novelVolume 5, Stage 01 - Named Summoners, the 15 Children (2)
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Volume 5, Stage 01: Named Summoners, the 15 Children (2)
He shook his head and made an honest confession.
"I'm a sucker for that kind of thing."
"Hah hah!! That's fine! Only you could decide so quickly to do something as twisted as trying to kill your savior in order to obey that savior's request! You really are the best. It's like the faces of our clocks are a mess of a marble pattern, but we still somehow manage to show up right at the arranged time."
He had said Kyousuke could choose when, but Kyousuke could not be optimistic about this.
It felt like surviving beyond the time his doctor said he had to live.
"See ya, Kyousuke."
No one could guarantee how long his future would last.
It had already been determined that his life would be cut off by a cliff at some point.
"I look forward to it."
He was Rank #1.
History's greatest madman winked and everyone's train switched over to the track leading to hell.
Each of the adults in charge of the 15 children tried to interfere with their specimens using a unique social system as a basis.
It could be a school, a hospital, an army, a prison, etc.
The Hatter was inside what looked like a giant die.
It was a perfect cube with each side at precisely 15 meters. The walls, floor, and ceiling were all perfectly white and the lights shined in through a glass material, so the light fixtures were not directly visible. The door was made like a yosegi box, so not even the slightest crack remained when closed. It also had no knob for opening on the inside, so it would be easy to lose sight of the exit if one was not paying attention.
The highly unnatural scene worked to destroy the concepts of front and back, left and right, and even up and down.
It was like a studio set meant for composite video or like a room from an old mental hospital.
It was truly an exception among exceptions.
The Miniature Garden was meant to allow minds to grow in a social system. This place focused on that intent and yet swept it all away. It was a bizarre space created from the entirely unethical idea of wondering what happened when all that was taken away.
A brown-skinned boy stood in the center: Alberto S. Divinesmith.
He held something under one arm like a helmet. It was a device befitting the Mad Hatter.
The voice of the adults reached him from somewhere...or rather, from the vibration of the entire space.
"Now, let us begin, Alberto."
A simple headset would have been enough, but they went out of their way to carry the physical voice in from another distant room. It was known as a speaking tube. It used the same idea as a stethoscope and carried the vibrations of the voice through a metal tube.
"Once you put on the Silk Hat, we will begin the experiment at our discretion. As usual, we will not be telling you when that is."
"Sure."
It had a pearly glow like a thick alloy diving suit. It had the silhouette of a bowler hat, but it was actually a fancy blindfold meant to fully cover his head and cut off most of his senses.
The Silk Hat had a large glass lens on the front and an earhole on either side. Once he put it on, everything looked small and distant, like he was looking through a telescope backwards.
But that was not the point of the hat.
Springs and gears were used to periodically seal off his eyes and ears.
The "window" might open just once every three seconds, so the subject would need to desperately memorize the scene and then move based on the memories burned into their mind like a photograph.
Meanwhile, the hands of the clock continued moving in the real world.
The subject would correct their movements each time the window opened every three seconds, so it was a lot like artificially having their senses slowed by three seconds.
So what kind of experiment was this time shift being used for?
As soon as Alberto donned the fancy hat and sealed away his senses, a portion of each wall slid open and men armed with body armor and police batons stepped in. There were more than 20 of them. The collapsible batons were long enough and heavy enough to be even more dangerous than metal bats.
But Alberto did not even pull out his silver Blood-Sign.
With his head still entirely covered by the thick hat and only a single lens to see through, he held out his right hand and gently beckoned them forward with his index finger.
"You're insanely polite about all this, dogs, " he spat out.
Immediately afterwards, the batons roared toward him from every direction at once.
But the Hatter twisted his body in a world three seconds delayed. He took a step. He rotated his hips to easily avoid the batons swinging toward him from every direction. No, he did more than that. He thrust out his hand and dropped his raised heel. In a series of dull sounds, the men supposedly protected by cutting-edge shock-absorbing materials were knocked unconscious one after another.
The Hatter could not see it all.
The lens allowing him to see and the metal tubes of the earholes were only opened by the springs and gears once every three seconds.
He only experienced equidistant points in time.
And yet he easily kept even a single blow from hitting him.
"You just have to fill in the gaps of the limited footage."
It was like a sport to him.
No, the Hatter did not refer to this room as a ring or a stadium. He called it the Tablecloth. So to him, anything placed on top of it was not even an animal: it was no more than food.
"I can see the movable range of their muscles and skeleton, where they'll move in the future based on their center of gravity, where they're looking, where their fingertips are, and what they're thinking based on the tension of their facial muscles. If you loosen a screw in your head and release those resources, you can steal time."
Was he focusing on that passage from Lewis Carroll or not?
In the original story, the Hatter had invited the eternal girl to a mad tea party that ignored the concept of time.
The adults sounded both impressed and exasperated as they spoke through the speaking tube.
"Your brainwaves remain unchanged....You can break through so easily it almost seems silly to monitor them."
"This is nothing compared to the Summoning Ceremony, " scoffed the madman.
He scoffed while casually wielding violence. His hands flew, his legs roared, and he devoured the food that showed confusion and fear through their thick body armor.
"You have to calculate out everything: the locations of the Petals and Spots, the paths of your White Thorns, the traits of the Material you just summoned, simulations of what your enemy will summon 100 moves from now, the Cost and Sound Range you'll need to beat that, and everything else. It's all about calculations. If you're not insane, you'll never keep up."
A normal person would have their hands full simply memorizing all of the Materials.
So there was not even a faint hope of memorizing the thousands or tens of thousands of patterns required to know what led to what, what detours to make when one route was blocked, and what changes to make to match the enemy's Cost and Sound Range or the location of the Petals and Spots. Not to mention when it all had to be recalled with perfect accuracy while actually moving your body to match.
But he did it.
The Hatter calmly walked through a realm that would drive a normal person insane.
