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“That was a bluff, by the way!” Mutsuko said offhandedly.

“Huh? What?” Aiko and Mutsuko had been watching the battle since arriving at Kanako’s side.

“He called it ultimate, but it’s not, not really,” Mutsuko explained. “It’s not even close to complete, and he needs a lot more training! But see, the buildup declaration is part of the move. It puts the opponent on high alert. Then, when they’re tense all over, you strike!”

“Um, what about her defensive membrane thing? Shouldn’t it have bounced off of that?” Aiko asked as she tried to touch Mutsuko, finding she was able to do so without resistance. Makina’s defeat had loosened her power’s grip upon them.

“It seemed to be a force deflection field, so you just have to use a punch so straightforward that the force can’t be redirected,” said Mutsuko. “Well, that’s part of the ‘ultimate strike’ thing. It’s sort of like hitting a sphere at its very center!”

Aiko decided there was no point in acting shocked anymore, so she decided to ask about another point that had puzzled her. It was about Yuichi’s statement that you could move even after your heart stopped.

“I mean... wouldn’t having your heart stop kill you?” Aiko asked. That’s what her common sense told her, and it was likely that anyone would agree.

“You can keep moving for quite a while, even after your heart stops,” said Mutsuko. “I hear brown bears can keep moving around and attacking people after they’re shot in the heart, and a lion shot at 200 meters can still have enough force to pounce on a hunter!”

“Right, but... Sakaki is a human being...” Aiko faltered. To be frank, she was starting to doubt whether that were true.

“Even a human can move for about ten seconds, y’know?” said Mutsuko. “It’s just it’s hard to move properly unless you train for it. Without a flow of blood to the brain, you black out really quickly. Your body starts to stiffen and turns heavy, like you’re all tied up with weights. Your breathing turns shallow and it’s hard to fill your lungs, like you just ran the hundred meters while holding your breath, and when you finally try to breathe in, you don’t have the strength.”

“You make it sound like you’ve experienced it yourself...” Aiko could hardly believe her ears, but she had a sneaking suspicion that Mutsuko’s words had the weight of experience behind them.

“That’s woman power!” Mutsuko declared. “I’ve tried it a bunch of times! Hey, you want to have a near-death experience sometime too, Noro?”

“No, thank you. I’ll pass,” Aiko demurred forcefully. So her sneaking suspicion had been right.

“Human limits are a lot higher than you think!” Mutsuko proclaimed. “The key is just getting used to them! Training can let you move to some degree even after your heart stops, and there’s a huge difference in what you can do when you’re having your heart stopped for the first time, and after you’ve had a ton of experience with it!”

“Oh, okay. So it’s just a thing you have to get used to, huh?” Aiko deadpanned.

“He also has to train for how to stop his opponent’s heart, and that’s hard to get the hang of unless you train on yourself!” Mutsuko added excitedly. “It’s really useful practice for moving your body to its utmost limits, too! Hey, I bet Yu could get into the Guinness Book of World Records for number of times his heart stopped!”

It seemed to Aiko that Yuichi would probably not want to have that memorialized.

“Anyway, should we really be standing here talking about this?” Aiko asked. “Sakaki was acting so scary... do you think he really killed her?” She had no idea what had happened to Makina after he’d hit her.

“Well, it’s no skin off my nose if she dies, personally,” said Mutsuko. “But Yu’s a big softie, so he probably didn’t go that far! The stuff about killing was all part of the bluff!”

“Really?” Aiko asked, feeling relieved. Even from this distance, she could tell just how angry he had been. The thought that he might kill her hadn’t seemed implausible.

“Um, so what should we do? Should we go in there?” Aiko asked, pointing to the Black Tower. It seemed like they should check on how they were doing.

“I think it’s okay,” Mutsuko said. “Look, Yu’s back!”

Yuichi walked towards them, holding Natsuki in one arm. He gently laid her down next to the girls. His leg was feeling better, so he wasn’t dragging it anymore.

“Is it okay to assume the situation is resolved?” Yuichi checked with Mutsuko.

“Good question!” she answered. “It looks like Makina’s ability has lost effect, but what about this castle? It’s Orihara’s...”

Mutsuko trailed off as she looked up at the ceiling. Dust and small pebbles were starting to rain down on them.

“Orihara, do you know what’s going on?” Yuichi asked, nervously. If this castle was the product of Kanako’s imagination, she should have some idea.

“Um... I feel like it’s slipped out of my hands... I don’t feel like I can use magic anymore...” Kanako said, apologetically. The label above her head had returned to “Isekai Fanatic.”

The corridor let out a creak. The floor began to undulate, as if the hall were twisting around them. One of the pillars fell, letting out a leaden sound, and larger pieces of rubble began to fall.

“Ah, how to put it... I feel like we’ve been through this before?” Aiko said, and they all traded a look.

