Editing The Unexplored Summon Blood Sign:Volume4 Chapter1 (section)

===Part 3===

'''(Timeline “Past”)

“Do you know who Ellie Slide is?”

Somewhere and at some point, the black-haired shrine maiden named Meinokawa Renge had asked him that.

“She’s apparently a well-known incense expert, but we don’t know where to find her in this crowd.”

“Oh? You have some interesting connections.”

Kyousuke sounded impressed, but Renge sighed frankly.

“It’s not that. We want to hire her to manufacture an Incense Grenade. I had been making them on instinct so far, but someone pointed out there’s a lot of waste in the mixture. But I can’t pinpoint my own idiosyncrasies, so I want to have an expert make a basic one for me that I can use for reference.”

“Hmm. By the way, your sister seems to be napping on her feet. Was it an exhausting trip?”

“Higan! Don’t try to escape reality just because it’s a complicated subject!! C’mon, you’re drooling!!”

The black and blonde haired shrine maidens continued arguing as they disappeared into the crowd. They would have stood out in a normal city, but they blended in quite well in a trade show overrun with summoners and vessels.

Kyousuke shrugged as he watched them go, but then he realized the promised time had arrived.

He was here to meet someone.

She was a strange person.

This was May 31, just a few days ago. That was Shiroyama Kyousuke’s first impression of the woman named Himekawa Mika. Her waist-length bluish-black ponytail was contained in a fluffy scrunchie, she had sharp and intelligent facial features, her bodylines had plenty of curves, and she wore a deep navy blue suit with the tight skirt and a portion of the stockings intentionally torn. That last point was the only odd thing about her. Altogether, she was quite beautiful, but there was something else that led the boy to his absurd impression.

''Oh.

''She looks almost exactly like that woman.

It was 10:30 AM in the crowds of D.R.O.K. And he seriously wondered what to do about her when she blew the silver whistle hanging from her neck the second their eyes met.

“You are Shiroyama Kyousuke-san, right? You’re late. Very late! I believe we agreed to meet at ten on the dot!!”

“Sorry, I’m running a little slow.”

“What kind of excuse is that!? Be more careful…and learn your lesson!!”

Kyousuke held out his hands to urge her to cool down, but Himekawa Mika’s face only grew redder as she blew her whistle. As she did, he heard a jangling from the mug and 12-sided die decorations connected by a thin chain.

In truth, Kyousuke had arrived half an hour before the arranged time and scouted out the surrounding area. He had then waited until half an hour after the arranged time to observe the actions and reactions of the woman. His conversation with the Meinokawa sisters had only been one part of that and he had moved to a position where Himekawa would spot him only after he decided it was safe to let her notice him in the crowd.

The ponytail beauty must have finally felt satisfied because she removed the whistle from her mouth.

“Um, Shiroyama Kyousuke…-kun? What do you know about my situation?”

“Only what was in the job email. You are Himekawa Mika, an Illegal vessel who is currently free. Lu-san introduced us and I was told to ask for any more details once I arrived.”

“That’s the expected format. Let’s find somewhere to sit down and discuss this.”

They were at a trade show for new Summoning Ceremony technology (i.e. weapons), but there were also plenty of lodging facilities and restaurants. Himekawa Mika chose a nearby tent-style restaurant. The long tables arranged in a line had long legs and no chairs. With junk food like frankfurters, fries, and yakisoba on the menu, Kyousuke was cautious, but the tight skirt beauty actually ordered a mug of beer this early.

“It’s ten in the morning.”

“It’s ten thirty. And psychological trances are a necessary part of being a vessel.”

“You’re from Illegal all right. You really know how to excuse your own self-indulgence…”

Then he remembered one of the decorations on the sin necklace she used to mentally bind herself: a mug.

But Kyousuke also saw something nostalgic in her appearance.

“Hm? Why are you staring at me?”

