Chapter 91

So I couldn’t afford to have him come here. Not now. “D-dear brother…?” He couldn’t. He couldn’t. He couldn’t. “No! No, no, no! No! No! No!! Noooooooooooo!!” Oh, dear brother. This won’t stop me from being your cute little Mai, will it? “Wh-what’s happening? Help me, Yuuto!” Ah. This dream. The sight of Shiori disappearing into light before my eyes. “It hurts! I can’t breathe!” A dream that had haunted me ceaselessly since that day. And a dream that had changed ever so slightly in recent nights. Before a single word escaped my lips, Shiori turned to motes of light and vanished. And then her kid sister Kaori appeared, her eyes vacant. “Yuuto… It hurts…” In the darkness of the void, I heard her voice. One by one, her arms and legs rotted off. “Help me… Help me… Help me…” I couldn’t save her. I couldn’t run away. I couldn’t even speak. And then I woke up, drenched in despair. “Hah! Haah…haah…haah…ngh.” My sweat-soaked clothes clung to my skin. I’d started keeping a change of pajamas and a pitcher of water next to my bed. I downed a lukewarm glass and went to take a hot shower. I couldn’t afford to mess up. Not today. Ever since that person told me what had become of Kaori, I’d been preparing for this day. The moment I could finally put the Rebirthers in their place. “…For Kaito, and for Mai, too. I’ll kill them all.” They were the only ones left I could help. And yet the Rebirthers had come after them as well. When I’d heard about the bombing, I could almost hear the blood drain from my face. I didn’t want to burden Kaito, who’d come back covered in cuts, or Mai, who’d finally gotten to see her big brother again. So I left them out of the plan and asked her to make sure she and Kaito would be absent from school on the day in question. Mai seemed unhappy, but she had managed to get her special person back, and I didn’t want to mess that up. I had her deal with Kaito in a way that would keep him from realizing what was going on. Nobody needed to dirty their hands but me. At least, that was what I thought. Once I learned the two of them were safe, I was overcome with relief, and I waited patiently for the day my enemy would act. But last night, Mai had called me to let me know she would be joining me after all. I was hesitant to agree—what if Mai got hurt, just after getting Kaito back? But she was insistent, so I ultimately relented. “We’re going to make them suffer and die in despair.” What they had done to Kaori was unforgivable. They’d lied to her and told her they were doing everything for her sister. And they’d tried to stop Kaito from regaining his memories. There was always a chance, however minuscule, that a clue to tracking down Shiori lay within his mind. So today, I was no longer a human. Today, I would torture my fellow man to the limits of depravity. They would suffer beyond anything thought humanly possible. That way, I would show this country the fate that awaited the other Rebirthers hiding in the shadows: a punishment far exceeding the crime, which would send a warning to all who would follow in their footsteps. But more than anything else, I would do this to satisfy my own rage. No human would ever do such a thing. Yet for me, it came easy. “I’m off, Shiori and Kaori. Time to take revenge for everything they did to you.” I donned my school uniform and began my daily commute. I arrived at school a little before the starting bell and retrieved the things I had stashed away. Some homemade flash grenades, several pairs of handcuffs, and an ax wrapped in white cloth I’d hidden on the school premises. With these in hand, I went to our meeting place, an unused classroom, to wait for Mai. She arrived a short while later, her naginata in tow. Beneath the cloth was no wooden training weapon, but the genuine article, complete with a sharpened blade. “Good morning, Yuuto.” “Mai. Good morning… I’ll ask you again. Are you sure you want to do this? It’s not too late to turn back.” “You don’t have to worry about me, Yuuto. I’ve decided I can’t just keep leaving it to others. If I want to regain my peaceful days with my dear brother, then I shall have to take them back myself. That is why I am here.” “…Fair enough. Then let’s make sure everything goes perfectly. I can’t wait to get my hands on those assholes. Besides, if we fail, then other people are also going to get hurt.” We were doing this for ourselves. We knew what was coming, but we hadn’t warned the innocent students or staff about it. We couldn’t risk anything that would interfere with our plans. “Also, I heard from our mutual acquaintance. Those insects tried to kill my dear brother, didn’t they?” “…” The previous day, we’d had the truth explained to us. I didn’t know how, but the Rebirthers had figured out Kaito was back. And in their stupid point-rating system, he was the top