Star’s Shell The girls were walking through the sky, looking down at the city that spread out far below their feet. Menou, Sahara, and Maya had reached the network of buildings on the ceiling of the City of Ruins. They moved down a tube-shaped passage that connected the structures. This tunnel, like the others, was empty and completely transparent, offering a view of the city below. There were no signs of enemies lying in wait, so they didn’t feel the need to stay overly cautious. Viewing things from up here elicited a different feeling from when they’d looked up from the ground. The three felt as though they were truly walking on air. Undoubtedly, these buildings were designed to invoke that feeling, and Sahara had just one thing to say about it. “Yeesh, this is awful. Feels like I’m gonna fall.” Menou smiled dryly at her honest comment. “It certainly is anxiety-inducing having no visible floor beneath our feet.” “Oh, come on, it’s fine. I’d expect such caveman-like comments from Sahara, but not from you, Menou,” Maya said. “I suppose I can’t argue with that, after all the marvels we’ve seen,” Menou replied. Buildings of all sizes hung from the top of the enormous cavern like stalactites. Some were sized like private dwellings, while a few enormous structures boasted a hundred floors easily. Although the ruins had been uninhabited for a thousand years, they remained a dreamlike place that called to mind images of the distant future. How much more would the modern technology Menou knew have to develop before it achieved something like this? She couldn’t begin to guess. It hardly mattered. She wasn’t here for sightseeing. “I’m exhausted…” How many hours had they walked since reaching the ceiling district? Naturally, Sahara was the first to start complaining. But even Menou couldn’t blame her this time. “Agreed. It’s certainly a very long way.” She lightly rubbed her exhausted thigh muscles as she spoke. The City of Ruins was simply much too large. In terms of surface area, the inverted buildings covered as much space as the ones below. However, the transparent tubes linking them made the place into a three-dimensional maze. Since the upside-down city’s construction made full use of its verticality, navigation was more complex than on the section on the ground. Perhaps it was convenient to the initiated, but it proved exceptionally challenging for newcomers. This complexity was the main reason Menou, Sahara, and Maya hadn’t encountered any of Genom’s men since the near crash. For all of the ground section’s advancements, it still followed the same principles as any modern city. Genom’s armed forces needed only to keep watch on all important routes to the environment control tower to find Menou and her allies. However, the complex structure of the ceiling district was still unexplored territory. Which buildings led to the tower? Genom’s men had claimed this place only three months ago and still lacked a firm grasp on the ceiling district’s layout. Fortunately, Menou’s team had someone familiar with the city’s basic structure. Menou glanced at the passenger on Sahara’s shoulders. “We’ve walked quite a while already. Do you have any idea how much longer it might be?” She was speaking, of course, to Maya. The young girl had been alive a thousand years ago and had used this city as one of her bases of operation back when it was thriving. She’d guided Menou and the others through a city structure that would boggle the minds of any modern humans. Presently, they were making their way across buildings to reach a so-called station building that functioned as a central connector to other structures and as a stopping point. “Come to think of it, I have no idea,” Maya confessed. This was not a reassuring statement to hear from the guide. Menou and Sahara blinked at the girl. “What does that mean?” Sahara asked. “Well, when I was here, there were Guiding trains and sightseeing sky vessels and such,” Maya explained. “Trains…! Where?! I wanna reach our destination just by sitting…!” “Calm down, Sahara,” Menou said. “There’s no way they’d still be running.” “Yeah. When they still worked, you could get from the entrance to anywhere else in the city within less than an hour. I’ve never walked for so long to get someplace here; that’s why I don’t know how long it’ll take.” The ancient civilization was far more developed than modern society. It stood to reason a city this large had transport besides walking. Abbie had demonstrated and explained how the buildings were still maintained, but a complicated structure of Guiding vessels like a Guiding train likely didn’t fall under that purview. “In fact, we’re walking on what