Chapter 2: Until the Time Comes
Chapter 2:
Until the Time Comes
One week later, three weeks before the day…
Hospital wards always had a distinctive scent. Not as pungent as the men’s dorm but sweeter than a person’s natural body odor—the kind of smell that makes you sleepy. It felt like burrowing into a futon someone else had just vacated.
It was three o’clock in the afternoon, the middle of visiting hours. Kuon walked alone down a corridor on the sixth floor of the Jogen 3rd Municipal Hospital past patients and nurses alike. There were large rooms on either side with the occasional door standing open. He glanced in one, and his eyes met those of a random old lady. He quickly averted his eyes and moved on. This was where these patients lived. He shouldn’t stare.
He arrived at the room he’d been directed to and found the door closed. There were six name tags on the door. Her name was on the top right, indicating the bed in the back on that side.
His master had given him a fruit basket that screamed “hospital visit.” Holding the basket awkwardly, he slid the door open. The beds at the front on either side had curtains drawn, the middle beds were vacant, and the bed in the back on the left had an old lady chatting with a woman who looked to be her daughter, facing a TV window together. In the bed to the right was Hanabi, engrossed in a book. Kuon immediately knew which book it was. “Um…”
“Yes?” She looked up and saw him. She blinked a few times and then stammered, “K-K-K-K-K-K…!” She pointed at him. It almost sounded like she was laughing, but she was just super surprised. “Kuon-kun!”
The “Kuo” part was particularly loud and the rest almost a whisper. Kuon thought it was adorable.
She hid the book behind her and then frowned, “Wh-why are you here? I said not to come…”
His master had specifically warned him not to say that she’d sent him. He showed her the fruit basket, feeling a little awkward. “Um…well…just thought you could use some company.”
“Thanks. So the headmaster told you to come, then?”
“Yeah… Oh…”
“You’re too honest for your own good, Kuon-kun,” she said reproachfully, but then she giggled. She was in her pajamas and her usual ponytail was down, so she looked like she’d just woken up. She was in the hospital, so of course she looked like that, but given how she usually maintained that gallant older girl vibe, seeing her hanging out in pajamas was a real turn-on for Kuon. He wanted to hop into bed with her.
“What are you looking at?”
“I want to curl up alongside your pajamas, Senpai. Oh…”
“See? Eyes up here. And you oughta call ahead before you come see a girl in a hospital.”
“Sorry.” He bobbed his head. Every time he apologized, he got scolded for not meaning it, but he’d learned that if he bowed his head, he was less likely to cause misunderstandings.
“Fine.” Hanabi nodded, satisfied. Case in point.
Then she glanced behind him and bowed her head. He turned to look, and the elderly patient and her daughter were both looking their way, whispering to each other. “I knew it was her! Who is she?” “The one from the TV.”
Kuon managed a strained smile and said, “Hey,” as he closed the curtains.
Hanabi made a sulky face while clearly not being the least bit upset. “Aw, it’s your fault they figured it out.”
“Sorry.”
“No use.”
“How can I get you to forgive me?” he asked.
“Well… Oh, bring the fruit closer. Wow, she gave you a good one! That must weigh a ton. You can use this chair. Rin broke that one the other day…”
Hanabi laughed at the thought. She seemed in good spirits and pleased to see him. He hoped his coming here had brightened her day. Hanabi rummaged through the basket. “I love melon,” she said. Or maybe it was the melon, then. “You can’t just show up all sudden, Kuon-kun! My hair’s a fright! I’m so ashamed.”
“Sorry.”
“But I’m glad you came.”
She grinned at him. This isn’t fair, Kuon thought. How many times was she going to make me fall in love with her?
“Wanna get in bed with me?”
“Yes—er, no! I’m really sorry!” She giggled at his fluster. He was glad to see her well. But after a brief silence, he asked, “Are you feeling all right?”
“I’m fine now. Sorry I worried you.” She grimaced. Kuon tried not to look at the bandages on her left arm. “You had to save me again.”
“No, I…”
Five days earlier, Hanabi had been injured in the battle for the Fukuoka Gate. She was sent to an Imperial military hospital and then transferred here. Military hospitals were always full, so patients in good condition were soon sent to civilian facilities. The fact that Hanabi was here after less than a week proved it wasn’t a serious injury.
Kuon thought back to what had happened…
***
Five days earlier, during the Fukuoka Gate Battle…
The single Lunatic Order squad participating was the Fuji Squad. Hanabi wore her Division 5-only new weapon, the Drag Ride, and was once again dropped from the sky directly towards the Gate.
“Heavy Magic maximum output, all weaponry engaged. Nova Gravity Bomb deployed.”
A microsun dropped from the heavens towards the Jave mantas swarming protectively over the Gate. Before the Jave even saw the Kiryu, the Ultra-Hot Bullet burst right above the surface, a blinding light evaporating everything around it. It melted them, turning them to ash and blowing them away. In one instant, the Jave on the surface, the eggs laid in the town, and the four Meat Pillars were all gone.
The Kiryu was still wheeling through the sky above, observing the world below. The Jave outside the blast radius came swarming in, but there was no sign of the Queen emerging from the Gate. That was a first.
Thirty seconds after receiving this news, command ordered the Kiryu into the Gate. While dodging manta attacks 20,000 meters above the ground, the Kiryu and Air Force Cavalleria raised objections and arguments against sending a Student Echelon squad into an unknown dimensional portal solo. However, command ignored them, repeating the orders.
In her usual tone of voice, not sounding put out, Hanabi asked, “Squad Leader, what now? Going into the Gate is one thing, but there’s no telling what’ll happen inside. We go too deep, we might not make it back.”
“We’ve got our orders,” Fuji said grimly. “If we sense danger, we’ll just have to turn back then.”
“Okay, okaaay,” Rin said. “Roger that. Kyuu-kun, you cool? You gonna look after Hanabi and us?”
“I got you, Rin-san. You handle the ranged foes.”
Fuji nodded. “Everyone ready? Suzuka-kun, take us in.”
“Copy that. Drag Ride and the Fuji Squad entering the Gate!”
The Kiryu dropped down. Kuon was strapped onto its back with a cable arm. He knelt, drawing his Blade.
Inside the Gate was a place like outer space, and there was a welcome party waiting for them. Hundreds of tentacles emerged from the void, stretching towards the Kiryu. Kuon breathed out.
Shichisei Kenbu: Mod. Tensetsu Shigure.
Time seemed to stop. Enemy attack routes and evasion routes were shared with the Kiryu, along with everyone strapped to it. What the Kiryu’s large frame couldn’t dodge, Kuon cut down. Rin shot the tentacles just outside that range. Fuji located the Queen, and Hanabi shot a single extra-wide bullet ahead of them which burned everything in its path. They’d done exercises like this in training and mock battles any number of times.
