The Harmful Effect of Memories from Childhood Being Excessively Glorified
(Author: (Arisu: “I liked her even more after meeting her!”))
Thanks to the exploits of the Supernatural Ability Phantom Thief T.P. Eight Olishua, the damage in various places was miraculously kept under control.
Appearing through Teleportation, she drove away the aberrations──“Greysphere”──one after another.
Possessing the ability to freely transfer herself regardless of place or distance, she rushed about everywhere with that power, and it was said that she saved not only Japan’s children but children all over the world from the clutches of the Greysphere that descended from the Gates.
During these past few days, she who had been stealing supernatural abilities from children now protected children from the assault of an unknown enemy──when that information, complete with footage, was brought before them, Mea became convinced that she really had been their ally after all.
And there was one thing that connected.
Just like in Arisu’s case, the Greysphere that appeared from the Gates had intentionally prioritized targeting children whose supernatural abilities were related to darkness.
Eight, who had resumed acting as the Supernatural Ability Phantom Thief, had likewise been targeting children who possessed the power of darkness.
The moment they lined up those common points, Mea, Tsubasa, and Akihiro arrived at the same hypothesis.
‘Could it be that T.P. Eight Olishua had been stealing their supernatural abilities beforehand in order to keep the children away from the threat of the Greysphere?’
If both Eight and the Greysphere were limiting their targets to children with dark supernatural abilities, then it was far too well-made to be a coincidence.
The Greysphere, Eight’s objective, the Tree of Evil… it felt natural to think that all of them were connected as one.
Of course, it was a hypothesis built upon trust in her, but to those who knew the nature of the angel called T.P. Eight Olishua, they could think of no other possibility.
In that case, it would mean that she had foreseen the arrival of the unknown enemy, the Greysphere, even before resuming her activities as the Ability Phantom Thief.
Including that matter, the best way to confirm the truth was to meet her directly and ask her, but the problem was the elusiveness befitting a phantom thief who would suddenly appear and then vanish somewhere.
However, here now was Charon, her older sister, who knew Eight──Daat──more than anyone.
To everyone there, she was a more valuable source of information than anything else… but.
“…Hey, Arisu, do you understand what she’s saying?”
“Not at all. What do we do…? Eight-san sometimes said difficult things too, but Charon-onee-sama is even more incredible…”
Every piece of information she spoke about were matters of grave importance to both worlds──or should have been, but in order to understand the contents, her explanations were somewhat difficult, and perhaps because of her unique phrasing and tempo, they were hard to properly take in.
『Due to the ancient great war, a faint light was born within the darkness. One was the Abyssal Qlippoth… and the other was the Greysphere. They may be called darkness and light, but to be precise, they are grey existences that are neither.』
…Specifically, it was like this.
The quick-witted commander Akihiro and the detective Tsubasa seemed to be skillfully digesting her words into their own interpretations in their heads, but the Yamikumo siblings, still young and with less interpersonal experience than working adults, whispered their frank impressions to each other.
Their classmate Mea shared the same opinion.
She truly felt sorry. She truly did, but… Charon was bad at explaining things. Tremendously bad.
However, there was no one here who could directly point that out to her face. Everyone present were brave people with valiant spirits who would not cower even before corrupt people in power, but when faced with her, an existence closest to God in the two worlds──and an exceptionally good person──they had no choice but to accept it while struggling with how to react.
Looking at her like that, Mea relaxed her cheeks just a little.
“I feel a bit of affinity with her.”
“Eh?”
“I’m not very good at talking either…”
“Ahh… you sometimes say things that are too high-level and trouble the media people too, Mea-chan. I see, so that’s why I somehow got this feeling of déjà vu.”
Because she could not speak about others that way herself, there was a comforting feeling to it.
Furthermore, rather than flatly denying the difficult-to-understand way of speaking, the attitudes of Akihiro and Tsubasa, who were trying with all their might to stay close to the speaker and understand her, also looked similar to how they had acted when Mea was speaking back when her own way of talking had still been awkward.
Even Arisu, who did not know Mea when she was young, seemed to sense some kind of common point in those two, and quietly asked so Charon would not hear.
“She’s your mother, right?”
As a friend, Arisu had probably been curious as well.
Mea herself also had feelings of wanting to question her deeply, but toward an existence far too immense in a different sense from Keter, the King of Sefirot──Charon was a Primordial Archangel and the Will of the World Tree Sefira──she did not know how she should speak to her.
That was why Mea felt grateful for her best friend’s question, which gave her an opportunity to put her own feelings into words.
“…If I were an angel, then I guess that’s what it would be. The angels of Fairy World are beings born from the World Tree Sefira, and Charon-sama was like the World Tree itself. So that kind of connection happens.”
