“Hold on! You’re gonna ruin everything!” Yahiro yelled, seriously afraid. A Lazarus would take a lot of time to heal from his head being blown off. Losing such precious time over this nonsense was not funny. Yet the look on Rosé’s face was plenty serious, and she didn’t seem to intend to stand back. Yahiro closed his eyes out of fear. And then, he felt something soft touch his lips. “R-Rosé…?” “That’s going to cost you a lot, so you better come back in one piece.” Rosé looked away, her cheeks turning the color of roses. Giuli looked smugly at him while the operators whistled jokingly. Meanwhile, Iroha puffed out her cheeks and glared at him with resentment. 5 The Tokyo Ploutonion seen from up close was far bigger and more beautiful than any other Yahiro had seen before. A giant hole in the ground, its surface glistened like still water, like polished obsidian or a mirror reflecting the dark of the night. The original Ploutonion hadn’t changed. If anything had, it was them. The magatama Karura Myoujiin entrusted to Iroha had transformed the Ploutonion. They did not hesitate to jump into the black water. Runa had already told them the Ploutonion would look like this. Yahiro and Iroha held hands and stepped into the underworld’s gate. In that moment, their field of vision turned around. It felt like the back and front of the world had switched places. Yahiro and Iroha had entered the literal back side of the world by going through the Ploutonion. Into the real Afterlife, the one yet to dry up, into the womb to birth the next Ouroboros. “Mmm…” They walked over the ground, black like the night sky in the middle of a void. Iroha’s cheeks remained puffed in a pout the whole time. She hadn’t said anything since Rosé kissed Yahiro, but she never let go of his hand. He had no idea what was going through her mind. “C’mon, cheer up already. They were just horsing around.” “I’m not mad at them. I’m mad at you for being so happy about it.” “What?” Yahiro sighed at her baseless accusation. Then he noticed that she still had her phone in her left hand. “You’re still streaming.” “No. There’s no signal here, but I’ll make a video later. It’ll be like those videos where they visit scary ruins and all that.” “Where they get cursed and die?” Yahiro twisted his lip. They continued walking without saying anymore. Oddly, they had no doubts about what direction to follow. They somehow knew where they had to go, where Sui and Nina were. “This reminds me of the day we first met,” Yahiro said without much thinking. “Huh?” Iroha raised an eyebrow. Yahiro narrowed his eyes with nostalgia. “We were all alone, remember? Not even Nuemaru.” “Oh, yeah.” “At least you’re not wearing that lame tracksuit now.” Yahiro laughed, looking at the Galerie uniform she had put on top of Waon’s costume. Iroha pouted more. “Well, I didn’t have the time to change back then!” “Should we have left Nuemaru behind?” “Yeah, she’s Runa’s. They protected me together this whole time.” “I see. The pooch was like an overprotective mother, huh?” “Yeah. Maybe more motherly than me or Runa.” Iroha giggled. She was in good spirits again now. Iroha kept holding Yahiro’s hand as he asked with worry. “You think I can do it? Break the Ouroboros’s loop?” “Who knows?” Yahiro shrugged. Iroha side-eyed him. “What the heck? You gotta say I can even if it’s a lie.” “But I really don’t know. But it’s okay. Even if it’s all for nothing, it won’t be all your fault. And…” “…And?” “I promised. That I’d be with you until the end.” “Should I take that as a declaration of love?” Iroha asked with her eyes filled with her usual, mysterious excess of self-confidence. Yahiro nodded. “I guess.” “Huh… Huuuh??!” Iroha was shocked. “H-hold on. One more time! I wasn’t recording! Do it again!” “Why? I’m not gonna say it knowing you’re gonna record it.” “Aww… Please…” She threw a childish tantrum. Yahiro snorted. Same as always even when the world was about to end. Then… “I didn’t think we’d get to meet agaiiin.” They stopped as they heard an easygoing voice. A tree grew from the still-water-like ground of the Afterlife. It was barely ten meters tall. Not that big, yet clearly the same type as the world tree they saw in the Myoujiin. Someone stood at the foot of the young world tree, a young woman of carefree nature. Beside her stood, naturally, a young man carrying a large sword on his back. “Nina…” “I actually didn’t expect you to catch up. Kudooos! But honestlyyy, you’re