Mitou Shoukan://Blood-Sign

“Some might say this is absolutely wrong and some might say it’s a grand farce.”

“But!! This has to be what everyone really wanted to do!!”

(Stage 04 Open 05/01 01:07)

Even If It Isn’t Right

From an undated voice recorder file:

My dad’s method must have been wrong.

By providing death and eliminating people, he worked to remove the dangerous elements and thus improve the world. But if he missed even a single person, he could no longer maintain the “proper history”. That single point would spread to the whole and the distortion of “history” would never end.

That is why you can’t build peace on a foundation of death.

Even if you do build that peace, it will not last.

We corrected that method.

Instead of accepting death, we will utterly reject it. By creating a world without death, people will lose the very reason for their conflict. Most human conflict is based on an unfulfilled need. And topping that list is the preservation of their own life.

The creation of a world without death will likely create a fair bit of chaos, but the people will soon realize they have no more reason to fight.

Luckily, we have all the tools needed to accomplish this. All that remains is to do it.

There is some fear of unwanted phenomena occurring as a side effect of creating a planet-wide Artificial Sacred Ground and placing all of mankind inside protective circles, but establishing the world without death comes first.

Once that is complete and all conflict has left the human world, I will finally have the right to inherit everything my dad left behind.

Killer Intent Antenna.

Telomere’s End.

That is when I will inherit those two names.

Then again, they might have lost all meaning by the time we have a world without death. In that case, they will only be a legacy I inherit from my father.

Fuuki-san.

She was a vessel for the previous generation as well, but she alone may still have value in the world without death.

“Oh, G.o.ddammit!!” shouted the modified China dress beauty named Lu Niang Lan.

She was in Aika’s apartment and they must have reached a break in the rain because she could not see any out the window. However, she could not see the starry sky either. Was that due to the thick rainclouds or Toy Dream 35’s Rainy Screen campaign?

The white liger must not have liked the moisture because she looked a little upset as she gave a large, large yawn.

Meanwhile, Shut-In Aika was more cheerful than she had been during the day (although it was hard to tell just by looking at her). She was busy leaning against the ferocious beast while watching a late-night variety show and posting complaints on a message board in real time. But as a summoner who was forgotten when not seen with the naked eye, no one would respond to any of her posts. Her information could not reach anyone without some help from someone below Award 100 who would not be forgotten by normal society. Even if she bought something online, the order would be forgotten if she did not use one of those people.

Lu Niang Lan switched her phone to speakerphone and called someone with the results of her investigation still on the screen.

She was calling Shiroyama Kyousuke.

“I found it, I found it. Hayato was a dead end and the incense registration list didn’t turn up anything, but I finally got a hit with the vessel named Benikomichi Fuuki. She’s registered as one of the vessels paired with a summoner called Illegal Award 910, Telomere’s End.”

“One of…the vessels?”

“Telomere’s End kept several vessel ‘candidates’ on hand. He would bind and cancel contracts over short periods of time to choose the right vessel for the job like a set of golf clubs. Benikomichi Fuuki was one of those. She’s been active since she was nine years old.”

She had been able to stand on the public stage as a high school student council president and blend into human society without anyone forgetting her because she had repeatedly cancelled and renewed her contract like that.

It may have been that history of risky usage that allowed her to do that without fearing the unknown side effects.

It was not that her body had built up a resistance to it. Her mind had.

“So the person trying to create this world without death is that Telomere’s End guy?”

“No, Telomere’s End is already dead,” dryly answered the modified China dress beauty. “After his death, his vessel candidates scattered. Some returned to normal lives and some bound new contracts with other summoners. In the end, none of the vessels stayed with Telomere’s End. …Except for one, that is.”

“And that was senpai…Benikomichi Fuuki? But she has a contract with a summoner other than Telomere’s End, doesn’t she?”

“What if that summoner was a memento of Telomere’s End?”

“…”

“Telomere’s End had brought together a small organization as a member of Illegal. And Illegal families focus on bonds of blood. It might sound odd for criminal organizations to care about familial love, but it’s far deeper and stronger than people think. You could call it an idiosyncrasy of Illegal. …Even if Telomere’s End himself didn’t want it, that would have had some effect.”

Yasuzumi Hayato was his heir from a physical and genetic perspective.

Benikomichi Fuuki was his heir from a psychological and technical perspective.

They were trying to follow in the footsteps of Telomere’s End by joining forces. That was the ident.i.ty of Shiroyama Kyousuke’s enemy.

“Our Awards are mainly dependent on the summoner rather than the vessel. That’s why I’m not Government Award 1000 and why your enemy is on par with Telomere’s End and yet has not inherited his name or Awards. A child does not inherit his parent’s Awards just because he is using the same vessel.”

“That would explain why someone so skilled isn’t in any of the records.” Kyousuke sounded annoyed. “And from what I’ve heard, I don’t think the summoner is in charge here. It’s probably senpai…the vessel who has seen both father and son who is leading the pair. She has given the son some special education to help him learn his father’s techniques.”

“That’s an unusual arrangement. When I was a vessel, I wore a collar and was kept in a cage.”

“I’m not sure how I should respond to that.”

“Feel free to get all fl.u.s.tered while you imagine it,” readily answered Lu Niang Lan. “I don’t mind if it’s you.”

That was something she had already dealt with.

Dealt with by personally killing the summoner behind it, that is.

“As the name Telomere’s End suggests, he was an a.s.sa.s.sin and he apparently really thought he could bring about peace if he killed everyone standing in its way. But based on what you’ve said, Kyousuke-chan, it sounds like his son is heading in the opposite direction.”

