Five days passed after that, and there was no movement from Natsumi.
“Hmm....”
It seemed like she was preparing something, but since I had no idea what, it was frustrating as hell.
“Hm?”
Then the commander called.
When I answered, wondering what was going on, I heard something incredible.
[Natsumi sent a letter. She even dropped it in the spirit mansion mailbox.]
“What?”
[Come out to the living room. Quickly.]
“Got it.”
At the news that Natsumi had sent a letter, I hurried down to the living room.
Everyone was gathered there, and in the middle of them sat a single envelope.
On the front of the envelope was Natsumi’s name, and on the back, it said To Higakieta Hai.
“So this is a letter from Natsumi?”
“That’s right.”
The commander nodded and shook the envelope.
“We checked it thoroughly for anything dangerous. It won’t suddenly go Boom on us.”
“Then I can open it without worrying.”
Honestly, even if it did explode, I wouldn’t really care, but it might drag the others into it.
Reassured by the commander’s words, I tore open the seam of the envelope.
Riiip!
The sealed wax fell away, revealing what was inside.
There were several photos and a letter in the envelope.
“This is...?”
The problem was the people in those photos.
There were twenty photos in all.
Tohka, Tobiichi, the commander, Itsuka-kun, Rinne, Rio, the Fire Keeper, Mayuri, Yoshino, Kaguya, Yuzuru, Miku, Ai, Mai, Mii, Tamae-sensei, Tonomachi-kun, Marina, Maria, and Mana.
There were a lot of them, and every person in the photos was someone I knew.
“Hieta, read the letter.”
Just as Itsuka-kun said, there was also a letter, and it read:
-One of these is me.
Can you figure out which one I am?
Until there’s not a single one left.
Natsumi
“Ha....”
A sigh escaped me on its own.
So that was what she’d been preparing.
She was hiding in there, and if we found her, everyone would be safe.
“Who did she transform into?”
She’d copied the appearance perfectly, so we’d have to remember that person’s usual behavior and little habits to figure it out.
“She transformed into someone nearby....”
I crumpled the letter and looked around.
Since I’d read the letter out loud, everyone understood the situation, and whenever our eyes met, they tried to prove they weren’t the one.
‘First, I can rule out Maria and Marina for sure.’
They were currently in the server room inside [Fraxinus], so if Natsumi had transformed into either of them, we’d know right away.
“Rinne and Rio. And Mayuri is definitely not the one.”
“Huh? How do you know that?”
Seeing the commander’s puzzled expression, I pointed at them one by one and said,
“I can feel souls from those three. More precisely, it feels like they’re connected to me through my soul.”
Since the material making up their bodies was my soul, I could feel that strange connection.
And if I could feel their souls, then those three were definitely people Natsumi couldn’t imitate.
“Itsuka-kun?”
“Huh?”
“S-ep-a-r-a-tion—”
“Aaaagh!”
As soon as I tried to say the forbidden word, Itsuka-kun freaked out and clamped a hand over my mouth.
Then he shook his head, which told me he really was Itsuka-kun.
More than that, I could feel regret, anger, and embarrassment in his eyes, so he probably wasn’t the one.
“What was Hai about to say?”
“Nothing! It was nothing!”
At Mayuri’s words, Itsuka-kun waved his hands and broke out in a cold sweat. Seeing that, Mayuri looked at him with even more suspicion.
Well, this was Itsuka-kun’s dark history.
I could understand why he was panicking like that.
“Tch. How do we figure out the rest?”
Itsuka-kun being flustered was one thing, but right now the most important thing was figuring out whether everyone else was real.
“Any good ideas?”
“If I had one, I wouldn’t be worrying about this.”
After answering the commander, I thought through a few possibilities.
For example, I could interrogate them, or ask questions only Natsumi wouldn’t know.
The second one was what I’d just used on Itsuka-kun, but that worked because I knew his dark history.
I had no way of doing that with other people, since I didn’t know the private stuff only they’d know.
“Hmm....”
“Oh, how about dating?”
“Dating?”
At Itsuka-kun’s suggestion, I looked at him like he’d lost his mind.
What did he mean, suddenly dating here?
The others seemed to think the same thing, because they were all staring at Itsuka-kun like he was crazy.
“I mean, if we’re going to see through Natsumi’s transformation, we can’t miss the little details, right? So if we go on a date, maybe we’ll be able to tell....”
Itsuka-kun’s voice trailed off, probably because even he thought it sounded like bullshit.
