Chapter 146

Sentiment The first thing Menou felt when she returned to her body was a powerful pressure. As her mind awoke, her spirit was being squeezed and stuffed into the receptacle of her body. She felt as suffocated as if she’d been buried alive, making her spirit tremble in fear. Slowly, she started breathing again. Her heart was beating, and her organs were functioning. As a former Executioner, she was accustomed to moving her body, but the complex workings of it still surprised her as she came back into her flesh. It was a side effect of her spirit and soul being separated from the body. When she thought of it now, the Menou in the Guiding Force world had been a remarkably simple construction. She was only information from her spirit stuck to one simple component, her soul. Now that she had gone from that pure state back to the bizarre structure of a human body, she was confused at first. Little by little, she regained control of her limbs. As she felt the blood coursing through her veins, she was struck by a surge of love and gratitude for her body. Ah… I’m alive. Freshly aware of her living self, Menou slowly opened her eyes and sat up. The scene around her was blurry, like there was a haze over her eyes. Gradually, it came into focus. “…Menou?” A voice reached her ears. It was Maya. Her young face looked terribly exhausted. “Wow… She really made it back.” The next to speak was Gadou, in a quiet mumble. This was Gadou’s body, the one that was frightened by other people’s gazes, not the indifferent Gadou in the world of souls. “Thank goodness…” Maya slumped to the floor. “Oh, I’m so glad…” “Did something happen…?” “Menou…your heart stopped.” “Huh?” “You weren’t breathing, and your skin was getting cold… If Gadou didn’t tell me those were symptoms of astral projection, I would’ve thought you were dead for sure…!” “I—I had no idea…” As she comforted the crying Maya, Menou turned a little pale herself, shuddering at the thought that her body had been dead while her spirit and soul were outside of it. “…You should thank Maya,” Gadou whispered timidly in Menou’s ear. “This whole time…she was using her Pure Concept of Evil here to make sure your spirit and soul kept their form.” “I thought as much. Maya. Thank you, truly.” Menou’s survival in the sea of Guiding Force was no coincidence, nor was it because she had a strong will. It was only thanks to Maya’s aid. The shadow Menou had in that world was a connection Maya made to ensure that Menou’s form held together. If Maya hadn’t maintained Menou’s shadow, Menou likely wouldn’t have been able to focus on her own form and shape. “And, um… Thanks to you, I’m free from being Gadou’s substitute. Thank you.” Gadou bowed her head. The original Gadou had already solved the problem of memory consumption. The only reason she kept using her body for it was out of habit, a connection she never bothered closing. Once Menou pointed it out, Gadou’s body was finally set free after a thousand years of dividing and multiplying memories. “It was my pleasure. That other Gadou was awfully selfish.” “…Yeah. I know. And…the situation outside has changed, too.” Gadou went on haltingly. “The Mechanical Society…disappeared. Ability Control laid down her life for it.” “Abbie…?” “…Uh-huh. She…sacrificed herself. To make her wish come true.” Menou and Maya fell silent. Abbie was gone. Even after hearing as much, it didn’t seem real to them. “…I still have control over the monolith, so…do you want to go outside…?” Menou nodded at Gadou’s proposal. When she left the monolith, Menou was met with unfamiliar scenery. Just to be safe, she’d left Maya behind and gone out alone to make sure the area was safe. She looked around. It was a wasteland of nothing but rocks and earth. Only the White Night barrier Hakua created a thousand years ago remained. The inside of the barrier was where the Mechanical Society should have been, but those abundant Primary Colors had vanished completely. The school Menou and the others had been staying in was gone, too. Only the environment control tower that Abbie had repaired remained, standing alone. The Mechanical Society that had expanded over the past thousand years was gone forever. “Now, this is a surprise.” Someone spoke from behind Menou. “Making a new world and transferring the Mechanical Society into it, instead of destroying the whole thing…” She must have come to investigate the environment control tower, all that remained in the ruins of the Mechanical Society. Now Michele stood alone, staring Menou down. “…Was this all part of your plan, too, Flarette?” “…No. I’d imagine Nono is behind it.” “Ahh, of course. Lady Nono. I suppose she would be able to accomplish a plan a thousand years in the making. She’s far wiser than the likes of me, after all.” Michele’s lips turned down, her expression strangely sad. Although this was undoubtedly Michele, she seemed to have changed since Menou last saw her. Her hostility toward Menou had faded, and her overall behavior was more pensive somehow. “What’s the matter? You seem a bit…different.” “Hmm? Ah, yes… Well, I just remembered the past a little while ago.” Abbie’s conjuring had reproduced her past and filled in the blanks in Michele’s memories. And not just those of her most recent past self, Elcami. All of the lives she had lived over the past thousand years. Now that she had taken her