Editing The Unexplored Summon Blood Sign:Volume5 Chapter1 (section)

===Part 1===

Kyousuke was faced by an unbelievable reality.

“I dyed my hair pink.”

“…”

Biondetta’s flowing hair had been blonde before, but she had suddenly taken a step into the realm of fantasy. And it was more than just her hair that had left reality. She had cow-like horns on her head and an arrow-shaped tail on her butt. It badly clashed with her chemical-colored surgical gown.

The 15 children’s living space in the Miniature Garden’s Inner Circle had a number of spaces used for socializing. Kyousuke frowned inside one of those which seemed larger than two school classrooms.

“What in the world is this?”

“It’s called preparation.” Biondetta tried to act like the big sister, but the innocence of her smile overshadowed it. “The Queen of Hearts – that is, Kyoumi – has some unexpected skills. Of all things, she says she can make clothes all on her own! She’s going around taking requests right now. It won’t be long until I can say goodbye to ''this skimpy thing covered in knots.''”

“Hm? Aren’t there tons of clothes in the walk-in closet?”

“…You want me to choose from ''there''?”

Despite being underground, the Miniature Garden was supplied well enough that they could play baseball or soccer if they wanted to. The stock of clothing was stacked up in giant piles. …Yes, it was just like a giant warehouse at a port used for exporting goods.

But…

“With all that surrounding me, I get dizzy. I don’t want to get anywhere near that closet anytime soon. I really do feel like I’ll get los-…I mean, get stranded while surrounded by all those piles of clothes.”

“So when you have too many choices, you end up unable to make a decision?”

“Hm?”

“Oh, nothing.”

Kyousuke and the rest of the 15 were not restricted in their life cycle. They could get up when they wanted, eat what they wanted, and do what they wanted. There was no schedule like a school’s class schedule or a prison’s work schedule.

Nevertheless, most of them, including Kyousuke, were still wearing the surgical gowns they had been initially given. There were no windows and the concepts of morning and night meant little here, but they mostly functioned on a 24 hour schedule, got up at about the same time, and spoke with the others they got along with.

There was nothing rewarding or punishing them, so the adults were only manipulating them by having them enter that “framework” of their own free will.

This experiment was meant to turn the 15 of them into a single family.

Whether she had noticed that or not, Biondetta continued with an innocent smile.

“Instead of trying on an endless number of combinations like I’m brute-forcing a password, Kyoumi says she can create the image I have in my head! You should go speak with her too.”

“I’m fine with anything as long as it’s easy to move in…”

It sounded like this would be the next trend, so Kyousuke made his decision a lot like checking the weather before deciding if he would hang the laundry out to dry.

Biondetta giggled in her short surgical gown.

“Kyoumi would be upset if she heard you say that.”

“But won’t it be a lot of work for her if everyone asks her?”

“Not at all. She likes doing it, so she’ll be upset if you take the chance away from her.”

Was that how it worked?

Kyousuke’s eyes mechanically dilated as he discovered another correction to make in the future.

And then a floral scent tickled his nose. The next thing he knew, he felt something soft on his back. Someone seemed to have hugged him from behind. They wrapped their arms around his head, so he saw feminine arms passing over his shoulders and draping down to his chest.

He turned his head in her arms.

And what did he find?

The white clothing and silver twintails of a Queen with incredible pow-

A pink-haired girl with a welcoming smile that seemed to cover her entire face.

“Oh, ''Kyoumi''!”

“Heh heh. I made this before anything else.”

When he called her name, the girl responded with a smile brimming with humanity.

She had somewhat drooping black eyebrows and a lively face. She looked nothing like a being spoken of in legends. She must have made a pattern from scratch, cut the cloth herself, taken apart clothing from the humongous closet, and incorporated pieces of those. She wore a luxurious wedding dress with pieces cut away and it ''glittered with plenty of red, green, and yellow plastic decorations dangling from it.

[[Image:BloodSign v05 047.jpg|thumb]]

She was Shiroyama Kyoumi.

She was one of the 15 and her card was the Queen of Hearts.

She was about two sizes taller than Kyousuke and Biondetta and she would probably be in high school in the outside world. She had prepared an alternative outfit as part of her hobby, but it may have also been because she had not liked how the surgical gown had shown off her growing bodylines.

“There are a lot of paintings and sculptures in the materials room near the Mock Battlefield, remember? I based it on those. What do you think? If I can reproduce this so well, you can be deadly sure I can answer any of your requests, right?”

“…”

The “White” Queen who Wields the Sword of Unsullied Truth (iu – nu – fb – a – wuh – ei –kx – eu – pl – vjz).

''The being that Kyousuke had carelessly caught a glimpse of during battle even though she could not be summoned intentionally.

Like a tornado, she could be seen by coincidence, but the details of how she appeared were not fully understood. Three of the truly powerful had joined together and arrived one thin layer away from the front line to deal with that ultimate threat. Only people at that level could see the threat lurking behind the radiant light. And Kyoumi was dressed up as that being.

“Hmm? Your pulse is racing, you dirty little boy.”

“Kyoumi-san, you don’t have to get so close.”

“Just call me Kyoumi. And I deadly mean it. Add the ‘-san’ and I’ll punish you like this☆”

She started rubbing her cheek up against him.

Kyousuke was helpless and sighed quietly, but Biondetta seemed to notice.

“What is it?”

“Well…we’ve been here for a while now, but it’s always the same people that end up gathering together.”

The 15 were still divided into a few groups and they frequently spoke with the others in their group, but they barely interacted with anyone outside it.

“I was just wondering if this is what you would call a family.”

“Who knows. I mean, we were ''sold off''. We don’t have an example of an average and normal family.”

There was no sarcasm or scorn in her voice. Biondetta truly sounded puzzled.

Kyousuke turned his head and only saw a troubled smile from Cosplay Kyoumi.

“It’s not like the other groups are all that different, though.”

“Oh, you went around taking requests, didn’t you!?”

Biondetta gave a beaming smile like that was a huge discovery. Unlike her or Kyousuke, Kyoumi made appearances in all of the groups.

But Kyoumi ended up settling down in this group. They had decided where she belonged and she would only “visit” the other groups.

“Hey, Kyoumi. Do you think this structure is a success for the grownups?”

“Something might be happening soon. Something deadly.”

The Queen of Hearts finally left Kyousuke’s back as she said that.

Perhaps because he had dropped the “-san” as she asked.

“After all, they said they would put us through trials and disasters to break down the barriers between us and turn us into a single family. Maybe they’re checking where the gaps between us are while they adjust things to fill those in. They might be using a supercomputer or something.”

It was like gathering everyone in a movie theater to have them all face the same direction and shed the standardized tears.

Or like taking each other’s hands to board the lifeboat while escaping a sinking ship.

“More importantly, I visit all of the groups, so I have a lot of information on all 15 of us. And if you ask me, Kyousuke, you’re a flashing yellow light right now. You should be careful.”

“?”

When he tilted his head a little, Shiroyama Kyoumi presented an extremely realistic problem despite her otherworldly outfit.

“You’re breeding some jealousy. Especially from that berserker, the Hatter. You need to be deadly careful.”