Baka-Tsuki - User contributions [en]

Kara no Kyoukai:Chapter05 08 05

2009-04-14T12:33:36Z

122.30.21.180:

'''/8 (Spiral Paradox, 5)'''

Even when the date changed to November tenth, Shiki didn't come home. 

Shiki had a bad habit of wandering around without locking the door to her apartment, but these days she properly locks up before she goes out. Because of that, I was unable to even go inside as I waited out there for hours. 

...Come to think of it, Akitaka-san had been waiting outside before as well, but in the end never got to go inside and left after handing me a package to give to Shiki. 

If Shiki goes for a nighttime walk, it's not uncommon for her to stay out until the sun rises. On a normal day this would have been nothing to worry about, but when Shiki left the office yesterday, I had felt something was off. I hung around for a long while because that stuck in my mind, but even when morning arrived, she hadn't come back.

Kara no Kyoukai:Chapter05 010

2009-04-14T12:26:31Z

122.30.21.180:

'''/10''' 

The man was waiting at the end of the black corridor. 

Standing in a way as to block off the one narrow path to the central lobby. 

This man in a black coat rejects even the moonlight, appearing to my eyes as a shadow deeper than the night. 

Without any thoughts this dark-coloured man watches as the white girl dispatches the mansion's residents. 

She must have felt those eyes upon her, because as soon as she killed the last resident charging her Ryougi stopped her feet. 

The girl --- Shiki, only became aware of this man's existence after coming this close. The distance between them is not even five metres. She herself can't believe that she didn't perceive an "enemy" until he got so close to her. 

No --- that wasn't all. She can't feel this man's presence although she is looking right at him, that fact steals away all of the composure she had maintained till then. 

"... This is an amusing turn of events. If all had gone according to plan this meeting should have come after this side was completed." 

Heavy, the mage speaks with a voice that sounds like it could bring a listener to their knees. 

One step, the man comes forward. 

Shiki didn't respond to his trivial and hugely vulnerable advance. 

Although she knows that the man in front of her is an 'enemy', and that he wishes to kill both her and Enjoh, she can't make herself rush in as usual. 

--- This bastard, I can't see him... ! 

Hiding her inner surprise, Shiki coldly looked the man over. 

The death she could see on people if she merely wished to, this man doesn't have any. 

If you felt along a human's body there were lines that put an end to the part they belonged to if they were cut. Whether those were the seams of life, or a weakness in the bonds between the molecules, Shiki didn't know. It just was that she could see them. 

Without exception everyone she had seen until now had possessed those 'lines of death'. 

But, upon this man, those lines were too faint. 

Strongly, harder than she had ever done before, Shiki glares at the man. Her brain may have overheated, because she observed the opponent till a portion of her consciousness went white, only then could she see it. 

... In the centre of his body, she can see a hole in the middle of his chest. 

Going round and round like some child's scribbling the line is drawing a circle at one point. That might explain why it looks like a dot. 

"--- I know you, you bastard." 

Shiki knows this opponent who has such an uncanny lifeforce. 

... She remembers. 

The distant memory that the Shiki of today cannot remember. 

A fragment of the events from that rain occluded night of two years ago. 

The man replies. 

"That's right. In fact it's been two years since we met like this." 

A heavy voice that almost seizes the listener's brain. 

The man leisurely put a hand to the temple of his head. There, on the side of his head, a straight scar that stretches left from his forehead. The deep wound Ryougi Shiki inflicted, two years ago. 

"You are ---." 

"Araya Soren. The one who kills Shiki." 

Without batting an eyelash, the mage makes that declaration. 

The man's coat really did look like that of a mage. 

Hanging down from his shoulders, the black cloth is similar to the cape of a wizard in a fairytale. 

Beneath that cape, one of the man's arms stretched out. Slowly, as if to take hold of Shiki's distant neck. 

Shiki widens the gap between her legs as she takes a stance. Even the knife she had held in one hand until now is clenched in both hands. 

"How vulgar. What meaning is there to this mansion?" 

In order to control her nervousness, and maybe --- the fear she was experiencing for the first time in her life, Shiki shouted. 

The mage replies. As if to indicate that Shiki has the right to ask that. 

"There's no grand reason. However you look at it, it's my personal desire." 

"Then is the repetition your hobby too?" 

Twitch, Shiki glares at the man with eyes full of hostility. 

Repetition --- like that Enjoh family, the paranormal phenomenon where they die at night and come back to life in the morning. 

"It not effective but. 

I have created a world within which a day is completed. However it can't become a Yangyi just because life and death are next to each other. If it isn't the life and death of the same people, it is lacking as a place to sacrifice you. It's incomplete as a spiral where you come to life after you die. If the condition is for them to be incompatible while mixing with each other, there's no solution but to connect the two. Therefore, in the Yin I prepared their corpses, and in the Yang I prepared their daily lives." 

"Ha, then this side is the corpse storage, and that side is their daily life? You are sure taking a lot of care with useless things, there's no meaning to something like that." 

"--- I believe I already said that there was meaning. 

And then the man spotted the youth standing like a block of wood behind Shiki. 

Enjoh Tomoe is still frozen after hearing the name Araya Soren. 

"Yes, nothing like a reason exists. Even from the beginning it's impossible for a human to exist with two attributes at once. The dead and the living cannot exist together. In this paradoxical world there is no meaning that an individual can grasp." 

The mage returns his gaze from the boy to the girl. 

As if he was saying that someone like Enjoh Tomoe had no meaning. 

"This is just an experiment. I wanted to find out if a human could indeed meet an end other than their own. A human must die. But for every human there is only a foreordained death. The death that one person meets, there is only one kind. 

One who dies in a fire will die by fire no matter what form their death takes, and one who is murdered by their family is murdered by their family no matter how hard they struggle. Even if they confront the first death and run away from it, the second, and the third death will come only through the foreordained method. 

This limited death, we call it our lifespan. 

A human has even his way of dying decided for him. However if you were to repeat the same end a couple of thousand times, even that spiral would develop errors. It doesn't matter if the error is a trivial one. Just being unlucky enough to be hit by a car on the way home from work is sufficient. 

--- but. As of now the result is the same. It appears that one's destiny does not change with only around two hundred repetitions." 

The man speaks dispassionately, as if the matter was insignificant. 

With just that --- Shiki intuitively felt that she had to kill this man here and now. 

She doesn't know by what method, or what process the man has come to do this sort of thing. 

All she knows, the one certain thing, is that the man is making Enjoh Tomoe's family kill each other every day, for an experiment that he himself doesn't care about ---. 

"For that you are making them suffer the same death... the same final day, over and over again? By preparing a morning that begins with the same conditions and a family that lives with the same conditions? So is the only family that dies at night the Enjoh family?" 

"If that was the case there wouldn't be any meaning to this twisted dimension. All the families who were called to this place had already collapsed. Relationships that were already mangled arrive easily at their final destination if you just remove some personal space. A road to an end that takes decades is nothing but self-mortification. These people merely reached the end they would eventually have reached in less than one month." 

... Not a boast, not a lamentation, it's just a mage's soliloquy. 

Shiki narrows her black eyes and peers at the black man. 

"... In the end you are saying that you broke the brakes and egged them on. Without doubt, this building has stress piled inside it. Everywhere you go it's warped. The floor is slanted everywhere like some ocean so you lose your sense of balance, and because of the use of lighting and paints that put a burden on the eyes you become tired without even noticing it. To make people so crazy without even using any sorcerous effects, you are a very good architect, you." 

"Sorry. I handed the designing of this place to Aozaki. If you wish to congratulate someone you should congratulate her." 

The man comes one step closer. 

It seems that the time to talk is over. 

Shiki decided to aim for the man's neck --- and lastly asked the question that had really been on her mind. 

"Araya. Why do you try to kill me?" 

The man doesn't respond. 

Instead, he says something strange. 

"Neither Fujoh Kirie nor Asagami Fujino were effective." 

"--- What?" 

Shiki swallows her words upon hearing those unexpected names. 

Piercing that opening --- the man steps goes forward one more step. 

"Unable to live without being close to death, Fujoh Kirie was someone similar yet different to you." 

... Fujoh Kirie who had been confined to a bed with a disease that meant she could die at any moment. A woman who had only been able to feel that she was alive through death. A human who had only been able to feel that they were alive through death. ... An ability possessor with one mind and two bodies. 

And. 

Ryougi Shiki, who could only realise the fact she was alive by approaching death and defying it. ... An ability possessor with two minds and one body. 

"Then there was Asagami Fujino who could only find joy by coming into contact with death, again someone similar yet different to you." 

... Asagami Fujino, she who had no sense of pain and so could not accept feelings from the outside world. A girl who could only find pleasure in the extreme act of killing a person. A human who could only feel that they were alive by observing the pain her victims went through as she killed them, and the sense of superiority that brought. ... The scion of an old bloodline that sealed off the abilities they were born with through physical means. 

And. 

Ryougi Shiki who could only feel herself and others by coming into contact with death and trying to kill each other. ... The scion of an old bloodline that artificially developed their abilities. 

"When death came near she chose death, and you chose life." 

Throwing your lives before yourselves she enjoyed killing, and you enjoyed trying to kill each other. 

You would have felt it. That those girls were comrades, yet murderers whose natures conflicted with Ryougi Shiki." 

Shocked to the core, Shiki --- was watching the approaching darkness as it talked to her. 

Watching, was all she could do. 

"I failed 2 years ago. That person was too different. What was needed were those who had diverged from the same 'origin'. 

That's right. Be happy, Ryougi Shiki. Those two were sacrifices that I prepared for you." 

The man's voice is excited like that of someone who cannot hold in their laughter. But his expression doesn't change. Unchanged, the face of a philosopher who is full of troubles. 

"There's still one more piece left to play, but Aozaki has noticed so I suppose there is no helping it. Enjoh Tomoe was an unexpected fortune. Since from a place where my will had no power, you came here by your own volition." 

"You bastard ---." 

Shiki puts strength into the two hands holding the knife. 

The man stops, and points towards the space behind her. 

What is there is, only the piled remains of those she dispatched. 

That, overwhelming materialization of sin and darkness. 

"Nothingness is itself your murder impulse, your origin. 

--- Look upon that darkness. And remember your name." 

An order tinged with sorcerous suggestion echoes through the corridor. 

With her mind being stolen by that Shiki desperately shook her head and shouted. 

"---(Source of evil)... !" 

Shouting like she was spitting that out, Shiki leaped towards the mage. With the speed of an arrow let loose from a drawn back bow, and with the speed and murderous intent of a wild beast. 

*** 

There was only about 3 metres separating the two. 

Shiki and the mage, confronting each other in that narrow corridor, there is nowhere to run. Something like retreat --- neither of them are even considering the option. 

Shiki's body comes ricocheting off. 

With this distance it doesn't even take a few seconds to approach the enemy. She quickly stabbed at the bastard's chest with the knife. 

The white kimono flows in the darkness. 

Before that, the mage intoned. 

"'''Cripple'''." 

The air changes. 

Shiki's body suddenly stops. 

"'''Adamantine'''." 

Piercing the air with one hand, the mage shouts while facing Shiki. 

Shiki found a line coming up from the floor. 

"'''Malignance'''." 

All movement is being cut off around the mage. 

Shiki saw it. 

The three circular shapes stretching out from under the black man's feet. 

--- Her body, was heavy... ? 

The three circles that protected the mage, they resembled a diagram displaying the orbital path of a star. Three thin and long circles are overlapping each other as they rise up from the floor to the air. 

As soon as she stepped over the outermost line of that circle, Shiki's body lost all of its momentum. Like a jeopardised butterfly caught a spider's web. 

"That body, I Araya Soren will be taking it." 

The mage moves. 

If Shiki left an afterimage of a white kimono in the darkness of the night as she ran, the man melted into the night as he approached his prey. 

A demon-like speed that didn't even let you grasp the process of him approaching. 

He stops, next to the immobile Shiki the mage's black coat flaps in the air. 

Shiki was unable to respond to the mage's unfelt approach. She had been looking --- she had been looking at the man advance towards her, but she can't perceive that the man is standing right next to her ---. 

A cold sweat runs down her back. 

Only now, she barely understands that her 'enemy' is a true monster. 

The mage stretches out his left hand. 

He stretches out a vice-like palm, open as if to crush Shiki's face. 

"Get ... Away... From me!" 

The chilling feeling that beats upon her back, it has the effect of reviving her from her frozen state. 

At the moment the tips of the mage's fingers touch her face, Shiki twisted her head as if recoiling from them. Just like that she shifts her body to the side and stabs the mage's arm with her knife. 

Tung, the knife made a dull noise as it severed the mage's left wrist. 

"'''(insert here)'''." 

The mage pronounces. 

The knife blade definitely passed through the mage's wrist, but it doesn't fall from the arm. 

The edge passed through it cleanly as if cutting a turnip, but the mage's hand doesn't even have a wound upon it. 

"'''(insert here - sutra?)'''." 

His right hand moves. 

The right hand that he pushed forward in anticipation of Shiki's movements after she escaped his left hand, it has a solid grasp upon her. 

Grabbing the girl's face with one hand, the mage lifts Shiki's body into the air. Even if Shiki was a girl he looked like a ghost or a monster as he lifted up a human with one arm. 

"Ah ---." 

Shiki's voice was shaking. 

There is no awareness in that moan-like sound. 

All that can be felt from this man's hand is a crushing despair. That lanced through her flesh to reach her brain, and from there it rode down her spine to invade her whole body. 

For the first time in her life. 

She knew, that she would die here, just like this. 

"--- Still inexperienced. I've embedded a Buddha's remains in this left hand. There are no places where you can easily kill it, not even with the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception. A simple act like cutting it, Araya Soren will not be hurt by such things." 

The mage squeezes hard with the hand grasping the girl's face as he speaks. 

Shiki doesn't reply. 

The pressure on her face is so strong that she doesn't even have any energy to talk. 

... This man's hand, it was a machine designed to grab a human's head and crush it. There was no way to remove the five fingers embedded in her face by force. If she was to rashly shake her body and retaliate, this machine would ruthlessly crush her head. 

The mage's discourse continues. 

