Editing BlazBlue:Phase Shift 4 Chapter 1 (section)

===Part 3===

Upon returning home, Celica found herself lost for words after opening the door. Celica and Nines' house was located a little ways into Ishana's main street. It had just barely avoided being crushed under Take-Mikazuchi thanks to that, but the impact shook the entire island, so there was so much upturned furniture and so many scattered items that there was literally no clear space to step.

"It'll be tough to even make it to my room."

It didn't look like she would be able to offer the Kakas a place to sleep. Dropping her shoulders dejectedly, she rolled up her sleeves and put on a smile to cheer herself up. Looking from the entrance to the middle of the house, she came up with a plan to at least clear a path to the living room.

Nirvana reached with her large hand from behind her to pick up a fallen shoe box. Mindful of Celica, still turned away from her, she set the shoe box back upright.

"Oh, thanks! Could you put it next to the wall too?"

Celica laughed brightly, but Nirvana didn't give any particular response, other than setting the wooden box in the corner like she was asked.

That alone was enough to make Celica vaguely happy. Celica planned to clean up the whole house on her own since Nine seemed busy, but now she had a reliable partner.

"Let's clean this up together."

This was Nine and Celicas' home, so that made it Nirvana's home too. Thinking of it like that, Nirvana felt like a new family member.

Celica cheerfully looked up at her tall figure, seeming like she would touch the ceiling if she stood up straight, and thought that she looked like she was nodding her assent without moving her head.

"I'll pick up all the scattered little things, so could you handle all the furniture and heavy stuff? For starters... the living room door looks unfixable, so could you take it off for me? After that, please take care of the broken glass and tableware before handling the furniture."

Answering with silence, Nirvana walked off somewhat awkwardly, but Celica saw her answer in her back.

"Oh, be careful to not hurt your hands when you pick broken stuff up."

Right after she said it, she realized there's no way broken glass or tableware would be able to hurt Nirvana. She was a very reliable partner. Celica hid her smile as she gathered all the scattered shoes and lined them up in the shoe box.

The effect of Nirvana's aid was enormous, so they were able to clean up the disaster zone of things strewn about the floor in no time flat. Nirvana's large hands weren't suited to precise work, but she was able to right furniture and carry heavy objects much faster than Celica could have done it, even with magic, and she carried out every task she was given as soon as Celica gave it. Celica put everything that wasn't broken or that was especially important back in its place while Nirvana did the heavy lifting, and the work went surprisingly smoothly.

They never stopped moving their hands as they worked to tidy the place up, and eventually the house was awash in the color of sunset from the light coming through a slanted window.

After managing to get the living room back to a state where she could walk through it again, Celica found an envelope that she didn't remember seeing before.

"What's this?"

It didn't have a stamp, or even an address for that matter, so it must not have been a letter. Maybe it belonged to Nine. She was a little hesitant, but she nevertheless peeked inside.

Inside she found several photographs.

"Ah..."

Gently pulling them out, Celica's eyes went wide. Her deep brown eyes displayed nostalgia and joy as her cheeks relaxed.

"Hey, Nirvana, look at these. They're pictures of my family."

Taking a few quick steps over to Nirvana, Celica held one of the photographs up to her beautiful glass-like artificial eyes to show her.

The photo Celica was showing her, vague pride reflected on her face, showed three people standing together. In the middle stood a little girl with brown hair and a big smile, her hands folded behind her back. To the girl's left stood a tall girl with her lips pressed tightly together as she stared sternly at the camera, while to her right was a man with a baffled smile on his face. It was a photo taken over ten years ago, showing Celica, Nine, and their father, Shuichiro Ayatsuki.

There was an old man living in the neighborhood at the time who loved cameras and was close with Celica, and he took this picture for them. There were several more photos in the envelope, including ones with just Celica and Shuichiro and just Celica and Nine.

"I wonder where this was hiding... it's bringing back so many memories."

The nostalgia was so intense that Celica could feel herself tearing up.

Moving the photos out of Nirvana's line of sight again, Celica touched a picture of her father like she was tracing him. Shuichiro had gone missing many years ago, but Celica had seen him briefly in Japan at the end of the year before last, just before he passed away.

Her wryly-smiling father in the picture had a complex expression on his face, but he was still young and his vitality and passion for research were plain to see. After this time in his life, Shuichiro certainly could not have been called a devoted father. He spent almost every day engrossed in his research, devoting his full attention to studying thick tomes and compiling theories. At the time, young Celica had thought he looked really cool.

"Wouldn't it be nice if we could take a picture together with Onee-chan sometime soon, Nirvana?"

Then they could decorate a desk or something with it and this old photo. Celica decided to do that as she carefully sealed the envelope back up.

