Editing The Unexplored Summon Blood Sign:Volume3 Chapter3 (section)

===Part 5===

Atop another building in P Block, another confrontation was underway among the greenery growing on the square rooftop.

It looked like a scene from a costume party.

Isabelle had been waiting on that building in case a sniper targeted Kyousuke during his meeting with Biondetta. When taking into account line of fire, wind direction, the layout of the buildings, the flow of the crowds, the location of the sun, etc., there were relatively few good sniper spots even in a wide open area. That was why there were experts who took all that into account and used it to their advantage.

“…”

As Isabelle waited there, she heard someone stepping on the gravel.

And as soon she looked that way…

“…I found you.”

“?”

“I finally found you!! Sayuri!!”

A girl with semi-long brown hair and an exposed midriff had suddenly appeared. It was Murasame Kuina. Isabelle’s eyes widened in confusion as the girl tightly wrapped her arms around her.

Still held in the girl’s arms, Isabelle pulled her head back a little.

“Nuuun(deadpan). You do not seem to be hiding the components to a super-sized sniper rifle, so I will attempt to engage you in conversation.”

“Hm? What is it, Sayuri?”

“However…”

The red military uniform girl’s eyes clearly focused on the girl in front of her.

“''My name is super-sized not Sayuri. It is Isabelle.''”

“''What are you talking about? Your name is not Isabelle!''”

Isabelle stepped back several meters for no real reason.

She had not particularly changed her location and she was not hiding, but Murasame Kuina seemed satisfied and spoke to her more quietly this time.

“Listen. Your name is Kawamo Sayuri. You were a normal middle school girl living in Harukawa City…no, in Toy Dream 40. You haven’t had any military training and you aren’t part of some weird group called Government. You really are just a middle school girl. You would go home without participating in any clubs, you were awful at anything athletic, and you always stuck by my side!”

“?”

“Oh, honestly!! Just look at this picture! This is you!”

The girl grabbed the thin chain around her neck and pulled an accessory out from the chest of her clothing. It was about the size of a large coin and it seemed to be a locket. She snapped it open to reveal the face of a slender Asian girl with long black hair.

Isabelle viewed the photo from a distance instead of moving closer for a better look. She seemed to be keeping distance between them and keeping an eye out for a surprise attack while her focus was on the photo.

“My face is not this expressionless. Zuuun (deadpan). This is super-sized wrong.”

“''The way you’re acting now is what’s wrong!'' That Anthill Project messed with your very soul!!”

Murasame Kuina grabbed the shoulders of the red military uniform and roughly shook Isabelle while shouting at her.

But it did not get through.

It was like an infinite panel of soundproof glass separated them.

“How much do you know about the spiritual damage research that Government has been doing?”

“Not even a small-sized amount.”

“Oh, honestly. At least that part of you hasn’t changed,” groaned the girl. “Listen. That’s a catchall term for all the impurities, bugs, errors, or whatever you want to call them that stick to people’s souls. They cause illness, insanity, and other bad things, so the usual desire is to find a way to get rid of them.”

“Now that you mention it, that is exactly what I thought it was. Point (deadpan).

“You weren’t thinking anything of the sort, were you? Anyway, they’ve shifted beyond that. Simply put, they want to ''improve people’s specs'' by attaching artificially-created spiritual damage to their souls.”

Kuina looked disgusted just saying it.

But she continued despite the bitter look on her face.

“It’s the digital version of what has long been known as an evil spirit or ''namanari''. They start eating raw meat for nutrition, they grow horns from their head, they grow hair all over their body, and they grow claws and fangs… You can just think of it as redesigning a human. If they wanted to, they could probably give you wings to fly through the sky or gills to breathe underwater. And if Government can do that, ''surely you can tell that you mustn’t rely on your current appearance.''”

“…”

In her red hat, Isabelle – or the girl going by that name – looked down at her hands.

The Anthills.

That project added the traits of a vessel to artificially create vessels.

“Hey, you’re a vessel, so you know the penalty when you lose, right?”

“O-of course. I have a super-sized understanding of that. Ah ha ah ha ha (deadpan).”

