The setting sun streamed through the roof and windows, spilling into the conservatory and casting mottled patterns of light and shadow. It allowed people to fully enjoy the warmth of the sunlight without setting foot outside, while a gilded clock carved into the wall ticked softly.
Were it not for the unbearably strange atmosphere, this truly would have been an excellent place for an afternoon nap.
The members of the Dark Side organization SCHOOL understood that feeling all too well.
Several meters away, Selene sat upright in the cushioned central seat, dressed in Tokiwadai's winter uniform, while the manifested Honkai Guards prepared her drink.
The Honkai Guards wore heavy silver-white knight armor, their crests of light seeming almost tall enough to pierce the domed ceiling, with radiant wings extending from their backs. They bustled about with remarkable enthusiasm, some grinding coffee beans while others prepared the French press... Despite their enormous size, their fingers possessed astonishing precision.
Smoothing her hair lightly, Selene cradled a steaming cup of red coffee in her palm and flicked her fingers. "Please."
Thump, thump!
Watching the oppressive Honkai Guard stride forward one step at a time and present the delicate cup before her, Gokusai Kaibi, a beautiful blonde girl with refined features, accepted it with a radiant smile.
However, her flustered expression and the way she repeatedly glanced from the corner of her eye toward her captain, Kakine Teitoku, betrayed the unease in her heart. Truly, she no longer dared to fool around.
The first-ranked esper was still human. No matter how strong she was, she remained human... right?
Although she rarely concerned herself with them, SCHOOL was nominally one of the Dark Side organizations under her command. They were already on the same side, and rumor had it that the benefits at the Schicksal Research Institute were quite good. This young lady of Tokiwadai treated her own people rather generously.
Moreover, Gokusai Kaibi was confident that her behavior remained within the bounds of propriety. Outside SCHOOL missions, she sometimes earned pocket money by chatting with customers. According to her, she merely talked with them and flipped through magazines. Nothing adult-rated was involved.
Yet when Selene truly approached her at close range and those scarlet eyes slowly swept across her body, Gokusai Kaibi's mind went completely blank. Every carefully considered conversation starter she had prepared to sound natural, along with her idea of asking whether their Dark Side allowances could be increased, vanished before she could say a word.
Her Level 4 psychological ability might as well have been disabled. She felt as though she had been stripped naked and the deepest recesses of her inner world exposed from top to bottom.
The moment she recovered, the survival instincts she had cultivated through years of roaming Academy City's darkness began screaming madly.
Danger! Danger! Extreme danger!
A spoon slowly stirred within the coffee cup. Selene crossed her legs, making the smooth curves of her thighs beneath her skirt more noticeable. Resting her chin on one hand, she glanced at the brown-haired man standing across the table, who had remained silent for quite some time.
"Why aren't you speaking? Did you contact me solely to introduce the members of your Dark Side team?"
The sunlight entering the conservatory through the enormous floor-to-ceiling windows was blocked by the massive frames of the Honkai Guards returning to stand beside Selene. A vast shadow immediately spread across the room and enveloped Kakine Teitoku.
Selene tilted her head and raised one hand. Mottled rays of light slipped through the gaps between her slender fingers and refracted across Kakine Teitoku's slightly lowered head.
"Boss, if possible, I would like to end my work in the Dark Side."
Yes, he had said he wanted to end his work in the Dark Side, not leave Selene's command.
Kakine Teitoku was no fool. Saying otherwise would have amounted to challenging Selene's authority over her subordinates, as though he could come and go whenever he pleased.
"What?!" the three of them exclaimed at once.
Before Selene could react, the expressions of SCHOOL's Gokusai Kaibi, Yobou Banka, and Yumiya Rakko changed dramatically.
Was this some kind of joke? Kakine Teitoku, the leader of one of the most famous Dark Side organizations in Academy City, actually wanted to retire from the darkness?!
Among Academy City's eight Level 5 espers, the seventh-ranked Aihana Etsu had never revealed any trace of himself. People heard his voice but never saw the man himself. As for the eighth-ranked Sogiita Gunha, calling him a hot-blooded youth was the charitable description. In the eyes of hyenas like them who wandered through the darkness, he was simply a reckless idiot.
