Chapter 18 – Foreshadowing Recovery That Wasn’t Even Foreshadowing

“Yoo~ Thanks for all your hard work~”

“…………Eh?”

I felt bad for Sudou Karma-san, who’d been groggy in the infirmary the entire day. Couldn’t be helped, so I decided to drop the bomb. I poked my head into the infirmary and smiled at her.

“Yo.”

“p-pokijuhygtfr desu~aaaaaaaaahhhhhh!!!”

Well, obviously she couldn’t form actual words. She pointed at me with a deathly pale face and wide pupils. Makes sense—she literally stabbed my carotid yesterday, so seeing my face would make anyone think they’re seeing a ghost.

“Yikes! I’m hallucinating! I’ve really lost it this bad?!”

She dove under the bed covers, saying goodbye to reality. No way in hell I was letting that happen.

“?”

The school nurse looked at me, pointed at Sudou Karma-san with her left hand, and twirled her right finger near her temple. She clearly wanted to ask if the girl had gone crazy. I understood exactly what was going on with Sudou Karma-san’s mental state though.

“Ooo… eee…”

Another wave of nausea hit Sudou Karma-san and she dry-heaved. But there was nothing left in her stomach, so nothing came out.

“It’s fine. You’re not hallucinating. I’m really alive.”

“B-but… but… then that was…”

“Not a dream either. I bled so much my uniform was ruined, so I had to come to school in a tracksuit instead. Anyway, let’s go.”

“Go where…?”

“Obviously to get stabbed. Your treat.”

“I don’t mind but… I really don’t want anything in my stomach right now.”

“I’m still alive so it’s not murder. Let’s take it easy.”

“That’s… true.”

And so I took the staggering Sudou Karma-san’s hand and walked out of school against the flow of students. The sight of us holding hands was apparently too much for the school to ignore.

“The fallen love angel…”

“Is holding hands with Fushimi…”

“With the Moon Shadow Goddess too, right?”

“Can I kill her?”

Even if they killed her she wouldn’t die.

“So what exactly are you, senpai?”

We left school and went to a coffee shop. Across from Sudou Karma-san, who ordered some mysterious drink called whatever-peachino, I drank my black coffee.

“You can tell from the name, right?”

“Fushimi… Nevada…”

“Fushimi is a play on ‘fujimi’—immortal. Nevada is short for Never Die.”

So Fushimi Nevada, the Immortal Neverdie.

“Did your parents name you that?”

“Nah? I just needed a name on paper so I picked something random.”

That’s pretty fucked up when you think about it. Fushimi is whatever, but Nevada was definitely a joke.

“So that means, senpai, you’re…”

“Unkillable, yeah.”

“…………”

She was clearly thinking “What the hell are you talking about?” Not that I cared.

“So even if I stab you, you won’t die?”

“Well, a knife at least can’t kill me.”

Not completely immortal though.

“So that’s why you were so relaxed back then…”

Her condition seemed to be recovering little by little. Sudou Karma-san sipped her peachino while thinking. The reason I was so chill about being murdered was exactly this. Since I don’t die, it doesn’t count as murder.

“You’re not going to… get revenge or anything?”

“I’m a pacifist, so no.”

Even if I did get payback, violence isn’t my style. There are plenty of other ways, but that’s beside the point.

“I’ve got something I want to ask.”

“Something you want to ask…”

Her eyes were saying “You spared me just for some trivial question?” From my perspective the answer was yes, but it probably felt super weird to her. Normally you’d expect me to stab her back. I just didn’t feel like it.

“You said you’ve killed someone before. What did you mean by…”

I already had a rough idea from side-seeing with rejection vision, but it wasn’t her true intention… something like that. Most likely “killing someone” was a metaphor. She probably caused someone’s death, or was the reason for it. That guilt had become the fishbone stuck in her throat.

“……!”

She gripped the peachino cup so hard it looked like she might crush it, but stopped herself at the last second with pure willpower.

“My family… my mother passed away.”

My condolences.

“My father was so shocked he broke.”

“He used you as an outlet for his sexual frustration, got you pregnant, and because your condition was the worst it ended in a miscarriage?”

“Your intuition is actually scary…”

That miscarriage was what Sudou Karma-san called “murder.” In the sense that she killed a person, it technically was murder… What about the father?

“He was arrested by the police. I live alone now.”

“Ah…”

That’s pretty heavy.

“So you started hating men, fell hard for the cute girl known as the Moon Shadow Goddess—Tokoyami Akira—and tried to interfere with her love life.”