The Unexplored Summon Blood Sign:Volume4 Chapter4

Status: Incomplete

3/5 parts completed

   

Stage 04: Who Made the Original Request?

“Ebh!? Agoh! Obhgah…!!!!!!”

“Oh, dear. Oh, dear. This is checkmate, isn’t it? My – dear – brother?”

(“Now” Stage 04 Open 06/03 13:30)

(“Past” Stage 04 Open 06/03 00:00)

Who Made the Original Request?

Part 1

(Timeline “Now”)

Below the blue sky of early afternoon, Kyousuke had already built his route to invade the colossal Repliglass mobile fortress named Pandemonium. This would be his third time. Several flooded craters covered the large plain. If he swam through those, he could escape the anti-personnel sensors and infrared searchlights to safely move in close. The White Queen had destroyed the solid main entrance before.

At the time, he had imagined the worst case scenario: forcing his way in with the Queen’s power would gather too much attention from all three major powers, he would win in the moment but be in trouble a year down the line, and he would be forced to rely on the Queen. But now that he knew he was only up against Perfect Game’s Max Layard and Incense Expert Ellie Slide, that hurdle was much lower.

As for the main problem at hand…

“Okay, brother, what kind of swimsuit should I wear?”

“I don’t have time to deal with your jokes.”

“But if I’m showing my sexy body off to you, shouldn’t that be more important than the fate of the world? Blue sky, the bright sun, a never-ending beach, and the smooth skin of two lovebirds! I need your opinion to help stage a scene from that romantic adventure in advance. Should I go with the standard bikini? Or a one piece? I understand there are a lot of men who are obsessed with school swimsuits. Oh, but it might be fun to go all out and try out a shells, palm leaves, a micro-bikini, or even a slingshot! After all, after all! I will be unveiling myself for you, brother!!”

The White Queen dreamily placed her hands on her cheeks while her clothing wriggled around and became each swimsuit she mentioned, but Kyousuke was not interested in any of them and shoved his palm into the center of her chest.

“Hyah!? B-b-b-b-brother! Did you just touch my chest! How bold of-…bwah!?”

She splashed back-first into the crater lake and Kyousuke calmly dove in after her while wearing a wetsuit and oxygen tank.

The Queen was truly extraordinary, so she continued speaking even underwater. A little thing like a lack of oxygen was not about to bother her.

“Hrother! This is hupposed to he a date! I am hoing to run out of hatience soon…”

He ignored her and embraced her from behind.

Just like with Himekawa Mika, he supported her while swimming to his destination.

“O-oh, hy. How daring, hrother… If this was your hlan, you hould have haid so. I am more han hilling to offer hyself to you.”

Kyousuke had learned from experience that it was best not to react to her nonsense.

After crossing the linked crater lakes, they climbed onto the land where Pandemonium sat like a giant black squid. Kyousuke removed the wetsuit and changed into his original hoodie and track pants. The White Queen pretended to cover her face while actually watching him change and she did not even bother toweling off her silver hair. The water simply evaporated on its own and she was back to normal.

There was nothing to stand in their way.

They walked to Pandemonium’s front gate that the White Queen had destroyed before.

But they did not immediately walk in. Kyousuke operated the authorization panel to the side. He had used Max Layard’s biometrics before, but he used something else this time.

He used the Deltaston coat of arms he had borrowed from the hotel room.

The machine was meant to read the details of someone’s hand, but it began reading that emblem instead.

“Oh?”

“I had a feeling they would do this,” spat out Kyousuke. “Ruby, sapphire, and I think the white jewel is pure corundum. Regardless, this reads the piezoelectricity pattern in the crystal structure and uses it as a master key. With their obsession with authority, I figured they would use their family’s traditions or emblem even if it isn’t logical. Plus, if they used a part of themselves as the crucial master key, it introduces a risk of being kidnapped or having that body part cut off. Just in case, they prepared a lizard’s tail they can safely hand over to a criminal.”

“But, brother, you didn’t need to unlock it. The door was already blown down.”

