Editing BlazBlue:Phase Shift 4 Chapter 2 (section)

===Part 3===

Starting at a certain point, the mountains and the wide plains between them had been unnaturally stripped of their color.

The Joint Headquarters Army that had set out from Ishana arrived at its destination half a day ahead of schedule and had set up camp overlooking the location of the cauldron where the Black Beast was likely to appear next. Preparations for battle were underway and proceeding steadily. They had erected a barricade in a semicircle in front of the camp, in front of which they had set up magical land mines. Before long, they will have finished doing everything they can to prepare this area, and once they'd done that, all they'd be able to do is wait for the Black Beast to appear at the foot of the nearby mountains.

They weren't going to be kept waiting here for days on end; it would either be tomorrow or the day after it. It would all start once they heard that disgusting, earth-shaking roar split the sky. ...Thus, would begin their one month long losing battle.

"...Yes. This will do the trick～, thank you for all your help."

Finishing checking the left side of the barricade and the magic circle traps scattered around it, Trinity smiled as sweetly as she could at the Joint HQ Army soldiers who were responsible for setting them up. The soldiers had been stiff as boards as they grappled with their tension and struggled to do work that they weren't used to, but they all loosened up a little bit at the sight of her.

The barricade was reinforced with magic that improved its physical strength, and the magic circles were set to fire off attack magic when they detect high-density compressed Seithr nearby. They wouldn't amount to more than cheap tricks against the Black Beast, but they were a lot better than nothing. They weren't fighting to win this time: if they could delay the Black Beast by even a single second longer, that would be a victory.

Clutching a bundle of documents to her chest, Trinity hurried off to the next place she needed to check. Her surroundings were filled with things you would never see in the Magister's City of Ishana. Military vehicles, military tents, and weapons laying around like they were the most ordinary items in the world. The multitude of people coming-and-going around her all seemed terribly busy, and Trinity felt like time had sped up for everyone but her.

Trinity's chest felt tight as this atmosphere she couldn't get used to pressed in around her. The air she breathed tasted like sand and irritated her lungs. It was entirely unlike her ordinary life in Ishana, and it made her skin tingle as she felt the weight of what was about to happen anew.

Hanging her head unconsciously, Trinity saw a familiar pair of black boots walking toward her, coming from the direction she was headed in. Reflexively lifting her head, she pushed her glasses back up on her nose. Standing out from his hectic surroundings, Terumi strolled leisurely forward.

"'Sup, four-eyes? I'm all finished."

With both hands stuffed in his pockets, Terumi came to a stop in front of Trinity. He must have ditched his bundle of documents containing a checklist, relevant information, and work details somewhere. Unlike Trinity, he was walking around empty-handed.

"Good work, Terumi-san～ I'm sorry, I still have two more places left～"

Terumi already looked burnt out, but hearing Trinity's words, he jutted his chin out to the side and heaved a bored sigh.

"So? We gonna leave once you're done?"

"No, before that we have a briefing with Hakumen-san and some other people."

"Seriously, more? ...tsk, what a pain."

Seeing Terumi looking just as fed up as can be and watching him dramatically click his tongue without a care what people around him might think, Trinity got an uncomfortable look on her face.

"Oh, don't be like that～"

As she said it, her line of sight naturally fell to her feet and her clear green eyes clouded over with guilt. Her voice went as dark as her eyes, but she still managed to sound sweet as she muttered,

"We get to go home and leave them all behind, after all, so we ought to at least do everything we can now."

Indeed, Trinity and Terumi were just here to do final checks and perform maintenance on the barricade and magic circles. They and a few dozen outstanding mages were going to return to Ishana shortly.

The ones staying behind to fight were the Joint HQ Army, the Ars Magus Corps, several particularly powerful fighters hand-picked by the Duodecim, and the trio of Hakumen, Jubei, and Valkenhayn. There were two main reasons why the mages were going home: because they needed to keep as many people capable of using sorcery in reserve as possible for the decisive battle against the Black Beast and because Nine needed as many people knowledgeable about sorcery as possible to aid in her weapons development. While others were away buying time by keeping the Black Beast busy, Nine needed to finish developing her weapons as fast as she possibly could. To that end, they weren't deploying people skilled in sorcery in this army. Terumi was also exempt because he was deeply knowledgeable about sorcery and things relating to it.