Suddenly, Nirvana raised her head, turning her inorganic eyes to the front door. Wondering what she was looking at, Celica turned around in time to see the lock turn. It wasn't magic, so it must have been someone who lived here.

Just as she had thought, a triangular purple hat came in through the door like it always did, bringing the sunset in with it.

"Celica, are you here? Uwah... the house is a disaster."

The crisp sound of high heels resounded through the house as Nine's flustered voice accompanied it.

Celica hurriedly pulled open a cupboard and shoved the envelope into it before taking Nirvana with her to the living room.

"Welcome home, Onee-chan. Are you done talking to Eight-san?"

Celica asked with mischief in her voice, and Nine pouted sullenly.

"I never wanted to talk to that woman in the first place... more importantly, did you do all this cleaning yourself? We could have done it even faster if you had asked for my help."

Letting out a brief sigh, Nine let the serious expression melt off of her face.

Doing a full 180 from the face of a Sage she had a moment ago, her eyes softened as she returned to being an older sister. Seeing the look in Nine's eyes, showing both exasperation and remorse, Celica cheerfully shook her head from side to side.

"I didn't do it myself. Nirvana helped me out."

When Nine heard those words, a cloud passed over her face.

"Nirvana did?"

"Yep. Nirvana is super tall and strong, you know. I don't know what I would've done without her."

"Is that so... Listen, Celica, about Nirvana..."

Nine fell silent as she thought about her words.

What's up with her? Celica tilted her head in confusion as she waited for her to continue. However, instead of finishing her sentence, Nine turned around and walked back to the entrance that she had just come through a moment ago.

"Sorry to interrupt your cleaning, but could you come with me for a moment? There's somewhere I want to take you and Nirvana."

"Me? Sure, I guess."

She must be busy right now, so was it really okay to take up her time going somewhere with her? Feeling a little awkward, Celica followed her out the front door, closing it behind her.

Outside, she found that another woman had come with Nine.

"Huh?"

Celica was surprised, but the woman smiled at her as gently as sunlight in Spring.

"Good work today, Celica-san～"

Her voice was as sweet as candy. She wore a robe with an extra big hood, had her long platinum hair tied loosely on either side, and covered her kindly green eyes with big round glasses. Trinity Glassfille stood waiting with her hands clasped in front of her.

The place Nine took Celica, Nirvana, and Trinity to was a place at nearly the center of Ishana.

It was an area removed from the town scape that was still bustling even now, despite the city currently lying in ruins. There were men and women dressed in the uniforms of the Mage's Guild and the Orbis Librarius Norma having discussions with each other and rushing to and for. Celica's group stood atop a wooden scaffolding that seemed to overlook the area.

She didn't see the broken townscape below her: she saw the black colossus that had crushed the once beautiful Ishana beneath it, laying so still it seemed like time had stopped. She saw Nox Nyctores Gigant: Take-Mikazuchi.

While Nine stood in front of her with her arms crossed nonchalantly, Celica flinched and gasped. Seen from a distance, it looked like it was blackness taken from the darkest part of a shadow. From up close, however, it had a haziness that made it seem like its edges were melting into the air around it.

Its nearby head was featureless. She remembered that it had had eyes and a mouth like empty caverns when she saw it summoned before, but now there was nothing, so it must have closed its eyes and shut its mouth. With its limbs splayed out powerlessly around it, it looked like an abandoned human corpse. Above all, it really was absurdly big. Transcending all reasons, it made you shiver with how unnatural it was.

"This... is Take-Mikazuchi?"

This was the first time Celica had seen it up close.

Having spent a lot of time since the previous night dealing with this thing, Nine and Trinity were sick of looking at it. Even so, Trinity clasped her hands over her chest and lowered her chin as she looked down over it nervously.

"Yes, it is. It's out of commission for the time being, but still, be careful to never touch it directly."

"O- okay..."

Truthfully, she wouldn't have wanted to touch it even if Trinity had asked her to. Celica took a step back without even realizing it. She was shivering uncontrollably. It might have been even more uncomfortable to be around than the Black Beast.

(No, what's a better word than uncomfortable? It feels... torturous.)

Gazing upon the prone black giant, Celica lightly bit her lip. Even more shivers ran down her spine as she thought about how this was a weapon created by mankind.

"So, Nine～? What is it that you wanted help with?"

Trinity accompanied her question to Nine with a small gesture like when she greeted Celica. A little differently from how she asked Celica to go somewhere with her, it seems Nine had asked Trinity to 'help' her with something.

Still with her arms crossed and eyes fixed on Take-Mikazuchi, Nine answered.

"I want to retrieve this thing's core tonight."

"It's core?"

