Inou-Battle wa Nichijou-kei no Naka de - Volume 4 - Chapter 7

Chapter 7: Amends, Albeit Abnormal Ones

I couldn’t say for sure how much time had passed. Evening was rapidly drawing closer, though, and the glow of sunset was gradually setting the sky above me aflame. Below me, meanwhile, a boy lay sprawled out on the ground, covered in dirt and mud.

I had no clue how many times I’d thrown him at that point. I stopped counting after the tenth. In a contest of pure hand-to-hand combat ability, I was at an overwhelming advantage, and his gentlemanly insistence on not striking a woman meant he was completely incapable of mounting a counterattack. He’d simply start reciting his incantation, I would take him down, he’d get back up, and we’d start the process all over, time and time again.

“Isn’t this enough, Andou?” I asked, trying to persuade him to see reason as he doggedly forced himself to his feet once more. I found my voice quavering in spite of myself. The man was like a zombie, getting back up no matter how many times I defeated him, and at some point, my mindset had begun to transcend exasperation and enter the realm of fear. I was frightened.

Yes, really. Somehow, the boy before me had actually scared me.

“J-Just stop this already, Andou!” shouted Tomoyo.

“Listen to her, Juu!” added Hatoko. It seemed the two of them just couldn’t stand watching Andou stagger to his feet any longer, and they were about to run over to him...until Chifuyu, of all people, stood before them, holding her little arms as wide apart as she possibly could to block their path.

“Ch-Chifuyu...” said Tomoyo.

“You can’t get in their way,” said Chifuyu.

“But Andou’s—”

“Andou hasn’t lost yet,” Chifuyu declared. Her youthful voice was laced with a strong, unshakeable sense of will. Her motives, meanwhile, were inscrutable. Either she wasn’t thinking anything at all, or she was being driven by something that only she could perceive. Regardless, Tomoyo and Hatoko were overwhelmed by her resolve and found themselves unable to squeeze in another word edgewise.

I looked away from them and back to the foe in front of me. “Why do you keep standing up?” I asked him.

Andou raised his head once again, looking me squarely in the eye. A flame burned within his gaze—a blaze of spirit that drove him to fight and showed no sign of dying down. “I’ll stand up as many times as it takes,” said Andou. “And I’ll do it for one reason: to stay true to myself!”

I wasn’t entirely sure how to respond to that. It was certainly a stylish thing to say, in a manner of speaking, but from a rational perspective, it didn’t really mean anything in particular. It was a claim that fundamentally lacked the specificity it needed to make sense. I knew for a fact that he thought it had been transcendentally cool, though. He wouldn’t have had that obnoxious smirk on his face otherwise. Remarkable. I can’t think of any possible way he could be more obnoxious than this.

“Is your plan to win by sheer tenacity?” I asked. “For the record, I have no intention of surrendering, no matter how much of my time you waste. I promise that I will give you an up close and personal introduction to the ground as many times as it takes to make you admit defeat.”

“Ha ha,” Andou chuckled wearily. “How about you stop attacking me while I’m mid-Malediction, Sayumi? Or what, are you too scared to fight me when I’m at full power?”

“Really?” I sighed, brushing aside his nonsensical provocation. “Are you really that invested in playing these silly games with your power?”

“Yes,” replied Andou without the slightest shred of hesitation.

So any further attempt at persuasion would be meaningless. Yes, I see now. If we had any hope of resolving this dispute with words, we never would have come to blows in the first place.

“Use your power, Andou,” I commanded. “This time, I promise that I will not attack you during your ‘Malediction.’ I will take a hint, stand back, and silently watch until your preparations are complete. Do as you please, and make the most of it while you can. I’d prefer if you didn’t have any lingering regrets after I’m finished with you.”

For a moment, Andou’s eyes widened with shock. An instant later, though, he was chuckling away in his usual excessively overdramatic fashion. “Are you sure about that? Don’t blame me for what happens.”

“Just hurry it up.”

