The Empty Box and Zeroth Maria
Book 3: Chapter 9

Day 2 <C> Private Meeting with Iroha Shindo – Kazuki Hoshino’s Room

“Wh-why…?”

The word escapes my mouth upon my return from Maria’s room.

I stare at the monitor dumbfounded.

A TARGET HAS BEEN SELECTED FOR MURDER.

That, I’m okay with. I predicted that whoever could use Murder would put the command into effect. But the person they targeted was not who I expected.

WILL YOU BURN IROHA SHINDO TO DEATH WITH MAGIC?

Under this message is a portrait of the president’s face, with the text KILL? over her eyes. If I press this picture, she will be burned to death.

Why has she been targeted for Murder and not Daiya…?

I struggle to get my thoughts under control. The ones who can target someone for Murder are the King or the Double. Neither Maria nor I have those roles. And it’s not like the president is going to Murder herself. Which narrows it down to Daiya or Kamiuchi.

…But Kamiuchi is totally dead set on Daiya being the Revolutionary. I can’t see why he would choose the president.

So is it Daiya…? No, didn’t the president say Daiya isn’t the King or the Double?

Hold on a second.

Then who the hell is the Revolutionary…?

“Hey, I’m here.”

“Eep!”

It’s enough to make me jump.

“Hmm? Aren’t you overreacting a bit? You should’ve known I was coming.” The president waves at me from in front of the door with an astonished look on her face.

“S-sorry, President.”

“…I’m not going to force you, but would you mind not calling me ‘President’ anymore? It feels like you’re ignoring who I am as an individual, and it kinda bugs me.”

“…So, ‘Miss Shindo’…?”

“I prefer Iroha.”

“…Miss Iroha.”

“You can drop the ‘Miss,’ too… But whatever. I’m going to sit here.”

Though she says she isn’t going to force me, the president—Iroha—makes her wishes crystal clear, then sits on the table like Daiya did yesterday.

“Um…Iroha, why did you pick to meet with me?”

The president answers my question with a smile.

“To beg for my life.”

“……Huh?”

“Don’t you get it? If I don’t kill Daiya Oomine during <C> today, then I’m pretty much guaranteed to get targeted for Assassinate. In other words, my life is in your hands. Please, oh please save me, Kazuki!”

“…Why are you telling me this…?”

“I mean, you’re the Sorcerer, aren’t you?”

My shock threatens to show itself, so I do my best to fight it down. This is exactly the same trick Daiya pulled on me. Screwing up the same way twice would just be pathetic.

“Darn, he didn’t fall for it. You’re more on guard than I thought. But anyway, if we don’t get Oomine with Murder today, I’m a goner. Why me?!”

“…Um, are you in a position to use Murder?”

“No.” Iroha’s denial is simple.

“Even if I was the Sorcerer, I wouldn’t be able to help you on my own. I can’t choose a target for Murder, after all.”

“I wonder. Do you really think Kamiuchi and Otonashi wouldn’t Murder Daiya Oomine after how our talk went in the commons? He was digging his own grave back there. Don’t you think you might be able to affect the outcome if you do something?”

I know Maria at the very least would never choose someone to kill, and the actual target is Iroha herself.

I can’t say any of that, though, so I keep my mouth shut.

“The reason why I chose you specifically for a Private Meeting was because, as far as I can tell, you’re the one most likely to let Oomine off the hook. It seems like you two knew each other before this, and even if not, well, you’re a nice guy.”

These words just strike me as sarcasm.

“I’m going to be in trouble if you spare him. So I’ve come here to give you a bit of encouragement.”

Encouragement to kill Daiya…?

“……But you said it yourself, didn’t you? If you kill someone, your life will fall apart.”

“Yeah, that’s true. Suggesting that you murder someone will undoubtedly throw the rest of my life into shambles. I’ll be perfectly honest, with as little imagination as I have, it’s hard for me to tell just how much suffering it’ll bring me. Or maybe I’m just trying to avoid thinking about it. After all—”

Iroha is smiling, but there is a strong gleam in her eye as she finishes.

“—even that is better than dying, no doubt about it.”

It finally dawns on me as I see the total resolve and complete lack of hesitation in her eyes.

I see just how dangerous Iroha is.

It isn’t just her inborn abilities that makes her superhuman; it’s her mental nature. Iroha may be similar to Maria in the way she can plunge headlong toward her goals without getting sidetracked. But unlike Maria, who is able to change her goals because of how she prioritizes others—more than anyone else I know—Iroha prioritizes her own objectives over everything else, and under no circumstances will she change them. And for this reason, from time to time, she’ll run right over others. Like a train crushing a pebble on the tracks, she does it naturally, without even noticing.

Right now, her goal happens to be “staying alive.”

A chill runs up my spine as I remember how I first met her.

“……Hey,” I begin.

Iroha said she wanted me to press the button to kill Daiya. What would happen, though, if I shook my head to her request? What would she do, since she believes she’s going to be killed if I don’t comply?

“You don’t happen to have your knife on you, do you?”

Iroha’s eyes go wide. “Well, well.” She looks at me with deep interest, then says, “How did you know?”

Iroha shoves her hand in her skirt, casually pulls out a knife, and then hurls it into the wall by the door.

“I bet you spotted it trying to get a look at my panties. What a perv.”

“……”

“Ha-ha, I’m just joking… Well, I guess carrying around a concealed knife doesn’t really qualify as a joke. Aw man… Will you give me a chance to explain myself? I wasn’t carrying it because of this Private Meeting with you. I’ve kept it on me any time I’m not in my own room. That’s the truth.”

