Artist's commentary
Karindou 4 Koma Extra Story Pseudo Short Story [Ghostrick Live] 11
Elza, right then, was taking different action from the maids, and acting by herself. Due to a change of opinion and strange point, she was going to attack.
"Elza-sama, doing this is very troublesome! The master is busy, and I've been instructed to only let people those with an appointment meet with him..."
"I'm telling you, I need to talk with him urgently. I'm sorry, but I had planned on making the arrangements, but there's no time for that. Won't you please give up and let me inside? If you won't let me in no matter how much I try, then I'll have no choice but to use my true power to get his attention."
Elza, who was surprisingly pushy, pointed Aeri=al at the middle-aged female servant. Conflicted between her master's orders and Elza's thread, she was so afraid that she turned pale. The servant was someone who had the special ability of telekinesis, but could only slightly move things that were about the size of her palm, so one of the large number of mid-level mages was someone she couldn't hold her own against.
This place that Elza was demanding entrance to from the poor servant who was desperately trying to persuade her with a shaky voice, was the Carmine house, the one who gave Elza the shivers at the social party, the mansion where Ryuuto lives. Without any advance notice, Elza suddenly called upon him, and was trying to force her way in to meet with the master of the house. There were several servants who tried to restrain her, but Elza used magic and made them paralyzed, pass out, or confused by illusions, which lead to the current situation. Since she hadn't used any attack magic, she thought she was being pretty nice, but she was a wizard passing herself off as a mage, some of them were starting to have their eyes roll back, foam at the mouth and convulse, so it was quite persuasive. Her magical power coefficient didn't have a direct effect on the strength of her magic, since she was using magic whose limit was set by the casting ritual, so it wasn't as though it was impossible, but... An average single wizard could output a magical energy coefficient equivalent of several high-level mages, so for Elza, as an average wizard, her magic was 'always very powerful', so so matter what she did, it was overwhelming for an average human.
She didn't come to check if there was some connection between the attackers and Ryuuto, but she wanted to eliminate anything she felt uneasy about, and so that was the purpose of her visit. The reason Elza wasn't included in the rescue team is because, considering the location, a high powered wizard would affect both enemies and allies, and Elza thought that she might "see red" and go wild. More importantly, what she was about to do, to find out whether he had anything to do with the research data with Ran's name in it, or the hotel invasion and Ran's kidnapping, was also crucial. The Schtlehertz family finances the UN anti-demon organization, and similarly the Carmine family contributes their skills, so from that stand point, using force at this early stage wasn't unreasonable (if he wasn't involved in it, it would be be risky from the standpoint of the Schtlehertz family), and depending on the situation, it's possible that might turn into an intellectual competition that would be like throwing invisible daggers at each other. Elza wasn't very good at verbally sparring (They probably were very reluctant), but, even if was angered, as a sly wizard, she was better than the hotheaded Schtlehertz maids. This is how Col convinced her, and since it was pretty clear, Elza reluctantly accepted this role.
The real reason behind this explanation was that if someone was going to suffer, it wouldn't be the maids or Ran, but the mastermind. And if she couldn't be that eloquent, she could dive straight in, so in a certain sense, it might be the right thing to do. In that case, if she joins with the rescue team, it would eliminate an obstacle until Ran is rescued, so it's possible it would completely remove the chance Ran would get caught up in it.
"For the love of God, please forgive me... If I go against his orders, I'll be scolded by the gentle master."
"I'm aware of what I'm asking for. You've explained to me that it's no fault of your own, so be at ease. However, if you are blamed and are fired, I'll put in a good word for you for your next job. So hurry and take me inside. If you don't do it now, then I won't be responsible for your job or your safety."
"T, that's..."
"...Or perhaps, you would like me to use my true power?"
Elza's gentle expression disappeared from her face as she dropped the tone of her voice. She felt her hair standing on end, as though her entire body was surrounded by static electricity. Then she noticed Elza's body was giving off a white glow, with electricity running on it and sparking off to the surroundings.
