From Baka-Tsuki

Novel Illustrations [ edit ]

Full Cover

Cover

















Page 10

Page 11

Page 14

Page 15

Page 22

Page 23

Page 42

Page 43

Page 49

Page 79

Page 88

Page 89

Page 93

Page 117

Page 132

Page 170

Page 171

Page 196

Page 226

Page 227

Page 230

Page 278

Page 288

Page 289

Page 295

Page 298

Page 299

Page 307

Page 330

Page 331





Battle Tutorial [ edit ]

Phase 1

Upper Cube: Collection of Petals

Left Dark Figure: Summoner

Right Dark Figure: Vessel

Left White Figure: Summoner

Right White Figure: Vessel

Overall Box: Artificial Sacred Ground





K: The Summoning Battle begins when one of the summoners uses an Incense Grenade.

Q: When the Incense Grenade is used, an Artificial Sacred Ground forms around them. Summoning and other paranormal phenomena can only be reproduced inside there.

Q: Inside the Artificial Sacred Ground, a cube of about 60 cm appears at the midpoint between the summoners.

K: It is a collection of the 216 Petals which are red spheres about the size of an apple.





Phase 2

Dark Ball: Petal

White Ball: White Thorn

White Stick: Blood-Sign





Q: 3 white spheres known as White Thorns appear with each summoner. Those are hit with a long staff known as a Blood-Sign and they collide with the Petals.

K: You hit the Petals with the White Thorns in order to knock them into the spherical Spots that appear in 36 locations inside the Artificial Sacred Ground.

Q: What Petals are hit into the Spots changes what can be summoned.

K: And the vessel’s body is used to create…





Phase 3

White Monster and Dark Sword: Vessel transformed into a Material





Q: …a Material. The summoners use them for a fight to the death.

K: The Petals used to summon the Materials are each engraved with a letter of the alphabet and each of those belongs to a certain Sound Range.

Q: aiueo are vowels and thus the Lowest Sound Range. As for the consonants, bcdfghj are Low, klmnpqr are Middle, and stvwxyz are High.

K: There are of course rules governing the summoned Materials and they are based on the Petals’ rules.

Q: Low wins against High, High wins against Middle, Middle wins against Low, and I win my brother’s heart.

K: Weren’t we supposed to avoid making jokes during the explanation section!?





Phase 4

K: And after the vessels transform into Materials, they continued to be updated into new forms as they fight.

Q: The Materials start at Regulation-class. After summoning 100 of those, you gain the right to summon the higher Divine-class. And after summoning 50 of those, you gain the right to summon the even higher Unexplored-class.

K: The vessel has a core known as their Silhouette. If that is destroyed, the battle ends. The losing summoner and vessel will become dolls that wander around in a stupor.

Q: And that concludes our simple explanation of the Summoning Battle. As a summoner fights more and more battles, they earn more titles known as Awards. And if their number of Awards reaches 1000…hee hee hee. Now, I wonder what happens then.









Prologue [ edit ]

Is anything impossible?

And if so, is that due to the individual, due to society, due to the world, or due to logic or physical laws?

Hee hee hee. Sorry. It is a little cruel for the strongest of the strong to ask a question like that. Please don’t let it get to you, brother.

Nothing is impossible for me.

I am a true queen. I am not bound by logic or the physical laws; they obey my very existence. You could say the “world” is just one of my many unimportant servants.

Isn’t it a little late to look so surprised, brother? Ah ha ha! And even if you understand it, that doesn’t mean you can accept it. You think there has to be at least one thing that is impossible for me, don’t you? Yes, I can see that empty hope in your eyes.

You are so lovably brave, brother.

The world’s possibilities or unseen hope? I can’t believe you still hold such unconditional trust in those baseless things. Oh, I’m starting to feel a little jealous of the world. I feel like giving it a quick slap to sweep everything clean.

Hee hee. Pardon me. I got a little carried away.

Anyway, brother, how about we test one of them out?

Let’s test out something you think has to be impossible. Let’s test out something you have subconsciously kept in mind as something not even the White Queen could accomplish. I will relieve you of that delusion.

Oh, dear. There’s no reason to tense up like that.

I’m not talking about splitting the earth in two, swallowing the solar system, or balling up the milky way. Besides, I doubt that kind of obvious violence would surprise you at this point.

I’m talking about something more unexpected, more absurd, and more fun.

This is a simple possibility that your subconscious defenses have kept you desperately looking away from. It is a mental blind spot that we could call a personal nightmare.

Now, now. What do you think it is?

Think hard, worry plenty, tremble in fear, and fall into the deepest depths.

Just make sure you’re ready when the time comes, my – dear – brother.

Facts [ edit ]

The answer is always right in front of your eyes. If you cannot see it, the problem is with your resolve.





Opening X-01: Immediate Game Over [ edit ]

“U-”

“Uooowaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!???”

(“Now” Opening X-01 Open 06/03 08:45)

Immediate Game Over





Shiroyama Kyousuke was dragged from sleep by a loud noise.

“Afwah…ah?”

He rubbed his eyes in bed and his sleepy mind realized something was wrong. Yes, where was he? He lived in Toy Dream 35, a bankrupt regional city that had been bought up by an international entertainment company and remade into an amusement park, so he was used to noise. But an amusement park was all about maintaining an image, so he did not often have the sloppily obvious din of construction pounding at his head.

(Oh…that’s right… I left Toy Dream 35 to visit an international trade show for a job. Wasn’t it…in a large plain near the middle of Hokkaido…?)

Instead of the usual cruiser cabin, Kyousuke was lying in a boxy room. But instead of a solid resort hotel, a metal container had a window and door attached while being otherwise arranged to look like a guest room. Those rooms had been stacked on top of each other to form a crude hotel. That was why the soundproofing was poor and the early morning chill made its way inside.

International trade shows took many forms, but this one was unprecedented.

It was known as D.R.O.K.

Government, Illegal, and Freedom, the three major powers that belonged to the hidden side of the world, used it to show off and make sales deals for technical research and new weapons of the Third Summoning Ceremony.

Tens of thousands of people were participating, but since all of them were summoners and vessels, the bizarre international event was entirely forgotten by everyone outside those categories.

There were of course many conflicting plans and schemes at work, so there was work to be done for a summoner like Kyousuke.

“…”

His blood was circulating poorly, so he lay in the only bed and stared blankly up at the LED lightbulb on the ceiling.

He was drawing a blank on a portion of his memories.

He had little experience with alcohol, but he wondered if this was what a hangover felt like.

He felt like he had forgotten a lot of other things, but he also felt like they would come back to him once his mind cleared.

“Hee hee. Thank you for letting me see how cute you are as you sleep, my – dear – brother.”

If, that is, it were not for the White Queen’s voice that was so pure it plunged the world into the depths of despair.

“U-”

There was something under the blanket.

It was close by…no, it was pressing right up against him. He felt something as smooth and soft as marshmallow and a warmth that enveloped his body more gently than sleep. His nose detected a sweet rosy aroma that infected the deepest parts of his mind. All of it was of the finest quality, but it set off an explosion of alarm bells throughout Shiroyama Kyousuke’s entire body.

It was right next to him.

It was gently resting its head on his outstretched right arm.

The powerful summoner slowly turned his head. He prayed that he was mistaken, but it was too frightening a possibility to ignore and he had to peek into the abyss. There, so close that their lips were about to touch, he found sparkling silver twintails and-

“Uooowaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!???”

All of his organs, muscles, blood, and cells began to boil.

While screaming, Kyousuke tried to get as far away from the White Queen as possible, but a tremendous pressure kept him from moving. It was applied to his right arm. Specifically, where the smiling Queen’s head was resting. It looked like she was intimately using his arm as a pillow, but his arm was pinned down as if a boulder had fallen on it. And his free left hand could not reach the Incense Grenades or Phosphorus, his Repliglass Blood-Sign, that were sitting nearby.

Still, he gave a roar.

Whether or not he could win no longer mattered.

With his greatest enemy right there, he used everything at his disposal. He grabbed the letter opener from the bedside table and stabbed it toward the Queen’s eye, he swung down the lamp, he tried to electrocute her with the power cable, and he tried to strangle her.

“Oh, dear☆”

But it was all stopped.

Without ever losing her smile, the unscathed Queen waved a hand in front of him.

“You have so much energy this morning, brother. Or are you feeling excited because it’s the morning? Oh, dear. Oh, my. How could I say something so indecent!?”

For some reason, she blushed and covered her eyes with one hand while holding the other hand out in front of Kyousuke’s face.

It only caused a slight sound.

The White Queen bent her middle finger, held the nail down with her thumb, gathered strength in the finger, and then released it.

In other words, it was a fierce flick to the forehead.

The sound after that was as intense as the beat of a drum that stood taller than a person.

Kyousuke could not even scream or shout anymore.

He was thrown from the bed and his back slammed into the door. After a few seconds, gravity finally tugged him down. He was already unconscious.

That said, it could have been much worse.

For one thing, it was out of the ordinary for a human to come into contact with a Material from another world without the benefit of a protective circle. And this was the White Queen who reigned supreme above the Regulation-, Divine-, and Unexplored-classes.

Of course, this was thanks to the White Queen’s extreme “restraint”, much like grabbing a raw egg with a piece of heavy machinery.

“Oh, dear.”

The White Queen tilted her head a bit as she looked to her beloved lying unconscious on the floor.

She continued staring at Shiroyama Kyousuke without ever growing tired of it.

“This is a real problem. This is already the 45th time since dawn. He really needs to wake up properly soon. Otherwise, he can’t eat the oh-so-sweet breakfast I made for him☆”

He had not used an Incense Grenade, there was no Artificial Sacred Ground setup around them, and there were no red Petals or dark Spots floating around. He had not opened the path to the Unexplored-class after summoning one hundred Regulation-classes and fifty Divine-classes and he had not spelled out that dreadful name.

And yet the White Queen was here. And without the ten minute time limit.

How had this happened?

The answer was likely found in Shiroyama Kyousuke’s missing memories…

Facts [ edit ]

Government, Illegal, and Freedom are holding an International Summoning Ceremony Trade Show known as D.R.O.K. in Hokkaido. All of the tens of thousands of participants are summoners and vessels.

Shiroyama Kyousuke came to Hokkaido on some kind of job.

Kyousuke is missing a portion of his memories.

The White Queen has appeared in front of Kyousuke. It does not seem to have been with the normal Blood-Sign method and she does not seem to be restricted to an Artificial Sacred Ground or ten minute time limit. The details of the setup are unknown at the current time.