“When the one-man leader died, it may have cast a shadow over his ideals. That’s why they decided to take the other way. If they succeed, they’ve succeeded. And if they fail, it proves that his father was right all along.”

“By the way…there’s one thing I need to tell you about and then apologize for.”

“Just one?”

“ ‘Just one’? That’s not a very nice thing to say!! …Ahem. Remember when you helped me retrieve that attache case at A Block’s international airport?”

“Yeah. The one carrying a plan to defeat a certain country, right?”

“Right. …The thing is, that plan was a lot like this.”

“?”

“The method of destroying their a.s.sumed enemy nation was just like this deathless world. But instead of creating an indefinite state of immortality, the plan was to only create a temporarily deathless world. Once the nation’s system had collapsed, they would switch off the deathless part.”

It was simple enough to describe, but what it meant was truly nasty.

The targets themselves would thoroughly destroy the “kind system” that was necessary to preserve their normal lives and then their immortality would suddenly be s.n.a.t.c.hed away from them. What would happen then? They would no longer have the clothing, food, shelter, currency, electricity, gas, water, and everything else provided by that “kind system”, but a world of normal death would suddenly return.

Without what was needed to live, they would of course be unable to live.

Even if that meant one or two hundred million people, there would be no exceptions.

They would have destroyed themselves and driven themselves to death.

It would be ma.s.s suicide on a grand scale.

That “peaceful solution” was really a horribly cruel way of destroying a nation without firing a single bullet.

“So that’s why Yasuzumi Hayato and Benikomichi Fuuki showed up at that international airport. Had someone intercepted their plan and built it into their own plan or were they trying to prevent a coincidentally similar plan from getting out? Either way, they needed to steal that no matter what. That’s why they showed up and pretended to be our allies.”

“I’m glad I didn’t trust them,” commented Kyousuke.

“I know what you mean. It’s looking like those so-called Black Wings that occupied the airport may have actually been soldiers from the old Telomere’s End days. In that case, simply stealing the case during the first wave would have worked, but if that failed, they just had to slaughter their own soldiers to earn our trust and begin a summoning ceremony from close range.”

Lu Niang Lan traversed the world of the summoning ceremony with nothing more than her bare hands and hidden weapons, but not even she could escape the basic rules. Once she was closed in an Artificial Sacred Ground and her target was contained within a protective circle, none of her attacks would get through.

They might have been in trouble had that second wave tricked them.

“It’s the same method they used when blowing up the factory with their soldiers inside…”

“For advocating a world without death, they sure are quick to take people’s lives, enemy or ally. They’ll probably be the first to ‘starve’ if their plan does succeed.”

“By the way, what are the three major powers doing?”

“They’ll probably take action soon. A world without death sounds nice, but it will only bring harm to everyone. …However, these people planned for your interference from the beginning, so they’ll have put together their timetable on the a.s.sumption they were going to blow up their HQ. Their next move will be checkmate, so shouldn’t we a.s.sume this will all be over by the time those large organizations get going?”

“In that case, we’ll have to do this on our own.”

“Do you have any idea where their ignition will take place?”

“Yeah. There’s only one place it could be.”

Yasuzumi Hayato, the memento of a summoner known as Telomere’s End, looked up into the night sky during a brief break in the rain.

“Do you think they’ll be here?”

“I’m sure they will,” replied Benikomichi Fuuki, his vessel.

She had viewed Telomere’s End’s techniques from closer than anyone and had thoroughly trained this novice summoner in their true essence. She had not demanded it, but her training had been harsh enough that he had naturally started to call her “mistress”.

“First, they know I went through a special process and protected my social status to remain ‘here’. Second, they may have seen the Rainy Girl appear at the factory as well as ‘here’. There are small changes occurring around the world, but the Rainy Girl’s most noticeable actions are concentrated on this city. With those two facts, it should be obvious that the ghost has been appearing near crucial parts of our plan to leave behind some kind of message. He isn’t stupid enough to overlook that.”

“He should have died in the explosion.”

“That would have been best, of course. And it is logically correct. But didn’t I teach you that you will occasionally run across apparent violations of probability – that is, miraculous despair – in actual combat?”

They stood in Toy Dream 35’s R Block.

They were on the roof of the high school were Benikomichi Fuuki served as student council president.

As soon as Shiroyama Kyousuke knew she was his enemy, he would wonder why she had gone to the effort of canceling and renewing her contract as a vessel just to preserve her social standing here.

Unless he sentimentally concluded she had wanted to enjoy her peaceful high school life, he would have predicted that she was modifying the high school as a cornerstone of her plan.

“How is the weather map looking?” asked Benikomichi Fuuki.

“I’m only using a civilian service, but it looks good. The effects are starting to show themselves. The rainclouds are taking a shape that completely ignores the arrangement of wind and atmospheric pressure. The Northern Hemisphere itself is clearly transforming into a giant pattern.”

“In other words, that will give away where the center is. And if it’s that obvious with a civilian service, everyone in the world will know. This creates a third concern. We have two options: complete the ignition before any pursuers arrive…”

She heard a creaking noise.

It was the sound of a steel door opening and closing.

Two more people stepped out onto the late night rooftop.

“Or mow everything down to buy the time we need. Right, Shiroyama Boy?”

The two summoner pairs faced each other.

Shiroyama Kyousuke and the Librarian.

Yasuzumi Hayato and the Student Council President.

They were beginning the final battle over the deathless world a ghost had revealed.

When Kyousuke arrived on the roof, his opponents were standing in the rainy night without an umbrella.

They were a little more than twenty meters away.

