No Game No Life - Volume 2 - Chapter 2

CHAPTER 2 
INTERESTING 

After about an hour rocking in the carriage, there was the Elkia Grand National Library. It was a bit beyond downtown Elkia, in the suburbs, after they’d passed what appeared to be an educational institution with a dormitory. As Sora got out of the carriage and looked up, just one word escaped his lips. 
“…Huge…” 
The first thing it recalled was the Library of Congress in Washington, DC. That was the largest library in Sora and Shiro’s old world, boasting a collection of a hundred million books, but the outer appearance of this one held its own. It was graceful and glamorous enough to rival the Elkia Royal Castle. It was so wondrous, in fact, that it made one want to reconsider one’s evaluation of Immanity in this world a bit. A wondrous library indeed—and yet. 
“…You just let this…be taken away…” 
“Nm-mghh…” 
Such was Shiro’s observation as she continued to sport Steph’s panties like a hat. The remark prompted Steph—still a dog without her underwear—to wordlessly hang her head in shame. 
“A-anyway! I have a question!” said Steph, her tone frazzled. She sounded desperate to stick it to the siblings despite her predicament. 
“Yes, Miss Stephanie, what is it?” 
“Didn’t you just say we shouldn’t be fighting some race we hardly know anything about? Is it really okay to take on sixth-ranked monsters like the Flügel without a plan?!” 
…Did she suppose that this was a reasonable question? Might as well tell her. She was, after all, merely Steph. 
“…It’s fine.” 
“—Huh? Wh-why?” 
“Look… Winning at shiritori has nothing to do with how much you know.” 
“Huh?” 
“Forget it. Let’s just get a move on.” 
Upon opening the giant door and entering the library, they were met by a space full of shelves, not only on the walls, but even the ceilings, defying gravity. The shelves towered probably tens of meters among countless faint lights floating in the air. It was a fantastic space, building these elements into something like a labyrinth. 
“Whoa…sorry, I gotta apologize a bit. Humans in this world do got skills.” 
“…Yeah…” 
Sora was feeling dizzy just imagining the number of books housed here. Even Shiro was moved. It was no mean feat to collect this many books. Even in their old world , there could hardly have been a library with a collection this size. But then Steph explained apologetically: 
“Uh… I’m sorry to tell you, but these weren’t collected by Elkia.” 
“…Excuse me?” 
“They were built up to this level after it was taken, I believe. I mean…when I came here when I was a student, there weren’t even a hundredth this many shelves.” 
“…What a waste to have thought better of you even for a second.” 
—But, then, when you thought about it, it was obvious. There was no way Immanity could put gravity-defying shelves on ceilings. 
“ Phew … So, where’s our blessed angel?” 
Walking through the library of neatly lined books, suddenly, there was a shaft of light. All eyes that followed the light to its source—froze. 
—It was an angel . A girl, with an overwhelming presence one hesitated even to look into directly, a halo curving through a geometric pattern above her head, and faintly glowing wings, too small to hold a person aloft aerodynamically, sprouting from her hips. Her long, flowing hair swayed even indoors without wind, and each moment, the light was reflected from one strand or another as if it were a prism, giving the appearance of a rainbow. When her eyes opened narrowly and made contact with his, Sora was struck for the first time since landing in this world with the feeling of death. Filling her gaze was a murderous intent that felt like it had to possess physical weight, which convinced him that this girl, this divine beauty, could end his life with a fleeting touch. It told him that, though he might run, though he might beg for his life, all such things would be meaningless. (This is a Flügel? This is— Rank Six ?) 
A weapon , created by the gods to annihilate other gods—to decimate and destroy. As Sora mused that this must be what it felt like to have a machine gun pointed at you, even Shiro, usually lacking in emotion, shrank back and grabbed Sora’s arm. Steph, for her part, was sitting on the ground, clacking her teeth, barely holding back from crying. 
The awe-inspiring thing alit on a bookcase near them, without a sound, without giving even the impression of weight. 
“ ? ……” 
Heedless of their speechlessness. The angel—the Flügel girl—opened her amber eyes languidly and spoke. 
“Pardon? What brings you personnes to my bibliothèque ?” 
—…At that one utterance. 
“Zounds… You just ruined it…” the enervated Sora just managed to say, glancing at Steph, unconscious beside them. 
 
“Um, uhh, why don’t we begin with introductions. I’m—” said Sora, pulling himself together and trying to regain his rhythm by taking the initiative. 
—But. 
“You are Elkia’s nouveaux king and queen, Sora- sama and Shiro- sama , oui ?” 
The Flügel girl stole his thunder. 
“…Well, then, that speeds things up.” 
“I like to read Immanity’s journal. Congra—I mean, felicitations on your coronation.” 
“…She corrected herself…” 
While Shiro snarked thus (with panties on her head), she still held tight to Sora’s arm. 
One might remember that in this world, violence was meaningless, but still. The psychology was probably like how, even if you were told it had been drugged to sleep, you still wouldn’t want to get close to a tiger. But Sora was seemingly exempt from this phenomenon. 
“Hey, actually, there’s this celebrity we know who talks just like that, so, if that’s not how you normally talk, could you knock it off?” 
Sora’s remark seemed to be deeply shocking to her. What …said the shoulders of the Flügel girl as they fell in disappointment. 
“It was my edgy, unique personal language; someone beat me to it…” 
But swiftly her expression changed back. 
“With that, m’dears, what brings yeh here today?” 
“…Uh, that was how you normally talk before that, right? Why are you talking like someone from Kyoto now?” 
“I’ve never heard of Kyoto , but thess is the ancient tongue of the former territory of Immanity; tickles it not your fancy?” 
“All right, we’re never going to get anywhere if we have to keep playing the straight man here.” 
“Mngh, I hardly ever get any visitors; and I was so excited to have a chance to display my knowledge.” 
No longer could a trace of the majesty she’d displayed just a moment earlier be found in the Flügel girl, who drooped in dissatisfaction, her eyes tinged with the hint of tears. 
“So, uh, anyway, just talk normally. Okay?” 
“g07 17, d00d.” 
“Yeah, we’re outta here.” As Sora turned away, the Flügel girl grabbed his pants and spoke amidst tears. 
“Oh! I’m sorry! I do truly apologize! I rarely get visitors; please don’t leave so soon! I’ll make tea! I’ll bring sweeets!” 
 
The library was a like a work of art woven of mystic light and bookshelves. In one corner, around a table upon which tea and sweets had indeed been provided. Since Steph still hadn’t come to, they’d ended up rolling her on the floor nearby. And, now, with a formal clearing of her throat: ahem . 
“—Well, then, rulers of Immanity, for what purpose do you seek me, wielder not only of the Flügel tongue, but moreover of every tongue of the Ixseeds, as well as over seven hundred languages including tongues of other worlds and ancient times, to say nothing of the appurtenant background information?” 
“…Ah, yeah. Let’s see.” 
Sora decided he might as well give up, and got started. 
“I’ll get straight to the point. Give us this library. ” 
… 
—A moment of silence. At Sora’s words, the girl, lifting her teacup. 
“Could you mean that I am being challenged to a game by a mere human ?” 
“Yes, exactly.” 
Her eyes were warm. They truly made one think of a goddess. 
“Is that so? I would have you know that this library is filled to the brim with books that I have collected. Considering that to us Flügel who prize knowledge above all else, these books, the repository of my knowledge, and by extension these stacks that hold them can fairly be said to be equivalent in value to my life itself —” 
—Those eyes slightly narrowed. 
“You propose that I wager my very life . What do you wager in return?” 
With these words, she filled her mouth with tea and regarded Sora keenly with a fleeting swell of murder in her eyes . The look brought a thin sound from the thought-to-be-unconscious Steph: Eep. 
—But, remembering the Ten Covenants, not to mention the conversation they’d just had…Sora seemed already free of concern as he spoke. 
“Books from another world ? over forty thousand volumes in total .” 
“Pfffffffffffffffffhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhbt?!” 
The girl spluttered her tea everywhere, again destroying the gravitas she’d gone so far to build up. 
“D-do excuse me…l-letting you see me in such an undignified state.” 
“…Gross…” 
While Shiro protested, covered in tea, Sora still gave a thumbs-up. “No problem. In our line of work, this is a reward,” he answered with a wide smile. 
