BlazBlue:Spiral Shift - Hyokujin no Eiyu Chapter 5
Chapter 5: Foolish man / Left behind
Part 1
They left the tent where the wounded were crammed and walked through the desolate wilderness.
The night breeze was chilly, cooling down the euphoria of the battle they had been in just a few hours before.
Once they were some distance away from the encampment, Jin stopped in his tracks.
There were many clouds in the sky and the moonlight was scarce. They had come out without lights, so the only source of light allowing them to see each other's faces was from the campfires burning at a distance.
"You said you had a way to end the war. Tell me."
As soon as they faced each other, Jin immediately broached.
The area was dark. The land was empty. From the vantage point, it would have been easy to see from the camp that Jin and Grimwood were together. But at the same time, the clear view made it obvious that there was no one nearby.
Indeed, there was no one nearby.
Grimwood propped up his wounded body with the great axe that had taken the place of his staff, and grinned at him from a distance suitable for their secret talk.
“Are you ready to believe me now?"
"I don't believe it. But if it will end this war, I will cooperate."
“Even at a time like this, you're this weirdly composed."
The reason Jin doesn't say he trusts him is because there are things in his mind that take precedence over that. Ending the war. Whether that will come true with the card that Grimwood has. Grimwood understands that this is the most important thing for him right now.
In the same way, it was important to Grimwood whether or not Jin would cooperate with him, so he trusted in Jin’s cooperation, even if he said he didn’t believe him.
"I've told you before that there is “someone” behind the Ikaruga Civil War who wants to prolong it.”
"Yes. The war is being dragged out for the purpose by these 'someones', right?”
That's the reason why he and Karenjina joined this war in the first place. There is something wrong with this war, it is distorted. There was someone somewhere controlling the war. He couldn’t help but feel that way himself after hearing about that thing. That thing... The specific reason lies in the relationship between Tenjō and the Imperator, but before that, as a mercenary who has spent a long time on the battlefield, Grimwood couldn't help but feel uncomfortable.
This became more apparent the more as he got involved.
Irrational operations, opaque organizational structure and incomprehensible instructions. The development of the war was so amateurish that it was hard to believe that it was the work of a huge organization trying to win the war, the greatest authority in the world no less.
“In the end, we still don't know who's behind all this, but I was able to find out a little bit about its purpose, the purpose of the Second War of Ars Magus... Jin. Have you ever heard of a weapon that can stop the activity of seithr?"
At Grimwood's question, Jin's eyes sharpened.
“I've never heard of it. I don't even think... such a thing can exist."
Since the Dark War a hundred years ago, the world has been flooded with a large amount of seithr. It has become a matter of course to have it.
It is for this reason that the use of seithr has developed and taken root as Ars Magus. Even many transportation systems use seithr, as represented by Ars Magus Vessels. It is not only used in warfare, but is now deeply involved in the daily lives of ordinary people.
"If it existed, it would be a tremendous. It would be able to stop everything in the world, even a war.”
One huge button that could stop the whole functionality of this world. Something worth to fight wars over in some peoples eyes.
Grimwood nodded his head in agreement. If it connects to the acquisition of the weapon in question, it is a reason to continue the civil war that divides humanity.
“You think that's the reason of this 'someone'?”
“Very likely."
When Jin asked sharply, Grimwood replied firmly.
There is no proof that the weapon that stops seithr is the objective of these people. But in his own way, Grimwood seemed to be confident in his assumption. And the most important thing is not whether or not the weapon to stop seithr is a so-called third party objective. The fact that it might exist is what is important.
“If there is a weapon and it's for 'someone' elses purposes, we can't let that person get what they want, no matter what. They are still trying to get it in a civil war that is in such a horrible state. I don't think it will be used for any good purpose.”
What could be more horrible than a war? Grimwood tightened his grip on the handle of the axe that supported his body.
"Then... The one who uses it will be you? Grimwood?"
Jin asked, looking at him carefully.
If they could use a weapon that can stop the activity of seithr, they could stop the war right away. Small weapons, large weapons, Ars Magus that greatly affects these battles, they cannot be used anymore if seithr is gone. Even the vehicles used to move around the battlefield would not work. It becomes physically impossible to wage war.
But that means that the world will be under the control of one persons decision. If Grimwood uses it, then at that moment, Grimwood has taken control of the world.
