met free Book 5: Chapter 4
Book 5: Chapter 4
, SCENE 1
The exterior of a relatively large business hotel. It’s night, yet there is still a bit of light left.
The hotel looks clean with sparse furniture. The room is on the large side. Having been left there by second-year middle school student Koudai Kamiuchi, Miyuki Karino is terrified, face pale as she is surrounded by several men of clearly low standards. There is a double bed behind the men.
MIYUKI
K-Kou!
Koudai Kamiuchi ignores the voice calling out to him and closes the door. Miyuki sees this and tries to escape, but one of the men plants himself in front of the exit. Miyuki
Shindo peers intently at me, as if trying to size me up.
“Hey… If that really is your…” She stops there. “…No, never mind. Um, I think you’ve put a lot of thought into Crime, Punishment, and the Shadow of Crime, and that what you’re doing is interesting. But as I said before, I don’t feel you’re up to this.”
“Then how about evaluating me?”
“Huh?”
“I’m going to give you the power of a Ruler now. In order to Control the Subjects, you must bear the full weight of their crimes. Including your classmates… Okay, I’ll give you the sins of ten people.”
“You mean you’re going to give me the ability to control those ten? But how would that allow me to judge you?”
“You’ll understand if you try.”
“…Hmph. Are you sure? I still haven’t agreed to go along with you, so I may not cooperate even when you give me the power, you know?”
“I’m fine with that, if you don’t feel I’m worth your cooperation once you’ve finished your evaluation. But if you do accept me, then I need you to work with me whether you like it or not.”
Shindo nods with an irritating smile, like she’s humoring a selfish child.
“Okay, fine. I’m prepared for that. If I find you worthy, then I’m with you.”
“Don’t forget those words.”
“Hey, I don’t mean you, like a boyfriend and girlfriend. It might be surprising coming from a girl like me, but I’ve got someone I kinda like.”
I find myself laughing at Shindo’s ability to crack jokes at a time like this.
She’s so confident, even though this is another Box like the one that made her into a murderer.
Shindo is most likely certain she won’t find me worthy. She probably thinks she couldn’t possibly lose to my Box.
“…Hmph.”
A thin smile appears on my face, and I close my eyes.
At the same time, I close myself.
I sink into my own depths, searching through the mass of thoughts.
The shadows of others’ crimes thrash about, threatening to rend me limb from limb. Becoming a Ruler means taming these monsters.
“Shindo.”
“What?”
“Don’t lose your trust in people.”
I then grab ahold of Shindo’s head, and with my pointer and middle fingers, I poke the shadow of a crime into her mouth.
Swallowing a crime is the same as imbibing the foulest part of that person.
The first time I took in the sins of someone else, I wondered if it was going to turn my blood green and putrid. If that tainted blood was going to course through my veins to my entire body and rot my cells. I had a waking vision that I was melting like a zombie. My nails smelled like piss and shit, and I started wondering if I was going to attract flies. That’s how much I suffered.
However, it’s possible Iroha Shindo could have no trouble whatsoever swallowing this sin.
This suffering is unique to the weak. It might be nothing to someone strong like her.
If so, then I lose. I’ll have to give up on joining forces with Shindo.
My plan would still most likely go on as before, but the defeat would have a lingering effect. The failure to acquire a strategic resource like Shindo would be painful, but even more so would be the knowledge that I am unsuitable as a Ruler.
That’s why—
“Ugh, ah, aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!”
—her deafening scream fills me with relief.
“Ah, uh, aaaah! N-no! Stop, what is this? Don’t do this to me! It’s gross, so gross it hurts hurts hurts hurts hurts ugh I can’t stand it I hate it die die what the hell?! They don’t deserve to live!”
Actually, the despair is greater than the disgust.
“But! But! …They’re people. Just a normal…person…”
The ones harboring such hatefulness are simply those around us. Not criminals, not villains or anything else—just regular folk you wouldn’t be surprised to find smiling beside you.
People commit crimes simply by living.
Most become used to them without even knowing they’re doing it. They pardon themselves according to their selfish values. Their actions may elicit this disgust from someone else, but the filth itself is so familiar that they accept it without a second thought. In short, people are always easy on themselves.
Humans are so ugly.
That’s why they ruin others simply by living.
Looking askance at Shindo in her despair, I whisper, “Nine more to go.”
I grab her head again and start to put another shadow in her throat. But Shindo, her face bright red, clutches my hair.
“Don’t be stupid. What… What’re you doing to me?”
“Do you want me to stop?”
Shindo glares at me, tears falling from her eyes.
“Of course I do! Nine? There’s no way I could handle even one more of those!”
“But I’ve got 967.”
Her eyes go round at the sudden revelation of the number.
“I said that I already bear the sins of 967 people.”
Shindo is at a loss for words.
“Y—” She coughs as the word begins to leave her mouth, but her hostility does not abate when she continues, “You’ve got 967 of these in you?”
Shindo laughs and shakes her head.
“Ah-ha, no way! Your mind could never take it! There’s no way you could do that unless you were prepared for it to destroy you!”
“That’s true. You’re right about that.”
“Huh?”
“I know it’s going to destroy me. I could very well go insane, bite off my own tongue while I’m thrashing around, and bleed to death. ”
I’m sure my end won’t be pleasant. No one will celebrate me or pay me honors; I will be mocked, others will be too ashamed to look at one in such an abject state, the stench will make them plug their noses, and someone will eventually kick my body into a canal or something. That’s all there is to it.
But I knew all that going into this.
Even if it comes to that, I will rid us all of these fools.
Shindo’s grip on my hair weakens.
“I don’t mind dying as long as I’m able to set the stage a bit. My supporters will take up the baton from there. That’s why I share my rule with them—to ensure that Crime, Punishment, and the Shadow of Crime will live on. As long as I don’t relinquish my Box, its system will continue. If this system can run smoothly without me one day, then I’m okay with dying at any time.”
“What’re you saying…?”
“So how about it?”
I say it as if spitting out the words.
“Am I up to it? Have I won you over?”
Shindo gives me a serious look, then releases my hair.
She then forcefully wipes away her tears with her arm, takes a few more deep breaths, and calms her emotions.
That sharp light is back in her eyes, and the corners of her mouth twitch upward.
“…I’ll take the remaining nine. I promised, after all.”
“You’re fine with that?”
“Of course I’m not. But my word is my bond, and I don’t think there’s anything I can’t do.”
At those words, she flashes a bold smile.
“You have my respect, Daiya Oomine. I’ll stick with you until you come crashing down.”