Editing The Unexplored Summon Blood Sign:Volume4 Chapter1 (section)

===Part 2===

'''(Timeline “Now”)

Trade shows had two primary goals: business and advertisement. The former meant signing contracts for new products and the latter meant showing off your technology to the press. The business side was sometimes based in a desire for the product and was sometimes based on a desire to build up connections. The advertisement side was sometimes used to increase your brand name and increase your ability to sell and compete and was sometimes used to show off your superiority to the competition and drive them into despair.

The people there for the advertisements were focused on the announcements made at special booths at set times. So this early in the morning, most of the people filling the streets were summoners and vessels looking to buy Blood-Signs, Incense Grenades, restraints, Repliglass, or the components and chemicals used to make them.

However…

“……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………”

“C’mon, brother. Why do you look so gloomy that someone would think you’re watching the end of the world? You need to look a little happier walking around with such a cute girl holding onto your arm. Happy☆”

Rather than watching the end of the world, Shiroyama Kyousuke felt like he was standing in the center of the world.

That was hardly surprising when ''the'' White Queen stood by his side, wrapped her arms around his right arm, leaned her full weight against him, and even rested her head on his shoulder.

The gazes of the passersby were too painful.

In fact…

“Her Majesty? Ehhh!? Her Majesty!!!???”

“Don’t be stupid. That’s got to be cosplay. They have that musical based on the White Queen, remem-…ugyaahhh!! I-i-it’s actually her!?”

“Bubble, bubble, bubble, bubble…”

It went far beyond double takes and wondering whether or not to snap a photo. A large man collapsed on the spot and wept like a small child, a holy woman must have been so shocked she entered nirvana because her eyes rolled back in her head and she foamed at the mouth, a group of what looked like indigenous South Americans prostrated themselves before her with their foreheads pressed against the ground, and a gaudy female fortuneteller began gathering up the dirt the Queen had stepped on and stuffing it into a bag like a high school baseball player at Koshien. Kyousuke was not sure what to make of it. Humans were said to be the lords of creation, but the second they saw a paranormal being, they were willing to throw out all of their dignity.

Shiroyama Kyousuke’s lips grew pale as he spoke his honest thoughts.

“Why couldn’t you have considered staying back in my room? If you’re going to stand out this much, it would help if I was alone. At this rate, they’re going to make a statue of me as well.”

“Oh, come now. Only a real man gets to show off his lovely girlfriend like this, brother. Now, hold your head high. You need to let the world know you managed to make me yours.”

The White Queen was in full lovey-dovey mode, but Kyousuke could not laugh off this topic since he had earned the award Loved by the White in the past and since he had been targeted by the group of (perverted) summoners known as Guard of Honor.

But the White Queen did not seem at all bothered by the commotion surrounding them.

“Oh, dear. There are so many stands set up. Hmm. The love-filled wife’s meal was absolutely crucial, but it would be a shame to pass this up. So, brother! Let us use the logic of having a separate stomach for snacks so you can treat me to some ice cream!!”

“No, that sounds like a pain in the ass. If you want ice cream, ask one of your worshipers for some and they’ll make so much for you they’ll use up all the ice in the Antarctic.”

“You just don’t understand how the world works, brother. It only makes your heart flutter when your beloved buys it for you. Ice cream, ice cream! And it has to be vanilla of course!”

“…Why are you so obsessed with the color white? Ugh.”

“Because I’m the White Queen who loves all things white!! Hee hee. What were you imagining, brother?”

Since she asked, Kyousuke answered honestly.

And he did so with a blank look on his face.

“Well, I’d thought you were insane but that you still had a line you wouldn’t cross. I thought you had an ignorant and pure heart, so this is a bit of a surprise. Yeah, you might be my nemesis, but it’s still a shock.”

“Fweh!?”

“Lu-san will say a lot of those things, but I’d bet anything she’s pure. And do I even have to say anything about a shut-in like Aika? Hmm, but I guess you’re the exception…”

“Wh-wh-wh-wh-wh-what are you saying!? Don’t tell me you’re having a sudden onset of maiden delusion now! But make no mistake! It may be true that my worshipers around the world will sometimes hold hard-to-watch rituals in front of my statues and idols in underground temples or aerial cities! But!! I myself am pure!! I simply happen to overhear a lot of inappropriate things! So make no mistake about my purity!!!!!”

