The key to her whole story was the father-daughter pact Jupiter had forged with the beast years before. As long as that pact remained in effect, Keraunos could run amok as much as it liked, under the guise of “protecting its daughter.” Likewise, in accordance with the conditions of the pact, Jupiter was forced to play the role of daughter and allow herself to be “protected.”
Our only hope was to alter the pact itself. And the most realistic way to do that was through the cleansing system.
“We can help her as long as we meet the right conditions, but…”
While it was certainly possible for us to help with the cleansing as outsiders, we could do little more than assist with the preparations. We wouldn’t be allowed to participate in the actual proceedings.
The cleansing was a renegotiation between a person and their contracted spirit, decided through a contest of brute strength. In other words, no matter how much we tried to help her, Jupiter would still need to beat Keraunos on her own. If she couldn’t do that, nothing would change.
“So Jupi’s gotta fight that monster…?” Haruka asked. “Oof. Just thinking about it gives me the heebie-jeebies.”
Her reaction surprised me, since she usually got her kicks from this sort of thing. I guess, as excitable as she was, even Haruka got nervous when it came to putting her friends in danger. Her concern was kind of moving. That aside…
“Okay, okay, but how do we drag that thing’s true form out of her? Tell me, Kyou! Please and thanks!”
“Actually, getting to Keraunos isn’t all that hard.”
With the exception of the highest-ranking spirits—Ultimas like Albi—most lived inside their pact holders. That made it easy to begin negotiations with them and even to directly start a cleansing trial. One just needed to open the door to their heart, either by using some special technique to access their inner self or by an outside party giving them a considerable shock.
“Huh, really? My Mimi’s nowhere near that much of a pain in the butt. I tell her what to do, and she just does it. Plus, we can always talk things out.”
The radiant star cocked her head, seeming genuinely surprised.
According to Haruka, Futsu-no-Mitama—which she lovingly referred to as Mimi—had been a very well-behaved spirit ever since she inherited the pact from her parents.
“I imagine that’s because you’re the best user Futsu-no-Mitama could have hoped for.”
Spirits like Haruka’s Futsu-no-Mitama or Kanata Aono’s Ameno Habakiri—those with powers centering around sword work and slashing skills—tended to desire pacts with accomplished sword masters. In that sense, there was no better candidate than Haruka. It was no wonder Mimi was so docile. Even an Ultima spirit would leap at the opportunity for a pact with the greatest sword practitioner in the world.
“In any case,” I explained, “people who get along with their spirit as well as you do are pretty rare. It’s much more common for users to argue with their spirits every now and then. Hell, mine kicks me in the crotch like all the time.”
“Oh? Now that sounds funny! I would love to hear mo—”
“Anyway.” I forcefully cleared my throat and tried my best to get the conversation back on track. “Like I was saying, it won’t be much of a problem for Jupiter to connect to the real Keraunos. The problem is she won’t be able to keep it up.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
I paused for a breath and tried my best to stay composed, despite the harsh prediction I was about to make.
“As she is right now, Jupiter…” I was extremely relieved that the silver-haired girl wasn’t around to hear what I was about to say. “She can’t possibly beat Keraunos.”
The radiant star’s sky-blue eyes clouded over with disappointment. “Can you elaborate? What makes you think that?”
“To be blunt, the battleground will be very unfavorable. Actually, it would be more accurate to say the problem is the rules.”
“What ‘rules’?”
“There are certain things a user and their contracted spirit can’t do when facing one another in battle.”
Haruka brought her hand up to her lips and mulled this over for a brief moment. “Well, killing is probably off the table, right? That would cause problems for both parties.”
Her conclusion was right on the money. Whether she was born smart or simply had amazing instinct, Haruka never let her lack of knowledge impede her ability to think things through. As long as she had time to consider the matter, she always came up with a worthwhile, interesting answer. That was why everyone around her, myself included, liked to test her like this. It was devilishly charming—the kind of thing only prodigies like her could get away with.
“That’s right,” I said. “If one of them killed the other, their pact would be dissolved. That’s why they have to duke it out in a place neither of them can be physically harmed.”
As I mentioned before, cleansing is basically a negotiation conducted through violence. It’s a ceremony meant to show a spirit their user’s power to alter or expand the conditions of their pact. And that meant either party dying was out of the question. Of course, aside from outliers like Haruka, it was pretty damn difficult to defeat one’s spirit in battle.
