Chapter 3: Bonds Torn Apart, Longing for Destruction

Laughing nuts. Weirdly colored bugs. Clouds dancing in a circle.

None of these things should have been possible.

“Where are we?!” Hibiki yelled.

“Don’t ask me!” I screamed back at her, actually raising my voice for once.

And we kept screaming at each other until we were panting and out of breath, and the heat suddenly drained from our heads.

“Ugh...” We both sighed at the same time.

I guess, really, we realized that screaming wouldn’t help anything. And so we tried taking another look around.

“Man, this is one weird world,” she said.

“Have you ever been to another world like this?”

“No, this is my first time in another world. What about you?”

“I’ve never been to one this weird. I went to one that was kind of medieval, though.”

I guess Kult’s walled garden world counted as one too, but this was my first time in another world that felt so... otherworldly.

But that was exactly the problem.

“Why are we here?”

“That’s what I want to know.”

“Rekka Namidare, you said that going through the red door would take us back home, right?”

“Yeah. You’d think it would take you back to the same place, right?”

“Then what is this place?”

“...No idea.”

And without a single clue, there was no way for me to tell.

“What do we do now?”

“If we wait, Kult might come to find you.”

“Hmm... It’s passive, but I guess it’s our only option. I don’t like just waiting around though. This time, he’ll come as prepared as he possibly can to capture me. We need to come up with a plan to stop him first.”

Booooom!

Just as we began to discuss what we’d do next, the ground started to shake. It felt like a giant had suddenly kicked the mountain we were on.

“Hahahahahaha!” The nuts on the trees laughed as several of them fell to the ground.

“What was that?” Hibiki asked, but didn’t wait for an answer. She plowed through the brush, covering her head as she moved.

“Hey, where are you going?”

“Somewhere where I can see! I can’t tell what’s going on here!”

She had a point, so I followed her through the vegetation. Soon we came to a path that had been cleared through the mountain.

“If there’s a path like this, that means there must be people, right?” I whispered as I looked up at the winding road.

“It might not be people,” Hibiki replied.

“Huh?”

“This world is a weird place. It would make sense if there were creatures here that weren’t human.”

“...Maybe, yeah.”

I’d prefer it if they were, though.

If we did run into something, I at least hoped it wouldn’t be scary.

But then the mountain shook again, interrupting my thoughts. It was followed by a frightened murmuring from along the sides of the mountain.

“It’s those nuts...”

Why were those creepy nuts acting so scared? The nuts around us started to murmur too.

...Was something coming up from below?

“This sounds bad... Let’s hide!”

“I’m with you,” Hibiki said.

We nodded at each other and ducked into the bushes just off the path.

And then it came up the mountain, over the tops of the tall trees.

Hiding in the bushes below, we watched as it scaled the mountain with ease. At first it only looked like a white ball, but as it got closer I could see that part of it was shining. When it got even closer, I realized it was a golden tail. Nine tails, in fact. Each of them gleaming as it bounded past on all fours.

It was...

“Was that a fox?”

It certainly looked like a fox, but I couldn’t be sure. I mean, it was five times bigger than the lions at the zoo. Its fangs were big and sharp, and its enormous eyes were the size of my head.

This huge fox creature leaped up the mountain path, quickly disappearing over our heads. We watched in awe as its nine tails receded into the distance.

“Nine tails... Was that a nine-tailed fox?” Hibiki asked.

“A nine-tailed fox?” I was confused by her question.

She looked at me like I was a complete idiot.

“I have better things to do than give you the full explanation, but it’s a legendary monster that caused a lot of damage in India, China, and Japan. Of course, this might not be the same nine-tails as in our world, but it’s still probably safer to stay away.”

“Yeah.” I didn’t want to get anywhere near that thing either. “If it went up the mountain, maybe we should go down.”

“You’re right. As we walk, we can look for points to intercept Kult Graphimore.”

And then the nuts started to rustle again.

“Now what?!” I yelled. I was getting a little sick of this.

“It wasn’t a big noise like the last one. Let’s hang back and see what happens.”

“Roger.”

We both crouched down again.

What came up the mountain next was as weird as the nine-tailed fox. Maybe even weirder.

“Is that a raccoon? An otter?” I asked.

“It’s got a plate on its head. That’s definitely a kappa.”

“That one has a wheel on its face...”

“It’s a big centipede.”

“I see a running wall of rock. But it’s slow.”

“A cold, beautiful woman... A snow woman?”

This went on and on.

We watched as dozens, if not hundreds, walked by us. Most of them were monsters that didn’t seem human at all.

“Looks like this is a world for Japanese monsters, huh?” Hibiki whispered as soon as they’d all passed.

The nine-tailed fox was a Japanese monster too, supposedly, so she seemed to be onto something.

“A mountain of Japanese monsters, huh?”

I looked up at the mountain again, but this time there was a pillar of fire.

Wait. A pillar of fire?!

Then there was a loud roar, followed by shouting. I felt something familiar—the sensation of battle.

“Maybe that nine-tailed fox is fighting the other monsters?”

“Maybe. But it looked like they were chasing it...”

“What’s that pillar of fire then?” I asked.

“They’re Japanese monsters. They can probably use Japanese magic.”

“Japanese magic...?”

As soon as I asked, a giant ball of ice fell from the sky.

The battle on top of the mountain was growing fiercer. If we got caught up in that, we wouldn’t last an instant.

“Should we run, Hibiki?”

“Yeah. We’ll retreat and get ready to intercept Kult.”

With a course of action, we quickly headed down the mountain to get out of danger.

“That cost us time. We need to hurry and set a trap,” Hibiki said as we moved.

“Where?” I asked.

“We’ll look for a good spot while we run. He won’t fall for the same trick twice, so this time we need...”

As we talked, we came around a bend in the mountain path—just in time for a tiny little fox to jump out in front of Hibiki.

She was going too fast to stop in time.

“Uwah!”

“Yip!”

Girl and fox collided, both hollering. I heard a silly “poof” noise, and my vision was almost instantly obscured by pink smoke.

“H-Hibiki?!”

What was this pink smoke? I couldn’t see what had happened.

“Damn it!”

I tried my best to fan it away from me, but it just slipped through my fingers. Suddenly, it was gone as quickly as it came.

And then I saw Hibiki lying on the ground.

“Hibiki!”

“......”

I dashed to her side, but she was silent.

“Hibiki! Hey, wake up! Hibiki!”

“...Mmm.”

There finally was a tiny response as I continued to shout. I was relieved that she was okay... but then I noticed something strange.

“Mmm...”

Twitch, twitch.

As she breathed, the fox ears that had appeared on her head wiggled.

“Umm....”

Since when did Hibiki have fox ears?

“R, what’s going on with those ears?”

