BlazBlue:Phase Shift 1 Chapter 5

Chapter 5: Night of Black Betrayal

Part 1

And then, night came.

A night that was creepy for some reason. The moon which was waning in the dark sky took control, while there was scarce wind.

A terribly chaotic night which the deep black of night sky and sea were mixed together in the distant horizon.

Kazuma stood alone on rocky area which only relied on the moonlight.

About two hours ago, it was the place he barely arrived at after being guided by Terumi and also the place where he encountered Nine and Trinity to make the matter worse.

The night of the rocky area would be like shadow lump if it hadn't been touched; on the opposite side, the waves which played frail noises was like stagnant darkness. If there was a place referred as other world, then this location seemed to be the boundary line with the present world.

He was hallucinating on whether the world had already gone or not. As time was eternal, the night and silence had yet come to an end.

Just about everything seemed to have already ended...

On the opposite side of the bushes, small lights flickered.

Perceiving it with the proximity of his vision, Kazuma hid himself in the shade of a nearby rock.

(It's still early for the end. Rather... it's starting from now on.)

If he were to be asked what it was, it would be everything.

Yes, getting back everything. Like what Terumi said in the beginning.

As if wavering silhouette, what appeared by shoving and separating bushes from between the trees was the person Kazuma waited for.

It was like the person didn't have any cautious behavior. Even more, it was extremely doubtful for her to be cautious to anybody.

After Kazuma smoothly stepped forward under the moonlight, he greeted with gentle smile.

"Did you arrive without telling anyone? ...Celica A. Mercury-san."

Black and white uniform of the academy; long ponytail that jumped each time she walked. The color of the pupils, which were illuminated by the burning light of magic on her fingertips, was easily recognized in this dark place.

Celica turned the pointed light here. Once she realized the other party was Kazuma, she made her relieved face really cheerful.

"It's okay. Since Onee-chan joined a meeting in a sudden, there's no one in home."

With light manner of walking, Celica rushed over just close to Kazuma.

That moment, Kazuma tasted the massive weight of a sensation from the surrounding atmosphere.

Powerfully tightening his molars, he desperately held his breath for several seconds. He grew pale in an instant. The dragged out consciousness receded; dizziness and nausea made him crumbled down from the knees.

Why did he get this sick when he was together with Celica? He didn't know the reason, but he couldn't pass out or run back home here.

"That's good. After all, I have something I must tell just to Celica-san alone."

While encouraging himself up in his mind, Kazuma gave a smile as if he was relieved.

Didn't suspect anything, Celica stared at Kazuma with serious look.

"But what kind of talk? ...You said that it's about Father."

After he parted with Nine and Trinity, Kazuma hastily returned until he got to the main street and searched for Celica's home. Immediately after the banter, Nine should be heading to Magic Guild in order to report to Ten Saints. It was a race for him to find it before Nine returned.

When he bumped with Celica who was on her way home after shopping at the vicinity of the previous café, it was the first time for him to thank God for his good fortune. Since he didn't happen to have fragments of faith, he had to be pleased with only a vague image of God.

I have something to talk about Professor Shuuichirou Ayatsuki.

Saying only that and then told her he would only talk it in this place, Kazuma immediately left that spot... and arrived now. He didn't came and bring Celica along just like that so that they wouldn't be seen by Nine by any chance.

With the setting of dark rocky area and sea, Kazuma slightly nodded with a very serious appearance.

"Celica A. Mercury-san. As I know you and Nine-san are Shuuichirou Ayatsuki's daughters, I have checked up a little regarding your father. Since six years ago on that day... he's missing, isn't he?"

Six years ago on that day, a world threatening demon, the Black Beast, appeared in Japan. A day when nuclear attack was done to put it into oblivion.

Just before the nuclear attack, all the people who had been living in the target, Japan, were evacuated outside the country. But those departures weren't flawless; several people couldn't escape and were left inside the country.

Shuuichirou Ayatsuki was one of them. The moment the island country turned into scorched earth, he was in Japan.

Hearing her father's name, Celica's pupils wavered in loneliness.

"...You were told he's missing, weren't you."

