Mitou Shoukan://Blood-Sign Vol 2 Chapter 4

Yasuzumi Hayato was nothing but his memento, so he could never reach this point.

“Oh, ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!”

The summoner could no longer speak.

But he did have a direct mental link to the vessel he fought alongside.

Benikomichi Fuuki realized what the a.s.sa.s.sin intended to do, so she collided with Hayato from the side as a burning metal ball of a Material. That bent his fall by a right angle, so he flew like an artillery sh.e.l.l and stabbed into the outer wall of the gym built next to the school.

He had avoided the thousand meter fall and set the gym’s outer wall as their new footing.

s.h.i.+royama Kyousuke followed, as if being dragged over by the wall of the newly created Artificial Sacred Ground. So did the group of red Petals. Kyousuke landed on the gym wall with the force of a meteor.

No.

With a great roar, the protective circle around him mercilessly broke through the wall.

Hayato and everyone else were thrown horizontally into the dark gym. They landed on the opposite wall and the Petals rained down like a red meteor shower.

As a burning metal ball, Fuuki clicked her tongue at Hayato’s wide-eyed look.

But Hayato had good reason to be concerned.

The Artificial Sacred Ground only lasted for ten minutes, so he would not be thrown beyond the solar system. But it was obvious what would happen to a flesh-and-blood human if the effects wore off during a horizontal fall.

Fuuki knew that, but she still worked to motivate him.

And s.h.i.+royama Kyousuke did not hesitate.

“Librarian-chan.”

“Dammit!!!!!!”

When he heard that, Yasuzumi Hayato ran full speed along the gym wall. He ran toward the floor. At the same time, he instructed Benikomichi Fuuki to drop down from “above” to destroy their footing.

The burning metal ball crashed down and achieved the desired destruction.

Hayato had arrived at the right angle connection between wall and floor and he stepped onto the floor the instant the footing crumbled.

He had finally escaped the hopeless threat of being thrown out into empty air, so he breathed a small sigh of relief.

But…

“Now, then.”

“

Kyousuke lightly spun his Blood-Sign around.

His previous method would no longer work, but Alice (with) Rabbit did not look concerned.

“This is a large floor with no walls or ceilings in reach. …You can no longer use that artificial gravity tactic you love so much.”

“…!?”

“And if you can’t use your interference tactics, this comes down to pure skill as a summoner. You are no longer much of a threat. If all we’re doing is. .h.i.tting our White Thorns, I have the upper hand. Or am I wrong?>

“Ha…ha ha.”

Yasuzumi Hayato raised his Blood-Sign and looked around the dark gym.

There were large holes on both side walls and the ceiling was too far away. The polished wooden floor was the only surface. There really was nothing he could do. There was nothing left with which to create his next footing.

However…

“Hah. Have you forgotten, Alice (with) Rabbit?”

“…”

“This isn’t a normal school. It’s a midair float supported by dozens of pillars! And that means!! There’s plenty of free s.p.a.ce down below!!”

With those words, the burning metal ball that Benikomichi Fuuki had become dropped down from above.

It was a lot like a lightning strike.

The world split. It went beyond the waxed wooden floor breaking. The foundation of the building and the entire artificial surface of the midair float split, broke, scattered, and crumbled.

Below them was a drop of twenty to thirty meters, several large bridges, and the many thick pillars that supported the midair float. The Rainy Screen that projected images onto the falling raindrops was mainly meant to be viewed from indoors, so there were not many people outside, especially on these bridges with their view of the night sky blocked by the midair float. There was no sign of anyone on those bridges.

They could use any of those and land on any of them.

They had recovered.

Hayato could continue at his own pace now. He would make a complete comeback. It would all be over when he landed on his next footing.

But what happened next betrayed his expectations.

“Librarian-chan.”

It happened as soon as s.h.i.+royama Kyousuke said that.

The Spear that Pursues Fresh Blood (bih – ei – dp – tq). Cost: 9. Sound Range: Low. A flying spear over five meters long moved in the span of a breath.

With a deafening noise, the Material stabbed through the bridge Hayato was trying to land on. The bridge broke in two and Hayato nearly lost his balance in midair after preparing his legs like springs. And Kyousuke’s Material did not stop there. It smashed through bridge after bridge.

With all of his possible footholds gone, Hayato was sucked into the deep darkness beyond.

“The…ocean!?”

The sound of the splitting water stabbed into Yasuzumi Hayato’s ears.

The ocean surface was not recognized as the Artificial Sacred Ground’s next footing.

