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 as if they’re covered in light.
No matter whether they’re performing in live houses that are small or on the roadside, a producer with the 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 fragrant. Everyone’s smell is a little different. Anyway, it’s sour!”
Eh? Isn’t this just because someone didn’t take 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 probable 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 is 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 into 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 ‘instinct’.
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 outage, causing the tracks themselves to be inaccessible.
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.
Sweat flowed past Elsie’s white face.
Speaking of which…
Elsie started to think. She had never gotten off at this stop. This place gave a rather empty feeling as it doesn’t seem as if anyone else is around.
The sunlight was really vicious and 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 doubts in surprise. They should be walking another 100 meters before reaching 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 like 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 he was walking faster and faster.
He didn’t run.
Even so, it seemed like 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 tilted 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 were 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 had. Keima himself however continued to move down the 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 his slender white fingers.
“…Oh.”
Elsie looked where Keima pointed 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’ written on the signboard of that shop in the alley wasn’t even glowing, but was 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 as if 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 crying 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.
What was already very cramped space had 7 large bookshelves in it, and each bookshelf was messily stuffed with books. On entering, there came an abnormal sense of pressure, as there were only books, books, books and more books inside.
The scene inside the shop was so messy that anyone would be dazed by it.
The cookbooks were placed besides the old-fashioned magazines, and more than 30 years worth of yellow school textbooks. There were encyclopedias and detective novels with the covers on the side nearly dropping off. Each book just looked completely messy, and there's no intention of letting anyone take it for convenience.
These books just looked messy as they were scattered all over the place.
The books were stacked up so high that they reached the ceiling, and even if the pages inside were all messy, they weren't arranged with and were stuffed inside the bookshelves. Origami books, documents in files, diaries with leather covers, foreign language books with locks on them, Japanese origami books, horror books with magic gates on the covers, and even books with unknown languages.
There weren't just books.
There were forgotten old records left in the shop, Buddha statues, candle altars, spiked handcuffs, Western wine bottles of unknown origins, cameras that were about spoilt and dusty plaid doll.
Even these things could be put around messily.
Were these all to be sold?
(...)
Elsie looked a little scared as she shrank her neck back and looked around.
And then,
“Ehh?”
“Eh!”
She couldn't help but cry up. That's because an old man who looked like a boss and had wrinkles all over his face was looking at Elsie as their eyes met.
She thought that he was some decoration.
It was only when he started smiling that Elsie realized that he was a living person. His teeth were almost completely gone, and there were only 2,3 of them left. He had a cap on his head as he was sitting in a seiza position beside the cashier.
His eyeballs were yellow as he gave a mysterious smile.
This old man's head was shaking about, and he was like a tumbler that wasn't stable.
(Is, is he even human?)
Elsie trembled. She looked away, and could feel that he was looking at her, and was so scared that she didn't want to look back.
Speaking of which.
What caused this in the first place?
The moment she stepped into the shop, she had a mysterious chill.
Right now, it's was right in the middle of the hot summer.
It was definitely sunny outside,
And the boss was wearing thick clothing for some reason.
Elsie immediately had goosebumps rising.
Why is this shop so cold?
(Ka, kami nii-sama.)
Elsie's eyes were teary as she looked at Keima as if she wanted help.
However, Keima was completely hypnotized and it seemed like he didn't want to be bothered by her. Ever since just now, he was flipping around in the cramped shop and energetically walking around.
He twitched his nose, and for a while, it seemed that he was looking at a certain bookshelf, only to suddenly kneel on the ground and then climb up to the area near the roof.
After a while, he came out from the bookshelf, and then disappeared after a while.
To Elsie, it seemed like Keima's ears became dog ears and his backside had a tail that grew out.
He looked completely excited as his eyes were dazzling.
“Yes! It's definitely there! There must be something here! I smell it!”
“Wha, what's with you, kami nii-sama?”
Elsie folded her arms and looked really worried.
“Fufu, this smell's not hidden at all! It's right nearby.”
His answer was too abnormal as he ran straight to a corner. Even in this mysterious shop that had tattered metal and books, that corner looked really unnatural. Elsie couldn't help but tug at Keima's collar to try and stop him.
“Ka, kami nii-sama!”
But Keima,
“Go away~! Let go of me, Elsie! Can't you hear it? That child's muttering. Listen! She's saying 'I'm here! Come save me! Come save me!”
“Wa~kami nii-sama's not normal. You're going to fall into another world!”
“Wait! I'll save you right away!”
“Tha, that's just a hallucination! Am, ambulance! Someone call for an ambulance!”
Keima shook aside Elsie who was holding him from behind and ducked into that ridiculous pile of stuff.
In a moment.
“Hey!”
Right in front of the stunned Elsie.
“Fu, fufufu.”
Plak,
Plak plak.
