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Owari no Chronicle:Volume11 Chapter 36

2016-01-03T18:43:56Z

128.177.161.164: /* Chapter 36: To the One Waiting For You */

==Chapter 36: To the One Waiting For You==
[[Image:OnC_v11_0487.png|thumb]]
''I will go

''And protect what matters to me

Racing footsteps and sounds of impact passed through a windowless white corridor.

The gunshots, clashing swords, shouts of anger, demands to identify oneself, and everything else could not stop the running footsteps.

The unstoppable footsteps belonged to a boy in a dark blue suit.

He had a small animal on his head as he ran down the corridor.

Three men in armored uniforms appeared from both sides of a fork up ahead and they opened their mouths.

“You’re Negotiator Sayama Mikoto, aren’t you!? Stop him!”

“Let me just say that it is impossible.”

Sayama answered just as they raised their submachine guns.

A moment later, he pulled a red sphere from his suit pocket.

—'''Only truth fills the world.

Only two sets of gunfire sounded. The center man was unable to fire his warning shot.

“!?”

He looked down at his unmoving fingers.

Sayama cut through the center of the two streams of fire targeting him and charged toward the third man.

He stepped up to the central man and jumped upwards.

“The truth is surprisingly boring.”

He slammed his right heel into the base of the man’s neck.

The man in black armor’s breath burst from his mouth and the two on either side pulled out knives for close-quarters combat.

“Damn you! Are you going to put up a futile struggle!?”

Despite the blades on either side of him, Sayama made rhythmic steps after landing.

“A futile struggle? What on earth do you mean? All I am doing is going to meet Shinjou-kun. Could you not get in my way? It would be a tragedy if I was late for my two minute promise. …After all, it would make Shinjou-kun sad!”

“Damn you! What matters more to you!? Settling the world’s problems or a date!?”

“You fool! Do not combine two unrelated issues!!” Sayama pointed at the man as he shouted. “Besides, going to see Shinjou-kun is obviously more important than settling the world’s problems!! Listen. I am the negotiator. If I do not go meet her, the negotiation cannot even begin, so logically settling the world’s problems has a lower priority level than Shinjou-kun. …Do you see a problem with any of that!?”

“W-wait. Wait just a second. The…the concept here prevents anyone from lying, doesn’t it?”

“Of course. And if you understand, then open a path. Getting in my way as I visit Shinjou-kun is the same as getting in the way of settling the world’s problems. And doesn’t the Army claim to want to settle those problems!? What you say and what you do simply do not match up. I demand that you make a more appropriate decision!”

Sayama sighed and walked past the men who were lost in thought.

He turned right at the fork, ran down it, and said one thing more.

“Of course, nothing says it has to be Hajji who settles the world’s problems with me.”

“Damn you!!”

Once the men caught on, they raised their guns behind him, but he ignored them and ran toward an intersection up ahead.

He soon heard gunshots and saw bullets flying past him.

Except the bullets flew from up ahead and continued on behind him.

He heard three groans of agony behind him and passed through the intersection.

A few dozen automatons hiding in the right and left corridors raised their skirts and curtsied as he passed.

“Testament. Sayama-sama, we will assist you as you-… Wh-why are you ignoring us!?”

“Ha ha ha. Sorry. I’m in a bit of a hurry. I used up too much time back there.”

One of them began running alongside him.

“#8-kun? How is the old man?”

“Testament. He is needlessly full of life. More importantly, take this.”

She held out an orange backpack. It was clearly filled with something and Sayama gently checked on the contents when he took it.

When he did, something poked its nose out at him.

“Sayama?”

It was a 4th-Gear plant creature. After confirming it was Sayama, the creature looked at the scenery flying by on either side.

It also lifted its body of grassy fur and began expelling air.

“You must have been very tired, Sayama-sama. As this is an emergency situation, we automatons held a mental meeting and decided to borrow 4th-Gear’s power as a cure-all medicine. Please enjoy having your excess heat drained as you run.”

“I will.”

Sayama put on the backpack and the plant creature exhaled oxygen while happily swaying its body.

“Shinjou… Promise, promise!”

“Yes, I made a promise with Shinjou-kun. I am glad you understand.”

He had a feeling #8’s expression suddenly changed as she ran alongside him.

…''?

Confused, he touched the red sphere in his suit pocket.

He removed the truth-enforcing concept and turned to #8.

He stared at her usual expressionless face, but…

“What is the matter, #8-kun? Did something sad happen to you?”

“No… No, not at all. Automatons do not have the emotion of sadness.”

She faced forward as she answered as if the question was a needless fear.

But one of the few dozen automatons suddenly spoke up from behind them.

“You have to tell him, #8! UCAT Director Ooshiro treated her like a dog! And she appeared to cry!”

“I-I did nothing of the-…!!”

She realized her outburst might as well have been a confirmation, so she lowered her eyebrows a little.

“I am sorry you had to see that.”

“I do not mind. And excellent work on the dog roleplaying. But you have nothing to be embarrassed about. Unlike me, everyone else is into some crazy thing they want to tell people about but do not know how.”

She nodded and faced forward with her usual lack of expression, so Sayama asked her something else.

“Is there anything I can do for you now?”

“No, a maid can never ask anything of her master. A maid’s job is to assist with her master’s work to an extent that does not qualify as directly helping.”

She closed her eyes and faced him again. When she opened her eyes, they contained a slight smile.

“Give us a job, Sayama-sama. I have determined that is the best possible thing you can do for us.”

“Testament. An excellent answer. And so let me say this: help me reach Shinjou-kun in the most dashing and stylish way possible. This is a job that only you can do. And…”

He faced forward.

“If you do that, I will thank you for it.”

“Don’t you mean Shinjou-sama and you will?”

“I will be the one taking Shinjou-kun’s thanks. You must not steal someone else’s due.”

She briefly paused at that answer.

“…”

“Did I say something odd?”

“No,” she said.

She bowed as she ran and slowly lowered her hands behind her.

He saw her smile and open her mouth to speak.

“I have determined it is an honor. Not only are you giving me a job, but you are thanking me as well.”

“Oh? Are you that certain you will receive my thanks?”