“Cute, aren’t they? I like the contrast between this and her normally cold demeanor.”

“What are you talking about?”

“It’s super moe.”

No... I don’t know how moe it can really be for someone to say it so indifferently.

As I sat there and held her, Hibiki suddenly moaned in my arms and slowly opened her eyes.

“Hibiki, are you awake?”

“...Hibiki?”

As she weakly whispered her own name, she looked down at her body and limbs. Then she went pale.

“This is... Oh no! I did it again!”

“Did what?”

What was going on here?

“Whadda I do? Whadda I do?” Hibiki seemed strangely confused as she mumbled to herself.

What in the world...?

“Hey... Hibiki?”

“Hyah!” Hibiki’s shoulders jumped as she looked up at me in fear.

Her face was dead pale. She was also shaking and starting to cry.

“It’s kind of hot, isn’t it?” R said.

“Yeah, it really is... Wait, no! It’s not!”

I threw an uppercut at R for interrupting. She dodged.

“Aahh...!”

Oh, right. Hibiki couldn’t see R. She looked terrified of the boy who’d just started shouting and punching the air.

“Waahh...”

But... she was a little too afraid, wasn’t she? I wasn’t sure how to handle this new side of hers.

“What are you talking about? Come on, Hibiki, tell me.”

“Waah... Hibiki is unconscious right now.”

“What? What are you talking about?”

“My name’s Kokomo.”

“...Huh?”

I didn’t know what she meant, so I’m sure I only looked more confused. But still, somehow, I could tell...

The story had just gotten even more complicated.

Just then, there came another loud rumble from the mountaintop.

“Wow, lightning this time, huh?”

Four lightning bolts had joined together, striking the earth. Even from where I stood, I could see that they’d taken a giant chunk out of the mountain.

We needed to get away from here. Fast.

“Oh no! I need to hurry!”

But Hibiki did something I didn’t expect.

“Huh?”

Before I could actually ask what she was in a hurry about, she started to run up the mountain at top speed.

“Hey, wait!”

“I-I’m sorry, but I’m in a hurry!”

“You idiot! Weren’t we supposed to be going down the mountain?” I yelled as I followed after her.

Argh! I didn’t know what was going on anymore!

“Tell me why we’re going back up, Hibiki!”

“I told you, I’m not Hibiki! When I slammed into her, my possession magic went out of control and we combined!”

Slammed into her? Not Hibiki? Possession magic? Combined?

I thought back to how she’d run into the fox at the bend in the road. ...So was Kokomo that little fox? Was he a Japanese monster too?

“I see. So that’s what’s up with the fox ears, huh? They’re rather pretty, aren’t they?”

Sure, we’d solved the mystery of the fox ears, but R’s comments were as laid-back as ever! Especially since this Kokomo fox was about to get Hibiki caught up in a monster battle.

“Then just undo the spell and get out of Hibiki’s body!”

“I can’t undo it myself once it goes out of control!”

“Then at least stop running!”

“I can’t do that! I... I have to go! Everyone needs me! So... I’m sorry!”

Kokomo had been apologizing this whole time, but wasn’t slowing down in the slightest. I wasn’t sure if the possession magic was making Hibiki stronger or if she was just that strong to begin with, but she was sprinting up the mountain like it was nothing.

As for me, I was reaching my limit. My scores in middle school endurance running had been less than average...

“Gwah... aah... aah...! Damn it!”

But if I let them escape now, there was no telling what would happen to Hibiki’s kidnapped(?) body! I was going to follow her no matter what!

“...Damn it! What’s going on on this mountain? At least tell me that!”

The price of screaming was my breath getting caught in my lungs. I started to cough.

“My mom... The leader of the nine-tailed foxes breathed in some poison ki and went out of control! Everybody in this country knows that!”

Whatever! I’m from Earth!

I didn’t have the breath left to yell back though. I was reduced to panting. My brain felt hot and slow, and my lungs hurt so much I thought they might burst.

Wait a second... If she was “the leader of the nine-tailed foxes,” that had to mean she was the nine-tailed fox we saw before, right? I was starting to see what was going on.

“In other words, the monsters are all trying to stop the rampaging nine-tailed fox, perhaps?” R offered, uninvited as usual.

But I agreed with her.

I roughly understood the situation, but there was still something that baffled me. And that was the reason that this Kokomo guy was heading to the battlefield.

How far up the mountain had we gotten? I looked up to check... just in time to see something big falling towards me.

“Dwaaahh!”

I dodged off the side of the path, but tripped as my foot got tangled in the brush. Whatever it was landed right behind me.

“Bwah!”

I quickly yanked my head out of a bush and turned around. My eyes met something big and bug-eyed.

“Ugyah!”

I was now face-to-face with the huge, growling nine-tailed fox!

“Grrrrr...!”

The fox easily weighed a ton, and drool was coming out of the sides of its mouth as it snarled. Its fangs were bared so high that I could see its gums. One bite from that thing would rip me in half.

“...Tch!”

It was the most literal image of death I’d ever seen.

Even after fighting Bahamut and the dragon, I still wasn’t used to it. My legs started to shake as cold fear ran down my spine.

“Grrr...”

But the nine-tailed fox must have decided that I was just a coward, because it turned its gaze towards Kokomo.

“Aah! N-Nine-Tails! I’ll seal you...!”

“GRRRRR!”

“AAAH!”

Kokomo screamed and fell backwards when the fox looked at him, which left Hibiki’s body defenseless...

“Hibiki!”

I was moving before I knew it.

“Gah!”

A few moments later, the fox leaped for Kokomo. I was closer and had gotten a head start, but the nine-tailed fox was far faster than me. We crossed paths as I made a dive for the frozen Kokomo.

“Oww... Hey, are you okay?”

“Th-Thanks!”

“As long as you’re safe. Now ru—Aah!”

I felt a pain down my back that was like scalding water, and suddenly realized my shirt felt wet. When I’d knocked Kokomo down, the fox’s claws had caught me. It wasn’t a deep wound, but the pain froze me in place. My eyes met the fox’s again at the worst possible time.

No...!

I’d left a fatal opening. Thoughts of death flashed through my mind.

And then a wall of flame came down from the sky, separating us from the fox. A one-eyed monster with an extremely long head appeared. The flames were coming out of its hand.

“Kokomo! What are you doing here?!” The monster must have sensed him somehow, because it looked straight at Hibiki’s face when it spoke. “Seal the elder! Now!”

“R-R-Right!” Kokomo quickly answered. He then used two fingers to draw a triangle in the air in front of him, followed by an upside-down triangle overlapping it.

I knew that design from video games. It was a six-pointed star.

There was an almost invisible white flame coming out of Kokomo’s fingers as they moved. Each time he traced a side, the hexagram became more and more visible. Was this the ritual needed to seal the fox?

