Sasaki and Peeps - Volume 7 - Chapter 3

<Household, Part Two>

After several days of nothing but riding horses, Peeps and I returned from the otherworld.

Our destination was the business hotel room currently serving as my base of operations in Japan. Even though we’d teleported to the otherworld from inside the UFO, we’d managed to return to Earth without winding up floating in outer space.

And like last time, a week spent in the otherworld had used up an entire night in Japan. It was clear that time was slowing down over there.

“If this keeps going and time starts moving slower in the otherworld than it does on Earth, that might cause a problem…”

If we reached a point where one day in modern Japan was equivalent to one hour in the otherworld, we’d have to wait almost two years for one month to pass there. And if we spent even an hour in the otherworld, we’d lose a whole month in Japan.

That would mean spending considerably less time in the otherworld, for starters. And if I hoped to maintain my position there, I’d have to make a lot more sacrifices on this end. If that happened, we could kiss our relaxing retirement good-bye. I could already imagine all the troubles ahead.

“We should probably start working to ascertain the root cause.”

“Do you want to try some experiments?”

“Yes. I would like to test any likely variables we can think of and gather data.”

“Oh, like only going to the otherworld once every two or three days for a while?”

“I think that would be a good place to start.”

The sparrow was perched on the hotel room desk facing the computer. He nodded, and I returned the gesture. The screen and its black background were incomprehensible to me, as always.

Lady Elsa peered over the bird to get a look at the screen. “Sasaki, do you and the bird use this machine to calculate the time difference in the otherworld?”

“That’s right. He does most of the heavy lifting, though.”

“Your bird is so smart.”

“There are plenty of people in this world who could do the same thing.”

“I want to learn so much more about this place.”

“You’re studying the language, yes? Then one day you shall.”

“You’re right. I’ll keep working on communicating for now.”

Lady Elsa was doing so well for herself. I thought back to my horseback riding lessons when I’d been ready to cry my eyes out. The difference was like night and day.

“Speaking of,” I said, “we’re considering skipping our trip to the otherworld tonight and observing what happens. Are you all right with that? Otherwise, we could drop you off and pick you up the following morning.”

“I’d prefer to stay with you all, if possible. That way I won’t age any further, and I’ll have the rare chance to spend evenings with you and your bird.”

“Understood. But if you change your mind, don’t hesitate to tell us.”

“By the way, have you considered changing the way you speak at all?”

“What do you mean?”

“I heard the king bequeathed the title of court minister to you. You’re one of the most powerful people in the kingdom right now—and one of the few who can publicly voice his opinion to the king. And yet you speak so formally to a little girl like me. Is there some reason?”

“The chancellor is the second most important person in the kingdom, and you are his only daughter.”

“You may be right, but that doesn’t make me important, only my father.”

“Either way, you’ve helped us many times in this world, Lady Elsa. Though my position may have changed, my attitude toward House Müller has not. If you could overlook my formality, I would be greatly in your debt.”

“As I said before, I’m of much less worth than you seem to believe.”

“I’m not paying respect to your position so much as to your noble way of life.”

“…O-oh. Is that so?”

It would be awful if I started acting more casual with Lady Elsa, and her father or Peeps began to think I was into the idea of marrying her. I intended to keep my speech as formal as possible, thank you. I wanted to cement my position as her inferior. If people saw me more as a servant than a master, then great. And besides, the Starsage is right here watching.

Once Team Otherworld’s meeting was finished, we used Peeps’s teleportation magic to warp to Ms. Futarishizuka’s villa. Our surroundings changed in the blink of an eye.

As we walked into the living room like always, we saw the villa’s owner, once again eating breakfast at the dining room table. And just like last time, Type Twelve sat across from her, watching.

Unlike the previous morning, however, there was food placed in front of the mechanical life-form, too. Ms. Futarishizuka must have foreseen her arrival and prepared it beforehand. But the alien was simply sitting still in her chair and hadn’t touched her food.

Incidentally, Type Twelve wasn’t wearing her usual one-piece dress. Instead, she had on one of the outfits we’d bought her at the department store the previous day. Since Miss Hoshizaki had picked it out for her, she seemed eager to give it a go.

“Just as expected,” I said. “Everyone’s in the same spot as yesterday.”

“Except I went through all this trouble to make breakfast for my granddaughter, and she’s not eating a single bite!”

“Family time has not yet begun. I have no reason to consume this food.”

“Come now. I know you want to eat your granny’s homemade breakfast. You must be holding yourself back.”

“Futarishizuka, your viewpoint is incorrect. I am not holding myself back.”

“There you go again, acting all tough.”

“It is still private time for all family members. You must respect my privacy. Should you choose not to and continue pressuring me to eat, then in accordance with the family rules, you will be punished.”

“Ugh. I didn’t think much of that rule when we decided it, but it’s turned out to be a real pain.”

“Though I am extremely reluctant to, I must agree with your viewpoint, Futarishizuka.”

Type Twelve was probably dying to talk to Miss Hoshizaki. But she was restraining herself, instead spending her time at Ms. Futarishizuka’s mansion letting the grandmother she hated bother her. As for the girl in the kimono, it struck me that this might have been part of her suggested ploy to bring down the family.

Meanwhile, Lady Elsa’s attention was somewhere else entirely.

“Sasaki, Futarishizuka is acting strangely!” she shouted, pointing at the bowl in the other girl’s hand.

“Is something the matter?” I asked.

In the bowl was some natto laid over freshly cooked white rice. Having just returned from the otherworld, I found the simple bowl of natto quite enticing. Personally, I liked mixing in raw egg and sliced green onion, then pouring so much of it over the rice that you couldn’t even see it anymore.

“Those beans are rotten! But she seems to love them! They’re so rotten they’re all stringy!”

“Lady Elsa, that’s one of this country’s special dishes,” I told her. “There’s no cause for alarm.”

“I figured she wouldn’t like it, so I’d kept it off the menu,” explained Ms. Futarishizuka. She had probably meant to enjoy some while Lady Elsa was out.

I couldn’t smell the natto, but I could see the stringy beans stretching from her chopsticks back to the bowl. Compared to plain soybeans, these were clearly a different color. Realizing how utterly normal I found this, I reflected on just how much you could alter a person’s perception if you got to them while they were children.

“Are you sure it’s okay to eat?” asked Lady Elsa. “She’s not going to get sick or anything?”

“I’ll be fine,” replied Ms. Futarishizuka. “In fact, they’re good for digestion.”

“Hey, Sasaki, what did Futarishizuka say?”

Before she’d even asked the question, my whole body tensed in shock. Did Ms. Futarishizuka just understand the otherworld’s language? I wasn’t sure how she could have replied otherwise.

“Ms. Futarishizuka,” I said, “don’t tell me you can understand what she’s saying.”

“Oh. You noticed?” she replied in a very casual, lighthearted tone.

I assumed she’d purposely clued us in. Someone as skilled as she was would never commit such a silly mistake. In fact, I was quite envious of her talents—enough that one day, I wanted to try getting her so drunk she couldn’t tell up from down.

“……”

At that point, the Starsage left my shoulder. He spread his wings as he leaped into the air. The display looked really cool, but mostly it was just adorable. Then he flew over to the dining table and landed in front of Ms. Futarishizuka, ready for battle.

“Hey, hold your horses!” she exclaimed. “Why are you always so quick to anger?”

“I must acknowledge your hard work, but your actions leave me uneasy.”

This felt a little too fast to me, even considering how intelligent she was. It would have been one thing if this were another Earth language, but we were talking about another world here. How many hours had she even been able to devote to studying this totally foreign language?

As if to answer our questions, she put down her bowl and chopsticks, then pointed to one of her ears. “It’s this thing right here.”

In the shell of her ear was something resembling an earphone. It seemed to be wireless, as I couldn’t see any cables. Is it a hearing aid? I almost said the last thought out loud as banter, but I swallowed it back down.

“Oh, and if you say it’s a hearing aid, I’ll smear this natto in your face.”

“I’d never say something like that.”

It was a close call. I just barely stopped myself in time. After all, weren’t hearing aids really small these days?

“The mechanical life-forms have some truly awe-inspiring technology. I ordered this last night, and our guest had a test version ready for me this morning. I asked her where she manufactured it, and I was shocked all over again when she said she had a factory on the surface of the moon.”

Not only had she manufactured the item very quickly, but her shipping speed was insane. Mention of a lunar factory piqued my curiosity, as well.

“Is it translating Lady Elsa’s words in real time?” I asked.

“It’s a lot like a supplementary sound channel for a movie. It produces a quality translation without any delay. Amazing, right? If the rest of the world had these, language barriers would come to an end and the world economy would be a mess.”

“An item such as this can easily be developed and mass-produced at general-purpose installations.”

“Now that’s terrifying. I can’t imagine the chaos that would ensue if you provided humanity with such advanced technology. I bet it would upset our beloved senior so much that we’d have to stop playing family.”

“Your concern is unnecessary, Futarishizuka. I have no plans to supply technology to humanity.”

“Glad to hear it.”

Type Twelve currently thought of humans as untrustworthy jerks who did nothing but lie. The only exceptions were Miss Hoshizaki and my neighbor, to whom she had personal ties. We didn’t have to worry—she’d never dream of offering technology to humans. Still, it must have been shocking enough to Ms. Futarishizuka that she felt like she had to put the nail in the coffin anyway.

“Wait,” I said. “Then can you understand what she’s saying as well, Type Twelve?”

“Sasaki, your viewpoint is correct. The same item is installed in this point of contact.”

“Oh, but that’s not all,” cut in Ms. Futarishizuka. “If I use this mic right here…”

Some sort of device was clipped to the collar of her kimono. She poked its surface with a fingertip, then spoke.

“It can translate what I’m saying into the girl’s language in real time.”

“Huh?!”

A moment after her comment, we heard a voice in the otherworld’s language. Since a path existed between Peeps and me, I was able to understand all of it. But for Lady Elsa, who had been watching our conversation from the side, it must have sounded as though Ms. Futarishizuka had suddenly begun speaking her language.

In total surprise, she exclaimed, “S-Sasaki, what’s going on here?! I can hear what Futarishizuka is saying in my own world’s language! And she’s speaking so fluently, like a high-ranking aristocrat!”