“…I did need to.”

This would leave a record showing he had broken in without any help from the White Queen.

Even if it was ultimately useless, Shiroyama Kyousuke entered the demon’s palace on his own. The Queen happily followed him.

Thanks to his past memories, he walked straight to the central processing core without getting lost.

And he of course did not run into any summoners or vessels on the way.

He had no memories of the intervening time, but Max and Ellie had likely done something after taking control of Pandemonium.

They crossed the narrow metal bridge passing over the hundreds of transparent spheres and continued on to the central processing core.

Just as expected, the Perfect Game pair was waiting for them.

“Now this is dangerous.”

The man with a black pompadour used his shoulder to support his ski material Blood-Sign with a swollen bottom end. He was more referring to the smiling strongest of the strongest than he was to Kyousuke.

“I can feel it. She’s brimming with reasons she should win. But we’ve got to do this. We’re carrying the name of Government Award 501, Perfect Game, so we’ve got to do this. I doubt you’d understand. Winning comes naturally to you and you don’t accept anything else as Miss Strongest, so there’s not a single reason you should lose.”

“Shiroyama Kyousuke.”

The next to speak was Ellie Slide, the blonde-haired, brown-skinned glasses girl with an eagle feather in her black and orange witch’s hat.

She exposed the piercings in her ears, her navel, and even her tongue.

“How much have you remembered?”

“I’m sick of going along with Himekawa Mika’s self-righteousness.”

Hearing that answer, the incense expert adjusted her large hat which shook the sleeved cape with the bottom split into feather-like shapes.

She hid her eyes and giggled.

“Good, this’ll be easier if you understand everything. So choose which path you’d prefer,” urged Max Layard with his vulgar personality revealed by his baggy T-shirt and shorts. “Will you ask the White Queen to blow us away along with everything around us? Or will you refuse to use her power and be killed by us in a normal Summoning Ceremony? We’ll accomplish our goal either way. Will the Box be destroyed directly, or will the Queen snap and destroy it all? Anything’s fine as long as Pandemonium’s processing core is broken.”

Kyousuke’s answer was also simple.

He reached for his back.

He was pulling out his Blood-Sign. Instead of hiding behind the Queen and grabbing at the bottom of her skirt, he would fight as a summoner in the Artificial Sacred Ground.

And he spoke.

“To hell with that.”

Several shoes could be heard scraping against the floor.

The White Queen could settle this at any time in exchange for robbing all humans of their dignity, but Shiroyama Kyousuke and Max Layard ignored her to swiftly judge the distance between each other with weapons in hand.

But the pompadour man was confident.

“You’re not very smart. Summoners are nothing without summoning. What can you do without relying on a Material!?”

They were Government Award 501 and Freedom Award 903, but that overwhelming gap was meaningless now. For one, Kyousuke’s vessel was occupied by the White Queen, so he could not use her. Even if he charged into an Artificial Sacred Ground, he could not summon a Material. Nor could he set up a protective circle. There was nothing he could do. An Award 1 summoner would only need to summon a Cost 1 member of the Original Series to easily crush him.

So when Max threw his pineapple-shaped Incense Grenade, it should have all been over.

Shiroyama Kyousuke did not put up any kind of futile resistance such as grabbing it and throwing it far away before it could detonate.

As soon as the Artificial Sacred Ground appeared, Kyousuke’s Blood-Sign struck a White Thorn with ferocious speed.

It may have looked like a meaningless action.

He would gain nothing by shattering the three-dimensional Rose, scattering the many Petals, and knocking them into the Spots. As long as the White Queen was occupying his vessel with an unnatural method, he could not summon the Material he wanted.

But that was not what Kyousuke was trying to do.

“What!?” shouted Max in surprise.

The pompadour man made his first shot. Just as he tried to start the match by hitting the three-dimensional Rose with a White Thorn, Kyousuke’s White Thorn flew in to interfere.

