novelVolume 10, Stage 03: The True Enemy Was With Us All Along (1)
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Volume 10, Stage 03: The True Enemy Was With Us All Along (1)
"You only have two options, but a wrong answer means a full-power slap."
"And refusing to answer guarantees that happens☆"
(Stage 03 Open 08/24 13:30)
The True Enemy Was With Us All Along
Part 1
Shiroyama Kyousuke's vision gradually recovered
"..."
It took him a while to realize he was lying down somewhere. The cruiser he used as a home did not have a bed this large and soft, but he detected none of the disinfectant smell of a hospital. After staring up at the familiar ceiling for a long, long while, it finally clicked why it was familiar.
This was Aika's high-rise apartment.
He was alive.
He was supposed to have died whether he won or lost, yet here he was alive. He seriously doubted this was something he had caused himself.
(The Queen. )
So there was only one answer.
(It had to be the White Queen. )
Now that it was over, he found his emotions were not boiling over anymore. That may have been due to his head being too heavy or due to the opposite. To keep a gas burner going, it had to be fed a constant supply of gas. If the supply was ever cut off, it needed another spark to reignite.
He had been given a chance to stop.
So where he would go next was up to him.
He would have died long ago if not for the White Queen.
Over and over, she had disgraced herself for that.
"The answer was staring me in the face the whole time, dammit."
When the boy said that, what event was he thinking back on? That small prison of a house, that lab deep underground, or that bridge not long ago?
A still silence surrounded him.
Until he heard an ominous voice from the same bed as him.
"Hee hee hee. Now Onii-chan really is mine. He can't move right now, so I need to win him over with an explosion of familial intimacy only possible with a cute little sister in a swimsuit and apron. Yes, and if I play my cards right, I can even get him to leave Freedom and join Government."
"Don't be ridiculous. Kyousuke-chan is joining us in Illegal. Yes, he's sure to make a delicious meal for a beautiful young woman like me. I have always thought his crazy ideas were too much for Freedom. Joining Illegal is the only real choice for him at this point."
"What are you two doing?" asked Kyousuke while lifting up the blanket with an annoyed look.
He found a striped bikini and a modified China dress below.
"Oh, Kyousuke-chan. You're back to normal? I was hoping for a little more of Marionette Kyousuke-chan who obediently opens his mouth when you tell him to say 'ah'."
"If only he'd been a little less obedient so I could've gone with the ultimate special move of nursing: mouth-to-mouth medicine delivery."
This was sounding worse by the second.
His memories were cloudy after the sniper shot that took out the Colorless Little Girl, but what had happened since then?
"Ghh."
He somehow managed to sit up.
Simply lifting his upper body from the soft bed sent a chain reaction of dull pain through his body.
He checked the bedside digital clock to find it was August 24. About a full day had passed since his clash with the White Queen. His memories were correct. He had lost and was rendered mindless by the penalty.
Then he looked down at his own body.
His hoodie and shirt had been removed. His upper body was instead wrapped with what looked like bandages, but had to be something more. The broad white strips were even smoother than silk. They had been concentrated around his right side. Something felt odd when he tilted his head, so he reached up and found similar cloth wrapped around his neck. Those were the two obvious wounds, but he also had bruises all over and damage from overworking muscles he did not usually use. He clearly ached in more places than he had visual wounds.
And more importantly...
(So I survived. )
That was honestly the most unexpected part.
Win or lose, he should have died from blood loss once the battle ended and the protective circle vanished. It had been a true fight to the death and that must have had an effect on him. He could also thank his reliance on the Colorless Little Girl, but he had drawn out more of his potential as a summoner than ever before.
Receiving such a blessing and escaping without paying the price should not have been possible.
Or so he had thought.
"..."
He looked down at his hands and thought for a while.
He had definitely cut his carotid artery. Sliced all the way through it. He doubted any normal first aid could have saved his life after that.
Yes.
Normal.
"Onii-chan? That's odd. He has a swimsuit-wearing little sister clinging to him and he isn't responding. This requires removing the final seal. Time to untie the forbidden knot below the covers."
"Only an immature little girl would find this to be a problem. An adult like me sees this as an opportunity. It's time to touch him all over and find his weak points!!"
Those two were making it hard to think, so he kicked them out of the bed and found he could move more than expected.
A white cloth.
That color represented the salvation of a certain Unexplored-class.
A quiet knock came at the door.
The 5m white liger had been curled up on the large room's floor, but now her ears perked up and she looked over. Kyousuke also focused on the door and took a deep breath.
He knew what had happened.
He knew what choice he had made while barely conscious.
And she was beyond that thin door.
Since Aika and Lu Niang Lan were so relaxed, this could not be as tense a situation as he felt like it was. It was already over. But that did not mean the gears were going to turn smoothly right away.
Still, Shiroyama Kyousuke decided to move forward.
"Come in."
How much strength had it taken to speak those two short words?
