Unlimited Fafnir:Volume 7 Chapter 2

Chapter 2 - Boy Meets Girl at Dusk

Part 1

Two hours before "Black" Vritra appeared at Nanato City, a flash of blinding light at the mountains at the prefecture of Tochigi blasted away all darkness prior to dawn.

It was a huge explosion capable of blowing a mountain away and flattening a forest.

In search of Jeanne Hortensia's whereabouts, Kili witnessed the explosion while hovering in the air ten-odd kilometers away.

Kili had found John's clues while tracking down the trail of destruction originating from the Asgard lab. This explosion had also occurred along that trail if one extrapolated forwards.

"Although there's no telling whether it's related to Jeanne-chan... I guess I have to take a look. By the way... Why am I trying so hard to find her?"

Kili grumbled while flying towards the blast origin.

Using transmutation to create flames for propulsion, Kili easily arrived on scene.

Inside a hole resembling a gigantic crater that had been blasted out from the mountains and forest, a strange object was moving.

"What is that...?"

It resembled a wriggling mass of flowing silver.

It was difficult to articulate its appearance. Also, it seemed to be sliding on the ground instead of walking. Roughly the size of a human. Relatively elongated in shape, it was dragging its lower body on the ground like an evening gown.

In addition, what appeared to be silver threads were extending from the edge of the body. The silver body was probably composed from a mass of such silver threads.

Furthermore, the silver threads were suspending a restrained girl in midair.

"That girl, how did things turn out like this?"

Kili remarked sardonically.

The girl captured by the silver threads was precisely whom Kili was looking for—Jeanne Hortensia. Probably unconscious, she did not appear to be moving. It was also possible she had died. After exchanging glances with the unidentified monster, Kili sighed deeply.

She had no obligation to rescue Jeanne. They simply had aligned interests.

"Argh, jeez!"

However, for some reason, there seemed to be an inseverable bond between them.

Deploying the invisible Muspelheim around herself, Kili descended.

Although she posed the question to herself, the answer was known long ago.

Because she had nothing.

Born out of nothingness, her life had been very hollow. Hence, she treasured her bonds with others even more. She seemed to recall this feeling in the past.

"Somehow it feels like... the time when I met Yuu three years ago."

Walking straight to Jeanne, Kili smiled wryly.

The instant the monster noticed Kili, it twisted its silver threads together to stab like in the form of a spear.

Kili transmuted her surrounding dark matter in an attempt to vaporize the monster's attack. Due to the high temperature, even her view of the scenery began to shimmer.

"What!?"

But instantly, Kili felt an impact on her abdomen accompanied by a wave of sharp pain.

The silver spear easily penetrated the flame barrier, grazing her flank. Had Kili not dodged, she would most likely have been skewered.

"Gaho... Kuh—"

While enduring the dizziness caused by the pain, Kili healed the wound using transmutation.

Capable of surviving Muspelheim which could melt even bullets... Could it be mithril? Then this monster was...

The instant Kili realized the monster's identity, a purple light flashed from the gaps between the silver threads—

Part 2

"Black" Vritra had appeared in the sky over Nanato City.

The screeching noise of cars braking to a halt tore through the tranquility of the early morning.

Frightened birds flew away from trees.

The screams of people witnessing Vitra could be heard all around.

"All units, deploy fictional armaments! Battle stations!!"

Just as we were standing in shock from Vritra suddenly blotting the sky, Mitsuki issued commands to us in a forceful tone of voice.

"—Gungnir!"

Lisa was the first to construct her fictional armament of a spear. The rest of us then sprang into action.

Fictional armament—Siegfried.

I aimed my fictional armament of a gun at Vritra in the air.

At this moment, my view of Vritra's figure in front of the muzzle suddenly turned hazy while the dragon's overall body gradually dissociated into black particles in the air.

Vritra's form began to disintegrate, turning into something like a black cloud.

"Wha..."

While we were baffled by what was happening, the black particles—most likely Vritra's dark matter—began to fall from the sky.

In the middle of falling like torrential rain, the dark matter changed trajectory unnaturally.

"It's coming this way...!"

Firill yelled loudly then raised her book-shaped fictional armament. A gust of wind blew, isolating us from the surrounding noise. A barrier of wind had been formed.

The dark matter, about to flood us, descended in the center of the park—in the sandpit—and gathered at one point.

"Didn't Vritra become Yggdrasil's seedbed? Kili definitely said that..."

