Even though I knew I shouldn’t act rashly, in a situation where I had no choice but to search by feel, all I could do was search the places I thought of one after another.
If I could use cheat abilities like magic or hacking into surveillance cameras, I wouldn’t need to be out of breath and running around like this.
However, the magic that has become familiar to me recently cannot be used for concealment or power in this place, and I don’t possess漫画-like abilities such as hacking.
Therefore, it’s back to the origin.
I repeatedly searched every road around Amelia’s apartment as my starting point, sometimes asking passersby for directions before moving again.
And then.
“There’s no way… she’d be here.”
“You drew a blank too, right?”
“Yeah.”
Just a little while ago, I received a call from the police saying Amelia’s mother had arrived at the apartment, so Kitamiya and I briefly rendezvoused and headed towards Amelia’s apartment.
I haven’t trained myself to be so weak that I’d get tired from just running around for a few tens of minutes, so Kitamiya and I naturally jogged back, ignoring the stares of passersby who wondered what was going on, as we headed to our destination.
We were just searching the surroundings, so if we headed straight there, we’d arrive easily.
“Ah.”
“Are you Miyagawa-san’s mother?”
“Y-yes, I am Mie, Amelia’s mother.”
And there, next to a police car stopped in front of the apartment, was a woman talking to a police officer.
She looked like an ordinary Japanese woman, and perhaps because she came directly from work, she was wearing a black women’s suit, with her black hair tied at her neck, and appeared to be in her forties.
When I confirmed with women who bore some resemblances to Amelia, it turned out she was Amelia’s mother.
She seemed to have been informed of the situation by the police; although she was restless, she was managing to maintain her composure.
“Have you heard the details?”
“Yes. So, where is my daughter?”
“Unfortunately, despite asking passersby as we went, we haven’t seen any sign of her.”
“I see…”
She showed an obviously disappointed expression, but it couldn’t be helped. It would be strange for her to remain calm when her daughter was missing.
“…”
“…”
I couldn’t find any words to say to her. I could say “This must be tough,” but I didn’t want to offer words that wouldn’t even be a consolation, making her worry about me and give me unnecessary concern.
Silence naturally fell, and as I pondered what to do next, my smartphone rang.
“Excuse me.”
The caller was Kaido. Thinking it was about work, I decided to answer the call to tell him to call back later.
“Hello, Kaido. Right now I’m…”
“Senpai!! Where are you right now!?”
“…? I’m near Amelia’s house, but.”
However, with the noisy sounds and commotion from behind me, I couldn’t do that to the flustered Kaido.
Murmurs, angry shouts. I could hear voices giving instructions, but where on earth was Kaido?
“Apparently, Amelia-chan, who was giving off a powerful aura, came to the company and just broke through the gate and teleported away a little while ago!! The company is in an uproar right now. What happened!? I heard from you, Senpai, that Amelia-chan was missing!?”
“Huh? What did you say?”
Kaido dropped a bombshell that made my doubts disappear. Sensing the change in my voice, Amelia’s mother, Mie, looked at me, but I took a little distance to avoid him hearing me say “Excuse me.”
“What happened?”
“I don’t know the details, but the lobby is in a terrible state. Goblins and demons nearby are being transported to the infirmary. There’s no doubt there was a fight.”
“A fight? Between whom?”
“That’s what I’m saying, I don’t know! I’ve been asking around among my acquaintances, and I just heard that Amelia-chan went on a rampage, so I called you in a hurry, Senpai!”
“Any damage? And Suella and the others?”
“Fortunately, the damage seems to be limited to the passage from the lobby to the transfer gate. Suella-san and the others were somewhere else, so they seem to be alright. Keiri-san, who was here until just a moment ago, said so.”
“I see… Is the supervisor there?”
“No.”
I confirmed the safety of Suella and the others, as it was a matter within the company, and was relieved to get a reply that they were alright. Then, I switched my thoughts and began to sort out the situation. Amelia was found, but why did she make a rampage at the company? I couldn’t come up with any basis for it. Questions arose, but staying here would only limit the information I could get. The situation had changed. If it had changed, I had to act accordingly.
“I’m going back now. Stay there and gather more information.”
“Understood.”
After ending the call on my smartphone, Kitamiya, realizing something had happened, approached me.
“What happened?”
“There’s trouble at the company. We need to go back for now.”
“Go back? But Ami…”
Her words of “What about Ami?” didn’t continue. Kitamiya tried to stop me as I was about to move, but I instinctively tapped the upper part of my right eye with my finger. From a distance, it looked like I was just scratching it, but this was a signal used in dungeons, such as when spotting an enemy. Seeing this, Kitamiya stopped talking.
“Understood.”
Kitamiya readily agreed, and although she probably wanted an explanation, I couldn’t give her one at that moment. We would have to move to the car or somewhere no one could hear.
“Then let’s go, time is precious.”
Considering the explanation they’d have to give to the police afterwards, I’d probably look like a heartless person who abandoned a colleague and prioritized company work. After all.
“We’re very sorry. It seems there’s been trouble at our company, so we’ll be excusing ourselves now.”
What I said was true, but the two people who had been desperately searching until just a moment ago were about to leave after a single phone call, so it was inevitable that the police officer would look at me suspiciously. While I could understand that, it was a bit difficult to bear. I wanted to tell them that Amelia had been found, but from Kaido’s story, it seemed like our side’s internal affairs were involved. I couldn’t afford to say anything carelessly. As a result, I received a look of heartlessness from the police officer.
“From our perspective, there’s no problem, but…”
Hearing his voice, it sounded like he was telling us not to leave so easily. The direction the police officer was looking was none other than at Mie, Amelia’s mother. Under the officer’s worried gaze, she turned to me.