“Testament. I have determined it is certain. After all…”

She swung her arms forward which sent black metal components spilling out of her sleeves, skirt, and apron.

Up ahead, several people in black armored uniforms were blocking off the corridor. She quickly assembled a heavy machinegun aimed at them and she finally finished her sentence.

“Yes. After all, a maid who does not fulfill her master’s demands is nothing but a mere woman.”

Gunfire rang out and Sayama raised his speed with a smile. He also checked his watch.

“Fifty-eight seconds left!”

Sayama ran.

He moved straight down the artificial white structure, kicked off the wall at the turns, and practically fell down the stairways.

The enemy was numerous, but he had comrades to run up and fight back.

He felt like they were welcoming him back as they fought alongside him.

He had only been gone for a single day, but…

…''It feels so nostalgic.

Kazami and Izumo were likely fighting. Hiba, Mikage, Heo, and Harakawa would be fighting their opponents without giving up despite how tough those opponents were.

Kashima was probably coming to and the automatons and other units would be fighting to clear a path.

Everyone welcomed in his race and they all illuminated his destination.

“Very good.”

He muttered to himself as his footsteps shook his body.

“I have no objection to being the center of the world.”

He was now certain that he was the world’s central point.

He now realized he had taken things too easy before. With the violent husband and wife, the slightly perverted man of metal, and the flustered yet nihilistic mechanical dragon, there had been less reason for him to fight himself.

At the very least, he felt they had ended up relying on each other.

…''But this is different.

They were not relying on each other. They simply felt it was natural for the others to do their job.

They could do what they wanted without having to rely on someone else.

After all…

…''Our pasts demand it all.

Each of them was ordered on by their own heart.

So if his teammates opened a path for him, that was what they wanted to do.

It was not an effort or pain, so he must not apologize to them. They had not given up or called it quits.

It was better to thank them instead.

But the greatest reward would be to fulfill his own job.

“We need strength. We need the strength to resist and protect.”

He opened his mouth as he ran.

He took a breath.

“Our Gear needs the strength to resist our own evil.”

He jumped down an open stairway ahead and slowly raised his left hand. He kicked off the steps and spun around as he dropped down the stairs. The sign on the next landing said BF5.

He was one floor away and had twenty-three seconds left.

Realizing that, he thought.

…''How about we fight, everyone?

“And Shinjou-kun.”

…''I…

“I am here to be a true villain.”

If their opponents knew their sins and were telling them to die, he would defiantly throw atonement back at them. That was the role of a villain and UCAT hoped to help that villain.

So he did not hesitate to open his mouth and begin with a single word.

“Everyone!!”

His first call functioned as the starting point of his next words.

Those next words were the ones only he could speak.

“I will say it now. …The surname Sayama indicates a villain!!”

UCAT personnel were fighting with the black army over the control room for the lift on the fifth basement. They also heard a voice come from the speakers.

“After sixty years and ten years, let us finally hold the true negotiations here.”

In the fifth basement’s large storage area, Ooki raised her head to listen as she wrote out healing charms.

“Listen, everyone! Begin the attack! Pour your voice of resistance into your magazines and blades and pour your voice of anger into your armor and shields. Tonight, we shall express ourselves like that as we negotiate. …And listen carefully, everyone!”

Tsukuyomi listened to the communicator as she drew her overheating Heavenly Moon Bow in a corridor.

“Ahead, ahead, go ahead! These people are using the past to tell us to die, so grab them by the collar and give them a blow to show them that we’re still full of life!”

Susamikado flew above the forest and avoided Typhon’s homing bullets while listening to Sayama’s voice.

“I, Sayama Mikoto, use my authority as Team Leviathan’s representative to announce that we shall begin the Leviathan Road anew here, that we will not give in to any power, that we were wrong but will correct ourselves, and that we will carry this through to the end no matter how much disgrace it brings us!”

<nowiki>#8</nowiki> and the other automatons fired down the corridor while memorizing the words they heard via their shared memory.

“Now, I have my orders for you all. Do not die until I have completed the negotiation. At the very least, survive longer than me. After all, I will not die. And with that established, I give another order. God once said to return the favor when people do things for you, so…”

Izumo fought and thought of his partner while listening to the words of his dumb underclassman.

“So if they are telling us to die, do the same to them!! But in exchange, do not kill them. Let them live so we can let them die. Our mercy will obey the laws of conservation and be returned to us by the enemy!! Did you hear that? Make sure to let each and every one of them live!!”

Thunder Fellow flew almost as high as the clouds while listening to the order arriving over his own communicator. He repeatedly accelerated to avoid the surging waves of missiles flying in from behind, but the voice gave no thought to those circumstances.

The owner of the voice took a breath.

“Where is your answer?”

Kazami heard the question as she ran further below the white building.

She saw something of herself in the boy who had collapsed once but had gotten back up to run and she slowly opened her mouth.

She had a single answer. She only had to lift the ends of her eyebrows, smile with the corners of her mouth, and say it.

“Testament!”

All of their strength heard those answers that were equivalent to their wills and thoughts.

Testament.

In the seen, unseen, reachable, and unreachable battlefields, innumerable overlapping voices returned that holy thought.

It was a holy thought, but it now applied to the side of evil.

It was a contract.

Tes, tes, tes. We make the contract here.

The countless contracts washed over their bodies and set all their strength in motion.

The movement was especially striking on the surface where countless powers were visible.

A white wave crashed into the black wave and broke apart.

“Oh!”

They pushed and worked to overpower them.

They had powerful wills and spirits, but the fact remained that their numbers had been worn down too much already.

Even if they continued to fight, none of them were sure how it would turn out.

At that moment, large doll #2 was attempting to charge at the white group, but it was suddenly destroyed.

“!?”

Everyone opened their eyes wide, thinking it was an explosion, but they soon heard something else.

A great sound of metal being struck came from above and every part of the giant metal doll was thrown to the ground.

All of the power and noise produced wind as it collided with the asphalt runway.

Nothing remained above the surface.

It had all been crushed.

Everyone glanced around, wondering what had happened.

They soon heard a man’s voice speaking English.

