novelVolume 6, Stage 02 - Insane Believers Never Ask for Anything in Exchange (1)
| ← Ch.063 | Ch.065 → |
Volume 6, Stage 02: Insane Believers Never Ask for Anything in Exchange (1)
"Wahh!! Crash, bang, boom!!!!!!"
"Hee! Are you trying to kill me, you idiot!?"
(Stage 02 Open 07/05 10:30)
Insane Believers Never Ask for Anything in Exchange
Azalea Magentarain
At only 14, she was the former Government Award 930, Golden Luxury, and also one of the Uniquely Selfless summoners of the White Queen worshiping cult named Guard of Honor. She was a noble girl who inherited the blood of the Magentarain family and also the primary supporter of weapon design and development at Quad Motors, America's largest defense contractor which was run by the same family. They developed Repliglass, silicon stem cells that were given the structure of various plants and animals. That Repliglass had swept across all 4 branches of the military and even been adopted into largescale civilian infrastructure like city water purification and power generation.
The Magentarain family itself was not completely American and was actually part of the Round Table, a group of those who had once sat on the throne and thus could not accept that the major position of the world police had been taken by a country in the New World created a mere 300 years before. The Magentarain family had been sent to control that country from within, but all of that can be omitted now.
That girl with long curly blonde hair no longer belonged to the Magentarain family.
The small, slender girl had found another symbol to gather around.
"Oh, dear. This is looking as wretched as always."
Azalea spoke calmly while sitting inside the squat belly of a mid-sized transport Repliglass known as a Hornet.
"So we're back in Toy Dream 35. Are we going to repeat everything from that time, Shiroyama Kyousuke?"
They had successfully isolated their enemy, but the simultaneous attacks from the various summoner and vessel pairs had ended in failure. Azalea and the others did not know what form the ancient map took, so they could not destroy the building from outside. That was one major factor, but there was more to it.
An elderly butler stood perfectly still in the rocking Repliglass craft and interjected some smooth words. His name was Fractal Leskins and every breath he took demonstrated that he stood at the peak of those who served.
"It would appear everything is going as planned, milady."
"Yes."
Azalea honestly thought that she needed to learn from him.
After all, she had chosen to become a servant herself.
"Whether consciously or subconsciously, the same vision must be playing in Shiroyama Kyousuke's head. And there is no need to worry. Even if he fails to notice it, he will reflect on his former victory, assume he is in the same situation here, and relax. But unbeknownst to him, I will be guiding him all the while."
Azalea could not write off her defeat as meaningless.
Because she had developed Repliglass weapons modeled after various plants and animals, she had come into contact with the information of several archives. For example, lions were known as the king of beasts, but it was the females that led the hunting, not the males with their impressive manes. And that representative example of carnivores could be driven off if the fleeing herbivorous zebras or giraffes kicked back at them or if a hippopotamus bit them.
Nevertheless, mocking a lion would be far too foolish. To do so would show a severe lack of observation. A feline would not repeat an action it considered dangerous. Even a pet cat would no longer approach the stove after it burned itself or the bathtub after it fell in and nearly drowned. And a lion had repeated that learning process day in and day out in an environment of life or death.
The king of beasts was not a creature that settled in at a fixed peak.
They were always updating themselves. And after a pack had sharply honed itself through that efficient decision-making, they would learn to surround the zebras or giraffes and attack from the sides so they could not be kicked by the back legs.
Azalea was the same.
After being disciplined by the White Queen, she had cast off her impure soul and her defeat to Shiroyama Kyousuke had rid her of her pride as a summoner.
Just as Kyousuke had learned who Azalea was in their battle, she had learned from him.
She could easily come up with a phrase he was certain to detest.
"So I am something like the child who has inherited the genes of both Her Majesty and Shiroyama Kyousuke."
The curly blonde-haired girl giggled and traced her fingers across the ribbon reels placed next to her.
"But there is no rule preventing a child from surpassing her parent. In fact, the theory of evolution says that each generation must leave behind even stronger seed. Now, Shiroyama Kyousuke. It's about time to truly begin. You have scattered your genes throughout the world and it is time you learned what that has wrought."
Azalea wondered what her past self - back when she was taken away by strange adults while only wrapped in an old cloth - would have thought if she could have seen herself now.
That past self never would have imagined being able to look down on and order around others.
That had been hell.
But someone had rescued her from there.
And that was why she had to live a life that would reward that person and make them proud.
No matter how twisted a path she took to get there.
She used her skinny fingers to flick at a few of the reels and then grabbed one of the pink ribbons. She went for #6. If she was following that incident in Toy Dream 35, she needed to go with the #6 reel that she had lost with then.
The blonde girl slowly stood up in the cargo room and spoke to her butler.
"I'll be heading out too. Prepare the Meganeura."
Kyousuke, Sekurtiti, Renge, and Higan ran up the isolated apartment's emergency staircase. Bridesmaid would soon notice that Biondetta and the tomb keepers had gone to the ground floor. Before they figured out what Kyousuke's group was up to, he had to summon a Material, scatter rubble in every direction, and take out the Bridesmaid members approaching to surround the group underwater. They had to go that far to clear a way out.
Or so Kyousuke thought.
But then something unexpected happened.
"!?"
He had taken the lead, but he stopped and quickly held a hand out sideways while a step away from their target floor. Before Renge could say something about being stopped by an arm moving like a railway crossing gate, the floor above them was filled with a downpour of rubble and explosive noise.
"Kyaaaah!!"
"Back, back!"
Kyousuke more or less shoved the girls back to the next landing down.
"Curse those tomb raiders!!"
Gold-adorned Sekurtiti and Higan were crushed below Renge who groaned and asked a question while lying face down.
"Wh-what? Did they start using that machinegun again?"
"This was something else..."
Kyousuke alone remained on the stairs and he poked his head out into the floor which had been given much better ventilation. Something was maintaining a circular course around the apartment and he initially mistook it for a fairy.
But it was not.
He saw long, curly, and reddish-blonde hair. He saw a pale and small body. And that slender girl was covered in a mountain of sinister weapons. A swimsuit-like console suit covered her body, a giant dragonfly wing unit was attached to her back, and an additional coffin-like device larger than her leg was attached to each leg. The two coffins seemed to contain some large payload and countless heavy weapons stuck out like the frame of a folding fan: a machinegun, a rocket container, a needle gun, a flame thrower, a railgun, a close-range welding blade, a wire shooter, an acoustic weapon cone, etc. The silhouette was reminiscent of a Western multi-tool that stored screwdrivers and knives in the grip of a pair of pliers.
"Azalea..."
His eyes met the triumphant eyes of a giggling girl.
She pointed at him with a handgun gesture.
"Azalea Magentarain!!"
The fan-like spread of weapons all bent to focus their aim on him. Kyousuke felt a chill down his spine, but then something strange happened. He heard a footstep from right next to him.
"Then allow me to punish this rude tomb raider just like before."
It was Sekurtiti, the silver-haired and brown-skinned Tomb Priestess.
She stood tall and directed her pale blue eyes and her hands forward.
"Hahhhhhh!!"
This was the ruler's "wall" that had guided the autocannon gunner to a malfunction before.
This was a crystallization of the skills mankind had spent all of history developing to stand above others.
But Azalea's smile remained unchanged. Her handgun gesture moved. The index finger moved slightly upwards as if recreating the recoil of firing.
"You idiot!!"
Kyousuke grabbed at Sekurtiti's skinny waist and tackled her to the floor.
Their momentum sent them rolling along the dangerous floor, but there was nothing he could do about that.
Excess electricity wrapped around the barrel as the railgun gave a roar.
