BlazBlue:Phase Shift 4 Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Blue Snake’s Crazed Play

Part 0

The room was unusually cold.

It was technically winter, but the world was still blanketed in seithr, which was wreaking havoc on the seasons with no sign of them ever recovering. It was chilly at best outside, and compared to the cool air of the seemingly endless corridor leading up to it, this room was practically freezing.

The owner of the room thought nothing of it, however, as he gracefully offered a seat to his female visitor with a serene look on his face.

"Hey, why is this room so cold?"

Grumbling, the woman wearing a luxurious fur mantle sat down in the chair.

The man stood up just as she did so, practically switching places with her. The tea the man had brewed was the only warm thing in the room, and mercifully so.

"My apologies for the discomfort. The issue will be resolved shortly, so you'll have to bear with it for a little while."

"...Let's hope it will."

The woman's current less-than-ecstatic attitude wasn't just because of the temperature of the room. She didn't particularly enjoy having to spend time alone with this man, either. As both a member of the Ten Sages and the rightful heir to his clan, this room was his private property for all intents and purposes. She felt like she had been lured into his personal domain… the Kisaragi clan's home.

Nevertheless, she had still come when this man said he had a favor to ask of her. Supposedly it was a very serious favor, one that concerned the Nox Nyctores causality weapons.

"So? What do you want me to do?" "Look here."

With an air of calm pervading his demeanor, the man placed a sword on the table. It was a katana in a blue scabbard. One of the Nox Nyctores, Mucro Algesco: Yukianesa.

The woman gasped the moment she saw it, and the man smiled thinly as he watched her reaction.

"I would like to leave this in your care."

"Huh? Wha- what are you talking about? Weren't the Nox Nyctores supposed to be sealed..."

"Would you have let this be sealed away if you had been in my position?"

The man was speaking as calmly as if he was just having an ordinary, everyday conversation. He lightly pushed his glasses up with one of his white-gloved fingers.

"I'll say it again. Please, hold on to this for me. The Kisaragi Family will report that it went missing in the turmoil of the war, and with how fast the world is changing around us, everyone will forget all about this thing before long. Once that's happened, we'll be able to study it to our hearts' content."

"You're going to privatize a Nox Nyctores, just like that?"

"Three has already claimed that hers was lost."

The woman was at a loss for words as she listened to the man's ever-calm voice. She gripped her tea cup, thinking she had to calm herself down. She couldn't take her eyes off of the katana on the table in front of her.

Eventually, she opened her mouth.

"Alright. If all I've got to do is hold onto it for a while... then there'd be no problem with me analyzing it in the meantime, right?"

"By all means."

The man's smile grew wider. He beckoned with his white-gloved hand, and the woman took her cue to reach for the katana. She was overcome by curiosity. This was a Nox Nyctores, one of the weapons created to defeat the Black Beast, in which hid an utterly unnatural power. It was hard for her to resist the temptation to take possession of one of those, given the chance.

The man was no different. Watching the woman as she took the sword in hand and pulled it toward herself, he crossed his legs and placed his white fingers on his knees.

"Please do try to analyze it, if you can."

"Huh...?"

The woman hadn't understood what he meant, but in the moment when she lifted her head to look at him, the room froze around her.

In the most literal sense... the inside of the room was encased in ice. The formerly warm tea, the cup it was in, and the woman half-standing out of her chair with sword in hand, all frozen solid.

The only two things left untouched were the sword laying horizontally in the woman's grasp and its master, the man.

"I'll provide a brief explanation for you. You will steal my Yukianesa and disappear without a trace. No one will ever find you, but once the world has forgotten about the Nox Nyctores, Yukianesa will mysteriously find its way back to the Kisaragi Family... That's the scenario we will be going with, Eight."

His voice was as peaceful as could be as he took the ice blade from her hand. Casually drawing it from its scabbard, he cut down the ice sculpture erected before him with a flick of the wrist. The ice fell and shattered on the floor, and his long blond hair fluttered as he left the room, the sword with the blue scabbard still in hand.

Once the war with the Black Beast came to an end, the Ten Sages' top priority was to seal the Nox Nyctores Gigant: Take-Mikazuchi.

It was much harder to control Take-Mikazuchi than any of the other Nox Nyctores because it could be summoned, and they were worried about possible instability from its core being incomplete. Its creator, Nine, wanted to just destroy it, but in the immediate aftermath of the war, neither the Mage's Guild nor the Orbis Librarius Norma had enough manpower left to carry out such an operation.

Thus, they decided to pull Take-Mikazuchi out of its summoning circle, stick it inside a different container, and seal it somewhere where no one would ever be able to reach it, with plans to destroy it later once the state of the world had become more stable. The 'somewhere' that they had chosen to send it to was a place far out of reach and not within the jurisdiction of any country... outer space. Take-Mikazuchi disappeared from the surface of the earth, bound under layer upon layer of locks and control devices in a coffin-like apparatus.

They didn't have the means to immediately dispose of the other Nox Nyctores either, so for the short term they simply disabled their cores.

Deus Machina: Nirvana. Mucro Somnio: Musashi. Interfectum Malus: Ookami. Arma Reboare: Muchourin. Those four Nox Nyctores were returned as ordered and the power of their cores was released to make them inert, leaving them as nothing more than finely crafted, but mundane weapons.

Mucro Algesco: Yukianesa, Arcus Diabolus: Bolverk, and Geminus Anguium: Ouroboros couldn't be recovered because they were lost after the fighting, and their whereabouts were currently being investigated.

...Meanwhile, on the outside of the cloudy postwar world.

In the rose castle of eternal night, Rachel slept in the innermost bedroom of her manor. The world between the posts of her bed that had only just reclaimed peace was already falling into disarray again, like it was trying to cling to what little power it still had.

