The Unexplored Summon Blood Sign:Volume1 Chapter2

Status: Incomplete

6/18 parts completed

   

Stage 02: The Rabbit is Alice’s Guide

“Milady.”

“Yes, let’s get started.”

(Stage 02 Open 04/15 00:30)

The Rabbit is Alice’s Guide

Part 1

Government Award 930, Golden Luxury.

Her real name was Azalea Magentarain. The girl seemed too delicate even for her young age of fourteen. She had smooth white skin, transparently blue eyes, and extremely long reddish blonde hair. Her ringlet curls were long enough to reach her waist.

She wore what looked like a business suit with a tight skirt, but it also had frills and lace in places. It was of course custom made. She would never be allowed to touch a premade product that could have been soaked with any number of strange chemicals.

She elegantly crossed her legs in the cargo space of a mid-sized vibration wing craft known as a Hornet.

A Hornet was an armored weapon meant for ground attacks and personnel transport in place of helicopters. It was fifteen meters long and it went without saying what its silicon shell was shaped to resemble. It was of course more than a hobby item. It used various deception weapons and its four rapidly vibrating wings created unique lifelike movements. It had achieved overwhelming results in tests, only being hit by one of fifty surface-to-air missiles and by zero of fifty air-to-air missiles.

Recently, Repliglass had been used for more than just military and construction purposes. A giant one hundred meter silicon core had been closed in a concrete box for a new type of power plant. It only consumed water and earth (or silicon waste like glass and silicone), so it was being touted as an environmentally friendly energy source. The lights decorating Toy Dream 35’s night came from the massive energy produced by that Repliglass core.

Inside that cutting-edge weapon, the girl held several colorful disks two centimeters thick and ten centimeters in diameter.

They were reels of silk ribbon.

“What do you think? If I want high speeds and am expecting a long match, then I think it would be best to shift the Blood-Sign’s center of gravity a little farther forward than normal and to make it a little thinner. I think #6 would be best.”

Her dignified voice resembled a Buddhist monk’s bell used to drive out impurities and its loveliness overwrote the surrounding atmosphere.

A single person was listening.

Due to its lifelike movements, the Hornet shook quite a bit, yet the old man in a suit stood perfectly straight.

He was her vessel and his name was Fractal Leskins.

Normally, vessels wore handcuffs, a collar, or other tools that bound them in order to avoid summoning something “unnecessary” beyond what their summoner ordered of them, but this old man wore nothing of the sort. Or rather, his suit itself was the symbol of the servitude binding him. It had grown that way over many long years.

“If you wish to suppress his movements with a series of swift attacks, I would suggest the thick, short, and heavy #5. Or if you would prefer to attack from outside his field vision by avoiding obstacles with a spin, then what about #12?”

“No, if I’m going up against him, it’s going to be a frenetic battle from extreme close range. There will be no easy victory here. So don’t you think it would be best to take the time to build up the ideal form?”

“Ha ha. My aging eyes are no match for your discerning vision. Then I suppose #6 would be best.”

Azalea and Fractal could achieve a certain level of results in any environment, but they still had their preferences. They preferred a high speed battle in an urban environment. That was their territory.

The girl re-crossed her legs and did not even glance at the old man who respectfully lowered his head. This was nothing special. In Azalea Magentarain’s life, this was no different from drinking water or breathing oxygen. She did not think much of it, but she would be in trouble without it. That was who he was to her.

“Freedom Award 902, Alice (with) Rabbit, is it?”

“We only have a report from the men down below, so it could be a fake,” said Azalea while grabbing the pink reel labelled #6. “Still, it would be wise to be careful. And if it really is him, nothing could be better. It’s been so long since I had a satisfying battle.”

When using an Incense Grenade, summoners and vessels could not be seen by mechanical cameras and sensors. Precision GPS-guided bombs and cruise missiles could not be used for a surprise attack. That was why no unmanned devices were being used as the summoners’ eyes and ears. They were forced to rely on hearsay from their subordinates and they had to assume their target could vanish from the monitor at any moment.

However, Government’s infantry were not normal soldiers. They were all new summoners who had been late to acquire a vessel. A lot of them died before being promoted, but those that fought through a true battlefield without a vessel gained quite a bit of power. Those who knew fear and had conquered it were strong.

