Those who fly too close to the sun eventually fall down.

  “That bitch…” Iroha and Miyuki were leaving school together again. That was what Ayumu saw as she muttered to herself. She used to be the undisputed beauty in class, and that popularity hadn’t faded. She was someone Iroha liked at some point, someone out of her reach, and someone who caused her to retreat into her shell.

  “What? What did you see?” Behind her was another girl. One of the many who seemed to live just to please her. “Ughh… It’s those two… They’re off again in their own little world, huh?”

  “Like, it’s her fault for transferring so close to summer vacation. She should have waited. Of course she’s not gonna fit in.” A second girl spoke up, causing yet another girl to respond.

  “The other two are even worse. Carol and Katja, right? But they’re kinda weird, so I’m not so sure. Right, Ayumu?”

  The brown-haired girl didn’t respond right away. She turned her back and walked away from the window. “*Sighh…* Whatever you say. I couldn’t care less.” She waved dismissively. “Let’s do karaoke again today. I can’t with anything else right now.”

  After getting on a bus, Miyuki and I went south towards the coast. We got off in a denser part of the city. It wasn’t the densest, like to the east, where we took Ririna, but it was denser than the places we usually frequented.

  It’s around here that a lot of people come to have fun. Maybe a little more to the west along the coast. There’s a massive water park at some point that goes crazy during the summer with lots of shops and other things around. Actually, maybe it’s been going crazy already. I know a lot of people don’t wait till summer to go for a swim.

  But we weren’t going quite that far south or west. We stopped in the still somewhat normal part of Three Records, where work got done and people were found not roaming around. Our normal.

  “So… Don’t you have anything to say?” I poked Miyuki with my elbow as we walked side by side. “I really wouldn’t mind an explanation. Someone’s gonna die? Wanna take a look? That’s not the best way to make an invitation, you know?”

  “Ahahaha!” Miyuki wiggled playfully. “But you don’t even care, right? You came with me even without me saying anything. You’re so cute, Iroha.”

  “I see… The program for today is teasing while keeping me in the dark. Very funny…” I’ll get my revenge at some point… “*Sigh…* But seriously, someone’s gonna die? Since when can you see things like that?”

  Miyuki grinned. “What? Now you’re complaining about the future I see? Would you prefer me to ask about your latest girlfriend? The fourth one? Or do you count me in and call her the fifth?”

  “Wha- what?! You even know about that?!” How the hell did she find out about Sarasa? She’s becoming a pro at messing with me.

  Miyuki laughed at my reaction, but I just ignored her. “What I meant was, why would you bring this to me? I don’t wanna be mean, but lots of people die every day. I didn’t know we were in the business of saving random people. Is that really us?”

  “Geez… Do you really think I would tell you this for no reason? It’s the cause. If you don’t do something, a monster’s gonna kill someone. If I remember correctly, preventing that is supposed to be your job, isn’t it?”

  “A monster?! There’s a monster in the city?” I feel a bit silly for not taking her seriously now.

  “Yep! It’s right here!” Miyuki stopped and gestured towards a nearby building. It looked like a small museum or an art gallery squeezed between two big apartment buildings. ‘Indefinitely closed for maintenance’ appeared written on a sign hanging from the door.

  “There’s a monster in there? Well, with that sign there, I can believe it. But it’s closed.”

  “Yeah… The truth is, someone was already attacked. There’s an institution that deals with things like this, but they’re all busy. So for now, they shut it down.” Miyuki walked with a leisurely pace as she explained. She must be referring to the PSF… Miyuki turned around with a playful look. “So let’s go inside.”

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  “Huh? You wanna trespass? That’s a crime.”

  “No… Getting caught is a crime.” Great… Now she fancies herself a law expert…

  “Do you really think it’s that simple? These places have cameras inside.” Seriously, she’s a bit too unhinged sometimes.

  “Not a problem, Iroha. They wanna keep monsters a secret, so they shut off the cameras. Something about minimizing the creation of physical evidence.” She put on a silly, manly voice like she was quoting someone. “No need to break any doors either. We can get in through the roof, so pick me up and get scaling.”

  “You’re surprisingly well informed for this…” Suspiciously so… I approached her to grab her but stopped. “Wait, you’re coming too? I thought you were deathly afraid of monsters.”

  “Was that what I said?” She tilted her head. “The last thing I want is to go to a world that’s filled with monsters. That’s what I said. This just feels like a haunted house. No big deal. Besides…” Miyuki leaned forward and took a few steps forward, looking at me with puppy eyes. “No matter what happens, you’ll protect me, won’t you?”

  Guhh… She’s too cute… “Alright… Just hold on.” I swept her off her feet, and she squealed before wrapping her arms around my neck. Seriously? I tried to look away and carried her into the alley.

  …

  “Should be this one…” With a slow creak, a door opened into the gallery. We stepped inside after descending multiple sets of stairs and finding the right floor.

  “It’s dark in here… Don’t they have any windows here?” Miyuki took a look around in the darkness. There was some light near the stairs, so we weren’t completely blind. But as soon as the door closed, that would be gone. And the door was one of those that liked closing automatically.

  “I can light up the place. Give me a second.” I took out my phone and turned on the flashlight. The door behind us closed, and a picture in front of us with a red river painted on it got lit up.

