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“Yo, Boss! The girl you mentioned earlier is here!”

This was most likely the room of the troupe leader. I looked more frugal than expected… but on second thought, everything had to be movable, so that was probably natural. Mr. Mitsuo was sitting in front of a mirror, likely to fix his clown makeup.

“Sorry for the trouble and thank you for showing her in.”
“It’s all good. You sure are a smooth operator to hook up with such an angel, Boss. Did you discover her while you went outside yesterday? What were relationships with minors called again in Japan? Paid dating¹?”

P-Paid dating…? There’s no way I’d ever prostitute myself! Not for women and definitely not for men! Not in a thousand years!

“Perish the thought, we are mere acquaintances. I called her here for a small matter.”
“Huh, I see. That’s fine, then. I’m going back outside.”

The troupe member who’d shown me in left the room.

“My apologies for that, please have a seat.”
“Of course.”

I didn’t know if it was intended for guests, but I sat down on a wooden bench. Mr. Mitsuo reached a good point to finish applying make-up and sat down in a chair opposite me. His face obviously still looked like that of a clown.

“Come to think of it, don’t you have to be on stage all the time as a clown…?” I asked, since I was curious about that part.
“No need to worry. It will be some more time until I have to leave, I should still have around 15 minutes.”
“I see.”

It felt strange to see a clown, who’d earlier been joking around, talk seriously about something. Even more so one who was famous on TV and such.

“Before we talk, do you mind if I smoke?”
“Eh… please do.”

Mr. Mitsue took out a box, pressed down on its edge and tried to take a cigarette from it. However, due to some contraption, it wouldn’t come out right and instead was shot by a spring right into his face.

“Ouch!”
“Heh-heh-ha-ha!”

I couldn’t help laughing at what looked like a deliberate joke.

“It’s been like this since I returned yesterday.”
“I see… Does that mean when I sent you home from Anazumu…”
“Indeed, I arrived yesterday on Earth’s calendar².”

The one who arrived more than a hundred years before us in Anazumu returned to Earth only yesterday… was that what they called a time paradox? A scary thought.

“Heh-heh, but thanks to that, all my skills and memories as a circus clown… and the troupe leader came back.”
“Oh, I get it! When you move between Anazumu and Earth, you bring your memories with you… but they feel different.”
“Exactly.”

It sounded like it was the same for him. Although he’d been an awfully long time in the other world, he still remembered how to use electric devices. How strange.

“…I ended up getting ahead of myself. Miss Alim Nariwei, I welcome you to my circus!”
“Eh-heh-heh, that really was a coincidence!”
“Almost as if it had been planned.”

Still, when people here called me Alim, I assumed it was related to my game handle. Well, I’d get used to it with time.

“I’m… not sure how to thank you…”
“As I said before, just don’t commit any crimes on this side.”
“Being executed took a great toll on me. I am only too aware of that.”

As I was thinking that I had seen his clown face somewhere other than on TV, I realized that it was the same he had as Mephistophales³. A clown enemy… that was something straight out of a video game or movie.

“Well, in any case, Miss Alim… or rather, you were called Ayumu on this side, right? It is rare to see a girl with that name. On a closer look, your face has barely changed. Are the only differences the color of your hair and skin, and your height due to your age?”
“No, my gender is also different.”

The clown – someone who was skilled at surprising people and making them laugh – now looked rather surprised himself. He cautiously opened his mouth and spoke again.

“Eh… what, does that mean you are currently male…?
“Yes, I am a boy.”
“…Eh? I mean, what!? No matter how I look at you, you seem to be female… even your voice…”
“Well, I’m male in my family register and I have all the right body parts. On Earth, that is. People are usually shocked by that.”

I myself was getting a thrill out of surprising others. It was fun to reveal my gender to them, so I usually did it myself. But with my face and voice, people tended to treat me like a girl, so I had to be careful.

“So, your gender differs between here and over there…!”
“It does.”
“Then, which one is your true gender?”
“The one here.”

For some reason, his surprise seemed to turn into admiration. But I couldn’t guess what kind of admiration that was.

“I-In any case, Mr. Ayumu. I wanted to thank you, so I spent several hours yesterday thinking of something…”
“It’s fine, no need to go to extremes.”
“No, I absolutely want to show you my gratitude! Otherwise, I won’t be able to settle down!”

From the way he talks, it’s probably better to accept. I wonder what he has for me. I get the feeling that it’ll be related to the circus, though…

“I’ll go get it, please wait a moment,” he said and then left the room in the silly gait typical of a clown.

1. The man calls it エンコー (enkoo), an abbreviation of 援助交際 (“paid dating”), which is apparently a method for underage girls to prostitute themselves in Japan. I couldn’t find a good way to abbreviate the English name, so I left it as it is.
2. While I no longer trust the author to keep even the simplest of numbers straight, I assume this is deliberate. Which would indicate that Jizou puppeteered him around for more than a week.
3. I was gonna snark about that, but I guess he only saw him twice with the clown make-up (during Karua’s rescue and the war) which was months ago, so it’s understandable that he didn’t recognize the face immediately.

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