Vol 1 Chapter 1 (1/2)
1 Savant Blue
2 assembly and Arithmetic
1 The First Decapitation
2 The Tragedy of 014
1 The Second Decapitation
2 Lies
3 A Crow’s Wet Feathers
ONE WEEK LATER: Split
EPILOGUE: Crimson Fairy Tale
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Don’t be so edgy
Relax, okay?
The thirdof our life on Wet Crow’s Feather Island
was just greeting us I awoke in a daze, trying to distinguish
between the dreams I had just had and the reality yet to come
The high, rectangularadht,
so the roohts,
I would just have to wait for it to get brighter: the sun had
only just risen, and it wasby
the time
has no in of error But even
supposing I was an hour off, it’s not like it would be a
problem
“Getting up,” I mumbled, and slowly rose from bed
The roos a chair
and a futon Aside froh
ceilings gave it an even more spacious feel—and that hollow,
dead ates of solitary
confine I couldn’t help but feel a little bit
like an inmate on Death Row
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It was the second time in my life I’d woken up with that
feeling
But while this was in fact not solitary confinement, neither
was it originally a bedrooe space
When I asked Akari to show me the smallest room in the
ht me The smallest room
Even so, it was infinitely bigger than
house Boy, was that ever depressing
“Nah… it’s way beyond depressing,” I said to myself
Now then I switched nitive channel from Death
Row Inmate Mode to Routine Mode
Wondering what tilanced at my
wristwatch, but the LCD screen displayed nothing Maybe the
batteries had died while I was sleeping But wait, I’d changed
theo There had to be some other
probleisa to fix it
Clearing ed mind, I did a couple of simple
stretches and then left the room I walked around for a while
The carpet was thick, bright red, and looked like (and most
probably was) super-high quality It eventually led to the
spiral case, which is where I bumped into Rei-san and
Akari-san
“Oh, goodYou two are up early” It was only
coreet them, but they simply passed by
with no ment than a silent head-bow
“Guess they’re the quiet type,” I muttered to myself
But to be fair, they were probably working, and I wasn’t
exactly a “guest,” per se, so I just had to live with their
lukewar more out of them,
I’d have to throw my arms out wide and cry out, “How you
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feelin’, my freaky people?!” And, frankly, I just didn’t have the
energy
Handa Rei-san and Chiga Akari-san were maids employed
at the mansion Rei-san was the “head maid,” Akari her
subordinate And there were two other maids at the mansion,
of the same rank as Akari-san A total of four maids
Considering ned the mansion, and the size of the
mansion, it seemed as if a staff of four maids would be too
small But these women carried out their duties with the
swiftness and skill of true specialists
The mistress of the mansion, and the person these maids
served, was Akagami Iria She was the proprietress of the
island, as well as the mansion And furthermore, she was the
one who had invited isa here
“But wait, was I actually invited?” I asked myself
Now just how old was Akari-san? You could tell just by
looking at Rei-san that she was probably in her late twenties
It’s not easy for kids like me to tell exactly how old a woman
that age is, but that’s definitely the iot from her
Akari-san was the real challenge I didn’t think she was
younger thanShe
was one of those woet away
with paying half-price for everything when they’re actually
adults As I went up the spiral staircase and headed down the
second-floor hall, my mind tilled with nonsense Maybe she has
a thing for young guys Yeah, just babbling
I was headed for Kunagisa’s rooo, e
arrived at the island, a room had of course been prepared for
Kunagisa, but not for me This was to be expected: even I had
had no idea I would be visiting this weird little island until
that very isa called me
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Akari-san prepared a room for me at the last minute But
I’d politely refused it Why? The reason hit me as soon as I
opened the door
I knocked once, then went ahead and opened it
The interior was vast Pure white carpet and pure white
wallpaper complemented pure white furniture Even I knew
that white reflects light Kunagisa was crazy about the color
white, so somebody had decorated this room this way
deliberately In the center of the room was a luxurious sofa
and a wooden table A chandelier hung froely
high ceiling The bed was like soht out of a
movie set in medieval times; it even had a canopy
“Yeah, I’d never get any sleep here”
And so I had Akari-san show e room on
the first floor Meanwhile Kunagisa, lacking my more delicate
sensibilities, lay there drowsily on her pure white sheets
Looking at the enormous, antique, mechanical clock on her
wall (also ever-so-thoughtfully selected in white), I saw that it
was, in fact, six o’clock, just as I’d guessed Pondering what to
do now, I sat on the side of her bed, enjoying the feeling of
the thick, fluffy carpet beneath my feet
Kunagisa rolled over Her eyes opened, just slightly
“Hmm? Oh, Ii-chan?”
