“With half-hearted hopes and dreams, unable to even see its own form…”

“Haah, haah, haah…!”

With rugged breaths, Pearl fled the silent street with a single-minded determination. The rain had ceased somewhere along the way, and the sky was suffused with the sunset’s crimson glow.

G-give me a break! I can’t go up against someone like Fortissimo!

He’d already found her, but he hadn’t come after her, oddly enough. She didn’t know why, but this was a chance she couldn’t afford to waste. If she was going to make her getaway, it was now or never.

Her plan, however, sadly fell apart.

A car parked just as she turned the corner to exit the street. In the driver’s seat…was Fortissimo, staring intently at her. He’d been one step ahead of her.

Aw, crap…!

All Pearl could do was stand there in a daze. She was prepared to abandon all hope. But then something altogether unexpected happened.

“…Nee-chan!” shouted a boy, leaning out of the car’s passenger seat. It was Honami Hiroshi.

Then it hit her—she was still in the guise of Honami Akiko.

T-then, are you telling me that…

While she stood rooted to the spot, Fortissimo and Hiroshi exited the vehicle and headed over to her.

“Thank god, nee-chan! I’m so glad you’re safe!”

Hiroshi was beaming with joy. His reaction didn’t look faked—he genuinely believed it was her.  He probably hadn’t even considered that his sister might have been swapped for someone else.

Though…

Though of course, Fortissimo had to have been aware of this, and for quite some time.

…………

Fortissimo walked slowly toward her. She stared as he approached, fear in her eyes.

“Ah, this is Lee-san! He saved me!” chimed in Hiroshi to explain.

 “Saved you…?”

So then, her allies had failed and had either been wiped out or forced to retreat. Either way, it meant that she was isolated and couldn’t expect any rescue on that front.

Even as Hiroshi nodded his head, Fortissimo drew ever closer. He seemed to be in a particularly bad mood. She couldn’t really tell if he was suspicious of her.

“Akiko-san…right?” murmured Fortissimo to her, staring like a hawk.

“T-that’s right,” replied Pearl timidly, only half acting—she really was afraid. “W-who-”

“Do you have a portable game device on you?”

“Huh?”

“Do you? Or don’t you?”

“………….”

Pearl thought hard.

A game device? What the hell? No, wait. Think about why Fortissimo would turn up like this. Right, this “game device” thing’s got to be Embryo’s current vessel. Which probably means that it’s in the real Honami Akiko’s possession.

Though of course, Pearl couldn’t have had such a thing herself…

“O-oh, that? I…I lost it somewhere,” she said, quickly making up an excuse.

If she couldn’t pull off her act here, her life was over.

“You lost it? How?” he asked dispassionately, without any discernible anger.

“A-a lot happened… We were attacked by these bikers, then the police started shooting at us… I think I must have dropped it somewhere when I fell…” she blundered out in response.

She was genuinely shaken, which lent much credence to her act.

“…I see. So you’re saying it might have been smashed then. That there’s a good chance of it.”

“…Probably.”

“What possessed you to even walking around with a game device in the first place?”

“No real reason… Just because. It was a good substitute for a watch, and I could pass the time if I needed to…”

“…………”

Fortissimo’s face remained passive. She couldn’t tell what he was thinking.

Uuuuugh…!

Pearl was so terrified she could scream, but frantically stifled the urge.

“…………”

Fortissimo was silent for a moment, then suddenly burst into a grin and laughed.

“Well, then that’s perfect. It was a dangerous item. Smashing it was the best thing you could’ve done with it.”

She was taken aback by his sudden change in attitude.

“A-anyway, nee-chan, we need to get out of here! The police are after you, right? That’s bad!”

“Huh? Uh, right…”

“Please, get in the car. I know a safe place. We can head there for now.”

Urged on, Fortissimo had her sit in the passenger seat of the car he was driving. The car accelerated and began to tear down the street.

But… Pearl thought, giving Fortissimo a sidelong glance, does he think I’m Honami Akiko? Or Is he just letting me flounder so I can guide him to Embryo?

Or maybe someone like Honami Akiko was low on his list of priorities and he was focusing on something else…

Regardless, Pearl didn’t have the luxury to poke around right now. If her identity was exposed, she’d be killed on the spot.

I’ll need to bide my time and wait for a chance to counterattack or escape…!

With the three of them on board, the car drew steadily away from the site of the chaos and off toward the next stage.

As for the real Honami Akiko…

“…Wh-what is this…?”

Akiko was struck dumb by the sight of all the police lying on the ground before her.

