civilwarnovels Book 2: Chapter 10
Book 2: Chapter 10
May 3 (Sunday), 8:45 AMI’m in front of Kazuki Hoshino’s house.
“This is a really twisted idea you came up with,” I say.
“How so? An idea like this is nothing if it means helping you. Besides, you’re the one who actually has to see it through.” He’s so matter-of-fact.
“Do you really think Underwear Girl will cooperate? Aw, I hope she does, for her sake.”
“Well, let’s pray that everything goes smoothly,” says Ryu Miyazaki. It’s like he’s trying to show everyone that he’s totally uninvested in what’s about to happen.
No—maybe it really doesn’t mean anything to him at all.
Maybe nothing matters to him, now that what’s done is done. I don’t have any proof, so it’s just a hunch.
“Okay, I’ll be back in a bit.”
“Right.” I open the front door without ringing the bell, as I should. “I’m home.” I go up the stairs.
Ruka Hoshino is asleep in her underwear as usual.
May 3 (Sunday), 10:06 AM
Miyazaki is holding a phone to my ear.
I can hear someone screaming through the phone. I recognize the voice right away. I hear it every day.
“Roo…!!”
“Ah—!”
What… What did they do?! What did they use my body to do to her?!
“See? This is what happens when you don’t do as you’re told.”
“But Roo has nothing to do with any of this! She’s not involved, so why would you—?!”
“Probably because we knew hurting someone innocent would be especially painful,” Miyazaki replies.
I lunge for him…but I fail miserably and end up toppling over.
I forgot that they have me bound hand and foot. Without a hint of a reaction, Miyazaki plants his foot on top of me where I lie in a miserable heap on the floor, and he puts the phone to my ear again.
“Listen to the rest. That way you can find out exactly how things went down.”
“Ungh…”
I can’t very well plug my ears, so I clamp my eyes shut instead, even though doing so doesn’t help at all.
I hear more voices from the phone.
“Huh…?”
I look up at Miyazaki, stunned.
What the hell is this? A joke…?
Miyazaki removes his foot. Still focused on his blank face, I get up off the floor.
“Why are you acting so relieved, Hoshino?”
“What?”
“Those were recordings made using the phone’s voice-memo function, not real-time audio. What if I played the last recording first and the first recording last?”
“N-no!”
“I’m kidding.”
“Ugh…”
It’s pitiful how easily they can toy with me.
“Sheesh… What’re you going back and forth like that for? What you should be worried about isn’t whether your sister has been hurt or not. No, the issue is that Ruka Hoshino isn’t even the tiniest bit on guard against ‘Yuhei Ishihara.’ It would be so easy to do just about anything to her.”
With that said, Miyazaki stomps on me again, this time grinding his heel into me.
“‘Yuhei Ishihara’ will soon become Kazuki Hoshino in actuality. Can you imagine how much of a nuisance it’ll be to have an older sister? Especially sharing a bedroom with her. She’ll notice something different about him, of course, but it’s not like he can simply break off all ties with her as a sibling. She could end up becoming the greatest wrench in the works. Apparently, the question is quite troubling. ”
Having said his piece, Miyazaki presses a couple of buttons on the phone again and plays a recording.
It’s a threat.
It’s a simple one, easy to understand. If I don’t do what they say, they will kill Ruka Hoshino.
“So, what’s it going to be, Hoshino?”
If I put Otonashi in cuffs, it could lead to her being hurt. But if I don’t, it could get Roo killed.
There’s no way I can make that choice! …But Otonashi wouldn’t be losing her life.
Plus, knowing her, she might be able to find a way to overcome this on her own. No, I’m positive she will.
…She will find a way to beat .
May 3 (Sunday), 9:04 PM
“Otonashi still hasn’t found us, eh…? I’ve got to admit I’m surprised. I would’ve thought she’d pick up on this place pretty much instantly,” Miyazaki says. “She may not know you’re being held captive, I guess. ‘Yuhei Ishihara’ did go back home, for one thing. Yet she should’ve noticed something was up when you didn’t return any of her calls… Hey, Hoshino, did you and Otonashi have a fight or something? Is that why she isn’t worried that you aren’t picking up your phone?”
I have no answer to that, mainly since I don’t remember how we parted ways after my despair overtook me and turned everything black.
“Well, it doesn’t really matter. We were about to make our move, anyway,” he says, taking out my phone.
The reason we haven’t done anything until now is that we didn’t know exactly when “my” time today would be until I lost control at seven PM. Everything after that was charted out, though. We know for certain that I will be “me” until eleven PM.
“…Oh yeah, I almost forgot something.”