“‘Happens’… you don’t want it to?”
“…I don’t know…”
It was different from what humans would call a genetic connection, but in terms of the birth process of angels, the relationship between World Tree Charon and Mea, who was born through the World Tree, could certainly be called parent and child without issue. That was also something said by Binah, the Archangel of Understanding, who possessed particularly extensive knowledge regarding the World Tree. Though it seemed that the Archangels other than Keter, including Binah, recognized not Charon but rather Daat, the origin of their powers, as their mother, there was no doubt that Daat’s older sister was an equally or even more magnificent existence.
“It’s also because I still don’t really know her, but… honestly, she’s far too awe-inspiring for it to really feel real to me.”
“I see…”
If one were to use an example, it was similar to how Mea had felt yesterday when the holy beasts, who had assumed her for one of the angels’ companions, called her “Princess.”
It did not feel unpleasant at all, and if that was an objective evaluation, then there certainly was a feeling of pride as well.
But whether it was really alright for things to be that way… what kind of existence she herself belonged to, where it was truly right for her to be… as time passed, she found herself wavering again and again.
And exactly because she understood that it was a luxurious worry, Mea had been unable to consult anyone about it.
“So it’s complicated in a lot of ways. I can understand the feeling of having someone outstanding in your family, though…”
“You’re going to become Eight-san’s niece, so you should be more confident, you know?”
“Ah, right… since she’s the child of the younger sister’s older sister, that’s how it is from Eight-san’s perspective.”
…It truly was a luxurious worry.
If she said in public that this was something she worried about, many people would probably get angry and envy her.
With a self-mocking smile toward her luxurious self, Mea looked at Charon, who was still exchanging information with Akihiro and the others using her sharp-edged vocabulary.
From now on, regarding the new enemy known as the Greysphere, she would surely tell them the necessary information without them even needing to investigate it themselves.
And then, as always for the Savers, the commander would formulate the optimal strategy in response, and the mobile task force would handle it.
…Thinking about it rationally, Mea felt that there was already no longer any need for her to be here.
Arisu and Kakeru would probably be safer here than anywhere else as well.
Thinking that, Mea turned her gaze away from Charon, then turned on her heel and placed her hand on the door at the exit of the conference room.
“…I’m going to check on the state of the Gates. I’m also concerned about the evacuation status of the townspeople, so I’ll leave things here to all of you.”
“That would help, but… is that alright?”
“It is. Right now, I’ll do what I can do.”
Supernatural ability users who could fly through the sky at high speed were still rare existences even in this new generation where powerful supernatural ability users were appearing one after another. Now that Akatsuki En and Rikidou Chouta were away on overseas business trips, Mitsui Mea was the only one in this town.
In this state of emergency, she could not leave those legs idle in unnecessary places. That was what Mea thought.
She decided to convince herself of that.
『Ah…』
Judging that the people present there alone were sufficient for gathering information, Mea left the conference room as though fleeing.
Since suddenly appearing, the figure of the over-1000-meter-tall “Tree of Evil” standing in Akebono City had not particularly changed compared to when it first appeared.
…Though, Mea herself had not truly thought that something might have changed just because she went to look.
The honest thought in Mea’s mind was that, given that Charon had willingly accompanied them to headquarters and was spending time explaining the enemy, they would probably not appear again from the Gates in this town for a while.
The same applied to the evacuation status of the townspeople. Saying they were accustomed to incidents might be somewhat inappropriate, but both the citizens evacuating during the unforeseen situation and the people guiding them were all experienced at it, and as far as she could tell from searching for movements of presence from the sky, there were neither people who failed to escape nor people taking advantage of the confusion to commit disruptive behaviors.
There did not seem to be any particular need for Mea’s help… frankly speaking, her actions had been a fool’s errand*. (tl note: more accurate translation is “going out and failing the objective, resulting in the realization that going out was unnecessary”)
If anything, Mea’s presence was instead getting in the way of the evacuation.
At present, Mea had left headquarters still wearing her academy uniform and was patrolling the skies of Akebono City with pure white wings spread wide.
When people caught sight of Mea like that, many stopped walking and stared up at her, and for some reason several even tried to approach directly beneath her.
Because of that, when Mea tried to help with evacuation guidance with good intentions, the closer she got, the more the lines of people ended up stagnating.
“I got in the way…”
She was happy that they waved at her and cheered for her, but in the current situation it was inappropriate. Feeling apologetic toward the police and the other Savers members as well, Mea flew away from there as though fleeing once more.
