Episode 10: Finish Line
* * *
Koito stood in an endless wasteland.
"Where is—"
The horizon stretched as far as the eye could see. A deep blue sky overhead. This was a desolate stretch of land in District 6 where nobody ever came, hundreds of kilometers from the arena, devoid of any sign of life.
"You've prepared quite the fitting stage. ...The R-value is awfully low here."
"In this environment, you won't be able to fight at full strength either, will you?"
Caitlin's eyes burned with resolve, and for a moment, Koito nearly flinched.
"—Koito. Let me ask you one thing."
Caitlin had felt this was something she had to ask. Because she was not a beast but a person. She wasn't here out of hunger—she was here to pass judgment.
"...Oh my, what would that be?"
"You're strong. The strongest on this planet. What do you intend to do with that strength?"
Strength. That was Caitlin's theme—her Yearning itself. When she had obtained power rivaling the top one or two in Corporations, she had learned the true weight of that power.
"Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Not a single thing."
But Koito Hikari just floated there with a carefree smile.
"I don't particularly want to change anything."
"...Even though the world is this imperfect?"
"Yep."
"Even though so many people are suffering?"
"I'll help them. If I can."
Koito Hikari's way of life was brutally simple.
"I'm the Apocalypse Stagnation Committee. Someone who prolongs humanity's survival. I have no interest in anything beyond that."
"Your existence disrupts the balance between worlds. On a single whim, you could destroy the world. If you truly want to prolong humanity's survival, you should die right now."
After Caitlin spoke—nothing more than pure rationality taken to its conclusion—Koito thought for a moment.
"Well, maybe. Maybe there's a chance of that. But nah."
"Why?"
"Because I love myself. Because there are people who'd be sad if I were gone. And compared to that, the world's value is just a tiny bit less."
—That was.
(Don't you realize it, Koito?)
Koito Hikari would surely destroy even the universe itself to protect her comrades.
That was the very image of an Apocalypse, found anywhere and everywhere.
"Koito. You're a girl. An ordinary, boring girl you could find anywhere."
"You couldn't find a super beautiful girl like me just anywhere."
"You... should die after all."
A girl this ordinary, with neither resolve nor purpose, should not hold the strongest power in humanity.
Caitlin was right. Cruelly rational, upstanding—what she said could fairly be called justice.
But at the same time, no being in this world could deny the brilliance of Koito Hikari.
"So you're challenging me to a duel? All by yourself?"
Koito smiled like a girl. That alone blanketed the area in overwhelming pressure.
"—I ain't alone."
What pushed Caitlin forward through that momentary falter was her comrades.
"Even a dumbass like me can see it."
The one who murmured that was Alex, who had carried Shamshir's bullet all the way to this place.
"You're dangerous. It'd be way better if you were gone."
He was cloaked in The Nights! from head to toe, eyes wide with determination and killing intent.
"I have nothing against you. But I've decided to follow the captain!"
mALEEa, one of Caitlin's subordinates, flapped her rainbow-colored wings as she gripped her microphone. She was here for her friend, and she was prepared to do whatever it took.
"I'll do this! Me too! The gamble of a lifetime!"
Gray shouted, red rings appearing around her. She was a coward at heart, on the verge of tears, but she glared at Koito with everything she had. She knew that if she ran now, she'd never forgive herself for the rest of her life.
"...Four? That's all? You think you can beat me with just four people?"
Koito manifested a white guitar in her palm—Cherry Red Pistol.
"—Sure are underestimating me."
A storm of killing intent. It was proof that Koito had acknowledged them as enemies. But Caitlin murmured.
"...We aren't underestimating you."
At her words, multiple doors appeared in midair.
The one who opened a door etched with complex symbols was a girl in old ethnic garb with glasses.
"—Library Mandala, Returner. I've come to help!"
The freckled girl with large glasses murmured.
Library Mandala—an Anti-Reality organization that opposed the Apocalypse Stagnation Committee.
"—One of the Fourteen Apostles of Santa Claus, reporting for duty. Honor the pact, Caitlin."
From a red and green door emerged a gloomy, long-haired man in a red outfit. Behind him trailed a host of fairies.
The Fourteen Apostles of Santa Claus—another Anti-Reality organization that fought against the Apocalypse Stagnation Committee.
"—Pardon the interruption. The Boundary Region Trading Company has a delivery for you."
From a brown and blue door appeared a gaudy mechanical girl. From the cardboard box she opened, humanoids emerged—armed to the teeth with weapons of every shape and color.
The Boundary Region Trading Company—a corporation that dealt in all manner of Anti-Reality, existing in the space between dimensions.
"...Well now, you've assembled quite the lineup."
Koito murmured in genuine surprise.
Most Anti-Reality organizations didn't like uniting. They all held completely different goals and would break a pact at the drop of a hat. There was no such thing as a trustworthy Anti-Reality organization.
"Iron Maiden! It's a request from Corporations' Caitlin. We owe her, so we couldn't refuse."
The Library Mandala girl murmured, dozens of books floating around her.
"...Koito Hikari. To kill you, I would ally even with the devil."
The gloomy man in the Santa hat drew an enormous sword from his back.
"Your satisfaction is our happiness. Enjoy our excellent service!"
The Boundary Region Trading Company's android girl transformed her body like a super-alloy toy and shifted into an enormous tank.
Dozens of monsters and her most trusted comrades. But that wasn't all Caitlin had assembled.
"Manifest. —Heroes Never Die (Finish Line)."
Her massive scarlet wings opened wide, large enough to blanket the entire wasteland.
[Heroes Never Die (Finish Line)] — Half-Wing
A Half-Wing that "grows stronger." The more Caitlin Ann Austin is hurt, the more her body is reinforced.
As a child, "being hurt" to Caitlin had meant being punched and scorned herself.
(But that's not it.)
She had kept walking, defeated many enemies, and met many friends. And she had learned what true "strength" really meant.
"Koito. I believe 'strength' means 'how much duty you've fulfilled.'"
"..."
"The duty to protect those dear to you. And—the duty to protect strangers, even if it means hurting those dear to you."
Now, "being hurt" meant the pain of her comrades themselves.
She—grew stronger the more her comrades were hurt.
"...Let's do this, Koito. Right now—I'm strong."
Caitlin Ann Austin, captain of the Corporations Corporate Security Force, raised her fists.
* * *
When I opened my eyes, the venue had become a hellscape of pandemonium.
"Aaagh! A monster! A monster, on my back!"
Every person in the venue had the phantom of their greatest fear clinging to their back.
"—Extra, extra (All-Alarm)! I've created a Recorded World from five hours ago! Everyone in the venue, please prioritize evacuation over fighting!"
The commentator, Isis Hareed, sliced open dimensional rifts throughout the arena with her khopesh, and hundreds of copies of President Amelia began guiding evacuations.
"Ugh, what a pain. Devour the evil! —Taotie (Devi-Enjie)!"
What launched from Wu-senpai's bazooka was a massive bronze creature, its left half smiling and its right half stained with fury. The ancient-civilization-like beast began munching on the angels throughout the venue.