His presence swallowed up everything around him.
Certain mental states could spread to others, as if resonating with them.
It was a form of group psychology.
That may have been why the adults did not meet the Hatter directly.
Before long, he was the only one standing in the white space.
"How boring. Hey, I can give you more time if you want. 5 second intervals? 10? That's probably a better delay for the world."
"Hm, " said the voice as if considering it.
Then the four walls opened up once more to send in the preset assassins.
However, these were not protected by body armor.
The speaker was known for his cyberphobia, so they likely were not made of electronics. These men's flesh-and-blood bodies had clearly manmade bug wings, pincers, grasshopper-like back legs, and compound eye goggles equipped. The bizarre group surrounded the Hatter.
"What if there was a single formula that could break through all of those complex calculations?"
"That Queen?" he spat out."How boring."
But he was not denying the existence of such a convenient being.
He had more to say.
"If something like that exists, she'll naturally fall into my grasp."
He would be first.
He would arrive before anyone else.
Everyone else had either failed before reaching that point or had failed after partially reaching it.
All alone, he calmly challenged that insane path.
In his surgical gown and pants, Kyousuke walked to the Miniature Garden's Outer Circle which was ruled by the developers and guards. However, he was not there to visit anyone.
The trigger had been pulled by some extremely simple words.
"I-I will protect you."
Biondetta Shiroyama.
That girl had struggled more than anyone yet fell into his trap more than anyone.
"What does that Hatter matter? I'm your big sister!"
(What am I doing?)
He was aware how far he was straying from his original objective, but his arms and legs continued to move with perfect accuracy. Perhaps because summoners and Materials vanished from cameras and sensors while inside an Artificial Sacred Ground, the Miniature Garden was equipped with surprisingly few digital security cameras. To make up for it, the doors tended to be equipped with artisan-made locks that could not be reproduced by machines, but that was not much of an obstacle for Kyousuke. Even when a single door had several different locks, his two hands and ten fingers swiftly unlocked it.
His destination was the lab run by the adults who were closely connected to Alberto S. Divinesmith the Hatter. That madman's skill was undeniable, but he needed helpers to back him up. It would be fastest to start with someone strongly influenced by his techniques and words.
This was between Kyousuke and Alberto.
If Biondetta carelessly butted in, it was obvious she would be harmed.
So before that happened...
"..."
He sighed and released the final lock.
The vertical line of locks sealing the thick door had been in the double digits, but the work had not taken even 5 minutes.
A card hung on the knob like at a hotel: Do not disturb.
To translate that into the Miniature Garden's words: Any unauthorized intruders will be shot without warning.
"...Like I care."
He cracked the door open and slipped inside.
It was very different from Shigara Masami's examination room. It was a lot more like a metalworking lab. It was crammed full of impressive equipment that did not seem like it could be used on the human body: a lathe, a press, and a variety of other large tools. Masks to keep dust out hung on the wall and an air conditioner with a special thick purification filter was equipped on the room's ceiling. They apparently really did metalwork in this sealed space. It was made under the assumption that it would be filled with metal particles that would gather in the lungs if inhaled.
There were two locked cabinets, but Kyousuke knew what he was looking for without even checking the documents on the glass shelves.
(A theory on distinguishing family from strangers based on how they walk, their mannerisms, and their behavior. )
In addition to facial recognition, research was being done to identify people in videos based on how they walked. Just the way someone stood and shifted their body weight was apparently as uniquely identifiable as their fingerprint or iris. The differences came from the inborn shape of the skeleton and muscles plus the learned traits of their environment. And that meant both were closely connected to their family.
Which meant...
(They're researching how to control all of your muscles according to certain values to trick people into thinking you're 'family'. Or to intentionally throw off that balance so someone will be treated like an outsider. Are they focused on metalwork because their ideas are reliant on the hardware like muscles and bones instead of the vague and formless familial bonds of the heart and emotions?)
He tried picturing the experiments. For days on end, he would have to watch the bewitching movements of artificial arms and legs fixed to a platform and say whether or not it had the familiarity of family. Or would he have to communicate through the medium of conflict with people who were equipped with those things? It was a psychedelic scene befitting that Hatter's helper.
But it was true this had given Alberto the ability to control his body with utmost accuracy. And his incredible spatial comprehension could be seen as a byproduct of the research to recognize family by sight.
(But...)
That alone was not enough for the Hatter to be so fixated on the Summoning Ceremony.
Something had to have led him to throw out the completion of the family in favor of the ranking board. Either to him directly or to someone around him.
"..."
Kyousuke approached the locked cabinets again.
He unlocked it so easily it looked like it was simply a knob shaped like a lock and he slid the glass cover aside.
One of the cabinets had a handheld radio. It was presumably to communicate with Alberto, but the diaphragm was surprisingly connected to an old-fashioned gramophone. The communication records were kept on the kind of wax cylinders that had been in use more than 200 years before. At this point, it felt less like a dislike of digital formats and more like full-blown cyberphobia.
And the other cabinet contained what initially looked like a file meant to hold a stamp collection. The rejection of digital formats continued. Each stamp-sized file appeared to be the negative of an old photo. A lot of data had been compressed onto them.
"Microfilm...?"
Instead of encrypting it, the contents were safe from prying eyes because no one could procure a device to view them in this day and age. It felt like being handed a VHS tape of a music clip rumored to show a ghost on the edge of the screen.
Kyousuke thought for a bit and then looked around the room full of machinery.
He reached for one of the dust masks on the wall.
"I just have to make one."
With that said, he got to work.
He only used parts he found in abandoned-looking boxes, but he could ensure no one questioned their absence by starting a fire disguised as an electrical fire. There were already plenty of electrical problems after Humpty Dumpty and the Hatter had shaken the entire Miniature Garden.
He ended up with a device much like a toy microscope.
