Akisumi
Mr. White lowered his shoulders.
When I first met him, I was distracted by his pale skin, the strange color of his eyes, and how much taller he was than us.
But now, as I looked again—I thought he was beautiful.
And at the same time, I was deeply confused.
The reason I saw his beauty…
was because of the grief on his face after losing something precious.
I must be broken.
To shake off those thoughts, I forced my voice to sound strong.
“Mr. White, you said the one who stole the secret of the Oblivion Drug had thirteen fingers, right?
The man who looked like Tsurubami—let’s catch him, no matter what.
But why would he go so far as to start a fire?”
Mr. White turned his emerald eyes toward me.
But I couldn’t hold that gaze.
If I let myself be ruled by these twisted urges, I might do something unforgivable.
“It might have been to burn a certain plant that was kept in the Church of Medicine Hall.
It’s possible the Oblivion Drug was extracted from it.
And because of the fire… it’s now truly lost to the underground.
That species is already extinct down there.”
Mr. White averted his eyes, clearly pained.
And I could hardly keep myself from reaching out to touch him—not out of sympathy, but desire.
Luckily, my brother spoke up, not noticing anything.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“What kind of plant was it?”
“It was a Hollywood Juniper. The Japanese call it Kaizuka Ibuki.”
“…What kind of flower is that again?”
Hopeless. My brother had zero interest in plants.
“It’s not a flower, it’s a tree, bro.
Our uncle had one in his yard—you’ve definitely seen it before.
It’s not that rare.”
“Oh, that tree. So they had it in the Church of Medicine’s garden too?”
“No,”
Mr. White replied immediately.
“It was in the center of the building.
Right beneath where I’m standing now.”
His voice trembled again with sadness, and my heart ached for a completely different reason.
“There was a tree inside the building?”
“Yes.
A majestic Kaizuka Ibuki—twisting, evergreen, nearly twenty meters tall.
Every day, I would look up at it and think,
‘It’s like a green flame.’
And I’d greet it.
And then… it was swallowed by real flame.”
Unlike me, my brother was a proper person.
He gently patted Mr. White’s back, full of genuine sympathy.
I envied him—
how he could do that so naturally.
“You’ve been through a lot.
That’s why you were praying so seriously at that spot, huh?”
Mr. White nodded silently.
I wanted to touch his slender neck.
“But wait,” my brother continued, “That tree—there are plenty of Kaizuka Ibuki on the surface, right?
…Unless—”
“The man with thirteen fingers might be trying to destroy the underground completely.
Now that the last Kaizuka Ibuki is gone, we can no longer create the Oblivion Drug.
Infections will keep spreading.
There’s no way to stop people from dying.
We concluded that the culprit betrayed the underground and fled to the surface alone.”
Mr. White clenched his fists against his knees, shaking with frustration.
The owner finally broke his silence.
“So Mr. White came to the surface on behalf of the underground people…
To take the book back from the thirteen-fingered guy.
Oh, and also to get some Kaizuka Ibuki, right?”
“Yes.
The underground is more skilled when it comes to handling medicine.
If we receive Kaizuka Ibuki and succeed in reproducing the Oblivion Drug,
we’ll share it with the surface as well.
In return, we want help capturing the thirteen-fingered man.
That’s what I intend to negotiate—with the Lord of Darkness.”
“The Lord of Darkness?!”
All of us except the owner shouted in shock.
Mr. White glanced around at us, eyes full of disdain.
“I’m honestly appalled at how shallow your faith is.
That reaction—you clearly doubted the Lord of Darkness’s existence.”
He saw right through us.
We couldn’t even respond.
Then, with a clear and unwavering voice,
the outsider known as Mr. White declared:
“The Lord of Darkness is real.”
