Tiny Alsuhariya giggled and shrugged.
“It’s fine for you to show off your lovely stupid face to the world, but if you aren’t interested in unnecessarily showing your unsightly foolishness to a girl in love, then perhaps it’s best to have your precious maiden leave you alone. What if a forever-ongoing love affair came to an end right after your moving reunion?”
“N-nothing… I—I spotted a pretty flower and got excited…”
“I beg you, please don’t play with flowers other than yuri lilies. It would be a hassle to have to let the world know about my master’s newly added abnormalities.”
“I don’t remember ever hiring a workaholic who excelled at damaging her employer.”
Snow went back to her bench, grinning like an artisan who had just completed a job.
Having gotten rid of the white devil, I looked at Alsuhariya, who was using her small hands to drink an uncarbonated cola.
“Yuck… This tastes like Abbott without Costello…”
“Never mind that and explain. You don’t want my blade to slip accidentally, do you?”
“Does your accidentally mean often? Your blade has been slipping like crazy for a while, and my entire body looks like fresh sashimi in the fresh food section. Is that any way to treat your destined partner?”
I put up with her creepy words and turned to face her.
“First of all, it may be difficult for the human mind to comprehend, but there’s a fact you need to accept. You’re dead.”
“Oh, okay. And?”
“…The next question would be, why are you alive?”
In a cloud of vapor, purple smoke, and fog, tiny Alsuhariya whispered, “Perhaps I brought you back to life—and normally, you would thank me instead of using your fists.”
My fist penetrated her brain, and I repeated the action.
“Why did you do that?! It would have been a happy ending if you and I had died! I would have been on the victory podium in the afterlife for making a double kill, having gotten rid of Hiiro and Alsuhariya! Don’t you have a word of apology for the man who would have been a yuri medalist?!”
“Hey, don’t be so self-centered. I didn’t want to die a dog’s death like that. Under the circumstances, there was only one way for the Greater Demon, Alsuhariya, to survive.”
She held up a finger and shook it.
“Just before the explosion, my brilliant mind had been pursuing only one point…how to survive, and I immediately took action, regardless of the means. It’s a function that’s only possible for Alsuhariya, the Temple of Death, though not for other demons. What is it, you ask? It’s the construction of a human body. Among the six demons, I’m the one who loves and understands human beings the most, which is why I could carefully analyze them and succeed in reconstructing their bodies. I am the only demon who can reconstruct even the dead with their data.”
“I know. I know about your godforsaken function. But why did you take the trouble of rebuilding me? It would have been much easier and more convenient for you to fix yourself up.”
“That’s what the human who would be categorized would say.”
Alsuhariya crossed her legs and continued to speak in her cute voice.
“Unlike humans, demons don’t have a solid vessel as a physical body. We only have a vague human form, which is actually only a mass of magical operators. That’s why I can regenerate, transform, or recover the pieces at will. If the explosion had blown away all the magical operators, I wouldn’t have been able to restore it to its original form because the demon god initially created the mold, and I don’t have the original.”
That did make sense. It was impossible to create something from scratch without a mold or blueprint unless you were the creator. On the other hand, if you fully understood and correctly interpreted the creation, grasping its structure in even the smallest details, you could make an accurate copy.
“I get why I was brought back to life. But why are you back from the dead, too?”
“I’m not. I was annihilated. Braun, Widad, Izdihaar, Atiifa, Hizumi, and Aimia and Sophie’s clan—humans I had dismissed as insignificant—and you, Hiiro Sanjo. You all connected your moments as humans and defeated me, a demon who had been given eternal life.”
Alsuhariya exhaled vapor in the shape of a circle and laughed.
“Right after reconstructing your body, I transferred the magical operators that my body consists of into you. As you know, you humans can store magic operators inside your bodies. I believe you call it magic power and use it to exercise magic. In other words, you have me, Alsuhariya, the Greater Demon, in your body, and—”
“Diiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiie!!”
“Don’t you have feelings? Don’t you know the meaning of the word hesitate? Stop it. Magic power isn’t infinite. Don’t suddenly start cutting up your stomach. Do not try to demonstrate an unedited version of a human dismemberment show.”
I tried again and again to cut my stomach but failed. Panting and gasping, I slowly sank to my knees.
With tears in my dead eyes, I looked up at the blue sky.
“Kill me… Please kill me…”
“It’s the first time I’ve seen a human being who tried to die as soon as he came back to life… Y-you’re scary… Anyone would hesitate, even a little… You should value your life…”
I now had an answer to the mystery that had been swirling around in my mind.
I had been called a leader, and my magic power had increased enormously. It was because Alsuhariya’s magic now circulated throughout my body.
If the huge amount of magic power that a demon had melted inside me and stabilized there, it was natural that my magic capacities would increase to an extraordinary degree. Since a demon was a mass of magic operators, or you could say magic power itself, it made sense that Alsuhariya faction members would see me as their leader.
After about ten minutes, I got over the shock and looked up at Alsuhariya.
“How do I get you out of my body…?”
“Hey, what do you think I am, someone who hasn’t been paying their rent? You and I are perfect for each other. Normally, a human wouldn’t be able to take the magical operators of a demon into their body and self-destruct. I don’t know why, but you have the foundation needed to take me in and turn me into a demon.”
With a flash of understanding, the answer came to my mind— I, Hiiro Sanjo, was a demon.
On The Lapis Route of the game, Alsuhariya took a liking to Hiiro and made him a demon. That must have meant that he had accepted a part of her and her magic power.
Hiiro had the groundwork for taking Alsuhariya into his body.
“I think we can get along as well as Jekyll and Hyde, precision machines and static electricity, or fusion and fission.”
“Are you sure? All the answers to those equations lead to doom…”
Alsuhariya smiled brilliantly.
“I love putting a male between yuri girls. You love getting stuck between yuri. We’re the strongest pair around and share the same interests! Let’s get out there now and start destroying those yuri girls—”
I kicked Alsuhariya in the head, and it rolled around on the ground.
“Forget it! Get out of my body, you evil spirit! Get out of this world! You’re evil! Stop saying that beautiful name, yuri, with your foul mouth! Don’t open it! You’re leaking filth and polluting the air!!”
“Hey, what terrible things to say.”
Headless, Alsuhariya walked over and picked up her head. I kicked it away, and it spun around and fell into the fountain.
Alsuhariya’s head grew out of a cross-section of her wound.
“This isn’t domestic violence; it’s internal violence.”
“Why can’t Snow see you when I can see and touch you?”
“Of course she can’t see me. I have no substance. I’m only concentrating my magic power in your eyes and showing you what you want to see. The reason why I look tiny like this is because your will to kill me would go out of control if I didn’t. I’m focusing my magic power on your fists and legs to recreate a sense of feel, but in reality, you’re only kicking and punching into a void.”
“God, you really are an evil spirit… You look like you could have your head displayed in the main hall of some temple…”
“I would never allow some turn-of-the-century temple and a stinking monk to do that. Come on, don’t be so hostile. Let’s get along, huh?”