"As a reference, I do not die. My origin is 'suspension'. Someone who has woken to their origin becomes ruled by that origin itself. Someone who has already stopped - how can you kill him?" 

Shiki doesn't reply. 

She threw away all her emotions, and bent all her energies to finding those faint lines upon the man's body. 

Ignoring both the paralysing despair running riot in her body and the pain crushing her face, she tries to find that one breach. 

But before she could. 

The mage looked over the girl he was holding in the air, and made a decision. 

"--- That's right. The face is useless." 

An emotionless voice. The mage puts strength into his arm for the first time. 

Crackle, the sound of bone breaking can be heard. 

In that instant --- 

The right arm that attempted to pulverise the face of the girl called Ryougi Shiki, this time it really does get cut off. 

"--- Mmm." 

The mage retreats a bit. 

Having cut off the mage's arm at the elbow while still in that floating position, Shiki pulled off the hand clinging to her face and quickly pulled back. 

Thwock. The black arm falls to the floor. 

Narrowly escaping to a place untouched by the triple circle around the mage, Shiki kneels with one leg on the floor. 

Whether it was because of the pain from having her face squeezed, or because she had focused her awareness to look for the mage's faint lines of death. Shiki's breathing is ragged as she looks at the floor she is kneeling upon. 

The distance between the two, once again it has widened. 

"... Indeed, I was foolish. I should have had all the proof I needed after the events at the hospital. Whether it is dead or alive, if it moves you cut off the root of that motion. That is your ability. Even if I am a stopped organism, as long I exist like this there is a thread that permits my existence. If that is cut I would definitely die. The unique exception is this left arm, but even that can't be hidden forever. No matter which saint's bone it is as long as it functions there will always be a cause for that movement." 

Ignoring the severed arm the mage talks on. 

"As expected I don't need those eyes. As a component of Ryougi Shiki they are too dangerous. But before I destroy them --- I may need to anesthetise you." 

Maintaining the three fold wards the mage came forward one step. 

Shiki keeps staring at that triple circle. 

"... It is unfortunate, but you should have given up just now." 

Shiki says that with the knife reversed in her grip. 

"I know wards too. At a testing ground you lay out a ward to prevent a woman from entering holy ground. There are stories of how women who enter turn to stone, but a ward is only a boundary. The inside of the circle isn't the ward. That boundary is a sorcerous wall that stops others. 

In that case --- if the line disappears, that power is lost." 

And with that she planted her knife in the floor. 

Out of the three circles the mage possessed, she had just 'killed' the outermost circle. 

"--- Ignorance." 

In an anxious manner the mage came forward. 

Another step, even though he approaches Shiki there is no change in Shiki. 

... The man's talismans have just shrunk from three to two. 

The mage clicks his tongue in exasperation. He hadn't considered the possibility that Shiki's Mystic Eyes of Death Perception would be so powerful. To think that she could kill a concept like a ward which had no form, or life, that kind of absolute power ---. 

Having lost '''cripple''', the circumference of the triple wards that ruled over outside invaders of the boundary, the mage starts running to kill Shiki. 

"There are still two left." 

"--- Even that, is too slow." 

Still in that crouched position, Shiki puts her hand behind her. 

Inside the belt that tightens the kimono is the second knife. 

As soon as she pulled the knife out to the side from her belt, she immediately threw it at the mage. 

The knife blade penetrates the two-fold ward. 

Like a stone skimming the water the knife bounced twice off the top of the circle, and flew towards the mage's forehead. At the speed of a bullet. 

"---?!" 

The mage nimbly evades. The knife nicks the edge of his ear and disappears into the corridor, and the ear which had appeared to have evaded the attack has been carved off. Flesh, blood, broken bone. Brain fluid leaks out of the wound. 

"--- Ugh." 

The mage lets out a groan. 

Faster than that however --- he felt an impact that skewered his body. 

Thud, and a white darkness lands upon the mage's body. 

By the time the mage grasped that this was Shiki, who had charged straight at him after throwing the knife, the outcome of the fight had already been decided. 

Driving into his body shoulder first, Shiki's single blow had the same force as a cannon shell. Just that alone would have broken a few bones, but Shiki is clenching a silver knife in her hands. 

The knife is perfectly penetrating the centre of the mage's chest. 

"Ug --- gh." 

The mage coughs out blood. His blood was a sand-like powder. 

When Shiki removed the knife she straight away thrusts it towards the mage's neck. With all the strength in her two hands. The fight has already been decided, but she is desperately trying to deliver another critical blow. 

Because --- 

"You don't know when to resign yourself to your fate. At that rate you will wander in hell, Shiki." 

--- Her foe isn't yet dead. 

"Goddamnit, why... !" 

Shiki shouts as if casting a spell. Why --- why don't you die. 

Upon the mage's unmoving face that shows no emotion, just his eyes are bright with mirth. 

"I realise that spot is my weakness. But just that is not enough. Even if it's the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception, you cannot instantly kill this two hundred year old life of mine. This body will die one day, but I was prepared for this happening. It's quite fitting that the price I pay for capturing Ryougi is my death." 

The mage's left hand comes racing in. 

... The outcome of the fight had already been decided. 

His tightly clenched fist drives into Shiki's stomach. 

Receiving a blow that could break through a large tree, Shiki's body rises up into the air. With just that one attack Shiki spews out just as much blood as the mage who has had his chest and neck stabbed. 

With a grating noise, her insides and the bones that were protecting them break. 

"---." 

Shiki faints. No matter how great a physique she had, her body is still that of a young girl. Even if half the power had been held back, there was no way she could withstand Araya's attack which could break concrete walls. 

Grabbing hold of her belly with one hand the mage lifts the girl up, and throws her at the mansion wall. 

It was a brutal action that looked like it should break every bone in Shiki's body, but that too turned into an unnatural event. ... Having been thrown onto the wall Shiki's body was sucked in as if she was sinking into water. 

Only when the mansion wall had finishing gulping Shiki down, did the mage lower his arm. 

... Shiki's knife is still buried in his neck, and his eyes hold none of the oppressive light they showed until now. 

Although a long time goes by without anything happening the black coat does not budge. 

That's only to be expected if anything is. 

The mage's body, is totally dead.

Kara no Kyoukai:Chapter05 08

2009-04-14T11:26:13Z

122.30.21.180:

'''/8 Spiral Paradox''' 

That night. 

After all my investigations and work were completed, I headed towards Shiki's mansion. 

November ninth, a little after 8 PM. 

But even when the calender had flipped over to the next day, Shiki hadn't come back.

Kara no Kyoukai:Chapter05 07

2009-04-14T11:25:32Z

122.30.21.180:

'''/7 Spiral Paradox''' 

When I opened my eyes the next morning, it was getting past nine. 

I am totally late. 

When I arrived at the office holding a bundle too heavy to be called luggage, Touko-san and Shiki were waiting for me. 

"Sorry I'm late." 

Only after I leaned the [[Kara_no_Kyoukai:Chapter05_Glossary_and_Notes|shinai]] bag-shaped bundle against the wall did I sigh in relief. 

Breathing hard like I just ran a marathon, I calm my breathing. 

The bundle isn't even one meter long, but is heavy as if it were made of steel, so that while it didn't seem like a very bulky bundle when I left my house, my arm had gone numb after walking a hundred meters. 

While I limbered up the muscles in both my arms, Shiki came plodding over. 

"Oi. Hey Shiki, nice weather today." 

"Yeah, they say it will be fine for a while." 

Unusually, Shiki is wearing a white kimono as if she is going out somewhere today. When put together with the red leather jacket on the sofa, it seems like there will be a clean and clear contrast between the white and the red. Normally she doesn't like obi with patterns on them, but today she's sporting an obi with a leaf-like pattern across it. Looking closer, even her kimono's sleeves have three or so red leaves scattered across the ends. 

"Mikiya, whose business is that?" 

Pointing with a white finger, Shiki asks me a question. 

Her finger is pointed at the object leaning against the wall. 

"Ahh, Akitaka-san sent that. Shiki, you went out yesterday, didn't you? When I dropped by after work, you weren't there, and Akitaka-san was waiting for you in front of the door. It had been a while since I saw him and I talked with him for an hour or so, but it didn't feel like you would be coming back anytime soon so we parted ways. At the time, he entrusted me with this. He said that it may be a [[Kara_no_Kyoukai:Chapter05_Glossary_and_Notes|Kanesada]], but since there's no maker's mark he couldn't be sure of its origins." 

"When you say Kanesada, do you mean the Kanesada with a [[Kara_no_Kyoukai:Chapter05_Glossary_and_Notes|Kuji]] in it?" 

Showing a rare bright face, Shiki lifts the bundle leaning against the wall. Holding the package that was heavy even for me with just one hand, Shiki began to loosen the string that held the bag shut. 

Like a banana being peeled, whoosh, and the cloth gets stripped away. What was presently revealed was a long, thin metal plate. No, rather than saying it was metal, it felt more like rusty iron or copper. Only the cloth from the top of the bundle had been taken off, so only a tenth of the object could be seen, but it's definite that the thing is something like a stick. 

The iron inside the shinai bag is wrapped in another layer of pure cotton-like cloth. The iron is in the form of a plate that looks like someone took a ruler and made it about two times bigger, and has two small holes drilled into it. There are some kanji carved into the worn surface. ... Curious. 

"Man, Akitaka, bringing out something like this ... ." 

Shiki speaks as if she's troubled, but her eyes can't stop smiling. For some reason I couldn't express, it was depressing to see Shiki, who didn't even smile at any day-to-day things, suddenly start snickering as she held that unidentifiable metal plate. 

"Shiki, what is that?" 

Shiki was acting too strange, so I asked her about it. 

When I did, Shiki spun around to face me and gave me a huge grin. 

"Want to see? This is the kind of sword you can't typically see these days." 

Shiki, who happily started to bring the contents of the shinai bag out. Touko-san, who had been watching silently until now, stopped her. 

"Shiki, I see that is a ancient blade you have there. You can't take out something like a five hundred-year-old sword in here. What will you do if the ward gets cut apart?" 

Hearing that, Shiki freezes. 

Touko-san says it's a sword, but is that blunt metal plate that looks like an enlarged iron ruler that couldn't cut anything really a sword ... ? 

"On top of that, there's even a Kuji on it. Is it 'May those who preside over all warriors be my vanguard" '''(TN: I don't think this is an accurate translation but it's the best I could do from what I had)'''? I'm sorry, but my wards can't stand up to a famous five hundred-year-old sword. If you take that out here, all the things in the lower floors will come tumbling down." 

Taken back by Touko-san's unusually threatening words, Shiki began packing the shinai bag away again. ...These two, I think it's true that they talked about a lot of strange and wonderful topics while I was away. 

"--- You are right, showing Mikiya a Japanese sword with only the blade will be boring anyway. To think that he didn't prepare a hilt. Is Akitaka getting to be an old dotard too?" 

Shiki mumbles absently. 

...Calling Akitaka-san, who had raised her since she was ten years old, an old dotard is a bit harsh. Moreover, Akitaka-san is still in his early thirties, which means his usefulness is still maturing. 

Reluctantly, Shiki lays the bundle on the sofa. 

...This is something I found out later, but in those days, a hilt didn't come attached to a sword. A Japanese sword like those you see in historic dramas already has its hilt attached, but a hiltless sword has no decorations like some cutter blade. Apparently those two holes punched into the bottom are so that you can put a hilt on. And just for your information, an ancient sword refers to swords from the middle of the Heian era to the Keichio (1596-1614) era, without doubt an important cultural fact. 

"Do you know, Shiki? Just by building up a history, a weapon becomes a mystical thing that can stand up to magecraft. From now on, don't bring anything like that into this building even by accident. I won't take the blame for what happens if you do." 

Handling a precious item that could even become a national treasure like that, Touko-san went, whew, and sighed. 

"By the way, Kokutou. What's the reason for you coming in late this morning?" 

"I apologise, it's just that investigating proved a bit difficult. Anyway I've managed to get the names and collect some general information on the residents of the Ogawa Mansion." 

--- That's right, I started investigating the apartment building in question last night, and when I woke up the day had already passed me by. 

Lately, the spread of the internet has meant that it's become possible to carry out investigations even during the night. Distinctions such as resting at night since everyone else is sleeping have disappeared. As a result, I heard the story from Daisuke-niisan, collected some random facts here and there while web surfing, sorted what I found, and before I knew it the job had expanded to the state it was currently in. 

"...I told you that you had until December to do it. You sure like to buy the hardships you go through, Kokutou. Well, let's hear it then." 

"Yes ma'am. The Ogawa Mansion is a high-class building even for a posh apartment complex like Kayamahama. It has a unique design too, so please have a look later. The construction period was from '96 to '97, with the work being done together by 3 companies. You took care of the eastern building lobbies, Touko-san. For now, I've put the names of those involved in the construction on the list. There's a detailed construction schedule attached too, so have a look." 

Taking out the freshly-printed resources, I spread them out on Touko-san's desk. 

For some reason Touko-san is blinking a lot and sitting there quiescently. 

"As you can see, what we are referring to as the apartment building is actually two apartment buildings right next to each other. 

Built in a nice half-moon shape there are two ten-story buildings facing each other. If you look at an aerial photo, it's enough to surprise you. They really are forming a circle. Originally, they built it thinking of a company dormitory, so the first and second floors are set out as recreational facilities, but they aren't currently in use. I suppose that you can't waste power on such frivolous things with the economy as bad as it is. 

Each building is ten stories high, with five rooms per floor. Between the east and west buildings, there are ten rooms altogether. Every room is a [[Kara_no_Kyoukai:Chapter05_Glossary_and_Notes|3LDK]] that mixes western and Japanese styles. The layout of the waterworks was somewhat complex, so in about ten years' time the lower floors might start developing some leaks. As for parking, there are forty spaces in front of the apartment building, and forty spaces underground. Compared to the number of residents it's a bit lacking, but for now there's enough with just the parking space out front. 

When the company that originally intended to use it as a company dormitory started having trouble, there was a change of ownership. Apparently, the new owner's policies meant that the building was opened to private use. The residents entered in 1998 - in other words, this year. They said that they had advertised for three months, but only about half the apartments were filled. There were even some rumors going around that they were going to rebuild the western building in the near future. Oh, and here's a copy of the blueprints." 