With an air-splitting blast, the reinforced concrete was blown away almost amusingly easily. That also destroyed the emergency staircase up to the next floor. Kyousuke was worried about Renge and Higan on the next landing down, but he did not have time to go down and collect them. With that power, Azalea could blast through the floor and blow away the landing, so he would have no cover. And it would be best not to inform Azalea that the shrine maiden twins were there.
"...Oh?"
"Just keep your head down!!"
Sekurtiti calmly tilted her head like a young wife in front of the ATM after forgetting her PIN, so Kyousuke grabbed her arm and kept low while running across the floor. The thin inner walls would not work as shields, but remaining where Azalea could see them would be suicide. Even if it was only a thin wall, it would be best to vanish into a blind spot.
He heard what sounded more like an amplified version of a buzzing killer bee than a dragonfly.
He peered around the edge of the crumbling wall and looked into the sky which was no longer covered by glass.
Azalea could have flown into the apartment if she wanted, but she remained outside. She followed a circular course around the building and kept a set distance while making slight shifts to the left and right. That was likely the best course of action when attacking a high-rise building with an attack helicopter. She was avoiding the Summoning Ceremony and attempting to turn Kyousuke and the others to mincemeat before they could take advantage of a Material or the protective circle.
This routine was different from when her pride had caused her noble blood to boil.
A bitter look came over Kyousuke as he realized that defeat may have taught her how to change the way she used her power.
"That's based on the Meganeura, a Quad Motors personal flight unit, but I thought that was only a mobility support device for infantry and was derived from a hang glider. She's added way too much crap on there, dammit."
"Whatever the case, the entire apartment will collapse if she keeps this up. The tomb keepers waiting down below will be crushed, so we need to do something and soon."
"I know that."
With their opponent in the air, it would indeed be hard to start a Summoning Ceremony battle, but hard was not impossible. The Artificial Sacred Ground was a 20 meter cube that appeared from the point of the Incense Grenade detonation. So even if Azalea was in the air, he could trap her in a summoner's cage if he threw the Incense Grenade when she had another building's wall behind her.
It was all about timing.
Step one was making sure Azalea did not notice what he was up to. If she found out he was trying to start a Summoning Ceremony battle, she would grow cautious of the buildings behind her.
Also, there was a waiting period of several seconds between pulling the Incense Grenade's pin and its detonation. The ones Kyousuke carried now took 5 seconds. That might not seem very long, but it was plenty of time for any one of the weapons spread out from Azalea's demonic legs. For example, the machinegun could fire 2000 shots every minute and each shot was twice the size of an anti-materiel rifle bullet. Without a protective circle around him, half his body would be blown away if one so much as grazed his shoulder. 5-10 such weapons were pursuing him, so he could not be optimistic about those 5 seconds. He had to assume that single Meganeura had more firepower than an entire unit of attack helicopters.
Thoughtlessly challenging it would not lead to a miracle occurring.
Kyousuke used his Repliglass Blood-Sign to swiftly pull in a fire extinguisher sitting a short distance away. But that was not enough on its own. He focused on the nerves in his ears and heard a dangerous sound coming from multiple locations. It was not Azalea. I came from within the floor which had almost entirely lost its walls and pillars like some ruins bombed down to the foundation.
(That's from the remnants of the kitchen and bathroom. There's gas leaking from both areas. )
He grabbed two bent cellphone batteries and metal clips from the rubble on the floor. And fire was readily available.
He slowly exhaled and made a suggestion.
"You need to set things up so we won't die in the 5 seconds after I throw the Incense Grenade. Create a smokescreen with the fire extinguisher and then throw some fire into the kitchen and bathroom to trigger an explosion. If Azalea is distracted by the light and noise long enough, then we win. If she's unfazed, then this will be considerably more difficult. Prepare yourself."
"Y-yes. Anything is fine if we can strike back at the tomb raiders."
She never had a choice in the first place.
Even so, Kyousuke waited until after Sekurtiti nodded to reach into his pants pocket and pull out the Incense Grenade their lives depended on. It looked like a hair spray can with a round pin and lever on the top. Anyone unfamiliar with his industry would probably think it was a flash grenade.
He waited for the right moment.
After learning of defeat, Azalea would not let her guard down. She was not a ferocious beast that knew no enemies; she was an injured beast. She refused to get too close and focused on killing him with every bit of firepower available to her.
Kyousuke pressed up against one of the few remaining inner walls and grabbed the Incense Grenade and its lever in one hand.
He passed his other hand's index finger through the round pin and toyed with it by alternately bending his finger like a hook and straightening it.
Sweat dripped down his nose.
Next to him, Sekurtiti wiped the sweat away like he was a doctor performing surgery. He focused every nerve in his body to pick up the amplified killer bee noise coming from the outside.
(Come on...)
The way he focused on his opponent may have been like a cameraman trying to get a shot of a total solar eclipse. He gulped as he watched the sunlight reflected off the opposite building and waited for another shadow to cover it up.
(Come on!!)
The light bent.
The surface of white light on the flat glass wall gained the dark silhouette of a curly-haired girl's slender and alluring body combined with heavy weaponry.
Kyousuke and Sekurtiti seemed to burst from the wall as they began moving.
The diversion was gold-adorned Sekurtiti's job. She threw the fire extinguisher from behind cover and threw a battery wrapped in cloth and set on fire into the remains of the kitchen and bathroom. Azalea fired a spray of machinegun fire each time, but not all of the traps had to work properly. All that mattered was that the heavily-armed Meganeura was focused elsewhere.
At the same time, Kyousuke pulled the pin of the Incense Grenade he held, leaned out from behind the thin wall, and threw the metal can out into the sky with all his might.
Once it was shot, the fire extinguisher's white smokescreen filled the floor. The ignited batteries failed to trigger any explosions, but the machinegun bullets that followed them did ignite the leaking city gas.
The Incense Grenade passed right by Azalea without being shot down and collided with the other building wall behind her. It bounced, rotated, and then detonated.
"Here we go, Sekurtiti! Get ready!!"
The summoner and vessel would be automatically taken the point of the detonation, but they could not let their guard down. If there was a piece of rebar sticking out in their path, they would be skewered. There was also a risk of Azalea's gunfire hitting them. Physical attacks would only be negated once they landed on the wall, hit a White Thorn, and summoned a Material.
Their risk was the same as those summoners who he and Biondetta had taken out with their Blood-Signs earlier. He could not help but sense his own genes in Azalea now.
But that proved to be the least of his worries.
The child had exceeded her parent's expectations.
Nothing happened. Even though the Incense Grenade did detonate.
Even Kyousuke was caught off guard by this. He had thrown the Incense Grenade and it had detonated while he was viewing her with the naked eye and while she was within range of the Artificial Sacred Ground, but the Artificial Sacred Ground he needed did not appear. Nor did he feel the tugging that ignored gravity.
(It failed!? But why would it...?)
Before he could verbalize his question, that skilled summoner worked out the answer. There was only one explanation for this unreasonable result.
Repliglass was a bestselling weapon all around the world that used silicon stem cells to take on the structure of plants and animals.
And a summoner could only fight a Summoning Ceremony battle with another human. He could destroy a tank or fighter that happened to be inside the same Artificial Sacred Ground and a dragon's breath or a stone thrown by a giant could leave the Artificial Sacred Ground and destroy the city, but he could not open an Artificial Sacred Ground by targeting a completely unmanned weapon.
Which meant...
"I thought that thing exposed too much skin for a logical and efficient weapon. I mean, it uses a swimsuit-like console suit without a helmet to cover the face or head. But I was wrong."
The weapon calmly moving horizontally through the sky with its dragonfly wings once more targeting him.
No, the heavily-armed Meganeura was not the dragonfly shape itself.
"Is that tomb raider what I think it is...?"