The summoner known as Alice (with) Rabbit did not ask his opponents why they were doing this and he did not try to talk them out of it. He would stop them no matter what their reason was and he would use any means necessary to do so. His silence was a sign of that resolve.

But he did recall some small things:

———The student council president who had apologized for making him take part in the useless crime prevention training.

———The girl who had innocently stolen the pork from his bowl in the cafeteria.

———Benikomichi Fuuki who had helped him study to fend off boredom after school.

The memories rose to the surface.

But then he sealed them away as if to part ways with those peaceful days. Instead, he made a demand.

“Name yourself.”

This was an issue of definitions.

He had been speaking to Yasuzumi Hayato, but the summoner said nothing and looked over to his vessel.

Benikomichi Fuuki answered on her own without checking with the summoner behind her.

“We are Illegal Award 910, Telomere’s End.”

“…”

Shiroyama Kyousuke narrowed his eyes ever-so-slightly.

That quick exchange had revealed the general outline of some things: the balance of power between his two enemies, this plan led by the vessel, what supported the vessel’s heart, and what desire had led them in this direction.

So to sum it all up, Kyousuke spoke a simple phrase with Librarian-chan to his side.

“There’s no saving you.”

A moment later, an Incense Grenade burst at Hayato’s feet.

An Artificial Sacred Ground expanded from there.

The summoning battle had begun.

The Rose made up of 216 Petals appeared. Kyousuke pulled a serpentine Blood-Sign from his back and Hayato pulled a three-sectioned staff of a Blood-Sign from his back. They both became long sticks. They forcefully sent out one of the White Thorns that had appeared. Both White Thorns pierced the Rose at about the same time and it broke into scattering Petals. Countless Spots appeared within the Artificial Sacred Ground and the Petals were absorbed by them.

Librarian-chan and Benikomichi Fuuki’s bodies transformed as if spiraling around.

Kyousuke had the Original Green (k). Cost: 1. Sound Range: Middle.

Hayato had the Original Red (b). Cost: 1. Sound Range: Low.

They were both three meter, seven hundred kilogram ma.s.ses of goo and the only difference was the color, but Kyousuke had the upper hand in the sound range.

But Hayato did not quickly build up his Material to change to a different sound range.

As Kyousuke continued to aim for the Petals floating in the air, the a.s.sa.s.sin gave a yell.

“Fuuki-san!! Destroy the roo-…”

“Like we’ll let you!! Librarian-chan!!”

Kyousuke loudly cut him off.

A dull sound rang out. As Benikomichi Fuuki tried to smash the concrete below them in her Original Red form, Librarian-chan used her own Original Green body as a shield.

Kyousuke had the upper hand in the sound range, so she could take a few hits without worrying about a fatal blow.

In the blank moment created by the failed attempt to destroy their footing, Kyousuke used his Blood-Sign to forcefully hit a White Thorn.

He moved onto the next step.

By gaining an advantage in sound range and cost, he could crush his opponent before they even left the weakest Cost 1 range.

But Hayato gave a shout even though he had to know that.

“Did you think you could get in our way forever!?”

The red goo took the form of a giant fist and repeatedly attacked the rooftop.

Librarian-chan moved quickly, but she could not help but let a few hits through which sent disconcerting cracks through the concrete. The limit arrived in no time. With a dull breaking sound, Kyousuke’s entire vision dropped down as if he had fallen into an enormous pitfall.

He knew what Yasuzumi Hayato had to be thinking.

They would fall into a cla.s.sroom or hallway. Either way, it was a limited indoor field that would allow him to fight while switching from one foothold to another. By using the floor, the walls, the ceiling, the blackboards, the desks, and the lockers, he could switch between footholds every few seconds to send the artificial gravity every which way and toss Shiroyama Kyousuke around. He could overwhelm his opponent by building up his own Material without giving his opponent a chance to use his Blood-Sign.

But Kyousuke did not just sit idly by.

With a tremendous sound, he pressed his feet against the crumbling rooftop and charged forward like a bullet.

His target was Yasuzumi Hayato himself.

Their protective circles collided, creating an almost metallic clang. The two summoners were distanced from anything that would bring death, so this would of course not defeat him.

But Yasuzumi Hayato’s body still floated up somewhat.

“…?”

“Librarian-chan!! Hit me!!”

The response was swift.

An otherworldly monster mercilessly beat Shiroyama Kyousuke’s protective circle from behind. This provided far more power than before, so it almost looked like the physics experiment using metal b.a.l.l.s hanging from strings.

All of the monster’s kinetic energy was transferred from Kyousuke to Hayato.

Kyousuke’s position remained almost unchanged while Hayato shot horizontally when he had been falling straight down before.

“Wha-…!?”

He was thrown far from his expected landing point. Instead of the cla.s.sroom directly below, he was thrown to a long hallway.

A new Artificial Sacred Ground appeared and the remaining Petals were swept over to it.

It must have felt like intentionally jumping into a pitfall only to find there was a second pitfall at the bottom. Hayato frantically corrected the position of his legs, but that slowed him down and worked against his plan.

“…”

Meanwhile, Kyousuke was using his Blood-Sign. He used his White Thorns to accurately target the Petals bouncing freely around the limited miniature world.

His Material was already the Ramming Fish (n h – c b).

Cost: 4. Sound Range: Low. It was a giant fish that swam freely through the dark night and had a single sword-like horn.

Yasuzumi Hayato must have sensed that sticking with the weakest Original Red would be dangerous, so he finally started hitting out his own White Thorns.

“Fuuki-san!!”

The student council president transformed from the red goo into a man-eating flower that crawled around with tentacle-like roots. Unsurprisingly, she smashed the hallway floor.

