5

…And so, like all things, does our story near its close.

* * * * *

“Haah…”

As she walked home at night, Kusunoki Rei was feeling despondent. Again, she’d yelled at one of her students for something minor. It had been one thing after another lately. She would start getting unreasonably angry and then, without realizing, suddenly snap. She was taking plenty of calcium, no joke, but it seemed that she just couldn’t calm herself down. Was there even anything she could do about it…?

“Haah…” She sighed again and, for no real reason, stopped to gaze at the night sky.

She felt like something was missing, like some part of her was lacking. No… it was something she’d had before; except, she’d unknowingly lost it somewhere along the way–– or so it seemed to her. Even her passion toward her job was beginning to wane; it never used to be like this. What could she have been missing?

“…like to try one?” As Rei was lost in thought, an unusually carefree voice suddenly spoke next to her ear. Alarmed, she jumped back a step.

“Waah?!” She turned to look. Standing there was a lone jester who you might take for a sandwich man, wearing a friendly, approachable smile. In his hands was a sign scrawled with things like “New Product!” and a cooler.

“Hi there, ma’am! Can I interest you in one?” he said, shooting her a smile.

“W-what is this? Where did you spring up from?” Rei’s heart was still racing. She hadn’t thought there was anyone nearby until now, but, all of a sudden, there he was, standing there.

“Oh, come now, I’ve been standing here the whole time!” The jester was wearing peppermint-green makeup. On closer inspection, he was actually rather handsome.

…Huh?

Rei frowned. She’d seen this guy somewhere before…

“So, what do you say? This is our new ice cream––we’ll be putting it on the market shortly. Think you could give it a taste?” said the jester to her casually.

It seemed, however, that he didn’t recognize her. She must have been imagining it. Rei changed her attitude.

“…You’re asking me? To taste that?” Her words were a little prideful. “I’ll warn you: I don’t hold back.”

“Oh? Could that mean you’re a professional, ma’am?”

“Well, I guess you could say that.”

“In that case, I absolutely have to get you to try this. It’s limited edition, after all.” The jester opened the cooler and heaped a scoop into a cone. His words were full of confidence, but it didn’t seem like that confidence was based on anything.

Thinking to tease this amateur a little by guessing the ingredients –– they were guaranteed to be cheap things anyway –– she took the ice cream and, acting uninterested, casually gave it a lick.

At that moment, her eyes widened.

“…What is this?”

“How is it? It’s tasty, right?” he asked, giggling. But Rei was in no state to answer.

“Whoever made this… What were they thinking?”

“Come again?”

“How the hell can you sell ice cream that costs 100,000 yen a head to make?! There’s no way!” she cried, astonished.

“I told you, it’s limited edition,” said the jester, continuing to chuckle.

“Even if you were to sell this as a limited run marketing campaign, you realize it’s just going to have the reverse effect later on, right?”

Rei found herself moving closer, drawing herself up to the jester, but he simply beamed at her, and she suddenly returned to her senses.

“…W-well, I suppose there’s no sense in telling an amateur like you this,” she said, blushing slightly and stepping back.

She ate the ice cream in earnest now. It was, without a doubt, a first-class product with top-tier ingredients. This wasn’t something you’d eat out on the street. For some reason, Rei began to feel anxious.

…Even so, she couldn’t shake the feeling that something like this had happened in the past. But, by then, she started to feel as if it wasn’t something all that surprising… But it was only a feeling. There was no concrete memory or impression she could identify.

“Still, ma’am, you must have some really accurate taste buds there, huh!” commented the jester the moment he’d seen her finish the ice cream.

“Y-yeah, I suppose you could say that.” The question helped Rei to regain a bit of composure.

“For people like you, I’ve got a very special product right here for you!”

“…Didn’t you say the one from before was special too?”

“This one’s the real deal, though! The genuine article! It’s been specially made for you and you alone. Honest!” His tone sounded so frivolous that it lacked any credibility.

“I don’t know about this…” Hearing the way he spoke to her, Rei started to feel that even the previous product might not have been such a special thing after all. He was giving off something of a con-artist vibe.

“I swear! The manufacturer faced demons lurking in the fires of hell and leapt into their cauldron just to make this! Such is the bravery of a knight who awaits the smile of his princess, bound by her melancholy curse!”

…She was starting to feel like she didn’t care anymore.

“Fine. I’ll eat it,” said Rei half-dismissively and took it in her hand.

“Yes, ma’am! Thank you very much!” The jester opened his cooler box again, dished out what seemed to be at first glance a perfectly ordinary vanilla ice cream and handed it to her.