In the past, he had focused on simply being the strongest and he had kept away the pain by pushing away anything he did not like. But how much more effort had it taken to take this step forward now?
The knob turned.
The thin door slowly opened.
The face that hesitantly peeked in was indeed white.
Except...
"B-brother, have you woken up?"
"I am really not sure what to say to you right now."
There were...two of her?
Two identical girls with silver twintails!?
"Wait, wait, wait!! I've changed! I decided to try talking it out with you! I made a decision as agonizing as disemboweling myself, so why are you perfectly fine!? And are you multiplying again like in Houbi Village!?"
It hit him after he said it.
Houbi Village.
Yes, hadn't there been a divine image identical to the Queen hidden back behind the Meinokawa Shrine?
She was the oldest artificial vessel and the definitive Joruri Method.
"Aoi!! Are you screwing with me!?"
But despite Kyousuke's accusation, the two silver-twintailed girls only exchanged a glance.
And with identical tilts of the head, they spoke in stereo.
"Sigh. I really am the White Queen, so I don't know what to say when you get angry at me for not being me."
"Brother, does this mean you can't tell us apart? After saying 'as you wish' to me!?"
Kyousuke could not answer.
This was way too hard!!
The one on the right put her hands behind her head and the one on the left put her hands on her hips.
They both pouted their lips like a sulking child and continued speaking.
"If you really can't tell, then why not take a good hard look to compare us?"
"Just ask if you want a hint. This battle costume might be confusing you, so I can always remove it one piece at a time if you ask."
He made the wise decision.
"I'm not messing with-..."
"You only have two options, but a wrong answer means a full-power slap."
"And refusing to answer guarantees that happens☆"
He wisely chose to make an attempt.
The two White Queens climbed into the bed on all fours. But when he glanced over everything from the bodylines running along their spines and even the individual eyelashes decorating their eyelids, he could not find any difference between them.
A general look was not enough.
He needed to pinpoint target the details.
"Now, brother. Are you going to count my moles?"
"You don't have any moles."
"Oh, dear. It seems you already know my body quite intimately."
A wrong answer would mean losing his head to a slap more powerful than a gray bear wandering the Siberian wilderness. He needed to get back to the basics and not let their seemingly identical appearance fool him. What parts of the body were most unique between different people? After thinking of a certain identification system, he knew where he had to look.
And with that, the atmosphere changed somewhat.
Once he got started, there was no stopping Kyousuke.
"First, the eyes."
"Hyah!"
He placed his hands on the right Queen's soft cheeks and peered deep into her eyes. There were identification systems that specifically used the iris instead of general facial recognition.
"U-um, uh, brother, uh."
"..."
He was up against a slap from the Queen. A single wrong answer could seriously spell the end for him, so he wanted as many sources of information as he could get. He absentmindedly rubbed the right Queen's smooth cheeks while thinking. What other part of the body was used to identify people?
(The teeth. )
That was a standard form of identifying corpses.
So Kyousuke slid his index finger over to the right Queen's soft lips. More than that, he pushed it inside, bent it in a J-shape, and pried open her white teeth.
"Mgh!? Hamyahwabahbah!! H-hroher?"
They were perfect.
This was hardly surprising, but he doubted her teeth were weak enough that she ever needed to visit a dentist.
He pulled his finger out and wiped it off on the edge of the blanket.
"Okay, now this one."
"Wait, hold on, you just had that Queen sucking on that- nbhh, mmghghgh!?"
The left Queen shook her head in protest, but he shoved it in regardless.
There were tears in her eyes.
Meanwhile, Kyousuke wished he had thought to get a penlight first. He gave up on trying to use his vision, so he shut his eyes and slowly traced his index finger along the top and bottom row of teeth....It was a lot like reading braille, but his first impression was that the two Queens were identical.
"Ahh...ahm, ahm. Hah hoo higured it out het, hroher?"
The left Queen must have felt restless when he started ignoring her again because she stayed on all fours while pursuing his fingertip with her warm tongue.
But it was too soon.
He was still not sure, so he could not give an answer yet.
He considered using fingerprints or palmprints. Those had been used to identify people in criminal investigations for more than a century. He removed the Queens' long gloves before poking and prodding their hands. Gait and posture could be used to track people, so to be absolutely certain, he traced his fingers along their backs and down to their butts while they stood there on all fours. His eyes followed his fingers along their path.
(Hm. I went on and on about how much I hate her, but there's a lot I didn't know about her. )
"I-Is it just me or are we leaving that bittersweet atmosphere behind? Hyah☆ Brother, I only turned this into a problem to solve because I thought it would give you an excuse, so you don't have to take it so seriously!!"
"Hyah! Maybe I should have had you take a photo so I could use that to - nh! - my advantage later on."
They should have known better. For better or for worse, this thoroughbred summoner had inherited Doctor S's genes and learned from Shigara Masami, so challenging him to a game had been a mistake.