Their footing vanished once more.

Hayato set his sights on the inside of the outer wall. The new artificial gravity would swing Shiroyama Kyousuke around by 360 degrees. But then Hayato saw something unbelievable.

Before the artificial gravity had even changed, the soles of Kyousuke’s shoes were already planted on the wall.

He was running along the wall.

Using the same principle that kept water in a bucket as it is was swung around, it was possible to walk two or three steps on a vertical wall with enough of a starting run and centrifugal force. But that was only if one was prepared to fall back down and possibly break an arm if they messed up the landing.

However, Kyousuke did not need to worry about landing.

After all, the footing had already been destroyed and Hayato was on the move. The enemy a.s.sa.s.sin could not stop now.

Before Shiroyama Kyousuke’s body could be dragged back down by gravity, the new footing was set.

That meant he did not fall.

The battle continued on this new footing.

Meanwhile, even if Hayato had set this up, he still had to use his knees as springs to cancel the momentum of his own weight. He was delayed a bit when compared to Kyousuke who had been attached to the wall before it even became the new footing.

Hayato should have been the one swinging his opponent around, but his own plan was beginning to strangle him.

“You…!?”

“What? You don’t have anything else up your sleeve?”

Shiroyama Kyousuke simply smiled as he precisely held up his Blood-Sign.

He seemed to be proving again who the master of this field was.

Benikomichi Fuuki felt a strange emotion rising from within her heart.

She had transformed into the Feasting Flower (l v z – j). All Materials were filled with violent and belligerent thoughts, but this was something else.

Yasuzumi Hayato, her partner and summoner, stood on the hallway wall as he fought Shiroyama Kyousuke.

As Fuuki received his support in her man-eating flower form, she clashed with Kyousuke’s Material, a giant single-horned fish.

To be blunt, things were not going well.

They had supposedly inputted the optimal values and made the optimal calculations, but they had not received the optimal answer.

Hayato’s side had set all of this up, but for some reason Kyousuke’s side always seemed to have the upper hand.

It felt like handing their spare ammunition to the enemy and being shot by those very bullets.

However…

The emotion rising from within the transformed girl was joy.

She gave no thought to the fact that her thoughts might be reaching her partner.

As Yasuzumi Hayato stood vertically in the hallway, he gave her a quick confused glance.

Yes, she was rejoicing as they were being cornered.

She was delighting in the existence of someone who could push them to the limit like this.

It felt like remembering the distant past.

It was like finding the same atmosphere as when she had joined hands with a veteran a.s.sa.s.sin and lived a life of constantly being pushed to the limit.

She had taken on the unnecessary risk of side effects to hide that she was a vessel and thus avoid unnecessary battles with other summoners, but there had been no real reason to become student council president. She could have lived the life of an inconspicuous and obedient student.

Had she done so regardless because she had wanted to try walking a path besides that of the dead summoner’s teachings?

She had lived up to everyone’s expectations, stood before everyone, and aimed for something beyond them all.

But it had not been enough.

No matter how much she succeeded as a human, that summoner’s shadow never vanished. The traces of that man had become a part of the girl named Benikomichi Fuuki.

To the point that she was willing to use his “memento” of a son to immerse herself in those memories.

Kyousuke had said there was no saving her.

He must have seen through it all in that quick exchange.

And Yasuzumi Hayato had likely seen it too.

As the man-eating flower’s fangs clashed with the giant fish’s horn, Benikomichi Fuuki mocked it all.

The vessel’s feelings were not directed toward the summoner.

To her, there was only one person superior to her.

In fact, she felt fonder of the formidable foe who had reminded her of those days.

Yasuzumi Hayato was considered a failure after scoring a perfect 100, so there was no reward for him here. And Benikomichi Fuuki was an extraordinarily cruel girl for forcing that onto him so readily.

Blood and knowledge.

Genes and techniques.

The a.s.sa.s.sin summoner boy was trapped between both of those, but he had created a place for himself in the slight gap between and he called out a girl’s name from the bottom of his gut. He awaited instructions like a machine.

“Fuuki-sa-…!!”

But the poor boy was cut off. He seemed to realize something that frightened him. His mouth…no, his entire body came to a stop.

The summoner looked to his feet.

He stood on the school’s outer wall, so the entire surface was made of gla.s.s. There was no need to have the Material break it. If he stomped his foot, he could break it himself. And that transparent footing led to a never-ending expanse. There was nothing horizontal of here. If this broke, he would seriously continue falling for hundreds of meters…no, perhaps even for kilometers.

His life would not be in danger as long as the protective circle lasted, but since he could not predict what high-rise building would become his next footing, that would not improve his situation. Doing that would mean throwing out all his calculations and gambling with his life and future. No plan could be more foolish.

And yet…

Benikomichi Fuuki shouted at him as if pushing a doll forward.

The Material ignored the summoner and started on its next attack.

But before it could…

“Librarian-chan.”

A voice even colder than the a.s.sa.s.sin’s reached their ears.

The Devouring Wings. Cost: 5. Sound Range: Middle. The monster that reacted to Kyousuke’s words was not so much a bird as it was a giant stingray and it had rows of human teeth.

It happened in an instant.

“Do it.”

The monster did not hesitate to break the gla.s.s earth below their feet.

Fuuki and Hayato were both overcome by the falling sensation that felt like a weight in the stomach. Dumbfounded, they looked to the enemy summoner. Had he made a desperate gamble because he had no chance of winning? That (from Hayato’s perspective) optimistic idea came to mind, but he would soon realize he was wrong.

