What's Kuro-senpai doing here?
His steps are so clumsy.
He basically has no sports or martial arts experience,
yet he looks completely unfazed taking that monster on.
That's undoubtedly Kuro-senpai.
I figured something like this might happen, but right now? Really?
Hey!
What the hell do you think you're doing?!
You have a monster summon me and then leave the place we're supposed to meet,
and you leave a ghost with a message?!
Why couldn't you have just waited at the restaurant?
Say someth—
Hey, we need to save him.
We can leave him alone. He'll be fine.
I'm sure even he's prepared to have his head smashed in at least once.
Huh?!
K...
Kuro-kun!
Why is Kuro-kun...
If you get any closer, you might get caught in the middle.
Let's just watch for a bit.
But it looks like he could go down at any moment.
He's tripping over his own feet!
Yes, but it doesn't seem like she's that much stronger than he is.
It should be simple, then.
Especially if he's willing to take a steel beam to the face.
Even if he's close to death,
he'll be able to get back up immediately
thanks to the immortality he gained by eating mermaid flesh.
Is this the first time you've seen Kuro-senpai die?
Of course it is.
Then why did you break up with him?
I saw a cut on his hand disappear immediately.
I saw his severed fingers grow back.
And yet Kuro-kun acted like nothing even happened.
Well, he is immortal. You should expect that.
An able-bodied boyfriend.
Couldn't she just accept that he would've made a great husband?
That she'd never have to worry about him being injured or sick?
The way she's acting now, I guess not.
Is it so strange to suddenly feel scared at the thought
of becoming family with someone like that?
Am I not allowed to reconsider marriage?
Dozens of his relatives and extended family have died of illness or unusual causes.
Kuro-kun's the only one living a decent life.
Looks like Kuro-senpai's back.
I-If he gets that close, he's going to get killed again!
He stopped right before the steel beam could hit him.
Kuro-kun and Steel Lady Nanase look like they're following a script.
Everything seems calculated.
I can't believe he grabbed her so easily...
Well, Steel Lady Nanase is mostly just swinging the steel beam without thinking.
The probability of something like this happening is rather high.
And if it's likely to happen,
it's not hard for Kuro-senpai to set that future in stone.
That's another one of Kuro-senpai's abilities.
The powers of the prophet beast,
the kudan, whose flesh he ate along with the mermaid's.
The ability to determine the future.
He said that he hadn't told Saki-san everything
about the secrets of the Sakuragawa family.
It all started ten odd generations before Kuro-senpai, with the head of
the Sakuragawa family at that time.
If your liver is bad, eat the liver of a creature with a strong one.
If your eyes are bad, eat the eyes of a creature with good vision.
Then, perhaps, if you ate the flesh of a kudan,
you could acquire its prophetic powers!
If I could freely see into the future,
I could gain an unfathomable amount of wealth and knowledge!
Kudan
The kudan.
A yokai with the head of a human and the body of a cow.
It can speak human language, and once it predicts the future, it dies.
On occasion, it would predict good futures,
such as a good harvest or prosperity for a family,
but most of its predictions would be misfortunes, and they were 100% accurate.
He got his hands on kudan meat and had several in his household eat it.
Some died instantly after having a bad reaction to the meat.
Some died after being bedridden for a month.
And others died after they predicted the future.
They say those predictions turned out to be accurate.
The head of the household continued this over and over.
But even those who obtained the ability to see the future died immediately...
Just like the kudan.
I'm so close... I'm so close, and now...
Damn it!
And then he realized...
Mermaid
Those with the ability to predict
the future just needed to have immortal bodies.
So then he started having people consume
mermaid flesh along with the kudan meat.
But the number of victims skyrocketed,
and the experiment never worked.
Time passed, and such nightmarish experiments were forgotten.
But...
Kuro.
Grandmother.
Dinner is ready.
Okay.
Let's eat.
Nii-san?
What?
Grandmother, they're all...
Th-They all seem to be in pain!
Ah, Kuro...
You feel completely fine?
Do you have a fever? Do you feel nauseous?
No, I'm fine...
It's come true! It's finally come true!
His grandmother was still chasing the dream.
She had been secretly gathering kudan meat and mermaid flesh.
Grandmother.
They're suffering. Please help them!
