Alkai 🧍‍♀️

👪 FAMILY - what is their family like? what is your ocs relationship to them? does your oc have any siblings?

👻 GHOST - do they believe in ghosts? what are their "ghostly experiences", if any?

🤥 LYING - are they good liars? do they have tells to show they're lying?

🥞 PANCAKE - what is their comfort breakfast?

🍓 STRAWBERRY - do they eat their fruit & veg? what is their favourite fruit or vegetable?

😨 FEARFUL - when scared, do they go into "flight" or "fight"?

⚾ BASEBALL - can they play sports? what is their best position if they play a team sport? what's their strong suit (speed, power etc.)?

🙈 SEE-NO-EVIL - whats a side of your oc that they don't want to show other people?

🪤 MOUSE TRAP - what will always lure them into certain danger? a loved one in danger? a promise of something they are always searching for?

🌩️ LIGHTNING - are they scared of lightning?

🌠 SHOOTING STAR - if they could make any wish with no repercussions, what wish would they make?

💖 SPARKLING HEART - are they a subtle or a showy lover?

Alrighty here we goooo

👪 - In the pirate au Griosk is their father figure, raised by him and the two are rather close - but additionally in my personal au - Meria, a jewelry shop owner, acts much like a mother figure to them, and additionally a dog tattoo artist named Renny also watches over them, but neither play as active of a roll in their lives (it's different for Altair though)

👻 - They think ghosts are only a human thing, what that means not even they could tell you, but they've never had any proper ghost encounters, they still believe in them though due to stories

🤥 - It depends on the situation, their fins move in a particular way and their smile always seems a little more mischievous - when it isn't a lie they're taking seriously, if it is something that actually matters they'll blatantly avoid eye contact and their smile is strained

🥞 - A pile of pancakes, topped with bacon, a mountain of whipped cream, and loaded with syrup and butter, they'll destroy it before you have time to blink

🍓 - If it's presented as an option yes, their favorite vegetable is mushrooms while their favorite fruit is pears

😨 - They always have the capability of going into fight, but if it were to ever go wrong, well, Alkai doesn't cope well with death especially if they are the cause of it, luckily it would take a lot for them to fight while afraid, so often they choose flight

⚾ - Alkai goes hard on volleyball, and doesn't persay play by the rules- which is to say they'll sometimes use their hook as a bat to spike the ball, but ultimately their strength is their speed

🙈 - They don't like to seem vulnerable around others, which is why they actively avoid confrontation, they don't like anyone knowing they can be more than the goblin they front as, the only exception to this is with a s/o or close friend/family, in which case it becomes the opposite if that's all they see them as

🪤 - If they have something to gain from it then they can easily be coaxed into danger, even if it's as little as something shiny

🌩️ - They're not unless it's really close, if they can feel the bolt rumble the ground their scales flair and they turn into a statue

🌠 - That's a hard question, considering laws and repercussions never stop Alkai anyway, but maybe if someone they loved died and they had the chance to bring them back as they were, that would be their choice

💖 - Subtle majority of the time, they'll leave little gifts around to be found, go out of their way to do things for their partner that they hope they notice, but there are times they actively seek to take their partner on dates and to do romantic gestures, it's a balance

Cough, it’s me again

Our dear demon bastard stated what type of women he likes. What do you think would be the type of woman (and maybe even man) he dislikes the most?

He is living in my head rent free

This one is much easier and less complex to answer 🙏 (I promise your other ask is in the works 😚 its just taking its dear sweet time to manifest in coherent thoughts)

My picture of a person Mephisto absolutely would not like conveniently exists in canon: Michael Gedouin. And no, I'm not just saying that because I hate the bastard.

Gedouin is everything Samael loves to despise. He's clingy, desperate, arrogant, short sighted, pushy and rude. He's got delusions of grandeur and crippling insecurities. Mephisto would eat him alive out of spite - possibly literally if he weren't so fat as to give the malnourished demon clogged arteries for the effort.

I personally think that when Samael expressly dislikes or loathes someone he goes out of his way to be an absolute menace to them. Because he's petty like that.

Canon kind of backs me up on this, and offers a compelling series of reasons why. Everyone he dislikes in canon, he dislikes because they're too intrusive or rude (Lewin) too cocksure and ignorant (Arthur) too needy and pushy (Yukio to a degree) or too self absorbed and narcissistic (Lucifer).

What do all these people have in common?

They're all liars.

They all lie to themselves and to others constantly. Lewin lies to others because he has to in order to appear normal; Arthur lies to himself so that he feels normal-ish despite blatantly knowing he isn't; Yukio lies to both himself and others for the sake of status quo and because he has crippling insecurities he would rather pretend didn't exist; and Lucifer lies to everyone including himself because his mind and ego can't handle the truth or reality, so he twists the narratives to suit himself, and to hell with the rest.

Samael, Father of Lies, absolutely despises liars.

He despises liars, and he despises those who turn away from a hard truth they'd rather not face. In his mind, these people are cowards, possibly, and I don't imagine he is fond of cowardice either. Part of why he is so hard on Yukio is because Yukio refuses to see or acknowledge the present, focusing -- and hiding in - the past or sometimes the future. He is similarly stern with Rin at times because Rin was running away from the past, but with no sense of direction for the present or future; he was lost, though, not deliberately hiding. Yukio hides; he uses the past or possible future to justify the present while acknowledging neither, and that makes him both annoying and dangerous; vascillating between the past and future without thinking about the present is how you end up circling a drain with no outlet. Yes, Yukio is depressed and stressed and has some serious trauma issues, and that is why he acts that way - no doubt Mephisto is well aware of that - but he also was stubborn and foolish and refused to accept help in any way except very marginally for his way, and his way was not what he needed. And I just don't see Samael having the greatest patience with people who wallow in their misery and refuse to help themselves, or if they are, like with Yukio, then they won't listen to reason if they're wrong.

Samael does not like people who deny the truth. Who insist they know better than he does, who won't budge an inch no matter what he tells them. He has not the patience, and after a lifetime of dealing with Mr. Narc Himself I honestly can't blame him for that.

At the same time, he finds great delight in tormenting people he despises. He ribs Arthur all the time and makes a mockery of him, he belittles Yukio and infantalizes him in some respects; He openly says he doesn't like Lewin and finds him creepy due to his persistent, invasive intrigue regarding himself, and doesn't bother him much I feel because anything Samael did do to bugger him would only entice him more; and he can do nary a thing about Lucifer, except quietly chide him in the back of his mind and hope his brother comes to his senses eventually. A hope I think he has lost all faith in.

Now, I feel a need to bring up an odd little relationship regarding these things - Amaimon.

Does Samael dislike Amaimon? Yes, i think he does, in a way. But he dislikes him because he is rude and lazy and doesn't like to think for himself or make hard decisions and acts like a total child about it when he does. Amaimon doesn't pick sides because he doesn't want to think about the ramifications of either choice, so he just doesn't make one. (until he has to). Amaimon doesn't like actual hard work, so to entice him to do anything one must invite him to "play" or offer a reward - and sometimes punishment - worth motivating him. Amaimon does not give a single flying fuck if anyone really likes him or not, which I do think Samael finds admirable about him actually, but it comes with the caveat that he can't trust Amaimon to blend in very well or follow a set of rules he sees no point in following, like "Dont punch people, because they die, and we dont want them to die". To explain anything to Amaimon, one must explain it in his terms, on his terms, which makes him difficult and annoying to deal with at times because if there's no relevance to himself going on, he has no reason to care. He is the quintessential "not my problem" guy.

(I confess after writing this I am a lot like him in many regards)

Samael doesn't appreciate people who make his life more difficult, I would say for the above case. He prefers things to go a certain way, and people who propose to mess this up by being stubborn and difficult to control are thorns in his side; but he is willing to put up with them for the greater good of his work.

Rin is another thorny case for Samael at times, though its more that Rin has the utmost potential to be a problem than that he presently is one; Rin is strong willed, though not exactly stubborn - he can be plied fairly easily with the right kind of persuasion, and as recent chapters have so kindly delivered onto us, Rin is the faith-having sort of person; he believes in Mephisto's power and abilities, and has faith that Samael would be able to put the world to rights if Satan wasn't being such a stubborn Git about it all.

That being said, I could easily see the tables turning if Rin decided to get in Samael's way and provoke him with his stubbornness, especially since Rin isn't always keen on listening to reason, so I hesitate to say Samael likes or dislikes Rin outright - I think he's an edge case and that Samael cautiously likes him, but would absolutely kill or maim him if it came to that. And I personally am of the mind that Rin is very much aware of this.

So, to recap -

Samael does not like Liars, Truth Deniers, and People Who Make Life Harder.

I also am of the mind he has a particularly vengeful distaste for thieves, based on the possessiveness of his personality and penchant for collecting things, but only insofar as they have stolen from him. After all I doubt he got all of his own belongings by moral means, given Loki and Dionysus' penchant for being thieves themselves. So steal away - just don't steal things from the Devil, maybe. Unless he wants you to. (Ahem, Impure King arc). But even then, probably not the wisest idea.

The Promised Neverland is kind of really good, actually?  I mean, yeah, I’m late to the party as usual, but I just binged the first season of the anime, and then the manga from that point on (the site I was on didn’t have any of the second season, but apparently it diverges from the comic and gets bad anyway, so maybe just read the comic to begin with).  And, I mean, spoilers, obviously, but I’m going to get into some extremely major spoilers here so if you haven’t read it or if you’ve only seen the first season of the anime maybe skip this post and read the manga, but...

...

I’ve tried and failed to write a big long post about all the ways it’s so good, how the main three characters are each so compelling, how its pitch dark but not cynical or misanthropic, with mortal stakes but not gore-porny, positive and optimistic without being trite or naïve, how choosing Emma out of the main three to be the primary protagonist and viewpoint character keeps the story from becoming a masculine militaristic power fantasy, how the antagonists are treated as characters and not just monsters - even the ones that are literal monsters, about how the story never supports or glorifies the idea of sacrificing the weak so that the strong can survive, about how empathy and understanding and a chance for peace are extended to every single villain without putting a burden to forgive on victims and without ignoring the need to fight those who refuse the offer of peace and uphold the status quo, how the story opposes oppressive hierarchies at every turn - not just those the monsters use to control the human children at the farms, but also how the monster elites use access to human meat to controller the lower social classes of monster society, and even to an extent within the human resistance.

But there’s just way too much to talk about to get it all into one big giant post, and I don’t have the stamina for a big extended ongoing project right now - or else I’d return to one of the like 12 I have on hold.

But, like, to pick just one thing....

ok, so eventually we learn what the monsters are and why they eat people.  They’re a weird sort of organism that can temporarily take on the characteristics of things they eat.  Eat a bird and grow wings, eat a bug and grow an exoskeleton, eat a human and gain a humanoid body and the intelligence to become self aware, learn language, form societies - for a while.  But if they go too long without eating people, then they lose their minds and revert to a bestial form.  In order to save the humans, the resistance leader Minerva plans to wipe out the monster society altogether.  After all, they literally have to eat humans to continue being people, there is no possibility of peace.

Protagonist Emma, though, has seen not just the horrific human farms and their cruel and corrupt rulers, but also their towns and settlements, their families and children.  She was even saved at one point shortly after her escape by friendly monsters who opposed the farm system, and even though it seems impossible, she wants to save both the humans and the monsters.

A more typical show, at least among those with premises as dark as The Promised Neverland, wouldn’t take Emma’s side in this.  She would be forced to ‘grow up’ and face the fact that she can’t save everyone.  Her naivety would get someone killed to break her heart and teach her to be hard and cruel as if those things are virtues.  Or, more likely, she wouldn’t be the viewpoint character to begin with, she’d be a side character whose ideals would get herself killed in order to elevate the male characters’ angst and justify their violence.  Either way, the message would be “Emma’s ideals were unrealistic and could never survive contact with the harsh reality of the world.”

TPN instead takes Emma’s Side.  She finds monsters who maintain a humanoid body and intelligence without eating humans, and they’re able to spread that trait to the rest of monster society while the humans all escape to the human world.  Now, as much as I don’t like the grimdark ‘there is no peaceful option’ hypothetical version of the story, this development could have been handled pretty badly.  Like, just reading it like that, it sounds like the story raised a big moral dilemma and then chickened out of it.  But that’s really not how it comes off while you’re reading it, for a couple reasons.

First of all, Emma meets the non-human-eating monsters early in the story, long before we get the explanation of how monsters in general work.  So by the time we learn that the monsters must eat humans to maintain their self identity, the audience already knows that there are exceptions and that an alternative exists.  The story never sets this up to be a moral dilemma in the first place, so when the issue is bypassed it doesn’t feel like it’s undercut itself.

More importantly, though, is the thematic & metaphorical content.  Because the monster society is a pretty explicit metaphor for unjust human societies, and monsters represent the people who make up such societies.  Not just the aristocrats who benefit from the unjust society, or those who directly enforce and uphold it, but also regular people.  People insulated just enough from the suffering and death that their lives are built on that they can turn a blind eye to it, but aware enough of their complicity in that suffering that they construct excuses to justify their part in it, and by proxy excuse those at the top who actually benefit from and shaped the society as it is.  People living lives simultaneously just comfortable enough to keep them docile, but precarious enough that they’re too caught up with struggling to maintain the tenuous grasp on the lives they have to feel like they can work towards anything better.  Monster society in TPN is a cage built out of the corpses of humans cattle, but built to imprison and enslave the monster civilians who eat them.

Hanging the story on the fantastical element of monster biology would divorce it from that essential metaphor while also endorsing an outright genocidal worldview, and TPN explicitly calls out the plan to wipe out the monsters altogether as just that - genocidal.  It never even pretends to entertain the notion that the audience should accept that plan as the right choice, even while it doesn’t condemn Minerva for pursuing it. When Emma is proposing her plan to Minerva, the deal she strikes with him is ‘I will try to make my peaceful solution happen, and if I succeed then you cancel your plan to wipe out the monsters’.  Minerva is eventually shown to be lying when he makes that agreement, but Emma isn’t, and note the if there.  If Emma’s plan fails, then she - and thus the narrative - accepts that Minerva’s plan to save the children is still better than leaving things as they are, even if it means wiping out all the monsters.  After all, the society IS monstrously unjust, and even the lower classes within that society ARE complicit in that injustice.

Minerva’s problem isn’t even presented as a matter of him hating the monsters too much to see a route to peace with them.  The story doesn’t frame the conflict between Minerva’s and Emma’s plans as hate vs. love or revenge vs. forgiveness.  It’s instead more of ‘hierarchy and division bad, mutualism/openness/relying on each other good’.  The point is to show how Minerva’s role as a figurehead who believes he has to project strength to uphold the hope that the other humans have placed in him has worn away his ability to rely on others or to be open to alternatives they offer, leaving him with rigid and inflexible thinking.

So when Minerva learns about the monsters who don’t need to eat humans, he doesn’t see an opportunity for a better outcome - potentially even an easier outcome since he doesn’t have to make enemies of the entirety of monster society - rather he sees a threat to his plan to starve the monsters back into an animalistic state.

And if that whole subplot isn’t explicit enough, Minerva’s internalized need to project strength also results in his physical body wasting away in secret from a condition he believes to be untreatable, but the moment he finally breaks down and admits he needs help Emma is able to point to a solution, one that again doesn’t come across as a cop out because again it takes the form of another character the audience was already introduced to a long time ago.

In a story arc that the second season of the anime adaptation apparently cut entirely, wow the more I hear about anime season 2 the worse it sounds.  And after the first season was so good....

...

Anyway, I tried to pick just one thing and this post still turned into a colossal gushing word cascade, and there are so many other elements to talk about.  Like how The ‘Mothers’ and ‘Sisters’ are menacing villains with seemingly no empathy for the children, but when Sister Krona realizes she’s lost the power struggle with Isabella she leaves the kids tools to help them, and then when Mother Isabella realizes the children have escaped, she covers up the route they used in order to buy them a little extra time to get away.  It’s these little touches - just as much as the short backstories that follow them - that show us how, while they might uphold the system out of fear for their own lives, and might have rationalize their part in it in order to live with the horrible things they’re doing, the mothers and sisters don’t actually hate the children.  Knowing that makes it believable when in the end Isabella does turn on the system, and every single one of the other mothers and sisters join her.

The bit when the fighting is mostly over and she tells the Mother at the house “it’s over, now we can just love them” and the other woman breaks down crying is so sad and human, it makes me tear up thinking about it..

Like I said, all the villains are characters, not just monsters.  They all have motivations for the horrific things they do - sometimes irrational, often selfish, but not even the most unforgivable of the monsters are just evil for evil’s sake.

Again, I’m rambling.  It’s just...  I’m used to these sorts of pitch dark dystopias being, for lack of a better term, kinda fashy in their messaging?  Or at the very least deeply cynical and misanthropic and just kind of mean spirited.  And TPN is so completely the opposite of that, in so many ways.

Suicidal Session

Summary: Unable to face the events following the reveal of his anxieties, Ichimatsu decides to flee from home and end everything before his life can get worse for him and everyone he loves.

