Infinite Dendrogram - Volume 18 - Chapter 1

Chapter One: Real-Life Relationships

Reiji Mukudori

A real-life day had passed since the battle royale on the uninhabited island.

It was now a Friday, and my college, UTokyo, was brimming with excitement.

The reason for all the enthusiasm was obvious. The week after next, from Wednesday on May 3rd to Sunday on the 7th, we would have five days off in a row—Golden Week.

I could hear cheerful talks between friends, lovers, and everyone else—making plans to go on trips or other activities for the occasion. Some people were considering not taking any lectures on Monday and Tuesday as well, opening up a full nine days for longer outings. The freshmen, however, seemed particularly keen to visit their homes. College life was still new to us, after all, and I could totally understand those who needed a break from it.

Even I’d gotten a call from my mom this morning, asking me if I wanted to spend Golden Week with my family. I spent a long moment thinking about it, but I wasn’t feeling homesick or anything, so I decided to pass this time.

But before I could open my mouth, mom went and said something shocking.

“Your sister’s coming back too. The 5th is her birthday, if you recall.”

And just like that, I knew that I absolutely had to return—at least for the 5th of May.

Not being there to celebrate my sister’s birthday would leave me afraid for my future. Knowing her, she wouldn’t be upset by my absence, but there was a chance that she would “kindly make up for it” by barging into my place and whisking me away to spend some “quality time” somewhere foreign. I’d already had quite enough of that with the South America visit...

My home at the big N was just two hours away by bullet train, and I had no Dendro plans for Golden Week yet, so I figured I’d be able to return for the 5th.

Speaking of birthdays, Shu’s was on the 3rd of March.

A brother and a sister, born just about a year apart—the sister on Boys’ Day and the brother on Girls’ Day. It was quite a rare coincidence, and it seemed kinda auspicious. The only way it could be better was if their days were switched.

As for me, I was born on July 7th—Tanabata. The 3rd day of the 3rd month, the 5th day of the 5th month, the 7th day of the 7th month... Our parents probably hadn’t planned for us to have these birthdays, but I’d found it really strange when I was little. Hell, I still thought it was weird.

Anyway, thinking about visiting home, my sister, and some Dendro matters had left me feeling fatigued all morning, and I’d spent my lectures just zoning out.

Lunch time rolled around with me having learned absolutely nothing in class, and I was now sitting in the second cafeteria, absentmindedly twirling spaghetti with meat sauce onto my fork without actually bringing it to my mouth.

“What’s up, Rei? Summer heat a bit too much? You okay? Wanna play some cat’s cradle?”

“It ain’t summer yet. It’s obviously just May blues. Lil’ early for that too, though, I guess.”

“No, it’s clearly bloodlust. He hasn’t had his fix of Dendro devil meat.”

The friends eating with me—Natsume, Kasugai, and Fuyuki—suddenly started commenting on my current state of mind.

“...You guys really just say whatever pops into your head, huh? Especially you, Fuyuki.” Also, I hadn’t eaten any devils since the battle against Logan. Why are Fuyuki and Natsume so fixated on that?

By the way, the fifth of us Dendro freshmen—Akiyama—was currently at her part-time job.

“Then why do ya look so gloomy? Didja get a bad gacha pull with your ticket...? Or wait—did someone break your heart?! Are you sure you’re okay? Wanna play some cat’s cradle?!”

“Mukudori...I’m goin’ to a mixer next week. Wanna join?”

“Wait a sec, you two. He’s got a Maiden, so he’s with a girl basically every second in Dendro. Plus the internet tells me that he’s constantly surrounded by weird women, so it’s obviously not relationship trouble. If anything...he’s probably tired because he hangs out with girls all the time.”

“...Could you all quit it? Especially you, Fuyuki.” Also, I didn’t even use my ticket yet, Alto, I added silently.

