Vol 4 Chapter 1 (1/2)
Now then
hello, everybody
Please accompany me for just a little while
1
”So, Touy is he entirely?”
It was a borrowed car, so I should really not be talking and distracting , but around le car in sight, and it was so rural that one could assume that even public construction had not touched this place in the past ten years Actually, it may not even be a hts and probably no danger of being in an accident, but even so I lowered the speed a bit, as I asked Kunagisa To in the assistant driver's seat
Kunagisa looked fascinated as she tilted her head to the side, ”Uni?” and then, ”Didn't I tell you? Ii-chan”
”I thought I sat down and explained to you a lot about Sacchan”
”No, I never heard”
I responded, but if Kunagisa said so, then I probably did receive an explanation Kunagisa Tomo's memory is as accurate as a precision h to require precise investigation In other words of in other words, I forget things brilliantly However, forgetting is the sa
”Uht-”
”Start there Why Sacchan? He is Utsurigi Gaisuke, right? How do you turn his name into Sacchan?”
”Hmm I see”
In any case I accepted her explanation, but still pondered her na sense After all, how is it to make a nickname of a nickname?
”Sacchan from Saikin (Bacteria) sounds like an ele bullied”
”M that's more Chii-kun's role, and Sacchan was the opposite, the bully type But you're right, Sacchan was a bit different inside the Team, like the one loner You know, like he was colored differently”
”More than you?”
”Boku-saht for me to be different or odd”
””
Well, nothing to say
I had recently learned to stay silent
”Chii-kun as it? A seeker, if I remember correctly”
”Yup A transcendent, shred seeker who could look for anything as long as it's within the galaxy I don't knooulda happened if it weren't for Chii-kun this tih, because Chii-kun hated Sacchan”
”Don't knooulda happened, eh” but even now, after having received Chii-kun's help, I could not fathom ould happen
”And so? If Chii-kun was a seeker, then Sacchan as Utsurigi for? Did he know the secret to the Big Bang?”
”Nope,” Kunagisa quickly rejected ”Ii-chan, I think you'veis really on a different plane I think putting it this way ht be crass, but even if I take a hundred years or a thousand years, IChii-kun finds in one day Chii-kun was that outlandish even a the Team”
”Hmm that is certainly unexpected”
Insidentally, that Chii-kun is currently residing in thelike a 150 year tere, nineteen, as Kunagisa and I, so, yes, currently , so he may be able to come out while he’s still alive
”That's why, cooes down a few levels Of course, they specialize differently, so it's not so that I can si Hiei Mountain and Kaawa River”
”That conitude so? What is his specialization?”
”Yup Sacchan's specialization was cracking everything”
”So he's a cracker”
”Yup,” nodded Kunagisa Tomo ”There're lots of explanations for the differences between crackers and hackers, but in Sacchan's case, in Utsurigi Gaisuke's case alone, there's no difference Sacchan devoted every bit of his specifications into destroying Specifications that ht have even been able to co, so he's a specialized, extremely specialized, too specialized, cracker”[1]
”Just to crack?”
”Just to crack,” Kunagisa said, in a rare exception to her carefreeness, with a bit of wistfulness ”As you'd guess fro sense of self, Sacchan He's not someone with a bad attitude like Chii-kun, but like, harassing is the nor other people, or like, so like that”
”So you are trying to say that his personality is not bad”
”He was a man of character He was the second oldest of the e doesn't matter Maybe, not sure”
”How do you write his name?”
”Tree for hanging rabbits, I think And then Gai as in a hundred quintillion, and the Suke with the vehicle radical Boku-sama-chan didn't call the others by real nah”[2]
Just his name made me think ill of him
Well, not that I could say anything
”However, I do not understand why is that person with such a strong sense of self in the notorious Mad Demon Kyouichirou Research Laboratory? I do not understand the reason Did Chii-kun not explain that to you?”
”Mm Like I said, Chii-kun hated Sacchan He only toldout that Shadou Kyouichirou's research laboratory is in Aichi, when no one even knew if it was in japan, was pretty helpful I could have just asked Nao-kun but Nao-kun is Nao-kun and has plenty of Nao-kun business to take care of”
”Helpful having to go there is pretty heavy on h”
”Really?”
