"I guess salt butter is the best after all. Just one more bite. No, let's trade bowls!"
"Please stop that! Are you trying to steal all the joy from my life!?"
(Stage 01 Open 04/30 07:30)
The Rumored Rainy Girl and Librarian-chan
Voice SNS "Voice Friends".
From an invitation-only voice chat:
Hey have you heard?
You need to be careful on rainy days. It might be best to just not head out on those days. When the school chime sounds all distorted on rainy nights, it's a sign that the Rainy Girl is about to appear.
The Rainy Girl is a small girl who was killed on the way to or from school one rainy day about five or six years ago I think.
I don't recommend looking into it since it'll put you in a bad mood, but it's apparently a real incident. You can find articles on news sites if you search under the old Natsumi City name. It's true, I swear.
Now, no one knows what the Rainy Girl looks like.
It's because she's holding a battered and broken umbrella that hides her face. But the clothes underneath that are soaked red and, based on the actual incident, you probably don't want to see her face anyway.
What happens when you meet the Rainy Girl?
That I don't know.
Ah ha ha. Maybe it would be better with an obvious ending like with the Kuchisake-Onna or Hanako-san. Like if you could never escape or you'd definitely die after meeting her.
But I think that makes it all so cheap.
It's scary, but it sounds fake. And that's why people are comfortable whispering about it.
But this Rainy Girl is somehow different.
Maybe it just "feels" real. It's nothing like all the other stories. There's no sign of anyone intentionally trying to spread it around, yet it never gets forgotten. There's a weird ghastliness to it.
Yeah.
I don't know what happens when you meet the Rainy Girl, but there is one thing in common there.
Everyone who has met her won't say a word about it.
What could possibly have scared them that badly?
"Yesterday's occupation of A Block's international airport ended unprecedentedly quickly when all 102 hostages were safely rescued less than fifty minutes after the ordeal began."
"This has proven to the world just how skilled the police special forces have become to deal with this age of terrorism. However, it was not revealed how the elite team was sent into the airport and even the experts are split on the issue."
"Toy Dream 35 is a giant amusement park city, so there are rumors even the airport has secret entrances and exits for VIPs to avoid the paparazzi. The internet is filled with speculation that those were used here."
"More importantly, they may be accused of being overly equipped. All of the criminals' bodies had far too much damage for the weapons registered with the government. That said, over one hundred lives were at risk, so I doubt they will have to directly face the anger of the carefree civil groups."
"Also, part of the criminal group left the airport and began a car chase over the vehicle bridges of A Block, but they all ended up crashing. There is still the question of what they were chasing after, so the police will continue investigating every-..."
Shiroyama Kyousuke's home was not a house, an apartment, or a student dorm. It was a cruiser stopped in a harbor. He yawned as he prepared a breakfast of cereal and milk.
The news coming from the TV was filled with errors, but no one was maliciously lying to take the credit from him.
Anyone too deeply involved in the summoning ceremony industry would be forgotten as soon as they left people's field of vision. The people were simply left with the fact that the occupation had ended at some point, so they had filled in the gaps the best they could.
"Up next is Space Captain Whitebeard's weather forecast. Captain!"
"Hello, this is Space Captain Whitebeard in the civilian space station Toy Dream OP-05! Here's what today's weather looks like when viewed from up in space. Toy Dream 35 has a 20% chance of rain. Even if it's only cloudy now, it would be best not to let go of that umbrella!"
"Toy Dream 35 is still running its Rainy Screen campaign, a special event only available on rainy days. How about a lovely show as rain and reflected light are woven together in the night? See the official website for details."
Unfortunately, his refrigerator had no salad inside.
He had failed to procure the necessary food after the previous day's excitement. He had no choice but to get his "vegetables" by supplementing his bowl of cereal with some dried fruit he had for emergencies.
After finishing breakfast, he stuck the bowl in the water-conserving automatic dishwasher and quickly washed off his sweat in the shower room. He changed into a red blazer instead of his usual hoodie and pants.
Everyone has probably forgotten by this point, but he was technically a high school student.Of the pizza slice sections of the city, his high school was in R Block. The large square platform was supported by several pillars rising from the ocean. This was a lot like the international airport from the day before, but it was much smaller at only three hundred meters across.
"Hey."
When he entered the classroom, a few boys casually greeted him. Quite a few boys and girls had already gathered for morning homeroom. Kyousuke was not the type to be constantly late, but he did not arrive particularly early either.
