by Nisioisin
“Sit down. What’ve you got to say? You want to talk to me, right?”
“Yes. But, well…”
I tried to say something but could only sit there, unable to voice any words or doubts.
It was a long bench, with plenty of space for Hachikuji to lie down beside me─Ononoki didn’t sit.
She was standing as if she were on lookout duty, on guard. She might look cute, but her every mannerism nudged me to think of her as a true warrior.
“Come on, Yotsugi. What’re you standing for? Get over here. It makes us feel awkward when you’re standing there alone while we sit, okay? This is why I always say that aberrations can’t read a room.”
“…”
Yet her warrior bearing was futile in the face of Gaen.
“But Miss Gaen─”
“It’s fine, just get over here.”
Despite her valiant effort to mount a rebuttal, Ononoki was pulled over by Gaen’s words, which left zero room for argument.
The only problem was that Hachikuji lying on the bench left no more room for Ononoki, who was forced to sit on Gaen’s lap.
This seemed to be Ononoki’s first time meeting Gaen, just like it was mine…but the lady was kinder to her than Kagenui ever was.
How do I explain it?
She had a personality that coerced you, fairly boorishly, into becoming friends with her─she stood in contrast to the others, whether that was Oshino, who spoke frankly with people in order to hold them at a distance, Kaiki, who never trusted a soul, and Kagenui, who only ever seemed to think about fighting.
Actually, did those three have such difficult personalities precisely because of Gaen?
That was almost the impression I got.
“You know, Ononoki, if there’s no place for you to sit, you could always sit on my lap. What’re you thinking?”
“I should be asking you what you’re thinking, kind monster sir,” Ononoki shot back.
From atop Gaen’s lap.
“Now, then─why don’t you let this kind lady here explain this situation I’m sure you’re very curious about. Izuko Gaen is someone who just loves to explain things. Kagenui was busy working when she got that text from you asking for help. She was in a tough spot, unfortunately, and the battle seems to be going long. That’s why she ignored the message. Knowing her, she probably thought that Yotsugi would be more than enough to handle the situation. She believes in those she keeps as family, to the point where it becomes a form of violence─to the point where she’s fine if one of those family members of hers dies as a result of her trust. But I knew─that this isn’t a problem that you’d be able to handle on your own. I knew that an independent shikigami and a half-vampire whose link has been severed couldn’t handle this problem on their own─which is why I came here to rescue you. Like I’m playing hero or something. In other words, really, I saved you some time and effort. A few day’s worth,” Gaen said in a single breath.
All I really got from this abrupt info dump was that she’d come to save us. When I thought about it some more, there were a lot of things that Izuko Gaen, someone who just loves to explain things, hadn’t explained.
We asked Kagenui and no one else for help, and it should have been through a help-only hotline. So why did it not only get ignored by her but read by Gaen? It didn’t make sense─and that text didn’t have any specific details about our crisis, either… Maybe an expert could figure out the stuff about my link with Shinobu being severed by looking at my shadow, but still…
It felt like the more she explained, the more questions I had─but that meant she was sort of like the Darkness.
I didn’t want to make the situation any more complicated.
“Hm? What’s the matter, Koyomi? Was there something missing from my explanation? I’d be happy to add as much as you need if so.”
“No…”
Now she was on a first name basis with me.
She was being so buddy-buddy with me even though we’d only known each other for an hour.
It was like she was walking straight into my home with her shoes on, tracking mud deeper and deeper inside─it didn’t feel that bad because it was the ever-smiling Gaen doing it, but I couldn’t conceal my confusion.
“Well, if I want you to explain anything, I guess it’s why you knew we were here─we didn’t even know what mountains these were─”
“It’s because I know everything, Koyomin.”
“Koyomin?!”
Now she was using a nickname?!
Who did she think she was, Senjogahara when she and I were all alone?!
“You could say it was my all-seeing eye─though in truth, I was clued in by the fact that a job I’d given to Yotsugi through a third party wasn’t moving forward for some reason. I wondered why she wasn’t showing up─and when I looked into it, I saw that you were involved, Koyomin… And I already knew all about Shinobu and Mayoi.”
“…”
So, from the start, the job that Ononoki said she was putting off was connected to Gaen? No, that couldn’t be it.
That was a little too much of a coincidence─it felt more right to assume that she had a hand in most such “jobs” to begin with.
Like she was some kind of boss.
Maybe Gaen was a major boss of some sort? She didn’t look at all like it.
“Any other questions?”
“I have a lot of questions, but…no, I’ll put them all off until later. So please, would you listen to…wait…I guess you already know, judging by the way you’re talking? About the kind of situation we’re in right now─and what we’re facing?”