  “This is exciting, Iroha… It’s my first time doing anything like this…” Miyuki had a phone too, so she held hers up like me. She went off exploring on her own, and I followed behind her. I took an extra step forward. By her side, actually. I gotta stick close to her. “Wanna do something naughty?”

  “…” Yes…? “You can be a little more serious, you know? Isn’t there a monster around?”

  “I dunno… Maybe I lied just to bring you somewhere dark.”

  “You’re joking…”

  “Ahahahahahaha! I am… There should be a monster here, but I don’t really know where. The place is not that big, so we should find it just by taking a look around.” Is that so…? I let out a sigh, and we started exploring.

  I kept my guard up for both of us, so we didn’t talk much. This was an art gallery, so naturally, there were paintings hanging on every wall. They weren’t the only thing around, as there were display stands with vases, pots, and even a few statues. The only thing we hadn’t seen was a monster.

  “We’re almost back to the beginning. Have you seen any-?” Suddenly, Miyuki’s light turned off. “Miyuki?!”

  “Oops… I accidentally turned it off… Sorry, Iroha, ahahaha… Can you give me some light?” Seriously? She fiddled with her phone and quickly turned the light on again. “We’re back!” She almost gave me a heart attack, yet she’s laughing… At least nothing happened…

  We finally looked up and illuminated the path ahead of us. There, was a statue of a green, goofy-looking creature with two legs, and two heads and jagged jaws. “You gotta be more careful… We almost bumped into a statue…”

  “Iroha…” Miyuki’s face went pale. “I don’t think that’s a statue…”

  “Huh?”

  *Thump thump thump!* The next moment, the creature rushed forward.

  “KYAAAAH!!” Miyuki started running right away. Something so big moving all of a sudden startled me and caused me to stumble. What a fucking jumpscare…

  “Wha- what the hell is that?!” I asked in a daze while running beside her. We gotta find somewhere to hide and wait for it to pass… Is there a locker somewhere?

  “More like, what the hell are you doing?” Miyuki panted exasperatedly. “Why are you running with me instead of fighting it?”

  Oh, right… This isn’t a horror game. Burst Dash!

  I jumped off a nearby wall to land a kick on the monster. It didn’t do any damage, but it stopped the charge. I passed the phone to my left hand and extended my sword. It doesn’t seem that strong…

  “Whew… Finally… I was getting tired of running…”

  “Sorry… I’ll handle things from here. Don’t get too close.”

  The monster looked like a two-headed dinosaur on two legs and with no arms. The heads were connected through long necks, and I couldn’t see anything like eyes on the monster. The skin, too, seemed to lack details.

  I was close enough for its heads to reach me. Jaws opened wide and lunged forward to try and bite me. Once, twice… It wasn’t too fast, and I dodged them both.

  “There!” I followed the second dodge with a hit to one of the necks and wounded it quite easily. It’s pretty weak. I can probably finish it right away.

  I was too close to get bitten again, so the monster flailed with one of its heads to knock me away. I was easily able to block, then Slash Flurry! A thick cut appeared on its neck, and one of the heads fell to the floor with a wet thump.

  “Grooooarh!” Losing one of the heads caused the monster to stagger and let out a roar.

  Now, is it going to try to regrow its head? Do I need to cut off the other before it can do that? I didn’t have time to test out my theory as the monster charged forward, biting multiple times in a blind rage. Well… I guess I can just get this over with… Heart Piercer! My sword pierced its neck again. “And now…” Slash Flurry! I rapidly twisted my blade, and the second head hit the floor right after.

  The monster stopped moving and fell down. Looks like it’s dead… Seeing the monster down, Miyuki approached, and we both looked down at the body.

  “Phase 2?”

  “Shut up! Don’t even joke about that!” I managed to stop the monster from even going near her, so Miyuki’s fine. But isn’t she enjoying this way too much? “Shouldn’t you be at least a bit more scared?”

  “Why? You said you’d protect me.” Huh…? Fair enough…

  “Well… The monster’s dead, so the death you saw shouldn’t happen anymore, right?” Miyuki nodded. “What do we do now then? Can we just leave, or should we clean this up somehow?”

  Before Miyuki could suggest anything, the monster’s body started glowing. We were completely blinded, then heard a piece of wood hit the floor. When our vision returned, the body of the monster was gone, and in its place was a painting.

  “No way… This is just like…” The lizard in the cruise ship… It turned into a mirror after it died… It’s not exactly the same, but…

  The painting had abstract art on it. There was a green spot that kinda looked like the monster I fought if I squinted hard enough… Did the monster come from the painting?

  “Uhmm… Is that normal, Iroha? Did the monster turn into a painting?” Miyuki tilted her head.

  “I don’t think so…” It’s not the first time, but I don’t know what to make of it…

  “Either way, if it’s just a painting, we can leave it behind, can’t we? Let’s leave.”

  “Yeah… Before something happens…” The painting might contain some information, but I don’t know if I can just take it… I’ll keep it in mind, though.

  …

  We left the gallery, went up the stairs, and returned to the freeing rooftop. “Feels good to see some light again…” Miyuki walked around freely, savoring the small breeze from the rooftop.

  “Ahahaha… It really does.”

  “We did a good deed today, didn’t we, Iroha?” Miyuki stretched with a pleased look on her face… A good deed, huh?

  “You mean trespassing?”