The Empty Box and Zeroth Maria
Book 6: Chapter 8

“Oh, that’s not what I meant! Sorry, sorry! I would never want you to die, Kazu! Oh, and Haru, too, of course! I really like Haru, you know?”

Kokone had quickly corrected herself, but I couldn’t be sure she actually meant it. So I had to ask her something. She had said she really liked Haruaki, so I needed to hear her answer.

“Have you ever thought of going out with Haruaki?”

Kokone’s eyes had gone round.

Then she had smiled sadly.

Oh, I see; she really did know how Haruaki felt.

“I have,” Kokone had said casually, acting as if it were nothing at all. “It wouldn’t work out, though. Haru knows about my past, too.”

“What’re you giving me that weird look for, Hosshi?”

Haruaki watches me with a frown as we walk through the night.

I remember what he had confessed to me once before:

“I used to have a crush on Kiri.

“But you know what? She’s changed. I don’t feel that way toward her at all now, see?

“I think you should go out with her. You guys are a good fit.”

Haruaki must’ve known.

He can’t help Kokone. He knows about her past, so he would be someone who brought her suffering, just like Daiya.

Maybe that’s why, just like Kokone and Daiya, he told me I should go out with Kokone.

Even if I asked him, Haruaki would probably just brush it off with some excuse, though.

He may not even know the answer himself.

“…Hey, Haruaki.” I ask him something else instead. “You said before that Kokone has lost heart, right?”

Haruaki is startled and stares at me.

But he lets out a single big breath, and his lips quickly turn up in a smile.

“Yeah, I did.”

“What made you think that?”

Haruaki puts his hand to his chin for a moment in thought, then says, “Imagine this, Hosshi. A person is drowning right in front of you, and you can save them, no problem. If so, would you help them? I want you to really picture it, then answer.”

I conjure up the image. Someone is drowning out at sea or somewhere. I imagine a little boy crying out in desperation, his arms flailing. I pick up a life jacket or the like, and I can save him without putting myself in any real danger.

“Sure I’m gonna help them.”

“Why?”

“What do you mean, why? Obviously, I want to help them if I can, right? There’s no specific reason. And…yeah. I think I would regret it if they died right in front of me when I could’ve helped them. I’d probably be traumatized. I’d never forget it for the rest of my life.”

“Right? Same here.”

It’s the obvious conclusion.

But if he’s asking me this question now—

“Are you implying it’s different for Kokone?”

“No, she said she would help them.”

“What?”

I’m surprised. The way the conversation has been going, I was positive it would be different for her.

However, Haruaki still has more to say.

“But when I asked Kiri that question, she asked me a question before she said she would help.” Haruaki smiles weakly. “‘What kind of person are they?’”

I don’t get what’s wrong with that question right away.

But then it starts to dawn on me.

“If someone is drowning in front of you, and it’s in your power to save them, you’d want to do it unconditionally. It’s someone drowning, after all, so you should imagine someone powerless, who needs rescuing.”

It’s conceivable that some people out there might ask the same question as Kokone for no real reason.

Haruaki would probably not be telling me this if Kokone’s response hadn’t meant something, though. If he’s going to the trouble of mentioning it, to him, it’s a sign of something abnormal.

“But Kiri, she doesn’t see someone simply in need of help. The first thing she does is suspect that their drowning might be a ploy to hurt her. Kiri can’t even relax enough to help someone on the verge of drowning unless she can confirm they aren’t hostile toward her first. She lives her life experiencing a level of suspicion neither of us could believe. That’s what would keep her from acting. Even though if that person did drown, she would be just as sorry about it as we would, for the rest of her life.”

What prompted Haruaki to ask Kokone in the first place?

Was it because he suspected she would answer that way already, to an extent? Because he already understood this side of her and asked her only to confirm it?

“Since she’s been bullied, Kiri considers strangers hostile. She has her guard up right from the get-go. That’s what prevents her from doing what she should. She hates what happened to her, hates everything about herself that allowed it to happen. Her negativity has her captive. She’s so tied up in it, she can’t do what she wants or needs to do. To me, it—”

Haruaki pauses briefly, out of breath, then finishes:

“It means she’s lost hope.”

I can tell from what he’s saying.

Haruaki still cares for Kokone.

You see, he has a better grasp of the darkness within her than I do after hearing about it from her directly. He wouldn’t know about it unless he’s kept her in his thoughts this entire time.

In a somewhat defeated tone, Haruaki says, “Kiri will never change as long as she can’t put her own happiness first.”