Andou raised his right arm before him and silently closed his eyes. Then he began chanting his incantation. “I am he who conquers chaos!” it began, followed by a string of convoluted phrasings, only some of which I vaguely remembered having heard before. It seemed that the specifics of the chant had yet to be ironed out, yet Andou kept reciting them with such intensity it was almost unnerving. He was like a real-world wizard, or something to that effect. Like a fearsome demon lord reborn onto our earth.

“...and bare thine fangs at the arrogance of providence!” Andou concluded, then unleashed his power. With a sputtering roar, jet-black flames erupted from his arm, engulfing him. They shimmered in the air, burning in a shade of black one would never encounter in the natural world, darting and twisting about him as they gathered up upon his right hand.

“Witness my true form. Witness me in all my dreadful, unsightly, and truly sinful glory,” Andou whispered in a tone tinged with sorrow as he gazed upon his flame-cloaked arm. That tone, of course, was somewhat betrayed by the downright ecstatic look upon his face. His expression had “Oh man, I am so hella cool!” written all over it. On the one hand, I thought he was pathetic, but on the other, a part of me actually did understand him. There really was a certain sense of appealing depravity to the sight of him wreathed in profoundly unnatural black flame, a fiery silhouette lit by the blazing-red sky above him.

“Come to think of it, have you named your power yet?” I asked.

“Heh. Yes, it would need a name, wouldn’t it? I suppose it would be inconvenient to have nothing to call it,” said Andou. It took every ounce of my willpower to not call him out on his hypocrisy. “Darker than the blackest of nights. Darker than death, darker than sin. Dark, dark, dark, to the very core of its being... A tragic flame burning black, ceaseless and eternal... Yes. I’ve decided.”

Andou held his flaming arm aloft, brandishing it toward the heavens above.

“I dub this power Dark and Dark!”

I paused for a moment to consider what I’d just witnessed. He had done his best to make it look like he’d come up with that name on the spur of the moment, right when he needed it most...but this was Andou I was dealing with. I was all but certain that he’d decided upon the name well in advance, and that he’d spent an exorbitant amount of time weighing his options beforehand.

“Yes, Dark and Dark: the stygian flames of purgatory! And yes, the use of the specific word ‘stygian’ is intentional and is thematically significant, so try to remember it, thanks!” Andou continued, diving deep into the nitpicky particulars of his antiquated word choice.

I didn’t know whether to laugh or sigh. I was conflicted beyond measure, but Andou, at least, seemed satisfied, and that was enough for me.

I’d given him enough time to make some memories before the end.

“I take it that you’ve done everything you wanted to? You have nothing left to regret now?” I said. “Good. In that case...I believe it’s high time we moved on to an actual supernatural battle.”

I bolted forward, drawing up next to him in an instant. Andou was too busy basking in his own power to stop me as I grabbed his flaming right arm. It was lukewarm, at most—a truly unremarkable level of heat. Andou’s power was so utterly bereft of any potential to cause harm that I could touch it directly without the slightest fear of consequence. I wrenched his arm around him, pinning it behind his back. Then, as I established a firm joint lock, I forced him down onto the ground. This wasn’t a technique from my studies of judo or aikido. It was a technique that my father had taught me, used by the police to take suspects into custody.

“U-Ugggh,” Andou moaned from beneath me. His power was still active, his arm blazing away as I held it in place.

“Dark and Dark, you called it?” I said, talking down to Andou in both a literal and rhetorical sense. “I feel bad doing this to you after you’ve worked so hard to finally settle on a name for it, but it’s time for you to say your goodbyes to your power.”

“What?!” grunted Andou.

“I’m saying that I will now use Route of Origin to erase Dark and Dark from existence. You’ve had your fun, haven’t you? Surely this was enough.”

“W-Wait a second! This wasn’t the deal! I haven’t admitted defeat yet!”

“This is a supernatural battle. Any and all use of our powers is permitted. You said that yourself, didn’t you, Andou? And if those are the rules, then I am free to use my power however I see fit.”

Andou clenched his teeth. I felt a sense of guilt budding within me—like the guilt I would feel if I were to take away a child’s favorite toy—but I shook it off just as quickly. This is for the best. These powers were not meant to be wielded by mankind.

