Hamyuts placed her half-empty cup on top of her desk and looked up at the ceiling. She then spoke as if talking to someone.
“…Right, Chacoly?”
The person she called was not there. Neither was she anywhere in the world. She, without even a Book left behind, lived only inside Hamyuts’s memories.
“Your wish did not come true after all. Did you lose because of my victory? Or perhaps we’ve both lost?”
Although there shouldn’t be any voice to answer her, Hamyuts kept asking.
“What is it, Chacoly Cocot? My lifetime friend.
If you were alive right now I wonder what would’ve become of you. I can’t imagine you as thirty years old, but then again I also can’t imagine myself as being thirty years old.”
She closed her eyes while feeling nostalgic. Her memories from when she was a young girl were clear as if it were yesterday.
In the southern part of the Ismo Republic was a desert belt.
This was currently the only place in the world people didn’t live in. Visiting it were only few researchers, criminals who have escaped after committing serious crimes, or perhaps recluses who have abandoned the world.
Which of them was he? Looking at a grave, the fourteen-years old Hamyuts thought so. Both his corpse and his Book were buried inside.
By his actions he would be a researcher. If he were found out, since he had committed questionable acts around the world, he would also be branded a criminal. His way of life was throwing away everything like a recluse.
No name had been engraved on the grave. They couldn’t do that. In the unlikely event that someone visited it and read the name, it would become a serious affair.
The name of the deceased was Makia Dexiart. It was the name of the Acting Director three generations ago.
Three people were in front of the grave. Two of them were adolescent girls, and the final one was a bald, old man.
The old man then spoke.
“Let us say that Makia-sama’s Book has been offered up to Heaven. After all, the current Director Photona is not a man good with bargaining or lies. He was probably deceived.”
“Yeah. Whatever, Lascall.”
Hamyuts said. If she was a normal person, she would’ve probably been sad. But she was Hamyuts Meseta. She did not harbor such feelings.
“Are you sad, Hammy?”
The girl standing behind her said.
“I’m not sad at all, Chacoly.”
Hamyuts said, and the girl behind her, Chacoly, spoke.
“But daddy’s died, Hammy.”
“I know that. Hammy’s not sad. It’s because dad made me this way.”
She kept speaking without turning around. Chacoly persisted.
“You’re lying, Hammy, you’re sad.”
“You’re the one lying, Chacoly. I’m not sad at all.”
Hamyuts said to her.
“No, Hammy’s lying. Chacoly can understand. Because that’s her ability.”
Saying so, Chacoly pointed at her own hair.
Looking at her face, one would think she was beautiful. Every time, no matter how many times one would look. The only ones whose faces Hamyuts saw every day were Chacoly and her father Makia. And yet, no matter how many times she saw it, she wouldn’t get tired of her face.
She was a small girl, two years her senior. She was small and had short legs, and of top of that her back was slightly hunched.
She couldn’t be called pretty even as a compliment. She had drooping eyes and a mouth that was too big. Her nose was large with round contours.
Her skin, exposed to the sandy wind and sun, was dull brown. Her face was full of freckles. The clothes she wore nowadays were so tattered that even vagrants didn’t wear them, and on top of that she wore a thick linen cloth on her shoulders.
So why was she still beautiful? The answer was simple.
It was due to the color of her hair that didn’t fade no matter how much the scorching sun shone or it or even if sand clung to it. It was the proof she was born with a Magic Right, a color different from ordinary people.
It was a bluish deep purple. Also, only her forelocks were as white as snow. That idiosyncratic hair was braided. Her yellow ribbon looked like a bee resting on a petal. Her father called it violet hair.
She never saw the flower called a violet, but using her hair as an example she thought that it was probably a beautiful flower.
“Have you forgotten Chacoly’s ability?”
Chacoly grinned, exposing her teeth. Recalling that hiding things from her was impossible, Hamyuts sighed.
“I’ve forgotten. I acknowledge it. I’m just a little bit sad.”
“Yeah.”
Chacoly’s smile soon vanished. The grief at her having lost her father spread on her face again.
Lascall spoke to both of them.
“Well then, I shall now leave you two. I pray that your future will come to an interesting conclusion.”
Lascall’s body sank inside the sand. Chacoly waved her hand to see him off. Hamyuts made no farewell greetings.
“We’re out of things to do. What shall we do from now on, Hammy?”
“Just like we were told. We’ll leave this place and go somewhere. To wherever we please.”
Hamyuts pointed at the camels tied near their house. All of their luggage had been loaded unto two camels. They were water and food to cross the desert as well as clothes and daily necessities for when they reach a town. On Hamyuts’s camel there were also the string of a sling and many stones.
“Where will we go?”
“For now, to town. There’s no other place to go to.”
“Yeah, Chacoly thinks the same.”
They got on the camels. Then, they slowly went through the desert.
The camels were walking in the desert. The pair barely spoke these last several days.
“Say, Hammy. Will you please always stay with Chacoly?”
Chacoly said.
“Don’t wanna.”
Hamyuts answered curtly. They sank into silence again. Chacoly tried speaking to her and Hamyuts rejected her. This was repeated.