“Oh yes, I do. I have to admit it’s something I wish I didn’t know about, but I, unfortunately, even know about that. It’s not easy being me.”
“Then─”
“One sec,” Gaen said. Just as I’d taken the bait, she held me back. “I understand how you feel. You want to know about this thing you call the Darkness as soon as possible─but don’t get so worked up.”
“Don’t get so worked up… Easy for you to say─”
“It’s fine─at least, you’re not in danger at the moment.”
“What?”
“It’s safe right now─I guarantee,” Gaen pronounced.
Now this was a pronunciation that lacked any explanation, any persuasive power, or any logic whatsoever─it almost sounded like she was only saying it to put us at ease.
But it was hard to refute her, too.
We didn’t know a thing about the Darkness, after all─we didn’t even know what we didn’t know.
All we could do was rely on Gaen.
That was the situation we were in.
“You may be thinking that in your current situation, all you can do is rely on me. But Koyomin, that’s not the case.”
“…”
“Or rather─I’d like to move you out of that situation. I don’t like it when all someone can do is rely on me─it makes for poor balance.”
Gaen used the word: balance.
“So you’re saying─I need to pay the appropriate compensation?”
“Hm? Compensation? Why, you almost sound like Mèmè─he puts it that way because he’s such a businessperson, but I’m not like that. Don’t lump me in with someone as unprincipled as him. Listen, I just hate it when people rely on me unilaterally─which is why I want to rely on you too, Koyomin.”
“You want to rely on me…”
“I’m saying we should become friends─for the time being, I have three requests for you before I dispense any useful information, Koyo-min,” Gaen said, holding up three fingers. “I want to ask you to do them for me as a friend.”
“…”
“It’s important to want to help out your friends, right? Heh, you know that unlike Mèmè, I don’t believe in anything as cold as people just getting saved on their own. We live through saving each other, that’s how we survive.”
“Okay,” I nodded. “Three things, right? I promise.”
“Oh? Are you sure you want to say yes before you’ve heard me out, Koyomin?”
“You ought to heed a friend’s request… And what’s more,” I could only say as I shrugged, not that I was trying to act cool or anything, “I’m in a situation where it doesn’t matter what you ask of me. I’m going to have to do it, whether it’s three things or a hundred─”
“Is that really how important she is to you? The former Kissshot Acerolaorion Heartunderblade?”
“Well, I mean.”
It might have been hard for a third party to understand my relationship with Shinobu─and I didn’t feel like explaining it at the moment, either. Gaen might already know without any explanation from me, of course.
But─even if she knew, I doubted she understood.
“And anyway, we don’t have time. Even if you guarantee us our safety, you can’t guarantee Shinobu’s too, can you? If you have a request, please hurry up and say it─”
“Oh, that’s what you’re worried about? Shinobu must really be important to you if she’s the first thing you’re worried about.”
“?”
What a strange way to put it.
If she’s the first thing? She almost made it sound like there was a bigger issue elsewhere.
“Maybe four hundred years ago, but I doubt it’ll happen now─though it might if the current situation persists. Okay, then I’ll hurry up and get the words out. Before we go past a point of no return─so, request number one,” Gaen began, holding up a finger. “There’s someone I want you to introduce me to, and I’m in a bit of a rush─if you won’t help me, my only choice will be to go to her directly, and she’d probably get a bad impression of me if I did. I want someone to be a middleman─and I think you’d serve best.”
“I don’t know who I could possibly introduce you to… I’m not what you’d call well-connected. Who’re you talking about?”
“Suruga Gaen─though I guess she’s Suruga Kanbaru now,” Gaen said. “My niece.”
“Oh.”
Right, now I remembered.
I’d thought I’d heard the surname Gaen somewhere before─it was Kanbaru’s mother’s maiden name. She’d told me during the case involving her left arm.
They were aunt and niece.
Now that she said it, the resemblance between her and Kanbaru─didn’t seem to be there at all.
They weren’t at all alike.
“But why aren’t you meeting her on your own if you’re direct relatives?”
“Didn’t I just tell you? Because she’d get a pretty bad impression of me if I did. The Gaen bloodline is tricky. I don’t think she knows about my existence, either─I’d prefer to leave her alone myself, but I have my reasons. I guess you’d call them Gaen family reasons.”
“An introduction… Well, I’ll do it if that’s what you want, but I’ll need to get Kanbaru’s permission first. Blood-related or not, if she says no…in other words, if she says she doesn’t want to meet this ‘aunt’ of hers, I wouldn’t be able to grant this request of yours.”
“That’s fine─I’ll think of another way if she says she doesn’t want to meet me. I don’t want you to introduce me as her aunt, though. It’d be inconvenient.”
