Act 4 Ploutonion 1 He could still vividly remember the day he met her. It was nine years back. He was eight years old, and it was Christmas Eve. “This is your new sister.” That night, his father, a researcher, brought in a girl one year younger than him. She had pale, almost translucent skin, and red eyes. Later, he found out they called her condition albinism. She was awfully short and thin, which gave her the ephemeral air of a fairy. “What’s your name?” Yahiro asked directly, his voice cracking a bit from wariness. He had heard about getting a sister a few days back, and he only thought it was bothersome. Back then, he had nothing in mind but learning kendo from his grandfather, and anything that took time away from that was an annoyance. “Sui,” the girl said with a feeble voice; her tone was flat from a mix of fear and resignation. She kept her eyes down, and then the hair she had been hiding inside her hat fell out. The moment he saw her pure-white hair, Yahiro lost himself to shock and reached out for it. He gave his opinion of it frankly and innocently, as only a child could: “Your hair is so pretty… It looks like wings,” he said, his eyes lighting up. The girl gasped, and tears welled up in her eyes. Her delicate, doll-like face scrunched up. Yahiro panicked once he heard her sobbing. “Wha?! Why’re you crying?! I’m… I’m sorry…” He apologized desperately, but she only shook her head, still crying. Then she grabbed Yahiro’s sleeve and didn’t let go of him until she’d cried herself to sleep. “Gu…oh…!” Yahiro groaned in pain as the torrent of memories crashed on him. Fear. Confusion. Yearning. Obsession. Bare, raw thoughts from someone else. Memories of Sui’s childhood. And it wasn’t only memories from the past. Her hatred, her envy and jealousy. All her fierce, negative emotions stained Yahiro’s mind. A hole opened in the bottom of his heart, darkness like a bottomless dry well. Vehement power gushed forth from the hollowness. It was too late by the time he realized it was the dragon’s power, which had lain dormant at the bottom of the earth. The dragon’s massive body engulfed him as visions of the past kept hold of him. A massive phantom that enveloped the whole world. The vast dragon aura that birthed it poured into Yahiro’s body all at once. A tiny human body could not possibly withstand such a load. In normal circumstances, it would’ve burned and blown away Yahiro’s body in the blink of an eye. But he was a Lazarus. All the cells in his body creaked as his body underwent a cycle of death and rebirth, as it transmuted into something else, as it took in the power of the dragon. “GUUUOOOHH!” Everything around him turned red. He couldn’t maintain human thought. The contour of his sense of self blurred as the boundary between Yahiro’s and the dragon’s memories vanished. “Dear Brother.” A nostalgic voice sounded in his ear. Was he hearing it now? Or was it a memory of the past? “Oh, Dear Brother… I love you so.” Sui’s voice echoed in the back of his mind. The voice dragged Yahiro’s consciousness into the darkness. Sui adapted to the Narusawa family quite easily, but only thanks to Yahiro. It was only him she truly opened her heart to, and it was only through him that she forged relationships with anyone else. Sui had no memories of her life before she was seven. She was found wandering the city, unaware of who she was, and went through various institutions before Yahiro’s father took her in. Due to her history, the adults around her didn’t find it problematic that she would keep her distance from everyone else. Actually, they even found it adorable that she’d follow Yahiro around everywhere. Other kids didn’t ostracize her, either. Her looks might’ve been strange, but considering she was sickly and feeble, they accepted her as someone to pity. Because of this, it took some time for Yahiro to realize. Notice that, in part, it was Sui’s own desire to stay away from anyone else. Unwitting that this would bring about the worst. “Sui… What did you do to her?” The first occurrence took place right after Yahiro entered his second year of middle school. A girl in the kendo club he was close friends with got gravely injured and was hospitalized. She refused to say what led to her injury, but ever since that day, she became terrified of the sound of rain and of Sui. She firmly refused to let Yahiro visit her in the hospital, and the moment she got discharged, she changed schools. “Nothing. I did nothing.” It was raining the night his friend was injured. Sui was drenched when she got home, and she answered Yahiro’s questioning with a puzzled shake of her head. “Are you telling the truth?” “You think I could hurt her?” “Uh… Right. Yeah.” Yahiro couldn’t argue against Sui’s simple response. Yahiro’s friend was his senior in kendo, and held a rank in the sport. Sui was weak and small; how could she possibly put up a fight? “You’re terrible, Brother. How could you ever doubt me? Still…I forgive you.” Sui took off her soaked clothes and drew her half-bare body closer to Yahiro’s. Her middle-schooler body lacked any curves, and yet there was a chilling charm about her. “Back off, Sui.” Yahiro shoved his little sister away. Sui’s red eyes moistened as she looked up at him with a faint smile on her face. “Why? You can do anything you want to me, my Dear Brother.” “Put on your clothes. You’ll catch a cold.” “Do you dislike me?” “This is a different issue entirely. You’re my sister.” Yahiro responded curtly to Sui’s pleas. Why didn’t he hear her out more seriously back then? If only he knew how much he would regret it later. Black, obsidian-like scales enveloped Yahiro’s whole body. Filling the gaps of the scales were muscles tough as bundles of steel. Yahiro’s body was already far from its original form. All his cells multiplied to endure the dragon aura endlessly flowing into him, rebuilding him into a new shape. A monster was being born from within him, the way a seed grows into a tree. Yahiro howled from the pain of his body’s transformation. A howl so monstrous it shook the land. His half-man, half-dragon skeleton contorted and grew three times its size, all thanks to the giant tail growing from his hip. His muscles also grew twice their original size. And the transformation was not yet over. The more his body approached a dragon’s, the more his human consciousness wore away, his thoughts overwritten by wrath and the thirst for destruction. His senses underwent changes, too. He began seeing things he could not before; he understood the composition of the