Without the Artificial Sacred Ground, the Petals were not dragged to him and there was nothing around him.

The a.s.sa.s.sin was simply shocked at first, but then he realized where the next footing would be. If he continued to sink…

Fuuki could see the two summoners sinking.

The protective circles kept them safe from all external and internal forms of death during the ceremony, so none of the seawater made it inside those circles.

However, that also meant their arms and legs could not reach the water. That in turn meant they could not swim and thus they could only continue to sink. Also, the protective circle apparently did not function like a float despite the air inside them.

They could reach the water with their long Blood-Signs, but it would be difficult to lift a human’s weight to the surface like that.

And on top of that, s.h.i.+royama Kyousuke mercilessly dropped down on Yasuzumi Hayato while they were both contained within protective circles. This did no damage, but Kyousuke’s weight could not be ignored.

Both their weights together invited them to the cold and dark ocean depths.

When Fuuki prepared to help, Kyousuke’s Material glared at her.

She had the inferior cost.

Not only would she be held back, but she could easily be defeated.

“Do you…do you have any idea what you’ve done, Alice (with) Rabbit!?”

“Yes, I believe the ocean here is about thirty meters deep. That won’t be a problem while the protective circles are active, but after the ten minute time limit, the water pressure will rush in at us. …Things might be different if you slowly dove down like a normal diver, but even thirty meters is enough to knock you out from shock if it arrives as suddenly as throwing a switch.”

And if Hayato pa.s.sed out in the water, it was obvious what fate awaited him.

He would lose the right to struggle and would drown without putting up a fight.

“But…then…the same thing will happen to you!!”

“…”

“Or…do you have a way out? No, there isn’t one. You don’t have an oxygen tank on you. And even if you did, that wouldn’t help with the water pressure squeezing at your blood vessels and organs. Then…!?”

“You tossed me around a lot with that artificial gravity.”

Kyousuke showed no sign of fear as he sunk toward the ocean bottom like he had been thrown off the pier at night with a concrete block in his arms.

“That was probably around 4 or 4.5 Gs. A roller coaster can recreate that, so the protective circle won’t cut it off. But if you combine that with a special way of breathing, you can adjust the oxygen level in your blood without visiting a specialized hyperbaric chamber.”

“………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………”

“Unlike you, I’ve already prepared for a high pressure environment. …Do I really need to tell you anything more?”

“O-oh, owaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!?”

Yasuzumi Hayato swung his Blood-Sign like crazy to hit his White Thorns, but his hands came to a stop. But this was not just because he was not used to fighting underwater.

When he destroyed his footing and set up a new Artificial Sacred Ground, the Spots would appear based on that new Artificial Sacred Ground.

That meant the Spots would not appear until that new Artificial Sacred Ground had been set. Nor would the remaining Petals slide this way. In other words, he could not interfere with his Material even with the White Thorns he had.

There was nothing he could do.

Benikomichi Fuuki was still trying to grasp, crush, and kill Kyousuke’s Material. The giant spear was fighting the burning metal ball, but Kyousuke’s had the upper hand in pure cost and in the sound range. Plus, Fuuki never had a chance without him constantly moving from footing to footing to throw off their opponent’s pace.

No help was coming.

He could not float back up to the surface.

The chain of death was attached to Yasuzumi Hayato’s feet and it dragged him down to the watery depths thirty meters below.

Then the new Artificial Sacred Ground appeared and the artificial gravity chained him here.

As if to prove his life was bound here, the petals rained down from above and the new Spots opened wide.

With that, Yasuzumi Hayato’s chances of victory were extinguished.

If he lost, his protective circle would vanish, the water pressure would crush him, and he would lose consciousness. Even if he won, how far could he reach in just ninety seconds? At A Block’s international airport, he had used the Divine-cla.s.s Leviathan to drag a submarine high overhead, but that was because he had had room to send the Material below the target.

Plus, the protective circle would repel the summoner (meaning the Material could only contact him for an instant), so the Material could not interfere with the summoner’s body for very long. To put it simply, it was very difficult for the Material to grab the summoner in a giant hand, place him on its back, and carry him around. It differed on a case-by-case basis, but the summoner tended to slip away like an eel or wet bar of soap.

In the end, Hayato could not use that method unless he could swim up under his own power to create some s.p.a.ce below him. Unlike with the school building, he would need to build up his Material quite a bit to smash ten meters of the hard bedrock, but it was unlikely he could reach that point after focusing so much on interference tactics.

