chapter01 · 008-ep8

Episode 8: "The Uninvited Guest"

The world woke up in an uproar.

"Humanity's Strongest, Rei Kenjo, Appears in Unknown Beginner Course — His 'Sensei' Comment Sends Shock Waves"

"410,000 Concurrent Viewers Break Domestic Record. Who Is 'Shin'?"

"Clan Genbu's 'No Connection' Statement Draws Renewed Attention"

After reading three headlines, I set my terminal facedown. It had been buzzing nonstop since last night, so I'd already muted it.

As for me, that day was peaceful—or so I was starting to have trouble insisting. Even so, the things I had to do hadn't changed. Cook rice, flip through notebooks, prep for the night's stream. Day nineteen of my wholesome unemployed life.

...Or so I thought.

Just before noon, the doorbell rang.

At this apartment, a ringing doorbell means a delivery or a notice being passed around the building. I opened the door—and found neither.

A tall man in a fine coat stood bolt upright in the dim outdoor corridor, gripping the handle of a suitcase. It was a face everyone in the world knew through a screen, and I alone knew outside one.

"...Rei-kun."

"Sensei. It's been a long time."

Humanity's strongest swordsman bowed deeply in the outdoor corridor of a thirty-two-year-old apartment building.

"Two years and fourteen days."

"You were counting?"

"I was."

An instant answer. He'd always been like that.

◇

Humanity's strongest sat seiza in my six-mat room.

The world would raise a fuss at the sight, but he held the tea I'd served him with both hands, looking completely serious. The leaves were the gift he'd brought me. The tin looked like it cost about as much as my monthly food budget.

Rei looked around the room just once. Four cardboard boxes against the wall. Used streaming equipment that had cost 30,000 yen. Then he said nothing. Instead, the knuckles of the hands around his teacup turned white.

"Sensei, is this where you live?"

"Rent's 58,000 yen. It's a good room. Quiet, since it's a bit far from the station."

"...I see."

Humanity's strongest dropped the subject of rent. He set down his teacup and placed his hands on the tatami.

"Sensei. First, let me apologize. I disrupted your stream last night. I'd meant to come today and tell you everything in order. And—the superchat was mine, too."

"Thought it might be you."

I'd had a hunch. That unsettled feeling whenever I looked at the letter R was, in the end, because it was the first letter of a name I knew so well.

"That was too much. I'll give it back."

"I can't accept it. It's tuition."

"This course is free."

"Back payment for eight years."

He had that look he gets when he isn't going to budge. He'd always been like that.

"...Anyway. You said you'd 'tell me everything.'"

Rei nodded. He nodded, stayed silent for a while, and then looked up.

"I have two years' worth of things I want to say. But I realized it wouldn't be right to say them only to you here."

"Meaning?"

"The world still has it wrong. They don't know you. They only make a fuss about your course. They've got the order backward. —Let me come on tonight's course. As your student."

"This is a beginner course, you know."

"I'm still your student, Sensei."

An instant answer. ...Well, there's no rule requiring me to check a guest's rank.

"I can't pay an appearance fee."

"I'll send a superchat."

"You've sent enough of those."

◇

That night, the moment I hit the Start Streaming button, the viewer count stopped updating for a second.

When it refreshed, it started at 【210,000】 and climbed so fast the digits changed shape before my eyes. Apparently last night's uproar had told the entire world that something was going to happen tonight.

"Good evening, this is Shin. A lot of you seem to be new, so here's the usual: this is a course for beginners. No flashy techniques. No talk about the strongest gear. It's dull. Probably shockingly dull."

【We know】

【Just for today, that intro is a lie】

【Behind you! Someone's behind you!】

"And today, we have a guest. He insisted. —Go ahead."

Rei sat down beside me on a cheap floor cushion and bowed deeply to the camera.

"I'm Rei Kenjo, an S-rank explorer. Today I'm here as one of the students of this course."

The comment section exploded. Or rather, it stopped moving. A load warning appeared in the corner of the screen and refused to go away.

