Volume 5, Chapter 4: If Someone Remains to be Saved - Final_Exams_“Handcuffs”.

Part 1

It doesn’t matter which side anyone is on. Let’s combine all the strange tech seen in Operation Handcuffs and resurrect the dead.

That was the plan from Alice’s world, which sounded ridiculous in hindsight.

But what if Kamijou hadn’t attempted it alone? What if someone far more talented and wicked than a simple high schooler had attempted it in the real world?

“…”

Kamijou Touma stared at the phone receiver for a while after the call ended.

Payphones mostly had the same features as an ordinary phone, but they unfortunately lacked a redial button. And during his New Year’s Tokyo survival life, he couldn’t hope to guess the right number with only 49 yen to work with. It was already looking like they would have to survive until the ATMs were back on nothing but a small convenience store chocolate bar and a packet of sold-separately dressing.

But who were Kihara Hasuu and Risako? Where in Academy City were they? Needless to say, Academy City was a large place covering a third of Tokyo where 2.3 million people lived.

(Think back.)

Accelerator had hung up without giving him any answers.

Accelerator wasn’t the type to bother with riddles. He had the best brain in the city, so he had likely skipped several steps to reach the answer on his own. That meant the necessary clues were already here and Accelerator hadn’t seen a need to state the obvious.

(The answer isn’t hidden somewhere like District 15 or 20 that hasn’t shown up at all during this mess. The answer is right there in everything I’ve already seen. And Accelerator would know what the others were doing too. That means Benizome, the Rakuoka siblings, Youen and Kaai, and Frillsand #G. Could there be a hint in something the others saw?)

Drencher, the Anti-Skill woman, and even the Anti-Skill Negotiator had shown them that Academy City’s adults weren’t all bad - even if that last one had had a messed-up way of showing it.

They had risked their lives to fight for someone else.

Everything would fall apart if he ignored their resolve and determination now.

With that in mind, he raised his head.

“Damn, that’s right. There’s still Frillsand #G.”

“Um?”

Still holding onto him from the side, Alice shook her fine blonde hair, wiggled the fluffball on the back of her apron, and tilted her smiling head. She still didn’t seem bothered by her short sleeves. Now, was Accelerator aware this small storybook girl was here? It wouldn’t surprise Kamijou to find out that Alice had mysteriously escaped his notice.

“The real one was so powerful that simply seeing her was enough to nearly kill us. We didn’t even have a chance to make out what she was talking about.”

He had admittedly written it off as nothing more than her being a creepy ghost, but he couldn’t do that here.

“But where did she appear from?”

He couldn’t always rely on what had happened in Alice’s world since she had distorted so many factors, but there she had walked around the concourse and suddenly appeared from the next room by passing through the wall. That meant she wasn’t bound by the laws of physics but still followed the paths on the map to an extent. She did not suddenly teleport from point to point like Shirai Kuroko.

Then realistically speaking, how could she have caught them by surprise at that covered bus stop?

They would have noticed her approaching from a distance. Or rather, they would have collapsed sooner. She hadn’t passed through the wall of a nearby building either. Which only left one option:

“Underground,” he muttered. That was the only way for her to get so close without them noticing. “She emerged from underground. Like someone floating up to the ocean surface. It was the same with Rakuoka Houfu. I thought he was underground because Kaai was in the sewers, but what if that wasn’t the only reason?”

He heard a solid metallic sound.

It came from Rakuoka Houfu, who had shrunk down to a small middle-aged man. Anti-Skill had placed him on a stretcher. He had fought Tessou Tsuzuri who had pushed back with extraordinary strength and he had been sniped a few times by Benizome, so he was in no state to answer any questions.

For just a moment, Anti-Skill stopped working.

He couldn’t get up from the stretcher, but he managed to reach out and touch the forehead of a woman knocked out by a drug. They didn’t say a word. Neither sibling had lived a laudable life, but he still deserved a chance to reconfirm the weight of what he had risked his life and taken bullets to protect.

Finally, Anti-Skill loaded Rakuoka Houfu onto the ambulance.

Whatever was on her mind, Shirai Kuroko sighed while watching from a distance. Kamijou had not played a role in Handcuffs, so he couldn’t know what feelings that sigh carried.

“Well, there is that place hidden deep below District 10.” The answer came with surprising casualness from the cream-colored liquid violating gravity by spiraling around Youen. It transformed into the other twin like a water spirit (that looked so filthy you would take poison damage if you touched it). “Youen and I didn’t see Handcuffs through to the end, but I did notice something strange while enjoying my lovely sewer vacation. Everything down there is designed to avoid a certain area. We didn’t care about it, but that might have been the goal for most of the criminals caught up in Handcuffs.”

“What? What are you talking about?”

“What else?” The liquid girl seemed confused he didn’t know. “I’m talking about Academy City’s Greatest Taboo.”

Hanatsuyu Kaai went on to explain something unbelievable.

According to her, Academy City strongly promoted recycling since they could not mine their own resources, but that wasn’t enough to break the city’s reliance on importing resources. However, the amount of materials brought in and the amount of garbage produced didn’t match up. For some reason, the amount of garbage was larger. That violated conservation of mass, so the numbers only added up if there was a secret underground passageway through which materials were transported.

However, the legend of a secret passageway was only a bluff meant to hide the truth and Academy City’s Greatest Taboo was something else.

The real answer was Operation Handcuffs’ ending point.

While so many criminals met tragic ends, only a few experts like Kihara Hasuu and Frillsand #G would have arrived at that true darkness. If some part of the supposedly resolved incident remained, it had to be there.

Youen sighed and continued for her twin.

“If it’s below District 10’s outer wall, your best bet is probably to descend into the subway and travel as far south as you can get. Although Kaai said the underground infrastructure is built to avoid the Taboo.”

“Hmm. Is it really that complicated?” asked Kamijou. “If he really was working with Frillsand #G, then Drencher must have reached that Taboo as well. His mobile base was left in the parking lot of the abandoned leisure spa next door, so we should be able to reach our destination by heading underground from here.”

“I see. And even if he did seal up the underground passageway, we can break through a random wall to make a shortcut. A biological acid or a methane explosion should do the trick.”

“Youen? Since when are you helping me?”

“What? You’re going to make use of us criminals again, aren’t you? Then hurry it up. If I have to risk my life, I want to get it over with as soon as possible. Even if urban pests and vermin tend not to hibernate, it still isn’t easy chemically guiding them during a late December night.”

“No.” She made it sound like a foregone conclusion, but Kamijou shook his head. “You’ve done enough already. I mean, none of this would have even happened if the Overhunting hadn’t crashed. You have no stake in this fight, so you don’t need to risk your life.”

“Do you have a death wish? I’ve only heard of Kihara Hasuu and never actually met him, but if he reached the Taboo and is waiting there now, then he’s an even deeper part of the darkness than me. Did you think bringing ordinary Anti-Skill and Judgment with you would be enough?”

“No, I didn’t. But if I used you, I wouldn’t be any better than that Anti-Skill Negotiator.”

“But-”

Youen started to say more, so he grabbed her skinny shoulders and crouched down.

He put himself at her eye level before continuing.

“Please. This isn’t the first time you’ve saved my life.”

“?”

Oh, right. She didn’t remember what happened in Alice’s world.

Not that it mattered. He would never forget any of the things that little villain had done for him.

“If I owed you anything more, I’d never be able to repay you, so I want you to stay where it’s safe.”

She fell silent at that.

But the less sensible twin started trembling.

“F-first he asks for help to save that muscle man and now he has the audacity to say he cares about her safety? And Youen is falling for it? …Yes. Oh, god, yes!! Youen’s heart and body are falling for a bankrupt boy with only 49 yen to his name and I’m helpless to do anything at all to stop it! I-is this what they call NTR? I can already tell this will defile my soul in ways I never even imagined! Gulp!!”

“Shut up, Kaai!! I-I am not falling for him in any way shape or form!!”

“I am not bankrupt!! Don’t even suggest something so horrifying!!”

Kamijou beckoned Shirai Kuroko over and she explained the situation.

“Yomikawa-san was sent away after getting a splint for her arm and the other Anti-Skill officers are staying here. They need to preserve the scene of the crime, quarantine and exterminate the pests and vermin, and keep an eye on the recaptured prisoners. I will be heading underground to tie up the last loose ends.”

“Got it. So is it just the two of us paying Academy City’s Greatest Taboo a visit?”

“The girl is coming too☆”

“Hey, no fair!!” shouted Youen, forcing Shirai to hold out a hand to silence her.

“You have no business doing this either. And you were shot!” she shouted to him, looking like she had a headache.

“But we’re the only two who can do this. I’m sick of forcing the risk onto people just because they’re villains, so I’m going too. I want to create a version of the 29th I’m satisfied with.”

“Okay, that’s enough!!”

Unable to just watch any longer, Youen popped off the rubber cap of a test tube and then Kamijou felt something hot at the center of his gut. Right at the bullet wound.

“It’s a nontoxic mold. It can only place a thin film over the wound, but that’s better than nothing, right?”

“Mold?”

“If you don’t want it, you can remove it by rubbing on some ethanol, but that would probably cause the wound to open up all the way, killing you.”

This exchange left Shirai Kuroko looking about as exasperated as humanly possible. Was that directed at Youen herself or at Kamijou for speaking so casually with such an unmanageable villain?

“I really think I should leave you here with the prisoners where Anti-Skill can protect you,” she said.

“Don’t be ridiculous. I’m willing to put myself through hell as many times as it takes.”

“Why do I get the feeling that right there is the entire problem with you?”

Shirai sighed in utter annoyance, but she didn’t stop him either. She was still a middle school 1st year, so whether she was consciously aware of it or not, she may have been reluctant to approach this unseen Taboo alone.

Frillsand #G and Kihara Hasuu. Youen had assured him this darkness was deeper than her.

Fortunately, there were plenty of stairways leading underground.

“Let’s get going.”

“Sure.”

Part 2

All hesitation was gone once they descended the subway station stairs.

Something isn’t right, gulped Kamijou.

They hadn’t arrived at Academy City’s Greatest Taboo yet. Drencher may have passed through here on the way to the Taboo, but according to Kaai and Youen, they would have to travel south from here and maybe blow up a wall before finally reaching it.

The station was warm.

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And not just because they were sheltered from the winter air. A somewhat musty and sour smell helped make him feel like he was walking down the gullet of a giant creature.

“Hey,” he said.

“Yes?” asked Shirai Kuroko.

“This is still a normal subway station, right?”

The ticket gates extended from the walls.

They walked around those since they couldn’t pass through them and a bit later the floor changed from concrete to marble. The basement of a fancy department store led to the sewer, which ultimately smoothly connected to a rough stony area reinforced with steel beams. It was a lot like a cave or a mine.

Something very different was happening here. They were going somewhere else entirely without knowing what had caused the change.

Could they blame this on Frillsand #G or on the mysterious researcher named Kihara Hasuu?

“Wait, wait, wait. A mine? Since when does Academy City have one of those?” he asked.

“The Taboo was supposed to be a secret passageway for transferring materials, so perhaps they preserved the limited underground resources instead of using them. Or maybe they distributed algae that rapidly convert animal carcasses into petroleum,” suggested Shirai.

“I get the concept and maybe somewhere like that does exist somewhere in the city, but it seems wrong for this place to directly connect to those ordinary tunnels, like something from a surreal painting.”

“This could be the physical manifestation of something. It isn’t biological like the AIM Burst was, but this feels similar to me.”

