Book 4: Chapter 18 |
The first round of Kingdom Royale—
It was all so fresh and so much fun. The killing and the deception went exactly as I imagined, and I could feel in my heArt_that this was the game I had been looking for.
Well, thinking back, maybe I was a tad disappointed that Daiya Oomine was such a powerhouse as the Revolutionary. He was way OP in that role.
The second Kingdom Royale—
It was awesome. There was plenty of fan service, so it was a blast to watch. When Yuri begged Kazuki Hoshino to kill me immediately after she seduced me, I laughed so hard I couldn’t do anything else.
Still, Yuri is pretty damn scary. When she offed my NPC at the end, her hollow expression and tears were just pArt_of her act as a mentally broken girl to make me let down my guard, so when I tried to cheer her up, she stabbed me to death. Totally brutal. A real demon. I’ll never trust a woman again, let me tell you.
The third Kingdom Royale—
It all ended so fast I couldn’t help but laugh. The president killed Yuri first, and man, her face freaked me out. But I guess maybe it’s okay if things go this way once.
And then, the fourth Kingdom Royale—
What this all piles up to is that I wasn’t focusing much on the fourth Kingdom Royale. I only watched the scenes where there wasn’t something interesting happening, like somebody kicking the bucket half-heartedly. It follows then that I also didn’t observe Kazuki Hoshino’s Private Meeting with Daiya Oomine very intently.
“You haven’t beaten me at all, have you?”
At least until I heard Kazuki Hoshino’s cheeky little comment.
Where does he get off saying that when he couldn’t even get the owner right? I laughed it off sarcastically, but watching his face during his later conversations made me wonder something.
Could he have realized I’m the owner?
I don’t have enough information to decide one way or the other, since I haven’t really been paying attention. It does seem that way, though. Oh well. I don’t think he can do anything, even if he has figured it out.
As I kept watching Daiya Oomine and Kazuki Hoshino afterward, a suspicion I’d held earlier resurfaced.
These two really are working together in secret, aren’t they?
It’s entirely possible Daiya Oomine has some plot up his sleeve. Well, it’s more natural for him to be scheming anyway.
But I can’t imagine Kazuki Hoshino knows the details of his plan. Daiya Oomine didn’t tell him directly in any of the scenes I saw, either. And is collaborating even possible under these circumstances?
Maybe it’s less teamwork and more that Kazuki Hoshino put two and two together and gave his tacit approval of Daiya Oomine’s plan.
I peer into the arcade cabinet. As his mummification approaches, Kazuki Hoshino is slowly saying something to Daiya Oomine in the game.
The Kazuki Hoshino in the cabinet is saying:
“If it were me, I could’ve done much better.”
What exactly is he talking about?
I suddenly notice that Daiya Oomine has looked up from his intense, almost prayerlike observation of the screen and is watching me.
You know, I think I really have seen this guy somewhere before… Did Oomine and I go to the same middle school? …But I don’t remember such a handsome upperclassman who would have pierced his ears against school rules.
“You had a girlfriend in middle school, right?” Daiya Oomine asks me an odd question out of the blue.
“I had several, so I don’t know which one you mean… But I’m guessing you mean Rino?”
“…Yeah, that’s the one.”
“You know her?”
Hey, what was Rino’s full name anyway? I’m pretty sure the nickname came from her last name.
“I’ve known her since we were little kids, yeah. That’s why I also know what you did to her,” he replies coolly.
Nothing about his blank expression strikes me as out of the ordinary. There’s something creepy about it, though, so I can’t help but wonder.
“Are you thinking of getting revenge on me?”
Still, Daiya Oomine’s face doesn’t change.
“You can’t forgive me leaving the girl you knew at the hotel, so now you’re going to try to get revenge on me? That’s why you acted as the guide for Kingdom Royale—Still, I can’t really see the need to go to so much trouble,” I say, scratching my head.
“Revenge? Not at all. All I’m doing is taking steps toward my own objective. I pretended to be a guide for the game because I realized watching it could prove a useful step toward bringing it to fruition.”
