Chapter 14 — If You Want to Die That Badly, Do It Alone!
“But then what was your side dish for happy time?”
“Well, with the real thing right beside me, it wasn’t hard to use my imagination for the rest.”
“Could you guys at least try to be a bit more subtle?!” Tomochika desperately tried to cut off Carol and Yogiri’s exchange. “Use some delicacy! Why are you so blunt about this, Takatou?! And why are you encouraging him?!”
“Well, putting that aside for now,” said Yogiri, “could you tell us what’s been going on with the class? If you already know about me, that should make things easier.” Trying to explain his journey with Tomochika without revealing his true power would have to be done in a fairly roundabout way with the rest of the class. But with these two, they could talk freely without having to watch their words.
“Hey, why am I the only one here who seems bothered by this conversation?! You’re making me look like an idiot.”
“Sorry, I just enjoy your reactions so much,” Carol said with a laugh.
As if to deny her the satisfaction of another such reaction, Tomochika shut her mouth with a sullen look.
“So, what are your questions?” Carol asked, bringing the conversation back on topic.
“Basically, about the class structure. Like how you divided everyone into groups, and how you made it this far.”
“Ah, right, I was in the middle of talking to the others about that,” Tomochika mentioned, remembering her earlier conversation in the bedroom. She didn’t have it in her to sulk for too long.
“How much did you hear?”
“Just about the three Eroge Nobles so far.”
“Right. The powers we got in this world are quite strong and very useful for surviving here. But what if that power was turned against us by one of our own? It wasn’t long before everyone started considering that. The first example brought up was those three guys. The biggest problem was Munakata’s Invisibility.”
“Really? I guess the tentacles wouldn’t be a huge problem, but wouldn’t Time Stop be more of a concern?” asked Tomochika.
Yogiri wholeheartedly agreed with her assessment. The ability to stop time seemed incredibly powerful.
“Well, Ushio’s Time Stop is a bit different. He stops time for whatever he touches, freezing it in place. While it’s definitely formidable, you can at least defend against it to some degree.”
“For example,” Ryouko added, apparently having calmed down, “my class is Samurai, and Carol’s is Ninja. As combat classes, we can move fast enough to kill him before he could even use his power.”
“Then we have Munakata and his Invisibility,” Carol continued. “On top of being able to turn himself and any other object invisible, he also has a kind of X-ray vision. That’s where the real problem is. Since he can see through anything at any time, and there’s no real way of telling when he’s using it...yeah.”
“Oh, I can see why people would not like him being around,” Tomochika nodded. No doubt they were worried about him violating their privacy.
Yogiri personally thought it was a useful enough power that they would be better off turning a blind eye to such things, but he decided not to share his opinion. “Wait, did he just tell you about his power himself?” he asked. He found it hard to believe that someone would actually confess to having such an ability.
“At first, he didn’t tell us everything,” Ryouko answered. “In the beginning he just said he could make his weapon invisible.”
“Yeah, up until Ootori busted him,” Carol retorted.
Haruto Ootori had the class of Consultant. He possessed skills for analysis, which allowed him to make out the limits of everyone else’s abilities.
“That...sounds bad,” muttered Yogiri.
“Very bad,” Tomochika agreed.
“So, the whole thing about you guys getting the Gift was a lie?”
“Kinda, yeah. We’ve got a sort of camouflage, but do you think he’ll see through it?”
“It’s hard to say. What rank is the camouflage?”
“What do you mean, rank?”
“Oh right, if you don’t have the Gift, you don’t know about the whole system. It’s not that difficult to understand, but a rank is given to all skills and items. Differences in rank are absolute. For example, if your camouflage is Rank One, then a Rank Two Discernment could see through it. If they were reversed, it would be impossible.”
“What if they were the same rank?”
“In that case, it would depend on your individual stats, I guess. There are a lot of variables that go into it at that point, so there’s a bit of randomness involved.”
Yogiri glanced at the ring on his finger. It looked plain and unadorned, but it gave no indication of anything like a rank.
“Mokomoko, can you tell what rank this is?” Yogiri asked the ghost floating beside him.
Those are Rank Six.
“It’s Rank Six,” Yogiri relayed.