used to be a railway track,” Maya added. “Really?” The idea that a train could have passed through this smooth, rail-less space was a little too strange for Menou to imagine. They’d walked for half a day and were still only halfway there. Without Maya’s guidance, it might have taken weeks just to find the correct path, possibly even longer. Eventually, the three reached a floor near the top of a particularly large station building and decided to take a rest. “Now that we’ve made it this far, tomorrow should be easier,” Maya stated confidently. Menou perked up a bit. “Really?” “Yup. All the main lines in the ceiling district pass through the City of Ruins station buildings.” Maya explained that the large station building they were in had a main line that ran even higher than the cavern’s ceiling. Since the station buildings also served as hubs of each area, it was intentionally simple to get from one to another via a main line passage. Smaller lines branched out from those to form a complex map, leading to the basic design of the ceiling district. “So if we just follow the train line from this station building, we should reach the environment control tower.” “Thank goodness… It would’ve been awful if we had to explore and map the whole place by hand.” Sahara breathed a deep sigh of relief, her shoulders sagging. That had been their only option in the underground settlement that led to the City of Ruins, and it took considerable time and effort. Even just the cluster of buildings around the station building connected by a spiderweb of passages was big enough that it might fit an entire town inside. Searching the place top to bottom could easily take years. “At any rate, once the lights go down at night, it’ll be difficult to get around. This seems like a perfect place to stop.” Although they were underground, it was never difficult to know the time. Menou peered out a glassless window frame toward the city center. “The entrance to the Mechanical Society serves as a light source, I see.” The giant sphere of light floating between the two parts of the environment control tower had changed to the color of a setting sun. It shone bright white when the group first entered the City of Ruins, and its glow had gradually faded over time. Maya gazed at the Guiding Light, fascinated. “I can’t believe that’s connected to the Mechanical Society.” “So it would seem. I imagine Abbie came out when Akari used World Suspension… You didn’t notice anything strange about it when we first got here, Maya?” “Well, there was always an artificial sun made from Guiding Force. The shape was more or less the same. Anything different I chalked up to me misremembering.” “Ah, I see…” Menou nodded. She had a feeling she knew what conjuring Maya meant. “The Primary Color Sun is a massive Concept of Primary Colors conjuring. It’s possible it was the reason this place overlapped with the Mechanical Society,” Maya remarked. “Abbie mentioned that passing through it would lead to her region,” Menou said. “What sort of place do you think it is?” “I’m not sure… I never went to Abbie’s zone when I was there.” “Come to think of it, I get the impression that most zones don’t really want intruders. I wonder why that is?” Menou had a decent understanding of how conjurings functioned, unlike Guiding vessels, so this topic was more fruitful than discussing the structure of the City of Ruins. As the group prepared to rest, Maya reached into her shadow and pulled out some canned food. Maya’s shadow was connected to a subspace. More precisely, when her body was constructed by her Concept of Original Sin, the shadow became a part of her, a pocket that she manipulated at will. It could be solidified into a weapon, fixed to a surface, used to create depth, or used for storage. At most, it could fit two Mayas. Menou had once entered the space as a means of emergency escape, and she definitely wouldn’t have described it as comfortable. Since Menou and Sahara sometimes carried Maya on their shoulders when she got tired on the journey, the two of them were even more exhausted. Sahara, in particular, since she’d carried Maya on her back for a very long time, at the girl’s insistence. “Maya… Why don’t you just go into Sahara’s shadow while we’re walking?” Menou suggested. “No way. There’s hardly any space in there because Sahara packed it full of stuff. More importantly, what are we going to do tomorrow?” While they were getting the food ready, Maya made it very clear that she intended to continue using Sahara as her personal transport before she asked Menou about their plans. “Tomorrow…” Menou thought about it as she used her dagger to open a can. If all