The white path veered far off course and missed its giant target. In fact, Max’s White Thorn ricocheted and fell into a Spot before it could accomplish anything.

This was no mere coincidence.

After the 2nd and 3rd shot, Max finally realized what was going on.

“Damn you!! Since you can’t summon your own Material, are you playing a thorough interference game by shooting down my Thorns with yours!?”

“Of course. And are you sure you should continue? We summoners start with 3 White Thorns. And if you hit a White Thorn into a Spot with no more in stock, you trigger a severe penalty. But if you’re just an insane believer who wants to be devoured by the Black Maw, I won’t stop you.”

“…!?”

Max Layard’s large body stiffened slightly.

And Kyousuke used that slight opening to spring forward with his Repliglass Blood-Sign in hand. He ran right up to Max.

Yes.

“Even inside the Artificial Sacred Ground, you don’t get a protective circle until after you summon your first Material.”

“Wait…you!!”

Sounds of primitive violence echoed through the room as the long poles collided together. The pompadour man roared as sweat poured from his body.

“You’re trying to win without a Material!? And when you’re up against a summoner who’s going all out!?”

“A Summoning Ceremony battle begins before the Materials are summoned. You’re naïve if you thought you would just end up with enough time to summon the Original Series as long as you challenged me to a fight.”

“Tch!!”

They exchanged more blows.

Max had used up all of his White Thorns, so he could only wait the 10 seconds for one to replenish. It was only 10 seconds, but that was 10 whole seconds. Sensing the dense tension in his skin, Max immediately cast aside his nearly suicidal pride.

He adjusted his grip on his ski material Blood-Sign and swung it around like a morning star while shamelessly raising his voice.

“Boss!!”

A quiet sigh followed.

The brown girl in a black and orange witch’s hat moved her hand along a silver handle to operate something. She pressed the flute-like row of keys and pulled the trigger. That giant armor-breaking axe included an electronic cigarette device and could efficiently spray incense as a mist. Strangely sweet water vapor wafted out.

That extreme incense could manipulate an individual’s recognition or memories and it could even cancel the enemy summoner’s Artificial Sacred Ground in some cases.

But Kyousuke was unfazed.

By the time his feet were heard pounding on the floor, he had already circled behind Max. There was no fear or pain on his face. His eyes were zeroed in on his target.

He had clearly escaped the incense expert’s spider web.

“It’s true Ellie Slide’s incense is powerful. Compared to our Incense Grenades that can only produce a predetermined effect, the way she can manipulate the effects like magic might indeed be best described as an amplifier.”

“!?”

“But something caught my attention. If that incense was dangerous enough to make changes to my body and mind just by smelling it, then why weren’t its effects more indiscriminate? Specifically, why didn’t it affect Ellie or you? If she has confidence in her position as an incense expert, it’s hard to imagine she uses some other chemical…like an antidote or immunization.”

There was a deafening sound, but the clashing Blood-Signs were only a distraction.

Kyousuke’s leg swept Max’s entirely unguarded legs out from under him.

“Ellie Slide’s incense uses a cocktail system. In other words, she uses that armor-breaking axe to spread several different harmless chemicals in advance and she uses those to produce the optimally mixed incense at only the coordinate she wants. Just like a spider web’s vertical and horizontal threads play different roles, I’m guessing you kept a safe zone for yourself in the middle of the deadly web.”

“Gah!!”

The surprise attack slammed Max’s back against the floor and knocked the breath out of him.

But he did not take the time to cough.

He realized something before he could.

“I fell victim to this once already. Did you really think it would work again?”

Shiroyama Kyousuke raised his Repliglass Blood-Sign while standing over the man. Something deep in Max’s survival instincts told him this was no time to be reacting to the pain.

“Oh, ohh, owwwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!”

Max screamed at the top of his lungs, but he was ignored.

He was beaten repeatedly.

More than 10 seconds had passed and Max’s added White Thorn floated around him, but he could not even think about launching it. He could not even raise his Blood-Sign. Even as he curled up to protect his vitals, more and more blows rained down like meteors and seemed to slip through the gaps in his defenses.

