Chapter 13 — He Just Left It Behind...Do You Want It?

The boy who had come to talk to Yogiri was Seiichi Fukai. With his long hair covering most of his face and his downcast expression, it was hard to read him. Judging from the way he spoke, it seemed he wasn't very comfortable talking to others. Since Yogiri didn't even know his name, he had no idea what he wanted. But if there was something he wanted to discuss, there was no reason to object, so he invited him into the room.

Yogiri sat down on one of the sofas, Seiichi taking a seat across from him. For some reason, Yuugo and Yukimasa had stood up and moved away by the time they sat down. It seemed they found him somewhat uncomfortable to deal with.

"What's up?"

"Uhh...right. Takatou, I wanted...no, there's no point in hiding it or playing dumb, is there, Lord Okakushi?"

Yogiri went stiff at his words. Lord Okakushi, the Taker of Souls — almost nobody knew that title.

"Who are you?"

"A god of death. That's right! The invincible power over life and death is in my hands now. So I don't need to leave everything up to you anymore. Since Mother has no way of controlling you, I'll be much more useful...I'll be much more important..."

"You're not making any sense. What do you want?"

The two of them were on completely different wavelengths. It was like Seiichi was floating along in his own world.

"Up until now, I was told to keep an eye on you," Seiichi chuckled. "But I wasn't allowed to approach. Or talk. Or look at you directly. Don't you think that's unreasonable?"

"This guy was in our class, right?" Yogiri asked Yuugo, who was standing behind him. He had never spoken to Seiichi before but thought that his face was somewhat familiar. Seiichi saying he couldn't look at Yogiri directly before seemed like a bit of a stretch.

"You really were out of it back then, weren't you? Of course he was in our class. I never really understood him, but since we got here, he's gone completely off the deep end. He's been talking crazy since we arrived."

It appeared that Yuugo didn't take Seiichi seriously. But as Yogiri wondered what had gone wrong with him, Seiichi slowly lifted a hand up to his face. Yogiri was trying to puzzle out why when the boy stuck his fingers into his own right eye.

Yogiri was taken completely by surprise, his feelings matched by short cries from Yuugo and Yukimasa behind him. As they watched in horror, Seiichi pulled out his own eye and placed it on the table between them.

"Looking directly at Lord Okakushi wasn't permitted. Because of that, my eye was gouged out."

Peering at the object, Yogiri realized it wasn't actually an eyeball. Although it was about the same size, it wasn't a human eye but a sphere with some kind of design drawn onto it. While it was obviously an artificial eye, Yogiri couldn't figure out why he had it.

"It's...a holy eye. It can see the supernatural. Through that dim, vague sight, I've always been...watching you."

"So, what did you take it out for? Are you trying to say that it's my fault?"

"I can't use this...anymore. Ever since I came here, it lost...its power. Mother's power...can't reach me...anymore."

That didn't seem like a good enough reason to go pulling out his own eye in front of others that way. Maybe it was perfectly logical in Seiichi's head. It wasn't like it was dangerous or anything, but Yogiri did find it unpleasant. Faced with a situation he didn't quite understand, he couldn't help but feel discomfort.

Seiichi slowly stood up.

"Is that all you wanted to say?"

"Yeah. I know...your power...is still mostly sealed away. So, I wanted to say...do whatever you like. Now I will take...that power over...for you."

In the end, Yogiri never determined what his classmate wanted from him. Although Seiichi seemed to know about him already, he had no idea what was actually going through the guy's head.

When Seiichi finally stepped out of the room, the tense atmosphere immediately relaxed.

"There really is something wrong with that guy. I wouldn't worry about him if I were you, Takatou," Yuugo said.

Yogiri picked up the fake eyeball sitting on the table. Geometric shapes that looked almost like letters were floating inside it. It seemed to be particularly well crafted, but it was hard to imagine it having any sort of special power.

"And he just left something like this behind. Do you want it?" Yogiri asked, holding it out to Yuugo.

"No way! You're just as weird as he is, aren't you?!"

Yogiri shrugged and tossed the eyeball into the garbage. As he did, another knock came from the hall.

"You don't think he's come back, do you?" Yuugo asked.

"I don't know. Maybe they just finished their meeting," Yukimasa offered, referring to the leaders' gathering. Groups One through Five each had a leader, and they worked together to decide how the class would act. Since Groups Six and Seven were merely catch-alls for useless members of the class, they had neither leaders nor the right to offer their own input.

"Hello!" The door opened, revealing Tomochika with two other girls behind her. "Takatou, can I talk to you for a bit? Ninomiya and Carol want to speak to you about something."

"Hey, how come the girls are here for Takatou?" Yuugo complained as Yogiri stepped out of the room. "He was just as much a loner as you and Fukai, right? I only looked like a loner because I was careful with how I talked to people, so why aren't girls coming to see a nice guy like me?!"

