Headphone Actor (13 page)

“Ohh …. Seto-san, we’re sorry for getting your name wrong .. And Mary-chan, sorry for putting you in a bad mood ….”

Turning around to face the two of them, Momo apologized.

Raising her face from Seto’s shoulder, Mary muttered, “…. I guess Setto sounds a little cool, too.”

Hearing this, Momo let out a sigh of relief.

“Anyway, you’re pretty good at carrying someone around in this damned heat.”

“Eh? Ah, I carry things at my part-time job all the time, so this is completely fine. Mary’s light, so it’s no sweat!”

It was clear that Seto was in good shape.

Especially compared to my thin arms, accustomed to these two years of being a home security guard, I could barely lift a baby, let alone a girl.

In the corner of my vision, I saw Momo look at us each in turn and laugh through her nostrils, but I would pretend I hadn’t seen that. Yeah.

“But Mary, if you don’t exercise day-to-day, you’ll get tired right away, just like today.”

“O-okay …. I’ll start talking short walks from now on ….”

Just a few minutes after leaving the house, Mary had become too tired to walk, and was being carried by Seto ever since.

It seemed that this girl usually didn’t go out very often.

I felt an inexplicable sense of connection with her, but between a sheltered girl and a HIKINEET, the difference between the two was as great as the sky and the earth. …. It was regrettable.

The voices of the cicadas that cried at everything around them grew noisier.

We’d probably come a long distance from the urban area of the city by now.

Beside the sidewalk, small-scale forests were beginning to appear, and for the most part, there were no longer many houses.

We’d really only been walking for a rather short period of time, but for it to already look so much like the countryside …? I’d thought so yesterday, but once again, I found the rate at which the urban development had progressed was strange.

Due to being drenched in tea yesterday, Momo’s somewhat-old cell phone seemed to be balancing on the line between life and death. However, it seemed that after putting it in her bag along with some drying agent, it’d been resurrected.

“But I’m really sorry, everyone. Because of me, we have to walk ….”

Looking downwards, Momo muttered this.

It was true that it would have been faster if we’d gone by bus, however, Kido’s “eye concealing” power had a weakness: when coming in contact with another person, the effect of the power would wear off. Therefore, using it in a crowded space like the inside of a bus would be too much of a risk. Which was why we had to walk.

At first, the plan for today had been, “Let’s go to the rooftop amusement park at the department store where we went shopping yesterday!” However, due to the terrorist incident yesterday, the department store wasn’t likely to be open, so that plan was a bust.

However, due to Ene selfishly saying, “I want to go 
now
!” We had found an amusement park on the city outskirts to go to as an alternative.

The leader, Kido, along with one other member, Kano, were going to be running a little late, so currently, I was heading towards the amusement park with the remaining members.

If it was Momo, she always used streets that that few others travelled by, so this path in particular was safe, and void of people.

“…. Kano-san said, ‘The amusement park is pretty much in the middle of the forest park,’ but … Wait, isn’t that it over there!? Look! I can see a ferris wheel!”

With a gasp, Momo pointed to the front-right.

A large forest spread out ahead, and in between the groves of trees, glimpses of things like the rails for the roller coaster were indeed visible.

“Oh, sure looks like it! Look, Mary, we’re here!”

Shaking Mary side-to-side gently on his back, Mary raised her head, eyes sparkling. “You’re right—! Wow, amazing!”

“Come to think of it, Ene-chan’s been rather quiet. She hasn’t talked at all since earlier. Is she okay?”

“She doesn’t want to waste the battery. She said, ‘Tell me when we get there!’”

I had thought that she would be screaming and making a lot of noise today, just like she did every other day.  However, the weakness that she had was actually a pretty surprising thing.

“I see. We’d better wake her up soon, then ….. Ah! That might be the leader.”

About 40 meters ahead, under the large sign that read, “Natural Amusement Park,” there was a stop for the shuttle. From within the families filing out of the parked bus, there were two people that I recognized.

“It really is! Uwawah, so many people got off ….! I’ll try calling them!”

Momo pulled up her hood quickly, and began to speak into her phone.

“Ah, hello, Leader? We’re already close to the gate …. Yes! That’s right. We’ll be waiting here. Thank you!”

Ending the call, Momo looked around at the surroundings. The people that had gotten off the bus showed no sign of coming towards us, and instead were drawn towards the entrance of the amusement park.

In the midst of that, we saw the two from earlier walking in our direction.

“So, basically, with Kido’s power, we’ll be able to enjoy and have fun at the amusement park …. right?”

“Yep! That’s exactly it!”

With an almost child-like smile, Momo peered out from under her hood.

*

—Completely out of breath, I found a bench and sat down on it.

Because of the shade provided by the overgrown trees, I felt a cool sensation from the sweat on my back.

I breathed heavily. The pounding in my ears still hadn’t gone back to normal ….. Even now, I still felt as nauseous as if I was riding on a ship, and felt like throwing up again.

“Shintaro-san, are you okay? Mary and them got too carried away, riding the roller coaster the moment we got here ….”

Seto sat down on my right side, offered me a water bottle and rubbed my back.

“Really, Shintaro-kun, kuku …. I really think it’d be okay if you just didn’t worry about it so much. Fufu ….”

