The mountain had been cut in half. As if some giant blade had hacked it apart, an unreal scene unfolded before our eyes. Everyone could only stare dumbly for a moment, and then—thud, thud—another tremor rolled through, and the tragedy began all over again on the mountain split cleanly in two.
It was a horrific sight that could only be called the end of the world. At the terrifying scene, Younghee, who had followed me here, wore a frightened expression and muttered what in the world that was.
“W-What is going on...? Why is the mountain like that...?”
And then, right then—Woooooooooooooooooooooo—a siren cut her off. It was the Spacequake alarm, announcing the occurrence of a Spacequake. At the sound, the people around us panicked and went pale.
“A Spacequake...? A Spacequake alarm...?”
“Then could that be... a Spacequake?”
“What? I thought a Spacequake was an explosion. Can it even cut a mountain in half like that?”
People who couldn’t hide their confusion stared at the hill with wide eyes. But the hotel staff shouted that everyone needed to evacuate immediately and guided them down to the basement. There was a shelter in the hotel basement too. Following the staff’s calm instructions, the people who had been staring at the hill being utterly wrecked finally seemed to come to their senses and hurried down the stairs, shouting that this was no time for sightseeing.
“I’m glad Minsu took the kids to the karaoke place. Since it’s underground, they probably went to the shelter first. Haneul, we should evacuate too. It’s dangerous to stay here.”
“………Yeah.”
Holding my hand and pulling me along, Younghee’s words made me nod and start walking. In a situation like this, evacuating to the shelter was only natural. Even if I had Sans’s power, there was nothing I could do by jumping into a scene like this.
The fact that the hill had been turned into such a mess meant Tohka was raging like a madwoman, and Tohka raging meant Shido had ended up getting shot and a hole blown through his chest. But there was no need to worry. The tragedy unfolding in real time on the hill would soon be calmed by Shido, who would recover without a scar thanks to his regeneration ability, and the rampaging Tohka would soon have her Spirit powers sealed, allowing her to live an ordinary human life.
As long as things followed the original story, everything would work out fine. If I needlessly interfered now and messed up Tohka’s power-sealing, then the tragedy unfolding before my eyes wouldn’t end here—it could spread across the entire world.
A small action could trigger an unintended butterfly effect. So right now, all I had to do was follow Younghee and evacuate to the shelter...
“Already? Can’t we stay and have a little more fun? I happen to know a park—it’s on that hill over there~. If you go up around this time, the view is just perfect~.”
...Why was I suddenly remembering what Mildred had said right before we parted ways? Erasing the image of Mildred pointing at the park on that hill from my mind, I hurriedly tried to follow behind Younghee and evacuate to the shelter.
But at that moment, I stopped walking at the words of the other people evacuating behind us.
“Aaaah...! Wasn’t there definitely a park on that hill? The people in that park today are seriously cursed!”
“Forget cursed—they should be worrying whether they’ll even keep their lives! Damn it—what the hell is that thing?”
“………A park?”
Hill and park. The two keywords in their words began overlapping with what Mildred had told me. That park on the hill over there. The hill she had pointed at also had a land development site on it. And suddenly, the shape of that hill where the tragedy had just occurred felt strangely familiar.
“Haneul! What are you doing? We need to evacuate to the shelter now!”
Ignoring Younghee calling after me, I ran back to the window and looked at the hill. A construction site that had been split in half, yet was still absurdly vast. The wreckage of heavy machinery like excavators and dump trucks, stationed here and there before being smashed to pieces by something huge. And a little below the area where that tragedy had occurred... a tiny park.
“………Damn it.”
It was obvious. That park was definitely the one Mildred had said she was going to. There was no way around it—the hill was too similar to the one Mildred had pointed out. And though it was hard to make out because it had been so thoroughly wrecked, there was also clearly a site that looked like it had been under development.
My heart sank. A suffocating pressure seemed to crush my chest, and curses almost spilled out of my mouth on their own.
“You need to get to the shelter now! There’s no time to stand around watching this!”
“…………………….”
No. In a situation where the Spacequake alarm was ringing, there was no way Mildred and Mikie would be at that park. They must have heard the alarm and evacuated to the shelter too. Besides, even in the anime, there were no casualties after that incident, and when I saw Mikie in the anime, I distinctly remembered seeing her in what looked like season two, long after that whole situation had ended.