Her butler, Valkenhayn, had left Ishana and rushed back home to his princess' side as soon as possible after the war to resume his duty as her bodyguard. He had told his allies that he wouldn't be returning until Rachel woke up, and in fact, he ended up not leaving her side for a single moment at any point for the next several decades.

As a result, it was a long time before word reached him of how things went after the war and what ended up happening.

──And, of who lived and who died.

Part 1

On a certain day a year after the final battle with the Black Beast, a single girl walked down a long flight of stairs.

Her curvaceous body; flowing, glossy hair; and the direct, sharp look in her eyes were instantly recognizable even at a distance. She was beautiful, but her unapproachable aura was overpowering.

Her name was Nine.

The triangular purple hat on her head was the symbol of the Ten Sages, formerly the highest governing body of the Mage's Guild which had been dedicated to the protection of all the world's secret history. After the war she was heralded as a hero in addition to the praise she already received for her uncommon beauty and talent, becoming known as a Great Magister and an unparalleled genius.

She was a woman, and an older sister... but she was also a wife, and a mother.

At the bottom of the long staircase was a magically controlled elevator, and she used it to descend to an even deeper level. At the end of a high-ceilinged corridor stood a stately wooden door. Nine stood before the door alone and opened it, walking in once it had finished swinging. The high-heeled shoes she was wearing made a stiff clacking sound with every step.

Beyond the door was a large, circular hall.

Its domed ceiling was even higher than that of the corridor behind her, and a strange engraving that looked like a coffin supported by branches sticking out of the walls decorated its center. The floor was like the polished surface of a mirror, and mosaic tiles created a pattern like a swirling flame in the center of the room.

There was nothing noteworthy in the room other than that.

Except, of course, for the tall, thin man standing alone with his back turned toward her, his arms dangling limply at his sides.

"I never expected you would just show yourself like it's no big deal, instead of me finding you."

Nine's cold tone made small ripples in the air of the massive room.

Sluggishly, the man turned to face her voice. He wore a long, yellow coat and had green hair. His bangs were long enough to cover his eyes, so she could only see half of his face. The bridge of his nose, his pallid skin, and the way the corners of his mouth turned up in a snake-like grin were his defining physical characteristics.

"It's been such a long time, Nine-san of the Ten Sages. How long has it been since the last time we met...? I can't quite remember, actually."

"I've got a mountain of questions for you, Yuuki Terumi."

At the mention of that name, the air in the room froze over.

The man called Yuuki Terumi gave a lifeless smile that was at odds with the tension between them.

"Is that so? What a coincidence, I actually have quite a lot I want to ask you as well. But before that... let me correct you on one thing."

He tilted his head, seeming to be earnestly trying to convince her of something. He pointed to himself with a long finger with prominent knuckles.

"I am Kazuma Kval, not Yuuki Terumi."

Watching him intently, Nine's eyebrows furrowed. She crossed her smooth, bare arms beneath her ample chest. This was a habit that she often showed when she was annoyed.

"Spare me the nonsense. Yuuki Terumi and Kazuma Kval are the same person at the end of the day."

"No, really, I know this is complicated, but that's not quite right. But, well, I guess thinking that was your fatal mistake after all, so it's no surprise that you don't believe me."

"What do you mean?"

Nine's eyebrows twitched slightly at the words 'fatal mistake.' Her face clouded with suspicion as she asked her question, but Kazuma just casually shrugged his shoulders and moved right on to another topic.

"Let's just both get down to business then. I called you all the way out here because I have a lot of things I want to tell you. Please, ask away, and I'll answer anything that I know the answer to."

Nine's unwavering gaze revealed how little she trusted him, but she didn't refuse him. She rose to Kazuma's provocations with a provocative glare of her own.

"Hm... alright then. I'll play along with your charade."

"Then, by all means."

Glancing at Kazuma as he urged her on, Nine maintained her composure by brushing her hair over her back.

"First question. Where did you take the heart?"

She was careful to not let emotion creep into her voice, sounding as disinterested as possible. Her voice came out a little too strongly, however, and it reverberated off the walls of this room that was a little too big for just two people.

Kazuma looked startled, his mouth opening slightly as he lightly grabbed at his hair.

"Ah, so you noticed that after all... I didn't think that would be the first thing you would ask me, I'm a little surprised."

Or so he said, but his voice was utterly carefree, not revealing even a shred of tension.

Nine felt like he was making fun of her with that attitude of his, and it was pissing her off.

"Answer the question. I'll tolerate your little game, but idle chatter is one thing I won't put up with."

Kazuma wore a strained smile. Nine took it as him saying that he was the one who was annoyed, not her, and she dug her nails into her crossed arms.

"Terumi-san took the heart. Apparently he had been wanting to get his hands on it for a long time."

"Why?"

"Who knows? It seems like he was making something, but I don't really know what it might've been. I've never been much good at alchemy..."

Kazuma's jaw slackened unambitiously, and he seemed to be trying to placate Nine.

Nine's brow furrowed deeper than ever. Resisting the impulse to give into emotion and resort to violence, she bit down on her lip with her canine. She breathed deeply until she was able to restore enough composure to control herself.

"Next question. If you're Kazuma Kval, then where did Yuuki Terumi go?"

"He's still inside this body, just staying quiet deep inside it. This was always going to be a difficult conversation, after all."

Kazuma placed a palm on his chest as he spoke, smiling thinly.

A dull light flashed across Nine's eyes, but she didn't press that question any further. That wasn't the important part.

"In that case, third question... Were you the one who released him from Mind Eater?"

Her voice had a tone unlike what it had been for any of the previous questions. It had suddenly dropped an octave, and it sounded very threatening. Her eyes flashed sharply, and she should have been quite daunting, but Kazuma nonetheless replied with exactly the same expression he had during his previous response.

