Chapter 7: The Hero Returns
Chapter 7:
The Hero Returns
Rin didn’t come back until morning.
She insisted she had no memories of where she’d been or what she’d done there, but she suddenly seemed terrified of water. Such a shame, Kuon thought in an extremely flat tone. Did she have to listen to hummed radio?
If she hadn’t been in that state, she may have stopped to wonder just why Kuon was in their room that early in the morning. But she was too preoccupied to do much more than grab the luggage she’d already packed and leave with Hanabi. Kuon snuck out after them.
“Senpai, we’ll have to go out together again.”
“Yes, definitely,” Hanabi agreed.
Kuon and Hanabi parted on the military wharf. Fuji had greeted them both already and given Kuon a nod as if acknowledging a job well done. Rin refused to even drink water.
The rest of the Fuji Squad headed toward the gate leading to the Kuou, leaving Kuon behind. He kept waving, trying to convince himself it would be fine, that he would see them again.
This Operation was a blitz, a huge force sent in to catch the enemy off-guard. Nearly the entire combined might of the Lunar Defense Force would drop from orbit onto the capital, smash the enemy forces, and seal the Gate. The Fuji Squad was positioned at the rear. The active Cavalleria would eliminate the main enemy forces, then the Gate Seal Squad—including the Division 5 Hanabi—would come in behind.
They’ll be fine. By the time senpai drops in, most of the enemy will be gone.
If he didn’t keep telling himself it would be fine, all his anxiety would come bursting out. He wanted to go with them, even if he had to do it in his temp frame.
He couldn’t calm the qualms in his chest.
The final adjustments to his new frame ended without issue, five days earlier than scheduled. The development engineers had really pushed themselves.
It felt like summer vacation had begun at school. Kuon spent every day going between school and the training grounds, but it had been weeks since he attended any classes. He’d been going through the front gates and right to the garage without ever stopping by class 1-A, so he’d completely forgotten about vacation.
There were still plenty of students there doing self-training. Kuon wandered through them, heading for the training ground at the garage. The oversized DM rocket booster pointing to the heavens was his guide. Like the smokestack on a sento, the bath-addicted ex-Hero thought.
Cicadas sang in his ears and the humid summer wind brushed his face as Kuon faced his new partner. It was a brand-new blue frame, standing on unmowed grass.
En gazed up at it like it was blinding.
“They call it the Soukyu (Pleiades),” she told Kuon. “The base is the Division 1 Soukyu. They added additional disposable boosters all around it and strengthened the close-range combat capabilities to enhance Machine Fencing. It also inherited the special weapon that Master uses, along with the Pleiades subtitle.”
“Amazing…”
“Isn’t it?” En said proudly, although she’d had nothing to do with making it.
Kuon stared up at the slim silhouette of the DM in awe. It shone in the light like a blue-armored warrior.
The mass-produced model had been shaved, tucked, tightened, and honed. The Pleiades had been fitted to its left shoulder, and the frame sported a long, rectangular backpack like a collapsed fan on its back with a ridiculous number of boosters.
Ah. Saying they’d strengthened close-quarters capabilities was a positive spin on what they’d actually done, which was lighten the frame by removing all the sensors and stabilizers that assisted with ranged-combat. This thing likely didn’t even have a lock-on, yet its back and shoulders had boosters larger than the frame itself. Kuon thought it looked like it was shouldering a bunch of birdcages.
“Mm, those boosters make it look all slapped together. They’re totally in the way,” he commented.
“What are you talking about, Kuon-sama?! Those were specifically added to compensate for your lack of magic!”
“Oh, right.” That made sense. He chose to be grateful for them. The head developer gave him a detailed rundown as well as the new Device. The frame returned to the Device, and Kuon went back to the training grounds.
Two days passed since Hanabi had left, and he was scheduled for three more days of hard training, though that could go longer depending on how fast he learned.
What was going on with the Operation? He’d heard nothing more. Was the Fuji Squad still on standby aboard the Kuou? Or was the Operation already over, and everyone was getting ready to come home?
He wanted to see Hanabi again.
For the first time, Suzuka Hachishiki’s soul learned how painful it was to be separated from the one you love.
“How many years have I been teaching you?” Kaede asked.
Why was she staring into the distance like that? Kuon wondered. A gust of wind blew across the training ground.
“Twelve years in my last life, seven in this one, so nineteen years total.”
“Hmm,” his master muttered. “Surprisingly short.”
“Is it?”
“Not many Cavalleria could get this good at Shichisei Kenbu in only nineteen years. I suppose even an idiot can get somewhere if he tries hard.”
Kuon found her behavior unsettling. Nothing good ever happened when Kaede gave out compliments.
“Let me ask you something. Don’t answer me as Suzuka Hachishiki, but as Okegawa Kuon.”
“Okay.”
“Answer directly from the heart—are you ready to throw your life away?”
Okegawa Kuon answered immediately. “I am.”
He failed to notice the shadow that crossed her face.
This extremely simple question was asked of anyone inheriting Shichisei Kenbu. Seven generations ago, it had taken the student two months to arrive at the answer, and four generations ago, the student had taken six months. The last student—Kaede herself—had answered correctly the first time. Not because she was highly skilled, Kaede knew, but because it was simply a matter of personality. Many would consider it a trick question.
Suzuka Hachishiki and Okegawa Kuon had both done well. She had never thought it would be time to ask this question after only nineteen years. He may have no talent for magic, but he did for Fencing. She felt a light from this student that made her think he did, at least. But even so, or perhaps doubly so, Kaede’s mind was made up.
“Shame,” she said. “You can’t learn the ultimate art.”
Kuon’s mind nearly went blank with confusion. He couldn’t understand it. He’d been thrown in a river and nearly died, brought to low-oxygen environments and nearly died, seen his friends head off to war with his heart breaking, and trained as if his life depended on it. After all that, this? Why?
“Can I ask,” he said, barely able to contain his rage, “the reason?”
“Sorry. Rules say I can’t tell you.”
“Master!”
“I said sorry. I’m apologizing. Is that not satisfactory?”
“We’ve only got seven years until the Queen returns! I can’t afford to get stuck here!”
“That’s the problem. You’re still trying to do it all on your—no, never mind.”
“Master!” he protested, but Kaede cut him off.
“Don’t.”
He could hear his teeth grinding. He’d put up with so much unfair crap from her, but this was beyond reason.
“Master!” En yelled, appearing out of nowhere in a panic.
Kuon was about to yell, “Not now!” but…
“The Operation…the Squads!” En stammered. Both Kuon and Kaede realized the Guide was upset for an entirely different reason.
“What?” Kaede demanded. En looked at Kuon. “Go ahead and say it,” Kaede urged.
En broke the bad news.
“The Imperial Air Force, Lunar Defense Force, Capital Fall Squad main force…has been massacred…”
This time, Kuon’s mind really did go blank.
“Remember what I said to you before you began training!” Kaede said. “Are you going to make the same mistake again? Christ, get your head straight already, you idiot!”
After hearing En’s report, Kuon had run out of the training grounds, Kaede’s words falling on deaf ears. He didn’t want to hear them. If she kicked him out again, he would never be allowed back this time around, but who cared about that?
Kuon ran all the way to the school. A state of emergency had been declared, so all public transportation was down. The shopping district was a ghost town. He raced through streets he’d walked through with Hanabi just two days ago, headed toward the garage’s training ground at top speed.
The main force had been massacred.
In the Air Force, “massacred” didn’t mean everyone was dead; rather, the term was used when at least 60 percent of the frontline Cavalleria had been rendered incapable of combat. The remaining 40 percent might be rescuing injured compatriots, beginning the retreat, or otherwise unable to complete their operational goals.
Was the Fuji Squad part of that 60 percent?
Unlikely. They had been at the rear of the main force, and Hanabi said the plan was for them to drop down after the main force had cleared the enemies around the Gate.