“I-I mean, f-forty thousand… You and your jokes, wh-where could you possibly store—” 
As the Flügel girl continued to act suspiciously out of character, Sora took out his tablet: 
“This contains electronic data—hm, you know what that is? Anyway, forty thousand books from another world.” 
“—Wha…?” 
The girl widened her eyes as if to burn a hole in the tablet Sora had produced. 
“I had this to study for quiz games. But it’s got encyclopedias, medicine and philosophy, science and math—basically, everything people knew in general in our old world is represented here in pretty high proportion.” 
At Sora’s explanation, the girl cast eyes of doubt: 
“…Sir, you claim to hail from another world ?” 
“Yeah.” 
“Certainly, sir—you lie.” 
“Uh, wha?” 
Why? Though Steph had believed them right off the bat— 
“It is true that the Elves are skilled in the magic of summoning creatures from other worlds. I myself have some books from other worlds, albeit few. However, when a living thing is summoned from another world, it requires massive power to hold it in this world. For there to be people from another world , even with the power of Old Deus, it would be an extreme challenge.” 
—Having heard this much. Sora, squinting, called Steph, sprawled on the floor. 
“…Steph, enough with the unconsciousness act. I’ve got a question for you.” 
“Mm-mmghh…y-you knew…?” 
“This isn’t what you said earlier at all. You said it wasn’t that odd for there to be people from another world.” 
“I-I don’t know much about advanced magic… So there aren’t normally people from other worlds, then?” 
Sora decided that it was about time to stop listening to anything Steph said. He began to think about how he could make the girl believe him. 
“—On the other hand, it would explain how Immanity overcame the Elven game…” 
Before he was done, the girl gave him an opportunity to prove himself. 
“Might you have anything you can offer as proof?” 
“Proof… Well, check this out first.” 
He manipulated the tablet before her and called up the bookshelf app, then opened an e-book. 
“I see. This is a language I’ve never seen… And no fabrication, it appears.” 
There was your self-professed 700-glot. Apparently she was able to recognize immediately that the characters obeyed clear rules. 
“—I have seen something similar… But, a language I don’t know, a world I don’t know…its encyclopedias…academic literature…its knowledge, a-a-all in this thin box, f-f-forty thousand—eh-heh, eh-heh-hehh!” 
“Whoa! Dude, you’re drooling! You’re drooling!” 
The girl stared at the screen with a waterfall of drool dangling from her mouth, and with a gasp she wiped her mouth. “—M-my apologies. How disgraceful of me.” 
“So, what do you think about those wager conditions?” 
The girl mulled it over a little and then spoke. 
“—Well, the question is whether what you say is true .” 
“Yeah, sure. I suppose that wasn’t enough to prove anything, huh?” 
There was still the possibility that this particular book was a fabrication written in an artificial language. The only way to prove that all of the knowledge in this tablet was real— 
“Are you two able to prove your status as residents of another world?” 
Naturally it would come to that. However. 
“Honestly, I don’t know. I’m a virgin! My sister’s a child, as you can see! We aren’t even clear on the individual differences between humans in our old world , so how do you expect us to know the differences between us and these guys!” 
In a way, it made him look more manly as he laid it all out, loud and clear. 
“I think you’re the one who would know more, actually. Can’t you tell me apart from the Immanity of this world?” 
Asked this, she observed Shiro and Sora carefully, comparing them with Steph. 
“ Hm —well, King Sora, you do have a somewhat different complexion from that of Elkia’s Immanity. On the other hand, Queen Shiro’s skin seems even a bit too white… Would it be all right if I touched your body to check a bit?” 
“Hmm… It depends on where,” said Sora, proceeding with caution. 
“Your erogenous area.” 
“Please go ahead until you’re satisfied and continue even after you’re satisfied.” 
Despite Sora’s answer, given decisively and without hesitation, Shiro put the brakes on. 
“Brother, R-18…” 
“Ngh, ghgh… You’re right… It was such an attractive proposal, too…” 
However, like a doctor examining the body of the patient. The Flügel girl spoke calmly, seemingly free from ulterior motives. 
“All living things in this world have some small amount of spirits living within their bodies. Well, to speak plainly, checking nerve-dense areas will allow me to detect whether you have them, so…? 
…Stare. 
…Stare… 
Steph and Shiro stared at Sora with eyes cold and half-lidded. 
“Hngg… Uh—okay, but my underwear has to stay on! And—” Sora presented his conditions for a compromise. “If you’re gonna touch me, then I get to touch your erogenous area, too!” 
“Why, that’s quite satisfactory.” 
“What, really?!” 
 …… 
Touchie touchie touchie… 
“Hey…” 
“Yes? Is the feeling of this touch not to your liking?” 
“Uh, sure. It feels good, yeah, surprisingly so.” 
Indeed, he was moved in a way quite different from when he fondled Steph’s breasts. So moved was he, in fact, by this mysterious sensation that he wanted it to go on forever. Having said that… 
“But, what is it, this feeling of betrayal—I just can’t get my head around it…” said Sora as he stroked the Flügel girl’s wing , while the girl was touching Sora’s nipple . 
“Oh, dear, wasn’t this an erogenous zone for you?” 
“Let’s just say recognizing that as an erogenous zone is threatening to a man’s pride. Let me also add that I was, how to put it, you know, hoping you would touch me somewhere else.” 
Touchie touchie touchie… 
“Mm, please don’t touch me so precisely. I’ll start making strange sounds.” 
“……Hmm.” Sora, in light of her state, glanced at Shiro. 
“My sister, I am only touching her wing. Is this not true?” 
“…Mm, totally wholesome…” 
The siblings’ harmony was what was called “breath of om .” Before Sora had to say anything, Shiro took out her smartphone and aimed her camera. 
“Well, I guess now I might as well show my uber skills at touch-based porn games.” 
Upon his words, Sora slid his fingers, shk shk shk , from the base of her wing. In the middle of this trajectory, for an instant, the wing jumped lightly. Sora then focused on this one spot, trying out different levels of pressure, using both hands, at multiple points. 
“Yagh! Uh —ngh… I a-pologize, but I, uh, can’t…con-centrate; please…augh…be gent—!…-ler, if you would…” 
“Uh, yeah… Hmm, I guess this isn’t bad itself.” 
“…Brother, angle…close-up…please.” 
“Oh, understood, Director. Whoop.” 
“Ungh—!” 
“What are these siblings doing to a Flügel…?” 
The idea that the two would sexually harass even a god-slaying weapon was starting to become something akin to respect in the eyes of Steph as she murmured, appalled. Thus, this process of confirmation continued until the Flügel girl slumped to the ground… 
 
“Ahem, now, first of all—” Fixing her clothes as she got back in her chair, she recomposed her reddened face. “I do humbly beg your forgiveness for lumping you together with the lowly Immanities, without so much as the courtesy of introducing myself. My name is Jibril. It is my pleasure to make your acquaintance.” 
“Jibreel,” as the Flügel girl called herself, lowered her head deeply. 
“…Steph.” 
“Uh, yes. What is it?” 
“…Just how low is Immanity’s status in this world?” 
“…If we’re being generous—rock-bottom, I suppose.” 
Thereupon, with an excellent smile, the Flügel girl—Jibril added: 
“If I may. I understand them best as ‘neat monkeys who can talk’!” 
Jibril spoke with a perfect smile, devoid of malice. 
“Oh, and, for the record, I have no interest in ordinary Immanities. I have already learned all about them and read more than my fill of their literature. Ah…you…your name was Zepef , yes?” 
“It’s Steph ! Wait, no, it’s Stephanie Dola!” 
“Well, it doesn’t really matter; I’ll just call you little Dora.” 
“What?!” 
“Dora, you are of no interest to me, so would you please go find a place to entertain yourself?” Jibril uttered this, too, free from any malice. 
“…I can cry now, right?” Steph, forced to dress as a dog ( sans panties), was on the verge of breaking through the dams on her tear ducts. 
“…Well, looking at the current state of Immanity in this world, it’s hard to argue, really…” 
However, the manner of Jibril’s apology caused Sora to express doubt. 
“But were you saying that we’re not Immanities ?” 
“No, it’s… I can’t sense any spirits from your bodies at all.” 
