3

As soon as they all left the coffee shop, Tsushima split off. Murase had asked Kei and Haruki to go with her, so they walked side-by-side behind her.

“Are you all right?” Haruki whispered softly.

“If we get near any river beds, we’ll make a break for it,” Kei whispered back. He was joking, but at the same time, the longer they stayed with Murase, the more on edge he felt. He would much rather have been looking into who had the MacGuffin.

Murase stopped in her tracks at a small intersection with no traffic lights. “Do you know how I will search for Yoshii Ryouji?”

Kei nodded, and mimicked her callout. “Hands, anything between Yoshii Ryouji and Murase-san.” Using that application of her powers, she had been touching walls. If a hole appeared in the wall, she would head that direction.

“How do you know that?”

“I learned many things prior to our last reset.” She had used a callout of “anyone who lies to me”, and it worked exactly as intended. With that possibility in play, all bets were off. She could likely do whatever she wanted as long as she could put it into words.

Kei could infer a clear direction from all the holes that Tomoki reported to him. They all headed towards the Kawarazaka area, at the foot of Mt. Tsukube, where Minami was attacked by The Operator. The Operator, who had been available for calls as late as Saturday initially, but since the last reset had been offline since Thursday. Most importantly, the only individuals involved in this case who were known to have memories surpassing resets were Kei and Murase. Putting it all together, it only made sense that the holes left over in walls were the vestiges of Murase’s manhunt for The Operator. Since Minami’s death was due to “some trouble” surrounding The Operator’s information-gathering environment, then Murase must have been the source of said trouble.

Minami Mirai should have been safe, and yet after a reset, she died. This was undeniably connected to Murase Youka’s capability of keeping her memories following a reset. Fortunately, the solution was simple. Much simpler than the problem posed by the girl two years ago. Kei didn’t know the events leading up to that girl’s death, in stark contrast to the current situation.

“I figured the two of you had to be good for something,” Murase said, quiet enough that she may have just been talking to herself. Then, she made the exact callout that Kei predicted. “Left hand, anything separating me from Yoshii Ryouji.” She pressed her hand on four walls facing the cardinal directions. When she touched the southern wall, a hand-shaped hole appeared in it. “This way.” Her expression was surly as per usual, but contained a hint of pride.

Kei was, quite frankly, shocked. Even if he had predicted this outcome, seeing it happen in front of him was a completely different experience. There truly was too much leeway in her ability’s application. When she had claimed it to be the strongest ability, Kei had thought it no more than a childish taunt, but perhaps there was some merit to that. If nothing else, it was certainly convenient.

Murase began walking in the direction of the hole in the wall, and Haruki and Kei followed a few steps behind. Without turning to look at them, Murase spoke. “Tell me more about what you said earlier.”

“What do you mean?”

“Whatever it was that you did to the Administration Bureau.”

“It’s really nothing special, I was just a selfish little brat. I got some people together, and tried to topple the Bureau, only to ultimately fail.” Kei didn’t really want to compound on it any more than that. Seeing a good opportunity, Kei asked his own question. “Tsushima-sensei called me your senpai, though. I guess you’re trying to do that same thing I was?”

Murase walked in silence for a while, but eventually spoke up in a quiet voice, “That’s right. I want to change how the Bureau functions, from the ground up.” Like a dam breaking, that one sentence brought forth a tide. “I don’t like the Bureau. The powers this city offers have so much potential. They could be used to solve so many problems, and yet the Bureau just sits and watches. I can’t stand it. It’s just wrong that they should be in control of so much power, yet refuse to use it in any meaningful way. People should be using their powers to bring others happiness.”

Kei nodded. He couldn’t have agreed more. He had felt this way ever since learning about the existence of abilities, and not even the girl’s death from two years ago had changed his outlook. Every time he used a reset, he was concerned about the problems it could cause, but his determination that it could solve even more problems outweighed his concern. He knew it was selfish. He knew that he was, in a way, trying to play God. But he was committed to proving that abilities could be used first and foremost to bring others happiness.

“I know that you feel the same as me, Asai. You hate the bureau, right? Why don’t you come join me?” Murase posed.

Kei was surprised by her offer. It didn’t match the girl he had known up till now. “I don’t think my ability would be all that useful for your goals.”

“Perhaps not, but resetting is incredibly powerful, and if I want to use resets, it’d be better to have you than not.”