Let's see...
I would love to know what the weather will be like tomorrow.
Huh?
You should be able to tell me that, Kuro.
I need you to die once and go see...
the future!
And then, his insane grandmother tried various experiments.
To see if he was immortal, and if he could predict the future,
she cut up his body and made him suffer mortal wounds repeatedly,
until he stopped feeling pain almost altogether.
Kuro.
There are lots of fireflies by the river out back.
Want to go see them with me?
Sure.
Well, come along, then.
Is something wrong?
Nope. It's nothing, Nee-san.
The dream of the Sakuragawa family had finally come true.
But the abilities obtained were slightly different from what they desired.
While he is still human,
he became something inhuman.
Ah, Kuro-senpai...
The way he can do something like that with no hesitation
is another one of his charms!
I don't need a boyfriend who can snap a ghost's neck.
Now, this is the real question.
Will this truly be the end of Steel Lady Nanase?
I figured that wouldn't work.
This means we only have one option.
Kuro-senpai, that should be enough.
We'll need a different strategy to defeat Steel Lady Nanase.
A Monster of the Imagination
Saki-san, what are you doing here?
I work as a police officer in this city. What are you doing here, Kuro-kun?
Well...
Of course, if your dear girlfriend asks you to show up,
you'll show up, even if it means fighting a monster, right?
Something like that.
Though I wasn't informed that you'd be here, Saki-san.
I also had no idea you'd show up, Kuro-kun.
Well, I had no intention of letting you see each other.
So she really is your current girlfriend?
Yes... She really is my current girlfriend...
Kuro-senpai! Why do you sound like it absolutely pains you?!
Because it does absolutely pain me.
I'm sorry, Saki-san. I'm pretty sure Iwanaga caused you some trouble.
Kuro-senpai! I actually saved Saki-san!
I don't deserve this kind of treatment—
Just apologize.
There's no way you didn't cause trouble.
It's fine. I'm sure we both caused each other trouble.
What we should be worried about right now is Steel Lady Nanase.
So anyway,
it's good to see you, Kuro-kun.
Yes. It's good to see you, too... Saki-san.
Let's go somewhere else.
Lingering in a vending machine's light for so long is way too sad.
It's not as if we're moths!
I knew I shouldn't have let these two see each other.
How did this happen?
It's not like we could've talked about this at the restaurant,
and I was scared to go home alone, but...
Kuro-senpai.
Why are you staring at your ex-girlfriend from behind
when your current girlfriend is sitting right next to you?
You're just imagining it.
I am not! I just saw you!
"Oh, she's lost some weight. I hope she's been eating right.
I wonder if she looks like skin and bones because of me.
Wow, her hips look nice, though."
I know that's you were thinking.
I'm impressed. That's exactly what I was thinking.
Saki-san's beautiful.
Don't admit that! How dare you admit that so quickly?!
And how dare you take that attitude with me after
leaving your poor girlfriend alone for a whole week?!
Why didn't you reply to any of my messages?
Oh, so those were from you. I thought they were spam messages.
At least look at me!
I see you two get along great.
Of course we do!
Just so you know, we're usually even more lovey-dovey!
Saki-san, are you still not able to eat fish or beef?
I can eat some now.
My job is the reason I lost weight.
I'm sorry.
Again, this isn't your fault, Kuro-kun.
We broke up without straightening things out,
so I thought I'd be more shaken up if I saw him.
I wonder if I'm able to stay so calm because of her.
Anyway, let's get to the matter at hand.
Though she's still pretty intolerable...
Yes, you're right.
Kuro-kun, were you fighting Steel Lady Nanase on orders from Iwanaga-san?
Uh...
I did come to Makurazaka City because she called me,
but I just happened to run into Steel Lady Nanase.
When I got to the station,
a goblin cat that had been attacked by Steel Lady Nanase came to me for help.
These creatures would usually do everything they can to avoid me,
but after spending so much time with Iwanaga,
they started to see me as someone they could rely on
in place of their lady of one eye and one leg,
and started asking me for help, as well.
I didn't have time to contact Iwanaga,
so I went to where Steel Lady Nanase appeared by myself.
Oh, that's good.
Maybe the kappa won't run away from you next time.
Having them rely on me all the time isn't much better.