I know what Haruaki wants: not to go out with Kokone himself, but for her and Daiya’s relationship to be restored. He wants her to be with the boy she loves, to spend her life with him, to be with someone who sees things her way, to find happiness together.

A thought enters my head.

—Put your own happiness first.

That’s what Haruaki says she has to do.

But he hasn’t managed to do that, either.

A correct solution.

If I could begin to sketch a solution for the three of them, what would the outline be?

All three going back to how they once were. No one could complain about that outcome.

But it’s not possible. It’s not possible even with a Box capable of granting any wish.

All we can do is find a new, ideal relationship for the three of them…or at least one that’s acceptable.

I have yet to puzzle out how to do that, though.

I’m sure the trio in question doesn’t know, either.

I can’t see the shape of our goal. Which means I can’t take action toward those ends.

What I do know is that as long as Daiya’s Crime, Punishment, and the Shadow of Crime is still around, that solution will never take shape.

Oh, but that’s nothing more than an excuse. I’m not trying to deceive myself.

I act for Maria’s sake. I can’t do it for my three friends Daiya, Kokone, and Haruaki. I’m destroying Crime, Punishment, and the Shadow of Crime not for their salvation, but to rescue Maria and complete my mission.

Helping them is not something I can do. I can only hope for a happy future for Daiya and the others after I accomplish what I’ve set out to do.

That hope is sincere, though.

I can’t see the solution now, but I still make this prayer with the faith that we’ll find it.

“Are you okay with that, Haruaki?” I whisper.

“………Hmm?”

I didn’t mean to be heard, but it seems Haruaki did in fact hear it.

“It’s nothing.”

I’ve sorted myself out. I’m calm. I’ll put all my strength into what I can do now.

I will stomp out Daiya’s twisted wish.

Yes, I exist to crush others’ wishes.

“Haruaki, what do you think our next step should be?” I ask, now that I’ve figured out what I need to do.

“Wellll… If we’re playing it safe, then I guess maybe just wait for the Silver Screen of Broken Wishes to finish doing its thing.”

“That probably is the way to go, huh?”

But I’m not so positive, and I can tell Daiya’s thinking the same thing. We know the score. We also know Daiya has probably guessed Haruaki and I would choose to wait things out, so he’ll more than likely use his smarts and his Box to take down the Silver Screen of Broken Wishes.

We’re running up on the time limit. As that happens, Daiya will probably become less and less picky with his tactics. He’ll try to use Crime, Punishment, and the Shadow of Crime to drive me against a wall. Just like when he searched for Maria and me, he will employ his nearly one thousand Subjects.

Having a thousand people tracking me down had been pretty terrifying, like being under surveillance by the entire world.

The next Order will be more than a search to spook me. Worst case, it’s not crazy to think Daiya might issue an Order to kill the person he thinks is the owner. He might go so far as to have me killed, too. Nearly one thousand people are going to come after me in a direct attack.

Of course I’m shaking.

They say a cornered mouse will bite a cat, but Daiya is no mouse. It’s a lion we’ve got cornered here. If I screw up even slightly, he’ll spring back from the brink and crush me in his jaws in one fell swoop.

“What should we do…?”

“Your only choice is to hide, don’t you think? Can’t really launch an attack if you can’t find the target,” Haruaki suggests. He’s right. “Even with a thousand or so people on the lookout, they probably can’t sniff out someone in hiding in just two hours, right? Using the Internet like they did last time wouldn’t be very effective in such a short amount of time, either… Plus, if you’re going to lie low, then Kiri should, too. There’s no telling when Daiyan will start considering the possibility that Kiri is the owner… Whoa, I was just throwing out ideas, but that might be a good one, even for me. If you’re hiding out with Kiri now, we may just get through this yet.”

As it happens, Kokone is hiding in a dormitory; it belongs to the baseball team of a friend of another friend Haruaki met through his own ball team. Haruaki was there, too, until just a while ago.

We moved Kokone there after Yuri filled us in on the details of Crime, Punishment, and the Shadow of Crime. Our thinking was that the Subjects would be less likely to track her down if she was tucked away in the home of some loosely connected acquaintance rather than out in the open. Daiya doesn’t even know said acquaintance exists, let alone where the dorms are.

I’m positive we could stay hidden for a little under two hours.

But if we do—

“Daiya isn’t going to let us stay in hiding.”

Yep, there’s no way in hell that Daiya will allow it under these circumstances.

“He’ll come up with some way to lure us out. If he threatens Maria as bait to call me out again, I won’t have any choice but to play along.”

