Editing The Unexplored Summon Blood Sign:Volume7 Chapter2 (section)

===Part 8===

Once, 15 children had been gathered from around the world and placed in a secret facility deep underground. The children living in the Miniature Garden had all been given new names, but there had been one point in common between those names.

They had all been given the surname of Shiroyama.

But why?

The situation was set in motion before their thoughts could catch up. Doctor S pulled a pineapple-shaped Incense Grenade from his lab coat and Shiroyama Kyousuke’s Blood-Sign sliced through the air before he could pull the pin.

The weapon roared like a metal bat and was clearly being used to prevent Doctor S from starting the Summoning Ceremony.

That was hardly surprising.

His attack hit the back of Olivia’s neck as she clung defenselessly to his hips. He did not hesitate to strike the bright nape visible below her decorative collar.

“Gah!?”

Even if the summoner and vessel were spiritually linked, there was nothing they could do if one of them was physically knocked unconscious. Olivia crumpled to the cave floor like a broken doll. Doctor S laughed within his helmet and toyed with the useless Incense Grenade in his hand.

“I thought you said she could do as she wished, you failure.”

“I take it back, you piece of shit.”

Even during that carefree exchange of words, they were already clashing. Kyousuke and Doctor S left everyone else behind and swung their Blood-Signs as purely physical weapons. Kyousuke knew the swordsman summoner would knock his Blood-Sign from the air with his sword, but he incorporated that into his plan and transformed the ricochet into an unexpected lucky hit. His Blood-Sign shot up irregularly and veered sharply toward the man’s face.

“Whoops.”

With the sound of something solid breaking, the lab coat man’s head jerked backwards.

The single blow had shattered his military grade helmet like an eggshell, but the man known as Doctor S did not seem to mind. He moved back and used almost elegant movements to pull a clear medical device from his lab coat, press the inhaler mask to his mouth, and tighten the tubes running through his riding suit like a fighter pilot’s suit.

That artificially reproduced a hyperbaric oxygen environment to manipulate his own thought speed.

He was a man leaving middle age and approaching elderly.

But even with his gray hair revealed, he did not look at all physically inferior. His body was covered in the muscles of an athlete who constantly trained with machines.

And it was a mistake to breathe a sigh of relief just because he stepped back.

Despite that action, Doctor S was still close enough for his long sword to behead or bisect Kyousuke. Just like with Biondetta, he had created an imaginary hurdle to cover himself with the apparent shadow of defeat.

“Tch!!”

After a short delay, Kyousuke raised his Blood-Sign vertically to defend. A moment later, orange sparks and an impact burst out before the sound of slicing air was heard. Unable to fully stop that weight, Kyousuke was knocked off balance.

“Sir!!”

Biondetta joined the fight with her waitress-style miniskirt fluttering around her.

She had no idea which way Doctor S himself would move, so she instead fired a sniper rifle bullet at the wheeled oxygen tank at his feet. The metal can was defenseless because it took a moment for his movements to propagate down and move it, so her bullet opened a hole in its center. But…

“Biondetta, not yet!!”

“!? Really!? It’s still not over!?”

''Had anyone said it was over once the oxygen tank was taken out?

Just as the tank exploded, Doctor S moved forward. Kyousuke was forced to defend and his movements were further sealed by the need to cover for Biondetta.

“Let’s see.”

Meinokawa Aoi sounded far too carefree as she cut between the two of them.

Doctor S now had his inhaler connected to an oxygen tank the size of a hairspray can and he naturally drew his sword and made a horizontal slash toward the defenseless shrine maiden’s slender neck, but…

“Removing my head will not kill me.”

She did it herself.

It was like removing a hat with her dominant hand. Meinokawa Aoi winked and removed her head just in time for the tip of the silver line to pass through the empty air between. And it was not over yet. With her needlessly large breasts pushing out on her shrine maiden outfit, (headless) Aoi had removed the expected resistance from the sword’s path, so it continued on and forcefully struck the wall of the crystal cave. It seemed not even Doctor S could fight the pain that sent shooting up from his wrist.

“Oh? That’s a neat trick!” he said.

“Surely you know why samurai and ninja mansions were built with such narrow hallways. Besides, the katana is a part of our culture, so I would rather ''a mere fan'' not act like an expert.”