She finally realized the danger she was in, and the servant gasped, and found herself unable to speak from fear. As she cowered in fear, from behind her, a very nonchalant voice called out.
"Won't you please stop tormenting my servants so much? Everyone here are defenseless humans, including myself."
"..."
Moving her gaze to behind the servant, she saw Ryuuto, who wasn't wearing his suit from last night's party, but instead some plain casual clothes with a lab coat. As he came down the stairs, he had on some slippers that looked like he had used them for years. Elza turned her attention towards Ryuuto and the servant, who was released from Elza's overwhelming pressure, just fell over and collapsed onto the floor.
"Ah, so she fainted. This is the kind of sad thing that happens when you face someone much lower than yourself, yea, yea. No matter how you look at it, this isn't a happy atmosphere, but just what do you want? You couldn't wait to get my inventions, so you came by and get them yourself... No, that's not what it looks like, yea yea."
"No, I've come to ask you something. I need to ask you it 'no matter what'."
"It seems like you won't take no for an answer, and if I refused, something scary might happen. Very well, as you wish, I'll listen to you, yea, yea. Yes, how about in my laboratory, my old man and outside servants are forbidden to come close to it, so we can talk without anyone else listening."
"Thank you."
"I don't think I've done anything worth thanking yet, but... could you please undo your magic? If someone were to die in this way because of this, they wouldn't be able to rest in peace."
As he said that, she turned around, and a clear obvious gasping sounds were heard from the many servants, and she finally realized.
Elza, who had quickly undone her magic, was now ashamed that, in her impatience, she had acted violently towards the innocent, helpless servants.
"Well, come in. It stinks a little, but could you please bear with it, I'm in the middle of venting it."
Just as Ryuuto said, there was a faint sweet smell in the room, like after cutting open a melon. It was a smell that that makes your stomach rumble.
"I don't think the smell is anything unpleasant, but... What is this scent?"
"Ah, so women like this kind of scent, I don't like sweet fruit, and when I eat melon I get a headache, though for chocolate and sweets, when I'm tired I like to eat them, but the taste of fruits I just can't stand... Ah yes, this smell is, what is it. This smell is my the smell of the new drug that I'm developing right now, yea, yea, but the mixture of ingredients causes this smell. See, among the things that can touch both ghosts and humans without using any special powers, there are fabrics which use spirit threads, right? They're used to touch, as clothing, and to capture, but spirit thread is valuable, so due to the cost, it can't be used for freely, yea, yea. So this research of mine, this new drug, when mixed in with any fabric or raw material, will give it the same effect as spirit thread, or that's what I'm testing, right now applying a coating on the surface gives it a temporary effect, but that's it, but soon I'll get it to last for a long period of time, and hopefully make it a permanent effect. If there are handcuffs that are used to capture evil spirits, it will be easier when a crime is committed, and they might not have to rely on magical items to combat evil spirits, and for ghosts that can't materialize, they can wear a glove that will be able to touch normal things, and they can get cheaper clothes, so that's a good thing, yea, yea. By the way, your little sister is a ghost, so when my research is complete, she'll be able to choose her clothes more easily, right? Mm, wait, she seems like she can materialize normally, but when she turns ghostly, what happens to the clothes she wears...? Elza-kun, so what do you think of this, do the clothes she wears also turn ghostly? And if so, does a ghost subconsciously include their clothes are part of themselves, but if that's the case, are they changing the makeup of the fabric...? Ah, next time, could you let me ask your little sister?"
"That's not what I came here to talk about! ...Wait"
As Ryuuto's thoughts had already started being diverted to his research, Elza's voice slipped out, but her eyes opened wide at Ryuuto's words about Ran.
"Do you really not know what happened yesterday!?"
"Eh, something happened yesterday?"
