The Girl I Should Have Known
A slightly odd thing to admit, but back when I used to read possession novels, a question like this would sometimes catch on me.
"How is it these people realize they've been possessed the second they open their eyes?"
That was the part that baffled me most every time I read. I could let the rest go, but those scenes where someone glances in a mirror and immediately thinks, Don't tell me I've become ***? were honestly absurd to sit through.
Well... I was in a similar situation myself, granted. But I had been reading the visual novel right up until the moment of possession, and Lust Hope's appearance is extremely distinctive, so at least that much is understandable, isn't it?
The ones who look at a face without even a vague reason like that and decide it belongs to a character in a novel — what kind of eye do they have? Were they detectives in a past life?
Think about it honestly. Characters from a comic or a novel suddenly become real, and you recognize them the instant you see them? Could you?
Yeah... if I'm being honest, I'm skeptical. Comic characters all look more or less the same anyway, don't they? Take away a few unusual accessories and compare the faces alone, and it's nothing but the art style doing the work!
Even I couldn't tell Cheongbap from Jeanne at first. The weird one is whoever can. You only start recognizing them once you like something a little too deeply. An ordinary person can't do it.
I was the same. If not for the unique looks Lust Hope possesses, matching her illustration to the body I was in would have been difficult. My present self is so far beyond any illustration that comparison is nearly impossible. Setting appearance aside, the particular air a real person carries is the kind of thing an illustration can never express.
Frankly, even influencers you watch all the time feel different in the flesh, don't they? And you're telling me you can match the real person from the illustration alone? I understand it's for the sake of a fast plot, but it still sounds like nonsense.
I didn't drag this thought up for no reason.
"Hello! I'm Rachel~ I'll be assisting Lady Lust together with Hana. Please look after me~!"
This red-haired girl. She feels oddly friendly, oddly familiar...? And I still can't tell who she is.
Not a lead, I don't think... A supporting character?
Who are you.
Whether my little sympathy campaign had worked or not, a small change arrived in my daily life. That change was the multiplication of my personal maid.
WOW! Buy one, get one! Twice the maids! Pino is a god! The maids are duplicating!!
...I say that, but honestly, I'm not all that pleased. And for good reason. This one's eyes are a little off.
"Hmm."
The other maids, say what you will about them, always let a trace of pride seep into the way they looked at me. It was the look of someone certain of an informational advantage. Put that way it sounds unkind, but it wasn't exactly a negative gaze — more the way you look at a child you're meant to look after.
The redhead, by contrast, had the shape of someone observing. Her eyes were stuck fast to my every move. Closer to a watcher than a guardian.
Don't tell me she suspects what I'm doing...?
No. Surely not.
I hadn't seen all of Vanguard: Last One, Part 2, but I knew the skeleton of the thing. The mood on the community back then was such that merely posting anything about Vanguard was enough to get you sent to the memorial board, and Vanguard: Last One had obviously been born to clear the air, which made it one of the usual targets people tore apart.
Public shaming was the baseline, and they picked over every line and every scene to churn out parody memes. Thanks to that, I don't know the specifics, but I really do know the broad story. The problem is how broad "broad" is... Anyway, the plot of Part 2 goes like this.
One: Pino asks Lust to be her friend. Two: Lust accepts. Three: a very, very long time passes, and Lust, shocked by some enormous matter, kills herself. Four: PROFIT! The world ends!
Calling that a story feels generous... but if you remember it was a rush job thrown together to quell a fandom losing its mind, it isn't hard to understand. Is it? Maybe the impressive part is that they managed to finish even Part 1 with any craft at all.
In any case, if I dredge up the posts people were shouting about on the community, it comes out to roughly that. And if you compile the vicious curses that surfaced here and there, the takeaway is that Pino never doubted "me," from beginning to end.
How strong was that faith?
Comments like that got tacked on often enough.
The post it was attached to was probably about some incident in the story. Lust catching on to something, falling into a panic, and lying to Pino — that sort of thing, I'd guess?
Was it the part where she believed a lie you could see from a mile away, and the relationship only got more tangled because of it...?