The fourth-ranked Railgun, Misaka Mikoto, and the sixth-ranked Mental Out, Shokuhou Misaki, were both sheltered young ladies ignorant of the world. Well, the latter knew more and was more realistic, so she might be somewhat more difficult to deal with in their eyes.
There was even less need to mention the fifth-ranked Meltdowner, Mugino Shizuri. Her Dark Side organization ITEM had repeatedly suffered losses at SCHOOL's hands. Captain Kakine Teitoku's ability could practically be called Mugino Shizuri's natural counter.
She was not worth mentioning.
As for Accelerator, the second-ranked among the top three Level 5 espers, he had spent his earlier years carrying out the Level 6 Shift Project and rarely participated in Dark Side affairs. Although he acted alone, his deterrent power was more than sufficient. Their captain had indeed found him difficult to handle, but that was before...
Some time ago, the Level 6 Shift Project had failed. Rumor claimed that the second-ranked esper had ruined everything and been defeated by an utterly ordinary Level 0. Later, they even heard that he had been shot in the head and sent to the hospital.
[Author's Note: Before Accelerator became genuinely brain-damaged, he had never participated in the Dark Side. Only after suffering brain damage, finding salvation and emotional bonds, and deciding to protect Last Order did Accelerator choose to join GROUP. On one hand, he made a deal with Academy City and protected Last Order from within the darkness. On the other, the great Accelerator still possessed some pride. How could he continue eating and living in Yomikawa Aiho's apartment? He needed to earn his own money and become self-reliant. He was not like a certain Selene, who could calmly accept capital from which blood and filth dripped from every pore.]
How laughable... What happened to your Vector Manipulation?
As for the first-ranked Selene, she was not truly a member of the Dark Side at all. She had already become one of the people who established the rules of the game. Her position and status were fundamentally different from those of every other Level 5. To her, the Dark Side was merely one of the tools at her disposal, her black glove.
Provided circumstances permitted and she reported it to Chairman Aleister Crowley, Selene could mobilize nearly every force in Academy City, though she had never actually done so.
In a word, as long as Selene did not intervene, Kakine Teitoku was now the foremost esper in all of Academy City! Within the Dark Side, no one could stop him. He could dominate the entire field, thrive effortlessly, and earn mountains of cash.
Retiring now was no different from studying the Eight-Legged Essay in 1905 or becoming a eunuch in 1911.
No wonder he had unusually asked all three of them to accompany him to meet the first-ranked esper. So this was their farewell dinner.
"So that's all... Your reason."
Selene rested her chin on her hand and spoke briefly.
"At the beginning of September, I obtained detailed information regarding the Dark May Project. It was an experiment intended to drastically optimize the abilities of its subjects by copying Accelerator's thought patterns."
"Because I was interested in Accelerator's calculation methods, I rescued one of the project's former test subjects from a group of thugs..."
Kakine Teitoku did not pause. He described everything he had done in a clear and orderly manner. It was obvious that this was not a sudden impulse. He had considered the matter for a long time and had already made his decision.
"...The self-destruct program implanted inside the test subject activated. She was about to die in front of me... I decided to save her, so I injected her with the undiluted emergency Honkai serum you specifically assigned to me, Boss."
At this point, Kakine Teitoku clenched his fists so tightly that they creaked. His voice changed noticeably, and he closed his eyes with a conflicted expression.
At that moment, Kakine Teitoku remembered the day the self-destruct program activated and the frail girl's final words to him.
'Kakine... please, remember me. No one remembered Tomoka's name. Ryuugou Tomoka... I still remember her. I killed her, so I still remember. That's why I want you to remember me, the person who remembers Tomoka. Kakine... that's enough... Please remember me.'
'Kakine's... wings are so beautiful.'
Kakine Teitoku had experienced something similar before. He had grown up in a research institute, and his childhood friend had died before his eyes. That incident became an indescribable wound that haunted him throughout his life.
His inability to save his childhood friend had also been one of the main reasons he fell into Academy City's darkness.
