Heishi Otomaru/Route

Chapter 1
Picking up at what had happened at the Prologue, the following conversation takes place.

Heishi: It’s an emergency, don’t space out!

Nanami: I did not.

Heishi: No, you did just now!

Nanami: I did not.

Heishi: Ah, yes, yes. Anyways, the ship’s gonna shake again so find something to grab on! (Look around) Ah! Ron has a big build, go and hold on to him!

Nanami: No.

Heishi: Argh, you stubborn one!

Kakeru and company entered the canteen and everyone stayed there to wait for the attack to stop. After the attacker left, they split into two groups, in which Kakeru’s and Mikoto’s team are going to repair the damaged second floor and Heishi’s team is going to check whether there are still any other damaged areas.

Nanami’s team decides to start from the top floor, and on their way up they saw the wall on the second floor to be severely damaged. They’re surprised that the attacker is able to break Mikoto’s barrier and comments that the attacker must be very skilled. Heishi complains that he cannot understand difficult things and suggests to let Kakeru handle it. Ron approaches Nanami and asks her what she thinks about the way the damage was done, but he brushes it off saying it’s fine if she isn’t suspicious about anything.

At the top floor, they’re discussing about ‘The World’. Nanami says that she’ll obey any orders from ‘The World’, which angered Akito and he walks away. Heishi follows Akito and left Ron with Nanami. Ron doesn’t think that Nanami is a bad person, because she has friends (Heishi and Itsuki). Nanami denies it, saying that there’s no point of making friends here, because they’re going to separate when they arrive at their destinations. It’ll surely be sad when they’re parting ways but even though separated, they’re still friends, so Ron encourages Nanami to make some. He suggests Nanami to start with him but she’s not interested in becoming friends with someone who can’t even remember her name.

Later on, Heishi communicates with them through telepathy and asks them to go and check the second floor together. After Heishi cuts off, Nanami states that it’s pointless to go to the second floor since Kakeru’s in-charge of that floor, but they head there anyways. Nanami is surprised to find that the hole made from earlier is already covered with Kakeru’s vines. Heishi communicates through his telepathy again and asks them to head to the first floor instead. Before going to the first floor, Nanami and Ron discuss about how the wall was damaged. She points out that it’s strange that Mikoto’s barrier isn’t strong enough to protect the second floor seeing that Mikoto did manage to protect the rooftop which was actually being attacked. She made a conclusion but finds it hard to put it into words. Ron helps her say it out instead, and Nanami is surprised that what they both think are exactly the same. Nanami thinks that she needs to discuss this with someone but she forbids Ron from telling Heishi what they just discussed.

When they arrive at the first floor, Heishi tells Ron to go ahead with Akito as he notices that something is wrong with Nanami and asks her to confess. Nanami doesn’t wants to and tells him not to ask any further. Suddenly, they heard a loud splash and see Mikoto running towards them panting. Heishi comments that Mikoto looks like some pervert, only to get glared at by Mikoto when he accidentally reads her mind and sent shivers down his spine It looks like Kakeru and his teammates are playing in the water, and Nanami is requested to go and stop them from playing any further. Nanami tells Heishi to go and complete their task first or they won’t finish it on time. After Heishi leaves, Nanami asks Mikoto about what she thinks regarding the damage caused at the second floor but Mikoto didn’t gave her an answer.

Nanami heads to the pond and sees Akito. He asked about her conversation with Mikoto just now but she doesn’t answer. We flashback to see what Ron told Nanami earlier. He thinks that the one who attacked them is most likely due to hatred, very deep hatred like a grudge or something, towards someone in the ship. Back to the present, Nanami asks what Akito thinks if it was the canteen which was destroyed earlier. Akito doesn’t get what she meant and she tells him that she’ll die. Akito questions her that if she dies, will 'that person' return back to normal? He then walks to yell at Kakeru and company to stop playing with water after stating that what she just said is meaningless.