Tentatively deciding to trust the reports from those novices still going through their baptism of blood, Azalea brought the radio mic to her mouth.

She spoke to the Hornet’s pilot.

“What is the hold up? When are we going to reach the location in the report?”

“Our ETA is ten minutes from now.”

“Make it five. If you don’t, the five units in Block R will be wiped out.”

“B-but…”

She switched off the radio without waiting for the response and she spoke to the old man next to her.

“What is the meaning of this? I personally designed this Hornet and its speed and mobility are its selling points. Is it malfunctioning?”

“I am sorry to say it, but I believe they are worried that shaking the craft too much could harm you.”

“Ridiculous,” spat out Azalea Magentarain.

The old man gently continued.

“Four groups of Government Elites from Award 501 to 780 were deployed. Don’t you think they have enough pride to fulfill their roles?”

“You say that, but you don’t actually think they can win, do you?”

Azalea and Fractal were not simply looking down on their subordinates. She had more going for her than being from a wealthy family and being a high Award summoner.

Quad Motors was the world’s greatest defense contractor that supplied cutting-edge weaponry for all four branches of the American military. These two were deeply involved in the core of that corporation. They did not design tanks using the knowhow of the automobile industry. They designed them as weapons from the ground up.

Most of her family had intentionally left themselves at around Award 50 so they would not vanish from normal society while also properly perceiving summoners. High Award summoners like Azalea were an extreme exception for her family.

On top of that, her family was not technically an American power. Quad Motors had ruled the defense industry in place of the big names of the domestic automobile and aviation industries who had lost the ability to compete, but they were in fact a Trojan Horse sent by the Round Table, a European alliance of nobility, because they were unwilling to let those “newcomers” of the New World hold the position of the world police.

They were a family of unrepatriated golden birds of prey who had sharply honed military knowledge, development skills, and financial knowhow yet possessed the iron will needed to cast aside their position of nobility to secure American citizenship as immigrants, infiltrate the field of national defense, acquire political power, and achieve their goal.

For that reason, their opinions were surprisingly cold yet accurate.

“Award 501, Perfect Game. Award 590, Tricky AAA. Award 719, Diabolos. Award 780, Bloodbath Rhapsody. …They’re all useless. Especially 501. Is that supposed to be a joke? He probably only has a perfect record because he only ever finishes off the losers that another summoner let live. Can’t he at least die here?”

“We will arrive in ten minutes, but the units deployed there will be wiped out. So what should we do?”

“Hand it over.”

The old man immediately complied with the girl’s brief instruction. That summed up just how long the two had known each other.

The butler held out a giant tube made of layered plastic. It was 130 centimeters long and the bottom surface was equipped with a cushion for the shoulder.

Azalea did not hesitate to rest it on her shoulder and Fractal forcefully slid open the cargo door on the Hornet’s side.

A chilly night wind struck the girl’s delicate body, but she did not even flinch. In fact, she gained a challenging look of fierce joy.

She stared at one point of the night scenery and spoke to the pilot over the radio.

“Sorry, but it looks like I will have to make up for everyone’s incompetence.”

The giant tube was in fact an 80mm grenade launcher.

And if a summoner was going to put all of her trust in a single projectile, it could only be one thing.

She rested the launcher on her shoulder and smoothly whispered under her breath.

“Oh, White Queen who guides us to victory in extraordinary battles, please save this fragile human soul.”

Part 2

In the courtyard of the Block R high school that Shiroyama Kyousuke attended on weekdays, everything looked like death to Meinokawa Higan.

Repliglass weapons were partially or entirely modeled on insects and other animals. They were the armored weapons of a new age and they had drawn a clear line between themselves and all previously existing weapons. Regenerative medicine was used to create all-purpose silicon cells which could be rearranged to form any kind of muscle, bone, nerves, blood vessels, internal organs, or sensory organs. Simply put, anyone wearing that armor took on the role of an intelligent beast that did not exist anywhere on earth.

And those weapons were commanded by four summoner-vessel pairs. Their summoning ceremony could summon life forms not of this world on a limited basis, so they could ignore even the laws of physics and in some cases achieve results not even a great Repliglass army could. …Including incidents involving paranormal phenomena that traditional military might was helpless against.