“Um, thank you for coming all this way when you are busy. We were helped by your report and the arrangements you made. I will look for my daughter from here on, so I apologize for the trouble.”
She bowed her head.
“No, we couldn’t be of much help.”
My conscience pained me. She must be unable to stay calm, with her daughter missing, yet she was acting in a way that would make it easier for us to return to the company. I truly wanted to tell her that Amelia had been found. But I wasn’t allowed to do that. Perhaps that was why only a response like this, which sounded like a stock phrase, came out of my mouth. Saying that, we bowed and left the presence of the mother, who stood bravely.
“Haa, you didn’t say anything, did you?”
“…There was no need to, was there?”
Back in the car, as I sat in the driver’s seat, I spoke to Kitamiya, who had said nothing at the scene, while starting the engine. Normally, I expected to be scolded for not telling them, or for not at least telling them secretly, but…
“You know, I kind of understand why you didn’t say anything, and the fact that you wanted to say something.”
“You’re mature, aren’t you? I wonder if I could have made such a judgment when I was your age.”
Kitamiya said she understood, even if she couldn’t agree, and looked out the window without looking at me, as if to avoid expressing her dissatisfaction. I compared her, looking at the scenery outside as rain fell and droplets wet the window, to my past self. Reason over emotion. It’s a normal behavior for a working adult, but it’s surprisingly difficult to do. Especially when you encounter someone who has suppressed their maternal instincts and chosen to act as a working adult, it’s easy to have some emotional response.
“Don’t praise me, tell me. You figured something out, didn’t you?”
“That’s right. Amelia’s been found.”
However, I don’t have time to indulge in such sentimentality, nor am I in a position to do so.
“That call just now was from Kaido-san, but was Ami at the company?”
Kitamiya, who had somehow guessed, looked at me from the window to confirm where Amelia had been.
“To be precise, it seems she was there.”
“Was there? Does that mean she teleported to another place again?”
“…From Kaido’s information, it was secondhand and vague, but it seems she went on a rampage in the company and left through a transfer gate to somewhere.”
“Haa!? What’s that?”
“How should I know?”
Information kept coming one after another, trouble after trouble. I wanted to ask what on earth was happening, but with Amelia reportedly emitting a strange aura, unfortunately, I had some ideas.
“Well, if only I could say it.”
“Is there something?”
“…Probably, right now Amelia might not be Amelia.”
“Not Ami? You mean the found Ami is someone else?”
“No, her body is Amelia’s, though.”
“You said ‘her body,’ but like the inside is different… Is that it?”
“That’s it.”
I lit a cigarette and held it in my mouth, letting it sway.
“I told you that there’s a Demon Lord’s soul inside Amelia, right?”
“Yes. You said she absorbed the soul of a Demon Lord that was sealed in another world.”
“Yeah, we did a check and it was deemed okay. According to the President, it was at a miraculous level, a very stable and harmonious state. That’s what was inside Amelia. The cause this time is a being called Mike.”
As the story unfolded, Kitamiya grasped what had happened to Amelia. Her face grew sterner with each word I spoke. She was trying to find words to deny it, but being the intelligent person she is, the circumstantial evidence likely aligned with her reason and intellect.
“Is the Demon Lord’s soul inside Amelia going berserk?”
Kitamiya smoothly explained the current situation.
“Yeah, that’s probably what it is.”
“…Frankly, I can’t believe it. No, I don’t want to believe it.”
If the Demon Lord’s soul inside Amelia is going berserk, it means Amelia’s soul is in danger. Or rather, that’s a milder way of putting it.
“Be prepared. If you can’t, get out here.”
As the car stopped at a red light, I, without moving my gaze from her, hinted at the possibility of the reality that was about to unfold.
“Just kidding. If I ended up knowing nothing, I’d regret it for the rest of my life. Besides, it’s not decided yet. Ami is a strong child.”
“…I see.”
The berserk Demon Lord’s soul might be eroding and overwriting Amelia’s soul, which was providing the vessel for it. So, when we meet her from now on, will she still be Amelia? Faced with such a possibility, Kitamiya, while expressing her anxiety about losing her, made up her mind.
“Hey, why can you be so calm?”
Kitamiya, looking at me who answered indifferently without changing my expression, asked me. It seemed she trusted me to some extent, as she didn’t ask emotional questions like “Don’t you care about Amelia?”
“It’s… an adult’s pride. Do you think I can show a pathetic side in front of my kouhai?”
So, I said it half in earnest, half in jest.
“What’s that?”
Hearing that, Kitamiya could only laugh. Well, the other half of the earnest truth was something I couldn’t say. Perhaps it was her maternal instinct, or perhaps she was naturally sharp of hearing. Amelia’s mother, Mie, saw me off despite being able to hear my conversation with Kaido. Her left hand, which was gripping her right wrist tightly at her waist as she bowed slowly, was trembling, informing me that she was suppressing her desire to question me, wanting to know if I knew something.
“Well, what can I say? Adults have their own things going on.”
I have to respond to the wish hidden in her posture, “Please take care of my daughter.”
Today’s word:
Honestly, it’s a troublesome matter, but I don’t want to postpone it. Not emotionally, either.
This concludes this section.
If you found it interesting, please leave your impressions, ratings, bookmarks, etc.
P.S. The first volume of the serialized novel has been decided to be published by Hayakawa Bunko JA.
It was released on October 18, 2018.
The e-book version was also released on October 31 of the same year.
The content is a revised and expanded version of the material posted on “Shosetsuka ni Narou,” with the addition of an unreleased interlude.