Time moved again, and everything played out as planned.
“Queen located! Two o’clock above us!” Fuji shouted.
Kuon sliced and Rin shot and Hanabi launched her bullet, turning the Kiryu’s head towards their target. The blast lit up the starless space and struck the massive conical lump of flesh. The Queen screamed as her skin, muscle, and bone burned and melted, finally evaporating away.
Screeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeescreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
The Queen let out a roar that hit the pits of their stomachs and made them want to clap their hands to their ears. It was an inhuman, ugly, revolting noise that pulled up Hanabi’s memories of the Capital battle and her childhood trauma, and made her thoughts and body freeze.
But the magical lines connecting her to her squad reminded her that she wasn’t alone here. Her courage bolstered, she let out a roar that shoved aside everything worming its way under her skin. Kuon and Fuji and Rin all screamed with her, their spirits and vigor rising. The voices of her friends on her DM’s back gave Hanabi’s quivering fortitude the push it needed. The whole team’s hearts were one, and the bullet she fired ripped into the Queen’s massive bulk, about to eliminate it entirely.
Nothing happened.
The bullet ripping straight through the enemies inside the Gate suddenly vanished.
On her monitor, Fuji yelled, “Heavy Magic Engine offline! Shit, the field’ll—”
A moment later, the Heavy Magic Field surrounding the Kiryu vanished. The tentacles fired a shower of light bullets at the defenseless Fuji Squad. Kuon stopped time, but not only were there no evasion routes, the magic link was cut and he couldn’t share anything with his squad. Time flowed again, and he blocked three bullets with his Blade before it shattered. He’d managed to save his three companions, but…
“Retreat! Run for it, now!” Fuji ordered.
Hanabi was struggling to do something about the Kiryu’s stalled engine. At Fuji’s shout, Rin broke off firing at the encroaching tentacles to yell, “Hanabi!”
A number of light bullets struck the Kiryu’s bulk, exploding. Hanabi ejected a moment too late. Her Witch Bubble protected her, but the blast sent her flying. Rin instantly deployed her extra weapon, Falcon. She shifted it to Riding Mode, hopping on and chasing after Hanabi into the void.
“Senpai! Rin-san!” Kuon shouted.
“Change of orders!” Fuji said over the comm. “Okegawa-kun, kill the Queen! Leave Hanabi-san to Motegi-kun!”
“But…”
“Just kill the damn thing!”
“Ah…!” Before another thought struck him, he activated Tensetsu, found attack routes, evasion routes, and approach routes, and as Tensetsu ended…
Shichisei Kenbu: Chijin.
Three quick shukuchi and he was at the Queen’s side. Using up so much magic that fast left him feeling like all of his blood was rushing the wrong way, and he almost threw up. His heart was beating unnaturally and his vision tunneled, but he pulled his other Blade and prepared to thrust.
Shi…chisei Kenbu: Mumyo Tosen…
Direct hit.
Magic Dispersal activated, and the Queen’s body began to crumble. Hearing her scream, Kuon used the last of his power to push away towards his friends.
Huh?
He couldn’t feel his body. His vision went black. He felt himself floating, stretching, falling, on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on, and then it was gone.
Suddenly he felt pressure all over his body. It took a moment to realize it was the familiar sensation of Earth’s gravity.
He opened his eyes. His gaze flickered over white curtains, a white ceiling, bed rails, and tubes from an IV. His master was holding the hand with the IV in it, her eyes swollen and staring at him.
“…Uh?” Why was she here? Where was he?
His voice wouldn’t obey him. No sounds came out. It must be really worn out, he thought. All he could get his voice to do was make little “ah” and “uh” noises. As he wondered why, Nanahoshi Kaede spoke up.
“You’re a fool.”
His master was stricter than any demon, yet here she was starting to cry again, having clearly cried far too much already. That bad? So bad even she cried? What had happened? What was going on?
What happened to me? The Squad? Hanabi?
A wave of panic ran across him. Hanabi had been blown away. What happened to her? He couldn’t just lie here. He tried to sit up.
“Calm down, Kuon,” Kaede said, pushing him back down. She wasn’t letting him fight her, yet her touch was still gentle. “They’re all safe. Hanabi, too. Don’t worry.”
What happened? Kuon thought again.
Kaede began to explain. Right after the Kiryu went into the Gate, the veteran attacker squads who’d been learning Fencing from Kuon managed to finagle orders to investigate, entering the Gate. (How? Through sheer annoyance. “Sorry to bring this up on open comms, Colonel, but didn’t I see you at a singles café in town the other day? Sorry I didn’t say hi, but don’t worry, I won’t tell your wife. Oops, I failed to make it clear which colonel I’m talking to! There’re so many people at command with that rank…huh? We should go into the Gate and investigate, you say?”)
Inside, they found no sign of the Queen, but apparently they did come across an injured Bushi Hime with no Kiryu; the sniper who’d saved her; their Fencing instructor, who was uninjured but unconscious with a pulse so low he was on the brink of death; and a squad leader looking ready to die himself, dragging their instructor towards the Gate.
Kuon had been unconscious for a full day. Hanabi was transferred to a civilian hospital right away. Tooka was investigating the cause of the Heavy Magic Engine stall. It was important to know why, since it had nearly wiped them out.
“Now, Kuon…” his master said, having explained everything. Her glare had a powerful rage behind it. It felt like the temperature in the room had dropped by ten degrees Celsius.
In short, Kuon was pretty sure he was about to die.
“Soryu Ranbu,” she said. “That’s a forbidden art, and I’ll regret telling Suzuka Hachishiki about it into my next life…but you do understand why Mumyo Tosen is the ultimate art, right?”
“Because it’s so powerful?” he rasped.
“If you evade another question, I will kick you out.”
You know the real answer, he admonished himself. “Because using it too often will kill me.”
Right. Shichisei Kenbu’s ultimate art, Mumyo Tosen, was an art that caused Magic Dispersal inside a target, but it also took a considerable toll on him. During the battle, waves of that Dispersal came back up the Blade to him—faint waves but unavoidable. The wind of death both blew away his target and damaged his own light of life. That was why he’d been knocked unconscious. The Magic Dispersal had struck him right as he was nearly drained from using Chijin three times in rapid succession.
Mumyo Tosen guaranteed its target’s death, but the price for that was a portion of the wielder’s life.
His master had made sure Kuon knew that. After the Capital battle, he’d been reminded of it again while swinging a wooden sword as punishment for ignoring her orders not to use it. There was no excuse this time.
Kaede sighed, half angry, half resigned. “You really do love sacrificing yourself. You haven’t learned a thing since your last life.”