And now, another young girl had been about to die beside Kakine Teitoku. Her words and her dependence on him made him see the shadow of his childhood friend within her.
Thus, Kakine Teitoku made his decision.
He would save her.
In this life, Kakine Teitoku had sunk far less deeply into the darkness. Selene had repeatedly educated him through physical force, pushed him down to third place, left him unappreciated and overlooked, and even caused others to mock him as a mere substitute. Yet none of those things were enough to twist his heart and fill him with a desire for revenge.
I've already gone so far as to become Selene's dog. Do you really think any of that can hurt me? Besides, look at that irritating Accelerator. Isn't he the same?
He used to look down his nose at everyone and swagger around like some arrogant old man, but hasn't he also been crushed so badly that he can't raise his head? Not only can he no longer win, but even his research value has fallen behind.
That was right. Selene was a Gemstone. Trying to derive any reproducible principles from studying her was utter nonsense, pure fantasy. However, the byproduct she created—Honkai energy—was something entirely different.
Its research value was extraordinarily high!
As Selene continued producing greater quantities, nearly every major research institute had established dedicated research programs for Honkai energy. Smaller institutes were likewise racking their brains for ways to apply for Honkai Cubes.
There was no helping it. That substance was a universal cure-all. It could strengthen the human body and extend one's lifespan. It could adhere to metal and comprehensively enhance its durability. It could also be converted into various forms of pure energy, including electricity, fire, and radiation...
Its range of applications extended across the life sciences, medicine, metal materials, chemical engineering, energy, and many other fields.
The first two were especially important. Everyone knew that abilities required calculations. Strengthening the human body and developing the brain were equivalent to improving cognitive capacity. Once calculation power increased, abilities would naturally improve as well.
That was why research institutes obsessed with esper development were equally ravenous for research into Honkai energy.
Ever since Selene arrived in Academy City, Accelerator had begun receiving treatment nearly as miserable as Kakine's own. Having gained another "fellow patient," Kakine Teitoku felt much better than before.
After all, he could not be the only one suffering. Watching someone else earn money was more painful than losing money himself.
Sometimes, gaining a common target to pursue while also having an equally miserable companion nearby made the situation completely different.
After a moment, Kakine Teitoku spoke again without concealing his past thoughts. "She reminded me of my former self, of my past. Boss... Miss Habsburg, not everyone is born like you..."
Selene interrupted him, moved her coffee cup aside, and tapped one finger idly against the tabletop. "Yuzuriha Ringo. That's her, isn't it?" The sentence was phrased as a question, but her tone carried absolute certainty.
"So you found your salvation." The corners of Selene's lips still held a proper curve, while her voice remained calm and placid.
At that moment, streams of sky-blue data flashed rapidly through her scarlet eyes.
"I am willing to give up every—"
Smack!
"Everything you possess already belongs to me. Whatever you offer is irrelevant." Selene waved for Kakine Teitoku to stop speaking. Threads of violet light rapidly gathered at her fingertips, and in the next instant, she tossed a stack of documents onto the table.
"This is..."
Kakine Teitoku picked up the documents and rapidly flipped through them, skimming the thick stack at astonishing speed.
Just as he had expected, Selene also possessed the ability to monitor Academy City, or perhaps access to some kind of surveillance system. The documents contained every detail of his life from birth until the present, along with classified summaries of every Dark Side mission he had carried out for Academy City. Every step he had taken was recorded within.
The further he read, the more comprehensive and detailed the records became concerning the dirty work and cleanup operations he had performed for the Board of Directors.
They included meticulous combat analyses of his battles against opposing Dark Side organizations during suppression missions. In particular, every detail concerning his rescue of Yuzuriha Ringo had been recorded. Even every word she had spoken when she believed she was about to die, along with every cry he had made, appeared in the file.
"Why didn't you run? You could have taken her far away, escaped Academy City, and fled to Liberal Arts City in the Americas. You could have tried. Perhaps I truly would have been unable to do anything to you. You might even have escaped my exploitation."
Selene spoke half-jokingly.