world now. He could control the Regalia as easily as he breathed. He emitted dragon aura as though merely stretching his fingers, spreading ever so slightly the gap between worlds. The simple action gouged the air and opened a giant crack in the land. It didn’t even feel like using any special power. He simply wielded his might to brush away the weeds blocking his sight. Yet that was enough to overwrite the world at his whim. Yahiro could also feel Sui’s joy. Their thoughts melted together, their memories becoming one. “Why…? Why did you kill Dad?” He couldn’t even remember if it was him or Sui who heard those words. The lab was tainted crimson. A man with a lab coat lay in a puddle of blood. His whole body bitten to shreds like he’d been attacked by a giant beast. A girl with white hair, drenched in his blood, stood beside the corpse. A smile on her pretty face. “He deserved to die. He tried to keep us apart. Don’t you realize? You’re the only one for me, Dear Brother.” The girl held a thin knife with a dull shine in her left hand. The same knife she used to cut open her left wrist, blood flowing from it even now. “Oh, Dear Brother… I love you so.” Yahiro stood still, aghast, as the girl walked up to him. She fell on his chest, and in that moment, shock struck his body. The knife she was holding sunk into the pit of his stomach. “This whole world should perish for not allowing us to be together.” The sheer look of bliss on her face as she looked up to him and said that… 2 A battalion of armored vehicles headed for Galerie Berith’s HQ. The first bombardment destroyed most of the defensive barrier around the base. The metal barricades buried in the ground were barely stopping the enemy’s approach. The grounds of the Galerie base were wide since they were once used as Japan’s bonded warehouses. Cannons and machine guns were placed all around it for self-defense. And yet it all seemed so feeble when surrounded by over a hundred armored combat vehicles. They had no hope of escape, either, now that the bridges were destroyed. “What’s the damage?” Rosé asked her subordinates at the command room in the Galerie barracks. “All watchtowers are down. The main building is unharmed so far, but the barriers and fences are done for. What should we do? We can’t defend ourselves against this,” Josh replied with resignation. Despite the hopeless situation, neither he nor any other operator in the room appeared dejected. They were calm and collected, as if asserting they were used to this level of predicament. “We’ll abandon the barracks and the warehouses. Get everyone to retreat to the administrative building.” “Roger. We’re at the edge of the cliff here, huh?” Josh nodded before taking his subordinates and exiting the command room. Only Rosé, Giuli, and Iroha, who had followed them there from the infirmary, remained in the room. “Um, so your brother’s looking for me, right? Why don’t you just hand me over?” Iroha timidly raised her hand to suggest the idea. Rosé and Giuli looked at each other for a moment, then heaved heavy sighs. “You think Andrea would be satisfied just by getting his hands on you?” “If we could negotiate with that guy, he would’ve asked us to surrender to begin with.” “Whaaa?” Iroha wasn’t sure how to feel about them discarding the idea so curtly. It wouldn’t have felt nice had they decided to throw her to the wolves, but she felt even worse about letting everyone get harmed because of her. “Don’t get the wrong idea. The situation isn’t as bad as it looks for us.” Rosé sighed upon seeing Iroha’s worried expression and tried to reassure her. “B-but…you said they had forces ten times ours…” “That’s only numbers. You could take this to mean Andrea can’t stand a chance against us without that many people on his side.” “What are you implying?” “They have to capture you alive, but it makes no difference for us if Andrea ends up dead. We don’t need to hold back.” “Oh… So that’s why…” The enemy hadn’t attacked further after the first bombardment and surrounding the Galerie base. They feared they could harm Iroha if they shot at everything all willy-nilly. But even if they only had regular human mercenaries on their side, the difference in number was too great. The Galerie’s operators were resisting the best they could as they slowly retreated, but a considerable number of mercenaries had already stepped into their territory. And yet the twins looked unfazed. “We’re not under siege—we’re letting them in. We gotta make sure the Guild knows we fought in self-defense when we strike back,” Giuli said with a boastful grin. Rosé nodded while watching the surveillance camera feed of the situation. “And I think we’ve got enough of an alibi now.” “Yeah. Everyone, you can open fire!” Giuli spoke into the mic placed on the wall of the command room, her voice as cheery as if she were emceeing an inaugural event. The moment Giuli finished talking, a thunderous roar and shock wave stirred the base. Cannonade. It wasn’t one or two shots. It was a storm. The incessant booming made Iroha scream. The next moment, flashes dyed the outside of the windows white. Explosions on a far bigger scale than the previous bombardment rocked the land. “Wh-what’s happening?!” “Precision-guided mortar munition.” “Wha…?” Iroha stared dumbfounded at the twins. Rosé glanced back at the camera feed. The monitor showed the carcasses of the armored vehicles: the resulting destruction of the projectile rain. Most of the near-hundred combat vehicles surrounding them were annihilated in the blink of an eye. “Mortar… Wait, is that what they were putting together at the warehouse?” “We are arms dealers. It’s only natural we have more than enough in stock, don’t you think?” Iroha couldn’t argue Rosé’s point. Mortars were light artillery with simple construction. They had short range and low accuracy, but they could be carried by hand and placed anywhere easily. The Galerie had mortars stocked in great numbers, as they were merchandise. They had taken some in secret to put together behind the headquarters building. Under Giuli’s orders, the operators shot the shells in a curve across the building and all the way to the enemy troops. “It doesn’t matter how inaccurate mortars may be. The enemy was just standing there; how could we miss?” Giuli stated simply, with no conceit. Andrea Berith’s troops thought they had the Galerie surrounded, but in truth, they were merely leaving themselves open to attacks. Now that they had lost their armored vehicles and were getting ready to flee, it was time for the