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V11 Story II – Part 04

I still didn’t quite understand the meaning of those words. For now, I put aside my doubts and stared at the vial. If I released it now, Shirayuki would come. But I couldn’t drag her into something like this. And I didn’t want her getting mad at Yukihito.

We had to figure this out ourselves. I looked up at the slide again. While I was lost in thought, the situation had changed. Before I knew it, the slide was surrounded by elementary school boys.

“What’s up with this dude?”

“He looks weird.”

“Is he wearing a garbage bag?”

“He can’t even use the slide.”

“Go away!”

Yukihito was getting booed hard. It was starting to look sad. The boys pelted the confused Yukihito with stones, and he curled up small inside his cloak.

Really, bullying? Lame. Dragging Asato along, I hurried over to the kids.

“Hey, you guys, cut it out!”

“Could you let me go, Odagiri?”

Ignoring Asato, I approached the kids. Their attention turned to me. With a dramatic flick of his cloak, Yukihito stood up. Tears glistened in his eyes as he raised his brush.

“B-Behold my power, you puny creatures! Feel the fury of my black flames!” Yukihito bellowed.

The tip of his brush moved swiftly, and something fell from the slide. A swarm of gods scurried away, pouncing on the kids.

“Whoa!”

“What’s this creepy thing?”

“It got inside my clothes!”

“Gross!”

The kids scattered in all directions, away from the park. It was a relief that there were no adults around. The gods squirmed about on the ground.

Maniacal laughter erupted from Yukihito. “Have you learned your lesson, you fools?! But it’s too late for regrets now! I shall create an army of thousands and build an empire!”

His demeanor shifted as if a switch had flipped inside him. He let out an uproarious laugh.

I grabbed Asato’s collar firmly as he struggled to break free. “Build an empire in the park?! What are you planning, Yukihito?!”

“Shut up! I hope you suffer, Odagiri-san!” he wept.

I had no idea what he was on about. I glanced up at Yukihito, wondering what to do with him. Meanwhile, the gods kept multiplying, crowding the stairs and slide of the playground. I didn’t have the courage to jump in there. If push came to shove, I might have to toss Asato in.

“Odagiri,” Asato said. “Are you plotting something?”

“Hmm, what to do… how many hours will it take to crush every single one of those things?”

“I’m starting to feel like ignoring it and going home is the best option,” Yusuke said.

Yukihito’s excitement soared. “That’s right! Suffer more!”

I was glad he was having fun. Perhaps Yukihito’s bizarre behavior would resolve itself in due time. Yes, a year from now, he would likely regret his actions.

But leaving wasn’t an option. Yukihito was fundamentally unable to control the gods. Whether due to his anger or his training, most of them currently obeyed him, but he could lose control at any moment. If they were to escape, it would cause chaos in the neighborhood.

“We can’t do that,” I said. “We’ll get it from Mayu-san, too.”

“I see, you guys haven’t noticed yet,” Asato said. “It might be a good idea to warn you just in case.”

“Hmm? What are you saying?”

Asato hung limp. He likely gave up in trying to leave, or grew tired. Either way. He pulled his eyes away from the slide and said, “He mentioned creating an army of thousands, didn’t he? Those creatures are not from this world. You’ve experienced it, haven’t you? If he keeps creating those things, the scales will tip over.”

“…What?!”

Asato’s words triggered a memory of the red space we had found ourselves in before. When Minase Shiramine summoned a god, he tipped the scales to keep ordinary citizens out of it.

The physical world can’t sustain a lot of supernatural creations. If these creatures exceeded the capacity, the excess weight would be forcibly transferred to the other side, the shallow waters of the spirit world, where the realms intertwined. We had been drawn into it before, and eliminating the cause allowed us to return.

However, the scarlet woman was currently active in the spirit world.

“This is bad,” I murmured.

Even the shallows of the spirit world would be dangerous. But then a question arose in my mind.

Minase Shiramine had used human blood to create self-propagating drawings. As long as we didn’t commit taboo, the balance wouldn’t be upset. It seemed unlikely that producing a quantity of gods would tip the scale so drastically.