There was one person he tended to speak with, so he went with the usual routine and approached a desk at the front of the classroom.
The desk belonged to Rendou Akiya, the head of the going-home club who was known for trying everything and losing interest in everything.
"Did you see the news? Amazing, isn't it? The police did a hell of a job. I hear the Toy Dream Company is taking action too, so people are speculating there'll be an airport occupation attraction out in no time. Y'know, something like a survival game."
Despite the rough manner of speech, Rendou Akiya wore a girl's blazer and pleated skirt and had semi-long brown hair. ...But as the name Akiya suggests, he was a boy.
According to the student handbook, "All students must wear the designated uniform as they diligently work at their studies."
In other words, it never specified a difference in uniforms for boys and girls. ...Although it was probably just an oversight because that difference was assumed.
And Rendou Akiya only wanted to expand the realm of fashion, so he was not actually a so-called "trap". The boys who had made a mistake there and sent him a love letter had received a broken nose as a response, so it was an important point to keep in mind.
"What's this, what's this? Are you talking about a new job opportunity?"
Then a girl with braided hair and thin-framed glasses approached.
"Oh, it's just you, Librarian-chan."
"Learn my name already. It's going to be May soon, you son of a bitch."
It was the Librarian-chan who had a way of ruining everyone's image of her along with their hopes and dreams.
After replying in a low voice, she dropped her voice down to a whisper.
"(C'mon, if they're taking applications for a part-time job, tell me. I have a weakness for that kind of thing.)"
"You're getting a little ahead of yourself. We're only talking about rumors of a new attraction."
"(If you only look for openings after everyone's talking about it, all the positions will already be filled. You can't get the best position unless you act first. And I think that applies to just about everything.)"
"Anyway, I think this would be on the horror side of things, and don't you have trouble with that?"
"What do you mean by that?"
This was based on the distorted version of Kyousuke and the others' actions.
But that distortion did not affect him, so he had no way of knowing how exactly it had been distorted. He just hoped they had not left any odd hints at the scene.
"Apparently the Rainy Girl was spotted before and after the occupation."
But his fears had been way off base.
He doubted busty Lu Niang Lan would fall into the category of "girl".
"Online, they're saying it might have been a harbinger of things to come like when dolphins go nuts before a disaster. I doubt the Toy Dream Company really understands Japanese horror, but if they go for it, this might turn into a haunted house."
"Ah...ah ha ha. In that case, I think I'll sit this one out..."
"You really can't stand horror, can you? You even avert your gaze when you see things like scary fairy tales."
"What's wrong with that? Those things are sick. There's nothing wrong with having your corners rounded off by the flow of time like rocks on the riverbed. I don't understand why everyone goes out of their way to make rough and inaccessible stories just because they're original."
Librarian-chan laughed dryly and really did take a step back.
She seemed to have a lot of trouble with that genre.
Kyousuke frowned.
"Isn't the Rainy Girl a ghost that appears on the way to or from school?"
"Yeah, but thanks to the spread of rumors online, she's apparently showing up in front of schools in Guam and New York these days. What a shame. If she only appeared inside the school, we might have been able to make a great haunted house for the cultural festival."
The way Rendou Akiya spoke made it obvious he did not believe the stories.
For anyone not involved in the world of the summoning ceremony, that was the normal view. Librarian-chan was overly sensitive to still be afraid of ghost stories in high school. Although just like having trouble with seeing blood, it was something some people simply could not overcome through effort alone.
"I've heard that your class's festival attraction is factored into your student score."
"And I've heard the Toy Dream Company sends out scouts to check them out like a ramen magazine's investigator. That means we can't get careless. We're talking about a global corporation here. If we gather attention in a good way, we'll be set for life, don't you-..."
Rendou Akiya was cut off by a blaring emergency bell.
However, the students did not start running around in a panic because of the alarm. They first looked up at the speaker in confusion.
"What a pain. Did some idiot get all worked up and hit the button?" muttered Rendou, but things seemed to be different.
The usual tones came from the speaker, followed by a girl, presumably from the broadcast committee, speaking.
"We will now begin surprise emergency crime prevention training. Each class is to obey their teacher's instructions and quickly evacuate. I repeat..."
"Ugh. Did you hear that?" asked Librarian-chan in disgust. "It's already started raining outside, but do they want us to all gather outside and listen to the principal speak?"
