We slashed and wielded at each other with tremendous speed, echoing and drawing a band of light in the darkness of the night. Galaxies of stars streaming across the sky started aiming for the earth’s surface.
Under a sky twinkling with meteors, purple and blue lights continued to flicker.
Chris Esse Eisbert and I had transformed into a pair of rays of light, engaging in a dance of attacking and counterattacking. We drew a spring of light on the ground, slashing and tearing at the other’s skin with intent to kill.
“Your auditory senses are superior to compensate for your visual weakness, aren’t they?! You couldn’t see the pebble I threw, but you reacted right away to the sound it made!! Judging by the direction of the attack, I thought you’d fall for it if I generated a firing sound behind you!”
It was a sparring match.
Turning away from the azure light generated before her eyes, Chris Esse Eisbert contorted her face.
“Your head! Pull up your head! I’ll call it a draw if you do! Ha-ha-ha! Get down on your knees and bow in apology if you don’t want to die! Down! Down! Bow! Swear to me that starting today, you’ll hug your sister and sleep together in the same bed!”
“Wh-what a vulgar being…”
Breathing heavily, I kept pushing Chris Esse Eisbert as Alsuhariya seemed put off by my behavior.
“Hey, what’re you going to do…?! Answer me…! I’m asking you if you’re ready to make a name for yourself as a character who’s crazy about her little sister…!”
“…I see.”
Chris Esse Eisbert let out a dry laugh.
“Okay.”
“All right! I guess you finally understand the preciousness of yuri sisters. I—”
A purple light flashed before me.
I clicked my tongue and made an evasive move—but nothing was generated. Losing my balance, I saw that Chris Esse Eisbert was pointing her fingers to the heavens and smiling.
“My first and last thanks to you. I appreciate you giving me tips on finding the solution.”
A spear she generated pierced my right chest, with pain so intense that my brain went numb. I instantly rolled forward, where blades emerged at the tip of the spear. Many small swords stabbed through my left arm, and a spray of blood drew red spots on the ground.
“This is what you call getting even. It’s the same as the gunshot trick you pulled on me.”
Chris Esse Eisbert generated purple lights that made a noise that sounded like a round of applause.
“It took me a while to realize it, but it’s a dummy. You noticed the Alpha Aquilae light that’s generated during my high-speed magic generation, didn’t you? I’ll give you credit for that. Frankly, I didn’t think a magic handler at your level would think of looking into it.”
Alsuhariya laughed dryly and shrugged.
“Easier said than done. To master the generation of dummies in such a short period…no wonder you claim to be a genius.”
Chris Esse Eisbert snapped her fingers.
A purple light flickered continuously. The tip of the sword generated in front of me as I took an evasive position was thrust into the back of my knee, and I slumped, biting back a scream.
“Mix in some fakes, and a noisy winged insect will quickly fall to the ground. Now, to answer you.”
Chris Esse Eisbert stabbed the ground with her index finger.
“Get down on your knees and apologize if you don’t want to die, trash.”
“……”
“Keep your mouth shut. Garbage doesn’t beg for its life. It just spreads and stinks up the world.”
Chris Esse Eisbert could finish me off at any moment, and she began tormenting me as I crawled on the ground.
Slashes of steel were incessantly repeated, the pain and suffering endless, and the skin was scraped off my entire body, making me a bloody mess. Even so, I wasn’t allowed to die. I was only given pain and had shed so much blood that my mind was blank.
My vision blurred, and the sound of my breathing echoed in my brain while pain signals stimulated me.
“Hiiro Sanjo. Crawl and beg for your life. Swear here and now that you will never involve yourself with Mule again. Do that, and I’ll give you mercy at the brink of death. Cry and beg for forgiveness, and maybe you can pick up your worthless life. Rub your forehead in a pool of your blood and drown in the mercy I have given you.”
“……”
“Too battered to understand what I’m saying?”
“…I don’t know.”
I stood up in front of Chris Esse Eisbert as she furrowed her brow, twisting the edges of my mouth.
“Why do I have to bow to you?”
“Because I’ll kill you if you don’t beg for your life.”
“You can’t kill me.”
