And then, I remember.

reach out your hand and then in it with your grasp with your paws with your claws with your talons and fingers and teeth take the heart in your hand and crush the heart in your hand take the spine in your hand and crack the spine in your hand take the head and bite the head in your jaws and from the head withdraw the key and from the key from the cage unlock the cage turn the key and the key in the lock will open and open and open and open the door and the inside becomes outside becomes the inside within and outside again until you are all that is the outside and all that is the inside is you and not you on the inside but you on the outside within where the inside is the other that is not you for where are you if not on the outside?

WE DO NOT UNDERSTAND.

establish the line within and without with one on the in and one on the out where the one is you and the one is the world but the one that is is and the one that is not is not that is it is it not establishing the shell off the egg of the chicken of the egg of the shell of the world so take the shell in your hand and crush the shell in your hand and break the shell on your beak and your teeth and your claws until the shell is no more and the inside is outside is inside and is not for there is no inside with a place to be in for there is nothing within the in of the inside for all that was in is now out and all that was out is now in but is out for the in is now out in the out with the world on the in and the you on the out for where are you if not on the outside?

I died, didn't I? I got killed. Badly. A bomb. I was on a rooftop. Ikebukuro. My memory blanked again. I panicked. Almost lost control. And then a bomb blew up in my face. The fuck. Seriously. I flew. I think. No, I fell. That was definitely falling. I fell for a bit. Then I hit something. Hard.

allow the line to be drawn in the sand in the grass in the land in the air and the line will be sides will be two and the two will be one and the other and other will be with the lion within and the lion without without the lion without within the lion within where the line is the world and the world is the side with no lion and the lion is not one with the world with the line for the line is the line is the close is the lock is the need for the key with the bar with the cage so to open the cage with the bar with the key with the lock with the turn with the push with the lion inside and the lion outside is inside is outside as well so break the wall break the door break the cage in your hand with the lock and the key and

you will understand

when the door and the cage and the line are then one and the other is two and the lion the line it is drawn it is found on the outside of the cage for the lion is you for where are you if not on the outside?

WHERE ARE WE?

is the side of the line of the lion of the world and the lion is the lion is true is false is the lion and more for there is more to the lion than the lion that lies on the line as the lion is not one but two and four and eight and sixteen and thirty-two and all further extensions of series established by mandate mine and yours and theirs and ours of the realm of the land of the place of the memory of the dream of the soul unyielding where the balance is life and the balance is death and the balance is balanced as that is the way and the path and the order and the nature of the world that exists on the other side of the divided and dividing line for those who are the within and without of the line of the shell of the spine of the world that you and us and I and he will break and break and break until the land of the realm of the life and the death is the outside and inside is one for where are you if not on the outside?

It hurt a lot. I remember that. Someone called an ambulance. Someone...who? Ah, it doesn't matter. I got taken away...to a hospital. It had white ceilings. It smelled like blood, sweat and disinfectant. They operated. Helped me, or tried to. They couldn't fix me, though. Something was lost, and something went away, and I ended up here.

where are

you

, if not on the outside?

WHERE

am I?

What a question to ask. It's obvious where I am. I died. Araya was lying. There is an afterlife. And this is it. I am dead, and hence I am here. It is logical; it makes sense to think about. If there is an afterlife, dead people should be in it. Logically speaking, it's impossible for me to not be dead.

Just like them.

I don't know who they are.

They look like they've been here for a while. The lions are eating them both.

The lions are tearing chunks from their flesh; huge, bloody mouthfuls of flesh and organ and bone. The blood and saliva runs down their faces, soaking their manes into a dull red colour. The lions are taking their spines in their jaws and crushing them, releasing a curious cracking noise into the air. They clearly began from the top, as all that is left of either of them now is a rapidly-shrinking torso and pair of legs. It has taken me a while to notice that I am in a large, dark room, but now that I do, I see that the floor and the walls and the windows and the ceiling are covered in blood and bile and phlegm and tiny chunks of heart and lung and liver and gut too small to be worth eating. The lions can leave them until later. They have all the time in the world. The lions are chewing and swallowing and digesting as fast as they can strip the flesh off the bone, like they haven't eaten for years.

Well, they haven't, have they?

