Editing The Unexplored Summon Blood Sign:Volume3 Chapter4 (section)

===Part 3===

“Found it.”

Shiroyama Kyousuke spoke from the deck of a Stingray racing at 200 kph across the ocean and between the pillars and buildings.

The smoke showed up more than the silhouette. Instead of catching up to the identical craft, their Stingray approached the other one by entering the same intersection on its left.

“What do you plan to do?” asked one of the Repliglass soldiers.

“Just crash into it. We’ll handle the rest.”

They could hear things whizzing by overhead. There was a lot on the lowest level of the city. Wires and crane hooks were dangling down from the bottoms of the countless giant bridges, parks, and schools.

Their frequency was growing.

The Stingray accelerated further.

And then the two came into contact as if crashing at the intersection.

A frightening impact threw Shiroyama Kyousuke and Isabelle from the deck.

Without the superhuman muscular strength and leg strength of the Repliglass, they were powerless. After being thrown like an artillery shell, Kyousuke held Isabelle in his arms to protect her and curled up his body.

They flew from one Stingray to the other.

They struck the deck and bounced a few times, but Kyousuke managed to stop his body while preventing the intense impact from causing too much damage.

They were on the flat surface of a stingray measuring several dozen meters across.

Inside the Artificial Sacred Ground, a waitress demon smiled while being served by a three meter mass of yellow slime.

Trapped in that cage were collapsed Repliglass soldiers, a Water Bear that likely contained Maria Heartocean, the Repliglass Seagull with folded wings, a large square box that likely contained the server abandoned next to the escape craft, and Miyama Gouta who had likely pulled the trigger on all of this.

“E-eek! H-help…''help me''…!!”

“…”

For just a moment, Kyousuke mechanically narrowed his eyes at those words, but…

“I’ll pay you!! I’ll give you a seat on the ark too!! So fight! Hurry up and fight! Isn’t that what you live for, you worthless hired hand from Freedom!?”

Kyousuke started to open his mouth, but before he could, Isabelle stood up next to him.

With no notable expression on her face, the girl in a red military uniform pressed her thumb against her throat. She noticed the thick and meaningless scent of blood hanging in the air.

And then she pulled her thumb sideways.

“''Just super-sized die already.''”

And she made an announcement as if to judge the culprit who had created this situation.

“''Once you’ve died, I’ll save you.''” 

“But…!?”

Immediately after that contradictory suggestion, a tremor ran through the Stingray and Biondetta’s Artificial Sacred Ground entered its Chain state. That also signaled the end of Miyama Gouta’s consciousness.

Normally, Kyousuke would have run into his opponent’s Artificial Sacred Ground to begin a new battle with no risk, but the waitress demon snapped her fingers and erased her own Artificial Sacred Ground.

The Original Yellow also vanished, revealing Murasame Kuina instead.

“…What are you doing?”

“My goal is assisting my client’s revenge, not pure destruction. And my client wishes to speak with your vessel. Think of this as a form of mental care to help her revenge run smoothly.”

Biondetta respectfully bowed and stepped to the side to give her client control of the scene.

That client, Murasame Kuina, faced Isabelle.

No, in this case…

“Sayuri, why did you come here?”

“My name is Isabelle and I came here to stop you.”

“…! I don’t know an Isabelle! You have no idea how ridiculous, cruel, hollow, painful, and heartbreaking it is to hear you use that name!! It’s seeing you like this that makes me want to at least hunt down the people who did this to you and send them to hell!!”

Hearing that, Isabelle slowly shook her head.

“You don’t understand.”

“Understand what!?”

“This is not who you are.”

“You can’t even remember your own name and you think you can talk about who ''I'' am!?”

“You still don’t get it?”

Isabelle looked troubled.

It was a sorrowful look.

It was the look of someone who could not bring themselves to say they were too busy to attend the birthday party their friend was so excited about.

And this was not just an issue of emotions or ideals. It was the look of someone who was reluctant to make some decisive statement, but knew they had to say it.

“Think back. What device did this all start with?”

“?”

“Girl’s Backdoor.”

“What? Why would you bring up those things we used as a diversion?”

“''You still don’t get it?''”

Isabelle repeated her question.

And before the bare midriff girl could feel a tremor down her spine, the answer was released into the world.

“You were made into the protagonist by that demon’s Girl’s Backdoor.”

Murasame Kuina, that girl of vengeance, came to a complete stop as her thoughts ground to a halt.

“It’s true you may have had a small-sized desire for revenge in the beginning.”

So Isabelle did not stop speaking.

“For one thing, once I became a vessel, my very existence would have been erased from your mind. If Biondetta hadn’t contacted you, you may not have ever remembered.”

No one else stopped her.

“However, a desire for revenge alone is not the same thing as acting on it.”

She spoke the cruel truth.

“But what if Biondetta read what you wanted and manipulated your actions? What if she used an invisible hand to send you on a path you would have never dared to take normally?”

She simply presented it to the girl.

“You were only taking revenge due to the Girl’s Backdoor’s manipulation. You merely misinterpreted it as your own actions. A single summoner has been putting on a play this entire time.”

At first, Murasame Kuina had been manipulated from without.

Because she was acting based on the deepest thoughts in her heart, she had assumed those actions were based in her own will.

But in truth, Kuina’s desires had never left the realm of thought and the actions were created by a third party manipulating her body.

During a long, long life, anyone might feel the desire to punch or kill someone at some point.

