Volume 2 Chapter 3 (2/2)

”Yeah?”

”…Are you okay?”

The Cla.s.s Rep asked me that.

She had arrived at school before me, so she had to have heard everyone talking about the Colosseum. Even if she didn't know how much I was involved, it had to be hurting her heart to know that Archenemies were being made to fight for some ugly show business.

And since I had a vampire older sister and a zombie little sister, she may have thought I had picked a fight with that uppercla.s.sman because I was so furious about it all.

And that may not have been entirely wrong.

Even if I was saving the parrot, had shoving him out the window and jumping down after him been the only way? Really?

She may have had a clearer picture of me than I did.

I smiled a little and answered.

”I'm fine. If things get really bad, I'll discuss it with you.”

”I see.”

She did not ask anything more.

The way she moved in and pulled back to maintain the perfect distance may have been something only a childhood friend could pull off.

It may have been interrupted by some recreation, but the cla.s.ses themselves were running like normal. There had not actually been an announcement about the fight, so those who didn't know about it seemed to just think I was late.

In other words, the teachers wanted to avoid any trouble.

Good or evil. They were not going to judge my actions either way. Turning me into a hero or a target of bullying were both negative outcomes in their minds.

It was a lot like how the cla.s.ses were running like normal even though one of their students had been abducted.

It was said you could see a wider world once you grew up, but that apparently did not apply to everyone. Some of the teachers were actively talking and laughing about the Colosseum to get the students to listen.

Part of that had to do with not knowing it was a real fight to the death. Even if the host talked of cardiac arrest or retrieving the body, they would a.s.sume it was all just an act.

But I still ground my back teeth together.

I wished all the adults like that would just die. Even after another decade pa.s.sed, I would never become someone who used other people's misfortune to my advantage.

And as I felt a squeezing in my stomach, my smartphone vibrated in my pocket.

Was it Maxwell or the address Kuroyama Hinoki had given me?

Both guesses were wrong.

The small video chat screen was taken up by her.

”Ha ha ha! I'm everyone's lover and your partner on lonely nights!! Please feel free to use this video of the embodiment of coquettishness, Bunny Girl Karen-chan!!”

I stood my world history book up to hide my smartphone just like someone sneaking their lunch early.

In the next desk over, the Cla.s.s Rep gave me a puzzled look as she copied the text on the blackboard into her notes, but I couldn't explain this one. She was already erupting with anger from the swimsuit dance file set and now I was having a video chat with a hot woman in a bunny costume during cla.s.s!? That misunderstanding would never go away!

So I was forced to whisper my end of the conversation.

”(Why are you here!?)”

”Is that any way to greet me? I'm your contact on the management side and you're Itou Helen's second, making you the contact on that side. We need to try to get along.”

”I will provide you some information on your next opponent. You don't want to go into this blind, do you?”

”(What proof do I have that data is real?)”

After all, this was the Bright Cross we were talking about. They were about as far as you could get from playing fair and sportsmans.h.i.+p. It would be strange not to be suspicious.

”Nooot to worry. You have my word on this one. I won't lie about information on your opponents. Oh, I know. How about this? If I break my promise, you can do whatever you want with my s.e.xy body for 3 days and 3 nights.”

”Bff!? …Cough, cough.”

I spat out the contents of my mouth, gathering the attention of everyone in the cla.s.sroom. The Cla.s.s Rep was so suspicious she was pus.h.i.+ng on the side of her gla.s.ses. I was afraid of being told to go stand out in the hall, so I coughed to disguise what had happened.

The blue bunny girl on the screen used her arms to squeeze her b.r.e.a.s.t.s together and accentuate her cleavage while she opened her eyes wide.

…She's making fun of me! Dammit, I at least need to keep a mental snapshot of this for later!!

”Ah ha ha! But, but! I'm not joking. We want all of the combatants to make the Colosseum as exciting as possible. We want death matches that will get the blood pumping and we want both sides to be in a dead heat! So we'll give you all the information you need for that to happen.”

”(How can you laugh about all this?)”

