There Was No Secret Organization to Fight with the World's Darkness so I Made One

The Craftsman Piece by Piece Carefully Completed the World’s Darkness

Part 2

But once I made the world’s darkness, I still had free time. Seems like Kaburagi-san still wanted to train for a bit longer. She said that, well, she hadn’t yet accomplished her goal, and in addition to not being able to move within stopped time unless she was naked, she couldn’t figure out how to do it either. At least while wearing clothes, she should be able to move, and she should have a penlight or headlight instead of a light in her mouth.

Originally, I trained my psychokinesis for approximately ten years, which is appropriate for the boss of a secret organization…well, I won’t use excessive force without a reason. Kaburagi-san has worked hard for less than six months and is doing well. She’s mastering it at a considerably faster pace than I did. It seems that the upper limit of her ability is not very high.

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I have already moved to the bar ‘Amanoiwato’ and finished the secret passage and secret basement in the bar. The darkness of the world has also been created. I won’t have anything to do until Kaburagi-san finishes the minimum amount of training, so I decided to kill time by experimenting a little more with transplanting [Nenrikin].

I started with the success rate for transplanting [Nenrikin]. If the other party is a human being, it’s almost a success. I tried to confirm it by ripping off pieces of [Nenrikin] and sticking them to passersby. [Nenrikin] easily sticks at first to men, while for women it’s a little easier to peel off.

I also tried it on chimps at the zoo and Japanese macaques1. They’re more likely to peel off than women, but they’ll stick just fine if they somehow stay attached for 2, 3 hours or so. In addition, Kaburagi-san bought a mouse to use for experiments. But I couldn’t attach it. It felt like trying to put tape on water. Then I switched over to fish and insects. It was like trying to stick it to the air. It was impossible, there was no response. Concrete and wood are the same.

I concluded that, the more a being resembles me, the origin of [Nenrikin], the easier it will be to transplant it. That’s what I settled on. Of course, the ripped off pieces of [Nenrikin] used in the experiment were all recovered. If an experimental subject escaped, they could become a threat to the secret organization, or fully become Kamen Rider2 or something.

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Incidentally, I tried to re-transplant Kaburagi-san’s [Stoprotein] to me, but the moment I used [Nenrikin] to grab [Stoprotein] and tried to cut it,

“AAAHHH!”

She screamed like she was dying and hurt my ears; it didn’t end until she became hoarse. It seems that her real voice came out because it was too painful. In accordance with what I thought, her voice usually sounds nice, but not only her face, her voice was ugly too, huh. Kaburagi-san passionately risked everything for her beauty. She said she would try to endure it and try again, but even though she showed great courage, I told her that because it seemed like her scream influenced her life force a little, the re-transplanting experiment would be put on hold. *Maa*, eventually there’ll be another chance to try it out.

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Then, by the time I finished my transplanting experiments, Kaburagi-san had also finished her training. These are Kaburagi-san’s current specs:

The maximum stop time is 44 seconds! Within the stopped time it will be completely dark, but a light source will be secured by inserting a micro-light into the chest pocket of her dress! Of course, she can move while wearing clothes!

It’s possible for her to cancel the time stop for any target by touching it with her hands! I was asked to come into the world of stopped time, and because sound is also stopped, it was eerily silent. Other than that, it seemed to me to be pretty normal. However, cancelling the stopped time for any object except herself seems to be tiring, and how tiring it is is heavily dependent on the object’s weight. If she cancels the suspension of human-sized objects other than herself, the maximum stopped time is reduced by about 10 seconds. She won’t be able to cancel the stopped time for even a second if it’s a huge object that would be in the ‘Road Roller’ class3.

However, if she’s cancelling the suspension just for herself, if she stops time for a few seconds then rests for a few minutes over and over again, she can stop time for about 5-6 minutes total before [Stoprotein] wears out and she becomes unable to move. It’s the same as being able to do a lot more push-ups if, rather than consecutively doing them, you do one push-up then take a break.

By the way, it’s also possible to use the cancellation of stopped time to attack. Because she is able to release just the heart from stopped time by touching a suspended organism, she cause them to have a heart attack and/or die due to their heart still moving when their blood no longer is. Let’s have a silent prayer for ‘mouse-kun’ (who was diverted from my [Nenrikin] transplanting experiment), who died at the age of 1 year and 2 months as a result of becoming a test subject for this technique.

I think it’s possible to say that Kaburagi-san possesses sufficient ability as the sub-leader and adjutant of the secret organization. Now we can finally establish our secret organization. Even though the use of time stop could still be expanded, if we say that, then that’s also true of my psychokinesis, and both me and Kaburagi-san can’t help the fact that we want to establish our secret organization ASAP.

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The preparations are in order. While I was doing a test run of the world’s darkness, Kaburagi-san came to ‘Amanoiwato’ dressed in a high quality tailor-made suit, and playfully putting on airs sat in one of the chairs at a table instead of at the counter and said “Master, the usual.” It’s the middle of summer. “So, what are you doing here on this sultry summer evening…” it felt like that. No, her composed facial expression is incredibly effective and cooler, though.

I silently open our most expensive wine. Kaburagi-san tasted it by rolling it around her mouth with her tongue, then swallowed and said,

“Everything’s ready, right?”