Is that really stopping the war?
Jin's suspicion went straight to Grimwood.
He shook his stout head in denial.
“It's too much for me to handle. I can't use it. I don't even know how to use it."
“Though, if there was a polite explanation attached, I might think about it a little.” Grimwood smiled as he added that.
Jin couldn't help but gasp along with him. It didn't seem like Grimwood was the type of guy who would read the manual and learn how to use it.
With a single blink of an eye, Grimwood's expression changed to one of sincerity and he assured Jin in his typical unflappable voice.
“I'm going to destroy it when I find it. If someone wants to use the Ikaruga civil war to get their hands on it, then the weapon itself should be gone. Isn't that right?"
“That's a wild theory, but not that wrong.”
And in typical Grimwood fashion, Jin shrugged his shoulders at his logic.
No matter how long you prolong the war, if the objective does not exist, it is meaningless.
“And if there is a weapon that can stop seithr, even if this civil war is over, another one will start and there would be many more over that weapon. We have to avoid that.”
“...I agree."
Jin pulled his chin once toward Grimwood's serious face.
In fact, Jin was more concerned about that than about anyones "purpose."
If a device capable of influencing the activities of seithr were to fall into the hands of any individual, the order of the world would be turned upside down in no time.
Jin held out the Yukianesa he carried to Grimwood to show him.
“If you find it, I'll destroy it.”
Grimwood laughed, his eyes flashing.
“Actually, that's what I was hoping for when I approached you. It must be a huge weapon to stop seithr and I don't think it can be destroyed by a little bit of effort.”
In this regard, he trusted the Nox Nyctores, the Causality Weapon that had a run-in with the Black Beast. In fact, what else can it be destroyed with?
"So it's not me, it's the Nox Nyctores that's of use."
Jin carved a smile on the corner of his mouth even as he used the word self-mockingly.
Now it was Grimwood's turn to relax his cheek.
“That's not all. Rather... The next thing I want your help with is the main issue."
“What is it?"
When Jin tilted his head, Grimwood twisted his head to look behind him. He could see the lights from the torches and bonfires that had been lit. There were still many soldiers moving back and forth, looking busy. There were more than twice as many injured people moaning in the tents.
What Grimwood saw was a tent where the 9th squad was helping to treat the wounded.
"You remember the other day in the basement, don't you? That thing with the Necromancer."
“Yeah.”
“I want you to work with Karenjina to locate it, just as you did then."
It goes without saying what kind of place it is. This is the location of the "weapon that stops the activity of seithr".
“...Is it around this area?"
There was still no sign of anyone around, but Jin couldn't help but lower his voice even lower.
Grimwood growled crisply.
“I've done some research and I think I know where it is, but I don't know the exact location. Even with Karenjina's ability, I couldn't pinpoint it."
So, just as Jin helped Karenjina find the Necromancer that she couldn't identify that night in the basement, now it's time to find out where the weapon was.
He understood what he was saying, but at the same time he had his doubts.
Where did he get the information about the weapon and its location in the first place? Doesn't he know too much information for a simple mercenary?
At this rate, he might still have a story hidden away that Jin has never heard of.
(Does he have any special connections to the Librarium or to the executives of the Ikaruga Federation? Where is this guy chained to?)
A reliable squad leader wielding a large axe. Jin couldn’t help but feel a disturbing shadow over this man that can't be contained in such a position.
He still couldn’t trust him.
(No. I didn't trust him in the first place.)
A thought popped into Jin's mind, as if to excuse himself. He was not trying to work with Grimwood because he trusted him, but because his arguments spoke to his own interests.
But there was something that was bothering him, because he was unhappy that Grimwood hadn't revealed everything to him, so that he wouldn't have the option of not trusting him.
(Maybe it's that I want to trust...)
He didn’t even know how to do that. He was too inexperienced. Maybe he was a little taken aback by the trusting relationship between Grimwood and Karenjina and her fellow mercenaries, as if logic doesn't matter.
"...Okay. Let me help you."
“Thank you. I am relying on you.”
"But remember. If you ever try to get on the side that disrupts the order of this world, I will cut you down without mercy."
Even if that process stops the war, it must be stopped if it results in a disruption of order. This was not a sense of justice or morality, but an instinctive feeling engraved in Jin. A higher "power" obligating him to restore "order" for the world. If it disturbs the world, it will be eliminated. No exceptions.
