Outbreak Company: Volume 9, page 10
part #9 of Outbreak Company Series
“O-Okay... I’ll try my best!”
“I’m all over it!”
“No, don’t try! Don’t... be all over it!” I exclaimed, but finally I heaved a sigh. “Okay, I’ll sleep by the spot closest to the door. Petralka, you and the girls figure out the rest of the sleeping places with rock-paper-scissors or something. Just... no pillow fights, and no ero-book searches.”
“Mm? Where are you going, Shinichi?” Petralka asked.
“Out. I’m gonna see if Minori-san needs a hot drink or anything. It’s still cold out at night.”
“Oh, we’ll join you...” Myusel and Elvia offered, but I shook my head.
“I’m only going out the front door, I’ll be fine. I need you to watch out for Petralka—for Her Majesty. She’s way more important than I am.”
“Shinichi...” Petralka blinked at me as if surprised—but she stayed behind when I walked out into the hallway.
There had to be coffee or tea in the kitchen, I figured. I was headed for the stairs when—
“Oh...”
I ran into Shizuki coming the other way. She had probably just been getting a drink before she went to bed.
We stood there, neither of us saying anything. It didn’t feel good. It was so... stiff between us.
I forced myself to put on a calm expression, act like it didn’t bother me. I slid past Shizuki and was just about to go downstairs when—
“Looks like you’re having a good time,” I heard her mutter. “All those girls hanging off you. Even though you’re an otaku.”
“Aw, what?” I said, turning back toward her. I had to admit, her tone rankled me.
Shizuki, though, didn’t turn to look at me. But she didn’t move, either, so maybe she didn’t plan to just ignore me. Obviously, I couldn’t see her face from where I was standing.
“When a person’s brother disappears, do you have any idea how worried—” Then she stopped for a second, thought, and finally sighed before she went on. “—any idea how much trouble it is? Believe me, it’s no fun.”
“Well, pardon me very much.”
“You could at least have let us know you were alive!”
“Er...” I scratched my cheek and frowned. Actually, I couldn’t have let them know. But I understood what Shizuki was saying. After a long moment, I just said, “Sorry.”
“Didn’t you...” Shizuki’s voice was a whisper, and she still wouldn’t look at me. There was a long, long pause before she finally said, “D-Didn’t you ever think I might blame myself?”
“Huh...?”
“Because... I just... because I kept... making fun of you, otaku this and otaku that... and then my brother... just...” Shizuki’s words were punctuated with loud sniffles, but I thought I could make out what she was saying. Basically, she had been afraid that I’d disappeared because I was sick of her mocking me. I’ll grant, it had been years since Shizuki and I had had a real conversation, since even before I’d shut myself in my room, so you couldn’t exactly say we had the best brother-sister relationship.
“No! God, no,” I said, trying to keep my tone light—why in the world would I run away just because my little sister wasn’t my biggest fan? But my attempt at lightheartedness seemed to backfire.
Shizuki looked back at me over her shoulder, her head turning so suddenly that I could practically see the sound effect: krak! “Then you should have let us know what happened! Do you have any idea how much everyone worried about you?”
It was hard to see her face in the dim hallway—was it just my imagination, or were her eyes brimming?
At that second—
“““IS THIS REALLY A DERE MOMENT?!””” three voices chorused in unison.
Wait—three voices?
As Shizuki and I both looked around blinking, my mom and dad appeared from their bedroom down the hall.
“Did you see that, Mom? Shizuki is walking the path of a real, true tsundere!”
“I finally see we really raised her right...”
Uh... Excuse me? I think this is literally the definition of wrong—maybe so wrong that it does a three-sixty and... becomes right again? Aw, forget it.
Shizuki, though, gave a long, inarticulate groan of frustration. “I hate that! I hate that sort of talk, and I hate the way you all do it all the time!”
Then she ran into her room and slammed the door.
“Oh, Shinichi. You’ve upset your sister,” my mom said, looking at Shizuki’s door.