⚠️Trigger Warnings: Suicide, cutting, depression, anxiety. Proceed reading with caution.⚠️

~~~

Encapsulated by the shadows of the night, he ran. He ran with his lungs hitching and empty, struggling for air. That mask that was pinched against the lower half of his face forbade him from consuming more than the hollow pants he managed, but he allowed himself the struggle a little longer as he darted through the empty Akatsuka streets. The moonlight crested against the road, overlapping it with a faint, blue-white wash. Leaves crunched as the wind fazed through them on the trees, detaching some and rendering them soaring into the open night.

But the shadows were still havens for safety, from eyes. Ichimatsu Matsuno took his chance to let them tug him, and in their protection he shimmied away from the household worth twenty-plus years of his life. At the kilometer or so he had ran, he was very aware that there was someone calling his name...At least, perhaps that was what he wanted to think. He didn’t think there was anything more to hatred anymore that was aimed at him, and so there was no point hoping for the impossible.

Intersections were occupied with limited, roaring engines as they zoomed past the green lights. City lights were bright, but activity was heavily minimal. Everyone was drowned by the stars lingering under their eyelids, and in this time of their tranquility there was nobody to notice the dirty creature running past them. Ichimatsu waited a moment before the lights flashed red before he let the moonlight strike against him momentarily. Then in an instant he was in the darkness again, each pound of his sandals on the ground a reminder of his journey and how far he was getting from the place he once called home.

Only a few more and he was going to reach the beach. Only a few more and he was going to reach the cliff. He had heard his brother’s story about that cliff, and as much as it was less than ideal, he supposed he was now hexed to follow in someone’s footsteps. Only unlike her, he wasn’t going to survive. There wasn’t going to be anyone waiting by the seashore to lock him into silent conversation over the choice he was going to make. No. He didn’t have that. And so, he was as safe as he was endangered.

Ichimatsu gritted his teeth. In his own anger, he clutched his knife. If his skin was pale then, it was albino now.

They had called his name, some furious, others horrified. The floor in which they had trekked on for the entirety of their lives was never that drenched in Ichimatsu’s red before. But the circumstances that had led to that single moment had been swift and unexpected, and their lives had forever been changed due to that. His sleeves were rolled low, grief opposing his brother’s genuine joy. The intentions were far from similar.

But now Ichimatsu was exposed, and those intentions were easily revealed for all to compare.

Their oldest brother was appalled, disbelieved, heartbroken. “Why...?” he had croaked.

The second oldest wanted to get close then, their third at his heels and their youngest with his upcoming waterworks at their side.

The fifth had just stared.

“Sorry.” Then Ichimatsu had fled the room, all the shouts rising and slamming his back as he quickly stomped down the stairs and passed through their mother’s kitchen, swiping the sharpest blade from its drawer. And finally with a mask secure over his nose, his mouth, the door was thrown off its hinges and Ichimatsu was lost in the shadows of Akatsuka Ward. His brothers yelled his name—was that really them, or his imagination? No, it didn’t matter anymore. They were his past—his future was now shrouded with their freedom from him.

Never to see them again.

Ichimatsu’s heart suddenly hurt, and his eyes burned. He wasn’t sure why—he was certain that his choice was going to save him from his misery. But somehow, just thinking about his past was making a part of him want to retreat from its mission, and his pace almost slowed. The knife went numb where his fingers went limp. The shadows, for their comfort, suddenly felt menacing. It swelled in his chest and rocked his body, and Ichimatsu was weak, wanting to just curl up in his own guilt and run back with...something.

No.

End it.

Almost involuntarily like muscle memory, Ichimatsu raised the knife and dragged it over his sleeve. It marked faintly through the fabric, and caressed a scar buried underneath, formerly in the process of mending itself again. But for now...It was a tap, but it was agony. Ichimatsu muffled a whimper behind his mask, but in the instance that he was returned to reality, he continued to blend in the black and make his way through the ward. The only difference now was that the darkness had managed to look hazy, and that his cheeks felt wet.

It wasn’t raining. At least, the skies weren’t unleashing any storm over the town. It was just Ichimatsu unleashing the storm upon himself.

And all he wanted now was for the storm to stop.

And there wasn’t any other way of permanently ridding something other than killing it.

The knife in his hand knew this solution. The cliff, surrounded by crashing waves, knew this solution. It was only few though, who decided upon this route. It was a wonder why—for sure, didn’t answering math problems in school always have students relying on shortcuts than elongated solutions? Ichimatsu and his brothers had been in this clan, but lately, it was more of Ichimatsu’s mindset now. For the duration of his life as an adult, he had been shackled to problems that had solutions that stretched further and further away, wanting no pencil to scrape the answer.

The other way? Yielding.

Yielding was always so much more easier than dragging yourself into hopeless desperation. It was such a simple solution, ending everything so easily and smoothly and wiping off all of someone’s issues with the speed of a flicking finger. Its only parallel was dying too much inside, with sorrow over joy, and the fearlessness of a coward. It was because of the acceptance of a weakness that someone chose wielding, and for someone like Ichimatsu...

Heh, Choromatsu wasn’t the only one self-aware sometimes.

Dim, the establishment of Sutabaa promised memories of their youngest brother’s humiliation. The bridge, that held the memories of romantic rejection underneath the rain. The small, rentable idol center, where one of them had often visited to support the stars that would never love him the same way. The waters, which was painful for being the spot where being tied to be eaten by the waves symbolized the lack of family appreciation. And the horse races, a place of cash, and the habitat for happiness that was outside the happiness created by family.

Family, except Ichimatsu?

Well, they didn’t need to worry about him anymore.

Even if Ichimatsu, for the longest time, always worried about them.

No more worrying.

The beach arrived.

At night, the waters were black, like ink, only they weren’t as blobby. They were extremely smooth, and collided against the sand, their sound whole as they swallowed tidbits of the particles that colored like dust. Dangerous and dark, they were literally the passageway to hell, aware of the intent of visit at this time of night in opposition to the joy brought by the day when couples splashed around, and women lay under their sun to let their skin burn in the heat. Children made castles made of sand, and played pretend as princes and princesses, mermaids and witches. Pictures were taken to capture moments that needed more than the mind’s efforts to remember.

The beach was supposed to be a peaceful, joyous setting.

Still, at night, the beach showed a different side of itself. It was as double-faced as the rest of them.

Ichimatsu stopped running the moment he reached the first transition of soil to sand. He was panting, and as he lowered his mask he smelled the scent of the waves as they wafted in the air. They were fresh, natural, and welcoming for a swim. But their color, their appearances...The waves were loud, gobbling beasts. For all the goodness they presented, they were still as evil as the knife in his hand, the scars on his wrists, the cracks in his fragile heart.

The wind tore at him, ruffling his messy hair, whipping the loose parts of his purple hoodie, embedded with the same green pine that he shared with them all. Was it worth it that he take off his hoodie and leave it behind, leave it in life instead of taking it with him to death? Or was this one thing that gave a reason to smile before worth bringing with him, so that there was still a mingling spark of goodness to take to his afterlife?

Ichimatsu choked, and the wind felt cold on his face. Or, the wind made his tears feel like ice. And with that, the chills that were shuddering through his body; Ichimatsu wanted to just drop down and release all of it, all of the thoughts and emotions bubbling in his chest and stealing his heart. Except he didn’t drop down. He dropped the knife which thudded and marked on the sand, and while his shoulders were quaking and his heart was pounding like a rhythmless drum, his mouth peeled open and the first sounds of his utmost sorrow mixed with the sounds of the waves.

When at home, Ichimatsu didn’t want to cry. When he did, it was when he was sure that he was walking out of the front doors of another day, to play with cats in the alleyway, where he would unveil the silver that was hidden in his pockets and slide it over what was exposed of his rolled sleeves. No one asked why he was pale upon returning home, why he was anguished in silence, nor why he refused to join them in days at the oden stand, the bathhouse, the horse races, pachinko. They held discretion over him because they feared his promise to kill them. They didn’t ever think the day would come when he held a promise to kill himself.

Now they knew. They knew, and there was no turning back.

Fear was grappling Ichimatsu’s system, and the thought if facing them before he succeeded in his hopes for a suicide was equivalent to confessing his sins and living longer in shame. It was unbearable, to wake up another day more tired than ever, wanting nothing more than to feast his eyes into a void where the promise of freedom vowed and vowed. Not this, to know that his secret was out for his brothers to take in, and for them to bear with this piece of trash much longer as long as he continued to live. They didn’t need him. He deserved to die.

His pain was everywhere: his arms, with all the wounds; his heart, from all its agony; his chest, from all his shame; his eyes, with all his crying; and his heart, with all his happy moments that would be reduced to smoke. Memories.

By the time Ichimatsu slipped his feet away from his sandals and faced the ocean, his whimpers turned into sobs. His tears were waterfalls that poured heavily down his face, droplets blotching his clothes and smacking the sand under him. But he didn’t stop any of them—it was better to cry over happy memories than sad ones. He loved his brothers too much to dwell on all the times he had let them down. It was better to think of the times that he had lifted them up.

...

When had he done that?

...

Oh god...

I’m sorry.

Ichimatsu’s hands clenched, nails biting into his skin. Shutting his eyes and releasing a sorrowful growl, Ichimatsu used the last of his stamina to race towards the cliff, threading across the sand and letting the sight of the tall mount of rock increase in size. Ichimatsu felt his own body incline as he stepped on the surface that rose off the ground, and the wind got stronger, whipping at him like an immortal force, and the sounds of the waves grew into bellowing. The edge of the cliff then became his starting point, and at the same time, his finish line.

Ichimatsu stopped running, peering down below. The ocean was dark, gloomy, serious in its granting of death. All Ichimatsu needed to do was let it do its task.

...He couldn’t.

Why?

...He couldn’t.

Ichimatsu continued looking down, saw his own tears drip from his eyes and get lost in the vastness of the water. Was it really worth it to get lost as well in there, to never come back?

He had five brothers, three older than him, two younger. He had parents who were willing to raise them despite the difficulty of six sons, and friends who willingly acted to their mischief the same way they acted to their friends’ mischief. They had a house where their lives were safely kept for the entirety of growing up, building and breaking their personalities. In all his life, there were so many happy thoughts. In his life, there were so many sad scenes. And yet in spite of all the smiles that had glued themselves for dominance inside him, why was the temptation of worthlessness so much stronger?

It didn’t make sense—so many things in life didn’t make sense.

And this choice of his, was it sensible at all?

No. But nothing in life made sense anymore. Therefore, it was worthless.

Ichimatsu let loose a sob, closed his overly-moist eyes, and let his bare feet go over the edge.

But then there was something that tugged him from above when it was supposed to be gravity pulling him down, and a bone creaked when it wasn’t required to. Ichimatsu cried out, his voice thick and hoarse, but in the next moment he realized he wasn’t falling anymore. He was hanging, and the water below him wasn’t swallowing him. It was still waiting for him. Death was close, but he had stopped before he could reach it.

Ichimatsu snapped his head up.

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to break your shoulder. My bad,” Osomatsu apologized, his smile watery as he looked down at Ichimatsu. His hand was wrapped around Ichimatsu’s bicep with security, as if letting go was betraying an oath made with Akatsuka-sensei himself. But Osomatsu too, had eyes catching the hints of light peeping behind the clouds, silver that threatened to spill down his face. “It’s just better to have that broken than my brother’s whole life,” he added.

Behind him, the others were less than effective in containing their emotions. Openly weeping, Karamatsu had a hand to the lower half of his features, the other one carrying Ichimatsu’s purple sandals tightly and defensively. At his side, there were Choromatsu and Todomatsu, the former having a tight hand over Todomatsu’s shoulder in consolation as the youngest gawked at his older brother with big, horrified eyes. Choromatsu had his chest puffed, collecting the control he was struggling for. Todomatsu had collapsed in his emotional stability.

And Jyushimatsu...

“Ichimatsu-niisan...” Jyushimatsu was next to their oldest brother, and he too was like Todomatsu and Karamatsu in controlling the sway of his feelings. Except, he looked worse than all of them, his eyes overflowing almost as much as Ichimatsu’s were. And again, the stab of pain struck Ichimatsu like a bullet, and the dislocation of his shoulder was nothing but a pat on his anatomy in comparison. “Please...We don’t want to lose you...” Jyushimatsu whispered.

Hearing the words, Ichimatsu didn’t expect much from himself. Maybe he expected to just look down below and untangle himself from Osomatsu’s hold to resume his fall. Maybe he was to just die then and there, because the heavens pitied him enough and had finally decided to take him before he could grow more pathetic. But none of that happened. It was just Ichimatsu giving in to weightlessness, dipping his head, and sobbing as his features contorted entirely.

Sniffing, Jyushimatsu accompanied Osomatsu and with their combined strength they hoisted Ichimatsu off the edge, the oldest man lowering Ichimatsu down on the ground after. Immediately, Ichimatsu clutched his face and bawled, ashamed and shameless on his show of emotion, but it didn’t matter anymore. He didn’t know what to do. He was stuck now with his brothers surrounding him, piling around him, and there was no escape from the Matsuno brothers when they were certain of their goals.

Even one brother can’t surpass the strength of the remaining five.

So Ichimatsu just cried.

“Wh-Where’s the knife?” Choromatsu stammered, kneeling next to Osomatsu and Ichimatsu, Karamatsu occupying the other side with Todomatsu. Choromatsu swept a glance through the blue monotones of the beach before landing his attention back to the task at hand. His face fell, and he hugged his arms as he defeatedly locked his lips again.

“I shucked it into the ocean earlier,” Jyushimatsu reported to him nonetheless, dropping to the ground and placing a sleeved hand over Ichimatsu’s shoulder, rubbing it tenderly in tiny ovals. Cautious of the pain of the dislocation, and the pain that has iced Ichimatsu’s soul. “No one’s gonna find it anymore. My throwing skills are to beat, especially when I have determination set on something. Right, niisan?” He didn’t need to be viewed by eye for Ichimatsu to tell he was smiling faintly.

Oh. So they’d really do that just to get rid of evidence of Ichimatsu’s sorrows, huh? Well, wasn’t that just a tiny bit heartwarming?

Ichimatsu didn’t reply.

A sigh. “We won’t pry,” Karamatsu said, maintaining strength in his voice as he spoke, despite being so close to cracking. “But please. Stay with us, Ichimatsu.”

“Be our Darkmatsu-Kittymatsu a little longer,” Todomatsu pleaded, his hands trembling against Karamatsu.

“No,” Osomatsu stated, capturing the rare, stern tonality of his role in their family. “Be our Ichimatsu forever. Promise me that, okay, Ichimatsu-chan?” Osomatsu made for a small chuckle that rattled both their frames, and he rubbed the bottom of his nose like he always did.

Ichimatsu halted and looked up at him. And eye contact, Osomatsu’s serenity, his begging that reflected in his gaze, that made Ichimatsu crumble into more than just his own body like he had always used to for the longest time, but against Osomatsu’s. And immediately, everyone was tightly supporting him, trying to keep him intact in their love and support, in fear for another deadly session from him, and losing the fourth man that bonded their title as Matsuno sextuplets.

Yes, Ichimatsu broke down. But that’s why the others were there to build him up again.

~~~

Author’s Note: I remember first getting into Osomatsu-san and seeing all these depressed Matsu fanfics, and I wanted to make one myself. It wasn’t a mood. It was a feeling of lowness in my life and I wanted to further incorporate depth to it into this oneshot story of my favorite Matsuno.

So sorry if I butcher the feeling of sorrow and depression. I don’t wish to offend.

Mayumi Red Eye

001

Doujima Mayumi was a member of the Pretty Boy Detectives Club. Just from the name "Pretty Boy Detectives Club", it sounded like a rather suspicious and puzzling organization, but I couldn't help but admit that learning that such an organization existed in this world was very much a new kind of surprise for me, as a male high school student. Well, each land had its own strange features, after all. If my town could even be visited by a vampire, then it perhaps wasn't any different to be visited by a pretty boy, as well.

Be that as it may, the Pretty Boy Detectives Club was a group that was formed within a middle school, and if I were to look for a similar concept from my own surroundings, then, embarrassing as it was, I could only think of the unit of justice formed by my two sisters, Araragi Karen and Araragi Tsukihi, known as the Fire Sisters, and that made it easier for me to imagine such an unfamiliar situation. However, while the Fire Sisters in their own way were a pretty unfamiliar bunch to begin with (and the fact that I could call my own sisters unfamiliar was something I should probably take seriously, but I'll put that problem aside for now), there appeared to be one major difference between them that made them fundamentally incompatible.

Because, if the aim of the Fire Sisters was righteousness.

Then the aim of each and every member of the Pretty Boy Detectives Club was beauty.

Righteousness was not always beautiful, and beauty wasn't necessarily always righteous—and, for a minion of darkness like me, I couldn't even begin to imagine where to start distinguishing between the two.

However, if it was a matter of distinguishing them, then, even among the Pretty Boy Detectives Club, the member named Doujima Mayumi seemed particularly suited to that task.

Because she was someone who happened to have exceptional eyesight in their possession.

Beautiful Sight Mayumi.

It seemed she was known by that nickname among the members of the club.

As someone who had had the experience of being a vampire, if only for the brief period of time of spring break, I still boasted an eyesight that was capable of, for example, seeing a lost girl, or witnessing a magical girl flying in the sky—but apparently, the eyesight of Beautiful Sight Mayumi was far beyond just that scope.

Because she had even been able to see a star that didn't exist, it was almost awe-inspiring—such a thing had to be a treasured episode that someone like Senjougahara, who loved astronomy, would envy.

Though I didn't dig any further, it seemed that she'd entered the Pretty Boys Detective Club after having gotten entangled with the discovery of that dark star—although, contrary to such a romantic-sounding anecdote, and contrary to the showy image of the words "pretty boys", Doujima Mayumi's personality was considerably warped.

Rather than pessimistic, she was almost spiteful.

Since I myself also had a rather gloomy character, I couldn't speak carelessly, but her gloominess was on the level of a dark star—for example, when I brought up the subject of the Summer Triangle that Senjougahara had taught me about, she had this to say.

"Orihime and Hikoboshi and the constellation Cygnus are together called the Summer Triangle, but, on the day of Tanabata, the ones that form a bridge over the Milky Way are not swans, but herons... That's why I can't trust swans at all. But if you think about it, it's pretty ironic to say that I trust herons more..."[?]

It's amazing that you can think of something so negative while looking at such a majestic triangle, was what I'd thought, unable to hide my shock, even as someone who was more a fan of mathematics than astronomy. But, despite the exceedingly negative attitude this pretty boy had, when it came to trying to escape from the trouble she encountered in our town, I want to make it clear that she never gave up at any point.

"There's no way I would do that. Normally, I'm the kind of person that gives up immediately—but, if it happened to be our leader, that leader would definitely say something like this."

Leader.

That surely meant the leader of the Pretty Boys Detective Club.

"'Giving up on your dreams can sometimes be beautiful—but giving up on reality is never beautiful.'"

It was definitely something that, not only the Fire Sisters, but also I, their older brother, would never say in our entire lives, but it was an exceedingly beautiful saying. It was flowery prose that was enough to make even that negative girl think more positively—I could even say that, although I was a prisoner to derivatives (bibun) and not flowery prose (bibun), it still resounded plenty in my heart.

Anyway, in this case, Doujima Mayumi, who looked up to such a leader, had unfortunately encountered in our town neither swans nor magpies—although, because it was the Milky Way we were talking about, either of those would have been more reasonable.

What Beautiful Sight Mayumi witnessed was—a fish.

In particular, a fish that could be described as a symbol of brutality.

A piranha.

002

With Tanabata coming up, I was steadily doing some mountain climbing, aiming for the Kitashirahebi Shrine—however, my goal wasn't a simple shrine visit. That shrine had already been destroyed, and no god resided there anymore. It was totally empty in terms of a shrine and in terms of a plot of land, and the main shrine had half-collapsed, with only the torii remaining standing.

It had been so empty that there had a risk of it becoming a source for trouble, so this Hawaiian-shirt-wearing old man named Oshino Meme who had visited this town had even gone out of his way to place a "seal" here. That was the kind of place it was, and even I had played a part in the placing of that seal, but in this particular case, I wasn't climbing the mountain for any oddity-related reason.

In short, it was for a preliminary inspection.

After the hellish spring break I experienced alongside the near-death vampire and after the nightmarish Golden Week I'd experienced alongside a classmate named Hanekawa Tsubasa, the girl that I had met by some strange twist of fate—the girl named Senjougahara Hitagi—had her birthday on July 7th, or, in other words, Tanabata. So it was to make the preliminary arrangements to celebrate that birthday that I decided to go mountain climbing on this very day.

Since she was someone who loved the stars, and the day was none other than Tanabata, I'd figured, why don't we all go stargazing together?

Celebrating the birthday of a girl born on July 7th by going stargazing was such a special idea, unparalleled in its originality, that I trembled at my extremely unique creativity.

In the first place, trying to celebrate the birthday of a classmate was behavior that would be completely unheard-of for the me before spring break, who would say stuff like "I don't need friends, because they lower my intensity as a human"... But anyway, this was about the present me.

Be that as it may, even if we wanted to go stargazing, July 7th fell on a weekday this year, so we didn't have the luxury to go as far as visiting an observatory—we needed to settle on a closer location.

At first, I'd thought it would be fine to do it on the roof of our school, but unfortunately, Naoetsu High's rooftop was not free to access.

And we wouldn't dare try to sneak up there.

And so, because it was the tallest point in our town, and because it was a place that people rarely went despite its wide range of vision, I decided to look into the Kitashirahebi Shrine, a good, little-known observation site.

After all, Oshino had called the Kitashirahebi Shrine an "air spot", so it didn't feel wrong at all to interpret that as a spot to view the skies.

However, as I laboriously climbed this mountain trail, I felt that this location hunting wouldn't bring about any favorable results—first of all, I had calmly begun to think that there was no girl in this world that would want to celebrate their birthday at a dilapidated shrine, but even before that, as if I were being cursed by my past self, the most important thing—the weather—was not looking too good.

The clouds had started to look menacing.

It hadn't been that way when I'd left my house, but once I'd arrived at the foot of the mountain and started climbing uphill, the sky had started to become cloudier and cloudier.

Far from the Summer Triangle, I couldn't even see the moon!

It was a dark night.

And it wasn't just cloudy—it actually seemed like it would start to rain. At this rate, if rain started to fall when I was on a mountain with no umbrella, it would just be a dreadful state of affairs.

If this really was a curse from my past self, then my past self must have really been carrying a profound darkness within him.

Well, considering I'd actually turned into a vampire and become a minion of darkness for those two weeks, perhaps that was actually the case, but I wanted him to at least be considerate on the day of Tanabata—but, fortunately enough, that was just needless anxiety.

Well, no, it wasn't needless in that there was suddenly a gap of sunny weather (even though it was night) that peeked through, but needless in that, even if this awful weather was indeed a curse, it wasn't a curse from my past self—at the summit, on the steps of the half-collapsed shrine.

There sat a pretty boy looking gloomy enough to be almost depressed, his head in his hands.

"......"

He looked like a boy in his second year of middle school.

However, there was so little of the liveliness or cheerfulness befitting such an age that I could even say I felt none at all—or rather, it felt like only the air around him had completely stagnated.

It was a gloom dreadful enough to make me think I'd met yet another oddity on the verge of death, just like during spring break. He seemed so much like a black hole that absorbed all light, that I was sure he even had a negative lux value.

I couldn't help but come to the conclusion that the reason for these dark clouds hanging above us was due to this kid—just what exactly was this pretty boy that contained so much grief?

I felt compelled to say that the way he hid his beauty seemed like some sort of youkai in itself, but, as a former vampire, and as someone who was not a specialist but an amateur who had come across various oddity stories—as someone with that level of experience, I could say for certain that he was definitely human.

Well, there had even been a half-vampire that wore a white uniform, this wasn't something that I could make a sweeping statement about, but—which school was that uniform from?

The blazer didn't seem like anything I'd seen around here...