But if that had changed? If the Fuji Squad had been added to the main force?
It probably hadn’t. They probably hadn’t. But he couldn’t say that for sure. He couldn’t predict every action Command would take. Perhaps Fuji, Rin, and Hanabi were out there right now, trying to escape the Jave, trying to save injured Cavalleria in other squads, perhaps grievously injured themselves, or even worse. The Jave might have…attacked, eaten…Hanabi, the girl from that day, the same fate…
Run! Run, run run run run run!
“Kuon-sama!” En shrieked. “What are you doing?!”
“Isn’t it obvious?! I’m going to fly out of the training ground and land in the capital!”
The black mist covering the capital repelled all invaders. It didn’t allow light or electric waves, and it disrupted magic. It even stripped the DM right off you. It was a powerful barrier.
But the higher up you went, the thinner it got. That’s why the Imperial Air Force had fired cannons down on the capital from orbit, scattering the mist, then dropped troops in…
“Are you a complete idiot? Think for a second! You’ll never get high enough without a shuttle!”
“Sure I can. I’ve got the extra boosters, a shield, the Witch Bubble and…and with that, a sixth generation DM can do it.”
His eyes locked on the academy training grounds, on its landmark, the object thrusting toward the sky.
The DM Rocket Booster.
“I’ll follow the same trajectory as the Mobile Mothership Kuou. Up to orbit above, then drop directly down.”
“Hnnngggh…”
“I did atmospheric descents several times in my previous life. No point in trying to stop me, I’m going.”
“Hnnngggggghh…”
“You don’t have to come.”
But the Guide shook her head. “No. No, Kuon-sama, I will be joining you.”
“Don’t blame me if Master chews you out.”
“I’m still moving, aren’t I? She hasn’t cut the magic link. That’s her answer: ‘Watch over my idiot student so he doesn’t die.’ That’s my purpose.”
“Sounds rough.”
“But Kuon-sama…try not to make her sad.”
He reached the training ground. The storage shed with the rocket was locked up, his entrance prevented by a heavy door and electronic lock with over 300,000,000 possible passwords.
“En…”
“Okay, okay.” The little fairy inserted a digital key into the control panel. There was a click and the door opened easily. “What was your backup plan if I wasn’t here?”
“Smash the door in.”
How violent, thought En.
The two of them raced down the dark hallway. After opening a third door, Kuon was able to minimally deploy his DM, and, after the fifth, in a dark, silent, windless hangar, he finally responded to En’s request.
“I don’t want to make her sad,” he said, his voice echoing.
“It sure doesn’t seem like it.”
“Master isn’t part of the operation because of the time limit?”
“That, plus a fair amount of spite directed at the military, yes.”
When Kuon was ten years old in this life, Nanahoshi Kaede, still officially part of the military, had been deployed with the Lunar Defense Force to fight Jave invading Jogen waters. The actions of humanity’s strongest Cavalleria saved Jogen that day, but the wounds she received in that battle had ended her military career. The magic release required to deploy a DM meant she could only keep one active for five minutes. The real reason she’d been so scornful in her mock battle against the Fuji Squad was because Fuji hadn’t attempted to force a long-term fight.
As Kuon and his Guide bypassed the final lock, they found themselves facing the giant rocket booster. Connecting his DM to it, Kuon asked En to crunch the numbers to find the best point of re-entry over the capital.
“If you can open comms to the squad, please do. I want all the intel I can get.”
“Sheesh, you sure work a Device hard.” Even as she joked, a vast number of windows popped up on his field of vision, channeled through the magic link to his DM. En quickly organized them, doing her best to let Kuon know the current status of the Imperial Air Force, Lunar Defense Force, and Capital Fall Squad.
Then she whispered, “Booster, fire.”
A satellite in orbit picked up the signal from the surface. Far to the southeast of the imperial mainland, in the school grounds on the eastern part of Jogen Island in the Pacific, a Division 1 bristling with additional boosters and thermal armor flashed a single light and launched an instant later.
With G-forces threatening to crush his organs, Kuon tried assessing the situation. The Fall Squad was beginning to retreat. The main force had been massacred, and the remaining 40 percent were scattered and fleeing, trying to get outside the range of the Jave. Mobile Mothership Kuou was on standby in orbit, as were the rear squads. So the Fuji Squad and the Lunatic Order…
He swore under his breath.
His squad had been dropped on the capital just before the order to retreat. Kuon’s Soukyu (Pleiades) became a shooting star, hurtling across the sky toward them. It was less a rocket launch than an intercontinental missile. He passed through the clouds and the sky gradually turned from blue to black. The main booster’s fuel ran out, and it broke away…
“Kuon-sama, bad news,” En said. As she spoke, his radar showed a swarm of manta-like flying Jave coming toward them, blocking their path. If he tried going around them, it could delay him for hours.
He never hesitated.
“Punching through.”
En sighed with what Kuon knew was half “sheesh” and half “attaboy.”
***
It had been a long time since she’d descended to the capital.
As they entered the atmosphere, Hanabi was feeling pretty good. She could look directly at the black moon now without a panic attack. All it reminded her of was the lecture the kid had given her in the water, of his kindness, warmth, and familiar scent.
The main force had been dropped five minutes earlier. A barrage of missiles scattered the mist over the capital, and their senpai dropped through the hole. The Fuji Squad would follow soon after, leading the Lunatic Order. They placed descent boards under their feet, handling the wall of fire generated on re-entry via adiabatic compression.
The DM’s full powers would activate after re-entry. As they reached the air just above the capital, the main squad would wipe out the Jave in aerial combat and seal the Gate.
Their comms were still active. Hanabi spoke briefly to Fuji and Rin, waiting for their moment to act.
Re-entry in five, four, three, two…
There was a roar and a powerful jolt from below. The descent boards and Witch Bubbles couldn’t lessen the G-forces entirely, so Hanabi, the Fuji Squad, and the other two advance Lunatic Order Squads had to endure them as they all entered the gravitational field.
The light around her reflected, all red and orange and multi-colored, and her eyes both saw and didn’t see it as she desperately waited for it to end. Comms were cut off for the entirety of the two-minute descent. Enduring pressure that seemed ready to crush her, Kuon’s face floated into Hanabi’s mind.
I’ll come back to you.
At last they were through the wall of fire, but they were still falling at terrifying speeds. They continued decelerating.
It had been thirteen years since she’d seen the capital.
Hanabi was back in the skies above her home.
It was hell.
The spectacle below her wasn’t the home she’d known. Red fleshy monsters—the manta-shaped flying Jave—were assaulting the main force. Hanabi’s senpai was devoured before they even had a chance to take up positions. The comms came back online but were filled with screams. Command was issuing orders right and left, the result a confused mess. The numbers Hanabi saw below her and the numbers on her radar were automatically added together.
The total was nearly three times the combined might of the Lunar Defense Force.
As Hanabi stared, stunned, something red flew past her at high speed; a flying manta. The Cavalleria next to Hanabi was gone. She’d been an attacker from the current rank three team, a friend Hanabi had fought many a mock battle against. Her friend’s arm fell from the manta’s mouth. Hanabi realized her friend had been eaten by a Jave, and only then did she register the alarms blaring in her ears.
They were surrounded by dozens of Jave. They circled the freshly descended Student Echelons like sharks circling their prey, then suddenly wheeled around to attack.
What…the…
In the two minutes comms had been down, the Jave had attacked. Hanabi knew that much.
“Watch your six! Form up around me! Leave no blind spots! They’re coming!”
Fuji’s orders snapped her out of it. “Form two rings around Controls! Attackers in the outer ring, Gunners in the inner! Do it now if you don’t want to die!”
The Lunatic Order Cavalleria had frozen, making themselves prime targets, but now they all snapped into action. Three Squads, three Controls, three Cavalleria back to back, three Gunners just in front of them, and five Attackers protecting the gaps. Hanabi’s friend, the sixth Attacker, was already gone.
