novelChance Meeting between a Magic God and a Liar — St.Germain,and_LIAR (1)
| ← Ch.132 | Ch.134 → |
Part 1
At the time, Hamazura Shiage was looking up overhead.
A few seconds after some irregular shaking, the elevator's digital display unnaturally stopped at 29. The lights did not go out and red emergency lights did not activate like in the movies or dramas, but it was obvious something was wrong.
"It stopped?"
"Looks that way."
Hamazura and Stephanie were using the three meter steel Power Lifters to carry an art container, but the elevator was large enough to hold them with room to spare. It was apparently made so it could carry the contents of a small storeroom.
That may have been why no acrophobic tremble filled Hamazura's legs. The elevator was so thick and sturdy that it was hard to imagine the entire box was dangling from a wire.
Regardless...
"What are we going to do? We have to get this to the mid level TV station by the indicated time, right?"
"That's true, but do they have any right to get mad at us if we're slowed by a malfunction in the Dianoid's own facilities? Besides..."
Stephanie used her cellphone inside the giant machine she wore.
"I'm not picking up the signal from TV Orbit's broadcast, but that isn't just because we're in this box, is it?"
"You're kidding. You mean there's been a terrorist attack or something!?"
Hamazura was worried about someone else more than himself. Takitsubo, Mugino, and Kinuhata of Item were waiting inside the Dianoid. He doubted there was much that would cause them trouble, but there were always exceptions. If Academy City #4's strength was absolute, then Hamazura himself would no longer be alive.
"Teacher, can you call TV Orbit? What about email?"
"I'm not getting a response by email and the phones are on an infinite loop of hold music."
"Which means... ?"
"Isn't it obvious? Until we get an explicit cancellation notification, we have no reason to quit working."
They exchanged a glance to confirm their intentions and then turned to carefully observe the elevator. After checking the walls, ceiling, lights, air conditioning fan, and everything else, they arrived at an answer.
"It looks like there's a floor panel. Look, here."
"But how do we open it?"
"We have these Power Lifters, don't we? We break through it with the legs."
The three meter machine stomped on the floor, but the panel did not even dent.
"The Dianoid is entirely made of carbon materials, isn't it?" Hamazura sounded annoyed."They use the same materials in bulletproof vests and space elevator wires."
"Oh, honestly. Then, why don't we burn it? Messing with a Power Lifter battery to send a high voltage current through it might work too. I'm pretty sure I've heard lightning is the big weak point of space elevator wires... ah!"
With a low thunk, Stephanie sank down.
Some kind of latch must have broken after the fact because the panel opened and the leg on top fell into empty space.
Stephanie frantically recovered her balance.
"That was close. And wow, this sure is the mid level. I can't see anything below us."
Hamazura peeked down through the rectangular hole and fear of their great height finally reached his legs.
He had pictured an elevator as a large box suspended by a wire, but he could see rails on the walls that the sides of the box fit into. He was not sure if this was normal or if it was unique to this heavy-duty elevator, but Stephanie gave an explanation.
"This is a linear elevator. Do you have any idea how far apart the lower, mid, and upper levels are? A normal pulley system would leave people waiting and cause a ton of congestion."
The elevator shaft was surprisingly noisy. It was filled with an intermittent rumbling much like a washing machine.
"That's probably noise from the pumps. The mid level is known as the Aqua Palace and it includes indoor pools and one of the world's largest fountains."
"I see. Then what do we do now?"
"Given the size of the maintenance entrances, we should be able to get out in the Power Lifters."
"What about the container?"
"We'll of course be escaping while carrying the thing with us. Is that a problem? The Power Lifter's legs can grab it just as well as the arms. It doesn't matter if we're upside down or holding it with a single arm or leg, so let's try some tricky acrobatics to get out of here."
"Are you serious?" groaned Hamazura, but there was no other way out.
The situation in the TV station was unclear, but if they had been in the middle of a live broadcast, each second lost could mean greater losses than from a train accident.
They had to get the container there by the designated time no matter what it took.
Whether adult or student, they had to complete the job given to them.
Stephanie opened and closed not just the fingers of her mechanical arms; she opened it through the wrist and to the shoulder like an alligator mouth.
"For now, let's grab the wire, make our way down to the nearest floor, and force open the door with these arms. I'll take the lead, so you stay on standby. Let's avoid swinging the container around until we have a route set up."
"In movies, the elevator always recovers and comes to crush you as soon as you start working out in the shaft."
"That's true. Are you the kind of person who starts gleefully talking about a legendary murderer if you find yourself trapped in a mountain mansion during a blizzard? Don't you realize the threat falls on you as much as on me?"
Part 2
The entire world changed color.
All around Kamijou Touma, more than one hundred spiked weapons shot from the walls, floor, and ceiling like an inside-out hedgehog.
Due to the Christmas season, quite a few boys and girls were walking in the area between him and the spikes.
Holes opened in all of those barriers of flesh as if clearing a path. They had not been stabbed by the spikes. Fist-sized tunnels were created in their chests, stomachs, or in the middle of their faces, but not a single drop of blood was shed. The one hundred piercing attacks passed through the center of those tunnels as they approached.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!???"