"No, I wasn't."

"Then who did it...!"

"Someone you know quite well."

He shot that answer right back at her, the unpleasant thin smile seemingly stuck to his face. Nine finally lost her temper and let blatant anger flare in her voice.

"Don't screw with me."

Kazuma shrugged his shoulders.

Nine partially uncrossed her arms and continued her questioning, ready to summon a lightning bolt on him at any moment.

"What... are you planning to do with the Master Unit?"

"...What's that?"

At this particular question, Kazuma's previously easy going demeanor stiffened up. He had been answering all the previous questions immediately, seemingly trying to rile Nine up, but at this one he suddenly had to pause... and he suddenly gave a very mediocre answer.

She had found a lead she could pursue. The light in Nine's eyes said that she wasn't going to let him get away, and she pressed him further.

"You said you'd answer all my questions, so get to it. Why are you trying to meddle with the Master Unit? Is it for the same reason that Relius Clover and Shuichiro Ayatsuki summoned the Black Beast?"

Her voice echoed around the circular chamber as she questioned Kazuma like she was cross-examining a witness, driving him into a corner.

Kazuma kept his silence for a while, but it wasn't long before he dropped his shoulders with a big sigh.

"Haaa... I should've expected no less from the Great Magister Nine. I didn't expect you to have worked it out all the way to there. I'm sorry I underestimated you."

He hung his head in regret so far that it looked like his neck would break, but as he did, his ears picked up the barely perceptible sound of footsteps coming from a hidden corner of the chamber. With a few steps, the owner of that sound came out from where they had magically hidden themselves in the shadow of a thick pillar before timidly asking a question of their own.

"The Master Unit? Summoning the Black Beast... what are you talking about...?"

The dainty, sweet voice trembled in bewilderment, and Nine whirled around to face it.

"Trinity!?"

Her brown eyes had shined with a light that showed that she was itching for a fight up until then, but now they were stained with confusion so deep that they seemed to be a whole different color.

The third member of the conversation who had just suddenly revealed herself was Trinity. She drew attention with her soft platinum blond hair and warm green eyes, making her the polar opposite of the unapproachable Nine.

She clutched a long, thin staff in the white hands that were peaking out of her voluminous sleeves. It was the Nox Nyctores that Nine had made for her, Arma Reboare: Muchourin. Its core was sealed, so now it was nothing more than a staff that could help with magic control, but to Trinity, it had become a precious possession that she couldn't be parted from.

Her eyes clouded over with confusion as she hugged her precious staff to her chest, and Kazuma looked disappointed. He tilted his head like he was watching a child do something senseless.

"Why are you coming out already? We were going to have you wait a little longer then surprise Nine-san by you coming out when I called you."

"Ka- Kazuma-san...!"

Trinity rushed over to Kazuma's side in a panic. She gripped the staff so tightly in front of her chest that her hands turned white.

"You said that you would answer all of her questions, right? What is the Master Unit? And you said that the Black Beast was summoned..."

Trinity's cheeks went pale at the dreadful sound of what she was saying. Her morality was rejecting the idea that something that horrible could have been intentionally brought into this world.

Another thought came to her mind right after, one that made her hang her head and hug the staff closer to her chest.

"Why did you give such a half-hearted answer just now? Didn't we call Nine here today to tell her all about what we're planning to do and get her to cooperate with us?"

"No way..."

Nine muttered low and quiet.

The realization that came to her mind was so shocking that she couldn't get her voice out properly. With her eyes opened wide in astonishment, Nine clumsily turned to look at Kazuma. She didn't want to believe that it was true, but she had no choice but to admit it. It was written on his face.

"You can't mean, that the one who released Terumi from Mind Eater..."

"Oh yes, it was Trinity Glassfille-san. She was quite impressive actually, it took some time but she really did manage to nullify it."

Kazuma's chest puffed up a little as he expressed his pride in her. Like he was giving a full formal introduction, he waved a gesture towards Trinity with his hand as he said her name.

"Ah, I guess there are some after effects, though. Terumi-san and I aren't very well synced right now. That's not exactly an inconvenience for me, though, so I don't mind at all."

Kazuma bent his elbows and wrists a few times to show that there was nothing wrong with his body, at the very least.

It seemed like Nine couldn't even see him anymore, though: she was just staring at Trinity with a look of utter shock.

"Trinity... why...?"

“I'm sorry, Nine, but please hear me out. If you had left Terumi-san under the effects of Mind Eater, he might have used Mind Eater himself to control Kazuma-san and attack you..."

Just the thought of it alone scared Trinity, and her soft hair swayed as she shook her head to push the idea out of her mind.

Her eyes dampened with sadness behind her round glasses.

"You've got the wrong idea, Nine. You think Terumi-san and Kazuma-san are one in the same, but they really aren't. Kazuma-san has his own thoughts, and his own feelings."

Trinity remembered everything that Kazuma had said during that conversation they had had just before the final confrontation with the Black Beast as she spoke.

"I know that we needed Terumi-san's power in the fight against the Black Beast, but the war is over now. Can't we give this body back to Kazuma-san already?"

Her words carried a hint of accusation as she stuck the end of her staff onto the ground. A pleasant, beautiful sound like what a musical instrument would make rang out across the room.

As the sound faded away, Nine followed in its wake by slowly parting her lips.

"I see, that's what this man told you?"

Nine smiled as she whispered softly, not a hint of her previous severity on her face. In fact, she sounded quite peaceful.

"Y- yes..."

Trinity nodded, but her face showed confusion.

Nine hung her head like every ounce of strength had just left her body. She didn't have any words of reproach left in her, so she just let herself sink into a deep sigh. Nine just shook her head weakly. She put a hand on her forehead and fluttered her eyelids like she was trying to bear some great internal weight.