Ariella stepped forward to protect us, constructing her gauntlet-style fictional armament.

Kili had mentioned that Yggdrasil's rapid growth at Fuji's Sea of Trees required a large energy source, so it had stolen Vritra's dark matter. Was that speculation wrong?

"...We half-wrecked Yggdrasil's main body, so that could be the reason."

I looked at the current owner of Yggdrasil's core—Tia—but she shook her head.

"No, it's definitely because Tia cannot control Yggdrasil completely. Although Tia has become Yggdrasil's core, Tia is still maintaining sense of self... So the captured Vritra seized the chance to escape."

"Eh!? So Vritra is here for revenge?"

Iris asked frantically.

"Well... Dunno. But Tia will definitely protect Yuu and everyone."

An electrical current sparked between her pair of red horns.

Capable of using electricity to interfere with dark matter, Yggdrasil was virtually Vritra's nemesis.

However, just as she mentioned, Tia had not accepted Yggdrasil's power completely.

The outcome of a direct battle was completely impossible to predict.

Resembling a black cloud, Vritra gradually landed, contracting into a sphere in the middle of the park. It was most likely the dark matter forming Vritra's body.

We nervously clutched the fictional armaments in our hands.

Ripples appeared on the black sphere's surface, then a pale and slender arm extended out from inside.

"Wha..."

Mitsuki exclaimed in surprise and watched the scene in shock.

A girl with gorgeous black hair had appeared from inside the dark matter. As she slowly stepped out, the dark matter also formed a black one-piece dress to envelop her.

"Kili...?"

We could not help but utter that name, because the girl's face resembled Kili too much. However, she looked younger than Kili, probably about the same age as Tia.

Vritra's figure in the sky had vanished completely. The dark matter in the sandpit also dissipated.

Hence, a girl greatly resembling Kili had shown up.

What exactly did this imply?

Smiling, the girl said something, but due to the wind barrier, we did not hear anything.

Then she impatiently waved her right hand to generate dark matter even bigger than herself. The instant the dark matter popped like a bubble, all the trees in the park shook violently.

A strong gust of wind blew. At the same time, we started hearing sounds from the surroundings.

"The wind... cancelled each other?"

Firill said quietly in surprise.

After getting rid of the annoying wind barrier, the girl smiled contentedly and said:

"I am Vritra. New core of Yggdrasil, I wish for a word with thee."

Ignoring us, she looked straight at Tia.

Sure enough—It was as expected.

Despite her human appearance, that was undoubtedly Vritra.

Calling Tia the core of Yggdrasil, she waited for Tia's answer.

"...A word?"

Tia took a step forward and replied to the girl—Vritra.

"Indeed, I have no intention of fighting, because 'tis clear to me that the situation doth not favor me. Neither do I wish to repeat past mistakes. Hence, the only option is to talk. Thus, I have taken the same form as thee."

Vritra raised her slender arm and looked at it while speaking.

This body was most likely created from dark matter. A materialized body, although it was unclear whether it was similar in nature to fictional armament like creating Hekatonkheir... It looked like she had turned into a girl's form to talk with Tia.

"Tia doesn't wanna fight either..."

"A wise decision, new administrator of the Akashic Record. Since the previous core consciousness was driven by an overly aggressive survival strategy, there was no room for negotiations. 'Tis gratifying that thou art not so rigid."

Vritra breathed a sigh of relief.

Twenty-five years ago, Vritra presumably vanished to hide from Yggdrasil. It looked like Vritra had suffered much at the hands of Yggdrasil.

Although I felt a bit of sympathy while looking at Vritra's form of a young girl, I instantly calmed myself.

Vritra was the evil dragon that had spread calamity all over the world. After disappearing, it had also used its fictional armament, Hekatonkheir, to spread calamity further.

The culprit who had trampled my hometown in the past was this Vritra right before my eyes.

Currently, it had its eyes on Tia the whole time. Surely, human existence did not register in its eyes. Stepping on humans would be like trampling ants.

Sirens could be heard from afar. The town was already in chaos.

"—Vritra, let's go somewhere else if you want to talk."

I mustered my determination and spoke to Vritra.

Probably witnessing the black particles gathering in this direction, townsfolk and the police were hurrying over here. We had to hurry and leave.

"...'Tis the third time encountering thee."

Those black eyes carried hostility while Vritra stared at me and spoke.

"Third time?"

"Irregular existence, destroying my Hekatonkheir twice as Yggdrasil's puppet... I shan't forget the pain when thou usedst blue flames to wound me."