Kei glanced over at Haruki. Just as he expected, she was staring at Kei disinterestedly. If Kei were to turn Murase down, then she would nod quietly. But if he were to accept Murase’s proposition, she would no doubt quietly nod all the same. “What’s your methodology? How do you plan on changing the Bureau?”

“It doesn’t matter what I have to do. My ability is undefeatable. I can nullify any power and erase any object in my way. The world will exist and cease at my beck and call. I can go head-to-head with anything they have, and I can’t lose.”

“In that case, you really won’t need us.”

“Perhaps not. But it’s always possible that something will go awry. Being able to try something again could always come in handy. If I were to somehow fail, then all it would take is a reset to put everything back into play.”

Certainly, Murase’s ability was incredibly powerful. But just like the rest of them, it was not perfect. If the Bureau was aware of the extent of Murase’s power, yet still allowed her to roam freely, then she probably wasn’t considered very dangerous. No doubt the Bureau had plans atop backup plans for taking her down if she became a threat.

Murase continued, “Let’s take down the Bureau. We’ll bring it down, and build it back up ourselves. We’ll make it into a new Bureau, one that more efficiently uses the abilities at its disposal.”

“Is that right?” Finally, Kei understood. Murase Youka was no longer an enigma.

She may have only had one ability, but it was nothing to scoff at. She was brave enough to take action and do what she decided was right. She was strong-willed, highly principled, and pure-hearted to a fault. If she didn’t have her ability, then she would just be a compassionate young girl, Kei thought. Basically, she was the kind of girl that warranted the need for the Administration Bureau. A girl in her position was an archetypal example for the argument that power was meant to be strictly controlled, rather than used for one’s own convenience.

Murase stopped in place, then turned around. “Let’s shake on it.” Her eyes held the same strong will as they did on the riverbank in a time past, though with a different intent.

Kei also stopped, before asking Haruki a question. “What should I do?”

Haruki answered unhesitatingly, “That decision is not mine to make.”

Deep inside himself, so as not to be noticed, Kei let out a sigh. It was likely that Haruki caught on to it regardless. She would know, even if she couldn’t quite prove it.

Kei already knew his answer, but didn’t want to show his cards at this stage of the game. He simply responded, “Give me some time to consider it.”

Murase pursed her lips in displeasure. Her eyes held the same sullen glare they always did. Kei wished to see her smile brightly at some point, but that would be a hard sell right now.

Murase stopped to press her hands against a wall every several steps. The indication of The Operator’s location remained consistently in one direction. Evidently, they were headed right towards him. Of course, Murase should have already known where The Operator lived. She would have found him for the first time somewhere around 3PM on Wednesday. Eventually, they stopped in front of a four-story apartment complex.

“Here. He’s in room 408.” Room 408 was a corner room on the top floor. Evidently, The Operator wanted as much space between him and the ground as possible.

Standing in front of the door, Kei buzzed the intercom. “Asai here.” A masculine voice soon responded.

“Just a moment.”

Footsteps thudded from inside the room. The door slowly opened, and the smell of rubbing alcohol wafted out.

Standing behind the door was a thin, young man. He was truly the essence of the phrase, “skin and bones.” All his clothes were a spotless white, and he wore thin rubber gloves.

The man looked at Kei and smiled. “Yo, long time no see. Or perhaps I should say, ‘It’s nice to meet you.’”

He spoke with the same tone and rhythm of his phone calls. But now, the words were no longer carried by a disembodied, feminine voice. It was a male voice, albeit slightly high-pitched, and it gave off a completely different impression.

The Operator. Perhaps he should be called Yoshii Ryouji. Either was acceptable, but Kei personally preferred to call him The Operator. His eyes were darting over the three of them, before finally settling on Murase.

“This isn’t our first meeting, though. You came by three days ago.”

“What of it?”

“Well, I wish I could just afford to brush it off. Do you know how much of a problem you caused by cutting all my utility lines? I didn’t have any internet or phone service. That was literally a matter of life or death. I’d lost all my methods of intaking energy. Think about it, how would you feel if someone cut off your esophagus and you couldn’t eat?”

“I don’t need to hear that from you. This is all your fault to begin with,” Murase answered grumpily.

The Operator waved his hands wildly in mock surprise. “What could you possibly mean? My fault? I find that hard to believe. I’ve never done anything to make enemies since the day I was born. I think you must be mistaken. Perhaps you’re confusing me with someone from a parallel world?”

“I came here for information, and you refused to provide it. Rather than let it end up in my opposition’s hands, I decided to cut it off from the source.”