“Your objective, eh…? Huh? You’re an owner, right? You could take care of that easily with your Box, couldn’t you?”
“Yeah, exactly,” he agrees.
I frown. “Then shouldn’t you just go ahead and use it? You think you’re too good for it or something?”
“Hmph, don’t assume everyone is like you. Don’t assume everybody can just believe that wishes can be granted. I’m a realist, see.”
Now that I think of it, when Boxes grant wishes, don’t they even include the resigned beliefs of an owner who doubts their wish could ever come true?
“I knew right away I wouldn’t be able to use a Box properly when O explained the details to me. So even after I accepted it, I didn’t use it immediately and instead went searching.”
The corners of Daiya Oomine’s mouth quirk upward slightly as he speaks.
“I wanted to find a way I could use my Box to the fullest,” he says.
There is definitely something off about him. His tone is the same as ever, but his words are weighty and pointed.
“…And how do you go about searching for the correct way to use a Box?”
“You’re right; it’s not something you can just hunt down. I lucked out in a certain sense, though. From talking to O, I learned that Kazuki Hoshino has a hint. On top of that, I happened to get drawn into this Box and meet another person besides Kazu who has used their Box fully.”
“…And that’d be me?”
“That’s right.”
I finally get what Daiya Oomine meant by a “step” toward his goal.
He needed to become capable of using a Box properly in order to fulfill his objective. That’s why he never tried to escape.
Yeah—
“It was to observe you two and find the technique for mastering my Box.”
That was the step.
Daiya Oomine used the Game of Indolence to watch and discover the key to making the most of his Box.
“…But what does observing us really change? We’re able to use Boxes properly because we’re the type of people who can. I don’t think it’s possible to mimic the nature of another person.”
“True. I can’t imitate that. I can’t replicate the hatred of boredom that defines your nature, for example. However, in addition to your nature, a big pArt_of why you can use your Box so well is that your wish is realistic. That’s where I found the answer to my objective.”
“…? What’s a realistic wish?”
“What you put into your Box wasn’t some grand thing you would call a ‘wish.’ Right?”
“Well… Yeah, that’s true. All I wanted was to not be bored anymore.”
“Yeah. And no one believes a cure for boredom is unfeasible. You must believe the events of Kingdom Royale are impossible in the real world yourself, right? The details of the game didn’t matter to you, though. All you cared about was that the game was entertaining for you. So whether you believe in the game’s system or not is beside the point.”
“…I’m not sure what you’re getting at here, but…I’m sure I wouldn’t buy a wish like ‘I want infinite do-overs no matter how many times I die.’”
“That’s what I mean. The reason your use of the Box seemed so effective wasn’t due solely to some factor of human nature; it was also because you tried to grant your wish in a roundabout manner.” Oomine chuckles and continues, “Thanks to you, I came to understand my own way of mastering a Box. Say I want to destroy the world, for example.”
“That’s unsettling.”
“But even if I put that wish into the Box, in my heArt_I would believe it was impossible. However, in actuality, the means to destroy the world already exists. Nuclear weapons and so on. Of course I can believe in those. And I know I can at least imagine myself getting all the nukes.”
“Why?”
“Because being immersed in the Game of Indolence allowed me to experience the miracle of the Boxes. After witnessing so much power at work, I now find it feasible that Boxes can do anything.”
“…Ah, so watching what it could do with your own eyes was also pArt_of why you wanted to observe?”
“Correct.”
Man, just how deep does this guy think…?
“Even the wish of a realist like me can be granted if it’s obtaining an implement to destroy the world.”
I’m a bit unsure as to whether I see his logic, but I get the gist of it.
Daiya Oomine can use a Box now.
“—”
The moment I understand this, a chill runs through me.
Why am I so sure something bad is going to happen?
Perhaps because of this premonition, I end up asking something.
Though I shouldn’t care even if Daiya Oomine did seriously wish to destroy the world, the conversation leads me to voice the question.