“It’s not the heat or May blues, and it’s definitely not a broken heart or too much interaction with women. I’m just dealing with some tiring family matters and looking back at all that happened in Dendro this month.”

“Ohh,” Kasugai and Fuyuki said in unison. “I get ya! That was one hell of an event!” Natsume nodded in understanding. Of course she’d get it—she was with me for one of the most notable moments. “And Altar is havin’ a rough time too, huh?” she added.

“...Yeah.”

Way too many things had happened this April. On the first Saturday, there were the incidents at Torne and Quartierlatin. The following Saturday, there was the incident involving Hannya and King of Light, F. The Saturday after that, there were the peace talks that went so very wrong. And yesterday, there was The Anniversary.

Dendro time went by three times faster so it didn’t exactly feel like it, but in real-life terms, something had happened every single week of the month so far.

Then again, it hadn’t been much different in March either.

...We won’t get another incident this Saturday, will we?

“And I was directly involved in all of them...” I muttered. The only exception was the terrorist attack on Altea that had happened at the same time as the peace talks.

“Wanna play some cat’s cradle to take your mind off of it?”

“No.”

“How ’bout that mixer, then?”

“No.”

“Mukudori, relax—the KoB video with you in it is good stuff. It’s doing good numbers.”

“...Why would that make me relax?” Speaking of which, after hearing Jubei mention it, I’d gone to see the KoB video for myself. The uploader was the same person who’d put up the Logan video, and for some reason it was edited to make Altar’s side—and me—look better than we really were. Since there were no other recordings to disprove any of that, the internet now saw the video as the absolute truth regarding what happened.

...By this point, I was pretty sure I knew who was behind this. I sighed as the silhouette of a Superior in a lab coat loomed in my mind.

“What about Tenchi? Anything happening in your country?” I asked.

“Not really. Everybody at Toseiden’s just chillin’,” said Natsume.

“Nothin’ here in Nanshumon either,” added Kasugai.

“Hokugen’in...we won against Kurowa in the north, but besides that, yeah, not much is happening here.” Tenchi was considered a single country on the world stage, but internally it was split into a number of lands ruled by different “Daimyos.” It was worth noting, though, that that title came to us via the auto-translation, so maybe it wasn’t actually a hundred percent accurate. Anyway, the situation there was similar to Sengoku Era Japan’s. Civil wars were a common thing, and Hokugen’in—the Daimyo Fuyuki served—apparently just took part in one.

“Kurowa? Are they the bunch who really don’t know how to pick their battles?” Kasugai asked.

“Yeah. Soon after they got a new Daimyo, they invaded us at Hokugen’in, and we’re one of the Tenchi’s Big Four.”

“Tenchi’s Big Four” were the particularly strong and long-lived Daimyo families of Tenchi—Kasugai’s Nanshumon, Natsume’s Toseiden, Fuyuki’s Hokugen’in, and Seihakuto. They were dominant in the south, east, north, and west, respectively.

Akiyama, who wasn’t with us here, was the only one of them who served a family outside of those four.

Jubei also happened to serve the same family as Natsume, as a matter of fact.

“What’s the power balance between them in terms of Sengoku Daimyos?”

“The Hokugen’in are like the Takeda from the Sengoku Era, while the Kurowa are like the Date from the Azuchi-Momoyama Era, I guess.”

...That actually seemed like a pretty even fight. Fuyuki had cited the eras when both clans were at their height, so from her explanation it didn’t really seem like that uneven of a matchup for Kurowa.

“Kurowa was a powerful family that had save points in their fief, and their tian soldiers outnumbered Hokugen’in’s 3-to-2,” Fuyuki explained. “However, that’s not the case with Masters. Hokugen’in had two Superiors: Bigman and Saki Muryo-Taisu.”

...Those are some major names. I thought.

“So yeah. They struck first, but when we struck back, we just crushed them.”

“...I see.” This was clearly a case like the First Knight-Machine War on our side of the world, where Masters had made all the difference.