Even the timbre of the translated sentence matched Ms. Futarishizuka’s to a tee. It was probably synthesizing it by sampling her voice. From Lady Elsa’s reaction, it seemed the quality was startling even for a local. It sounded natural to my ears, too—not a hint of the awkwardness I was accustomed to with synthetic voices.

“Now we can talk to one another directly, yes? Once more, from the top—it’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“Y-yes! It’s nice to meet you, too, Futarishizuka. I’m so happy I can talk to you like this. I’ve always wanted to thank you in my own words for everything you’ve done for me. You have my sincere gratitude!”

“I haven’t done all that much. In fact, I believe you’ve been on edge constantly in our world. Now that we can finally talk, I hope you’ll feel much more relaxed.”

“No, that’s not true. Spending time here has been wonderful.”

Lady Elsa looked really happy to be talking to Ms. Futarishizuka. Her smile was dazzling—she wasn’t saying all that just to be nice.

As for Type Twelve, while she watched the exchange with her usual poker face, I sensed a tinge of unhappiness somewhere in that pointed stare, like she was wondering how anyone could ever get along with someone like Futarishizuka. It seemed the youngest daughter just couldn’t believe that Lady Elsa would smile at her grandmother like that.

“So that was what you wanted to talk to her about last night,” I said, glancing over at Type Twelve.

“Precisely,” the girl in the kimono replied right away.

For all her supposed qualms about such technology, she hadn’t wasted any time requesting it for herself.

“It seems strange that she offered her full cooperation in developing the translation device, and yet she hasn’t touched any of the food you provided. Did the two of you make some sort of deal?”

“Futarishizuka’s proposal was very beneficial to Hoshizaki as well, so I accepted it. Elsa’s role is that of an acquaintance living in the neighborhood. If we cannot communicate successfully with our neighbors, problems might arise in the family’s operation.”

“Ah. I see.”

It was only Miss Hoshizaki, and by extension our pretend family, that was important to Type Twelve.

For samples of the otherworld’s language, she’d probably used recordings of Lady Elsa, the video leaked on the internet, and footage from this mansion’s surveillance cameras. As long as she had the data, she could instantly analyze any unknown language—the mechanical life-forms had some pretty insane technology.

I suddenly thought of Mr. Marc and Mr. Joseph, who bought the products I’d ferried into the otherworld from modern Japan. I felt like I understood some of how they felt now. At the same time, I was rather surprised they’d agreed to do business with someone like me.

“Do you have additional translation devices?”

“Aside from the one Futarishizuka is wearing, I prepared only enough for the rest of the family. However, because Sasaki and Peep have no issues communicating, I decided yours were unnecessary. If that is not the case, then please relay that to me yourself.”

“No, you’re right. Neither of us need one.”

“Indeed we don’t. However, I must say the mechanical life-forms’ technology boggles the mind.”

Their tech was fantastic. Even the Starsage was in shock.

And that gave me pause. We wanted to keep the otherworld’s existence a secret.

Perhaps that evil thought showed on my face; Lady Elsa, who had turned away from Ms. Futarishizuka to face us again, said, “Please don’t worry, Sasaki.”

“Lady Elsa?”

“No matter how much they may torture me, I will never speak of matters over there without your permission.”

If she was choosing this moment to say that, I doubted it was simply out of consideration for us. It must have also been a display of her intent to Ms. Futarishizuka. She was only in her mid-teens, and yet she was already sensitive to such subtleties. It was obvious she’d been raised in the aristocracy. To be honest, it’s like I’m talking to someone my own age.

“Thank you for being so thoughtful,” I replied. “But I hope you’ll take better care of yourself than that. In our current position, we have a great deal of flexibility. Even if a few things slip, there shouldn’t be a problem.”

“But I promised my father as well. If I ever do something that brings you trouble, I will never return home again. Since you are looking after me like this, I intend to uphold that promise to the letter.”

“Huh?” said Ms. Futarishizuka. “What now? I had no idea you had that kind of relationship.”

“What sort of relationship might you be imagining?” I asked.

“What sort of… Isn’t it obvious? That kind of relationship. I mean…”

At just that moment, her cell phone began to vibrate. It sounded like a text message.

“Oh, is that our esteemed senior?” she mused.

But as I moved to take out my own phone, Type Twelve beat us to the punch.

“I have confirmed a request from Hoshizaki to pick her up.”

A text reached my own smartphone a few seconds later. I checked the message on my screen and realized the alien was right.

“I will now dispatch a terminal to her location. Sasaki, Peep, you will both stay here.”

“Wait, did you get a message from Miss Hoshizaki, too?”

Type Twelve didn’t have a phone, did she? Or had she made one along with the translators? If she had, I couldn’t find her mailing address anywhere in the list of people the message was sent to.

The truth came out a moment later.

“I inspected the message that arrived at your cell phone, Sasaki.”

“Huh? Wait, but this is my private phone…”

“I consider all messages linked to the accounts on this network as received the moment they arrive at the reception server. Surveilling this server greatly assists my ability to respond to Hoshizaki’s requests promptly.”

“Isn’t that against family rules?” remarked Ms. Futarishizuka. “You’re intruding on a family member’s private life.”

“There is a possibility it is against family rules, but the opposite possibility also exists.”

“You’re saying it depends on me?” I asked.

“Sasaki, your viewpoint is correct. You must permit sharing data to an external party for Hoshizaki’s sake.”

“I’d like to refuse, if possible.”

“Now you have a strike against you, too,” chimed in Ms. Futarishizuka.

“……”

Type Twelve remained impassive as always, though I got the vague feeling that she was gazing at me unhappily. The way her face was so devoid of emotion reminded me of the one on my shoulder. Java sparrows barely had any facial muscles with which to express themselves, after all.

Either way, for the time being, our private communication would remain private.

Incidentally, according to the family rules, two strikes would result in a penalty.

After a few minutes, Miss Hoshizaki arrived at the mansion in Type Twelve’s terminal. She was in her school uniform with no makeup again. As she’d said the previous day, it seemed she wanted to avoid wearing her suit for a while.

“Looks like I’m the last one here again,” she commented. “Sorry for being late.”

“You have a real family to take care of, so don’t beat yourself up over it,” I told her.

And going by bureau hours, she wasn’t late. It was just that the rest of us had arrived a bit early.

As she came into the living room, she noticed Ms. Futarishizuka’s ear and quickly commented. “Hey, what’s that in your ear? A hearing aid?”

“Why do you have to be so rude to me so early in the morning?”

“Aren’t you going to smear natto on her face?” I asked.

“Come on. She’s got a ToD ability now. I can’t risk something like that.”

“Sasaki, what the heck are you guys talking about? Mind filling me in?”

I explained the situation to our latecomer colleague. As soon as I was finished, Type Twelve held out the translator she’d made for Miss Hoshizaki. Without any hesitation, my senior coworker put the receiver in her ear and affixed the microphone to her collar.

Then she turned to Lady Elsa and said, “Hello. Can you understand what I’m saying?”

“I can. It’s nice to finally speak with you, Hoshizaki.”

“Wha… Whoa. I really understood her!” she exclaimed, looking at the mysterious tech she’d just received. “This thing’s amazing!”

Her straightforward reaction was very characteristic, and nothing like Ms. Futarishizuka’s.

A moment later, an idea seemed to strike her, and she muttered, “Wait. If I have this, then I don’t need to study English…”

“Hoshizaki, your viewpoint is correct.”

“R-really?!”

“This device will work instantly for most languages used on Earth.”

“Wow…”

Oh. So she’s figured it out. Here was a high school girl, all enthusiastic about studying, and then this mechanical life-form had to come along and ruin it all with her fancy tech. Miss Hoshizaki had only recently roped me into helping her, and I was sure her sister wanted to study with her, too.

“Miss Hoshizaki, machines are just machines,” I said. “They’re temporary. If you lose the thing, that’s it.”

“Sure, but she’s a machine, too, isn’t she? She called herself a mechanical life-form. When you think about it like that, won’t humans die out way before they do?”

“Hoshizaki, your viewpoint is correct. By my calculations, the chances of that occurring are over ninety-nine percent.”

“Oh no,” moaned Ms. Futarishizuka. “Our dear, sweet coworker is being twisted around a mechanical life-form’s little finger.”

“Machines are superior in all ways,” explained Type Twelve. “Hoshizaki may continue to depend upon me. In exchange, I will depend on Hoshizaki and rely on her as much as I like. By doing so, we can raise each other up. I have learned that humans refer to this as codependency.”

“Actually, that sounds more like a one-way road to depravity,” said Ms. Futarishizuka.

“Now I feel like I’m being recommended a suspicious drug,” said Miss Hoshizaki. “Are you sure this is okay?”

“I am certain,” Type Twelve assured her. “There is no problem whatsoever.”

“Perhaps you could just think of it like using an electronic bidet,” I remarked.

“Huh?” said Miss Hoshizaki. “You use those?”

“Sure. Wait, you don’t?”

“Well, no. They feel kinda weird, don’t they?”

“Do they? Personally, I consider them a must-have.”

We traded light conversation as we waited for Ms. Futarishizuka to finish her breakfast. As soon as she was done, before she’d even set down her chopsticks, my neighbor and Abaddon arrived.

The former was wearing street clothes instead of her uniform. I hadn’t seen her out of her uniform in a while, and she looked very fashionable. At her previous residence, she hadn’t had many possessions to call her own, so I assumed Ms. Futarishizuka had provided her with this outfit.

She had on a blouse, a miniskirt, and a coat. All of them were simple and refined in terms of design. It wasn’t meant to grab people’s attention, but the fabric and tailoring looked to be of fairly high-quality and had a kind of presence of their own.

Her sheer garter stockings combined with her especially short skirt caught my attention. Weren’t those the kind of things a more mature woman might wear? I had to wonder what Ms. Futarishizuka had been thinking when she purchased them. As a result, my neighbor looked a bit older than she did in her uniform.

“Good morning, mister,” she said to me.

“Good morning,” I replied. “Are you not going to school?”

“Umm, it’s the weekend…”

“Oh. Right, sorry. I completely lost track of the time.”