Somehow she had sensed it was me, but at any rate she
seemed to be awake She pushed her mussed, I Hawaiian-blue
hair away froarded me with sleepy eyes
“Oh, ahhh, Ii-chan… ummm… You came to wake me up,
didn’t you? Thank you”
“Actually I came here to tuck you in, but what’s this?
Tohttime? That’s pretty rare Or did you
just get to bed?” If that was the case I’d have to apologize
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“Uh-uh” She shook her head
“I think I slept for three hours Cuz y’know, yesterday,
well, some stuff happened, Ii-chan Give me five more
seconds…
“Good , isn’t it?!”
She sat up, her petite little body popping up Flashi+ng me an
ear-to-ear grin, she struck a dynamic pose “Huh? Hey, it’s not
bright out at all I don’t like this I like for the sun to be way
high up in the sky when I wake up in the ”
“You’re talking about the afternoon”
“Eh, either way That was so me,
she kept on talking “I’ot to bed at three am
Some really bad stuff happened yesterday and I just huffed off
to bed Y’know, cuz sleep is the best thing when you’re
feeling really terrible It’s like sleep is the one and only gift of
salvation God gave mankind Now, Ii-chan?”
“Yeah, Tomo?”
“Stay still for a sec”
Without even giving ed
me Or to put it more accurately, she draped herself on me,
burdening ht She rested
her tiny head on ht shoulder, with our bodies stuck
together, her slender arms wrapped around my neck
Squeeze
Not that she was heavy
“Uh, Kunagisa?”
“Recharging”
Evidently she was recharging Thus, noallowed I
gave up on the idea of resistance and supported her weight
But hey, as I, an electrical outlet or so?
Looking at Kunagisa, I noticed she had slept with her coat
on As far as I knew, she wore it all the time, indoors and
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outdoors, summer and winter A jet-black men’s coat On a
girl of Kunagisa’s tiny stature, the large-sized coat easily
touched the floor But she seemed to be madly in love with it
anyway I had told her millions of times to at least take it off
when she’s sleeping, but to no avail
One thing was for sure: Kunagisa Tos her own
way In that sense, she was kind of like me
“Okay, thanks!” she said, and finally let go of me “Battery
full! Now, let’s go face another day”
With a grunt she rose fro She
walked over to the computers by theopposite her
bed They were the three coht from
her home in shi+rosaki All three were tower models The two
on the left and right were of typical size, the one in the middle
was exceptionally large They were all white, of course I just
didn’t get why she was so into a color that was so easy to get
dirty
The three computers were on a U-shaped rack, with a
cushi+ony rolling chair in the center Kunagisa plopped down
in the chair and leaned back That way she could
simultaneously control all three computers But no matter
how you counted it up, she still had only two hands Why she
would ever think to use three keyboards at the same time was
beyond me
I looked over her shoulder The three keyboards were
neither ASCII nor JIS nor Oasis, but instead some weird,
nment But to question the unnaturalness
of it would be futile For an engineering whiz like Kunagisa
To a keyboard from scratch was probably like a
walk in the park
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Incidentally, Kunagisa didn’t use a mouse Because “they’re
a total waste of time,” she would say But to a novice like me,
the sight of a , just totally
i in
the world
“Ii-chan”
“Yeah?”
“Tie my hair up”
Got it I went up to her chair I slipped some hair bands off
her arm and tied her hair into two braids
“Man, wash your hair already My fingers are getting oily
here”
“I hate taking baths Cuz y’know, your hair gets all wet and
stuff”
“Well, of course Look at this, the blue is getting dark”
“I can’t see my own head Hehehe, if I leave it like it is, it’ll
turn ultra her
lower lip with a giggle I just looked back at her with an
innocent, confused smile
“Uh, no problem, really”
Even as we talked, her fingers never stoppedThey
moved with the accuracy of a machine at a constant rhythm
with every keystroke Her movements flowed so smoothly it
was as if she were unconsciously tarrying out some preplanned
assignrammed way Incomprehensible
English characters and nu on all three
monitor displays at an unbelievable pace
“Toot up”
“Met it even if I told you”
“Hmm You really need all three PCs to do it?” I said
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She gave me a perplexed look “Ii-chan, this one in the
middle isn’t a PC, it’s a workstation,” she said
“What’s a workstation? It’s not a PC?”
