novelThe Vanishing Girl's Legacy — Hard_MEMORY (1)
| ← Ch.134 | Ch.136 → |
Part 1
What did Kamijou Touma think of at that moment?
It may have been the Sisters, those mass-produced military clones of Academy City's #3 Level 5. Those girls used their identical brainwaves and ability to control electricity in order to construct a unique living data network known as the Misaka Network. They used it to share their memories, techniques, and knowledge.
It may have been the rumors he had heard about Academy City's #5. That monster was a single person, but she was said to read minds, speak telepathically, brainwash, hypnotize, and otherwise control just about every part of her opponents' minds. In a way, she created a great number of puppets controlled by a single control tower.
It may have been the C Document that Terra of the Left of God's Right Seat had tried to activate in Avignon, France to direct the world's hatred toward Academy City.
It may have been the Leshy, a mind controlling spell used in Hawaii by Saronia A. Irivika so Gremlin could take administrative control of the United States.
It may have been Yakumi Hisako, a former member of Academy City's board of directors. She had created the Agitate Halation project to mass produce inferior heroes around Fremea Seivelun.
"Uuh..."
Dozens of people in tailcoats surrounded him.
They were a mix of ages and genders, but it looked like they had forcibly matched their appearances as much as possible.
It was like some kind of synchronization or parallelism.
It spread from person to person, transforming them into weapons that produced only violence.
"Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!?"
The hair across Kamijou's body stood on end as he screamed. A moment later, "they" came.
They burst from the walls, floor, and ceiling.
The entire scenery grew distorted and undulated. Countless spears of countless sizes shot out and rushed toward him like a torrential downpour.
A simple calculation suggested there were one hundred Chambords for each St. Germain present.
This oddity of a spell allowed them to control diamonds, carbon, and thus this entire building.
There was no way Kamijou could negate every attack with just his right hand.
So the action he took was simple.
He kicked up the fire extinguisher sitting nearby and shoved it forward.
As soon as it came into contact with the spears, compressed gas exploded out. The fire extinguishing powder looked more pink than white as it covered everything. Visibility dropped to zero. The countless spears filled the entire space in a lattice pattern and cleanly sliced through the barrier of powder.
But Kamijou was already gone.
Only the fire extinguisher remained, torn to shreds and pinned in midair.
(I was right. )
The group of St. Germains seemed to have shifted their focus toward the destroyed door to the elevator shaft.
However, Kamijou had run through the smokescreen and passed right by them.
He ran, almost tripping, and fled to another area.
(If "all" St. Germain can do is control the Dianoid, there would be no point in him actually appearing in front of me. He could just turn the entire building into a bed of spikes like an iron maiden. He didn't do that... no, he couldn't do that, so there has to be a reason. He must only be able to use his carbon control magic based on the senses of the others synced with or parallel with him. It only seemed like there was nowhere to hide in here because there were that many St. Germains mixed in!)
He gulped and desperately told himself to calm down.
(I'm not up against an almighty Magic God here. He may look that way, but there's a reason behind each individual action. There has to be a limit on those tunnels he opens in people's body. If not, he would have removed my right arm or plucked out my heart right off the bat. )
And the same had to apply to his ability to synchronize with and infect people.
(I can figure this out. )
He clenched his right fist.
He still did not know what he should negate, but even so...
(They're like walking weapons, but there has to be some kind of gear down at the bottom. If they've been synchronized or infected, it means these people are the city's teachers and students. If I can remove that, they might return to normal!!)
And then...
"..."
"..."
"..."
"..."
All of the St. Germains turned their heads and faced him in unison.
"Dammit!!"
Crouched low, he hurried onward.
The second wave of spears flew mercilessly toward him.
Part 2
Once the countless St. Germains chased Kamijou into a different area, the elevator hall was left empty.
However, one of the square paper lanterns set up alongside the waterway was shaking.
A fifteen centimeter girl poked her head out from inside it.
It was Othinus.
(They have surprisingly unreliable senses. Is crystalizing them as St. Germain considered enough of a success, so each individual unit hasn't been properly polished? Has he improved his ability to control diamonds and gained the ability to control carbon as a whole? If the world has only a single chance here, this is quite the troublesome foe. )
Othinus had not chosen to hide in the lamp herself. As soon as he had set up the fire extinguisher smokescreen, Kamijou had shoved her inside the light fixture and fled.
It had almost seemed like he had chosen a more noticeable action to draw their attention.
(If that was part of his "bad habit", this would be the time to punch him, but... )
She sighed.
She guessed Kamijou was after information on St. Germain. After all, Othinus had been a true Magic God and yet even she deemed this opponent to be "troublesome".
St. Germain had no central unit or terminal unit. They were all synchronized and they were all parallel. The nucleus of a crystal formed around the distribution of the high-concentration solution and the materials that attached around it were completely identical.
Diamonds were hard and breaking them did not change their structure.
(But... )
Diamonds were said to be crystals made of pure carbon, but even the purest diamond was only 99. 9% pure. Over twenty different types of impurities existed in that slight gap. And that less than 0. 1% impurity would change the properties of the entire diamond. Everything from how hard it was to its electrical conductivity, coloration, and transparency were influenced by that. They were not the center or the nucleus, but those meaningless impurities were the controller that manipulated the entire crystal.
St. Germain had to have something similar.
He was a magician that controlled diamonds. He was a life form who could control even his own body as carbon-based organic matter. So if St. Germain was viewed as a single giant crystal created by synchronizing and parallelizing a group, he had to have something like a controller or settings file.
With that in mind, Kamijou would draw out St. Germain's attacks on the vanguard while the analysts on the rear guard would reveal the structure and weaknesses of his spell. That was the correct way to go about this.
"But still, " muttered fifteen centimeter Othinus."Through all of those hundreds of billions of phases, I missed the Misaka Network that manipulated the border between life and death. Does he also contain the possibility to always show up or appear anew in every world or phase I created?"
She looked to the floor and saw a few clumps of blood.
She doubted they belonged to Kamijou Touma.
(To him, using up personnel must be the same as using impurities to create gaps in the otherwise even crystalline structure. Maintaining his overall properties even when an individual is crushed would make him a first-class diamond. I'm sure he knew what would happen when he forced Academy City's espers to use magic. )
Othinus was surprised to find that displeased her.
From an efficiency standpoint, St. Germain was right.
There was no reason to worry about their enemies in the science side's Academy City.
All lives were not of equal value during battle.
Was it that pointy-haired boy's influence that would not let her allow it?
"What a pain... I guess I was fundamentally broken, too."
She shook her head and focused on analysis once more.
If she was going to search for the optimal answer...
(Come to think of it, we left the Index Librorum Prohibitorum behind. Well, if she had been here, Kamijou Touma might have chosen a different course of action. )
Her fifteen centimeter stature was not always a bad thing.
There were limits to what she could do, but St. Germain could only search for enemies by sealing off all routes that someone human-sized could pass through. At fifteen centimeters, she could take paths unavailable to others.
And that went beyond simply crawling below a vending machine and travelling through that slight gap. A cat could jump down from a height of two or three stories, but that was not just because of its body structure and athletic ability. Its light weight reduced the impact of landing, too.
"Now, my first priority is contacting the Index Librorum Prohibitorum. Whether I manage that or not, I need to figure out where Kamijou Touma and St. Germain are, observe them, and find a way to break St. Germain's crystalline structure."
She sounded irritated, but she had summed up what she had to do.
Those were the necessary steps to achieve victory.
She was, after all, an individual who had become known as a god of war.
Part 3
Then again, Kamijou could not continue dodging the St. Germains' attacks forever.
Their magic surrounded him with a set of one hundred spears like an inside-out hedgehog, making it a simple yet effective countermeasure to Imagine Breaker. Not to mention that dozens of people were using that same magic at once and more St. Germains were mixed into the people not currently chasing him.