"Yeah, yeah, how sweet."

Terumi raised both hands up to head level in surrender and waved them around. It felt like he was just exasperated rather than making fun of her, and the corner of his mouth turned downward to display his boredom.

"...Is it fun for you, going through life taking everything so seriously?"

"Huh?"

Surprised by his sudden change of topic, Trinity's eyes went wide, and she did a double take.

With his mouth curved into an irritated frown, Terumi took a couple steps closer to Trinity.

"If you ignore your attack magic and teleportation magic skills, you're every bit the mage that that bitch is, ain't you? And your seals and alchemy blow hers out of the water."

With how close they were to each other; it became even more apparent how tall Terumi was in comparison. With Terumi looming over her and raining his words down upon her head, Trinity timidly looked up at him.

"That's not true..." She did indeed have a knack for sealing magic, but she couldn't compare to Nine in raw amount of mana, and there was no getting around that. Evaluating relative skill with magic was no simple thing: the act of seeing through to the true nature of something complicated and finding a loose thread in it to weave an effective seal and the act of controlling a massive amount of mana at one time to create a huge explosion required completely different inclinations and skill sets.

Terumi, however, didn't care about cliches like that. A knowing grin split his face.

"You really think so? I mean, c'mon. If you wanted to, you could remove this Mind Eater she's got on me without breaking a sweat. Right? Right?"

At the mention of the Opprimo Vinculum "Mind Eater" curse, Trinity's body stiffened up a little.

"If you're trying to get me to dispel Nine's magic, you know that I won't do it, don't you?"

With the stern face of someone who takes life seriously, she stares at Terumi with reproach.

Trinity had no idea who Terumi really was, where he came from, or what about him Nine feared enough to put Mind Eater on him. All she knew was that they needed Terumi's knowledge to have a chance at beating the Black Beast and that, apparently, they wouldn't have been able to get that knowledge if they hadn't restricted his free will.

Nine wasn't the type of person to simply shackle someone and force them into her service for her own selfish benefit, so there must have been a good reason for her to take control of Terumi's actions. It's not like she didn't have some negative feelings about Nine not telling her the whole story, but she wasn't going to go against Nine's wishes just because of that.

Looking down at Trinity, who had quite the nasty expression on her face by her standards, Terumi burst out laughing.

"Hey now, don't get me wrong here, it was just a hypothetical. And even if you were willing to do it, I wasn't gonna ask."

Trinity was a bit shocked by his light-hearted words. She assumed that he would want to be freed from his bonds as soon as possible, so she was genuinely surprised to hear that.

"I mean, yeah, no doubt it's one hell of an infuriating spell. But still, if it wasn’t for this thing, I'd still be rotting in the world's dustiest jail cell right now. I'm getting a nice breath of fresh air in exchange for this collar around my neck, so it ain't really that bad a deal."

Terumi raised his hands up toward the sky like some sort of actor performing on stage. His narrow shoulders and the hood he wore low over his eyes shook in unison as he cackled like he was having the time of his life.

Then his arms suddenly went slack and fell back to his sides, and Terumi shook his head listlessly beneath his hood.

"But I've gotta say, I pity you."

He sighed with genuine sympathy.

Was he making fun of her, or was he really worrying about her? Trinity got flustered and seemed to shy away from him.

"What... do you mean by that?"

"Are you gonna act the good girl and be that bitch's pawn forever? Coming when she calls, letting her use you for all you're worth? If that's all you're ever gonna be to her... what's the difference between you and me, right now?"

Like he was sticking his hands into a wave of emotions and stirring them up, Terumi's intense voice alternated between moments of exaggerated force and understated quiet.

"Doesn't she piss you off? C'mon, you can tell me. That so-called friend of yours who does nothing but keep secrets and withhold information? Some best friend she is."

"Please stop. I don't..."

Think of her that way. It would be absurd to resent her. Trinity's hair waved about in wide swings as she shook her head.

"Whenever Nine refuses to tell me something, she always has a good reason for it. I've never once thought she was being unreasonable."

The only thing that bothered Trinity was that Nine suffered from her own silence, and there was nothing she could do to help her.

Terumi's mocking voice fell down upon her from over her head.

"Reallyyy? ...Well, if you say so, then I guess that's good enough for me. It's incredible how women can pretend to be friends like that."