I knew it was hopeless, but I asked a question that seemed to question her sanity.

”(You know Archenemies laugh and cry just like we do, don't you? These aren't just rumors; you've seen it for yourself, haven't you? Then how can you do something so evil?)”

It made no sense.

Could someone raise their fist against Erika or Ayumi after seeing them? Even if you'd been taught that Archenemies aren't human, could you really wield violence against girls like that when one was standing right in front of you?

I couldn't.

There was no way I could.

No matter what I'd been taught or indoctrinated with, I would always end up thinking about how much it would hurt them and how sad it would make them. It didn't matter how powerful a weapon they held and it didn't matter if I could pose any kind of a threat to an Archenemy. I couldn't believe that anyone could so readily choose to attack those girls.

Your hostility would normally shrivel up, wouldn't it?

You'd break at some point, wouldn't you?

Wasn't it exhausting to maintain all that malice?

Or was there something wrong with me? No, it couldn't be that. What I was feeling was what you called ”normal” and ”ordinary”. Not wanting to make someone cry and preferring a smile over tears wasn't anything special.

And yet that blue bunny girl was still smiling.

That smile seemed somehow frozen in place.

”Well, you see…”

”What would you say if I said I was a monster who was once forced to leave the straight and narrow because of my belief in the infection sources we call Archenemies?”

I gasped.

Her voice made me feel like a rusty knife had been stabbed into the center of my chest.

”Just kidding! Ah ha ha! You should really seal away that kindness that makes you believe anything someone tells you. Otherwise you won't survive the Colosseum which is crawling with literal monsters.”

The dried atmosphere was blown away in an instant.

What was that?

Had she been telling the truth? Or was it a bluff meant to get me to sympathize with her?

”You want to know about Itou Helen's next opponent more than about me, don't you?”

”(…If you want to tell me, then tell me. I won't believe you, though.)”

”Ah ha ha! Suit yourself, you d.a.m.n tsundere. You're so cute. Now, then. Time for the announcement. Who will be Itou Helen's next opponent!? Zazan!!”

She even made her own sound effects.

…It was a real shame that someone so hot had to be an enemy.

”Her opponent in Round 2 will be a fairy named Hanesaki Minori! Make sure she gives it her best shot.”

…What?

A fairy?

”(Wait a minute. What do you mean!?)”

”Ehh? I mean a fairy like the ones in children's picture books. They're a pretty major Archenemy, but are you really not familiar with them?”

It was true that fairies were as well-known as vampires and zombies. It was even said the victims abducted by fairies would lose their humanity and become fairies, so they fit the conditions for being an Archenemy.

But even so…

”(That's way too broad. It's barely a hint! That could mean anything from a palm-sized pixie to a non-humanoid unicorn!)”

”Of course it does. This is the problem with you silly millennials. If I gave you all the answers from the beginning, it wouldn't be a very exciting match, now would it? Don't forget that we can choose what information we give and what information we don't for our own benefit. Besides, some data on Itou Helen will be going to the fairy's side as well. You'd be pretty mad if we told them all of her weaknesses, wouldn't you?”

That was a good point.

And it confirmed that the witch data was going to the other side. But how much? Not knowing that was another source of concern.

”Of course, an Archenemy that's already fought can have its weaknesses researched and revealed from the recorded footage. The disadvantage of fighting consecutive battles is more than just an issue of stamina. Ah ha ha!”

Dammit.

This woman really does understand our Achilles' heel!!

I worked to stay cool and forced my seething mind to draw out as much information as I could.

”(When does the next match begin?)”

”Non non. Telling you that wouldn't be any fun. Not knowing what tomorrow holds is part of being a death row prisoner. Otherwise executions would be the same for someone who killed a single person and someone who killed 10 people, and how would that be fair? Ah ha ha! From the look on your face, you must be feeling the pressure in your stomach, so that's good!!”

”I'll tell you one thing. The next stage will not be at Kukyou 1st Broadcasting.” The blue bunny girl seemed to be mocking me. ”Our information and impression manipulation more than gets the job done, but there are some people with unshakeable hearts like you. Just to be safe, we aren't going to stay in one place.”