He placed the stamp-sized microfilm on the board, shined light on it from below, and peered through the lens. The standard compression rate was around 40x, so each stamp had the same information as a notebook page, each page of the file had an entire notebook's worth, each file had a bookcase's worth, and the entire cabinet would equal a full library.
That might sound impressive, but in a digital format, a micro memory chip a quarter the size of a stamp could hold an entire library and the entire thing could be searched for a keyword in less than 5 seconds.
Only the person who had recorded these and memorized the contents could instantly pull out the data they wanted. Once again, they used inconvenience as a shield. Someone who did not know what they were looking for would have to read through as much data as 10, 000 technical books.
But Kyousuke did not care.
"Now, then."
He started by consuming the contents of around 10 pieces of microfilm while speed-reading through each one in only a few seconds. He built up a profile of the interests and tendencies found there and constructed the thought patterns and decision criteria used by the person who had chosen to record what data where. And he did it to the point that he could tell what they would choose on reflex if suddenly asked to decide on a 4-digit code. Once he was done with that, he pulled one unmarked file in particular from those lined up on the shelves. He chose the file, page, and piece of microfilm that was the biggest secret and also the most frequently viewed.
After deducing that, he placed it in the microreader he had made.
He got it right on the first try.
"What is this...?"
"You've gone too far."
That was the first thing said by Shigara Masami, one of the adults, whose long black hair was held in a ponytail with a scrunchie. In a soundproofed reception room, she sat across a glass table from a man far too skinny for his thick work jumpsuit.
That man was a legend on the same level as Madam Professor.
He was known as Blasphemous Inspiration.
"Akura-san, I know you know the Miniature Garden's purpose. In fact, it's strange that a hired-hand like me has to correct you. The White Queen might only appear by accident during the Summoning Ceremony and the conditions for her appearance might be as unexplained as the formation of a tornado, but she is only a stress test for the 15. She is a problem they must face to see if they will stay together as a family instead of breaking apart in the face of trials and disasters. So this is straying from that."
"I have plenty of counterarguments, but let me hear everything you have to say first. I want to avoid having to repeat myself."
"We don't have to achieve it." The woman in a tight suit and lab coat toyed with the silver whistle hanging at her chest."The White Queen is best left just out of reach. No matter how high people stack the stones, they can never reach out and grab the sun in heaven. But the attempt will lead them to build an incredibly tall tower. Isn't that where the Queen's purpose lies? We still can't predict what will happen to the comatose Jabberwock after her consecutive defeats. The same is true of the vessel Iris after being buried alive in rubble. And thanks to the battle with the Hatter, Humpty Dumpty herself is near the breaking point mentally."
"..."
"What is the purpose of the Miniature Garden? If it is to destroy the stated intent of bringing about world peace and bringing mankind together, then shouldn't we cast aside that detour right this instant?"
Shigara Masami never thought the Fifteen Siblings Project would succeed.
Whatever the plan was, it was the 15 children cut off from the world who were on the chopping block.
She only had to show the other adults that their theory could never be accomplished and then retrieve the children who were no longer needed. That way they could be given a second "proper" life instead of rotting away as the world left them behind or being crushed as the failed project collapsed around them. That had been her intention when she joined the project.
The system was coldhearted and lacked kindness, so she would give it some. She would become the component that did so.
So what was this?
Those ignorant children had been brought into the Summoning Ceremony and made into summoners who would be forgotten by normal people once outside their field of vision. Not to mention that they were being made to seek the uncontrollable White Queen and to attack each other in this closed space.
"What is the main plan and what is a detour?"
But she did not get through to the man named Akura Taisaku, aka Blasphemous Inspiration.
They simply viewed the world and approached the problem in two fundamentally different ways.
"Everyone has their own outlook, but I think conflict is one form of communication. They do say rain hardens the ground, after all. And if they are too afraid of conflict to act on their desires, can we really call that a true family?"
"..."
A clash of opinions sounded all well and good, but was that still true when it came down to family members wielding deadly weapons against each other?
"Also." Akura Taisaku chuckled at Shigara Masami who no longer even tried to hide her displeasure."On a more fundamental level, I think our methodology concerning the White Queen is not wrong at all. I am not just saying this and I am not just pretending to understand the formation of a tornado. I truly intend to take control of the Unexplored-class's peak."
"...Are you serious?"
"The Unexplored-class exceeds the gods of legend and that Queen reigns supreme above even them. She is the perfect symbol. Such a perfect symbol that she can bring together 6 or 7 billion people. So it is not wrong to use those 15 to find a way to control her. After all, the Miniature Garden exists to monitor those 15 for the good of all humanity."
"It isn't possible... No, you mustn't do it!"
"Normally, no. But if you have a perfect foothold, you can climb a vertical wall. Have you peeked inside the Inner Circle's gallery?"
That space was often visited by the Queen of Hearts of the 15. It was filled with paintings, sculptures, and other materials related to the White Queen her costume was based on.
But it made no sense to have that much material on the White Queen when she could not be recorded with cameras or sensors and had never been directly witnessed by anyone. Someone would have had to see the Queen, experienced her enough to record her in the medium of paint or stone, and possessed the skill to accurately include the Queen's symbolism.
Just one of those documents possessed as much information as the scriptures or sacred texts that ruled entire nations or continents.
Shigara Masami squeezed out a low voice.
"You mean someone donated them? You had a patron?"
"It was a person known as the Colorful Museum. They are more interested in collecting out-of-place artifacts and holy relics than in battle, and that collection apparently extends to human beings as well. As long as the divine resides within them, even a human being is a relic." The jumpsuit man chuckled as he gave his carefree answer."They also wanted a large testing ground. After all, the pacifists keep too watchful an eye when it comes to the White Queen. Without a cover story like this, we would receive nothing but criticism once the research began."
"That's crazy! Are you saying you didn't just hijack this project for your own purposes...!?"
"Well, you see..."
