YM778.TV Chapter 36: Are You Really Human?
Chapter 36: Are You Really Human?
When me and Ayako got to the living room, Angelica was still immersed in the story.
She spaced out with an enraptured expression as her consciousness flies somewhere far away.
I bet wherever it is, it’s a world where I run a factory creating spare parts.
One which had their finances growing worse by the days and so my wife ran away from me who drowned my sorrows in alcohol. In the end, I turned into a bastard who lays his hands on his own blood-related daughter.
“Hey, come back now.”
I clapped my hands in front of her face to bring her back to us.
Angelica was surprised at once, and as she saw Ayako, she yelled “It’s the demon from the bookstore!”
“Eh? She’s the person that multiplied?”
“That’s right.”
“Didn’t she do that with her own power…?”
Moving her arse about, Angelica crawled away from Ayako-chan.
She really had her guard up against her.
“…It has been a while, isn’t it.”
“…Hi…”
Ayako-chan bowed, and Angelica gingerly lowered her head in return. Her movement was stiff.
There are three ways of greetings in the other world: hugs, handshakes, and kisses. Their culture is European.
Because she was raised in such culture, Angelica is a bit clumsy in her bowing.
“Well, have a seat.”
As I said that, Ayako-chan silently sat down.
She hugged her knees, supporting her chin on top of her knees.
It’s truly a defensive pose. Seems like Ayako-chan too is wary of Angelica.
Meanwhile, I sat cross-legged, scratching my eyebrow.
There was no conversation.
Angelica who was prattling about during the day kept silent, and the room felt as if it’s became still as death.
“…Aah, how about we eat something?”
I tried to change the mood so I gave the suggestion, and Angelica showed a favorable response.
I came to a conclusion that her mood had gotten better.
“Before that, I had something I want to make sure of”, said Angelica with her eyes half-open.
“Ayako-san1…was it? Did she really multiply into two? How did you confirm that?”
“Ahh, about that,”
I took out my smartphone and showed Rio’s selfie with Ayako-chan.
“I feel that you’ve understood for a bit, but this tool can show people from far away. It could communicate with this and you can carry it with you. Probably it’s closely similar to Crystal Ball of Far Sight from the other world. I wonder if you can communicate with that though.”
“…It showed Rio-san, huh.”
“I asked her to find the other Ayako-chan while this Ayako-chan is with me. After that she sent me this picture. This shows that there’s two of the same people in existence.”
Angelica brought her eyebrows together, glaring at the screen.
“…Do you regularly contact Rio-san with your smartphone, dad?”
“That’s kind of off topic, isn’t it? It’s way off topic, isn’t it? Let’s talk about Ayako-chan’s cloning first.”
“I want to learn how to use a smartphone too. I’m curious of what you talk about with who.”
“Listen, peeking into someone’s phone is a huge breach of manners. That’s the rule of this world. Wait, let’s just talk about Ayako-chan’s case, alright?”
Why did I keep digging my grave deeper and deeper like I’m doing it with a jackhammer.
Like at this point probably this grave could fit about a thousand people.
It’s not just my grave anymore, it’s a mass burial.
“Anyways, do you believe me now that Ayako-chan had multiplied?”
“Mmm…Well, I guess I could.”
Angelica seems like she still had some other things she’s thinking about, and so she pouted.
“Is this Ayako-san even human?”
“…Could you stop calling her a demon already? She’s the victim, you know?”
“I didn’t mean it like that,”
Angelica explained, glancing sideways towards Ayako-chan.
“Wouldn’t it be possible that instead of her multiplying into two, something might have transformed into Ayako-san? There are monsters like that, right? Have you checked her status yet?”
“Transformed…I see, that’s also possible, huh.”
They’re such rare monsters that the possibility slipped from my mind, but that case is possible.
Which means…is this Ayako-chan a monster that came from the other world? Is it also true for Nakamatsu and Komai?
I turned to look at Ayako-chan who curled herself next to the bed.
Despite encountering a lot of words one would normally find in a fantasy setting like “status” or “monsters”, I think at least she knows that we’re talking about her.
With her eyes swimming about in confusion, her body adopts a defensive posture.
I pointed at Ayako-chan and briefly chanted;
“Status; Open.”
It was still filled with a long bunch of nonsense in the additional notes section, but other than that, there weren’t any changes.
“…She’s the real Ayako-chan. No doubt about it.”
Mmh, Angelica muttered, her face showed that she didn’t expect this answer.
“Then they might have transformed and their status changed as well.”
“Never heard of something like that though.”
Just in case, I tried casting Dispel at her.
“…nothing is happening.”
“Doesn’t seem like it has any Status Change buff on her.”
Angelica and I exchanged glances.
“Mmm…but it’s not certain that she multiplied though. Maybe someone trained a homunculus really well to act just like Ayako-san. I hear that they’re made to have the same abilities, and if they can copy the memory of the real person, then the status window would show something that’s mostly similar to the real person.”