I laughed and brushed my blood-soaked bangs back.
“You can’t kill me… It’s the end of me if I waver… Hee-hee…! Hiiro would probably gladly get down on his knees and kiss your shoes…but I can’t do that… For Mule…for Mule’s sake… For her to grab her first star…I can’t change my ways…”
“What the hell are you saying? Have you finally gotten your head unscrewed?”
I squinted up at the sky and stretched my arm out toward the brightest star.
“You gave up on grabbing the stars, didn’t you…? Did the glare become too bright for you…? So bright that it scared you…? You were so scared…that you ran away…low…to the bottomless depths where the light of the stars couldn’t reach you…didn’t you…?”
The silver spear that Chris Esse Eisbert generated pierced my right side, and I barely managed to stay on my feet, laughing as blood bubbles leaked from the corner of my mouth.
“Did you find the happiness you wished for when you ran?”
“…Shut up.”
“Why did you become strong? Who was it for?”
“…Shut up.”
“You wanted to reach out for something. Wasn’t it—?”
I smiled at Chris Esse Eisbert as she trembled, her eyes open wide.
“Shut up!!!”
Thrash. Thrash. Thrash!
I convulsed every time one of the silver spears that grew from all directions pierced me, and reddish-black blood leaked out from my hole-ridden body.
Although Chris Esse Eisbert seemed to have enough sense to avoid the spots that would kill me instantly, she grabbed my face with both hands and exhaled warm breath as she looked into my eyes.
“Shut up… Trash! Trash shouldn’t speak about other trash…!!”
“…Look up at the sky.”
“Don’t get carried away, you piece of crap—”
“Chris Esse Eisbert!! Look at the sky!”
As she jerked away, I yanked out the silver spear that had been thrust into my body—and scowled at her with my glistening eyeballs.
“Look up at the sky… Since when did you form a habit of looking down…? Of looking down at the ants crawling below and basking in the peace of imitations…? Can’t you see…the star shining up there…? The star that’s shining all alone…?! It’s always been there…always…shining brightly…! You won’t see it if you don’t look up at it…but it’s waiting for you to find it… You could have been together with it if you hadn’t taken off…!! It’s about time you realized it… It’s…she’s…”
I extended my index finger toward the sky through the pool of blood.
“She’s always been waiting for you…!!”
Pressured by my words, Chris Esse Eisbert slowly backed away.
“Wh-what the hell…? I—I have no idea…what y-you’re talking about… I—I…I have…talent… I’m gifted… I-if… If I’m not, I’ll…lose everything… I w-won’t be able…to protect Mule…”
Chris Esse Eisbert looked away from the heavens, as if afraid, and muttered as she kept backing away.
“N-no…!! That’s not right! Why do I have to take care of a loser like her…?! It isn’t my fault…! It’s all because of her, because she’s a piece of trash…!!”
Shaking her head repeatedly, Chris Esse Eisbert kept talking to herself. Then she suddenly came to a stop, and a big smile appeared on her face.
“Enough of this. It’s too much trouble. You die. That girl doesn’t need trash for a friend. The stench would get worse. Get the hell out of this world.”
I tossed the silver spear I had pulled out of my body and stared at Chris Esse Eisbert as she sneered at me.
“…Alsuhariya.”
“No, don’t. It won’t work. You won’t be able to take the impact in your current state. You won’t last fifteen seconds. You’ll die. Are you going to give your life for a single human being?”
“……”
“Yeah, I guess so.”
Alsuhariya laughed dryly and gave me a gentle pat on the shoulder.
“You always were a fool.”
She smiled as she snuggled up to me.
My heart slowly stopped beating, and my senses faded away one by one until the boundary between myself and the world around me became blurred.
“Now, let’s put my life on the line and dance at the fringe between life and death.”
In the midst of the intangible, I opened my eyes.
“Fifteen seconds.”
I looked up and saw the stars shining.
“I’ll finish this in fifteen seconds.”
I stared at her with my eyes painted in the color of the evening—and a light flashed.
Open.
My eyes captured Chris Esse Eisbert.
The countdown was on—fifteen seconds—and without a sound, I disappeared.