“Ugh! I see…”

“……Hmm? But…” And I get an idea. “…Yeah. So if that’s how it’s going to be, then how about we just don’t let him make any threats…?”

Haruaki tilts his head at my raised voice.

“Huh? What do you mean by that? Isn’t it up to him whether he makes a threat?”

“Here’s what we need to do.” I pull out my cell phone and turn it off.

“…? How is that going to stop him from threatening you?”

“Can’t threaten me if you can’t get in touch. He can order me to come meet him, but there’s no point if he can’t get ahold of me.”

“Okay? I get that, but if Daiyan is trying to hurt Maria, whether he gets in contact with you doesn’t change the fact that she’s in danger, does it? You just wouldn’t know about it. Heck, you’d be ignoring it.”

“Daiya doesn’t have any reason to want to harm Maria, does he? If he says he’s going to, it’s really just a reason to call me out. If he can’t even do that, though, there’s no point in hurting Maria.”

“…I hear you.”

“So the first thing I’m gonna do is hide, as you suggested. Then I’m gonna make it so I can’t get any messages from Daiya. Once I’ve done that—”

“Daiyan can’t work any plots to draw you out! Which means you can wait it out! …If that’s what we’re doing, then Kiri and I will need to turn our phones off, too. He may not be able to reach you on your phone, but if he can reach us, that means he can reach you. All right, I’m going to tell Kiri to turn her phone off, and then I will, too.”

Haruaki begins entering a text.

A thought enters my mind. Would I have been better off if I had come up with this idea sooner?

Would I have had an easier time if I had?

…But maybe not.

If I were the only one involved, cutting off all contact would have been a viable strategy. But I had to protect Maria. If she were placed in danger, letting things pass in ignorance would not have allowed me to avoid the crisis itself.

In a certain sense, this is a move I can make only now that I don’t have Maria holding me back. A move I can make because, like Daiya, I have my back against the wall.

“Okay. Let’s hurry and meet up with Kokone and go off the radar before the Subjects find us.”

“Hell yeah. Now that we’ve got that settled, let’s go ahead and—”

Haruaki’s cheery reply stops short.

“Haruaki?”

He is standing stock-still, eyes glued to the screen of his phone.

“……Don’t tell me Daiya already reached out to you?”

Not replying, Haruaki starts clicking at his phone with a stern expression. He starts up the app for 1seg TV broadcasts and watches the screen intently.

…Why TV at a time like this?

But Haruaki begins searching for something as if unable to find the video he wants.

“Haruaki, what’s the matter?”

“…There’s something on the TV Kiri told me in her text to watch. It looks like it’s already ended, though. She’s panicked, too.”

Going quiet again, Haruaki looks me in the face, perhaps having at last come across the video he was looking for.

“……Hosshi, I think we’re too late.”

He shoves his phone out at me.

On the screen is a news program that has been uploaded to a video site. It’s the weather forecast, broadcast live from a street downtown.

“—Urk.”

But there’s something wrong in this weather report.

A naked woman. A thin woman with brown hair, probably in her fifties, has gotten on all fours and started barking. She is crouched, so it’s hard to see, but beneath her hanging breasts, large words have been written in permanent marker.

Come to the movie theater.

She appears for only a moment before the screen jerks and switches back to the studio. That’s where the video ends.

“…Hosshi, can we really ignore Daiyan if he’s even using TV to make his threats? …There’s no way.”

“You’re right… It won’t work.”

What if, for example, Daiya made one of his Subjects say I’ll kill Maria Otonashi if you don’t come to the theater? It wouldn’t make any difference to Daiya whether his message actually reached us or not. Now that he’s gone this far, he might really follow through on his threat with the expectation that we have received his message.

As long as there’s a risk of that, we can’t ignore him.

If we still persist with this plan, he’ll only go to even more extreme lengths to reach us. He may even utilize his Subjects to ensure I could never have a normal life ever again.

In the worst-case scenario, the Daiya we’re dealing with now could harm Maria.

Now that he’s discovered this method, I can’t avert my eyes from him any longer. Even indirect threats will work on me now.

“Urgh!”

As it stands, not noticing messages from Daiya will be the problem. I don’t see the point in keeping this up now. I turn my phone back on.

Instantly, I receive a call, as if it were just waiting for me.

Opening my phone, I check the name on the screen.

Kasumi Mogi.

“Found youuu.”

I haven’t answered the phone. After all, it’s still ringing from the incoming call.

I can hear another sound besides my stupid electronic ringtone, one I’m not used to hearing.