AIM. That term reminded Kamijou of Kazakiri Hyouka, the girl who existed as a collection of the AIM diffusion fields made from the faint power that escapes an esper.

(But if that’s true…)

He gulped and looked around.

(Is that what all of this is?)

That did seem worth calling Academy City’s Greatest Taboo.

He had entered District 10 through the subway tunnels in Alice’s world, so he couldn’t rely on that memory. However, it did get him thinking.

The tunnels hadn’t been this expansive back then, so was something causing the distortion to accelerate?

The underground wasn’t covered by the map apps, so he doubted he could rely on them. That meant his old folk’s smartphone was only good for its digital compass. He kept them pointed south. The underground space stretched out in a network of tunnels, but he was afraid one wrong turn down a side tunnel would mean never finding the surface again.

They heard a solid sound like shoes on the ground.

Shirai Kuroko casually turned toward the source and then collapsed. Whatever she had seen had drained the strength from her legs. Kamijou recognized that phenomenon, so he kept his head turned the other way while picking up the limp girl and hiding behind a nearby pillar. He normally wasn’t aware of it, but the human body was a heavy thing. It felt like dragging a sandbag.

“Frillsand #G!!”

She didn’t respond, which was for the best. Whether or not the artificial ghost meant any harm, her stimuli were too powerful for human senses. And sight wasn’t necessarily the only trigger. An unexpected word from her could always knock him out.

With a visual threat, he could at least guess what to punch with Imagine Breaker to damage it, but this was too vague and spectral to have a punchable target.

“Please, restrain yourself a little more!! We aren’t strong enough to bear it!!”

He heard more footsteps resembling a knocking sound. Incautious Alice was clearly sticking her head out from behind the pillar and smiling, the white fluffball on the back of her apron cutely wiggling. She could shrug off a curse, germ, or any other internal threat (it was like trying to kill a mole by burying it alive) and she seemed proud of that ability, giving off some full power “compliment me” beams. The upper arms left exposed by her short sleeves shined bright without a single goose bump.

“Teacher, that ghost is leaving.”

“Is she telling us to follow her? Or is she telling us to leave because it’s too dangerous?”

“That would be good to know.”

Kamijou tried to puzzle it out while lending feverish Shirai his shoulder and leaning out from behind the pillar. Frillsand #G was already gone, but he could hear her footsteps coming from the shadows up ahead.

“I think she’s telling us to follow her.”

“What makes you so sure?”

Because she could have knocked them all out now if she only wanted to stop them. She could have done so with ease. Well, except for with Alice Anotherbible.

Kamijou asked another question while helping Shirai stay on her feet.

“She lived with Drencher and those specimen children, right? How could something so deadly live with people?”

“Hm. Maybe it wasn’t always like this.” Alice placed her index finger on her chin. “What is this place, anyway?”

“What do you mean?”

“Academy City’s Greatest Taboo was supposed to be near District 10’s outer wall, so whatever it is, it wouldn’t be this large. Doesn’t that mean the Taboo wasn’t originally like this and something destroyed it?”

“So what is happening here?” asked Shirai.

“Who knows. But this definitely isn’t a normal place. If teacher is right and the ghost is guiding you, then maybe she knows more about it.”

Alice tilted her head while poking at her hair’s animal ear curls. Was this underground labyrinth the result of Frillsand #G coming in contact with Academy City’s Greatest Taboo?

Or had something else caused the collapse?

What did she even want them to do? Accelerator had suggested they needed to rescue Risako from Kihara Hasuu, but was that really a powerful enough enemy that not even Frillsand #G could defeat him?

It felt like all those questions had taken physical form.

They followed the footsteps up ahead. Kamijou tried his map app, assuming it wouldn’t work, but it was completely frozen. He checked the digital compass and they were definitely headed south. Nevertheless, the tunnel they were following never seemed to end. He felt like they were going to leave Academy City if they kept this up much longer.

“Gh. This is just like that 1994 theory on faster-than-light travel,” groaned Shirai Kuroko, shaking her head and still borrowing his shoulder.

He hadn’t heard of this one.

“Near the end of the 20th century, a certain physicist seriously constructed a warp theory. The idea was to compress space, cross that distorted space in a single step, and then revert space to normal like straightening out a scrunched-up carpet to ignore the speed-of-light limit.”

Shirai probably knew so much about this because she was a Teleporter. She may have wanted to research all the other ideas out there.

“This could be the opposite. Some kind of force may have crumpled up this space like a flyer being thrown in the trash. So we won’t reach our destination by counting our steps in the same direction. It might look we’re only taking one step, but if space has been crumpled up, then this might actually be a third of Tokyo or an even greater distance compressed down to almost nothing.”

“Wait, then is Frillsand #G not leading us somewhere?”

“Who ever said she was?”

Maybe Frillsand #G thought she was safely guiding them, but Alice had said this space was destroyed.

In other words…

“Is this place ruled by conflicting wills, one wanting to protect us and one wanting to eliminate us?”

“The question is whether there is a third party in control here, or if this is a psychological battle being waged inside her.”

But protect them from what?

If Frillsand #G was this powerful, then why did she need someone else’s help?

An electronic sign used to display warnings sat on the rocky mine-like ground.

Text scrolled by on the orange lights.

“Why am I always the one that survives?”

Kamijou tilted his head. Would a ghost talk about “surviving”? After leaving the mine, they found a large, clean train station concourse. All of the pillars there had curved advertisement LCD displays attached.

Each one displayed a different smiling face. The voice they played was not the ghost’s.

One displayed a golden retriever.

“I haven’t seen the doggy since the sewers.”

One displayed Vivana Oniguma.

“The girl who saved me had her picture on the news. They said she died.”

One displayed Drencher Kihara Repatri.

“I saw mister shot to death.”

One was Hamazura Shiage.

“The delinquent who took Sodate-chan and me to the surface was…”

The trembling voice belonged to a girl Alice’s age or younger and was permeated with sorrow.

Kamijou didn’t recognize everyone shown.

And even those he did, he couldn’t say how much they matched up with what he had learned in Alice’s world. Take Drencher Kihara Repatri for example. The artificial ghost’s lightning attacks had burned an image into his mind, but was that what had really happened, or was it something Alice had invented just for fun?

He felt certain he would find the answer if he pursued Risako, who had been saved by villain after villain.

Maybe none of them had been good people. They probably felt more at home in the shadows. But during the chaos of Handcuffs, those villains had felt a stirring from the last shreds of a conscience in their hearts. When they had seen a young life thrown into the center of that hellish Christmas, they had reached out a helping hand with no thought to their own lives. They had wanted to smile and give her a chance to run away and survive.

These people had risked their lives for nothing more than that.

Whatever the result had been, some of the villains on that day had possessed a strong enough will to make that choice. So Risako had no reason to feel this way.

And yet…

“So I need to be strong.”

All the concourse lights went out. In the pitch darkness, an image was displayed across an entire wall, like projection mapping.

A small girl hung her head and bit her lip while an artificial ghost flew around her.

“I want the kind of power that lets me keep anyone else from getting hurt. I need to protect Sodate-chan, the ghost lady, and everyone else from my weakness. No matter what it takes.”

The text displayed on the wall received a response.

Frillsand #G shouted to the girl.

She said that was wasn’t true, she said drowning in the darkness would accomplish nothing, and she said the people lost during Handcuffs had gladly risked their lives to drag her out of that very darkness.

But none of it reached the girl.

Frillsand #G was so dreadfully powerful, but her voice couldn’t even reach this small girl’s ears.

Why was that?

Because someone else didn’t want the nightmare to end and thus silenced the saving voice that would guide the girl to the safe exit.

“Hee hee. Ah ha ha. Your voice will never reach Risako-kun. You already lost during Handcuffs because an artificial ghost like you cannot exist in this space, remember? So you cannot reach her. She can only hear me! You are as powerless to protect her as the man you loved!! Gee hee ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!!!!”

An old man laughed crudely.

But this voice did not come from a mouth. It came from near the girl’s feet. Her young hands held a horrifically brutal chainsaw.

A voice seemed to bleed through from the depths of the earsplitting roar. Just like you started fantasizing a meaning in any white noise if you listened to it for long enough.

“Quite the retro sound, don’t you think? But it contains everything needed to destroy.”

A vague shape other than Risako appeared alongside her.

It stood across the chainsaw from her and held the weapon along with her, like a bride and groom holding the knife to cut the cake. Maybe the brutal chainsaw functioned as a link between the living and the dead.

The other figure could no longer be called human.

Frillsand #G and the heavy weapon spewing malicious words glared at each other with oblivious Risako in between. Yes, the old man clashed directly with the artificial ghost and even held his own.

“You cannot reach her.”

The mocking words did not come from the spectral old man. He was moving his mouth in time with them, but the sound actually came from the violent power tool young Risako held in her hands.

Something evil resided in that rotating blade.

“Your words cannot reach her. Only logical words can reach Risako-kun now. No matter how cruel it might seem, anyone can understand something if it is logically sound.”

“Kh.”

“Rejecting someone’s logical argument with groundless, subjective emotion feels so terribly violent to them. And violence is what Risako-kun detests most of all after the events of Handcuffs, so won’t she just push you away?”

“Kihara…Hasuu!!”

This would be over in the blink of an eye if Risako would simply open the door to her heart, but that would not happen. Other people’s emotions were so difficult to predict and they could even lead to violence if you weren’t careful, so the young girl would reject them herself.

Even though there was nothing at all wrong with emotions.

Was logic a symbol of calm stability and emotion a symbol of violent outbursts? Of course not. Anyone who lived in Academy City long enough would realize the great value of the ordinary kindness and gentleness that helped hold wild logic in check. If the world was ruled by nothing but logic, life would be so much colder and crueler. Hadn’t Drencher Kihara Repatri tricked profit-focused Academy City and taken in those specimen children so he could fight back against exactly that?

“I attempted to reproduce my mind based on you, but several of the details differ. For example, I can control the malfunctions brought on by Academy City’s Greatest Taboo. I can also hold objects to an extent. But unlike you, if I try to leave the Taboo, I would apparently release such a powerful and uncontrollable burst of electricity it would fry the entire city. It saddens me I would destroy any valuable experimental equipment I might try to approach, so I need a convenient body to use.”

“So you’re going to hijack Risako’s body!?”

“Oh, this is nothing so cliché.”

Why had Risako come all this way in the first place?

If Kihara Hasuu couldn’t leave, he couldn’t have forcibly taken her here.

Had she survived the 25th, but something hadn’t sat right with her?

Had she descended to this place in the hopes of collecting the traces of the people who hadn’t survived and then encountered a horrific monster?

If so, this was as horrifying a crime as a murderer killing a complete stranger while they visited a loved one’s grave.

“Admittedly, finding a way to possess people and jump from body to body would be interesting, but I bet the #5 could do that if she were willing to abandon her body. As a Kihara, I want my death to give the world an even greater dream.”

That guess was wrong, off base, and mistaken, but did that mean he wasn’t threatening Risako’s life?

No.

The old man sharing the chainsaw with her wasn’t so kind.

He hadn’t appeared in Alice’s world, which meant even Alice had done everything she could to keep Kamijou away from him. The dead ends of so many lives were gathered on this one point.

The roaring engine tricked the mind into hearing a human voice once more.

“Which is why Risako-kun is simply buying me some time until my work is complete. The thing is, I am apparently too powerful on my own at the moment. I don’t know if she will survive until the end of my work, but she was always meant to be a research specimen. I might as well use her as she was intended. Gee hee, gee hee, hee hee hee ah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!”