She sparked a small light from her finger to show them a “spirit” or something. 
“If you do have spirits, they must not be detectable by any means known to me… In other words, you two do not even fall under the definition of ‘living beings’ in this world—but, structurally, you clearly seem to be Immanities.” 
So…what? 
“…Then what…?” 
To the mumbling Shiro, Jibril flashed her eyes brilliantly and cried: 
“You are the unknown !!” 
“Oh, could there be anything more sublime in this world than the unknown!” Her hands clasped together, she looked to the ceiling as if praying and continued wildly. “The unknown— that which is not yet known ! It constitutes not existing knowledge, but the raw ore from which knowledge not yet existing in this world is born! I deeply apologize for my impropriety in equating this with mere Immanity!” 
—In theory, Sora was human, but it was extremely complicated. “—Okay, whatever, so we’ve proved to you we’re from another world, right?” 
“Oh, yes. With that—you request a game, yes?” 
“Yeah.” 
“Of course, I accept. The wager—” said Jibril, then after a moment of lag: “—Eh? What was it, now?” 
“……Weren’t you even listening?” 
“P-pardon me… It seems the reward was so great that I lost track of everything that came before it—” 
To the silently squinting Sora, Jibril spoke in a panic. 
“D-do excuse me! For my wager—how is ‘all I have’?!” 
“What?!” The leap from the mere “Hand over the library” caused Steph to raise her voice. 
Sora too couldn’t help but think himself, …What, seriously? He decided to look on without saying anything, since he apparently stood to gain even more than he expected. 
“Y-you might not guess it, but I am in fact among the leaders of Avant Heim. I am the agent plenipotentiary for several dozen Flügel. It does distress me that I cannot wager the entire country, but, well, what do you think?” 
…Now this…was unexpected. He’d just demanded she hand over everything in the library. He had also planned to get Jibril herself , but—. 
“I-is it not enough? Of course, of course it isn’t. This is forty thousand otherworldly books we’re discussing, after all. Can you wait a bit? I’ll go seize control of the Avant Heim government and come back with all of Flügel within my grasp! In the meantime, please don’t give—” 
“Um, how long is that going to take?” 
“W-well you might ask… I-I’ll try my best to finish in a hundred years!” 
“We’re gonna die of old age!” 
“Oh… How fleeting is Immanity…” 
But this…was even more than he’d thought.—A most welcome miscalculation. I’d better modify my plans… 
Sora mumbled to himself, getting those eyes—the eyes he got when he was making some diabolical calculation or another. 
“—Nah, you don’t have to do that. All I’m asking for is all of your rights as an individual .” 
“Wha… Y-you’d be satisfied with something so insignificant as that ?!” 
Lighting up her eyes as if flying to him, Jibril. 
“Of course, I accept with pleasure! Oh, and may I add an additional request for when I win?” 
“Yeah?” 
“Can you come for tea even just now and then? I would love to know more about you two. You know—all the way to the nooks and crannies… Geh-heh, eh-heh-heh-heh…” 
Jibril’s face, at first a fresh smile. Then gradually transforming into that of a dirty old man. It did make Sora think, honestly, that he should have recorded it on his phone. But anyway. 
“—You talk as if you’ve already won.” 
“Yes, I apologize, but I shall win.” 
Ah, so she thought she could bet anything because she’d definitely win. Sora responded with a smile. 
“Huh. Then we’re gonna add a request when we win, all right?” 
“Certainly! It’s not as if you will, but please request whatever you wish.” 
—Sooo. Now there was a hole bigger than ever imagined. Yes, quite a big hole—for taking over the world . The only one who noticed Sora’s thin smirk, still, was Shiro. 
 
The party made their way to the game venue: the center of the library, walking through the maze of books in the fantastic stacks. On the way, a question popped up, and Sora voiced it. 
“Hey, why did you take over this library? It’s just Immanity’s knowledge, right?” 
“Oh, yes, well, my home country, Avant Heim, lies on the back of a Phantasma—” 
Sora remembering Lapu—no, the city of the heavens that had passed over his head. 
“We need no food and live all but eternally, so territory is hardly a concern to us, but then, we have been collecting knowledge for thousands of years, so you see, we do run out of space to store books.” 
“……Uh-huh.” 
“And so a draft law called ‘Let’s Eliminate Book Redundancy’ arose in the Council.” 
—This government Jibril had been mentioning was known, if memory served, as the Council of Eighteen Wings: the central authority of Flügel, composed of eight representatives and one agent plenipotentiary. 
“The notion was to share knowledge—and that’s all very well. But what it came down to was obliging each Flügel to lend books to each other. Madness .” 
Clenching a fist and growing passionate, Jibril. 
“Of course I opposed it! Four of the legislators including myself violently objected, and yet the Council split four to four, whereupon the Alipotentiary, who holds the right to final decision, allowed this loathsome proposal to pass.” 
She drooped in dismay, but then —continued. 
“As I could never accept such a thing, I flew off on my own to establish my own library.” 
“—And that’s why the linchpin of Immanity’s knowledge and wisdom was taken…” 
At Sora’s soft jibe, Jibril raised a fierce cry. 
“But my books! It is my passion to keep my books organized and in pristine condition, even going so far as to control the surrounding temperature and humidity, and now I must allow them to be bent, folded, and sullied?! Impossible! Unacceptable!! If it weren’t for that little wretch Tet and his prohibition against the use of force, their heads would be fly—Oh, here we are. This is it!” 
“Ooh, this girl is scary.” 
“—Just so you know, Sora…” said Steph to Sora, who had spoken his mind. 
“The livelihood of Flügel today rests in collecting knowledge, but in the old days—” 
But Jibril cut her off and answered herself. “Yes, before the Ten Covenants, we liked to collect heads .” 
With an innocent smile as if looking back on old, fond memories. 
“Ah, how young I was then—sallying forth to decapitate Gigants and Dragonias and such and having great fights about where to hang their heads. Oh, don’t worry; there were so many Immanity heads, they were rarity level zero.” 
Having unconsciously covered his neck, Sora spoke. 
“— Flügel is a misleading name. You should change it.” 
It made them sound like angels. This was the work of devils. 
In the center of the library was a great circular space encircled by bookshelves. On the round table in the center was inscribed a complex geometrical pattern, and two chairs sat at either side. 
“The game, as you may know, is shiritori … However—we use these.” 
Jibril softly extended her hand over the round table. The geometric pattern on the table cast light, and, converging toward the center, countless magic circles floated up, and a crystal was formed, floating in the air in front of each of the two facing chairs. 
“…What’s this?” 
“It’s the game device for Materialization Shiritori. ” 
Please take a seat , she indicated. Sora sat, and Jibril sat across from him. 
“Flügel is a war race—ordinary games are not our specialty, nor, if I may add, of any interest to us .” 
“—Despite the Ten Covenants?” 
“Yes, you see, playing such petty little games, we cannot help but think, ‘Oh, if only we could get this over with by slicing off this vile fellow’s head’… These cumbersome rules are all thanks to that devious little brat; someday, I’ll fu—Oh, my, I nearly uttered a most vulgar word. Please excuse me!” 
“““Ooh, this race is scary!””” 
Jibril tee-hee-hee -ed cutely as the faces of the three strained. 
“That said, there are times when we have disagreements among Flügel. This is the game we use in such situations.” Jibril touched the crystal floating in the air. “The rules are simple. We take turns saying words that start with the end of the previous word.” 
This really was just shiritori —but. 
“A party loses upon repeating a word that has already been used, failing to answer in thirty seconds, or being unable to continue.” 
Flashing a smile, Jibril further explained: 
“‘The more knowledgeable shall win’—this is the solution upon which we who live to collect knowledge have arrived!” 
“…Hmm, and are the words allowed to be in any language ?” 
“Yes; however, things that do not exist, are made up, or lack an image are not eligible for realization. In other words, nonsense words and ideas will not be recognized, so please take care.” 
But, having heard those rules. Sora found something troubling about the loss conditions. 
“—What do you mean by ‘unable to continue’?” 
“Well, this is Materialization Shiritori— ” said Jibril, with a smirk. “If what you say is present, it will vanish, and, if it is not, it will manifest itself—certainly you can imagine…what such a game of shiritori would look like?” 
