messiah novel (you are in shine, part 11)

[devilism]

As Eiri and Ushio washed their faces as usually in the bathroom on the third floor of the new school building, they passed by a single man.

He wore a gray jumpsuit and a cap of the same material. He didn't seem like a teacher from his appearance.

"That's the school janitor."

Ushio said, who had started to do a remarkable lot together with Eiri since then.

"The school janitor?"

"There were guys in our school last year that were using drugs in the bathroom. Smoking and other stuff was starting to become a problem as well, so an off-duty teacher or school janitor always makes the rounds here. It's annoying."

He changed the topic right away, asking: "Come to think of it, what kind of career are you planning on getting, Sato?"

"Career?"

"We had one just a little while ago. That career survey."

S School didn't have a university. Almost everyone was taking exams for entrance to a public or private university. The class Ushio and Eiri were in was a group aiming at what was called the private B course of the humanities department of a private university.

"How about you?"

"Probably the W track. But the last mock exam told me it's very difficult."

"All mock exams seem like that right now."

"But my mom is a stickler about it. I either have to go to Tokyo University or wait until I can enroll there."

From his tone Eiri could gather that he had clashed with his mother over moving on to a higher level of education.

"It's since I went to S School. Although it didn't particularly need to be S School for me... My mother insisted. Because my father went to this school too."

"You went to a public middle school."

Eiri casually guided the topic along.

For a child born in a prestigious house of politicians to specifically go to a local school and then having to go to a prestigious school after high school... Eiri could sense his excessive opposition to his parents from that.

Although his parents had allowed him to go to a public school once, it didn't seem advantageous for his chances at the university entrance examinations, so it seemed he had been forcefully pushed towards S School as his high school.

He felt that there was some sort of hint hidden there.

Eiri guessed that maybe he had been bullied in middle school.

For that reason his parents could have put in a word of recommendation so he could go to his father's old school. Ushio had no choice but to go along with it.

He couldn't say anything. He couldn't go against his parents.

That's what being a child is like.

"You're trash. -----I'm trash too."

Suddenly he remembered the words of the man who had picked him up in that dirty backstreet.

That guy always said that, like it was his favourite phrase. All humans are trash from the moment they're born. They can't even support themselves without their parents or their country.

Was it like that for Ushio as well? No matter how much he hated his parents and how irritating he thought they were, he couldn't live seperated from his parents at the age of only seventeen years old.

"That's right."

He affirmed, like Eiri had hit the nail right on the head.

"Oh, it's always like that. Even though they keep saying it's for their children's sake, it's all for their own convenience in the end."

Eiri spoke of Ushio's feelings as if they really were his own.

He noticed that Ushio's facial expression changed.

"Is it like that at home for you too?"

"... Yeah. My parents divorced."

That's what it said on the profile of Ushio Yoshiya's classmate, "Sato Yuuichi". Of course he added to the story in order to extract information from Ushio.

Since Ushio didn't say anything, Eiri continued with the fabricated story of his life.

"I was suddenly told to go live in Japan after the divorce. I was pissed off. I had never even met my mother's side of the family."

"Ah, you're a kid who came back to the country. It must have been really strange."

With just that part of Eiri's story, Ushio imagined him to be a pitiful classmate who had to return to Japan due to his parents' circumstances. His facial expression became sympathetic.

"Are you doing the mock exam at the W cram school tomorrow?"

"No, I think I'll take the next one though."

"I see."

Tomorrow all cram schools in the entire country were having mock exams.

Ushio, who always had a private tutor, had been doing mock exams every month for a year.

Eiri was going to stand watch with Haku and two others from the outside. Although Eiri had thought about taking a mock exam along with Ushio, it'd be useless if they couldn't be in the same classroom for it.

"I want to quickly go study something, I want to live by myself. Since I thought like that, anything other than Tokyo University seemed no good."

So Ushio revealed.

"I want to live by myself. Even though I know that's impossible right now. I want to somehow get away from my parents."

Eiri thought that was a desire most high school students in the world would have. It was an impulsive rebellion that was characteristic for that rebellious age.

But he hadn't thought even once about wanting to get away from his parents. He had lost them before he had thought of wanting to leave them.

Next to Eiri, who had grown silent, Ushio cleared his throat.

"What's wrong?"

"Ah, no..."

He said.

"All this talk about wanting to leave them behind made me think of something. There was a story in a mystery novel about transporting dead bodies."