“Who’s your final candidate?”

“I decided on this girl.”

Kaburagi-san took out a folded piece of paper from her cleavage (her loosely worn suit allowed me a peek at her chest), and gave it to me. What a production. It resembles a movie. I like it.

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In order to choose the prestigious first member of our secret organization, Kaburagi-san and I each searched for candidates and then each of us narrowed it down to one person. Today is the day of the decisive battle to determine if it will be the candidate I chose or the candidate Kaburagi-san chose.

My search criteria was “a normal middle school student who wants an extraordinary life”. Normal middle school students are well-suited to a secret organization. They spend their daily lives endlessly bored, not really being particularly passionate about anything, or if they are passionate, they quickly lose interest, “Ah, if only I had some sort of mysterious power”, only middle school students have such strong delusions. I want to grant such a person a truly mysterious power.

Even if they have a mysterious power, will they not be ready for such a significant event and still be an ordinary person? Or will obtaining a mysterious power cause them to start to shine? Either way is fine. It’s important to have a chance to change. I understand well the feelings of youths who are waiting in vain without a chance to experience the extraordinary. That’s who I used to be. Even after I awoke my psychokinesis, I continued to remain passive. I didn’t try to raise myself to the extraordinary, I waited for the extraordinary to come to me instead. For this reason, to those who are waiting for the extraordinary, to the male students who account for a large part of the majority of ordinary people, I would like to give them an opportunity for an extraordinary life.

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On the other hand, Kaburagi-san’s search criteria was “a middle school student that is doing one’s best.” A middle school student that is trying hard to reach their goal is well-suited to a secret organization. Even if they are being denied, made fun of, or ignored. They still accept themselves, and persevere toward their goal. Kaburagi-san wants to give mysterious powers to such a person. Because she knows hard work is not always rewarded. She’s experienced things like diet rebounds, not being allowed to get plastic surgery because she’s required to be accompanied by her parents/guardian, and many stumbles and failures in trying to make money. Not being rewarded for your hard work is quite frustrating and may cause you to dream “Ah, if only I had a mysterious power”. Kaburagi-san wants to make that dream come true.

I want to give those who can’t move forward the impetus they need to do so. Kaburagi-san wants to give those who move working to improve themselves a reward for doing so. Neither is wrong. I understand Kaburagi-san’s feelings, and Kaburagi-san also understands my feelings. Nevertheless, there’s no way I’m going to yield to her. Mutually, there’s no way Kaburagi-san will yield to me either. That’s why today is the final battle to decide our candidate.

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I take out the piece of paper that has my candidate’s name written on it, put it together with Kaburagi-san’s candidate, then waved them around as the paper fluttered, *pira-pira*. I asked,

“How do we decide?”

“I was thinking we could do a coin toss.”

“*Ou*, you’re joking…I was thinking of deciding it with ‘rock-paper-scissors’.

How embarrassing. Kaburagi-san smiled wryly and said,

“Rock-paper-scissors is fine. So let’s do it quickly, ok?”

“Oh, is that so? Ok then, one round of rock-paper-scissors it is. Without having three rounds afterwards, of course.”

“OK. Let’s start; ‘Rock – Paper – Scissors –’”

“‘Shoot’! …huh?”

◊

I revealed paper, and Kaburagi-san revealed scissors. The result is my straight loss. But I saw it. Kaburagi-san’s hand unnaturally blurred for a moment in the middle of the reveal.

“Wait, just now, you definitely used time stop to confirm your hand, didn’t you? That’s cheating, cheating! That doesn’t count! Redo!”

“It was supposed to be only one round, right?”

Kaburagi-san pushed back her hair with a *fu* and laughed triumphantly. That’s immature, Kaburagi-san! Damnit, if that’s how it is, then I’ll also use my psychokinesis to do ‘absolute hardening’ on Kaburagi-san’s hand so that she can only reveal ‘rock’.

…Well, ok. I did say only one round. Using my psychokinesis to go back on what I said would be wrong. Kaburagi-san has given me money and ideas, and even allowed the secret base to be made according to my preferences. I guess I can concede this time.

I look at the winning candidate that Kaburagi-san wrote on her piece of paper. That was the agreement after all.

The prestigious first member of the secret organization that fights the world’s darkness, ‘Amaterasu’, is a Buddhist middle school girl from Saitama Prefecture4, Hasumi Touka-chan.

End of Arc 1 (Before)

Footnotes:

1: Japanese macaques are a type of monkey native to Japan. They’re called ‘nihonzaru’ (ニホンザル) in Japanese, which literally translates to ‘Japan monkey’. This is what they look like ⇒ Nihonzaru

2: ‘Kamen Rider’ is a series/franchise about a masked superhero who fights monsters and secret organizations ⇒ Kamen Rider Wiki

3: Apparently a reference to a scene in ‘Jojo’s Bizarre Adventures; Stardust Crusaders’ where time stop is used to drop a road roller on top of the MC ⇒ ‘JoJo’s Bizarre Adventures; Stardust Crusaders’ – Vol. 16 ch. 150

4: Saitama Prefecture is north of Tokyo and part of the ‘Greater Tokyo’ region ⇒ Saitama Prefecture