“Lunatic Order Sagara Squad, Mitsuhashi Squad, any objections to me assuming command? Then both Controls, fire with the Gunners! Send all intel you receive my way! Attackers, they’re on us!”
Their orders had changed.
The three Lunatic Order squads led by Fuji were to rendezvous with the third wave of drop squads and assist with the retreat of what remained of the main force. Retreat was the only goal. Command had given up on attacking the Gate. A wise decision, Fuji felt. All that remained was to extract as many senpai from the center of the enemy as possible. If they could get out of the capital war zone through Tokyo Bay and reach the escape fleet on the Pacific, they might be safe. The black mist might prevent entry, but it didn’t block escape. You couldn’t even see the mist from the inside. The only barrier to escaping was the Jave themselves.
They’d gone up against ten-to-one odds before. They’d faced ten times their number and killed their enemies instantly, sustaining no damage. Now they were up against only three times their number, with eleven Cavalleria. They may have been students, but they were highly skilled.
But none of this was nearly good enough.
It was all the Lunatic Order could do to protect themselves until reinforcements dropped down from above, much less go to help the main forces.
If Kuon were here…
Fuji knew he could stop time, calculate enemy attacks and evasion routes, and share them with the rest of the squad by using Shichisei Kenbu: Mod. Tensetsu Shigure.
If only Okegawa Kuon were here, they wouldn’t be struggling against these enemies.
Why had the operation been for now? Why not a week later, even five days later? If it had, Okegawa Kuon would have been there with them. They never would have been forced to watch a friend die.
He knew it was too late and was surprised to find himself dwelling on it anyway.
Since when am I so reliant on him? On a thirteen-year-old Division 1 child?
Pathetic, he thought. No point wishing for what you don’t have. Focus on how to get out of this with what you do.
The third wave of reinforcements was coming; they would be defenseless. The Lunatic Order needed to clear the trash out of the sky for them. Keeping their formation, they began to rise.
It was Rin’s first time descending on the capital.
Unlike Hanabi, Rin was born and raised on Jogen, and had never set foot on the mainland. She’d never even done a re-entry before. Before she could catch her breath, they were in the thick of it. Rin hadn’t even gotten her bearings yet when she found herself sniping the attacking monsters. She was in a panic, her mind totally blank. She couldn’t think. Her body just did what Fuji said, moving where he told her, returning fire.
I’m getting tired fast…
She didn’t realize that until their reinforcements had arrived and they were headed to the Gate to support the main force’s retreat. Her magic was draining at nearly twice the speed it usually did. Hanabi was at the fore, shielding the others, and had opened a comm to ask if Rin was okay. How perceptive, Rin thought. “I’m a goner! Hanabi, protect me!”
“Sure, got it,” Hanabi said in a manly voice, as if sensing just how far gone Rin was. You don’t have to be Kyuu-kun to fall for that. Laughing to herself, Rin followed. She had three magic recovery capsules left. If those ran out, she wouldn’t be able to keep her DM up, and she’d be eaten by those gross, squiggly monsters.
Rin would rather have Hanabi kill her than let that happen. The Warrior Princess could play the role of seppuku assistant. This was a silly thought, and even as she thought it, another part of her mind was thinking about the boy who’d stolen her friend’s heart. If he’d been here, this would be so much easier.
The Lunatic Order hurried toward the Gate, where their compatriots were trapped with no escape route.
The survivors of the main force began withdrawing, thanks to the efforts of the Fuji Squad and their reinforcements, but those were only the survivors furthest from the Gate. In the war zone near the Gate, there were still several squads putting up a desperate resistance against the Jave. The Fuji Squad wanted to go save the rest, but it was all they could do just to save those close at hand. If they took any risks, they’d end up waiting for salvation themselves.
An hour after the operation had begun, the battlefield remained under the Jave’s control. The Fuji Squad was surrounded by enemies on all sides, struggling to save as many Cavalleria as they could. “We’re out of time,” Fuji said. “If we stay any longer, the ships that are here for us will leave. Let’s go.”
No one argued; they all thought it was a wise decision. All members of the three squads temporarily under Fuji’s control assented, except for one.
“You go on ahead,” Suzuka Hanabi said. “I’m gonna cut my way closer to the Gate.”
There was a stunned silence. Did she want to die here?
“You can’t!” Rin screamed like the demons had a hold of her.
But Hanabi just shook her head. “Sorry. I have to do this. Let me go.”
“I said you can’t! Are you trying to get yourself killed? Make yourself into a hero that way?!”
“No, Rin. I’m not.”
“Kyuu-kun said you admire the Hero so much he’s afraid you’ve got a death wish! This is exactly what he meant!” Rin cried. “What’s wrong with you?! I thought you’d learned better than to just charge in!”
“If the Hero hadn’t saved me, I wouldn’t even be here.”
“So what?!”
“I was right under the Gate. That area was abandoned. There was no one coming to save me, but he came. He didn’t abandon me.” Hanabi smiled. “I can still fight. I’m Division 5. I’m a Maneuver Cavalleria. I don’t want to abandon anyone like me.”
They’d known each other long enough for Rin to realize there was nothing she could say to change Hanabi’s mind, but she tried anyway. She had to. “Don’t you want to see Kyuu-kun again?!” she pleaded, tears running down her face.
“I…” Hanabi didn’t have an answer for that one. If she said anything, it would weaken her resolve.
“Then I’m coming with you! If you try and stop me, I’ll just follow you anyway!” Rin said, wiping her tears. “If you don’t want that, then don’t go!”
“Rin…really…?” Hanabi looked at Fuji for help.
But Fuji had no intention of helping. “Sorry, everyone,” he said. “I’m disbanding the provisional squad. Sagara Squad, Mitsuhashi Squad, head for the ship.”
“Fuji-kun, you can’t mean—”
“I’m coming with you, Suzuka-kun,” Fuji snorted. “If you don’t want that, then don’t go.”
“Argh!” Hanabi let out, clutching her head. She was at a total loss. “You’re both idiots.”
“Says who?!” both Squad Leader and Subleader said as one.
So many times he’d thought he was done for.
The Cavalleria had descended as part of the main Lunar Defense Force, part of a squad ordered to destroy the four flesh pillars placed near the Gate. There weren’t that many Jave around that area just then. Immediately after dropping in, they’d proceeded as planned, easily eliminating the flesh pillars believed to control the Gate. That much was successful.
But a moment later, the Gate opened and an insane number of Jave came flying out. The timing was so precise that an awful thought struck the Cavalleria.
That wasn’t a control device…it was a switch.
A switch which triggered if anyone tried harming the Gate. Instead of an alarm, it summoned dark red fleshy monsters. In the blink of an eye, his fellow squad members were nearly all shot, eaten, or otherwise dead, and only then did the Cavalleria make his frozen body flee for his life. He didn’t know which way he was going; he just flew away until his magic ran out and he crashed. The road he landed on was so covered in blood and flesh you couldn’t even see the asphalt under it, the gore so mangled he couldn’t tell if it was human or Jave.
He looked up to find three mantas headed straight for him. They couldn’t even be bothered to fire light bullets. They must be real gourmets. Better to eat a human alive then use a projectile to kill them first.
This is it.
He had enough magic for a single rifle shot. He stuck it in his own mouth. Dying was better than getting eaten alive. Before he could fire, a wave of light enveloped the mantas, exterminating them.
“Are you okay?”
A goddess spoke to him, a beauty the likes of which he’d never seen landing right before him. Her DM sported massive wings and a gigantic rifle, far beyond what a Division 3 like him could ever wield.
“You’re the last one,” the goddess said, shaking her ponytail. “If you can still move, you should run. I’ll buy you time.”
Another DM landed beside her. A boy with the look of an officer tossed him a capsule. “Orders are to retreat,” said the boy. “Fly north, then turn east at Kanda. If you head straight out to sea you should find the escape fleet.”