target. There was no way they would ignore him. Mai had said she would make him stay at home, even if she had to tie him to the bed. But even without Kaito to look out for, the situation was perilous. “I’ll punish anyone who tries to harm Kaito with my own two hands. I cannot just sit idly by.” “…Yes, I suppose that’s right.” A little while later, a piercing alarm rang out, and the metal shutters came down over the doors and windows. They had been installed to keep intruders out, but now they were a cage that prevented anyone from escaping the horrors within. “It’s started,” I said. “Yes, it has. And once this is over, my useless brother will be all mine… Hee-hee-hee…hee-hee-hee-hee. ” “…Mai?” I wasn’t sure what Mai was imagining as a blithe smile wormed its way across her face, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to know. Still, I couldn’t help pulling a confused look. “What is it, Yuuto?” “…No, it’s nothing.” “I see. Well, when this is all over, you must come visit us. I shall grant a special exception and allow you to see Kaito, as you are his best friend.” For a moment, I wondered if I really should have let Mai join in after all. But we were past the point of no return now. “Besides, you’re not the only one who’s broken.” Though I still had my fears, I could tell I was on the verge of collapse. After I had been told of what had become of Kaori, my rational mind had kept screaming in my ears, day after day. I was drowning in a sea of hate that threatened to sweep away the last of my sanity. I didn’t even know what a normal person was anymore. Besides, the only person who could save Mai now was Kaito. “Assuming they know what they’re doing, then their first step after locking down the building will be to wave their guns around and lock the staff in the classrooms. Then they’ll realize that Kaito isn’t here.” “Once that happens, they’ll foolishly put out a call for him to be brought here.” “…Most likely, yes. They’ll gather in the principal’s office and upload a video asking for Kaito and a bunch of guns. They’re delusional. They just think the world will bend to suit their whims.” Their online echo chambers had conditioned the Rebirthers to think that way. It was impressive, if nothing else, their ability to concoct whatever fantasy they required in the moment to justify their wild aims. That, and the sheer willpower required to infiltrate the police for months, gradually replacing the security teams with members of their own cult, all just to pull off this mind-numbingly stupid operation. “We’ll wait an hour. We need them to send out that video. If the police raid the place, everything will be for nothing.” “Quite right. And if we wait any longer, the targets may split up.” Mai and I said nothing more. We sat in silence, waiting for the hour to pass. “…It’s time. Let’s go,” I said. “Yes. It’s time to clean up.” From what I could tell, the video was out in the wild now. I switched off my phone. I clutched the ax I’d brought in one hand and the flash grenade made from an empty soda can in the other. Mai had her naginata with its sharpened steel blade. And between us, a dozen pairs of handcuffs for torturing them. After we reached the door to the principal’s office, I opened it a crack and tossed in the improvised flash-bang. “Huh? What’s that, a can of—?” I heard the people within turn to look at the explosive in confusion. A second later, there was a flash of light and a burst of sound, no less powerful than when I’d tried it in testing. “““Gaaaaaaaaaaagh?!””” We burst into the room amid the screams and clasped the handcuffs around each of the Rebirthers before they could regain their sight and hearing. It took even less time than I’d expected. We snatched their recording equipment and set it up to shoot a little video of our own. When the blindness wore off at last, one of the men looked at us and yelled. “Wh-who are you two? Minions of the demon lord?!” “Perhaps,” I replied. “We’ve come to renounce our humanity. To become demons and drag you all down to hell with us.” “Eep?!” I slowly unraveled the cloth around my ax, revealing it to the terrified men. “N-no…stop…! Don’t kill me!” The moment one started begging for his life, I heard the last of my sanity fall away. “Fuck you! You expect me to live after you killed a little girl, cut her arms and legs off one by one?! Who the fuck do you think you are?!” “Gaaaaaaaagh?! M-my fingeeeeeer?!” I felt blood splatter across my cheek. I’d been worried I wouldn’t be able to do it, that I’d chicken out at the last moment. But when it came time to swing my ax, I barely had to think about it. In fact, the anger propelled my blade, which swung like a car whose brakes had given out. “Agh! Aaaagh! I’m bleeding! I’m bleeding!!” “Oh, shut up. You lived so much longer than her, so your deaths should