The World God Only Knows:Volume 1 Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Minus World

Katsuragi Keima led the way, and the girl was fidgeting somewhat, and she said with a stiff voice to hide it,

“He, hey, Katsuragi! Where are you bringing me to? I, I’ll say these bold words first. I’ll refuse if you want to do anything bold to me! I’ll really refuse you! We have to go in order.

“…”

Keima suddenly turned his head back.

He stared through the girl with a piercing expression, and the girl could only look around helplessly. They were at a shrine somewhat distant away from the road.

There wasn’t anyone else there.

No, there was someone there.

The person who seemed to be observing them came out stealthily from behind the trees…

(Who, who’s that?)

The girl didn’t know what to do. A girl with a skull-shaped headdress appeared there.

Katsuragi Keima was asking that girl something.

It seemed that those two people knew each other.

“Elsie, how is it?”

The girl called Elsie shook her head.

“Not her.”

“…In other words.”

“No. This person doesn’t have a wandering spirit.”

Katsuragi Keima sighed loudly.

“I see. Thinking through it carefully…maybe I should have realized it. I had a direct thought-through and thought that the girl with a wandering spirit would have some problems. And because of that, I was searching a girl without problems for problems. After clearing the smokescreen, it wasn’t even a dual character.”

He shrugged his shoulders.

“I was really naïve! No, rather than that.”

He grimaced.

“Elsie, there wouldn’t be this problem if you had followed me after school. I wouldn’t have been bothered by such a low-level trick…well, the reason why I put you in charge of Amami Tooru was because you’re the only one who could detect runaway spirits.”

He sighed.

“This time, the smart one got misled.”

The girl called Elsie stared at the other girl.

“She really looks alike.”

The girl panicked.

She was anxious.

Katsuragi Keima and this girl called Elsie were talking about something strange right from the beginning. She was thinking that ‘it seemed that Katsuragi-kun’s not some bad person, so my mission should be over with’. However, these good feelings scattered away.

Her instincts were scaring her, burning like oil being lit.

Who is this person?

Katsuragi-kun.

Who is this person?

Keima glanced at the girl.

“Fuu…‘what do you want’. Actually, that was my line. Well, it doesn’t matter. I can roughly guess why you wanted to do this. So just confess, you’re not Yoshino Asami.”

“!”

The girl widened her eyes. Keima raised his hand and pointed at her.

“…You’re.”

He said this.

“Yoshino Ikumi. Her sister, and twin.”

The girl.

Yoshino Asami’s twin sister, Yoshino Ikumi stood there, stunned.

She was confused.

She looked around in a flustered manner, and the girl called Elsie was looking at her in an interested manner. Yoshino Asami—

Or rather, Yoshino Ikumi who was pretending to be Yoshino Asami felt Keima’s cold gaze pouring through her,

“Thi, this, that.”

First, she raised the one question that bothered her the most.

“Let’s ask this…how did you know why name?”

Even after been seen through, she didn’t get angry due to embarrassment, and neither did she laugh at Keima. She was just panicking honestly.

At this moment, a certain aspect of Yoshino Ikumi showed through, or rather, she basically revealed herself there.

Keima sighed.

“It’s simple. I asked your older sister a question back at school, and made a request.”

“Eh?”

“I asked her if ‘you had a twin sister?’. Then, it was ‘don’t tell your sister what I asked you today when you got home, but you can follow whatever else she says’.”

Yoshino Ikumi widened her eyes. Keima then said.

“Yoshino Asami…your older sister answered yes to both questions. She looked incredulous like you now. She had never told anyone the existence of her twin sister at a different school, and how I knew—like that.”

Keima then continued.

“It’s because of this, right? You heard from Yoshino Asami…your older sister. She had never told anyone at school about you, so logically, I wouldn’t know of your existence. Thus, you tried to trick me and pose as Yoshino Asami…your older sister to understand me, right? To know me personally.”

“Ah, un.”

Yoshino Ikumi was stunned.

“Then, when did you realize it?”

She was completely lost.

“You didn’t show any change in expression even until the weekend.”

Keima looked somewhat self-mocking as he laughed.