“The very first battle was an overwhelming defeat for them—even their Daimyo got killed. Now we’re just taking their land while trying to minimize casualties and dealing with the bandits popping up in the neutral zones. I actually went on a quest to help with that... Though, something weird’s been happening recently.”

“What kind of weird stuff, exactly?” I asked.

“Well, there seems to be a third party involved,” Fuyuki said. “There’s been ambushes by some...demi-humans that look like monsters...like people you’d find in Legendaria. They’ve slowed Hokugen’in’s advance down a lot, and they even managed to give me the death penalty.”

“Demi-humans that look like monsters...?” I’d heard of something similar appearing during the terrorist attack on Altea—a “Bug General” leading an army of bee-people.

“Hm...” According to Kasumi and the others who were there, the Bug General mentioned someone who, in her own words, “gave me power and this army.”

Altar and Tenchi were on opposite sides of the continent. It didn’t seem likely that a single person would be able to successfully pull strings that were that long, but it still stuck out to me.

“Troubled again, Rei? Wanna exercise your brain with some cat’s cradle?” said Natsume.

“No, he’s obviously imagining the taste of the demi-humans,” said Fuyuki. “You know how he fights. I’m sure he’ll eat bugs and corpses if he has to!”

“...I think he’s just tryin’ to fight off the headache you’re both givin’ him,” said Kasugai. Well, nothing would come from thinking about it now, so I figured I’d just leave it for another time.

And what the hell kind of person do they think I am? I thought in response to their comments. I guess I did eat a corpse during the Gouz-Maise thing, but still...

◇

The lectures ended before evening, and I wasted no time before making my way back home. Tomorrow was Saturday again, so I could focus solely on Dendro.

We at Death Period were planning to look for a place to use as our HQ, and The Tournaments I had a small part in were going to start soon too. My business in Dendro seemed like it would be comparatively lighthearted this time.

“Well, I can only hope nothing goes wrong.” With that thought, I kept riding my bicycle until the building where I lived came into view.

“Hm?” In addition to the building, I caught sight of a taxi driving off, leaving behind a single familiar person.

Flanked by paper bags that looked way too cumbersome for a woman like her, she seemed to be thinking something along the lines of “What now?” It looked like she’d gone on a shopping spree and ended up with too much to carry up to her apartment.

“Hello,” I called out to her.

“Mr. Mukudori. Hello,” the strikingly blonde woman greeted me in her somewhat awkward Japanese. She was a minor acquaintance of mine.

“Would you like some help carrying that?” I asked.

“Is okay?”

“Of course. We’re neighbors.”

She...or rather, Francesca was a neighbor who lived right next to me. Helping her bring her stuff up was no big deal.

“Thank you.”

“Hey, it helps to help others,” I said as I picked up two-thirds of everything she had.

It was just two bags, but they were way heavier than they looked. Looking in, I saw lots of small glass containers, making clinking sounds as they shifted around.

“That’s a lot of little bottles. What are they?”

“Paints. Clay. College assignment. Deadline next week.”

“Oh, so you go to a fine arts college.”

“Yes. Bought more—just in case. Too much.”

Francesca still wasn’t proficient at Japanese, so her responses were very simplistic. She seemed to understand me just fine, though, so maybe it was just speaking that was giving her trouble.

“Which college do you go to?”

“Togeidai. Freshman.”

Tokyo University of Fine Arts, huh? Just like my school, it wasn’t far from here. I probably could have guessed that just from the fact that she lived in the same apartment complex as me.

“Hm...?” Wait... Freshman? I thought she was older than me... Are we actually the same age?

“...Twenty-one,” she said as she pointed at herself, apparently understanding my confusion.

“Oh, I see.”

It was hard for me to gauge a foreigner’s age, but she was indeed older than me. I guessed that she’d just decided to go to college at a later age.

Her Japanese might’ve been the way it was simply because she hadn’t been here long. We’d been neighbors for over a month now, but this was the first time we’d actually gotten to talk like this.

