Reunion

The Hero who’d been stabbed collapsed in front of the door with a brief death cry, as if he’d died instantly.

The blood didn’t spray everywhere like it would in an anime, but it kept gushing until it stained the gray asphalt stairs red.

Zzzzt……. Zzt, zzzzzzt……!

The static began.

As if trying to correct an error again, it began to aggressively consume its surroundings. This time, though, it moved much more slowly.

Time should have rewound at any moment, but something seemed to be interfering, and the static could barely muster any strength.

From inside the front door, something was pushing through the static……

“W-What’s happening……?”

[Turn your head right now!!!]

Whoosh! I reflexively turned my head.

The parasite’s shout was filled with desperation.

Then the parasite shouted again, telling me to run. My heart lurched. I tried to get away at once, just as it said.

Yeah, I tried to get away……

If only a flyer stuck to a decrepit utility pole on the other side of the semi-basement hadn’t caught my eye.

=====

〈MISSING PERSON〉

Name: Yoo Jin-han / Gender: Male

Age: 41

Appearance: 183 cm tall, average build

Black suit, light blue shirt, blue striped tie

May 5, 20○○.

Went missing while on the way to the □□ ticket booth to buy amusement park tickets. If you’ve seen this person, please contact the number below.

=====

“……Ah.”

This was a missing-person flyer I’d put up myself.

The flyer I’d plastered all over the neighborhood after Parents’ Day, on May 8.

Why was it here?

Was this the neighborhood I used to live in?

I stared blankly at the utility pole.

Even as I sensed the thing that had stabbed the Hero approaching me, I couldn’t move from where I stood.

[What are you doing!? Get out of here right now, Yubel! You mustn’t come face-to-face with that thing behind you!]

I know.

I know that, too.

“I-I can’t move—”

“My ch҉i҉ld҉……”

Ah.

It’s right behind me.

The ‘something’ was whispering in my ear.

The static in its voice made it hard to make out what it was saying.

Zzzzt, zzt, zzzzzzt……!

“You, ar҈e you ■҈■̸̴?̵̴”

“P-Please save me……”

[Close your eyes and cover your ears! Just hold out until that thing disappears, Yubel!]

I wanted to.

I wanted to gouge out my eyes and tear out my ears.

But the ‘something’ behind me grabbed my arm and put a hand on my shoulder. Its touch was chillingly cold.

“He҈he, so you’re ■҈■̸̴, aren’t you҉?҉ I can tell from how you’re begging me҉ to save you҉.”

This was strange. Strange. Strange.

The static began to die down.

The ‘something’s’ words were growing clearer.

Before I knew it, it was slowly tightening its grip around my neck.

A vague premonition began to stir, as if I were about to remember something.

“You were a selfish, cowardly kid who kept going on about wanting to be a he҈ro or a po҈lice officer.”

“Eek…… Cough, kegh!”

Its grip crushed my throat. My windpipe was blocked. No oxygen or blood could get through. My consciousness began to fade. My heart started pounding wildly. They said the demon’s heart wasn’t here. So why was the sound of it beating thundering inside my body? I didn’t want to hear it. I struggled, but for some reason, I couldn’t get away.

Right.

I didn’t have a stun gun with me.

I had no weapon to protect me.

I had no courage to shield me.

I, I……

“You’re a mon҈ster҈!!! You wanted to live at the very end, so you killed your own mo҈ther—!”

[No!!! Get a hold of yourself, Yubel!! You didn’t hear a thing! Do you understand—]

Zzzzzzzzzzt—!!!!!!

The eerie sound of static…… No, the sound of a stun gun filled the space.

The cold hand squeezing my neck slowly loosened.

I fell to the floor, and then I heard another set of footsteps behind me.

It was a light sound, one that put my mind at ease.

“Um, did you happen to hear the last thing it said?”

“Hhk, cough! Cough, cough! Ugh…… L-Last thing? Cough, cough!”

“No! If you didn’t hear it, then it’s fine!”

[That boy……]

The owner of the youthful voice behind me came around in front of me and reached out a hand. It seemed like the boy was trying to help me up.

“Th-Thanks…… Who are you……?”

“How about we introduce ourselves later? Let’s get out of here first.”

Later or not, the moment I saw those innocent eyes, I knew who this kid was.