But then the a.s.sa.s.sin’s heart leaped in his chest.

The directionless voice that reached his head or chest breathed new life into him.

“…”

Strength returned to his hands as he held the Blood-Sign.

Fuuki could tell even from a distance.

But first…

Something broke.

Did Fuuki really understand what had caused it?

On the ocean bottom far below, Hayato let go of his Blood-Sign and blankly stared upward.

They were only a few dozen seconds away from the time limit.

But that would be enough time for Kyousuke’s Material to wear down and kill the burning metal ball Fuuki had become.

She felt fear.

But even greater was the joy of battle that filled the student council president’s mind.

Was it the lack of this that kept Hayato from reaching that golden age? Was it the presence of this that kept Fuuki from forgetting that golden age?

Yes, she could not forget it.

Fuuki smiled at that fact, as a ferocious form charged toward her.

What was the true desire swirling deep inside her heart?

But even if Fuuki had betrayed Hayato, she could not have simply stabbed him in the back.

She had needed to put everything into the planning and execution yet have it foiled by some other summoner. That had been the only way to establish an official ranking that included Telomere’s End.

That had been the only way to prove his superiority.

Her thoughts were only linked to Yasuzumi Hayato, so they would not reach s.h.i.+royama Kyousuke.

But she did not care.

Benikomichi Fuuki shouted her thoughts as the innocently cruel girl who was Telomere’s End’s vessel.

She had not cared about the memento.

The world without death had not mattered.

There was just one thing that girl had wanted: placing that man’s deeds in an eternal hall of fame and protecting that ultimate record to ensure no one could trample on it.

She had simply wanted to prove that Telomere’s End’s methods had been correct and that any other methods would only bring pain.

Even if it was his relative or son, she could not allow anyone to disturb that sanctuary.

Even if it was meant to challenge him.

She had achieved her goal.

The vessel named Benikomichi Fuuki thought of the summoner she had once stood beside.

She pictured the face of that man who had been too distant to call it love but too close to call it respect.

The time limit became entirely moot.

The giant spear pierced through the burning metal ball. And with the Material’s defeat, the protective circle on the ocean bottom burst.

Benikomichi Fuuki and Yasuzumi Hayato.

That moment determined their defeat.

Even though Kyousuke had prepared himself for a high pressure environment, there was only so much he could do on the fly. However, he could not float while inside the protective circle. As soon as the battle ended, he discarded the Chain time, returning Librarian-chan to her human form and removing the circle that prevented him from swimming. His vision immediately shook.

He just barely remained conscious.

That was the most his safety measure had bought him.

“…”

He clenched his teeth and grabbed the arm of the a.s.sa.s.sin floating at the bottom of the ocean. The boy did not put up any kind of resistance. When a summoner or vessel lost, they entered a state of mental shock similar to seeing the G.o.d they wors.h.i.+pped slaughtered before their eyes and that state would continue for more than twenty-four hours. They became puppets that did anything they were told, but he would definitely drown if left like this.

Kyousuke swam toward the surface.

Librarian-chan was a slender girl again and she was already swimming up as well. He had instructed her to keep the fight on the upper edge of the Artificial Sacred Ground. More accurately, he had told her to keep the lower position so she could drive Student Council President Benikomichi Fuuki ever higher and keep her at the ceiling of the Artificial Sacred Ground.

Artificial Sacred Grounds were twenty meter cubes by default, so at a depth of thirty meters, the top would be about ten meters deep. That was shallow enough to keep the water pressure from crus.h.i.+ng her.

Librarian-chan grabbed Benikomichi Fuuki’s arm because the girl was still suffering from the water pressure (and had become a zombie in the original sense of the word after the shock of losing).

Kyousuke swam after them, but a dull pain ran through his head. He felt nauseous, like a magnified version of carsickness.

(Dammit… I have a light case of decompression sickness…)

A rapid change from low to high pressure was a problem, but the opposite was also a problem. The nitrogen in the blood would form bubbles that could cause headaches, nausea, internal bleeding, etc. The symptoms were known as decompression sickness or the bends.

However, he could not stay underwater forever.

He clenched his teeth and forced down the urge to vomit as he stuck his head out from the water.

If he had been about twenty meters deeper, the symptoms would have been more severe and may have killed him.

“Bwah!!”