“No, that was a coincidence…one that you won’t understand even if I tell you. A girl would look so different, then maybe the opposite can hold true. In other words, two girls may look like one person under set conditions. I just thought of that.”

Keima glanced at Elsie.

For some reason, Elsie was all happy, and Keima stared back at her with a somewhat kind look.

“…”

After a moment of silence, haha, Yoshino Ikumi laughed stiffly.

“That’s amazing.”

She lamented from deep inside her heart.

“I could even fool mom since young if I was serious. To think that you saw through it.”

Keima then added on.

“…But you weren’t serious at all.”

After revealing this, Yoshino Ikumi looked somewhat embarrassed.

“U, tha, that’s because…”

“It’s likely.”

Keima pushed his glasses and said with a heavy tone.

“If you were serious, you may be able to be just like your sister. That ‘ordinary’ personality can be completely duplicated, right? But you showed your true personality in front of me because you weren’t aiming to make fun of me or play a prank on my. Your aim was simply just to understand me.”

Yoshino Ikumi was showing fear in her eyes.

Because Katsuragi Keima.

This good looking boy in front of her was practically saying the truth.

Fu, Keima grimaced.

“…Speaking of which, even if you weren’t serious, I was fooled by you. Twin switching should be the basics of basics.”

He clicked his tongue slightly.

“Two conquests overlapped…so I had the idea of taking the initiative. I was too naïve too.”

He continued to remind himself.

“But, well, since you took action like this, I found a way to solve it, and this outcome’s rather delightful too.”

Keima used his long and narrow eyes to look at Yoshino Asami.

“You’ll tell me, right? Tell me about your sister’s troubles, Yoshino Ikumi. That’s why you approached me, right? If it’s me.”

Keima said confidentally.

“I’ll definitely save your sister. I can do it.”

Yoshino Ikumi timidly shouted out.

“HOW MUCH!?”

She practically shouted her lungs out.

“HOW MUCH DID YOU KNOW, KATSURAGI-KUN?”

The shout was filled with the fear the ordinary girl had on the insightful boy. Keima widened his eyes, but just for that moment.

“…How much?”

Fuu, he laughed confidently.

“Everything! Everything! I know everything! Yoshino Ikumi, everything!”

Keima waved his hand as his declared that.

Elsie nodded her head too without hesitation as she folded her arms.

“Hm~as expected of kami-sama.”

“…”

Yoshino Ikumi looked at Keima and Elsie, showing obvious fear on her face.

“You said, eve, everyonething…”

She said with a hoarse voice.

“Yo, you.”

She finally managed to find her words.

“You’re not god!”

Then.

“…”

Keima’s expression suddenly went serious. He turned around and muttered to himself.

“Speaking of which…it’s the second time I was called ‘kami-sama’ since I started this conquest. However.”

He again turned to look at Yoshino Ikumi.

“I’m really.”

He gave an expression that was overwhelming and wouldn’t allow for any objections, and it can even be called pressurizing.

“I am God! I’m the conquest god!”

It wasn’t just an expression itself as Yoshino Ikumi was wavering from the expression. Elsie seemed to be really impressed as she said,

“Hey, that’s true, you know? Kami-sama’s really god!”

“…”

Yoshino Ikumi was speechless. It’s like a certain part in her brain short-circuited, and that she felt numb. (Actually, this was really Keima’s aim, to use a forceful tone to show his confidence to her.)

And then,

“Aha!”

Yoshino Ikumi suddenly showed tears in her eyes, and at the next moment.

“AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!”

She started laughing like she got a screw loose. Elsie was shocked, but Keima merely cocked his eyebrows.

“…Is it strange?”

He asked coldly.

“Is it strange that I called myself god?”

“Ah, HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!”

Yoshino Ikumi was laughing so much that she was gasping, and shook her hand.

“No! That’s not it, ahahaha!”

Finally, she managed to hold back her laughter, and her fingers wiped away the tears that came out.

“Un.”

She suddenly nodded her head with a relaxed expression.

“Un!”

Her eyes were full of confidence. Keima’s lips showed a smile. This was exactly,

The outcome that he wanted.