"Everyone! Hold hands, please! Shamshir!"
Koshiba was using her ability to evacuate people outside the venue.
"...Mef! What's going on?!"
I called out to Mef, who was shooting down angels with her sniper rifle.
"Questions later! The spectators are packed too tightly to fight properly! We're in the open stage—we have to provide cover!"
I couldn't fully grasp the situation, but the gist was clear enough: we were fighting the enemy right now.
"Roger!"
I rewound Luna-san's wire tightly around my fists and broke into a sprint. My Gunscar—noapusa—was absolutely not suited for a melee. I had to save as many people as possible with these fists!
(... A planned attack! There has to be someone controlling these monsters! I'll take them down!)
I scanned the area. Right? Left? Below—above!
"...Ah."
—My gaze was pinned to that figure.
"...Ah."
Because floating above the venue was a girl in pure black. She was a beautiful girl I recognized. She stood on the palm of a shadow monster painted with blue geometric patterns, staring down at me.
"Kotoha-kun!"
The girl in black—the Black Demon Lord—leaped down, arms outstretched toward me.
(Th-That's! The girl who was on the ship with me... the Demon Lord?!)
She had been the start of my story. I was here because of her. Her blue radiance had guided me this far. So, for some reason, I reached my arms out to her too.
"I finally figured it out!"
Was she the one controlling these monsters? ...No, her shadows seemed to be watching from the sidelines. If anything, they looked like they were clearing out the monsters with red threads.
"—This was destiny!"
The Black Demon Lord leaped from the dome's ceiling and landed gracefully in front of me, then took my hand.
"...Huh? Kotoyorozu-kun! She's—!"
Mef noticed the Black Demon Lord and pulled Chalquiruq's trigger without a moment's hesitation.
CLANG! A violent sound rang out. One of the Demon Lord's shadow servants had deflected the bullet.
"Kotoha-kun. I kept thinking I wanted to see you again, you know? But I figured there was no way. Ahaha, I mean, I thought I probably died back then! But here we are—isn't that amazing? What are the odds, right? Sorry, I'm talking too fast. That's probably weird."
In the middle of the pandemonium-engulfed dome, the Black Demon Lord was grinning like it was just another day. Mef stared wide-eyed, unable to make sense of me and the Demon Lord having a casual conversation.
"...Demon Lord. Are you... the one attacking everyone?"
"Huh? No, not at all. I'm not really into bullying the weak, y'know. I mean sure, if someone comes at me, I'll hit back. ...Besides, look over there."
The Black Demon Lord casually pointed to where a swarm of monsters clutching red threads were heading. They were making a beeline straight for her, ignoring everything else.
"Annoying. Die."
The Black Demon Lord flicked her finger like a conductor's baton, and her blue shadows tore the creatures apart like it was nothing.
"...Damn it. Caitlin! That woman lied to me. I didn't hear anything about those ultra-creepy cultists being here! ...She brought me in planning to make us fight each other—ugh, seriously."
"Caitlin? The Demon Lord came here on Captain Caitlin's orders?"
"Huh? I mean, who cares about that! More importantly—"
The Black Demon Lord threw her arms around me.
"Kotoha-kun! Let's get married!"
Time stopped at that bombshell.
"Huuuuuuuuuuuuh?! W-What are you saying all of a sudden...?!"
"I mean, come on! A miracle like this won't happen twice. Besides, Kotoha-kun—watching your fight just now, you're obviously one of us, right?"
"...—"
My Gunscar. noapusa. That was the shape of my heart. My Yearning itself. I had long since realized how utterly monstrous it was.
"You might be my happy ending! No, even if you're not! With you, maybe I can find one!"
Her face was flushed with fever as the Black Demon Lord smiled. I couldn't get a single word out.
(Because I like this girl.)
From the moment we first met, I had felt some instinctive heat. Maybe she had felt it too?
I was an Apocalypse—a monster. Going with her might have been the right thing to do.
"But, I—"
Before I could finish, something soft covered my lips.
"...Mmph."
My lips were sealed by force. A second kiss.
Her kiss tasted faintly salty, like blood.
My brain wasn't working right. Dazed, I just stood there while she ran her tongue along my lips.
"Wh-Wh-WHAAAAT?! Chalquiruq!!"
A Chalquiruq round smacked into the Demon Lord's temple while she was still kissing me.
"Owwww?!"
"Wh-Wh-What do you think you're doing?! She's the enemy, right?! And Kotoyorozu-kun! Stop grinning!"
My head was spinning. I couldn't think straight. What was that? Was this really the time for this? But a kiss?! Did she just kiss me?! This time, properly, like a real lover?!
"...Ehehe."
The Demon Lord's face had gone all mushy. She didn't even seem to mind getting shot in the head.
"...Yep, I knew it. You're the one. My heart's pounding so hard."
Her face went bright red as she smiled shyly. My heart was pierced. I couldn't find the words.
"Wait, behind you—!"
"Huh?"
I tried to grab her hand. Because behind her was—
A massive mouth, about to crush her skull.
"What?"
—The Demon Lord was swallowed in an instant. I tried to pull her arm free, but she pried my fingers off in a flash. She protected me, then vanished before my eyes.
"...What the hell... is this thing...?!"
It was an aggregate of mouths. The blubbery monster made of hundreds of mouths swallowed the Demon Lord—despite having no stomach—and exhaled in satisfaction.
"...—Ah, what a stroke of fortune."
From within the mouth-monster, the Demon Lord's muffled voice echoed. The figure that appeared from behind the creature was a tall, timid-looking man with narrow eyes and a gentle smile.
"...!"
The man's presence was beyond ominous—a mass of pure malice unlike anything I had ever felt. I reflexively tried to read his mind, but the instant I touched that pitch-black emotion, a wave of nausea hit me so hard that I realized understanding him was impossible.
"Such highly concentrated 'blue'! ...Blue is the symbol of battle and adventure. Ah, how long I've yearned for this. My gratitude. Blessings upon all living things! May fortune smile upon you!"
"Kotoyorozu-kun! With me!"
Mef shouted, already straddling Chalquiruq in its massive motorcycle form.
"Yeah!"
I didn't hesitate. I poured strength into my fists and legs.
(This guy is bad news! Way too dangerous! We have to kill him, even a second sooner—)
Mef's bike ran the timid-looking man over. At the same time, I leaped up and kicked him in the head as hard as I could.
"...Ah, the Apocalypse Stagnation Committee! What beautifully fleeting boys and girls."
The man took the dead-center hit without dodging, was slammed into a wall by the impact, and still smiled gently.
"You see, when I think of you all, I'm truly filled with happiness. I genuinely want to help you, from the bottom of my heart. Oh... how pitiful... how truly pitiful..."
—He was crying. The man had been hit by a motorcycle and had his face caved in, yet he wept in deep sympathy for us, all while making no effort to conceal his killing intent.
