Kuon was in much worse condition. He’d already lost his extra boosters, and his magic was almost entirely tapped out.
But if I have three more seconds…
He had only used Nine-Count Strike for six; he still had three seconds left.
Unless he got closer, he couldn’t use any short-ranged attacks. An area attack like Ryuenbu wouldn’t get him anywhere either. To beat the Queen, he needed an art that would focus all his output on a single point—his strongest art.
Shijin Reppakuzan… But…but that…
Reppakuzan could kill this thing. In his previous life, it had left the Queen on the brink of death. In her current condition, that art would finish her.
But if he used that, it would take Hanabi out with it. That wasn’t an option.
Kuon’s hesitation made his movements falter. The Queen’s hundreds of mouths blinked, firing an untold number of bullets.
“Tch!” Faced with a barrage even Tensetsu couldn’t get him through, Kuon forced his mind to think.
Think! There must be a way!
But the Queen’s injuries were visibly healing. She was draining Hanabi’s magic.
Then En screamed, “This… That movement… It can’t be!”
The space behind the Queen warped. All the numbers En had been monitoring rapidly began shifting. This closely resembled the readings just before the Gate opened in their world. En knew what that meant.
“Kuon-sama! The enemy’s getting ready to run!”
“Ah!”
“If you don’t stop it, it… It’ll take Hanabi-sama with it!”
“I won’t let that happen!” Dodging the bullets, Kuon desperately tried closing the distance. But his body felt sluggish, his frame heavy. His magic, his speed, his specs, this Division 1 frame—none of it was good enough. Without his talent, he couldn’t save Hanabi.
Tentacles popped out of empty space. He was unable to dodge in time and they sliced his side, drawing blood. He screamed. “Hanabi-senpai!”
Trapped inside that orb, Hanabi’s lips parted, her words faltering. “What…are you waiting for?” she asked, like she was accusing him of something. Her face was pallid. “Hurry up and fire.”
Those words told Kuon everything. Hanabi was already certain she was dying. As a soldier, as a Cavalleria, she had chosen the Jave Queen’s defeat over her own life.
“Senpai!”
If the Queen fled here, the Gate would be sealed, but only temporarily. The same thing would happen in another ten years. No, these monsters were clever. If the Queen absorbed Hanabi, she would obtain not only Hanabi’s powerful magic, but Hanabi’s memories of DM research. This time, she would conquer mankind for good, obtaining lasting control.
He had to kill the Queen here, even at the cost of a Maneuver Cavalleria’s life.
Hanabi’s life for the future of humanity. Hanabi herself had already accepted that. She accepted it the night before she was deployed, the night she had spent with Kuon.
There was no need to hesitate. But…
“Sorry…” Hanabi said. “Goodbye, Kuon-kun. If… If I’m reborn…”
She smiled.
“I hope I see you again…”
That was her goodbye. Hanabi would be like the Hero she admired, giving her life to save mankind. She was ready for it. She thought it was the right thing to do.
She was the only one who did.
Kuon stopped time for a second. In that soundless, negative world, she saw him staring directly at her. His eyes said everything. There was a rage in them that scared her.
To hell with that, they said. I’m not gonna let that happen!
The man who’d been the Hero, who threw his own life away just like Hanabi was about to, was astonished by the strength of his reaction.
“Rraggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!” Kuon roared. Behind him, Rin and Fuji watched helplessly.
“Okegawa-kun?!”
“Kyuu-kun!”
Kuon charged forward. If he couldn’t use Ryuenbu, then he would just have to slice open that Core and pull Hanabi out himself. Who cared if he didn’t have the magic or talent? He wasn’t about to let a reason like that, the unfair facts of his birth, be an excuse to let her make herself a lone hero.
Not over Jogen or the capital or in the deep sea, but here, in the Gate, covered in wounds, Kuon blocked the tentacle attacks. He flew toward Hanabi, refusing to give up. Bullets and tentacles he couldn’t quite dodge tore at his frame and flesh. Still, he pressed on. Okegawa Kuon would never turn back from saving Suzuka Hanabi.
“You don’t get to make that choice for us!” he shouted. Tears streamed down his face as he charged in. Kuon couldn’t shoot Hanabi. He wouldn’t, couldn’t ever do it. He could throw away his own life in a heartbeat because that was how he’d always lived, and how he’d died once already. But that only applied to him.
“Hanabi-senpai! I…!”
The girl he’d saved at the end of his previous life, whom he’d looked up to, respected, and fallen in love with? He couldn’t let her make that sacrifice. Not ever. The rage he felt at the very idea shocked him. It had taken control. He realized for the first time this was how his master had felt.
“I won’t let you do that!”
Kuon’s mind, body, and magic all completely rejected the notion. To save Hanabi here was tantamount to destroying the world. He knew that. He understood it.
But he couldn’t leave her. He didn’t want to. He wouldn’t let himself.
The armor on his left shoulder was torn off. He had almost no feeling left in his right leg, but he didn’t let that stop him. “Saving the world at the cost of a life?” he yelled at Hanabi. Then he said the same words his master had used: “We don’t need a Hero like that!”
That was the answer.
In that moment, he thought he saw something. At the center of the magic around him, deep within his DM’s Core, he saw a flash of light.
Ah!
It wasn’t clear what exactly allowed Kuon to understand what that light was. It wasn’t his mind, his body, or his magic that did it. Perhaps it was the accumulated wisdom of his arts, of his sword, that allowed him to understand that this, this right here, was something you could only see once you’d answered Shichisei Kenbu’s final question.
This was what his master called the “light of life.”
A ray of light rose up in the back of Kuon’s mind as he let his anger carry him blindly forward. This was a clear and present path to saving Hanabi—a path trod not by a Hero, but by a boy with almost no magic.
“Squad Leader, Control!”
On standby behind him, the Cavalleria who led the school’s best squad got it right away. “Huh?! Roger that! Motegi-kun, support him!” Fuji responded.
“I don’t get it, but okay!”
Hearing his senpai’s voices behind him, Kuon upped his speed. He didn’t have enough magic left to use Tensetsu to see the future. Using the enemy position data Fuji had calculated and the approach routes En was crunching together, he pressed on through the mass of tentacles and the hail of invisible bullets. The sparks flashing before his strained eyes showed Rin was shooting down any attacks he couldn’t dodge. With the help of the companions he’d lacked in his former life, for the sake of the one he loved in this one, the Division 1 Cavalleria charged at the monster boss.