Frillsand #G wasn’t just going to stand there.

This may have been Kamijou’s first time seeing the artificial ghost’s right hand form a fist, take direct aim at something, and send hostility their way.

But Kihara Hasuu looked entirely unfazed.

The old man had implied he had defeated her during Handcuffs. He smiled thinly, took one hand from the chainsaw, held out his right hand so their arms crossed, and formed a finger gun.

“You cannot win.”

“Gah!?”

“So leave it all to me. Both the Taboo that has swallowed you whole and this puny life you still try to protect.”

There was no light or sound, but something like an invisible thread definitely snapped. Frillsand #G was rapidly pushed away from Academy City’s Greatest Taboo. She reached out in desperation, but Risako failed to notice while standing down in the deepest depths of the darkness.

Frillsand #G was clenching her teeth and trying so hard to rescue her, but the young girl remained oblivious while speaking to herself.

“This time, I will protect the ghost lady.”

The concourse’s bright lights came on, blowing away the image projected on the wall.

This wasn’t over and Kamijou’s group were the only ones who could do anything about it.

The very future of Academy City had to be riding on this one.

“This isn’t right,” said Kamijou Touma.

No one disagreed. That silence was a wholehearted agreement.

It was an agreement with the boy who questioned the darkness and chose to stand up to the city’s remaining cruelty.

“We can’t let this happen.”

Risako was clearly acting oddly. Something had been implanted in her mind.

Why would she see anything logical as correct and reject everything else? Why didn’t she allow anything based on emotion?

What if everyone had responded with cold, mechanical logic during the Cold War when two superpowers had aimed nuclear missiles at each other, during World War Three when science and magic had clashed directly, or when Othinus had half-jokingly blown away the world with Gungnir? The world would have ended long ago.

When people saw the world approaching destruction, they felt fear. When they failed to protect their loved ones, they felt pain. When they learned powerful people were manipulating the world from the shadows, they felt anger. When they wanted to ensure they could continue living their lives tomorrow, they decide to screw up their courage.

What was wrong with those feelings filling people’s hearts?

So many things couldn’t be explained with logic.

Why do people laugh? Why can’t you see people’s thoughts? Why are there so many stars? So many problems become a tangled mess once you try to explain them logically.

“She wanted to say that herself, but she couldn’t. She kept shouting it, but it never reached Risako who was lured into the depths of the darkness and now wanders there all alone. Dammit, is this the regret keeping that ghost from passing on?”

They now knew the motive preventing the ghost from truly dying.

They had finally found the reason Frillsand #G fought. Unlike in Alice’s world, she wasn’t fighting for herself. She wanted to respect the feelings of the dead by protecting this young life that still lived, but she couldn’t do it. So she had needed someone else’s help. No matter what.

Kamijou did not know the whole story of Operation Handcuffs. Maybe he didn’t really have the right to be standing here. But this small life had barely survived thanks to the work of so many people risking it all on that day and now some piece of sh*t was trampling on it all by repeating that stupid tragedy while sneering out from the shadows.

He had finally found the last person still struggling in the sticky darkness.

But he hadn’t reached her yet.

Handcuffs still wasn’t over. It would never end unless someone put an end to this tragedy.

“…”

Kamijou Touma stepped away from Shirai Kuroko who was still supporting herself on his shoulder.

“Hey, you said we’ll never reach our destination like this, didn’t you? Because this space was broken against Frillsand #G’s will?”

“I did.”

“And you said the space is essentially crumpled up, right?”

“What of it?”

He silently turned to face one of the concourse’s pillars.

It could have been anywhere. He only had to clench his right fist.

“So what happens if I do this?”

He slammed his fist against the illusion before his eyes.

Part 3

Crash!!!!!!

Part 4

After a moment of dizziness, Kamijou Touma found himself in an unfamiliar location.

It looked like an ancient colosseum. A large, circular space contained evenly-spaced concrete pillars. A train turntable was located in the center. Much like a clockface, tracks extended from it in 12 directions before being swallowed up by dark tunnels.

This was Academy City’s Greatest Taboo.

This was the very end of Operation Handcuffs.

Shirai Kuroko and Alice Anotherbible were no longer by his side.

The crumpled-up space had been returned to normal, so even though they had appeared to be so close, they may have been sent to some distant place when the wrinkles were straightened out. Wherever they were, they were probably somewhere beneath Academy City.

So.

The small figure in front of him was not either of the girls he had been working with. Someone more dangerous was waiting for him now that he was freed from that distortion.

It was an old man in a lab coat.

He probably shouldn’t have been here.

He held a chainsaw longer than 150cm. Young Risako had been holding that in the image Kamijou had seen while Frillsand #G was guiding them.

He had a bad feeling about this.

“What happened to Risako?” asked Kamijou, his voice low.

“I ate her up. Leaving nothing but bone.”

An unpleasant noise came from Kamijou’s back teeth.

Kihara Hasuu’s shoulders shook in laughter, as if this ordinary human anger was the funniest thing he had ever seen.

“I’m only kidding. Seen too many remnants of Handcuffs while you wandered around today? Did you figure one of us might just go that far?”

He doubled over in laughter before straightening up and raising a finger.

No, that wasn’t it.

He was pointing up toward the tall, tall ceiling. Perhaps this would have been more clearly visible for anyone who arrived here along the proper route.

Something dangled from the ceiling like a bagworm. No, that was a tiny silhouette being suspended from the ceiling.

“There’s no real meaning behind it.”

The simplest kind of cruelty suddenly blossomed here.

What greater desecration was there?

Kihara Hasuu made it sound so obvious that Kamijou nearly missed it.

“She is 550m up. The ceiling of this underground space borders the surface, but no direct routes lead here. And at the center of the Taboo I control, not even a ghost can pass through the walls. So just like fooling GPS guidance, Frillsand #G will wander forever in search of the shortest route to save Risako-kun. You see, if it came down to a real clash between us two immortal ghosts, this place would collapse before either of us did. I would still prefer not to push this unstable Taboo to that point.”

“…”

“I am sure she is panicking. The more her efforts fail, the more it will feel like I have taken Risako-kun from her. Unfortunately for me, I could dig through this underground space forever and never reach my objective. I would much prefer to reach out and touch the sky. Heh heh.”

It was impossible to know if he was telling the truth.

But Kamijou doubted Kihara Hasuu would be joking to smooth things over at this point.

In other words…

(There is something here he doesn’t want to tell me right away.)

After reaching that conclusion, Kamijou took a step forward.

What reason did he have to fear?

“This isn’t what I saw on the way here. Why did you change your plan?”

“What a pain. Did Frillsand #G show you that? Or was my subconscious leaking out? This Vanishing Tunnel doesn’t play well with ghosts, so I was originally planning to whisper in Risako-kun’s ear to manipulate her.”

But that hadn’t worked, so his plans had changed.

The rapid expansion of the Taboo may have come from that change of plans.

“I am ashamed to admit I had trouble with her. Such a stubborn girl. She won’t shut up about never doing anything that would make ‘Sodate-chan’ or ‘the ghost lady’ sad, so I shut her up myself.”

That was enough out of him.

Was the splitting sound Kamijou heard his canine tooth breaking through the corner of his lip?

His heart was shouting from within his chest.

It said he no longer needed a reason. It said he needed to fight for someone. It said that was how things should be in the remade Academy City - in the city he called home.

He clenched his right fist and raced forward without any hesitation.

An engine roared in response. Kihara Hasuu tugged hard on the chainsaw cord and a bicycle-like chain covered in short, thick blades began to rotate violently fast.

(So what?)

Kamijou Touma poured courage into his heart to fight the squeezing it felt.

And he took another powerful step forward.

(I heard you, Risako. Maybe you can’t say a word yourself and maybe it only reached me through someone else’s malicious words, but I still heard your refusal to disappoint the people you care for. So I won’t back down now!!)

Yes, his opponent held a chainsaw about as long as he was tall. An attack from that would mean instant death. And Imagine Breaker probably wouldn’t work on it. But its length and weight would also limit how it could be used. That old man might be a ghost, but he still moved on his two feet.

Would he sweep it horizontally or swing it down diagonally from the shoulder?

Either way, he would have a hard time swinging it around to the left while holding it at his right hip.

Plus, he was a ghost.

If that was true, then Imagine Breaker might just come in handy!!

“Go to hell!!” shouted Kamijou as he got to work.

Once he moved in close, Kihara Hasuu was sure to swing the chainsaw. A horizontal sweep would be his best bet. But if Kamijou knew it was coming, he could prepare for it.

Specifically, he kicked up a plastic bag lying on the ground.

A chainsaw was undeniably a deadly weapon, but it always rotated in the same direction. And as thin as the plastic bag was, it wouldn’t vanish once it was torn through. With something caught in the blade, the chainsaw would stop!!

Or so he thought.

However…

“Nice try.”

(Damn, is there more to this!?)

When he heard the old man’s mocking voice, Kamijou practically doubled over and threw himself backwards to stop in a hurry. His back slammed against the concrete floor like he had failed doing the limbo, but it was well worth it since the chainsaw blade swung by just above him.

No, that wasn’t just the chainsaw.

When the tattered plastic touched the old man’s skin, it was blown away with some unnatural bluish-white sparks.

“By the way.”

“!”

“And this really is just a warning for your benefit - I would recommend against trying to negate me with Imagine Breaker. My basic structure is identical to Frillsand #G. Granted, I did remove a few features to eliminate the compatibility problems with the Vanishing Tunnel, so I had to abandon her level of lethality.”

The old man’s smile spread while a faint electrical sound filled the brief silence.

“That makes me a physical phenomenon that can be electrically explained using High Voltage Cutting. Touch me and your flesh will burst and you will be scorched to the bone. But if you have the courage needed to destroy a running transformer with your bare fist, I won’t stop-”

A dull impact burst out.

Kamijou Touma had ignored the man and thrown his fist. Of course, Imagine Breaker didn’t work on a ghost who could be scientifically explained.

“So what?”

“…”

Kamijou held a thick roll of duct tape he had found on the ground. About half of the plastic tape was blown away and melted.

“So my right fist doesn’t work. Did you really think that was enough to stop me? After you’ve done all this? When Risako is right there suffering at the hands of a dead man after she managed to survive the 25th?”

He tossed aside the already unusable duct tape roll and cautiously viewed his surroundings. Duct tape must have been used for train maintenance because there were plenty more usable rolls on the turntable covered in various tools and cleaning supplies.

Today had been a terrifying day.

Enough to make him painfully aware that he had been shielded from the city’s darkness all this time.

Alice’s world had been a mess of truths and fictions, but he had still learned some things from it. Hadn’t Hanatsuyu Youen the Carrier mentioned how useful a ground could be? It was hard to electrocute people if the current didn’t reach their brain or heart.

The reality he had returned to had been even more frightening. But as inappropriate as it might seem, he had been impressed with Tessou Tsuzuri and Rakuoka Nodoka. They had done whatever it took to make up for what they didn’t have. Even if that meant wearing a tool to protect their fist.

Kamijou Touma hadn’t been standing down here the whole time.

Unlike this man, he had been fighting to ensure his enemies and allies could survive.

The journey he had taken to reach Academy City’s Greatest Taboo hadn’t been for nothing.

So it was time to end this.

It was time to defeat the final enemy using everything that had come before.

