Missing Words

Kanji sat in his room, his laptop in front of him.

“Today we will be learning a new integration technique…” The teacher said through the video box on Kanji’s screen.

The school had moved to virtual classes after the incident; a large portion of the school was destroyed, and police were still investigating.

He couldn’t get the image of the one armed Honor out of his mind. The cracked voice, standing up shaking, just to get shot.

Kanji pulled up his phone and scrolled, trying to distract himself.

Three missed calls from Mom.

He tried calling back. No answer.

He moved to the News, skimming the headlines. “Police are still investigating the school destruction, all parents in the country are on their feet… The birth rate had dramatically plummeted yet again… More and more teens turn to suicide… Mass protests in Tokyo against the government…”

Protests? Kanji clicked on the article. In it was a video of a reporter in a suit, holding a microphone to a man in his 40’s, in a business casual outfit, holding a sign:

“STOP POISONING OUR WATER!”

The man began yelling into the microphone. “Something is happening that they aren’t telling us, man! My wife just divorced me last week for no damn reason! She said she doesn’t need her family anymore, that she wants her freedom. And not only that! My five year old went out of the house today sayin’ how she’ll be quitting elementary school to start a shop! She sayin’ she doesn't like her teachers… And I raised her right and proper! That’s not normal behavior man, not normal!”

“And you think it’s related to water poisoning?” the reporter said with a look of morbid amusement.

“It’s not only in the water. Last days back they blew up a school, a week ago they burnt down that mansion… It’s obviously done by those 5G towers! When are we going to wake up?!”

Kanji turned off the screen, his face pale. It couldn’t possibly be related…

Their names bubbled up.

Family, Hierarchy… and Honor? I never heard of any yokai named like that.

Kanji grabbed the hammer from his bag. And why were they trying to destroy the hammer? And to kill Yuki?

Kanji stood in front of the mirror.

“What makes you think, Okimoto Kanji, that you can do all sorts of things… Hammer away at this or that and shape the world… What makes you so special?” He said to himself.

His phone buzzed.

It was a message from an unknown number.

It read:

JUDGEMENT COMING JUDGEMENT COMING JUDGEMENT COMING JUDG—

repeatedly until the character limit.

W…what the hell?

Yuki burst through the door and closed it behind her. “Good morning,” she said. She sat down on his bed. He hasn’t seen her since two days ago, the time of the incident.

“Have you discovered anything new, Kanji-kun?”

Kanji gulped. “No, I hadn’t slept holding the hammer since then.”

“Why not?”

A shudder ran through Kanji’s spine, the feeling of his unmovable body still lingered in his mind. “I just couldn’t.”

“Are you even taking this seriously? Whoever tried to kill us is going to try again, and we need to figure out what’s going on.”

“And who might that be, Yuki-san? They seem to have recognized you, calling you names.”

“Don’t get on my nerves,” she said in a shameful tone, “I really have no idea.”

“Alright. Would you at least tell me more about your Imitation? How does it work? And… the lining up thing you did back at the parking lot.”

“I can copy anything I experience and use it temporarily with higher potency.”

“Eh? Just like that? It has no tradeoffs?”

“Might have some. None that I know of.”

If that’s true, this ability is extremely broken. Staying close to Yuki should be a good idea.

“And… the lining up thing?”

“I just copied whatever spell was already active on them. There was some kind of mechanism that let them be controlled. I couldn’t use it on the sorcerers we fought. Or those value-named things.”

“I see.”

“And I copied Intuition too, from that.” She pointed at the hammer.

Kanji’s eyes widened. “Really?”

“Yes.”

I hypothesized intuition was the source of magic. Was I completely wrong?

“But… that must have been before Mr.Yamaguchi. Why didn’t you say anything?”

Yuki shrugged. “I guess I didn’t realize what I was doing. There was that smell coming out of it and I just… ate it. It’s hard to explain.”

“Ate it? I see…”

“And what about yours? What’s that one eyed thing?”

