Editing BlazBlue:Phase 0 Chapter 6 (section)

===Part 1===

Deep underground, the Cauldron with its mouth opened had its somewhat cool heat drifting upward. Presently, an unexpectedly solemn mood enveloped it.

Even if the illuminations from the connected metals the people had especially made weren't turned on, the overwhelming red flame was enough to get a good view.

Just how deep was the Sheol Gate burrowed within it?

With the flame being projected around the vicinity of his vision, Ragna stopped the feet that had been slowly moving forward.

He looked around. Looking for the owner of the voice from before.

He knew whose voice it was. A sweet voice with youth and bewitchment mixed in.

"You're here, right...? Rachel!"

Ragna's voice vanished as it was absorbed by the tall ceilings. An existence that had surpassed mankind was looking down from somewhere, probably digging up for some entertainment.

As the air flowed, a sweet aroma tickled Ragna's nose. It was the fragrance of roses.

Ragna looked over his shoulder with his mouth distorted. His sharp canines stood out like bare fangs.

"There, huh? Don't look down on people."

On a part of bare bedrock with the wallboards peeled off, as if she was sitting, she had her small legs crossed. A young girl clad in a black dress was floating.

"It has been a long time."

With an innocent voice, she smiled. The young girl was surrounded by winds that had a rose fragrance. Then she elegantly stood up.

The Cauldron's illumination, enriched with bright-red light, carved a shadow from the young girl's ribbons. The silhouette looked like a rabbit.

Ragna felt that something was out of place in her appearance.

2106 AD. The Rachel Alucard in this period should have still been a child and not yet acquainted with Ragna. But young appearance or not, did she have an unusual air of a know-it-all like the Rachel Alucard who stood before Ragna now had?

"Fufu," said her as a fingertip touched her small lips. Rachel had revealed a grown-up laughter that felt inappropriate.

"You are such a fool. Where do you think we are? ...We are currently near the Boundary."

With just that, she spoke as if it contained all the reasons for it. But surely it wasn't convincing enough for him.

This location was closer to the Boundary compared to any other place.

As if dragging out Ragna's lost memories, Rachel's existence must have made all information he had obtained flowing into him again.

Basically, the 'Rachel' Ragna was confronting now was the 'Rachel' from his period. She was the same as the one in the information which his memories carried.

"What kind of business bothered you to call me? You know this already, but I'm kinda busy right now."

"Of course. I'm confident that it's about Kushinada's Lynchpin. The mankind in this era certainly created something intriguing."

"You saw everything, huh?"

She probably watched the arguing when Shuuichirou Ayatsuki passed away and the encounter with Hakumen before it. It didn't feel too nice being constantly monitored from somewhere.

"Good timing. Since you're the Rachel Alucard I know, I got something for you to hear."

Her bright red eyes urged him to proceed.

"During the Dark War, there should have been a time when the Black Beast didn't appear for about a year."

If Ragna's knowledge wasn't wrong, it was in 2107 AD. Just in a year, humanity had been given a recess.

"Was that... the Kushinada's Lynchpin's doing?"

Carefully, Ragna deliberately examined Rachel's facial expression.

The elegant little girl swiped her bangs with her fingers and looked at a distance. It was difficult to look for her real motive and intention from her plain, expressionless face.

"I wonder that myself."

"Anyhow, you know it, don'tcha? Don't be such a stuck-up."

Unable to hide his irritation, Ragna drew closer. At that, Rachel's young eyes looked at him as she smiled.

"You are surprisingly desperate about it. What could be the reason?"

"Huh? I'm not talking about that right now."

"Do you feel bothered regarding the child that's about to become a sacrifice of the lynchpin? What a devotion."

Rachel's tone of voice which contained amazement had tiny thorns like what a rose had.

Ragna drew his eyebrows close. Her mocking attitude ticked his irritation.

"I said, it doesn't matter now!"

"Naturally, you should not exist in this period. Even without your doing anything, this period will turn history by its choices."

As If pouring cold water to the impatient Ragna, Rachel coldly told him. Her overseeing red pupils that were looking up at him made Ragna take a deep breath as he reflexively extinguished his vigor.

