8mi Book 6: Chapter 11
Book 6: Chapter 11
At any rate, the playing field has changed yet again thanks to Yanagi. The headache is worse, the nausea is worse, and my strength is spent, but I still have to review the current status quo.
Sitting in my theater seat, I cradle my head in my hands and think.
The situation has changed dramatically since the end of .
I have identified five major differences.
—O is no longer Kazu’s ally.
—Kazu has gained the power to crush Boxes.
—I’ve figured out the owner is Kokone Kirino.
—Kazu is coming into the Silver Screen of Broken Wishes.
—Aya will not use the Misbegotten Happiness if I use Crime, Punishment, and the Shadow of Crime to make them desperate.
These all change my conclusion. I had been thinking I could win if I could make Kazu give up. If he lost hope, he would hand over the Silver Screen of Broken Wishes, too.
That was my mistake, though. Even if Kazu did throw in the towel, I would still lose as long as Kiri held on to the Silver Screen of Broken Wishes.
On the other hand, breaking Kazu is still essential. If he has the ability to crush Boxes, I have to neutralize that power.
Here are the conditions for victory:
Summon the owner—i.e., Kokone Kirino—here and destroy the Silver Screen of Broken Wishes before the end of September 11.Shatter Kazu’s will by making Aya use the Misbegotten Happiness, thus erasing her memory, before he can touch my chest.
What the hell? How am I supposed to accomplish all that?
For starters, how do I call Kiri here? And once I do call her here, how do I destroy her Box? How am I supposed to persuade Kiri when she’s got a Box specifically created to crush my Crime, Punishment, and the Shadow of Crime? I can’t see myself changing the mind of someone so determined in an hour and change. My only option is to find some way to destroy the Box by force.
But a way doesn’t exist, though. It’s impossible.
And while we’re at it, how do I even get Aya to use the Misbegotten Happiness? At this rate, I’m going to have to call someone who both knows Kazu and has always needed the Misbegotten Happiness. And even if I do manage to get them here, they probably won’t make the decision lightly. Kazu could destroy my Crime, Punishment, and the Shadow of Crime in the meantime. In any case, he can simply crush Boxes with just a touch to the chest.
It’s impossible.
It’s impossible for me to win as long as I can’t control Aya Otonashi freely.
“…………”
Wait.
Oh, is that what it comes down to?
There’s one sole requirement for me to come out on top.
Namely—
I have to use Kazu’s Box-crushing power to do away with the Silver Screen of Broken Wishes. With Orders, I can even make someone commit suicide. If I tell Kazu that I’ll Order Aya to kill herself unless he smashes Kiri’s Box, he should have no choice but to do it.
What’s more, I can also force Aya to use the Misbegotten Happiness with an Order. If I wipe Aya’s memories in front of Kazu’s eyes, he’ll be a broken man.
I can meet both of my conditions for victory if Aya Otonashi becomes a Subject.
But here’s the thing.
“I could never pull that off…,” I mutter as I watch Kiri struggling desperately on the screen.
Aya Otonashi possesses a powerful will. There’s no reason she should become a Subject. It’s pointless to even think about it.
The life is being squeezed out of me. The cry from the speakers reaches my ears and tears away at my heart.
I try to touch my earrings, but even that is too much for me. Just extending my hand leaves me immobile with exhaustion.
“…Maybe…”
Maybe this is it?
Should I just give up?
Should I just give up trying to use my own body to realize my earnest wish?
“……Should I just kill them?”
Just kill Kazuki Hoshino.
And Kokone Kirino.
I can do it using my Subjects.
If I do, I’ll be rid of both the Silver Screen of Broken Wishes and the power to crush Boxes.
I know. If I go through with it, my mind won’t survive. My mind is already close to the brink as it is, so it would be shattered.
Either way, the fact of the matter is that I won’t be whole for much longer anyway. I need to find someone to pass along my cause to. I need to grant the power of a Ruler to a person capable of wielding Crime, Punishment, and the Shadow of Crime the right way.
Shindo was defeated, though. She had seemed to have what it takes to inherit my will, albeit with some slight deviations, yet she is no longer able to use Crime, Punishment, and the Shadow of Crime.
Fanatics are no good, either. They’re suited to following, not issuing orders from above. I try to conjure up some other faces, but no one who seems able to handle it correctly comes to mind.
No one has it in them to sacrifice themselves and act for the sake of the world.
They don’t exist.
That kind of person—
That kind of hope—
Someone who can carry on my cause for me—
One person.
One person, the only one I can imagine, might be even better suited to the task than I am.
The one who declared herself to be a Box and cast aside everything except for the pursuit of her mission.
I understand in a flash.
It feels ridiculous, like throwing a jigsaw puzzle without a single piece connected and somehow having it all come together perfectly. At any rate, it’s all so clear now.
I stand up. I’m so weak that I can’t even touch my earrings, but I don’t have time for that. Defying the force of the Silver Screen of Broken Wishes, I face Aya.
I feel so awful that saying a single word might make me vomit blood. The vertigo throws off my sense of balance, and my field of vision is askew.
All the same, my mouth lifts into a smile.
“Aya, you’ve been
“That’s why—I can’t live as a human.”
It’s the reason she was able to become “Aya Otonashi.”
She thinks of herself as a sinner at all times. By never forgetting, she is continually punishing herself.
It’s a just system of crime and punishment.
That’s what made her into something that isn’t human. Into a Box. Into “Aya Otonashi.”
Having killed herself off entirely, she has enabled herself to make a wish with single-minded purpose. To stake everything, her whole way of life, on her mission.
For the sake of a world in which everyone can find happiness.
Her determination inspires many emotions in me.
Respect. Envy. Fascination. Unspeakable admiration.
She’s the burned-out husk of an owner I will never become.
It’s for this very reason that there’s no worthier successor to my power.
“I’m going to give you my power. You’re going to inherit all the shadows of crime.”
Passing along the shadows of crime won’t have any effect on me. It won’t change my ability to Control my Subjects.
However, my most important task will be different.
My most important task is now to eliminate the power to do away with Boxes—Kazuki Hoshino, the boy with such deep influence on Aya Otonashi—and to help her persevere for the sake of our wishes.
“Are you ready?” I ask, but Aya doesn’t look at me.
She’s facing directly ahead.
“I pictured it,” she nearly whispers. “I imagined what needed to be done to lead people to happiness, and what kind of Box I would need. It’s not forcing people into a mold I’ve created. It’s not helping them avoid the hardships of reality by dumping them in some hidden paradise, either. I came to believe that having each person give thought to the form of their own bliss and then move toward that is a fully realized happiness.”
She clenches her fists tightly.
“That’s why I needed the ability to guide others,” she says, her voice rich with emotion. “To think I would find it here right in front me, after adjusting my viewpoint just a little.”
Then she finally looks at me.
“Oomine. I had thought we were nothing more to each other than two people with their eyes set on the same course. But that isn’t a small thing. That alone is enough for something like this to take place… I see—so this is what it means to be kindred spirits.”
“Kindred spirits… You’re right.”
I nod, then transfer the shadows of crime.
This reminds me of a thought I had when I passed along shadows of crime to Shindo, that maybe someone strong enough could swallow down the shadows of other people’s crimes as if it were nothing. And how if that were to happen, I would doubt my own adequacy as a Ruler.
“……Nnh.”
Aya Otonashi receives 998 shadows of crime without batting an eye.
With that, she becomes a Ruler and, in keeping with my initial plan, my 999th Subject.
“Oomine,” says the owner of Crime, Punishment, and the Shadow of Crime. “Thanks.”
But her face is like a machine, without the slightest trace of happiness.