Editing Kami-sama no Inai Nichiyoubi:Volume3 Chapter2 (section)

===Part IV===




Ai did not remember much of what happened after that.

She was deceived.

The fact was the only thing that shook her hard.

—No, no, no, no, like you were deceived, but I don’t think the dorm supervisor has such intentions. It seems that old lady has her own ideals, so—

Alice's words of consolation were more like a blade that pierced her heart deeply. From her perspective, the ‘misinterpretation’ of a mere fact was much more problematic than being deceived by a deliberate deception.

No, please wait a minute. It was a little difficult for her to realize that she was fooled under such circumstances. She was alone in a strange place, surrounded by strange people, surrounded by strange things, and she was trying hard to get used to them. She could only tough it out and try to familiarize herself. If she questioned every new thing that came her way, she would not be able to take a single step forward. Since everyone said "it is what it is", she had no choice but to believe "it is what it is."

What else could she do?

"…Is there another…way…"

Ai sighed and dropped her head, failing to justify herself for the eighty-seventh time.

—I won’t be fooled again!

Upon recalling the words she said to Dee the previous day, she wanted to die. She said she did not want to be fooled again, and never thought that she was being fooled.

She thought she was a bit smarter than that, that her instincts were sharper, like when she realized the truth in Ortus that nobody else realized. However, it was not the case. It was a mere coincidence, and ultimately, things did not turn out so well...

"Raise your right arm."

"…Yes."

The closed eyed girl washed Ai's right arm with a sponge.

Thud, someone caused a bucket to echo.

It was the bathhouse.

The afternoon's work began immediately after that conversation, and Ai wandered aimlessly through it. Midway through, Alice, Dee, and even the girl were worried if Ai was alright, but Ai remained listless the entire time. She remained in this state even until the work ended, and she listlessly did as she was told.

By the way, the girls in Q class had gotten used to this little creature who would wander around unconsciously in the morning and at night, and there was a duty roster centered around the closed eyed girl who would take care of her. This was the treatment Ai had when she was first taken here, so she had misunderstood that it was supposed to be the case, acting like an industrial product on a conveyor belt. Also, she started to think that it was a little bit 'nice and easy'.

"Raise your left hand."

"…Yes."

"Close your eyes."

"…Yes."

Ai closed her eyes and let the hot water drip from the top of her head.

Their conversation had become completely formulaic, and Ai's only response was almost always "yes". She was so overwhelmed with self-loathing, she simply replied, "… yes", and "… yes". "I'll wash your hair", "yes". "Close your eyes", "yes." "Here's some hot water", "yes".

Once again, she felt the hot water flow down on my back. She would usually feel a sense of emptiness in this dull exchange, but this was what she really wished for at this moment.




"Where did you come from, Ai?"




And then, for the first time, the girl with closed eyes asked a question that Ai could neither answer as yes or no to. But Ai's mind was so relaxed that she did not notice.

—Yes. She nearly answered instinctively, but stopped herself.

Erm,

"Ortus…I guess. Probably?"

The response was dramatic.




"Ortus?"




Those washing their skins immediately stopped washing, those soaking in the tub stopped soaking, and those talking stopped talking as everyone surrounded Ai.




"Ortus, as in that Ortus!? Are you a Dead!?" "No, silly sister, that's not possible. What do you mean by that?" "What’s with this stupid question!? Ai, how do you take care of your hair!? Tell us" "…Ai, so small, so cute…"




She thought the world was about to explode. Just moments ago, the girls had been acting like robots, but suddenly came alive as they were shouting and screaming. The colors of their skin became deeper, as if they had been painted on a monochrome picture, and the four colors of black, white, gray, and yellow danced in her field of vision.

"Hey!"

The closed eyed girl shouted at those colors.

"I'll take care of her! That's what we decided in the first place!"

All of them reacted by shivering, and the two timid ones pulled back. But just as quickly, two strong-willed girls stepped forward.

The two blond-haired, blue-eyed girls resembled twins, and they complained.

"We know, we know. That's why we’ve been giving you leeway, prez. But can't we at least talk about her?" "Yeah, Tanya, it’s not fair when you have her to yourself."