Ryuuto had a look of bewilderment in his eyes, a unique color that Elza didn't see last night, when he had eyes for nothing except his research.
(He doesn't seem like he's lying, more than that, he completely doesn't notice anything around him...!)
His eyes were a bottomless pit of innocent purity, gripped by a logical fear. They were the eyes of someone who could never pretend to be something else, saying that this wasn't an act. Elza half expected this, but she still felt a little faint. In the same way that Aiina blinks repeatedly as she sinks into her ocean of thoughts, it's possible that his consciousness went from the previous conversation into thinking mode, or maybe this was nothing more than his own desire that "this is what I wanted to happen", and he was actually laughing on the inside.
Normally, this kind of human would live in his own world, and you wouldn't expect to get a straight answer from him. However, in his case, even when faced with her like this, regardless of the conversation, his own mental world would be completely filled with strange thoughts, and other things aside from that could not enter it. Even the recognition of the words of the other person, dealing with the events that were happening around him, and his own reaction to them, were all outside of his thoughts. It was a strange way of thinking, one that could not be understood by anyone except himself. Was he a genius, or an abberation, or maybe both.
At the least, his eyes were showing himself, though not seeing anything. It reminded her only of the slight coldness she felt when talking with him at the party.
(No, this is bad, this isn't the time to guess what he's thinking, and I can't predict it at all. Or rather, maybe there's no point in busting in here to investigate?)
In this situation where strategy, of all things, seemed useless, she wanted to fall to her knees and clutch her head, but still, she knew that giving up and ending this conversation would not end well. If she couldn't use the methods that would work on normal people to extract information, she she would have to think outside the box.
Remember, and think, who are you.
You are a wizard who has lots of absurd powerful skill, who doesn't know the meaning of the word impossible!
The wizard Elza Schtlehertz, will show you how to ignore the impossible!
"Actually, last night, after you left, the hotel was assaulted. There were many casualties, and also, my sister was kidnapped..."
"Oh."
(I'm gonna punch him)
The forced excitement instantly vanished.
"I see, so that's why you came here."
"Eh?"
"What's with the confused expression? Your kidnapped sister is a ghost, and you think it might be related to the ghost disappearing incident, or the kidnappers are related to it, right? You didn't imagine a family member would be kidnapped, and you're trying to find out where she's being held, and you're here to ask for my help in doing so, yea, yea, that's right, isn't it?"
"...Eh... Well... Yes?"
Whatever, this is fine, and while she wasn't able to comprehend the majority of it, she nodded her head in desperation. Even if he wasn't behind this, if she would be able to get a clearer clue than her lost accessories, then that was fine too. As long as she could get a grasp on Ran's location, then any method was fine, and she could launch an open assault later.
"Why the uncertain tone? ...I know, since she's a ghost, if you have her favorite thing, or something that she had possessed before, then I might be able to trace the wavelength of the residual spirit waves back to their origin using the spirit wave detection device."
"I've found many of the accessories my sister wore at the party. She only purchased them recently, but she was wearing them when she got kidnapped, so is is possible to use these?"
"Hmmm, that would be difficult, the residual wavelength would only leave its mark if used every day for about a year. It doesn't matter when she wore it, only the amount of time it was worn. If the item has been dyed with her hatred, then time doesn't matter, but that sort of thing has a strong impression of her thoughts, so it would be need to be handled specially, yea, yea. Aside from objects, her human hair or a tissue sample or something similar, basically from the corpse of the ghost or her remains, or at the worst, a small amount of her cremated ashes, those could be used by the detector. Do you have anything like that?"
"Something... Worn every day... Ah."
She did. Right now, Elza had something close at hand that Ran had worn every day.
Elza thrust her hand into the sleeve of her kimono, and pulled out a white ribbon. This was Ran's ribbon, which she was using as a good luck charm so she could save Ran. This ribbon was Ran's trademark, and during the party, her hair was made up to match her dress, so she had left it on her dresser.