His odds of survival were rapidly declining.
This would not have been easy under normal circumstances, but this added further irregularities into the mix.
"Dammit!!"
There were only so many ways he could block their sight. Also, this was only the preliminary encounter. The true battle began once Index or Othinus analyzed St. Germain and found a weakness.
All he could do was run around corner after corner, trying to escape from the St. Germains' sight.
And he was so focused on the enemies behind him that he ran right into someone else turning the corner ahead.
"Wah!?"
"This way!"
The person pulled on his hand and dragged him behind the reception counter to what seemed to be a gym.
He could hear several sets of footsteps passing by the corridor beyond the counter.
The other person was practically embracing him, but once he pulled himself free and checked who it was, he found he recognized them.
"What? You're that Aihana guy, right?"
"W-well, I suppose. You wouldn't be wrong to call me Aihana Etsu."
It was the boy with semi-long brown hair.
Kamijou gently sighed.
"Well, you saved me regardless. Listen, I'm heading back out when the time is right, but you stay here. If you are going to leave, wait a bit and go in the opposite direction. You haven't been spotted yet, but if you are, they'll fill you with holes. I'm not sure I can cover for you."
"No, " cut in Aihana Etsu.
When he shook his head, a sweet aroma was shaken from his hair.
"I don't know who they are, but I doubt it's anything that simple. They knew we were here, but they overlooked us because they don't want to get me caught up in this."
"What?"
"For some reason, this St. Germain guy is obsessed with me. He seems to have given me alone the ability to use the sealed elevators and doors. That's how I got to the mid level. I figured out these St. Germain people were after you from the behind-the-scenes videos, " he explained."They're all dressed the same, so maybe they all think the same. That means having you head out isn't the best plan here. I should go right into the middle of them. If I'm in the center of things, they'll have a harder time fighting."
That thought shocked Kamijou, but when he reflexively tried to argue, Aihana Etsu placed his index finger on his lips.
The sensation of the boy's slender finger silenced him.
"Whatever his goal is, St. Germain won't kill me right away. He'll want to talk. That's our chance. If I can loosen his lips and get some information out of him, we might find a way out of this. That would obviously be better than sitting around waiting to be killed and it's something only I can do."
The boy's words were logical, but his face was deathly pale.
His shoulders were trembling and they looked so skinny they would break if someone grabbed them too roughly.
He had to be scared.
It was not clear what St. Germain wanted and he could change his mind at any time. The odds were good he would bare his fangs the instant it was revealed Aihana Etsu was hiding something. And if that happened, there was no escape.
If their positions had been reversed and Kamijou was asked to play that role, he honestly doubted he could have done it.
And if St. Germain had noticed what they were doing, Aihana Etsu's suggestion was not even an undercover mission. St. Germain would already know he was letting Kamijou escape, so it would be more like taking or exchanging hostages.
"If..."
Aihana Etsu spoke while looking up at Kamijou. He grabbed Kamijou's coat at the chest and his self-made fear brought tears to the corners of his eyes.
Nevertheless...
"If I don't make it back, can you do one thing for me? A girl named Frenda Seivelun has an apartment in the upper level of the Dianoid. There might be something there to tell me what happened to my missing friend. If I have that, I might find a clue to saving her. St. Germain said something ominous about the 'last vestiges' of her, but I don't know if that's true. If I can't do it, please find it for me. If I know someone will, then I can go do this now."
"Hey, stop. I don't even know what kind of person you are. If you're carrying something you can't back down on, then that's all the more reason why you can't do something like this for me!"
"Don't worry, " said Aihana Etsu.
He looked Kamijou right in the eye from close range.
And he spoke as if to convince himself.
He seemed to be forcibly overwriting the fear that was overflowing from his true self.
He looked to the person who would believe this was who he was.
"I'm Aihana Etsu."
There was no time to stop him.
Aihana Etsu removed his hands from Kamijou Touma, ran out from behind the gym counter, and made his way out of the shop. He rushed out into the open where countless St. Germains lay in wait.
There was no point in running out after him.
In fact, beginning a sudden battle increased the risk of Aihana Etsu being hit by a stray attack.
Kamijou understood that.
He did, but...
"... !!"
He clenched his teeth, clenched his fist until it oozed blood, and yet had nothing he could do here.
He would not waste this opportunity.
Ensuring that was his only option here.
Part 4
Once he moved out into the open, Aihana Etsu's range of options narrowed significantly.
First of all, the countless St. Germains all focused on him. They may have already noticed him long ago, but things changed once they stopped acting and let each other know that they were aware of each other.
At this point, any attempt to run or hide increased the risk of his actions being viewed as hostile. And if he strayed out of line with only the name "Aihana Etsu" on his side, he had no way to avoid being skewered.
Then again...
(The situation isn't going to improve if I don't do anything. )
His fear transformed into lightheadedness as he desperately tried to think.
(I don't know why St. Germain is letting me go. He's freely attacking all the other people trapped in the Dianoid and I can't imagine why he would be treating me differently. I can't just do what he says. I have to get off of the rails he's set up for me!! If I don't, I won't be able to do what I came here to do!!)
Even if he was risking his life or sacrificing himself, he was still leaving the most important part to someone else.
He ignored the situation and had to suppress a smile at just how typical of him this was.
Kamijou Touma was a name he had heard while crying as he was punched and kicked in the back alleys. At the time, he had had nothing and had been feeling his way through the darkness and wandering around as if wearing a blindfold.
He had no connection to that person.
His only interaction with the boy was being given a bottle of water when the boy mistakenly thought he had heatstroke. It was far too cheap to leave his life with someone like that. He had done so anyway because even that tiny connection was more than he had with anyone else in the Dianoid.
He had received a bottle of water from St. Germain as well.
However, there was a slight difference between a monster attempting to curry his favor and Kamijou Touma who had wanted nothing in return.
His only choice was to bet on that.
This was just as supremely foolish as someone betting their lifesavings on their lucky color.
He knew that, but he still clung to that spider web.
And now a great number of tailcoats waited for him.
"Hi, hi! Should I still be calling you Aihana Etsu? I'm a little busy at the moment, but I can free up some time for you. How are things going with the Frenda Seivelun thing?"
"..."
Unlike before, it was not just a man. Age and gender did not matter. When alone, their costumes made them stand out, but when a group of them gathered, Aihana Etsu was the one who felt out of place.
"Didn't I tell you to hurry if you wanted to know the truth? It's interesting how it's possible to actually be too kind, isn't it? Or should I have escorted you to the upper level apartments?"
Aihana Etsu placed a hand on the center of his chest.
He switched to a new train of thought and focused on the thin student ID card.
He looked up with a challenge in his eyes.
"My problem can wait until later. More importantly, what about you?"
"Hm?"
"For how confident you sound, it doesn't seem like things are going all that well. Are you sure you can manage?"
A rusty smell wafted in from the surrounding group.
Some of them had bandages wrapped around themselves, but had they really been hit by their opponents?
"Oh, nothing to worry about. From now on, I will be more careful in my selection. You use diamond to cut diamond, but it seems I used them a little too roughly. I probably should have only used the teachers."
"... ?"
Aihana Etsu had never heard of the side-effects of using magic and St. Germain provided no explanation.
"You did not waste your precious chance to approach Frenda Seivelun just to talk about this, did you?"
"Don't worry. If you take out everyone in my way, I can take my time searching for that girl's secret."
"Ha ha! I suppose so. But 'kind' certainly is an apt description for you. For me, this is like having my reward paid in full up front."
One of the St. Germains reached out an arm and suggested they find somewhere to talk.
Next, they all extended an arm like the wind blowing through a wheat field.
At the same time, Aihana Etsu recalled the words of his friend.