The one who’d just been stabbed in the neck and collapsed,

“Follow me!”

“Uh, okay……”

He was the elementary-school Hero.

***

“Aaaah! I-I died!”

“That’s not how you do it! Geez, you’re seriously awful at this. Are you actually having fun?”

“You were having fun just a minute ago, too…… Anyway, this game got an eroge version. Want to try that instead?”

“N-No! What’s an elementary-school kid doing playing an eroge!?”

“Hmm, I guess you’re right.”

I followed the elementary-school Hero to his nearby house. He seemed to have plenty of money; the house had two stories and was packed with all sorts of consoles hooked up to the TV.

Among them, we picked a turn-based RPG with the tacky name The Unbreakable Hero and were taking on Kardin, one of the Four Heavenly Kings.

Of course, this wasn’t a game I’d chosen to play.

It wasn’t as if I could calmly play a game after what had just happened.

I was only playing because the elementary-school Hero had said he’d answer my questions if I helped him beat the game.

“Hey! I can’t make any progress with you constantly throwing the game!”

“Hmm, I’ll answer while we play, then. Ask me anything.”

“R-Really? Then I’m gonna ask!”

“Well, there probably isn’t much I can answer.”

That was fine.

What I wanted to ask, this kid would know.

“Then first, what was that situation just now? Who are you…… and do you happen to know where the real Hero is?”

“Don’t ask everything at once. Slow down…… Geez, fine. By ‘that situation,’ you mean how you got younger and that crazy person from before, right?”

I nodded. Of course, the elementary-school Hero was too absorbed in the game to notice.

“Hmm, I’m sorry about that. You reminded me of Se-on’s childhood friend, so I sort of cast you in that role. I ended up making you go through something unpleasant.”

I see.

So that hadn’t been a real experience of mine, after all.

The familiarity I’d felt just now must have been an illusion, too. The parasite had said my déjà vu was just a distortion caused by false memories……

Then, let’s move on to the next topic.

“……Who are you, exactly? You’re pretty shameless for a Hero. Or is that your real nature?”

“Hey, don’t call me shameless! Ahem, honestly, I’m not quite sure myself. Still, Se-on has called me a lot of things. The Skill Window, the Voice of the Curse…… Anyway, I’m a sort of thought-form born from Se-on’s unconscious after he was summoned to this world. Like you said, you could call me the darker side of Se-on.”

“W-W-Wait a second! The Skill Window? You’re the Skill Window?”

I wasn’t sure what the Voice of the Curse meant, but I knew what the Skill Window was. It was the thing that showed up every time he learned a lewd skill.

This guy was seriously dangerous!

“Yeah, so I’m grateful to you.”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“Because you killed me once, I was freed from my contract and got my freedom back.”

“……?”

“……No? I’m pretty sure you killed me and brought me back to life. So now you and Se-on are bound to me as retainers. Well, I almost became a demonkin, but I managed to hold out with a little effort.”

I killed you? And we’re retainers? What the hell was he talking about?

As I struggled to make sense of it, I heard the parasite clear its throat inside my head.

[A-ahem…… Yubel, listen carefully to what I’m about to tell you. As for what happened……]

It sounded like it would be a long story, so I asked the elementary-school Hero to excuse me and listened carefully to the parasite.

~

“Hey!!! Are you out of your mind!?”

“Whoa, you scared me!”

“Ah, sorry……”

[A-ahem.]

What I heard from the parasite was truly shocking.

Apparently, it had used Kardin’s core to resurrect the Hero, who’d been killed by the Black Knight, as my retainer. And the side effect was that the Hero had become obsessed with me. Even the parasite didn’t know what the contract was about.

Anyway, that wasn’t what had surprised me the most.

The most shocking thing was that the parasite could control this body while I was unconscious. So this body wasn’t entirely mine…… It felt like I’d been NTR’d. Though, technically, it had been the parasite’s body to begin with.

At any rate.

So this guy’s self-awareness as the Skill Window had formed during the resurrection process.

“Th-Then…… In a way, could you say I created you as you are now?”

“Right? It’s partly your fault I got so dark and twisted. ……Can I call you Mom? Your chest is a little small, though.”

“Do you want to die?”

I was angry because he’d asked to call me Mom. Not because of the breast comment. ……Hmm, I really do want to kill him.

“Don’t look at me like that…… I’m having a hard time because of you, too.”