Yggdrasil's puppet... Indeed, that was true now that I thought about it. A proxy war had been fought between Vritra and Yggdrasil, with the former using Kili and Hekatonkheir while the latter was using me.

However, I did not know Vritra and Yggdrasil's motives.

"Didn't you cause humans a lot of suffering too? If there's a grudge, it goes both ways. Anyway, more people will be coming if we stay here. Let's get moving."

Looking at her, I urged. Vritra pouted unhappily.

"I care not about humans. I shall sweep them away if they bother me. Stop interfering, irregular. Although my daughter holdeth thee in high regard, thou art nothing more than the likes of an error or a bug to me. I shall eliminate thee if thou darest to obstruct my discussion with the core consciousness."

"Daughter? You mean Kili?"

Vritra ignored my question and exuded intense killing intent.

"No!"

But Tia spread her arms and blocked in front of me.

"If you attack Yuu or hurt others, Tia will be angry! Then Tia won't talk to you!"

"Hmm..."

With Tia in heightened state of emotion, sparks flew all around.

Seeing Tia standing sternly, Vritra sighed deeply.

"—No helping it. I shall listen to thee. If there is an appropriate place to talk, please lead the way."

Vritra spoke to me reluctantly.

"Got it. Come this way."

Relieved, I walked to the park entrance.

"Hey Mononobe, where are we going?"

Beside me, Iris asked discreetly.

"Mitsuki's house. Then Father and Mother won't see us and we won't need to worry about getting disturbed."

Along the way from the park to Mitsuki's house, we saw many people looking up into the sky.

However, the gigantic dragon from earlier had disappeared, so many people remained skeptical. Most likely, direct witnesses of Vritra were still a minority.

While hoping for the commotion to die down like this, we brought Vritra the culprit to Mitsuki's house.

Looking like a younger Kili, Vritra looked at the town's scenery in boredom.

Part 3

"Please have a seat."

"—Hmm."

Taking the cushion Mitsuki handed to her, Vritra sat down on the carpeted floor.

We were in the master bedroom at Mitsuki's house, in other words, the room where Tia, Lisa and Firill had spent the night.

This place was relatively spacious and tidy, suitable for us to talk.

"Nice to meet you."

Sitting on a cushion too, Tia bowed at Vritra.

Mitsuki and the rest of the girls sat on the bed while I leaned against the doorway.

Having recovered my memories, this place really felt a bit nostalgic when I look at it.

Especially the corridor and the stairs, I could already superimpose them with childhood memories. I had probably visited this house often in the past.

If I focused on recalling, I would probably remember more, but right now, I had to stay vigilant of Vritra's movements.

Hence, I changed my mindset and looked at the two girls sitting face to face, staring at each other seriously.

"Despite the extra people present... No matter, cut straight to the chase, shall we? I wish to reach an agreement of cooperation and understanding, to work with thee henceforth."

"Cooperation?"

Tia cocked her head and repeated in puzzlement.

"Indeed. Despite some priority issues in resolving matters... Our objectives are fundamentally the same. Since there are flaws in both sides' plans, 'twould be wise for us to aid each other."

Vritra spoke fervently but Tia touched her own face in confusion.

"Umm... Sorry. Tia doesn't even know what the plan and objective are."

"What...? Art thou not Yggdrasil's core? Why wouldst thou not know?"

Vritra asked Tia in astonishment.

It looked like Vritra recognized Tia entirely as Yggdrasil but that was mistaken. So-called Yggdrasil was a global-scale network formed from plants

The current Tia had only acquired the power to control Yggradasil without merging her consciousness with all plants. To maintain her ego—to remain human—she had not chosen assimilation.

In other words, Tia did not share all of Yggdrasil's knowledge.

"Because Tia is not used to it and the strain is too much, Tia keeps connection to Akashic Record at a minimum. It looks like the sync rate with Yggdrasil needs to increase in order to understand what you're talking about."

After hearing Tia's reply, Vritra said impatiently:

"Then I demand that thou informest thyself of the situation right now."

"Right now... Not possible. Tia will stop being Tia unless adjustments are performed gradually over time."

"...How much time?"

"No matter how rushed, probably at least a day..."

Vritra made a bitter expression after listening to Tia. Although I did not want to interrupt the discussion, I could no longer stay silent.

"If you can't wait for Tia to become fully prepared, why don't you just explain your objective here and now?"