Originally, when Ran was known as Jack-o-Ran-tan, they were hair ornaments that looked like jack-o-lanterns. But after her grudge evaporated, they turned into ribbons. During her years as a vengeful spirit, the ribbon was with Ran, so in terms of length of time worn, and being dyed with her grudge and spirit waves, were should be no problems. And now that it she could get a clue from it, maybe it really was a good luck charm.
"Is this her's? Hmm, you really were prepared, Elza-kun. If I can detect the wavelength pattern from the spirit waves dyed in this, I'll be able to follow the spirit waves coming from the person herself. Let me borrow that."
Holding the ribbon out as he asked, Ryuuto pulled out a strange device with things sticking out and buttons. It was a retro-looking machine that she thought she had seen somewhere else before. On the back side, he opened a small door, and he put the ribbon inside.
(...A Tetsujin #28 remote control?)
Oh, so those things sticking out are levers. Should he be saying "Go Tetsujin" when pushing it forward, "Retreat Tetsujin" when pulling it back, and "Hanging in there Tetsujin" when moving them opposites. And that button was actually a dial that looked like a button, and could maybe adjust the output power. The only thing different about it was a display that looked like a Dragon Radar. As she was thinking such stupid things, several seconds later, the detector was finished, and Elza was handed back the ribbon, and Elza ran into a small problem.
With this, would they only find Ran herself?
"Umm, this detector, can you also find things related to the person? If it's possible, after I save my sister, I'd like to use it for one other thing."
"Hmm... I think it would depend on the thing, but if it can detect the spirit waves, then it should be possible to find a lost item."
"I want to look for my sister's pelvis."
"Pelvis?"
"Yes. One part of her corpse has not been found yet, and from her hips to her knees, she can't give her ghostly body form. Ever since I adopted her, I've been following strange leads, but I've never found it."
According to her working theory, the attackers and kidnappers were "corpse collectors", and they have some sort of connection with the ones who created the artificial ghost creation experimental data that had Ran's name recorded so often. Therefore, saving Ran might kill two birds with one stone, though there still is other possibilities. She forced her to come, and got her caught up in this incident, so if it were to end with all this work being for naught, Ran wouldn't have gained anything. If she can't at least fulfill her initial goal, then bringing her along would have had no meaning. More importantly, her dignity as an older sister was plummeting, so she wanted to avoid having her faith in her being completely destroyed when it hits the ground.
However, Ryuuto said something unexpected, and the situation completely changed.
"Umm, I this might sound strange, but..."
"What is it?"
"Is that pelvis from a 10 year old girl? And does it go down to her femur? And could it be that her name is an alias, and when she was alive, her name was Etranger?"
"...Hey, how did you know?"
"Whoa, what, you look scary. It's in my underground research facility, yea, yea. Ah, could it be that you were the ones who tried to hack me? That occult barrier gets pierced often, so a mage can do that sort of thing? Some sort of magic dealing with the digital, I'm very interested in cases like that, yea, yea."
"No, that's not magic, wait, hey wait!"
"Hah, I see, I see... I obtained it from my grandfather's connections, but even if I tried to find its owner, I wouldn't have been able to return it, yea, yea. To continue my research, I'd have to find another item. I didn't find anything else that would have worked, so it was a real problem."
"You bastaaaaard!!!!! How could be so shameless!!!!!!!"
Elza's eyes glazed over, and without any hesitation her anger finally exploded at Ryuuto, and thunder burst from her entire body into the room.
"Wow, that's quite an electrical discharge. Sorry, sorry, I didn't even think about the owner of the pelvis being able to go to Heaven, let alone that it might be your sister... Calm down a little, the new drug I made is here, and it will be really helpful, and it will definitely be useful for people. If you destroy it, what good is there in that? I'll give it back, so please don't be angry. It's dangerous."
"Then I've got a ton of questions, about your hidden research, and your grandfather's connections and about how you obtained it, you damn fool...!"