…Ah. So, if you said gorilla , a gorilla would appear. While this was what he had been expecting, it did sound like a very entertaining game. 
“By the way, what if I said female ?” 
Good question, said Jibril’s face as she answered. 
“All nonplayer females—such as your sister and little Dora over there—would disappear.” 
“Are you saying that all the females in the world would disappear?” 
“Fret not. This game holds not such an extent of power,” Jibril explained with bashful mirth. “We merely move temporarily to a virtual space in which words materialize or dematerialize.” 
…Merely? It sounded like kind of a big deal. At any rate, Jibril continued. “It is not possible to act directly upon the other player to thereby make them unable to continue the game.” 
“ Upon the other player , right?” 
“Quite right.” 
“Okay, Shiro. C’mere, c’mere.” 
Tmp, tmp, pff , Shiro took her place—on Sora’s lap. 
“We’ll play together, as usual . In this case, saying female will only make Steph disappear, right?” 
“Uh.” 
Steph with a face that looked shocked enough to make a sound effect. 
“Also, if you’re saying not directly? What about heart , or water , which makes up most of our bodies, at least.” 
Jibril smiled faintly in admiration of Sora’s care in grasping the finer points of the rules, and answered: 
“It would only apply to that which is not presently possessed by the player. So, in the case of water , all water outside the body would disappear. The same applies to heart . As a Flügel, spirit corridors are a primary constituent of my being; however, eliminating them would not directly impact my continued existence.” 
Hmm…well, then. 
“Please also note that, when the game ends, everything will be put back the way it was, so feel free to display the full extent of your knowledge.” 
—Beaming indeed like an angel, Jibril spoke: 
“Of course, since you are powerless beings, I would also suggest you enjoy yourself as much as you can without dying .” 
“……Hungh?!” 
Steph yelled in consternation, apparently just now getting it. 
“Wh-wha? We could die?!” 
“The events of the game will not be reflected in real life. After the game concludes, all will be put as it was!” 
“No, wait, hold on a minute!” 
Dying? Uh. Hey. 
“When you think about it, I don’t really need to be here, do I?! All I’m gonna do is be exposed to—” 
However, not seeming to consider Steph consequential, Jibril put her hand to the crystal floating by her. 
“Shall we—?” 
Imitating her, Sora and Shiro put their hands to the crystal and responded: 
“Yes—let the game begin.” 
“…Bring it on…” 
“Will you listen to meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!” 
“…Steph, sit…” 
By the grace of the Covenants, Steph was brought promptly to sit like a faithful dog. 
“Gaaaaah! Now I can’t even ruuun! I haaate thiiiiis!” 
The magic circles expanded until they enveloped the entire circular space. 
At that moment, they were transported from meatspace into an entirely secluded world. Which meant that the game had begun. 
 
“And now, with that, I yield you the first play. Please select the word of your choice!” 
“Hmm. Let’s see…then…” 
Playing with his phone, Sora put a hand on the crystal and said it. 
“Then, to start off… ‘H-bomb.’ ” 
—The moment he spoke, a hunk of iron that really did weigh fully twenty-seven tons materialized above their heads. Having looked up to see it, Jibril (and, of course, Steph) had no way of knowing what it was. Even if they had, they couldn’t conceivably have understood the meaning of naming it now. After all, it was what may be fairly termed the greatest and vilest error that humans in Sora and Shiro’s world had produced, being, as it clearly was, a weapon of mass destruction . 
Just as Jibril gaped up at it, already, the high-tech fuse had brought primary ignition by nuclear fission—to detonation. The nuclear heat it generated fused the lithium deuteride it carried, releasing light. 
—Jibril did not know what it was. However, the instincts of Flügel, created by the gods to kill gods, told her. “A storm of light is coming that will burn everything to the ground.” 
“—!” 
There were less than a few hundred milliseconds of conflict before the secondary explosion. Jibril put her hand on the crystal and formed words as if screaming. 
“—‘Bú Li Anses’!” 
The end of her cry and the final process of fusion occurred at about the same time. 
The light swelled with heat. The “second sun” born in this small room in the library volatilized everything in an instant with its super-ultra-high temperature. With a heat that meant instant death and the following shock wave, it made the building literally “dematerialize”—turning everything in a one-kilometer radius to a plain of ash, in a whirlwind of overwhelming violence. 
…The library was transformed into a mushroom cloud reaching the stratosphere, and in the center of a crater, the legacy of cataclysm— 
—stood Jibril, without a scratch . 
“—Are you satisfied? There is no way to kill me .” 
In front of Jibril’s exhausted eyes stood a grinning Sora, an indifferent Shiro, and a slack-jawed, absent Steph. They, too, were unharmed . 
“You mean to explode on your first move? If it weren’t for my ‘good deed,’ the game would be over.” 
—Indeed. The magic that Jibril had summoned was not to protect herself. Bú Li Anses, or “Eternal Fourth Guard”—the highest of all seal spells concocted by Elf. She had materialized and cast it to protect them. While she herself…had taken the explosion directly without a scratch. 
“Good deed? Hey, hey, knock it off,” Sora answered with twisted lips. “You just figured that even if you did get our knowledge—it would be boring as hell for this game just to end in one move , and you took a gamble on your common sense that told you you couldn’t let that happen, right?” 
In other words—before a ball of the unknown materialized something that astonished herself, either end the game proceeding no farther or continue by shielding them. This conflict Jibril went through in the span of a hundred milliseconds had been seen through, and so she smiled self-effacingly. 
“But, yeah, I figured as much, but it doesn’t look like we’re gonna be able to win on the ‘being unable to continue’ condition.” 
On the landscape reduced to scorched earth, Sora sighed at Jibril, who must have been assaulted with the same force. 
“I am pleased to see you understand.” 
“So we’re going to go for one of the other victory conditions. There are plenty of ways to win at shiritori .” 
“…Heh-heh, what a fascinating fellow you are…” As if to commence stage two, Jibril spoke. “Well, then—I earnestly hope that you will maintain my interest!” 
—The subtext of her words was evident even to Steph. Even with that level of destructive force, they had failed to render Jibril unable to continue. On the other hand, Jibril could incapacitate them anytime she felt like it. Easily. Like glass. 
This was the meaning of difference in rank . The vast gulf in abilities between races: a wall higher than the heavens. Reminded of this fact, Steph drew in her breath. 
—Sora must have been trying to end it all in one blow . Using his knowledge of another world, probably the strongest attack he could think of. Prepared to die. Trying to finish it. And now that it hadn’t worked— 
“Don’t worry. I’ll keep you entertained—‘Spirit Column.’” 
Sora, without regard for Steph’s concern, casually put his hand on the crystal and spoke. The source of power for all races that could use magic, though undetectable to humans, vanished. Jibril was once more surprised by his play. 
“Well, I never—you got right to it.” 
“Well, I just learned this term, and, plus, I’ve got no guarantee Flügel can’t magically read minds, do I?” 
Sora’s chattering, grinning face bore none of Steph’s fear. It was filled with composure—the calm of one who had simply tried out a tactic he’d never figured would work. And when it didn’t, he had simply moved his thinking on to the rest of his master plan. 
“Or, what, is it a problem?” 
As Sora continued to smack talk, Jibril merely shrugged him off. 
“No… All it means is that I’ll be unable to replenish my spirits, meaning that certain limits will be placed on my physical abilities and I’ll be unable to fly. But such things are unnecessary for a game of shiritori , so…no matter, I suppose.” 
But Jibril, with a hint of fidgety unease, continued. 
“If I must, I might describe it as…yes, somewhat discomfiting.” 
“Ah… Maybe like when you don’t have a phone signal.” 
As if his words popped on a lightbulb, Jibril raised her head. 
“What is a ‘phone’?! Does it have something to do with that thin box you were holding?! What kind of signal?!” 
“Ask me when you win—too close, too close, your face is too close! Do something about that drool, lady!” 
“ Hh! I-I’m so sorry…geh-heh-heh…forty thousand books from another world…eh-hehh…” 
Jibril was spacing out with an expression like that of a maiden picturing a delicious cake. 
“…Brother, this chick.” 
“Yeah, I know, it’s like she’s gone all the way around until I think she’s cool again—Hey, Jibril. Hurry it up.” 
“ Hh! Th-that’s right. Then I’ll go with something safe—‘nag.’” 