“If you want me to hit you, I’ll turn you into a goddamn punching bag. I don’t get how any of it works, but you’re supported and stabilized by electricity, aren’t you? I saw you blur a bit when that plastic exploded and vaporized. How about I try it with steel or aluminum next? What about a liquid or powder? Whatever’s supporting your body has an upper limit! So I’ll keep at it as long as it takes. I don’t even need to wrack my brains over it - it’s like making wrong guesses in a game of concentration. I just have to keep risking my own life until I find the right answer. That’s all it takes. So I will rescue Risako from your clutches!!!!!!”

“Tch. You masochistic martyr!!”

For the first time, Kihara Hasuu moved to dodge an attack.

Kamijou could use insulation, a ground, and even the concept behind birds on the power lines.

Electricity always took the path of least resistance. If there were multiple routes and one was more efficient than the human body, you could just barely avoid death. As long as he could come up with ideas, he could fight.

Kihara Hasuu must have known he couldn’t just rely on the high-voltage current here, so this time he came for Kamijou. He raised the chainsaw to swing it down. Kamijou could do no damage to the old man by clenching his teeth and stubbornly opposing the chainsaw. He would only get his body torn apart. Then he couldn’t save Risako. He clicked his tongue and fell back for the time being.

Kihara Hasuu pursued, even using the bouncing of the rotating blade. The slightest graze and it would tear into Kamijou’s clothing and shred his flesh and bones.

“Tch!!”

“You negated it once with your right hand, but the Taboo is still running wild. And the civilization battery supported by High Voltage Cutting uses the acid rain produced by a metropolis as a power source. I am only hitching a ride for now, but if I use the Taboo tunnel leading out of the city to send out Academy City machinery and materials, I can control the technological level and economic status of the entire world. I will have free control over the operational status of any factory and vehicle.”

“…?”

Kamijou moved away, got up, and gave the old man a puzzled look.

Why didn’t he continue the attack?

What was he so desperate to distract Kamijou from?

“Didn’t I tell you? I accomplish nothing digging through this underground space. My objective can only be found in the sky. One magnet does not pull the other to it - they affect each other. That remains true for the magnetosphere covering the planet and the geomagnetism produced by the magma flowing underground. Precisely controlling the earth’s sky lets you indirectly influence the earth’s core. That is because the magnetism covering the planet comes from the flowing magma and rotating core acting like a giant generator. So what if a ghost like me - a collection of electrical energy - could reach that?”

Kihara Hasuu was an artificial ghost, but he had said several of his details differed from Frillsand #G. For one, Kamijou could directly view him without bleeding and collapsing.

He had also said he initially planned to use Risako.

“I will link myself to the dynamo theory.”

Kamijou had made it this far, but Kihara Hasuu would not stop.

The old man would greedily absorb everything that caught his interest, no matter how much harm it caused others.

“Then destroying me would require destroying the earth’s core. It is currently moving a little too fast for that kind of precision work, but not to worry. With Risako-kun’s assistance, I can buy myself enough time to modify and tame it. Assuming I do not end up stuck in an endless battle with Frillsand #G who also uses High Voltage Cutting.”

(This bastard.)

He sounded so casual about it.

Like he was mentioning how cheap the eggs were at the local supermarket.

This was not the lifelong dream of the researcher named Kihara Hasuu. He had been mentioned in Alice’s world as an expert in android research, so ghosts had to be outside his area of expertise.

So.

This was something he had realized he could piece together with the items lying around, so he might as well do it. He was that casual about trampling on people’s dignity and even extending his influence to the core of the planet. He didn’t feel even a twinge of guilt as he stomped all over an individual and the entire world.

He didn’t need a grand objective to destroy things people cared about and he would simply laugh after seeing someone emotionally devastated.

He was that kind of evil.

(Now I get it, Drencher Kihara Repatri. I’ve never met you, but I still understand you! I see why you wanted to create a place for the children who had fallen to the dark side, even if it meant throwing away your one and only life in a world where the dead can never be brought back!! That’s right. We can’t just let this happen. This is the worst kind of evil and it easily surpasses the greatest tragedy I could imagine!!)

“Once I do that, I should be strong enough to leave the Taboo without bursting and frying the entire city. It would be a real tragedy if I became immortal yet couldn’t touch my lab equipment without destroying it. This immortality was an unexpected prize, so now I need to figure out how to use all this extra time. Once no one on the planet can punish me, I suppose I should start by continuing my research until I grow weary of it.”

That was sure to lead to more tragedy and cruelty.

This sticky darkness would remain as long as he was still around.

Operation Handcuffs would continue forever and ever.

Kamijou had only one thing to say to that.

Risako wasn’t dead yet while she swayed from the tall, tall ceiling. Hope remained for her. That girl had accepted the pain because she didn’t want to hurt anyone else. If she could do that, then Kamijou knew what he had to say.

“No, I’ll end this before that happens. The people of this city will stop you here and now!!”

“Everyone says that after seeing a Kihara in action. The thing is, I’ve never seen any of them succeed.”

The deafening engine roar grew louder.

The raised right fist was so pitiful the old man actually laughed.

But so what?

Kamijou Touma would not be shaken no matter how tough that man tried to make himself look. Young Risako had been fighting all alone here not long before. Frillsand #G’s voice couldn’t reach her and Kihara Hasuu had cut her off from all else, but she had still rejected this Kihara’s words with only her own strength. She had told him to his face that she could never hurt others or disappoint those she cared about. The morality Drencher and Frillsand #G had tried to instill in her had reached her and it had not broken. Kamijou wouldn’t let anyone deny that achievement. And no one could save the young girl dangling from the ceiling unless he defeated this evil ghost.

That win condition was all he needed to know.

He had to save Risako.

As soon as possible.

This wasn’t like Alice’s world. The dead could not be brought back no matter what you tried. But he had caught a glimpse of those people while following in their footsteps today. They had reached out a hand to pull the children from Academy City’s darkness or to help a girl they had happened across. Maybe that was the wrong choice according to the cold rules of this world. Maybe that was why rejecting the most logical and safe option had removed them from the path of survival and ultimately taken their lives.

But.

Vivana and Drencher had made those selfless acts despite being scorned as villains and Kamijou Touma would remember them, even if he didn’t know the full story of what they had done.

They would have been enemies of each other during Handcuffs, but those villains had unwittingly passed the baton between them to save Risako. Kamijou was confident they wouldn’t have wanted the girl to now lose her life for the amusement of some ghost.

He couldn’t let the 29th end that way.

This wasn’t just about saving Risako. He was also fighting to reward the kindness of all of those who had helped the young girl and dragged her out of the darkness.

So…

(Who cares if he has a chainsaw?)

Kamijou instantly focused in on that point.

He would start with the most frightening aspect. He was through averting his gaze from the darkness.

(I know what I have to do. If he’s going to get in the way of that, I just have to steal her from him. I still don’t know how to defeat a ghost, but if I couldn’t interact with him at all, he wouldn’t be able to swing that chainsaw around. That means there has to be a way. This turntable has to have some method of defeating that electrical ghost!!)

That was simple enough to say, but he was risking his life here.

The lab coat man’s chainsaw was just that deadly. Its weight and vibrations tugged his matchstick-thin body around, but that made his movements harder to predict. The slightest contact meant death, yet his footing was unsteady. This was a different kind of terror from facing a master of kendo or fencing.

This time, the old man came at him.

Kihara Hasuu awkwardly swung the chainsaw around a few times, so Kamijou fell back while kicking up and catching a mop.

(The chainsaw is powerful, but it runs on a gasoline engine. If I hit its fuel tank and shake the fuel, it should form air bubbles and stall the engine. Really, it should be unstable already from him swinging it around every which way!!)

His theory might be accurate, but that was a real chainsaw. Even a kitchen knife was dangerous, so he had no idea if he could really suppress that mass of destructive force.

His thoughts were interrupted by the lowered chainsaw blade contacting the concrete ground. It wasn’t clear if the old man with the shadowy eyes had meant to do it. It was such a careless action it could have bounced the blade into his own body.

But a moment later, something exploded.

Sparks flew while the concrete shattered like stained glass and flew out like a scattershot.

“Gah!!”

Kamijou couldn’t do anything beyond cross his arms in front of his face.

Chunks the size of small rocks stabbed into him and his feet were lifted from the ground. The next thing he knew, he was flying backwards.

He rolled along the ground while clenching his teeth tight.

(What was that? Is it not just a normal chainsaw!?)

“Hee hee.”

The boy glared at the source of the violent scraping noise.

“Gee hee hee, ee hee ee hee hee hee hee!! Did you think a Kihara like me would ever use a ‘normal’ anything?”

That old man was doing something else. The chainsaw’s edge wasn’t enough to explain this, so was it an Academy City esper power? It took him a moment to realize what he was considering.

Could an old man - that is, a grown adult - really use an esper power? Could ghosts ignore all the rules and break all the limits like that!?

(Don’t panic.)

Kamijou let out a short breath and forced his mind to keep moving.

He readied his right fist again and quickly confirmed what he knew.

(Don’t stop thinking!! A wrong answer isn’t a bad thing. Risako defeated him all on her own. She made this Kihara decide she was too much trouble and change his plan!! So I can’t let him beat me. When such a young kid worked so hard to stay strong, I’ve got to show her that there is still hope in this city!!)

He didn’t have time to give much thought to Kihara Hasuu’s power. He only had to keep in mind that the short old man had something he couldn’t underestimate. Even now, the man was approaching while swinging the running chainsaw side to side. Every time it carelessly contacted a concrete pillar, a coil of plastic rope, or something else, orange sparks would fly and pieces of the object were launched toward Kamijou.

It was like a small bomb.

“Dammit!!”

That made it nigh impossible to reach the chainsaw engine with his bare hand and switch it off. Even if he was fully covered by a steel suit of armor, he would end up bisected. Trying to stall the engine was a better plan, but he couldn’t calculate how many times he had to hit the fuel tank with the mop to produce the air bubbles. He couldn’t rely on that.

If he lost here, he couldn’t save Risako.

He had to be thankful she was dangling from the ceiling and thus wouldn’t be hit by the concrete scattershot or orange sparks.

Kamijou unwrapped the plastic sheet from his arm and threw it away before grabbing a bottle of detergent. If he opened the cap and squeezed the plastic bottle tight, the contents would shoot out like a water gun.

He still knew exactly what he needed to do.

(A gasoline engine has to take in air to burn the fuel. If I can block the air intake with mud, rain, detergent, or whatever else, the engine will stop! I can figure out how to deal with the electric ghost after that!!)

“Take this!!”

Just as he held his arm out to take aim, he froze in place. He found his foot buried up to the ankle in the concrete ground. It was like he had stepped through a dark, discolored floorboard.

Then realization hit him.

(No. He isn’t increasing the chainsaw’s power. That would work with the metal or concrete, but it wouldn’t let him produce sparks from and cut through soft synthetic fibers!)

The roaring weapon was raised high. The engine kept the chainsaw’s blade rotating.

But that wasn’t the real threat.

(He never had any kind of esper power. This isn’t a normal space - it’s a strange place called Academy City’s Greatest Taboo. Is this one of the malfunctions he mentioned? It doesn’t just affect the ghosts - it effects this place itself. And Kihara Hasuu has stolen it from Frillsand #G, so can he alter and control the terrain and its materials!?)

He yanked his foot out of the dark and dry floor, but the time loss proved devastating.

If he died here, he could not save Risako.

He tired to roll behind a nearby concrete pillar and the chainsaw swung diagonally down to slice right through that thick pillar.

The color red flew.

Part 5

An unnatural amount of sparks scattered like a flamethrower and concrete fragments were launched out in a fan shape.

(He could actually negate the fragments with his right hand, but maybe there are too many for him to handle. Or did he get the wrong idea after touching the duct tape and mop without issue?)