When people thought of government work, they usually imagined an attractive workplace with a regular schedule. Our bureau, on the other hand, never hesitated to call us in on weekends. That, combined with my trips to the otherworld, had long ago blown my sense of what day it was right out the window.

“You can give your impressions of my partner’s outfit, you know. She worked hard on it.”

“Don’t make demands of him, Abaddon.”

“Huh? Oh. Well…”

A middle-aged man rating a woman’s outfit sounded like little more than sexual harassment. If this had happened at the office, every single woman present would have thought less of me. How was I supposed to respond safely?

While I was hesitating, Miss Hoshizaki jumped in. “Aren’t those stockings a little gaudy for a kid to be wearing?”

“Are they?” replied my neighbor. “I’ve never worn them before, so I don’t really know.”

Miss Hoshizaki was acting like one of those older ladies at the office who always nitpicked the younger girls. Fortunately, though, that meant I could leave it to her to answer Abaddon’s snarky question.

“I’ve noticed you never wear anything on your legs,” my neighbor pointed out. “Isn’t that embarrassing?”

“W-well, I don’t exactly have a choice. With our line of work, if I wore stockings, they’d rip in no time. In fact, they get torn from just a little running, and even the thin stuff costs a lot.”

“They tear that easily?”

“Well, they sell boatloads of them at every convenience store. That should tell you something.”

As always, the two of them were butting heads. I could sense the thorns even in their casual back-and-forth.

They’d met in the worst possible way, though, so I couldn’t blame them. From my neighbor’s point of view, some lady she’d never met before had pointed a gun at her. I wasn’t about to tell her to forget about that and try to get along for the sake of our pretend family. Besides, the pet had just picked a fight with the grandmother.

Stepping in to mediate before a serious dispute broke out, Ms. Futarishizuka said, “If you’ll allow an old lady to make a suggestion…”

“What?” asked Miss Hoshizaki. “Why are you being so formal?”

“……”

Everyone’s attention turned to the villa’s owner, and Miss Hoshizaki and my neighbor stopped arguing. Once their eyes were on her, Futarishizuka continued pompously.

“Oh, I just thought we could use today for what we discussed on the department store roof.”

“Futarishizuka,” said Type Twelve, “are you referring to a family trip to an amusement park?”

“That’s right.”

Type Twelve had made the suggestion, and the family had voted to go. If we wanted the neighbor to join us, then today—a weekend—would be perfect. Plus, Lady Elsa was with us, so we could all go together.

“I think that is an excellent decision,” said Type Twelve. “Let us begin the event.”

“Are we going to an amusement park today, mister?” the neighbor asked me.

“Would you like to come? I won’t force you, of course,” I said.

“I would love to, if that’s all right.”

“See? It was worth getting all dressed up.”

“Abaddon, could you please stop teasing me over every little thing?”

“Sorry! But you tend to get shy right when it counts.”

Considering her background, I didn’t want to force her into family activities, even if ours wasn’t real. From her point of view, this whole business must have been like a cruel joke, making fun of her past suffering. And yet here she was, putting on a smile.

She was a straightforward girl with a good heart, and I really admired her.

“With that settled,” said Ms. Futarishizuka, turning to me, “could you go get the bird’s cage?”

“Yes, I’m on it.”

“If I accompany the rest of you, the girl will be here by herself.”

“What are you talking about?” asked Ms. Futarishizuka. “Everyone’s coming—including our guest.”

“Is that right?”

“Sorry, Peeps. Would you mind helping out with that?”

“I see. Then yes, you may count on me.”

With Type Twelve’s tech and Peeps’s magic, I figured we could keep Lady Elsa’s presence a secret. The former could hack into and disable any mechanical sensors around us, starting with any surveillance cameras—while the latter could hide our guest from view with magic.

Ms. Futarishizuka seemed to be thinking the same thing and turned to Type Twelve. “Could I ask you to deal with surveillance cameras and other such things for us?”

“Understood. For the sake of our family, I will gladly cooperate.”

After hearing all this, Lady Elsa spoke up. “Sasaki, are you sure it’s okay for me to leave the mansion?”

“Our situation has changed recently, and it’s not healthy to stay cooped up inside all the time. If it’s all right with you, I think you should accompany us and enjoy some of this world’s entertainment. What do you think?”

“I think I shall. Thank you for your kind words.” She nodded, a little smile on her face.

With our pretend family in unanimous agreement, Type Twelve spoke up. “Then we should hasten our preparations. The earlier we leave, the better.”

Urged on by her words, everyone began getting ready for our outing.

In a little under an hour after deciding we’d go, we were at our destination: a certain famous theme park in the Kanto area.

Type Twelve’s terminal had gotten us there at superhuman speed. We’d traveled from Karuizawa to the park in about the same time it took to heat up a cup of noodles. Once there, we used magic to conceal ourselves as we left our optically camouflaged craft, then we floated down toward the park entrance. As a result, we didn’t have to waste time waiting in traffic.

Still, we couldn’t avoid the crowds entirely. We wound up having to wait in line at the ticket gate. I’d heard that they sometimes imposed a limit on people entering the park, and you might be kept from going inside until evening. But since we’d arrived early, we only had to wait forty or fifty minutes. Type Twelve had been right to hurry us along.

“Sasaki, is this a different country from the one you live in?” said Lady Elsa, taking in the views inside the park.

“No, we’re still in Japan,” I assured her.

“It’s all so different than everything else I’ve seen. The first place we visited here was incredible, too, but this one is striking in its own way. In fact, it almost seems closer to our kingdom…”

The first location we’d visited with Lady Elsa was the Shiodome Sio-Site area. Compared to that and to Karuizawa, she was right—the scenery in the theme park was probably a lot closer to that of the otherworld.

“That’s an odd thing to say,” remarked Miss Hoshizaki. “Sasaki, does she not know about amusement parks?”

“Well, no,” I said. “In her culture, they don’t have anything like this.”

“Ah… I’m, um, I’m sorry, Sasaki. I really don’t know much about the world, huh!”

Lady Elsa’s question could only have come from a native of the otherworld, and it earned a sharp rebuttal from one of the locals. Though perhaps not everyone on Earth had visited such a place, virtually everyone knew about them. In fact, wasn’t this Miss Hoshizaki’s first time at an amusement park, as well?

As originally planned, Peeps was disguising Lady Elsa’s appearance with his powers. According to him, he was using illusion magic. While we saw her normally, others would see an average East Asian girl.

“You seem a bit dazed,” said Abaddon to my neighbor. “Something wrong?”

“It’s nothing,” she replied.

“Oh, wait. Is this your first time at an amusement park, too?”

“…So what if it is?”

I could hear them chatting next to me. So it wasn’t just Miss Hoshizaki—my neighbor had never been to an amusement park, either. I was once again reminded of her family background. I found myself more concerned about the two of them having a good time than even Type Twelve.

At that point, Ms. Futarishizuka called out, “Let’s hit up the attractions, shall we?”

“Futarishizuka, why are you, the grandmother, taking the lead?”

“What? I wasn’t trying to take the lead.”

“Amusement parks are meant for children. Thus, the children’s viewpoints should be prioritized.”

“Then where would you like to go, missy?”

“According to information I have gleaned from the internet, we should start with the roller coasters. A majority of viewpoints state that they are to be enjoyed first, and other rides can come after.”

“My. For a mechanical life-form, your criteria are very worldly.”

“Humankind has a slight advantage over me when it comes to handling emotions. I have determined there is meaning in adopting their viewpoints, as I have received emotions more recently. For this reason, your evaluation of my criteria as ‘worldly’ is an affirmation of my actions.”

“Using your mechanical life-form logic again, I see. Are you perhaps in your rebellious phase, dearie?”

“We should probably line up quickly in that case,” said Miss Hoshizaki. “Roller coasters are popular, and I saw on TV that they have huge lines. Depending on the day, you could be in line for hours before you can ride one.”

“Mother is correct. We should depart for the attractions immediately.”

Urged onward by Type Twelve, we headed for one of the roller coasters. When we reached it, we were greeted by the exact kind of line Miss Hoshizaki had described. It hadn’t been long since the park opened, and yet there were already a bunch of people waiting. The signboard showing the estimated wait time read EIGHTY MINUTES.

I was shocked. I hadn’t been taking this place seriously. I’d assumed the wait would be a half hour at most.

Naturally, I recalled the work I did at my previous job. I imagined all the tasks I could finish in eighty minutes’ time. Suddenly, I began to feel depressed.

“Huh? Are you kidding?” exclaimed Miss Hoshizaki. “It’s so early in the morning, and the line’s already this long?!”

“It is a weekend, and this is a popular attraction, I’m afraid,” replied Ms. Futarishizuka.

“But with eighty minutes, I could write at least two reports!”

Despite being a high school girl, my senior coworker’s values were already the same as this middle-aged man’s. It was kind of sad.

Type Twelve, on the other hand, enthusiastically broke into a run and settled into place at the end of the line.

“We should line up quickly. We cannot afford to be any later than this.”

The group in line ahead turned and smiled at her. Whatever her true identity, she looked like a cute little girl. While her expression remained cold and emotionless, her actions fit her appearance.

Now that Type Twelve had distanced herself from us, Ms. Futarishizuka whispered into my ear. “This is part one in Operation Convince the Malfunctioning Mechanical Life-Form to Please Go back to Her Own Planet.”

“What can you possibly intend to do in this situation?” I murmured back.

“I’ll use the long wait times for these big attractions to start chipping away at her mental state. That’ll rattle her emotions, and once she’s bogged down with complaints, we’ll hit her with part two of the plan.”

“That’s going to put quite a strain on us, too.”

“This is our job. No whining.”

“All right, fine,” said Miss Hoshizaki. “Let’s do it.”

Stirred by the word job, Miss Hoshizaki got in line behind Type Twelve. I followed suit, steeling myself.

A moment later, another group came in behind us, and we became just another part of the line. I’d felt drained just looking at the winding mass of people from behind, but once we were in the middle, my nerves strangely began to calm.

There was a kind of relief in our shared ordeal. Everyone else was in the same boat, so what was the problem? Just standing there made me feel superior to the unfortunate people who had come in after us, and the attraction was like a guaranteed reward.