There was another reason why Sekurtiti's techniques as a leader had showed no effect.
Simply put...
"Is the whole thing Repliglass, including Azalea inside it!? Did she realize an Incense Grenade wouldn't work against an entirely unmanned girl-shaped weapon!? Dammit!!"
Immediately afterwards, the inhuman Repliglass modelled after a human opened fire.
An irregular tremor shook the building.
The tomb keepers cried out while waiting on the ground floor. The only one looking calmly toward the ceiling was Biondetta in her modified yukata with her silver Blood-Sign resting on her shoulder and the white serpent slithering across her body after emerging from the ample cleavage left exposed like an Oiran.
Several cracks ran through the walls and a piece of concrete fell right next to her. And on this ground floor, a great mass of seawater awaited beyond a single pane of glass like in an aquarium. If that broke, the entire floor would be flooded.
But the horned demon was not at all tense as she moved her bewitching lips.
"That bastard ran into trouble, didn't he?"
Azalea Magentarain giggled inside the logistical support Hornet. She was not wearing a revealing swimsuit-like console suit. Her curly blonde hair was worn up, revealing the nape of her neck, and she wore a blue yukata as if she had come to Toy Dream 35 to enjoy the current campaign. The kimono was somewhat baggy, but it was short, it had gothic lolita lace and frills in places, and it used a rose and thorn pattern.
She used a hand in a white glove to brush back her reddish blonde hair and she smiled.
"Now, how do you like my life-size figurine, my - dear - father? I did my best to recreate everything from the budding breasts and slender waist to the alluring color and texture of the skin. I hope you were suitably bewitched."
"That is a perfect creation, milady."
"Yes, but it will only fool him the one time. That does not make up for the R&D costs. Regardless, this will have opened the way to the Founder's Gallery."
When she slapped her small hand on the Hornet's wall, several Repliglass weapons slid down from metal rails and out the rear cargo door.
They were all identical Serial Azaleas. They were fully unmanned anti-summoner weapons that combined a girl's slender form with a heavily-armed Meganeura. There was no more need to keep up the act, so a large number of them could be sent in to directly attack inside the apartment.
Explosive flames and black smoke burst from the apartment building in every direction.
The entire building would probably collapse soon, but Azalea still did not let her guard down.
"Tell The Saint that our trick was effective, but that it is not enough to finish off Shiroyama Kyousuke. Tell her to prepare the Offering Team as planned."
"Yes, milady."
"And we will head directly to the scene."
Azalea gave her instructions and then stored the #6 ribbon's pink reel in the chest of her yukata. The already opened chest of the baggy yukata was pushed dangerously loose.
"Milady."
"Hm? Oh, excuse me. I'm just not used to Japanese clothing. There are no buttons or zippers, so you only have a thick cloth belt to hold it shut. But it's also quite interesting."
With that quiet comment, the slender fingers of her fine white gloves fixed the yukata chest and then she took the giant metal cylinder that the elderly butler handed her. It was based on an 80mm grenade launcher and she rested it on her shoulder.
She was finally ready to launch an Incense Grenade for the Summoning Ceremony.
Just like in their previous battle, she leaned out the opened cargo door on the side of the Hornet and targeted with an optical sight that simply used a series of lenses.
"But Shiroyama Kyousuke might not be our only opponent here."
The shrine maiden twins Meinokawa Renge and Higan grew pale on the stairway landing.
They did not fully understand what was happening, but they could tell it was something unexpected. Specifically, something that Shiroyama Kyousuke found unexpected. That was far beyond anything they could handle.
"Wh-what are we supposed to do, um, Renge?"
"I'm not sure..."
They had two options: go up or go down.
Trying to join the fight would only get in Kyousuke's way, so hurrying down to join Biondetta and the tomb keepers would not be a bad decision. Setting aside any emotional or psychological arguments, that would help Kyousuke and Sekurtiti from a logic and efficiency perspective.
But the twin sisters were held in place by what Kyousuke had said. They did not know that Alice (with) Rabbit had made a change of plans and decided to battle Azalea. They still thought the plan was to use an Incense Grenade, summon a Material, destroy the upper floors, drop rubble into the ocean, and break through Bridesmaid, so they assumed he would need their help.
So they could not betray him. They could not leave him there.
"Let's go on up, Higan. We need to end this as soon as possible."
"R-right..."
Was that step a courageous thing, or was it reckless and foolish?
But their fate may have been the same no matter what choice they made.
They had been targeted from the beginning.
Targeted by the beautiful golden bird of prey known as Azalea Magentarain.
The air was split by a sound much like the expulsion of insecticide smoke for roach-extermination fumigation. Kyousuke and Sekurtiti had changed position to throw an Incense Grenade outside, so they could only watch as the projectile flew straight in through the window.
The many shots into the floor had destroyed almost all of the inner walls, so the family apartment had been half-transformed into a single giant space. The projectile trailed smoke as it cut across that entire space and fell toward the emergency stairway.
And right toward Renge and Higan who had just poked their heads up.
"An Incense Grenade...dammit!!"
It detonated just as Kyousuke frantically adjusted his grip on his Blood-Sign. The 20 meter cube opened around the surprised shrine maiden twins. It was an Artificial Sacred Ground. And a pair entirely ignored gravity as they followed the trail of smoke into the mansion.
Azalea Magentarain.
Fractal Leskins.
The girl glanced over at Kyousuke in midair and her eyes were bent in a smile far too seductive for her age. Her curly blonde hair and mini yukata that blended Japanese and Western styles fluttered in the wind, showing off the bright skin of her bared shoulders and up to the base of her thighs. Hers was a slender and lovely wickedness and that sadistic light reminded Kyousuke of a certain white evil.
Those former Government Award 930 monsters landed next to Renge and Higan before the twins could fight back in any way.
After the soles of Azalea's long boots scraped on the floor, she reached toward the open chest of her yukata and pulled out a ribbon reel in a risqué fashion.
The pink ribbon spiraled around on its own and formed a sturdy Blood-Sign. The initial stock of 3 White Thorns floated nearby and the wounded ruler smiled fiercely.
"Now, shall we begin? It is all to make Shiroyama Kyousuke suffer and nothing more."
"I don't think so!! Higan!!"
This won't lead anywhere good, honestly thought Kyousuke.
Letting Azalea and Renge fight was a bad idea. Because the entire floor was opened up, he was far removed from the emergency stairs. He was outside the Artificial Sacred Ground. If he was going to join the fight after it began, he would be forced to use up his initial 3 White Thorns, but he could not be picky now. If he did not join the fight, 300-level Renge and Higan did not stand a chance.
But as if to mock that thought of his, Azalea knocked a White Thorn into the collection of Roses and sent the countless red balls scattering around. And she made an announcement in her modified mini-yukata with a large flower decoration on the back.
"Could the crude gentleman please leave? Shiroyama Kyousuke, we have some other opponents for you."
"..."
Was it more of those Azalea-shaped Repliglass weapons? He looked to his surroundings, but...
"The Saint, this is your job. Send in the Offering Team."
The sound of buzzing wings was far louder than before. The mid-sized transport Repliglass known as a Hornet had flown up right alongside the destroyed apartment. The side cargo door opened to reveal a nun with her seductive body contained in a graceful habit. When she snapped her fingers, similar nuns appeared. Unlike The Saint, they were not complete individuals. They were all young girls who were just beginning to build up their individuality inside the convent. The height did not seem to bother them at all as they jumped calmly over the pure stream of air and into the building.
Kyousuke assumed they were new summoners or something like that, but it did not matter. Getting inside Azalea and Renge's Artificial Sacred Ground came first. He was used to fighting against a group on his own, so he could still fight just fine even if the nuns intervened as well.