That said, it was impressive that not even Kyousuke could tell the difference between them. Although the praise there should go to the Joruri Method instead of the White Queen.
So Shiroyama Kyousuke gave up on telling them apart visually.
Instead, he hugged the one on the right.
"Hyah!?"
"..."
And he squeezed her.
He repeated the action a few times like a child trying to choose a giant stuffed animal or body pillow at the store and then he moved on to the left one.
"This one, on the left. You're the White Queen, aren't you?"
"Gwah, how could you tell, boy!?"
The abandoned one on the right suddenly stopped calling him "brother".
And she rolled along the bed.
Except her head rolled further than her body. Her head had popped off.
Meanwhile, the left one - the real White Queen - placed her hands on her red cheeks while letting him continue to hug and squeeze her.
"W-wow, ha ha ha. I did not expect you to tell us apart by how we feel in your arms, brother. W-wowww."
(Except it was really because you're wearing the same thing that's wrapped around me. )
...After finding nothing at all different about their appearances, he had decided to instead rely on the texture of the Sword of Truth battle costume that human civilization could not possibly duplicate. That had been a wise decision. Although if he said so, he would receive a double slap and probably be labelled an extreme underwear fetishist who was more interested in the fabric than the soft skin below.
After rolling around on the large bed some more, Meinokawa Aoi (Had she made that costume herself like Shiroyama Kyoumi had? Or was it supplied by the shrine?) grabbed her disembodied head, shoved it back onto her neck, and returned those distinctive twintails to her usual long hair.
"By the way, don't you need to change his bih - ei...that is, his tourniquet? You did say it is a double-edged sword that helps the wound heal faster but also increases the risk if it festers or he gets tetanus."
"Oh, that's right. Brother, it's fresh bandage time again. Okay, raise your arms for me."
..."Again".
She seemed quite accustomed to this. The teenage boy known as the strongest summer was very reluctant to consider what had happened over the past 24 hours.
"Hold on. Let's stop for a second!! You don't have to explain everything that's happened, but since I'm awake now, I can do this on my own."
"Remote hug☆"
The White Queen made a hugging motion in the empty air.
All the bandages wrapped around Kyousuke's upper body squeezed him like a vise.
"Bgweh!?"
"To be clear, you gave yourself these wounds on your neck and side, so for once, I have no reason whatsoever to feel guilty."
She was smiling.
The White Queen grinned as she spoke.
"And the tourniquet (bih - ei - ni - de) keeping you alive is made from the battle costume I am wearing. These cute things are so spoiled and demanding, so I really doubt they will obey anyone else's orders."
"...!? ~ ~ ~!!"
"Hey, Queen. Isn't he going to die like this?"
"Brother needs to be treated a little roughly. I am the Queen, so I will dominate even my partner. And I must say, brother, you get 0 points for trying to kill yourself like that! Try harder next time!!"
"This really isn't the time to get all cutely upset with him. His side is one thing, but the neck bandages are strangling him. His face is turning blue."
"Oh, no! Brother! Why do you always keep everything to yourself!? You should have told me before your face turned blue and then white!!"
He had been physically unable to voice an SOS with the bandages so tight around his throat, so the White Queen really needed to learn more about basic human anatomy.
At any rate, she loosened the neck bandages before he started foaming at the mouth.
But loosening them caused a change of its own. When all the blood rushed to his head, he grew lightheaded and the White Queen used that opening to remove all the tourniquets and prepare a wet towel.
"Okay, brother. Time to wipe you down in lieu of a bath."
"Wait, you don't have to do that!"
"Complain while you can. Read from that tablet, my bootleg."
"Sure thing. Let's see... 'In that moment, Shiroyama Kyousuke decided to throw himself into the fated battle. His enemy was the White Queen and he would continue to stand up to her even if the rest of the world supported her and he was left all alone. '"
His heart stopped.
His tongue blocked his throat.
Kyousuke held the left side of his chest while trembling violently despite his stopped heart and the White Queen smiled and made a suggestion after gently bringing him back to this world.
"Do we need to read more?"
"Ah, ah, ahhh."
"Broootherrr? I skimmed through that original religious text you wrote to ascend to godhood and it was quite well made☆ Oh, how about we give it some random title and pretend to be a novelist? Yes, that is a great idea. How about calling it Unexplored Summon://Blood-Sign? 3 trillion PVs or bust!☆"
"Ababbabababababaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!???"
Kyousuke's heart had stopped two or three times now, but the White Queen would not let him take the easy route up to heaven.
A legend featuring him as the star was no laughing matter. It was the most embarrassing of embarrassing texts to have someone discover. A crawling feeling covered his entire body. He had expected to be dead before that text got out, but now he was here to see people's reaction to it. And how could someone be cruel enough to read it aloud to him!? That was like going up to someone after their failed suicide attempt and reading their suicide note to them.
