novelSong of the Starry Sky (2)
| ← Ch.26 | Ch.28 → |
It was a landmark of Tokorozawa City. It was a place of relaxation for the people who lived in the city, and a place with a high concentration of administrative offices belonging to the government: Tokorozawa Aviation Memorial Park[4].
Inside the park, where entry during night time was restricted, Nodoka watched with widened eyes as her father carried a magical sphere that was giving off light like a lighthouse.
"......Uwaah, Dad, what the heck is that?"
"Seriously, this is so annoying! I heard that even if they are defeated, the Shii will just escape if you leave them lying on the bare ground, so I'm taking the effort to trap them in a barrier of light! I've covered pretty much all the places around here and I think I've defeated all of them, but it's just a matter of time until someone finds these and calls the police!"
Up in the sky was the 『Gate Tower』 that even Hideo had never seen before.
"Don't talk to me! I feel like I'm about to throw up as well! Nodoka! Wipe off my sweat, please. Also, give me some juice!"
"Yes, yes! On my way!"
Nodoka obeyed her mother's instructions and wiped the sweat from her mother's forehead with her handkerchief, and placed a plastic bottle of juice with a straw that she had purchased at some point near her mouth.
"What are you doing over there?"
"I'm anchoring the entrance of the Gate Tower! By the time we got here, she had already jumped in. Diana-chan wasn't capable of doing this, so I had no choice!"
Madoka was already in full-throttle style while holding the Holy Staff Marlowe. She had unsealed the so-called Magical Lady appearance.
If she didn't do this, she wouldn't be able to fight against the energy trying to close the entrance of the 『Gate Tower』 which had taken three percent of the national budget to activate.
To tell the truth, she probably felt like jumping into the Gate Tower herself right about now.
However, there was no telling where the gate was connected to, and even if they somehow managed to save Shouko, if the gate was closed they might be unable to return to Japan.
If such a thing were to happen, she had absolutely no idea to to explain and apologize to the Tatewaki couple that their daughter had not only been possessed by a monster from another world, she had also been kidnapped by a Magitech Knight and taken away to another world.
Diana didn't have the power to keep the entrance of the Gate Tower from closing.
Because of that, Madoka had no choice but to stay here and keep the the entrance open, and begrudgingly allowed Yasuo to enter the Gate Tower along with Diana after making him promise that he would summon his father if things got dangerous.
"What!? So Yasuo is in there as well!? I need to go there as soon as possible!"
Hideo panicked upon hearing what had happened and was about to jump into the entrance, but the Magical Lady stopped him.
"Wait! We need to wait until the last possible moment!"
"Why!?"
"When Diana-chan and Yasuo jumped in there, the pressure from the Gate Tower increased drastically. If you jump in there as well, I probably won't be able to hold it. Then there would be no point in doing all this!"
"B-But still..."
"It's okay. Yasuo and Diana-chana are still okay. They might be injured, but it doesn't appear to be anything life threatening."
"How can you possibly know that!?"
While Hideo looked frustrated, Nodoka held an unfamiliar Slimphone in front of his face.
Displayed on the screen was the free phone call window of the ROPE application.
The recipient of the call was 『Yasu-kun』.
Apparently, the call was being recorded as well.
Smiling wryly at her father who looked ashamed, Nodoka pointed up towards the sky.
"It looks like he's still barely getting a signal. I've also pretty much understood the details of why Khalija-san did something like this."
"......What?"
"Promise me that you won't tell him I said this."
Hideo gazed in amazement at the soaring tower of stardust in the sky.
"Onii-chan is doing quite a good job of fighting this time."
※
Diana was calmly intercepting the units of Marfik that were attacking her like a meteor shower.
She used magical bullets to change their trajectories, and used the twin swords of light to hit away the units that came too close at a speed that the eye couldn't follow.
Of course, that wasn't enough to destroy Marfik's units.
However, Diana only had to deal with slightly more than ten units right now.
It looked like the units that were controlled using the bangle on Khalja's right hand that Yasuo had destroyed were mostly the ones used for attacking.
As Shouko's Shii was still bound, it appeared that those units were all being controlled by the left bangle, but Khalija couldn't use those units for fighting either.
Although it was called Snakebone, the current movements of the units were not snake-like at all, and although variability was its main feature, Khalija was only using them as projectiles.
Occasionally, one of the units would fly towards Yasuo, but Diana made sure to knock them away with magical bullets.
"Did you think I would lose my composure if you attacked Yasuo?"
"I did. I'm let down by your reaction, though!"
"I have also worked desperately to accumulate combat experience after that battle! I wasn't just sitting around crying!"
"I see! However, all that experience is going to go to waste today!!"
"Don't make me laugh!"
Diana swung both her swords of light at a unit that came close to her. That contact caused a dull sound that was heard for the first time in the battle, and two small explosions were caused in the distance behind Diana.