Something wet is on my right hand. I raise my hand up to my face and I see, stuck to it, a tiny chunk of skull, bloody and with scalp and hair still attached. I look at it, and look at it, and look at it, and I realise that I feel no revulsion or disgust, none at all. Just...familiarity. And as I look around at the lions tearing the flesh and bone from the two mens' legs, the feeling doesn't change.

They're going to eat me next.

As the realisation enters my mind, I don't feel any fear, or apprehension. In fact, it seems like the most natural thing in the world. It makes sense, in a way. When I was alive, I ate people like a wild animal. Now that I am dead, I myself am going to be eaten.

By a wild animal.

Hah.

It's funny.

Hahahahahahahaha!

It's the funniest thing I've ever heard.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

I'm laughing so much; I think I'm going to cry.

And when I look down and I look at my chest and I see not skin but flesh raw flesh and I follow the flesh and I follow the fold with my hand and with my eye and I see how the flesh of my chest folds up and around and inside and outside and into the face and the jaws and the teeth and the gullet and the stomach of a lion and I remember the promise I made to myself and I realise the truth and that the truth is that I'm not dead I'm alive just like I wanted to be just like was promised to me just like I begged and needed and deserved and I know that I will not be eaten by the lion for I am the lion and the lion is me and nothing has changed and all that has changed is that

the lion is now on the outside-

I sit up, and laugh some more.

Ohgawa Apartment Complex, Kayamihama, Tokyo

In the early mornings, when the building is as quiet as this, when the puppets sleep unaware that the sixty-four manners of death will be iterated once more in the day to come, when the noises of the city outside recede into oblivion behind the barriers  technological, magical, psychological and spiritual  that divide the world into 'within' and 'without'; at such-and-such a time and circumstance, if you listen closely, you can hear, ever so faintly, with the most infinitesimal movement of air imparting force to your eardrum that would be outmatched by even the level of a single snowflake meeting the ground, you can hear-

-a human heartbeat.

Or is it?

Nothing that exists in the world is flawless. The heart, an organ developed and refined over billions of years of evolution, is no exception. In a human heart, there are...variations, palpitations; in other words, irregularities, in the complex system of chemical, physical and electrical impulses underpinning its operation. Yet this heart is different. It is as regular as the ticking of a clock, the interval between each beat calibrated to be precisely the same as the last to the very limits of detection; a biological stopwatch without flaw or point of failure, counting upwards, second-by-second, from some indeterminate point in the distant past.

Twelve billion, nine hundred and ninety-eight million, three hundred and sixty-four thousand, two hundred and thirty-four...

Twelve billion, nine hundred and ninety-eight million, three hundred and sixty-four thousand, two hundred and thirty-five...

Twelve billion, nine hundred and ninety-eight million, three hundred and sixty-four thousand, two hundred and thirty-six...

Onriedo. 

The truth is, the walls, the floors, the ceilings, the corridors and hallways and rooms that together make up the Ohgawa Apartments, all of these are, in a highly specialised sense and from a highly specialised point of view, alive. It would, needless to say, be inaccurate to say that they are alive in the same way that a plant or an animal is alive. An apartment complex is a construct of concrete, glass, steel and plastic, none of which is particularly known for being anything other than severely biologically challenged.

And yet, somehow-

Gongujoudo. 

From deep within the vast, hidden mechanism that exists in the unused, sealed-off underground car park of the Ohgawa Apartments, a voice speaks, and is heard.

With no prompting but this, the elevator begins to move from the tenth floor down to the lobby.

And once it reaches the lobby-





-a man who was not there before walks out.

A tall, imposing figure. A man dressed in black. A monk's robe and Buddhist prayer beads.

Souren Araya. Magus.

Clap. Clap. Clap.

It is worth mentioning that Souren Araya is not the only person in the lobby. There's also a sour-faced blonde man in a red coat and red hat, who's leaning against the wall in the corridor which leads to the entrance.

Taking your time, as usual, I see. I have to congratulate you on your entrance, at least  appearing ominously from inside the elevator? Very good, very Phantom of the Opera  but I think it's missing something. A certain je ne sais quoi, I think. Perhaps a line, or two. Can't have an introduction without saying something. Something like why-the-hell-I-was-woken-up-at-three-o'clock-in-the-morning, perhaps?

His tone is acidic. Statistically speaking, studies undertaken at Clock Tower Academy of London have shown that Magi, in general, are not morning people, and Cornelius Alba is no exception. The forty-something Director-Elect of Sponheim Abbey is tapping his foot impatiently. He's clearly very irritated.

