Volume 5 Chapter 0 (1/2)

Pride:

Lucifer, Azazel, etc.

Wrath:

Satan, Amon, etc.

Envy:

Beelzebub, Leviathan, etc.

Gluttony:

Beelzebub, Molech, etc.

Greed:

Behemoth, Mammon, etc.

Sloth:

Belphegor, Lilith, Astaroth, etc.

l.u.s.t:

Belphegor, Asmodeus, etc.

...There are too many of them. Some of them are in multiple slots. And alternate names like Satan and Lucifer just make it more confusing. There are multiple candidates because the situation changes depending which version of European theology you are looking at, but the dignity of the t.i.tle ”Demon Lord” fades a bit when their numbers reach the double digits. Then again, this is a theory put together by theologians to conquer the fear of demons, so that may be the right way of going about it.

”Huhh? Taori-san, did you take someone in again? Well, not that I can complain when I'm a freeloader too.”

I was a mess.

I had been thoroughly beaten.

But not by anyone out there in the world. By my own ugliness.

I still felt depressed as a woman in a white dress and cardigan, who had once been my mother, led me to a high-rise apartment building I had never seen before. Instead of blending into the similar buildings of a residential district, it stood out from the coastal shopping district and would have made a good landmark. As soon as we stepped inside one apartment, we were greeted by a confused voice.

”You really do like this kind of thing, Taori-san. Have you already forgotten how mad the landlord was when you brought back that big dog even though this place doesn't allow pets?”

It was a flashy blonde girl in a champagne-red dress who spoke to my mom. I didn't know what to call her hairstyle, but the silhouette of her head looked like it was part of a revolutionary new trend in flower arrangement. I had never seen the real thing, but she looked like the cabaret girls I had seen in dramas. She had a lot of accessories on her hands and around her neck. I doubted she was in high school, but she looked a little young to be in college. Her flashy appearance may have been leading me astray, but I had difficulty grasping her age or figuring out how formal to act around her.

My mom, Magatsu Taori, silently nodded.

”You can tell?”

”Well, yeah. He's in some kind of trouble like me, right? Besides, do you have any idea how late it is? You were only just freed, so I know you aren't about to bring a young boy home with you for no real reason. That would be a waste.”

The cabaret girl waved her hand dismissively before continuing.

”I'm Himatsuri Asami. Nice to meet you, runaway boy.”

”Oh, um, uh.”

Who was she?

My mom had supposedly been trapped below an abandoned hospital for more than three years, so had these two recently met and really hit it off?

”What? You aren't going to introduce yourself?”

”I'm...Amatsu Satori.”

”Amatsu?”

This Himatsuri person curiously repeated my family name. She was clearly wrinkling her brow. She apparently knew my mom well enough to be familiar with her family situation.

Which would include that she had returned to her maiden name after the divorce.

”Oh, well, this is quite something... T-Taori-san? Did you do something ras.h.!.+?”

”I didn't take him away from his home. I just happened across him looking like this, so I was worried...”

”That excuse will only work with your friends! Oh, honestly. I'll contact my family lawyer, so you just be honest about everything that happened. I'll get this straightened out, but don't you know how messy child custody issues can be!?”

Himatsuri-san began mussing up her own impressive blonde hair and then called someone up on her smartphone. Despite her flashy appearance, she may have been the sympathetic type who would help anyone out with their problems.

And a family lawyer? Did that mean she was rich? If she was living here, she must not have had her own cook or driver, though.

My mom watched the cabaret girl(?) walk out onto the balcony with the phone and then she laughed and turned toward me.

”Don't worry. If Asami-chan says she'll straighten this out, then she will, so you don't have anything to worry about.”

”Um...”

”You don't have to tell me everything. Just stay here for as long as you need to and head home once you think you can.”

That was extraordinary.

But that was why I couldn't help but wonder why she would go this far.

And she must have sensed the doubt in my face because she relaxed her shoulders and whispered to me.

”It's best if you don't understand. Especially at your age.”

Of the few rooms, she showed me to the living room and reached for the TV remote.

”Defeat 100 comedians with your trademark gag? Easy! I've made it 20 years with one impression! Dwah hah hah!!”

”It has been revealed that the military was involved in the largescale infrastructure damage done by the slime Archenemies in Las Vegas, and it is looking possible that the entirety of Congress will resign...”

”Marine Biology Quiz! This week's theme is sharks! They get a bad rap, but most of them aren't all that violent.”