Before the brief pain and tingling passed, Kyousuke and Biondetta were on the move again. The two summoners rushed past headless Meinokawa Aoi on either side and Doctor S finally managed to move back to put more distance between them.

The flow of time changed from fast to slow.

But it was a tense slow, like a taut bowstring that could be released at any moment.

The inhaler-equipped full-face helmet of a fighter pilot had been broken and Kyousuke roared at the exposed face of the gray-haired man.

“What the hell are you doing here, ''dad''!?”

“Yes, yes! I am still searching for the ‘answer’ that kept you from calling me ''scum''!!”

Some questions about Shiroyama Kyousuke’s past had remained.

He had seemed familiar with the Summoning Ceremony even before arriving in the Miniature Garden. He had set an objective for himself and fulfilled it like a precision guided missile, but who had made him that way?

In fact…

Just like young Biondetta had arrived at the Miniature Garden after experiencing something that not even “horrific” suitably described, ''where'' had Kyousuke come from to arrive in the Miniature Garden?

All of the answers were found here.

Doctor S switched to a clear medical inhaler before speaking.

“My greatest desire was fulfilled in July of 1999. I saw the future then. I discovered the Third Summoning Ceremony, contacted the beings that surpass even the gods, and saw that purest of white lights. And there I saw nothing but despair.”

If he drew the blade, he would make a slash. If he sheathed it, he would deliver a blunt blow.

Even with the Summoning Ceremony taken from him…no, ''because'' it was taken from him, Doctor S shined all the more.

As if to say he had always been strongest on his own.

“But the stagnation afterwards was truly awful. You understand, don’t you? I ''created you, remade you, and released you into the world'' as a guiderail for the Queen! But you failed!! Humanity! Has! Made! No! Progress!! Ever since, I’ve had my hands full simply making course corrections! Yes, even now!!”

“From the beginning…?”

Based on how long they had lived, Meinokawa Aoi was much older than Doctor S. Since she had been created as an exact lookalike, she would have made at least partial contact earlier than him.

But the silver-haired shrine maiden still used that wording.

She reattached her head and brushed her long hair off her shoulders.

“He was involved in it all ''from the very beginning''? From the moment the Blood-Sign Summoning Ceremony was created!?”

“Hurry it up.”

The man who carried a different legend from Kyousuke’s spoke in a voice shaking from either irritation or joy.

Regardless, he urged Kyousuke to hurry.

“Hurry up and bring the Queen under control. Then this world will be completed. Humanity will be able to stand at the true peak. ''You guide while I experience.'' You don’t mind if I give you a push forward and move the hands of the world’s clock ahead a bit if it helps us fulfill our respective roles, do you?”

“''You thrill-obsessed freak''…”

“Precisely! It is because I feel more fear than anyone that I desire more than anyone, ensure my safety more than anyone, and want to experience it all from closer than anyone!! Yes, yes!! This tingling in my spine is everything!! But why bother mentioning how I live my life at this point?”

Either way, it did not matter what Kyousuke thought.

This man had not wanted to be destroyed by the pure white, so he had given that role to someone else. He had merely used his own child as the bumper of his car so he could remain in the driver’s seat and feel none of the pain himself. That was why he had “created” Kyousuke.

Yes, he did not even feel the attachment one might for a stuffed animal. It was all purely mechanical.

If they saw the number of things forced onto Kyousuke until he had given up on living a life in the light of the sun, anyone would have known it was far too much for a single person to bear.

This was not for someone else or for an Alice.

Just how rare was it for that boy to shout in anger for himself?

That unspeakable cruelty had already gone much too far.

“You said you would give me a push forward, didn’t you?”

“Yes.”

“Did you never consider the possibility that I would kill ''you'' before that?”

“Of course not.” Doctor S’s shoulders would not stop shaking with laughter. “Surely you didn’t think my experiment could be stopped simply by taking Olivia Highland from me. Surely you didn’t think the nightmare of Doctor S would stop at that.”

He snapped his fingers.

Immediately, an invisible but definite change occurred. Only those involved in the Summoning Ceremony would understand what had happened.

(He ended his contract with Olivia!?)

