Editing City Series:Volume7 Layer 8 (section)

===Record 113: I Want to Forget Even if That Means Losing It===

'''02/17/1999

'''18:15

I entered the used bookstore. It was a small space only about 10m across.

Was this where it all ended, or where it would all begin?

No, those were the same thing. I knew this wouldn’t continue.

I searched for Senpai among the bookcases that came up to my shoulders.

There he was. He was on the next row over, putting one bookcase in between. He was reading a book. I couldn’t see his face with the paperback in the way.

I stood directly in front of him with the bookcase between us. And…

“How about we step outside and go for a walk?”

“Could you wait a moment? I am nearly done.”

He immediately responded. I let out a single breath and tried to tell myself that all my fears had been misplaced.

But then I noticed he had already flipped to the last page of the book.

''Oh,'' I realized before asking a question.

“Why? Aren’t some Kantou or Kansai corporations using Kansai students to start a largescale riot?”

“I cannot answer that. Only I need to know the truth. Not even she knows everything that happened on the battlefield since she escaped before it was complete. Do you understand now?”

“But you cut down all of the evidence there, didn’t you?”

“Other than myself.”

“Does it worry you that you’re still here?”

He did not answer and searched for something to say instead.

“The east and west’s actions this time were meant to split Japan into two halves once more.”

“And all you did was try to stop them!”

“All I did? No. I sucked her blood. That is what matters most, is it not? That is something only I could do to her.”

It was true I couldn’t do it. And he kept talking.

“Someone knows the full story of what happened. His presence means there is a way to investigate what happened. Do you see what I mean?”

“No, I don’t see.”

“I must go missing just like the others did. It is a simple matter. Once that happens, this conflict will have no winner and no loser.”

“Then flee the country and go into hiding overseas!”

He lowered the book when I said that.

I saw his usual face there. His mouth looked a little twisted, so his nonhuman fangs were probably fully grown. He opened those lips.

“If you do not kill me, she will become my kind in a few days’ time.”

“If that’s what she wants, it isn’t our place to stop it.”

“But she chose to kill me just as I instructed her to.”

“I don’t believe that. It’s not fair to act like what you wanted was actually what we wanted. How can you be so sure?”

“So that you can claim what you have been avoiding by resigning yourself to 2nd place.” He smiled a little and kept smiling as he continued. “If you do not stop me, it all falls apart. I am worried about myself. Worried that I will suck up all the blood – my own included – and cut everything down.”

“Are you worried about her too? You said before you didn’t want to, but are you now?”

“Yes, I am worried about her too. Worried that I would cut down anyone who looks after her the way you do.”

I gasped and looked up to find him looking me in the eye.

“Once, when I was speaking to the only person who can stop me, I believe I said that the most important worries are best kept a secret.”

“But…”

He opened his mouth with his smile intact.

“I can say now that I am worried about him. Worried that I will cut him down if he chooses to live a life without regret.”

As soon as the words were out of his mouth, Senpai drew his sword.

'''Author Comment:

The used bookstore area in Kanda is pretty well known, but as someone who went to Akihabara once a week since elementary school, I remember never realizing how famous it is until someone mentioned it in high school.

Although one of my friends said they even had “bookcases lined up in the sewers” there, which didn’t match what I had seen. The fiction sounded a lot more interesting.

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