“Grrrrr! Hisssss!”

The nine-tailed fox was now busy fending off the army of monsters that rushed it from all sides. It was functionally trapped in one place. All that was left was for Kokomo to finish the seal... or so I thought.

“Ah... aah!” Kokomo suddenly screamed.

I looked and saw that the hexagram he was drawing had become warped and distorted, like it was about to shatter.

“What are you doing, Kokomo?! Only your clan knows how to use Fumetsu magic to get rid of the poison ki!”

“I-I-I’m sorry!”

Kokomo was half-crying (with Hibiki’s face) as he tried to draw the six-pointed star again. But the lines were more uneven than before. He couldn’t even draw them straight.

“GRRRAOOOR!”

The huge roar the nine-tailed fox let out next made a whirlwind appear. The blades of wind knocked everyone back, both on the ground and in the air.

“Uwah!”

“Hey!”

I grabbed Kokomo as his feet left the ground, but I ended up getting blown away too.

“Oww...”

It flung me a good ten meters. I hit my head when I landed, but thanks to my grabbing her, Hibiki’s body wasn’t hurt.

“Hibi—I mean, Kokomo, are you okay?”

“Waah! I knew I couldn’t do it!”

Kokomo was blaming himself. The expression on his face that Hibiki would never make and the timid voice he spoke in that she would never use said everything. His fox ears drooped as if reflecting his feelings.

After the whirlwind had cleared away its attackers, the nine-tailed fox made another great leap and vanished off into the distance. The army of monsters followed after it, some of them throwing dirty looks our way. They were probably looking at Kokomo.

But then they were all gone as quickly as they had come, leaving only the scars of battle behind.

“And that’s done... or not, I guess.”

Just because the immediate danger had passed didn’t mean I’d actually solved anything.

“Waah! I have to go. I... I have to go!” Kokomo stood up, mumbling to himself again, and staggered off after the other monsters.

“Hold it.”

I wasn’t letting him take Hibiki’s body again.

“L-Let me go!”

“You were useless just now. What do you think you’re going to do? If I hadn’t helped you, Hibiki—the girl whose body you stole—would’ve died too.”

“W-Waaah...”

Okay, “useless” may have been a little harsh. He collapsed to the ground and started to cry. It kind of felt like I was bullying a little kid...

“Listen, just tell me what’s going on. Maybe I can help.”

“Wh-Why?”

“Well...” I told Kokomo about the bloodline of the Namidare and tried to get a better handle on the situation. “So the nine-tailed fox inhaled too much poisonous ki and went berserk, and you and the other monsters were trying to seal it away... Is that right?”

“Yeah, that’s right. But...” Kokomo fell silent.

Well, he probably didn’t want to talk about how he’d failed. I could understand that, but...

“About that. Why do you have to be the one to do the seal?”

Even if he wasn’t fighting directly, it seemed reckless to make a little kid face a dangerous monster like that. He’d been too scared to do anything when it came down to it.

“My mo... The nine-tailed fox can only be sealed by my Fumetsu magic.”

“Huh? What’s Fumetsu magic?”

“It’s a bit of a long story, but...”

Fumetsu magic was evidently a type of magic used to seal—“fu”—and destroy—“metsu”—evil ki energy that caused plagues and natural disasters. The magic itself was activated with the six-pointed star Kokomo tried to use earlier. And because the poison ki had essentially possessed the nine-tailed fox, it could now be sealed with Fumetsu magic too. That’s how Kokomo explained it.

“Hmm?”

“What is it?”

“Nothing...” It felt like I’d heard something about an evil energy that caused plagues and disasters before... but whatever. There were more pressing matters at hand. “Anyway, this Fumetsu stuff... How come only you can use it?”

“Fumetsu magic involves a special kind of spell that only the family of the nine-tails can use.”

“The nine-tails...?”

Wait, wasn’t it a nine-tailed fox that had gone crazy? What was going on here?

“The nine-tails have had the job of ruling over the other monsters and driving away the poison ki that appears in this land for generations. But... this nine-tails did it for too long.”

“...And ended up going crazy, huh?” It made sense... but that raised a new question. “Wait. If you can use this Fumetsu magic, then you’re...”

“...Yeah. I’m a nine-tailed fox too.”

“Then...”

“The nine-tailed fox that went crazy is my mom.”

...I thought so.

Before he’d combined with Hibiki, Kokomo had been in the form of a fox. The thought had crossed my mind, but that meant...

“You’re trying to seal your own mom, Kokomo?” I had to ask. I couldn’t believe it.

“...I can’t help it. It’s because I’m so weak.”

“How is it your fault?”

“Poisonous ki can cause natural disasters and stuff, but it also has a bad effect on the heart... In my case, that effect is fear.”

Kokomo shook. There were tears in his eyes.

“When I try to use Fumetsu magic to get rid of the poisonous ki, I suddenly get so scared that I can’t do anything. If I fail, I might succumb to the poison ki. Maybe it’ll drive me crazy too. Maybe my limbs will just rot off... When I think about that, the spell stops working, and I run away...”

Kokomo kept shaking as he cried.

“Mom worked to get rid of the poison ki for twice as long as most nine-tails since I couldn’t do it... So because I didn’t have the courage, my mom absorbed too much poison ki and went crazy...”

“...”

You know... Why were all the stories this time so awful?

I was just a wimpy kid myself. If was told to go somewhere full of poison gas and take care of it alone, I was sure I’d run away too.

Who could blame Kokomo for being weak? His mother was probably only planning to do it until he grew up, right? What was wrong with a mother caring for her child? And now the result was this story about a kid who had to seal away his crazy mom?

Hell no.

If my bloodline was getting me involved in something like that...

“Fine. I’ll help.”

“...Help what?”

“Well, you know... Huh?”

“Rekka Namidare, what are you talking about?”

Hmm? Was it my imagination, or had her voice changed again...?

“Hibiki?”

“Who else would it be?” Hibiki looked at me suspiciously.

Evidently her mind had finally woken up from the shock of combining with Kokomo.

“Um... Where’s Kokomo then?”

“Kokomo? Who the heck is—I’m inside her.” Hibiki’s words were cut off by what I assumed were Kokomo’s.

“Hey, what’s going on here? Huh? There’s a weird voice in my head... Hey! What’s going on here, really?!”

Hmm... Both Hibiki’s mind and Kokomo’s mind were inside her body, but since they were sharing a mouth, it was getting confusing.

“Um, well, you see...” I explained everything that had happened so far to Hibiki.

“A second story...?” She said with a surprised expression.

She looked at the ground for a while.

“Sheesh... This isn’t normal at all,” she muttered to herself.

But then she looked up at me.

“It’s really a terrible story. Just awful. So, Rekka Namidare, what do you intend to do?”