“…”

“You can throw an Incense Grenade if you feel the need,” said Doctor S. “Yes, you, the failure over there! You are Biondetta from the Miniature Garden, aren’t you!? You were such a failure your file wasn’t even worth tagging, so you two feel free to work together and attack me with two Materials at once. Either way, there is no chance of me being defeated here.”

“…It’s impossible?”

Biondetta gulped.

That demon of vengeance scorched even the air around her with all forms of madness and barbarity, but she was just about overwhelmed by the great pressure of Doctor S.

“No matter how skilled you might be, that advantage only gives you the upper hand until we summon the Materials,” she warned. “Once we summon those otherworldly beings, a flesh-and-blood human will be crushed with no way to fight back. And that is true even of the Cost 1 Original Series.”

“True enough. If we are following those stagnant rules, anyway.”

He admitted it, yet his confidence remained.

He was hiding something. And this trump card was so great that it would overturn everything the instant he revealed it.

(Don’t tell me…)

Only one thing came to mind.

That was the great evil that Kyousuke least wanted to remember, but it was still the very first thing that occurred to him.

“Don’t tell me! ''You…''!!”

As if to reject the answer he had accepted, Kyousuke pulled the pin from a metal can and threw it.

But it did not detonate.

It did not even fall to the crystal ground.

“It may only be five seconds, but that is still five seconds.”

The next thing he knew, another hand was reaching out from the space next to Doctor S. There had been nowhere for a third party to hide in this open tunnel, but it readily appeared from behind him like a piece of trick art.

It was a slender hand wearing a long white glove.

''This was not Meinokawa Aoi.

''This was not the lookalike…!?

[[Image:BloodSign_v07_210.jpg|thumb]]

“The flow of time is not a set thing. For example, if you approach impossibly close to the speed of light, a mere instant will stretch out almost infinitely long. In other words, five seconds in this hand is the same as an eternity, ''brother''.”

A sensation much like goose bumps raced across Kyousuke’s entire body.

He recognized this.

No one wanted to, but Kyousuke recognized this sensation.

Something was appearing.

Something stepped out from behind Doctor S’s back as if flipping over a card.

At this point, there was no denying it.

“Hello, brother. It’s finally me☆”

More than terror or rage, it was overpowering nausea that initially exploded in the center of his body.

“U…rp!!!???”

He doubled over, just barely forced down the burning sensation in his throat, and began to step back.

But the sense of danger did not vanish.

The White Queen had appeared.

And yet he could not see the end of it. This was the worst possible situation he could think of, but was it going to get even worse!?

''Step.

''Step, step.

Those leisurely footsteps did not come from the Queen before his eyes.

They echoed off the crystal cave’s walls and ceiling as they surrounded the boy and the pure white. But who were they? The greatest evil had already made an appearance, so what was this rotten world waiting around to reveal to him?

“Brother, you already understand, don’t you?” The White Queen giggled and casually crushed the Incense Grenade trapped in her eternal prison. “''What could possibly overpower the pressure I produce as an individual?'' Surely you already know the answer.”

He did not.

He could not find the answer.

After all, he couldn’t think of any being that could surpass the White Queen. If anything could overpower that one-of-a-kind and frustratingly absolute white evil, she never would have been such a problem. It was the lack of such a being that had led him to create one, so how could one be walking around now?

After thinking that far, Kyousuke froze in place.

One-of-a-kind.

That meant there could not be two White Queens.

''But was that really true?

“Now, then. It’s time to announce today’s horror theme.”

The White Queen gave a carefree smile.

Kyousuke used his trembling throat to speak in something like a groan.

“It…can’t be…”

“It can’t be what, brother?”

“You’ve…''multiplied''…?”

“Non, non.”

Kyousuke could feel the relief inside his chest when she readily denied that possibility. It was as humiliating as receiving pet food from a kidnapper, but he could not deny the truth. He had to accept it.

But then she said more.

''Step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step.

Those disconcerting footsteps filled the entire area and she smiled to show off her ''unnaturally long canine teeth''.

“The correct answer is ''infection''. And I mean of humans, of course☆”

Immediately afterwards, the White Queen placed her hands on her flushed cheeks. Her eyes were damp, her breaths were heated, and a tremor ran down her spine because it was just that perfect.

Shiroyama Kyousuke’s mind exploded into sparks and he screamed at the top of his lungs.