Editing The Unexplored Summon Blood Sign:Volume3 Chapter1 (section)

===Part 4===

Before long, it was lunchtime.

Ordering two meals at the family restaurant that morning had increased the cost a fair bit, so he chose to be economical for lunch. Instead of using the cafeteria, he stopped by the school store and bought the “Expanding Bread” (aka Poor Bread) that was most popular with the athletic boys. He sat all alone on a bench in the courtyard to eat it.

The courtyard was not a bad location since the flower beds were fairly well tended to and it was nice and cool in the shade, but since the students preferred the more open feel of the rooftop, the courtyard was fairly unpopular despite how pleasant it was. It was also a troublesome spot because lovers would often meet up there afterschool, later realize it was in full view of the school building’s windows, get into arguments along the lines of “Stop watching us!!” “Stop doing it where we can’t help but see you!!” “Oh, you wanna fight!?”, and end up in a great war. But at lunchtime, it was nice and peaceful.

As Kyousuke battled the hunk of carbs that oddly expanded the more he chewed it and disturbingly never seemed to vanish from his mouth, a new visitor arrived in the lunchtime courtyard.

“Wow, wasting your teenage years eating lunch alone, are we?”

“R-Renge, um, don’t say that while looking him right in the eye.”

It was a pair of twin sisters.

Meinokawa Renge and Higan were both shrine maidens with long, straight hair, but Renge had stereotypical black hair while Higan had blonde hair and blue eyes, making them a tricky pair of shrine maidens.

''To them'' this was a long-awaited reunion, but this sad vision must have blasted those emotions from their minds.

However, Kyousuke stared at the sisters with equally dead eyes due to the unreasonable scene he saw.

“Visitors aren’t allowed in this high school, so why are you two boldly walking around in shrine maiden outfits?”

“Because normal people forget all about summoners and vessels, of course.”

That made sense at first, but it was really the same as saying there was nothing wrong with walking around in the nude as long as no one knew it was you. They were throwing out their common sense in favor of their special traits. That line of reasoning was also why summoners and vessels tended to wear outfits that were far from normal and strayed from modern society.

But Kyousuke chose to kindly interpret it as them thinking people would assume their shrine maiden outfits were costumes for the Delayed Walpurgis.

“So what do you need today?”

“We have something to discuss with you.”

Kyousuke gestured for them to sit next to him on the bench, so blonde Higan sat down first.

But then black-haired Renge sat down between the two of them.

“Renge…”

“What? I’m supposed to protect you, Higan, so let me act as a barrier.”

For some reason, Meinokawa Higan got back up and forced herself between Kyousuke and Renge.

“Then I’ll protect you!”

“What!? You have some nerve as the younger twin!”

“Renge!”

“Higan!!”

“Ow, ow, ow, ow!! I feel like my thigh is being crushed by a steamroller here!!”

When Kyousuke raised his voice, the two shrine maidens finally stopped moving.

Kyousuke had been forced to the edge of the bench, Higan sat right next to him, and Renge was pressed tightly in beyond her. Once the crisis passed, the feminine body temperature and aroma finally reached him.

That said, this was not a part of the safe and peaceful life he wanted.

“Can you just get this over with and give me my daily life back?”

“Makihara Youji.”

Meinokawa Renge clung to her sister’s upper arm and spoke an unfamiliar name.

Kyousuke looked puzzled, so she held out a notebook-sized tablet.

It displayed a list of personal information.

The included photo showed a sharp-eyed boy with both sides of his hair dyed blond to emphasize the black hair in the center.

“You haven’t heard of him? He’s supposed to transfer into your class.”

He suddenly remembered that Rendou Akiya had mentioned that at breakfast.

But…

“Why is a summoner and vessel from the underside of the world discussing my class’s transfer student?”

“W-well, the thing about him is…strange things keep happening around him, so he’s been marked by people on ‘this side’ too.”

“More accurately, by Government. We were given a job by them, so we were wondering if you had overhead anything about him.”

“…”

Kyousuke fell silent.

A normal person like Rendou Akiya had been able to talk about the transfer student. That meant he had not been forgotten even while not in view of the naked eye. It seemed highly unlikely, but Kyousuke thought it was worth asking.

“Is it possible he’s a summoner or vessel like us?”