A girl with a scholarly air and a pretty forehead who never took of off her glasses even in the bath seemed to be encouraged, and said,

"Of course. In addition, the last few days, we have been silent because we’ve been giving you face as the prez, but Miss Tanya, don’t you think you failed to communicate? I think Miss Ai looks a little disappointed."

The closed eyed girl flinched when this was pointed out

"Th-this isn’t the case, nope!!"

"’Don't say 'nope', Tanya Swedgewood’."

The twins imitated the dorm supervisor’s voice like a stereo, and got the girls giggling. The closed eyed girl was flushed with anger, and splashed water at them. "Now you did it!" and with that voice came the water cannons of retaliation, yells and laughter.

Ai watched on with a blank stare.

It was as if the world had truly changed.

The girls were laughing, angry, chatting , and having fun.

It was here that Ai realized that she had been wrong again.

She realized that she had unwittingly deemed the girls as a background or a backdrop.

She found it was because they were a little aloof to her.


[[Image:Kamisama v03 Illustration 07.jpg|thumb]]

Tanya started to falter increasingly, and the poise she used to have was long gone. The The twins took advantage of the opportunity to ask Ai,

"Hey, hey, little Ai, come here. Let's talk. Leave the heartless prez alone."

"Yes, yes. We have so many questions we want to ask you."

"N-no!"

The twins grabbed Ai's hands and tried to drag her to the bathtub, but Tanya stopped them.

"Why not prez!" "Yeah! Power abuse! Let little Ai go!"

"No! I'm going to take care of her!"

In the center of the chaos in the bathroom, Tanya shook her head repeatedly and clung onto Ai like a stuffed animal.

"E-erm, Miss Tanya."

In her arms, Ai raised her voice.

"………What?"

"I’-I’m suffering a little…"

Tanya came to her senses. Ai's face was completely blocked by two soft objects, just inches away from the peachy flesh.

"Phwoah!"

Ai finally regained her breath.

"E-erm, I'm sorry."

"Ah, no! It’s fine—just, please move away from me… "

Tanya's face turned pale as she quickly misinterpreted Ai’s words.

"Eh, that’s not it! —Well, I’m just, not, used to dealing with naked women…"

The girl with the glasses asked as she was wiping the lenses that were fogged up by the steam.

"? I can understand if it's a man, but why the naked bodies of fellow girls?"

"Ah, yes, men are just muscles, so they feel similar to the Dead."

"???"

Nobody understood Ai's reasoning.

"In comparison, women are round, smooth, and frog-like…"

"F-frog…I don't know how the comparison works, but you shouldn't compare women to frogs…"

"…I like frogs.…"

"Shut up Rune."

Thus the crowd got increasingly rowdy, and there were signs of another big commotion.

"Er-erm..."

But before then, Ai said.

The five girls stopped talking.

"Um, are you all, erm, well, captured and put in this school?h

"…Yes. That’s right."

Tanya nodded her head and turned to her friends.

"It really shocked me in the beginning." "Yeah, and they said corrective work, like, what." "You have it easy, they shot me with a tranquilizer gun." "…They threw a net on me…"

Each of them earnestly recounted their memories.

"…This is cruel."

Ai muttered.

"Why does this school do…such things?"

"Why else…"

Tanya answered the question flatly, as if the question itself was weird.




"It's because we're different…"




Different?

Ai had no idea what the answer meant.

"…I suggest…."

The girl who had been observing in the bathtub, the one they called Rune, raised her hand and blurted out.

"…Let’s introduce ourselves…"

"Oh, this is good." "Agreed~." "I’m fine with this, but…prez?" " Yes, I'm fine.

The five girls surrounded Ai.

…I’ll start…The girl with the blue hair who suggested so sank weakly into the bathtub with a plop.

A girl with glasses then took a step forward.

"I’m next then—nice to meet you, Miss Ai."

"Eh? E-erm, that classmate, who just went underwater…"

"It's okay, don’t worry about her. "

The glasses girl had a thin unhealthy-looking body, and only her eyes and forehead glittered behind her glasses, giving her a mysterious liveliness.

