Editing BlazBlue:Phase 0 Chapter 5 (section)

===Part 2===

It wasn't the voice of the people in this room. Immediately after arriving to that conclusion, Ragna turned around and drew the sword from his waist.

But immediately, there was hesitation in the tip of that sword.

Nine had made the electronic panel short-circuited using her magic and caused the bulky metallic door unable to close. On the rectangular frame, a skinny man stood with his back leaning there.

With an unhealthy appearance, his skin was engraved with deep wrinkles, as if it were coated with them. The hair was also mixed with some white hair with its color faded away. Originally, his age should have been within his forties, or what had been said as the first half of the prime time of someone's life. But the atmosphere that was enveloping him had an unusual fatigue that made him appear to be an old man that had already gone past his sixties.

The figure wore dust-stained pants and a shirt with a slightly dirty white robe of top of it. ...It was like he had been secretly living for about six years within the deserted underground ruins.

His flat and narrow glasses were a bit bent with a small crack running. It somehow gave an impression of nervousness.

He was Shuuichirou Ayatsuki.

Ragna could hear the noise of Celica taking a breath beside him.

"...Father!?"

No sooner after she called him, Celica leaned forward and ran off. As she ran, she intensely stared at the figure in disbelief.

"Are you really... my father?"

His appearance was considerably different from what Celica remembered.

Although he had always looked unhealthy after he shut himself within a research institute, he never looked this morbid. Although he had a slender build, he was never so thin that he might get a fracture at any time. He might not have appeared youthful, but his eyes were never sunken so deep.

His appearance had completely changed too much for what six years could have done.

The white-robed and spectacled man took a gaze at the rushing Celica's body as if he were making sure of it. And then he clumsily raised his lips.

"...It seems I'm able to meet you once more. Looks like the heavens haven't abandoned me yet."

The pitiful and hoarse voice was of course different from what Celica remembered, but the somewhat cynical accent he passed was of her dearest father.

Even if he was unexpectedly old, he was unmistakably her father.

"Thank goodness. You're really alive... I'm so glad we're able to meet... I was always, always searching for you. But why? If only you had contacted me during all these six years... I'd have rushed to your place anytime..."

She had finally met him. The words of that thought were mixed with tears. It overflowed as she broke down.

Shuuichirou responded with a clumsy smile. However, his feeble body couldn't even raise his arm to caress her. Instead, his body sunk to the wall. He stared at the daughter with muddy eyes.

All the communication lines with the outside were cut off. The protective suit which purpose was to withstand the severe air pollution on the outside was entirely damaged. The only means to reach the exit that was on the upper level part was only by staircase. But the exhausted Shuuichirou couldn't possibly climb it to the top.

At first, it was possible to pick up the radio signal from the outside. However, the nuclear attack erased the established signal.

For six years, nobody had come to rescue him, nor was he able to get out. He was always alone in the deep underground. Thinking of the loneliness, Celica's spine trembled with shivers.

"I'm glad... I was able to find you."

His loneliness should have ended now. Celica wiped her wet cheeks with her palms and made a bright smile to cheer up her father.

Relief. She felt the anxiety she had been holding was melting in relief. She thought that it was right for her to search for him after all.

From behind her, harsh words stormed in.

"Celica! Get away from that man!"

It was Nine. Celica turned around with a bewildered expression.

Those words were too much for someone who finally met her father. But Nine was completely serious, or rather she revealed her fierce hostility toward her father.

"Onee-chan...?"

"Come back here, right this instant. Do not approach that man."

"But why? He's really Father! He's alive!"

Celica went against the older sister's words and held her father's hand. The fingers on the completely dried up hand were stiff like a tree bark. But there was certainly warmth within the hardened muscles.

But clomping her heels, Nine walked toward them and roughly shook off their hands.

"Hey, you!"

As one would expect, thinking her action wrong, Ragna raised his voice in disapproval.

But he was silenced by a sharp glare from Nine.

"Get away from him!"

She yelled again. This time, she would not hear any argument and seized Celica's arm, separating it forcibly from the father. During that time, Nine stood between them as if protecting Celica.

Toward the stabbing, menacing attitude from Nine, Shuuichirou looked up and watched her with an annoyed gaze. His lips smiled.

"Konoe, huh..."

"Don't say my name so casually."

With unwavering hostility, Nine rejected her father.

"We undoubtedly finally meet again. I went through the trouble, so answer me. Six years ago, what kind of experiment did you do here? ...No, not that. Why did you create this object?"

The object Nine talked about was filling up the majority of the room's space. It was a nail that was covered in green patterns.

A while back, Shuuichirou said something about ''being able to stop the activities of the Black Beast''.

Shuuichirou raised his blank eyes. He looked at the object that was peacefully sleeping. Then he moved his heavy, dried-up lips.

"...I've wondered if it might happen. We have failed. The object we've constructed was lost in the Cauldron... Instead, we've invited fear."

Once, the Takamagahara System had challenged God. Following it, an object was created with the purpose to supposedly directly interfere with the Boundary. However, what appeared was a monster that destroyed everything.

Shuuichirou's murmur made him as if he was thinking of something far away.

"It was certainly the Sheol Gate... According to what he said, what exists beyond it was probably hell. ...I was always terrified. What would happen if we were to fail...? Before I noticed, my mind was filled with nothing but that thought. Because of that possible moment, I have created something to hold back the flowing seithr from Boundary, and to shut the hole leading to it."

Shuuichirou lifted his stiff arms and stretched his hands toward said instrument.

"It was... this ''Kushinada's Lynchpin''."

The object called the lynchpin that had unimaginably large strength silently stood beautifully. It was as if it was in deep slumber.

