The afternoon arrived in no time.
Because he'd accidentally caught a glimpse of Sakayanagi Arisu's inner monologue, Chris was now holding it in—biting down hard, struggling with everything he had just to keep a straight face and not burst out laughing on the spot.
But the way he was forcing it down left his expression looking a little odd, which naturally didn't escape the notice of the people beside him.
"Senpai, is something wrong? Are you feeling unwell?"
Ichinose Honami tilted her head slightly, concern in her eyes. "Is it because you've been taking exam after exam lately? Maybe your nerves are stretched too thin?"
Before Chris could even open his mouth to brush it off—
Sakayanagi Arisu had already let out a soft laugh. "You're overthinking it, Ichinose."
"For a true genius, choosing to disguise yourself just so you don't stand out among ordinary people—that's quite an exhausting thing to do, you know."
The girl's eyes curved into a smile as she drew out her words. "I imagine… Chris-kun is racking his brains right now, trying to figure out how to casually show off his extraordinary talent for cultivating Ki during the practice session later, isn't he?"
Chris twitched the corner of his mouth and shot her a slightly helpless, exasperated look.
"You've got quite the imagination."
Still, this kind of harmless, everyday teasing didn't last long.
Because someone had already run out of patience.
"Hey, I'm talking here!"
Ryuuen irritably raised a hand and pinched the bridge of his nose, cutting in impatiently:
"That upperclassman you keep mentioning—is she coming or not?"
"These few minutes we're wasting? Inside the Time Chamber, that's days of our time pissed away for nothing!"
"Time is life—you get that or not?!"
And on top of that, you lot, Chris's crew… we're supposed to be training here. Is this really the time for you to be flirting around?
Seeing this, Yagami Takuya hurriedly stepped in to smooth things over:
"Take it easy, senpai."
"After all, our class evaluation points are limited—there's no way we could actually stay holed up in the Time Chamber for a dozen or twenty-something days straight. Waiting just two more minutes, treating it as a bit of relaxation before training begins, really won't do any harm…"
Yagami Takuya hadn't even finished speaking.
Chris suddenly glanced down at his phone screen as it lit up. He looked a little surprised.
"Looks like Kiryuuin-senpai won't be able to make it for now."
Hearing this, Ryuuen raised an eyebrow:
"What could possibly be more important than special training right now? That trivial Student Council nonsense?"
"The Student Council's pretty much shut down by now—it's just a title at this point, so there's no reason for it to tie senpai down."
Chris shook his head, then flipped his phone around to show everyone the screen, explaining:
"She says the Black Sphere just notified them—there are students who were once caught up in a spatial rift, and right now, in another world, they're about to face a life-or-death crisis."
"The Black Sphere is asking them… whether they're willing to start the advance test early to go save them."
Hearing this, Kamuro Masumi froze for a moment, her face full of disbelief:
"Is… is that really something the Black Sphere would say?"
"It just feels really off… Since when has that lousy sphere ever been so kind-hearted? There's not some scheme waiting for them behind it all, is there?"
Ichinose Honami frowned and thought it over, but offered a contrary view:
"The Black Sphere has always had a vicious tongue, true. But if you really think back carefully… every time we made a reasonable request, it gave us a clear response, didn't it?"
The girl paused. "If anything, it's this newly appeared 'presiding god'… that feels like some pre-programmed routine—cold and emotionless, completely lacking any human touch."
"Human touch…"
Horikita Suzune, who had been silent this whole time, suddenly pressed her lips together and spoke up:
"Actually, during yesterday's advance test…"
"When we were swapped into hell by Santa Claus and came face to face with the Darkness Devil—an alien appeared, black and green, with two long tendrils trailing behind its head like plugs."
"Just by showing up, he forced the Darkness Devil to back off… Then, as he was assigning me the 'Mysterious Merchant' identity and getting ready to leave, Kouenji asked him what the 'presiding god' actually was."
Kouenji Rokusuke smoothly picked up the thread, chuckling softly:
"Heh heh… His reply was: program, screening, cultivation…"
"He also said the presiding god could, for now, be considered a neutral entity—and told us we could rest easy."
Ryuuen, one hand stuffed in his pocket, gave a cold snort:
"A neutral program, huh… So by that logic, did we actually misjudge the presiding god and the Black Sphere all this time?"
Sakayanagi Arisu's lips curved up faintly, and she couldn't help but smile.
She said meaningfully:
"Ryuuen-kun, the Black Sphere made it perfectly clear a long, long time ago—it's been cultivating our ability to protect the world~"
"It's just that we were never willing to believe it."
Ichinose Honami sighed and was about to say something to lighten the somewhat heavy mood.
But her attention was suddenly drawn by a startled cry from Amikura Mako.
"Amanatsu-san! Hiyori-san!"
Ichinose looked toward the source of the voice.
She saw that beneath Amanatsu Kazuha's and Shiina Hiyori's feet, a faint blue line of light had appeared out of nowhere!
And it was spreading up their bodies at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Ichinose's pupils contracted slightly:
"This… don't tell me the senpai have already made their decision? And they're transporting the randomly chosen people along with them?"
Chris nodded, his tone calm:
"Other than that, there's no other possibility…"
As he spoke, he reached into his pocket, pulled out two capsules, and tossed them straight to Amanatsu Kazuha, who was about to be completely swallowed by the beam of light.
"These are the [Controller] and the [Blank Card Box]… You should know how to use them, right?"