The whole setup was very well-suited for an average guy like me—I could feel a sense of accomplishment just from waiting. But it would only have been perfect had I been alone. My companions had been making merry at the start, but they quieted down about an hour into the wait.

“Lady Elsa, how are you holding up?” I asked.

“I’m perfectly fine. Please, there is no need to worry about me.”

“If it gets rough, just tell me. I’ll get a chair for you.”

I didn’t have one on hand, but Peeps could help me grab one from somewhere. In fact, I could even have him hop back to the mansion and leave us in line. Ah, the convenience of teleportation magic.

“I’ve gone hunting in the woods before with my father and brothers,” she told me. “My legs are quite tough, so you don’t need to worry. Despite how I look, I’m confident in my stamina.”

“That’s wonderful.”

Listening to her speak, I could indeed sense that she was relaxed and comfortable. Compared to Japanese people, who had fewer chances to move about during their daily lives, perhaps even noble girls were brimming with vitality. I was sure she’d beat me in a marathon.

“Sasaki, you’re way too worried about Elsa,” remarked Miss Hoshizaki.

“Lady Elsa is of noble birth. I’m showing her consideration fitting of her position. I’m sorry, Miss Hoshizaki, but would you please overlook my behavior?”

“Wait, is she really?!”

“Sasaki is being a little dramatic. It’s nothing so grandiose.”

“Still, you don’t use ‘mister’ with him. And now that you mention it, you seem… I dunno, classy, somehow? You give off a different sort of vibe from the rest of us commoners…”

“You don’t call him ‘mister,’ either, do you?” pointed out Ms. Futarishizuka.

“…Yeah. Come to think of it, you’re right.”

Miss Hoshizaki glanced at me, a tad apologetic. The next thing I knew, she’d turned to face me fully and looked at me with nervous, upturned eyes.

“Hey, should I, um, be calling you Mister Sasaki?”

“No, you can continue as normal.”

The phrase “Mister Sasaki” was something I should have been used to, but when Miss Hoshizaki said it, I was overcome with disgust. As soon as I heard it, a strange anxiety welled up inside me.

“Did you just cringe?” she asked.

“What? Of course not.”

“Father, in response to Mother’s remark, your shoulders moved forty-two millimeters backward.”

“See? Even our youngest daughter thinks so.”

At least Miss Hoshizaki still seemed full of energy. The same could be said of Ms. Futarishizuka and Type Twelve.

The one exception was my neighbor.

“You doing okay?” asked Abaddon. “You don’t talk much on a good day, but you’ve been dead silent for a while now.”

“I’m fine. Don’t mind me.”

“You’re looking at your feet an awful lot, too. Did you hurt them? I know you’re not used to shoes like that.”

“No, that’s not it. I’m perfectly fine, I promise.”

She’d been very conscious of her feet for a while now. Maybe she had blisters.

I always had a hard time with new shoes, too, so I understood her pain. Leather ones were especially scary. They didn’t even have to be new, and all it took was a few steps down a gravel road and the skin on your heel would start peeling.

“You can use this, if you want,” I offered, taking a plastic bag out of my inside pocket and handing it to her.

Inside were Band-Aids of various sizes. I always carried them around, along with handkerchiefs and tissues—after all, I’d experienced many sudden blisters just like her. I could have just used healing magic to help her out, but there were a few too many people around.

“Wow, look who came prepared,” said Abaddon.

“When you’re walking around somewhere new, even old leather shoes can start to chafe,” I said.

“Oh, um, thank you…,” my neighbor replied.

“We’ll save your spot in line, so you can go to the restroom to put them on.”

“It’s okay. I can do it right here.”

I didn’t know what she was thinking, but after taking the Band-Aids, she began removing her stockings right then and there. Her skirt was short, so when she lifted a leg, you could see right up it. I stared, dumbstruck for a moment, before quickly averting my eyes.

Instantly, Miss Hoshizaki chimed in. “Hey, do you have no sense of shame?”

“Don’t you think you’re a little strict?” my neighbor shot back. “I’m just a kid, right?”

“Isn’t that my job as the mom here?”

“It would only cause me more pain to walk to the restroom, so I figured I’d deal with the problem here.”

“Oh, wow. You’re peeling something awful.”

“Urk…”

Personally, I was more worried about the groups around us in line. I could hear a few people whispering.

“Did that girl in the school uniform just call herself a mom?”

“She did.”

“They can’t be mother and child, can they?”

“Should we call the police?”

“No, I’m sure that man’s just showing around a group of kids.”

“But if you’re wrong, how messed up is that?”

“She’d have to be their stepmother.”

“I don’t think that makes things any better.”

Their comments reminded me, once again, that everyone I was with looked like a child. Today we also had Lady Elsa and a visible Abaddon, making the ratio even worse. While half of them were far older than me in reality, nobody else would be able to tell.

And Miss Hoshizaki wasn’t helping by wearing her school uniform. Recently there were more and more adult women who wore their uniforms to amusement parks even after graduating high school. I wondered if telling them that would improve the situation.

No, there’s no point trying to tell them anything. Even if they believed me, it wouldn’t make any sense for my thirteen-year-old neighbor to be her child.

Another hour passed, during which we continued to receive strange looks from those around us. We had officially been in line for almost two hours.

Everyone began to talk less and less. Even the ones who had been curiously looking around the park at first had given up, focusing instead on the line ahead. Ms. Futarishizuka was busy with a limited-time event in one of her mobile games.

Perhaps because of our shared state of misery, Type Twelve, who had been standing patiently in line until now, finally spoke up.

“Grandmother, what is the meaning of this?”

“What now? You’re going to have to specify.”

“The line is moving slowly. Far more slowly than it should be, considering the wait time.”

“That was only an estimate, dear.”

“So humanity not only lies itself, but forces its machines to lie as well.”

“It’s possible people are moving in and out of the line. And if a lot of guests have little kids with them, it might take extra time to see to them. The staff may not be having the best day, and even the machinery used to operate the attractions isn’t always working at one hundred percent.”

“If we continue at our current rate of advancement, it will interfere with our plans to ride additional attractions.”

“Lining up for hours to ride the attractions is part of the amusement park experience. It’s the weekend, so if we stick to the popular attractions, we’ll only have enough time for three or four more.”

“Grandmother, that truth makes my heart very lonely.”

“Grumbling about it won’t change anything, dear. That’s just the way these things are.”

With that, Ms. Futarishizuka turned to me. Her expression seemed to say, “it’s working, it’s working!”

It seemed part one of Operation Please Go back to Your Own Planet was a great success. That said, it had done plenty of damage to us, too. I was having a pretty bad time, personally. And, as might be expected, my neighbor wasn’t looking great, either.

“If this is too much,” I said to her, “you can go sit down somewhere. We’ll call you back when our turn comes. I see other people going in and out of line to use the restroom and such.”

“No, I’m all right.”

“As my partner, I wish you’d take better care of yourself. This place is open to the general public, so there’s a higher chance an isolated space will appear. In fact, the game could easily begin any moment now.”

Abaddon’s concerns were reasonable. Maybe I ought to deploy my barrier magic, too. But if I did that, I’d have an invisible wall around me at all times.

My neighbor could be surprisingly stubborn once she made up her mind. I watched her, wondering what I could do for her. I recalled the vending machine we’d seen on our way here; there were lines at the snack stalls, but never at the vending machine.

“Since we still have some time to wait, I’ll go buy us a couple drinks at the vending machine. It’s pretty cold standing around like this, and something warm should make us all feel better. I think they had hot green tea and black tea.”

“Thank you, mister.”

After taking everyone’s orders, I left Lady Elsa in charge of Peeps’s cage and trotted over to the vending machine.

When I arrived, to my surprise, there was a line even there. After a few minutes of waiting, it was finally my turn.

But just then, there was movement behind me.

“Ah…?!”

Something hard drove into the back of my thigh. Pain soon shot through my leg. It felt as if whatever it was had driven into the bone itself. It felt like Count Müller had just stabbed me as hard as he could with his sword.

I couldn’t stay on my feet. With a grunt, I crumpled to the ground.

As I did, the people behind me caught me from the left and right. Gritting my teeth against the pain, I turned to look at them. A few others surrounded us, blocking the other guests’ view and pretending nothing was happening. The group consisted of several men and women, all of them dressed like park guests.

One of them waved a stun gun at me to make sure I saw it. “You’re with the bureau, aren’t you? Come with us, and don’t make a fuss.”

“……”

It was true that I’d let my guard down. I just couldn’t believe they’d chosen to come after me.

But thinking rationally, I found this development made a whole lot of sense. Ms. Futarishizuka was a rank-A psychic, and like her, Miss Hoshizaki could now kill with a single touch. And if they knew about the angel-demon war, they’d realize my neighbor and Abaddon were a force to be reckoned with. Type Twelve didn’t even bear mentioning.

The only others present were myself and Lady Elsa. The latter was currently in disguise and unrecognizable. So if someone was going to take a hostage, I was their best choice. They already knew I was with the bureau, after all.

“Ugh…”

As I squirmed in pain, they began hauling me away. Everything was happening just like when Miss Hoshizaki was kidnapped.

At this rate, our fun time at the amusement park would be ruined. Not only would that sour Type Twelve’s mood—it would force us to suspend Ms. Futarishizuka’s plan. I had to do something, all the while making sure no one noticed my otherworld magic.

“This way. Move it.”

“……”

The pain of the electric shock wore off after twenty or thirty seconds. The man waggled the stun gun at me again as he continued issuing orders. He must have thought they had me in the bag.

Nobody around us said anything. Maybe it looked like I was a park guest having fun who had suddenly felt sick, and they were my friends trying to take care of me.

My “psychic power,” as I’d reported it to the bureau, was the ability to create icicles. I’d recently claimed that it had leveled up, and that I could now produce water, as well. That’s what would be listed in the bureau’s database anyway.

So I decided to make some water to engulf the stun gun.

“Hey! What are you…!” exclaimed the man as he felt his hand get drenched, disabling the weapon.

Instead of bringing out another one, he kicked me and backed off.

“Settle down!”

A moment later, another one of them took a gun out of their pocket. An actual gun. Keeping this under wraps had just gotten a lot harder.