“Inconvenient… Aren’t you being a bit self-centered?”
“It isn’t just for my convenience. In fact, it’s out of consideration for Suruga’s feelings─so, onto the second request,” Gaen brusquely cut short the discussion of her first request to move onto the next. “This isn’t a request so much as something for both of us─now that Yotsugi’s gotten herself involved in this situation, there’s been a bit of a problem with the job she’s currently tasked with. It’s still something that can be taken care of, but it’d be quite a bit of work─enough that it’d require the assistance of another expert.”
“…”
Ononoki maintained a cool expression right there on her client’s lap…but it seemed as though we’d caused Gaen a lot of trouble.
“So my second request is for you to maybe help out just a bit with that once this matter is all settled─you’d be useless as you are now, but I’ve heard you can be pretty handy when you’re linked with the former Kissshot Acerolaorion Heartunderblade─so handy that Yozuru, of all people, praised you.”
“…”
She’d praised me? After the way I’d fought?
It felt like she might have been joking…and even if she hadn’t been, I wasn’t gonna feel the least bit happy.
Well, it was only natural for me to help cover for whatever difficulties I’d tacked onto Ononoki’s job, but given what Gaen was saying, it felt like─
“Is this something I’ll be doing together with Kanbaru? Am I going to introduce you to her so that we can both help you out with your job?”
“Well, it’s not my job─maybe you could call it our job. But you’re right for the most part, I need Suruga’s left hand right now. Of course,” Gaen cut me off before I could get out any objection, “that too will be up to Suruga. If she says she doesn’t want to help, I’ll back down immediately. Just getting to talk to her will be help enough on its own─though your help will be absolutely vital, Koyomin.”
“Okay. If you say so…”
I had no choice but to accept.
I’d need to choose my words carefully in bringing this up with Kanbaru, though─she showed a level of devotion to me that didn’t even begin to make sense, so there was the risk of her agreeing to help out without so much as hearing the details first.
Yes, I got it, you don’t need to say anything, you don’t need to say another word, my dear senior! I’d accepted before you even asked me! or something like that.
No, she had a bigger vocabulary than that.
How exactly might I word it so that I’d be asking for her help but giving her the option to say no?
“Well, what’s your third request?”
“Actually, you already brought it up. My third request was for you to ask Suruga if she’d help with the job, too─which you already said you would do, Koyomin, so now I can save you. Your big sis Gaen feels all better now. I’m so glad I can help you out.”
“Is that so…”
Hearing that didn’t make me feel any better, however─to be honest, I couldn’t bear just sitting on that bench not even knowing what kind of predicament Shinobu was in.
“Um, excuse me, Miss Gaen? In that case, could we talk while we travel? I’m sure we could discuss this on a train─I’d like to hurry up and see Shinobu. I guess you could say I want to see her and make sure she’s okay…”
“Your partnership brings a tear to my eye. I wish I could forge such a bond with someone.” Gaen laughed, but she also didn’t seem to be taking me seriously─and as proof of that, she wasn’t even beginning to get up.
And not just because Ononoki was on her lap.
“Um, Miss Gaen─” Even I was getting a little annoyed, and I could tell that my tone was getting rough.
“Koyomin,” Gaen interrupted in a pretty loud voice. It came off as somewhat stern, but she didn’t sound all that serious because she was using a stupid nickname… “I’m telling you for your own good, you shouldn’t leave this place─at least, not until you finish hearing what I have to say. I’m going to spell this out for you because it seems like I have to. Going back to that town is the worst possible choice you could make─it’s the one thing you can’t do.”
“…”
“Yes, the one thing─at the very least, it’ll ruin whatever equilibrium you’ve just barely maintained. Whatever decision you end up making in the end, you ought to stay here for the time being. You made the right decision to use the Disengagement Edition of Yotsugi’s Unlimited Rulebook to come all the way out here to the middle of nowhere.”
“But we got separated from Shinobu as a result.”
“If it’s that link you’re worried about, I can restore it in no time at all. It’ll be my way of thanking you for hearing out my requests, I promise you that much. And anyway,
you wouldn’t be able to help me with my job unless your link is repaired.”
I’ve got a whole mountain of things I want Shinobu to do for me, too, Gaen added rather obtusely.
“Isn’t it dangerous to let Shinobu act on her own, though? She’s the one it’s after─”
“Hmm. Maybe I ought to have started by correcting your misunderstanding that Shinobu is the one it’s targeting─why exactly do you think so?”
“What?” I asked in turn─reflexively. “Um, well, because that’s what she said? Of course, it’s not like she was, uhh, that sure about it… Is she─not its target? But in her story about four hundred years ago─”