She was so panicked that she did not even notice Kyousuke mentioning a few other girls.

Kyousuke used that opening to guide them away from the ice cream stand, but the White Queen noticed.

“Ah, what about my trophy of having a gentleman gallantly buy me a treat!?”

“Stop it. If I take you there now, they’ll dig the wrapper out of the trash and hang it up in a sanctuary somewhere. They’ll probably call it a holy relic or something.”

“Fwehhh, brother!”

“I said no. Besides, if I give in just once, the demands will never stop. I only have so much money in my walle-…”

He was cut off by a metallic clinking sound.

The confused boy watched as a shower of coins was thrown toward them from all directions. In the blink of an eye, the ground at their feet looked like a pond at a tourist destination.

“Please use this! This old man is more than willing to offer some money if it is for Her Majesty!!”

“In fact this feels like too little for the honor of gazing upon her face like this! Kh, curse you, Alice (with) Rabbit. Are you going to demand I make up the difference with my body!?”

“Gozaru, gozaru!! Holder of Loved by the White, you must not make the Queen cry!!”

Kyousuke had triggered quite a commotion, so he quickly shouted back at the people.

“I am not accepting any indirect offerings! The entire world is far too kind to this insane twintails!!”

At that moment, he sensed a sharp gaze from the crowd.

He looked over and spotted two familiar faces.

They were twin shrine maidens.

“(R-Renge. What is that!? I can’t figure out how this could have happened!)”

“(Shh! We’re leaving, Higan! Don’t look that freak in the eye!)”

“(Wow. Um, Shiroyama-san really has changed a lot.)”

“(I can’t believe he’s smugly showing off that dangerous thing. Kh, he should have asked us for help before he was this badly broken!)”

Kyousuke felt the hair across his body bristle.

“Wait! Please waaaaaaaaaaaait!! How long have you been here!? Where did you come from!? And do you happen to know anything about my missing memories!?”

“C’mon, don’t be like that, brother. …I mean it. Speak some other girls’ names and we’ll have two new craters on the moon. Got that?”

The White Queen smiled cheerfully and made a point of clinging to Kyousuke’s arm, resting her head on his shoulder, and holding him in place like a ship’s anchor. Meanwhile, the twin sisters vanished into the crowd.

It was a sorrowful parting.

“Ah, ahhh, ahhhhhhh.”

“Okay, brother. What shall we do now?”

He was finally freed, but it was too late.

At this rate, the crowd was going to grow even more excited than a national idol discovered in the middle of a scramble crossing, so Kyousuke grabbed the White Queen’s hand and quickly left. He glanced around on the way, but he saw no sign of any shrine maiden outfits.

Meanwhile, he looked like he was stealing a bride away from the chapel (mostly due to her pure white dress), so…

“Oh, my☆ How bold, brother. I just won another trophy in life.”

“You shut your mouth!! If we had stayed there, they probably would have built a giant monument and the spot would have been marked on world maps as ‘the holy land where offerings were given to our queen in heaven’!! The place could easily end up covered in blood and guts!!”

Of course, if that peak of the Unexplored-class had not wanted to move, she would not have budged even if a passenger jet rammed into her, so the Queen had to be entirely on board with being pulled away by him.

“Ah, what does he think he’s doing!? Is he trying to keep our Queen to himself!? And when simply being able to borrow the power of her name is too great an honor!”

“Gozaru, gozaru!”

“Hm, it would seem I have no choice. I will help out as the Love and Hate Aggressor. Guide rabbit, only you can put such a lovely smile on Her Majesty’s face! Take her with you and get out of here!!”

As small commotions (or at least he prayed they were small) started up here and there, they ultimately found themselves at a viewing platform. But this northern land was a large plain, so it was quite flat. Instead of adding a railing and maintaining the top of a natural hill, it looked more like a large metal lookout tower with the floor space of a cooking classroom or home ec classroom.

It was deserted, but that may have been because everyone here was a summoner or vessel for advertisement or business purposes. There were very few people who had arrived purely as sightseers.

Kyousuke finally breathed a sigh of relief in the four story viewing platform.

“This is awful…! Normal people who didn’t know anything would actually be better because they might walk right past you without realizing your value!!”

