Mayonaka no X Giten 8

Midnight Cross Method 8

p1: ====================================
[vertical]: The landscape, with you in it, is my own personal world heritage site.
Chapter 8: My Name is X.

p2: ====================================
Wh… What gives?
/ What are you talking about?
What’re you trying to say?!

Do you truly think that I am the culprit behind the murder of the Kirishima Family?
?!

Well… Yeah, I do.
/ I mean, you confessed. You said you were “curious to see how people would react when the person they trusted the most suddenly attacked them.”

p3: ====================================
It was my sister, Ai, who conveyed that to the police.
!!

She testified that it was I who killed our family.
/ She supplied the motive as well.

…That’s… If that’s true, then…
what you’re trying to say is that the culprit isn’t you…

It’s…

p4: ====================================
The thing I “forgot” to do was to confirm that.

I loved my family.
[sfx]: Clench

I loved my father, who was always relaxed and took things at his own pace;
/ my mother, who rarely spoke but never lacked a smile;
My brother, who was exemplary and serious to a fault;

And my sister…
/ She was a bit of a dreamer and terribly kind.

p5: ====================================
Then why didn’t you say that to the police?!
/ Why not tell them you loved your family; that you’d never kill them?!

Because that would have made Ai a liar.

I cannot imagine such a kind sister speaking such a falsehood.

…If I had to say, I’d say that I… I don’t trust myself.
/ Ever since I was old enough to understand, I’ve been told I was a “touched” child.
I guess the aura I have about me differs from that of normal people.

Furthermore…
/ I have no memory of what happened the day of the incident.

p6: ====================================
My sister, whom I trusted, named me the culprit.
/ And I could neither trust myself nor remember what happened.
…So what was I to do, besides accept it?
Accept that I was the culprit?

It’s just… I learned, after I was arrested, that a certain thing was possible.
You’re not talking about…

Of course, I mean body switching: the Cross Act.

p7: ====================================
[sfx, bubbles]: Hah x2
[sfx, bottom]: Dash!

Would the fact that you released me
mean that you believe my story?

Of course not!!
[sfx]: Snap!
Oh my.

[sfx]: Huff x2
[sfx, bottom]: Jiggle
It’s just… If everything you said is true…

It would mean you lost your family because of body switching, just like I did.
And the person who did the swap was your sister.

Which means, right now, Mikuriya’s in danger!!

p8: ====================================
…Besides, there was one thing I couldn’t let go of.
/ When I entered your body…
[sfx, all over the page]: Dash!

The smell was missing.
What smell?

The smell of blood. It wasn’t on you.

I washed myself over and over again, but I couldn’t erase from my body the smell of my sister’s blood.
Of course, that was a psychological thing.
/ Maybe the smell was actually gone soon after I started bathing…

p9: ====================================
But your body smelled too scentless to me.
[sfx]: Sniff sniff
I can’t believe it the body of a man who killed three people.

……
What? Why the silent treatment?

The whole world… No, even I thought I was guilty,
yet you would point out the possibility of my innocence?

The thought makes me glad…

What?!
You’re making me sick!
/ It’s not like I really believe you, got it?!

p10: ====================================
…Okay.

We’re here, so that’s good, but how do we get inside?

Right now, we’re just a pair of girls. I wouldn’t expect us to put them on edge.
[sfx]: Ding-dong
Y… Yeah, you’re right. So let’s just take this normally…

…………….
Hey… There’s no response!
/ Could that mean… something’s already happened?

p11: ====================================
[sfx]: Crash!

Wh—What was that sound just now?

This way. The window here is open!

!
/ He’s dead—No, just asleep.
For now, let’s hurry upstairs!

[sfx]: Dash!
[sfx]: Click

p12-13: ====================================
Huh? Another guest?

p14: ====================================
Hey! You all right?!

Oh, then I presume you ladies are acquainted with this young man?
Be at ease. He is merely asleep.

Ai……

Listen. That body’s Cross Ability, Silent Confession, lets you read someone’s mind by looking into their eyes for thirty seconds.
Use it to confirm whether or not it’s your sister in there.

What is it? Is there something on my face?

p15: ====================================
?!!

Kh!!
Huff… Huff…
[sfx]: Wobble
What’s wrong? What’d you see?!

p16: ====================================
Th… There’s two…

There’s two people inside Ai…!

Oh my.
/ It seems I’ve been discovered.
Wow, so that’s your Cross Ability.

p17: ====================================
Seeing as to how your acquaintance was not in his own body,
/ I suspected the two of you might be swapping as well.

Just who are you?

Kirishima Ai, of course.

Enough lies. My sister is right-handed.
Your sister…? What a surprise.
/ Then inside that body would be Ai’s brother, I presume?