Roll, roll, roll.

It’s the sound of wheels.

The sound of a wheelchair.

Daiya Oomine 09/11 FRI 10:12 PM

I never limit myself to just one scheme.

I had trusted in Iroha Shindo’s capability, but that’s not to say I’ve been operating under the assumption that she would guarantee success. If I did happen to rely on the actions of someone else and something unexpected happened, it could prove fatal, given the unforgiving time constraints.

That’s why my plan didn’t rely solely on Shindo when I was putting the screws to Kazu during the third movie, Repeat, Reset, Reset. I had several other ploys in the works while she was “revealing Kazu’s betrayal to Otonashi.”

One of them consisted of messages to Kazu on TV using dog-people. I issued an Order to eleven of my Subjects who had committed grave enough crimes that I wouldn’t mind making dog-people of them. The Order was to write Come to the movie theater on their naked bodies and show it to Kazuki by displaying their disgraceful state on television. While I haven’t yet confirmed if it was actually carried out or not, I’m sure one or two of them succeeded.

Aya’s arrival here made me think that attempt was a wasted effort, but by the same token, her presence gives it new importance.

Thanks to this, I can prevent Kazu and the others from cutting off contact with me.

From Kazu’s perspective, all he needs to do to bring me down is wait for the Silver Screen of Broken Wishes to reach its conclusion, meaning there’s a good chance he’ll cut off all contact with me and go into hiding. But a broadcast mishap of that magnitude would make waves across the Internet and elsewhere, making it extremely likely to reach Kazu’s ears. And once it did, Kazu would understand the dangers of cutting off contact.

If I can reach him, then I can use Crime, Punishment, and the Shadow of Crime more effectively in this conflict.

We’re in the entrance. 15 Years Old and Earrings has yet to start. I’ll lose pretty much all freedom once the show begins, so I have to use this time to put together the broad brushstrokes of a plan.

There are seventeen minutes left until the movie starts. We’ll be teleported to the theater five minutes before, so that leaves twelve minutes. Dammit… Not much time, but what else is new?

“In other words, this is what you’re saying your plan is.”

Aya summarizes what I just finished telling her.

“Kasumi Mogi is experiencing despair because of her physical condition and her unrequited romantic feelings for Kazuki Hoshino. If I ask her if she wants to use the Misbegotten Happiness, she won’t say no. So I’ll use my Box on Mogi, thus forgetting about Kazuki Hoshino.”

I nod, and Aya continues.

“Kazuki Hoshino probably hasn’t explained the Boxes to Mogi and had her join his side. I doubt he’d want to tell Mogi about them, since she took such pains to wipe the Rejecting Classroom from her mind. Plus, a paraplegic just wouldn’t be much help to him in this fight. Basically, if you can bring a Subject in contact with her, your plan can move forward without any harm coming to her. And getting in touch will be easy. She has to be at the hospital, after all.”

Well, to be honest, I couldn’t care less about Mogi. I just want Kazu to come to the Silver Screen of Broken Wishes, but there’s no need for me to say that.

“Kasumi, huh…?”

That useless, annoying idiot butts in yet again. Shut the hell up, you teru teru bozu bitch.

“…You’re thinking something rude, aren’t you? It’s all over your face. I’m good at reading expressions, you know?”

Against my will, I converse with Yanagi for a bit. “…Just asking, but do you know Mogi?”

“Well, she’s both my rival in love and an ally against a shared enemy. I sometimes trade info with her at the hospital. Eh-heh-heh.”

“So, discussing the perfect crime for how to bump off Otonashi? Is your switcheroo trick using the wheelchair almost complete? Everyone knows Mogi can’t get around on her own, so who’d have thought you’d take advantage of that to craft your alibi.”

“Why is your murder plan so specific?! You really need to rethink your image of me!”

“And while we’re at it, why did you butt in when Mogi came up? You got something on your mind?”

“Huh? …Um, no…”

Ugh, I shouldn’t have asked. Time to put this girl out of my mind.

“Now, then.” How to go about using Mogi…

Nevertheless, Aya is better bait for Kazu than Mogi. It’s a simple plan, but using a Subject in the outside world to threaten Kazu about Aya is the best option. The threat will go something like this:

If you don’t smash the Silver Screen of Broken Wishes by the end of today, I’ll kill Maria Otonashi.

I should probably set the time limit to five minutes or so before the end of the day at midnight. Threats are effective. Desperate as I am, there is no way for Kazu to say for certain that I won’t murder Aya.