“It’s nothing really.” Kyousuke looked like he had trouble believing it himself. “It’s just that you look a lot like someone. Your general atmosphere, your taste in clothes, and even the whistle. You remind me a lot of ''one of the people who looked after me'' back in the Queen’s Miniature Garden. …You’re the spitting image of Madam Professor.”

“Please stop hitting on me before we get to work.”

“Even that reaction is just like her, unfortunately. And is that anything to say while drinking a beer? Although that too is just like her, so I’m not sure what to do about it.”

Kyousuke leaned his upper body against the tall table while giving in to the odd sense of déjà vu, but Himekawa Mika placed her shapely butt on the table to sit down with mug in hand. And this beautiful woman had intentionally torn the sides of her tight skirt and her stockings, so when the vessel crossed her long legs, her oddly alluring skin was placed right in front of his eyes.

This only annoyed Kyousuke, but…

“This is a local sign. It warns people away because I’ll only bring them trouble.”

“Illegal really does like ''that kind of thing'', don’t they? And no one seems to know where they come from like a prison communication method using the sound of banging on the bars.”

D.R.O.K. had not been running for long, but these local rules had apparently been created, refined, and spread in that short time. It made little sense to someone looking in from the outside.

But Himekawa did not seem to mind.

“What about you? What’s with that combination?”

“What? It’s just caramel popcorn and milk.”

“…It’s ten in the morning.”

“It’s ten thirty. A summoner needs sugar to keep up his high level thoughts.”

“I see you’ve refined your excuses to a high level too.”

“I would have preferred to get some carbs with plain cereal, but this combination was the closest substitute I could find.”

They seemed to have differing tastes.

While showing off her bright and soft skin through her torn stockings, Himekawa gulped down her alcohol and continued the conversation with a drunken energy.

She talked about the rush of new Summoning Ceremonies, Pandemonium, the joint project between the three major powers, and the Deltaston family of the Round Table that was involved in it all.

“So to sum up,” said Kyousuke as he stuck his spoon into the soup bowl of sweet milk. “How Pandemonium works doesn’t matter. The same goes for the Deltaston family’s conspiracy. All that matters are the 353 vessels imprisoned in that impregnable mobile fortress and that Pandemonium uses them as its gears. So is my job to rescue them?”

Himekawa winced somewhat at the ominous atmosphere that seemed charged with static electricity.

“You’re willing to write that family off as not mattering?”

“Well, they don’t matter compared to human lives, do they?”

Once he said that, Kyousuke’s expression was back to normal.

And he thought about what was to come.

If it came to a battle, it would be against other summoners.

Just glancing around the junk food restaurant, he spotted a few summoners and vessels he recognized.

One was Government Award 892, Love and Hate Aggressor.

She was generally a summoner whose motto was loyalty, but she focused less on actual battles and more on working hard to strictly train up newcomers. She had given Government a much greater fighting force and she was also known to appear on the front line and briefly produce hell on earth only when one of her beloved pupils was killed. But she was also well known to cross the boundaries between major powers to repay anyone who saved one of those beloved pupils.

One was Illegal Award 500, Cursed Doll.

She was a rare example of a summoner who had once been a vessel. Most of those with the traits of a spiritual medium could not act as a summoner because they were too strongly influenced by the Material during battle, but she was known for building that loss of control into her strategy and pulling off feats above her Award level with almost suicidal techniques. Once she lost control, no one could predict who she would bare her fangs against, so it was effectively impossible to work with her on a mission.

One was Freedom Award Unknown, Gozaru Summoner.

This bizarre summoner always wore a Gozaru Samurai costume. He was known for being quite skilled but extremely capricious. It was rumored that multiple people took turns wearing the costume. His Award level was unknown because adding up all of his past exploits within all three major powers provided a sum that exceeded 1000.

The situation might allow them to split their opponents between two camps so they would fight each other.

As Kyousuke thought, Himekawa waved a hand to call the waitress over.