Miyazaki pulls out a roll of tape and puts a double layer over my mouth. My hands and feet are restrained, so I can’t pull it off.
He begins making a call. As for who…I don’t really need to say.
“Hello?”
The room is very quiet. I can hear Otonashi’s voice clearly.
“Ryu Miyazaki.”
“In league with him? You think I’d help scum like that? He found something he could use against me and threatened me.”
What is Miyazaki saying…?
“That’s right. I didn’t help him willingly. He trapped me and used me to do his dirty work. I think I’ve had about as much of that as I can take, though. Luckily, I’ve come up with an easy plan to set all this right.”
“I’m sure you’ll figure out what it is if you put your mind to it. It’s quite simple.”
“You guessed it—all we have to do is kill Kazuki Hoshino.”
Miyazaki’s tone is all business without the slightest change in emotion. That’s when I begin to realize he’s lying. His acting is almost too natural; I know the truth, and even I was nearly convinced for a moment.
I don’t think Otonashi is likely to see his deception for what it is.
“What a straightforward response. I thought you’d have a better knack for deception than that.”
“Murder is always a dangerous bet. The payoff is never worth it. But none of those risks apply to Kazuki Hoshino as he is now. I’m sure I don’t need to tell you why.”
“Ha-ha, don’t play dumb with me. I’ll tell you, anyway. This is a risk-free murder because .”
Otonashi must have realized the same thing. Just yesterday, she was telling me about the dangers of a switch occurring while we’re on her motorcycle. If you built a foolproof plan around that premise, it would be a cinch to paint the death as an accident or suicide.
That’s what Miyazaki means by a risk-free murder.
“If I can put an end to that bastard and his threats and get away with it scot-free, I’ll do it.”
“If you had a bullet that would never be found after it’s shot, there’s probably someone you’d want to use it on, right? But let’s say doing that would also eliminate someone you have nothing against. You’d have some pity for them. That’s why I figured I would at least let him hear the voice of his lover one last time.”
“Am I? Hoshino only has a few hours left in that body, you know. He might as well be dead already. Don’t you worry; I’ll make sure to do the deed when it’s ‘Yuhei Ishihara’ in control. Think of it as more of a mercy killing for Hoshino. I’m sure he would want to die before that human filth assumed his identity completely, anyway. Don’t you agree?”
“That’s just what you want to think. Given the circumstances, I doubt anyone would be that optimistic about his chances, unfortunately.”
“Anyway, that’s that. Now I’ll let you hear his last words.”
So he says, but of course Miyazaki has no intention of removing the tape covering my mouth.
He moves the cursor to a file and double-clicks it. Kazuki Hoshino’s voice plays from the speakers.
It would’ve been the oldest, easiest line in the book…
…if not for what came next.
How do they know that name…? There’s no way they could have heard it, especially since they know nothing of the Rejecting Classroom.
Wait… Maybe they did. I have used it in Class 2-3’s room. Miyazaki must have picked up on it as some kind of code and told “him” about it.
Otonashi won’t realize this, since she’s unaware who’s speaking. And so…
…Otonashi is fully convinced the voice belongs to me.
she asserts with force.
Her threat is misguided.
She has no idea her words don’t strike fear into Miyazaki so much as put him at ease.
May 3 (Sunday), 9:32 PM
And just like that, she arrives. Not even twenty minutes have passed since the call.
She smashes through the window in a spray of glass. Clad in street clothes instead of her school uniform, she walks into the center of the room, the broken shards crunching under her sneakers.
“…Here so soon? It’s almost like you knew exactly where we would be.”
Miyazaki faces her from where he stands, holding a kitchen knife pressed against me in the hallway leading to the front door.
“You think it was difficult to figure out? I knew you wouldn’t make a call like that in public, so in all probability, you were at your home. No other place seemed likely.”
“Still rather fast, don’t you think?”
“I made it a point to learn your address the moment it became apparent you were working with ‘Yuhei Ishihara’… But enough of that. Let Kazuki go. You said yourself that you don’t think murder is worth the risk. If you stab him now, it’ll be more than a risk. It’s a guaranteed assault charge, at the very least.”
“Shut up.”
“There’s no need to fly off the handle just because things aren’t going how you planned. All you really want is for ‘Yuhei Ishihara’ to stop blackmailing you, correct? Hand Kazuki over to me, and I’ll show you that I can put an end to his threats.”
“You’re just saying that.” He’s acting agitated and ignoring her.
Why is Miyazaki behaving like this?
…It’s all a show to set her up for the fall.
Miyazaki is playing the part of the stereotypical villain so that my betrayal will shock her even more. Otonashi will defeat the dastardly Miyazaki and rescue me. She’ll be relieved, maybe even a little excited.
