We exchanged introductions, just as proper men should, and prepared for battle.
My first instinct was to run out of the library as fast as possible. If I could get out of this Aberration's domain, his abilities would lose home-field advantage.
"No...that's not right," I muttered to myself.
The thought felt wrong the moment it formed. Not only was it a cowardly way to win, but my escape was likely impossible from the start. The language Aberration controlled the entire library as if it were his own body. He would never let me have an easy victory.
In other words, a head-on confrontation was the only path available to me.
An unnatural silence filled the library. We waited—like an em-dash had been placed firmly between us.
The older man adjusted his glasses, his fingers brushing against the spine of a nearby book. The motion was casual, almost lazy, yet the air shifted with it. Pages trembled. Tied, blurred, and misaligned.
"You are looking for a clue regarding my ability, yes?"
"…?"
I met his question with silence.
Given his nature as the Language Aberration, conversation was likely his greatest weapon. As long as I could restrict the "information" exchanged, I had a chance at winning.
For a moment, nothing seemed to happen.
Then—
"Hmm…" he hummed softly. "Restraint—so you at least have some decorum about you."
A thin sound grazed my ear. I didn't recognize it at first, not until my arm had been violently jerked to the side.
"…!"
Something coiled around my wrist. It was soft and fibrous.
I looked down; my wrist was wrapped in yarn!
Thick strands wrapped around my body, tightened like a vice, and another strand snapped into place around my ankle. Before I could even react, I was lifted off the ground!
My back slammed into a bookshelf.
Vision blurred.
Ears rang.
Woods splintered, and books spilled from the shelves like organs.
"Gah—!"
The yarn pulled again, dragging me through the air before hurling me across the room. I crashed into a table, snapping my arm in half before skidding across the floor.
"AUGH!"
The pain swarmed my mind. My arm was warm, so warm, and the torn nerves exploded with pain signals all at once.
"Cmon!" I shouted in desperation. "Heal!"
The tendons, muscle tissue, and bone mass instantly regenerated upon my command. It was painful, but at least the damage was mitigated!
Amidst my recovering vision, I saw him, [Nonsense Literature], stroking his chin carefully.
"…A clue," the old man said calmly, stepping forward. "You should be careful what you seek."
Damn it! This wasn't going well. I can't fully grasp his ability. Even when minimizing interaction, he can still issue commands.
If so, what are its limits? Can he use multiple commands at once? Does it have conditions?
"Clue…" I said under my breath. "Clue. Yarn. What was the connection between the two?"
For some reason, it felt oddly familiar. I could have sworn I've heard of this before!
Think think think! Where have I heard this wordplay before?
Did you know…
"… !"
The older man in my memories, he's talked about this before, but what was it?
I kept rummaging through my old memories, looking for any viable solution in the darkness.
The Iliad? The Odyssey? No! It is even older!
Did you know that the words "yarn" and "clue" are highly interlinked?
I found it! The answer I needed!
The word 'clue' was originally spelled 'clew,' referring to a ball of yarn. In the Myth of Theseus, the titular hero uses a ball of yarn to solve a complex riddle, and yarn naturally came to be associated with solving riddles, leading to the word 'clue' today.
I remember it all.
On that summer day, when we had first met, He was reading a collection of ancient Greek myths and was particularly fond of language.
It couldn't have been a coincidence. It couldn't have followed any other logic.
The Language Aberration, [Nonsense Literature], was using my memories to manifest his ability.
Worst-case scenario, this was a power I couldn't out-logic.
"Tch…"
I pushed myself to my feet, my right hand shifting into a crow's claw. White feathers sprouted along my arm, twitching with nervous anticipation.
"Your ability…creates phenomenon out of nonsensical logic, doesn't it?"
"…? Whatever could you mean?"
"Ha! Don't act dumb now that you got caught. You can use illogical scenarios through the use of improper language. You weren't saying clue earlier, it was clew ! It's a nearly unbeatable ability, since it's only obvious in written language, but I've already seen your vulnerability!"
"Vulnerability…?" Tolder manman, as though amused by my deduction, guffawed loudly, his head reeling back in joy.
"Good! Good! Perhaps you are right! Perhaps you have found a 'weak point'(弱点), but you lack the will to exploit it. Let's take a look at your 'vulnerability'(脆弱性)!
