The Empty Box and Zeroth Maria
Book 2: Chapter 10

May 3 (Sunday), 8:45 AMI’m in front of Kazuki Hoshino’s house.

“This is a really twisted idea you came up with,” I say.

“How so? An idea like this is nothing if it means helping you. Besides, you’re the one who actually has to see it through.” He’s so matter-of-fact.

“Do you really think Underwear Girl will cooperate? Aw, I hope she does, for her sake.”

“Well, let’s pray that everything goes smoothly,” says Ryu Miyazaki. It’s like he’s trying to show everyone that he’s totally uninvested in what’s about to happen.

No—maybe it really doesn’t mean anything to him at all.

Maybe nothing matters to him, now that what’s done is done. I don’t have any proof, so it’s just a hunch.

“Okay, I’ll be back in a bit.”

“Right.” I open the front door without ringing the bell, as I should. “I’m home.” I go up the stairs.

Ruka Hoshino is asleep in her underwear as usual.

May 3 (Sunday), 10:06 AM

Miyazaki is holding a phone to my ear.

“N-noooooooo!!”

I can hear someone screaming through the phone. I recognize the voice right away. I hear it every day.

“Roo…!!”

“Why are you doing this?! Stop it, Kazu!!”

“Ah—!”

What… What did they do?! What did they use my body to do to her?!

“See? This is what happens when you don’t do as you’re told.”

“But Roo has nothing to do with any of this! She’s not involved, so why would you—?!”

“Probably because we knew hurting someone innocent would be especially painful,” Miyazaki replies.

I lunge for him…but I fail miserably and end up toppling over.

I forgot that they have me bound hand and foot. Without a hint of a reaction, Miyazaki plants his foot on top of me where I lie in a miserable heap on the floor, and he puts the phone to my ear again.

“Listen to the rest. That way you can find out exactly how things went down.”

“Ungh…”

I can’t very well plug my ears, so I clamp my eyes shut instead, even though doing so doesn’t help at all.

I hear more voices from the phone.

“Gotchaaaaa!”

“Huh…?”

“Why did you want me to say all that, Kazu? I’m kinda worried about you.”

I look up at Miyazaki, stunned.

What the hell is this? A joke…?

Miyazaki removes his foot. Still focused on his blank face, I get up off the floor.

“Why are you acting so relieved, Hoshino?”

“What?”

“Those were recordings made using the phone’s voice-memo function, not real-time audio. What if I played the last recording first and the first recording last?”

“N-no!”

“I’m kidding.”

“Ugh…”

It’s pitiful how easily they can toy with me.

“Sheesh… What’re you going back and forth like that for? What you should be worried about isn’t whether your sister has been hurt or not. No, the issue is that Ruka Hoshino isn’t even the tiniest bit on guard against ‘Yuhei Ishihara.’ It would be so easy to do just about anything to her.”

With that said, Miyazaki stomps on me again, this time grinding his heel into me.

“‘Yuhei Ishihara’ will soon become Kazuki Hoshino in actuality. Can you imagine how much of a nuisance it’ll be to have an older sister? Especially sharing a bedroom with her. She’ll notice something different about him, of course, but it’s not like he can simply break off all ties with her as a sibling. She could end up becoming the greatest wrench in the works. Apparently, the question is quite troubling. How to get rid of her, that is.”

Having said his piece, Miyazaki presses a couple of buttons on the phone again and plays a recording.

“You’ll betray Maria Otonashi for us, won’t you, ‘Kazuki Hoshino’?”

It’s a threat.

It’s a simple one, easy to understand. If I don’t do what they say, they will kill Ruka Hoshino.

“So, what’s it going to be, Hoshino?”

If I put Otonashi in cuffs, it could lead to her being hurt. But if I don’t, it could get Roo killed.

There’s no way I can make that choice! …But Otonashi wouldn’t be losing her life.

Plus, knowing her, she might be able to find a way to overcome this on her own. No, I’m positive she will.

…She will find a way to beat us.

May 3 (Sunday), 9:04 PM

“Otonashi still hasn’t found us, eh…? I’ve got to admit I’m surprised. I would’ve thought she’d pick up on this place pretty much instantly,” Miyazaki says. “She may not know you’re being held captive, I guess. ‘Yuhei Ishihara’ did go back home, for one thing. Yet she should’ve noticed something was up when you didn’t return any of her calls… Hey, Hoshino, did you and Otonashi have a fight or something? Is that why she isn’t worried that you aren’t picking up your phone?”