“So what is your wish?”
When I do, the change is instant.
The atmosphere around Daiya Oomine is different.
I should have noticed something off about him. Instead, I went and gave him that final push.
“You see, there’s a type of person I can’t stand.”
Daiya Oomine touches the piercings in his right ear, his expression neutral.
“People who shut off their brains and don’t think for themselves. They pretend to think on their own when all they’re doing is hitching a ride on others’ opinions and letting themselves be controlled. It’s like they have no self. Their existence is meaningless. I can’t stand shallow-minded scum incapable of any thought they haven’t borrowed from someone else, oinking away like pigs and gobbling up the slop in front of them. Just breathing the same air as they do pains me.”
“………What’re you getting so worked up about?” I scoff.
Daiya Oomine gives me an icy glare.
“Because they consume.”
“What—?”
“And occasionally, they’ll even eat good people.”
I find I can’t move, transfixed by his cold gaze.
“You can probably imagine my wish—and my objective, can’t you?” An uncomfortably tense, crooked smile appears on his face as he says, “My wish is—to do away with all such scum.”
Daiya Oomine can’t conceal his enmity any longer. As his eyes turn toward me, they contain an unmistakable gleam of madness despite the appearance of calm, as if he’s spent months and years hiding it behind a veneer of black.
“Hey, are you listening to me, Koudai Kamiuchi? No, maybe I should call you something else.”
He makes himself clear.
“You utterly apathetic, brain-dead farm animal.”
He’s made me his enemy, and he’s going to destroy me.
“—Ha-ha.”
A dry laugh escapes my lips.
Destroy me?
That can only be a joke. It has to be. Maybe if Daiya Oomine were armed, I could see it, but empty-handed, he doesn’t stand a chance against someone as versed in the world of violence as I am. I’m certain of that.
So what is this?
What is this horrible chill? This fear welling up in the depths of my heart?
“Hey, Kamiuchi, what do you think is going to happen to Kazuki Hoshino now?”
He suddenly changes the topic.
“……He’s going to turn into a mummy and die?”
“Heh-heh…,” Daiya Oomine laughs. “What gives? Are you taking Kazu lightly? So you’re implying he won’t do anything even though he knows he’s going to die?”
“…That’s because he can’t do anything.”
“That sounds about right coming from unthinking cattle. Don’t lump him in with you. All he did is piece together what I’m doing. Pretty ballsy of him,” Daiya Oomine says almost ruefully. “Kazuki Hoshino will not die, and that’s because I’m going to crush this rotten Box you call the Game of Indolence before it can happen. He figured this out.”
He looks at me with the same level of disinterest he would give to the lead of a broken mechanical pencil.
“I don’t really need to tell you how I’m going to do it, do I?” He spits, “Kill Koudai Kamiuchi and crush the Box.”
It’s like a proclamation of death from the grim reaper.
“………Urk.”
I can’t keep calm after all. I break out in a heavy sweat, feeling the truth of his words.
What the hell is this sensation? Though we were just NPCs, both the president and I killed Daiya Oomine in Kingdom Royale. There’s no reason I should be this afraid of him.
So why is he this confident?
And why am I feeling so desperate?
“……Are you saying you’re going to take me down with violence?” For some odd reason, the words are hard to say.
“That probably wouldn’t work.”
“Huh?”
Is this guy for real? Why is he acting this way?
“What’s so surprising about that? I could never beat you in a fight. Despite how I look, I’m just an honor student who hasn’t ever really played sports, much less fought. I don’t have any experience with martial arts, either. If I were shooting for a draw, then yeah, maybe I could pull it off.”
“…Okay, then why are you so confident?”
“That goes without saying,” says Daiya Oomine. “Because it’s already over.”
“Huh?” I say dumbly, again, and someone grabs ahold of my body.
“?!”
It’s not Daiya Oomine. He’s still there in front of me. His arms are crossed and definitely not gripping my shoulders.
