As I watched Andou dash off into the distance, all the tension that had been keeping me upright drained away and I flopped right back to the ground. Saitou offered me a hand up again, but I just shook my head.
“You can leave me be, thanks,” I said. “I know I said I’d stay and help like a real badass a moment ago...but honestly, I think even taking a bullet for someone’s beyond me right now.”
I could feel a sharp pain in my ribs—most likely, one of them was broken. Characters in battle manga say stuff like “Tch! That last attack broke two or three of my ribs” all the time before carrying on with the fight totally unfazed, but if you ever break a rib in reality, you’ll quickly realize that it’s a much bigger problem than those stories would lead you to believe. For someone like me with the body of a perfectly average, unremarkable high schooler, even a single broken rib was enough to take me out of the action, like it or not.
Ugggh. This hurts so friggin’ much...
“I’m not going to be useful regardless, so just ignore me,” I said. “I wouldn’t want to hold your crew back.”
“Oh...? All right, then,” Saitou said as she withdrew her hand. It hadn’t taken much at all to convince her to respect my wishes.
I heaved a deep sigh. “I’ll just stay back here and watch. I’m looking forward to seeing what Saitou Hitomi’s master plan ends up looking like.”
“Maybe don’t get your hopes up. I can’t guarantee we’re going to win this.”
“And yet you seem awfully upbeat, all things considered.”
There wasn’t a trace of concern or hesitation on Saitou’s face. It was like she knew exactly what she had to do and had no doubts whatsoever about following through.
“I guess that’s probably because I know I’ve done everything I can. If this doesn’t work, then that’s that—I tried my best,” Saitou resolutely replied.
Just then, another member of Saitou’s crew made her appearance.
“Hell yeah! Kick his ass, Toks! You’ve got three more minutes before Ryuu can use another big move—plenty of time to wipe the floor with him!”
Natsu Aki—a girl with long, braided hair who had the power Headhunting—stepped up to cheer Toki Shuugo on. It seemed safe to assume that their knowing Kiryuu’s power’s one weakness, its inability to chain together multiple powerful finishers in a row, was thanks to her. Her power allowed her to analyze other people’s abilities, and it could have easily told her precisely how long Kiryuu would have to recharge after using a big attack.
“Now’s our big chance—we’ve gotta get him while he’s outta gas! This is the one time he can’t actually use Lucifer’s Execution, the secret move that lets him sever the flow of time! He’s been keeping it in his back pocket and hoping to get a chance to be all ‘I never wanted to use this power, but I have no choice...’ this whole time, but right now, it’s off the table!”
Headhunting worked by scanning the memories of whoever its wielder used it on, meaning that all of their secret plans and hidden moves were like an open book to her. And, I mean...hmm. How to put this... It just felt a little wrong to me, you know?
This was just like when she’d revealed the nature of Andou’s power’s second stage. Having all of someone’s hidden abilities laid out on the table at once kinda made me lose interest in them. It felt like having someone drop a huge spoiler on you out of nowhere about a series you were reading. Aki didn’t seem to realize what she was doing at all, though, and kept throwing out pieces of really important information like they were nothing. She didn’t even put any effort into the presentation of it all—she just said it.
Never mind the state of the story for a moment... The power to “sever the flow of time,” is it?
I wasn’t at all surprised to hear that the power Kiryuu had been saving for just the right occasion was, in fact, time-based. I was certain that he’d been planning on using it in the last battle that would go down following the formal selection of the Final Eight—specifically, in his battle with Kanzaki Tomoyo. Gravity and time were supposed to be closely related in, like, a theory of relativity sort of way? Something about time moving slower in places where gravity’s stronger or whatever. Anyway, I had a feeling that Kiryuu had been planning to use that whole theory as an excuse to class-change from gravity-wielder to time-manipulator.
It seemed that the prediction I’d made about where Kiryuu’s plan was going might have actually been pretty close to the mark...though considering he’d since swapped Kanzaki Tomoyo out of the final boss role in favor of Andou—or rather, Guiltia Sin Jurai—I couldn’t completely say that I’d called it. Plus, it was really hard to imagine that a guy like him would ever be willing to settle for the sort of cheap ending that an utterly unremarkable reader like me could predict.
I’d sided with the group that was doing their best to put a stop to Kiryuu’s plan...but I couldn’t deny that a part of me regretted that choice. All the instincts that I’d developed over many a long year spent living as a reader were champing at the bit to see the end of the story that Kiryuu Hajime had plotted out. Some part of me was still truly excited to see what sort of incredible final twist he’d cooked up for his conclusion.
Kiryuu Hajime—aka Ancient Lucifer—was the origin point of the Fifth Spirit War in a very real sense, and thus he was the root of all the troubles it had caused. After winning the Fourth War, he’d flipped the script by asking to fight in another one right away, bringing the event to our city once more—and with a wide variety of new rules added in. He’d altered and edited the War as he pleased. In a certain sense, I suppose that this War was his New Game +.
The question remained, though: Where was it that he hoped to steer the story for which he served as both star and screenwriter? What would happen when only eight Players remained in the War—when the Final Eight had been selected?
“...”
Hmm?
Uhh...wait. What? Hold on. No, really, hold the phone for a moment.
Suddenly, a clear and intense sensation that something was extremely wrong came over me. I furiously racked my mind, trying to figure out what it was that had set me off.
Okay, so, who are the eight Players most likely to still be in the running now...? There’s the five literary club members, to start. They’re set in stone. Andou was just here a minute ago, and I met up with Tomoyo, Hatoko, and Takanashi before I came here. Chifuyu used her power to help Andou out during his battle with Tamaki too, and Kiryuu was almost certainly planning on keeping them around in the Final Eight from the start.
I glanced around at my surroundings. Saitou and Aki were standing nearby, while Kiryuu and Toki were fighting it out in the distance. Counting me, there were currently five Players on the scene. Five here, and five in the literary club. All together...
“...There’s ten people left?!” I shouted in wild, hysterical shock. Instantly, my midsection erupted in agonizing pain.
Right. Broken rib. Definitely shouldn’t be shouting right now. Ugh...
But seriously, though—how was I supposed to not shout after a shock like that? Surely you see what’s wrong with this picture?
“And that makes eight.”
“The auditions are over, and the players have all been chosen. Now—let the beginning of the end commence.”