“If I didn’t tell you, then I didn’t tell Kei. That sounds fair to me.”

“As if I can trust you. Besides, the rules for what’s fair can change at any moment.”

Putting it all together, it would seem that Murase came to The Operator looking for information following the first reset. She most likely asked for information on the MacGuffin and resets, if Kei had to guess. But, when she was refused, she cut off The Operator’s sources of information. Little did she know the long-term impact that decision would have.

Murase spoke up again, this time clearly restraining her tone. “Well, that doesn’t matter. Just hand over the MacGuffin.”

“MacGuffin? I couldn’t possibly know what you’re talking about.”

“Want ‘em cut again?” Murase held her hand on the wall as she spoke. Her threat carried a hefty amount of weight. If she erased the wall up into the utility lines and cut them, then five minutes later, the wall would reform around the cut lines. That’d be a tough fix, to put it lightly.

The Operator responded with his usual exaggerated tone. “Hold on! I lied, I do know what the MacGuffin is. I’ll admit, it was stupid of me to hide from you.¹ But now I’m being honest and saying what I did wrong. Won’t you have to forgive someone as honest and genuine as I?”

“I won’t do anything if you’ll just hand it over.”

“I don’t have it. That’s the complete truth, I promise.”

“Oh, sure, let’s just test that out.” Murase put her right hand directly in front of The Operator’s face. “If you’re lying to me, your head will disappear. You sure about this?”

The Operator pressed his lips together, clearly shaken. Nonetheless, he answered. “Do what you want. I’m not a liar.”

Haruki quietly spoke up. “Are you all right with this?”

Kei was fairly certain everything would turn out alright. But at the same time, they wouldn’t get anywhere in their conversation with these two in charge. Kei cut in between them. “Look, I’m sure The Operator is telling the truth. The MacGuffin isn’t here.”

“What are you trying to pull?” Murase glared suspiciously at Kei.

But Kei was more concerned with The Operator, whose face was flashing several emotions. He looked even more terrified than before, and only managed one word. “Kei.” It sounded like a plea, and he used Kei’s given name, no less. Kei didn’t think he was mistaken, so he continued.

“I’m sure that The Operator was just an accomplice, and helped someone else steal the MacGuffin.”

“Then who. The hell. Has it?”

The Operator called out, “Kei,” one more time, even more strongly than the last time.

Kei shook his head. “I’ll bet he doesn’t know. He probably just created an environment where anyone could walk in and grab it.” The Operator had tried to create a situation where there was no logical thread to prove who had the MacGuffin. But unfortunately, Murase Youka’s ability didn’t require logic. It would be no harder for her to find the MacGuffin than it was for her to find this very room. Regardless, Kei wanted to nip this encounter in the bud before the situation got out of hand. The Operator certainly looked like he would prefer it that way.

“On top of all that, the original culprit may have dropped the MacGuffin, so that it could theoretically end up in anybody’s hands.” Kei took a good look at The Operator. “But if you ask me, I bet he knows who ‘happened’ to find it.” It was a very roundabout method, but effective. Tsushima probably figured everything would go down like this. Kei, for one, couldn’t care less as long as this MacGuffin nonsense could be over and done with.

“You know, don’t you?” It was hardly even a question.

The Operator smiled. “I don’t know for certain. But, if I had to fancy a guess, I’d say that she probably has it.”

Murase looked completely out of the loop. Haruki looked completely uninterested. Kei just wanted to go home, but recognized that he would be in this MacGuffin business for the long haul, and let out a sigh. “Then please just get a hold of her.”

“You’ll have to wait a moment. I need to step inside.”

“Can I come in, too?”

“Yup. I made sure to prepare lots of disinfectant,” The Operator answered, with an entirely straight face.

Murase made it clear that she did not wish to enter the apartment. Kei requested that Haruki wait outside as well, and she nodded. Following behind The Operator, Kei alone went into the room.

At a glance, it looked nothing like a place that someone was living in. There was a single computer on a desk, surrounded by several telephones. Clothes and sheets, all plain and stark white, were sealed inside transparent packaging and stacked beside it. Two cardboard boxes sat in the corner of the room, one filled with bottles of mineral water, and the other rubbing alcohol.

Not a single speck of dust was visible on the wooden flooring. The room didn’t even have a bed in it, likely because The Operator didn’t want any dust to get caught under it. Kei selected a random part of the room, and sat down there.