“You?”

“Me?” As we talked, we arrived at the elevator.

“I’m eighteen. A freshman at UTokyo.”

“...C’est surprenant.”

...Was that French for “I’m surprised” or “I didn’t expect that?” Did I really not seem like a UTokyo student? Even in Dendro, I’d had people like Juliet and Bishmal tell me the same thing.

Though, Chelsea was more like “Where is that, anyway?” which was probably a very normal reaction for a foreigner unfamiliar with Japan.

As that thought passed through my mind, Francesca said, “I guessed fourteen.”

“Wait, that’s what you’re surprised by?!” Now I was the one left in shock. Did she really think I was four years younger than I actually was?! I did hear that to foreigners, Japanese people often looked younger than they were, but did she seriously just skip straight past high school and assume I was in middle school?! “I’m a proper college student. Think about it—a middle schooler couldn’t live alone in a place like this.”

“I see. Hm...” she said, nodding in understanding.

However, I felt like her lips were moving slightly, murmuring something in French. I couldn’t catch exactly what it was, but I felt that she said something like “I lived alone, though.”

“We’re here,” I said as the elevator stopped on our floor. The both of us then exited the elevator.

The floor’s number, by the way, was thirteen. I wasn’t on this floor by accident, but by choice. The ominous number meant this floor had relatively few residents, and since Shu owned this whole place and I would get to live here for free, I specifically went for a cheap apartment that probably wouldn’t have been picked by anybody else anyway.

Francesca looked like a westerner, but she lived on this floor too. That was probably because she simply didn’t care about superstitions like that...or maybe she had some kind of religious reason for it.

I went and carried her things over to her door. I then asked if I could come in for a moment, and she gave me a nod. When she opened the door, I detected the faint smell of paint and clay. Looking around, I saw an odorless air freshener. It was probably meant to mask the smell, but it wasn’t doing a good enough job to remove it completely.

...This wasn’t really my business, but I figured Francesca probably wouldn’t be getting her deposit back.

“Where should I put it?” I asked.

“Here is fine,” she said.

“All right,” I said as I set down the bags, mindful not to break anything.

“Thank you. I’d make tea, but...” she said as she looked ahead of the entryway, where the door to the living-dining-kitchen area would be if this was my apartment.

...I knew what she was trying to say. If the smell was still detectable despite the door and the air freshener, this was obviously no place for someone unaccustomed to it to relax and drink tea.

“It’s fine. Feel free to tell me if you need help—we’re neighbors, yes?”

“Yes. I will get back at you for this.”

Her lack of Japanese proficiency came out yet again, this time in the form of a line you were more likely to see in battle manga than hear in everyday conversation.

◇◆◇

Francesca Gautier

After exchanging goodbyes with the kindly neighbor who helped me carry my stuff, I closed the door.

This was the first time we’d talked since he’d moved in and brought me some Japanese noodles for some reason or another, but as far as neighbors went, at least he didn’t seem stressful to talk to.

“...So he was actually a college student after all,” I said to no one in particular. “It’s so hard to guess Japanese people’s ages.”

Since I wasn’t talking to someone who needed to understand me, I spoke using my native language. A little bit of French had slipped out while I was talking to him too, but he probably hadn’t heard it.

Regardless, I appreciated his help. Japan was a relatively peaceful country, so it wasn’t likely that someone would steal my things if I left them there, but thanks to him I managed to get everything up here in one trip.

“Phew... Though I guess I really did buy too much. I guess I just really wanted to get my assignments out of the way before the break.”

I’d put everything directly from my cart into the taxi, so I hadn’t even realized how much I’d bought until I was dropped off. Pretty stupid of me.

“The break that starts the week after the next... ‘Golden Week,’ was it? How strange to have a break at this time of the year... Though if I do my assignments before that, I’ll be able to focus on the other side. I suppose that’s rather convenient for me.”

