Editing BlazBlue:Calamity Trigger Part 1 Chapter 3 (section)

===Part 3===

Having fled Litchi's clinic, Tsubaki ran desperately through the lower city, surrounded by air mixed with seithr and dimness that didn’t seem right for midday. Above her head, countless artificial lights and neon signs that had been on all day passed by.

She would leave Orient Town and go through the park and warehouse district, then climb the stairs to the next level. After crossing the main street to the opposite side, she would go through the bridge, take the ritual lift, and go even higher.

If she contacted them while running, she might be able to meet up with a Librarium cart on a middle level. If she could catch it, she could get to the branch quickly, but if she couldn't arrange it, she would have to take shuttles.

Tsubaki desperately tried to recall the structure and map of Kagutsuchi that she had memorized in the magic ship. 

How long would it take to get from here to the top-level branch? What was the shortest time, and what was the longest? She didn't have the shuttle timetable in her head. There would probably be plenty of shuttles going to the upper levels, but there probably wouldn't be many in the lower levels.

As she ran, Tsubaki bit her lip. Why? Why did it feel like this? She couldn’t shake the feeling that she had to meet Jin quickly, as if something bad would happen if she didn’t.

(Why... it's obvious, isn't it...)

The bitterness in her mouth was probably due to regret. She had known the reason for her premonition for a long time. She should have remembered it long ago.

Because Jin... the man she had always watched over, had acted strangely just before he disappeared.



The Novus Orbis Librarium branch in Akitsu, the Hierarchical City, was attacked by the "Grim Reaper." The news quickly reached the NOL headquarters, and all the recorded information related to the "Grim Reaper" was analyzed.

The approximate appearance of the heinous criminal who had attacked the NOL branches in various places was identified the day after the analysis began. Three days after the analysis began, the Intelligence Department traced the name "Grim Reaper."

The information was quickly compiled into a document and delivered to each division. Of course, a report was also submitted to the fourth division, and that day, Tsubaki visited the division commander's office with several documents, including a report on the "Grim Reaper."

"Excuse me." Waiting for the voice to respond to her knock, Tsubaki opened the door and entered the room. 

The first thing she noticed was the temperature of the room. The corridor separated by a single door was not so cold, but Jin's office had always been chilly lately. He wasn't changing the special air conditioning, and when Tsubaki asked Jin about it, he said he didn't feel any change in temperature at all.

Tsubaki was the only one who was concerned, and she thought maybe he had been a little under the weather for a while. Thinking that way again today, as she had the previous day, Tsubaki walked at a steady pace to the desk where Jin was sitting.

"Good morning, Major Kisaragi. This is the morning report. First, the location of the division commander's meeting three days from now has been changed. Then there’s a report and request regarding the renovation of the training facility. The contents are a summary of what has been submitted so far, so there are no significant changes. Please read through the request and sign it. And then this..." While briefly explaining the contents, Tsubaki placed one report after another on Jin's desk.

Jin watched her silently, leaning on his cheek with a light grip. His sharp, cold, yet beautiful green eyes seemed to be focused somewhere far away, and it was doubtful whether he was looking at the documents that had been handed to him.

Concerned by Jin's lack of response, even after she had placed several documents, Tsubaki asked with a caring softness, instead of her usual businesslike tone.

"Major? Are you alright? If you're not feeling well..." 

"There's nothing wrong. Continue." The only reply was a cold voice and words, just like his gaze.

"Y-yes, sorry." Tsubaki tightened her lips before moving on to the next document.

How many times had she had this exchange? Just as she had become concerned about the temperature of the room, Jin's attitude had also been causing Tsubaki to worry lately.

As the room grew colder, so too did Jin's attitude seem to grow colder. He had never been a hot-blooded type, and he was rather calm and collected. Many people described him as cold. But Jin's recent behavior was different from that coldness. It was as if something was gradually eroding at the very core of him, and he was shutting himself up in a cold place.