That meant I did not know where Itou Helen was being imprisoned.

But that also meant the Bright Cross was afraid. They weren't an absolute barrier. If they screwed up, they could lose or be destroyed. She had told me that herself.

Yes.

Just like when they had detected me and Maxwell and quickly left that vast subterranean facility.

”Now, where exactly might we have moved? Feel free to make some guesses, but we'll definitely surprise you. Ah ha ha! That's all from the official PR mascot, Bunny Girl Karen-chan☆”

Our next opponent was a fairy.

Her name was Hanesaki Minori.

I hated acting based on information from that bunny girl, but that was all I had at the moment. I made a mental note to seriously make her pay up with that hot body if she was lying.

”3 days and 3 nights, bunny costume included!! Just to be sure, I need to stop by the drug store and buy some condoms!! I wonder if energy drinks really help with that!”

”User, please tell me what exactly it is these preparations are for.”

As I left school with new determination in my chest, Maxwell asked me an oddly cold question.

I stuck the smartphone in the collapsible bike's GPS holder and set it to speakerphone.

”Maxwell, check for any personal information on Hanesaki Minori.”

”Sure. She did indeed go missing about a week ago. Her family submitted a search request. It was treated as a normal case, so she was a.s.sumed to have voluntarily run away from home and no real search was performed.”

I climbed onto the bike seat and pressed my weight on the pedals to move forward.

”Any traces of the Bright Cross intervening?”

”Sure. A detective from the life safety division of the Kukyou Police was working on the case of his own volition, but he suddenly stopped. There is no data suggesting why, but…”

”Pressure from the higher ups, huh? Dammit, that's only supposed to happen in dramas.”

I didn't trust the bunny girl named Karen, but it was true that Hanesaki Minori sounded likely.

a.s.suming they weren't so monstrous that they would make a completely unrelated person ”disappear” just to bait me.

Maxwell found a photo of Hanesaki Minori on the worldwide SNS named Counstagram. She looked like a plain indoorsy gla.s.ses girl with two unrefined braids. The gla.s.ses were the same, but she was a different type of gla.s.ses from the determined and unrelenting Cla.s.s Rep. She seemed to be a fairy Archenemy, but she was human-sized and did not have wings growing from her back or a single horn growing from an equine face.

To be blunt, there was nothing there to suggest what kind of fairy she was. In fact, she looked so normal I wasn't confident she was even an Archenemy.

…It was possible she had the hardest time believing that herself.

”Sorry about the wait.”

After arriving at the meeting spot, a voice eventually called out to me.

It was the surprisingly curvy girl with her long, long black hair forced inside a hat and her ident.i.ty hidden by sungla.s.ses and a mask like an idol trying to sneak around.

It was the mermaid Archenemy named Kuroyama Hinoki.

”I didn't think I was that late, but were you waiting long? You seem on edge.”

”No, you're fine. Sorry.”

I obediently bowed while still sitting on my bike.

”As I explained in the email, our next opponent is a girl named Hanesaki Minori. She seems to be a fairy Archenemy, but the details are unknown. That could be anything from a palm-sized pixie to a non-humanoid unicorn. Please help me. We need to split up and investigate this. If we can't figure this out, it's hopeless.”

”Fine by me. As long as this can repay you two and help that girl survive.”

That settled it.

But no matter what I said, there was not much I could do. Texts on Archenemies were often more difficult to find for a cutting-edge machine like Maxwell. We had somehow managed with the mermaid, but if you gathered all the information on the internet about vampires and zombies, 80% of it would be data on video games and horror movies and the remaining 20% would be from dubious sources. It wasn't uncommon to find a site that looked nicely academic, but to later find that the administrator's bible was an RPG guide.

That meant leaving all this to Kuroyama Hinoki the Mermaid. She had said she would show me an a.n.a.log library or used book store that was good for Archenemy information.