The spilled muttering was like she felt relief and had abandoned hope; a delicate sound.

"And yet Onee-chan and people around me said my father has died. There was a small funeral, you know?"

"...How do you feel about it?"

"Eh?"

Toward the slipped words from Kazuma which was in gentle tone, Celica shifted her attention to them as if bewildered.

Although she had disturbed complexion, her eyes were always direct. The unclouded gaze once more gave mysterious chill to Kazuma.

Enduring it, Kazuma stared Celica back.

"A few days ago, you know there's news of a survivor found in Japan. That time, you watched the news with a serious looking face. ...Are you also thinking about it? About Shuuichirou Ayatsuki, your father, who died as he got involved in the nuclear attack six years ago..."

"That's..."

Unusually, Celica hesitated and was at loss for words.

Her father being alive, the matter, which she always used to say that she couldn't put into words now, had no basis in it. That was why it was only Celica's simplistic wish.

How much of a miracle the discovery of survivor's news was, even Celica understood about it. Also on how similar miracle couldn't happen so many times.

There might only be one sheet of the fortune card that the survivor had luckily drawn.

As if giving it a thought, Kazuma folded his arms in slow movement and turned his head to the sea. As if coiling to one, the dark night and sea merged; its border couldn't be exactly seen.

He focused his gaze beyond the really deep darkness. He wasn't even sure which direction from here where the island country called Japan existed, with a feeling like he was gazing at it.

"To tell you the truth, since then, I also had personal interest at the news and investigated it."

"Kazuma-san did?"

"Yes. The rescued man from the other day seems to work as researcher in a research institute, similar to Professor Ayatsuki. But six years ago, he got engrossed in his study and completely forgot about the fixed date for the evacuation. Luckily, since a few days ago before the nuclear attack, he stayed at a research facility that was in deep underground. It might be thanks to it that he got spared."

Cutting off his words, still turning his body toward the sea, Kazuma returned his gaze to Celica in order to look at her reaction.

Celica's large eyes got even more widely opened. Appeared to be standing motionless, she tried to stand still while attentively listening to Kazuma's words.

The story Kazuma spoke off was information yet to be released to public. Celica also probably just heard it for the first time.

It was the good point of Magic Guild. If they were motivated, they would investigate about it. Under the cover of dark night, Kazuma secretly chuckled.

"Professor Ayatsuki is a world-famous researcher. If he's conducting research, it would be done in an appropriately large facility. I didn't investigate as far as where the professor worked, but there has to be an underground facility there."

Undoubtedly, the research institute where the male survivor employed couldn't be said that it was a large scale one. Yet the underground facility of that research institute had the strength to withstand nuclear attack.

It was unthinkable for the workplace of the world-famous researcher Shuuichirou Ayatsuki for not arranging that much security.

"Besides..." whispered Kazuma with low voice while slowly turning to Celica.

"The man is a plain survivor. ...However, it seems he's saying unusual statement."

"What's unusual about it?"

The lured Celica lowered her voice.

The night wind flickered the treetops that were like silhouettes.

It wasn't clear which the roar of waves and which the noise of forest was. Waiting for the moderate noises to disappear, Kazuma calmly answered to tell the story.

"He said, 'It's unbelievable for six years to pass since then. One year... or at most, two years that I believe has passed.'"

"Six years... to one year? No matter what, that's..."

"Certainly it feels hard to believe. But the unusual thing starts now. ...The man didn't leave the research institute. He passed time eating the stored emergency food. However, even if it was consumed by only one person, the amount wasn't enough to be eaten for six years at all. Moreover, with his body weight being in average, he's in no situation of being especially skinny."

"Eh, eh? Wait, what do you mean?"

The light on her fingertip wandered about as the confused Celica put her hand on her head.

Calmly, like he was talking to children, Kazuma tried to rephrase it in slow tone.

"You see, the man had been living in the ruin's underground for six years. Yet the traces of living which can be seen are estimated for just two years at most. ...Like that."

It wasn't only that. Six years were long. It would corrupt and weaken the body. If the hair were cut, the sheared hair would remain. The clothes would deteriorate. The footwear would wear down. Even with such things, the man had been verified that he had lived in the underground for two years at most.