“Wh-what will you do…?”
“Hold the enemy off. If we go with you, they’ll follow after.”
“Oh…thanks…”
He swallowed the capsule and began flying north, as he was told. There were so few enemies. They must have cut a path for him. Only then did he realize who those Cavalleria were.
The Lunatic Order. Students.
They should have been on standby at the rear, yet here they were on the front lines, covering his retreat. They even gave him their precious recovery capsules.
Please don’t die.
All he could do was pray for them. The last survivor of the main force flew off toward the escape fleet so the students’ mission could succeed.
“Whew,” Rin said. She landed listlessly on the ground, clearly thoroughly exhausted. She was completely out of magic recovery capsules. She’d used all of hers ages back, and Fuji had given his last to that Cavalleria. Fuji was on the ground next to her, catching his breath. Maintaining flight had become actively painful.
There were no enemies nearby, but Rin, Fuji, and Hanabi all knew better. They were surrounded, with nowhere to run. The enemy might not be in view, but their radar told a different story. It showed a ring of Jave surrounding them.
They were moving in. The circle was getting smaller.
So this is finally it. No sooner had this thought crossed Rin’s mind than a transmission came in from over ten thousand kilometers above. It was from the Fuji Squad’s newest member, who’d ditched his ultimate arts training, punched through the Jave swarm, and was about to begin the re-entry process.
“Senpai! Hanabi-senpai!”
Hanabi was out front, preparing to fire at the enemy. Her back twitched. Rin and Fuji’s reactions were more or less the same.
“Kuon-kun…?” Hanabi looked up, as if she couldn’t believe it.
You idiot, Rin thought. Don’t sound so happy.
“What’s going on down there? The main force has retreated, right? Why are you still in enemy territory?”
Each of them responded in their own way. “They retreated because we fought to let them get away! You should be thanking us,” Hanabi snapped.
“Kyuu-kun, feel free to call her an idiot for us, and to call us idiots for staying here with her,” Rin said.
“I appreciate you coming,” Fuji responded. “I’m sending you our coordinates. But don’t think you have to make the drop. I leave the judgment call to you.”
Their focus was beginning to fray and their bodies felt heavy, exhaustion making their vision blurry. Hanabi was Division 5 and could still fight, but Fuji and Rin were almost out of magic.
The voice from above gave the squad hope. “Roger that. I’m fully aware of both your courage and what colossal idiots you all can be.”
“Ahahaha, you’re calling us idiots? You sound like the headmaster.”
“I’m coming to save you. I would never abandon you. So please, don’t die before I get there.”
Rin made an impressed noise, Fuji nodded as if to say he was waiting, and Hanabi turned to face her companions, looking extremely proud.
“See? My Kuon-kun is the best. The greatest!”
Rin waved a hand, conceding defeat. “Okay, you win, he is. Your precious Kyuu-kun.”
“I completely underestimated the boy,” Fuji said. “You were right about him, Suzuka-kun.”
Even if he was too late…
Even if they all died here…
How much time would it take him to cross the wall of flames and get to them? The boy couldn’t even fly. Could they survive that long? The answer was obvious, but it didn’t matter. For a cocky, arrogant old man in a boy’s body, that Division 1 kid had a strange strength. He’d come running, having never given up on them, and that was all that mattered.
But only Rin and Fuji thought that way. “Kuon-kun,” Hanabi said, as if there was nothing in this world that could scare her now. “We’ll be here waiting.”
“Got it, Hanabi-senpai.”
There was a crackle, and the transmission cut out. It didn’t matter to Hanabi if that was caused by combat or re-entry. Either way, she knew he was coming.
She stopped looking up and focused her eyes in front of her. The sky was blotted out by Jave, all after the three of them. The swarm was thickest in front of them, and the Gate loomed behind those monsters.
Hanabi popped her last capsule into her mouth. Her field of vision narrowed, turning red, and her heart raced. The capsules were definitely not good for you, but they could restore your magic in an instant. It felt like her blood was flowing backward, but she forced that sensation back and grinned. She wasn’t scared of anything. Kuon-kun was coming.
Hanabi launched herself forward, drawing the enemy toward her to protect the two behind her.
The fires of Suzuka Hanabi’s life were raging, bursting like the fireworks she was named after. She fired her massive Scout Nova Rifle at the swarm in front of her. The explosion was like a sun appearing on the surface of the Earth. The clouds being blown away showed the path of the shockwave. Any Jave caught up in the explosion were vaporized instantly.
After her magic light beam destroyed the first wave of enemies, she turned her rifle, sweeping away all the Jave around them. A fifth of the enemy on the radar were now gone. She fired a second and third time. Even monsters could learn a little; the manta fired bullets of their own, all targeting Hanabi’s rifle shots and shooting them down. “Clever,” she muttered. She deployed her Servants, liquifying any enemy that got within range.
She was only able to keep this fight going for less than ten minutes.
On the other hand, lasting nearly ten minutes against overwhelming odds was quite impressive. After getting the transmission from Okegawa Kuon, the Fuji Squad held back the Jave swarm with everything they had left.
At the front, Hanabi used the full force of her Type-3 Artillery to blow away the enemy. Just behind her, Rin’s support fire took care of any mantas that got in Hanabi’s blind spots. Back-to-back with Rin, Fuji’s Control monitored the flow of combat and made sure Hanabi knew what actions to take next.
This was what they’d considered their optional arrangement before Okegawa Kuon joined the squad. They’d had a senpai Attacker the year before, but after that person graduated the team had only grown stronger, and they’d been convinced adding one or even two new members would likely not improve their effectiveness as a team. While it would increase their options, they ultimately believed a new member would be detrimental to their overall prowess.
And they’d been right. At least until Okegawa Kuon learned to fight as part of a team.
The Shichisei Kenbu that Kuon brought not only expanded their options, it had dramatically improved them. Their win rate had gone from a highly-ranked “stable” to “unbeatable.”
But Okegawa Kuon wasn’t there yet. This was previously their best formation, but Fuji and Rin were already at their limit.
When Hanabi’s remaining magic crossed the 30 percent threshold, support fire and Control went silent. The squad members at Hanabi’s rear were no longer able to maintain their DMs. All they could do was stay out of Hanabi’s way, maintaining silence to avoid distracting her, waiting for the inevitable.
The Jave swarm filled Hanabi’s vision. She couldn’t let her concentration drop for an instant.
The manta swarm fired at her. Enemies that only appeared as red blips on her radar exploded in balls of fire, but, by the time they did, they’d already fired invisible bullets her way. Her DM sounded the alarm. One hundred and thirty-two shots were headed right for her.
Kuon-kun is coming, she whispered to herself. Saying it out loud gave her strength. Her evasive maneuvers couldn’t avoid all the shots, and several of them burst upon her Witch Bubble. Several others made it through the barrier and blew bits of her armor off, but these attacks were normally powerful enough to kill a human instantly, so getting off this lightly was a godsend. The radar on her left shoulder went down, and the fragments scratched her forehead, drawing blood. The DM’s Witch Bubble had a simple healing function and soon sealed the wound, trying to restore her to combat readiness.
But the blood covering half her head had rattled Hanabi. This isn’t right, she thought. This wasn’t how she fought nowadays. This was how she fought when she was alone. But she had companions now.
Hanabi spun around. A ground Jave was reaching its tentacles out toward Rin, ready to eat her.
A disgusting, quivering mass was approaching. Writhing tentacles were flailing everywhere, slowly, as if it wanted her to panic.
Just kill me quickly, Rin thought.
Jave preferred to consume humans alive. They loved toying with their food, which wasn’t as much fun for the one being eaten. That last Cavalleria they’d saved had been just about to kill himself. Come to think of it, she’d been planning to ask Hanabi to do the honors. She looked at Hanabi, who was slicing away the Jave while running toward them with a horrible expression.