If so, then what do I intend by using Mogi? Why do I find it necessary, even though putting her in the middle will take a not-so-negligible amount of extra time?

I do need to make Aya think of using the Misbegotten Happiness on poor, heartbroken Mogi. That’s not the entirety of it, though.

As I thought just a moment ago, threats using Aya work.

The problem is, they work too well. It might suggest to someone that I’m going to win this.

To whom, you ask?

To O.

“As for how to get Kazu to come here, I’ve got an idea.” I decide to try telling Aya about it.

“Let’s hear it, then.”

“I’ll just have a Subject break Mogi’s fingers.”

“……What’re you saying?” Aya scowls. Just as I thought.

“It’s a threat: If you don’t want to stay quiet and watch Mogi lose her hands, then come into the Silver Screen of Broken Wishes. Kazu once had feelings for her. Even he can take the sound of her fingers snapping for only so long, right? To make matters worse, Mogi can use only her upper body. Her hands are more important to her than to other people, right?”

“I won’t let you do that, either!”

“Don’t you hate Mogi? Didn’t she stab you?”

“Don’t make me repeat myself. My feelings have nothing to do with it. I can’t stand by while people get hurt, no matter who they are.”

Yep, that’s pretty much the reaction I anticipated. There’s not really any point in getting Aya worked up here.

“…Understood. Let’s scratch that plan, then,” I acquiesce. But I don’t mean it.

It’s not as if Aya ever had any means of checking what Orders I make, so I can get away with just saying this. No need for me to stay true to my word. Whether I have her blessing or not, what matters is that Mogi’s fingers break.

This little script is not for Aya, but for O. I need to convince her that this is the trump card of my strategy.

If it’s for Maria’s sake, Kazu may very well leave Mogi to her broken-fingered fate. Kazuki Hoshino can veer that far off the path of common sense, once he’s prepared for the worst.

I’m sure O thinks so, too. That’s why she won’t think I’ll win with this gambit. If it appears that my stratagem is going to fail, then I doubt she’ll step in.

In actuality, the center of my plan is a threat against Aya. I’ll keep that fact under wraps, though, by convincing O that my threat revolves around Kasumi Mogi.

The question is whether I can pull it off when my opponent is O.

And I conclude:

—I can.

O can apparently observe the world. But as far as I can tell, this process is like using a satellite camera to peer down at the earth. It makes it difficult to get a detailed understanding of the motives behind my actions. That is O’s weakness.

So I can do it. Like a magician distracting his audience with showmanship while he smoothly performs his sleight of hand, I can conceal my threat with Aya by making another one with Mogi.

Naturally, I can’t rest easy and assume what someone as unpredictable as O will do. I’ll need to adapt on the fly depending on how things play out.

The thing is, I’m beginning to get a grasp on how O’s mind works. Though her almost godlike abilities made it difficult to see, now that I recognize her true nature—for better or worse—I can make the correct analysis.

O’s personality is not something otherworldly like that of a god or demon, but something more mundane like that of an eccentric human being. Her mental acumen is apparently quite high, but nothing that breaches the bounds of common sense. Nothing special. I’m fairly certain her personality was based on a certain girl’s image of her big sister, the real “Aya Otonashi.”

So my analytical skill allows me to read her behavior for the most part.

For example, there’s one thing of which I’m certain—sometime today, O will show up.

“………Iroha!”

I turn in the direction of Yanagi’s sudden cry.

Standing beneath the electric billboard is Iroha Shindo, her school uniform red and dirty, her face exhausted and smeared with mud.

“Wh-what’s wrong, Iroha? On your uniform—is that blood? Are you hurt?” Yanagi runs up to Shindo in concern.

“It’s fake blood. I’m not injured, but…I might as well be dead.”

“Wh-what do you mean?”

“My Box was broken.” Yanagi’s eyes go wide with surprise, while Aya’s brows narrow intensely.

I have a heap of things I want to ask her, too. But there’s something I have to say before I do so.

“Is this pathetic farce supposed to accomplish something, O?”

Yanagi and Aya look from O to me, their eyes still wide.

“……Oh?”

Shindo’s expression goes from utter exhaustion to that familiar bewitching gentleness.

All the same—seeing that look brings something to mind, though it has no bearing on anything now.

That benevolence really does remind me of the expression Kazu had when he sent me into the Silver Screen of Broken Wishes.

“I must say, I’m hurt that you didn’t let yourself be fooled for even a second. How on earth did you know it was me?”

“…It was just a hunch.”