"Maybe because, unlike you and Fukai, Takatou actually looks somewhat decent?" Yukimasa answered.

◇ ◇ ◇

In the corner of the garden within the mansion prepared for the Sage candidates, a girl with long black hair in a school uniform was on her hands and knees, bowing in front of Yogiri.

"I'm really, really sorry!"

Her name was Ryouko Ninomiya, and of course, Yogiri had no idea why she was apologizing. The constant confusion about what was going on around him was starting to sour his mood.

"Carol, come on! You apologize too!"

"Why? What I do?" the other girl, Carol S. Lane, said in broken Japanese. With her blonde hair and blue eyes, she didn't have the slightest trace of Japanese features, which made sense, since she was American. She was also wearing a school uniform, since much of the class continued to wear the familiar outfits as their daily clothing.

"Stop talking like that! You'll make him angry!"

"Fine, but why do I have to apologize? He said he didn't care, right?"

"The first seal was released, wasn't it?! So if you bug him even a little, he could kill you anywhere, any time! Instantly! We have to assume he's already targeting the whole class. What else can we do but beg forgiveness?!"

"What exactly is this about?" Yogiri turned to Tomochika, starting to get fed up.

"Uhh, they said they wanted to talk to you about something, so they asked me to introduce you to them." Tomochika clearly didn't know what to make of things, either.

"You don't have to apologize in the first place, let alone on your hands and knees like that."

"But..."

"If you're worried about annoying me, I'd say all this makes me more annoyed than anything." Ryouko immediately shot to her feet. "Anyway, I don't even know what you're apologizing about."

"Because we left you behind on the bus, of course. At the time, everything was so sudden and chaotic, we got swept up by Yazaki's Command skill, and when we realized what we'd done, we were so far away that we couldn't go back, but of course we never thought some lizard would be able to kill you —"

"Ahahaha! Seeing the cool and calm Ryouko get all worked up is kind of fun!" Carol laughed as she watched her classmate's flustered explanation.

"Carol...oh, should I call you Lane?"

"Carol is fine," she replied with a smile.

"All right, Carol, then. You guys know about me, I guess?"

"Yep. I'm from the Agency, and she's from the Institute. Oh, and we also saw Fukai coming out of your room earlier, but he's from the Cult. The three of us were sent to join your class to keep an eye on you."

"I didn't think they'd let me just go about my life freely, but I never would have expected three people in my own class to be watching me..." Yogiri sighed. Admittedly, he had made no effort to get to know his classmates, but it surprised him that he hadn't noticed.

"Man, I thought you'd figure it out right away since I was an American, but you were so disinterested, I was almost disappointed."

"I can't be suspicious of every foreigner I come across."

He had already struck back at a number of organizations, so he'd assumed they knew better than to interfere with him. There hadn't been any incidents since he had entered high school, but it seemed they were still observing him behind the scenes. "You're not that scared of me, as far as I can tell. Do you and Ryouko see me very differently?"

"Seems that way. But it's hard to blame her when we're talking about someone who can kill just by thinking it. When we don't know exactly what might set you off, it feels like we're leaving it up to chance."

"You all just decided that on your own, huh?" In his entire life, Yogiri had never killed someone simply because they were annoying him. That being said, having them come up with such a reason to be terrified of him was unexpectedly convenient.

"The Institute knows you better than any of us do, so Ryouko might know something I don't."

"I don't need an apology, but I get that you want to apologize anyway. Like I said before, I don't care about any of this, but if you want me to say it, then sure, I forgive you. But why did you bring Dannoura with you?"

"Right? If all you want is to apologize, why am I here?" Tomochika questioned.

"Well...I thought if she was with us, you might be more willing to listen..." Ryouko said softly, like she was grasping at straws. If she was from the Institute, she would have known more about Yogiri's accomplishments than anyone.

"It seems you got yourself worked up over nothing, so could you stop trying to monitor me? I don't want to be involved with any of you." He was startled by the realization that there were people who knew about his ability in this world, but it didn't change much. If they weren't planning on getting in his way, then they weren't a problem.

"Really?! I was ready to offer my body in exchange or something, but..."

"What?"

"Ahahahaha!" As Yogiri tried to figure out what Ryouko meant, Carol burst out laughing again. "Looks like she's the type to back herself into a corner. Since you traveled all the way here with Tomochika, she probably figured you hadn't killed her yet because she was willing to do whatever you told her to."

"Wha—?! Definitely not! Nothing like that happened, okay?!" Tomochika hurriedly replied.

"But it's strange, don't you think?" Carol continued. "For a male high school student to keep himself under control beside such a cute girl for so long."

"Huh? Oh, rather than self-control, I'd say it's more like moderation..."

"Shut up! Don't say stuff like that!" Tomochika shouted. Whatever she was currently thinking had turned her face bright red.