“I want to save both Kult and Kokomo.”

“...I see.” For a moment, she frowned, but then she nodded. “Koko... do you have a last name? Tch, whatever. Never mind. Listen up, Kokomo. I’m about to ask you some questions. Answer inside my head.”

Hibiki closed her eyes. I watched her eyelids twitch a few times as I waited for their internal conversation to end. She eventually opened her eyes again.

“The plan was for the other monsters to weaken the nine-tailed fox, and then have Kokomo seal it.”

“I see... but...” I thought back to the monsters attacking the fox. “To be honest, they were no match for that thing.”

“I guess it’s as strong as the legends say it is. According to the stories, it destroyed three countries.” Hibiki nodded. “But this Fumetsu magic is very powerful. There’s a reason only the nine-tails can use it. I think my role is to work together with Kokomo until he can master the spell.”

In manga and light novels, it was common for two people to get combined in an accident and have to work together to fight something.

“But still... he has to seal away his own mother?”

“Rekka Namidare, are you really going to make me go through this again?”

By “again,” she was probably referring to our fight in Kult’s lab. If I hesitated to help seal away the fox, the damage might get worse... That must have been what she wanted to say.

I mean, maybe I was just being idealistic, but... If somebody is crying at the end, it’s not a happy ending, is it?

“...Um, I’m okay.” Kokomo slowly and hesitatingly spoke to me through Hibiki’s mouth.

“But...”

“Fumetsu magic can both seal and destroy poison ki, although normally you just use the destruction spell. That’s the obvious choice. But when the poison ki is so strong that even a nine-tailed fox can’t destroy it, you use the sealing technique. And then you just let the poison ki slowly dissipate inside the seal.”

“Dissipate?”

“It gradually becomes harmless,” said Kokomo.

So that meant...

“If the sealing works, I can save my mom... It’ll take about a thousand years though,” he explained.

“I see.”

I was glad that he could save her, but wasn’t a thousand years a little too long? I mean, Kokomo was still a kid. Didn’t he still want to have his mother around...? Or maybe this was his way of proving he could stand on his own. The nine-tails were the rulers of the monsters, so the next one should be Kokomo. Was he deliberately taking on the job of sealing her, trying to shoulder that burden? No, but...

“Hey, Kokomo—”

“That’s all we need to know, right? So don’t use my mouth without permission anymore, Kokomo.”

Just as I was about to ask what he was really after, Hibiki cut me off.

“Wait. One more thing...”

Except before I could ask this time, I was interrupted by the familiar roaring sound of a jetpack overhead.

“I finally caught up to you!”

And with the jetpack came a voice I recognized.

That’s right. We’d been running away, hadn’t we? I turned around and looked up at the sky. Kult, the magical scientist from another world, had followed us.

▽

“Wait, is your jetpack bigger than before?”

“Fwahahaha! I am a genius, and I don’t make the same mistake twice! If I’m higher up than you can reach, I don’t have to worry about you counterattacking!”

The way he laughed made him sound like an idiot, but it was a good strategy.

In fact, Kult’s jetpack was about five times the size of the last one. It was more like a flying mechanical chair. And with it, he was over our heads and out of our reach.

“Hibiki, you don’t by any chance have a gun or anything, do you?”

“Nope.”

“Just checking.”

Well, this was no good. We had no way of attacking him like this.

“Wh-Who’s that? Kokomo, don’t use my mouth! I-I’m sorry!” Kokomo didn’t know who Kult was, so he tried to ask, but Hibiki angrily cut him off. With it all coming out of Hibiki’s mouth, it sounded like a comedy routine.

But leaving that aside, how were we supposed to get out of this?

No, wait. Last time was an unfortunate misunderstanding, but I didn’t really want to be Kult’s enemy. If I could persuade him now...

“Hey, Kult! Listen to me!”

“Haha! Begging for your life, are you? Well, it won’t work!”

“No, that’s not it...”

“There will be no mercy! Behold my latest invention!” Kult shouted.

As he pressed a button on the armrest of his flying chair, it instantly began to transform.

“Wait... What the heck?”

“Gwahaha! Did you see that?”

I stared in shock at Kult’s transformed invention.

It was like... It was like a personal flying battleship... or something. Kult’s body was still exposed like before, but dangerous looking weapons were poking out of the chair. I saw what looked like eight Gatling guns.

And here we were... We didn’t even have a shield, let alone a gun. This was way more than we could handle.

“Now, witness the power of my Battle Kult Ship!” As he spoke, all of the Gatling guns pointed towards us.

Crap!

“Run into the forest!”

“Take this!”

Kult and I shouted at the same time. His Gatling guns opened fire, freezing the whole area around us.

“They’re shooting instant sorcery capsules?!”

This was a lot more dangerous than Kult’s crappy pitching. The trees of the forest we ran into were being frozen at an alarming rate. The leaves and branches blocked the capsules for the first two or three seconds, but the Battle Kult Ship plowed straight through the frozen limbs like an icebreaker, shattering them as it went.

“Gyaaah! Aaah! Aaah!”

The nuts in the trees screamed as their comrades were frozen. Their chorus of terror sounded like the prelude to the end of the world. My eardrums felt like they were about to burst.

“I knew it! You punched him too much, and now he won’t listen to us!”

“Shut up! For now, think of a way to get us out of this!”

“Good point!”

I had three choices. One: Destroy the Battle Kult Ship, or maybe just the eight Gatling guns. Two: Escape successfully. Three: Suddenly gain the abilities of the world’s greatest conman, and then talk Kult down.

Any one of them would require a miracle.

For the first one, I didn’t even know how I would go about doing it. So, for the time being, what we really needed to do was flee. But how do you escape from somebody who can fly?

“Aah, damn it! I’ve got nothing! Hibiki, do you have any ideas?”

“...I’ve got one more police baton hidden in my jacket. The only thing I can think of is to fling it at him and hit him in the head.”

“Will that work?!”

“I’m good at throwing things!” she yelled back.

Come to think of it, she’d knocked a capsule straight out of Kult’s hand before on the mountain behind the school.

“But do you have time to throw it?”

“If you’re willing to be a decoy, but...”

One of us would be a decoy while the other took him by surprise. It was a pretty typical plan. But it wasn’t going to work. Because...

“Kult’s after me, after all.”

She was right. Even if we split up, Kult would follow her. In other words, I couldn’t be a decoy.

“Damn it! We’ve got nothing! Kokomo, do you have any ideas?!”

“H-Huh?” Kokomo gave a surprised gasp. He hadn’t expected to suddenly be included in the conversation. Hibiki looked upset at this reaction, but given the situation, she didn’t complain.

“I’m sorry to get you caught up in our problems, but if we get taken out here, you’re finished too! Do you have a spell or something you can use?”

“I... I only know how to use the most basic one...”