The truth is, I had predicted that O would make an appearance here before too long. Given her nature, O would probably want to see Kazu and me squirm.

I’m not going to say that answer aloud, of course. It’s no good if O thinks I’ll win. Being honest here would probably only set O on guard, and I don’t need that.

O doesn’t seem to have any particular doubts. Not even that interested, in fact.

“……O.” Aya has been watching our interaction with what almost amounts to a glare. Her eyes are full of hatred.

“I haven’t seen you in some time.”

“I don’t suppose you’re planning to give me a new Box?”

“Surely there’s no reason for me to do that? I’m certain I kindly informed you that as a subject for observation, you’re hardly any different from a vacuum cleaner. I have no intention of meddling with something little different from a machine.”

As I watch their exchange, I think:

What the hell is this charade?

Why does O claim to have no interest in Aya yet speak with such hostility? O doesn’t respond to others like this. Why doesn’t Aya find that suspicious?

Why can’t Aya catch on to O’s true nature?

My train of thought is cut off as O looks at me.

“Oomine. Actually, I need to speak with you. Is that acceptable?”

This proposal is unexpected. Unexpected because I had taken it for granted that O would remain an observer as long as Kazu didn’t encounter any major setbacks.

I still have a ways to go when it comes to reading O. I glance at my watch as I pull myself together.

10:19PM.

“I hope it’s productive? I have less than six minutes of freedom to chat. If it’s small talk you want, sorry.”

If I do speak with O, it’ll most likely take until I’m transported to the theater. Once that happens, I won’t be free to act.

“It’s something of importance to you.”

That settles it. That alone prevents me from refusing O’s offer out of hand.

“Understood.”

All I would be able to do with Aya in my remaining time is go over my plans again anyway. I’ve already made the Order for Mogi. I’ve sent a Subject—a fanatical follower, in fact—to her hospital.

“Forgive me, but would the rest of you mind leaving the room? I must speak with Oomine alone.”

Aya isn’t happy about this. “Wait. Why do you and Oomine—?”

“Sorry.” I rein Aya in. “But there’s no time to have your question answered. Just hold on to it for now.”

Though she’s clearly upset about it, Aya doesn’t say anything further.

The instant I can tell that Yanagi and Aya are gone, I start talking.

“Get to the point,” I tell O-in-Shindo’s-form. I genuinely don’t have time for pleasantries.

“Hmph, very well,” O agrees, then gives me the gist. “Kazuki and I are now enemies.”

All my assumptions are shattered.

“

”

I’m stunned. To be honest, I want time to spend going over the implications of what I’ve just heard. Unfortunately, I don’t get a grace period.

The shock has left my emotions churning, but the question I ask is a productive one.

“So are you on my side?”

I can’t put thoughts and feelings in order, but I can still at least make the proper B response to A. I don’t have the time or resources to confirm the truth of O’s claim or ask for the particulars. I just have to assume that statement is true and find out if this situation is useful to me.

“I will not be your ally.”

“Why not? Kazu is our common enemy now, right?”

“I don’t believe Kazuki will abandon hope if I go along with your way of doing things. To put it another way, I don’t see any advantage in becoming your ally.”

“Still, if you’re against Kazu, that means you aren’t going to interfere in my victory so he can win, correct?”

“That is true. I will not interfere. In fact, I have something nice to share with you. Your plan, the plan of using the Misbegotten Happiness in front of Kazuki to remove Maria Otonashi’s memories of him, is the best option available to you at the moment. I guarantee that.”

I don’t have the time to confirm whether this is true, either. I just have to take it at face value.

“Next question. Kazu is supposedly more interesting to you than anyone else. Why is he your enemy now?”

“You speak as if my fascination means he can’t become my foe, but it’s quite the opposite. His position as my enemy is precisely what fascinates me about him.”

“Enough with the flowery speech. What I’m asking is the reason he became your enemy.”

“So brusque. If I exist to allow Maria Otonashi to be ‘Aya Otonashi,’ then Kazuki exists to erase ‘Aya Otonashi’ from Maria Otonashi. It’s only natural that we oppose each other, don’t you think?”

“I guess… Still, how does Kazu thinking that change anything? Just saying, Kazu may have some quirks, but he’s only human. Are you saying a mere mortal like Kazu has the ability to do away with you, specifically?”

“Yes, he does. Kazuki has obtained the ability to crush Boxes by force.”

That sure cuts off my ranting, as you might imagine.

“…The ability to crush Boxes?” What kind of cheating BS is that?

I think for a moment that O is referring to the Silver Screen of Broken Wishes, but no. That Box can crush only my Crime, Punishment, and the Shadow of Crime.