"My name is Volrath Fahren, and I'm an apprentice Plastinator."

"Apprentice Plastinator?"

"That’s someone who makes post-mortem adjustments to the Dead. A doctor of the dead, so to speak."

Ai thought of Diva, whom she had met in Ortus. Diva was a doctor with two different body halves.

"I used to live with the Corpse King and his family, but I got captured by the Dead Hunters. And then they were like ‘You’re a Living and you hang out with the Dead!?’ So I was thrown into the Academy."

"That’s tough…"

"Well, it’s fine though. I got to meet my beloved Hardy."

Volrath's cheeks reddened.




"And my superpower is my grip."




Superpower?

The word was unfamiliar to Ai. She did not know if it was a metaphor or anything.

Volrath ignored Ai’s confusion as she did a live exhibition.

Thack.

There was

There was an abnormal sound, and the girl's thin fingers snapped the mane of a lion spitting hot water as if it were a flower.

"I developed this when I was trapped in a tunnel accident back then. Unfortunately, my arm isn’t very strong, so it can’t help didn't get any stronger, so it didn't help me escape at all..."

Tahaha, Volrath laughed as she crushed the rubble in her hand like a biscuit. It eventually turned into sand and flowed down the drain.

"Us next~" "Next~"

Then the twins stepped forward. They had a dazzling appearance, with golden hair and blue eyes, and they had sophisticated manners in spite of their boisterous personalities. They were the daughters of noblemen.

"I'm the eldest daughter Mimieta Gedenburg, and you can call me Mimi." "I'm Memepo Gedenburg, the second daughter, and you can call me Meme." "Actually, we're not twins," "Yes yes, we're actually triplets."

The twins hugged each other firmly like lovers as they introduced themselves.

"And then I’m Momorency Gedenberg, the third daughter." "and you can call me Momo."

Huh? Ai let out a confused sigh.

The twins introduced themselves as the third person as a matter of fact.

"Well, you know. Momo was the only one of us who died a long time ago and was buried by the Gravekeeper." "So we asked God to let the three of us stay together forever," "And then this happened, right?" "Right?" "Right~".

"One and a half personalities," Volrath added, her glasses shining.

The twins were a dichotomy, with three people sharing two bodies. It was very difficult to distinguish them because they all had similar personalities. Perhaps they could become so because of their similar personalities however.

"By the way, I just said Momo died, but is that right? You sure it’s not me?" "It’s not Mimi, erm…me? Maybe?" "Well, it doesn’t matter, right? We're all doing fine."

"Right~" Ai cupped her head as she saw the two of them lovingly touch their cheeks together. What was going on!? What happened?

"…My real debut…"

At that moment, the water surface split, and a blue haired girl appeared. Wait, Ai had been paying attention to the other three (four?) people. Did she remain underwater the entire time?

"…Rune Sagittarius…"

In spite of her flashy appearance, the blue-haired, blue-eyed  girl introduced herself with a whisper..

"…Ability is to breathe underwater…fine with fresh water and salt water…just not cold water …"

…And people call me mermaid…Ai wondered why she had to talk if she was so embarrassed. Rune exhaled and floated on the bathtub again, probably worn out from having to talk.

"…And, I'm Tanya Swedgewood."

Finally, the girl with closed eyes said her name.

"My ability is clairvoyance—actually, I'm blind."

Tanya opened her closed eyes just a little. The eyes were small and distorted, and it was obvious that they could not accept light. The eyes that appeared to be shut were really shut.

"As a substitute, I have developed this power…I can hear the scenery."

"??? What do you mean?"

"Well, this may be hard for others to understand, but…you see, I can hear colors and shapes as sounds. For example, I can hear the sound of green, squares, smoke. Do you understand?"

She did not.

It was an everyday tune that no one but Tanya could understand.

"…I have been hearing your sound…"

Tanya stared at Ai and said,

"…You have a nice sound, very honest, but it’s very twisted. It feels like a ‘rainbow reaching to the moonlight’…do you understand what I mean?"

She did not understand.

At the very least though, she knew Tanya cared about her. No, it was not just her. Everyone in class was the same, but she never noticed such a thing.

