Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:Crossover3 (section)

===Part 8===

'''(11 Hours 30 Minutes After)

There was no one left, not even Boo Boo or young Shinobu. She doubted the normal members of the Jinnai family would be much help.

Beatrice faced the White Queen alone.

She could never defeat this opponent. Avoiding her anger was the best course of action and earning her wrath would shorten her lifespan considerably. That overwhelming calamity was more dangerous than an asteroid that would flood entire continents or trigger a global ice age.

“…”

Beatrice clenched her teeth. It pained her that she had used up all of the Experience Points from the Jinnai house for her battle against Aika. That prevented her from learning any new Magic. Not that she was aware of any Magic that could harm that great Queen.

“Oh, dear.”

The White Queen had been toying with the futon beater like she was bored, but then she looked at Beatrice like the girl was a weed growing on the side of the road. That killed the idea that there had been any special meaning in Beatrice surviving to the end. By some kind of coincidence, she had simply slipped into the calamity’s blind spot. But that did not mean she had overcome it by her own power.

“You there, do you know where my brother got off to?”

“…”

Beatrice was unsure what to say. A few options came to mind and she chose one.

“Last night, you dragged him into the forbidden room in your sleep.”

“Oh, dear. Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. Silly me! I let my beloved see how poor a sleeper I am. That was very inappropriate of me.”

The Queen giggled happily, but that was all. She showed no sign of attacking. It felt like she would end the conversation and leave at this rate.

It had likely been pure coincidence, but Beatrice was the participant who had survived to the end. Nevertheless, the White Queen had no interest in her whatsoever. With what color did the world in her eyes glow?

Beatrice cautiously raised her Shining Weapon rapier, but it scared her how unreliable it felt. She felt like everything she had built up had been rejected wholesale.

For one thing, Aika was a human from the Queen’s world and she had taken complete control of Beatrice’s Magic. If this was a being that lurked beyond the gods, just how far could she break the rules? She was a frightening mass of unknowns. This was not the known fear of a knife tip held up to her face. It was the unknown fear of peering into a seemingly bottomless well.

Beatrice did her best to keep her voice from trembling.

“Aren’t we…going to do this?”

“I see no reason to.”

Unlike the Holy Swordswoman, the Queen’s tone was calm and entirely natural.

“I was willing to follow some child’s rules to have a wonderful time playing with my brother, but he is no longer here and the survival game is over. Congratulations, Beatrice. You have won the 1st Sleepless Championship. Clap, clap, clap, clap. …So? Do you really want to challenge the hellish hidden dungeon now? For no reason???”

For an instant – just an instant – Beatrice’s weak heart was nearly swept toward the easiest answer. She could not deny that.

“Even if you have no reason to…”

But she stopped herself.

She used all of her strength to support her heart.

“I have plenty of reasons to fight! What happened to the others? What happened to Boo Boo who was laughing here a bit ago!?”

“Oh, dear.”

The White Queen slowly tilted her head while spinning the futon beater in her hand.

And she spoke.

“You really want to know something so cruel?”

“…!!!???”

She spoke like she was pointing at some disturbed dirt in the dark mountains, so Beatrice’s entire body boiled over.

She was surrounded by the ominous sound of flames consuming oxygen, but the Queen was unfazed. A campfire on the surface could trigger a forest fire if handled improperly, but a great conflagration on the surface would not affect the shining sun.

“First of all, I was only following that child’s rules to play with my beloved brother, but I will give you some information as a reward for surviving to the end.”

“…?”

“Even if you could defeat me, what would you do afterwards? More specifically, how would you return to your original world?”

Beatrice was overcome by something other than standard fear.

It was the overwhelming loneliness of having her lifeline slowly severed during a spacewalk out in the vast, vast expanse of outer space.

The White Queen cheerfully raised her index finger and winked.

“And this might look like a second point, but it’s actually highly related. Where exactly do you think your vanished friends are? Oh, dear. Surely you don’t think they’re actually within the walls of the forbidden room?”

“You don’t mean…”

“I have no reason to pursue you. You are the one with a reason to pursue me. I am acting as the gatekeeper of the alternate space filling the Jinnai house’s forbidden room. Only when I open the door and drag someone through it does the forbidden room act as the forbidden room. Which. Means.” The White Queen exaggerated the movements of her soft lips. “If you want to get back home, you need me to throw you into the forbidden room. That is what I’m saying☆”

Beatrice did not even have enough saliva left to gulp. Her throat was entirely dry.

This was the ultimate choice.

It was of course possible the White Queen was lying. In fact, that was far more likely. If a strange man placed a handgun on the table and said it was the passport to whatever dream you wanted to experience, who would actually stick the barrel in their mouth and pull the trigger? No one. No one at all. When it was that blatant, it would be stupid to believe it.

But it was true she did not know how she would return after defeating the White Queen.

Not to mention that she felt the initial step of overcoming this situation and defeating the White Queen was impossible in and of itself.

“You have three options,” whispered the White Queen. “You can clash with your powerful guide and be destroyed, you can kill the powerful guide yourself and wander forevermore, or you can let the powerful guide show you the way. Everyone else has returned to their respective homes, so I see no reason for you alone to continue struggling.”

She would not know the answer until she tried it.

It was the worst possible riddle, but Beatrice saw one piece of hope.

“Then why did you attack the Zashiki Warashi and Jinnai Shinobu when they lived here to begin with?”

“Oh, dear.”

“If they were all sent home, then those two should have ended up right back here. But they didn’t. There’s a flaw in your claim.”

Beatrice lightly swung her Shining Weapon rapier and held it at the ready.

“So I’ll go with Option 4: Defeat the powerful guide and get her to tell me how to get back home!”