"Ah... Waah...."

The pretty boy, not having noticed me after I stopped underneath the torii, began to shake his head in his hands.

"Oh no oh no oh no oh no... What do I do what do I do what do I do... I don't know I don't know I don't know... Why do I have these eyes why do I have these eyes why do I have these eyes..."

"......"

I'd faced off against a number of people with their own troubles, the near-death vampire being the number one example, but this could be the first time I saw someone being so blatantly troubled like this... It was like he was making his surroundings even gloomier, with no sign of stopping.

By now, even the sky had been completely covered in clouds without a crack, with not a star in sight.

Far from making this an advance look, at this rate, I wouldn't even be able to see an inch ahead of me.

"Leader, you said it would absolutely be all right... You're really all talk, aren't you... Why did I fall for this..."

He was muttering stuff like that.

Leader (danchou)?

Was he talking about heartbreak (danchou no omoi)?

It was true that, if I just left him like this, he could even be at risk of committing seppuku—at any rate, it was no longer the atmosphere of doing a test run for a classmate's birthday celebration.

I couldn't just ignore someone so blatantly troubled.

Also, it seems that recently, there have been rumors out in the world (although they were mainly rumors spread by my friend Hachikuji) that I was being called, not a "storyteller that helped girls in trouble", but a "storyteller that helped only girls in trouble".

It was an impressive way to circulate rumors.

It almost made me want to ask her if she was playing the stock market.

My attitude was that gender didn't matter when it came to people in trouble, and I'd learned that from my second mother, Hanekawa—it was simply a coincidence that, up until now, no worried boy had ever appeared before me. It was quite the coincidence for a series that spanned over twenty volumes, but it certainly was not the case that I was just ignoring boys.

As evidence, wasn't there a troubled middle school boy right in front of me at this very moment? It might be a bit imprudent of me to say it like this, but in order to prove that I wasn't a storyteller that only offered my help to girls, I wasn't going to leave this poor, perplexed boy on his own.

Well, even if not for that, if I just left this boy emanating darkness as he was, then it felt like it would end up never being possible to go stargazing at this shrine, so I had my own circumstances...

"Now then..."

The question was, how was I going to call out to him?

I didn't exactly have a bright disposition myself, so if I multiplied that darkness of his with my own darkness, then I had no idea how things would end up turning out.

In that case, I had no choice but to force myself into constructing a bright personality. It wouldn't do if I made a worried middle school boy overly cautious about me, either. I needed to act like a cool older brother that he could speak to candidly. After all, I even had two little sisters that were in middle school—compared to those two, even a middle school boy would seem cute.

"Yo! Why are you feeling so down, kid?"

"Kyaah!"

When I said that energetic line that I thought I would never say in my entire life and abruptly embraced him from behind, that "kid" let out a very girlish scream—the tone of voice was so girlish that I figured that maybe his voice hadn't changed yet.

"Wh-who!? What!?"

The panic of suddenly being hugged from behind was able to temporarily drown out the darkness that surrounded him—my strategy of sneaking up on him and surprising him was a success.

First impressions were important.

With this, I had surely influenced his impression of me into being a familiar, brotherly character that he could open up to even if it was our first meeting.

At the same time, I felt a certain delight in being able to say, "Hachikuji, I'm not just hugging you because you're a girl—I'll hug anyone indiscriminately, even middle school boys, because I'm just someone that loves hugging people."

Together with that feeling of delight, I took that boy that was still in a state of confusion and hugged him a second time, this time from the front.

"Hey. I'm Araragi Koyomi, a high school third-year," I said, whispering my self-introduction into his ear.

"The, the criminal revealed his own name... Does that mean he's not planning on letting me live...?"

"A criminal? What are you talking about? I'm your savior."

Was it a generation gap? Or maybe regional differences? Either way, the incomprehensible things that the boy said made me surprised.

And when he looked at me, it was as if he suddenly realized something.

"Ah, that's right, the way I (watashi), er, the way I (ore) look right now..." he muttered.

It made even less sense.

I came to the conclusion that it meant that his worries actually ran that deep, so I continued.

"If there's something that's bothering you, then let me help!"

As I said that, I placed an encouraging hand around his shoulders. And—were middle schoolers really like this?—his shoulders were awfully slender, like the shoulders of a girl.

003

The middle school boy's name was Doujima Mayumi-kun.

My first name, Koyomi, was also one that could easily be mistaken for a girl's name, and he surely experienced the same thing many times, so there was no way I didn't feel a strong sense of sympathy for him.

He was a second-year in the middle school section of Yubiwa Academy.

Yubiwa Academy.

Unfortunately, it was a school I hadn't heard of.

As I expected, he'd come a long way from a different town to visit this town.

If so, then I assumed that he came because he was a fan of shrines or maybe a fan of abandoned buildings, but Mayumi-kun was actually neither—the reason he came to visit the Kitashirahebi Shrine was, like me, to look at the stars.

"It was a direct order from Leader, you see... Leader said that, when it comes to stargazing, then that's Doujima Mayumi-kun's specialty, so go and take a look. Whenever that leader starts talking, there's just no way to change that person's mind... Um, aren't you a little close?"

"Huh? Am I?"

It was true that, on the steps to the shrine, Doujima-kun and I were sitting about 5 cm apart, but since we were both guys, was there really a need to worry about how close we were?

Perhaps he was at a difficult age.

Well, he did seem like a rather delicate pretty boy.

However, from my experience, if you already had a fear of strangers in middle school, then it would be hard on you in the future—I didn't want to have this boy live a life that would make him sympathetic to my own sad high school life, so instead I got even closer, stuck right up onto him, put my arm around his shoulders again, and said, "Hey, now, there's no need to be shy."

"H-hiii!"

"Don't worry, Mayumi-kun. People often say that I have an interest in young girls, but I have no interest in middle school boys."

"Th, they say you have an interest in young girls...!?"

So it's not just Sakiguchi-senpai, she murmured in shock.

"Then, I absolutely can't reveal my identity here..."

"Your identity? What do you mean by that, Mayumi-kun?"

"N-no. It's nothing. Yes, feel free to leave your arm around my shoulders like that. You can do it as much as you like."

"All right. I'm really glad, since it feels like I've gotten a little brother. If you were one of my little sisters, I'd probably just knock you out for no reason."

"......"

I wasn't sure why Mayumi-kun was trembling so much, but anyway, considering he'd come all this way to this empty town for some stargazing, I could see why he'd get so depressed at this bad weather.

Or so I'd thought, but that wasn't necessarily it—in the first place, he'd only come on orders from "Leader", which meant that Mayumi-kun himself didn't necessarily enjoy stargazing.

In that case, I assumed that "Leader" had to be the president of the Astronomy Club or something, but it turned out that even this was off the mark.

"I'm a member of the Pretty Boy Detectives Club. And I came to this mountain as part of my detective work—I've managed to fulfill my stargazing duties, but I won't be able to return like this."

"?"

Won't be able to return? What did that mean?

No, even before that—he'd fulfilled his duties?

In this weather? How? Did he mean that he'd finished his observation before it turned cloudy? But no, if it was the time period before it turned cloudy, then it was only the moon that was just barely visible, and if that was all he needed to observe, then he could have done that without needing to climb this mountain.

Actually, the biggest point of uncertainty would be, what in the world was the "Pretty Boy Detectives Club" that he mentioned so casually... So was something like that popular among middle schoolers these days?

Maybe I'd already lost that kind of childlike mindset.

A high school third-year, eighteen years old.

Even though I was still totally a kid, I also got the feeling that I'd matured a lot since my own middle school days—and meanwhile, Mayumi-kun's skin still looked pretty smooth.

"Rub rub."

"Kya, kyaah! What are you doing!?"

"Hm? Mayumi-kun, your cheeks just looked so soft that I wanted to try patting them... Did you have a problem with that?"

"No, no, of course not! After all, we're both guys!"

"Yeah, of course. C'mon, let's rub our cheeks together!"

"Ha, ha ha, ha ha."

In order to soothe the heart of the pretty boy that had emanated darkness on that scale, I'd manifested a Kanbaru-like sociability that was very out-of-character for me, so I was glad that Mayumi-kun showed me a smile as a result.

What, so my social disposition wasn't that bad, after all! So this was what it was like.

I've won, haven't I.

At life.

Well, putting aside the matter of the Pretty Boys Detectives Club as being some sort of school club, I next asked about how Mayumi-kun was able to go stargazing with these clouds.

Did he have some sort of special tool he used, like a telescope that could observe stars even through clouds? It didn't seem like he would normally tell someone so easily, but perhaps thanks to my conversational skills, Mayumi-kun responded.

"I don't need any tools," he said. "If anything, I need a special tool in order to not observe them... Ah, shoot. I said it out loud."

"C'mon, don't be so standoffish! There are no secrets between us, all right? We're brothers who just happened to not be related, aren't we? If you don't keep talking, I'm gonna tickle you! Coochy-coochy-coo!"

"I'll talk I'll talk I'll talk! Ahahaha, stop it stop it stop it! I said I'll talk!"

Ah, it sure is fun for dudes to mess around with each other. This sort of relationship was hard to forge with someone of the opposite sex, I felt deeply in my heart, but then...

"Beautiful Sight Mayumi."

Those mysterious words that he uttered piqued my interest.

"That's what they call me—basically, my eyesight is extremely good."

"Extremely?"

"Yes. No matter how thick the clouds are, in the end they're just bundles of water, so I can see through them—so that's how I could observe the star that I needed to."

"Wow..."

It was pretty hard to believe just like that, but it wasn't something that was impossible—so that was his strong point as a member of his "Detectives Club".

"So that's it. Then, can I lick your eyeballs a little?"

"Of course you can't!? Even if we're both guys, that's way too weird, right!?"

It seemed that I wouldn't be allowed.

However, if he possessed such outstanding eyesight, then it felt like it would be quite a hindrance in your everyday life. Was he really all right?

"Yes. That's why I normally wear glasses, to keep my eyesight in check."

In other words—a special tool.

Well, glasses were tools used to correct one's vision, so even if you used them to keep your vision in check, you could still say that that was still a proper use for them.

"But I lost those glasses somewhere around this shrine... That's why I've been so troubled."

He lost them.

So basically, when he took them off in order to observe the stars, they went missing?

"Mm, I don't wear glasses so I can't say for sure, but in these cases, isn't it usually something like you unconsciously having put them in your pocket or something?"

"Yes... I thought of that and checked myself, but they weren't in my jacket pocket or my slacks pockets..."

"You might not know just from looking by yourself. Here, stay still. I'll look for you!"

"Hyaah! Don't grope around in my pockets! I'm telling you, they're definitely not there! Definitely! Absolutely! I swear on my life!"

I looked with this eyesight of mine, so there's no doubt!

Said Mayumi-kun, stubbornly resisting.

He'd put up quite the struggle, as if his own chastity had been in danger.

He was quite bashful for a boy.

Although, thinking about it, everyone was like that during puberty—in that case, perhaps I didn't really need to worry about Mayumi-kun's future at this stage.

Then, instead of the future, the present was more worrying.

"Well, you can't help it if you lost them, so maybe you should give up and go back home? If you don't go back down the mountain soon, the trains will stop... And it looks like it's going to rain. I can stay behind and look for them for you. If you can just let me know your address, I'll mail them to you later."

"My, my address..." Though he should already have opened up to me by now, he said, "Yes, um, well. In the worst case, I have a spare set, so that won't be necessary," still openly wary about me for some reason. "However—I can't go back down. After meeting you, Araragi-san, it made me want to go back down even more, but even so, I just can't."

From the way he said it, it sounded like him meeting me turned into a form of encouragement for him, but what did he mean by he couldn't? Worried that my snuggling up to him wasn't enough, I decided to show off my powerful side to this young friend of mine and slipped my arm underneath Mayumi-kun's thighs with my other arm still on his shoulders, lifting him up and setting him down on my lap.

He was so light!

Were middle schoolers always this light?

"It's fine! Araragi-san, you're snuggling up to me plenty as it is!"

"Really? Well, all right... Then, why can't you go down?"

"For, for now, would you please let me get back down from your lap..."

"Now, now, no need to hold back, kid. Besides, you've already sat down! Feel free to stay just like that. Here! Now you have a seatbelt!"

"H-hiiii!"

"Whoa, your waist sure is thin. It's not like I was expecting you to be muscular, but I can't feel any stomach muscles at all! It's like I'll be able to feel your ribs. Shouldn't you really be eating more?"

"Hiii, hiii!"

Mayumi-kun had been hesitant to speak, but perhaps due to my great capacity for tolerance (houyouryoku) or even my great capacity for embracing (houyou ryoku), it was as if he decided that he needed to consult with me as soon as possible.

"It's because I can see it," he quickly said.

See it? See what?

"Swimming above the town—there's a giant piranha."

004

A piranha.

A freshwater fish of the order Characiformes, of the family Serrasalmidae.

A carnivorous fish so famous that I probably didn't even need to describe it—but if he was able to see an animal like that, then of course, it made quite a lot of sense to not be able to descend the mountain.

No, it wasn't an animal.

Piranhas didn't soar through the sky, and even the largest ones were still smaller than 50 cm—the word giant shouldn't be a descriptor at all.

In that case, it was not an animal, but a monster.

No—perhaps, even an oddity.

"I can see a piranha about the size of a whale, floating in the air... Can't you see it, too, Araragi-san?"

When he asked, I could only respond that I couldn't—in the first place, I had climbed up this mountain from that very town itself. If there had been a piranha or something flying overhead, then all hell would have broken loose in town right about now. It was a safe bet that this piranha wasn't just something that anyone and everyone could see.

That is, except for Mayumi-kun.

Except for the member of the Pretty Boy Detectives Club, Beautiful Sight Mayumi.

"I see... You must have been pretty scared."

"Eh... So you believe me?"

"Naturally!"

It was so natural that there was no way I could say that it was just a trick of the light or that it was just his imagination—being able to see something that you shouldn't be able to see, or meeting something that shouldn't exist.

Stuff like that was just an everyday occurrence for me, and I was even aware of how sad one would feel if nobody believed you about it. So what I could do now was to take Mayumi-kun, trembling in my lap, and embrace him even more strongly—it kind of felt like his trembling actually increased dramatically, but of course, that had to just be my imagination.

However, a piranha...? Actual piranhas themselves were already pretty scary, but if they became oddities, then honestly, I had no choice but to say that this was something far beyond my capacity.

A piranha monster?

In the worst case, they were even scarier than vampires.

Actually, a point of curiosity could be that, even though I had been a vampire in the past, my eyesight was still not enough to see that piranha—it was a piranha that only Mayumi-kun to see.

In that case, did that mean that there was a fierce carnivorous fish that resided in the innermost depths of his heart?

"Mayumi-kun. Do you think you can open your mouth for a bit? I want to check to see if your teeth have turned all jagged and sharp like a piranha's."

"Is, is there really a need to check something like that?"

"It's fine, just do it."

"Please don't try to just force things along. It's not fine, which is why I'm resisting! The shape of my teeth is something I can just check with my own tongue."

"I'm telling you, I think it'll be a good idea to check that tongue of yours, too, just to make sure. Just leave it to me!"

If the other person were a girl right now, then even if it were for the sake of humanitarian aid, I would feel extremely ashamed and hesitant when it came to peeking inside a girl's mouth, but considering Mayumi-kun was a boy, I had no problems with performing an oral check.

Hmph, Hachikuji had been thoughtlessly saying stuff like that, but wasn't I actually more suited to helping boys out instead? Perhaps I could actually unleash my full efforts like this. Though I was reluctant to say this, perhaps I hadn't been completely thorough when it came to the girls I'd faced up until now—and as I thought that, I turned Mayumi-kun around on top of my lap, placed my hand on his chin, and began to examine inside his mouth.

"Hmm. Let's see..."

I'd told him to leave it to me, but honestly, I hadn't exactly had many opportunities to check the teeth of another person, so it was hard to declare anything for certain. But, well, his teeth looked to be in perfect shape, and were very pretty. In that sense, you could say it was a set of teeth worthy of the Pretty Boy Detectives Club.

But, for a middle school boy, his lips sure looked pretty soft... If anything, my eyes kept being attracted in that direction.

"Ah, no, my lips only look like that because they were done up... The other members put makeup on me... S-so, they won't taste good if you eat them, okay?"

"Hey, hey, I'm not going to eat your lips. I'm not a piranha. Hahaha, although it might be different if it were a girl's lips."

It was a questionable joke made between fellow guys that you would never tell to a member of the opposite sex, and I thought it would lighten the mood, but Mayumi-kun's response was a "Ha, ha ha ha," with a laughter that was as dry as a desert.

I felt so sorry for him.

He must have been really frightened by the piranha in the sky.

However, if I'd been the one to see something that unbelievable, even though I may not get depressed enough to emanate that much darkness, I might still be completely taken aback and choose to hide away in this dilapidated shrine for the rest of my life—but Mayumi-kun was different.

"It's all right now," he said.

As if attacking a weak point that opened up for just an instant, he jumped off of my lap—it seemed his eyesight really was good, as he didn't miss the chance when my embrace loosened just a bit to perform that oral check.

"I've been depressed for long enough. I've decided to go down the mountain now."

"Eh? Is it really all right?"

"Yes, especially because it feels like it's even more dangerous to stay here... I mean, after hearing what you had to say, Araragi-san, I feel more at ease about this."

Actually, a method existed from the beginning.

That was what Mayumi-kun said.

"Yes. It's pretty simple, actually. Basically, if I can't see the piranha, then I won't be afraid—so all I need to do is close my eyes when I go back down?"

"Close your eyes..."

No, no.

He was saying it as if it was a brilliant plan, but that was far from simple; it was a plan made out of sheer desperation. If that was something you could actually do, then you could've done that from the beginning, without getting all depressed—but I didn't even have the chance to stop him like that.

Because Mayumi-kun tripped on his first step.

It was way too obvious that that would happen.

It was the first time I'd seen something so obvious.

Perhaps he'd do better walking across a meadow, but walking down this rocky, desolate mountain path with his eyes closed was way too unreasonable—not to mention, after you tripped, you'd end up falling onto the rocky ground, too.

"Mayumi-kun, are you okay!?"

I rushed over to Mayumi-kun, who'd fallen forward, and picked him up. And then, I felt his body all over to check for broken bones or sprains.

"H-hiii, um, wait, you're feeling me up a little too much..."

Being felt up, Mayumi-kun resisted violently.

That's good, it didn't seem like he was badly hurt.

What a relief.

Well, it seemed he himself had known that it would be dangerous, as he'd taken that first step very carefully. And he must have properly protected himself as he fell, as his smooth cheeks and soft lips were unharmed—although, he wasn't totally uninjured, there was a minor scrape on his knee.

Blood was spreading onto his slacks.

Hmm, it would probably okay to just leave a scratch like this, but, well, the place we were in wasn't exactly a safety zone. It was an air spot for oddities—it would be a problem if a middle school boy that came from afar got something akin to an oddity-like tetanus, so with a single motion, I rolled up the pant leg of Mayumi-kun's trousers.

"You're almost as skillful as a doctor, aren't you..."

"Well, I have some experience, after all."

"With medical treatment?"

"No, with flipping up skirts. Although it might be the first time I've rolled up someone's slacks..."

"Ha, ha ha, is that so. Um, you're rubbing my legs way too much... ...I definitely can't let this guy meet Bare Legs-kun."

So apparently he had a friend named Bare Legs-kun.

Although, he must be a problematic friend if I wasn't supposed to meet him.

As I thought that, I took a good look at the affected area, that is, Mayumi-kun's scraped knee—and when I got a good look, it turned out there was more blood than I thought.

Even Mayumi-kun was going "Uwaah..." in surprise.

Injuries like these were just a matter of course for middle-school-aged boys, but still, it was obvious that people would hate being wounded no matter what their gender was.

To encourage him, I said with an intentionally light tone of voice, "It's fine, it's fine. Something like this will get better if you just put some spit on it," and then I licked his bare knee.

I licked it directly. Slurp.

If the other person were a girl, then I would definitely have to be more tactful and go through the trouble of licking my finger and then using it to rub my saliva onto the affected area, but since it was a guy, it was a lot easier to not have to hold back like this.

He must have been extremely shocked from scraping his knee, as Mayumi-kun's face turned as white as a sheet. Feeling sorry for him, I pulled his slacks back down.

"I think it's going to be pretty hard to go down the mountain with your eyes closed," I said, reprimanding him.

It was quite literally, not watching where you're going. And, seeing as he wasn't a martial arts expert, there was no way he could pull off something like that.

