In a wooden apartment over forty years old, in a room soaked with mold, drugs, and vomit, a man named Kai Kamon spends his days staring at the ceiling, unable to die. With social phobia and drug addiction, he has fallen out of society entirely.
One night, the ceiling tears open, and Princess Melissa of the Flamme Kingdom falls through. Exiled from her world and stripped of all magic by a transfer spell, she collapses on the filthy tatami floor. She looks around the rotting room and gives him a
The air in the alley hung heavy, thick with post-rain humidity and the stench of garbage.
Kamon Kai shifted the toolbox in his arms and started walking. The strap marks bit into his shoulder. The fingertips of his right hand still trembled faintly. How long had it been since he'd wiped away the Impurity in that room? His sense of time had gone hazy.
An old wooden apartment building in the southern part of Haimori Ward. A man had died in the corner unit on the second floor. Ten days after death. The ceiling stain had spread black, and a human-shaped shadow clung to the wall. Kai had spent hours wiping away that Impurity. He'd changed the bucket water over and over, wrung out the cloth over and over. Even when his arms grew heavy, his back ached, and nausea welled up, he didn't stop.
Only while cleaning did the voices in his head go quiet.
Melissa's voice, that sticky whispering — all of it vanished.
He could focus on nothing but removing the filth.
*(This is enough for me.)*
That was what Kai thought.
He emerged from the alley onto a back street of an old shopping district. Shuttered storefronts lined the road, and the dim evening light crawled across the ground. No sign of people. A single cat watched him from beside a garbage bag.
That was when it happened.
A black car slid to a stop beside him.
The rear door opened.
"Well now, Kamon-kun."
A man leaned out from inside the car.
Kabuse Mamoru. Forty-two years old. Former sergeant of the Metropolitan Police Department's First Investigative Division. Now he called himself a "stigmatized property consultant." Black suit. Navy tie. Hair cropped short and neat, and only his eyes behind his glasses gleamed with an eerie light.
Kai stopped walking.
"What do you want?"
His voice came out low and hoarse.
Kabuse smiled.
"I just want to talk a little. Get in."
"I refuse."
Kai moved to walk away.
In that instant, a man stepped out from the driver's seat and grabbed Kai's arm.
"Whoa there — not letting you go."
The warmth drained from Kabuse's voice.
Kai's body was shoved into the car. The toolbox fell at his feet. The door closed. The sound of the lock engaging. The car pulled away silently.
A strange smell filled the interior.
Like burnt paper. And then, like disinfectant mixed with old blood. Kai understood instinctively — it was the smell of stigmatized property records going up in flames.
Something rose from the pit of his stomach.
Kai bit his lip and forced the nausea down.
"No need to be scared. It's just a business discussion."
Kabuse spoke without turning around.
"Your cleaning skills, and those eyes that can see Impurity. I want to buy them."
Kai didn't answer.
Outside the window, the streets of Haimori Ward slid past. Old apartments, rusted factories, shuttered shops. The twilight dyed everything gray.
*(Eyes that can see Impurity.)*
Kai looked at his own hands.
The trembling had stopped.
――――
The car stopped in front of a high-rise in the southern part of Haimori Ward.
A fourteen-story tower apartment building, relatively new. It was a completely different world from the old wooden houses surrounding it. Kabuse pushed Kai into the elevator and pressed the button for the top floor.
When they stepped out onto the rooftop, the wind was blowing hard.
The setting sun stained the streets of Haimori Ward red. In the distance, the surface of the Arakawa River glittered, and beyond it, the high-rises of Tokyo shimmered in the haze.
"Nice view, isn't it."
Kabuse said, moving toward the edge of the roof.
Kai stayed silent.
Kabuse set down the wooden box he'd been carrying.
He opened it. Inside was crammed full of documents. Records of stigmatized properties. Names of the deceased, causes of death, circumstances at the time of discovery. Photographs mixed in among them. Discolored tatami, blackened floors, the final traces of people who'd died alone.
"These are the tools of my trade."
Kabuse picked up a sheaf of papers.
"Stigmatized properties carry a disclosure obligation. Do you know about that? If a suicide or solitary death occurred in a unit, the fact must be disclosed to the next tenant. But, Kamon-kun—"
Kabuse narrowed his eyes behind his glasses.
"There are loopholes everywhere. For example, if you have someone live there once, the disclosure obligation disappears for the next contract. Or you can rewrite the cause of death as 'death by illness.' Solitary deaths are deaths by illness, after all. Suicides, too, can be processed as accidental deaths depending on the circumstances."
Kai watched Kabuse's hands.
The fingers turning the pages were strangely long. The movements of fingers counting money. Turning each sheet, one by one, as if drinking them in.
"I sell those judgments to real estate agents. Consulting to help them offload properties as disclosure-exempt, at high prices. But lately, I've been having trouble."
Kabuse turned to face Kai.
"I can't determine whether Impurity is present. I can't see it. But you can. Isn't that right?"
Kai didn't answer.
Kabuse took a step closer.
"If you can visually distinguish the presence of Impurity, we can manipulate the value of stigmatized properties at will. Say there's Impurity, and we can buy cheap. Say there isn't, and we can sell high. Your eyes generate money."