This was Freedom Award 903, Alice (with) Rabbit.

With nothing more than his own body, he could defeat a summoner that could freely summon any Material.

“Y-you…”

Even after being thrown into the crucible of pain and even with a rusty flavor filling his mouth, the pompadour man still managed to groan some words.

“You wouldn’t…understand. You know you’ll win…and you can only fight because you can win…so you don’t know how it feels for those who…have to keep fighting when they can’t afford to lose…and aren’t allowed to lose…”

“Screw that.”

This man sounded like he stood on the side of the weak, like he was on the side of the minority, and like he was doing the right thing. Kyousuke felt a dark flame burning in his core when he heard it.

“You can’t afford to lose? You aren’t allowed to lose? And who was it that drove Himekawa Mika to this point? An expert summoner and vessel approached her with some self-satisfied look on their faces, thrust her down into despair, and then tried to blame your own weakness on the rest of the world!? Do you have any idea how those 353 vessels had to feel when the experts gave up on them!?”

“Yeah, that’s right. We’re the worst. To be honest, I can’t think of any way of saving Himekawa Mika or the 353 vessels. No, we only ever pretended to be working with them and never intended to save them in the slightest.”

The pompadour man smiled despite his broken teeth.

Max still had something supporting him even after collapsing. He had not broken?

“But compared to that White Queen, even all 7 billion of us are the minority! We’re the pathetic wandering travelers who can’t afford to lose but have no way to fight!! …So was that old man who could speak with the wind and waves…or should I call them fairies? Even a Divine-class clouded those wise men’s judgement. Then what about an Unexplored-class? How mad will we be driven by the peak of that peak!? We can’t allow that to manifest here! Humans can’t do anything against her! All 7 billion of us will be swallowed up. It isn’t about being strong or weak. We’ll be charmed by her overwhelming presence before the fight even begins!!”

“…”

“So we have to fight by any means necessary. I don’t care how it happens, but we have to destroy Pandemonium if it can permanently summon the White Queen at max specs. This goes beyond just Himekawa Mika or the 353. I…no, we!! We have to turn this into a victory to save the 7 billion weak humans!!”

A solid sound burst out.

Max Layard had shifted from defense to offense even though his ribs were broken and he had struck a White Thorn with his Blood-Sign while lying face up on the floor.

“It isn’t that I know I’ll win,” spat out Max. “I’m fighting because I can’t afford to lose! It doesn’t matter how dirty it gets or if I have to spit on the concept of glory! There’s something here I absolutely have to do!! If I lose here…if I let this become a loss, I’ll be left with no choice but to succumb to that Queen’s temptation!!”

But whatever had happened to him, if the Rose shattered, the many Petals scattered, and one entered a Spot, he could summon a Material. He would have a monster immune to physical attacks and he would be surrounded by a protective circle. Kyousuke was no match for either.

A triumphant look covered Max’s bloody face.

“Laugh if you want. Make fun of me all you like. But I’ll win. I’ll do it for the 7 billion minority and for the fight against the White Queen I can’t afford to lose! Even if I have to sacrifice 353 people here, I swear I’ll tear down Pandemonium!!”

Ellie Slide’s body rapidly transformed. She seemed to spiral around as she was remade into a yellow translucent slime.

But something happened just a moment beforehand.

Shiroyama Kyousuke threw his Blood-Sign with perfect accuracy and the tip tore through the dreamcatcher hanging from Ellie Slide’s neck and collided with the center of her flat chest.

“Wha-?”

This time.

This time Max Layard truly stopped moving.

“It’s true that Materials can deflect all physical attacks, but things are different when they’re only ‘half formed’. And if the vessel herself is knocked unconscious, she is considered defeated and the Summoning Ceremony process is canceled.” The White Queen crossed her arms and explained while watching on in boredom. “And more importantly, did you really think you could make a fool of my brother just by robbing him of a Material?”

“Gah.”

The shock of defeat was coming.