went well, they’d reach the environment control tower sometime tomorrow. Presumably, that would mean a fight, too. “I suppose it depends on what the situation in the environment control tower is like. I suppose it won’t be as easy as waltzing right in and finding the Astrologer.” “Yeah, I bet they’ve got a base in there,” Sahara grumbled as she ate food from a can with her fingers. They’d managed to avoid encountering any enemies thus far, thanks to the ceiling district’s complexity, but things would be different at the environment control tower. Genom was undoubtedly using it as a base of operations. Thus, it stood to reason he maintained firm control over the entrance to the Mechanical Society, since that was where he originally did business. “I’m still not sure what Genom’s goal is, though.” Famous villain though Genom was, Menou could think of little reason why he’d concern himself with her. If anything, the Faust was his enemy. Given Menou’s current position, it seemed more likely he’d join with her against their common enemy. However, the intensity of that surprise attack suggested something more than simply retaliation against intruders. “Maybe it’s got something to do with Master?” Sahara suggested casually as she started in on her second can. Genom Cthulha and Master Flare had been famously adversarial. Flare was an Executioner who ruined many of his deals. And Genom was one of the few targets she’d failed to eliminate during her long career hunting more taboos than anyone ever had. “It’s well known that Genom Cthulha hated Master, and that you were her protégé. I could see him taking the opportunity to kill Flare’s successor. In other words, it’s your fault that Genom is our enemy now, Menou.” “I suppose I can’t argue with that, but…” Sahara’s explanation didn’t quite satisfy Menou. She racked her mind for a better one. If anything, the existence of a window into the Mechanical Society here in the City of Ruins stuck out most. Genom had spent a long time in the Mechanical Society. He’d stayed there for so long that some took to joking he’d been taken prisoner. Had Genom come out through that hole, just like Abbie did? Before Menou could work out what that meant, Sahara changed the subject. “Hey, what are we gonna do about Abbie? She’s gotta still be down below.” “Are we going to go in, just the three of us?” Maya asked. “We all know that the tower’s our goal, so I’m sure we’ll find her if we keep heading for it.” “Right. And if we’re lucky, we might even be able to strike from above while she attacks from below.” As far as Menou could tell, the environment control tower was the only structure that physically connected the top and bottom halves of the City of Ruins. Menou, Sahara, and Maya could invade it from above while Abbie went in from below. “I wonder if there’s any way we can contact her,” Menou mused. It would’ve been easy if they had scriptures. A simple communication conjuring would allow them to communicate. Since that wasn’t an option, perhaps Abbie could send up an insect conjured soldier…but it might be difficult for something that little to fly up more than a thousand meters. While Menou reflected on this, Sahara whispered in her ear, “Hey, Menou. I gotta tell you something while Abbie’s not here.” “What is it?” As Sahara went on, she seemed to make an effort to keep Maya from overhearing. “Right before we found this place, Abbie made some weird comments. Something about being glad that you were ‘forced to use Time a lot more,’ and, uh…‘Soon we can destroy this whole stupid world.’” “…What does that mean?” “No idea.” Sahara shrugged. Maya looked at the two older girls suspiciously. “What are you two whispering about? I don’t like it one bit.” “Just trash-talking Abbie. She kinda scares me,” Sahara fibbed. “Well, yeah. Why do you guys rely on that old piece of junk anyway?” “We count on you, too, Maya,” Menou replied. “If Pandæmonium really is in the environment control tower, we won’t get anywhere without your help.” “Hmph… I didn’t ask for your praise, you know.” Despite her protesting, Maya clearly still felt competitive with Abbie. A tiny smirk of satisfaction tugged up the corners of her mouth. Sahara’s eyes widened dramatically. “Wow, Menou, you’ve really grown up… You used to be such an emotionless kid, but now you actually know when to comfort other people.” “Don’t be silly. I’ve always had emotions.” “Gimme a break. You definitely didn’t when we were kids. You were just a machine that did whatever Master said.” Maya leaned forward. “Ooh, really?” “Yup. As a kid, Menou always had this blank-ass look on her face. And she was always disturbingly unguarded.” Menou