The White Queen seems to be very cheerful this time.





Opening X-02: Another Infiltration Mission [ edit ]

“But your target seems to be Illegal bodyguards.”

“All three major powers are the same. They’re all connected to the Deltaston family if you dig deep enough.”

(“Past” Opening X-02 Open 06/01 02:00)

Another Infiltration Mission





Two days earlier.

The flat green earth continued to the horizon. Countless manmade lights swept away the late night darkness. What should have been a pastoral grassy field was filled with enormous structures. Military contractors, pharmaceutical companies, and countless other corporations and groups had flashy outdoor booths set up as well as giant indoor displays that resembled circus tents. There were also lodging facilities and the rest of the infrastructure to support the lives of the thousands on the staff and the guests who numbered ten times that. There were legends of an entire city being built to film a single Hollywood movie back before CG had hit its prime, but this was on an equally large scale. This was D.R.O.K., a temporary city built just for a ten day event.

It was currently two in the morning.

Laser art and fireworks colored the night sky and the guiding voices of staff members never ceased. And of course, the many people watching it all were an indispensable part of the whole.

Men, women, boys, and girls filled the entire area.

The crowds were as dense as a subway platform during rush hour and, shockingly, every last one of them was a summoner or vessel involved in the Summoning Ceremony.

One pair whispered just behind the great commotion.

“(Over here, Kyousuke-kun! I’ll leave the exact method to you.)”

“(Sure. Let’s get this over with quickly. This is different from the normal setup. Everyone around us is a summoner or vessel, so we can’t assume people will forget about us as soon as they look away.)”

One was Shiroyama Kyousuke, a black-haired boy wearing a red hoodie and sports brand track pants while holding a Repliglass Blood-Sign.

He was being guided by a young woman in her early twenties. She had glossy black hair, but a blue shine was hidden in the black. A soft and fluffy scrunchie held that hair in a ponytail which had enough volume to reach her waist. The sexy woman wore a deep navy blue suit with a tight skirt.

Her most unique feature was probably the intentional tears in the sides of her skirt and the purposeful rips in her stockings.

She also wore a brand-name shoulder bag over her shoulder and, for some reason, wore a whistle on a thin chain around her neck. She wore stilettos, but she moved swiftly through the dark night without making even the slightest noise.

She was Kyousuke’s vessel.

Her name was Himekawa Mika and she originally belonged to Illegal.

All vessels shared a certain trait. They wore some kind of restraints that bound their heart and prevented evil and vengeful spirits from taking over their body when not summoning something. In her case, it was the whistle hanging at her neck. The thin chain had a few small decorations attached in addition to the whistle.

One medieval punishment was known as a “sin necklace”.

As a way of disgracing the criminal, icons of their crimes would be attached to a necklace that they were forced to wear. A fist indicated violence, a glass indicated drunken violence, a palm indicated theft, a card indicated gambling-induced debt, and so on. This would naturally gather attention and make them a target of negative rumors, so it made their social life a challenge. A modern version might be attaching a GPS transmitter to a sex criminal’s ankle so that anyone could see their location at all times.

In Himekawa Mika’s case, the icons were a mug, a pair of lips, and a twelve-sided die.

Wearing a torn skirt and stockings in public was another form of public shaming. All of it had likely been carefully fine-tuned to match the vessel’s psychology.

“—————”

They were running right behind a brightly lit outdoor stage. Countless eyes were focused on that symbol of the extraordinary, but the darkness just outside that light was a complete blind spot.

The people out front only saw the sales pitch being made through lip service and a microphone performance.

“Today we will be introducing projection summon bombing. Unlike the existing Blood-Sign system, the summoner and vessel need not actually visit the scene. Plus, there is no need to fear losing control of an unruly Material and you are guaranteed to achieve the same stable results every single time. We promise you all it will be a perfectly safe and one-sided game that does not even require a hit & away strategy! Just watch our demonstration!!”

The microphone picked up the announcer snapping his fingers.

A moment later, the night vanished.

A blinding flash of light burst near the horizon. That should have been at least five kilometers away, but a powerful gust of wind swept across them and Kyousuke had to tackle the tight skirt woman to the ground. Scorching pain stabbed into his skin. Just like after sunbathing, his back was covered with a slight pain that made him think thousands of thin needles were pricking him.

“Ghh!! Wh-what…what was that!?”

“Shh. We expected something like this, didn’t we?”

Kyousuke silenced the words that left Himekawa’s voice almost on reflex.

If they had seen it from the sky, they might have understood. A dome-shaped explosion had covered a diameter of precisely 2000 meters. And it was unnatural for an explosion on that scale to not trigger any secondary atmospheric changes such as a mushroom cloud. Most importantly, the light had not been a blinding pure white; it had been the purple of glow-in-the-dark paint.

(That must have been the Unexplored-class Lady of Purple Lightning. They used a traditional magic circle, but they intentionally omitted the central vessel. The exposed power directly fills the outside world as a light so bright you can’t even see the Unexplored-class in question. If they were trying to weaponize it by creating a territory of death, then I guess they succeeded. Or maybe I should say they’ve made the gods obsolete.)

“How about that!? The laser range-finding fired from a stealth bomber instantly calculated out the contours of the terrain, projection mapping was used to optically project the largescale magic circle on the three-dimensional surface without the slightest flaw, and the Unexplored-class was positioned in the center of that region. There are countless legends that represent divine power as light that annihilates any who see it who are inexperienced or have broken a taboo. We have removed the cover known as a vessel and successfully drawn out that pure, piercing power. This is the strategy of a new age. We in Government will end everything before any summoner can even throw an Incense Grenade!! After all, the explosion of power is not just an instantaneous thing! It will continue indefinitely until an exorcism circle is added on! We set it at 2000 meters here in the interest of safety, but if we liked, we could increase the scale tenfold or project it from a satellite rather than a bomber!!”

The purple light enveloped everything a second and third time.

A few times in the past, the White Queen had appeared without a vessel, but this phenomenon had not been seen. There was a simple reason for that.

There had either been other safeties in place or the Queen herself had kept her power under control so that she could see Kyousuke.

The sight blew away the darkness of the night, but it actually separated the scene into the two extremes of light and shadow. As long as someone stayed in the shadow, the crowds would not notice them. Kyousuke and Himekawa moved from shadow to shadow in the gaps between explosions.

This frightening insanity completely ignored the existing Blood-Sign system.

But the commotion was not confined to the one location.

The hosts of the other booths were holding their own microphones and trying to outdo each other.

“Our Attach Saint Project does not send the Material itself into the vessel but instead injects it inside the Repliglass equipped by the summoner. Now, only Divine-class weapons can be summoned, but this allows you to borrow the power of the gods while thoroughly eliminating the will of the gods.”

“Previous Incense Grenades have primarily been based on their compatibility with the summoner, but how about this? Why not change your viewpoint and adjust the incense ingredients for compatibility with the Material you wish to summon!? Doing so can make it easier to contact Divine-classes from a set mythology or Unexplored-classes associated with a specific color, but it also makes it more difficult to contact anything else. While your opponent is confused, we predict you can unilaterally shift the battle in your favor.”

“Our Holy Key Women are extremely high precision vessels while also almost entirely eliminating the risk of natural possessions by vengeful and evil spirits. Pay careful attention to her back near the shoulder blades. If you insert the authorization key in the keyhole there…”

None of them feared the gods.

It was a trade show for products that arrogantly made tools of the paranormal.

“D.R.O.K… The Divine Right of Kings, hm?”

Every last one of the products was awful.

The Blood-Sign system was a complex system including an Artificial Sacred Ground, Petals, White Thorns, Spots, and more, but all of it had meaning. At this point, it would be meaningless to explain just how risky it was to take shortcuts.

And not even Government, Illegal, and Freedom could develop enough alternative Summoning Ceremony systems to fill these hundreds of booths. There was a reason for all of it.

Yet another purple flash highlighted a giant silhouette.

“Pandemonium,” groaned the woman with a bluish-black ponytail. “It sure is big.”

The giant trade show was built in the northern land, but its structure was incredibly clear. The booths, stages, lodging facilities, and everything else were arranged in a ring with a diameter of ten kilometers and the largest structure of all sat in the very center. At first glance, its silhouette may have been reminiscent of the giant rock in Australia known as Ayers Rock, but it was far too sinister-looking.

Not counting a city’s largescale management infrastructure, it was the world’s largest standalone piece of Repliglass.

The pitch black center was shaped like a gigantic coffin and a total of ten thick propulsion tentacles extended from the bottom like oil pipelines.

Altogether, it was shaped like a giant squid lying on its side.

It was known as Pandemonium, but it was not just a building. It was said to be a mobile fortress that could move autonomously across both land and water. Incidentally, the Lady of Purple Lightning explosions had been occurring outside the ring.

And at the same time…

“No one can develop non-Blood-Sign methods that easily. I had heard before arriving that Pandemonium is a giant Box, but I didn’t think it would distort things to this extent…”

A Box.

That was something Kyousuke had seen during the recent Anthill incident involving Girl’s Backdoor and Biondetta Shiroyama. It was a personal summoning device that Government had used for the Red Lady, one of the Three of the Unexplored-class.

But this one was much larger.

The scale was far greater and it was more generic.

“Yes, I hear more than 90% of the new systems being displayed here at D.R.O.K. are being supported with a link to Pandemonium. And Pandemonium itself is the biggest product of all, built as a joint project between Government, Illegal, and Freedom.”

It was very strange if one thought about it.

Those three major powers were in constant conflict, so why would they gather their secrets together to create a single trump card? The risk of leaked information was far too great and then they could start fighting over who would use the completed trump card.

But unnatural things always came with an unnatural benefit.

(Basically, that’s a supercomputer that can perform any calculations and the booths are all terminals. It can do everything from searching for recipes to calculating missile trajectories, so everyone has their own use for it and their possibilities expand endlessly.)

Kyousuke and Himekawa steadily approached their destination while circling behind the booths and studios.

On the way, he stopped behind cover and pulled out his smartphone. The VIP was likely making his microphone performance in front of the stage, but that was not the main dish. Kyousuke pictured the men in black waiting just below the brightly lit stage.

“Okay, I’ve opened an illicit port on the bodyguards’ devices. Now we can spy on them all we want. It’s all thanks to the key picker I bought from Lu-san.”

“But your target seems to be Illegal bodyguards.”

“All three major powers are the same. They’re all connected to the Deltaston family if you dig deep enough.”