be that much more painful! That’s only fair, right?!” “Ghiiiiieeee! Aghh! Aghh! Aghh!!” “Eeeek!” “S-stop! I-I’m going back home!” “H-help! Let me go!!” A surprising amount of blood stained the floor, and the men we’d tied up started to scream. “Don’t worry. You’ve still got time. We’ll be a little while torturing this guy. He’ll pay for what he’s done…just like you will.” “““…””” They were shocked into silent terror, as though they’d forgotten to breathe. Every one of them repulsed me. They’d done horrible things to Kaori, and to Mai’s friend Yuuki, but once the shoe was on the other foot, they curled up in terror like dogs. Still, I knew. Had they reacted any other way, I wouldn’t have been able to hold back my anger at all. “You’re going to wish you’d never been born,” I said, revealing the wicked smile I’d kept hidden up until that point. “And after what we do to you, even reincarnating into a fantasy world won’t be enough of an escape to heal our trauma.” Red. Red. Red. Blood, chopped flesh, and hatred. Now that my memories had returned, it was a sight I was extraordinarily familiar with. How unfortunate, then, that the orchestrator of this carnage was someone else. Since they’d come this far, I knew there was no turning back for either of them. Mai was on the verge of a breakdown already. “No! No, no, no, no!! Nooooooooo!!” “Mai…” “D-don’t look, dear brother! Y-you have it all wrong! I was just…trying…to cleanse my…huh? Huh? No, no, no, no!!!” Mai clapped her hands over her ears like a child and began shaking her head left and right. “M-Mai?” Even Yuuto could see something was wrong with her. He stared at her in befuddlement. “Yuuto,” I said. “I know you did nothing wrong, and you had no other choice, but just to let you know, I’m going to hit you later. Then you can hit me back ten times.” “Kaito…?” I had made so many mistakes. I didn’t know if this would make up for them, but I couldn’t allow Mai to become even more broken than she already was. Guess even getting my memories back didn’t change what I have to do. It was dizzying, but I was getting accustomed to just how powerless I really was once again. The only thing I could do for Mai was to offer her the lesser of two evils—to grant her my wretched fate in order to protect her from an even worse one. Leone had once called this power of mine “brainwashing.” At the time, I’d found that to be a blatant act of disrespect for the solemn oath I’d sworn with Minnalis and Shuria. Yet I could not deny that there was no other word for what I was about to do next. With my little sister non compos mentis, I had little recourse. “O-of course! Dear brother can’t really be here! That means this is all fake!” There wasn’t much time. I could see the light rapidly fading from Mai’s eyes as her words became more and more muddled. “…I have to make it go away. I have to make it go away. I have to make it go away.” Mai trained her eyes and the point of her sharpened naginata on me. A tiny drop of blood fell from the crimson-soaked blade and landed on the floor. I felt her intentions as keenly as a wire brush to my skin. This time, it was Yuuto who cried out in surprise. “M-Mai?!” It seemed that Yuuto hadn’t realized just how close Mai was to the edge. Then again, I couldn’t blame him. It was only because I’d seen so many broken souls on the battlefield that I knew what a person on the brink looked like. I downed an MP potion to restore the mana consumed in my teleportation, then conjured the Holy Sword of Retribution. I pointed the tip at my sister. “I’m about to rewrite your soul, Mai. I don’t care if that counts as brainwashing; it’s a far better fate than what awaits you otherwise.” “Y-you too, Kaito?!” Yuuto couldn’t believe the sight of his two remaining friends aiming their weapons at each other’s hearts. “It’s okay,” said Mai. “Everything’s okay. This brother is just a fake. Once he’s gone, everything will go back to how it was before.” “‘Fake’ is a bit harsh,” I said. “Besides, you can never make everything ‘go back to how it was before.’ Even if you rewind time itself or erase people’s memories. No matter how you try to cover it up, nobody can take back what’s been done, not even a god.” “Sh-shut up! Shut up! Shut up! My brother would never say such horrible things! He loves me! He wouldn’t point his sword at me, not ever! He’s my…he’s my useless big brother!!” “…There you go again. Stop calling me useless, you moronic little sister.” “See?! Kaito would never call me that!!” “We’re going round in circles. It’s time to show me what you’re made of, sister. We’ve never had a fight like this before. Pay attention, and you might just learn something.” I adopted a fencing stance, turning my body sideways and wiggling the tip of my sword to provoke an opportunity. “Y-you impostor… Stop pretending to be my