Before going back, Kakeru requests Nanami to come to the meeting room after having the strange girl done changing her clothes. He tells her to be quick since he doesn’t like waiting for other people. At the meeting room, Mikoto explains that the ship was actually attacked 3 times altogether, 2 out of 3 times, she saw the attacker, a young man, but she isn’t sure whether he has any helpers or not. Mikoto also confirms that during that time, her barrier is very strong at every corner of the ship, except for the rooftop, which is why she rushed there in the first place. Since the barrier is strong enough to withstand incoming attacks, she concludes that there’s someone among them helping the attacker and should be one with an ability to attack.

Kakeru devised 2 plans to find out who the culprit is. The first one is to have everyone spill out their abilities, background, etc. Before this happened, they aren’t required to do so as there’s a rule which doesn’t need them to disclose their infos. Seeing the current situation, they have no choice but to break the rule. Nanami doesn’t want to tell anyone her ability no matter what but she isn’t the culprit either, so Akito asks Kakeru to say his second plan. His other plan is to further divide the people here into groups of two, so that they can watch after one another more carefully. Most of them agree so Kakeru decide to let the girls choose first, but the girls cannot pair up together  Reasons are as follows:

1) When anything happened, the boys can protect the girls.

2) Chances of the culprit being a man is high.

3) The culprit might be more than one so they need the girls to look after their guys 24/7.

After that, Nanami recalls someone telling her that her ability can save people from despair, sadness, pain, sufferings. He said that even though ‘The World’ requested for her help and wants her to protect world peace, only him can put Nanami’s ability in good use. Back to the present, Nanami resolves to be someone of use, and hopes that she can use her ability to protect someone.

Chapter 2
Nanami, Heishi and Itsuki are playing Old Maid in a room. Heishi’s not pleased with his loss and pleads them to continue to play until he wins. Itsuki complains that he’s tired of playing the same thing repeatingly while Nanami slaps truth to him that no matter how many times they play again, he’ll still lose. Just then Koharu and Mikoto came in. Mikoto scolds them for staying up late playing cards and hits the boys’ heads. She orders them to go to sleep and accompanies Nanami back to her room with Koharu. Mikoto lectures Nanami for not having self-consciousness as a girl when being around the guys and not to stay up late as she’ll get sick.

The next morning, Nanami is half awake, and Heishi communicates with her through telepathy to wake her up. He keeps on nagging her, telling her that her breakfast will get eaten by others if she doesn’t wake up. Since she doesn’t reply, he intrudes Nanami and starts to pat her fluffy, animal-like hair after asking for permission. At the canteen, Heishi’s contemplating on the reason why he lost in playing the cards and decides to think of other games where he can win to play instead. After done having breakfast, Akito approaches them and forbids them to come into the kitchen today even though they’re in-charge of cooking dinner. Later, Heishi and Nanami head to the library and he suggests to play shiritori using the books’ title in the library. He starts searching for some title but every book he found ends with ‘n’, which is kinda hard to continue. Sorata and the chicks become angry at Heishi for being so loud and noisy in the library and chases Heishi out from the library since he’s disturbing them.

Out walking at the first floor, Heishi asks if she’s mad at him seeing her sleeping face earlier. She tells him that she’s not mad at him and that even though she dislikes it, it’s fine with her as long as he’s happy. This causes Heishi to blush. Since Heishi and Nanami have nothing to do, they decide to go to the canteen earlier. Heishi says that he wants to play with everyone. Nanami suggests to play 12 people Old Maid but Heishi has a different idea, he wants to play courage test at night. Nanami says that he doesn’t have enough awareness towards his surroundings because it’s dangerous to be alone during night time seeing that the culprit still hasn’t been caught but Heishi assures her that it’ll be okay because they’ll team up to play. Nanami becomes irritated and snaps at him. What if she’s the culprit? She says that she might harm him by using her ability that is still unknown to others. Heishi becomes frustrated and says that he’d rather get fooled because he can’t bring himself to doubt others. Nanami felt Heishi’s anger and tried to apologize to him but before she could do so, Heishi tells her to forget what they said just now.