Celica asked while tilting her head in confusion. Looking through her long, gently billowing hair, Celica saw Nine lower her chin.

"This."

Nine stuck her arm out over the edge of the scaffolding as she spoke. Pointing her palm down toward Take-Mikazuchi, she followed up her cryptic statement by reciting a short incantation.

As she did so, the black giant's chest region emitted a single slow pulse of red light. Then its black external layer pulled apart like a line drawn in sand before its chest split in two, swinging open like a double door. Surprised by the unexpected contraption, Celica once again recoiled from the sight. In human terms, it was like watching someone's rib cage open up. Celica shuddered at the thought, but her disgust quickly gave way to kitten-like curiosity.

A red globe was buried inside its now open black chest. It was almost like a heart. It was big enough that Celica might not be able to wrap her arms around it, but compared to Take-Mikazuchi's massive body, it was small.

"I never would have guessed something like that was inside it... but is it alright to just take that out? If you take the core out, it won't be able to move again, right?"

Putting her hands on the scaffolding's rail, Celica stretched her neck out to get a better look below her.

Watching her nervously out of the corner of her eye, Nine answered.

"We'll only be taking half of it out, so it'll still be able to move. I'd rather it didn't move, though. We won't be using it against the Black Beast anymore."

She would clearly brook no arguments to the contrary. Celica and Trinity exchanged a glance.

Bewilderment in her eyes, Celica asked,

"You're not going to use it... will that be okay?"

There were very few ways to damage the Black Beast available at this moment. Hardly any of the world's population was capable of using magic, and while there were plenty of people with an aptitude for Ars Magus, the technology had only just been developed. Hakumen was the only person in the world capable of doing any real damage to the Black Beast, but there was no way he would be able to take it down on his own.

Take-Mikazuchi, which had already dealt a serious blow to the Black Beast, was their ultimate weapon and best chance at success. If they lost that, what would humanity do?

Obviously, that was a question that Nine had asked herself before ever hearing it from Celica or Trinity, so she looked straight ahead and gave her answer.

"I don't care if it's going to be okay or not, I'm not using it. It requires special mana capable of suppressing seithr in order to control it, and if it's not under control, it's a menace to everyone around it... what's more, it sucks the life out of defenseless people, which is way too dangerous."

"If- if it's me you're worried about, I'll be fine!"

Knowing what she meant by 'special mana capable of suppressing Seithr,' Celica put her hand over her chest and took a step forward, but Nine's cold glance over her shoulder stopped her in her tracks.

"That's not my only reason. The Black Beast is thinking about it now."

"Thinking about it?"

Celica had no idea what she was talking about, but Trinity put one white hand to her chest and dropped her gaze in sorrow.

"The Black Beast now sees Take-Mikazuchi as a threat. That's why it prioritized eliminating Take-Mikazuchi over simply destroying everything it could see yesterday when Take-Mikazuchi got unsummoned. It was a fairly simple decision, but it means that the Black Beast has enough intellect to analyze a situation and choose a logical course of action..."

"We had always assumed that the Black Beast was nothing more than a monster devoid of sense or reason that was ruled by an instinct to destroy, but now we know that's not the case. I wouldn't say it's particularly sharp by any means, but still, it can actually think the same way we humans do."

Celica didn't know exactly how big of a deal that was, but she could tell from how Nine and Trinity were acting that it was a truly terrifying prospect.

Nine's hair flowed like a wave on the ocean as the lukewarm wind swirled around her. She ran her finger tips through it to brush away dust and continued.

"The Black Beast has figured out how to deal with Take-Mikazuchi: we won't be able to pull the same trick again. In fact, we need to consider the possibility that it could use Take-Mikazuchi to its advantage."

Just like it did around this time last night, when it hitched a ride on Take-Mikazuchi straight to Ishana.

That moment of utter despair was still burned into all of their minds in great detail, even Trinity and Nines'.

"...So, I've got to create our next weapon. Not a simple but powerful independent weapon like Take-Mikazuchi; a weapon that a human can wield in their hand."

With a sharp tap, Nine took one step forward. With eyes brighter than Celica's, she looked down at Take-Mikazuchi's motionless chest cavity.

"For that, I need the core. If I divide it up into enough pieces, I can suppress its power enough that it won't be fatal for humans to come in contact with. That way, I can make new cores out of the fragments of this one, and use them to make new weapons."

"So that's why you wanted my help～"

Trinity spoke sweetly as she finally understood what she was here for.

Suppressing the power of the core would require applying a kind of seal to it. Nine wasn't particularly good with seals, so she might accidentally make the seal too strong if she did it on her own. Whenever she needed to make very fine adjustments on the strength of a seal, she always asked Trinity for help.

