I’d already stopped hearing Future Sagami in my mind. The instant that Present Sagami was defeated, he’d lost his power and its effect had been undone. Up until the very moment of his demise, however, he’d kept using Future Sagami to feed me a constant stream of information. That was why I knew everything, from how Fallen Black had confronted Kiryuu to how he’d turned the tables on them.
“I see... So Kudou was caught up in the encounter as well. I’d thought it was strange when I couldn’t get in contact with her, but I never imagined it was because she had already gotten involved,” Sayumi said after I finished recounting Future Sagami’s final message to me. A sorrowful pall had fallen over her expression as I spoke.
“H-Hey, Juu...? Is Kudou okay?” asked Hatoko.
“Yeah, I think she’s probably fine,” I replied. “Apparently, she’ll have come back to life without any memories of our powers and the Spirit War... That’s how it works, right, Leatia?”
“Right. She’ll be alive and back to business as usual by now, actually. Why not give her a call and check, if you’re curious?”
Sayumi took Leatia’s suggestion right away. She called Kudou’s cell phone, and Kudou answered right away. I heaved a sigh of relief. It was incredibly reassuring to know that she was still alive...or, well, alive again, really.
I guess that probably means that Sagami and the others are already alive again too—just without any of their knowledge about supernatural powers or the War.
Tomoyo gulped. “You spirits have total free rein over our lives and memories, huh?” she said, a note of fear creeping into her voice. “Your powers let you do anything you want with us and our world. They make you completely superior in every way...and you’re telling me my dumbass of an older brother has complete control over them right now...?”
“Yeah... That’s right,” said Leatia.
The Reverse Crux Errata granted Kiryuu the power to alter the parameters of the supernatural battle we’d been pulled into at will. His authority surpassed that of a mere ruler—he’d entered a domain in which only authors dwelled. It was the ultimate administrative privilege, granted only to the Fifth Spirit War’s mastermind.
“For god’s sake... What the hell are you doing, Hajime? You set this whole stupid game up just so that you could cheat to win it? You wanted to be the only one who got a perfectly broken power...? That’s just so damn pathetic,” Tomoyo spat before shooting me a chilly, pointed glance. “Andou...you get it, right? You understand just how crazy his power is?”
“Yeah,” I agreed with a solemn nod. “The Reverse Crux Errata... Now that is one hell of a name. Who knew that when he showed me the Reverse Crux Record way back when we’d first met it was all just a setup for this? And the new word, Errata... Oh, it’s good. It’s so good. I should’ve known Kiryuu was the sort of guy who’d wrap card game jargon into one of his names—he’s got such a knack for this!”
“I know, right? ‘Errata’ is seriously such a good word. It fits his power perfectly, and it doesn’t make him look like a tryhard in the way that some super over-the-top words do. It matches the aesthetics of all the other names he’s come up with really nicely, and pulling in the name of the cringe compilation he carries absolutely friggin’ everywhere with him helps drive home the idea that to him, power names are the be-all and end-all. It’s probably one of the best names he’s come up with to date, and I’m not afraid to admit it. This is the one area where my brother never fails to impress— Not!” Tomoyo shouted. She’d definitely dragged out that fake-out way harder than she’d strictly needed to. “Nobody gives a crap about its name! Surely even you realize that this is not the time?!”
“I mean, I actually thought this was the perfect time to get silly and help everyone calm down a bit...”
“Nobody asked for that!”
“Yeah...and I know. You weren’t talking about the power’s name. You were talking about the power itself.”
Honestly, “crazy” didn’t even begin to do the Reverse Crux Errata justice. No other power could ever possibly work on Kiryuu as long as he had it in his control, and even if a power did get through to him in a one-in-a-million miracle, he could just revise it on the spot to make sure it never worked again. Even the god-tier abilities that the other four members of our club possessed might as well have been powerless in the face of his. After all—if he wanted to, he really could tweak them until they were useless.
Kiryuu could write up a new erratum for his own battles whenever he pleased. No matter how set in stone a rule seemed to be, its creator held the privilege to decide that it wasn’t a great idea after all and shamelessly strike it down.
He was operating on a completely different level than we were; he was standing on a profoundly different sort of stage. Just as a human could never stand up to a god—just like a character in a story could never stand up to its author—so too could none of the participants in this supernatural battle royale ever stand up to Kiryuu Hajime.
We couldn’t win. He’d given himself a power that could never be beaten, and a power that never should have existed at all.
“I-Isn’t there something you can do, Juu...?” Hatoko asked, giving me a look that seemed somehow full of expectations.
“Huh...? Me?” I replied incredulously.
“Well, you’re the one who’s been running simulations this whole time to make sure you’d be ready if something like this happened, right? You’ve told me over and over again that you weren’t just playing make-believe and that they were serious simulations for real potential disasters, right?”
“Mwa ha ha... Well, yeah,” I admitted, matching her imploring gaze with a fearless smile. It was the only move I could possibly make. “I’ve fantasized... I mean, simulated battles with every possible supernatural power that could be used against us. Even the Reverse Crux Errata... I’ve thought about powers very much like it—powers that turn the rules of battle on their head and fundamentally alter how the game is played in a way that gives their user a cheat-like level of advantage—and carefully simulated how I’d go about dealing with them.”
“Oooh! I knew you’d have a plan, Juu! So, what should we do?!”
“Yeah, umm... The thing about absolutely unbeatable cheat powers like that one is that they’re really hard to write around. Once the author realizes they’ve written themself into a corner, they’ll usually come up with reasons not to let it get used...and our only hope’s to pray that happens in our case.”
“Seriously...?” Hatoko moaned in disappointment.