“Why does Kazu have this power?”

“Because he is another person who has gained power from the Misbegotten Happiness. Much like myself.”

“I don’t understand. How would Kazu gain power from the Misbegotten Happiness—? No, I’ll just take that as it is. There’s one thing I just can’t reconcile, though, and that’s when Aya got the Misbegotten Happiness. I don’t know all the details, but Aya and Kazu weren’t acquainted at that point, were they? If so, then how would it have influenced Kazu?”

“It’s not really all that difficult. The Misbegotten Happiness was always going to make a force to counterbalance me. But as Maria Otonashi could not conceive of a being capable of opposing me, that position remained vacant. That doesn’t mean there was no counterbalance at all, however. The post remained, ready to be filled. And then the one meant to take it appeared. The anomaly, Kazuki Hoshino, whom a certain someone saw as a savior. The discrepancy in the timing doesn’t amount to all that much.”

I see. In a sense, that discrepancy is even more characteristic of a Box.

As it happens, something has been bugging me for a little while now.

“I want to make sure of something.”

“And what would that be?”

“What the hell are you?”

“What am I? Such a crude question. I’m afraid I can’t humor you because the scope of the question is beyond my capacity to answer.”

“I get that you’re made in the image of the real Aya Otonashi, and that you’ve been influenced by the Misbegotten Happiness. What I can’t figure out, though, is why Kazu is the force that opposes you, and why he has the power to remove you.”

“Yes, I can see you don’t understand yet. The Misbegotten Happiness is originally a Box that gives me existence as O. That’s how it grants wishes. If it’s destroyed, I can’t exist as O.”

I’m almost reeling from the shock, but there’s no time for whirling emotions. I respond with pure logic.

“So what you’re implying is that when I received a Box, I used Aya’s Misbegotten Happiness, too?”

“Indeed. Without the Misbegotten Happiness, there would be no me.”

“But wouldn’t that mean Aya doesn’t actually lose her memories when she uses the Misbegotten Happiness? I’m actually using the Box, but she hasn’t forgotten anything.”

“It’s not a lie. The memory loss occurs only when she decides to use the Misbegotten Happiness of her own will.”

“That’s quite a convenient system.”

“Is it? Haven’t Boxes always worked this way? Give it some thought; can’t you work out why she loses her memory to begin with?”

The question reminds me of the almost laughable conversation between O and Aya just a moment ago.

Why is Aya almost stupidly unaware of O’s identity? I think.

The answer comes to me.

She has to be, or the Misbegotten Happiness could never come into existence.

Aya must never realize that O is the product of her own Box. Furthermore, she must never realize that O is like the real “Aya Otonashi.” She must never know how her Box grants the wishes of other people. If she ever found out, the Misbegotten Happiness wouldn’t just be “misbegotten,” it would be a downright screwup.

So if she’s going to learn how the Box works when she uses it, she has to forget.

O and Aya have been set to despise each other so that the Box won’t create a broken wish. Aya has cooked up a story in which she is trying to get a new Box from her archnemesis so that this time, she can make a perfect wish that is not “misbegotten.”

But it’s not possible for Aya to obtain her ideal Box. It’ll never be possible.

After all, her struggle against O is her entanglement in the Misbegotten Happiness.

“...”

What the hell?

What sort of fool’s errand is that? She may as well be building a sandcastle that will collapse under a little rain. Is this really what Aya has been persevering for? Is this what she has spent a whole lifetime on? Is this what she’s killed off her own personality for, what she’s staked her life on?

“……”

Does Kazu realize that Aya’s battle is in vain? I’m sorry, but the way his head works, he probably doesn’t know what exactly is going on.

I’m sure he gets the essence of it, though.

He has an intuitive grasp on the truth of this Box.

Yeah, that’s how Kazuki Hoshino is.

That’s why I know he’ll try to crush the Misbegotten Happiness. He will attempt to deliver Maria Otonashi from this system of meaningless sacrifice.

And, it goes without saying, my Crime, Punishment, and the Shadow of Crime is standing in his way.

“What exactly does Kazu need to do to destroy Boxes? How would my Box be broken?”

“If Kazuki is able to touch your chest, he can remove your Box and crush it. That’s how he did away with Iroha Shindo’s Box, in fact.”

“…What? He actually took out Shindo? …Wait, more importantly—”

All he has to do is touch me?

That’s bad.

I just tried to send an invitation for Kazu to enter the Silver Screen of Broken Wishes.