"No... I'm sure I'll be able to do it this time. If I just be careful... It's just a single path down, anyway, and, I know! If I just use a walking stick..."

"......"

He wasn't going to give up.

From the slenderness of his appearance to the depressed state he'd shown just a bit earlier, it seemed that I'd misunderstood him, but Mayumi-kun was a middle schooler with a lot more guts than I'd initially assumed.

I felt almost sorry that I'd lumped him in together with me.

It seemed his guiding principles would not waver.

In that case—I decided upon my own guiding principles at the same time.

"Then, let's go with that. I won't stop you anymore. But, I have one condition."

"Eh? Araragi-san, from what position are you coming from to put a condition on me, when we're meeting for the first time and are completely unrelated..."

"Don't say something so lonely like we're completely unrelated, Mayumi-kun."

When I said this, it was not an act, but bright words out of the kindness of my heart.

"I'll go down the mountain with you. Allow me to be your escort—and if you would rather have a walking stick, then feel free to use me as your walking stick."

005

Though the preliminary inspection for a birthday party had been hit with some unexpected developments, well, there was still some time before Senjougahara's birthday—the weather seemed like it was getting worse, and I could come back to this shrine whenever I wanted, so it felt like more of a priority to make sure Mayumi-kun reached the station safely.

The idea of closing his eyes to block his unnaturally good eyesight and erase the existence of the piranha was not too bad, so if I simply became Mayumi-kun's eyes and walking stick, then going down the mountain safely shouldn't be too difficult.

Although, if you asked me, as someone who'd fought against invisible oddities before, then honestly, there were still some points of concern regarding this plan... However, right now, getting down the mountain before the weather became even worse was of the highest priority.

"Hey, it's actually more dangerous if you don't stick close to me. Just think of it like a three-legged race. I can see why you might be feeling reserved, but there's no need for that awkwardness."

"It's true that it feels awkward, but by no means am I just being reserved..."

"If you want, I don't mind giving you a piggyback ride, all right?"

"No, if you do that, then I'll be found out... Er, I mean, I couldn't allow you to spoil me like that. It's already bad enough that you're acting as a walking stick for me. I mean, it's already enough."

"Is that so? Well, that's fine, then..."

I didn't really mind spoiling him, though.

Perhaps, like Oshino, he held the same belief that "people could only save themselves"—or maybe he was simply just being shy.

In that case, we had no choice to keep proceeding down the mountain unsteadily like this, with our arms and shoulders pressed up against one another. Even though I was acting like I was in fear of a major disaster, considering the way he fell so dramatically back there, doing this wasn't even really an exaggeration.

Incidentally, if he were simply closing his eyes, then there was a risk that he might open them reflexively if he stumbled a bit, so Mayumi-kun was also blindfolded.

He'd untied the necktie around his neck and used it as an eye mask, but when combined with his pretty boy nature, it made him look weirdly sensual... But, right now, it wasn't the time to be concerned about his looks.

I figured it would be better to avoid talking about the piranha until we got off the mountain, but seeing as his eyes were blocked off, it would be really depressing if we didn't talk at all, so along the way, I tried to deliberately engage Mayumi-kun in some conversation. But as a result, I realized that my first impression of the darkness he emanated had not been wrong at all.

For example, he would say things like,

"I don't like being misunderstood, but being understood in itself is also something that I don't really like,"

and like,

"I respect figure skaters. Because, even when they fall partway through, they absolutely get back up and finish skating to the end, right? If it were me, I would 100% get sick of it and quit when I fell down. Like a yokozuna that refuses to appear after a series of defeats,"

and like,

"They call him the 'faithful dog Hachiko', but considering that dog was given such an unaffectionate name like 'Hachiko', it's hard to think that he was faithful to humans at all,"

and like,

"When you talk about intelligence, then ultimately, it just refers to the amount of endurance you have to study continuously for long periods of time. In the end, you just can't win against the physical types,"

and so on, and basically everything he said was negative, to the point that it seemed like he would swallow up his surroundings with his darkness.

But, well, even so, since it was a middle schooler saying those things, it still seemed pretty cute, so I earnestly tried to respond to each and every one of his sayings with things like, "You might just be misunderstanding that you're being misunderstood," and like, "Figure skaters still have upcoming competitions, after all. If they gave up halfway, then they'd lose their next chance, too. And it's not like yokozuna stop appearing in matches because they got sick of it," and like, "I don't know about the 'ko' part, but 'Hachi' part of the name actually has a surprising amount of affection to it," and so on.

However, regarding his point about intelligence being the endurance you needed to pull all-nighters studying, then considering the fact that I'd used my endurance as a former vampire to study for my entrance exams, it was hard to refute—even the members of Team Good Girls, Senjougahara and Hanekawa, had some pretty good endurance, too.

But for someone as negative as Mayumi-kun, who got all depressed and frightened, to keep up the attitude of trying to go down the mountain without giving up—I felt that it was pretty hard to explain that away as him just having guts.

What made him go so far?

"I don't have any guts at all. If I were alone, I would've given up long ago."

"Is that so? So because I'm here for you, you can keep going? I wasn't doing this just because I wanted to hear that from you, but it isn't bad at all to hear something like that."

"Ah, no, I wasn't talking about you..." said Mayumi-kun.

In the complete opposite way of the aforementioned concept of "people can only save themselves"—though Mayumi-kun was pessimistic even regarding his eyesight that should've been a strong point for him, he sounded just a bit triumphant for this subject alone.

"No matter where I am, I'm still a member, after all. And I know very well that those guys would never give up, even in a situation like this."

006

We passed through the torii of Kitashirahebi Shrine and reached the foot of the mountain, but of course it wouldn't be a good idea to ride with both of us when one of us was still blindfolded, so I figured it wasn't a mistake to leave my bicycle there and head for the nearest station on foot. But as we grew closer to the town, the misgivings that I'd been secretly harboring became reality.

Of course, that didn't mean that there hadn't been any trouble up until that point—even if I was acting in the role of his walking stick, it was still pretty difficult to walk on uneven footing without your sense of vision, so Mayumi-kun, as well as I, who he clung to, were covered with leaves and twigs.

Though we didn't get hurt from falling or the like, our clothes did get torn here and there.

I was just in normal clothes, so it was fine for me, but Mayumi-kun was in a school uniform, so the damage could be pretty harsh.

"It's fine. If it gets to it, then I have a different uniform I can wear... Mumble mumble."

He'd said something like that, so it seemed it wouldn't be too much of a problem.

Although, it was interesting that, unlike with his glasses, he'd described it as a different uniform and not a spare.

Did he have two different types of uniforms?

"Well, it didn't take as long as I'd expected, so while we're at it, drop by my house and take a bath, Mayumi-kun. If you want, I'll even go in with you!"

"Uh, uh-huh. Well, I would go if I could."

It was clearly a firm rejection.

Really, this kid was so modest.

I thought it was rather heartwarming, but at that timing, I'd let my guard down a little—as suddenly, Mayumi-kun screamed.

"Hyaah!"

And with that loud scream, he fell onto his behind—and it wasn't because he'd tripped on something.

If he'd tripped, then, like before on the shrine grounds, he would've fallen forward instead.

But unlike before, he'd fallen backwards.[?]

"The—the fish. The piranha."

Sitting on the asphalt, Mayumi-kun pointed.

With a trembling finger, he pointed towards the sky above the town.

There, I could not see anything.

I.

Couldn't see anything.

But it seemed—there was something there for Mayumi-kun.

After coming down the mountain and approaching the town, it must look even bigger to him—that carnivorous fish.

"......"

Yes.

I thought—something like this might happen.

However, I should've taken it into much stronger consideration.

If Mayumi-kun's eyesight could pierce through dark clouds to observe the stars, then I should have guessed at the possibility that he would be able to see through even his own eyelids, or the necktie he was using as a blindfold.

That's why his glasses were an essential item.

Of course, if he could always see through those things, then it would be impossible to even go to sleep at night, so I could guess that he had some way of controlling it arbitrarily, but even so, after approaching the town, and thus the piranha, then if he grew aware of it...

He would be able to see it.

Even if it were invisible, he'd be able to see through to it.

And perhaps, it was because it was arbitrary—the feeling of "the more you didn't want to see something, the more you would end up seeing it" was not something that was limited to people with special eyesight.

I could only feel a sense of ashamed helplessness.

Though we'd somehow managed to get off the mountain, there was no point in the end if we couldn't make it into town.

"What a mistake I've made... For someone like me, who's called the 'Zero Tolerance Butter Knife', this is a huge disgrace."[?]

"Um, do you really have a nickname like that, that sounds like it came out of the newest line-up of light novels?"

Shit.

In the first place, why was it a piranha, anyway?

Oddities had their own reasons for existing—that was what the specialist, Oshino Meme, had said in the past, but in this case, what was the reason that Mayumi-kun held in this case?

"Well, at any rate, you should probably take off that blindfold now, Mayumi-kun. It's backfiring now, and it'll actually be even more dangerous. Can you stand?"

"Y-yes. Can you give me a hand?"

"Of course. You fell pretty badly, but is your butt okay? Let me brush the sand off of you."

"There's no need to trouble your hands for something like that!"

After standing up, Mayumi-kun removed the necktie from his head, and tied it back around his neck—as someone who'd never worn a necktie before, the process seemed pretty tough. It made me feel a bit immoral, like I was strangling the neck of a pretty boy.

"In general, neckties seem a little straining. Wouldn't it feel better to keep your chest more loose?"

"Not at all!"

"But anyway, what should we do about this... If it comes down to it, there's still the option of just forcing our way through."

"B-but, Araragi-san. What if it attacks us when we enter its territory?"

"Hmm..."

It was hard to explain it in a way that would convince him, but personally, I wasn't too worried about something like that happening. If an oddity that was that hazardous lived in the skies above this town, then Oshino would have put some measures in place to deal with it when he came to this town—that collector definitely would not have ignored such a perfect ghost story.

Even if not for that, no matter how gigantic this piranha was, perhaps the level of vampire I had become wouldn't be a match for it—but I highly doubted that it would be able to win against that Oddity Killer known as the iron-blooded, hot-blooded, cold-blooded vampire.

However, it wasn't something I could declare.

I couldn't get rid of the possibility that it was an oddity that would be harmful towards Mayumi-kun alone—just by taking a single step into town, he might end up getting dragged into that world.

And if that happened, I wouldn't be able to protect him.

In the end, since I was nothing but a former vampire, before the question of whether or not I could win against the piranha, I couldn't even see it at all.

"Just checking, Mayumi-kun. When you arrived at this town, you weren't able to see the piranha yet, right? It was when you were about to go down the mountain that you suddenly saw it—is that right?"

"Yes. To be even more precise, it was before I went down the mountain, on top of the shrine, when I got a sweeping view of the town. It suddenly went bam—like a dolphin jumping out of the water."

Although, rather than a dolphin, it was more like a whale.

It was like he'd experienced some crazy whale watching.

However, Mayumi-kun was pretty wild to climb on top of that collapsed shrine just to go stargazing. I didn't know if he just did whatever he wanted because nobody was looking, but maybe he'd received divine punishment from that?

Although, it should be a snake, not a piranha, that was enshrined there, not to mention the fact that that god wasn't even there anymore.

"Would it be impossible to just head in a direction that goes away from the town?"

"It's not impossible, but you'd end up having to go through some mountains, so rather than just making it for the last train, I don't think you'll even make it before daybreak tomorrow... Instead of taking that big of a detour, let's just try to take the long way around to the station, trying to avoid the piranha as much as possible. If we aim for Minaminao Station instead of Nakanao Station..."

If we did that, it might even be better to go back and get my bicycle, even if it took twice the amount of time—as I thought that, my eyes landed on a town map that had been installed to the side of the sidewalk.

Even though I was a local, I was by no means familiar with the lay of the land in these parts—in the first place, I had no reason to come in this direction, except for when I was going to the Kitashirahebi Shrine.

I wouldn't say that I was completely unfamiliar with it, but I was afraid that the piranha might attack us if we didn't choose our route based on the most accurate information, so no amount of caution was too much.

It felt kind of like the game that grade schoolers played, where they pretended that the asphalt was the ocean, and you could only walk on top of the white lines... Although, since a carnivorous fish was flying in the sky, it was like the exact opposite of that game.

Fortunately, the town map was pretty detailed.

However, there was no indication of where we currently were.

Was this a convenient map or an inconvenient one? It was pretty tough to understand... Um, since my house is here...

"Hyaah!"

There, once again, Mayumi-kun screamed.

As if the idea of me brushing the sand off of him pained him that much, he barely managed to not fall on his behind this time, but, just like before, his face was in complete shock.

I'd gotten on guard, thinking that the piranha was finally coming to attack us, but that wasn't it—though Mayumi-kun had pointed at the sky earlier, right now, he was pointing at not even the ground, but the same map that I was looking at.

No.

More precisely—it was in front of it.

"In, in front of that map—there's a piranha. A smaller piranha."

"......?"

Hearing that, I turned back to face the map.

Of course, I couldn't see it.

The map was simply a map—however, Mayumi-kun was saying that he could see another piranha here, on top of the one in the sky. By a smaller piranha, that probably was referring to a piranha of a normal size—although it would still be enough of a threat.

Reflexively, I jumped away from the front of the map.

However, nothing changed after I jumped away—although Mayumi-kun probably wasn't just pretending to be scared as a practical joke to surprise me.

He could definitely see it—and only he could.

...At this rate, I felt like I was cornered.

It was one thing to be able to see a piranha in the sky far overhead, but if there was a piranha floating that close to us, floating perhaps even at eye level, then there was no way we could even walk through the town.

It was like trying to swim through a fish tank.

We would certainly drown.

"Goodness gracious... I never thought that the future when I'd need to perform artificial respiration onto Mayumi-kun would approach so rapidly."

"Um, I'd like to avoid a future like that at all costs..."

Even performing such witty banter at this stage wasn't helpful at all. Mayumi-kun must've started to feel cornered as well, as he was biting down on his soft lip with his beautiful teeth.

In his case, he was showing an expression seemed less cornered and more like he was caught in a pincer attack, between the devil and the deep blue sea—but whether he was cornered or whether he was in a pincer attack, it didn't change the fact that we were completely at a loss for what to do.

Not to mention, the clincher—from overhead.

As if rubbing salt into a wound, or maybe even a piranha into a wound, drops of water began to fall from straight overhead right onto our faces.

Drops of water.

The bad weather had finally reached this stage—at last, it had begun to rain.

Furthermore, it wasn't at the level of just gently drizzling—it was raining with huge drops of water.

Just going off of experience, it was pretty clear that the rain would turn into a heavy downpour pretty soon.

It was pretty clear, even in the darkness of the night.

I'd been thinking that it would be pretty awful if it began to rain while we were still on the mountain, but at this rate, considering that we could still have taken shelter from the rain under the half-collapsed shrine, you could say that coming down the mountain had backfired on us.

To stand here out in the open, without even being able to enter the town, while getting more and more soaked—it was the definition of disastrous.

We were like drowned rats.

That made us sound like animals that would be easy for a piranha to eat—at this rate, it wasn't the time to grumble over trivial matters.

Thinking that there was no choice but to take drastic measures, I looked at my shadow.

The weather made it an environment extremely difficult for shadows to appear, but even so, there was still a faint light coming from the direction of the town, which managed to produce a faint shadow from me.

An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.

An oddity for an oddity—no.

An Oddity Killer for an oddity.

An Oddity Killer (kaii goroshi) that had been kept alive (kaigoroshi)—

"Ah."

Amidst the rain that had gotten to full force in the blink of an eye, Mayumi-kun spoke tersely.

"It disappeared—the piranha."

"Eh...?"

"From the sky—and from the map."

It disappeared.

All of a sudden, he said that.

It was so sudden, so unexpected, that I almost didn't understand what he'd said, but it seemed Mayumi-kun himself was in a whirlwind of confusion, having been left utterly dumbfounded.

Well, of course.

For piranhas of various sizes floating in the air to disappear when it started raining—if they disappeared as soon as they were in water and not air, then wasn't that backwards?

Was it because rainwater wasn't seawater?

No, no, piranhas were freshwater fish.

In the first place, the type of water shouldn't matter if it was an oddity... Considering Mayumi-kun's eyesight which could go through even clouds and neckties, it didn't seem like curtains of rain would be enough to block his view of the piranhas, either.

No, but wait.

Water?

In the first place, eyesight is something that gets adjusted when the information is transmitted to your brain... In the end, eyesight could just be a function of the brain...

And, along those lines, light would also bend.

It would get warped.

And while we weren't talking about Mayumi-kun's warped personality, images weren't necessarily transmitted in a straight line. If they passed through water, then they would get strangely distorted—even the clouds that Mayumi-kun had described as "bundles of water" were similar, although he'd still managed to accomplish his stargazing through them.

They'd passed through and penetrated through.

They passed through too well (toorisugiru)—they were too transparent (toorisugiru).

And.

The floating piranha.

The sweeping view of the town—and the town map.

"...Mayumi-kun!"

In order to confirm the idea that had hit me like a bolt of lightning, I turned to face Mayumi-kun amidst this heavy rain—however, from his appearance, I was hit with an impact like a burst of wind that was enough to blow away my idea entirely.

No.

It wasn't—his appearance.

Having gotten drenched in the blink of an eye from the falling rain, Mayumi-kun's uniform had begun to stick to the body, and the collared shirt under the body had turned see-through even without any power to see through things, displaying the curves of Mayumi-kun's body.

The bulge in the chest area and the narrowness of the waist were thoroughly exposed—and the makeup that had been described as "done up" had been washed away by the rain...

"Ma, Mayumi-kun... Don't tell me, you're actually a girl!?"

"Um, no, you had to have already figured it out at some point."

007

The epilogue; or rather, the punch line.

Though I'd been completely deceived by the name of the "Pretty Boy Detectives Club", the earth-shattering gender-reversal-type narrative trick had finally been revealed, so let us resolve the remaining mystery—namely, the mystery regarding the piranhas that Mayumi-kun, who was actually Mayumi-chan, had witnessed. Of course, it wasn't like I had any specialized knowledge pertaining to "that", so allow me to tell you in advance that the following explanation has been woven together with information that was taught to me the following day by the brains of our group, Hanekawa Tsubasa.

Stereopsis.

To be more precise, it had to do with random dot stereograms—referring to pictures that were constructed as clusters of dots that looked like random noise at first glance, but when you focused on a specific point or intentionally changed up your sense of distance, some sort of design would appear.

Compared to 3-D and even 4-D effects appearing in the movie world, something like this seemed rather analog, but considering that you would be able to see these three-dimensional objects without the use of special glasses, these stereograms were still pretty revolutionary.

Of course, because of how they were constructed, it was difficult to make complicated designs into three-dimensional shapes—only simple constructions like letters or cubes, cups or dice, balls or pencils... As well as simplified animals or plants.

And fish.

In a way, it was a kind of "visualization" similar to how you could connect the stars in the sky to imagine constellations—when Mayumi-chan had gotten a sweeping view of the town on top of the shrine, she'd seen that "visualization".

And she'd seen that same fish when she looked at the town map.

Thinking it through, it was perhaps just a simple matter of coincidence, and although it may not be something that anyone would be able to see, it was possible that someone would have been able to see those piranhas even if they didn't have the special eyesight that Mayumi-chan had—being just one of the functions of humans' eyes.

The function of grasping a sense of distance.

If the bird's-eye view of the town had ended up forming some kind of random dot stereogram.

The roads were generally set up to be straight, and most buildings, when seen from above, took on rectangular shapes—looking at it all from a distance, it could easily appear as a dot pattern of random noise.

In the first place, it was unlikely that a person would look down at a town from above, and even if they were looking at a town map, they probably wouldn't process the information on that map as a single picture. If anything, they'd probably see it from an oblique angle, looking at it part by part.

However, in Mayumi-chan's case, it wasn't just that her eyes were simply good, but also that she had a brain that was capable of processing that information—capable of, say, unconsciously calculating the refractive index of starlight through clouds and then automatically adjusting for it. Therefore, even if it was the sweeping view of a town seen from an oblique angle, she could reconstruct the information transmitted from her optic nerves and reinterpret it in many different ways.

The ability of spatial awareness, or perhaps the eyesight of spatial awareness—as a result, she was able to get an image of the town as if she'd looked down at it from a bird's-eye view.

And had generated a fish above the town via stereopsis.

She'd instantiated it.

When you managed to see the image for just a moment, it ended up being hard to shake it off—it left a strong afterimage in your retinas, so it was like it would never go away.