I have no answer to that, mainly since I don’t remember how we parted ways after my despair overtook me and turned everything black.

“Well, it doesn’t really matter. We were about to make our move, anyway,” he says, taking out my phone.

The reason we haven’t done anything until now is that we didn’t know exactly when “my” time today would be until I lost control at seven PM. Everything after that was charted out, though. We know for certain that I will be “me” until eleven PM.

“…Oh yeah, I almost forgot something.”

Miyazaki pulls out a roll of tape and puts a double layer over my mouth. My hands and feet are restrained, so I can’t pull it off.

He begins making a call. As for who…I don’t really need to say.

“Hello?”

“……Who is this?” The room is very quiet. I can hear Otonashi’s voice clearly.

“Ryu Miyazaki.”

“…Miyazaki, why are you calling me from Kazuki’s phone? What’s happened to him? I know you’re in league with ‘Yuhei Ishihara’…”

“In league with him? You think I’d help scum like that? He found something he could use against me and threatened me.”

What is Miyazaki saying…?

“Something to use against you?”

“That’s right. I didn’t help him willingly. He trapped me and used me to do his dirty work. I think I’ve had about as much of that as I can take, though. Luckily, I’ve come up with an easy plan to set all this right.”

“A plan…?”

“I’m sure you’ll figure out what it is if you put your mind to it. It’s quite simple.”

“……You can’t mean…”

“You guessed it—all we have to do is kill Kazuki Hoshino.”

Miyazaki’s tone is all business without the slightest change in emotion. That’s when I begin to realize he’s lying. His acting is almost too natural; I know the truth, and even I was nearly convinced for a moment.

I don’t think Otonashi is likely to see his deception for what it is.

“…What a load of nonsense. I don’t know what exactly ‘Yuhei Ishihara’ has on you, but the risks of what you’re suggesting are too great to ignore. I don’t think you’re stupid enough to choose that path, either.”

“What a straightforward response. I thought you’d have a better knack for deception than that.”

“……”

“Murder is always a dangerous bet. The payoff is never worth it. But none of those risks apply to Kazuki Hoshino as he is now. I’m sure I don’t need to tell you why.”

“…I don’t follow.”

“Ha-ha, don’t play dumb with me. I’ll tell you, anyway. This is a risk-free murder because all we need to do is get him when control of his body changes hands.”

Otonashi must have realized the same thing. Just yesterday, she was telling me about the dangers of a switch occurring while we’re on her motorcycle. If you built a foolproof plan around that premise, it would be a cinch to paint the death as an accident or suicide.

That’s what Miyazaki means by a risk-free murder.

“If I can put an end to that bastard and his threats and get away with it scot-free, I’ll do it.”

“…Why are you telling me your plans?”

“If you had a bullet that would never be found after it’s shot, there’s probably someone you’d want to use it on, right? But let’s say doing that would also eliminate someone you have nothing against. You’d have some pity for them. That’s why I figured I would at least let him hear the voice of his lover one last time.”

“You’re only thinking of yourself…”

“Am I? Hoshino only has a few hours left in that body, you know. He might as well be dead already. Don’t you worry; I’ll make sure to do the deed when it’s ‘Yuhei Ishihara’ in control. Think of it as more of a mercy killing for Hoshino. I’m sure he would want to die before that human filth assumed his identity completely, anyway. Don’t you agree?”

“Kazuki will take his body back!”

“That’s just what you want to think. Given the circumstances, I doubt anyone would be that optimistic about his chances, unfortunately.”

“Grr…”

“Anyway, that’s that. Now I’ll let you hear his last words.”

So he says, but of course Miyazaki has no intention of removing the tape covering my mouth.

He moves the cursor to a file and double-clicks it. Kazuki Hoshino’s voice plays from the speakers.

“Help me…”

It would’ve been the oldest, easiest line in the book…

“…Aya.”

…if not for what came next.

How do they know that name…? There’s no way they could have heard it, especially since they know nothing of the Rejecting Classroom.

