Even after Haruyuki returned to the real world, he wasn’t able to immediately open his eyes. Still leaning against the sofa, he exhaled at length, letting out all the air in his lungs.
He was so tired, he wanted to climb into bed that second, and yet an uneasiness colder than ice was firing up his sympathetic nervous system. Metatron and the White King had both ordered him to sleep soundly until morning at any rate, but what he actually wanted to do was dive right back into the Unlimited Neutral Field and hunt down the two missing Drive Linkers.
Urocyon and Complicator could have been infiltrating the Shiba Park Underground Labyrinth at that very second and charging toward the lowest level, where Metatron’s first form sat. Her true form was currently outside of the dungeon, but if her first form was defeated without the use of any stage gimmicks, there was a serious possibility that she would be forcibly sent to the boss room in the moment of defeat.
Naturally, it was an almost Herculean task to take down her first form without any weakening gimmicks. But given that the Drive Linkers had masterful control over the super-high-performance Incarnate techniques known as Psion Arts, the possibility of them being able to accomplish this task with just the two of them was nonzero.
Haruyuki had proposed a temporary evacuation, fully prepared to be struck down by lightning in response, but all of the Beings looked negatively on leaving their respective castles. There was the risk of being attacked when they came aboveground, so evacuation might not have been the definitive and correct choice, but if they were going to do it, now was the time, when eight of the ten Drive Linkers were absent. The Unlimited Neutral Field did, in fact, encompass all of Japan, so if the seven Beings listed as targets moved to Hokkaido or Okinawa, it would be nearly impossible to find them.
“…But I’m pretty sure the guy who came up with these battle rules would’ve thought of that much, at least,” Haruyuki murmured in a hoarse voice, and he lifted his closed eyelids just a hint.
He’d been accelerated for a couple of minutes, at most, but the white light from the ceiling stabbed into his eyes, bringing tears to them. He blinked repeatedly and let his eyes grow accustomed to the brightness.
It was the same old living room as always, but it smelled different from usual. He could pick up the delicious scent of food and the refreshing aromas of soap and shampoo.
Sniffing, Haruyuki looked to his left and then froze in place. Because his childhood friend was sitting there, leaning deep into the sofa cushions, her eyes closed.
Oh, right. I dived with Chiyuri.
At the same time as he remembered this, his stomach growled. The yokan jelly he’d eaten on the other side unfortunately could not be brought over to the real world. An inexpressibly alluring fragrance was wafting out from the tote bag Chiyuri had brought with her, sitting on the low table before him. But he hesitated to dig into it without its owner’s permission.
Chiyuri had said that she would stay with Taupe Cape until the exhausted Linker woke up, so she was probably still at Oumutei. But thirty seconds had already passed since Haruyuki woke up. That was eight hours and twenty minutes in the Unlimited Neutral Field. She should really be waking up already, he thought, just as a faint groan slipped from her slightly open mouth.
“Nnn…” Her eyelashes fluttered, her face scrunched up, and she slowly lifted her eyelids. Like Haruyuki before her, Chiyuri blinked repeatedly, her eyes dazzled, before she said, “Ah… Haru, you were already back?”
“Hey, Chiyu,” he greeted her. “How’s Taupe Cape?”
“Water first, please.”
Her words made him realize he was also thirsty. He stood up, cut across the living room on quick feet, pulled a bottle of oolong tea out of the refrigerator, and poured it into two glasses. Taking one in each hand, he traced his steps back to the living room and held one of the glasses out, which Chiyuri took and quickly emptied.
Haruyuki also gulped down the nicely chilled tea while still standing and let out a long sigh. With his thirst quenched, his pangs of hunger grew even greater, but he ignored them and waited for Chiyuri to speak.
After a few seconds, Chiyuri said slowly, holding the glass in both hands, “Taupe burst out with me from the portal at Waseda Station.”
“…Yeah? Thanks for staying with her.”
When he conveyed his gratitude, she shook her head slightly. “I didn’t do anything.”
“That’s not true,” he protested. “I’m sure the reason Taupe felt safe enough to get the sleep she needed was because you were there—”
Chiyuri abruptly shook her head vigorously to either side, so Haruyuki swallowed the rest of his words.
“I did nothing.” She squeezed the words out, not bothering to fix her now messy hair. “I… I didn’t tell Taupe that Zelkova might be able to come back. I felt like if I did, I’d have to help her revive Zelkova before Cotto…”
“…”
Haruyuki bit his bottom lip hard.
If she was going to give Taupe that hope, then he did actually agree that she should also offer to help. But she knew that the chance of actually bringing anyone back to life was infinitely close to zero, so she had no reason to blame herself for not telling the grieving Burst Linker about this hint of a possibility.
After a moment of uncertainty, Haruyuki said, “I… Right after I left Oumutei, I met with the White King on the Highest Level.”
“What?!” Chiyuri opened her eyes wide in surprise, and Haruyuki sat down next to her.
“I learned a lot of important stuff there, but that can wait. Before we left the Highest Level, I asked the White King about her revival ability…”
As he explained, he relived the conversation with White Cosmos.
They’d discussed the victory condition and strategies for the interworld war—aka the final stage—with Metatron and the other Beings, and immediately after they dispersed for the time being, he’d called out to stop the White King as she was about to leap out.
“Does your Revival bring back any Burst Linker at total point loss unconditionally?” he’d asked.
The White King had cocked her head slightly to one side before replying, “It can’t be anyone. There are a number of necessary conditions.”
He’d then asked about the conditions, and a faint smile rose on her face.
“While I don’t doubt your loyalty, I can’t exactly reveal all of my powers to a person who’s only been in my Legion for three days. But I will tell you just one of those conditions: The person must remain broadly or deeply in the Burst Linker memory.”
“Broadly…or deeply…?” Chiyuri repeated the words of the White King that Haruyuki told her. “What does that mean?”
“This is just a guess,” he said. “But ‘broadly’ probably means a lot of Burst Linkers remember them a little, and ‘deeply’ means a few Burst Linkers remember them a lot. Of course, the best thing would be a whole bunch of people remembering them a lot…”
“…How many people do you think a few is?” Chiyuri murmured.
“I don’t know,” he replied in a similarly quiet voice. “Could be two or three, could be twenty or thirty.”
“…”
She fell silent once more, and he could easily imagine what she was thinking.
Cotton Marten belonged to the midsize Legion Ovest. It would have had more than twenty members, but that was before the mission to subjugate Tezcatlipoca. The Legion master Juniper Weasel had said that about 60 percent of the members had been driven to total point loss, so there were probably only ten or so surviving. And it wasn’t like all of them would have been so close with Cotton Marten that they had deep memories of her.