Ren kept holding the gun with both hands as he watched the phenomenon in stupefaction. “Phew… Looks like we pulled through.” Josh sighed while putting the empty shotgun down. The commotion had made them forget that they were in a famous tourist spot full of visitors. Everyone had witnessed their fight against the monster. The looks on the tourists’ faces was not that of fear. The occurrence was so fantastical that it had seemed more like a show or performance than a real battle. Still, Josh had fired a very real gun. He and the kids decided it was better to leave before the local police showed up for him. Josh glanced at Rinka, and she led Ren, who was in a daze, to run away. “…What in the world was that?” Josh asked Runa, who still had her typical flat expression on her face. She shook her head and shrugged in silence, holding Nuemaru in her arms again. 2 Tomatoes flourished along the rows of the crude handmade vinyl greenhouse. The fruit was ripe for picking. Yahiro stood in the middle of a tomato field, fervently maintaining it. He picked the ripe fruit and pruned the damaged leaves and side buds. A small blond individual wearing clothes that looked like a nun’s habit stared at him point-blank. “Mr. Yahiro… What is this?” Ellie broke her silence and pointed at the tomatoes. “Is this the first time you’ve seen tomato plants bearing fruit?” “I see… So these are tomatoes…” “Yeah. They originally come from arid plateaus, so they’re hard to cultivate here in the subtropics, but this variety is strong against the heat, and with enough humidity control…” Yahiro cut himself off in the middle of his explanation and turned to look at Ellie. “Wait… You can speak now?” “Yes. I finally learned,” she responded flatly. Although she was lacking emotion, her Japanese was natural and fluent. “How?” “…Through the videos.” “What? The ones Iroha showed you? That’s still way too fast, though…” “Is it…?” Ellie tilted her head curiously. It hadn’t even been two days since they’d found her on the beach. During that time, she had said almost nothing besides her own and Yahiro’s names. But if she was telling the truth, now she had mastered Japanese in just two days. “Okay, then. Being able to talk can only be a good thing.” Yahiro shook his head, choosing not to question it further. He supposed she might have just remembered Japanese, not learned it from scratch. “By the way, what are you doing right now, Mr. Yahiro?” Ellie asked in wonder at the unripe tomato in Yahiro’s hand. “Thinning fruit. When there’s too many of them, they don’t get enough nutrients and the quality drops. We thin them out so there’s no negative effects to their development.” “Thinning…,” Ellie whispered with her brow furrowed. Yahiro realized what he was doing must seem cruel to her; he understood how she felt. “And how do you choose which tomatoes to thin?” “There’s a lot of criteria. Like how they’ve grown so far…but in the end, just gut instinct. Luck.” Yahiro shrugged and reached into the basket to grab a tomato he’d just picked. “Wanna try one?” Ellie blinked with surprise before accepting the tomato. She closed her eyes as though praying and then bit into it. She looked a little shocked at the overflowing juice but ended up nibbing on the fruit like a hamster. She stared at the cute little teeth marks on it before looking at Yahiro like she had just made a great discovery. “…It tastes like tomato!” “Sweet, right? This variety has a lot of sugar. And it’s even tastier if you let it ripen for a few more days.” “Will you have some, too, Mr. Yahiro?” She timidly offered the half-eaten tomato. Yahiro was taken aback, but bit into it without hesitation. He found it a tad embarrassing, but he knew she was being nice. “About what I expected. It’s good.” “Yes. You do a great job, Mr. Yahiro.” Ellie smiled and took another bite of the tomato. “Please stop calling me that. You can just say Yahiro.” “Huh…? Um… But…” “Please.” Yahiro chuckled at how she averted her gaze. There couldn’t be much of an age gap between them; she only looked younger due to her small frame and reserved attitude. He admitted that it made her cute, like a puppy. “…Yahiro.” “Yes?” “Hee-hee, just trying it out.” They looked at each other, and Ellie smiled impishly. Meanwhile, a shadow slithered among the tomato stalks. Iroha, dressed like a farmer in denim overalls, a tank top, and gloves. “What are you two doing…?” she muttered at the chummy atmosphere