A friend…? That’s stupid; they couldn’t be here. We’re inside a space created by the Game of Indolence.
Still, someone has definitely seized me. I feel the head of my captor against my back.
I look behind me. All I can see is the top of their head.
Long hair… A girl?
She’s much shorter than I am and doesn’t appear to have a very powerful build.
“—Ungh!”
Despite this, she must be using some trick, because I can’t shake off the arms restraining me.
This long-haired girl in pajamas lifts up her head from where it was resting on my back.
I look at her face—
“You haven’t beaten me at all, have you?”
For some reason, what Kazuki Hoshino said crosses my mind.
The basis for Daiya Oomine’s persistent confidence was his knowledge that she would appear and hold me back, thus saving him.
I’m sure Kazuki Hoshino came to understand this during that Private Meeting, too. I don’t know how, but at any rate, he figured it out.
Then he made sure the version of me in front of the arcade machine didn’t catch on that Daiya Oomine was working to kill me. He knew that if I learned the truth, I wouldn’t let him roam free. I might even kill him if things went south.
Wait a sec. Why didn’t this girl come to his aid right away? Maybe she had no choice but to come help him precisely because a certain condition was met?
So what was that condition?
Why does this girl have to help Daiya Oomine? Would it be bad for her if he dies?
What would happen, say, if he died in this situation? Daiya Oomine kicks the bucket before accomplishing his goal. The Game of Indolence isn’t destroyed. Kingdom Royale goes on. And then—
—Kazuki Hoshino dies as a mummy.
“……”
“If no one kills anyone else for eight days, you can survive.”
That was the lie Daiya Oomine had told. But something felt wrong about it. Why would the boy who hadn’t misrepresented the things that really mattered tell such an uninspired falsehood?
…I put together a hypothesis.
A hypothesis that this lie was actually the truth.
If everyone lived, their rations would run out in eight days, and they would all be mummified and die. Kazuki Hoshino would meet the same fate, of course. Just as he is going to now.
“You heard all about that week, didn’t you?”
I don’t know what he meant by “that week.” I have no way of knowing.
But it’s possible he learned something during that time.
That’s right. The two of them—
—knew that if Kazuki Hoshino was on the verge of death, this girl would appear and put a stop to it. They knew they could survive if no one died for eight days—no, if Kazuki Hoshino was going to be mummified.
“—Heh-heh.”
This girl I’ve never seen before, whose face I don’t recognize, is smiling.
“………Who are you?”
The girl answers, “Nana Yanagi.”
“………Nana Yanagi?”
“Yeah. But perhaps it would be better if I put it this way.”
The girl flashes a mysterious grin as she speaks.
“I’m O.”
A sneer rises to Daiya Oomine’s face.
“Hmph, I was wondering who you were supposed to be, but you’re Kazu’s first love, eh? Why take her form?”
“There’s no deep meaning, really; I just thought this would be the most fun form to wear when I met Kazuki Hoshino. That said, thanks to you, it looks like I won’t be able to show it off to him.”
“Actually, Kazu saw that form almost as soon as he arrived here.”
“That’s true. But he stepped on me. How cruel. And he didn’t even seem to know who I was. You’d hope a boy would at least recognize his first love from a glance.”
“Whatever. So this is what Nana Yanagi looks like, huh? Since Kazu tends to only go for hot girls, I would’ve figured she’d be the same. But she’s pretty plain and nondescript.”
“That’s quite rude.”
As I listen to this incomprehensible exchange, I think: O?
Did they say “O”?
Yeah, it has to be. Only O has a grin that mysterious. O is the only one who could ignore the rules of Boxes and force their way in. That’s why I accept that it is them.
But why would this alien being, all but a god, do something as silly as help Daiya Oomine? Why would they need to save Kazuki Hoshino’s life?
How can these two tell what O is going to do?
As I uneasily wonder, Daiya Oomine scoffs at me.
“Your face says you don’t understand why O is helping us. Okay, let me tell you.”
He begins to clarify.