And yet Meinokawa Higan heard a loud noise.

With his long Blood-Sign in hand, Shiroyama Kyousuke left her behind and took a large step toward the enemy.

The nearest summoner responded by throwing something like a can of coffee toward him. Needless to say, it was an Incense Grenade. At the same time, the Repliglass soldiers moved back. Once a battle between summoners began, normal bullets would be useless. Leaving the fight to the summoner was the standard tactic and that was how they distributed their duties here.

Finally, two summoners would wield the paranormal to fight.

But in that moment, Higan saw something unbelievable.

Freedom Award 902, Alice (with) Rabbit, held up his Blood-Sign like a baseball bat.

With a solid metallic clang, he swung the Blood-Sign and scored a homerun with the Incense Grenade. In just an instant, it vanished in the dark sea beyond the large high school campus.

And…

“Ah.”

While watching the grenade disappear, the summoner seemed to belatedly realize what that meant.

When an Incense Grenade detonated, the summoner and vessel who had used it were carried to the center of the Artificial Sacred Ground.

“Bfgrfeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!???”

As if they were connected to a passenger jet by an elastic cord, the summoner and vessel became two stars in the night sky.

The boy ran further forward and spoke coolly.

“Award 501: defeated.”

“You…!!”

The female summoner he turned to as his next target dropped an Incense Grenade at her feet. He could not hope for another homerun from this distance and he only had three to five seconds until it detonated.

But by that time, Shiroyama Kyousuke had already moved right up to his next target.

However, that target was not the female summoner.

He suddenly changed direction and moved right up to one of the bizarre Repliglass soldiers that had grasshopper-like legs added near the waist to help with jumping. The soldier was a sturdy armored weapon, but the carbine he held was a standard model. Kyousuke made a spear-like jab with the tip of his 180 cm stick to tear off the high-powered military light attached on the bottom.

At the same time, the counterattack began. The enemy selected the face out of the many vitals available and threw a frightening kick with its silicon leg. This rear leg held the strength needed to send the soldier himself flying ten to twenty meters or to crush a traditional armored truck like a steamed bun.

Shiroyama Kyousuke swung his upper body to avoid it by a hair’s breadth.

A few of his own hairs flew through the air.

His entire body was noticeably emitting extreme tension.

His cheeks twitched as he moved his Blood-Sign. Swinging it down like a hammer would not harm the pilot soldier contained inside the silicon muscles and armor, but he was not foolish enough to think he could destroy that armored weapon like that.

He was targeting something else.

The carbine in the bizarre weapon’s hand had been made as small as possible while completely ignoring the recoil of firing. The powerful military light that had been torn from the bottom used a honeycomb pattern of bright LEDs and it was meant to blind an opponent rather than provide illumination.

Kyousuke caught the rotating light on the tip of his Blood-Sign, pulled it back toward him, grabbed it, and switched it on.

“Oh, no…” muttered the female summoner preparing for battle with her Blood-Sign held up like a spear.

Incense Grenades are only effective when the target can be seen with the naked eye.

Despite the muffled explosion, no Artificial Sacred Ground appeared. The flashlight was as bright as a strobe light and it had blinded her. She could not summon a Material into her vessel like this.

That brief opening was all Kyousuke needed.

He threw aside the light and stuck a hand into his pocket. He pulled out a metal can as heavy as a can of hair spray: an Incense Grenade. He threw it to the side, but not to fight like normal. He was trying to break the female summoner’s nose with the three hundred gram mass.

Caught off guard, she was unable to evade or defend.

After a metallic sound of impact, the blow hit her square in the face and she collapsed onto her back.

The grim reaper whispered his next statement.

“Award 719: defeated.”

(Not good…)

Finally, the surrounding Repliglass soldiers changed their way of thinking.

(The normal distribution of duties won’t work here. Leaving this to the summoners will only get us defeated!!)

They too would be his prey if they left this to the experts. Fortunately, this target had yet to use a summoning ceremony. Unless he activated the protective circle created from the Material’s power, he was no different from any other human. Normal bullets would fill him with holes like normal.

