kscans

Chapter 238 - The Fate of the Story That Never Began

Late at night. Hikaru went to bed with his younger sisters as usual. His mother, Yuri, wasn't on night shift today, so she was sleeping with the sisters between them. But...

...It's no use, I can't sleep at all.

It wasn't a bad premonition, but he had felt a constant sense of unease. That was probably why. Even after turning off the lights and closing his eyes, sleep simply would not come. He had been lying still so as not to wake his sister or mother, but even the patient Hikaru was reaching his limit.

Maybe I'll go for a short walk.

With the utmost care not to wake his family, he got up and grabbed his phone and wallet before heading into the hallway. The lights were all off, but being a superhuman, his night vision was excellent, so it wasn't a problem. He stepped out of the entryway, locked the door, and just as he turned to leave, it happened.

"!?"

His body jolted with a start. And for good reason. A "door" was standing in the middle of the hallway. It was there with an air that said, I've always been here, what's the problem? but there was no such thing in his apartment's hallway.

"Th, this pink door that looks like it could go anywhere... Satou-san?"

If it were just a suspicious door, he wouldn't know, but the hint of playfulness suggested it was Satou. After a moment's hesitation, Hikaru opened the door and stepped inside.

"Where is this?"

It looked like the rooftop of some building. He looked around, and then spotted Satou smoking a cigarette on top of the water tank.

"Yo."

Satou raised a hand, a casual smile on his face as always, but Hikaru sensed something different about him today. Hikaru took a deep breath, said, "Excuse me," and jumped onto the water tank.

"I checked on you and saw you were still awake, so I took the liberty of inviting you. Sorry about that."

Satou was a genuine delinquent, but at the same time, he could be strangely conventional in odd ways. For him to interfere with someone else's privacy, especially a child he was fond of, was a sign that this was no light matter. Hikaru stiffened slightly but replied that it was okay.

"Hikaru."

"Yes."

"Have you ever thought about the roots of your power?"

"...No. I learned that espers with no clear roots aren't that unusual."

"Right. Same here, to be honest, I didn't pay it much mind. I figured I could just look into it whenever you hit a wall somewhere down the line."

But, Satou continued, he had looked into it due to some circumstances.

"And it turns out the source is something that has a deep connection to me and Chika-san."

"To you and Chika-san?"

"Yeah."

With a snap of his fingers, the world was rewritten, and the Tokyo of the past spread out before them.

"This is Tokyo when I was seventeen."

"That is..."

It was right in the center of Tokyo. A giant tree soared into the sky. Hikaru's eyes were drawn to the tree, or more accurately, to the sphere at its peak, formed by countless entwined branches. He didn't know what it was, but looking at it made something ache deep inside him.

"That's the egg of a god."

With that, Satou began to roughly explain the battle of the past and its conclusion. Hikaru listened, his gaze fixed on the god's egg as if bound to it.

"The shattered fragments of the god rained down all over Tokyo and dissolved into the bodies of many people. One of them was your mother. Of course, given what it was, the Mutual Aid Society thoroughly investigated the effects. They determined there were no particular problems, and in fact, nothing related to the Artificial God has ever happened to this day."

However, the Mutual Aid Society's assessment wasn't entirely correct. Though it was a god born of human wishes, it was a corpse, a fragment broken down to its finest particles. The Society's view was that it would eventually fade away within a person, but that's not what happened. Through a series of coincidences, many of the fragments gathered inside a single young woman, and were then passed on to the child she conceived.

"That's you, Hikaru."

"...The source of my power is that god?"

"That's how it is."

Hikaru unconsciously clutched at his restless chest and spoke in rebuttal.

"B, but... my power isn't that incredible..."

"I told you, didn't I? The Artificial God is a device for granting people's wishes."

It's only because he never had an insane craving for power that he ended up as an average esper. If Hikaru had truly desired power from the bottom of his heart, Satou said, things would have been different.

"To put it bluntly, it's a major source of trouble. Do you remember the first time I was invited to your house?"

"Huh? Um, that was when we met by chance at the bento shop, right?"

"Yeah. I told you then, right? That there were some guys plotting something bad nearby."

"Y, yes."