Kokomo didn’t sound very confident, but I listened to what he had to say with every ounce of attention I could spare. This would be our ticket out of this mess!

▽

“Hahh... hahh...”

I was running out of breath already. I needed to finish this before I couldn’t move anymore!

“Hibiki! Kokomo! Let’s do it!” I yelled.

Hibiki took a small, palm-sized tube out of one of the many pockets of her cargo pants.

“Don’t breathe in too much of the smoke!” she shouted as she pulled the pin to the tube. Instantly, we were surrounded by smoke.

“Wh-What?!” I heard Kult yell as the sound of the Gatling guns stopped.

“Rekka!” Then I heard Kokomo’s voice as he used Hibiki’s hands to touch my chest.

...Hmm? Was that right? I couldn’t tell.

“Is the spell working on me?”

“Yup. It’s fine!”

“Okay, got it!”

That was the signal.

I took a quick breath to avoid inhaling too much smoke, picked a direction, and ran as fast as I could.

“Huh?!”

Kult reacted when he saw me leap out of the smoke. He was probably checking to see if I was Hibiki.

“There you are!”

And then he pointed his guns at me.

“...!”

I ran as fast as my legs would carry me away from the exploding ice magic, smiling to myself.

“Ooh. Your ugly smile actually looks good on Hibiki’s face, huh?” R said.

“Shut up!” I kept running, doing my best to ignore her.

Kokomo had put a spell on me to alter my appearance. Apparently it was something that all foxes and raccoons could do, and he’d used it to make me look like Hibiki. Because of that, I was able to distract Kult after all.

Just then, Hibiki’s police baton came flying out of the dispersing smoke in a beeline for the back of Kult’s head. But just before it hit him...

“Nwah?!”

Some kind of sixth sense must have saved him, because Kult saw the incoming baton and raised his left hand to block it.

KA-CHINK! There was a metallic noise as the baton rebounded and fell to the ground instead of hitting him in the head.

“Did we fail?”

I grabbed on to a nearby tree trunk and came to a sudden stop.

This was bad. At this point, I at least had to get Hibiki and Kokomo out of here... I turned around and deliberately charged towards Kult.

But for some reason, so did Hibiki.

“?!”

At this rate, we’d both be caught! Hibiki knew that one of us was supposed to be the decoy, so what was she thinking? I had no idea what she was trying to do.

“Gaah! Which of you is the real one?”

But Kult was confused too.

The Battle Kult Ship only had Gatling guns on the front in order to concentrate its firepower. And since he couldn’t fire on us both, it looked like he couldn’t decide which “Hibiki” to attack. So...

“Rekka Namidare! You run!” I yelled in Hibiki’s voice.

Kult! You’re a genius, so you should figure it out!

If one of the two Hibikis calls the other “Rekka Namidare,” who’s who?

“So you’re the real one!”

That’s right! Aim at me!

I succeeded in tricking Kult, then turned around to run again. Now all I needed was for the real Hibiki to get as far away as possible...

“No! Come after me!”

Aww, damn it!

I looked behind me as I ran. Hibiki had picked up something from the ground and was holding it high for me to see.

“That’s...! That’s it!”

I changed direction yet again. It felt like I’d been doing that a lot. My ankles were screaming, but I headed for Hibiki while keeping away from the Gatling guns as best I could.

“Wait!” Kult yelled as he followed us in his flying battleship.

But this was the last spurt. I moved my arms and legs as fast as I could, forgetting even to breathe.

And at last, Hibiki was in front of me.

She turned the jewel on what she’d been holding—the ring Kult wore on left hand—and summoned the blue door that led to another world.

“Geh! That’s...!” Kult quickly stopped firing when he saw the blue door. He was probably worried about freezing the ring. “Y-You! When did you get my ring?!”

“You blocked my baton with your left hand, didn’t you? It fell off then.”

So the metallic sound I’d heard was her baton hitting the ring?

“Ngah! G-Give that back!”

“You want it back...?” Hibiki held it high.

“Then go get it!” She hurled the ring as far away as she could.

“Gyaaaaah!” Kult’s screaming grew even louder.

Without that ring, he couldn’t get home.

“Okay, now go!”

“Right!”

While Kult was chasing the ring, Hibiki put her hand on the blue door.

Clackety clack.

“Hmm?”

Hadn’t I heard that noise when I opened the red door? I looked at the doorknob.

“Wait! S-Stop!”

I had an absolutely terrible premonition and tried to stop Hibiki.

“Stop wasting time! The door’s going to disappear!”

But she ignored my hesitation and yanked me through the blue door with her.

Right after, my vision went black.

▽

I woke up just in time to look up and see the blue door disappear.

“My back hurts...”

I must’ve hit it coming through the door.

“Rekka Namidare, are you okay?”

“Hmm? Yeah... Ow.”

Hibiki helped me up. How come she always landed on her feet? I really should’ve had her teach me the trick.

“...Are you really okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.”

“But that wound on your back...”

Oh, she must have meant where the nine-tailed fox got me.

“It’s not that deep. And it’s already stopped bleeding. I’m fine.”

“......” Hibiki fell silent as she looked at my back. “Is that from when you protected me?”

“Hmm? Weren’t you still unconscious then?”

“Kokomo just told me.”

That’s right. They could talk inside her head, couldn’t they?

“Well, just like I said, it’s not that bad. Don’t worry about it.”

“...Hmph.” For some reason, Hibiki turned away from me.

...Had I said something to piss her off again?

I had Kokomo undo the transformation spell. I felt much more at ease in my own body. There were a lot of things different about a girl’s body... Like, um, the breasts and... stuff... No, never mind.

Anyway...

“Moving on...”

“Yeah...”

Hibiki and I both sighed and looked around.

We were in a wasteland. One without so much as a single tree. The land was barren as far as the eye could see.

“Just like I thought, we’re somewhere different now... Is this Earth? Or another world?” Hibiki whispered to herself.

“Yeah, about that...” I raised my hand in response to Hibiki’s whisper.

“What?”

“I just realized that there’s a dial on that doorknob.”

“A dial?”

“Yup. One you can spin.”

“Come to think of it, it did feel like I was spinning something when I turned the doorknob.”

“That dial is probably what decides where the door goes. I accidentally spun it when I opened the red door in Kult’s lab, too.”

“......”

“Wh-What?” I asked.

“Great. In other words, if you hadn’t spun that dial, we could’ve made it back without getting caught up in this unnecessary story.”

She looked like she was ready to kill me. But it wasn’t fair. She hadn’t noticed it either!

Well, whatever. I guess it was still my fault.

“...Hmph.” Hibiki’s shoulders slumped. “There’s no point in just sitting around in an empty wasteland like this. Let’s go, Rekka Namidare.”

“Mm, yeah...”

