BlazBlue:Phase Shift 4 Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Demonic Human Weapon

Part 1

The sky was unbelievably clear.

The weather was refreshingly fair, the sunlight was gentle, and a peaceful breeze was blowing. On this day, when the world was overflowing with so much proof of how beautiful and warm it could be that it seemed like an optical illusion, the army returned.

People disembarked from their massive ships one after another in Ishana's port. Well, rather than saying they 'disembarked,' it would be more accurate to say that they were carried off of their ships. Most of them had to be helped down by the people waiting on the dock when they finally got to port, and all the rest had to be carried on one of the countless stretchers prepared for them.

Aside from the sailors, not a single soul was uninjured. The ships were rank with the stench of blood, pus, and grime, and the people who came from them were in such a state that all they could manage was to slowly trudge up the gentle slope leading out of the harbor. The putrid smell of death that accompanied them was a somber indicator of how many people had died on the return trip over the sea. The blood-curdling scene made the bright, lovely sunshine seem like a lie.

At the end of the slope leading out of the harbor, Celica, Nine, and Trinity stood watching on in horror. Chills were coursing up and down their bodies, they felt nauseated, and their hearts were pounding uncomfortably. Just an hour ago they thought the blue sky above was nothing less than stunningly beautiful, but now it seemed to be laughing and mocking them down below.

"J... Jubei!"

All of a sudden, Nine screamed in a tearful voice and dashed down the slope.

Jubei had just trudged clear of the disorganized gaggle of soldiers coming from the harbor, holding onto Valkenhayn's arm for support. It was obvious from his gait that he was barely keeping himself upright, and the normally white fur of his feet had turned black.

Nine ran to him and dropped to her knees to throw her arms around his beaten and battered body, not caring that her triangular purple hat had fallen off along the way.

Burying her face into the shoulder of his cracked and half-destroyed battle armor, Nine hugged Jubei gently so as not to hurt him.

"Welcome back home..."

"Thanks. Sorry about this. In the end, we couldn't hold out for more than the one month we promised."

Letting go of Valkenhayn's arm that he had been clinging to this whole time, Jubei rested his filthy chin on Nine's shoulder. He tried to let out a self-deprecating laugh, but he couldn't manage it, and his pain showed on his face.

Nine nuzzled his cheeks as she shook her head, her long hair becoming disheveled as she did.

"Don't be stupid. You did plenty... so much that you ended up like this..."

In the end, the Joint HQ Army had lost more than half its number by the time they formed back up. Nevertheless, they kept on fighting and didn't return to Ishana until the end of the month.

Trinity retrieved Nine's hat and stood behind her friend who looked like she was about to break down and weep. Celica kneeled next to Nine and started casting healing magic on Jubei with an earnest look, but Jubei refused her help, the agony still evident on his face.

"I'm fine, don't mind me. Save your mana for someone else."

It was quite the statement for someone with blood dripping down their face to make.

Celica hesitated for a moment before continuing with her healing magic, but most of the wounds wouldn't heal. She could handle the wounds from mundane sources, but wounds inflicted by the Black Beast weren't so easy to fix.

"Just let me try right now. I promise I'll go help other people afterward."

She was talking more to herself than anyone else, continuing to heal the smaller wounds.

"Ah..."

Celica looked up as she heard a conspicuously heavy footstep.

Just as she expected, Hakumen had arrived. Unlike Jubei and all the other soldiers, he didn't have any visible, external wounds. Nevertheless, his white clothing was absolutely filthy, having deteriorated over the course of a whole month.

Hakumen walked until he stood just behind Jubei, and with his eyeless, noseless, mouthless mask, he somehow managed to bring a defiant aura to bear as he looked down at Nine.

"What of the weapons?"

That's all he wanted to know. He was too burnt out to ask about anything else. That was the state he was in at that moment.

Nine, having been holding Jubei up to that point, flipped the switch inside her and looked up to return Hakumen's gaze. There was an aggressive light shining in her bright eyes.

"I finished them."

She had confirmed that the weapons were maintaining stability, and they had passed their stress tests just two hours before the ships had landed.

The month that countless soldiers had paid for with their lives had been an immeasurably valuable month for humanity.

"Now they just need to be calibrated to their wielders."

They were complete.

There wasn't much time left before the Black Beast would make it to the last cauldron on the continent and move on to Ishana.

This was to be the final confrontation between humanity and the Black Beast.

Part 2

A few days later, Jubei, Valkenhayn, Terumi, Hakumen, Trinity, and Celica all gathered in the room beneath the Mage's Guild at Nine's behest.

The room was by no means bright, lit only by a flame-colored magic light in each corner, which created a creepy atmosphere. All four walls, the ceiling, and the floor were made of aged wood, and there wasn't a single window in sight. This room, essentially one big wooden box, was the room where Nine kept Take-Mikazuchi's core. The core that had once been floating above the ground in here was now nowhere to be seen, and the magic circle that had stood below it had been erased too.

In its place, there was now a wide table with six different armaments lined up on top of it. Nirvana stood by the side of the desk as the seventh of the group.

"...We're all here. It's time we got started."

Her high heels clacking on the dark brown floor, Nine stepped in front of the desk and faced everyone else gathered in the room.

Her competitive eyes and tightly pursed lips betrayed her slight anxiety. No one had any doubt that the source of her nerves was that set of weapons behind her.

"I'm sure you could tell at a glance, but these are my newly developed weapons... the 'Nox Nyctores' causality weapons."

Jubei was the quickest to respond to her unfaltering declaration, thrusting his long whiskers forward as he wrinkled the bridge of his nose.

"Nox Nyctores? Ain't that Take-Mikazuchi's..."

"Yes. As I mentioned before, all of these weapons were created using Take-Mikazuchi's core as the base. Thus, they're all derived from Take-Mikazuchi... and all constitute a part of it. Basically, their fundamental structure is the same, so they're all Nox Nyctores too."

As Nine was giving her explanation, she waved her hand toward the weapons sitting silently behind her. A gun, swords, a staff... they came in some very familiar forms as far as weapons go, but it was hard to believe that they were all a part of that black colossus that had burned the Black Beast.

However, the strange weightiness of them seemed to speak volumes of just how abnormal they were.

"I'm sure I've said this to all of you individually at some point already, but let me say it again: the Nox Nyctores are far more powerful than they look on the surface. They're all purpose-built for just one thing, and that's defeating the Black Beast. Taking the Black Beast down is the whole reason that these weapons exist. If they're wielded in battle against the Black Beast, they'll manifest extraordinary power, but in exchange for all that power, they'll take an appropriately large toll as well."

"What do you mean, they'll take a toll?"

Jubei cut in to ask her what she meant by that ominous phrase.

Nine's eyes got even more serious, and she nodded her head before answering.

"Simply put, it's stress. These things constantly want their wielders to bring out more and more of their power. Their demands put mental pressure on the wielder, which manifests as stress, and the sensations and emotions that arise from that stress serve to further hone the weapons."

"So, their ability to kick ass depends on the mental condition of their wielder?"

"That's right."