Kamijou Touma could not help but scream when he saw the overwhelming scene.
It was the psychedelically transformed world and not the immediate danger that threatened to shut down his mind.
Where was this?
Was it really the same place he had been standing just one second earlier?
Was this the same world that Magic God Othinus had thoroughly destroyed and then brought back?
His mind went blank.
He was unable to think clearly and what he needed to do so sparked and dispersed.
What if this illusionist man truly was a Magic God? What if he had the same abilities Othinus had? Kamijou had been able to persuade her. She had always contained the kindness that made that possible. But did this man? Would Kamijou have to pass through that darkness and traverse those near-infinite worlds of despair just to find out? And what if he did all that, had his mind and body left in tatters, and still found nothing? What if this man was wielding his power out of pure selfishness and had no real reason or cause for it? That would be like crossing the desert without preparing a single drop of water. It would be the same as optimistically assuming there would be an oasis and stepping out onto the scorching sand with only the clothes on one's back. And Kamijou knew how frightening a Magic God could be. He understood the heat and length of that desert far too well to make an ignorant and reckless decision.
He could not win.
He could not.
That was true of the one hundred deadly weapons assaulting him from every direction as well as the true power of a Magic God that he would have to face if he survived.
But in the instant all those thoughts filled his mind...
"Oops."
It was a quiet voice.
By the time Kamijou realized it had come from the tailcoat man in front of him, the scenery had changed again.
The melted walls and ceiling had returned to normal.
The boys and girls walking by obeyed the normal flow of time and had no extraordinarily unnatural holes in their bodies.
The inside-out hedgehog of one hundred spikes had vanished as well.
It was as if everything Kamijou had seen had been a mistake.
(No. )
Kamijou's experience kept him from taking that optimistic path.
(I'm not going crazy and it wasn't an illusion. And there is only a single path of time. There's nothing running parallel and you can't turn back. That really happened. The scenery really did change, one hundred spikes really did shoot out, and tunnels really did open in everyone to provide a path. And after that... was a phase added in to recreate this peaceful world!?)
"This was the perfect opportunity, but it would be a shame to lose 'that'."
A voice cut off Kamijou's overheating thoughts.
The heat trapped in his body burst out in the form of sweat.
Meanwhile, the Magic God was looking elsewhere.
He showed no sign of caring about the person clenching their fist right in front of him.
"'That' is why I am here. It would be a shame to lose my chance while dealing with this side job."
A clacking sound reached Kamijou's ears.
By the time he realized it was a cane tapping on the unscratched floor, a couple cut in between him and the Magic God.
Once they passed, the Magic God in a tailcoat was gone.
".........................................................................................................................................."
His legs were shaking.
Strength left his hips and gravity pulled him to the ground.
He could not even regulate his breathing in a proper rhythm.
"Touma, what is it!?"
"I take my eyes off you for a second and you cause a commotion? How useless."
All of a sudden, he found Index and fifteen centimeter Othinus approaching.
The "commotion" the latter mentioned did not seem to be a reference to the Magic God.
Kamijou Touma had suddenly screamed and fallen to the ground.
That was the only record that remained in this world.
"Othi... nus?"
"?"
He began hesitantly.
He turned to the one girl who he felt had spent that relevant time with him and he asked a question with an almost tearful smile on his face.
"Is this still our world?"
"What?"
"You're the one that brought this world back, so I want to hear it from you. We aren't inside some never-ending labyrinth, are we?"
Part 3
"Pant, pant."
Behind a pillar on the same floor, a pair of small hands was held to a mouth and a small butt was pressed flat against the floor. Someone else had been there. It was a boy with semi-long brown hair, a black hooded jacket, shorts, boots, a sky blue shirt with the brightness of mint ice cream, and similarly colored socks.
It was Aihana Etsu.
Despite the hands over his mouth, some of his heavy breathing was escaping between his fingers.
(What... was that?)
He could not comprehend what he had seen a moment before. People often said "seeing is believing", but was it really this much of a burden on someone's heart when they witnessed something they could not believe or had difficulty accepting?
(What in the world was that!?)
The scenery had changed entirely.
Countless spikes had shot out like spears.
The word Chambord had been spoken just before it happened, so was that its name?
To secure a path for those spears, fist-sized tunnels had opened in all of the people walking by.
And then it had all been repaired in an instant.
It had been so vivid and he would have missed it entirely had he blinked at the wrong time.
(Is that the Dianoid's secret?)
Perhaps.
Perhaps not.
(No, it doesn't matter if this isn't what I'm looking for. If I'm wandering around in the same building as that, the odds are good I'll run across it eventually. )
He had come here to pursue his missing friend.
He had even counterfeited a student ID card for Aihana Etsu, Academy City's #6 Level 5.
The friend had owned a secret hideout in the upper level apartments and a clue to her disappearance might remain there.
But...
Even so...
(Can I... keep going?)
He shook.
He swayed.
