Chapter 41

I tried talking to Ayako-chan as we eat our breakfast. I thought I might get some details about when she was slashed in two.

“…I couldn’t see his face. He suddenly closed in from behind me.”

“Right…did you hear any voice?”

“…no, nothing.”

So that’s another bust.

Dealing with a surprise attack in the darkness of the night is difficult, especially for an ordinary civilian who never received any combat training. The information Ayako provided might not be reliable.

“Then do you remember anything strange happening recently?”

Maybe the culprit had met Ayako-chan beforehand. The suspicion would fall into a person who seems strange in the past few days.

“…I don’t remember anything noteworthy.”

“Really.”

“…yes, but…”

“Anything comes to mind?”

“Mom told me that a former classmate started to come to our bookstore frequently since last week.” I couldn’t think that it’s got anything to do with it, she continues. “…but there’s nothing else I can think of.”

“Classmate, huh. From last year?”

“No, from middle school.”

“…a boy?”

“Yes.”

I thought that he’s suspicious.

“Do you think he’s some sort of a secret admirer?”

“…no way.”

“Why? You seem to be popular, right? So it shouldn’t be weird if you have a secret admirer or two.”

Honestly I think she should be pretty popular as long as she doesn’t expose her personality too much.

“That person isn’t someone who could do something bad.”

“You mean he’s a good person?”

“That’s not what I mean. He’s weak”, Ayako-chan whispered.

“Weak?”

“Yes…He got bullied right after entering middle school. I felt sorry for him, but…he stopped going to school from the second year. I heard that he rarely even goes out of his house, even now.”

“So he became a shut-in.”

I’ve heard of it somewhere before; someone who suddenly falls into being a shut in suddenly started to be active again.

Yeah, pretty much just like me.

Of course I wasn’t just shut in my room. I was thrown into another world, while they manipulated the people here to think that I was shut in my room the entire time.

…maybe he’s the same.

“Do you know his name?”

Ayako-chan scowled at my question.

“…I’m sorry, I’ve never talked to him, so I don’t know his first name. I know his family name, though; his name is Saeki-kun.”

“No, no, that’s a good information. You…probably don’t remember his address, do you? Oh, how about going to your house again and looking at your yearbook?”

“It’s not possible, the yearbook doesn’t include contact addresses.”

Right…I’ve heard of that somewhere. Compared to the yearbooks in my age that includes a lot of personal information, today is a difficult age.

“Ah well, that’s fine. Seems like we’re progressing anyways.”

Saeki, Ayako-chan’s middle school classmate. I wondered if he’s also a summoned hero like me, but of course, I received no answer.

“But…him being a stalker…I never even spoke with him…how did he come to like me so much?”

After several transit, I reached the TV station. Originally, they plan to continue the hero interview on me, but the office is obviously more interested in the cloned people, seeing how much people got cloned. Once I felt dispirited knowing that my existence is gradually getting forgotten, Kurosawa the producer called out to me.

“So…it’s just a trick, but I just have to stand in front of the camera and make it seem like I cloned them, right?”

“That’s right, and try to do it like you’re provoking the culprit.”

“…huh?”

“We’ll put on subtitles that emphasize it like “look I can do this too” so I’ll leave the rest to you.”

Well…what do I do now.

“…can I request something before that?” Kurosawa looked confused when I asked that; he raised an eyebrow with a “hm?”

“Can I provoke him more directly? I’m thinking talking trash to him or something, like a people-cutting pervert or something.”

“…you’re going to war, huh.”

“I mean he would use his magic or whatnot to clone people into two, right? Doesn’t that make him a criminal?”

“Hmm…” the producer groaned as he strokes the tip of his nose.

“…Alright. Some people treats the culprit as a hero, but a lot of people in the internet calls to get him killed. The internet hates us so it might benefit us if we follow their ideas. We can use this to reconcile with the public.”

“Thank you. I’ll do my best.”

If Saeki is really the culprit of the cloning incident, the provocation should work. Well, there’s a big chance that he’s going to ignore it though. It’s like throwing a pebble into the waterfront, I’m just doing this with a faint hope that something will happen. Either a fish will pop up or a water spirit will, but it’s still better than nothing.

I can ask Rio to help me find out Saeki’s address since she went to the same middle school as Saeki and Ayako-chan, which means her brother King Leo went to the same school too, so there’s a chance that they might used to be classmates. I can ask that Lion of a brother to find out his identity and provoke him through my phone. Even if Saeki isn’t involved in this incident, it’s still likely that the culprit is a returned hero either way.

Besides, I happen to know how to trigger that sort of person.