If a Nox Nyctores' wielder could effectively control their weapon's influence on their mind, there'd be no limit to how strong the weapon could become. On the flip side, if the wielder were to be overcome by the weapon's influence, they wouldn't be able to preserve their own personality anymore and would eventually break down.

Nine knitted her eyebrows and continued her explanation with great reservation.

"The Nox Nyctores are very dangerous. You need to be careful what you choose to use them against, and you'll suffer more and more of the repercussions the more you use them. That being the case... I'm only going to hand them out to people who either have a very strong will or highly stable magical power."

Nine paused and took a breath to center herself, then addressed the six people before her once more.

"I always intended to give a Nox Nyctores to each of you. I believe that's the decision that's most likely to lead humanity to victory."

By this point, everyone in the Mage's Guild knew that Jubei, Valkenhayn, and Hakumen all had fighting skills far exceeding anything a normal person could do. For his part, Terumi was an expert in both close quarters combat and sorcery, and he had proven that he knew more about the Black Beast than anyone else. Trinity was outstanding both in her knowledge of and ability to use both alchemy and defensive magic, and Celica was second to none when it came to purifying seithr and casting healing magic. You couldn't find a better group for the job.

"The person who defeats the Black Beast is probably going to be one of us. In order to make that happen, I want you to use these."

Nine reached her hand out towards the weapons on the table as she spoke, but then she suddenly stopped short and looked back over her shoulder. She was looking at Valkenhayn, who stood one step back from the group.

"...Just to confirm one last time, Valkenhayn... are you really not going to use a Nox Nyctores?"

Nine asked the question just to be doubly sure of his answer.

Throwing a sidelong glance at Celica and Trinity, who had turned around to face him, Valkenhayn shook his head no like he was answering the two girls instead of Nine.

"My answer will stay the same no matter how many times you ask. There's no need... I already exist outside of Logic. It makes no difference in the fight against the Black Beast whether I wield a powerful weapon or not."

"Hm... alright then. In that case..."

Nodding deeply, Nine faced the table again and picked up a staff.

The long stick was made of some strange material that looked like it might have been either metal or wood. It had a big, bell-like decoration affixed to the top.

Nine grasped it in both hands and walked over to Trinity.

"Let's start with yours, Trinity. This is Arma Reboare: Muchourin. It can supplement your diverse magical abilities and you can use it to create substances through embodiment."

Depending on what substances she made and how she used them, Trinity could turn her defense-oriented magic into attacks or further strengthen her already formidable defensive capabilities. Above all, Trinity excelled at alchemy, so if she could combine it with sorcery, she would be able to create arms and armor out of nothing.

Looking at the staff's feminine, curved outline, Trinity accepted it gratefully. Squinting her eyes like she was looking at something bright, Nine smiled at her.

"Thank you very much, I will take good care of it."

"You don't have to take care of the staff, just worry about taking care of everyone else."

"I will. You can leave that to me～"

Answering softly, Trinity gazed at the staff in her hands.

In the end, Trinity hadn't been entrusted with hardly any part of the development of this staff, save for the final calibrations. Nevertheless, this thing in her hands was without a doubt the product of Nine's efforts, so Trinity placed the end of the staff on the floor and hugged it to her chest, as if to pull in her overflowing feelings of affection.

The next one that Nine grabbed was a sword in a red scabbard. It was a strangely designed scabbard with hilts sticking out of both ends, and Nine passed it to Jubei.

"Mucro Somnio: Musashi. This one's for you, Jubei. It's a two-in-one sword, so you can draw it from both ends at once. It was made especially for you."

"Thanks. I'll have to put in the effort to be worthy of it."

Jubei didn't hesitate over the question of whether to take it or not. His big cat hand skillfully took the scabbard and hung it on his shoulder, managing to withstand his childish curiosity and not immediately draw it.

"Terumi next."

High heels tapping on the wooden floor, Nine picked up a metal chain coiled up like a massive snake off the table.

"Geminus Anguium: Ouroboros. I'm sure you can figure out how to use it on your own."

She dropped the cold chain into Terumi's hand. As the links slithered and coiled against each other, the chain seemed like a real snake for a moment.

Terumi unfurled it as soon as he got it, feeling it with his hands and twisting his lips into a smile.

"Hmmmm, would ya look at that. This is the real Ouroboros. It's just like back then, talk about interesting..."

He mumbled to himself in a low voice, looking like he was having fun.

Nine caught a bit of what he was saying and immediately furrowed her brow and got up close to Terumi, her bright eyes glaring at him with overflowing hostility.

"Interesting? You sound like you've seen that before."

"Hey, hey, hey now, don't go making such a scary face, would ya? I saw the blueprint during the development process. Didn't you hear me? I said 'this is the real thing.'"

Playing the fool, Terumi swung one end of the chain around in the air to make a swishing sound. The tip of the chain was adorned with a weight that looked like a snake head.

"...Whatever. This is the next one, Interfectum Malus: Ookami"

Sweeping her hair out of her face, Nine picked up the next weapon. It was a long-bladed katana, a nodachi. Actually, it was too long to qualify as even a nodachi. Its length easily exceeded Nine in height.

"This is Hakumen's sword."

Hakumen took the sword he was handed, and it became obvious that it was indeed made for him.

The abnormally long sword perfectly suited Hakumen, who stood over two meters tall. With Ookami resting comfortably in his hand, he looked every bit the demon clad in white.

"Lastly... Celica."

"Uh, yeah..."

Unlike anyone before her, Celica took a big step forward, unable to hide the emotions in her wavering voice.

Watching Celica awkwardly straighten her posture and stick her chest out, no one was surprised when Nine brought forth Nirvana from behind the table.

"Nox Nyctores Deus Machina: Nirvana. I'm entrusting her to you once again."

As if responding to Nine's words, Nirvana walked to stand in front of Celica.

Celica shot both arms out to grab onto Nirvana's big, solid hand.

"Welcome back, Nirvana."

This was their first time seeing each other in quite some time. They hadn't met at all during the span of several weeks in which Nirvana was being upgraded into a causality weapon.

Celica's reliable bodyguard didn't look any different on the outside, so even though this was their reunion after she became a Nox Nyctores, Celica still didn't get the impression that anything had changed about her.

On the other hand, Nine, who had been the one to upgrade her, had a dark look on her face. She tried to put her feelings aside, but there was an apologetic look lurking in her eyes nonetheless.

"...I'm sorry, Celica. I know you love Nirvana, but I didn't have the time to make a whole new model. And..."

"You made Nirvana to be a weapon against the Black Beast from the start, right? You've apologized a thousand times, and I keep telling you it's alright."

Celica had indeed heard the same apology from Nine over and over again over the last few weeks.

Nirvana was created to be Celica's bodyguard, but she was also created as an experimental autonomous weapon, and now she had been remodeled to become a purpose-made anti-Black Beast weapon. Nine had planned to eventually remodel her from the start, and to that end she had loaded her with systems she would need when she reached the next step. Creating a new model would have taken far too long.

