kscans

Chapter 168 - No One Can Take Away the Freedom of the Heart

"Well then, I'm heading out."

"Take care."

Saku-chan saw me off as I left the house for our meeting spot in front of the station. Suzuki had already arrived, and she smiled and waved when she saw me.

...Not bad at all.

I'd heard it was a standing party, but not a particularly stuffy one, so she was wearing a skirt and blouse. I was in a chic jacket and pants, but a guy's outfit doesn't really matter. The main event was Suzuki. Just like last time, she really knew how to play to her strengths. That outfit perfectly highlighted her pure, clean-cut appeal.

"...Impressive. I have nothing more to teach you. Go forth, and step over my corpse."

"What kind of crazy talk is that for a greeting?"

We exchanged brief pleasantries, hailed a taxi, and set off for the hotel where the party was being held.

"This is for someone's wedding anniversary, right? Like their tenth or twentieth or something?"

"That's right. The hostess and her husband are apparently very much in love."

She gave a wry smile, saying they were still so hot for each other at their age that it was almost embarrassing to watch. Good for them. That's the dream, being all lovey-dovey even when you're an old geezer and an old hag.

"In your case, you'll have to settle down first."

"Why did you have to bring up such a deflating reality?"

My imagination is my own, you know. It doesn't matter how detached from reality it is. I should be allowed to freely picture the happiness that lies beyond some ridiculously high hurdles.

"Because no one can take away the freedom of the heart!!"

"Why are you talking like some naive, hot-blooded character from a shonen manga?"

"Shut it! I've never lost the heart of a boy!"

"You weren't that kind of character even when you were an actual boy."

"Your memory must be failing you."

The high school version of me was the quintessential shonen manga protagonist. With a naive sense of justice in my heart, I faced countless setbacks but overcame them with an indomitable spirit...

"Stop fabricating the past."

"It's not fabrication. Your memory is what's wrong."

"Even a pushy door-to-door salesman wouldn't try such a stupid tactic these days."

"...I thought I could pull it off with sheer momentum, but I guess not."

"You were serious?"

"Well, you know, since spring I've been surrounded by those kids, right?"

As heartwarming as it is, it also makes me think about what I was like at their age... and it's a little embarrassing.

"So I thought maybe, just maybe, I could get away with making it seem like I was that kind of kid too."

"Altering the past for your own selfish desires is exactly the kind of thing a shonen manga protagonist would condemn first."

She sighed, looking utterly exasperated.

"By the way, speaking of the kids reminded me. What are you doing for Halloween?"

Since Suzuki brought it up, I deployed a perception inhibitor. This wasn't a conversation for the driver to overhear. Not that letting him listen to a thirty-five-year-old man seriously trying to alter his own past was okay, either.

"Hmm... what should I do?"

The Halloween she mentioned wasn't the festive brouhaha on the surface. It was the other one, the Halloween closer to its original source. Halloween has its origins in Ireland and is a festival similar to Japan's Obon. On that day, which marks the end of autumn and the beginning of winter, the gates to the other world open, and the souls of the dead are said to return. But not all the spirits that come back are good ones. There are evil spirits, of course. With the distance between the living and the dead shrinking and the boundary between life and death becoming blurred, the movements of malicious monsters also become more active. You know the costumes for Halloween, right? They were originally meant to prevent living humans from being targeted by those things. If you want to hide a tree, hide it in the forest. If there are a bunch of monsters around, you just have to dress up as one and blend in.

Basically, the "other" Halloween is one of the times when monsters become more active. That's why on Halloween day, the Mutual Aid Society conducts a large-scale subjugation to put the rowdy monsters in their place. You wonder why a festival that was originally a regional custom in a single country affects a place like Japan? It's because Halloween became a globally famous event. No matter how far it strays from the original source, these conceptual things are a real pain... It probably became a regular event in Japan around the late 2000s. But its influence on the other side started much earlier. The effects of Halloween had been confirmed since at least the late 90s.

"In terms of their abilities, I don't think it'll be a problem as long as they don't go anywhere too crazy."

Even if the Aberrations get feisty, the truly dangerous ones are surprisingly quiet. There are still some that the kids couldn't handle, but we can just leave their subjugation to others. It's a chance to gain good experience, and on top of that, a special bonus will warm their wallets. I'd love to say they should definitely participate, but...

"There are also people who try to scheme something using Halloween as a cover, right?"

The problem is the humans.

"---Like you guys did."

"Ugh."

Life and death. They are fundamental concepts, one of the most powerful laws of nature. The occult effects that arise when that boundary loosens are quite significant. You can do things you normally couldn't, for example. The True World and the Chaos Army were like that. They chose to make their move on a day when the Mutual Aid Society would be insanely busy.

"You guys just had to interfere when I was getting all excited, didn't you!?"

By that point, Takahashi and Suzuki had long since defected and we were in a state of conflict, but that was a separate matter. It didn't mean we were serious all the time. We enjoyed our normal, everyday lives too. Back then, Chika-san had just told me about Halloween, and I was super hyped. A special bonus! I'll hunt and hunt and hunt until I'm rolling in it! I thought. And then came these guys. It turned into anything but a bonus time.

"...But you were cheerfully extorting money from both sides, weren't you?"

"Of course I was. I wouldn't have been able to cope without some consolation money."

Anyway. The possibility of human schemes is my main concern.

"The folks from Kyoto were apparently planning to target Halloween recently, too."

When I think about the kids getting caught up in human malice... I hesitate a little. They don't have any real experience fighting other people yet. Well, they've taken down a few perverts, but those guys are a different genre from the kind of villains who make your stomach churn, right? Encountering that kind of human malice is a rite of passage, but... we just haven't had the right kind of job come up. It's all a matter of chance, so there's nothing I can do. I hear that not only Rika-chan's group but other kids as well haven't had the opportunity, and it's become a headache for the Mutual Aid Society.

"So they're not participating?"

"Hmm... no, I'll let them decide for themselves."

Being too overbearing will only hinder their growth. I'll tell the kids about my concerns and then let them decide what to do.

"If they still want to do it, I'll get myself ready so I can back them up if anything happens."

"Then Takahashi and I will help too."

"Sorry about that."

As we talked, the hotel came into view.

I'm showing up at a happy occasion. I need to get my head in the right space.