His weak self made an appearance. Whenever something happened, the very core of his being would tremble, his mind would grow blank, and the tears would flow before he could even think about stopping them. Every single mental dam would raise the white flag in an instant.
Large teardrops welled up in his eyes.
Just like with surface tension, he could only just barely keep them from trailing down his cheeks.
(Do I... Do I really have the courage to make my way further into the Dianoid when a monster like that is wandering around?)
A whispering voice told him to leave.
A tempting voice told him to give up.
You obviously won't be able to accomplish anything here. You've never stuck with anything to the end in your entire life. You always curl up, wrap your arms around your knees, and shed pathetic tears. And in the end, you give up without ever getting back on your feet. So throw in the towel here. Be satisfied that you managed to even take a stab at it. It's not like you didn't do anything. You worked hard to make it this far, so you can at least get an award for participation or effort.
At that point, a different voice flashed through his mind.
"In the end, it's all about how you look at it."
This voice did not come from within Aihana Etsu.
This was a crystallization of someone else's thoughts that had been input from without.
These were the words his friend had given to him when they would walk through the city.
"I mean, if you look at it the other way, it means you can shed tears for anyone's tragedy, right? That's nothing to be embarrassed about. In fact, I think you can be proud of it."
(... )
"Screw this."
He was still curled up on the ground.
Even so, he used the back of his hand to wipe away the tears that were on the verge of spilling down his soft cheeks. As if turning off a tap, he mentally restrained his overflowing tear glands.
He hated that he was a crybaby, but a friend had accepted that side of him.
She had said it was not wrong to shed tears when he wanted to cry. She had said that was a way of supporting someone's tragedy, a way of sharing someone's emotions, and the sign of someone who could look after others properly.
He did not know who that friend had been.
He could not imagine what she had truly been.
But he remembered her smile as she had said those words and he could not allow that to be erased or made to never have existed.
"I won't cry."
He doubted that the tears he had been praised for had been so lead colored.
Those tears had not been shed when he gave in, let go of something, and smiled in self-deprecation.
"This isn't where I'm supposed to cry."
Aihana Etsu attempted to take the first step beyond the identity he so hated.
With his back pressed against the thick pillar, he gathered strength in legs that trembled like a newborn deer and slowly stood up.
He would search for his friend.
He would track her down.
If he lost this chance, the fake student ID would be discovered. He would never be able to make an attack on the Dianoid again, so this was his first and last chance.
It did not matter if it was only a façade or if he was borrowing someone else's reputation.
For the time being, he was the #6.
He would complete this as Aihana Etsu.
He slowly exhaled and faced forward once again.
"Hi."
A man in a tailcoat stood directly in front of him.
He lost even the strength he needed to continue thinking.
His mind began spinning and left reality behind.
Part 4
On the lower level of the Dianoid, the revolving doors appeared to be made of glass, but they were actually strong enough to endure a dump truck running into them at full speed. The main entrance was crowded with boys and girls trapped inside.
No amount of pushing or pulling accomplished anything, but some voices whispered amid the despair.
"At last, we have one."
"Are they going by Aihana Etsu now? Regardless, at least we have them."
Something was clearly out of place.
And it was viewing the situation from an objective perspective.
"The container has also safely entered the TV station."
"We could have created it from scratch, but I suppose retrieving an already existing one takes priority. No matter how carefully you produce it, a natural one can't be beat. And we have no intention of repeating the mistake that left Othinus wandering on the border between complete and incomplete."
They evaluated the situation.
And that evaluation adjusted a few imaginary rails.
"That leaves Kamijou Touma."
"He could always be ignored, but we need to keep in mind what happened to Othinus."
There may have been no real point in speaking out loud.
It may have been better to simply continue their evaluation.
"He is enough of an irregular to negotiate with a Magic God. Perhaps he should be viewed as a negative gap in the lattice."
"He has low priority."
But the voice continued.
It was as if they were placing extra space between a machine's parts to prevent unexpected trouble.
"But once the current task is complete, it may be best to use any excess strength to eliminate him."
Part 5
A great roar burst out.
The elevator's automatic door, which resembled a sliding door made of wood, was removed from its rails and the wheels were kicked off.
"Phew. I think we can finally take a break."
Stephanie Gorgeouspalace crawled out with surprisingly smooth motions for a Power Lifter. Next, Hamazura Shiage successfully escaped from the elevator shaft.
And they of course brought the die-like container with them.
They were in the Dianoid's mid level. The lower level had a central atrium with small shops surrounding it like a beehive, but this floor was made to feel much more open and spacious. Perhaps due to the carbon materials, the floor looked like the wooden floor of a dojo or Japanese theatre stage more than that of a gym. Indirect lighting was provided by square paper lanterns.
The main features of the mid level were the water tanks embedded in the walls like windows, the decorative waterways unobtrusively located on the edges, and all the other decorations that were oddly reminiscent of water.
The type of people walking around was somewhat different too.
They were not dressed as fashionably as one would expect of District 15. A lot of people were casually dressed in a sweatshirt and jeans or in a long wrinkled skirt and a turtleneck.