There was no surprise on Kyousuke’s face.

This was the territory of the true Telomere’s End.

Yasuzumi Hayato was nothing but his memento, so he could never reach this point.

“Oh, ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!”

The summoner could no longer speak.

But he did have a direct mental link to the vessel he fought alongside.

Benikomichi Fuuki realized what the a.s.sa.s.sin intended to do, so she collided with Hayato from the side as a burning metal ball of a Material. That bent his fall by a right angle, so he flew like an artillery sh.e.l.l and stabbed into the outer wall of the gym built next to the school.

He had avoided the thousand meter fall and set the gym’s outer wall as their new footing.

Shiroyama Kyousuke followed, as if being dragged over by the wall of the newly created Artificial Sacred Ground. So did the group of red Petals. Kyousuke landed on the gym wall with the force of a meteor.

No.

With a great roar, the protective circle around him mercilessly broke through the wall.

Hayato and everyone else were thrown horizontally into the dark gym. They landed on the opposite wall and the Petals rained down like a red meteor shower.

As a burning metal ball, Fuuki clicked her tongue at Hayato’s wide-eyed look.

But Hayato had good reason to be concerned.

The Artificial Sacred Ground only lasted for ten minutes, so he would not be thrown beyond the solar system. But it was obvious what would happen to a flesh-and-blood human if the effects wore off during a horizontal fall.

Fuuki knew that, but she still worked to motivate him.

And Shiroyama Kyousuke did not hesitate.

“Librarian-chan.”

“Dammit!!!!!!”

When he heard that, Yasuzumi Hayato ran full speed along the gym wall. He ran toward the floor. At the same time, he instructed Benikomichi Fuuki to drop down from “above” to destroy their footing.

The burning metal ball crashed down and achieved the desired destruction.

Hayato had arrived at the right angle connection between wall and floor and he stepped onto the floor the instant the footing crumbled.

He had finally escaped the hopeless threat of being thrown out into empty air, so he breathed a small sigh of relief.

But…

“Now, then.”

“

Kyousuke lightly spun his Blood-Sign around.

His previous method would no longer work, but Alice (with) Rabbit did not look concerned.

“This is a large floor with no walls or ceilings in reach. …You can no longer use that artificial gravity tactic you love so much.”

“…!?”

“And if you can’t use your interference tactics, this comes down to pure skill as a summoner. You are no longer much of a threat. If all we’re doing is. .h.i.tting our White Thorns, I have the upper hand. Or am I wrong?>

“Ha…ha ha.”

Yasuzumi Hayato raised his Blood-Sign and looked around the dark gym.

There were large holes on both side walls and the ceiling was too far away. The polished wooden floor was the only surface. There really was nothing he could do. There was nothing left with which to create his next footing.

However…

“Hah. Have you forgotten, Alice (with) Rabbit?”

“…”

“This isn’t a normal school. It’s a midair float supported by dozens of pillars! And that means!! There’s plenty of free s.p.a.ce down below!!”

With those words, the burning metal ball that Benikomichi Fuuki had become dropped down from above.

It was a lot like a lightning strike.

The world split. It went beyond the waxed wooden floor breaking. The foundation of the building and the entire artificial surface of the midair float split, broke, scattered, and crumbled.

Below them was a drop of twenty to thirty meters, several large bridges, and the many thick pillars that supported the midair float. The Rainy Screen that projected images onto the falling raindrops was mainly meant to be viewed from indoors, so there were not many people outside, especially on these bridges with their view of the night sky blocked by the midair float. There was no sign of anyone on those bridges.

They could use any of those and land on any of them.

They had recovered.

Hayato could continue at his own pace now. He would make a complete comeback. It would all be over when he landed on his next footing.

But what happened next betrayed his expectations.

“Librarian-chan.”

It happened as soon as Shiroyama Kyousuke said that.

The Spear that Pursues Fresh Blood (bih – ei – dp – tq). Cost: 9. Sound Range: Low. A flying spear over five meters long moved in the span of a breath.

With a deafening noise, the Material stabbed through the bridge Hayato was trying to land on. The bridge broke in two and Hayato nearly lost his balance in midair after preparing his legs like springs. And Kyousuke’s Material did not stop there. It smashed through bridge after bridge.

With all of his possible footholds gone, Hayato was sucked into the deep darkness beyond.

“The…ocean!?”

The sound of the splitting water stabbed into Yasuzumi Hayato’s ears.

The ocean surface was not recognized as the Artificial Sacred Ground’s next footing.

Without the Artificial Sacred Ground, the Petals were not dragged to him and there was nothing around him.

The a.s.sa.s.sin was simply shocked at first, but then he realized where the next footing would be. If he continued to sink…

Fuuki could see the two summoners sinking.

The protective circles kept them safe from all external and internal forms of death during the ceremony, so none of the seawater made it inside those circles.

However, that also meant their arms and legs could not reach the water. That in turn meant they could not swim and thus they could only continue to sink. Also, the protective circle apparently did not function like a float despite the air inside them.

They could reach the water with their long Blood-Signs, but it would be difficult to lift a human’s weight to the surface like that.

And on top of that, Shiroyama Kyousuke mercilessly dropped down on Yasuzumi Hayato while they were both contained within protective circles. This did no damage, but Kyousuke’s weight could not be ignored.

Both their weights together invited them to the cold and dark ocean depths.

When Fuuki prepared to help, Kyousuke’s Material glared at her.

She had the inferior cost.

Not only would she be held back, but she could easily be defeated.

“Do you…do you have any idea what you’ve done, Alice (with) Rabbit!?”