brother!!” Mai lunged forward, sweeping her naginata at my shins. I knocked the point aside with the edge of my soul blade, but Mai swiveled her polearm around, capitalizing on the momentum I’d imparted to deliver a blow with the blunt end. Her moves were perfect, practiced. Which made it all the easier to see what was coming. “Wh-what?!” I didn’t duck or dodge to the side to avoid Mai’s blow. In advance of its arrival, I took a deep lunge inward, sliding my blade up the handle of the naginata. “Sorry about this,” I said. “I won’t ask you to forgive me.” I transformed the Holy Sword of Retribution into its compact, daggerlike form for making contracts. Then I plunged it into Mai’s heart. “Kaito?!” “Aaaagh… Aaaagh… Aaaaaaaaaagh!!” Accompanied by Yuuto’s screams, dark flames burst out of me and Mai and poured into each other. “Aah… Aargh… H-huh? D-dear brother?” My burning memories and thick, syrupy emotions filled the fractures in Mai’s glass heart like glue. Though water would simply seep through the cracks, this viscous hate congealed within her, turning the whole thing into a single, revenge-focused mass. And at the same time, I learned of Mai’s vengeance, as well as her desires. I learned of the inhuman acts Yuuki and Satomi had endured before their deaths. I felt her rage at the Rebirthers, who’d perpetrated those acts. I watched as Satomi was murdered by a man I’d never seen. I saw Kawakami, the woman who’d orchestrated everything, showing me an image of Yuuki with her arms and legs severed, and her skin coated in unnatural blotches. Then I saw the explosion at the police station, as she explained to me that this was no accident but an attack on her brother’s life by the Rebirthers, and that they were still after him. All these visions were accompanied by a deep, murderous loathing, directed at everyone who meant to take away what I held dear. The only thing tainting that pure vengeance was a fear I had instigated by coming back to life: Mai’s fear of losing me again. It tugged on her puppet strings, the same fear I’d harbored during the time I lost my memories. “…Ah, I see now. I don’t quite understand it all, but I’m gathering you were scared of what I would think if I found out you’d killed someone. Well, that was silly. How could I hate someone who’s the same as me?” We had both been trying so hard to hide our bloodstained hands from each other. “Well, now you know. Besides, you’ve only murdered a handful of people… Then again, even if you turned into some sort of lust-driven serial killer, I’d still love you. My sister obsession is just that bad.” I cracked a wry smile and patted Mai on the head like I always did. “Huh…? Ah…huh?” Unlike what had happened with Minnalis and Shuria, when I clearly explained the abilities of the sword in advance, Mai seemed to be having trouble adjusting to what had just happened. She seemed to be sane again, at least, and that was the most important thing. “So, Mai? Are you awake now?” “Wh-what is this, some sort of dream?” As always, the Holy Sword that lay embedded in Mai’s heart dissolved into the air and disappeared. “That answer doesn’t exactly inspire confidence,” I said. “So tell me how you feel.” “I want to kill her. Princess Alicia, and everyone else who hurt you and destroyed my world. I feel like I’ll lose my mind if I don’t… Why…why did they do that to you? Why did they make a fool of you? Only I’m allowed to do that. Everyone else can drop dead.” In those words, I felt the black heat of Mai’s vengeance, ignited by my memories. I knew I had just let my sister take her first step down the path of darkness. I didn’t regret what I’d done, but I was despondent nonetheless. “And…and I wish I could forget everything I did while I took leave of my senses. Oh god, no, it’s so embarrassing. Dear brother, please, pretend none of that happened!” “Cool, looks like you’re thinking straight, at least.” Mai turned bright red and hung her head in shame. It made my anger burn all the brighter at the mastermind who’d stoked Mai’s fears. “Now, there’s more I’d like to talk about,” I said, “but first…Yuuto. Let me ask you a question. These guys planned to kill the students and staff, right? With poison, going by what they said in the video. What’s the situation with that?” “…We’re safe. They pretended to be maintenance men and sabotaged the air conditioning to flood certain rooms with cyanide gas. We found the trap and switched out one of the chemicals for plain old water, so even if it goes off, there won’t be any danger.” Well, that was a relief. “I see, so that’s why I can sense people huddled up in different rooms. They herded the hostages into the classrooms that would fill with gas. And the number of hostages is an exact multiple of the number of guys in this room. I guess that has something to do with their points