frowned. “What do you mean, ‘blank-ass’…?” “I kinda wish I could’ve seen Menou when she was younger than me.” “Well, you could always ask Menou’s personal paparazzi monster to show you her… Wait. Haven’t we had this conversation before?” “Have we?” Menou furrowed her brow. Sahara’s strange joke about paparazzi monsters aside, she was aware that her emotions back in her days at the monastery were few and far between. She only learned how to express feelings after Sahara left the monastery, so it was understandable that Sahara thought she’d been an emotionless child. Pursing her lips with displeasure at the mockery nonetheless, Menou touched her black hair ribbon. Receiving it had taught her of happiness, perhaps because she hadn’t expected such a gift. Why did it make her so happy? “…?” Troublingly, she couldn’t remember who gave her the ribbon. The gaps and contradictions in Menou’s memory filled her mind with white noise. Frustration roiled in her chest. She gripped her chest. This sensation had become common since Menou realized she was losing memories. Perhaps she’d forgotten details about the ribbon after using her Pure Concept to blow Hakua away before she went underground. She could always check in her diary later. Shaking her head, Menou dismissed the distracting worries that had nothing to do with the present. “Maya. Could you tell me more about the Astrologer, please?” she asked. “Of course.” Maya looked rather pleased to be needed. “The Astrologer is a conjured soldier that Gadou made to manage the environment control tower. She’s great but has no mind of her own.” Menou’s expression betrayed her surprise. “No mind of her own…? Even though she’s a conjured soldier?” “Yeah.” Maya nodded, her expression conflicted. “Humanoid conjured soldiers from before Gadou became a Human Error are very different from those that came after.” Ran Gadou possessed the Pure Concept of Vessel. She developed many Guiding vessels, but none that could be called intelligent life-forms. As far as Maya was concerned, the Astrologer was a machine in human form. Though it could move like a person and hold a conversation, it could only give preprogrammed responses. Its sole function was ultimately to control the Starhusk. Once Maya explained all this, Menou understood. “So it doesn’t have a soul.” “Right, exactly.” A body, spirit, and soul were the three requirements for life, and the Astrologer was missing one of those. That meant it was a Guiding vessel, not a living being capable of individual thought. “So what sort of functions does the Astrologer have?” Menou questioned. “All of them.” Maya’s answer was short and simple. So simple, in fact, that Menou didn’t quite grasp her meaning. “What do you mean, ‘all of them’?” “I mean all of them. It controls all functions of the north-central region of the continent during its golden age.” For a few seconds, Menou’s and Sahara’s minds went blank. They shuddered when they began to understand the extent of that scope. “The underground city, the one that was on the surface, and the Starhusk in the sky. The Astrologer managed all the important functions.” Menou swallowed nervously. “That’s…a lot…” Even though she hadn’t experienced the ancient civilization for herself, she could still imagine how extraordinary that was. Or at the very least, she understood that it was beyond conception. And the Pure Concept of Vessel had created that entirely by herself. The achievement went beyond power. In a way, it was more incredible than a Human Error’s strength wiping out a city. “And all that fits in one humanoid form?” Menou asked. “Of course not!” Maya shot back. Guiding vessels had a high output. The more functions, the larger the scale. So of course, it was impossible to cram all the abilities Maya described into a human-sized body. Maya pointed at the environment control tower as she spoke. “That’s why the Astrologer is connected to the environment control tower. Really, the tower itself is the Astrologer, and the human part is… I don’t know. Gadou’s hobby, I guess?” “Hobby…?” “Yeah, so what?” Maya puffed up her cheeks at Menou’s doubtful reaction. “The conjured soldiers Gadou made after becoming a Human Error… Well, you know from dealing with her that they’re definitely living things.” She looked reluctant to admit it. For better or worse, Abbie definitely made her own decisions and acted accordingly. She had independent thought and a will of her own. “Anyway, what should we do now?” Maya asked. “I’ve been to this station building many times before, so I can show you around. There were plenty of fun places to play! Although they’re all abandoned now.” Maya was probably just joking. However, it