The fact that Celica had come to love Nirvana and treat her like family was a big miscalculation on Nine's part.

Celica laughed lightly as she gripped Nirvana's hand.

"I was shocked, of course. You came to me with such a scary look on your face, I had no idea what was going on. But, I mean, she still looks the same now that she's a Nox Nyctores, and she can still be with me like she used to, right?"

They could still walk around town together, go shopping, clean the house, and spend the night in the same room. Celica cared about her ability to do stuff like that far more than she cared about how good of a bodyguard or a weapon she was.

In response to Celica's question, Nine pursed her lips tightly.

"About that... everyone, listen up."

The atmosphere in the room went cold as the conversation took a sharp turn, and Nine crossed her arms beneath her chest. She looked at everyone present with determination in her eyes.

"If we win the war against the Black Beast, I'm going to seal away the Nox Nyctores."

Her unforgiving tone said that she would brook no arguments. This was her final decision and she wasn't open to discussing it, and she was making it clear to everyone in the room that they had no say in the matter.

Trinity, still hugging her staff, raised her hands reservedly and spoke up.

"You mean... you'll seal every weapon here?"

"Yeah. Nirvana, Take-Mikazuchi... all of them. These aren't the kinds of things that we can just pass down to future generations."

She looked at the desk behind her as she spoke, where a sword in a blue sheath and a pair of guns still sat.

"If the Black Beast dies, humanity will go back to waging war on each other someday. If the Nox Nyctores still exist when that time comes, they could throw the entire world out of balance. People who can't handle the mental burden the weapons inflict might lose their sanity and perpetrate unthinkable massacres. Having a Nox Nyctores or not could determine the fate of nations or give them an unreasonable amount of political sway."

That's just how much power they possessed.

What Nine was saying was nothing more than theories, but since she was the weapons' creator, she knew just how realistic those theories were.

"The Nox Nyctores are too strong. Even more than the weapons themselves, the pieces of Take-Mikazuchi's core within them... are far too dangerous."

Nine ran her finger along the cold surface of the gun she hadn't yet given to its owner. It wasn't a decoration: it was a magnificent weapon, meant to be wielded in a person's hand.

"Which means... I won't be able to see Nirvana anymore, then?"

Normally Celica would be bringing up so many arguments that the people around her would be surprised that she could spit so many out, but now, she stumbled over her words as she struggled to find any to say.

Nine lowered her chin.

"...That's right."

Celica had been touching Nirvana's hand this whole time, but now, she let go like her hand was slipping off. There was no helping her disappointment.

"Okay... so, when the war is over, we'll say goodbye..."

Celica didn't wish for even an instant that the war wouldn't end. Nevertheless, knowing that that would mean the end between her and Nirvana, she felt an incredible sense of loneliness.

Seeing Celica's despondent expression, Nine had to take on a cold attitude in order to keep any meaningless regret from leaking into her voice.

"I won't ask you to forgive me. I did this knowing that it was going to hurt you.

Nine absolutely needed Nirvana. She was strong and tough. As an autonomous weapon, her body wouldn't break easily, and even if she got damaged, she would simply continue stubbornly following her orders without panicking.

"Nirvana has a job to do. In the unlikely event that humanity is beaten by the Black Beast... Nirvana will summon Take-Mikazuchi and blast it. After that, she'll first dispose of Take-Mikazuchi, then herself."

That was humanity's last resort.

Take-Mikazuchi only had half of its core left, and while it could still be summoned and fire a shot, firing a second shot after that would require several years of recharging first.

If Nirvana summoned Take-Mikazuchi and fired one shot but failed to finish the Black Beast, the world probably would come to an end after all.

"But let's not let it come to that, of course. We will defeat the Black Beast, but..."

The word that followed immediately after her strong promise was conversely weak. Nine placed her hand on Celica's shoulder with the delicacy of a gentle embrace.

"As Nirvana's master, it's up to you to decide when Nirvana uses the last resort. If it ever comes to that... I'm counting on you."

With a faint sorrow in her eyes, thinking that she ought to at least look straight ahead without flinching, Celica laughed brightly as she gave her assent.

"Alright, I'll do it."

She nodded. Her affirmative nod was so straightforward that anyone other than Nine would have wondered whether or not she really knew what she was agreeing to. There was no worry in her face; in fact, it seemed like she thought she would never have to make that choice.

Nevertheless, if the time ever did come, she would undoubtedly make that decision. Celica had enough confidence to do that.

Nine couldn't bear it anymore, so she let out a sigh. She furrowed her brow in the shadow cast by the brim of her triangular purple hat.

"I'm sorry to give you such a grim job."

As an older sister, Nine was filled with regret at having to ask something like this of Celica, but Celica immediately shook her head. Her long ponytail swung from left to right.

"How selfish would it be if I didn't make even that simple of a promise?"

She was grateful enough that her sister had made a bodyguard just for her, and she had even gotten to spend all that time with Nirvana.

She was never going to resent Nine or blame her for how things turned out.

"And besides, we can still be together until the war ends, right?"

Nine's eyes watered as she thought of how often she found comfort in Celica's innocent nature. Looking exasperated, she crossed her arms under her chest.

"Yes, of course. She's still your bodyguard, even if she's a Nox Nyctores now."

"I'm glad."

Celica looked up at Nirvana with a joyful smile, and Nirvana seemed to be smiling back as she looked down.

"Let's keep on going like we have been, Nirvana."

Celica squeezed both her hands into fists and tried to hype up both herself and her bodyguard as those big, glassy, artificial eyes looked tenderly back at her.

Part 3

Nine gave the sword in a blue scabbard, Mucro Algesco: Yukianesa and the twin guns, Arcus Diabolus: Bolverk to Seven and Three of the Ten Sages, respectively.

Yukianesa used the element of ice, so it was a perfect fit for Seven, who was better at controlling water than anyone else and who had some skill with swords. Three preferred magic that affected wide areas all at once, so the long range and high rate of fire of the guns was tactically advantageous in her hands.

As the survivors of the force that had returned on the brink of decimation were sorting out the living and the dead, soldiers, armaments, provisions, and other military necessities from all around the world were brought into Ishana. Ishana's clean air started to smell more and more like iron rust with each passing day as the final confrontation loomed. The largest Ars Magus Corps in history was formed up, and even Ishana's hill was being used to create alchemical weapons.

Around the time Jubei, Valkenhayn, and Hakumen's wounds healed (which happened much faster than any humans would have), Hakumen suddenly called a meeting of Nine, Celica, Trinity, Jubei, Valkenhayn, and Terumi.

They gathered in a room that was a little too snugly packed with miscellaneous items to be called a conference room, a peaceful room that smelled of flowers and black tea. The wooden table they sat at had a white cup of herbal tea for everyone, and someone had quickly set out a plate of crackers garnished with jam.

The place they had gathered in wasn't a Mage's Guild establishment: it was Trinity's workshop. Hakumen was no Mage's Guild employee, and he thought going through their procedures was far too much trouble, so Trinity had offered up her workshop.