Saying that, I laid the next resource on the desk. 

Touko-san made an even more disgruntled face, and furrowed her forehead. 

"The apartment is divided into a western building and an eastern building, but the first floor lobby is shared. There is only one elevator as well. For a project using this much land, the construction was actually pretty shabby. They probably focused more on outside opinion than utility when they were planning the building. The elevator alone was fraught with breakdowns at the beginning. In fact, the caretaker confessed to me that they couldn't even use the elevator until May. 

The room count is five rooms per building; going counterclockwise from the six o'clock position, they are numbered 1, 2, and so on. The eastern building is numbered from 1 to 5. Numbers 6 to 10 are in the western building. The roof is a no-access area. 

The third floor residents are: Sonoda, empty room, Watanabe, empty room, Itsuki, Takemoto, empty room, Haido, empty room, Toenchi. 

The fourth floor residents are: empty room, empty room, Sasatani, Mochitsuki, Aratani, empty room, empty room, Tsujinomiya, Kamiyama, Enjou. 

The fifth floor residents are: Narushima, Tennoji, empty room, empty room, Shirazumi, Naito, Enomoto, empty room, empty room, Inugami. The sixth floor -." 

"Enough, I realize already. How much you go overboard when you are let off your leash, I realize it already." 

In the midst of going through the list, Touko-san sighs and stops me. 

"Here, show me the list. Since I won't be surprised even if it has the company they belong to and their former address on top of their family composition." 

"Okay. Reading everything is a bit hard for me as well." 

So I handed over the list, and when Touko-san saw it she went 'Whoa', letting out an exclamation that didn't suit her image. 

"Dear lord, to think you really did investigate it all. Kokutou, are you sure you don't want to try being a detective? You'd be popular, definitely." 

"No I wouldn't. You see, I only got information for half the residents this time, too." 

Yes, if I had any regrets, that was it. 

In the end, out of the fifty or so residents, I was only able to follow up thirty of them, which is about half that number. Other than that, I was only able to find out the names of the residents and the makeup of their families. 

Touko-san is wordlessly flipping through the list. 

When I glanced at Shiki for no reason, she had on a serious face and was lost in thought. That frowning expression she had on as though she were glaring, it was grim, but rather than being scary, it was beautiful. 

"Touko, pass me that list for a second." 

Walking over to behind Touko-san, Shiki casts her eyes upon the list. 

"...As I thought. Such a rare name, there wouldn't be two of them." 

Tch. Shiki clicks her tongue. 

"I'll go on ahead first. Touko, is there anything I could use as transport?" 

"There's a 200hp motorbike in the corner of the warehouse." 

"Are you telling me to ride a motorbike while wearing a kimono?" 

"There should be some women's clothing in the wardrobe. They're mine, so they might be a little big, but they should be better than a kimono." 

"Yeah," Shiki nodded. Putting on her leather jacket she picked up the Japanese sword that was packed inside the shinai bag and left the office behind her. 

Like some snake, the white kimono makes an inauspicious slithering noise. 

"--- Shiki!" 

... How should I say this? Feeling some indescribable uneasiness, I called after Shiki to stop her. 

Showing me the back of the leather jacket, Shiki just turns her face towards me. Eyes full of naive questioning, as if she had been warned about some prank she didn't remember and thought it weird. 

"What is it, Mikiya? Does it seem like I've lost myself to some bad thing or something?" 

Really, what am I supposed to say to her when she's so carefree, as if she's just popping out to do some shopping --- I couldn't figure out what I had to say. 

"No ...It's nothing. I'll come over tonight, so let's leave talking 'til later." 

"What? What a weirdo. But --- okay. Tonight, you said? If it's at that time, I should be in my room." 

Okay then, she said, and Shiki left, holding one hand up in farewell.

*** 

Around one hour after Shiki left on the motorbike she had uncharacteristically borrowed from Touko-san, Touko-san and I decided to go and check out the building for ourselves. 

Thirty minutes after leaving the city center on Touko-san's treasured mini-coupe-like Miner 1000 or something similar. Before long, we came to an immaculately maintained portside district. 

That place called Kayamahama was certainly wide, at any rate. Whether it was because they had land to spare or not, only a few multi-story buildings dotted the landscape, and so it brought to mind the field in a polygon game that had been popular ages ago. With a name like Bro-Ken or Dra-Ken, it was a game where four people oversaw a huge landmass. 

The apartment in question was really in the middle of a chaotic jungle of apartments. Surrounded by buildings that all looked the same, the circular tower was visible from miles away but took a while to get to. 

Whereas most of the other buildings are square tofu blocks, that round apartment building alone breaks that rule as it stands there... 

For a ten-story building, it's pretty high. There definitely were advantages to piling blocks on top of each other to form a circular apartment on this land. The lone path from the grounds to the apartment building is almost like the road leading to the Taj Mahal, stretching straight to the apartment's lobby. 

"What's this? There isn't even an underground parking lot." 

Muttering in the driver's seat, Touko-san parked the car on the roadside. 

"Well, shall we?" 

Lighting up another cigarette, Touko-san starts walking. 

Sticking close to her, I had just stepped onto the apartment grounds when a sudden dizziness struck me. 

It may be because the sun's stronger today. Since I was staring up at a apartment bulding that shoots up like a tower, getting briefly dizzy isn't so unreasonable. 

Pursuing Touko-san, who was striding off ahead of me, I entered the apartment. 

--- At that moment, I felt like vomiting. 

The walls of the apartment's lobby are united in a cream color and are spotlessly clean. Yet I felt so unnerved looking at it that I thought I would faint if I stopped clenching my teeth. 

No, this is already close to disgust. 

My insides were twisting around so much that I thought I would go crazy. 

Although the air outside is so cold, the air inside the apartment building is lukewarm. It's probably only due to the internal heating being set too high, but this is like I'm feeling somebody's steaming breath. The tepid atmosphere that wraps around my skin, it's somewhat --- similar to being inside a living body. 

"Kokutou, that's only because you're thinking of it that way." 

Hearing Touko-san's voice whispering by my ear barely managed to bring me out of that weird mood. 

Steadying my mind, I looked at my surroundings. 

The lobby is the one space that connects the two buildings. 

This apartment building looks as if someone took a circle and cut it in half before arranging the two halves to face each other. The two buildings are connected only by the space in the center, so it is not possible to go directly from the east building to the west building from the second floor or above. In other words, you must return to the central space and go across the lobby. 

There's no caretaker's office in the lobby. 

In the center of that circular space is a huge column that could be called the building's spine. This is the elevator that can move anywhere between the first and tenth floors, and running beside it there is a stairway. Having put walls around the elevator and stairway, it became a column. Having that kind of feeling, the column gives me a very gloomy impression. 

"--- This, is a very unpleasant building." 

"It feels like a haunted house. There's a lot of bad energy floating about which can't be hidden. But on the whole, there are quite a few buildings like this one. It's actually quite simple to make a building that drives people mad, you see. Just by changing the wall color, or the location of the stairs, you can change somebody's condition for the worse. If it's a resident who lives here every day, the effect would be much worse. 

Touko-san got on the elevator first. 

"Which floor would be good, Kokutou?" 

"Ah, any floor's good. ...Although if you were to ask, I would say the fourth floor." 

"Then let's go to the fourth floor." Touko-san said this as she slowly looked around the inside of the elevator. 

The elevator is of a strange design that looks like a twisted white cylinder. 

Of the buttons numbered from '''B''' to '''10''', I press the one marked 4.

Brrrrrr---------------------------------rrmmm. 

There was a moving noise of an unnaturalness that overwhelmed everything else. 

We are definitely going up, but it feels like my body is falling towards the floor. 

Finally the elevator doors opened. 

The fourth floor lobby is a circle too. When we come out of the elevator, the corridor leading to the east building is in front of our eyes. The apartment entrance faced south, so it means that there is a corridor in the 6 o'clock direction. 

This corridor goes all the way to the outside, so that when you get to the wall on the other end, it turns around in a 3 o'clock direction and goes around the wall of the west building. As expected, the doorways to all the rooms are on the outer side. 

"Let's see, we're on the fourth floor right now, so that would be number 401. Then it goes to number 405, before we come to a dead end. How do we get to the west building?" 

"You have to go around the back of the elevator. The southern corridor you see when you get out of the elevator leads to the east building, and the northern corridor, which is behind the elevator, is connected to the west building. This apartment building really is divided into two." 

"They sure built it strangely. If they connected the outer sides, it wouldn't be like that." 

"That wouldn't be as fitting. They built this so poshly, so they had to at least divide black and white properly. Anyway, Kokutou. Did you have something to do on the fourth floor? Are you going to visit that place where the family was dead or something?" 

When Touko-san said that, I jumped in surprise. 

Touko-san's voice echoes through the cream-colored lobby. 

The light shines off the well-polished floor of the lobby, making me think that it's nighttime. 

Yes, why hadn't I realized? 

...Since we got to this apartment building, we haven't met one person. No, never mind meeting people --- there isn't even the sense that there are people living here. 

"Boss, where did you hear that story?" 

"From a detective I keep owing debts to. You're talking about that story where the thief went to rob an empty house and found the whole family dead, aren't you? I didn't hear the apartment number or name of the family, but I thought that if it was you, you would have investigated those." 

Ah, she's right. My phone call to Daisuke-niisan last night was too confirm that too. 

"What should we do? Do you want to check it, Kokutou?" 

"I was planning to, but now..." 

To be honest I'm scared. Until I got here, I was thinking that it was an interesting but not very special story, but seeing this place made me realize that it was real. Just being here is making me tremble. Embarrassingly, visiting the house of the family involved was a scary thought even during the daytime. 

"Let's go. I want to use the elevator by myself. That's right, let's meet upstairs. Come up those stairs over there. It may be a spiraling stairway, but it might be a good idea to close your eyes." 

Then, saying that, Touko-san got on the elevator again and went to the upper floors. 

The lamp shows the elevator's climb to the tenth floor. 

--- While I was staring blankly at that, I realized only then that I was now alone. 

In the lobby, there is only me. 

A world where only your own breathing can be heard. 

A secret chamber where you can't tell if it is day or night. 

A heavy and stuffy oppressiveness, as if the whole room is one big vacuum pack. 

I never knew... That an apartment could be such a gloomy dimension, cut off from the outside world. 

"Damn, she would never come down to me would she? That Touko-san." 

By talking to myself, I tried to regain my vitality, but it had the opposite effect. 

The echoes of my voice return to me, coming to my ears as the voice of another. 

...Even a cemetery at night wouldn't be a scary as this place. 

Whatever. As long as I am in the lobby, the pressure of being in a hidden room looms over me. Steeling my mind, I went towards the corridor that leads to the east building. 

Coming outside, there wasn't such a heavy feeling to the atmosphere as in the lobby. The view in the corridor that went around the outside was actually quite boring. Everywhere you looked, it was just more of the same apartment building. 

Looking at that from the corner of my eye, I walked towards the dead end. Walking to the end of the east building, I arrived at the number 5 residence on the fourth floor. 

--- Nine days ago. The robber that snuck into this house discovered several corpses and fled. 

When the terrified thief went to report the finding to the police, he was even more shocked to come face to face with the family going about their daily routine when he returned. 

Had the thief seen some kind of hallucination? Or was there some kind of mistake? 

It would have been fine to stop there, but by dredging up all that remained of the enthusiasm that had brought me this far, I rang the doorbell. 

Ding-dong, came the clear tone. 

A little later --- making a creaking noise, the apartment doorway opened outwards. 

The darkness inside the room spilled out. 

Something came out of there. 

First, a person's arm. 

Then, a head. 

"Eh, this is Enjou, but... Who are you?" 

Opening the door, that's what the rough-faced teenage boy said to me, as if he were annoyed. 

*** 

--- In the end, that story was just another stupid wild tale. 

There wasn't much wrong with the Enjou family of the number 5 residence who were supposed to have been involved in the incident. 

When I came back to the lobby, the elevator was still up on the tenth floor. Pressing the button would make it come down, but inside that thing is Touko-san. It goes without saying that she would disparage me for being too scared to use the stairs. 

With no other options, I directed my feet towards the nearby stairway. 

The lobby is still full of heavy air, but the normal state of the Enjou family had given me back some confidence. 

I started climbing the dark staircase lit only by a spinning red light located somewhere I couldn't see. 

The stairs turn in right angles, winding around the elevator shaft like some snake as they stretch up and up. As Touko-san had said, it was a spiraling stairway. Every time you reached a floor, there was a small hole in the stairwell so that you could go out into the lobby. 

... That cream-colored wall which the red light was shining on, I thought it looked like the stairway of some medieval castle. Something about the red light made me think of a flickering torch. The light was dim, and it couldn't reach to the end of the stairs, so every time I went up one step it made me a little more melancholy. 

The end of the twisting stairs. Fighting the scary illusion that there was something crouching on the far wall, I climbed all the stairs, and ended up on the fifth floor lobby. ...Or would it be more accurate to say that I escaped? 

The fifth floor lobby is laid out in the same manner as the fourth floor lobby. It's an apartment building, so like a department store it's expected that there will be no great differences between floors. Even with that said, though, this place is so similar that it's scary. 

"So you came. Let's go down, then." 

Touko-san was waiting for me in the lobby. 

I followed her, who got onto the elevator without another word. 

When we got into the elevator, Touko-san stood in front of the panel with all the buttons corresponding to each floor, and spoke without turning. 

"Kokuto, look down at the floor. It's a quiz." 

"Eh? All I have to do is look down?" 

The elevator doors shut. Again there is a loud mechanical noise. 

The time taken to go down would not have been more than three seconds. Inside the vast airtight enclosure called an apartment, the smallest airtight container stops. 

"Now, here's the question. What floor is this?" 

Only then did I lift my head. The elevator is open and I can see the lobby. On the wall that looked identical to the one just before, there is a small plastic plate with the number 5 on it embedded in the wall. 

"Uh ...We are still on the fifth floor." 

But... the elevator had definitely moved. In that case, the one that was wrong was me. 

After thinking about it for a moment, I came to the obvious conclusion. 

"In that case, it was the sixth floor we were on just before, wasn't it?" 