Yoshino Ikumi declared.

“I got it! I’ll trust Katsuragi-kun completely! Please! Solve onee-chan’s problems!”

“…”

Keima smiled with his lips, and also his eyes.

He simply said.

“Understood.”

That was something that happened a long time after that. Yoshino Ikumi still remembered everything as she said to her friends in amazement.

“Katsuragi-kun’s really.”

Her words were full of honesty,

Though she more or less misunderstood about the term ‘Conquest god’, this was more or less something to take heart from!

“Really’s a guy who conquered earth!”

And,

However, this would be what happened after. Right now, Yoshino Ikumi was wholeheartedly describing her sister’s situation to Katsuragi Keima. Keima, Ikumi and Elsie went to the back of the shrine, found a bench to sit down. They were drinking the canned juice Elsie went to buy, and Yoshino Ikumi started to talk,

About her sister’s situation.

“Onee-chan, she really hates humans.”

She said such a shocking thing so easily, took a deep breath, exhaled greatly, and looked at Keima.

However, Keima was,

Completely unmoved.

Yoshino Ikumi smiled.

(That’s great.)

She thought.

(It’s great to have someone like this.)

Then, she hurriedly said to hide her delight.

“It’s not just an expression.”

She said to Keima, who in turn nodded her head.

“I know.”

“Aren’t you surprised? This onee-chan of mine looks so ‘ordinary’, so approachable, doesn’t have any special characteristics and looks so well-behaved hates humans, you know?”

“Why?”

Keima similarly asked back.

“Is there something to be shocked if she merely hates humans? And,”

He showed a knowledgeable expression as he added,

“I’m thinking of whether it’s this sort of reason…or rather, this kind of reason. That ‘ordinary’ was just a mask of Yoshino Asami, right? For convenience in her life.”

“Aha.”

Yoshino Ikumi chuckled.

“No wonder onee-chan would be so concerned about you, Katsuragi-kun?”

“…”

Keima prompted her to continue on with her eyes. Yoshino Ikumi nodded her head hard too. On a side note, Elsie was the only one who was confused.

The girl didn’t understand more than half of her words.

However, Yoshino Ikumi and Keima continued with their conversation as they left Elsie aside.

“Ever since young.”

Yoshino Ikumi started saying,

“Ever since young, we were often told that ‘you sisters really aren’t like each other’. Ah, of course we’re not talking about our appearances. About that, we’ll occasionally feel that we’re facing the mirror. I feel that twins are more similar to each other.”

Keima nodded his head.

Yoshino Ikumi smiled slightly and said with a complicated expression.

“But.”

She said with a sad expression.

“She’s completely different inside.”

“…”

“Katsuragi-kun, what about me?”

Yoshino Ikumi hurriedly turned to look at Keima.

“I guess you can tell from the time you were with me, but I like humans! I like being with humans! I have lots of friends, I like school, and I’m really happy to talk with Katsuragi-kun now. But,”

She sighed,

“Onee-chan’s the opposite.”

Keima remained silent. Yoshino Ikumi continued on,

“But onee-chan, she’s the complete opposite of me. She hates humans, hates gatherings, hates being with people, and a school with lots of people is something that depressed her. Interacting with people and being with them would cause her to feel like she’s suffering.

Keima thought.

(In the karaoke bar…in the theme park, at the bowling alley…so that’s the reason why she wouldn’t feel uncomfortable.)

Yoshino Ikumi said,

“As for onee-chan, she said that she really liked to read books alone, play games, watch movies. That’s her dream.”

Yoshino Ikumi grimaced.

“When we were young, both of us had a dream. Mine was to be a be a kindergarten teacher. Guess what onee-chan’s wish was? To hide in a nunnery deep inside a forest, and that was during elementary school, you know? What kind of student is this!? A lot of people would have thought.”

Keima didn’t say anything.

Yoshino Ikumi shook her head.

“But,”

She added on with a depressed look.

“The biggest problem is.”

She paused and then muttered,

“Onee-chan hates this aspect of hers the most.”

Keima’s eyebrows never twitched at all.

Because this was exactly what he expected.