The same moment, a horse appeared in the room. 
“Eep?!” 
Prrbbth… Steph stepped back abruptly at the animal’s point-blank raspberry. But, without pause, without any hesitation at all… 
…Sora said it. 
“ Fwip , ‘gash.’” 
““—…?”” 
Jibril and Steph both voiced question marks as if they didn’t know what the word meant. But, the next moment, suddenly holding down her clothes for some reason, a beet-red Steph shouted: 
“—Wh-wh-wh-what are you trying to do?!” 
But Sora grinned. 
“What? The whole point of shiritori is to say dirty words, right? Relax.” 
“…Hff.” Shiro didn’t look particularly concerned. 
“Immanity slang… No, even Dora didn’t seem to know it, so it must be some secret jargon of a tongue from another world, closely resembling the Immanity tongue, to refer to the vulva—! Oh, I feel my knowledge growing…!” Jibril squealed, for some reason calling to the heavens with apparent rapture. 
“…Well, she’s weird in her own special way, yeah,” said Sora. 
He gently put his hand on Shiro’s hip. 
— So? was his meaning, which Shiro accurately grasped. She nodded once— yes , it was gone. 
—If it didn’t directly make them unable to continue, you could act on other players. 
“This…offers some interesting possibilities .” 
—Sora secretly laughed to himself, which only Steph saw… 
 
 …… 
The game had been going on for about ten minutes. Jibril fired off the latest in the continuing rally of words. 
“This dusty lot grows so tiresome—shall we enjoy ourselves a bit: ‘beach.’” 
Instantly, the landscape changed from the crater ravaged by destruction to someplace like a resort beach, lit brilliantly by the sun. Beautiful white sand and complex crags that put any tourist destination from Sora and Shiro’s old world to shame. A sparkling coast with blue that could only be described as lapis lazuli: This must have been the image that beach conjured up in Jibril’s experience. 
—However, Sora covered Shiro as if to shield her from the sun. 
“Ngaah! It sure is pretty, but the sun is too much for a shut-in to take! ‘Headlights.’” 
“There’s some shade over there in which you certainly may take shelter, and there you go again with that casual slang… I’m not sure what you’re after, but I am excited to see! ‘String bikinis.’” 
Instantly—her word materialized. To put all the girls in bikinis—. 
—Well…technically… But Sora roared: 
“Jibril, you don’t understand anything! If you’re going to put everyone in bikinis, obviously you need to dematerialize their clothes first! Don’t you know how hard it is at this point to come up with a word that takes off all their clothes except the bikinis?!” 
Yes, they were indeed all wearing bikinis. 
— Under their clothes , that is. 
“I-I see… I truly do apologize. I failed to read your intent—!” 
“L-look here, you fools! Are you just going to clown around or are you actually going to take this seriously?!” 
As Jibril gave her sincerest apologies as if Sora’s words were deeply meaningful, Steph snapped. But as if he hadn’t even heard her, Sora, with a single irritated tongue-click, continued. 
“Oh, well… In that case—‘Saddlebags.’” 
—Sora chose his mental image carefully before speaking to make sure he wouldn’t accidentally erase Steph. At his side, a heavy-looking pack landed with a thud. 
“Then…yes, how about ‘squall.’” 
“Yes, Jibril! That’s more like it!” 
At the moment Jibril said the word— Whish, with the speed of a miracle, the siblings took out their phones and positioned them. 
The word materialized into a dust devil—a rising, swirling wind. 
…That flipped up Steph’s skirt. 
“Hey! Wh-what is thiiis!” 
—Sora and Shiro started shooting Steph together in high-speed burst mode. 
“Jibril, that was perfect! If it weren’t for the bikinis, it would’ve been R-18 because Steph didn’t have any panties! But even with a bikini, when you look up the skirt, it’s, like, pretty hot somehow!” 
“I am most honored.” 
Ignoring Jibril as she responded with an amused smile and similarly Steph as she struggled desperately to hold her skirt down, Sora spoke. 
“And now—” 
Sora grinned. 
“With this, it will be complete— ‘ladies’ clothes—!’” 
Instantly, his word materialized—or more accurately dematerialized what was already present. The result being that all of the girls’ clothes, including their bikinis , vanished—! Of course that meant Steph’s, and Jibril’s, and even Shiro’s—. After a momentary lag due to failure to process what had transpired, a scream rang out. 
“Eep—aaaaaaaaaah!” 
Steph, face flushed, trying desperately to cover her body with her hands. 
—Does this strike you as R-18? But, actually, there was no problem at all . The reason being—! 
“Haaaa-ha-ha! What do you think, my sister? We are in the three dimensional world, and still there are no genitals ! Moreover, their shoes and knee socks, which are not ‘ladies’ clothes,’ still remain—making it even more awesome than full frontal nudity !” 
Taking his Devil pose, arms spread wide, looking to the sky, Sora declared boldly: 
“There can be no doubt that this is appropriate for all ages! Healthy and wholesome! Tastefully erotic! But not obscene! For this is—what I shall henceforth name: the Great Wholesomeness Space!” 
“…Brother, omega, props.” 
Giving each other the thumbs-up, the siblings photographed Steph as she made a scene. 
“Wh-what are you even trying to dooo?!” 
“I said there were interesting possibilities , right? Don’t you think this is interesting?” 
“That’s not how I would describe it at aaaaaalll!” 
Steph shouted, as if she had been a fool for ever expecting that they actually planned to defeat Jibril. This was just the response expected from her, but then Jibril— 
“…P-pardon.” 
“Huh?” 
“Y-you seem to suggest—your world has a rule that the nude body of the opposite sex is ‘unhealthy’?” 
“Hm, your powers of deduction are remarkable.” 
“B-but the method of propagation of the race is the same as the races of this world, correct?!” 
“…Since you’re not specifying ‘Immanity,’ can we assume Flügel are the same?” 
While Sora casually breathed sexual harassment, Jibril spectacularly disregarded it and worked herself up higher. 
“B-but that’s—To say that the desire to propagate the race is ‘unhealthy,’ doesn’t that contradict the very premise of living things, to procreate? Oh, and ‘shamrock.’” 
Jibril was naked and her breathing rough as she interrogated them, full of curiosity, nearly forgetting the thirty-second rule before she hastily made her play. 
At Jibril’s assertion, Sora simply clapped. “Excellent. But if you said that in our old world, you’d just be labeled a pervert.” 
“The instinct to preserve the species is ‘perversion’?!” 
Shocked as if by a bolt from the blue, and then with an expression of rapture, Jibril’s hands clapped together. 
“Oh—how fascinating. I want to see this! I want to visit this unreasonable world!” 
“…Hmmm, I can’t say that I sympathize.” Sora drooped at her response. “Actually, your reaction is kind of boring in a way…” 
He had been hoping to twist Jibril’s smart face with shame…so to speak—sexiness that is not shameful is scarcely sexiness at all. And then, with Jibril’s body, like a work of art, it was like, you know, how you couldn’t get off on drawings that were too good—. 
“Brother, Steph is more…fun…” 
“Yeah. I’ll take video. You take pictures.” 
“…Ro-ger…” 
“Hey—what are you taaakiiing?!” 
“It’s okay. Just remember, there are no juicy bits , so it’s not embarrassing. But don’t forget the shame!” 
“What are you talking about?!” 
 
…… ? . 
And so several hours passed. After that, their playing field had become a space for which there were no words. In a junglelike primeval forest stood moai and a pyramid. In the center, Sora sat, chowing down on curry, naked, but wearing a ten-gallon hat. On his lap, Shiro stuffed mushroom-shaped snacks in her mouth, naked except for cat ears and a scarf. And then there was Jibril, who kept getting stripped of clothes anytime she got something on, still naked. Finally, there was Steph, who— 
“Eegya#%$ ? ?†?@+§&~#???Ŷ!” 
—Chased around by a troupe of freakish pseudo-Cthulhus, she looked just about out of SAN. Filling his mouth with curry, Sora spoke. 
“ Mnch, mnch … Hey, Jibril, don’t you ever get hungry? ‘Mantle.’” 
“Not to worry. Unlike the powerless Immanities, Flügel have no need for food. ‘Echo.’” 
“Oh, I see… But don’t you get sleepy? The sun’s about to come up. Don’t you want to resign?” 