"Offering Team, begin special action. The Lord may not forgive you, but Her Majesty will surely accept your entire being."
Or so he thought.
But The Saint's voice smoothly continued.
"Pierce your own chests. And make sure that Alice (with) Rabbit has a good view."
His breath caught in his throat.
Even then, the situation was underway. Those incomplete nuns looked downright adorable, but then they all tore the fabric covering their chests. They did not seem to care that this revealed their sensual breasts covered by the unfashionable underwear that had likely been issued to them. They held what looked like Blood-Signs, but they were not actually Blood-Signs. The tip had been replaced by something like a sharply pointed wooden stake.
They did not hesitate.
Each of the 20 or so young girls pressed the bottom of their modified Blood-Sign against the floor and placed the sharp tip against the center of their own chest. They then leaned forward as if to place their full body weight on it.
If they really were nuns, this would be an unforgivable act. The monotheistic religion symbolized by the cross might allow martyrs who risked their life for their faith, but it did not allow suicide. But based on what The Saint had said, they seemed to expect the Queen to accept their soul even if their god abandoned it. And yet that evil would never pay any attention to the puny 7 billion people on this planet!!
On one side were Meinokawa Renge and Higan who had once risked their lives alongside him.
On the other side were suicidal nuns he had never met who belonged to a Queen worshiping cult.
It was obvious which one he needed to prioritize. There was no need to hesitate. But at the same time, he was Alice (with) Rabbit. No matter the situation, he could not allow any death. From enemy or ally. And since this had clearly been caused by one of the White Queen's distortions, he had to stop it at all costs. His soul was raging inside him.
This was a countermeasure put together with a perfect understanding of the life form known as Shiroyama Kyousuke.
This Queen worshiping cult was the Queen and Kyousuke's "child". At the same time, it was an endlessly sinister thing.
"Kh..."
Time passed even as thoughts raced through his mind.
He could see Renge and Higan having trouble against Azalea. They were right in front of him and he could save them with a single action, but more than 20 nuns were trying to take their own lives around him. They were victims who had been so blinded by the Queen's false light that they forgot all about their original god and came to believe this was true salvation.
"Goddammiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit!!"
When Shiroyama Kyousuke yelled, identical alluring smiles appeared on Azalea and The Saint's lips. They had inherited that smile from the White Queen.
At the very last second, Kyousuke redirected his salvation. His Blood-Sign gave a roar as it flew horizontally to strike, break, and knock away the modified Blood-Signs the girls were using to pierce their own chests.
He chose one side and abandoned the other.
And that choice squeezed at his chest and the soul contained therein...
Renge and Higan did not have any hard feelings over his choice to distance them from salvation. They felt this was how it should be. They were summoners but also shrine maidens. Even if the god they worshiped and the scriptures they followed were different, they could see through to the essence of any who entrusted themselves to their god.
These girls who had chosen suicide were different.
They were not worshipers of the Queen and they were not even nuns whose souls had been polished in a convent.
They were probably no more than girls gathered at random within Toy Dream 35 who then had their sense of self temporarily taken away by incense, suggestion, and group psychology. One point the religious wished to reach was to remain unfazed by anything, but that was not the same thing as containing nothing whatsoever inside. These girls clearly had no god at the core of their being.
And Renge and Higan were also professional summoners.
Their skill might not have been at the 900 level and they might not have reached the point where they could become their own legend, but they knew which way the scales would tip when the life of an amateur was weighed against that of an expert.
So they had to remain resolute to the very end.
"Oh, it's so adorable that you would think that."
The Artificial Sacred Ground had already vanished.
Azalea and Fractal reigned supreme on that rubble-strewn floor. The pink ribbon unraveled and trailed along the floor where the shrine maiden sisters lay collapsed on their sides like broken dolls as they slowly repeated the same action with empty eyes. Renge was probably still trying to fight even now. The way she clenched her hands and thrust them forward looked a lot like using a Blood-Sign.
When Azalea snapped her white-gloved fingers, her elderly butler did not utter a single complaint as he picked up the twin shrine maidens and held them under his arms like they were the girl's overstuffed vacation bags.
Kyousuke had only just finished knocking out the last of the suicide squad known as the Offering Team.
"Azalea..."
"Oh? How rare of you to be giving that look to anyone other than Her Majesty. Have you finally decided to give me the time of day?"
She viewed attention from Shiroyama Kyousuke as a positive thing.
Those were the Queen's eyes. They were filled with wickedness.
"Do you finally understand what we're after here? We don't know what form the ancient map takes, so we could not just bring down the entire apartment building. But that is also what you are after. I thought you might run out clutching the ancient map if we poked at the building from outside, but...oh, I see. So it takes that form, does it?"
As the Queen began to reside within them, Azalea's eyes turned toward the brown girl accompanying Kyousuke.
...And at the same time, the logic and efficiency in those eyes was the same as Kyousuke's.
A smile spread across the face of that monster who had become a child born from the White Queen and Shiroyama Kyousuke.
"And I now have two bargaining chips that work exclusively on you: Meinokawa Renge and Meinokawa Higan. You don't mind trading the Diamond Master Key for one and the ancient map for the other, do you? This is checkmate."
She had it all.
Azalea Magentarain was on an entirely different level from the summoner he had once fought who had been manipulated by her inexperienced pride. She now carefully observed her enemy, lined up every method available to her, and threw out all pride and honor to unhesitatingly grab for the optimal answer. Kyousuke and the Queen had done this. They had transformed her into an irredeemable monster.
"What are you all trying to do with the Founder's Gallery? I'm not talking about your ultimate objective. I already know it's to be loved by the Queen. But what specifically are you going to do with it!?"
"The Natural History's missing entries."
"Kh."
"That strays from Bridesmaid's primary path, but I am sure everyone will accept it. And you will soon understand exactly why they will accept it."
The amplified sound of buzzing killer bees shook the air.
"You might not be carrying the Diamond Master Key with you, so we will be leaving for now. I will send you an invitation to the next party. Make sure you do not forget the Diamond Master Key and the ancient map when you show up. I will be opening the chest on the spot, so don't think you can trick me with detailed fakes. And for each part of that dress code you fail to obey, one of the shrine maiden twins will lose their life, so think very carefully about what you plan to do."
A Summoning Ceremony battle only worked with both a summoner and a vessel.
Kyousuke prepared to throw his Blood-Sign like a javelin to hit Fractal between the eyes, but then someone else interfered.
One of the Azalea-shaped Repliglass weapons flew in from the side and opened fire with a machinegun. A giant sewing machine seemed to pierce holes in the floor to separate Kyousuke and Sekurtiti from Azalea, Fractal, and the twins. The entire emergency staircase near the outer wall was torn away and his nemesis was thrown outside.
The wind caught Azalea's modified yukata and it blew wildly around her.
The afterimage of the bright skin visible from the bared shoulders, open chest, and short hem were burned into the eyes of everyone watching.
Kyousuke ran across the floor as fast as his legs would take him, but several Azalea-shaped weapons swarmed in like a flock of seagulls. The falling summoner and vessel and the defeated shrine maidens they held were collected by the unmanned weapons and then taken away into the sky along with the Hornet.
There was nothing he could do.
Unlike the past, it was Kyousuke who had to slam his Blood-Sign against the floor and watch her leave.
The Serial Azaleas had superb specs. Even when carrying a burden in both hands, they could match the speed of the flying Hornet, land inside the cargo door, and stow themselves away.
"Excellent work, milady."
"Yes, you too."
The Hornet had a lot of cargo space given its overall size, but it was still cramped once the several Serial Azaleas returned. Especially when two hostages who mindlessly repeated the same action were included.
"...Hee hee hee."
"Milady?"