“We’re looking into that as well. At the very least, he doesn’t seem to be registered with Government. Illegal doesn’t release their records and Freedom doesn’t even keep a list since none of us are interested in anyone but ourselves. It’s impossible to be sure.”

“Just tell me what you know.”

“Makihara Youji himself is the kind of high school boy you can find anywhere. All of his paperwork is in order. He seemed to have made more than ten girlfriends at his previous school. The only real problem is why he’s changing schools.”

For one thing, it was strange to change schools in May when the school year had only just begun.

“You mean it isn’t due to his parents changing jobs or moving in with his grandparents?”

Hearing that, Renge fell silent for a moment.

She closed her eyes and inhaled.

Once she opened her eyelids again, she spoke.

“''His home was burned down in a fire.''”

“…”

It was Kyousuke’s turn to fall silent for a moment as he scrolled through the tablet’s information with a fingertip.

Ominous records were mechanically listed as brief lines of text.

“A-and when we looked into it, there was more than that,” added Higan. “During a school trip at the beginning of spring, there was a landslide and everyone in that school year was killed. The fitness gym he attended was destroyed in a gas explosion. The mall he worked at part-time collapsed. A stalker attacked his home and his parents died. Um, people get caught in terrible tragedies wherever he goes, but he always ends up unharmed. And it just keeps happening. Plus, it’s all happened recently when he was a completely normal person receiving no real attention not long ago. It’s all been over the past few weeks.”

“It sounds like something from a horror movie, doesn’t it?” Renge waved a hand dismissively. “The funny part is every last one of the tragedies was caused by a girl Makihara was intimate with. You could almost say ''he ordered the girls to do these things, they did everything he wanted,'' and they destroyed themselves in the process.”

“Even the landslide and building collapse?”

“The landslide happened on a rainy day, but when the police investigated, they found it had nothing to do with that. They’ve been suppressing the information to avoid any social influence, but apparently a schoolgirl blew herself up using the construction explosives she was holding.”

“…”

No matter how unhealthy the sense of dependence developed, no one would go that far for a high school romance.

This was not the White Queen and her worshipers after all.

But Kyousuke had heard another worrisome rumor. His class had been talking about the transfer student just as much as a mysterious device that could bend teenage girls to one’s will.

Namely…

“Girl’s Backdoor.”

“Oh, so you’ve heard of it? Government seems to be showing an interest in it. But as a summoner, I do have to wonder ''why it would be limited to girls''.”

“Um, there’s that state people get in when they lose during the Summoning Ceremony and get hit by the mental shock of their god being killed, right? They can only do simple things, but you can control them. And that slow-moving suggestible state continues for more than twenty-four hours.”

In other words, a summoner could bend someone to their will without a special device. It did not matter if you instructed them to take someone else’s life or their own.

“But that doesn’t make sense.” Kyousuke thought for a bit and opened his mouth once more. “That only happens after summoning a Material and fighting. If I defeated a normal soldier or guard, they wouldn’t end up like that. That would mean the victims of this Girl’s Backdoor thing are from our line of business.”

“Right. And summoners and vessels are removed from normal people’s minds, so the police wouldn’t even treat it as a real case. But these Girl’s Backdoor incidents are being recorded. …Government seems utterly perplexed by this. It is possible they’re all extreme rookies with only one or two digit Awards, though. Are they using Summoning Ceremony tech or not? If they are, is it a normal Blood-Sign system, or is it some variation on that? And if it is a variation, ''does it end at just providing the hackneyed ability to have complete control over a girl, or is there more?'' Those questions have pushed this way up their list of priorities.”

“…”

———Once, Azalea Magentarain and Guard of Honor had attempted to destroy the world just to hold an audience with the White Queen and to receive her love.

———Once, Benikomichi Fuuki and the other heir of Telomere’s End had attempted to destroy human society just to construct a world without death.

Both of those had broken down the Blood-Sign system and rebuilt it as a twisted variation.

They had also been resolved in secret so no one except Kyousuke knew about them.

Was something on the same level standing before him again?

Girl’s Backdoor.

That mysterious device would allow its user to manipulate someone close to them and even have them unquestioningly detonate the construction explosives they were holding. That alone was dangerous enough to mess with the world around Kyousuke.