They made one last movement and peered into the darkness from behind the booth.

“Now, that’s step one toward infiltrating Pandemonium.”

They were only allowed in the ten kilometer ring and they could not approach Pandemonium in the center. If they did set foot on the grassy field between, they would be caught by the invisible net of microwave anti-personnel radars and infrared searchlights. Summoners and vessels vanished from all cameras and sensors when they were using an Incense Grenade, but the five kilometer distance was hardly fair. It was not an impossible distance to cover, but it would take quite a bit of creativity.

And at the moment, that did not matter.

Kyousuke and Himekawa had different plans.

(Booth #00D51. Good.)

“Hh!!”

With a short breath, the young male employee taking a break out back was knocked out by Kyousuke. Kyousuke was willing to use anything at his disposal. And at the moment, the thing flying through the air was gathering the most attention. He reached for the spare equipment the unconscious man was holding.

The man’s armband showed which booth he worked at.

And keeping backup equipment on hand was standard practice in case something malfunctioned.

“This should work. I’ll be borrowing this.”

It looked like a bazooka, but it did not fire a projectile.

But in a way, the end result was even greater than an anti-tank weapon.

Kyousuke was willing to grab equipment on the scene if he could use it. He rested it on his shoulder with practiced ease, peered through the finder, and accurately stared at the target five kilometers away.

“Laser lock…ready.”

“Understood. If you have any further requests, we should be able to deceive them. Ready when you are.”

“Begin targeting.”

“Targeting confirmed. Guidance started.”

A moment later, the Lady of Purple Lightning explosion fired by the bomber completely enveloped Pandemonium in the center.

The explosion of exposed power brought a prickling and scorching pain to his skin even several kilometers away. Kyousuke clenched his teeth, sent an exorcism request, and then tossed aside the bazooka-like device.

Whoever was in charge of the booth was likely sweating bullets at the moment.

But Kyousuke and Himekawa did not care.

False guidance from a third party had enveloped Pandemonium in a dome of light. Of course, it was not built so poorly that it would melt from only this.

Then again, that was the real problem here.

Kyousuke glanced down at his smartphone.

“Good, good. The shocked VIPS are making an emergency evacuation. The bodyguards are all transmitting the evacuation manuals they normally never distribute. This should give us every last route within D.R.O.K. And of course, that includes the internal routes and evacuation routes for Pandemonium.”

What was most important when it came to infiltrating a secure facility?

Was it a special drill that could break through any wall? Was it an almighty ID card that allowed one to pretend to be anyone else? Was it a ninja hood that turned one’s body invisible?

It was none of those.

The real answer was intelligence. It was the diagrams on the location one needed to infiltrate.

“Now, then.”

“This gives us a starting point. This trouble should put them on high alert, but we can’t help that. You need a foothold if we’re going to climb a sheer cliff.”

After downloading all the necessary information, the boy stared at Pandemonium’s giant silhouette that remained unchanged even after the purple light cleared away.

“The next step is prying open the thick doors.”

The core of the fortress came to mind.

He was reminded of just what carried out the calculations.

“It’s finally time to save the 353 vessels being used as cogs inside that giant machine.”

Those were the cursed words that had been spoken to Alice (with) Rabbit this time.

“That completes our current objective. And this confusion should assist our withdrawal. We need to bring back these diagrams and analyze them for a way inside, so we need to-…”

“No, wait…”

Kyousuke held his finger to his lips to silence the woman and then pointed in a different direction.

The sudden “friendly fire” had triggered localized chaos here and there and the some of the crowds were falling over in their panic, but there was also a different sort of commotion.

It was near a bright booth a few hundred meters away.

They could not hear exactly what the angry voices were saying, but one of the bodyguard smartphones he had used to steal the evacuation manuals was there. He peeked into the flow of data, linked to the microphone and camera, and listened in on the conversation.

“Read the manual, you fool! That isn’t how you use a Holy Key Woman!! Dammit, they’re supposed to be airdropped into the enemy formation and then activated!!”

“Eh? Eh? Wahh!?”

“You panicked from the friendly fire and then turned the key!? Now a Divine-class is going to appear in the middle of this crowd!!”

“We have to do some-…ohhhh!?”

A light much more sinister than the manmade ones filled one section of the trade show.

Something whirled around near the booth in question.

There was no Artificial Sacred Ground, no Petals, and no Spots. But the power of the gods of legend had been concentrated and given form. It had been summoned with a system other than the Blood-Sign system. And of course, it had skipped some steps using the power of the gigantic Box known as Pandemonium.

Kyousuke clicked his tongue.

If the friendly fire had triggered a panic that led to this, a portion of the responsibility fell on his shoulders.

“Mika.”

“That’s Mika-san, you damn kid. You’re going to go save them, aren’t you?”

“We’re using the chaos to escape, right? Then we can show off a little without anyone noticing.”

The two of them ran through the darkness. All the while, a disconcerting vibration spread irregularly. They could see the change from where they were. “It” looked a lot like a surfer. A beautiful blonde woman with ribbons around her body had a black mass below her feet like a big wave. That mass was actually a collection of thousands if not tens of thousands of snakes. Kyousuke groaned as he combined that with the information on his smartphone.

“Divine-class. Sound Range: Middle. Cost: 6. That’s Adam’s first wife. This is a powerful enemy…”

“The Holy Key Women Project is run by Illegal. It performs a Summoning ceremony by unleashing special power with the locking and unlocking action of a complex lock. I believe the system is based on witchcraft. It is an application of a technique that stored the power of wind in the knots of a rope and performed magic by untying those knots.”

“But at its core, it’s the same as the aerial bombardment from that bomber. Unstable summons that omit the Blood-Sign are indiscriminate by nature. You’re apparently meant to unlock it in the middle of enemy territory so the rampaging Divine-class can wreak indiscriminate havoc on them. That makes this a real problem. Who knows how far the damage will spread after summoning something like that in the middle of your own troops. It’s like pulling the pin from a grenade and then carelessly releasing the lever.”

As he read through the data, his access was suddenly denied.

But not because they had noticed him. The device he was hacking into had likely been destroyed. He could only pray its owner was okay.

Luckily, only summoners and vessels were attending D.R.O.K. They would be forming pairs and fighting.

The Blood-Sign system required starting at the Regulation-class, but it could reach up to the Unexplored-class. Horrifyingly enough, that included the White Queen. They would be able to defeat the Holy Key Woman who could not move past the Divine-class.

But that was only if they could build up their Materials. If they tried to fight with the weakest Cost 1 Regulation-classes, they would be swallowed up and instantly killed by the Divine-class big wave. At the scene of the fight, there were probably quite a few summoners and vessels lying on the ground after receiving the shock of seeing their god killed before their eyes. A Level 1 hero could eventually defeat the demon king after earning enough experience points, but challenging the demon king at Level 1 gave them no chance to grow.

“What should we do?” Himekawa Mika made a suggestion as she ran alongside him. “Do you want to use my lock?”

The woman with the navy blue tight skirt turned her back toward Kyousuke. No, that was not quite accurate. She flicked open the skirt’s side hook and slid the skirt down. This revealed the area on the back of her hips just above the tailbone. But there was more than bright skin there. Something unusual could be seen there.

It was golden metal the size of a video disk.

And in the center was the kind of highly specialized keyhole seen on laboratory doors.

This was another oddity powered by Pandemonium.

She was one of the Holy Key Women.

By inserting and turning the key, one could summon a predetermined Divine-class.

Based on what Kyousuke had heard, the vessel’s mental state was instantly tuned by having them recall wings, a tail, or some other organ that humans should not have. That allowed the instant summoning of the Divine-class corresponding to the internal structure of the lock.

“No.”

But Kyousuke immediately rejected the offer.

“I have some stun and smoke grenades in addition to the normal Incense Grenades. I can buy some time by drawing its attention with those. The best I can hope for is fifty seconds, but I don’t have to worry about another summoner in this case, so that’s more than enough time to hit the Petals into the Spots. I can directly summon an Unexplored-class like that and that will allow me to fight without being killed instantly.”

“Then…?”

He gripped his Blood-Sign and stared at the Divine-class woman riding the wave of tens of thousands of snakes.

“Yes. It’s about time I showed them the true Summoning Ceremony.”

Facts [ edit ]

Shiroyama Kyousuke was participating in the D.R.O.K. Summoning Ceremony Trade Show since at least a few days prior.

Kyousuke has a contract with the Illegal vessel named Himekawa Mika.

D.R.O.K. is demonstrating several new systems other than the Blood-Sign system, but most of those are apparently borrowing the power of the giant Box known as Pandemonium.

D.R.O.K. and Pandemonium are supposedly a joint project between the three major powers of Government, Illegal, and Freedom, but Kyousuke also mentioned the term “Deltaston family”.

Himekawa is part of the Holy Key Women Project, so she has a keyhole just above her tailbone which can summon a specific Divine-class into her body just by inserting and turning a key.

353 vessels are trapped inside Pandemonium. This corresponds to the number of quatrains in a certain book of prophecy and the Third Summoning Ceremony was discovered in 1999, but it is unknown if there is a connection.

Kyousuke and Himekawa acquired diagrams of Pandemonium, giving them a starting point to infiltrate the facility.





Stage 01: The Cutest Escape Game in the World? [ edit ]

“Do you know why my color is white?”

“Because that way I can be dyed in your colors, brother! Kyah☆”

(“Now” Stage 01 Open 06/03 09:00)

(“Past” Stage 01 Open 05/31 09:30)

The Cutest Escape Game in the World?

Part 1 [ edit ]

(Timeline “Now”)

After repeating the waking up and passing out process a few more times, Shiroyama Kyousuke finally seemed to realize something.

He could not win.

There was simply no way he could defeat the White Queen who was currently humming in the kitchen space while shaking her small butt back and forth.

“Hm, hmm, hm, hm, hm, hm, hmmm☆ Oh, to think the day would come when I could serve breakfast for my brother! This reminds me of our time in that miniature garden. Hee hee hee.”

(C-calm down. Calm down, me!! If I look at this in the right way, it’s the greatest opportunity I’ve ever had. I need to view this as the perfect chance to pull off some trial & error against the Queen who could kill me instantly anywhere and at any time!! Remember, you won’t receive a miracle like this again. Use this as a chance to thoroughly work out her characteristics, traits, weaknesses, and flaws!!!!!!)

There were times when people had to force their thoughts in a positive direction to stay sane.

With his back pressed against the wall, his butt on the floor, and a throbbing weight in his head, Kyousuke changed his train of thought.