In the past, he had been expressionless in formal situations, but he had responded when she greeted him in the morning. He would give her a nod of approval when she explained documents, and when he was tired, he would sometimes confide in Tsubaki. He would occasionally complain about things he didn't like, or smile wryly at Tsubaki's nagging. And very rarely, he would even smile at her.

But now, Jin didn’t show any of that. The human warmth he once had seemed to be fading day by day, and every time she noticed it, anxiety built up in Tsubaki's heart.

But she couldn’t do anything about it, and was left feeling frustrated, having no choice but to carry out the work that had been assigned to her.

“...This is the last one. We’ve received new information about the ‘Grim Reaper,’ who has been destroying the Library’s branches.” Tsukaki took the last stack of documents still in her arms and handed them over while speaking.

Jin didn’t even lift his head. He was only facing the paper she had placed earlier, so he seemed to recognize it. However, it didn’t look like he was reading the text.

“This is completely new information, but the ‘Grim Reaper’s’ appearance and name have been confirmed. Regarding his appearance, it seems he’s a man with white hair wearing a red coat. The shape of the rumored 'Azure Grimoire' is still unknown, but it seems that he possesses a large sword.”

The document had a printout of the video recording used for analysis. Due to the seithr and the shock from the explosion in the branch's basement, the data was quite damaged, and although they had attempted restoration, the video was quite blurry. Moreover, it only showed the figure from behind.

But the white hair, red coat, and the striking features of those eyes were clearly visible. Incidentally, it seemed to be a tall man with a well-built physique.

"Then the Intelligence Department looked into the name. The 'Grim Reaper's' name is Ragna the Bloodedge. We don't know if it's his real name, but according to intelligence, it seems he calls himself that..." 

Tsukaki trailed off halfway through. Lifting her gaze from the document, she saw that Jin had suddenly stood up from his chair. He placed both hands on the desk, his eyes widening significantly from the cold indifference he had shown a moment ago.

"Uh, Major Kisaragi?" Something seemed off. Thinking that, Tsubaki called out to him hesitantly.

As if drawn by her voice, Jin slowly, eerily slowly, lifted his head. He looked at her with disbelief, as though he couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

"What did you just say?"

“Eh...? Oh, Ragna the Bloodedge?” Tsukaki answered reflexively, and she immediately regretted it.

Jin's eyes changed color. 

His eyes, which had been as cold and thin as ice, devoid of emotion, suddenly turned as dark as ink.

“Ragna the Bloodedge... Ragna...” Jin repeated the name. As if to confirm the sound and form of the name, he repeated it over and over again.

It was already an uncanny sight. His low, warm, and stifled voice trembled ominously. His pale lips trembled, and soon the trembling caused Jin's thin shoulders to vibrate rhythmically.

“Fuhaha!” The trembling turned into laughter. A chill ran down Tsubaki's spine, and Jin's laughter grew steadily louder. "Hahahahahahahaha!"

Along with the tingling, numb air in the room, Tsubaki froze solid. 

Jin was laughing. He laughed with his mouth wide open, his voice echoing loudly.

Tsubaki had never seen him like that before. Even though she had been watching him since he was a child, he had never once laughed with such a terrifying demeanor.

"Major K... Kisaragi?" Tsukaki stammered, unable to continue.

But Jin didn’t look at her. He was looking at the 'Grim Reaper' document that Tsubaki was holding.

Jin's sudden, strange laughter, which seemed like it would never end, finally receded into the depths of his being like a convulsion. Yet he still appeared delighted, his shoulders shaking in quiet, subtle spasms, before finally looking at Tsubaki.

But it was no longer the Jin that Tsubaki knew. His eyes were somehow vacant, and his smiling lips were terribly cruel. His hand, encased in a white glove, swayed gently in the air, reaching out to Tsubaki. His cold green eyes looked at her with a cruel color.

"Give me the documents."

"Ah... y-yes." 