"In the end, you need to be careful when someone treats you like an old friend the first time you see them. The ones who can fake the expression aren't too bad and the ones who only trick you with words are even better, but the ones who fake their own emotions are the truly dangerous ones. Those are the ones who have taken a step outside of what can be described in terms of good and evil."
That friend's cellphone had included the addresses of easily over one thousand people. She certainly knew more about people than he did.
"Nee hee hee. Not that I'm one to talk with how much I let others influence me."
"..."
He let the St. Germains guide him through a dance hall of swirling death and violence.
He was led to an elevator that took him to the rooftop Japanese garden where he had spoken with St. Germain before.
A single St. Germain waited for him in the moonlight.
This one was far older than him. She appeared to be in college or a new teacher. The adult woman had white skin, blue eyes, and wavy blond hair that reached her waist.
There were many different types of tailcoats, but this woman's one resembled the stage outfit of a woman illusionist. It was something like a jacket and bunny suit combination.
She wore a monocle that resembled a butterfly wing and her face looked somehow familiar.
She almost looked like Aihana Etsu's friend if she had grown into a beautiful woman.
"The carbon making up any diamond is nothing but carbon, but the impurities making up less than 0. 1% create countless varieties of colored diamonds. What splits people's personal preferences on diamonds are those miniscule imperfections. I thought you might grow to like me if I shined like this and I hoped that would help our conversation run more smoothly."
The blonde St. Germain laughed casually.
That woman had to have had her own life, personality, respect, and happiness.
But just knowing this was unreasonable was not enough to break free of it.
This was not a situation in which the mask of "Aihana Etsu" was enough.
"Now, now, now. Where to begin? My mind is filled with things I would like to say, but where should I begin to confuse you the least? Oh, it has been so long. It has been far too long since I came across such a delightful proposition."
"I want you to promise me just one thing first."
"No need to limit yourself to just one. Make as many requests as you like."
"You already know I didn't approach you because I'm your friend, right?"
"Oh, you mean the person you desperately tried to let escape?"
"Hiding it won't do any good. I'm here now, so don't lay a finger on that boy. If you don't promise me that, I refuse to speak with you."
"Very well."
The blonde St. Germain readily agreed while sliding open a rectangular pill case she had pulled out at some point and dropping a black pill onto her soft palm.
"I would really rather not promise that, but for you I will do it. And why stop with him? As long as you keep speaking with me, I will promise not to do any harm to anyone inside the Dianoid."
When he heard that, Aihana Etsu carelessly bared his true face before this obvious enemy.
He gave a sigh of relief.
A heated breath flowed white into the night wind.
St. Germain smiled quietly as she watched that expression that could only be described as inexperienced.
Yes.
St. Germain was interested only in a single truth.
With anything else, she was willing to tell billions of lies with a smile on her lips.
Part 5
He heard a tremendous explosion and felt the building shake, but that was not the most ominous thing Hamazura sensed while searching the Dianoid's mid level in the Power Lifter. More than his sight and hearing, it was his sense of smell that got to him.
It smelled like fireworks and there was a hint of rust thrown in.
Aneri's analysis said it was a nitrogen oxide reaction which pointed to a certain possibility.
(Don't tell me there's a bomb. )
The word naturally came to mind, but his brain did everything it could to reject the idea.
That could not be.
It just could not.
Then what was that strange smell? Where had the person named St. Germain gone after trapping so many people in the Dianoid? What had he done to Item who could possibly open up an elevator shaft or emergency staircase with the #4's Meltdowner? How did all that lead to the same scent he had sensed on the burning snowy plains of Russia?
"Pant, pant."
Despite using the Power Lifter, he was even more out of breath than when using his own two legs.
He could tell an unusual amount of sweat was flowing from his brow.
Aneri sent out a mental warning and suggested playing a video pattern file with a calming effect, but he did not have time to bother with any of that.
"What the hell is going on? Goddammit!!"
The closer he got to the scene, the more difficult it was to keep going. The reason for this was obvious: boys and girls were rushing toward him while screaming in terror or anger. They were not focused on him. They were simply trying to escape the scene of the blast as quickly as possible.
His desire to know what happened naturally sent him in the opposite direction, but he could not exactly use the Power Lifter's strength to knock them out of the way.
His slowed pace and the sensation that the dangerous truth was slipping from his fingers was enough to wear on his nerves.
What had happened to the girls who had been waiting for him in the Dianoid?
Where was Mugino Shizuri? Where was Kinuhata Saiai?
And where was Takitsubo Rikou?
He just about cried out, but then he spotted something strange: he was not the only one working against the sudden crowd of people.
Far away, a boy's eyes opened wide as if he had run into an invisible wall.
It was Kamijou Touma.
(Him?)
The boy looked at the confused crowd of people once more and then turned around.
A moment later, a flesh-colored hell opened up.
First, an undulation ran through the floor and walls.
Next, a large group of spears flew toward Kamijou Touma.
Finally, fist-sized tunnels opened in the bodies and faces of the boys and girls and the spears passed through them.
"A-..."
It was an inescapably evil scene.
No matter what the reason, he could not understand how a vision like that could be allowed.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!?"
Like an inside-out hedgehog, one hundred spears all rushed toward Kamijou Touma.
Without watching it through to the end, Hamazura Shiage took action while still screaming.
Aneri picked up on his intention and swiftly provided assistance.
The Power Lifter's giant steel arm opened like an alligator mouth and grabbed several of the infinitely extending spears. He used all of his strength to crush them.
This created a spear-less gap in one direction of the spherical attack.
Kamijou ran in that direction to put some distance between himself and the other spears.
The countless spear tips came together like a complex iron maiden.
"Get out of here!!" shouted Hamazura."Hurry!!"
This was no time to worry about regulations.
He grabbed the two joysticks and used the mechanical legs for a mighty leap. By landing on or grabbing pillars or objects sticking out from the wall, he passed over the crowd (that was riddled with tunnels) and landed next to the struggling Kamijou Touma.
That had not been Hamazura's own skill.
Those acrobatics were thanks to the calculations performed by Aneri.
Sparks flew as the legs scraped across the carbon floor.
"I thought I'd settled things with you!!"
"You did! But do you really think they're going to listen to what we have to say!?"
Kamijou pointed his thumb backwards.
Hamazura looked back and his eyes opened wide.
He saw a man in a tailcoat.
And the man was not alone. There were five or ten of them walking their way.
Just like a diamond, even heat seemed to spread between them in an instant, so they burned with a mad passion.
"You're kidding!! You have got to be kidding!! And when I have so many other things to deal with!"
"It's all over if you die! You've gotten caught up in this, so you should probably run away for now!"
"I still don't know if my girlfriend's safe!! It would tear my heart to pieces if I left her alone now!!"
"Damn. I see."
Kamijou briefly squeezed his eyes shut and seemed to shake something off.
He turned around and faced the St. Germains before speaking.
"Then we'll share the burden. You go do what you have to do and I'll hold them off."
"How!?"
"I'll figure it out! You said you'd settled things with me, remember? Then it's only natural for you to get the best spot!! So go!!"
It was Hamazura's turn to rub his brow and shake his head.
It would be easy to abandon this boy.
If he ordered everything according to priority, there was no way this boy's life would rank higher than Takitsubo.
But would Takitsubo and the others accept him if he made that choice?
Had he fallen in love with someone like that?
"... Dammit."
He spat out the curse from the very bottom of his heart.
The Power Lifter's giant arms then grabbed the pointy-haired boy by the back of the neck.
"Ah! Wait! What are you-... !?"
There was no time to explain.
Still holding Kamijou, he had the Power Lifter's leg bite into a thick pillar. The machine bounced around like a pinball. He would occasionally use the walls or even the ceiling as footing, occasionally grab objects on the wall, and crossed the entire floor by irregularly jumping around without ever touching the ground.
"..."
"..."
"..."
"..."
The countless St. Germains turned his way.