"It looks like we came out in the TV station side."
"What?"
"I mentioned how the mid level is divided between TV Orbit's offices and the indoor services like the viewing platform and pool, right?"
"Oh, right. And we were using an elevator connected to the staff parking lot. That makes it feel like we used a secret vertical tunnel created so the entertainers can leave without being seen."
"Let's go check in as visitors at the gate and deliver the container."
"Yeah, it looks like there's a bit of a commotion going on right now."
The gate was not far from the elevator hall. A cheap revolving door was made from two poles crossing each other and two guards wearing navy blue uniforms stood to the side. The general reception desk must have been on a different floor because there was not a receptionist or a counter here.
Their Power Lifters could have easily broken through, but there had been a checkpoint on the way to the "secret vertical tunnel", so they would only have been here had they been trusted. It was no different from how strict security was for an international flight and yet there was no conflict between passengers after they had passed through the gate.
"Hi there. We have a container for Producer Endou of Hysterical Prize Quiz. Do you want to scan the contents?"
After Stephanie spoke with the guards for a bit, they opened the delivery gate located next to the revolving door. Some younger men arrived pushing some kind of monstrous dolly, so it was time to leave things to them. They gently placed the die-like container on the dolly, secured it, and signed a document saying they had handed over the container.
"Thank you very much, " said one of the guards with a bow.
"Sure. By the way, do you know what's going on outside?"
"Outside?"
The guard looked puzzled, so Stephanie smiled and waved one of the Power Lifter's giant arms.
"Oh, sorry. We were just trapped in the elevator, so I felt like asking. If the elevator doesn't start back up, we'll have to take the stairs down. Of course, we've got the Power Lifters, so it won't be some hellish mountain descent or anything."
As soon as she said that, a young woman spoke up. She wore a cardigan over a long dress and seemed to work on the production rather than as an entertainer.
"Wow, they really sent in something amazing. Is that special equipment for Anti-Skill or Judgment? Well, it doesn't matter. If you've got those big things, can you hurry up and do something about this?"
Confused, Stephanie answered the woman's question with a question of her own.
"What's going on? A rampaging esper? Or did some celebrity's fierce pet get loose?"
"You really don't know what's going on, do you? I'm talking about the exits. For some reason, they're all sealed up. Not only are the elevators out of order, but we can't open the door to the emergency stairs."
The woman must not have left the office for several days because her hair gave off a very feminine scent as she continued in annoyance.
"It isn't that it's locked or the electronics are on the fritz. Whether it's the hinges or the rails, some part has melted and fused together. They won't budge no matter how much we push or pull. The lights for the elevator won't even come on, so I have a feeling the entire building is locked down like this."
"I see."
"You have no idea what she means, do you?"
Hamazura cut in, but Stephanie completely ignored him.
The woman in a dress continued from there.
"You destroyed the elevator door earlier, didn't you? Can you do the same thing to break open the door keeping us out of the emergency staircase?"
Hamazura and Stephanie exchanged a glance.
"Everything in the Dianoid is made out of ridiculously sturdy carbon materials, isn't it?"
"Oh, crap. I bet even the emergency doors are made overly solid here. Will these Power Lifters even be enough to break through?"
They trudged over in the machines to check.
The young men and women clogging up the corridor by the door parted like the Red Sea as they approached. (Although that was entirely due to the impressive-looking Power Lifters. ) Their looks of hope were probably a result of how helpless they had been before.
The mid level approximately covered the area from the twentieth to the fortieth floor.
With the elevators and stairs blocked off, there was nothing they could do. Breaking a window and escaping that way would not be easy. Unlike in the movies, no one would want to brave the harsh winds and climb down the outer wall with an unreliable lifeline in hand.
Even climbing down the stairs from this height was somewhat hopeless, but they could not just continue waiting for the elevators that might not begin working again.
Whether they would actually use the emergency stairs or not, they needed to try to open that door first.
If they did get it open, they could relax as they waited for the elevators to recover. It would provide some mental leeway.
However...
"Huh? Oh, damn! This thing won't budge at all!!"
"Stop! Wait, teacher! The arm cylinders are making a grinding noise and Aneri is warning that you'll burn them out if you keep that up!"
To sum up, no amount of pushing, pulling, or hitting accomplished anything.
They could not even dent the door, much less break through it.
It did not matter how much they slammed their steel fists into it.
"That's carbon for you. I feel like nothing could be stronger or sturdier."
"And it looks just like a normal sliding door made of wood."
The disappointment in Hamazura's voice quickly spread through the surrounding air. No one called them useless or threw stones, but the way the focus on them scattered was a lot like a silent protest.
This was awkward for lower class Hamazura, but he had other things to worry about.
He traced the Power Lifter's thick steel fingers over the emergency door.
"What even caused this? From what we've heard, it doesn't sound like an accident."
"Are you saying someone did this?"
"But if they did, why did they want to trap us here?"
"That's the question. And I doubt they can keep us confined here for long."
"?"