"Correct. Kokutou intended to go up one floor, but ended up coming up two. It's a stairway design that makes it easy to make such mistakes, but, well that's how it is. 

But you know, these things called apartments are strange, aren't they? The fact that the only way you can tell the floor you live on is those small numbers on the lobby walls. The higher up you live, the more your senses get dulled within the elevator. If you were to work on the elevator switch so that all the floor numbers were changed, someone who wasn't used to it wouldn't be able to tell if they were on the fourth floor or the fifth. When I have the opportunity, it might be nice to experiment in a nearby apartment building. Would midnight be best? I feel happy all of a sudden." 

Saying those things, Touko-san shut the elevator doors. 

Before I knew it, we were on the first floor, and we came out into the lobby. 

"I know. Shall we go over to the east building for a minute? No matter which building you're in, the first floor should have a lobby, right?" 

"Yes. The place is set out so that it connects directly to the second floor facilities. Kinda like a lobby in some decent size hotel. ...Eh? Touko-san, weren't you the one who designed the east building's lobby?" 

Was I? Touko-san replies vaguely as she walks away. 

The first floor lobby could be regarded as the circle's center. 

Stretching out from this center like some thin line are the east and west corridors, which lead to each building's first floor lobby. You could almost say that the lobbies of each building are close to lounges. 

We shortly arrived at the east building lobby. 

In that quite wide space was an empty plaza. The place was open to the second floor, so a long staircase stretches straight up to the second floor balcony. 

Should I say it felt like the lounge of one of those Western villas that you often see in movies? In the middle of the semicircle lounge is a clumsy staircase. The surroundings are just more of the cream-colored walls, and the floor is made up of marble-like stone. 

"If you were to put a mechanism in, let's see, would it be about here? Just in case, let's make an escape route, shall we?" 

And Touko-san went to her knees on the stone floor, then began sweeping the floor with her hands like some academic looking for fossils. 

"--- Uh. What the heck are you doing, boss?" 

"A precautionary measure. But you know, didn't you realise when you used the stairs? There were signs of movement, weren't there?" 

"?" 

The stairs, move...? 

To say that the stairs inside that box-like structure move... means that the entire central column moves as well. 

That kind of idiotic thing, how- 

"It's not the column. Just the stairs. Didn't you see, on the corner of the walls? There were scrape marks. Ah, was that it? You were too scared to think of looking at something like that." 

Patting the floor with her hands, Touko-san says that without even turning around. 

... My thoughts truly hadn't stretched that far. No, since the stairway was so dark that the light couldn't reach the ends, could I say that I didn't have the leisure to think of it? 

"... But it's impossible to move the stairs. Moving that column, isn't it the same as demolishing this building?" 

"That's why I said it was just the stairs. A rocket pencil, to describe it otherwise." 

"Rocket pencil? What's that?" 

Twitch, Touko-san's hand freezes in mid-motion. 

And she hurried to her feet. 

"You don't know? Those pencils that have ten or so leads in one case. Small missile-like things are stacked inside like pistol rounds. They are layered in rows inside the pencil, and when one lead gets worn away, you take out the missile and push the end of the pencil in. Then a new missile comes out, and you can keep writing without going to the bother of sharpening your pencil. ...Would they still be selling them? Image-wise, they're like ???." 

I can't understand what Touko-san says. 

The rocket pencil she talks about isn't something I know of, but that expression of hers comparing this to a ??? touched me. So, does that mean they are pushing up the stairs alone from below? 

"Are you saying they lifted up the spiral stairway from below? Like a piston?" 

"That's right. They would have left about half a floor's worth of room from the start. At the same time, as they started being able to use the elevator, they pushed it up from below. Not in order to increase the amount per floor, but in order to skew the exits of the spiral. By doing so, you reverse north and south." 

Now, let's go home, Touko-san says, and starts walking again. 

Returning to the central lobby, the boss who was leaving this circular apartment building muttered something as if she really couldn't understand. 

"...Does he really not know about rocket pencils? They were quite a fad when I was student, those." 

*** 

The last decoration of the day: a red parking violation sticker stuck on the windshield of the car that had been parked on the curb. 

The road in front of the apartment building was wide, but there was almost no traffic. On top of that, the only car parked there was Touko-san's, so it must have stood out.

Kara no Kyoukai:Chapter05 07

2009-04-14T11:23:22Z

122.30.21.180:

'''/7 Spiral Paradox''' 

When I opened my eyes the next morning, it was getting past nine. 

I am totally late. 

When I arrived at the office holding a bundle too heavy to be called luggage, Touko-san and Shiki were waiting for me. 

"Sorry I'm late." 

Only after I leaned the [[Kara_no_Kyoukai:Chapter05_Glossary_and_Notes|shinai]] bag-shaped bundle against the wall did I sigh in relief. 

Breathing hard like I just ran a marathon, I calm my breathing. 

The bundle isn't even one meter long, but is heavy as if it were made of steel, so that while it didn't seem like a very bulky bundle when I left my house, my arm had gone numb after walking a hundred meters. 

While I limbered up the muscles in both my arms, Shiki came plodding over. 

"Oi. Hey Shiki, nice weather today." 

"Yeah, they say it will be fine for a while." 

Unusually, Shiki is wearing a white kimono as if she is going out somewhere today. When put together with the red leather jacket on the sofa, it seems like there will be a clean and clear contrast between the white and the red. Normally she doesn't like obi with patterns on them, but today she's sporting an obi with a leaf-like pattern across it. Looking closer, even her kimono's sleeves have three or so red leaves scattered across the ends. 

"Mikiya, whose business is that?" 

Pointing with a white finger, Shiki asks me a question. 

Her finger is pointed at the object leaning against the wall. 

"Ahh, Akitaka-san sent that. Shiki, you went out yesterday, didn't you? When I dropped by after work, you weren't there, and Akitaka-san was waiting for you in front of the door. It had been a while since I saw him and I talked with him for an hour or so, but it didn't feel like you would be coming back anytime soon so we parted ways. At the time, he entrusted me with this. He said that it may be a [[Kara_no_Kyoukai:Chapter05_Glossary_and_Notes|Kanesada]], but since there's no maker's mark he couldn't be sure of its origins." 

"When you say Kanesada, do you mean the Kanesada with a [[Kara_no_Kyoukai:Chapter05_Glossary_and_Notes|Kuji]] in it?" 

Showing a rare bright face, Shiki lifts the bundle leaning against the wall. Holding the package that was heavy even for me with just one hand, Shiki began to loosen the string that held the bag shut. 

Like a banana being peeled, whoosh, and the cloth gets stripped away. What was presently revealed was a long, thin metal plate. No, rather than saying it was metal, it felt more like rusty iron or copper. Only the cloth from the top of the bundle had been taken off, so only a tenth of the object could be seen, but it's definite that the thing is something like a stick. 

The iron inside the shinai bag is wrapped in another layer of pure cotton-like cloth. The iron is in the form of a plate that looks like someone took a ruler and made it about two times bigger, and has two small holes drilled into it. There are some kanji carved into the worn surface. ... Curious. 

"Man, Akitaka, bringing out something like this ... ." 

Shiki speaks as if she's troubled, but her eyes can't stop smiling. For some reason I couldn't express, it was depressing to see Shiki, who didn't even smile at any day-to-day things, suddenly start snickering as she held that unidentifiable metal plate. 

"Shiki, what is that?" 

Shiki was acting too strange, so I asked her about it. 

When I did, Shiki spun around to face me and gave me a huge grin. 

"Want to see? This is the kind of sword you can't typically see these days." 

Shiki, who happily started to bring the contents of the shinai bag out. Touko-san, who had been watching silently until now, stopped her. 

"Shiki, I see that is a ancient blade you have there. You can't take out something like a five hundred-year-old sword in here. What will you do if the ward gets cut apart?" 

Hearing that, Shiki freezes. 

Touko-san says it's a sword, but is that blunt metal plate that looks like an enlarged iron ruler that couldn't cut anything really a sword ... ? 

"On top of that, there's even a Kuji on it. Is it 'May those who preside over all warriors be my vanguard" '''(TN: I don't think this is an accurate translation but it's the best I could do from what I had)'''? I'm sorry, but my wards can't stand up to a famous five hundred-year-old sword. If you take that out here, all the things in the lower floors will come tumbling down." 

Taken back by Touko-san's unusually threatening words, Shiki began packing the shinai bag away again. ...These two, I think it's true that they talked about a lot of strange and wonderful topics while I was away. 

"--- You are right, showing Mikiya a Japanese sword with only the blade will be boring anyway. To think that he didn't prepare a hilt. Is Akitaka getting to be an old dotard too?" 

Shiki mumbles absently. 

...Calling Akitaka-san, who had raised her since she was ten years old, an old dotard is a bit harsh. Moreover, Akitaka-san is still in his early thirties, which means his usefulness is still maturing. 

Reluctantly, Shiki lays the bundle on the sofa. 

...This is something I found out later, but in those days, a hilt didn't come attached to a sword. A Japanese sword like those you see in historic dramas already has its hilt attached, but a hiltless sword has no decorations like some cutter blade. Apparently those two holes punched into the bottom are so that you can put a hilt on. And just for your information, an ancient sword refers to swords from the middle of the Heian era to the Keichio (1596-1614) era, without doubt an important cultural fact. 

"Do you know, Shiki? Just by building up a history, a weapon becomes a mystical thing that can stand up to magecraft. From now on, don't bring anything like that into this building even by accident. I won't take the blame for what happens if you do." 

Handling a precious item that could even become a national treasure like that, Touko-san went, whew, and sighed. 

"By the way, Kokutou. What's the reason for you coming in late this morning?" 

"I apologise, it's just that investigating proved a bit difficult. Anyway I've managed to get the names and collect some general information on the residents of the Ogawa Mansion." 

--- That's right, I started investigating the apartment building in question last night, and when I woke up the day had already passed me by. 

Lately, the spread of the internet has meant that it's become possible to carry out investigations even during the night. Distinctions such as resting at night since everyone else is sleeping have disappeared. As a result, I heard the story from Daisuke-niisan, collected some random facts here and there while web surfing, sorted what I found, and before I knew it the job had expanded to the state it was currently in. 

"...I told you that you had until December to do it. You sure like to buy the hardships you go through, Kokutou. Well, let's hear it then." 

"Yes ma'am. The Ogawa Mansion is a high-class building even for a posh apartment complex like Kayamahama. It has a unique design too, so please have a look later. The construction period was from '96 to '97, with the work being done together by 3 companies. You took care of the eastern building lobbies, Touko-san. For now, I've put the names of those involved in the construction on the list. There's a detailed construction schedule attached too, so have a look." 

Taking out the freshly-printed resources, I spread them out on Touko-san's desk. 

For some reason Touko-san is blinking a lot and sitting there quiescently. 

"As you can see, what we are referring to as the apartment building is actually two apartment buildings right next to each other. 

Built in a nice half-moon shape there are two ten-story buildings facing each other. If you look at an aerial photo, it's enough to surprise you. They really are forming a circle. Originally, they built it thinking of a company dormitory, so the first and second floors are set out as recreational facilities, but they aren't currently in use. I suppose that you can't waste power on such frivolous things with the economy as bad as it is. 

Each building is ten stories high, with five rooms per floor. Between the east and west buildings, there are ten rooms altogether. Every room is a [[Kara_no_Kyoukai:Chapter05_Glossary_and_Notes|3LDK]] that mixes western and Japanese styles. The layout of the waterworks was somewhat complex, so in about ten years' time the lower floors might start developing some leaks. As for parking, there are forty spaces in front of the mansion, and forty spaces underground. Compared to the number of residents it's a bit lacking, but for now there's enough with just the parking space out front. 

When the company that originally intended to use it as a company dormitory started having trouble, there was a change of ownership. Apparently, the new owner's policies meant that the building was opened to private use. The residents entered in 1998 - in other words, this year. They said that they had advertised for three months, but only about half the apartments were filled. There were even some rumors going around that they were going to rebuild the western building in the near future. Oh, and here's a copy of the blueprints." 

Saying that, I laid the next resource on the desk. 

Touko-san made an even more disgruntled face, and furrowed her forehead. 

"The mansion is divided into a western building and an eastern building, but the first floor lobby is shared. There is only one elevator as well. For a project using this much land, the construction was actually pretty shabby. They probably focused more on outside opinion than utility when they were planning the building. The elevator alone was fraught with breakdowns at the beginning. In fact, the caretaker confessed to me that they couldn't even use the elevator until May. 

The room count is five rooms per building; going counterclockwise from the six o'clock position, they are numbered 1, 2, and so on. The eastern building is numbered from 1 to 5. Numbers 6 to 10 are in the western building. The roof is a no-access area. 

The third floor residents are: Sonoda, empty room, Watanabe, empty room, Itsuki, Takemoto, empty room, Haido, empty room, Toenchi. 

The fourth floor residents are: empty room, empty room, Sasatani, Mochitsuki, Aratani, empty room, empty room, Tsujinomiya, Kamiyama, Enjou. 

The fifth floor residents are: Narushima, Tennoji, empty room, empty room, Shirazumi, Naito, Enomoto, empty room, empty room, Inugami. The sixth floor -." 

"Enough, I realize already. How much you go overboard when you are let off your leash, I realize it already." 

In the midst of going through the list, Touko-san sighs and stops me. 

"Here, show me the list. Since I won't be surprised even if it has the company they belong to and their former address on top of their family composition." 

"Okay. Reading everything is a bit hard for me as well." 

So I handed over the list, and when Touko-san saw it she went 'Whoa', letting out an exclamation that didn't suit her image. 

"Dear lord, to think you really did investigate it all. Kokutou, are you sure you don't want to try being a detective? You'd be popular, definitely." 

"No I wouldn't. You see, I only got information for half the residents this time, too." 

Yes, if I had any regrets, that was it. 

In the end, out of the fifty or so residents, I was only able to follow up thirty of them, which is about half that number. Other than that, I was only able to find out the names of the residents and the makeup of their families. 

Touko-san is wordlessly flipping through the list. 

When I glanced at Shiki for no reason, she had on a serious face and was lost in thought. That frowning expression she had on as though she were glaring, it was grim, but rather than being scary, it was beautiful. 