Since the town map was just a close-up view and not a strict recreation of the town, it seemed hard to say that it formed the same random dot stereogram on its own, but it had simply been enough to remind Mayumi-chan of the bird's-eye view that was already in her brain.

Well, it wasn't really my place to say this, but she seemed like a kid who strongly stuck to her impressions, so after she saw something once, she probably had the tendency of continuing to see it—the reason she called the fish she'd seen neither a whale nor a dolphin nor a sunfish but specifically a piranha could have been because of her preconception of piranhas having jagged teeth.

After all, the construction of the town had most likely only become like a stereogram by chance, and it was unlikely that a person with the expertise needed for something like this did it during the city planning phase just for fun, so the actual design that would appear was probably very distorted—and due to that distortion, it was possible that people would see not the image of a piranha, and instead something like a deep-sea fish. Just like a Rorschach test, there were probably people that saw something completely different.

If it were me.

I would probably see an oni.

Knowing this much, it was pretty obvious why she was stopped seeing it when rain began to fall—obvious (meihaku), or perhaps a blank space (kuuhaku).

It was because there was a blank space in the sky that there was room for the piranha to float around.

But if the falling raindrops continuously filled up that blank space, then she'd end up focusing on that, and there would literally be no more room for the piranha to appear—the visibility of her imagination had been painted over by the visibility of reality.

The amount of information exceeded her limits.

You could perhaps say that, even if her eyesight had no limits, the amount of information her brain could process did have limits—in that case, it was really dependent on how Mayumi-chan's brain decided to interpret what she saw, but at any rate, as a result, it meant that the piranha that Beautiful Sight Mayumi saw above the town and in front of the map was not an oddity at all.

As long as this town didn't used to be a river or a lake or a swamp in the past, it had no connections to fish in the slightest, and there was no way that that held any connections to the Kitashirahebi Shrine, either. That would just be too good to be true.

It was not an oddity, but having said that, it wasn't just a trick of the light or one's imagination, either.

Not a trick of the light, but an optical illusion.

Not one's imagination (ki no sei), but one's functionality (kinousei).

However, if we say that, if we understand all that, then there was no longer any need to fear the piranha—there was no need to close our eyes to it. In fact, it could even serve as a fun attraction to enjoy.

Mayumi-chan and I, unable to see even an inch ahead of us in the rain, ended up walking back into town as if taking an underwater stroll, and I had succeeded in sending, not him, but her to the nearest station.

"Oh, there's no need for you to thank me like that. I only did what anyone would've done."

"Um, I didn't even thank you yet... Although I was hesitating over whether I was even going to. But, yes, you have my thanks. Even if I (ore)... Even if I (watashi) had been on my own, and the piranha disappeared when it began to rain, I think I would have been too scared to go down the mountain."

"Nah, I don't think so. Since you aren't alone at all. But really, I wonder where your glasses went. I'll go back and look for them just in case... But I wonder if there's actually a black hole at that shrine. Will you be fine on your own from here?"

"Yes. There's no trouble at all from here. Sorry for bothering you... Even though you did what anyone would've done, I'm still glad. That you snuggled up close to me, and that you believed what I saw as if it was natural. My leader would probably say something like this. 'It's outrageous to say that you only did what anyone would've done. What you did was absolutely beautiful.'"

"What a cool-sounding leader... Or rather, you could say it's beautiful. Your leader, huh? I'd like to meet that leader someday."

"Ahaha... Of course, I'm sure you'll have the chance to, someday. Because Leader might be as much of a weirdo as you are."

I'd assumed that those words said with that meaningful smile were just said for politeness's sake as she was about to depart, but apparently, it turned out to be Beautiful Sight Mayumi's prediction.

About half a year later, I would end up meeting the extraordinary pretty girl known as the leader of the Pretty Boy Detectives Club with the nickname of "Beautiful Aesthetics Manabu", Soutouin Manabu, and we would end up going on an adventure together.

Inside Bitcoin We Trust?

Throughout Bitcoin We Trust?

bitcoin revolution software Now you have probably noticed of Bitcoin, although can you define it? Generally it is described as a nongovernment digital foreign money. Bitcoin is additionally sometimes referred to as a cybercurrency or perhaps, in a nod to their encrypted origins, a cryptocurrency. Those descriptions are precise enough, but they skip the purpose. It's like describing the particular U. S. buck being a green piece connected with paper with photos upon it. bitcoin revolution I have the own methods of describing Bitcoin. I think of the usb ports while store credit minus the shop. A prepaid mobile phone without having the phone. Precious material minus the metal. Legal soft for simply no debts, general public or exclusive, unless typically the party to whom it is usually tendered wishes to receive it. An instrument backed through the complete faith and credit rating merely of its private creators, in whom I actually as a result place no faith, and also to whom I give not any credit except regarding ingenuity. My partner and i wouldn't touch a bitcoin with some sort of 10-foot USB cable. However a fair number associated with people have already got, and quite a few more before long may. This is partly simply because entrepreneurs Cameron as well as Tyler Winklevoss, best acknowledged for their position in the origins of Facebook, are now seeking for you to use their technological informed, and cash, to provide Bitcoin into the mainstream. The Winklevosses hope to get started an exchange-traded account with regard to bitcoins. An ETF tends to make Bitcoin more widely available to people who also lack the manufacturing skills to purchase the a digital currency directly. As of The spring, the Winklevosses tend to be said to have held all-around just one percent of almost all existent bitcoins. Created throughout 2009 by an unknown cryptographer, Bitcoin works upon the premise that something, even intangible bits connected with code, can have worth so long as sufficient people decide to take care of it as valuable. Bitcoins exist only as electronic digital representations and they are not pegged to any regular currency exchange. According to the Bitcoin web page, "Bitcoin is intended around the perception of some sort of new form of dollars that uses cryptography in order to control the creation and also transactions, rather then relying in central authorities. inch (1) New bitcoins usually are "mined" by users who all remedy computer algorithms to find out electronic coins. Bitcoins' proposed creators have said that typically the unmistakable supply of bitcoins will be limited to twenty-one million. While Bitcoin stimulates itself as "a really secure and inexpensive strategy to handle payments, " (2) in reality few firms have made the move for you to accept bitcoins. Of individuals that have, a sizable variety operate in typically the black marketplace. Bitcoins are traded anonymously over often the Internet, without any engaging from established financial corporations. As of this, gross sales of drugs and other black-market goods accounted intended for an believed 20 % of exchanges by bitcoins to U. H. bucks on the main Bitcoin exchange, called Mt. Gox. The Drug Enforcement Organization not long ago conducted its first-ever Bitcoin seizure, after apparently tying a transaction on the unknown Bitcoin-only marketplace Silk Highway to the sale of prescribed as well as illegal drugs. Many Bitcoin users have also advised that the currency may serve as a method to steer clear of taxes. That may always be real, but only throughout the sense that will bitcoins aid illegal income tax evasion, not in the feeling they will actually serve virtually any role in genuine taxation arranging. Under federal taxation law, no cash needs to alter hands inside order for a taxable transaction to occur. Barter as well as other noncash exchanges tend to be still thoroughly taxable. At this time there is no reason which transactions involving bitcoins will be treated differently. Outside involving the offender element, Bitcoin's main enthusiasts are speculators, who have no objective of using bitcoins for you to buy anything. These shareholders are convinced that the limited supply of bitcoins can force their own value to help follow a continual up trajectory. Bitcoin has certainly seen some significant improves in value. But that in addition has experienced major cutbacks, which include an 80 % decline around 24 hours in April. In the beginning connected with this month, bitcoins have been down to around $90, originating from a high of $266 before the February collision. They were trading close to $97 earlier this full week, as per mtgox. com. The actual Winklevosses would make Bitcoin investing easier by allowing smaller-scale traders to benefit, or reduce, as the particular case may be, minus the hassle of actually buying and storing the electronic digital gold coins. Despite claims regarding protection, Bitcoin storage provides shown problematic. In 2011, an assault on often the Mt. Gox swap obligated it to in the short term shut down and caused the price of bitcoins to briefly tumble to nearly zero. Since Bitcoin transactions are just about all private, there is tiny chance of discovering the culprits if you instantly find your electronic finances empty. If the Winklevosses find regulatory approval, all their ETF would help face shield traders from the menace of personal theft. Typically the ETF, however , would carry out nothing to address the condition of volatility caused through large-scale thefts elsewhere with the Bitcoin market. While Bitcoin occurs wrapped inside a high-tech veneer, that newest of currencies possesses a surprising amount in common with one of the particular oldest foreign currencies: gold. Bitcoin's own vocabulary, particularly the particular term "mining, " highlights this connection, along with blatantly so. The mining practice is designed to possibly be difficult like a control with supply, mimicking the extraction of much more conventional assets from the ground. Faraway from providing a sense connected with safety measures, however, this rhetoric want serve as the word of extreme caution. Precious metal is an investment of last resort. It possesses little intrinsic value. That does not generate interest. But because its deliver is finite, it will be known as being more stable in comparison with forms of cash that can be imprinted at will. The challenge with precious metal is that will it doesn't do anything at all. Because gold coins get fallen away from use, most of the world's rare metal now sits in the actual vaults of central banking institutions and other loan companies. Seeing that a result, gold offers little connection to the real economy. That may seem to be like a good point when the real economic system feels like a intimidating place to be. Yet as shortly as different attractive investment options look, gold manages to lose its glow. That is what we should have seen with the new is reduced in gold prices. Into their push to bring Bitcoin towards the mainstream, the promoters include accepted, and, in some cases looked for, increased regulation. Last 30 days Mt. Gox registered themselves being a money services company using the Treasury Department's Economical Violations Enforcement Network. The idea has furthermore increased customer verification procedures. The adjustments came in response to the March directive from Economical Crimes Enforcement Network clarifying the application associated with its rules to help virtual currencies. The Winklevosses' consist of ETF would bring the new level of liability. In the end, however, I count on that will Bitcoin will fade into the shadows of the african american market. All those who want a controlled, secure currency that that they can work with for reliable business transactions will decide on from one of the actual many various currencies already paid by a state government equipped with ample sources, a real-world economy and far more transparency and safety measures than the Bitcoin universe will offer.

Within Bitcoin We Trust?

Throughout Bitcoin We Trust?

bitcoinrevolutionapp By now you have probably heard of Bitcoin, nevertheless can easily you define it? Usually it is described seeing that a nongovernment digital currency. Bitcoin is usually sometimes referred to as a cybercurrency or even, inside a nod to it has the encrypted origins, a cryptocurrency. Those descriptions are precise enough, but they neglect the. It's like conveying typically the U. S. dollar as a green piece regarding paper with images in it. bitcoinrevolutionapp I have my own methods for describing Bitcoin. I think than it while store credit with no retailer. A prepaid phone not having the phone. Precious material with no metal. Legal put forward for no debts, open or non-public, unless the particular party to whom it is definitely tendered wishes to just accept it. An instrument backed by simply the complete faith and credit merely of its nameless builders, in whom I actually thus place no faith, and also to whom I present simply no credit except intended for ingenuity. My spouse and i wouldn't feel a bitcoin with the 10-foot USB cable tv. Yet a fair number connected with people have already got, and rather a few more rapidly may. This is to some extent mainly because entrepreneurs Cameron and also Tyler Winklevoss, best identified for their purpose in the origins of Zynga, are now seeking in order to use all their technological savvy, and dollars, to deliver Bitcoin into the well-known. The Winklevosses hope for you to get started an exchange-traded pay for regarding bitcoins. An ETF could make Bitcoin more commonly available to investors who all lack the scientific abilities to purchase the digital camera currency directly. As associated with 04, the Winklevosses are usually told have held close to one particular percent of all existent bitcoins. Created with 2009 by a good anonymous cryptographer, Bitcoin performs upon the premise that anything, even intangible bits associated with program code, can have benefit so long as enough people decide to cure it since valuable. Bitcoins exist merely as a digital representations and they are not pegged to any regular money. According to the Bitcoin site, "Bitcoin is created around the perception of a new form of money in which uses cryptography for you to control it has the creation and transactions, rather then relying upon central authorities. " (1) New bitcoins are usually "mined" by users who also answer computer algorithms to discover virtual coins. Bitcoins' supposed creators have said that the particular supreme supply of bitcoins will be limited to twenty-one million. While Bitcoin encourages itself as "a extremely secure and inexpensive method to handle payments, " (2) in reality few corporations have made the move to accept bitcoins. Of those that have, a sizable variety operate in the particular black market place. Bitcoins usually are traded anonymously over the actual Internet, without any engaging by established financial corporations. As of this, revenue of drugs and other black-market goods accounted with regard to an approximated 20 percent of exchanges from bitcoins to U. Nasiums. us dollars on the main Bitcoin exchange, called Mt. Gox. The Drug Enforcement Agency just lately conducted its first-ever Bitcoin seizure, after supposedly tying a transaction on the unknown Bitcoin-only souk Silk Path to the particular sale of pharmaceutical drugs along with illegal drugs. A number of Bitcoin users have also proposed that the currency can easily serve as an effective way to keep away from taxes. That may always be correct, but only throughout the sense this bitcoins aid illegal duty evasion, not in the feeling that they actually serve almost any function in genuine tax arranging. Under federal duty legislation, no cash needs to modify hands inside order for a taxable transaction to occur. Barter along with noncash exchanges are usually still fully taxable. Right now there is no reason that transactions involving bitcoins can be treated differently. Outside associated with the offender element, Bitcoin's main devotees are speculators, who have no intent of using bitcoins to help buy anything. These traders are convinced that the actual limited availabilit of bitcoins will probably force their particular value to follow a continual upward trajectory. Bitcoin has in fact seen some significant spikes in value. But that has also experienced major failures, such as an 80 % decline more than 24 hours in April. At the beginning regarding this month, bitcoins had been down to around $90, from the high of $266 before the The spring accident. They were trading around $97 earlier this full week, in accordance with mtgox. com. The particular Winklevosses would make Bitcoin investing easier by allowing smaller-scale shareholders to profit, or get rid of, as typically the case may be, devoid of the hassle of actually buying as well as storing the electronic money. Despite claims associated with safety measures, Bitcoin storage offers demonstrated problematic. In year 2011, an strike on often the Mt. Gox alternate forced it to for the short term closed down and caused the expense of bitcoins to briefly slide to nearly zero. Given that Bitcoin transactions are most nameless, there is tiny chance of investigating the culprits if you all of the sudden find your electronic wallet empty. If the Winklevosses obtain regulatory approval, their ETF would help ow people from the menace of individual theft. Typically the ETF, still would do nothing to address the problem of volatility caused by large-scale thefts elsewhere within the Bitcoin market. Although Bitcoin arrives wrapped throughout a high-tech veneer, that newest of currencies offers a surprising amount in keeping with one of typically the oldest values: gold. Bitcoin's own terminology, particularly the particular term "mining, very well features this connection, and purposely so. The exploration practice is designed to be difficult for a control upon supply, mimicking the extraction of far more conventional information from the ground. Faraway from providing a sense regarding protection, however, this rhetoric inside the serve as the word of extreme caution. Gold is an investment involving last resort. It provides little built-in value. It does not generate attention. But because its deliver is finite, it is definitely known as being more sturdy than forms of cash that can be imprinted at will. The challenge with rare metal is which it doesn't do everything. Due to the fact gold coins get fallen from use, many of the world's yellow metal now sits in the vaults of central banking companies and other financial institutions. Seeing that a result, gold provides little connection to the particular real economy. Which could seem like a good factor when the genuine economic climate feels like a frightening place to be. Although as quickly as additional attractive investment options show up, gold manages to lose its shine. That is whatever you have seen with the recent is reduced in gold costs. Of their push to bring Bitcoin to the mainstream, it is promoters have got accepted, along with, in some cases sought after, increased regulation. Last four week period Mt. Gox registered by itself being a money services organization while using Treasury Department's Financial Criminal activity Enforcement Network. The idea has additionally increased buyer verification procedures. The alterations came in response to help a new March directive via Economical Crimes Enforcement Network clarifying the application connected with its rules to be able to virtual currencies. The Winklevosses' offered ETF would provide a new level of liability. In the end, however, I assume in which Bitcoin will fade back in the shadows associated with the african american market. People who want a controlled, secure currency that they will can use for legitimate business purchases will opt for from one of often the many stock markets already paid by a country wide administration equipped with ample sources, a real-world economy and much more transparency and security than the Bitcoin planet can offer.

With Bitcoin We Trust?

Throughout Bitcoin We Trust?

bitcoinrevolution app At this point you have probably been told of Bitcoin, although can you define it? In most cases it is described seeing that a nongovernment digital currency. Bitcoin is also sometimes known as a cybercurrency or even, inside a nod to its encrypted origins, a cryptocurrency. Those descriptions are precise enough, but they overlook the idea. It's like talking about the actual U. S. dollar like a green piece of paper with photos in it. bitcoinrevolution app I have my very own own ways of describing Bitcoin. I think of computer because store credit minus the shop. A prepaid phone without the phone. Precious metal with no metal. Legal soft for absolutely no debts, general public or non-public, unless typically the party to whom it is tendered wishes to simply accept that. An instrument backed simply by the total faith and consumer credit solely of its nameless designers, in whom I actually as a result place no beliefs, also to whom I offer no credit except with regard to ingenuity. We wouldn't feel a bitcoin with the 10-foot USB cable television. But a fair number associated with people currently have, and rather a few more soon may. This is partially due to the fact entrepreneurs Cameron along with Tyler Winklevoss, best acknowledged for their role with the origins of Fb, are now seeking to be able to use all their technological savvy, and income, to get Bitcoin into the mainstream. The Winklevosses hope to be able to get started an exchange-traded fund intended for bitcoins. An ETF could make Bitcoin more widely available to people who also lack the technical skills to purchase the digital currency directly. As associated with February, the Winklevosses usually are told have held all around 1 percent of all of existent bitcoins. Created throughout 2009 by the unknown cryptographer, Bitcoin functions in the premise that anything, even intangible bits associated with computer code, can have benefit so long as plenty of people decide to cure it seeing that valuable. Bitcoins exist simply as digital representations and therefore are not pegged to any conventional currency exchange. According to the Bitcoin web site, "Bitcoin is developed around the concept of any new form of funds in which uses cryptography for you to control it has the creation along with transactions, rather then relying in central authorities. " (1) New bitcoins are "mined" by users who else answer computer algorithms to get digital coins. Bitcoins' purported builders have said that typically the ultimate supply of bitcoins will be limited to 21 million. While Bitcoin stimulates itself as "a really secure and inexpensive solution to handle payments, " (2) in reality few businesses made the move to be able to accept bitcoins. Of those that have, a heafty range operate in typically the black sector. Bitcoins are traded anonymously over the particular Internet, without any engagement on the part of established financial organizations. As of 2012, income of drugs and additional black-market goods accounted intended for an predicted 20 per-cent of exchanges coming from bitcoins to U. H. bucks on the main Bitcoin exchange, called Mt. Gox. The Drug Enforcement Company not long ago conducted its first-ever Bitcoin seizure, after reportedly tying a transaction in the confidential Bitcoin-only souk Silk Path to the particular sale of medicine as well as illegal drugs. Many Bitcoin users have also advised that the currency can serve as a method to steer clear of taxes. That may always be real, but only inside the sense that bitcoins aid illegal tax evasion, not in the sense that they actually serve almost any position in genuine tax organizing. Under federal income tax regulation, no cash requires to transform hands in order for a taxable transaction to occur. Dicker and other non-cash exchanges usually are still thoroughly taxable. There is no reason this transactions involving bitcoins would be treated differently. Outside regarding the lawbreaker element, Bitcoin's main fans are investors, who have absolutely no objective of using bitcoins to be able to buy anything. These investors are convinced that the limited method to obtain bitcoins will force their value to follow a continual upwards trajectory. Bitcoin has certainly seen some significant raises in value. But it has also experienced major failures, which includes an 80 per cent decline through 24 a long time in April. In the beginning regarding this month, bitcoins were being down to around $90, coming from a high of $266 before the February crash. They were trading next to $97 earlier this full week, in accordance with mtgox. com. The particular Winklevosses would make Bitcoin investing easier by letting smaller-scale traders to revenue, or lose, as typically the case may be, with no hassle of actually getting and also storing the electric powered money. Despite claims associated with safety measures, Bitcoin storage features proven problematic. In in 2011, an episode on often the Mt. Gox alternate pressured it to momentarily turn down and caused the price tag on bitcoins to briefly autumn to nearly zero. Given that Bitcoin transactions are almost all private, there is very little chance of most can be done often the culprits if you all of a sudden find your electronic wallet empty. If the Winklevosses receive regulatory approval, their particular ETF would help shield buyers from the menace of personal theft. The ETF, still would perform nothing to address the challenge of volatility caused by means of large-scale thefts elsewhere in the Bitcoin market. Whilst Bitcoin occurs wrapped with a high-tech veneer, this kind of newest of foreign currencies has a surprising amount in accordance with one of often the oldest various currencies: gold. Bitcoin's own vocabulary, particularly often the term "mining, inches features this connection, as well as purposefully so. The gold mining process is designed to end up being difficult for a control in supply, mimicking the extraction of a lot more conventional solutions from the ground. Far from providing a sense connected with security, however, this unsupported claims ought to serve as some sort of word of care. Gold is an investment regarding last resort. It possesses little innate value. The idea does not generate fascination. But because its source is finite, it is usually known as being more secure as compared to forms of funds that can be imprinted at will. The trouble with platinum is that will it doesn't do anything at all. Considering that gold coins include fallen from use, the majority of of the world's yellow metal now sits in the vaults of central financial institutions and other banks. While a result, gold has very little connection to often the real economy. That can seem like a good factor when the real overall economy feels like a scary place to be. Yet as before long as various other attractive expense options turn up, gold manages to lose its glow. That is anything you have got seen with the new is reduced in gold costs. Within their push to deliver Bitcoin for the mainstream, their promoters have accepted, and, in some cases searched for, increased regulation. Last month Mt. Gox registered by itself as being a money services company together with the Treasury Department's Fiscal Offences Enforcement Network. The idea has in addition increased consumer verification steps. The changes came in response to be able to a new March directive coming from Financial Crimes Enforcement Networking making clear the application of its rules to help internet currencies. The Winklevosses' consist of ETF would get any new level of liability. Eventually, however, I anticipate this Bitcoin will diminish back to the shadows regarding the black color market. All those who want a controlled, secure currency that these people can employ for legitimate business deals will opt for from one of typically the many stock markets already provided by a country wide authorities equipped with ample resources, a real-world economy and much more transparency and safety than the Bitcoin planet may offer.