"...And yet, are you still denying it?"

The whisper penetrated the gap within his heart like it was nothing.

It was as if her eyes were testing him.

Ragna held his breath for a moment. He stared at the young vampire, challenging her.

"What can I do?"

There should be something. He recalled Clavis' words.

There must be a duty he had to accomplish in this period, guided by fate. He wasn't planning to feign romanticism, but presently, he couldn't help thinking as if those words were an undeniable truth.

And if the duty really existed... he felt that it would be now.

He wanted it to be now.

Dropping her cynical gaze from that sort of Ragna, Rachel's feet slowly hovered from the ground. She then nimbly approached the Cauldron.

"First, I will show you the possibility."

With the floating tiptoes facing the Boundary, Rachel stood as if she was a needle of a clock. She held her small hand above the swirling lava and looked down on it silently.

"This is the year of 2106 AD, the period which will be called as the Dark War by the life to come. It was the era when humanity had to confront a downfall crisis since the Black Beast had appeared from the Boundary."

Rachel's fingertip moved smoothly as if she were tracing something.

"Thus the time flowed, and it became 2200 AD, the time when you lived in. The Black Beast had been felled in the past, and it became the period when people were safe and prospering."

The black dress fluttered above the Cauldron. Rachel turned around to face Ragna.

Either the soaring magic or the wind she had manipulated made her golden hair and big ribbons sway.

"This is the tale of the beginning, ''Phase 0''. No one is able to intervene with this tale. ...But for one thing, there is an exception for the existence that had slipped in. As an indispensable existence in this period, if that outsider comes into contact with the Black Beast, what do you think will happen?"

When that kind of situation really happened, what would occur? Nobody knew. Of course, so did Rachel.

Therefore, it was not an answer. It was no more than a possibility.

"You are not a person of this period. Therefore, it is fine for you to remain a spectator while the history is being drawn. You know that your intervention is unnecessary, yet you can still challenge it. ...The choice is yours to choose. However... please remember well the time when you received that sword."

While listening to Rachel's words, Ragna glanced around himself, as if pulling something to him. What he was staring at was the direction of the dark solid bedrock. What couldn't be seen from here was the hidden room where the lynchpin slept in.

What was there was the figure of a girl. It floated within his mind.

A girl who had never doubted people, and never considered the consequences. She helped a suspicious person who was collapsed and dying. She helped the wild animals which were attacked by him.

She said that she was searching for her father. She confidently bragged about her family members.

Indeed, it didn't mean that the family members' humanity wasn't questionable, but he felt that they were a great family.

To unhesitatingly call that family as her family with affection, he felt jealous about it.

"Aah, that's right."

Returning his gaze from the hidden room back to Rachel who was above the Cauldron, Ragna curled his lips into a fearless smile.

"No need to choose. You knew it even if I didn't say it, you wicked rabbit."

"As usual, your etiquette is unbecoming."

Retorting back with sarcasm thrown, Rachel dropped her gaze once again. The expression that floated on her for an instant resembled a pouting child displaying her disappointment.

As Ragna had said, she knew it from the beginning. And then...

"...And then I will only observe, as always."

She dropped to a faint murmur.

The choice that Ragna would choose when thinking about that single girl. Although she knew it without needing to hear it, it didn't feel interesting for a bit.

But she wasn't childish enough to be unhappy. Rachel had enigmatic light within her red pupils again. Slowly, her chin rose.

"...It seems I cannot stay for too long. It will arrive soon."

Like descending from a stage, Rachel got down from above the Cauldron to face Ragna.

The impression from the manner of her words made Ragna lower his eyebrows.

"Arrive? What will?"

"It will be clear before long."

With a graceful smile that was carved on the red lips, Rachel once again kicked the floor. Like flower petals dancing in the wind, she soared. She floated to the same place where she was in the beginning and looked down on Ragna.

"...Until the end, please do well to keep me entertained while I'm at my own place."

Shaking the halted time, a wind carrying rose fragrance danced. Taking along the fragrance that induced dizziness, the little figure of Rachel disappeared.