“What’s so hard about it! You’re just sitting here playing games!”

“You told Se-on not to learn any skills, right?”

“Uh, y-yeah……? But what about it?”

“And you’re always tempting him, too.”

“What!? W-When did I do that? Don’t make things up!”

“……If you don’t know, forget it. Anyway, Se-on can’t let any of it out, so it’s just building up inside him. He’s having a harder and harder time because of you.”

Did this guy seriously call learning skills ‘letting it out’? He was unbelievably vulgar.

“……So what do you want me to do?”

“Just help him learn a few skills. That’s all.”

“What!? Skills? He’s learned a ton of them! I only told him not to learn more. He’s a total pervert and used to let it out all the time!”

“Se-on? What are you talking about? He only has three skills right now. He hasn’t even read the messages I’ve been sending him since then…… Geez, I even tried secretly stoking his desires whenever his mental defenses weakened, but it didn’t work. What am I supposed to do?”

Th-three? He only had that many skills? Hmm, it didn’t sound like a lie…… But wasn’t that a good thing?

My goal was to stop the Hero from learning the [Common Sense Alteration] skill and send him back to his original world.

If the Hero was only interested in returning to his original world…… then it would probably be better for both of us to just keep things as they were.

“Hey, what’s that got to do with me? The Hero isn’t learning skills? That’s great for me! Now that I think about it, the Hero didn’t do anything wrong. You’re the problem, you creepy monster.”

“No. If things keep going like this, you’ll be in trouble, too. Se-on keeps holding it in, and the dam’s about to burst. He’s nearly at the point where he’ll merge with me.”

“Huh? What does that mean?”

“It means Se-on and my depravity are going to merge, and he’ll become a complete pervert before long. Wouldn’t you hate it if he started lusting after other women? He’s completely devoted to you—”

“Hey, hey! Just be quiet for a second! Let me think!”

This was an emergency.

From everything that kid had said, the Hero was basically a bomb on the verge of exploding. If he merged with this elementary-school kid…… Ugh, it was terrifying just to imagine.

With that level of perversion, he could seduce women and immediately learn [Common Sense Alteration]……

In that case, it was definitely better to convince him to learn just a few weak skills.

Having come to that conclusion, I spoke to the elementary-school Hero again.

“Haa…… All right. So how many skills should he learn?”

“Hmm, you got pretty cooperative as soon as I said he might lust after other women. Well, let’s go with three for now, and then gradually add them one by one—”

“Okay, three it is. And now I’m done talking to you. Bring me the real Hero.”

“……All right. Answer one thing, and I’ll let you meet the real one. Why were you on top of Se-on while naked?”

“Ah, naked……? Oh……”

Come to think of it, I had been naked when I woke up. I’d tried to get dressed, but with my wings, I couldn’t wear the matching two-piece bunny-girl outfit. Well, we didn’t have much time, so I’d just approached the Hero without thinking.

As for why I’d ended up on top of him……

“Getting on top of him…… Um…… Why did I do that?”

“……Geez. Fine, fine. You said you wanted to see Se-on, right? Go on, hurry up!”

Snap!

When the elementary-school Hero snapped his fingers, space began to warp.

Space twisted and tangled, filling the area with complicated-looking shapes. I surrendered to it, slowly closed my eyes, and let myself be swept along.

.

.

.

.

.

And then I opened my eyes.

Luckily, I could see the Hero’s face in the candlelight.

It seemed the elementary-school Hero had kept his promise.

I never wanted to see him again, but we’d surprisingly gotten along.

……

But something felt a little strange.

Why did the sensation feel so real?

Unlike a moment ago, when everything had been hazy, the heat radiating through my whole body told me this was reality. Especially the heat I felt in my lower half……

Bang!

“Yay! Riella’s here!! Guys, I brought something incredible…… Huh?”

“Mmm…… Have you come back, Lady Riella? But what happened—huh? L-Lord Se-on! Don’t tell me you were sneaking around with my Lady Yubel……”

“Urgh…… H-Huh? Yubel? And you’re naked!?”

“Don’t play dumb! You horny beast! I’ll bury you right here! H-How dare you try to corrupt my Lady Yubel……!”

“……”

[Hmm, what are you going to do? I’m rather embarrassed by this, too.]

That damn elementary-school Hero.