The memory is hazy. If I'd known it would come to this, I should have sat in a more composed posture and concentrated on every last letter when I was reading those community posts...
If I hadn't been a drifter living hand to mouth, one day on whatever I earned that day, I might have paid the community a little more attention... A shame.
What matters is that the trust Pino places in me is enormous. Close to blind faith. Well, my very existence was her last hope, so if she decided the relationship was a lie, keeping her mind intact would have been hard. Like the victim of a scam, she would have clung to her bond with me right up until evidence she truly could not deny appeared. And the moment Lust Hope's suicide made her own failure impossible to deny, she must have cut loose with one hell of a last dance.
Then what is that girl...?
I stole a sidelong glance and found the red-haired woman watching me while writing something in what looked like a notebook. I had been feeling eyes on me for a while; apparently she had been observing me.
She really is pretty, though. An important character?
I was taught that judging a person by looks alone is a very bad thing, but in the ruthless world of comics, appearance is an index of ability. A cute little kid being stronger than a menacing hulk of a man is the cliché... Safer to assume the beautiful ones are capable. Filthy lookism.
I could infer as much from the way the maids reacted to the redhead. Her words and actions themselves were ordinary, but it was as if they were dealing with a superior... A strange current ran through the room. If I had to guess, she might sit at a rank close to Yuri's. Hana, meanwhile, kept striking a posture as if to protect me, so perhaps the factions were splitting.
Ah. Our eyes met. Since it had come to this, asking outright would be faster.
"What are you doing?"
And this one—
"Haa... I love it so much."
The reaction was strange. At times like this Hana usually let out some weird little moan, but the word came through unusually small.
"...Pervert."
Pervert...? I feel like I might almost remember something.
I closed the distance, set a hand at her waist, and drew her into my arms. Lately, perhaps because behavior like this of mine passed through a sympathy filter, people still blushed, but even those who used to refuse half-heartedly had stopped. They seemed to treat it as something like a pet climbing into their arms — trying, awkwardly, to accept it. This one, though, leaned into the embrace with no shame at all.
"You seemed to be watching me the whole time. Is there something you wanted to say? Is it a secret?"
I deliberately whispered it, right against her ear.
Maybe because of the particular air I carry, doing this drew the sound of indrawn breath from all around. There really are inconveniences that come with a better face. So I kept my expression as innocent as I could. My stance never changes: a pure, guileless child.
Even so, the fun is considerable. The reactions are entertaining. You can read in them the self-loathing and fluster an adult would wear after getting worked up over a child. Fresh every day.
But this one, as expected, seems a formidable opponent.
"Even your voice is too good... haa."
...Does this girl lack the basic sense of propriety an adult ought to have? Ability is nice, but I wish they had picked someone mature in character, if they could.
I ignored Rachel's reaction and turned my eyes to the writing in the notebook.
My Observation Diary...
The lines were fragmentary, written with gaps between them, but taken roughly, they came down to what reaction I showed when I did a certain thing. That I smiled more brightly than usual when I ate a particular food, for instance, or what kinds of books I liked — notes like that showed up often.
I did that? This is honestly embarrassing.
"Ah. This is..."
Rachel, her color recovered before I had noticed, wore a contrite face. A tidy expression, nothing like the one that had been lost in a daze a moment ago. She flushed as if a little ashamed and said,
"What you said the other day stayed with me. I never imagined the person I have always served might think that way. So I observed you, because I wanted to know what you like. Did it... upset you?"
"Ugh... she must be out of her mind. Look at that act."
Hana kept having strange reactions, for some reason. Right. Observation...
"Of course I like it. Having someone pay this much attention to me is a happy thing. It means you all like me that much, doesn't it?"
"So if you happen to feel guilty, don't think that way. I really do like your attention."
A message for the child behind the curtain. Whether it landed properly, I couldn't say, but a fan wants their favorite to smile, don't they?
If she comes to know more about me, then she'll gain a little more confidence. And then, won't she give me a more natural smile? Just a small wish.
And thanks to that, it came back to me. This girl.
She was the Skin Collector.
Internal executioner. Political officer. Designer of suicides. Standard-bearer of discord. And the Witch's index finger.
A named character had appeared.