between them, looking uncharacteristically grumpy. “Iroha?” “…!” Ellie reacted strongly to the young woman’s sudden appearance. She jumped up and hid behind Yahiro, trembling. It wasn’t only caution this time. “Hey, why are you hiding?!” Iroha’s eyes grew wide as she tried to go around him to see her. The friendly smile on her face only frightened the girl more. “Please stop. She’s scared.” Yahiro exhaled and came to Ellie’s aid. Iroha puffed her cheeks and crossed her arms in protest. “Aw! It’s not fair! Only you get to be with her! Why does she only go to you?! I wanna play with her, too! I wanna feed her tomatoes! And I want her to feed me!” “If you just wanna eat, then grab however many you like.” Yahiro pointed at the tomato field with a sigh. “And what about the eggs?” “Just got ’em. And I cleaned the coop, too.” Iroha opened her waist bag to show him the fresh eggs inside. They had about thirty-four chickens on the island, and animal-loving Iroha was in charge of them. “Good job. Now we just gotta bake some bread.” “Leave it to me. I’m doing it this time, for sure.” Iroha clenched her fist. Just a few days earlier, things had ended tragically after Iroha tried baking by adding her own spice to the bread. “How about you just take it easy this time, instead…” Yahiro shook his head, uneasy about her brimming confidence. Then he wondered about Ellie, who’d been keeping quiet the whole time, and turned around. She was looking at them with wonder. Not just them, to be precise; she was looking at the whole island, including them. “Ellie… Something wrong?” Yahiro asked. Ellie met his gaze. Confusion filled her blue eyes. “…This world is very warm,” she whispered while looking at the half-eaten tomato. “Well, we are pretty far south,” Yahiro responded simply. The weather on the nameless island was between tropical and subtropical. The average temperature was about twenty-five or twenty-six degrees Celsius. But Ellie didn’t mean that; she shook her head. “…It’s so bright…and tasty…” “We worked hard to grow ’em. We gave them a wide field and enough water.” Iroha proudly pushed out her chest while looking at the orderly tomato fields. “I did most of the work, though,” Yahiro mumbled. Iroha did have the motivation, though; she just ended up exhausted after going too hard too fast. “…This isn’t like the underworld I know,” Ellie said while still hiding from Iroha. “What?” Yahiro looked at her, confused as to how naturally she had uttered the word underworld. At first, he thought he had misheard, but then Ellie asked: “This is supposed to be the world of the dead… So how?” “Ellie, what are you? Why do you know that this is the underworld?” Yahiro scowled. Iroha couldn’t hide her bewilderment, either. The world they believed to be reality was, in fact, the underworld—the world of the dead. Everyone in this world was dead, living in an illusion created by the Ouroboros without realizing it. The only ones aware of that should have been a few people related to Ganzheit. Ellie certainly was in no position to know. “…I came here to protect you, Yahiro,” she replied. “Protect him from what?” Iroha asked the obvious question. Ellie hid behind Yahiro. “The enemy.” “Hopefully you don’t mean me, do you?” Ellie kept silent. Iroha raised her eyebrows. “Why do you even have to think about it?!” “Ah…” Yahiro heard a splat behind him. Ellie had backed away from Iroha’s glare and had fallen on her butt. Thankfully, the crops were unharmed, but Ellie rolled over in the field, and her behind was now muddy. Yahiro face-palmed at the sight of her disoriented, teary eyes. “Let’s continue our talk in the bathroom!” Iroha said while holding her hand out to Ellie. Ellie timidly grabbed Iroha’s hand while looking at Yahiro, seeking help. “…You too.” “No way.” He knew she would feel awkward all alone with Iroha, but he couldn’t watch over her in the bathroom. Ellie’s eyes grew wide in despair. “Then I’m taking a bath on my own…” “Nope. You’re not getting out of this. You’re taking a bath with me!” “…Urgh… Aww…” Iroha dragged her in the direction of the hot springs. Yahiro let out yet another heavy sigh as he watched them go. 3 “Ow…!” Ayaho Sashou clutched her right hand after feeling a sudden, sharp pain like a burn. A scarlet mark resembling a tribal tattoo surfaced on the back of her hand. The scratch of a dragon, in the shape of the creature itself, ran vividly up her wrist with a faint glow. “The Relict