Wait… Maybe they did. I have used it in Class 2-3’s room. Miyazaki must have picked up on it as some kind of code and told “him” about it.

Otonashi won’t realize this, since she’s unaware who’s speaking. And so…

“……I’ll be there for you soon, Kazuki.”

…Otonashi is fully convinced the voice belongs to me.

“You made a mistake,” she asserts with force. “If you were going to call me, you should have done it right before ‘Yuhei Ishihara’ took control. It’s nine twelve now. The earliest you can make your move is at ten sharp. There’s still forty-eight minutes left. That’s plenty of time for me to stop you and take him back.”

Her threat is misguided.

She has no idea her words don’t strike fear into Miyazaki so much as put him at ease.

May 3 (Sunday), 9:32 PM

And just like that, she arrives. Not even twenty minutes have passed since the call.

She smashes through the window in a spray of glass. Clad in street clothes instead of her school uniform, she walks into the center of the room, the broken shards crunching under her sneakers.

“…Here so soon? It’s almost like you knew exactly where we would be.”

Miyazaki faces her from where he stands, holding a kitchen knife pressed against me in the hallway leading to the front door.

“You think it was difficult to figure out? I knew you wouldn’t make a call like that in public, so in all probability, you were at your home. No other place seemed likely.”

“Still rather fast, don’t you think?”

“I made it a point to learn your address the moment it became apparent you were working with ‘Yuhei Ishihara’… But enough of that. Let Kazuki go. You said yourself that you don’t think murder is worth the risk. If you stab him now, it’ll be more than a risk. It’s a guaranteed assault charge, at the very least.”

“Shut up.”

“There’s no need to fly off the handle just because things aren’t going how you planned. All you really want is for ‘Yuhei Ishihara’ to stop blackmailing you, correct? Hand Kazuki over to me, and I’ll show you that I can put an end to his threats.”

“You’re just saying that.” He’s acting agitated and ignoring her.

Why is Miyazaki behaving like this?

…It’s all a show to set her up for the fall.

Miyazaki is playing the part of the stereotypical villain so that my betrayal will shock her even more. Otonashi will defeat the dastardly Miyazaki and rescue me. She’ll be relieved, maybe even a little excited.

And then I’ll stab her in the back.

So to build it up as much as possible, Miyazaki can’t afford to be reasonable and let me go.

“Just leave. You already had your final rendezvous here.”

“Quit being stupid.”

I’m curious as to why Otonashi hasn’t rushed Miyazaki yet.

Yeah, he’s got a knife pressed to my throat at the moment, but it’s an empty threat. Miyazaki wants to commit this risk-free murder only because he’s up against the wall himself (or so it would seem), so there’s no reason he would choose to stab me and wreck any hope of doing that.

“And here I had you pegged as a person who thought things through logically without letting emotion get the better of him.”

Otonashi sure seems aware that Miyazaki has no intention of stabbing me. Yet she still isn’t coming any closer.

“Calm down, Miyazaki.”

From her perspective, she can’t say for certain that the blade won’t touch me. If Miyazaki gets too panicked, he could even harm me by accident.

……Is that why?

Is she holding off because she isn’t 100 percent sure I won’t get hurt?

“……”

No, of course not…

After all, Otonashi has no reason to go to such lengths to protect me. I may not know what it is, but something is preventing her from taking action. She’s reached a deadlock.

With his free hand, Miyazaki prods me in the side where Otonashi can’t see.

……I know, I know.

Obviously, he had given me instructions in case of a standstill like this. I don’t like having to take the initiative in this, but I have no choice.

Miyazaki told me to do this like I mean it or else Otonashi will figure out it’s a ruse. I swallow hard once, then play my part.

With all my might, I bite down on Miyazaki’s hand.

“…Agh!!”

His yell is no act, but a genuine reaction of pain. He drops the knife as naturally as he said he would when he went over the plan.

We’ve created an opening.

Otonashi doesn’t let it pass.

It’s over in an instant.

The room is only about a hundred square feet. Before I know it, she’s right in front of us, and the momentum of her forward lunge carries her into a powerful head-butt right on the bridge of Miyazaki’s nose. As he cradles his face, she places herself between us and slams her fist into his jaw, sending him staggering back. He stumbles, and she quickly scoops up the knife and flings it out of reach.