system.” Still, cross-referencing the information from Onishi with that found in Mai’s memories led me to only one conclusion: Kawakami had intentionally provoked Mai and Yuuto because she knew they would take out the Rebirthers. But why would she do something like that, and what were her plans now? Onishi said that Kawakami wanted to use me to bring magic to this world, so… Aah, whatever. I don’t have a clue. “At times like these, there’s only one thing to do.” Coming up with counterstrategies just wasn’t my style. It would be far easier to beat the truth out of Kawakami. “Kaito…have your memories returned?” “Yeah, they have. I remembered everything I should never have forgotten… Migrating wagon, fates unite. To distant lands these souls invite. Translocation: Caravan’s Journey.” I conjured up the Transcendent Blade of Translocation and cast a spell over all the hostages in the school. It was a lot of people, but they were bunched into a few groups, and I was getting used to manipulating the rich mana of this world. Recovery speeds and consumption rates were far better here, so long as you could get past the increased casting difficulty. Just then, I heard busy cries from outside, as every person in the school, save us three, was teleported into the yard. Now I would only need to look after these two if something happened. “Now then, Yuuto. Before we go any further, there’s something I need to talk to you about, and as you can probably tell, there isn’t any good news. So if you don’t want to know, say the word. Mai and I’ll go—” “Please, Kaito. I need to know.” Before I even finished, Yuuto bowed his head. “…Fine. I’ll start at the end, then. Yuuto, if Shiori really disappeared into that magic circle, as you say, then I’m afraid she’s no longer with us.” “B-but that can’t be right! I mean, you—” “I was summoned to another world, yes. Alone. The others were offered to turn me into a hero. The people in that video weren’t teleported…they were sacrificed.” “…Grr. No…” Yuuto looked racked with despair. On some level, though, he seemed to have been expecting it. “Then, that means I…” “That’s not the end. Like I said, Yuuto. I was summoned. Do you realize what that means? Someone is responsible for making me who I am now.” “…Ghh.” Deep within the windows of Yuuto’s eyes, I saw the faintest spark flicker to life. “And there’s more. Somebody is responsible for this whole mess as well. You can’t run out of steam before we’re even out of the opening act. Not after you came this far willing to do whatever it takes!” “Is that whole thing…really true?” “C’mon, man. Would I lie to you?” “Didn’t you just lie to me a second ago?” “Huh?” “You said there wasn’t any good news. You started with the bad news, sure, but what about the other two things you said?” I watched as the flicker in Yuuto’s gaze became a cold, black flame. “I never knew who to blame. I kept on clinging to hope, but even that was fading, and I thought perhaps I would die without ever finding out who to curse. But now I have someone to turn this anger upon, don’t I? Plus, if I never found out who was controlling these guys, that would just give me more reasons to die. So don’t do this.” “…I see. So I take it you’re coming with me, too? Back to the other world.” “I guess that means you have somewhere in mind, right?” The smiles on our faces at that moment were not smiles of happiness. They were the sneers of avengers, looking down on the world with scorn. “You could say that.” “D-dear brother? Does that mean…I can come, too?” “Of course. I can hardly leave you here on your own, now can I?” I patted her head again, and Mai’s worries seemed to melt away. Then I conjured up the Holy Sword of Retribution once more. “This is one of the abilities I gained in the other world,” I explained. “Use it to make a contract with me. Then our hatred, our fury, our vengeance, will be shared. Your feelings will never fade as long as your revenge is incomplete, and you’ll feel the same anger you feel now up until the day you die. Oh, and please try not to do that, because our lives will be tied to each other’s.” “We’ll share…our vengeance? Hmm, I’m not sure about that. I like you as a friend, Kaito, but it feels wrong doing that sort of thing with another man.” “Hey, I don’t like it, either, but we don’t have a choice if you want to come with me. This contract binds our souls together, which you’ll need if you don’t want to instantly explode when we hit the other side. Besides, no one’s allowed in on my vengeance without accepting this, Yuuto, not even you.” “Huh. Fine, I guess. Hand me the sword.” Yuuto took the Holy Sword and, without hesitation, plunged it deeply into his own heart. The moment he did, I felt his emotions flow into mine, steeped in the purest of hate. “…Rgh, two in a row’s a real doozy.” “Grh… Argh… Damn, man, that