Chapter 21 - The Neighborhood Bookstore
We decided to head to the front of the station. I judged that changing the location would change the mood.
Actually, please change it. I'm begging you. Even though I was practically bowing my head, Angelica only became less talkative.
"My bad. I don't really get it, but I must have made you angry, right? Go back to being noisy like usual."
"I'm not angry, though."
"Then what is it?"
"You! Are! So! Dense!"
You're just as much of a blockhead as the rumors say! Angelica raised her voice.
"Father, you're a genius at neglecting yourself, aren't you?"
"If I didn't have that kind of personality, I wouldn't have been able to serve as a Hero."
"I've already decided. No matter what Father says, even if you hate it, I'll stay with you. I'll even take care of you in your old age. I won't marry off anywhere."
Why, I wondered in bewilderment as I walked.
We must have walked for about an hour and a half like that. While we were sensing around the station, we had somehow come to a street lined with business hotels. During that time, Angelica was almost silent. She was making a pouting face.
"When the shops open, let's go shopping somewhere."
"..."
"Is there anything you want me to buy?"
"...Not really—"
Her face and voice are angry, but her arm is really entwined with mine. She's pressing her chest tightly against my upper arm. It's even closer than before.
A woman's heart is a mystery. It would be great if system messages would tell me about affection levels or mental states. It tells me nothing at important times. In the first place, it probably has no personality, so it's not very helpful.
"Hey, then shall we talk about something serious? Did you find any ghosts, spirits, or specters?"
"...There aren't any at all."
"I see. I wonder where they're lurking."
As I put my hand to my chin and pondered, "Ah," Angelica let out a voice.
"What is it?"
"That's cute. I want to go in there."
Did she find a sweets shop? While thinking such idyllic thoughts, I turned my face toward where Angelica was pointing. At the tip of her slender index finger, an inorganic landscape spread out. Gray buildings. A shabby parking lot. A pink castle.
Among these, something a girl would describe as "cute" would be...
That, right.
A fancy building with a peach-colored roof, standing out from the gray townscape. It was an exterior that looked like a mix of a medieval castle and modern architecture. Angelica's finger was locked onto it, no matter how you looked at it.
"That roof is cute. I want to try going there. Ahaha, I'm not angry anymore, Father. Part of why I was pouting was because I got tired from walking while sensing."
I looked through the sign standing next to the castle.
Fashion Hotel, Amariris.
Service time, weekdays 6:00 to 9:00, 6 hours for 3,560 yen. For two people.
"Is this a place to take a break? It's just right, so why don't we rest for a bit? Hey, hey. Let's rest and make up. ...W-Why do you have a face like you're suffering from a mortal sin?"
Listen, Ange.
You're probably only being so carefree because you don't know.
This is what's called a love hotel.
A teenage girl shouldn't be pointing at a place like this and frolicking in broad daylight. Especially with an old guy like me, with our arms entwined. In this situation, which wafts an atmosphere like we're arriving for a shift together!
"Fathe—r. Let's play here—"
"Anywhere else is fine, I'll even take you to an amusement park. So please, just not here!"
"Why? It's fine, isn't it? Hey, Papa—"
"Calling me that in front of that hotel is not a joke, okay!? Why did you suddenly switch to calling me Papa!?"
"Eh, I thought I'd be more successful at begging that way. Are you bad with being called Papa?"
I hurriedly pulled Angelica's hand and left the place with all my might. When I checked my phone, the time was past ten. It was the time when most shops open.
"Let's go to a bookstore. They have chairs, so you can rest."
I called out to Angelica, who seemed to have completely regained her good mood.
"Books? Is it okay? Aren't they luxury items?"
"Over here, paper isn't a precious commodity."
When I returned to Japan, the first thing I did was gather information. What happened between 2000 and 2017? What is the current common sense? I remember wanting to know that so badly. I thought Angelica must be in the same mood.
"You're curious about a lot of things, right? About this place. Let's buy some books that might be helpful."
"As expected of someone with experience being summoned to another world. You understand."
I have various books in my room too, but I don't know if they can meet the needs of Angelica, who is almost a medieval person. The books needed by me, who only had to fill seventeen years of knowledge, and Angelica, who has to fill a gap of nearly several centuries, would be different.
I thought about having her study on the internet, but that might have bad influences too. With Ange's personality, she'd definitely search for weird videos. Also, I don't want her to see the image folders on my computer. So, books.
"A country where books are cheap is a strange one. Does paper fall like snow?"
"I don't have enough knowledge to talk about the development of printing technology and so on. Anyway, let's go. You might be able to look that up too."
I proceeded down the road with Angelica leaning against me.
We crossed the intersection and came out onto a road slightly off the main street.
"Are the people decreasing gradually?"
"The shop we're going to now is what you'd call a hidden gem."
The shop I'm about to go to isn't that large.
It's a secondhand bookstore run by an individual, which is rare these days, and its name is Otsuki Books. It has many finds, and the prices are reasonable, so I like it. The interior is tasteful too, so I thought Angelica might like it.
Just as I was having such pleasant imaginations, there was a sensation that dampened them. Angelica suddenly stopped and pulled my sleeve hard.
