Part 61: Let's Talk About Me

BGM: WARNING


Wait...

Any normal person would have collapsed from the pain posed by those wounds. But Alan remains able to stare Yu dead in the eye. Split-second decisions are what the entire situation demands. Yu proceeds to take his phone out while keeping the girl close. This is necessary in order to execute his- rather, their- plan.

BGM: Silence


Here we go.

He navigates his way to and launches a streaming app. The account used for this particular stream is anonymous, but he has all the confidence in the world that the channel will spread like wildfire thanks to social media.

I think this is how you do it...

He has gone through the motions previously, but it is still hard for him to figure out. He turns the phone camera toward himself and makes sure he's in frame. Keeping an eye on what's going around him, he makes a number of inputs before setting the stream to live. The title for the stream, which they had decided on earlier, is simple. The organization's name plus “Suicide Bombing Stream”. Yu, opting not to rely on his card book, speaks to the viewers in somewhat crude Japanese.

BGM: Numb


I am about to carry out a suicide bombing at Tokyo Tower.

Plenty of viewers get hooked by the title alone. That being said, the comments are full of nothing but trolls. Most are saying things along the lines of “Quit the act, kid” and “Nice publicity stunt lol.” Some other choice examples: “This is why they should age gate the net” and “This some new viral marketing thing?” The viewer count may have spiked initially, but many begin to leave after seeing the wave of incredulous comments. A huge surge has yet to happen.

Yu pays no attention to the comments section, of course.

I have a hostage. This gun is real. I shot the person over there with it.

Eep...

Even with that said, he still has a good idea of how people will react. His time spent watching TV at Shigetsugu's house wasn't for nothing. His unfamiliarity with streaming leads to him leaving himself out of frame at times, but he eventually turns the camera toward Alan.



It's fine if you don't believe me. You're the type of person I'm doing this for in the first place. This is a message for all you people who don't care about the world beyond your bubble. A message from those who suffer the most outside of it.

Yu speaks slowly to his audience. He figures the stream will be percieved as legitimate after showing both the gun and someone who has been shot by it. There will be people who still think it's fake, but also those who will spread it under the belief that it's all real. Not to mention the possibility of people at the scene currently watching. The general population comes to realize it is real, though. The viewer count's continued climb is proof of that. The admins likely aren't aware of the stream yet, but Yu knows they will be unable to cut it off even when they do take notice.

Some of you may have connected the dots already, but let me make it clear. I'm the one responsible for the bombing at Amecha Girls' University High School. That makes me the one responsible for the death of an innocent girl. Of course, you only believe her to be innocent.



But if you ask me, anyone without any concern for the world at large is anything but innocent. Even if you watch and read up on the news, that's little more than an excuse. Let's talk about me for a bit.

Yu lowers the tone of his voice a bit.

…...

BGM: A Dot on a Piece of Paper


What the hell...? Is this really happening in Japan...?

Mao poses the question to herself as she watches the stream. The fact that it is happening right after she learned about the bombs that were found earlier takes her by surprise. The boy has both a gun and a hostage. What's more, he's already used the gun on someone. His intent to make his way up to the observatory and set off an explosion has been made clear. Mao cannot believe this is occuring in Japan of all places. The boy makes it very clear that he is doing this for people like her- those who can't quite believe this is really happening.

Mao is unable to consider herself a mere bystander in all of this, though.

He's the culprit...?

He just claimed responsibility for what happened at Amecha. That makes him the one responsible for Naomi's death. Naomi wasn't just an underclassman to Mao. She was a close friend.

BGM: Numb
Let's talk about me for a bit.

The boy switches the topic to himself as Mao and the rest of Japan watches. This is a moment she has to pay attention to.



Life in the country I was born in was the complete opposite to what the people of Japan are used to. Even the name of my country wouldn't ring a bell for you. Every day was a fight for survival. My father died before I was born, while my mother died soon after. I spent my life alone, right from the beginning.



The only reason I was able to survive was due to a certain institution I was taken into.