Chapter 3
Nanami is consulting advice from Mikoto and Itsuki on how to apologize to Heishi regarding what happened earlier in the story. Before getting any good solutions, Heishi comes over and tells them that Akito made some peach pies. Mikoto says that she’s not interested in getting any fatter and walks away with Itsuki. Heishi asks Nanami if it’s better that he doesn’t come but she assures him that there’s nothing wrong with it. She thinks that she needs to say something to soothe the situation and asks Heishi to pat her head again.

One day, Kakeru suggests to have a conference. Heishi thinks of something that can improve their relationships between one another and asks Nanami whether if she still remembers it. You can choose between ’12 people playing ‘Old Maid’ and ‘Courage Test’,

Nanami: ’12 person playing Old Maid?’

Heishi asks Nanami whether she still remembers what he wants to play, and…

Nanami: 12 people playing Old Maid?

Heishi: Yes! Yes! With everyone sitting in a circle, divide the cards among 12 people and each person gets 4? Sounds like it’ll end very soon– N, NO! It’s not like that! What I intend to say is courage test! I want to play courage test with everyone!

They decide to play courage test, and in order to have everyone participate the event, Kakeru threatens them by saying that those who doesn’t participate will have to eat Heishi’s ‘poison’ cooking. After that, it was decided that Nanami, Heishi, Kakeru and Sorata are in-charge of the courage test preparations, with the chicks helping them out.

When they’re out checking for the venue to hold the event, Heishi notices that Nanami seems to be thinking about something lately and asks her what happened. She tells him that she’s thinking about him but she doesn’t know why. He decides to stop doing the preparations for today and brings Nanami to the rooftop. Heishi reveals his past to her. He says that he was bad with using words to convey his feelings when he was small. Even though he didn’t say anything about his feelings, the people around him seems to notice his feelings and it causes a lot of trouble for his family. It was still bearable when he was small but when he grew older, his parents got fed up with him and… they abandoned him. He got adopted by some nomads and learnt how to play shinobue(japanese tranverse flute) in order to earn a living. Heishi starts to play his shinobue for Nanami and she says that she’s not the culprit. She just wants him to be more aware to his surroundings as she’s worried about him. Nanami tells him that she likes his shinobue and it makes him really happy. She asks him to play his shinobue again and smiles, which causes Heishi to blush.

Chapter 4
Heishi and Nanami are practicing on the music for the courage test event. Itsuki and Koharu came over to see what they are doing. Masamune came and informs them that Kakeru is searching for them. After he and Koharu left, Itsuki says that something happened between him and Mikoto, so Heishi advises Itsuki to be more honest with his feelings. On their way to meet up with Kakeru, they start to discuss about Itsuki and Mikoto. Nanami thinks that she needs to tell Mikoto about how Itsuki feels and questions about Itsuki’s feelings towards Mikoto. Heishi says that Itsuki’s feeling towards Mikoto is ‘love’. Unfortunately, Nanami doesn’t understand what ‘love’ is and Heishi finds it hard to explain it to her while constantly blushing.

Since they’re both worried about Mikoto and Itsuki, Heishi decides to meet Kakeru later and helps Nanami to solve Itsuki and Mikoto’s problem first. From afar, they see Itsuki hugging Mikoto and Nanami asks Heishi what ‘love’ means. Heishi doesn’t know how to explain it with words so he holds Nanami’s hand and looks at her with affection. He tells her that it’s something like this and causes both of them to become red like tomatoes. Nanami says that becoming lovers will bring sadness when they’re going to part ways once they received orders from ‘The World.’ Heishi asks her if she feels pain with his feelings just now and she denies it. Just then Kakeru shows up from behind them and smiles at them saying that he doesn’t believe that they’d dare to ignore him calling for them and tells them to go back to work on the preparations.