"Pleased to meet you, Kotoyorozu Kotoha-kun. Mehleeza Janebekova-san. I am the leader of Los Devotos del Silencio Eterno. I'm known as Maestro—their Guide."
The man stood back up without a single wound.
"...Maestro?!"
Lea and Magina-senpai's nemesis. If I remembered correctly, his threat level was on par with the Black Demon Lord. Had his goal been to capture the Black Demon Lord? There was no way for us to know why.
"Don't let him talk! Press the attack!"
Mef showered Maestro's head with bullets. Holes opened in his face like a lotus flower. But he kept smiling.
"Thank you. Pain alone is the nourishment that makes people grow... You're making me even stronger."
Maestro walked through the hail of bullets unfazed and murmured.
"—Your bodies will turn to stone."
The man's voice carried an abnormal weight. Faster than a blink, both my body and Mef's became completely immobile—turned into gray lumps of stone.
(Wh—)
Blood flow stopped. Breathing stopped. My heart stopped.
(My body... won't move... at all...)
Maestro smiled sweetly and reached for my forehead.
(This guy...)
He was going to do something. Something unimaginably terrible.
Every instinct screamed to run, but I couldn't even look away from his smile.
In that ghastly grin, I felt something like hope. Compared to him, I was nothing more than a normal human being.
"Come with me."
Red threads extended from Maestro's fingertips. Just as they were about to pierce my lips—
"—Sorry, but he's mine."
A familiar, languid voice.
(... Luna-san!)
She had extended silver wire from her wrists, binding Maestro's arm tight.
"...? I thought you'd run away."
"Yeah, honestly? I'm shaking right now. My legs are literally trembling. ...But running away just ain't my style. Bad upbringing, y'know. Can't let ya."
"Ha! Wonderful! Human courage! That display of it! The most admirable heart!"
Maestro beamed with delight, then immediately went deadpan.
"But I'm a little busy right now. —Turn to stone."
At Maestro's words, Luna-san turned to stone in an instant. But Maestro seemed somehow unsatisfied. This outcome had been far too easy to predict.
So when the wire extending from Luna-san began to split open in a straight line, he was slightly more satisfied.
"—Maiden of Gévaudan!"
Lea had been hiding inside Luna-san's wire. Brandishing her enormous chainsaw, she slashed Maestro's stomach wide open before he could even speak.
"...!"
"Please eat your fill!"
Lea shoved something into the gash she'd carved across Maestro's abdomen—a cheap-looking iron box.
"—An anti-mythology bomb. Even you can't come out of this unscathed, can you?"
From the slash across Maestro's body, blinding white light and shockwaves erupted. His body swelled for a moment, then burst like a rubber balloon with a tremendous blast.
In that instant, our petrification broke. I gasped, filling my lungs with air.
"Hhhh—! Hhhh—!"
Luna-san braced my back as I returned to normal. Her eyes still burned with hostility.
"...A bomb that rapidly raises the internal R-value. You kids sure are creative."
—Of course. The Maestro who should have exploded was already reforming with an easy smile, gradually regaining his human shape. Like fungi clustering together.
"Everyone! Get back! This is going to get ugly!"
Lea shouted. By then, Mef had already transformed Chalquiruq into a large helicopter.
"Is it okay to just run?!"
"The Corporations student council has declared Code Black! Prioritize evacuation!"
We boarded Chalquiruq.
By the time the craft lifted into the air, Maestro had fully regenerated his body. With a hint of childish irritation, he gathered angel fragments at his fingertips.
Piercing Chalquiruq's armor was nothing difficult for him.
So, in the split second before his finger-gun fired—
"You know who you just picked a fight with, right?"
A massive shadow fist slammed into Maestro's right cheek.
"...—!"
The impact was tremendous, but it wasn't a mere punch. The Black Demon Lord's "shadow" had struck with a Parallel Law shockwave. Mere contact violently disrupted Maestro's laws, directly shaving away his life.
"...Ugh, this seriously sucks. Y'know, I was in a pretty romantic mood just now. That was my first time ever hitting on a guy. People who get in the way of love deserve to be ground into horse-sashimi garnish."
Lea, who had planted the anti-mythology bomb inside Maestro's stomach, had used her return stroke to tear apart the "mouth angel" behind him. Having broken free, the Demon Lord swung her shadows around in visible annoyance.
"Ah, Demon Lord! Demon Lord! What beautiful blue light! A miraculous radiance from a distant cosmos!"
Maestro's face split into a crazed grin as he assumed a combat stance.
"You should become the world's radiance. Come with me, pitiful one."
From within Maestro's abdomen emerged a massive, mouthless human face. Its crimson eyes opened wide, and the blood tears it shed solidified into thorns that coiled around Maestro's arms.
"Eww! Gross! So tacky..."
It was blasphemous enough to rob any normal person of their sanity at a glance. But the Black Demon Lord, being far more blasphemous herself, didn't feel so much as a breeze.
"You are needed, beautiful one. Your blue will guide us to Babel!"
"Babel? Oh, you want to destroy the tower. I get the feeling. ...But not my thing."
The Demon Lord smiled—a predatory grin, like a carnivore, her icy eyes fixed on the creature before her.
"But hey, since there's two monsters here, I can at least give you a dance."
The Demon Lord clicked her heels. In that instant, a blue giant appeared—so massive it burst through the dome.
* * *
The obstacle to defeating Koito Hikari was her speed.
"Lights! Camera! Action!"
Even under normal conditions, Koito flew through the sky at roughly three times the speed of sound, handling sharp stops and hairpin turns that would crush any aircraft under the inertia with ease.
Aerial mobility. Without that to begin with, a fighter couldn't even touch her.
"...Ugh. Blegh... What is this...?"
But when Koito reached an altitude of 1,000 meters, a wave of violent nausea hit her.
"Gift delivery incoming. Addressed to Koito Hikari. Delivering rockets of death."
The mechanical humans of the Boundary Region Trading Company rocketed through the sky, propelled by fierce jets of flame, closing in behind Koito as she wobbled mid-flight.
"──Koito. Your speed is countered, obviously."
Caitlin stared calmly at the sky, quietly letting her fighting spirit boil over.
(What is this environment!? The Naxa Index up here is way too low! It's like being outside the solar system! I can't even fly straight in a place this unstable...──!)
Koito's wobbling caused her speed to drop.
"Hghk."
In that instant, the mechanical humans pursuing her exploded. The explosion itself had no Anti-Reality properties — it was perfectly ordinary. But what scattered from inside the mechanical humans was a powerful virus.
"Wha—"
An Anti-Reality virus that could age a living being to death in an instant engulfed Koito.
"Hghk, hghk, hghk."
──The mechanical human missiles weren't just one. Dozens of the sentient projectiles continued homing in on Koito as she flew on, her balance thrown off by the blasts.
(Each one is loaded with a virus carrying Anti-Reality properties from a completely different dimension.)
This was Caitlin's first strategy: poisoning, using the terrain advantage.
"I said you STINK!!"
Within the explosions, a cherry-pink light blazed with sudden, ferocious brilliance.