“Roger, Roger. What do you think of this battlefield? This looks nearly over, so did we make it in time or not?”

“Testament. Colonel Odor, according to my memory, the battle still has a ways to go. In Japan, they have a final weapon known as the bamboo spear that outdoes even self-destruction, but they have yet to use it here.”

“What? A bamboo spear? A bamboo spear, you say? Have they developed ecology into a practical weapon!?”

“Testament.” Roger nodded. “They use it for camouflage, they cut down bamboo grass during the summer for small interceptor missiles, and they add on charms covered in magic spells that borrow the power of zen.”

“How frightening! What a frightening collection of Eastern culture this country is! Is Heo’s brain safe here!?”

The voices came from the east end of the runway.

Two men, Odor and Roger, stood there with two female forms accompanying them.

The tall one was Diana and the other one was Brunhild.

Behind them, transport trucks raced through the canyon.

This was American UCAT. Odor commanded them in his suit and he brought a hand to his chin as he looked across the black and white forces.

“What is it? What is it? Aren’t you going to continue? Or do I need to give you a signal? We were delayed dealing with the crashed mechanical dragons, but I will hit you with a few dozen times the odor to make up for it.”

The rumbles of engines shook the ground and the headlights formed a backlight for the woman and the girl. Diana opened her mouth toward Brunhild who held a black cat.

“It would be best if 1st-Gear’s inspector did not take part in this battle, Little Brunhild.”

“What are you talking about, Little Diana? I’m not here to fight the Army.”

Brunhild faced forward as she quietly spoke.

“My battle with you during the mock battle with 2nd-Gear never had a clear ending.”

“Shall we settle this with one point per person?”

Brunhild shook her head.

“Shooting a black one is one point. Shooting a white one is a one point penalty. How about that?”

“Why are you assuming you’re going to be shooting us too!?”

They ignored Izumo’s shout and walked forward. The two men did as well.

Odor gave a deep, powerful smile and raised his right hand.

“Fine then. Fine then. If you do not win here, we cannot demand an explanation from you, so American UCAT has no choice but to support this poor tiny country’s UCAT for the sake of the whole world’s justice! So let me add my voice to the chorus of my mother tongue: Testament!!”

“What is this testament nonsense!?”

Someone cried out in an underground space.

It was Hajji who wielded his steel spear in the center of the long corridor labelled BF6.

Abram’s defense-oriented stances and movements had moved Hajji around and away from the metal door he had set as his goal.

Angry about that, he sent his spear forward, received Abram’s desperate and continuous jabs, and had piercing holes opened in his side and his left and right femurs.

“No matter how many of you shout in unison, it will not bring back the worlds you destroyed!!”

Hajji used his right arm to knock Abram’s spear upwards.

“So I have something to tell your villain! Our past cries out with an accusing righteousness!!”

“You won’t let us die? You’ll let us live? Let us live!?”

On the surface, Mikoku moved about to protect Shino near the forest.

Her opponent was a sword god. A single strike of his weapon easily tore apart the earth for several meters.

She was repeatedly cut, but she continued to fight without withdrawing.

The sounds of their sword strikes overlapped as she listened to Hajji’s raised voice.

“Simply laughable! That very same conceit is what led to destruction sixty years ago and ten years ago! You only speak of evil to hide the righteousness you are too embarrassed to show. But that is false righteousness. You are merely fooling yourselves with your own conceit, false world!!”

A civilian truck and trailer were stopped in the mountains of Okutama. It belonged to the Army.

Young men controlled the dolls from inside the trailer. They had been tasked with removing the dolls’ limiters. Once the limiters were removed, the dolls could only continue moving for five more minutes.

But the back door suddenly opened and another man entered.

The young men turned around and were shocked to see who it was.

“Manager!”

He said nothing and began maintaining the different devices. He was trying to extend that limit of theirs by eliminating the waste in the machines’ outputs.

Small sounds came from the different controllers and Hajji’s slow voice reached them.

“Think about it. It is fake. It is all fake. If everything walking through this world, everything moving through it, and the world itself are all fake, then even your holy words and your sincerity are fake! The heavens and the earth, the sky and the land, the abysses and the depths of the sea, the wind and the light, and everything else in this world are asking to be denied!!”

Tatsumi kept Typhon attacking and raised both her hands.

She raised Typhon’s wings and fired bullets of light.

She almost flew into that light in her pursuit of Susamikado and she listened to their leader’s voice.

“But listen. This is now the only place left to hold our thoughts and this world’s residents have committed several sins. I will now list those seven sins for you!!”

Thunder Fellow managed to move up behind Alex, so Alex did his best to forcibly rotate and shake off that enemy.

But their difference in weight allowed Thunder Fellow to catch up and open the mouth of his main cannon.

A moment later, Alex purged all of his additional accelerators.

“!”

Water vapor exploded out and the pressure dropped Alex’s speed.

His accelerating foe shot by overhead and it was his turn to pursue that enemy from below.

As he did, he heard Hajji reading off the charges.

“Listen to Low-Gear’s sins.”

They were…

“First, they were the cause of the time of destruction! Second, they killed their neighbors by destroying the ten Gears! And third, they killed their own mother by destroying Top-Gear! Fourth, they slaughtered their other selves! Fifth, they damaged themselves by causing a disaster in their own world! Sixth, they covered it all up to avoid the issue! And seventh, they tried to bring the world under their control while hiding their own sins!”

Jord got up from the hole smashed in the corridor wall and realized she was surrounded from both corners of the corridor.

She smiled bitterly, swung down her arms to produce weapons from her sleeves, and listened to Hajji’s voice.

“Cry out, everyone! Open the gate to genesis by sounding the trumpet of judgment on these seven sins!”

Whether underground or on the surface, every part of the black army cried out.

“Judgment!!”

Their voices joined as one and called out seven times.

Judge, judge, judge, judge, judge, judge, judge.

Here, we apply holy judgment to the seven sins.

“Be destroyed, sinners! The only vindication for you lies in the afterlife!!”

With that shout, Hajji stepped forward.

He instantly sent his spear into Abram’s body and the man rose up into the air.

“————!!”