With an implied 'but,' Terumi leaned over to peak at Trinity's face as she hung her head.

"Nine might already be headed down a path you can't follow her on though..."

His piercing glare cut straight to Trinity's heart. His disquieting whisper came from the smile peeking out from under the shadow of his hood, looking like a jagged cut on his face.

He knew everything. Trinity raised her panicked face as she heard him give voice to her hidden anxiety, but by the time she did, all she saw was the hem of Terumi's fluttering coat disappearing into the shadow of a nearby tent.

"Please wait, Terumi-san. What did you... mean by..."

The sound of his footsteps was quick and heavy, and before long they vanished. Her voice died off and faded into the sandy air.

Trinity pressed the papers she was holding even tighter to her chest. That shouldn't have been the sort of thing that could get to her so badly, but she just couldn't stop the storm of thoughts swirling through her head. She didn't understand the man who called himself Terumi. He had protected her from danger before, he would often engage her in friendly conversations, and she felt like he was a fun-loving, good-natured person... but now here he was suddenly, leaving nothing but disturbing words behind him as he walked away.

It was like he was subtly hinting that he knew something that Trinity didn't.

Trinity couldn't tell when it had begun, but she realized now that an unquenchable anxiety had sunk deep into her chest and was weighing her down like it was made of solid lead.

Around that time, Hakumen, who was serving as the ranking officer of this entire force, was walking around the encampment.

There was a reasonable degree of tension straining the air around him, and he was enveloped in premonitions of the battle to come. Just being on the soon-to-be battlefield put Hakumen in his element, and he clenched his fist without even realizing it. The ground beneath his feet was firm.

The Joint HQ Army, seemingly made up of soldiers from all around the world, was showing an unexpectedly high degree of cooperation thanks to good leadership and everyone was focusing on their appointed tasks without much unnecessary friction.

The one primarily responsible for keeping this force running so smoothly was likely Valkenhayn: Hakumen was by no means lacking as a wartime commander, but Valkenhayn seemed to have an incomparably higher amount of experience accumulated over a long lifetime. Beastkin had very long lifespans, after all. Valkenhayn had lived a longer life than any human, and he had walked more battlefields and overcome more brushes with death than any soldier. Thus, he excelled at deploying troops, and by extension understood how to organize an army.

If it weren't for that abundantly experienced werewolf, this camp would probably have a very different atmosphere. With that thought passing through his head, he passed through a road delineated by tents and rows of grimoires.

Sparse weeds occasionally obscured his vision and Hakumen felt bitter feelings well up every time they did. The lives of everyone here and the gently swaying weeds that grew out of the ground were exactly the same in the eyes of the Black Beast. They were just something that needed to be destroyed: nothing more, nothing less.

There was nothing he could do to protect these weeds from what was about to come. The only thing he could protect was his own life. No matter how they might struggle and cling to life, these brittle weeds were probably about to die, leaving no trace behind.

"Oh, I'm sorry, please excuse me."

Suddenly, bounding out from behind the shadow of a magical artillery battery came a person. Barely avoiding crashing right into him, they dug their heels into the ground and pitched forward to stop their momentum.

In the instant that the person registered in his field of vision, Hakumen felt like he was transported somewhere far away.

It was a woman. She was relatively tall, wore a coat that reached down to her knees, and had skin as white as snow. She looked up at Hakumen with a face that was a little too dignified to be called girlish and her blue eyes widened in surprise. Her hair, bundled into one by a hair tie, was red.

"Ah... you're Hakumen-san, aren't you?"

The red haired woman seemed a little flustered as she asked, but Hakumen didn't answer. He couldn't find any words to say.

Not waiting for a reply, the woman opened her mouth to speak again.

"To think we would meet this way. The last time we confronted the Black Beast, I was deployed in a different unit. I can still remember your imposing figure on that day as you met the Black Beast in battle faster than anyone else and laid waste to it with one fell strike, as clearly as if it had just happened!"

Her pale white cheeks flushed faintly as her spirit soared. Squeezing a white hat to her chest with both hands, she had an expression like an excited young boy that didn't match her mature body.

"I'm honored to be able to serve on the battlefield with you like this. By all means, I shall obey your every command."