"Out of my way!"
She slammed to a halt from supersonic flight, gripped her guitar on the spot, and wound up.
"──Fly... awaaaaaay!!"
Koito began batting the dozens of mechanical human missiles back with pinpoint accuracy — as casually as hitting balls at a batting cage.
(... No good, huh. What is that Anti-Reality resistance of hers?)
Any normal human would dissolve within ten seconds of exposure to that smoke, yet Koito blazed brilliantly within it. How much easier things would have been if that had finished her, Caitlin thought. But.
"...Tch."
──This was within the range of predictions.
"...What is... that...?"
Koito felt her head swaying from the nausea. That ominous presence was coming from even higher above her.
"Ah... So that's how it is..."
What floated in the sky was a massive steel fortress.
* * *
[No. 84: "Laputa Sky Fortress"] — Stage 5: Turbatio
Properties: Old God
History: A city built by a hyper-ancient civilization, said to predate even the construction of Sky City Fructus. Contact had been made a handful of times in the past, but communications had been severed for over a hundred years.
Details: Inhabited by humanoid entities that guarded something called "the Treasure." They dedicated their entire lives to protecting "the Treasure," continuously reshaping their environment. The Naxa Index was extremely low within several kilometers of Laputa Sky Fortress, making conditions unstable. Observation required authorization from personnel with twelve Wings or higher.
* * *
Laputa Sky Fortress. ──A fortress that kept expanding to repel all living things. Even Koito, with her strong Anti-Reality resistance, couldn't defy the laws of reality density itself.
(The unstable reality is because of that thing! ...At this rate, I'll lose consciousness!)
Koito had no choice but to give up on high-altitude aerial combat. The altitude at which she could fight was limited to roughly 100 meters at best, and at that low altitude she had to throttle her speed as well.
"Your horsepower is on a different level. But that energy relies on the surrounding reality density, doesn't it?"
Caitlin had sealed Koito's speed.
"Ha! Then I'll just go on the attack! Get blown away! ──RAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
Koito dropped altitude at terrifying speed, then strummed her guitar to charge up energy.
"Here she comes! Get ready to defend!"
"Yes!"
The one who stepped forward was the songstress with rainbow wings — mALEEa.
"──I'll sing with my life on the line."
The songstress gripped the microphone in her slender fingers and sang.
* * *
Invincible Princess (Princess Brave!) [Half-Wing]
A Half-Wing that "infuses emotions into song." The more mALEEa poured her feelings into her singing voice, the stronger the Anti-Reality it manifested. Its effects varied depending on mALEEa's precise emotions, but it was known that imbuing love or joy caused listeners to recover from injuries and illness.
* * *
Right now, mALEEa was staking her life — literally — on that voice.
(Please, I'm begging you. Protect everyone! ──I'll give you my life if that's what it takes!)
The songstress was prepared to die. By the time this song ended, that was likely exactly what would happen. ──But until then.
"Full power! Fool's Footsteps — Go Far Kiiiiiid!!"
Gray opened a portal of "Red Rings" as if to shield her comrades.
In the fight against Koshiba, that portal had been only one meter in diameter. But amplified by mALEEa's song — by her desire to "protect everyone" — its diameter now exceeded 500 meters.
"Wha—"
Koito gaped for an instant, then immediately realized this was bad. The energy she'd already charged was on the verge of release. There was no stopping it.
(Gray's portal wasn't anywhere near that big before!)
She realized. The reason they'd shown their hand during the Representative Battle was for this one strike.
(Dodge? No — I won't make it in time! Guard!)
A massive beam fired from Koito's guitar, scorching everything in its path. But it was swallowed by the red ring of Fool's Footsteps (Go Far Kid) — and shot back out from the blue ring, 30 meters diagonally above her.
"Ghhh...! ...!!"
Koito hastily wreathed herself in cherry-pink light, but it wasn't enough to fully protect her from her own high-output attack.
"Gah."
The impact sent her crashing into the ground. Part of her body was damaged — not fatal, but enough to slow her down.
"──I've been waiting for you, Koito Hikari."
The one who'd arrived at Koito's crash site in an instant was a gloomy man in a Santa suit.
"Merry Christmas. Shall we die together?"
"!?"
One of the Fourteen Apostles of Santa Claus, raising a massive sword.
"...Ah, finally. Finally, the time has come to settle this grudge."
"Huh!? Also, who even ARE you!? I don't know you, mister!"
"Wh... what...?"
The Apostle's face twisted with fury for an instant. He brought the massive sword down in a wild frenzy.
"After everything you did! After all those unspeakably cruel things! Die! Just die already, you freak! You disgusting woman! Hurry up and drop dead! Drop dead! DROP DEAAAAAAD!!"
Even from a prone position, Koito deflected every strike with practiced precision using her guitar.
"...You came here because of anger? To this battlefield? Idiot. Something like that won't——"
"Tch."
Koito pointed her index finger at the gloomy man and smiled faintly.
"You're barking up the wrong tree, sweetie."
Cherry-pink light gathered at her fingertip and fired as a bullet, streaking toward the gloomy man's forehead.
"Don't underestimate me!"
The gloomy man dodged with a minimal tilt of his neck.
"──BANG!"
Koito murmured. In that instant, the bullet that had grazed past his ear detonated with a tremendous blast.
"Gyah!"
"Now then! That's one down!"
Koito sprang to her feet with the agile movements of a street dancer, then casually wound up her guitar. She spared a brief thought. ──Sorry I don't remember you.
"Get... LOOOOOOOOST!!"
With a grand slam swing worthy of a cleanup hitter, she smacked the gloomy man square in the rear. Her guitar shrieked with a violent whinny, and the man was launched into the distant sky.
"...That idiot. Jumped the gun."
"Captain. Any changes to the plan?"
"His 'crush-anything greatsword' was supposed to be our backup. But fine."
Caitlin thought it over. She glanced to the side — the fairies the gloomy Santa had brought along had all fled. Her own burden would increase, but there was nothing to be done.
"──Second wave!"
A collective of scientists who gathered and stored infinite knowledge — the Library Mandala. A freckled girl from their combat division manipulated hundreds of books, assembling a massive vessel.
"Anchor point secured! Analysis of extradimensional text-based information complete! Beginning local spatial synchronization!"
The massive vessel gradually took clearer shape. What had been a mere array of books had, at some point, transformed into a living creature — cylindrical, with slimy skin and thousands of fangs.
"The 'Library's' Librarian commands the 'Archive'! ──Come forth, Word-Eater!"
Word-Eater. A monster that devoured information. The Word-Eater rotated its body like a drill and burrowed through the ground like an earthworm, then turned its massive maw toward Koito.
(Something's coming!)
She tried to dodge, tried to take to the sky instinctively.
"──Fool's Footsteps (Go Far Kid)."
But a red ring hovered above her head. The instant Koito launched into the air, she was swallowed by the red ring and ejected from the blue one — directly in front of the Word-Eater.
"DEFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF"
A shriek like the grinding of massive machinery. Koito reflexively fired cherry-pink bullets into its gaping maw.
"It's no use. Inside the Word-Eater's mouth, no information can maintain its form."
The cherry-pink bullets vanished the moment they entered the Word-Eater's mouth.
(Okay, even I'd be in serious trouble if that thing ate me!)
Koito considered putting distance between them at top speed, but with Fool's Footsteps (Go Far Kid) potentially appearing at any moment, that didn't seem like the best move.
"──Bring it on!"
Koito resolved to fight the monster head-on — a creature hundreds of times larger than herself.
"Let's go. ──Cherry Red Pistol."
Her pure-white guitar glowed cherry-pink, and its overwhelming presence warped the air itself.
"Rock and roll time!"
Koito darted around with the agility of a dragonfly, flanking the Word-Eater. The massive monster was powerful, but its mobility was far from impressive.
(Getting tossed into that thing's mouth by Fool's Footsteps (Go Far Kid) would be the worst-case scenario!)
So Koito kept moving at speeds nearly impossible for the human eye to track.
"Die alreadyyyyy!"
Koito wound up her guitar and swung at the Word-Eater's body.
──Her guitar shrieked. That single strike should have destroyed the monster.
"...That... hurt... you bastard...!"
The one who'd thrown himself in the way to shield it was the Night.
"──The Nights...!"
Alex, who had landed on the monster's body via Fool's Footsteps (Go Far Kid), had converted most of his body into Night and barely managed to absorb Koito's blow.
"Heh. Not bad. When's the last time a human stopped one of my hits?"
"...──"
Alex's Night was cracked throughout from that single strike. His vision was already near blackout. (mALEEa is staking her life on this, and even with everything I've got, the gap is still this wide.)
Unfair, the man thought. The world was surely dishonest, full of nothing but bullshit.
(But that's exactly why──)
If he could make even that a little bit "better," he felt like he could truly, genuinely celebrate himself.
"OOOOOOOOOOOOH!!"
Alex swung the massive, ungainly Night hammer at Koito. She laughed and caught it on her guitar. The guitar shrieked on impact.
"──Yo, strongest monster on the planet. Gimme a one-on-one."
"Oh my. Is that a lovely date invitation?"
Koito twirled like a dancer, then lightly tapped the massive Night that made up most of his body while airborne. In that instant, his arm shattered like spun sugar.
"But can you keep up with me? I'm quite the wild child, you know."
"Hah...! Come on! Come on! Come at meeeeee!"
Alex gathered the crumbling remnants of his Night and threw himself back into the fight.
"...Hey! Ready yet!? Aren't you ready yet!?"
Gray screamed while watching her comrade's desperate struggle. The Library's Librarian shouted back, sweat streaming down her entire body.
"Don't rush me! If I lose focus for even one second, that creature vanishes and leaves a massive distortion in reality! Just a little more! Just a little moooore!"
Alex's role was to buy time. But the gap in power was overwhelming — in speed, in strength, in durability, he couldn't hold a candle to Koito. And still, the man kept screaming.
"...Tch."
Caitlin watched, clenching her fist so hard her nails bit into her palm. Blood dripped.
"Captain! ...If you step in now, everything falls apart!"
"I know... I know that...!"
If she could stay calm watching her comrades fight for their lives, she wouldn't be standing here.
"More! Come to me, Night! Gather on me. ──In return, I'll give you everything I've got."
Alex, drenched in blood and on the verge of collapse, screamed until his throat was raw.
"You were surprisingly passionate, huh. You should have dropped the bad-boy act and been like this all along."
Alex's blood, his organs, his nerves — everything was converting into Night. There was no rationality left in him. What stood there was nothing but a monster of Night, existing solely to slaughter the girl in front of him.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!"
"...What a kind person."
The Night howled and raised its iron hammer. Koito smiled faintly, dodged lightly, then closed the distance and embraced him — gently, so as not to hurt him.
"Goodnight now."
──Cherry-pink light enveloped the Night. In that instant, Alex reclaimed his own body, quietly closed his eyes, and crumpled to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut.
"That makes — two down!"
Koito's murmur came at the exact same moment.
"──Just in time!"
The freckled Librarian cried out, flipping the pages in her hands.
"Conditions have been adjusted. Temperature, season, reality density, age! All parameters have been 'rewritten'!"
The Librarian who manipulated text grinned. In that instant, blood gushed from her eyes and nose, and she collapsed.
"...Now... the 'spawning'... will begin..."
Once, that Librarian had been saved by Caitlin in a certain Otherworld. She had come to repay that debt. A ritual that normally required dozens of people — she had performed it alone, bearing the full cost herself.
"...Thank you."
Caitlin caught the falling Librarian and laid her down gently.
"Now — break apart!"
Koito shouted, winding up her guitar. There was no one left to protect the Word-Eater. She slammed the white instrument into the monster's body, and a staggering shockwave rippled through the area as her guitar shrieked.
"DFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF!!"
A section of the massive Word-Eater crumpled in an instant, and with an earth-shaking death cry the creature perished.
"...Huh? What the hell is this! Groooss!!"
──But its death was not in vain.
"DFFFFFFF!"
"DFFFF!"
"DFF!"
What spewed from the dead Word-Eater's anus were hundreds of tiny Word-Eater offspring. They spun like drills and shot through the air like bullets.
"──Third wave!"
This was the endgame. Gray created a portal above Koito with Fool's Footsteps (Go Far Kid).
"Product delivery, at your service."
What dove through the portal were the tank-like mechanical humans of the Boundary Region Trading Company.
"...RAAAAAH!"
Hundreds of information-devouring bug-monsters. Koito swung her guitar frantically trying to swat them away, but she couldn't keep up. The instant they swarmed her entire body and were about to devour her, she deployed her cherry-pink light as a barrier.
"Playing ad. Enton vacuums are number one in the universe!"
While broadcasting voice advertisements, the mechanical humans' gunfire rained down on Koito.
"What the—!?"
But the Boundary Region Trading Company's bullets dissolved the moment they touched the cherry-pink light, melting away like thin snow.
(This is...! My Anti-Reality is being dissolved!?)
Those were bullets developed by the Boundary Region Trading Company, designed to dissolve Ectoplasmic Fluid. Each individual shot was weak, but they rapidly drained Koito's stamina.
(This is bad. Maintaining the barrier already burns through my energy fast enough as it is!)
But the moment she dropped the cherry-pink barrier, the Word-Eater offspring would devour her body whole. Already heavy with fatigue, Koito surveyed the area.
"──Rule number one of FPS: take out the snipers first!"
Koito launched herself at full speed toward the mechanical humans that had been firing down at her from elevated positions.
"I won't let you! Fool's Footsteps (Go Far Kid)!"
──Her movement had been read.
"This again!?"
Koito's body, charging in a straight line, was swallowed by the red ring and ejected from the blue.
She was dumped right in the center of the Word-Eater swarm and hastily deployed her barrier again.
