Editing BlazBlue:Calamity Trigger Part 1 Chapter 1 (section)

===Part 5===

'''December 30, 2199 — 18:00'''

How many alleys had they passed through? How many corners had they turned?

Guided by Taokaka, who moved with an unnatural agility despite her human-like appearance, Ragna found himself in a dark, dark sewer.

"This way, Good Guy~" Calling out, Taokaka jumped lightly over a pile of discarded rubble and broken furniture. It was a place isolated from the outside world, and it was late at night. Even if there were slight gaps, there was no hope of even a faint light.

And yet, Ragna and Taokaka were able to walk without any problems thanks to the strange moss that clung to the discarded rubble and accumulated mud. The moss emitted a faint greenish light, allowing the sewer to avoid being completely enveloped in pitch-black darkness.

Following Taokaka, Ragna continued, stumbling slightly on the rough footing.

"Hey, are you sure we can get out from here?" When he jumped down from the pile of rubble, he landed on something slick, possibly oil. Ragna reflexively wrinkled his nose and asked Taokaka with a hint of irritation, her white hood with triangular ears twitching slightly at the back of her head.

Ragna had learned from experience that escape routes were often not easy. But this was a much worse road than any of the "escape routes" he had been through before. Even though it wasn't wet, the floor, walls, and ceiling were damp, and the unpleasant humidity, mixed with the thick seithr that seemed to be seeping in from outside, gave his skin and lungs an unpleasant feeling.

A little further down, sewage and discarded waste flowed like muddy water, creating a nauseating stench.

Considering this was not far from the city yet there was no strong stench outside, it seemed the Hierarchical City's construction was surprisingly solid, despite its sloppy appearance. Rubbing his nose, which was already quite numb, Ragna muttered this to himself.

"Of course, meow. I often come here to get bread and sweets upstairs, meow." Taokaka said, looking up at the ceiling of the sewer. The blackened overhead was a complex network of protruding iron pipes and metal plates, and far beyond that, a dark ceiling was visible, clinging to a very high place.

And much farther away, there must be the upper city they were aiming for.

Following her gaze, Ragna sighed and slumped his shoulders.

"Get, huh? You don't mean you're stealing stuff from stores, do you?"

"Meow~"

"You're a thief!" Ragna's voice echoed hollowly and coldly in the sewer. When the echo subsided, a damp silence returned. The sound of water dripping and bouncing on the floor was eerie. 

In the thick shadows, something unknown seemed to be wriggling, peering at them. A shiver ran down Ragna's spine, and he shuddered, following Taokaka. But... Ragna suddenly frowned and stopped.

(It's not an illusion. Someone's watching us.)

Somewhere in the depths of the thick shadows carved by the faintly glowing moss, in a distorted pile of rubble, he felt a gaze. No, it was more than just a gaze. It was something more fundamental. It felt like an existence, a will itself, was intently focused on him.

"Good Guy~? What's wrong, meow?" Wondering why Ragna wasn't following, Taokaka turned back. She lightly jumped over the remains of something that had been piled up and landed. Her small footsteps seemed to trigger it.

'''"Kikikikiikiki!"''' With a voice that seemed to tear through the air, shadows suddenly leaped out from the darkness. From them, sharp, bridge-like shadows shot out in countless numbers, rushing at Ragna.

"Ugh!" He was caught off guard by the suddenness and the perfectly camouflaged figure. The sound of thick cloth tearing filled the air, and something dug into his skin. Pulling his injured shoulder, he drew his sword with his other arm and brushed away the shadow in front of him.

There was no resistance. It was as if he had cut through a real shadow.
'''
"Gugigigigi... true... towards truth... the truth I seek..."''' The voice was strange, almost human but not quite. Muttering in an odd tone, the shadow withdrew. It floated amid the thick sludge and rubble, hovering and swirling.

At first, Ragna thought it was a mindless, ferocious beast, a creature born of highly concentrated seithr that had warped the ecosystem. But this was different somehow. It was strange, distorted, and incomprehensible. It didn't look like a living creature at all.

The shadow moved around. And then, a face appeared from within the swirling darkness. A white circle with three holes for eyes and a mouth. Was it supposed to be a face? It was the only definite shape in the dark, amorphous shadow.

"What... What is this thing?" A sense of disgust, rather than fear, washed over him at the sight. 

The shadow landed on the slimy floor with a disgusting movement and seemed to rise up. Vaguely, Ragna thought he could see some small creature wriggling at its feet, illuminated by the moss light.

"This guy is Squiggly, meow!" 

"Squiggly? What's that?"

"He's a bad guy, meow! He attacks our village and eats the little Kakas, meow!" With a snarl, Taokaka changed her cheerful expression to one of fierce anger, her eyes narrowed. She bared her teeth and growled menacingly.