D.R.O.K, the Summoning Ceremony international trade show, the Deltaston family, Pandemonium, 353 vessels, and an attempt to save them…

He could remember a few things, but pieces were missing.

Were his lost memories due to the White Queen tormenting him over and over, or was there some other cause? Kyousuke could not tell given how beat up he was this early in the morning.

He decided to ask the first question that came to mind.

“Where is my vessel, Himekawa Mika…?”

“Oh, come on now.”

He heard a dull sound.

As the White Queen looked back in grinning newlywed mode, she had crushed the handle of the frying pan she held.

“Is that any way to greet me first thing in the morning, brother? Why the hell would you ruin the mood by mentioning another girl’s name in front of me on this nice sunny day?”

She had no choice but to directly hold the edge of the frying pan as she shook it above the gas burner, but her smile did not falter in the slightest. A sizzling sound came from her hand, but she did not seem to be in any pain.

Sweat poured from Kyousuke’s body, but he still tried to think.

(What in the world happened after that? It does seem to be connected to Himekawa Mika…but does that mean she might be inside the White Queen as a vessel?)

The situation was far too irregular from the moment the White Queen had been indefinitely summoned without relying on a Blood-Sign or Incense Grenade. He did not have enough information to work with, but Himekawa Mika supporting the White Queen as a vessel would be the worst case.

That would mean the Queen had stolen his vessel.

Without a vessel, he could not summon Materials and he was not aware of a way to cancel a contract with a vessel who was currently possessed by a Material.

It was a lot like locking the keys in the car.

He needed a vessel to fight the White Queen, but he needed to do something about the White Queen to take his vessel back.

He could not fight at the moment.

In a way, this may have been an extraordinary chance to continue fighting against the powerful White Queen with no time limit, but he was not one to rejoice at that.

“Okay, brother! Breakfast is ready!! You were still living a life of cereal and milk in the mornings, weren’t you? But I used all my skill to make you a special wife’s meal that’s good for the body and soul!! Eat up☆”

As the White Queen lined up dish after dish on the table, there was no apparent malice in her.

Although that was what made her so very frightening.

“…”

Kyousuke cautiously observed her behavior, but the food itself had done nothing wrong. And if he upset her now, he could easily be turned into a red juice to go along with it. He sat at the table despite the heavy weight in his stomach.

And as he observed the meal, one thought came to mind.

“It’s all white.”

“That’s my identity.”

“But it’s too white! What is this lineup!? Potato salad, white stew, stir-fried cauliflower and white asparagus, and even hot milk to drink!? Any one of them would be fine, but it looks downright psychedelic all together like this!!”

“If you don’t know where to start, I recommend the chicken or the white-fleshed fish. Hee hee. And don’t overlook that I made sure to cut off the bread crust. We don’t need anything that isn’t white!!”

“That’s blasphemy! The crust is the best part when it’s all toasted and crunchy!”

“Why would I make it golden brown? Now, brother, eat it untoasted. I recommend putting either margarine or white chocolate paste on it.”

The White Queen gave him a beaming smile from across the table.

The look on her face said she would tear open his belly and shove it directly into his stomach if he refused.

After a heavy sigh, he grabbed the chopsticks.

He started with a cautious bite of the stir-fried vegetables.

“Oh, it’s good.”

“Hee hee.”

“The food itself is actually pretty good. It’s well made.”

“Hee hee hee hee hee!! Of course it is. I have to be able to cook if I’m going to be a good wife for you, brother. Do you know why my color is white? Because that way I can be dyed in your colors, brother! Kyah☆”

He gave his honest opinion because being disagreeable would get him nowhere, but the White Queen placed her hands on her cheeks and started shaking back and forth.

And since Kyousuke could tell it was good while under so much stress he felt like he had a bowling ball in his stomach, it would likely be recognized as good by anyone.

After that, the White Queen joined him in eating the food on the table. It was a mystery whether that peak of the Unexplored-class needed to ingest nutrients or if she could even starve if she was deprived of food, but she seemed happy at least making a show of eating the food.

“Queen.”

“What is it?”

“I won’t ask why you’re here. That would be too direct and would only make me feel empty inside. So tell me this: does your presence here have something to do with Pandemonium?”

“Oh, dear. Does that mean you reallllly don’t remember a thing?”

“…”

“Hee hee. Then I think I will keep my silence. After all, if you were to remember that dream-like time, this might all fall apart.”

Her teasing way of speaking made him nearly break the chopsticks he held, but that would have been meaningless. He could never hope to match the White Queen in violence, so any show of force would only make her smile like a mother praising her child.

But a human’s weapon was not their strength. He refocused his thoughts and worked to keep his cool.

“Let’s review the situation, Queen.”

“I am open to any topic that means I can converse with you, brother.”

“The Summoning Ceremony trade show named D.R.O.K. is officially a joint project run by Government, Illegal, and Freedom. It lies one step away from reconciliation and is a necessary step toward a historical turning point that will end this age of fruitless conflict.” Kyousuke spoke as if he were blankly keeping the gears in his mind turning. “But it’s actually run by the Deltaston family. They are a member of the Round Table just like the Magentarain family and they have formed a gigantic border-crossing faction by sending skilled summoners to each of the three major powers.”

“In other words, the joint project is the Deltaston family’s way of expanding their power. Particularly Pandemonium. That would normally devolve into the three major powers bickering over who gets to use it and it would never function properly. But with influential members of the same family making adjustments in each of those major powers, it can function just fine. It has effectively become a toy for the exclusive use of that family.”

“D.R.O.K. …The divine right of kings. The name sure fits. They’ve built up an absolute power that none of the three major powers can interfere with while also letting those major powers argue themselves into a standstill over who gets to use Pandemonium. While they’re all too busy keeping each other from doing anything, the Deltaston family can stop hiding their giant faction and establish their unrestricted position in the Summoning Ceremony world. Pandemonium functions as both the gas and the brakes.”

That giant trade show was officially funded jointly by the three major powers, but it was effectively only put together by the members of the Deltaston family who had infiltrated those major powers. In a way, this was their kingdom. The king at the top would be occupying an entire luxury resort hotel while defended by elites from all three major powers.

“This might be off topic a bit, but why would the Deltaston family purposefully build their base outside of Pandemonium?” asked the Queen.

“It’s obvious why they would use a resort hotel. They aren’t the type of people who find comfort in a bunch of crude weapons.”

“Is that something like how a supercomputer is convenient, but no one wants to be anywhere near the actual computer kept at a several dozen degrees below zero and surrounded by powerful electromagnetic waves?”

“They probably prefer to keep their distance while still being able to send in a request for the power of a Divine- or Unexplored-class. I mean, that thing’s a giant mobile fortress that uses Unexplored-classes at its leisure. I bet the inside is full of tricks to distort one’s spiritual cognizance. An experienced summoner or vessel might be fine, but the Deltaston family stays below Award 100 to fit into normal society, so their autonomic nerves would be fried if they stayed there for too long.”

He spoke like he had seen the place before.

And the White Queen giggled before saying more.

“If Pandemonium was developed from its current trial phase and used in earnest, it would bring us to a new age, wouldn’t it? I have no interest whatsoever in what benefits humans, but did no one try to destroy this before that happens?”

“Since it’s still up and running, I guess not. The words that lead mankind to ruin are always the same: surely they wouldn’t go that far.”

Based on the conversation, Kyousuke saw no discrepancy between his understanding and the White Queen’s. As a baseline, this told him the information he had was not erroneous.

That left only one problem: the gap in his memories.

The truth had to be concentrated there.

(Even if the giant Box that is Pandemonium is being used to indefinitely summon the Queen, that won’t stop the conflict between the three major powers. That would drive an eternal wedge into the gears. But did the Deltaston family not realize that no human can control her after summoning her!?)

“Brother, can I turn on the TV? I’ve always been interested in those blood type fortunetelling sections. I hear they always do them during the morning news!”

“What blood type are you anyway? Type X with an Rh of ∞?”

The White Queen was breathing excitedly, so Kyousuke let her have the remote, stacked up the empty dishes, and carried them over the kitchen space’s sink. He generally relied on home appliances, but since he lived in a cruiser, he was used to washing dishes by hand to preserve water.

“…”

He briefly glanced over at the knife sitting on the drain board, but that was too simplistic. He doubted anything would change even if he stabbed the White Queen in the back as she faced away from him while engrossed in the flat screen TV. She might even smile as she grabbed him, call him a good boy while patting him on the head, and make him curl up in her lap.

“Brother, brother! They said guys with Type A and girls with Type AB are a perfect match!”

“Didn’t I just say your blood type would probably come back as ‘error’?”

“Yes. It’s most unfortunate, but it would seem I need to go on a worldwide tour to exterminate every last woman with Type AB bloo-…hgyuh!”

“Queen, you have some white stew on your cheek.”

“Funyuhhhh…”

Leaving her alone would have led to disaster, so he found an arbitrary reason to toy with her soft cheek through a handkerchief. The twintail girl looked about ready to pass out.

As she let him toy with her like a small child, the White Queen asked a question.

“Wh-what are your plans for the day, brother?”

“Good question.” Kyousuke sighed. “Sitting around in my room isn’t going to change anything, so I think I’ll wander around outside.”

“My, my!! So after eating my home cooking, we’re going to have a walking date together? Today really is my lucky day! I feel like making it a global holiday!!”

As he watched the White Queen celebrate, Kyousuke added more in his heart.

(And I also need to recovery my lost memories and find a way to kill you.)

The goal had been right before his eyes from the very beginning.

The problem was finding a way to open the door known as the White Queen.

He had to rack his brains and use everything available to him.

A girl who had spoken the cursed words might be waiting behind that locked door.

Part 2 [ edit ]

(Timeline “Now”)

Trade shows had two primary goals: business and advertisement. The former meant signing contracts for new products and the latter meant showing off your technology to the press. The business side was sometimes based in a desire for the product and was sometimes based on a desire to build up connections. The advertisement side was sometimes used to increase your brand name and increase your ability to sell and compete and was sometimes used to show off your superiority to the competition and drive them into despair.

The people there for the advertisements were focused on the announcements made at special booths at set times. So this early in the morning, most of the people filling the streets were summoners and vessels looking to buy Blood-Signs, Incense Grenades, restraints, Repliglass, or the components and chemicals used to make them.