Galerie operators to counterattack. Not live, human operators, though. “We’ve got smart land mines, unmanned turrets, drones… It’s the time to shine for all the state-of-the-art equipment with bad cost performance,” Giuli said before sticking her tongue out. As she said so, the Galerie sent out a vast number of unmanned fighters. Combat drones controlled by AI weren’t uncommon nowadays, but they were particularly effective for this battle. Most PMCs in Japan were specialized for combat against Moujuu, so their equipment lacked weaponry to fight against drones. The operators couldn’t put up resistance against the drones and took their wounded comrades with them as they retreated. Iroha felt relieved at the sight, but at the same time, she felt her conscience lashing out at her. There was no doubt that many operators were harmed in this fight, even if they were the ones to attack. And Iroha was the root cause. She couldn’t help but feel indignation. Why did this have to happen? “Hopefully they’ll just go home now,” Giuli said languidly. Rosé sighed and shook her head. “That man is not so smart.” “Yeah. It’s probably only gonna make it worse.” “Indeed. We reduced their forces considerably, but they still have the numbers advantage. I expect they’ll try to attack again the moment we try refueling the drones.” “Man, Andrea’s such an idiot,” Giuli muttered scornfully. Rosé also showed a rare instance of anger. “He is. He thinks he’s got time on his side as he continues to attack us.” “Time? What do you mean?” Iroha stared at the twins. The next moment, vertigo struck Iroha. She felt sick like when looking at an optical illusion. It was though the earth itself was twisting and bending out of its own, wicked will. And she recognized the feeling. “This… This is Sui’s Regalia?!” Iroha exhaled weakly as she was forced to her knees. There was no doubt about it: the tremor in space was an aftereffect of Sui’s Regalia. But its power this time was far stronger than before. As though it wasn’t Sui borrowing the dragon’s power, but Superbia itself wielding it… “No… This is the same as four years ago…” Iroha’s voice trembled, her head down as she expected the worst. A couple minutes later, Andrea Berith led a second attack against the Galerie. 3 The jet-black monster that took over Yahiro Narusawa stabbed its sharp claws into the ground. Crimson light like throbbing blood spread in all directions around him. The beams got brighter as the earth creaked ominously. Then the earth split. Cracks ran across the ground like a spider’s web, spurting darkness that enveloped the world. The Ploutonion. The ground of the Mitsuzawa Stadium caved in, giving way to a giant bottomless pit. Superbia’s power was unleashed on a scale never seen before. “So this is Superbia’s Hollow Regalia… I can see how one of these opening up in the capital would destroy a country. What do you think, Miyabi?” Yamase asked, half-rhetorically, as he filmed what was happening. Miyabi kept on filming, too, but her expression was stiff. “…Was this really the right thing to do?” “Excuse me, what?” “Yahiro did nothing wrong, and we used him to bring about the same hell from that day. Is this really what you wanted?” Miyabi shot him a condemning glare. Yamase only chuckled. “You’re getting all soft on me now? Didn’t you agree to take on this job?” “…Yeah.” Miyabi nodded as she looked down at the camera. “I wanted to show the truth to the world, because I’m a journalist. I wanted to know why the Japanese died out. What happened on that day. Who was behind all of that… And this job was the perfect chance.” “And I also want everyone to know the truth,” Yamase said exasperatedly. “But don’t forget it was her who got in the way. Karura Myoujiin. It was also her who messed up your face.” “I know. I haven’t forgotten.” Miyabi put a hand to her right cheek, hidden behind her bangs. “But this is not the truth. It’s fake. We orchestrated it all.” “No, it is the truth.” Yamase lifted a corner of his mouth, wearing a dark smile. “My camera shows only the truth. No matter what lies are at work behind the scenes.” “Douji…” Miyabi sighed in resignation. After seeing her go back to filming, Yamase turned around in satisfaction and took the wrecked scenery in. The monster once named Yahiro Narusawa had already created over twenty Ploutonions, as far as he could see. The biggest one was well over ninety meters in diameter, and the smallest about nine. Eerie miasma and Moujuu rose from the pits and into the ruins of the city. Battle between Guild watchmen and Moujuu had already broken out in the outskirts of Fort Yokohama. The Guild was only prepared for a few beasts a day, however. They lacked the power to respond to a sudden mass emergence. The Moujuu soon broke through the Guild’s defensive line and plunged the city of mercenaries into chaos. A deluge of gunshots illuminated the darkness as flames spread through the city. “Rejoice, Yahiro Narusawa. This is the world you wanted, earth dragon!” Yamase exclaimed from high ground as he watched the city burn. He cackled as howls and explosions echoed behind him. Meanwhile, Zen and Sumika took the only action they could think of: attack Yahiro and put a stop to the black dragon. “Zen! The Moujuu!” Sumika’s face wrinkled as she helplessly watched the Moujuu emerge from the many Ploutonion openings. The Moujuu didn’t attack mediums. Sumika knew this from experience. But not getting attacked was different from controlling them. She had no way to stop the beasts from entering Fort Yokohama and wreaking havoc. “I know. I wish I could’ve killed Yahiro Narusawa before it came to this, but it’s too late for that now.” Zen pursed his lips in regret. Yahiro Narusawa was a dragon vessel. The J-nocide that took place four years in the past also happened after Sui Narusawa summoned Superbia, the earth dragon, into him. Zen found out about it about half a year ago. A Black man named Auguste Nathan showed up before Zen and Sumika to tell them about the dragons and the Regalia—the symbolic treasure. They didn’t trust Nathan entirely, but they couldn’t ignore what he said, as he called himself an agent of Ganzheit. He also happened to have custody of Superbia’s dragon medium, Sui Narusawa. Zen and Sumika saw Sui Narusawa in a mysterious coma, being used as research material, and under Ganzheit’s strict surveillance. It wasn’t easy to think of killing her. It was also only natural, in a way, that their anger would be directed at Yahiro, the dragon vessel. Sui was a prisoner, but Yahiro still