“Knowing Keraunos, it’ll probably throw a fit outside, too. But the real battleground will be inside Jupiter’s heart. If she can’t prove herself to its real body, then it won’t make a bit of difference how much we kick its ass out here.”
I thought back to the battle we’d fought a few hours prior against the rampaging black-lightning beast. It had taken all our strength and cunning, but we’d driven the thing back and made sure Jupiter didn’t feel like she had hurt us. In that sense, we had defeated Keraunos.
…Sure, we’d merely fought a manifestation of its power with only a fraction of the real spirit’s strength, and it would continue to create more such virtual bodies whenever Jupiter got too stressed, but that was beside the point. A win was a win. And yet…
“At the end of the day, she couldn’t prevent that black-lightning bastard from running wild. She was taken in by its promise to protect her, and essentially let her daddy do whatever it wanted.”
“I don’t like the way you phrased that,” said Haruka.
Her voice was tinged with anger, but I sensed affection for Jupiter behind her words. I felt gratitude well up in my heart; I was happy to have someone so thoughtful in my party. Despite that, I thought it was important to speak frankly about the situation—both as party leader and as someone who wanted to be a good neighbor to that silver-haired girl well into the future.
“We’ve got to face the facts,” I said. “We can’t change what’s already happened. Jupiter is scared of Keraunos. And regardless of anyone’s thoughts on the matter, she’s under the spirit’s control. With things in such bad shape, do you seriously think it’s possible for her to beat that monster?”
A firework burst in the sky, forming the shape of a pink heart. Most of the crowd probably thought of romance when they saw it. But right now, the two of us were thinking about the upcoming battle in Jupiter’s heart.
“Well, I…” The words caught in her throat. A smart, tough girl like her couldn’t bring herself to lie. “Are you trying to say Jupi’s weak?”
“She is weak.”
My throat felt cold as the words left my mouth. I didn’t want my partner to hate me for what I was saying. I felt the urge to turn away in shame.
“Yes, she’s weak,” I repeated. “Of course she’s weak. The psychos at that facility forced her to let Keraunos live inside her all this time. Thanks to that, she’s had to spend her life alone. After everything she’s been through, how could she not be weak?”
Despite feeling disgusted with myself, I tried my best to maintain eye contact with Haruka.
“But weakness is just a state of being,” I continued. “It just means you haven’t met the baseline for a certain metric. It’s like when someone is hurt or sick, and they’re incapable of doing the same things as everyone else. We’d say, ‘They’re weak right now,’ wouldn’t we?”
“Yeah.”
“So of course she’s weak. She’s been weakened by her experiences. You wouldn’t turn to someone with a broken bone who was covered in blood and tell them ‘you look fine; time to leave the hospital and go fight,’ would you? Even if that person cheerfully told you they were fine and that there was no problem, that would just mean they either couldn’t feel the pain or they were putting on a brave face.”
“I guess you’re right,” she said. Even Haruka couldn’t deny it. She was as calm and collected as ever and far more mature than I would’ve been if I were in her shoes. She continued to listen attentively.
“So the most important thing we can do right now is to make sure that she—and her weakened heart—are taken care of. We’ve gotta make sure she’s well-fed and rested.”
The battle against Keraunos would be a mental one. As such, the most important stat for Jupiter to strengthen was her emotional toughness.
There was a void in the girl’s heart. Her past was tragic and full of holes. According to her, she didn’t have a single pleasant memory. That was why…
“We’re going to create a place for her. We’re gonna help her make a bunch of new, happy memories and let her be a damn kid for once. We can be the home she’s never had.”
With a movement as smooth as a calm breeze, the radiant star’s left hand reached up and came to rest on my head, patting me gently.
“You really are a nice guy, huh?”
I was speechless. The boom of the fireworks grew suddenly distant.
“…I’m really not.” A simple rebuttal was all I could manage. “She’s our bombardier. We’ve gotta make sure she’s well enough to help us out, and that means using Keraunos to its full potential.”
I wasn’t lying. I really wasn’t just being kind. Truly kind people always put the well-being of others above their own, like Arthur, the main character of Dungeon Magia. Compared to him, I was just a hypocrite who wanted to use Jupiter. I just needed her to take on the boss on the final floor of Eternal Darkness so I could get the Elixir.