Editing The Unexplored Summon Blood Sign:Volume1 Chapter1 (section)

===Part 2===

Shiroyama Kyousuke walked through the streets alone after leaving Aika’s luxury apartment.

It was already past midnight, but this was the giant amusement park known as Toy Dream 35. Simply put, the concepts of “good morning” and “good night” did not exist here. Bright lights flashed on Ferris wheels and roller coaster tracks, projectors displayed countless images on building walls, fireworks were launched from the boats anchored out at sea, and laser art colored the night sky along with those fireworks.

“This is Sergeant Howard’s AR Survival Game! Don’t you want to take part in a shootout in a thermal power plant!? 100 toy chips to play. The line starts here!!”

“If you want to have some fun at the Royal Casino, follow the red rabbit’s instructions. Only 300 toy chips a game.”

“Gozaru, gozaru. I am the Gozaru Samurai!”

Everything from bunny girls suggestively showing off their bodylines to strange costumed characters were walking back and forth. It was impossible to tell who was a worker and who was a tourist.

However, Kyousuke’s location was odd.

It was something like a giant land bridge connecting two high-rise buildings. The structures were sometimes seen near train stations, but they seemed to fill every nook and cranny of this city.

Directly below was the dark seawater decorated by neon and laser art. There was no concept of “ground” here. The intelligently designed buildings stuck directly out of the ocean. The first and second floors were all covered in glass, creating a half-natural aquarium. Pirate ships and Japanese-style yakatabune moved freely through the giant canals that existed in place of roads.

Directly above were several more similar bridges. In this theme park city, you could look up and see the fireworks from almost anywhere.

While Shiroyama Kyousuke thought about that, he heard a jangling noise.

He turned around and saw a girl ringing a hand bell in a miniskirt Santa outfit even thought it was an April night.

“Jan, jan, jan! Congratulations on being the two millionth person to cross this bridge. Now, now, now. As a small prize, you will receive-… Oh, it’s Shiroyama-kun.”

“Huh? Is that you, Librarian-chan? A Santa girl in the early spring? Going on the attack, are we?”

“I’m your classmate, so try to remember my name. Oh, and this is a joint campaign with ‘The Santa Girl who Couldn’t Get Home’. It’s playing now, so head on over to the nearest movie theater. You can still make the late show.”

“…I didn’t want to know that.”

“Oh, and please don’t let the school know about this. I don’t want them to know I’m working part-time.”

Before even getting to the school rules, Japan’s laws forbade minors from working late at night, but this was Toy Dream 35. The division wasn’t as clear as a fenced-off foreign military base, but the rules were still different here.

Kyousuke accepted a box wrapped like something from a Christmas sales war, waved toward the student librarian who clasped her hands in front of her face in a “Please!” pose, and began walking once more.

But he soon came to another stop.

He turned around to find Meinokawa Higan standing there on the verge of tears in her shrine maiden outfit. She had her hands on her elbows and was gasping for breath.

“Pant, pant… W-wait. Please wait!”

“Do you need something?”

“I…I told you my sister’s in trouble, didn’t I? I’m a vessel and, um, you’re a summoner. If we update our contracts, we can work together and go help my sister. So…!!”

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“But.” Kyousuke leaned against the giant bridge’s railing. “That’s what ''you'' want. I have no reason to risk my life here. Or are you saying you have a reason for me?”

“I-I’m, um…!!”

Higan shouted within the crowd while grabbing the center of her shrine maiden outfit’s vermilion skirt.

“''I’m wearing striped panties!!!!!!''”

A mysterious sound effect followed her announcement.

A pirate ship in the canal below seemed to have fired a blank from its cannon.

Shiroyama Kyousuke did not understand in the slightest, so he asked an honest question.

“U-um… Do shrine maidens even wear underwear? Part-time ones aside, I thought the legit ones traditionally didn’t wear any.”

“Oh, um, going without is the standard, but today is special. I happened to overhear someone saying, ‘Onii-chan is a genius who will accept anything if it’s got stripes’. A-and that apartment just so happened to have a clothes dresser labelled ‘Ultimate Weapon’ that was full of striped things!!”

“……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….I’m not even sure where to begin on this one.”

Should he begin with the fact that she actually believed he would be willing to die if she showed him a striped pattern? Or maybe with the fact that she had stolen that striped object from someone else’s home?

