The World God Only Knows:Volume 2 Chapter 1
Chapter 1: The Accursed Game
In this world, there exist people with a superb sense of smell.
A famous producer who raised many outstanding singers was quoted saying: “A real person will definitely look dazzling.” This wasn’t just a hyperbole, but that to the eyes of a thoroughbred, musicians with potential just look that they’re covered in light.
No matter whether they’re performing in live houses that are so small or on the roadside, a producer with ability can use his eyes to search out singers who have a chance to make it big. And the producers make their decisions based on how much the opponent sparkles.
In other words, this is called ‘The Art of Recognition’.
A sushi chef from an old shop in Ginza said,
“When walking in a fish market, the feet will naturally move towards the best fish of the day.”
This should be called the sixth sense. Only a chef like this who trained so hard in the art of sushi making could have such instincts. To an ordinary person, this could only be described as extraordinary.
The body would move on its own.
In other words, the body would ‘naturally react’ based on experience.
The chairman of a companies that manages comedians said,
“I can somewhat smell something from these young people that are continuing to grow.”
“This smell, well, it’s not whether it smells good or not, but whether it’s fragment. Everyone’s smell is a little different. Anyway, it’s sour!”
Eh? Isn’t this just because someone didn’t took a shower?
One mustn’t be hasty and make such conclusions. At least this chairman did groom a few great comedians, and earned big bucks while managing the business. It’s probably that he could use ‘smell’ to sense other people’s talents.
In other words, he could ‘sniff out’ talent.
To raise a more radical example,
“Let me tell you. An angel’s whispering to me that ‘it’s this one, this ticket will definitely rise~’, fufu.”
A genius stockbroker said this. An ordinary person would feel that ‘this is just ridiculous’ on hearing this explanation, but he did become a really wealthy man. From this pitch, one might think that he really heard an Angel whispering to his ear.
That’s probably it.
Anyway, whether this was a result gained from talent, hard work or innate experience, this ability is no different from superpowers to an ordinary person, and they used this instinct to develop into a target.
If this ability can be described through having a superb sense of smell.
Then it could be truly proclaimed,
That Katsuragi Keima had that ‘instint’.
And that he had Heaven’s blessings.
It was completely a coincidence that he would get off from the stop—the previous train was stuck because of power shortcut, causing the tracks themselves to be unaccessible.
Keima, who came all the way out to buy bishoujo games, and Elsie, who accompanied him out, could only listen to the audio broadcast of the station attendant ‘Please take other modes of transport. We apologize for any inconvenience’. They got off three stops before their destination and walked out of the gantry gate. Keima used his PFP to check it out. It seemed that a bus stop near the station had a bus that would pass by his house.
Under the furnace-like blazing sun of summer, Keima was a little impatient as he arched his back and walked out.
His hands were holding onto a bag full of games.
Elsie reached her hands out to block the sun and looked a little troubled as the heat that was reflected off the tarmac road would make anyone standing around sweat crazily.
The sweat flowed past Elsie’s white face.
Speaking of which…
Elsie started to think. She had never gotten off from this stop. This place gave a rather empty feeling as there didn’t seem to be anyone else around.
The sunlight was really vicious and all of the scenery was clearly divided into light and shadow.
“…A lot of shops aren’t open.”
Elsie muttered, and thus, Keima, who was walking slightly in front, impatiently looked back.
“Elsie, what are you doing? Let’s go!”
“Ah, okay, Kami nii-sama!”
Elsie ran and chased up to Keima, and both of them walked together side by side. After moving about 200m,
“Eh? Kami nii-sama, shouldn’t we be going this way>:
Keima suddenly went into a branched road, and Elsie raised her doubt in surprise. They should be walking for another 100 meters before the reach the bus stop.
However, Keima,
“…Eh, this.”
Answered in a rare ambiguous manner.
“I don’t know why.”
Even he himself tilted his head in a puzzled manner,
“But it feels that I have to walk here.”
As he said that, he continued to walk forward quickly.
Elsie hurriedly chased him.
“Wa, wait for me, kami nii-sama!”
Keima turned 2, 3 times from the road to the lane, and his was walking faster and faster.
He didn’t run.
Even so, it seemed that he was pulled by something as he quickly moved his feet. His speed itself was really fast.
As the lower half of his body was too fast, the upper body that was holding the bag was tilting backwards as it couldn’t keep up.
“Uu? Oh?”
Even Keima himself widened his eyes and smirked. As his upper body couldn’t keep up while his feet was continuing to move forward, it looked really mysterious.
“Ka, kami nii-sama?”
Elsie started to panic and flailed her arms around as she chased Keima with all she got. Keima himself however continued to move down this lane.
And he walked deeper and deeper in.
He entered the deep part of a dark alley, and the darkness inside there was even a little unbelievable. Then,
“!”
Keima’s feet suddenly stopped, and it was like he finished leading them.
He regained his usual composed expression.
“Ho, haa.”
Elsie finally managed to catch up as she was pressing onto her knees and panting heavily. Then,
“Fuu.”
She took a deep breath and then stood up.
“Really~ what’s wrong with you, kami nii-sama?”
Elsie lifted her head and saw Keima pushing his glasses up and rubbing around his eyebrows.
“Elsie…”
Keima pushed his glasses back to its original position and raised a question.
His voice was obviously hoarse.
“That shop.”
He reached out the slender white fingers.
“…Oh.”
Elsie looked at where Keima was pointing to and responded.
“Don’t you feel that the shop there is glowing? Golden, no, pink?”
“Eh?”
On hearing Keima say this, Elsie frowned.
“Ah?”
She instinctively looked back at Keima, and then continued to look at the shop intently. Then,
“Well,”
She used her fingers on both hands to press both temples and pondered for a while.
“No.”
(What’s with kami nii-sama?)
She thought. The ’10,000 Old Bookstore’ that was written on the signboard of that shop in the alley wasn’t even glowing, but shrouded in an ominous atmosphere. It seemed that the house itself was a little shaky. It had an outer wall with ivy climbing all over it and a tightly closed glass door, and looked really dark.
Even if this shop’s door was opened, Elsie didn’t want to enter at all.
“…”
However, it was unknown what was going on as Keima didn’t move since then as he continued to look at that shop ’10,000 Old Bookstore’.
He held his breath slightly.
There was a tinge of excitement in his expression.
“…”
Then, he started to move forward with light steps. This time, it didn’t feel like he was dragged around by something, but something out of his own will.
“…Kami nii-sama?”
As Elsie tilted her head and called Keima, his head was already on the door. For some reason, Elsie had a bad feeling about this.
“Ah, wai…”
Before she could finish, it was too late.
“Fu, fufu.”
Keima let out some mysterious laughter.
And walked into the shop.
As for Elsie,
“Uu~”
She started hesitating since just now, but because of her personality, she couldn’t just leave Keima alone and summoned her courage to follow him.
(Kami nii-sama! This shop seems a little weird~)
Her heart was cry a little. It wasn’t that she had this feeling because she was a devil. Anyone with normal judgment would be thinking about this.
This shop wasn’t normal.