“Yes, I believe the ocean here is about thirty meters deep. That won’t be a problem while the protective circles are active, but after the ten minute time limit, the water pressure will rush in at us. …Things might be different if you slowly dove down like a normal diver, but even thirty meters is enough to knock you out from shock if it arrives as suddenly as throwing a switch.”

And if Hayato pa.s.sed out in the water, it was obvious what fate awaited him.

He would lose the right to struggle and would drown without putting up a fight.

“But…then…the same thing will happen to you!!”

“…”

“Or…do you have a way out? No, there isn’t one. You don’t have an oxygen tank on you. And even if you did, that wouldn’t help with the water pressure squeezing at your blood vessels and organs. Then…!?”

“You tossed me around a lot with that artificial gravity.”

Kyousuke showed no sign of fear as he sunk toward the ocean bottom like he had been thrown off the pier at night with a concrete block in his arms.

“That was probably around 4 or 4.5 Gs. A roller coaster can recreate that, so the protective circle won’t cut it off. But if you combine that with a special way of breathing, you can adjust the oxygen level in your blood without visiting a specialized hyperbaric chamber.”

“………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………”

“Unlike you, I’ve already prepared for a high pressure environment. …Do I really need to tell you anything more?”

“O-oh, owaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!?”

Yasuzumi Hayato swung his Blood-Sign like crazy to hit his White Thorns, but his hands came to a stop. But this was not just because he was not used to fighting underwater.

When he destroyed his footing and set up a new Artificial Sacred Ground, the Spots would appear based on that new Artificial Sacred Ground.

That meant the Spots would not appear until that new Artificial Sacred Ground had been set. Nor would the remaining Petals slide this way. In other words, he could not interfere with his Material even with the White Thorns he had.

There was nothing he could do.

Benikomichi Fuuki was still trying to grasp, crush, and kill Kyousuke’s Material. The giant spear was fighting the burning metal ball, but Kyousuke’s had the upper hand in pure cost and in the sound range. Plus, Fuuki never had a chance without him constantly moving from footing to footing to throw off their opponent’s pace.

No help was coming.

He could not float back up to the surface.

The chain of death was attached to Yasuzumi Hayato’s feet and it dragged him down to the watery depths thirty meters below.

Then the new Artificial Sacred Ground appeared and the artificial gravity chained him here.

As if to prove his life was bound here, the petals rained down from above and the new Spots opened wide.

With that, Yasuzumi Hayato’s chances of victory were extinguished.

If he lost, his protective circle would vanish, the water pressure would crush him, and he would lose consciousness. Even if he won, how far could he reach in just ninety seconds? At A Block’s international airport, he had used the Divine-cla.s.s Leviathan to drag a submarine high overhead, but that was because he had had room to send the Material below the target.

Plus, the protective circle would repel the summoner (meaning the Material could only contact him for an instant), so the Material could not interfere with the summoner’s body for very long. To put it simply, it was very difficult for the Material to grab the summoner in a giant hand, place him on its back, and carry him around. It differed on a case-by-case basis, but the summoner tended to slip away like an eel or wet bar of soap.

In the end, Hayato could not use that method unless he could swim up under his own power to create some s.p.a.ce below him. Unlike with the school building, he would need to build up his Material quite a bit to smash ten meters of the hard bedrock, but it was unlikely he could reach that point after focusing so much on interference tactics.

But then the a.s.sa.s.sin’s heart leaped in his chest.

The directionless voice that reached his head or chest breathed new life into him.

“…”

Strength returned to his hands as he held the Blood-Sign.

Fuuki could tell even from a distance.

But first…

Something broke.

Did Fuuki really understand what had caused it?

On the ocean bottom far below, Hayato let go of his Blood-Sign and blankly stared upward.

They were only a few dozen seconds away from the time limit.

But that would be enough time for Kyousuke’s Material to wear down and kill the burning metal ball Fuuki had become.

She felt fear.

But even greater was the joy of battle that filled the student council president’s mind.

Was it the lack of this that kept Hayato from reaching that golden age? Was it the presence of this that kept Fuuki from forgetting that golden age?

Yes, she could not forget it.

Fuuki smiled at that fact, as a ferocious form charged toward her.

What was the true desire swirling deep inside her heart?

But even if Fuuki had betrayed Hayato, she could not have simply stabbed him in the back.

She had needed to put everything into the planning and execution yet have it foiled by some other summoner. That had been the only way to establish an official ranking that included Telomere’s End.

That had been the only way to prove his superiority.

Her thoughts were only linked to Yasuzumi Hayato, so they would not reach Shiroyama Kyousuke.

But she did not care.

Benikomichi Fuuki shouted her thoughts as the innocently cruel girl who was Telomere’s End’s vessel.

She had not cared about the memento.

The world without death had not mattered.

There was just one thing that girl had wanted: placing that man’s deeds in an eternal hall of fame and protecting that ultimate record to ensure no one could trample on it.

She had simply wanted to prove that Telomere’s End’s methods had been correct and that any other methods would only bring pain.

Even if it was his relative or son, she could not allow anyone to disturb that sanctuary.

Even if it was meant to challenge him.

She had achieved her goal.

The vessel named Benikomichi Fuuki thought of the summoner she had once stood beside.

She pictured the face of that man who had been too distant to call it love but too close to call it respect.

The time limit became entirely moot.

The giant spear pierced through the burning metal ball. And with the Material’s defeat, the protective circle on the ocean bottom burst.

Benikomichi Fuuki and Yasuzumi Hayato.

That moment determined their defeat.