“Nope, it’s different Well, I guess PCs and workstations
are similar in that they’re both intended for individual use,
but, it’s like, workstations are way more top-of-the-line”
“Ah, so a workstation is like a super-good PC?” I said,
openly displaying norance
She groaned “Ii-chan, a PC is a PC and a workstation is a
workstation They’re both GPCs, but think of them as two
cos”
“What’s a GPC?”
She looked at me as if I were some kind of a caveman “Iichan,
you don’t know anything, do you?” she said with a
touch of disbelief “What exactly were you doing in Houston
those five years?”
“Other things”
She sighed “Okay, okay,” she said, tilting her head Then
she resuled in her
brain Letters and numbers that looked like hocus-pocus to
me continued to stream by on the displays
I wanted her to tell me a little more about the different
classifications or what have you, but I’m not really that
intellectually curious Besides, it would be rude to interrupt
whatever she orking on That, and, for an “outsider” like
me to try to follow this nerdy cupcake’s explanations seemed
as if it would just lead to a headache, so with that I ended the
discussion I ed her shoulders for a bit, then decided to
borrow her sink, where I washed ed my
clothes
“Hey, Too for a walk”
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Without looking up froave me a
halfhearted wave The other hand kept on tapping keys I
shrugged and left the room
I’d be lying if I said I knew all that ami
Foundation They’re not exactly the most well-publicized
organization in the world Plus, since they mostly operated out
of the Kanto region, someone like me as born in Kobe,
grew up in Houston, Texas, and lived in Kyoto wouldn’t know
that much about them
Putting it siami mansion was the home to a
storied legacy of business barons That business ht have
been some kind of trade, or a system in which money just
poured in on its own I’m not sure what exactly it is that they
did, but whatever it was, one thing was for sure: the Akagami
Foundation was loaded
Holding property not just in japan but all over the world,
the Akagami Foundation was the owner of Wet Crow’s
Feather Island as well And the owner of the Western-style
mansion found in the center of the island was none other than
Akagami Iria
As you uess from her name, Iria was related to the
head of the Akagahter, in fact
She was a born-and-bred pedigreed princess, for whom no
obsequious praise was too obsequious Over time, she had
inherited vast amounts of enormous wealth and unbelievable
power and ruled over a great s But then, the
head of the Foundation himself had completely cut her off So
maybe this is all really better expressed in the past tense
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Cut off
I don’t knohat she did to deserve it, but it must have
been so
Supposedly she was permanently removed from the family
five years ago, at the age of sixteen At that time, the head of
the fae (which was
probably still an uniular Joe like me)
and this island, floating around in the Sea of japan
In other words, she had been exiled
Maybe these days that seems old-fashi+oned But far be it
for s
Especially if those people belong to a powerful institution
that’s practically its oorld in and of itself
Anyway, Iria had spent the last five years here with her
fourfoot off the island Five years on
this Godforsaken island in the middle of nowhere, with no
a In a sense, it was life in hell, though
I would speculate that, in a different sense, it was also a little
like life in Heaven
But was Iria-san lonely or bored? Indeed, you could say
Kunagisa had been invited to the island to stave off Iria’s
boredoisa In the same way, it
would be no exaggeration to say that Akane-san, Maki-san,
Yayoi-san, and Kanaht here for the
same purpose
Well, okay, eration
So, anyway, forbidden to leave the island, Iria-san said,
“Well, if that’s how it is,” and proceeded to invite, as her
guests, the world’s ures
Now, it “proures” sounds a little weird, let me
try putting it another way Iria had decided to invite so-called
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geniuses to her o to
them, they can come to me”
Famous and unknown alike, all those who possessed
genuine talent and a skill were summoned by Iria-san,
one after another after another And, of course, all expenses,
including accommodations, were covered by Iria-san In fact,
visitors to the island were often given money, so it was pretty
much always a in situation for them
Tofor that whole
ancient Greek salon i with all
these artists and geniuses—and thereby living a fruitful life To
be sure, it wasn’t the most typical idea around, but yes, there
was so about it Aside from the mansion and
the forest, the island was essentially empty—almost a desert
island—and for those world-weary men and women of talent
who needed to rest both the body and the mind, it was the
perfect place And thus had Iria-san’s plan been a tremendous
success
Now then
Walking around ai in
the forest, it was by an extremely distant cherry blossom tree
that I suddenly ran into shi+nya-san
“Oh, er, that is, Ia hand to
greet me “You’re quite the early bird there, eh? Mister… er,
as your naain? Sorry, my memory’s a little weak,
y’see”
He had a good four inches on ner clothes
were much better than mine His expression was mildmannered,
his way of speaking was mild-mannered, and so
was, so and stature, but whether or not
shi+nya-san really was mild-mannered, I couldn’t say I don’t
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have the skill to judge someone just based on their
appearance, and I’m the last person to jump to conclusions
after knowing someone for just a couple of days
“I don’t believe I ever told you,” I answered with a shrug
“I’isa Tomo’s sidekick No need for a sidekick to
have a naht?”