"Foolish. What I desire is to speak with Yggdrasil. Even if ye were told the objective, 'tis impossible to continue the discussion unless the core consciousness is connected to Yggdrasil."

Vritra glared at me then with a look of resignation, said:

"...Since time needst to be taken, I shall wait until then."

"Thanks!"

Tia breathed a sigh of relief and thanked her.

The discussion ended for now and the atmosphere eased up slightly. Then Iris timidly raised her hand to speak.

"Uh... Then there are no plans for today, right?"

"Well, I suppose so."

Lisa nodded with an expression that seemed to say: Then what?

"Then to jog Mononobe's memory, let's tour the town as originally planned? Vritra-chan should come along too!"

"...Vritra-chan?"

Vritra frowned with surprise surfacing on her face. It was most likely the first time someone called her that. It was the same for Kili, who felt troubled when called "Kili-chan." It felt like their reactions were very similar.

"You usually use that gigantic form, right? In that case, you've never had a good look at a human town before, right?"

"This is my first time to create a human stand-in and 'tis true that I have never observed human settlements in detail, because no such necessity existeth."

"Surely there are things you don't understand if all you do is look down from above. So come with us and tour the town where Mononobe lived."

Iris invited Vritra with a serious expression. This was not meddling on a whim. Iris probably wanted Vritra, who kept causing dragon disasters incessantly, to see what so-called "humans" were.

"Come on, Vritra-chan."

Iris took Vritra's hand without hesitation.

Her strong determination could be seen through her action.

Iris had lost her parents in a dragon disaster caused by Leviathan. Then in order to fight against that type of unreasonable tyranny, she had come to Midgard.

Hence, this was surely a kind of a fight for her.

More than anyone present, Iris believed that Vritra must not be left alone.

"...A human town mattereth not. Why must I look at that sort of—"

"Mononobe made the deal with Yggdrasil for the sake of protecting this town, did you know? Although I dunno what your plan was, Vritra-chan... Don't you wanna have a look at the town that stopped your plan?"

Although Vritra's response was not promising, Iris still asked with greater emphasis in tone.

"Thou sayst this town is the the cause of my plan's failure?"

"Yes, it's because Hekatonkheir attacked this town that Mononobe needed power. Vritra-chan, you were controlling Hekatonkheir, right?"

"Indeed, 'twas the stand-in I created to take action without Yggdrasil's interference."

Vritra confirmed Iris' question.

"Then if you had ordered Hekatonkheir to go somewhere else back then, Mitsuki-chan wouldn't have gone to Midgard... Then the Kraken might not have been defeated. I think this town isn't so insignificant that you can describe it as something that matters not."

Iris was talking about possibilities. Indeed, she was right.

Thinking back, it was for Mitsuki's sake that I wanted to save this town.

That was why I still chose to fight even after she told me to escape.

Eh—Who actually told me to escape...?

Feeling a contradiction in my memories, I tilted my head in puzzlement. On that day, before the news and the sirens alerted the populace to evacuate, I apparently knew that Hekatonkheir was coming to attack. Existing at the bottom of my memories was that knowledge.

Were my memories a little confused...?

Holding my forehead, I shook my head.

"—Amusing, that seemeth to be more interesting than sitting around to wait. I shall come along as a means to kill time."

Vritra accepted Iris' suggestion and agreed to come sightseeing with us.

"Thank you, Vritra-chan."

Iris thanked her happily.

"T-There won't be a problem, right...?"

Watching developments quietly, Firill remarked in worry.

"Since Tia is present, she probably won't do anything rash, but... Iris really acts boldly sometimes."

"Mm."

Impressed, Ariella commented and Ren agreed.

"Suddenly told about Nii-san's memories... Then no sooner had Tia-san recovered Nii-san's memories, Vritra appeared... And now, we are going for a stroll in town next. Seriously, my mind is in total chaos."

Mitsuki sighed with an exhausted expression.

One could hardly blame her for feeling overwhelmed by the situation coming to this without giving her any time to settle her emotions.

"Mitsuki, sorry for making trouble. Let's have a good talk afterwards."

"Oh... Yes."

Mitsuki showed surprise then nodded in response to what I said. Then she blushed.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing. It is because your tone of voice when speaking to me just now, Nii-san... was just like how you were in the past."

Despite looking happy, Mitsuki continued to stare at Iris with guilt.

Thus, under this slightly tense atmosphere, we decided to go out to town with Vritra.

Part 7

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