In fact, he could even start with the fundamental fact that she was willing to put someone else’s panties on her bare skin like that.

He had heard on a variety show that the generally obedient and quiet girls would do the most unbelievable things when they felt cornered and finally exploded, and that was proving surprisingly accurate.

But despite straying from the proper path, Higan did seem to still have a shame meter (even if it was broken).

“K-khhh! You don’t believe me, do you? B-but I really am wearing them! I guess we can’t move on until I prove it to you. F-fine then. If it’s to save my sister, I-I-I-I-I-I-ow! I bit my tongue… I’m prepared to lift up this skirt right here! H-hnnn!!”

“Wait, wait, wait, wait just a damn second!! That’s where I need to start!!”

“Oh, White Queen who holds the greatest power of the Unexplored-class, give me the courage to bear the embarrassment needed to save my sister!!”

“If you have enough sense to find it embarrassing, then stop!! What do you think you’re doing out in public!? Hm? In fact, is a shrine maiden skirt really made to lift up like a normal one?”

“U-um, there’s a lot of varieties depending on the school and style used, so some are more like normal skirts and some are more like pants. I use what’s known as a lantern design, so it won’t be a problem.”

“That’s beside the point!! I’m trying to say that a young girl lifting her skirt in public is more than enough of a problem in and of itself! Honestly!!”

“Y-you mean you want to do it in a closed room? Tremble tremble.”

“Why are you looking at me like a terrified animal? You’re the one that started this and I’m the one trying to stop you.”

“B-but…”

Higan tilted her head with her skirt pulled at the borderline level that could be titled, “Young Lady with a Long Skirt Playing in the Water”.

“''Being in public or a closed room, um, makes no difference for us.''”

“''Well, that is true.''”

As soon as Kyousuke replied, a hand bell rang behind him and the miniskirt Santa librarian spoke up.

“Congratulations on being the two millionth person! …Huh? Where did the prize go? Well, I have a spare, so it doesn’t matter.”

She was not just forgetful. ''That was the correct reaction.

“Anyway, you’re the two millionth person!! Oh, and this is a joint campaign with ‘The Santa Girl who Couldn’t Get Home’.”

Shiroyama Kyousuke tossed his “small prize” into the air and caught one-handed.

Whether summoner or vessel, anyone with a close connection to Materials would begin to have their presence fade after earning an Award of around 100. Or rather, they were removed from people’s minds. People could see them, but they would forget about them as soon as they left their field of vision. There was a simple reason that summoning ceremonies had not spread throughout the entire world and it wasn’t because some dark organization was suppressing the information. The human mind simply was not strong enough to directly accept the evidence of something so vast.

It affected their friends, their lovers, and their families.

It did not matter how well they knew someone.

“But even if you know they’ll forget about you a moment later, it wouldn’t feel right. I’m certainly not going to run around out here in the nude. That’s completely abandoning your humanity.”

“I-I thought your reaction was a little light… So even in a quick hypothetical, you want me to go that far!? Ah, ah…hyaaaahhh!? Y-you pervert!! Ah, ah, ah!!”

“Bhah!? B-before you squeeze your eyes shut and kick at me with your skirt still lifted, how about you work at figuring out that I gave that as an example of what ''isn’t'' acceptable!?”

Kyousuke’s throat was starting to hurt after all this yelling.

He himself never did anything too odd, but he was tragically surrounded by strange and eccentric people. He felt like a calm and mature actor taking a pie to the face on the stage of some intense comedy.

“I-I have to, um, save my sister no matter what!”

“Y-you already told me that. But- gwah.”

“I need your help to do that. I-I can’t stop here. We know that the world of summoners is harsh, but, um, w-we still decided to do our best there!”

“Hm?”

Kyousuke frowned at that.

Something had seemed different in that one.

“I understand that you would want to save your sister, but are you still thinking of staying in this world after all this? You must have experienced even more awful things than I know about. I thought you’d wash your hands of this after saving your sister.”

“But…this is all we have.”

She did not seem to know what to do with the skirt she had gotten carried away and lifted. It wavered at the borderline and she looked away from him a little.

“Our shrine was taken away. Th-the debt just kept piling up and minors like us had no way of paying it back. At this rate, not only won’t we be able to get our home back, but our parents will be kicked out of the rehab facility.”

