Book 4: Chapter 16 |
🔶 Day 6 <C> Private Meeting with Kamiuchi Koudai – Kazuki Hoshino’s Room
Despite everything, Maria will not become Aya Otonashi in this game, which means she won’t let herself die.
I’ve done everything I need to do, so this Private Meeting is simply a means of passing the time.
“Once Death by Sword iS alREADy conFIRmed it wILL go into eFFect eveN if the Knight dIES.”
According to the rules, Death by Sword is carried out five minutes before the end of the <C> time block. That’s why Koudai Kamiuchi is still alive for the time being.
But his death is guaranteed.
Once he’s confirmed this with Noitan, Koudai Kamiuchi tosses a knife on the table with a rueful grin.
“So there’s no point in offing you, huh? Damn… I’m really up the creek without a paddle here,” he lightly quips, scratching his head without any personal investment.
He has no stinging barbs for me even though his killer is standing before him. He’s not even getting emotional. I’m sure the only thing going through his mind is that it was a mistake to play along with Daiya.
He gazes at the knife he tossed on the table.
The Game of Indolence is nothing more than a way to ease boredom.
Until now, I could never really understand his capriciousness. Once it became clear he was the owner of the Game of Indolence, and I learned its ambience was due to his influence, I’ve been able to glean at least a little insight into him.
Koudai Kamiuchi doesn’t feel like he lives in the real world.
The things that happen to him, he sees as events inside a game. Such a person doesn’t even find playing Kingdom Royale to be anything special. That’s why this unrealistic Box became an “external type,” where the owner believes their wish is possible.
Given his nature, Koudai Kamiuchi doesn’t feel any panic at the prospect of his own murder. He doesn’t connect with the reality of killing others, so he also has no sense of guilt. It’s easy to see how he came to live for the moment as a hedonist.
Though it is rare to see such an extreme case, this isn’t anything special. I know that losing this game will result in my death; not even I can assert with complete confidence that it feels real to me.
All of that runs through my mind, but I decided to end the train of thought there. After all, understanding him is pointless.
I take up the knife on the table.
“Oh? What’re you planning? Ah, maybe you can’t stomach the way I killed the president, so you’ve decided to do me in with your own hands?”
I shake my head. “Nope. I don’t feel like talking with you. I’m not the one who’s going to be doing that, I think.”
Koudai Kamiuchi’s eyes go round in surprise.
“Noitan.”
“WhAT is iT?” answers the green bear on the screen.
“I think of you as sort of the symbol of the Game of Indolence. If someone made a mascot to represent the heArt_of a person who cares for nothing but relieving their own boredom, it would be like you.”
“HmM?”
“That’s why I’ve been wanting to say this to you for a while now.”
With that, I turn toward Noitan’s monitor and plunge the knife into it as hard as I can.
The knife is jammed right in the center of the green shape.
“You’re disgusting.”
A crack appears in the center of Noitan’s forehead.
“—What?”
That revolting green bear breaks apArt_within the monitor. In an instant, he shatters into hundreds of pieces, like an unfinished puzzle. Noitan curses me (“What the hell do you think you’re doing?!”), but the cracked screen can no longer display those bulging eyes. All that appears are flickering red spots in his open mouth and bloodshot eyes.
The effect is very much like bleeding.
Noitan can’t feel pain, though, so he continues hurling insults at me despite his miserable condition. Like he’s completely unaware of the position he’s in.
It’s pitiful.
That oblivious state is pitiful.
Now that he’s nothing more than hundreds of flickering points of green and red, Noitan can’t even maintain his shape. Little by little, the flickering stops, the light fades, and then he’s gone.
“…Was there any meaning to that? All you did was break the monitor.”
Koudai Kamiuchi’s tone is icy.
“Okay then, what’s an act that has meaning to you?”
“Wha…?” His mouth hangs open stupidly. “Uh, I guess maybe there isn’t one. People all die in the end anyway.”
It’s exactly the answer I thought it would be.
“All right, Koudai Kamiuchi. Let’s say someone out there can’t find meaning in anything other than curing their boredom, okay?”
“What’re you going on about all of the sudden? And I’m sensing a bit of rudeness here.”
I ignore him and continue, “How would someone defeat such a person?”
“Oh, come on… What is this? And, like, the person in your example is obviously me, right? I can figure out that much, you know. But beating someone like that would be impossible, don’t you think?”
“Why?”
“Because you can’t make them lose. I mean, like, unless you found a way to get them in the ring with you, see? If you toss around someone in the audience, it’s just assault.”
I get your point. I can definitely accept that.
“I see.” I put my thoughts into words. “So I need to remind them we’re in the same ring.”
Koudai Kamiuchi’s mouth drops open at this.
Even so, he still hasn’t realized each and every one of us was in the ring the entire time.
And with death around the corner for him, he has lost beyond a shadow of a doubt.
“I haven’t lost because I wasn’t really playing” is a child’s excuse, and it won’t affect the outcome.
But getting the facts through his head seems like more trouble than it’s worth. I’m just saying what I think.
“You said nothing has meaning, right?”
“…Yeah.”
“I have no idea if my actions mean anything or not. So here’s what I think: If they don’t, I’ll give them meaning. I’ll even give meaning to someone’s attempt to cure their boredom.”
I clarified my objective in the Game of Indolence.
I think that’s tremendously significant.
I took this Box, this frivolous Game of Indolence, and gave it a purpose.
Maybe I can put it this way:
—I rejected the Game of Indolence.
However, he can’t do the same thing, and he’ll keep losing because he won’t face reality. He’ll suffer defeat after defeat until in the end he breaks apArt_like Noitan.
But while I’ve said this many times before, I’m not going to be the one to impArt_this truth to him.
The one who will defeat Koudai Kamiuchi is Daiya Oomine.
Still—
• Koudai Kamiuchi, dead via Death by Sword