A moment later, countless spears extended from the floor and flew toward the Power Lifter like a group of surface-to-air missiles.
"Aneri, ballistic prediction!! And you can switch off the inertial Gs limiter!!"
He made his way to an area not yet infected by St. Germain.
He leaped to a theatre, jumped straight up, and tried to use the second or third story seats to reach another floor.
However, St. Germain was faster.
A few sets of eyes looked up at him from the bottom seats. The seats and walls twisted into countless spears and approached as another solid surface.
The open space of the theatre was working against him.
The Power Lifter was nimble, but it could not bounce around like a pinball without anything to use as footing. His movements grew simpler while in midair.
The enemy could perfectly aim for him and skewer him.
But just before that happened, a great roar filled the air.
Another machine came from the theatre's third story seats. Like a shooting star, the other Power Lifter performed a flying kick and forcibly broke the approaching spears.
Even if it was not a military weapon, the Power Lifter was not the kind of heavy machinery that had spread to the general public quite yet.
There were only two of them in the Dianoid, so there could only be one person operating this other one.
(Stephanie. )
"Teacher!?"
He cried out without thinking, but his grasp of the situation could not keep up with the passage of time. After breaking the pursuing spears, Stephanie's Power Lifter swung its arms and legs in midair to balance itself and fell to where the countless St. Germains waited.
Hamazura did not know if Mugino, Kinuhata, or Takitsubo were safe.
And now Stephanie had jumped into danger.
"Kh."
His steel hand grabbed the railing to the third story seats and he climbed up while taking a breath. After that, a groan escaped his mouth.
It quickly grew into a scream.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!"
Part 6
In that moment, Stephanie Gorgeouspalace had to have had a few different options.
She had spotted Hamazura Shiage on one of the flat-screen monitors.
He had run across... no, was running away from "something" using strange technology to skewer people.
As he flew through the air, countless spears had pursued him from behind.
She should have abandoned him.
She should have feigned ignorance and focused on her own safety.
But for some reason, she had suddenly remembered something.
She remembered a time before turning on Academy City because of Sunazara Chimitsu, her teacher as a soldier, and before leaving to see the world as a mercenary. It was a time when she was still in Academy City.
Back then, she had been a teacher.
She had been an Anti-Skill member who protected children's lives.
So...
(I don't really have much choice, do I?)
Sparks flew and she tore into the floor as she landed before the enemy and smiled a bit.
(I'm the adult here! You fall into the category of children, too!!)
The violence reached her immediately afterwards.
All at once, hundreds of spears rushed in. She swung her steel arms about, but that was nowhere near enough for this. Her flying kick had broken them, so they were likely not much of a threat when hit anywhere except for the very tip. However, they provided a fearsome impact if the tip scored a direct hit.
(If only... )
She gave up on clearing them all away.
She tried to protect herself with the metal arms, but the countless spears smashed, tore, and broke the Power Lifter to pieces.
(If only I could have gotten that information to someone else. )
The steel-smashing fangs would reach her soft flesh in just a few seconds more, but Hamazura Shiage would be able to escape in that time.
That was enough for her to remember the slight smile on her sweat-covered face.
However...
A brilliant beam of light shot in from the side and overturned the assumption of her death.
Every last spear was instantly vaporized.
A swirl of scorching heat melted the door leading to the theatre's first story seats as well as the surrounding wall.
A crackling charge filled the air.
Time seemed to stop and extreme violence ruled the scene.
"Hi there."
The owner of that violence stepped into the theatre.
It was Mugino Shizuri.
She was Meltdowner, Academy City's #4 Level 5.
Her beautiful feminine bodyline was surrounded by countless spherical swirls of electrons that heated her surroundings to the limit.
"If you're after that desperate bomber man, he's over there. Make sure to clean up after him. He's causing everyone trouble with the absolute mess he made of the place."
The St. Germains all turned toward Mugino.
Their deadly sights were trained on her, but the #4 showed no sign of caring.
Not only that, but a girl in a knit dress and a girl in a pink track suit spoke up from behind her.
"Umm, just to be super sure you're aware, these guys are a little strange for being our enemies. If you mercilessly genocide them, it might lead to some annoying attempts at revenge later. Being the target of some hackneyed sob story is the most dangerous part of working for the dark side."
"Shut the hell up. It's their fault for being controlled."
"And Mugino, " added the track suit girl."Can I make one request?"
"?"
"There's an atrium there, right? Fire a shot straight up into it."
"Oh?"
Mugino sounded like she barely cared, but she still raised a palm and released a deadly beam of light up into the atrium.
"Now, time to get down to business."
"Were you even listening!? If you super genocide what are technically innocent people, we'll end up chased around by some righteous heroes or something!"
"Then let's see who can take out more of them. If you can safely knock them all out with your Offense Armor, I won't have to use my Meltdowner at all."
"No fair! You're just making it super easy for yourself!"
The St. Germains did not wait for the girls to finish yelling at each other.
They launched countless spears at the two of them as a surprise attack.
Mugino did not even have time to release Meltdowner.
However...
"Are you serious?"
She sounded exasperated.
First, she lightly swung her head.
Next, her perfectly normal slender arm easily grabbed a spear thrust toward her face.
No.
No, it was actually...
"I told you your bomber man failed, didn't I? Kinuhata and I tore the bombs from him and threw them away. Thanks to that, no one died and you didn't get what you wanted."
With a dull crunch, she mercilessly crushed the carbon spear in her grasp. The smooth motion was accompanied by a quiet mechanical whirring.
It was a prosthetic hand.
During Mugino Shizuri's many battles, she had traded an eye, an arm, and all her skin for artificial replacements.
Rather than viewing it negatively, she had modified her own body to match her belligerent tendencies.
"Don't just assume a Level 5 is nothing but her power. I'll kill you."
With those words, the monsters named Mugino Shizuri and Kinuhata Saiai mercilessly charged into the group of St. Germains.
Part 7
Among the third story seats, Kamijou cried out when he saw the thick beam of light pierce vertically through the Dianoid.
Aneri gave a high heat warning.
"Wah!? Wh-what!?"
On the other hand, all of the tension bled away from Hamazura.
That was the signal.
It was an extremely unreasonable announcement saying that all of the danger would be swept away by brute force.
"Ha ha. That's right. They aren't the type to die so easily."
"What do you mean?"
Hamazura heard something like a hiccough come from himself.
At the same time, some slight tears welled up in his eyes.
He both cried and smiled.
"Just talking to myself! It means they didn't need reinforcements. Of course they didn't. Why in the hell did a Level 0 think he needed to help two Level 4s and a Level 5? Ha ha ha ha ha!!"
"???"
Kamijou was utterly confused, but Hamazura had apparently settled something in his heart.
He now had the leeway to focus on Kamijou instead of his own issues.
He left the third story seats and found a corridor untouched by St. Germain's "infection".
"What are you going to do now?"
"I want to rescue the kid named Aihana Etsu. He ran right into the St. Germains – those people in tailcoats – to let me escape. Now it's my turn to return the favor."
"Aihana?"
Hamazura frowned and pictured the child of indeterminate gender who had been sneaking around the Dianoid's parking lot.
"Is he the real deal? Are you sure he isn't a fake just using the name?"
"It doesn't matter. He risked himself to save my life, so he's a true hero either way."
Kamijou continued speaking.
"And I'm curious about St. Germain's actions. He's apparently obsessed with Aihana, but doesn't that seem inconsistent with the other things he's been doing?"
"What? Can you dumb it down a little?"
"If all he wants to do is contact Aihana, he wouldn't need to try to kill us. In fact, he wouldn't need to seal all the Dianoid's exits or even do it today. He could have just waited in a dark alleyway and abducted Aihana."
"Now that you mention it..."