"Touko, pass me that list for a second." 

Walking over to behind Touko-san, Shiki casts her eyes upon the list. 

"...As I thought. Such a rare name, there wouldn't be two of them." 

Tch. Shiki clicks her tongue. 

"I'll go on ahead first. Touko, is there anything I could use as transport?" 

"There's a 200hp motorbike in the corner of the warehouse." 

"Are you telling me to ride a motorbike while wearing a kimono?" 

"There should be some women's clothing in the wardrobe. They're mine, so they might be a little big, but they should be better than a kimono." 

"Yeah," Shiki nodded. Putting on her leather jacket she picked up the Japanese sword that was packed inside the shinai bag and left the office behind her. 

Like some snake, the white kimono makes an inauspicious slithering noise. 

"--- Shiki!" 

... How should I say this? Feeling some indescribable uneasiness, I called after Shiki to stop her. 

Showing me the back of the leather jacket, Shiki just turns her face towards me. Eyes full of naive questioning, as if she had been warned about some prank she didn't remember and thought it weird. 

"What is it, Mikiya? Does it seem like I've lost myself to some bad thing or something?" 

Really, what am I supposed to say to her when she's so carefree, as if she's just popping out to do some shopping --- I couldn't figure out what I had to say. 

"No ...It's nothing. I'll come over tonight, so let's leave talking 'til later." 

"What? What a weirdo. But --- okay. Tonight, you said? If it's at that time, I should be in my room." 

Okay then, she said, and Shiki left, holding one hand up in farewell.

*** 

Around one hour after Shiki left on the motorbike she had uncharacteristically borrowed from Touko-san, Touko-san and I decided to go and check out the mansion for ourselves. 

Thirty minutes after leaving the city center on Touko-san's treasured mini-coupe-like Miner 1000 or something similar. Before long, we came to an immaculately maintained portside district. 

That place called Kayamahama was certainly wide, at any rate. Whether it was because they had land to spare or not, only a few multi-story buildings dotted the landscape, and so it brought to mind the field in a polygon game that had been popular ages ago. With a name like Bro-Ken or Dra-Ken, it was a game where four people oversaw a huge landmass. 

The apartment in question was really in the middle of a chaotic jungle of apartments. Surrounded by buildings that all looked the same, the circular tower was visible from miles away but took a while to get to. 

Whereas most of the other buildings are square tofu blocks, that round apartment building alone breaks that rule as it stands there... 

For a ten-story building, it's pretty high. There definitely were advantages to piling blocks on top of each other to form a circular apartment on this land. The lone path from the grounds to the apartment building is almost like the road leading to the Taj Mahal, stretching straight to the apartment's lobby. 

"What's this? There isn't even an underground parking lot." 

Muttering in the driver's seat, Touko-san parked the car on the roadside. 

"Well, shall we?" 

Lighting up another cigarette, Touko-san starts walking. 

Sticking close to her, I had just stepped onto the apartment grounds when a sudden dizziness struck me. 

It may be because the sun's stronger today. Since I was staring up at a apartment bulding that shoots up like a tower, getting briefly dizzy isn't so unreasonable. 

Pursuing Touko-san, who was striding off ahead of me, I entered the apartment. 

--- At that moment, I felt like vomiting. 

The walls of the apartment's lobby are united in a cream color and are spotlessly clean. Yet I felt so unnerved looking at it that I thought I would faint if I stopped clenching my teeth. 

No, this is already close to disgust. 

My insides were twisting around so much that I thought I would go crazy. 

Although the air outside is so cold, the air inside the apartment building is lukewarm. It's probably only due to the internal heating being set too high, but this is like I'm feeling somebody's steaming breath. The tepid atmosphere that wraps around my skin, it's somewhat --- similar to being inside a living body. 

"Kokutou, that's only because you're thinking of it that way." 

Hearing Touko-san's voice whispering by my ear barely managed to bring me out of that weird mood. 

Steadying my mind, I looked at my surroundings. 

The lobby is the one space that connects the two buildings. 

This apartment building looks as if someone took a circle and cut it in half before arranging the two halves to face each other. The two buildings are connected only by the space in the center, so it is not possible to go directly from the east building to the west building from the second floor or above. In other words, you must return to the central space and go across the lobby. 

There's no caretaker's office in the lobby. 

In the center of that circular space is a huge column that could be called the mansion's spine. This is the elevator that can move anywhere between the first and tenth floors, and running beside it there is a stairway. Having put walls around the elevator and stairway, it became a column. Having that kind of feeling, the column gives me a very gloomy impression. 

"--- This, is a very unpleasant building." 

"It feels like a haunted house. There's a lot of bad energy floating about which can't be hidden. But on the whole, there are quite a few buildings like this one. It's actually quite simple to make a building that drives people mad, you see. Just by changing the wall color, or the location of the stairs, you can change somebody's condition for the worse. If it's a resident who lives here every day, the effect would be much worse. 

Touko-san got on the elevator first. 

"Which floor would be good, Kokutou?" 

"Ah, any floor's good. ...Although if you were to ask, I would say the fourth floor." 

"Then let's go to the fourth floor." Touko-san said this as she slowly looked around the inside of the elevator. 

The elevator is of a strange design that looks like a twisted white cylinder. 

Of the buttons numbered from '''B''' to '''10''', I press the one marked 4.

Brrrrrr---------------------------------rrmmm. 

There was a moving noise of an unnaturalness that overwhelmed everything else. 

We are definitely going up, but it feels like my body is falling towards the floor. 

Finally the elevator doors opened. 

The fourth floor lobby is a circle too. When we come out of the elevator, the corridor leading to the east building is in front of our eyes. The mansion entrance faced south, so it means that there is a corridor in the 6 o'clock direction. 

This corridor goes all the way to the outside, so that when you get to the wall on the other end, it turns around in a 3 o'clock direction and goes around the wall of the west building. As expected, the doorways to all the rooms are on the outer side. 

"Let's see, we're on the fourth floor right now, so that would be number 401. Then it goes to number 405, before we come to a dead end. How do we get to the west building?" 

"You have to go around the back of the elevator. The southern corridor you see when you get out of the elevator leads to the east building, and the northern corridor, which is behind the elevator, is connected to the west building. This mansion really is divided into two." 

"They sure built it strangely. If they connected the outer sides, it wouldn't be like that." 

"That wouldn't be as fitting. They built this so poshly, so they had to at least divide black and white properly. Anyway, Kokutou. Did you have something to do on the fourth floor? Are you going to visit that place where the family was dead or something?" 

When Touko-san said that, I jumped in surprise. 

Touko-san's voice echoes through the cream-colored lobby. 

The light shines off the well-polished floor of the lobby, making me think that it's nighttime. 

Yes, why hadn't I realized? 

...Since we got to this apartment building, we haven't met one person. No, never mind meeting people --- there isn't even the sense that there are people living here. 

"Boss, where did you hear that story?" 

"From a detective I keep owing debts to. You're talking about that story where the thief went to rob an empty house and found the whole family dead, aren't you? I didn't hear the apartment number or name of the family, but I thought that if it was you, you would have investigated those." 

Ah, she's right. My phone call to Daisuke-niisan last night was too confirm that too. 

"What should we do? Do you want to check it, Kokutou?" 

"I was planning to, but now..." 

To be honest I'm scared. Until I got here, I was thinking that it was an interesting but not very special story, but seeing this place made me realize that it was real. Just being here is making me tremble. Embarrassingly, visiting the house of the family involved was a scary thought even during the daytime. 

"Let's go. I want to use the elevator by myself. That's right, let's meet upstairs. Come up those stairs over there. It may be a spiraling stairway, but it might be a good idea to close your eyes." 

Then, saying that, Touko-san got on the elevator again and went to the upper floors. 

The lamp shows the elevator's climb to the tenth floor. 

--- While I was staring blankly at that, I realized only then that I was now alone. 

In the lobby, there is only me. 

A world where only your own breathing can be heard. 

A secret chamber where you can't tell if it is day or night. 

A heavy and stuffy oppressiveness, as if the whole room is one big vacuum pack. 

I never knew... That a mansion could be such a gloomy dimension, cut off from the outside world. 

"Damn, she would never come down to me would she? That Touko-san." 

By talking to myself, I tried to regain my vitality, but it had the opposite effect. 

The echoes of my voice return to me, coming to my ears as the voice of another. 

...Even a cemetery at night wouldn't be a scary as this place. 

Whatever. As long as I am in the lobby, the pressure of being in a hidden room looms over me. Steeling my mind, I went towards the corridor that leads to the east building. 

Coming outside, there wasn't such a heavy feeling to the atmosphere as in the lobby. The view in the corridor that went around the outside was actually quite boring. Everywhere you looked, it was just more of the same apartment building. 

Looking at that from the corner of my eye, I walked towards the dead end. Walking to the end of the east building, I arrived at the number 5 residence on the fourth floor. 

--- Nine days ago. The robber that snuck into this house discovered several corpses and fled. 

When the terrified thief went to report the finding to the police, he was even more shocked to come face to face with the family going about their daily routine when he returned. 

Had the thief seen some kind of hallucination? Or was there some kind of mistake? 

It would have been fine to stop there, but by dredging up all that remained of the enthusiasm that had brought me this far, I rang the doorbell. 

Ding-dong, came the clear tone. 

A little later --- making a creaking noise, the apartment doorway opened outwards. 

The darkness inside the room spilled out. 

Something came out of there. 

First, a person's arm. 

Then, a head. 

"Eh, this is Enjou, but... Who are you?" 

Opening the door, that's what the rough-faced teenage boy said to me, as if he were annoyed. 

*** 

--- In the end, that story was just another stupid wild tale. 

There wasn't much wrong with the Enjou family of the number 5 residence who were supposed to have been involved in the incident. 

When I came back to the lobby, the elevator was still up on the tenth floor. Pressing the button would make it come down, but inside that thing is Touko-san. It goes without saying that she would disparage me for being too scared to use the stairs. 

With no other options, I directed my feet towards the nearby stairway. 

The lobby is still full of heavy air, but the normal state of the Enjou family had given me back some confidence. 

I started climbing the dark staircase lit only by a spinning red light located somewhere I couldn't see. 

The stairs turn in right angles, winding around the elevator shaft like some snake as they stretch up and up. As Touko-san had said, it was a spiraling stairway. Every time you reached a floor, there was a small hole in the stairwell so that you could go out into the lobby. 

... That cream-colored wall which the red light was shining on, I thought it looked like the stairway of some medieval castle. Something about the red light made me think of a flickering torch. The light was dim, and it couldn't reach to the end of the stairs, so every time I went up one step it made me a little more melancholy. 

The end of the twisting stairs. Fighting the scary illusion that there was something crouching on the far wall, I climbed all the stairs, and ended up on the fifth floor lobby. ...Or would it be more accurate to say that I escaped? 

The fifth floor lobby is laid out in the same manner as the fourth floor lobby. It's an apartment building, so like a department store it's expected that there will be no great differences between floors. Even with that said, though, this place is so similar that it's scary. 

"So you came. Let's go down, then." 

Touko-san was waiting for me in the lobby. 

I followed her, who got onto the elevator without another word. 

When we got into the elevator, Touko-san stood in front of the panel with all the buttons corresponding to each floor, and spoke without turning. 

"Kokuto, look down at the floor. It's a quiz." 

"Eh? All I have to do is look down?" 

The elevator doors shut. Again there is a loud mechanical noise. 

The time taken to go down would not have been more than three seconds. Inside the vast airtight enclosure called an apartment, the smallest airtight container stops. 

"Now, here's the question. What floor is this?" 

Only then did I lift my head. The elevator is open and I can see the lobby. On the wall that looked identical to the one just before, there is a small plastic plate with the number 5 on it embedded in the wall. 

"Uh ...We are still on the fifth floor." 

But... the elevator had definitely moved. In that case, the one that was wrong was me. 

After thinking about it for a moment, I came to the obvious conclusion. 

"In that case, it was the sixth floor we were on just before, wasn't it?" 

"Correct. Kokutou intended to go up one floor, but ended up coming up two. It's a stairway design that makes it easy to make such mistakes, but, well that's how it is. 

But you know, these things called apartments are strange, aren't they? The fact that the only way you can tell the floor you live on is those small numbers on the lobby walls. The higher up you live, the more your senses get dulled within the elevator. If you were to work on the elevator switch so that all the floor numbers were changed, someone who wasn't used to it wouldn't be able to tell if they were on the fourth floor or the fifth. When I have the opportunity, it might be nice to experiment in a nearby apartment building. Would midnight be best? I feel happy all of a sudden." 

Saying those things, Touko-san shut the elevator doors. 

Before I knew it, we were on the first floor, and we came out into the lobby. 

"I know. Shall we go over to the east building for a minute? No matter which building you're in, the first floor should have a lobby, right?" 

"Yes. The place is set out so that it connects directly to the second floor facilities. Kinda like a lobby in some decent size hotel. ...Eh? Touko-san, weren't you the one who designed the east building's lobby?" 

Was I? Touko-san replies vaguely as she walks away. 

The first floor lobby could be regarded as the circle's center. 

Stretching out from this center like some thin line are the east and west corridors, which lead to each building's first floor lobby. You could almost say that the lobbies of each building are close to lounges. 

We shortly arrived at the east building lobby. 

In that quite wide space was an empty plaza. The place was open to the second floor, so a long staircase stretches straight up to the second floor balcony. 

Should I say it felt like the lounge of one of those Western villas that you often see in movies? In the middle of the semicircle lounge is a clumsy staircase. The surroundings are just more of the cream-colored walls, and the floor is made up of marble-like stone. 

"If you were to put a mechanism in, let's see, would it be about here? Just in case, let's make an escape route, shall we?" 

And Touko-san went to her knees on the stone floor, then began sweeping the floor with her hands like some academic looking for fossils. 

"--- Uh. What the heck are you doing, boss?" 

"A precautionary measure. But you know, didn't you realise when you used the stairs? There were signs of movement, weren't there?" 

"?" 

The stairs, move...? 

To say that the stairs inside that box-like structure move... means that the entire central column moves as well. 

