FINAL CHAPTER Abandoning Home Dear Witch. Thank you for all the advice you have given me in the past. However, I cannot abide by the instructions of someone who attempted to obscure the existence of the returnee, Kaito Ukei. It was a good thing that I asked Riegal the Swift to keep an eye on you, else I might never have uncovered this deception. Fortunately, the time will be right to act tomorrow. Until we meet again, on the imaginary plane where the time lines intersect!” “Those fools! Why are they only this smart when it suits them?” I never expected them to find out about him so soon. The Rebirthers were idiots, but they were useful idiots. They’d made a fine front for my secret research when I riled them up, and they’d handled the jobs I couldn’t leave to Onishi. I knew their imaginations often got the better of them; that was exactly what made them so easy to manipulate. But never in my wildest dreams would I expect them to have possessed the initiative to investigate me, much less discover the true identity of who “Kumiko Kawakami” had been talking to in the restaurant that day. “I messed up. This is going to set me back…” I ground my molars. I didn’t want any of them getting in my way. That was why I planned to dispose of them and had sent Yuuto Kanazaki photos of the disfigured victims to provoke him. After the dust settled, I could go after Kaito Ukei myself. If I knew this was going to happen, I would have let the Rebirthers proceed with their plan earlier. I should have realized that they couldn’t be trusted when they’d bungled a simple kidnapping by bringing me a dead body. “…I’ll have to tell Onishi to carry out the plan tomorrow. Assuming Kaito Ukei isn’t at school, they’re going to demand the police hand him over.” Of course, the police would never do that, but with his identity revealed to the public, they would have no choice but to keep a close eye on him. Worst-case scenario, they might even try to take his life again, like with the bomb blast at the police station. If I didn’t capture him before then, things were only going to get more difficult. It looks like the girl is taking part in the plan, too. That means Kaito will be alone. It should be easy enough to break in and take him, if need be. That greedy bastard Onishi would probably ask for a higher rate, but money was no object here. As long as it got me to my ultimate goal, I would pay any price, because once I was the world’s most powerful mage, money would be unnecessary. “Tch. So they actually did it…” In my parked car, I watched a video on my phone. One in which the name “Kaito Ukei” was clearly audible. Of course, the official news sites censored that part, but the original was on the internet somewhere, and that could never be removed. “It’s a good thing I decided to move the schedule up,” I said to myself. “Apparently, he didn’t want to come easy, but now that he’s in the car, there should be no more slipups.” As I observed the barricaded school from the car, I decided to send my homunculus to the handoff point. With just a handful of dirt, a bit of rabbit blood and flesh, a wooden skeleton, and a drop of my own blood, I had been able to create a puppet in my spitting image. It followed orders, and I could even project my consciousness into it if I concentrated enough. There were very few spells I could use, with the mana in this world being so thin, and this was the most useful in my arsenal. It allowed me to create a perfect alibi whenever I liked or get in touch with dangerous parties while keeping myself safe from harm. It truly was a convenient spell, apart from the fact that the puppet could only hold itself together for a day or so. Or the fact that it would revert to white sand if it got hit with a strong jolt of electricity. And not to mention that the projection took a great deal of concentration. I closed my eyes and focused, to cast my mind into the homunculus’s shell. I headed into the forest, where the abandoned factory lay. Phew. I should be there soon. Just then, however… “Excuse me, could I have a moment? I’m with Yuuhi TV…” Crap?! The voice brought me out of my trance, as if someone had been waiting for that exact moment to distract me. The reporter’s intrusion angered me greatly, but eager not to stir up trouble at this critical moment, I put on my prizewinning smile and politely encouraged her to take her questions elsewhere. However, when I returned to my homunculus, I realized it had tripped when I’d left it and broken its leg. Now it flailed helplessly on the ground. “Grr, it’s useless now. Release!” At my command, the doll collapsed into white sand. Luckily, I had a spare, but this setback was going to make me late to the handoff. Still, I had no choice, so I sighed and sent an update to Onishi to inform him of my delay, then projected my mind into the other homunculus. After a short while, some of the gauges and meters I’d brought into the car began going off. “Ah, those two have already started, have they?” According to my research, even non-mages caused disruptions in the flow of mana when their emotions flared high. This was