The rider spoke. “Reimei (Second Drag Ride), exterminating opposition.”
Tooka Nürburg had used the recovered Kiryu Core to make a new mechanical dragon, the Second Drag Ride. Wearing it was one of the Twin Star Heroes—the Division 5, Suzuka Hanabi. Kuon and Fuji rode tandem on her back, both for protection and for backup.
The Queens moved.
Screeeeeeeeeeeee!
The mantas attacking the Air Force wheeled back, charging the Kiryu, in a Jave assault designed to smash through the Heavy Magic Field.
“Hmph,” Hanabi snorted, sounding bored. She launched weapon containers from both the Kiryu’s wings. Hundreds of Servants flew out, firing a torrent of light bullets that easily halted the wave of trash Jave. Before that torrent died down, she fired her main weapon.
Bwam!
Piercing through the Jave’s red mist and shock waves, the two bullets passed below the pseudo-Gate, swallowing a Queen. Her death throes echoed. Mankind’s mortal enemy, so threatening a moment before, vanished without a trace.
That was easy, thought Hanabi. She could tell she was strangely unemotional. Maybe it was the shock of forcing her personality change, or the influence of the hypnotism. To protect the fragile screams of her psyche, she was processing everything like it was taking place far away, somewhere with no connection to her. There was a lid on her emotions.
So perhaps what happened next didn’t even count as letting her guard down.
“Suzuka-kun!”
The cry from her squad leader barely registered. What’s he all worked up about? she thought. The enemy attacks can’t affect them, and the last one isn’t even facing us.
Isn’t facing us?
It took her two full seconds to realize that was strange.
A fatal two seconds.
“Nürburg, major damage!”
“What?!”
The flagship crew and admiral’s screams echoed in her ears. On the other side of the pseudo-Gate, in the shadow of her minions’ desperate cover, the last Queen’s bulk was wrapped around the Nürburg. Countless tentacles writhed around it. For two full seconds, Hanabi stared blankly as the Queen squeezed.
She couldn’t do anything.
The mirror split. Cracks ran across its surface right before it shattered. On the Kuou’s bridge, they watched, helpless to do anything.
“Pseudo-Gate has collapsed! Nürburg’s Gate functions ceasing. Admiral!”
“Has the operation failed?”
“Wait…”
“Now what?”
“No! Nürburg moving! Entering enemy Gate!”
“That fool!” Shirota roared. He opened a comm immediately. “Don’t, Tooka-kun! The enemy Gate isn’t stable! We can’t maintain it! You’ll never make it back!”
“Doesn’t matter,” Tooka replied.
“It does! Wait till we repair your machine!”
“More enemy Gates will open before that happens. Next time it’ll be more than five. This time they will wipe us out.”
“But—”
“This is my decision, Admiral. You know the truth about the Nürburg, and you still gave me this opportunity, for which I am grateful.”
“Tooka-kun, don’t!”
The massive black egg changed course. With the last Queen still clinging to it, it dove into the enemy’s Gate, and there…
“Tooka!”
Kuon came racing after her, leaving the Kiryu behind. He remembered what Tooka had said: “I’m so sorry. This is all my fault.”
Why couldn’t he just have said, “It isn’t”?
He could have told her, “This was all the Jave’s doing. You didn’t know. You were just used. You were eaten, killed. It isn’t your fault. You did nothing wrong.”
Why hadn’t he just said that?
The Nürburg was entirely inside the enemy Gate. Tooka opened a private comm to Kuon. “Goodbye, onii-chan. I’m going back to the world where I was born.”
“No, wait!”
“I’m glad we could be together, even if only for a little while.”
Those were parting words. A wave of anger he couldn’t understand coursed through Kuon’s entire body. Tooka was prepared to sacrifice her life to save the world. Once again, a member of his family was about to die right before his eyes at the hands of the Jave.
Suzuka Hachishiki’s sister.
His sister.
Just like his father and mother and the nuns and his friends at the orphanage and his friends in the Air Force. He couldn’t let that happen. “You hideous mutant monsters…!”
Did the Jave Queen hear him whisper? Or sense something else? The Queen clinging to the Nürburg turned, reaching her tentacles towards Kuon as he approached.
“Outta my way!”
Dodging with Tensetsu, he took the Shitotsu stance…
Screeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeesccrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
The Queen’s light of life scattered, turning to mist. Without hesitation, he’d unleashed the ultimate art he’d been forbidden to use.
Kuon went silent.
And then he went after Tooka and was about to enter the collapsing Gate when…
“Kuon-kun!”
Hanabi came after him. Fuji wasn’t with her, so she must have cut him loose. She was trying to use the Kiryu’s Heavy Magic Engines to maintain the Gate. “The Gate’s closing!” she yelled, grabbing Kuon’s arm. “It’ll collapse before you can catch Tooka-chan!”
“Let go of me.”
“You won’t make it in time!”
“Let. Go.” Kuon brushed her arm off him. As he did so, the Kiryu’s engine stalled again.
“No…why…?” Hanabi cried.
“You’re going to live,” said the other half of the Twin Star Heroes—no, the man once called the Hero. He turned back to look at Hanabi. “I’ve got to go avenge everyone.”
She’d heard those words before. Hearing them again now stopped her, like she’d frozen up. This is my fault, Hanabi thought. If only I’d realized what the Queen was doing faster. If I’d just killed them all without letting them do anything.
Kuon wouldn’t have turned back into him.
In front of her was the Hero who’d died thirteen years ago. Once again, he was going to leave her behind and head into a Gate.
While she reeled, Kuon turned his back on her and went inside the closing Gate. With the Kiryu’s engine stalled, she couldn’t go after him. Fuji called her name, and at last she resumed functioning.
“Wait, don’t go! Hero!” She reached out, shouting, but it didn’t reach him. The Gate swallowed Kuon, closing in front of her. He never once looked back.
“Why…?”
The Kiryu was falling. It faced the sky as gravity dragged her towards the ocean. Before her eyes, the black moon with the Soukyu inside vanished completely.
“No…no…”
Her hands reached out towards the sky, and then she covered her face with them.
“Whyy….?!”
She hit the water. The Reimei’s bubble protected her, and as she sank below the surface, she let out a wail that no one heard.
“Whyyyyyy….?!”
She’d been left behind again. He hadn’t chosen her.
She was alone once more.