another visit.
“It seems to have followed thee quite a bit, but I had no clues as to its logic then─I determined that perhaps it may not be the kind of thing that follows, moves, or the like, and so I allowed my guard to fall for the time being.
“It does seem to move, according to thy story, and apparently it can even teleport. Our stories do not match up there…but perhaps ’tis able to follow someone moving at the velocity of a mere bicycle.
“I only mean to say ’twas no match for my all-out speed─and it seems the tsukumogami girl’s Unlimited Rulebook was able to elude it, after all.
“Perhaps there are individual differences─if we’re to permit any individuality to it.
“I feel as though ’twas not even a solid body.
“It seemed to be liquid, or perhaps gaseous.
“But whether it gave chase or not, its identity was unknown to me all the same─that said, ’tis difficult to constantly be prepared for war.
“I would have to stop concentrating sooner or later.
“And so I stopped sooner.
“Again, stop castigating me as being too nonchalant, ’twas my personality at the time. I could not help it─I thought that if I were going to have to stop sooner or later, ’twould make no difference if I did so sooner.
“And whether or not I was focused, I’d not act differently─in any case, this is how I left Japan.
“From there, I did not return.
“The next time I visited─was half a year ago. Which would be when I met thee.”
019
“…Hm? Hold on a second.”
I couldn’t help but be captivated by Shinobu’s story once the Darkness finally appeared, but now I had to disrupt the melancholic mood.
I mean, there was some important information missing here.
“What happened to Aberration Slayer I?”
“Hm? I told thee. Swallowed up into the Darkness together with me─he had no time to draw either the Aberration Slayer or the Aberration Savior. While only three quarters of my body fell victim to it, his situation as the first to be engulfed was worse─it went and got just about his entire body.”
“Went and got… So you just sat there and watched it happen?”
“I was not watching, to be exact─the Darkness, which had appeared by the time I realized it, had engulfed us before I realized it.”
“…”
Paying more attention to Aberration Slayer I in their situation was a tall order─and there wasn’t any reason for Shinobu to protect my predecessor, anyway.
The man wasn’t even Shinobu’s thrall at that moment in time, which is to say he was just plain human, not my predecessor─hm?
Hold on, no, wait, that can’t be it.
“That doesn’t make sense, Shinobu. If he was swallowed up by the Darkness, wouldn’t that be the conclusion? Don’t tell me you were pretending to suck at storytelling but setting up a clever narrative trick? As in, making me assume that the head of the group of experts was my predecessor, when in fact…”
I’d have to look at her in a new light if that was the case.
Not many mystery novels these days employ decent narrative tricks─maybe the spring of such tricks, once thought to be endless, is in fact starting to run dry.
But now!
Was my partner Shinobu Oshino ab
out to make a big stir?!
“Ne’er-active tricks? I can’t say I’ve ever heard of those. Sounds terribly like an oxymoron to me.”
“…”
Of course not…
“In any case, that woman, in fact man, attacked, in fact was attacked, four years, in fact four hundred years ago by the Darkness─”