But it was too late. The monster was moving faster now, trying to eat her before Hanabi got there. At least this way it won’t toy with me, Rin thought. Or maybe Hanabi would go for the mercy kill.
Sorry. And thank you, Hanabi.
Stay close to Kyuu-kun.
Rin closed her eyes and waited, but the moment never came. Huh? she thought as she opened her eyes.
A goddess stood before Rin. A goddess with a hole in her guts, spilling blood on the tentacle growing out of her stomach.
Hanabi had blocked the blow meant to kill Rin with her own body. As Rin howled, Hanabi’s blood spattered on Rin’s cheeks. Drops of that blood mingled with tears as they rolled off Rin’s face.
Hanabi turned, slashing once with her Blade. It cut away the Jave’s tentacle that had pierced her. The Witch Bubble tried sealing the wound, and, as it did, Rin spoke, her voice shaking. “What are you doing, Hanabi?!”
“Why are you giving up, Rin?”
“You… You could survive on your own if you had to! What are you thinking?”
“I’m going to save you,” Hanabi said, coughing up blood. “I’m not abandoning anyone, even if you tell me to. If you don’t want that, then don’t die!”
“You’re an idiot…”
“You’re one to talk.”
Hanabi deployed six Servant Blades. She shielded the immobilized pair behind her, raising her own Blades high as if promising she wouldn’t let a single Jave pass. No more flying or ranged attacks, just close quarters combat on the ground, all Fencing. Her master was the rightful heir to Shichisei Kenbu, Okegawa Kuon.
He will come.
Her Blades were backed up by magic and faith. They would protect her precious friends.
Fuji had a frame optimized for Control. Forcing his fraying mind into action, he managed to activate a small portion of his DM. The one part he’d manifested was a highly-sensitive receptor with more processing power than a high-end AI Device. He channeled the information on enemy positions, pathed them out, and linked those predictions to Hanabi.
This gave Suzuka Hanabi artificially enhanced 360-degree vision. Theoretically, it removed all her blind spots, enhanced her fencer’s eye—giving her swords a veritable bird’s-eye view—and completed her protective barrier. This went far beyond having eyes in the back of her head: Hanabi could see everything. If something tried attacking Fuji behind her, she could block it with her Servant Blades.
Hanabi and her six Servant Blades formed a circle around the tapped-out, wounded, immobile pair. The Jave had no concept of fear, but the sight of seven gleaming Blades stopped their assault.
The Cavalleria who’d been saved by the Hero, admired the Hero, and was now becoming a hero in her own right, said softly, “Come at me.”
It was like there were seven of Hanabi.
The Servant Blades moved like they were held by invisible fencers, cutting down any and all Jave that came after Fuji and Rin. Never the brightest of creatures, the Jave went after not the Blades, but their unseen wielders. These attacks only met empty air and led to the Jave’s defeats.
Hanabi’s consciousness was split in seven, operating both the Blade in her hands and the six Servant Blades simultaneously. This took astonishing amounts of magic and concentration and wasn’t sustainable for very long. Still coughing up blood, covered in the blood of the slain, buffeted by the ceaseless attacks, sustaining wound after wound, Hanabi still refused to falter.
Suzuka Hanabi—the Hero—stood her ground.
In Rin’s eyes, it looked like Hanabi was converting the light of her very life energy into strength and fighting with it. The longer she drew this out, the longer she protected them, the closer Suzuka Hanabi’s death came. Yet Rin knew Hanabi would never turn and run. She would never abandon them.
Slice, thrust, cut, swing forward, backslash, strong hit, parry and strike, trip, quick draw, stab, side strike, rain slash, right, left, overhead blow, reverse…
Each blow was precise, every cut good enough to end this. The Fencing that Okegawa Kuon had taught Hanabi was saving their lives even as it drained away her own.
Rin screamed like she’d gone mad. “Kyuu-kun! Kyuu-kun, Kyuu-kun! Kyuu-kun!” With no magic of her own left, Rin watched helplessly as the light of Hanabi’s life force threatened to burst like a firework against the night sky. Unable to tear her eyes away, she continued shrieking. “Kyuu-kun! Hurry, please! Hanabi… Hanabi’s going to die! Kyuu-kun!”
Next to her, Fuji was clutching his side, staring up at the blue sky above. His bleeding refused to stop. “Okegawa-kun…” he whispered. “How much longer…?”
Then, the skies above changed—
For the worse.
As the number of Jave slowly whittled away, the Gate behind them opened.
Schaaaaaa…
The Jave scattered like newborn spiders, completely clearing the path between them and the dimensional passage. It was as if the monsters were rolling out the red carpet.
A horrible chill ran through Hanabi. Her instincts screamed at her to withdraw. She had to mobilize every ounce of courage she had left just to stay put.
The Gate was 300 meters across. A massive Jave appeared from beyond the dimensional barrier, one almost as large as the Gate itself. It was disk-shaped, like the surface Jave, but, instead of dark purple, it was a shade of red that reminded Hanabi of internal organs. She’d never seen this type before; it was a total unknown with mouths all over it. The mouths yawned open, spewing countless flying Jave.
Staring at it, stunned, Hanabi realized this was the Queen.
She didn’t know this same Queen had fought Suzuka Hachishiki, and that he’d been unable to finish her off for good.
Have you ever been surrounded by dozens of enemies? Have you ever been stared down by hundreds out for your blood? Can you even imagine how horrifying that is if they aren’t even human?
But Kuon-kun is coming.
By nature, Hanabi was more easily frightened than most, and she had maintained her sanity while surrounded by countless monsters by chanting those words like a spell.
But her chant faded away in the face of this Queen and the flood of monsters she spewed.
“Ah…”
Kuon wasn’t coming. She’d tried waiting for him, but he still wasn’t here.
He wasn’t going to make it.
Light faded from the barrier of Blades, and the Servants fell to the ground. Hanabi’s knees crumpled. Her heart had folded. “Kuon-kun…” she whispered.
Skreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
An insane shriek came from the Jave around her, so loud she forgot to cover her ears. The air shook so fast that all other sound died away. Her body was wracked by it, shaken to the core. Hanabi’s mind and heart were paralyzed with fear, leaving her unable to move a finger. She could feel a warm liquid leaking out from her nether regions. She felt no shame.
That shriek was the Jave victory cry.
I’m going to die, Hanabi thought.
The monsters’ celebration began.
This was revenge for all the Jave Hanabi had slaughtered, joy over obtaining the best meal—a Division 5—and frenzy at the sight of their Queen for the first time in over a decade.
The Jave loved to eat humans alive, Rin had explained. This was true. They loved fresh magic. Magic was the energy of life, and only faint traces of it could be harvested from corpses. That was why the Jave swallowed humans whole whenever possible, slowly digesting them inside their bodies. Since their entire species did as such, the Jave wouldn’t drive humanity to extinction. They were taking care to let a few humans live, not eating too many. Getting too greedy and leaving nothing left to eat was why they’d been forced to burn so much magic opening a Gate to this world.
Even monsters could learn.
In the world beyond the Gate, there had been humans with a special talent, able to use magic without wearing a DM. They were called witches. Humans had used witches’ powers in war, transforming them into Jave. For the first three years, they’d maintained control over that power, but, out of anger, despair, and hunger, the monsters that were once witches turned on mankind. They attacked, killed, and devoured. Memories of when they’d been witches vanished, their very souls becoming monstrous. Humanity had vanished from the world. Then, they opened a Gate.
It would be some time in the future before the humans of this world would learn that.
As Hanabi sat, dazed, the Jave Queen drew closer. She seemed to be moving much slower than she actually was. She was just so big that she gave the illusion of sluggishness. As she descended toward Hanabi, she stretched out hundreds of long tentacles.