That kind of idiotic thing, how- 

"It's not the column. Just the stairs. Didn't you see, on the corner of the walls? There were scrape marks. Ah, was that it? You were too scared to think of looking at something like that." 

Patting the floor with her hands, Touko-san says that without even turning around. 

... My thoughts truly hadn't stretched that far. No, since the stairway was so dark that the light couldn't reach the ends, could I say that I didn't have the leisure to think of it? 

"... But it's impossible to move the stairs. Moving that column, isn't it the same as demolishing this mansion?" 

"That's why I said it was just the stairs. A rocket pencil, to describe it otherwise." 

"Rocket pencil? What's that?" 

Twitch, Touko-san's hand freezes in mid-motion. 

And she hurried to her feet. 

"You don't know? Those pencils that have ten or so leads in one case. Small missile-like things are stacked inside like pistol rounds. They are layered in rows inside the pencil, and when one lead gets worn away, you take out the missile and push the end of the pencil in. Then a new missile comes out, and you can keep writing without going to the bother of sharpening your pencil. ...Would they still be selling them? Image-wise, they're like ???." 

I can't understand what Touko-san says. 

The rocket pencil she talks about isn't something I know of, but that expression of hers comparing this to a ??? touched me. So, does that mean they are pushing up the stairs alone from below? 

"Are you saying they lifted up the spiral stairway from below? Like a piston?" 

"That's right. They would have left about half a floor's worth of room from the start. At the same time, as they started being able to use the elevator, they pushed it up from below. Not in order to increase the amount per floor, but in order to skew the exits of the spiral. By doing so, you reverse north and south." 

Now, let's go home, Touko-san says, and starts walking again. 

Returning to the central lobby, the boss who was leaving this circular mansion muttered something as if she really couldn't understand. 

"...Does he really not know about rocket pencils? They were quite a fad when I was student, those." 

*** 

The last decoration of the day: a red parking violation sticker stuck on the windshield of the car that had been parked on the curb. 

The road in front of the mansion was wide, but there was almost no traffic. On top of that, the only car parked there was Touko-san's, so it must have stood out.

Kara no Kyoukai:Chapter05 06

2009-04-14T10:46:04Z

122.30.21.180:

'''/6 Spiral Paradox''' 

One night has passed, and it is now noon on the eighth of November. 

The cloudy sky is no different from yesterday, so the lightless office was dark like an abandoned ruin. 

This office is too big for just two people, me and Touko-san, to use. There are enough desks for ten people, and there's a sofa to receive clients too. With a floor of concrete as bare as it was on the day it was poured, and walls that haven't even been papered over, it's not much, but nevertheless, if the numbers were met it would look like a proper workplace. 

But, at this moment, there are only three people here including me. 

Touko-san cannot be seen at the chief's desk beside the window. The medicine she took yesterday must have been effective, because as soon as she woke to find the cold had gone she went out somewhere. 

Inside this office without a director, I was ordering materials with which to decorate the hall where the art exhibition would be starting next month while comparing prices and doing other such things. While holding Touko-san's specifications in one hand, I was doing this in order to obtain the materials needed for her craft at low prices. That person is the type to say, 'It's all right as long as I make it', so she doesn't put in this kind of annoying and bothersome effort. The result is that as her employee, I can't help but do it for her. 

Peering at the list of material suppliers, I ring up this place for that and negotiate, then I move onto yet another shop. Apart from me, who can't decide whether I'm busy or just dedicated, there are two other people here. 

One is the kimono girl sitting blankly on the guest sofa. Needless to say, it's Ryougi Shiki, and while it's not as if she is doing anything, she is sitting there in a polite manner. 

The other person is sitting facing me at the desk furthest away from my own, doing... something. A schoolgirl in a black uniform. The girl with the long hair which is the polar opposite of Shiki's slung over her back, she's called Kokutou Azaka. 

Needless to say, the fact that our last names are the same means we are blood relatives, and as my little sister, Azaka is a first-year high school student. She has a weak constitution, so she was given over to a relative’s house around the time she was ten, for the reason that the city air was not good for her body; after that, we only met a few times. I think the last time I saw her was New Year's Day the year I entered high school. At the time she was still a child, but when I saw the Azaka who returned this summer, I was quite surprised. The little sister I faced for the first time in ages had grown into a lady with such a noble air about her as to make me wonder if her genes came from our family. 

As expected, I think that with just a change of environment from the house where one was born, that thing called a human grows up beautifully. 

Her actions have become spirited, too, so there's no trace of her former frailty. The fact that I wasn't with her during that period of growth from the age of ten to fifteen might be a factor, but for a while I couldn't accept the fact that this girl was my little sister Azaka. 

I steal a glance at Azaka, sitting at the far-off desk. 

With a number of books thicker than a dictionary stacked up beside her, she is studiously and quietly copying down the contents. ... It's the study material Touko-san left for Azaka as she went out. 

The heavy conversation yesterday with Touko-san put me in a gloomy mood as well, but my current greatest worry might be this. 

"Nii-san. I'm going to become Touko-san's apprentice." 

Whatever she was thinking, one month ago Azaka said such a thing. Of course I protested, but my little sister was determined and would not listen to my opinion. 

...Ah, geez. Why does a weird thing like a magician have to come out of an exceedingly normal family like ours? 

"Azaka." 

The phone orders put aside for now, I called to my little sister who was sitting in front of me. 

Azaka finishes writing the sentence she was copying, and then with her black hair rippling about her head, raised her face towards me. Her eyes which are calm and dignified in spite of being full of a proud temper politely look this way as if asking, 'what is it?'. 

"I know that it's a holiday since it's your school's foundation day. But even so, is it okay for you to be in a place like this?" 

"Nii-san, please visit the house once in a while. There was a fire in the school dormitory, so right now it's in ruins. Mother knows that there was a request from the school for students with homes nearby to leave the dormitories if possible for now." 

With eyes and a voice that remind me of the school president from my high school days, she knocks aside my question. 

"A fire --- one big enough for the whole dorm to burn?" 

"Only on the east wing. Half of the first and second year dorms were burnt to ashes. Although it didn't appear on the news because the school hushed it up." 

Azaka says something shocking in a firm tone. 

A fire breaking out at a famous girls' school like Reien is definitely something that could turn into a scandal, regardless of the truth behind the matter. However, if we are talking about Reien, which takes pride in the affection its powerful alumnae feel for the school, they might be able to take care of a fire in secret. 

But for a fire to occur at a school dormitory, it's a horrible thought. It's also easy to imagine from what Azaka said it that it was arson --- by a student, at that. 

“--- Nii-san. You aren’t getting any strange ideas, are you?” 

Azaka glares at me as if she read my mind. 

... Because of that event over the summer, my little sister doesn't like Kokutou Mikiya sticking his head into suspicious events. A silent argument always occurs following a conversation like this, so I decided to try and change the Subject. 

"That aside. What are you doing right now?” 

“It's nothing to do with you, Nii-san.” 

As if she knows what I want to say, Azaka's reply is chilly. 

"It does have something to do with me. I mean, my sister wants to be a wizard! What am I supposed to say to Father?" 

"Oh, you are planning to drop by the house?” 

… Ugh. Little rascal, she knows perfectly well that our parents and I cut our ties after we argued. 

“Speaking of which, Nii-san. A wizard and a mage are different things. How can you not know about that when you work for Touko-san?” 

Now that I think about it, Touko-san does sometimes say something like that. Something along the lines of how it's convenient to advertise yourself as a wizard rather than a magician as it presents the kind of image that you want, but that those are the titles of two completely different things, or something like that. 

“Ah, I did hear that before. But there wasn't much difference that I could see. They both use suspicious magic.” 

“Magic and sorcery are different. 
The art we call sorcery, it's definitely something outside our everyday reality. In the end, though, it's still nothing more than making something that is possible normally happen under extraordinary circumstances. Should I give you an example?” 

Azaka walked over to Touko-san's desk, then picked up a letter opener that was lying there. A piece of silverware of excellent craftsmanship, it's one of Touko-san’s most frequently handled items. 

Taking out an unneeded document, Azaka writes something on it with the knife. Suddenly --- spewing thick clouds of smoke, the document begins to burn away. 

“….” 

Unable to speak, I just stared at the scene. Touko-san had done something of the like (although on a larger scale) before, but I didn't know what to say at seeing my little sister do that sort of thing. 

“--- Stop that. That, is there some kind of trick to it?” 

“Of course there is. It might look amazing to someone who didn't know about it, but it's really nothing special. What I did just now doesn’t even qualify as an ability. If you are going to set something on fire, a disposable lighter will do the trick. Whether you do it with a lighter or a finger, the fact that you are setting an object on fire is the same. That kind of thing, it's not miraculous at all, is it? Do you understand, Nii-san? Sorcery is like that.” 

Azaka continues on confidently. 

In short, magic seems to be equivalent to a substitute good for civilization. No, from what Azaka said, it may be more accurate to say it has been overtaken by civilization.

“Take making it rain, for example. Whether it's through science or magic, the result is indistinguishable. It's just that the method is different; the amount of effort that goes into it is nearly the same. Sorcery may appear to be the work of an instant, but the preparatory steps required are extensive. If you take the time and money spent, it’s nearly equivalent to making the rainclouds with science. In the past, that really was something close to a miracle. By today's standards, however, it's not a miracle or anything of the sort. Previously, any mage that could turn a whole village to ashes was hailed as a wizard, but these days if you have money, that's something anyone can do. All that is required is to throw one missile.”

That method would actually be much faster and more effective, Azaka adds. 

'''TN: Next paragraph was VERY weird so translation was a bit difficult, I'll rework it when I do the final version.'''

“Sorcery is nothing more than making possible through your own strength what can be done now after spending a mind-boggling amount of time on the problem. It might be so even if you look at it academically. Rather than looking/thinking for decades in order to obtain the truth, it might be faster to go to the moon and look/think there. It's frustrating, but sorcery is of the 'taboo ritual'(秘儀禁忌) type, so it cannot achieve miracles.  --- A miracle is something beyond the powers of humanity, isn't it? Something currently unachievable in this world no matter how much money you throw at it. The ones who can make those things are called wizards, and their art, magic.” 

Something humans can't do yet. That is magic, is what Azaka said. 

“Then, wouldn't there have been more wizards than mages in the past? Since people in those days wouldn’t have had lighters or missiles.” 

"You are right. That is why a wizard was a feared figure in the past, and why being one could even be called a job. These days, though, it's different, isn't it? Strictly speaking, they aren't needed, the things called mages. These days, magic itself is disappearing. After all, you can count on your fingers the number of things that are impossible for humanity, can't you? Whatever the case, they say that there are only about five wizards in the world today." 

... Sure enough. With those meanings there would be a difference between mages and wizards. If we are talking about things that humanity can't do currently, the only things would be the control of time and space. Seeing the future or the past isn't reliable, but this is a time when such things are becoming possible, so impossibilities really are able to be counted on one hand. 

Someday --- humanity will eliminate the very existence of magic. Kind of like how a child, who became a scientist because he was intrigued by a number of events he thought miraculous, loses that sense of wonder as he comes to think of those events as simple phenomena in the course of his research. 

"Hmm. In that case, wouldn't the last magic be something like the power to make everyone happy?" 

Umm. I can't say I know much about all this. 

"----." 

For some reason, Azaka has shut herself up. 

She appeared to look this way, with a face as if she was looking at something unexpected, but suddenly turns away. 

"... Magic is something that can't be reached. And I never wanted to be a wizard. Learning sorcery is just for the purpose of achieving my goals." 

"Really? So magic is out, but if it's sorcery you will learn it? That sounds like what you just said, Azaka." 

When I summed up the talk by coming to that conclusion, Azaka shakes her head, and says no. 

"What have you been listening to, Nii-san? 

Sorcery was magic too, in the past. All that happened was that humanity caught up to it, so its learning and use has become possible with effort. 

... It's frustrating, but I don't have any built-up history like a mage's family heritage. Those people we call mages are families who build up their blood and history. The first of them would have been simple academics too. The mysteries that they have learned, and the strength they built up, they pass those on to the next generation. Their descendants continue their work, and pass it on to their own descendants. --- In this way, they repeat an endless cycle as they try to approach the bounds of magic. Touko-san seems to be the sixth generation, but apparently the third generation heir of their family was an incredible genius and discovered some amazing things. I think Touko-san's gifts are a result of carrying that thick blood as well. People like me who are just starting to learn magic now can't become mages that easily." 

"Hmm. Sounds like you are going to find it tough, for many reasons." 

Mmm, I suddenly understood something. 

Thick blood --- the power of your bloodline. 

That's true for any family. To us it may be our many relatives, or the wealth you have inherited. 

But, in the end, that --- 

"Oii, then what are you doing? Ours is a normal family. Never mind magic, we've never even dipped into Buddhism. Wouldn't it be that we can't learn things like magic?" 

"That's correct, but apparently we have the potential. According to Sensei, the delicacy shown when I ignite something isn't very common." 

Azaka speaks as if she's sulking. 

... Ah, geez, what good is being able to set things on fire going to do her? It could even be that this brat was the one responsible for the fire in the student dormitory. 

"Hey, you said it yourself that an ability that ends with one generation is useless. Then whatever you do is pointless. Even if you try to become a mage instead of a wizard, it will end up no different in the end. If you don't come back to a normal path quickly, you won't even be able to find a job." 

It's hard finding jobs these days as it is. 

Azaka immediately tried to refute that statement. 

Before that could happen --- an even more offensive piece of dialogue came leaping into the office with the sound of footsteps. 

"No, getting a job won't be a problem. With that level of skill at her age, in just two years' time she'll be getting offers left and right. She could even be hired as a first-class curator." 

With a loud whuffing noise, the door opens and Touko-san enters the room. 

<center>* * *</center>

Having shed her cold, Touko-san walks over to the chief's desk so briskly that you wonder if she was ever sick. 

Sitting down after hanging her coat on the chair, she looked at her desk and frowned. Probably because the location of the letter opener was different from before. 

"Azaka, I told you not to use someone else's things. A person becomes dull if they rely upon tools. I suppose it was because you didn't want to fail in front of Kokutou, right?" 

"--- yes, you are right." 