She flipped through a few channels, but she probably wasn't looking for anything in particular. She was just trying to distract me, so she was focused on finding something calming to watch.

”Given the time, you can think of it as a late night snack, but do you want me to fix you some pancakes, Satori-chan?”

”You liked them, didn't you? With ice cream on top? a.s.suming Asami-chan didn't eat it all, there should be some vanilla left in the freezer.”

At first, I had no idea what she was talking about, but she wasn't remembering wrong. I vaguely recalled eating that a lot when I was little.

Was our family still frozen in time in her memories? If so, that was sad. She had not made a new family or started on a new life. And it had happened because I hadn't gone with her after the divorce.

She slowly removed her cardigan and called out to the balcony.

”Asami-chan, what did you do with the bath?”

”Right, right. So make it top priority! ...Yes? I left the bathwater in the tub. I thought you would want to take a bath when you got back.”

”You heard her. I'll reheat the water, so take a bath. You're exhausted, aren't you?”

”Eh? But...?”

”The basics of life matter. When there's a weight on your mind, satisfying your body's needs is the best first step. Or do you want to take a bath with your mom like old times?”

”Okay, okay, let's not make this more complicated than it already is!! I can hear everything you're saying!!” Himatsuri-san stormed in from the balcony and then pointed straight at me. ”There's only one rule here. You can cause Taori-san all the trouble you want, I'm in no place to criticize you for that. But make her cry and I'll hit you, no matter how much she tries to stop me. Understand?”

Since she wrapped her expensive-looking watch around her palm instead of forming a fist, she must have been used to getting into fights. Was she planning to scratch me with the watch's face? When I nodded several times, she smiled. It looked like she had accepted me as one of them.

”That's fine then. I'll pick a fight with the world too.”

I was then pushed on over to the changing room. At this rate, I started to think I really would be served pancakes with vanilla ice cream on top.

Once alone in the changing room, I looked in the mirror and pulled out my smartphone.

”Maxwell.”

”Sure. You have 34 missed calls, 20 emails, and 58 text messages. How will you respond?”

”Sorry... Can you just ignore those for now?”

”That is a disappointingly pathetic response, but I suppose you are not hopelessly pathetic as you did not ask me to erase them.”

I was well aware how horrible and lame I was being here.

Las Vegas had been taken over by the slime Archenemies we called gels. It had been destroyed by the air force bombing meant to suppress the gels. I had saved the people swallowed by the gels, but that was all. Behind the scenes, it had all been connected to the tickets for an ark known as Absolute Noah. My stepmom, Amatsu Yurina, had given tickets out to the people who had been selected by the machines because they had top priority ”on paper” and she had used that to wipe them all out so they would not take up the spots needed for the people who truly deserved to survive. She had intentionally caused a disaster, given those black-hearted people false arks, and made sure they could not hope for anything more than that.

And?

So what?

What had I done when I learned the truth? I had thoroughly criticized my stepmom, but I had failed to get her to say she wouldn't do it again. I couldn't even get her to apologize.

No, I had known from the beginning that nothing I said would draw out the words I wanted to hear.

I had known that, but I had still hurt my family.

Issues of justice and stopping that grand plan had been second in my mind. All I had done was throw my frustrations at her. And then I had run off, made sure she couldn't find me, and then made myself a burden on my biological mother who I had supposedly parted ways with already.

…Is this the kind of person I wanted to be?

What kind of person had I dreamed of being in those crayon drawings on construction paper when I was little?

”I have already made my judgment of you, user. You are pathetic but not hopelessly so.”

”What's the difference?”

”At the time, a few different options were available to you: get into a fight with Madam Amatsu Yurina and drive her out of the house, leave the house yourself, or pretend it had not happened.”

Maxwell spoke through a series of social media speech bubbles.

”You could not keep quiet about this unreasonable world, but you also could not take away a family member's home. So you left yourself. …That means you are quite fragile, but with a strong sense of justice and kindness. Thus you are not as hopeless as those who let their sense of justice narrow their vision to the point of swinging their fist in their own home.”

Did that mean I was walking the same path as my mom who had left our home after the arguments with my dad progressed too far?

”As a result, you alone have lost everything. Even though other options were available, such as turning your back on justice and laughing, or wielding your justice to threaten her. …So you should be proud of your decision. I am more than willing to support my pathetic user in this.”

”Is that so?”

I finally felt like I could see a slight smile on my haggard face in the mirror. A bit of flattery could really change your outlook on the world. That seemed pathetic, but I couldn't just sit around.