didn’t seem to land with her audience. “Fun…?” The two older girls shared a look. Menou spoke hesitantly. “What’s fun about playing, exactly?” “Sorry…I don’t think I get it, either,” Sahara replied. “Oh, wow…” Maya gazed pityingly at the pair from a generation with no concept of entertainment culture. “You poor things… You really don’t even know what it means to play, do you? What do you do for fun in life, then? People can’t live on bread alone. Do you guys really believe that carrying out your duties is the whole point of existing?” Now a ten-year-old girl was lecturing them about life. Maya’s impressive eloquence aside, Menou and Sahara couldn’t just take this lying down. They eyed each other seriously. “What is playing, even, when you really think about it? I don’t know if I’ve ever done something just so I could enjoy it to the fullest.” Sahara’s admission only made Maya regard her with more disappointment. Menou had been trained rigorously from a young age to fight as an Executioner. Even Sahara, who often slacked off once she became a nun, didn’t have any memories of playing. “Didn’t you have a fun time traveling with Akari, Menou?” Maya suggested. “You could call that a form of playing, I think. Like bathing in the Balar Desert and stuff; maybe that was playing, too!” “I certainly didn’t consider it playing at the time. I had fun just talking with her. Come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve ever properly played with toys or equipment or anything like that.” “Yikes, breaking out the ‘I have friends’ card?” Sahara shook her head. “That’s dirty, Menou. You don’t fight fair. Are you mocking me because I have no friends?” “Don’t be ridiculous. Akari is my precious friend. That’s all.” “Oh, right. I nearly forgot that you’re an expert at toying with women’s hearts, Menou!” “Don’t go dragging my name through the mud!” While Menou and Sahara’s whispered conference escalated into an argument, Maya pushed her way between them. “This is not good,” she announced gravely. “No, this won’t do at all. Anyone who doesn’t know the meaning of entertainment is wasting their life!” Sahara boggled at the younger girl for a moment. “That’s what you’re upset about?” Maya had completely lost sight of her goal at this point. Suddenly, she looked up and gasped, like she’d realized something vital. “Oh, of course! Sahara, Menou! Movies! I think there’s a movie theater around here! Let’s go!” “Huh? It’s after dark,” Menou protested. “We’re going! No matter what! Even if it kills us, even if the world ends! Movies are forever!” “Um… Whaaat…?” Sahara groaned The City of Ruins was a thousand years old. Anything not maintained by the micromachines had crumbled away. Even if the exterior of this “movie theater” place had survived, the interior would surely be a wreck. “These ‘movies’ are moving images projected by Guiding vessels, correct? I don’t see how they could possibly still work…,” Menou said. “There might be a chance! This is for the sake of improving a culture full of people like you who don’t appreciate the value of entertainment! It’s your sacred duty to do as I say!” While her tone was lofty as a princess’s, Maya had a point. There was hardly any recreation in this world. Girls who joined the Faust grew accustomed to such rigid training that the very idea of playing would never occur to them. “Now, come on! This way!” Maya’s enthusiasm betrayed no signs of slowing down. She picked one of the many sky hallways branching from the station building and charged straight ahead. Menou thought to grab her by the collar and stop her forcibly, but if she did, it would mean dealing with Maya’s sulking. Which was the greater annoyance? Menou looked to Sahara to confirm what consequences she was willing to suffer. The silver-haired nun shook her head, indicating that the situation was hopeless. “Movies, is it…?” Menou reluctantly trudged after Maya, still unsure of what she was so enthused about showing them. Menou and Sahara understood movies in theory. Essentially, they were conjurings that produced sound and moving images as a form of entertainment. Menou imagined they were like stage plays shown in moving pictures. Where was the enjoyment in that? It remained a mystery to Menou. To a member of the Faust, it seemed no different from using the image recording conjuring in a scripture as a means of amusement. A part of Menou felt that such technology should only be used to capture critical proof during an infiltration mission. Are movies…interesting?” Menou inquired. “That you even have to ask is like saying, ‘Hello, I’m a foolish human who doesn’t understand fun!’” Maya, who was technically a