Keima landed on that pile of stuff and slowly got up.
His eyes were glowing under the weak light. Even though his movements were a little strange, Keima's face showed a triumphant smile.
“Found it!”
He raised the box high up.
'Favor of the Western Lantern'.
Such a label was on it, and the packaging was rather weird as there was only the side of a white-haired girl's face on it. This should be a bishoujo game itself, but to be honest, it didn't look really attractive. However, for some reason, Keima showed a look like a child finding treasure as he delightfully patted away the dust on it before walking to the cashier.
“How much?”
He looked serious as he handed the box to the boss who was still swaying his head.
“...”
The boss continued to smile, and Keima said adamantly,
“I understand the reason for this, and I'll definitely splurge as much many as I can on it. However, I won't just get the money out. In other words, I have two intents. One, don't bluff me. Two, I won't play along if you want to rip me off. Since this thing's put inside the shop, at least it means that it's to be sold, right?”
“...”
“Say a price.”
Keima brought his face closer in.
“Give me a price that I don't have to haggle.”
The boss remained silent for a while, and finally raised a trembling finger in front of Keima.
“...1?”
Keima tilted his head. The boss gave a thumbs up, and Keima frowned.
“1? 10, 000 yen?”
“...”
The boss shook his head, and Keima looked indignant.
“Are you thinking of going more than 10,000...eh? That's not it?”
“...”
The boss didn't say anything, but one could feel his intent from the atmosphere. A little lower.
“1,000 yen?”
Keima said suspiciously, but the boss shook his head again. Keima was a little lost.
“...100...10 yen, don't tell me,”
He held his breath slightly.
“1 yen?”
Fufu.
The boss laughed and nodded his head hard. Keima was immediately delighted.
“I'M BUYING IT!”
And shouted.
“THAT'S WAY TOO CHEAP!”
He laughed as he grabbed and shook the boss' hand hard,
“YOU'RE REALLY A GREAT GUY!”
Elsie, who was watching all of this silently, placed her hand in front of her chest.
“Kami nii-sama, please start doubting a little, please?”
And couldn't help but ask.
And then, everything was too late. At this moment, Keima took a yen out to buy this game, this so-called fantasy bishoujo game called 'Favor of the Western Lantern'.
And then,
A prologue to a horror story began...
After a while,
The scene changed to Katsuragi Keima’s house. The location is the corridor in front of his room.
“Bishoujo games are really deep. Even I would sometimes be shocked and amazed by the complexity.”
On hearing Keima say this, Elsie spoke,
“We, well, kami nii-sama, I feel that something, Erm,”
“I have conquered or inspected more games than anyone else. Whether it’s the past or the future, there will be no one who will love bishoujo games more than me. That’s because I’m ‘God’!”
“That’s.”
“However.”
Keima pointed his finger at the sky, not listening to Elsie at all.
“Even I have two genres of games I can’t handle, thought this can’t be helped.”
After saying that, he took a handkerchief and pretended to wipe his eyes.
“Do you know what those genres, are?”
“Un, that.”
“…”
“I don’t know, but that.”
“That’s!”
Keima ignored Elsie and said directly,
“Time and space.”
“…Time?”
Elsie was curious and couldn’t help but ask. Keima nod his head hard.
“That’s right. In other words, the ‘God’s window’ that only a living body has.
“?”
Elsie looked confused.
“God’s window?”
For some reason, it felt that the entire situation was hard to understand.
Keima laughed.
“No, this really isn’t hard. A simpler explanation would be that ‘before I was born…when I started playing games once I grew out of infancy, it’s impossible to play all games’, and also ‘the friendship games that were already rare or sold in limited special areas, and those unique given, rare or reclaimed products by the industry are hard to get.’ It’s just this simple meaning.”
“…”
“There were already so many games selling in Japan. It’s not possible for me to have all the games.”
“Eh?”
Elsie was a little surprised,
“Don’t you have all the games, kami nii-sama?”
Keima sighed and glanced at Elsie.
“How is it possible?”
“I thought that the collection kami nii-sama had in the room was all the games around.”
Elsie used her fist to press against her face as she remembered Keima’s room that was used as a storeroom of bishoujo games. The room was neatly stacked with an amazing amount of games. To Elsie, even if someone told her that all the games in the world were over there, she wouldn’t doubt it at all.
Also, there weren’t just games inside. There were even ‘Initial limited Edition’ and ‘Director’s Cut’ version of the games, and Elsie couldn’t even tell the differences between them as they were all packed within Keima’s collection.
“…I hope so.”
Keima said in a self-mocking manner.
“But no matter how hard I try, there will be missing ones that get by me.”
But no matter what.
He added on,
“My collection of bishoujo games aren’t of genre. I guess no matter whether it’s an organization or an individual, nobody would collect more than me.”