”Maxwell. Send an email to Ayumi, Erika, and the Cla.s.s Rep's phones. Tell them I've just run away from home for a bit so they don't need to worry.”

”Warning: I believe anyone who reads that will see it as something you were forced to write after being caught up in some kind of trouble.”

”That's why I'm telling you to do it instead of me. They'll be relieved to know my inspector is with me.”

”…I am most concerned about your monstrous sisters' jealousy. It makes me feel like I have been caught up in an argument over what one thing you would bring with you to a desert island.”

I placed a towel over the smartphone on the was.h.i.+ng machine, stripped off my clothes, and walked to the bath. The tub seemed larger than at home. Based on the control panel, it seemed to be an IoT appliance. It was apparently connected to the internet so it could heat the water according to the schedule on your phone. …But that seemed dangerous. Couldn't a cyber attack start a fire or give you carbon monoxide poisoning? I thought about having Maxwell check it over for vulnerabilities later. Or would a white hacker like Anastasia enjoy doing that? It was probably best to ask the expert. And she was bound to do it if I presented it to her as a compet.i.tion with Maxwell.

I used a washtub to scoop up some bathwater and washed away my sweat as I thought.

Whatever I was doing, it had to start tomorrow.

I had no idea how to solve this problem, but I couldn't just leave it like this. The Calamity would supposedly destroy the population of the earth and Absolute Noah was the ark meant to survive it. I couldn't avert my gaze from that.

With that in mind, I entered the tub feet first.

And as soon as I did…

I fell.

Where to? Into the bathwater filling it, of course.

I instantly sank in deeper than my head. I couldn't breathe, intense pain shot through my eyes, and the heat of the water seemed to reach deep inside my head. I had no idea what had happened. I initially thought I had stepped on the soap and flipped over, but that wasn't it. I was clearly still upright as I sank. …So was there no bottom!? It was like I had been thrown into a deep pool!

”Cough, cough!! Cough!?”

When I flailed my arms and legs around, I was clearly able to swim. Like I was trying to reach the top of an old well, I swam up in search of air. I finally parted the surface of the bathwater and filled my lungs with air, but the abnormal situation was not over yet.

”Wha-…?”

The bottom of the tub was back to normal. I could feel the smooth plastic supporting my b.u.t.t.

But the room was dark and had no power. I could only observe my surroundings thanks to the bathwater.

It was bizarre.

The water was glowing with a sticky blue light, like it was glow-in-the-dark paint. The pale light came from both the water in the tub and the drops on the tiled walls. The mirror on the was.h.i.+ng area's wall had some kind of strange pattern drawn on it.

It suddenly hit me that this light was a lot like the ocean covered in sea sparkle I had seen in a doc.u.mentary.

”What the h.e.l.l is this?”

I crawled out of the tub and found my wet body was glowing the same color. It was more embarra.s.sing than creepy. I dried myself off with a towel and then returned to the changing room.

I could hear large raindrops pounding on the wall.

…? That sounds like a typhoon. But it was such a clear starry sky outside…

”Maxwell. What is going on, Maxwell?”

I threw back on my clothes and reached for the smartphone covered in the towel on the was.h.i.+ng machine.

But there was no response. No matter how much I tried, it would not connect to Maxwell. It had no signal anymore, making it entirely useless.

So was this not just a power outage or tripped breaker?

I thought for a bit and then realized something.

Something was written on the mirror in front of the sink. But it didn't look like a text made up of meaningful characters.

Come to think of it…

I opened the door to the bath again. Sure enough, the same pattern was on the was.h.i.+ng area's mirror.

What was this?

I returned to the changing room and moved my face in close to the mirror. A few lines were intersecting. Were those supposed to be three-way and four-way intersections? It looked like a crude, hand-drawn map and one corner of an intersection had an arrow pointing to it.

Something changed as I watched it. As if the water on the mirror was dripping down, more blue glow-in-the-dark light was added.

”today's exit”

That was all.

What was this? Had it happened on its own? I checked the bath and found the same writing on the mirror there. That was ridiculous. So was it not just a coincidence? Was there really writing here?

It felt like I had been thrown inside a simulator or a dream.

Ever since I had so unnaturally fallen into the tub, something had gone wrong with the world.

”Mom. Yes, mom.”

She would know something. …Wouldn't she?

Either way, I didn't have to worry over this alone. With that in mind, I threw open the door from the changing room to the living room.