“—Heh-heh… Flügel need no rest, either, so please don’t be alarmed— 
“I still have an infinite supply of words. As I would like to draw out all the knowledge from you I can, I’ll welcome your company for any number of days, months, even !” 
—Jibril delivered these chilling words sweetly, while still making it clear that she really intended to do just that . They suggested nothing but hopelessness to Steph—but. As always, Sora answered playfully. 
“Ahh, I’d really like to greet the morning in my own room, so I’ve gotta pass—‘Outer core.’” 
“Is that so? If you are weary, I won’t be offended if you lose intentionally. ‘Ergonomic timepiece,’” Jibril murmured, before continuing, “After all, you’ve already given me a fair bit of amusement for a frail Immanity .” 
Though Jibril said this with a smile, Sora frowned. 
“…You keep calling us powerless, frail… It’s starting to get to me—‘Entities.’” 
—With that word, the freakish troupe that had been chasing Steph disappeared. 
— Hff! Hff—hff—!! … Th-thanks, you saved me… 
“Th-they almost killed me,” Steph puffed as she slumped to the ground. This scene in the corner of his eye, Sora said: 
“Well, yeah, you know, looking down from Rank Six ? We humans must look just like ants, eh ? But I can’t help feeling you may be underestimating the ants juuust a little bit.” 
“My apologies that you would consider yourselves— not weak, my goodness…‘Sandal.’” 
Jibril’s reaction, as if she were sincerely taken aback, provoked a smile with a twinge of anger from Sora. 
“If you think being tough and long-lived is power, you’re the one—who’s stupid .” 
—The word made Jibril twitch. 
“You think I’m— inferior to Immanities ?” 
—What Jibril felt for Sora’s party was nothing like respect. It was more like the feeling one has toward an interesting book: in other words, mere curiosity . To be told that she was inferior to that book was entirely beyond the range of her expectation. Regardless, sneering at Jibril all the while, Sora continued. 
“‘Weakness’ isn’t having power or not. It means not being able to do anything—like, for example, some goons I’ve heard of who can’t do anything but fight when violence has been forbidden , right?” 
“—…It seems you are incognizant of your position.” Jibril’s eyes as she whispered sparkled with what had greeted the humans on their first meeting—murder. 
Yes. Jibril could render Sora inert anytime she felt like it. The fact that she hadn’t was purely play —nothing more than a silly whim . “Aren’t you forgetting your place?” her gaze demanded. But still Sora took her head-on as he spoke. 
“Okay, I guess it’s time I educate you— on your weakness . Get ready, you bitch.” 
And, putting his hand on the crystal, Sora— 
“Shiro, you ready?” 
“…Mm…” 
After addressing the nodding Shiro, Sora spoke to Steph. 
“Stephy, have you caught your breath yet?” 
“Huh? Uhh… Y-yes, just barely…th-thank you…” 
“Yeah, thanks for all you’ve done. If we hadn’t had you to kite all the mobs, we couldn’t have won .” 
Jibril furrowed her eyebrows at Sora’s casual declaration of victory. While a dazed Steph looked on, Sora said with a great big smile, “—So, Steph!” 
“Y-yes?” 
“ This is gonna kill a little —so get ready! Sit. ” 
“ ? Pardon?” 
Steph, brought unceremoniously to the ground, had no way of understanding what he meant. Meanwhile, Sora and Shiro— took a giant leap and said: “Lithosphere.” 
—Instantly, the ground disappeared . 
— Mantle , outer core . These were terms that Jibril probably wouldn’t know had gutted the planet . And then the word that signified the entirety of the top layer, lithosphere —dematerialized the entire surface of the earth and left them all simultaneously falling toward the core that remained. Nevertheless, Jibril took it in stride. 
“…I see. So this is why you said spirit columns , the equivalent of spirit corridors—to deprive me of my wings.” 
—Despite not knowing what the words meant, Jibril recognized Sora’s aim—to drop them to the planet’s core. She’d never actually seen the core of the planet, but—she took a glance at it. 
…Central temperature six thousand degrees…surface temperature three thousand degrees…perhaps. If she made it all the way in, the pressure would probably render her “unable to continue,” but before that—Sora and his sister would die. Jibril laughed to herself at how terribly full of holes their plan was. Yes—after all, that was what this meant. 
“—You’re…still trying to kill me?” 
Not hiding her disappointment, Jibril smiled as she tumbled. It was only a matter of time before the heat waves from the planetary core left the two “unable to continue,” but—she might as well allow them to make the little time left enjoyable for her, she thought. 
“I still won’t allow the morning to come— ‘Eve.’ ” 
With this whisper of Jibril’s—the sun disappeared. But—as Sora and Shiro fell, they took a deep breath , and put a hand to the crystal, saying with a minimum of breath: 
“…Eighth element!” 
—A fierce headache assaulted them all as they lost the ability to breathe. Of course, this included Jibril…but then— 
— To prevent me from breathing…how meaningless. Indeed—Jibril was a Flügel. Her home was Avant Heim, at an altitude of over twenty thousand meters. It wasn’t as if she didn’t need to breathe, but for Jibril, who was composed of spirits, it wasn’t a particularly urgent problem . However—for the all-too-human Sora and Shiro, it was fatal. They would asphyxiate and promptly become “unable to continue.” 
“—Surely now you see it is futile. Just entertain me a bit longer— Tetratonon. ” 
Jibril, asserting that it was impossible to kill her through asphyxiation, requesting a certain word, for both of their sakes . Sora seemed to grasp her intent. 
“…Damn…‘natura.’” 
Sora, his aim ending in a misfire, reluctantly answered her request. He’s more obedient than I expected; I certainly would like to put ground back underneath us to continue the game, but… Jibril smiled and settled on her next move. 
“Then I say: ‘aria.’” 
But, at that word, Sora abandoned his show of reluctance and twisted his mouth. Jibril was indeed ignorant, as he’d expected, of “aria’s” (or air’s) constituent elements. 
—Instantly a pressure drop threatening to rob the lot of them of consciousness assaulted the players. Having thought that she was restoring the air only to find that she couldn’t breathe , Jibril spontaneously shrieked— 
“—Wha—why—hng?!” 
And then came regret. At this moment, her Flügel instincts told Jibril that she had just inhaled a noxious poison . The name of the poison, indeed, was the eighth element of the periodic table, or oxygen . As his consciousness clouded with the precipitous pressure loss, Sora laughed. Jibril didn’t know it, after all—she didn’t know atomic theory. She didn’t know what oxygen was…which meant… 
If she couldn’t breathe, she’d naturally assume that the “eighth element” was another name for air , right? But what Sora’s term had eliminated was only oxygen—not air. 
—The rule: What is present disappears, and what is absent appears. Then, in an atmosphere from which oxygen had vanished, what would happen when one said air ? 
—The answer was before them. A single element of air, oxygen, remained, as all other gases vanished . One consequence of this was the fierce pressure drop, fully 80 percent, enough to rob one of consciousness—and another was a space full of oxygen, which taken in alone was nothing more than a deadly poison that would kill Sora and Shiro instantly if they breathed it in—but then. 
—Slowly, Sora kissed Shiro. 
“…Mm!” 
Circular breathing. To take advantage of the rule that this game could not invade the players’ bodies , the two could circulate the air that remained in their lungs between them. Though their consciousnesses clouded with the sense that their whole bodies were going to rupture from the sharp pressure drop, still, they could just hold on—for a short time, they could continue playing shiritori . 
Neither the unfolding events nor Sora’s actions made any sense to Jibril. But even so, when all was said and done ? it was all still futile . 
“…You think a ‘poison’ like this…is capable of stopping me?” 
Jibril, sneering at Sora and Shiro, still struggling vainly . She thought she had already demonstrated that breathing was not so important to a Flügel. Which meant, then, that all she had to do was not breathe . 
—It was impossible for them to kill a Flügel to begin with. The game was over. Soon enough, the heat waves of the planet’s core would reach Sora and his sister, despite all their useless flailing. I suppose that is all that can be expected—in the end, they are but Immanity… Jibril considered Sora with eyes like a child looking at a toy with which she had grown bored. But then—on Sora’s face as he glanced back at Jibril… 
“—!” 
…a smirk rose, as if he were looking down on her. 
