-------------------------------------------------
Fragments of Sky Silver Drama CD 2 - "Heroes"
-------------------------------------------------
Story 2: It’s just like “ .“
-------------------------------------------------
It was just on a whim.
Surprisingly, I came to a place away from my hunting grounds.
If it’s a sense of my life beforehand, then it’s totally in the category of nearby places, but……...
I――――I who am known as Servant Assassin just utter a little sigh.
At my window-side seat, of a nation-wide family restaurant chain that’s a bit separated from Ikebukuro station.
While pretending to be an ordinary human, an ordinary foreigner, an ordinary customer, in a state where I’ve turned into the form of a girl who wore the latest conspicuous clothes……
It’s evening on the 6th day of the Holy Grail War.
How did I get to be in a place like this, I wonder?
I search my memories.
First, I left the north entrance of Ikebukuro Station like always, towards the commercial district in Peace Street and as I passed by the front of the Chinatown entrance, there was a sweet aroma wafting in the air.
From the large number of commuter passengers who were excitedly rushing around Ikebukuro Station using it as their terminal station, to the quiet state of the local citizenry who lived in the area towards the station’s north entrance, I walk towards it, while taking in the gradually changing natures of the people going around the area.
Walking…...
Before I knew it, I was leaving main street by passing through the commercial district, the people who were coming and going via walking had firmly decreased, and it seemed like the few drunks there had become like my own prey.
In front of my eyes, this family restaurant, grandly towered over me like a citadel or a military fortress that’s long been in serviced.
Assassin: “……………..”
I breathe out another sigh.
My face reflected in the very huge glass windows which were inserted in place of a wall, appears truly depressed, and it seems like I have a really gloomy air coiled around me. '
Although I’d be happy to hear it, if someone were to say to me that I was adorned and tinged with sorrow, if they said it to me frankly then it’d be depressing.
Yes, there were a few interesting phrases within this Far Eastern language.
How tedious.
I feel depressed.
Since the later appears to vaguely resemble a similar sounding expression which indicates the death of a holy person in the Oriental world, it may mean that in the Far East, a woman like myself might be an outrageously vicious existence.
Could I be thinking on this too much?
To that extent.
Every night, every night.
There could be lots of males calling out to this dark woman, me――――I vaguely think as such, and as I slowly spin my thoughts while placing the straw stretching from the glass with bitter black juice and water in it to my mouth, it was at moment when……...
Waitress: “Huh? No way, why if it isn’t Kitano!? What are ya doing in a place like this?
What’s going on?
In the back seat, the waitress girl is making a buzz about something.
She’s talking about something with a customer.
Although, it appears she called out their name.
I failed to hear it.
Kitano: “W, well that’s, ah how do I say it, I was on a walk with my friend? Y, yeah that’s it, you see, I was on a walk.”
Waitress: “Ahaha, what’s with that? No way, don’t tell me that you intentionally came all the way here from Setagaya to Ikebukuro by walking, did ya?”
The one talking with the waitress, was a boy who was likely the same age as the girl.
A boy.
The “walk” part was definitely a lie.
He must be rather terrible at lying.
In that kind of manner, he wouldn’t survive in a world of permanent battlefields like the one I once lived in.
No.
That’s fine.
“That’s fine with me,” I mutter internally to myself.
Whether it’s in the past or now, it won’t change.
The youth who live honestly like this must be protected.
Those who become warriors in every country and era, must fight to defend them.
That’s no different even for an assassin.
Waitress: “So, who’s the friend? Sasaki?”
Kitano: “Umm.”
Waitress: “Ahh I know. It was a girl, isn’t it!?”
Kitano: “Hell no. It’s a guy, definitely a guy! That is, I mean he kinda goes to a different school, hey. Or rather wait, this is the first time I’ve heard of you working part-time at a family restaurant. Does that mean Nishimura, that you’ve been keeping quiet about working at school so that you could expressly come out to Ikebukuro?”
Nishimura: “Yeah……”
I can see by the waitress girl’s stiffening that she was uttering a small groan.
Since all the events were happening behind me, I couldn’t read their expressions, however judging from their vocal tones which were acting like it was the end of the world, then they were probably making identical faces to them.
What a really extreme exaggeration.
It’s not as if they’ve degenerated into slaves who live just to die.
But, it’s true.
Their exchange which was like the lovely chirping of songbirds, was for sure a thing of the world where people live.
Nishimura: “I kinda got a lot of stuff going on right now. A lot.”
Kitano: “Yeah, yeah.”
Nishimura: “I got proper permission from the school. I’m not lying. But I’ll say it to you once just in case, please keep it a secret from the school and especially especially please don’t tell the guidance teacher!”
Kitano: “I won’t tell. I won’t tell!”
Nishimura: “Really?”