"He didn't take all these unrelated hostages just to speak with Aihana. But that raises some fundamental questions. Is St. Germain even interested in Aihana Etsu? Is that really his final objective?"
"Still, he's using some of his resources to help Aihana. That would mean..."
"He might be using Aihana for some other goal. Or he's pushing Aihana to do something for him."
Kamijou chose his words carefully.
"That makes me curious about the last thing Aihana said. He said something's hidden in the Dianoid that might help him save a missing friend of his. If he can't, he wanted me to search for Frenda Seivelun's secret in his place."
"Frenda?" asked Hamazura without thinking.
Aneri automatically began a search for the name, but they either had no signal or the records on the dark side were sealed off because the window froze up.
However, the correct answer was in his head.
The girl's fate flashed through the back of his mind. Her torso had been torn apart in a frenzy and her upper body had been dragged around while spilling its organs like a torn stuffed animal.
There was no saving that life.
"Did you just say Frenda!?"
"Yeah. Do you know her?"
"Well, yes..."
Her fate was not an easy thing to explain, but Kamijou did not stick with the issue.
"If Aihana is manipulated into doing something, this Frenda girl's secret is what we need to break him free. We can apparently find it if we search the apartments on the upper level, so we need to do that. I don't know if Aihana is St. Germain's goal or just something he's doing for fun, but don't you think we could catch St. Germain off guard if we did remove Aihana from his control?"
"That's enough, " cut in Hamazura."If Frenda's a part of all this, then I'm in. That's enough reason for me to see this through to the end."
With the Power Lifter, travelling between floors was not difficult.
They only had to break through the elevator door and use the elevator shaft.
If they climbed that tunnel toward the heavens, they would reach the high-class apartments on the Dianoid's upper level.
The truth they desired was there.
Part 8
She had long wavy blonde hair and white skin.
The college-aged woman in a tailcoat sat on the teahouse storefront bench and Aihana Etsu sat next to her.
They were in the moonlit garden.
On the Dianoid's roof, St. Germain took a black pill from her pill case and tossed it into her mouth.
"St. Germain's name became widely known during the 1600s. He was known as an alchemist who knew the art of immortality or a man from the future with a technique to travel through time. However, I have actually been active since around the year 500. Of course, I haven't used a single individual from beginning to end. Instead, my primary meaning multiplies without end."
"..."
"Why do you think that is?" asked St. Germain with a soft smile."What do you think I have lived so long for?"
Aihana Etsu shook his head.
"How could I know that?"
"How honest of you. But there is no need to make this complicated. St. Germain is known as a mysterious individual who appears in the high societies of countless nations during countless time periods, but my goal is something you would find in a children's picture book."
At some point, the rectangular pill case had vanished from her hand
A closer inspection showed that was due to sleight of hand, not the supernatural.
"Aihana. How much do you know about the legend of King Arthur?"
"Arthur?"
"You know, the man who became king after pulling out the sword in the stone. Of course, most people only know the first part of the legend and know none of the details about what kind of life the man lived."
At that point, Aihana Etsu finally recalled the sword named Excalibur.
Then again, he only knew of it as the name of a weapon in a 3D RPG he had played. He pointlessly remembered it had been the third strongest sword in the game and that it let you attack four times in a single turn.
"By the way, do you know who the strongest knight was in that long, long legend?"
"Eh? You mean it wasn't the king?"
"No." St. Germain shook her index finger."In fact, the king himself was not all that strong. He was chosen by the sword, but he became King of Britain thanks to the knights surrounding him. The king is not necessarily the main character of every story."
"I see."
"It's also technically incorrect to say the Knights of the Round Table were the ultimate team. That system was only introduced later and it did not include any of the old knights who had initially supported the king. So if you look through all of the legends, who is truly the strongest knight?"
She stopped her shaking finger and continued on.
"The answer is Galahad. He was the ultimate knight born to Lancelot and Elaine, Princess of the Holy Grail Castle. He was a pure knight who surpassed the king and improved upon Lancelot's imperfections. King Arthur became King of Britain by drawing a sword, but Galahad is said to have possessed both a holy sword and a holy shield and to have finally acquired the Holy Grail with his purity and strength.... On the other hand, he was so perfect he lacked any humanity, so he was something like a combat machine."
What did that have to do with anything?
Aihana Etsu was confused and it must have shown on his face because St. Germain smiled softly once more.
"Did it go in one ear and out the other since it's outside your field of expertise? The king acquired a sword, but Galahad outdid him by acquiring both a sword and a shield. However, that raises a question. Wouldn't the king have originally had two issues to deal with? Wouldn't there have been a shield somewhere in the world powerful enough to act as Excalibur's counterpart?"
If he had the title of "king", King Arthur would have been on the upper levels of society.
And a lot of people would have wanted to get their hands on anything he had owned.
Information on the shield could easily have been hidden in those high society parties and gatherings.
Was that why St. Germain had blended in as a noble?
Aihana Etsu wondered that like he was thinking about a fairy tale, but...
"And have you heard another rumor, boy?"
"... ?"
"That king had a twin sister. Her name was Anne, Queen Anne. She never appears in the legends as a knight or as a princess and no one knows what happened to her. For that reason, she is treated like a false addition to the story. But what if it were true?"
Some strange kind of sweetness entered her smile.
"The legend ends when the king and his son Mordred kill each other. Some of his blood remained in distant relatives like Constantine, but the direct line ended there.... Yet Queen Anne's presence would overturn that entirely. King Arthur's blood may have been passed on."
If that was true, it would indeed be a big deal.
It would breathe new life into an ancient legend.
But...
"Did you actually believe me?"
The blonde St. Germain laughed.
"Queen Anne's existence isn't the issue. I searched and searched but never found anything. She was probably a fabrication after all. But what matters, Aihana, is that there is a loophole in the legend of the sword. There is still a possibility of a twin sister Anne and room for whispers of a shield to match the sword. The king and traitor were slain together and it ended there. Except it didn't. It isn't a dead end and it isn't over. Yes, the shield is what I wanted. That and the person who was chosen by the shield. I wanted to meet the one who would travel the world with Excalibur's counterpart in hand."
St. Germain laughed again.
For that, she was willing to be called a liar behind her back. She was willing to be called a con man as she slipped into the money-obsessed high society. She was willing to do it all again and again. And she said it all with a reminiscent look on her face.
"B-but if that's the case, why are you in Academy City? I don't entirely understand, but shouldn't you be searching in European countries like... um... England or France?"
"I did. I searched and searched and searched for about 1500 years without finding a thing. And then I realized something. I could not find it no matter how thoroughly I scoured the world, so I asked myself where I had yet to search."
Aihana Etsu gulped as if swallowing some sweet honey.
"You don't mean..."
"Academy City. A surprising blind spot, isn't it? No place is more removed from magic and mystery. And yet in emergencies, this headquarters of the science side contacts the magic side via the Anglican Church. It is not a bad place to store a legend born in Britain. In fact, the Index Librorum Prohibitorum is apparently stored here, so I should have noticed the possibility of such an exception more quickly, " she said."You asked why I am here. Well, I have a single reason."
With a heavy thud, she pressed the bottom of a giant golden glowing shield into the gravel garden.
"This is the shield to match the sword. Out of respect to a certain fantasy, I call it Anne's Shield. Even in our world, Queen Anne is an allusion to someone that does not exist, just like the mirage of a desert oasis. While it is paired with the sword, it would be wrong to call it the king's shield seeing as he never touched it even once. And since it never appears in the legend, there is no mention or proof that anyone else owned it either. Since its owner is unknown, calling it Queen Anne's Shield is perfect, is it not?"
Someone that does not exist.
The mirage of a desert oasis.
The blonde St. Germain claimed to have searched for this for many long years.
Her words were self-deprecating, but they also contained the joy of being freed from those bonds.