The wind blew hard.
Papers fluttered into the air.
Kai looked into Kabuse's eyes.
Eyes with no warmth in them.
"I refuse."
Kai said it clearly.
Kabuse laughed.
"Refuse? You think you have a choice?"
Kabuse's hand gripped Kai's shoulder.
"You're already in my net. Don't think you can escape."
That was when it happened.
A single scrap of paper fell from Kabuse's bag.
It fluttered, dancing in the wind.
Kai's gaze followed it.
—In that instant.
Beyond Kabuse's shadow, something swelled up.
A black mass.
Opaque, thick, viscous black.
It seemed to have a human shape, and yet it had no form at all.
*(What is that?)*
Kai's body went rigid.
—Then, a voice poured into his head.
A slimy, wet voice.
"Defile everything."
Kai's vision warped.
"Merely wiping away Impurity is not enough for you. Deeper. Further in. You must step into the Impurity itself."
The voice resonated inside his skull.
It didn't come through his ears — it flowed directly from the center of his brain.
*(Ishu.)*
Somehow, Kai knew that name.
A separate will that had broken away from Melissa's consciousness and walked on its own. A vessel of Impurity.
"Do not become that man's pawn. You must become Impurity yourself. If you do, they won't be able to erase you."
Kai's heart pounded violently.
Something thrashed deep in his chest.
*(They won't be able to erase you.)*
Those words pierced into the very depths of Kai's heart.
—They won't be able to erase you.
*(Do I... not want to disappear?)*
Kai looked at Kabuse.
Kabuse hadn't noticed anything.
"What's wrong? You look pale."
Kai forced his trembling legs to steady, and opened his mouth.
"...I won't be part of your work."
Kabuse's eyes narrowed.
"Oh? And why is that?"
"Your money is built on the suffering of dead people. I don't want to touch something like that."
Kabuse stared at Kai for several seconds.
Then he smiled, slowly.
"Pretty words. But we'll see how long those pretty words last."
Kabuse closed the wooden box.
"I'll let you off with this for today. But don't think there'll be a next time."
Kabuse started walking toward the rooftop exit.
He glanced back at Kai one more time.
"I will have your eyes. No matter what."
The sound of the door closing.
Kai was left alone on the rooftop.
The wind was blowing.
The sun was sinking.
Kai stood at the edge of the roof.
Below him, the streets of Haimori Ward spread out.
Old apartments, narrow alleys, shuttered shops. All of it sinking into the evening darkness.
*(The place I live is down at the bottom.)*
That was what Kai thought.
*(The place Kabuse lives is even deeper. That man turns people's misfortune into money. If I get involved with him, I'll fall to the same place.)*
But.
*(I've already fallen far enough.)*
Kai looked at his own hands.
His left hand, marked with burn scars.
Memories from childhood flashed back.
—Hot.
—It hurts.
—Help me.
Kai closed his eyes.
Then, he heard the voice again.
"Your loneliness is the same as that woman's."
Kai opened his eyes.
A scene spread out before him.
—A library.
An old stone room. High ceilings. Bookshelves covering every wall.
By the window, a small girl sat.
Golden-silver ringlets. Eyes of different colors, left and right.
Melissa.
Melissa as a young child.
She was looking out the window.
The sky was overcast and gray.
"No one sees me."
The small voice resonated directly in Kai's heart.
"The people hate the royal family. No matter what I do, no one turns to look at me. Even when I shut myself away in the library, no one comes looking for me."
Melissa reached her hand toward the window.
"I want to burn that sky."
Her fingertips touched the window glass.
—In that instant, the world was engulfed in flames.
The royal capital, Brennhart. A fortress city surrounded by walls. The flame-core reactor of the Evagrantz Palace blazed red. People fleeing in panic. Screams. Buildings crumbling.
At the center of it all, Melissa was laughing.
Even as tears streamed down her face.
"Everything should just burn. The country that abandoned me, the people who hated me — everything."
Tears overflowed from Kai's eyes.
Unrelated to his own will.
They wouldn't stop.
*(This girl—)*
Kai overlaid Melissa's loneliness onto his own.
*(She's the same as me.)*
Seen by no one, needed by no one, all alone, cursing the world.
Kai looked at his left hand.
The burn scars.
*(Did I want to destroy something with these hands, too?)*
He didn't know.
But the tears wouldn't stop.
"You will not let her be erased."
Ishu's voice whispered in the depths of his ears.
"You will bear her Impurity. If you do, she will not disappear. You will become her vessel."
With trembling legs, Kai took one step toward the edge of the roof.
The wind pushed against his body.
Below, the streets of Haimori Ward.
*(I will become a vessel.)*
Kai stared straight at the mass of Impurity.
The black mass was still there.
Beyond Kabuse's shadow, writhing thickly.
"...I'll keep cleaning."
Kai said it aloud.
"No matter what you whisper to me, I'll do things my own way."
Ishu's voice laughed.
"That's fine. As long as you keep cleaning, Impurity will flow into you. You will be stained by it, more and more."
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