The Unexplored Summon Blood Sign:Volume1 Chapter1

Status: Incomplete

2/4 parts completed

   

Stage 01: I Don’t Do That Anymore

“Will you help my sister?”

“No, I don’t think so.”

(Stage 01 Open 04/14 23:10)

I Don’t Do That Anymore

Part 1

“So anyway, we were talking about how you weren’t attracted to your little sister here because I wasn’t wearing a white school swimsuit, right?”

“No, we were not! We were just listening to something pretty important! Life or death levels of important!!”

“A fluorescent bikini just isn’t pure enough for you, is it? I understand. I was wrong and prideful to think you would just dig right in as long as it had stripes. I’ve learned my lesson.”

“So you’re just going to keep on with your insane logic? Doesn’t it seem wrong that reasonable people have a harder time living in this world? Hey? Are you listening!? How about you look me in the eye and either nod or shake your head!?”

Their location had changed.

That said, they were still inside the same apartment. Aika’s residence used both the top floor and the one below it with staircases and an atrium connecting them, so it had plenty of rooms and plenty of space.

The shrine maiden lying in the hallway had turned out to be alive.

They had just finished hearing what she had to say after she had finally woken up.

There were two reasons they had changed their location.

The first was the white liger that Aika used as a sofa. The shrine maiden was injured, so they had needed to move to another room lest the scent of blood carelessly worked up the animal’s bloodlust (not simple animalistic lust).

And the second…

“Guard of Honor… We’ve heard that name recently too.”

“ ‘We’? Do you mean Government, Aika?”

“Onii-chan, Government is the great ally of justice funded by sixty governments, religions, and giant corporations. Basically, it’s an occult version of a UN army. Of course we keep an eye on any dangerous groups.”

Swimsuit-wearing Aika waved her index finger around.

“Guard of Honor is a new organization gathering a bunch of strength in Illegal, that collection of 330 criminal groups which forms another of the three major powers.”

“Illegal… I had a feeling.”

Kyousuke looked over to the room’s door. Lu Niang Lan in her modified China dress was not here. She was hanging out with the white liger in the living room. She had complained about having to listen to any troubles involving Government, but that was because she was an equipment supplier for Illegal.

Incidentally, both Shiroyama Kyousuke and the blonde shrine maiden belonged to Freedom, a group of individual summoners with no hierarchy restricting them. The summoning industry was basically a three-way struggle between those groups.

“Come to think of it, beauty and the beast are alone together in there. Will she be fine without the owner? It would be a disaster if she were attacked.”

“Heh heh heh. The liger loves marbled beef with plenty of fat, so it would be great if it tore those lumps of fat right off her.”

“That would not be great. And if it came to a scuffle between those two, I’d be more worried about the white liger’s safety.”

So the only ones here were Shiroyama Kyousuke, Aika, and the bandaged shrine maiden girl. Her name seemed to be Meinokawa Higan.

She had long blonde hair and blue eyes. That was far removed from the standard image of a shrine maiden, but it gave her a pure and graceful image that was oddly appropriate for the Japanese holy outfit. The fact that it looked so perfect on her may have been proof that she had worn the outfit for many years.

Her story could be summed up as follows:

She had been attacked by a monster and had gotten separated from her twin sister. That sister was being pursued by the people controlling the monster, so she would be in danger if not found and protected soon.

“What do you think, Onii-chan?”

“It’s a mystery what that Guard of Honor organization was doing at the harbor, but they must not want anyone to know they were there. I would assume they’ll chase down and slaughter anyone who escaped.”

Higan had managed to reach a Government stronghold, but Renge would be the perfect target while wandering around outside. She had no organization to shield her and she could not use a summoning ceremony when separated from her vessel.

She would be killed the instant she was found. It was best to assume that worst case scenario.

Meinokawa Higan hesitantly opened her mouth.

“U-um, this is a…contact point for Government, right? That summoner told me this place is expensive but that I wouldn’t be abandoned…”

“You sign up for insurance in advance so you can use it when you need it. It sounds like your mistake was getting the funds you needed taken by a cheap and greedy middleman.”