And he rotated his metal spear to send it directly into the man.

Hajji knew this was the end.

His enemy was defenseless in the air. His enemy’s arms were extended backwards from the impact and he could not move them forward in time to defend or attack.

Hajji was confident he could kill the man.

His spear tip shot forward.

“!”

But he heard a voice just before he did.

It came from Shinjou who stood in front of the distant metal door.

“Abram-san!!”

At the same time, Hajji saw Abram’s lips mouth the word “sorry”. Abram also moved one hand that had been knocked backwards.

He was not using it to attack Hajji or to defend.

With a snap of his wrist, he threw his spear toward Shinjou far behind him.

He attacked Shinjou.

And Hajji heard a voice.

It resembled his own voice. It ''was'' his own voice and it meant a concept was activating.

—'''Everything is reversed for an instant.

Hajji saw Abram vanish from before his eyes.

Instead, Shinjou was there. Tension filled her face as she held Ex-St up as a shield.

“…!”

But she completely caught Hajji’s spear with her weapon, so the damage sent her through the air instead.

“!!”

The tip of the spear raced across Ex-St’s surface and tore into Shinjou’s armored uniform as she flew.

But Hajji was looking at Abram beyond her.

…''Even after all this, I still didn’t defeat him!?

He clenched his teeth at that thought and ran.

He checked his watch.

“You still have thirteen seconds until your two minutes are up, Shinjou, but I’m sorry to say that it’s over for you here. I am indebted to both Yukios, so I will make it a painless end.”

Hajji pursued the hurting girl flying back from him and prepared for a second blow.

She was doubled over in the air and he took the final step to reach her.

But in that instant, someone moved between him and the girl.

He recognized the person.

“It can’t be!”

Before Hajji’s eyes, a boy circled around and blocked his way. He also spread his arms as if to hide the girl from Hajji’s view.

The boy wore a vest, but his shirt sleeves looked bright in the lights.

Hajji had brought his spear low to strike the girl, so he used it on the boy instead.

If he continued running and plunged the spear into the boy’s stomach, it would all be over. The color staining his white shirt would be the color of true life filling this white space that claimed to be righteous.

He instantly made up his mind, but something else happened even more quickly.

Something like a wall shot toward him from below.

“———!?”

He realized it was a coat, but where had it come from?

The boy’s arms had been spread, but his hands had been empty.

The only possible answer was the feet.

When charging in, he had spread his arms to draw Hajji’s focus. By kicking up the coat he had placed on his feet, he could slow Hajji’s reaction.

And it worked.

The coat covering his face confused Hajji.

He shook his head to knock it loose, but it wrapped around him as if embracing him.

''Why?'' he wondered just as an impact reached his shins.

He was knocked up into the air.

After sweeping his enemy’s feet out from under him, the boy saw that enemy bring his right hand to the floor and rotate around.

The man swung his spear, it grazed the boy’s left arm, and he felt pain.

But he did not care.

Without bothering to check on the pain, the boy turned around.

What mattered was the girl, not the enemy. With that in mind, he raced backwards.

…''That coat will not be easy to remove from his face.

A 4th-Gear creature was clinging to the back of the coat.

If the plant creature was cut, it would only become two smaller creatures, so he had asked if it was willing to use that advantage to help. It had agreed.

But this only bought some time.

The boy knew that very well, so he pursued the girl.

His gaze was raised nearly to the ceiling and he saw the girl’s parabolic arc enter its fall.

He reached out toward the falling girl.

He could not reach her, but she would be hurt if she fell with that much momentum.

So the boy kicked off the floor, extended his hand, extended his fingers, and managed to grab the edge of her armored uniform.

“…!”

He breathed out as he forcefully pulled her toward him.

Her limp body almost seemed to jump into his arms.

He secured her and shook her slender body with the arm grabbing her shoulder.

“Are you okay!?”

His feet seemed to tear into the floor as he stopped. She did not answer him, but she did move.

Her eyelids opened a little and her gaze turned toward the boy.

Her sweaty face, disheveled hair, and slightly teary eyes faced him. And…

“Eh?”

Her eyes fully opened.

Her black eyes reflected his expressionless face and he stopped his feet when he saw it.

He lowered her to the ground, supported her back, and smiled bitterly.

“What is your name?”

She hesitated before answering.

“Shinjou… Shinjou Sadagiri.”

“Is that so? Then Shinjou-kun, Sayama Mikoto has come for you just as you wanted.”

“Yes…”

Shinjou nodded blankly, but tears soon filled her eyes and her face twisted.

“Yes!!!”

Sayama laughed, tightly embraced her, and finally came to a complete stop.

He turned toward Hajji who stood five meters behind him.

“But I must apologize, Shinjou-kun. I broke my promise. …After all, I arrived three seconds too early. …Isn’t that right, Hajji-kun?”

Hajji snorted back at him.

He threw the coat and the plant creature to a corner of the corridor and stared straight at Sayama.

“So you’re here, foolish negotiator. I hope you and your obsession with yourself fall into the depths. Yes.”

Sayama laughed at that and brushed a hand through his hair.

“Ha ha. I will surely fall whether you hope for it or not. But there is no limit to how far humans can fall. So let me say this.”

He pointed at Hajji.

“You are about to lose to a fool and became a super fool.”

<noinclude>
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|-
| Back to [[Owari_no_Chronicle:Volume11_Chapter_35|Chapter 35]]
| Return to [[Owari_no_Chronicle|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Owari_no_Chronicle:Volume11_Chapter_37|Chapter 37]]
|-
|}
</noinclude>

Owari no Chronicle:Volume11 Chapter 35

2016-01-03T18:41:21Z

128.177.161.164: /* Chapter 35: Word of Expectation */

==Chapter 35: Word of Expectation==
[[Image:OnC_v11_0459.png|thumb]]
''Listen, idiot

White wings and bullets intersected in a white corridor.

The bearer of the wings, Kazami, was no longer running.

Driven on by and ducking below the stream of bullets, she quickly glided through the air and performed rotating acrobatics.

She advanced swiftly and spun around as if flying.

She took instant leaps using the acceleration of her wings.