So to build it up as much as possible, Miyazaki can’t afford to be reasonable and let me go.
“Just leave. You already had your final rendezvous here.”
“Quit being stupid.”
I’m curious as to why Otonashi hasn’t rushed Miyazaki yet.
Yeah, he’s got a knife pressed to my throat at the moment, but it’s an empty threat. Miyazaki wants to commit this risk-free murder only because he’s up against the wall himself (or so it would seem), so there’s no reason he would choose to stab me and wreck any hope of doing that.
“And here I had you pegged as a person who thought things through logically without letting emotion get the better of him.”
Otonashi sure seems aware that Miyazaki has no intention of stabbing me. Yet she still isn’t coming any closer.
“Calm down, Miyazaki.”
From her perspective, she can’t say for certain that the blade won’t touch me. If Miyazaki gets too panicked, he could even harm me by accident.
……Is that why?
“……”
No, of course not…
After all, Otonashi has no reason to go to such lengths to protect me. I may not know what it is, but something is preventing her from taking action. She’s reached a deadlock.
With his free hand, Miyazaki prods me in the side where Otonashi can’t see.
……I know, I know.
Obviously, he had given me instructions in case of a standstill like this. I don’t like having to take the initiative in this, but I have no choice.
Miyazaki told me to do this like I mean it or else Otonashi will figure out it’s a ruse. I swallow hard once, then play my part.
With all my might, I bite down on Miyazaki’s hand.
“…Agh!!”
His yell is no act, but a genuine reaction of pain. He drops the knife as naturally as he said he would when he went over the plan.
We’ve created an opening.
Otonashi doesn’t let it pass.
It’s over in an instant.
The room is only about a hundred square feet. Before I know it, she’s right in front of us, and the momentum of her forward lunge carries her into a powerful head-butt right on the bridge of Miyazaki’s nose. As he cradles his face, she places herself between us and slams her fist into his jaw, sending him staggering back. He stumbles, and she quickly scoops up the knife and flings it out of reach.
“Get back, Kazuki.”
I nod and move away.
Otonashi gets some distance from Miyazaki and says, “Give me the keys to the cuffs and leg restraints, Miyazaki. I’m going to set him free.”
“…You’re more weak-willed than I would’ve thought,” he replies through his hands as he tries to staunch the flow of blood from his nose. “You should have gotten me by the neck. Then I would’ve had no choice but to hand over the keys.”
“…There was no need for that.”
I suddenly remember something. That’s right—Otonashi doesn’t like violence. She was able to do what she did just now only because it was justifiably necessary to save me. Otonashi could never strangle Miyazaki and force him to give her the keys.
Miyazaki recovers his balance and lowers his center of gravity for a fight. He lunges for Otonashi and even gets a hand on her, but the moment he makes contact, his body is airborne.
“Wha—?!”
That’s not acting, but a real cry of shock.
It happens so quickly that I don’t even see him before he hits the ground. A picture-perfect shoulder throw.
“Come at me again, and you’ll get more of the same.”
“…Dammit, I never heard you were a judo expert.”
“I suppose you wouldn’t have. I am just a white belt, after all… Though I have taken down more than a few black belts in my time,” Otonashi says, wrapping an arm around his neck and pinning him to the floor on his side in a hold.
“Ngh…”
“I heard something metallic when I threw you.”
Using her free left hand, Otonashi
“Enough of this crap.”
I release Maria’s hand at the voice.
“How stupid are you guys? You can make all the pretty little vows you want, but that doesn’t do a damn thing to change the situation. Kazuki Hoshino is going to lose control of his body, and his sister, Ruka, will be killed. Do you really think waltzing off into your fantasy world for two is gonna fix any of that?”
Miyazaki surveys us with scorn.
“Try as you might, you don’t have a chance in hell of winning here. ‘Yuhei Ishihara’ is dead, after all. You can’t track down the owner of a corpse. And of course, that means you can’t destroy the Box, either. So how can you get out of this? Go ahead, tell me!”
He’s…exactly right.
The owner, Miyazaki’s younger brother, doesn’t exist. Our pledge to work together won’t change the truth.
“……I already know the true identity of ‘Yuhei Ishihara.’”
Miyazaki’s eyes go wide for a moment at Maria’s claim, but his mouth twists into a sneer once he sees the melancholy on her face.
“So? Did you find the little idiot?”
“…No. I spent all day looking, but my searching turned up nothing.”
“Heh-heh, of course it did. You’re not going to have much luck sniffing out someone who’s dead!” Miyazaki dismisses her triumphantly.
What is this feeling, this feeling that something is terribly wrong? Why…?