Hanabi was confused to find herself somehow still sane. Behind her, she heard Rin screaming. Stand up! Run! What are you doing?! Hearing this without actually listening, Hanabi understood the reason she’d survived as a child. Potential magic didn’t change, no matter how old you were; it was set at birth. Since Hanabi had always been a Division 5, the Jave that day were saving her for their Queen. That’s why they hadn’t killed her, hadn’t eaten her, and tried capturing her alive, she realized.
She was right.
The Gate was maintained by Jave magic. To maintain the sheer size of it, the Queen entered their world once every decade or so, her appearances matching the rate at which Division 5s appeared. The last Cavalleria the Fuji Squad rescued had been half right: The four flesh pillars were switches, but they weren’t automatic. The Jave Queen lurked inside the Gate, keeping it open, and she could detect when someone strong enough to destroy her kind had appeared.
The injuries another human had given the Queen thirteen years ago were not yet healed, but she wasn’t about to let this meal go uneaten. What had brought the Queen here was unmistakably Hanabi’s magic.
If Suzuka Hanabi had been snatched up here, she would have spent at least seven days being tortured inside the Jave’s body, her magic slowly drained away. Nerve-corrupting tentacles would have inserted themselves into her mind through her mouth, nose, and ears, scooping out Hanabi’s memories, slurping up what made her her, and destroying her very mind.
If she had been snatched up here.
But it had been more than ten minutes since they got word that a DM belonging to no other squad was going to drop from orbit from the Mobile Mothership Kuou. A full minute had passed since the Cavalleria who’d destroyed the flesh pillars spotted a comet over the Pacific.
The Jave around them were in a frenzy, ready to see their Queen have her way with Hanabi. The Queen, having been forced to flee without eating the previous ultimate snack—Suzuka Hachishiki—was too hungry to notice.
Hanabi herself was petrified, too afraid of the horrifying number of tentacles streaking toward her. The world in front of her no longer seemed real. It was like she was gazing at a distant memory, at the tentacles that had reached out for her in that burning town years ago. She could no longer remember who it was she loved.
And yet…
Shichisei Kenbu.
Hanabi heard those words. She thought she was hallucinating. She was all alone in a burning town, the Jave Queen’s tentacles about to grab her, and Kuon wasn’t coming.
Hanabi thought she was about to be tortured to death.
As she stood, surrounded by Jave, she saw her younger self surrounded by flames. Little Hanabi turned and spoke to her: “But I know he’s coming,” she said. This was definitely a delusion, a sign her mind was beginning to snap. The Queen’s tentacles were only a few centimeters away from Hanabi.
Something flew out of the sky, landing between them. It was made of something black and gleaming, a powerful, durable, hardened material designed to absorb magic. It was the same Ultra Magic Hardened Blade widely used in Sixth Generation Division Maneuvers. Every living creature on the battlefield looked up. By the time they had, the Cavalleria was already yanking the Blade back out of the ground, having slipped right through their fields of view. The only one who saw him clearly was Hanabi.
Activate Armament:
The little Cavalleria raised his Blade toward the sky. This was an art he shouldn’t have been able to use. He didn’t have enough magic to do so, and the magic you were born with could never change. Hanabi knew this, but she also knew of a means to break through the limits of talent. She heard him whisper the words:
Nine-Count Strike.
The backpack on Soukyu (Pleiades) opened. Nine arms extended in a fan-shaped pattern, gleaming like a sun behind it. Those arms were a unique weapon inherited from Kuon’s master, a precious treasure customized for him alone. In the corner of Hanabi’s vision, a magic gauge with Kuon’s name on it began rising like a mad thing. By the time the Jave’s attention was on him, it had stopped at 999,999. Hanabi knew the weapon could turn him into a Division 5 for nine seconds, but she had no idea combining it with the Shichisei Kenbu methods to enhance one’s magic in a DM could achieve a number like that.
Kishin.
The sun on the DM’s back grew bright, as if igniting. The heat from the magic exhaust alone vaporized the tentacles and minor Jave around Hanabi. Kuon’s bubble protected the three Fuji Squad members, who remained frozen to the spot, staring at the little Cavalleria.
“Ryuenbu!”
A wind blew, as strong as a storm—no, a tornado, Hanabi amended herself.
Kuon was at the center of the tornado that covered the entire battlefield. A terrifying ring of violent winds began blowing everything away. Disk-shaped guillotines, each the size of a Jave, spun like mad within the winds. Kuon had used Tensetsu to pinpoint the locations of friend and foe alike before unleashing an attack which never harmed a hair on the squad’s heads, while exterminating the monsters. The tornado sliced and diced, mowing down everything in its path. A merciless trail of body parts was left in its wake, but to Hanabi it seemed like the sweetest wind that had ever blown.
It was just like that day. The same wind that had blown back then…
It was over in a moment. All that remained of the monsters around them was a red mist and a deathly silence. The distinctive scent left by powerful magic beams filled Hanabi’s nostrils. The blue bubble protecting them was gone, having shielded them from that terrifying wind attack.
She looked at Kuon, dazed. The nine arms deployed at his back retracted, but Hanabi was unaware this meant the special weapon had stopped functioning.
Hanabi just thought, But he’s dead. Yet the Hero who had died thirteen years ago was right there in front of her.
Without turning to face her, he spoke to Hanabi in that exact same tone: “I’m glad you survived.” It was like he’d been waiting thirteen years to say that to her. “I’m glad you lived to grow up. That was my last wish.”
The Hero turned around. By then, his features had become something much more familiar. Maybe it had just been a dream, perhaps an illusion, but the idea was real.
My little Hero is right here…
“Sorry I kept you waiting, Hanabi-senpai.”
It was Okegawa Kuon.
He’d come. She had no words.
The fight was over. Hanabi was crying like a child. All the air in her lungs rushed out in a giant sob as she inhaled great gasps of spent magic and dark red mist to replace it.
In the center of the scorched earth battlefield, Kuon reduced his DM to minimal deployment and put his arms around Hanabi. He stroked her head as she clung to him with all her might. “Sorry I took so long, senpai. I made it in time though. Thank goodness.”
Hanabi took a long whiff of his scent and shook her head. Her answer didn’t make it into words, but Kuon understood what she was trying to say: I thought you weren’t coming. How dare you take so long? But I believed in you. I was so scared. So very scared. But you came. I’m so happy. Thank you. I’m so glad to see you. But what took so long, you idiot? You’re an idiot. I love you.
So Kuon just said, “Yes, yes, sorry,” and Hanabi was glad for that. She rubbed her face on his scrawny chest, still sobbing.
“Senpai, I brought some spare capsules for everyone.” Kuon took a small plastic box out of his pocket and showed it to Hanabi. She accepted it, and the moment she released him he went over to Fuji and Rin, giving them capsules as well. “Let’s use these to get out of here. There are ships out to—”
Kuon’s words died in his mouth. The blood drained from his face.
“Kuon-sama!” En shrieked.
“I know!” he yelled, turning around. His senpai looked confused, but Kuon and his Guide were focused on one thing: the hole hanging above them at the Gate.
“Senpai! Run—”
The hole expanded.
Everything around them turned pitch black in every direction. They found themselves floating in space with only the tiny lights of the stars in the distance.
“Senpai?!”
Tentacles wrapped around her, and… “Kuon-kun! No! Kuon-kun!!”
“Senpai!” Kuon reached out his hand, but there was a jerk, and Hanabi and the tentacles sank into the void.
“Hanabi!”
“Suzuka-kun!”
Deploying their DMs, all three looked around, searching for Hanabi. But there was no sign of her. They couldn’t see her anywhere.
It was very quiet, almost like they were floating in the depths of the sea again.
“En! Find her, please! And hurry!”
“I am!”
If he were to blindly trust his radar, speedometer, altimeter, and magic meter, right now, they were inside a bubble of magic with a value of 7,777,777 while traveling at three times the speed of light at an altitude of -5000 meters. In Kuon’s previous life, En hadn’t been with him, but now she confirmed those readings to be somehow correct.
Damn it! I was right there with her!
