Editing The Unexplored Summon Blood Sign:Volume2 Chapter2 (section)

===Part 3===

They dealt with Kyousuke’s errand first.

He picked up a change of clothes from a storage locker near the monorail station and he changed from his uniform and into his usual hoodie.

They then stopped by a student apartment in M Block.

It seemed to be Librarian-chan’s home.

It was located on the 27th floor of an ultra-high rise building towering up from the city. But with the large bridges on either side every five or ten stories, it felt more like being on the second or third floor.

The room was a stereotypical one-room apartment.

That meant she must not have been living with her family.

“Where are your parents?”

“They live somewhere else. …It’s like time stopped for them after my sister died. It was like being surrounded by the awkward silence of an elevator twenty-four hours a day. I just couldn’t stand it, so I used high school as a chance to leave.”

Librarian-chan turned on the lights and grabbed the air conditioner’s remote as she spoke.

“My mom and dad are kind and there isn’t any real problem with them. In fact, I think they’re more loving than in a normal family, even including the amount they give for allowance. But I couldn’t stand it. It was like I was getting everything that should have gone to my sister. They were probably telling me to be happy enough for my sister too, but it was a complicated feeling for me.”

That may have been why she talked about working part-time so often.

She did not want to rely on what should have gone to her sister, so she had decided to live off of money she earned herself.

“…”

Kyousuke glanced over at the table.

A few hard cover books sat there. At school, she had claimed to have only bought two or three books and to borrow the rest from her parents. That suggested their relationship was not entirely cut off and she visited them from time to time.

It was a complicated relationship, but she must not have felt completely cut off from them.

At the very least, she did not want to lose her connection to them. That was obvious from the fear she had felt when faced with the fact that summoners and vessels were so easily forgotten.

Some people who were dissatisfied with their life would actually rejoice when they heard that.

“Do you have a picture of your sister?”

“No.”

As she selected her clothing from the closet, Librarian-chan replied with a self-deprecating smile on her lips.

She walked to the changing room with the clothes in her arms.

“I haven’t been able to face her since that day. That’s why she’s so angry. That’s what I realized when rumors of the Rainy Girl first started showing up on the internet around Japan. I knew people must be seeing her everywhere because she was searching for me with a look of pure rage on her face.”

She disappeared beyond the frosted glass door.

He could tell she was removing her clothing from the movements of her silhouette.

“What kind of person was she?”

“I’m not really sure,” replied a muffled voice in the changing room. “To be honest, I can’t really remember her anymore. And I don’t just mean I’m too scared to remember. Because of how her body ended up, her coffin was empty during the funeral. …That’s all I can remember now. I should have so many memories: when we went to the beach, when we went to festivals, when we stayed up late into the night together, and so on. But there’s just a blank spot there where her face should be. Just that blank emptiness seen through the coffin’s window.”

“…”

Kyousuke narrowed his eyes a little.

(If she knew how the Rainy Girl acted in life and where she generally went, we might have been able to get ahead of her, but this doesn’t sound very hopeful.)

“I see. Then that’s fine.”

“You’re so kind. After the incident, I was surrounded by people asking all sorts of questions.”

The Rainy Girl herself could be annihilated with a single Incense Grenade.

It was hard to say if that was truly the best choice, but that was what Librarian-chan wanted.

Which meant…

“Sorry about the wait,” she said after sliding open the frosted glass door.

She wore a tight black shirt, a beige culotte skirt, and thick black tights. Overall, the outfit had a chocolate coloration and it was fairly adult-looking, just as he had requested. Like this, she would not immediately be taken into protective custody.

“I’m ready to head out now, so where are we headed?”

“I want to start by gathering some information.”

“On my sister?”

“That and anything else related to the current situation. ''The ghost phenomenon'' can be explained with the larger rules of the summoning ceremony. So if a ghost is showing up under unnatural circumstances, the odds are good the rules of the summoning ceremony are being used in some unnatural circumstances. …That means I want to see what that ‘industry’ is up to right now.”

He was not going to get anything out of Librarian-chan, the closest information source to the Rainy Girl herself, so he had to come up with another plan. That was one reason behind his suggestion.

He pulled out his smartphone as he continued.

“Aika and Lu-san. It looks like I’ll have to buy some information from the usual sources. …Although being too indebted to those two could seriously be a matter of life or death.”

He complained as he used his index finger to send a text message to Aika’s apartment. It said he had accepted a new job, he had bound a contract with a vessel, and he was on his way to buy some information.

And there was one more thing.