"There we go. Now that you are feeling a little more obedient, brother, it is time I wiped you down. Come on, cheer up, brother. You can even have some cereal or something once I am done."
"Finally, some good news."
"Brother....Sometimes, I think you might be crazier than I am."
Part 2
Now that he was awake, he could not just lie around anymore.
"Okay."
"Brother?"
When he got up out of the unnecessarily-large bed, the White Queen called out to him from where she had been seated next to him.
"Where are you going? I can bring you anything you need."
"I have to do it myself. That's how rehab works."
He held out a hand to stop her, but she refused to listen. The silver twintailed girl grabbed his wrist, wrapped her arms around his, and supported his weight.
She held his arm to her chest and placed her head on his shoulder.
"Then I will go with you."
"This is kind of embarrassing."
"Brother, do you know how sunny it is outside? It is 2PM on August 24."
She glared at him while saying that.
And regardless, if he tried to resist, it was obvious she would push him back into the bed. When it came to a simple contest of strength, a human like him had no way of winning.
He let out a long sigh and spoke.
"Fine, then."
"Yay☆"
She smiled so brightly he suspected she would have danced a little jig if she had not been supporting his weight. He always had to wonder why these little things could influence her emotions so much. That was a foreign world to Kyousuke who closely guarded his heart by logically processing everything that happened.
Or maybe he was jealous.
Because for him, fleeing to logic and laying down a defensive line of derisive detachment was the only way he could bring himself to spend time with anyone.
"Is something wrong, brother?"
"No."
He was unsure if he should call it "lucky", but he did not run across Aika or Lu Niang Lan after leaving the room.
They must have gotten back to their usual routines once he had woken up. Although that also meant they had been neglecting their jobs until then. The ordinary kindnesses were found where you could not see them. That was a truth he could not afford to forget.
Dull pain enveloped his neck, side, and the rest of his body too. Crouching down to put on his shoes was a struggle. His body protested far more than he had imagined. When it took him too long, the White Queen reached out a helping hand from the side.
"Here, brother. Let's start with your right foot."
"If you help, it doesn't count as rehab."
"This helps me grow accustomed to this world."
After tapping his feet on the floor to check the fit of the shoes, he used the elevator to leave the high-rise apartment.
The White Queen had been right.
He found a scorching world of direct sunlight so hot he thought it would melt the asphalt. Apparently, even this city of artificial things had cicadas on the roadside trees. The deluge of sound nearly deafened him and threw him off balance.
When he staggered, the twintailed girl supported him from the side.
She pouted his lips a little.
"What did I tell you, brother? Should we return to that air-conditioned room?"
"No." He shook his head, but even that was enough to mess with the equilibrium in his blood-deprived head."There was something I wanted to think about, but this works even better if you're coming with me. I want to discuss something with you while we're out here."
"?"
The White Queen looked puzzled while they walked through Toy Dream 35 which shimmered in the midsummer heat.
"You should stay in that apartment a while longer."
"I could return to my cruiser now."
"The more people around the better if something unexpected happens."
It was summer break, so there was an endless stream of people even in the hellish heat. Families, couples, groups of tanned boys, and more were walking across all the many bridges. People of all sorts were crowding this one place. The Gozaru Samurai handing out balloons on the roadside could not be having a fun time in this heat. When a small child offered him a chilled drink bottle with a tilt of the head, he froze up and panicked.
There was no conflict here.
If you wanted to fight, you would have to force one to happen.
The long, long battle was finally over.
This was the scene that Shiroyama Kyousuke and the White Queen had won.
It was perfectly ordinary and no one might realize how valuable it was, but the conflict was over.
They had set aside their Blood-Sign and lowered the Sword of Truth.
Those two knew just how much energy that took, so this scene meant so much more to them. A picturesque million-dollar view of the city's night did not matter. This scene roasting below the bright sun was their treasure.
"..."
"Brother?"
The White Queen tilted her head again while holding his arm.
She angled it just like that small child trying to give the costumed mascot a drink.
"Do you mind if I say something that will ruin the mood?" he asked.
"Not if you think it is necessary."
The twintailed girl guided the injured boy into the shade of a roadside tree.
He sighed after leaning against the tree trunk so he was out of the way.
And he resumed speaking with his summoner's face on.
"Have you noticed?"
"That something is not right?"
"The very fact that you're here is out of the ordinary. Since you aren't relying on the 10-minute Artificial Sacred Ground of the Blood-Sign system, I can only guess this is Shigara Masami's doing."
"Yes. I am using the same Box she is. But that means..."
"Shigara Masami has not returned to the other world."
Boxes sounded very convenient since they did not rely on Blood-Signs or Incense Grenades, but there was a reason that method was not more common. The cost of production and operation was far too high.
Shigara Masami would not have been left in this world for no reason.
Which meant...
"She has some reason to keep you here."
Shiroyama Kyousuke had prefaced this discussion by asking if she minded if he said something that would ruin the mood.