“As it happens, O is very fond of Kazuki Hoshino. You didn’t know that?”
“……That still doesn’t explain anything.”
“You’re such a slow-minded waste of space. If their favorite guy is about to bite it, of course they’re going to help him.”
“And you’re saying you predicted that?”
“I didn’t predict it. I knew. I heard all about how things went down with the Week in the Mud.”
There’s no way I can understand anything from an unhelpful explanation like that. What the hell is the Week in the Mud anyway? …But, well, maybe it’s true that O helped Kazuki Hoshino during this mysterious week…or tried to. That’s how he knew O would come.
He knew that, so he turned it to his advantage. Now that’s he’s finished learning about his Box, he’s using O to dispose of the Game of Indolence and me, since I’ve served my purpose.
He used a being that could be considered a god.
“—”
What kind of crazy idea is that?
He’s using a being of such a high caliber; there’s no way I could ever think of doing that.
Someone who could dream up such an idea—
—is not human.
Ah, I’ve finally figured out why I’m so terrified.
Say what you will, but I’ve never laid eyes on a person more skilled than me. Or at the very least, I’ve felt it before. I’ve always thought of myself as powerful.
But this is the wake-up call. Compared with this man—
—I am overwhelmingly inferior.
“—Oh.”
My body wobbles limply.
I feel dizzy, and the sensation doesn’t stop. It seems like my legs are sinking down into the blackness that reeks of paint thinner… No, they aren’t. That’s just how it feels.
What—what’s going on?
Someone is laughing at me. Cackling and kicking me—Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha. It’s not Daiya Oomine or O. A black shadow is laying into me, trying to take me and conquer me.
Who are you?
I get the feeling it’s my father, who I’ve never even seen in pictures. I glare at the shadow rising up, my mind filled with all the hateful things I could say to him. Yet, the moment my frigid gaze lands on him, my father disperses and becomes another person.
Yeah, of course I know who this guy really is.
It’s me.
“Man… This is going according to plan so well it’s almost funny.”
The words come from Daiya Oomine’s mouth.
Yeah, I’m sure it must be.
I’m going to be destroyed after this, as he planned. Just like I did to someone else in the past.
That means I might be able to go to the place I’ve been longing for. I might be able to become what I always wanted to be.
O releases me.
I slump down onto all fours.
My hands make contact with the bottom of the space. It feels like my palms are touching rotten flesh. It’s sticky and warm yet also gritty, and it crumbles in my hands.
I finally feel it.
This place—it’s disgusting.
“Hmm, it’s going according to plan, is it?” O parrots Daiya Oomine. “Well, I would imagine things went according to plan for Kazuki Hoshino, too, though.”
“…What’re you trying to say?”
“I have no ulterior motives. By the way, Daiya Oomine, there’s something I would like to ask you, too, so may I?”
O looks at Daiya Oomine, seemingly indicating that I am not worthy of the being’s attention anymore.
“It’s a question about the contradictions in your behavior. I don’t understand why someone like you would do something that isn’t to your benefit.”
“…What do you mean?”
“Heh-heh, no need to play coy with me. Your strategy took advantage of my affection for Kazuki Hoshino. None of it would have worked unless I came running. Yet, despite this—”
“Not necessarily.”
Daiya Oomine cuts O off and explains.
“I had already won Kingdom Royale and survived, so I didn’t have to destroy the Box. And while I was confident you would show up, it wasn’t guaranteed. Even though he lost, he put up a good fight, so I’m just lending him a hand out of sympathy. If he had won his contest with me, I would have kept my promise and found some way to pull this off without you coming. I was prepared to accept a draw with Koudai Kamiuchi.”
“Sympathy, eh…? Surely you must be aware whether you were the sympathetic one, or whether it was the other way around? I haven’t heard that pArt_of the explanation yet.”
O calmly dismisses him.
“I’d like for you to quit dodging the question. I’ll put it to you once more. Even though you would have been in trouble if I had not come, you—”
And then O says:
“You tried to change Kazuki Hoshino and make it so I’d lose interest in him.”