Their expected victory had crumbled before their eyes, they had restrained their confusion, they had swapped out their way of thinking, and they had begun to take action. All in all, it had taken four seconds.

Everyone there accurately aimed their guns and pulled the trigger.

Those battlefield soldiers recovered and reacted with extraordinary speed.

However, they had forgotten something.

The projectile used to break the summoner’s nose had not been a mere weight; it had been an Incense Grenade.

The slight explosion drowned out all else.

Gunfire rang from the Repliglass soldiers at almost the exact same moment as the Alice (with) Rabbit boy used his Blood-Sign to hit the white sphere – a White Thorn – in front of him.

The deluge of noise seemed to continue without end, but not even one of the bullets tore into Kyousuke’s body.

He and Higan had been automatically taken to the location of the detonating Incense Grenade.

The Repliglass soldiers quickly corrected their aim, but it was too late.

The Rose pieces floating in the air were knocked about, a middle sound Petal was accurately sucked into a Spot, and Higan’s body changed form with a sticky sound. She became a three meter mass of a translucent green sticky liquid. That Material contained the girl’s body at its center.

At the cost of one middle sound, it was one of the weakest Materials, the Original Green (k).

But even if it was one of the weakest, a Material was still a Material. A protective circle that eliminated all attacks was immediately constructed around the summoner and that defended against the countless bullets.

And of course, at the same time…

“Higan! Take out the Repliglass soldiers!! They don’t stand a chance now!!”

<Wow…>

Higan moved with her body transformed into a giant sticky Material.

With the roar reminiscent of sandbags being hit by a barrage of blows, the soldiers were easily swept away. Higan freely controlled the seven hundred liters of her body. Despite being liquid, each strike was as flexible as the human fist yet filled with an impact rivalling a car accident. She understood that she was the one doing this, but she started to lose her awareness of that fact.

<I always thought summoning ceremonies were about who could summon the more powerful Material with the more effective sound range… This Original series is only costs one sound, so, um, I thought it was just a starting point with no real use.>

She went on a rampage inside the Artificial Sacred Ground field where she could use her occult power to its fullest. As she accurately knocked the cutting-edge armored soldiers unconscious, she felt a strange feeling running through that body that was not hers.

(But I was wrong. He even knows, um, how to fight with the weakest Material. No, did this battle begin b-before even summoning the first Material!?>

Yes. That was right.

When Higan had been separated from Renge in that harbor region, Kyousuke had saved her from the Guard of Honor pursuers.

But he would not have had a vessel with him then. So how had he protected her from those members of a professional summoner’s organization?

<Th-this must be…the answer.>

He could get involved in the world of summoning ceremonies and yet return alive without summoning a single Material. He could return with at least a single person in his arms. And he did not have the muscular strength of some ferocious beast, he was not a kung fu master living deep in the mountains, and he was not using the world’s greatest prototype weapon that a stranger had given him.

Then again, he was not the same as Lu Niang Lan who was feared as the Perfect Dragon. He was not an expert in slaughtering veteran summoners using only his own body and hidden weapons instead of Materials.

But when in a bind, he knew enough about this small field to put together a workable strategy on the fly that would let him fight without a Material.

It could be written off as a series of adlibs, but he did not bring about the optimum result by gambling. He simply had enough useful experience to instantly search for the relevant information in any given situation. He may have been physically using his arms and legs, but his true weapon was his intellect as a summoner.

That had been enough to save a girl from that hellish harbor, so he would not lose here.

Shiroyama Kyousuke could gain the upper hand against Guard of Honor with a handicap, so there was no way he would lose when he had Meinokawa Higan as his vessel and could use his full power.

“Higan, focus on weight more than speed! Repliglass is a mass of silicon muscle fibers, so they won’t be able to move if you press down on them enough to snap them. You don’t even need to knock them out. Destroy the outer shell and they’ll be trapped in their own armor!!”

Shiroyama Kyousuke ran all across the Artificial Sacred Ground and Higan swung her giant Material body around based on his instructions. Repliglass soldiers were the main players of modern warfare and they were a symbol of fear for the guerillas and terrorists being wiped out around the world, but she easily swept them all away.

They were gone in no time at all. Things were progressing almost too smoothly.