“It’s time for you to return to the way you were meant to be, Andou.”

“Route of Origin.”

And so, our long, drawn-out battle finally came to a close. Andou’s black flame would slowly fade away, like a candle consuming the last remnants of its wick. Having lost his power, I was sure that he would finally see reason. I could move on to erase the other three members’ abilities, then do away with my own, enabling all of us to finally return to our everyday lives.

It was over. It should have been over.

“What?!” I yelped—almost screamed—involuntarily. I’d been frightened by the shocking fact that Andou’s black flame was still burning within my grasp. “Dark and Dark...wasn’t erased?!”

Somehow, in defiance of my power, almost as if nothing had happened to it at all, the flame was still flaring and flickering away. It was strange. It was unnerving. It was like it was immortal, like it was the fire of the undying phoenix itself. A jet-black flame that could never be doused. The phenomenon before me was so outlandish, I found myself terribly shaken by the sight of it.

“But, why...?” I muttered. Did Route of Origin not activate properly? No, it did—I could feel myself use my power...so why?

I could hear the rest of our friends gasp. They’d seen our fight from start to finish, and they were just as stunned by this unexpected development as I was. Andou had a slightly different, slightly stranger look on his face, though. He didn’t look shocked. If anything, he looked grief-stricken.

“Andou, don’t tell me... You didn’t—”

☆

“Is that actually you, Andou...? What on earth are you doing in front of my house?”

After I sprinted out from the student council office, I hadn’t been able to restrain myself and ended up heading directly for Sayumi’s place. It was only after I’d arrived that I realized I had no clue how I was going to face her, and that I didn’t even know if she’d be home yet by the time I’d arrived. I guess if she’s not around, Maiya might be...? Oh, but there’s also a chance her dad could answer the door. What the heck would I do about that?! Anyway, long story short, I ended up standing around and agonizing over it all for about twenty minutes, then who should show up but Sayumi herself?

“Do you need something?” she asked as she walked up to me. She was wearing her uniform, and from what I could tell, she’d just gotten home.

“Sayumi...I’m so sorry!” I replied with a deep, apologetic bow. I didn’t really know precisely what to apologize for or how to do it, so I just went all-in on the most classical method possible.

“U-Umm... For what, exactly? What have you done this time?” asked Sayumi.

“I...I said something really, really insensitive to you. I didn’t know how bad it was at the time, but still... And, I mean, it was also all my fault to begin with! I just had to go and insist that we should keep our powers... You would’ve been the president if it weren’t for me...”

“E-Err...”

“I get that you probably don’t want anything to do with me anymore. I know that this isn’t something I can make up for with an apology...”

“Excuse me...?”

“But still, I’m really, really sorry!”

“Andou!” Sayumi shouted. I jumped, then finally looked up at her.

“What in the world have you been apologizing for this whole time?” Sayumi asked, looking utterly mystified. “I haven’t been able to follow a single thing you’ve said to me. Start over, and explain yourself from the very beginning.”

As the sun sank below the horizon and night began to fall, Sayumi and I walked side by side through the neighborhood around her house. We almost went into her house to talk, but since Maiya was home and her energy level wasn’t really appropriate for the sort of mood we had going on, we decided that doing it outside would be for the best. I did get my student handbook back while I was there, though.

“Yes, I believe I understand now. It seems that Maiya and Kudou are both rather talkative about other people’s affairs,” Sayumi said with a weary sigh as I wrapped up my explanation. “Before anything else, I should resolve a misapprehension you’re under. Andou?”

“Yes?”

“I’m not actually upset with you.”

I paused. “Uh?”

“The way you asked me why I hadn’t become the student council president yesterday didn’t bother me in the slightest.”

“Wh-Whaaat?!” I shouted. “B-But, didn’t you get into a really bad mood right after I said it? And, like, you looked like something was really tearing you up inside...?”

“If that’s how I looked to you, it was because the medicine I took was making me sleepy.”

