Mistaken for a Masked Munchkin

People, People, People.

A hand guiding a woman.

In the end, Javert let me lead her out onto the central stage.

"Now."

A boy and a woman slipped in among the dancers.

The two of them seemed to wind together through the quiet melody.

Before long, we were standing at one side of the venue.

Without the slightest hesitation, I faced Javert.

"......Student Viktor."

"What exactly is this situation? I believe I clearly told you I would not dance."

"Hmm... who knows. You could say my feet moved on their own."

Even in this situation, her eyes remained mechanical.

Still, I did not back down.

"Please think of it as a small reward."

"A reward?"

"Did I not properly fulfill the role you requested of me? I played the part of the partner you needed at today's banquet quite well. So, for this short time, would you indulge my stubbornness? I have always wanted to experience something like this."

"I see. Since you accepted a personal request, you are saying you want a fitting reward in return."

"You are taking this too stiffly. Mine was only a request as well. A request to keep me company for a moment."

"A request..."

The woman's heart was coated in steel like a shell.

Therefore, I could not see the color of her heart.

I quietly curled my gloved fingers.

The woman said nothing for a moment, then nodded as if yielding.

"If you put it that way. Yes, I will."

"I am glad. Thank you for accepting my request."

The banquet hall flowed with still music.

Rose-red and black, as if night had been steeped and brewed.

Javert came half a step closer into my arms.

Her distinct, cold scent reached me.

The curves of her body brushed against me here and there.

Like the other guests, we gradually narrowed the gap between us.

"Hm, hm."

The music began to flow again.

And only after I had already done it did I realize something.

'Come to think of it, I don't know how to dance... do I?'

Of course I did not.

I had no mom or dad to teach me how to dance, after all.

All I had done was watch the guests move a few times.

It had not looked that hard, so I thought I could manage if I roughly copied them...

'What is this? It is harder than I thought.'

The movements were simple.

The order was regular, and the motions themselves were not difficult either.

Compared to the bugs I pulled out as casually as eating a meal, it was child's play.

'But...'

Something kept creaking.

The tempo was slightly off, and the connections between each movement were not smooth.

It felt like trying to do delicate work, almost like sewing, while wearing rubber gloves.

That sense of being strangely misaligned kept nagging at me.

So there really was a limit to learning by half-assed imitation.

'If only I had a mom and dad to teach me how to dance too...!'

The life of an involuntary lifelong orphan was, as always, sorrowful.

I forced myself to smooth over the fumbling and stepped along.

Then, just as I was barely maintaining my balance,

Javert suddenly reached out and supported my waist.

"I will lead."

The woman gently settled against me.

Javert whispered softly into my ear with each step I took.

"You are putting in too much strength. Loosen your pelvis naturally, and try moving as if you are stepping on cotton."

"Like this, you mean?"

"Good. Here, draw a circle, but make sure the line of your toes does not collapse."

"Aha."

"Much better. As expected, you learn quickly."

"How embarrassing. I wanted to be the one leading for this..."

My stiff movements loosened as if blending into the melody.

It was thanks to Javert taking the lead.

I quietly entrusted my breathing to the woman.

Curves bent softly, and turns drew graceful circles.

"It seems you have never learned to dance."

"Oh dear, I have been found out."

My reply was calm.

Javert stared at me with a puzzled look.

"Then... why did you want this as a reward?"

"As I said earlier. Because I wanted to experience it."

"I see."

"Is it not a rather special reward? It means I have become the man who took the Chief Investigator's first dance."

"You are not the first man. When I learned dancing in a liberal arts class, the Headmaster served as my partner."

"Family does not count by default."

"Is that so? Then it is indeed the first."

Javert accepted that easily.

Whisper, whisper.

After exchanging a few words, I realized I had melted into the dance.

A black leather glove wrapped around my waist, and I stepped over the bouncing melodies.

Countless brief cutscenes connected one after another.

"......"

Before long, our lips had fallen silent.

The woman's steps were plain and clean, without any showy technique.

There was no flashiness, and no vanity meant to show off.

'And that is why.'

That was why she was beautiful.

Even though she wore a uniform instead of a dress, the woman drew more attention than anyone else in the venue.

Her distinct mechanical air.

That chill had been ironed flat and dyed into a tidy, pale color.

After a settled breath, I traced the line of the dance as if following the woman.

"Good. Again, just like that..."

A whisper.

A scent.

Red hair.

A rose with thorns blooming.

Green eyes.

Looking up at the boy.

"......"

Moments continued in vivid succession.

As if dissolving in water, I flowed and flowed and flowed into the woman.

That scene continued until the melody stopped.

***

A dance that felt long if called long, and short if called short.

The banquet seemed to be winding down.

"......"

The banquet hall, where the fresh melody had stopped.

We left the venue.