not welcome.” Nina showed them a crooked smile. There was a violent air about her unbefitting of her usual self, but expected, as they were an obstruction that had showed up right before her wish was granted. “Where’s Sui?” Yahiro asked, ignoring Nina’s hostile attitude. Nina pointed at the foot of the world tree in silence. There slept Sui, curled up in the fetal position. Her skinny body wore the same lavish dress Yahiro remembered, but her silhouette was abnormal. Her hands had claws. Her neck was thin and long. She was draconizing. “You remember our promise?” Nina asked Yahiro. “That I’d help you kill Sui?” “Yes. Time to fulfill it.” “By draconizing her?” “I’m grateful to her. She put so much effort into opening a new path to the Afterlife, so much that she ended up draconizing even with the power of the Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi.” Nina smiled coldly as she looked at Sui with pity. “Why…?” Iroha’s voice trembled. Nina blinked in surprise. “It’s youuur fault, Iroha!” “Huh?” “You took Yahiro away from Sui. Without her Lazarus, she had to turn herself into a dragon to use Superbia’s power.” Iroha was at a loss for words. Yahiro held her hand tightly. Nina was correct, in a way, but it was off on a fundamental level. It was true that Iroha got Yahiro away from Sui’s control, but that didn’t mean she had to use her power. “What do you want by using her, Nina?” “Before answering that, mind if I ask a question?” Nina looked at Iroha. “Iroha Mamana, what do you plan to wish for here? You’re just an empty, hollow baby. Even if you could paint your ideal world, how long could you keep it up?” “Shut your—” “Wait, Yahiro!” Iroha held back his anger and glared back at Nina. “It’s fine. She’s right. I’m just an empty vessel without memory of the previous world, and I don’t know what an ideal one would be. I don’t know what’s right or what’s wrong.” “Theeen would you mind not getting in my waaay?” “No. I have to. I can’t create an ideal world. Actually, I’m sure no one can. Not even you, Nina.” “But someone has to.” “No. Not someone. Everyone,” Iroha said unfalteringly. “My wish is simply to unlock access to the world dragon to everyone in the world. Everyone, little by little, will have their wish granted by Ouroboros. We will create the world that we all really want.” “You’re going to create a world based on the average of the wishes of all humanityyy? And you think that would go down well?” Nina sighed. Iroha shrugged. To end the Ouroboros loop, Iroha came up with the solution of liberating it—to use the world dragon to grant the wishes of all humanity, not just one sacrificial medium. “If it doesn’t, then that’s just the limit of humanity, because every one of us bears responsibility for the shape of the world.” “So that’s why everyone in the world should cooperate to create the ideal world, ehhh? I didn’t think of it. Sure enough, that might get rid of the necessity of one sacrificial medium to wear down her soul, and it could get rid of the need to reset the world.” “Nina! Then you…!” “Buuut, that’s not the world I want. I mean, I wouldn’t know aaanything like that.” Nina cut down Iroha’s expectations. “Know…?” “Yes, like what the outside of the underworld is like. Like who made the Ouroboros system. Like what would happen if one destroyed that system. I want to know aaall that.” “Is that…your wish, Nina?” Yahiro glared at her, baffled by the inanity of it. She only wanted to know, in a most pure thirst for knowledge. That was the only thing that drove her. She’d talked about it before. Said that she was the dragon medium with the greatest sins, that her thirst for knowledge knew no bounds and that she would sacrifice as many people as she needed to satisfy her curiosity, even if she knew that only doom awaited on the other side. “Yes. I will obtain the Ouroboros and go outside the world.” “Outside the world…?!” Iroha was flabbergasted. Nina wanted to use the world dragon as a vehicle to go to an “outside” that she didn’t even know for sure existed. “And what about the world you leave behind?” “Without its land to stand on, I guess it would end,” she said nonchalantly, as though she had no interest in that. “In that sense, Sui Narusawa’s goals align with mine—to destroy the world.” 