”Well, it is not like I can go happily as if I were to going to Universal Studios japan”
I leaned into the handle and sighed
We went from Kyoto to Oosaka to Nara, and should already be in Mie I wondered if Mie was part of the Kinki region or the Chubu region If it counted as part of the Chubu region, then itcloser to our destination, the Aichi prefecture I looked at the analog wrist watch Hiiven me the other day and noted that more than three hours had already passed since we had departed frohe should already be reaching our destination, but the previous month, and the month before that, I had been wounded here and there around both arms, and as that had finally been supposed to fully heal a few days ago, I wanted to avoid driving on the highway
This was not a trip that required us to hurry anyways
Because in this case, it was not time that was important
”That's right, Inoji”[3]
Then
From the rear seat that had been silent this whole time came a voice I turned my head just a little and said, ”Were you awake, Suzunashi+-san” And in a slightly unhappy way,
”I woke up because Inoji and Ao-chan were yipping and yapping Even Sleeping Beauty would wake up to that noise Driving should be done silently”[4]
Suzunashi+-san said
”To begin with, the rear seats on Fiats are really narrow they aren't suited for sleeping I don't get Asano's tastes She prefers japanese style things, but her car's foreign, and it's this narrow, inconvenient car to boot And it doesn't have horsepower Does it even have an engine? Asano's thinking process is a ree?”
”No comment, to that”
I figured, Suzunashi+-san gave a suppressed chuckle
”And, Suzunashi+-san, ere you saying ”That's right” to?”
”Hmm,” she nodded ”To Ao-chan, Professor Kyouichirou, and that Utsurigi-san are both old acquaintances, and are people she can speak to without any worry as sih ER3 or HMO or whatnot, you studied abroad at those fancy research systeht? But this is the first time I'll see a professor or a researcher or that type of person I don't kno heavy this is to you, but it's even heavier for me”
”That's, unexpected co from you, Suzunashi+-san”
”You know, despite how I look, I'ers How to speak to people like research professors who've studied all their lives, I can't even iet the volume of a cone”
”Hmm I see by the way, Suzunashi+-san, do you like Dr Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb?”
”I don't dislike it”
”Then it will be alright You will do just fine”
” is that how it is? Even so, really Inoji I'd rather this be the last time I accepted because Asano asked, but I' kids, estate stewards, and Asano Miiko”
”I appreciate it”
”Appreciation can be done by anyone So that only you can do, Inoji”
She said, and Suzunashi+-san lay down on her side on the narrow rear seats Suzunashi+-san is pretty tall for a fe -- so she see for space And she wore a pure black suit, which was rather for with a perfectly fitting cutter shi+rt and even a necktie, so it seemed even harder to sleep
Suzunashi+ Neon
My neighbor at the apartment I live in, and friend of the owner of this Fiat 500 Asano Miiko-san, of twenty-five years of age Normally she worked at the Enryaku temple at the Hiei Mountains , and soh Miiko-san I had isa and Suzunashi+-san had met
”And, Inoji How long until we arrive?”
”I do not know is Mie part of the Chubu region?”
”Kinki”
Is that so Then, I think it will take a bit”
”Inoji Chubu or Kinki doesn'tnext to each other It doesn't change the time”
”Ah, that is right I had forgotten”
”Nors like that Ii-chan, don't tell me you can only name half the prefectures?”
”That is going too far Who cannot name all the prefectures?”
”I can't I thought Hiei Mountains was in Kyoto until the other day”
”That mistake is a bit impossible”
”I had no idea that Kyoto had an ocean, too”
”Please do not sound so proud about that”
”Hah I suck at raduated ele that Australia and Austria are different I can't tell the difference between Mongol and China But that doesn't matter It doesn't bother me one bit in life”
”Is that so”
”That's right There're only a few things that a person needs to know to live as a person Though recently there're s”
She said sarcastically, and lowered the brim of her hat over her eyes
That outfit to go with her crow-colored hair, a stylish fors, and with that hat, I could only think of Jigen Daisuke, but Jigen Daisuke's seat was always the assistant driver's seat, which was currently occupied by a nonchalant blue-haired girl, so that ruined it Well, the driver beingclose to Lupin III's standards
”But really, I apologize forto do it would have been perfect--”
”Inoji,” Suzunashi+-san said, her hat still covering her eyes ”I understand that this circumstance called for it, but I would personally rather you avoidAsano a character in these sorts of stories She's always been too good to people, always poking her nose into other peoples' stuff Actually you could say she was one of those thanks-but-don't-do-this-again types, where she'd go around forcing her way into issues And, if she were incoht, but Asano's tends to be useful I don't like praising friends, but Asano's top-class with swordsood with other stuff And most importantly, she's not very smart Or to be blunt, she's stupid And not just any stupid, she's insanely stupid That's why she's the type to get used by people and get the worst of it”
”Are you praising her?”
