Novels2Search
A World Without God
angèl_húnting Part 1

angèl_húnting Part 1

I woke up the next morning bracing myself for a serious round of supernatural mumbo-jumbo. After all, Ayumi had refused to reveal whatever she had been up to on the way home, so I assumed she would regurgitate it all on me then.

I bet she spent the whole night going down some research rabbit hole of junk.

As was typical in the winter months, the girl had let herself in and was hanging around the entrance hallway.

“Ya… ho… Yawn. Good… morning… Takkun,” she said with a tired voice as I left my house with her.

It wasn’t just her listless tone—her appearance struck me as particularly disheveled. She was never one to take good care of herself, but she was even more of a mess than usual. Sections of her hair stuck out and defied gravity, making me feel sorry for her useless hairpin. Her eyebags contrasted with her pale skin, and, most worrisome of all…

“Hey. Your skirt is falling off.”

Her skirt was slipping off her hips and on its way to kiss the ground. If it actually fell off, I’d totally be able to see her panties.

My innocuous comment was enough to bring the zombie back to life.

“Ahhhh, crap. These skirts are way too big for me. Why don’t they have smaller sizes for our uniforms? This is discriminatory!” She pulled her skirt up and zipped it as tightly as she could. It still seemed to be in a rather precarious condition though.

“Do you have an allergy to tailors or something?”

“Look, I had to borrow a skirt since my old one got ripped in the mansion. What are you looking at anyway? Trying to catch a peek, pervert?” she said with a straight face, sounding much like some old comedy routine.

“I have no interest in your kiddy panties. Moving on,” which we desperately need to do, “When did you go to sleep yesterday?”

“Three a.m.!”

“Do I need to remind you it’s seven-thirty?”

“It was a sacrifice, but a necessary one!” She made a forced victory pose. “I did some more digging to see if there was a connection between these incidents involving electronic disturbances and angel sightings.”

“And did you find anything?”

Her eyes lit up, piercing my soul with their sharp gaze. “I did! I compiled supernatural reports from around this area and crossed them with my database of angel sightings.”

A database? She even has a… Ah, forget it. I should stop being surprised by this stuff.

“And you know what, they are connected! Here, take a look.”

Ayumi took out a sheet of paper from her bag and handed it over. It was some sort of military-grade map of the city and the surrounding area, printed on multiple sheets and stuck together with tape. The map was overkill for something so silly, yet it had a certain unsophisticated charm only Ayumi could pull off.

“Hey, what are these circles? Did you draw these?”

“Yep! The red circles are the angel sightings, while the blue ones are other unexplainable incidents that involve electronic devices. See how they happen around the same areas?”

“If I try really hard… I guess.”

She punched me before I could even take a good look at the map. But when I did, it looked like the two groups of colored circles were clustered together.

“And that’s not all! I also found a temporal correlation. Only after these incidents happen do the angel sightings begin, and then the others totally vanish! Just like what happened in that mansion. Do you know what this means? I bet you don’t!” She said with glee, bouncing around in front of me.

“Angels are trying to prevent people from discovering the supernatural incidents?”

“No, angels are trying to… Wait, you got it right.” For some reason, she was dissatisfied with my answer. “But yeah, that’s what I think too. After those incidents start happening, angels take notice and get rid of whatever caused it. By chance, some people happen to be in the right place and time to catch a glimpse of the angels and end up fainting.”

“Coming from you, that seems like a reasonable assumption.”

Ayumi was way too excited to even care about my quip. “But that’s not even the most exciting thing!”

She pointed to a region at the top of the map. It was a nearby city, reachable by train from where we currently were. I immediately noticed a few blue circles around where her finger was pointing.

“See the blue circles? There have been a few reports of strange incidents with electronic devices in the area in recent days, but no angel sightings so far. That means this is the perfect opportunity to see an angel in the flesh! Or light, whatever they might end up being.”

“So you want to go there, I bet.”

“And as soon as possible. You don’t have work today, right?”

“No, but what are you going to do about my study hours? Do it for me?”

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

I’m not like this genius fiend who absorbs lectures like a sponge. I have to study for far more than a single week to have any hope of passing my university exams.

“I’ll help you study later!”

“No shot. Trying to study with you just makes me feel dumb.” I already have a raid planned for this afternoon and…”

“You and your silly games again,” she said, interrupting me. “Well, if you’re against it, I can always go by myself…” she said with a smirk.

Ayumi left that hanging on purpose, her eyes locked onto me like a predator locking onto its prey.

This cheeky girl!

“Fine. Fine! I’ll go with you. But this is the last time.”

“Yeah!” She literally jumped with joy. I had to turn my gaze away from her to not get swept in. “After school, let’s go on another field trip and get to the bottom of this.”

I still wasn’t looking forward to it, Ayumi’s reasoning was solid, considering the ludicrous foundations we were working with. But there was no way this time wouldn’t be a miss, just like all the others.

At least it kept Ayumi happy. And that was a plus in my book.