“You always say death can’t fix stupidity. But…” He didn’t tell her that he didn’t want to die. She knew that without him saying so.
“Listen, Kuon. Don’t try to do it all yourself.”
“If I stop trying, then Hanabi-senpai will be the one doing that.”
“Is that why you didn’t tell Fuji or the army about the price of the ultimate art?”
“That and it just seemed like a pain in the ass.”
“You’re talking like En now. Where do you two get that from?” Kaede muttered. Probably from her, when she thought about it. “Anyway, you are not to use Mumyo Tosen again without my permission.”
“If I do, will you kick me out again?”
“No,” she said, averting her eyes. “I won’t. But I won’t forgive you, either.”
That sounds worse, Kuon thought. But the next thing she said was even harsher.
“If the Shichisei Kenbu I taught you kills you a second time I’ll never forgive myself.”
Kuon had nothing to say to that. He didn’t dare even look up, not allowing himself to see her face. He just stared at her hands.
They were unmistakably the hands of a sword master. But today, they looked so much smaller.
They sat for a long time in silence.
***
After he was released from the hospital, Kuon got a message from Hanabi telling him not to bother visiting her. He was worried and wanted to see her and thought about it a long time, but then decided to respect her wishes and went to practice. His master looked at him like he was an idiot and immediately said as much. “You’re an idiot,” she said a second time. “Just go!”
After that it was all a blur. It took him an entire day to figure out which hospital she was even in. As the Empire’s sole Division 5, the school’s strongest Cavalleria, and the adopted daughter of the Motegi clan, her personal info was appropriately secure, but really Rin-san could have made this really easy if she’d have just told him.
Meanwhile, his parents started asking if he would think about quitting this whole Cavalleria thing, and he had to insist he’d rather die than do that. Tooka took a break from investigating to come and apologize, and she started crying so hard that he had to comfort her.
After all that had settled down, Kuon started thinking way too hard about what to bring with him to see Hanabi. He tried to choose some flowers or sweets or a book she’d like and wasted way too much time on that. Before he knew it, he was standing outside the hospital, holding the fruit basket his master had given him. It wasn’t until he actually opened her door that he realized he should have called ahead and told her he was coming.
Now he was in front of her, staring at her bandaged arm.
“You were in bad shape, too,” she said. He’d been released two days before. “But thanks for coming.”
“No, I was just…asleep. And I managed to kill the Queen, so…it’s all good.”
Hanabi looked dejected. “I had no idea Mumyo Tosen was that bad for you. You should have said something.”
“Sorry…” He hadn’t wanted to worry her, but that wasn’t his place to say.
“Um, Kuon-kun,” she said hesitantly. “Is there anything else you’re hiding from me?” There was an anxious look in her eyes.
I was Suzuka Hachishiki in a past life. He nearly blurted it out. “Er, um…no…?” His tendency to just confess to anything really made this tough, and he was definitely acting really suspicious.
Hanabi gave him a long, serious stare. “…Really?”
“R-really,” he stuttered.
“Okay, then. Sorry.”
“S-sure.”
“But, yeah… Mumyo Tosen is really strong but comes with a price. That means we can’t just make you bail us out every time. I’ve got to be better.”
“No, I’m fine, honestly.”
“And we definitely need the Kiryu. I’m worried about the engine, but…”
“We still don’t know why the Heavy Magic Engine stalled.”
“Yeah, unfortunately.”
“Tooka came to see me yesterday. She’s really sorry this happened.”
“Yeah. She came here, too. Things just go wrong sometimes. We made it back alive, and the operation succeeded, so I told her all’s well that ends well, but…” Hanabi glanced at Kuon. “I dunno, it’s hard to believe she’s really a kid sometimes. Same as you.”
“Ah ha ha…” He figured this was because they both had been reincarnated, but he couldn’t say that. Although in Tooka’s case, her mental age really was about ten.
He felt like he was hiding more and more things from Hanabi, and this was really driving him into a corner. The ground was crumbling beneath his feet.
At any second he might fall.
***
That evening…
Hanabi lay in bed, stroking the cover of the book in her hands—a biography of Suzuka Hachishiki called Portrait of the Hero.
Hanabi was well aware that Kuon was hiding things from her.
She was glad he’d come to see her. She’d asked Rin not to tell him what hospital she was at, but he figured it out anyway. She felt bad for making him jump through hoops. She just…hadn’t wanted to see him and have it be awkward.
Hanabi knew why the Heavy Magic Engine stalled during the Fukuoka Gate Battle a week earlier. She’d told Tooka as much the day before.
As the bullet was about to swallow up the Queen Jave, she was certain she heard a voice…
“Queen located! Two o’clock above us!” Fuji shouted.
As soon as the Kiryu fired, Hanabi turned its head in the direction he indicated. After vaporizing the Queen’s tentacles, her next shot struck the wall of flesh. The Queen screamed as skin and muscle and bone burned, melted, and evaporated.
Screeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeescreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
The Queen let out a roar that hit the pits of their stomachs and made them want to clap their hands to their ears. It was an inhuman, ugly, revolting noise that pulled up Hanabi’s memories of the Capital battle and her childhood trauma, and made her thoughts and body freeze—but the magical lines connecting her to her squad reminded her that she wasn’t alone here, giving her courage, and she let out a roar that shoved aside everything worming its way under her skin. Infected by it, Kuon and Fuji and Rin all screamed with her, their spirits and vigor rising. The voices of the friends riding behind her gave Hanabi’s quivering back the push it needed. The whole team’s hearts were one, and the bullet she fired ripped into the Queen’s massive bulk, about to eliminate her entirely…and then Hanabi heard a single word echoing in her mind.
Wrong.
A moment later, the engine stalled. It was over in a moment. She couldn’t do anything.
Hanabi realized what she’d heard now. That was the Kiryu’s voice. The will of the Kiryu, born within the Heavy Magic Engine. She did not meet its approval and knew exactly why.
The one thing connecting both the Capital Battle and her childhood memories—the Hero—gave her pause. Could she really put her faith in the Hero? Could she really trust him, even as she merged her strength with his? Deep in her heart, a tiny, tiny part of herself was whispering, planting the seeds of doubt. Her link with the Kiryu transferred that, and it did not approve. The Kiryu’s goal, its reason for existing, was to kill as many Jave as possible.
Tooka had seen a strange waver in the Kiryu’s data and agreed with her hypothesis. The control systems had an AI Device of the same type as En, and if they added speech functions, it might start talking.
It’d probably give her a piece of its mind. It was mad at Hanabi. Really mad. It thought she was an idiot.
“In the middle of a battle, I lost faith in my companions, lost focus, and nearly killed us all.” She said it out loud to drive it home.
How horrible.