Her mug was already empty.

“It’s ten thirty.”

“Then I won’t get another mug. I’ll take a glass of this platinum bubble. And make it snappy☆”

Kyousuke could only hold his head in his hands.

Meanwhile, Himekawa spoke to him from the table.

“The vessels are of course the center of Pandemonium, so it will cease to function if they are removed. The Deltaston family will never allow that. They have people in all three major powers, so we’ll find more and more people involved in this.”

“''That doesn’t matter,''” readily stated Shiroyama Kyousuke.

He was not simply refusing to think about it. If necessary, he would calmly take on all three major powers.

Himekawa gave into her intoxication, swayed back and forth on the table, and used the hand not holding her beer glass to reach behind her waist. She unhooked the side of her skirt, moved to the back of the tight skirt, grabbed the upper edge with her slender finger, and lowered it slightly.

A bit above her tailbone, a large object was embedded in her lightly flushed skin.

It was a blatantly mechanical keyhole with a metallic shine. Something was written in the alphabet along the round outer edge. The six letters starting with “F” provided the name of a goddess from Norse Mythology who was a goddess of beauty and fertility and who controlled half of heaven’s army.

“We are the Holy Key Women. Simply insert and turn the authorization key and we can summon a specific Divine-class. …I rejoiced when I first heard that explanation, but I never thought we would be built into Pandemonium.” She gave a self-deprecating smile. “But not only is our opponent borrowing the power of Pandemonium, but technology like this is within their reach. In fact, the Deltaston family has spread their roots to all three major powers, so they will have plenty of strange methods beyond the Illegal ones. That is what it means to challenge Pandemonium and fight its owner. Are you truly prepared to take on ''a world one step outside the Blood-Sign method''?”

“I already told you: That doesn’t matter.” Kyousuke did not smile. “You might be worried how we’ll fight whatever our enemy might use against us, but you can leave all of that to me. So Himekawa Mika, there’s only one thing I want from you. And I’m not talking about the reward or what cards you might have on hand. First of all, I want to confirm something. I want to hear it from your own mouth.”

“My mouth…?”

“I didn’t hear it in the email. I was told to discuss the details once I arrived. So I’ll ask again: What is it you want? Does the desire in your heart contain the words needed to drive me to action?”

When she heard that, the beautiful woman laughed quietly.

She removed her finger from her lowered tight skirt and hid the strange gadget. She drank down the rest of her beer glass’s contents, inhaled, and exhaled. She seemed to be savoring that normal action.

And then she spoke.

[[Image:BloodSign_v04_079.jpg|thumb]]

“I came here by forging my license. I can move freely for the time being, but they will notice before long and Illegal…no, the Deltaston family will send someone after me.”

“…?”

“Most of the Holy Key Women are being used as components for Pandemonium, but a few were let out for demonstrations at the booths and studios. I forged my selection for one of those. I might have been able to bring a few more with me. That might have been an option, but I abandoned the idea. Instead of only partially saving them, I temporarily abandoned them all so I could rescue every last one of them.”

That may have been why.

She had chosen to stick with Illegal’s way of doing things. She did not bother with niceties, she did not compromise and then glorify the tragic result, and she was prepared to stay true to her initial intent until the very, very end. Had she taken a turn toward the unkind in order to reach a result that surpassed good and evil?

“I can’t just escape on my own. I can’t let this end as a mere traitor. I used the internet to contact an intermediary I used to use and I used the thin thread of Lu Niang Lan to draw in you, Freedom Award 903, Alice (with) Rabbit. I threw out all morals in order to say this one thing.”

She looked Kyousuke straight in the eye.

And with the fragility of trying to support the weight of every last sinner with a single strand of spider web, Himekawa Mika spoke clearly.

Just like the Holy Key Women, she seemed to directly insert her words into a certain boy’s soul and then twist it around.

“''So I beg you. Please save us all from the impregnable Pandemonium.''”