Editing The Unexplored Summon Blood Sign:Volume5 Chapter2 (section)

===Part 6===

[[Image:BloodSign v05 167.jpg|thumb]]
The Mock Battlefield had stopped.

They no longer had to repeat those dangerous Summoning Ceremony battles that were too much for the facility’s safety features.

That was a good sign.

Or it should have been.

“Tah dah.”

A pink-haired girl put her hands on her hips and revealed her outfit to Kyousuke.

It was Biondetta Shiroyama.

She wore something like a white and pink waitress uniform.

“What is that?”

“Heh heh. The Queen of Hearts finally finished the outfit I asked for!”

Biondetta spun around on the spot as if to say, “Look, look!”

She was a waitress with devil horns and tail.

“I’m not sure I get the concept.”

“''Oh? Doesn’t it sound romantic to make a contract and then lend a helping hand in someone’s fight? Yes. For example, something really emotional like a fight for revenge or retribution. I couldn’t be your big sister unless I was at least that insane.''”

“…!?”

Something bothered Kyousuke about that.

It was like a smoothly moving record needle suddenly catching.

What had Biondetta just said?

What had she mentioned like it was no more than casual conversation?

“?”

The demon actually looked puzzled. She did not seem to understand what he found so odd.

And before he could figure anything out, the situation continued to develop.

“Oh, Kyoumi.”

Biondetta’s face brightened.

But the other girl did not even look over. That high school aged girl had somewhat droopy black eyebrows, loved to make costumes, and had made a White Queen one based on the paintings and sculptures in the gallery. She was the big sister they all relied on.

There was no sign of that anymore.

Her head swayed as if her body weight was swinging it around and she muttered something under her breath.

“It’s hopeless…”

It may have been wrong to compare them.

''It was well made for something put together by human hands.

But the white dress she dragged behind her had frays, wrinkles, and stains in places.

“I was deadly wrong to look up to her. I never should have reached for the sun. Everyone must be laughing at me. They’re comparing me to the real one and laughing at me…”

Had she not noticed them or was she just ignoring them?

Shiroyama Kyoumi never did turn around and walked off somewhere.

Something invisible seemed to be tangled around her. And Kyousuke was worried because he had pulled the trigger.

The ranking board on the wall never changed.

It was like the brown dried leaves that stubbornly stayed on the branch even when winter came and they lost their power of photosynthesis.

At the very least, he had not done the wrong thing.

Even now, the 15 were avoiding any direct threat.

“What are you looking at?”

But that lifeless voice pierced through his heart.

He turned around to find someone had approached without him noticing. That boy’s messy blond hair and brown skin had lost their shine and he looked terribly emaciated, but his eyes alone gave off a bright light.

It was Alberto S. Divinesmith the Hatter.

He had once been – and technically still was – the summoner at the top of the ranking board.

But no one in the Miniature Garden visited the Mock Battlefield any longer, so that meant nothing. And he likely understood that better than anyone.

No.

He may have understood it too well.

“You’re…goddammit…you’re making fun of me. Don’t look at your elders like that. I! I am an undefeated summoner! I am talented!! I haven’t changed!! It’s everyone else who’s changed!!”

“…”

Biondetta shrunk down, but she still stood in front of Kyousuke.

Even after losing the ranking board, she continued to be his “big sister”.

How did that strength – that light – look to the Hatter?

His face twisted, his voice caught in his throat, and he exploded with anger.

“To hell with you! What is…what is with this position!? How did I end up in this miserable position!? I…that’s right…''I haven’t changed at all!!''”

Something could be heard cracking.

The Hatter may have clenched his back teeth so hard one of them broke.

“Do you enjoy hogging the strongest to yourself!? Well, do you, Kyousuke!? The Summoning Ceremony was supposed to be open equally to everyone. If you hadn’t done something weird, the Queen’s power would have been distributed to everyone. You twisted this world!! That’s why…goddammit…that’s why I-…!!”

Just before he raised a fist clenched harder than stone, something else happened.

“''Brother''?”

The world froze.

Alberto had been boiling like magma, but he came to a stop.

Cracks formed across his heart, as if it could not bear the rapid change in temperature.