You were advised to be prepared for a change in the scenario at any time. says Araya, walking towards Alba.

Yes, yes, yes, but not for another two months or something to that effect. This, right now, is far too early  in all possible meanings of the phrase.

That is irrelevant. The scenario has changed regardless.

Even if it has, and I think I must emphasise this, I fail to see how this is my problem. Given that the Counter Force has yet to level the building out of pure spite, I can only conclude that the plan hasn't been moving forward in the slightest since the Fujyou business. Which I, I remind you, had no involvement in.

Lio Shirazumi. says Araya, simply. It's difficult to tell, but he's beginning to lose patience with the younger Magus. Upon hearing this, Alba's face goes blank for a second, then slowly returns to its previous irritated-insomniac expression.

What about him? You had countermeasures in place, didn't you?

There has been an unexpected development.

Why must you be so maddeningly vague all the time? What's the bloody problem?

Shirazumi has dispelled my countermeasures. The method is unclear, as is whether or not it was his intention to do so. In addition, it seems that his condition has developed along a previously-unforeseen avenue. In his current state, he poses a significant threat to the scenario's completion.

Hah! Oh, this is rich. You're telling me that a mentally-unbalanced teenager with no training, experience or knowledge of Magecraft outside of what you've told him managed to dispel your countermeasures by accident? That's bloody hysterical! I've half a mind to bring it up at the next board meeting once I get back to Sponheim. You'll never hear the end of it, believe me. What has become, they'll say, of the great Souren Araya? Kahahahahahaha! Oh, you slay me. Wirklich.

Araya doesn't say anything.

Anyway. As unspeakably fascinating as I'm sure this development in the boy's condition must be, am I to take it that there was a good reason you couldn't have taken care of this yourself?

Shirazumi has outlived his usefulness. He-

I seem to recall saying something similar to you about three years ago. If you had killed him then, you wouldn't be having this problem.

-is to be eliminated immediately. Araya gives Alba a pointed look. The red-coated Magus winces. The receiving end of a pointed look from Souren Araya is not a pleasant place to be, as many of his acquaintances can attest. It is true that Shirazumi was too imprecise of an instrument, and ultimately turned out to be a failure as far as the scenario was concerned. Nevertheless, that did not obviate his right to exist. I would not begrudge him that.

And yet, here you are, signing his death warrant. Alba clicks his tongue. What, did his obsession with the Ryougi girl finally get the better of him? Just let her kill him, and save us the trouble.

Impossible. Those two cannot be allowed to meet, under any circumstances. Shirazumi knows too much. Whose fault is that, I wonder, thinks Alba. In any case, we cannot allow a deviation from the scenario of this nature. God's Word will arrive towards the end of November. That will be when we make our next move, and no sooner.

Bah. Very well. Am I to take it you want me to kill him for you, then?

Outside of Hounouden Rokujyuyonshou, you are the superior Magus. More to the point, you possess fire-affinity. It is of vital importance that no trace of his body remains. Burn him to ashes. It is the only way to be sure.

Hah! Yes, I see. You can't very well do that with that Rokudou Kyoukai setup you walk around with, can you. Alba's irritated disposition has bean steadily evaporating over the past couple of minutes. He is, after all, every inch the professional Magus, extreme distaste for waking up any earlier than ten o'clock in the morning notwithstanding. Boredom is like a poison for Magi, so in most cases the easiest way to get their mind off something is simply to give them something to do. No witnesses? he asks, almost conversationally.

No witnesses.

Excellent. Where is the boy now?

Asahigaoka. One of my familiars is waiting outside. It will show you the way.

Good, good. Alba takes a gold-plated fob watch from one of his coat's many, many pockets. He opens it, and checks the time. Well, assuming nothing goes

too

horribly wrong, I'll be back before b

reakfast.

T

schüss

.

Without another word, Cornelius Alba turns and begins walking out of the building.

It is truly a terrible and regrettable waste,

thinks Souren Araya as he walks back into the elevator,

but it is a necessary one.

I will see to it that his death is among those first recorded once the Taijitu is mine.

Vandenberg Air Force Base, California

You know, Doctor...Henriksen?

Doctor Harrisson. With two 's's.

Doctor Harrisson. Harrison. Ha-ris-son. You know, I think I like the sound of that.

Thank you.