In that instant their fingers brushed, and the jester's body immediately jumped and trembled.

“What’s wrong?”

“I-it’s nothing. Anyway, please, go ahead.”

“You’re not going to serve it? …Looks like this one's still pretty plain, huh?”

“Plain things reveal plain truths. It always comes down to the basics.”

“The basics, eh…” Rei snorted.

“That’s right, the basics. Why is it that people started making sweets? Why do they continue to make them? …It's because they try to forget the pain that lies in the depths of their hearts, if even a little. And we, the failed wizards of fate, are always living within that rift…”

“What?”

The nonsense the jester had started spouting caused Rei to lift her head from the ice cream and stare at him. He simply smiled back, like always. Something still didn’t feel quite right, but regardless, she put her tongue to the extra-special ice cream.

It was your cheap, everyday fare, with really nothing at all special about it. Rei’s tongue could tell that easily. But…then why? Why was it that once she’d taken a bite, a tear had rolled down her cheek?

In that moment, she suddenly remembered everything.

Her parents, who she’d lost at an early age. The flavor of the failed cake that they’d made for her back when they were still alive.

Ah…

That’s right… How could she have forgotten? Wasn’t it those feelings that had gotten her to start making confectionery to begin with? To reclaim the joy that her parents had given her that time. It was never meant to have been something to advance her career or to lord over her students with…

“W-what does this…?” she started to ask, and in her ear someone whispered.

“It’s magic. Nothing special, really…”

She jerked her head up with a start, but there was no longer anyone there.

“W-where did you go?!”

Rei looked around hurriedly, unable to stay calm, while he remained right next to her. He was still smiling.

“Looks like I was finally able to find a flavor that you approve of. You really are something, you know. You’re the only one who’s ever made me struggle this hard, and you’re the only one that ever will.”

Though he spoke, the words didn’t reach Rei’s ears –– she just kept looking around. With a smile on his lips, he slowly began to move away from the spot. A smile on his lips…and yet his face was on the verge of tears. In such a state, and with a weary step, he shambled off. Up close, you would notice that, dotted here and there on his jester clothes, there were wounds still not fully closed, from which blue blood oozed out. It seemed that his heavy gait was half due to the pain of those wounds.

Soon, even the smile he’d forced the whole time faded, beginning to leave only a lingering haggardness. And there, before him in his path, stood a lone shadow.

“…A wizard, is it?”

The figure wore a black hat and was wrapped in a black cloak, more a strange pipe-shaped silhouette than a human.

It was Boogiepop.

“………” He looked back at the black hatted figure, and Boogiepop, as if glaring, stared him straight down.

“To make one’s pain your own, and to possess a method with which to erase it… A fearsome power.”

Boogiepop’s voice was flat, with no discernible emotion. You couldn’t even tell if they were a man or a woman.

“Not even the Towa Organization had realized the true horror of that power, but it is without a doubt at the center of this matter. It seems everyone was trying to take advantage of it, but on the contrary, they would, in fact, simply find themselves swept up in the sheer and uncompromising force of its current.”

He didn’t answer. Boogiepop continued.

“People carry pain in their hearts, but it is because of this that they can move forward. If you erase that pain, then people can no longer advance. They try to run away from pain itself, and, not wanting to be hurt by anyone, they stop trying to reach out to others’ hearts. And thus, the meaning of effort in every sense vanishes… Peaceful, yes, but there could be no more horrific end to the world than this. Though there is no patently immediate threat, the magnitude of its danger is on a level incomparable. Then, considering that imbalance, out of all those I have met until now, you might be the greatest ‘enemy of the world’…”

“………”

Boogiepop’s words were almost like a declaration, but he did not react.

“However we look at it, that makes you an ‘enemy’ I must defeat, doesn’t it…?”

Boogiepop stared at him fixedly, with eyes cold like ice. He simply received that stare, showing no sign of a response. Eventually, Boogiepop sighed and faintly shrugged his shoulders.

“…You’re an enemy. Or, you would be, normally. But each time that I appeared, I would again disappear…every time I actually met you in person. And now I finally see the reason for that.”

“………”

“Because the one who had that power was you.”

“………”

“This isn’t going very well, is it? That power isn’t the only thing that’s imbalanced; it’s the fact that the owner of that power –– more than anything, more than anyone –– wishes in direct opposition to it to get others to understand their pain. Honestly, none of this is straightforward at all…”

Boogiepop’s expression was hard to describe; it was something asymmetrical, as if he were laughing…as if he were angry.