Swimsuit girl Aika put her hands on her hips and snorted as she said that, so Shiroyama Kyousuke interrupted from the side.

“Hold on there. This happened because Government agitated some Freedom summoners into clashing with a new faction inside Illegal, so of course you and Government have to take responsibility here. Eh? Or are you only pure allies of justice because you refuse to admit to your mistakes?”

“Hmph. Government isn’t just a giant monolith. There are several factions inside it.”

“…There you have it. And you’re the one that acts like it’s one giant organization, too.”

“Onii-chan, are you the kind of brother who pokes at his little sister’s weak points until she cries? If I went around cleaning up after all the fools in Government, I’d never do anything else. I’m not interested in supporting some defeated soldiers. Besides, I already know you’ll take care of it.”

“What the hell was the comment you just slipped in there!?”

“Tah dah!! Shiroyama Kyousuke here is Freedom Award 902, the skilled summoner known as Alice (with) Rabbit! He’s also been called the Ace Destroyer, the Unexplored-Class Summoner, Loved by the White, Eternal Wearer of Material, the Hive Crusher, and many more. …In fact, it’s rude of you not to have notice the second you saw him, you rookie. If you twin sisters are from Freedom, then he’s your superior.”

“Stop it! Why are you making a sales pitch about me? Well, Aika!? Explain it to me in your own words!!”

He shook her by the shoulders when she simply smiled and averted her gaze, but not even that stopped the swimsuit girl’s sales pitch.

Meanwhile, naïve Meinokawa Higan’s eyes were sparkling with a pure light.

“A-Award 902…”

It was hardly surprising that her voice had grown a little shrill.

Government, Illegal, and Freedom had all made a contract with one of the three great Materials standing at the peak of either the low, middle, or high sounds. The summoners belonging to the group would be given awards by residents of the other side based on the outcomes of their actions. These awards were directly carved into their souls.

Generally, the more awards a summoner had won, the greater their skill.

Also, summoners believed in a certain legend: Award 1000.

When a summoner of the three groups reached that number, it was said the world they lived in would be reversed. This world and the other world would be swapped out and they would become a lifeform of the other side. Instead of summoning the gods, they would stand alongside the gods in the world of the gods and they would become the star of a new legend comparable to those of the other gods.

Award 902 was well within reach of that legend.

“You’re in the 900s!? S-someone that amazing will really help me save my sister? And for free!?”

“Did she just mix her own hopes in there!? Who ever said anything about for free!?”

“Oh…but I don’t have any of our money. My sister always carried the wallet, you see. So you’ll have to wait until we find my sister to be paid, and since she doesn’t know about any of this, you’ll have to renegotiate everything with her, and no one can beat her in an argument, and based on how you look, it just seemed to me that it would end up being for free.”

“That’s it. I’m going home and climbing in bed.”

“Wait, wait, wait! I-I apologize for telling the truth, so, u-um, wait just a little more!!”

“What, what? What is with you!? Do you like stabbing people with your words with that pure look in your eyes? It certainly looks like it!”

“You mustn’t let this shock you, Onii-chan. That’s the true form of the purity (heh) you’re always looking for. Besides, how is someone with no self-interest supposed to grasp the subtleties of others’ hearts?”

“Wh-whatever you might say, my sister really is in danger! B-b-back then…she might have been attacked by the Unexplored-class Lady of Purple Lightning.”

“If it’s a human up against a Material, won’t they be killed in an instant even against the weakest of them, not to mention an Unexplored-class?”

“She’s definitely still alive!!”

Meinokawa Higan nearly shouted to make that alone clear.

When the blonde shrine maiden continued, she seemed to be counting on her fingers.

“I don’t know where my sister is now, but sh-she can’t summon a Material without me as her vessel. There’s nothing she can do if Guard of Honor finds her. You know that a human can’t hope to fight back against even the weakest Material, don’t you!?”

“When I say I don’t care, I really mean it, but what do you think, Onii-chan?”

“I’d say she’ll last three days at the absolute most and she can’t leave the city.”

Shiroyama Kyousuke calmly and digitally calculated out the answer.

The swimsuit girl agreed with him.