* * *

As expected, Ayumi spent the remainder of the day restless, unable to contain her excitement. about the prospect of seeing an angel with her own two eyes. Even our classmates noticed something was amiss with her. But no matter how much they insisted, she didn’t speak a word about our outing; she likes to keep her plans hidden in case there are, and I quote, “leaks”.

We went home right after classes were over to drop off our school bags. The plan was to catch the train to the neighboring city as soon as possible. However, when Ayumi showed up at my front door carrying a conspicuously large gym bag, I couldn’t help but be suspicious.

“What the heck are you carrying in there?”

“Nghn… Um... Do I have to show it now?” she whined.

“You won’t have a choice when you’re behind bars, now will you?”

“As if I ever…” Ayumi trailed off, leaving her mouth hanging. “Well, if I’m going to show it, it has to be inside. I can’t let my trump card be exposed.”

I can’t say I’m not curious.

“You’re going to be amazed, let me tell ya!”

The girl pushed the bag in my direction, urging me to open it with the rhythmic drumming of her hands on the table. The first item I pulled out was a long tube, bent about three-fourths of the way to the end. On the tip, there was some sort of dark filter attached with duct tape. I tried looking through the open end of the tube, but of course, I couldn’t see anything.

“That’s my secret weapon in case we encounter an angel.”

“What the heck is this rubbish for? Are you going to club one with it?” I asked, half fascinated and half letdown by the object.

“Of course not. That’s only half of it. The rest is where the magic happens.”

Ayumi rummaged through the bag until another strange object was presented to me.

“Violà!”

It looked like a funky pair of binoculars—except, instead of lenses, there was some sort of large aperture stuck onto the apparatus with duct tape.

I decided not to comment on the conspicuous amount of duct tape both of these objects had.

“Binoculars?”

“Nope! These are night-vision goggles,” Ayumi declared.

“Night-vision goggles? Have you gone full crazy now?”

“Of course not! You could say this is an experiment to test a theory of mine. A very expensive experiment. So I really hope it works.”

Where the hell did you find the money to buy this?

“And? What’s that theory of yours?”

“You know how seeing an angel causes people to faint? Since these incidents are rare and not well documented, it’s difficult to pinpoint what exactly induces the fainting. But my theory is that the cause is very literal. That is, angels somehow emit a special type of light and this light is what provokes the fainting.”

“Kind of like how some people sneeze when they see bright lights?”

She ignored my comment.

“If this is indeed the cause, then maybe there’s a way we can see angels indirectly.”

“Wouldn’t a mirror work? And be less expensive?”

“Not really. The light is the same, only reflected by the surface. If the property of causing fainting is in the light itself, then you would faint all the same. And because of your epiphany yesterday, digital cameras are also out of the question.”

“Makes sense so far. So why the night-vision goggles then?”

Ayumi took the chance to go full teacher mode. “Night-vision goggles are really cool! The dim, ambient light is converted to an electric signal, which is then amplified and finally beamed back to the user. That’s why you can see with very little light. The filter at the end of the periscope makes it super dark, so the night vision goggles aren’t overwhelmed by the daylight. And since they are analog technology, they won’t be knocked out by whatever is disturbing the electronics. Come on, give it a try!”

Spurred on by Ayumi, I assembled the two pieces of the periscope. And right away, a greenish image of my kitchen was beamed into my eyes with exceptional clarity for something held together by duct tape.

“Wow, it really works.”

I was impressed. Who would have thought that strange contraption would work?

“Told ya. If my theory is correct, then this device will allow us to see an angel directly. Even if it’s a fluke, the goggles are cool, so I don’t regret buying them.”

Why do I feel like that was the whole point of that purchase in the first place?

“So you’re going to carry this huge thing with you every time we go on expeditions?”

“Of course. What if the chance shows itself but we can’t even see them, let alone talk to them?”

I’ll be the one carrying that thing for you sooner than later, won’t I?

With the explanation of the weird apparatus behind us, we finally made our way to the train station.

Ayumi kept her façade and never spoke about any supernatural stuff during the ride. Instead, we had a normal chat the whole time, which helped alleviate some of her giddiness. If anyone saw us together like this, they wouldn’t suspect our ludicrous reason for traveling so far. Heck, they might even assume we were on a date or something.

A date with Ayumi, huh. I wonder what that would be like… Probably what we’re doing right now.

As we left the train station, I shot a sidelong glance at the girl. She had her hands on her hips, looking triumphantly at the city spread out in front of her.

Who are you trying to imitate? Haruhi?

“So, what’s the plan now? Wander around waiting for something to happen?”

She looked at me blankly for a bit before answering. “Of course not! I’m thinking of going to places where people have reported experiencing those incidents and ask for more information. Since we came all this way, we might as well look into those. Unfortunately, they are all in crowded areas so we won’t be able to make a thorough investigation.”

She pointed her index finger down the long street ahead of her, drawing the attention of more than a few bystanders.

“Let’s go. Field Mission #37 awaits us!”