As if mocking her, the shadow with the white face trembled as if foaming all over.
'''
"Kihihihi... I can feel it... the ugly flesh wriggling with power. For the wish to be granted, there is no need for consent... The denial of concepts, the gates that should never be closed... Gihihihihihihi..."''' 

Each time the shadow trembled and laughed, the air grew thick and stagnant. Ragna grimaced. It was seithr. It wasn't flowing in from outside. It was overflowing from the shadow that was swirling in front of him, invading every part of the sewer.

It meant that the black substance that enveloped this shadow-like object was all seithr. And the fact that this strange monster, a mass of seithr, was uttering sounds that resembled human speech meant that it had originally been a being capable of understanding human language. In other words, it was human.

Before it became like this, the dark, amorphous monster that Taokaka called "Squiggly" and some people in Orient Town called Arakune was once a human being.

Ragna spat out the disgust that welled up in him.

"This guy... he's touched the Boundary..." 

Ragna had been traveling from one NOL branch to another, destroying the cauldrons found in the basement of each. The cauldrons connected this world to another world - the Boundary. It was a place beyond human comprehension, an amorphous expanse filled with a concentration of seithr that is incomparable to the surface of the earth.

Just as the dense seithr gave birth to demonic beasts, so too could humans, exposed to such high concentrations, have their reason consumed by seithr. Eventually, they would be dragged into the Boundary, losing their humanity.

Arakune, this black monster with a rotten odor, a writhing, mucus-like body, and emitting strange noises, was the end result of such a transformation. Once a human, he had been corrupted by the Boundary.

"I don't know what you were trying to do by messing with something like that... you idiot." 

A surge of anger rose from the depths of Ragna's stomach. The cauldron that the NOL cherished and kept deep underground… Not just them, but also various institutions, researchers, and scholars wanted it. Owning the cauldron meant owning the end of the Boundary that the cauldron connected to.

Everyone assumed that there was a treasure beyond human understanding sleeping in the Boundary. But there was no way humans could control something beyond their understanding. It was utterly infuriating. He was fed up with the NOL, their brazenness about meddling with such a cauldron, and with those who sought the cauldrons and chased after them. All of them.

"There's nothing we can do about it now. Don't blame me. ...Well, if you have enough reason to blame anyone."

If he left this creature here, it would not only attack the "village" that Taokaka had mentioned, but it would also go out into Orient Town and the lower city and attack people. 

Ragna lowered the tip of his sword and stepped forward, deeply into the monster's domain. He had no attachment to Kagutsuchi, but that didn't mean he was foolish enough to just stand there and let a blatant threat loom in front of him. He swung his sword, aiming for the creature's brain-like core, as it spread out to meet him.

'''"Gurgh…!"'''

"Tch!" With a gurgling sound, Arakune's body disappeared from Ragna's sight in an instant.

It was below him. Cursing, Ragna kicked downwards, and Arakune passed beneath his foot and reappeared behind his red coat. 
'''
'''"You... You... Devour... Devour... Devour..."''' From an angle that would be impossible for a human or any four-limbed creature, a black mass protruded, leaping up at Ragna. Ragna parried it with his sword. The feeling was heavy and thick. And then, as if climbing up the sword's surface like mud, a strange shadow suddenly emerged from the seithr. It was an unfamiliar, utterly repulsive, wriggling thing that stirred up a sense of disgust.

"Ugh!" Repulsed by a nauseating disgust, Ragna backed away. As if to fill the gap, a sharp claw swung down, cutting through the countless bugs that had emerged and knocking them down. Taokaka had boldly jumped in.

"Squiggly! How many years has it been since we last met! Tao will tear you to pieces, meow!" Without pausing to land from her downward strike, Taokaka twisted in midair and sliced Arakune with her other claw. The claw caught what appeared to be the creature's face and tore it apart with a sound like breaking pottery. The blackened body twisted and fell limply backward. At the same time, Taokaka landed lightly beside Ragna. She thrust her large hand, claws extended in a threatening gesture.

Seeing this, Ragna let out a light laugh. She was a strange creature, just like him. But he didn't mind standing next to her, unlike "Squiggly".

'''"It's not how many years it's been, it's been a hundred years since we met here."'''

"Oh. Then I'll tear you to pieces for a hundred years, meow."

"Whatever." Ragna gripped his sword tightly, regaining the tension that had slipped away.

Arakune, which had become a pool of black mud, quickly rose up with a rippling motion and sprayed seithr around its feet with a gurgle.

'''"G-gii... Give... give it to me... I will eat it, burning, look, escape cannot escape from that eye, fate cannot escape!"'''

"I don't understand what you're saying! I'll put you out of your misery, so just die already! Let's do this, you pile of garbage!" 

Swinging his sword wildly to clear away the remaining seithr, Ragna raised his weapon high and roared, striking down at the creature consumed by seithr.

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| Forward to [[BlazBlue:Calamity Trigger Part 1 Chapter 2|Chapter 2: Spiral fate — The Board's Pieces]]
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