I created more water and positioned it to engulf the people around me. Naturally, anyone inside wouldn’t be able to breathe. As they writhed around in the water, someone fired, but the bullet had lost all its momentum by the time it escaped the liquid.

I figured I’d just wait for them to drown, but soon my hopes were dashed.

One of them exited their watery coffin and created a giant ball of fire. It was as big as one of those ball chairs programmers working at progressive IT companies used instead of regular ones. If it burst, a lot of people were going to get hurt. And it was hurtling straight toward me.

I probably could have taken it face-first if I used barrier magic to protect myself. But considering the possible effects on my surroundings, I shied away from the idea. Instead, I created a whole lot of water and formed it into a wall to engulf the flying fireball. It felt like making ankoro mochi—when you wrap a sheet of red bean paste around a center of white mochi—and it probably looked like that, too.

The instant the two made contact, a boom rang out, causing the air to tremble.

The fireball burst. The water, boiled by the fire, let off a ton of steam and blocked my vision.

A wave of heat dispersed around us, but the explosion’s effects were minor, and no further flames appeared. I waited a few seconds until the white, billowing steam cleared. I could see all the people who had passed out inside the water.

I let the liquid fall and ran over to them. Upon checking, I found that they had all been safely disabled and were now lying unconscious on the ground.

The amusement park, however, was far from unaffected. After the ear-piercing sound of the explosion, nearby guests were freaking out, screaming as they fought to get away as fast as they could. The panic rapidly spread further and further into the park.

Soon, several uniformed police officers rushed over. As I watched, impressed by their quick response, the phone in my pocket started to vibrate. I checked the display; it showed my boss’s name.

“Hello, this is Sasaki.”

“It’s Akutsu. I already contacted those in charge of the facility through their local police department. Other employees are headed there now, so could you help clean up until they arrive?”

“Yes, sir.” This was exactly what I’d been expecting when I took the call.

“I must say, I’m impressed that you managed to disable a group of several people with guns all by yourself. Your ability may not be flashy, but even in the field, you’re an excellent member of this bureau. Didn’t they have a psychic with them?”

“I was just lucky, sir.”

The police officers began putting the people on the ground in handcuffs. I flashed my police badge, assuring them that I was a friend. Just as the chief had said, they all stood up straight and saluted, then silently went about their work. It seemed they’d been informed—both about my name and the situation.

All this raised another question in my mind. “Chief, how did you know where we were?”

“I don’t know about you, but Hoshizaki obeys the rules to the letter. She has her bureau phone on her, so I was able to check her location. I’ve known you were at a theme park in the Kanto area for a few hours now.”

“…I’m sorry for not bringing my phone with me.”

That meant he knew about Ms. Futarishizuka’s base, too. Still, I figured he’d already pieced that together from my neighbor’s school transfer. It wasn’t a big deal. With his impressive network of surveillance cameras and the bureau’s concentrated efforts, keeping where we lived a secret was pretty much impossible anyway.

In the meantime, other people rushed to the scene. The newcomers weren’t dressed like police officers, but they calmly stepped over the yellow “keep out” tape. That probably meant they belonged to the bureau. I greeted them and they bowed in response, eliminating any lingering doubts.

“Chief, the ones you sent are here.”

“You can leave things to them. I want you to focus on handling the mechanical life-form.”

“Yes, sir.”

In my peripheral vision, I could see police officers shooing away the rubberneckers brandishing smartphones who had begun to gather around the scene. It seemed unlikely my face would wind up on the internet, at least.

“Also, if you happen to meet an acquaintance of mine on-site, I’d like you to do as they ask.”

“An acquaintance, sir?”

“In exchange, I’ll deal with the congestion in the park. I’m wishing you the best of luck, Sasaki.”

“What? Wait a minute, Chief—”

He quickly hung up on me. With no other options, I went about my business as instructed, leaving the disturbance in the hands of the police and other bureau employees, and returned to Type Twelve. I made sure to grab drinks from the vending machine, as originally planned.

By the time I got back to the attraction, our turn had just come up. Despite my efforts to look cool when I’d left, my return was anything but. I slid back into the group just in time, after which we were shown to the ride. Miss Hoshizaki and Ms. Futarishizuka asked about the explosion; it appeared they’d heard it from their place in line.

I told them I would explain afterward, and we went ahead and rode the attraction. It required about ten minutes in total.

To be honest, I’d underestimated this place. I’d thought these parks were distractions for children, but after my first real roller-coaster ride, I was finding myself hungering for more. Suddenly, I felt my excitement surge.

After we’d finished up at the first attraction, I told the others what I’d been up to.

“That sounds like exactly what happened to our esteemed senior,” commented Ms. Futarishizuka.

“I had to hand over the site before I could confirm, so I can’t be sure. But I think you’re right. They caught the criminals this time, so we can check with the section chief later. He might be able to tell us their identities.”

“Well, I’m sure plenty of countries and groups have it out for us. I’m not sure we even need to worry about the ones who recklessly try to attack us without even confirming what we’re capable of.”

“More importantly,” said Miss Hoshizaki, “are you all right? Electric shocks are really painful.”

“It hurt at first, but I can barely feel it anymore.”

“I guess that’s good,” she said. She was extra considerate, having just experienced the same thing the other day.

A moment later, my neighbor—who was walking beside me—spoke up, too. “Are we causing you trouble by being here, mister?”

“No, not at all,” I assured her. “That was just a work-related issue. Nothing for you to worry about.”

“Well, if there’s any way we can help, please don’t hesitate to ask.”

“Yup, that’s right. Family rules say we have to help each other in times of need, remember?”

“I appreciate it.”

Now that we were done riding the roller coaster, we headed to the next attraction. Type Twelve led the way; she’d downloaded a map of the entire park, and she strode confidently out ahead. She could probably see everything that was going on through the park’s security cameras.

As we followed behind her, Miss Hoshizaki said, “Is it just me or are there less people around?”

“I believe we have the bureau to thank for that.”

“Oh?” said Ms. Futarishizuka. “What does that mean?”

This must have been what Mr. Akutsu meant about dealing with the crowds in the park. Since an explosion had gone off, they were probably evacuating the guests in case something similar happened again. I explained all that to my coworkers.

While we didn’t hear anything over the park’s PA system, I assumed the staff had mobilized and were helping guide people out. If they said a terrorist attack had occurred in the park and they were trying to prevent a panic from breaking out, the guests would have to obey. The bureau probably didn’t want any more people catching sight of psychic powers, either.

As a result, part one of Operation Please Go back to Your Own Planet had failed spectacularly. I doubted we’d have to worry about wait times for the rest of the attractions.

“I don’t know which organization is at fault,” grumbled Ms. Futarishizuka, “but they sure mucked things up this time.”

“Sounds like you struck out,” I said.

“No,” she replied, sounding frustrated. “Now that it’s come to this, we’ll have to decide everything in one fell swoop.”

Type Twelve overheard our exchange and turned around to face us.

“Father, what is Futarishizuka talking about?”

“Nothing,” I said. “Don’t worry about it. It’s just work stuff.”

Type Twelve was walking backward as she watched us. She looked just like a little kid excited to be at an amusement park. I felt guilty for lying to her, but only a little. I vaguely wondered if my vitals had managed to stay normal.

“Father, this is currently family time. You should not bring work into family time.”

“You’re right. I agree completely.”

“If you understand, we should hurry to the next attraction. I sense that the rest of you are slowing down. The youngest daughter desires for you to move quickly to our destination. If your feet hurt, I can call a terminal to bring us there.”

“Are the eldest daughter’s feet doing all right?” asked Ms. Futarishizuka.

“Thanks to the Band-Aids, they don’t hurt anymore, even when I’m walking,” my neighbor replied.

“That may be, but don’t force yourself,” said Miss Hoshizaki.

“If I say it hurts, will you carry me, Father?”

“Huh?” I said, startled. “Uh, I think it would be better to ask Miss Hoshizaki for something like that.”

“Wait, why me?”

“I’m sorry,” my neighbor said, changing her mind. “It doesn’t hurt at all. I can walk by myself.”

“Why, you…”

“I will call a terminal after all. If this continues, it may influence our future plans…”

“Could we get going before she explodes?” pleaded Ms. Futarishizuka. “I didn’t ask for any of this romcom nonsense!”

And so, at Type Twelve’s insistence, we hurried along.

From there, we enjoyed two popular attractions in a row. Normally, each ride would have required at least an hour’s wait—two or three if we were unlucky. But now that there were fewer people around thanks to the explosion, we spent less than thirty minutes in each line. I got the feeling we were also running into more park actors than before.

Thanks to the short wait times, Type Twelve seemed quite pleased. It didn’t show on her face, but I could sense the joy seeping into her words.

Incidentally, my neighbor and Miss Hoshizaki appeared happy as well. Especially the latter—she was having so much fun I suspected she’d entirely forgotten about Ms. Futarishizuka’s grand plan.

“I’m thinking we try this one next,” she said. “What do you think?”

“Mother, the youngest daughter is drawn to that one.”

The two of them peered at the park map excitedly. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Miss Hoshizaki like this before. Aided by her uniform, she seemed like a regular high school girl.

Off to the side, Ms. Futarishizuka watched them with a sour look. At this rate, not only would she fail to send Type Twelve back to her home planet, but she’d have given her a great time and amazing memories. I could just see the alien asking us to take her to another amusement park the following weekend.

“Then why don’t we go to both, and stop at this ride, too, while we’re going from one to the other? With how empty this place is, I don’t think we’ll have to wait long. And backtracking would be a pain anyway.”

“I was curious about that attraction as well. I will adopt Mother’s viewpoint.”

To an outside observer, they would have looked like good friends.

Ms. Futarishizuka, staring pointedly, chose then to interrupt. “Look, dearies, the attractions are all well and good, but maybe we should have lunch first.”

“What? It’s already that late?”

“We’re on the clock, you know. You could do to pay a little more attention to the time.”

“Urk… All right, fine, sorry.”

She was right—it was just about lunchtime. On a normal day, we might have wanted to prioritize the attractions and squeeze in lunch whenever we could. But with how few people remained in the park, it probably wouldn’t make that much of a difference if we got food now.

