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

===Part 6===

Kyousuke had feared using the oil lamp would burn it, but ''that was not the world they lived in now''. Still, they took their time drying out the shrine maiden outfit. And surprisingly, Meinokawa Aoi seemed to be the sort of person who would go all in on the task before her eyes, no matter how dull it was. Perhaps it was like finding an abandoned puzzle magazine in a mountain cabin during a blizzard.

“That should do. Fwa ha ha. Look, it’s perfectly dry now, isn’t it!?”

“Yes, yes. If you have time to strike a pose with your hands on your hips, then get that ''hakama'' on already…”

They had washed Kyousuke’s shoes and Aoi’s boots in the lake and then dried them. Kyousuke and Aoi (once she was dressed again) made periodic patrols around the lake, but they never found any Bridesmaid summoners or Repliglass soldiers. Not only was the network of tunnels below Houbi Village quite complex, but it was likely designed with large decoy rooms and treasure storerooms that looked quite suspicious but did not actually have anything in them.

Since the enemy did not immediately attack this kind of “truly important location”, it was unlikely that Renge, Higan, or the other villagers had been captured and forced to talk.

“No, wait. ''Choosing at random will always work out right now'', so that can’t be it. Maybe the fact that we have a clear objective in mind has started having an effect.”

“Hm?”

Meinokawa Aoi cutely tilted her head like a child despite giving off such alluring charm, but as the two of them killed the abundance of time on their hands, the moment they were waiting for finally arrived.

24 hours had passed.

The losers were freed from their penalty.

“Kh…”

“…Uuh… Onii-chan?”

In the shrine(?), Biondetta and Olivia groaned and started moving below their blankets. Instead of their previous, mechanically-repeated movements, these motions had a clear human will behind them.

However…

“Tch, the enemy!?”

“Stop, Biondetta! The battle is over!!”

“And why are we naked? What in the world happened on the way here, sir? Surely you are not going to claim ignorance to the difference between seeing and being seen.”

[[Image:BloodSign_v07_178.jpg|thumb]]

“Oh, no. Now she’s aiming her gun at me with a smile. I’ve completely lost track of what that might mean. And you really did a half-assed job, Meinokawa Aoi. This is the first I heard of you putting them to bed in the nude!!”

He had to distance himself from the two girls covered in nothing but a blanket, but if he left Biondetta alone with Olivia, it could easily lead to a fight to the death. That left only one option.

“Aoi, you take care of this. It’s best for you girls to stick together, right!?”

“Ehhh? Do I have to remind you not to treat me like this!?”

Kyousuke escaped the shrine(?) and simultaneously tossed the silver-haired shrine maiden inside while ignoring how he messed up her clothing in the process, but then he heard some odd sounds of destruction from within, something like a broken branch flew out of the door, and a round object about the size of a volleyball came bouncing out.

It was the alluringly slender arm and beautiful head of the Joruri Method girl. And as soon as their eyes met…

“Boo.”

“Wow, is that an old-fashioned joke!”

“…This is not good. My joints might have gotten looser. They seem to be coming apart easier than normal.”

He picked up the arm and head just as Biondetta left the shrine(?) with her clothes back on and her decorative tail swishing back and forth.

“Sir, explain this.”

“Umm, Olivia’s still alive I hope?”

“Should I assume she is no longer our enemy?”

He hesitantly peeked below Biondetta’s arm and inside the shrine(?) where the (headless and somewhat dismembered) shrine maiden stood to protect Olivia who was frozen with fear in the corner.

“Sigh, so I was captured, was I?”

The double blonde braid girl did not seem all that bitter about it. She rubbed the flat chest of her school swimsuit to make sure it was fitting right and she stuck her hand below the white floral pattern pareo to fix the swimsuit that was riding up in her butt. She then breathed a short sigh.

“But, well, if this is the will of the White Queen, then there’s no helping it. There is meaning in all things, so I must have lost for a reason! Right, Onii-chan☆”

“…”

Those words and her smile put a bitter look on Kyousuke’s face.

This was rooted deep.

To Olivia in her straw hat, the White Queen was the same as “good morning” and “good night”. She was the same as the portrait on a paper bill or a coin. Olivia was not being forced to perform a special and holy ceremony; it had completely become a part of her normal life.

(But that’s why this can work.)

Kyousuke thought quietly to himself.

It did not matter who had the advantage. A summoner fought by using everything to their advantage

(This isn’t Kingdom F in Eastern Europe. It’s the distant Houbi Village.)