“Get back, Kazuki.”

I nod and move away.

Otonashi gets some distance from Miyazaki and says, “Give me the keys to the cuffs and leg restraints, Miyazaki. I’m going to set him free.”

“…You’re more weak-willed than I would’ve thought,” he replies through his hands as he tries to staunch the flow of blood from his nose. “You should have gotten me by the neck. Then I would’ve had no choice but to hand over the keys.”

“…There was no need for that.”

I suddenly remember something. That’s right—Otonashi doesn’t like violence. She was able to do what she did just now only because it was justifiably necessary to save me. Otonashi could never strangle Miyazaki and force him to give her the keys.

Miyazaki recovers his balance and lowers his center of gravity for a fight. He lunges for Otonashi and even gets a hand on her, but the moment he makes contact, his body is airborne.

“Wha—?!”

That’s not acting, but a real cry of shock.

It happens so quickly that I don’t even see him before he hits the ground. A picture-perfect shoulder throw.

“Come at me again, and you’ll get more of the same.”

“…Dammit, I never heard you were a judo expert.”

“I suppose you wouldn’t have. I am just a white belt, after all… Though I have taken down more than a few black belts in my time,” Otonashi says, wrapping an arm around his neck and pinning him to the floor on his side in a kesa-gatame hold.

“Ngh…”

“I heard something metallic when I threw you.”

Using her free left hand, Otonashi searches the pockets of Miyazaki’s jeans. She quickly finds what she’s looking for and tosses it over to me. The keys to my handcuffs and leg restraints land on the floor with a clatter.

“Kazuki, how many minutes after the hour is it? I need you to be exact.”

“…Thirty-nine.”

“We should still be okay, then. Kazuki, I want you to get your phone and escape through the veranda. I’ll catch up with you in five minutes. In the meantime, I’m going to make sure he can’t cause any more trouble.”

Miyazaki gives me a quick glance. No need to worry; I’m not going to do what she says. She still has him in a headlock, though, so I can’t very well cuff her arms and legs. What do I do? I can’t catch her like this.

I look down.

I spot something, and I get an idea.

It’s the worst but, by the same token, the most meaningful means of betraying her.

Yes, I am now a true enemy of Aya Otonashi. I had a feeling it could come to this once I made my choice. All the same, it feels so despicable.

I don’t pick up the keys on the floor, because I actually had my own set all along. I remove my restraints.

Now that I’m free to move again…I pick up the knife Otonashi tossed aside.

“Aya.”

I turn the blade in my hand toward Otonashi. I’m sure she’ll see right away that I lack the courage to actually stab her. That’s fine. My betrayal will still be a success even if she does.

“Let go of Miyazaki and stay still.”

Otonashi notices the weapon pointed at her.

And then…

“Huh…?”

The one voicing surprise isn’t Otonashi, but me.

All I did was aim the knife at her, but her eyes have gone wide, and her breath has caught in her throat. I have never seen her look so completely vulnerable. Seeing his chance, Miyazaki wriggles free of her hold on him. Even so, Otonashi herself sits rigid and motionless.

With the blade still leveled at her, I approach where she’s sitting frozen in shock and stoop down to put the handcuffs on her wrists. She doesn’t resist and speaks only once both her hands are trapped.

“What… What are you doing, Kazuki?” She’s struggling to get the words out. “What is this…? I… I don’t understand. Why are you pointing that knife at me…?”

“Uh, probably because he’s betrayed you?” Miyazaki answers for me.

“Betrayed me…? There’s no need for him to do that. If it weren’t for me, Kazuki would have no hope of resisting the Week in the Mud. He’d never turn on me, not unless you wore him down until he gave up. But that’s not possible. There’s no way he would betray me…”

“Well, you said it yourself. We did wear Hoshino down, and he gave up.”

“Gave…up?”

My eyes dart away from Otonashi’s imploring gaze.

“Pfft.”

Miyazaki can’t contain his laughter any longer.

“Heh-heh…ah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! Oh, come on, Otonashi—what the hell is with you? Gimme a break! I had planned to fight you as my toughest opponent; I never would’ve guessed you were fragile enough to completely lose it once little lover boy here went turncoat on you! Talk about a letdown!”