“Things would be different if we had some proof that the Meinokawa sisters attacked Guard of Honor on Government’s request, but this was a greedy middleman who used the summoners of another group as sacrificial pawns. I’m sure they’ve covered their tracks and will feign ignorance.”

No one wanted to rush out and fight an unnecessary battle.

Aika viewed Government as a giant army. They were not a group of guerrillas or terrorists that was willing to destroy their own. That giant organization of winners would prioritize a reduction in their own losses over achieving their objective.

Even if they defeated one hundred thousand enemies, it would be recorded as a horrific defeat if a thousand of their own were lost in the process. They were so used to winning that their very way of thinking had been rewritten like that.

“B-but…” Meinokawa Higan paled. “Guard of Honor is far more powerful than we had heard and now we can’t even rely on that giant organization’s strength? Th-then who is going to save my sister? (Glance, glance)”

“Aika. There’s nothing pure about her at all!! She’s clearly trying to send me to my death for her own ends!!”

“The truly pure are those who don’t try to hide their desires, Onii-chan. Or maybe it’s the ones where you can’t tell whether they are or not. Hee hee hee.”

Holding back tears yet? Let’s go back over the situation.

The Meinokawa sisters were being pursued by Guard of Honor.

Renge was a summoner, but she could not use summoning ceremonies while separated from Higan, her vessel.

At this rate, Renge would be captured and killed by Guard of Honor before long.

The (self-styled) allies of justice of Government were not going to be much help and both Illegal and Freedom had no obligation to help in the first place.

The Meinokawa sisters belonged to Freedom, but Freedom was a group of five hundred “individual” summoners. They couldn’t ask for help from a colleague unless they knew each other personally.

However, Shiroyama Kyousuke was a summoner and Meinokawa Higan was a vessel.

Kyousuke was skilled enough to hold Freedom Award 902 and he had accomplished the Hive Crusher feat in which he destroyed an entire organization on his own.

The two of them were incomplete parts of a pair, so if they joined forces, there was still a chance of success.

“B-back then…” Meinokawa Higan spoke quietly while embracing her own bandaged shoulders. “Even when we were surrounded by Guard of Honor’s Materials, m-my sister tried to let me escape first and foremost. She never put it to words, but I could tell. She had to have had a few ways of letting herself alone escape to safety, but she let me escape instead.”

Kyousuke did not know Meinokawa Renge.

She was apparently a fellow Freedom member, but there was no information on those twin sisters in the prominent Awards. They also didn’t seem to have one of the nicknames that others began using to refer to people.

But the other sister, Higan, was here now.

That fact said something about the summoner named Meinokawa Renge.

“So this time I’ll save her. I want to save her! A vessel can’t summon Material on her own, but that changes when there’s also a summoner not bound by a contract. If you work with me, we actually have a way of reaching my sister where she’s suffering!!”

Kyousuke found himself wondering if he could do that.

Not in reference to his number of Awards on paper. And not in reference to his skill.

Was he the kind of summoner who could choose to protect his family by passing the ultimate decision to someone else in a hopeless situation with no right answer?

“Please,” said Higan through her trembling lips.

This was her final hope, a tiny light, a far-too-thin thread. It looked like a careless touch would cause it to snap, but she could not help but reach her hand out toward it using her voice.

“Please!! Work with me to help my sister!!”

Shiroyama Kyousuke sighed when he heard that one word in particular.

Swimsuit girl Aika shrugged next to him.

There was a reason he was known as Alice (with) Rabbit.

That boy had decided this would be his final job.

So what was the best choice here? What would he reach for with everything lined up in front of him?

What could he do with a girl crying in front of him after losing everything?

After giving it plenty of thought, he spoke.

“No, I don’t think so.”

Part 2

Shiroyama Kyousuke walked through the streets alone after leaving Aika’s luxury apartment.

It was already past midnight, but this was the giant amusement park known as Toy Dream 35. Simply put, the concepts of “good morning” and “good night” did not exist here. Bright lights flashed on Ferris wheels and roller coaster tracks, projectors displayed countless images on building walls, fireworks were launched from the boats anchored out at sea, and laser art colored the night sky along with those fireworks.