Grimwood looked back into Jin's sharp, glaring eyes and saw a contrastingly calm color in them.
"All right, then. When it looks like that to you, don’t hesitate."
And then, with a hand that formed the shape of a hand knife, he made a gesture as if to cut his own neck. There was no alertness here.
That was a little less interesting to Jin. The more Grimwood trusted him, the more he felt a kind of innate difference between himself and him.
“...For now, you don’t seem to be 'evil'."
This was the extent of trust that Jin could show to Grimwood now.
When he focuses his attention, Jin can see. It's a black thread that leads to "evil" that disturbs the order of the world.
But it's fun around Grimwood and his squadron.
He couldn't fully trust this Grimwood fellow, so Jin decided to trust in his own abilities, which only he could understand and which were too sensual to share with others.
"Well, now that that's settled, let's get moving. When do we leave?"
Grimwood raised the body that had been supported by the ax. Looking at the white bandage wrapped around his tight chest, Jin thought for a few seconds.
“How's your wound?"
“It's no big deal."
The reply was immediate. It seemed that Jin already knew what he wanted to do.
Then there will be no need to hold back. Jin told him as he started to walk away.
“Right then."
“Roger that," came a low, gruff voice from the man walking right next to Jin.
Part 2
Upon returning to the camp, Grimwood gathered Karenjina and the three soldiers.
The location was on the outskirts of the encampment.
The first aid for the injured was finally completed, but the real medical care has yet to come. There might have been injured people or stragglers from other units still rolling in. In the midst of the confusion of information leaks, each of them had to do what they could now. Under such circumstances, no one cared if a few soldiers gathered in a corner and talked in private.
Briefly, he explained to Karenjina and the others the story of their trip out to the wilderness just a short while ago.
When she was told they were leaving right now, Karenjina hung her eyes and grabbed Jin by the chest.
"Are you insane!? Grimwood has just been treated for his injuries and just look at all this chaos here! Are we supposed to just walk out of here!?"
Karenjina looked back at the base and spread her arms, asking Jin to look at the situation.
From a distance, the state of the base could be objectively viewed.
They looked like they were able absent, not wishing to be here and just confused. No one even looked back when Karenjina shouted. Everyone had their hands full with themselves and their surroundings. Jin reaffirmed the correctness of his decision and pulled away from Karenjina’s hand.
“Because of this distortion in order, we have to.”
"What?"
Karenjina’s indignation was against the act of abandoning her friends even if they were fighting within the same framework of the Librarium.
She took the initiative in the tent to give first aid to the injured, as she had some experience in this area. There must have been many badly injured people that she could not help but to feel sorry for.
"But now is not the time to let cheap sympathy and camaraderie drag us down." Jin spoke with calm, emotionless eyes as he looked at Karenjina and the soldiers.
“It's about a two-hour walk from here to the place Grimwood is trying to find. It would be too conspicuous as an extra-operational activity if we headed there after things had settled down. Now it's the perfect opportunity to go off on our own without attracting suspicion."
Karenjina's lips tightened. Her fist that she clenched as she lashed out was unraveled
Jin continued.
“Furthermore, this area has just finished a large-scale battle. There are no extra civilians wandering around, liners have been temporarily suspended and civilian facilities, if any, have been closed. In addition, the amount of seithr consumed is far greater than normal.”
This was after a large number of weapons and Ars Magus had been used. Seithr drifts in from everywhere, but it does not recover instantly. If it is consumed locally in a short period of time, the amount of seithr in the air will temporarily drop to a certain level, making the use of Ars weaken if even impossible. That was now.
"I see... Less noise you mean, huh..."
Karenjina voiced her admiration bitterly.
Karenjina’s Seagull Drive probes her surroundings all at once. The more targets she investigates, the more confusing and ineffective the information will be, just as it was when she was underground with the dead.
But now, she should be able to find what they were looking for in a much clearer and a more orderly state than usual.
It's now or never. In fact, now was the best time.
Jin's words gave Karenjina and the others an immediate sense of resolve.
“All right. Let's go."
Karenjina said, and the other soldiers nodded.
Packing the bare minimum, Jin and the others quickly slipped out of the small encampment and ran through the uneven wilderness, skirting the shadows of the rocks.