She turned by rotating around the weight of her spear.

Those two methods allowed her to practically fly through the narrow corridor.

She moved quickly, but she moved in perfect curves.

Even when she changed direction, rotated around Jord, attacked, or reached a wall, she did not slow.

She moved left, right, front, back, up, and down. She moved nimbly back and forth the corridor like a constantly swinging pendulum.

She maintained her speed and none of her movements were wasted. But…

“My attacks aren’t reaching her!?”

She fired while wrapped in wind, but none of the shots affected Jord.

Jord’s defenses went beyond simply ''seeming'' like nothing was happening.

…''There really is nothing happening to her!?

Her body did not waver in the slightest and she did not brace for impact.

She remained perfectly casual.

Kazami attacked the thinner parts of her clothing and even her exposed face or head, but none of it worked.

Thinking this was impossible, she reached into the pouch at her waist and pulled out the blue sphere that had been Ikkou.

—'''Attack power is infinite.

Trusting in the voice she heard, Kazami attacked Jord from behind again. But…

“That isn’t gonna work.”

Jord moved a thick arm behind her and the machinegun it held spewed bullets.

“…!”

Pursued by the sound of the bullets hitting the wall, Kazami flew backwards to put some distance between them.

She pulled up her legs and raised her speed to distance herself as much as possible from the approaching bullets.

“…”

She managed to escape the movements of Jord’s arm and gun.

She looked up and saw Jord still had her back turned.

Viewing that as a sign of confidence, Kazami leaped down the center of the corridor and rotated around using G-Sp2.

She made a U-turn.

This brought her back on a path toward Jord and she asked G-Sp2 a question.

“What do you think happened there?”

“I don’t know.”

''I guess you wouldn’t,'' she thought. ''What is this defense of hers?

…''It’s different from Kaku’s.

Izumo’s could be described as “sturdiness”, but Jord’s was more like an outright “negation”.

It was simply too powerful.

…''Is that because she’s a 10th god?

She had heard about a Gear called Top-Gear just a moment ago, but ignoring that one, Jord belonged to the highest of the eleven Gears. It would make sense for her to have powerful conceptual defenses.

But all of the concepts and concept texts Kazami was familiar with had a single effect.

This gave them a great functional advantage, but they always had some kind of weakness.

''In that case,'' she thought as the setup for her denial while raising her wings for a midair dash.

…''Am I done for if I can’t figure out her concept?

Repeated attacks, attacks from behind, and even infinite attack power were no use.

She realized this all came down to knowing her opponent.

“————!”

And she flew.

By the time she let out a short breath, she had already passed by Jord’s back on the right.

The woman rotated her right arm down to bring it back up behind her.

The bullets tore through the floor and then toward Kazami.

“!”

But her rising arm was stopped by her shoulder blade, so she could not bring it all the way up.

Kazami kicked off the air and took a safe route over Jord.

That was when Jord made her next move.

She raised her left arm over her shoulder to intercept Kazami.

But instead of firing the rifle at Kazami, the bullets tore into the air to her upper right.

Kazami’s path over Jord’s back would take her through the path of the bullets. Meanwhile, Jord’s right arm shot up.

“…”

And more bullets tore into the air to her upper left.

Gunfire and bullets crossed and Kazami’s path was sealed off by an X of bullets.

But she continued flying regardless.

She twisted her body so she was facing up. She thrust her navel toward the heavens to slip above the crossing bullets with a Fosbury Flop.

“…!”

The bullets grazed her wings and light scattered from them.

“…!!”

But she cleared them.

She instantly twisted further to take an upside-down position and immediately launched an attack.

Even as she moved away, three strikes shot out of G-Sp2.

By making the final blast especially strong, she launched herself away from Jord.

“!!”

After feeling and hearing all three hit, she looked over at Jord, hoping to find some clue to solving the mystery.

She learned three things.

“Kh!”

After passing by, Kazami landed five meters from Jord.

She spun to face Jord and landed in a crouching start.

She lifted her hips higher than her shoulders and raised her wings while recalling that one instant.

She had confirmed three things.

First, Jord had turned toward her and smiled as she passed by.

Second, there was a fresh scratch on Jord’s cheek.

And third, there was a small wrinkle in the corner of Jord’s eyes.

…''That means…

First, Jord’s smile had been a challenge to figure out the secret behind her defenses.

Second, Jord had been injured for some reason.

And third, Jord worked to look younger in addition to her natural long lifespan.

The second fact was especially meaningful.

…''She doesn’t have perfect defenses.

Something had given Jord that slight injury, so Kazami could damage her if she used the same method.

But what had caused that injury?

And as she thought about that method and completed her crouching start, she also realized she could not let her guard down with Jord.

The third fact she had noticed was proof of that.

“You still try to look young at your age?”

Kazami gathered strength in her shoulder blades which controlled the wings.

“You think you’re tricking everyone else, don’t you!?”

She flew as she shouted.

The flapping of her wings extended her body, her legs moved her body forward, and speed reached her soon thereafter.

She advanced.

She seemed to move in fast-forward as she arrived above Jord with her spear raised overhead.

“…!?”

But she could not swing the spear down toward the two rifles raised from below.

And as Jord raised her arms and bent her back, she quickly crossed her arms in an X-shape.

On top of that, she rotated on the spot.

Her heels sounded on the ground as she turned to the right and fully covered the area directly above herself.

There was no way for Kazami to attack.

“Shi-…”

She swallowed the rest of her curse and cut through the ceiling with her raised spear tip. She then moved away to put some distance between them.

She flew straight for the floor and landed.

She forcibly flipped her body around and faced Jord again.

She was not about to leave her back to the woman or show any other opening.

She kept a low stance. Her body was almost parallel with the floor and her chest nearly touched her shadow.

Her bangs swayed with the momentum of her turn, but she had settled into her stance before they swayed back.

It was an abnormally low crouching start.

She moved her right leg far back and pulled her left leg up next to her chest.

She spread her arms to the sides with the spear tip held backwards in her right hand.

Her wings were spread upwards.

She could launch herself at any moment and she only needed a single breath to gather her strength.

And so she inhaled.

She took in a single breath and stopped.