“Don’t try to pin this on me!”
“You’re the whole reason she’s upset,” my dad said pointedly. “Shizuki’s not wrong, though. When you go back to wherever it is, try to keep in touch once in a while, eh? We weren’t that worried about you, but it was pretty inconvenient not being able to talk to you at all.”
“Gee, thanks, Dad. I’ll try to keep that in mind.”
Chapter Three: Hullo, Akiba!
We emerged from under the green overhead rail to find ourselves in a country of dreams.
I drank in the avenue, a vast street running onward and onward. I spread my arms wide and said, “Akihabara! I have returned! Not that I’m going to shoot a nuclear bazooka at you or anything!”
The view of the holy land from the famous Mansei Bridge, so near and dear to my heart, looked just the way I remembered it. Okay, so some of the stores I knew were gone and others had replaced them, but so what? The view hadn’t changed much.
For better or for worse, it was still the hodgepodge it had always been. Roadways streaked this way and that, seemingly leading nowhere; people walked wherever they wanted, and it was impossible to ignore the signs for anime and games and manga. Even the Niku no Man*** building was there—the sort of thing that really lets you know you’re alive—as we headed onto the area’s main street.
“Ooh!” Petralka exclaimed, running ahead of me. “So this it is!”
She was dressed completely differently than normal. She was wearing a pinkish jacket with a polka-dot miniskirt, loose socks, and sneakers—and to top it all off she was wearing a ribbon, along with earmuffs and even a little bag. The whole enchilada.
It definitely made her pretty conspicuous, but Petralka had always been noticeably pretty anyway, and the outgoing, assertive outfit really suited her. Okay, it didn’t all exactly match, but at first glance she looked like a perfectly ordinary girl—even if she and her clothes came from Eldant.
That’s right: Petralka had brought this outfit with her from her home country. Apparently she had put it together based on careful observation of manga and anime. And you know what? It did have a certain “cosplay” vibe.
Now her eyes sparkled and she nearly launched herself down the street—except that Myusel and I each grabbed one of her hands.
“What is this, Shinichi? Myusel?” she said, frowning.
We had discovered something else interesting: when we were physically touching each other, our magic rings worked even here in Japan. I guess the rings, which functioned using the modicum of magical energy produced by our bodies, normally used the magic in the air around us as a medium to transmit our thoughts to other people, much like how sound waves travel through air. That was why they didn’t work when there was no magic in the surrounding area but could still function when we were in physical contact with each other.
You know how in Gun**m they’ll be in the vacuum of space, but people can still communicate by touching each other so that the sound waves travel directly from body to body? It’s sort of like that.
I never really thought about it too hard, but I’m starting to wonder what exactly magical energy is.
It wasn’t the first time on that trip the thought had occurred to me. Apparently the human body gave off a very small amount of whatever it was...
Okay, bracket that for now.
“Don’t run around, it’s dangerous. This is a pretty busy street.”
“Hrm. These auto-mo-beels of yours. They do indeed seem profuse.” Petralka nodded.
She had seen the LAV back in Eldant, of course, and on arriving here had gotten some firsthand experience of a small van, so she and the others had some sense of what a car was. Nonetheless, getting here and seeing so many of them must have been something to behold.
“Very well, then. Walking like this allows us to use the rings, anyway. You may take us by the hand, Shinichi.” Petralka gave my hand a squeeze.
“Huh? Oh...” It was only then that it really sank in with me that I was holding hands with Petralka, her small, delicate fingers interlaced with mine. “Er, um, Petralka?”
“Yes, what?”
“H-Holding, I mean, hands like this... Don’t you think it could be bad in... various ways?”
It was one thing to grab her hand to stop her from running into the street, but just to hang out, walking hand-in-hand? It seemed—How should I put this, Your Majesty?
“Was it not you yourself who took our hand in the first place? Come on, hurry and show us around!” Petralka started off, all but dragging me along. “We see that it is a vast space indeed! We must hurry, or there won’t be time to see it all!”
