Chapter 3
Nogi Aiai
Soon after leaving the classroom, Empty clung tightly onto Kurumi’s back. “What is it?”
“No, since. It has already started?” “Yes.”
“Aren’t you worried about being ambushed from a sneak attack?”
“Of course, there are concerns. Only……I know if there is one, there will only be one person
who would ambush me here.” “She is??”
Just at the moment where she was going to ask who, Kurumi grabbed Empty’s back, kicking
apart the window of the corridor to leave from that place.
“Huh???”
Immediately afterwards, the space where Kurumi and Empty just stood had melted away.
“Ehhhhhhh!?”
“It would be better to close your eyes and hold your breath??”
From the melted corridor, smoke was evoked at a furious momentum. Empty, who closed her eyes, felt her body being embraced by the sensation of floating in the air.
It appeared that she had been caught and then picked up with a single hand. To be honest, due to the intense vertigo from flying and the gravitational pull, she was about to roughly do an act unbecoming of a girl.
“I-I feel sick……DEATH.”
“If you throw up now, I’m going toss you aside!”
Empty muttered to herself, as expected Kurumi used all of her effort to ridicule her into standing up. Suddenly, the sensation of floating disappeared.
Fearfully, she began to open her eyes.
A bright blue sky??her own hand grabbing onto Kurumi’s. And also, in front of her eyes. “Aiai-san……?!”
“Like I said, call me Nogi!”
Aiai Nogi gripped a long spear that was dripping with a purple liquid.
“As expected, I can hardly believe you are a Spirit. ……Anyway, everyone else is probably carrying out a policy of continual observation for you.”
Despite the Spirit giving her name and revealing her appearance, her true strength was still unknown. Therefore, the remaining eight must have chosen to “observe” instead. Likely, Nogi also believed this to be the correct choice.
Despite believing that, she also thought that selecting such a gutless choice was truly bullshit.
“So, it’s up to me to fight this self-proclaimed Spirit!!”
Softly, a glimmering reiryoku overlaid itself on her uniform to form an Astral Dress.
“Ara, ara, ara.”
“P-please wait a moment. Do you feel like fighting on the roof of a small tower like this!? At
least do it in a safer place!” “Grate??<Basilisk>!”
Accompanied by a low growl, the tip of the spear was thrusted towards Kurumi.
Nogi Aiai was born to parents who gave her a comical name in a jestful manner.
To a degree it could be called surviving, her childhood itself could described as a thing of misery. But after becoming a high school student, she directed all of her strength to reverse her fate.
She thought she should live alone. She prayed sincerely of wanting to be in a place with no connection to love and friendship.
Sometimes this decision occasionally made her feel lonely, but in many cases it brought a calm sense of serenity.
Even if it meant pointed by others and called a wicked girl.
That was the way of life she had chosen. Therefore, she did not care.
The only feelings of disgust were towards her own name. ……Besides, it was not because it was a cute name that did not fit with her own image. If it carried both of her parent’s hopes, her own hopes, if that name meant entrusting her with something, then it wouldn’t matter what that name was.
Anything would be okay.
Her mother once said while drunk, “I don’t remember how I gave you your name.” Probably, she
was laughing uncontrollably, humming some song with Aiai in it. On that day, she decided to leave home without hesitation.
She was invited to the neighboring world when she thought about using the money she had earned from the sale of the brand-name bag that her mother cherished.
It was here when the reaction came.
Falling into this neighboring world, it felt sweet as sugary confectionery and poisonous as nicotine.
Having said that, in Nogi Aiai’s mind, the memory just described does not exist. She remembered the name. The weapon called the Unsigned Angel in her hands and the Astral Dress that served as armor.
Compared to reality, this was like paradise.
You could get food by fighting. Victory meant living. In the opposite world, no matter how
much you fight, you can’t get food. Even if you won, nothing was obtained.
What had been forgotten in the past, she did not intend to recall it ever again.
……Only, only this name could not be discarded. It wasn’t out of love for her parents. It was
because this name was the only peerless proof of her identity. Other than that, there nothing left anymore.
She had forgotten the faces of her family as well as the thoughts of any cherished memories with anybody. She regarded no one as a necessary existence nor did she become a necessary existence for anyone else.
Therefore, even if she was laughed at several times, she did not intend to change her name. There was only one thing that she decided. To surely kill anyone who laughed at her name.
Nogi Aiai had decided so.
At the moment, that girl attacked with the spear she was holding, Empty finally understood that
this attack was the beginning of “killing each other”.
The Quasi-Spirits that had left earlier had all stopped, watching on from the sidelines.
“How truly impatient.”
“I wanted to wait for another 50 years!”
Kurumi trivially avoided the poison released. If touched, it would surely fester. If it reached the eyes, it would inadvertently cause blindness. But if even if the poison could kill a person within 5 minutes, it was meaningless if avoided.
“Don’t underestimate me!”
The liquid that should have already fallen twisted and turned to once again to attack Kurumi, sweeping past her Astral Dress.
“How convenient to have a tracking function……!”
Kurumi fell down while holding Empty aside. Empty raised a scream, but even if she didn’t faint,
the frantic running around in circles made it a supreme effort to resist the urge to vomit. A liquid snake that rushed over at a speed over 200 kilometers per hour.
Dodge, dodge, dodge.
If even the slightest scratch was taken, a poisonous fang would erode away its prey’s life. A legendary monster that petrified onlookers, the snake king Basilisk was an adequate name for this Unsigned Angel.
“<Zafkiel>????!”