The elderly butler's tone rose as a question at the end of the word, but the laughing modified yukata girl did not reply for a while. She held her small shoulders in her arms, doubled over, and still could not suppress the powerful tremor that rose from the core of her body. The large flower decoration shook while supported atop her hips like a ball.
Her determined face may have been small enough to inspire a protective desire inside those who saw it, but it was now filled with sinister delight. No, it might be better to simply say her face melted with a kind of pleasure wholly inappropriate for her age. Even as her lips started to grow slack, she desperately tensed them, but she had no way of hiding the sweet scent coming from her curled hair or the flushed nape of her neck.
"Fwah ha...ah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!"
Her shoulders had already been bared and a dangerous amount of her modest chest's bright white skin spilled from the yukata, but she did not care. In fact, she had a sadistic look of irresistible enjoyment.
"Did you see the look on Shiroyama Kyousuke's face? The hostages as well as the key and chest he needs to reach the Natural History's missing entries were right there, but he could only helplessly clench his teeth. He was like a lowly dog forbidden from devouring the feast before his eyes by the chain around his neck!! Yes, yes. This is Shiroyama Kyousuke. This is how to truly enjoy him. Outdo him, take everything away from him, and trample on him! Oh, such a liberating feeling! Oh, such an almighty feeling!! This amusement must by why Her Majesty can't stop loving him!!!!!"
Still doubled over, Azalea backed up and pressed her small butt against the bulkhead. She may have been laughing so hard her legs were growing weak. She then slid her hips down to the floor and kicked her slender legs around in their garter belt, white stockings, and long boots. Her modified yukata's short hem provided a view nearly up to the base of her thighs.
"..."
"Her Majesty resides within me right now. I can feel her joy like I'm holding it in my hand....Nnnn! Pant, pant. I am truly grateful to have a gentleman like you here. If I was alone, I would be unable to contain myself and might even begin a shameful act..."
The small girl was supposedly holding her own shoulders, but the slender fingertips in her white gloves were wriggling like independent creatures. She felt like she was resisting the pull of a powerful magnet, so if she let her guard down even for a moment, they would crawl over toward her flat chest.
Of course, Azalea had not always been like "this".
The elderly butler named Fractal had originally served a man named Claude Magentarain. That man had sacrificed the many things he owned to save Azalea. The girl had never seen the man since. So to repay Claude for everything he had given up for her, she had wanted to use her life toward some great achievement.
That great achievement was the White Queen.
But that light had been too powerful, so it had blasted the footing out from under her and distorted how she defined her world. She probably no longer saw any distinction between her heart's original attraction to Claude and its later attraction to the Queen. She simply wanted them. Enough to devour...no, enough to drown in. She had shown signs of recalling something more pure after her defeat against Shiroyama Kyousuke, but even her pursuit of that had led to the Queen.
Even in the unrealistic amusement park city of Toy Dream 35, military Repliglass weapons flying around the sky in broad daylight would stand out. It was also possible she had been detected by the Government and Illegal forces that had taken root in the city.
But that did not actually matter.
A much louder sound of buzzing wings passed by directly overhead.
More than 200 identical Hornets were circling randomly above Toy Dream 35. And they were releasing tons of deception weapons, so the control towers would see more than 10 times as many dots on the radar. This was of course a diversion and they would slip past the eyes of everyone watching, land in the many Blue Whale Repliglass submarines waiting on the ocean surface, and disappear to the ocean bottom.
Azalea and the others still had work to do in Toy Dream 35, so they could not do the same. They would disembark at a rooftop along the way and leave the pandemonium in the sky.
One of their allies had prepared bags on the corner of the rooftop, hidden behind an industrial air conditioner unit. The elderly butler stuffed the two hostages into a suitcase and a duffel bag and then calmly followed after the ringlet curl girl.
The giant bridges between buildings were packed full of boys and girls wearing yukatas and jinbei for the Tanabata fair. Azalea was a foreigner and her yukata was a striking fusion of Japanese and Western designs, but she still did not stand out much. Toy Dream 35 was a foreign-owned tourist city, so people from other countries were catered to with things like signs written in the alphabet.
"You should have tried wearing Japanese clothing too."
"This is my formal dress as your servant and it also binds me as a vessel."
There were an awful lot of students for midday on a weekday, but that was likely due to the Hornets flying around overhead. The high-rise apartment had been attacked by summoners, but that did not erase the gunfire and explosions.
"Oh, Fuuki-san! You came!!"
"Shut up, you brat. Why do I have to babysit you to and from school too?"
A girl with long black hair and a red blazer was pulling on a small boy's hand.
That meant the schools had called off classes for the day given the major incident. There was clearly something wrong with the country's crisis management skills. Why were they releasing the children into the streets when there was a firefight occurring in the streets?
Azalea continued on to their base as she gave an exasperated sigh, passed by some tourists busy aiming their smartphones overhead, and took a round fan with a diagram of the summer constellations on it when a Gozaru Samurai costume handed it to her. Everyone around her was raising their head and defenselessly exposing their throat as if offering that vital point up to her.
For a frontline base in Toy Dream 35, they had chosen a haunted house modelled after a Western mansion built on a plaza-like suspended platform. They of course did not use the passageways meant for guests. The haunted house was known to have countless backstage passageways for staff, but not even the staff visited a lot of the space inside. There was a machine room that stored the giant gears and winches that controlled the largescale electronic attraction. Needless to say, the staff avoided that area because there was plenty of risk of getting caught in the exposed machinery. But if one knew where the dangerous spots were, they would have a decently large space all to themselves. It was a little scattered about, but the space was about the same size as half a school building.
"We're back."
"That was quick."
The reply came from The Saint in her graceful nun's habit. Her only job had been sending in the Offering Team, so she had returned a little sooner.
"As planned, we have the 'packages'."
Azalea's frilly sleeve swayed as she pointed a thumb over her shoulder.
The elderly butler held a duffel bag and suitcase under his arms. And they were both just big enough to contain a small girl if her arms and legs were curled up.
"We will soon send an invitation to Shiroyama Kyousuke, so come up with a site to make the trade."
"Understood."
Make no mistake: their frontline base was not where they would make the trade. The enemy would know the location of the trade once the invitation was sent, so it had to be a disposable location. They would have to send someone in to investigate it ahead of time and clean up afterwards, but they wanted somewhere they would not otherwise need to visit before or after the trade. The conditions were somewhat different than for a secret base. They wanted a place where they would leave no trace, where they could monitor the entire area, where it was difficult for anyone but the enemy to intervene, and where they had multiple exits just in case. That sounded simple, but was actually quite difficult.
"Tell Doctor S that I am thankful. We may have been the ones to give the Serial Azaleas and the Offering Team an actual form, but the idea itself was incredibly valuable. To think the Shiroyama Kyousuke would falter like that."
"Did you enjoy your taste of that rabbit dish?"
Azalea reflected on the tremor that rose from the core of her body with too much intensity to hide. It was like recalling the juicy flavor filling one's mouth after tearing off a large mouthful of thick meat. She held her body in her hands, she doubled over, and yet she still seemed unable to contain herself. The open chest of her modified yukata was already growing even looser.
Fractal quickly spoke to her.
"Milady."
"A-ahem!! ...I apologize for that. Well, I can hardly complain if I think of it as taking even a small step closer to Her Majesty. My tongue is still nowhere near as refined as that of a gourmet like Her Majesty, though."
"My, it was that great? Then I might just have to try some of it myself. To feel something closer to Her Majesty's happiness."
"Let's share it amongst us all. But we must make sure to restrict ourselves to no more than the occasional taste. Never so much that we earn Her Majesty's wrath."
The girl and nun both laughed while surrounded by a strange charm and allure.
