"What else do you want to ask? Hurry up and ask."
Seeing this attitude from Amamiya Rin, The Hanging Balloons began to press him as well.
"First, can you kill the wrong person? If you did kill the wrong person, what would happen?"
"Second, the target you have to kill—must it be Fujino Terumi? Or someone whose appearance corresponds to yours one hundred percent? Or else a body that possesses Fujino Terumi's soul?"
"Third, from where does your power begin to take effect? The skin layer of the head? And from what point in time does it begin to take effect? The very moment you were born?"
"Fourth, if the person you have to kill is beheaded yet does not die, then what would happen?"
Amamiya Rin mulled it over briefly, then cautiously put forward several key questions.
"That's so many questions~~"
Faced with the questions Amamiya Rin tossed out all in one breath, The Hanging Balloons was slightly troubled.
But seeing that The Hanging Balloons wasn't answering, Amamiya Rin opened his mouth, about to ask yet more new questions.
"Is an existence like you a lone case? If not, then where are your own kind? In what manner are they born, and what is the pattern to their birth?"
This relentless, dogged attitude even brought a sense of pressure to The Hanging Balloons.
It had no time to carefully ponder the hidden intentions behind these questions of Amamiya Rin's, nor any leisure to judge which pieces of information it should reveal and which it should conceal.
"...Hmph."
The Hanging Balloons let out a muffled nasal grunt, and in the end still opened its mouth.
"I won't kill the wrong person—my noose will only chase after Fujino Terumi."
With the attitude that it didn't matter even if Amamiya Rin came to know, The Hanging Balloons answered his questions straightforwardly.
"The target of the killing is Fujino Terumi alone, too. Souls and the like—I don't understand such marvelous things. Someone whose appearance corresponds to mine one hundred percent? You could put it that way, but don't go thinking you can escape through cosmetic surgery; if Fujino Terumi's appearance changes, my appearance will change in exactly the same way."
"From where does my power begin to take effect? The skin layer of the head? You seem to have asked something strange,"
It repeated Amamiya Rin's wording, its enormous eyes blinking, finding the question a bit odd, though it didn't probe deeper.
"More or less. From the very moment I was born, I formed a one-sided link with Fujino Terumi's head. As long as I suffer damage, the skin of Fujino Terumi's head will likewise show the same wound, and all the tissue inside will turn into gas and leak out."
The Hanging Balloons paused, then issued a warning to Amamiya Rin.
"Also, don't go thinking you can damage the skin of her head to make me leak air. The influence is one-sided—only I can affect her; her getting hurt can't affect me."
"And my influence is a continuous, persistent presence. From the very moment I was born, the skin of her head was already fixed onto the inevitable ending of turning into nylon. Even if she's perfectly fine right now, in a month at the latest, her skin will turn into nylon."
"As for not dying... what a flight of fancy. How could such a thing possibly happen?"
"Whether I'm a lone case? Dunno~."
To the last question, it merely swayed about, giving a vague answer.
Amamiya Rin took a notebook out of his instrument case and swiftly, clearly recorded down every piece of information The Hanging Balloons had divulged.
Information Confirmed:
1. Target lock-on: uniqueness, directed at the individual "Fujino Terumi," possessing a mechanism of one-hundred-percent appearance correspondence. (Cannot sever the link through cosmetic surgery—so then, what about abandoning one's own looks?)
2. Linking mechanism: one-directional influence, established at the moment of birth, point of action suspected to be the skin layer of the head. (Is it only the skin layer? On the surface it seems so, but when the curse takes effect, the interior beneath the skin layer will also suffer fatal influence.)
3. Damage synchronization: when the balloon is damaged, the skin and underlying tissue at the corresponding position of the target's head suffer mimetic damage and vaporize.
4. Irreversible transformation: the skin of the target's head is already destined for "nylon-ification," the process is continuous, completing within one month at the longest. (No solution.)
5. Suspected absence of any same-kind consciousness: such is the case for now, but according to past-life information and the original story prototype, after Fujino Terumi's death, other Hanging Balloons will gradually appear as well; pattern: starting from those close in relationship to Fujino Terumi (uncertain), and those who develop a wish to die because of Fujino Terumi (uncertain).
Amamiya Rin's expression, too, grew more and more grave over the course of this analysis and recording.
No wonder The Hanging Balloons was so utterly unafraid.
From the very moment it was born, Fujino Terumi had already been doomed to an irreversible dead end.
But still... if that's all there is to it, there's a solution!
At the very least, there were three methods that held the possibility of dealing with The Hanging Balloons.
But they were only possibilities, nothing more.
Every single one of the plans was built upon as-yet-unstable conjecture, brimming with unknown risks.
Amamiya Rin closed the notebook, and instinctively turned his head, his gaze sweeping across the living room toward Fujino Terumi, who stood beside the sofa, leaning against its back.
The two of them's lines of sight met in midair.
Fujino Terumi's heart trembled for no reason; there were thoughts contained within Amamiya Rin's eyes that she couldn't comprehend, leaving her exceedingly uneasy.
Before she could even figure out the meaning of that look, Amamiya Rin suddenly moved.
Without the slightest warning he stepped back, his right hand gripping the handle of the balcony's glass door and pulling it inward.
"It's late. Let's stop bothering one another—goodbye."
The sound of the glass door sliding and then shutting was crisp and decisive, followed at once by the friction of the curtains being swiftly drawn tight; the blackout curtain sealed off the night beyond the balcony, and also blocked out that enormous face suspended in midair.
In an instant, the bright, warm living room drew a clear boundary between itself and the eerie, sinister atmosphere outside.
In the midair beyond the balcony, The Hanging Balloons was stunned. It hovered in place, motionless for a good while.
That pair of enormous eyes blinked blankly. Clearly it hadn't expected that Amamiya Rin—who only moments ago had been trading question for answer, probing back and forth—could turn hostile so quickly.
"Hey! Rin-kun, what's the meaning of this?"
It sat there dumbfounded for a few seconds before drifting forward half a meter, pressing its whole face against the cold glass door, calling out toward the blurry human figure within.
Its voice, coming through the glass, sounded muffled and laced with irritation.
"Nothing in particular."
Amamiya Rin's voice came from behind the curtain, clear yet cold.
"It's very late. Terumi and I both need to rest. The conversation ends here."
"So then... what's this supposed to be?! Hey! Answer me! Rin-kun? Amamiya Rin!"
Faced with this near-perfunctory reply, The Hanging Balloons began to clamor in displeasure, even lightly bumping the glass with its forehead, producing a muffled "thunk."
Only, its strength wasn't great—at the very least it didn't possess the strength to smash through the glass. Having maxed out its mechanism, its stats were abnormally pathetic, so that no matter how furious it got, it was only ever doing futile work.
Inside the room, Amamiya Rin no longer gave any response at all; only the lamplight cast upon the curtains outlined the blurry silhouette of him walking off into the depths of the living room.
____
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