10 Franchises SEGA Would Be Crazy Not To Bring To VR – Part 1

Welcome to another edition of VR vs. The weekly VRFocus column where the ‘other one’ from the site talks about most anything and everything to do with virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), mixed reality (MR) or some crazed combination of the three. Today we’re continuing a thread begun last week in the final part of my three-week feature into what may lie ahead in 2017.  There I mooted the idea that of all the studios currently involved within VR, certainly from a gaming perspective there is one that is conspicuous by its absence. SEGA. Yes, yes, I know there are Hatsune Miku games but as I pointed out at the time Hatsune Miku and the vocaloid bunch ultimately aren’t SEGA property and aren’t a traditional franchise. They aren’t one recognised within their All-Stars series for instance – and whilst that isn’t a qualifying marker for this list considering how big the Project Diva series is and how iconic a figure Miku is in Japanese culture certainly, you’d’ve thought SEGA would make more of a deal out of things than they have were she theirs. So on that basis, scrub those out PSVR games off your mental tally.

Updated total? Zero.

This is unusual for SEGA. Historically SEGA (at least in the third-party era) have rushed in to support whatever new technology comes along. Do you by any chance remember the EyeToy, Sony’s camera accessory for the PlayStation 2? Yes? No? There weren’t exactly a whole heap of games for it. But SEGA were there with the original SEGA Superstars to fly the flag. They supported the Kinect they fell into bed with Wii U pretty quickly, etc, etc. For SEGA to not have had one of its more noted franchises in the West ready to rock and roll when VR came to retail, certainly the PSVR, was pretty unusual. (Again, discounting the leek-swinging singer lady.)

But that’s not to say there aren’t plenty of opportunities for SEGA to embrace VR and thrown a bone to its more beloved franchises. It’s one of the sad truths about SEGA that their most iconic of series, with the exception of the fast spiky one, have never exactly been humongous successes financially. Still, why not use some of them and maybe give them a new lease of life outside of a new racing game? (No, really SEGA. It’s time for Transformed 2. Throw some money at SUMO Digital, will ya?) It’s also not like we don’t know SEGA aren’t messing around with VR either. Both SEGA Europe (SOE) and SEGA America (SOA) revealed their ownership of VR kits (HTC Vive and PlayStation VR for SOE and Hololens for SOA) thanks to community videos. Way to keep that secret chaps. A+ work.

So let’s get things underway. As before I must point out that I used to work for SEGA for several years and worked on a number of the franchises listed that I’ll be bringing up. It was some time ago now, but I’m reliably informed that if I don’t do that the world will apparently end. We begin first with an honourable mention.

Honourable Mention: Alien Isolation

It’s just not going to happen folks. Many have said the masterfully creepy atmosphere of “SEGA’s Good Alien Game” – tho everyone forgets they also did an Alien game on the DS in that discussion – was a perfect match for a full and proper adaption into a VR experience. The scare factor would be immense, obviously. As it’s bad enough being stalked by a Xenomorph without actually looking down at your chest as its tail pushes through it to kill you.  As much as we’d all like it to, the economic factors involved just mean Alien Isolation is a non-starter for Creative Assembly to even get involved in really. Boo-urns.

However, speaking of Creative Assembly…

  Total War

It’s one of gaming’s little quirks that one of console gaming’s most well known names is the publisher that is in actuality one of PC Gaming’s powerhouses. Between Sports Interactive’s Football Manager series and Creative Assembly’s Total War franchise SEGA have an commanding grip of the PC chart, one would go far to say dominance at some points in the year.  If you have lived in a hole for the past couple of decades, Total War is a series of real-time strategy games that takes keen players take on the role of General in various eras of time. Replaying notable battles and playing tactical hardball with history. Whether it’s the Medieval period, the time of Rome, the rise of Napoleon or the era of the samurai there’s plenty to do. Heck, you can even throw history right out the window now and enjoy some Warhammer in your Total War.

Total War has always been about getting stuck in to battles. The planning, the preparation, the implementation and the execution.  The buck stops with you, and as the series has developed the control system has allowed you to get ever deeper into the action.  You can even follow individual soldiers. It’s such a well developed system that there’s even been a BBC game show (essentially) based on playing the series. One that’s recently had something of a comeback.

So with this in mind how would VR make Total War better?  Control.

Now, considering what I’ve just written you might be wondering what I’ve been talking about since I’ve just been praising the system. But you can always improve and everyone and anyone who has played Total War has always had periods where the game just won’t place units right or you can’t get the camera in jussssst the right position. Now imagine you are in the map as opposed to looking at a 2D surface. Imagine you were, with your motion controllers able to to manipulate your units and your surroundings just so. How much easier and dynamic and engaging an experience that would bee if you brought a touch of Minority Report to proceedings.

Heck, can you imagine a Hololens version of Total War? With you waging battles from your sofa over your coffee table, and manoeuvring your archers onto the high ground of the TV unit? That’d be amazing.

Samba de Amigo

Break out the Bellini boys and girls!

When I first saw the HTC Vive controllers my first thought, partly because of how they were being held and moved at the time, was that they kind of looked like maracas. And there’s only one game that invites you, without a hint of suggestiveness, to get your maracas out. Samba de Amigo first burst onto the scene on SEGA’s much loved Dreamcast and was actually developed by Sonic Team if you didn’t realise it. It also came out as an arcade experience before next surfacing on the Nintendo Wii. The game plays with you in amongst a vibrantly coloured carnival, armed with your maracas you control Amigo, one of SEGA’s two monkey mascots (the other being Super Monkey Ball‘s AiAi, strangely the two have never been seen as rivals in the Superstars/All-Stars titles. Which has always puzzled me.) You move and dance along to a selection of upbeat tracks, shaking your controllers in time to the beat and occasionally having to strike a pose. It’s a simple enough title, and well and truly puts the party into party game.

VR needs more games like that I think. More games that are just full on fun and colours. It’s why Balloon Chair Death Match got people excited, it was a simple premise and it looked fun. Job Simulator is the same. Bright colours and poitively oozes fun. Yes, we can all enjoy a nice serious game with high stakes, but in dammit we all just want to be silly sometimes. Samba allows you to do exactly that. Now, what I’m essentially asking you is to imagine this in VR. Please watch the video below as in this instance it is important to what I’m writing about.

A warning before you do however; if you are wearing headphones please turn them down. There’s some loud audio distortion on the video from the outset.

Just look at this man. Look how bloody happy he is. He doesn’t care he’s in the middle of an arcade, he doesn’t care he has a crowd. He’s just going for it: a master at work. Nevermind your beloved Salt Bae (a reference I realise will date this article terribly), in your heart of hearts you wish that were you. You wish you were as cool as the Samba Bae.

Now I’m waving any potential wire-based issues here. Forget ’em. Let’s lay it out. You put on the headset and you step into a party; a “Carnaval de VR”. Everyone around you is interacting with you. The movement is infectious. You are the centre of a mass celebration with bouncing creatures and an equally bouncing musical beat. You have motion tracking controls. You wave them about in time to the music. It’s escapement, elation, exercise and fun. Now we bring things up to date with the new technology and throw in a dash of evolution to the game as well. Unlike before you can use the sensors or PlayStation camera to fully track your movements. All of a sudden Samba can have a touch of Dance Central in it, evolving it into a bit more of a full body game with one stroke. You have greater accuracy than ever before on the controllers, the game can actually see you for the first time and you get one of the most smile inducing experiences on VR. As an added bonus it gets to be a game franchise fully realised on VR, something people are clamoring for.

Yo SEGA. You’ve got my number. Call my people (me) and let’s make this happen. I’m totally open to being Producer on this thing. SAMBA! Du du de-du du-du du de-du…

Condemned 

There’s a very good chance you don’t remember Condemned: Criminal Origins. There’s an even better chance you’ve never played it or Condemned 2: Bloodshot. Which is a pity really. Condemned is a first-person experience which puts you in the shoes of Ethan Thomas, a police officer investigating a murder which slowly takes him down a path to discovering secret societies, mysterious entities, encountering nightmarish visions and the city falling into the grip of madness. Both games are a twisted mix of dark menacing settings, genuine scares that mess with play on psychology and improvised combat usually involving whatever Ethan can get his hands on. It’s frantic, up in-your-face stuff and perfect for VR with the combat emphasis on melee.

It’s not just that though. The first Condemned game especially has you dealing, within your role as a police investigator, a number of different crime scenes. These are technical, and involve you hunting for clues, such as finger prints and making deductions. What Condemned is, is what I suggested it could be back at E3 2016. It could be the Batman VR game you’ve always wanted but combined with all the best twisted bits of Resident Evil VII.

We’ll just ignore the bit about shouting people to death from number 2. (Check out my good friend John’s Let’s Play of Condemned 2 to see what I mean.)

That’s all for this week. On next week’s selection of titles we’re embracing freedom in a couple of ways and I use the term “wave shooter”. Which will probably annoy people. Until then…

  from VRFocus http://ift.tt/2jsNXtJ

[RF] A Salivation Of Words After A Robbery

Ravi had just worked a double shift and was having trouble keeping his eyes open. Wearily, he said goodbye to the employees he managed and handed the keys to the store over to the much younger assistant manager. He slipped into his almost stereotypically bad car, lit a cigarette, and sped off into the night accompanied by some forgotten 80’s music. Finally after a longish boorish drive, he was free to sequester himself away in his empty apartment, drink in hand, by the stabbing blue light of a TV screen.

Since leaving University Ravi’s life had ordered itself, quite efficiently, into a perfectly routine, routine. A routine which Ravi adhered too with the clinical detachment of a doctor observing the decline of a long suffering terminally ill patient. He would rise late and usually hungover, unless work demanded an early start, then he would spend the rest of the morning (by which I mean the time between 11am and 1pm) drinking coffee and watching cricket reruns. After dressing he would go out to a café somewhere for ‘breakfast,’ then loiter around the parking lots of second hand bookshops, smoking, until he had to leave for work. On the days when he didn’t have work he would return to his apartment to read and watch even more television. Sometimes on the weekend he would go out to a friend’s house for a party. And sometimes his friends would come to his apartment for one.

As Ravi had grown older the type of parties that he attended changed. When he was young and still frittering his time away at high school his revelries where pure Dionysian triumphs. With enough music, drugs, and alcohol abuse to make even the most hardened libertine nervous. Now, however, the gatherings he attended where ascetic celebrations of restraint; without music or fanfare, with far less drugs, and far less alcohol. These adult gatherings, party isn’t really the right word for them, weren’t any less fun than the outings of his youth, all the same people were there which is what counts after all, it’s just… they were different somehow, less explosive. It was one such gathering, that Ravi found himself hosting, which set in motion the events of the coming months.

This story isn’t particularly concerned with the motivations and backstories of every character at Ravi’s gathering that night. However, some parting sentences to describe Ravi’s soon to be accomplices seems in order. Nevertheless I hesitate to tell my reader the names of my secondary characters and give their essence form, as if such a futile gesture would stave off the necessity of telling this most accurate history. But they can wait no longer. Their names are like two impatient children pressing their noses up against a car window in order to hurry me their long suffering parent along… Charles and Tom. There I have named you, happy?

Both Charles and Tom had, like Ravi, found occupations or put more accurately distractions to occupy their time on Earth, little trivialities and empty ambitions to cherish and nurture in order that their lives might have some semblance of purpose. We might as well begin with Charles, a freelance journalist who desired nothing more than for his bottom draw fiction to be published. And then admired. I have heard that he used to ease his anxieties surrounding the lack of literary success he experienced by recalling an anecdote he had overheard somewhere about James Joyce submitting the manuscript for Ulysses forty two times before it was serialised. On the other hand, Tom had married young and was currently ‘raising’ a son while his wife supported him, the child being the reason for the young marriage. It was Tom, I might add, who was responsible for the limited range of illicit substances present at Ravi’s gathering that night.

As I speak to you, my dear reader, tapping out my little words on a keyboard in the dark, Tom was holding forth to Charles and Ravi about the realities of economic inequality, whilst cutting weed for a joint. That discourse sounds more interesting than the overly indulgent descriptions I find myself writing so I might as well draw your attention to that, which appears to me to be far more interesting than this.

“Under capitalism,” began Tom in a self-important manner, “Us workers are given the choice between employment and unemployment. By who? It’s not important right now. But it appears to me that any distinction between the two is arbitrary. We have to work or we starve to death.”

“Listen, man, what your describing is called wage slavery. You’re not being new. You’re not being original. So you can shelve the rhetoric,” said Charles, “Why don’t we talk about something else?”

“What are you going to do about it then? Seeing you know all the answers,” retorted Tom.

“Nothing,” answered Charles, in a bored voice, “We’ve already tried guillotining the rich and heading up new regimes. It doesn’t work. The only thing we can do is to build up enough cash to escape this rat race we’ve been trapped in.”

“Goddam it! Are we doing this or are we going to spend the rest of the night arguing about Marxism 101. Because if it’s the latter, I’m out. I’ve already sat through enough beer hall pushes in Uni. I’m not going to sit through another one now,” exclaimed Ravi, a man with his priorities in order. Tom stopped fiddling with the papers he was trying to roll and looked with wounded revolutionary pride at Ravi. A moment passed. Then Tom finished rolling his joint, lit it, took a drag, and handed it to Charles. Pointedly.

“Here’s something for you to consider Ravi,” said Tom, “How much money does the Pizza shop you manage make in a week? And how much is it you get paid a week?”

“That depends on the week,” said Ravi evenly, taking a drag from the cigarette proffered to him by Charles, “On a good one, when like the footy is on or the ashes, the store makes about $90,000. I make about $500, enough for my rent and other expenses like funding these soirees.”

“And what does your owner, sorry, the owner contribute besides his capital?” continued Tom.

“What’s the point of this inquisition, mate?” asked Ravi, “Some Second Directorate banter to check if I’m a good party member?”

“No point,” said Tom, “But imagine how much easier our lives would be if we had even a third of that.”

“Whatever comrade,” said Ravi.

They finished the weed in silence. After which, Charles quietly got drunk in a corner. Tom left early because he had to look after his kid the next morning. Ravi flirted with a girl who clearly, well… clearly for everyone except Ravi, had no interest in him. However, the next night while Ravi was finishing up after a particularly exhausting shift he thought of what they had discussed that night. He opened the safe underneath the store-front counter and absentmindedly leafed through the envelopes inside which contained the fruits of that week’s labour. Then he shut it and went home.

#

An idea was slowly taking over Ravi’s mind and the more he refused to acknowledge it the more its hold on him grew. It appeared to him while he was falling asleep, it confronted him while he was in the shower, it menaced him at work, and it threatened to break his kneecaps whilst he was doing the thousand menial chores and duties people find to occupy themselves throughout the day. A true intellectual shake-down. Finally, so as to satisfy his idea’s incessant blabbering he decided to share it with his friends and receive their learned opinions on it. His reasoning being if they were against it, it would disappear and if they were for it, it would be eliminated by action.

He organised a meeting (Meeting? Yes, meeting it the right word) with Tom and Charles at an old diner early one morning. Ravi, being the first one to arrive, reserved a corner booth to wait and drink coffee at while he worked out what exactly he wanted to say. Soon he was joined by Charles, who sat down opposite him and struck up a conversation.

“Did you get a chance to look at the manuscript I sent you?” asked Charles, attempting to take a nonchalant tone but failing.

“Yes. I did,” said Ravi, with a vacuity purposely designed to provoke Charles.

“Well, what did you think?” asked Charles.

“Have you been reading Camus again?” said Ravi, and Charles nodded guiltily, “You know the effect he has on your narratives! I thought you wanted this one to have a happy ending. Isn’t that what you told me when you showed me the outline the other day?”

“I couldn’t help myself!” said Charles, echoing that famous junkie line to the dismay of everyone familiar with absurdism, “I was cleaning away some books and I glanced through a copy of The Myth of Sisyphus. It’s something that could happen to any artist, if he’s caught off guard. French intellectualism ruined my life!”

“Parts of it were certainly absurd,” said Ravi, then he relented, “But it lacked action! Your characters need to do things for a story to be satisfying. They can’t just sit around in café’s all day. There has to be a call to action so they leave their comforts and enter an unfamiliar situation otherwise a story feels flat and lifeless. I couldn’t find an inciting incident in that thing if you pointed it out.”

“What’s up dickheads?” said Tom, sitting down next to Ravi and picking up a menu.

“We were just talking about a short story I wrote,” Charles said, then growing defensive, “What would you have my characters do instead? Didi and Gogo don’t do anything for an entire fucking play! I might not have Beckett’s gift for being unintelligible but I can write a good narrative. So what if there’s not a lot of action?”

“You didn’t send me a copy,” said Tom.

“No offence, but it’s not finished yet and you’re not the best at literary criticism. The last time I asked your opinion on something you took a week to essentially say: ‘needs more sex.’” Charles said.

“It was meant to be a Romance story! Noting happened!” exclaimed Tom, “And just because I didn’t spend four years studying lit-ret-tuah like you and Ravi doesn’t mean I’m not right!”

“Both of you, shut the fuck up!” said Ravi, playing the role of peacemaker, “Tom your opinion’s not invalid. Charles grow up and accept Tom knows more about relationships than you do. Let’s move on to something else. What are you guys getting?”

“Salad looks good,” muttered Charles.

“I want to try one of those breakfast rolls,” declared Tom.

And having successfully steered the conversation in such a way that neither Charles’ artistic integrity nor Tom’s sensual pride were damaged, Ravi ordered an omelette. They ate in relatively peaceful silence. When they had finished and the waiters had cleared their food scraps away Ravi leaned forward to speak.

“Listen, do you guys remember what we were talking about the other day at my gathering?” began Ravi, “How it isn’t fair that I run a business basically by myself and that my boss gets to keep everything just because he inherited a bit of capital?”

“Vaguely,” said Tom, “But I also remember somebody… suggesting that there wasn’t anything we could do about it but buck up and work under it.”

“Well what if we could do something about it? What if I had a way that we could take a piece of that pie for ourselves and use it to get away from it all?”

“Are you suggesting we start our own company or some Pizza Shrugged Ayn Rand shit like that?” asked Charles, “Because we’ve firmly established by now that none of us have any money.

“That’s not it. I have a way that we could take enough money from that parasite with which we could all live a bit more securely for a few years,” said Ravi.

“What, do you mean steal it?” asked Tom.