Kihara Hasuu didn’t feel any need to check beyond the dust cloud.

He had wondered how much this boy could do since he had held a central position in the previous Board Chairman’s plan, but this was a real disappointment.

(The Taboo is a mixture of a physical space and the Imaginary Number District, but the items brought here are unaffected. I don’t know who had been in here, but Imagine Breaker won’t work on the regularly resupplied items like mops and detergent bottles.)

Or…

“In this case, Risako-kun’s special trait won out,” muttered Kihara Hasuu, all on his own now.

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Operation Handcuffs had truly been hell on earth. He knew that all too well since he had lost his life at the very end. If anyone who played any role in those events manage to survive to the end, you had all the proof you needed that they were unusual.

And of all of those, Risako had the most impressive record since she had survived Handcuffs without fighting even once.

He had originally only wanted her to deter Frillsand #G, so now that she had refused to cooperate, he had no reason to include her in this.

Yet he had still done so.

Consciously or not, Risako changed something in her surroundings with her mere presence.

“Kihara Noukan was never seen emerging from the sewers.”

He whispered.

“Vivana Oniguma died protecting the child.”

He whispered.

“Drencher Kihara Repatri goes without saying.”

He whispered.

“Hamazura Shiage was shot accidentally at the very end.”

He whispered.

A smile spread across his face while he lifted the chainsaw in both hands.

Whether she wanted it or not, Risako’s weakness had dragged down everyone around her and given Handcuffs its ending. That was a fact. But if she picked up the plain power that was a chainsaw to overcome that weakness, she would become a new central point spreading even more death.

She had the drive to do what she set her mind to.

But she also accepted what people told her and obeyed the warnings strangers gave her.

She stayed true to herself while actively listening to others. Not many people could manage both like that. Not even professional journalists who made a living asking people questions and gathering information. For example, that dark side paparazzo had put too much emphasis on herself.

In terms of old stories, Risako was the honest person who benefited the most despite setting foot in another world.

Her actions must have seemed strange indeed on the dark side where everyone assumed ulterior motives in everyone else. Some of those villains and demons may have paid an unnecessary price there and then tilted their heads in confusion. Yes, a powerless and honest person could sometimes take down the strongest resident of the darkness. They would unwittingly eliminate their cruel neighbor using the rules of that other world.

Kihara Hasuu had wanted to destroy that here.

After she boiled her goodness down to the level of a complex and finally grasped the thread of hope, it would have only led her to the trap he had laid. Just like he had once told Ladybird she was an experiment for creating esper androids who could replace the children being harmed by Academy City. The look on her face when she learned she needed to consume other people’s brains to survive had been priceless.

He had learned so much leading up to this moment.

He had been looking forward to that ending, but Risako had ruined it all.

If not for that, she wouldn’t have needed to hang from the ceiling like a bagworm.

“Hee hee. But it’s all the same to me as long as it’s entertaining. Having a trump card like this is certainly interesting. And it’s such a minor factor, like sprinkling something into the pot to make it all boil. Risako-kun, you may have been the greatest monster in Handcuffs.”

That was when he heard a solid footstep.

In that moment, he forgot all about the brutal chainsaw he held.

He looked up without thinking and then froze in place.

That was how much of a surprise this was.

Handcuffs was not over yet.

This was a true continuation, with no need for the dead or for distorting the world.

The boy was sickly pale and looked to be at death’s door.

But he still jabbed his thumb back at his face and spat out the simplest logic necessary to break this spectral curse.

“Guess who’s not dead.”

The villainous Kihara was paid a visit by Hamazura Shiage, the very person who had killed him the first time.

One more boy had been reckless enough to put his one and only body into danger to protect the dignity of the young girl who had been struggling all alone against the worst possible dark side researcher.

He still wore a surgical gown and several tubes and cords hung from his arms and stomach. His lips were dry and cracked and his skin didn’t even have enough strength left to sweat.

Nevertheless.

Kamijou Touma was not the only one who had received Risako’s feelings and stood up to save her.

The failure of Handcuffs didn’t matter.

It was time for Academy City to grow and to let everyone know it had changed.

Part 6

In truth, Hamazura Shiage barely knew anything about the events of the 29th.

He didn’t know how difficult it had been to reach this familiar place or what kind of drama had played out to make it possible.

But he had heard a cry for help.

Maybe that cry had come from an artificial ghost whose anger had caused her to swallow up Academy City’s Greatest Taboo, which stood on the dividing line between science and magic and made her voice deadly to even listen to.

Still, Hamazura Shiage had survived the 25th.

He thought he had ended Operation Handcuffs himself, so if it was still ongoing and someone was still suffering down in the darkness, then the half-dead delinquent boy had more than enough of reason to get out of bed.

Especially after seeing Drencher Kihara Repatri’s lifestyle up close.

He couldn’t let harm come to something that man had risked his life to protect.

No matter what.

“Hee hee.”

Something was making noise.

It was that pitiful ghost that had been caught in the shadows of the living realm by some kind of mistake.

He spoke directly below the young girl hanging from the tall, tall ceiling like a bagworm.

“You of all people are here? Did getting one little move in on me go right to your head or something!? You’re a zero! A Level 0!! If you lost sight of that and decided to return the darkness, it sounds a lot like you have a death wish and decided to throw out your undeserved good fortune!”

“None of that matters,” calmly said Hamazura Shiage.

Operation Handcuffs had been the worst of the worst, but he had caught a glimpse of something while running around trying to survive the disasters of that day.

He had learned something.

He could take a step forward now that he had inherited something from Vivana Oniguma and Drencher Kihara Repatri who had died before his eyes.

Would they have just watched while young Risako’s victory was denied and her resolve mocked?

“Esper level doesn’t matter here. Everyone who comes to this city takes their first step after finding a reason to motivate themselves. Maybe they want to be a Level 5, maybe they want to be the #1 at the top, and maybe they want to be an even greater monster. So I have the right to try. And this godforsaken darkness is what invited me onto the path of the undefeated champion by stubbornly clinging to life and dragging Risako into it all.”

“Is that old-fashioned ‘where there’s a will there’s a way’ argument really all you have? The very fact that this city separates people by level should tell you that trying harder doesn’t actually make you stronger. A zero will always be a zero, Level 0!! You will never amount to anything!!”

“I wasn’t talking to you, you empty ghost,” spat Hamazura. His voice carried the slight irritation of having TV static interrupt an important conversation. Yes, he was facing the ghost, but he was speaking to someone else. “I’ll say it again: esper level doesn’t matter here” He almost seemed to be singing. Or maybe declaring war. “Everyone who comes to this city takes their first step after finding a reason to motivate themselves. Maybe they want to be a Level 5, maybe they want to be the #1 at the top, and maybe they want to be an even greater monster.”

It may have been the same for Risako. It was true she had failed to defeat him. Her resistance had accomplished nothing and Kihara Hasuu had ultimately overpowered her. But she had not been fooled by his words. To the end, she had held onto what Drencher Kihara Repatri had given her. Kihara Hasuu’s open anger about it proved how strong her will was. Her reluctance to hurt Sodate or the ghost lady hid a small light that would one day grow into a great power.

Drencher was gone and the dead were not so easily brought back. But in a more figurative sense, he had to be smiling when he saw Risako now. He would have learned that his efforts had been more than just self-righteousness.

Hamazura Shiage had dealt with him enough to feel certain of that.

“So I have the right to try.”

So Hamazura did not criticize the result.

For one thing, he was not directing his question toward Risako.

“And this godforsaken darkness is what invited me onto the path of the undefeated champion by dragging Risako into it all.”

So when he asked the question, it was directed toward someone else with the same right to try.

“What about you, Sodate?”

He turned toward the area behind one of the concrete pillars.

Yes. There was another survivor of Operation Handcuffs. Maybe he had failed in everything he tried and never defeated anyone, but survival alone was enough of a win for that day. After experiencing everyone being manipulated by the Coins of Nicholas, Hamazura knew all too well how difficult that simple accomplishment had been.

At the very least, he wasn’t accepting any argument from the cheater who had failed to survive yet been so furious about losing he had flipped over the game board and clung to life.

With the slightest of sounds, a small boy in gym clothes stepped out from behind the pillar. He never should have been here and should have been the first one to keep away from that brutal chainsaw.

“I…”

But Hamazura didn’t stop him. Because that boy had the right to try.

The boy stepped up alongside Hamazura, tensed his trembling legs, and clenched his small fists tight.

All so he could resist the world’s cruelty and save someone he cared about.

“I also want to become an esper who can surpass any Level 5, even the unbeatable #1!!”

Part 7

“Hah.”

The new Board Chairman laughed quietly inside his unusually well-furnished cell.

The white monster sat on the king-size bed and removed his mouth from his can of coffee to speak to no one.

“You’ve already done that.”

Part 8

With a roar like a motorcycle engine, Kihara Hasuu swung his chainsaw side to side. Hamazura and Sodate both wanted to silence him as soon as possible, but they couldn’t rush the chainsaw without any kind of plan. If they suffered a fatal wound, Risako would blame herself and they couldn’t let that happen.

“Kee hee.” The chainsaw-wielding old man laughed. “Hee hee hee, ah ha ha ha ha!! You think you can reject logic with hogwash you lack the power to back up? Emotion cannot make up for a poor argument. And it’s time you learned firsthand what happens when your argument is lacking!!”

Hamazura spat back a response.

No, it wasn’t just him. That man was no longer with them, but several people here had inherited his spirit. So Hamazura would not be broken by mere malice.

“We lack the power to back it up? Of course we do!! Drencher and Frillsand #G stood out from the pack during Handcuffs, but even they agonized over their inability to protect those children. It all began there and ultimately led to him fooling the entire dark side while remaining a good person!!”

“Mister died in the end, but he didn’t just give up on everything from the beginning. Pain and suffering can give you the strength needed to keep moving. It doesn’t just break you and distort you - it can be used to push you in the right direction! That conversion was mister’s greatest strength. So I will never give up on finding a way for everyone to return alive. We might not have what it takes and we might suffer defeats along the way, but we will still search for a way to make everyone happy!! Just like mister did!!!!!!”

So they didn’t need an unnatural method of bringing back the dead.

Drencher Kihara Repatri’s determination, spirit, and powerful kindness lived on as the solid core supporting these other people. And they would use it to drag Risako up from the darkness. His life may have been lost, but he was still with them. No one could replace Drencher, but they could inherit his mission. Could they feel his pulse when they held a hand to their chest? Hamazura and Sodate didn’t need to confirm that with each other.

Could they risk their lives to protect someone?

They wouldn’t have appeared in this subterranean world unless they could give the same answer as that man.

Kihara Hasuu.

We will exorcise your ability to stubbornly cling to the world of the living.

“!”

Hamazura kicked up a tarp as a distraction while he grabbed Sodate and hid behind a nearby pillar. With the rattling of a chain, the tarp mysteriously erupted with orange sparks as it was shredded.

Sodate glared into the distance, biting his thumbnail.

They were helpless to fight back, but the small boy did not turn away from the threat.

Just like that young man had once challenged the depths of a great darkness.

He was willing to fight back if it would help them find happiness.

“What now? I swore to myself I wouldn’t embarrass myself in front of Risako again! So I’ll do whatever it takes. If we can’t get that chainsaw from him, could we keep running away until it runs out of gas?”

Running away wasn’t embarrassing. It was a solid tactic.

