[573] Reaction and Response (5)
Steam-like mist rose from Prings's body, and Dorothy cancelled her victory pose and dropped into a defensive stance.
'Hickory defensive tendency 100 percent.'
Feeling an unnatural, distorted hostility, Dorothy triggered the algorithm without realizing it.
"Dorothy, you're a strange woman."
The moment she looked into Prings's eyes as he rose, Dorothy felt her soul scream madly.
It was a coldness not of this world.
"You look like you have no thoughts, but you're actually thinking a lot. Tell me. How scared are you right now?"
Dorothy bit her lip until it bled.
"Honestly… I'm terrified. Afraid you'll kill me. Then again, you're always scared."
"I… have no thoughts."
"Really? Did you think that saying you have no thoughts would make me let it go?"
Prings floated, spreading both hands.
'Icemaw.'
Behind him, dozens of hideous ice pillars sprouted like spider legs, their tips razor-sharp.
'Die. Die.'
Dorothy's body trembled.
"An expressionless face is a mask to hide the frightened child inside. Fascinating, is an adult body?"
Prings, chairman of the Hide-and-Seek Research Club, had seen through Dorothy's life.
"Tell me. What imaginations do you have? What expression are you making?"
Dorothy's lips quivered.
"If you won't tell me…."
Prings's mouth split into a grotesque grin.
"I'll pull the child out of you."
Dorothy's mind went white and her whole body shuddered as if struck by lightning.
- Mimesis Algorithm activated. Emergency escape.
A shock hit the mage's brain; Hickory switched to automatic mode, scooped Dorothy up, and fled into the forest.
"...."
Kwadadadad!
The Icemaw's spikes shattered and rained down.
"Kukuku."
Prings covered his face with his hand and slowly drew in his killing intent.
"What a pity. I wanted to see you scream."
Back to that greasy smile, he clenched the Scramble in his hand and called "Back," completing the triad (○●○).
'That's a hand worth trying.'
Checking the status of the Master Card, he parted the bushes and murmured,
"Who shall I destroy next?"
* * *
"Gasp! Huff!"
Dorothy, having fled into the deep woods, pressed her hand to a tree trunk and breathed raggedly.
Hickory, with the Mimesis Algorithm deactivated, watched her with a smiling face, but the warmth wasn't the same as before.
"Ugh!"
Completely crushed by Prings's chilling presence, she hadn't even thought to try to seize the Scramble—she'd just run.
"What should I do…."
Dorothy sank down, exhausted, and tears slipped out.
"I got seen through."
She had been seen through.
The child hiding inside the adult body.
* * *
Hershi checked the Master Card and looked at Shirone's current hand: ○●○●ⓡ.
'Strange.'
He'd been puzzled since Shirone lost to Kaiden yesterday.
Shirone had answered Kaiden's Kang while holding ●●●○ (The Dictator) because Shirone's other cards had all been ⓡⓡⓡⓡ.
If The Dictator is the second-strongest card at rank four, there's no reason to call Pao.
But the result had been ○●○● (Democracy).
Opening four random cards and getting an equal split of White and Black is statistically possible.
'No, probability doesn't usually feel like this.'
Its excessive randomness felt almost deliberate.
'And Kaiden's words yesterday are nagging at me.'
Kaiden had also chosen the fifth card randomly.
'He seems unafraid of a total bust. If you build wrong, at level six you could force yourself to redraw.'
Allies Kang-ing each other to force a redraw was an experiment both sides had already explored.
'If Democracy is already revealed, is hiding one card more important than forcing a redraw?'
Having thought it through, Hershi sent the recall signal.
His current hand was ●● (Heresy). A hand he could afford to have forced to redraw for the sake of the experiment.
'Tomorrow, I remove Shirone from the game.'
* * *
Third day of the Scramble Royale.
At the Scramble site, Shirone met Kaiden again.
'Of all people….'
Kaiden's hand was ○○○ (Religion).
He'd chosen one ○ (White) and opened two ⓡⓡ (Random) cards to form the hand.
'A hand that's hard to develop.'
From Shirone's point of view, it wasn't an entirely comfortable situation.
If Kaiden called Kang, Shirone's hand—●○●○● (Revolution)—would be revealed, and suspicion would follow.
"That'll do."
Kaiden set his cross-sword vertically and said, "Today I'll kill you."
Kaiden's posture showed not even a thought of Kang, and Shirone felt noticeably relieved.
'In some ways, impressive.'
Different inclinations, but in Kaiden's stubbornness Shirone saw something of Rian.
"Fate of the Red Cross."
Kaiden put his palm to the blade and murmured, "Lead my talent."
The blade flared blood-red and Shirone's eyes widened.
'That is…'
"Mana Absorption."
Flames clung to the sword as Kaiden charged.
'Mage-swordsman!'
A title earned only by those like Kaiden—near the top of the graduating class—who combined swordplay and magic.
"I don't know what secrets you hide, but…."
The cross-sword slashed horizontally.
"I'll bury them with death."
A vast cloud of flame surged like a tidal wave and engulfed the area where Shirone stood.
"Ugh!"
It was a mage-swordsman technique never shown at school.
"Taha! Taha!"
Each slash sent a six-meter-high rolling fire-cloud forward with reverse rotation.
The radius was so wide only teleportation could avoid it; a lightning strike cracked down above the retreating Shirone's head.
'Electro magic?'
The cross-sword, charged with thunder, drove vertically into the ground.
Magical Sword Technique — Lightning Impact.
Blue lightning crawled across the ground like a web, and Shirone convulsed.