If not, she wouldn’t be wearing that mask to live on.

“Onee-chan, she.”

Yoshino Ikumi continued,

“She said that she always envied me, seeing that I’m on so good relations with others, envied me for laughing together with everyone else. That’s what she said. We’re sisters. Is it because we’re twins? No, that’s not it. Onee-chan herself would have exceptions when it comes to hating people. Family members are basically alright, so at home, onee-chan would often…no, would always talk to me, and then.”

She smiled.

“It was the first time, really the first time. Onee-chan started talking about all sorts of things that happened in school. More accurately…”

She sealed the lid to look at Keima’s expression.

However,

“…”

Keima’s expression didn’t show any change at all. Yoshino Ikumi then smiled slyly like she wanted to crush Keima’s poker face, and said,

“She started talking to me all about this guy called Katsuragi Keima.”

“…”

However, as expected.

Keima still remained silent.

This was also as expected.

“And then?”

Keima prompted her to continue. Yoshino Ikumi looked somewhat bored as she said,

“Aren’t you shocked? That onee-chan would only talk about how you, Katsuragi-kun, whether it’s ‘whatever happened to Katsuragi-kun today’ or ‘he enraged a teacher today’ and would continue talking! Her eyes were blazing! Isn’t this love or something! Onee-chan’s really an ordinary girl!”

(Is that so?)

Keima had a question mark in his mind.

(It’s not love or anything. Absolutely, at least for now.)

However, he didn’t say this to Ikumi and merely asked.

“So.”

He stared at her eyes and said,

“So to check my behavior, you disguised yourself as Yoshino Asami, your own sister?”

“Yes~!”

Yoshino Ikumi nodded her head heavily.

“I was really shocked the first time I met you! At that time, I knew that Katsuragi-kun stayed near our house. I was shocked when onee-chan was really happy as she said ‘I walked home with Katsuragi-kun!’. That’s because you were really there, Katsuragi-kun, and more importantly, your appearance was just like what onee-chan told me! ‘Pretty-looking face and looks like a rich kid hikkikomori!’ or something like that.”

“…”

“Before that, I heard onee-chan that ‘otamegane, he’s called otamegane’, so I thought that onee-chan’s description of Katsuragi-kun’s appearance would be an image created from a girl in love, so I was half-doubting it. But I was really shocked when I met you. You’re really like a rich kid.”

Yoshino Ikumi giggled.

Keima himself was giving off cold sweat.

Should he be happy about this at this point…

“Ahaha, it’s late, but I have to apologize to you, right. Anyway, I still tricked you, Katsuragi-kun.”

Yoshino Ikumi lowered her head.

On a side note, at this moment, Elsie was…sleeping.

Kukaa~she was sleeping soundly. It seemed that she logically gave up on understanding the topic at hand as it was too complicated. Keima glanced at her and sighed.

“It’s alright. This shows that you’re worried about your sister. So your sister’s not really good with socializing with others, and if you understand me really well, it’s obvious that it’s not suitable for her to dive into a relationship with me. So you wanted to try me out to see whether I can match your sister.”

“To be honest.”

Yoshino Ikumi scratched her head in an awkward manner.

“To be honest, I was a little curious as well. I was really curious how this Katsuragi-kun onee-chan kept talking about was like.”

“…Which was why you didn’t disguise yourself completely to be like your sister.”

“Yes.”

Yoshino Ikumi admitted.

“Because, if possible, I wanted to look at how you would respond to my sister with a different mask on, a different ‘me’…how you would respond to onee-chan inside school and outside school. Well, this can be a conclusion somewhat.”

Keima smiled,

“It’s true that I was troubled.”

“Really?”

“Because a lot of scenarios overlapped with each other.”

“Hey.”

Yoshino Ikumi lifted her eyes and looked at Katsuragi Keima.

“I could have told you the truth earlier, but I didn’t do so. I delayed it for a while…well, I actually wanted to confess about this to you…do you know why?”

Keima gave a wry smile and said,

“It’s because you saw Amami Tooru…that girl who was just like an angel, right?”