It was painful to look at, but anyone would have been the same. His entire body trembled and he bit his lip. He could no longer move. He had built up his brand around being the oldest and an excellent summoner, but that pride was stolen from him.

It was the White Queen.

When she was here, what meaning did physical strength and the Summoning Ceremony have? How could any remain? That monster would end any battle the instant she was summoned, so how could an individual who had her on his side be defeated?

He was #1.

He was the hero of the ranking board.

He saw beauty in his madness and he found value in what no one could understand. He had even placed his own death on the scales and had not hesitated to wear away his own life for temporary pleasure.

That was the monster he should have been.

But he was not.

“〰〰〰!!!!!!”

That shell of his former self could no longer speak a single word.

Kyousuke and Biondetta saw something as they stood in front of him.

That absolute cliff, that summoner who had created such overwhelming pressure, wordlessly wept. But not at the Queen’s intensity. He wept at how worthless he felt when he was unable to do a thing while faced with a threat and standing before a powerful enemy.

He feared for his life.

And someone ranked below him had seen that fear.

Those were tears he had needed to keep hidden.

To him, letting young Kyousuke and Biondetta see those tears was a sin he needed to confess to god.

There was nothing he could do.

The Hatter turned his back and left. He ran off. There was nothing Kyousuke or Biondetta could do either. Those inexperienced children could not have known whether or not they should call out to the back of that fleeing hero.

“Are you okay?”

Their far too cruel savior asked that question.

It was a voice brimming with humanity like that of an older girl rubbing their head. It was very unlike the White Queen and they finally caught on.

“…Kyoumi.”

“Sorry.”

The girl dressed like the Queen crouched down and hugged Kyousuke and Biondetta.

“Sorry for ignoring you before. I didn’t know what to do or how to look you in the eye. But when I heard the Hatter shouting, I finally decided to return. …I could deadly understand when I saw it from the outside. I probably looked the same to you.”

“No, you-…”

Biondetta started to respond with her face buried in the Queen of Hearts’ chest.

But the arms around her and Kyousuke squeezed harder and sealed off those words.

“No. You mustn’t forgive me.”

It was a kind voice.

But there was a tremor of instability in it.

“If you do, I’ll lose the chance to forgive myself. Yes, I’ll be honest. The darkness inside me still hasn’t gone away. I doubt it ever will go away. It might grow or shrink, but…yes…my hatred of you will never completely go away. That’s what I think.”

“…”

“You can think of it as a ridiculous and immature grudge if you want. So Kyousuke…and Biondetta too. Don’t trust me. Don’t turn your back on me. Don’t think I’ve opened up to you. Always keep your guard up, always doubt me, and always keep me away. …Please, I deadly mean it. Don’t show a heartwarming opening and ''turn me into'' the worst possible sister who lays a hand on her own family.”

What were they supposed to do?

How would a grownup act at a time like this?

Kyousuke and Biondetta had no way of knowing, so they simply hugged their kind sister back.

They did not want to let her go.

But they had to eventually.

While wrapped in that warmth, Kyousuke felt the world, the hope, and the possibility he had imagined rapidly falling apart.

———''The Hatter hasn’t done anything wrong and the Queen of Hearts isn’t wrong.

———''The White Queen is simply there. She has not actually done anything wrong.

(Then how did this happen…?)

Looking only at the result, it was purely negative.

This vicious cycle would probably continue forever as long as the White Queen remained.

Their brother had his pride torn away and their sister had been crushed by the difference between the ideal and the reality. And if those siblings were like this, then what about the adults who stood above the children? How far was their distortion accelerating?

But…

Even so…

(An evil that does nothing wrong.)

Kyousuke clenched his teeth.

As a mere pawn and as a precision guided missile that had been fired, it may have been wrong of him to worry about this while making a show of thinking. He had been told who to aim at and to pull the trigger, so there was no reason to stare at and agonize over the list of suspects. It might solve everything if he skipped past all that and faithfully obeyed his instructions.

And yet he could not help but think about it.

He could not help but wonder why the world had been twisted in such a coldhearted way.

(Is defeating her really the right thing to do?)

That night, Shiroyama Kyousuke visited Shigara Masami’s lab.

She showed him the Relective Graph.

That line graph measured the 15 children’s bonds and changed in real time.

He saw exactly what he expected.

They were completely scattered.