As I muttered to myself, I carried my things out of the entryway, through the living-dining-kitchen area, and into my workspace beyond.

When I opened the door, my nose was assaulted by the now-familiar smell of clay and paint. Here and there, you could see vase-sized statuettes and figurines, all of which I’d made myself. Many of them hadn’t dried yet, so the smell was still extremely strong.

My apartment had two rooms and a living-dining-kitchen area; with the exception of the room I used as a bedroom, all of it was in this state. One room was the workspace, while the living-dining area was where I put all my finished pieces. I hadn’t even done any cooking recently out of fear that the paint may catch fire.

The disorder here reminded me of my clan on the other side, even though the details were different.

“If this was a normal apartment, I’d have been kicked out by now.” Thankfully, though the rent here was steep, this place had one big advantage—there was basically no risk of that happening.

Based on the neighbor’s reaction, it seemed like the smell wasn’t carried out into the rest of the building anyway.

...I should still consider calling a cleaner when it’s time to move out, I thought.

“Hm...” Cleaners weren’t cheap, but my current livelihood simply wouldn’t be affected by that.

I had enough wealth to leave Europe, rent an expensive apartment, enter a Japanese fine arts college, and live comfortably not just until graduation, but for the rest of my life.

“...Maybe a grave visit is in order.” That thought had reminded me of the person who’d suddenly died at the end of last year, leaving all this wealth to me and my sister both. It was making me feel a little bit sentimental.

“Speaking of which...I wonder what she’s up to right now?” I then thought about my sister, who lived apart from me—in this world as well as on the other side. We’d been reunited when it was time to split the wealth, and that was when I’d invited her to come to the other side in the first place.

Based on what I saw in DIN articles, she seemed to be getting caught up in all kinds of incidents that were no less dramatic than the ones we had in the west. My sister was a purehearted girl who was easily troubled by all sorts of problems in life, so I could only hope she didn’t find Caldina too stressful.

Once I was done bringing in my things, I sat down on the sofa in the living area. Instant coffee in hand, I relaxed while watching a French-language news program.

I was used to it by now, but the scent of the coffee mixed with the smell of my supplies always made me feel like I was drinking a cup of pure black paint.

“...I should at least clean up enough to have guests over.” Something like what had happened today could happen again, so I’d decided to at least free up the table in the living-dining space and make sure I was mostly drying the pieces with a weaker smell.

Once I was done with my coffee, I went to work.

I looked over the clay statuettes and figurines on the work table and took one in hand. Some time had passed since I’d made these, so they were already dry. I could store them away without a problem, so I wrapped them in a French newspaper and did just that.

Considering I’d only been living here since February, I’d made quite a lot of pieces. With so much of my time being dedicated to college and the other side, I often wondered how I found the time to do all this.

“...Oh?” While cleaning up, I picked up a statuette that had been sitting on the edge of the table. Made of clay, it depicted an orb-like monster with tentacles.

I could clearly remember when I’d made this.

It was about a month ago, and the whole process of sculpting it was like a tribute to the dead. I was probably the last person who should be pointing this out, but you could tell that the artist of this statuette was full of anger and discontent.

I spent a few moments looking at it in silence—or maybe “glaring” would be a more accurate description—before wrapping it up and storing it away just like the others.

“...I won’t mess up next time. I’ll get back at him, no matter what,” I said, staring down at the clay statuette of the thing I’d named “RSK.”

Once I was done cleaning up for the time being, I went to my bedroom. Next to the bed, on a storage chest as tall as my waist, there lay the hardware for a certain game.

“Okay. Now...” I said, putting it on and lying down.

I’d repeated this sequence so many times I’d lost count. It was what I had to do to live as myself on the other side...in Infinite Dendrogram.

“First things first, there’s gonna be the right arm. Final tuning time!” And once again, I, Francesca Gautier, became Giga Professor, Mr. Franklin.