“It’s breaking down! What a cliché!” Mutsuko cried, with a strange note of delight in her voice.

“Sis, take Takeuchi and go on ahead!” Yuichi shouted.

“Hey! What are you gonna do, Yu?”

“I’m going to get Shikitani,” he said. “She might be a creep, but I couldn’t sleep at night knowing I’d left her to die.”

“What about the damage you took?” Mutsuko asked.

“As long as I’m not dead, I can keep going. I’ll be fine. You know that much, right?” Yuichi said, smiling confidently.

“Yeah! I know that best of all, even if you don’t tell me! So, let’s go! I’ll carry Takeuchi!” Mutsuko hefted Natsuki onto her back and began to stride towards the White Tower without looking back. Aiko started to follow her, then noticed that Kanako wasn’t next to her anymore.

“Orihara?” Aiko turned back.

Kanako had run past Yuichi, and for some reason, she was heading for the Black Tower.

“Noro! Let Yu handle her! Let’s go!” Mutsuko called.

“O-Okay!” Despite her hesitance, Aiko seemed to decide to trust Yuichi, and she hurried along her way.

Yuichi pursued Kanako in a panic.

He wasn’t at his best right now, and moving around took a lot of effort. He could probably move all right if he wrung out the last of his power, but this didn’t seem like the time for that yet.

As he arrived inside the Black Tower, he could see the gray walls and ceiling beginning to crumble. He could see the school building, inverted, through the cracks in the walls.

Kanako was standing next to Makina, holding her staff aloft.

It would be easy for him to jump out and stop her. But he didn’t. She wouldn’t die from one hit with a staff. And in his opinion, given what Makina had done to her, Kanako had the right to strike her.

Kanako shut her eyes tight and swung the staff down. But it didn’t hit Makina.

The staff suddenly disappeared in a puff of smoke, and Kanako’s witch outfit followed.

Kanako opened her eyes and looked around in panic.

Yuichi walked up to Kanako’s side. “Orihara. If you really want her to pay for what she did, let me do it. You don’t need to dirty your own hands.”

“I don’t know... suddenly, the idea that it’s all her fault... it’s all stopped seeming real. But...” she rambled, sounding disoriented. It was probably hard for her to know what to be angry at.

“I know it’s not my place to suggest this... but why not focus on the future?” Yuichi asked. “I don’t think she’ll interfere in your destiny anymore. And if you have anything more to say to her, you can give her an earful after she wakes up.”

Yuichi knew that there were probably better ways to comfort the girl, but this was the best he could think of.

“There are probably other people like her,” Kanako said worriedly. “If they come after me, will you protect me again, Yuichi?”

“I’ll pound every one of them into the dirt,” Yuichi promised, relieved that Kanako wasn’t inclined to argue. “I’ll keep proving that destiny is what we make of it.”

Even so, the castle was falling apart as they spoke. Yuichi looked towards the tower door, and saw that the corridor had completely collapsed. There was no way they could reach the roof of the school like this.

The Black Tower itself was already half gone. He could see night sky through the floor. If they fell from here, gravity might reverse, and they’d end up back in the castle.

Yuichi hefted Makina up on one arm, then tossed her through a hole in the wall.

“Huh?” Kanako’s mouth fell open in shock.

He had to acknowledge that it probably did look a little heartless, even if he had just punched her in the stomach.

“It’s okay,” he reassured her. “We’re not up that high, and she’s hard to kill.”

Yuichi looked up to check that Makina was “falling” towards the athletics field above them, and it seemed that the gravity did indeed reverse the minute they left the castle walls. Makina hit the field, but there was no explosion of blood around her, suggesting that she was probably still alive.

“Orihara, are you okay with jumping down?” he asked, though even if she said she wasn’t, they didn’t have much of a choice.

Fortunately, Kanako nodded obediently, and walked up to Yuichi.

“I’ll be holding you, so you’ll be safe,” Yuichi said. “Yeah, that’s right. Like you held me before— huh?”

Kanako was squeezing him tightly. It wasn’t really any different from what Aiko had done when he’d jumped off the roof with her, but this time — perhaps because he had more time to think about it — it made him feel a little self-conscious.

“Okay. Ready?” He wrapped Kanako’s legs around his waist, then jumped out from the wall.

Immediately, gravity reversed, and they fell towards the athletic field.

It was his second time and he was used to it, so Yuichi easily reoriented himself and hit the ground with his five-point fall.

“Are you okay?” Yuichi asked. He set Kanako down on the ground and checked her over.

“Yeah... falling wasn’t as bad as I imagined it.” Kanako smiled.

Yuichi, feeling bashful, looked up at the sky. As the upside-down castle crumbled, it also became fainter, slowly fading into the night sky.

Yuichi let out a breath of relief. It seemed like it was all over.

He looked back to the school and saw Mutsuko and Aiko running towards them.