“—”
“The way things were, Kazuki should have been able to keep everyone alive for eight days. However, you went to the trouble of riling up the Koudai Kamiuchi NPC, getting him to kill Iroha Shindo, and making it impossible for Kazuki to win that way—in order to force him to change. Why would you do that when all you needed to do was arrange things so that I would arrive?”
Daiya Oomine gives O an angry look.
“You’re so kind. I’m sure you wanted to help your friend Kazuki. I’m sure you wanted to free him of me. But of course, this isn’t enough of a change to make me lose interest.”
O continues with a grin.
“Still, you certainly did lower the probability of my arrival. It’s not like you to weaken your chances of winning.”
“…What I did could definitely be taken that way. But the one who did it was my NPC. He can’t see that Kazuki Hoshino would be mummified and die if you didn’t come here. I can make mistakes like that, too.”
“Even if it were the misunderstanding of your NPC, as a copy of you, surely he wouldn’t have behaved as he did if you didn’t have some desire to change Kazuki? Furthermore, that’s a lie. You said only a moment ago that everything was going according to plan.”
“A figure of speech.”
“It was more than that. Things are going according to plan. And I’m sure you never would have allowed Kazuki Hoshino to die, even if I hadn’t come. You were most likely planning on trying to kill Koudai Kamiuchi, prepared to accept that it could mean the death of you both.”
“That’s ridiculous. Why would I have to do all that for Kazu?”
“Because he’s showing sympathy to you.”
Daiya Oomine can’t make a comeback.
“Because of your failure, someone who showed you compassion and agreed tacitly to your plan would be killed, and a prideful boy like you would never allow that.”
“………How do you know all that?”
“That’s what Kazuki Hoshino thinks, not me.”
“What?”
“Though it saddens me, Kazuki has no faith in my whims. That’s the reason he didn’t think your plan was a guaranteed success. Yet, despite this, he still placed his fate in your hands. Now that you know that, an astute fellow such as yourself must surely know why.”
Daiya Oomine’s eyes go wide, and he bites his lip.
“He trusted that even if the plan failed, Daiya Oomine would save him,” O says.
Daiya seems vexed for some reason.
“In truth, things probably went just as planned for Kazuki.”
“—How much does he intend to mock me?”
“Heh-heh, he’s not mocking you. It’s just that he understands you very well, don’t you think?”
“Shut up… Okay, I understand. Fine, I’ll admit it. I tried to get Kazu away from you. You’re tearing into me now because you don’t like that, right?”
“That’s not untrue.”
“Relax. This is the only time I’ll be doing anything like that. Next time he stands in the way of my goals, he’ll be an enemy I can use. It’s as simple as that.”
“I’m sure it is.”
“But I do think his oblivious smiles complement him well. I don’t want him to be tangled up with Boxes. A normal life suits him best.”
“Oh? If so, why did you try to make protecting Maria Otonashi into Kazuki’s goal? Isn’t his involvement with her another thing that pulls him from the mundane?”
Daiya Oomine chews his lip.
“……It was probably the only way my NPC could come up with to keep him from getting mixed up with you.”
“That is a definite possibility. However, judging by the look on your face, it would appear that isn’t all,” O says, then deliberately claps their hands, as if to say they have an idea. “I know. I’ll let you in on a little something, even if all it does is make you more aware of yourself. It might be good to inform Kazuki Hoshino and Maria Otonashi as well,”
O says jubilantly to the now-frowning Daiya Oomine.
“This girl—Nana Yanagi—is alive. Oh, and as it turns out, so is her former lover, Toji Kijima.”
His frown deepening, Daiya Oomine asks, “…If they’re alive, then where are they?”
Nodding in satisfaction at this response, O tells him.
“Inside the Box of Maria Otonashi.”
Daiya Oomine’s eyes go wide, and he freezes.