"You really are such a... such a... nice girl."

With nothing but affection in her voice, she managed to raise her head again. Nine touched Trinity's lovely hair. Compared to her own smooth, flowing locks, Trinity's hair was always so fluffy and soft.

"Kazuma Kval... no, Yuuki Terumi!"

All she did was turn her body 90 degrees. In that short of a span of time, Nine's face changed from affection to fury... no, to pure loathing.

"You'll pay for this. You'll pay, you hear me!?"

As she was turning, lightning sprung to her open hands and a thunderous sound boomed through the chamber.

In the same instant, though, a chain with a snake-like head on the end appeared behind her and stabbed into her shoulder like it was taking a bite out of her.

"Ugh, aaaa!"

Nine screamed in agony. The sudden pain made her lose concentration on her magic, and she fell onto the hard floor.

Watching her best friend hold her shoulder as she shakily tried to get back to her feet, a half-frantic Trinity reached her arm out to her.

"Nine... kya!"

A chain crawled up her tender waist and held her fast. She was bound so tightly that her bones were creaking, and her hands were stuck so firmly to her sides that it made Muchourin fall powerlessly to the ground.

"...W- why... why are you doing this!?"

She looked like she was about to collapse, but Trinity, on the verge of tears, planted her feet and looked at Kazuma.

Kazuma, however, was walking over to where Nine lay on the floor, and didn't return Trinity's gaze.

"Hrg... finally showing your true colors, are you?"

Nine knelt on the floor, holding her shoulder so tightly that her fingers were sinking into it. Unfortunately, she wasn't born with a talent for healing magic like her little sister, so she had to settle for a spell that killed the pain.

Looking down on her as she struggled pitifully, Kazuma turned the corners of his lips up in an exasperated smile.

"I'm sure you understand just what kind of a mistake you've made at this point, Nine-san. You were convinced that Yuuki Terumi and I were the same person. Well... that wasn't really wrong, but you certainly never expected that we would be able to separate ourselves."

Kazuma stood before Nine and pointed at her with his index and middle fingers pressed together. He then spread his fingers apart like he was making a peace sign.

"Just before you cast Mind Eater on him, he split his consciousness from mine. As a result, Mind Eater took full effect on Terumi-san, but I was left totally unaffected."

His index finger represented the Terumi half and his middle finger represented the Kazuma half. They may have been connected by the same 'hand,' but they could choose which one was at the forefront.

"If that's the case... then this time, I'll just make both of you my menservants for the rest of eternity!"

Nine punctuated her scream by swinging her arm. She launched countless projectiles of light straight at Kazuma's torso. The point-blank attack sent Kazuma's body flying and he hit the ground hard without so much as a cry of pain.

Kazuma seemingly wasn't moving a muscle, yet nevertheless, a chain suddenly crept out of thin air next to Nine's ear and wrapped around her arm and up her body before constricting her neck, apparently as an afterthought.

"Ah, ufh..."

Unable to rip the chain that was restricting her breathing off of herself, Nine's face contorted with anguish. The chain crawled up the soft flesh of the nape of her neck and pulled even tighter, and Nine couldn't get a single sound out of her mouth.

"Please... please stop, Kazuma-san! What are you doing? I..."

Trinity shouted out louder than she ever had before.

Kazuma got up with leisurely slowness and dusted off his clothes as if to recover his pride. Any wounds that he may have gotten from Nine's magic attack had already closed up. Back on his feet, Kazuma looked over his shoulder at Trinity. He showed her his open palms like he was a performer about to explain a trick.

"Surely even you are getting an idea of what's going on here at this point, right? It's exactly what you think it is."

The answer was already there in Trinity's head.

Trinity only asked because she already knew, and knowing that, Kazuma put it into words for her.

"It was aaaaall a lie. What a shame for you."

His regret and his apology. Saying that he 'had fun' and that he 'wanted to come back.' Every word they had shared with each other before the final battle. The warmth she had felt in his body when they held each others' hands. Every single moment he spent with that sincere look on his face.

Every last one of them was a lie.

"No, way..."

Shocked. No other word could describe the sound of Trinity's voice as it escaped from her lips. All the strength had abandoned Trinity's knees and she had fallen to the floor, and Kazuma just laughed at her in pity.

"You really never learn, do you? I'd already betrayed you once before, you know."

Putting his hands on his thighs and leaning over, Kazuma peered down at Trinity as she cried with her face turned skyward. Little gaps in his bangs showed occasional glimpses of reptilian yellow eyes. They were filled with pure joy and pleasure.

"But hey, chins up, you two, don't be so miserable. It's never too late to learn from the mistakes of the past, after all."

Kazuma happily chatted away with a certain good-humored attitude that he had never shown in his student years. His tone, expression, and demeanor were clearly Kazuma, but the faint chill of Terumi permeated his every action.

"To hell with... your, mistakes of the past... this won't, be enough to..." Kazuma lifted his head in response to the broken voice. Nine, not caring that she could hardly even breathe, was putting all the power her body could muster into trying to break out of the chains.

Kazuma's shoulders started shaking uncontrollably at the sight.

"Oh no, please, come on now, this is one of the Nox Nyctores that you made yourself, you know? Are you trying to tear it off?"

"Ngh... I am the one, who made it. Do you think, I can't...?"

As soon as she finished her sentence, he thought he heard a sharp, distorted sound coming from the chain.

That wiped the smile right off of his face, and he scrunched it up instead.

"Oh, dear... you're just so scary, Nine-san. There's no sense in playing around here all day... so how 'bout we just get right down to show time～!"

Mid way through his sentence, a smirk split his face. It was like someone had flipped a coin to its opposite side.

There was no mistaking who had spoken that line.