But very few could and would actually go through with it.

At the very least, Murasame Kuina had not been one of those people.

But someone else had smiled and been very careful to make sure she never noticed that.

“You’re…lying.”

Kuina forced out the words like they were caught in her throat.

More than a rebuttal, she was trying to throw back something she refused to believe.

“I mean, you gain nothing from telling me that supposed ‘truth’ here! But to protect Government, you probably would lie about it in order to disturb us and throw off our teamwork! So!!”

“It would probably be faster if I demonstrated our stance here.”

With that casual comment, Kyousuke grabbed a nearby lever.

It was used to secure any wheeled containers to the deck while the Stingray moved at 200 kph.

He did not hesitate to pull the lever.

With a loud thunk, something was removed. A container slid across the deck. No one could stop it as it plunged into the ocean.

That was the Anthill server.

It had contained the important data crucial for the continuation of the project.

“Wha-…?”

“The request I received from Isabelle was to free Murasame Kuina from her unnecessary revenge. No more, no less. ''What Government wants doesn’t matter.'' The Anthills? Those disgusting things are better off destroyed. We were only selling ourselves to Government because it helped us accomplish our goal.”

“That means we have no reason to lie to you to protect Government.” The military uniform girl stared straight at Murasame Kuina. “''From the very beginning, we were super-sized fighting to save you from that demon.''”

Finally, Murasame Kuina turned toward Biondetta like a broken doll.

The waitress demon simply smiled.

“What…is the meaning of this?”

She asked the obvious question.

“Hey, you! Is Sayuri telling the truth about-…!?”

“Ma’am.”

Even with the truth revealed, Biondetta did not bat an eye and maintained her perfect salesman’s smile.

And at some point, her thin waitress’s glove had melted away as if from a great heat.

Her white fingertips were briefly visible, but they soon turned black.

But not because they had been burned and scorched.

The skin of her left hand peeled away on its own, revealing the leather glove below. Was the sticky-sounding glove fused with the real, skinless palm further below?

[[Image:BloodSign_v03_289.jpg|thumb]]

Nevertheless, Biondetta formed a handgun and aimed the index finger barrel at her client.

And the demon spoke with a smile.

“This is the very best part, so kindly shut the hell up☆”

That was all it took for Murasame Kuina’s entire body to go stiff and then go limp.

The light vanished from her eyes and all human expression vanished from her face.

She looked like a doll controlled by thin threads and with its limbs trapped in countless bear traps.

The tree-style flowchart ''had arrived at an unexpected situation and switched to a different line.

It was all an act and it was all restricted.

Biondetta had only wanted to borrow someone else’s revenge to satisfy her own sadistic desires. By approaching someone with a kind smile, gently fanning the flames of their vengeful desires, and providing them the means and opportunity to fulfill them, she gained an excuse for all sorts of violence.

And this was the perfect and ultimate shortcut.

Girl’s Backdoor.

She manipulated people to their destruction in order to fulfill her own desires. She truly was a demon.

She claimed she was simply obeying her client, but she was actually enjoying the greatest front row seat.

“From the very beginning…”

At first, Kyousuke and Isabelle had known Kuina had sworn revenge for her friend and begun acting on it, but they had not known who had invited her to take revenge. But no matter who stood by her side, they had guessed there was a decent risk of this possibility.

It came down to Girl’s Backdoor.

What if there was no distinction between the controller and the controlled? It was not a straight line or a pyramid. This was controlling someone else while hoping they became the perfect master. There was a Mobius-like ''twist'' that blurred the distinction between master and servant.

“You had planned for this. This was not just one of many possibilities. Murasame Kuina learning the truth was built in as an unavoidable step no matter what happened. It was necessary if you were to pit Kuina and Isabelle against each other.”

“Well, of course.” Biondetta laughed just like the Queen she had once seen. “Her desire for revenge has a safety built in. I want her to burn down the entire world, but she has so many conditions about what she refuses to do. ''But if I have her destroy the very source of those limitations,'' I figure nothing will be able to stop her revenge.”

In other words, Murasame Kuina would kill Isabelle – who she most wanted to protect – in the pursuit of her revenge.

Biondetta would dirty Kuina’s hands by forcing her to kill the girl.

That had been the ultimate joy in her mind as she had built the Girl’s Backdoor devices. That had been the thought in her mind as she smiled next to her client from the earliest stages of their plan.

She would gorge herself on the feast before her eyes, shove all the blame onto the girl, and then swallow up even the girl she had used as a scapegoat.

Kyousuke pulled his Blood-Sign from his back.

“''You'' are completely insane.”

“Completely insane? This? Nothing more than this!? We have felt the Queen’s insanity in person, so you must know this is no more than a trivial little prank!!”

“I’m super-sized pissed right now. Bulge bulge (deadpan).”

“I don’t mind at all. ''I will bring my client’s revenge further than she ever imagined.'' I don’t mind if the sight of the horrific results leaves my client in tears and drives her to suicide. All that matters is that I enjoy myself.”

With that, Biondetta spread her feet to shoulder width.

She shook her tail and an Incense Grenade clunked down from her miniskirt.

“And with Girl’s Backdoor, our summoner-vessel combination is, in a way, greater than any other. The combat routines I have given my client are second to none. Now, let me enjoy this, ''you damn rabbit.'' ''You'' are likely the most satisfying meal for this revenge!!”

With that yell, the grenade detonated and an Artificial Sacred Ground covered their surroundings.