"As I said before, carbon materials are weak to fire or high-voltage electricity. These doors may not budge even if we punch, kick, and drive a dump truck into them, but once Anti-Skill notices something's wrong they should be able to bring in an acetylene torch and burn their way through the door from outside. I'd rather not set the building on fire when we don't know if the firefighters are coming, so I'm not about to try that in here, though."
There was no reason to stay by the emergency door they could not break, so they looked away from it.
"So do they only need to buy a little bit of time? Will they be able to accomplish whatever their goal is in just this short time?"
"What a pain, " said Stephanie.
Not even the negative ion effect created by the waterway's small waterfalls was enough to calm them now.
The stairs and the elevator were out which left only a single route: the elevator door they had broken and the elevator shaft beyond it.
Climbing up or down it with flesh-and-blood arms and legs would have been suicide, but they had the strength of the Power Lifters.
"Fortunately, we managed to deliver the container, but it isn't over until we get out of here, so we need to create an escape route if at all possible."
"I had a feeling you'd say that."
They decided on that as they returned the way they had come.
Hamazura sounded noncommittal because some of his friends had come to the Dianoid.
They were also on the mid level, but the TV station was not connected to the viewing platform. That was to prevent people from ambushing the entertainers. If he wanted to meet up with Takitsubo and the others, he would have to first make his way to the lower or upper level or search out a secret tunnel in the mid level itself. Either way, it would require a lot of work.
They could not use the elevator or the stairs at the moment, but they could use the Power Lifters to climb up or down the elevator shaft.
Still, they were only borrowing the machines for their work.
It was hard to suggest to Stephanie that they should use them for something else.
"Hamazura."
"What?"
A single path to freedom lay open before them.
Stephanie spoke from a step in front of the elevator shaft.
"I'm sure you already know this, but this equipment is not our personal property. Even if they're civilian equipment that doesn't require a license, you can still kill someone if you use them wrong."
He prepared to say he understood, but she cut him off.
"But to keep safety a top priority and to nip any trouble in the bud, we need to quickly eliminate anything that could affect the efficiency of our work. Even if it has no direct connection to our job."
He had no words.
Dumbfounded, he looked up at his boss and saw a teasing smile on her lips.
"With this much confusion, no one's going to check carefully enough to see we took a bit of a detour. I doubt anyone back in District 2 is monitoring our actions while we're trapped inside the Dianoid."
"Eh? But..."
"Oh, c'mon! It's not like you just want to meet up with them to have some fun, right? Go check to make sure they're okay and then get back to work! I'll take the Power Lifters back to District 2, but you need to at least get yours back to the truck in the parking lot!!"
Stephanie slapped him on the back.
However, she seemed to have forgotten she was using a Power Lifter that could pick up an air freight container in one hand.
Hamazura was peering into the open elevator shaft through the door they had broken through, so what would happen when someone struck him on the back?
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!?"
He flipped upside down and fell.
The culprit scratched her head with the hand holding a cable-connected joystick and she gave an irresponsible sigh.
"Ahh, ahh. You give that guy an opportunity and he wastes it."
Part 6
It was an odd situation.
The elevators and stairs were sealed off and everyone was trapped on the mid level floor. The worried people meaninglessly rushed toward the exits, but no one tried to actually touch them once they realized they had been tampered with. As a result, they were packed in tightly enough that they could all topple over like dominoes at any time and yet a gap remained around the closed emergency exit.
Even with all the noisy people around her, Takitsubo Rikou's eyes still wandered aimlessly.
Mugino Shizuri and Kinuhata Saiai were speaking in front of her.
"I checked the joints on the emergency exit and they've all been super fused. It isn't just locked and it doesn't just have furniture piled up on the other side. The gaps have been filled to create a solid wall."
"So did an esper do this?"
"At this stage, it could still be a type of technology, but either way, this feels super intentional. I don't know who did it or why, but don't super rich people use the Dianoid as a vault because of its solid construction? Especially in the apartments on the top level. Those didn't feel like a place for people to actually live."
"Yeah." Mugino sounded like she was vaguely recalling something."Didn't Frenda have a hideout there?"
"She probably thought it was a secret, but it was super obvious. So do you think it was for some kind of side business? She had decent chemistry skills from her explosives, but she didn't seem like the type to touch either uppers or downers."
"She was so suspicious she wouldn't even take cold medicine, so she wouldn't have been making anything like 'rock candy'. It was probably a test plant for new explosives."
That was dangerous enough in and of itself, but it was not enough to shock Item.
They were taking a break from working at the moment, but they still mostly belonged on the darker side of things.
Takitsubo tilted her head and asked a question with her eyes still wandering aimlessly.
"What are we going to do, Mugino?"
"It doesn't really matter. I have no interest in breaking into a vault. We need to make up our mind, but I see two real options here. The first is to find Hamazura who's probably somewhere else on the mid level."
"What's the super second one?"
"To create an escape route ahead of time. Like this for example."
As she spoke, Mugino casually held out a hand horizontally.
A moment later, a brilliant beam of light surged outward and tore through the Dianoid wall that could withstand a direct hit from a battleship's gun.
This was Academy City's #4 Level 5, Meltdowner.
