Chapter 48

Generally, Mikoto didn’t believe in phenomena that weren’t based on science. But then World War III had broken out, followed by the crisis in Hawaii. Even when such strange things had taken place right before her eyes, even though she knew they seemed to defy the laws of reality, she hadn’t been able to just throw her hands up and chalk everything up to the occult. And then. Precisely because of that… …she couldn’t give him the ring. What did that mean? Had something happened to prevent her from being able to? She slipped them both back into her pocket, unable to see the truth of the matter. [Nov. 10 / Source: Oahu, a camera on a food-order tablet in the lounge of an international hotel in Honolulu] Kamijou let Mikoto drag him through the airport. He was genuinely grateful for what she’d said to him. But at the same time, he thought this: I can’t let someone willing to say all that to me stay involved in this. I’ll have to settle things on my own after all. With only a dozen or so centimeters between them. With that one small action that didn’t come to pass. The future nevertheless clearly changed. Perhaps not for the better. [Nov. 10 / Source: Oahu, a storefront product camera at a cell phone store on Diamond Beach] Acquiring a cell phone was much simpler in the United States than it was in Japan, as the market was flooded with prepaid phones. Several such samples sat on a stall in an open-air shop, where a girl tapped away at a smartphone. Sample cell phones were usually dummied-up versions of the real thing, but the biggest selling point for smartphones in particular was how they felt to use. You might be able to explain their appeal in words, but it could be hard to visualize. The girl had silver hair in braids and brown skin. The only things she was wearing were a pair of glasses and some overalls that sat right against her skin. “These are pretty cool. But I’m not sure I should buy a second phone just because it’s cool…” “Think of it as a small device for hooking into networks instead of a cell phone. Lugging around a laptop’s such a pain, right?” “I feel like the laptop is small enough, though.” “It’s just like air conditioners, regular cell phones, and convenience stores. We were all fine before we knew they existed, but now that we’ve found out about them, we’ll never escape them. Smartphones are every bit as convenient.” “…You sound like a ‘just say no to drugs’ commercial. Like it’s a bad thing that we found out about them.” The brown-skinned girl and the salesclerk went through the same basic script that usually happened. She swiped the screen to the side, shifting her attention to the preloaded apps. “Oh, hey. You can call up a map, too?” “You can do just about anything with these. If you get lost with one of these babies on you, then you have fundamental brain issues.” “So strange to think this little device is connected to satellites in space.” She scrolled all over the map. And then something strange happened. The map screen suddenly seemed to blur out, and then she got a whole bunch of messages that even the clerk, who did the maintenance on the phones, didn’t recognize. It wasn’t just a malfunction—it was clearly being overwritten by some sort of different programming code. “All right,” she said. “If the tech is this advanced, I might be able to link it up to my Soul Arm. Gold is used in the chip, after all.” “What the—?” “Prepare for impaaact,” she said sluggishly. Booooooom!!!!!! A stream of pure white light fell from the sky into the ocean. It had happened several kilometers away, and yet the shock wave reached them like the aftermath of a lightning bolt. Stall roofs were blown away, crashing into creaking and swaying palm trees. The clerk ended up upside down. His expression was more confused than terrified. “I’ll be taking this.” “What? …I’m sorry, what?” “This thing here. Hmm… I won’t need a contract or anything. I changed the settings so I can use it without one.” Then something else happened. Kreesh-kreesh. There was a shrill sound like crystals hitting each other. The brown-skinned girl glanced in the direction of the noise to find something unnatural approaching. Something that looked like an oil drum, except made out of black stone. Nobody else would have realized that this it was a human who had altered themselves to the extreme. The girl, however, spoke to it with the kind of tone one might use with a childhood friend. “Oh? Whatcha need, you little spoiled kid? Keep clinging like that and your tired dvergr older sister is gonna sit on you.” The girl plopped herself right down on the oil drum, without asking it for permission. She put her index finger to the screen of the smartphone she’d just acquired, messing around with it, a happy look on her face. If you looked at that part by itself, she would look like she was doing what everyone did when they touched a device like this for the first time. However. The conversation she was having was clearly abnormal. “Heya. Salonya