A moment later…

“…!!”

She shot forward and up.

There was not much she could do in so short a time.

She rotated forward while tightly holding the backwards-facing spear.

She used all of her strength to perform a forward flip and carried the spear like a shoulder throw.

The spear tore into the ceiling and the sound of destruction exploded out.

But the attack did not hit Jord. As Kazami swung the spear downwards, it proved too short and swished through the empty air above the woman’s head.

So Jord laughed.

“You’re never going to hit if you run on pure momentum.”

“This worked just fine!”

Kazami was not looking at Jord; she was looking at the ceiling.

She had torn a straight line through that ceiling and she had a single reason for doing so.

“The collapse of the ceiling will hit you, won’t it!?”

Before, Kazami had seen a scrape on Jord’s cheek.

It had likely come from a flying fragment of the surrounding walls or ceiling.

Jord could not be damaged by attacks made with weapons.

…''So won’t she be damaged by an attack from something other than a weapon!?

While flying over Jord’s head, she had used her raised spear tip to make a shallow cut through the ceiling.

From there, only a single powerful strike was needed.

With that…

“Break loose and cascade down, ceiling!!”

She smashed the ceiling and instantly flew past Jord.

First, the ceiling panels broke apart. Next, it was the plumbing and wiring.

But above that was the great pressure of the concrete surrounding the underground floor.

An artificial stone wall two to three meters thick filled the area above the ceiling.

G-Sp2’s cutting power had slice through that.

“I did my job.”

That message appeared on its console just as a rapid wind tore through the ceiling.

“!!”

The ceiling exploded.

The sound of splitting stone continued on and on as the building materials came crashing down. Dust surrounded them while sparks and pebbles rained down, but the true threat came afterwards.

“Fall, chunks of rock!!”

Just as Kazami shouted from the air, a great piece of concrete crashed down into the corridor.

It was far from being small and far from being alone. More and more gray chunks several meters across fell to the floor and easily stabbed into or broke that floor.

But Kazami did not care.

She spread her wings, forcibly decelerated, and landed on her right tiptoe.

As soon as her foot reached the ground, she heard an especially large piece of rock fall behind her.

It was a block of the concrete that surrounded the corridor and that concrete was about three meters thick. She did not know the size of the piece that had broken off and fallen, but the sound suggested it weighed more than a ton.

Even if Jord had divine protection like Izumo’s, she would not escape something like that unharmed.

“Okay.”

Kazami turned back toward the collapse.

Dust rose below the hole covering several meters of the ceiling.

She saw smoke spreading out with a sound much like sand, but she kept herself ducked low.

She saw a form appear within that smoke.

“It can’t be.”

She took a defensive stance, but quickly realized it was only a piece of concrete two meters tall.

At the very least, Jord was not visible from here.

Kazami breathed a sigh of relief.

She lowered G-Sp2 in her right hand.

“Ah.”

And she finally brought her left hand to her forehead. While she was at it, she also frowned.

“I guess that was Kaku’s grandma. Maybe I went a little overboard.”

''What should I do about this?'' she wondered while looking up at the giant pieces of stone with a sigh.

That was when she heard a voice.

“Too bad.”

It was Jord’s voice.

Before Kazami could stiffen, Jord stepped casually out from behind the especially large piece of concrete. Not only that…

“You’re completely unharmed!? Did it not hit you!?”

“Don’t be stupid. Of course it hit me. Do you really think I can avoid every last one of these with so many of them falling at once? A woman needs to be solid. …At least solid enough to repel something like this.”

Kazami looked to the giant stones filling the corridor and realized Jord was telling the truth. Some of them had directly hit her.

But Jord was completely unharmed. Her clothes, face, and hair were untouched.

Not only was she unhurt, she did not have a single stain on her.

Kazami gasped and Jord’s expression changed when she saw that surprise.

She smiled so Kazami could see.

“You thought I couldn’t be hurt by weapons, did you? It’s really too bad. You were so close.”

Jord moved both her hands, but she was not holding a weapon in either one. Instead…

“Oh, c’mon. Where are you even looking? The floor’s what matters.”

Kazami looked down and saw two grenades rolling down at her feet.

''Not good,'' she thought just as she realized what Jord’s concept was.

…''Her concept is…

A moment later, a large explosion shook the corridor.

A twelve square meter room had light purple carpet on the floor and two sofas facing each other across a table. A large TV and a bookcase filled with books were by the wall.

The room could be seen as a living room or a parlor.

Three people sat in the room: a married couple and a man.

The husband picked up a cup from the table and held it out toward the man sitting across from him.

“Izumo-san, please drink some. My wife’s tea really is delicious.”

“Hm? Oh, sorry. I know I’m stopping by at a ridiculous hour and, well, I thought I would just say hi real quick. But…how should I put this? Sorry for the trouble, Kazami-san.”

Izumo Retsu took the white cup and brought it to his mouth.

Just as he took a sip, Kazami’s father gave a straight-faced comment.

“It’s actually super sugary.”

Retsu began to choke, but he may have been too stubborn to just spit it out because he looked away and held a handkerchief to his mouth.

After about three seconds, he forced it down.

“Khahhh! I won!”

“Well done. I should have expected that from you, Izumo-san.”

Kazami’s father applauded and sounded truly impressed, but Retsu sounded out of breath when he replied.

“Well, sorry you had to see that. …But why would you give me that?”

“You know how you give saltwater to an unwanted guest? Well, you’re the opposite, so I decided to take the opposite approach.”

“Sorry about that. There is no stopping my husband once he sets his mind to something like this.”

“Y-yes, I can tell from the TV shows he makes. Like…what was it? That five-minute show that airs every morning where you show up at politicians’ houses unannounced. It was ‘What Kind of Screams do People Make When You Jab a Finger in Their Ass?’, wasn’t it?”

“Oh, Ass Scream? Lately, the higher ups have been pressuring us about editing it a little, but the viewers love it because they get to hear the real voices of the politicians. That’s why I was thinking of visiting the one’s pressuring us starting tomorrow. That way, we can hear ''their'' true voices.”

Kazami’s father lifted his right hand and his wife pulled some cigarettes from below the table.