Kano sat down my left side, folded both arms behind his head and began poking at me in this malicious manner.

“Kano, that’s rude. There are people that are bad with thrill rides. He even threw up a little, so you shouldn’t make him feel bad.”

“Please …. Please don’t remind me … I’m begging you ….”

Even Seto’s good-hearted warning became something that inflicted damage to my mentality by putting the fact “I threw up” into words. I wanted to die.

“Ah, sorry, sorry. It’s just that Shintaro-kun is so easy to pick on. Anyway, Mary’s surprisingly good with thrill rides. As expected, Kido’s face was twitching the whole time, though.”

At those words, the memory of the girls’ faces resurfaced, and my shame increased even further. They’d seen me at my worst. I couldn’t take it anymore.

“That’s because Kido wanted to look cool. But it’s nice to be able to hang out with this many people.”

Seto concluded this matter-of-factly, still rubbing my back the entire time.

Was it such a nice thing? Because of it, I’d become the vomiting man.

“That’s true. This is definitely a first. But anyway, hey, you seem like you have it tough with part-time jobs every day, Seto. Didn’t you come home late yesterday, too?”

“Yeah. … And on top of that, when I came back yesterday, there were suddenly so many people, so I was surprised!”

“Come to think about it, Mary was the last person to join, so how many years has it been since then? Kido seems really happy that we have more members now, too, so isn’t it great? By the way, what do you think about Kisaragi-chan, Seto?”

Above my bowed back, Seto and Kano seemed to be having a pleasant conversation, but as the topic switched to Momo, I remembered her cold looks and really didn’t feel like joining in.

“She’s a really nice and polite girl! I was surprised that Mary was the one who introduced her, when she’s usually so shy. But to think that she’s an idol!”

“Ah, Kido was really shocked when she brought her in. Kido’s panicked face …. kuku”

While Kano seemed to be really enjoying himself, even now, I felt like crying.

“Ah, also, Ene-chan! That girl has a really interesting personality~ But I wonder how that works. Where’s she moving from?”

“From the cell phone! Hmmm … Somehow, it looks like she really lives inside the cell phone, but …”

As soon as the conversation shifted to Ene, tears overflowed from my eyes. Surely, that person wouldn’t forget about how stupid I’d make myself look earlier. She’d probably hold it against me until I was in my grave.

“It really does look like she lives inside the phone. Hey, Shintaro-kun, how does that work? ….. Wait, why are you crying!?”

No matter how you looked at it, when Kano peered at my face, the expression on his own face seemed to say, “I’ve come across something rea~lly interesting!” He really was a malicious guy.

The hand that was rubbing my back casually was also really gross.

“Sh-shut up! I’m not crying!! …. So, what was that about Ene?”

Switching gears, I addressed Kano’s question. …. If I involved myself in the conversation like this, there was a chance that my mood would improve.

“Eh? Ah! Yeah, yeah, Ene-chan! How did you meet that girl!? Was it from that thing that’s popular nowadays? A dating site!?”

“As if! I don’t really get it, but it seems like she’s been living in the computer since before we met ….. I don’t know where she came from, or who she is exactly, and she won’t tell me whenever I ask, either.”

Although my reply didn’t answer the question at all, Kano nodded as if he understood.

“I see~ So that’s how it is. In other words, Shintaro-kun kept persistently asking about Ene-chan’s private past until she got angry, and then ….”

“No! Where’d you come up with that!? I didn’t say anything like that at all! Anyway, I don’t really care about the past. It’s not like I even want to talk about it ….”

I’d try to explain it to him, but Kano only chuckled and hit my back, going, “I’m joking, I’m joking!”

Ah, this sensation was probably 
that
. The common case of “joining a club without thinking, but the senpai in that club is extremely annoying and you feel like quitting as soon as possible.”

“Well, well, fighting is bad, either way. …. Ah, Shintaro-san, you don’t have any water left! I’ll go buy you some more!”

Only when Seto said so did I notice that the water bottle I was holding had become mostly empty.

“Oh, no, I don’t want to trouble you, so I’ll go myself ….”

I felt bad being catered to, but as I made to get up from the bench, Seto pushed me back down by my shoulders.

“It’s fine, it’s fine! Please take your time resting! I wanted to buy something to drink myself, anyway!”

With a bright smile like you’d see in a soft drink commercial, Seto walked off at a brisk pace.

“Ah! Wait … let me give you money to ….”

“You can pay me back later!” Waving his hand, Seto disappeared into the crowds of people.

“Seto just never settles down, does he?”

Yawning, Kano folded his arms behind his head again.

I also kept quiet without making much effort to start a conversation. If I brought something up, this guy would just use that as a spark to talk on and on. Honestly, I found that to be extremely annoying, so I wanted to avoid communication with him as much as possible.

Speaking of which, I remembered how I’d become a hostage with this guy yesterday and sat near him.

Even in that kind of critical situation, Kano had been just as relaxed as he was right now.

When I talked to Momo about it, it seemed that everyone in this “Mekakushi Dan” was younger than me.

After all, saying something like, “Let’s all go to the amusement park!” 
did
 
seem fairly childish.

However, hearing about how they’d taken down the terrorists at the department store, and about the “power” that they each possessed, made me think of them as not simply being some group that fooled around.