Behind the falling Kurumi, a huge clock had appeared. The hour hand looked disconnected from the dial holding it. Empty looked at this with a dumbfounded stare.
“What is this?”
Kurumi did not reply as she spoke to herself.
“Only having one hand is really inconvenient, sure enough if I let you go??”
“Please spare me, if you need to let go please do it at least 30 cm above the ground!” “Ah, that hassle is too troublesome! It’s so much trouble that I want to die!”
“Eh?”
“What?”
Empty couldn’t stop her in the mere seconds it took. Kurumi pointed the muzzle of the gun at her own temple and pulled the trigger without any hesitation.
Don, the sound of a gunshot echoed. Nogi and Empty stood dumbstruck. It was Empty who first realized that there was no bleeding.
“<Zafkiel>????the First Bullet <Aleph>.”
Kurumi’s falling body suddenly began to rise and accelerate. “Wha……?!”
Before her very eyes, a snake-like smile drew on her face as she approached Nogi.
“That tracking function is fine, but isn’t your footwork a bit lacking?”
For a moment, for a very brief instant, Kurumi saw through Nogi’s special characteristics. It wasn’t the Unsigned Angel conducting the pursuit, but rather it was by Nogi’s own power. If it were tracking by the speed of human thought, it would be absolutely impossible to deal with Kurumi’s acceleration.
More importantly, Nogi had been staying almost at the same place since the very beginning. She had moved four times, and even then only during the moments when <Basilisk> moved in a straight line.
“If it were undoubtedly a pincher attack between the serpent and yourself, there will be creative ways to force my checkmate anyway. Since you haven’t done this, you must have thought up a reason why, right?”
Nogi covered her dumbfounded look with a mocking smile.
“??Ha, it’s because there was no reason to think of that as necessary until now.”
……A frank confession.
Until this moment, Empty had not taken seriously what they had called “war” (date).
Likely fighting, likely hurting, surely it hurts because it is painful. Enough to make a person cry, Empty had thought.
However, until now that was limit of that girl’s imagination.
A gunshot resounded under the azure sky.
It had taken a while for Empty to understand, to understand that Kurumi had shot Nogi. Blood was overflowing.
The Astral Dress crumbled. The girl had fallen.
“Wait………!”
Empty reflectively reached out. But, in the current state of being under Kurumi’s arms, it would
not reach. Nogi still had a slightly stunned expression. Falling down.
Kurumi also dropped down chasing after her. On a road with no cars, Nogi was laying down. “……Ah……”
Still alive, Empty was astonished by this miracle. As her feet touched the ground, Empty ran towards Nogi in a panic.
“A-are you okay?”
“……Do I look fine, damn……”
“??So, do you admit that I am a Spirit?”
Faced with Kurumi’s inquiry, Nogi responded with a defiant smile.
“No.”
“Is that so?”
Kurumi lifted up her short pistol. Nogi kept smiling while keeping focus on the muzzle of the gun.
“Farwell, Nogi-san.” “Shut up and drop dead.”
The sound of gunfire was heard again. Kurumi’s bullet had undoubtedly shattered Nogi’s Sephira Crystal.
“Huh……?”
Empty couldn’t move as if she were frozen. She didn’t expect her to shoot, she didn’t even consider it. Although this was a game of life or death, it was still a game. At that point, it was said that dropping out of the game when too weak to stand was possible.
“Why did you shoot?”
Kurumi responded extremely harshly to being questioned.
“Please don’t ask stupid questions. Of course, it was because she was still alive.” “But……!”
“Does that mean you are defeated when rendered into a state of temporarily being unable to fight for a while? Who would acknowledge an irreversible defeat? In order to acknowledge it, there is no choice but to kill. And after everyone dies, the winner will finally be decided.”
Empty had known this.
This reasoning was correct; no, even this instinct was correct, Empty had already understood this.
Yes, it was just within nature’s providence. It was the correct rule for this game.
However, because it was correct, it was wrong.
“Even so……even so this is wrong. It’s out of the question to not be wrong.”
“……Don’t joke around. To look at this world in such a naïve manner, I wonder if you must have had such a happy life in the past.”
Kurumi stared at Empty with a cold look.
“No! ……It’s not like that! I think.”
Yes, it wasn’t like that. I know that I am very naïve. I know that this principle is an irritating
philanthropy marked with hypocrisy.
I know, but I can’t stop crying. Why, something awakening in my heart was twisting my thoughts. I wonder if I am a human (no, presently considered to be a Quasi-Spirit) who would say such a thing.
Even since knowing that the other party was would mercilessly murder others, Empty wondered to herself why she would want to say that.
It was possible to be killed.
Despite not knowing why, it didn’t feel comfortable to tell her what she wanted to say.
Being stared at??returning the gaze without fear. Empty did not feel like losing. Eventually, Kurumi turned her eyes away and muttered with a hint of regret.
“……Let’s hurry up and leave. The atmosphere here isn’t good.”
Empty didn’t think any further on condemning Kurumi. She knew that that doing this was a
mistake. Even though she knew, she still chose to fight. So long as she could think so, it was enough.
“A-alright……”
Finally, Empty looked back at the battlefield. Nogi, whose Sephira Crystal had been crushed, had disappeared with a gust of the wind.
Why was her heart hurting?
Even though they weren’t on good terms, even though they only talked for five minutes, even
though she knew nothing about her hopes, desires, and despair. That girl was killed in an effort to kill them.
Perhaps this was a common event in this killing game.
However, there was something that couldn’t be abandoned.
It struck through her heart just like a needle, no matter how far Empty couldn’t escape from that
feeling.
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