"I'm not so weak as to lose to you who called Castor and Pollux 『ordinary』 Techno Weapons, Colonel!"
"You're acting a lot more tough just because the power of Marfik is halved! Fine, I accept your challenge!"
Khalija concentrated the units around her left hand.
"I will just need a single swing with my blade of light."
The rod-shaped Marfik glowed and took the form of a short sword, and Khalija raised it high. Her right hand was empty.
Khalija pulled back the left side of her body pretended as if she was about to jump.
"!"
As soon as Diana braced herself to receive it, Khalija released a lightning magic from her right hand several times more powerful than what Yasuo had used, aimed perfectly at its target.
"Oh no...!"
Diana was in a stance where she had no choice but to block them head-on with her Techno Weapons in order to avoid getting electrocuted.
The weapon that bore the brunt of the attack was Castor, in Diana's right hand.
Castor, that had been heavily damaged after receiving the lightning of Regulus.
There was no way it could work at its best after being patched up using materials found in Japan.
"Die!!"
Diana's guard on her right was broken through, and a large opening was formed in her defence. Aiming at that spot, Khalija swung Marfik that was in the shape of a short sword.
Diana was also not one to go down from just that, and twisted her body to the right to barely avoid the slash from the short sword.
However, it had been Khalija's intention all along to pull Diana into a fight where her own Techno Weapon had the advantage.
"Fool."
The short sword, made from the interlocking units of Marfik, was right next to Diana's body.
Khalija had made the units take the form of a short sword to force this situation to occur.
Marfik was a Techno Weapon made of several units, and Diana had already seen that the units could be separated and fired off like bullets.
Even if Diana managed to dodge the blade by a scarce margin, Khalija just needed to explosively separate the units at a range close to Diana's body.
"It's over."
In the next instant, Marfik exploded in Khalija's hands.
"...Why..."
Khalija could barely think through the intense pain, and from the position of still holding the short sword, collapsed to the wall of the tower.
"Ah..."
Close to her left hand, she saw that Marfik had lost the shape of a short sword, and the units had scattered across the floor.
Khalija managed to turn her face in the direction of Diana, and saw that Castor's muzzle was pointed towards her.
"......The Sorcery Circuits... didn't break?"
"Yes."
"...They were made from iron wire found in Japan. They should have broken apart easily."
"I believed that it definitely would not break."
Diana declared while keeping her weapon aimed at Khalija.
"Castor is a robust Techno Weapon that only my father's Regulus was able to break. It has a simple structure, and that's what makes it strong."
However, she had a very sad expression on her face.
"A craftsman who bore the name of Welleger repaired it for me. There was no way it would break from lightning magic of that level."
"...Hahaha."
Khalija laughed and looked at her own left hand.
"So you trusted me. Even though I told you all about how the Techno Weapons I had worked on had betrayed their wielders."
The main unit used to control the other units was missing.
Her arm was bent at a strange angle, and the bangle had been reduced to dust and spread out over the wall of stars.
"Kill me."
"No, I won't."
"I still have some magical energy left. Even with just my right hand, I can still fight."
"No. With your leg in that state, you can no longer kill me."
"...Haha."
Khalija already knew that.
After the death of General Alexei Krone, Dianaze Krone had risen to the rank of First Lieutenant based on her fighting ability alone.
Of the magical bullets fired simultaneously from the twin Techno Weapons, the bullet from Castor had shattered the main unit of Marfik, and the bullet from Pollux had pierced through Khalija's right leg.
『Grrrrr...』
The growling of the Shii closed in on Khalija from behind.
After being freed from the snake of light that had lost its function, Shouko's Shii accurately selected the weakened enemy.
"...What a mess. I released all the Shii that were sealed in the crimson stone in Tokorozawa... You don't have to save me, Major Krone. I will..."
"Don't misunderstand. I said that I would not let you die."
"......What?"
Khalija made a dubious expression and raised her head. A song reached her ears.
The voice was extremely hoarse and the breathing was ragged, but the intonation was steady.
On hearing that, Shouko's Shii stopped in its tracks and turned its head to look at the source of the song.
Those red eyes started moving slowly towards Kenzaki Yasuo, who was singing the requiem while sprawled on the ground, unable to so much as lift his head.
"Impossible... Trying to send it off without defeating it first..."
"He is not trying to send it off. However, I'm sure that Yasuo has already realized it."
It had happened on the night when Khalija had first appeared.
They were on their way back home from dinner after celebrating Diana's moving into a new apartment.
When Yasuo sang the requiem to send off the Shii that Hideo and Diana had defeated, the flames of Shouko's Shii had also waned.
If Yasuo had kept singing the requiem like that, some sort of change would have definitely occurred.
However, Khalija had barged into the fight before that could happen.