“With Yukihito’s power alone, he can’t create that many,” I said. “They multiply on their own, but I’m pretty sure the total amount doesn’t change. It shouldn’t have such a significant impact.”

“Yeah, it would be impossible for him alone. But things are different now. It’s like adding drops of water into a full bucket. Oh, I get it now, Odagiri. You don’t see it, do you?”

“What are you talking about?”

I couldn’t discern what he meant by that. The fox smirked and shook his head. His gaze drifted upward.

“I have no intention of telling you,” he said wearily. “You should ask my sister. I just offered you a little bit of generosity, so can you let go of me? Just tell my sister about me already. What do you hope to achieve by dragging me around? I can’t stand those things. If you just want to laugh at people’s misery, go ahead and laugh. I’m exhausted. I’m fed up with childish antics. If you hate me, just kill me. Just put me back in the cage already. Stop this endless and stupid harassment. You keep doing this over and over. What do you want?”

The fox looked at me disdainfully. My breath seized in my throat. But I couldn’t release my grip. I was just as stubborn. The fox declared that he would never change, no matter what happened.

Fuck all that shit. Humans are not animals. They don’t belong in cages. They’re not meant to become stagnant. I wanted to make that clear to him.

“Exhausted, my ass. I can tell you’re not.”

Asato just shrugged in response. Ignoring his cynical gesture, I shifted my focus back to the swarm of gods. My right arm was starting to ache, but I kept dragging Asato along, determined to keep moving.

“If you really hate it, then fight back! I’m not doing this to torment you or to have a laugh! I just want you to do something instead of locking yourself up in a cage!”

“What are you on about, Odagiri?”

“If you don’t get it, then so be it. I don’t need you to understand. Do whatever you want! But before you start talking about wanting someone to kill you, there are things you need to do!”

With that, I broke into a run, with Yusuke alongside me. The restless gods clung to us as we tried to turn them back into ink. Asato remained motionless, whether out of stubbornness or something else entirely.

That frustrated me. Using Asato’s legs like a makeshift broom, I charged through the crowd of gods. Ink splattered, dirtying Asato’s feet.

“Hold on, Odagiri!” he snapped finally. “You are tormenting me!”

“Of course I am! How about moving yourself?!”

“That’s not what you said a moment ago. What do you want?”

“I want to deal with these gods! Isn’t that obvious?!”

“Argh, we’re gonna be here all day,” Yusuke said. “I should’ve brought my bat for this. Ow, cut it out! Don’t crawl inside my clothes!”

Exhausted from running around, we decided to take a break. We washed off the ink from our hands at the park’s water tap. The light blue sky was now turning red.

Rubbing his stomach, Yusuke said, “I’m starving.”

“Come to think of it, it’s almost dinner time.”

Glancing at our direction, Yukihito, still in high spirits, began spinning around on the slide. He had guessed we were hungry based on Yusuke’s gesture.

“Bwahahaha! Suffer my dark thunder and mourn the loss of your clean sustenance!” he shouted delightfully. “Grovel and regret your choices!”

“Okay, he’s completely lost me. It’s kinda sad,” Yusuke said.

“I think what he’s saying is, ‘While you’re dealing with my attack, you’ll miss dinner, and then cry and regret it,'” Asato interpreted.

“Wait, how did you get all that?” I said.

Just then, a bicycle approached from the park’s entrance.

Aya was pedaling a luxurious-looking bicycle, with Nanami seated behind her. Waving her arm with a smile, ponytail and chest bouncing, Aya carried a large bento box in one hand.

“Delivery!” she called. “I brought you dinner!”

“I figured you all might be getting tired by now. You’re wecome,” Nanami said. “Odagiri-san, we’ll settle up for dinner expenses later, okay?”

Aya stopped the bicycle. She unfurled a picnic sheet and started to lay it out. I glanced over at the slide. Yukihito, the lone one left without dinner, collapsed with a despondent look on his face. As I pondered what to do, Asato sauntered past me and was the first to settle onto the picnic sheet. Aya jumped.