Part 1

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Volume 1

Prologue

— 1 —

July 1st, 20XX.

“I-It’s all your fault. It’s because you were trying to cheat on me…!” A voice called down to me.

I lay on the ground, a knife thrust deep into my chest. I can’t believe… Over something like that…

Thus, I, “Souma Sagara,” died.

 ***

However, this was all in a game!

The game that I, Souma Sagara, was playing was called “New Communicate Online,” more commonly known as “Nekomimineko.” It was, in many ways, a famous VR game, and in a certain sense, you could say that it once took the world by storm.

A VR game was quite literally one that took place within virtual reality. It was a game you played by moving your body as if you had entered the game world, but in the end, no matter how realistic it seemed, a game was still a game.

Unlike reality, dying was not the end. By reloading the game and returning to a save point, you could continue playing as if nothing had happened.

As if to prove that point, the words <Game Over> floated into view in the darkness, and below it, a menu with the options <Load> and <Return to Title Screen> appeared. I unhesitantly chose <Load> and selected the latest save data before muttering involuntarily to myself, “Still… as expected of Nekomimineko. To think that I would get killed over something like that; it’s sure living up to its name as the shittiest game of the century.”

What I had been working on until just a moment ago was a quest that involved getting friendly with a certain female NPC and exploring a dungeon together. After much hard work, I somehow managed to gain the affection of the character (named Layla). But when I dropped by the item shop to buy some torches before heading to the dungeon, her attitude suddenly changed and she stabbed me to death.

Now that I think about it, she probably didn’t like the fact that the shopkeeper was female.

…Jeez, just how high was her jealousy setting.

As I was once again impressed by the unreasonableness of this game, the game data finished loading and I returned to the last save point, only to hear a light beep informing me of an incoming call.

“Ah, it’s Maki.”

I was still in-game, but that was fine. Calling out the menu screen, I pressed the <Accept Call> button. The call connected immediately, and the sluggish voice of my cousin Maki echoed from thin air.

“Souma? Are you there?”

“Yeah, I’m here. What’s up?”

One of the features of these VR games was that it was possible to communicate with the real world through calls and texts, even when in-game. Being in a VR space meant that you could call hands-free without the need for a physical device, so communication might actually be more convenient here than in the real world.

“Don’t ‘what’s up’ me. Didn’t you promise to help organize our storeroom today?!”

“Eh? Huh, now that you mention it…” I had a faint feeling that I might have made such a promise… Or maybe not… In the first place, ever since I started living alone, I spent pretty much every day gaming, so the sensation of each passing day had started to fade.

“Even after I told you not to forget so many times?!”

“Uh, uhm… Sorry.”

“…Fine then. I thought it was probably something like that, so I already started by myself.”

“A-Ahh. I see, sorry.”

Maki was my cousin, and she was two years younger than me, but even then, her attitude towards me was quite cheeky.

Her short and slender body concealed an abnormal amount of strength, and while her expression was as innocent as a lamb’s, she was actually quite the troublemaker. Frankly, if I were to count the number of times I’ve fallen prey to Maki’s antics, the fingers on my hands and the toes on my feet wouldn’t be enough.

I used starting university as an excuse to go live on my own, and things became a bit quieter, but we were still close enough that we would occasionally correspond through calls or texts.

“So yeah. I started cleaning, but I found something strange…”

“Something strange?”

“Mm. Uhh, it’s orange-colored and ball-shaped?”

“An orange ball?”

It wasn’t just an orange right? Ah, but if an orange was in that storeroom, then it would have rotted a long time ago…

“There’s quite a few of them. Uhm, one, two, three, four… There seems to be around seven?”

“Seven? …Seven orange balls?! H-Hey, they don’t happen to have stars inside them right?” No, such an absurd thing couldn’t be possible…

“Mm? Let me check.”

“Huh? Check? What do you…”

A crash immediately answered my question.

“Uhh… Looks like there isn’t anything inside.”

“W-What did you just do…!”

“Huh? You wanted to know if there was anything inside, so I cracked it open to check…” Maki replied nonchalantly. This was why you could never be too careful around her. The things she could do while keeping a calm face had always been quite extreme.

“Maki, you know, that could’ve actually been…”

“‘Actually been’ what?”

“…Never mind.” I swallowed the words that I was about to say. Now that it was cracked open, there was no point in saying anything. “Is there anything else interesting?”

“Hmm? Let’s see.”

The reply was the sound of someone fumbling through various objects.

“Ah. What… Is this…a mummy’s hand? But it’s so small. It might not be a human hand. Maybe from something like a monkey?”

“C-Could that maybe be that famous monkey’s paw that grants the owner three wishes…?”

My words were drowned out by the ruffling of a plastic bag.

“Eh? What? Sorry, I was busy putting the mummy hand with the burnable trash.”

“You… Ah, whatever.”

If I remembered correctly, the monkey’s paw was supposed to be some kind of cursed object that fulfilled its owner’s wishes with unintended consequences.

Although it was probably not the real thing, it was better not to get involved.

“Anything else?”

“Mm.”

After a short while…

“I-I found something that’s really hard to describe!” Maki’s surprised voice rang out.

“What kind of thing is that?”