“Kazuki.” Otonashi doesn’t spare a glance for Miyazaki and his laughter. Her eyes have remained on me the entire time. “Is this true? Did they really break you like he says?”

“……Yeah.” I choke the word out.

When she hears my response, she lowers her head until I can no longer see her face and begins trembling.

“Whoa, hold on a sec. Now you’re shaking? Don’t tell me you’re gonna start bawling your eyes out? Hey now, you can’t be serious! Holy shit, this is hilarious!!” Miyazaki keeps howling with laughter at the unexpected success of his plan. “By the way, Otonashi. I’ll let you in on a little something. That is definitely ‘Kazuki Hoshino’ you’re looking at, not ‘Yuhei Ishihara.’ He’s the one who stabbed you in the back and slapped those cuffs on you, nobody else!!”

“……I know that.”

Her head remains lowered as she replies.

“What?”

“I’m well aware this is ‘Kazuki Hoshino’ and not anybody else.”

Otonashi climbs to her feet without raising her head. I can’t see her face. She stumbles in my direction. Though I’m still holding the knife out before me, her odd behavior causes me to step back. I bump against the wall.

Without looking up, she slams her cuffed hands against the wall above my head with a loud thud.

“Kazuki, did you really allow someone like him to take you down?” Her voice is low and monotone. My shoulders slump, and I fearfully turn my eyes back toward Otonashi.

She slowly raises her eyes to meet mine.

I see now… She wasn’t trembling with fear; she was trembling with anger.

“You, the only person to defeat me since I became a Box, lost to a couple of softheaded weaklings like them?! Are you trying to mock me…?! You wanna tell me those pathetic wimps are better than me…?!”

Earlier, she had been keeping the tone of her voice in check, but now it’s growing louder and louder.

“How dare you! How dare you! Don’t waste my time with this crap! There’s no way your faith could be broken by scum like them…!!”

She slams her cuffed hands again. I squeeze my eyes shut on reflex. Another blow sounds against the wall. I hear a loud noise above my head. I slowly open my eyes again and see her beet-red face nose to nose with mine, her teeth grinding in frustration.

“H-hey, what’s gotten into you, Otonashi? Did the shock of Hoshino’s betrayal send you off the deep end or something?”

“You need to shut up,” Otonashi snaps, never taking her eyes off me. “…I knew something was off after that phone call. But I was sure you wouldn’t go along with whatever demands they made. That’s why I accepted Miyazaki’s words at face value. But then I come here and find you like this… Damn it! You have to be kidding!”

Otonashi looks down at the kitchen knife in my hand as if she’s just noticing it for the first time. Her face warps in disbelief, and she begins to ridicule me even harder.

“…And what do you think you’re doing with that knife? You going to stab me if I don’t do what you say? Ha-ha, that’s rich. Fine, stab me if you want. I’m wide-open. Do it, c’mon, c’mon, c’mon. As if you actually could!”

“Ngh…” I find myself lowering my arm.

“Tell me. How did this happen? …Tell me!”

I lower my gaze, gritting my teeth at my miserable state, and I tell her. “They took my sister, Roo, hostage. I had no choice but to do what they said.”

“And that’s all it took.”

“That’s all?! Roo is my only—!”

“You’re the guy who was prepared to let someone he loved become roadkill.”

I swallow nervously.

“Hold up a minute, Otonashi,” Miyazaki interjects.

She reluctantly turns back toward him. “What? Surely you can see I’m busy here.”

“Well, it’s just that I’d think you probably wouldn’t want to believe this is ‘Kazuki Hoshino’ after he did this to you. Why aren’t you questioning your belief that this is really him?”

True, that is one point Miyazaki can’t afford to ignore. After all, his main goal is make it so she can’t tell us apart.

“You say some pretty stupid things, you know that? Kazuki will always be Kazuki, no two ways about it. Nothing can change that fact.”

“But how can you tell which is which?! …I see—you were already primed to believe it. You assumed that the voice crying for help on the phone belonged to ‘Kazuki Hoshino.’ The reason you aren’t questioning things now is that you’ve been under that assumption the entire time.”

“I knew that ‘Yuhei Ishihara’ was the one on the phone.”

Miyazaki scowls. “Quit lying. So, what, you’re saying you could tell it was a recording?”