Mildred and Mikie couldn’t be there. They must have gone into a shelter somewhere and be alive—
“Nope. Mikie and I were just planning to go to the park one last time and then head back~. Actually, we were supposed to go earlier than this, but we were having so much fun playing that we forgot~.”
“Aaaah...! Wasn’t there definitely a park on that hill? The people in that park today are seriously cursed!”
“We were just planning to go to the park one last time and then head back~. Actually, we were supposed to go earlier than this, but we were having so much fun playing that we forgot~.”
“Wasn’t there definitely a park on that hill? The people in that park today are seriously cursed!”
“Actually, we were supposed to go earlier than this, but we were having so much fun playing that we forgot~.”
“The people in that park today are seriously cursed!”
“We were having so much fun playing that we forgot—.”
“The people in that park—.”
The words Mildred had said and the words I’d just heard from the person evacuating to the shelter kept repeating in my head. The moment my confused mind finally cleared, a curse burst out of my mouth before I could stop it.
“………………Shit.”
The original story had changed. I had already caused a butterfly effect. In the original timeline, Mildred and Mikie were supposed to finish a casual walk in that park and head home earlier than usual. But because I suddenly appeared, their trip to the park had been delayed. And though I couldn’t be sure, there was a possibility that Mildred and Mikie were in that park where Tohka was rampaging.
Because of me, those two were about to die. As that fact nearly bleached my mind white... color returned to my thoughts as if I’d regained my senses.
Bang! I slammed my head into the window. A jolt shot through my forehead and shook my brain, but I didn’t care. I looked at Younghee, who was startled by my sudden act of headbutting the glass.
“Younghee. I’m going back to the room for a second. I left something there, so I’m just going to grab it and come right back.”
“What?! In this situation, something like that matters...?”
“It’s really important! Anyway, I’ll grab it and come right back! So you go on ahead to the shelter.”
At my pushing her along, Younghee looked displeased. Her dissatisfied gaze made my shoulders shrink, but after I kept repeating that I’d be back soon, Younghee finally gave up and let out a sigh.
“...Fine. But you have to come back as fast as you can.”
Younghee said that and immediately turned around to evacuate to the shelter. Watching her back grow smaller and smaller, I apologized to her in my heart, then ran in a completely different direction from my room.
Of course, saying I was going to get something was a lie. If Younghee found out the truth, she’d probably get angry and go ballistic. Passing by people running toward the shelter, I threw myself into the entrance of a nearby restroom.
There was no one in the restroom. Sensing no presence around me, I muttered in relief and immediately got to work.
I pictured my destination in my mind and gathered my power as quickly as possible into the form needed to use teleportation.
The destination was the park Mildred had said she was going to. The reason I was going there was to save the two people who might be there. If they weren’t in the park, I planned to use teleportation again and return straight to the hotel. If they were there, I’d use my ability immediately and get them out of the park.
Going through the simulation of rescuing them several times in my head, I also prepared to use telekinesis at any moment.
And then—snap—I snapped my fingers.
At once, a huge roar assaulted my eardrums, and at the same time, rough dirt and dust sprayed toward me.
“Guh...!”
The noise around me made me grimace, but I quickly came to my senses and looked around. The hill a little distance from the park was being mercilessly hacked apart by black light falling from the sky. When I looked up, there was Tohka, holding a giant sword.
A tragedy that couldn’t even be compared to what I’d seen in the anime. Wiping away the cold sweat running down my face, I hurriedly moved to find Mildred and Mikie.
And then I heard the sound of something liquid being stepped in—squelch.
“………Water?”
I hadn’t even taken a few steps after teleporting. Startled by the strange sensation under my foot, I quickly looked down. My foot was standing in some kind of liquid. But that liquid was far too red to be called simple water. And there was a strangely metallic smell too. Judging by the smell and the color, this wasn’t water—it was blood...
“………………………Huh?”
I slowly raised my head and followed my gaze to the center of the puddle. A pale face with all the color drained from it. Dull eyes with no trace of life. A blue-haired boy lying in a huge pool of blood like a corpse. The thing covering his chest with someone’s school uniform jacket was unmistakably Itsuka Shido.