"And it wouldn't be for anything as sentimental as letting us have this chat here. She must have some kind of pressing strategic reason to keep a card as powerful as you up her sleeve."
"..."
The twintailed girl said nothing.
This boy would arrive at the answer without her giving it to him.
That was why she had always failed to stop him from getting himself hurt and tormented.
Summoner Shiroyama Kyousuke stared straight ahead as he stated his conclusion.
"There's something more."
Part 3
Her bright pink-dyed hair blew in the salty midsummer breeze.
The waitress demon named Biondetta was on the roof of that same apartment building. And Aika, the owner of the building, was unaware of her presence.
She had moved past the railing.
She sat on the edge of the roof with her long legs dangling off.
"Have you reached your limit?"
She heard a staticky sound.
It was similar to spooked cicadas taking flight from the trees, but not quite the same.
This static was more systematic.
Someone else stood next to Biondetta. It was a ponytailed researcher wearing a tight skirt suit and a lab coat. Gray static surrounded Shigara Masami.
She looked down at the back of her hand and let out a self-deprecating sigh.
That was just how much the battle between the White Queen and the Colorless Little Girl had affected their surroundings. Even without a direct attack, the side effects had been enough to blow away the Three, so Shigara Masami could not ignore that damage even if she was simultaneously an excellent summoner and a Divine-class.
Biondetta brushed the hair from her shoulder.
"Shouldn't you pop in to say goodbye?"
However.
Another voice rudely spoke up from the smartphone-connected wireless headphones in the ponytailed researcher's ears.
The girl's voice was loud enough to reach Biondetta's ears while she sat nearby.
"Wait, I went to a lot of trouble making that Box and dumped tons into the energy costs to keep it running, so you can't just give up like that."
"We are imprisoned, if you recall. And being given some labor is better than simply being locked up when it comes to staying in shape. I needed some way of getting exercise, so do not worry about that. More importantly, it sounds like this allowed us to indirectly support the Queen. Thanks to that, The Saint is high on brain chemicals and running around the beach in the nude. What am I even supposed to do about this? We are back to square one on her anti-Queen rehab program."
The mood was ruined, so Biondetta frowned and spoke up.
"I was wondering where you were storing such a largescale Box. So you used that entire Government prison island on the other side of the world?"
"I shouldn't have been worried."
Everyone related to the Fifteen Siblings was surprisingly tough. They kept claiming they were dying without ever actually dying. Shigara Masami was lasting longer than a battery on its last legs.
More importantly.
There was something Shigara Masami wanted to check on before returning to the other world.
"You mean that place that was even worse than the Queen's Miniature Garden?"
Biondetta and Shigara Masami fell silent there.
They were both afraid to give the answer.
Their mutual fear mixed together.
"But if whatever-this-is is hidden below the surface, we have no way of searching for it."
The waitress demon pulled a phone from her exposed cleavage and checked through the current events around the world.
"At a glance, the biggest topic is Eastern Europe's Kingdom F, but all the news is happy stories about the mysterious cocoon vanishing without a trace. Besides, if there is some villain advancing some plan below the surface, I'm not going to find any sign of it by swiping my finger along this 5-inch LCD screen."
"?"
Biondetta had not expected this reaction.
She frowned while Shigara Masami clapped her hands together in front of her large chest.
This was apparently not a joke.
Part 4
On that same far-eastern island nation, Kingdom F's Queen Sinceria Highland did not overlook the oddity while on an unofficial visit to Toy Dream 35.
"Phew."
The Poolarium was the fusion of a leisure pool and an aquarium and its selling point was the ability to swim with the dolphins and otters. But at the moment, it had a new star. People viewed Sinceria like a mermaid as she swam through the artificial seawater in a swimsuit.
Her daughter Olivia was lying face up in a mat-shaped rubber boat floating on the water. The pool was several meters deep, so Sinceria wore a life jacket and held a kickboard to swim up to the boat.
"Via, aren't you going to swim?"
"Heh hehn. A proper lady does not cause a scene and splash around the second she sees a pool."
"But the Japanese summer is so hot."
"That's for sure."
Sinceria smiled as she kicked her long legs as if practicing her flutter kicking.
The actions themselves were childish, but they caused her butt and thighs to continually dip above and below the water. Rachel (who was also wearing a swimsuit) was in charge of security and also had to think about the underwater tunnel running below them, so her head was already hurting.
She walked along the poolside rooftop while staying close enough to dive in at a moment's notice.
"Did we really have to hold our meeting here?"
"Would you have preferred to use a rental conference room? An office building anyone can use is bound to be full of laser listening devices. Because using one of those places is like announcing that you are about to discuss something lucrative."
They had a good enough reason to blend into the crowd like this.
The small kingdom she ruled had nearly been destroyed. The dome-shaped cocoon made from the White Queen's battle costume had nearly crushed it while continually expanding.