was hard to watch. Way worse than mine. I see why you can’t trust me without the contract now.” Soon, the soul blade dissolved into black light, the same way as before. “But perhaps it was worth seeing. Now I know the face of my enemy. Princess Alicia…you’re the one who took Shiori away from me and created the Rebirthers. And Kawakami was pulling strings, too… Ha-ha-ha, guess I was just dancing in the palm of her hand this entire time.” He hung his head in shame, but I could still see the smirk plastered across his lips. “Hey, Yuuto. We don’t have a lot of time. If you’re going to kill these guys, then make it quick.” “Gyaaaaaagh?!” I thrust my Soul Blade of Beginnings into the floor, stabbing the ringleader in the hand as he attempted to crawl out of the room in the chaos of my sudden appearance. “Or I can do it, if you prefer. I could do with a little warm-up.” I glanced down at the man writhing on the floor. “No,” said Yuuto. “I’ll do it. We know he’s not the mastermind now, but still, this is the plan I started. I’ll be the one to finish it.” “I would also like to take revenge for Yuuki and Satomi myself,” Mai said. From the looks in their eyes, they didn’t seem willing to budge. I could tell right away they were going to be good partners in crime, just like Minnalis and Shuria were. “In that case, I’ll leave him in your capable hands.” With that, I took up the Aegis Blade of Shielding. “These bounds define, these walls confine. No trespasser may undermine. Severance.” As I spoke the words, a barrier of orange light engulfed the room. “Now nobody should be able to enter for five hours,” I explained. “I trust that gives you enough time? I’ve got a thief to catch, so I’ll see you two later.” I dispelled the Aegis Blade of Shielding and summoned the Transcendent Blade of Translocation in its place. “…Man, Kaito. You can do anything, can’t you?” “We shall see you later, dear brother. Don’t be too long, will you?” “AIIIIIIEEEE!! IT HUUURTS!! STOPPPPP!!” Mai plunged her blade into the pig’s left leg, while Yuuto pressed his heel into the leg wound I’d inflicted earlier. They reminded me a little of Minnalis and Shuria. “…I think you both are going to make great partners in crime,” I said. Then I activated my teleportation spell, leading me to the location of the Clothes of Dark Spirits. “Geez, it’s not easy teleporting to a place I’ve never been before, even with the trail of my own mana to guide me.” I appeared inside a deserted section of a building. I could sense people nearby and the Clothes of Dark Spirits somewhere far below. “Still, it was closer than I thought. I’ve got a lot of MP left over.” Judging by the cost of the teleportation, I hadn’t traveled far from school, and I had arrived in what I presumed was the laboratory Onishi had mentioned. I was in a white-walled chamber, filled with machines of dubious purpose. In the center of the room were five pods, three of which contained my leather armor, my regular clothes, and several of my knives. Lucky start. Unlike the Clothes of Dark Spirits, these items didn’t radiate enough mana to trace. I was worried I would have needed to grope around in the dark to find them, but now that they were in my hands, I could make a beeline for where the smell of mana was strongest. “Wh-who’s there?! Where did you come from?” While I pondered my next move, one of the white-robed researchers, all of whom had been stunned into silence by my sudden appearance, decided to speak. “Guess I’d better get down to the lower levels,” I said. “Here we go…” “Hey, are you listening to—?” Craaash!! I put my fist through one of the pods, converting it to scrap metal faster than a hydraulic press. I didn’t really need to use that much force; I was just a little angry. Okay, I was a lot angry. I can’t bear to see these clothes treated like this after Minnalis and Shuria lovingly took care of them. Look at this, they’ve frayed the edges, those bastards. “Anyway, let’s stash that away.” “H-how on earth?! That casing was made with reinforced acrylic fiber!” I ignored the researchers and picked up my equipment, moving on to the other two pods. “Aaargh?! How could you?! Do you have any idea how much those cost?!” “No. How much?” I stowed the rest of my reclaimed equipment in the Squirrel’s Blade. Having vented my fury, I decided to listen to what the researchers had to say. “Those analysis devices cost fifty billion yen each!” “…Huh.” Whoops. I wish I hadn’t asked, I thought, as I let out the ping of magical sonar, granting me a far more detailed plan of the building layout than my rough senses could achieve. Now that I think about it, I was going to reduce this whole place to rubble as payback for blowing up the police station anyway, so I guess it doesn’t matter that much. Rather than spending time tracking down