She must have had considerable confidence in her own skills. Hakumen could tell from the unyielding spirit displayed on her face and in her words.

They didn't look alike. Their faces and general bearings weren't the same.

But Hakumen saw a memory in the color of her eyes and the color of her hair. His memories quaked. Surging emotions boiled up from the depths of the mask, but he pushed them back down as his mind was stricken with a delusion.

"...What is your name?"

He was worried that his voice would come out trembling, but he couldn't help but ask. He had a hunch- no, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that he was certain.

The woman straightened her posture like a proper soldier and answered firmly.

"Yes, sir. Hailing from the Yayoi family of the Mage's Guild's Duodecim, I am Ayame Yayoi."

Just as he thought. The confirmation sunk into Hakumen's chest, and a distant, impossibly far-off whiff of homesickness grazed his heart as it blew past.

In the end, Hakumen never said anything else after asking for her name, so the woman who called herself Ayame Yayoi gave him a salute before running off. He couldn't even turn around to watch her go. He just stood there like his body was made of stone.

Only once the woman's lingering presence and afterglow had completely faded from the dry air around him did Hakumen manage to pry his feet from the ground. With feeling slowly returning to his feet with every step, he headed straight out of the encampment. He had a mountain of emotions to contend with, but Hakumen distanced himself from them at that moment.

He had more important things to think about, things that required his attention. The perfectly uniform sound of his footfalls sounded heavily on the dirt with every step, like they were disciplining him.

Once he got a little ways out from the campsite, he got to a position where he could thoroughly survey the surrounding area. Sandwiched between two mountains like it was creating space between them, the plain was so wide that it outlined the distant horizon.

Beyond the low-growing grass and the tree line at the feet of the mountains, however, the middle of the plain underwent a jarring change. If you were to call it something, you would call it scorched earth. The grass disappeared, the dirt was charred, and there wasn't a living thing in sight. Looking closely, he could make out masses of concrete scattered about here and there, but there were relatively very few of them to be seen in the burned land. There wasn't even rubble lying around.

This area of scorched earth was destroyed a few days ago, when the Black Beast had last appeared.

The cauldron that the Black Beast came from at the time must have been quite far away, but the monster's path led it all the way to this plain, where a single city was unfortunate enough to just barely be caught in its sights and wiped off the face of the planet. Ishana may have been half-destroyed by Take-Mikazuchi falling on it, but it still retained its function as a city and an organization. How many people could have been looking out over the earth stained red by the horizon here, unable to stop themselves from biting their lips in anxiety?

Jubei was thinking about just that as he stood there petrified, inspecting this ghost of a lost city.

"...What a terrible sight."

Hearing someone call out to him from behind, Jubei simply flicked his tails as he continued to face forward. He realized it was Hakumen once the latter drew closer.

The tips of his two tails lost their strength and naturally drooped downward.

"Think of all the people we coulda saved if we'd just gotten here sooner..."

Looking at the scenery spread out before him like he was bewitched, Jubei whispered regretfully.

No trace remained of the lives of the people who once inhabited this place, and Jubei couldn't even imagine how many people had died here.

Standing next to Jubei as he suffered under the weight of guilt, Hakumen quietly shook his head.

"Grimalkin. Even had we arrived before the Black Beast, the outcome would have likely been the same. We currently have no means of stopping the beast ...though it irks me to say it."

"Even you get frustrated sometimes, huh?"

Seemingly surprised, Jubei grinned playfully. The grin quickly died on his face, however, and Jubei sighed like he was trying to breathe out all of his bitter feelings, shoulders dropping.

"I know there's no sense in thinking about it... but I still wish Nine was here."

She might have been able to teleport as many people to safety as possible while Jubei, Hakumen, and Valkenhayn distracted the Black Beast. Thinking he was naive for even considering that, Jubei scrunched his brow.

"In any case, she must focus all of her attention on creating weapons right now... such considerations are pointless at this juncture."

Hakumen muttered while staring off into the distance, letting his words fade into the barren wind.

Hearing his hoarse voice, Jubei looked up and blinked. He was surprised by Hakumen's sentimentality, but he sighed his agreement with a frown.

"You're right. That's the whole reason we came out here."

Nine was probably running herself ragged in the Mage's Guild right now, trying to finish her work even a day faster than anticipated.