one of the reasons I was waiting outside the school in my car. I was hoping to observe this effect in action, incited by the anger of those two schoolkids and the Rebirthers’ fear. The homunculus could not do this job for me; while it could read the instruments, it lacked the physical senses to detect changes in the mana directly. “I’ll just sit it down under this tree…” Taking care not to make the same mistake twice, I left the homunculus in a safe location before ending the projection. I would take a few readings before heading to meet Onishi. “Wow… This place really is special. The flow of mana here is like nothing else I’ve ever seen… Looks like things went well for those two.” The readings here were on the same level as those I’d taken in my lab, yet there had been no magical serums applied in this location. I could have made such progress, if only I had been able to conduct my experiments here. “I suppose that’s because the walls of reality have been broken down not once but twice here… Oh, crap, the time.” I’d spent far longer poring over the results than I intended. My head was filled with theories and experiments I wanted to conduct. Just as I was pondering what to do with Kaito Ukei once I got my hands on him, I snapped back to my senses. “I need to project back into the homunculus and— Whoa, what’s with these readings?!” At that moment, as if on cue, the dials and meters started flipping out. “Are they broken? I’ve never seen numbers this high before!” These devices were based on designs left to me by my ancestors, improved to a much greater degree of sensitivity using modern technology. They were capable of measuring the level of supernatural phenomena in a location, and the levels were higher than I’d ever seen them just now. “Th-they’re still rising! B-but these readings…they’re consistent with the casting of a Grand Ritual! How could a spell like that be cast in a world depleted of mana?!” As I continued watching in shock, something happened right before my eyes. Something I couldn’t write off as a simple sensor malfunction. “Aaaaaaghh…! H-huh?” “Eek! Huh? We’re outside?” “—EEEEELP! Huh?” The crowd around the school burst into chaos. And little wonder, for suddenly and without warning, every last student and staff member trapped within the school materialized in the courtyard. “…Teleportation magic?” My brain stopped working. It had taken me days of focus and preparation just to move an eraser ten centimeters. “Ha-ha… This is amazing! So it really is possible to cast spells like that in this world…!” I felt my blood begin to rise, like bubbling oil. Think of the research potential! I wanted to go to my lab right away! But as soon as that feeling passed, a troubling thought occurred. “…Wait. Just who cast that spell…?” To my knowledge, nobody in the world, let alone inside that school, was capable of such a feat. “Just who was it…?” My question went unanswered. “…Goddammit, why won’t they pick up?!” I threw my phone at the sofa as the call failed to go through once again. Three days had passed since the incident at the school, and people were still talking about it. If anything, there was more buzz about it now than ever. Shortly after everyone was teleported out of the school, the police had burst into the building to find it completely empty, save for a pile of corpses in the room where the Rebirthers filmed their demand video. It was obvious from the state of the bodies they had been brutally murdered, and the police decided to keep this discovery a secret to keep the public calm. However, a video soon surfaced online of a boy and girl, their faces blurred, perpetrating the heinous crime. For a few days, it was all the news talked about. “Everyone’s ghosting me. First Onishi, now Yuuto Kanazaki. Even Mai won’t pick up her phone!” I thought the abduction had gone perfectly, but when I arrived with my homunculus at the handoff point, there was nobody there. I waited and waited, but Onishi never showed, nor did he answer my attempts to get in touch with him. So I went to check on the Ukei household myself, but it was completely deserted. I started to worry; things weren’t going to plan at all. Posing as “Kumiko Kawakami,” I had devised a ploy to dispose of the Rebirthers. I was even the one to suggest filming it, as a lesson to the others. Of course, I only subtly hinted at this, just enough so that Yuuto would think the idea was his own. I was to receive the video, edit out their faces, and post it on an underground forum, where the Rebirthers were sure to see it but the public would not. If word got out, it was possible that the identities of the two perpetrators would be revealed. However, word had gotten out, and yet nobody had gotten in touch with me. I was in the dark, with no idea what was going on. I was desperate. “Aargh, this is so frustrating! How am I supposed to advance my research without a specimen?! I can’t even get into the school because the whole place is sealed off! Why has everything gone wrong?!” “You want to go to the school, do you? Excellent.” Suddenly, as though an ice cube had fallen down my