He took one and turned to Retsu.

“Mind if I smoke?”

“Go right ahead.”

“Then I will.”

He pulled a completely different cigarette from below the table and lit it. This one was as thick as his arm.

“Ahhh. …You don’t seem surprised, Izumo-san. This disturbs most people.”

“Well… To be honest, I’ve gradually grown to enjoy all this.”

“Yay!”

The married couple exchanged high fives and then turned back to Retsu.

“Sorry. To be honest, Chisato and Kaku-kun were here last night.”

“Oh? Both of them were? That I didn’t know.”

“You’re lying about that, aren’t you?”

Retsu was left speechless when Kazami’s father leaned forward and pointed at him.

But the other man only leaned further forward, placed his open hand next to his mouth, and whispered to Retsu.

“I just wanted to say that.”

He straightened back up and smiled. Retsu smiled bitterly and drank some of the sugary tea.

“Is this how you control people in your projects?”

“I’m nothing special. …I only got into it because I like to stand out and I like to gossip. Do you know what my debut job was?”

“Wasn’t it managing your wife who was your classmate?”

“No, no.”

He grabbed a remote control from the table.

It belonged to the video player and he played a recording on the TV.

“When I was in college, a crime documentary I made and sent in was actually used. It was about the murders of the couple who ran a local set lunch store.”

A staticky video of a winter street appeared on the screen. A reporter wearing glasses walked next to the fence of a large house. His expression was terribly serious, but…

“Ha ha. Why do I have an afro?”

“Kazami-san, I thought you didn’t record your work?”

“The me in this tape can die for all I care. I followed the case purely out of curiosity, my viewpoint got distorted, and I never got anywhere near the truth. This is a shame I need to leave a record of. And…”

He stared at the screen.

“The couple who ran that store had a strong connection to IAI. And not just a connection. For some reason, they were treated like employees. They even had company IDs. But their daughter didn’t know and neither did anyone else. If anyone did…and this is just my instinct talking…”

The TV displayed a house across from a ramen shop.

“It would have been the old man named Sayama who lived in this house. He also had a connection to IAI for some reason.”

“What if I knew the answer to all that? I am IAI itself, after all.”

Kazami’s father turned toward Retsu.

He looked directly at the other man without saying a word. He stared at the slight smile on Retsu’s face.

Afterwards, Kazami’s father suddenly smiled as well and shrugged.

“That’s too boring. And not fair on my part. Our connection comes from my Chisato’s explosion of pheromones as such an intensely wonderful girl, but I would be using her feelings if I used that connection to get an answer out of you.”

“Oh, then my apologies.”

“No need to apologize. This just shows how great my daughter is.”

“I’m jealous of how well your family gets along. I really am. Mine is so cement-like.”

Kazami’s father laughed at that.

“C’mon, Kaku-kun’s a good boy! After all, the only thing on his mind is letting my wife and me see a grandchild as soon as possible.”

“Ha ha ha. That idiot really is a positive-minded sexual criminal, isn’t he?”

“But what’s wrong with being honest about yourself? …You know my wife used to sing, right? It was apparently brought up a lot in school when Chisato was a kid, so she never sings in front of us. …The things parents most want to see are what the kids tend to keep between themselves.”

He scratched his head and gave a bitter smile.

“Well, for how strong-willed our daughter is, she tends to withdraw into herself a lot.”

“That’s part of being a good girl. Only if they know their own worth, though.”

“I’m not so sure she does. …Two years ago, she apparently hurt some other girl’s leg while competing for a regular spot in the club. It was the naginata club. And when I asked her why, she said she had felt she didn’t belong in that regular spot, so she swung in a random direction to create an opening and lose. But her opponent charged right in at that random direction. What do you think of that?”

Retsu crossed his arms at the question.

After a while, he gave a troubled smile with lowered eyebrows.

“She must have thought she was the only one in the wrong there. …But what did you tell her?”

“I told her only to attack when she really would hit. …And she’s done a good job of following that. I think she instinctually knows she’ll only hurt herself if she does anything she isn’t fully committed to.”

Retsu laughed and crossed his arms again.

“What a wonderfully energetic girl. My son has a pretty weak body and it seems my wife had a lot of trouble because of it.”

“Yes, but he seems to have gotten a strong mind out of it. He’s managed to pull Chisato along with him and allowed her to enjoy her life.”

Kazami’s father continued from there.

“Earlier, she must have solved some trouble she was having at work…no, in her life. She sent an email saying she would be here tomorrow. …Will you stop by too, Retsu-san?”

“No, I should be far too busy at work tomorrow.”

“Is that so?” Kazami’s father smiled and looked to Retsu. “But Chisato really is enjoying her life with Kaku-kun. She still worries about things, but she has someone to discuss it with. This is what you call true entertainment! Isn’t that right?”

He showed off his teeth in a smile and raised his cup for a toast.

“She’s probably enjoying herself now too. She must be on a stage she feels she can perform on.”

Dust ran through the corridor for the second time.

It was made by Jord who had been covered in the first wave of dust from the ceiling.

The explosion from her grenades had destroyed the floor and smashed the walls.

The building materials were terribly damaged. It looked like too much damage even for grenades.

“Well, she did up their attack power to infinite.”

Jord’s hair blew in a wind mixed with waves of smoke. She sighed and looked up.

“Is this all the bearer of 10th-Gear’s Concept Core can do? …How boring.”

She spat out a “keh” of disappointment toward the floor and took a step forward.

She had no active interest in what the Army was doing, but she felt she should put in some more work since she had come to help.

Hajji should have just about reached the Concept Cores by this point.

She had blown away G-Sp2’s bearer, so she needed to retrieve 10th’s Concept Core from within.

The Concept Core of 10th-Gear was the source of the world tree’s power and of the gods’ power. The 10th-Gear reservation was controlled by an inferior copy, but Jord was certain it would be a richer place with the real thing.

Hajji would probably tell her to hand it over, but she could always confront him too.

“That’s right. 9th-Gear’s great general versus a member of 10th. What kind of battle would that be? I doubt I would escape completely unharmed.”