On the night that the courage test was held, Nanami, Heishi, Kakeru, Sorata and the chicks are in-charge of scaring the others. The people on the ship are grouped in pairs through drawing lots. The pairs are Akito and Sakuya, Ron and Senri, Masamune and Koharu, and lastly, Itsuki and Mikoto. After everyone starts their ‘adventure’, Nanami and Heishi heads to their post at the second floor to wait for the pairings to come and scare the hell out of them. Nanami asked one of the chicks to disguise as a ghost and scares Akito when he comes, and she succeeds. Next up is Itsuki and Mikoto, Heishi plans to scare Mikoto so that she can grab onto Itsuki out of fear, and he succeeds too. Heishi mentions that he and Itsuki have the same dream. A dream of marrying a woman he deeply loves, and have a family with her. Nanami says that she’s envious of the one who’ll be together with Heishi forever. He blushes and stops talking before he blurts out his inner thoughts. Nanami then ponders about what her dreams is. The courage test ends with success after that.

Back at Nanami’s room, she’s all alone as nobody is sharing a room with her, not Koharu nor Mikoto. Nanami’s head is filled with thoughts about Heishi and she cannot sleep. She decides to go out for some ‘running’ to clear her mind and bumps into Heishi. Heishi invites Nanami up to the rooftop and she requests Heishi to play his Shinobue. Heishi promises her to do so, but on one condition, which is if she can race to the rooftop faster than him.

Chapter 5
They race to the rooftop and argue over who arrives first. Nanami mentioned the dream Heishi told her before, and he asks if she wants to see the same dream as him while being red as a tomato. Heishi says that he loves her and Nanami responds that she wants to make his dream come true. Suddenly, Heishi covers her mouth and hugs her to hide because he felt that someone with a killing aura is approaching them. He tells her to wait and turns over to check, only to fall unconscious when he got hit by…. Muroboshi Ron. Ron shows up and starts to spit out words like an insane creeper. Besides that, he’s not alone, someone is with him. It’s the one who assaulted the ship, Natsuhiko and this made Ron the culprit behind what happened before.

Natsuhiko seems to know about Nanami’s family background, the Shiranuis, who were once famous ninja descendants but are adversed into farming as a living. Nanami’s ability led the family to regain their fame, as her father used her ability to erase others’ memories in the name of erasing pain and sadness. Ron gets interested in Nanami’s ability and wants her instead of killing her, while Natsuhiko wants the barrier girl(Mikoto). Natsuhiko hasn’t seen Nanami’s ability in action before so Nanami offers to show her ability by trying to erase all of Natsuhiko’s memories. Ron notices and interferes with his pair of guns. Ron threatens to kill Heishi if Nanami doesn’t wipe out Heishi’s memories of what happened tonight. Ron starts a countdown, and by the count of 1, Nanami has no choice but to do it. She embraces Heishi and erases his memories after saying ‘Sorry.'

The next day, Heishi is having a hard time remembering what happened last night. Kakeru asks him if he got his head knocked and his memories went flying out from his brain. Heishi tried to ask Nanami about it but she’s been avoiding him since this morning. From afar, Ron marvels at the fact that Heishi really had his memories erased and tells Nanami that he can kill her anytime he wants. At the canteen, the 3 girls are discussing about the problems they are facing  (about their guys). Itsuki comes in and offers to help them solve their problems as well as passing his free time. He gives them anamidakuji and tells them to pick the one they like. After examining the paper they gave him, he tells them that he’ll reveal the answer tonight.

That night, the girls are brought into the same dream and met Neko Itsuki. Mikoto rages at him, but Nanami tells Mikoto to leave it to her and she tries to tame Itsuki, and he fell for it. Itsuki tells them that they need to find their most precious person in order to return to reality and runs away. Mikoto is Cinderella, Koharu is Snow White and Nanami is Red Riding Hood. Since Mikoto and Nanami doesn’t understand their own story, Koharu explains it to them but they comprehend it wrongly and think that they are going to beat all the villains in the story. Mikoto wishes them good luck and part ways into their own story.