back, I heard a voice from behind. “Who’s there?!” I spun around to find a man standing before me. With his leather armor and black cape, he looked like he’d just stepped straight out of a fantasy novel. “K-Kaito? Wh-what are you wearing? H-how did you get in here?” I instinctively adopted the same tone of voice I’d used with him in the past. “Hmm, yes. It’s an excellent mask. Very well-made.” “E-er… What are you—? Agh?!” Just as I looked around to see where he’d appeared from, I felt electricity course through my body. “A mix of modern technology and magical engineering…or at least your hilarious imitation of it,” Kaito explained. “Damn, why did it have to be you? This is going to leave a bad taste in my mouth for sure.” “…Grgh…ghh…” “You were supposed to be her friend. You were supposed to be there for her. Why’s everyone got to be such a backstabbing piece of crap?” A dizzying sensation came over me, and the next thing I felt was the cold, hard floor on my cheek. My whole body stung, as if pricked with pins and needles, but a thousand times worse. It was hard to even breathe. “Satomi. There’s a very good reason I didn’t leave you to the others. I want to make you pay for hurting my sister, personally.” As I lay there paralyzed on the floor, I heard him speak my true name. The one that hadn’t met my ears in so long. “…The world can be so cruel sometimes.” She seemed knowledgeable in magic, so I’d turned my “Appraise” skill upon her just as a precaution. Yet the name I saw took me by surprise: that of the very same girl who’d supposedly died a month before I returned, whose death had sparked Mai’s crusade against the Rebirthers. I didn’t believe it at first. However, the magical traces of the atrocities she’d committed here in her own basement were too obvious to ignore. “I hope for your sake you can come up with a good enough excuse for those two,” I said, though somehow, it didn’t seem likely. After paralyzing her with the Teardrop Blade of Lightning, I lifted Kawakami…or rather, Satomi, and teleported us both to a room in the locked school building. My two newest partners in crime were waiting there, Yuuto wearing a look of barely concealed disgust, and Mai wearing one of surprise. “Welcome back, Kaito. And Kawakami…or should I say Satomi?” “Dear brother…is she really…?” “Yeah, I’m afraid so. There’s a tiny bit of magic holding the whole thing together, though, so I’m not surprised you couldn’t tell.” I placed my fingers at the back of the girl’s neck, where there seemed to be nothing at all, took hold of the edge of her mask, and tore it off. “See for yourself.” Beneath it was a face even I recognized. “Satomi… You’re really alive…” “…So it’s true. I can’t believe she duped us this whole time. Magic’s a real pain in the ass.” “…Khh…ghh…uh…” Satomi was still unable to respond, due to the paralysis, so I cuffed her to a chair before undoing it. “You should be able to talk now,” I said. “Better apologize while you have the chance. I’m sure you have a few things to say before you die, don’t you? The more questions you answer, the longer you get to live.” “…Ghh. I see, so it was you who activated that teleportation spell, Kaito. I guess you were granted power when you crossed heaven’s realm.” Now she spoke not in Kumiko’s voice but in the soft, airheaded tones of Mai’s friend, Satomi Saito, that I recalled in the back of my mind. “…If you’re Satomi, then who did I see getting stabbed that day?” Mai asked. “A homunculus, a magical golem I created. School and parents and all that teen stuff were getting on my nerves, you know? I needed space to be the best mage in the world. So I figured it would be a lot easier if ‘Satomi Saito’ was dead. I considered just going missing, but then I heard about someone else targeted by the summoning spell who I wanted to kidnap for my research. That’s when it hit me—if there was a huge murder case, that would distract from the abduction, wouldn’t it?” Satomi gave a pleasant chuckle. “But it didn’t turn out that smoothly… I didn’t expect Mai to show up at all, and the Rebirthers accidentally killed the target anyway. What a pickle!” “Grh!” Argh, dammit, I wanted to get started right away. This girl had zero remorse. Mai frowned. “Why, Satomi? Did you really do all that to Yuuki?” “Yeah!” she respond in her usual cheery voice. “’Cause you see, she was suspicious of me. I think she had a hunch I was experimenting on Kaori, so I had to turn her into a specimen.” “Grh!! A specimen? A specimen?!” “Rhh! Why…?” Mai and Yuuto twisted their faces in disgust. “Why did you do that, Satomi? We were friends, weren’t we? What about when you visited me in the hospital, when you cried for me? Were you just faking it?!” “Not really. I liked you both. That’s why I didn’t want to make you into test subjects at first. But Yuuki betrayed me. She started getting all suspicious of me, even though we were supposed to be friends! Isn’t that mean? I was really hurt, you know. So I made her help with my research, as payback.” “S-Satomi… I can’t believe you…,” Mai said. “Now you’re doing it, too! You’re both such awful friends!” “…No more questions,” said Mai dejectedly. “Ah-ha-ha. I’ve been such an idiot. I nearly lost my mind…even troubled my dear brother because of you.” At that moment, Mai shed the part of her heart that still harbored love for her old friend. “…Can I ask you a question, then? Why did you kidnap Kaori?” Yuuto asked. “Huh? Why did I choose her, you mean? No reason. I guess if I had to say, she seemed like the easiest?” Satomi answered. “Huh?” Yuuto was aghast at the girl’s nonchalant reaction. “I saw her playing by herself in the park one day and told her that she could help save Shiori if she came with me. That’s all, really.” “That’s it?! That’s the reason you…? Hee-hee-hee… Ah-ha-ha-ha! Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!!” Yuuto could do nothing but laugh. The more I looked at him, tearing at his hair and with tears streaming from his eyes, the more I was reminded of myself, and my blood began to boil. “…All right, psycho lady. So what’s your endgame? What’s been the purpose of your life up to this point?” “To become the greatest mage who ever lived, of course! You must understand, Kaito, since you’ve been through the realm of heaven yourself and seen all the mana there. I want to tear a hole in the world and allow the other realm’s mana to drain into ours, watering this parched earth. With the power of legend restored, and the talents granted to me by blood, I’ll become an even more powerful mage than my ancestors were!” “You? The greatest mage in the world? Forget it. You haven’t got a lick of talent. You can’t even tell there’s mana in the air when it’s all around you. Did you really think this world was sucked dry? If you’re making mistakes like that, you’re never going to be the world’s greatest mage or whatever.” “…Sigh. This is why I can’t stand amateurs. You think you’re an expert just because you can sling a few spells? According to accounts in the Kuroi Papers, the power of heaven’s realm assists your spellcraft without you even realizing it. Yes, this city has quite high levels of mana concentration, but that’s only because you’ve been across the void and back, tearing two holes in the fabric of the world.” “…Whatever. It’s no use trying to talk to people like you. Anything else you guys want to ask her?” “No, that’s it… I already want to strangle her to death, but I’m too weak right now. I’ll let you do it, Kaito.” “…Dear brother, I have asked everything I need. The Satomi I know is already dead.” There was no trace of doubt in their eyes as they stared down at the girl lying on the floor. In Yuuto’s, I saw a burning hate, like a frozen flame. In Mai’s, I saw a profound disappointment, like a child gazing at a broken toy. “You’re both so mean…! But I’ve bought myself enough time now. Magic circle, activate!” Satomi gave an evil grin and threw up a barrier made of interconnected pentagons. “Hee-hee. Let your guard down because I was in handcuffs, didn’t you? This barrier cannot be destroyed unless I say so!” “…Fine, I’ll bite. So what?” “The police are already on their way. And all the mana in this room is currently going toward maintaining this barrier. There’s none left for you to do any teleporting tricks! Once the police arrest you, I’ll buy up the entire school and make it so nobody can come near! Without all this mana, you can’t cast any of your spells, can you? I’ll have the whole thing to myself!” …She was delusional. There were people like this in the other world, too. People so drunk on self-importance that they would cling to whatever theories served their own purpose, whether the facts agreed with them or not. Satomi truly believed her hypothesis was ironclad, when in fact it was riddled with holes. “…Whatever. Let’s just get on with it.” There was no use arguing any further, so I decided to spare myself the effort. “I am the one who stands above it all: Whose wise commands no rebel can deny; Whose feats bring the impossible to pass; Who sits alone in castrum tall. When birds embark on feather’d wings, to fly, They follow paths that I alone have traced. Alike with stars above in orbits fix’d, Till mankind’s fortresses do fall. Sword of Sin: Castle of the Lonely King.” A long chain made of several interlinked crowns appeared in my hand, and at its end, a young boy with blond hair. A gleaming crown sat atop his head, and he peered down his nose at everything around him, brimming with all the confidence of an emperor. His throne hovered in the air, and atop it he sat, resting his head in one arm, the living embodiment of the deadly sin he depicted. “Hmph,” he said. “Took you long enough, you nincompoop.” “Oh, put a sock in it, Pride. Nobody likes a show-off. And how come you kept showing up in my dreams anyway? I thought you were supposed to be sealed away.” “Sealed? A risible thought. Everything in this world belongs to me. Every beast, every law. Besides, I thought I impressed upon you the importance of respect. So kneel, knave.” “As if. We have a job to do, so come on. Give your order.” “Oh? You’re quite sure? I thought you despised this power.” A mischievous smile crept across the boy’s lips. “Yeah, I