"Try me!"
I leaped forward, unleashing a powerful downward slash. He wouldn't use that strange positioning ability — I knew it. Now that his trick was found out, he had no choice but to meet me halfway, to fight me head-on!
"HAAAA!"
I felt it; the sensation of flesh colliding with flesh. I tore through it in one clean blow. There was no doubt in my mind that I had won!
That was, until a certain person came into view.
"…Aussie?"
The strike, which I had put my all into, had struck Aussie down.
Her expression was frozen.
"…Aussie…Aussie!"
No no no no no! Why was she here?! Wasn't she maintaining the barrier? Wasn't she supposed to see me win?
I dropped to my knees and cradled her in my arms, but something felt off.
Her body was weightless. Her eyes were dead. Her hair lacked its previous luster.
In an instant, I regained control, snapping back into my senses.
Ink, paper, and fragments of text fell away between my fingers.
The 'Aussie' I saw was nothing but an illusion made from books!
"A brittle nature ( 脆性) creates a feeble( 弱 ) mind. Vulnerability ( 脆弱性 ) will naturally arise from those weak of heart!"
"—!"
The Aberration launched a sluggish kick, a kick I should have dodged, and launched me across the lobby.
My emotions were unstable, and I couldn't move my body properly. This must be another one of his abilities!
"Hehe…" the old man chuckled, before bursting into uncontrollable laughter. "HAHAHAHA! Ah…you creatures are so pitiful, your hearts are as weak as glass. You all hold onto the past so tightly that it strangles you, but Aberrations fight differently!"
His cane was sharpened at its tip.
He stabbed me over and over and over and over. It pierced my lungs, intestines, stomach lining, and legs.
My stomach acid was leaking into the rest of my body, burning me from the inside out.
The pain was maddening.
"We Aberrations are but possibilities! We do not need to cling to our humanity! How could you have failed to realize, you who have transformed into an Aberration?! If you cannot embrace that nature, that compulsion towards destruction, then the title of the White Crow is wasted on you!"
"G—Guah!"
What was I doing wrong?
Why couldn't I win?
Clinging to the past? Was that what I was doing?
No…that wasn't me.
It was unlike me to hold onto worthless things.
I'm an Aberration, a monster born from possibilities.
I'm not human.
I'm a wretch.
A detestable, lowly wretch.
"Ha…hahaha…"
"…? What? Why are you laughing?" [Nonsense Literature] said with an angry, almost vitriolic tone.
"You're…so fragile…"
My eyes lifted, not with fear or indignation, but clarity.
"—!"
[Nonsense Literature] stepped back, a terrible expression on his face.
"What's wrong…? Why did you back away just now?"
"…"
I rose to my feet, the pain becoming a dull buzz.
"Don't get things confused. I'm not human, nor do I pretend to be one. Do not presume to know me."
The holes in my body warped closed and sealed. My distorted vision cleared.
"I'm not clinging onto anything…I'm discarding a past that doesn't belong to me."
An overwhelming sensation permeated my body.
Was it animosity? Rage? Hate?
No…that wasn't quite right.
At this moment, I felt nothing but joy.
"You know, I'm really glad you look like the old man from my memories. I can finally say goodbye to him in my own way."
I lunged forward, my claw-hand concentrated into a singular point. Without a moment's hesitation, I'd pierce his beating heart.
" Away! "
Another command. The room stretched and warped, but I felt no fear or apprehension.
Crows were beings that lived amongst death, that ate away at the carcass until its bones were white as snow.
In other words, they were beings who invoked death upon the departed — Aberrations who slaughtered Aberrations.
"Aren't you tired of those cheap tricks?"
I cut away at the distortion with quick, diagonal slashes.
"…!"
He was now within reach — my prey, the Language Aberration, was now sentenced to an untimely death.
"GUAH!"
My spear-hand crushed his ribcage and pierced his small, shriveled heart, it's anachronistic pulsations filling me with a certain satisfaction.
"I see…" said [Nonsense Literature], his orifices leaking purple blood. "So this is the difference…between a variant…and an original."
I extracted his heart with a violent pull before crushing it in my hand.
"What a terrible ending…" I said. "Maybe in another life, we'd get to have a proper farewell, old man."