criminals, I would have preferred to get back to the other world as soon as possible. I’d spent too long dilly-dallying already, so I didn’t have time to bother with the small fry. “…Yeah, what am I letting myself get distracted for? What an idiot.” I destroyed the last two pods. ““““Gaaaaaaagh?!”””” Then I set about trashing the place as efficiently as possible. Each of these machines was worth more than I’d ever see in a lifetime. Perhaps their analysis had turned up something, but I didn’t care about that. Presumably, the person in charge of this place would have investors to answer to if all this expensive equipment got destroyed, and that was good enough for me. I didn’t need to bloody my hands, and some of these researchers were probably just doing their jobs anyway. So I was pleased to see how the lab intended to deal with me. When I stepped out into the long hallway, a bunch of short, cylindrical robots wielding deadly machine gun turrets appeared. “Ah, to think Japanese engineering has come so far. It’s like something out of an anime,” I remarked. The robots made some sort of garbled bleeping sound, either to me or to each other. “Perfect timing,” I said. “I’ve been meaning to get some practice in this whole time. Need something to shake the dust off with.” Just then, there was a burst of static, and a voice spewed from a speaker at the back of the hallway. “Testing, testing. Attention, intruder. This is the chief scientist speaking. Cease your rampage and surrender at once. The data you have stolen is government property. It is too much for one man to possess. I don’t know why you’ve come here, Mr. Ukei, but you need to understand just how important this data is for the country and—” Crash! I kicked one of the robots, sending it flying into the wall with the speaker and security camera, where it exploded. “…I take it back. I am going to kill somebody after all. You.” Whoever the guy on the speaker was, he knew my name. That meant he almost certainly was aware he was stealing from me, too. I couldn’t just let that slide. “Haaaargh!!” I suddenly sprinted down the hallway. At the same time, the robots fired their machine guns at me, about twenty in all. “Outta my way, scrap metal!” Conjuring a soul blade in each arm, I sliced the stream of bullets out of the air before cutting the robots to ribbons. Cut! Slice! Rend! Kill! The robots, the motion-sensing turrets on the walls, the shutters dropping down to bar access. I sliced them all apart and continued. “Out of my waaaay!!” Amid a hail of bullets, I leaped. Off the walls, the ceiling, and then my “Air Step” platforms. Dancing on the border of death, adrenaline flowing. I could feel my focus growing deeper and deeper, until I almost sank into the thick air around me. “Raaaaaaargh!!” Slicing the bullets? Too inefficient. Deflect them. Turn them into an attack. Don’t waste mana on Air Step when there are perfectly good bullets around. Use Air Step to repel them back at the enemy as you leap across the platforms. With each instant stretched out to seconds, I danced through the rain of attacks. Every kill was more efficient than the last. After a few short minutes that felt like an eternity, the robots all lay destroyed, and I arrived before the room where my prey was hiding. It was on the other side of a chamber three stories high that was the size of a large playing field. Beyond the glass window, I could sense the Clothes of Dark Spirits, as well as the unfortunate soul who’d just so happened to fall into my lap. “Testing, testing. I’m surprised you’ve made it this far. I don’t need machines to tell me you’ve surpassed what normal humans are capable of. I suppose I should have listened to what Dr. Maeno told me.” “…” Beyond the glass, a fussy-looking older man with impressive white hair was staring down at me. Beside him stood that snake, Dr. Maeno. His presence came as no surprise, since I’d detected him earlier with the magical sonar, but still. That guy had some horrible luck. “So sorry about this, Mr. Ukei.” Maeno’s voice came over the speaker. “You see, I could tell your recovery speed was nothing short of extraordinary, but our tests showed you to be a completely normal human being. I needed to know more, but this research lab was the only place I had access to. It’s not made to study living things, so I came to ask a favor of the director here, but I never expected you to show up.” I had noticed the leering way he’d looked at me, of course, but I was willing to forgive and forget, as he hadn’t actually done anything to me. So to meet him here, right at the end like this? What else could I say but You have some bad luck, man. “…” “You probably didn’t notice, but we’ve been leading you into this room. I’m not sure how you—” “Oh, come on. Just send in your Test-o-matic 3000 or whatever you have