Editing BlazBlue:Spiral Shift - Hyokujin no Eiyu (section)

===Part 4===

About a hundred years ago, humanity was on the verge of extinction.

A gigantic monster called the Black Beast, which may or may not even be a living thing, appeared and went around destroying cities, countries, lands, people and all life.

Mankind fought against the moving evil, "Black Beast" with many sacrifices, and eventually, the monster was defeated by six heroes.

However, the fallen monster left behind an evil souvenir for the world, seithr.

With the disappearance of the Black Beast, the black mist-like substance that erupted on the ground - the substance called "seithr" - spread to the world in large quantities, and has now become a natural part of the air.

Seithr has a profound effect on living things. It eats away at the body and causes the loss of logic and reason of this world. Wild animals that have been exposed to it for a long time become violent, deformed, and become what is called demons.

That's why humanity has built "Hierarchical Cities". In order to live away from the surface of the earth, where seithr accumulated. They built "Hierarchical Cities" by piling up several layers higher in places with high altitudes, such as mountainous areas.

However, seithr is not all bad. It is also the energy dust that fills the air with an inexhaustible supply.

Seithr has come to be used in a variety of technologies and power sources.

The flying ship that Jin is on right now, the "Ars Magus Vessel" also uses seithr in the air to propel it.

"Wooow, the scenery is finally starting to take shape.”

Honoka muttered in a relaxed voice, looking out the window surrounded by a dull golden frame.

Sitting in the front of the seat facing him, Jin, who had been thoroughly reading the materials about his new assignment, lifted his gaze for the first time in a long while at the sound of the boy's carefree voice.

The running view from the window had left the hierarchical city of Yabiko and had long crossed the wilderness, and before long it had passed over a deep green forest.

They were sailing at such a low altitude that the tips of the tall trees were about to scrape the bottom of the ship. The altitude of the ship, as if we were about to crash, made Jin feel a little uneasy.

“In any case, it would be unthinkable for a member of the Kisaragi family to be assigned to a place like this. I wonder why the big-wigs decided to do such a thing.”

As he stretched his neck to peer into the forest below, Honoka directed his words only at Jin.

“I don't know.”

Jin answered with only that, and returned his gaze to the document.
　
Noticing this, Honoka pulled his leaning body back and settled neatly into the seat.

“I know this may be unnecessary, but... were you okay with that Lieutenant Kisaragi?"

Jin thought that he would finally calm down, but he was still not satisfied with his answer. He seemed to be repeating himself until he answered, so Jin sighed lightly and looked up.

“I'm a guard of the Librarium. I obey orders. That's all."

“So you have no complaints?"

“No.”

In the first place, Jin entered the military academy in order to belong to the Novus Orbis Librarium which is both the government and the military. If he was dissatisfied with being assigned to the battlefield as a soldier, he was not doing himself any favors.

However, He didn't feel obligated to talk that much to Honoka. Jin ended the conversation with a few short words and went back to reading the documents silently.

However, the silence he had hoped for did not come.

"Ah!"

Suddenly, Honoka raised his voice. He wondered what was going on, and even though he was a little annoyed, Jin looked up again.

Honoka seemed to be preoccupied with looking out the window again. However, it wasn't the forest under the ship that he was focusing on.

"Look, Lieutenant. We're almost there."

The view outside the window, which Honoka was still gazing at without a sense of tension, but rather with a sense of enjoyment, wavered for a few seconds. The rainbow-colored light licked its way through the entire ship. It was as if they had walked into a soap bubble.

The scenery changed as they passed through the rainbow-colored light.

It used to be a dense forest with trees growing in every crevice, but now there was a clearing in the middle of it. Just a little while ago, it was invisible.

“Camouflage Ars Magus.”

In practice, it is an Ars Magus Art that makes people seem like that there nothing is there when there actually is. 

Ars Magus was an Art developed during the same time when the Black Beast was running rampant, as were the Nox Nyctores Causality Weapon's. Although each person has different aptitudes, anyone can cause various phenomena by using a Grimoire. They can light fires, control the wind, create water, and make shapes out of clay. As a kind of pseudo-magic, it was widely used mainly within the Librarium.

The root of the problem was still the seithr. This area was very far away from the city and seithr was very thick. It is said that there were many demons that have been driven mad by seithr and were walking around.

In a place like this, it would not be difficult to maintain a large-scale camouflage Ars Magus.

“The reality in front of you is not always the truth, don’t you think so?”

Honoka muttered with a hint of amusement as he pulled his beret on his head and fixed it.

Jin only gave him a sideways glance, but didn't retort anything in particular.

A uniformed guard soon arrived and announced that they would be landing soon.