And so, after patrolling the skies of the town for a while, the place where Mea descended was the observation terrace of “Akebono Tower,” which she had chosen as a place where she had a sweeping view of the state of the town and the Gates──as well as the Tree of Evil──and where she would not interfere with evacuation guidance.
Looking out from that empty place over the town beginning to sink into the darkness of night, Mea quietly muttered to herself.
“What… is Mea doing…?”
Toward her foolish self pretending to be a rationalist, the manner of talking from when she was a child had slipped out unintentionally.
She had pompously told her adoptive father Akihiro that she would “do what she can do,” and yet in reality she had not been in any use whatsoever.
If she had remained there, she too could have heard useful information from Charon directly, and she gave a bitter smile while reflecting on her own decision to leave of her own will.
“Mea is Mea. I am me… hmm… it still slips out so easily… the way I used to talk…”
Seeing Charon’s way of speaking had reminded her of it.
Over these five years, Mea’s emotions had matured more than they had back then, and in that process her current way of addressing people had naturally become what it was now. The manner of talking she had used as a model was that of her adoptive older sister Akari.
However, at times like now, when she was immersed in sentimentality, she would sometimes unintentionally return to her old manner of talking.
Using one’s own name as a first-person pronoun was generally said to be childish. When Mea thought of properly adult adults she knew, her father Akihiro and T.P. Eight Olishua came to mind, and certainly, it was impossible to imagine them speaking that way.
『Eight is Eight. Eight is a bad big sister…』
When she tried imagining Eight looking dejected while speaking the way she herself did, it felt so impossible that she almost burst out laughing a little.
…As expected, she felt that this childish manner of talking was far removed from her image.
“…I’m still just a child… aren’t I…”
As though admonishing herself, she muttered that. Compared to those great people, how childish her thoughtless self was.
That she had let herself be swept away by emotion and flown out of there as though fleeing from Charon was one example of that.
As was her timid and indecisive attitude toward Charon.
More than anything, Mea deeply regretted right there and then that she had not even properly thanked the person who had saved her.
“Mm…”
The wind blowing from outside cooled Mea’s head both physically and mentally, and swayed her black hair tied with a tricolored ribbon.
As she gradually regained her composure, Mea decided that Charon’s talk was probably about finished by now, and resolved to return to headquarters.
“…Alright.”
Fight.
For the sake of this town. For the sake of the people she loved. And for her own sake as well.
In the end, no matter how far she went, the only thing the current her could do was fight.
Having told herself that and encouraged herself, Mea once more spread the eight wings from her back and tried to take flight from Akebono Tower──at that moment.
──That’s wrong, Mea.
“──!?”
She heard a “voice.”
It was that mysterious voice like a waking dream that she had also heard when facing those aberrations, the Greysphere.
However, this time it was a voice she could clearly hear through her eardrums as an audio signal.
Mea’s eyes widened sharply, and she turned toward the presence that had appeared behind her so suddenly.
There, someone was.
“You think too little of yourself. Fighting for their sake will not become for your sake, and there’s no need for you to thank that angel who failed to die.”
The figure standing still and gazing at Mea was small, like a young boy. Compared to Mea, the height, smaller by a head, looked almost the same as hers five years ago.
The hair was grey, the skin dark brown. That face was as well-formed as a doll’s. However, it was too exquisite, and the silver eyes like the moon floating in the night sky held no shine, giving no sense of life.
“You’re…!”
To Mea, it should have been the first time she had ever personally seen that person. However, for some reason, she felt a sense of déjà vu arising from the depths of her heart.
Tracing that sense of déjà vu with thoughts that had regained their usual calmness in the autumn night wind, Mea realized that it was a memory coming from the nightmares she had often been seeing lately.
That’s right… this was not their first meeting. She had met this boy many times in her dreams…!
As Mea stared back at him with a wary gaze, in contrast to her, the grey-haired boy returned an extremely childlike and gentle smile and said,
“We finally met, Mea. For these past five years I’ve always… always wanted to meet you!”
“…Eh?”
It was such an carefree smile that it involuntarily took the fight out of her.
Toward the dumbfounded Mea, the boy expressed that joy with his entire body as he spread wide both his hands and the two crow-like wings growing from his back.
It was a relieved smile like finally finding the family one had continued searching for──something Mea had once seen when she had gone to a shopping mall with Arisu and helped a lost young child reunite with their parents.
Fixing his silver eyes on the bewildered Mea, he introduced himself like an innocent boy.
“I’m a fallen angel of the Greysphere! My individual name is… not decided yet, but maybe this will make you understand?
I’m the reincarnation of Adyeshach.”
It was the fated reunion of those who had once been one, transcending dimensions──transcending even souls.