“………Shido?”
At the sight of Shido, who looked completely lifeless, I stood there blankly, forgetting all about finding Mildred and Mikie. The school uniform jacket draped over him was soaked through with blood. I stared at it dumbly, and then suddenly the uniform Shido was covered with burst into flames.
Not ordinary fire, but flames of a completely different color from the usual red blaze. The tiny flame, no bigger than a finger, instantly swelled in size. It wrapped around Shido’s upper body completely, then shrank again and began to die out.
Color slowly returned to Shido’s face, which had shown no sign of life. The burning uniform fell to the ground, revealing a clean chest without a single wound. Jolt—Shido’s body, lying in the pool of blood, trembled. Then he slowly sat up and let out a groan.
“─────Mmm... What the hell is going on... hot hot hot hot hot?!“
Then, as the flames still hadn’t fully gone out, he shot to his feet and waved both hands to extinguish them.
All of this had happened in barely ten seconds. I, who had been silently watching the whole thing, stared at Shido with a stunned expression. Shido, who had died and come back to life, looked down at his own body in confusion, then noticed me right in front of him and widened his eyes in shock.
“……Shido?”
“K-Kang Haneul...? W-Why are you here...? No, more importantly, what happened...?”
Just as Shido was about to say something to me, another black beam fell from the sky and slammed into the hill once more. A flash burst, an explosion followed, and then an enormous blast and shockwave came surging in after it.
The shockwave rushed toward the park at terrifying speed. It had enough force to send us rolling across the ground if we were caught in it. But I blocked it by raising a wall made of bones. Shido screamed in surprise when the wall rose from the ground, but once the shockwave passed, he muttered in confusion about what on earth was going on and looked at me with wide eyes.
“……I-Is this... something you did, Haneul?”
“Yeah.”
“W-Wait. Wasn’t I definitely dead? There was a huge hole in my abdomen just now... A-And more importantly, Tohka! Where’s Tohka──”
Thud—another beam of light fell. Explosion, blast, shockwave—it spread outward and swept past us. Shido stared blankly at the hill where the explosion had occurred, then at my gesture of pointing upward, and looked up at the sky with eyes wide in shock.
“To, to, Tohka...!”
“Tohka is really, really angry right now. She’s floating high up in the sky, so your voice from the ground won’t reach her.”
Tohka was floating so high that she looked almost like a dot now. Flying through the sky, she kept wrecking the already devastated hill with devastating sword strikes. Tch...! Clenching his fist, Shido bit his lip. The expression on his face as he looked up at Tohka was filled with the determination to save her.
The moment I saw that determination, I felt as if some indescribable shock had washed over me.
“What do I do...? What should I do...? How can I stop Tohka...!”
“………Shido.”
“What on earth── huh?”
I called out to Shido, who was clutching his head in panic. At the same time, I wrapped my body in telekinesis and slowly rose into the air. Looking at Shido, who was staring at me blankly, I nodded with a determined expression.
“I’ll stall her. You want to stop Tohka, right?”
“Uh... yeah. D-Don’t tell me. You’re going to help...?”
“…………………….”
I didn’t answer Shido’s question. Thinking about the original story, there was no need for me to step in, but the moment I appeared in front of Shido after his wounds had already healed, the original plot had already twisted itself beyond recognition. Once you’ve stepped off the path and the situation has gone crooked, hoping it will return to where it was is impossible. At this point, the only thing I could do was use my own power to set the twisted situation right again.
A blue flame rose in my left eye. Right before flying toward Tohka, the image of Shido lying in that pool of blood flashed through my mind.
I glanced at Shido once more.
“………Shido.”
“Huh?”
“...Sorry.”
Leaving Shido behind, who looked bewildered by my sudden apology, I flew toward Tohka.
○○○
Tohka had gone through countless manifestations and fought many battles against the AST, who tried to kill her. But in none of those fights had she ever gone all out.
That was only natural. Just as you wouldn’t pull out a butcher’s knife to kill a chicken, there was no need for Tohka to waste her full strength against the AST, who couldn’t even scratch her, much less pierce her [Territory].