Her worries had vanished once that cocoon had suddenly disappeared and returned to the White Queen, sparing her subjects.
But what had become of the White Queen herself?
What had happened afterwards?
"There have been sightings of the White Queen in Toy Dream 35." Rachel Wormwood was the kind of straitlaced knight who kept on her glasses even when in a swimsuit, so she gave a formal report while walking alongside the pool at the same pace as Sinceria pushed the rubber boat."The reports said nothing about her being naked, so the Sword of Truth must have returned to her. She is staying in the top floor of an apartment used as a base for a Government intermediary. That is the same major power as us, so we should be able to request that intermediary disclose what information she has."
"She's sure to already be overwhelmed by requests from all over the world. And just like a restaurant that gets a big head after receiving a single star review in a gourmet guide, I doubt she will return our call any sooner than three years from now."
Truthfully, flutter-kicking Sinceria did not find it all that important to learn the details of that fight's conclusion.
That apartment was also Shiroyama Kyousuke's territory.
If the White Queen was staying there now, there had to have been a major change in their relationship. Knowing that was enough.
However.
Not all of her worries were gone.
She was a queen, a woman, and a mother, but this worry was not related to her identity as a queen. And not even she was certain which of the other two identities it was most strongly affecting.
"Let me see that file."
"Of course."
Rachel tossed her something from the poolside. It flew like a frisbee and she caught it in one hand. It was a notebook-sized waterproof tablet.
She stopped flutter kicking and placed the tablet on the rubber boat her daughter was riding.
"Honestly, you really can't underestimate public video sites. Who would expect to find this at the edge of a random video?"
They had not intentionally searched out this data.
It had mostly been a coincidence. It helped a lot that they had searched that city hall database in their search for Shiroyama Kyousuke's roots. More specifically, it helped that they had checked the ticket request facility in the same building.
Her daughter Olivia Highland tilted her head while lying on the mat-shaped rubber boat.
The girl wore the dark blue one-piece swimsuit born from the hot and humid summers of this country and she held down her straw hat with both hands so it would not fall off.
"Hey, mom?"
"Yes, Via, what is it?"
"What does this mean? Is that who I think it is?"
Sinceria had no answer for her.
But she was glad they had been able to notice this oddity.
They had only done so because they had seen this before.
"That which appears in summer to envelop everything."
Those blonde royals could speak Japanese, but they were still not all that familiar with its culture, so they focused on the meaning before getting to the pronunciation.
"Summer clothing. Natsuginu."
Part 5
It was late at night.
Kyousuke had escaped the penalty for losing and his injuries were being healed by the White Queen's tourniquets, but he was still making an effort to get plenty of rest. He could have returned to his cruiser, but he had been forced to stay in Aika's apartment because the others claimed the rocking boat would be bad for his health. (Whether they had an ulterior motive for keeping him here was unknown. )
And while he tried to sleep...
"Long time no see."
He heard a voice.
It came from the balcony. The lights were off, so the moonlight illuminated the visitor. But this was the top floor of a high-rise apartment and there had been no sign of someone arriving on the roof by helicopter or tiltrotor.
Then how had this girl arrived on the balcony?
She stood there so naturally it felt wrong to even ask that question.
Kyousuke sat up in bed and frowned a little.
"Umie...Shouko?"
"You can call me the Rainy Girl if you like. That name is more familiar to you, isn't it?"
Shiroyama Kyousuke had gone as far as correcting history to forcibly save her. His librarian classmate's older sister had been killed in a random attack and the incident had held such a lasting effect that it transformed into a ghost story...except all of that should have gone away once Umie Shouko's death had been avoided.
He could only think of one explanation.
"You still have your memories? No, this isn't just Timeline A or Timeline B. Did you diverge from the actual branch point in history?"
"It is not over yet."
This was sudden.
No, if they continued this conversation in the ordinary way, they would never get away from discussing that divergent side of her existence. That may have been why she decided to jump straight to the topic at hand.
"Someone on the outside like me has begun to move. I am sensitive to such things because I exist in a similar fashion. How you respond is up to you, but I really think you should get ready."
"?"
"This person has a connection to you, Shiroyama-san."
She seemed to be jumping all over the place as she talked.
It may have been similar to someone doing a bad job of explaining the plot of the movie they had just finished watching.
Prophecies and oracles had their pros and cons. In addition to the accuracy of the original information, the speaker and the listener also had to be accurate. In that sense, Umie Shouko really was an ordinary person. She had talent, but she had not trained as a shrine maiden. She had gotten wrapped up in the Rainy Girl incident by random chance, so she had trouble passing on the message in this game of telephone.
"The world you live in is also the one my sister lives in, so please do not let anything happen that would make her sad. As long as you give me that, I do not care what happens to the world. And either way, you alone are in the position to change fate here."
"What?"
Finally, a chill caught up to him. It was like the icy fingers of death crawling along his spine.