After a long time again, Chacoly spoke again.
“Have you decided what to do afterwards, Hammy?”
“I have. I’ll get killed by someone somewhere.”
Chacoly made a sad face.
“It’ll be sad if you die, Hammy.”
“But there’s no choice. I was born like that.”
“I don’t want that to happen. Go with me.”
“Not a chance. No fight can happen near you. So I won’t be killed. Besides, when you’re there I become unlike myself.”
“Can’t be helped. It’s because Chacoly has this ability. But she wants to be with Hammy.”
“I’ll say this as many times as needed, but no.”
“…Really.”
Some anger seeped into Chacoly’s voice. Her violet hair swayed.
“…!”
Hamyuts grimaced. In an instant she pulled out a stone from her waist and flicked it with her thumb. The pebble grazed Chacoly’s face. Blood flowed from her cheek.
“Chacoly! You’ve promised not to use your ability on me!”
Unusually, Hamyuts shouted. Both now and later, it was rare for her to get angry and lose control.
“Sorry, it wasn’t on purpose. I activated it unconsciously.”
“…Don’t do that again.”
“It’s a promise.”
They went silent again.
Along the way there was only one time when Hamyuts spoke up to Chacoly.
“Chacoly. From now on, no matter who we meet, you can’t reveal my identity.”
“…I know that.”
“If I’m revealed, no matter by what means, I will kill you.”
“I know that.”
“If my identity were to be revealed, my wish will never be granted. They will confine me and I’ll spend the rest of my life in prison.
They’ll pour all
of their energy so that neither the Armed Librarians nor the Indulging God Cult will kill me.”
Hamyuts got goosebumps while talking. Just imprisoning her won’t solve anything. They may take her memories away and make her live like a living corpse. She will spend the rest of her life tied to a bed.
“…I can’t let that happen. Chacoly will defeat Ruruta after all. If she does that, Hammy will be free. You’ll be allowed to live.”
Chacoly said, smiling.
“…It has nothing to do with Ruruta. Wanting to be killed is my own will.”
“You want to be killed no matter what?”
“Obviously. I was born like that.”
There always was some sorrow inherent to their conversations. While their relationship was the closest and they both shouldered the same fate, they were different like day and night.
Chacoly was born to be loved, and lived to be loved.
Hamyuts was born to be killed, and lived to be killed.
The roads they walked in were cruelly different.
Before long they approached town. They time for them to separate from this life also came close.
Hamyuts was thinking that from this point on she will never meet Chacoly again. She will later end up meeting her once more, but she had no way of knowing this at the time.
“Since it’s our last time, let Chacoly try to predict what happens to you Hammy from now on.”
“Do you have calico hair?”
“No, but Chacoly can even without any Predictive ability.”
“What’ll happen with me?”
“You will go to town, find a normal job, fall in love with a normal man, create a normal family, with kids as well, and then, either by some disease or your life span, you will have a normal death.”
“Impossible.”
Hamyuts shook her head.
“It is possible.
Hammy will not be killed by anyone. You will always, always, want someone to come and kill you, but no one will. That’s how things will be.”
“Because I’m strong?”
“You’re definitely the world’s strongest, Hammy. But that’s not all.”
After a short while of silence, Hamyuts replied.
“Not gonna happen. I will definitely be killed by someone. Even if no one kills me, there’s still Ruruta. If he makes a move, he will definitely come and kill me.”
“That won’t happen, either.”
“Why?”
“Because Chacoly’s here. Chacoly will win and save Hammy.”
“…”
She didn’t tell her she can’t. Since it was Chacoly she might win against Ruruta. Hamyuts could understand that.
Before long they could see a town. Chacoly opened her own luggage on her camel. She brought something from inside of it.
“Hammy.”
Chacoly threw something. It was a stuffed doll. It was an animal Hamyuts had never seen before.
“What’s that?”
“A present. Take it. Daddy gave it to Chacoly, but you don’t have one right Hammy?”
Hamyuts stared closely at the doll. It was a strange animal with long ears. It didn’t look like anything that existed in this world.
“It’s called a rabbit. Daddy said it’s the cutest animal in the world.”
“What’s with the long ears, it’s disgusting.”
“Chacoly also thought so at first, but now Chacoly likes it. You’ll definitely come to like it as well, Hammy.”
“…Even if you ended up liking it, I hate it.”
Hamyuts thought about throwing it away. But it was fine doing so after separating from Chacoly. Thinking so, Hamyuts put it inside her bag. She couldn’t even imagine that she would end up keeping that doll even when she was thirty years old.
Neither the fact that just like Chacoly said she would end up loving rabbits.
Hamyuts put the doll inside her luggage. She then silently pulled the camel’s reins. It bent to the left. She bid farewell to Chacoly at her back. Without pursuing her, Chacoly kept advancing straight ahead.
“Hammy! Take care!”
“Don’t wanna!”
Hamyuts found out with her Sensory Threads that she was waving her hand. She advanced without looking back.
“I love you! Always!”
She didn’t know how to reply. Should she reply ‘me too’? Should she reply ‘only you’? Since both were true and both were a lie Hamyuts hesitated.