"Since it's raining, won't they change it to the gym?" suggested Kyousuke.
"It's a pain either way!" shouted Rendou. "What's this about? Was I not the only idiot who got caught up in all the talk about the airport occupation on the news? If terrorists or a gunman attacked the school, what good is it sending us all out in the halls?"
"Morning homeroom hasn't even started, so what are they going to do about attendance?"
"Oh, damn. If my absence would've been overlooked in all the confusion, I should've gone back to bed this morning."
But their complaints changed nothing.
The event was clearly pointless, but it was well known that mocking this kind of training could lead to a serious deduction on one's student score.
On the instructions of their homeroom teacher (a gentle type with gigantic breasts whose secret nickname was "The Cow"), they walked down the hall in two lines, one for boys and one for girls. It felt like being forced to hold up a sign saying "Please slaughter us all. We'll be your meat shield."
As they descended the stairs, they ran into another class.
It was an upperclassman class.
"Outta the way, first years. It's not about being polite, you idiots. Those are the rules."
"Don't get involved. They don't look too bright, so anything you say would be a waste of time."
The group of boys chuckled as they passed by.
Rendou dug into his ear with his pinky.
"Ahh, ahh. They've given up on their humanity already? I don't want to end up like that. Do they think that single year of difference makes them adults or something? They might as well be old men with plenty of ego but no actual ability. I can already tell they'll still be failures even at thirty and forty. I bet the only thing that'll change is how much hair they have left."
"Yeah, but high schoolers like us might disappoint some middle schoolers if they saw us."
"I'm not proud of it, but when I was in middle school, I believed I'd lose my virginity the instant I advanced to high school. I thought a kind upperclassman or female teacher would lure me into the gym supply shed at the opening ceremony."
"Really? I still thought I could save at least one world back then."
The two boys laughed like idiots.
And no one realized that one of them had said something which may have been no laughing matter.
Then Kyousuke noticed a gentle citrus scent.
One of the upperclassmen was a girl with long black hair tied near the end with a large ribbon and with a chest large enough to give Lu Niang Lan a run for her money. She gestured him over with a hand, winked, and whispered in his ear.
It was unclear if she realized she was squishing her soft breasts with her own arm.
"(Sorry about having you go along with this boring event first thing in morning, Shiroyama Boy. But this student assembly will use up first period, so hopefully that makes up for it.)"
It may have been to keep their conversation private, but she was far closer than he had expected.
She was not actually touching him, but he could feel the warmth from her soft cheek.
"Should the student council president really be saying that?"
Kyousuke replied wearily and the upperclassman replied as a sweet smell wafted from her hair.
"(Don't be silly. I was forced to spend all night writing up a speech for the assembly greeting. I don't like this any better than you. Although I am glad this is getting me out of my first period social studies elective.)"
"Really? You chose it yourself and you're still complaining?"
"(It's a miracle that anyone can make a world history class that boring. Why does he just write a list of dates up on the board? He doesn't understand all the romance found between the lines. And unfortunately, he's a complete lost cause as far as that's concerned.)"
She waved goodbye and continued down the stairs.
Librarian-chan cut in then.
"Ugh. She's just on an entirely different level from the rest of us if she thinks history is normally any fun."
"Huh? But Librarian-chan, as our Librarian-chan, don't you love things like Water Margin and Shakespeare?"
"Learn my name already. And I only do this to establish my character. While I do like books, I don't really know that much about them. I've only ever bought two or three books and the rest I borrow from my parents' bookcase."
Hearing that felt like seeing an idol without makeup on.
Her student score was likely composed of magic.
Kyousuke started feeling a little blue, but Rendou Akiya made an unexpected recovery.
"Keh, keh. But all you read are surprisingly fantastical fairy tales."
"Sh-shut up!! Toy Dream 35 is a foreign-owned amusement park city, so we kind of are citizens of a fairy tale!!"
Librarian-chan blushed, but she seemed unable to deny her love of fairy tales.
As Rendou had said, it was a surprising side to her.
"But that wealthy president with F1 specs is nothing like us commoners with moped specs," said Rendou. "She's the most likely candidate to be recruited by Toy Dream HQ. Her economic thesis 'Repeat Customers and the Catharsis of Repetition' was published in the British magazine 'Business & Credit' and gathered a ton of attention. She's on her way to an important position in a global corporation. Cut the string of her balloon and she'd probably fly up above the clouds. She's nothing like us."