“Wait, s.h.i.+royama-kun, what is that!? Your eyes are all bloodshot and they’re shedding b.l.o.o.d.y tears…”

“I’m lucky that’s all it is. More importantly, let’s find somewhere to get out of the water. We can’t float forever with this baggage weighing us down. And it’ll probably get more troublesome once they come to.”

To make sure the dazed summoner and vessel did not drown, Kyousuke and Librarian-chan placed them on their backs and supported them from below as they swam. They felt like otters, but they finally arrived at one of the pillars holding up the high school’s midair float and climbed up using the staircase wrapping around it like ivy.

Librarian-chan looked up while carrying the student council president on her back.

“W-we really messed up our school, didn’t we?”

“Maybe we should be glad you’ve calmed down enough to be worried about that,” spat out Kyousuke.

That summoner and vessel pair had their origins in the summoner known as Telomere’s End.

They had planned to create a world without death.

That had all been stopped now that no one remained to complete the final ignition. The world built on the hatred and acceptance of human death would not be destroyed overnight.

It was all over.

For the time being, anyway.

The school building’s roof had collapsed, the gym had been smashed flat, and the midair float supporting them had broken apart and fallen into the sea. The collapse had reached the school building which was shaped like three sides of a square, so around half of the building had been lost.

Most of what remained was the empty schoolyard.

“Phew…”

When they arrived at the partially-collapsed schoolyard, Kyousuke and Librarian-chan set down the a.s.sa.s.sins who were now dazed dolls. Kyousuke confiscated their Blood-Sign and Incense Grenades before tying their hands behind their backs.

Once they were bound, he pulled out his smartphone.

“Aika, how is the weather map looking?”

“The unnatural currents that ignore the wind direction and pressure changes are beginning to fall apart. At this rate, their ‘circle’ will be gone in a half hour or so.”

“Is there anything else we need to destroy?”

“Government personnel were sent to that factory in the name of an inspection. Based on the doc.u.ments they found in the rubble, the special materials in the atmosphere will not last long-term without the ignition, so they will break apart on their own.”

In that case, time would solve the rest.

Kyousuke said goodbye and hung up.

And then…

A harsh look came over his eyes when a girl’s voice cut in.

He looked over and saw a new figure on the crumbling schoolyard. The Queen with silver twintails and a white dress seemed enveloped by pale glowing particles. That peak of the Unexplored-cla.s.s was known as the strongest of the strong. She smiled as she used the Rainy Screen to appear in the extended rain and used directional speakers to speak.

“Why are you here?”

The White Queen pointed up toward the night sky from which the rain fell.

“Really?”

“That’s really the only reason?”

The world without death had been stopped and the mysterious things caused by the masterminds would be gone by the following day.

But then someone else came to Librarian-chan’s mind.

She could never remember what that person looked like no matter how hard she tried.

They should have been closer to her than anyone.

The rainy image of the Queen briefly blurred.

Rubber rain boots could be heard on the wet ground.

A small girl hid her face behind a broken umbrella and her raincoat was dyed red.

“Onee…-chan?”

The Rainy Girl did not reply to Librarian-chan’s trembling voice.

No, it was just that she did not speak out loud. Her small lips may have been moving below the umbrella, but her posture kept the broken umbrella in the way and Librarian-chan could not follow those movements.

She too would disappear.

A paranormal system had twisted causality and allowed the impossible to appear, but that would collapse with time. Once that happened, the Rainy Girl could no longer appear. The same was true of the White Queen who was supported by the Rainy Screen. Once the rain let up, they would return to their proper places. No one could stop it. Even if they tried to stop it by force, it would create a great distortion just like Yasuzumi Hayato and Benikomichi Fuuki had.

“…”

For a while, Librarian-chan and the Rainy Girl faced each other.

Only Librarian-chan knew what thoughts filled her heart then.

No matter what anyone said, that was her sister. At the same time, no matter what explanation she was given, she could not rid herself of the deep-rooted fear she felt.

Even so, she finally spoke.

“This is…for the best.”

She was not just talking about now. Her voice seemed to restart the time that had been stalled ever since a certain tragedy had thrown a certain family into despair.

“I mean, it would be wrong to leave you wandering in the rain forever. It isn’t right for everyone to treat you like a strange monster. So we need to end this here. I don’t know if there’s an afterlife or if we’re reborn, but there must be some place you’re meant to go. So…”

The Alice (with) Rabbit boy briefly thought of a certain pair of twins.

But there were as many different endings as there were people. Without saying another word, Kyousuke handed Librarian-chan a single Incense Grenade. He then held her small hand in his own. He aimed it toward the target while it was in the vessel’s hand.