"I'm not going to confront the White Queen again, so what else could there be?"
"You will know soon enough."
She did not say much, but her words had to contain more information than an entire library.
He had suspected there was something else, but what exactly was it?
"Remember your past. There is still an unresolved source of tragedy, isn't there?"
That was all.
Her voice vanished. As did her presence. ,
Shiroyama Kyousuke got out of bed and walked across the floor to the balcony beyond the fluttering curtain.
But there was no one there.
This was the top floor of a high-rise apartment.
Just like when she had arrived, he could not even guess how Umie Shouko - the Rainy Girl - had left.
Part 6
"What is all this racket?"
That question came from Sekurtiti, a brown-skinned girl with shoulder-length silver hair. She worked as a Tomb Priestess for a group with its origins in Egyptian mythology, so the only things covering her bright skin were white bandages, pure gold, and red gems.
She was being guided through the apartment by Aika, a girl in a green and white striped bikini. They were both showing a lot of skin, but not because it was summer. They were like this 365 days a year.
"Onii-chan probably did something again. Apparently, he's preparing to abandon his shut-in bikini little sister so he can go to the pool. It really is a frightening thought. The battle for little sister superiority has been entirely overturned by that silver twintails girl."
"By 'Onii-chan', do you mean Shiroyama Kyousuke?"
Sekurtiti only tilted her head further, but she was here for work.
Aika only lived in the top floor of this apartment building and the other seemingly-ordinary floors hid a crucial facility known as the Founder's Gallery. That stored some of the fairy tale materials that the Toy Dream Company had used as a foundation for their massively successful global entertainment business. It specifically held the old documents and antiques gathered from around the world that held a value that normal people would never even notice.
Sekurtiti was here to check on something for her job.
"You said you were closing the gallery, didn't you?"
"All it does here is bind me. And then grandpa helped make that Blue Film meant to harm Eastern Europe's Kingdom F. I thought now was a good time for it."
The World's Happiest Girl.
A certain granddaughter should have been the main character of a fairy tale told until the end of time.
But after unknowingly earning some Awards as a summoner, the entire world had forgotten her and she had forever lost that position.
Another voice rudely interrupted those two's solemn mood.
"Hold on. Are you saying you called us to this hot-as-hell far eastern country just to help you move?"
It was a girl even shorter than Aika and with skin brown from tanning unlike Sekurtiti's natural brown. She had piercings in her ears, tongue, navel, and more unspeakable places as a sort of penance rather than fashion. She wore a witch hat and glasses and she dragged around a special weapon that looked like a giant hatchet or smoking pipe.
She was Incense Expert Ellie Slide.
She was accompanied by Max Layard, a large summoner with a pompadour.
Aika shrugged.
"Your job is to transport this stuff to the deepest part of a museum in Washington DC. The researcher named Maria Heartocean should be able to put my grandpa's treasures to the best use. And don't complain when you've already taken half the payment up front, subcontractors. You will get the rest of your money after the job is complete."
"You act like some kind of tragic heroine, but you still think like a gazillionaire deep down. I don't like it."
Ellie Slide continued grumbling while they unlocked one of the ordinary doors lining the hallway and stepped inside.
It was packed full of blessings and curses.
Ignorance was a frightening thing. No one with any proper knowledge of the occult would have been able to gather all this without having nightmares.
Ellie Slide looked annoyed.
"We have to transport all of this?"
"Please make sure none of it is stolen en route. Your job is not complete until it has been delivered."
"I shouldn't have let Max do the talking just because I hate doing it so much. He totally botched the negotiations this time. This is a secret job for the world-famous Toy Dream Company and the going rate for delivery jobs is 1% the value of the cargo. We should be getting paid 15 times what we're getting..."
But it was too late to complain now.
The up-front payment was not just a kindness. The payer used it to restrict the payee's freedom.
Sekurtiti placed a hand on a too-skinny hip and softly sighed through her shapely nose.
"I will supervise the work as a member of the tomb keepers. What your company did to Eastern Europe's Kingdom F was inexcusable, but it did not entirely negate the debt we owe you for preserving the pharaoh's tomb and ruins we have protected for generations."
"So you're gonna be looking over our shoulders without even helping!? Look at how much there is and how powerful it all is!? Packing it all up with curse seals and physical cushioning is going to use up an entire day!!"
Ellie Slide had tears behind her glasses as she shouted in despair, but the brown Tomb Priestess kept a composed expression. She had not taken any money, so she did not need to obey Aika's instructions.
Meanwhile, the striped bikini girl was arrogant.
"By the way, I hired you to do the work, so I will not be helping. Work hard, you movers."
"This is the worst... I can't think of any response other than kicking Max."
"We can eat lunch once you're done packing up. I'm as ravenous as my liger today, so let's have some buffalo steaks."
"Yay!"