…So you’re the one…
who killed my family?

p18: ====================================
Yes, I did the deed.
[sfx]: Smile

I did intend to depart this body before long, truly, but…
Well, its Cross Ability is so superb, I keep finding myself here.

Yet that superb Cross Ability
proved ineffective against that young man there’s. Truly a surprise.
/ What an interesting power that body has, I must say.

p19: ====================================
…Why? Why kill my family?
/ And why, of all things, did you use my sister’s body to do it?!

Whatever are you saying? Naturally, that was what your sister herself desired.
[sfx]: Smile
That kind girl? She would never wish for that!

I would not be so sure…
/ Please, recall who it was who told you, Sachi, of the Cross Act. Was it not your sister?
Then the question becomes, what significance did that hold?
…………

Sachi-nii-sama, have you heard of Cross Acts?
/ It’s a ritual that lets you become someone you’re not.
Wow, that sounds interesting.

p20: ====================================
Have you ever wanted to become someone you’re not?
Hmm…

I… I guess not. Are you saying you do, Ai?

Yes… I… I do.
[sfx]: Fidget
Are you talking about back then?

The only reason to become someone one is not, other than the desire to seek some momentary pleasure…
/ is because one is deeply dissatisfied with one’s present self.
So perhaps, if you had listened to what the girl had to say, things would not have transpired as they did.

…That’s, well…
By and large, I didn’t truly believe exchanging bodies was possible until I tried it for real in the penitentiary.

Besides, as far as I could see, my sister was sweet and intelligent.
/ Nothing about her suggested any deep dissatisfaction.
[vertical text x4]: Good day to you.

p21: ====================================
In that case… her dissatisfaction must have stemmed from her environment.

Her environment…?
/ I think our family was relatively well-off.
And her school wasn’t one that would tolerate bullying.

At the very least, I can’t picture her being so dissatisfied that she’d want to become someone else—
Are you certain?

Have you ever taken a proper look at her?
………?

[sfx]: Pop x2
After looking at this,
can you still utter…
[sfx]: Drop

p22: ====================================
The same words?

p23: ====================================
This wound here I inflicted myself during the incident so none would think me anything but a victim…

However, every other mark on this body has been there since before that day.
Months have passed since the incident, yet the bruises still remain.

Do you still believe she had no cause for dissatisfaction,
Sachi-nii-sama? ♡

p24: ====================================
Who would do something that awful?
[sfx]: Clench

Well…..
Allow me to keep that a secret for the nonce.

But I will say this: the perpetrator was a member of your family.
……

Hey, you… Just who are you?
/ In a Cross Act, aren’t you supposed to go back to your own body after two hours? And how are there two people in there?!

You certainly are flush with questions… And being called “you” all the time does not strike my fancy.
…Well then.

p25: ====================================
Please, henceforth, call me “X.”

I am one who participate in Cross Acts, enters another’s body…

then acts as an agent to fulfill some aspiration that the individual cannot do alone.

You’re an aspiration-fulfilling agent…?

p26: ====================================
X… Was it you?
/ Did you kill my sister?

Who knows? I haven’t the foggiest who is inside there, but…
If you held such an Aspiration, the possibility may be quite high.

p27: ====================================
[sfx]: *Clench teeth*

Wait!
What gives? Move!!

No; that is quite the rational decision.
Why? Because at the end of the day, this body is Kirishima Ai’s.

As such, no matter how you might wound this flesh,
/ it will behoove you naught.
For your suspect is the one on the inside.
[sfx]: Gulp!

p28: ====================================
…But with that said, to simply effect my escape like this would be quite droll.
And you ladies and gentlemen have worked so hard to reach this point.

So why don’t I give you the opportunity to capture me?

I always make sure to attend a certain evening party.

Would you all be so kind as to attend as well?

p29: ====================================
And then…
Please, find X.

If you so succeed, I will tell you all that I know,
/ and I will return to you Ai-san’s body.

…So what’s this “evening party” of yours?

Perhaps you ladies and gentlemen have already heard of the event?

p30: ====================================
It is the Midnight Cross Method.

p31: ====================================
The Midnight Cross Method…?!

“The Midnight Cross Method”
Sachi—he wrote about that in his letter!!

One could compare the Midnight Cross Method
to a masquerade ball.
There, the guests hide their faces behind masks that they may temporarily forget their station and thus make merry.

Meanwhile, at the Cross Method, participants all exchange bodies with another.
Thus, they make merry while fully becoming another person.

I trust you understand, then?
In essence,
/ we will be playing a game where your goal is to identify me amongst all the guests.

p32: ====================================
Naturally, I will be participating in a different body than this one.
[sfx]: Click…
And there will be no hints, so…

You are welcome to use all the wisdom and powers at your disposal
to uncover X.