No matter how it happened, the summoner and vessel had lost according to the rules of the Summoning Ceremony, so they would be hit by the shock of seeing their god slaughtered before their eyes.

Still on his back, Max moved just his eyes to look up at Kyousuke.

That summoner had not hesitated to let go of his greatest weapon, the Blood-Sign, but his expression had not changed.

“You were on the right track there. I kind of liked that you viewed the Queen as a threat and that you were desired so greedily to defeat her at all costs. But don’t forget that nothing will change if you try to oppose her by accepting sacrifices and becoming a monster yourself.”

As he spoke, the Blood-Sign denting Ellie Slide’s chest was pulled down by gravity.

It clattered to the floor.

“And if you want me to laugh, I recommend cracking a joke that makes people happy.”

“Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!”

A moment later, Max’s defeat was confirmed. An invisible shock raced out from his chest and covered his entire body.

Part 2

(Timeline “Now”)

Government Award 501, Perfect Game.

Max Layard and Ellie Slide had been defeated. But even if the people guiding it had vanished, the fundamental problem had not been resolved. Pandemonium was still up and running, the 353 vessels’ bodies were still contained inside the many spheres in the other room, and all of their souls were inside Himekawa Mika who was about to burst. And on top of all that, the White Queen was still around.

Kyousuke had to resolve all of that.

After some thought, he spoke.

“Ellie Slide.”

The small figure on its side twitched slightly.

After a summoner and vessel were defeated, they lost the ability to think and became zombies in the original sense who could only slowly repeat a single action. They could only obey gestures or simple commands.

But this reaction was clearly different.

After an irritated sigh, Kyousuke spoke again.

“I know you’re only pretending and I don’t have time to deal with it. If you keep wasting my time, I’ll throw you to the White Queen.”

“…Oh, honestly!!”

The blond-haired, brown-skinned glasses girl with an eagle feather in her black and orange witch’s hat quickly got up.

But she was not obeying him in a zombie state. She was clearly moving under her own will.

And Kyousuke did not seem surprised.

“You already did this once in the past. After I defeated you in the Summoning Ceremony, you made a surprise attack not long afterwards. Do you have incense that softens the shock of defeat? I’m honestly impressed by your skill, but you’re only using it for cheap tricks.”

“What do you want from me?”

“I want some help from your incense. I want something to properly redistribute the 353 souls that were forcibly gathered into a single body.”

“I am an amplifier. There is no good or evil in that. Save me your sob story, but I won’t feel any motivation if it isn’t about achieving Award 1000.”

“Stop pretending to be evil. If all you cared about was reaching Award 1000, why would you bind a contract with Government Award 501? Even if you can amplify them up to around 500 Awards, it would still be faster to pair up with someone in the 800s or 900s. But since you chose Perfect Game regardless, I can only assume you sympathized with him in some other way.”

“…”

“I won’t ask what that was, but did you predict things would end up this way when you first shook hands with Max Layard? If you were envisioning something else, then work with me. None of us can afford to lose. So I’ll show you a different path. A path that doesn’t require abandoning Himekawa Mika and the rest of the 353.”

He was clearly stating his intention to harm the White Queen, but the silver twintail girl only smiled in amusement.

And Ellie Slide breathed an exhausted sigh inside her sleeved cape.

“Did you think I arrived at this extreme answer without trying anything else?”

“…”

“I tried everything I could. I even put together theoretical plans for the things I couldn’t do. And there was no way of saving Himekawa Mika and the other vessels. There is only so much my incense can accomplish. There is no saving them.”

He had expected that answer.

So he was not taken aback.

“True, the two of us alone cannot save those 353.”

“Then who is supposed to help us? Surely you aren’t going to suggest the White Queen.”

“…You really thought I would reach for that worst possible option?”

His voice grew too cold to even call icy.

After focusing on forcing down his emotions, Kyousuke continued.

“Ellie Slide. There’s something else you’re still hiding from my mind, isn’t there?”

He pointed right at the center of Ellie Slide’s flat chest.