They could see that the altitude of the ship had dropped drastically. The ship landed in the forest as if it had been sucked in, and Jin and Honoka were freed from the long journey at low altitude.

Stepping down from the short steps that had been installed, they found the place to be much more cluttered than it had looked from above.

Surrounded by a crowded area of trees that looked more like a jungle than a forest, they found themselves in a bare space on the earth’s surface. Amidst the protruding rocks and sparse weeds, a number of tents were erected without a trace of neatness.

The tents themselves were provided by the Librarium, but they must have been collected from all over the place, so they were of varying sizes, ages, and degrees of dirtiness.

Around the tent, rugged-looking men and women in and out of Librarium uniforms came and went with weapons and materials in their hands.

It was a strange sight for Jin, who had grown up in a city for a long time, and in a well-managed environment at that. Of course, he knew from documents, books, and the news that these kinds of sites existed. 

But he was reminded of how different it is to actually see something with your own eyes than to know about it indirectly.

The air was different. The heat was different.

The accumulated heat and the damp climate were uncomfortable and everything seemed to cling to his body. The smell of the trees and grass was so thick that it seemed to seep into his nerves.

Everything here contained so many things that stimulated the senses, such as temperature and smell, diminishing the reality that he was standing there.

The Ars Magus Vessel unloaded Jin, Honoka, and some of the supplies it had been carrying, and then quickly took off. It could not stay here for too long.

Honoka watched in amazement as the vehicle they had come in mercilessly drove away, his luggage clutched to his chest. He looked as if he had been left behind.

If he wouldn't have been a soldier of his own age, Jin would have been blatantly appalled, but he was a young soldier. So he felt a small amount of sympathy for the young soldier next to him.

“Let's go."

After calling out to him, Jin hung up his belongings and started walking. He was headed for the command tent at the far end of the base.

Honoka jumped up and chased in a hurry. He follows behind Jin as if he was trying to hide behind him.

"Aren’t we... being watched a lot?"

As he walked, clutching his bag tightly in both hands, Honoka looked around.

Jin replied shortly, keeping his gait steady and his eyes forward.

“That’s only natural.”

Word must have already reached the base that Jin would be assigned.

A male member of the Kisaragi family, one of the Duodecim families, is being sent from the headquarters of the Librarium. He had just recently graduated from the military academy, but he was given the rank of lieutenant.

As Jin and Honoka made their way through the clutter of tents to the back of the base, they were met with unreserved stares. Suspicious, quizzical, curious. It's hard to say they were all pleasant.

Jin was used to this. Ever since he was a child, he had been subjected to this kind of gaze.

But Honoka was probably not. Jin wondered if he should be concerned, but with a small movement, he looked over his shoulder, and surprisingly, Honoka seemed unconcerned.

"This is the... front line, isn't it? Moreover, it's the forward area of the front line. In addition, it is the only place where the Librarium side is currently outnumbered. It is said that this is the worst battleground in the world.”

Honoka regained his tone and opened his mouth without worrying about his surroundings and hiding his voice. Even though he was retracting his neck, Honoka didn’t seem to be aware that some of the gazes that were focused on the words of inferiority turned into an aggressive hue.

“I'm listening.”

Apparently, there was no need to worry about it. Jin walked on, inwardly admiring his unexpectedly thick nerves.

Honoka's voice followed him back.

“This is also part of the territory of the Ikaruga Federation, so the climate and familiarity with the land are better there, and the Ikaruga side has the advantage in terms of a geographical sense. On top of that, the visibility is so bad in the dense jungle that a small Ars Magus Vessel like the one we just saw can barely land here, and supplies can't be distributed. No matter how well-trained the soldiers of the Librarium are, they would have a hard time fighting.”

“...Looks like you've been studying hard."

"Mmm, yes. I've read the material many times."

He was half trying to be sarcastic, but Honoka seemed to take it as a compliment, and his voice bounced back.

Jin gently pressed his forehead so as not to be noticed. It wasn't the exhaustion of the trip that made him feel dizzy.

But indeed, as he said, he had read the documents carefully. What Honoka had said was the reality of this base itself, as Jin had also confirmed many times.

The worst battleground, forever forced to fight an uphill battle in the jungle.

In addition to the soldiers of the Librarium, many skilled mercenaries have also been deployed. This is why there were so many Beastkin and demi-humans with both human and beast-like characteristics in the base, which was rare among the soldiers of the Librarium.

“It's a tough place, but they say it's an important base, so they won't give it up easily."

Honoka said it like that were someone else's affairs.

Although he would be the one who will protect the base from today, it seems that he has not yet actually felt it.

But rather than that, Jin was distracted by something else he had said.

(Important? Here?)