do. But I can’t argue that it gets results. And right now, I need it.” The seven Swords of Sin each possessed reality-bending powers, but this one, Pride’s, was the most wicked of all. Plus, unlike the others, there were no convoluted hoops to jump through to activate its abilities, just a cost exacted when everything was over. That being said, I didn’t like using this power. “So how would you like me to change the world today? Speak, and I shall lend you my ear.” “I want you to use her.” I pointed at Satomi, who still wore the same smirk as before. “Take her entire existence and use it to open a path to the other world. There’s been two bridges here already. Should be easy, right?” “Hmph. Very well. I am in a pleasant mood. I suppose I shall grant your request.” All right, seems like there’s no problem, I thought. I had worried that perhaps even a person’s entire existence wasn’t enough to substitute for the lives of two hundred people, but it sounded like Pride could handle it. “Hmm, summoned a spirit, have we? Well, it doesn’t matter what you try; this shield repels every form of attack, even magical ones!” “You sure of that? This is your last chance to broaden your mind before you die in ignorance.” “You just don’t get it, do you? This abjuration is the greatest defensive art my ancestors ever designed. No attack can—” “Creation, by my hand unbound; all life and death obeys the crowned. Royal Decree.” An upside down crown appeared out of thin air and slammed into the ground around Satomi and her barrier. This was the clear crown: an abhorrent power that violated the sanctity of life itself. It allowed the caster to dictate what became of the target’s very being, and the king’s rule was one that no force could defy. “This ability lets me take away your existence,” I explained, as the crown began to spin. “Not just your life, or your soul, but all of it, from beginning to end. Everything you were, and everything you could possibly be.” “My existence? Who do you think you are? God? It’s so obvious you’re bluffing!” “God? No, you couldn’t be further from the truth. This…is the power of the devil.” The crown suddenly stopped spinning and began closing in on her. Meanwhile, a second diadem appeared, this one golden instead of transparent. “As I explained, this is going to rewrite the world so that you never existed. Nobody but us three will remember you. Everything you did will have been done by somebody else—or something else—instead. Your past will be utterly erased, and your future, too.” As the clear crown shrank, the golden crown grew larger and larger. “H-how?! How did you get past my barrier?!” “You won’t even get to be reincarnated. Your body and soul will be removed from reality entirely,” I said. “Oh, and by the way, it’ll hurt. A lot.” At last, the clear crown closed around Satomi, and she cried out. “Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!!” It was a scream of unimaginable agony. “What’s happenniiiiing?! Make it stoppppp!! Give it baaaaaaack!!” She wailed as if deranged, but I did nothing. The clear crown proceeded to drink her up, slowly turning a pale pink as it did, like it was gorging itself on her blood. “Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha! Serves you right, bitch!” “Please be quiet, Satomi. You’re only getting what you deserve.” Yuuto and Mai, who had been watching in silence up until that point, took the opportunity to voice their disgust. However, I doubted Satomi could even hear them over the sound of her own screams. “No! No! Noooooooooo!!” “Aah, music to my ears. Let’s hear you scream and suffer, more than little Kaori ever did!” “Well said, friend of Kaito. The tones of wailing peasants far outclass any orchestra.” Pride closed his eyes and listened, a smile of fulfillment on his face. When at last the screaming died down, the clear crown was little more than a flat ring, dark red with blood. Then the golden crown, which had grown to about three meters across, suddenly rose up onto its edge and became a circular portal, leaking light into the room. “Ready, you two? This portal should take us to the other side. No idea where we’ll come out, of course.” “Let us depart, dear brother. I’d rather not be alone anymore.” “Sure, there’s nothing left for me in this world anyway.” I took both their hands, hoping that we would all end up in the same location, and I turned toward the portal. I could hardly believe how badly I’d wanted to come back to this place once, and now my feelings were the exact opposite. How ironic. “Now then, who knows what’s about to happen? Hopefully, there’s some kind of landmark nearby, at least.” “Preferably a starting village for us newbies,” said Yuuto. “I wouldn’t hold my breath if I were you,” said Mai. “This is my useless brother we’re talking about, so I wouldn’t be surprised if he took us straight to the demon lord’s castle.” “Oh, Mai, please don’t say things like that.” I sighed. “You’ll jinx it.” Then, without so much as a parting glance, we stepped through the portal, to a faraway land.
Chapter 92
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