Nine laughed uncomfortably as she felt like one of her weaknesses was out in the spotlight.

"Yeah. I'm also worried about the core affecting the surroundings when I pull it out, so can you put a barrier or seal or something on it right now too? I've got to carry this thing all the way to the guild."

Take-Mikazuchi may be out of commission, but who knows what that core in its chest could do to a person. It was unlikely that they would have an accident on the way, but they couldn't be too careful. Trinity knew that too, so she airily nodded her assent. She was genuinely happy that her area of expertise was helpful to Nine.

Next, Nine turned her eyes to Nirvana standing behind Celica.

"I have a favor to ask of you two as well. Just like Take-Mikazuchi itself, humans can't touch that core. So, I want to have Nirvana help me pull it out."

"Can Nirvana touch the core?"

Celica followed Nine's line of sight and looked up at Nirvana. Nirvana's large eyes were looking straight ahead.

Nine got very serious and turned fully around to face Nirvana- no, to face Celica.

"Nirvana's claws are made of a certain special material... to put it simply, it's a metal that cuts off seithr. It's the same thing Kushinada's Lynchpin was made out of."

"Kushinada's Lynchpin..."

Celica repeated Nine's words like they were reeling her in. It was still a recent memory for her.

The seithr that guided the Black Beast all came from the various cauldrons excavated around the world, which were all connected to a different dimension called the Boundary.

Kushinada's Lynchpin was a device that acts as a dam to Seithr, capable of temporarily cutting off a cauldron's connection to the Boundary. Creating it was the final act of Celica and Nines' father, Shuichiro.

To Celica it was like a memento of her father, but Kushinada's Lynchpin was currently lost.

"Oh, yeah..."

Whispering with a slight chuckle, Celica looked up at Nirvana standing beside her and gently touched her large hand. The silver claws she had in place of fingers had the chilling feel of metal.

Her father's final work may have been gone, but she was deeply moved as she realized that the technology he had created it with was preserved right here. Knowing that it was her sister who had revived that technology lit a warm candle in Celica's heart.

What Celica didn't notice as she was smiling up at Nirvana, however, was the look of pain that flashed across Nine's face. Hiding her anguish from Celica, Nine didn't notice that Trinity had picked up on that look.

"...Nirvana's claws have the ability to physically touch Seithr, which means she's the only one capable of touching Take-Mikazuchi's core. Will she lend me a hand?"

Nine's breath had caught in her throat, but she regained her composure and asked her question.

Celica held Nirvana's hand and nodded her assent.

"Of course. Right, Nirvana?"

The tall robotic doll didn't answer, instead jumping down off the scaffolding to carry out her task.

She landed near Take-Mikazuchi's open chest, right next to one of its armpits. Standing atop one of the chain-like bands of restraining magic stretching over its body, she looked up at the three girls lined up above her as if awaiting orders.

Nine gave the hair laying on her back a big flip.

"First I'm going to split the core into halves, so have Nirvana pull one of them out once I do that. Once she's got it all the way out, Trinity will seal it off from the open air. Everyone got that?"

Nine had already started casting her magic as she gave her no-nonsense instructions and went straight into an incantation as soon as she finished giving them, drawing countless symbols in the air.

A single red line pulsed through the red-black orb embedded in the black giant's chest as an ear-splitting sound shook the air. That sound stabbed their ears for 5 seconds straight before the core split soundless in two.

"You're up, Nirvana."

Celica shouted down from the edge of the scaffold and Nirvana hopped off the magic chain and reached her arms into the open chest cavity.

Even Nirvana, whose arms were a little long for her size, could only barely get her arms all the way around the thing to carry it. Gripping it firmly with her claws, each one thicker around than Celica's wrist, she slowly carried it out. Once she pulled that unsettling heart-like thing free of Take-Mikazuchi, Trinity, who had been ready to cast as soon as Nirvana finished, wrapped the red-black half-orb in a dim golden membrane.

"That should do the trick～"

Trinity breathed a little sigh and took a peek at Nine.

Nine thanked her best friend and her little sister for their help.

"Yeah, that's great. Thanks, both of you."

"You're quite welcome. But, I mean, you should be thanking Nirvana, not me."

As Celica made her mischievous little comment, Nine's smile turned into a grimace.

"Yeah, you're right. Not right now though. I still have another favor to ask. I want her to carry that to the Mage's Guild now, to a room I'm borrowing to house it in."

She closed Take-Mikazuchi's chest back up as she spoke, then carried Celica and Trinity down to the ground with her on a gust of wind.

Nirvana caught up to them a moment later, and once Trinity had cast an extra layer of magical defense against any ill effects from the core on her, the whole group headed off to the Mage's Guild.