“The other day, I heard that a school acquaintance’s older brother had a Ruriruri[26] life-sized figure he bought a long time ago that he didn’t know what to do with. Right away, I did everything I could to get it! Please, Satou, you worship her, too—this pale, young, little, adorable Ruriruri!”

The doll seemed to be some anime character. Yamazaki was prostrating himself before a life-sized doll that was modeled after a girl in the upper years of elementary school.

Looking around, I saw that the metal tin where we kept our drugs was empty. Yamazaki had finished all the rest.

“Yes, I believe I did use the drugs! I experienced the greatest trip of this century. Yes! This time, I had a real epiphany. Indeed, Satou, I’ve seen the very structure of this world.” After rubbing his forehead at the feet of the doll, Yamazaki suddenly stood up and faced me.

“I just kept thinking and thinking, ‘what are we missing?’ There’s something missing from us. There’s a big hole in our chests, so I wanted something to fill that hole. I wanted something to make me content. That’s it. Yesterday, our religious observation reinforced my meditation on the subject. Everyone is uncertain. In this incomprehensible world, we want to be ordered around by someone else, and that’s why we made God. The dual antagonism between God and Satan explains the world more easily. You see? That strong, simple story! I honestly was affected!

“Unfortunately, that God isn’t suited for us because that God is incredibly frightening. As you can see from the illustrations in ‘Awaken!’—he is incredibly realistic and not at all cute.” Yamazaki picked up the pamphlet lying in the corner of the room and held it out to me.

“Please, look at the special feature for June, ‘Guardian Angels: They Are Always Protecting You.’ In their religion, angels look like this.” Yamazaki had opened to a page featuring a realistic illustration of a muscular man with wings on his back.

Yamazaki ripped the pamphlet into pieces. “I don’t need an angel like this!” he screamed. “What is he, some kind of bodybuilder? When you say ‘angel’, I think of something more, you know, beautiful and moe moe and loli loli…”

Many, many memories of erotic games where an angelic girl appeared as the heroine flashed through my mind.

“That’s right! Don’t you see, Satou? Now is the exact time for religious reform!”

I was still speechless.

“Our object of worship is this Ruriruri doll! And I am the founder of the sect!”

I gently tapped Yamazaki on the shoulder.

Shaking off my hand, Yamazaki continued ranting. “Those who believe will be saved! We must make something we ourselves can believe in order to bring meaning to our lives! And the meaning will be how we live on with our incredible new religion!”