Chapter 69

Instead, she just slumps forward onto Akane and whispers in her ear. “…This is my revenge.” She laughs. Her lips are wet with blood. Then, she crumples at the knees and laughs until the last life fades from her. “Ah… Ahh… Ah…” Akane’s eyes swim. Trembling, she looks down at her arm soaked in red. “Ahhhh… Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!” She tears at her hair with her bloody hand. Her screams are tinged with sorrow. “AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!” Golden particles scatter from her body. They envelop her surroundings, then explode. Akane Nishino feels like she’s gazing at some sort of distant, far-off world. In her heart, however, she knows that it’s all happening right in front of her. She knows all too well that the sensation of her arm rending flesh and the sight of Dr. Yuuka collapsing are both terribly real. She knows, because she remembers having the same thing happen long ago. She wonders what, exactly, happened back then. She wonders how many people she killed. Recollections flood back right as the feeling in her arm does. “Ahhhh… Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!” The memories are etched deep in her heart. They’ll never go away. She crushed towns, slaughtered people, and destroyed Arcadia, all because she couldn’t control her magic and her urges. It felt like she was gazing at a distant, far-off world back then, too. Because of that, she knows what’s about to happen. She can feel her magic starting to run wild. It hurts. “AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!” Golden particles swallow her surroundings, then explode. The black-haired boy gets caught in the blast and goes flying. “Ah… Ahhh…” By the time her magic finally settles down, everything in a dome around her is destroyed. Rubble lies piled high around her, and she can see the stars through the newly formed hole above. The black-haired boy is nowhere to be seen. Akane stands there petrified. Yet despite the profound sorrow in her heart, she can’t get her expression to change. That fact hurts, too. Then, she hears something behind her. She turns and sees a man in a black longcoat standing atop the towering debris. It’s the Black Knight. The moon hangs high at his back as he draws his obsidian blade. “It’s a fine night for severing one’s past…” He raises his sword toward the sky. A gust of wind blows between the two of them. “Here I come.” With that, he swoops through the sky. No…stay back! Akane’s body moves on its own, heedless of her internal screams. Golden magic wells forth from her entire body. She soars into the air. The swooping black and soaring gold collide. And when they do…the gold smashes through the black. Another person dead by her hands. Akane looks down at the arm she used to pierce the Black Knight and feels a wave of something almost like resignation wash over her. Her arm is covered in a black, sticky liquid. It’s the Black Knight’s blood. No, wait…that isn’t right. A voice comes from behind her. “That was my afterimage.” She whirls around and finds the Black Knight standing there as calm as can be. She’s positive she felt her arm stab the Black Knight through, yet he doesn’t have so much as a scratch on him. “Ahhhhhhhhhhh!” Her body rushes forward, determined to hunt the Black Knight. Midway through her charge, however, she comes to a sudden stop. She doesn’t know when they got there, but there are chains winding around her arms and legs and restricting her movement. She thinks back to the black liquid she found on her arm. Did he do that to set this up? “Agahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!” Her magic struggles and tries to lash out, and he chides her in a tranquil tone. “It’s no use. None can escape the prison of black chains.” His boots clop against the ground as he slowly approaches her. Bluish-purple magic gathers at his black blade. It’s terrible and beautiful to behold. Akane is stunned speechless. She realizes then that she’s going to die there. It’s all finally going to be over. Her body rages, but her heart is calm. He brings his blade down, and Akane’s vision floods with bluish-purple light. As her consciousness starts fading, she hears a familiar voice. “…From now on, try to stop getting kidnapped so much.” Beta watches through a gap in the rubble as the bluish-purple magic heals Akane. “Tee-hee-hee… This am magnificent.” She uses the digital camera in her right hand to capture an image of her esteemed master, and at the same time, uses her left hand to write out passages of The Chronicles of Master Shadow. It’s quite the party trick. “This camera can preserve Lord Shadow’s image in all its majestic glory. Is am like this device were invented just for me.” She wipes away the drool running down her chin before packing up the camera and her manuscript. Seeing that her master has reached a good stopping point, she calls over to him. “We’re all ready to going, my lord.” He calmly turns toward her. “Ah, Beta.” “Are the plan complete?” she asks. “Huh? Uh, yeah. Sure.” “Very well. Then I starting.” With that, Beta fishes the severed head out of the rubble. She’s already finished analyzing the Black Rose. “Oh…?” “I