Compared to their usual wide, dimly lit conference room, Trinity's bright, cramped little workshop let everyone relax a little. When they were all gathered, Hakumen opened his invisible mouth.

"I have a proposal. This is about how we will fell the Black Beast."

As he cut straight to the point with his severe and grim opening topic, Nine's face immediately went serious. She had just been discussing the very same thing with the Joint HQ while organizing the troops, but no one there had been able to come to any sort of agreement.

Leaning over the table, Nine looked across at Hakumen with a fierce glare.

"I'm interested. By all means, go on."

Nine was glad that they weren't in a Mage's Guild conference room.

Their conference rooms were soundproofed so that no conversation would ever leak beyond their walls, but the Mage's Guild being what it was, there were countless people who would be doing their best to overhear your conversation, no matter who you were, where you were, or what you were talking about. If what Hakumen was about to propose was realistic and practical, it would be conceivable that someone might have overheard it and taken it to a Joint HQ meeting with them. Such scoundrels wouldn't be able to pull tricks like that at Trinity's workshop, and this room was protected by a barrier just as strong as any Mage's Guild conference room.

Everyone gathered, not just Nine, was waiting expectantly for Hakumen to continue, so he grabbed the scabbard of his nodachi that was as long as a person and thrust it forward. One of the Nox Nyctores causality weapons, Interfectum Malus: Ookami.

"First, I need to make one thing clear: even with the Nox Nyctores, if humanity faces down the Black Beast head on, we will lose."

A weighty declaration. Emphasizing this immutable truth with Ookami, he took the relaxed atmosphere right out of the room.

Nine's eyebrows shot together in a furrow.

"For the record, the power you'll feel when you use it on the battlefield will be on a whole other level to the power you felt when you were swinging it around at the Mage's Guild to calibrate it. The Nox Nyctores exist purely to kill the Black Beast. When you stand face-to-face with the Black Beast, both its power and its associated burden will skyrocket."

"That goes without saying. I am not claiming any dissatisfaction with these weapons."

"Then what are you getting at?"

Nine flipped her hair as she started to get irritated with Hakumen, who hadn't gotten to his point yet.

With a slight movement of the neck, Hakumen turned his face to Nine.

"The Nox Nyctores are strong, but no matter how strong a weapon might be, it serves no purpose if the one wielding it cannot endure the Black Beast's onslaught."

As someone who had faced the Black Beast in the flesh just half a month ago, his words carried dreadful weight.

One of his comrades on that battlefield, Jubei, hung his head as he crossed his arms.

"...I get what Hakumen's saying. I couldn't fight like I wanted to by the end there, after all."

"There's more to it. Without a doubt, the beast has become wise. We cannot outwit it with weapons alone."

Valkenhayn's usual grim expression contained the gravity of his recent experiences as he lowered his chin.

He knew that this wasn't the sort of problem that could be solved with a good enough weapon. No matter which people or what weapons they gathered, it wouldn't be enough. The Black Beast existed on an entirely different level.

Cowed by the sudden change of atmosphere mixed with the pressure of an unfamiliar battlefield, Trinity quietly listened to the words of those who had lived through that fight. Next to her, Celica listened with a serious face and rapt attention while she made little cracking sounds with the jam-coated crackers she was continuing to eat. Standing behind her as naturally as if she was Celica's shadow was Nirvana.

"So? Are you going to make any suggestions today?"

Exposing her voluptuous thighs as she shifted her legs, Nine tapped the table with her finger to hurry the conversation along.

Hakumen placed Ookami lengthwise on the table and started giving an answer.

"Do you remember the cave we found underground near the Kaka Clan village?"

"You mean the one we found near the subway line～"

Following Trinity's lead after she raised her hand and softly answered Hakumen, Celica got a little excited as she spoke up.

"I remember. That really pretty one, right? Didn't you say it was like the planet's antibodies or something..."

"Indeed. That place had a power to eliminate seithr within its area just like your own, Celica. The Black Beast is essentially a large mass of seithr, so it would lose considerable strength if we were to lead it there." "How're you gonna do that when there're no cauldrons anywhere near there?"

Sitting close to the wall and leaning back and forth in his chair, Terumi chimed in with little more than passing interest.

In response, Trinity pulled up her personal map. It wasn't as big as the one in the Mage's Guild, but it showed Ishana, the nearby continent, and all the major cities on them. It was at least ten years old, however, so it showed the names of many cities that no longer existed as well.

"The closest cauldron to Ishana is this one right here. The Kaka village is..."

"Right 'round here."

Trinity drew a circle in red pen around the location of a cauldron, then Jubei reached in from her side and pointed out the next location. Using the red pen again, she drew a triangle around that point.

Peaking over her shoulder, Celica's mouth opened in surprise.

"They're pretty far away..."

Celica summed it up well.

It would be more than a stretch of the imagination to say that the cauldron where the Black Beast would likely show up last and the Kaka village were close to each other. They might have looked relatively close on the map, but even leading a pursuing human army that far would have been unrealistic, to say nothing of the Black Beast. Furthermore, the Kaka village was unfortunately relatively far inland, practically in the opposite direction of Ishana from the perspective of the final cauldron.

"At the very least, leading it that far on foot is impossible. Even traveling in motor vehicles would be unrealistic. At that distance, magic would be the only viable option..."

Hakumen nodded to Valkenhayn's words.

"Indeed. We will use teleportation magic. We teleport the Black Beast to the cave as it appears from the cauldron, then lay waste to it."

"Hold on."

Nine interrupted Hakumen with a tone that indicated that she was far from on board with this plan. She took her hand off of her chin and stared him down with a sharp glint in her eyes.

"This place you're talking about has no seithr, so you think that if we can get the Black Beast there, it'll be seriously hampered. I understand that well enough. The idea of teleporting the Black Beast there is interesting, too. It's going to be impossible though."

“Is distance the reason?"

"It sure is."

Hakumen and Nine went back-and-forth from across the table.

"Teleportation takes you a shorter and shorter distance the more mass you add. If you tried to teleport something as big as the Black Beast all the way from that cauldron to that cave, all of the Ten Sages working together wouldn't be enough to pull it off."

If it was something that all of the Ten Sages together couldn't do, then even adding all the rest of mages in the Mage's Guild to the equation wouldn't make much of a difference.

Nevertheless, Hakumen answered immediately.

"Then where would you need to start from to reach the cave?"

"Huh?"

She hadn't expected him to ask something like that. Nine was visibly taken aback, but she put her expression back in order after a moment.

"Well... if it was just me alone, I could probably only make it from within walking distance of the Kaka village, but if we assumed all of the Ten Sages were working together on this... maybe from about here."

Nine lit a bright light on her fingertip and drew a circle on the map.

The paper didn't burn even though she touched it directly, and Hakumen, Celica, Trinity, and Valkenhayn all looked down at the circle on the paper at once. The circle was much bigger than any of them had expected, but it was still obviously not somewhere they could reach from the cauldron. And yet...

"...I'm not sure how much distance this is in reality, but for the Black Beast, it's not all that far. Hakumen-san?"