That implication showed that Sodate really had inherited Drencher’s spirit. No one was talking about flimsy pride here. If they really wanted to win and rescue Risako from this nightmare without making her sad, they had to protect their own lives too. This time, they would reward that man who had fought against the city’s darkness because he couldn’t allow a world where children were set up to “bravely” die in the name of scientific advancement and expansion of the city.

But even though running away was a valid tactic, they would almost certainly be caught and shredded before the gasoline ran out. Their opponent was an old man, but the limited underground space worked against them.

(If only there was a way to immediately and safely stop that chainsaw.)

The delinquent boy worked his mind. He wasn’t out of his element here. He knew a lot about engines after his days of stealing cars and robbing ATMs.

“Hamazura!!” shouted another boy from further away.

It sounded like he wanted to convey something even if it meant coughing up blood.

Like he wanted to tell Hamazura something even if it meant giving his position away to Kihara Hasuu. He too was risking his one and only life for Risako.

Hamazura couldn’t see him, so he may have been behind a pillar or container.

“That’s where I screwed up!! Kihara Hasuu is using something else too. Cough! Something that amplifies the chainsaw’s sparks. I think it takes advantage of this Taboo place, but don’t forget that the chainsaw isn’t the only threat!!”

I see, thought Hamazura.

“Oh, it’s just flint.”

“?”

It was understandable for young Sodate to tilt his head here. It was actually unusual for a high schooler like Hamazura to be this familiar with how lighters worked.

“Everyone should know that rubbing flint makes sparks, but you can’t actually make sparks with just flint. You need a metal to strike the flint with.”

“Eh? Really?”

“Technically, it’s the carbon mixed in with the powder of the crumbling metal that glows orange from friction.”

This amplified that.

It also let the chainsaw slice right through the pillars and floor made of concrete.

In that case…

“Does it absorb the carbon in the object to produce more sparks? And with the carbon removed, the object is a lot weaker than before?”

That meant the concrete pillar wouldn’t shield them. Unlike Frillsand #G, Kihara Hasuu had overcome an artificial ghost’s compatibility issues with Academy City’s Greatest Taboo and he even used them to his advantage. The weak old man’s chainsaw only worked inside the Taboo, but it could slice through and break any object, launching the pieces like a shotgun blast.

Hamazura picked up Sodate’s small body, turned around, and fled behind a nearby pillar.

No, he pretended to.

The crackling of electricity exploded from nearby. After luring the ghost in, Hamazura had dumped a bucket of water on an emergency power transformer among the nearby train equipment.

The untouchable immortal ghost clearly blurred.

“Gbbbhladfghbh!?”

“The ghost lady could pass through walls and pillars, but she always avoided the microwave in the container kitchen. I don’t know why, but if you work like her, that has to be a weakness!!”

“Tch!! E-e-e-electromagnetic waves!?”

An electromagnetic pulse attack made by detonating a nuclear bomb outside the atmosphere was an incredibly effective way of destroying electronic equipment and networks, but receiving the go ahead on using a nuke was no easy task. That was why a cheaper E-bomb had been developed to scatter powerful microwaves from its detonation point.

Sodate wasn’t just another target needing protection. He threw down his cards and challenged their enemy himself.

“I don’t need any special power. I’ve lived with a ghost long enough that I know more about them than a beginner like you!!”

They had to stop thinking of a ghost as something special.

If their enemy was supported by electricity, then he would carry all the corresponding weaknesses. It was best to think of him like an exposed wire with no waterproofing. Saltwater, static electricity, microwaves, EMPs - he might even have more weaknesses than an ordinary human. They had just been going about it the wrong way until now.

They had found a way out.

Or had they?

A moment later, the entire underground space shook with a deep tremor.

“Hey, um, you said he’s been removing the carbon from everything, right? And that makes it all weak?”

“Y-yeah. What about it?”

“Then.” Sodate gulped and looked to something. “Is this pillar we’re leaning against going to last?”

Several thick cracks ran through it. The carbon may have been removed, so they couldn’t blindly trust in the safety of reinforced concrete. And what happened once the pillar couldn’t take the weight of the ceiling?

A burst of heavy air pressure passed by from top to bottom. It reminded Hamazura of the arrival of a great mass when he was waiting for a train on the subway platform.

That interpretation wasn’t inaccurate.

Several chunks of concrete larger than a big truck fell from above.

“Watch out!!”

He had no choice but to pick up Sodate and roll away.

(This is bad!! Risako is still dangling from the ceiling. She isn’t going to fall from that height without warning, is she!?)

The ceiling split and dropped pieces a few more times, so their footing was far from stable. The firm turntable now felt like a bed with bad springs.

No, that wasn’t it.

The tremors weren’t just from the falling concrete. The ground was also bucking up below them.

“D-don’t tell me…”

“Oh, god!! How far does this space go!? He hasn’t removed the carbon from the crust here to release the earthquake energy, has he!?”

The tectonic plates found deep underground were always pushing against each other, so if one were made more fragile than the other, all that force could be released like a spring snapping back.

(At least he’s limited to the objects in this space. Humans are made of carbon, so if it worked on us, he could extract all the carbon from any organ he wanted!!)

But the exact conditions were still unknown. There might be something that would make them a valid target, like the mythological rule that anyone who ate the fruit of the underworld would become a resident of the underworld.

By the way, looking up at the ceiling during an earthquake was apparently a unique trait of the Japanese since hanging cords and chains for adjusting the brightness of ceiling lights and floor lamps were ubiquitous in Japan. In other countries, people would focus on other things, like the ripples in a cup of water or the shaking of a candle flame, so maybe those reactions were a reflection of someone’s time period and nationality. For example, the way people recently began associating “everyone’s phone going off at once” with danger.

Anyway, Hamazura and Sodate’s immediate reaction to their anxiety was to look up to the ceiling.

Almost like someone had intentionally guided their eyes there.

With their eyes directed up and away from the space directly in front of them, Kihara Hasuu appeared from behind the pillar and held his chainsaw to the side. A horizontal sweep would be enough to bisect the both of them.

But a blinding flash of light from above made the attacker flinch just beforehand.

Should they be surprised that a ghost could be blinded, or impressed by how occult it was for ghosts to recoil from bright lights?

The cylindrical underground space resembled an ancient colosseum. Someone stood on the catwalk running along the perimeter. They had shined a light down.

“Use this. Hurry.”

The blinding light pointed elsewhere.

It shined on a fire extinguisher - a foaming model meant for chemical fires.

Hamazura leaped toward it.

Gasoline chainsaws were simply designed, so they lacked a water radiator. They used air cooling, just like a motorcycle, so they would burn themselves out with their own heat if the engine was covered in something fluffy like cotton. A bubbly chemical fire extinguisher compound would work just as well. The chemical bubbles would readily pop and cling to the engine, so Kihara Hasuu couldn’t just wipe them away as long as he was prepared to burn himself. (Could ghosts even suffer burns?)

There were other threats, like the structure’s collapse and the earthquake, but it would mean a lot to safely rob the old man of that deadly weapon.

The ghost wielding the roaring engine briefly directed his attention upwards and away from his soon-to-be victims.

“You? Are you another Kihara?”

“Sorry, but I owe Risako up there after Handcuffs. Damn, I knew she had a good heart, but I never imagined faking my death would come back to bite me like this. So this time, I’m going to set aside my own interests and give it my all. Because I could never forgive myself otherwise.”

A small orange flame waggled up on the catwalk by the wall.

It burned at the end of the cigar held in a golden retriever’s mouth.

“Also, I was never someone who would hold back just because my opponent is another Kihara. Kihara Hasuu, I don’t see a shred of romance in you. You are killing for no reason - not for science and not for Academy City. Which makes this something I must deal with.”

“So you decided to rely on this ragtag group? Then you bet on the wrong horse. I don’t care if my opponent is a Kihara any more than you do. If you get in the way of my fun, then I will kill you. I’m not going to complain if you operate under the same rules.”

Hamazura realized he couldn’t just look back and forth between the two sides of this incomprehensible discussion like he was a tennis referee.

(The entire conversation is a distraction to give us time to act. Nice one, you big dog!!)

He pulled out the extinguisher’s safety pin and aimed the hose toward Kihara Hasuu. Specifically, at the chainsaw’s engine. This projectile was entirely harmless, but if its big bubbles covered up the air-cooled engine, its heat wouldn’t be able to escape and the engine would stop.

Something felt wrong and his hope was shattered in an instant.

The lever had bent in his hand.

Kihara Hasuu ruled this territory and he had the power to extract all the carbon from objects.

“Sh*t!!”

Hamazura clicked his tongue and threw the extinguisher itself. If the old man swung the running chainsaw, the canister itself would burst and scatter its bubbles along with its nonflammable pressurized gas. He would end up coated with the stuff all the same.

But that hope was shattered too.

The extinguisher’s metal canister burst in midair before it could touch the blade. With the carbon removed, it hadn’t been able to withstand the internal pressure.

(That’s worse than I thought!! Did I rely too much on the extinguisher!?)

An impact hit him from the side.

Sodate had tried to tackle him out of the way, but as desperate as he was, he failed to move the high schooler. Kihara Hasuu raised the chainsaw diagonally in preparation to slice them both in two.

There was no time to think.

The red extinguisher had been shredded and flew their way like metal blades. Hamazura used his body to guard Sodate from that, but he was painfully aware he couldn’t stop the chainsaw. He knew that, but he had no other option either. A direct hit from the scattershot meant to pin them down could be fatal to Sodate.

All he could do was shut his eyes and clench his teeth. He heard the violent roar of the chainsaw swinging diagonally down toward him.

And.

The dull sound of destruction continued on and on.

Yet the pain never arrived.

He slowly opened his eyes to find something standing up to the chainsaw. Long hair too brightly orange to be human spread out before his eyes. A special fiber suit resembling a racing swimsuit covered a slender body powered by electricity and filled with an electrified machine oil gel.

Since she was inorganic and existed here, Kihara Hasuu should have been able to alter the distribution of carbon inside her.

Yet her joints did not collapse and her raised arms were not sliced through like tofu.

She was clearly more than just a machine.

Which was why her slender arms were enough to match the chainsaw!!

“La-”

Hamazura Shiage knew her.

The girl had wanted to prove her worth as an esper android who could free Academy City’s children from all the dangerous experiments. Yet she was a product of tragedy because that cruel researcher had designed her so she required human brains to survive.

With a dull clang, the chainsaw blade was knocked back.

“Ladybird!?”

The android built by this Kihara had resumed functioning to stop him.

Part 9

In truth, Kamijou Touma hadn’t had time to think about it that much.

He was bleeding and battered.

He had lost way too much blood over the course of the day, so he could barely think straight. He couldn’t get up, so the most he had managed was to crawl while clinging to his last shreds of consciousness. The harmless mold(?) Youen had given him had burst, so the bullet wound in his gut would not stop bleeding.

But he knew there had to be more he could do.

A tarp or some detergent would work. He just needed something that would stop Kihara Hasuu’s chainsaw, but he found something else behind a metal drum.

It looked like a girl.

But she was made of artificial muscles surrounding a heavy metal skeleton, she had exposed wiring, her head was missing, and some kind of door sat wide open on her back.

He was willing to use anything that might work.

He relied on his own memories.

He was pretty sure he had passed out for a few seconds after the chainsaw attacked the pillar he was hiding behind, hit him with a shotgun blast of concrete, and launched him several meters through the air.

When he had opened his eyes again, he had noticed himself leaking blood and grimaced. It wasn’t just the bullet wound on his stomach. Way back at the beginning, he had been stabbed by pieces of a plastic jungle gym and forced to stitch himself back up.