“Do you see it now? Maria Otonashi’s presence further removes Kazuki Hoshino from normality. So if you want to accomplish your objective, you need to ignore your emotional hang-ups and get those two together as planned.”
“…What’re you talking about?”
“You want her to be with Kazuki Hoshino, don’t you?” O says. “Kokone Kirino.”
The name I remember from long ago.
“You’ve always thought he would be a good match for her. Out of consideration for her happiness, you believed it would best if romantic feelings budded between the two of them. Kazuki most likely wouldn’t reject her no matter what he learned about her, after all. However, when this was on the verge of actually coming to fruition because Riko Asami was possessing him, you got violent with him. This time, too, you made protecting Maria Otonashi his goal. It would seem your actions are not consistent with your objectives.”
“……Shut up.”
“You hope to become the type who doesn’t mind sacrificing their own life for their cause, right? Unfortunately, at present, you have a long way to go before you’re anywhere near Maria Otonashi or Iroha Shindo. As long as you’re attached to Kokone Kirino, at least.”
“I told you to shut up!”
I watch Daiya Oomine as he balls up his fists and shouts.
Why did O say that name……?
Why does Daiya Oomine react to it that way?
Why does the name of that quiet upperclassman who caught my eye seem to cause him pain?
“—Oh.”
That’s it. I remember now.
I remember the old Daiya Oomine.
“Do you truly think you can carry out your goal? ‘No matter what you do, no matter where you go, there’s no escaping who you are inside.’ You’re the one who said that to Kazuki. Even though you pierced your ears to embody your determination, even though you cut off your feelings for her, your human kindness, cowardice, and foolishness will never change.”
Daiya Oomine fixes O with a gaze full of enough malice to strike anyone else dead.
It’s no wonder I didn’t remember him. His entire demeanor is completely different now. He didn’t have any earrings, and his hair wasn’t silver in middle school. Back then, Daiya Oomine was the eloquent and relatively polite upperclassman with a gentle smile whom all the girls loved as their “prince.”
He was the perfect boyfriend—for that quiet girl I wanted.
That was why I gave up so quickly. It wasn’t like I knew all that much about him, but I just felt Kirino would be way happier dating him than me. I realized I wasn’t the only one who had discovered her charms. I also knew deep down that I wouldn’t be the one to cultivate them. That was all it took to shatter my selfish delusion that she was special to me.
I see it now.
Daiya Oomine was the very one who prompted me to stArt_seeing “Rino”—Miyuki Karino.
“………Heh.”
Daiya Oomine stops glaring, unclenches his fists, and eases his frown.
His grin as he recovers his composure is bold and brazen, without a trace of his former softness.
“Maybe so. But it doesn’t matter.”
“It doesn’t matter, eh? But you’re undeniably suffering.”
“Yeah. I don’t care how much it hurts; all there is for me is completing what I’ve set out to do. That emotion might get in the way, but if that’s all it’s doing, I’ll just wrestle it under control.”
With great interest, O asks, “And why is that?”
Daiya Oomine’s reply is frosty. “I am guided by an emotion greater than my suffering; that’s why. It can even override the deepest pArt_of who I am. That’s how vast…my hatred is.”
He asserts himself forcefully.
“Ever since then, I have despised normality.”
I haven’t the slightest idea what he is talking about when he says “then.”
“I’m pleased.”
However, O smiles with satisfaction at Daiya Oomine’s answer.
“You have gifted me with the sound of your heArt_screeching. You let me hear it as easily as one would pluck a note on an instrument.”
“I’m sure that’s why you gave me a Box. I don’t want you to feel I’m holding out on you, so I’ll let you hear it all you want. All I care about is reaching my goal. That’s why I’m just grateful to you.”
“I’m happy to hear you say that. There are so many people who say the most illogical and hateful things to me, even though I explain everything and grant them a Box with no strings attached. It often leaves me disappointed.”
Saying that, O brings me to my feet and restrains me again.
“Now then, Kazuki is about to be mummified. We must hurry.”