Akura Taisaku tapped his fingers on the top of the glass table.
He was drawing attention to Shigara Masami's phone that she had placed there.
"I am sick of letting these things rule humanity. I want to take action before they entirely cover the world. I just about jumped for joy when I first learned that summoners and vessels inside an Artificial Sacred Ground vanish from all cameras and sensors, but that is still not enough. Man must grow even stronger. Before these things cover the world and we become mere hunks of flesh that only pretend to think."
"..."
"15 is not enough. Extracting useful data from their pretend family won't be enough. It will provide us with a large fortune, but these things will cover the world before we can bring the benefits back to humanity. I will do anything to prevent that. I will dirty my hands in any way. After all, this facility was made to consume those 15 in order to save humanity from the ruin we have long seen coming."
As soon as he finished speaking, the entire Miniature Garden shook.
It was like a duplicate of the last time. As an unpleasant feeling built in Shigara Masami's chest, the madman in a jumpsuit finished his rant.
"Alberto the Hatter is my greatest masterpiece. So he will reach the peak of the peak. This Miniature Garden only needs to be an egg waiting to hatch."
"Even though you know you will be swallowed by the cracks when the shell is broken?"
Akura tilted his head at that.
And Blasphemous Inspiration answered.
"Is that supposed to be a problem?"
Kyousuke read through the document printed on microfilm.
It was more than just a definite method of summoning the White Queen who was the secret among secrets and who only appeared by accident while towering above them all like a tornado. This was a method to sew her to this world and freely control her.
He clenched his back teeth, but he could not stop the words from escaping.
"This is riddled with holes."
It was impossible. It would never work. It did make sense from a purely theoretical standpoint, but could you actually create a black hole just because you could define what one was? Could you cause the big bang just because you could generally imagine what the big bang theory stated? That was the extent of what he found here. None of it was wrong, but it was far from being a practical blueprint. If they set to work following this, they would at best produce a puff of smoke and nothing more and at worst lose their lives in a random explosion.
These were the greatest minds the world had to offer?
These were the people closest to the White Queen?
Kyousuke once more wondered if the Miniature Garden was really necessary. Was it really worth killing the Queen here? Was it really the right environment to wage a hidden final war while dragging Biondetta, Kyoumi, and the others into it? If the truly powerful had not gotten involved, mightn't they have been attracted to the Queen while being unable to leave the rails of the normal world? Mightn't they have been frustrated but still lived a proper life?
But as soon as he wondered that, a tremor reached him.
"..."
It was just like with Humpty Dumpy or the Hatter. It was probably coming from the central Mock Battlefield where someone was holding a mock Summoning Ceremony battle. No, since the safety features of the ground were not working, he should probably view this as an actual battle even if it was intended as a game.
The room had two cabinets.
The one not storing the microfilm stored lots of wax cylinders and an old gramophone. The gramophone's wax cylinder began to turn on its own and the attached handheld radio began picking up a voice.
"The 15 have begun an unexpected battle in the Mock Battlefield! Please send a team in! Specifically, it's Alberto the Hatter and Biondetta the Cheshire Cat. Were you aware of this or not!? Can we really just watch this!? Their ranks are clearly too far apart! Someone really will die this time!!"
He clicked his tongue without thinking.
(It's too soon!!)
What had happened was obvious: Biondetta had said she would protect him.
Would he grab his practice Blood-Sign and rush to the Mock Battlefield now? No, he would be too late. The Hatter was not a summoner who used clever tricks like Humpty Dumpty's smokescreen. Each of his specs was simply too high. It would not even take a few minutes for this to end, so calling in an electric cart and rushing there would not be fast enough.
And there were currently three vessels in the Miniature Garden.
One of those was still lying in a bed in the medical room after she was paired with the Jabberwock and received a fierce attack from Humpty Dumpty. The other two would be in use by the Hatter and Biondetta.
That meant Kyousuke had no way of wielding his power as a summoner even if he did arrive in time.
He could not save Biondetta.
Meanwhile, the worst possible report arrived through the radio attached to the gramophone.
"This is an emergency request! Please give us permission to seal off the emergency gate to the Mock Battlefield!! The Hatter has reached the Unexplored-class, but he hasn't stopped gathering Petals. He's aiming even higher. A portion of the wall was destroyed last time, so who can say how far it'll spread this time!!"
The Hatter was aiming even higher than the Unexplored-class.
Normally thinking, there was nothing higher than that.
But if the framework of normality was removed, only one answer came to mind.
"He's probably going for the White Queen!! He really is reaching for it! It really will appear before our eyes! We have to seal this off before he summons that!!"
"..."
Kyousuke tried to remain calm.
But it was no use.
If the report he heard was true, then Biondetta would die. This had nothing to do with the rules of the Summoning Ceremony. Think about it theoretically. If the peak of the peak had the power she was rumored to have, the safety of the protective circle was no longer a guarantee. Even if he threw out every preconception and let his imagination spread its wings beyond every limit, this would still surpass the limits of his imagination. Predicting what was coming and locking yourself in a small room was meaningless when the massive tornado blew away the entire house.
There was nothing he could do.
Even if he could calculate out the coming tragedy, he could see no way of breaking free.
He would not arrive in time.
Once the White Queen appeared, the Material and Biondetta herself would be destroyed.
"No."
Then he raised his head.
He looked to the microfilm still held in the microreader he had made.
It was true it was all over if the White Queen was summoned by the Hatter. She was the strongest of the strongest and it was said she would settle any battle the instant she arrived, so there would be no chance at all of Biondetta making a comeback. Biondetta would be unilaterally defeated.
But there was another hint there.
Yes.
If the White Queen was summoned by the Hatter.
"No."
He once more looked around the room in his surgical gown and pants.
He viewed the machinery and considered the incomplete methodology contained in the stamp-sized microfilm.
He thought.
There might still be something he could do.
"...No."