After some brief thought while lightly touching her chin with her hand, Celica looked up with a clear thought in her mind. Hakumen nodded lightly to indicate that he was listening.

"I can handle that. If it works out, we might win, after all."

"Wha- hold on just a minute!"

Like she was trying to wedge herself between Celica and Hakumen as they looked at each other, Nine raised her voice in a panic.

"Don't you two go deciding things on your own. Hakumen, just who do you think you're trying to rope into this?"

From beneath the shadow of her big, triangular purple hat, she glared with unconcealed fury at the expressionless white mask.

Quietly returning her gaze with indifference, Hakumen answered.

"We will have Celica lead the Black Beast into teleportation range."

Faster than he could get the words out, Nine slammed the table and stood up.

"Huh!? Don't screw with me, you want a repeat of last time!? And there was an ambush already set up back then, plus we need a certain amount of prep to use teleportation, so she'd need to lead it all the way there you know!? What do you mean, just lead it into teleportation range? Are you telling Celica to go play tag with the Black Beast!?"

Even at the best of times, they were dealing with a genuine monster boasting atrocious destructive power and devious cunning to boot. She looked like she was about to climb over the table and throw a punch, so Jubei and Trinity came in from her left and right and put their hands on her in the hopes of soothing her rage a bit.

"Hey, cool it."

"Let's just hear him out first～"

But before those two could manage to calm her down, Celica stood up straight as an arrow.

"Listen to me, Onee-chan. I actually already talked to Hakumen-san about this, and I was the one who suggested that I lead the Black Beast along."

"I don't care whose idea it was, I won't let you! Do you want to die!?"

"It's not like that. I've been thinking of something other than standing in front of the Black Beast with Hakumen-san and the army people to lure it away."

Pressing her fingers on the edge of the table, Celica looked straight at Nine.

Normally when Nine got emotional and lost her cool like this, Celica would be yelling right back at her, wondering if they were having a conversation or a simple sisters' fight. Today, however, Celica maintained her composure. More specifically, her bearing showed that she had nothing but calm, tranquil resolve in her heart. She took one comforting glance at Hakumen before beginning her sincere speech.

"I haven't told you this yet, but remember when a piece of the Black Beast teleported into Ishana with Take-Mikazuchi? In that moment, I don't know how it happened, but I went inside of the Black Beast."

"Inside it..."

Nine asked with a severe expression on her face.

Everyone else in the room reacted much like Nine, looking at Celica with surprise mixed with a little curiosity, save for Hakumen, who was the only one who already knew this fact. Even Terumi, still sitting by the wall, was no exception.

"Yeah. And... I found Ragna in there."

Jubei gasped in shock, and Nine once again could not hide her astonishment from Celica.

"We didn't get to spend much time together, but Ragna seemed to be doing something specific inside the Black Beast. Something that he could only do from there."

"So... are you implying that you want to enter the Black Beast and lead it into position from there... Celica-san?"

Confused anxiety clouded Trinity's beautiful green eyes as she threaded her white fingertips over her chin.

Celica didn't nod. Instead, she tilted her head and tried to think of the right words to express herself.

"No, not really that exactly... more like, I could put it in a state where it could be led? That's how Hakumen-san put it, anyway. I'll go inside the Black Beast, find Ragna and get him to help me, then look for the Black Beast's heart."

Celica unconsciously clenched her hand so tightly that it started shaking as she laid out her plan. Her small fist didn't show that she was trying to put on a brave face: it proved how strongly she wanted to do anything she could.

Supplementing Celica's awkward explanation, Hakumen picked up where she left off.

"The Black Beast came about by means of flesh and a heart. If those two components are not eliminated simultaneously, it will not fall. If viewed from the opposite perspective, that means that the beast can be vanquished if we strike down both at once. If we interfere with the heart somehow, it will turn its attention inward. It will forget all about going to Ishana, and it may even bite at simple bait, allowing it to be lured away."

"And by 'simple bait,' you must mean..."

Large numbers of people and unspoiled establishments or buildings were the perfect bait for tickling the Black Beast's base instincts.

Valkenhayn couldn't help but think about the day that Take-Mikazuchi had fallen on Ishana, groaning.

"Heh, I get it. If you scrape up every poor sap who thinks he can fight and shove 'em in the Joint HQ Army, you'd have a force way bigger than the number of people still hanging out in Ishana. A stupid, bloodthirsty monster would obviously come running for the one that has the most prey."

Leaning his chair so far back that it creaked, Terumi looked like he was having a blast, a thin smile spreading across his face.

Hakumen picked Ookami up off the table and returned it to his back as he put more vigor into his voice.

"If we can disrupt the Black Beast from the inside out, we will be able to lead it into teleportation range. We will have all the Ten Sages work together to teleport the Black Beast directly above the cave, thereby incapacitating it, and from there we strike the heart from the inside as we strike the body from the outside... and put an end to this."

That was the plan Hakumen had been thinking up for the decisive battle ever since Celica told him that she had gone inside the Black Beast and found Ragna.

From the existence of an 'inside' of the Black Beast, to the beast being composed of 'flesh' and 'heart' components, to the efficacy of the cave's power against the beast itself, not a single piece of this information was proven with absolute certainty. Nevertheless, Hakumen's words had something that went beyond meticulously recorded and calculated data: they were facts of life. Just like how air is air and water is water, the concepts that Hakumen founded his plan upon carried a sort of gravity that put them beyond reproach. Nine, Trinity, Jubei, and Valkenhayn could all tell that, if everything went according to plan, they really would be able to defeat the Black Beast. They knew it was true by intuition rather than logic, as if the very words coming out of Hakumen's mouth themselves were showing them the path to victory.

Nine bit her lip but kept her silence, thinking hard about something. Noticing Nine, Trinity gracefully raised her hand.

"You say that Celica-san needs to get inside the Black Beast, but how would we make that happen? And surely you have some way to safely get her out, don't you?"

Her gentle, composed question was intended to slow the conversation down a little before they all separated their emotions from their sense of duty too much. Trinity certainly wasn't one of the ones in danger of doing that, though.

Before Hakumen could respond to her sweet voice, Jubei looked over at her with anguish apparent on his face.

"I got a way to get her in. My clan has this sword, called the 'Time Killing Blade,' Hihiirokane... it's got the power to cut through a body and a soul at the same time."

The feet of Terumi's chair clattered to the ground when Jubei said the name of the sword, but no one paid him any mind. Or, at least, no one let it show on their face if they did pick up on it.

"That sword would be able to cut through the Black Beast's spirit, which might make it possible to get inside it. Never tried it though, so I dunno how it'd actually work."

He couldn't say it would work for certain, but then again, hardly anything was certain with the Black Beast. It wouldn't do them any good to split hairs over every uncertain detail; they had to just play every card they could.

"Where's that sword now? Do you have it, Jubei-san?"

Celica asked with hope sparkling in her eyes.

Jubei shook his head no, but he didn't seem very despondent about it.

"It's in storage in a certain place. I know where it is, so I can easily go and get it."

"There's no problem, then. Jubei-san can make an entrance for me."