Even though Kyousuke had prepared himself for a high pressure environment, there was only so much he could do on the fly. However, he could not float while inside the protective circle. As soon as the battle ended, he discarded the Chain time, returning Librarian-chan to her human form and removing the circle that prevented him from swimming. His vision immediately shook.

He just barely remained conscious.

That was the most his safety measure had bought him.

“…”

He clenched his teeth and grabbed the arm of the a.s.sa.s.sin floating at the bottom of the ocean. The boy did not put up any kind of resistance. When a summoner or vessel lost, they entered a state of mental shock similar to seeing the G.o.d they worshipped slaughtered before their eyes and that state would continue for more than twenty-four hours. They became puppets that did anything they were told, but he would definitely drown if left like this.

Kyousuke swam toward the surface.

Librarian-chan was a slender girl again and she was already swimming up as well. He had instructed her to keep the fight on the upper edge of the Artificial Sacred Ground. More accurately, he had told her to keep the lower position so she could drive Student Council President Benikomichi Fuuki ever higher and keep her at the ceiling of the Artificial Sacred Ground.

Artificial Sacred Grounds were twenty meter cubes by default, so at a depth of thirty meters, the top would be about ten meters deep. That was shallow enough to keep the water pressure from crushing her.

Librarian-chan grabbed Benikomichi Fuuki’s arm because the girl was still suffering from the water pressure (and had become a zombie in the original sense of the word after the shock of losing).

Kyousuke swam after them, but a dull pain ran through his head. He felt nauseous, like a magnified version of carsickness.

(Dammit… I have a light case of decompression sickness…)

A rapid change from low to high pressure was a problem, but the opposite was also a problem. The nitrogen in the blood would form bubbles that could cause headaches, nausea, internal bleeding, etc. The symptoms were known as decompression sickness or the bends.

However, he could not stay underwater forever.

He clenched his teeth and forced down the urge to vomit as he stuck his head out from the water.

If he had been about twenty meters deeper, the symptoms would have been more severe and may have killed him.

“Bwah!!”

“Wait, Shiroyama-kun, what is that!? Your eyes are all bloodshot and they’re shedding b.l.o.o.d.y tears…”

“I’m lucky that’s all it is. More importantly, let’s find somewhere to get out of the water. We can’t float forever with this baggage weighing us down. And it’ll probably get more troublesome once they come to.”

To make sure the dazed summoner and vessel did not drown, Kyousuke and Librarian-chan placed them on their backs and supported them from below as they swam. They felt like otters, but they finally arrived at one of the pillars holding up the high school’s midair float and climbed up using the staircase wrapping around it like ivy.

Librarian-chan looked up while carrying the student council president on her back.

“W-we really messed up our school, didn’t we?”

“Maybe we should be glad you’ve calmed down enough to be worried about that,” spat out Kyousuke.

That summoner and vessel pair had their origins in the summoner known as Telomere’s End.

They had planned to create a world without death.

That had all been stopped now that no one remained to complete the final ignition. The world built on the hatred and acceptance of human death would not be destroyed overnight.

It was all over.

For the time being, anyway.

The school building’s roof had collapsed, the gym had been smashed flat, and the midair float supporting them had broken apart and fallen into the sea. The collapse had reached the school building which was shaped like three sides of a square, so around half of the building had been lost.

Most of what remained was the empty schoolyard.

“Phew…”

When they arrived at the partially-collapsed schoolyard, Kyousuke and Librarian-chan set down the a.s.sa.s.sins who were now dazed dolls. Kyousuke confiscated their Blood-Sign and Incense Grenades before tying their hands behind their backs.

Once they were bound, he pulled out his smartphone.

“Aika, how is the weather map looking?”

“The unnatural currents that ignore the wind direction and pressure changes are beginning to fall apart. At this rate, their ‘circle’ will be gone in a half hour or so.”

“Is there anything else we need to destroy?”

“Government personnel were sent to that factory in the name of an inspection. Based on the doc.u.ments they found in the rubble, the special materials in the atmosphere will not last long-term without the ignition, so they will break apart on their own.”

In that case, time would solve the rest.

Kyousuke said goodbye and hung up.

And then…

A harsh look came over his eyes when a girl’s voice cut in.

He looked over and saw a new figure on the crumbling schoolyard. The Queen with silver twintails and a white dress seemed enveloped by pale glowing particles. That peak of the Unexplored-cla.s.s was known as the strongest of the strong. She smiled as she used the Rainy Screen to appear in the extended rain and used directional speakers to speak.

“Why are you here?”

The White Queen pointed up toward the night sky from which the rain fell.

“Really?”

“That’s really the only reason?”

The world without death had been stopped and the mysterious things caused by the masterminds would be gone by the following day.

But then someone else came to Librarian-chan’s mind.

She could never remember what that person looked like no matter how hard she tried.

They should have been closer to her than anyone.

The rainy image of the Queen briefly blurred.

Rubber rain boots could be heard on the wet ground.

A small girl hid her face behind a broken umbrella and her raincoat was dyed red.

“Onee…-chan?”

The Rainy Girl did not reply to Librarian-chan’s trembling voice.

No, it was just that she did not speak out loud. Her small lips may have been moving below the umbrella, but her posture kept the broken umbrella in the way and Librarian-chan could not follow those movements.

She too would disappear.

A paranormal system had twisted causality and allowed the impossible to appear, but that would collapse with time. Once that happened, the Rainy Girl could no longer appear. The same was true of the White Queen who was supported by the Rainy Screen. Once the rain let up, they would return to their proper places. No one could stop it. Even if they tried to stop it by force, it would create a great distortion just like Yasuzumi Hayato and Benikomichi Fuuki had.