Even with an ordinary [Sandalphon] rather than [Halvanhelev], she could easily repel the AST. Before that, when she had manifested in the United States several years ago, she had even intercepted a supersonic nuclear missile fired by the U.S. military with [Sandalphon] as if it were nothing.
And yet today, right now.
Tohka was showing the full power she had never even displayed against the U.S. military, and for the first time, she was unleashing it against the AST.
A giant sword that looked to be over ten meters long, manifested in one hand. Its name was [Halvanhelev]. Every time it swung, a slash with the size and power to simply engulf a mountain slammed down on the ground with fierce momentum.
The many kinds of firearms and magic cannons the AST possessed could not pierce her [Territory]. As if refusing even to let them approach, the AST members could do nothing to injure her, let alone stall her or block her path.
Ignoring the attacks raining down around her, Tohka targeted one human. In her purple eyes, a girl with white hair was reflected clearly.
Tobiichi Origami. Tohka kept swinging her sword to kill her.
The situation was the worst possible. The other members who had come as support could do nothing. Bullets, missiles, lasers—none of it worked. The [Territory] protecting Origami’s body was torn apart by the shockwave created not even by a slash, but merely by swinging a sword.
Origami’s body was flung harshly to the ground. Blood flowing from her wounds soaked her entire body. Origami raised her head and looked at Tohka, who stood on the air.
The sight of the Spirit looking down at her. Seeing that, Origami instinctively knew it was over.
The final sword, [Halvanhelev]. The moment Tohka raised it over her head.
“───Guh?!”
Suddenly, a white beam shot up from below and passed right by Tohka.
“...What?”
Origami blinked in surprise at the suddenly appearing beam. It had passed Tohka with about five meters to spare, so it didn’t do any real damage, but it was enough to stop the attack Tohka had been about to unleash on Origami. Tohka, having been brushed past by the beam that pierced the sky, glared somewhere with an irritated expression.
At the same time, another thing with the silhouette of a human shot up into the air.
“...So it was you.”
Regripping [Halvanhelev], Tohka glared at the thing that had suddenly appeared. It had the silhouette of a human, but unlike Tohka, who was standing on empty air, it was standing on what looked like the skull of a giant dragon.
“Should I take that attack just now as a provocation aimed at me?”
A chill like being thrown into the dead of winter radiated from her. Sparks crackled from the ten-meter sword as if expressing her anger. An overwhelming presence that would make an ordinary human faint just from standing in front of it.
Glaring at the being that endured that terrifying aura, Tohka shouted in a voice full of rage.
“Speak! What was the meaning of that attack, Whitey──!!”
Veins bulging, Tohka shouted “Whitey” at Kang Haneul, who had suddenly intruded. Unlike her ominous atmosphere, the word she used to address him was rather cute. If the situation had been even a little less dire, Kang Haneul would probably have let out a snort of laughter. But now was not the time for that.
Cold sweat ran down his stiff face. Kang Haneul didn’t even think to wipe it away as he barely managed to speak to Tohka.
“I didn’t come to fight. I came to stop you.”
“Hmph! If you don’t know anything, shut up and get lost. That human killed my friend, my one and only friend, Shido!”
“Shido is alive! He’s over there!”
“………What?”
At Kang Haneul’s shout, Tohka, who had been aiming [Halvanhelev], was thrown into great turmoil. Tohka had clearly seen Shido collapse in front of her with a huge hole blown through his chest. An injury of that level was dangerous even for Tohka as a Spirit, so how much worse would it be for a normal human like Shido? A pale face, eyes with no life in them—having seen all that, Shido was alive...?
At first, she didn’t believe it. But Shido had said that Whitey was also his friend. There was no way a friend of Shido would lie, so perhaps...?
With a sliver of hope, she shifted her gaze to the spot where Shido had fallen. And there, only a puddle made from Shido’s blood and the school uniform jacket she had draped over him remained.
Shido was nowhere to be seen. The moment she recognized that fact, the last thread of reason left in Tohka snapped with a crack.
“...You bastard.”
“Huh?”
“How dare you, how dare you, how dare you, how dare you, how dare you───!!!”