She felt like she was watching an example video, so the victory did not feel like hers.

“Dammit!!!!”

Two summoners remained. Someone with devastatingly slow reaction speed quickly raised their Blood-Sign and struck a White Thorn. To Higan, the movement was slow, like someone moving underwater.

And Kyousuke did not just sit idly by.

He took a powerful step forward and charged toward the enemy summoner. By this point, Higan had caught on that even that step had a meaning. If he had only been swinging around his Blood-Sign randomly, he would have been shot up by the Repliglass soldiers before the Incense Grenade could detonate. His movements also had the psychological effect of creating a gap and throwing off one’s timing.

If someone who could easily jump to either side instead charged straight toward the large truck driving their way, anyone watching would be briefly paralyzed with shock.

A baseball would sometimes slip between two infielders who could have easily caught it.

This was the same.

He seemed almost supernaturally skilled at binding the enemy’s body with a stimulus that they could not fight with their rational mind.

He took a short breath, shot forward like a bullet, and literally collided with the enemy summoner.

Both of them were guarded by the protective circles powered by their Materials, so they did not actually come into contact.

With a solid sound of impact, Kyousuke’s charge was obstructed at extreme close range. Both of their protective circles had decided allowing him in range would bring death.

But…

“Kh…!? Wh-what…? You’re in the way…”

“You can’t see the world behind me, can you? And when we’re this close, you can’t swing your 180 cm Blood-Sign like you want to. Isn’t that right?”

A summoner could freely build up their Material by gaining an accurate understanding of the vast Artificial Sacred Ground and using their glowing White Thorns to knock the Petals of low, middle, high, and lowest sounds into the Spots. The pressure tactics that Shiroyama Kyousuke was using with his own body produced a simple yet devastating effect.

“B-but neither can-…!”

The summoner trailed off as he finally noticed the sound of something whipping through the wind.

Kyousuke had reached both hands behind his back and spun his Blood-Sign like a baton.

With a top-class summoner’s spatial awareness, one did not always need to rely on sight. He could manipulate his Blood-Sign behind his back to accomplish the exceedingly precise summoning ceremony.

The tip struck a White Thorn with enough frightening speed to sense the absolute confidence behind it.

With several hard sounds of reflection, it collided with several Petals and knocked them into Spots. The crimson trails of light and the dance of a broken song filled that small world.

He did not even bother to check on the result.

“……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………”

The poor summoner looked up at something with a blank look in his eyes.

A giant Material towered behind Shiroyama Kyousuke. The giant squid monster had gold eyes and ten thick chains that could probably squeeze a tank. It was the DEC Tentacle (nu – o – re – a – btv – ag – y).

The summoner currently had a human-sized Material with green eyes known as the Sharp Mermaid (nal – cb a – pl), but the difference in cost was too great and the matchup between sound range could not have been worse.

It would be killed in a single blow.

The Silhouette at the mermaid’s core that contained the vessel’s mind would be destroyed.

Unpleasant sweat poured from the summoner’s body and the grim reaper’s quiet voice slipped into his ears.

“Award 780: defeated.”

Part 3

The giant Hornet tore through the night sky that was filled with city lights.

The side cargo door was fully open and Azalea Magentarain had finally spotted her target with her “naked eye” through the optical sight of the 80mm grenade launcher on her shoulder.

He was a few kilometers away and he was only a tiny speck even through the multiple lenses.

“Freedom Award 902, Alice (with) Rabbit. Confirmed.”

A school had become a battlefield.

She had expected it, but not even disastrous was enough to describe the situation. The four summoner groups had already been defeated and the soldiers wearing Repliglass equipment supplied by Quad Motors had been wiped out. And they had all been incapacitated without spilling a single drop of blood.

The girl felt a little faint at the fact that the enemy had showed mercy. She could feel the noble blood stirring inside her delicate body.

“Alice (with) Rabbit… Even if they were grunts, he has the nerve to mock their resolve to die if necessary!?”

“Milady, everything is prepared. You may begin at any time.”

The elderly butler knew Azalea better than anyone and his words cooled her boiling head. No, perhaps it would be more accurate to say they lowered it from an intense burn to a calmer burn.

They did not particularly care who the master was and which one was in control.