Unlike the previous groups, a certain scent seemed to reside within them as they continued with their planning meeting.
"Fractal, remove the packages from their cases. We can't have them dying."
"Of course, milady."
"Oh, dear. But isn't abducting them enough?" asked The Saint."Won't Shiroyama Kyousuke appear before you whether they are alive or dead? He can't see what happens here, so he wouldn't know."
"Yes, but that would be too boring." Azalea pulled the chest of her yukata back together and brushed her golden curls back with a hand."If they are not alive, I cannot take them from Shiroyama Kyousuke in front of his eyes. Wouldn't that be Her Majesty's way of doing things?"
"Oh, you are making me jealous now. Perhaps I too should have had a taste, even if just a mouthful."
The Saint brought her index finger to her lips and narrowed her eyes in a spellbound look.
Meanwhile, the two shrine maidens were removed from the sealed bags. They were still in their 24 hours of mindlessness after suffering a defeat in the Summoning Ceremony, so they lay on their sides and slowly repeated the same action with empty eyes. There was no sign of their former personalities. If someone had pulled on their hands, they would not have hesitated to throw themselves into the gears which were taller than they were and would tear their bodies to pieces.
To make sure that did not happen by accident, Azalea sat down next to Renge, who was moving more than Higan, and clung to her upper body like she was hugging a stuffed animal. The slowly moving girl's mind would be entirely empty now, but it still felt nice stopping that entirely pointless counterattack. The mechanically repeated motions of Renge's arms and legs caught on Azalea's yukata and threatened to pull it from her body, but she did not care. This was the joy of one who used their power to trample on others. She pressed her ear to the living sacrifice's chest and slowly shut her eyes as she abandoned herself to the beating heart there.
"I will look after them for now. Contact me if anything happens."
"Understood. I will begin searching for a suitable location for the invitation."
After The Saint left, the elderly butler spoke to the girl.
"Milady, you will catch cold if you sleep there."
"Heading to the bed now would be tasteless. More importantly, Fractal, bring me you-know-what."
"...Milady."
"Just do it. You know my tastes."
With an exasperated sigh, Fractal Leskins briefly moved to the back of the machine room. By the time Azalea began to doze off while clinging to her large stuffed animal, he returned.
He held a cheap convenience store bag in his hands.
He gave a complicated look when his master's eyes lit up and she hopped to her feet.
"I can fix you any kind of food you might like."
"This is a different issue entirely, so I'm not insulting your skill. Make no mistake about that."
She said that, but Azalea was so busy snatching away the bag and peeking in at its contents that she did not even look his way. The bag had a limited edition Tanabata design with super-deformed versions of Orihime and Hikoboshi drawn on it and it produced more and more mass-produced hot snacks: fried chicken, French fries, thick-cut bacon, fried fish, spring rolls, corndogs, and a strange type of popcorn that was popped only after ordering it. That last one was a new product with cheese or caramel powder that was poured in the bag and shaken into the popcorn. To drink, she had a zero calorie soda with tons of artificial sweetener in it.
Unlike before, her smile was now that of a child.
Even as part of a noble family, she secretly bought junk food as if rebelling against something. This was another side of the complicated girl named Azalea Magentarain.
She showed no annoying table manners and did not even use a fork or knife. She removed her white gloves and carefully wiped down each finger and then her palm with disposable napkins that used the antibacterial properties of bamboo leaves as part of the Tanabata fair. After that, she grabbed a fry that had an excessive amount of salt and grease and she tossed it into her mouth. She immediately squeezed her eyes shut and kicked her slender legs while still hugging her doll. The visible white of her thighs went beyond risqué and provided glimpses of a truly dangerous territory.
"Mmm, mmm, mmmmm!!"
As a butler, Fractal could say nothing when his master was enjoying herself so much.
Azalea moved on to eating some of the fried chicken and spring rolls, but then she changed her target. Just for fun, she held a piece of fried fish out toward the sacrifice she held in her arms.
"Whoops. Oh, this is surprisingly difficult... I can't let it fall apart, which isn't easy. Maybe I should have started with the fried chicken."
She struggled for a while. Whether she noticed or not, the flower decoration on the back of her hips was swaying left and right to match the movements of her small butt. The empty-eyed black-haired shrine maiden's lovely lips were glistening with grease and the chest of her shrine maiden outfit was covered in crumbled flakes of fish, but she did not so much as move an eyebrow. She only slowly moved her arms and legs to repeat the same motion.
"Ah, she's chewing!"
Azalea sounded like someone watching their new puppy eating for the first time. She finally succeeded in shoving the fried fish into the gap between the girl's lips. It may have been some kind of reflex, but the shrine maiden touched the foreign object with her tongue, realized it was food, and started weakly and slowly moving her jaw. But instead of trying to swallow it, she let it start to spill from a corner of her mouth, so Azalea grabbed her skinny jaw and forced it to face upwards. This was a fairly dangerous thing to do, but it led the shrine maiden to swallow the fluid in the back of her throat.
Azalea narrowed her eyes and brought her small tongue to the index finger that had been touching Renge's lips. She licked off the grease from the fried food.
And she spoke with a satisfied look of superiority.
"Hee hee. I think I'll feed the blonde one later."
"Do you like one of them better, milady?"
"Not really. But, well, the one with something I lack does seem more appealing. I wonder how she cares for that black hair. Does she use a different method from us? I am endlessly curious."
Azalea pulled a corndog from the convenience store bag as she answered. She started to bring it to her doll's mouth as well, but she must have decided the stick would make it dangerous because she gave up and stuck it in her own mouth instead.
This may have been another unfulfilled side of Azalea.
Magentarain was a noble family. She had many siblings who shared her blood, but she herself was an illegitimate child born of a commoner and she was the youngest of the siblings. She had been given few chances to interact with a family and she had not been blessed with a brother or sister younger than her. Feeding this girl...no, taking care of this girl may have been a subconscious replacement for that.
If Claude had not been "away", she might have leaped right into his chest and had him adore her. Her eyes narrowed a little as she imagined that.
But Azalea Magentarain was a worshiper first and foremost.
Enough so that the Queen's ecstasy filled her eyes and Kyousuke's logic filled her thoughts.
If it was necessary for her goal, she would dispose of this soft replacement. In fact, she would do the same with her real family.
"Okay, Fractal."
"Yes?"
She appeared to be dozing off as she felt the sacrifice's pulse through her ear.
"Let's begin our preparations here. We have two faithful servants who will do anything we want them to. Let's do something that will truly make Shiroyama Kyousuke scream."
"Onii-chan..."
Inside a room that took up the entire top floor of a luxury apartment building, the slender bikini girl named Aika waved around two boxes of chocolates: one shaped like mushrooms and the other like bamboo shoots. This was a part of a hundred years' war or an endless Armageddon, but the Tanabata fair had changed that somewhat. A limited edition advertised as "An overgrown bamboo shoot that forms a light stick of bamboo!" had been released, so the bamboo shoot version was going to be the winner for the time being.
As Aika cheerfully opened the boxes, Kyousuke flatly spoke to her.
"Do you need something?"
"The liger is super scared and cowering over in a corner, so could you lower the level of irritation in here? If you rode an elevator with a normal person right now, they'd probably suffocate to death."
"Hm?"
Kyousuke looked over in surprise and found the 5 meter combination of a lion and white tiger was indeed in the corner. More than the king of beasts, this was an emperor who did not exist in the natural world, and yet she was trembling like a kitten out in the cold. Her tail was tucked between her back legs and her body language clearly said "please don't look at me" in the cat language.
"Sorry, sorry, liger. This has nothing to do with you."
"Onii-chan, if you really want to make up with her, you need to offer her an extra-large hunk of meat on the bone."
