View source for The Zashiki Warashi of Intellectual Village:Volume5 Side B

===Part 16 (Jinnai Shinobu — Day 10/03 22:45 - 22:55)===

The enemies were the locals who opposed the casino policy.

From what I could see, there were at least more than ten of them. Once those working inside the tunnel or cabins came out, there was no telling how many there would be.

I expected their weapons to be shovels, pickaxes, hammers, excavation tools like large drills and continuous vibration drill rods, and even explosives for blasting. Needless to say, any tool meant to break through solid bedrock would turn a flesh-and-blood high schooler into mincemeat.

Meanwhile, I only had myself, a single high schooler, to work with.

The only weapon I could hope to get was a rock or stick found on the ground. Even if they didn’t have any of their weapons, it was still entirely possible I’d be beaten to a pulp.

So what was I to do?

My right temple itched. If I was caught here and they were able to tell me what to do, it would all lead to the conclusion seen in the Singer Song Liar story. Yet if I stayed silent and fled, they would begin their attack plan by morning and I would be buried alive sooner or later. If I wanted to alter the flow of events and change the future, I had stop them here.

So…

“Shinobu?”

The Zashiki Warashi sounded doubtful, but I ignored her and began to move.

I slowly raised my hands and walked boldly out in front of them.

Naturally, the atmosphere changed entirely. I first sensed surprise and soon thick tension filled the darkness of the night. Several bright flashlights turned toward my face and I felt pain stabbing deep into my head.

“Who’s that!? …!!”

The figure who asked who I was gasped as soon as he saw my face.

Even if we had met in the Singer Song Liar story, we didn’t actually know each other. Still, he seemed to know me, most likely as the target they planned to attack.

“I want to speak with you! I’m sure this would be of interest to you!!”

Several sets of footsteps ran up and I was quickly partially surrounded by a semicircle. The situation was underway, so there was no backing out now. The thick steel machinery they held was enough to tell me that.

“You’re after the USB memory stick for the Usuhiki Warashi you hid on my suitcase, right? And you need it to restrain your out-of-control Package! Then there’s no need to take a hostage. We should work together!!”

“Where did you learn that?” asked a young man’s voice as a strong grip reached my shoulders. “Where did you learn that!? ‘That’ should still be a secret!!”

“What should still be a secret? That you’re opposed to the casino policy? That you want to blow away the stock transactions of the rich people gathering fortunes here? That you’ll do that by connecting an Usuhiki Warashi to the financial network, causing connection issues in the semiconductors, and accurately destroying only the clusters containing that transaction data!?”

The man seemed taken aback when I yelled from some close.

“You’re the only ones who think any of that’s a secret. Several groups are already on the move. The CIA is trying to steal the Usuhiki Warashi for their own purposes and Hyakki Yakou is trying to obliterate it all to resolve the problem. All of you will be slaughtered by midday tomorrow at the latest. I don’t know what exactly will happen, but I do know the future you’re imagining isn’t going to happen! Not as things are, anyway!!”

Realistically, this conversation may have been meaningless.

Other options had been available to me.

I could have checked on the location and hurried down the mountain. Then I could have found a way to meet up with the Hyakki Yakou leader’s bodyguards or contacted Hishigami Mai. If I did that, those expert killers would have quickly annihilated them for me. At the very least, the odds of success would have been far greater than for an amateur high school boy.

But…

But…!!

“There’s still time.”

Did we really have to fight?

My right temple seemed to writhe eerily. It was true we had been enemies in that Singer Song Liar story. There was no way we could have gotten along there. I knew that.

But that was only because their attack plan had succeeded. In that world, they had buried me alive in that dark cave, they had taken the Zashiki Warashi hostage, and everything had been far too late.

But what about now?

What about before all that?

“You planned revenge. You decided to take everything from the rich people who forced these difficulties on you, so you acquired the Usuhiki Warashi Package! But…but!! That’s all you did. You still haven’t actually taken anything from anyone!!”

Nothing was settled “yet”.

No one had committed a crime “yet”.

Therefore, there was no need for us to fight to the death as if manipulated by a nightmare.

Therefore, we could take a different path.

Therefore, we could work together.

“You can still turn back.”

I swore I would change the future.

That future was not set in stone just yet. It wasn’t certain. Could I really abandon them just because they had died in that “original” version of the future? Straying from one’s path required an appropriately strong will. After acquiring that Package as their ultimate weapon, they had noticed its problems and decided to halt their plan and prioritize safety. Some might accuse them of being cowards, but there was a reason they had been able to stop for fear of sacrificing unrelated people and there was a reason they had been able to force themselves to a stop without moving onward. That reason was human strength. And there was no way I could abandon someone with that powerful will as if they were sacrificial pawns or mere symbols.

If I did that, I would be the one stuck looking at the sickening ending with dark despair in my eyes!

“You can still turn this around! And I’ll give you as much help as you need!! I don’t want to be buried alive and a reality worse than death lies waiting beyond that. And since you’re so afraid of the Usuhiki Warashi Package going out of control, you probably know better than me what that entails!”

“…”

“What will you do?” I asked them with my hands in the air. “This is the final crossroads. Will you continue along the planned path and meet annihilation or will you actually take a step out of this dead end situation? The decision is yours, so which will it be!?”

My words were a mixture of reality and a formless conspiracy, so it probably wasn’t really getting through to them.

However, they had to know they were standing at a dead end here.

Otherwise, they wouldn’t think about rigging their workplace with explosives and burying someone alive.

Silence continued for a while.

“…Can we really stop?”

Finally, the young man holding my shoulders spoke quietly.

“Can we still end this without killing anyone?”

“Yes,” I answered. “The CIA and Hyakki Yakou are only your enemy because the Usuhiki Warashi Package is still active. If we destroy it beyond repair, the CIA won’t be able to take it for themselves and Hyakki Yakou will have no reason to kill you. That will settle everything.”

The young man swore.

It felt less like his gentle conscience was rising to the surface and more like his tension had lapsed and he had lost the resolve to kill.

But whatever the reason, they were hesitant to kill me.

They too had to be proper “humans”.

“Now,” I said. “Let’s change the future.”