Chapter 6
Nanami follows the map in her basket in order to arrive at her ‘gramp's’ Heishi’s house. Akito appears, revealing himself as the ‘Big Bad Wolf’ and asks her if she likes Heishi. She replies that Heishi is a good person and he questions her why she erased Heishi’s memories. He reveals that if she combines her ability with Heishi’s, they can erase a number of people’s memory, and that such ability is wanted by a lot of countries. Suddenly, the sound of a bullet being fired is heard. Ron, who poses as ‘The Hunter’, ‘killed’ off Akito, the wolf according to the storyline. He threatens Nanami to kill everyone since he can wake up from dreaming anytime he wants because he doesn’t have ‘a most precious person’ and asks her to come with him. Nanami declines and Heishi shows up, he sends Akito back to reality and turns to Ron in anger, saying that he won’t forgive Ron for scaring Nanami. Ron returns to reality after bidding farewell and saying her name, Shiranui Nanami for the first time. Nanami asks Heishi to send her back to reality as well and reveals that Ron’s the betrayer. Heishi sends everyone back and they search for Ron, but he already disappeared.

Heishi confronts Nanami, asking her if she has anything she wants to say to him. She tells him what Akito told her in the dream world and Heishi says that he won’t do something like that because he’d rather die than doing it. Nanami says that what if it’s orders from ‘The World?' She doesn’t have the courage to defy their orders because she already erased his memories once. Nanami says that she shouldn’t stay by Heishi’s side, but he confesses that he loves her and hugs her. She asks him to release her and that she doesn’t feel anything towards him. He shuts her mouth up by kissing her and says that he really loves her. Nanami pushes him away and says that she hates her ability to the point that she wishes that her ability doesn’t exists at all. For that reason, she cannot be with him.

The next day, they are discussing about what happened last night. Nanami says that Ron plans to kill everyone but was forced to leave due to some unknown reasons. Kakeru says that it’s fine as long as no one was hurt but Heishi shouts out saying that it’s not. Nanami thinks that she needs to say something and apologizes for not telling him anything, but Heishi doesn’t say anything and runs away. Kakeru then dismisses everyone and they head to the canteen for some dinner. Since then, Heishi has been avoiding Nanami instead and Nanami is grateful that Koharu and Mikoto are accompanying her or she’ll be left alone.

One day, Mikoto is complaining about the heat because the cooling system of the ship broke down. They decide to head to the canteen for some desserts to cool down. On their way there, they hear some water noises and saw the guys chilling out at the swimming pool. Mikoto starts to tsuntsun-ing and blabbers about the guys being naked in public. Heishi, who seems to be in a really bad mood, spits out some really nasty words to her, only to get punched into the pool by Mikoto, commenting that he’s the worst and walks away.

At the canteen, Mikoto puts up a barrier around the canteen to prevent the guys from entering. After that, Koharu and her go into the kitchen to prepare some tea and desserts to cheer Nanami up. Suddenly, the electricity was cut off and they were trapped inside. Masamune contacts them and asks them to wait while they repair the system. After a while, it starts to rain and Koharu’s getting sleepy. Nanami walks towards the door and hears Heishi communicating with her through telepathy. Heishi feels sorry for not realizing Nanami’s feelings and says that after hearing Nanami said that she hates her ability, he contemplates about a way to solve their problem of getting seperated, only to conclude that he doesn’t want to get seperated from the woman he loves. When the electricity returned, Heishi confessed to Nanami and asks her to escape with him. Heishi says that he only wants her and adds a line that ruins the mood:

Heishi: Even if Mikoto is all naked in front of me, I have the confidence to reject her!!

..while Heishi gets punched by Mikoto.

Chapter 7
It’s morning and Heishi once again bed intrudes Nanami, telling her that he’s going to kiss her if she doesn’t wake up. Nanami opens her eyes and Heishi tries to kiss her but stepped back a few steps when Nanami takes out her kunais. She tells him to get out because she wants to change her clothes. After she’s done changing her clothes, he mentioned about his plan to escape and Nanami suggests to eat first.