“Just how skeptical are you of her?”
“No no, I’m holding myself back and gave my approval for her to stay. Wouldn’t that mean I would be greatly disadvantaged if I don’t start investigating full force? I’d consider all possibilities since I’ll be troubled if I don’t quickly solve the issue……otherwise you’d be so concerned about it that you won’t play with me, dad.
After she said that, she stood up.
As she did, she pulled Ayako-chan by her wrist, and so Ayako-chan also stood up.
“I’ll confirm once and for all if she’s a human or not. You can’t look, okay dad? You absolutely cannot look. Alright?”
She said it like she’s a crane trying to return a favor2, and she dragged Ayako-chan into the bathroom.
For someone who boasts 300 Attack power, dragging a girl is nothing to her.
“What is she planning to confirm…”
Supposing that Ayako-chan is a homunculus, where does she need to check?
A homunculus is an artificial human made through Alchemy.
Normally they’re made in the size of a child, but it’s also possible that they have the size of an adult.
Though if it’s made like that, some things might have to be sacrificed.
For example, their skin color would be a bit washed off, their facial expression would be dulled, or some parts of it would be chipped off.
“—Ah. No…why…we can’t do this!”
…I could hear some glossy voices from deeper in the bathroom.
Ayako-chan’s moaning voices are leaking out.
Since I’m a gentleman, I turned on the television and raised the volume.
I used the remote to switch to a news channel.
There’s a lot of telop and picture-in-picture compared to long time ago, huh.
Recently it’s not strange to have picture-in-picture to show up in the TV.
Aah, I can’t hear anything from the bathroom.
I tried not to mind it as much as possible so I don’t imagine weird things the next time I saw Ayako-chan.
“Here’s Nakamoto with his tremendous hip power!!”
“Ahahahaha!”
Pointless laughter blared from the TV.
It was just in time for the program I starred in.
There’s the me watching the TV like this and there’s me who is acting as an entertainer.
It’s like the me of the present and the me of the past are two different existences.
I wonder if it’s the same thing for Ayako-chan.
As I continued speculating for several minutes, I heard some pitter patter from behind me. I turned my head around, and I saw two pairs of legs.
It’s Angelica and Ayako-chan’s return.
“She’s 100% human. I can declare that.”
Angelica puffed her chest with a pomph, while Ayako-chan was next to her, completely red. Her hair was disheveled and her breathing was ragged.
“Huh, so she isn’t a homunculus, right?”
“She’s human, in more ways than one.”
Angelica nodded deeply. I’ll not ask her what she investigated and how she did it.
“Then what’s next is confirming if the Ayako-chan who was with Rio a real human or not, right?”
“That’s right, but…are we going to the bookstore now?”
“We should.”
Might as well we go out and grab something to eat for dinner.
I told Angelica to put on something.
“You should come too, Ayako-chan.”
“…I don’t think I should show myself in my home…”
“Would you believe me if I said I can make you invisible?”
Is that one of your tricks? she asked with a very faint voice.
“Something like that. Can you come with us then? It would be more convenient for you to come with us.”
The Ootsuki Bookstore closes at 6.
That means probably we’ll have to sneak in from the house attached to it.
If we had Ayako-chan guide us, we’ll have less trouble breaking in.
“…invisible…”
“You’re irritating.”
As Angelica put her hand into a beige fur coat, she closed in on Ayako-chan.
“Do you not believe my dad? He’s a hero you know! A hero!”
“Hero?”
“That’s right. The strongest hero, I tell you. He even inherited the technique passed down from a country with a history of more than four thousand years and he even got to help out a great artisan up till recently!”
“A-Ange, stop that.”
Stop getting too excited and running your mouth off.
Ayako-chan only knew me as a worker from a ramen shop.
“Um…well, whatever. Ayako-chan, you’re starving too, right? We planned to eat out tonight, so might as well.”
In the end, we forced her to go along with us.
We held Ayako-chan by her hand while she still looked like she didn’t understand what is going on.
After locking the door, we set out for dinner and our investigation.
Note:
1. She mentions Ayako with a katakana instead her name in Kanji, which, just like Elza did to Keisuke, indicates unfamiliarity. This couldn’t be expressed in English since both the kanji and katakana both reads “Ayako”. I could so something like “Ayaco” but it might be weird if Ange turns out to constantly call Ayako with kana, which means I’d have to keep translating it as Ayaco which could cause some confusion.
2. A reference to a folk tale titled Crane’s Return of a Favor (Tsuru no Ongaeshi/鶴の恩返し). TL;DR it’s about a crane who wants to return the favor for a guy who saved her from being hunted by becoming his wife and giving him a lot of things but when she procured these things she’d say “you absolutely must not peek” because she’ll return into being a crane when she does. In the end the guy noticed this because he peeped and the crane left him.