“Who were you talking to just now?” Carol asked, confused. As a Dannoura ghost, only Tomochika and Yogiri could see Mokomoko.
“Dannoura’s guardian spirit.”
“Oh! That’s incredible! Where is it?”
“Wow, they just believed you straight away,” Tomochika said as Carol began looking around.
“Well, come on. If other worlds are real, and magic is real, and people like Takatou exist, why wouldn’t I believe in ghosts?”
“I suppose. Guardian spirits seem pretty low on the rarity scale, don’t they? Probably nothing better than a Common.”
And why are you staring at me as you say that? Mokomoko demanded.
“Anyway, if the rings are Rank Six then you should have no problem. The highest rank in our class is only Rank Four.” According to Carol, the highest possible rank was ten. But for an ordinary human, three was the limit. Anything above that was superhuman, and anything seven or higher was in the territory of myth.
“Who exactly was this Celestina?” Tomochika wondered. The more they learned about this world, the more impressive the concierge seemed.
“By the way, the only one in the class with a Rank Four skill is Fukai, with his Instant Death Magic. Since no one else has a resistance skill that’s even equal to it, he was considerably more dangerous than Munakata.”
“Instant Death...you mean like Takatou?” Tomochika asked, her face blanching. After seeing Yogiri’s power firsthand, it was natural for her to be shocked by the idea of someone else like that being out there.
“Don’t worry, it’s not even comparable. Its success rate isn’t a hundred percent, and he can only use it on people he can see. Plus there are Instant Death Resistance skills out there, you can make substitution items to take the hit for you, and you can still be resurrected after he uses it on you. That being said, it’s still plenty dangerous to people like us.” In spite of her words, Carol didn’t appear to be all that concerned about him.
“So, we had a bit of an issue,” Ryouko cut in, getting back on topic. “The difference in our starting strengths was so vast, there was nothing for us to do but what the people with the stronger Gifts ordered. Then Akino made a suggestion: that we ban the use of our Gifts on each other.”
“That sounds good and all, but making a ‘promise’ wouldn’t actually stop someone, would it?” Yogiri asked. What Ryouko was saying was perfectly reasonable, but there were people in the class with skills like X-ray vision, which could be used without anyone knowing. Simply asking them not to do it could hardly compel obedience.
“Normally, you’d be right, but Akino’s class is Idol. She has an absurd ability that can grant people’s wishes.”
“So, if someone wished that you were all unable to use your abilities on each other, it would just be true?”
“Not quite. With her Oath skill, anyone who makes a vow to her gets stronger if they keep it.”
“And if they break it, they die?”
“Bingo! Rather than using her ability to grant wishes, we focused on her ability to put restrictions on others. The punishment for breaking your vow depends on what you gained from the wish, so we made people who seemed dangerous to the class vow not to use their Gifts on their classmates. In exchange, their skills all increased in rank. And having your skills rank up is enough of a bonus to deserve death if you break your vow.”
That essentially meant that Sora Akino would have total control over the class. It didn’t truly solve the problem of those with stronger Gifts dominating the group, but the girls had all supported her being the leader anyway. While trying to restore cohesion to the class, she was given the position as a move to compromise with the girls, who had become the majority.
“So, if I’m understanding Akino’s ability correctly, doesn’t that mean we’re kind of screwed?” Tomochika asked. After all, if they didn’t actually have the Gift installed, a skill like Akino’s wouldn’t have any effect on them. The moment she tried to use her Oath skill on them, she’d realize they didn’t actually have that kind of power.
“Things are getting kind of annoying...” Yogiri muttered, causing Ryouko’s face to drain of color.
“Th-Then, don’t worry! I’ll go get rid of Sora Akino right away!”
“Whoa, whoa, calm down! Don’t you think we should find a nicer solution?!” Tomochika cried, jumping to stop the girl, who had already drawn her sword and was turning to leave.
“As long as your fake Gift doesn’t get revealed, you should be fine, right?” Carol noted. “Akino can’t just grant any wish she wants, and there’s a limit to the number of people she can use it on. She probably won’t use it on someone who doesn’t present a real threat.”
“I guess we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it,” Yogiri said, feeling surprisingly optimistic.
