Chapter 38 - Life Support
By the time we arrived at the Otsuki Household, it was nearly nine in the evening.
No lights were on upstairs; only the living room was lit.
According to Ayako-chan, her room was on the second floor.
It wasn't yet a time when a high schooler would be asleep, so perhaps she was relaxing with her family.
...True to her declaration of wanting to pretend nothing happened, this Ayako-chan seemed to be going about her normal daily life.
I pressed the intercom while remaining invisible through Concealment.
Ringing at this hour is inconsiderate, but this was the most amicable method.
After a short while, I heard a "Coming~" along with footsteps.
It was the wife's voice... that is, the voice of the owner of Otsuki Books.
The front door opened.
"Oh my? ...No one's there."
A prank? As the shopkeeper tilted her head in puzzlement, I slipped past her and infiltrated the house.
Angelica and Ayako-chan also entered in the same manner.
The shopkeeper, who must have felt the sensation of people brushing past her, let out a startled cry of "Wind!?"
The three invisible people crept stealthily down the hallway of the Otsuki Household.
The effect of Concealment should have erased our footsteps as well, but we ended up doing it anyway for psychological reasons.
Guided by Ayako-chan, I headed to the living room and approached the other Ayako-chan directly.
A black-haired girl chatting and laughing with her father while watching TV.
No matter how I looked at her, she seemed nothing but human, and that was likely the case.
Status Appraisal. Dispel. I tried every method available to me to investigate.
But as expected, the results suggested she could only be Ayako Otsuki herself.
In other words, there were now two Ayako-chans in the same room. It was an eerie sight.
The presence of another pair of look-alikes only intensified the feeling.
The father conversing amiably with Ayako-chan closely resembled me. So much so that if someone told me he was me twenty years from now, I'd almost believe it.
An artificial duplicate and a natural duplicate. Standing in a space where two types of twins were gathered, my sense of reality began to thin.
"Well then, next is the physical examination~"
As I stood there alone with my head spinning, Angelica stepped forward assertively.
It seemed that examination to determine whether she was a Homunculus was about to begin again.
...Huh?
"You intend to grope Ayako-chan's body right in front of her parents?"
"But I want to get this over with quickly."
"Have you no mercy!?"
"I have it, but it's all directed at Father. I don't have any to spare for other people~"
Saying that, Angelica abruptly thrust her arm into Ayako-chan's collar.
Thinking I shouldn't watch what came next, I closed my eyes.
"...Hyaa!?"
This is bad; I have to block out the sounds too.
I covered both ears with my hands and waited for it to be over.
Several minutes passed.
Feeling a tugging sensation at my hem, I opened my eyes.
"It's finished."
Angelica wore an expression that seemed to say, "I just finished a chore."
But behind her, Ayako-chan was blushing red all the way to her neck, and several buttons of her pajamas had come undone.
The old man who looked exactly like me was coughing awkwardly, looking uncomfortable.
"...Ayako. I don't know what you're thinking, but doing that kind of thing in front of your father is..."
"...I-it's not like that... suddenly, my body, started acting strange..."
While confirming out of the corner of my eye that Ayako-chan had collapsed limply onto the sofa, Angelica announced in a businesslike tone.
"As I thought, she was entirely human. Ayako-san is multiplying. There are two of the same person. There is no longer any doubt about this."
As for the Ayako-chan who had come here with us, she was extremely angry that her other self had been forced to expose such an indecent display in front of her family.
"Think about! Where you are! Please!"
she said, grabbing onto Angelica.
"Even if you say that. I'm already sleepy, and your father is tired too. Don't you want to finish up quickly and go home?"
"P-please think about how you would feel if the same thing were done to you!"
"...To me? ...Hmm. If I were being watched by Father, and a girl touched my body—"
【Angelica's Sexual Arousal has reached 70%】
"—I suppose I'd be excited."
"You monster!"
As Ayako-chan pounded on her, Angelica repeatedly said, "I was wrong, okay?"
"I'm sorry, I said I'm sorry. I just don't really understand. Is having a father hear those kinds of sounds really that embarrassing?"
"Isn't it obvious! It's unthinkable!"
"...? If you're related by blood, isn't it natural to be fine no matter what they see? That's what I learned from books."
"Huh...?"
"I thought anything goes in a family, but there are surprisingly many taboos."
I whispered softly into the still-confused Ayako-chan's ear.
(Sorry. Angelica is, how should I put it... right after she was born, she was taken in by a place like a Convent. She was isolated there the whole time, living communally with women she wasn't related to. She's probably never even seen a real family. Because of that, she doesn't really understand what a household is. Or rather, she barely knows any common sense about the world.)
(...Th-then, she doesn't even know her father's face?)
(That's how it is.)
(No way...!? How is she even alive!?)
(Huh?)
(A girl... is a creature that dies without a father...!? If she goes three days without hearing her father's voice, she'll have trouble breathing...?)