(They swarm me with the bugs to force my barrier up, then chip away at the barrier from range. And if I try to close in on the ranged units, Fool's Footsteps (Go Far Kid) resets me back to square one. It's an infinite loop.)
Aerial combat, sealed. Long-range options, sealed. High-speed combat, sealed. She'd been dragged into a war of attrition.
(Okay, this might actually be bad!?)
She needed to commit somewhere, Koito felt. Caitlin had thoroughly analyzed her combat patterns. Unless she took a big gamble and disrupted their formation——
(... Wait. Actually, no.)
Caitlin had studied how Koito fought. In that case.
(I just need to do something I've never done before.)
Koito thought. A strategy to break this deadlock. What came to mind was something from the other day — the mock battle with Kotoha's classmates. That Gunscar that "doubled things."
(Oh, that's good.)
Koito strummed her guitar. Cherry-pink light gathered and began taking human form.
"Hehe, I just had the best idea! Koito-chan — Double!"
It was a clone made of cherry-pink light, shaped in Koito's image. The clone had just enough capability to execute simple commands from Koito.
"...!"
The one thrown off by this was Gray. Her Fool's Footsteps (Go Far Kid) could deploy multiple portals simultaneously, but that made precise positioning much harder. Handling Koito's speed with two targets at once was nearly impossible.
"Captain... I'll leave the rest to you."
"...What?"
Gray steeled her resolve.
"──Ahaha! This is amazing! Let's go, my clone!"
Koito and her clone split apart, charging the ranged units from two directions. One — the Koito copy — was swallowed by Gray's red ring and had her movement disrupted, but the other — the real Koito — was closing in on the ranged units, cherry-pink guitar raised high.
"RAAAAAAAAAAAH——!"
What slammed a drop kick into the side of her head was Gray herself.
"Gray!"
Caitlin shouted. Gray had decided to use Fool's Footsteps (Go Far Kid) and fight Koito head-on.
(Honestly, I've got no stamina left. I can't make a portal bigger than one meter anymore.)
Even with mALEEa's buff, creating a 500-meter class portal had severely drained Gray's mental reserves. But anything less than that size, and Koito would have easily dodged it with her agility.
(I'm useless from here on out!)
And so — she thought.
mALEEa was singing with her life on the line. Alex had fought alone. Then she, too, had to—
(Ten seconds! Just ten seconds — buy that much time!)
Even shaving off the tiniest bit of Koito's stamina would help. As long as Gray was standing, the machine soldiers' bullets would keep chipping away at Koito's Ectoplasmic Fluid. And in those ten seconds — Caitlin would win!
(I was so surprised when Captain showed up at the slums.)
Once, Caitlin had visited the slums where Gray and her friends lived, looking for Alex. Alex, Gray, and mALEEa had all been street kids growing up in the same neighborhood.
Gray had figured the only jobs available when she grew up would be scamming or prostitution.
(Alex was all talk. mALEEa was too shy — she couldn't sing in front of people. And I was this cold-hearted brat who was too dumb to know any better, always saying "I'm worthless anyway.")
The steely resolve in Caitlin's eyes had scared her at first.
But the truth behind those eyes was simple. Caitlin just wanted to be a good person.
("Being a good person" — that's such a stupid idea. ...I could never be one.)
But Gray thought.
(I won't let anyone deny the wish of someone who wants to be a good person—)
She didn't know if it was right or wrong. Gray just loved Caitlin.
"Hah. Do you even know who you picked a fight with?"
Koito laughed and raised her guitar overhead. Gray screamed.
"Who or where or what for!! I don't care about any of that!!"
Gray deployed Fool's Footsteps and calculated the exact timing of the guitar's downswing. Even a tiny portal wouldn't miss at this range!
"--How lovely."
"...Huh?"
In that instant, Koito's guitar swelled to dozens of times its size through a cherry-blossom miracle. Swinging the building-sized guitar like it weighed nothing, Koito smiled.
"That makes three."
(There's no way I can block something like that.)
The massive lump of miracles came crashing down.
"GRAAAAAAY--!!"
Caitlin screamed. Koito raised the massive lump again and easily crushed the machine soldiers underfoot.
"--Now then, no more portals. That means beams are fair game, right?"
Koito took aim at the Word-Eaters closing in from behind. Cherry-blossom miracles condensed in her palm. A mass of power that could incinerate everything in sight was about to fire — and in that instant.
"...Fool's... Footsteps..."
"...Huh?"
Gray, drenched in blood, murmured from where she lay crumpled on the ground.
Gray had manifested a red ring at her own feet the instant her skull was about to be crushed. She'd escaped through the portal into the air, but even a glancing blow had left her battered beyond movement, unable to stand.
— But her final strike had blown off Koito's arm.
"...Gh--"
Gray's last portal had opened right in front of one of the Word-Eaters' eyes. The Word-Eater passed through the red ring and emerged from the blue ring — just inches from Koito's left arm.
"Guh! Cherry Red Pistol!"
Koito swung her guitar one-handed and crushed the Word-Eater.
"RAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!"
Koito had lost everything from her left shoulder down. Blood poured freely as she unleashed cherry-blossom energy with her right arm, incinerating hundreds of Word-Eaters in an instant.
"...Hah... hah... hah... haah...!"
Beads of sweat formed on Koito's forehead.
"Kah! Guh...!"
She deployed cherry-blossom miracles around her shoulder as emergency first aid to stop the bleeding.
The usual easygoing smile was gone from Koito's face. She had already been burning through stamina in the drawn-out fight, and the special bullets had been directly shaving away her Ectoplasmic Fluid. Her doubles couldn't hold their form and had vanished.
The blood loss was severe, and she'd lost her left arm. This was — the fruit of their determination.
* * *
"Time to fulfill my duty."
Without anyone noticing, the singing had stopped.
mALEEa had collapsed from exhaustion, lying where she fell. Alex and Gray were both battered beyond recognition, unable to move.
Only Caitlin's wings remained, carrying forward the baton her allies had passed to her, growing even larger — terrifyingly large.
"...Cait-chan. Your obsession is seriously something else... You really went this far?"
"If I didn't go this far, I couldn't have left a single scratch on you."
Koito laughed. Whether it was bravado, even Caitlin couldn't tell.
"...Did you want to be this strong? You want to beat me and be the strongest?"
"...Who knows. Human Yearning is complicated. Nobody can pin it down clearly."
But, Caitlin shook her head.
"I wanted to be stronger than anyone. That much is true."
Koito held not a shred of resentment toward her. She generally disliked such emotions anyway, and it was obvious that Caitlin had resolved herself to die.
"The stronger I got, the more I kept thinking... What do I do with this power? I'm not a well-rounded enough person to just live for my own happiness..."
"..."
"Don't you ever struggle with it? The meaning of your strength, the duty, the responsibility?"
Koito laughed like a kid who'd forgotten her homework.
"Hmm. I've never really thought about it."
There was no lie in her expression. Caitlin was so dumbfounded she laughed.
"...I wanted to be strong. Stronger than anyone. Without even understanding what that meant."