So Miyazaki said. He claimed that the only way to protect himself was to ensure the Week in the Mud was successful, because the younger brother he cherished so much was dead.
I see it now.
“……You’re lying, aren’t you?” I suggest quietly, and Miyazaki spins toward me. “You said he died, but that’s just something you made up. It’s so obvious once I think about it. You’d never do any of these things or let your brother do them, either.”
“……Quit running your mouth, Hoshino. Don’t try to twist things to suit your view.”
“He was important to you, right?”
Miyazaki frowns at my abrupt query, but he responds nonetheless. “Yeah.”
“Then there’s no way you should be able to laugh when you talk about his death.”
It’s not like a lone unnatural action like that is enough to prove he’s lying. If Miyazaki manages to stay calm and dance around the question, he could manage to fool me again. However…
“Which means he isn’t really dead, is he?”
However, Miyazaki has no answer for me. His head droops.
“Despair born of a lie turns to hope once the truth is revealed,” I say. It’s the exact same thing he once told me. As he looks back up, I add, “You were right.”
Miyazaki’s eyes bulge wide, and his mouth drops open. Silently, I watch him as his hands curl into fists, his teeth grind, and he fixes me with a look of pure hatred.
“……Damn you…”
But in the end, all he does is lower his eyes again.
He begins stumbling forward. He slams his hands on the desk and picks up his phone. After pressing a few buttons, he puts the phone to his ear and listens to something.
“I didn’t make it in time,” he mumbles, as if to himself. “I didn’t make it in time! I was in the bath when the call came. By the time I noticed this message, everything was already over.”
Miyazaki must be listening to that message now.
“I should’ve been able to help before things came to this. None of this would’ve happened if I had picked up on the suffering of someone other than myself. But I was consumed by my own misery, and my inability to see anything or anyone else prevented me from noticing my own family’s cry for help. And this is the result.”
As he speaks, he opens the top drawer of the desk.
“I know it’s too late. I know there’s no more time for me to do anything. But the cries for help aren’t gone. I don’t want to hear them, not anymore.”
He reaches into the drawer.
“I will put an end to those tears, and I’ll commit whatever crime and bear whatever punishment it takes. I mean it! If you’ve got a problem with that, go ahead and say it!!”
“Of course we do,” Maria replies. “You’ve stopped thinking. You aren’t making a choice. You’re just plugging your ears because the crying annoys you. You’re satisfied with throwing yourself into a pointless struggle with us.” Maria closes her eyes for a moment, but her message rings out loud and clear. “None of this will erase the past, though.”
“……Yeah, well, so what?” Miyazaki mutters, hanging his head. “You plan to make it so those bodies never happened? It’s impossible. There’s no bright future ahead for us no matter how much we struggle. I’m just trying to grant a little fool’s wish, that’s all. So…”
He removes his hand from the drawer.
“…stay quiet and let me take you prisoner!!”
Miyazaki is holding a stun gun and lunges for Maria.
“Maria!!”
She quickly grabs his outstretched right arm by the wrist and twists it. Miyazaki drops his weapon with a small yelp.
“Guh—!”
I pick up the stun gun. Maria may be able to restrain him, but she can’t get any more violent than that. Now it’s my turn.
I meet Miyazaki’s heated glare without flinching. I won’t run away. If he’s going to act with hostility toward us, I have to reply in kind.
“Sorry.”
I switch it on and press it against Miyazaki’s neck. He lets out a scream, then sags to the ground limply.
“…Kazuki, we need to leave.”
“Yeah.” But as I turn to go, I realize my right leg is caught on something. “…!”
Panicked, I spin back to look. Miyazaki somehow grabbed hold of my ankle as he collapsed. His grip is so strong that I can’t shake him off, even when I try.
He lifts his head weakly as he lies there.
“……I’m sorry.”
What is he saying?
“I’m sorry I didn’t make it in time. I’m sorry I didn’t get there soon enough to save you. I’ll become stronger… I’ll be stronger for you… So please, please, just give me another chance…!”
No, wait.
His desperate entreaty isn’t directed at me. Biting my lip, I lift my right leg, and Miyazaki’s hand falls away easily.
I press the stun gun to the middle of his back.
“……There are no more chances.” Because I’m about to burn your wish to the ground.
I flip the switch. Miyazaki’s head quietly drops to the ground, and he is motionless.
……I’m sorry.
I’m sure that apology was meant for “him.” Although, maybe a portion of it was directed toward “me,” too… I can’t help but wonder.
I step over Miyazaki and pick up his cell phone.
“What’re you doing, Kazuki?”
I play the voice mail he was listening to.
And that’s how I learn the true identity of “Yuhei Ishihara.”