She was the girl who always tunnel-visioned on her goal, did her own thing, and ended up taking it way too far, after all. She was probably working so hard that she didn't have time to stop and think about whether she was worrying Celica or Trinity. All of them who had come out here so that Nine wouldn't have to carry even more of a burden on her shoulders needed to stand strong and buy her as much time as they possibly could.

Jubei gripped one of the prototype swords he had gotten from Nine.

"If Nine finishes her weapons, we've got a chance at winning this. Even these prototypes are good enough to let us tangle with the Black Beast. If we can just do a little more..."

"...Grimalkin."

A little forcefully, Hakumen cut off Jubei mid-sentence. Rather than the barren wasteland before them, his white mask was looking at the sword Jubei was gripping in his hand.

"What is it, Hakumen?"

"Is that really the right way?"

His monologue-like words resounded heavily between the two. Jubei bristled his whiskers, looking confused, and waited for the voice beyond the mask to continue.

"This is our only choice, but I still cannot condone this course of action."

"...You mean Nine's weapons?"

"Imbuing them with the awesome destructive capabilities of Take-Mikazuchi's core and entrusting that power to humans. Such power... will drive a man mad."

Hakumen's concerns were well-founded. Even Jubei had his misgivings about the danger of Nine's idea. But nevertheless...

"Hakumen. The world's already gone mad. Just take a look at this plain, at this whole planet! We're dealing with a genuine monster who can do all this without breaking a sweat, and we've gotta fight it somehow!"

Unable to control his seething emotions, Jubei swung his arm in a wide arc. Everywhere it pointed, there was nothing but cruel, barren earth.

How many lives had ended here, how many regrets had seeped into this soil? This silent ground evoked nothing but unwanted thoughts.

"We've got it way better. You and Nine in particular can actually fight the thing, but with just you two, it's never gonna go down no matter how hard you try!"

It was unclear if the emotion making him yell himself hoarse was anger or fear. Even Jubei himself couldn't tell which it was.

His arm still remembered the fear he had felt, shaking like he had just sprinted a long distance with all his might. No matter how many times he stood face-to-face with the Black Beast, the fear inspired by its mere presence always made his legs freeze up.

That included the very first time he encountered the Black Beast's main body, as well.

"...That day, I couldn't do anything but stand there and tremble. Couldn't do anything but watch it devour my friend."

Jubei scrunched his brow as he relived the memories of that moment.

"I want power. I don't care if it comes from Ars Magus or some crazy new weapon. If the alternative is losing because my better judgment told me to not use every weapon available, I'd rather die a mad man."

He kept on gripping the scabbard in his hand harder and harder. He was sick of feeling sorry for his own helplessness. The regret burning away in his belly spilled out along with his words.

Like he was clearing that regret away, Hakumen whispered his words into the wind as he gazed far into the distance.

"Even if at times you have crumbled under the weight of your fear, you have always stood back up. The courage to choose to face one's fears is the true strength of humanity... strength without bravery is nothing more than insanity. And insanity... invites one's own destruction."

His voice sounded composed and impersonal, but there was still a vague sense that he was thinking of someone in particular as he spoke.

"...That is my only cause for concern."

With the slightest movement, Hakumen turned his mask to face Jubei as the wind blowing across the wasteland tossed his silver hair... or rather, the stuff that looked like his hair.

Looking up at that faceless mask, Jubei put his face in his hands in shame.

"Sorry. I lost my cool there."

"I understand. Worry not."

"It's pretty weird hearing you say something like that."

The out-of-character words tickled him a little bit. Shrugging his shoulders with a wry grin, Jubei got sentimental after being so worked up and let out a deep sigh. In accordance with his sentimental mood, he let out a low murmur.

"Hakumen, I wanna beat the Black Beast."

That was his honest, unembellished, truest desire.

"As do I."

The wind blew harder, still carrying a scent of grass in from behind them.

They listened to the wind that still carried evidence of life with it for a while until they heard Terumi's voice calling to them from a distance. The mages must have finished their work. Now it was time for the ones who were going to stay behind in this camp to do their part. After confirming the chain of command and working through various procedures, they needed to come up with a battle plan and figure out how and where best to deploy the different units.

It wouldn't be long before they drew swords.

Feeling the approach of a battle they had no hope of winning, Hakumen and Jubei returned to the encampment.