More importantly, Steel Lady Nanase didn't fear me when she saw me.
Well, Kuro-san does look like a horrifying, evil, jumbled mess
of a creature that's some unsightly mix of a human, mermaid,
and kudan to those who aren't human.
Apparently, even the monsters consider him a monster.
Huh?
Then, Iwanaga-san,
what does that make Steel Lady Nanase, since she doesn't react to Kuro-kun?
She's a monster.
Well, I can see that. Let me rephrase. Is she something that can be exterminated?
She is.
The reason I wanted to see you tonight is to discuss that.
Steel Lady Nanase is different from a normal spectre.
She was created from the delusions and desires of modern-day humans.
She's a monster of the imagination.
I hadn't planned to tell her all of this, but at this point,
I'll tell her as much of the truth
as I can so she'll understand how different our world is from hers.
I'll show her just how different we are. That's the best plan.
The yokai, monsters, ghosts, mononoke, and beasts from urban legends
that we're familiar with
have monsters of the imagination hidden among them.
It may start as something trivial.
For example, someone might say...
A creepy pale lady wearing a mask came up to me,
but she was scary, so I ran away.
That's how the story would start.
Huh? And then?
But that's not a very interesting story, so...
And when I took a closer look,
I realized her mouth was split open under the mask.
I got scared, so I ran away,
but then she came running after me as fast as she could.
Wow, that's really scary.
And now there's a lie added to the story.
Eventually, that story will spread.
A woman wearing a mask...
...asked, "Am I pretty?"
Under the mask, her mouth was...
This is all still just a story.
It becomes a problem when this is given a name.
The slit-mouth woman.
They give that story a single name
that manages to generally describe what it looks like.
That puts together all of these vague rumors and solidifies them
into a uniform image.
At first, it was just make-believe,
but now that the fiction has a name and a shape,
it implants itself into the minds of thousands, tens of thousands,
and millions of people's minds,
which gives it flesh and blood, turning it into something real.
People's imaginations manage to create a monster.
Do you expect anyone to believe this happens every day?
Are you really asking that after seeing a kappa and a ghost?
Usually, monsters of the imagination are nothing to fear.
They're popular for a short time,
and even if they gain a form, they're weak.
They usually disappear soon after.
The slit-mouth woman and human-faced dog eventually disappeared.
But in that case, isn't Steel Lady Nanase
rather different from the monster of the imagination that you speak of?
It's been given the name "Steel Lady Nanase,"
but she's so powerful.
Yes, exactly that.
Huh?
Why did it manage to gain a form not even a year after Nanase Karin's death
and become that powerful?
There is a way to make that possible.
Usually, rumors take time to spread.
So what can spread them instantly
where countless eyes can see them?
Only certain media outlets even bothered reporting the accident.
It's really only popular on the Internet...
Exactly. The culprit is the Internet.
The Internet can relay information all around the world in an instant,
and many people have access to it.
And it's able to gather an endless amount of varying ideas in one place.
In one place?
Oh, like that Steel Lady Nanase wiki?
Ah, so you know of it. That'll make this easier.
That site is the reason her name and description have been defined,
and why it spread at such an alarming rate.
And the illustration of her on the top page...
That gave her a from that's hard to get from rumors alone
and defined what she should look like in an instant.
Do you remember what the picture looks like?
Yes.
Don't you think that the Steel Lady Nanase
on that page looked exactly like the one we saw, down to the finest detail?
Now that you mention it, yes. What about it, though?
Do you think it's really possible
to illustrate a ghost made up of rumors
so precisely, when there's never been a solid eyewitness report?
Of course you can't.
What happened is the opposite.
The opposite?
That drawing wasn't modeled after the ghost.
But because so many people imagined Steel Lady Nanase
to look like that from that illustration,
it took that form.
Huh?
Everything is backwards.
The wiki wasn't created because there was a ghost.
The ghost was born because the wiki was created.
Steel Lady Nanase Wiki
You could call this website
the true identity of Steel Lady Nanase.
To Be Continued
Preview
Steel Lady Nanase maintains her immortal form thanks to
many people's imaginations.
To defeat her,
we need to think up a story that'll surpass an actual story of a spectre.
The thing we need to face her head-on is...
Next time, "Logical Fiction."