“You do actually know that, don’t you!? A-ahem. The loser’s heart is hit by the same shock as seeing the god they worship killed before their eyes. They’re stuck in a mindless daze for twenty four hours and they’ll slowly obey what anyone says like a zombie. But it normally doesn’t leave any lasting effects. Yes, normally.”

“Am I not normal?”

“No. Government must have given you certain orders afterwards: ‘Stand and fight. Summon something in sound range *** with a cost of *** and then lose.’ The loser can’t fight a complex battle, but there may have been something assisting you. And what do you think would happen to a human soul after doing that every few minutes…no, every half minute or so?”

“Nuuun (deadpan)…???”

“Then I’ll tell you. There are different patterns to a damaged heart. By having you summon the Materials on a list put together for a certain purpose and then losing each time, they can reshape your soul how they want. It’s a lot like chiseling away at a stone pillar. …And that’s what Isabelle is. The pillar named Kawamo Sayuri was chiseled away again and again and again!! They chiseled away at you until you were an unrecognizable vessel!!”

Government was an ally of justice and they likely believed they were doing the right thing.

Even if they were creating a new table by taking apart, sawing at, and hammering at a beautiful paulownia dresser without knowing its value.

Thus, this was different from multiple personalities. It was more like a diamond created from a corpse.

The original person was no more. There was not a neat and tidy distinction between one and the other. Just as the picture in the locket and the blonde-haired blue-eyed military uniform girl looked nothing alike.

There was only Isabelle now.

“Hmm. Your claim does not even make a small-sized amount of sense.”

“Why not?”

“Summoners and vessels work together as a set, so a summoner’s soul would have had to be destroyed along with mine.”

“Oh, that.”

“The Anthills are supposed to mass-produce vessels, so destroying a summoner for each vessel is super-sized inefficient…”

“It’s simple. Government sacrificed someone. That’s all.”

“?”

“One-on-one, they would destroy a summoner along with the vessel. But they just had to pair the mindless and broken summoner with another vessel candidate. And then they just had to give their orders. That summoner just had to bind contract after contract after contract after contract after contract after contract… The summoner doesn’t actually die. They don’t die, but they have to continue the process forever. Their life becomes nothing more than losing mock battles alongside each new vessel candidate. That’s a tragedy in its own right. That is the truth of the Anthills.”

Everyone had called them Anthills.

They may have assumed that was in reference to the building or facility.

But it was not.

The ants were eating through a person, not a thing.

Just like letting maggots crawl through stinky cheese, they intentionally opened holes in a human soul that was on the verge of crumbling into nothingness. While smiling at the improved flavor and value, they viewed the collapse as a good thing. It was a noble’s game.

“Unfortunately…”

Murasame Kuina bit her lip and kept her voice low.

“It doesn’t look likely that it’s possible to make you Kawamo Sayuri again. The research on the soul itself hasn’t gotten far and the greatest experts are in Government. But Government is full of scum and a single mistake could kill you instantly or transform you into some bizarre form. There’s nothing we can do.”

“…”

“But.”

At this point, the girl’s tone dropped even lower. Rather than coming from a vibration in her throat, it sounded like pure resentment seeping out from some other invisible organ.

“The people who did this and made you like this? I will send every last one of them to hell. Showing them hell isn’t enough. I need to send them all there. That’s all I can do, but because it’s all I can do, I will do it as best I can. You’ll see.”

Perhaps it was coming directly from her soul.

It was like a dark red mist that would be fatal to merely touch or inhale.

“So withdraw from all of this, Sayuri. You don’t need to protect them. You have no reason to. More importantly, the summoner I’ve bound a contract with is perfect. Biondetta will smash it all to pieces and I don’t want you caught in that.”

“I…” said the military uniform girl as her shoulders trembled. “I’m not very smart, so I don’t understand all these details even a small-sized amount.”

“Sayuri!!”

“Call me Isabelle. Sayuri doesn’t sound right to me.” She looked up. “But if I was created as something super-sized new after chiseling away a large pillar…”

[[Image:BloodSign_v03_217.jpg|thumb]]

She looked to the eyes of the girl she had once walked beside.

“And if, regardless of how it was made, it is a human soul that keeps me moving…”

And she said it.

Was this Kawamo Sayuri or Isabelle? Had this been there from the beginning or had it been added on later?