It might be a small thing in the face of a greater disaster.
It might all be a farce and it might be better to focus on the plan to kill the White Queen. Either way, the Miniature Garden would become hell once the Queen was sewn to this world with the Sewn Realm Summoning and the war began. Biondetta's death would only be a matter of sooner or later, so it might have been wrong to risk the overall plan for something so small.
He knew that.
But even so, Shiroyama Kyousuke could not bring himself to crush that small bud of possibility.
(I'll make sure I make it in time. )
That small monster rapidly turned the gears in his head.
All so he could reach a certain answer.
(If I can save Biondetta while also not interfering with the plan to kill the Queen, then this detour shouldn't matter!!)
Hidden beyond a thin layer, the truly powerful sat in their dark room with flat-screen monitors covering one wall.
Quiet laughter could be heard from the summoner in charge of Government, the gothic lolita kimono girl named Humanism who had reached the quadruple digits in her Awards.
"We too were hoping for this."
She spoke while watching the disaster in the Mock battlefield.
While watching the ugliness of the adults.
And while watching the young boy who could not remain heartless.
"We were hoping this would all end in failure despite all this preparation. We were hoping nothing would come of this even after gathering together everyone in the world with a dangerous mentality similar to the White Queen. That would mean this world was even more immature than we thought and thus no one will reach the Queen. That would prove just how safe an age we live in."
The man who lazily wore a luxury suit clicked his tongue.
He was the head of Illegal and also Award 0, Open Bluff.
"Ridiculous... So you're pretending you aren't at fault because no one did what you wanted them to? If you had set things up right, you alone could have remained a 'good person' even after tragedy struck."
"Yes. But sadly, that will not happen. The Queen will undoubtedly be summoned in the Miniature Garden."
The girl sighed.
And the ruler of justice continued coldheartedly.
"After all, we provided a powerful re-igniter in case it ended in failure....Shiroyama Kyousuke, that is why we sent you into the Miniature Garden."
The Mock Battlefield in the center of the Miniature Garden had become a hellish scene.
The number of people was irrelevant. If there were a million people, a million would die. If there were a billion, a billion would die.
Only two people stood on the red and white chess board floor.
Biondetta Shiroyama the Cheshire Cat and Alberto S. Divinesmith the Hatter.
They had both bound a contract with one of the two vessels who were still usable.
The Hatter used the one surrounded by bonds shaped like an iron maiden.
The Cheshire Cat used the one that sat in a wheelchair that looked like a torture chair covered in thorns.
The two vessels would have changed in body and mind as they continually bound new contracts, so they had countless plugs attached to their bodies to forcibly restrict that reaction.
Those vessels were currently transformed into bizarre monsters.
Those monsters were known as Materials.
Biondetta had desperately held her practice Blood-Sign, accurately knocked her White Thorns into the Petals, and built her Material up to the Divine-class. That had taken a fair amount of skill. For one thing, the Divine-class literally were the gods of legend. These were the higher beings that were not even guaranteed to descend from heaven when an ancient emperor offered up his empire, held a grand festival, and sacrificed 1000 people. To summon and use one of those as an individual was the same as having the skill to single-handedly challenge an ancient emperor.
In this case, the Divine-class was from the middle Sound Range with a Cost of 7. This virgin god was the protector of the ancient city of Rome who had appeared as a fully-armed maiden from the forehead of Jupiter.
But it was not enough.
Her opponent was simply too great.
The Hatter used his metal Blood-Sign formed from a stack of silver coins, but he was so cheerful he might have started humming if he had let his guard down. He was accompanied by an Unexplored-class. That being existed beyond even the gods.
She was the Lady of "Purple Lightning" that Separates Good from Evil (iu - ao - eu - ei - kub - miq - a - ci - pl).
A skinny girl with sickly pale skin sat in a rusty wheelchair. Purple cloth was wrapped around the important parts of her body and she raised just a single arm and fingertip.
That was enough for "death" to sweep out.
A purple beam of light cut the world diagonally and sliced through the goddess's shield like it was butter. It was a legendary item that bore the head of a petrifying monster woman, but it was destroyed with ease.
"Kyaahhh!!"
Biondetta desperately tried to restrain her voice while wearing a surgical gown only tied on the side, but it was useless and a shrill scream was forced from her.
She felt like her heart was being squeezed, but she still calmed her breathing and somehow managed to glare at her enemy.
She was scared. She was definitely scared.
If she did not face this, that scary thing would turn elsewhere.
It would turn toward Shiroyama Kyousuke, her "little brother".
So.
So!!
"...How boring."
She was cut off by a coldhearted voice.
The Hatter looked to Biondetta with horribly, truly horribly, cold eyes. Anyone could tell he was a madman, but those eyes seemed to be peering directly into a great abyss no one else could see.
He was not simply viewing the locations of the Petals and White Thorns.
He viewed something much more fundamental and gave voice to his thoughts.
"You're normal, but nothing more than that. You started and ended with the standard and you never took a step outside it. How cheap. It doesn't resonate at all. To be blunt, I feel like this was a waste of my time."
"What...are you...?"
"I'm saying you lack madness. It's overwhelmingly lacking. We're using the gods as stepping stones. We're reaching for what lurks beyond them so we can control them. What greater blasphemy is there? How are we supposed to remain normal? Believing that sanity still has a place here is the most insane thing of all. But it's the most utterly boring kind of madness that doesn't lead to anything."
His words both praised and disparaged madness. They held more than one meaning at once.
The Hatter himself was probably the only one who understood what he truly meant.
No...
"He's the only one."
Alberto pointed to another possibility.
And in so doing, he thoroughly rejected the dignity of the girl named Biondetta.
"Shiroyama Kyousuke. He's the only one I can get along with. I can somehow tell he's standing in the same place as me."
"!!"
Biondetta moved on reflex.
She was no longer following detailed calculations to victory. She was simply displaying her willpower.