“Huh? What’s wrong? Is there something on my face?”

“No... I mean, I know it’s a little late for this, but isn’t it kind of a pain to call me by my full name?”

“......”

Maybe it was a little too late, yeah. She looked at me like I was hopeless.

“...rassing, right?”

“Huh?”

“It’s embarrassing to call a boy by his first name.”

This time it was my turn to look astonished.

“Wh-What?! Why are you looking at me like I’m weird?” She stammered.

“I’m not, really...”

Come to think of it, she’d called Kult by his full name, and she’d even asked Kokomo if he had a last name.

“Do you not like men?”

“That’s not it,” she said. “I just never really had a chance to interact with any... Wait, what are you making me say?!”

“Gwah!”

She... She punched me dead in the solar plexus... That might’ve been the worst hit I took all day.

But while we were screwing around, the fox ears on Hibiki’s head suddenly twitched.

“U-Um, guys... I told you stop talking out of my mouth!”

Kokomo tried to say something, but Hibiki cut him off.

“ROAAAAARRRRRRR!”

It was just in time for an earthshaking roar to drown out all of our voices.

“Wh-What?!”

It sounded like someone’s voice... maybe. The way it shook my eardrums and pounded into my brain made it hard to believe somebody was making that noise, but it definitely sounded human.

“It’s coming from over there!” Hibiki yelled.

When I turned in the direction she was pointing, I saw a huge army headed our way. There was a massive group of armed men coming over the horizon... but something was strange about their silhouettes.

“Golden... humanoids?”

They looked like the stick figures you see on emergency exit signs, except a little squished and wider on the sides... They looked like they were made of clay. And each of these golden claymen were holding weapons like spears, bows, swords, and shields as they rushed towards us.

“There are more coming from the other side too!”

I spun around and saw another army of claymen coming up from behind us, just like she said. These ones were white. There were less of them than the golden claymen, but they were holding weapons and screaming too.

No matter how dense I was, even I could tell what was happening... Rather, what was about to happen.

“A war...?”

It was a simple word. It was almost surreal to say it out loud, but that’s what this was. It was happening right in front of me.

“What are you doing? We need to get out of here!”

Hibiki grabbed me by the shoulders and shook me.

“R-Right!”

We ran away from the battlefield as fast as we could.

▽

After just barely escaping the clayman armies, we wandered through the wasteland for hours.

“Hahh... Hahh...”

It was scorching hot, and the sun was burning my skin. Without any shade and without any water, we were running out of energy quickly. Even Hibiki was staggering.

I wanted to take a break, but if Kult managed to find us in a wide-open plain like this, we’d be sitting ducks. We couldn’t afford to stay put.

“...How long do you think it will be before Kult gets here?” I asked Hibiki once I couldn’t walk anymore.

“He’s got the dowsing pendulum, so he should be able to find the ring. He’ll be here eventually.”

“So it’s just a matter of time.”

“Shut up.”

The conversation stopped there.

It was strange, but part of me was looking forward to Kult showing up. If he showed up now, we’d have no way to beat him, but at least I wouldn’t have to walk anymore.

Both Hibiki and I were reaching our mental limits. When you start to get that fatigued, your mind goes in dark directions. For example, I started thinking about my bloodline.

The bloodline of the Namidare caused its bearer to get caught up in stories without a hero, and forced them to play the role of protagonist. At first, I’d thought it was a pain in the neck. But the reality of it turned out to be far worse.

Putting myself in danger was bad enough, but just by being near them, I put the people around me in danger too. Just like a mystery novel where the story doesn’t work without someone near the detective dying, serious things kept happening around me one after the other. It was one thing in fiction, but actually having somebody like that in your life was a different matter entirely. Take Harissa, for example. Even though I once saved her, she was now hurt because of me.

...So was that it, then? If I wanted to avoid hurting anyone, would I have to keep moving? Never make any friends? Just solve stories wherever I went, only to leave behind the people I met along the way? Was that the destiny of a Namidare?

Even if it was only until I grew up, I was still just a kid. There was no way I could handle that. I’d always lived a perfectly normal life until this turned my world upside down. It was like a malignant tumor. I just couldn’t accept it.

I wished it would go away.

This wasn’t normal at all.

Just like Hibiki said, maybe I should let this bloodline go extinct...

As I got lost in my dark thoughts, I suddenly saw a glint of sunlight out of the corner of my eye. Was it a building? If it was a building, did that mean there were people? If there were people, did that mean... there was food?!

Hibiki seemed to notice it as well. The two of us looked at one another.

“...!”

And then we both broke into a run, without so much as bothering to nod at each other.

▽

What we reached seemed to be a forward base belonging to the white claymen. Fortunately, there was nobody around save for a few guards, and we were able to sneak in easily. We used our senses of smell, keen with hunger, to find their provision stores.

“I know it’s too late to ask now, but is it really okay to eat this stuff?”

“Just be glad it wasn’t clay. Shut up and eat,” Hibiki said.

Good point. For now, I would put my stomach over my sense of ethics.

We finished by washing it down with some water. Finally, we were able to take a load off.

“Okay, first we need information. Let’s go, Rekka Namidare.”

“Go where?”

“If this is a clayman base, there should be an armory somewhere. We can find weapons to fight Kult Graphimore there.”

“Weapons, huh? But I don’t think we should use anything too serious...”

“Our goal is just to capture him. And from the look of what we saw on that battlefield, all the claymen have are primitive weapons like swords and bows. I’m actually worried we won’t find anything that can stand up to his Gatling guns...”

“It would be nice if we could talk with him before we fight,” I said.

“He plans to save his world by capturing me and putting me inside the Infinity Reviver. And he’s got more than enough firepower to do it, so there’s no reason for him to negotiate,” she replied.

“That’s true, I guess...”

“Of course, if we had something to offer him, that might change things.” Hibiki’s eyes narrowed, as if she was asking me a question.

Something Kult would want... that would be a way to save Kult’s story. If we had something like that, even Kult would hear us out.

“...”

But unfortunately, I still hadn’t come up with anything.

“Just so we’re clear,” Hibiki said, “my plan is strictly to get Kult to give up on the Infinity Reviver and move his people to another world. I think that’s the best way.”

“I know.”

“Rekka Namidare, if you want to solve this story in your own way, you need to come up with a solution by the next time you see Kult Graphimore.” Her voice was strict as she spoke.

After that, we used Kokomo’s transformation technique to turn into white claymen and left the food storehouse.

“...Hey, shouldn’t we try to hide more?”

“Who do you think is more suspicious: someone walking down the middle of the street, or somebody who’s hiding behind lampposts as they move? Kokomo’s spell made us look just like them, so walk like you’ve got nothing to hide.”