lived free somewhere in the ruins of Japan. Since then, Zen and Sumika had searched everywhere for him. They sought revenge, yes, but more than anything, it was a sense of duty that drove them. So long as the dragon vessel lived, he could transform once again and bring about a new disaster. Zen felt it was his obligation as a fellow Lazarus to put a stop to this. So it was a pleasant surprise when he saw Yahiro on Douji Yamase’s video exposé. The two also felt wrath burn within them at the thought of Superbia’s vessel receiving a new blessing from Avaritia. Yahiro turning dragon again was highly likely if they didn’t do something. They had to kill him before anything happened. And if killing the immortal was impossible, then they had to seal him away somehow. It was their responsibility. So great was their need to confront Yahiro that they stooped to taking hostages. But in the end, they were too late. Sui, who was supposed to be imprisoned by Ganzheit, turned Yahiro into a dragon. “There’s no end to them!” Sumika screamed as she noticed new Ploutonions popping up one after the other, while putting up ice barriers to stop the Moujuu. “We’ve no choice but to defeat the dragon… Sumika, help me out!” “S-sure!” Zen held his Western sword in his right hand, and lifted Sumika up with his left. Sumika placed her hand on Zen’s and poured all the dragon aura she could muster into it. The aura flowed into the blade, and Zen thrusted it forward. The cold shot froze the air and blasted liquid nitrogen and oxygen in a pure-white torrent against the transformed Yahiro. His jet-black, scaled body turned white as the ice covered it, but that did not stop him. Yahiro bellowed in pain as he destroyed the ice with an invisible barrier. Zen ground his teeth at the sheer resilience and vitality of the dragon. “That’s not enough?! How about this!” Zen raised his sword once again. Although his appearance was far from human, the foundation of the half dragon was still Yahiro’s Lazarus body. And his organic body couldn’t avoid all the damage that came from the chill of Zen’s Regalia. The fact that he used a repelling barrier to fend off the cold was proof. He was up against a ridiculous monster, for sure, but it was not invincible. If he attacked faster than the Lazarus powers could heal, he could wear the beast down enough to reverse the transformation. Certain of what he had to do, Zen unleashed his Regalia once again. But right before the torrent of cold was fired, his right arm was blown off at the shoulder. It was a bullet of compressed air—Ira’s Regalia. Yamase had seen the split-second opening and attacked him before Zen shot. “Douji…Yamase…!” Zen glared at the man furiously as he picked his sword back up with his regenerated right arm. Yamase, camera in hand, pointed the knife in his left hand at Zen. “Please, kid, stay still. Your job here is over, Sagara,” Yamase insisted forcefully. His usual carefree attitude was gone now, revealing his aggressive nature. Yamase’s silhouette wavered hazily beneath the moonlight. The wind around him whirled as he tried to compress a new bullet to shoot. “Ira’s Regalia is too simple. It’s an ordeal trying to kill a Lazarus with it! Don’t think I’m playing with you here, kid!” “…?!” Yamase unleashed his Regalia alongside the thunder. Zen immediately pushed Sumika away and deployed an ice armor around him. His Regalia couldn’t completely stop the shock wave Yamase shot, but just as the latter said, the wind dragon’s powers weren’t fit to defeat a Lazarus. Zen thought, once the Goreclad intercepted the first hit, he could defeat Yamase before he attacked again. But the shock wave did not hit Zen. Instead, he felt himself floating. Yamase’s shock wave wasn’t a destructive one, but rather a gust of directed wind. A gale like a tornado threw Zen’s body into the air. “Dammit!” “Zen!” Sumika screamed from below. Yamase’s wind threw Zen up barely fifteen meters. Not a height worth worrying about. The Lazarus powers could have him back up in no time even if he dropped to the ground. But there was no ground where he was falling. It was the Ploutonion. He was floating above one of the bottomless pits created by Superbia. “I’m sorry, Sagara. This is the end of the line.” Yamase’s voice faded away, and yet, Zen heard it right in his ear. The next moment, a barrage of shock wave bullets hit him from above. “Zen! Noooooo!” Sumika shrieked, down on the ground. Before her voice could reach him, the invisible bullets plunged Zen into the endless pit of the Ploutonion. 4 Iroha’s phone started ringing right after Andrea Berith’s troops launched their second attack. It was a tough situation in which to have a phone call, but she rushed to answer. She couldn’t ignore it after seeing her kidnapped sister’s name on the screen. “Iroha!” “Ayaho?! You’re okay?! Where are you?!” “Iroha, please help us! Yahiro’s… Yahiro is…” “Huh? Yahiro? Yahiro’s what?” Ayaho pleaded, cutting off Iroha’s questions about her well-being, but she was too confused to properly explain the situation. There was also too much noise on the other side: ceaseless explosions, the ground rumbling, the howls of the Moujuu. The only thing Iroha got was that Ayaho was in danger. “Akulina, can you hear me?” Rosé began her own phone call, while Iroha stood dumbfounded beside her. She phoned Guild executive Akulina Jarova, who had gone with Yahiro to rescue Ayaho. Rosé thought she might be near the two. “Rosetta Berith? Sorry, but things are not looking good on my end.” Her voice came through intermittently, drowned out by the wind. Rosé heard Ayaho’s voice right nearby, too. “Ayaho Sashou is with you, right? What happened?” “I don’t know. Yahiro Narusawa was fighting the kidnappers, when all of a sudden he crumpled over in pain and then transformed into a monster.” “Can you get me a video feed of the situation, Akulina?” “Yes. Give me a second.” Akulina switched to video call. The first thing on camera was the inside of the armored car she and Ayaho were taking refuge in. Then she switched camera views to show outside the window. Packs of Moujuu emerged from the slits in the ground, and a monster writhed in pain. It was hard to see any detail due to the lack of light, but it was obvious what the monster was: a dragonman. “Is that Yahiro?” Iroha asked with a hoarse voice. Ayaho replied feebly: “Yes… Yahiro was fighting Sagara, when a white-haired girl showed up and said something to him… Then this happened!” “A white-haired girl…? You mean Sui?” Iroha gasped. She was shocked, not by the fact