"Yes, I suppose a frightened animal is supposed to be dangerous."
Adventurer Shiroyama Kyousuke entered the tiger's den with a giant club of meat that looked like a giant hunk of ham before it was made into ham. It was just like what one might see shown off at a Spanish restaurant.
And Biondetta did not betray anyone's expectations.
That demon was more cruel than mischievous and she raised her hands behind Kyousuke.
"Wahh!! Crash, bang, boom!!!!!!"
"Hee! Are you trying to kill me, you idiot!?"
Right in front of history's greatest carnivore, Kyousuke and Biondetta started having something like a pillow fight using giant hunks of meat. Everyone's beloved big sister rolled around, causing some highly indecent things to occur at the chest and thighs of her mini-yukata.
On a sofa at the other side of the room, Modified China Dress Lu Niang Lan was curled up with her arms around her knees. She had gone entirely pale and no one would have believed this was the legendary assassin who had killed Government's Award 1000 after he became a global tyrant.
"It doesn't matter... I'll just find a way to shine in this position. Eh heh heh heh."
But this was no time to be goofing off.
Meinokawa Renge and Meinokawa Higan had been taken away by Bridesmaid who worshipped the Queen. He had to save them somehow.
"Excuse me."
They were all interrupted by the silver-haired brown girl who was too skinny to call slender, who wore gold decorations and red jewels, and who was wrapped in bandages and a Y-shaped cloth as thin as fairy wings. The way she took charge may have been from her position as a ruler.
"I would like to get down to business. I cannot abandon the summoner and vessel who helped save the tomb keepers under my command. As that irreverent lot holds the crucial cards and we do not know when the time limit will arrive, we cannot afford to waste even a second."
She argued from a position of responsibility just like a class representative.
When the light of her pale blue eyes reached them, they all gathered in front of Sekurtiti. Even the frightened white liger obeyed her and sat in front of her.
After obediently sitting down, Kyousuke raised his hand for permission to speak.
"It is true that it looks like Bridesmaid is in complete control here. We don't know where Renge and Higan are, so we can't attack their hideout. But just waiting for their invitation earns 0 points as a plan. That leaves us no chance of taking them back."
"Meaning?"
"They need the Founder's Gallery. They even mentioned the Natural History's missing entries. They want the Diamond Master Key and the ancient map no matter what. That means they're sure to designate a location for a hostage exchange....Of course, the odds of them returning the hostages safely are more or less 0."
"But what does that give us? They will choose the location, so they are still in control. If we complain about the location, it might lead Bridesmaid to harm the hostages. So aren't we stuck waiting regardless?"
"You're surprisingly hardheaded. You like to stick with the first step, don't you? Everyone will walk all over you in the world of the Summoning Ceremony where all sorts of monsters run rampant, " interrupted Biondetta (who made sure to raise her hand first)."It's true that Bridesmaid is in control with the hostages in their grasp, but this city is the home ground of my client and his Government and Illegal hangers-on. They know the area far better than outsiders like Golden Luxury or The Saint. And there are only so many locations in a city that will satisfy a professional for this kind of hostage exchange. My client and his hangers-on know Toy Dream 35 well enough to have likely thought up a few candidate locations right away."
Next was Swimsuit Aika who was giving a giant hunk of meat on the bone to the white liger who had calmed down by now.
"They're probably quickly searching out a delicious restaurant for their party and preparing to decorate it, but we only have to get ahead of them and buy up all those restaurants. Do that and we can stab them in the back before they're ready."
"Ah, " said Sekurtiti with a surprisingly cute voice.
This may have been a glimpse of the girl before she had become half divine.
"To be blunt, this would never work out if we tried to turn things around after arriving at the stage Bridesmaid had already set for us. It would be like starting a chess game while already in checkmate and trying to turn it around from there. But things are different if we sneak around and make a surprise attack when the pieces are still scattered and the checkmate is not yet complete. We can reclaim control of the situation."
Coming up with the actual methods was a job for Aika in Government and Lu Niang Lan in Illegal. A projector displayed the data they had gathered onto the ceiling. This was one of the self-indulgent items installed for the swimsuit shut-in to surf the web while lying down.
"This is a crime prevention map that Government updates in real time."
"And this is a map of the patrolling police officers that Illegal keeps tabs on."
"This is a map of the areas controlled by the different factions within Government."
"This shows the territories of the different organizations and families that make up Illegal. Think of this map as the underground version of that last one."
"Honestly, Illegal's search system looks so dangerous."
"I don't want to hear any talk of righteousness from a group that used to be led by a scumbag who kept his vessels in animal cages."
"You're getting off topic, " pointed out Kyousuke for a gentle course correction.
There were plenty of areas people rarely went, but comparing the 2 data sources eliminated most of those. People apparently already controlled the harbor or warehouses at night, as well as the party spaces at fancy restaurants or hotels. They looked private but were actually casually monitored, so no outsider professional would go there.
But there were a few areas not filled in by either color.
It would be hard to find somewhere not covered at any time around the clock, but they only needed somewhere that cleared out in the early morning or late at night. After all, this was for an exchange and not a hideout.
"Here. This is the primary candidate."
Kyousuke used a lecturer's laser pointer to indicate a point on the ceiling map.
"Z Block's metropolitan zoo. It's empty from around midnight until the employees arrive at 6 in the morning, and no faction uses it for anything. The temperature is automatically controlled by heaters, so they barely have any nightshift staff. This meets the conditions we're looking for."
"And isn't this the amusement park rumored to be haunted by the ghost of a girl who fell into a cage and was eaten by a lion, Onii-chan?"
"I'm pretty sure those rumors started when people saw you going out with your pet for late night trips to the convenience store."
"Really, though. A faceless phantom girl in an amusement park? We're not talking about The World's Happiest Girl who was supposedly involved in the creation of the Toy Dream parks."
"What was that again? Didn't President Toydream create the amusement parks to match a new fairy tale he had written, but that fairy tale was never released and no one knows what the story is?"
"But I've heard the completed story is hidden somewhere in the Toy Dream cities scattered across the world. A lot of books end up in my Chinatown trying to pass themselves off as the real one. They even go out of their way to use authentic paper and ink like with those fake Da Vinci diagrams or Einstein journals..."
"We're really getting off topic now..."
Aika actually steered them back on topic for once.
And it was Sekurtiti who resumed the discussion with a puzzled look on her face.
"Anyway, there is no guarantee Bridesmaid will choose this location, is there? There are plenty of other possibilities."
"Yes. A quick glance here shows about 23 different suspicious spots." Kyousuke did not sound worried."But nothing says we can't eliminate their possibilities. Maybe there's a small fire, an electric short, a gas leak, or a burst water pipe. We just have to cause some harmless but noticeable accidents to gather attention. The trick is to use enough variety that it won't seem unnatural even when it happens at 23 places in a row. We'll change the flow of people to ruin their ideal hostage exchange locations."
Their time was of course limited, but there was no excessive rush in knocking out those candidate locations. Even if Bridesmaid had already decided on a spot other than the zoo, they would have to switch to another candidate if that one was eliminated.
Meanwhile, Kyousuke and the others could not put off dealing with the zoo itself. If they did not infiltrate the location ahead of Azalea's group, they could not fool them.
Kyousuke immediately made up his mind.
"Let's split into 2 groups. Biondetta, you take out the other candidates. Sekurtiti and I will infiltrate the zoo as a pair."
"Yes, sir. I'll give this my all☆"
"Lu-san, I need your help as a supply shop. Sekurtiti is ultra conspicuous in nothing but bandages, so get her some clothes."
"Yes! Finally a job only for me that that pheromone waitress can't do!!"
He ignored the sexy modified China dress as she trembled in mysterious joy.