Tooka had said, “I’ll discipline it for not obeying its rider’s instructions,” and she certainly would. Even if the problem with the weapon was fixed, Hanabi’s problem remained. If she couldn’t eliminate her doubt, she’d make another blunder someday.
She should have just asked. Just put it out there. Are you the Hero? Plain and simple.
“Kuon-kun…”
She buried her face in her knees. Hanabi simply couldn’t find the courage to ask that question.
***
One week later, two weeks before the day…
“So quiet,” Rin said sleepily. She was on the couch in the Fuji Squad meeting room. As she’d said, the entire Cavalleria building was silent. Everyone was out on a mission, so it was almost unoccupied. Only the Fuji Squad members in the meeting room remained: Fuji, Hanabi, Rin, and Kuon. They all wore their Maneuver plugsuits with the school-recommended windbreakers over them. They looked like members of a track team.
Hanabi was sitting at the monitor desk in the center of the room. She turned back to Rin and said, “Hey, we’re on standby for this mission! No loafing around!”
“Yeah, I know…” Rin said, waving her hand. She appeared to be melting into the couch. Next to Hanabi, Kuon grinned at this familiar riff, and Fuji considered scolding Rin himself but abandoned the idea.
Hanabi’s injury was mostly healed, and the bandages were only still on her arm as a precautionary measure. The broken bone and burns were fully healed within a week—the Witch Bubble and modern medicine were really impressive that way.
The Fuji Squad’s two main attackers might have both been injured, but looking at the big picture, the last operation had been a huge success. After all, they’d eliminated a Jave Queen and a Gate without any fatalities. There were only two injured, a prototype frame badly damaged, and minor damage to the Reimei frame. They were the most miraculous results since the war with the Jave began. Despite the ambush, this was a far better result than the four-figure death toll the Capital battle had incurred.
Rumor had it that as a result, the Fuji Squad would be showered in medals and guaranteed significant ranks once they officially joined the Air Force next year… That is, if they survived that long.
With this success behind them, the Fuji Squad were left out of the current operation so the Twin Star Heroes could rest and recuperate. They were ordered to be on standby, but that was mostly a formality. No one was checking in on them, so they could hardly blame Rin for not taking it seriously.
The monitor desk showed the view from the mobile mothership’s cameras in real time. It displayed blue sea and sky, with the occasional white cloud—Aohime Island. Specifically, the Mid-Blue space, where the Imperial Air Force had closed a gate and the Kiryu had first seen action.
The Air Force and the Lunatic Order were deployed there en masse, but not because new Jave had appeared. This operation was entirely an experiment. They were testing a new Device developed by the genius researcher, Tooka Nürburg.
“Is this even possible?” Kuon said, voicing everyone’s thoughts. “Can we…make our own Gate…?”
There was a long silence. The very idea seemed stupid, but it was theoretically possible. The method was, naturally, an application of Heavy Magic, but Kuon had stopped comprehending the explanation less than ten seconds in. As far as he was concerned, it was like a spell. Like, abracadabra extra veggies garlic with that?
But Kuon thought it sounded worth a shot. The space inside the Gates was merely a passage; they could get in but not go through. Many people had gone into the Gates, but nobody had gone out the other side and returned to tell the tale. To open the door on the other side required a different key.
And Tooka was trying to make one.
Ideally, this would take place somewhere a Gate had already been. That meant the Capital, Fukuoka, or Aohime Island. Of course, there was no need for this to take place in the Empire. There was no telling what would happen in the event of a failure, and they were opening a door to the world of their mortal enemies, so it could likely lead to combat. However, the military and imperial top brass had settled on Aohime Island.
This was because, unbeknownst to the Cavalleria, this operation was being run by the international alliance, and the Empire currently owed them one. They couldn’t argue with them about it because military command had ordered the Kiryu, on loan from the alliance, into a Gate…and lost it. To make up for that failure, they were forced to agree to an obviously risky plan like manifesting a Gate over their own territory.
Technically, the entire Kiryu hadn’t been lost. The most important part of the frame, the Core, was recovered safely by Hanabi before it exploded. As long as they had that, it could easily be repaired and reconstructed. Such was the magic of Division Maneuvers. Naturally, the alliance hadn’t told the Imperial military this. Hanabi had reported it, but somewhere along the line the information had been deliberately suppressed, and it hadn’t reached the right people.
So now, the students sent to help with the experiment were gathered in the sky over Aohime Island. They were holding specialized equipment similar to curved metal poles. Linking these together made a massive ring, like the frame of a mirror or window.
Fuji pointed at the screen, explaining, “Supposedly the Gate will appear inside that ring, but that’s just a support material. The DM with the capacity to make the Gate is—see, here it comes.”
It looked like a pitch-black egg.
On the screen, next to the flying mobile mothership, they saw an even bigger elliptical object. This DM was like an egg painted black on its side, but it wasn’t paint. This was a Heavy Magic Field, bending the light so it appeared black. The Servants flying around it were cameras, the eyes of the user inside. Since light couldn’t get in, they couldn’t see out, either.
“This is the Anti-Jave Combat Final Mobile Maneuver, the Nürburg. Naturally, it’s Division 5 only, and the rider is Tooka Nürburg-kun. The frame itself was developed as a final weapon, but in this instance, they’re using it to open a Gate.”
The sheer scale of it got Rin off the couch. “That’s huge! Ridiculously huge! Bigger than the mothership! That’s, like, the size of our school!”
Hanabi and Kuon were equally stunned.
“Wow…it makes the Kiryu look tiny…”
“And Tooka’s inside that thing?”
The DM that was big enough to rival a Queen Jave slowly descended into the ring. The ring itself seemed to have thrusters on it and was hovering unsupported as the students backed away.
The countdown to start the operation hit zero, and the Nürburg began to move. The field around it began rotating irregularly. The pitch-black surface changed, alternating bands of white and black like a zebra, and then the white began to dominate. A black dot appeared at the center, surrounded by white. It looked like a single black point at the center of a white egg.
Then the black dot was gone completely, only to reappear at the center of the ring.
To Kuon’s eyes, it looked like the dot had moved from the Nürburg to the center of the ring. The ring began emitting light, shifting dizzyingly from red to green, green to blue, blue to yellow—and then the black dot in the center cracked.
That’s when it got really wild.
A black, sticky fluid-like something spilled out of the black dot. But rather than fall towards the ocean, or spill over the edge of the ring, it instead filled the ring itself like it was trapped inside transparent glass. Once full, it swallowed up the black dot as well. All that was left was a black mirror of darkness. Everyone watching recognized it, thinking the same thing: It’s just like a Gate.
While everyone stared at the black mirror, wondering what would emerge, Tooka stood on top of the Nürburg, her DM deployed. It was the same exo-arm type of DM she’d used to carry Kuon.