“You must be getting hungry, yes? Am I right?” pressed Ms. Futarishizuka.

“Um, oh, yeah! I guess I am a little peckish,” said Miss Hoshizaki, changing gears.

It seemed she really had lost sight of our original goal. Now she was flustered, probably feeling guilty about getting in the way.

Type Twelve immediately voiced an objection. “The youngest daughter would like to stress to Grandmother that for the moment, we should prioritize enjoying the attractions.”

“Oh, no, you’ve got it all wrong, dear.”

“I do? What is your reasoning, Grandmother?”

“In places like these, the food is an attraction in its own right. The restaurants are all made to fit the park’s theme, including elaborate menus. You can’t say you’ve gotten the full amusement-park experience until you’ve enjoyed the smaller things, like the interior decor and tableware.”

Ms. Futarishizuka was speaking like a real know-it-all. But I’d done a little research while we were waiting in line earlier and found that a lot of people agreed with her. One article even said it was a common feeling among amusement-park afficionados.

“…I admit that your viewpoint has some truth to it. Similar viewpoints can be found here and there on the internet.”

“Right? I told you so.”

Type Twelve seemed convinced; she must have gotten the same info I had. But as a mechanical life-form, she didn’t need a smartphone to look things up. Way up in the atmosphere, her main body—the UFO—must have been gathering information from the internet at blinding speeds.

“If we’re all in agreement, then let’s go get some grub.”

“Understood. Mother has complained of hunger as well, so the youngest daughter will adopt Grandmother’s viewpoint.”

“Sweet. I know just the place.”

Ms. Futarishizuka started walking, swapping out with the alien to take the lead. No objections came from my neighbor, Abaddon, or Lady Elsa. Everyone was excited as they followed the grandmother through the park.

A short while later, a family passed by in front of us. While the park had mostly emptied out, there were still plenty of guests around. This group was composed of a relatively young-looking couple with a small boy.

“Papa, my tummy’s rumbling!”

“I hear you. It’s about that time anyway. Let’s check out the restaurants.”

“Huh? A restaurant?!”

“Honey, aren’t restaurants in amusement parks pretty expensive?”

“I worked extra hard so we could splurge today. I heard you can enjoy French cuisine while looking out over the attractions.”

“Wow! Papa, that’s awesome!”

“Oh, honey, you’re wonderful!”

They were the picture of a perfect happy family. Type Twelve kept moving, but her gaze followed the three of them for a time. While her expression showed no change, she squeezed her hands into fists, offering a glimpse of the emotions currently roiling within her.

Ms. Futarishizuka had already filled me in on today’s lunchtime plan; we’d gone to the restrooms together while waiting in line for our third attraction.

This would be part two of Operation Please Go back to Your Own Planet, and our choice of restaurant was key.

“Ah, here it is,” said Futarishizuka. “Right here. I cannot recommend this joint enough.”

We stopped in front of a small shop set up on a street corner. There was no space to eat inside; you got your food from the counter, then wandered around until you found a bench or somewhere else to sit and enjoy your meal. Their primary product was chicken legs. In fact, it looked like that was all they served, aside from drinks. In exchange, they were fairly reasonably priced. That said, for the price of a single leg, you could have bought a whole meal at any restaurant outside the park.

“Grandmother, what is the meaning of this?”

“Meaning of what?”

Type Twelve looked aghast as she stared at the chicken-leg stall. At the risk of being rude to the place’s operators and patrons, it felt more like a snack stop than a proper eating establishment. For a family on their weekend outing seeking a fun lunch, it lacked the requisite visual panache.

“The youngest daughter wants to go to a restaurant and eat French cuisine while looking out over the attractions.”

“Sorry, dear. No can do.”

If I was being honest, that was the kind of lunch I was hoping for, too. I’d been seeing a lot of restaurants during our trek through the park and imagining what we might eat. I stole a casual glance at Miss Hoshizaki to find she, too, wore a look of disappointment.

Seeing their reactions made me realize something. “Ms. Futarishizuka, those people before…”

“Hmm? I’m not sure who you mean.”

The parents with the little boy who had crossed our path earlier—they had to have been plants. If she’d even secured help from an elementary school-aged boy, she must have set everything up the day before. It was thorough, and it made me suspect she was enjoying this operation of hers.

“Why? I request a convincing explanation from Grandmother.”

“Oh, it’s quite simple. We don’t have the money.”

“Grandmother would deprive the youngest daughter of a restaurant lunch for such a trivial reason?”

“‘Trivial’? That’s not a nice way to put it. Did you forget all the things we bought at the department store yesterday? Your esteemed father here worked very hard for the money to purchase all of that.”

“Father, are Grandmother’s words true?”

“Well, I hate to tell you this,” I said, “but we’ve been spending a lot of money over the last couple days. As a mechanical life-form, I’m sure you can tally it up. Even with a rough estimate, you must realize that it’s quite a lot compared to my paycheck.”

“…Yes, there is no lie in your words.”

“Exactly,” chimed in Ms. Futarishizuka. “So for today, we’re having drumsticks!”

“I think this place only has chicken legs, Futarishizuka,” remarked Miss Hoshizaki.

“They’re the same thing, child.”

Leaving the two of them aside, I felt bad for getting my neighbor and Lady Elsa involved and then having chicken legs for lunch. We never explained the situation to them, so they were looking at me with genuine concern. As this pretend family’s father, it hurt my heart.

I thought I felt a critical stare coming from Peeps’s carrying cage, as well.

“Um, Sasaki, if you’re having trouble, I could ask my father for help…”

“Please don’t worry about it, Lady Elsa,” I assured her. “This only applies to our pretend family, based on the rules we decided together. And I can petition my workplace for extra funds later on, so my finances are in no real danger.”

“Oh, right. Everything counts as work expenses, huh?” murmured Miss Hoshizaki, finally realizing this. “I shouldn’t have bothered worrying,”

This was all for the sake of getting Type Twelve to go back to her home planet. Without any knowledge of our intentions, however, Type Twelve stubbornly insisted we go to a restaurant.

“In that case, the youngest daughter has an innovative proposal for Grandmother.”

“What is it?”

“It is in situations like these that the money in Grandmother’s retirement account shines brightest.”

“What a little demon, treating me awfully and then turning to me only when you need money.”

“Various sources on the internet imply that this is a realistic relationship between a grandchild and their grandparent.”

Type Twelve was getting desperate now. While her words and mannerisms were those of an adult, she was clearly moved by childish feelings.

Ms. Futarishizuka straightened up, looked her directly in the eyes, and said, “And this is what a real family is like. Everyone has to make sacrifices for the sake of the whole. I don’t care how recently you came into your emotions. You can’t take all the fun parts of being a family and reject everything else. Do you understand?”

“……”

Even Type Twelve had to shut up at that.

The kimono-clad girl pressed further. “It takes cooperation to sustain a family. Even happy families have their share of troubles. Take our esteemed senior here. Her sister isn’t getting pampered all the time, is she? You know that—you’ve been monitoring them.”

Miss Hoshizaki had to go to work and earn money, so her younger sister helped out by taking over all of the chores. I was well aware of this, because she’d told me as much when I was over at their apartment for our English lesson.

This argument seemed to work on the alien. She gave up on trying to persuade Ms. Futarishizuka and turned to me instead.

“Father, is there no hope for a promotion at work?”

“Not really. I’m sorry to let you down.”

I vaguely recalled a certain Java sparrow once asking me the same thing. Leaving aside whether we were truly father and daughter, the exchange hit me pretty hard. I’d only recently left a low-paying job, and the scenario felt extremely real. What did other fathers say when their kids asked them questions like this?

“…Understood. The youngest daughter will make do with a bird’s leg for lunch.”

“They’re called chicken legs!” insisted Miss Hoshizaki. “What you’re saying doesn’t even sound like food.”

“I don’t need lunch today, mister. If it’s okay with you, please spend my portion on my younger sister, since she’s hungry. Otherwise, you can save it for future expenses.”

“Elder Sister, your thoughtfulness brings great solace to the youngest daughter’s wounded heart.”

“You skip meals all the time anyway,” noted Abaddon.

“I’ve had it too good lately. I don’t need to eat three times a day.”

“…The youngest daughter refuses the elder sister’s request. Kurosu must eat her own portion.”

Type Twelve must have found out about the neighbor’s circumstances when she hacked into the bureau’s database. She was markedly less aggressive with her than with Ms. Futarishizuka.

I could empathize—I felt the exact same way.

As we stood near the chicken stall animatedly discussing lunch, we heard a voice from somewhere nearby.

“Oh? Aren’t those the people from the Countermeasure Bureau?”

They were speaking in English. I immediately turned toward the sound.

My gaze landed on two familiar faces: those of Captain Mason and Magical Blue. The latter was in her magical girl getup, just like last time we’d run into her, though she was currently wearing one of the headbands sold in the park. It used a design based on the establishment’s mascot character.

Captain Mason, on the other hand, was wearing a suit instead of his uniform. It looked exceedingly good on his tall, muscular frame. As soon as I saw him, I started wishing I could wear a suit half as well.

“Oh? What are you two doing all the way out here?” asked Ms. Futarishizuka.

“We’re enjoying a little holiday,” said Captain Mason, his tone upbeat. “First Lieutenant Ivy here has had it rough lately, so I wanted to let her spread her wings and relax. But it seems there was an incident a little while ago.”

“Thank you so much for saving me the other day!” exclaimed Magical Blue, bowing deeply in our direction.

As expected, I didn’t understand a word of what either of them were saying. This time, though, I was the odd one out.

“Whoa, I understood that!” exclaimed Miss Hoshizaki. “This thing really does work on English!”

“I would probably score well on English listening comprehension tests with this,” commented my neighbor, equally impressed.

“I think your teacher would probably be angry if he saw you with that in your ear,” Abaddon replied.

This was all thanks to the translation devices. The whole group aside from Peeps and me were wearing them for the purpose of talking to Lady Elsa. The developer herself had said just this morning that it worked not only with the otherworld’s language, but for Earth’s languages as well.

In fact, the devices even allowed the wearer to transmit auxiliary audio translated via a clip-on mic to other nearby earpieces. With so many eyes and ears on us at the amusement park, some of those in our group had been using them to speak with one another.