Tracing his teeth with the tip of his tongue in ecstasy, Terumi raised his hand.

Nine tried to burst out of Ouroboros. Trinity could do nothing but look on, dumbfounded.

And Terumi recited a chant like he was singing a song.

"Restriction 666 released... Dimensional Interference Field deploy..."

As if responding to his voice, the ground beneath them began to tremble slightly. There was no way it was an earthquake. They were deep below Ishana, so if this room was shaking, it could only be because of the artificial cauldron that the mosaic tiles on the floor symbolized.

"BlazBlue, activate!"

Heat rose from the nonexistent flames of the pattern beneath their feet. Trinity reflexively shrunk in on herself. Nine felt an unpleasant sensation creeping up her body from within, and she knew it wasn't the heat.

The man standing before her immediately gave her the answer to what it was.

"Drag 'em in, Ouroboros!"

Terumi gave the chain a hearty tug as he shouted an order at it.

Nine felt like her guts were being pulled along the floor.

"No... way...?"

Nine struggled against the chain, looking desperate now. The chain seemed to be drawing some kind of power from the cauldron, however, and Nine was trapped even more completely than she was before. She got pulled a little further. As for where she was being pulled... all she had to do to find that out was look down.

The inside of the cauldron.

"Ple- please don't do this, Terumi-san!"

Trinity's cry of grief echoed around the chamber.

Nine's consciousness was fading fast, but she kept on struggling and straining. She tried to cast a spell, but she just couldn't get her voice out, and she couldn't connect her mind with her mana either. Ouroboros had already yanked her voice and her focus out of her and chucked them into the cauldron.

As she lost more and more control of her body, Nine bit her lip and glared at Terumi, filling her gaze with more hatred than ever before.

"Kehehehe, now that's what I'm talkin' about. That face, that one right there. That's EXACTLY the face I always wanted to see you make!

Hyahahahahahaha!"

Laughing shrilly, Terumi planted a kick in Nine's head. Nine, still wrapped up in the chains, rolled across the floor with a dull thud. Her triangular purple Ten Sages hat had just barely managed to stay on her head this whole time, but now it finally went flying.

"Hehyaaaahahahaha! Look at you, you call yourself a Sage!?"

This time he stomped down on the back of her head and started mercilessly grinding his heel in.

Nine never stopped glaring at him all the while. She couldn't so much as lift a finger anymore, but she used the last of her strength to move her blood stained lips.

"............"

But she couldn't get any sound out.

Her lips shut after failing to deliver her final words, and she went as still as a wax doll.

"...Ah, ah... Ni- Nine..."

Trinity just watched it all happen, and a rattling sob escaped her throat.

Hearing her faint voice, Terumi turned around dramatically. Stomping violently with his black-booted heels, he made his way to Trinity.

"Man, you really saved my ass this time. Thanks a lot, Trinity. It sure is great having such a kind friend!"

He started lightly slapping her cheeks, soaked in tears flowing from her wide-open, upturned eyes. For the first time ever, Trinity wanted to get away from those hands, and so she turned her head.

Like he was chasing prey that was trying to escape, Terumi grabbed her by the chin and yanked her head back up to face him. As the tears kept flowing down her face, Trinity wisely glared at him. No matter who or what she was looking at, she always faced them with a gentle smile in her green eyes, but now she was gathering up every scrap of hostility she had within her and putting it into this look.

"Oh, man, I'm shakin' in my boots! Kehehe, you call that a glare? Clearly you've never been on the receiving end of one of Nine's real glares. Talk about a scary mug."

"Why are you such... such a..."

"Huh? Hey, what, why don't you go on and say it? Hey, hey, c'mon!"

Terumi pulled her hard by the chin, but Trinity didn't have the heart to finish. She felt like there was a weight stuck in her chest that was going to strangle the sobs right out of her, along with all the air in her lungs.

"Oh, yeah, almost forgot to pay you back for all your help." Pretending to have just remembered something, Terumi stood back up. As he looked to the ceiling and spread his arms wide with palms up, a single chain appeared.

"Here's your reward... I'll send you to the same place as your beloved best friend. Go kiss and make up in the Boundary or something, Hyaaa-hahahahaha!"

Laughing with a voice so shrill that it shook the air around him, Terumi gave the chain another forceful pull. Trinity was attacked by that same sinking, dragging feeling.

"Welp, I'm too busy to hang around here much longer."

As Trinity felt a strange sensation of something crawling up from inside her and contracting her entire body at once, Terumi punted her. After giving Trinity one last look of contempt as he sent her tumbling head over heels across the floor, he strolled away, the rough sound of his footsteps ringing out as he went.

Sinking. Sinking. The mosaic tiles felt like a hot wind as they touched her cheek. Her consciousness dimmed and she could hardly move a muscle.

From her spot laid out on the ground, Trinity could see the already entirely immobile body of Nine. Between them, Muchourin rested where it had rolled across the floor.

She apologized over and over again to Nine's face-down body, but Nine couldn't hear her anymore.

She sank deeper.

Suddenly, a thought came to her.

Take-Mikazuchi's core, which the Nox Nyctores used, was made up of an incredible number of human souls. If the Nox Nyctores functioned by tapping into the power of those souls, then... if she were to give a new soul to Muchourin, which was currently sealed off from soul power, then it would return to being a full-fledged Nox Nyctores... probably.

If she moved her own soul into Muchourin and restored it to its status as a causality weapon, then maybe she would get a chance to atone for her foolishness one day.

Her soul was being pulled into the Boundary.

She didn't have time to deliberate.

"I'm, so sorry... Nine..."

If she was just going to disappear anyway, she'd rather set fire to her regrets and atone for an eternity instead.

Trinity managed to move her body a tiny bit, wringing out every dredge of strength she had left to pull herself next to Muchourin.