At that point, she heard a voice through the spreading smoke.

“You are ''really'' full of yourself, aren’t you?”

The voice was accompanied by a visual form.

It was a girl with raised eyebrows, a white spear in hand, and white wings on her back.

Jord frowned and came to a stop as the girl spoke.

“You aren’t like Kaku. He only pretends to think so highly of himself…but you’re different.”

The smoke cleared and scattered to fully reveal her form.

She was five meters away and the white spear had transformed. The stabilizing wing for flying was raised in the back and shimmering heat came from the back end.

But no one rode the spear that had taken its flight form.

Kazami was completely unharmed as she held up the spear, so Jord frowned again.

“Did you use the regeneration of 10th-Gear’s Concept Core?”

“Sorry, but G-Sp2 isn’t that kind to me anymore.”

The girl smiled bitterly with sweat on her brow and she expelled a breath that held some small bit of strength.

“Did you forget? The attack power in here is infinite. Just as your grenades exploded, I used G-Sp2’s short range super acceleration to break the sound barrier.”

“You hit the infinite explosive blast with an infinite shockwave?”

“Yes. They use that method during actual rescues, don’t they?”

Kazami lowered G-Sp2 and shrugged.

“G-Sp2, first form.”

The weapon began its transformation.

Jord frowned as it powered down, but Kazami ignored her and removed the shield from below the spear tip.

The action was awfully calm for a battle and G-Sp2 must have found it odd too.

“Is it over?”

But Jord saw Kazami smile at the weapon’s question.

“No, we’re just about to win.”

''Impossible,'' thought Jord, but G-Sp2 reacted differently.

A “♪” mark appeared on its console. It seemed to unconditionally trust Kazami that they would win.

The girl then began to move.

She mounted the long narrow white shield on her left arm and casually walked over to Jord.

Jord raised her arms to fight back and pulled handguns from her sleeves.

All attack power was made infinite in this space, so there was no point in using larger guns.

Jord took aim and shouted out.

“Do you really think you stand a chance!?”

But her question did not reach its target.

Kazami instantly arrived right in front of her.

“…”

Kazami almost looked bored as she tapped her right shoulder a few times with the spear shaft resting there.

“Are you mocking me?” asked Jord. “Do you think that spear can break through my defenses after you shut down its power?”

Kazami did not answer.

Instead, she suddenly looked to the right.

She ignored Jord and looked at the empty wall there.

She was in the middle of a battle, and yet she left herself entirely defenseless.

But just as Jord gasped at the action, Kazami swung G-Sp2 with all her strength. The weapon moved from the girl’s right shoulder and into Jord’s left cheek.

“———!!”

An instant later, Jord realized she had flown to the right and slammed into the wall.

The impact shook the air.

Feeling a solid hit for once, Kazami looked down at her right hand.

She could tell G-Sp2 was also shaking a bit from hitting their opponent.

“It stings,” said the weapon.

“It does,” agreed Kazami as Jord stood from her kneeling position by the wall.

“Why you…!”

Jord spat a broken tooth to the floor and held her left cheek as she stood.

Her entire body shook with rage.

She already stood powerfully in front of Kazami with her large chest thrust outward.

The handgun had vanished from her right hand and a white shotgun had left her sleeve in its place.

“It’s time you were blown to pieces!!”

Before shouting, raising her weapon, or even speaking, Kazami took action but without gathering her strength.

She spoke to G-Sp2 in her right hand.

“Do you think our attack will hit?”

“I don’t know.”

“Neither do I.”

With a quick snap of the wrist, she swung the shield in her left hand to strike the center of Jord’s gut from below.

The woman doubled over and crashed into the ceiling.

The building materials crumbled as they stopped her. They wrapped around her and refused to let go.

As she hung down embedded in the ceiling, the shotgun fell from her hand and her lips twisted in anguish.

“You…”

“Yeah, how should I put this? It looks like I’m the one that gets to see you cry.”

Kazami tilted her head at what she was doing and at the result. She also looked up at Jord.

“Your concept isn’t a defensive power. Instead of thinking about what put that scratch on your cheek, I should have been thinking about why it was put there.”

She rested G-Sp2 on her right shoulder and shrugged.

“You’re ''Betrayed Expectations'' Jord. You gave the answer yourself. In other words, your concept betrays other people’s expectations. Anytime someone thinks they’ll hit or thinks they’ll do damage, it’s negated.”

She tapped the tip of her right foot against the floor along with her next two words.

“And. So. If I wanted to hit you, I just had to believe it probably wouldn’t hit. The scattering fragments scratched you because they were an attack without a will behind it.”

Jord began to slip out of the ceiling.

She was going to fall, but just before she did, she bared her teeth and asked a question.

“But how can you attack without thinking you’ll hit? A technique like that requires serious mental focus, so why would some random girl know how to-…”

“That’s simple. I did the same thing two years ago. I attacked while thinking it wouldn’t hit and that I would lose…but I did hit. I’ve gone back over that moment countless times over the past two years.”

She smiled a little.

“But now I think I know why my attack unintentionally hit the other girl. She must have been trying to lose as well. That’s why she came straight toward my attack.”

''I really am weak,'' she realized again.

At the time, she had been trying to escape the pressure of being a regular and she had been so focused on herself that she had assumed the other girl’s injury was entirely her fault.

She had not tried to be with someone else.

…''Thank you.

She thought about that girl who was now in another class and apparently the captain of that club.

''If it hadn’t been for that incident, I never would have met Kaku.

…''I don’t stand a chance against her now.

''Thank you.

“I’m glad I’m so weak.”

She smiled and spoke just as Jord fell from the ceiling.

Seeing that, she closed her eyes.

''Now I can’t even see Jord.

She spread G-Sp2 and the shield to either side and began to spin around. She spread her wings and spun and spun like she was dancing. She spun until she was dizzy.

''It’d be a miracle to hit her now.

“Now, then.”

With those words, she held a single expectation in her heart. She thought of the unlikely and she thought of her opponent as she smiled and spoke to Betrayed Expectations Jord.

“Die.”

A moment later, her super swing of G-Sp2 hit something.

It was an unexpected lucky hit.

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