Celica gave a big nod. Just as it seemed like every problem had been solved…

"Please wait a moment. How are you going to get out, then?"

Reigning in Celica before she got carried away, Trinity brought up what she considered to be the main problem at hand again.

Celica nodded at that question too.

"Don't worry, I'm sure I'll just naturally return to the outside world when you defeat the Black Beast. Even if I don't, Nirvana can just get me out. That's what she did last time."

Nirvana's hands could physically touch and interfere with seithr, so she could rip open the Black Beast from the inside and bring Celica back out. That was something she had already proven. With her hands, it was possible that she really could attack the heart from the inside and the flesh from the outside.

Just as the conversation seemed to be drifting toward that idea…

"Do we really have to put this all on Celica again...? Can't the six of us handle one little monster without her?"

Nine couldn't hold back her bitterness and pain anymore.

Trinity and Jubei's expressions both went dark at the same time. Nine wasn't the only one who would have loved to keep Celica off the front lines, if only there were any other way.

Hakumen's words came down like a cut from a sword.

"Thinking that we cannot fight the Black Beast without Celica A. Mercury is a false assumption: The truth is that we can only fight it because we have her."

"That's a fallacy..."

She could hardly get the words out. Nevertheless, Hakumen's words stuck in her chest.

She didn't want to use her little sister like a tool, and she didn't want to put her in danger, but she knew that if they went to battle without Celica, their chances of victory would become yet another uncertainty.

Victory would become an unlikelihood, if anything.

Celica shot away from the table like a speeding bullet. She scurried around the cramped room and took Nine's lovely cheeks in her hands, lifting her head up to look her in the eyes. Nine's cheeks were as smooth as ever, but they had become noticeably sunken recently.

"I don't want to have to use Nirvana's last resort. I'd much rather we all do everything we can do and win this fight together. I wouldn't be even a little bit happy if we could only beat the Black Beast and restore peace after everyone I love had already died."

She understood what Nine was feeling. If Celica were in Nine's position, with all her abilities and everything, she wouldn't want to send her little sister out onto a battlefield either.

Nevertheless, Celica stared her older sister down with assertive eyes, having to look up at Nine because she was taller.

"You guys are all always looking out for me. If I go inside the Black Beast and give this plan everything I've got, I can do something to make all that trouble worth it for you. And that's not the only thing..."

"Do you not understand just how dangerous of a situation this is going to be?"

"I do understand. But, I mean, I am your little sister, you know? I'm a mage, and I'm Nine of the Ten Sages' little sister."

Her big, wet soil-colored eyes held a profound strength as she gazed straight ahead. She had the same fierce look in her eyes as Nine, who intimidated everyone in the Mage's Guild.

"Someone has to do this, and since I'm the only one with the power to do it, I want to do my part. If I back out of this and we lose... if we can't beat the Black Beast after all, then I'm just going to end up dead anyway, you know?"

Nine's eyes trembled at the word 'dead.'

Nine put her hands on Celica's, which at this point were less so 'holding' her cheeks and more so 'gripping' them.

"...Of course I know that."

How many times now had her stubbornness lost out to Celica's stubbornness? Even Nine understood the situation they were in here. No matter how hard she wracked her brain, she would always come to the same conclusion: that this was their best plan. They had no more military assets waiting in reserve beyond what they currently had, they had nowhere they could retreat to, and they wouldn't have the strength to stand back up and try again if they lost this fight. This would be their last battle, and they had to play every card in their hand.

However, Nine was hesitating precisely because this was the end, and it was Hakumen's words that steeled her emotions.

"You do not have to put your faith in anything or anyone else. You do not even have to accept or approve of this. But, you must believe in your sister and Ragna the Bloodedge."

"...Ragna..."

Nine's whispering voice died in her throat, and she let go of Celica's hands.

Sitting back down heavily in her chair, she crossed her long legs over one another and crossed her arms beneath her chest.

"...First things first, we retrieve Hihiirokane. While we're waiting for that, I'll talk to the Ten Sages about the teleportation thing."

Nine spoke with a clear, rational voice, bouncing all the things they would have to do in preparation around in her head, before draining her cold herbal tea in one gulp.

Part 4

In the castle of perpetual night, the Alucard Manor.

Surrounded in rose gardens as far as the eye can see, this eerie, beautiful castle was playing host to two guests this night. Rather than sunlight, pale moonlight was pouring through the large window of one of the countless parlors. The moon was eternal above this castle. It was a quiet, perfectly full moon that simply looked on from above.

Rachel Alucard, the current head of the Alucard family that ruled this castle, was sitting on a luxurious sofa with an ivy design crawling up the sides, wearing a black dress over her small frame.

"Please excuse the delay."

Leading the guests, Valkenhayn had put his butler face back on. With refined mannerisms that didn't quite suit his brawny figure, he brought cups of black tea to the mistress and her guests.

Rachel's white cup emitted white steam that carried the flowery scent of roses with it, and she raised it off the table after giving her glossy golden ponytails a slight shake. Her eminently childlike lips took a single sip of tea.

"Valkenhayn, give it to them."

She gave her order as her blood-red eyes gazed across the table at her guests──Jubei and Hakumen.

That being said, the only one sitting on a sofa was Jubei; Hakumen stood behind the sofa with his back to the wall, standing so perfectly motionless that he could have been a still life painting. Feeling the tension in his companion behind him, Jubei scratched his ears beneath his hood a little uncomfortably.

Hakumen's attitude wasn't the only reason that he couldn't calm down, however. Jubei had gotten quite used to Alucard Castle in his comings and goings in the past, but the castle had shifted into a new phase to suit its new mistress when Rachel succeeded Clavis Alucard as the head of the family, so now everything felt uncanny to Jubei. Even this parlor sofa had been different before, feeling like an old antique from a bygone age, complete with a dusty smell and an austere color scheme better fit for an elderly person than a young girl. He was wracked with an indescribable discomfort being in this place that he once knew well appearing completely different.

"As you wish, Rachel-sama."

At his mistress' command, Valkenhayn went to his disoriented old friend's side, holding a thin wooden box he had brought with the tea. As carefully as he would handle a bouquet of flowers, he gave the box to Jubei.

Rachel waved her finger, and the red rose brand on the box faded away, temporarily removing the seal that her predecessor Clavis had placed.

"...Been a while since I laid eyes on it."

Murmuring nostalgically, Jubei put a hand on the wooden box. Opening the box with a little clattering sound, he revealed the long, black object laying within it.

It was a sword in a black sheath, and its name was the Time Killing Blade, Hihiirokane.

"After retrieving it along with Tomonori, father kept it sealed constantly. He said that it mustn't be lost before the time came to use it again."

The timbre of her words showed that Rachel was reminiscing on bygone times as well.

Rachel and Jubei had both lost people dear to them who were involved with this sword. Rachel had lost her father while Jubei lost his little brother.

"Thanks again, for what happened with Tomonori."

"I wasn't the one to handle the matter. All the more reason to proceed with caution. Especially with regards to..."

"Yuuki Terumi."