We rode the collapsible bike together. The soft mounds pressing against my back caused my heartrate to needlessly increase as she guided me to the shopping district.

This is…urp.

Mixing reality with virtual reality was not a good idea, but we were near where I had beaten up that toy poodle zombie in the simulation.

But…

”Surprised, aren't you? Walk just a bit into the shade and there's a used bookstore.”

As Kuroyama Hinoki had said, we walked into a narrow alley that most people did not walk down. We were a long way off from the imported goods supermarket with plenty of strange spices and tea leaves that (most importantly to Erika) was open late into the night or the lingerie shop where Ayumi would buy some insane underwear when she wanted to force herself to look more adult.

I had heard on some quiz show or something that used bookstores tended to place their entrances where the setting sun could not get in because direct sunlight was bad for books, but it seemed like everything would get damp if you took it this far.

I stopped the bike and Kuroyama Hinoki spoke as she got down.

”Yes, this is the place. The Bizarre Shop. This is the best place to find out about Archenemies, so keep it in mind.”

She opened the door which did not fit its frame properly and entered the small half-tilted shop.

After placing a chain lock on my bike, I hurried after her so as not to be left behind.

Then my smartphone vibrated.

I checked the screen to see the following message:

”Warning: The signal is weak. I will likely be unable to provide full support from here on.”

”What? Are you upset because I said I couldn't investigate this with a search engine?”

Again, don't bother sending an ellipsis message.

I sighed and entered the used bookstore that seemed left behind by the modern age.

It was even smaller than it looked from the outside.

It really was crammed full of bookcases and I had to turn sideways to get through the aisles. There were also several heavy-looking cardboard boxes on the floor and on top of the bookcases and they were all stuffed full of books.

I did not see a single cheap light novel or manga volume that I felt comfortable touching. Everything was bound in leather. A lot of them made me wonder if they used papyrus or parchment instead of actual paper made from pulp. In addition to j.a.panese, I saw English, German, Chinese, and some in a language I didn't recognize. Was it Latin? Or maybe a Scandinavian or Eastern European language?

”Welcome. Sorry about all the dust.”

Instead of a proper register, there was only a calculator and a small drawer. The tiny old lady sitting there looked like she had been born to fit in such a small shop.

And…

”H-hey, how much do these books cost? They all look like they must have markups for their rarity and would probably cost you all your New Year's money. We have to gather information, but I'm in high school. There's only so much I can do.”

”Heh heh. The internet is generally free and can't be beat.”

Shut up, Maxwell.

Why do you sound so happy that your master is in trouble?

But Kuroyama Hinoki readily smiled.

”We're free to read them here, so that won't be a problem.”

”…Read these?”

I hesitantly looked to the bookcases.

You aren't supposed to judge a book by its cover, but I was reluctant to touch these old books with leather binding, gold lettering, and parchment pages. This wasn't just about tearing a page. I was afraid I'd get in trouble for getting the oil from my fingers on them.

Yes.

They seemed more like antiques or museum exhibits than mere books.

But the mermaid girl readily pulled a book from a shelf. She easily flipped through a book thicker than a phonebook that was protected by the kind of thin oil paper that covered the surface of a castella.

”It would be weird to insist people buy a book costing tens of thousands of yen without touching it first. That would just be asking for people to come back with complaints after buying it. It's like a car dealers.h.i.+p. The prices are so high that they have to offer a lot more before you make a deal. That isn't always readily obvious when that stubborn old man is running the shop though,” she added. ”More importantly, you want to investigate fairies, right? This Hanesaki Minori girl looks just like a normal human, so she's probably a species that has a human appearance or one that can transform into a human. You can see all the different species in this fairy encyclopedia, so isn't there any way to narrow it down further than that?”

”Hmm…”

The problem was that I knew nothing at all about Hanesaki Minori.

Anyway…

”Well, if we don't have enough information, we'll just have to find some. For now, I'll finish showing you around. Remember where the Bizarre Shop is. Let's get to the next place.”

”The next place?”

The mermaid girl winked through her sungla.s.ses.

”The library.”

