怪獣の放出 / Kaijuu no Houshutsu / Unleashed Beasts

第５章 (Chapter 5)

Kirai woke up the next morning, feeling refreshed after the peaceful sleep. The text she had romanized the night before sat on the table. She was planning to see Tsuki today to see if she can read the text. She had a feeling that Fred was a little... ominous, as though there was something about him that made Kirai decide to refrain from letting him see the text.

Kirai got out of bed and changed into her clothes, and she prepared a bag with all the things she needed; the Shler'heihn book, the romanized text, and the amulet. She felt that it may have some significance.

She walked out the front door, taking in a breath of fresh air. She began walking to Tsuki's home. When she arrived, there was a painting, resting upon an easel, on the front side of the engawa (a kind of porch made of wood or bamboo that surrounds a building). The painting depicted an image of a mythological creature. It was a creature known as the Inari no Kitsune, a creature in traditional folklore as being a fox messenger from the fox god Inari.

The painting was very well-made. Kirai took note of Tsuki's artistic talent. She slid the door open, and there was Tsuki, who was just going to open the door.

"Oh, Kirai, you're already here. I was expecting you," Tsuki said in surprise. "You see... there's something rather strange going on."

Kirai looked off briefly and came in. Tsuki led her into the house and into a room Kirai hadn't been in before. When she went into the room, she was shocked and her eyes widened. There, many objects in the room were... floating in the air. The objects were suspended in mid-air, as though there was no gravity in the room. Upon walking into the room and into the space of defiance, to find that the phenomenon was not acting upon her or Tsuki.

"Any... ideas?" Kirai asked quietly. Tsuki responded, "None. I have no idea why this is happening. But I do know that the defiance of gravity seems to only affect objects of smaller mass, like these brushes, fans, papers..." Kirai grabbed one of the objects from the air, and sure enough, it was weightless, as though she were holding a feather, but even lighter.

"Your father...?"

"He's out working. I thought you should know first."

Kirai investigated for a few minutes. There were papers, brushes and pens, two traditional fans, and a few other particles and specks of dust, wood, and other stuff. However, there was no explanation for the small-mass zero-gravity field. 

Because of its nature to not follow in accordance with nature, Kirai and Tsuki decided to call this kind of phenomenon 「挑戦 特質」, or chousen tokushitsu, which literally translates to "Defiance Quality" or "Defiance Characteristic". They called it chousen for short, since it's easy to remember the context.

Kirai couldn't help but feel a bit curious about this chousen. She experimented with different objects with different masses. Some of the lighter ones, like brushes and pens, floated aimlessly and were almost completely unaffected by gravity. Others, like a heavy book that Tsuki had, was affected by gravity but it was as though the gravity wasn't working well enough. Kirai tried moving the furniture in the room, and it was a lot lighter than ordinary.

Kirai told Tsuki to try grabbing her and lifting her, to which Tsuki said, shocked, "W-what? Are you certain, Kirai? That... That isn't normal, you know...?" Kirai confirmed her wishes and Tsuki sighed, picking her up. In Japanese culture, it is usually seen as very unacceptable or bizarre to do something like that. Although it would be considered uncommon in Western culture, it is not utterly unacceptable to grab someone around the waist and lift them up. In Japan, however, it is seen as a sign of being a foreigner to do anything unusual, such as kissing both cheeks of a person as a greeting, or giving a hug, or any other kind of touch; a simple bow would do as a greeting.