“No, I’m not.”

“Okay then, how did you know it wasn’t ‘Kazuki Hoshino’?!”

“How could I not know?” she retorts, as if this were the most obvious thing in the world.

“Kazuki wouldn’t use the name ‘Aya’ if he were truly asking for help in a situation like that.”

“……Oh.”

I remember something.

When Daiya straddled me and punched me in the face in the music room, when I felt so completely alone, I called her by another name without meaning to.

Yeah, that’s right. I wouldn’t say that. I wouldn’t call for “Aya” if I sincerely needed Otonashi’s help. That was the name of my adversary, after all.

“…So then why did you still come to help him?”

“If the situation had been real, then helping ‘Yuhei Ishihara’ would have been same as helping Kazuki.”

“…Stop right there. Does that mean you believe the Kazuki Hoshino in front of you is ‘Yuhei Ishihara’?”

“Yeah, I actually did. But all it took was one look to know he was actually ‘Kazuki Hoshino.’”

“…Oh, come on, now that’s a lie. I know for a fact that you couldn’t tell them apart up until now.”

“That was only because I couldn’t pinpoint the timing of when they traded places. I can distinguish them in about three seconds by the way they use their facial muscles. I’m now confident I can recognize the real Kazuki when I see him.”

She can tell that I’m me? Even though no one else caught on?

“…That’s impossible! Don’t try to feed me that crap!”

“True, if it were anyone but Kazuki, I might not be able to differentiate so well. But with him, it’s entirely possible.”

“Why?!”

The next words out of her mouth explain it all.

“Because I’ve spent more time with Kazuki than anyone else in the world.”

I heard those words so many times in that other realm.

“Aaahhh…”

A sound escapes my lips, and I place a hand on Otonashi’s shoulder. She turns back to me with a disappointed expression.

Miyazaki’s brows furrow as he takes this in. “What is it, Hoshino? Don’t tell me those trite, unsubstantiated comments are enough to make you consider removing her handcuffs. You know what will happen to your sister if you do that, don’t you?”

I don’t know why, but his threat no longer seems to affect me.

“Hey, Otonashi.” Once I say what comes next, there’s no turning back. Though I seem hesitant, I’m already set on what I’m about to do. “Let me touch your Box.”

The look of disappointment on her features transforms into something else.

“You don’t need to ask permission. Even if I wanted to resist, I’m in handcuffs.”

She says this despite the fact that she has shown almost no fear toward this knife and was slamming her hands against the wall earlier.

Otonashi smiles, with the barest hint of redness on her cheeks.

“…I’m not gonna stop you.”

She curtly grants me permission, and with a small nod, I press the palm of my hand flat against her chest.

“……Oh.”

I’m sinking to the bottom of the ocean. This is the second time I’ve been here. It’s still the same—everyone seems so happy amid the falsehoods bringing them joy. And among them, someone is crying. She knows all about these pleasant lies, and she can’t accept them. I’ve heard these sobs before.

It hurts.

There’s no oxygen, so I can’t be down here for long. I can’t stay here forever.

Is that why it hurts?

Or is it the knowledge that I can’t do anything to ease her suffering that pains me?

Is it because I know I can’t do anything about her profound loneliness?

Tears are running down my cheeks, much like the ones I cried in another Box once before.

“…I’m so sorry.”

I’ve remembered everything that made her who she is.

How could I have assumed she was only using me as bait to catch O? Why did I believe she cared nothing for my life? Why did these ideas enter my mind when I knew this girl, who always puts herself last, would never do such a thing?

She had had faith that I could face the Week in the Mud on my own and thus stopped contacting me after I rejected her help. Yet I had failed to give her the same benefit of the doubt and even betrayed her.

“I’m sorry,” I say again.

She looks away uncomfortably. “…No, I don’t think I gave this enough thought, either. I…might have placed my own selfish expectations upon you without considering how you’ve forgotten the events of the Rejecting Classroom… So, um, my apologies for only just figuring it out.” I shake my head. She watches me out of the corner of her eyes. “I’ll assume you really do understand and tell you something that needs to be said. Kazuki, your life will never return to the way you once knew. But…”

Otonashi returns her gaze to me, and her lips soften into a little smile.

“…we can still take it back.”

