Chapter 5: Kryptics

Shiori’s heart pounded in her ears as the shadows approached. The lead shadow had seen what happened to the last one that failed to kill her, in fact it had helped tear its comrade apart. It approached carefully, gripping the handrail with one hand and reaching out to Shiori with the other.

She wasn’t sure when Tsubame started screaming for help, yet no one came.

Shiori thought furiously for other solutions. She doubted reading the book would help, and couldn’t manage that safely on the top step of a slide, much less while being attacked.

She readied her foot for another kick, and the lead shadow smirked at her, fanged mouth open and clawed hand extended. She had defeated one. There were eight more at the ladder and more failing to scramble up the slide.

While she counted the enemy, Otonashi appeared through a ripple of air, like passing through an invisible curtain. There was barely any warning, although the bookmark in her handbag vibrated violently. There was no sound as the outlander appeared, from thin air, behind the crowd of hunting shadows. And there was no mercy as Otonashi struck them from existence.

He moved quickly without appearing to hurry. His practiced movements smashed shadows into dissipating black smoke.

At his first punch, his cry echoed over the playground with a boom that pained Shiori’s ears. Light flashed over his fist as it cleaved four shadows at the neck.

The remaining four didn’t have time to turn before they were ended. Two more strikes, one sweeping through three of them and the last jab through the heart of the lead shadow about to strike Shiori, came in a single breath. With each strike, Otonashi spoke again, the word painfully loud, like a nearby thunder clap. Shiori grabbed the handrail tightly, feeling like the force of each word might knock her over.

“What’s happening?” Tsubame asked. “What was that noise?”

Shiori turned, seeing her friend’s terrified face. Behind her, Shiori saw three stunned shadows halfway through scrambling up the concrete slide.

For an instant everything was still, then the remaining shadows ran. Shiori looked back to Otonashi, who had calmly walked to the side of the playground slide.

He drew back his hand, and Shiori was ready for the sound blasts that accompanied three movements of his hand. He slapped the air contemptuously, moving like he was throwing three invisible balls. With each movement he spoke, and now Shiori could hear despite it being louder than a wide book slammed onto a desk.

Otonashi said “Reenho” with each swipe. At each motion, the remaining shadows were obliterated, one by one. They scattered as if hit by an invisible cannonball.

Shiori noticed more. Each time Otonashi spoke in that thunderous voice, the bookmark’s vibration waned and pulsed.

“He’s saved us!” Tsubame yelled happily.

But Shiori wasn’t sure.

Otonashi glanced around the playground. He was wary, even though no shadows were in sight. The playground offered hiding spots, but it was also a large open space. Shiori would see them coming.

“We should leave,” Otonashi said from the base of the ladder. He wasn’t nervous, which wasn’t at all fair because Shiori’s heart was racing. He reached the bottom of the stairs in complete silence.

“We aren’t going anywhere with you,” Shiori said, raising her foot as a threat to Otonashi.

He didn’t have the decency to look threatened by the gesture. “You’re going to stay up there all day?” he asked. There wasn’t any threat or heat in his voice. He seemed to be asking if her evening plans were to stand atop a child’s playground toy.

Shiori paused.

“So good to finally meet you. My name is Kagemaru Otonashi. I’m a transfer student here. My hobbies include running and saving beautiful women from Kryptics.”

“You aren’t a transfer student,” Shiori interrupted his self-introduction, “you weren’t even at our school until today. The transfer student was Motohara.”

Otonashi’s eyes widened. “Motohara?”

“I remember Motohara-senpai now,” Tsubame said quietly to Shiori, “he was supposed to meet you for lunch today. He wanted to get to know you better.”

Shiori nodded without looking back. “That was the boy in the bookmark.”

Tsubame made a knowing ‘Ah’ sound.

“Would you greatly mind coming down?” Otonashi asked, surveying the playground, missing no detail. “I’m afraid we have much to discuss.”

He was polite, but he was also an imposter, or an ‘outlander’.

“Where are you from?” Shiori asked.

“America,” he answered.

“Where are you really from?”

He didn’t answer, nor could he hide his surprise as he looked up at Shiori.

“Let’s go down,” Tsubame entreated, “he saved us from those horrid things.”

Shiori carefully pulled the book from her handbag to avoid dropping it or falling down the steep stairs. The book opened to where the bookmark continued to buzz.

Shiori watched the outlander’s eyes widen at the book. He made no move to climb the stairs. Shiori read. Only a sentence or two described how Shiori carried Tsubame to this playground, which hardly felt fair. She was still breathing hard from the effort.

The book described Shiori’s desperate plan to use the slide as a last stand, then the outlander appearing ‘through the congealed shadows’, whatever that meant.

“How did you find us?” Tsubame asked as Shiori read.

“It wasn’t easy,” he answered with a casual and easy tone one shouldn’t use after smashing nearly a dozen monsters, “but I felt the spell cast in this park, then found you two.”

“A spell?” Tsubame asked.

Shiori finally reached the present moment in the book. It read: “The shadows parted now that all the Kryptics had been defeated. They didn’t dare attack while the outlander had Shiori and her friend.”

Shiori looked up from the book, not daring to read more. Last time she tried reading ahead, she had to pick up her unconscious friend and sprint a few blocks. Frankly, she was done running for the day.

“Outlander,” she said, loud and slow.

Otonashi’s eyes narrowed, but he said nothing.

“I’m not coming down,” Shiori declared, “until you answer my questions.”

“As you wish, Princess,” Otonashi replied, “but I do think the children want to use this slide.”

As he spoke, there was a shimmering in the air, like the parting of a curtain. In an expanding circle around the slide, children and then adults appeared in the park.

Children lined up at Otonashi’s feet to use the slide. He said nothing but smiled as the awkwardness built. The children looked up, confused by the sudden presence of two high school girls atop their slide.

“By all means, ask your questions before you come down, princess. Unless you’d rather a more private place to talk?”

Adults around the playground noticed the two girls. Two children laughed at Shiori atop the slide, reading an old book while glaring down at the older boy.

Otonashi remained still and smirked, knowing this would happen. Shiori glared down at him. Even from this perspective, it was clear he towered over the children, and he might have reached up and touched her with his feet on the playground gravel.

Shiori scrambled for other options. She nearly lost her balance on the steep steps when Tsubame cried out. Shiori saw her friend shouting joyously as she slid down the slide, then prance to Otonashi. “I know a cute café nearby. You should treat us to something,” Tsubame said.

Shiori paused, then put the book away. The adults around the playground were starting to talk. She descended the stairs carefully, then looked up at Otonashi. He was tall, perhaps taller than Motohara.

He smiled, and spoke with an accent that didn’t sound remotely American. “It would be my pleasure.”