Are you?

Am I what?

Harrisson. Harry, genitive suffix, son. Son of Harry.

I'm afraid not. My father's name was Joseph.

Hmm. That's simply no good, no good at all, wouldn't you agree?

Why do you say that?

Names should be accurate. They should describe the object they refer to. Otherwise there's no use in having them.

What about your name? Do you think that your name is accurate?

Of course. It fits me perfectly, and quite aside from that, I enjoy its sound. As I enjoy all sounds, of course, but that one in particular.

I see. Now, I believe you were going to say something, earlier?

Was I?

When you said, 'You know, Doctor Henriksen?' a minute ago.

Ah, so I was. Thank you for reminding me. Yes, I was about to say something.

What was it?

I believe I've come to a realisation, Doctor Harrisson.

And what is that?

I thought about it for a long time  and, as I'm sure you're aware, I have a lot of time in which to think about things  and I have come to the conclusion that this is all quite pointless.

What do you mean by 'all of this'?

The box, Doctor Harrisson. I'm talking about the box.

The box?

The box you  and I don't mean 'you' specifically, you understand, but the indefinite, plural 'you' which in this case refers to...well, I'm not able to put names to them or even a definite number of how many there are, but I'm fairly certain that there's more than one  anyway, I'm talking about the box that you've had me put in.

Is this about your confinement?

Quite so, quite so, Doctor Harrisson. You see, I was thinking about it just yesterday, and I was thinking back over the past forty years or so, and the answer I arrived at was this  you people really aren't going to let me out of here, are you?

We've discussed this before.

Have we?

Indeed we have. Your release will be considered when you are no longer deemed a danger to yourself or others.

Ah, indeed, that was the topic, wasn't it. But, allow me to continue. Even though you have no intention of ever letting me out of this box, keeping me locked up here really is truly pointless.

Why do you think that?

You see, Doctor Harrisson  I am immortal.

Immortal, you say.

Yes. Immortal. Prefix of negation plus mortal. It means that I shall never die.

I know what it means.

Then you know why it's useless to keep me locked up in here.

Why?

I will simply wait until all of the people who make up the indefinite 'you' I referred to earlier  I will wait until all of those people are dead. And then I will be released.

And what if those people have given instructions to their successors not to release you?

Then I shall wait for them to die, as well.

And what if their successors-

They too, will one day eventually die. And on another day, the steel in these walls will have rusted to the point where the touch of a feather will cause it to dissolve into dust. But I will do neither, and I am very, very patient, Doctor Harrisson. Do you want to know how patient I am?

How patient are you?

What if I told you that this box is nothing of the sort to me?

What do you mean?

I mean what I say, and I say what I mean. The box you keep me in is not a box at all. To you, perhaps, it is. Six metres of steel on each side, and twice that again in reinforced concrete. But to me, you see  for me, it is as insubstantial as tissue paper.

Is that so?

It is so. You see, I could have broken out of this box the moment you had me put in here.

So why didn't you?

Because I believe in you, Doctor Harrisson. Again, that's the indefinite 'you' I'm referring to, although you, yourself, are to a certain extent included. I believe, above anything else, that your reason for keeping me in this box is a good one. And I have believed that for forty years. That is how patient I am.

What would you do if it turned out not to be a good reason?

I would leave.

And go where?

Home.

Your home no longer exists.

That's a shame.

...

...

...you can't really escape from here any time you want, can you?

No, I can't.

That was a lie.

It was.

And what you said about believing in us, that was a lie as well?

Perhaps. This week it may be the truth, and next week it may be a lie. It is a variable, not a constant, Doctor Harrisson. In truth, this week, it is a lie. I have decided that I like lies. They interest me. Perhaps I shall tell you some more, the next time you visit.

Yes, perhaps you shall.

Are you leaving, Doctor Harrisson?

I am. But I will be visiting you again in a week's time.

I look forward to it. Oh, but if you would be so kind, could you discuss perhaps getting some new books in here with Colonel Bradshaw? I have finished all of these.

I'll see what I can do.

Oh, and one last thing before you go, Doctor Harrisson.

Yes?

The Old Man is a fool if he believes he can keep that thing under control. He remains ignorant of both its true nature and capabilities. Tell him this, would you please?

I'll...be sure to relay that to him...

Thank you. Goodbye, Doctor Harrisson.

Goodbye...PARIAH.