However…

“……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………”

“C’mon, brother. Why do you look so gloomy that someone would think you’re watching the end of the world? You need to look a little happier walking around with such a cute girl holding onto your arm. Happy☆”

Rather than watching the end of the world, Shiroyama Kyousuke felt like he was standing in the center of the world.

That was hardly surprising when the White Queen stood by his side, wrapped her arms around his right arm, leaned her full weight against him, and even rested her head on his shoulder.

The gazes of the passersby were too painful.

In fact…

“Her Majesty? Ehhh!? Her Majesty!!!???”

“Don’t be stupid. That’s got to be cosplay. They have that musical based on the White Queen, remem-…ugyaahhh!! I-i-it’s actually her!?”

“Bubble, bubble, bubble, bubble…”

It went far beyond double takes and wondering whether or not to snap a photo. A large man collapsed on the spot and wept like a small child, a holy woman must have been so shocked she entered nirvana because her eyes rolled back in her head and she foamed at the mouth, a group of what looked like indigenous South Americans prostrated themselves before her with their foreheads pressed against the ground, and a gaudy female fortuneteller began gathering up the dirt the Queen had stepped on and stuffing it into a bag like a high school baseball player at Koshien. Kyousuke was not sure what to make of it. Humans were said to be the lords of creation, but the second they saw a paranormal being, they were willing to throw out all of their dignity.

Shiroyama Kyousuke’s lips grew pale as he spoke his honest thoughts.

“Why couldn’t you have considered staying back in my room? If you’re going to stand out this much, it would help if I was alone. At this rate, they’re going to make a statue of me as well.”

“Oh, come now. Only a real man gets to show off his lovely girlfriend like this, brother. Now, hold your head high. You need to let the world know you managed to make me yours.”

The White Queen was in full lovey-dovey mode, but Kyousuke could not laugh off this topic since he had earned the award Loved by the White in the past and since he had been targeted by the group of (perverted) summoners known as Guard of Honor.

But the White Queen did not seem at all bothered by the commotion surrounding them.

“Oh, dear. There are so many stands set up. Hmm. The love-filled wife’s meal was absolutely crucial, but it would be a shame to pass this up. So, brother! Let us use the logic of having a separate stomach for snacks so you can treat me to some ice cream!!”

“No, that sounds like a pain in the ass. If you want ice cream, ask one of your worshipers for some and they’ll make so much for you they’ll use up all the ice in the Antarctic.”

“You just don’t understand how the world works, brother. It only makes your heart flutter when your beloved buys it for you. Ice cream, ice cream! And it has to be vanilla of course!”

“…Why are you so obsessed with the color white? Ugh.”

“Because I’m the White Queen who loves all things white!! Hee hee. What were you imagining, brother?”

Since she asked, Kyousuke answered honestly.

And he did so with a blank look on his face.

“Well, I’d thought you were insane but that you still had a line you wouldn’t cross. I thought you had an ignorant and pure heart, so this is a bit of a surprise. Yeah, you might be my nemesis, but it’s still a shock.”

“Fweh!?”

“Lu-san will say a lot of those things, but I’d bet anything she’s pure. And do I even have to say anything about a shut-in like Aika? Hmm, but I guess you’re the exception…”

“Wh-wh-wh-wh-wh-what are you saying!? Don’t tell me you’re having a sudden onset of maiden delusion now! But make no mistake! It may be true that my worshipers around the world will sometimes hold hard-to-watch rituals in front of my statues and idols in underground temples or aerial cities! But!! I myself am pure!! I simply happen to overhear a lot of inappropriate things! So make no mistake about my purity!!!!!”

She was so panicked that she did not even notice Kyousuke mentioning a few other girls.

Kyousuke used that opening to guide them away from the ice cream stand, but the White Queen noticed.

“Ah, what about my trophy of having a gentleman gallantly buy me a treat!?”

“Stop it. If I take you there now, they’ll dig the wrapper out of the trash and hang it up in a sanctuary somewhere. They’ll probably call it a holy relic or something.”

“Fwehhh, brother!”

“I said no. Besides, if I give in just once, the demands will never stop. I only have so much money in my walle-…”

He was cut off by a metallic clinking sound.

The confused boy watched as a shower of coins was thrown toward them from all directions. In the blink of an eye, the ground at their feet looked like a pond at a tourist destination.

“Please use this! This old man is more than willing to offer some money if it is for Her Majesty!!”

“In fact this feels like too little for the honor of gazing upon her face like this! Kh, curse you, Alice (with) Rabbit. Are you going to demand I make up the difference with my body!?”

“Gozaru, gozaru!! Holder of Loved by the White, you must not make the Queen cry!!”

Kyousuke had triggered quite a commotion, so he quickly shouted back at the people.

“I am not accepting any indirect offerings! The entire world is far too kind to this insane twintails!!”

At that moment, he sensed a sharp gaze from the crowd.

He looked over and spotted two familiar faces.

They were twin shrine maidens.

“(R-Renge. What is that!? I can’t figure out how this could have happened!)”

“(Shh! We’re leaving, Higan! Don’t look that freak in the eye!)”

“(Wow. Um, Shiroyama-san really has changed a lot.)”

“(I can’t believe he’s smugly showing off that dangerous thing. Kh, he should have asked us for help before he was this badly broken!)”

Kyousuke felt the hair across his body bristle.

“Wait! Please waaaaaaaaaaaait!! How long have you been here!? Where did you come from!? And do you happen to know anything about my missing memories!?”

“C’mon, don’t be like that, brother. …I mean it. Speak some other girls’ names and we’ll have two new craters on the moon. Got that?”

The White Queen smiled cheerfully and made a point of clinging to Kyousuke’s arm, resting her head on his shoulder, and holding him in place like a ship’s anchor. Meanwhile, the twin sisters vanished into the crowd.

It was a sorrowful parting.

“Ah, ahhh, ahhhhhhh.”

“Okay, brother. What shall we do now?”

He was finally freed, but it was too late.

At this rate, the crowd was going to grow even more excited than a national idol discovered in the middle of a scramble crossing, so Kyousuke grabbed the White Queen’s hand and quickly left. He glanced around on the way, but he saw no sign of any shrine maiden outfits.

Meanwhile, he looked like he was stealing a bride away from the chapel (mostly due to her pure white dress), so…

“Oh, my☆ How bold, brother. I just won another trophy in life.”

“You shut your mouth!! If we had stayed there, they probably would have built a giant monument and the spot would have been marked on world maps as ‘the holy land where offerings were given to our queen in heaven’!! The place could easily end up covered in blood and guts!!”

Of course, if that peak of the Unexplored-class had not wanted to move, she would not have budged even if a passenger jet rammed into her, so the Queen had to be entirely on board with being pulled away by him.

“Ah, what does he think he’s doing!? Is he trying to keep our Queen to himself!? And when simply being able to borrow the power of her name is too great an honor!”

“Gozaru, gozaru!”

“Hm, it would seem I have no choice. I will help out as the Love and Hate Aggressor. Guide rabbit, only you can put such a lovely smile on Her Majesty’s face! Take her with you and get out of here!!”

As small commotions (or at least he prayed they were small) started up here and there, they ultimately found themselves at a viewing platform. But this northern land was a large plain, so it was quite flat. Instead of adding a railing and maintaining the top of a natural hill, it looked more like a large metal lookout tower with the floor space of a cooking classroom or home ec classroom.

It was deserted, but that may have been because everyone here was a summoner or vessel for advertisement or business purposes. There were very few people who had arrived purely as sightseers.

Kyousuke finally breathed a sigh of relief in the four story viewing platform.

“This is awful…! Normal people who didn’t know anything would actually be better because they might walk right past you without realizing your value!!”

“Oh? But in that case, their ignorance would lead to a spiritual awakening. And since they do not know who I am, they might start up some misguided cult.”

There was more to her than simple violence or combat ability.

Before any of that, one had to contend with her presence, her aura, and her charisma. In what looked like some kind of joke, even veteran summoners and vessels who used the gods of legend as a stepping stool would voluntarily bow down to this higher life form. Just by standing there, she could produce worship. Just by smiling, she could fully distort everything that civilization had built up. She was a singularity like a black hole that endlessly sucked in human hearts.

Could you fight that?

Could you even maintain the will to fight her?

A battle with the White Queen began there. And only a very few had honed the blade of their humanity to that point. And if they let their guard down for even a moment, that blade would be instantly worn down and dulled by an invisible power.

Just like his former enemies: Uniquely Selfless Azalea Magentarain, Telomere’s End Benikomichi Fuuki, Liar Cat Biondetta Shiroyama, etc.

“Brother.”

But the White Queen with her silver twintails and pure white dress merely smiled sweetly and pressed her hands together in front of her chest.

“I do not care what form it takes as long as I can play with you. We could even do exactly as you wish and begin an endless death match where you try again and again to kill me with every method you can think of.”

“…”

“But remember that I said I do not care what form it takes. Yes, anything is fine as long as I am satisfied. So wouldn’t you be protecting the world by playing with me in a way that avoids needless conflict? For example, if there is no direct battle, there is no chance of the puny summoners and vessels here being killed, so wouldn’t you be saving them by choosing to go on a date and flirt with me?”

Kyousuke audibly gulped.

This was it. Those words were like a cool glass of water after walking endlessly through the scorching desert. By swapping out the essence of the matter, she could make compromising and giving in sound like the good option. This “first attack” tried to break people’s beliefs just by smiling and throwing sweet words their way. If the psychological could be seen, then Kyousuke would be on the verge of being swallowed by the great maw of a carnivorous dinosaur.

“Let’s go to a tropical island.”

The White Queen leaned up against him and buried her face in his chest while whispering to him.

“If you wish to expel me from the world, there is no need to fight me, brother. All you need to do is seal me away inside a secret garden. As long as I am happy there, I will never leave. I will not even be curious what would happen if I were to leave. I will do anything for you, brother. Do you like one piece swimsuits? Or are two-piece ones or bikinis more your style? Compared to swinging your Blood-Sign around in a fruitless and endless battle, this is bound to be the more constructive choice for the world.”

“…”

“I will be satisfied as long as I have you, brother.”

If that was all, then she would be telling the truth.

She looked up at him while snuggled up against him from the front.

Her damp eyes glittered and her enchanting lips formed her words.

She looked just like a girl begging for a kiss from her lover.

“I will ask nothing of the world, I will take nothing from the world, and I will threaten nothing in the world. So won’t you please place your arms around my waist?”

Shiroyama Kyousuke imagined that possibility for just a moment.

He could not help himself.

And then he shook his head.

“…That would cause a war.”