“Yes. I should probably look into that as well.”

“?”

“Ghosts do occur naturally, but since they’re explained by the summoning ceremony, it’s also possible for a summoner to intentionally cause one. The Rainy Girl herself is definitely your sister, but it bothers me that she started appearing so suddenly. It sounds like the rumors have spread throughout Japan and even to places like Guam and New York, but if we assume it truly started here in Toy Dream 35, it’s worth seeing if a nearby summoner maybe had something to do with this.”

He did not wait for a reply to his message. He had just about turned into Aika’s caretaker, so he had a spare key. Also, that true shut-in and that top-class assassin had no concept of day and night.

“Let’s get going. Knowing Aika, she’ll welcome us as long as we stop by a convenience store and buy her some limited edition chips or something.”

“Come to think of it, I haven’t had anything to eat since I skipped work. Can we buy something on the way?”

They discussed their plans as they left the one-room apartment.

It was still raining outside, but that did not mean the streets were not crowded with pedestrians.

The Rainy Screen may not have been a useless endeavor after all.

The police’s anti-juvenile crime team was probably beginning their patrol at this time, but they could still see a few boys and girls wearing the same school uniforms walking across the bridges.

“Huh? Isn’t that the student council president?”

“Where?”

“Over there in that crowd.”

Librarian-chan pointed over, but Kyousuke could not see any specific person among all the colorful umbrellas.

As he searched, something bumped into his shoulder.

“Hm? What is it, boy? Isn’t it a little late for someone with no club activities and no job?”

It was Benikomichi Fuuki.

Their umbrellas audibly pressed against each other.

“And what are you doing here, Senpai?”

“I’m only now heading home, you coldhearted boy. As usual, I had to waste the entire day working things out between those spoiled student council members. Honestly, if you had acted as my human shield, I wouldn’t have been dragged back to that boring student council room.”

“If you’re going to complain, can you at least not ignore the laws of this world as you do so?”

“And after all that, there was some trouble just before leaving. Oh, you probably wouldn’t know, but every speaker in the school was blasting static. We had to go around checking them all and we never did figure out what caused it. Sadly, it was about as wasted as wasted effort can be.”

“…”

Librarian-chan’s shoulders shook at the student council president’s exasperated and exhausted comment.

The supernatural phenomenon in her head was now an objective fact and not just a vision she had seen.

That simple fact seemed to peel back the thin layer of common sense from her mind. It seemed like she would have blood oozing from her heart before long.

Benikomichi Fuuki seemed oblivious and continued casually chatting.

“Thanks to that, I suddenly realized it had gotten this late. I won’t miss tonight’s drama since I can set my digital recorder with my smartphone, but I might have screamed if I couldn’t do that.”

“I see,” said Kyousuke just to have something to say.

However, the president seemed unwilling to say goodbye and leave.

She pressed her umbrella further in against his and gave him an upturned look.

“B-by the way, Shiroyama Boy, I have a request.”

“What is it?”

[[Image:BloodSign_v02_127.jpg|thumb]]

When Kyousuke asked, she used the hand not holding her umbrella to fidget with her long hair by her ear.

“This might ruin your image of an upperclassman, but I’ve never actually walked out in public this late before. I’ve heard rumors that the type of guest at Toy Dream 35 completely changes when all the neon turns on, so I’d really rather not walk around alone at night if I can avoid it…”

“You can’t, Shiroyama-kun!! You promised you’d help me, didn’t you!?”

“Oh, what’s this? You’re a popular guy, Shiroyama Boy. But I’m not going to give in so easily.”

“Wait, wait, stop pulling on my arms! And I dropped my umbrella! I’m getting soaked!”

An outside observer might have been jealous, but the girls were acting out of fear. That meant they did not hold back. Pain raced through his shoulders and he was legitimately concerned his arms would pull right out of the sockets.

And then, with no warning, all sound instantly vanished.

The crowd walking every which way around them was still there and the rain providing constant noise had not vanished.

It was a psychological issue.

As a great number of people crossed the bridge, he heard a sound within the parade of so many lights. He heard it as clearly as a pebble thrown into a cave.

It was a footstep.

“————”

“Wah! Shiroyama…-kun?”

“What is it, Shiroyama Boy?”

He did not have time to answer. He looked back and saw a short boy standing about fifteen meters away.

The boy was at most twelve. He wore a black shirt and bike shorts as well as a fluorescent yellow helmet and similarly colored elbow and knee protectors. They looked like kids rollerblading gear and the coloration was reminiscent of a hornet’s abdomen.