After that, we rested for a moment on a terrace.

The constant attention had felt burdensome, but this place had few people around, so it was comfortable.

"Haa..."

A night breeze left behind by late summer.

Mixed into it, I let out a thin breath like mist.

"Dad, Mom! You were so cool...!"

Lua's chatter came from beside me.

Had she still not escaped the afterglow?

The girl was held in Javert's arms, her eyes sparkling brightly.

"You were all light and floaty, and your hair swayed too! So I watched in a complete daze...!"

Lua spoke in a rush of excitement.

She waved her arms around, expressing her admiration with her whole body.

"Mom was the prettiest!"

"Thank you."

Javert's reaction was dry as ever.

Still, she supported Lua with one hand so the girl would not fall from her arms.

Perhaps aware of that consideration, Lua giggled and rubbed her cheek against Javert.

The warm scene continued.

I wore a faint smile.

After a short silence, I offered a simple thought.

"Dancing... was harder than I expected. I honestly underestimated it, and it feels like I got properly scolded."

"Even so, you learned quickly. Toward the end, you barely seemed like a beginner, so I was surprised."

"I was only following your lead. Investigator, you danced much better than you said you did."

"I only practiced for the sake of refinement. This was my first time dancing in such a public setting as well."

Words that meant we had been each other's first.

I smiled with a touch of playfulness and deliberately tossed out a mischievous line.

"Did you know?"

"What?"

"One's first dance in life. They say that when a man and woman share their first dance with each other at a banquet like this, they remain happy lovers for a long, long time."

"That is a superstition."

"It is."

"I am not the type to believe much in superstitions."

"What a shame. I am rather fond of them."

The woman was a person made of correct principles.

Someone who prioritized rules over tolerance, and truth over superstition.

"Is it not ultimately a story someone made up?"

"Perhaps."

Maybe that was the most proper way to live.

To live without straying or bending, as a straight line drawn with a ruler.

"Even so."

Principles.

Rules.

Reason.

Justice.

About the things the woman clung to.

"I think it is sometimes nice to let yourself be fooled by stories like that."

Correctness.

In a world filled with cynicism, living by correctness might be important.

But not everything in the world ran on correctness alone.

There were exceptions that went against principles.

There were irregularities that overturned rules.

There were emotions reason could not grasp.

There were morals justice could not explain.

"Because I think that would be much more human."

No person lived only by correctness.

Sometimes people went astray, and sometimes they left the tracks.

As those processes piled up, the depth of life could grow richer.

"And because it would be much more enjoyable."

Correctness.

It was only a line humans drew to keep themselves from becoming beasts.

Just because someone did not become a beast, that did not mean they had become human.

A person could not become human by following only correctness.

Sometimes, they had to cultivate differing ideas too.

And the value of such opposing views might be quite precious.

"Enjoyment..."

"That is what I think. I was not trying to say you were wrong, Investigator."

The woman's heart was coated in steel like a shell.

Therefore, I could not see the color of her heart.

Javert seemed to believe her own heart was silver.

But I believed her heart would be red, just like anyone else's.

"How should I put it... Investigator, you always seem bound by something."

"I think becoming cold is better than becoming a mess."

"Then you can find the middle. A point that is neither messy nor cold."

"Individual judgment is immature. Finding that appropriate point alone is close to impossible."

"Then you do not need to worry about that."

"Why not?"

"Because we are not alone."

"......"

Living together.

The reason humans could not become human alone.

"We live gathered together so we can support each other."

What made a person human was, in the end, another person.

I had learned that belief from people.

People and love had made me.

Reversible things were as precious to me as irreversible ones.

"So I think it may be all right to let go a little."

"......"

Words that collided head-on with her beliefs.

Javert made an unreadable expression.

I did not know whether she had understood my words, or accepted them.

Still hoping even a little had reached her, I poked one of the woman's cheeks.

"Hehe."

Poke, poke.

Lua seemed to copy me too, pressing Javert's other cheek.

We stayed there with faint smiles.

Javert had frozen without much reaction.

The woman remained silent, then soon gave a short smile.

"......Is that so."

Rather than a smirk, it was a faint smile that had lightly seeped through.

Her mechanical eyes wavered for a moment.

It was the sort of smile one could see very occasionally, maybe two or three times a month.

"Student Viktor thinks that way."

The woman neither affirmed nor denied me.

She only accepted it and let the conversation move on.

For now, that was enough.

Because warmth reached me through the fingertip touching her cheek.

"I am sure everything will be all right."

After that, we quietly admired the night view from the terrace.

The cool breeze neatly bound the air.

The scene was that calm.

Perhaps everyone had wished for it.

That this peaceful moment would continue just like this.

***

And.

It was a few days later that Javert found out I was the culprit behind the Purgatory Floor 70 Unauthorized Clear Incident.

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