Now, it all began here.

Kyousuke forced the detached head onto the shrine maiden, passed her the arm, and then ducked below her other arm to put himself on Olivia’s eye level.

“Olivia, I have something to discuss with you.”

“I have to admit, Onii-chan, I didn’t expect for you to avoid a straightforward approach and attack while I was unconscious. But I see. So you prefer to play with people in their sleep. But that’s a problem. That makes you a pervert, but for some reason I don’t mind when it’s you.”

“Via.”

He spoke more strongly and used his old nickname for her.

Her small shoulders jumped, so it seemed to have worked. She was still refusing to look at him, but her imaginary tail was wagging.

(What did I do in these moments back then?)

After thinking back, he gently rubbed her head. Only then did she deign to turn toward him.

The girl sat with her knees up despite her floral pattern pareo. She also pouted her lips and rubbed her big toes together.

“I won’t listen if this is about you and the White Queen fighting. I mean, it’s all your fault for being mean to her! She’s trying to welcome you, so if you would just face her and accept the invitation, no one would have to say goodbye!!”

“…”

Still crouching, Kyousuke tapped his index finger against his temple. Biondetta quickly gave a suggestion while standing by the shrine(?) door.

“Is it ''too late''?”

“No, not yet.”

It was easy to say she would never understand, but you could not start a dialogue with that kind of attitude.

He analyzed Olivia Highland’s unique mental state in his own way.

“Mutter, mutter…Onii-chan won’t listen to me…mutter, mutter…”

“This isn’t like before.”

“Sigh. So is the problem that this school swimsuit isn’t white? I didn’t realize a pervert from an island nation would be so picky. But I need to study up on this ocean-loving nation’s swimsuits for the sake of your future, Onii-chan!”

Biondetta must have decided this was never going to end because she butted in.

“Just tell her the truth already.”

“No!” protested Olivia. “And who is she anyway, Onii-chan!?”

“Are you not going to listen to your teacher!?”

“Eh? Teacher…? Hmm, then I guess I have to…”

She had erased an entire village from the map using around 20,000 rockets, and now this. Were they lucky the rules of a child’s world were making an appearance, or was this only a sign of how deep the distortion went?

Kyousuke looked to the light pink rose decoration on her tiny chest. It took the Queen’s white and added a bit of the red that Kyousuke tended to choose for his clothing.

“You know what?”

She worshiped the White Queen, but she ''was not'' Kyousuke’s enemy. You could say she was an ally to both. Or to put it another way…

(She’s like a child trying to protect her own little world by keeping her parents from fighting.)

Kyousuke wrinkled his brow at the headache brought on by that idea.

Even as a joke, it was simply too cruel, but that was the truth as Olivia saw it.

Simply put, Olivia wanted to bring Kyousuke and the White Queen together. So depending on the situation, she would fight for either side. She was currently taking the Queen’s side and attacking Kyousuke, but she focused on maintaining a balance and she would take the other side if the scales tipped in that direction. She did not really want to kill him. It was more like ''she wanted to correct his mistake.''

But that was all.

She wanted to bring Kyousuke and the White Queen together, so anything else would look like noise to her. The girls like Meinokawa Aoi and Biondetta in particular would look like distractions from the “family” she envisioned, so she would view them like a job or mistresses. That was why she had not hesitated to attack Houbi Village.

Bridesmaid.

That word referred to the pure white bride’s attendant. This girl truly embodied that concept.

“Olivia.”

“…What is it, Onii-chan?”

Kyousuke spoke to the double braid and straw hat girl who sulkily puffed her cheeks out in the corner. He spoke slowly so she could process it one thing at a time.

“Sorry, but I can’t do that.”

“Why not?”

She seemed to have understood what he meant.

Olivia’s eyes widened like a child who was asked whether she would go with her mother or father.

From her point of view, he had skipped past the important point.

“Why can’t you!? No one would reject anyone, there wouldn’t be any conflict between anyone, and it wouldn’t cause anyone any trouble, so why do you alone push her away!? If you would just bury the hatchet and take just one step toward the Queen, ''it would fix all the problems in the world''!!”

“…”

It might look that way if you did not know anything.

It might look like the conflict would end if Kyousuke stopped rejecting the White Queen’s intense appeals.

However.

“I can’t do that. No matter what.”

“That’s not a reason!! The White Queen loves you so much, so how could she be doing anything wrong!? It’s your fault for not looking her way! That’s why she’s sulking!! So why do you actively seek that chaos, Onii-chan!? The White Queen is so admirable, so what don’t you like about her!?”