"The Dianoid is said to function as a giant vault to hide the various 'secrets' of the elites. Given the line drawn between the science side and magic side, wouldn't this be the perfect place to hide something you did not want found?"
"..."
"Anne's Shield was scheduled to be transported to the TV station in a disguised container, but now I have it. I swiped it while this city's #4 was focused on my other selves."
The blonde St. Germain smiled thinly in the moonlight.
Her first goal had been retrieving the shield, but that was not her only goal.
She had something else.
"In the end, I never managed to prove Queen Anne existed. Magic is both a field of knowledge and a set of techniques, but it seems Anne's Shield has a safety lock based on blood and it will only activate for someone with matching genetic information. But that is an issue of probability that people often call coincidence. I only had to find someone whose genetic information was similar enough to the bloodline and bloodstains on the few items the king left behind. That was another way in which Academy City was an extremely efficient organization. For their powers development, each school stores DNA maps of its students. Once I had the data recoded from the items left by the king, it was all a search away. It was much like trying keys in a lock. Of course, that required finding someone able to do that and turning them into St. Germain."
"That's... unbelievable..."
"How? I went through it, piece by piece, explaining it all."
"But... Queen Anne? Excalibur's counterpart? This is Academy City, the headquarters of the science world where psychic powers have been created with technology. This... this isn't where you would find some historical figure from a thick book written on parchment."
"Ha ha. That is only the side of Academy City you are familiar with."
"?"
"Ladylee Tangleroad, Fräulein Kreutune, and Dragon. Even this city contains some beings that cannot be explained with the official version of science. You just haven't been told about them. Or rather, a truly perfect version of science is that much harder to come by. Just as there is no such thing as a 100. 0% pure diamond."
"Eh? What? Wait..."
"I suppose throwing all that at you so quickly was too much. But is it that strange if you think about it rationally? Think of the British Halloween that occurred during the coup d'etat in England. That clash of modern weapons and countless legends is said to have been a fantastical bout of mass hysteria, but why was it Curtana that made its appearance there? Why was something as well-known as Excalibur nowhere to be seen? Doesn't that feel like a puzzle piece was missing? To me, it seems natural to assume it was hidden away somewhere else."
Aihana Etsu's mind was approaching panic.
The words just kept coming so smoothly and readily that he could instinctually tell this woman was not just adlibbing. There was some logic below it all that he was unaware of. Just like with a book written in a foreign language, he felt his lack of understanding came from a flaw on his end.
In that case...
If St. German was correct, some child in Academy City had been born with the qualities needed to activate this legendary shield. And it was not due to bloodline; it was a complete coincidence.
Just how astronomical were the odds that this person had won against? It had not been determined before their birth and no one around them had arranged for it to happen. Acquiring the shield had truly been entirely up to luck and they had been selected out of the nearly infinite possible arrangements. This absurdly good luck was like randomly hitting keys when entering a password and getting into the highest level of security on the first try.
What kind of person were they?
For just a moment, Aihana Etsu truly wondered that.
He assumed they were entirely different from him, an awkward and useless Level 0 who could not even get into a building without using someone else's ID card.
But then St. Germain pointed her raised index finger toward Aihana Etsu's small nose.
"It is you I have yearned for, my beloved king of the shield."
Part 9
A loud clanking rang through the darkness.
Hamazura's Power Lifter was climbing the vertical elevator shaft by brute force. The steel machine had enough strength to achieve the speeds of a small car.
Kamijou was clinging to the back engine unit, but...
"Oh? Ohhhhhh!! Wh-wh-wha-wha-what!? It's shaking, it's shaking, it's shaking, what's going on, it's shaking!!"
"Aneri!! I know he attacked us out of the blue earlier, but he isn't an enemy! Don't shake him off!!"
After Hamazura's shouted command, the Power Lifter finally stopped its unnatural shaking.
His situation prevented him from even wiping the sweat from his brow, so Kamijou got to the topic at hand with a tremble in his voice.
"T-to be honest, I'm most afraid of St. Germain making Aihana Etsu use magic."
"Magic?"
Hamazura's question caused Aneri to start a search, but it had no internet connection and could only pull data from the temporary files left by previous searches. And the only data it found was from game walkthrough sites or videos of Hawaii and Denmark, so it was completely useless.
"Birdway explained it to you before, remember? I guess it would be easiest to think of it as a kind of supernatural power different from esper powers. But magic doesn't rely on innate talent, so apparently even we could shoot fire or ice from our hands if we wanted to.... Well, I'm not sure about me. Imagine Breaker would probably mess with it."
Kamijou said it all so readily, but it would be a huge deal if it was true.
Hamazura himself had seen magicians in Hawaii and during the entire Fräulein Kreutune affair, but having that possibility presented to him anew was enough to make him feel dizzy.
This was an opportunity to destroy the hierarchy set up by Academy City.
Level 0s could break free of that title.
The Parameter List would lose all meaning.
It would bring so many happy changes.
However, Kamijou was not done speaking.
And what he said next destroyed all that.
"It's not all good, though. Especially for Academy City espers that use magic."
His tone suggested he found this utterly despicable.
Hamazura frowned, so he gave the answer.
"It seems esper powers and magic come into conflict inside the body. When an esper uses magic, it causes an awful malfunction. It damages the body's blood vessels and nerves. In the worst case, they just die."
"Seriously?"
"Seriously. Of course, this is all known from failed experiments. It's probably only useful as a way to bind a far-too-powerful magician."
Kamijou sounded annoyed with the possibility that came to mind.
"So if St. Germain convinces Aihana to oppose us, it creates two dangers. The first is obviously the threat to our lives, but the second is that he'll be forced to unwittingly play Russian roulette."
The damage was not something that accumulated. The side effect of using magic simply caused damage in some random part of the body, so it was entirely possible the carotid artery would be taken out the very first time.
"This isn't good, " muttered Hamazura while operating the Power Lifter."This definitely isn't good. It's just cruel and I can't stand that."
"That's why we're going to do something about it."
"And that's why we need to find Frenda's 'real' secret, hm?"
With a loud bang, Hamazura kicked through the wooden-looking elevator door and entered the elevator hall with Kamijou.
It was not an issue of a specific location or object.
As soon as they breathed in, they could tell they were horribly out of place here. It was like finding you had wandered into a silent art museum while playing loud music on a handheld music player.
They were in the upper level apartment area.
The rooms themselves were valuable enough without even thinking about what was inside.
And they apparently functioned as vaults to hide secrets instead of as a place to live, so VIPs with too much money would buy them for peace of mind.
Unlike normal dorms or apartments, the entrances were sliding double doors. At this height, a piano could not be brought in through the window using a crane, so the front entrance needed to be large enough for most anything. Of course, those doors would be made to prevent any kind of forced entry.
Aneri began a search to gather information on the entire high-class apartment area. Communications were very nearly cut off, but there may have been a local system accessible within the building.
Based on the gathered information, the place was just like the secret banks in Switzerland or the Cayman Islands. As soon as the secret was out, it lost all value. If just one room was broken into, every client would begin to question the "peace of mind" that was the biggest selling point.
Despite knowing that, Hamazura readily spoke up.
"I'll handle the lock."
"I'm counting on you. But first we have to figure out which room belongs to that Frenda girl."
Part 10
He did not understand.
"Eh? What? Um, what???"
Thrown by the sudden announcement, Aihana Etsu blinked and the St. Germain in a bunny girl tailcoat made her next presentation.
Yes.
Just like a knight before his king, she bent her knee and lowered her head.
All while holding the glittering golden Anne's Shield.
"Ahh, do you understand, master of the shield to match the sword? You are a positive gap in the lattice. You bring about a unique change that I cannot as an orderly lattice of carbon. Do you have any idea how long I had dreamed of this before reaching this point?"
Her lowered head kept her expression hidden, but emotion escaped into her voice.
She was overwhelmed by emotion.