Kitano: “Well, I don’t have a reason to make trouble for you.”
Nishimura: “I see. ……Ahahha, I thought this before but you’re a really nice guy, Kitano!”
I sip the ice-coffee through my straw.
Bitter.
I guess this is probably one kind of river.
It’s strange.
Even though Tokyo is a capital at the very ends of the Far East, it’s selling these drinks which ought to have been invented in Persia like it was natural. Before I think on the development of the distribution business throughout time, I obviously, still think it’s strange.
Even though I can’t feel even a bit of a trace of sand here.
There are drinks which have spread here from my birthplace after my death, where silly youths twitter about, the world of people.
It’s terribly distant to me.
Though there was a conversation echoing right behind me, it feels like I’m peeking into the story of a far-off land.
Kitano: “Oh yeah, that’s right. Have you heard about this strange rumour?”
Nishimura: “What’re you talking about so suddenly?”
Kitano: “You know, Death Mary of Ikebukuro. I heard about it on the radio.”
Nishimura: “Oh Ohh. That Miss Mary! Yeah, I heard they were talking and making a buzz about it on midnight radio, right? That DJ is good, wait you were listening to that? I know it’s popular among girls, but do boys like you listen to it?”
Kitano: “It was casually being transmitted, when I turned on the radio.”
Nishimura: “Hehhh.”
Suddenly, I had a hallucination like my name had been called.
Miss Mary.
11 p.m. Death Mary.
But that’s, me.
I knew that the predatory actions that I did while going alone was turning into such a rumour.
But, now as I listen to this, I’m getting a feeling similar to suddenly being stabbed.
Someone unfamiliar to me, was talking about me, with another someone who was unfamiliar to me.
Nishimura: “From what I heard, the corpses somehow had their heads practically melted. Hey, wasn’t there a movie like that?”
Kitano: “Scanners?”
Nishimura: “That’s it! The one where their brains exploded like pow!”
No.
There’s a huge difference.
I don’t melt the victim’s head.
But, since I feel like there are those amongst my successive generations of leaders who operate skills that blow up the target’s head, it might not necessarily even be a chance rumour.
No.
Forget it, it doesn’t fit the theory.
There’s no way that’s true.
But as a precaution, it seems necessary for me to check out that movie.
Nishimura: “She wrote a lot in lipstick, I think?”
Kitano: “That true?”
Nishimura: “Yeah. She wrote something in the mirror like, “Welcome to some kind of world!” I think?”
Kitano: “Heh…….”
Nishimura: “Then, the people who also looked into the mirror died too. Which is why a lot of police officers have died as well.”
Kitano: “So, it’s not a rumour like I thought?”
Nishimura: “No, it’s real, I’ve heard customers talking about it.”
No.
That’s wrong too.
I did nothing to the effect of writing characters in a mirror with over the counter lipstick.
However, it is worth seeing just how much information about said poisonings, is being suppressed by the investigative authorities.
As long as they can’t label a guess on the poison which was endowed on me in my lifetime, no matter what kind of doctor they use, then…….
At the same time, it appears that they can detect my poison, which had now converted into my mysterious body with their modern chemical knowledge although…….no, I shouldn’t let my guard down.
When I search for my prey, I pile caution upon caution even more than I do now.
It’s a pain to kill decoy investigators, after the fact.
I’m careful when I kill.
I take care when I devour souls.
I can’t afford to become a burden or an annoyance, to that person.
Assassin: “Phew…….”
A breath.
It leaked out larger than I thought. As I tried to stare at the townscape of the Ikebukuro area, my form was being reflected in the window. The boy in the seat behind me isn’t being reflected in it.
I can glimpse the back of his head to a degree.
I wonder what kind of face is he making?
Judging by the feel of his voice, his age is definitely roughly in his mid-teens. It’s not much different from me in my lifetime. It’s roughly the same as my appearance.
The menu item I ordered was grapefruit juice. An item that was squeezed from some strange fruit.
I wonder if it’s sweet? Or bitter?
Kitano: “Nishimura, I think you should be careful because you’re close to Ikebukuro station. When work is over, I think you should go straight home without stopping at the game centre etc.”
Nishimura: “Eh, but doesn’t Miss Mary only target guys?”
Kitano: “That’s true, but it’s dangerous at night.”
Nishimura: “Ahaha.”
She smiles and dodges the issue. The boy’s kind words were taken in the form of a fruitless effort. I see, more than the boy, the waitress girl has the air of being a little bit more worldlier than him.
Ahh, I do have that move.
I think I’ll try consciously smiling for tonight’s hunt.
I’m aware that my smiles are bad, and that I usually don’t smile.
Despite having thoroughly studied the art of seduction in my former life, I still can’t get used to the thing called conversation no matter what――――