Chapter 68: To Izumo
“Hmm… Some places are locked in serious conflict, while others are simply enjoying themselves.”
I lent Riku my phone, and he smiled wryly as he browsed social media.
“That describes the route we’ve traveled. We did encounter some ogre bandits, though.”
“Every demon I’ve met so far was friendly. So it isn’t as simple as demons being evil.”
“Who knows? We’re unquestionably invaders.”
“Yes. There is no question that our two sides are enemies.”
The two demons helping us said that themselves.
“But you’re still helping Yuu and the others. Yuu, what are you going to do about the conflict between humans and demons?”
“Nothing. It isn’t a problem we can solve, and I have no desire to try. We abandoned that kind of sense of justice long ago.”
“You’re right… We can’t do anything that grand. I don’t know whether Tokyo is safe, but I want to see my family as soon as possible too. I can’t think about what comes after that yet.”
Of course Riku wanted to see his family.
“Riku! We’re going to Shikoku to look for Ayaka’s grandparents. Do you have any family outside Tokyo?”
Takamiya-san asked.
“Hmm… Ayaka’s grandparents, huh? Almost all of mine are in Tokyo. What about everyone else?”
“I have an aunt, uncle, and cousin in Chiba, but otherwise mine are in Tokyo.”
“I have relatives in Shizuoka.”
“I have a cousin in Kyoto. Though I don’t know whether he’s still there.”
That was true for all of us.
“I see… So Shikoku is along the way, and you’re stopping there. It would be nice if we could find Minato along the route…”
“We seriously have no information about him. We’re using this as bait, though.”
“Bait?”
“Here.”
Kitaura-san showed Riku her phone.
“Oh… You got married. Congratulations.”
Riku looked between Ayaka and me, his reaction completely sincere.
“No, it’s bait.”
“We only posted it so it would appear in a search. Hina came up with something only we would recognize, without the rest of our classmates noticing.”
Ayaka and I immediately denied it.
“Oh, so that’s why the account is called the Taka-Taka Alliance. I think it’s a good idea. Minato will probably notice. The question is whether he’s in a position to view social media. His phone doesn’t connect, right?”
“Yes. That’s what worries me. As you experienced yourself, this only works if his phone is usable.”
At the very least, we knew Minato’s old phone wasn’t working.
The question was whether he could acquire another one.
“It also depends on where he appeared… Some of you were transported together, but meeting Elvis and Linda-san so quickly was a huge advantage.”
Definitely.
“We seriously got lucky there.”
“We did.”
“Sis, thank you so much.”
“You’re our benefactor.”
They both truly were.
“I merely received mana and am repaying it.”
“Precisely. We are demons, after all.”
They said that, but they’d accompanied us this far. I was genuinely grateful.
“Hey, do you think Jack the Ripper in Hiroshima really is one of our classmates?”
“That’s our conclusion. Apparently, he’s human.”
“Then he must be a classmate… We did have some dangerous people among us…”
Ah, we hadn’t told him.
“We encountered Yamane in Kumamoto. We ended up fighting, and Elvis killed him in the end. It looks like he really was the one who killed Sakashita-san.”
“I see… A romantic quarrel?”
“We don’t know. It was nearly impossible to have a conversation with him.”
He’d acted like a resident of a video game.
“I see. The other world was harsh, and if someone adapted too completely, I suppose it could change them.”
“We have Jobs and Skills. That power could easily go to someone’s head.”
“It didn’t happen to us. Even when someone was clearly weaker, if we saw a muscular, scary-looking bald man, we’d immediately step aside and stare at the ground.”
That sort of thing had happened all the time.
There were plenty of kind people in the other world, but also plenty of frightening ones.
“I think it helped that none of us were alone. And for the last five years, Ayaka and the others were with us.”
“True. Ayaka was there. But that makes our classmates even more frightening. If only the world hadn’t become like this…”
I wasn’t so sure.
Could someone who had gained power and adapted to another world ever truly go back to normal?
“We’ll avoid contact with the rest of our classmates. We approached Yamane because we thought he might be Minato, but we’ll be more careful from now on.”
“Agreed. Once we find Minato, there won’t be any reason to… Ah, never mind.”
I understood perfectly what Riku had been about to say.
“I wouldn’t have minded staying in the other world.”
Riku meant that perhaps we didn’t need to see our families.
“That sounds like you, Yuu. You can carve out a path for yourself. You even opened your own shop.”
“Only because I had all of you. I couldn’t have done it alone.”
“Right. As long as Ayaka is there, you’ll be fine.”
Stop emphasizing that every chance you get…
“Everyone, we’re about to enter Izumo. We’ll stop at a drugstore first, all right?”
Our chaperone, Ms. Dirty Joke, called out as we emerged from the mountains and the city came into view.
“Please do.”
“Now that we’re in Izumo, what should we do next?”
Kitaura-san asked Takamiya-san.
“Hmm… We caught Riku.”
“I’m not a Poké◯n.”
Riku shot back.
“What would you like to do? It’s still morning. We could go sightseeing. Apparently, Izumo is famous for a huge shrine.”
“Wasn’t its god famous for matchmaking?”
Matchmaking…
Everyone except Ayaka looked at me.
Even Sis Linda met my eyes through the rearview mirror.
“If it’s famous, should we go? I don’t exactly have fond memories of gods, though.”
The only one I knew was that god from the other world.
“Neither do I…”
“That goddess was seriously awful.”
“The absolute worst.”
“She never considered our circumstances at all. Even if she had to return us to this world, she could at least have given us time to prepare.”
Exactly.
“Um… Are we going?”
“We might as well. We reunited with Riku too.”
If Ayaka wanted to go, then we would.
“Very well. Off we go.”
Sis Linda drove into the city.
Still, not only had there been no security, we hadn’t seen a single member of the Self-Defense Forces.