Jubei finished Rachel's warning for her.

The last time someone wielded this sword, it was against Yuuki Terumi. The result was that he was sealed in the Alucard Manor for a time, until he had his free will restrained by Nine's Mind Eater.

In place of a nod, Rachel took another sip of tea and placed the cup back on the table.

"Just as you surmised, Hihiirokane is capable of cutting through the Black Beast's spirit and creating a passage inside of it. But before I allow you to depart with this sword, you must commit to fulfilling one more duty."

"A duty?"

Lifting his gaze from the glossy black scabbard, Jubei looked at Rachel.

Rachel looked back into his big cat eye with her own deep crimson ones.

"Killing Yuuki Terumi."

With a frigid voice ill-befitting her youthful appearance, she stated her terms without a hint of hesitation.

Jubei's breath caught in his throat for a moment and his muscles tightened subconsciously. His brother Tomonori had once resolved to kill Yuuki Terumi and took Hihiirokane from their hidden village in order to do it. The young vampire was telling him to take up Tomonori's final mission along with the sword he had held in his final moments.

Staring hard at the black scabbard in the box, Jubei gave his reply.

"So... just sealing him up again while he's still under Mind Eater's influence isn't an option, then?"

"Indeed, obviously not. Father was only able to seal him because his consciousness was completely absent at the time. Tomonori gave his life to make that seal possible."

A tiny bit of sentimentality slipped through Rachel's exasperated sigh.

"Hihiirokane is the only weapon that can kill Terumi, and you are likely its most worthy possible wielder in the world right now. I believe that I can entrust this matter to you."

Rachel's small voice carried a nobility that far exceeded her youthful exterior. The sublime, dreamlike atmosphere of Alucard Castle was certainly not the only reason that it was hard to believe that she existed in reality.

The vampire girl pressed him for an answer with her unrealistic voice.

"The choice is yours to make. Now... what will you choose?"

She was giving him two choices: take the sword, or don't take the sword. If he chose to take it, he would also be choosing to carry on his brother Tomonori's will.

For Jubei, there was no question.

"I humbly accept this charge."

Jubei took Hihiirokane out of the box.

He felt like he had been punched in the gut by a wave of emotions as he lifted the sword, thinking of his brother's lingering regrets contained within. Rachel's condition was convenient for him, really. He had secretly wanted to take revenge for Tomonori all this time, if only he had the chance. Skillfully grasping the hilt with his big cat paw, he drew the blade from its scabbard. It shone with an unbelievable sharpness as it caught the light from the antique golden chandelier.

As he returned it to its scabbard once more with a crisp click, Rachel studied him closely.

"...I see. In that case, I'll prepare one more weapon for you, Jubei."

"Another one?"

"Would you be interested if I called it something like an extra special item, perhaps?"

Seeming briefly like a mischievous child, Rachel's lips shifted into a cold smile.

"The eye of the man who cut Yuuki Terumi and observed his spirit."

The man who recklessly tried to take Terumi on all by himself, but didn't have enough strength to see it through, and was killed by Terumi instead.

"You don't mean..."

Jubei took a long, hard look at Rachel, his eye wavering as he tried to call her bluff.

The truth came in words, however, through Rachel's rose-red lips.

"Indeed, I'm referring to Tomonori's eye."

Hakumen had left the parlor and was currently walking alone through the castle, looking for a certain place.

He walked below the cold stone wall surrounding the castle, down a long flight of stairs. The candle-shaped lights ensconced here and there in the wall were woefully unreliable as light sources, and stepping into the spaces between them was like walking through the darkness of a bottomless swamp. Nonetheless, Hakumen's steady pace showed no hesitation, fear, or doubt, as if he could always see where he was placing his feet no matter what path he might be walking. He alternated between walking through the swamps of darkness and the ponds of light as he marched on.

The young vampire princess had taken the cat and the wolf somewhere else in the castle. Their goal was to transplant the eye of Jubei's brother, Tomonori, into Jubei. What they called an 'eye' was not in fact an eyeball taken from Tomonori's corpse, but rather an artificial eye based on it. Rachel had said that Yuuki Terumi could not be killed unless his spiritual body was cut down along with him, and according to her, Tomonori's prosthetic eye would be able to observe Terumi's spirit.

Jubei had agreed to this plan quickly. With just as little hesitation as when he claimed Hihiirokane, he decided to accept his brother's eye. He must have felt very strongly about his departed younger brother. Hakumen couldn't imagine what sort of emotions that sword and that eyeball must have been stirring up in the cat-man's heart.

All he could think was that that is what brothers should be. His thoughts on the matter never formed into such coherent words as that, but he believed that to be true.

His unerringly uniform footsteps came to a halt as he arrived at the small, hole-like space at the bottom of the very long staircase. This was the very deepest point in the entire convoluted, maze-like Alucard Manor.

The first thing he saw after descending the seemingly endless passage was a solemn pair of tightly shut double doors that were so incredibly sturdy looking that they seemed like they had gone to sleep at some point and would never wake up again. Hakumen stepped in front of them like they were drawing him in, but he did not reach his hands out and try to open them. There was no need for him to open the doors, because there was nothing behind them anymore. All that was left was the memories and sentiments that Hakumen had abandoned.

This was the final place that Hakumen had visited when he was still a person with a different name.

"...Nii ...hng."

He would always remember something when he came here. His final memory from the time axis he originated from, from before he put on the white mask, when he had been someone with a different name.

Something thick and scorching hot like lava whirled about. A single man fell into a wide-open cauldron like he was being pulled into it, the light coming from the depths of the cauldron reflecting off of his white hair. His red jacket fluttered in the hot wind.

The man, together with a dainty girl, was run through by a massive sword. The two were inseparably bound to each other as they fell deeper and deeper in.

The Hakumen of the past followed after them, but he couldn't catch up. He watched as the two people pierced by the sword were swallowed up by the fiery cauldron. And eventually, Hakumen saw the man and the girl melt together into one...

──and become the Black Beast.

"...Nii-san."

Since there was no one around to hear him, who knows if that mumbled word ever left his mouth.

He had remembered. Seeing what Jubei was going through had stirred up his memories. Memories of his brother. He wondered what the man he had once called his older brother would think if he could see him now. If he was more pure like Jubei and cherished his brotherly bonds, he wouldn't fight this battle. After all, the enemy that he was trying to slay was his brother.

"...Foolishness."

This time, Hakumen's voice rang clear as he spoke to himself.

The final battle loomed before them, and here he was drowning in nostalgia over a brother who he had forgotten he had an attachment to. He was being far too meticulous, like he was trying to show off. No matter how many armies he commanded or how many weapons he collected, in the end, he wasn't fighting to save the world.

Everything he did was for himself. He was fighting for his own desires, impulses, and sentiments. He was fighting for his instinct to not let the world be destroyed.

Suddenly, he felt the presence of someone moving above him. It must have been Jubei. It seemed that the transplant had been completed, which meant there was no need to waste any more time in this castle.

Getting in touch with who he had been when he was still human and drowning in self-inflicted torment made for a poor way to kill time.