“That’s absolutely correct! At that time, I was thinking that even though this guy’s called otaku, otamegane, is he really a flirt? I don’t know how you managed to attract such an irritating onee-chan, but were you fooling around with that onee-chan or something like that.”

“…You’re mistaken.”

Keima plainly stated.

“I.”

He stated casually,

“I’m not popular with girls at all. Normally speaking, that’s the case.”

“…”

This time, it’s Yoshino Ikumi’s turn to break out cold sweat.

This time, it’s Keima’s turn to ask.

“You just said that Yoshino Asami, your sister, started talking about me from the first day on. That’s likely something that happened long ago, right?”

Yoshino Ikumi nodded her head.

“I guess it’s around the time when she was in the same class as Katsuragi-kun.”

“I see. This is just my guess, but was there a huge change in Yoshino Asami during the rew days after she met me? Like did she talk lots of self-loathing things, especially about human relations.”

Yoshino Ikumi widened her eyes.

“Why.”

Either way, her voice trembled in amazement.

“How did you know?”

“Just as expected.”

Keima sighed.

“…”

Yoshino Ikumi continued to stare at Keima silently for a while, and then sighed in the same manner, looked forward and said,

“Un, that’s how the case is. I don’t know how you knew this, Katsuragi-kun, but it’s just as you said. Onee-chan was always envious of me, but it seemed to have become even more intense. ‘Let alone you, Ikumi…I guess I want to be a girl who can interact with others too’—that was what she said. We, well, I guess that’s it. She felt even more bothered after liking you, Katsuragi-kun, I guess. Maybe she thought this way because she wanted to on good relations with you?”

“…

Keima didn’t answer.

But in his heart,

“I see. It’s shaping up…seems like Yoshino Ikumi was correct.”

He muttered deep inside his head.

He then answered with a question.

“But your sister always wanted to correct herself,. That’s why she joined the tea ceremony club which requires one on one communication with others, something she’s most inapt at, right?”

“Ha, haha.”

Yoshino Ikumi laughed stiffly.

“That’s right, that’s completely right. Onee-chan joined the tea ceremony club because of this reason. Onee-chan had been worried about her personality and wanted to correct it, correct how she hated humans. Thus, she would try to join gatherings, and would even work hard to participate in club activities.

“…”

“Hey!”

Yoshino Ikumi grabbed Keima’s hand.

“Please! How can we cure here? What should we do to make onee-chan sociable with others?”

Her eyes were full of trust in the almighty insight of Keima.

“If it’s Katsuragi-kun! If it’s you, Katsuragi-kun, you’ll know, right? What should we do?”

“…”

Keima didn’t respond as he raised a question that’s slightly deviated from the topic at hand.

It wasn’t really a question that was directly linked with the conquest, just something that this boy called Katsuragi Keima himself wanted to know, something he wanted to understand about Yoshino Asami.

“How’s your sister when she’s not wearing a mask? How’s she at home?”

“How’s she at home?”

Yoshino Ikumi said with some doubt,

“Ah, no, you’ve been talking about some mask up till now, Katsuragi-kun. But onee-chan won’t really change personalities immediately, and she would be delicate and kind to others just like she would to us. She would also listen to my complaints too. I feel that she was even gentler because she’s not really good with people. It’s just…onee-chan would never show her burdens to others, ever. It seemed that she would be pained to let others see her real weak side. Thus, she always wanted to be a good girl. I said before that onee-chan would let me share my complaints, but that’s the difference. Onee-chan, she,”

Yoshino Ikumi paused for a while,

“Actually, she’s really a good girl who tries to overcome her weakness.”

She concluded.

Keima was silent for quite a while.

“…Is that so.”

And he merely answered and stroked her chin. Elsie rubbed her eyes and got up in a dazed manner. Keima glanced at Elsie and then said,

“I got it. I’ll find a way. It’s definitely possible.”

Yoshino Ikumi’s eyes were shining.

“Rea, really?”

At this moment, Keima answered with a stern expression and said,

“But your assistance will be necessary. You’ll help me, right, Yoshino Ikumi?”

At this,

“Of course!”

Yoshino Ikumi raised her hands in approval.

And Elsie,

Was standing there blankly.