“Exactly, but before you answer. Do you remember the figure I told you $90,000? The long weekend is coming up and the people who collect the money will be off and so instead of just one week we could get a fortnights ransom. Almost $200,000!” said Ravi, and though Charles looked hesitant Tom seemed excited.

“Jesus Christ!” he said, “How would you even pull something like that off?”

“Simple, we wait until late at night. I’ll schedule the roster so it’ll just be me and some other random there, corporate policy says there has to be two of us there the whole time. Tom you come in with a shotgun or something, wave it about and demand the contents of the safe under the counter. It has all the money in it. Then I’ll just give it to you! You fuck off and Charles can be the getaway driver,” explained Ravi.

“Hold on just a fucking second,” said Charles, finally getting a chance to speak, “You can’t be serious. This is armed robbery you’re talking about here. Is this really what we’ve come too? What about the cameras? Won’t the police notice if we suddenly come into hundreds of thousands of dollars after the store you work at is robbed?”

Ravi paused for a second before answering, “For a start the cameras are only pointed at the employees to make sure we don’t steal anything, ironic I know, but they won’t see anything incriminating. And while I admit that the methods are detestable $60,000 is two years wages for me. I could do anything with that, I could be free. Live my life…”

“As for the police tracing our bank accounts I know a guy who could launder the money for us,” said Tom, “He could even find a getaway vehicle for you and me, Charles.”

“Who’s this? How do you know him?” asked Charles.

“I… uh… used to sell pot for him,” said Tom.

“Charles you don’t have to do it if you don’t want to. It was just an idea I had. But if we do it and you’re not a part of it I guarantee you’ll regret it,” said Ravi.

“I don’t know. I’ll think about it,” said Charles. And so it was decided that the idea that had been tormenting poor Ravi mind was to be put into action.

Now I have established this story’s conceit, I hope in a way that seems believable, and since our characters are now entering an unfamiliar situation (finally, I know) I think that we can take a break from all this exhaustive conversation and just describe the plot. Don’t get me wrong I like the dialogue, when Ravi told me about it I thought it was funny and meta and philosophically inclined. But I have pages of handwritten notes to transcribe and a deadline (just between you and me the deadline was the real impetus for this narrative shift). But I digress. It is sufficient to know that Charles, Tom, and Ravi continued to meet and flesh out the details of their plot without my supervision.

Ravi wok late (or for him, usual) on the day of the robbery to discover Tom had acquired the getaway vehicle and he and Charles were waiting inside his apartment. He made coffee and greeted his co-conspirators like Brutus greeting Cassius some fateful morning (Hyperbole! Ha, Ha cue laughter). And after going over the plan several times they sat in silent apprehension, watching television, barely talking, until it was time for Ravi to leave.

Throughout his shift Ravi watched the clock tick down like a condemned man waiting for the appointed time he was to be taken to the scaffold. He spent most of his shift that night sitting in a small office located just off the kitchen, ostensibly going over the hours but really waiting. One by one he watched his co-workers leave as he had scheduled them to until it was just him and a girl named Sophie alone in the shop. He left his office and paused. Through the front window he saw the getaway car pull up and he watched Tom get out of it wearing a balaclava and holding a shotgun. Tom advanced on the store with all the fortitude of a soldier storming Omaha beach. He opened the door, stepped inside, and shot a round into the ceiling causing a chunk of plaster to be blasted from the roof with deafening force. Tom stepped towards Ravi, holding out the bag, and pointing at the safe. Just as Ravi had planned. As Ravi started to fill the bag an alarm blared out from the kitchen behind them. Not at all like Ravi had planned. Tom strode forward to discover Sophie curled up on the floor next to a flashing security button. He dragged her to Ravi’s office and locked her inside it, although it would have been clear to anybody thinking rationally that she was in no condition to try anything else. He returned to where Ravi was holding the bag, in time to see Charles driving away. In the distance the sound of sirens could be heard.

“Fuck,” said Ravi. “Now what?”

“I don’t know,” said Tom.

“Here, you take these,” said Ravi, holding out the bag and the keys to his car, “I’ll distract them while you run.”

“No,” said Tom, “I’m the one with the gun. My prints are all over it. You fuck off. I’ll distract them.”

But Ravi hesitated, the very picture of indecision, “Are you sure?”

“Fucking go!” Tom yelled. And Ravi fled.

#

Now that I have recounted to you all these true and most accurate events I hesitate to write my conclusion lest I be accused of sentimentality, an egregious offence in the literary community to be sure. After all this story wasn’t about anything nearly as grand as a Napoleonic war, it was the simple story of a robbery gone wrong. But as this chapter draws to a close I think that the reader might find it interesting to know how I came to be in possession these facts. Rest assured though, I will enlighten you with as few words as possible knowing that by now the reader has more important things to do and is becoming tired of all this pretentiousness.

I met Ravi in a bar in some tropical shithole that my magazine felt compelled to send me to. We were the only people there, besides the bartender, so it was natural that we should start up a conversation. He must have been in his late thirties by that time although he looked as if he had been chewed up by the sun. After the usual small talk had been talked (and I had purchased several drinks for him) he described to me the events which I have now described to you.

“Well, what happened next? How did you end up here?” I asked.

“It was pretty simple really, looking back on it,” said Ravi. “I went to see the guy who was going to launder the money for us and he, after some discussion, arranged for me to be smuggled out of the country, to a dump pretty much like this one. I meandered about for a year or two until the money ran out then I took a job as a, shall we say, flower farmer. In the beginning I felt like Count Levin scythe in hand, living a good life. But unlike old Kostya I didn’t have a mansion to return to at the end of it all. I soon got tired of it…”

“What happened to Charles and Tom?” I asked, by now in full reporter mode.

“I don’t know what happened to Charles, my guess is that he was probably arrested. And Tom? He held those bastards off,” said Ravi.

“Do you regret it?” I asked.

“It was all over too quickly for me to have any real regrets. But I’m sad about what happened to my friend,” said Ravi, then adding quietly, “… I conclude that all is well.”

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Abrek Khaso and my journey to Aslanbek-Sheripovo in 1976.