Regalia… Why…all of a sudden…?” She was very confused. Vanagloria’s Relict Regalia—the scarlet crystal gouged from Lazarus Amaha Kamikita had fortuitously fused with Ayaho’s right hand. Ayaho had become a Deserver and earned the power of the Regalia. A double-edged sword, as excessive use of it could destroy her own body. After the Moujuu vanished from the world, Ayaho had no reason to use the Regalia. Three years had gone by, and she had begun to forget it was even there. The scarlet mark, once so vivid, had faded away, going unnoticed if one wasn’t looking for it. Until recently. The Relict’s mark was clear once again, as though it had woken from a deep slumber, much to her bewilderment. Ayaho was inside a train running through the heart of Tokyo, on her way back from school. The trains were relatively empty in the afternoon, but the newly restored Yamanote Line was still considerably busy. Thankfully, no one noticed the abnormality happening to her. Ayaho grabbed a scrunchie out of her school bag to cover her wrist and put a big bandage on the back of her hand. That should stop the Relict’s mark from drawing attention. Taking transit to school would be awkward in the future, but she had no choice but to cover it in bandages for a while. Galerie Berith did have membranes meant to conceal injuries, so perhaps speaking to Rosé would be a good idea. She was pretty accommodating, despite her seemingly curt attitude. The real problem wasn’t the mark itself, however, but the reason behind its revival. It had reactivated after a long hibernation. She had no idea why that could be, but it couldn’t possibly be good news. For the crystallization of dragon factor to show reaction, there had to be a catalyst nearby. The train slowed as it approached the station. Ayaho got off, though this wasn’t her destination. Her gut told her that staying on was dangerous. Ayaho stepped out onto the platform as soon as the doors opened. A few men looked surprised by her actions and hurried outside, too. They were foreigners, dressed in long-sleeved jackets despite the summer heat. She did not know them. Ayaho suddenly realized she was being monitored. Or trailed, more precisely. She ran to the exit on reflex, and the men followed her. “Why…?!” A whine escaped her throat as she dashed through the ticket gate. She ran toward the small gallery in a back alley in Ginza. The gallery furnished with a café was her workplace and the point of contact with arms dealer Galerie Berith’s Japanese branch. Most of the gallery’s employees were the PMC’s operators. No low-level criminal would stand a chance against them. She should be safe there. It was this same thought that had got her out of the train to begin with. Unfortunately, she couldn’t outrun the men pursuing her. There were five of them. One of them, a young man in a hoodie, stood out. He carried a case over two meters long, like those that archers used to carry their bows, and ran at the head of the team. The men closed the two hundred meters between her and them in the blink of an eye. She would not be able to reach the Galerie before they caught her. “Stop, Ayaho Sashou,” the young man yelled in stilted Japanese. Her heart skipped a beat at the sound of her name. Any suspicion that they could be chasing the wrong person was gone. They really were after her. The street was bustling, but no passersby tried to help her. The violent aura of her pursuers intimidated any possible benefactors. “If you don’t resist, we won’t hurt you! Stop!” the young man warned her. Spin that around and he was threatening violence if she did resist. Ayaho came to a halt at the realization. Fear prevented her from running any further. The young man looked relieved to see her stop. He walked around her to block her way and held his hand out to the frightened girl. A graceful figure appeared without a sound next to him. A tall woman with radiant brown skin and the looks of a fashion model. The heel of her palm hit the young man’s chin before he could even turn around in surprise. She kicked the back of his knees as he lost balance, then dug her toes into the side of his head as he fell. It happened quicker than Ayaho could take a breath. The man was helplessly paralyzed on the ground, unable to stand back up even if he regained consciousness. “Paola!” “Ayaho, get down.” Galerie Berith’s operator Paola Resente spoke softly as she pulled out a handgun. A big .45 caliber gun that could