Kuon gritted his teeth, swearing. Hanabi had to be there somewhere. When he’d seen his squadmates surrounded by Jave and the Queen in the sky, Kuon had resolved to finish them all off in a single attack. He may not have learned the ultimate art, but his magic expenditure had already sunk to 1/100,000,000. He figured if he used Nine-Count Strike, he could pull off the strongest art he’d used in his previous life, so long as it was within that nine-second window.
His attempt had failed.
I never thought the Queen would return so soon!
He’d blown away all the ordinary Jave, just like last time, but it had never occurred to him it would cause the Gate to go haywire and swallow them up.
Kuon realized the four flesh pillars weren’t Gate control devices. At the bitter end of his past life, the Queen had tried to eat him without killing him first. Since the Queen had been badly injured, the Gate went ten years without opening. The field inside the Gate had a magic value of 7,777,777, which could be classified as Division 7, and he guessed this was itself magically activated…just like Division Maneuvers. And Division Maneuvers were weapons you wore with magic—in a sense, putting one on was like casting a spell.
In which case, that meant the Gate was essentially a DM the Jave used. Like the invisible bullets they utilized, it was a magic spell.
The high-end AI Device, En, agreed with this assessment. So what was it that activated the Gate? Not those four flesh pillars. What kind of creature could put out a number as ridiculous as 7,777,777? Kuon could only think of one.
“Kuon-sama! There!” En pointed.
“What? Below us?!”
All three piloted their frames in the direction En indicated. The monster they found there had soaked the blow from Kishin Ryuenbu, oozing thick, black blood, but stubbornly clinging to life. It was the big boss of all the monsters.
The Jave Queen.
When she saw Kuon coming, she spread her tentacles like a wild animal trying to make itself look bigger.
“Hanabi-sama’s signal is inside that Core!” En shouted.
He’d seen that Core during the fight in his past life, after it had failed to swallow him and fled to the other world. That glowing purple eye… This time, it had obtained the ultimate meal, and taken it inside itself.
He checked again at maximum magnification. Inside that purple orb, he saw Hanabi bound by countless tentacles. Her eyes opened.
“Senpai!”
“Kuon-kun…?”
Their comms still worked; Hanabi was still alive. “Just you wait! I’m coming to save you!” Kuon drew his Blade and charged. Rin and Fuji expanded their DMs, giving chase.
Skreeeaaaaaaaaa!
The Queen put up a final resistance. An incredible number of tentacles thrashed. Kuon could swing his Blade, but couldn’t cut through them all. The ones suddenly appearing from empty space were particularly obnoxious. His radar was just barely picking them up in time, but he still couldn’t force his way any closer to the Queen.
Fuji and Rin weren’t faring any better. The capsules had recovered their magic a little, but not nearly enough for them to fight properly. “Damn it!” “Hanabi!” they swore over the comms.
Kuon was in much worse condition. He’d already lost his extra boosters, and his magic was almost entirely tapped out.
But if I have three more seconds…
He had only used Nine-Count Strike for six; he still had three seconds left.
Unless he got closer, he couldn’t use any short-ranged attacks. An area attack like Ryuenbu wouldn’t get him anywhere either. To beat the Queen, he needed an art that would focus all his output on a single point—his strongest art.
Shijin Reppakuzan… But…but that…
Reppakuzan could kill this thing. In his previous life, it had left the Queen on the brink of death. In her current condition, that art would finish her.
But if he used that, it would take Hanabi out with it. That wasn’t an option.
Kuon’s hesitation made his movements falter. The Queen’s hundreds of mouths blinked, firing an untold number of bullets.
“Tch!” Faced with a barrage even Tensetsu couldn’t get him through, Kuon forced his mind to think.
Think! There must be a way!
But the Queen’s injuries were visibly healing. She was draining Hanabi’s magic.
Then En screamed, “This… That movement… It can’t be!”
The space behind the Queen warped. All the numbers En had been monitoring rapidly began shifting. This closely resembled the readings just before the Gate opened in their world. En knew what that meant.
“Kuon-sama! The enemy’s getting ready to run!”
“Ah!”
“If you don’t stop it, it… It’ll take Hanabi-sama with it!”
“I won’t let that happen!” Dodging the bullets, Kuon desperately tried closing the distance. But his body felt sluggish, his frame heavy. His magic, his speed, his specs, this Division 1 frame—none of it was good enough. Without his talent, he couldn’t save Hanabi.
Tentacles popped out of empty space. He was unable to dodge in time and they sliced his side, drawing blood. He screamed. “Hanabi-senpai!”
Trapped inside that orb, Hanabi’s lips parted, her words faltering. “What…are you waiting for?” she asked, like she was accusing him of something. Her face was pallid. “Hurry up and fire.”
Those words told Kuon everything. Hanabi was already certain she was dying. As a soldier, as a Cavalleria, she had chosen the Jave Queen’s defeat over her own life.
“Senpai!”
If the Queen fled here, the Gate would be sealed, but only temporarily. The same thing would happen in another ten years. No, these monsters were clever. If the Queen absorbed Hanabi, she would obtain not only Hanabi’s powerful magic, but Hanabi’s memories of DM research. This time, she would conquer mankind for good, obtaining lasting control.
He had to kill the Queen here, even at the cost of a Maneuver Cavalleria’s life.
Hanabi’s life for the future of humanity. Hanabi herself had already accepted that. She accepted it the night before she was deployed, the night she had spent with Kuon.
There was no need to hesitate. But…
“Sorry…” Hanabi said. “Goodbye, Kuon-kun. If… If I’m reborn…”
She smiled.
“I hope I see you again…”
That was her goodbye. Hanabi would be like the Hero she admired, giving her life to save mankind. She was ready for it. She thought it was the right thing to do.
She was the only one who did.
Kuon stopped time for a second. In that soundless, negative world, she saw him staring directly at her. His eyes said everything. There was a rage in them that scared her.
To hell with that, they said. I’m not gonna let that happen!
The man who’d been the Hero, who threw his own life away just like Hanabi was about to, was astonished by the strength of his reaction.
“Rraggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!” Kuon roared. Behind him, Rin and Fuji watched helplessly.
“Okegawa-kun?!”
“Kyuu-kun!”
Kuon charged forward. If he couldn’t use Ryuenbu, then he would just have to slice open that Core and pull Hanabi out himself. Who cared if he didn’t have the magic or talent? He wasn’t about to let a reason like that, the unfair facts of his birth, be an excuse to let her make herself a lone hero.
Not over Jogen or the capital or in the deep sea, but here, in the Gate, covered in wounds, Kuon blocked the tentacle attacks. He flew toward Hanabi, refusing to give up. Bullets and tentacles he couldn’t quite dodge tore at his frame and flesh. Still, he pressed on. Okegawa Kuon would never turn back from saving Suzuka Hanabi.
“You don’t get to make that choice for us!” he shouted. Tears streamed down his face as he charged in. Kuon couldn’t shoot Hanabi. He wouldn’t, couldn’t ever do it. He could throw away his own life in a heartbeat because that was how he’d always lived, and how he’d died once already. But that only applied to him.
“Hanabi-senpai! I…!”
The girl he’d saved at the end of his previous life, whom he’d looked up to, respected, and fallen in love with? He couldn’t let her make that sacrifice. Not ever. The rage he felt at the very idea shocked him. It had taken control. He realized for the first time this was how his master had felt.
“I won’t let you do that!”
Kuon’s mind, body, and magic all completely rejected the notion. To save Hanabi here was tantamount to destroying the world. He knew that. He understood it.
But he couldn’t leave her. He didn’t want to. He wouldn’t let himself.
The armor on his left shoulder was torn off. He had almost no feeling left in his right leg, but he didn’t let that stop him. “Saving the world at the cost of a life?” he yelled at Hanabi. Then he said the same words his master had used: “We don’t need a Hero like that!”
That was the answer.