“This is Sergeant Howard’s AR Survival Game! Don’t you want to take part in a shootout in a thermal power plant!? 100 toy chips to play. The line starts here!!”

“If you want to have some fun at the Royal Casino, follow the red rabbit’s instructions. Only 300 toy chips a game.”

“Gozaru, gozaru. I am the Gozaru Samurai!”

Everything from bunny girls suggestively showing off their bodylines to strange costumed characters were walking back forth. It was impossible to tell who was a worker and who was a tourist.

However, Kyousuke’s location was odd.

It was something like a giant land bridge connecting two high-rise buildings. The structures were sometimes seen near train stations, but they seemed to fill every nook and cranny of this city.

Directly below was the dark seawater decorated by neon and laser art. There was no concept of “ground” here. The intelligently designed buildings stuck directly out of the ocean. The first and second floors were all covered in glass, creating a half-natural aquarium. Pirate ships and Japanese-style yakatabune moved freely through the giant canals that existed in place of roads.

Directly above were several more similar bridges. In this theme park city, you could look up and see the fireworks from almost anywhere.

While Shiroyama Kyousuke thought about that, he heard a jangling noise.

He turned around and saw a girl ringing a hand bell in a miniskirt Santa outfit even thought it was an April night.

“Jan, jan, jan! Congratulations on being the two millionth person to cross this bridge. Now, now, now. As a small prize, you will receive-… Oh, it’s Shiroyama-kun.”

“Huh? Is that you, Librarian-chan? A Santa girl in the early spring? Going on the attack, are we?”

“I’m your classmate, so try to remember my name. Oh, and this is a joint campaign with ‘The Santa Girl who Couldn’t Get Home’. It’s playing now, so head on over to the nearest movie theater. You can still make the late show.”

“…I didn’t want to know that.”

“Oh, and please don’t let the school know about this. I don’t want them to know I’m working part-time.”

Before even getting to the school rules, Japan’s laws forbade minors from working late at night, but this was Toy Dream 35. The division wasn’t as clear as a fenced-off foreign military base, but the rules were still different here.

Kyousuke accepted a box wrapped like something from a Christmas sales war, waved toward the student librarian who clasped her hands in front of her face in a “Please!” pose, and began walking once more.

But he soon came to another stop.

He turned around to find Meinokawa Higan standing there on the verge of tears in her shrine maiden outfit. She had her hands on her elbows and was gasping for breath.

“Pant, pant… W-wait. Please wait!”

“Do you need something?”

“I…I told you my sister’s in trouble, didn’t I? I’m a vessel and, um, you’re a summoner. If we update our contracts, we can work together and go help my sister. So…!!”

“But.” Kyousuke leaned against the giant bridge’s railing. “That’s what you want. I have no reason to risk my life here. Or are you saying you have a reason for me?”

“I-I’m, um…!!”

Higan shouted within the crowd while grabbing the center of her shrine maiden outfit’s vermilion skirt.

“I’m wearing striped panties!!!!!!”

A mysterious sound effect followed her announcement.

A pirate ship in the canal below seemed to have fired a blank from its cannon.

Shiroyama Kyousuke did not understand in the slightest, so he asked an honest question.

“U-um… Do shrine maidens even where underwear? Part-time ones aside, I thought the legit ones traditionally didn’t wear any.”

“Oh, um, going without is the standard, but today is special. I happened to overhear someone saying, ‘Onii-chan is a genius who will accept anything if it’s got stripes’. A-and that apartment just so happened to have a clothes dresser labelled ‘Ultimate Weapon’ that was full of striped things!!”

“……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….I’m not even sure where to begin on this one.”

Should he begin with the fact that she actually believed he would be willing to die if she showed him a striped pattern? Or maybe with the fact that she had stolen that striped object from someone else’s home?

In fact, he could even start with the fundamental fact that she was willing to put someone else’s panties on her bare skin like that.

He had heard on a variety show that the generally obedient and quite girls would do the most unbelievable things when they felt cornered and finally exploded, and that was proving surprisingly accurate.