part of Pandæmonium, declared. “You ought to be grateful! Out of the goodness of my heart and my obligations as an entertainment evangelist from Japan, I will teach you poor ignorant masses about the true value of the spiritual world of the silver screen!” Frowning a bit, Menou replied, “It’s really that big of a deal?” Maya’s words seemed harsh for a world guilty of nothing other than having a slightly different culture. At this point, Menou was growing defiant over whether these so-called movies were as impressive as Maya claimed. Ultimately relinquishing themselves to Maya’s leadership, Menou and Sahara followed the girl down a passage from the station toward a building that held this alleged movie theater. Maya led Menou and Sahara to a building about three stories high. It was roughly a ten minute walk down the passage connected to the station. Unsurprisingly, nothing remained in the movie theater. Just as Abbie had posited before she fell and was left behind, the micromachine colonies had been automatically cleaning and repairing structural degradation throughout the entire city. Anything within the buildings had crumbled and been cleared away long ago. Although the place was barren and devoid of design, the basic framework still remained. Maya breathed in deeply as tears gathered in her eyes. “It’s been a thousand years since I breathed the air of a movie theater…!” As she watched sweet little Maya tremble with nostalgia and emotion, Sahara had only one quiet comment. “…You’re creeping me out.” “What did you just say?” Even in her reverie, the sharp-eared Maya still shot Sahara an angry look, prompting the girl to avert her eyes. Meanwhile, Menou scanned the room slowly. “Movie theater or not, there’s not much of anything in here, is there?” “Well, sure, this is just the lobby. Here, this way.” Maya marched onward, bidding Menou and Sahara to follow. Evidently, there was more ahead. Thanks to the micromachines, the building wasn’t at risk of falling apart, but all decor was gone. Sadness flickered across Maya’s face at the state of the stairs and hallways. “The elevators and escalators aren’t working… I guess that makes sense. The posters and pamphlets are gone, too… Nothing’s left at all. That’s a bit of a shame.” “Well, it has been a thousand years,” Menou replied. That the building still stood was the strange part. Without the maintenance system, all of the structures in the ceiling district would have fallen and collapsed into rubble along with the other half of the city below. “You’re right… Yeah. It’s fine!” Maya rallied, insisting that they could at least enjoy the atmosphere. “Here it is, the moment you’ve all been waiting for! Beyond this door is the theater…room…” Maya’s cheerful announcement trailed off partway through. The door in front of them was very bulky, seemingly for soundproofing. Yet noise leaked from the chamber past it. The sounds of multiple voices mixed with music and audio effects streamed from the gaps in the door. Maya wore a confused look as she whispered, “It looks like…a movie’s playing inside…” Clearly, even she hadn’t expected the machinery to still be in operation. She stood rooted to the spot, perplexed. There was only one explanation why a movie, a long-lost piece of culture, could be playing. Someone had to be inside. Tension ran through the group. Pandæmonium seemed the likely culprit. She was a Human Error of Evil born of Maya’s personality, and had thus carried some attachment to the concept of movies. It would be perfectly in character for her to have recreated one in the theater somehow. In which case, whatever show waited beyond the door wouldn’t be a film for mass amusement but something more befitting Evil itself. “…” Menou and Sahara shared a glance. Menou stepped in front while Sahara took the rear, putting Maya between them. They were on the highest alert possible. Menou carefully cracked the door open, drew her dagger, and used its metal blade as a mirror to spy inside the room. The image reflected on the weapon’s surface only served to confuse her, however. Rows of chairs were neatly arranged inside, each fixed to the floor. Images were being projected onto a screen that took up the entire front wall. Maya leaned forward to peek at the image on Menou’s dagger and nodded to herself. “That’s a movie, all right. It’s too small to see exactly what’s going on, but…it’s not Pandæmonium. It’s really just a normal movie.” “Oh-ho…” Once she learned that the movie itself wasn’t anything dangerous, Sahara dared to look directly inside through the cracked-open door. Curiosity about the nature of these films Maya had talked up so much was written all over