With a swing of [Halvanhelev], a massive slash flew out in a sweeping arc. Startled, Kang Haneul twisted his body to the side and dodged it.
“To, to, Tohka...?”
“Do not casually speak the name Shido gave me. To hide Shido’s corpse and lie to me that Shido was alive...!”
“Wait. What?! That’s not what I meant! Shido was standing right th──... Huh? Where’d he go?”
“Do not play dumb──!!”
She swung her sword. Just from the aftershock, a shockwave erupted and spread in all directions. A terrifying sword pressure that could tear apart a Wizard’s [Territory] in an instant. Kang Haneul created a wall of bones in the air and barely blocked it. He managed to stop the attack, but he was clearly thrown into confusion. Shido had been standing there just moments ago, and now he had vanished without a trace.
“J-Just a second...! Calm down and listen to me! Shido was definitely standing there just a moment ago──”
“Whitey, do you not understand the meaning of the word ‘fine’?! Are you trying to say Shido suddenly shot up into the sky or something?!”
Tohka swung her giant sword and launched another slash. In response, Kang Haneul summoned a Gaster Blaster to counter it. A huge explosion erupted in the air. And as if taking that as the signal, Tohka and Kang Haneul began clashing in earnest.
Dozens of bones sprang into existence in midair and shot toward Tohka at high speed. A barrage of bones fired in rapid succession like machine-gun rounds. But before those bones could even reach her, they were swept away by overwhelming sword pressure and turned to bone dust. Slashes split the air, and several dragon skulls appeared, spewing beams of light. Every time the two kinds of attacks collided, explosions shook the earth.
“……………………….”
Origami, who had been flung to the ground by the battle between those two beings that seemed to defy common sense, stared up at the sky with a dazed expression. A Spirit—an existence that even the AST’s full force could do nothing against. And yet unlike the AST, who had been swept aside like flies, he was fighting that Spirit on something close to equal footing.
Why had such an absurd being suddenly intruded on the scene? That question filled Origami’s mind for an instant, but at the very least, she understood one thing: thanks to that being, she had barely managed to save her life.
“Origami-saaaaaaan!”
“………Mikie?”
And then, at that very moment, a familiar girl’s voice struck her eardrums. Origami, whose whole body had been crushed and could not move properly, blinked at that familiar voice and turned her head.
Where her gaze landed was a brown-haired girl about a head shorter than her. She was wearing a wiring suit all over her body, but she wasn’t equipped with the standard CR-Unit used by the Self-Defense Forces.
Origami could tell instinctively. The brown-haired little girl who had suddenly appeared—Okamine Mikie—had used an emergency device.
“...How reckless. You came all the way here without even wearing a proper CR-Unit?”
“I-I couldn’t just sit around preparing at base when Origami-san was in danger! Anyway, let’s get out of here right now. I don’t know why, but while Haneul-san... no! [Unknown] is holding off [Princess], this is our chance!”
“…………………….”
Origami looked like she had something to say, but she didn’t bother voicing it. Honestly, Origami was in no position to refuse help from anyone. She couldn’t get out of here on her own because every bone in her body had been crushed and she couldn’t move an inch, and the blood flowing from her wounds had soaked her suit, making her dizzy. It was a difficult situation to escape by herself, so now that Mikie had come at just the right time, she couldn’t exactly scold her.
“By the way... [Unknown] really is amazing. To think he can fight [Princess] on equal footing like that.”
“...No. It’s not equal.”
“Huh?”
“At a glance it looks like he’s fighting evenly, but unlike [Princess], who keeps pressing the attack, [Unknown] can’t seem to get out of defense. More than that, it looks like [Unknown] has very little actual combat experience.”
“T-Then... does that mean [Unknown] is at a disadvantage right now?!”
“...Probably. Yes.”
Origami’s analysis was correct. In fact, Kang Haneul possessed many powerful abilities such as bone summoning, telekinesis, teleportation, and Gaster Blaster summoning, but this was only the second time he had ever used them in battle. Compared to Tohka, who had fought AST countless times, the difference in experience was enormous.
Moreover, unlike Tohka, who unleashed terrifying sword strikes backed by an abundance of Spirit power she never lacked, all of Kang Haneul’s abilities consumed stamina, so the longer the battle dragged on, the more his stamina dropped and the more limited his ability use became.