But despite straying from the proper path, Higan did seem to still have a shame meter (even if it was broken).

“K-khhh! You don’t believe me, do you? B-but I really am wearing them! I guess we can’t move on until I prove it to you. F-fine then. If it’s to save my sister, I-I-I-I-I-I-ow! I bit my tongue… I’m prepared to lift up this skirt right here! H-hnnn!!”

“Wait, wait, wait, wait just a damn second!! That’s where I need to start!!”

“Oh, White Queen who holds the greatest power of the Unexplored-class, give me the courage to bear the embarrassment needed to save my sister!!”

“If you have enough sense to find it embarrassing, then stop!! What do you think you’re doing out in public!? Hm? In fact, is a shrine maiden skirt really made to lift up like a normal one?”

“U-um, there’s a lot of varieties depending on the school and style used, so some are more like normal skirts and some are more like pants. I use what’s known as a lantern design, so it won’t be a problem.”

“That’s beside the point!! I’m trying to say that a young girl lifting her skirt in public is more than enough of a problem in and of itself! Honestly!!”

“Y-you mean you want to do it in a closed room? Tremble tremble.”

“Why are you looking at me like a terrified animal? You’re the one that started this and I’m the one trying to stop you.”

“B-but…”

Higan tilted her head with her skirt pulled at the borderline level that could be titled, “Young Lady with a Long Skirt Playing in the Water”.

“Being in public or a closed room, um, makes no difference for us.”

“Well, that is true.”

As soon as Kyousuke replied, a hand bell rang behind him and the miniskirt Santa librarian spoke up.

“Congratulations on being the two millionth person! …Huh? Where did the prize go? Well, I have a spare, so it doesn’t matter.”

She was not just forgetful. That was the correct reaction.

“Anyway, you’re the two millionth person!! Oh, and this is a joint campaign with ‘The Santa Girl who Couldn’t Get Home’.”

Shiroyama Kyousuke tossed his “small prize” into the air and caught one-handed.

Whether summoner or vessel, anyone with a close connection to Materials would begin to have their presence fade after earning an Award of around 100. Or rather, they were removed from people’s minds. People could see them, but they would forget about them as soon as they left their field of vision. There was a simple reason that summoning ceremonies had not spread throughout the entire world and it wasn’t because some dark organization was suppressing the information. The human mind simply was not strong enough to directly accept the evidence of something so vast.

It affected their friends, their lovers, and their families.

It did not matter how well they knew someone.

“But even if you know they’ll forget about you a moment later, it wouldn’t feel right. I’m certainly not going to run around out here in the nude. That’s completely abandoning your humanity.”

“I-I thought your reaction was a little light… So even in a quick hypothetical, you want me to go that far!? Ah, ah…hyaaaahhh!? Y-you pervert!! Ah, ah, ah!!”

“Bhah!? B-before you squeeze your eyes shut and kick at me with your skirt still lifted, how about you work at figuring out that I gave that as an example of what isn’t acceptable!?”

Kyousuke’s throat was starting to hurt after all this yelling.

He himself never did anything too odd, but he was tragically surrounded by strange and eccentric people. He felt like a calm and mature actor taking a pie to the face on the stage of some intense comedy.

“I-I have to, um, save my sister no matter what!”

“Y-you already told me that. But- gwah.”

“I need your help to do that. I-I can’t stop here. We know that the world of summoners is harsh, but, um, w-we still decided to do our best there!”

“Hm?”

Kyousuke frowned at that.

Something had seemed different in that one.

“I understand that you would want to save your sister, but are you still thinking of staying in this world after all this? You must have experienced even more awful things than I know about. I thought you’d wash your hands of this after saving your sister.”

“But…this is all we have.”

She did not seem to know what to do with the skirt she had gotten carried away and lifted. It wavered at the borderline and she looked away from him a little.

“Our shrine was taken away. Th-the debt just kept piling up and minors like us had no way of paying it back. At this rate, not only won’t we be able to get our home back, but our parents will be kicked out of the rehab facility.”

“…”

Kyousuke had noticed few ominous terms in that.