Shouko's Shii sat down in front of Yasuo and start swaying its body happily. In concert with the swaying, the black flames turned into soot and started vanish just like what happened when the Shii were sent off, and soon, those ominous red narrowed as if it was smiling, and then closed.
The black flames turned into soot and swirled away from the body, and were sucked into the human eyes that appeared from underneath.
After all the flames had disappeared, what was left was Tatewaki Shouko, naked as the day she was born.
From her posture of sitting down, Shouko's eyes remained closed as she fell over sideways.
"Yasuo! Don't lift your head! Turn around!"
"Eh? What... Ueeeeh!?"
Diana panicked and yelled at Yasuo, but she could not take her eyes of Khalija, nor could she stop pointing her weapon at her.
Of course, Yasuo didn't immediately understand why Diana had suddenly yelled something like that, and when he raised to see if the requiem had worked, he was greeted by the sight of skin that he should not have seen, and hurriedly turned away.
He had thought that the song had worked to dispel the Shii transformation, and found that Shouko was lying naked among a sea of stars.
Just what had Shouko been doing when the Shii took over her body?
"Kukuku... Hahaha... Ugh!"
Khalija started laughing seeing the situation, and then her face twisted from the intense pain.
"Aah, why did things end up like this."
"Colonel?"
"...I accept my defeat, Major."
Khalija slightly extended her right hand and touched the wall of the tower.
The next instant, the sea of stardust was suddenly warped.
"Wha—"
"This is... Colonel!"
"Calm down. I'm just closing the Gate Tower."
Yasuo, Shouko, and Khalija were tossed up from the surface of the tower, and even Diana wasn't able to remain standing.
"The 『Return Path』 is closing. We are going to be returned to the entrance."
"Uwaaah...!"
Khalija moved only her eyes to look upwards.
Over there, she saw the sky of the other world, a place called the Aviation Park located in Tokorozawa, which was located in the Saitama Prefecture, in a country called Japan.
The stars flowed in the opposite direction, and the space surged backwards.
"Aah... No matter what I do, it always ends in failure."
Khalija said that as if mocking herself, and was the first person to be pushed out of the entrance.
"Yasuo! Yasuo!"
Diana stretched her hand out towards Yasuo, but she was nowhere close enough to reach him, as she was mercilessly pushed out of the entrance.
For some reason, Shouko wasn't being pulled towards the entrance and she continued to float in that space.
"Tatewaki-san!!"
Yasuo unconsciously hugged her close because she was floating close to him. For some reason, he had a premonition that she would stay floating and be left all alone in the tower if he didn't do anything.
The moment he grabbed Shouko, a powerful force caught hold of Yasuo and forcefully tried to throw him out of the tower.
"Guh... Goddamnit!"
Yasuo had used healing magic that he was unfamiliar with to heal the first serious wound he had received in his life, and on top of that he had also used the last reserves of his strength to use lightning magic, so he had absolutely no strength left to resist. He felt like he would be ripped away from Shouko if he let down his guard even a little.
"There's something I have to tell you, no matter what...! Gaaaaaaaah!"
He refused to let her go.
Yasuo's body had spun around so many times that he no longer knew what way was up, but he still refused to let Shouko go.
If he let her go, Shouko would disappear somewhere along with the Shii.
That was how he felt.
That time seemed to stretch on infinitely, but in reality it wasn't even ten seconds.
The savage power that had swept Yasuo around like lint in a washing machine suddenly released its hold upon him and Shouko.
"......"
After the pressure was released, it took him some time to realize the fact.
By the the time he realized it, he was in the sky of Tokorozawa along with Shouko; then gravity slowly began to reassert its hold and he started falling towards the ground.
"U-Uwaaaah..."
Yasuo had never been skydiving, but even he knew that this situation was pretty bad.
The ground was a lot closer than he had expected.
He couldn't see Diana and Khalija anywhere.
However, Shouko was within his arms.
He couldn't afford to die along with her before getting to tell her any of the things he wanted to say.
That's right. There was something that he definitely had to say to her.
"I'm not dating anyooooooooone!!"
This was the perfect time to use that.
"The Hero Hideo is the person who will obtain victory for new frontiers wings go forth flower petals take flight gather the shining azure sunlight avatar of the wind Holy Sword Liutberga answer my call and take form!! Phew!!"
Yasuo somehow managed to say the whole chant in a single breath.
".........Oooooooh!?"
A pillar of light rose into the night sky of Tokorozawa, and from within appeared a salaryman on his day off, carrying the Holy Sword of the Wind and bearing a shocked expression on his face.
On the other side of the pillar that light that signalled the summoning of the legendary Hero, the 『Return Path』 of the 『Gate Tower』 that created a connection to a different world seemed melt into the night sky and vanish.
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| ← Ch. 26 | Ch. 28 → |