Chapter 20: Behind-the-Scenes Strategy Meeting

After the public strategy meeting, naturally, there was also a strategy meeting behind the scenes.

There were a few more things I needed to tell him.

Our usual spot behind the school building.

I exhaled white smoke into the blue sky, enveloped in the sense of liberation that came from finally being done with that cramped meeting.

As expected, smoking after work is the best.

After waiting a little while as I smoked, the protagonist came over.

The first thing he did was ask me a question.

"Raika, is what you wanted to talk about maybe Hibari and Victoria?"

I gave the protagonist a small nod as he asked me right away.

"Good guess. You noticed something was off about the two of them during the meeting, right?"

"Yeah. ...I think it started after we heard about the Yakujin."

As expected, apparently he's pretty good at being considerate of other people's feelings.

"Well, you're probably right. ...Since it'll probably be necessary going forward, I'll tell you what I left out about the 'Yakujin' earlier."

I crushed the now-short cigarette against the ashtray and lit a second one.

"You've seen the news and social media, right? About how Tokyo residents, the evacuees who lost their homes, are being discriminated against within the country?"

Tokyo residents are treated like nuisances in the places where they've been evacuated.

There are simply too many of them to begin with, and on top of that, they've become the target of rumors and prejudice.

After confirming the protagonist gave a small nod at my words, I took a drag from my cigarette.

"The most fundamental cause of all that is the Yakujin. The Yakujin, the embodiment of the concepts of impurity and disease. A rumor spread that Tokyo residents who were attacked by it and survived were carrying diseases and an unknown form of 'impurity.'"

Strictly speaking, the essence of the Yakujin isn't the plague itself, but rather people's fear of disease.

In reality, thorough examinations conducted by the government have confirmed that people affected by the Yakujin aren't carrying any diseases or anything of the sort.

For one thing, most of the Tokyo residents who came into contact with the Yakujin died on the spot. Its powerful toxicity was simply too much for ordinary people, who weren't Bluffer, to withstand.

After I gave him a brief explanation like that, the protagonist's expression grew troubled.

"...So Hibari and Victoria are survivors who came into contact with that Yakujin?"

"Yeah. They probably had greater resistance than the other residents because they're compatible with Bluffer. Before coming here, they were taken in by an evacuation zone. Naturally, they must have been subjected to discriminatory treatment countless times."

I knew that all too well. Even now, I could remember the tragic past the two of them had in the original story.

People threw stones at them, hurled words of contempt at them, and even sent threatening letters to their homes.

Those experiences were far too harsh for teenage girls to endure.

"The Yakujin can probably be defeated. At least by you guys, who managed to defeat an amorphous god without letting anyone die. You guys even managed to change fate itself, so I'm sure you can do it. But whether you can save Hibari and Victoria's hearts is a completely different matter."

"You're saying that saving their hearts is my responsibility, Raika?"

"...Yeah, I suppose so. I think you're the most suitable person for it. ...I'm sorry that I'm trying to leave everything to you again."

I covered up my guilt over leaving everything to him by taking another drag from my cigarette.

It should have been the same thing, yet it tasted different.

Ah. This is what cigarettes tasted like back when I worked at the bank.

"As for the details, hear them directly from the girls themselves. It'll be easier for you to understand that way."

"But I'll have to hear about their painful pasts, right?"

At the protagonist's serious gaze, I straightened my collar slightly.

"Of course. If you can avoid hearing it, that's probably for the best. However, if a Bluffer and an Anchor are going to synchronize, mutual understanding is a path you can't avoid. You still can't perform Bluffer Wearing using the power of those two, can you? The more cards you have in your hand, the better. You never know who might die just like that."

"Well, if we'd left you alone, you probably would've gone and died on your own anyway."

At his reproachful look, I turned my face away and put the cigarette between my lips.

That was an awkward thing to be told. Especially after getting chewed out by Hazuki until I nearly died.

"A-anyway. ...Painful experiences often have a major impact on the bluff that serves as the source of a Bluffer's power. If you avoid understanding that, then 'Perfect Synchronization' will remain nothing more than a pipe dream."

If things proceeded according to what I knew from the original story, Perfect Synchronization with Victoria would be essential to defeating the Yakujin.

That was the kind of story Chapter Two of Bluff of Girls was.

After the second, smoke-filled strategy meeting came to an end, I headed up to the rooftop.