“That’s awfully modest of you Not that it’s any wonder,
being on this island, but speaking of sidekicks, I suppose I’m in
the same boat as you,” shi+nya-san said and smirked
Yes, shi+nya-san and I were no s It
probably goes without saying at this point, but I wasn’t here
walking around on this island because I was any kind of
genius Kunagisa Toenius” here, and I was
nothing more than her attendant If she hadn’t said to me, “Iichan,
it turns out I’ll be going to some island, so come with
ht about noould’ve been in my Kyoto fourtatami-sized
roo ready for school
No question about it: the isa
Tomo Let’s just make that clear
Now then, as for who shi+nya-san was acco, well,
she was right under the cherry blossom tree With those
thoughtful, thoughtless eyes, she gazed at the fluttering cherry
blossom petals
She had blue eyes and hair of gold Her dress, pale in color,
was out of some French movie, and was accented with
dazzling jewelry Just one of her necklaces or bracelets was
likely worth more than my liver Even if I sold off every part
of my body I still couldn’t pay for it
Ibuki Kanaeniuses
Having, supposedly, suffered probles from
birth, she was confined to a wheelchair And thus shi+nya-san,
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as her caretaker, had tagged along on the trip As I’d heard it,
until a few years ago, she had also been totally blind Her blue
eyes were not a sign of foreign blood
Kanami-san was a painter
Even I, without the slightest knowledge of that field
whatsoever, had heard of her She had earned a reputation as
a painter who possessed no single style I had never actually
seen any of Kanaht that maybe
she was gazing at the cherry blossoms in that way so as to later
portray them on canvas
“What’s she doing?”
“As you can see, she’s watching the cherry blossoms It
won’t be long before the petals start falling She has a
fondness for that ‘moment just before death,’ if you will, the
ephes in life”
Most of the trees on the island were just your standard
fare, but for some reason, there was one cherry blossom tree
It looked quite old, and the fact that there was only one on
the whole island was nothing short of bizarre Most likely,
Iria-san had transplanted it here
“So they say dead bodies are buried under cherry blossom
trees, eh?”
“How dreadful”
Ouch
I was just trying to make conversation, but instead ended it
in one fell swoop of course, it was pretty dreadful
“Just joking,” shi+nya-san laughed
“Personally, I think it would make more sense if that
legend was about a pluuess it wouldn’t be
a legend, but a myth? Hahaha!”
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“By the way, boy, have you gotten accustomed to the
island yet? This is your third day here, right? U
were you planning to stay again?”
“A week So we have another few days”
“Me of mystery
“What’s too bad?”
“Oh, it’s just that I hear Iria-san’s favorite will be co
here in a week But if you’re leaving in four days, you’ll just
miss each other, won’t you? That’s just too bad”
“Oh, I see” I nodded and thought about it for a moment
Iria-san’s “favorite”
In other words, the genius of geniuses
“A chef, a fortune-teller, a scholar, an artist, and an
engineer What could be next?”
“Well, I haven’t heard any specifics myself, but apparently
this person is capable of just about anything Not a ‘specialist,’
but a ‘generalist’ Hikari-san tells me this person is as sharp as
a tack and full of knowledge, and has lightning reflexes”
H person Let’s assume it
was just some ridiculously over-the-top rumor The fact that
such a ruenius
wasn’t just anyone I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t intrigued
“Couldn’t hurt to uess What do you
say to asking for an extension on your visit? I’m sure Iria-san
would more than welcome you”
“Sounds nice and all, but…” I probably looked less than
excited “To be honest, this island is a little stifling For a
regular kid like me, I mean,” I said
shi+nya-san guffawed boisterously “No, now,
no there, lad Is that how it is? Kanami-san and
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Akane-san and all of theiven you a complex, have
they?”