going like this… And like this, probably… All done!” She tosses the head into the air, imbues her sword with magic, and uses it to impale the head. Darkness begins spilling out, forming a growing black hole. “Ooh… I didn’t really follow that, but good work, Beta.” “Y-you’re too kind, my lord! It were nothing!” Beta is so moved by the unexpected compliment, her whole body trembles before she can stop herself. “All right, let’s get out of here. Like, right now. Chop chop, no time to waste.” “Yes, sir.” “Here we go, Beta! Geronimo!” Without hesitating for a moment, her lord leaps directly into the black hole. Beta watches him go, but right as she’s about to follow his lead, she realizes something. “This…willn’t fit.” The black sack she’s lugging around is packed so tight and full it looks like a small mountain. Inside are all the tools and documents she’s collected during her time in Japan. The plan was to take them all back with her so she could study them, but there’s one problem—the black hole is too small. It’s barely large enough for her to fit through, let alone all her loot. And to make matters worse, it’s slowly but surely starting to shrink. In a couple minutes, it’ll be completely closed. “Sniff… But I collecteding so much…” Tears well up in her eyes as she opens her sack and dumps out its contents. She begins scouring the pile for anything small enough she can carry with her by hand. “This one… Not this one… Definitely not this one… This one maybe fitting… Hmm?” Then, all of a sudden, she registers the presence of the young woman on the ground. Thanks to the way Beta’s master healed her, the young woman’s hair has returned from its previous golden hue back to its original beautiful shade of black. She’s sleeping peacefully on the ground. “I just getting a good idea.” A wicked smile spreads across Beta’s face as she looks down at the resting woman. There’s only so much she can take with her. That means she needs to prioritize the most valuable resources and sources of knowledge she can find. “The best thing to bringing is a local specimen!” Beta swaddles the raven-haired woman in slime and packs her in with a few smaller devices, as well as the digital camera. “In we going, now.” She stuffs the black bag into the hole, then jumps in after it. “Shadow is back?” At the moment, Alpha is listening to a report while in the director’s office of the Mitsugoshi Deluxe Hotel. The moment she heard about Shadow getting sucked into the Black Rose, she immediately rushed over to the Oriana Kingdom to take charge of the damage control operation. “M-M-M-M-M-Master Shadow is back?!” Epsilon, who’s working beside her, stands up so fast she knocks her chair over. “Calm yourself, Epsilon.” “B-but, Alpha…” “He had some sort of important objective he was carrying out, and we knew he had the resources for his return close at hand. There was never any doubt about whether or not he would be back.” “I—I guess you’re right. I’m so glad he’s safe, though.” “Where is he now?” Alpha asks Victoria, who’s standing in front of the door. “He’s heading for the Midgar Kingdom in quite a hurry.” “Why the rush?” “He seemed to be concerned about how soon the academy’s winter vacation was ending.” “I see. There might be something important happening there, then. Something related to the Cult, or perhaps even Diablos…” “Understood, ma’am. I should note that Zeta is with him.” “Zeta? When did she get back?” “Unclear, ma’am.” Alpha lets out a small sigh. “That girl has skills, I’ll give her that, but she really does need to report in more often.” “Also, Beta returned as well. She says she brought a number of interesting things back with her.” “Ah, so they did go in with an objective. Where is she?” “She’s—” Before Victoria can finish her sentence, the door swings open and a silver-haired girl comes in. “I’m back, everyone!” “Good work out there,” Alpha says. “Actually, before I compliment you, I have to ask—what’s that?” Beta is dragging a large black bag along behind her. “Let’s see,” she says and starts proudly pulling out various electronics. “I have a digital camera, a laptop, a tablet… And they’re all amazing! I mean, we’re talking about some revolutionary gadgets here! All they need is electricity, and they can do all sorts of things!” Alpha points at the conspicuously human-shaped blob. “That’s all fascinating, but I was actually asking about the one that looks like a person.” Epsilon nods in agreement. “This is, um…” Beta pauses and tilts her head in thought. “A…knowledge…sample? Or rather, a manual, maybe? Something along those lines.” “I have to say, it looks a lot like a human being.” “Well, I haven’t looked into it with any proper rigor, but to be precise, she’s a specimen from the other world—one that I suspect is nigh indistinguishable from a human.” Beta’s pedantic reply earns her a furrowed brow from Alpha. “Well, make sure you take proper care of her.” “Who, me? I was just going to hand her over to Eta…” “You found her, so she’s your responsibility. Once you start something, it’s important to see it through. And besides, who knows what Eta would do to her if given free rein?” Beta hangs her head despondently. “Th-that’s a fair point…”