His eyebrows naturally drew together.

It was clear from the documents that this was an important place, but he couldn't figure out why this place was so important.

Although it was located deep inside the Ikaruga Federation, there were no cities or war-related facilities nearby. Even if the Ikaruga Federation were to seize this forest, it would not pose a threat to the Librarium.

There should be more strategic places to focus on, whether it is offense or defense.

For some reason or other, he wasn’t satisfied. As Jin swallowed his frustration in the back of his throat, Honoka continued to talk.

“I wonder what an Ikaruga soldier looks like... I've never seen one in person, but I've heard rumors that they're incredibly strong. They're scary, aren't they?”

He peeked at Jin from behind.

Unintentionally, Jin sighed.

Honoka was a boy who talked a lot, despite his quiet demeanor, as he had sensed during the entire day's journey on the ship.

At first, he thought he was talking too much because of his nervousness and anxiety, but in the past few hours, Jin had changed his mind and thought that it was just his nature.

Jin didn't really hate talking to people. But he didn’t like the noise.

The thought of living with this boy in this land for a while filled his heart with a different kind of anxiety.

"It doesn't matter if they are scary or not. It's my mission to defeat the enemy here."

“That's true, but...”

Said Honoka said in a troubled tone, without realizing the meaning of Jin's sigh.

He was expecting him to start talking again, but he had just the excuse to shut up his talkative mouth. They had arrived at the biggest tent of all, the command center.

When Jin stopped, Honoka also stopped walking and talking.

Jin handed the papers announcing his assignment to the guard standing at the entrance of the tent, and one of them nimbly walked in. He waited for a moment, and then a thick man called out to him to enter.

The air inside the tent was stuffy and raw, and the smell of human sweat seeped into the air.

The air was raw and unpleasant, something you don't get in a hierarchical city where the temperature and climate are perfectly controlled. It was smelly and unsanitary.

In this atmosphere, the head of the base was sitting in a simple chair behind a desk with a map of the area spread out.

He was a man in his forties with a strong body. The muscles all over his body must have been trained to a certain degree, but he also had an equal amount of fat on top of that. Under his black mustache, his thick lips were twisted into a sarcastic grin.

From the high-handed glances he was giving to the people around him and the pompous manner in which he was slumped in his chair, Jin could see that he was the commander of this base and how he was behaving in it.

"I am Lieutenant Jin Kisaragi and I've been assigned here today."

Under the commander's coercive gaze, Jin straightened his back and said the greeting for his arrival that had been repeatedly drilled into him at the officer's school. Honoka followed as if in a hurry.

"Likewise, Corporal Honoka. I'm here as Lieutenant Kisaragi's valet."

"Oh. A valet."

The commander suddenly raised a thick eyebrow. He crossed his thick fingers on the desk.

“I've been told that Lieutenant Kisaragi is a new recruit fresh out of the military academy, but I didn't realize he was accompanied by a valet. ...Ah yeah, just as expected from the son of the Kisaragi family, one of the Duodecim.”

It was obviously sarcasm.

Honoka looked sideways at Jin, wondering if he had said something wrong.

It seemed deliberate. Jin sighed coldly inwardly. It was as if he had never heard of it before, but he had been informed in advance that Jin would be bringing a valet.

However, it was not necessary to think about how foolish it would be to argue here. Jin chose to remain silent.

The commander's eyes traveled back and forth over his entire body, as if he was assessing Jin, who had not moved a muscle.

“It seems that your rank is Lieutenant. I've heard that people from the Duodecim families are given the rank of lieutenant as soon as they graduate from the military academy, but I didn't know it was actually true. I'm sure you've got a lot to be "proud" of if you've been given a high rank and even a valet, and now you're assigned here. It’s probably “expected”. You've been sent all the way “on purpose” to the battlefield, where the casualties are extremely high..”

The commander's tongue slipped as he spoke, exaggerating his words in places. As he spoke, he flipped through the documents that Jin had just handed to the guards, looking at them as if he were not interested in them, and then tossed them on the desk.

"You'll be assigned to the ninth squad. The tents are numbered, so you'll have to find it yourself."

He waved his hand in the air as if to say go away.

It was clear that they were not welcome, and not just to the commander. The guards standing by the commander's side also glanced at Jin with a look of displeasure.

Indeed, it seemed to be a very uncomfortable base.

“Excuse me..."

He said this in a cold and simple voice, then turned around with lean movements. Just as he was about to head straight out of the tent, a voice called out to him from behind.

"──Welcome to Hell."

The hair on Jin’s neck stood up in horror at the eerie way the commander’s manner of speaking crawled up his feet. But although he stopped for a moment, Jin didn't look back and walked quickly out.