A. Irivika failed. As we expected her to. They’re probably relieved now that they’ve saved the United States. Nobody would believe that all we were after here was the eruption of Mount Kilauea.” The brown-skinned girl gave a thin smile, then whispered something, as if she were talking to someone other than the person on the phone. “…Nah, they’ll think it’s strange. The detonator is for stimulating artificial eruptions at Kilauea. It can’t change the properties of the magma. Normally all that thick magma would have come bursting out, but for some reason, it was only some dry, old volcanic dust getting kicked up. It’d be normal to assume there was another weird trick at play.” “How is the output looking?” “Within acceptable range, I guess. As a natural reactor core, it’s better than Iceland. Now that we’ve extracted the energy we need and solidified it, we can blow this popsicle stand. Phase one complete.” “That was a long phase one.” “They called me here, remember? It wouldn’t end that easily. More importantly, what about the blueprint?” “Brunhild Eichtbel, was it? The natural-born Valkyrie. I have an interesting report from her. It’s only a piece of the spear, but if you can use it, then we’re all good.” “I see. Then let’s do this thing.” The brown-skinned girl grinned. “Your path to the Gungnir is secure now, Odin—or should I say, Othinus.” “It is indeed, little dark one—or should I say, dvergr.” The girl used her index finger to end the call as the black cylinder she was sitting on wobbled around. “Hey, quit that. That’s rude—I’m not that heavy. Next, we have to think about what to do with Academy City’s ex-partners… Huh?” She abruptly looked up just as a sorcerer covered in wounds approached her. “Uhhh. Who were you again?” “…Cendrillon…” “Hmm…? Oh! Right, I remember you! Yeah, you were the French sorcerer who got knocked out in round one right at the airport, right? How’ve you been since then, girl? Thought they pounded your head to a pulp.” “I escaped while everyone was preoccupied by the Kilauea eruption and Trident’s invasion. More importantly…” She spat out some blood. “What was that just now?” “What was what?” “You said you expected the plan to fail, and also mentioned Kilauea being a reactor core, and also said the word Gungnir!” “Sorry, not sure what you’re talking about. Never said any of that.” “I thought the whole reason we used the PMC Trident to try and take down the United States was so we could make it into a theocracy and wreck the balance between the science side and the sorcery side!” “What? Of course not. To begin with…” The dark-skinned girl remained seated atop the cylinder. “Gremlin isn’t some group of losers who got crushed in the war, you know.” “……” For a few moments, Cendrillon’s thoughts completely stopped. The dark-skinned girl continued in the meantime. “Sure, I won’t deny we sprung up because of the war, but our goals don’t have anything to do with it. Besides, we only hired most of you as temp workers. We didn’t want to waste our official members on this. But some sacrifices have to be made for things to work out. Once you fulfilled the requirements, we just said whatever to get you on our team. And man, did you all do a good job. Trident, Salonya, and you. Your score’s been recorded as a contribution to the group, just so you know. You can be proud of it.” “That’s… Don’t give me that…!” Impulsively, Cendrillon cast a spell to use an incredibly fast martial arts move in an attempt to grab the dark-skinned girl. But then the girl fell backward over the cylinder and landed on the ground, and as she did, a shower of pale blue sparks exploded from the front of the cylinder. “Gyah?!” They quickly shot through Cendrillon’s entire body, disabling her. Moving herself into a sitting position from off the ground, the dark-skinned girl said, “No, don’t do that. First thing you gotta do against projectile weapons is find cover. Mjölnir is my pride and joy—you’ll never even come close to getting past it. It’s powerful enough to roast the snake encircling the world whole. I’m not gonna sit here and say that sorcery is all about brains, but if you’re having this much trouble making calculations, you probably shouldn’t be on the front lines.” Grinning, she stuck her hand into the open side of her overalls and came out with several tools. A hammer, a screwdriver, a saw, a hand drill, a file, a plane, and several others. Aside from the fact they were made of gold, the objects were all things you could easily find in a home improvement store. “Now then. Marianne Sringeneier, one of the world’s precious few remaining dvergr, has a question for you, Miss Cendrillon, former French elite and now just a loser and a grumbling annoyance.” The tools certainly didn’t seem like things one could alter someone’s form with, but she lined them up on the cylindrical “person” as she continued. “…I’m gonna make a few alterations to you. A table or a wardrobe… Which would you prefer to live as from now on?”