She had said it was a library with a lot of Archenemy information, so I was imagining goat-horned demon statues on either side of the entrance, magic circles drawn in blood covering the floor, or a building located in a gap between dimensions.

But I was way off.

”Wait, wait, wait. This is the normal city library! I go here to study before tests!! Or when that idiot Ayumi came crying to me about her summer homework!”

It was like asking about a really good hole-in-the-wall restaurant and being taken to the nearest gyudon shop. Sure, it tasted good, but it wasn't what I wanted!!

But Kuroyama Hinoki confidently pushed out her (surprisingly large) chest.

…Even though the place felt like a gyudon shop?

Was there a secret code word like ordering the gyudon ”soupy with extra green onions”? I skeptically followed the mermaid.

”It is a normal library, but did you know there's a donated books section in the back? In other words, they have a bookcase full of the old books normal citizens have donated them.”

I didn't really understand.

It wasn't some hard-to-find location. It was sitting there right between two perfectly normal bookcases.

It was chaos.

It wasn't just about Archenemies. There were books about the secret of Loch Ness, about the warriors of Atlantis who had crossed time and s.p.a.ce, about the truth of Nostradamus, about the face on Mars, and about anything really. It would be hard to divide the fact from fiction on this bookcase.

”We seem to have a lot of people with odd interests living here. Or maybe they moved here to be closer to real Archenemies.”

Kuroyama Hinoki smiled bitterly as she introduced it all to me.

”Anyway, we are thankful. The type of knowledge is a little biased, but it's useful. What is a mermaid and what can one do? This is where I learned all that.”

Oh, right.

It wasn't just the fairy. If we looked more deeply into witches, we could find more that Itou Helen could do.

She had essentially been thrown into a fighting game tournament without even reading the instruction manual. She had managed to b.u.t.ton-mash her way into a special attack, but there was no guarantee there. It was a lot like not knowing what the different colored gauges and numbers meant. And she did not have time to figure it all out through trial and error. Failure and defeat meant execution.

”I'm sure there are also experts on biology and folklore at the university and research inst.i.tutes, but the Bizarre Shop and the city library are the two primary places you can use without some kind of connection.”

”I imagine so.”

I probably had less of a chance of knowing a folklorist than I did an idol. I couldn't even imagine what they were paid to do.

”User, please tell me what your plans are.”

”If we're going to find out what Hanesaki Minori's traits are, we need to know what kind of fairy she is. Maxwell, we only have her name and a photo. How much can you find with that?”

”Sure. As much as you need.”

Kuroyama Hinoki the Mermaid shrugged.

”Then are we just waiting for the results?”

”Of course not. The next match could be tomorrow…or even today. There's no time to waste. Let's work ahead. We need to make a list of all fairy species that look just like humans or can transform into one. Figuring out which one she is can wait. Once we learn some things about Hanesaki Minori - like if she doesn't eat food at night or is afraid of water - we should naturally find our answer.”

The rest was a battle with text.

I honestly felt like I was wasting time at school. Cutting that out of my life might have been logical, but it felt like it would mean accepting this abnormality. And that would let it win. It was apparently important to me that I did not lose sight of my humanity like the Bright Cross had done.

We used the Bizarre Shop and the normal city library.

As soon as school let out, I rode my bike over and lost myself in the books until just before my curfew. Once home, I pinned notes up on a corkboard, connected related items with string, and recorded any ideas I had in a notebook. I couldn't meet up with Kuroyama Hinoki everywhere I went. As long as we could share our information via email, we could continue our research uninterrupted. That had become our implicit understanding.

”The Silky, a white maid that protects the home like a Zas.h.i.+ki Waras.h.i.+. The Tylwyth Teg that kidnaps only blonde children. The Gruagach that appears soaking wet at your door on rainy days to test your kindness. …There are an awful lot of fairies that look just like humans.”

And all of them were beautiful women or girls. A lot of them had stories about marrying or having children with them but then having them vanish if you broke some rules.