“Er, right.”
Okay, fine.
Touring Akiba hand-in-hand with a beautiful young woman? Honestly, I had never even dreamed it. But if it would make Petralka happy, I would go along with her. As for the bashfulness, I would survive.
Or anyway, so I thought.
That was when someone else took my other hand. Squeeze.
“Um, Shinichi-sa—I mean, Master.”
It was Myusel.
I looked over to see her with her eyes cast toward the ground, her left hand at her chest, her right stretched out to take my hand. For reference, she wasn’t in her usual maid outfit just then—she was wearing a beige cardigan and a red-checked miniskirt, along with legwarmers and sneakers. She still had the fluffy cap on her head, and a similarly fuzzy scrunchie holding her hair back. Those were pretty distinctive, but overall she looked more or less like an average high-school girl.
Then again, Myusel’s whole “exotic beauty” thing made her stand out to begin with.
“Myusel...?”
“M-Master, it’s my duty t-to protect you and Her Majesty, so I thought... I th-thought, we should make sure we could communicate at any time...”
I guess there’s some logic to that...
“What is the matter? Shinichi, Myusel, let us go!”
“Yeah, sure, Your Majesty, don’t pull!”
“Call me Petralka!”
“Sorry...”
That was the quality of the conversation as Petralka, me, and then Myusel went walking hand-in-hand down the main avenue of Akihabara. I knew Minori-san and Elvia were following just behind...
“Ah, a young man in his prime.”
“Ia dorou osura ekiru oto etapishitorappu.”
“Well, his hands are both taken, but maybe you could jump on his back?”
“Ti eodo osu!”
I could hear Eldant and Japanese flowing freely; maybe the two of them were touching, too. And then a second later—
“Shinichi-sama!”
I could practically hear the thump as Elvia glommed on to my back.
Okay, wait, what is the deal here?
Myusel holding my left hand. Petralka holding my right. And Elvia riding piggyback.
It was complete: Full-Armor Shinichi’s Beautiful Girl Shield!
Okay, no.
“Ooh, this must be a ‘gei-sen’ such as I’ve heard so much about!” Petralka said, dragging me off in a new direction. That meant I pulled on Myusel, and Elvia came along for the ride...
“Girls, we have to— This is not the way to stay hidden!”
Petralka, though, was too hyped up to listen to a word I said; Myusel just kept saying “I—I have to, it’s my job”; and Elvia had her face buried in my back and was making comments like, “Mmm. It smells like you, Shinichi-sama.”
As I’ve explained before, all of these girls were exceptionally pretty. They looked like foreigners (which, I guess, they were), and here in Akihabara they really stood out.
I could see people looking in our direction and talking, though they were too far away for me to catch what they were saying. Worse, some people had their cell phones out and appeared to be taking pictures...
“Minori-san...!” I looked to my WAC for help, but she just shrugged and grinned.
“You’re really something, Shinichi-kun. You get more popular every day.”
“That’s not what I—”
“Ah, if only Minister Garius were here. I’ll bet that would spice things up even more.”
There’s no hope. I can’t count on her.
Defeated, I let Petralka drag me into the game center.
Let’s turn back the clock about an hour.
“Dad, please give me some money!”
“Hrmph, absolutely not!”
My dad and I were squaring off in the living room. Mom and Shizuki were out.
“Grr. You didn’t even think about it.”
“Hmph. I didn’t have to think about it,” he said. “Anyway, where do you get off demanding money when you spent more than a year as a useless home security guard?”
“I’m always hurt when adults use such brutally honest words...”
“Hrm. An appeal to my empathy? I warn you, it won’t work!”
My dad seemed inordinately proud of that fact.
“Whatever. Listen, I just need some cash!”
“What for? Are you completely obsessed with social-game ga*has?”
“No! I’m not you, Dad! Petralka says she wants to go to Akiba, okay?”