“It would not. I am talking about a complete and utter disappearance. It is the desire to monopolize me that triggers conflict, so this would actually remove the possibility of harm from the world.”

“No.”

He mustered all of his strength to turn his back on that easy but fatally sweet poison.

“I am saying it would trigger the final war between the two of us. In that secret garden of yours.”

“Oh, you’re so mean, brother!!”

A complete change came over her.

She puffed her cheeks out like a child.

“…But that is exactly what makes you so worth winning over.”

As the White Queen embraced him from the front and rubbed her face against his chest, the boy leaned against the railing and shook his head to take his eyes off of her.

From that four story height, he could see the donut-shaped trade show and Pandemonium in the center. That colossal Repliglass structure had a giant squid silhouette due to the giant coffin shape with a large number of tentacle-like pipelines attached to the bottom. But he saw a few oddities in that scenery.

There was an empty field within the donut.

And in that field were several craters ranging between several hundred meters and several kilometers across. The patch of green had been cruelly torn up and a water vein must have been hit because they were filled with water like lakes.

And as he viewed that scene, he felt something like a jolt of electricity in the back of his mind.

“…?”

Instead of rejecting the pain, he abandoned himself to it.

He slowly peeled the scab from his memories.

And the first vision that appeared in his mind was of two people he had seen just a moment ago…

Part 3 [ edit ]

(Timeline “Past”)

“Do you know who Ellie Slide is?”

Somewhere and at some point, the black-haired shrine maiden named Meinokawa Renge had asked him that.

“She’s apparently a well-known incense expert, but we don’t know where to find her in this crowd.”

“Oh? You have some interesting connections.”

Kyousuke sounded impressed, but Renge sighed frankly.

“It’s not that. We want to hire her to manufacture an Incense Grenade. I had been making them on instinct so far, but someone pointed out there’s a lot of waste in the mixture. But I can’t pinpoint my own idiosyncrasies, so I want to have an expert make a basic one for me that I can use for reference.”

“Hmm. By the way, your sister seems to be napping on her feet. Was it an exhausting trip?”

“Higan! Don’t try to escape reality just because it’s a complicated subject!! C’mon, you’re drooling!!”

The black and blonde haired shrine maidens continued arguing as they disappeared into the crowd. They would have stood out in a normal city, but they blended in quite well in a trade show overrun with summoners and vessels.

Kyousuke shrugged as he watched them go, but then he realized the promised time had arrived.

He was here to meet someone.

She was a strange person.

This was May 31, just a few days ago. That was Shiroyama Kyousuke’s first impression of the woman named Himekawa Mika. Her waist-length bluish-black ponytail was contained in a fluffy scrunchie, she had sharp and intelligent facial features, her bodylines had plenty of curves, and she wore a deep navy blue suit with the tight skirt and a portion of the stockings intentionally torn. That last point was the only odd thing about her. Altogether, she was quite beautiful, but there was something else that led the boy to his absurd impression.

Oh.

She looks almost exactly like that woman.

It was 10:30 AM in the crowds of D.R.O.K. And he seriously wondered what to do about her when she blew the silver whistle hanging from her neck the second their eyes met.

“You are Shiroyama Kyousuke-san, right? You’re late. Very late! I believe we agreed to meet at ten on the dot!!”

“Sorry, I’m running a little slow.”

“What kind of excuse is that!? Be more careful…and learn your lesson!!”

Kyousuke held out his hands to urge her to cool down, but Himekawa Mika’s face only grew redder as she blew her whistle. As she did, he heard a jangling from the mug and 12-sided die decorations connected by a thin chain.

In truth, Kyousuke had arrived half an hour before the arranged time and scouted out the surrounding area. He had then waited until half an hour after the arranged time to observe the actions and reactions of the woman. His conversation with the Meinokawa sisters had only been one part of that and he had moved to a position where Himekawa would spot him only after he decided it was safe to let her notice him in the crowd.

The ponytail beauty must have finally felt satisfied because she removed the whistle from her mouth.

“Um, Shiroyama Kyousuke…-kun? What do you know about my situation?”

“Only what was in the job email. You are Himekawa Mika, an Illegal vessel who is currently free. Lu-san introduced us and I was told to ask for any more details once I arrived.”

“That’s the expected format. Let’s find somewhere to sit down and discuss this.”

They were at a trade show for new Summoning Ceremony technology (i.e. weapons), but there were also plenty of lodging facilities and restaurants. Himekawa Mika chose a nearby tent-style restaurant. The long tables arranged in a line had long legs and no chairs. With junk food like frankfurters, fries, and yakisoba on the menu, Kyousuke was cautious, but the tight skirt beauty actually ordered a mug of beer this early.

“It’s ten in the morning.”

“It’s ten thirty. And psychological trances are a necessary part of being a vessel.”

“You’re from Illegal all right. You really know how to excuse your own self-indulgence…”

Then he remembered one of the decorations on the sin necklace she used to mentally bind herself: a mug.

But Kyousuke also saw something nostalgic in her appearance.

“Hm? Why are you staring at me?”

“It’s nothing really.” Kyousuke looked like he had trouble believing it himself. “It’s just that you look a lot like someone. Your general atmosphere, your taste in clothes, and even the whistle. You remind me a lot of one of the people who looked after me back in the Queen’s Miniature Garden. …You’re the spitting image of Madam Professor.”

“Please stop hitting on me before we get to work.”

“Even that reaction is just like her, unfortunately. And is that anything to say while drinking a beer? Although that too is just like her, so I’m not sure what to do about it.”

Kyousuke leaned his upper body against the tall table while giving in to the odd sense of déjà vu, but Himekawa Mika placed her shapely butt on the table to sit down with mug in hand. And this beautiful woman had intentionally torn the sides of her tight skirt and her stockings, so when the vessel crossed her long legs, her oddly alluring skin was placed right in front of his eyes.

This only annoyed Kyousuke, but…

“This is a local sign. It warns people away because I’ll only bring them trouble.”

“Illegal really does like that kind of thing, don’t they? And no one seems to know where they come from like a prison communication method using the sound of banging on the bars.”

D.R.O.K. had not been running for long, but these local rules had apparently been created, refined, and spread in that short time. It made little sense to someone looking in from the outside.

But Himekawa did not seem to mind.

“What about you? What’s with that combination?”

“What? It’s just caramel popcorn and milk.”

“…It’s ten in the morning.”

“It’s ten thirty. A summoner needs sugar to keep up his high level thoughts.”

“I see you’ve refined your excuses to a high level too.”

“I would have preferred to get some carbs with plain cereal, but this combination was the closest substitute I could find.”

They seemed to have differing tastes.

While showing off her bright and soft skin through her torn stockings, Himekawa gulped down her alcohol and continued the conversation with a drunken energy.

She talked about the rush of new Summoning Ceremonies, Pandemonium, the joint project between the three major powers, and the Deltaston family of the Round Table that was involved in it all.

“So to sum up,” said Kyousuke as he stuck his spoon into the soup bowl of sweet milk. “How Pandemonium works doesn’t matter. The same goes for the Deltaston family’s conspiracy. All that matters are the 353 vessels imprisoned in that impregnable mobile fortress and that Pandemonium uses them as its gears. So is my job to rescue them?”

Himekawa winced somewhat at the ominous atmosphere that seemed charged with static electricity.

“You’re willing to write that family off as not mattering?”

“Well, they don’t matter compared to human lives, do they?”

Once he said that, Kyousuke’s expression was back to normal.

And he thought about what was to come.

If it came to a battle, it would be against other summoners.

Just glancing around the junk food restaurant, he spotted a few summoners and vessels he recognized.

One was Government Award 892, Love and Hate Aggressor.

She was generally a summoner whose motto was loyalty, but she focused less on actual battles and more on working hard to strictly train up newcomers. She had given Government a much greater fighting force and she was also known to appear on the front line and briefly produce hell on earth only when one of her beloved pupils was killed. But she was also well known to cross the boundaries between major powers to repay anyone who saved one of those beloved pupils.

One was Illegal Award 500, Cursed Doll.

She was a rare example of a summoner who had once been a vessel. Most of those with the traits of a spiritual medium could not act as a summoner because they were too strongly influenced by the Material during battle, but she was known for building that loss of control into her strategy and pulling off feats above her Award level with almost suicidal techniques. Once she lost control, no one could predict who she would bare her fangs against, so it was effectively impossible to work with her on a mission.

One was Freedom Award Unknown, Gozaru Summoner.

This bizarre summoner always wore a Gozaru Samurai costume. He was known for being quite skilled but extremely capricious. It was rumored that multiple people took turns wearing the costume. His Award level was unknown because adding up all of his past exploits within all three major powers provided a sum that exceeded 1000.

The situation might allow them to split their opponents between two camps so they would fight each other.

As Kyousuke thought, Himekawa waved a hand to call the waitress over.

Her mug was already empty.

“It’s ten thirty.”

“Then I won’t get another mug. I’ll take a glass of this platinum bubble. And make it snappy☆”

Kyousuke could only hold his head in his hands.

Meanwhile, Himekawa spoke to him from the table.

“The vessels are of course the center of Pandemonium, so it will cease to function if they are removed. The Deltaston family will never allow that. They have people in all three major powers, so we’ll find more and more people involved in this.”

“That doesn’t matter,” readily stated Shiroyama Kyousuke.

He was not simply refusing to think about it. If necessary, he would calmly take on all three major powers.

Himekawa gave into her intoxication, swayed back and forth on the table, and used the hand not holding her beer glass to reach behind her waist. She unhooked the side of her skirt, moved to the back of the tight skirt, grabbed the upper edge with her slender finger, and lowered it slightly.

A bit above her tailbone, a large object was embedded in her lightly flushed skin.

It was a blatantly mechanical keyhole with a metallic shine. Something was written in the alphabet along the round outer edge. The six letters starting with “F” provided the name of a goddess from Norse Mythology who was a goddess of beauty and fertility and who controlled half of heaven’s army.

“We are the Holy Key Women. Simply insert and turn the authorization key and we can summon a specific Divine-class. …I rejoiced when I first heard that explanation, but I never thought we would be built into Pandemonium.” She gave a self-deprecating smile. “But not only is our opponent borrowing the power of Pandemonium, but technology like this is within their reach. In fact, the Deltaston family has spread their roots to all three major powers, so they will have plenty of strange methods beyond the Illegal ones. That is what it means to challenge Pandemonium and fight its owner. Are you truly prepared to take on a world one step outside the Blood-Sign method?”