Honoka was left behind on purpose. They didn’t even explain to him that they were slipping out.
It all started when Grimwood told them that he could not be trusted. Karenjina and the others have been working with Grimwood for a long time now and they were fighting with the same goal of ending the civil war.
But Honoka was different. He was a guard assigned by the Librarium to serve as Jin's caretaker and monitor. If anyone was going to leak information about Grimwood and the others selfish actions to the NOL, it would be Honoka first and foremost. Honoka was in a position where the Librarium should take precedence over mercenaries, Jin and squad members. He didn't trust him and he didn’t think it was in their best interest for him to be drawn into this.
Jin agreed with that decision.
Jin, more than Grimwood, had a hard time trusting Honoka.
On the way, he ran and hurried to reach his destination in the shortest possible distance while letting Karenjina use her "Seagull" to grasp the terrain.
It was about an hour and a half after leaving the encampment when Grimwood stopped and said that it was around that area.
The landscape had changed from a wilderness to a mountainous area. Although one might say, the land has probably turned barren. The trees were thin and weak, and vegetation was scarce. The ground seemed to be rocky, with complex silhouettes forming here and there from the rocks jutting out from the earths surface.
Upon finding a place as open and flat as possible, Karenjina put her hands on the ground.
"The range is quite large. It's a bit overwhelming, but..."
Standing a little further away, Grimwood looks apologetic.
Karenjina looked up and shook her head so loudly that her gathered hair swung from side to side.
“This is my job. Let me do it. I'll use all my strength."
“Take it easy. The less seithr you have, the less noise you'll make, but the heavier your burden will be. Worst-case scenario..."
“I know."
Crisply, Karenjina interrupted Grimwood's words.
In order to activate the drive, seithr is consumed as energy. However, if the output is greater than the amount of seithr that can be consumed, it is the soul of the practitioner that will be used up as an energy source.
Worst case scenario, you die.
“Jin."
With her hands still on the ground, Karenjina now was looking up at Jin. Instead of replying, Jin's eyebrows moved slightly.
Deep, profound eyes that had the color of the night sky stared straight into Jin's green eyes with the purity of a wild beast.
“I don’t like you.”
"...I know."
“But..."
A grin. The fleshy lips carved a challenging smile and disappeared.
“I trust you.”
Jin was bewildered and at a loss for words when he was told.
Trust. That again. He was getting fed up. Anger swelled inside. Grimwood, Karenjina and the others were quick to look at him that way.
Ignoring Jin's furrowed brow, Karenjina took a deep breath, focused and lowered her eyelids.
“...Let’s begin”
She strongly put it into words. The next moment a dull gold light emerged from her hand, and the light spread out in an intricate pattern.
The scale was different from what she had viewed in the basement of the research facility of Sector Seven. The light spread out and traced the surface of the earth at 360 degrees.
“...Ku”
A muffled groan escaped from Karenjina's throat. Her brown forehead was sweating profusely. The small amount of seithr was quickly consumed. Even so, Karenjina expanded her range.
Not yet. She still couldn't find it. Karenjina shouted as she continued to expand her range.
“Jin, do it!"
Without pausing, Jin stood behind Karenjina and pressed his palm against her back. His senses sharpened as he followed Karenjina's concentration.
When he closed his eyes, he could see the dull gold light emitted by Karenjina spreading out all around him. Jin searched, in the light that spread so finely and traced the terrain
Black... A black line.
They were easy to see. Rather, there were too many of them. Countless black lines running in Karenjina’s lights.
They were all stretched straight toward a point.
(What the heck is this...?)
He had never seen a line like this before. Most of the time, lines were more or less irregular, wavy and curved. However, the lines that he saw now were all straight, undisturbed and without hesitation, as if they were drawn by a machine, converging on a single point.
Jin followed Karenjina's consciousness further to the end of the black lines.
The distance was about ten kilometers from here.
(Where is... What is this line? Where are you gathering...)
He wanted to know where the line led to. As he desperately traced the line, he suddenly felt a shock as if he had been pushed from the inside and Jin collapsed on the spot.
"Uhh!"
It was such an unexpected shock that he fell to the hard ground without even taking any precautions. He let out a distracted and pathetic voice. A terrible headache followed. It was as if his brain was being pushed open from the inside. At the same time, a wave of nausea rushed through his internal organs, and Jin quickly clamped his mouth shut.
