Although Yoshino Kenichi agreed with his Captain's words in his heart... some things aren't simply understood and then accepted.
Yoshino Kenichi lowered his head, sadness clouding his young face. "But, Meihai is dead."
Nagayama Keiichiro sighed.
He finally mentioned him.
He knew Shida Meihai; he was a young lad who had just come from the army. Like Yoshino Kenichi, he had neat short hair and was very skilled in close-quarters combat.
Fortunately and unfortunately, the reason he joined the Ritualist Special Service Unit was that he had encountered an order-side ritual object.
And it was very compatible with him.
Nagayama Keiichiro remembered that he had met Shida Meihai very few times. The last time was at the 'Ritual Institute'.
At that time, he was carrying a tiny camouflage bag containing a change of clothes and daily necessities, standing inside the iron fence, showing eight teeth in a silly grin at him.
"Big Brother Nagayama! When I promote to Origin Point, I'll apply to transfer to your team and help you along with that guy Yoshino!"
That was what Shida Meihai had said.
Yoshino Kenichi, who was beside him, had jokingly asked: when others promote, because they have to stay in the Ritual Institute for at least a month, they all bring large bags of luggage. Why did you only bring a small hand-held cloth bag?
Shida Meihai's answer back then was something Nagayama Keiichiro still remembered vividly.
He said: "Using the 'Contact Method' only takes a month. Besides, doesn't the Ritual Institute provide food and drink? Hahahaha. After I promote, I'll be moved to the observation zone for the following month. When the time comes, I'll need Kenichi to bring me some manga and stuff."
"Of course, if I don't succeed..."
The big Boy still showed that unchanging smile. "If I don't succeed, there won't be a subsequent one-month observation period. I still won't need that much luggage anyway."
Yoshino Kenichi told him to stomp his feet and spit a few times—'ptui, ptui, ptui'—to ward off bad luck.
Their silly actions drew side-glances from the armed guards at the gate. Then, the two of them laughed and high-fived each other through the iron fence.
That loud clap of the high-five now felt like a slap on both their faces.
"Meihai..."
Nagayama Keiichiro coughed a few times and reached out to take one of the suitcases from Yoshino Kenichi's hand. "This is your first lesson. You might have taken many classes before—on how to face Chaos, how to adjust your spirit, how to get along with your partner in the team, and so on. But none of those were it."
"This is your first lesson, Deputy Yoshino Kenichi. Lesson one: Facing parting."
Nagayama Keiichiro pulled the suitcase, the swivel wheels making a dull rolling sound on the stone path.
The man looked up at the sky. The afterglow of the setting sun spilled onto his profile, and his shadow was carried by the dark red light, gradually lengthening. On the street, silence and solemnity clashed with the wordless clamor.
"We are all a group of lucky and unlucky people. When you joined the special service team, I think they must have asked you, right?"
Yoshino Kenichi nodded. "'Fight Chaos, maintain order?'"
Nagayama Keiichiro shook his head with disdain. "That kind of rhetoric is just for show, just to build a moral high ground so we can stand on it at certain moments."
"Just like that bastard fat guy Fukuyama's lectures—'Life is not just about money.' Yeah, because poor people with no money don't have time to bother with him or listen to his affectations."
"Don't be brainwashed by those 'correct' words. Behind absolute correctness lies the power that allows it to remain absolute."
"Our true purpose is simply self-preservation..."
Nagayama Keiichiro sighed. "To protect ourselves, protect our families, and protect everything important. Including... the people living in this country."
He tapped Yoshino Kenichi's forehead with a rough finger. "Question: Besides slowly absorbing mystery, holding order rituals, and repelling Chaos, what other ways are there for order promotion?"
Yoshino Kenichi replied blankly, "None? When I was taught, the instructor only mentioned those three."
Nagayama Keiichiro's words held a deeper meaning. "I'm saying, are there any others that you've thought of yourself?"
Yoshino Kenichi scratched his head and spoke a bit sheepishly, "I have actually pondered one method. Since we need Chaos to promote and to quickly increase our power—rather than that excessively slow method of absorbing mystery..."
"Then, could we..."
He cautiously looked at the profile of the man walking straight. "Could we... raise some Chaos? Or, cooperate?"
Nagayama Keiichiro did not scold him loudly as he had expected. He just remained silent for a while, and then spoke expressionlessly, "I've asked this question before, as have many others. Many people like you and me have asked it too."
The instructor said: To think so is to have already fallen into the trap of Chaos.
After saying that, he turned his head to look at his deputy. "What do you think?"
Yoshino Kenichi thought about it and agreed. "Right, wouldn't that make us no different from Chaos? Being addicted to power, harming ordinary people, forcing them to experience Chaos, and then killing them... isn't that just a sacrifice?"
Nagayama Keiichiro interrupted his deputy's rambling with a light chuckle. "Is it?"
Yoshino Kenichi looked at his meaningful Captain, somewhat incredulous. "Could it be... could it be that..."
Nagayama Keiichiro neither confirmed nor denied; he simply spoke in a declarative tone. "I don't know. I'm just a bit suspicious."
"Because order is always order, but people are not necessarily so."
The two of them conversed intermittently as they passed through the flowing crowd.
The evening streets were flashing with neon lights. Many young people were with their partners, and some even younger ones who looked like students were huddled together intimately, vanishing into the entrance of some hotel in an instant.
Yoshino Kenichi was still stunned by what his Captain had said, finding it hard to believe.
But thinking it over carefully, he felt those high-level officials might actually do it. But... what did it have to do with him? People who haven't experienced Chaos will always think of various ways—like playing a game—to perform so-called 'level-up guides'.
But as a 「Contactee」, and a Chaos Contactee at that, he understood Chaos very well.
It was not a single deity or a group of monsters.
No, Chaos and order were not individually directional.
They were a set of rules.
A set of rules composed of a massive cluster of knowledge that humans could not accept. More than half a year ago, he had almost died under those rules.
What does it feel like to be infected by Chaos?
Before joining the special service team, Yoshino Kenichi was a SWAT officer.
He had once asked a colleague of his, a narcotics officer, to take him into a drug rehabilitation center for an investigation.
The results of the investigation aside, in short, he had made a vague calculation:
If the feeling of a high is 1, then when he was infected by Chaos, that sweetness of knowledge, that feeling of frantic sucking to the peak... that moment was probably around 10,000.
Yes, ten thousand times.
Even children born in modern society know how crazy addicts are, and they know to stay away from them.
So, what about chaos that's ten thousand times more addictive, more controlling, and more insane than that?
Yoshino Kenichi believed that unless the higher-ups had lost their minds, they would never try to breed chaos or allow it to spread unchecked.
This wasn't some simple level-grinding game; this was about wiping out the entire human race.
—Yoshino Kenichi was still young; he didn't yet understand that human madness is far more sinister than the madness brought by mystery knowledge.
He pulled his suitcase and followed behind the Captain.
As the two passed the corner of the inn, Yoshino Kenichi suddenly caught sight of a Boy.
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