"Dead bodies?"

"A ninety litre bucket is exactly the right size for a person."

He really didn't sound like he was joking.

— — — — — — — — —

The mock exam that Ushio was taking, which was being held simultaneously in the entire country and organized by W cram school, was carried out in a company's training centre in Toko.*

On that day Haku, who didn't have any work for his teacher job, started following Ushio around while sipping on a Nanny as usually which Eiri had no idea of where he got it from.

Eiri went his seperate way from him, so he wouldn't be seen by Ushio.

An incredibly cold air hung above Neo Tokyo City at the beginning of March, and the weather forecast had said that the temperature would only rise to a maximum of seven degrees. Even though Haku was only wearing a thin coat, he looked just as much like a mannequin as always as if there was nothing wrong with it. Only his exhaled breath was white like everyone else's.

One person could easily blend into the groups of students carrying workbooks for college exam takers, like threads being patched together. By the time he left the subway station, the group of test takers all holding the same thing completely filled the narrow road.

The mock exam was starting soon, and he bit into the milk and strawberry flavor filled cream roll that Haku had given him yesterday in their apartment. Nothing suspicious had happened so far. He could get close to him well as a bodyguard while keeping his distance as a friend.

"Do you think it'll end up being an uneventful March 14th if this keeps up, Haku?"

In the driver's seat Haku sipped from his Nanny in place of a reply.

"Why are you asking that?"

"I didn't think that Ichijima would pick such an easy task as a graduation mission."

He took a moment to report to Shiba, who had been sent out, that they were on the lookout.

He couldn't help but think that something would happen in Ushio's surroundings soon.

But he didn't know what exactly would happen.

Even now he heard the sound of that guy slurping his Nanny.

"It should be easy as long as you carry out your duties well."

"That's right, but..."

"What?"

"... That's..."

Those were words he himself wouldn't have used. Eiri stared at Haku's profile from the side. He seemed just as much like a luxury brand mannequin as ever. If only he didn't have that kind of milk drink that little children would like in his mouth, he sure would have been a picture-perfect sight.

---- Why was Haku still drinking that "Nanny"?

At least he refrained from drinking it in places where it would make him stand out since it would make it easy to identify him, but around Eiri he was constantly drinking it without any worries.

It wasn't just Nanny either, he was also strangely obsessed with cheap sweets. Eiri wondered if there was any reason why he was constantly buying any new kinds that came out. And the reason as to why he became a Sakura...

(A reason to throw away your family and your future...)

He had been partners with him for two years. Even so, they hadn't had the chance to talk about their backgrounds to each other. Once they would graduate from Maru school, they would rarely cooperate on missions, unless it was by coincidence.

They might never see each other again.

And yet Eiri wondered if he could save him. For example if Haku was being tortured in front of him.

(Could I save him?)

That being said, who would you save? People? Family? Close friends? Or a lover? At what point would you draw the boundary line?

"If there's something on your mind, tell me."

Haku only momentarily pulled his drinking straw out of his mouth to speak up.

"You're closer to the target during this mission. If you think something is off, you should tell me. Is Ushio Yoshiya doing anything strange?"

"No, that's... not it."

"I certainly don't think Chief Ichijima would let us graduate just by being a high school student's bodyguards. But right now is the time before the big meeting. No secret intelligence service would perform any flashy actions right now."

Eiri nodded.

"But what if there was a reason that gave them no choice but to perform some big action?"

"A big action?"

There was a rumor going around in the news lately. Whether Japan is opposed to the disarmament and giving up the peaceful route...

"There's a rumor that the government was being pressured into looking into biological resources in China and Indonesia. The media kept talking about that subject. If that's the case, who would be getting into contact with Ushio Yoshiya?"

"Maybe the North."

"Russia? At a time like this. What would be their goal?"

There wouldn't be murder, at least, that's what Eiri thought. If they wanted to threaten opponents into casting their votes against the disarmament during the summit, there was no need for actions that would stand out that much.

"There might be involvement from the North. Ichijima says that Dosun, a spy from the North, is trying to get in touch with Ushio Yoshiya. Even if Ushio himself might not notice it, if the people concerned notice, then it's a threat."

"Like by using paint bullets?"

Eiri and Haku rose from the backs of their seats almost at the same time.


( back to index. )

notes:

* Toko is one of the 23 municipalities that make up the core of Tokyo.

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