that Rosé and Giuli were right, but that their expectations had become reality in the worst way possible. Another side of her, though, understood. No one other than Sui Narusawa could possibly turn Yahiro into a monster. “I see Moujuu,” Rosé said plainly. “Yes, they’re coming from right there. Sui opened Ploutonions. Big ones.” “And they’re not attacking you?” “R-right. Doesn’t look like it. Maybe because we’re hiding in the car…?” Akulina didn’t sound so sure. Not even she understood why they were fine while surrounded by Moujuu. “…I see,” Rosé whispered, her thoughts indecipherable. “Wait for me, Ayaho! Your big sis’ll be there to save you right away!” Iroha stated confidently. The Moujuu presented no risk to her. Not only did they not attack her, but she could also communicate with them and command them. Considering they were surrounded by the beasts, she thought it was only natural for her to go help them. “Th-thanks…but…” “Aren’t you under attack, too?” Ayaho and Akulina answered worriedly. They could hear the gunshots in the background from the other side of the phone. “Yes. Andrea Berith’s PMCs are attacking, and now Moujuu are coming for us, too,” Rosé confessed right away. Akulina was at a loss for words for a while. “Do you really have the time to come help us?” “There’s no better time than now, actually.” “What? What do you mea—” Akulina’s confused voice was cut off by a piercing sound. Iroha and Ayaho’s call also got cut off at the same time. Radio interference, likely due to Superbia’s Regalia. “Ayaho?! Ayaho, are you there?!” Iroha yelled into her phone. Then an explosion erupted right beside them, drowning out her voice. Andrea Berith’s mercenaries. A stray howitzer shot aiming for the Galerie’s turrets had hit the building they were in instead. 5 “Eeep!” A shriek rang out as soon as the glass in the hallway shattered. It wasn’t Iroha. Her face stiffened upon recognizing that voice. “Rinka?!” Iroha jumped out of the room without thinking. Glass shards covered the dark corridor, and smoke came in from the windows. Some of the lights on the ceiling were broken, too. The exposed wires were sparking, and the faint light from these sparks illuminated the figure of a girl crouching. One of Iroha’s sisters: Rinka Takio, eleven years old. She was usually strong and adaptable, but she was pushed to tears now that a cannon shell had gone off so close to her. “Rinka?! What’re you doing here?! You gotta go to the shelter!” “I’m sorry, Iroha, but Runa…” “Runa?” Then she noticed Rinka was protecting a girl even younger than her. Runa, the youngest of her siblings, looked up at Iroha calmly from within Rinka’s shivering embrace. Runa was holding a white Moujuu, the size of a dog. She silently lifted it up, handing it over to Iroha. “…You’re bringing me Nuemaru?” “Mm-hmm.” Runa nodded. Iroha, though confused, picked Nuemaru up. Runa always acted for a reason at times like this, and she knew that. “Thank you, Runa. I got him now, so you two go back to the shelter, quick,” she said as she helped them up. Violent gunfire continued outside. The HQ building was solid, but it wasn’t made to withstand all-out combat. Iroha had to get the girls out of there ASAP. Then a high-pitched whistle echoed, as though mocking her. It was too late by the time she realized it was the sound of cannon fire flying at them. The outside was dyed white by a flash, and the blast blew away all the shattered glass. “Iroha!” Rinka shrieked hoarsely. The brick wall collapsed and the bricks hurtled toward them. But then the bricks stopped right before reaching them. They fell silently to the ground, as though blocked by an invisible wall. “The Regalia…? But why…?” Iroha muttered as she fell on her behind and looked up at the pile of bricks. Iroha recognized the power: an invisible repelling barrier. The Ganzheit agent, Auguste Nathan, had used it in his fight against Yahiro. It was Superbia’s Regalia. “Don’t worry about the children, Iroha Mamana. I will protect them, if only for now.” A low, firm voice came from the end of the hallway. A tall Black man in a luxury suit showed himself. “You… You’re the guy that was with Sui! Nathan!” Iroha exclaimed, pointing at him. She had no idea why he, Sui’s accomplice, would show up in the Galerie’s base out of nowhere. Or why he would offer to protect her siblings. Iroha was speechless. “Breaking and entering is a crime, Auguste Nathan.” Giuli approached after hearing the explosion, and spoke in Iroha’s stead. “Well, from my perspective, it is you who are breaking and entering into Japanese territory,” Nathan rebuked coldly. The building Galerie Berith was using for its headquarters was originally a bonded warehouse established by the Meiji government. The twins took over the deserted building of their own accord. Nathan was merely pointing out the hypocrisy. “In any case, get your subordinates to change their weapons. You need at least 30 calibers. Preferably 50.” “Fifty calibers? That’s for anti-materiel rifles… We’re not hunting Moujuu here, so why?” Giuli asked in puzzlement. Fifty calibers—12.7mm bullets were ammo used for heavy machine guns and sniper rifles. They were multiple times more powerful than regular rifle bullets, but the recoil was strong and hard to control. It was overkill for combat against personnel. Still, the PMCs active in Japan always had the ammo in stock for fighting Moujuu. High-Grade Moujuu needed at least 50-caliber firepower to be defeated. “What makes you think you’re not hunting Moujuu?” Nathan retorted coolly. Giuli raised her eyebrows in amusement. “Uhh… Because they’ll be attacking Andrea before they reach us?” “Right, Andrea Berith’s mercenaries have the base surrounded. But do you think they’ll stay human for long?” “Wow… You have a wild imagination, Auguste Nathan.” Giuli smiled, but the expression didn’t reach her eyes. In that moment, Nuemaru’s ears twitched. He began growling in reaction to the echo of the distant howl of a beast. “Moujuu,” Runa said. With that as a trigger, the mercenaries surrounding the Galerie’s HQ changed their course of action. They began shooting more rapidly, and screams resounded all around. The Moujuu had closed in from behind and were attacking the mercenaries indiscriminately. “Why’re there so many of them? I think that’s more than were in the 23 Wards…” Rinka’s voice trembled as she peeked out from the gaps in the crumbled wall. There were over thirty Moujuu within sight, and the number was growing at an unbelievable rate. There were some who looked like birds of