Kyousuke had been exactly right about the students gathering in the gym for the surprise crime prevention training.
What good was gathering here if this had become a school of death with terrorists and gunmen wandering around? Kyousuke was used to fighting, but even the other students could tell this would become a giant execution ground.
The principal's speech was so bad that even a summoner like Alice (with) Rabbit Shiroyama Kyousuke's endurance was pushed to its limits as he tried not to fall asleep on his feet. If this was a supernatural ability to distort people's sense of time without relying on a Material, it was a high level one.
And after that lesson on how not to give a speech, the upperclassman's speech was all the more effective. It felt like being handed frigid mint ice cream after wandering on and on through the desert.
"What matters most is to be prepared for the unexpected and the best way of doing that is repetitive practice. In other words, these are preparatory exercises to make sure your knees are not trembling uncontrollably when it actually matters. Think of it like swimming in the ocean. If a child who has never even placed his face below water is suddenly thrown into the sea, everyone knows what will happen, right? And unfortunately there is no life buoy analogue in a firefight. The only way to learn how to swim is practice. Falsely assuming you know what to do is the scariest thing of all."
The text itself was the formal language of a school assembly speech, but unlike the principal's bland reading, she added gestures at the important points and changed the inflection of her voice to create dramatic waves. It was the difference between "reading" and "performing" a speech.
She also gave familiar examples to deal with people's frustrations and confusion as to why they had to do this, which provided the same sense of accomplishment as solving a riddle. Instead of feeling you had simply been told the answer, you felt you alone had figured out the answer because of how smart you were.
It did not matter if you had been guided every step of the way by her explanations.
"If she put that together overnight, she could become a playwright or a politician's secretary," commented Rendou.
"But that means working behind the scenes. Don't you think she would look more at home in the spotlight herself?" asked Librarian-chan in the line next to them. "But if there's this much of a difference, why doesn't the principal just get her to write his speech for him?"
"I bet it's a matter of pride. Do that and the adult will cry."
As Kyousuke and the others whispered to each other, a member of the broadcast committee brought the assembly to a close with a microphone in one hand.
"That was Student Council President Benikomichi Fuuki-san. With that, the emergency crime prevention training is complete. Classes will resume as normal with second period, so please return to your classrooms in a timely fashion."
In other words, it was just another peaceful day.
Otherwise, they could not spend so much time on training like this.The lunch break began.
Shiroyama Kyousuke tended to eat lunch alone.
This was simply due to the fact that his classmates would scatter as soon as the lunch break started. And as a summoner, they would forget about him as soon as he left their field of vision. They would forget any kind of promise they might have made, so any promises to eat lunch together were rendered invalid.
For that reason, he went to the cafeteria on his own, ordered some salt butter ramen, and took a seat. Then an upperclassman girl sat across from him.
It was Student Council President Benikomichi Fuuki.
"Do you mind if I sit with you, Shiroyama Boy?"
"No, go ahead. ...What is that?"
As long as they were sitting across from him, a normal person would not forget about him. And their temporarily forgotten memories would return during those times and smoothly accumulate across meetings.
The boy's puzzled question was in reference to the mysterious dish on her tray that was not registered in any of the cafeteria vending machines.
But this was not a luxurious lunch provided as a special privilege for the president.
"It's low calorie konjac Chinese noodles. They're testing it out for the cafeteria menu."
"It's not an orthodox dish, but it also doesn't go far enough with the novelty factor either."
"I think it's a health food that's abandoned trying to be good as food."
"Health food? But even if you make the noodles out of konjac, doesn't the sauce have a lot of fat?"
"I'm more worried about the taste. Describe it as fancily as you like, no one's going to order something that tastes bad. That's why you have that meaningless butter on top of your ramen."
"Yeah, why does it seem so much more bourgeois just by adding a clump of butter on top?"
"I know what you mean. I don't like the vinegary pickles on a burger, but when you make it a fresh slice of tomato instead, it seems so much more luxurious. And yet the pickle is actually more expensive."
"The lemon next to karaage."
"The vanilla ice cream in an ice cream float."
"The grilled rice ball you make on the edge of the grill when cooking yakiniku or barbecue."
"The sugar doll on top of a cake is just the best, isn't it?"
For some reason, Shiroyama Kyousuke and Benikomichi Fuuki exchanged a firm handshake.