“But you would use the knife to threaten me if I said I wouldn’t Murder Daiya, right?”

“I would. But that’s normal, isn’t it?”

I shake my head at her offhand response. That’s far from normal.

“Really? Well, whatever. Now I can’t threaten you, though.”

“Um, that sack…”

“Huh?”

“The sack on the table has my knife in it, so I need you to hand it to me.”

Iroha’s eyes go wide for a moment, and then she gives a rueful grin. She sweeps up the whole sack and tosses it over to me.

Taking the sack, I pull out the knife and throw it toward the door just as Iroha did.

“…And did you also sit on the table because you knew my knife would be in here?”

“Ah-ha-ha, I didn’t think it through that much, no. More importantly, can I ask you something?”

“Ask me what?”

Iroha looks me dead in the eyes as she says:

“Whether you’re going to help kill Daiya Oomine, that’s what.”

She speaks lightly, with a kind smile on her face.

“……Um…”

“What?”

“I’m not killing anybody. Not Daiya, and not anybody else.”

After I reply, Iroha sits there watching me with a smile on her face, not saying anything. I can’t help but break eye contact and look down in the face of her silent entreaty.

“You don’t get it. This is what I’m asking you.”

Iroha pauses for a moment, then continues:

“I’m asking whether you’re going to kill Daiya Oomine or kill me.”

I raise my head and look at Iroha. She regards me with the kind of expression you’d give a disobedient child.

“Don’t make the mistake of thinking you can escape your sins if you don’t press the button. If you do, you’ll definitely be killing Oomine. But even if you don’t, you’ll be killing me.”

“B-but that’s—”

“You’re free to think what you want, but that’s how I see things. If I get Assassinated, it’ll be because you let me die, in my view.”

“Ugh…”

I understand that. Once I’m part of this game of murder, there’s no longer any way to keep my hands entirely clean.

“…I understand what you’re trying to say. But I can’t Murder Daiya during today’s <C>… I can’t explain why, though.”

“Are you saying you’re a Class that has nothing to do with Murder? …Or that Oomine really hasn’t been chosen as the target?” she asks with an angry scowl.

Of course, I can’t answer either question.

“Judging by your face, I’d say it’s the latter! Hey! That means I’m definitely gonna die!”

As I remain silent in the face of her misplaced excitement, Iroha sighs and collapses faceup on the table.

She covers her eyes with her arm as if exhausted.

“…Hey, Hoshino.”

Then, in a quiet voice, she asks a question on a completely different topic:

“Yuri was cute, wasn’t she?”

Unsure of why Iroha is asking this suddenly, I stay quiet and look at her.

“Before I met her, I had never been jealous of anyone. Generally, I thought I could do anything. But even being the way I was, the first time I respected, envied—and yeah, probably felt jealousy toward someone…was Yuri.”

Jealousy.

I remember Maria’s comment that being charming can elicit negative emotions at times, too.

“I haven’t told anyone this because I really hate letting others see my weak side, but in my entire time in high school, I’ve only liked one boy. We had always gotten along well… But I’m not really smart when it comes to love, see, so I was content to just be friends with him.”

Iroha shows me a slightly bitter smile as she speaks.

“That is, until he and Yuri started dating.”

I can’t read the emotion in her expression.

“They were both friends of mine, so they would both come to me for advice about their relationship. So I even knew how things were progressing—if they held hands, if they kissed, things like that. Hearing all of it made me think—I really wished the whole thing would fall apart.”

“……”

“And then, as if my prayers were answered, they broke up after three months. I was so stupid. Yuri and him splitting up didn’t mean something good was in store for me. He and I were never going to start a relationship, and it would just alienate me from Yuri instead… So why had I wished for something so meaningless? Basically, all I had wished for was the two of them to be unhappy. Two people who supposedly meant a lot to me. It was horrible of me, and that’s putting it mildly.”

Iroha eventually looks at me.

“Did you think that was a boring, run-of-the-mill story?”

I shake my head vigorously.

“Well, what it means is that even I worry about such trite things sometimes… Some ‘superhuman’ I am.”

Iroha shifts her gaze up toward the light bulb hanging from the ceiling as she continues:

“…I forgot about all those childish concerns. I really did. All I needed to know was that I loved Yuri.”

A self-deprecating smile appears on her face.

“But when Yuri died, I remembered all of it. Like, I couldn’t get it out of my head. This pointless memory won’t leave my mind. Even though Yuri, who I loved so much, is dead, that stupid stuff is all I can think about.”

Iroha slowly turns her head in my direction and looks at me.

“So, Hoshino, what do you think?” Gently, softly, she asks, “Do you think I—actually liked Yuri?”

There’s nothing I can say about that.

Iroha blankly regards me for a moment as I remain silent. But watching me sit quietly without saying a word, she unexpectedly starts to smile.

“Heh-heh… So? You like my plan?”

“…Huh?”

“Learning about my human side makes you wanna help me out, right?” she says, then starts cackling.

But I understand. She’s trying to play it off as some joke or funny story, but I have no doubt that the things she told me were how she really felt. She doesn’t have anyone she can show her vulnerabilities to. I’m sure that applies not just to others but also to herself. That’s why she doesn’t know her own heart.

She was able to express her weakness because she truly feels death bearing down on her.

I’ve closed my mouth and lowered my eyes, and Iroha stops smiling.

And then, in a humorous tone, she says:

“I’ve put a curse on you.”

Her expression is full of life.

“Now once I die, you’re going to remember our talk forever.”

Her plan…is a success.

Even if she does turn out to be the mastermind, I still can’t find it in me to wish her dead.

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