Hesitantly handing over the stack of papers clipped together, Jin snatched the documents as if her gesture was too slow for his liking.

He stared at the first page, which displayed a still shot from the footage of the Grim Reaper. Jin twisted his lips into a cruelly beautiful smile, as if he were lost in a blissful trance.

“Ah… hahaha, I finally found you… right here… kukukukukuku…”

Why was he laughing? What kind of emotion was clouding those once clear and noble eyes? Why was the handsome face she had admired so much contorted in such ecstasy? Why was she so terrified of him?

Tsubaki stared at Jin, her face pale and lifeless, desperately trying to hold back her trembling. She didn’t even know why she was trying to hold back.

“Jin… Brother.”

Did he hear her call? Or did he perhaps remember the presence he had forgotten?

Without looking at her, Jin waved his hand as if shooing away a dog.

“Lieutenant Yayoi, you’ve worked hard. That’s enough. Get out.” A flat, emotionless voice, unlike the cold one he had used before. It was as though even addressing her was a bothersome task. Tsubaki’s nose twitched. She took a shaky step back. She pursed her lips and hugged the thick notebook, the only thing left in her chest after she had let go of all the documents. 

She was on duty, and the person in front of her was her superior. What he had said was an order.

“Understood. Call me if you need anything. ... Excuse me.” She said, and then forced her feet to take steady steps as she left Jin’s office.

Just before she closed the door, she heard Jin’s voice.

“Finally… I can finally meet you... brother.” 

As soon as the words reached Tsubaki’s ears, the door closed heavily. She couldn’t think about who the ‘brother’ was that the man she called ‘Brother Jin’ was talking about. As soon as she stepped out into the hallway, she hurried away from the spot.



As she reached the outskirts of Orient Town, gray clouds covered the sky. Without time to worry about the weather, Tsubaki crossed a small park with grass and passed in front of a lonely, rusty streetlight. It was around where she had encountered the Red Devil of Sector Seven yesterday.

But she had no time to dwell on that.

(Jin... I’m so sorry...)

At that moment, when she saw Jin acting so strangely in his office, she shouldn’t have left. She shouldn’t have left him alone. She should have stayed by his side no matter how harshly he treated her or how much he insulted her. If he had tried to abandon his position and leave the NOL, she should have physically stopped him.

If she had, Jin wouldn’t have been pursued by the intelligence department or herself, and he wouldn’t have been accused of treason. Tsubaki wouldn’t have had to search for him alone in distant Kagutsuchi. She wouldn't have been running, gasping for air under the crushing weight of uncertainty.

If this were the usual “Jin Kisaragi” she knew, she wouldn’t be tormented by such overwhelming anxiety. But the current Jin was different. Because she was close to him, she should have known something was wrong.

(I turned away from Brother Jin. I was afraid of him. I didn’t want to be scolded or disliked, and because of such trivial reasons, I turned my back on him and ignored him...)

She didn’t want to understand what she had seen. She turned away from Jin’s ecstatic reaction to the name Ragna the Bloodedge. She wanted to pretend she hadn’t seen it.

She wanted to believe that everything was as usual, and that this was just a result of a series of unexpected events. She wanted to think that there was some serious reason why Jin had left the NOL on his own accord. But that wasn’t the case.

(I’m so sorry... I’ll go right away. I may not be able to do anything, and I may be nothing more than a stranger to Brother Jin now, but... what should I do if I do nothing and things turn irreparably worse?)

What if Jin was killed by the “Grim Reaper”? What if Jin killed someone from the Librarium? What if Jin was killed as a traitor?

Ah, ah. An endless anxiety choked Tsubaki’s neck. It urged her feet to hurry, but her body couldn’t keep up.

Had she ever hated her slow feet so much? With her chest heaving with each breath, she swallowed her dry saliva and dragged her tears to the corners of her eyes, running as hard as she could.

Even though it wasn’t raining, the sky seemed ready to cry.