“Shiro, here we go!!” 
“…Mm!!” 
This time, they used all their strength— to expel the remaining air from their lungs . 
—Their next move. Checking that the air, sans the consumed oxygen, had been eliminated from their bodies until there was only a bit of what had been “created” left, to wring out the last of the vapor in their bodies, the two cried: 
““—Atmosphere!”” 
With this word, finally, all gases vanished—. 
“—?!” 
Something popped inside Jibril. The gases she’d stored in her body—the zero-pressure environment created by the loss of the atmosphere wreaked havoc as it pounded her from inside , as if to rip her lungs apart. Sora and Shiro had exhaled in order to avoid this… But even so , Jibril could not be killed. More of this folly… Asphyxiation? Poisoning? Internal rupture from a sudden change in pressure? So what? If they thought that the war race created by the gods to kill gods—that the Flügel—were susceptible to the likes of such nonsense, their foolishness could hardly be overstated. A perfect vacuum—in such an environment, the two Immanities would die first. So overwhelmed that she thought she’d make a wisecrack, Jibril opened her mouth—and froze as she realized: 
Sound could not be transmitted. 
Sound is composed of waves of vibration transmitted through matter. Now they were in a vacuum—essentially, in space. Without the medium of air, her words could not be carried to her opponent . One of the conditions of loss crossed Jibril’s mind: 
— You lose if you fail to answer in thirty seconds. 
And…the time a person could survive in a vacuum was— about thirty seconds. Had they been setting her up for this ?! Jibril was unable to hold back goose bumps. Indeed—if it wasn’t possible for them to chase her into being “unable to continue,” they could gamble on the survival time of thirty seconds and finish her with the thirty-second rule —. At the same time that Jibril reached is conclusion, Sora’s face came into view. While clinging to a consciousness that threatened to disappear anytime due to the lack of pressure, hugging his sister with all his might, as if to pressurize her , Sora summoned a labored smile. His face looked as if it read, “You feel that?” 
—Now I see: truly this is a most remarkable specimen… After things had come this far, at last, Jibril reevaluated Sora and Shiro. Indeed, it is an error to dismiss these as mere Immanities—however. 
—Jibril was unable to use magic. That was because she was a Flügel, her body composed of magical spirits in the first place. And it was also because of the present situation, in which her spirit corridors had been eliminated by the invocation of the term “spirit column,” but—. All the more reason—for me now to answer with the fullness of appreciation and respect. Breaking down her spirits—she was able to write a single word in space with light . 
—“Erratic.” 
See how things really are? Jibril challenged, with the word she’d drawn in space in the language of Immanity. They’d stretched their wills, called on their wisdom, honed their wiles, expended their mortality—and still it was not enough. Immanity could never win against the Flügel. There was no way for humans to reach the heavens—it was an eternal, inviolable rule. 
…Faced with this answer, the force draining from his arms like melting snow as he clutched Shiro, Sora felt his consciousness was dimming. But still—despite these desperate circumstances, for some reason, the two grinned slyly, put a hand on the crystal, and withdrew the note they had written ahead of time. 
—A note that read: “Coulomb force.” 
It was—an interval too short to even be called an instant. As they fell through space, the air and the crust and the outer core removed, the space now devoid of a single atom, all that remained beneath their eyes was the planet’s iron core. The high-pressure, high-temperature liquid metal sphere, sparkling white, burned Jibril’s retinas. 
—The planet’s core…its iron-atom core. When the Coulomb force exceeded the nuclear force it worked against, which pulled atoms together, it was an astronomical phenomenon that normally only occurred at the death of a supermassive celestial object, through gravitational collapse. But now, through the loss of Coulomb force, a little planetary core initiated fusion instantly. The end result had been dubbed in Sora and Shiro’s world a gamma-ray burst by photodisintegration of iron—or. 
A multiple-light-year star-system-vaporizing hypernova . 
The war-race created by the gods to kill other gods were able to withstand a direct hit from a hydrogen bomb—i.e., heat exceeding that of the sun’s corona, pressure totaling fifty megatons, oxygen loss and drastic pressure reduction due to the vaporization of the air, and the residual toxicity thereover—Rank Six, Flügel. The hopeless difference in abilities, a wall that towered boundlessly above Immanity. But a wall that was finite — 
—and one which the paltry humans were about to climb over. 
In the airless, soundless space, still somehow unmistakably as Sora feebly raised his index finger, Jibril felt that she heard his words. 
“You think you can take force on par with the beginning of the universe at 50 billion degrees Celsius ? Let’s see, Flügel.” 
—Jibril did not know what was happening or what Coulomb force was. But her instincts as a Flügel screamed that something incomparable to the explosion she had weathered at the beginning of their duel was transpiring. Something no concept in her vast stores of knowledge was capable of stopping. A light that would return heaven and earth to nothingness would assault her in less than a tenth of a second. 
That’s—it can’t—how can I — ? But now at last, Jibril finally understood the strategy behind Sora’s and Shiro’s actions. Before they eliminated the surface of the earth, they had jumped up slightly…which meant that Jibril was slightly below them . Whatever heat might come—it didn’t matter. Whether it was a trillionth, a quadrillionth, a quintillionth of a second. The one who died first would lose —and then she realized: So this…was his true intent…in taking my wings. The first explosion—had been a test of whether he could materialize concepts that were not known to both of them. After that single move, this man had already deduced all of the information he needed. It had been futile to try to kill her with heat, or with pressure, or with poison, but he had known that from the start . This series of exchanges was just a diversion. It had been a farce to make it look like he was betting it all on thirty seconds. Everything, everything was a trap. As Sora’s index finger indicated—the game was already over with the first move . 
Turning her eyes away from the planetary core, which emitted several times the brilliance of a star and was already impossible to look at directly, a single thought turned in Jibril’s heart. 
—Otherworlders…no, Immanity—is truly a fearsome race. 
In this world where the ranking was absolute—in this world where combat was forbidden and everything was decided by games, to think that Immanity, a whole ten ranks below her, could actually— kill her. The laugh that welled up in the back of Jibril’s mind transected with King Sora’s speech which had been conveyed to her. 
“…Born with nothing, and so can become anything, and therefore the strongest race—eh?” 
Could it be that their hands could even reach the God…? 
At the edge of her vision, having taken the brunt of the whole string of losses due to not being a player, free-falling without consciousness, Steph caught her attention . 
“—Truly, a fearsome race in many ways.” 
While she wished in her heart that she could watch them to the end, the blaze of the last moments of the planet roared death as it overtook space, and everything went white for all of them. 
 
“…You killed me.” 
“Hey. Welcome back.” 
“Do you get it?! I’ll say it one more time! You killed me!! I did not say ‘You almost killed me’ . I said, ‘You killed me’ !! I said that three times because it is so important, okay?!” 
“But you’re alive. You know what they say about fighting games, right? If you survived, who cares where your life bar is?” 
“I did not survive! You killed me!!” 
Rushing at Sora as if to grab him by the collar, Steph screamed. 
“Y-y-you—Not only did you use me as a decoy, but you let me die and didn’t even care!!” 
“It’s not like you really died. Who cares.” 
“Ah—ah—” 
It was all she could take. It was finally time for her to let loose the entire stock of her anger at this man. And she opened her mouth—just as Sora spoke. 
“But we would have lost if it weren’t for you.” 
“Uh…” 
If she hadn’t acted as a decoy for the enemy units that a certain someone had raised, then just as Jibril said, Sora and Shiro would have been easily rendered unable to continue. 

*  *  * 
“And, thanks to you, we got Jibril. You’ve helped us save Elkia.” 
“…Uh…um……” 
“Thanks, Steph. Sorry to always make you do the hard stuff.” 
As Sora patted her resoundingly on the head, the rage that a moment ago was like a volcano about to erupt dissipated. 
“Uh…um, yeah, uh, uhh… Y-yes…indeed.” 
Steph, her face reddening for a reason other than anger, looked down, intertwining her fingers. 
“Yes…indeed. If it means saving Elkia, for me to go through a little hardship… A-and, anyway, you two…had it hard, too, with all the psychological warfare and…everything. Yeah…” 
As Steph mumbled on, filling space, loosening her expression, Shiro asked. 
“…Brother…you gonna change jobs…from King…to Playboy?” 