"Because escape was impossible. No matter how much the value of Dark Matter is suppressed, Academy City will never abandon it."
He pressed one hand against his chest, where Selene had once pierced him with a Subspace Lance and injected Honkai energy into his body. "Besides, Miss Selene, there is no possibility that you failed to leave behind a contingency. I have no direct evidence, but people with a powerful desire for authority are usually suspicious by nature."
"Unless I am mistaken, Miss Selene should be able to control the Honkai energy fused with my body. In fact, it has probably already corroded its way into my Dark Matter."
Selene could not help laughing. Tsk, tsk. Spring had truly arrived. Once a person gained someone they cared about, they considered every detail far more carefully.
"Yes, that's correct. You made the right choice."
"Had you chosen to leave without a word, I would have captured you, beaten you into minced meat, and placed you inside a 'refrigerator' as nothing more than a biological specimen for generating Dark Matter. As for her... she would have died as well."
Riiip...
Selene tore open a spatial rift. Through the opening, they could see a small girl sleeping peacefully inside a crude room resembling a safe house. A relieved smile rested on her sleeping face. She had shoulder-length black hair, pale skin, and limbs so thin from apparent malnutrition that they inspired pity. An oversized green tracksuit hung loosely around her body.
Kakine Teitoku's eyes widened. The black-haired girl on the other side of the rift was none other than Yuzuriha Ringo, whom he had hidden in what he believed was a secure location.
"Top-tier spatial ability... No matter how many times I see it, it's still completely unfair." He smiled bitterly.
"Milady, what exactly must I give, or what mission must I complete—and how many times—before you will allow me to end my service in the Dark Side?" Kakine Teitoku quickly composed himself and asked with complete seriousness.
Whatever Selene might think, he could not afford to take this lightly. After nearly half a month of internal struggle, he had formally made his decision to leave the Dark Side. He wanted to return to a normal life, accompany Yuzuriha Ringo, and search for the life he had once possessed and long since lost.
At the same time, although he acted arrogantly and domineeringly, called himself an evil heretic and a bastard, and never hesitated when killing people, that did not mean he intended to default on his debts. He was still rather grateful to Selene.
Without the undiluted emergency Honkai serum she had given him, he might have been forced to experience that heart-rending sense of powerlessness all over again.
Of course, perhaps the most important point was that Kakine Teitoku's creditor was someone whose debt he could not escape, which encouraged him to keep remembering all the good things she had done.
After receiving the documents Selene handed him, Kakine Teitoku became even more certain that, from her perspective, his Dark Side work might not be nearly as important as he had imagined.
"Oh? I haven't approved your request yet, and you've already changed how you address me so quickly. Do you want to learn from Sebas and transfer into an administrative position within the Schicksal Group, or become a laboratory assistant at the research institute?"
That was indeed the truth. Kakine Teitoku's Dark Side work meant little to Selene. He could continue if he wished, and stop if he did not. What she valued was his Dark Matter, along with perhaps a degree of vanity from having one Level 5 submit to another.
However, to Selene after the return of her primary consciousness, Kakine Teitoku's value was difficult to define. Calling him important felt inaccurate, since he seemed dispensable. Yet calling him unimportant... Tsk. He still appeared to have quite a few uses.
After all, as one's horizons broadened, experiences accumulated, and possessions multiplied, many things once regarded as precious gradually lost their importance.
The key issue was attitude, and Selene was quite satisfied with Kakine Teitoku's. Her repeated attempts to "persuade" him with the stick had not gone to waste. Moreover, Selene was currently in an excellent mood. His request was reasonable, and she was not a demon. He would merely be changing positions and continuing to contribute elsewhere. In that case, she would approve it.
Truly, after Kakine Teitoku contacted her and behaved so hesitantly, Selene had instinctively assumed he had done something to Accelerator, Kamijou Touma, or even Aleister. It turned out he had merely begun taking care of a child and wanted to change jobs.
I, Selene, am truly considerate.
"Then as of today, the Dark Side organization SCHOOL is dissolved."
Selene looked toward the three people standing silently to the side. "What about you? Will you seek your own paths, or would you prefer to join another department under my command?"