“What is she—”
Tooka approached the mirror and reached out with one of her exo-arms, touching the surface.
Wump.
Ripples ran across the mirror’s surface. A beat like a heart echoed, and the waves turned to a swirl. As the spinning grew faster, black sparks started flying around. As the sparks grew more dramatic, a black shock wave shot out of the mirror. The screen went completely blank, but soon restored itself. By then…
“She did it!” someone whispered.
At the end of Tooka’s exo-arm was a 300-meter-wide, one-centimeter-deep black field, spinning like a black hole.
“A Gate…!”
The same black moon that had brought mankind to the brink of death had now been created by mankind’s own hands.
What happened next was perhaps inevitable.
With the pseudo-Gate opened, Tooka turned her back on it, heading back to the Nürburg. Suddenly, a flood of Jave poured out from the other side. The manta swarm turned 180 degrees and wheeled around the pseudo-Gate, attacking Tooka, the Nürburg, the Student Echelon on standby behind that, the Air Force Cavalleria, and the mobile mothership.
The battle had begun.
The feed on their screen cut out. “Squad Leader!” Kuon yelled.
“Emergency deployment!” Fuji orders. “Everyone, activate your Maneuvers!”
Halfway out the window, Hanabi turned back. “We don’t have orders yet, though?!”
“They’ll come in on our way! Let’s go!”
Hanabi kicked off the window sill, activating Reimei in mid-air. Kuon and Fuji were right behind her. “Rin!”
“S-sorry…!”
Rin was the last to leave, looking unusually rattled. Aside from the Fuji Squad, the entire Lunatic Order was in this operation. That included the Sagara Squad, and their attacker, Okayama. Hanabi had heard about Okayama and Rin’s budding relationship, so she put a hand on Rin’s shoulder and whispered, “He’ll be okay.”
“…Yeah. I know.” Rin nodded and mounted the extra weapon on her back—the long-distance movement unit, Falcon—like a motorcycle. The other three grabbed onto the end of it, and all thrusters fired, accelerating rapidly. In the blink of an eye, the school was out of sight.
Command ordered the Fuji Squad into action two minutes later.
***
Tooka’s consciousness faded to black.
The mantas that flew out of the Gate had her surrounded in no time. Like sharks circling their prey, they wheeled around, above, and below her. The sheer number of them blocked the sunlight, and everything within the sphere of mantas went black. Fear made every hair on her body stand on end, leaving her paralyzed with horror. One manta turned towards her, tentacles reaching out…dozens of them, hundreds of them.
She felt like this had happened to her before.
She couldn’t remember when. The tentacles wrapped around her like a cocoon. Only when her vision was completely cut off did Tooka finally scream. Dark red Jave tentacles tightened around her arms and legs, binding them, and more tentacles with warts on them went in Tooka’s mouth and ears and nose probing probing probing probing probing probing probing probing probing probing probing probing probing probing probing probing probing probing probing probing probing probing probing probing probing probing probing probing probing probing probing probing probing probing probing probing probing probing probing probing probing probing probing…
Stop please
H…help
<Who?>
Everyone
***
She felt like someone…
Something…
Laughed.
***
In the end, everyone lived. Everyone who participated in the Aohime Island Pseudo-Gate Opening Operation survived intact.
The mantas that swarmed the squads never attacked the Cavalleria. They simply flew past and went back into the pseudo-Gate. Once they were all back inside, the Gate closed behind them.
By the time the Fuji Squad got there, everyone was preparing to leave. It was as if the Jave had never appeared at all. That was partly because experienced soldiers weren’t rattled by a little trouble, but…naturally, it wasn’t that simple.
Tooka Nürburg was taken to the medical ward, where she remained unconscious. She was uninjured and appeared to just be sleeping. Had her experiment been successful? They had not managed to cross over to the other side, but the Jave’s appearance proved that a path across had been made. That meant Tooka’s research could progress to the next stage. Namely…
“We invade their world?”
In a briefing room on the mothership Tooka and the Sagara Squad had retreated to, Kuon was being brought up to speed.
“Yes. First step is armed reconnaissance,” Fuji said after taking his drink’s straw out of his mouth to answer. “We’ll be using the pseudo-Gate created today, along with the final weapon, the Nürburg.”
The large screen in the briefing room showed an aquarium filled with all sorts of digital fish. Naturally, there weren’t any manta.
“And we’ll be included in this mission?”
“Likely. Two weeks out, at the earliest. Oh, Sagara-kun, you okay?”
The Sagara Squad were filing in, and the squad leaders began talking. Kuon had been training one of the attackers on this team, Okayama-senpai. Just as Kuon remembered that, he saw Rin break off her conversation with Hanabi and head over to said attacker. She looked a little awkward. He’d heard they were classmates, but this seemed different.
“Kuon-kun,” Hanabi said, coming up to him. Even with that windbreaker on, she couldn’t hide how large her breasts were. Her lower half was still in a skin-tight plugsuit, so half her butt was still visible, and her thighs—
Hanabi suddenly crouched a bit, placing herself at his eye level.
“Ah!” Kuon gasped. “Sorry, Senpai! What is it?”
“I guess boys don’t just like boobs. You really like everything, huh?” She sighed, shaking her head. Yes, he definitely liked all parts of her body. “And here I was going to clue you in on Rin getting a little romance of her own.”
“Rin-san is?”
“See her with Okayama-kun? He asked her out.”
“Wow…he asked Rin-san? What, really?!”
“You seem a little too surprised. Everyone else already knows.”
“Ugh, gossip never seems to reach me. This is when the gap between classes—or between high school and junior high school—really shows itself.”
“You’re his Fencing teacher, right? I guess students and teachers don’t talk about that stuff.”
“Did Rin-san agree?”
“She hasn’t given him an answer yet. I’m glad he’s safe.”
“Yeah…really.”
They nodded at each other. Both of them watched Rin and Okayama talking.
Rin handed Okayama a drink, being a little more curt than usual. “You hurt? Kyuu-kun’s Fencing help out at all?”
“Not hurt. I think…it helped? Less wasted movement?”
“Yeah, I thought the same thing while I was watching. Uh, not just you! I was watching all the attackers.”
“I know,” he said with an awkward smile. Then it turned into a mischievous grin. “You actually saved me, you know.”
“Huh? How so?”
“I mean, if you’d given me the okay, I’d have been all, ‘If I make it back alive, let’s get married!’”
“You idiot.” This came out way nicer than she’d expected, and Rin panicked a little. Her worries had all melted away and now there were tears in her eyes, so she got even more flustered. She pretended to adjust her glasses to hide wiping her tears. “The Lunatic Order takes those death flags and cuts them down,” she said.
“That only goes for the Fuji Squad.”
