Miku closed her eyes, her thoughts drifting as she watched the slash closing in on her.
If I had met someone who truly cherished others sooner...
Could I have changed too?
Miku had nothing but her singing.
And once she was no longer allowed to sing, everyone abandoned her.
They criticized her. They slandered her.
No one was there to protect her.
So, she rejected the world.
She grew to hate others, and in turn, she hurt them.
“This is... probably my punishment.”
And so, Miku waited for the pain that was about to claim her.
******
“Huh~? Yoshino, why were we here again?”
“Yoshinon doesn’t know either?”
Meanwhile, the brainwashed spirits had regained their senses as Miku's strength faded.
“For some reason, this feels weird... Like there’s another Yoshinon nearby... It feels familiar somehow...”
Yoshinon was deeply confused.
From the mystery of why she and Yoshino were in this unfamiliar place to the sensing of a similar presence nearby, everything was a puzzle. She began to move, searching the area.
“Found them! Fire!”
The Wizards who spotted them attacked immediately.
“Eek!”
“Haha! They're as light as feathers!”
Then Kaguya and Yuzuru appeared, blowing the Wizards away with a violent gust of wind.
“So this is what they mean by being blown away by the wind!”
“Question. Are you all right, Yoshino, Yoshinon?”
“Kaguya! Yuzuru!”
Yoshino felt a wave of relief at the Yamai sisters’ appearance.
“But... what exactly were we doing...?”
However, the Yamai sisters were just as clueless as Yoshino and Yoshinon.
They had simply come to in this strange place; because they too had been brainwashed, they had no memory of the events that followed.
“...!”
While they were still reeling from the confusion, a woman’s voice called out from behind them.
The moment Yuzuru spotted the woman approaching with a weapon aimed at them, she swung her angel, blocking the attack with a wall of wind.
“Tch!”
The woman was Tobiichi Origami.
Yuzuru immediately flew toward Origami and caught her as she collapsed, asking, “Master Origami, what is the meaning of this...?”
Origami was in a miserable state.
Following her battle with Ellen, the strongest Wizard, Origami’s body was a map of broken bones and deep wounds.
“Shi... do...”
In the end, Origami couldn’t properly answer Yuzuru’s question and fainted in her arms.
Hearing the name Shido, Yuzuru sensed that something grave had occurred.
Since Origami’s body was a wreck, Yuzuru handed her over to one of the AST members waiting nearby.
Kusakabe Ryoko, who received Origami, looked at Yuzuru with confusion.
“You people are...?”
It was a natural question; they were spirits, yet they had helped Origami.
But Yuzuru ignored Ryoko’s question and returned to Yoshino’s side.
“So, Yoshino. Why are we in a place like this?”
“Affirmative. I thought we were at the Heavenly Festival venue.”
“I-I don’t really know either...”
Yoshino also had no memory of what happened after the brainwashing, leaving her unable to answer the Yamai sisters.
“...Hm?”
As they stood there, confused by the gap in their memories, they all sensed something.
“Over there?”
“Affirmative. No doubt about it.”
“Hieta is there...!”
******
“Kha... Seriously, why do I keep dying so often...?”
I had thrown myself in front of the slash aimed at Miku.
Just before it hit, I pulled out Hikinon and triggered the electricity, but whatever that attack was, it was so powerful that it pierced right through the [Ice Shield] and sliced my body clean in half.
“W-What is...?”
That was Diva’s voice from behind me.
Judging by the tremble in her voice, she seemed pretty shocked by my death.
“Hey, you all right?”
I asked in a light tone, purely to keep her from panicking and getting hit herself.
〔No! Master! Look at your body right now and say that! Is that really something you should be saying?!〕
Hikinon apparently hated my attitude and started complaining.
I let out a small laugh at Hikinon’s noisy voice and muttered, “Shut up, you brat.”
“N-No... Why...?”
Diva still sounded flustered as she asked why I had saved her.
She had clearly criticized and attacked me, so why would I do it?
I gave her a simple answer.
“Because I wanted to.”
Does saving someone need a reason?
If I wanted to save them, I saved them. That was all.
“Just... for that reason...?”