“Don’t be like that. Not everyone is as easy to manipulate as Steph.” 
“I can hear youuuuuuuu!!! Aaaaaaaah, I haaate this! I hate hate hate hate you!!” 
Steph cursed the God. O One True God, why did you prohibit violence? Now before me is a man I would give my life to punch. 
“…You have defeated me, utterly.” 
Bowing her head with a bounce, as if the terror that had just unfolded had never happened. At the center of the library, just as before the game, sipping tea as if to take a break, sat Jibril. 
“…May I ask you one question?” 
“Yeah?” 
“I can see that you led me to answer using the morpheme ‘erratic’…but.” 
Sora’s show of anger had been another act, to make her think of a word associated with incompetence. But, still— 
“There must have been infinite other possibilities… What were you planning to do if I picked another?” 
“We prepared for about twenty . But, yeah, if you’d picked one other than those, we would’ve been pretty screwed.” 
Though Sora said this with playful cheer, still Jibril knew. This man—in that short amount of time, had read her personality and narrowed it down to twenty. But, even so, it was too risky of a gamble. For this game in which he only had Jibril’s word that everything would be put back when it was over. This man had even used the time limit of his survival as a bluff , and to that, she could only say with the utmost respect: 
“You’re quite mad, aren’t you?” 
—Sora took this with a chuckle. At his words—those she’d awaited for the six thousand-odd years since her life began, Jibril’s eyes widened, and she gasped. 
“We’re taking on ‘God’ —we gotta have mad skills, right?” 
It rang in Jibril’s ears like gospel and made her heart quiver. 
Taking on—God. Aiming their bows—at Tet. Jibril, desperately hoping for the best, but still steeling herself for a denial, had to ask. 
“Are you…in earnest?” 
Having realized the truth, Sora replied, “Sure we are. I mean, haven’t you wondered how we got to this world?” He went on as if revealing a spoiler. “I’ll tell you the answer first. The one who summoned us to this world— is Tet .” 
—It robbed Jibril of her ability to speak. 
“ We beat him at a game , so he threw a fit and brought us into this world, telling us to try beating him by the rules here. He’s the one who set up this game. We have no choice but to take him down, do we?” 
That’s all it was. Usurping the One True God was as simple and obvious as that. 
“So, Jibril, from today, by the grace of the Covenants, everything you have is mine.” 
As Sora spoke, Jibril could only gaze at him as if he dazzled her. 
“There are many things that need to be done in order to overthrow the God, but there are only so many things that can be done from Immanity’s current position. We need to do anything we can to get power, knowledge, and chips to bet . Your knowledge and presence will be useful.” 
—She was like Mary receiving the Word of God. 
“Oh, and those books on my tablet? They were just bait. You can look at them all you want. As people from another world, what we need most to take over the world is someone with knowledge. If it’s gonna help you become even more knowledgeable, we want you to read your fill and make good use of them.” 
Jibril’s eyes were moist, as though she was drunk, but Sora continued. 
“Also, you’re free to keep using this library to store your books just as you have. However, Immanity needs it, too, so you have to let the academy use it again. You will be responsible for the books. How does that sound?” 
At this string of words. Jibril, at last, knelt before Sora. Dropping a single tear, she clasped her hands as if in prayer. No, actually in prayer, she bowed her head. 
“Oh, my departed Lord. Artosh, thou who granted us life, and now hast none… At last I—we have fulfilled our ardent desire to find a new master worthy of our service, of our submission…” 
“Uhh, is that really your reaction…?” Steph, dissatisfied with this turn of events, dropped her shoulders and muttered. “J-just so you know, these siblings are perverts, okay?! They make me dress disgracefully, they make me act like a dog, they’re foulmouthed, beastly, twisted, human garbage, okay?!” 
“…Steph…beg…” 
“S-seee! They even do things like this!!” 
But Jibril, already far away, answered vacantly: 
“…Do you mean to say this poses a problem?” 
“Huh…?” 

“They will defeat Tet , who assumed the throne of the One True God without fighting. They brought vast riches from another world. They, as mere Immanities, defeated an Elf and even myself. They are those who revolutionize all conventional wisdom .” 
She folded her wings, moved her halo back, and bowed her head. This was a Flügel’s single— gesture of absolute loyalty , shown only to her master . 
“Majesty, my master, my lord.” 
“Yeah, yeah.” 
“—I am Jibril, one pair of the Council of Eighteen Wings, of Ixseed Rank Six, Flügel.” She attended him solemnly, as if making a vow before a god. “All that is mine belongs to you, my lord. Now that my thoughts, my rights, and my body belong totally to you, Lord, it would be my greatest delight if you would use them to their fullest, as a foundation on which to build your grand plan.” 
“Sure, leave it to us. Right, Shiro?” 
“…Mm, we gotcha…” 
“This is absurd! Also, just how long do you intend to keep me acting like a dog?!” 
Still in the pose of the last command— beg . Steph’s scream resounded and echoed throughout the library… 
 
Kappoon… The manga sound effect for bath scenes—yeah, right. Anyway, it was bath time. For today—actually, just for the second time for Shiro since her arrival in this world. 
“…So, again, I have to wash her while you stand fully clothed?” 
“Don’t worry. There are no cameras this time. Anyway, Shiro, get used to taking baths already.” 
“Makes…my hair all scratchy…I don’t like it…” complained Shiro once more, sullenly, with a pout. 
“Come on, Shiro. We moved around so much today, you’ve gotta take a bath.” 
Shiro had never—indeed, no human had ever—experienced a day as eventful as this one had been. 
“In that case,” Jibril popped out of nowhere and addressed Sora. 
“Whoa! Jibril, where did you come from?” 
“I will come from anywhere to be by your side, Master. More to the point: If you have hair concerns, why not try this shampoo?” 
She pulled it out. 
“Brought to you by Flügel, a shampoo specially formulated with spirit water. Your hair will shine, and you’ll have a whole new look, soft and sleek, without doing any damage at all. Quality you can count on.” 
Sora interrupted the Flügel who was spouting lines straight out of a commercial. 
“Wait, before that, let me point out an issue here—why are you naked?!” 
“…Mm.” Shiro started turning her head at these words. 
“Steph, don’t let Shiro look this way! It’s not appropriate for minors!” 
“It’s quite all right. I have judged there to be sufficient steam to avoid impinging on these ‘moral codes’ you spoke of, Master.” 
“…Hm… Jibril’s got skills…” 
With Shiro’s murmur, Sora inwardly sympathized. But. 
“No, I mean, in the first place, why do you need to be naked just to bring shampoo!” 
At this question, Jibril kneeled and bowed her head. 
“For I, Jibril, am your humble slave, Master. It is the natural duty of a slave to wash her master’s back and eh-heh…eh-heh! Eh-heh-hehh…” 
“You call yourself a slave when you’re making that face?! You textual deviant !” 
It could be assumed that her intention was to check all the particulars that she had failed to check before the shiritori game. But—. 
“…Jibril…‘Stay’…” 
 

*  *  * 
“Eh—?!” 
Jibril was forced to sit on the floor on Shiro’s command. 
“Wh-what? What…is the meaning of this?” 
Though she’d become Sora’s property and had sworn fealty to Sora and Shiro, wasn’t Sora the only one to whom she was bound under the Covenants? But then. 
“…Oh, I see. ’Cause Shiro and me share all our stuff…” 
If Jibril became Sora’s, that meant she automatically became Shiro’s. Sora arrived at this conclusion after Shiro. 
“…I’ll use…your shampoo…but R-18 developments…are off-limits.” 
“Th-that’s my Shiro—your brother admires that coolness you’ve got. Chills, man…” 
While Sora swallowed, Shiro stayed cool. 
“…Jibril…you can watch…but stay.” 
“Whuhhhhh, come ooon! With all this steam, you tantalize meeeee!” 
Sora, unable to see Shiro having her head washed by Steph and apparently having learned how to handle Jibril from her, expressed his respect without reserve. 
“Oh, Shiro, that’s incredible. Your handling of Jibril is really, like, wow… You’re my idol.” 
And so— 
“…I can’t believe I’m starting to get used to bathing like this. I hate myself…” 
Steph felt her humanity degrading little by little as she expressed herself. With a smile, she wept a solitary tear…