planned. I came here for a reason, you know.” I had no patience for monologues, so I quickly cut off the director before he had the chance to speak. I could have taken the direct route here, but it looked like they were trying to guide me in a specific direction by lowering shutters and manipulating the guard robots’ numbers. I was in no mood to stand around and listen, after I’d taken the scenic route. “Send out your mecha-robo boss and give me a good fight scene. My prey, the prey I was going to let go, just hopped into my mouth. Do you know how hard it is to avoid biting down? Forget the starters and give me the main dish already!” “…You seem to misunderstand your position here. Yes, you may have beaten many of our patrol robots—outdated models, I may add—but don’t think for one second the next will be as easy. I urge you to surrender; it’ll be far easier to get information out of you if you’re alive.” Then the speaker cut out, and the door I’d just entered through came down behind me. The doors at either side of the room began to slide open, and then… “Now, witness why we led you here. You may have held your own against the few robots we could send into those tight halls, but I think you’ll find an open-plan battle to be quite different.” …a bunch of similar robots flooded the room, about twice the amount I had defeated so far today. They looked almost identical to the earlier ones, except they were colored black instead of silver, like someone had decided to swap out the paint job and call it a day. “…Wh…wh…wh…?” “Speechless? I knew you would be. These latest models are upgrades over their forebears in every respect. Stopping power, firing speed, none of it compares to—” “What the hell are these mooks?! Give me my big fuck-off robot, you assholes!” For one brief moment, I truly thought I’d get to test my skills against a top-of-the-line foe. I took out my Flaming Sword of Wheels, whose blade was formed of fire, and the Weasel’s Blade of Wind, a green-and-red katana. Then I crossed the swords and slashed left and right. “Chain Blast: Smelter! Wind Slice: Spirit Blade!” The next moment, the sound of explosions and shredding metal shook the room as hundreds of blades of wind and explosive blasts tore everything apart around me. A few seconds later, all that remained of the robots was a smoldering pile of wreckage. “Wh-what?! What was that? What did you do?! Those robots were made of a special alloy that’s nigh indestructible! Impervious to explosions! Far stronger than the steel armor of the previous models!” “What a drag. If I knew this was going to happen, I wouldn’t have bothered taking the long way—” “Send in the prototype!” “B-but sir, it hasn’t been fully tested! What if it goes berserk?!” “Now!!” “Oh…?” The director, apparently so flustered he’d forgotten to turn off the microphone, barked orders to a subordinate. Maeno, by the way, was panicking nearby. A warning siren began to sound. “Yeah, this is what I’m talking about. I doubt it’ll pose much of a challenge, but I want to see something badass.” This time, the right-hand side of the far wall rose up, revealing a humanoid robot about ten meters tall. “You gotta have your bipedal weapons platforms,” I said, licking my lips. “Man, I hope it transforms.” I darted aside, dodging the robot’s arm as it swung down on me with surprising velocity. From out of its chest and face parts came a barrage of gunfire that tore through the clouds of smoke. I evaded by jumping back and forth from Air Step platforms before I sliced the robot’s head clean off. Then I stuck the Flaming Sword of Wheels into the “wound,” heating up the machine’s internals to thousands of degrees. The mech slumped disappointingly to its knees and collapsed to the floor. “I-impossible! He finished it off in the blink of an eye!” “Now, time to end this and go home.” I thrust the Flaming Sword of Wheels through the quintuple-layered glass barrier. Then I sliced open an entrance with the Weasel’s Blade of Wind before stepping into the room. “Y-you insolent child!” “Eep?!” “Heh. Nice theme park you got here,” I chuckled. “As thanks, I’ll make this quick.” The two scientists fell to the floor, their knees turned to jelly. I raised both soul blades above my head. “S-stop!! You don’t understand how much this country needs my intellect!” “I-I’m sorry! Please, forgive me! I’m begging you!” “Farewell.” Swish! Swish! I sliced downward in a V-shaped motion, decapitating the two of them. Leaving their still corpses behind, I walked over to the display case where my Clothes of Dark Spirits were being kept. “Well, that was a little more work than I expected. The only thing left to do is unmask that woman, and then I can head back to the other world.” I sliced the display case open, put on the Clothes of Dark Spirits, and teleported out of there.