The hands that had stretched to the lynchpin fell down.

The back that had been leaning to the wall was slipping. Shuuichirou's thin, weak body sat down above the cold floor. His body was no longer holding up.

"FATHER!?"

Celica rushed and slipped through Nine's side. She kneeled beside her father. She knew it would only give her a temporary peace of mind, but Celica still put her hands on her father's chest and performed healing magic.

Celica possessed an exceptionally natural talent in healing magic. But still, she currently couldn't heal wounds that weren't visible. She couldn't heal illness. Furthermore, what was eating Shuuichirou's body wasn't an ordinary illness.

"...Quit wasting your magic. My body has been too exposed to a high concentration of seithr. It is too late to do anything about it."

It was seithr poisoning. Like how alkaline neutralized acid, seithr could neutralize harmful substances. But just like alkaline could be harmful when its concentration exceeded a certain limit, being exposed to too much seithr could also be poisonous to one's life.

"Perhaps, this is the end," Shuuichirou told his teary eyed daughter. He mustered his last strength toward the hand that had fallen once and placed it on Celica's shoulder.

"Listen well... Celica. My lynchpin could close that hole. That monster is strongly affected by the Boundary. It's only temporary, but it should be able to stop all of its activities."

"Fa-Father...?"

Suddenly, heat was coming from Shuuichirou's voice. Despite that his body was about to be depleted of his existence, only the hand that had been grabbing Celica's shoulder was strangely powerful.

It was like... he wanted to entrust something really important.

"I was always waiting for you. For you to come here, I was always..."

Growing impatient, Nine tried to separate the father's hand that had been grabbing her younger sister's shoulder.

But Shuuichirou's thin arm that had been stiffening until now wouldn't budge. Rather, because it absolutely wouldn't let go, his fingertips forcefully dug into Celica's shoulder.

"This is my final research. It needs your power for it to be completed. Your..."

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"Release Celica!"

Nine yelled as if she were striking him. At the same time, as if knocked by the angry voice, Shuuichirou's body was slammed to the wall that was just behind him.

Unbelievably, her biological father was blown away by a shockwave.

Celica tried to blame her by saying that she had gone too far.

But before she could speak her discontent, a low laughter disturbed the cool air.

"Huhu... haha. My lynchpin will seal the monster he had dragged out. That ought to make my skill be considered having surpassed his..."

He was talking to himself. His body, which was being held by only his willpower, already couldn't be moved. With his helpless head leaning against the wall, Shuuichirou looked up at the ceiling and laughed.

Looking at her father who sounded so triumphant, anger and contempt mixed within Nine. Preventing her from touching him again, she forcibly pushed Celica behind.

As she got startled all of a sudden, Celica twisted her feet, but Ragna immediately held her.

Everyone hadn't separated their eyes from Shuuichirou.

"You're disgusting as usual. It isn't about anything like the world, humanity, or the Black Beast. You just want to show off the result from your research to that genius person, don't you?"

"Yes, indeed. I'm a scientist. Isn't that obvious? ...I was always frustrated. I was no match compared to that genius under any circumstances. He was undoubtedly the only necessary person for our research and experiments... I was no more than an extra."

The blood-related daughter despised him from the bottom of her heart. But she could no longer get through to Shuuichirou. He might have put his pride on top of his comprehension.

Shuuichirou's muddy eyes were fixed to the lynchpin, as if clinging to it.

"He had made a mistake. And then... I corrected that mistake. Using my lynchpin."

If his body were able to move, he probably would present both of his arms to the lynchpin and hug it.

Despite the hoarse voice being barely able to be understood, his trembling enthusiasm caused Ragna, Celica, Nine, and Trinity's nerves to convulse, as if he were holding their collars.

"Isn't it magnificent...? It is... My lynchpin is... the last option for... humanity..."

After his pale lips carved a smile, Shuuichirou ceased to move. Like an old man, his eyelids fell down before anyone knew it, snatching away the lynchpin from Shuuichirou's pupils.

But perhaps the brilliance from the divine figure had been burned at the back of his eyelids.

"...Father?"

After a little while, Celica called him with tearful voice. There was no response.

Celica tried to walk up to him with her aimless feet shaking. When it seemed she was about to fall, Ragna held her shoulder and pulled her.

"It's dangerous. Get hold of yourself."

Ragna knew that he had said something unreasonable. Truthfully, it seemed nothing would reach Celica's ears. Her trembling knees yielded down as they had lost their strength.

He hurriedly held her body that had collapsed to the floor with his arm, and supported her with his chest.

"Celi..."

Ragna didn't continue his words as he tried to call her. To begin with, he already couldn't remember what to say to her.

Celica's lips let out a helpless voice to call her father.

It might have been some kind of switch as tears were spilling from her wide eyes. Spilling, and overflowing.

"No... no way. Why...?"

She had finally met him. She had found him at last.

Her lifeless fingers were trembling as she strongly grabbed Ragna's clothes. It was like there was nothing to cling to other than that.

Ragna embraced Celica within his chest. If by any chance his hand were to be separated from her, he felt like Celica's figure would disappear instantly.

He fully knew that such a thing would never happen, but he couldn't help it. He probably just didn't want to look at her pale, tear-stained face.

As she was firmly enclosed within his arm, Celica's back began to tremble in her sobbing after a little while. She buried her forehead on Ragna's chest. She muttered as she held back her voice. Like how a small child did, she couldn't conceal her grief and started to cry.

Why? How come? I really have lots of things to say. I didn't search for you to speak about such a thing...

Ragna never lamented over the fact that his right arm couldn't be moved presently.

But if only it could be moved, even while supporting the crying Celica, he could have patted her head with the other hand.