She did not know, but she spoke the honest thoughts in her mind.

“Then I don’t know if I should let my hatred destroy ‘this’.”

“…!!”

Isabelle heard the sound of teeth grinding together.

It came from Murasame Kuina. Her left hand trembled ominously in its leather glove. That was Girl’s Backdoor. When shaped like a gun, the strange device could control the young girl it pointed at. But Murasame Kuina did not aim it at Isabelle. She knew that was the simplest answer, but she could not let herself do it.

After all, Murasame Kuina knew that perfect answer had not come from the creation known as Isabelle. Her deep understanding of the girl named Kawamo Sayuri told her that.

But.

That was the real problem.

“Why did they have to take so much from you…?”

It lit the fire.

Massive firepower danced inside the internal combustion engine known as revenge.

“Why did the girl who thought like that have to be chewed up and spat back out as something entirely different all for someone else’s benefit!? Why did someone who thinks like that have to have her heart destroyed!?”

“…”

“You weren’t chosen because you had one-in-a-billion talent. It wasn’t because you drew a legendary sword, because you were delivered by an angel from heaven, or because of any other grand trigger! Biondetta told me even I probably had better talent as a vessel. But Government chose you because they wanted to know ''if they could make something usable out of a completely normal person''!! That was all!! Government gathered people like they were searching for files and throwing them in the trash! They gathered them and used them up!! And yet…!!”

“But that is not even a small-sized reason to overlook what you are doing now.”

“Kh.”

“No one wanted you to do this.”

“Khhh.”

“''I don’t want you to do this. I super-sized don’t want it.''”

“Then!! What am I supposed to doooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!?”

Murasame Kuina let out a roar as if filling the world itself with her resentment.

She already knew that.

She had understood it from the very, very beginning.

Even if she had been worried, a kindhearted girl like Kawamo Sayuri would not want anyone to take vengeance on her murderer. If the alternative was someone dirtying their hands like that or letting it influence them forevermore, she would have preferred to be forgotten.

But Murasame Kuina could not accept that.

It was her, not anyone else in the world, who could not allow it.

Revenge was nothing more than a way of soothing one’s own heart. By losing oneself in the act of revenge, they could avoid looking at the unbearable loss that felt like an insurmountable wall towering before them.

She knew that.

She knew that, she knew that, she knew that!!

So was she supposed to coldly process the information and continue forward? Was the proper human response to trample on her anger and loss with the precision of a clock’s second hand and dispassionately continue on into the future?

She did not think so.

She did not care if that conclusion meant her gears were broken.

When it came down to it, the girl named Murasame Kuina ''did not want to forget.

The everyday life she had assumed would continue like normal had been cruelly destroyed beyond repair. Her childhood friend of ten years had been altered and destroyed until she did not even recognize her own name.

She did not want to accept that.

She did not want to move beyond that.

So…

Her vengeance was directed at more than just a simple criminal. Society, the world, and the current age acted as tyrants who could only make justifications for using overwhelming quantity and speed to wash away, fade, and erode what she cared about most. She did not want that and could not accept that, so to protect “what had once been”, she acted alone to face it all.

A fierce wind blew back at her.

A great pressure pushed back at her like a flash flood or a landslide.

But the girl had challenged it all head-on and made it this far.

And so much of her had been worn away in the process.

“I refuse to accept it.”

Her voice sounded like the heavy creaking of a giant rusty gear being forced into motion.

“This might all be for naught and I might be meaninglessly running away from reality, but I don’t care. Those people tore Kawamo Sayuri to shreds and feasted on the profit, so I absolutely refuse to just let them go! Even if the entire world and you yourself don’t want it!! I still won’t accept it!!!!”

That was likely a form of justice.

And that made it much harder to stop than a simple evil deed.

Revenge was a justice that did not forgive, did not save, and did not bring happiness.

“…elp…”

Isabelle finally spoke as if she had been overwhelmed.

The unclear sound grew to a quiet voice.

“Help.”

But she was not asking to be saved from this revenge.

Nor was she speaking on behalf of the researchers who had created her.

The face in the picture did not look right.

The name she heard did not sound right.

But this was still someone who was willing to express anger on her behalf.

So…

“Please help my friend.”