"Their targets were Rika-chan and Chika-san, but it wasn't unrelated to the Artificial God."

Hikaru's face tensed at those words.

"They were remnants of organizations called True World and the Chaos Army. The Artificial God was created by their boss as the key to achieving their plan."

If Hikaru's power had been exposed, they would have pursued him with bloodshot eyes. Hikaru's face grew paler and paler. Not because he imagined the danger to himself, but because he imagined the potential danger to his family.

"S, Satou-san! If it's you, you can take the god's fragments..."

"Yeah, I can erase them. As precisely as performing surgery."

"Then!!"

"Hold on. Make your decision after you've heard my whole story."

The words, how can you be so calm, died on his lips, suppressed by Satou's intense gaze.

"Even if I erase the fragments, your supernatural power won't disappear, but it will inevitably be weakened. There won't be any change at your current stage, but your growth limit will be significantly lowered. Even if you train as hard as you can, you'll probably top out at a mid-tier level."

Besides, he added. Even if it was only about seventy percent, its origin was what it was. The power was immense.

"Money, women, status. Even without using it as a wish-granting device, you could probably seize whatever desires a normal person might have with your own two hands."

"I don't need it."

Hikaru cut him off flatly.

"The things that are precious to me are already there. Of course, I'm not completely satisfied."

He had wishes. He wanted his sisters to have a good life. He wanted to be a good son to his mother. Yes, he had plenty of desires. But those were things he could achieve without something as grand as the power of an Artificial God. He could get them by working hard, so there was no need to cling to a god's power.

"I'm not saying power is unnecessary, but if it brings harm to the things I hold dear, then it defeats the whole purpose."

With great power, he could protect his family. Yes, that was also true. But there are no absolutes in this world. There are heights that cannot be reached even with the power of a god. Satou himself was proof of that. In that case, it was better to get rid of the unnecessary spark before it could start a fire. He wouldn't miss it in the slightest, Hikaru said.

"I see. But my story isn't over yet. This is the most important part."

Satou said that even if they were to erase it, there was a major concern.

"A concern?"

"Hikaru. You're a good kid."

"Huh?"

"You're a good big brother to the twins, and a good son to Yuri-san. You're a good friend to Rika-chan and the others."

What was he talking about all of a sudden? Satou layered more words onto the bewildered Hikaru.

"Where did that goodness come from?"

"Where...?"

He wasn't a dense kid. He could be slow on the uptake in some areas, like not noticing he was popular with the girls in his class, but he wasn't slow-witted. That's why he understood what Satou was getting at.

"Isn't it the result of being ‘wished for to be that way’? You know at least some of it, don't you? About Yuri-san."

Given the subject matter, Yuri probably hadn't told her underage son everything. But he remembered living with his father, so he should be able to guess.

"In that horrible environment. Wanting at least her son to be... it wouldn't be strange if she wished for it with an insane fervor, would it?"

If that were the case, then.

"If that personality of yours is derived from the Artificial God, then erasing the fragments might mean the you of now disappears."

"Please erase it."

"...Did you hear what I said?"

"Yes. And I've determined that it's not a problem."

"You mean you'd choose your family's safety even if the current you disappears?"

"That's not it."

Hikaru denied it clearly.

"I've never once thought of myself as a particularly good person."

But.

"If other people think of me that way, I believe it's because the many connections I have have shaped the me I am today."

If he was a good son, it was because Yuri was a wonderful mother. If he was a good brother, it was because Ai and Midori were kind kids. If he was a good friend, it was because Rika and the others were amazing people.

"You too, Satou-san. I am who I am today thanks to all these wonderful people. It's definitely not because of some incomprehensible god's influence."

That's why he didn't need a god's power. Hikaru said it with unwavering eyes. Satou stared into Hikaru’s eyes for a moment, then gave a final confirmation.

"Is that your final answer?"

"Yes."

"Understood————Hey! Hasn't an answer been given!?"

"Huh?"

In that instant, five figures appeared, surrounding the water tank. It was Chika, Takahashi, Suzuki, Yanagi, and Onisaki. In their hands, they held up signs of approval.

"Eh, eh, eh."

"Sorry about that, Hikaru. We had to test you a little."

"T, test me?"