“I already told you: That doesn’t matter.” Kyousuke did not smile. “You might be worried how we’ll fight whatever our enemy might use against us, but you can leave all of that to me. So Himekawa Mika, there’s only one thing I want from you. And I’m not talking about the reward or what cards you might have on hand. First of all, I want to confirm something. I want to hear it from your own mouth.”

“My mouth…?”

“I didn’t hear it in the email. I was told to discuss the details once I arrived. So I’ll ask again: What is it you want? Does the desire in your heart contain the words needed to drive me to action?”

When she heard that, the beautiful woman laughed quietly.

She removed her finger from her lowered tight skirt and hid the strange gadget. She drank down the rest of her beer glass’s contents, inhaled, and exhaled. She seemed to be savoring that normal action.

And then she spoke.

“I came here by forging my license. I can move freely for the time being, but they will notice before long and Illegal…no, the Deltaston family will send someone after me.”

“…?”

“Most of the Holy Key Women are being used as components for Pandemonium, but a few were let out for demonstrations at the booths and studios. I forged my selection for one of those. I might have been able to bring a few more with me. That might have been an option, but I abandoned the idea. Instead of only partially saving them, I temporarily abandoned them all so I could rescue every last one of them.”

That may have been why.

She had chosen to stick with Illegal’s way of doing things. She did not bother with niceties, she did not compromise and then glorify the tragic result, and she was prepared to stay true to her initial intent until the very, very end. Had she taken a turn toward the unkind in order to reach a result that surpassed good and evil?

“I can’t just escape on my own. I can’t let this end as a mere traitor. I used the internet to contact an intermediary I used to use and I used the thin thread of Lu Niang Lan to draw in you, Freedom Award 903, Alice (with) Rabbit. I threw out all morals in order to say this one thing.”

She looked Kyousuke straight in the eye.

And with the fragility of trying to support the weight of every last sinner with a single strand of spider web, Himekawa Mika spoke clearly.

Just like the Holy Key Women, she seemed to directly insert her words into a certain boy’s soul and then twist it around.

“So I beg you. Please save us all from the impregnable Pandemonium.”

Part 4 [ edit ]

(Timeline “Now”)

On the viewing platform, Kyousuke slapped his cheek with one hand while the White Queen leaned up against him.

(Little by little, it’s coming back to me.)

Himekawa Mika was one of the Holy Key Women. She had contacted Kyousuke to rescue the 353 vessels remaining in the multi-tentacle mobile fortress Pandemonium, a colossal Repliglass structure. She was the current Alice. She was the unique vessel who could skip three stages in the Blood-Sign method to immediately summon a specific Divine-class into her body.

(In that case, was she a Holy Key Woman who can directly summon the White Queen? No, that doesn’t make sense. Her keyhole had the six-letter name of a Norse goddess starting with F. Since this isn’t fitting together, I must still be missing some memories…)

“Oh? Is something the matter, brother?”

He observed the White Queen as she embraced him and looked up at him, but he saw no resemblance to Himekawa Mika. He could not sense that woman’s presence.

Was Himekawa Mika imprisoned within the Queen, or was there some other possibility?

“Something’s bothering me.”

“What might that be?”

“What happened with Pandemonium? No, what happened with the Holy Key Women? And not just the ones imprisoned inside that fortress. What happened to them all, including Himekawa Mika!?”

He was missing some memories and someone who should have been by his side was missing.

He felt a pressure in his chest that was not just from confronting the White Queen.

This may have been what it felt like to get hopelessly drunk and wake up in a pile of trash in an unfamiliar alleyway while holding a bloody wallet in your hand.

Meanwhile, the peak of the Unexplored-class with her silver twintails and pure white dress brought her slender index finger to her own lips.

She did not explain anything.

Only a thin smile appeared on her lips.

“…Hee hee☆”

Kyousuke could not wait any longer.

She would not budge if he shoved her away. He slipped out of her arms as she leaned against his chest and he immediately climbed over the viewing platform railing. The platform was four stories up. He jumped between the steel beams complexly crisscrossing as they supported the platform and slid down the diagonally positioned beams to control the speed of his descent.

As soon as he landed, the White Queen descended from heaven.

She weightlessly landed on the ground.

“Okay, brother. Where should we go next?”

“Shut up! I’m not relying on you anymore and I’ve found something I need to see for myself!! I don’t know what happened after that, but I need to see if I can still answer Himekawa Mika’s request. No, no matter what might have happened, I’ll find a way, even if it means altering the timeline or overcoming causality!!”

He needed information.

But was facing inwards and filling in his missing memories really the only way to get that?

In the few pieces he had recovered, he had seen references to the Deltaston family that had infiltrated all three major powers. And he could also directly attack Pandemonium to discover what had become of the vessels. One was a powerful enemy and the other an impregnable mobile fortress. So what? He was Freedom Award 903, Alice (with) Rabbit. He had no vessel and could not use the Summoning Ceremony. What did that matter? If he wanted to be known as the strongest, he had to accept some slight inconveniences. None of that was any reason to just sit idly by and watch.

After all, he had already heard it.

He had heard the cursed words that someone had risked everything to say.

He wanted to know what had happened to the vessels imprisoned within Pandemonium.

Not to mention Himekawa Mika. He definitely wanted to confirm the safety of that woman who looked so much like that Madam Professor who had looked after him back in the Queen’s Miniature Garden.

“Brother, your adorable emotions don’t matter here. Do you have an actual plan?”

“Kh. The Deltaston family has spread their power far enough that it would be difficult to acquire an accurate list of its members on short notice. That means Pandemonium is the obvious answer. I need to head there and check inside!”

“What a pain. That’s not much of a plan, you know? That is an impregnable multi-tentacle mobile fortress. Not only can you not break open the thick Repliglass entrance, but you will likely have trouble simply crossing the vast field to reach it. I hear they have microwave anti-personnel radars and infrared searchlights.”

“There’s a way! It was obvious enough from the viewing platform! I’m pretty sure I already tricked a Government bomber into firing on Pandemonium!!”

What he needed was rather specialized, but that would not be a problem at D.R.O.K. where weapons were treated as a business. After making the necessary “arrangements”, Kyousuke and the White Queen set off toward Pandemonium.

But not everything went quite so well.

It happened when they had arrived quite close.

He had stood out too much with the White Queen accompanying him. And it was possible the Deltaston family that controlled Pandemonium was already monitoring him due to something in his missing memories.

So he should have assumed someone might try to stop him once he took action.

“Hi.”

He heard footsteps.

They were right in front of black Pandemonium’s main entrance in the empty field at the center of the donut-shaped trade show.

Two people blocked the way as if this had been planned.

One was a tall and muscular man of about 18. His black hair was set in an impressive pompadour and he wore a baggy T-shirt that reached below his hips, shorts, and oddly expensive basketball shoes. He loudly chewed bubblegum while resting a long stick made of ski material on his shoulder. That was his Blood-Sign. The bottom end was strangely swollen and metallic, but that seemed to be a stabilizer for the center of gravity. Needless to say, only a summoner would use that.

The other was a short glasses girl of about 12. She had shoulder-length wavy blonde hair and brown skin, but those colors were likely artificial rather than natural. Tan lines from a one piece swimsuit were clearly visible on her skin. She wore a sleeved cape that split into feather-like shapes at the bottom, an orange camisole, black leather hot pants to cover her small butt, an ultra-miniskirt with a jagged bottom, and boots. Her extra-large witch’s hat was a Halloween-like orange and black and had an eagle feather stuck in it. Something jangled at her neck, but it was not a necklace. A wooden ring about the size of a coffee cup saucer had several threads passing through the inside to create a pattern resembling a spider web or a rose. It was a dream catcher, an accessory made by Native Americans. She held a giant axe. Its apparent size was increased due to her short height, but it may have been another of their symbols. She was likely the vessel. The gaudy outfit on such a slender and undeveloped body may have been the “bondage” that controlled her mind. The specific vessel restraints seemed to be the piercings. Kyousuke could see the ones on her ears and navel, but it was possible she had more where he could not see.

“I suppose you wouldn’t know why we’re here, would you?”

Kyousuke felt something odd in the back of his mind.

The tingling feeling came from the scab over his memories.

“I know…”

He had no vessel and could not use the Summoning Ceremony. Nevertheless, he pulled his Repliglass Blood-Sign from his back and half-groaned his response.

“I know who you are…!!”

Part 5 [ edit ]

(Timeline “Past”)

After acquiring an accurate diagram of Pandemonium, Shiroyama Kyousuke and Himekawa Mika waited until the night wore on before beginning their actual attack.

The field was thoroughly scanned by microwave anti-personnel radars and invisible infrared searchlights. A vast space with no cover had been transformed into a thick barrier.

After crossing it using “a certain method”, they saw something there.

Two people stood in front of Pandemonium’s massive and thick metal door.

The summoner had a pompadour and wore a baggy T-shirt and shorts.

The short vessel in glasses had bright swimsuit tan lines, an eagle father in her Halloween witch’s hat, a unique sleeved cape, an orange camisole, black hot pants, an ultra-miniskirt, a decoration around her neck, a giant decorative armor-breaking axe, and piercings across her body to bind her.

Kyousuke asked a question of that pair after pulling his Blood-Sign from his back.

“Are you pawns of Pandemonium…no, of the Deltaston family that has infiltrated all three major powers?”

“Maybe.”

The summoner grinned and raised his Blood-Sign which was made of ski material.

That signaled the beginning of the Summoning Ceremony, a battle between the gods using Materials.

“But first you can call us Government Award 501, Perfect Game!!”

Facts [ edit ]

While a vessel has summoned a Material, the summoner cannot break the contract with that vessel.

The Summoning Ceremony trade show named D.R.O.K. and the joint project of Pandemonium were made into an event controlled by the Deltaston family after the three major powers were manipulated into a standstill.

Himekawa looks a lot like the woman who looked after Kyousuke when he was young.

As a Holy Key Woman, Himekawa can immediately summon a specific Divine-class, but that does not match the conditions needed for the White Queen.

Kyousuke had already heard the cursed words from Himekawa.

The exact affiliation and intentions of the enemy summoner, Perfect Game, are not known. But Kyousuke seems to understand some of it from his missing memories.

All that aside, the White Queen wants to go to a tropical island. She really, really wants to.





Stage 02: There Will Certainly Be Consequences [ edit ]

“No, wait. This might actually be better. If it looks like we’re secret lovers…”

“S-s-s-secret lovers!!!???”