A co you could
put so bluntly, what I felt was certainly so similar
shi+nya-san gave me a firm pat on the shoulder
“There’s no reason to feel inferior to that lot, right? Let’s
keep it together, brother! Whether it be Kanami-san…”
Kanalanced up from under the cherry blossom tree
“Whether it be Akane-san, Yayoi-san, or even Kunagisa-chan,
if they were to play the two of us in rock-paper-scissors, they
would only win one out of three times I suppose Maki-san
would be an exception there, but nevertheless”
“That’s a pretty blunt way to put it”
Not to mention shi+nya-san had just referred to his own
e they were at each
other’s throats or anything, but maybe shi+nya-san and
Kanami-san weren’t quite the best of friends
“Talent isn’t such a big deal In fact, I, for one, alad I
don’t have any Talent isn’t worth spit”
“Why’s that?”
“If you’ve got a talent, you’ve got to exert effort Being
ordinary is a breeze Having nothing to e,
if you ask“I think
we got a little off-topic Anyway, I don’t think it would be a
terrible thing if you were able to extend your stay, if you ask
eneralist’ will beat us in rockpaper-scissors
all three times”
“Well, I’ll talk it over with Kunagisa… It would hardly be
right for the tagalong to decide so like this on his
own”
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“I thought so,” he said “You’re a lot like me,” he said,
looking me in the eye
His gaze was deeply disconcerting It gave me that
unco watched
“Me and you? Alike? How do you mean? In ay?”
“Don’t sound so happy about it In particular, you’re
practically identical in holding the idea that you yourself are a
part of the world”
See himself any
further, he broke his gaze and looked back at Kanami-san
Predictably, Kana at the cherry
blossoms with complete concentration She was surrounded
by a sort of transcendence, as if just that one spot was isolated
fro
unapproachable, even sacred
“So Kana here?”
“Well, it’s more like she came to this island to paint That’s
really all she does, after all I suppose you could say she lives
to paint Can you believe it?” He spoke with a tinge of
frustration, but if you took his words at face value, it sounded
like an incredibly enviable existence; a life where what you
want to do and what you have to do are directly connected It
was a way of life I could never even hope for I, who had
discovered neither what I wanted nor what I had to do
I noticed that shi+nya-san atching me with a wicked
smile, like he had just remembered a bad prank I recoiled a
little I was getting a bad feeling, like a premonition And then
shi+nya-san, with a look on his face as if to say, “I’ve just had a
revelation from God,” clapped his hands deliberately
“That’s right! It’s such a prime opportunity, so why don’t
you try ?” He set me aside as I stood at a loss for
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words and unable to comprehend his, and faced Kanami-san
“Hey!” he called “Kanami! This fella here says he wants to be
your model!”
“Wait, shi+nya-san!” Finally grasping the situation, I spun in
front of hiive me a break!”
“Nohy are you so embarrassed? That hardly suits
your character”
I don’t think so Asking Kanami-san to paint me? That was
an incredibly inti idea But shi+nya-san blew off my
protest with a simple “No, don’t be shy,” and waited
for an answer from Kanami-san
Kanami-san adjusted the direction of her wheelchair and
took a look at me She scanned me up and down, from the tip
ofme,
and said, “So you want me to paint you?” She sounded truly
irritated
This was a difficult question to answer With someone as
talented as Kana would
have been rude I eak in these situations A real
pushover A nineteen-year-old boy who’s spent his life going
with the flow has not the power to alter the flow of a tale
“Yes, absolutely, if you don’t mind,” I said
Kanami-san simply looked disinterested “Fine then Come
by the atelier this afternoon” she said, and swiveled her
wheelchair back toward the cherry blossoms She spoke with
heartfelt apathy, but at least she had taken pity on me
“Well, that’s settled then Are you free this afternoon?”
shi+nya-san said, strangely joyful
I told hiot
into any more trouble
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I returned to the isa’s room once
again Kunagisa was just as I had left her, sitting in her