But it was no use.
No matter where she sent her White Thorns or what Sound Range of Petals she hit into the Spots, she could not close the gap with her opponent. The Divine-class and the Unexplored-class were literally on a different level. Once the Hatter had arrived there before her, she should have lost immediately. And it was not her skill that had kept that from happening.
"Do you really think you can catch up now?"
Alberto was toying with her.
All so he could acquire all of the Petals he wanted and complete the name of a certain power.
"I will reach for the White Queen, the peak of the peak. Instead of using an insane theory, I will bring the madness to this ordered reality. I will add a tornado, a disaster, to my party. Will you still bite at me then!? Will you, Kyousuke!?"
The Hatter launched a White Thorn with the intensity of a lightning strike.
Biondetta did not have the time to spare to interfere.
She could only watch it fly. With a primitive song of destruction, the Hatter secured 21 Petals. And they were not random. From beginning to end, he accurately knocked them all into the Spots exactly in order.
It normally took 100 from the Regulation-class and 50 from the Divine-class.
But this frightening method allowed one to directly summon a desired Unexplored-class Material while ignoring those conditions.
And that included the deepest depths of the Unexplored-class.
She might be summoned by accident, but an absolute method of intentionally summoning her during battle had yet to be found.
Unexplored-class. Sound Range: None. Cost: 21.
Due to the equal number of low, middle, and high sounds, this dangerous arrangement should have triggered the penalty known as the Black Maw.
But it was actually the true answer. It was one of the true names written in blood.
The "White" Queen who Wields the Sword of Unsullied Truth (iu - nu - fb - a - wuh - ei -kx - eu - pl - vjz).
The Divine-class was the gods of legend and the Unexplored-class lurked beyond even that.
And this being stood at the peak of that peak.
Once she was summoned, it was all over.
She was an embodiment of absolute victory.
Biondetta had yet to leave the Divine-class so her vision grew dark. Was she squeezing her eyes shut or was she fainting? She was too confused to tell.
And...
And...
And...
"What...?"
As time seemed to stretch out infinitely, she heard a confused voice.
In her short surgical gown, Biondetta belatedly realized that this was not just one moment extending without end. Time really was moving.
Nothing happened.
That Queen's wrath did not arrive.
Her darkening vision cleared up. Alberto S. Divinesmith had completed the task perfectly, so he stared at the Lady of Purple Lightning with a look of utter bewilderment.
"I completed it..."
The Mad Hatter shouted at this utterly unreasonable result.
He seemed to be pleading with the strongest he had failed to reach.
"So why aren't you answering me!? White Queen!!"
The answer was simple.
"Your Sewn Realm Summoning is much like a method of sewing a summoned Material to this world and attaching a chain to its neck. Once the connection is made, it can be immediately summoned from the other world while skipping the normal procedure. Just like tossing a fish back into the pond with the hook still in its mouth."
These words had been spoken by the gothic lolita kimono girl known as Humanism before he had been sent to the Miniature Garden.
"And while you have summoned it, that Material cannot leave of its own free will or be summoned by another summoner on the other side of the world. You can truly sew it to this world and keep it all for yourself....So if that theory is used to summon the White Queen, she will at least lose the option of escaping like a lizard breaking off its tail. That would be the first step toward truly killing her."
In other words...
So...
"..."
Kyousuke had blown life into the machinery while listening to the rapid succession of reports arriving through the handheld radio connected to the old gramophone. He mentally filled in the holes in the failed theory that the room's owner had desperately written down and he got to work. He gave form to a devilish tool never before seen and released it like a stain on the innocent world.
He had filled the holes and used that theory for a simple reason.
His own unique theory had been too high level. He could not have reproduced it using the materials on hand, so he had lowered the level to the methods of the room's owner.
Overall, it was a device the size of a basketball.
It had a square wooden frame as a base which supported a perfectly circular silver plate that represented a never-ending surface of water. The wooden frame contained a complex and detailed collection of gears structured much like a music box that would continue playing forever.
It was not known that this was based on the fairy's spring seen in the fantasies of picture books.
It was not understood that this had all started with the desire to make the Materials their equals instead of just weapons to be summoned.
He wondered how this had happened.
He was answered by his memory of the truly powerful's words.
"If we can truly kill the Queen who rules both worlds through fear and chaos, your dream will also come true. All of the Materials being oppressed by her will be freed."
He inhaled and exhaled.
He made up his mind.
He reached for the crank on the side of the square wooden frame and turned it.
He breathed hopeless life into that perpetual motion machine.
And that skipped past the normal procedure.
The boy would finally meet that radiant white light.
The radio connected to the old gramophone gave a chaotic and confused report.
"!? What...? He didn't miss, but the White Queen didn't appear. Does that mean she's really an inviolable being...?"
"The 10 minutes are up and the Artificial Sacred Ground is gone."
"The Hatter and the Cheshire Cat are both alive. Are we still refusing to intervene!? If we're going to stop them, it has to be before they throw the next Incense Grenade!! Give us our orders!!"
He had taken her for himself first.
So not even the Hatter's superhuman skill could summon the White Queen and she would be no threat to Biondetta.
It was the perfect result.
But this was no time to breathe a sigh of relief.
She was here.
Right in front of him.
The girl's flowing silver hair was bound into twintails. She was a head taller than Kyousuke and she showed off bodylines that went beyond stale terms like "alluring". Her clothing was pure white and splendidly arranged like a skimpier wedding dress with silver accessories added in places.
It was not an issue of what or how much.
From head to toe, every last part of this girl was formed from concentrated white light.
She surpassed the Regulation, Divine, and Unexplored-classes to stand at the peak of the Unexplored-class. She was the strongest of the strongest and the one and only being allowed the throne. All of the Materials circumvented the laws of the world, but not even they could defeat this one.
Unexplored-class. Sound Range: None. Cost: 21.