So she answered the following.
“Only this once, you may read my mind!”
“Okay!”
Hamyuts felt the violet power extending into her mind. How did Chacoly read her current mind?
“Chacoly got it, Hammy! We’ll always be friends!”
She laughed inside her mind. So these were my feelings? Hamyuts hung her head so that she wouldn’t be seen smiling. The camel kept walking and before long she couldn’t see Chacoly’s figure even if she turned back.
Part 2
Their separation that day was burned into Hamyuts’s mind. By closing her eyes she could see it as if it happened yesterday.
“In the end only one of your predictions came true.”
Saying this, she caressed the embroidery at her chest.
Hamyuts suddenly thought.
Maybe if Chacoly had been alive and save Ruruta… then Hamyuts would probably have not been killed by anyone. Perhaps she would have quit being an Armed Librarian and had a normal death as a normal person. Or perhaps she would have lived as the Acting Director just like this?
Would she get married? If she did, then it would have to be with Mattalast, right? What about children? She couldn’t imagine it.
“Well, there’s not use imagining it anyway.”
Chacoly died. She became the Violet Sinner, an existence that couldn’t even be spoken of. The Violet Wish had been cut away and could no longer come true.
And the world was going to be destroyed.
Hamyuts looked down from her window. She didn’t use her Sensory Threads; she didn’t need to. All the people of the world have been defeated by Ruruta and none of them possessed the will to live.
“…Hmm?”
However, someone was moving. Hamyuts strained her eyes. She found someone unfamiliar.
Enlike was earnestly searching for Hamyuts. By now he should have searched most of the spacious premises. She was supposed to be somewhere in Bantorra Library.
“What’s that woman doing? Is she fighting somewhere?”
Hamyuts was probably fighting somewhere. No matter how abnormal of a mind she has, even Hamyuts would not face the end of the world without fighting. That was what Enlike thought.
And so he had a blind spot. He never thought she would be in that kind of place.
“Hey, who are you?”
He heard a voice from above. He looked up. Hamyuts’s face was poking from the window of the topmost floor. He could see it was the Acting Director’s Office.
“Can you still move, Hamyuts?”
Enlike called to her. Hamyuts answered while tilting her head.
“Referring to me with no honorific just like that? In the first place, who are you?”
Enlike jumped to the roof, kicked the walls and rushed into the office.
Jumping into the office, Enlike could see a cup of coffee resting on the table. It was still wet as if it had just been drank from.
He couldn’t believe what he just saw. Faced with the destruction of the world this woman had elegantly drank her coffee. He even wondered if she might have lost her sanity due to fear.
“What are you doing in this situation? Do you even understand what’s going on? The world’s about to be destroyed!”
“I know that. More importantly, who’re you?”
Instead of naming himself, Enlike shot a small lightning. Hamyuts widened her eyes in surprise.
“It’s you, Enlike-kun? What’s up with that face?”
“My face doesn’t matter one bit.”
H
e spoke as if trying to demand an explanation, but Hamyuts didn’t mind it.
“You look totally different. I think you were way cooler before, though.”
Why are you so calm? Enlike truly felt she had lost her mind.
“More importantly, Hamyuts. Tell me about the Violet Wish.”
Hamyuts put her hand to her chin.
“If you know that… then you’re the person Olivia had entrusted the Wish to.
Well, there was pretty much no one else. But what have you been doing this year? Olivia’s plan nearly got exposed.”
Right now that had no meaning. Enlike became angry.
“Cut the bullshit. Tell me about the Violet Wish!”
“Don’t you know about it?”
“It means to save Ruruta Coozancoona from despair. That’s the Violet Wish, right?”
“Hmm, so you do know that. Then you don’t know who Ruruta is? Fine. I’ll tell you.”
“No, I know that too. I know both about that man and the true history of the Armed Librarians.”
Hamyuts seemed confused.
“If you know that much, isn’t the rest simple? What are you asking me about?”
“I can’t do anything with only this. What makes Ruruta despair? How can I save him from that despair?”
Hamyuts widened her eyes in blank amazement. Enlike couldn’t understand why she was making that face.
“You came here to ask me that?”
“You’re the only one to have met the Violet Sinner. Now tell me. What’s the cause of Ruruta’s despair? I’ll crush everything that made him despair. That’s the only way to save the world.”
Hamyuts thought for a while.
“I see, so that’s what you’ve been thinking.”
She nodded in agreement and then made a large sigh.
“Yup, Olivia chose the wrong person. It’s impossible for you to fulfill the Violet Wish.”
Enlike was confused. Several hours ago Lascall had told him the same. What was he lacking? He had both the will and power to fight.
“Why did you decide so? I have to give it a try.”
“That’s true, but… as I thought it’s impossible for you. No way you can do it.”
Hamyuts said while pointing at Enlike’s chest.
“I’ll speak frankly. Right now you’re probably thinking of saving the world or defeating Ruruta. That’s no good.”
What are you saying? Is there any person who wouldn’t think of saving the world now?
Tatakau Shisho - Volume 08 Page 17