At the feet of the fallen Jin, Karenjina had collapsed. Unlike Jin, she was already unconscious and was convulsing violently.
“Karenjina!”
Grimwood rushed over and held her, but there was no response. The spasms only became somewhat more mild.
One of the soldiers took her pulse. From the look of relief on his face, it seemed that her pulse was fine. The blood from her nose slid down her cheek and stained it.
"...Are you okay?"
Swallowing down the nausea and holding his head against the terrible headache, Jin sat up.
Karenjina must have been under a load many times greater than the one he had been under. Even so, she did not stop the Drive until the limit. If her survival instinct hadn't refused to continue, she might have used it until she really died.
"She's just unconscious, but breathing fine."
One of the soldiers spoke up and Grimwood finally felt relieved as he laid the small body he was carrying on the ground. His brown fingertips, not even slightly relaxed, rubbed the soil and drew short lines.
“Did you find it?”
Grimwood asked Jin in a low voice.
Jin stared into the distance to the west. He remembered clearly where the lines had gathered.
"Yeah."
“Really?”
Without answering Grimwood, who leaned forward to ask, Jin stood up unsteadily.
His gaze remained fixed on the west, where the line had run.
“That’s.... What the-?”
When he remembered it with his limp brain, a tar-like fear crept up from his feet to his head. His body naturally cowered and trembled.
He has never felt this way about these lines before. Was this fear? Or was it something else?
His head was numb and he couldn’t think straight.
It was not coherent, but that invasive discomfort at the end of the line that seemed to absorb all evil was stuck to the back of his skull and won't come off.
Jin shook his head, trying his best to push that tremendously disgusting image to the edge of his consciousness so that it would not interfere with his minimal thinking.
“Th-There's something about ten kilometers west of here. It was very different, disgusting to be exact. Never was there nothing else that looked like this, so it was probably there."
"Ten kilometers... So far, huh."
With a sigh of surprise, Grimwood looked down at Karenjina.
The range of Karenjina's "Seagull" is usually limited to a radius of about one kilometer. If it reached ten kilometers away, that means she has searched a hundred times the usual area at once. With a sly grimace, Grimwood moved Karenjina into the shade of a nearby rocky outcrop. Here, the jutting rocks and the short trees that nestled against them would conceal her from a distance.
That would mean the choice to leave her here.
“Are you sure?"
"It's not like there were any enemy soldiers hiding in the vicinity, judging from using the Seagull earlier. But even so, leaving a woman alone in the middle of nowhere like this was a moralists unnecessary sense of ethics poking at something as trivial as the conscience."
Grimwood replied to Jin's question as he backed away from Karenjina.
"I wasn't planning on taking her with me originally. If it weren't for Seagull, I wouldn't have told her about this either."
With that, he turned away.
“I see." was all Jin said as he stepped out in front of Grimwood. Now that Karenjina had fainted, Jin was the only one who could see their destination.
(Ten kilometers west...)
That's where the black line ended. Was it the weapon that Grimwood was talking about to stop seithr, or was it something more sinister than that?
Still having that uncomfortable feeling inside his head, Jin ran down the slope where the earth was exposed.
The night had been quiet, but now there the wind blew strong.
It wasn't a dark night anymore. The moon must have risen very high.
The clouds that had covered the sky thickly were being swept away by the strengthening wind. The navy of the deep night resembled the color of the eyes of a female soldier, cowering in the shade of a rock.
The wind rustled the thin branches of the short, overgrown trees.
Karenjina, still unconscious, had not opened her eyes. Her limp, weak body laid on the dry ground, her cheeks motionless, her hair curling in a peculiar way.
Beside her, there was a foot.
It was a corner of the wilderness where a war was going on nearby. And yet, a pair of brown leather shoes with not a speck of dirt on them was right next to the fallen and sleeping Karenjina.
“Oh dear, you were left behind.”
The owner of the foot spoke to her with theatrical sympathy.
Karenjina couldn’t hear him.
The owner of the leather shoes bent his tall, slender body into an exaggerated peek at the face of the woman who was not speaking.
The clouds were peeled away and the moon appeared, illuminating the earth with its cold moon white color.
“Oh, I feel sorry for you."
Brown leather shoes, a black suit, and a black hat. The green-haired man grinned in a sadistic manner.
Part 3
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