do serious damage even to someone in body armor. “Why are you here?!” Ayaho exclaimed. “We have a tracker monitoring your location and heart rate, so we can help you any time.” “Uh… I… Thank you?” Ayaho felt conflicted. She considered that an infringement on her privacy, but it had also saved her life, so could she really complain? The pursuers stopped at the sight of Paola’s gun. They hurriedly looked for cover while reaching for their own guns. This reaction told Paola that they were trained combatants, so she showed no mercy. Ruthless shots took them down with ease. There was little blood in contrast to the loud gunshots, for Paola had used nonlethal ammo. Still, passersby screamed and scrambled at the sudden gunfire. It was obvious that the police would be there at any moment. Ayaho thought Paola would take her away immediately to avoid the commotion, but still the girl refused to let her guard down. The woman unloaded her magazine and quickly swapped a new one in. She switched from rubber stun bullets to hollow-point bullets meant for hunting. It took little time for Ayaho to understand why she did this. Strange shadows appeared all around them. Impossibly huge monsters stepped out of the narrow alleys between the buildings. There were seven of them. They looked like dogs or wolves, but they had giant dragon wings on their backs. Not to mention the unworldly aura they emitted. Ayaho knew these dreadful monsters. “Moujuu…? How…? Weren’t they gone…?!” Ayaho’s voice shook in fear. Then in unison, the monsters let out a shrill war cry. 4 Paola moved first. She fired rapidly at the monster not far ahead of her, but the bullets didn’t penetrate. They bounced silently off the lustrous rainbow film that covered the creature’s body. It was otherworldly. The bullets didn’t so much bounce back as not even connect to begin with. The bullets had no effect on the monster at all. The two repelled each other like water and oil. “It’s not…a Moujuu?” Paola rolled on the ground to dodge the monster’s counterattack, then shot at it again from point-blank range, again to no avail. The bullets slid off and away from its body. Paola ran helplessly as another monster attacked. Her attacks weren’t affecting them, but that didn’t necessarily mean that theirs wouldn’t work on her. And indeed, the pursuing monster’s claws gouged the asphalt behind her. Paola gritted her teeth as she found herself surrounded by two of the beasts. She had lost her balance, and she realized she wouldn’t be able to dodge the next attack. “Paola, run!” Ayaho shouted, clasping her hands in prayer. Then the asphalt at Paola’s feet transformed. The sidewalk cracked as myriad silver crystal blades shot upward. Saber Hills and Blade Groves—the mountain dragon’s power to control the earth’s metals. Ayaho’s blades pierced the colorful monsters. They screamed as the spikes tore their bodies apart, inflicting pain on the unbeatable creatures for the first time. “Thank goodness…” All strength left Ayaho’s body as she used the Regalia for the first time in three years, robbing her of alertness toward the other monsters. “Ayaho!” Paola yelled at her. A beast was already flying toward her. Ayaho’s mind went blank at the sight of its giant colorful body right before her eyes. She didn’t have the reflexes to activate her Regalia. She stood in stupefaction, staring at the fangs closing in on her. Silver flashed across her sight. A katana two meters long. Holding it was the young man in the hoodie. He stood unfazed even though the earlier attack must have impaired him. The monster’s body fell to the ground in two pieces before evaporating. The man’s katana had sliced diagonally through it with ease, even though bullets had done nothing. “Y-you…” Ayaho looked up in awe from the ground. “Don’t move,” the hooded man told her, softly and calmly. His voice was familiar to her. Seven monsters surrounded them, including the three that were already defeated. Over half remained standing, yet the young man showed no fear or concern. “Talaria.” Ayaho compared him to the mental image she had of Yahiro Narusawa. He swung his sword when the monsters were still out of his reach, and yet, when he had completed the arc, each of the four beasts was sliced in two. His slash had broken the laws of physics. “A Regalia…” Ayaho’s eyes widened. She should have realized from the moment he stood up after Paola’s attack. He used the long sword to channel his