”I' her What else would this be? Anyways, I don't think that you're that type of person at all, but I'd still rather you keep trouble away from her From me, too, of course”
”I understand”
”Probably You understand and still do it, so you're even worse Really, I wish you'd just sit still I won't say relying on others is bad, but I don't think it's good to rely on others to do so it alone is always ether Too many captains will steer a shi+p up a mountain, so to speak”
”I actually think that is ao up a ”
”Stop trying to oal, then whatever the process was is still worthless Remember that”
I had not seen Suzunashi+-san in a while, and it see However, as the party that had requested the near-i with a bit of tongue-lashi+ng
And, Suzunashi+-san is not wrong, anyways
She was just slightly not correct
”Sorry, Neon-chan,” Kunagisa said ”But this time we desperately needed a chaperone Boku-saht be alright with common sense, but you know, Ii-chan”
”Nothing for Ao-chan to apologize over You're a bishoujo after all”[5]
”It is alright because she is a bishoujo?”
”Don't ask the obvious,” said Suzunashi+-san with a fearless chuckle ”The value of a bishoujo truhteous or pleasant or compassionate or a road or virtue or benevolence or love, all of that riffraff is nothing but dust in front of a bishoujo”
Her extreorized as bishoujo, myself, and everyone else still seemed to be in healthy effect
Well, they do say people lust for what they do not have, and sticking your neck oroff about the value syste anything
”Well, I'll go catch another wink I'd been working all-nighters lately so I'm atrociously sleepy I can't think of words to describe this atrocity So, Inoji, please wake et there”
”Acknowledged and understood”
I replied, and for a while after, the road see Suzunashi+-san quickly entered began sleeping (however, it was still incredible that she could sleep in such a place), and I could hear her snoring Kunagisa was fiddling with her pocket coine what this nerd and geek and , so I did not ask what she was doing
And then, I thought
About the place where ere headed, about the man ere to meet
”Utsurigi Gaisuke”
Ju to refer to destroyer as cracker Nishi+o Ishi+n uses the word 破壊 (destroy) but uses the furigana ”cracker,” and as is the case with every other instance of this, I'ana In this case these were the first and last times that the word destroy is actually read destroy, so this explanation was to explain why it goes fro
Juh school)木(tree) 垓(hundred quintillion)輔(vehicle radical is 車, it's on the left of the letter) Incidentally soi comes from 移り気 (utsuriki), or ”intent to transfer”
Jump up↑ いの字 (Inoji), one of his nicknames that he mentioned Literally means ”The letter I”
Juisa's hair is blue
Juirl
2
If you are someone who has dabbled to any extent in the world of electronic engineering, someone who has stepped foot even a little into the territory of , or perhaps someone who has stuck their neck into underworld of society, then there is no way you would not know of the fa that era (yes, it had already become its own era) it was impossible to avoid them
Some called them electronic terrorists and others dubbed theraded them criminals, and different people worshi+ped them as saviors However, not one could be said to be correct, and in turn one could not call the and be incorrect, so you could say that it was like describing one facet of truth
In other words, that sort of Teaue pronouns like theuys always referred to that bunch Of course, while their existence was faroup they were, what purpose they were forroup, was publicly unknown Teale trace That further turned the existence of Teaend, a myth
That hy
For exa next to roup, no one would believe ed in the enorous creation activities, that the Teaade of Fanatic Cultists, was just a sroup of nine people, no one would believe me
One of those nine was theto meet
In other words, Utsurigi Gaisuke
What process Kunagisa had undergone to i, and for what h they may have been too destructive to just be called that) activities, I do not know Currently that was outside of the firing range ofto be asked lightly
No -- honestly
Honestly, this was not one of those things That was just an excuse, and a single favorable facet of interpretation Honestly, probably, with regards to those things, I simply did not want to know In that blank space that had been forisa and myself, what incidents had happened I do not want to tell Kunagisa, and what had happened to Kunagisa, I do not want to know
Kunagisa Tomo
The one and only friend of mine
I was still living in Kanbe when I came to know her, and it was a tie of thirteen Five years ago -- no, it was closer to six years, I should say For half a year, I shared the passing of tiirl, and, after half a year we split ways We did not keep in touch and five years passed, and we had reunited several o
Five years
That was enough tie isa as well, was hardly different from before Aside from the fact that she had created an absurd curriculuht friends in a place I did not know of, and that she had split ith eight friends in a place I did not know of
When Kunagisa speaks of theenuinely happy When she told alaxy, also known as Ayana Sacchan also known as Utsurigi Gaisuke this ti off a prized treasure, she always became really happy
I was not pleased by that
I did not knohy, but it bothered me
”In other words, just jealousy”
I felt like that was also a bit wrong, but it also probably was not off enough to bother explaining I a, and I also do not have an honest-enough personality to convert Kunagisa's happiness to become my own happiness Truth be told, it was hard for ht, whoisa thanwas probably not one of fondness
However
However, in this case,
”It is so heavy”
”Why?”