The girl did not hesitate to pull the trigger on her company’s own device.

With the deep sound of incendiary gas bursting out, a large explosive flew accurately to the courtyard of a high school in Block R.

According to their rules, when an Incense Grenade detonated, the summoner and vessel who had used it were carried to the center of the Artificial Sacred Ground.

Part 4

Shiroyama Kyousuke had sensed that presence.

It was a stinging tension and a dense premonition of death that nearly left one unable to control their body. Yet it contradictorily stirred up the combat instincts that wanted to give in to that feeling. He had detected this great presence not with his five senses, but with a sixth sense only held by those who had spent a long time on the battlefield.

That was why he ran across the courtyard at full speed.

He ran to the edge of the three hundred meter Artificial Sacred Ground and he immediately gave his instructions.

“Higan!! Destroy the ground! Hurry!!”

<Eh? Eh!?>

“Don’t question it!!”

The time loss may not have added up to a full second, but it was enough for Kyousuke to lose sight of his victory. The odds were dragged down to 50/50.

Finally, the DEC Tentacle’s thick chains swung down with tremendous force and smashed half the artificial ground – the courtyard that included one end of the square campus – like it was made of tofu.

They were currently in the chain state that began after defeating a target.

They had the special privilege of free movement during that time and they used it to fall straight down. This was Toy Dream 35, the giant amusement park city located over the ocean. The ground had been intentionally flooded and the transportation network had bene built up above using several layers of giant bridges.

So what was it that awaited them down below?

Part 5

In the frustrating but short time needed for the arrival and detonation of the fired Incense Grenade, Azalea Magentarain saw the truth through the lenses of the optical sight.

“Below them is…a reverse bungee!? Honestly, this is the problem with entertainment for the masses!!”

A reverse bungee was the opposite of a bungee jump in that it launched people upwards. A seat was fixed at the center of a thick piece of rubber that was attached on either end to a metal pole. It might be simpler to think of it as a giant slingshot with a seatbelt attached. The sides of the metal poles were engraved with the high school’s name, so it may have actually been a school event. Anything was possible in this amusement park city.

Of course, it was blatantly obvious what would happen if it was used without the safety harness.

Azalea clenched her teeth as her Incense Grenade finally landed on the outer edge just short of the destroyed part of the ground. It immediately detonated.

(Make it.)

The user of an Incense Grenade was automatically taken to the center of the created Artificial Sacred Ground. If she could arrive on the scene before her target left, she could deal with the rest herself.

(Make it!!)

As soon as the distant Incense Grenade detonated, Azalea Magentarain and Fractal Leskins of the Golden Luxury team were launched from the aircraft with tremendous force. Rather than fall, they sliced through the air. They ignored gravity and air resistance while slipping between buildings like precision guided missiles.

Their shaken vision finally stabilized, but Azalea’s brow wrinkled in displeasure.

Alice (with) Rabbit had been slightly faster.

He and his Material had fallen into the six-person party seat of the large reverse bungee. The DEC Tentacle’s great weight caused the entire device to bend and one of its ten chains slithered out like a living creature to smash the safety hook. The great force built up in the thick rubber was released and they were launched diagonally upward. To provide a greater thrill, they shot toward the ocean which contained height differences thanks to the giant bridges on the lowest level.

They were not captured by Azalea’s Artificial Sacred Ground.

At the same time, the giant squid Material was replaced by a girl in a shrine maiden outfit. Shiroyama Kyousuke had chosen to end his chain that could last up to ninety seconds, so their Artificial Sacred Ground vanished.

There was an obvious reason for that.

For only a brief instant, Alice (with) Rabbit and Golden Luxury passed by within a few centimeters of each other.

If he had let his Artificial Sacred Ground remain, Azalea would have been caught in his field and the battle would have continued. That was exactly what the girl wanted, but the boy refused.

“Curse you…”

Time seemed to stop and their eyes met.

There was a small but unmistakable smile in Shiroyama Kyousuke’s eyes. His goal was not to win this battle; it was to retrieve Meinokawa Higan and escape.

Such a powerful foe was within arm’s reach and yet the match would end before she could fight him.

However, this would not qualify as a draw. Given the situation, he was quitting while he was ahead.