There was a lot of space between the buildings in the base, and there was very little cover on the roads. There was almost nowhere to hide. If anyone came around the corner, we’d be found immediately.

Fortunately, however, nobody had passed by us yet.

...But wait, why were there so few people here? The road was wide, and there were tracks that looked like they’d been made a jeep or something, but we were the only ones on it.

It was good for us... but it was still weird.

“Hey, Hibi...”

And just as I started to say something to her...

“What are you doing there?!”

“!!”

A sudden shout made us both freeze.

“Hey, don’t tell me they found us out...” I muttered.

“Stay calm. Let’s see what happens.”

“Turn around!” the voice yelled from behind us as we whispered.

I turned around, but I was still frozen stiff with tension. As I expected, there was a helmet-wearing clayman standing there.

“The High Leader’s speech has already begun! Get to the parade grounds now!”

His face was nothing but a mouth, with no eyes or nose, so it was hard to read his expression. But I could tell he was mad.

It didn’t look like he’d figured out who we were... but how were we supposed to get through this? As I was freaking out, Hibiki gave a crisp salute.

“Sorry, sir! We were just deployed here yesterday and got lost!”

Wow. She lied without breaking a sweat!

“You’re lost? You must’ve been slacking off during orientation, you maggot!”

“I’m terribly sorry! We’re anxious to attend the High Leader’s speech and would like to get there as soon as possible. I’m sure you’re busy, but can you tell us the way to the parade grounds?”

“Hmph... Fine. Follow me,” the clayman said.

He didn’t look quite satisfied. But perhaps Hibiki’s lie about wanting to hear the speech had paid off, because he motioned for us to follow him as he walked off. He got mad at us a bunch of times on the way, but at least he was none the wiser about who we were.

“...Comrades... We are... at...”

I could hear fragments of what must have been their leader’s voice from the other side of a storehouse. Coming around the corner, I saw a giant field with over a thousand claymen standing in a row. The claymen all looked the same, with the exact same height and shape, so all of them standing in a neat line had an aesthetic quality to it. We joined in at the tail end.

“This is the High Leader’s last speech before the final battle. Listen carefully,” the white clayman said. He then left.

Once I saw that he was gone, I whispered into Hibiki’s ear, “What do we do, Hibiki?”

“We’ll stand out if we move. They think we’re soldiers, so once we’re done with this speech we can just ask them where the armory is.”

She was right. It wouldn’t be strange at all for a soldier to want to go to the armory.

I nodded back at Hibiki. I decided it would be best just to quietly listen to this so-called High Leader’s speech until this gathering was finished.

“Men, you have done well to endure this long war.”

The High Leader was standing on a podium built from wooden boxes. His voice was piercingly loud. If I had been close up, it probably would’ve busted my eardrums.

“Those gilded bastards call us an inferior color, and attack us without cause! But their minds are tainted! They’re worth less than the filthy mud on the ground!”

A rallying cry went down the line in response to his words.

“Hey...” I whispered to the white clayman in front of us.

“Hmm? What is it? Are you the guys who were late?”

“I have a question.”

Hibiki was jabbing me in the ribs and whispering for me to shut my mouth. But I didn’t stop. There was something I needed to know.

“He’s talking about those gold dudes, right? Why are they fighting us?”

“Huh? Why are you asking this now? You heard the High Leader. Those damn goldies say we’re an inferior color. They’re trying to wipe us off the continent because of it.”

“...By color, you mean the color of our skin?”

“Of course! They call us failures who can’t even shine in the light of the sun! They make fun of us, those bastards!”

Can’t shine? That’s... That’s really stupid.

Were they really fighting a war over something so dumb? Well, I guess the stupid ones were the gold claymen for attacking them over something like that.

The white clayman I was talking to seemed to remember something upsetting, because he angrily turned to face forward and started yelling along with the leader’s speech. But eventually, just shouting wasn’t enough for them. The white claymen all started stomping too. Over a thousand pairs of feet stomping hard against the ground literally made the earth shake.

“My brave, pure white soldiers! Are your shouts of anger true? Are you willing to do whatever it takes to teach them a lesson?”

The shaking of the earth grew even stronger.

“Very well. Then I will show you our army’s ultimate weapon.”

There was a loud rumble as the four walls of the storehouse next to the parade grounds collapsed outward.

Inside where the building had been standing was a huge wooden object. It looked something like a big box with things sticking out, but from a distance there was no way to tell what it was supposed to be. There were barely any decorations on it, but the sides were emblazoned with what looked like a relief in the shape of a dragon. For some reason, it reminded me of Lea when she was in Leviathan form.

A big box. And a dragon relief that looked like Leviathan.

That was all I could really see from where I was. Was this the High Leader’s ultimate weapon?

“Its name is ‘Eternal Death Before Defeat.’ It is our ultimate weapon that will send them to hell. It’s loaded with a perpetual motion machine that will create a huge explosion when it goes out of control!”

The soldiers all shouted in joy.

If it exploded when it went out of control, then it was basically a bomb, huh? I couldn’t even imagine how big an explosion from a bomb that size would be. And its power source was...

“Hibiki. Do you think that thing’s really got a perpetual motion machine in it? It all looks like it’s made of wood to me.”

“Well, it doesn’t exist anymore, but they say that years ago, a genius in Europe developed a perpetual motion machine using wheels. It was supposedly made almost entirely out of wood.”

“Which means it’s possible?”

“I don’t know... But I don’t think he’s lying.”

“Why? Maybe he’s just lying to inspire his troops. That’s possible, you know? Maybe they really need it.”

“Were you not listening to the name he gave it?”

“Um...”

Eternal... something or other, right? I remembered it was long and kind of goofy...

“!”

I gasped and looked at the weapon again. It couldn’t be...

“Death before defeat, right? Is there any point in lying if you’re planning to die too?”

I said nothing.

“And look carefully. There are a lot fewer claymen here than the number of gold ones we saw on the battlefield. I think it’s pretty clear that this war is just about over. And the gold claymen are trying to wipe out the white ones... In other words, surrender means death for them.”

There was no way to win and no way to survive. Their last recourse was to take their enemy with them in a huge explosion...

“My heroic comrades! If you can delay the enemy for just a little while longer, the engine loaded inside Eternal Death Before Defeat will reach critical mass and go out of control. It will wipe them out, along with the surrounding area. We will be guided to heaven by the engine and the dragon, who is a servant of God.”

“...You heard him. So what’s the plan, Rekka Namidare?” Hibiki asked.

“The plan?”

“We’ve got a few hours until the explosion. The white claymen will probably do everything they possibly can to buy time. As outsiders, we’re the only ones who can stop it...”

That’s right. We were the only ones who could stop it. The bearers of the Namidare and Banjo bloodlines were the saviors of stories that were headed for bad endings. Getting caught up in a situation where only we could save the day meant that we were already a part of the story.