Regalia. All this showed what he was: a Lazarus. Someone under the dragon medium’s blessing, just like Yahiro. “Why…?” was the only thing Ayaho could manage to say. Why had a new Lazarus shown up here, now? Why had he appeared before her? Why had he saved her from these pseudo-Moujuu? The tsunami of questions overwhelmed her. Meanwhile, the young man sheathed his sword and approached her. “Stay away from her,” Paola commanded while pointing her gun at him. But he ignored the warning and held his hand out to Ayaho where she sat on the ground. Bullets wouldn’t work on a Lazarus. Paola couldn’t kill him. “Open, Talaria.” He grabbed Ayaho’s arm and activated his Regalia. Then Ayaho’s vision blurred. She felt she was floating as her consciousness faded. The last thing she saw was Paola moving away from her at tremendous speed. On that day, Relict Deserver Ayaho Sashou was kidnapped by an unidentified Lazarus. 5 “Ahh… The water feels amazing…” Iroha exhaled as she sank into the warm water, her long hair bundled up in a towel. The bathtub Yahiro had made of fieldstone was spacious even with the two girls in it. Iroha leaned back with a heedless grin on her face and stretched her legs. Ellie stared at Iroha’s unobscured form. Iroha’s relish came from having washed Ellie’s body from head to toe, to the end of her every hair. She was feeling the accomplishment of someone who’d successfully washed a large unwilling dog. Ellie had resisted fearfully at first, but in the end, she gave up and let Iroha do as she pleased. She now found herself feeling a weariness that contrasted Iroha’s glee. Iroha’s efforts had not been in vain, though, as Ellie’s attitude toward her had changed a bit. At the very least, she no longer feared Iroha unconditionally as she had when they first met. Not that she trusted her, though. “Ummm… Miss Dragon Medium… May I ask a question…?” “Stop calling me that. Just call me Iroha, yeah?” she said, still leaning back in relaxation. Ellie kept a straight face, but she lowered her guard a little. She felt it was pointless to stay scared when Iroha was just chilling out. “…Iroha… What is your wish?” “My wish right now is to be your friend. Will you make it come true?” She sat up and leaned toward her. Ellie leaned away in return. “Wh-what’s the point of that…?” “Because it’d be fun. You see, I have a lot of siblings. We’re apart now, but they’re all good kids. We used to take baths together like this when they were little… This reminds me of those good times. Oh, but Rinka always got so mad. She’s very picky about her skin care. That’s how I ended up with pretty skin myself. I’ll teach you later about skin care, and massaging.” “…I-I’m okay.” Ellie barely managed to say two words in response to Iroha’s torrent. Iroha misunderstood and got touchy-feely with her. “Hmm, your skin is already pretty good, though. You’ve got a nice body, if a bit too thin. Your hair is so soft. You’re like a baby. Also, I’ve been wondering this whole time—are those birthmarks on your back? They’re not scars, surely. And they don’t look like tattoos,” she asked while stroking the girl’s back. Fine lines ran down by her shoulder blades, highlighting her translucently pale skin in a silver color reminiscent of the inside of a pearl oyster. They looked like scars of torn-off wings. “…A-answer my question…” Ellie anxiously veered the conversation back away. “What question?” “Why did you create this world…?” “Huh…? What do you mean?” “You became the Ouroboros’s medium. You could have made any wish come true, and yet you wished for the old world to continue… I’m asking your reason for doing that.” Ellie looked at her straight on. Iroha tilted her head. “I’m not sure what I’m supposed to say about a reason, but my wish is this world right here.” “That cannot be… Someone without a wish can’t possibly become the world dragon’s medium…” “Ah… Nina said the same thing. That I’m hollow.” Iroha smiled with nostalgia. A strong emotion filled with mysterious confidence, not self-derision. “But that’s okay. Yahiro’s not making just my wish come true. He’s making everyone in the world’s wish come true. Because that would be most fun.” “…Fun?” Ellie blinked, taken aback. “The power maintaining the world comes from the dragon medium’s wish, right? But I’m a hollow medium. My wish couldn’t keep the world going for long.” Iroha puffed her chest. “So, better to share the wish with everyone. That way, the world will