At that time, rather than being flustered, Ryuuto tried to quickly protect the results of his research from the electrical discharge and get it to cover, but Elza's anger gauge didn't drop one bit, and her whole body was shaking. With a voice echoing from the ground, forgetting her polite speech, she spat out hate.
"Hasn't your tone changed? You're young, so if you make such an ogre-like face, as you age, you'll get wrinkles. Hmm, look, your sister's spirit waves, they have a reaction to the underground laboratory. It's reacting to the pelvis. Huh, but that's strange..."
"What, what's wrong?"
At Elza's completely angry question, Ryuuto had a slightly troubled expression on this face for the first time, and stroked his chin.
"It's a situation that I didn't expect either. Aside from the pelvis, there are multiple reactions to the same spirit wave pattern."
The detector display was showing 3 dots of light for Ran's spirit waves.
"So, how is she?"
"She's stubbornly convinced herself that our story was a lie, to maintain her mind, but she doesn't seem to be able to put up any resistance to others, and it won't be long before her mind gives in. As something born as a non-living lifeform, once she obtained a sense of self, she was on a path similar to obtaining her own identity, but as something whose life and existence were constructs, it was, of course, quite a shock."
"So she's still resisting. Even though the original memories and personality given to her were fake, her sense of self that was created is quite a problem. Surprisingly, the foundation that it grew from wasn't weak. Well, now that these tremors have started, with just one more push, we should easily be able to break it, and we can start again with our original plan. As you are heading to the Middle East, I don't think we will need to specifically call for you. Well, burying that "Grizzly", is there any value to that, Mr. Giganov?"
The old butler delighted voice echoed in the dusty and gloomy hallway. However, unlike his tone, his face was completely expressionless.
"He was a brave man. He took a shot from me, and still, until his final moment, he never fell... His frightful tenacity, his honorable fighting spirit. He was truly a soldier worthy of my respect. It is just a shame that he couldn't use his true strength with that body. If he had been in his prime, I don't even know if I could have beaten him."
Walking alongside the fatigue wearing man called Giganov, the old butler just looked at him with expressionless eyes, and simply replied with "I see."
"However, I don't understand. I know that the little girl that you were searching for was a copy ghost, but what about her made it necessary for you to hunt her down? If you needed a copy without a firm personality, wouldn't the copy that caught the girl have been fine?"
"You are slightly mistaken, it's not that we are trying to break her mind. We are just simply removing the unnecessary things that she has gathered."
"Unnecessary things?"
"Moreso than her sense of self that was established before she thought she was the original, she possesses emotions which are the same as a normal human. The positive emotions which are included in human emotions, are a hinderance. In order to complete the master's research, what is needed is Etranger Shutulia's negative emotions. Fear, sadness, despair, hatred, the energy from the negative emotions that turned her into a vengeful spirit are the "key". Negative emotions can sometimes easily overwhelm the positive emotions, and those great energies are hidden, and this has piqued the master's interest. In reality, the copies which produce negative emotions consumed the mindless and weak positive emotion copies... You could call it a predator, strengthening its own existence.
"Like being absorbed."
"Yes, exactly. However, the predator influence or emotion ran wild, and one of the copies, which is a "key" to this troubling problem... Basically, she possessed "hatred", and she murdered the staff and fled. Naturally, we immediately went after her, but due to the effect of an urban legend, she would only appear on Halloween, and she would appear randomly, so we had no idea where she was at all. There was nothing we could do about it, so we created a substitute copies, but all copies after the first lot, even when put in the same environment, never showed any signs of this cannibalism, and we could never create anything but these weak copies. In the master's opinion, the original's grudge had already grown weak with the passage of time, and so this was the result. In any case, the low quality copies did not have the same strong emotions as the first lot, and as time passed and we continued our search, our next plan was to gather various spirits in an experiment to try to strengthen a low quality copy to the same level as the first lot copy, which is how we spent out time. And in the end, we found her in an unexpected place, and she had gained unnecessary emotions. So the only necessary thing as the "key" is for her to have her hatred left, and all other emotions are risky, in that they may create uncertain things."