Upon being reprimanded by Touko-san, Azaka replies clearly even as her cheeks become red with embarrassment. ... It's those things about her that deserve to be admired, even if she is my little sister. 

"Well, you were having a pretty interesting talk. Weren't you disinterested in sorcery before, Kokutou?" 

"Of course I was, but... Oh, by the way, Touko-san. Do you remember yesterday?" 

"Eh?" Having taken off her glasses, Touko-san cocks her head in confusion. 

...That already mysterious conversation from last night, the one who began it doesn't remember talking about it. 

Touko-san pulls out a cigarette and takes a puff as she holds it in her mouth. 

"Anyway, Azaka. Why are you telling such things to Kokutou? Concealment and secrecy are the greatest prerequisites for sorcery. ... Although, I suppose there wouldn't be any problems if the person you are talking to is Kokutou." 

"What's okay if it's me?" 

"You won't understand even if we tell you. There's no reason for the secret to escape either. Since you are the type that knows how to choose the topic depending on the person. You wouldn't talk about that kind of thing with a normal human." 

"That may be so, but --- Is it really not good for a sorcerer to be exposed to others?" 

"Indeed, it's bad. Although it wouldn't really matter socially, the power of your sorcery falls. Do you know the origin of the word 'mystery', Kokutou?" 

Touko-san asked that as she brought her body forward on the desk. 

"When you say mystery, do you mean the sort of mystery in mystery novels?" 

"In a way. Not the detective novel sort, but mystery in the mystical sense." 

"Yeah, I do. It's originally Greek, not English." 

"... Well, that's true. In Greek it means to close something. Signifying stagnation, concealment, and self-completion. You see, a mystery has meaning in the fact that it is a mystery. Keeping it hidden is a nature of the technique. A sorcery that has had its nature revealed can't become a mystery, no matter what kind of supernatural methods it uses. It's nothing more than another method. Once that happens, that sorcery instantly becomes weaker. 

Sorcery was originally magic too. In short, there was no question that the strength was pulled out from the origin that was its source. Should we imagine for a moment that there was something along the lines of a 'mystery that makes you rich'? Let's say that this has a strength of 10. If only one person knows it, they can use the entire force of 10 of its power. But if two people know it, that it gets halved into two units of 5 and gets used like that. See, it's gotten weaker, hasn't it? The way of expressing it may be different, but I think that this is a fundamental rule in regards to everything in this universe." 

I can't understand all of what Touko-san is saying, but I think I get the point she is trying to convey. 

If concealment and obscurement is the law of existence that thing called sorcery exists by, I understand why mages would be reluctant to reveal their sorcery in front of others. 

"In that case, you must do as you please where others can't see you, Touko-san." 

"Nope, I don't." 

Zkk, Touko-san started talking as she stubbed out the cigarette in her ashtray. 

"I wouldn't have a choice in a battle between mages, but otherwise I don't use it even if I'm alone. The only time I use sorcerous techniques is when it's required for a ritual, or in a ceremony in order to proceed to the next level. 

Some time around the medieval era or so, an organization called the Association was formed. Because of their excessive regulation of sorcery, the Association foresaw the degeneration of mages. So they took the power of their organization and turned sorcery itself into something that is never revealed. What they did was to take a mystery that was visible and turn it into a mystery that no one knew about. As a result, mystery began to disappear from society. 

In order to strictly enforce this, the Association made some pretty byzantine rules. 

For example, if a mage pulls a civilian into a magical phenomenon, the association will dispatch an assassin to kill that mage. This is done to destroy the entity that is harming the larger community of mages. ... That's probably where the myth that a mage that reveals himself to people loses his power came from. 

The Association tried to stop the degeneration of sorcery by reinforcing the attribute of concealment, and as a result, those mages that belonged to the Association came to not throw their sorcery around with abandon. 

There were mages who resented those restrictions and retreated into the countryside, but the Association holds enormous amounts of academic works and lands. Most of what a mage requires to live as a mage is monopolized by the Association. To not belong to the Association was to be the same as being the outcast in a village. If you wanted to do an experiment, all the territories where the node lines met were owned by the Association, and if you tried to learn sorcery, you couldn't obtain any texts, so you couldn't learn anything. Therefore, a mage who was not a member of the Association could not practice sorcery even if they wanted to. That's the power of a multitude. In that respect, it's very impressive." 

"Uh, Touko-san. In that case, does that mean I would have to join the Association too...?" 

Azaka's hesitantly interrupting voice somehow held a note of unease. 

"You don't have to, but doing so would be more convenient. It's not as if you can't come out once you go in. You are free to leave that place when you wish. Since they regard the fact that they aren't rulers very seriously." 

"But in that case there's no meaning to their extraordinary levels of concealment. Sorcery would spread if those who have learned magic enter the outside world." 

Upon hearing Azaka's reasonable opinion, Touko-san goes, Ahhh, and nods. 

"That's true. Actually, there are a lot of people who plan to study at the Association and gain power, then leave for the countryside. Such thoughts tend to disappear after about ten years, though. Because the Association is the optimal environment for leaning sorcery. To go down to the countryside when everything a mage needs is already around you, no one does that kind of stupid thing '''(TN: Lol. Look who's talking, although I suppose most mages don't have seal orders upon their persons)'''. Studying sorcery is the foremost objective of a mage. They don't think about using their power and the things they've learned. If they have that kind of time to spare, they use it to approach an even higher level of mystery. But since Azaka has a fundamentally different objective from us, you don't need to worry about being infected with the Association's poison even if you decide to join. If you are interested in reaching higher levels, it's a place that might be worth looking into." 

Azaka knits her eyebrows together as if that's troublesome. In the end, it appears as though Azaka herself has no interest it doing something like that. To me, who doesn't like the idea of his little sister studying abroad in a suspicious place like that, Azaka's pondering comes as a welcome relief. 

"... I'll just ask one thing. What do you mean when you say that secrets are kept even within that Association?" 

Unexpectedly, I hear something from the sofa. 

Over there is Shiki, who has been sitting there since before without a word. She's the type of person who doesn't get involved in a conversation that she's not interested in, so until now she had been staring at the scenery outside the window. 

"--- There is that. A mage won't reveal the results of his experiments even within the Association. What the person next to them is researching, what their goals are, and what they have obtained are all a mystery. The only time a mage will reveal the results of their work is when they are passing it on to their descendants just before they die." 

"Studying for their benefit alone, yet not using that power for their own sake? What purpose is there in a life like that, Touko? Is it that the goal is to learn, and the process is to learn too? If the only things you have are the beginning and the end, that's the same as having a zero." 

... As usual, Shiki talks like a guy with that fine and clear feminine voice of hers. 

Touko-san appeared to have a faint bitter smile on her face, as if Shiki's biting remarks had hit a nerve somewhere. 

"There is a goal. However, what you said is correct too. A mage is pursuing a zero. His life is pointing towards something that never existed in the first place. 

A mage's ultimate goal, you see, is to reach the 'maelstrom of origins'. It's also called the Akashic Record, but it may be better to just regard the edge of the maelstrom as having such properties attached to it. 

The thing called the maelstrom of origins, it is probably the birthplace of everything. All phenomena flow out from it. If you know the origin, the results are naturally produced. To describe it as it is, you could say that it is the 'perfect knowledge'. By creating a standard like perfection or the like, we are ultimately limiting the concept, so even that description is incorrect. But since that the easiest way of defining it, the name stuck. 

Essentially, all the branches of magic that have spread throughout this world are nothing more than one branch of a small river flowing out from this maelstrom. This is the reason that every country has their own traditions and legends. The core is the same, but what decorates the exterior is the background of the one who understood that 'river'. Astrology, alchemy, kabbala, spiritualism, rune, the innumerable researchers. Their origins are the same, so in the end they hold the same final destination in mind. Because, they who have touched the tip of the stream that split off from the maelstrom of origins called magic, they have imagined what lay before --- the shape of the beginning. 

To reach the truth is the ultimate goal of all mages. They don't have any desire for petty things like the meaning of life. All they want is to know the shape of pure truth. They are that collective of people. Those who abandon self in order that they may gaze upon their souls --- the multitude who can never be rewarded for their efforts. The world calls them mages." 

Speaking with a clear voice, Touko-san's gaze is sharper than ever. Her amber eyes flicker as if they are on fire. 

... That may be so, but unfortunately, I can't understand even half of what was just said. 

I only understood one thing from that speech, so I decided to ask her about it. 

"Uh, can I ask something? If there is an objective, wouldn't studying have a meaning as well? Not being able to be compensated ...., Uhm, is it like that? No one has managed to reach it, have they?" 

"Someone did. We know that it exists because somebody managed to get there. Those magics that still exist today are things left behind by the ones who got there. 

But --- Those ones who got to that side never came back. Mages who were great enough to leave their names behind in history were lost at the very moment they got to that point. Whether that place is such a wonderful world, or if it's a world you cannot escape once you get to it. Those are things no one knows. Without getting there themselves, that is. However, reaching it with the efforts of one generation is impossible. The reason mages shed blood during their research, and pass the results of their work to their descendants, is to amplify their magic power. It's nothing but a way of creating a descendant who can reach the maelstrom of origins. You see, many generations of mages have already dreamed of the maelstrom of origins, died, and passed on their work to their children, who in turn added to it and passed it onto their children. There's no end to it. They can never be compensated for it, either. Even if a family that has reached that point were to appear, it would probably be impossible --- because there are meddlers." 

In contrast with her words, which suggest hatred, Touko-san lets loose a dry laugh. In a manner that makes it seems that she thinks it good that there is such a meddler in this world. 

"Well, what I am saying is that it is simply not possible no matter which side you are on. Today's mages can't reach the maelstrom and impose a new system --- a new branch of magic." 

Touko-san says this with a shrug, as if saying 'that's the end of this long story'. 

With that Azaka and I were unable to say anything, but Shiki alone points out the contradiction in Touko-san's story. 

"What strange people. Why do you people continue, even though you know it's beyond you?" 

"Who knows? Maybe all those people who call themselves 'mages' are those who were born without the ability to grasp the concept of 'impossible', or idiots who can't give up." 

Touko-san cleanly acknowledges the statement with a shrug. 

Seeing that, Shiki went, 'What, you already knew', as if she was surprised.

<center>* * *</center>

When an hour or so had passed after the end of the conversation, the office had regained its usual tranquility. 

It was getting to be about three in the afternoon, so as a break from work I brewed some coffee for everyone in the room. After getting some Japanese tea for Azaka, I sat back down at my desk. 

As for my work, the overall schedule was set, and my paycheck for the month looked to be safe. The thought relaxed me as I drank the coffee. 

The sound of people sipping tea could be heard echoing through the quiet office. 

Suddenly, as if she was trying to break the peaceful silence permeating the room, Azaka aimed a preposterous question at Shiki. 

"--- Excuse me. Shiki-san is a guy, isn't he?" 

... Enough to almost make me drop my cup, that was truly a hellish question. 

"---." 

That was true for Shiki, too. Taking her lips off the cup of coffee in her hands, she makes a face which suggests she is offended, but at a loss for words at the same time. In her current state, she has no rebuttal for my idiotic little sister. 

Seeing that as a sign of victory, Azaka continues. 

"Since you aren't denying it, you must be acknowledging the fact. You are definitely a guy, Shiki-san." 

"Azaka!" 

Dear lord. Unable to contain myself, I ended up jumping in. 

These kind of questions need to be ignored, but in this particular case I wasn't in my right mind. 

I got up confidently enough, but no suitable words come to mind. Without another word, I sat down again. ... I felt like a soldier from some defeated army. 

"Don't fuss over unimportant details, you." 

In a very angry voice, Shiki gives Azaka a reply. Seeing as how she's rubbing her temple with one hand, it could be that she's trying contain her temper. 

"Really? But this is a very important matter." 

Like Shiki, who is always outwardly cool, Azaka responds coolly as well. With her elbows upon the desk and her fingers laced, Azaka's appearance is that of a chairman conducting a meeting. 

"An important matter, you say. There's not much difference whether I'm a boy or a girl. It doesn't have anything to do with you, Azaka. Or are you trying to pick a fight with me?" 

"Something like that would have been decided from our very first meeting."

It feels like the two are glaring at each other, even though neither is looking at the other person. 

... As for me, I would like to know what had been decided, but this isn't the sort of mood in which I should ask that question. 

"... Azaka. I don't know why you feel you must bring this up again after all this time, but in the hopes that it will be the last time I will say it again. Shiki is a girl, definitely." 

First, I just said that. 

That one statement, which could be wrapped around Azaka's rudeness while restraining Shiki's displeasure - for some reason, it felt like it scraped their nerves even rawer than before. 

"I know something like that. Keep quiet for a second, Nii-san." 

If you know, then why are you asking, you?!

"What I want to ask isn't her physical sex. All I want to confirm is what side her psychological sex leans towards. Although, superficially at least, Shiki-san seems like a man." 

Stressing the word 'seems', Azaka looks at Shiki out of the corner of her eyes. 

Shiki gets more and more disgruntled. 

"If my body's a girl's, it doesn't matter what side my personality is. What will you do if I am a guy, brat?" 

"I wonder, do you want me to introduce you to a girl from Reien?" 

--- Ah. 

Hearing Azaka's words that are no longer dancing around the issue and have become a straight-out challenge, I finally understood. 

That Azaka, is she still not letting go of what happened on that night two years ago? 

The Chinese New Year during my first year of high school. There was a time when I invited Shiki over to my house as we went home after visiting the temple together. Azaka had been at home for once for the winter holidays, and being confronted with Shiki, she fell into a mildly shocked state. That wasn't unexpected, either. At the time, Shiki still had another personality called SHIKI. Coming face to face with Shiki's voice and way of acting, which had been even closer to the picture of a healthy young man, Azaka had fallen ill for a whole day. 

Even so, she had gone too far just now. I can't help her even if she gets beaten up by Shiki. 

"You know, Azaka..." 

At exactly the same time as I stood up again to glare at Azaka, Shiki got up from the sofa. 

"I'll pass. Those Reien bitches, there's not a proper one among them." 

Hn, Shiki snorted, and then she just left the office. 

The navy kimono swishes as it disappears from my field of vision. 