In that moment, he thought he saw something. At the center of the magic around him, deep within his DM’s Core, he saw a flash of light.
Ah!
It wasn’t clear what exactly allowed Kuon to understand what that light was. It wasn’t his mind, his body, or his magic that did it. Perhaps it was the accumulated wisdom of his arts, of his sword, that allowed him to understand that this, this right here, was something you could only see once you’d answered Shichisei Kenbu’s final question.
This was what his master called the “light of life.”
A ray of light rose up in the back of Kuon’s mind as he let his anger carry him blindly forward. This was a clear and present path to saving Hanabi—a path trod not by a Hero, but by a boy with almost no magic.
“Squad Leader, Control!”
On standby behind him, the Cavalleria who led the school’s best squad got it right away. “Huh?! Roger that! Motegi-kun, support him!” Fuji responded.
“I don’t get it, but okay!”
Hearing his senpai’s voices behind him, Kuon upped his speed. He didn’t have enough magic left to use Tensetsu to see the future. Using the enemy position data Fuji had calculated and the approach routes En was crunching together, he pressed on through the mass of tentacles and the hail of invisible bullets. The sparks flashing before his strained eyes showed Rin was shooting down any attacks he couldn’t dodge. With the help of the companions he’d lacked in his former life, for the sake of the one he loved in this one, the Division 1 Cavalleria charged at the monster boss.
The Queen loomed large. He could clearly see Hanabi in her cell. “Senpai!” he called.
Kuon didn’t care if he died. This wasn’t suicide or heroism. Sixty percent of his frame’s functions had ceased and the only limb he could properly move was his left arm. The bullets that had penetrated the barrier weren’t fatal, but they’d left him covered in wounds, and his body was burning up. Even though he was covered in blood and cuts, with no magic left, if he could save the person he loved, then Kuon didn’t care if he died doing it.
Hanabi stared back at him, sobbing. “Kuon-kun! Kuon-kun! Why? Why?!” Even as her expression scolded him for not shooting her, for placing her life on the scale opposite all mankind and making such a stupid choice…
“Why do you always come?!”
Kuon heard a glimmer of hope and joy behind her question. “I won’t ever let you be alone again!”
His radar was still active, displaying enemy coordinates with precision. The alarms sounded. A moment later, countless spear-like tentacles shot out of empty space.
“Nine-Count Strike!”
With only three seconds left, Kuon deployed his special weapon, raising his magic to Division 5. He activated Tensetsu as he did, slowing his sense of time and searching for evasion routes. There were none; of course not. He had no use for evasion routes now. If it meant saving Suzuka Hanabi, Okegawa Kuon would never turn back.
He could only go forward.
Kuon reached the Queen, leaving all the enemy attacks behind in his wake. His body instinctively shifted into the Shimetsu form, the same form he’d used as the final art when he first met Hanabi, and Hanabi’s and his hearts connected in combat.
“Now, Kuon-sama!” En yelled. En was a high-spec AI Device powered by his master’s magic, a reflection of her will that was here to monitor him. She chose this moment to tell Kuon what he needed to know. “The ultimate art of Shichisei Kenbu is called…”
Kuon focused on the Queen’s Core, exposed when she had failed to swallow him in his previous life and fled into this dimension. That Core had captured Hanabi and was draining her magic. There was something else behind it—a Nova Kuon hadn’t previously perceived.
Shichisei Kenbu Ultimate Art: Mumyo Tosen.
His sword flashed.
The Blade Kuon thrust forward struck what appeared to be an ordinary wall of flesh, an arbitrary part of the Jave Queen. But with Kuon’s magic raised to Division 5 and the full force of that magic charging his Ultra Magic Hardened Blade, the blow triggered a baffling reaction in the fleshy monster.
Magic power flooded every part of the Queen’s and Kuon’s bodies. The magic pooled on the Queen’s skin sent ripples running through the rest of her body, and Kuon’s Mumyo Tosen focused all his magic into the pure light of life.
Kuon’s body knew all too well what concentrated magic would do. Usually, magic brought to the critical compression threshold would try expanding, directing its force outward. However, the magic focused by Mumyo Tosen reflected against itself, unable to go anywhere, and the breath of death known as Magic Dispersal began blowing within the Jave Queen.
This was the same Magic Dispersal he’d used to blow himself up in his past life, but it now tore his enemy’s body to pieces. Mumyo Tosen was unstoppable, a fatal blow that forced his enemy’s magic to self-destruct.
Skreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
The Queen’s tentacles whipped around, convulsing. A moment later, the Core cracked open. Kuon grabbed Hanabi and retreated with her in his arms, the Queen’s scream echoing in his ears. That final scream shook the entire space inside the Gate, a cry of rage and loathing and sadness. Even Kuon, who’d once connected with the Queen’s magic, didn’t know what that scream really meant.
“I didn’t think I’d hear a voice like that from you,” he said as he watched the Queen disintegrate. “But sorry. I—we still want to live.”
The Queen dissolved before his eyes as the Gate which allowed her to cross to the other side opened. With no magic left, Kuon and Hanabi were pulled into it, along with chunks of the Queen’s flesh.
It was a quiet place, like the depths of the sea. Two Division Maneuvers floated through it. In Kuon’s arms, Hanabi groaned. Her eyes opened. “Kuon…kun…?”
“How are you feeling, Hanabi-senpai?” Kuon said, smiling at her.
“Ah!”
She just threw her arms around him wordlessly, crying.
“I’m really glad you’re safe,” he said, stroking her head. He was genuinely relieved. En had already examined her condition: She was almost out of magic, but otherwise unharmed.
Hanabi cried for a while, but then she frowned and pinched Kuon’s cheeks hard.
“Mmphhhhhh?!”
“That’s for not shooting when I told you to shoot!”
“Mmmph mmmphhhmphhh.”
“I know. That’s why…” She stopped yanking his cheeks and threw her arms around him. Then she leaned in for a kiss.
“Um…er…is this…?” He felt himself blushing.
Hanabi smiled. “That’s for choosing me.”
“You’re welcome…”
“I love you, my Hero.” She smiled and put her lips on his again.
“Erm. Ahem! Ahem!” En appeared next to them, making a great show of clearing her throat.
“Eeep! Since when were you here, En-kun?”
“Since always? The whole time?”
“You’re bad for the heart, seriously.”
“Much as I would love to trade barbs with you all day, do you realize where we are?”
Hanabi looked around. “Uh…good question.”
“We’re still inside the Gate,” Kuon said. “En, do you know what’s going on? Are we being sucked into the Jave world?”
“No,” his Guide said, shaking her head. “The Queen was maintaining the Gate, and with her destruction, there wasn’t enough magic left to transport us. This is merely conjecture, but I imagine we will be returned to our own world safely. However…”
“What?”
“There is no guarantee we’ll be returned at the same time, and there is a possibility you’ll be forced to abandon your bodies and send your souls back alone.”
“I wouldn’t qualify that as returning safely…”
“Our souls?” Hanabi asked. “What does that mean?”
“Your memories will be transplanted into a baby somewhere. Essentially, you’ll be reincarnated.”
“Reincarnated…?”
“God only knows where. It’ll all sort itself out, I’m sure. You’ll just have to pray your bodies go back with you I suppose.”
Kuon sighed. His hands tightened around Hanabi.
“It’ll be okay, Kuon-kun,” she said.
“I hope so.”
“I’m sure of it. Even if we are reincarnated…” Hanabi gave him another kiss and smiled. “I’m sure we’ll find each other again.”
Her smile nearly blinded Kuon. The girl he’d met at the end of his last life had grown up to be so beautiful. She’d saved him as well, and they’d fallen in love.
“You won’t ever leave me alone, will you?” she asked.
Kuon smiled back. “Not ever.”
Maybe he was about to start a third life. That itself wasn’t frightening. He knew they’d meet again.
The Gate began crumbling, light enveloping them in the place they lost consciousness.