Ai let out a big sigh, as if she were letting out her soul. She arched her back and looked at the wet floor.

"E-erm..."

Tanya, who had been watching her, seemed to muster her courage as she slowly spoke,

"Did you feel it, disgusting…?"

Ai lifted her head in shock once she heard the feeble voice and words.

She saw that the five pairs of eyes were lacking in the mischief they had before, and instead, they were replaced with the color of fear, fear of rejection.

As soon as Ai saw this, a switch was flipped inside her.

She naturally straightened her back, her timid heart vanished without a trace. At this moment, she became someone who could say what she had to..

It was not easy for the girls to expose their differences, and beneath their ruckus were bare, innocent hearts.

"It's not creepy at all."

Ai made eye contact with the girl who could not see, and said so loudly, hoping for them to hear.

"Everyone’s beautiful."

The tension in the group eased. The glasses girl (Volrath) and mermaid (Rune) looked happy, the twins teased each other to hide their embarrassment, and Tanya just let out a breath.

"Um?"

Ai asked.

"Do all the people in the school have such powers?"

The five of them exchanged looks, but did not answer Ai until the ‘chairperson’ Tanya did.

"…Hm, there were normal people attending this school years ago, but now the only ones left here have some ability…"

"…Why did they do this? Why did they capture us?"

"Hmm.~ Well, I heard it started out as a quarantine and protection facility, a place where strange children were collected from their home countries and educated, but it has changed completely recently…"

—After this year, there would not be anyone below the age of fifteen, and after next year, there would not be anyone below the age of sixteen. The change had caused a bottleneck in the school, and the originally violent management had become more so.

"This really is a horrendous place. They wanted to let the school exist as much as possible, even if it meant blackmail or anything underhanded…rumors had it that this place can continue to exist even when no children can be born…that’s why they had been abducting people to prevent the school from."

"Ueeh, that’s weird…Hmm?"

Then Ai suddenly realized,

"But how did they find out about me?

Ai tilted her head, and so did everyone. "I didn’t do anything to expose myself, right…?" it was hard for everyone else to speak up except for one however, "Isn’t it obvious?"

"…Ai, you're young…speaking of which, why are you young …?

Rune asked, and the others basically begged her "Read the mood!" It seemed that since she could live underwater, this watergirl had a tendency to disregard the atmosphere.

" I'm half Gravekeeper, half human, and I'm twelve years old. …"

"Twelve years old?"

"Oh, that's not important. It's the half that's…"

"I thought you were about nine…"

Ai puffed up. The five of them hurried to continue the conversation.

"But half is amazing! It's one of the best abilities in our school!"

Volrath probably assumed it was a compliment, "Wow!", for she repeated away.

"It's not that great. I've seen an immortal, and someone who can kill with just her sense."

"Hampnie Hambert!"

"Idol of Murder!

A shudder spread throughout.

"What’s going on!? You've met all those people before, Ai!?" "Amazing!" "Yes! I have a question! If you meet an Idol of Murder, will you really die die?" "…Ai, are you dead…?"

Ai was getting used to the explosion of questions for the umpteenth time. It was pointless to try and hear every word.

"What about everyone?"

Ai took the initiative.

"Have you been here for long?"

Tanya answered as a representative,

"Well, me and the twins have been here for four years, Volrath and Rune for two—as for the boys who aren’t here, Hardy and Gigi have been here a year—Alice just got here last week."

"It's been that long…"

"…Yes."

The eyes that could not see looked into the distance.

"Of course, we’ve been here for so long…I used to want to get out of here so many times, to go home…over and over again…"

They all nodded in agreement once she seemingly muttered to herself..

"I see. …"

When Ai heard this, she felt a surge of excitement within her.

It was a warm, sure, confident fever.

"… I can't stay like this!"

She stood up immediately and slapped her cheeks.

"I'm motivated!"

Her eyes were glittering, her nose snorting, her hands on her hips.The dejected mood she had beforehand was long gone, and she lifted her head up high.

And Ai declared—




"I'm here to help you!"




And Alice smashed through the floor.