“Speaking of which, why did you two even rejoin us? If you could make it all the way here on your own, you’d have no problem making it in this world without us.”
“We want to talk to this Sage Sion person. She’s the one who summoned us here, so we were hoping she’d know how to get us back.”
“Get back?” Carol asked as she and Ryouko shared a surprised look. It was almost like they had never even considered the possibility. “Uh...well, yeah, I guess you’d want to go back...”
“I was kind of working under the assumption that it was impossible,” Ryouko commented. “Like becoming a Sage was the only option available to us.”
It isn’t quite brainwashing, but it does look like their thinking has been somehow influenced, Mokomoko mused. She had once said that the Gift made people more combative and suppressed their aversions to violence. It wasn’t hard to believe it could divert their thoughts away from home as well.
“Hey, Takatou, if we tell everyone and try to find a way back together...”
“No, I don’t think that’s a good idea. Right now, we don’t have a choice but to accomplish this big feat if we want to connect with Sion, so introducing another objective will just create confusion,” he answered, rejecting his friend’s suggestion. Sion had given them one month; they didn’t have time to split their resources.
“Now then, I’m sure there’s more to talk about, but can we leave it for next time? I feel like the leaders’ meeting will be over soon,” Carol suggested. The representatives would be returning to explain what they had discussed, and everyone would need to be back with their groups for that.
“Okay. For now, we’re working together, right?” Yogiri asked, just to be sure.
“Yeah, that was my intention,” Carol replied.
“Please give me any orders you like!” Ryouko added.
In spite of his initial concerns, having people who knew about his situation made things a little easier for Yogiri.
For the moment, they decided to return to the mansion.
Confirming that Yogiri and Tomochika had left, Ryouko breathed a sigh of relief. Though she was still covered in a cold sweat, she had made it through the encounter, and he had even made it clear that he accepted her apology. It was a passing grade for the moment.
“He doesn’t seem all that invincible, does he?”
“Wh-What are you talking about?!” Ryouko couldn’t believe Carol’s attitude.
“Don’t you think? He got caught up in being transported to this world just like the rest of us. And he always lived underground at the Institute, didn’t he?”
“Well, that’s true, but...”
“In short, if you don’t have any intention of killing him, and you’re not targeting him specifically, then transporting him somewhere or isolating him against his will is possible. In that case, don’t you think it’s possible to nullify his powers?”
“Hey, don’t even think about that.”
“And with the way he’s dedicated himself to Tomochika, he seems like an ordinary high school boy. If that’s the case, we could even use her as a hostage —”
“Shut up!” Ryouko shouted, suddenly grabbing Carol by the collar. “Listen! That is the absolute worst method! What do you think will happen to someone who tries that?!”
Carol didn’t seem to have any idea. No matter how harmless he appeared, you couldn’t let your guard down around him for an instant. When it came to Yogiri Takatou, there was absolutely nothing you could do against him. Even so much as thinking of a way to fight him was dangerous.
The Agency that Carol had come from should have known full well how much of a threat Yogiri was, but apparently their attitude towards him was very different from the Institute’s. The Agency felt that, no matter how powerful the phenomenon, even if they didn’t fully understand it now, someday they would be able to break it down and take measures against it.
But the Institute had no such delusions. To them, Yogiri Takatou was all but a god of disaster. As a being beyond human reach, they could do nothing but quietly accept the calamity he brought them, begging on their knees being their only hope of quelling his wrath.
“Take hostages? Are you stupid?! From now on, we’re the exact opposite of that! We have to do everything we can to protect Tomochika!”
“I think that’s going a bit far...” Carol tried to brush off her concerns, but Ryouko tightened her grip, lifting her off the ground.
“Would you just stop?! Stop acting like this is all some sort of game! This isn’t just about you! It’s not about me or even humanity! Don’t get the whole world wrapped up in this! If you want to die that badly, do it yourself! Just kill yourself right now and be done with it! I’d be more than happy to be your second!”
“Sorry...” Faced with such intensity, Carol finally offered a rare apology.
Meanwhile, at the leaders’ meeting, it was decided that the Sage candidates would head underground to try their hand against the Dark God and its spawn.
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