Okada Mimoru

Mimoru

When Mister Akira said he'd protect me, I thought I'd gotten myself into some gang warfare by mistake. Not for a second had I thought about those monsters.

For as long as I had been part of this world, those creatures would appear every now and then, as if they were your average natural disaster. Sightings around Japan had been reported just about as often as earthquakes occurred. We had forces specialized in dealing with them, so you had to be really unlucky to fall victim to one of those monsters.

Only now, as I looked at the man dressed in all black falling towards the mono with nothing but a knife in his hand, did I understand what had happened that night.

"A human mono..." I whispered to myself. I felt stupid for not connecting the dots until then. They were both of the same bright white, but the screams and the shape of her body led me astray.

Whatever I had gotten myself into, I felt grateful that Mister Akira had decided to help me. That became all the more true as I realized whom we were up against.

My neck felt sore from how much I was looking up at the fight. My flower was probably feeling the same thing in her little cup.

"Careful!"

It was still unclear to me how they did it, but those special forces seemed to have a unique set of abilities. Right before everyone's trembling gazes, Mister Akira vanished. It was as if he had never been there in the first place. The mono kept climbing its way to the tower as if Akira had never been there.

The next second, a wound opened on what I think was the back of the beast. I had seen trick that many times on TV before. Every single fight made it look as if the mono self-destructed, wounds appearing all over the creature's body with no sound and no real explanation. Only now did things check out.

In a matter of seconds, it was going to fade out of existence, leaving only some small dents and fuzzy memories as proof it had been there, with the only sound played during the entire battle being that of its claws grabbing onto iron bars.

That's how things should have played out, but.

*screech*

"Ah! What is that!?" I shouted, pressing my ears with my palms as a horrible noise cried out from the mono. I had to hold the plastic cup in my teeth, making sure not to drop the little flower.

Around me, nobody seemed to react, but I had not the strength left to think why that was. The painful screech made my vision turn red. I closed my eyes, fell to my knees, and shouted back—hoping that my screams would ease the pain.

The more I thought about it, the more it sounded like a cry of pain. Were I to concentrate on it, I could almost decipher words. However, the screech stopped before I understood them.

With a clearer mind, I looked up, where the noise had come from. It felt as if the mono above me was the one screaming.

Now, the beast went silent once again. It swung its legs in every direction, desperately trying to fight back against the invisible attacker. Whether he was visible or not, though, it would have mattered little for a blind creature.

I could vaguely figure out the flow of the fight. Concentrating really hard, I could picture Mister Akira's silhouette as he dodged, blocked, and struck back, opening up one wound after another on the white clump of misery.

From seeing the mono swipe downwards every now and then, I figured that gravity was still a problem. Whether Akira kept falling, finding himself on the brink of losing his life every other second, or he was controlling the flow of the fight by jumping up and down, I couldn't tell.

All I knew was that the mono had not once made it seem like it had gotten a hit in, and it was not long after that it went completely limp.

The mono's body fell backwards, making way for the group of people beneath. Still, nobody tried to move aside, for the body wouldn't reach them regardless.

Mid-fall, the white monster disintegrated. The battle was over, and Mister Akira appeared next to me as if nothing had happened.

I thought everything was settled, but he seemed troubled. He put his hand on my shoulder. The next moment, I noticed everyone around was staring at me with worried frowns.

"That scream—what was that about?" Mister Akira asked.

*****

I looked around me, and everyone seemed to have but one question for me.

"'That scream?' Mine? Or the monos?"

The second I posed my own question, people's eyes turned wide. The widest were Mister Akira's. He looked at me as if he had seen a ghost. The man who had just killed a mono while hanging at the side of the tower looked at me as if I were the bigger threat.

"Mimoru... let's go," he said as he grabbed my shoulder. Mister Akira's hand was shaking. It shook harder than when I looked at his watch last night. Killing the world leader apparently meant less for him than me hearing that scream.

I was confused. I knew that monos were silent, but he himself had fought a shouting one just a day before. It was clear that my understanding of those creatures was lacking.

If a shouting humanoid one exists, why would a shouting regular one be a problem? I thought. That was until I heard a couple talking as they passed us.

"They really are as in the movies—completely silent. That's scary!"

"I know, haha! But don't worry, I hear special forces often take care of them before they can be a threat. This one was just an exception."

Only after hearing those two talk did my pulse reach my throat. My palms started sweating, and my breathing became irregular.

"Could it be..." my trembling voice whispered.

"Could it be that only I've heard it?"

Before I could pose the question out loud, Mister Akira pulled me between two buildings.

"What are you doing? I almost dropped my flo—"

He put his palm over my mouth. Instinctively, I brought the flower to my chest, as if I was protecting her—no, as if it was protecting me.

"Mimoru, listen here," Mister Akira said in a low tone. His voice and expression were calm, cold, and calculated. Although, there were small drops of sweat falling from his hair onto the scar on his forehead.

"See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil," he continued. It was that replica that made me snap.

I pushed his hand aside and then pushed his body away.

"What's this about?" I shouted, angry at how he was using old rules to keep me in the dark.

"Every time something twisted happens in this world, that's all I hear!" I continued.

"Evil is everywhere around. How about 'do no evil'? If everyone respected that one rule, we wouldn't have to live in such a twisted society! We wouldn't have to wear masks and keep secrets even between friends!"

I was panicked, and it was stupid of me to take my anger out on him, but I couldn't help it as it all came pouring out.

"Why do we pretend to protect peace by feigning ignorance? Why aren't we tackling our problems? Why don't we do something so that peace stops being a lie we deceive ourselves with?"

In hindsight, I hated those three rules. I refused to believe they were anything more than a means of restricting us. If I had trusted that they may work, it must have been a lapse in my judgement. Fortunately, I woke up before falling in line with the others.

"Why don't we make our own peace instead of acting like everything is fine and dandy? Why don't we—"

As I scolded Mister Akira, I had to step back a little. I noticed that he had stretched his hand out to reach me, but I tried to smack it away.

No, my body didn't move anymore. Something around my neck started hurting, and before I knew it, I felt regret for some unknown reason.

Once again, I brought the beautiful flower to my chest, and—