Yep: since we had come all the way to Japan, Petralka insisted that she wanted to see that otaku Mecca, that broadcasting station of otaku culture, Akihabara.
To be perfectly honest, I wasn’t so sure that was a good idea, but thinking that maybe I should just count myself lucky she hadn’t asked to go to Comiket, I decided to grant her wish if I could.
“And you can’t not spend money in Akiba! You’re surrounded by manga and DVDs and games and figures and character merchandise of all kinds! And Ichiban **ji and claw games aren’t free, you know! You can never have enough money there! Money, money, money—an army needs funds...!”
“Ohh!! Hrgh, are you trying to make me weep tears of blood with that Ta**** Hiroshi-esque touch?!”
“Please!”
“Never!”
Bam! I brought my hands together in a gesture of supplication so hard you could hear it, but my dad put his hands above his head like an attacking black bear—a classic “mad dad” pose.
“If you won’t take no for an answer, then you’ll have to destroy me in combat!”
“So it’s to be the path of destruction...” I said, clenching my fist.
My dad, though, smirked triumphantly. “Hahaha. You take me too lightly, if you think you can beat your father. I attended a correspondence karate course for three months!”
“Dad...” I said. I looked at him for just a moment, then said, “Elvia?”
“Rawr!”
My dad cried uncle five seconds later.
“Th-That was dirty, Shinichi...” My dad sat twitching on our blood-streaked sofa after Elvia worked him over.
Okay, so the blood came from my dad’s nose after Elvia, holding him in a choke, pressed his head against her chest. He was pushing fifty, but I guess in some ways a man is always young.
Heck, maybe that’s why he was able to write light novels.
“Dirty? Don’t you have any better words? You’re an author, for crying out loud. Say, like, dishonorable or unscrupulous or something.”
“Hrm... One question, Shinichi.” My dad hefted himself up, looking puzzled. “Haven’t you been getting paid?”
“Huh...?” I said stupidly, and then I realized. “Oh yeah, my salary from being Amutech’s general manager...”
I hardly used money as such when I was in the Eldant Empire, so I had almost completely forgotten about it.
“Here’s your bank book, which you left here, by the way. There’s a pretty good chunk of change in there. We realized when the bank called asking if you didn’t want to open a CD.”
“That much?”
So the help-wanted ad on the internet may have been a total trap, but apparently they were actually respecting the salary as it had been posted. The Japanese government was honest about the strangest things. Maybe that was what you got for having such a hierarchical government, where each person just did what they were supposed to do without worrying about what anyone else was up to.
“But I lost fair and square—so take this and go,” my dad said, producing an envelope from the folds of the couch. “Leave the salary in your account and just let it grow. You never know when you might need it.”
I took the envelope and peeked inside: there were ten whole ten-thousand-yen bills in there. That was great and all, but the blood from my dad’s nose had gotten on the envelope, so now it looked like I had killed somebody for it. You sure about this, “Papa”?
“Huh? You had this here all along?”
“Eh, y’know.” My dad grabbed a wet wipe and started dabbing at the sofa. “My son brought home a girl for the first time. Several girls, in fact, all beautiful foreigners. What dad wouldn’t want to help him look good?”
“Then why...............?” I asked, actually a little bit touched.
My dad nodded. “Form is beautiful.”
“Uh-huh...”
That was my dad: passionately committed to the absurd.
Maybe that was why he was able to write light novels.
And that brings us back to the present moment, in Akihabara.
Petralka, Myusel, and Elvia were constantly shocked by what I guess you could call the culture gap.
“We have been wondering for some time,” Petralka said, pointing at the buildings all around us. “What actually is this Akihabara of yours? Is it some kind of castle?”
“Huh? A castle?” I said.
“Is it not surrounded by walls in the far distance?”
“Oh...”
In a word, Petralka was seeing the skyscrapers. They were so far away that the skyline looked like a single solid wall. Considering how differently things were done in Eldant, it was an understandable mistake.
