kscans

Chapter 237 - The Fate of the Story That Never Began

"Is that bastard Satou here yet?"

"Now, now, Satou-kun is a busy man. It can't be helped."

One day, Satou had summoned five people, Takahashi, Suzuki, Chika, Yanagi, and Onisaki. He had told them to wait ahead at the hideout on Okutama Island, and so they waited, but Takahashi and Chika were growing restless.

"It's just as Suzuki-chan says. Besides, this seems like a serious matter. It wouldn't be a big deal if it were just one or two of us, but he called all of us... well, it can't be good news, can it?" said Onisaki.

"That's why I can't calm down, you cross-dressing bastard."

Takahashi spat. She knew it without being told. This group had been assembled. There was no way it was good news. Nine times out of ten, it had something to do with the past. If he just wanted skilled people, there were others he could have called. The fact that only these five were gathered meant it was nothing but a debt from the past. For Takahashi, who loved her current life, it made her feel responsible, and anxious.

"While the cross-dresser part is true, hearing it from you, Takahashi-chan, feels rather strange."

"Shut up. I'm a complete woman now."

The reason for Takahashi’s restlessness was as mentioned, but Chika, who had no particular guilt, felt differently.

"Ugh... I just can't get used to it... Yanagi is fine. He feels like a proper evolution of his old self now. But Onisaki... Onisaki...!!"

It wasn't that she was prejudiced against cross-dressers. Thanks to her frequent visits to Shunranman since her reunion with Satou, she had actually grown to love them. For Chika, who had not known her mother, Mama’s warm embrace was more comforting than anything. But she just couldn't get used to Onisaki. The memory of the past delinquent would inevitably cross her mind.

"...Good grief. It seems he has arrived."

Just as Yanagi announced it, the space in the living room distorted and Satou appeared.

"Sorry, sorry. Overtime ran a little long."

He plopped down on the sofa with a grunt and snapped his fingers. Bottles of tea appeared in front of everyone. Non-alcoholic. The five of them steeled themselves, realizing this was indeed a serious talk.

"So, what happened?"

"Don't be in such a rush."

Satou gulped down about half of his tea and began.

"I've got a friend, Hanako-san of the Toilet. Calls herself Jimoko-san. She got caught up in some pretty nasty trouble the other day."

He had been able to get involved by chance, but who knew what would have happened if he had overlooked it. The five of them watched Satou intently as he spoke with a sigh.

"So, I thought this would be a good opportunity. I decided to check over my circle of friends again to see if anyone else was getting dragged into something bad."

Having heard this much, they could guess the rest. He must have looked into it and found something. Some kind of trouble. And it was something related to the people in this room.

"The first one I looked into was Hikaru."

"...Akatsuki Hikaru. One of the children you're looking after, I believe."

"Yeah."

"Hey, wait a minute. Was there some kind of dangerous backstory with that kid?"

"We've spent a fair bit of time with him too, though not as much as Satou-kun, and we never got that impression."

"Yes. He sometimes comes to my place with the other kids, but I've never noticed anything special."

Takahashi, Suzuki, and Chika, who had personal relationships with him, tilted their heads. Satou brushed off their reactions with a vague smile and continued.

"Hikaru is classified as an esper, but... what are his roots?"

"His roots?"

"...An esper with no background, one who is a mystery, is not exactly a rare thing."

Takahashi's words were correct. Those with supernatural abilities that didn't belong to any existing system like magic or sorcery were broadly classified as espers. From there, they were further divided based on their backgrounds, such as the Star's Fallen Children, but there were many who were only in the broad category. Hikaru was one of them, but...

"The fact that you're bringing it up now means that's not the case, right?"

"Yeah. It's been on my mind for a while. I just didn't get any particularly bad feelings from it, so I left it alone."

He figured he could look into it when Hikaru had gained some skill and hit a wall. In fact, Satou asserted that there was no imminent problem.

"He wasn't the kind of bomb that would harm himself or those around him."

But, Satou said with a grim face.

"...When I looked into it very carefully, I found something that we can't just ignore."

"Satou-kun, this is getting tedious. Can you just tell us plainly?"

"Yeah, okay. I'll just say it then. The remnants of the Artificial God that those two idiots there created have dissolved into him. About seventy percent of it, I'd say?"

A sharp intake of breath came from everyone. Omnipotent, a savior of humanity. A being that embodied the universal image people held for the divine. That was the Artificial God. It was the linchpin for realizing the ideals held by the Chaos Army and True World, and Yanagi and Onisaki had intended to use it to rewrite the laws of the world. That said, simply embodying an image wasn't enough to alter the world's principles. That's why they had targeted Chika, the pinnacle of the Star's Fallen Children who could be called the Earth's sensory organs, the very stage for rewriting those principles, but let's put that aside for now.

"Chika-san and I prevented its birth, but..."

It had still manifested in the world in the form of a stillborn, premature infant. And then came the battle against the swarm of Aberrations, named angels, born from its corpse. That had been the effective last battle for the young Satou and Chika, and they had been victorious.

"...I remember that after we annihilated them, the corpses of the god and angels crumbled and fell over Tokyo like snow."

Satou nodded at Chika as she tried to continue.

"The government and the Mutual Aid Society aren't idiots. They properly investigated the effects."

"Right. And the result was no abnormalities, if I recall."

It was originally created from human thoughts and had a divine nature, but since it was stillborn, that too was incomplete. It was effectively a colorless, transparent fragment that would eventually return to the sea of human consciousness if left alone. That was the conclusion of the experts.

"Yeah. And in fact, there have been no problems related to the fragments of the Artificial God since then."

There was no point in thinking about something long over. In fact, it hadn't even crossed his mind until he started his investigation, Satou said with a sigh.

"I'll skip the finer details because they involve some unpleasant personal circumstances, but the fragments accumulated in Hikaru's mother before she became pregnant with him."

"...And that came to fruition within Akatsuki Hikaru," Yanagi finished.

"That's right."

"As I recall, his family situation was... ah, so his personality was wished for to be that way————"

Yanagi voiced his thoughts as if talking to himself, but...

"That's enough."

A beam shot from Satou's fingertip, cutting off his words.

"The reason he grew up to be a good kid is because he was raised with love from his mother and the kind people around him. Am I wrong?"

"...You are not. You are entirely correct."

"Trying to rationalize everything is a bad habit of yours."

If he could truly rationalize everything, then Satou sneered at Yanagi, he should try explaining Satou's own existence before finding fault with a kid.

"...So, Satou-kun, why did you call us here?"

"That's right. Couldn't you have just secretly erased the remnants yourself?"

"If you're asking if I could, then yes, I could. But well, I've been thinking about a few things in my own way."

The air changed. What came before was just the prelude. It seemed he was finally getting to the main point.

"I have a proposal for you all."