Bailonz Street 13-Chapter 218.1

That familiar voice.

That familiar comportment.

[It has been such a long wait! Six months, goodness. Hardly a period too short for even an entire program to rise and fall, wouldn’t you agree!]

[Mr. Roe Deer, I fully understand just how dearly you must have missed this Braun in the meantime…]

[And today, at last, here we meet again. Oh, just like the start of a brand new season!]

Words with the flair of a talk show host.

The presence that had always been in my front pocket, speaking with me, was there again.

[Friend?]

I picked up the rabbit plush.

The doll, small enough to fit in one hand, kept its familiar appearance even as it was shrouded in black smoke.

Soft fur and neat seams.

Two black pebble-like eyes gleaming in the light.

And beneath the pink head, the black bow tie, sitting neatly as always, just like how I had placed it before.

A fake.

[!]

What looked like a bow tie on the original Good Friend was actually just a hairband I had purchased at that boutique in Death Lane.

But what was beneath this doll’s head was a real bow tie, tied in the proper way.

Decisively, the ‘new Good Friend plushie’ I had custom-made through the process at Cheerful Theme Park could not possibly have a bow tie.

Because the previous Good Friend had burned itself.

Therefore, this was no different from the prop laptop on the desk that had only a shell for a body, or the books on the shelves that consisted only of covers.

A set piece, made to reproduce Supervisor Kim Soleum’s company housing environment.

A counterfeit.

[My word… correct! As sharp as ever, Friend.]

Then.

What are you?

[I am your summoned friend. Braun.]

The unmoving eyes of the rabbit doll glinted again in the light.

[I merely made use of my cotton-stuffed body merchandise to help you focus, Mr. Roe Deer.]

……

I realized.

The voice was not coming from the rabbit doll itself.

It was coming from within me.

I simply accepted it as coming from the doll, because I had found it there.

And this was…

Because it was imitating the speech of the Good Friend.

[Hmm, yes. Merchandise. Far more elegant than ‘counterfeit’, wouldn’t you say? A faithful effort to reproduce my cotton-stuffed form that my friend shares his every move with. The quality is a little coarse, but not bad…]

……

[Oh, or wait. Did you perhaps think this voice was fake as well?]

No.

[Ah, splendid. That’s a relief…]

But haven’t you known all along?

[…Hm?]

Six months.

The time I spent alone in the annex’s 13th basement floor, a place with nothing but corpses and ghost stories.

Even then, you could have spoken to me at any moment.

But you didn’t. Because that period was tedious, unremarkable, boring, of no value to communication.

Isn’t it your very nature to relish the thrill and delight of appearing at the single most interesting moment?

As an entertainer.

[…Aha. So that’s it.]

[The host, who could have spoken at any time during those six months, turned away from the painful, dreary stretch and instead appeared now, mimicking the Good Friend’s image, choosing the most fascinating timing…]

[Very well. Slander and rumor are a star’s fate, after all.]

The sound of arms crossing.

[Good heavens, and to think I even made a special guest appearance in that tacky training video from the second week onward…]

……

Training video?

– [Special entity Employee full of dreams and passion! Welcome to Daydream Inc.’s Security Management Team!]

The endlessly looping training video, playing on the old black-and-white TV in the corner of Room 666 on the annex’s 13th basement floor.

Security Management Team’s Special Division Employee Training.

[Yes. That shoddy piece of propaganda, repeated again and again in that cell of a room, with not a shred of entertainment or inspiration.]

[Even though I greeted you countless times, Mr. Roe Deer, you never responded. What an insult that was.]

And in the middle of that… was the rabbit doll.

The host with the TV for a head.

Did he appear?

Did he greet me?

That, that was…

……

It didn’t matter.

Because it was information irrelevant to the work.

[How heartbreaking! Yes. Friend, you had no intention of recognizing me at all.]

[Of course, it is precisely a host’s duty to make even such an audience lend their ears…]

[But fortunately, this form seems to stir in you the desire to listen. Truly, I am honored, Mr. Roe Deer!]

It took me a step too late to understand that the last remark had been sarcasm.

And also, that it was not only sarcasm.

I realized it slowly.

[Still, it seems my dearest friend has recovered quite a bit of that lively wit of old! Quite proactive, ever since today’s little excursion…]

……

Because the Nostalgia Kitty had, for a fleeting moment, let me know ‘what I truly felt’, I had been able to think in a manner similar to before.

[Ah, indeed, indeed.]

But…

Does that mean anything?

[Hm?]

Within this smeared, untruthful form. Within these limbs of melted brain and flesh, where I cannot even tell what attaches to what.

And inside this horned monstrosity, into which all that has been forcibly stuffed, would it not have been better not to realize that there is still something akin to a mind?

This dissonance.

[So that’s it, the mask has devoured you, Mr. Roe Deer…]

…?

[That’s all right. It’s a side effect common to all talented entertainers!]

[Now then, behold this merchandise body…]

I fixed my gaze.

The fake Good Friend lay in my hand.

[This frugal little body is a fake! Yes, indeed. That splendid cotton-stuffed form you provided me anew lies more than fifteen miles away, deep underground…]

[And yet, still, we are able to speak like this.]

[And surely, we can share friendly exchanges as before! …Friend, would you set me upon the towel?]

……

So I did.

[Yes… Ah, much better.]

From the black smoke pouring out of the gas mask, my gloved hand moved.

I folded the towel twice, carefully smoothed the middle, and placed the doll upon it.

A habit I once had.

As though after finishing a suffocating Darkness exploration, I would care for my Good Friend’s resting place upon returning home.

As though it were still that way.

As though this plush doll, which called itself my good friend, was still bound by the constraints of the Good Friend.

As though it were still that way.

……

It was a deceitful imitation.

[Oh, but every show begins with imitation.]

……

[The whole process of mirroring reality, yet presenting it more symbolically! Mime, skits, stand-up, wordplay, critique…]

[At each branching choice, crafting the most meaningful imitation to grant laughter and significance! Building a bond with the audience, moving them through that process…]

[A show is, at its core, a lie that reflects the truth…… But is it really meaningless, then?]

The voice dropped to a whisper.

[Because it is a lie?]

I did not answer, but the other already knew.

My answer.

[That’s right. It does have meaning. Oh, most certainly. In every moment of tears and laughter!]

The polite host tapped his fingers against the table.

As though struck by a good idea.

[It is the same with you, Mr. Roe Deer. Shall we take a look together at the mask you are wearing now?]

I turned my gaze aside.

[Oh, the smoke makes fine stage effects, and I do quite like those light-like eyes! You’ll make an excellent crew member.]

[Rather rugged and cool indeed, but… Mr. Roe Deer, it seems you prefer the mask you wore before.]

[Because of familiarity, and the bond tied to it? Why, that too is a fine quality in an entertainer.]

……

[Then what if we make that a mid-term goal?]

[Let us connect with the audience through imitation. Just as this Braun here is doing now!]

If you cannot return to being human, then pretend to be one.

[It’s time to learn a new ability. Mr. Roe Deer, isn’t this your specialty? Collecting marvelous skills and items!]

Like purchasing items in the Space Shopping Mall.

Like receiving tattoos at Moonlight Tattoo Shop.

Like exchanging clues in the Faceless Market.

My appearance, desperately preparing to survive the ghost stories, to survive within them at all.

…I remembered.

And then, above the rabbit doll, like a burst of fireworks, a small golden effect appeared, drew out a single phrase, and vanished.

New Objective : Master the splendid art of disguise!

Salt Goblin

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