The "White" Queen who Wields the Sword of Unsullied Truth (iu - nu - fb - a - wuh - ei -kx - eu - pl - vjz).
This core of disaster disturbed the balance of both worlds and brought endless chaos and tragedy.
She was the ultimate prize that stood before the studio set of the Miniature Garden, the farce of the Fifteen Siblings Project, the trigger of the Sewn Realm Summoning, and the gathering of the truly powerful who led the three major powers of Government, Illegal, and Freedom.
Killing the Queen was why Shiroyama Kyousuke was here.
He had no protective circle and no vessel by his side. He held no Blood-Sign or Incense Grenade. And even if he had all that, there was no guarantee he could break through. In fact, the difficulty level would not have been set so very high if an individual like Kyousuke could defeat her.
He understood that.
Sweat poured from his body.
Maintaining logical thought was the most he could manage.
"...oth...er..."
She opened her mouth.
Bewitching and alluring was not enough to describe it. Her beauty held such an overwhelming attraction that even an innocent baby or a wrinkled old man might be unable to restrain the urge in their heart when they saw her.
But she gave an innocent smile that belied that appearance. It was the kind of smile that matched a sound effect like "nyah☆". She had the look of a small child observing her surroundings in shock after visiting an amusement park for the first time.
"Brother!"
With a strangely soft sound, Shiroyama Kyousuke's vision went dark.
The girl a head taller than him had embraced him, so his head was buried in her chest.
It took even him several seconds to realize what had happened.
A pool.
"..."
Kyousuke stared at that overwhelming scene while wearing swim trunks.
The Miniature Garden's scale was as unbelievable as ever. There was a 50 meter pool in the center, the oppressive-looking Great ceiling towered far above, and the poolside was quite large. The space felt so very open despite the lack of windows, so it was easy to forget it was all underground.
The indoor pool was not divided into racing lanes or built in a wandering circuit like at an amusement facility.
It was round.
It was a mirror of water with a 50m diameter and the water was given an artificial current along the outer edge.
(It's all about optimization. )
Kyousuke analyzed it.
Creating a never-ending current made it the same as a tuna breeding farm. Tuna had to continue swimming forever or they would die, so they were allowed to swim forever inside their limited pens. In the same way, this allowed the children to swim for several dozen kilometers in this limited space.
It also created a more hygienic environment. By creating a gentle whirlpool, they only had to prepare filters on the edge of the pool to gather and filter out the impurities in the water. It was a similar idea to a cyclone vacuum cleaner.
(There's probably a trick to swimming along a gentle curve instead of in a straight line. )
"Why are you staring out into space?"
He heard a voice behind him.
It was Biondetta who had split up with him because the boys and girls used different locker rooms.
She wore a pink two-piece swimsuit that looked more like a one-piece split into two than it did a bikini.
"Do you not like the water? Then that's all the more reason to do some warmup stretches. It's too late by the time you regret not doing it. Heh heh. Your big sister can help if you want. Because I'm your big sister!"
"Oh? Is that so?"
"E-explain to me what that lukewarm look is...actually, never mind. I get the feeling hearing that would just break me..."
Biondetta acted oddly while pressing her small butt to the wet poolside and spreading her slender legs to either side. She had a lithe body, so each time she reached her hands toward one of her feet, her upper body bent in a beautiful curve.
"Kyousuke."
Cosplay Girl Kyoumi arrived a moment later. She was in an all-out leisure mood and wore a white one-piece swimsuit. Even now, she kept on her white twintail wig.
And she held...something under her arm. It looked like a pink curving body pillow. A flamingo face was drawn on the surface, but it may have actually been a more compact version of a banana boat.
Her other hand held a beach ball with a hedgehog drawn on it.
(The Queen of Hearts' game of croquet? The hedgehogs were the balls and the flamingoes were the rackets...)
But as Biondetta continued her stretches, she had her own impression.
"That's obscene! The symbolism is!!"
"Shut up and quit reading too much into this, you perverted girl. Now, do you want the curved rod or the swollen ball?"
For some reason, Biondetta started panicking when the beach ball was pushed into her face.
"Did you have any trouble in the locker room? Those lockers are deadly tricky to get locked."
"Oh, yeah. You have to push in when you turn the key, don't you?"
"Tch. So you knew. I was hoping you'd come crying to me so I could give you a hands on lesson. Oh, and in the girl's locker room of course."
"..."
"Don't give me that look. We're family, aren't we? And at your age, it doesn't count anyway. It's too late to lament losing that privilege once it's gone! But anyway!!"
Kyoumi laughed and threw the miniature banana boat into the giant circular pool. Only then did she remember the current, so she ran after the fleeing flamingo boat and jumped in without any kind of warmup.
Kyousuke had a thought as he watched the various parts of her skin bouncing around.
It was a simple question. If the Fifteen Siblings Project continued and their familial bonds grew, would they stop being bothered by "that sort of thing"? Would they be able to take a bath together or sleep in the same bed? He was not so sure as he viewed Kyoumi's bodylines which were noticeably growing on a daily basis.
Then he turned toward Biondetta who was stretching her hands out along her legs.
He looked to that girl who had none of those curves whatsoever.
"Well, it already doesn't bother me that much with Biondetta."
"Why do I get the feeling you're thinking something incredibly rude?"
Once she finished her stretches, Biondetta started toward the pool as if chasing after Kyoumi.
He could not imagine she was that stupid, but he warned her just in case.
"Be careful."
"What are you talking about? I'm the big sister, so I'll hold you by the hand and teach you to...dbh!!"
After jumping into the pool, she disappeared.
Kyousuke just about slapped his hand against his forehead.
It was a perfect chest-high depth for a high school girl like Kyoumi, but that meant it was a dangerous depth for Kyousuke or Biondetta. And thanks to the artificial endless swimming lane, it had a formidable current. There were no obvious waves like at the ocean, so it was more like falling into a rapid current where it was too deep to stand.