But the others were apparently on a different wavelength.
“That’s not bad.”
“You’re actually saying something sensible for once, Shido.”
“I-I think that’s good too....”
『If Yoshino thinks it’s good, Yoshinon agrees too~!』
Why was everyone acting like they were going to accept it?
“It doesn’t seem like a bad method. When you’re on a date, you keep thinking about the other person.”
“Y-you’re really going to do this...?”
“Of course.”
“Everyone else too?”
“Yep.”
“I think it’s a good idea too.”
What was this, had they all gone insane?
As more and more people started agreeing with Itsuka-kun, I felt like something had gone very wrong.
What if Natsumi could use clone jutsu, and everyone here was actually Natsumi?
That wasn’t it... right?
“Do you really think that makes sense?”
At last!
There was someone besides me who opposed this plan.
Mayuri slammed a hand on the table and told them not to say ridiculous things.
“Then I won’t be able to date Sachi and Rinne!”
“That’s the problem!?”
First of all, that person didn’t seem normal either.
Was not being able to date really the issue in a situation like this?
『For girls, dating is a pretty important matter, Hai-kun!』
“Yoshinon’s right.”
Watching Mayuri, Rinne, and the Fire Keeper nod along made me wonder if I was the one who was out of touch.
No, still.
People were disappearing right now. Dating wasn’t important, was it...?
“Still, my servant, can that witch named Natsumi transform into objects too?”
“Objects?”
At Kaguya’s question, I had a realization.
Natsumi’s angel was definitely an ability that let her change her appearance however she wanted.
If that was the case, didn’t that mean she could turn into an object too?
Once my thoughts reached that point, a hypothesis formed.
Maybe Natsumi wasn’t disguised as a person at all, but as an object.
If she had turned into an object, then all I had to do was check the objects in the photos one by one.
At the very least, she wouldn’t be a piece of clothing someone could wear on bare skin, and she definitely wouldn’t be a chair someone else sat on.
So I kept eliminating possibilities, and eliminating them, and eliminating them some more.
And in the end, only one thing remained.
Yoshinon.
“Yoshino, do you know where Yoshinon is?”
“Huh? Y-yes, right here....”
『What are you talking about, Hai-kun! Yoshinon is right here!』
“I see.”
To make absolutely sure Yoshinon was the real one, I opened my inventory.
Then I took out the red puppet doll inside it, Hikinon, and equipped it.
Hikinon settled into my hand, slumped over at first, but after a little while it lifted its head and stood up on its own.
Then, out of nowhere, it grabbed me by the collar.
〔Master! You asshole, Master! How could you forget me!? Huh!? How could you leave me sitting in your inventory and not use me!?〕
“W-wait, calm down! What are you talking about? It hasn’t even been that long since we last met!”
〔What!? Not that long!? Don’t talk nonsense, you punk! Do you know how long I waited!? How much I held out until you finally brought me out!? And you have the nerve to say that!?〕
“Hey, hey! Let go of me first! Let’s talk this out, okay? Talk it out!”
At my demand that it let go of my collar, Hikinon snorted and loosened its grip.
It seemed like its personality had changed a lot since I’d last seen it, but I didn’t have time to worry about that right now.
“Hikinon. Calm down first. There was a reason I called you so late.”
I soothed Hikinon and explained everything that had happened so far.
Logging into the new game Fraxinus had made, meeting Maria there, meeting Marina, and so on.
After I told it all of that, Hikinon’s anger faded away.
〔Th-that happened...?〕
“Yeah, so forgive me.”
〔I’m sorry, Master! I had no idea!〕
Hikinon grabbed my wrist and burst into tears the size of chicken droppings.
Every time I saw it, I wondered how on earth it could cry like that.
What a weird little thing.
〔Sniff! So, why did you call me?〕
After finishing its tears, Hikinon asked why I’d summoned it.
The reason was, of course, to find out whether Yoshinon was the real one, so I pointed at Yoshinon beside me.
〔Hm? Why Yoshinon?〕
Hikinon stared at Yoshinon for a moment, then suddenly tilted its head.
〔Hmm~? Who are you? You’re not the Yoshinon I know.〕
『W-what are you talking about, Hikinon! Yoshinon is Yoshinon!』
〔Don’t talk nonsense, fake! I can’t feel the same thing from you that I feel from Yoshinon!〕
“Found it.”
Natsumi was Yoshinon.
Comments (0)
Please log in to leave a comment. Login or Register