6 Hisaki Minato unsheathed the sword from his back, communicating that there was no point in continuing the conversation. “I see. So this is what Ed mentioned…” Yahiro sighed deeply before standing before Iroha. Ed said that Nina’s wish could not be granted without Ouroboros, and that if they tried to destroy the world dragon, they would have to kill Nina. “Minato, you’re okay with this?” Yahiro asked the boy in the hood. To go “outside” in exchange for the present world made sense for curious Nina, but he couldn’t believe Hisaki would want that. “There’s a place I have to go back to.” Hisaki broke his silence while still holding the sword up. Iroha’s eyes grew wide. “Hisaki, you mean you have memories of the past world?” “…Yes. If there’s a chance to go back there by escaping this artificial world, then I will dirty my hands. I won’t let you get in the way,” he stated. Yahiro’s hand holding his katana shook. Hisaki wanted to go back to the world in his memories, the place Miyabi called the living world. Ouroboros summoned the dragon mediums from outside the world, meaning it had the power to access the outside from here. It would make sense for it to be able to cross over to that world. Hisaki could return to his former world by becoming the Ouroboros, and he was betting on this, no matter how slim the chances. “I’m just using Hisakiii, but that goes both ways. I have his consent.” Nina poured her dragon aura into Hisaki as she spoke. Fresh blood spurted from his body, creating a beautiful, light purple armor. The Goreclad. Hisaki took off his hood, revealing dragon eyes. “Yahiro! Hisaki’s…!” “Yeah. Looks like we don’t have the time to persuade them.” Yahiro gritted his teeth. Hisaki was already turning into a dragon. He was ready to transform his body into the world dragon. “You’re gonna get in Hisaki’s way and turn yourself into Ouroborooos? How selfish, after you refused to become a dragon for Sui and abandoned herrr.” Yahiro wore his own deep crimson Goreclad while Nina criticized him. “Selfish, huh? That’s pretty high praise coming from you!” Yahiro unsheathed his sword. He had to beat Nina, not Hisaki. A battle between Lazaruses was never-ending. He had to kill the dragon medium to stop Hisaki’s draconization. “Get out of our way, Narusawa!” “Get out of my way, Minato!” Hisaki attacked head-on as Yahiro accelerated with bursting flames. Yahiro knew Hisaki was strong. They were equals, even after unsealing Iroha’s power. In fact, Hisaki had the advantage due to his draconization. Hisaki’s Regalia, his power of marshification, could cancel out Yahiro’s flames of purification. In return, Yahiro’s flames also blocked Hisaki’s marsh from taking control of the area. The only thing that remained was a clash of raw strength. “Yahiro…!” Iroha screamed. Yahiro’s body was also beginning to change as he continued to unleash a great mass of Regalia. It began to swell and his armor turned into scales. He was draconizing. “No holding back, Iroha!” “I know. I trust you!” Iroha held her hands together in prayer while grimacing. The dragon aura flowing from her increased in power, and Yahiro was able to push Hisaki’s sword back. “You can’t decide to end the world on your own! If you really want to know the outside of the world, then persuade everyone else first!” Yahiro yelled at Nina while locking swords with Hisaki. “Then all of humanity can decide together whether to end the world or not!” Nina sighed. “That’s pointleeess. History shows that a bright dictator brings better results than the majority vote of the irresponsible masses. In the end, you’re just running away from bearing the weight of the world.” “You’re the ones looking away from the world and running from it!” Yahiro brought his flame-wreathed katana down on Hisaki. His face twisted in pain as his translucent scales broke down. “Open your eyes, Minato! Even if you destroy the underworld, you can’t return to the previous one! Even if this world is full of shit, we have no choice but to live here!” Hisaki came to a halt with his movements in sync with Yahiro’s. Hisaki’s sword buried into Yahiro’s left shoulder, while Yahiro’s katana pierced Hisaki’s chest. “What do you know about anything?!” Hisaki growled as he spat blood. “What?!” “You only think that because you have a family and loved ones in this world. How can you understand my wish when you’re trying to kill your family…?!” Hisaki’s dragon aura boosted in pressure and filled his body in a flash. The force of his sword disappeared and Yahiro lost his balance. Material permeation: another of Luxuria’s powers.
Chapter 77
12 min read