"It seems like it's here."
I asked what was.
"It's an incredibly evil existence, this."
"The real deal appeared?"
Angelica, who was breaking out in a cold sweat, didn't have her usual brightness.
"...This feeling, it's very disgusting. I wonder what it is. I feel like even if you boiled down a demon, it wouldn't be like this."
"Where is it?"
"Over there," Angelica pointed with a trembling finger at a certain shop. That was exactly the place I was about to head to now. Yes, Otsuki Books.
"You've got to be kidding me."
The hidden gem I found. My hiding place. My healing spot. An evil so great that it gets caught in the sensing skill is lurking there.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes," Angelica nodded.
"The presence is a bit different from a spiritual body... but still, I don't think we can leave this much malice alone, no matter what."
"...Even if it's not a ghost, that person might be the culprit."
"There's a possibility they're controlling the dead with some suspicious art."
I didn't want to think about it. That bookstore has been very kind to me. I'm a strange customer who only wants to know about the history of the Heisei era for some reason. Responding to such special needs, they ordered various books for me.
"Is it really... that place?"
I felt the strength drain from my entire body.
"Let's go."
Urged by Angelica, I proceeded with the gait of a ghost. With every step, my body grew colder.
Otsuki Books is a modest shop made by renovating a part of the owner's home. The owner is a refined lady, and her only daughter, Ayako-chan, also helps out in the shop sometimes. It's a small neighborhood bookstore protected by a mother and daughter huddled together.
They probably aren't seeking profit. I heard the owner's husband is a university professor, and they can eat well enough on his earnings. She laughed jokingly, saying she was just lining up books her husband no longer read. It's likely a shop kept as a hobby. It has a cuteness like a little girl's game of playing shop being carried out on an adult scale.
Someone broke such a warm place. —Unforgivable.
Driven by righteous indignation, I stepped into the shop.
"...Welcome... Nakamoto-san. It's been a while."
Inside the smell of old paper, a single drop of flower fragrance. This soft, halting way of speaking is Ayako-chan. I see, she's acting as the shopkeeper today too. This is the worst. Why at a time like this? It's winter break, so it was possible. But I didn't want to think about it.
"My mother stocked more books on Heisei history."
Ayako-chan, who smiled gracefully, was so thin she looked like she'd fall over if pushed. Under the bangs covering her eyes, surprisingly large eyes were hidden. There was a swell that made one think her figure might be good under her apron too, but now was not the time for that.
(Father, it's this girl.)
Angelica whispered in my ear. ...What. This bookstore clerk, only seventeen years old, who can't even meet people's eyes—is hiding an evil as if a demon were boiled down?
"There's no way. It's some kind of mistake."
"But the sensing is reacting to that person! What is this! She's a human, but she doesn't feel like a human!"
"Oh, that girl is...?" Ayako-chan also showed interest in Angelica with her usual whispery voice. It's no wonder, with a foreigner making such a fuss inside the shop.
"Father, hurry and use Appraisal."
"...But..."
"Hurry! If you don't, I'll launch a preemptive strike on that girl with sorcery!"
"...Alright."
With a trembling voice, I muttered, "[Status Open]." A vertically long window, the likes of which I had never seen before, was displayed. There was even a scroll bar on the side.
That's how long the remarks column was.
It's as if it has to inform me of a threat in a long text. Are you really—the mastermind of the ghost disturbance?
【Name】 Ayako Otsuki
【Level】 1
【Class】 High School Girl / Bookstore Clerk
【HP】 50
【MP】 0
【Attack】 40
【Defense】 40
【Agility】 40
【Magic Attack】 0
【Magic Defense】 60
【Skill】 Father Complex (Madness)
【Remarks】 A girl who loves books. She has almost no combat power and is harmless.
However, her inner self is broken, and until last year, she was in love with her biological father.
Because she understood that it was an unforgivable love, she never revealed it to anyone.
Currently, because she met Keisuke Nakamoto, who is a spitting image of her father in his youth, he has become the new object of her unrequited love.
Her recent favorite delusion is to use Keisuke's scratchy, stubbly jaw as a washcloth to wash her body.
Her dream is to one day drug Keisuke until he suffers aftereffects and toy with him.
Yesterday, too, she violated Keisuke in an immoral imagination, the contents of which are as follows:
'Ahaha. Father Keisuke is a bad person who gets turned on by his daughter.
Even though he knows this is wrong, is he looking at me as a woman?
It's okay. Lay a hand on a minor and get dismissed from your job, okay?
It's okay, because Father Keisuke would surely look cool even if he appeared in the social section of the newspaper.
I'll clip that out and save it.
Then I'll paste my own photo next to it and make a lovey-dovey two-shot of a parent and child.
Look, look! Get dismissed and become a courtroom sketch! I'll collect lots of courtroom sketches of Father and make a wallpaper just for me!
Then I can feel Father, who is in prison, even inside the house.
When you get out, let's register our marriage on the spot.
If Father has a criminal record and can't get a proper job anymore, I can rest easy because other women won't come near him.
So hurry up and have a relationship with me, and get arrested! Father, Father, Father, my Father Keisuke.'
I collapsed while closing the window.
Where in this is she harmless?