“—!!”
There was a pulse.
“Ah…!!”
Despite being on the verge of death, Azuma could not resist leaping to his feet.
The sound of the egg clearly changed just as he was about to stab it.
And then the hero began to retract. Its body began to grow smaller, like a video played in reverse. The petals withered and fell. The propagation stopped.
Using the last of his strength, Azuma chopped off the tentacle piercing his stomach in a panic. It was the only thing that was just barely stopping him from bleeding out immediately. He couldn’t allow it to retract along with the rest of the hero.
The blossoming petals gradually converged together. At first, Azuma worried it might be another attack, but he stared in disbelief when he realized the hero was contracting into the shape of a certain silhouette.
That of a woman lying on the ground—it was Kaguya.
The petals were being sucked backward into her throat. It took less than a few seconds for them to all disappear. The other changes vanished as well. For all appearances’ sake, she was back to her original human self once again. Azuma struggled to his feet.
“Did the hero just…?!”
It almost looked like…it had just turned back into a human.
“But it’s already too late, isn’t it?! What just happened here?”
The hero had already turned hostile. Without Kaguya’s help, there should have been no way to pacify it. They were all thinking the same thing. This had to be some new form of attack. Just then, however…
She opened her eyes.
“Kaguya…,” Azuma said, still struggling to stay upright.
He was losing more blood, but he had other things to worry about right now. They had no proof she was human again. This could all be part of one of the hero’s attacks.
Now that she was awake, she stared blankly at them. They were all headed straight toward her, preparing to attack. She didn’t blink an eye. Azuma clucked his tongue.
No normal human being would wake up to a sight like that without at least flinching.
“I guess it was too much to hope for…”
That settled it. She was still a hero. Just as he began to point his katana in Kaguya’s direction once again…
“My name…,” she managed to croak out. “My name is Kaguya Shinohara.”
Still oblivious to the aggression that had been pointed her way just moments ago, Kaguya began to rise to her feet. She was no longer bleeding. There was still a trickle of blood coming from the remnant of her wound, but it had healed almost entirely. It was just a minor cut now.
Azuma wasn’t sure what was going on. For a person to turn completely but then become human once more—it was impossible.
Her scarlet hair clung lightly to her cheek. He still couldn’t see her face. His eyes suddenly went wide as he realized something.
I can’t hear it.
The sound of the egg, which should have been coming from inside her body, was gone now.
“Kaguya…?”
As Azuma called her name, she glanced his way. A chill ran down his back as he saw himself reflected in her blank eyes. It was like she was staring at something else. Somewhere else.
The next thing she said…
“…Ren.”
She turned her eyes toward the sky as she spoke.
There was a Goddess there, right in the path of her gaze. It looked almost like a bee but was clearly something else entirely.
“Ah…!”
This Goddess was far more dreadful than any others they had seen thus far. It was massive.
It changed into Azuma’s younger sister. It was trying to lure him instead. But those tricks weren’t going to fool Azuma anymore.
Azuma stared at the illusions it presented. First, his sister. Then Kaguya. Then Sakura. Visions of everyone he had watched leave until now. For a brief moment, he felt like he wanted to go to them.
He sensed instinctively that he was close to becoming a hero. He wasn’t just going to let that happen, however. Not at this point. He took a step back as if to refuse the creature.
Kaguya suddenly spoke to him softly.
“Captain Azuma, I’m not giving up on you yet. I promise I will save you.”
He tried to ask her what she was talking about, but all that came out of his mouth was another spurt of blood.
Azuma was moments from bleeding to death. He was as shocked as anyone that he was still conscious at this point. He had already lost around a tenth of the blood from his body. His death was sealed. All that was left now was to decide how he died.
It took genuine effort for him to raise his head, look Kaguya in the face, and shake his head from side to side.
“It’s…too late.”
It took monumental effort to get even those few words out.
“I…”
I’m already past saving.
But there was something more important he needed to tell her—that it wasn’t her fault. She wasn’t responsible for his death. If there was anything he needed to tell her now, it was that. His death was sure to weigh on her. Even if she understood it wasn’t really her fault. That was just her personality.
“Y-you’re not…to blame—”
Kaguya, however, was not interested in his last words right now.
“Yes, obviously I know that.”
Kaguya had not even entertained the thought. She brushed a hand over his eyelids softly, closing his eyes. He was submerged in a pool of stagnant blood, and darkness consumed his already cloudy vision. Eyes closed, he felt pressure against his solar plexus. She was trying to stop the bleeding.
“Major Mirai has probably already called for an ambulance. Before it gets here, there’s something I need to tell you.”
What was she going to tell him? He had a bad feeling about this.
“Captain Azuma, I’ve found a way to turn heroes back into humans and—ah!!”
Just then, Kaguya suddenly flew away into the sky. No, she was snatched. By the Goddess.
Azuma tried to clamber to his feet. However, he no longer had the strength. Even his toes had stopped working. All he could manage to do was to drag himself through the dirt like a worm, his arms screaming out in pain.
Kaguya didn’t even make a sound, she just glared at the Goddess as it snatched her into the air.
“Ren.”
She spoke her brother’s name. The Goddess didn’t respond, simply flying higher and higher. As if it was trying to take Kaguya away with it somewhere.
She was too far away for Azuma to hear her directly by this point. In a panic, he turned on his comms receiver.
“I’m sorry, Ren. But I can’t save you.”
There was no deep sorrow in the voice that he heard on the other end of the line. Only firmness, determination, and resolve.
“All I can do for you now—”
He heard a sound on the line. Like the cocking of a pistol. Azuma went pale as he realized what she was about to do.
His veins ran cold. She was being carried up into the sky and was about to kill the very thing carrying her. If she did that, she was going to fall from an incredible height.
“Hngh, urgh—”
He tried to lift himself with a grunt, but his arms failed him. His mind was growing dim.