And so they began reorganizing the Founder's Gallery. Everything there was a valuable treasure, so even a single ring would fetch hundreds of millions at auction. They first constructed some large cardboard boxes and shoved smaller duralumin cargo boxes inside those. Just like with armored trucks carrying cash, an appearance of strict security was like painting a target on yourself. It was important to make things look cheap and unimportant.
While decorating the interior with ordinary packing material and a wide tape woven with a long talisman text, Ellie Slide spoke up.
"Listen, we will be taking this by the ordinary air route. After stuffing all the boxes in the cargo room of an ordinary airline used by movers, we will take some business class seats as ordinary customers. Even if the plane crashes, the boxes are waterproofed enough to float in the ocean for 18 hours. Now the emergency recovery beacon will-..."
"Wow, I remember this. This is grandpa's notebook of ideas."
"Are you the kind of person who ends up reading old manga when trying to clean your room? Do I need to fill the Government local network with one-star reviews about how awful the intermediary here is!?"
A paper sticker was attached to the notebook's cover and it had something handwritten on it:
"Restrain your hatred for now (qe - i - md - ei - wbjrb). That is the standard (ii - i - jd). Fill this age with new ideas (hi - wz - ei - lm - ou - yh - ml)."
(Oh, grandpa. )
This brought back so many old memories.
That man had founded the Toy Dream Company which had brought dreams to children around the world. But he had not simply pulled out presents with a constant smile like Santa Claus. This contained the rawer side of him as a writer and as a human. There would have been nights when he struggled all alone while tearing at his hair, fearing he was out of ideas, and holding a pen in hand and finding nothing to write.
These were the claw marks he could not let anyone see.
He had not realized that series of letters could possibly summon a real god, but he had created more smiles than any summoner or vessel in the world.
"Hm, hm."
Aika sat down and flipped through the notebook, but then she came to a stop.
She ran her slender finger along some hastily jotted down text that was written in the alphabet but was not English.
Sekurtiti also seemed interested as someone who had seen that old man from a perspective other than as a granddaughter. She peered over Aika's shoulder.
"What is it?"
"Mhh."
Aika did not understand everything that was written there:
"It is simply not possible in this world (web - go - i - pms - kd)."
"Call her (kq - ei - rg)."
That was what a direct interpretation of the messy writing said, but was that really accurate? It was not uncommon for people to jot down a memo before an idea vanished from their mind and for no one but them to understand what that memo meant. It was also possible these were ideas for story titles or song lyrics.
But...
"..."
The next thing she knew, the swimsuit granddaughter was silently reading.
The founder's talent was real. A lot had happened along the way, but he had built the Toy Dream Company up to a multinational corporation in a single generation. There were things only he could understand. The fairy tales loved by people around the world were the result of him taking the undiluted original content and watering it down to the point that it was palatable for everyone.
But even this girl could read the emotions contained in this writing, like the needle following the record's groove.
This had been jotted down so quickly it was barely legible.
There was a lot of agony and confusion there. Those emotions were so thick it reached a dangerous level.
The accompanying sketch appeared to be a girl. Her white or silver hair was tied into twintails at a point below her head. She did not appear to be wearing any actual clothing. She instead had strange objects like junk and cables wrapped around her body. But that white figure was all drawn in the style of a children's picture book and it was only an incomplete rough, so it all looked more eerie than provocative. It made one want to run away, like seeing a French doll with all its clothing removed.
So.
Aika had no idea what about this had caught her attention, but she read one particular word out loud.
Had her grandfather been unable to find the corresponding letters in the old texts he was referencing?
For whatever reason, this word alone was written in ordinary language.
"Wisdom?"
Part 7
The White Queen had been the one to suggest they go somewhere summery.
Had the constant focus on battle been suffocating her?
Or had she wanted to rid herself of as many regrets as she could before heading to death?
"But I'm full of holes. My blood will start spilling out the second I'm in the water!!"
"The tourniquets should have closed up your wounds by now and you need rehab, don't you? This is a good test☆"
As their conversation suggested, the Queen had changed into a swimsuit.
They had chosen a pool as a compromise because salty seawater sounded like a very bad idea for his wounds, but now a different warning signal was going off in Kyousuke's head.
"Well, if you insist, brother, I suppose I can meet your selfish demands. Oh, my, my. Look at this lovely pool here, brother. They are opening the school pool to the public. Hee hee. It might be nice to see what swimming classes are like."
"You set me up!? I just know you spent all night researching this so you could trick me into it!"
"Whatever are you talking about? Now, brother, can you take my hand? It is time to go."
The smiling White Queen claimed to be supporting his body, but she was mostly dragging him along as they left the high-rise apartment.
The fact that Kyousuke was making such a fuss may have been proof he was recovering and feeling less pain.
The school was a busy place even though this was summer break
And not just because of club activities.
The pool was open, so a lot of nearby residents were there.
"Ugh..."
"Brother, we are already here, so you might as well try to enjoy yourself."
| ← Ch. 118 | Ch. 120 → |