“Because that evil is in love with Shiroyama Kyousuke the Strongest.”

“?”

Olivia fell silent because she did not know what he meant.

Her small hands did not touch anything: not her double braids, not her decorative collar, not her thick chain, and not the keyhole of the bag-sized lock. She could not even comfort herself by fidgeting with something in her hands.

Her eyes remained wide as she tilted her head in actual confusion for once, so Kyousuke looked her in the eye and explained.

“That is not who I am. It is a fictional being. She is obsessed with an image of Shiroyama Kyousuke that she created in her own mind, so it wouldn’t solve anything for me to approach her now. The discrepancies between the ideal and the reality would be laid bare and it would all fall apart. ''She would decide her love had been a crude fake.''”

“That’s not-…”

“The person in front of you here can’t compare to the Shiroyama Kyousuke the Queen thinks I am, Olivia. In fact, no one can. Since I don’t meet the specs of that framework, I can’t even control the White Queen through her love. That leaves only one option: killing and stopping her, once and for all.”

“That’s not true!! I don’t understand what you’re saying, Onii-chan! There isn’t more than one Shiroyama Kyousuke! ''Why can’t you understand the simple fact that there’s only one of you in the world, Onii-chan''!?”

“Yes, there is only one of me. And I only have this one life.” Kyousuke readily admitted it. “But the White Queen doesn’t understand that. She might look completely obsessed with me, but if I actually die, she’ll give up on me in the blink of an eye. She’ll decide it had all been an illusion and she’ll search out something else that won’t be destroyed at the slightest touch. And if that happens, no one will be able to predict what she’ll do because they won’t know what she’s obsessed with. That’s why I have to kill her myself while she’s focused on me. Anything else would do irreparable damage to the world.”

“Onii-chan, what you’re saying makes no sense…”

“Probably not. But it’s the truth.”

“That settles it. I’m going with you, Onii-chan. I mean, you’re clearly insane and that will never change if I’m not with you. It’s clear now that you won’t join the White Queen unless you realize the error of your ways!”

Kyousuke slowly sighed.

That was good enough for now.

He had been afraid they would reach a stalemate, but now he knew Olivia would stay with him instead of wandering off. They did not need a complete mutual understanding right away. It was more important that he set up a situation where they could contact each other at any time.

“Olivia, I’m fairly certain we’re safe since we haven’t been attacked for more than 24 hours now, but just to be sure: you don’t have a bug or homing beacon on you, do you?”

“You’re the one that stripped off all my clothes, aren’t you? You didn’t check then?”

“That is one hell of a false accusation there, but whatever. How about inside your body?”

“Do you want to check every nook and cranny yourself? Here: ahhhh.”

She was acting just like a sulking child. She did not care if he saw her small tongue or the uvula in the back of her throat. Olivia opened her mouth wide and looked up at him, so Kyousuke ran his smartphone along her undeveloped bodylines like a metal detector.

He also looked deep in the defenseless girl’s throat before answering.

“Well, I can tell you aren’t giving off any obvious EM or IR signals. Still…”

“Isn’t that good enough? Hmph.”

If they were using Repliglass, it was possible an aromatic or chemical signal was conveying information like ant or bee pheromones, so this was still not perfect. However…

“But this could be a problem. If I’m caught off guard and die, I’ll never have a chance to make up with the Queen. Never ever.”

“! I don’t have anything! If I did, I’d tell you!!”

This was Olivia Highland’s controller.

Kyousuke decided to trust her here.

Whatever was motivating her, he doubted Olivia would lie. That small girl in a school swimsuit, a decorative collar, a ridiculously short skirt, and a floral pattern pareo would not allow anyone to get in the way of bringing Shiroyama Kyousuke and the White Queen together. Not even if it was a fellow Bridesmaid member. Her belief in the Queen was different from Azalea’s or The Saint’s. It was purer, more transparent, and void of ulterior motives, but that made it much more deeply rooted.

“Then let’s move on to our next destination.”

That was all he said before leaving the shrine(?) which housed emergency supplies. As he left through the double doors, Waitress Biondetta whispered into his ear.

Only someone who had shared his past in the Queen’s Miniature Garden could speak these words.

(You really don’t need to let that ''March Hare'' incident bother you after all these years, you know?)

Kyousuke responded without looking back.

His voice was deep and cold.

“It’s a simple fact.”