Editing BlazBlue:Calamity Trigger Part 2 Chapter 2 (section)

===Part 3===
At the same time the shadow-like figure disappeared, the strange voice and the disturbing wriggling sound also disappeared, and the surroundings regained silence as if nothing had happened.

The white face, which had been maintaining its shape somewhere in the gap, was already nowhere to be seen. The surroundings had turned into nothing more than a peaceful and filthy sewer, as if nothing had happened.

"Tch!" A spitting-like click of the tongue emerged from Ragna's mouth. Meanwhile, a relieved sigh escaped from Litchi's lips.

Hearing that, Ragna turned a sharp gaze towards Litchi.

"You said you were a doctor just now?" Ragna asked with his sword in hand, smoldering with hostility.

Litchi, who had been staring at the area where the black monster had left, turned at Ragna's voice.

"Yes. That's right." 

Compared to when she stopped Ragna by throwing the rod, her nodding, soft reply didn't fit the background of this stinking sewer. It was also hard to believe that she looked like a doctor, but even so, Ragna felt that she didn't really want to take up a weapon and fight.

"If you're a doctor, why the hell are you protecting that thing? Do you think it won't do any harm if it lives?"

A seithr monster that nests in the sewer. To know it exists and leave it alone is tantamount to accepting the loss of lives that await it.

"That doesn't sound like the words of a doctor. What? Are you keeping it for some kind of purpose?" Instead of pointing the tip of the sword downwards, he hurled extremely aggressive sarcasm.

At Ragna's words, Litchi frowned, looked down, and picked up the panda hairpin that was attached to her long, lowered hair. Holding that small stuffed animal-like thing to her chest, she replied as if dropping it.

"His name... is Arakune. His real name is different, but that's what he's called by people who've seen him in Kagutsuchi." Litchi's voice shook sadly.

Finding the meaning of that sadness, Ragna frowned with emotions different from hostility.

"'He'... does that mean that thing was once a 'human'?"

Although it was interrupted, unclear, and very jarring, the voice of the monster called Arakune was certainly closer to human speech than a beast's growl. Yes, he should have heard it several times. He was saying "Azure." Looking at Ragna, he said "Azure."

"He used to be a colleague who worked with me in the same workplace. He's in that form now, but in the past, of course, he had a human form, and he wore a white coat and held a book... he was a very talented researcher." The sad swaying in Litchi's voice was a nostalgic melancholy of recalling the past.

"Research, huh... I wonder what kind of research he was doing." Ragna deliberately said it as if throwing up. If the result of the research was that form, then no other research could be as worthless.

Perhaps taking it as a question, Litchi continued the story self-deprecatingly. 

This place, like a vast secret room where no one else could eavesdrop, probably tempted her into wanting to talk to someone.

"He was researching the Boundary. The Boundary, he said... was something involved in the formation of the world and the birth of humanity. He became more and more absorbed in that research... and then one day, he changed."

The seithr body, the inhuman organs, and the large number of strange creatures that made up his current form.

Perhaps he touched the Boundary too much. It could also be said that he got too close. As a result of being involved with the Boundary beyond human knowledge for too long, his existence was drawn into the Boundary, and he lost the form he originally had in this world.

Litchi looked up from the small panda hairpin she'd been holding to her chest. With her thick lips and slender eyes, a pure, innocent gaze stared at Ragna as if pleading.

"A year ago, I finally found him in this city. I continued my research near him, hoping to one day return him to his original state. I want to bring him back from the Boundary. That's why..."

Litchi swallowed and held back the words that were about to rush out of her mouth. Perhaps she didn't want to show that she was flustered. Perhaps she didn't want to be thought of as being flustered.

Litchi suppressed her emotions in a long blink, and turned her calm eyes towards Ragna again.

"That's why I couldn't let you kill him... Ragna the Bloodedge."

"...You knew." 

When his name was called, Ragna's vigilance caused his neck to stiffen slightly. He put strength into the arm gripping his sword, careful not to be noticed.

Litchi didn't brace herself, but instead gave a wry smile as if relaxing.

"Everyone knows your name. Wanted posters are plastered everywhere in Orient Town. Although... the portrait doesn't seem to be very accurate."

"Well..."

While still wary, Ragna couldn't help but frown. It was a picture he didn't really want to remember.

With a smile on her lips, Litchi gently narrowed her eyes. It was a truly feminine expression, both gentle and sharp.