Kanji raised his hand. “That’s Pinky. I’ve made it from some parts of the monsters in The Red World.”

“The hammer’s world?”

“Yes. So, it’s made of that. And I can communicate with it telepathically.”

“How?”

“Well, it’s made of my pinky finger, so it’s connected to me somehow. I just kept thinking about myself until it realized it. Like, contemplating the limits of my existence, my memories, my death and so on.”

“Huh… That’s the kind of stupid thing only Kanji-kun would try.”

“But it worked!”

“Yes, great job. Anyways,” She said as she moved to her feet, “Let’s discuss the document.”

Kanji gulped. The document he found was supposed to be their best lead, but it contained almost nothing, as most of it was redacted. The only visible orders were the following stanza:

AUTHORIZED BY #REDACTED#

NAMES: OKIMOTO KANJI, HATANAKA YUKI

JURISDICTION: ROOM 355

VALID UPON AGENT #REDACTED# FAILURE.

It was signed by someone, but the signature was also redacted.

“What about the document?” Kanji said.

“I had an idea,” Yuki said, “What if we could use our powers somehow to get more out of it?”

“To get more out of it?”

“Yes. Like… maybe you could hit your hammer with it to remove the redactions?”

“I don’t think that’s how it works. It’s ink on ink, if they even printed the redactions over the words and not just printed them together. How would you tell it which ink to remove?” Kanji picked up the paper, and began walking back and forth in the room.

If I can use an inspiration from a different problem… something related to clarity? Or maybe information? Something that I’ve discovered that has been hidden… I’ve been mainly relying on intuition and experimentation so far for my magic.

Oh, that’s right, the game’s language!

Kanji pulled his old notes to the table, placing the paper right next to it. What if I use the concept of decryption itself? Wait, is it even possible to be inspired by yourself? But how would I do it? How?

Yuki talked behind his shoulder, “Did you hit it yet?”

“Not yet, I’m still figuring it out.”

“I could try shooting it. Would that help?”

“Funny.” She’s always so violent…

Kanji’s eyes widened as he remembered it. He had another note.

Kanji laid out Yuki’s list of associations next to the other notes.

“You wrote that down? That’s pretty creepy.” Yuki said.

“Sorry, I… I needed to understand more about the hammer.” He said halfmindedly as his brain started racing.

The human psyche is a problem solving machine. If we could use the process of association as inspiration… we could try to generate new words out of the visible ones. But associations made by whom?

“Yuki-san.”

“Yes?”

“Step back.”

Yuki stepped away to the edge of the room, near the window. Kanji raised his hand. Closed his fist, and opened it again. Pinky appeared.

“Oh, so that’s where it comes from.” Yuki said.

I will attach it directly to its brain, a tool of associations. It just needs to pull them out of the file instead of its own self.

“Good morning, Pinky-san. I’m going to give you an upgrade, okay? Just stay still.” Kanji said.

Pinky blinked.

Kanji stepped behind Pinky, and put the note on the back of his head.

“Are you doing what I think you’re doing? Couldn’t that somehow make him obey the orders on the note?” Yuki said.

Kanji froze. That’s right, it could be so. How do I pick the right inspiration?

“You’re right. I need more context.”

Kanji moved back to look at Yuki’s association list, yet remembering how menacing it was, he decided to produce a new association list of his own.

He placed the list and document against the back of Pinky’s head, along with a small clipper. God save us if this doesn’t work.

“Sorry, Pinky-san. It might sting a little.”

Kanji hit the back of Pinky’s head with the hammer. Pinky leaned forward. The association list was gone, and the letter was attached to a clipper on the back of Pinky’s head.

It… did it work?

Pinky raised his head again.

“Oh, I almost forgot. I need to find a way for him to respond to me.”

But before Kanji could, a deep distorted voice echoed inside his skull.

ENCRYPTED RADIO CHANNEL 57.5 FM ONLY.

Kanji dropped to his chair.

“Eh? Did something happen?” Yuki said.