"So long."

Quietly uttering some parting words, Hakumen turned his back on the past and returned the way he came.

All that was left was darkness, silence, and cold, like the bottom of a well that even ripples couldn't reach.

Part 5

As the castle of perpetual night played host to visitors in the light of a pale full moon, Ishana was lit by the more erratic light of a waning moon.

Lamp posts set at regular intervals lined the cobblestone streets, and when Trinity arrived at a certain house on one of those streets, it was already deep into the night hours. Nine, walking ahead of her, unlocked the door and invited her in with a wave. Accepting the invitation, Trinity held her breath so as not to make any noise as she stepped through the entrance. Both of them were using silencing magic, so neither Nine's high heels tapping the ground nor Trinity's staff bumping it made any noise.

They were in Nine and Celicas' house, but Nine hadn't taken Trinity here because it was her and her sister's dwelling. They were here for Nine's personal workshop underground.

Taking painstaking care to not wake Celica, who was sleeping on the second floor, the two descended a spiral staircase.

It was quite a long walk. The stairs were so long that after a while one would start to wonder if they were some kind of optical illusion, but nevertheless they eventually ended at a door. It was heavily guarded by both a magical and an electrical lock, both of which Nine opened.

The magical lighting that came through the now-open doorway was somewhere between white and orange. The square-shaped stone brick room beyond was packed with bookshelves, racks, and general clutter. Trinity had been here countless times, so she was quite familiar with it. As she followed Nine inside, the door quietly shut behind her.

Nine waited until the door was securely shut before she spoke, tossing her long hair back behind her neck.

"Sorry for bringing you over so late at night, but who knows when the next time I'll have the time to spare will be."

She breathed a fatigued sigh. Feeling gentle sympathy for her friend, Trinity replied softly.

"Oh, don't worry about it～"

"...Thanks. I figured you'd say that though, so I'm still feeling kind of guilty."

Nine gave a little apologetic look. After another sigh, she narrowed her eyes into a tense expression and walked deeper into the workshop, Trinity following behind her. The silencing magic had faded by now, so realistic sounds now accompanied the two girls' passage.

Overflowing with stuff similar to the previous room, which would be hard to call 'orderly' even in the best of circumstances, this room was mostly occupied by large-scale materials and equipment, and there was no space remaining for anything without a practical use.

Amidst the cold atmosphere of machinery, a single distinctive wooden box sat on its own. Nine didn't need to point it out, because Trinity's eyes had naturally landed on it on their own. It was roughly the size of a human child, making it pretty big and probably fairly heavy.

Nine extended her hand, dispelled the seal on it, and opened the lid. What was inside was something that Trinity had never seen before.

To put a name to it... it was a nail, but it was an incredibly big one. It was a nail the size of a human child. It had no ornamentation, which made it all the more perplexing because it was difficult to determine its function.

Trinity lifted her gaze to look at Nine.

"Nine, what's this...?"

"The ninth Nox Nyctores."

"The ninth?"

"Yeah. Its name is Pheonix: Rettenjo."

Nine furrowed her brow and made a complicated expression. She couldn't take her eyes off of the large nail laying in the box.

"This... you see, this one... this is the only one that isn't a weapon of war. Rettenjo is the anti-Nox Nyctores. I created it to destroy the other Nox Nyctores."

"Destroy them? Didn't you say that you were going to seal them once the war is over...?"

Listening to Trinity's graceful, hesitant voice, Nine nodded her head quietly.

"Yeah. This is insurance, just like Nirvana."

Trinity picked up on the shame in her words and glanced down at the staff in her hands. Arma Reboare: Muchourin.

She understood what was on Nine's mind.

"For the off-chance that something happens and you aren't able to seal the Nox Nyctores away, and someone uses them against humans... right?"

Nine didn't trust that all of the Nox Nyctores would be returned to her to be sealed after they had served their intended purpose in the war. Their wielders may die in combat and someone else may come along and take the weapons. Or... some of their current wielders may refuse to return them.

Nine thought she had to account for all of the possibilities while still prioritizing their survival, their victory over the Black Beast. She was even considering the chance that she herself wouldn't survive this fight, which is why she had created Nirvana's last resort and the Rettenjo.

Trinity realized that, and her eyes clouded with sorrow. No one could know who was going to live and who was going to die.

Nine gently closed the wooden lid and recast the seal like she was turning a key in a lock.

"I want to entrust this to you, Trinity. If I die, this house will be seized by the Joint HQ. If that happens and they possess the Nox Nyctores, and then they find this, there won't be any way for humanity to resist the power of the Nox Nyctores anymore."

"But, I..."

Don't know if I'll survive or not either. Knowing what Trinity was about to say, Nine cut her off with a piercing, unreserved look.

"If you die, I'll take it back. Even if I have to become a phantom and come back from the dead to do it."

Her voice was thick with the strength of her will. She prayed that no one would have to use this nail, but she seemed to have a hunch that someone would.

Nine picked the box up in both arms and held it out to Trinity. Beyond the strength in her gaze there was a glimpse of a weary, somber girl. Looking at the face of Konoe Mercury, rather than Nine of the Ten Sages, Trinity felt her breath rattle just as badly as her feelings were rattling in her chest.

Nine's words came out as a low, indistinct mumble.

"...The truth is that Rettenjo is really just a tiny Kushinada's Lynchpin. I gave Nirvana to Celica, so... I want you, who was there to see the Lynchpin with me, to have this."

Kushinada's Lynchpin was the device that could sever connections to the Boundary which may have been able to stop the Black Beast. To Nine, it was the creation of a man who she detested to no end, but at the same time, it was a keepsake of her father. She did not love her father, but Kushinada's Lynchpin was a very special device. She had used the peculiar metal that interfered with seithr that it was composed of to make Nirvana's claws, and she used its special ability to sever seithr as a reference to make Rettenjo. Nine's desire to entrust those two creations to Celica and Trinity, who had witnessed her father's final moments together with her, was Nine's sentimentality showing through.

Trinity pursed her lips before taking the box from Nine. She awkwardly tried to hold the box and Muchourin at the same time, hugging the box to her chest as she smiled softly.

"I'll take good care of this. But, Nine, I'm just holding onto it for you～"

In other words, she was telling her to not get careless just because she had insurance now. Telling her not to rush to her death. Nine understood what she meant even though she didn't put it into words. She smiled wryly, her usually tough eyes softening into something weaker.

"...I'm sorry for asking so much of you, Trinity."

"...Don't mention it. It's perfectly fine by me."

Trinity shook her head like she was trying to convince Nine.

Nine cast one more smile at her before exiting the room, leading Trinity out.

"I'll walk you home. Thanks for coming out so late."

Nine glanced over her shoulder, and the side of her face showed that she had shaken off her momentary weakness and had returned to her usual unyielding self.

Wondering whether that was a good thing or not, Trinity left the underground workshop, still clinging on to Muchourin and Rettenjo.

Back to Chapter 2: Sweeping Away Crimson Grief

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Forward to Chapter 4: Azure Wish's Fate