The Operator took off the rubber gloves he was wearing, threw them away, then put on a new pair. He walked over to the refrigerator, the only appliance in the room, and opened the door. The refrigerator only contained bottles of mineral water.

“Here you go,” said The Operator, handing Kei a bottle. Kei accepted it with a, “thanks,” unscrewed the cap, and took a sip. It was cool and refreshing, but had no flavor.

“Pretty simple setup you’ve got here,” Kei remarked.

“Mhm. Isn’t it wonderful? It’s got the empty allure of a cloudless sky.”

“Well, people also think that gardens filled with colorful flowers are beautiful.”

“But they scream when they find a bug on the leaves, don’t they? I could fill my room with imitation flowers instead, and I think people would still call it beautiful.” After stating that, The Operator picked up a phone. He pressed one button, then began speaking as though the other party were already on the line. “Heya. Got a bit of a question for you. You wouldn’t happen to have come across the MacGuffin, would you? It takes the appearance of a small, black stone.”

Kei took another sip of his mineral water, and tried to consider what kind of man would want to live in this kind of room. Despite having the perfect example in front of him, he was having a hard time fully imagining it. It was somewhat like an obsessive-compulsive disorder, but it was difficult to put the impression into words, at least words that made any sense. However, the room was a perfect fit for the man Kei knew as The Operator, and Kei certainly didn’t find him disagreeable.

After ending his short call, The Operator smiled. “She does indeed have it. She’d like to come by here and drop it off.”

“That sounds great,” Kei responded, before asking his question. “Say, how long has it been since you’ve eaten?”

The Operator smiled. “You mean, other than water?”

“Other than water.”

“Well, let’s see. If I had to say, the last time was probably when I was four or five years old. It was nothing too special, mind you. I used to eat a lot of ice cream, actually.”

“Why ice cream?”

“Because germs can’t develop inside of a freezer.”

“Then you’d be fine with eating some now, right? Should we go get some ice cream?”

“I won’t stop you from eating it in front of me.”

“But why not eat it together? That’s what friends do, right?”

“We may be friends, but I’d rather not. Besides, the ice cream will become all sticky once it melts, won’t it?”

“We can just eat it before it melts.”

“But then it’ll melt once we eat it. Doesn’t that bother you? The thought of all that sticky ice cream in your stomach? Doesn’t it make you just wanna scrub your skin away till you can clean where the problem is?”

“I can’t say it bothers me. Do you really want to do that?”

“Unfortunately, that would only make me start bleeding. If I were to scrub my skin off, then I’d just get blood all over me, and that’s no better of an outcome. Having all that blood going through my body is such an annoyance.”

“It’s not okay to have blood flow in your body?”

“Absolutely not. In fact, one time I went to a blood donation clinic, and politely asked that they take all the blood out of my body. I can’t fathom why they got so upset about it. They even threw me out.”

“I don’t think doctors like to do things that will kill their patients.” As Kei and The Operator continued their conversation, Kei found himself settling comfortably into the pace. Discussions with The Operator were actually quite calming. Suddenly, he had an idea. “Hey, if you’re hungry, you can get some information off of me.”

But The Operator shook his head. “Oh, no need. I got plenty of info off of Tsushima-san just the day before yesterday.”

“What did you get?” It was undoubtedly about their previous reset.

“Everything you told him, if I had to guess. He wasn’t being secretive about it.” The Operator took out a fresh sheet, spread it on the ground, and laid down on it. “I did something really horrible, Kei.”

“Did you really?”

“I did.”

“I suppose I’ll have to take your word on that.”

“Mhm. Thank you.”

Kei joined The Operator in lying on the floor. With his new perspective, he could see outside the window. He wasn’t sure if it was coincidental or not, but there was a cloudless, blue sky outside. It brought to mind the first conversation he had with The Operator over the phone. The Operator had led with quite an interesting line.

Let’s have as beautiful a conversation as we can manage. We’ll do away with any filthy and disordered topics. We can exchange our opinions, one after the next, and help each other understand them in turn. Let’s take our time, and be transparent with one another.

Was their current conversation holding to that expectation? Had he perhaps failed to keep his speech properly organized?

The two continued their conversation for a while longer. During it, Kei tried to make his words as transparent as possible. Perhaps The Operator really is my friend, he thought.

Footnotes

¹ Originally, The Operator says “I was the one that broke off the sakura branch”, which refers to the Japanese proverb, “桜切る馬鹿梅切らぬ馬鹿” meaning, “Only an idiot prunes cherry trees and only an idiot doesn’t prune plum trees.” return