VOLUME 1

Chapter 3: Part 3

Still holding Yuu’s hand in mine, we silently looked up at the floor indicator above the elevator. Yuu hadn’t taken her eyes off my face, but I wanted to find a quieter place to talk and just continued to look at the floor indicator.

We arrived on the roof. It was a lonely rest area with nothing but a bench and a vending machine, but you could say it was the best place for a zombie. At some point, the sun had set, and the full, dark sky seemed to reflect my mood.

n.o.body else was on the roof as I sat myself down on the bench and looked up at the cloudy skies, in which not a single star was to be seen.

Like me, Yuu also sat on the bench and looked up at the sky. I could have asked her about the scenery or said something romantic, but the words just wouldn’t come. I leaned both my elbows on the back of the bench, and felt myself draining of strength as if I had soaked into a warm bath. For a few seconds, I tried to find something tasteful to say, but nothing came to mind.

I changed the direction of my body to face Yuu.

“Yuu, tell me. Why do you show no emotion?”

I had put on a serious expression, but Yuu was as expressionless as ever. We met each other’s gaze like that for a little bit, when Yuu closed her eyes and took out a memo pad from her skirt pocket.

You want to know no matter what?

“Yeah, no matter what.”

At that time, Yuu sighed for the first time in front of me. I had no idea what she was feeling at that moment. Whether she thought it was a bother to tell me, or whether she didn’t want to tell me. But whatever she was thinking, I intended to make her tell me what was going on. I had a right to know. And if I didn’t, give that right to me immediately.

She once again opened her memo pad and handed it to me, showing me a long pa.s.sage.

—

The threads of fate sway from side to side and advance forwards.

Threads that overlap with each other give birth to new encounters.

When strong magical power acts on those threads, their swaying becomes larger and more violent.

Therefore, those who have strong magical power must restrain that power.

My magical power cannot be restrained.

Whether I am excited or nervous, the movements of my heart will quickly throw my magical power into chaos.

That is why it is not allowable for me to show emotion.

—

It was harder than I thought it would be to understand. In other words… how should I put it…?

“Umm. So if you cry or laugh, you change people’s fate?”

She nodded. It was a sad, slow nod. (1) At that time, I remembered the time we had met each other. That time, Yuu had told me this:

That was funny.

So, don’t do it again.

In other words, she wanted me to stop doing what I was doing because it was stirring up her emotions.

I cannot speak. Because my words are infused with power.

Those who hear my words. They become just as I say. They cannot help it.

So, I will not allow myself to speak.

“Those who hear your words become just as you say…?

Yuu once again turned her memo pad towards me and began to write.

If I say cold, whoever hears it will feel cold even if he stood in the middle of a fire.

“That’s… really amazing!”

Yes. My words. They are too heavy.

I do not know when, or which words will become filled with this power.

So, I will not say even a single word.

“I mean, that’s a bit strange, isn’t it? It’s not like something bad is going to happen if you just say something like ‘ahh’ or ‘ohh’ or ‘nyahh.’”

I cannot. When my words become filled with power, a sharp pain runs through my head. I do not want to go through that anymore.

For using great power, there was a great price to pay… something like that then? If the price for using such a strong power like that was pain, it must be an immense amount of pain.

“So because you have that much power, people are after your life?”

There is more.

Seriously? There’s more?

In my hands I hold the power to heal. In my blood is the power of eternal youth. And my heart releases enormous amounts of magical energy.

My thoughts gradually became more and more hectic. I thought I would understand the situation after listening to her, but to think it would have the opposite effect…

“Umm… so, would I be right in saying that you don’t take off your gauntlets or plate armor to seal that power?”

Correct.

She gave me a bit of applause and her gauntlets rattled.

“Do you have anything else? Like, being able to break apart mountains, or stopping time, or becoming invincible or something?”

My special abilities are just that.

And these powers are not tied to my will.

Even should I die, these powers could probably be activated.

So, there are those who would like to kill me. To obtain my body.

“So if they killed you and used your blood, they could make an elixir of youth or something?” I had intended that as a joke, but…

They could.

Her gauntlets rattled. They could?! …It couldn’t be that she was the one who made the vampire ninjas, could it?

“Who is trying to take your life? Only the ninja vampires? The megalo?”

I cannot say for sure. I have almost died at the hands of vampire ninjas, megalo, and masou shoujo before.

Haah. I let out a single sigh, and headed for the vending machine close by. I bought two colas, and pa.s.sed one to Yuu. But she didn’t show any signs of drinking it, and set it on the bench.

“So, is there anything else you’re hiding?”

I told you everything. You must ha-

Her words cut off right there. Something began drip dripping onto the memo pad.

You must hate me now, right? Those words were terribly hard to make out on the pad.

As for me, I could not even begin to understand how she had arrived at that conclusion.

“Are you saying that I hate Yuu?”

She quickly shook her head. Those big eyes of hers filled with tears.

If my feelings leak out, Ayumu’s fate, because Ayumu is closest to me, would be the most affected.

I see. Certainly, even though Yuu had been emotionless up until now, lately I’ve seen her cry and she’s shown various emotions. And together with that, the megalo and vampire ninjas and masou shoujo had been showing up on our doorstep all at once.

So what? Did she really think that I would hate her just because of that?

For a monster like me to be next to you. Now that you know what I am, don’t you hate me?

Yuu’s doll-like demeanor began to crumble. Wrinkles formed across her brow, and she cowered in despair.

“Monster? Where do you see someone like that? From what you told me, the only person that I see here is a kind girl.”

Is it really alright for me to stay with you?

“Yeah, just do whatever…”

For some reason, I was incredibly angry at myself for responding in such a cold way. I let out the breath I was holding with a “Haah…”

Just do whatever? What the h.e.l.l was I saying? Those words weren’t even close to expressing what I was feeling right now. I have to choose my words to get my feelings across properly.

“Yuu, whenever you want to laugh, just go ahead and laugh. That changing fate stuff… I’ll just figure out how to deal with that. So, please stay with me.”

Yuu’s tears didn’t stop. At this point, I couldn’t think of anything but to stroke her head, couldn’t think of any way of cheering her up other than placing my hand on top of her silver hair.

Until her tears stopped, I couldn’t help but have my fill of her silky hair.

Well, if what Yuu said was correct, I could expect a lot more trouble to be coming my way.

But let it come. Whether it was the great King of Terror (2) or a nuclear warhead, I would face whatever came.

It was a cheap price to pay to be with Yuu.

TRANSLATOR’S NOTES

(1) More literally, “she nodded like she was hanging her head.”

(2) This might be a reference to a prediction made by Nostradamus.