Abrek Khaso and my journey to Aslanbek-Sheripovo in 1976. Hardly a happy life is possible if it's without difficult trials, without moments, when it seems that all is lost, all in vain and there is a very small chance to correct this, to find a way out, that now the failures will pursue till the declining years. Never believe in such ideas. Looking back, I don't remember even the only difficulty without enrichment my experience, without serving for some goal, without giving me some information. Looking back, one can come to a conclusion, if God allows something that we perceive as a negative thing, then He wants to teach us something. And then it becomes ridiculous, what terror and indignation we perceived the past difficulties and failures with. And then the next difficulties and failures will be perceived far easier. This story is not made up. Whatever I'm going to describe now, it took place with me in fact in that distant 1976. That time I was 26 years old. Being born in an atheistic family, by the time I became gradually an agnostic. To understand the cause of traveling such unusual route, one has to move into the time more distant, for the eight years else. That time the Soviet power was interested in agitation all the people who would listen, to go to the building activity and other works in the unreclaimed and vast areas of the Siberia. The composers and poets had to flatter to the power. It could adversely affect their creative work, but some of them acted wisely, hymning not only the "happiness it the collective", but the beautiful nature of those areas, because the nature as a creation of God, is beautiful everywhere in its own way. I have begun to work since 16 years old, wanting to be independent and to have my own money and in the first time I had chosen my work very successfully: a worker in the field surveying. In the soviet world it was almost an ideal because we worked at the field condition, both or three together, we hadn't what to quarrel for, no dependence on the society, practically no tittle-tattle, no squabbles and troubles, and in the research department we came only for our wages. That time, for me personally, for the best career I preferred to get round all the soviet compulsions by hook or by crook, mainly without compulsory driving into the collective (naturally to make a fool and the for the ideological supervision). By full age I have decided to begin making business trips, that is "for the fog and the smell of the taiga", how was sung in one of the soviet songs, but the first mission for an enough long time, it had disappointed me: where I was sent into the Chechen-Ingush ASSR, there was no taiga, only the steppes around and the real mountains were not seen too. But God knew better, where to send me and this is right! Hardly would be invented a more appropriate place for the seeking and perception of the truth and the goal of our life are the same seeking and perception. Before the mission I was told much scurrilous things about the indigenous population of the republic and first days I stayed cautious, but only during the first days. I discovered very quickly than the Chechen society differs from all rest Soviet one, which already was grown hateful, and it differs right so that is found closer spiritually personally to me in many of the aspects. You would be wrong if you think that I was occupied of the investigation their society as soon as I had arrived there. Being 18 years old, in spite of my development and erudition, I was more occupied with my own problems what were left in Moscow as well as the different dreams and fantasies, which are peculiar to the given age. All the same, the information about the local social medium reached up to me, but if I occupied specially to study it, I would learnt much more of information. Even I didn't endeavor to learn the cause, because of which the local society differs from the rest so advantageously, seeing from my viewpoint. Certainly, the cause is in their religion, not in the climate or in the geographical situation, however I learnt it a lot later. But even I learnt it right that time, I doubt whether could I augment my horizons in the matter of faith, because it is necessary two things for this: the access to information and the serious willingness. About access, that time (in the USSR- note by the author) it was not possible to buy even the four Gospels, say nothing of the Koran or of other literature with theological disputes. And even literally there was no one would be possible with to speak about the serious and interesting topics. It is only now you can see in every subway the Jehovah's Witnesses and the believers of many others confessions who try to converse with you and spread their literature. But at that time you wouldn't find them in broad daylight with a lantern. All was suppressed, forbidden (in the USSR- note by the author) and nobody around, except the drunkards and the "normal" soviet persons. Certainly, if who looks for, he will find, but it was absent a serious desire to occupy with a similar seeking. However after return from the mission my interest in the Chechen-Ingush ASSR was not to be forgotten, but quite the contrary, it went, augmenting. There were the everyday collisions with the negative phenomena of the soviet life and reality what provoked this. The state power mistreated the people, the people mistreated each other. A bias to make mischief to one's neighbour without any profit to himself became almost a rule of etiquette at that time. The people behaved like dogs in the kennels, in which they are beaten and bad fed. A proverb "the world is a brothel and the people are whores" was incarnated into the life visually. It was impossible to go abroad not for love or money. Even when this dog's bickering of the soviet persons didn't concern for me personally, all the same, the feeling of abhorrence was provoked and the Chechen social medium was remembered like an alternative. It was shown up a regret that being at the mission, I didn't begin to learn the Chechen language, especially given the learning any language, even what will not be prove useful, however in itself it is interesting and useful for development. In 1973 I got married. All went quite well. But someone of neighbours didn't like my family and myself especially. Of course, everyone has right for the sympathy or the antipathy to anyone else, but it is quite another thing if this antipathy breaks away, coming to light. Already it is not from law, and even is not "only humanly". Such a menace like "I'll jug you" if there is not what for "to jug", that is a violation of the law didn't take place, in any democratic land in the West would be estimated as a funny fool threat and hardly could be expected other reciprocal reaction , except the laugh. Including in our country now: if such a thing takes place now, only I would wish them to go, where it is a common practice in Russia to wish to go (a Russian round oath), but it was the Soviet Union of the 1976 and such a menace was enough real. "Well,- I said to myself. - For a while I will refrain from aggressive measures, maybe everything will turn out all right. But if they too become too insolent, if they pass some limit, I'll carry out their wish: I'll be imprisoned, but not in vain". I was not afraid of the being in prison if it's not very long, using this line of reasoning: "a thing which doesn't kill us, it makes us stronger". As I was born and live in the hostile me social medium, I have understood this since the younger school age. If something terrible and irreparable befall, towards full age I had developed a plan in answer to this: to leave for a forest with a suitable equipment and to live there. Even I tried to build a bunker in the forest, but, testing a few days to live in a tent with passing the nights while the temperature was twenty degrees centigrade below zero, I had arrived to conclusion that the bunker is an excess. If the secret of the location of the bunker is disclosed - all the work will come to nothing. But in the tent, if outsides pass (hunters, mushroomers or some others) and my type of the tourism seems them suspicious, I would have the possibility always to change my location. I am not a pioneer who discovers this method, although that time I knew nothing about the Caucasian abreks and had enough vague notion about the "Forest brothers" in the Baltic States. Silly persons, when I shared such thoughts with them, sometimes said me: "What for to go into hiding? All the same you will be caught." But they could answer nothing to my counter argument: "What for to live? All the same you will die". Also such an event like "will be caught" by no means a reliable, but only a probabilistic one, and this probability is not in the hands of those who pursues, but it is in the hands of someone who is hiding, and it depend of his intellect, of his willpower, of his inspiration and of God. Towards the 1976 my family has increased, there were two close in age children already. But the same existence of my sound united family gave no rest for some soviet people, to say exactly, for the scumbags, the drunkards and the degenerates. Although we lived only on the salary of technician surveyor, but even such life led them to the jaundice and provoked the hatred. They still didn't know that already I had left the service and now I earned money as much as formerly, but bringing the plush carpets from Baku and reselling them in the towns of the region of Vladimir, being more independent else from the soviet collectives and of their filth. Oh, how vastly they would like that I would find myself in jail or at least in the situation of a character in the Vysotsky's song "And in the cemetery all is calmly", where it is described a man alive who is choosing a cemetery to take a break from the neighbours and other soviet communities which committed outrages. But still my calculations "at random" did not materialize. 22 April these neighbours organized a binge in view of that the anniversary of the birthday of Lenin, but, to say truth, they weren't so convinced Leninists, and executing the will of the soviet power in the persecution the otherwise-minded, it is unlikely they made aware of this in fact. Really just there was a cause to get drunk like pigs and when the drunkenness had rushed to the head, there appeared a desire to sneer at the family of "a rotten intellectual", but such a circumstance that this "gentle intellectual" is able to use a cold steel, it was beyond their comprehension. That evening we bathed our child three months old, these curs started to throw clods of ground into the window and I decided that it is a suitable moment to be "in the heat of passion provoked by the unlawful actions of the victim". If I was one of these psychopaths who attacks with fists or with knives because of anything, then I would spend in jail all my life and it can scarcely you would read this story. However, I spent all my life in the liberty to spite all the soviet world. In fact, then I was able to restrain myself, but what for? Even if I'm juged, all the same one would can appeal to the fact of the "unlawful actions of the victim" and don't get the longest term in jail from the gravest Article 102 of the Russian Criminal Code at that time. Till the last moment, that is till the incident I calculated that maybe all will be turned out all right, so instead to take the necessary things to live in the forest and go away quicker, but I had to prepare these things just after the incident. All my family diverted me actively in these moments, the emotions overfilled them and it was natural. It would be a sin to take umbrage at them, that they hampered my preparation because of this. My wife, already exchanging a few words with other neighbours, had begun to persuade me: "Maybe, will you stay? Whole the house is on your side." It was a surprise for me and it's possible, not only for me but for the opposite side too. After all, the persecution in the "Soviet collectives" and in the "socialist conducts", it is calculated just to jump on someone alone, using all the crowd. Such cases are known me in the soviet communal flats, when the colluding scoundrels press for the resettlement someone who was persecuted by them, or jail him, or sneer at him all the way without taking the chance to run into the reciprocal actions, because the victim was broken already and knows that they are able to jail without guilt or to play another bad trick on him. An they accustom to this gradually: he yields to them in the first time for "don't get involved", yields in the second time - a habit of yielding is formed and the victim of the collective compromises now, although earlier would repulse against the same things, then his life gradually turns into hell. Don't to find himself as a victim of the Soviet collective, one had to conform to it entirely, to be identical to them without a deviation in any side. The least manifestation of the individualism was a cause for the assaulting. The people were frightened not only by the fate of those who was repressed by the State, but by the fate of those who has suffered from the collective persecution. So they lived without thinking that such a life is not better than the life those who was persecuted, but worse. There were a few of them who would understand that except these two evils, there is a third way else and although it is full of the privation, however it is more worthy of respect - this is the way of an abrek. Abrek is a man who lives in the nature, at the hiding. His house are the forests on a plain or in the mountains. Such things as the sentence to death penalty in absentia, the police, the special services or the mafia - all of them are not more fearful for him, than an army of enemy for an officer, just for an officer who is a commander only for himself, but not for an ordinary soldier whom someone who is stronger than him, can use him not always with noble goals. But nobody would impose the penalty on an abrek, nobody will judge him by the court martial for doing mistakes, just for the mistakes and slovenliness he has a lot of chances to be taken prisoner by the enemy and he himself decides to keep the military discipline or to be slovenly. So, this time again, it will serve me as a lesson, because I looked aside, didn't prepare the necessary things beforehand, the police arrived before I could go away, however my situation wasn't catastrophically to the extent that I would engage in the unequal battle with them or would run away, being seen. In the police I wasn't estimated as a thief or a hooligan, though I was detained before for the vagrancy, when I traveled in Siberia in the 1972 and yet several times for the long hairs, for the clothes of hippy, but still not near my residence, but at a long distance from it. Already the policemen had locked me in the cell and phoned in the hospital, seeing that the injuries what I had caused, aren't dangerous (but I supposed that I had killed), laughed a little and said that tomorrow I will be released. I had taken this as a joke, which was hard for me. Let they imprisoned me, but let it would be without teasing me, however to the glad surprise for me and my relatives, the next day I was released in fact, almost in the evening, only giving me a notice I would keep myself in the hands. They had released me, but not at all were going to close down the criminal case because of the infliction the grievous bodily harm (the grievous harm took place not from consequence, but because of danger in the moment of the infliction): they took away my passport and sometimes summoned me to the investigator, the victims were summoned sometimes too. According to the judicial practice, I was menaced to be imprisoned in the camp of the intensive regime for five years. I was, it seems, in some suspended condition, that is, at the crossroads, where it would be a very unwanted thing to miscalculate: either to hope for own good luck and to continue to live at home like a law-abiding citizen, or to spit on everything and leave for the forest forever, barring the way to return to the customary life. Towards the autumn this uncertainty began to bother already and not only me. The relations with my wife began to go down too. The victims didn't cause the troubles anymore: our family and they didn't dissemble each other, even looked away reciprocally, going by. But then another obstacle appeared, glory to God, it was not at the place of residence. One had to do something with all this. And here I recalled this Caucasian mission took place eight years before. I remembered that there was warmly and without rains in October and one could sleep under the stars without any equipment. This time I decided to go to the mountains where only Chechens live. I still wasn't in the mountain Chechnya. Examining the atlas of the highways of the USSR, I chose a place which would be far from the frontiers of Chechnya. "If I go to Vedeno, but it is not far from Daghestan and what if there are only the Daghestanis? - I conjectured mistakenly. - No, I will go in the middle, closer to the geometrical center of the mountain Chechnya, this is the Soviet village". (At present the historical name Shatoy was returned to this village). I know what the most of readers are going to think now, but they will be wrong: this travel is not thoughtless suicidal and not a heroic one. This idea as you arrive there and all the inhabitants of the local villages would pursue you in order to kill - this is a raving fable. Even at worst this is an exaggeration resembling a raving too. Especially, if to take into account that in their land the drunkenness is a disgrace, so there is a very little chance that beside themselves and aggressive ruffians would appear on the way. However any travel is connected with a little risk always, even one that passes ten miles from home. The story began to look funnily like the story of Pushkin's Aleko: "The law pursues him. He wants to become as we are, a Gypsy". But as distinct from Aleko I ran away to the Chechens, not to the Gypsies. I had a plan to live at the nature, sometimes appearing in villages to buy the food. Some curiosity would appear with respect to me inevitably, someone will begin to speak with me. Gradually, while the repeated encounters, make friends with one or two of them, then to verify carefully, whether I may rely on them in some case, then in Moscow the devil himself will not be terrible towards me: anything you want, I'll do and after this I'll dig myself in the mountains so that no dog finds. I made attempts to communicate yet being in the mission. But even in spite of their affability and benevolence, some wall continued to stay, which separated me from their circle, even if their attitude to me was positive, all the same I still was a stranger. Now I know that the cause is in the religion, but that time this wall, which separated me from the Chechen's society, in was an enigma for me and I intended to solve it. Now the enigma is solved, but I'm not in need of any society, and my place is in the West, not in the East, not because the society is better there, but because there anyone wouldn't prevent me to be myself and to walk by myself - the laws are better there and these laws are kept. The society is not a necessary part of the human happiness, as the soviet propaganda asserted this. On the contrary: it is an obstacle on the way to the happiness and the perfection. The words: "Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you..." were told by Jesus Christ Himself, although many people who name themselves Christians regard these words like an empty and high-flown phrase without being imbued with their profound sense. In the 1976, maybe someone remembers, if summer in Moscow was not the coldest, but it was one of the coldest and the rainiest summers in the twentieth century. In October it was the frost nightly in Moscow, but I was sure, recollecting the 1968 year, that in the North Caucasus it cannot be cold during this season and I didn't bother to listen to the weather forecast. So I had got the strongest psychological blow during this travel at night on the train Moscow-Makhachkala, when I was awoken and had seen from the window... the snow was here and there in the ditches. Understanding the inanity of the journey in this weather, I still hoped for a miracle: there was a little chance, but the weather could change. So, getting off the train in Grozny in the morning, as it was planned by me I took a bus ticket and headed up the mountain road, which runs along the gorge of the river Argun, to the district center Shatoy. Now I'm not going to digress for describing the way, however if someone is interested, I'm referring to the chapter 12 "Ichkeria" of my novel "The teleportation". Just instead a grandfather Paul 94 years old, there was I personally, being 26 years, and naturally I brought no bitter news and hadn't capability of the teleportation. But similarly as the boys about ten years old who spoke Russian not enough correctly, they asked the grandfather Paul: "Have you going into montagne?" they asked me about it near the shop. However, the most interesting that I saw on this journey, perhaps, this was what I'd seen on the counter of the shop. Coming out of the bus, I headed along the road to the East. About twenty kilometers from this stop there a tributary flows of the river Argun, it is named Sharo-Argun and there are villages on this way: the first of them is Aslanbek-Sheripovo about seven kilometers, the next one is Khal-Kiloy and there is a village on the same tributary, which bears the same name with the name of the tributary, that is Sharo-Argun. And no village was displayed in the atlas, which would be situated farther, than Sharo-Argun. And the shop (with such an interesting counter in the bad sense) was situated not in Shatoy, but in Aslanbek-Sheripovo already. The goods were proposed on the counter, they figured a remarkable boon for a spy who would get a task to find out what the Soviet power represents in fact. For this it would not be in need to live secretly for a long time, that is under the guise mythical, worming out warily all the details of the Soviet way of life, but it would be enough only to look at the shoplifter counter in the Chechen village Aslanbek-Sheripovo. There were only two goods on the counter: the vodka and the canned of stew pork. There was nothing but the two articles of trade in the Muslim remote, which are forbidden by Coran. It was a mockery of power over the two nations, over Russian nation as well as over the Chechen one. In the Central region as well as in the Siberia the canned meat was a terrible deficiency and if it offered for the sale in these regions, in would be clearly an enormous crazy line with scuffles and brawls. I had bought two tins of the stew pork and saw a young guy had bought a bottle of vodka to my chagrin. The Soviet power brought the satanic tradition into the pristine clean edge and the attributes of this Red Satanism in the form of vodka they penetrated gradually in the middle of the abstemious people. Nobody bought the pork, but I. These followers of the Coran are mistaken who think that vodka is better from two evils. Unlike the vodka, the pork doesn't trouble the mind and doesn't lead to the personal degradation. Going out of the shop, I passed farther in the village, then I turned aside from the road and ascended on the grassy hill to examine the environs and to decide either to choose a place for the stop here if I see an appropriate forest or to move along the road farther, towards the villages Khal-Kiloy and Sharo-Argun to look for the place there. Just I had stopped I saw a man about thirty years old, he headed to my place. When he approached, it was his first question: -Have you any document with? -It so has happened that I've no documents with me, I can tell you why, but the story would be a very long one. Where I've arrived from, a difficult situation has been formed, I had enough and now I go to a forest to live alone in the nature, - about like this I answered the question of the stranger. -Is it possible at such a weather to spend a night in the forest? There are nine degrees below zero at night! -In Moscow, nights seventeen degrees below zero now, - I answered, - So I've arrived here, thinking it will be warm, but here is the same almost. -Go to my home to sit, to warm yourself. I acceded to go and, as it was found, he lives close enough from that place on the hill, where I stood, examining the environs. Entering into the house, he proposed me to sit on a sofa. I was in the depressed mood, mainly because of the weather, moreover my experience, being twenty six years old, was not as well as now and it all together contributed that while speaking, I had made a false step. Certainly, I knew that a baseness and an injustice are not liked in the Caucasus and an extremely aggressive reaction is possible, answering things like this, but if I describe the events in detail about my conflict with neighbours, then I'll tire the interlocutor with my long story, so I started my story not from the beginning, but from the end, supposing this is enough to find the mutual understanding. I didn't take into account that I could find the mutual understanding in fact if the stranger was told in detail about the reason, because of which I took the axe in my hand. Here is his first question: -Probably, you drink a lot. Are you an alcoholic? Have you done it because of a binge? -I don't drink almost and I've done it, being sober. Simply, they made me lose patience. -Do such fits occur to you often? -No fits occur to me. They themselves provoked this incident. -It seems, you were going to go into the forest? -Yes, I'm going there,- saying this, I stood up and headed to the door proudly. Right now an aged woman had rushed into the room, to all appearance she was his mother, and started to swear at him loudly. The stranger justified himself, spreading his hands. Although I knew no word in Chechen, it was not difficult to guess what the dispute took place about. She swore at her son, because treated a visitor not according their custom, sending packing him, though he still hasn't relaxed after the long way and he tried to make her understand that it is not known what may one expect from this visitor and all the common sense suggests to the rather this "guest" go away, the calmer will be. Passing about a kilometer on the hills, I stopped, choosing a relatively appropriate place for the station in a lowland and started to make an attempt to kindle a campfire. As the intuition suggested me, the branches of bushes did not belong to a very combustible species and all wet because of the rain with snow which took place recently. I had with me an usual candle what would suffice for an hour, and I had a quite good experience to kindle campfire, but in spite of all this, except sad burning candle, even one a branch didn't ignite all the same. "Probably, I have better to get back, - I thought, -Not at all worse in the same way I can live in the forests near Moscow. Maybe it is real to find the people, with which it is possible the mutual understanding, but not in such weather". As soon as I started to think so, the same stranger with a friend or with a relative, he had appeared and they both began to persuade me to come back. I had a tent with me, but I didn't take presumptuously a sleeping-bag. Even they hadn't persuaded me, but confirmed my thought that I have to come back in Moscow. We separated not far from the road and I started to hitch a ride. Very soon the first driver who stopped, he agreed to take me by the way to Grozny, even he didn't demand the money, but as soon as I sat in the cab of his lorry and we started off, a police car blocked our way. Two policemen headed to the lorry, certainly because of me. The first question was: "Have you a weapon?" When they saw my small clasp-knife they gave up on this: "This is a rubbish, but not a weapon. You have to go with us". The troublesome dilemma fell out "to stay or to get back", evidently, because of this reason the mood improved at once, the depression vanished and I longed for the merriment and jokes. After all, the detention me threatened with nothing. Although, domiciliary my passport was withdrawn, but even the undertaking not to leave a place was not demanded. And it would be a great problem to pin accusations upon me; I just had arrived and it would be not difficult to prove that I was in Moscow till the last day. -So, why have you arrived here? - One of those who sat in the car asked the question. Realizing quickly, this would threaten neither me, nor to someone else, I answered, smiling: -To look for friends. -You are late. Your friend was shot in the 28th of March. So in the first time I had recognized about famous Khasukha Magomadov, whom the same Chechens named briefly: abrek Khaso. At that time the car approached to the town Shatoy. When it stopped in the center of town, it was surrounded by the curious persons, mainly women. Every one of them tried to look inside although for a moment looked me up. It was nothing of evil in these looks, but only the pronounced curiosity. The reaction of the people was as well as the police would have detained an extraterrestrial. At the local police station I was treated not bad, even almost friendly. At the same time they were astonished that I had arrived in Aslanbek-Sheripovo of the Shatoy district, not in Vedeno or in Itum-Kale. The answer that in the local police of Vedeno they could ask me the same question, it hadn't seemed them a persuasive one to my surprise. They looked at each other, shrugged their shoulders. All the atmosphere showed there was something mysterious in their district. They asked me once more: "What a village is situated beyond Sharo-Argun?" I answered that in the atlas is nothing there, so I am curious myself and I will go there to look without fail if I arrive again - this my answer was perceived with distrust, from the look on they. At last they declared that are going to lead me into the cell: -It's cold there, but don't take it amiss, nevertheless it's warmer, than in the mountains, where you were going to spend the night. Except me, there was a bearded Chechen Khalid in the cell, I supposed he was forty years old, however then it was found he was only thirty two. He was imprisoned for the embezzlement: he had sold the state-owned sheep in the amount 7000 rubles, and who wants to convert the money from the Brezhnev's epoch into the present day, I'm suggesting to multiply by hundred without doubts. I started to tell my story. He listened to me, pricking up his ears and suddenly had begun to laugh loudly with his thunderous voice. It lasted relatively for a long while, I watched what would happen next. In the end the gift of speech returned to him gradually. -Ha, ha, ha! It's marvelously! An abrek from Moscow! When he finished to laugh finally, he explained: -Excuse me, that I laughed so, but you have prepared to do all the things, which the abreks do usually. After this he instructed me, how, being in the mountains of the Ichkeria, don't attract attention. He laughed a little at the fact, if I speak with cops with English or German accent, it is clearly they would think I am a spy. (The fact that in the Caucasus the spy mania takes place in the law enforcement agencies, I heard about this from different sourced, which weren't Caucasian.) -And why they asked me, what a village is situated beyond Sharo-Argun? -Oh! That's interesting! There is some connection to me. Then he started to tell me about the aforesaid machination with the state-own sheep and I understood from this about a suspicion in the police, whether I'm some Khalid's messenger. -And what they kept in mind, saying: "Your friend was shot in the 28th of March"? -Here was an abrek in our area, his name was Khaso. If he was caught, he would be given the death by shooting. He killed officials of the Party, police chiefs, big local bureaucrats and he hated the power. Sometimes he appeared in front of a group of tourists and asked give him some food or some small thing of the tourist's equipment, because he had to live somehow. Usually they answered: "We have nothing". Then he took the gun with an indignant shout: "How it may be nothing?!" All of them ran away. He took only some necessary things and vanished from sight. He was seventy-odd years old, however it was impossible to capture him alive. Last time he was encircled and one type from KGB had shouted: "Khaso, surrender! You are encircled!" It was dark, he couldn't see anything and shot from the pistol at the voice. And now imagine how well he could shoot if shooting at the voice, he hit even to death. They shot him, because it was impossible to get him alive. He was an old man, all dried up already and was going to die all the same. It may not deny the Khalid's talkativeness. Sometimes he started to laugh loudly, however his laugh was not an offensive one, rather an inflammatory one. As if he would set himself as an object to cheer up himself and those around him, to amuse, to inspire the optimism. He liked to boast, to exaggerate in his descriptions. Just from him I copied the character of Khalid in the 12th chapter "Ichkeria" of my novel "The teleportation". Same real Khalid as it was found, he had the criminal records two or three times. I asked him how he would rate if we feed up with the tinned stew. Like a lot of prisoners of Soviet jails he lost in fact the exactingness in eating, but when he asked the cops to give us a can-opener, they refused this, because they estimated as a dirty doing to open and eat the pork in their building. It was one interesting fact else: even the cops weren't atheists in this republic and they endeavored to keep the Islamic traditions. The next morning Khalid learnt that he has to be conveyed into the prison of Grozny today. He left me his sleeveless fur, which he was wearing, pasturing the sheep, asserting he wasn't in need it anymore, that it would be not cold in the prison, but it would not be superfluously for me to get warm: even if these cells were heated up, then very weakly. Also he advised to be more cautious and to distrust unknown people, because the evil is everywhere. I thought I'm not risking anything and proposed to write down my home address. -These chamber thoughts are forgotten quickly when you go out at will, - he answered me. - You are sitting here and dreaming and it seems all is simple, but after going out you would found all is more complicated, the daily cares appear, so it is unlikely we are in need of this: when I go out, I'll not find the time for such things. The well-known scheme had worked once more: we talked heart to heart and almost made friend with each other, but making an attempt to become close friends, there was a wall again. However not often you can meet an ex-prisoner who would talk heart to heart with you, without putting any pressure on you and without inspiring his superiority for show, without a little attempt to prick you someway, to sting you, without flattering and ingratiating to learn something from you and after this to use this thing against you, but even he excused for his loud laugh, although it was not heard even a single insulting tone in this laugh, there was only a wish to stress the amusing situation and to raise the spirits. In the poisoned Soviet world if a man is not an enemy but a human being only, already you would experience good feelings for him and be grateful. Khalid was conveyed into the prison. We separated, exchanging the best wishes. In the evening a drunken guy was added into the cell. He was less talkative, but if in his words some evil inflection was contained, however it took place because of he was detained and instead to spend the night at home, he had to be here. When I asked him about the abrek Khaso, he told me approximately the same story and added that there are eight sentenced to death else who are hiding in the mountains in present. On the morrow this guy was let go and about two days I spent the time alone, thinking about this and that. At last a policeman called me into his room, he introduced himself as an employee of the local criminal investigator. -We have contacted with Moscow, you have a problem there. If you wished here to rest in fact, to travel in the mountains and to find friends, we have nothing against it. But at first you have to solve your problem in Moscow. Probably, you are aware already, in the Caucasus we don't like the deception. We are going to convey you by car to the village Chishki, there a bus runs often. Go to Grozny and take a ticket to Moscow. When all will get settled with you, if you go into the mountains, I must alert you, the abreks are hiding there and your equipment may be useful for them, you may be robbed. Now go into the cell and when the car is ready, you will go out. It all turned out as he said. I was conveyed in the police car till the village Chishki, further by bus I arrived toward the evening in Grozny. There was no ticket for any train, neither for reserved seats, nor for the compartment cars, even nor for the common places. I hoped at least in the morning I'll can leave in the post and baggage train, taking a ticket to travel in the common places, but at night I was detained again by the enough obvious reason: in the Soviet Union at the railway station and without having any passport in my pocket. I hope I would put nobody in a spot if I'm going to confess something now. Those policemen where I spent the night, at present all of them have to be retired. After all 33 years passed since then. Either I appeared to them a curious extravagant person, or they didn't wish that I saw something and intended to divert my attention and anyway they stood me a glass of vodka as a food - neither before this, nor after this, such a thing didn't take place anymore while detaining by police. And I was detained dozens of times, but I'm not ashamed of this at all. A detention because of the long hairs or because I'm located very far from the place of my registration, probably, a European or an American wouldn't see such a thing even in a nightmarish dream. There are no any registrations in the countries, which weren't desecrated by the communists, who have brought from the Middle Ages these customs of the feudal slavery and the passports are necessary in the West only if you are going to travel abroad, that is in the foreigner countries. And in the this country to sing a song: "A man is passing as a master of his immense Motherland"?.. Oh no, truly: the communists will cease never to amaze with their meanness and with their hypocrisy. That evening I accepted the cheer unhesitatingly, drinking the glass of vodka in one fell swoop. Firstly I didn't want to offend anyone because of my refusal, secondly I was exhausted psychologically and wished to relax. I remember, after the glass was drunk I joked all the way with one detained girl, repeating in French to her: "Mets tes pieds sur mes йpaules" and at once I translated these words, which meant: "Raise your feet on my shoulders". The cops laughed and she threatened me with her fist either falsely, or sincerely. On the morrow I was conveyed in the special distributing shelter of Grozny for those who were detained for the vagrancy. This institution is found in the same place, that is near the railway station. Unlike the same shelter in Krasnoyarsk where I had the "honor" to stay during thirteen days in the 1972, still before the marriage, here were the double-level beds as in soldier's caserns with usual mattresses and pillows instead the plank beds. Whether do you think my positive attitude towards the Chechen people is only subjective? Maybe is this a look through a rosy spectacles? But the most of the detained exclaimed quite often: "What a humane treatment is here to us! However in Daghestan the cops beat the bums without ceremony." Also there was a clear example, which verifies this, it had taken place one day. Among the detained there was a young guy, a student studying in some college. One day he had run away and I don't know how, but he was caught by the local police 40 kilometers from Grozny (25 miles), near Gudermes (a town) in a thicket of the maize. A Russian cop wanted to beat up him and when the guy said to him: "We both are Russians, that is countrymen, and we have to treat each other well", but the Russian cop smiled maliciously and answered: "Here I'm going to be done with you as a countryman!" However another cop who was a Chechen, he stood up for the guy and didn't let offend him, because either he had an influence, or his rank was a little higher. However even in the same special shelter of Grozny nobody from the employees of the police touched him with a finger for the escaping. As I know, if he runs away and is caught in Krasnoyarsk, he would be whole beaten black and blue. In my presence in Krasnoyarsk such a case had taken place one time: two detained ran away and were caught, in the morrow both being black and blue were settled back into the cell. Simply to flatter I have no reason, nobody would pay me money for this, nobody would appoint me to high office and even if I seek the political asylum, then I would do it in America or in Europe, but not in Chechnya. Including to hide in the forest I would prefer now in the Central region because of the very simple reason: without knowing the local language I would be like a rara avis and soon I would attract attention of the competent authority. In the final analysis this journey had served me as an interesting and cognitive trip. I lived in this special shelter about two weeks, it was bought for my money a ticket to move to Moscow by train Baku-Moscow and two policemen saw off on the train me, that is till boarding. On my return the relations with my wife started to go right, that obstacle what was far from home, it was removed itself and towards the spring of the 1977 year I made sure that I will not be jailed. I suppose, it was said to the complainants: "If you want so much, we will jail him, jailing you at one", but this is only my supposition. I didn't bribe to anyone and where from what source I would take the money for this, being a simple land-surveyor? If during all the past years a few times I went with my family to the resort Yalta, I guess, all of this money wouldn't be enough for the bribe to avoid five years of jail. Let be angry with me the enemies: in the restricted Soviet country I spent my life being an anti-Soviet man and I wasn't jailed for this. And when this totalitarian monster, that is Soviet Union, had been ruined, this was the greatest holyday in my life. One day in my youth it was said to me: "Five years else, and you will regret very much about your position of life". Since I heard these words, forty years passed but I don't regret at all. And here is a thing the most interesting: evidently Khalid forgot to tell it me, what about I've learnt in the Internet recently: Khasukha Magomadov was shot on the territory of jurisdiction Aslanbek-Sheripovo village council. Here is why they were astonished in the police that I had arrived exactly in Aslanbek-Sheripovo! Maybe the wandering soul of the abrek, seeing in me a brother in mind, had invited it me to show something? Hardly I will learn it during this life, but as if something mystical takes place here. Verily, the ways of Allah are inscrutable. The coincidence not only that I had arrived almost in the same place, but I myself nearly became the same abrek, I kept in the depth of the core the same mood, and the only reason that I hadn't become an abrek, it is because the epoch was although a vile one, but not so cruel already. After all, not insults, not a feeling of inferiority, not a morbid vanity and even not a craving for revenge incited Khaso to this way. For sure he thought the same: "Maybe all will turn out well" and hoped till the 1939 when he found himself a prisoner in the jail of Grozny. It is not difficult to imagine the jails of that epoch of Stalin. I'm sure, he heard how Stalin's henchmen tortured people, the most of whom were innocent, I'm sure he realized that now he had nothing to lose. It may be in his place I could not get to kill the security guard and using his weapon to run away from the prison. But there are known cases in similar extreme situations, some people did things, which were estimated as beyond one's strength and impossible ones. I had planned this way of doing, kept it in my mind, that is in reserve, in case if it will occur something terrible, but nothing took place. The Satan only made faces at me. But some supernatural force had displayed me my own secret idea, which was embodied by another human, who became to me the hero number one. The main Khaso's merit consists in that, he showed to the world: a strong personality who trusts in God, he cannot be broken by any satanic power, even by the Stalin's power. Saying about these who are imposed by the propaganda, at best they can provoke the compassion, but not at all an admiration. The compassion, that is a pity to the lost and deceived souls, all those who had sacrificed his life on the altar of the great governmental swindlers. To sacrifice himself don't to permit the scoundrel Hitler would come to power, but let instead him another scoundrel would govern, that is Stalin. Incomprehension of such a simple thing may be explained the state of zombie and only the state of zombi. Such a thing may take place only if a man ceases to think independently, because, it seems, as if he becomes infected by phobia of the public opinion and since this moment he puts in the forefront the endeavour to play up to this opinion of the public. And whatever efforts he would make now, whatever cross he would attempt to carry - all is doomed if the selected way is wrong. But if the selected way is correct, whatever cross would be heavy, all the same it will lead to the victory inevitably. Khasukha Magomadov who had declared his own jihad against the satanic Soviet world, he had come off it as a great winner.

The original Russian text