She began to chant an incantation in the faintest, weakest of voices.

Part 2

Newly reorganized in the aftermath of the war, the Orbis Librarius Norma was poised to unite the whole world under its banner, and was currently working on establishing branches everywhere it could. They had a system in place to quickly handle any disputes over whose territory they were establishing themselves in, which kept things running smoothly.

The world, having survived the menace known as the Black Beast, didn't want to further destroy itself with wars of self-interest or other conflicts, so the OLN championed resolute propositions and ideals, skyrocketing their general clout.

What very few people knew was that all of the OLN buildings established all across the world were located above one of the world's many cauldrons.

The war with the Black Beast was over and the Mage's Guild had been completely absorbed.

Unable to get used to the new world order, Jubei and Hakumen had left Ishana and started traveling the world. They had one goal: the destruction of every single cauldron on Earth. The cauldrons were contact points to another dimension from which the Black Beast had been summoned. There was no telling what kind of tragedy could arise from continuing to meddle with them.

"If the world cannot survive without cauldrons, then it is no world of humankind."

That's what Hakumen said when he had set out for his first target. Jubei was in total agreement with Hakumen, so he chose to accompany him.

They hadn't even been married a year yet, so his wife Nine was stunned at his decision, but she allowed him to go on the condition that he would come back at least once per season to let his daughter see his face. Nine, too, must have had serious misgivings about the idea of letting the cauldrons continue to exist.

Jubei wanted to destroy all of them as fast as possible so he could finally relax and enjoy the rest of his life with his wife and daughter. He had been secretly thinking about that as they had left the area of the tenth cauldron they destroyed, but today, he wasn't sure how many cauldrons they had destroyed anymore. It felt stupid to even try and keep count at this point.

They hadn't chosen this cauldron today for any particular reason: it was just the closest, and it reeked of the Black Beast.

Ear-splitting alarms echoed through the dimly-lit corridor.

Flickering red lamps gave the passageway they followed a very serious atmosphere.

Hearing the footsteps and voices of nearby guards looking for the intruders, Jubei and Hakumen ran into the massive, air conditioned facility. This was the Orbis Librarius Norma's Asian branch of their geological survey department, located on the western tip of Asia.

Asia had suffered particularly severe damage from the Black Beast, so the OLN had established various different research labs across the continent to help facilitate its recovery.

Jubei and Hakumen hadn't snuck in for research data, though. Just like every other facility, this lab had a cauldron underneath it. As usual, the cauldron was very deep underground. The OLN had used it as a foundation when erecting the facility.

The pair eventually found an elevator leading down to it beyond a stack of fans that were liable to make their ears ring if they were to stay around them too long. Wrenching out a piece of the wall and crawling into the wire-lined interior, they descended deeper and deeper into the facility, with Jubei climbing down easily and skillfully while Hakumen just barreled down sloppily, not fearing the possible fall.

Finally, and without getting into a knock-down drag-out fight with the guards for the first time in a long time, they made it to the deepest level of the facility.

"Whew... we made it down pretty easy this time, huh?"

They could see simple measuring instruments placed around the circumference of the cauldron, but it didn't seem like the OLN was conducting any large scale research or experiments here. Keeping a close watch on his surroundings, Jubei stretched his flexible body.

"This place must have been created solely to suppress the cauldron. There are countless places like it."

Hakumen had taken Ookami off of his back so it wouldn't impede his movement, but he put it back on now as he spoke.

The OLN didn't want to let other organizations have cauldrons. Their intentions were clear even during the war with the Black Beast, when the OLN members could often be found spending comically long amounts of time studying maps showing the locations of cauldrons.

Jubei walked right next to the cauldron, where the OLN had installed a lid-like device that they could open and close.

"The cauldron's closed up right now."

"Naturally. With so few personnel, this facility has no intention of using it."

"Sure enough."

They barely had enough people to man the facility here, so they had probably just been unable to bear leaving the cauldron alone.

"The OLN's folks sure do work hard."

With mild exasperation in his voice, Jubei extended the sharp claws of both of his hands.

"Let's get this done before someone shows up looking for trouble. I wanna leave riding an elevator the normal way for once."

He may have been a cat beastkin, but climbing five stories up in an elevator shaft still wasn't an easy task. It would put a damper on his day, at the very least.

Hakumen drew the nodachi that he had just put on his back out of its scabbard and walked up to the cauldron. Just before he was ready to unleash one clean slash on it, however, the formerly silent and motionless lid on top of it began to open.

"Wha..."

Jubei, who was on lookout, was the second to notice when he turned to look behind him.

Rooms that contained cauldrons always had very high ceilings, no matter where they were. Far above the cauldron, there was what must have been a control room sticking out of the wall, inside of which a silhouette was visible.

"That's..."

Jubei flattened his ears back when he saw who it was.

"Terumi..."

Hakumen said that man's name with a low growl.

Possibly realizing that Jubei and Hakumen had recognized him, Terumi brazenly strolled out of the control room toward them. His unnaturally laid back and composed body language gave Jubei pause.

"What do you want?"

He was dressed in his usual long-hemmed coat, and his big hood was completely hiding his eyes. It had been at least two months since the last time they had seen this man. They had been looking for him ever since, but they hadn't caught wind of him until today.

"Yo. You two are really moving on up in life, going from being part of the ‘Six Heroes’ of the war to playing terrorists."

Terumi gave a throaty, sarcastic laugh as he looked from Jubei to Hakumen, hands stuffed in his pockets.

Hakumen reiterated his companion's question.

"He told you to state your business."

"Aw, c'mon, why the cold shoulder? I brought you guys some seriously huuuuuge news."

"News?"