(Damn, I wish I’d brought the train’s first aid kit with me instead of assuming the tragedy ended there. I miss that handheld sewing machine.)

“Gh.”

He placed his hand against a concrete pillar and tried to get up, but his hand slipped and he fell back down. He hated how slick his hands were. His vision was somewhat faded and his legs were convulsing unnaturally, preventing him from getting up.

He had lost too much blood.

There was no way he could dodge a chainsaw like this, even if it was wielded by an elderly ghost.

(But there has to be something I can do.)

Would he really give up just because he had ample reason to say it was hopeless?

How could he ever accept there was nothing he could do for the people still suffering?

He had to end Handcuffs.

He had to end the chain of tragedy and misfortune.

There had to be a chance left.

He had passed out for a few seconds without getting chainsawed. He realized Kihara Hasuu had lost sight of his target thanks to all the debris and sparks. Maybe the weapon was too powerful. He could only crawl at this point and he clicked his tongue at the realization he left a trail of blood wherever he went. He pulled in a nearby tarp and rolled himself up like a spring roll before using just his arms to crawl along the filthy floor.

His fingers were in agony. He thought his nails were going to break.

But this was his one and only chance. He would be sliced in two as soon as the old man noticed, so he might not have another opportunity to act. He decided to bet on that metal drum, so he crawled around it and collected that girl.

He would have a hard time closing up his wounds and running around at this point, but that didn’t mean he was helpless. Introducing an unexpected fighter - yes, unexpected for Kihara Hasuu - could lead to rescuing Risako.

It looked to him like the racing swimsuit girl was broken.

He doubted sticking her severed head back on her body would get her running again, so he used his bloody fingers to pull out his old folks smartphone and called for some help.

(Oh, no. I only have 49 yen, so I hope international calls aren’t too expensive when you both have smartphones. Aren’t mobile phones supposed to let you travel the world with them?)

He didn’t have his Transla-Pen, so he had to use an unreliable translation site to get his words into English. He wanted to reach the woman from outside Academy City whose inspiration, according to Othinus, had surpassed even the Kiharas.

In other words…

“Please, Melzabeth!! I want to know how to wire her back up. I need your help!!”

Part 10

The girl glared past the chainsaw that continued to produce a disconcerting grinding sound.

“Back then…”

Ladybird didn’t let it bother her.

She understood the threat all too well, so she took a powerful step forward instead of fleeing. She did not dodge the attack because it scared her - she challenged it because it scared her. She had always wanted to be a protector and she had finally achieved that goal.

“I thought the same thing. Even someone as filthy as me. I decided dying in that drum explosion wouldn’t be so bad when the alternative was killing the children and extracting their brains. But I never want to do that again. Because I…even I want to surpass the #1!!”

She had found her reason.

Kihara Hasuu did not remember inputting this data into her.

So in that moment, she had truly broken free of her bonds.

She had been given a mission and pushed in the right direction.

It was time for her to leap into the flames to protect someone. And as an android, she could do that quite literally. So she didn’t need to belittle herself and agonize over what she was.

Maybe she had only found a goal to work toward and maybe she hadn’t made up for the crimes she had committed without even questioning them, but she had still taken her first step into a larger world.

The manufactured girl had finally become her own person.

“Yes.”

She reached toward the back of her hip.

She did not hesitate to draw a machete so heavy a normal person could never even lift it.

But this time it was to protect people’s lives, not to deceive and to kill.

Maybe she could only do it once, but that was enough.

She glared directly at the old man who had created her.

“Finally. I have finally found who I want to be, Sensei.”

“Hah! You’re nothing but a filthy murder weapon!!”

When the weapons clashed, the violent chainsaw blade bent along with the guide for the chain. The chain could never rotate now.

That threat had been removed.

“Oh? The android turns on her own creator? I thought you were no more than a toy, but you are brimming with romance, Ladybird-kun. And you are motivated by good, so you are not just a rampaging monster. I give you a perfect score for this.”

The golden retriever up on the catwalk sounded somehow impressed.

These were the words of a researcher who viewed the world from an angle other than ordinary ethics.

“So many people died because they were all at the mercy of a power too great for them to handle. This is the sort of reward the villains who met their ends on the 25th so desperately needed.”

But Kihara Hasuu didn’t bother responding to the fellow Kihara’s semiserious words.

He was preoccupied.

“How are you still functioning so well?”

His voice carried a confused anger.

He had acquired his artificial ghost existence as a new toy to play with, but now he shouted enviously at the old toy he had thrown out.

He held onto the broken chainsaw and the roar of its engine distorted into something like a human voice.

“You fully ceased to function here on the 25th!! Even if an amateur somehow managed to get you running again temporarily, it couldn’t have lasted more than a few seconds at the most. Not to mention that you must consume human brains. So how are you moving so nimbly!? This exceeds the limits of my specs for you!!”

“Does it now?”

That plain answer came from Ladybird’s mouth, but the voice was not hers. This was a grown woman speaking in English.

She had been connected to someone else.

This was the genius woman named Melzabeth Grocery.

“It’s true her cellulose nanofiber brain would grow abnormally quickly, exceed the capacity of her artificial skull, and collapse in on itself. And I can see how a constant supply of human brains would trigger the rejection needed to disconnect it and keep its size down. But you could avoid all of that if you didn’t use cellulose nanofibers in the first place.”

“What?”

“Ever heard of the Logistic Hornet system? I designed it, R&C Occultics made it their toy, and now its mobile bases are floating in the oceans around the world. But there was one piece of equipment inside those 5000m containers we never ended up using: fully autonomous optical neurocomputers codenamed Secret. In other words, they’re massive computers designed to mimic the structure of the human brain.”

Ladybird had once cursed the fact that she was an incomplete machine. She had cursed her very existence as something that needed to kill espers and extract their brains.

But there were paths to salvation open only to machines.

“They’re too big to fit in someone’s skull and maybe they can’t use those Academy City esper powers…but they also don’t require any of that cruelty. Simply linking her head to a big enough computer with a wireless network is enough to free her from her malfunctions, from the fear of death, and from needing to commit any more crimes. The only problem is the idea never occurred to you. You were so eager to leap at the immediate profit and indulge in the ironic cruelty that you failed to notice you had wandered into a dead end with no solution.”

There was scorn in her voice.

Melzabeth Grocery was a mother. Her daughter might even be with her at the moment. And that was why she could never forgive this man’s actions. Ladybird had looked up to her creator, but he had answered his daughter’s adoration with mockery and abuse.

So Melzabeth did not hesitate to speak the words she knew would tear into a skilled researcher’s heart more painfully than any other.

“Kihara Hasuu. You’re not as smart as you think you are.”

Part 11

What was he feeling in that moment?

Maybe only a Kihara would know. It was possible not even another Kihara could have understood.

“No.”

The old man’s outlines blurred.

Something about his incorporeal form had visibly changed.

“No! You are not a Kihara or even from Academy City. A wannabe-scientist like you does not get to talk to me like this. Yes, I get it now. I don’t need eternal life. Forget about the earth’s core. I will reject your theory, your thesis, and your way of life!! I will take everything from you and tear it all down to reject it for all time!!!!!!”

“Is that so? Kee hee hee. Then I’ll be taking cute Risako-chan from you.”

Something was taken from Kihara Hasuu with a sparking sound.

It looked so easy.

“What?”

Did that exclamation of surprise come from Kamijou Touma or Hamazura Shiage?

A new form floated up at the colosseum-like space’s tall, tall ceiling - a place everyone could see but no one could reach.

The “cocoon” surrounding the unconscious little girl was sliced through to extract her. She wore gym clothes a lot like Sodate’s.

Risako’s limp form was held in the arms of another girl.

But this one was very different. She seemed even more vaguely defined than an artificial ghost as she descended to the floor as weightlessly as a cotton ball or a leaf.

The slender silhouette of a girl had wings and a tail reminiscent of marine creatures. No mention of this hidden being could be found in the texts of any mythology or religion.

“A demon?” groaned Kihara Hasuu. “A real demon!?”

“What? You’re how old and you still don’t know your demons? I’m Qliphah Puzzle 545, a UK-made fake. Oh, and don’t you dare claim this came out of nowhere. Really, you’re the one that decided to intrude on the peaceful city that boy wants to protect.”

Someone else was doing everything they could to protect a complete stranger.

The new head of the city was even reaching beyond the bounds of science.

But Kihara Hasuu couldn’t even try to take back Risako after she was laid down on the cold floor.

Kamijou Touma and Hamazura Shiage passed the demon on either side, taking a step toward the distorted collection of electricity.

Their limits didn’t matter. They had both been close to death before they even arrived.

“Hah. I have no idea what’s going on.”

“Same. But I do know that buying some time by delaying him here is all we need to save Risako!!”

The two boys wiped blood from their cheeks and mouths with no idea if they could really win or even survive this.

They had no idea what was going on, but they still grabbed a coil of plastic rope to protect their fist or lifted a wooden hammer in both hands before approaching. Even Kihara Hasuu had to hesitate when he saw that. They weren’t afraid of all his electricity. They would try whatever it took to break down his silhouette. There was even a belligerent light of hope in their eyes.

Frillsand #G had used the logic of a ghost photo or a curse, keeping her distance from her enemy and overwhelming them with a great army.

She was still doing that now.

The demon girl showed off her ratty dress made of English newspapers held together by tape.

The articles began to wriggle and change.

The demon spread her arms to display the text personalized for Risako.

Almost like there was no reason to hide any of it even with the girl’s eyes still closed.

“Demons like me are sensitive to people’s desires. And I’m the Qliphah Puzzle 545 who used the mood of war to confuse the people of an entire country, so the dark parts of people lives are like my backyard. If I want to know the history of my target, I just have to take a look at my dress’s articles.”

If his chainsaw was still working, Kihara Hasuu would have attacked the demon girl’s back. He was especially fond of the kind of malice that overturned scenes like this.

But the chainsaw was bent and broken. The roaring of the engine did nothing to turn the chain covered in short teeth.

And the racing swimsuit girl who had broken the weapon stood in his way. Almost like she was moving between him and the reckless Level 0s.

Ladybird wanted to protect the children from the city’s cruelty.

She must have seen those bloody brawlers as two of those children.

That android had been born from the infamous Kihara family, but she had found who she wanted to be and was taking her first step in that direction.

He was a collection of electrical energy using High Voltage Cutting, but Ladybird was not an ordinary human. No matter how much of her body was destroyed, she would continue to carry out her objective without batting an eye. Because she understood the strength of being an android.

“I won’t let you.” That manifestation of malice clenched his teeth, groaned, and roared. “Risako-kun said she doesn’t want to hurt ‘Sodate-chan’ or ‘the ghost lady’. But! She has yet to say how she does intend to stand up to this cruel world!! She has simply stopped thinking. Once she is finally forced to reach an answer, she will say she wants the power to fight and to kill so she can protect her loved ones!!”

“Are you sure about that?”

The gym clothes girl’s shoulders jumped.

Her eyes were still closed, but for some reason, those words reached her.

The newspaper articles surrounding Qliphah Puzzle 545 may not have really meant anything. Everyone probably saw something different, like with a Rorschach test. The words were changing like a living creature in front of Risako.

“I’m a demon, so I can see your desires. But I’ll ask the question anyway.” Qliphah Puzzle 545 moved her face toward Risako’s, her smile growing. “Refusing to think about it wasn’t enough to push back Kihara Hasuu. That’s why you lost to that mean old man in the end. So let’s keep going from there. Instead of hesitating and putting it off, it’s time to reject his answer with an answer of your own. Show him there’s an answer other than asking for the power to fight.”