"Two years..."

Celica muttered with blurred voice. The expression like she wanted to say that it was unbelievable.

As if giving it a thought, Kazuma drew his chin with meek expression.

"It's a truly unimaginable phenomenon. But as for the traces of living for six and two years, It doesn't seem likely for experts to mistake it even if they only giving it a sight. Besides... isn't there already an unimaginable monster existing in our world?"

"...The Black Beast."

Sluggishly speaking that name, Celica's expression got even stiffer.

On the other side of the barrier's layer that was wrapping the island, the world was constantly frightened of Black Beast's fangs. It was like a dream. But it was certainly an unmistakable reality that burdened the world.

Kazuma slipped a single cynical sigh.

"Japan is closely related to that monster. For a place where unexplainable phenomenon has occurred several times, it's nothing like a mystery now."

The span of six years becoming two; it was also possible for it to be reduced to even shorter length. It wasn't a miracle no matter what happened. Japan was that kind of a place.

"...Perhaps so."

To suppress the welling up anxiety in her chest, Celica embraced her chest with both hands. In that ridiculous, irrational land, her father was left behind alone.

To cheer up Celica, Kazuma put his hand on Celica's shoulder.

The moment it touched, Discomfort and rejection were rushing for him as if extremely repulsive thing got crushed with all his strength. Beneath the calm expression, Kazuma desperately calmed down the unnaturally stiffening hand.

"Celica-san. Please think about it. Surviving for six years with surviving for two years under the harsh environment; do you think there's a huge difference in the survival rate?"

Kazuma's pale colored lips expressed a smile to encourage her.

"In case in the same way the survivor from the other day did, Professor Ayatsuki was in a sturdy underground facility. In the same way blessed with preserved food. In the same way was within the miraculously slow time. Then..."

Slightly gasped, Celica looked up intensely at Kazuma. Even if her large pupils seemed to be slightly wet, she looked at him.

"Maybe... Father is also..."

While surrounded by weakened thought, Celica spoke with trembling voice.

"Father is also... possibly, alive...?"

It might be a shortsighted wish. It might be a foolish delusion.

But the pieces of information Kazuma showed side by side in front of Celica supported her prayer-like thought toward her father.

When Kazuma pulled his lips making a deep smile, Celica's face bloomed like a large flower.

But before that smiling face stopped blooming, Kazuma unexpectedly retracted his smile. The hand that had been placed on the girl's shoulder was weakly released like it was let fall.

"But... Too bad, isn't it."

As he slightly sighed, hinting of disappointment, Kazuma turned his gaze to his feet to turn his face away from Celica.

Celica peeked at him to follow it.

"What's wrong?"

"...I hate to say it... but I heard it seems the UN's army that's currently dispatched in Japan is aiming to establish an on-site investigation. Just because a single survivor was found, there's no particular plan to search for survivor..."

"W-Why!? There might be another people who are alive!"

The fully blooming smiling face of Celica was frozen midway in shock.

Toward the demanding Celica who made both her hands to fists, as if calming her, but also with a voice that didn't conceal discouragement, Kazuma answered.

"It's unknown how many people were missing in the first place. Even at the best of times, they can't separate the few personnel they have. Everyone has been thinking that this time was just a fortunate chance, so it's still hopeless for the survival of the people who was left in Japan six years ago."

Because of the large scale nuclear attack, the ground surface was more than being ruined. Furthermore, six years' worth of months and years had flown. It was meaningless to delay the original investigation activity because of being manipulated by the miracle of survivor. It was because the likeliness of discovering a new survivor was eternally close to zero.

Dropping his shoulders, Kazuma shook his head to grieve.

"Assuming Professor Ayatsuki's alive... Whether if he's being located by the army or not, it'd be better to have someone unrelated with the army to head there searching for the professor."

"Yeah... But anyone who isn't a soldier isn't allowed to land in Japan."

Celica's dejection wasn't equal to Kazuma's. Moreover, Kazuma's dejection was just the manner. At his mind, he wholeheartedly just wanted to quickly move away from Celica's face.