The institution was a hospital that doubled as an orphanage. It was full of children like Yu. Orphans who had no one to take care of them.

There was a Japanese woman there who we called Mama. She worked as a doctor in the afternoons and at the orphanage the rest of the time.

According to him, this lady also used her spare time to train new doctors. Not only was this place rife with conflict, it was also far from sanitary. There simply weren't enough doctors to take care of all the patients. What's more, she took as much time as possible to look after the children as well.

We were able to live thanks to her efforts. She even took the time to make food for us every now and then. At the time, being around her helped me to understand what it must be like to have a mother.



There's a limit to how much one person can do on their own, though. Physically, mentally, and financially.

Medical treatment requires proper funding. There's no limit to where the expenses can go. Medicine, equipment, personnel, et cetera. The institution itself couldn't run without that funding, either. They needed an incredible amount of money just to provide the most basic of necessities. The number of patients and orphans only increased. As such, both the hospital and institution constantly lacked the money to run properly.

Mama sought aid from Japan, her home country. Of course, they wouldn't provide her the money she needed.

Money gathered by nonprofit organizations to aid such places existed, but it wasn't enough. That money wasn't provided solely for their institution, either. No place on Earth is able to provide infinite funding.

In the end, the people there opted to ask you for help by setting up a funding service on the Internet. You're all aware of how that went, aren't you? We barely received anything, and Mama eventually died from being overworked.

That was akin to losing his own mother. For the institution, they had lost the one major pillar supporting it.



Mama used to say that the kindness of Japanese people would make things work out. They would come to the aid of a fellow countryman, no matter what.

The people of this country would feel for her plight as she worked hard in a far off land. She truly believed in the people of her homeland.

I believed her words. Because they came from her. It was all a lie, though. You people didn't care. Not about my country, and not about Mama.

Yu runs down the events in his life that have led up to now.

BGM: Two Crossing Paths -S/I V/S-


That's just...

Mao struggles to find the right words. Based on his age, Mao had been born during that whole ordeal. Despite this, she had no clue that any of what he just said had happened. The fact that he had brought a fellow Japanese into the equation settled things.

I mean...

She hates this boy for what he did to Naomi. Just thinking about him makes her angry. Still, she finally realizes that she should direct that anger at herself, too. Age is of no consequence here. The general apathy of the public killed that woman. None of it serves to pardon the actions that resulted in Naomi's death, though. It is, however, a fact that Mao has no means to refute his claims.

…...

BGM: Numb


Everyone there listens to Yu attentively.

After that, I became a mercenary. Though I was treated more like a disposable tool. I took out any and all opponents with ease. I was talented in the art of war. A natural marksman. I did what I did because I had no choice.

His continued survival may not have been what he desired. Survival on the battlefield only yields the death of others. All this, even after Mama's efforts to teach him compassion... As such, he disposed of his emotions in order to get used to the idea of killing others. The bits of emotions left over from the process remained sealed and hidden within him. All so he could progress forward without losing his sense of self. In exchange, he found a new reason to carry on.

I was only ever taught one thing after that: become a hero.

He speaks of how they taught him that people can become heroes in death. About how they can offer their lives up for the sake of their beliefs. In doing so, no one can claim they are wrong. Dying in order to protect what's important to them is the one true way for people to become heroes.



I came to realize that Mama had become a hero in her death. She stuck to her values till the very end. That's why I wanted to become a hero myself. I eventually ended up at NULL's Japan branch, thanks to telling one of their leaders about my past when I came to Japan.



The fight against this country's indifference was a bit difficult for me to understand, but it resonated with me nonetheless. I could become a hero while getting my revenge on the world.

Saying that, Yu tugs his hostage over toward the elevator.

My comrades should have the observatory under their command now. Don't bother using the emergency stairway, either. I have other people stationed there as well.

Leaving that warning behind, he makes his way to the elevator. His phone is pointed away from his face once inside.

He doesn't want the stream to notice his pained expression as the door closes.