Her medicine...? Oh, right—I guess she did say something along those lines at the time, didn’t she? “S-So wait, that wasn’t just an excuse you made up on the fly to tell me to leave?”

“No, it was not. It was the truth. I was genuinely just very sleepy. I went to lie down right after you left. I could hardly have gone to bed with a guest in my room, don’t you think?” Sayumi added as an afterthought.

“Okay, but...why didn’t you come to club today? I thought it was because you didn’t want to see me...”

“I believe I sent a text on the subject, didn’t I? I had to visit the ophthalmologist’s office by the station to purchase a new set of contact lenses today.”

“It’s fine,” I sighed. “You don’t have to make excuses for yourself. If you don’t want to be around me, you can just tell me—”

“The receipt,” said Sayumi, cutting me off and holding out a scrap of paper she pulled from her wallet. It was a receipt with “Sasaki Ophthalmology” printed on it. Her evidence was irrefutable. “Andou, I hate to say it, but, well...this sort of self-deprecation makes you come across as a little self-absorbed.” She sounded a little fed up with me.

“Wait, so...that means that all of this was just one big misunderstanding? I was just getting myself all worked up and freaked out over nothing?”

“That’s correct, yes.”

Now it was my turn to let out a heavy sigh. “Man...I feel kinda stupid for worrying now.” I felt simultaneously relieved and let down, in a weird and complicated sort of way. Getting all worked up over a nonissue like that was more than a little humiliating, but if Sayumi wasn’t offended—if I hadn’t hurt her—then that was what really mattered above all else. Seriously, thank goodness.

“But wait...Sayumi? It is true that it’s my fault you didn’t get to be the student council president, isn’t it?” I asked. While today and yesterday’s issue had been resolved, the issue from a half year ago still had yet to be addressed. “If I hadn’t gone off on my stupid campaign against you, you would’ve... I mean, I guess I can’t say you definitely would’ve won the election, but you would’ve had the chance to face off against Kudou for real, at least.”

“There...might be some truth to that,” Sayumi admitted with a smile that didn’t tell me much at all about how she was really feeling. I chewed anxiously at my lip as she continued. “However, I want to make sure you’re not misunderstanding me. Andou. Even if that is true, I do not resent you in any way for it. If anything, I’m grateful.”

I was struck dumb, and Sayumi continued. “It’s true that if you hadn’t opposed me and if we’d come to a quicker understanding regarding our powers, I may have been able to immediately begin campaigning and join the election. Of course, I have my doubts about whether I would have managed to defeat Kudou with such last-minute preparations...but regardless, there’s no way I would ever resent you for that. I would never resent you for wrapping me up in a plot so kindly and well-intentioned.”

☆

“Welp. Andou sure isn’t coming back, is he?” I grumbled to Hatoko. She was sitting across the table from me as I stared idly at the club room’s clock.

Over an hour had passed since Andou said he was going to the student council room. Chifuyu had declared that she was “going to go play at Cookie’s house” and left a while back, leaving Hatoko and I to carry out club activities on our lonesome for the second day in a row.

“He left his bag here, so it’s not like he’d go home, right...?” I muttered. “What the hell is that guy doing?”

“Good question!” said Hatoko. “Why don’t we wait just a little while longer, then head on home if he doesn’t come back? I can drop his bag off at his house on my way home.”

“Yeah, good idea. Let’s do that,” I agreed. “So...what’ll we do until then? Play cards?”

Hatoko and I got along pretty well, at least as far as I was concerned. I mean, I know that I liked her, at the very least, and I considered her a pretty close friend. And yet, when I ended up alone in a room with her, the best idea I could come up with to pass the time was playing cards. It was...I dunno, kinda tragic, somehow. Don’t we have any shared interests? If Andou were here, I’m sure he’d come up with some sort of stupid game, and I’d end up getting dragged into it in spite of—

“Hey, Tomoyo?” said Hatoko as I stood up to go look for a deck of cards. I froze. She had on the same gentle smile as ever, and she was looking me right in the eye. “Can we talk about something sorta serious for a little?”