The ultra high firepower strike prevented electrons from taking on the properties of a wave or a particle and fired them as-is. The emergency exit and the surrounding wall were transformed into a perfectly circular hole two meters across. The edges were a scorching orange and there was no hint of what had happened to the materials that had previously formed the inside of the circle. The sight almost seemed to ignore the fundamental law of conservation of mass.
The surrounding noise had already quieted down.
First, the general pressure of being trapped inside a giant building had been overpowered by their direct fear of Mugino Shizuri for having instantly melted the carbon materials.
Second, the exit had finally opened, but no one wanted to approach it when the edges of the perfect circle were still heated to orange.
And third...
With a sound like a rope being stretched until it nearly broke, countless lines shot horizontally and vertically across the still scorching hole to form a lattice.
Their path to freedom had not remained open for even five seconds.
The building materials oozed out and spread further as they began to repair the wall.
"?"
With a girly tilt of the head, Mugino fired a second shot.
From there, she fired a third, fourth, fifth, and sixth.
"W-wait, wait, wait! Mugino, wait!"
"You're shooting way too much! Mugino, that's way too super much!! And why do I have to take over Hamazura's role as your brakes!?"
"But it regenerated."
"Mugino, that isn't an excuse."
"And stop super pouting your lips! Everyone around us is ultra freaked out! Try to read the atmosphere!!"
"Nitrogen girl is telling me to read the atmosphere? Heh heh heh. You're really risking it with that one."
"Ahh! This is getting to be too much for me to handle! Don't you get what's going on here!?"
Kinuhata's blood vessels bulged out on her face and Mugino grabbed her forehead to hold her back.
Track suit wearing Takitsubo spoke blankly.
"What do we do now?"
"We have two options. First, we can give up on escaping. We'll find Hamazura, search for some way out of this, and see if the bastard who caused this is inside the Dianoid somewhere."
"What's the super second one?"
"That's obvious."
Kinuhata regretted her question once she realized this was going the same as last time she asked, but it was too late.
She heard multiple sounds much like light filling a neon tube.
Yes, multiple.
Ten to twenty fist-sized lights hovered around the #4.
"We continue trying to make an escape route. For example, we can see just where this thing's saturation level is."
A moment later, she provided an encore presentation.
One of the Dianoid's walls was left riddled with holes.
Part 7
He did not think she had any real allergies, but the friend in his memories had insisted on never taking even cold medicine.
"No, I'm fine, I'm fine! Sleeping's enough to get over a cold, so I don't need that bitter stuff. Medicine works quickly, but it lowers your body's overall capacity instead. It's like something that recovers HP but shrinks the max HP bar. I don't even need to explain why antibiotics are dangerous, do I?"
Then why was all that canned food okay?
"In the end, any real canned good is given heat treatment and sealed so germs can't grow. Cheap ones are a different story, but normally, no chemicals are needed to sterilize, preserve, and store the food. And that's why canned mackerel is the best. Got it?"
She had all her arguments ready, but he was pretty sure she simply did not like the medicine because it was bitter.
"Ugh..."
A groan escaped Aihana Etsu's small mouth.
The first thing he felt was a stabbing chill. His eyelids parted a bit and he sensed a vague light. He was seeing District 15's night sky. The normal starlight had been swept away and the lights of all the buildings and bright decorations reflected back down at him.
But why was he outside?
Hadn't he been inside the Dianoid?
Without an answer to his questions, he slowly sat up.
(Where am I?)
He could not remember how he had passed out. He only had a feeling he had run across something incredibly sinister that he could not afford to forget.
"..."
He was in a gray garden covered in fine gravel. Short pine, maple, and cherry trees were planted there and a vermilion lacquered bridge crossed a small pond. He had been lying on a bench located below a large paper umbrella which looked like the storefront to a Kyoto teahouse.
This mismatch with high-tech Academy City confused him further, but a certain possibility soon occurred to him.
"Is this the Dianoid's roof?"
And...
A man in a tailcoat sat next to him on the bench.
"Hi."
"... !!!???"
He frantically tried to move away but only managed to fall from the bench and land on his butt. From there, he tried to scoot himself back with his hands.
(I remember. )
(I remember, I remember, I remember!!)
The floor, walls, and ceiling had all bent into over one hundred blades like an inside-out hedgehog and this man had used that strange world to skewer a certain boy. To attack with maximum efficiency, this monster had opened fist-sized tunnels in the flesh of the crowd in between and sent the blades through them.
The man laughed as he spoke.
"You certainly are afraid. Is this just like how large jewels are often said to be cursed? Well, I believe I am generous enough to view your fear as awe towards a higher being."
"Ah, aahh, aaahhh..."
Aihana Etsu placed a hand in the center of his flat chest and trembled.
The monster looked down at the small teary-eyed individual, but he maintained his soft gentle smile.
"You fainted due to mental shock instead of dehydration and you clearly have plenty of energy left, but why not drink something regardless?"
A 250 mL drink bottle had appeared in the man's hand at some point. It was about the size of an apple, but where had it come from? Aihana Etsu was not even sure of that.