A whisper designed to speak directly to people’s desires sank deep into Risako’s hardened heart. Even though emotionally rejecting a logically sound argument should have felt horribly violent to her and caused her to harden her heart further.

“No one wants other people to suffer because of their own weakness, so they seek out strength by any means necessary. It’s a fine thing to want, but can you really achieve it by shutting your heart up tight, clouding your vision, and swinging a blade just because someone tells you to?”

No, that was the wrong way of looking at it.

The term “desires” could make it sound like they were talking about something emotional.

But there were plenty of logical desires. This was most readily apparent in the financial world where people’s interests could be mathematically calculated. Sports medicine and biomechanics, where scientist in lab coats spoke of the human body in numerical terms, was rooted in the same word. People wanted to win first place. What was that if not a desire?

And what was it Risako had said in the illusion shown by Frillsand #G?

She wanted to conquer her weakness and become strong, no matter what it took. It was a flimsy logic, lacking quite a bit, but it mattered that Risako had been thinking of strength as a numerical thing that could grow and existed in a hierarchy.

It looked a first like she was rejecting Kihara Hasuu’s idea, but she could not fully reject it. Because if she did have the #1’s vector control, she could have changed how Handcuffs ended. She could have saved those people. That much was certain.

People were free to think Vivana Oniguma and Drencher Kihara Repatri wouldn’t have wanted to see her like that.

But she was the one who had watched them die, so there was a part of her that wished she had a more obvious sort of power. She had managed to hold that part of her in check and reject Kihara Hasuu’s tempting words, but she had not been able to rid herself of that part.

And.

Since she wanted to measure things with a numerical hierarchy, there was room for desire there.

One’s instincts and reason did not always need to be in conflict. In fact, your mind would fall out of balance if one or the other ceased to function. That would be like using hypnotism to reduce activity in the brain’s dorsal anterior cingulate cortex to get someone to obey any command without question or resistance.

“But what you really desire isn’t a number.”

That was Qliphah Puzzle 545’s greatest weapon and only opening, but she rejected it herself.

Think about it rationally. Wanting to feel good and wanting to make others happy were both examples of shameful desires.

In that case, wasn’t this odd?

What desire would be met by relying on this Kihara and picking up that heavy chainsaw?

What part of the human heart was satisfied by a power that could only maim and kill?

If the girl could not answer those questions herself, then something was seriously wrong there.

“I get that you want power. But is the power you want a lonely thing that hurts and pushes away everyone who talks back to you? Of course not. What did you think when you saw Kihara Noukan, when you saw Vivana Oniguma, when you saw Drencher Kihara Repatri, and when you saw Hamazura Shiage!? Did you want to cause even more bloodshed in a world where only you could survive? Of course not. You wouldn’t find any peace in a boring argument over who’s the strongest or in showing off your specs. Your true desire has to be somewhere else!!”

The demon girl pressed her forehead against the other girl’s forehead and shouted at point-blank range.

“So tell us, Risako!! Remember what your original desire was!!!!!!”

Without a sound, the young girl slowly opened her eyes.

“I want…to be strong.”

There was a tremor in her voice, but it definitely filled the people gathered here with strength.

“But I don’t want a strength that hurts people.”

Maybe it didn’t really mean anything. Maybe it had nothing to do with their actual abilities.

But there was a real strength in her voice.

Her clouded eyes cleared up and her hardened heart opened.

This wasn’t Imagine Breaker or Accelerator, but the strength the demon had inspired in that small heart - that young desire - left no room for any malice!!

“I want the gentle kind of strength that puts a smile on the ghost lady and Sodate-chan’s faces and lets everyone draw on 120% of their strength when we’re in trouble.”

Part 12

With a deep rumble, Kihara Hasuu was suddenly launched somewhere. Someone from a certain world might have called it a different phase. The people who had long lived in the deepest parts of Academy City might have called it the Imaginary Number District.

Either way, he had been cut away from the ordinary world while standing right alongside the others.

Had it only happened because he had left the confines of humanity, or had he been swallowed whole by the fluctuations caused by toying with the unstable Taboo?

Qliphah Puzzle 545 stood in that lonely world. The only other inhuman being was the only other person here.

“No.”

Kihara Hasuu himself had to be the most surprised.

First, a demon had suddenly shown up and rescued Risako, the only one capable of keeping Frillsand #G, the original owner of the Taboo, wandering up on the surface, and now his fortress was collapsing.

His logic was in tatters and the young girl’s emotions had rejected him.

He himself had said he had reproduced his mind based on Frillsand #G but several of the details differed. He said if he linked himself to the earth’s core, he could leave the Taboo without being destroyed and frying the city. He said he could avoid destroying all of the lab equipment he might want to use with his newfound immortality. So he had used Risako to stop Frillsand #G from interfering.

An important fact was hidden in all that.

He did not have complete control over himself. Once Risako was taken from him, he could not stop her from summoning Frillsand #G to forever interfere with his plans. Once that happened, he could never again restrain her and incorporate her into those plans.

His territory had always been this place deep underground. In fact, he had failed to develop a method of escaping the Imaginary Number District. The demon girl slowly approached the trapped ghost.

She was a higher-level spiritual being than him.

But more than that…

“N-no…”

He shook his head, forgetting all about the fear of being annihilated.

He was brimming with rage over something that made no sense to him.

He was still a scientist, so he could not let this slide.

“I did not implant her with a false desire!! The chainsaw, the bloodshed, the deadly force - that really was the kind of strength Risako-kun wanted. That’s what gave me an opening in the first place!! So what is this about making people smile? How did she reach that false answer!?”

“Kee hee hee. Yeah, I guess I shouldn’t expect much more from a mere ghost.” The demon laughed. The being who had twisted the girl’s answer grabbed her newspaper skirt and curtsied. “FYI: humans have more than one desire. Their one heart contains several desires, both large and small. It’s kind of like a bunch of grapes, really. They’re always in conflict and whichever one wins guides their actions in the end. A part of Risako did want to protect her loved ones even if it meant cutting down the villain attacking them. But so what? Another part of her wanted to reject any and all violence. Just like a part of you might want to wear pants today, but another part might want to wear a skirt.”

“You mean you tricked her, you…you demon?”

“Maybe this was too complicated for you sciency types who get all whiny when something doesn’t have a single clear answer. But keep in mind that I’m the demon who controls the mood of war. Demons are experts at twisting people’s desires to trick them into thinking a specific desire will bring them happiness, right?”

That was why god would never forgive the devil no matter how many smiles he created.

God just could not bear to watch the people smiling happily while clutching the leaves they thought were money.

“Also.”

“?”

“Now that Risako has rejected you and your plan to mess with the core is stalled, you’re basically already defeated. But do you really think she is going to leave that kind of loose end unresolved? Now that the original owner of the unstable Taboo has regained control, that scary young lady will be coming for you.”

Kihara Hasuu looked to his surroundings. He knew exactly who his enemy was this time: Frillsand #G. She wanted Risako’s safe return more than anything and had been doing everything she could to attack the Taboo from the outside.

With that protection gone and his fortress walls breached, he could easily imagine what would be rushing toward him.

(This isn’t a problem.)

After dying once, he knew the fear of annihilation.

You were hit with a sense of loss very different from mere pain. And it wasn’t even the lower-level animalistic instincts that provide a fear of losing blood, an inability to endure suffering, or a rejection of losing your life.

He couldn’t continue his research.

The ideas he carried inside would vanish into the ether, never to be realized.

What greater fear was there? He refused to again feel the great loss of knowing he could never enjoy the greatest entertainment there was.

The fear at the very core of his being squeezed at his heart once more.

And in a way, fear had a way of fanning the flames of people’s fighting spirit.

So he would take this as seriously as possible.

(Frillsand #G and I are both artificial ghosts, so it will not end immediately! And if the conditions are right, I can stop her without using Risako-kun. For example…yes, Sodate-kun is in a similar situation, so if I drive him to the edge and place him up on the ceiling instead…!!)

He may indeed have had the perfect plan for fighting Frillsand #G.

Qliphah Puzzle 545 had evaded him thus far, but if he intentionally summoned Frillsand #G here and got that demon caught in the middle of the artificial ghost battle, he might be able to use the resulting confusion to buy himself some time. Sure, he would break apart and fry the city or the entire world if he left the Taboo, but Frillsand #G might not be able to take back complete control of the endlessly-expanding Taboo right away. If he bought enough time, he could use the magnetosphere to link himself to the massive dynamo in the earth’s core and take control of it for himself. Then he could leave the Taboo and travel anywhere in the world.

That plan was wiped from his mind by what happened next.

Several radiant objects pierced through his back and out from his chest.

They were logs with the ends sharpened like pencils. They were bound by rope in a crisscrossing pattern to create what was originally used as a brutal fence. They pierced the ghost’s body and tore apart the wreckage of the chainsaw he still held. Rainbow flames flickered from his wounds, perhaps due to interference from the soot created as the logs burned.

This was a yarai.

Instead of a weapon, it was actually used by torture and execution experts to surround an execution ground.

One had even made an appearance on the 25th. It had been used by a hakama girl with long curly silver hair who had sacrificed her life to save an unfamiliar child and some unexpected companions.

Kihara Hasuu muttered in utter shock.

“An…”

He ignored the pain.

The surprise won out. He had never known the simple act of turning his head to look behind him could be so supremely difficult.

Had the decision to fight for a stranger finally summoned a being like this?

Was he finally that close to death?

“An angel?”

The girl wore the blazer uniform of some school or another.

The girl had long hair with one thin stand worn up on the side.

The girl was known for her timid glasses and her large chest.

Her name was Kazakiri Hyouka.

This was not Vivana Oniguma, the actual owner of the yarai.

Because no matter how much anyone might want it, the dead could not be brought back.

Because the real world was not that convenient.

But someone had watched the 25th from the background, picked up on that girl’s feelings, and stood up to deliver the finishing blow in her place.

Kihara Hasuu’s ignorance of this girl proved just how low-level a Kihara he was.

The demon grinned.

“It’s true Frillsand #G might take back control of the Taboo, but I never said she was the scary young lady. I mean, have you forgotten that you already defeated and neutralized her back during Handcuffs? Hee hee. Whether she takes back control or not, she can’t defeat you.”

So she had instead relied on the girl who knew the Taboo better than anyone and called the Imaginary Number District her home.

In a clash against more malice, Kihara Hasuu may have survived.

That had nothing to do with logic or skill. On an instinctual or conceptual level, a Kihara’s evil may have been enough to survive an attack from a demon or ghost.

But this was different.

Kazakiri Hyouka was a collection of the AIM diffusion fields produced by the city’s people. She could be seen as the collective will of Academy City and she had given a clear answer to this evil: Go away. We don’t want you here.

“An artificial angel feels like cheating to me. And she’s really strong now that it’s all gone public and she can directly ask the Sisters for permission to place a burden on them. Hmm, but she’s apparently the type to worry over things all on her own, so if you’d never turned yourself into a ghost, maybe you wouldn’t have had to encounter this kind of terror. Oh, and don’t you dare claim this came out of nowhere.”

The demon smiled thinly at the twisted ghost as he vanished.

That endlessly cruel expression was the perfect last sight for such an evil man. There was no promise of salvation in that smile.

“She’s been here in Academy City from the very beginning. Really, you’re the one who doesn’t belong after deciding to intrude on the peaceful city that boy wants to protect☆”

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