What did he mean? Chika spoke to the confused Hikaru.

"I think Hiro explained it, but we have a history with the Artificial God."

"Me and Suzuki are former members of the Chaos Army and True World, and Yanagi and Onisaki over there are the ones who created the Artificial God in the first place."

"That's why we wanted to be sure."

"Sure of what?"

"Even though we were the creators, neither I nor Yanagi knew the whereabouts of the Artificial God's fragments."

"We learned of their location for the first time from Satou Hideo."

With Satou's power, it would be easy to erase only the fragments of the Artificial God. Everyone had thought that was what he would do, but...

"But you see. Hiro proposed entrusting the power of the Artificial God to you, Hikaru."

"Huh? Wh, why?"

Receiving everyone's gaze, Satou gave a small nod and spoke.

"The Artificial God is a life that was wished into existence by Yanagi and the others, and killed by me and Chika-san before it could be born. I thought there must be some meaning in the fact that it came to reside within you, Hikaru, through a series of coincidences."

It was these five who had objected to that.

"It’s not that we don't trust you, Hikaru."

"Yeah. But it's a heavy burden for a kid, isn't it?"

"That’s why we were against it."

"My reason and Yanagi's are a little different. While it's no match for a freak of nature like Satou-chan, the power of the Artificial God is immense."

"It could be said to be sufficient to destroy the world. It is not something that can be entrusted to a mere child. That was our reason for opposing."

"That’s what they said. So we decided to see if you were a man worthy of being entrusted with it."

"...Oh, so that's why you were being so mean, or rather, harsh."

Given the topic, he had just assumed the conversation naturally took a severe tone, but thinking back, it was strange. The Satou he knew would have been able to guide the conversation in a more gentle direction.

"Sorry about that. But hey, it wasn't for nothing. We got a unanimous vote of approval, after all."

"Um, actually, it's just a bother, so I'd like you to get rid of it..."

"Now, now, hear me out to the end."

Thinking that the usual playful Satou had returned, Hikaru adopted a listening posture.

"The reason the fragments of the Artificial God are a problem is because they could function as a wish-granting device. If it ceases to be a colorless power for granting human wishes, it loses its value."

If it doesn't grant wishes, then it's just a strong power. There's a non-zero, but extremely low, possibility that someone might try to turn Hikaru into a military asset for that power. But even if it were exposed, they probably wouldn't think it was worth poking a child under Satou's protection to get it. It's because it's a wish-granting device that it's worth taking the risk.

"Which brings us to..." ≪Wait, what's with that pocket?≫

Satou plunged his right hand into a half-moon-shaped pocket that had appeared on his abdomen and...

"Lucifer's Heart!!"

With a high-pitched voice, he pulled out a vigorously beating, blood-soaked organ and held it high.

"Hea... a heart!?"

"You, you... what kind of dangerous thing is that?"

Ignoring the startled gallery, Satou spoke with a smug look.

"If you're going to give it a color, the opposite is best. There are plenty of others who rebelled against God, but I figured if we're going to do it, we might as well use a famous one."

As Satou held up his left hand, a transparent, star-like radiance flew out from Hikaru's chest.

"Those two idiots created the Artificial God to be a light that illuminates the twilight. Then I shall remake it as a light that heralds the dawn."

Lucifer's Heart was sucked into the fragments of the Artificial God, and a brilliant light overflowed. It was a light as gentle as a star in the morning sky, and as powerful as the rising sun that signals the beginning. Someone, perhaps everyone but Satou, who were all captivated by its radiance, muttered, "Beautiful."

"There." ≪Seriously, so casual!?≫

Satou flicked the light with his finger as if it were a marble and pushed it back into Hikaru.

"I'm sure it's fine since it's Hiro, but... Hikaru, do you feel anything wrong with your body?"

"Uh, no. Not particularly."

"Well, it's not like you're going to get stronger all of a sudden. Whether you can make use of it or not is up to you, Hikaru."

Satou clapped his hands as if to reset the mood.

"Now that the serious talk is over, let's go get some ramen before we head back. What do you say?"

The smiling Hikaru was momentarily stunned, but he quickly returned the smile and answered.

"Yes! It’s on you!!"