(Another drink. Do I look that susceptible to heatstroke?)
Still sitting on the ground, he glanced toward the bottle of mineral water the man had set on the bench. Suddenly, the man in a tailcoat and overcoat had something else in his hand.
It was the kind of rectangular translucent container used to hold mint pills. But when the man shook the pill case, an incredibly old-fashioned kind of black pill came out.
"I do not need normal food. As long as I have water and wheat, I do not age. Thanks to that, people have mistakenly assumed I secretly possess the philosopher's stone."
"Wh-what are you talking about?"
"Well, to be honest, I am not what matters here. That would be you."
Having focus casually turned his way, Aihana Etsu felt sweat flowing down his small face.
His nerves threw off the rhythm of his breathing. As his breaths escaped from between his lips, they mixed with the cold night air and grew visually white.
He did not know who this man was, but he was a true monster. It was immediately obvious this man was not the same as "Aihana Etsu" who had only been able to fake a student ID card. As someone who "had nothing", he could tell. The presence prickling at his skin was too great. What could this monster want? Did he have business with "Aihana Etsu"? Or was it with his true self hidden below the disguise?
"There are a few reasons why I am here, but one of them is you. And this is one of the higher priority reasons, too. Yes, I am here to see you."
If that was all, Aihana Etsu might have thought the man was just a creepy stalker, but things were different here.
On a fundamental level, something threatened to cut down the very base of his existence.
His heart rather than his head told him being in this man's sights was very, very bad.
"I-I..."
"Yes?"
"I don't know you."
"You wouldn't, no. This is the first time I have directly met you."
The man slowly spoke as he tossed the pill into his mouth.
"But that does not really matter."
"?"
"Technically speaking, you could say what I am after is you and yet not you."
"What... does that mean?"
"You don't know?"
The man smiled with eyes that sparkled more bewitchingly than moonlight, but there was no smile to be found deep inside them.
"'Aihana Etsu' does not matter here. What I am interested in is you. And do you really not know what it is you hold?"
"... ?"
The title of "Aihana Etsu" was falling away.
This should have been a deadly situation, but the sense of danger was vanishing behind the emptiness in his thoughts.
With a monster on this level, this would not just be for show, on a whim, or a mistake.
But if this was the truth, where was that truth?
"Aihana Etsu" had nothing. It was his painful awareness of that fact that had led him to use a fake ID to get into the Dianoid. And all to find and rescue Frenda Seivelun who had vanished after being swallowed up by the city's darkness.
What did this man see in him?
What did he have that would make such a monster turn his way?
"If you truly do not understand, I am willing to explain. In fact, I have lived for centuries to do just that. But where to begin? I could just say everything has gone according to plan, but at the same time, it seems there has been a fair bit of contamination. It feels like I'm looking at a stone coated with finger grease."
"What... What are you saying I have?"
"I am saying..."
The man trailed off as the entire Dianoid building shook again and again.
Aihana Etsu let out a short shriek while still sitting on the ground.
He felt like he was on an unreliable suspension bridge. It certainly did not feel like the roof of a giant building supported by cutting-edge technology.
The man slowly looked up into the sky while still sitting on the bench.
"It would seem a new problem has arisen."
"Wh-wh-wh-wh-wh-wh-wh-wh-wha-!?"
"Do not worry about it. It is only the base isolation causing it to shake so much. It is supposed to do this."
The man's expression remained calm.
An explosive roar came from within the building each time it shook, but he showed no sign of caring. He seemed to use his indifference toward each new situation to show off how different he was from "Aihana Etsu".
"Well, I can deal with that one later. First, I need the shield that produces a positive gap. If things are going as planned, it should be reaching the TV station right about now. I could always make it from scratch, but that really would be too boring."
"???"
His words were probably not meant for "Aihana Etsu".
The boy could not understand any of it.
He did not need to reply or smile politely. These words were isolated in that man's own world.
He was the opposite of "Aihana Etsu".
"I would have liked to stay here to chat, but it would be no fun if the shield was hit by a stray shot. I will be going. Until we meet again, Gap of Anne."
"Gap? Anne? What?"
"You do not have time to sit around and chat either, do you?"
The man stood up from the teahouse storefront bench so smoothly that it barely looked like the movement was produced by bending joints.
"You had a reason for falsifying your identity to get here, didn't you? If you do not hurry, you will miss your one chance. It seems the sturdy structure of the Dianoid means nothing to the residents of this city and you don't want the last vestiges of Frenda Seivelun to slip through your fingers, do you?"
When he heard that, Aihana Etsu thought his heart was going to stop.
Not because the man suggested the Dianoid could collapse.
Not because the man knew he had a goal here in the Dianoid.
Not even because the man had gotten his friend's name right in one shot.
"The last vestiges?"
His eyes opened wide.
All of the previous conditions left his mind and he snapped back at the man.
"You said the last vestiges of Frenda Seivelun, didn't you!? You mean she's... she's already... !!"
"I am not the one to discuss that with."
"Then who are you!? How much do you know!?"