"Azalea's group might begin their party in as soon as an hour. Time is our enemy, so let's get ready as quickly as possible."
The twin shrine maidens had been captured by a powerful enemy and they had no time.
But they did not need to rush into any kind of eccentric action during the preparation phase. Instead moving between buildings by clinging to a helicopter's landing struts or swinging across on a wire, they bought a ticket at the station and rode a train to the zoo in Z Block.
"Celebrate Tanabata by giving bamboo grass to the pandas!"
"The Capybara Knights are also praying for a beautiful night sky!!"
The train was covered in hanging banners and electronic advertisements for the Tanabata Fair.
At this stage, they could not afford to stand out or be delayed. They bought tickets for the zoo and entered through the main gate like normal. Two high school tickets came out to 3200 yen. The basics were important.
"What is that electric noise?"
"Oh, that's a bug zapper. Zoos end up with a lot of bugs, so they lure them all in to fry them."
"Hm? But I thought those traps only worked at night. The bug zappers I am familiar with are a technology that takes advantage of insects' attraction to lights. Pant, pant."
"Why are you breathing heavily? My guess is this one uses smell as well. Fly and roach traps often use some kind of jelly."
"Gasp! You mean this is a brand new kind of cutting-edge trap!? And a pure one that protects people's smiles from disease. Kh. I never thought I would find these things even here. Japan truly is a great nation of traps!"
"You really are a pain in the ass, you know that!?"
He had a feeling he did not want to let her see one of those clockwork toys that rolled small metal balls around inside it.
Also, they had received something with their tickets.
"What is this? I have never seen this plant before. What as strange aroma."
"I guess they don't have these in northern Africa."
"Is it a trap?"
"No, and shut up about traps. It's called bamboo grass. It's a type of bamboo, so..."
"Bamboo spear traps! I've heard of that. They are the distinct Japanese flavor added to falling ceilings or pitfalls. They are the umami of traps, aren't they!?"
"Try to control your heartrate, Sekurtiti. Anyway, this is the favorite food of the zoo's prized pandas!"
It was noon on a weekday, but there were an awful lot of small children running around wildly with no concern for the flow of foot traffic.
"Did you write your wish on the tanzaku?"
"I heard the paper and ink are both made from bamboo grass."
"I hope I found the Phantom Girl picture book. Now eat up, panda! Make my dream come true!!"
The number of children was too great to just be families that had taken time off of work and school, so it may have been a school field trip.
The air contained a unique mixture of straw and animal smells.
"Will such a bright place really be used for an ugly hostage exchange?"
Sekurtiti looked around doubtfully while wearing a primarily yellow yukata. She still wore the tiara and thus most likely still wore the other decorations and the bandages below, but she looked normal enough. She had brown skin and short silver hair, but she did not stand out much since there were a lot of Japan-loving foreign visitors to Toy Dream 35.
"Sekurtiti, the zoo is for looking at the animals, so try to keep your eyes on the cages."
"Eh? Ah? R-right."
"And summoners and vessels vanish from normal people's minds once we're out of view. The normal methods to lose someone tailing you might actually clue them in if they focus on the abnormal movements in the crowd."
He grabbed the brown yukata girl's hand. Since she was not used to this, it would be faster to escort her. And no one would find it odd to see a young boy and girl holding hands at the zoo.
"????"
Yes, even if the brown ruler's cheeks were flushed red.
Kyousuke walked around the zoo along the normal routes with Sekurtiti in tow.
"Um, are my clothes okay?"
"There are a lot of foreigners in Japanese clothing here, so you don't stand out."
"That isn't what I meant... Perhaps I should try to act more like that proper Yamato Nadeshiko over there. Even from behind, she is practically oozing sex appeal."
"No, wait. That's a bad example. That's no Nadeshiko. It's Rendou Akiya."
Kyousuke dejectedly viewed the yukata-wearing person walking gracefully through the crowd. He had guessed classes would be canceled at school due to the gunfight with Azalea's group, but since that classmate (♂) was at the zoo in a yukata, he must have been meeting someone here.
On the way, they gave their bamboo grass tanzaku to the panda cage without writing anything on them.
Space was limited in Toy Dream 35, so most of their movement was vertical. The overall pathway spiraled downwards. The area was divided into 5 different layers with Layer 1 at the top and it looked something like one of those parking garage toys that let minicars run along rails.
Sekurtiti tilted her head when she saw the guide map.
"Lions, elephants, giraffes... They come from the same ecosystem, but their cages are scattered around. Why wouldn't they gather the animals into an African section or a South American section?"
"It's like the shelves at a supermarket. They want you to naturally visit the entire zoo to see what you want to see, so the most popular animals are spread out across the zoo. If they put the penguins, pandas, and capybaras all in one place, no one would ever go anywhere else."
"A supermarket? So even Freedom Award 903 uses those?"
"Oh? Was that too much for the great Tomb Priestess?"
They stopped at the shop section that doubled as a souvenir shop and food court and they bought a sandwich set they could eat as they walked. For the Tanabata Fair, it was wrapped in antibacterial bamboo leaves instead of a clear plastic package. They would have stood out too much if they were not holding a pamphlet or some food. It would look odd to pay money to visit the zoo and then not enjoy themselves.
But there was a problem.
"Sekurtiti. I don't know how you normally live. If you don't like the food, you don't have to force yourself to eat it."
"No, this is one thing I want to challenge myself with. So do not worry."
That phrasing left him even more confused as to how she normally lived. Surely she did not really live on nothing but mist and dew.
She must have always wanted to eat while standing because she leaned up against a wall near the shop section and had trouble choosing what to take from the set Kyousuke held. She finally pulled out the tomato and lettuce vegetable sandwich. After sniffing it a few times, she grabbed it in both hands and took a small bite from the corner.
Before she even swallowed, her pale blue eyes widened. Even Kyousuke could tell her body was moving below the yukata. It seemed like her organs were wriggling near her chest and navel.
"Nbh, nheh! Cough, cough!!"
"Sekurtiti."
"N-no, I'm fine. I'm fine..."
She smiled, but there was a cold sweat on her forehead. He wanted to pass her a drink, but since she existed outside the Summoning Ceremony, he could not say if that would help or only make it worse.
"Phew... I can tell the flavor is not bad at all. In fact, it is extremely fascinating. That might change once I swallow it, but it is worth the challenge."
A mint or some gum might have been the better choice, but he could hardly stop her touching efforts when he saw her continually tearing off small pieces and tossing them in her mouth like she was feeding a small bird. Kyousuke had to wonder if he would behave the same way if he was told he would be given 100 million yen if he ate the entire morning paper. She did swallow it, but he was worried about what would happen later. He decided to ask the tomb keeper elder....Although that old man might punch him the instant he heard about it.
After spending a long time breaking the sandwich down like a jigsaw puzzle and swallowing it all, Sekurtiti forced a smile.
"Sorry about the trouble. Now, let's go look at the rest."
"R-right."
It looked like she could not finish it, so Kyousuke ate his sandwich while she shared the rest of hers with a stray cat that had snuck into the zoo.
Even so, Sekurtiti narrowed her eyes and smiled.
"Do you like cats?"
"In Egyptian mythology, they are a sacred beast just as important as the crocodile and the leopard. How could I not like them? And while cats are loved the world over now, they are companions who originated in Egypt."
That girl had taken one step away from the human world using a method other than reaching Award 1000. Hers was the achievement of a much older age than the Third Summoning Ceremony discovered in 1999. Kyousuke knew this was outside his field of expertise. Was that because he was only the strongest when standing on his stage with a Blood-Sign? Or because he was still partway through the 900s and had not yet seen Award 1000 for himself?
"It is nothing that special."
| ← Ch. 063 | Ch. 065 → |