At this rate, Kang Haneul, who lacked combat experience and was at a disadvantage in a prolonged fight, would lose for certain. Unless he revealed some hidden card, overturning the situation was practically impossible.
Even from the ground, the force behind Kang Haneul’s attacks was clearly weaker than before. Mikie, carefully moving Origami with her [Territory], bit her lip at the sight.
Tohka regripped [Halvanhelev]. Light began gathering again in the giant ten-meter sword.
Mikie shuddered at the power of the Spirit that could kill the world. So in the end, he couldn’t beat a Spirit after all... Just as she muttered that in a voice tinged with despair—
[♪-MEGALOVANIA]
Music played.
“Ah...!”
“...What is this?”
Without any intro, music suddenly began to play. But it could be heard everywhere. It wasn’t as if speakers had been set up somewhere to play it; it felt as though the very space they were in was playing the music itself.
Not only Mikie and Origami were startled by the sudden sound. The other AST members waiting on site, and even Tohka, who had been fighting Kang Haneul in the sky, were all visibly shaken by the music that came without warning—and from everywhere at once.
There was only one person who wasn’t surprised by it.
“...What is this. What trick are you pulling?”
Tohka glared at Kang Haneul, whom she was certain had played the music.
“What do you mean by this?! This absurd song! What kind of weird stunt are you pulling this time?”
“...I just put a Buff on myself.”
“A beef...?”
“…………………….”
As Tohka had guessed, the culprit who played the music was indeed Kang Haneul. However, he hadn’t played it through some recorder-like device. He had simply used his ability, and the music had begun playing on its own.
The name of the music echoing through this space was MEGALOVANIA.
It was one of the songs composed by Toby Fox, used as Sans’s battle theme in the Genocide Route, and was music that had become widely known to people for better or worse.
“Hmph! A strange technique that does nothing but play music and doesn’t help in battle at all! Truly, I cannot understand the mind of this fool!”
Indeed, to anyone who didn’t know better, suddenly playing music in the middle of a fight was not something anyone would look kindly on. Even if playing the music was an ability, on the surface it looked like nothing more than a strange technique that simply played music.
But the music playing was only a side effect that came with using the technique. The true value of the technique Kang Haneul had used lay somewhere else entirely.
It was an absurdly overpowered technique that granted a kind of all-purpose buff, boosting attack power, reducing stamina consumption, increasing stamina, improving reflexes, and even slightly accelerating healing of minor wounds.
The real value of this technique lay in the “buff” it applied to his body. The music was literally just an incidental effect that came along when the ability was used.
“……………….”
Tohka, who had just mocked it as strange, also braced herself at the sudden change in Kang Haneul’s atmosphere. Instinctively, she realized it: he had become incomparably stronger than before.
This technique, which buffed his body, was one of the two abilities Kang Haneul had managed to dig out of his memories after the battle with Tohka yesterday, in order to prepare for the one-sided beating he had taken.
With this technique, he could fight Tohka on something close to equal footing. However, since this was the first time he had ever used it today, there was still one problem he hadn’t solved.
MEGALOVANIA’s runtime was 2 minutes and 36 seconds. And the duration of the buff followed the music’s length. In other words, the time Kang Haneul could fight while buffed was only as long as the 2 minutes and 36 seconds the music played.
If he could use repeat playback, he could keep fighting Tohka while buffed, but for Kang Haneul, using this technique for the first time today, his ability wasn’t strong enough to handle repeat playback.
2 minutes and 36 seconds of buff duration. He had to end everything within that time.
So...
“At this point, the only thing left is for Shido to come and kiss Tohka...”
Dozens of Gaster Blasters and countless bones appeared in the air.
Above, explosions and deafening roars far beyond anything from before kept bursting without pause.
○○○
Right before Kang Haneul and Tohka clashed, the decisive reason the two of them ended up fighting was that Shido, who should have been in the park, had suddenly disappeared. It was a bizarre thing. Shido wasn’t a Spirit, and he didn’t have abilities like teleportation the way Kang Haneul did, so how had he vanished in such a short time?