prey. Some beasts similar to Nuemaru. Some bipedal with monkey-like appearances. But most were types Iroha and her siblings had never seen before. “Just…how many of them did Sui summon…?” Iroha groaned as she felt a chill run down her spine. It was this bad within Fort Yokohama’s line of defense—not to mention the Galerie base was right by the sea. She couldn’t begin to imagine how many hundreds of Moujuu must’ve been crawling around the Ploutonions. Yokohama was about to become flooded with Moujuu. “No. She didn’t summon them here of her own will. Sui Narusawa only opened the gates.” “The gates?” “Yes, the Ploutonion. The gates that tear open the boundary between worlds,” Nathan answered Iroha’s question. Iroha narrowed her eyes in confusion. She didn’t understand Nathan’s explanation, but she was sure he wouldn’t use such dramatic words without a good reason. If he said the boundary between worlds was torn open, then most certainly, that was literally what happened. “Iroha! Look!” Rinka pointed outside, her expression stiff. She was looking at Andrea Berith’s mercenaries. They were wounded, but had somehow driven away the Moujuu. But then their bodies underwent a change. Their muscles swelled and their bones warped. They became inhuman. Monsters like a mix between a tiger and an eagle. Moujuu. “What… What in the…? Why’re they turning into Moujuu?!” Iroha’s body froze in fright. Her muscles tensed and she stuttered, barely getting the question out. The change began with one mercenary, but it soon spread to more and more of the wounded men. The mercenaries wounded by the Moujuu turned each other into monsters, like vampires making more vampires. “Didn’t you find it strange, living in the 23 Wards? Why were there no human bodies in the ruins of that city?” Nathan asked Iroha bluntly. Iroha’s face turned pale as she looked at him. She’d tried not to think about it. But the question was always there in the back of her head. She had barely seen any human bodies in the four years she lived in the 23 Wards. Not even the corpses of the people who died in the J-nocide remained. “This isn’t just about the 23 Wards. Over a hundred twenty million people died in the span of a few months, and yet there’s an unnatural lack of bodies throughout Japan. Why are there no bones, not even a hair left, of the people the Moujuu killed? That’s your answer right there,” Nathan stated as he observed the nightmare taking place: the mercenaries turned into Moujuu. The Japanese hadn’t been devoured by the Moujuu. They turned into Moujuu. “No…” Iroha feebly shook her head. People attacked by Moujuu turned into Moujuu. In a way, that was a fate worse than death. After all, if the Moujuu really were people, then that meant the Japanese were killed off by fellow Japanese people. And now, the armies of the world kept killing the Moujuu. And Galerie Berith was one of the dealers providing them with weapons and ammunition for that purpose. “The Moujuu are specters of the Japanese people. The dragon venom turns people into monsters. This is why the Moujuu don’t appear in the ocean. They can’t emerge in places people don’t live in.” “B-but when Chiruka attacked Yokosuka…” “Vanagloria… Chiruka Misaki sank a number of American ships before she landed in Yokosuka. The Moujuu that emerged from the sea then were the crew of the ships the mountain dragon destroyed.” Iroha could not argue against Nathan’s merciless explanation. She knew he was right. “The Japanese living abroad were massacred because Ganzheit leaked intel to the governments of the world—they said transforming into Moujuu was contagious. That it was some sort of new virus, or bioweapon.” “No…way…!” Iroha shook her head hard. Her emotions were in too much disarray to think straight. The Moujuu attacked people, then the injured people turned into Moujuu themselves. One couldn’t let the Moujuu live—but they were people, too. “Then what is the Ploutonion? Why do the Moujuu crawl up from the bottom of the earth?” “The Ploutonion is just a gate, nothing more,” Nathan said calmly. “A gate to the underworld. I don’t know exactly what kind of place this is, but consider it a space separate from our world. There is someone who isolated the Moujuu that flowed here in the day of the J-nocide over in the underworld, in order to protect them, the Japanese, from genocide.” “Who…?” Nathan looked back at Iroha in silence. His eyes asked if there was really any need to answer that. Iroha choked back her words. A world separate from ours to isolate the millions of Moujuu. Only the dragon medium could do something so outlandish. “Superbia’s Regalia, the Hollow, can open a rift in the wall to the underworld. That’s how the Moujuu emerge. A tiny percentage of the Moujuu isolated in the underworld, that is,” Nathan continued, brushing aside Iroha’s silence. Iroha bit her lip. She understood. It all made sense now. Sui had only summoned the Moujuu up to now; she didn’t control them. And summoning was only a side effect of her powers. “I see. So that’s how it is.” Rosé showed up in the hallway and joined the conversation. “I found it strange that Ganzheit would approve a plan that would put Iroha in danger, but they knew it would turn out like this from the very beginning.” “They knew…what?” Iroha looked up at Rosé. It wasn’t Rosé who answered her question, but Nathan. “If Superbia is summoned, then Yokohama will crawl with Moujuu. Then, no matter how big Andrea Berith’s troops may be, they could never harm you.” “…Because I’m a dragon medium?” “No. Because you’re a special dragon medium, Kushinada.” “What’s that mean…?” “Ganzheit never intended to put a hand on you. What they needed was Yahiro Narusawa. You needed only to stay put, protected by the Galerie. So they used the exposé and the Guild to get him away from you.” Nathan delivered the final blow. Iroha stood up, filled with fury, and glared at him. “What do you want to do with Yahiro?” “Let me ask you, instead. Why do you think the Lazaruses exist?” “Huh?” “The Lazaruses are vessels. Vessels for summoning the dragons. You need the body of a Lazarus to withstand the great power of a dragon.” “A dragon…vessel…,” Iroha muttered hoarsely. The first thing that came to mind was Chiruka Misaki when she turned dragonwoman. She summoned Vanagloria and shifted away from her human shape, went berserk, and finally, vanished. On the other hand, Sui Narusawa, who once summoned Superbia, retained her human form even now. The difference between them was their Lazarus. Sui had Yahiro back then, but the Lazarus