I thought about running after her, but that could all too easily have the effect of pouring oil upon the fire of Shiki's displeasure instead. 

Thanking the gods for the miracle that nothing had happened, I sat down and drained the now-cool coffee in one shot. 

"Pity. In the end, I may have taken a blow instead." 

Tch. Clicking her tongue, Azaka loosens her posture, stretching her arms as she leans her body on the backrest of her chair, as if she had been in a ready-to-fight state until now as well. 

... I've always thought this, but why does Azaka's personality take a turn for the worse whenever she talks with Shiki? 

This time, though, I feel that I can't let things pass without saying something to her. 

"Azaka. What was that just now?" 

"What do you mean, what? It's all because the relationship between Nii-san and Shiki-san isn't clear. Haven't you ever had any thoughts like that? Whether Ryougi Shiki is befriending Nii-san as a girl, or as a guy?" 

While her manner of speech is stern, Azaka's blushing as she talks. Because of that imbalance, I realised the point my little sister was trying to make. 

"Azaka, we call that an idiot's conjecture. Whether Shiki is a girl or a boy, it's not something for us to use as a conversation topic. And furthermore, Shiki is originally a girl, so even if her way of thinking is that of a guy, it doesn't make much difference, does it?" 

Azaka narrows her eyes and glares at me. 

"--- Okay then. So what Nii-san is saying is that as long as she's a girl there aren't any real problems. In other words, you think that relationships between the same sex are wrong. In that case, answer me this. 

Let's say that here we have a man who has become a woman through a sex change and a woman who has become a man by the same method. In the event that both these people truly love Nii-san, who would you choose? The one whose appearance is that of a woman but is really a man inside, or the one whose body is that of a man but whose mind is a woman's? Now, give me an answer." 

...Azaka's question is... difficult. 

The more you think about it, the more it becomes evident that it is a situation in which you cannot choose either side. 

If you just think about it casually, of course you would choose the person whose sex is female over the one who was originally a woman but now has the body of a man. But that person's mind is still that of a man, so it leads on to mean that she likes Kokutou Mikiya as a man. 

I couldn't trivialize the matter to the point where I was able to think that a person's sex didn't matter in love. In that case, however, it means that I recognize men and women only by their outward appearance, so I start to feel that I'm an ugly person inside. On top of that, relationships between the same sex are prohibited from the beginning, so a situation in which a man loves Kokutou Mikiya as a man isn't acceptable either. Then the one I choose would be the one who likes me as a woman, but that person's sex is male --- Ahah, why do I have to hurt my head over a question like this?! 

... Wait a second. This, isn't there something paradoxical about it from the start? Although you don't accept a relationship between people of the same sex, either choice has the trap of being a same-sex relationship. 

When I realized that and lifted my head, Touko-san was holding in a laugh as if she found the whole matter amusing. 

"--- That's unfair, Azaka. This is the famous question in which「Truth and Lies co-exist」!"

"Yes, you are right. It's the famous Euphemenide's Paradox." 

"True, to Kokutou it's a source of a devastating paradox. You guys really don't let things get boring for me. Is the Kokutou family all like this, Azaka?" 

In stark contrast to the still laughing Touko-san, Azaka is looking this way with an earnest expression on her face. ... So that was it. This girl was worrying about me in her own fashion. In that case, since Shiki herself wasn't clear on the subject, I at least have to clearly state my opinion on the subject. 

"... Yeah, I think I understand what you're trying to say, Azaka. It's just that I don't particularly mind which way Shiki leans. Even if you were to say that Shiki was SHIKI, I don't think I would feel any different." 

When I said that while scratching my cheek to hide my embarrassment, Azaka got angry and jumped up from her seat. 

"--- So are you saying it's okay even if you are going out with SHIKI?" 

"... Uhm. Well, yeah." 

Suddenly, something bulky slammed into my face. 

"That's too filthy --- !" 

Dadadada, the sound of someone running out. 

By the time I thought, 'Ah, that book Azaka was reading until just now was what came flying', I was alone in the office with Touko-san. 

Shiki had left after getting angry with Azaka, and Azaka had just run out. 

As for me, I was glaring at Touko-san, who was still laughing as I gingerly felt my aching face. 

<center>* * *</center>

And so, two hours passed and the time came to go home. 

Neither Shiki nor Azaka came back, so I thought about dropping by Shiki's apartment while brewing the coffee that had become a ritual before leaving work. 

"Oh, that's right. Sorry Kokutou, but I need you to do some extra work for me." 

Those kind of worries disappear at the one statement Touko-san san throws my way as we drink the coffee. 

"Extra work? Did you take up some new task?" 

"No, it's not something related to that side. It isn't anything that will get you money. I went out this morning for this, you see, and I heard an interesting story from a detective that I'm indebted to. Kokutou, do you know about Kayamahama's Ogawa [[Kara_no_Kyoukai:Chapter05_Glossary_and_Notes|Mansion]]?" 

"By Kayamahama, you must mean that apartment complex that they built on the reclaimed land. The one they say is a futuristic model or something." 

"Yes, that one. Was it thirty minutes by subway from here? It's a neighborhood that uses land in a posh manner that's unthinkable to us living here in the city. Well, you see, back when they were developing that place, there was one mansion that I briefly checked out. It seems that there was an uncanny incident there. 

At about ten o'clock last night, an office worker in her twenties got mugged in the street. The victim was a woman, so it was probably a rape attempt. Unfortunately, the victim got stabbed with a knife. The criminal fled down the street, but the victim couldn't do that. The victim, who was stabbed in the abdomen didn't even have a cell phone. The crime scene was the apartment complex, too. Which meant there wasn't any reason to expect there to be any shops nearby, and if it's ten at night there are hardly any people going by. So as she bled out, she went into the nearest apartment to ask for help. 

But that apartment building's first and second floors weren't in use. They say that it's only from the third floor up that the mansion is inhabited. By the time the woman got to the third floor using the elevator, she knew her body had reached its limit. She screamed for someone to help her from that location for about ten minutes, but none of the apartment residents heard her, and at 11 PM she died." 

... It's a tragic story. 

These days, as apartment buildings get larger and larger, there is increasingly less contact between neighbors. Or rather, it seems that there is an unspoken rule in the city now that ignoring others is polite. 

I remember hearing a story similar to the one just now from a friend of mine. That one night, screams could be heard from the apartment a floor below, but not one person went to help, and when morning came they found that the child of that family had been killed by the parents. Apparently the other apartment residents had heard but ignored it, thinking that it was someone playing around. 

"The problem starts from there. They say that the victim’s cries for help could be heard even from the apartment building next door. Not screams, but the sound of a human asking for help. The people in the building next door say that they ignored it, thinking that since it was so loud, the people in that building would obviously run over to see what was wrong." 

"What? --- Are you saying that the people in that apartment building didn't know?" 

"Yeah, that's what they're saying. Without exception, they are all saying that it was a quiet night as usual. Well, if that was all, there wouldn't be anything too strange about it, but previously in that mansion there was one more case just like this one. I didn't hear many details, but that detective came asking for advice since there is something suspicious about something so weird happening twice." 

"... So, you are telling me to investigate the place, boss." 

"No, we will go to the actual location together. What you can do is find a real estate agent and get a list of residents so that you can quickly investigate where they all lived previously. Seeing as it's not something you can earn any money from, you can take your time. The deadline is December." 

Replying that I understood, I put my cup of coffee to my lips. 

... For some reason, I got the feeling that I was stepping into another weird situation. 

"But you know, Kokutou." 

"Yes?" 

"Are you... really fine if Shiki is a guy?" 

... If I was talking to Gakuto right now, I would have sprayed out the coffee I was holding in mouth without hesitation. 

"... Probably not. I do like Shiki, but if I were to express my desires, I prefer her as a girl." 

"Eh, what is that? So boring. In that case, there's no problem." 

What a disappointment, Touko-san shrugs, and lifts the cup of coffee to her mouth. 

... There's, no, problem? 

"Wait a minute. What do you mean by 'there's no problem'? That's something that ---." 

"Yeah. Shiki's definitely a girl mentally too. There's no way she wouldn't be a girl when the yang-aligned SHIKI's already disappeared." 

That's --- But, in that case, what's with that manner of speech of hers? Didn't the Shiki from before use a girl's way of talking? 

"Look here, the one that took the male as being the yang side and the female as the yin side in the first place is Shiki, wasn't it? In that case, the story's simple. The idea of yin and yang comes from the Taegukdo. Do you know about Korea's Taegeuk? It's a circle shape." 

'''TN: I have no idea what Taegukdo would be in English so if someone knows pm me with the English equivalent. Or post in the translation notes thread in the forums.'''

If you say a circle shape... She may be talking about that picture where you take a circle and divide it into two with a wavy line in the middle. That's not a simple half-moon shape, but a twisted half-circle that looks as if two souls are trying to grab each other's tails. If we were to describe it as a word the 'の' character is close to that nuance. 

"If you talk about a Taegeukdo, one half is white, the other half black. And whichever side you look at, there is a small hole of the other color punched into it. A black spot in the white whorl, a white spot in the black whorl. 

You understand right. The black side is the yin; in other words, the woman. This picture is one of halves that are intertwined yet incompatible --- A black and white paradigm." 

"An incompatible --- Paradigm?" 

Those words, I've heard them before. 

"Yeah. It would also be okay to call it yin-yang, light and darkness, right and wrong. It refers to a state where something derived from one original object has been split into two. This, in yin and yang terms, is sometimes known as Ryougi [両儀]." 

"--- Ryougi, that's -" 

"Correct, Shiki's family name. Her dual personality, it was something decided from the remote past. Did she obtain a dual personality because she was a member of the Ryougi family, or was it that they knew a Shiki would be born sometime and took the name Ryougi? It's probably the latter. 

The Ryougi clan is a dynasty, just like the Asagami and the Fujou clans. They are families who are trying to create humans who are beyond human, and used various methods to ensure the birth of an heir. All so that they could pass on their family's 'inheritance'. 

The Ryougi clan is especially interesting. They knew that if they had a supernatural ability, they would one day be destroyed by the civilized world. So they thought up a supernatural ability that would let them appear as normal human beings. --- Hey, Kokutou. Those people we call professionals, why is it that they can only reach the top in one area?" 

Caught off guard by the sudden question, I was unable to give her an answer. 

Today was a very long day, and the information coming into my head was exceeding my limits. On top of which --- To think that Ryougi was born into such a family, just why ---. 

"That's because no matter how perfect a body, or how high the amount of natural aptitude you are born with, you can only put one talent into one person. The higher you climb, the more you are restricted as to what other peaks you can go up, until in the end you cannot climb any others. 

The Ryougi clan solved that problem. By imbuing one body with a countless number of personalities. It's the same as a computer. If you put hundreds upon hundreds of pieces of software into one piece of hardware called Shiki, a professional in all areas is created. That's why their name is Shiki [式]. The Shiki [式] in Shikigami [式神]. The Shiki [式] when you talk about a numerical formula [數式]. A program that fulfils any task required of it perfectly. An empty doll that possesses countless numbers of identities, and can be modified by putting in another personality with different morals, thought patterns, even senses ---." 

Did Shiki already know this? 

...Ahah, she definitely knew. That's why she stubbornly avoided becoming friendlier. Accepting the fact that she wasn't an average person, the fact that she had not been born into a normal family, she had just been trying to live a quiet life ---. 

"This is a continuation on the subject of the Taegukdo, but the division of the chaotic「」into two is [両儀]. In order to further stabilise this, and in order to increase the number of classes available, they divide it into four phenomena [四象]. They then further increase the complexity by cutting it into eight trigrams [八卦]. Like this, they keep dividing by a base of two. This, too, could symbolise Shiki's ability. 

But that no longer exists. A bug appeared in the perfect program, you see. The Shiki you see now, well, there may be slight problems, but she is a perfectly normal human with self-awareness." 

Click. The lighter's flame springs up. 

At Touko-san's words, I'm going 'Eh?' and asking a question again. 

"Why are you making a face like that? The one that broke it was you. A mentally disturbed person, you see, doesn't break down because they don't even dream that they may be mentally disturbed. Shiki was like that before, too. Yeah, but a human called Kokutou Mikiya made her aware of the fact. That the existence of the one called Ryougi Shiki was strange. 

Ah --- That's right. If you were to say it was a rescue, you already saved Shiki two years ago, didn't you?" 

Here, and Touko-san pushed a cigarette at me. 

I don't smoke, but I accepted it and lit up. 

...The first cigarette of my whole life, it had a very indistinct taste. 

"Ugh, the point of the conversation got twisted. And I didn't really feel like talking about Shiki, either. Recently it seems like I keep feeling rushed. My lips are getting loose without me even realising it. Who knows? You might happen to die tomorrow, Kokutou." 

"--- That's a little scary coming from you, Touko-san. I'll be watching out for cars, then." 

"Yeah, that might be good. Anyway, about that Taeguekdo. 

I told you how each side in it has a spot, right? The black in the white, the white in the black. They call this the yin in the yang, and the yang in the yin. 

In short, this is referring to those parts in a male that are feminine and those parts in a woman that are masculine. Saying that someone is yang-aligned just because they use a man's manner of speech is a rash judgement. No matter who it is, every human has some traits of the other sex. Men who like to dress up as women are a prominent example. There's no doubt in my mind that the Shiki right now is the yin-aligned Shiki. The reason she uses a masculine manner of speech is unconscious compensatory behaviour on her part to the dead SHIKI. Maybe because she wants for you at least to remember SHIKI. Kiki, isn't it so cute of her?" 

"---." 

... Ah, now that it's spelled out for me I understand. 

Shiki may talk like a guy now, but she never acts like a guy like she did two years ago. No matter how you look at it, her movements and actions are those of a girl. 

Having lost the half of her called SHIKI, she is still in a very weak and vulnerable state. 

Realizing that, I felt like my heart was being squeezed. 

The Shiki that came out of her sleep of two years was more stable than before, so I had been thinking she was okay. But Shiki was still lonely, no different from back then when it seemed like she could be hurt at any moment. 

I haven't changed either. Even today, I feel that I can't leave Shiki alone like that. 

... That's right. Although I couldn't do anything two years ago. 

If something were to happen again, then this time at least I must save her.