The claymen’s story... This war.

Could we stop a war that was already underway? With just the two of us? How?

“What the hell do we do now...?”

My whisper was drowned out by the claymen shouting.

▽

We took to hiding inside an empty storehouse.

“......”

“......”

Hibiki and I were lying low in the shadow of a pile of crates, and neither of us said a word. The transformation spell had already worn off.

The war. And “Eternal Death Before Defeat.”

If we believed what the High Leader said, the engine was powerful enough to destroy both the white and gold claymen, as well as the land itself. I didn’t know what kind of perpetual motion machine it was loaded with, but supposedly this thing that could generate infinite energy was going to go berserk... Odds were good that he wasn’t bluffing, either.

If that happened, the claymen’s story would quickly reach a bad end. But what could we do? The white claymen were in bad enough shape that suicide seemed like a reasonable option. Unless we could stop the war, they were definitely going to use the engine.

No, just stopping the war wouldn’t be enough. The root cause of the conflict was apparently color discrimination. If we couldn’t get rid of that prejudice, the same thing would happen all over again even if we put an end to the war.

Was that... Was that something a mere high school kid could do? It was something only a few heroes throughout history had ever accomplished.

...Sure, I’d stopped a space war once. But that was because I’d managed to blackmail the enemy before the war even started. And I’d only been able to get the information I needed in order to do that because Satsuki was there to use the Magic of Omniscience.

I didn’t have any way to stop a war once it had begun. But if I didn’t stop it now, this story was heading for disaster.

One option would be to destroy the engine... No, if I did that and it blew up, we wouldn’t be any better off. I didn’t know anything about disarming bombs.

Iris had access to the latest in space technology. Would she know how to disarm it? Wait, even if I did dismantle Eternal Death Before Defeat, the gold claymen would still just kill all the white claymen.

If Satsuki used her magic to research the claymen’s history, would she be able to find some way to end the discrimination? What about asking Tetra to let the white claymen live in the artificial world in the Hall of Sealing?

...Come to think of it...

I recalled the dragon motif carved into the sides of the huge box. The High Leader had said something about the dragon being a messenger from heaven. Dragons were probably an object of worship for them.

And the dragon in the relief looked just like Leviathan.

“That’s right...”

With her help, I might be able to stop the claymen. But even if I stopped the war, I didn’t know if I’d be able to get rid of the prejudice that caused it in the first place.

“...Wait, what am I thinking?”

None of them were here now. Why was I even thinking about asking them for help? Moreover, I’d already decided not to involve any of them anymore.

I shook my head to shake off the weakness that was creeping into my thoughts.

“I’ll deal with this. Somehow...”

I clenched my hands into fists as if trying to crush my weakness.

“Hibiki... Let’s do this.”

“Do what?”

“What else?” I stood up and pounded my fists on my chest, telling myself I had to fight through the fear. “We’ll deal with all of this! Together!”

“What are you talking about?!” she yelled. Hibiki seemed like she was starting to worry. “Listen, we’re already caught up in two messy stories! We can’t handle any more... And we can’t stop a war!”

“We’re going to stop it anyway.”

“We can’t!” she screamed and shook her head stubbornly.

“Our bloodlines are the last hope for these stories. No matter how hard it gets, we shouldn’t give up until the end.”

“Yeah, that’s the ideal! But I’m telling you to think about what we can realistically do! Get a grip!”

Yeah. She was probably saying the rational thing. But still... I, at least, didn’t want to give up until the end.

“If you say you can’t do it, I’ll just do it myself.”

I tried to show her how resolute I was, but...

“I won’t let that happen!” she yelled back at me loudly.

“H-Hibiki?”

“Solve three stories at once...? The slightest bit of common sense would tell you how dangerous that is!”

“Well, sure, but... I don’t have a choice. I can’t abandon them.”

“Are you trying to get yourself killed?!”

“I’m not... Well, I don’t plan on dying, but I’m willing to take that risk.”

The argument carried on, but for some reason, Hibiki looked like she was starting to cry.

“Huh?”

I wasn’t sure how to handle this unexpected reaction.

“...Are you planning on leaving me alone?”

“Huh?”

“You’re the only person in this world I can be with now!” she yelled as tears started to roll down her cheeks. As soon as they fell, new tears came down to replace them.

“...What do you mean?”

“You don’t understand? You idiot!” she yelled as she cried. “When I hurt my friend, I thought I couldn’t be around anyone ever again. But once I learned what it was like to be with someone, I couldn’t go back to being alone... That’s why I came to you! Even somebody like me can be with you...!”

Hibiki had told me that she’d come to me in order to cut down on the total number of stories that we’d be caught up in. But that wasn’t the real reason... Well, it was probably part of the reason, but she’d finally just admitted to the truth. She couldn’t go back to being alone.

That’s why she came to me? Because she had a “good” reason for being with me?

“How do you think I felt when I came to meet you?!”

Listening to her sob, I remembered the moment I’d decided to go with her.

“...”

What had I been thinking when I looked at her face then? Harissa had just collapsed. I’d realized that I was a threat to the people around me and decided to leave... but hadn’t I felt better knowing that I wasn’t alone? Hibiki was the same way.

“Hibiki... Do you not like the fact that I might die?”

“...”

She nodded.

“Then it’s not that you want to give up on the story because you think it’s impossible, right?”

Another nod.

“I see...”

I nodded back, now understanding what Hibiki was really thinking beneath her cool exterior. I wanted to save all the stories. So did she. She’d only said she didn’t want me getting in over my head with these stories because it might get me killed.

That made things simple.

“I promise you.”

“...?”

“I won’t die.”

I looked straight into Hibiki’s tearful eyes and swore to her.

“No matter what, I promise you I won’t die! I won’t sacrifice myself and leave you behind! Maybe you shouldn’t rely on a normal kid like me, but if you want... I’ll turn into an invincible hero!”

I put as much heart into those words as I could and gave her every reassurance I could think of.

“Please! I won’t die! So don’t give up until the very end!”

Hibiki wasn’t really such an unfeeling person. If she were, how would she have been able to leave behind her only friend even when it tore her up inside? So...

“Hibiki, please, fight with me.”

“...”

Hibiki looked down hesitantly and blinked several times.

“...Just this once.” Her voice was hoarse. “Just this once, I’ll... fight with you till the end.”

“Really?!”

“Yeah. But if I think you might die, I’m gonna drag you out of there kicking and screaming if I have to.”

“I’ll do my best.”

I laughed at Hibiki’s joke.

She seemed to relax for a moment, but then her expression turned serious again.

“Listen. Keep your promise, okay? You’re the invincible hero of my story.”

“Got it.”

And so we made a promise to each other.

All right, it was time to do this. We were going to solve these stories together.