How great was the humiliation and regret of being defeated without crossing swords even once?

The girl’s noble blood boiled over.

“Curse yoooooooooooooooouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!!!!!”

Their intersection came to an end.

The speed of time returned to normal. Azalea Magentarain and her elderly butler slipped down to land on the edge of the school’s smashed artificial ground while Shiroyama Kyousuke and Meinokawa Higan vanished into the dark sea far in the distance.

The girl’s Blood-Sign was made of wrapped pink ribbons and she slammed it down at her feet. Fractal Leskins gave a respectful bow and made a suggestion.

“We have the Water Striders on the ocean surface and the Bottlenose Dolphins inside the ocean. If you order them to search for-…”

“It’s no use. Do you really think they would find anything?”

Azalea stared at the dark sea and spoke the words like she was spitting on the coward who had fled from her.

Having lost sight of her target, that golden bird of prey said one thing more.

“I know you’re wandering around the hunting grounds, wild rabbit. You had better entertain me next time.”

Part 6

“Oh, dear. So that’s why you’re shivering from the cold,” said Lu Niang Lan of Illegal with a light of both exasperation and admiration in her blue eyes.

She stood behind the counter of a used goods store in the large Chinatown of Block C.

The store was dimly-lit, it smelled of sweet incense, and the walls and columns were red. It was so red that one had to wonder if buildings in China were really quite that red. That was hardly surprising given this Chinatown had not developed naturally. The entire Block had been constructed as a film set for the kung fu movies distributed by the Toy Dream Company. In other words, it was the unrealistic image of China that Westerners pictured in their heads.

Incidentally, those movies included one with a shirtless muscular protagonist chaining two shotguns together like nunchucks and swinging them around while shooting in every direction. That should give you a good idea of how unrealistic this Chinatown was.

“…”

“…”

Shiroyama Kyousuke and Meinokawa Higan were shivering with chilly water dripping from their hair.

After landing in the ocean near the school in Block R, they had boarded his cruiser home that he had secretly moored nearby. From there, they had used the canals to reach Block C. They had showered and changed clothes on the way, but that had not fully rid them of the chill that had soaked them to the bone.

They had come to this store for two reasons.

First, to stock up on equipment such as Incense Grenades. The contents of an Incense Grenades had to be delicately mixed for the specific summoner who would use it, so they could not use one stolen from an enemy. A summoner either made their own or relied on a specialist.

The second was to gather information.

“Your hair is wet, Kyousuke-chan, but why are your clothes the same as always?”

“I have several pairs of the same clothes.”

“And why is Higan-chan wearing a maid outfit? And a miniskirt one at that.”

“Because the only girl’s clothing I had were the ones you forced on me when you were drunk a while back! Why did you even give a guy a miniskirt maid outfit!?”

Even if the cruiser was equipped for daily life, it did not have a washing machine or dryer. They would use too much water and power. Her wet shrine maiden outfit was soaking in a tub of water, but they needed to visit a laundromat before long. Otherwise, it would stiffen up from the seawater.

However, that revelation led the beauty in a modified China dress to lean over the counter.

“That was the only girl’s clothing you had? Then! Does that meant what I think it means!?”

“What?”

“Holy Shrine Maiden Higan-chan isn’t wearing anything under there!?”

“Tch!! I was doing my best not to think about that, so why did you have to be so blunt about it!?”

Anyone would have noticed at a glance, but Meinokawa Higan was blushing, holding down the maid outfit’s miniskirt with one hand, and fidgeting her legs. Someone who did not know the situation would have assumed she needed to use the restroom.

“(Oh, Wh-White Queen. Give me the noble heart needed to endure this extreme humili-hyah! I-I bit my tongue…!!)”

The sexy oriental beauty seemed to overflow with energy when she saw the shrine maiden muttering under her breath again.

“Th-this is some high level stuff. You’re this girl’s only chance at survival, but not only do you order her to wear a maid outfit, you don’t let her wear any underwear and then take her for a walk around Chinatown in the middle of the night. How high level can you get, Kyousuke-chan!?”

“Please stop smiling like that! Forcing her to wear my boxers would be pretty perverted too, wouldn’t it!? I-I had no choice! What else was I supposed to do!?”