"I will tell you that eventually. I promise."
The man sounded as casual as someone arranging to eat dinner together sometime.
As soon as he finished, a portion of the bench jutted sharply out.
With a sticky sound, it twisted, sharpened, split off from the furniture, and formed a spear in the man's hand.
This was what the man had called Chambord.
He rested the strange object on his shoulder and turned his back on Aihana Etsu.
"I will help you just this once. My top priority is retrieving the shield from the TV station, but I will make a detour on the way there. I will make sure the Dianoid does not collapse before you find a certain secret. The rest is up to you. Use your own strength to reach the truth hiding in this labyrinth."
"..."
"Also, the doors and elevators leading outside are sealed, but I will remove that restriction for you. You can move to any floor you want to achieve your goal."
The man in a tailcoat continued speaking.
"In return, I must insist you hear me out once this is all over. You can do that much, can't you?"
"You..."
Aihana Etsu gathered his thoughts even as he opened his mouth to speak, so his question ended up being quite vague.
"Who even are you?"
"Come to think of it, I never introduced myself. I have been called the one who understands the rules of life and has achieved immortality. I have been called a time traveler. I have been called a technician who can restore broken jewels. I have been called a number of things in legend, but..."
The man turned back with a truly childish smile on his face.
"My name is St. Germain. I am one of those who have surpassed the mere magician. I would appreciate it if you could remember that."
Part 8
"..."
Kamijou Touma sank to the floor in front of Index and fifteen centimeter Othinus.
He worried over the issue for a while.
He could not even decide where to begin.
The situation was just that unreasonable.
He felt overwhelming despair.
Finally, he slowly looked up and began.
"A Magic God has shown up."
"What?"
"I know you're skeptical. But I want to ask something first. Othinus, are there other Magic Gods besides you? Or did you stand at the top of the world?"
"Well... Theoretically, there could be more than one." Othinus let out a small breath."It's nothing more than a final destination reachable by human means. It could be Indian mythology, Buddhism, Greek mythology, Maya, Voodoo, or in this country, Shinto or Shugendo. If people mastered those paths to the very end, it could lead to a few different Magic Gods."
Othinus's hand looked delicate enough to break if someone touched it, but she used it to point her thumb at Index.
Yes, the 103, 000 grimoires inside Index's head had the additional value of allowing one to reach the position of a Magic God if used properly. Whether that was true or not, the entire magic side viewed a Magic God as an elusive position much like grasping a cloud, but it was also a realistic enough dream that someone was sure to pull it off eventually.
In that case, what was that man in a tailcoat?
Was he really a Magic God who had bloomed some other way than Othinus?
Kamijou's face was pale, but Othinus did not hesitate to speak to him.
"But have you forgotten? How many digits' worth of worlds do you think I made and remade when I was settling things with you? If an equal Magic God existed in this world and this age, they would have interfered back then."
"You mean... ?"
"At the very least, there wasn't a Magic God in this world. Doesn't that seem like a reasonable conclusion?"
Othinus was right.
She should have been right.
But some uneasiness lingered in Kamijou's heart. He felt an intense refusal toward thinking the colorful hell that man had demonstrated was only an illusion meant to look like the world was being bent to his will. His deepest thoughts were telling him it would come back to bite him if he conveniently and optimistically averted his gaze from that harsh reality.
That may have been a sense he alone possessed after learning firsthand what a true Magic God was like.
(But... )
If he had not stopped himself, he might have started chewing on his thumbnail.
(What if that is real? What do I do then? Do I have to go through all that again? Do I have to wait for him to break? But this Magic God might not have a single speck of kindness inside him! That's no different from being told to search Mars's deserts for a single grain of gold dust that might not even be there!!)
If that man truly was a full-power Magic God, he could remake the world even faster than snapping his fingers.
In fact, this world that Kamijou thought was "real" might have already been replaced by a very similar world.
He had to neutralize this opponent no matter what, but he could not afford to provoke him either.
It was as unreasonable as being told to remove the very bottom layer of a pyramid of cards because it was "in the way".
Was destruction the only option remaining?
This was the same path as before. Would he have to smash the world to pieces and redo everything from that pitch-black place?
"..."
Still sitting on the floor, Kamijou glanced around.
He felt the heated air and saw the soft Japanese lights. Normal boys and girls walked around. The calico cat, Othinus, and Index stood nearby. After looking at each of them in turn, he silently and slowly shook his head.
He could not do it.
He could not allow it to happen.
But at the same time, he could not ignore this. At the very least, that man in the tailcoat was hostile towards Kamijou. Everything had been preserved by some fluke, but that man would surely attack again after finishing whatever task he had to complete.
And if they clashed one-on-one, the Magic God would mercilessly destroy the world. He would create a world convenient to his purposes and slaughter Kamijou in a perfect game.
Kamijou did not know if it was possible, but he had to settle this before the Magic God could snap his fingers.
If he did not switch this off in an instant, the world would end.
Until he could find a way to do that, even a careless attack would be a crime.
(What should I do?)
| ← Ch. 132 | Ch. 134 → |