'Shi-bul-sang-pok-mae!'
At the same time, the sequential array entered the realm of reverence.
One second earlier.
Magical Sword Technique — Lightning Impact.
The instant the lightning spread, Shirone leapt into the sky and Kaiden ground his teeth.
'I just can't understand this.'
That feeling again.
No matter how great a mage, in the realms of body technique and nerves the Schema should dominate.
And everything was progressing as if that were the case.
'What on earth is happening?!'
He couldn't find an answer because nothing about the situation was wrong.
"Then…!"
Kaiden's face twisted like a wolf's as he prepared a finishing strike.
"Mana Reinforcement!"
The cross-sword vibrated, sending out a powerful high-frequency wave.
A Kaiser-class sound magic.
'He can use every kind of magic?'
A different kind of genius from Fermi.
Kaiden swung at the baffled Shirone.
"Can you dodge sound, too?"
Kwaaaang!
The shockwave devastated the surroundings, but Shirone emerged through it unscathed.
'How?'
It wasn't space.
He'd dodged through time.
'I have to do this.'
When the incarnation of the Archangel of Light seeped into Shirone, Kaiden finally understood the nature of the instinct.
'There it is. Not luck. Definitely a technique.'
A Photon Cannon compressed in Shirone's hand as golden afterimages, identical to his outline, fanned out like a folding fan.
Kaiden, who had been on the offense until now, stepped back before Shirone for the first time.
Shirone closed the distance with teleportation; as he swung the photon cannon, Kaiden rotated the cross-sword 180 degrees to defend the flank.
"Huh?"
To Kaiden's surprise, Shirone was approaching from the opposite side.
"Damn it!"
Pushing Schema to its limits, Kaiden defended again at terrifying speed, yet Shirone bent and changed direction once more.
It wasn't magic bending the trajectory—the movement was so natural, as if planned from the start—and a startling insight struck Kaiden's mind.
'Could it be… time?'
The thought came and Kaiden's arm moved at an awful speed.
"Grrr!"
Block, block, block again.
In an instant Kaiden altered his defensive posture seven times. His physical ability—fast for a mage—was nearly inhuman, but Shirone's photon cannon leisurely closed on an undefendable point.
'This is like…'
At the end of the thought, Kaiden went blank.
'Infinity.'
It felt like infinite Shirones pressing in.
Bang!
The photon cannon slammed into Kaiden's side; the sound of ribs breaking echoed.
"Ugh!"
Blinded by the impact, Kaiden flew some ten meters and smashed into a wall.
"Ugggh!"
With broken bones, even Schema regeneration wouldn't let him continue fighting right away.
'I have to take the Master Card!'
Shirone dashed for Kaiden.
Kaiden scrambled upright but his legs failed and he dropped to one knee.
'Knock him out.'
As the Photon Cannon settled in Shirone's hand, Kaiden snarled through contorted features, "Shirone, Kang!"
Ruru's voice came as an electrical signal.
"Kaiden has called Kang."
If not chosen within a second, forced redraw.
"Kang!"
Kaiden's hand was forced to redraw and Shirone's hand—●○●○● (Revolution)—was revealed.
That brief moment when Kaiden's Kang needed to be met by a Kang opened a decisive chance for Hershi's team.
"Now!"
Hershi shouted and leaped out; at the same moment Anchal, Eden, and Pisho appeared from all directions.
'Eden?'
Stopping Eden from collecting the cards was Shirone's top priority; he immediately turned toward the Scramble.
As Shirone seized the Scramble, Hershi shouted, "Stop the opening!"
Anchal called Kang.
Her hand was ○○●○○ (Emperor).
It was higher than Revolution, and she had been forced to redraw with one unopened ⓡ card left.
- Unopened random cards cannot affect or be affected by the match.
That had already been verified by experiments, so without checking the Master Card, Hershi, Eden, and Pisho shouted in unison,
"Shirone! Kang!"
If everyone called Kang, Shirone couldn't harm anyone.
'It's over! You're out!'
The so-called Shirone-killing operation.
"Kang duel lost. Until the next Scramble summon, no harm may be done to Shirone."
"What?"
Hershi, sure his hearing had failed him, checked the Master Card.
'Annihilation (●○●●○●).'
"Wait. No—why is this—"
Kaiden clutched his side and said, "It manipulates time. That's the ability."
It felt as if one reality were erased and a new one born.
In thought you couldn't feel the reset, but the material evidence of the cards proved it.
'Time? Time?'
Hershi had never worn such a stunned expression, but he quickly came to, looked around, and shouted, "Run! Retreat!"
As everyone fled, Shirone's target remained Kaiden.
Injured, yes, but it was the moment to vent the pent-up anger he'd been holding.
Then Eden rushed up and blocked in front of the still-immobile Kaiden.
'Saint Barrier!'
The Spirit Zone flared with brilliant light and formed a shield; Shirone's brow tightened at the power he'd heard about from Iruki.
'I need something stronger.'
Eyes wide, he opened Immortal Function and the Photon Cannon shook like a maddened dancer.
Eden shivered, then bit his lip and prepared to take it.
'Photon Cannon!'
A flash nearly a meter across struck the Saint Barrier in an instant.
The sphere—previously immovable even against detonation magic—dented like cotton; the far side bulged and then exploded.
"Kyaaaa!"
Eden, his omnipotent defense shattered, clutched his head and curled on the ground. Everyone fleeing turned with horrified faces.
"Eden's…."
The defensive magic had been breached.
It was a sight no one in the graduating class had ever seen.
(End of Volume 23)