Chiruka gave her blessings to, Amaha Kamikita, had already been lost by then. So Chiruka had no choice but to give her own body as a vessel for the dragon. “A great enough power affects its surroundings merely by existing. Four years ago, when Superbia emerged, its effect was awakening seven new dragon mediums, including you.” Iroha shivered. She had no awareness of being a dragon medium. But she had a memory. A fading memory, like a dream, of a faraway world, an extinct world. And wasn’t it the day of the J-nocide, the moment she saw the dragon, that she remembered? “Ganzheit’s goal is to awaken the latent dragon mediums all around the world and to bring about a global genocide. A true massacre. They want to reset civilization and rebuild a new world.” “And they’re using Yahiro for that?! And Sui?! That’s… That’s awful…” Iroha’s shoulders drooped, and she appeared to be sobbing. “Iroha…” “…” “Aw, Iroha…” Giuli, Rosé, and Rinka stared at her with concern. They thought she was crying, but in reality… “…God! What the heck?! I’m pissed now!” Iroha lifted her head suddenly and screamed her lungs out. Rinka was floored by the sight of Iroha not only far from depressed, but furious. Iroha had no headspace for worrying about their reactions, though. She picked Nuemaru up from the floor and swung her leg over to outside the wall. “Where do you think you’re going, Iroha Mamana?” “Where else? I’m taking Yahiro back and stopping Sui!” Iroha answered Nathan’s question rambunctiously. She had been angry this whole time. The exposé had her locked up at the Galerie barracks, she couldn’t go rescue Ayaho, and now Sui had taken Yahiro away from her because of that. And to top it all off, the Galerie base was under attack because of her, and now there were swarms of Moujuu everywhere. Iroha had been kept out of the loop during all this. The stress had reached its limits and exploded. Then Nathan threw something at Iroha. She caught it reflexively with one hand and her brow furrowed at what she saw. It was a machine the size of a smartphone. “What’s this?” “A GPS map. Take it. It shows Sui Narusawa’s location.” “…Why are you helping me?” Iroha gave Nathan a suspicious look. Getting Sui’s location was of great help, considering how everything was chaos now with the emergence of the Moujuu. But Nathan was on Sui’s side; he should have no reason to help Iroha. “I’ll explain if you manage to get Yahiro Narusawa back,” he said defiantly. She didn’t like the ostentation, but she felt she could trust him to explain if she met her side of the promise. Iroha gripped the GPS map tight. “All right, let’s go,” Giuli said cheerfully. “Yes. We have a score to settle ourselves,” Rosé agreed while checking that her favorite handgun was loaded. The mercenaries no longer had them surrounded thanks to the Moujuu attack. There was no need to keep playing siege. The twins had better make use of the chaos to counter Andrea Berith. “Wait just a bit, girls,” Iroha said, holding in her desire to go running after Yahiro ASAP. Then she turned to look at Rinka, who was still pale in the face and holding Runa up in her arms. If Sui had turned Yahiro dragonman, Iroha wouldn’t be able to take him back by going in without a plan. She needed weaponry. A weapon strong enough to shake him and make him look her way. “Help me out, Rinka. We’re taking Yahiro back!” Iroha told her precious sister, who had absolute faith in her. Rinka looked up in surprise and then, slightly but firmly, nodded. 6 “For fuck’s sake, what’s happening?! They’re still fighting the Moujuu?!” Andrea Berith yelled furiously from his military officer chair in the rustic tent. He was at the station plaza of the ruins of Sakuragi, at the camp from which he led the mercenaries. There were nearly a thousand operators in his PMC alliance, and already half of them had been taken out. They hadn’t expected the counterattack from the Japanese branch, much less the Moujuu emergence. “They’re turning into Moujuu?! That’s ridiculous!” Andrea growled as he pulled at his hair. Andrea had just arrived in Japan; it was his first time encountering Moujuu. He wasn’t unprepared, but he did underestimate the beasts for their lack of intellect. He was having a hard time accepting the fact that his troops were in the process of getting wiped out. The mercenaries attacked by the Moujuu were turning into spectral beasts themselves. By the time a Moujuu was defeated, multiple new ones were created. How could a ragtag bunch of troops keep morale up among the disaster? “Branch Chief, Sublieutenant Randel reports the Gal Corp troops have begun retreating,” one of Andrea’s subordinates looked up from his comms and relayed bitterly. Andrea raised his eyebrows on reflex and yelled at him: “They’re backing off?! Are they stupid?! I’ve given no such order!” “They claim the contract recognizes withdrawal in case Moujuu emerge during the operation.” “What?!” “I-it’s true. We’ve also lost contact with the other groups, so it’s likely they’ve retreated for the same reason!” “Stupid fucks!” Andrea punched the desk before him. Andrea’s troops mostly relied on local PMCs, as he didn’t have a base in Japan. If he let them all go, never mind crushing the Galerie’s Japanese branch: His chances to fend off the Moujuu would be slim. “Perhaps we should think about the worst-case scenario and reconsider,” his aide suggested with a pained expression. Andrea had brought this man along with him from the Oceania branch; he was a veteran mercenary who had served House Berith for a long time. Nonetheless, Andrea shot him a glare full of wrath. “You want me to go with my tail between my legs? The Japanese branch doesn’t even have a hundred operators!” “However, they are experienced in combat against Moujuu, unlike us. Not to mention their strong loyalty to the twins.” “Are you implying I’m not as good as them?!” Andrea yelled hysterically. His aide gave him a pained glance. It was well known that the operators of the Galerie’s Japanese branch idolized Giulietta Berith. And proving that was the fact that not one of them tried running away even after getting surrounded by Andrea’s troops—seemingly an overwhelming disadvantage. Meanwhile, it was obvious how little charisma Andrea had in comparison. Even some of the men directly under him he had brought from Oceania were beginning to leave their posts. Andrea’s unpopularity really showed in situations like this. “Lord Andrea,” Enrica called his name from behind as he quivered in humiliation. “What?” He turned back with annoyance, then