Meinokawa Higan could not get a word in as the other two argued.

Was this really the Alice (with) Rabbit who had ruled that battlefield not long before?

The difference was so great that she was not sure how to approach him from now on and she began panicking a little.

Lu Niang Lan must have seen through that because she grinned and asked Higan a question.

“Are you worried because you can’t get a read on Kyousuke-chan’s character?”

“Eh? Um…”

“The answer is that everything you see there is a part of him. Show him your cleavage and he’ll grow flustered. Give him a teary upturned look and he’ll do most anything you say. Remember that because it’ll be on the test. And the clincher is ‘Help-…”

“Please stop telling her more than she needs to know!!”

Kyousuke loudly and quickly cut her off.

The modified China dress woman worked at cooling herself down and spoke to Higan again.

“Anyway, Higan-chan, don’t worry. Based on what I’ve heard, there’s nothing to worry about for the moment.”

“Eh? Um, uh, what do you mean?”

“Now that you’ve teamed up with Kyousuke-chan, the two of you have been registered as the new Freedom Award 902, Alice (with) Rabbit. That means you’re no longer the kind of wandering asset that Government sees as a threat.”

“B-but, um, will they really accept it that easily?”

“Not normally, no. But while Illegal is legitimately their enemy, Government actually works with and hires summoners from Freedom. …They could eventually kill Alice (with) Rabbit, but it’s more efficient to tame you than to accept the many sacrifices it would take to defeat you. Government as a whole gains very little by forcing the two of you to fight. They’re also indebted to a certain someone☆”

“Anyway,” added Shiroyama Kyousuke as if to urge caution. “That’s really only wishful thinking, so don’t get too optimistic. That may be true of Government as a whole, but there’s still a decent chance Golden Luxury will attack as an individual. After all, we picked a fight with her, threw sand in her face, and ran off. …She’s got to be pissed right now.”

Higan let out a trembling groan.

That summoner was skilled enough for even Kyousuke to decide fleeing was the best plan. It scared her to have a monster like that know her name and face.

“A-and she specializes in the White Queen. That’s the White Queen, isn’t it?”

Her face had gone completely pale and Kyousuke sounded a little annoyed as he answered.

“Yes. It’s that queen you love so much. …And she doesn’t just pray to her. She wields her power as a deadly weapon.”

Higan’s face only grew paler.

The noble being ruling her mind would now bare her fangs as an enemy. Merely imagining that scene was probably enough to nearly faint, but that was the world of summoners.

“The Unexplored-class are beyond all of the Regulation and Divine-class Materials and she stands at the peak of even the Unexplored-class… W-we even worship her as, um, our shrine’s unofficial second god.”

“Well, she is the most popular.” Lu Niang Lan laughed while resting her elbow on the counter. “Even in this store, the White Queen sculptures and plates sell the best. Government, Illegal, and Freedom each have a contract with one of the Three to receive their Awards, but in truth, all of them think the White Queen is the strongest.”

“A-and we’ve made enemies of someone who summons her to fight?”

“In the world of summoning ceremonies, the lowest rookie and the most skilled expert have an equal chance of summoning any Material. You can’t measure someone’s strength based on what they can summon.”

Kyousuke and Lu Niang Lan were both carefree.

Could experience really change someone that much?

“But now it looks like you can focus on the main issue here. Based on what you’ve said, this new organization called Guard of Honor attacked you and your twin sister, separating the two of you. You want to meet up with your missing sister before she’s killed and the time limit would be…two days now that it’s past midnight. That was your original goal, right?”

“Lu-san… Um, I’d heard Guard of Honor is a dangerous new organization that’s been gathering a lot of strength in Illegal lately.”

“Hmm. But I’ve never heard of them.”

The altered China dress woman sounded indifferent. She felt no obligation just because she was also part of Illegal. The Russian mafia would feel no responsibility if a South American drug cocktail was being misused, so this was probably a similar way of looking at it. Illegal had their own issues to deal with.

“You twins got your information from Government, right? Can you really trust that? And…”

“And?”

“If this is an unregistered group using the Illegal name without permission…don’t you think a legit Illegal member like me would be able to tell at a glance?”

Facts

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