”All fairies are weak to…iron? To make sure a mischievous fairy doesn't enter your house, you just have to hang a U-shaped horseshoe over your front entrance. Is that like silver weapons for Erika?”

The tricky part was how these occult books often included what the compiler hoped was true alongside the simple facts. For example, that most every Western monster was weakened by holding a cross out toward it. …Including with the monsters that had existed in BCE times and thus before the cross had any special meaning. If it was that simple, I doubted anyone would still be so afraid of them that all the different species had their own names. If they could all be easily defeated with the exact same method, they would all be summed up with terms like ”ghost” or ”monster”.

So was ”fairies and iron” a case like that?

It would be best not to just a.s.sume that kind of all-purpose method worked.

”We call them all fairies, but they all seem to have different origins. Some were a species like that from the beginning, some are the forgotten G.o.ds of ancient religions, and some are humans who became fairies…”

The used bookstore and the library weren't our only information sources.

When at home, I did not hesitate to ask Erika and Ayumi. They really didn't like letting me have anything to do with the Bright Cross, but they still answered my questions.

”The Colosseum format has changed a lot, but if the underlying theory is the same, there's one unwritten rule: the Five Battles Precipice.”

”As you can probably imagine, that means that any Archenemy fighting 5 consecutive battles in the Colosseum will die somewhere along the line and will never reach the 6th battle. The two of us are exceptions, so we were feared as statistical demons.”

In other words, that was the limit.

That would explain why the blue bunny girl had been giving me so many hints. To them, it didn't matter which side won. As long as it was an intense battle where both sides were badly injured, the following Archenemies would go right for that wound.

I had simply been delighted at getting past the 1st battle, but the grim reaper's clock was ticking. There was no getting off now that the ride had begun, so I could not let Itou Helen reach the solid wall of that 5th match. That mean we only had the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th matches to work with. And each of them was a true fight to the death that would wear down her life.

If they had matches 4 days in a row, that meant we were out of time on the 4th day.

That gave us at least half a week.

Could we really stop the Colosseum? Could we really crush the Bright Cross? I was far from confident. But I had to do it. At the very least, there was no hope at all if I gave up.

”Sure. I have gathered a certain level of information on the fairy named Hanesaki Minori, so I have compiled a report. Hanesaki Minori is registered with Private Elixir Girls High School. Her academic and athletic records are average. She does not stand out in her cla.s.s and her name occurs in the blog and SNS posts of the other students below the average rate. This is only based on my a.n.a.lysis of those posts, but she seems to be known as a girl with many love affairs and there are suspicions that she has been in relations.h.i.+ps with other students and even teachers at the school. They were all genius girls with a promising future or elite female teachers, but it is all far too gossipy to say anything for certain. Whether it is true or not, I can only say that girls schools have their own issues.”

Elixir. That meant she attended the high school division of Ayumi's middle school.

And not standing out seemed at odds with all the rumors about relations.h.i.+ps. I couldn't imagine how people talked about someone like that.

I must have been staring at the smartphone screen for too long because my vision wavered sometimes. It felt like an invisible hand was grabbing at my brain.

I took some short breaks to hold that at bay, but I wanted to use all the time I had to keep working.

When I met Kuroyama Hinoki the Mermaid at the library, she was still wearing the hat, sungla.s.ses, and mask set. That seemed to make her stand out more, but it may have been like Ayumi's scent ritual. If it helped her relax, I couldn't exactly take it away from her.

She spread out a college notebook filled with pen and highlighter and explained.

”If you're going to use the witch to her fullest, you should probably have her use the potions on the fairy as well as herself. A powdered potion can be thrown at her in a small bag and an ointment can be thrown at her in a small bottle. You could use a tranquilizer gun for an injection type, but who knows if they'd let her bring one of those in with her. If she can make an antidote or vaccine for herself, she could also fill the entire bug cage with gas. Maybe she could also rub the potion on a blade? Whatever the case, this looks really adaptable. It can be long-, middle-, or close-range and she can attack a single enemy or the entire area around her. Show Itou Helen this notebook and have her see what she can actually do. Even if she thinks she can't do something, she might make a breakthrough with one of our ideas.”