Jubei's ears perked up at Terumi's uncharacteristic word choice. Terumi was indeed strangely knowledgeable about all sorts of things, despite how he seemed, but he wasn't the type to just tell you something without you wringing it out of him first.

Smiling delightedly at the puzzled Jubei, Terumi spoke like he was telling him some great joke he'd been saving.

"Nine's dead."

For a few seconds, Jubei was convinced that time had stopped around him.

He couldn't process what he had just heard. As he stood there with his mouth half open, he registered Hakumen shifting into a ready stance in his peripheral vision.

That little movement snapped Jubei out of it. He heard the sound of the cauldron slowly opening up behind him.

"Wh- why, did she die? What was the cause? Was she killed?"

Hakumen held Jubei back with one arm as the latter fired off a barrage of questions. From deep within the mask, Hakumen asked for the truth.

"Who killed her?"

Terumi smirked. He was smiling beneath that hood.

Without giving an answer, he kept on talking.

"Trinity's probably dead too. That means the only ones left are... Hakumen, Jubei, Valkenhayn, and that damned shitty vampire!"

He sounded like he was counting on his fingers at first, but it devolved into a scream at the end. Terumi yanked his hands out of his pockets and thrust them forward, and in response, chains shot out from either side of his body. The one on the left went for Jubei, the one on the right went for Hakumen, and they both cut a straight line through the air as they hurtled toward their targets.

"Kuh!"

Using his claws to repel the chain, Jubei jumped away. At his side, Hakumen cut down the chain aimed at him with one strike from his blade.

Switching to offense immediately, he swung Ookami diagonally at Terumi, but his slash landed an instant too late, cutting only the air where Terumi had just been. Terumi had kicked off the ground to launch himself backward and swung his arm wide as he landed. This time, he attacked Jubei with both chains.

"Grimalkin, to the side!"

Just as Hakumen shouted a warning, he suddenly felt a presence below him.

"...!?"

He tried to put his guard up, but he was too late. Snapping like a whip, Terumi's leg caught Hakumen on the chin with a kick.

A normal human's chin would've been crushed, but Hakumen endured the otherworldly impact, stumbling back several steps but not losing his footing. Blocking the follow-up round kick by raising one arm, he sliced upward with the nodachi held in his other hand.

"Tsk!"

Terumi bent backwards to avoid the attack and immediately threw a magic barrier up, but Ookami still left a diagonal cut on his chest. Only a shallow one, though.

Ookami no longer had the abnormal power from when Hakumen wielded it against the Black Beast with its core released. His so-called normal slashes would struggle to inflict any lasting damage on Terumi, whose body currently had abnormally fast regenerative powers.

Jubei, fighting the chain, wasn't having an easy time either. The chain chased him down relentlessly and caught hold of one of his claws as he tried to escape it. The claw was clearly at a disadvantage against the chain, so he immediately drew one blade of Musashi with his free hand and sliced down on the chain fast enough to split the wind.

"Yeah, figured I couldn't cut it...!"

He was fighting a Nox Nyctores, and one that still had a functional core to boot. This chain was capable of stabbing straight through the Black Beast.

Knowing that was the case, Jubei instead cut his own claw away from the chain with Musashi, escaping from the chain's binding spell. Drawing the other blade of Musashi without missing a beat, he connected the two sides into one sword.

From behind him, he heard a thunderous roar. With a glance over his shoulder, he saw that the cauldron had finished opening up, baring its simmering, lava-like contents. A deep-seated assurance that that was not something of this world flowed through his body.

Its presence flowed through Terumi in a more literal sense, further increasing his strength.

"Dieeeeeee! Hyaaaa-hahahaha!"

Drunk on his own blood lust, Terumi laughed as countless black, snake-like things appeared from beneath his feet and reared up, combining into one. Clearly possessing far greater mass than Terumi himself, the massive thing could easily swallow Jubei and Hakumen whole.

The black snake struck down with its mouth wide open, looking like it was going to slam its head into the ground. Jubei immediately tucked and rolled, just barely managing to jump away from it in time. Hakumen tried to block it with his sword instead of avoiding it, and he took a glancing blow on the side of his mask that sent him sprawling on the hard metal floor. The slash he made while still halfway through standing back up managed to fend off the snake's next attack.

Terumi had made some distance between them, and he stood there with a smirk like a gash across his face on his lips, shoulders shaking as he chuckled.

"Being next to a cauldron really makes a difference... Kehehe, this way, the two of you together are barely enough to make me break a sweat."

"Rgh, what the hell... I know he's using Ouroboros, but his reaction speed's way faster than normal."

Jubei muttered as his shoulders rose and fell from breathing hard. He had found himself out of breath at some point. He'd been completely at the mercy of the chain for a while now, and apparently it was taking its toll.

Hakumen, having taken a hit from the massive head, shook his head lightly and finally brought his sword back into position. He was sensing something unusual from Terumi as well.

"He is strong..."

Perplexed, Hakumen put his thoughts into words.

"Ahhh, I'm having so much fun. Oh yeah, by the way, about that scary wife of yours."

Lazily fending off Jubei and Hakumen's counterattacks, Terumi spoke with utter contempt.

"Come to think of it, she bit the dust in the exact same place as where I beat your little brother to death. You'd better hurry up and die, or your little bro might cuck you! Hyahaha!"

"You son of a bitch..."

A thrill of murderous intent ran along Jubei's spine. With a quick breath, all feeling left his body at once.

His red eye burning with hatred, Jubei charged forward.

"Uwoooooooooooo!"

Shouting from deep within his belly, he swung his double-bladed sword down on Terumi's head from above. Unfortunately, he evaded the blade, but Jubei followed it up by springing off the ground and diving in between Terumi's arms.

"Guh!"

The tip of the blade caught Terumi in the stomach, slicing him open. It was then that Jubei realized he wouldn't be able to kill him this way. He'd have to cut Terumi into pieces so small that he couldn't move before tossing them into the cauldron, at the very least.