“Sorry to bother you,” I said, turning to Type Twelve, “but could I have one of those, after all?”

“Understood.”

Nodding, Type Twelve took an earphone and clip-on mic set out of her shoulder bag. I felt bad for taking advantage of her goodwill right after being so strict with her, but I didn’t want to be left out of the conversation. After all, these people might not be enemies, but neither could we consider them our allies.

“I’ve been hearing secondary audio whenever you speak,” Captain Mason remarked. “Is that technology from the mechanical life-form? We have similar devices on Earth, but these seem much more advanced.”

“This is the first time I’m speaking with you directly, isn’t it? It’s a pleasure to finally meet you.”

Miss Hoshizaki took the lead in speaking to the captain—proudly and enthusiastically. She must be doing her best to ensure he didn’t make light of her. Still, without her makeup and in her school uniform, she just looked like a student trying to sound mature. It was a little funny to watch.

“Miss Hoshizaki,” responded the captain. “I’ve heard of your exploits, too. You defeated a rank-A psychic in one-on-one battle, didn’t you? The word is you’re quite powerful now that you’ve leveled up, even on your own.”

“Oh? I wonder who told you that. Whoever it was, they must have loose lips.”

“As I said before, if you ever feel dissatisfied with your current position, feel free to pay my country a visit. The higher-ups would pay an arm and a leg to get a psychic as powerful as you. You’re always welcome.”

“You just want information. Why ask me anyway? There are others who have what you want.”

From her response, it seemed she remembered what I’d said about how Captain Mason was only after our intel on the Kraken’s defeat. While she hadn’t exactly given him a chance to explain, she also hadn’t rejected his proposal. The allure of that three million dollar offer still loomed large in her mind.

“You’ve got it wrong,” said the captain. “I’m singling you out due to my respect and admiration for your power.”

“Is…is that so?”

“We could offer you a better life. You’d be safe—as would your family. In fact, I could set up a place for you to live. Somewhere more secure.”

“……”

Oh no, I thought. She’s gonna get poached. The corners of her lips were turning up a bit. Recently, she’d become a rank-B psychic both on paper and in practice. She must have been an attractive enough prospect even without her connection to the UFO. I got the feeling the previous offer hadn’t been mere whimsy, either.

Perhaps sensing danger in our senior’s reaction, Ms. Futarishizuka immediately objected.

“She’s perfectly safe right now,” she said, “thanks to the robo-girl over there. You all fudged your chances with the UFO, and now you’ve come crawling to the winners, I see. You better be ready to offer a lot more than the peanuts from before.”

“My superiors told me to agree to any contract fee you set forth.”

“Now that’s a fright. Why would anyone go with you after a line like that?”

“Mother, your youngest daughter wishes dearly for you to preserve the peace of our family.”

“Ah… R-right!” stammered Miss Hoshizaki. “It’s just like with the Kraken. Everyone and their dog are curious about you now, that’s all. I may be thickheaded, but even I can put two and two together. Don’t worry—I’m not going to sell you out!”

“Mother, your words have unexpectedly warmed your youngest daughter’s heart.”

“Is that so?” said the captain. “Well, come to me if you change your mind. Leaving aside the UFO matter, we are very impressed with all of you—not just her, but everyone else here as well.”

He must have figured he wouldn’t get any further, because he dropped the matter right then and there. Instead, he paused and changed the topic.

Without wasting any more time, he asked, “What are you all doing here anyway?” and flicked his eyes to the chicken-leg stall nearby.

Type Twelve answered for us. “My father’s wages are undesirably low, so we were about to eat the legs of birds for lunch as a family.”

It was a very blunt, precise response. And as the down-on-his-luck father, I felt my heart nearly snap in half.

“You’ve used the words father and mother in our conversation several times now,” noted the captain. “Do you have a family? When you spoke to us on your spaceship, you told us that you didn’t.”

“Hoshizaki is the mother, and Sasaki is the father. There is also an elder sister, an elder brother, a pet, and a grandmother.”

“Why would you list your grandmother after the family pet?” complained Ms. Futarishizuka.

“I see. So you’ve chosen to make these people your family,” said Captain Mason, looking around at all of us—even at Peeps in his cage.

I didn’t want to consider it, but had the nerd told him about Peeps? It seemed like I was plagued with such suspicions these days. I wondered how well he was keeping his promise of secrecy. There was no point thinking about that now, though, so I simply filed it away as a possibility.

“Mister Sasaki, I must confess to some concern. Why subject your family to hunger at an amusement park?”

“I’d rather you not butt in regarding our family rules,” I told him.

This was all part of Ms. Futarishizuka’s plan—but it felt like the strain was falling mostly on my shoulders. It was super rough. Did other fathers have to endure pressure from all directions like this?

Supporting a family must be really difficult.

“Ah…” Captain Mason thought for a moment, then drew himself up and addressed our whole group. “In that case, please allow us to treat you, as thanks for yesterday. I’d like to invite you to a members-only restaurant in the park. Will you join us? It isn’t open to the public, so you’ll be able to relax and have a nice lunch.”

“Ah…”

Type Twelve’s eyes instantly began to sparkle. It didn’t show in her expression, but her gaze said it all. Here was her chance to fulfill all her lunchtime dreams.

“No, no,” said Ms. Futarishizuka. “We can’t impose on others. We’ll just stay here and enjoy our drumsticks—”

“I would very much like to be invited. We may leave the reluctant grandmother here,” interrupted Type Twelve, casting aside Futarishizuka.

Could the captain have been referring to that restaurant famous among amusement-park fans that only a tiny portion of the upper crust could get into? The one that assigned each of its guests their own actor and offered a bunch of exclusive entertainment? I’d heard it was like a super posh restaurant, with food to match.

“Is that so? I can bring you there right away, then,” offered the captain.

“You seem much more reliable than a certain grandmother,” said Type Twelve.

The captain headed off, taking the lead, and Type Twelve was the first to follow him.

“The youngest daughter has learned that it is useful to have rich acquaintances.”

“Gah. Grrr…” Ms. Futarishizuka growled in frustration.

We hadn’t told Mr. Akutsu about our plan, so Captain Mason had no way of knowing our intentions. He’d offered help because he wanted to get closer to Type Twelve.

And now Ms. Futarishizuka’s plans had been brilliantly foiled. At this point, there was nothing for us to do but give up and follow the others, and so that’s exactly what we did.

No objections came from Abaddon, my neighbor, or Lady Elsa. They’d never met Captain Mason before, but they must have assumed everything was all right from the casual tone of our conversation.

“This is how children get a taste for expensive things…,” grumbled Ms. Futarishizuka.

“I suspect it’s not uncommon,” I replied.

“You should hurry up and level up your powers, too, Sasaki,” said Miss Hoshizaki. “You need a raise.”

“I agree. I’ll do my best.”

“Ugh, you’re one of those people,” muttered Ms. Futarishizuka. “The kind that starts asserting dominance the moment you get a step ahead.”

“I…I wasn’t doing anything of the sort!”

For someone Miss Hoshizaki’s age, a little pride was probably a good thing. She’d been working so hard for so long; she couldn’t help how happy she was to be seeing results.

Skipping to the conclusion, the restaurant Captain Mason brought us to was absolutely incredible.

The doors at the entrance were plain and easy to miss. Inside, however, it was like the posh hotel Ms. Futarishizuka had temporarily procured for Lady Elsa. It was so quiet inside that you could forget about all the noise of the park. We were able to relax and enjoy our lunch in peace—and, naturally, the food was delicious.

Type Twelve was very satisfied, but it was quite the ordeal for Peeps. We couldn’t let him out of his cage in front of the restaurant staff, much less Captain Mason and Magical Blue. I could sense his bitter stares as everyone else enjoyed the great food—especially since the full-course meal, which we left to the chef’s recommendation, was packed to the brim with meat.

After lunch, the captain offered to come along with us and pay for other things as well. While Type Twelve was quite charmed by the idea, we took a vote in accordance with family rules and declined. We told them we’d come to the amusement park as a family trip and insisted that we split back up. With opposing votes from Ms. Futarishizuka, Miss Hoshizaki, and myself, we easily won the majority.

We said our farewells inside the restaurant, though I expected they’d continue to observe us either way.

In the afternoon, we went around to some more attractions. Like before, the crowds were much thinner than usual, and we were able to reach most rides in under thirty minutes. They must have sent a certain proportion of guests home and stopped admitting new ones. I had no doubt many of the others still here were bureau members and plants from other organizations.

For a while, we simply went around the park and enjoyed ourselves.

As the sun began to set, the park PA system directed us to a parade. We decided to attend, and headed out to the big road where it was set to take place.

“The park seemed pretty empty,” said Miss Hoshizaki. “But there’s so many people here.”

“I’d guess just about everyone in the whole place is here right now,” I said.

“I bet half of them are watching us,” muttered Ms. Futarishizuka.

Parades like these were a first for me, so I didn’t know how the crowd compared to a normal day. The area was crammed with people—as many as a popular shrine on a festival day.

We entered the throng, looking for a good place to enjoy the parade. Slipping through crowds also made for a good chance to speak in secret. After waiting for a moment when we were far enough away from Type Twelve, Ms. Futarishizuka called out, and Miss Hoshizaki and I slowed down to listen.

“This is the moment of truth,” she said. “We need to seal the deal when the parade gets here.”

“I have a lot of doubts,” I replied. “Is it going to have any effect in this situation?”

“Oh, come now. Just leave it to me.”

“You sure are confident,” said Miss Hoshizaki. “Despite failing twice.”

“I couldn’t help those,” Ms. Futarishizuka replied. “They were going so well until others got in the way. Both of those plans should have worked, but then nosy people started showing up out of thin air…”

She’d shared her plans with us beforehand. Miss Hoshizaki and I would be acting separately here. She’d be going with my neighbor, Abaddon, and Lady Elsa, while Ms. Futarishizuka and I lured Type Twelve away.

“Can I count on you, my esteemed senior?” asked Ms. Futarishizuka.

“I don’t know,” she replied. “I’m not really into this…”

“It’s for world peace, you know.”