gasped upon seeing the monitor. A white Moujuu was departing from the Japanese branch’s barracks. A big, high-Grade Moujuu superior to the rest around it. And someone rode atop its back. She concealed her face with a hood, but he recognized her. Andrea knew of only one girl who would ride a Moujuu. “Iroha Mamana!” Andrea stood, eyes lit up. “She’s shown herself! What are you fools doing?! Go get her!” “B-but the Moujuu are protecting her!” “What?!” Andrea’s expression stiffened in shock. The Moujuu weren’t only attacking Andrea’s mercenaries. They were striking indiscriminately, including operators of the Japanese branch. And yet, the moment Iroha appeared on the back of the white Moujuu, it all changed. Some Moujuu stopped attacking and began following her instead, in an orderly line. “This… This is the Kushinada!” Andrea uttered in awe of Iroha’s godly aspect. That he saw her control the Moujuu just after he realized how big of a threat they were only made him more keenly aware of her value. He didn’t care whether dragons really existed any longer. Iroha Mamana leading a flock of Moujuu was enough of a weapon to dominate any battlefield. Andrea’s position would be guaranteed if only he could get his hands on her. “Go, Enriqueta! Get me that woman!” Andrea commanded Enrica. Iroha Mamana rode the white Moujuu straight toward their location. She had nowhere else to go, for they had destroyed all the other bridges. Regular mercenaries could not catch up to the tremendous speed of the Moujuu, but Enrica was different—she was genetically enhanced. Her explosive power allowed her to keep up with the beasts’ speed. However, Enrica gave him a rare, confused look. “But the Moujuu are coming. I can’t leave your side…” “You disobey your master, doll?!” Andrea’s temper flared and he punched her in the face. The Moujuu ran too fast. Iroha could get away while Enrica hesitated. The impatience made him emotional. “Know your place! Remember that you can be replaced at any—?!” Out of control, Andrea punched a defenseless Enrica again and again, but then, all of a sudden, he lost his balance. His right fist burst in a spurt of blood before he could punch her again. He heard the gunshot a moment later. A short girl wearing the Galerie’s uniform pointed a gun at him from the tent’s entrance. “Gwooogh! My hand… My hand…!” “Rosé…!” Enrica unsheathed her knives. Rosé had entered the mercenary alliance camp without anyone noticing—while they were distracted by Iroha. “Rosettaaa! You bastaaard!” Andrea yelled, his eyes bloodshot. “Kill her, Enriqueta! Get rid of her! Rosetta’s close-combat rating is an A+. Giulietta may be an S+, but you’re an SS! It’s an easy job! What are you waiting for?” “I don’t want to hear how easy it is from a C- guy… You’re below the ordinary average,” Rosé said flatly. “Shut the fuck up!” Andrea roared with a hateful glare. “You’re here to kill me now that Giulietta’s too hurt to do anything?! Know your place, Rosetta. You cannot defeat Enriqueta! She was made for combat!” “—!” Enrica struck out at Rosé before Andrea even finished talking. Her speed was superhuman. Rosé shot both handguns, but she couldn’t keep up with Enrica’s swiftness. Even when she fired at point-blank range, Enrica knocked down the bullets with her knives. Rosé jumped backward, just barely avoiding Enrica’s slash. They shared the same face, but the difference in combat ability was clear as day. In only a couple seconds, they exchanged blows over fifteen times. This did not tire Enrica out, but it made Rosé run out of ammo. While the latter could no longer defend herself, the former attacked head-on. Enrica’s assault was too fast for Rosé to reload or change weapons. And she did not try to dodge. “Made for combat… Right. And that’s how she falls for such a simple move all the time!” “…?!” Enrica’s eyes widened as she saw her elder sister smile regrettably. The green-haired girl stopped suddenly, as though someone had paused a video. She had been entangled in a web of wires before she’d even realized. The ensnared girl’s brow wrinkled in confusion. The next moment, Enrica was blown away. Blood and brains rained before she could make a sound. “…It’s such a shame, Enrica. How could you not tell me and Rosy apart?” The girl with the handguns took off her hood, revealing the bright orange color of a tuft of her hair. “Wires… And sniping… It can’t be! You’re…?!” “You thought I was Rosy, as well? Too bad, Brother.” Giuli shook her head coldly as she threw the handguns away. She was an expert in close combat, not guns—so she used them to pretend to be Rosé. The trick was executed in the hope that she could defeat Enrica, her superior in combat, while still injured. This way, Enrica wouldn’t think there was a sniper. She just had to catch her in the wires to keep her still for even a moment, enough for Rosé to take the shot. “By the way, you can’t grade Rosy’s long-range skills. She’s never missed a shot, after all.” Giuli walked up to Andrea, who had been hiding behind Enrica up to that point. Most of his underlings had escaped the moment Enrica got killed. And Rosé had already taken care of the few who remained. It was only Andrea now. “This is why Enrica was a flop. Real combat isn’t like simulations. She lost the moment she couldn’t tell I wasn’t Rosy.” “W-wait, Rose… I mean, Giulietta! I admit my defeat!” Andrea fell pathetically to his butt and pleaded for dear life. “I’ll leave the Japanese branch alone. I’ll even hand you over the Oceania branch. Just let me go this time, please, Sister!” “I’m sorry, Brother…” Giuli sighed with pity. She was no longer looking at Andrea, but at the darkness beyond. “You’re not getting away, even if I forgive you now.” “Giulietta… What the hell do you mean…?” Andrea noticed something was off and turned to follow her line of sight. Then from the darkness appeared a two-headed dog the size of a bull—a Moujuu commonly called the Orthrus. “N-NOOO!” Andrea shrieked like an animal. Giuli caught the Orthrus in her wires and cut off its heads; as it still squirmed, Rosé finished it off with a couple sniper shots. Still, Andrea wouldn’t stop screaming. The Moujuu’s claws had scratched his back as he groveled on the ground. Fresh blood flowed from the tears in his suit. His screams were not out of pain, however. He felt no pain despite having bone-deep wounds. That was why he screamed. “What the hell?! What in the world is happening?!” Andrea muttered, dumbfounded as he stared at his own arm, which was beginning to grow fur.
Chapter 43
46 min read