“U-Uhh, how do I describe this… It’s golden, and it’s shaped like a watering can, but it’s also like a kettle. But it’s too small to be a watering can or a kettle…”

Gathering together Maki’s ramblings, I tried to picture the object in my mind. Starting with a small golden kettle and morphing it according to her descriptions, the shape of a certain object that frequently appeared in folklore took form.

I involuntarily raised my voice. “Could that be that thing with a djinn in it that grants three wishes, that magical la—”

“I know! It’s a curry pot!” Maki’s exclamation was loud enough to drown out even my raised voice.

“Huh? A curry pot…”

She was probably talking about one of those specialized things used to pour curry. It was true that the shape seemed similar. But still.

“At our place, we use ladles for curry, so guess I’ll throw this away.”

“Ah, wait a—”

A crash. The sound of something breaking reached my ears. I was too late.

“Nn? Did you say something?”

“…No, nothing.”

It was too late anyway. I could only give up and wish the lamp luck in its next life.

“Okay then. Let’s continue!”

“Don’t immediately break the next one!” I let out a warning, just in case.

Of course, I didn’t believe that they were real, but it was definitely strange that these wish-granting items would appear one after another. With Maki destroying them all as soon as she found them… If possible, I would like to investigate the next one a little more, beforehand. Even if they were just randomly created replicas, they could still become the topic of a conversation.

What would appear next? I mildly looked forward to finding out.

“Ah, found something!” Maki’s voice reached my ears once again. It seemed she’d found something new. “I found another one! This is… What is it? It seems like a long, thin strip of paper.”

“A strip of paper?”

A strip of paper and wishes… Ah, it must be that!

“Hey, isn’t that a Tanzaku? You know, the thing you write wishes on for Tanabata?”

“Tanzaku? Ah, mm, yeah, that could be it!”

Still, things seemed to have suddenly become a lot more reasonable, or less exotic, or something. Well, not that it bothered me.

“Since I found it, maybe I’ll write down a wish.”

“Ah, wait! Don’t be so hasty—” I hurriedly tried to stop her, but…

“Done!”

“So fast!”

I was too late. There wouldn’t normally be any danger associated with writing a Tanzaku, but after seeing all these strange relics, you couldn’t be too sure. I was a little wary of it, but Maki didn’t seem worried in the slightest.

“…Nothing’s happening.”

That’s why, when I heard her response, I was honestly slightly relieved.

“Of course. How could something like that actually grant your wishes… So, what did you wish for?”

“I wished to become a princess.”

“…I wish I could be like you, always filled with dreams.”

“You do, don’t you?”

She completely missed my sarcasm. Well, that was part of what made her Maki.

“For a moment, it seemed like it was going to work. I guess it didn’t because it’s not Tanabata.” Maki continued to search while spewing such nonsense.

“Ah, I think I found something amazing. What’s this again… Uh… A Pico Pico Hammer?”

“Pico Pico Hammer?”

I didn’t know of any legends about a Pico Pico Hammer granting wishes. As I tilted my head in confusion, Maki swung the conversation in a completely unrelated direction.

“You know, speaking of Tanzaku—isn’t it almost Tanabata?”

“Hm? Ah, yeah…”

Well, that had nothing to do with me. Other than going to class, I spent the rest of my time holed up in my house playing video games.

Or so I thought. But Maki followed up with a strange request. “Hey, Souma. Come play at our place on Tanabata. You know, to make up for skipping today’s storeroom cleaning.”

“Huh?! No way no way no way! I have classes on Tanabata! And after class, I’m gonna play games, so I have no time to visit!” I refused the unexpected request with a rather harsh tone. However, I immediately regretted it. The aura on the other end of the phone had changed.

“…You’re always like that, Souma. Even when I invite you, it’s always games, games, games, games, games. Even the cleaning today… I worked so hard to finally get a yes from you, but in the end, you forgot about it because of your games…”

“Ah, uhm… Maki?”

Maki’s voice was low. That was a sign of anger.

The moment I plugged my ears in the VR world coincided almost perfectly with a loud voice that seemed to echo through the whole world. “IF YOU LIKE YOUR GAMES SO MUCH, WHY DON’T YOU JUST GO LIVE IN ONE, YOU JERK?!”

At the same time, there was an exaggerated sound of something breaking from far away.

Stunned by Maki’s sudden assault, what reached my ears next was the voice of an equally stunned Maki.

“Huh? The Pico Pico Hammer broke. Even though it looked like it was made of pretty sturdy wood.”

“A hammer… made of wood?” Hearing those words, it suddenly clicked. Only one thing came to mind when I thought about a wooden hammer that could grant wishes.

In other words, that wasn’t a Pico Pico Hammer…

“Hey, could that be the Lucky—” However, I was unable to finish my sentence.

My vision wavered. The virtual world collapsed inwards, losing its appearance.

What’s g— My words made no sound.

Everything started swirling around and being sucked into a big… something.

Right before I lost consciousness… “IF YOU LIKE YOUR GAMES SO MUCH, WHY DON’T YOU JUST GO LIVE IN ONE, YOU JERK?!”

For some reason, Maki’s shout echoed clearly in my head once again.

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