I had isa responded to isa, she did not take her eyes off her pocket co, to the point where one could wonder if she had several thousand brains A long ti 128 computers at once When you think about that, then this sort of thing is simple It was not that she lacked concentration, but rather that she could split her concentration in every which way and then some and still have concentration left over
In other words, when that concentration focused toward a single truth -- it was easy for her to ar against the world
”What's heavy, Ii-chan? Or was heavy a pun? Hmm, that's funny Boku-sama-chan thinks that's funny”
”I would not say so to myself No need to worry about it”
”Then I won't But you know, Ii-chan, you don't need to worry that much Sacchan doesn't bother anyone he doesn't actually care for”
”That would be helpful, but the source of my anxiety lies elsewhere”
”Youyou anxious?”
”To be blunt, well, yes”
I nodded
Shadou Kyouichirou Research Laboratory According to Chii-kun's infor as a Fellow there, and it was one of the scarce research laboratories in japan that had no background pressure and was for purely research I had heard anization several times, and remembered Remembered Forthings that one ht think it was created entirely of resisters, this was nothing short of athat this proved the incredible-ness of the laboratory And er of that laboratory, Shadou Kyouichirou, presided over fame that rivaled that of Team
As Mad Demon Kyouichirou
As you can glean from that alias, he is widely known, but he is also a researcher that is not widely respected Mathey, form machinery, animal behavior, molecular theory, et cetera et cetera, he traversed multiple specializations, and was soround, and his own qualities combined and created an eccentric scientist on a class of his own He is currently sixty-three, yet he still performs research in that laboratory facility, they say
”You have ht?”
”Yup But that was before I met Ii-chan Boku-sama-chan was around twelve then, I think”
”Mmm Twelve”
”The research facility was in Hokkaido then I ith Nao-kun”
”Huh, is that so”
”Yup Nao-kun still had free time then”
Nao-kun would be Kunagisa's bigger brother, Kunagisa Nao He possessed an ordinary personality that would isa Too, I came to be under his care for quite a bit Nao-san currently works properly as a secretary for his father (which in other words isa's been long disowned), so we did not have the opportunity to see him much
”Professor Kyouichirou was pretty sharp then, but it seeot a lot of warnings froher up, so now he hides his location and continues research with a few elite, so he's pretty abnormal”
”You are calling someone else abnormal?”
”Abnorisa said with a bit of pride ”Set a thief to catch a theif, I think? Hht to say set a theif to catch a thief”[1]
”I see” I nodded absentmindedly ”So would it simply be that he is like a mad scientist?”
”Yup Like a mad scientist”
”You know so, what is he researching as he coops up in the mountains? That Professor Kyouichirou”
”Seven years ago, to be really rough he orking on artificial intelligence But that's a really rough way of putting it Yup, that was the trendy thing back then, artificial intelligence Boos Of course Professor orking on so a bit different”
”I have ence before As part of my class across the ocean”
”Boku-sama-chan's made stuff like that a lot, too Hii-chan was the best of us at that though Hii-chan always said, Talking to a person and singing chords to an artificial intelligence are similar, because they're similar in that they're incompetent”
”That one also sounds like an asshole”
”Pretty irl Anyways, when boku-sa innovation or pioneering into artificial intelligence as a whole, I think But just as there're trends in the world, there're also abandonment in the world, so there're ru on research on artificial intelligence as seriously any on, but he's probably still so like cybernetics”
”Hmm”
”But that aside, he's probably doing so He's that kinda person Really, always has been”
Kunagisa said with a bored tone, and stuck out her lips a bit in a pouting way This was a rare delivery for Kunagisa Toi was causing her to react this way I did not intend to say anything, anyways
I shut up and continued driving
”But there's nothing for Ii-chan to worry about The professor also doesn't care for people he doesn't care for His personality is actually really bad, but Ii-chan just has to co as you're with boku-saht”
”Is that so That is a thankful thing, really”
Of course, that was probably the truth For Green Green Green Utsurigi Gaisuke and Mad Demon Shadou Kyouichirou, an ordinary private university student likeGiven prior experience, I am quite aware of that fact about h not much is what youto Kunagisa, and I had no intention of saying anything, but the source of my anxiety came from somewhere else And that anxiety would most likely materialize within the first day
” sigh I still feel heavy”
And that too, ultimately, would simply be destiny that could only be called coincidence There is nothing that can be done about it My life is only worth thatwith the flow I did not have much dissatisfaction with that Just anxious, that was all
”Nn Looks like we're in Aichi Then, take the next left, Ii-chan”
”Really? That takes us even deeper into the mountain path”
The road had long since turned into a dirt path that had not been maintained at all If you looked outside the , you would see nothing but Cryptooosebuht even wonder if the Earth is truly lacking trees