【IT'S REALLY HIMMMMM】

【Humanity's strongest sitting seiza on a floor cushion】

【He said "as one of the students"】

【"Shin-Sensei" is the number one worldwide trend now】

"Before we begin," Rei went on quietly, "I'm not here to talk about techniques. I'm here to talk about eight years ago. —May I, Sensei?"

"...Keep it brief. Today's lesson is 'how to fall.'"

【He was planning to teach a normal lesson even now!?】

Rei began.

"Eight years ago, I was seventeen and had nowhere to go. I kept failing promotion exams, and every dojo and every clan told me I wasn't worth taking in. Everyone said my swordwork was 'rough' and 'sloppy.' But not one person could tell me how to fix it in words."

【...Hey, wait】

【That's Hina-chan's story】

"At the last place I washed up, a coach paused my exam footage at three seconds and said, 'Your center of gravity floats at the start of your lunge. That'll get you killed on the third layer.'"

【Exact match】

【Even the three seconds match】

【I've got goosebumps】

"For the next three years, this man didn't teach me a single technique. How to stand. How to retreat. Center of gravity. Breathing. Where to keep your medicine. ...Sound familiar? It's everything he teaches in this course. Which means what all of you are hearing for free every night is—how to make humanity's strongest."

The viewer counter froze again.

"The day I reached S-rank, this man smiled and said he had nothing left to teach me, then sent me on my way. His notebooks are still at the very heart of my swordwork. Before I enter a dungeon, I grip the floor with my toes inside my shoes. I haven't missed a day in eight years."

Rei broke off for a moment, then looked straight into the camera.

"This is the man who made me humanity's strongest. —And the industry threw him away. No one knew his name, and from a six-mat room he's reducing humanity's death rate for free. I came here today to tell the world that."

The comment section was no longer made up of words. Exclamation marks in languages from all over the world poured down like a waterfall.

As for me.

I took a sip of tea beside him, then quietly shook my head.

"Rei-kun."

"Yes?"

"You became strong because of your talent. All I did was give you a map. You walked the road on your own two feet."

I was only telling the truth. Rei was the one who practiced his swings until dawn for three years, and the one who kept curling his toes inside his shoes. I merely stood beside him and put it into words.

But for some reason.

Rei held his lips tightly together and sat still for a while. Perhaps it was the lighting, but humanity's strongest seemed to have a glimmer around his eyes.

"...That map,"

he said, his voice strained.

"The fact that it isn't for sale anywhere in the world. That there's only one person on Earth who can draw it. —You're the only one who doesn't know, Sensei."

The comment section broke wide open.

【He's crying. Humanity's strongest is crying】

【So am I】

【Didn't think "all I did was give you a map" would make me cry】

【Sensei really has no idea. I've never seen someone this unaware for real】

【World, this is Sensei】

【S-Sensei...! Kenjo-san...! I can't even stand up in front of my screen...!】

Even Hina-chan was falling apart. What a troublesome classroom.

"...Um. I've still got four cardboard boxes of maps in stock, if that's what you mean."

【"In stock" lol】

【He means the hundred notebooks?】

【Humanity's national treasures are sitting in cardboard boxes】

"Well, we can talk about that another time. —We're running late, so on to today's main topic. Lesson nineteen: 'How to fall.' Actually, there's something you need to do before practicing how not to fall."

【He IS doing it!?】

【A normal lesson after all that!?】

【That's Sensei for you】

In the years that followed, this stream would go down in legend under the unadorned name "the uninvited guest episode." No one ever did pin down its final concurrent viewer count. The tallying server gave up first.

◇

After the stream, I walked Rei to the station and came back to find my facedown terminal still vibrating on the desk.

Missed calls from the Association, the press, unknown number, unknown number, unknown number. It didn't look like I'd be getting back to my peaceful unemployed life anytime soon.

Just as I sighed, the screen lit up again.

【Caller ID withheld】

I hesitated for three seconds, then answered.

"Hello?"

No reply.

Not a prank call, though. If I listened closely, I could hear someone on the other end draw breath, again and again. About to say something, then stopping. About to say something, then stopping. The way they held their silence was terribly awkward and terribly earnest.

I'd spent twenty years observing people. There are silences you can recognize without a voice.

"...Mio?"

The call disconnected.