"Oh, you didn't know? Just the other day, voyage for civilian to head to Japan had been granted. From the port city nearest to Japan, a number of ferries should be leaving on the first day of the month."

"Is that... true!? People can go to Japan without being a soldier!? E-Even me!?"

Raising her surprised voice, Celica grasped Kazuma's hands with both of her hands to seize it.

"Hii...!"

Because it was too sudden, a voice that was like a scream escaped from Kazuma's mouth right away.

However, as her feelings didn't get stopped from even such a thing, Celica drew even closer to Kazuma.

"Anyone's fine? Without any formalities or inspections?"

"Y-Yes... I heard that there's only the voyage fee and a brief examination to get across."

"Then, then... Even I can go to Japan, right!?"

"Yes, of course. Rather from now on, I wonder if it isn't too much to think that Celica-san will have to visit place to place in Japan. Like everyone who have become separated from their family six years ago."

While enduring it as he still couldn't shake off the hands which got gripped, Kazuma desperately spoke.

Strength filled with enthusiasm was added to Celica's hands.

Kazuma's hands were cold. Celica's hands were warm; the girl's throbbing heartbeat seemed audible.

"I... want to save Father. No, I'll go!"

Where might the hesitation from when she was asked if she thought her father was alive go to? As if blowing away all the doubt she had until now, Celica looked up straight to Kazuma.

Even if the night was dark, Celica's deep brown eyes could be seen clearly.

While getting a chill that could make him fainted from the pure and innocent color, Kazuma also squeezed back Celica's hands with frowning expression.

"By go... you mean to Japan? You mustn't. It's too dangerous."

"But, isn't there possibly no other people who think to try saving Father? Everyone believes Father is dead. Then people who need help won't get rescued!"

It looked like there was already no single of doubt in her.

Kazuma let out a troubled groan for a while. But as if yielding to Celica's strong determination in her gaze, Kazuma finally smiled wryly.

"Looks like it's useless to stop you."

"Aha. Onee-chan also told me exactly that."

Vigorously, the long ponytail on Celica's back jumped.

"That's right. Onee-chan hasn't been told of this conversation. After that, we'd board a ship as soon as possible..."

"Aah, about telling Nine-san... I think it's better to pass on it."

Toward the cheerfully smiling Celica who were bright enough to illuminate even the dark night, Kazuma spoke while slipping a bit of gloom.

Still joining hands together, Celica bent her head slightly in a puzzle.

"Why?"

"Nine-san will surely object to your decision. She's a Ten Saint. She can make the necessary preparation to not issuing the permission to leave the island."

"Onee-chan doing that sort of thing..."

Is unthinkable, a statement which however optimistic the good-natured Celica was, even she couldn't say. As her lips distorted to a pouting, her eyebrows were lowered as if troubled.

"But... there's no way I can go while keeping it quiet. Besides, if I apply to get out of the island, it'll get circulated to Onee-chan anyway. In the end, wherever I go, I think I won't be able to proceed if I don't tell her."

There was a formal procedure to leave Ishana. If a relative tried to go out, confirming about it to Nine as she was the guardian was what to be expected.

Objection was the consequence. Toward the sighing Celica who was thinking about that, Kazuma smiled to cheer her and softly whispered to her ear.

"Celica-san. If I say there's a way to get out of the island without being known to your sister... what would you do?"

Instantly, the night of the rocky area fell silent like it was concealing its breath. Gentle wind passed through as if it tried to move something to reveal it.

Celica's long hair swayed.

"...You can get me out?"

It was Celica's true feeling which leaked out unintentionally.

Kazuma nodded to persuade her.

"Do you want to know the details?"

As for Celica's reply, it was clear from the beginning.

——There's a secret exit. From there, you can leave Ishana's barrier.

However, it'll close if you don't hurry. It's no use if you don't pass through it as soon as possible tonight.

Once you're outside of the barrier, please go along the island's outer wall to the harbor.

You're good in floating magic, right?

The procedure to go out is only necessary when you're getting out of the barrier.

A ship will arrive once morning comes.

What to do after that... is up to you.

Part 4

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