And if she panicked, it would be difficult for her to recover on her own.
Kyoumi seemed to have noticed, but her flamingo banana boat was a problem. She had no oar with which to fight the current, so she was having difficulty approaching Biondetta.
"Oh, honestly."
With that mechanical comment, Kyousuke jumped in.
The water that slipped in through the slight gap between his lips was not fresh water. It had a hint of saltiness. It did not sting his tongue and was more like a sports drink.
(The Pool of Tears, huh?)
This was another symbol from Lewis Carroll.
Human cell fluid was different from both fresh and sea water. When combined with saline, they would probably be able to continue their water training without wearing themselves out.
Unlike an actual river, there were no bumps or rocks on the bottom to complicate the water's current. It was an entirely even flow, making it easy to ride the current. Kyousuke swiftly approached Biondetta as she struggled and he reached below her arms from behind and tried to drag her up to the surface.
But then something unexpected happened.
Her superb agility decided to make an appearance at the worst possible time, so she suddenly turned around and clung to him in desperate fear. She was too panicked to care that she was pressing her undeveloped body against him and wrapping both her arms and her legs around him.
It was a lot like she was clinging to a log, but this kept Kyousuke from moving. It was a stereotypical way for a rescuer to become a secondary casualty.
(She's only restricting my arms and my waist. At least I can still use my legs. )
It was a silly situation, but it was still a deadly one.
But Kyousuke mechanically grasped what was going on, used his legs to maintain his position, and managed to bring their heads above water.
"Pwah! Aw, aw, aw, aw!!"
"Biondetta."
"Uuuughhhh!!"
"Biondetta, don't worry. I won't let go, so can you at least remove your legs?"
She did not respond.
In fact, she only clung to him even together.
She was apparently too panicked to listen rationally. If he could have used his hands, he would have tried stroking her head or back, but they were unfortunately restricted by her tight grasp.
Their hearts beat together in the water and they floated along treading water for a while until they finally came across Kyoumi on the banana boat. Instead of approaching them, she had stopped herself near the poolside to let them float to her.
"Sorry, sorry. I panicked and took too long to respond. I'm deadly sorry. Yeah, I should have abandoned the boat and swam over like normal."
"At least nothing happened."
"That's all that matters. Then again, I've heard that Biondetta can hold her breath for 15 minutes, so I never thought it was that serious."
She casually announced that the upper limits of humanity had been shattered.
That meant Biondetta could keep up an intense infighting rush in boxing for 15 minutes or she could easily run at a sprint for 15 minutes straight. She was truly the master of anaerobic exercise.
But Kyoumi was interested in something else.
"Anyway, Kyousuke, " she said while still clinging to the banana boat."You know a very strange way of swimming."
"?"
"Isn't that a military style? It was developed to remain afloat with just your legs so you can hold your equipment overhead and cross a river without getting it wet."
Kyousuke could not carelessly respond.
He could easily say the grownups had taught it to him, but if Kyoumi went around and found out that none of them knew this way of swimming, that explanation would fall apart.
There was a risk of her seeing through the thin layer to the Miniature Garden's true purpose: killing the Queen.
"More importantly, can you deal with Biondetta? I don't have infinite stamina."
"Oh, that's right. I'll let her onto my boat. C'mere, Biondetta. If the water's too deep to stand, then welcome to my boat."
Kyoumi grabbed her shoulders, but Biondetta refused to move.
Did she think her one safe spot was being taken from her?
No, she may have simply been unable to move at all.
She was pressed against Kyousuke with her chin on his shoulder, so he could hear the conflict escaping her lips as a whisper.
"(Uuuh... I can't believe I'm holding this filthy boy between my legs, but I'm scared and my feet don't reach. It's embarrassing, but I can't let go. Ghhhhh!)"
It would seem they had not built up enough artificial familial bonds to take a bath together.
Although that was actually a relief for Kyousuke.
"This is amazing. It's like a shellfish stuck to a rock."
Kyoumi sounded half impressed and half exasperated up on the flamingo banana boat.
She stroked Biondetta's head, but it had little effect. The girl was still panicking.
"Fine, then. I guess I'll resort to the deadly magic words."
"?"
Not even Kyousuke knew what she meant, so Kyoumi gave a mischievous smile.
"C'mon, Biondetta. I know you're glad you have an excuse, but if you keep pressing that blatantly flat chest against him, he'll notice how hard your heart is pounding."
Kyousuke felt Biondetta's body temperature skyrocket.
Another emotion must have overpowered her fear because she frantically pushed at the boy's chest to shove him away.
"Y-you have it all wrong! And I'm not fla...gabh!!"
"Sigh..."
"Sigh..."
It was the obvious result.
Kyousuke and Kyoumi sighed in unison as they watched Biondetta sink when her support vanished so quickly.
The two of them followed the current and resumed the rescue operation.
Facts:
*The Relective Graph measures familial bonds. When the 15 line graphs coincide, the project will be considered a success.
*To protect Kyousuke, Biondetta stood up to the top ranked Hatter.
*The Miniature Garden's research gained patrons and sponsors partway through and its nature began to greatly change.
*Shigara Masami knew the Miniature Garden would fail, but if she did not go along with it to a certain extent, she thought the children would meet different tragedies while scattered around the world. She built herself into the system to provide some humanity.
*Akura Taisaku, aka Blasphemous Inspiration, is an extreme cyberphobe, so he is trying to carry mankind to new heights based on faith and the occult before the world is filled with the internet and email. However, the summoning system he created is full of holes and unusable.
*Kyousuke took the White Queen from Alberto and executed the Sewn Realm Summoning to rescue Biondetta.
*And he achieved it. He summoned the White Queen to this world in her perfect form and sewed her there.
*Upon being summoned, the White Queen immediately referred to Kyousuke as "brother".
| ← Ch. 050 | Ch. 052 → |