"..."
"Koito. What's your Yearning? What desire made you this strong? Aren't you the same as me? ...An unbearable madness, inside you too—"
Koito thought about it for a moment, then furrowed her brows in a troubled expression.
"I'm just a beautiful girl."
Caitlin stared at the cherry-blossom girl in silence.
"I know everyone's trying so hard. Working so, so hard to become who they want to be. --Yearning. Everyone harbors madness deep down, desperately clawing their way through life."
"...Yeah."
"But me? I just don't have that. I really don't. I don't even want to be strong. ...Protecting humanity and all that — well, I'll do it if I can, I guess? It's like being on day duty at school. I don't want to, but I don't mind."
Caitlin kept staring at Koito.
"I'd rather get better at fighting games and FPS than actual fighting. I can never get past Gold rank in any game. ...That's really all there is to me. I don't have any convictions."
Koito Hikari was a special human being. The strongest person on the planet. But she had never once wished for that, and she didn't feel any particular pride in it either. If someone told her she could give it up, she would gladly let it go. Koito Hikari was just an ordinary high school girl who possessed no grand sense of justice.
(Yeah, just as I thought — somebody needs to kill this girl.)
Strength without will. ...How dangerous a thing was that?
"But you know, I also think this."
Koito winced from the pain, rested her guitar on her shoulder, and murmured.
"That's exactly why it's me. Because I don't have convictions. Because I don't have wishes. Because all it takes to make me happy is grabbing crepes with a friend on the way home — that's why I'm the strongest."
If she had wishes, she would destroy humanity to fulfill them without a second thought. With the same carefree smile as the Black Demon Lord. Because she had no Yearning whatsoever, she was allowed to remain the strongest.
(That's a fair point too, I suppose. ...Laughably optimistic, though.)
O doomed humanity, countless obstacles shall appear before you.
This scarlet wing would take one of them on.
Because this one Apocalypse — she would end it here.
"Now, let's settle this. My dream. My wish. My finish line. --I am your Apocalypse."
Caitlin raised her fists.
"Sorry, but I can't die until H_NTER x H_NTER finishes."
Koito laughed. And in that exact same instant—
A shockwave like a bolt of light blasted Koito's body into the far distance.
"Kah..."
"OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHH!!"
Caitlin struck Koito with lightning speed, then chased down her tumbling body with a relentless barrage. Caught off guard, Koito tried to counterattack, but Caitlin was faster.
(Crap. She's serious. Her burst speed alone is above mine right now!?)
Koito swung her guitar down one-handed. But Caitlin's fluid chain of strikes targeted the exact joint of her elbow. It was a kung fu technique — the Wing Chun chain punch.
"Kuh..."
Koito prioritized evasion over attack. She gathered cherry-blossom miracles in her legs and kicked off hard to the rear.
"You're not getting away!"
Caitlin kicked off the ground after her. With every movement, another feather scattered from her wings.
"Just kidding~"
"!"
Koito matched the timing of Caitlin's pursuit and flipped vertically through the air.
"Kiiiick!"
— A moonsault. It snapped Caitlin's chin upward, and then—
"One more!"
Koito's flowing axe kick stomped down on Caitlin's forehead.
"Guh...!"
"Don't underestimate— eek!"
From her broken stance, Caitlin swept Koito's legs using the flow of momentum. In Chinese martial arts, the technique was called a front sweep. The high-speed sweep scooped Koito off her feet, and the back of her head slammed into the ground.
"Gyah!"
"--Crush."
Caitlin leaped with her knee thrust forward. The motion was meant to cave in Koito's face.
"Close one!"
Koito caught it on her guitar just in time. CLANG! Cherry-blossom light reflected off the scarlet wings.
"Tch."
"Take thiiiis... and get BLOWN AWAAAAAAY!!"
(Bad!)
Cherry-blossom miracles pooled in Koito's guitar. A massive beam thick enough to incinerate the entire area. Caitlin darted left in a flash and rolled across the ground to dodge.
"Hah!"
Koito swung the beam toward Caitlin. But by then, she had already circled around at blinding speed.
(She really is strong! Wing Chun? Tai Chi? I don't know, but kung fu is her base!)
Koito watched Caitlin raise her fists as she got back to her feet.
(What ridiculous movement. She's like a fighting game character.)
Koito had never undergone proper close-combat training. Same reason a bear doesn't learn karate. Humans couldn't keep up with Koito's speed and raw power. So she'd never needed to get any stronger.
"Here I come!"
But Caitlin was different. She hadn't been blessed with talent. But she did everything she could. She trained until she puked blood, and crossed the line between life and death more times than she could count.
"OOOOOOOOOOOHHHHH!!"
When Caitlin charged straight at her, Koito couldn't react. Not because of her speed.
(What was that just now!?)
— Footwork. Caitlin had been varying her stride length as she closed the distance, deceiving Koito's sense of range.
"Nyah!"
Caitlin's fist punched clean through Koito's jaw.
"...Wha--"
But the one who was truly shocked was Caitlin.
"Can't take your eyes off me~"
Caitlin's fist had punched through Koito's face. — It was a cherry-blossom miracle decoy.
"Hah!"
The real Koito was above Caitlin. She was raising an enormously swollen guitar over her head.
"This was so much fun, Cait-chan!"
"Damn...!"
Caitlin crossed her arms in a guard.
(Hold. I can hold. I will absolutely hold!)
— This was the critical moment. If she could endure this, her trump card would ignite.
"Rock and roll!"
Koito swung the guitar down. The impact was like an entire skyscraper dropping on top of her, and Caitlin was blocking it with nothing but her body.
"Ngh... guhh... OOOOOOOOOHHH!"
She felt her muscle fibers snapping apart. Felt her bones creaking and breaking. The scarlet wing's energy repaired her crumbling body. And with each repair, more feathers vanished.
"GAAAAAAAAHHHHH!"
— But she couldn't hold. Her knees buckled, her spine shattered, and her body was driven into the earth.
"Phew... Did I go a little overboard?"
The tremendous impact had launched Koito skyward as well. She floated gently in the air, surveying the scene below. The dust cloud was so thick she couldn't see, but—
Thud.
— There was a footstep. Koito's eyes went wide with shock.
"...Not yet."
A girl in scarlet was standing.
Covered head to toe in blood, looking like a wrung-out rag.
— But her wings alone blazed with a brilliance bright enough to blind.
(Heroes — never die—)
Caitlin Ann Austin's Half-Wing. Its power was: "the more she's hurt, the stronger she becomes."
"Thanks to you... I can get even stronger."
"..."
Koito was confused. She trusted her own eyes. She knew exactly how hard she needed to hit any living thing to crush it.
(I hit her with more than enough force to finish her.)
Something was missing from Koito's calculations. She was sure of it.
"...Oh."
Koito noticed. Feathers were slowly, steadily shedding from Caitlin's wings.
"Cait-chan. That thing—"
"...This is my — Endpoint."