“Oh? But in that case, their ignorance would lead to a spiritual awakening. And since they do not know who I am, they might start up some misguided cult.”

There was more to her than simple violence or combat ability.

Before any of that, one had to contend with her presence, her aura, and her charisma. In what looked like some kind of joke, even veteran summoners and vessels who used the gods of legend as a stepping stool would ''voluntarily'' bow down to this higher life form. Just by standing there, she could produce worship. Just by smiling, she could fully distort everything that civilization had built up. She was a singularity like a black hole that endlessly sucked in human hearts.

Could you fight that?

Could you even maintain the will to fight her?

A battle with the White Queen began there. And only a very few had honed the blade of their humanity to that point. And if they let their guard down for even a moment, that blade would be instantly worn down and dulled by an invisible power.

Just like his former enemies: Uniquely Selfless Azalea Magentarain, Telomere’s End Benikomichi Fuuki, Liar Cat Biondetta Shiroyama, etc.

“Brother.”

But the White Queen with her silver twintails and pure white dress merely smiled sweetly and pressed her hands together in front of her chest.

“I do not care what form it takes as long as I can play with you. We could even do exactly as you wish and begin an endless death match where you try again and again to kill me with every method you can think of.”

“…”

“But remember that I said I do not care what form it takes. Yes, anything is fine as long as I am satisfied. So wouldn’t you be protecting the world by playing with me in a way that avoids needless conflict? For example, if there is no direct battle, there is no chance of the puny summoners and vessels here being killed, so wouldn’t you be ''saving'' them by choosing to go on a date and flirt with me?”

Kyousuke audibly gulped.

This was it. Those words were like a cool glass of water after walking endlessly through the scorching desert. By swapping out the essence of the matter, she could make compromising and giving in sound like the good option. This “first attack” tried to break people’s beliefs just by smiling and throwing sweet words their way. If the psychological could be seen, then Kyousuke would be on the verge of being swallowed by the great maw of a carnivorous dinosaur.

“Let’s go to a tropical island.”

The White Queen leaned up against him and buried her face in his chest while whispering to him.

“If you wish to expel me from the world, there is no need to fight me, brother. All you need to do is seal me away inside a secret garden. As long as I am happy there, I will never leave. I will not even be curious what would happen if I were to leave. I will do anything for you, brother. Do you like one piece swimsuits? Or are two-piece ones or bikinis more your style? Compared to swinging your Blood-Sign around in a fruitless and endless battle, this is bound to be the more constructive choice for the world.”

“…”

“I will be satisfied as long as I have you, brother.”

If that was all, then she would be telling the truth.

She looked up at him while snuggled up against him from the front.

Her damp eyes glittered and her enchanting lips formed her words.

She looked just like a girl begging for a kiss from her lover.

“I will ask nothing of the world, I will take nothing from the world, and I will threaten nothing in the world. So won’t you please place your arms around my waist?”

Shiroyama Kyousuke imagined that possibility for just a moment.

He could not help himself.

And then he shook his head.

“…That would cause a war.”

“It would not. I am talking about a complete and utter disappearance. It is the desire to monopolize me that triggers conflict, so this would actually remove the possibility of harm from the world.”

“No.”

He mustered all of his strength to turn his back on that easy but fatally sweet poison.

“I am saying it would trigger the final war between the two of us. In that secret garden of yours.”

“Oh, you’re so mean, brother!!”

A complete change came over her.

She puffed her cheeks out like a child.

“…But that is exactly what makes you so worth winning over.”

As the White Queen embraced him from the front and rubbed her face against his chest, the boy leaned against the railing and shook his head to take his eyes off of her.

From that four story height, he could see the donut-shaped trade show and Pandemonium in the center. That colossal Repliglass structure had a giant squid silhouette due to the giant coffin shape with a large number of tentacle-like pipelines attached to the bottom. But he saw a few oddities in that scenery.

There was an empty field within the donut.

And in that field were several craters ranging between several hundred meters and several kilometers across. The patch of green had been cruelly torn up and a water vein must have been hit because they were filled with water like lakes.

And as he viewed that scene, he felt something like a jolt of electricity in the back of his mind.

“…?”

Instead of rejecting the pain, he abandoned himself to it.

He slowly peeled the scab from his memories.

And the first vision that appeared in his mind was of two people he had seen just a moment ago…