At the canteen, Heishi and Itsuki are not talking to each other, and the others noticed it since the day the electricity of the canteen was cut off. Later in a room, Mikoto decides to help them and Itsuki asks about their plan. Heishi says that once the ship lands, he’ll take Nanami and run into the crowd and escape. Itsuki sighs, saying that Heishi is too naive, and suggests to use Nanami’s ability. This, of course, is objected by Heishi because he knows that Nanami hates using her ability. Itsuki tells Heishi to give up if he doesn’t want to do that and they start fighting. Since that, they’ve not talk to each other. Later at night, Heishi comes to Nanami’s place and she lets him in. He asks her to call him ‘Heishi’ instead of ‘Otomaru-san’ because she’s going to become one in the future. He asks her if she loves him and she does, he wants her to escape with him.

Happy Ending
Heishi is shocked to hear that and asks if she doesn’t believe in him. She says that she wants to protect Heishi and she has the power to do so, but Heishi doesn’t want Nanami to suffer anymore and tries to stop her. Nanami has no other choice and calls out ‘Heishi’ saying that she needs to use her ability to escape. Heishi says that it’s unfair that she calls him by his name at times like this. He hugs Nanami and says that hearing her calling his name makes him think that his name sounds good. They shared a kiss on the couch and say that they love each other.

The day the ship lands, Mikoto buys some new clothes for Nanami and dumps her old uniform away. After that, they decide to go and meet up with Itsuki and Heishi. Heishi is at loss of words while blushing when he saw Nanami in casual clothes, and compliments that she’s very cute. Mikoto hands them a bag and decides to walk them to the station with Itsuki. Itsuki asks Nanami to look after Heishi while Mikoto asks Heishi to look after Nanami. They walk into the station after bidding farewell to Mikoto and Itsuki. On their way to board the train, they got caught by Masamune who uses his ability to understand that they’re planning to run away. Nanami has no choice but to erase Masamune’s memories of their conversation. Nanami suggests to board the train before they bump into anyone else again and Heishi agrees. One day, at a vast field, Heishi takes out his camera and took a photo with Nanami. The camera is given by a wealthy man, he told them to take pictures from around the world and send it to him in exchange for some money. Nanami scolds Heishi for wasting the films and tells him that if he does it again, she’ll revert back to calling him ‘Otomaru-san.’ Heishi promises her not to do it again and says that he’ll earn some money with his shinobue when they arrive at the next town. Heishi plays his shinobue and says that he’ll continue to travel around with Nanami to different places. At a town, Heishi tells Nanami that he’s done with buying the supplies. Nanami is watching the photo Heishi took and Heishi comments that she looks cute. He says that he’ll work hard with his flute and asks her to have their photo taken some other time too, and she agreed. Once again, they confess their love to each other.

Tragic Love Ending
Heishi is very happy to hear that Nanami will follow him and hugs her. The day when the ship lands, they fled to a small house in the woods. Heishi is out working hard in order to cover their escape expenses. One day, Nanami is shocked to see what fell out from Heishi’s pocket,… a gun, but he assures her that he’ll protect her with it. Later, they decide to rest and Nanami asks him to stop and let her do something but he rejects and starts to get insane and strangles Nanami, telling her to believe in him. He realizes what he’s doing and apologizes to her. The next day, Heishi is preparing to go out and they heard someone calling for them to open up the door. It’s Itsuki and Akito. Heishi pulls out his gun and is thinking of shooting down both of the guys. Nanami tries to stop him but he tells her to close her eyes and walks towards the door. Nanami has no other choice and erases all his memories of her. Akito and Itsuki rushes in and Nanami explains that it’s her fault that Heishi turns out like this and pleads Itsuki not to tell Heishi about it.

They return to the ship and one day, Heishi says that he wants to play something. Kakeru asks if he wants to play courage test but Heishi says that they only did it recently. Heishi says that he prepared it with Kakeru, Sorata, …and the chicks. Heishi sees Nanami and asks: Who are you?