"...So, was the copy you had with us a low quality copy?"
"No, that was also a copy from the first lot. However, her emotion she has is "joy", so since she already had the negative emotions, not including hatred, installed in her, she can't be the "key". While she is a positive emotion, for some reason, she wasn't a target of being preyed upon, so she's always been like this, an existence that just grins at everything. However, while she is weak, her existence has maintained for 20 years, so in order to solve the problem of the lower quality, she's been useful as a subject of our research, and she understands and follows what we say, so we can use her like we did last night. Haha, how ironic, that now she's no longer needed."
Of course, his expression didn't change at all, but the tone in his voice became happier, and that incongruity made it feel weird. However, Giganov thought it was fine. Though it was his own fault, this depressing story, and the expression and happiness in telling it, made him want to punch this old powerless human to death. However, he was the one who helped him in all this. He laughing derisively at himself, but the old butler only gave him a single look and said nothing.
"So then, let us give your "princess" her final adjustment. She must accept her 20 years of "hatred"."
Going into a room at the end of the hallway, the smell of mold invaded his nose. The lights affixed to the stone wall shone onto the wooden floor, and memo papers with various writings were scattered all over an old desk. Crowded on the desk was a distillation flask and test tubes, and next to it was a bookcase filled with many big scientific-looking books. It was an old laboratory.
The old butler pulled a hanging chain in one corner of the room, and a heavy noise sounded as the wall slid over. Over there, it wasn't stone, but was modern architecture. Though it really couldn't be called clean, the space had a cleaner sense to it, and there were multiple cylinder capsules, inside of which some squirming thing was randomly changing color and shape. In front of it were gauges constantly monitoring it, with several people with serious looks doing research on it. Those people only gave a slight recognition towards the old butler and Giganov, and then immediately returned to what they were doing before. However, the two of them paid no heed and continued walking onward, and made their way to a large area that looked like a rocket hanger.
The old butler looked up at the thing that was there, and dramatically spread out both of his arms.
"Once all of the negative emotions are installed, she will begin producing perfect copies that contain all of the same emotions she has, and will once again be a neverending supply of negative emotions to be preyed upon, and the excess spiritual energy will be released as pure energy. At last, we have her strong negative emotions which turned her into a vengeful spirit, and the womb of her corpse that creates the copies."
The old butler gazed at a giant glass cylinder. Placed inside of it was a giant figure of a woman. No, to say it was a figure would not be entirely correct. Because this was something that was not supposed to exist in this world. Looking as though it was asleep, "it" was not made of material. It wasn't a physical existence, it was a spiritual existence. The only solid thing in it was an abdomen, which was a physical existence.
(That is the original's pelvis... The pelvis, which contains the womb which creates life, gives birth to vengeful spirits and consumes them, then births and consumes again and again in a vulgar cycle... It's a real corpse's womb, with a system that would make one throw up.)
"And soon, very soon, the master's wish will come true. E.S., our princess, non-decomosing, stand-alone, energy creator, the "Spirit Child Generator"! This will revolution the world as we know it, the dream of humanity, a perpetual motion machine...!"
(But, this won't end so easily. Soon, those who wish to bring back the girl will come, since I left the girl's accessories as bait to induce the come. I guess I should pray that my wish will not be fulfilled.)
The still expressionless butler was trembling from anticipation. Looking at him with cold eyes, Giganov softly touched the handgun at his waist.
("Grizzly"'s apprentice, "Bullet Squall". With such skill as yours, will you forgive such an insult, or next will you come seriously to kill? Can you really understand me? Do not disappoint me...!)
Giganov gave a ferocious smile, without anyone realizing it.