[[I did tell you not to get involved,]] said Embryo at her chest, dripping with sarcasm.

The wail of distant sirens faded in, until suddenly they were practically upon them. She was left with little option but to rush into the shadows, as she didn’t have a good explanation for why she’d come to such a place.

There were a lot of people on the ground, but it didn’t seem like any of them were at death’s door… That’s all it looked like to her, since the place where Taniguchi Masaki had fallen was in a blind spot, not to mention it would have been too far away anyway.

So she simply headed off. She was worried about Tooru, but if he really was an uncontrollable ruffian, there’d be little she could do about it even if she went. She couldn’t believe it. She didn’t want to, but…it was one more reason for her to be afraid of finding him.

What am I supposed to do now…?

She couldn’t think.

[[What’s the plan now, lady?]] asked Embryo at her chest.

“…I don’t know.”

[[Your power to control life’s gonna cause you all sorts of trouble starting from now, y’know… You better do something about that pronto.]]

She realized she was crying.

What do I do? What am I supposed to do…?

In her heart, she desperately wanted to see Kyou nii-chan again. He was always so calm, and always had an answer for anything you asked him. How nice would it be if he were to suddenly show up now and ask her, “What’s the matter? I see something’s troubling you.”

But the dead cannot come back to life, and even as she thought this, reality continued ever further down an irreversible path.

Help me, Kyou nii-chan… Help me…!

And so she walked unsteadily away from that spot. In thirty minutes, she’d get home and be stunned to find the lock on the door broken, the rooms ransacked and her little brother missing. But right now, she was unaware of all this and simply wandered in a daze, a great secret still dangling from her neck .

“…Masaki is?”

Nagi Kirima clenched the receiver tightly when she heard the news.

“How’s his condition…? …I see. All right. I’ll be right there. No, I know the way. …Yes. Thank you.”

After hanging up the phone in her apartment, Nagi tried to still her trembling body. She shook her head violently, several times.

“…My god. Unconscious and in critical condition…?”

Just then, there was a loud thump. Nagi looked up—the entrance connecting to the living room and hall was open, and standing there petrified was a girl who’d just this moment returned: Orihata Aya. Her bag had fallen at her feet.

“Masaki…”

Her face was as pale as a sheet.

The police investigation had made some headway.

The results of the autopsy had come in, indicating that the death of the officer who first reported the incident was a suicide. And not only that—the gunpowder residue from the other victims had made it clear that they’d been shot by said officer. His motive and a number of major factors remained unclear, causing quite a stir within the police force, but Takashiro Tooru and his friends were, at the very least, cleared of suspicion.

Taniguchi Masaki, who’d suffered grievous injuries, was admitted to the police hospital and had been receiving treatment, but it was a rocky road. Whatever the wounds had been inflicted by, they just would not seem to close up. The bleeding wouldn’t stop and would be life-threatening if left untreated.

Takashiro Tooru had undergone questioning but remained in a daze no matter what they asked him. He was in a stupor, utterly incapable of replying. Even after they’d subjected him to a forceful interrogation, the look in his one remaining eye was vacant and unresponsive.

Yet according to the testimonies of the officers who’d actually engaged him, they had to admit that he was only acting in self-defense, and that even if they were to restrain him to a degree as a material witness, they’d have to acquit him straight away.

“Hey! What the hell happened? What was it that hit your friend to leave him in that state?”

“You don’t have any idea about who attacked you?”

“Has anyone ever held a grudge against you?”

The detectives tried as best they could to wrangle something out of him, but Tooru’s heavily bandaged head didn’t even twitch. He simply stared into space, eyes drifting without focus.

As they seemed to be getting nowhere, Tooru was moved a few hours later to a holding cell. They were hoping that he’d loosen up after he cooled his head a little.

“…………”

Even in the quiet of the cell, Tooru stared into space, mouth half-open.

“………Ahh.”

A tiny sound escaped his lips.

“…………Ahhh, ngh.”

Fortissimo stood before his eyes. Drenched in rain, the man was looking down on him with disgust.

How I overestimated you.

Fortissimo’s icy voice echoed.

You squandered the chance this brave man put his life on the line to give you…!

The voice thundered in his head, like a long nail being hammered, blow after blow, into his skull.

Utterly ridiculous.

Tooru’s fingers gouged at the flesh of his thighs as he hugged them.

Utterly…

And with his one eye still open, he snapped, and smacked his head against the cell wall. And again. And again. Screaming without rhyme or reason.

Alarmed by the noise, the prison guards on duty flew in.