He knew asking more question would lead to nothing good, but his tongue slipped.

“Can I ask how this all started?”

“Our parents’ gambling addiction.”

An especially cold night wind blew between the two of them.

All kinds of entertainment had been developed across national borders in the international revived cities that were popping up around the world. Casinos were quite common even in Toy Dream 35. That was just the age they lived in.

“Y-you’re a summoner too, so, um, surely you know that vessels never have happy backstories. Originally, only I was supposed to be used up to pay off the debt, but my sister punched the man who was buying me and made the contract with me instead. …That’s the kind of person she is. She’s always the first one to put herself in danger, but, um, sh-she doesn’t understand how fragile and delicate she is.”

Kyousuke thought a bit about that girl who was not here.

He had assumed that the fact that her twin sister, Meinokawa Higan, was alive summed up Renge’s value.

That had been both accurate and inaccurate.

Higan’s presence here was testament to more than just the events of this night. It was also testament to the fact that she had overcome a much longer and crueler path.

“I think it’s thanks to my sister that I can still, um, see the word ‘family’ as a warm thing. Without her, I would probably just view the word with a dark smile.”

It went beyond just her life. Her sister had also saved that gentler part of her.

“That’s why I want to save her.”

Her eyes looked like glasswork as they viewed what may have been reality and may have been her memories.

“I don’t want to just be saved. Sh-she needs help just as much as I do, so I’ll do anything. P-p-panties are nothing. I don’t even care if you tell me to rush back into that hell brought by Guard of Honor. I don’t want to lose my sister… I don’t want to lose my one and only sister!!”

She was probably telling the truth.

In his few interactions with her, he could tell she wasn’t skilled enough to keep a lie going this long.

If Meinokawa Higan was presented with the one and only way of saving her sister, she would likely jump at the chance, even if it meant losing her own life.

That may have been a beautiful thing.

But that was exactly why he had to say this.

“Then go die in vain. Just don’t drag anyone else down with you.”

Her expression clearly changed.

She looked a stake had been driven into her heart as he said even more.

“The summoning ceremony doesn’t work without both the summoner and the vessel. You’re so desperate to save your sister that you can’t think about this rationally. …Working with you would be useless. Not only will you lose your sister, you’ll lose the life she threw away her own life to protect.”

“Wh-what are you saying…?”

“I’m telling you to cool your head. You won’t gain anything by starting a fight you can’t win. Guard of Honor is supposed to be a powerful new organization with plenty of summoners skilled enough to summon the Divine-class. Do you have any concrete vision of a way to win? I may be Freedom Award 902 Alice (with) Rabbit Shiroyama Kyousuke, but I’m not someone who appears after you rub a magic lamp. This world isn’t so simple a place that things will just work themselves out once you speak your wish.”

“Oh, come on! Um, I-I know I’m not being rational here! B-but, um, I can’t help it. My family is in danger. If you really think I can cool my head and be rational here, then, um, you must be a cold-hearted demon or something!!”

She spoke strongly as if everything building up insider her was exploding out.

But Kyousuke gave a simple response to the shrill cry made a step in front of him.

“But you can’t win if you don’t.”

“…!!”

He sounded so definitive that Higan fell silent.

And…

“If you can’t win, nothing you do can save your sister. Will one of you die or will both of you die? And if you include me, that’s three of us dying. If those are the only options available to you, I only have one piece of advice for you: do not head to that cruel battlefield.”

That was all he had to say.

He turned his back on her but then looked back as if he had just remembered something.

“If you are aware you don’t have the power to fight, then you should head right back to Aika’s apartment. I know you’ve been focused on your sister, but Guard of Honor will be after both the sisters who escaped. That girl likes to complain, but she won’t abandon someone who showed up seeking shelter. Living with a wild animal might seem tough, but you can safely hide there for the time being.”

“…”

“My final job is already complete. I saved your life.”

With that said, he walked into the crowd.

He had nothing more to say. He had already finished this discussion back in the apartment.

“That isn’t…”

A frail girl’s voice reached his back from the distance.

“That isn’t what I meant when I asked for ‘help’!!”

He of course knew that.

Facts

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