But even that was too good for him. Jubei would never be satisfied, no matter how many times, no matter how many dozens of times he beheaded and dismembered this man. It would never be enough.

"Grimalkin!"

Paying Hakumen no heed, Jubei pounced again. In exchange for a deep cut on his arm, Terumi summoned a chain out of thin air to bite Jubei's leg and slam him into the ground. Jubei never felt the pain, though. He was back on his feet in an instant, brandishing his sword.

"Go to Hell... you bastaaaaaaard!"

He jumped, and he slashed. Carefree in the face of the reckless attacks, Terumi occasionally let himself eat a slash so he could pay it back twofold.

A snake-headed chain appeared and tried to bite out Jubei's one remaining eye as he was trying to stand back up. One second before that could happen, though, a nodachi swung down on it and smashed it to the floor.

As it did, the sharp blast of wind it generated restored some sense to the out-of-control-Jubei.

"I... I'm sorry, Hakumen."

"Tell me, Grimalkin. Do you want to defeat him?"

Hakumen raised his blade, turned his back, then asked that question.

For a moment, Jubei struggled to understand what that wide back was asking him, but then he gave his answer straight from the heart.

"Of course I do. How could I ever let him get away with this? How could I! After what he did to Nine, to Tomonori... and now he's making their deaths into a joke!"

The very words felt like they were setting his guts on fire.

Perhaps sensing that behind his back, Hakumen gave an exceedingly calm answer.

"Then use that. You may not have your brother's sword with you, but you do have his eye."

A gasp. Jubei breathed in hard, turning his attention to the right side of his face that he'd kept covered with an eye patch for years. The eye that had been gouged and ruined by seithr had long since been removed from the socket. In its place, he had the artificial eye of Tomonori that he had received from Rachel.

"But even if I use this, we still won't be able to do any damage to him..."

"All you must do is catch hold of his true form for an instant. I will take him with me, body and all."

"Take him with you? What the hell are you planning, Hakumen!?"

"Hey hey hey, what've you two been whispering about? I'm feeling pretty left out over here～."

Terumi spread his arms wide, and two chains peaked up over his shoulders.

"Save your buddy-buddy time for the afterlife!"

The chains whistled straight through the air, but all of a sudden they jumped through space and appeared below Jubei's feet.

"Shit!"

"Use it now, Grimalkin! You still have family left! Do you intend to let your daughter die as well!?"

Another chain that had jumped through space aimed for Hakumen's back, but he cut it down with Ookami.

Intermittently attacking him with the chains, Terumi swung kicks down at Jubei with his higher stature. Jubei crouched so low that his hands touched the ground, jumped, and escaped.

In the moment that he was recovering from his landing, Hakumen's words hit so close to home that it made him dizzy. If he were, in this very moment, to run away somewhere where no one could see him, he might have cried. His left eye was burning and growing damp.

What had become of the small, precious life that Nine had left behind?

"Konoe..."

Whispering his wife's name, Jubei put his hand on his eye patch. Hakumen knew what he was about to do.

There was no other option.

"Open, Sekigan!"

He howled out to steel himself. Throwing the eye patch away, he opened his atrophied eyelid.

The moment he did, Terumi's appearance changed before him.

He wasn't a tall, thin man. He could hardly even be called human. He looked like an indistinct black shadow holding the vague shape of a human, with a face-like segment floating on top. He was a hazy and indistinct existence, bearing a passing resemblance to Take-Mikazuchi.

"Wha- huh...!?"

Terumi cried out, his voice trembling. He looked down at his own body in a panic, then glared at Jubei's right eye like he had just figured out the secret behind a cheap trick.

"Tsk, that damned vampire again!?"

As he shouted in anger, Hakumen closed the distance between them faster than a rushing gale and sunk Ookami straight into his chest.

"Ookami cannot cut through the spirit of a monster... but for as long as you're manifested in physical form like this, it can have some effect on you by interfering directly with your body and mind together."

Speaking like he was muttering a curse, he left Terumi skewered and grabbed him by the neck before breaking into a run. He bent his knees deep and launched himself... jumping right in.

He jumped into the cauldron, where the bright red, lava-like substance swirled about.

"AaaaAAAAAAAA, this ain't a joke, don't friggin' screw with me! My body... my vessel's gonna disappear...! Let go, you sonuva bitch let me gooooooo!"

"Close it!"

Reaching for the rim of the cauldron, Terumi was trying to crawl out, but Hakumen grabbed his arm and dragged him back in.

"Grimalkin!!"

"...Forgive me, Hakumen!"

Shaking off his regrets, Jubei jumped all the way to the control room, breaking the thick glass with his sword and rolling inside. He didn't know how to operate the mechanism, so he just flipped every switch in sight. Apparently one of them was the right one, because the cauldron's lid began to shut.

"You damned caaaaaaaaat, open it! Don't think you've pulled a fast one on me, you bastard!"

He kept on roaring in resentment, but his shadowy hand was no longer on the rim of the cauldron.

"I'll be back...I'll be back for all of yoooooooooou!"

With that, Terumi's voice finally stopped.

Jubei couldn't hear Hakumen's voice.

The cauldron was shut. Just moments before, firelight had colored even the high ceiling bright red, but now there was nothing but a metal box wrapped in lonely gray.

Standing with the cauldron before him, Jubei was awash with remorse.

He never wanted to run away and let someone else sacrifice themself in his place ever again. He had carved that resolution into his heart, and yet here he was.

"Dammit... Damn iiiiiiiiiiiiiit...!!"

Jubei, the last man standing, let out a wail, and as he did, the sound of him punching the control room floor rang out alongside it.

Over, and over, and over again.

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