This was not the kind of distortion that Hayato and Benikomichi Fuuki had created. This would create a true Artificial Sacred Ground. The clog would be removed and the ghost that was unnaturally caught here would be swept away to “somewhere else”.

It was a tool to a.s.sist a wandering soul.

“…”

Librarian-chan had said this was for the best, but her face crumpled up and she fell silent when she felt the actual weight in her hand. But the summoner had concluded she would regret it later if she just let it happen and had Kyousuke do it for her.

The Rainy Girl said nothing.

The broken umbrella spun around with its bearer in the center. Unlike her thorough silence, the small movement seemed to reveal a slight will. And that will relaxed the tense atmosphere.

This would end it.

More accurately, it would accept that this life had already ended.

The rain let up just a little. A break might open in the clouds and the rain might stop entirely. If that happened, the Rainy Girl would disappear. She might never appear again.

So Librarian-chan decided to place her finger through the pin along with Kyousuke’s finger, pull it out, and see it through to the end.

However, something interfered.

“Uuh…”

She heard an odd sound.

No, it may have been a voice.

“Uuh…ohhh…”

The terribly distorted voice seemed to be coming from a broken audio system, so she could not tell what it was saying.

But at the very least, it was not coming from the Rainy Girl. That ghost could not produce her own voice as a sound.

However, it was not s.h.i.+royama Kyousuke, Librarian-chan, or the White Queen either.

Then who was it?

Something happened as soon as they all turned toward the sound.

“Ohhhhh, aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!! Notice us alreadyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!”

There was an explosive sound much like bluish-white sparks scattering.

Static ran through the White Queen’s image.

The raindrops that should have all fallen in the same direction had their paths bent in every direction by the noise.

And with that explosion, the producer of the voice appeared as if through a split in s.p.a.ce itself.

It was a pair of twin shrine maidens with long blonde and black hair.

Kyousuke spoke in confusion.

“Meinokawa Renge and Higan?”

“Ohh… So we finally made it to this side. I don’t know what layer we were on, but when our presence is observed strongly enough by the people of any of those worlds, we’re pulled toward them. It’s scary how those fields overlap.”

“Eek!? W-wait a second. Is that the, um, White Queen smiling over there?”

Librarian-chan could not keep up and her mouth flapped open and closed.

“What are these layers you’re talking about? A-and where did you come from?”

“Hm? Who are you? Well, that doesn’t matter.

The black-haired shrine maiden, Renge, casually ignored Librarian-chan’s questions.

“We were investigating some mysterious disappearances in Toy Dream 35 and – while I’m not sure this is the best way to put it – we fell victim to it ourselves. Well, it was something like that girl with the umbrella over there.”

“……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………What?”

Layers.

Mysterious disappearances.

When their presence was observed strongly enough by the people of any of those worlds, they were pulled toward them.

Nothing Meinokawa Renge mentioned seemed to fit with the a.s.sumptions Kyousuke and Librarian-chan were working from. After all, the “girl with the umbrella” she had mentioned was Librarian-chan’s ghost who had been killed years before.

But.

What if it was those a.s.sumptions that were wrong?

“W-wait! What do you mean mysterious disappearances? That isn’t what happened to my sister. If she had just gone missing, there would have been some hope left!! She really was killed, there was no hope at all, and that’s why she’s appearing to me as a ghost now!!”

“Did she look like a ghost to you because she was suddenly appearance and disappearing? But that’s just a normal girl. And she isn’t causing this. We don’t understand it all ourselves, but we do know something since we ‘lost our way’ too. …The issue is with the world, not the people. I thought Higan was a ghost at first too.”

This was not over.

They did not understand it all.

If the Meinokawa Sisters had appeared out of thin air, there had to be a reason for it. Those living girls had mysteriously disappeared somewhere and had now returned. That much made sense, but the Rainy Girl was different. She had to be different. After all, she had already died several years before.

And yet.

And yet!

And yet!!!!!!

Only the White Queen was laughing.

And she had more to say.

s.h.i.+royama Kyousuke felt like the blood was boiling in his head.

The current situation and the basic a.s.sumptions vanished from his mind and he tried to grab at the illusion in the rain.

“Queen!!!!!”

The Queen gave him the look of a playful kitten.

“Then what was this…? No, wait. Don’t tell me…!!”

“So you knew from the beginning…?”

There was blatant enjoyment in the White Queen’s voice.

Kyousuke knew he could not reach her, but he still yelled at her.