(“Now” Stage 02 Open 06/03 10:10)

(“Past” Stage 02 Open 06/02 22:10)

There Will Certainly Be Consequences

Part 1 [ edit ]

(Timeline “Past”)

It was just past ten at night on June 2. As always, the darkness of D.R.O.K.’s night was swept away by the bright lights of the stages, but the remaining shadows functioned as useful blind spots.

Shiroyama Kyousuke and Himekawa Mika were moving through one of those blind spots.

However, walking directly to Pandemonium would have been difficult.

With microwave anti-personnel radars and invisible infrared searchlights, the 5km radius field at the center of the donut-shaped trade show became a thick barrier with no blind spots.

Normally, anyway.

“Good thing this is a weapons trade show. There were plenty of oxygen tanks lying around.”

Kyousuke set a few heavy objects down on the grass.

He had bought the night vision binoculars at a business booth.

“Good, good. The six craters from yesterday’s aerial bombing are nice and connected. That gives us a direct line to Pandemonium five kilometers away.”

“I’m sure it’s better than the perfectly flat field, but is that really enough to hide us from the anti-personnel radar? Especially when they’ll have increased security?”

“Isn’t that why we dug up the underground water veins and waited more than half a day for the craters to flood?” Kyousuke answered her with a bitter smile. “The microwaves the radar uses are weak against water. Most of them will be reflected off the water’s surface and what does make it through will be severely weakened. It isn’t a good method for searching through water.”

“What about the infrared searchlights?”

“Do I even have to say it? Whether visible or invisible, light acts the same. Once it contacts the water’s surface, it will reflect or refract, so they won’t be able to pull off a proper search.”

They would have been found immediately on the surface, so their general plan was to approach through the dark water. That was the reason for the oxygen tanks.

But…

“…I do have one question.”

“Wh-what is it?”

As Himekawa stuffed her clothes and brand-name shoulder bag inside a waterproof bag, a dry cracking sound came from her hand and she pulled it back.

“Oops, I need to be more careful. …I scraped my index fingernail on the metal zipper. Where’s the repair solution? The manicure quick-drying repair solution?”

“That doesn’t matter.”

Kyousuke ignored the chemical she used to hide the scrape on her nail in just as few seconds like it was instant glue.

He was not going to let her avoid explaining herself here.

“I told you to obtain a diving outfit, didn’t I? I let you handle it on your own so you could keep your privacy about your measurements and such…but why are you wearing a racing swimsuit? We’re still more than a month away from the pools opening.”

“Eh? B-but! I couldn’t think of a more functional swimsuit… I-it’s not like I chose a bikini or something! I’m not just messing around!!”

She could not bear to have him stare at her with his blank expression, so she started covering different parts of her body with her hands, twisting around, running her fingers down the white accent line, and reaching down to fix the navy blue swimsuit where it was riding up in her butt.

“…”

Incidentally, Kyousuke was wearing a diving wetsuit that covered him from neck to toe. It was meant for special operations rather than leisure, so when he compared her swimsuit to him, he wanted to mock and curse her. In fact, it would have been harder to find a skintight racing swimsuit at the weapons trade show, but her efforts had been entirely misguided.

“And the scrunchie. You don’t want that getting soaked, do you?”

“Uuh…”

He felt nothing but worry as the vessel pouted her lips, reached behind her head, and redid her hair with a rubber hairband while needlessly pushing out her shapely breasts.

That bad feeling grew when she put the oxygen tank on her back.

“Hyah!”

He heard a strange shout and then Himekawa nearly fell backwards. He quickly supported her from behind and she started flailing her slender limbs. She was acting like a new part-timer wearing a full-body mascot costume for the first time. It would have been a normal sight back in Toy Dream 35, but it was a problem here.

“Please don’t tell me…”

“Wh-what is it, Kyousuke-kun?”

“This doesn’t mean you don’t know how to keep your balance in the water, does it?”

“U-um, well, I might be able to manage if I have a float or a kickboard.”

Kyousuke covered his face with his hands. This was a diving mission and he was only discovering this now. And since she was not even certain in her ability with a float, most likely…

“Can you not swim?”

“I-I can too! Or at least float. I can float! You shouldn’t give adults that pitying look! I can even do the flutter kick and bring my head up to breathe! Well, if the instructor is holding my hands…”

“Or are you just entirely useless?”

“Don’t call an adult that!!”

When he saw Himekawa mindlessly reach down toward the whistle attached to her sin necklace, Kyousuke covered her mouth with all his might. She’s worse than useless!! he concluded in his heart.

It looked like taking care of her was his only option.

Specifically, he had to pass his arms below hers to essentially embrace her as they swam together.

“This is kind of embarrassing. This swimsuit leaves my back pretty bare…”

“Don’t worry. I can only feel the metal oxygen tank.”

“Perhaps I should thank you for not asking to do this from the front.”

“That’s a good way to have the other person grab onto you so you both drown.”

With that, he began his dive through the crater lakes while carrying his heavy burden. It was a surprisingly long swim. The unchanging scenery of the dark manmade lakes made it seem all the longer. On the way, Himekawa Mika squirmed inside her skintight navy blue racing swimsuit, but Kyousuke restrained her and maintained a set pace.

The craters differed in size, but they were ten meters at the deepest. They could not take the most direct route to Pandemonium, so their path zigzagged between the center points of the complexly overlapping circles. The distance they traveled was greater than five kilometers and they had to be very careful so they did not forget which direction to go at each turning point.

(I’m sure it’s partially due to using underground water veins, but the water is pretty cold. I can’t force her through too much more of this.)

He could pick up his speed to be considerate, but rushing this would only hurt them.

If they ended up swimming in circles, she really could die.

He maintained that form of callousness and they finally arrived at their destination.

“Puhah.”

Kyousuke stuck his head up from the edge of the crater and removed the oxygen tank’s mouthpiece. They were near the tentacle-like propulsion device of the colossal Repliglass mobile fortress.

He let Himekawa Mika climb up first, but since she seemed to be having trouble doing so under the power of her own arms, he pushed up on her butt and thighs to force her up. He then climbed up after her, but she wrapped her arms around him before he could remove the oxygen tank on his back.

“Ah, ahh, so cold…chatter, chatter, chatter, chatter.”

“Didn’t I tell you? Your lips are blue. C’mon, there are towels in that waterproof bag, right? Using that would be more constructive.”

A guy and a girl warming each other with their skin in a snowy mountain was not all that effective in reality. Wiping off the moisture with one towel and then rubbing yourself with another towel for the frictional heat was more immediately effective. She was older than him, but he felt like he was dealing with a child.

(Another way that she’s a lot like that woman…)

Himekawa Mika simply let him do what he wished as she lay sprawled out on the ground in her racing swimsuit. Not that he wanted her to scream sexual harassment and blast her whistle when he was trying to help her.

After confirming she had recovered to a certain extent, Kyousuke shoved a waterproof bag into her arms.

“C’mon, hurry up and change before the heat escapes. You’ll be better off in your usual suit.”

“Ah, ahhh…”

“Please don’t tell me you need help with that too.”

Kyousuke immediately turned his back, pulled his hoodie and track pants from his own waterproof bag, and began to change. The wetsuit and oxygen tank would be a needless burden, so he did not want to carry them around. He hooked the bag’s string on a part of the crater’s edge and let the bag itself sink into the water.

He turned back around to find Himekawa had only just finished putting on her underwear. She must not have been thinking straight because she next started swapping out the rubber hairband for her scrunchie.

“Hurry up! Am I going to have to help you out after all!?”

“Heh…eh heh heh… Apparently I’m really a poikilotherm…”

She must not have had the energy to scream, “Kyah! Pervert!”, so she clearly needed to be wound back up as a human being. Her weak smile was so pitiful that Kyousuke did end up helping her into her clothes. This time he really was treating her like a child.

And then it was finally time to face their present goal.

Pandemonium.

That giant black mobile fortress measured more than 800 meters

The entrance was blocked by a thick Repliglass door much like one found at a bank vault.

Himekawa Mika seemed to have recovered somewhat because she intentionally tore her new stockings and then tapped on the back of her hips near her tailbone.

“Shall I break it open?”

“No, even if it was weakened quite a bit by the ridiculous method they used, this armor still survived an explosion from the Unexplored-class Lady of Purple Lightning. Hm, more than the material being solid, they’ve applied a special treatment to the surface. Just like magic circles guide the power according to a set of rules, I think the pattern here redirects the paranormal burden and dilutes it into the planet. And it’s also grounded against curses. Now, can we really take that on directly with a Divine-class?”

“Then…?”

“According to the information we acquired, the entrance uses multiple biometrics such as fingerprint, pulse, and iris. I don’t know the exact process, but it would probably be fastest to find someone involved in all this. And fortunately, anyone who loses in the Summoning Ceremony enters a mindless state and can be guided like a zombie. We might just be able to draw out the information we need.”

With that, Kyousuke glanced to the side.

Himekawa did the same and finally noticed something.

A man and a girl slowly walked out from behind one of the tentacles supporting the fortress.

“Are you pawns of Pandemonium…no, of the Deltaston family that has infiltrated all three major powers?”

“Maybe,” answered the pompadour man.

He wore a baggy T-shirt and pants and he held a Blood-Sign made from ski material with a swollen metallic part on the bottom end.

“But first you can call us Government Award 501, Perfect Game!!”

Kyousuke pulled his Repliglass Blood-Sign from his back while also sticking a hand in his pocket and grabbing a weighty object the size of a coffee can.

It was an Incense Grenade.

No matter which major power his opponent belonged to or how many Awards they had, he would go all out to crush them.

“Mika, let’s defeat them as quickly as we can. They were nice enough to bring us the fingerprint and iris we needed.”

“That’s Mika-san, you damn kid!”

Kyousuke ignored his vessel’s unfair comment, pulled the pin, and dropped the metal can at his feet. In the five seconds before it detonated, he finished observing the surrounding space and came up with around 45 different ways of finishing within 30 seconds no matter where the 36 Spots appeared.

But…

He heard the sound of shattering glass.

Only 0.4 seconds after Kyousuke’s Artificial Sacred Ground appeared, that field was smashed to pieces.

“What…?”

There were no White Thorns, Petals, Rose, or Spots. And Kyousuke himself froze in place for a moment with his Blood-Sign raised.

A roaring wind slipped through that gap. The summoner known as Perfect Game approached from straight head. At some point, he had changed how he held his weapon. He held what had been the upper end and he used the metallic stabilizer as a weight. He spun his body like a tornado and the 