If he hadn’t suddenly sunk into the ground or shot up into the sky, then where on earth had Shido gone?
The answer was simple. Shido was currently aboard the aerial ship Fraxinus.
“Honestly. I have no idea how things are supposed to turn out.”
Sitting in the captain’s seat, Kotori idly spun the stick of her Chupa Chups while looking at the large screen on the bridge with a troubled expression. The video playing on the screen looked like a scene from a Hollywood superhero action movie with a massive budget. If only the scene they were watching were really a movie scene, but unfortunately, what they were seeing was very much reality.
On the screen, Tohka was swinging a giant sword and cutting a mountain in half, while Kang Haneul was summoning a giant dragon skull and firing beams at her, along with bone projectiles the size of buses.
“Why on earth did [Unknown] suddenly appear at the scene?”
“We don’t know the reason. But if we go by what Shido-kun said, then perhaps [Unknown] suddenly appeared in order to stop the rampaging [Princess].”
“So he really is on humanity’s side, then?”
“...Shido. Before he went to stop Tohka, he definitely apologized to you, didn’t he? Do you have any idea what that might mean?”
When Kotori asked that question toward Shido, who had just arrived on the bridge, Shido shook his head and said he didn’t really have any clue.
“Haa... Leave half-baked stuff at the level of an original character you made in middle school. If you keep responding half-heartedly in a situation this important, everything’s going to go to hell.”
“That has nothing to do with anything! More importantly, how do you even know that?! No, wait—why are you talking about that now?! And why am I alive again?!”
“Now, now, calm down, Shido. You have a lot of questions, but let’s talk about that later. There’s something more important we need to do first, right?”
Watching the fierce battle unfolding on the screen, Kotori curved her lips into a smile. At that, Shido, who had been bristling, fell silent with a slightly flustered expression.
Just then, one of the crew members below the captain’s seat reported loudly. At the same time, beep-beep—a siren sounded from the bridge speakers.
“[Unknown]! He’s currently overwhelming [Princess]! He keeps summoning what appears to be angelic armaments... my God.”
“Spirit power is also gathering into [Princess]’s Angel! The power of both attacks is impossible to gauge!”
Behind Kang Haneul, dragon skull-like things kept appearing, beginning to form a massive wall. At the same time, particles emitting black light gathered around Tohka and began condensing into the giant sword. Even through the observation instruments and to the naked eye, it was obvious. Both the Spirit and he were preparing to unleash their full power on each other. The countless [Gaster Blasters] that had formed a wall all glowed at once, ready to fire. Tohka’s [Halvanhelev] also began to turn pitch-black, lightning flowing from within it.
“...It seems [Unknown] and [Princess] are both fighting with full seriousness.”
“[Fraxinus], turn! Move to the battle point! Reduce the margin of error to within one meter!”
At the crew member’s report, Kotori immediately issued orders to the crew who appeared to be at the helm. A chorus of “Roger!” answered them. For a moment, Shido was left staring blankly at the perfectly coordinated bridge, and then Kotori, still seated in the captain’s chair, called out to him.
“Shido. I’m sure I told you before, didn’t I? The Ratatoskr organization was formed to resolve Spacequake disasters peacefully through dialogue with Spirits.”
“Y-Yeah. You did...”
“That’s why we never do what AST does and try to kill Spirits. But that doesn’t mean we’re going to ignore the human and property damage caused by Spirits either. We want to avoid that kind of damage as much as possible too. You don’t want people getting hurt because of Spirits either, do you, Shido?”
“...O-Of course!”
“Then now is exactly the time for you to step in. The only one who can stop the princess fighting [Unknown] is you, Shido.”
“W-What?!”
“Oh my, what’s with that reaction? Don’t tell me you don’t want to save the princess?”
At Kotori’s disappointed murmur toward the shocked Shido, he shouted, “Of course I do!” at the top of his lungs. But he was still confused by the claim that only he could stop Tohka. In a situation like this, like some monster-versus-monster final battle, what could an ordinary human like him possibly do?
“I’m the only one who can stop Tohka...? How?”
“You don’t even know that? There’s only one way in this world to save a princess cursed by a spell.”