That was the only way to describe the passion in her voice.
"People can call me a mere illusionist if they wish. I do not mind if they spit on me and call me a con artist. But. The one thing I can never allow is for someone to deny everything I have believed in. Yes. I have finally been rewarded. I had my body torn apart as I swam through the sea of pretentious nobles who were filled with nothing but money and desire. But that near infinite effort and pain has finally borne fruit. Do you have any idea how this feels?"
The blonde St. Germain took Aihana Etsu's hand. She pulled it toward her and attempted to place the back of the hand on her cheek.
She was such a great existence.
And yet this was much like petting a faithful hound's head as a reward after capturing its prey.
However, Aihana refused.
He gathered his strength and pulled his hand back to himself.
"No, I don't."
He no longer had any resources left to use on his act.
He simply spoke the words that came to mind.
"You can't expect me to believe that! And what about you? We only just met, so you don't know what kind of person I am. How... how can you lower your head so easily? How can you hand your dream over to me!?"
"Why? Because standing above others is not what I desire after truly mastering magic."
"Magic?"
"The legend of that sword includes a man who mastered all sorts of magic, but he never thought of becoming king himself. He only supported the king's rule, " said St. Germain with her head still respectfully lowered."I am the same. I have mastered magic, but I have no intention of calling myself a god of magic. I required this skill to achieve my goal, but it would make no sense to lose myself in that power. Rather than be a magician or a Magic God, I only needed to become the unique being that is St. Germain. I wish to be a third category that can only be described with the term 'St. Germain', just as people do not refer to diamonds as charcoal. That is why I placed myself to the side of the legend's peak. I wished to meet the true king who was worthy of my service. But when St. Germain came into being, that king no longer lived. And the value of the sword piercing the earth was not its sharp edge; it was its ability to select a ruler capable of resolving a great problem. The legend had come to an end and the king was dead, but as long as I had the sword, it was possible I could select a new king for each coming age. But the sword too had been lost. And so I searched. I searched and searched and searched. The scales of Anubis and the spear of the Valkyrie. There are plenty of legends concerning the judgment of people's souls and the deeds they have committed, but the only legend that matched my goal was Anne's Shield. And the answer that shield chose... was you."
Aihana Etsu gasped.
"Bloodline is certainly important in the king's legend, but it is not absolute. It may be due to an incidental similarity, but Anne's Shield has chosen you, just as machine oil finds the diamond among the rocks. The miniscule odds of this meeting are a sign that the age itself desires the arrival of a new king."
He placed a hand on his chest and thought about what he was being told.
And he spoke in a trembling voice as if hesitantly reaching toward the head of a new hound.
"Are you really... not planning anything else? Do you really only want to serve me?"
"It is because they do not see what I gain that people fail to understand me and view me as a con artist. That fact has allowed me to find the king and it is the single trump card that could overpower even those Magic Gods. I overpower magicians and spurn the Magic Gods as they urge me to join their ranks. I remain the truly stable crystal that is St. Germain. They arrogantly call themselves Magic Gods, but they are nothing more than counselors without a king. They are a foolish group that has yet to realize that true power cannot be obtained as an individual. On the other hand, I have obtained you as a nucleus. Ahh, if Othinus had only come to understand Kamijou Touma before losing her power, she might have walked a different path."
"..."
"My king, if I am not mistaken, that look on your face says you do not believe you have any power or that anyone would serve you."
Still kneeling, St. Germain continued talking as if to unravel the mystery one piece at a time.
"But if you think about it, that is only natural. England left a rare form of magical talent in Academy City. It would have been a waste to destroy that talent by rudely developing esper powers over it. Simply put, you were given placebos identical to the proper Curriculum. That is why you have no power. They had no choice but to label you a Level 0. It was all so your true ability could emerge at this moment."
Each individual piece of information linked together.
That shield had seemed as distant as the other side of the planet or even Pluto, but it was gradually falling within reach. It all began to feel strangely real as if there was no other way to explain the many failures and humiliations of his life.
"You are the positive gap and it all lies within your grasp."
The blonde St. Germain intently raised her head and gave her king a suggestion.
"I will grant you any magic you wish. It can be the other Magic Gods, the unreasonable rules of this world, or anything else you find even the slightest bit unpleasant. You need only point it out to me and I promise I will immediately obliterate that obstacle."
What if his position as a Level 0 had meaning?
What if he had a special talent that anyone would be envious of and what if he had a bright and shining stardom that would guide him the rest of the way?
That would bring such happiness to his life.
It would give such meaning to everything leading up to this.
"Aihana Etsu" was not a strong person. In all his humiliating days of being branded powerless, could he truly say he had never looked up to the stories of the Ugly Duckling or Cinderella? Could he truly say he had never wished he would not share the fate of the Little Match Girl?
But...
"That..."
Aihana Etsu shook his head, sending a sweet aroma scattering from his semi-long hair.
He had no intention of touching the golden shield held before him.
"That isn't what I want."
"..."
"It's true I'm small. It's true I've always regretfully wished I had some convenient hidden talent or true power no one had ever noticed. It's true I couldn't even get in here without faking my identity. But this isn't it."
He tried to pull away from St. Germain.
"There's something wrong if I have to hurt people to prove my power. That isn't what I want to do. Isn't power meant to protect? It may be wrong for me to talk about this since I don't have any power, but even without any power, I've managed to come this far without hurting anyone."
"Is that so?"
"So I can't do this. If that power requires hurting people, then I can't accept it."
"Even so, let me ask once more: Are you sure?"
She spoke with a sincere voice, yet it sounded like the whispers of a demon.
"Have you forgotten that I told you to search for the last vestiges of Frenda Seivelun?"
"... !!!???"
"Not her possessions, but the last vestiges of her. Surely you are not so foolish that you do not realize the alternate wording changes the meaning, just like with diamond and charcoal."
She smiled.
And smiled.
And smiled.
St. Germain activated her ultimate weapon, the ability to flatter others.
"And there is always a reason behind people's deaths. Once you run across that reason, will you truly be able to say you have no use for a power that hurts others?"
Part 11
Countless double sliding doors lined the hall and the same scene filled several floors, so it seemed impossible to find Frenda Seivelun's hideout without any kind of hint.
"It doesn't look like the room numbers are arranged in any kind of order. Did they let the client choose whatever number they wanted?"
However, they received some unexpected help.
Hamazura Shiage spoke up from his Power Lifter.
"Between 0 and 9, she preferred 9."
"?"
"Between 1 and 8, 1. Between 2 and 7, 7. Between 3 and 6, 6. Between 4 and 5..."
Aneri seemed to be using its learning function to analyze the pattern, but it required some input from the pilot.
Finally, Hamazura raised his head and gestured Kamijou forward.
"This way, probably. C'mon."
The two of them walked down the hallway. The distance between doors suggested each room was given quite a bit of space, but there were still a lot of them. Even so, Hamazura took an almost direct path to their destination.
Confused, Kamijou asked about it.
"You know that much about her?"
"We didn't know each other for long, but she had a bad habit of using the same password for everything because she hated remembering different ones for everything. That restricted Mugino and Kinuhata quite a lot too. Okay, this is the place."
They stood in front of one of the sliding doors.
It appeared to be made of wood, but it was of course a carbon material. It would probably survive having a car crash into it.
But once Hamazura climbed down from the Power Lifter, he traced his fingers over the surface of the door.
The two-ton piece of heavy machinery entered autonomous standby mode and observed the lock's structure over the boy's shoulder.
"So it's a Method Pin Type 29? They claim it's theoretically impossible to illegally copy the key, but I should be able to manage with this."
"How are you going to open it?"
"Think about it in reverse. The key can't be copied and the lock can't be drilled, picked, or melted.... So what if the owner loses their key? Will the room never be opened again? If the self locking door trapped a baby inside, that would lead to a death."