“H-hey, what’re you doing?!”

But Tooru bent and stretched his entire body, carrying the police officers trying to hold him down along with him, and continued bashing his head against the wall.

“S-someone get over here!”

He hadn’t heard the guards’ cries. Masaki’s words were the only thing ringing in his ears.

Um, could you quit being so polite? You’re older than me after all, and it’s totally fine if you just call me Masaki.

And then he saw his smiling face.

It…unsettled him. He’d always been pursuing his goals with a kind of reverence, but it had taken no time at all for him to achieve them. He’d feared somewhere deep down that perhaps they were things he never should have been striving for.

But after meeting Masaki…he was sure that that wasn’t the case. Masaki had proved to him that what he sought was right. And yet…Tooru himself, here, now, had destroyed the right to aspire to that with his own hands.

“Uuooooooooooooooooaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh!”

Screaming, blood pouring from his head as he smashed it at the wall, Tooru was maddened with helpless rage. Against all the parts of him that weren’t strong enough.

It can’t end like this.

It absolutely could not end this way. He wouldn’t let it.

He had to do something, even if he had to sell his body and soul to the devil …!

It wasn’t long before he’d woken up. When a young rookie constable told him that he’d get him a roof over his head, he ate with gusto and blurted out the whole story to the man, revealing everything from his identity to the fact that he’d run away from home.

“Well then, Sanpei-kun, what’s the plan now?” asked the young constable.

“I’ll go back home…” he replied glumly, bowl still in hand and a grain of rice stuck to his cheek.

There were band-aids over the injured parts of his ears to hold them fast. Apparently, he’d tripped and fallen in a bush. Flesh had grown where the wound was and the blood had since stopped, but they’d been reinforced just to be on the safe side.

“I’ll apologize to my old man and my mom. I was an idiot…”

“That’s the spirit,” the constable replied with a nod. “Though…surely you can’t have fainted from something as silly as spilling your cup ramen. Were you really that famished?” he asked with a laugh.

“…………”

Sanpei hung his head. He couldn’t tell him the truth—he’d never believe it.

…That a shinigami had visited him.

That he didn’t know why he was still alive. No, perhaps the shinigami had already killed something inside of him. Some great, heavy burden… Like the police were going to believe a story like that. No one in the world would believe him.

“…………”

Seeing him remain silent, the young constable realized that he must have been through something awful and gave Sanpei’s hair a good ruffle. Just then, Sanpei’s parents entered the police box.

“Sa-Sanpei…”

From his face to his physique, Sanpei’s father was the very image of a stubborn old man. The second he’d confirmed that it was his son, he walloped him on the head.

“…You goddamn idiot! I was worried sick about you!”

Normally his son would snap and throw him a punch back in anger, but this time he just took the blow. It took him aback. The son was a sniveling wreck.

“…Uuuuhhh,” he wailed wordlessly.

From his behavior, he seemed to be mouthing the words “I’m sorry,” but they wouldn’t come out. Even his mother, who stood behind, was covering her eyes. His father didn’t know what to do with his anger, but even he was affected, his eyes turning bright red. All he could do was bob his mouth open and shut.

Witnessing this scene, the young constable smiled to himself. “How nice,” he thought.

…And from afar, weaving from the police box window through countless gaps, in a line all the way to the apex of the park’s jungle gym, a figure was viewing this same scene.

“………..”

They wore a black cloak and a black hat, with black rouge drawn upon a white face. They call him Boogiepop.

“…………”

Boogiepop was watching Sanpei. He seemed to be keeping a close eye on him, checking once more to be sure that there was no danger of a repeat occurrence of that.

“…………”

He gave a slight nod, then looked up at the sky, fully darkened now that the sun had set.

Nothing but clouds, it seemed. Not a single star could be seen in the sky. Only the moonlight filtered through, bright and stark—a brilliance that felt terribly cold.

“Although…there was one thing he said that worries me,” murmured Boogiepop in a genderless voice. “An ‘egg,’ is it?”

A gust of wind blew.

His cloak danced wildly, and he spun around, as if he’d become one with the wind itself and blown away. And in the next instant, there in the moonlight, only the empty stillness stretched on.

“The EMBRYO” 1st half -erosion- stop.

Turn to the next -eruption-

[1] No, not like the old English police boxes. These are more mini police stations. Think of like a police booth that houses a couple of officers to take care of really minor things and so that the police is more wide-spread. For a more specific example, a Police Box is featured heavily in Boogiepop Phantom Episode 5.