VOLUME 3

Chapter 14: Nozomi’s ☆ Secret 2

Cram school was cancelled for a while. It seemed the flu was spreading really quickly.

In my life, stuff like this often happened. When I thought really hard about how it’d be nice if something happened, then that thing tended to happen. On the flip side, if I was really worried that something would happen, it tended to not happen. If I could actually control this power (?) of mine, I probably could earn a lot of money off it.

Well, this was all probably just coincidence anyway.

“Three hours please.”

On the way back from school, I stopped by my usual Internet café.

Just because I didn’t have to go to cram school didn’t mean I wanted to go straight home to do ch.o.r.es or to study. I mean, I wasn’t insanely, deathly against that, but I would feel a bit annoyed if I had to.

“Okay. That’ll be 700 yen.”

When I first came, the café employee gave me a strange look and wondered what an elementary student was doing in an Internet café, but lately he’s gotten used to me and thankfully hasn’t paid me much mind.

I was a good girl, so my mother gave me a pretty comfortable allowance. These kinds of small expenses wouldn’t make much of a dent on my wallet.

Well, okay, I couldn’t come every day or anything… but if it was once a week it was fine.

(As always, the smell of cigarette smoke in here is pretty awful.)

I frowned and stretched up, handing the café employee my membership card and the 700 yen fee.

The employee quickly handed me a clipboard with information about my allotted usage time and other things written on it, and then he asked me the same question he always did.

But honestly, I wish he would think a bit before asking an elementary schooler if she wanted to use an ashtray.

I walked through the net café, which was lightly filled with purple-tinted smoke, with my book bag waving from side to side.

I got some tea from the drink station along the way, and I walked a bit more carefully so as to not spill anything.

(So, I wonder if that person came…)

Usually, I would be here playing online games or surfing the Internet or reading manga (I didn’t have a single volume of manga at home since my mom would throw them all out).

But today, I had other plans.

I got to my booth and set my book bag down, plopping myself deeply into the reclining chair that was just a bit too big for my body.

And then, I gazed at my cell phone.

I’ve arrived.

I sent out that mail.

And then, I followed the directions pasted in my booth to turn the computer in front of me on. I was soon shown a desktop with a lot of icons on it, and I clicked on the icon marked “Yamata-no-Orochi SNS.”

Most of the big online games were installed on the computers at net cafés.

Well, I guess like the name would suggest, Yamata-no-Orochi SNS was more a social networking service, but…

I wasn’t very good at socializing with other people, so I enjoyed it perfectly fine purely as a game.

I waited a short while, and then the SNS screen appeared.

(Ah, it looks like the repairs aren’t fully done yet…)

A little while ago, there was a mysterious accident (?) and Yamata-no-Orochi SNS underwent a large-scale system failure. As of now, the system still wasn’t completely back to normal yet.

Although the basic, minimal functions were back, so as a Yamata-no-Orochi fan (who often were called “Yamachi”), I was happy enough.

h.e.l.lo.

On the screen was my character – a female warrior named Hime who wasn’t very strong at all as I had not invested much time or money into her. My character was currently trying to tell me that I had gotten a message.

I shook nervously as I began to awkwardly type on the café’s coa.r.s.e keyboard.

Sorry to keep you waiting, Sasami-san.

This was someone in the same guild (i.e. community) as me in Yamata-no-Orochi SNS. Her character’s name was Sasami-san.

Her character was way, way stronger than mine, so I nervously greeted her.

Today, I would be meeting this person in real life.

Honestly, usually it was wise to not go meeting random people you first met on the Internet…

But I found out Sasami-san was living in the same town as me, and she seemed to also understand my problem and knew how to solve it, so that kinda forced me into this situation.

So, let me just once again make sure I understand your situation.

Right now, Sasami-san should’ve been in the same café as I was. Maybe she was shy, or maybe there was some other reason, but she insisted that we talk via message like this.

… You said that you can see ghosts?

Sasami-san put it pretty bluntly.

I had met her (okay I guess since everything was online I couldn’t be sure she was actually a girl) on the homepage of a site for self-proclaimed “spiritualists.” That site had shut down, but we had continued our correspondence afterwards.

Yes. Something like that happened yesterday too, although I could’ve just mistaken what I saw… but there was this big spider monster.

That sounds pretty rough.

Sasami-san seemed to believe my story just like that. My mom would definitely never be so accepting.

Things might get dangerous if you don’t deal with this quickly. My expertise is pretty half-baked, so I can’t offer anything major… but I can teach you a charm that will give you some temporary relief.