〔She’s right! What kind of idiot risks his life for just that reason?!〕
Both Diva and Hikinon seemed baffled by my answer.
It wasn’t that bad of an answer, was it?
“Why? There’s someone like that right here.”
〔Yeah! You idiot, Master! Idiot! Moron! Sea anemone!〕
“Hey now, why are you doing that again? Fine. I’ll say it properly. I didn’t want to see Diva die.”
“...What?”
“What are you so surprised about? Even if you did hurt me, if you died, I felt like you’d show up in my dreams and scare me.”
That was all there was to it.
I didn’t want Tohka to become a murderer, and I didn’t want to see Diva die in front of me.
By the way, when was my body going to recover?
All I could see was the ceiling.
“Hmm... Here it is.”
I rummaged through my inventory and summoned an Estus Flask.
Then the flask fell straight onto my face, nailing me right in the nose.
“Ow!”
Dammit, of all things, why did it have to fall on my face?
“Hey, Diva. As thanks for saving you, can you pour this into my mouth?”
“...Yes.”
For once, Diva obediently poured the Estus into my mouth.
Then my upper body, which had been severed, turned to ash and merged back down toward my lower half, regenerating my body.
“Phew. Thanks.”
I gave Diva a simple thank-you and looked forward again.
“Hieta! Are you okay?”
“Yes. I’m fine, Itsuka-kun! But now Tohka is the problem...”
The unresolved problem was Tohka.
She was clutching her head.
Why was she doing that?
“Itsuka... Shido... Shido... Hieta...”
“Our names?”
The transformed Tohka, still holding her head, was muttering my name and Itsuka-kun’s.
“Oh, could she be regaining consciousness?”
I thought maybe she was finally coming back to herself, but then the transformed Tohka suddenly brought her hand to the blade of [Nahema] and cut herself.
“Trying to use some sneaky trick... You think you can bewitch me, human!”
No, damn it, why are you looking at me when you say that?
“Very well, then...”
The transformed Tohka leaped lightly into the sky.
“I’ll crush you so thoroughly that not even dust will remain.”
With that, she raised [Nahema] so its tip pointed toward the heavens.
Then a throne was summoned from the sky, and the transformed Tohka brought [Nahema] crashing down onto it.
“No way, it can’t really be...?”
It looked familiar.
It looked far too familiar.
Right, the sword Tohka had swung at me when we first met looked exactly like that.
“With this [Peyvash Herev], the sword of the end!”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake.”
A dark violet aura gathered around the transformed Tohka’s [Nahema].
“Ah—”
“Stop it.”
I stopped Diva from using her angel to block the transformed Tohka.
There was no way she could do it in her current state anyway, and if we provoked her further, her target might switch to Diva instead.
“Hoo... Can you do it, Hikinon?”
〔I have to try somehow! Otherwise, Master’s going to die again!〕
Even Hikinon didn’t sound confident.
Yeah. You’d have to be insanely confident to block that.
“Disappear, human.”
Just as the transformed Tohka was about to swing her sword at us—
“Tohka! What on earth is going on!”
Yoshino appeared and stopped the transformed Tohka.
“Itsuka-kun. I’ll be the decoy. After Tohka attacks me, there’ll be an opening. Please approach her then.”
While Yoshino drew Tohka’s attention, I quickly explained the plan to Itsuka-kun.
“Hieta, are you sure?”
“Yeah, well. I’m not going to die anyway. Just make sure you seal Tohka properly.”
After hearing my answer, Itsuka-kun nodded with a determined expression.
“Hoo...”
I moved away from Itsuka-kun and took a moment to catch my breath.
“Tohka!”
When I shouted her name, the transformed Tohka looked over at me.
After a moment, she shook her head and raised [Nahema] once more.
“Hey! Hikinon! You’re really ready, right?”
〔O-of course I am!〕
Could you at least hide the trembling in your voice when you say that?
“[Nahema]! [Peyvash Herev]!!!”
Along with the transformed Tohka’s shout, an enormous slash came rushing toward me.
I braced myself, activating Hikinon’s electric ice shield.
KWA-GA-GA-GA-GAK-!
A slash of spiritual power that erased everything in its path crashed down on me.
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