He pointed at the broken spider web or the fallen rose.

In other words, the dreamcatcher.

The Native Americans saw special meaning in dreams, so they used that protective charm as a filter that kept out bad dreams and gathered only the good ones.

He pointed at that selector.

And he said it.

“The name of Madam Professor.”

Part 3

(Timeline “Past”)

Himekawa Mika longed for it. Would Shiroyama Kyousuke ask the White Queen for help, or would his death send the White Queen on a rampage that would overheat the system? Either way, Pandemonium’s central processing core would be destroyed just as she hoped.

Shiroyama Kyousuke knew the Miniature Garden developer known as Madam Professor was a very devil-may-care kind of person. If there was anything she disliked about the job requested of her, she would rewrite the script and secretly build in a loophole more to her liking. Just because she found a system coldhearted and lacking in humanity, she would fill the empty space with descriptions that could easily trigger a critical bug or error.

Incense Expert Ellie Slide had feared that. If Kyousuke were to learn of this information, wouldn’t he stop working toward one or the other of the two options Himekawa Mika longed for? There was a chance he would stray onto a third path she had not accounted for.

And so…

“Shigara Masami.”

Inside the 50 meter Box of Pandemonium’s central processing core, Shiroyama Kyousuke had muttered that name while placing his hand on a wall decorated by countless geometric patterns.

He held an analysis filter glass made from quick-drying manicure repair solution and the vibration of his voice, just like the one he had used to read the surface armor that redirected the Lady of Purple Lightning’s summon bombing.

He read the structure.

No matter how precise it was and even at a level invisible to the naked eye, a magic circle was still a magic circle. And those circles always listed the important factors: what it summoned, the date, the place, the symbols, the related heavenly bodies, the important directions, etc. So instead of a chaotic collection of lines and curves, it was a message meant to be read by a human mind.

His voice quickly rose to a shout.

“Shigara Masami!! Madam Professor’s name was inputted into the empty space… She was originally a Government developer. If she was involved in the initial design of Pandemonium while jumping from project to project before arriving at the Queen’s Miniature garden…if that’s really the case…!!”

Ellie Slide held her giant armor-breaking axe. She had operated the flute-like keys on the handle and pulled the trigger to activate the incense of forgetfulness.

Kyousuke desperately held onto his fading thoughts and moved his weakening tongue to voice a plea.

To who?

To Max Layard, Ellie Slide, and Himekawa Mika.

To everyone who was using Kyousuke to destroy Pandemonium.

“That woman would never allow such a coldhearted system to exist. No matter what the user’s manual says and no matter how perfect the design was, she must have prepared a loophole more to her liking!! The answer was inside Pandemonium from the very beginning!!”

“…”

“So destroying Pandemonium would have the opposite effect. There’s a way to return Mika and the others to normal here, so it would be wrong to blow this away without using it. We need to investigate further! We need to check over every nook and cranny!! If this coldhearted system only looks coldhearted to you, then you must not have found the true meaning that Madam Professor left behind!!”

He had no proof.

No actual data had turned up to support his conclusion.

But Himekawa Mika, who stood at the center of all this, widened her eyes in surprise. Her lips trembled and her shoulders shook. Yes, she knew the person named Shigara Masami, she knew that woman’s kindness, and she knew her bad habit of implanting things.

And when she heard Kyousuke’s words, Ellie Slide realized they were falling out of step. The atmosphere and the trends were beginning to move. More importantly, Himekawa Mika was beginning to waver in her intent to destroy Pandemonium even though that meant destroying herself.

Would she continue on or fall back?

This was the final watershed.

Incense Expert Ellie Slide toyed with the dreamcatcher around her neck and left the decision to someone else.

Not to Max Layard but to Himekawa Mika.

“What will you do?”

It was a simple and thus cruel question.

The answer contained hesitation, doubt, fear, and uncertainty…but she still spoke clearly.

“                                                         ”

And.

The range of memories to be erased was reselected.

Facts

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