“And conveniently enough, he’s stepped right into Alice (with) Rabbit Shiroyama Kyousuke’s territory, right? If Makihara Youji is aware what he’s doing here, he’s quite something. It wouldn’t hurt to be cautious.”

“Thanks.”

“If you’re really in trouble, um, we can help out at any time.”

“If it comes to that.”

After hearing that, the twin sisters put away the tablet and stood from the bench.

Renge pointed toward Kyousuke’s face.

“Listen. We don’t know yet whether or not this Girl’s Backdoor thing that Makihara Youji seems to be using is related to the Summoning Ceremony system. But it’s still dangerous even if it isn’t. In fact, we’re more likely to be caught off guard if it isn’t a part of our field of expertise. Even if you’re Freedom Award 903, I don’t think you should underestimate this guy.”

“Thanks for the warning.”

“Also…''you didn’t wear a glove on your left hand last time we met, did you?''”

“It’s a fashion statement.”

He waved his hand at the girls who tilted their heads while leaving the courtyard.

Kyousuke left the black leather glove on his left hand as he leaned back in the bench with the “Expanding Bread” in his other hand.

He slowly let out a short sigh.

A moment later, he heard a rustling in the bushes behind the bench and something was dumped on the ground like a garbage bag.

It was Makihara Youji.

This boy was suspected to have used Girl’s Backdoor to cause a number of incidents.

It was the same boy seen in the background information on the Meinokawa Sisters’ tablet.

However, he had been so severely beaten that the resemblance to the photo may not have been immediately obvious.

The villain had bruises and other marks all over his body, he could just barely be heard breathing, and his limbs were entirely limp. It was doubtful he was conscious.

Kyousuke did not even glance in his direction.

There was no real reason to confirm his presence at this point.

He leaned back in the bench and looked up into the blue sky as he munched on the “Expanding Bread”.

A short moment later, a small form left the bushes.

It was the vessel named Isabelle.

“Hey, hey. Where are we supposed to dump this?”

“It sounds like Government is interested, so let’s contact Aika.”

“Nuuun (deadpan). He’ll get away if we do that.”

“He won’t be able to move for a while after all that. With all those wounds, we could probably give him some zombie makeup and dump him on the side of the road for Government to pick him up in broad daylight. Everyone would think he had just gone overboard with his costume and gotten heatstroke.”

With that, it was over.

The concerning incident had ended before it even began.

“But this doesn’t seem to follow Freedom Award 903’s rules.”

“That’s because it doesn’t. These are the rules of a normal student.” Kyousuke did not sound very interested. “I really don’t want to talk about turf or territory. It makes me feel like Illegal. Although I guess Government follows a similar concept.”

“I want to know how that Girl’s Backdoor thing works.”

“That I can’t tell you.” Kyousuke replied casually while ''opening and closing his left hand and the glove he wore there.'' “If I controlled a few people and took some physical data on them, I could probably figure it out pretty quickly, but that would be going too far. I don’t want to do that when I don’t even know if there are any side effects.”

“Could it be mass-produced to a super-sized extent?”

“That’s part of what I’ll look into. Although, looking at this guy, I doubt he has the brains or skill to create something like this.”

“Meaning?”

“It’s best to think there’s more to this. Or maybe I should say we still haven’t found the real villain.”

This was one down, but it was just the beginning.

“Then should we continue defending against future intruders?”

“Why?”

Kyousuke answered her with a question of his own.

Why should a professional work for free to protect this school?

Except that was not what he meant.

“Why do we have to stick to defense? Wouldn’t it be a lot simpler to go on the attack and crush the source of all this?”

“Hmm. Looking at it more rationally, that’s a small-sized…no, medium-sized bit better.”

“Just to be clear, this isn’t an official job for Freedom or Government. It’s pretty much a personal fight. And we don’t even know what we’re up against here. As we search around blindly, we might just find ourselves wandering deeper and deeper into the bog.”

“I’m fine with anything as long as my contract partner gives me the promised reward.”

The girl in a red military uniform did not seem to give it all that much thought.

And she made sure to add one more thing:

“Of course, that’s only if you promise to complete my job to a super-sized extent once it’s all over.”

His enjoyable school life had to be put on hold.

From here on, he would be living in the bloody world of summoners.