Gunscar. Slash. Half-Wing. The fundamental purpose of all Anti-Reality was one thing — to fulfill the owner's Yearning.
— In other words, to fight despair.
When the owner faced true despair, their deepest power would manifest.
"...Cait-chan. To me, that looks like something... not very good."
To Koito, it looked like a flame that consumed the wielder's own life.
And she wasn't wrong.
"Heroes Never Die — Burn Until the End."
Caitlin's Half-Wing Endpoint. It consumed all the power she had stored, further strengthening her in return. But it was power on a time limit.
"When I've burned through every last feather, I die."
Simple and reckless — a power perfectly suited to Caitlin. It was everything she was.
"...What a fool. For something so pointless."
"You wouldn't understand. Nobody would. Don't you dare try."
Caitlin gathered force into her fist. In that instant, dozens of feathers vanished from her wings all at once.
"--Before I burn out, I'll end you first!"
A blinding radiance engulfed the world. Moving at the speed of light, Caitlin slammed her fist into Koito's solar plexus and sent her flying like a bullet.
"OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHH--!"
A superhuman barrage at blinding speed. Koito couldn't react as strikes powerful enough to bore through mountains hammered her body.
"ME! I! I AM THE ONE WHO-- AAAAAAAAHHHHH--!"
She felt her entire body screaming under a force no human could endure.
"...Why?"
Koito murmured, her voice near tears.
"Why... do you have to go this far...?"
Caitlin screamed like a beast, and thought.
"I'll never get to see that girl again!"
The girl her future self had cherished above everything else. The girl she'd ultimately failed to save.
(I've pushed Half-Wing too far. I probably don't have more than a few years left.)
So.
She had wanted to leave something behind.
"At the very end! You at least!! You at least-- AAAAAAAAHHHHH!"
If she could remove even one obstacle from that girl's future.
"BE DESTROOOOOYED--!!"
— That was the life of the girl named Caitlin Ann Austin.
"...I'm sorry, Cait-chan."
Amidst the storm of blows, Koito alone smiled quietly.
"You were too strong. So much stronger than I ever imagined. ...So, I'm sorry."
"This is the end!!"
Koito Hikari gripped her pure white guitar tight.
"--Cherry Red Pistol."
Koito swung her guitar lightly. — That alone sent Caitlin hurtling into the far distance.
"...Huh?"
Caitlin crashed into the ground, and every bone in her body broke. Her wings healed the damage instantly.
"Wha... was that... just now..."
"...I really wanted to keep it hidden until the end. I really didn't want to say it."
The horsepower was overwhelmingly different from the Koito she'd been fighting. Caitlin had analyzed mountains of combat data. She had calculated that her current self could win. But.
(Could this be... the power of Koito's Gunscar?)
Her ability, Cherry Red Pistol, was shrouded in mystery. Nobody knew how it worked or what it did. So Caitlin had concluded that Koito must have been holding back a trump card.
(This is where the real fight starts! It's fine. Every ability has a weakness. If I can find it—)
Caitlin poured her resolve into her wings and stood.
Koito Hikari was smiling, looking like she was about to cry.
"Cherry Red Pistol's ability. It — weakens me."
Caitlin stared at the girl before her.
"...............Huh?"
Behind Koito, a colossal cherry-blossom aura towered into the sky, visibly rippling, warping the world itself. An overwhelming distortion of reality.
(What... is that R-value?)
The density of reality around Koito alone was on a completely different level. She was less human and more akin to something called a dragon or a demon. Caitlin spat blood and rose to her feet.
"...You've... got to be... kidding me..."
But more than that.
More than that.
More than that.
"...Koi... to. You... y-you..."
This girl. The girl with cherry-blossom hair.
"You!! Us!! Our fight!! The whole time!! The whole time!? You were holding back the whole time!? You were... suppressing your power... looking down on us... this whole time...?"
Caitlin looked at her allies lying around her. The friends who had believed in her. A terror cold enough to freeze her heart gripped her. ...Then what was any of it for? All this time.
"Don't screw with me...! Don't screw with me! DON'T SCREW WITH MEEEEEEE!!"
Koito gripped her guitar tight, looking like she might cry.
"...Because. If I didn't at least give you a decent fight, that would just be sad for you..."
"...............Huh?"
"Because... you all tried so, so hard... If you didn't get some payoff, that would just be sad..."
That was what Koito truly, genuinely felt. Caitlin could tell — it was painfully obvious. But that was why. Precisely why. Precisely why!
"KOITOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO--!!"
She screamed like a monster and raised her fist at the speed of light.
"...I'm sorry."
Cherry-blossom light swallowed the scarlet wings in an instant.
Koito Hikari had not killed a single person in this battle.
She had been careful not to deal a fatal blow to anyone.
"...Koito... you... you..."
Caitlin lay collapsed, barely breathing. Every feather of her wings had been burned away. And still she desperately reached toward Koito.
"...You... what are you... Where did you come from... and where do you... intend to go..."
Koito applied a slight amount of force, and cherry-blossom miracles gathered at her shoulder, immediately repairing her lost hand. As if the wound had never existed in the first place.
"I've been telling you. I'm just a beautiful girl. I didn't come from outer space, and I'm not going anywhere."
"Y-you... you..."
Caitlin stared at Koito, eyes wide. Not with the gaze of someone looking at an enemy. Something more like pity. But laced with fierce hostility and despair.
"...You're... not human... You couldn't possibly... be human..."
Caitlin lost consciousness.
When she came to, Koito stood alone in the wasteland. As always.
"...No."
Koito smiled sadly — but smiled all the same.
"--I'm human. No matter what you say."
Alone in an empty world, Koito thought, just a little.
(Not that it matters. If you'd truly been strong enough... I wouldn't have minded losing.)
The wind brushed through her cherry-blossom hair.
(Let's go home.)
— Today was Tuesday. Update day for her favorite manga.
Finish Line
Heroes Never Die
Caitlin Ann Austin's Half-Wing.
A blazing scarlet wing.
Just like her bright, straightforward personality, its nature is simple and uncomplicated. When Caitlin herself, her allies, or the things she wants to protect are hurt, it amplifies her physical abilities by that much.
Simple as it is, it's a powerful Half-Wing, and at full capacity her combat strength ranks among the top one or two across the Corporations.
The shape of the world a girl believed in from the bottom of her heart — a girl who gained strength through pain.
Endpoint
Endpoint
The deepest power held by Gunscar · Sniper · Half-Wing.
It only activates when she must fulfill her reason for existence, when she stands against her own despair — and at great cost.
Difficult to control and requiring sacrifice to use, the Three Great Universities have not made its existence public.
Cherry Red Pistol
Remnant Blossoms
Koito Hikari's guitar.
‘I want to be human’ — a gift given to her by a certain angel.
Remnant Blossoms weakens Koito Hikari. Because that is what she wishes for.
She has also been given a Gunscar by the “Angel of Gunscar,” but it fires rubber bands — a toy gun — with no noteworthy anti-reality properties, and no one besides Koito Hikari knows of it.