Oh…

Hearing those words, I know I will never lose my place again.

I am me.

I…am Kazuki Hoshino.

I pull the keys out of my pocket and insert them in the keyholes on her handcuffs.

“…What the hell are you doing, Hoshino?! Are you planning to throw away your sister’s life just to get in good with your girlfriend?! You have to be the biggest piece of—”

“You’re wrong. I did make a decision, but I’m not throwing away my sister’s life.”

“Then what are you doing? You know Ruka Hoshino is as good as dead if you don’t play along.”

“You won’t kill her.”

“And why is that?!”

“Simple.” What comes next isn’t a bluff but a statement of my intention. “I won’t let you. That’s why.”

I don’t have to listen to them anymore. There’s no need to be restricted to the choices they present to me. Now that I have Otonashi on my side, there’s no way I can lose. I’ve decided to entrust my everything to her.

I turn the key in the handcuffs. The shackles come undone and fall to the floor. I take her free hands in mine. She looks at me, and I look at her.

“Please help me…”

I will never get it wrong again. There’s only one name I can call her.

“…Maria.”

For a moment, for one single moment…

…Maria’s face lights up like any other teenage girl’s, as if she can’t help herself.

“I have a few conditions.” And her face regains its usual sternness. “Maybe this doesn’t need to be said again. I have faith that you will keep this promise on your own, even if I don’t say it out loud. But I’m feeling rather uneasy, and this has been painful for me. That’s why I ask that you just let me say it.”

I nod slightly, though I’m not sure what this is leading up to.

“I will never let you out of my sight again. So please…” Maria lowers her eyes for a second, then focuses on me and states her terms point-blank. “…don’t lose sight of me, either.”

Yeah… It all makes sense now.

I never noticed it until this very moment.

I wasn’t the only one in pain when my internal struggles drove everyone away from me. Maria was alone and suffering, too.

I mean, ever since the Rejecting Classroom appeared, Maria has always been “Aya Otonashi.”She tried to be the Box. The real her, the real “Maria Otonashi,” wasn’t there.

“I’m Aya Otonashi. Pleased to meet you.”

“I’m not strong.”

I remember the tiny bit of weakness she voiced back then. That’s right—the only one who can call her “Maria” is me, the one who knows about that very first transfer.

If I forget, then “Maria Otonashi” will have vanished from the memories of everyone, perhaps even her own self, and be truly lost.

“Enough of this crap.”

I release Maria’s hand at the voice.

“How stupid are you guys? You can make all the pretty little vows you want, but that doesn’t do a damn thing to change the situation. Kazuki Hoshino is going to lose control of his body, and his sister, Ruka, will be killed. Do you really think waltzing off into your fantasy world for two is gonna fix any of that?”

Miyazaki surveys us with scorn.

“Try as you might, you don’t have a chance in hell of winning here. ‘Yuhei Ishihara’ is dead, after all. You can’t track down the owner of a corpse. And of course, that means you can’t destroy the Box, either. So how can you get out of this? Go ahead, tell me!”

He’s…exactly right.

The owner, Miyazaki’s younger brother, doesn’t exist. Our pledge to work together won’t change the truth.

“……I already know the true identity of ‘Yuhei Ishihara.’”

Miyazaki’s eyes go wide for a moment at Maria’s claim, but his mouth twists into a sneer once he sees the melancholy on her face.

“So? Did you find the little idiot?”

“…No. I spent all day looking, but my searching turned up nothing.”

“Heh-heh, of course it did. You’re not going to have much luck sniffing out someone who’s dead!” Miyazaki dismisses her triumphantly.

What is this feeling, this feeling that something is terribly wrong? Why…?

“See? I told you—it’s too late. It’s no longer possible for me to protect the person I tried so hard to keep safe.”

So Miyazaki said. He claimed that the only way to protect himself was to ensure the Week in the Mud was successful, because the younger brother he cherished so much was dead.

I see it now.

“……You’re lying, aren’t you?” I suggest quietly, and Miyazaki spins toward me. “You said he died, but that’s just something you made up. It’s so obvious once I think about it. You’d never do any of these things or let your brother do them, either.”

“……Quit running your mouth, Hoshino. Don’t try to twist things to suit your view.”

“He was important to you, right?”