“…”

Kyousuke had noticed few ominous terms in that.

He knew asking more questions would lead to nothing good, but his tongue slipped.

“Can I ask how this all started?”

“Our parents’ gambling addiction.”

An especially cold night wind blew between the two of them.

All kinds of entertainment had been developed across national borders in the international revived cities that were popping up around the world. Casinos were quite common even in Toy Dream 35. That was just the age they lived in.

“Y-you’re a summoner too, so, um, surely you know that vessels never have happy backstories. Originally, only I was supposed to be used up to pay off the debt, but my sister punched the man who was buying me and made the contract with me instead. …That’s the kind of person she is. She’s always the first one to put herself in danger, but, um, sh-she doesn’t understand how fragile and delicate she is.”

Kyousuke thought a bit about that girl who was not here.

He had assumed that the fact that her twin sister, Meinokawa Higan, was alive summed up Renge’s value.

That had been both accurate and inaccurate.

Higan’s presence here was testament to more than just the events of this night. It was also testament to the fact that she had overcome a much longer and crueler path.

“I think it’s thanks to my sister that I can still, um, see the word ‘family’ as a warm thing. Without her, I would probably just view the word with a dark smile.”

It went beyond just her life. Her sister had also saved that gentler part of her.

“''That’s'' why I want to save her.”

Her eyes looked like glasswork as they viewed what may have been reality and may have been her memories.

“I don’t want to just be saved. Sh-she needs help just as much as I do, so I’ll do anything. P-p-panties are nothing. I don’t even care if you tell me to rush back into that hell brought by Guard of Honor. I don’t want to lose my sister… I don’t want to lose my one and only sister!!”

She was probably telling the truth.

In his few interactions with her, he could tell she wasn’t skilled enough to keep a lie going this long.

If Meinokawa Higan was presented with the one and only way of saving her sister, she would likely jump at the chance, even if it meant losing her own life.

That may have been a beautiful thing.

''But that was exactly why he had to say this.

“''Then go die in vain. Just don’t drag anyone else down with you.''”

Her expression clearly changed.

She looked a stake had been driven into her heart as he said even more.

“The summoning ceremony doesn’t work without both the summoner and the vessel. You’re so desperate to save your sister that you can’t think about this rationally. …Working with you would be useless. Not only will you lose your sister, you’ll lose the life she threw away her own life to protect.”

“Wh-what are you saying…?”

“I’m telling you to cool your head. You won’t gain anything by starting a fight you can’t win. Guard of Honor is supposed to be a powerful new organization with plenty of summoners skilled enough to summon the Divine-class. Do you have any concrete vision of a way to win? I may be Freedom Award 902 Alice (with) Rabbit Shiroyama Kyousuke, but I’m not someone who appears after you rub a magic lamp. This world isn’t so simple a place that ''things will just work themselves out once you speak your wish''.”

“Oh, come on! Um, I-I know I’m not being rational here! B-but, um, I can’t help it. My family is in danger. If you really think I can cool my head and be rational here, then, um, you must be a cold-hearted demon or something!!”

She spoke strongly as if everything building up inside her was exploding out.

But Kyousuke gave a simple response to the shrill cry made a step in front of him.

“But you can’t win if you don’t.”

“…!!”

He sounded so definitive that Higan fell silent.

And…

“If you can’t win, nothing you do can save your sister. Will one of you die or will both of you die? And if you include me, that’s three of us dying. If those are the only options available to you, I only have one piece of advice for you: do not head to that cruel battlefield.”

That was all he had to say.

He turned his back on her but then looked back as if he had just remembered something.

“If you are aware you don’t have the power to fight, then you should head right back to Aika’s apartment. I know you’ve been focused on your sister, but Guard of Honor will be after both the sisters who escaped. That girl likes to complain, but she won’t abandon someone who showed up seeking shelter. Living with a wild animal might seem tough, but you can safely hide there for the time being.”

“…”

“My final job is already complete. I saved your life.”

With that said, he walked into the crowd.

He had nothing more to say. He had already finished this discussion back in the apartment.

“That isn’t…”

A frail girl’s voice reached his back from the distance.

“That isn’t what I meant when I asked for ‘help’!!”

He of course knew that.