Editing The Unexplored Summon Blood Sign:Volume7 Chapter3 (section)

===Part 11===

It was a simple matter.

An extremely simple matter.

The double blonde braid girl’s face lit up and she leaned forward. She showed no concern for the slender bodylines visible through her school swimsuit or the small butt visible below her miniskirt and pareo.

“Oh, Queen! You finally decided to reveal it?”

“That’s right! I was actually the White Queen☆ Tah dah! Sigh, so I can finally talk like normal again. That was partially to get in character as that piece of junk, but I was also concerned some small idiosyncrasy would clue you in.”

The demon dressed as a shrine maiden giggled at the girl’s idolizing voice, smiled at her like she was her beloved daughter, and raised her index finger.

What was it Olivia had said with that light pink rose decoration on her chest?

''“Boo. If you were always like this, you wouldn’t have to fight with the White Queen.”

What had she been looking at when she said that?

What had she felt while watching those two approaching and relying on each other?

“It is true Bridesmaid’s fortress was laid out exactly like a temple to summon me. …But ''that doesn’t mean it was used to summon me.''”

The shrine maiden devil’s tone was light as she worked at her long hair.

She gathered it on either side and formed those lovely twintails.

It made sense that the reproduction had been so spot-on.

It had actually been her.

“I was summoned earlier than that. And I ''traded places with that ornament named Meinokawa Aoi''.”

“…!!”

“Oh, dear. Your face is so very pale. But please don’t faint. One of my objectives here was to set up an environment in which you must rely on me, brother. That was the entire purpose of Bridesmaid’s attack and the infected Queens. The only way out of this is to rely on the new Unexplored-class you constructed and I have placed myself by your side as the one-and-only special vessel capable of summoning it. Heh heh. You need my help to kill me; isn’t that such a wonderfully twisted setup?”

Sweat poured down Kyousuke’s body and he staggered to the side.

But more than fear or pain, it was doubt in his gaze.

The shrine maiden Queen picked up on that and answered with a know-it-all look on her face.

“You want to know if a Material like me can really function as a vessel? Hee hee hee. Have you forgotten, brother!? The Yellow Gills is merely one of the Three and thus ranked below me, but she once reigned as the strongest Freedom summoner under the name Perfect Equilibrium. Besides, a human changes sides after reaching Award 1000, so the distinction between us has always been rather vague. …And more importantly, I can throw out all of those rules if I want. ''There is nothing I can’t do''. Right, brother?”

Every time they grew further cornered and the density of despair grew, Kyousuke was forced to rely on a grand technique for an immediate reversal. And unbeknownst to him, the White Queen had set it up that way so he would have to rely on her more and more.

Even the presence of Doctor S, Kyousuke’s biological father who awaited him in the underside of the world, had been no more than part of the illusionist’s technique.

There was no force greater than the White Queen. So normally thinking, she would not need a summoner, no matter how skilled they might be. She had nevertheless worked with Bridesmaid because she had wanted to place an obvious enemy in the cast to keep him from focusing too much on Meinokawa Aoi.

“Nowww, I have taken away your special vessel and the dominant arm you need to use the Blood-Sign Summoning Ceremony in the first place.”

She giggled as a lovely smile wickedly spread across her face like it was tearing her cheeks apart.

No checkmate could be more complete.

She softly placed her hands on either side of her flushed and thoroughly melted face as a tremor ran down her spine.

“What options are left for you? Surely, surely this isn’t enough for you to raise the white flag. Yes, if you say you have no option but to surrender, it will be time for the world’s most enjoyable beatdown as I make a delicious meal out of you!!”

There was nothing he could do.

All of his trump cards had been taken from him and the cruise ship was surrounded by a swarm of infected Queens.

Any one of those strongest of the strongest possessed hopeless power and he was entirely surrounded.

There was simply no way he could win.

However, he said something else:

[[Image:BloodSign_v07_303.jpg|thumb]]

“''I had a feeling that’s what this was.''”

The ship continued to slide across the ground, but time definitely stopped.

Something odd had happened.

“Everything about this had to be connected. Ever since the initial attack on the train, I was stuck with the same odd feeling that I was following some kind of preset rails. And when I ran across Olivia Highland and the rocket attack, it became clear that human willpower could ignore coincidental phenomena…that is, as long as you had the willpower, you were guaranteed to win a lottery. So why did Bridesmaid set that up and what were they hoping to have me complete using my willpower? The answer was obvious: they were supporting the construction of Meinokawa Aoi. And at the same time, Bridesmaid only ever thinks about one thing: the White Queen. That meant they had constructed this coincidence-altering world in accordance with the Queen’s will. So ''turning Meinokawa Aoi into a special vessel'' and manipulating coincidence to gather the necessary pieces were the Queen’s objectives that those worshipers were carrying out for her. What other conclusion could I reach?”

His supposedly severed right arm grew out of his sleeve.

No…

“Brother, you mean…?”

“I knew this would happen, so I had ''a different arm'' in my sleeve. You already know what it was you tore off, don’t you? I have to admit, the Joruri Method really is well made. I mean, it fooled you.”

Kyousuke’s expression remained unchanged.

It did not change even in front of the White Queen.

Also, an Incense Grenade was only useful if it detonated while viewing the target with the naked eye. Then what target had Kyousuke been viewing?

“I’ll admit I kept the information on my trump cards relatively hidden. And that left you feeling nervous and uneasy, didn’t it?”

“Brother, I know this won’t accomplish anything, but I suppose I will still ask: when did you figure it out…?”

“This is nothing worth praising me over. I was of two minds on this the entire time. I kept thinking ‘surely not’ and ‘it couldn’t be’. First of all, you maintained your memories of me even before the contract. Like when you moved out of sight to change. But I still had my doubts: could that be because she’s a Joruri Method? So just to be sure, I kept the crucial information hidden while hoping beyond hope that it wasn’t true. ''My heart is still weak''. …But the first time I clearly questioned it was probably when you were playing with those kids in the river.”

“Playing…in the river?”

“You made a water gun with your hands, remember? There are a lot of regional variations, so you can tell where someone learned their technique. Hey, Queen, wasn’t that ''the method I taught you'' back in the Miniature Garden? At the Pool of Tears.”

“Tch!!”

“And even if you have taken the position of Meinokawa Aoi, it isn’t over yet. That doesn’t actually eliminate the Unexplored-class designed for use against you. This isn’t a problem as long as I can acquire a replacement vessel. Meaning…”

He held something in his regrown right hand…no, in the real one hidden inside his clothing.

It was a glass container about the size of a relay baton. It was filled with a beautiful red liquid that could be mistaken for a melted ruby.

That was the Jewel Blood.

“This all changes if I can make another one. What we needed here was to locate the permanently-summoned Queen that acts as a core for the infected Queens. We needed to find that one out of a group of ten or twenty thousand. While, of course, maintaining an environment in which we could supply a finishing blow using our new Material.”

There was an odd sound much like the breaking of a thin metal blade.

There was no visible phenomenon.

But that sound indicated that Kyousuke had broken his contract with Meinokawa Aoi…no, with the White Queen.

And even after casting her aside, he still had a vessel girl by his side:

Olivia Highland.

All destiny in this world was under the White Queen’s control. But Shiroyama Kyousuke’s willpower had still managed to gather that crystallization of an old, old bond.

His odds of victory were not zero.

So he spoke.

“Thanks, Queen. It really helped that you were even dumber than I had imagined.”