“…”

For a while, Librarian-chan and the Rainy Girl faced each other.

Only Librarian-chan knew what thoughts filled her heart then.

No matter what anyone said, that was her sister. At the same time, no matter what explanation she was given, she could not rid herself of the deep-rooted fear she felt.

Even so, she finally spoke.

“This is…for the best.”

She was not just talking about now. Her voice seemed to restart the time that had been stalled ever since a certain tragedy had thrown a certain family into despair.

“I mean, it would be wrong to leave you wandering in the rain forever. It isn’t right for everyone to treat you like a strange monster. So we need to end this here. I don’t know if there’s an afterlife or if we’re reborn, but there must be some place you’re meant to go. So…”

The Alice (with) Rabbit boy briefly thought of a certain pair of twins.

But there were as many different endings as there were people. Without saying another word, Kyousuke handed Librarian-chan a single Incense Grenade. He then held her small hand in his own. He aimed it toward the target while it was in the vessel’s hand.

This was not the kind of distortion that Hayato and Benikomichi Fuuki had created. This would create a true Artificial Sacred Ground. The clog would be removed and the ghost that was unnaturally caught here would be swept away to “somewhere else”.

It was a tool to a.s.sist a wandering soul.

“…”

Librarian-chan had said this was for the best, but her face crumpled up and she fell silent when she felt the actual weight in her hand. But the summoner had concluded she would regret it later if she just let it happen and had Kyousuke do it for her.

The Rainy Girl said nothing.

The broken umbrella spun around with its bearer in the center. Unlike her thorough silence, the small movement seemed to reveal a slight will. And that will relaxed the tense atmosphere.

This would end it.

More accurately, it would accept that this life had already ended.

The rain let up just a little. A break might open in the clouds and the rain might stop entirely. If that happened, the Rainy Girl would disappear. She might never appear again.

So Librarian-chan decided to place her finger through the pin along with Kyousuke’s finger, pull it out, and see it through to the end.

However, something interfered.

“Uuh…”

She heard an odd sound.

No, it may have been a voice.

“Uuh…ohhh…”

The terribly distorted voice seemed to be coming from a broken audio system, so she could not tell what it was saying.

But at the very least, it was not coming from the Rainy Girl. That ghost could not produce her own voice as a sound.

However, it was not Shiroyama Kyousuke, Librarian-chan, or the White Queen either.

Then who was it?

Something happened as soon as they all turned toward the sound.

“Ohhhhh, aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!! Notice us alreadyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!”

There was an explosive sound much like bluish-white sparks scattering.

Static ran through the White Queen’s image.

The raindrops that should have all fallen in the same direction had their paths bent in every direction by the noise.

And with that explosion, the producer of the voice appeared as if through a split in s.p.a.ce itself.

It was a pair of twin shrine maidens with long blonde and black hair.

Kyousuke spoke in confusion.

“Meinokawa Renge and Higan?”

“Ohh… So we finally made it to this side. I don’t know what layer we were on, but when our presence is observed strongly enough by the people of any of those worlds, we’re pulled toward them. It’s scary how those fields overlap.”

“Eek!? W-wait a second. Is that the, um, White Queen smiling over there?”

Librarian-chan could not keep up and her mouth flapped open and closed.

“What are these layers you’re talking about? A-and where did you come from?”

“Hm? Who are you? Well, that doesn’t matter.

The black-haired shrine maiden, Renge, casually ignored Librarian-chan’s questions.

“We were investigating some mysterious disappearances in Toy Dream 35 and – while I’m not sure this is the best way to put it – we fell victim to it ourselves. Well, it was something like that girl with the umbrella over there.”

“……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………What?”

Layers.

Mysterious disappearances.

When their presence was observed strongly enough by the people of any of those worlds, they were pulled toward them.

Nothing Meinokawa Renge mentioned seemed to fit with the a.s.sumptions Kyousuke and Librarian-chan were working from. After all, the “girl with the umbrella” she had mentioned was Librarian-chan’s ghost who had been killed years before.

But.

What if it was those a.s.sumptions that were wrong?

“W-wait! What do you mean mysterious disappearances? That isn’t what happened to my sister. If she had just gone missing, there would have been some hope left!! She really was killed, there was no hope at all, and that’s why she’s appearing to me as a ghost now!!”

“Did she look like a ghost to you because she was suddenly appearance and disappearing? But that’s just a normal girl. And she isn’t causing this. We don’t understand it all ourselves, but we do know something since we ‘lost our way’ too. …The issue is with the world, not the people. I thought Higan was a ghost at first too.”

This was not over.

They did not understand it all.

If the Meinokawa Sisters had appeared out of thin air, there had to be a reason for it. Those living girls had mysteriously disappeared somewhere and had now returned. That much made sense, but the Rainy Girl was different. She had to be different. After all, she had already died several years before.

And yet.

And yet!

And yet!!!!!!

Only the White Queen was laughing.

And she had more to say.

Shiroyama Kyousuke felt like the blood was boiling in his head.

The current situation and the basic a.s.sumptions vanished from his mind and he tried to grab at the illusion in the rain.

“Queen!!!!!”

The Queen gave him the look of a playful kitten.

“Then what was this…? No, wait. Don’t tell me…!!”

“So you knew from the beginning…?”

There was blatant enjoyment in the White Queen’s voice.

Kyousuke knew he could not reach her, but he still yelled at her.

“You knew and you kept giving me unneeded hints to distract me!! You knew every moment I spent on stopping that world without death was wasting the time limit of another girl’s life! What’s going to happen to this girl who is unnaturally living here? What happens once time runs out!