EPILOGUE

August 15th. The end of a long, long day was at hand.
    I’d have never guessed we would actually spend all of it at the amusement park.
    Ene was one thing, but having my sister and her friends join me was something I never could’ve predicted.
    Something had to have gone terribly wrong somewhere.

Going back to this morning for a sec.
    I’d awoken feeling much more refreshed than I should have, given what I’d experienced the previous day.
    If I found myself in a hospital bed…that sort of thing I could follow.
    Instead, I woke up in a room within a secret hideout populated by Medusa and this invisible (?) guy; and what’s more, they had apparently saved my life; and what’s more, my sister had joined them somewhere along the line.
    …I’m sure you have no idea what I’m talking about, but don’t worry.
    You’re far more clued in than I’ll ever be, trust me on that one.
    The recap my sister gave me was so bizarre that it required a long Q&A session afterward, and even then I was still in the dark about most of it.
    But those guys my sister called her friends…Talking to them, I found they were actually pretty nice.
    Of course, given that I chiefly talk with a whacked-out demented AI girl day and night, I might have pretty low standards.

    Either way, though, that Kido girl has a good head on her shoulders.
    She made a mean breakfast for me, and I can picture her running a pretty tight family if she wanted.
    …If you can ignore that ice-cold gaze, she might be the most normal one out of all of us, including me.
    It was a crazy group overall, but apparently they’re helping my sister out with her “eye” problems. They’re real easy to get comfortable with, too. After all, these were the first people ever that my sister introduced as “friends.”
    Ene, on the other hand, was giving me a lot of grief.
    I had no idea she and my sister were connected to each other…
    Ene didn’t share anything from my private repository, did she…?
    Ugh…She totally must have…Man…Cut me a break…My sister will never respect me again…
    Even now, I am obsessed about my sexual proclivities getting exposed for all the world to see. We spent the whole day at the amusement park, and that was all I could think about. To be frank, I don’t exactly remember much of the stuff we did.

    All I did was sit on this ride, that ride, the other ride, following Ene’s instructions to the letter.
    Of course, maybe that’s not a bad thing, every now and then.
    I haven’t felt that way in a while.

After we left the amusement park, we kept walking around for a little while.
    I began to wonder what kind of shut-in life this girl I was carrying around led.
    I never thought I’d meet someone physically weaker than myself…
    “Hey, sorry about that. Guess Marie got herself a little too excited in the heat.”
    “Wow, Shintaro, this is, like, your big break, isn’t it? Giving a piggyback ride to a real girl! It might be your last chance forever!”
    “No kidding. My brother’s a big wimp and an anime perv, so this might really be his last chance. But, boy, wasn’t that amusement park fun, Ene?”
    “What a trip! I particularly liked how my master threw up in the middle of it, too! I’ll copy the photo over to everyone once we get home!”
    “Ooh, way to keep a sharp eye out, Ene! How ’bout I trade you for pics of some of Marie’s creepier moments?”
    “Ha-ha! Nice one, slit eyes! You’re on!”
    “N-no…No, don’t show her…”
    “Huh? Hey, if you’re awake, why don’t you walk by yourself? Shintaro’s probably about ready to collapse.”
    “Just…just a little farther…”
    “Ha-ha-ha…Huh?”
    “Mm?”
    “…That an accident?”
    As we took the first street off the main drag, we noticed a crowd forming in front of a small city park.
    An ambulance had just arrived on the scene, a pair of grim-faced paramedics cutting through the throng with a stretcher.

    Between all the people, we caught a glimpse of a young man, about the same age as us.
    He looked worried, hands on the ground, as he stared into the face of a boy lying next to him.
    It was hard to make out much of the kid, but he couldn’t have been more than…say, ten or so?

    “…Huh. Pretty young.”
    “You think he’s hurt…?”

    Kido and Kano bounced assorted theories off each other.
    I couldn’t see any obvious injuries on the boy, but he was definitely unconscious, lying listlessly on the ground.
    But there was nothing much we could do for him.
    As we passed by, not giving it any further attention, I noticed a change in Ene’s behavior.

    “…!”
    “…Ene? What’s wrong?”
    “…Konoha…?”
    “Huh? What was that? Ene?”
    The boy was carried into the ambulance, the young man climbing in behind him.
    The siren lit up as the ambulance began to drive away from the scene.
    “…Momo! Can we go chase after that guy just now?!”
    “W-wha?! Why?!”
    “Just do it! Please, hurry…!”
    “Sh-Shintaro…?!”
    “Ene, what’s up? Did something happen?”
    “…Why? Why would he…?”

    August 15th. The five p.m. children’s bell rang out from bullhorns strung up across town…




—And, for all of us, a long, long “day” was finally about to begin.

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