“That would be why you were desperately making ice cream. Am I wrong?”

“…Move.”

At last, he spoke up and began to move forward, pushing the black hatted figure out of the way roughly. On shaky legs, he began to stagger away. At his back, Boogiepop called out.

“Hey, Wizard…”

But he did not stop, nor turn his head. Nevertheless, Boogiepop asked.

“What do you think of the world?”

“………”

At this, he stopped. And for a short time, he just stood there. Was he searching for an answer to the question? Or was he trying to recall what he had said to others who’d asked him the same thing in the past? Whatever the reason, and to little surprise, he walked on.

“What will you do now?” asked the black hatted figure again to his back.

It was the final question. And to it, the jester replied curtly.

“None of your damn business.”

* * * * *

…And so, our story ends.

But frankly, it wasn’t much of a story now, was it? It was so fuckin’ incoherent, how’s anyone supposed to make heads or tails of it, eh? I mean, come on.

…Well, I say “after,” but chasing after a guy like that with the kind of power he has? Impossible, even for a narrator. So, here’s a little something I just happened to think up that might help give you some closure. Heh heh heh.

Picture this… Let’s say you’re out traveling the world someplace. Where? Doesn’t matter. Anywhere you want. Let’s say you’re taking a leisurely stroll down the street.

Then, this street vendor approaches you. He’s on his own. But the strange thing about him? You feel like he just sprung up out of nowhere.

And, with his weird-ass make-up, he would say, “Dear customer, how would you like to taste an ice cream that is out of this world?”

There’s no way in hell you’d trust him. I mean, it’s pretty easy not to. From his speech and his manner, he’s the very picture of frivolity. How could you trust him?

"Sorry, but I can't stand ice cream. I’ve got really bad memories because of that stuff," you say with a grimace. To which he just laughs and says,

"Haha! I bet your parents told you off, telling you ‘you’ll go stupid if you eat stuff like that,’ didn't they?"

This surprises you a little.

"...You sure know a lot. It's a little different than that, though. But...you're right that they got angry at me."

"Well then, you can relax. Because, this time, the ice cream will make you remember what you’ve forgotten."

"This time, huh?"

You're about to get angry at his glib remarks when you notice. You can't be certain, but you have the vague recollection that you've seen this guy somewhere before. It’s at this point that your friend who's with you shouts out to you because you're falling behind.

"Ritsuko, what are you doing?"

"Yeah, just a sec!” you reply. “Sorry, I've gotta get going,” you say to the vendor, and make to leave.

"Ah, but this was made especially for you, miss. If you don't eat it, I’ll just have to dump the whole darn thing in the trash," he implored pitifully.

"Oh, if you insist."

It disgusts you, but, well, he doesn't seem all that much of a bad guy, so you think ‘what the hell’ and buy one. And once you eat it, you're knocked for six.

Unbelievable. You've never tasted ice cream this good before!

E-even compared to back then, this ice cream is so much more...more…!

That's what you think. And when you look up, you don't know how it could have happened, but the vendor seems to have vanished off the face of the earth... That's when your friend comes back looking puzzled and tilts their head.

"Huh? Ritsuko, when'd you go buy ice cream?"

"Hm? Oh, there was this street vendor here just a moment ago and ––"

Your friend starts to look increasingly doubtful.

"What are you talking about? You were just standing there on your own spacing out..."

...and that's pretty much how it would play out.

In other words, it was just another story about a ghost manifesting in the world. I guess you’re wondering why such a simple story needed such a long exposition. Well, that’s probably because, in the end, he was a fool in everything he did, be it narrator or otherwise. Even when trying to tie up loose ends...

* * * * *

"...Shut up. I don't care,” he muttered to himself, walking on unsteady legs.

He'd been hurt, forgotten by his entire past, forsaken even by a god of death, and yet still, he walked on.

He was crying.

Truly, those tears were the first tears he'd ever cried. He, who hadn’t known how to react even when those close to him had left him, was now, finally, able to cry.

It was a terribly insignificant story, nothing more...

Peppermint Wizard; or,
The Rise and Fall of a Poor, Innocent Puppet, closed.

[1] This line was pretty contentious for us. Japanese has a tendency to leave out the subject of a sentence, and the Act 1 Captain Walker sections tend to use Captain Walker’s name in the 3rd person. However, in his introduction, Captain Walker very clearly said “My name is Captain Walker.” Therefore, I think it’s supposed to be ambiguous what parts were the Captain and what parts were this narrator. I’ll leave it to you to decide.