Hime-chan called what she saw a “ghost,” but…

Sasami-san used my Yamata-no-Orochi SNS screen name when she talked with me.

I also didn’t think it was that wise to leak your personal information all over the place, so I would also act as if I was this Hime and not Kushinada Nozomi.

In this land, it’s a fundamental rule that humans cannot come back to life, so to be precise, they aren’t “ghosts,” but “youkai” or “monsters.” They aren’t ghosts who hold some kind of grudge and so cannot ascend to a higher plane, but rather supernatural beings who think of humans as nothing more than food or insignificant pebbles. That is what Hime-chan saw.

Sasami-san courteously explained things to me.

In most cases, humans are weaker than these monsters, but Hime-chan seems to be rather sensitive to these things (you could say you’re “spiritually sensitive”), so you end up seeing what you see. That may put you into a bit of danger.

Her words were filled with confidence, and I really felt I could believe her.

At least, way more than my teachers or my mother, who only knew how to say things that sounded sweet on the surface.

Who in the world would take me seriously if I told them I was having problems because I could see monsters?

n.o.body else could see them, so it’s not like I could expect anybody to sympathize with me.

There are also humans who have relatively high levels of spiritual power and divinity, but those people are often targeted by these monsters. They’re attacked, their powers are sucked from them, and sometimes they’re eaten. In the worst cases, they can be spirited away, never able to return back to this plane of existence.

What should I do then?

I felt myself growing scared, so I asked that question.

But, it seemed that Sasami-san also didn’t have a good answer to that question.

In general, there’s not much you can do. Humans are just weaker than the monsters. If you’re attacked, there’s not much you can do to defend yourself. You just have to try your best to not get close to any of these monsters and to try your best not to see them. It’s like a disease that you have to deal with your entire life. Well, with the right training you might be able to gain some measure of control over the power within you, but for various reasons, I wouldn’t recommend getting involved with the kinds of organizations that offer that kind of training.

So basically, I was at a complete dead end.

But I did make a charm for you. With this, you should be able to defend yourself to some extent. If you ever see the jewel in the middle of this thing getting black, then call me again. I’ll switch it out for you. Also, please call me if anything else happens, and I’ll do my best to help.

I heard something clatter open from the booth next to mine.

Then, I saw the divider between my booth and the next slide open, and someone’s palm reach in through the opening.

Net cafés often came with booths that had removable dividers in case multiple people wanted to use a booth at the same time.

And, beyond the window-like opening that had now opened up next to me, I saw a single girl sitting in the chair.

This was probably Sasami-san.

In her open palm was a ring that was set with what looked like a bead.

“I can have this?”

I saw Sasami-san nod slowly after my question.

She was unexpectedly young. She was also wearing a uniform from the nearby high school, and for some reason she was hiding her face with her schoolbag.

After I took the ring, she quickly slid the divider back into place and shut herself back into her own booth.

Sorry. If you hang out with me too much… or maybe I should say, if the other G.o.ds start believing that I’m showing you favor, then they’ll all get jealous and start attacking you and doing all other kinds of nasty things. So this level of contact is the most I can do.

I had no idea what she was talking about, but…

“Thanks, Sasami-san.”

My mood lightened, and I was able to thank her sincerely.

But before long, I heard some other voice from the next booth. “Sasami-san, I was curious why you took a detour today so I followed you, but what are you doing here?! Hiding your face like that… are you imitating me?! Ahh, it’s cosplay, right?! This is a sign of your love, right?!” “Uggyahh?! Where the h.e.l.l did you come from, you d.a.m.n pervert?!” There was quite a fuss being raised over there, so she probably didn’t hear my words of grat.i.tude.

However, Sasami-san’s valiant efforts to aid me soon amounted to nothing.

You always had to show your membership card when you wanted to use a net café, and there was a lot of personal information (phone number, address, etc.) written on that card.

The shop employee probably got a bit needlessly worried about the one elementary schooler who came to the shop so often, so he ended up calling my house.

Of course, my mom just completely blew up at me.

After all, I was supposed to be the responsible honor roll student, an upstanding member of the student council, and in general, was supposed to be using all my free time to study.

So I shouldn’t be taking a detour after school to go hang out in a smoke-filled, shady net café.

My mom grabbed me by the hair and screamed at me, and then she found the ring… and took it away.

— I’m just worried about you! I’m not doing any of this out of hate, okay?!

The words that came out of my mother’s mouth sounded to me like a bad joke.