They both laughed. Oh, good, Rin thought. We can still laugh like this together. We’re both still alive.
In that moment, she’d already found her answer. Later, she’d be glad she didn’t say so out loud, given what happened afterwards.
“Okayama, let’s go,” the Sagara squad leader said.
“Okay!” Okayama said. “Then I’ll see you tomorrow at school,” he told Rin and left the room.
Not a line you hear often in the belly of a mothership, Rin thought. But she waved after him.
Their lives were still normal.
A week later, a report came in that multiple Gates had appeared over Europe. Nearly all territories had fallen.
***
It was no longer possible to get chocolate.
That was because the fall of Europe had messed up the sea lanes, but most Jogen residents didn’t know this. The news was only showing the exploits of the Twin Star Heroes and the success of the Pseudo-Gate Operation nonstop, and that information was being strictly regulated.
Kuon was kept very busy with scouting missions towards European lines that had dropped out of contact, Jogen ocean patrols, and Air Force Cavalleria Fencing lessons. When he arrived home for the first time in a week, he found his parents waiting for him on their knees.
“Sit down,” they said with uncharacteristic solemnity. They had a form in front of them for withdrawal from his school. What followed was a complete breakdown of communication between parents who had only ever known peace, and a Hero who was on his second trip through hell.
“It doesn’t make sense for a thirteen-year-old boy to be kept away from home for an entire week!” his mother said, worried. “And if your heart stops again like last time, I will absolutely die!”
“Let’s move to the Capital,” his father said gravely. “If not there, Kyushu. You’ve worked hard enough.”
Kuon looked appalled. The Capital? he thought. Fukuoka? Don’t be ridiculous. They’re still extremely dangerous!
He’d been worked so hard this week his brain was barely functioning, and he struggled to find a way to convince them. Mom, Dad, we can’t; it’s too dangerous. Not just the Empire, but the entire planet, our entire world…and I’m just too sleepy.
Whatever, he thought. I’ll just show them the videos from Europe. He’d recorded these himself, but Fuji, Hanabi, and Rin had all seen the same thing.
What they showed was hell on earth.
The video started with them crossing the Mediterranean near the base of Italy’s boot. Even over the ocean, they could tell the land was on fire. The sky glowed red, covered by swarms of black mantas. One of those swarms saw them and attacked. You could hear Fuji reporting in to command. The screen was seventy percent enemies and thirty percent red.
His mother fainted during the mid-section. He kept it playing. It showed what happened after landfall in Sicily. It was awful. There were towers made of half-eaten humans. One of those “humans” was a land Jave in disguise, and one ally Cavalleria got too close and got the entire upper half of his body bitten off. When Kuon cut that Jave in half, a number of heads rolled out. That was when his father ran for the bathroom, his hand clapped over his mouth.
In the last and most extreme section, the Fuji Squad was forced to decide whether to abandon fifteen children standing right in front of them in order to rescue 3,000 refugees on an escape ship ten kilometers away. Hanabi, crying, was unable to make up her mind. Her DM dropped out, and she crouched down. Kuon, knowing full well this could get them all killed, proposed the stupid idea that they split the squad in two. Rin agreed with him, and Squad Leader Fuji accepted it. Since they couldn’t save the 3,000 refugees without Hanabi’s Servants, they left Kuon alone with the children. They spent thirty hours hiding, trying to avoid being found by the enemy, but by the time the rest of the squad returned, there were only six of the fifteen children remaining. While Kuon was watching this, his father came back from the bathroom, found Kuon crying his eyes out, and gave him a firm hug.
This was a mistake, Kuon thought. There was no need to show them this.
He’d lost count of how many times Hanabi had cried this week. On away missions, she spent all night with her arms around him, and Kuon learned how to rub her head in his sleep. During downtime, he often found Rin with her arms around her knees, staring at nothing. Fuji would have a window open and appear to be diligently writing a report. When Kuon realized he’d actually been picking a wedding dress for Nao, it was genuinely unsettling. No bride wanted an Oiran-style dress!
They laid his mother down in bed, put a damp towel on her forehead, and then Kuon finally ran out of steam. He remembered his father carrying him to his room and putting him in bed. In his dreams, Hanabi was crying and hugging him, so he rubbed her head.
Ultimately, closing Gates one at a time was meaningless. The Twin Star Heroes were winning battles, but mankind had been given a harsh reminder that their enemies were infinite. They had to strike at the root of the problem: their hive.
Reeling from Europe’s loss, the Alliance bet everything on a plan to send Tooka’s final weapon through the pseudo-Gate and destroy the Jave’s world. This weapon was called a Magical Black Hole and was explained to Kuon—who gave up on understanding it after three seconds—thusly:
First, two Gates with a Heavy Magic radius would be overlaid, creating a space where they would endlessly bleed into each other. Once anyone went inside, there was no way out, only an endless Gate interior. After it was activated, it would grow into a powerful gravity pull that would swallow up everything around it, and one second after the sixty-minute mark it would expand faster than the speed of light. The expansion area was relative to the Heavy Magic radius and, depending on settings, could grow large enough to swallow a solar system. Once it passed the critical point, it would collapse at the same speed it expanded and vaporize, leaving nothing behind.
If that black egg which was the Nürburg self-destructed, it could create an artificial black hole. It sounded absurd, but apparently this was humanity’s last hope.
Some members of the alliance and Imperial command were of the opinion that no matter how much was at stake, destroying an entire solar system was going too far. “Were” being the operative word. The fall of Europe silenced them. Ever since the war began, there had been a strong belief in certain portions of the population at the civilian level that the Jave were sent by God to punish mankind for destroying the environment, and they should accept these angels and allow themselves to be destroyed. Naturally, this viewpoint was ignored. The current belief the world over was “kill or be killed.”
But their lives went on. They still had homes.
After twenty-four hours off, Kuon was back at school.
Europe had been horrific, but class was super peaceful. The spiky-haired kid he’d fought in the mock battle during the entrance ceremony brought over a motorbike magazine and was all, “Yo, yo, Okegawaaa, dude, this V-Twin is badass, right? Right? You know it is, that senpai of yours was all riding this crazy cool bike the other day. I bet that thing’s a new model, lucky!” and showed him a bunch of pictures. Kuon didn’t get much studying done, but he took a make-up test designed for Lunatic Order members.
The history lecture was on the Ancient Roman Empire, and this felt like such a sick joke that he started laughing, which was bad. He remembered what happened in Sicily again and locked himself in the bathroom, which was bad. He’d forced a whole meal into his stomach, but now his breakfast was all over the toilet and he felt like his heart was turning into Suzuka Hachishiki’s again. He’d been through his share of hell in his previous life, and even he was this messed up by the aftermath of Europe’s fall, so Hanabi and Rin and Fuji must be really bad. Was Hanabi okay? Was she crying again? He’d have to go check on her later.