It felt like they had found someone who truly understood them.
The student council president looked like her flesh and blood were made of pianos, violins, tea ceremonies, horseback riding, and conversational English, but she seemed to know the "proper" way to eat ramen. She used wooden chopsticks like normal and she slurped up the noodles like normal. ...Although the way she used one hand to brush her long hair up over her ear was pointlessly seductive.
It was rare to find someone who actually looked out of place not twirling it up like pasta.
"Hm? Do I have something on my face?"
"No."
"It tastes okay, I guess. I have to admit I'm surprised how much the texture is just like ramen. I bet people will figure they might as well eat normal ramen, so I'm worried how they'll advertise this flavor."
"It would be perfect if you could simply say 'the same taste with half the calories'."
"Konjac noodles aren't that effective. But it's perfectly edible. Here, have a bite."
"But my tongue is growing fat on salt butter, the top class ramen flavor!"
"That's why I'm jealous. I'm telling you to give me a bite for a bite of this."
They stuck their chopsticks in each other's bowls and traded noodles. For some reason, there was no romantic feeling of, "Kyah! Is this what they call an indirect kiss?" Ramen was the ultimate food of the masses, but it was not even remotely suited for romance.
As for of the rumored konjac noodles...
"It tastes like normal ramen and you can eat it like normal. Yeah, it feels like an evolutionary dead end. I'm not sure how else they can improve this..."
"Right? This is the product you hate to have as a producer. And the developer hasn't done anything wrong, so you can't just abandon them. ...But damn. I guess salt butter is the best after all. Just one more bite. No, let's trade bowls! C'mon, this is your chance to have this mysterious new product all to yourself!!"
"Please stop that! Are you trying to steal all the joy from my life!? After eating this, those konjac noodles barely feel like eating anything! It's like chewing on a flavorless sponge!!"
Kyousuke bent protectively over his bowl and glared at her with a fairly serious look in his eyes.
And then they overhead the conversation of an athletic-seeming group carrying their trays to an empty table.
"It's true. A first year who stayed behind to clean up the equipment said he saw that Rainy Girl!!"
"Yeah, right. I bet he saw it online and decided to have some fun with it."
"It's based on a story of a girl who had a grass sickle swung down on her head nineteen times, right? And by a huge man who barely had a human skeletal structure thanks to genetic tuning. The murderer scares me way more than the ghost."
The topic dried out the atmosphere.
After the group passed by, Benikomichi Fuuki took a sip from her cup of water.
"There's been more and more talk of that around here lately. Based on the age of the 'ghost', the story probably started at an elementary school somewhere in Japan, but the school connection allowed it to spread to high schools like this. It's spreading all over the country and the world thanks to the internet, so the age of the Rainy Girl probably changes to match the school, just like with Hanako-san."
"Do you believe it?"
"Why would I? ...Although hearing that would probably make my tearful and religious mother sad."
That may have been the standard reaction.
At least, that is, for normal people who knew nothing of the summoning ceremony and had no fear of being forgotten by someone.
And as Kyousuke thought about that...
"Ahyhay, how hahout hoo hade hor hork hor hy haruho?" (Anyway, how about you trade your pork for my naruto?)
"Ah! Why would you suggest that after shoving my roast pork in your mouth!?"In the world of the summoning ceremony, ghosts were said to come from a place, not an individual.
Something was needed to pass between this world and the other world.
When that grew clogged up for some reason, the soul that should have departed would be stuck there.
Ghost exterminations were one of the most basic requests.
Unless the ghost was a very powerful vengeful spirit, it was almost never necessary to fight the ghost with a Material.
In most cases, one only needed to throw an Incense Grenade and set up an Artificial Sacred Ground. The ghost was a paranormal being, so the Artificial Sacred Ground would give them a boost and allow them to wield greater power than normal.
However, they could not actually use that power.
Once the conditions were set to summon a Material, the "clog" would be forcibly removed and the ghost would vanish like the rainwater left in the drain pipe.
Did the ghosts go to heaven as the religious claimed, were they sent to the other world where all the Materials lurked, or were they simply annihilated?
The answer to that question was not yet known.
But as far as the humans in this world were concerned, the problem was solved.
That was really all they knew.
Very little was known about the phenomenon of ghosts, even by the top tier summoners who were within arm's reach of the Regulation-class, Divine-class, Unexplored-class, and even the White Queen at the top.