"Oh."
"Naturally, the lock maker doesn't want to be responsible for the actions of a stupid customer, so they always hide an emergency way to unlock it or to remove and swap out the lock. They don't tell the customers that, of course. It entirely defeats the purpose of the lock."
Kamijou watched Hamazura work but had no idea what he was doing. However he did it, Hamazura quickly removed the entire lock, pressed on a latch inside, and unlocked the door. The door was made so a grand piano or home theater system could be brought in, so the entire Power Lifter could fit into the entranceway.
Once they opened the double sliding doors, they found a large space.
However, it was more than just one room.
"It's an apartment, but this looks like an inn's entranceway, " commented Kamijou."Wow, there's even stairs."
"This thing's just like a villa that costs hundreds of millions of yen, right? Anyway, this is Frenda's hideout. Takitsubo's one thing, but I'm curious what she was hiding even from Mugino and Kinuhata."
"?"
"Whatever's hiding in here, we just have to pray it isn't an explosives plant. Knowing Frenda, there might be a self-destruct device set up to destroy the evidence."
The apartment showed no sign of having been lived in, but that was not just because its owner had been gone for a long time.
While it had been an apartment, it had not been made to live in. It was more like an extremely high-class closet. Or maybe a vault to store anything one wanted to ensure was kept safe.
Kamijou and Hamazura could not say for sure without doing a thorough search, but this floor alone seemed to have well over five rooms. How much more would they find if they climbed the stairs to another floor?
"Listen. Be careful when you step on the floorboards, don't carelessly open the sliding screens, don't touch any switches, don't mess with any weird devices you find, don't get caught by any tripwires or infrared beams, watch out for ultrasonic waves and microwaves, and be very careful of anything that looks like a vegetable or potted plant. Just like a top-class pastry chef can recreate any kind of sweet, she might have camouflaged the materials she used."
"What's left that I can do?"
Whatever they said, their only option was to check all of the sliding screens.
They started with the screen straight ahead in the large hall of an entranceway.
"Normally, this would lead to the living room."
"With a place this size, it could easily be a game room or projection room. But this is a giant storeroom, so it won't have any kind of normal use. I just hope we don't find a ton of fuel-air bombs in there."
"Just out of curiosity, who exactly was this Frenda?"
"The only thing worth knowing is that she was Fremea's older sister."
After an overly thorough examination of the area around the screen, Hamazura grabbed the knob with the Power Lifter's large steel hand.
Threat Level: Undetermined.
Aneri's warning meant they could find just about anything on the other side.
"Listen. Go any further and it's at your own risk. If things look dangerous, get to the ground. If you only take action once the bomb has already detonated, it's too late."
Frenda had hidden something even from the rest of Item.
Aihana Etsu had desired whatever it was so he could pursue his missing friend.
Hamazura thought for just a moment, but then he moved the mechanical hand on the knob.
And he slid it to the side.
Part 12
"To be honest."
The female St. Germain wore a stage magician's outfit that resembled a bunny suit and jacket and she kneeled in the moonlit garden.
"I have not dug that deeply into the issue surrounding Frenda Seivelun. I am an outsider, after all."
"..."
Aihana Etsu slowly looked back at St. Germain's face.
A few strands of hair had blown in the night wind and caught between her lips.
The woman with white skin and long, wavy blonde hair laughed.
"Still, I know as much as I do because of the Dianoid. This is a giant storehouse that Academy City's VIPs pay good money to hide their secrets in. No place could be more useful for learning the secrets of others."
"Did you see her room?"
"No." St. Germain shook her head."The Dianoid stores more than physical collections. It also contains carbon-based and organic-based DNA computers. Simply put, it has also taken over management of digital possessions. I can directly manipulate those, so I could not help but make use of it."
"Then it was in there?"
"It was." St. Germain pulled a pill from her pill case."But it was more trouble than I would have liked since I had to access the DNA computer directly. Even if the machine itself is carbon based, it still uses fiber optic cables. I can control the machine, but I cannot touch the cables. That means I cannot use the extensive security camera network. Such a shame."
"That doesn't matter, " cut in Aihana Etsu.
He no longer observed her expression or feared the changes in her waves of emotion, but was that because the submissiveness of this powerful monster was producing a change inside him?
Or were his brakes no longer functioning now that his goal had been placed right before his eyes?
A somehow dangerous relaxation came over him. He moved his darkened eyes and half-opened lips as he continued.
"You said before that her room contains the 'last vestiges' of her. How much do you know? What did you learn in the Dianoid?"
"Do you want to know, my king?"
"Answer me."
"Even if it will cause you to regret every last one of your decisions?"
"Answer me, St. Germain!!"
The blonde woman snapped her fingers.
Another of those playing the role of St. Germain held a notebook-sized tablet toward Aihana Etsu.
Without even thinking, he took it and listened to the St. Germain who resembled a grown Frenda.
"Now see for yourself, king of the shield. This is the regret you have chosen."
Whether he heard those words or not, he definitely saw what that screen displayed.
In an instant, his mind was filled by several images.
An overpass with a subway track running below.
A boy and a girl speaking together.
The object that girl dragged in one hand like a burst stuffed animal.
A familiar friend.
Red and black.
Far too much missing.
A torso.
Torn-apart and disturbing colors.
Long, wavy blonde hair and white skin had lost all life and looked more like dried papier-mâché, empty eyes reflected nothing, the color red trailed down from the corner of the mouth, the long body was missing everything from the lower torso and below, something soft and colorful dangled stickily down from the violently torn edge, the path along which it had been roughly dragged was obvious thanks to the grotesque clumps that had fallen to the-
"Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!???"
The next thing he knew, Aihana Etsu was screaming uncontrollably.
He had not heard anything from his friend for quite a while. She had seemed to live in a different world from him and this worst case scenario had crossed his mind, but he had come this far in order to prove it wrong. If he could clear away all of the gathering darkness and let the light in, he had hoped to eliminate his fears. He had thought the usual scenery would return and he could smile with his friend once more.
But...
What was this?
This went beyond a stabbing, a strangling, or a bullet to the head.
"Ah... aahh... aaahhh..."
His tear glands let loose.
All that remained after screaming was a despondency much like deterioration and an absolutely empty mind. His limbs hung limply and his eyes stayed open like a broken doll. His resolve and determination had been crushed. His torrent of emotions had nowhere else to go, so they took the form of tears.
This was awful.
It was horrible.
It was too much.
There may have been no fundamental difference in people's deaths. Whether the corpse was perfectly preserved or torn to pieces, they were still just as dead. But then what was this he saw on the screen? Just what kind of sins did one have to bear to deserve a death like that? Her body had been torn in two, dragged along the ground, and shown off like a present.
He had always thought it was over once someone died.
That was why he had refused to accept this death and taken a step into the city's darkness.
But he had been wrong.
There was more after their death.
Would they have a proper burial to preserve their dignity or would they be dug up and crushed underfoot?
"Have you heard of this, my king?"
St. Germain gave a ripple-like laugh and spoke further.
"A new type of bomb lies hidden in the Dianoid."
"..."
"And surely you had at least somewhat suspected that Frenda Seivelun had strayed from the proper path."
"Are you saying that's what she left behind?"
"That is hard for me to say."
At that point, a rumble reached them and the entire rooftop shook violently.
Aihana Etsu looked overhead without thinking and St. Germain whispered to him.
"I suppose that would be Mugino Shizuri."
"Who's that?"
"The girl in that footage. She is currently taking out St. Germains just like me."
A strange trembling and numb sensation reached the tips of Aihana Etsu's fingers.
That was the person who had done "this".
And it was not just isolated to the past. The monster was producing violence even now.
"Make no mistake, my king. Mugino Shizuri is not what matters here."
"She doesn't matter?"
He was left speechless.
| ← Ch. 134 | Ch. 136 → |