time back, Michele wore a world-weary smile. “That conjured soldier used one hell of an annoying attack. I can’t believe she helped me remember the past.” The psychic attack Abbie had constructed wasn’t meant to harm Michele. Her true aim was to make Michele remember her own life. Abbie had suspected that if Michele remembered everything, she would have no reason to obey Hakua. “Living too long is a blight, eh… She’s absolutely right. My entire life has been meaningless.” Michele reflected as a being who had lived for a thousand years. Abbie’s plan had succeeded. Michele no longer had any intention of serving Hakua. But she’d made one miscalculation: Even if she wasn’t serving Hakua, Michele still had a reason to fight Menou. “What about yours? Since you’re just a copy of Hakua Shirakami.” “I’m living right now to make my life a meaningful one.” Menou had learned how to activate the otherworld repatriation circle. All she had to do was stand in the environment control tower and activate the full text of the scripture as a conjuring. Just like that, she could knock Hakua back into the other world. “…I see. That’s not a bad way to live.” Michele uncrossed her folded arms. She grabbed her broadsword, which was stuck in the earth, and pulled it free. “Shall we walk a little?” “…All right.” Menou had no objections to moving. Maya and Gadou were inside the monolith. She couldn’t let them get caught in the crossfire of her battle with Michele. Besides, if they fought there, they could destroy the environment control tower, which she needed to use the Starhusk. And Michele, who suggested the move, didn’t want to cause harm to Maya or the tower, either. “You remember now that Hakua’s been taking advantage of you all this time, right? Couldn’t you work with us instead?” “Ridiculous. You are a part of Hakua’s plan yourself, are you not?” Menou smiled bitterly. It was true: Menou was only a tool that Hakua had created so she could go back to the other world with Akari. Once Menou and Akari’s souls were so in sync that they could form a Guiding Force connection, thus becoming the same person in a conjuring sense, Hakua would take over Menou’s body and activate the otherworld repatriation circle so that they could return to Japan together. That was Hakua’s wish, though by now it was nothing but a delusion. “Don’t worry,” said Michele. “Even if you lose here, I’ll put an end to Hakua myself.” “…You wouldn’t be able to beat her, you know.” Menou wasn’t saying it to goad her. It was simply her prediction of what would happen if Michele fought Hakua. “You’re too kindhearted,” she explained. “When you try to kill someone you once called a friend, you can’t do it.” “…Ahh, so that’s why.” Michele’s memories had been erased by Hakua countless times. Upon learning the reason for her defeat, a smile split across her face. She knew her combat abilities weren’t inferior to Hakua’s by any means. And yet every time she could no longer side with Hakua, she inevitably lost to her and lost her memories. Menou’s explanation made perfect sense. “Well then, let’s see you win against me, Flarette.” Michele readied her Sword of Judgment. “Luckily, you’ve never been a friend of mine.” So there was no reason for her to lose. There was no signal to start the battle. Menou simply charged without any warning. Her dagger flashed through the air, and Michele brought her broadsword up to meet it. Sparks flew as the blades clashed. They clanged together three times in the span of a second. These sounds were nearly seamless, resulting in a high keening noise that resounded for several seconds. Both Menou and Michele were glowing with the light of Guiding Enhancement as their killing blades rang out against one another. It was a breathtaking storm of slashing steel. One single broadsword somehow kept up with the speed of two daggers, deftly knocking them back. In the fifth second, Menou’s right arm was sliced off. In theory, she should have had the advantage over Michele’s broadsword if she could get close enough with her daggers, but she was met with swordsmanship even fiercer and more precise than she had anticipated. The difference in their close-combat skills exceeded Menou’s imagination. Menou took a half-step back to try and adjust her approach only for Michele to take a full step forward to close in on her. Michele brought down a blow too fast to evade, killing any attempts at movement. Menou attempted to parry it with her dagger—a deadly mistake. Michele’s broadsword knocked away Menou’s dagger, and her defenses with it. She was much too strong to block. Menou’s body was slammed to the ground. Without her right arm, she couldn’t even control her fall. Menou’s face twisted in pain under the overpowering force of the attack. To make matters worse, Guiding Force flowed through Michele’s broadsword. Guiding Force: Connect (Conditions Met)—Sword of Judgment, Crest—Invoke [Compression] The ground surrounding Menou was drawn toward Michele’s sword, closing in to crush her. Menou couldn’t move as the rocks bore down on her body. Then Michele’s fist drove into her chest. Her powerful punch smashed through Menou’s immobilized body, a fatal wound. In normal circumstances, such a blow would surely decide the outcome of the battle. Michele and Menou—when they fought head-on, this was the extent of the difference in strength between them.