"The most wanted criminal with the highest bounty in history, the 'Grim Reaper' who's been attacking the Librarium's branches one after another. And the owner of the strongest grimoire, the 'Azure Grimoire.'"

The Azure Grimoire. The legendary grimoire that is rumored to be the strongest and whispered to be able to do anything because of its immense power.

But in reality, Ragna knew well that the legendary grimoire was nothing like that.

Litchi continued. When she slightly shook her head, her tied-up long hair swayed like a tail.

"I can tell even without a picture. Because... I can feel it from you. A strong power. The power of the grimoire in my mind."

At those words, Ragna frowned suspiciously.

It would be fine if it was determined by Ars Magus or an instrument to identify grimoires, or by knowledge gained from observing the grimoire's functions, but why could Litchi, who hadn't used Ars Magus or even witnessed the Azure Grimoire, sense its existence?

Ragna immediately arrived at a simple answer.

"Don't tell me... you..." Ragna's eyes became even sharper. It wasn't a sign that he was about to attack Litchi, but one of blame and reproach. Understanding what those eyes wanted to say, Litchi clearly nodded.

"Yes. I also touched the Boundary. Just like him... to learn what he'd been doing. If I did that, I might find a hint to save 'him.' Maybe I'd find the answer I was looking for... or so I thought."

He didn't need to ask if that choice had borne fruit. Arakune attacked Ragna, and Litchi stopped it. That fact was the answer.

"This Lao Jiu is connecting me to the Boundary. I've learned a lot thanks to it, and I've gained a strong body."

What Litchi introduced as Lao Jiu was the small panda plush that she was holding to her chest.

Ragna couldn't see how it worked, but the power of the Boundary seemed to be flowing from that stuffed animal to Litchi.

Litchi was a perfectly ordinary woman dressed in somewhat awkward clothes, but she wouldn't look out of place walking on the main street of Orient Town. But inside, she possessed information, senses, and physical abilities that she shouldn't have.

The wrinkles between Ragna's eyebrows deepened. His empty hand was gripped into a tight fist.

"If you've gone that far, you should already know, right? That Arakune guy is already beyond saving. Once he's become like that, he can never return to being human again." Ragna said in a low voice, as if presenting an unshakeable truth.

The Boundary is by no means a place that helps people. So why did researchers in the world, without learning from their mistakes, want to touch that mysterious thing? Ragna couldn't understand their nerves.

"...Even so, that doesn't mean I can abandon him. I..." Without retreating from Ragna's harsh words, Litchi also tightened her expression sternly. In her heart, there seemed to be a firm determination that she had been holding onto. No matter how unreasonable it was, it was imprinted in her as the only truth within her. 

As if showing her will, Litchi returned the panda Lao Jiu, her connection to the Boundary, to her tied-up hair.

Ragna unconsciously clicked his tongue.

"You're an idiot... If you become a monster yourself, it'll be meaningless! Get away from the Boundary right now. You won't be able to come back!"

Again. Just like when he was confronting Arakune earlier, he felt a kind of simmering irritation.

Litchi narrowed her eyes. She was smiling, but the gaze through her slender glasses was as stubborn and strong as ever.

"Thank you for your concern. But... this is the path I have chosen. No matter what kind of ending awaits me, I will not give up." Litchi spoke like she didn't expect him to understand. "Or, will you lend me the Azure Grimoire instead of stopping me? It might be able to help him."

With a slightly self-deprecating smile, Litchi looked at Ragna as if testing him.

Ragna grimaced and let out a bitter sigh. His breath was hot with irritation, but it soon cooled down.

He was already beyond impatience and anger. Even though she'd witnessed the danger of the Boundary right in front of her, this woman didn't harbor the fear she should have, nor did she withdraw her hand, but rather, she was trying to get even deeper into it.

Foolish... without even knowing what the Azure Grimoire was like.

"Tch... do what you want. It's got nothing to do with me in the first place. I don't care what happens to you, or who gets eaten by that monster."

Looking away from Litchi, Ragna turned on his heel and turned his back. Continuing a parallel conversation would only be meaningless. More than anything, he was in a hurry. He didn't have time to talk to a woman in such an eerie place. But even so, his feet stopped, and Ragna turned back once over his shoulder.

"It's none of my business, but I'll say it one more time... things that have changed can never return to their original state. That's a fact."

Litchi's expression grew sad at Ragna's words and, without affirming or denying them, she watched his red back be swallowed into the darkness of the sewer.