I desperately held back the urge to say, "Isn't that only the type of people with a severe father complex?"
(So, you see, I became a substitute father.)
(...I see... so Nakamoto-san was Angelica-san's life support device...)
Perhaps something had struck a chord with her, as Ayako-chan's eyes had become completely gentle.
She gazed at Angelica with eyes full of compassion. She was even shedding tears.
She murmured quietly to herself, "To think you've lived so well until now, despite circumstances akin to having your lungs torn out."
"What is it? Ayako-san's gaze suddenly became gentle."
"It's that thing called love for humanity. Don't worry about it."
Well, anyway, we had done what we came to do.
We decided to return to the apartment.
"In the end, what was that method for multiplying people that Father mentioned?"
He said something about being able to do it himself, right? Angelica asked as she lay sprawled on the bed.
...Her skirt was flipped up indecently. I fixed it, telling her it was improper.
"But I wouldn't mind if it was Father watching."
"I would."
From the bathroom came the sound of splashing water.
Ayako-chan was taking a shower.
Hazardous material over there, hazardous material over here. Even though it was my own room, I couldn't relax at all.
"How do you multiply them? Please tell me."
Lying on her stomach, Angelica said, turning only her neck to look back.
From her pose to her features, she was exactly like a cat.
"You cut them in half. That's all."
"That's so crude. If people could multiply just by being cut apart, no one would have any troubles."
"But if you wanted to, you could do it. ...It's technically possible, but it's sheer madness."
I took a thousand-yen bill from my wallet and held it up in front of Angelica.
"That's a bill, right? It feels strange that paper serves the role of money."
"It's more convenient than coins. If you're handling large amounts, lighter is better. It's tough walking around carrying a mountain of coins."
"That's true, but... So, what does that flimsy money have to do with this?"
I made a cut of a few millimeters right in the center of the crisp bill.
It made a small ripping sound.
"Is it okay to do that?"
"It's not a good thing. But this level of damage won't stop it from being used."
"What if it's damaged more?"
"If more than two-thirds of the surface area remains, you can exchange it for a proper one at the bank."
It would be bad if they didn't set a limit on the area, I said.
"I didn't know that when I was a kid. I'd just caught wind that torn bills could simply be exchanged for new ones at the bank. So I was convinced that if I cut one exactly in half, they'd replace both halves with new ones, and I could get two bills from one. When I told my mother about it, she laughed at me. She said it had to be more than two-thirds intact."
"...From one to two, you say."
So, I continued.
"Back when I was a Hero, I once had my head cut off. I survived because I'd cast the automatic Recovery Magic 《Regeneration》 beforehand, but it's an experience I never want to repeat."
Magic, you see, processes everything mechanically no matter what you make it do.
For example, suppose there was a person who had been chopped into pieces, yet still barely clung to life.
What happens when you cast Recovery Magic on them?
The "part with the greatest volume" is recognized as the main body, and regeneration begins from that point.
If there's a severed head and a headless torso, the latter is considered the main body.
A new head grows from the torso, and happily, things are back to normal.
"From my subjective experience, it was like this: 'Just as I felt a sharp pain in my neck, my consciousness cut out. The next time I opened my eyes, my own head was lying right in front of me.' ...The one lying there was the old head. I made eye contact with it. I was surprised. I don't even want to think about it, but that one probably had its own ego too. For the brief moment until the severed head died, there were two of me existing in this world."
Perhaps this life of mine, thinking like this right now, actually started from that moment, I even considered.
Because my brain is the second Keisuke Nakamoto, forged by magic.
"Father, why do you seem so unaffected?"
Angelica hugged me tightly, looking like she was about to cry.
I appreciated the sentiment, but it was an event from over ten years ago. I had long since come to terms with it.
"Don't worry about it. All I think now is that it's convenient. ...If you misused this, you could multiply people, right?"
"..."
Angelica said nothing.
"You precisely bisect a human into two equal masses. If you regenerate both with magic, both will be recognized as the 'main body,' and two people will be created."
I recalled experiments with starfish and planarians.
Creatures with such high regenerative ability that cutting them with a scalpel causes them to multiply into two.
"Even if it's possible in theory, no normal person would do it."
"Probably not."
Angelica was rubbing my back.
"Because something like that... it's impossible. A precise, unparalleled cutting method, and the highest rank of Recovery Magic. I've never heard of a monster that possesses both."
"I can't think of one either."
"...The only one who could make those two things compatible is something like a Hero."
But if that were the case, it made sense.
The Divine Sword skill possessed by the Hero produces a Light Sword that severs with light and heat.
If this were used, the wound would be cauterized instantly, and no bleeding would occur.
Perhaps that was why Ayako-chan didn't bleed, despite being slashed from behind.
"There's more than one other world, right? Maybe it's someone summoned to a different dimension... or even the same world, but a different era than mine."
To my words, Angelica replied with a nasal voice.
"A Summoned Hero other than Father?"