“Yeah, I know.” She nodded reluctantly, then moved toward my neighbor and Abaddon.

Their cooperation would be crucial for this plan. In particular, we needed the latter’s demonic powers. In the past, he’d made my neighbor float and healed her wounds. Ms. Futarishizuka and I had gone to the two of them and begged, and they’d agreed without a second thought.

After seeing Miss Hoshizaki off, Futarishizuka and I headed over to Type Twelve. She was up ahead, trying to find a good place from which to watch the parade. Ms. Futarishizuka called out to get her attention.

“How far are you going to walk? All the good spots are taken.”

“I saw reports on the internet indicating that finding a good place to view the parade is of utmost importance. In order to fully enjoy this event, we must never compromise. This is a battle between our family and the families of others.”

“Can’t you see, girl? Look how crowded it is.”

“One option is to have the father or mother let me sit on their shoulders. That would be extremely familial.”

“Right. And how much do you weigh?”

“At the present moment, my total weight is two hundred kilograms.”

“You’ll crush them!”

As Ms. Futarishizuka spoke, my neighbor, Abaddon, and Lady Elsa gradually slowed down their pace. We were a ways ahead of them, and the distance between us was steadily widening. We’d split into two groups amid the crowd—a front group and a rear group.

Eventually, once we were decently far apart, something changed in the rear. The family members walking down the street behind us suddenly vanished without a sound.

According to my neighbor, this was one of Abaddon’s powers. She’d mentioned him using it outside of isolated spaces in the past. Plus, we’d already confirmed that Type Twelve was unaware of it.

Pretending not to notice the change, the three of us continued down the street. A few minutes later, Type Twelve turned around.

“Grandmother,” she said, “I have been unable to optically confirm the mother, elder sister, and elder brother for some time now.”

“Oh?” said Ms. Futarishizuka. “They were just behind us. Where did they go?”

“It’s pretty packed around here. They must have gotten lost in the crowd,” I added.

We’d prepared our excuses in advance. After searching around for a bit, we were unable to find the others. In the meantime, the parade continued to approach.

The leading float appeared at the starting point, and with great fanfare, it began its advance down the main road. The area was growing darker as the sun set, and many-colored lights began to glow. The guests all raised their voices in admiration.

“Father, Grandmother, what is going on?” asked Type Twelve. “The parade has started already.”

“Well, there’s nothing for it now,” said Ms. Futarishizuka. “All we can do is watch from here.”

“If we keep moving around, it’ll bother the other guests,” I added.

“……”

As she watched the parade, Type Twelve’s face was like an impassive mask. But I could sense a tinge of disappointment radiating from her. We were surrounded by other guests, and with her small stature, she couldn’t see much of the floats.

She stood on her tiptoes, poked her head up as far as it would go, and tried to see the road in the gaps between people.

Being right next to her as she did all that made me feel really, really guilty. I found myself thinking, why not give her a ride on our shoulders? But this was all for the sake of peace on Earth, so I said nothing and let the time go by. Several floats passed in front of us.

When the parade had reached the halfway mark, Type Twelve said quietly, “I have optically located the rest of the family.”

Her eyes left the parade and moved to the other onlookers. Ms. Futarishizuka and I followed her gaze.

When we did, we saw the other half of our group. They had taken a separate route, led by Miss Hoshizaki, and were several meters away. I noticed them immediately despite the distance because of Lady Elsa’s striking blond hair.

Evidently, they’d found themselves a spot right in front. They were watching the parade, full of joy, with smiles on their faces, ignoring the rest of us. Anyone could see they were having a lot of fun.

“……”

Type Twelve gazed at them in silence. Her attention was now fully on Miss Hoshizaki and the others instead of the parade.

“Well, they seem to be having a good time,” said Ms. Futarishizuka.

“They did say it was their first trip to an amusement park, didn’t they?” I replied.

It wasn’t clear what sort of thoughts were going through Type Twelve’s mind, but I figured she was feeling very lonely right about now. I guessed as much from the way she was staying perfectly still.

In fact, the others weren’t that far from us. But due to the crowd, they seemed worlds away.

This was all part of Ms. Futarishizuka’s plan. She’d asked Abaddon to have the group reappear a little while after the parade began. We’d also discussed how far away they should be.

To drive home the point, Ms. Futarishizuka turned to Type Twelve and said, “Do you understand now, dear?”

This was the gist of her plan.

“This family isn’t connected by blood. Its connections are weak and brittle. A real family would have panicked if they’d lost their daughter and would run around trying to find her. They’d never be able to relax and enjoy the parade.”

“…Futarishizuka, I must admit that what you say is correct.”

We’d successfully created a gloomy atmosphere within the family to contrast with the brilliant amusement-park parade. All of this was necessary in order to save humanity.

“You can’t be a family just because you want to,” continued Ms. Futarishizuka. “Family is about the bonds you were born with. Mechanical life-forms may not have families, but this knowledge is carved right into the genes of us humans.”

“……”

There was no response from Type Twelve. She only stared, fixated, at Miss Hoshizaki and the others. Her expression was flat, unemotional, just as it always was—little different from how she’d looked before, when she’d been so excited about the parade. But now she stood still and silent, as if in a daze. It seemed to me she was feeling no small amount of shock.

Precisely because her face was so inexpressive, however, everything came out in her tiniest gestures. We could see right through her.

Satisfied with the alien’s reaction, Ms. Futarishizuka gently remonstrated her.

“Don’t you think this is enough?”

She’d promised to wrap things up once the parade arrived, and she appeared to be doing just that, intending to secure a significant promise from Type Twelve right here and now. Mechanical life-forms couldn’t lie. Whatever she said, it seemed reasonable to believe she would follow through.

“We have our rules and mechanical life-forms have theirs.”

“……”

Meanwhile, the parade continued to move along from right to left.

Before we knew it, the final float was shrinking into the distance.

The members of Miss Hoshizaki’s group were looking at one another, squealing and making merry. This, too, was part of the plan. Ms. Futarishizuka had instructed them all on how to behave.

My neighbor, Elsa, and Abaddon hadn’t been filled in on the details, though. We’d purposely kept the truth from the demon, asking only for his cooperation—saying basically that we had something complicated to talk about with Type Twelve.

Had the alien seen them from up close, it was possible Miss Hoshizaki, who knew the situation, would have given everything away. But at this distance and with the crowd between us, it appeared as though they were enjoying this moment to the fullest.

Naturally, there was no way for Type Twelve to know what was really going on. She simply stood there in silence, watching the others have fun.

Eventually, all of the floats disappeared past the parade’s endpoint. The lively music faded away, and the endlessly glittering lights blinked out. A broadcast over the park’s PA system announced that the parade was over, and the guests around us all began to leave.

“Grandmother, the parade has ended.”

“Stuff like this is for kids anyway. I’m sure it wasn’t very interesting for someone of such advanced intelligence.”

“One can still find value in things one doesn’t enjoy.”

“Human children love watching parades. Even when they become adults, they remember them fondly. The other children enjoyed them, too, didn’t they? But you couldn’t. Do you truly think you’re fit to be part of their family?”

“……”

They say the third time’s the charm. On her last attempt, Ms. Futarishizuka had won a total victory.

Usually, Type Twelve would have fired back with banter of her own. But this time, nothing came. The youngest daughter faced the grandmother and opened her mouth to speak, then closed it again as though the words had caught in her throat.

I knew this was all for humanity’s sake—but it was still painful to watch. I felt even more guilty for having made Ms. Futarishizuka into the villain.

A little while later, when there were less people around, Miss Hoshizaki’s group pretended to notice us and walked over. Our eyes had never met during the parade, but they’d probably known where we were. Even the timing of their return had been decided in advance.

Miss Hoshizaki spoke up immediately. “I’d heard about stuff like this before, but that parade sure was crazy!”

“We ended up separated from you, but I’m glad you enjoyed yourself,” I replied.

Miss Hoshizaki kept glancing over at Type Twelve. She really was a bad liar. She’d been opposed to the plan at first, too, insisting it went too far.

“It was dark, and yet most of the costumed staff members were pretty high up on the floats,” noted my neighbor. “Is that really okay? A few of them could have easily fallen with one wrong step.”

“Why do you always have to be like that? There are better things to say in this situation.”

“They’re all wearing safety harnesses, dear,” said Ms. Futarishizuka. “It’s just hard to tell because it’s dark.”

“Still, it’s amazing that no accidents happen when they have this parade every day,” replied my neighbor, sounding impressed.

I’d been thinking the same thing; a few actors had been making do with less than half a tatami mat’s worth of space.

“Sasaki, this world is just wonderful!” exclaimed Lady Elsa. “I can’t believe you get to see such incredible shows here!”

“I hope you’ll treasure the memory when you’re back in your home country,” I replied.

“R-right! I’ll never forget it, even after I go back to my country!”

Lady Elsa always seemed like she was about to accidentally reveal the otherworld’s existence, and with everyone’s translation devices, helping her veer away from such topics was of vital importance. Still, if she’d enjoyed the day that much, I was glad we’d decided to bring her along.

After everyone was done excitedly giving their impressions of the parade, Miss Hoshizaki asked a question. “What should we do now? The park will stay open for a while longer.”

“I believe we have enough time to enjoy a few more attractions,” I said.

“In that case, I’ve got a suggestion. Why don’t we go see the ones we were talking about before lunch? We ended up eating at the restaurant instead, but we’re pretty close to them now. We should be able to make it there.”

“Understood. The youngest daughter will adopt Mother’s proposal,” replied Type Twelve. She seemed much the same as before. Still, I couldn’t help but feel her gaze was just a tiny bit downcast.

After that, we went along with Miss Hoshizaki’s plan and enjoyed a few of the attractions we’d put off. Before dinner, we headed back to Karuizawa. We skipped our meal in the UFO since it was so late; Miss Hoshizaki’s sister was waiting for her at home, and my neighbor had school tomorrow, so we prioritized their schedules.

While I assumed Type Twelve would object, she readily agreed—doubtless a result of Ms. Futarishizuka’s plan. We hadn’t broken any family rules, since we’d all eaten lunch together.

And so, after arriving back at Ms. Futarishizuka’s villa, we all went our separate ways.