I was also able to speak with Itou Helen.

Not directly, of course. Just like with the blue bunny girl, I had no idea where she was. Once a day, I was allowed a short smartphone video chat at a predetermined time.

But that was better than nothing.

It let me get our results to her and she could prepare before the fight began.

”Boo. All you do is talk about Kuroyama Hinoki. Oh, I'm doing fine. My body feels kind of heavy, but I'm probably just too nervous to sleep well.”

We had worn ourselves down physically and mentally, but we had worked together to gather a lot of information.

And we used that to sort through everything.

We had a college notebook containing a list of every fairy in that occult fairy encyclopedia that was identical to a human or could transform into one.

And we compared that with the information Maxwell had gathered about Hanesaki Minori.

We didn't need to find the answer right away.

She was indistinguishable from a normal human at first glance. It had likely been a surprise for her when she was taken away to the Colosseum. She might have been more shocked than anyone.

So.

She was not a Baobhan Sith that looked like a blood-sucking beautiful woman but had hooves.

She was not a Skogsnufra that looked like a beautiful woman and seduced men but had what looked like a large tree hole on her back.

She was clearly not a headless Dullahan, a palm-sized Pixie, or a single-horned Unicorn.

”Human, female, goes unnoticed, lots of love affairs, prefers geniuses and elites…”

I divided up the information we had as much as possible and kept trying to search by hand.

It felt like carving down a large rock to find the speck of diamond hidden inside.

I had started with several dozen candidates, but I soon found myself with only 2 or 3.

The sense of accomplishment was accompanied by exhaustion bearing down on my body. I just about curled up and fell asleep right there.

But I had to give the answer first.

Yes.

I had found the answer!

”The Leanan Sídhe. Isn't this it? She possesses people by falling in love with them and she's beautiful but can only be seen by the person she's possessing. And in exchange for providing her lover with great talent and inspiration, she absorbs their life force and lifespan…until they…die…!?”

My head was spinning.

Why hadn't I noticed it until now? Had I really arrived at this truth with only my own ability? Who had given me the inspiration I used to get this far? It had all gone too well. The used bookstore, the library, all the information on Archenemies. It was all too convenient.

And this exhaustion.

Our next opponent was a Leanan Sídhe.

In exchange for great inspiration, that Archenemy robbed her lover of their life force and lifespan, leading to an early death.

Then what if the weight bearing down on our bodies - yes, most likely on Itou Helen's too while she was trapped somewhere else - was more than just the exhaustion of all those late nights?

The air-conditioned library was silent. In that vast s.p.a.ce which felt as dead and cold as a sarcophagus in some ancient ruins, I belatedly looked over at my partner.

A hat, sungla.s.ses, and a mask.

That girl was unnaturally hiding her ident.i.ty and she smiled thinly at me from across the table.

”Kh…!”

With enough force to kick over the table between us, I practically collapsed forward as I grabbed at Kuroyama Hinoki.

No.

No!?

I heard a rustling sound.

The hat and some large ma.s.s slipped away. It should have been enough black hair to wrap all around her body. I had thought it was all shoved inside the hat, but that was wrong.

It all came away.

It was a wig. Which meant…

”So you figured it out.”

The girl stepped back as I collapsed weakly to the floor.

The hat and wig had fallen away and she removed the sungla.s.ses and mask herself.

That revealed someone who looked nothing like Kuroyama Hinoki.

She giggled as she tied up her short brown hair with a hair tie. It wasn't as much as Ayumi. Her hair seemed to emerge from two candy wrapper bows on either side of her head.

”A Leanan Sídhe…? But I doubt Hanesaki Minori is free to walk around outside…”

”Are you sure you want me to give you the answer? Each piece of inspiration I give you will only weaken you further.”

Dammit…!

If it wasn't actually her, it must have been a friend or family member. She didn't talk like she was her either. Was she the Archenemy's second just like me? Even so, I couldn't believe she had started a fight outside t

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