His eyes did not contain the bright and innocent look one would expect at his age.

The darkness lurking in his eye sockets was that of someone who lived in a world of killing.

“Hi.”

He spoke to Kyousuke.

Immediately afterwards, he pulled something from his back. It resembled a three-sectioned staff, a nunchaku-like weapon of three connected rods, but when the internal wire tightened, it was remade into a long rod.

It was a Blood-Sign.

This was clearly a summoner.

Benikomichi Fuuki knew nothing at all about the summoning ceremony, but even she must have noticed the odd aura surrounding the boy. Or perhaps without the summoning ceremony as a mental “excuse” or “point of compromise”, her mind worked uselessly and failed to process it.

“Do you…know him?”

The desire for ''any answer at all'' may have been why she asked that.

But Kyousuke did not look back her way.

He did not want to take his eyes off of this opponent.

“Are you an Illegal assassin? I saw your disgusting handiwork at the international airport.”

“Even if you don’t know why, surely you know where this is headed. A killer was sent out to kill, and here I am to do just that.”

If this assassin was from their industry, he would not have been sent out for something unrelated to the summoning ceremony.

But at the same time, it would not be a continuation of the airport occupation surrounding that attache case. Thanks to Lu Niang Lan, Kyousuke had been taken out of that fight partway through. It had all ended just how Illegal had wanted, so he doubted they would do anything to him now.

He also could not imagine it was related to the issue Alice (with) Rabbit was working on. He had only just bound his contract with Librarian-chan, so that would not have any connection to that industry.

With one exception.

Namely, the Rainy Girl who was connected to Librarian-chan and could be explained within the rules of the summoning ceremony.

(We’re investigating the Rainy Girl, we stopped by Librarian-chan’s apartment, and we’re taking this route to Aika’s apartment. Where did he pick up on that information?)

After some thought, he easily found the answer.

Their communications had been intercepted.

However, the problem would not be with Kyousuke’s smartphone or Aika’s computer. A professional would focus on the flow of information more than the average person. More importantly, there was a simpler and more realistic answer.

(Had he already set something up in the Librarian-chan’s apartment and the surrounding cellphone towers? That way he could have stolen my message inside the relay hardware. …That would mean he’s been monitoring anyone connected to the Rainy Girl for a while.)

But that was all he knew.

Illegal was a collection of about 330 criminal organizations.

This assassin belonged to that group and he would supply professional violence for anyone who paid an appropriate sum, so why would he be fixated on a ghost like the Rainy Girl? Kyousuke had no way of figuring that out.

The only path to revealing the answer was to fight.

“Would it be a violation of your style to ask why?”

“This is to ''keep you from telling anyone what you just now realized''. I can’t say any more than that.”

Just as he gave his answer, the wall of the building behind the small assassin exploded and crumbled.

Pieces of concrete larger than bricks poured down. They collided with the glass of a monorail passing by nearby and the monorail rapidly braked, creating a row of orange sparks and a screeching noise. Quite a few umbrellas were broken and people screamed as they fled in every direction. They were all driven by the identical desire to escape as quickly as possible, but they pulled at each other’s legs as they tried to push forward.

Kyousuke immediately reached behind himself to pull out the Repliglass Blood-Sign coiled there.

But a hand tugged on his arm.

It was Benikomichi Fuuki’s as her face grew pale with fear.

“Wh-what was that!? Did that boy do that? B-but…ah wah wah wah wah wah wah wah wah! The police…we need to get down…um, we need to do something…!”

“——————”

Meanwhile, the assassin lifted the corners of his mouth in a smile and raised his Blood-Sign.

He moved the tip from Kyousuke’s face and aimed it at Benikomichi Fuuki instead.

As soon as he saw that, Kyousuke swept the nearby president’s feet out from under her to knock her to the ground. At the same time, he took a step forward and pulled an Incense Grenade from his hoodie.

Only after completing the series of actions did his mind realize why he had taken them.

——Yes, why did he need an Incense Grenade?

To set up an Artificial Sacred Ground.

——What did it mean if an Artificial Sacred Ground had yet to be set up?

The environment was not yet prepared for summoning a Material.

——Then where was the assassin boy’s vessel? It was true that building’s wall had crumbled, but had a Material really done that?

It happened a moment later.

Suddenly, a dull impact struck him from behind.

He looked over his shoulder and saw a large pair of sewing scissors stabbed into the center of his back.

He looked up at who held them down at their hip with both hands.

It was Student Council President Benikomichi Fuuki.