“That goes without saying,” Daiya Oomine snaps, then approaches me. “Koudai Kamiuchi.”
His lips move up into a cold smile.
“You are the worst kind of scum I know. You’re the dregs of all the other scum who capitulate to their boredom, hurt others, and lead meaningless lives. I don’t think you can ever turn over a new leaf, and I don’t think you’ll give up your Box, either.”
He extends his hands toward my neck.
“Just as Kazuki Hoshino changed, so will I. To do that, I must purge myself of weakness. I’m going to use you for that end.”
His grip tightens to strangle me.
“I will kill you and eliminate my way back for me.”
And then, the boy who was once called a “prince,” says:
“And so I will become the king.”
Still, don’t go to the trouble of saying that to me. The way you’re talking, it sounds more like you’re trying to convince yourself.
………Hey, maybe that’s exactly what he’s doing?
Daiya Oomine had reasons to drag this out without destroying the Game of Indolence until now. He had a motive not to kill me straightaway. He needed to understand how to use a Box. He needed to wait until O would take action. He needed to get Kazuki Hoshino to change.
Looking back on it, though, maybe he built up all these reasons just so he could put off the decision to kill me?
I’m just deluding myself, of course. However, there’s no doubt in my mind that he wants to convince himself it’s okay to murder me. At any rate, he’s the prince who has yet to become king.
My vision flickers.
I’m going to die.
So I’m going to lose to Daiya Oomine, am I? …No, I’m pretty sure I’ve been losing over and over for quite some time now. And not just to Daiya Oomine, but to everything. I’ve been racking up losses by default for as long as I’ve been running away.
My legs are swallowed up by this space, so like condensed desire. I’m guessing that if it keeps swallowing me, I’ll melt away into sludge.
In the back of my mind, I had always thought that would be paradise on earth for me.
What an idiot.
What lack of imagination. People can only think that when they haven’t actually confronted death. I don’t want it to end like this without ever knowing what it is I wanted.
Unfortunately, I have no choice but to accept this outcome.
So I need to get in just one last counterattack.
“El……ulp, mh.”
Though I try to say my last words, my crushed vocal cords can’t produce them. That’s okay, though. It doesn’t have to be coherent; it just has to get through to him.
Even if everything is going to turn out as Daiya Oomine wishes, I can still at least give him some grief.
I look into his eyes. I can see the slightest shade of doubt.
Oh yeah, it seems he understood—
“Help me.”
—what I was trying to convey.
That isn’t going to change the way this ends, of course.
But I know this much. I remember who he was back when he was the prince, when he stood smiling next to Kirino. I know.
The one who is going to keep losing from now on is you—Daiya Oomine.
I mean—do you really think you can be king as you are now?
It feels like darkness has completely engulfed my body. My vision has gone completely black, and I’m blind. I can hear Daiya Oomine’s voice in my head like some sort of echo.
“……Kazu, do you really…think you could have done any better?” he asks with a trembling voice, most likely believing I’m no longer conscious. “Even if I hadn’t decided to use Kamiuchi’s death, this probably would have been my only option for destroying the Game of Indolence. Are you saying it would’ve been different for you?”
Naturally, I can no longer see his face as he says these things.
I feel something splash on my face. What could it be? My nostrils pick up a sour odor.
Oh, is that it? …He threw up.
C’mon, don’t hurt yourself, Daiya Oomine.
Well, I guess I can’t really talk. Even I puked in the street on the way back after I left Rino at that hotel. I can’t explain why. But I don’t doubt I was still suffering back then.
So when did violence become pleasurable to me?
I don’t know. If I don’t know now, that means I never knew my entire life.
I fall into darkness.
But it really isn’t all that different from where I’ve been until now.
Just how long have I been in this darkness? A void like this is unbearably dull. I run this way and that; I shout; I stretch my hands before me, unable to find anyone, and fear overtakes me.
But if I search around just a bit more, maybe I’ll reach out and touch someone?
Heh-heh.
No, I won’t.
After all, not even my mother is beside me.