Hanabi, like most of the soldiers who’d been on that scouting mission, was getting mental health care at the military hospital. She was told that it was far easier to develop PTSD far away from home—especially given her childhood experiences—
as opposed to in battles she knew would be protecting her homeland. Nevertheless, she went to school in the afternoon, sitting in class 3-A with Fuji and Rin and Nao and Okayama, earnestly listening. The concept of “college exams” literally didn’t exist for her, but she felt she needed at least the minimum level of education expected of an Air Force officer. Then she realized she was five years older than Kuon and started wondering just how much she’d outrank him by the time he was allowed to formally enlist. Giving him orders not as a senpai but as a commanding officer sounded fun. She let her thoughts dwell on a future that might not ever come.
Their lives went on. They still had homes.
Until the time came.
At the time, Tooka Nürburg was sleeping in the alliance mobile mothership’s medical ward, but she woke up screaming. She had all her memories back and knew exactly what was coming. No time! Her Device, Mother, onii-chan, she had to call now, now, now, where was her Device, out of bed, legs collapsed under her, cut her lip as she fell and her blood was red and that was a relief.
At the time, Nanahoshi Kaede was in a seat on an airplane on her way home from Europe, her first sleep in thirty hours. En was sitting on her shoulder, back in her original small body, organizing the intel gleaned over the last few days. A call came in on Kaede’s Device from Tooka, who’d been sleeping on the alliance mothership. It seemed urgent.
At the time, Rin was in class 3-A, half-listening, trying to decide how to answer Okayama. She’d thought about him a lot on their scouting mission. When Hanabi was curled up with Kuon instead of her, she’d felt so weak. Having someone to rely on might help. She’d have to talk to him after school. Where, though? Give him a ride on her bike to Mount Suribachi? You could see all of Jogen Island from up there, and only the Motegi family were allowed in, and you needed a bike or car to get there.
At the time, Okayama was staring at the back of Rin’s head, a few rows ahead and to the right of his desk. When she asked what he liked about her, he hadn’t known what to say. Really, he just liked that she was weird. And sometimes very fragile. Gunning for the eldest girl in the formidable Motegi clan was pretty scary, but the way she was lately, he couldn’t just let her be. He wanted to protect her.
At the time, Fuji was looking over his left shoulder at Nao, desperate to see her in a wedding dress. He’d been on the fence for ages but decided he preferred Western style over Japanese traditional looks. Nao in a pure white bride’s veil would be the most beautiful thing in all the world. They would talk about her in the world to come. He would have to find an artist to paint her portrait. Once they got married, they should have lots of children. Two boys and two girls. Never a quiet moment. Such fun.
At the time, Nao had narrowed it down to two venues and was trimming the fat from the budget. She knew Fuji would want to make a spectacle of it, the times be damned, and had been fussing over what dress she would wear for ages. She knew he’d want lots of children, and no matter how old he got, he’d never beat her at mahjong, and she was absolutely certain she loved him more than anyone else.
At the time, only Kuon noticed that their last three hours had begun.
***
Kuon was in class in room 1-A when he felt a chill run down his spine. He leapt to his feet, glaring at the ceiling. Everyone turned to look at him. Spiky-hair was all, “What’s up, Okegawa? Siddown!” But Kuon wasn’t listening. Something was coming. No…something was here. His instincts were screaming pull back!
Still unsure, he deployed his Maneuver against school rules, used Tensetsu, and saw all evasion routes pointing straight backwards. Looking around, he saw thick lines heading downwards from above, and then Tensetsu ran out. As time resumed, he screamed, “Everyone, activate DMs! Now!”
An instant later, there was an ear-splitting crash. The ceiling ripped open, desks exploded, the window glass shattered, and his classmates’ heads turned to mist. This happened all around him, following the lines he’d seen with Tensetsu.
When Cavalleria were attacked, DMs automatically deployed, and the Witch Bubbles that deployed along with them tried to protect their Cavalleria, but there was a brief delay before it happened. In most cases, this was fatal. Only the spiky-haired kid and a few others reacted in time, but given what happened next, perhaps they’d have been better off dying right then.
Screams shot up everywhere.
It all happened so suddenly, nobody could grasp it. The classroom was demolished. It hurts, help, they’re all dead, call for help. People were screaming the names of friends who’d lost half their bodies; people standing stock-still, unable to process things; people trying to pull the rubble away, everyone in a panic. Not one person was calm enough to assess the situation, including Kuon. But he’d sensed that these were Jave light bullets.
A rain of Jave fire had landed on their school. He didn’t know why or what would happen next. When that thought hit him, he started shaking like a leaf. “Shit. Everyone, run! To the Cavalleria—no, to the maintenance bay! Take refuge there!”
It was too late.
First, a sound like an earthquake and a shock wave shook the school, the sound of multiple large things falling around them. Then a scream came from the floor above, DM Rifle bullets began firing outside, and black things swarmed out of the sky towards them. When they got close enough, tentacles reached into the hole in the ceiling and snatched up one of his classmates. She screamed, there was a horrible splat, and then the sounds of blood and flesh dripping.
“What…?”
“No…no…”
“This can’t be happening…not here…”
The surviving classmates all stared up. As they did, a massive form fell into class 1-A, shaking everything. It was a blob of dark red conical flesh covered in eyes and mouths, with tentacles everywhere, like a hideous defective monster.
“Aieeeeeee!”
A land Jave had appeared right in front of them. These kids weren’t Lunatic Order. They were just cadets, barely six months into their training, barely different from your average first-year junior high student. They’d never seen a Jave in the flesh. It was fear made manifest, and they quivered, crouched, and swooned. Like so many other humans, they waited to be eaten.
Except for Kuon.
“Rahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!”
Nobody realized that this scream had come from Okegawa Kuon. The instinctive need to kill Jave, which he acquired in his previous life, had reflexively pushed him into action. In the blink of an eye, he’d cut a mass dozens of times his size in half. He turned back to his classmates.
“Move!” His shout echoed through the room. His frozen classmates twitched. “Activate your DMs! Get the survivors to the maintenance bay!”
One of his classmates calmed down enough to ask, “Wh-what will you do?”
“Buy you some time.”
“Wh-what about the injured?”
“Get their bubbles to activate and begin healing them, then carry them. If they don’t have long, make sure they don’t suffer.”
“Y-you mean…kill them? We can’t—”
There was another roar. It came from right next to them. A manta slammed into the windows. A massive body several meters long stabbed itself into the wall of the school, reaching tentacles through the broken windows and attacking. Kuon cut them all down and killed the manta clinging to the windows, shouting, “Do it now or you’ll all die!”