Miyazaki frowns at my abrupt query, but he responds nonetheless. “Yeah.”

“Then there’s no way you should be able to laugh when you talk about his death.”

It’s not like a lone unnatural action like that is enough to prove he’s lying. If Miyazaki manages to stay calm and dance around the question, he could manage to fool me again. However…

“Which means he isn’t really dead, is he?”

However, Miyazaki has no answer for me. His head droops.

“Despair born of a lie turns to hope once the truth is revealed,” I say. It’s the exact same thing he once told me. As he looks back up, I add, “You were right.”

Miyazaki’s eyes bulge wide, and his mouth drops open. Silently, I watch him as his hands curl into fists, his teeth grind, and he fixes me with a look of pure hatred.

“……Damn you…”

But in the end, all he does is lower his eyes again.

He begins stumbling forward. He slams his hands on the desk and picks up his phone. After pressing a few buttons, he puts the phone to his ear and listens to something.

“I didn’t make it in time,” he mumbles, as if to himself. “I didn’t make it in time! I was in the bath when the call came. By the time I noticed this message, everything was already over.”

Miyazaki must be listening to that message now.

“I should’ve been able to help before things came to this. None of this would’ve happened if I had picked up on the suffering of someone other than myself. But I was consumed by my own misery, and my inability to see anything or anyone else prevented me from noticing my own family’s cry for help. And this is the result.”

As he speaks, he opens the top drawer of the desk.

“I know it’s too late. I know there’s no more time for me to do anything. But the cries for help aren’t gone. I don’t want to hear them, not anymore.”

He reaches into the drawer.

“I will put an end to those tears, and I’ll commit whatever crime and bear whatever punishment it takes. I mean it! If you’ve got a problem with that, go ahead and say it!!”

“Of course we do,” Maria replies. “You’ve stopped thinking. You aren’t making a choice. You’re just plugging your ears because the crying annoys you. You’re satisfied with throwing yourself into a pointless struggle with us.” Maria closes her eyes for a moment, but her message rings out loud and clear. “None of this will erase the past, though.”

“……Yeah, well, so what?” Miyazaki mutters, hanging his head. “You plan to make it so those bodies never happened? It’s impossible. There’s no bright future ahead for us no matter how much we struggle. I’m just trying to grant a little fool’s wish, that’s all. So…”

He removes his hand from the drawer.

“…stay quiet and let me take you prisoner!!”

Miyazaki is holding a stun gun and lunges for Maria.

“Maria!!”

She quickly grabs his outstretched right arm by the wrist and twists it. Miyazaki drops his weapon with a small yelp.

“Guh—!”

I pick up the stun gun. Maria may be able to restrain him, but she can’t get any more violent than that. Now it’s my turn.

I meet Miyazaki’s heated glare without flinching. I won’t run away. If he’s going to act with hostility toward us, I have to reply in kind.

“Sorry.”

I switch it on and press it against Miyazaki’s neck. He lets out a scream, then sags to the ground limply.

“…Kazuki, we need to leave.”

“Yeah.” But as I turn to go, I realize my right leg is caught on something. “…!”

Panicked, I spin back to look. Miyazaki somehow grabbed hold of my ankle as he collapsed. His grip is so strong that I can’t shake him off, even when I try.

He lifts his head weakly as he lies there.

“……I’m sorry.”

What is he saying?

“I’m sorry I didn’t make it in time. I’m sorry I didn’t get there soon enough to save you. I’ll become stronger… I’ll be stronger for you… So please, please, just give me another chance…!”

No, wait.

His desperate entreaty isn’t directed at me. Biting my lip, I lift my right leg, and Miyazaki’s hand falls away easily.

I press the stun gun to the middle of his back.

“……There are no more chances.” Because I’m about to burn your wish to the ground.

I flip the switch. Miyazaki’s head quietly drops to the ground, and he is motionless.

……I’m sorry.

I’m sure that apology was meant for “him.” Although, maybe a portion of it was directed toward “me,” too… I can’t help but wonder.

I step over Miyazaki and pick up his cell phone.

“What’re you doing, Kazuki?”

I play the voice mail he was listening to.

“……H-hel— Help me…… Help me, Ryu……!”

And that’s how I learn the true identity of “Yuhei Ishihara.”

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