her face. Pictures danced across the giant screen. Menou and Sahara had never seen an image moving on a screen more than twenty meters across. The footage was of a shark launching out of the ocean, flying through the air, and speeding into the atmosphere at escape velocity. Such an oddity was surely because this movie was a thousand years old. Or perhaps it was because of a cultural difference or a generational gap. Attack satellites fired lasers at the shark as it broke through the stratosphere. The creature dodged the beams and chomped through the satellites in geostationary orbit one by one. The nonsensical scene of a shark swimming in the zero-gravity ocean of space made no sense to Menou and Sahara whatsoever. Yet the impact of seeing it on the screen alone was still more than enough to leave them slack-jawed. “So this is a movie…?” “Huh? Wait…” The awe-inspiringly huge screen. The sound loud enough to vibrate through their skin. The story’s utter disregard for human knowledge and common sense, and the strange, indescribable something that was gained for that sacrifice. All this and more kept Menou’s and Sahara’s eyes glued to the screen. Maya wanted to protest, Movies are a composite art that combines the story, imagery, music, and most of all the performances of the actors, among many other elements, to elevate them into something complex and beautiful. This isn’t quite the same thing… Yet someone stood from a seat in the middle of the theater before she had the chance. “I’ve been waiting for you” came the confident voice of a girl, her words nearly lost beneath the sounds of the movie. On the screen behind the girl who had the theater all to herself, the shark finally swam all the way to the moon and crashed into its surface, drilling a giant crater into it. “In fact, I had so much time that I was even able to use the micromachines to reconstruct this theater room. Projecting images from memory isn’t so hard when you’re a genius like me. Heh-heh. I could just picture the delight on Maya’s face.” She looked petite, illuminated by the light of the projection. With her shoulder-length black hair and the light blue sailor uniform she wore beneath her white lab coat, she reminded Menou of a lost one. This wasn’t Pandæmonium. She knew Maya’s name. And since she was in the City of Ruins and was someone Menou had never encountered, that left little doubt as to her identity. “Are you…the Astrologer?” “Excellent deduction, Menou.” The girl nodded, confirming the guess. “But it’s not quite so simple. You could say that I am the Astrologer, and you could say that I am someone else entirely. After all, the Astrologer who manages the Starhusk in the sealed City of Ruins is but a temporary disguise that hides itself and plays at being Hakua. When I’m activated to invite a chosen one inside, the Astrologer automatically takes my form instead.” The girl who knew Menou’s name despite meeting her for the first time did not have tan skin or black sclera. She clearly wasn’t a conjured soldier like Abbie. There was nothing about her appearance to indicate that she was anything but human. “I am prophet and savior in one. I am holder of the Pure Concept desired most in this world, yet undoubtedly known as an Otherworlder.” The girl’s introduction contained more self-awarded titles than a middle schooler in the throes of edgy adolescent delusions. She even struck a dramatic pose and flashed a peace sign next to her right eye in a way that suggested a great deal of practice. In the dim light of the theater room, the girl’s signature trait glittered brightly—a shining star-shaped Guiding Light in her pupils. “For I am the one and only holder of the Pure Concept of Star! The era-defying magical girl genius, Nono! ☆” The room went still. While all four people kept silent, the giant shark on the screen ate through the surface of the moon and devoured its core, glowing brightly as it fused with the moon itself and became a heavenly body–sized gigantic shark. The only noises in the room were the accompanying explosion sound effects and the background music. “I… You… How…?” Maya trembled at her old friend’s ridiculous behavior. The girl who called herself Nono seemed to interpret the reaction as joy, and she spread her arms in a welcoming posture. “Heh! You’re so moved, you can’t even speak, eh, Maya? You always did hate to be left alone! C’mere, you adorable little so-and-so!” On the screen, the shark that had fused with the moon now set its sights on the Earth. It thrashed its fins and swam through space, intent on biting into the blue planet and taking its revenge on humanity for driving it away.
Chapter 124
28 min read