His classmates started hastily picking up the wounded and carrying them out of the classroom. Outside, the hall and other classrooms were overrun with Jave. They had to cross the schoolyard with no cover and reach the maintenance bay where the fighting would be particularly fierce. How many of them would make it? Kuon took a breath, hoping to increase that number even a little.
Nine-count Strike.
Kishin Ryuenbu, Mod.
Curved blue Blades sliced apart the Jave in the classrooms as well as the ones clinging to the windows. Kuon dove back into each classroom searching for Witch Bubbles or other signs of life in every corner of the school. There were no more Jave left, and he’d killed a lot of enemies, but…
“Argh…!” His chest hurt. His heart wasn’t beating right. He was remotely operating magic Blades like Servants, so it was supposed to hurt a little, but this was rougher than he’d imagined. It didn’t carve away at his life like the ultimate art, but his master would definitely yell at him later.
A call came in on his comms. It was Fuji. “Was that Okegawa-kun? You’re alive? Good. There are enemy main forces in the sky above us. Suzuka-kun is already headed for them. Regroup with her and annihilate them.” His orders were terse, clipped, as if purged of all emotion.
Kuon was in no state to notice. “Aye aye, sir. Suzuka Hachishiki, heading to annihilate enemy forces.”
Without realizing what he’d just said, Kuon shot upwards, glaring at the skies above. These foes had come not from the deep sea but from what lay right before his eyes: a Gate in the skies above Jogen Maneuver Academy.
Hanabi had gone into the Gate first, and was desperately battling the Queen. She didn’t have the Kiryu with her, but she couldn’t afford to hesitate. She had to kill this thing as soon as possible and get back to school to save more people. But alone…
“Servants!”
Wings flew out of her backpack, menacing the Queen. They shot down a number of enemy tentacles and bullets. The enemy fired back, but the Servants successfully dodged. Careful not to miss the warning signs of the hard-to-avoid tentacles-from-nowhere attacks, Hanabi readied her rifle.
Then a call came in from Fuji telling her Kuon would be there any moment. She felt strength surging into her. No matter how bad the situation, if he was there, they would find a way through it.
Just as she was down to one remaining Servant…
“Hanabi-senpai.”
She heard Kuon’s voice and turned towards him. But… “Kuon…kun?”
As he came in the Gate, he looked like someone else. He seemed totally different. His voice flat, he asked, “Ready to go on Scout Nova Rifle max output?”
“Er, uh, of course.”
“I’ll hit it with a Reppakuzan. Crossfire. Put that Servant on me.”
“Roger that.”
There was no time to try and figure out what was bothering her about him. Hanabi sent her Servant to Kuon and waited for his signal. As he flew the other way, the Queen’s bullets targeted him, too, but there were fewer coming her way as a result. That made it easier to get her rifle charged. “Ready,” Kuon said. As he did…
Shichisei Kenbu: Mod. Tensetsu Shigure.
Time stopped. Her vision showed attack routes and the likely evasion routes the Queen would take, and Hanabi set her aim to one side of the enemy. Time resumed. In front and to the left of her, Kuon unleashed a sword of red light, passing to the Queen’s side. Hanabi shot her rifle at her guts, a shot powerful enough to blow up a moon.
Screeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
Crossfire. Kuon’s red light and Hanabi’s white light hit it from both sides. Caught in the middle, the Queen had nowhere to go. Burned by terrifyingly high temperatures, she melted and evaporated, leaving no trace behind.
This was the first time they’d killed a Queen with anything but Kuon’s ultimate art, but as Hanabi rushed to leave the Gate before it closed, she was less concerned with that than trying to figure out what it was that felt so off.
Since when does Kuon talk like that?
And his eyes. Like he was beaten down by everything, like…
Ahead of her, the extra-booster-covered back of Soukyu (Mod.) looked just like the Hero, back when he saved her during the fall of the capital.
Kuon and Hanabi returned to the school and began dispatching the remaining enemies.
Shortly afterwards, they found her.
***
Her right leg was melting.
The head of a light bullet had melted a lump of iron, and it was flowing like lava, eating into her skin, digging deeper and deeper. She’d gotten her DM activated so the fire that had burned her leg was out, but liquid metal was eating into her thigh through the Witch Bubble.
She was burning, her head in a daze. She tried to move her hands, but her body wouldn’t listen to her. She couldn’t move at all. But it was her body! This was weird. She managed to move her eyes and saw a dark red sky through the holes in the ceiling. There were desks and chairs and pieces of wall scattered all around her, all on fire. There was someone lying next to her, but she couldn’t move her head. So hot melting, oh, someone, Hanabi, Okayama, Fuji, Kyuu-kun, anyone my leg, clean it off…
Can’t say that now. They’re all really busy. We’re lying here and the classmates who got their Maneuvers out in time are all desperately fighting off the monsters, yeah, like they’re protecting us. Someone grabbed her left hand and yelled “Rin!” There was a whistling sound like a punctured lung, and it must be impossibly painful for them to talk, so why were they trying? She wanted to ask, but first they said…
“Look after…Jin for me…”
Who was Jin? She’d heard that name before. Who was it? After that she didn’t hear anyone calling her name. Just the roars of the monsters and the screams and sobs of her classmates, ceaseless. The hand holding hers slid away, going limp. Her leg was still melting. Won’t someone please clean my leg? You can rub a high school girl’s leg all you like for free, right now. Probably too late, though. Poor leg. Oh, I know Jin! Squad Leader Fuji. His name was Fuji Jindo, right? Then the one next to me is…
Darkness.
Her eyes opened, and the ruined classroom ceiling was now a sterile white hospital ceiling.
“Unh…” Everything hurt. She moved her head. Sat up a little. And saw…
“Ah…ah…”
She knew it. The sheets on the right side down there were awfully flat.
“Ah…ahh…ahhh…ahhhhhhhhh…”
She’d thought as much. She covered her face with her hands. If only she could have moved them then.
Everything from Rin’s right thigh on down was gone.
***
The next day, they started cleaning the school.
People treated as “missing” were ones where they hadn’t found a body; odds were high they’d been eaten during the fighting.
A hundred first-year students had entered junior high six months before. Of these, seventy-two were dead or missing, and twenty-eight were wounded.
Seventy percent of the Lunatic Order were MIA. The Fuji Squad was the only squad with all members still alive, but their sniper had lost a leg. Three members of the Sagara Squad, including the squad leader, were dead. One attacker, Okayama, had survived with injuries.
There was one more name Kuon was looking for. He scrolled mechanically down the list of the dead until he found her name.
Murakawa Squad, Control, Gotenba Nao.
Fuji was still picking a wedding dress, as if it hadn’t hit him yet.