I wanted to feel the wind and think about what Raika had told me.

The rooftop of Gensou High School was basically always deserted. It was cramped and there was nothing up there, so that was only natural.

Hazuki used to practice her sword swings here while trying to stay out of people's sight, but recently, she hadn't been coming here.

Perhaps something had changed within her.

Thinking that I could be alone here, I came up to the rooftop, only to be surprised by the sight of a girl standing before me.

"Huh, Hibari?"

The girl gazing at the distant scenery through the fence was Hibari Kibougaoka.

"Oh, it's Shota! What are you doing up here?"

"Well, it's not like I came here for any particular reason. What about you, Hibari? Why are you here?"

I usually pictured Hibari chatting and laughing in crowded places, so running into her here was unexpected.

"I just wanted to think about something for a bit. I know it's not really like me to do this, though."

Despite her lighthearted tone, her expression wasn't cheerful.

"...Are you worried about something regarding Raika's plan to defeat the Yakujin?"

Come to think of it, she'd seemed strange ever since the meeting. Her expression had been stiff, as if she had something weighing heavily on her mind.

"Nope, it's nothing!"

Hibari smiled. I stared intently at that smile before telling her:

"That's a lie. When there's really nothing wrong, Hibari, you don't smile like that."

"...!"

Hibari's smile twisted.

"Ahaha... Are you trying to say you can see right through everything? —That side of you, Shota, is pretty arrogant, you know."

She laughed again after using such harsh words. But it was different from her smile before. It was an empty smile, hollow like an abandoned temple.

"That might be true. But I can't just leave Hibari standing right in front of me while she's putting on a brave face."

"...Did you get that pushiness from Raika-chan? ...But I don't dislike that side of you all that much."

She sighed and let her expression go blank. It was an expression that didn't suit her cheerful personality at all.

"You won't gain anything from hearing me talk."

"I don't mind."

I wanted to hear Hibari's feelings.

Not because Raika had told me to, but because that was what I genuinely felt in my heart.

She easily told me about her past.

How the Yakujin appeared and drove her from the place where she lived. How, as a Tokyo resident affected by the Yakujin, she was subjected to discriminatory treatment. How Victoria had gone through the same thing.

For the most part, it was exactly as Raika had told me.

Still, I felt relieved that I had been able to hear about her past directly from her.

"—Do you know the word utsusemi?"

"You mean a cicada's discarded shell?"

At my answer, Hibari gave an empty laugh.

"That's right. The shell left behind after it molts. Everything inside is completely gone, leaving behind nothing but an outer shell shaped like a living creature. —That's what I am. Hibari Kibougaoka."

She fell silent for a moment and looked into the distance.

"I'm carrying everyone's hopes on my shoulders. Everyone back home entrusted their expectations to me. They believed that, because I'd been blessed with talent as a Bluffer, I would avenge our homeland. That's my shell. —But the person inside, the real me, never changed at all."

Her eyes were an empty darkness as she said that.

"Everyone back home is still suffering even now. They've lost the place where they were supposed to live, and they're lying there beneath the weight of people's contempt. And even so, they still believe. They believe that I'll defeat the monster that destroyed our homeland and take back the place that's so precious to us. That they haven't lost yet. ...But there's no way I can do that."

Her words were timid. They had no apparent basis, yet they carried the weight of something backed by undeniable evidence.

I silently waited for her to continue.

"I can't do anything on my own. I'm not as smart as Raika-chan or Mana-chan, and I don't have the strength that Hazuki-chan has. ...I'm just an empty shell, after all. The only thing I have is this desire to be of some use to everyone back home. There's nothing inside me. I can't accomplish anything like this. I can't defeat that monster."

"..."

It would have been easy to tell her, "That's not true."

But I didn't know enough about Hibari's true self to casually deny what she was saying.

Sensing the awkward silence, Hibari eventually stopped wearing that empty, shell-like expression and returned to her usual cheerful self.

"...Just kidding, just kidding! There's no way I'd actually think something like that! Well, I'm gonna go now!"

She spun around and smiled brightly, and I couldn't bring myself to stop her.

"...Ah, maybe asking me to listen to a girl's problems really is too much for me, Raika."

I looked up at the sky, overwhelmed by a sense of helplessness.

I had absolutely no idea how I was supposed to save Hibari's heart.