As the confused Shido asked while breaking into a cold sweat, Kotori gave a mischievous smile and kissed the lollipop she was holding.
At the sight of his suspicious little sister, Shido felt a chill. And a little later, after Kotori told him the “way to stop Tohka,” Shido screamed, “That’s impossible!”
○○○
If there was anyone who dared say the situation I was in was no big deal, I was very, very willing to grab that person and personally give them a truly miserable time.
How the hell had things ended up like this? When I came to my senses, Tohka and I were about to unleash our final all-in attack, pouring our souls into it. As things had progressed this far, I suddenly thought it might have been better not to appear before Tohka alone, but to grab Shido with telekinesis and bring him along with me.
Why do people always think of the better option only at the very end? Regretting deeply that I should have brought Shido, I controlled the many blasters that had appeared behind me and formed a massive wall.
Summoning every Gaster Blaster I could while leaving only the minimum stamina needed to move, I unleashed a full volley at my target. To prevent the wide-area attack from affecting the ground, I tilted the blasters slightly upward so that all the beams about to fire would head into the sky.
It was my own finishing move, prepared in response to Tohka’s sight of her preparing a powerful attack that looked like a finisher. From the giant sword, now dyed pitch-black, lightning burst forth and carved up the ground. The terrifying aura pouring from the sword made it feel like my heart would stop if I let my guard down even a little.
Countless Gaster Blasters resonated, preparing to unleash the light they held. In response to my power controlling so many Gaster Blasters, the blue flame in my left eye burned fiercely. The moment I snapped my fingers, my all-out finisher would collide with the attack Tohka was preparing.
Just how massive would the aftermath be when those two attacks collided? I had angled the blasters upward to reduce damage to the ground, but could my finisher really send all of that aftermath into the sky without letting any of it hit the ground?
As I sweated and waited for the moment Tohka would unleash her attack, right then—
“Toooooohkaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa───!!”
From the sky.
Higher than where I was floating now. Higher than Tohka, who was already higher than me.
From even higher than that.
A huge shout I could hear clearly with my own ears rang out.
At that voice, calling Tohka’s name at the top of its lungs, a bright smile spread across my face, which had been stiff with tension. The two of us were one step away from our all-out finishers colliding. And at that exact moment, that perfectly timed shout came down.
Tohka, who had been gripping the giant sword and glaring at me with a fierce look, stared up at the sky with a blank expression.
Itsuka Shido. Just like in the anime, he had fallen from the sky to save Tohka. As Shido’s descent slowed, Tohka moved toward him and caught him. The hostility in her expression was gone now. Watching Tohka and Shido standing together in the air, I finally felt relief and recalled all the Gaster Blasters I had summoned behind me.
Some of the stamina I had rapidly lost from summoning the blasters was restored. My rough breathing softened, and the cold sweat that had been pouring down like rain finally stopped.
The giant sword Tohka had been holding was still leaking pitch-black lightning, but a moment later, starting with the way Shido’s face and Tohka’s face seemed to overlap from a distance, the giant sword in her hand cracked with crack, crack sounds and shattered to pieces without ever unleashing its terrifying strike.
“...Ah!”
At the same time, the dress of light Tohka had been wearing dissolved into the air and vanished. Startled by the sight of her suddenly naked body, I turned my head away, and then, realizing that Tohka’s power had been sealed and the two of them were beginning to fall toward the ground, I hurriedly caught them with telekinesis.
Shido and Tohka both looked surprised at the invisible force holding their bodies, but once they realized it was gently lowering them to the ground, they relaxed and looked up at me with strange expressions.
“………………………….”
I unsummoned the Gaster Blasters I had used as stepping stones and, controlling the telekinesis wrapped around my body, slowly approached the two of them. Even Tohka’s fierce gaze toward me had softened drastically from the moment Shido appeared. Keeping my distance from Shido and Tohka and floating about a meter above the ground, I remained tense.
For a while, I exchanged silent looks with the two of them. And then Shido reached up to the earbud in one ear and muttered something.
“...Haneul. Right?”
“Yeah.”
“...If you don’t mind, could you give us a little time alone?”
At that request, spoken with a nervous edge, I silently nodded.
Comments (0)
Please log in to leave a comment. Login or Register