But if he can crush Crime, Punishment, and the Shadow of Crime by just touching me after I’ve called him in here—

“I’m SOL, aren’t I?”

If I do nothing here, the Silver Screen of Broken Wishes will destroy my Box. On the other hand, Crime, Punishment, and the Shadow of Crime will also be crushed if I summon Kazu here and let him get his hands on me. Give me a break. You can be only so unfair.

Let’s think in specifics. When Kazu shows up in the Silver Screen of Broken Wishes, for instance, I could take Aya hostage and tie her head over my chest to prevent him from touching me.

That’s not an option, though. It’s not an issue of ethics—I just won’t be able to do it. I’d be in the theater when it happens, and the Silver Screen of Broken Wishes makes me incredibly lethargic if I attempt to do anything other than watch the movie. I won’t have the strength to resist that and hold down her head, not for long.

Does that mean our gambit to remove Aya’s memories of Kazu with the Misbegotten Happiness is my only option, regardless of whether he comes here or not?

That won’t work, either, though. Things won’t go that smoothly. Aya has said she has no intention of using the Misbegotten Happiness on anyone who doesn’t want it, and she’s not likely to bend on that. I don’t have time to hatch some plot to make Yanagi or Mogi desperate enough to ask her to use it. And my Box will be crushed if Kazu touches me in the meantime.

…But if the power of the Misbegotten Happiness has always been the power to grant the use of O’s Boxes, then there is something that makes me wonder.

“Can the Misbegotten Happiness be used by a person who has used a Box before?”

O replies without any particular change in expression. “They cannot use the same Box, but if it’s a different one, then yes. However, I do not use Boxes on the same subject twice.”

If so, then I guess I can get Yanagi or Mogi to take some Misbegotten Happiness.

Now how do I go about doing that—?

“……Ngh.”

My mind suddenly slows to a crawl. My brain is finally worn out. My head is in pain; I’m cracking under the influx of information. I can absorb and understand only so many insane revelations without my mind shutting down, and I’ve had about all I can take.

I look at my wristwatch. Not even a minute left before I’m in the theater.

“O.”

There’s still one thing I just have to check, though.

It’s been on my mind this entire time, something I’ve been meaning to ask O the next time I encountered her after I realized her identity.

“What is it?”

Depending on the answer, my resolve may be shattered. This question is that crucial.

“The Misbegotten Happiness is an external-type Box, correct?”

There are internal-and external-type Boxes, categorized based on whether the owner believes its effects can actually be implemented in the real world.

Let’s say the Misbegotten Happiness is an internal-type Box, and Aya didn’t believe. It depends on the Box’s level, but internal-type Boxes generally don’t influence reality. In other words, all the bizarre, Box-induced incidents like the Rejecting Classroom, the Week in the Mud, and the Game of Indolence were part of the unreality within the Misbegotten Happiness. All these stories would be treated as vivid dreams of Aya’s.

The same would go for Crime, Punishment, and the Shadow of Crime, too, of course.

I can’t let this end with something so ridiculous. I wouldn’t be able to bear it.

If the Misbegotten Happiness is not an external-type Box, then everything I have done will be rendered meaningless.

“Yes, it’s an external-type, and a level ten. Her faith in her ability to make others happy is almost flawless. Your worries are unfounded, so relax.”

Judging by her tone, it’s the truth.

Whew, that was close.

Everything that’s happened wasn’t a lie.

My plan to strengthen the moral perspective of all humanity, the dog-people I created to judge the criminals who escaped justice, the excruciating agony I bore from the shadows of crime, Iroha Shindo’s breakdown at my hands, Koudai Kamiuchi’s death at my hands, and all the people I’ve warped with Crime, Punishment, and the Shadow of Crime—they were all real.

I’m relieved… Or I should be.

The truth is, as an owner, I do possess a vague sense of whether a Box is an internal or external type. The reason I still have to make sure is that I’m not the kind of person who can place much trust in hunches. Plus, given how crucial of an issue it is, I just needed proof.

All right, maybe I’ll ask about one more important thing.

When I learned that Kazu’s power came from the Misbegotten Happiness, a new question rose to my mind, one I had to ask.

“Kazu crushes Boxes, right?”

“That’s what I’ve been saying.”

“All of us were able to become owners because we liked the idea of Boxes and accepted them. But someone who crushes Boxes would be the complete opposite.”

O listens to my question with that same pleasant and graceful smile.

“Would someone who rejects Boxes to such an extent ever be able to become an owner?”

O answers my question concisely.

“They would not.”