keep going forever. And if it breaks down in the end, it won’t be just my responsibility.” “I don’t think your wish will be granted that way.” “Yes, it will. A wish is something you make come true with your own power,” Iroha assured her nonchalantly. Ellie looked at her with surprise. She tried to say something but swallowed the words. Then her shoulders trembled in fear. “…It’s here.” Ellie stood up in the bath and looked at the coast with a scowl. Toward where she’d washed up on the beach. “Ellie? What’s here?” Iroha looked up at her in shock. She did not answer her question. “Yahiro is in trouble.” “What? Hey! Where are you going?!” Iroha’s eyes widened as Ellie ran out of the bathroom, toward the shore. Naked. “Wait! Put on some clothes! Ellie!” Iroha, too, got out of the bathtub in a hurry. She undid the towel on her head and chased Ellie. 6 “Yahiro!” Yahiro lifted his head. He’d been feeding firewood into the stone oven to bake bread. It was Ellie. He scowled like a migraine had hit him at the sight of her. She wore only a T-shirt she’d borrowed from Iroha. It covered up to her thighs thanks to the girls’ size difference, but it was obvious she had no underwear on. Not to mention it was damp and clinging to her body. It looked like she’d just put it on, without drying herself after the bath. “Ellie, stop! What happened?!” Iroha followed behind her. She only wore a tank top and panties. She was more dressed than Ellie, but one could say she looked more provocative due to the shortness of the tank top. “Why in the world…are you dressed like that?” “Hey, at least I tried! Ellie was running outside without even thinking about putting on that shirt!” Iroha argued with a pout. She didn’t seem to mind her own appearance. She probably found it no different from wearing a swimsuit. While they talked, Ellie glared at the beach. Dusk was coming. The sun near the horizon dyed the sky red with golden rays between the clouds. The view reminded them of the day Ellie showed up. The evening calm came along, and the wind mellowed out. Then Yahiro and Iroha noticed the abnormality. The sky was glowing. A ray of light like a lightning bolt fell straight into the sea, and a roar shook the air. It was the sound of the sky splitting apart. The barrier surrounding the island broke, and shadows crept through the cracks one after the other. Oddly flat monsters appeared. Shadows with ambiguous shapes that were enveloped in a rainbow luster. At most one could discern the legs and wings of birds of prey, and human torsos. Their wings were four or five meters long. They resembled mythological birds. And Yahiro and Iroha knew them. “Moujuu…? Why…?” Yahiro muttered. “No. Those are not monsters transformed from people,” Ellie said. Yahiro and Iroha looked at her, shocked by the fact she was sure of the colorful monsters’ identity. “Those are angels. Birthed by our world’s creator…” “Our world’s…? Are you saying that you—?” “Move!” Ellie cut him off before he could finish saying, “…that you’re from a different world?” A monster charged him, but Ellie blocked the attack. She jumped in front of the swift monster and punched it bare-fisted in the face. Black miasma spurted from the wound instead of blood. Sharp claws grew from Ellie’s right hand from her wrist to her fingertips in the fiery talons of a bird of prey. Ellie’s back radiated as giant wings emerged from it. Silver feathered wings that glowed like mother-of-pearl. She flapped her wings and took off into the sky. She launched an aerial strike on the colorful creatures. “What…is going on…?” Iroha mumbled. Yahiro couldn’t process it, either. Ellie looked like a siren. Or, as she’d said, an angel. She transformed into an angel like those found in religious paintings and fought the non-Moujuu beasts. Yahiro couldn’t keep up. Ellie continued fighting while the pair remained taken aback—although one could hardly call it a fight due to Ellie’s overwhelming power. It was more like a massacre. She vanquished a dozen birds, one after the other. It was over within a minute. The silver-winged girl landed back down on the beach after wiping out the monsters. Yahiro and Iroha ran toward her. “No! Don’t come! It’s not over yet…,” Ellie warned them, wings still spread. Another thunderous roar shook the world before she could finish talking. New shadows emerged from the cracks in the air’s barrier. “C’mon…” A groan escaped Yahiro’s throat.
Chapter 86
24 min read