Amanatsu Kazuha raised her hand and caught them steadily:
"I may never have eaten pork, but I've sure seen a pig run."
The girl gave a playful wink. "Don't worry, senpai. I'll use these to help you keep Shiina-senpai safe~"
Chris watched the two of them vanish completely into the blue light and let out a slightly helpless sigh.
Seeing this, Ryuuen slapped his thigh in frustration. "Tch! If I'd known those upperclassmen were going to be this decisive, I'd have gotten the [Soul-Release Blade] capsule out and ready in advance…"
"Now look—we can't even send any support through. Let's just hope they come back alive."
Chris shot him a glance, then remarked with feeling:
"Yeah, I really didn't see this coming."
"My usual habit of fiddling with capsules in my spare time has actually turned into a good one now."
Rewind the clock by a few minutes.
After receiving the message from the Black Sphere system on her phone—
Kiryuuin Fuka, who had been about to head to the training hall to keep her appointment, came to a halt.
Without the slightest hesitation, she turned on her heel and walked straight toward the Student Council Office.
As she walked, she typed out a brief message to Chris on her phone, explaining why she couldn't make it.
'Students about to face a life-or-death situation in another world…'
Kiryuuin's wine-red eyes darkened slightly.
'Should I call it humane…? I wonder whether this is the presiding god's doing or the Black Sphere's.'
A moment later, at the Student Council Office.
Kiryuuin Fuka pushed the door open and walked in. Looking at Nagumo Miyabi, who sat with one hand propping up his forehead, lost in thought, she got straight to the point:
"President Nagumo, make the call."
"Either we decide our future in advance and gamble in an unknown world—or we deceive ourselves and pretend we saw nothing, trusting those students to learn special Ki techniques on their own before Friday and save their own lives."
Nagumo Miyabi looked up at her voice.
He gave Kiryuuin Fuka a long, deep look and was about to say something.
At that moment, the office door was pushed open once again. Tachibana Akane, who had also received the notification, hurried into the Student Council, looking flustered.
Seeing the way the air inside the office seemed about to freeze solid, the girl was momentarily at a loss for words, unsure how to begin.
After waiting a moment and seeing that Tachibana showed no sign of speaking, Nagumo Miyabi took the initiative:
"Whether I look at it from the standpoint of Student Council Vice President, or consider the deeper meaning behind the Black Sphere proactively giving us this hint—"
"My choice is the same: we should go and take a look."
He paused. "But I'm not the kind of dictator who likes ruling by decree. After all, this concerns everyone—even the safety and lives of every examinee in the school."
"I plan to hold an anonymous vote and let everyone decide for themselves…"
But before he could finish—
A faintly mocking male voice suddenly rang out from behind Tachibana Akane.
"I never thought that after becoming acting Student Council President, you'd grow this indecisive too, Nagumo Miyabi."
Nagumo Miyabi watched Kiriyama Ikuha step out from behind Tachibana Akane, and gave a cold, tight-lipped smirk:
"Oh? What makes you say that?"
Kiriyama Ikuha, expressionless, stared straight at him:
"If you were the old you, the moment you received this information, you'd have made the decision outright already."
"Don't tell me that now, as acting Student Council President, you don't even have the authority to act first and report later."
Tachibana Akane suddenly spoke, worry threading through her voice:
"But… if we make the decision for everyone, those students who thought they could wait safely until Friday before facing the exam…"
Kiryuuin Fuka, however, cut her off directly:
"Tachibana-senpai, you're too soft-hearted."
"Didn't Chris and the others take part in a massive intrusion exam on Saturday, only to be hit with the midterm special exam right away on Monday?"
Kiryuuin Fuka tossed her silver hair, her attitude utterly forceful. "They didn't even have time to complain—they had no choice but to grit their teeth and push through."
"Don't tell me… that we, as their seniors, no longer have even this much courage to go and rescue our own fellow students?!"
"What's more, I don't believe it would be a good thing to wait until Friday and then send that group of students—who'll have discovered in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber that they have no talent for cultivating Ki at all—to face this exam of unknown difficulty."
"Since they'll have to face it sooner or later, why not seize the moment now, choosing a time backed by the righteous banner of 'saving your comrades,' and make an all-out gamble?"
Nagumo Miyabi listened carefully to everything Kiryuuin and Kiriyama had to say.
He fell silent for a moment, then nodded in deep agreement:
"That's certainly true…"
"Heh heh, I really didn't expect that after sitting in Horikita-senpai's old seat long enough, I'd actually pick up a bit of that big-picture, considerate sort of indecisiveness of his."
"That's not very fitting of my own style, Nagumo Miyabi's style."
As he spoke, Nagumo Miyabi rose to his feet.
He casually brushed back his golden bangs, recovering his usual overbearing, arrogant air.
Tilting his head up, he responded loudly to the Black Sphere hovering in the void:
"Did you hear that, GANTZ?"
"This is our decision!"
In response to Nagumo Miyabi's reply.
A translucent blue screen of light instantly unfurled before the three of them. [Time is pressing. Every minute's delay could cost your comrades their lives.]
[Do you intend to keep your previous roster and begin the test directly, or do you need time to register new participants for battle?]
Nagumo Miyabi answered at once:
"Keep the previous roster."
"That bunch are, more or less, people with drive. They won't throw a tantrum or weasel out over an issue like this."
[Understood.]
[Then, the test begins.]
The world of Demon Slayer. The Infinity Castle.
Gazing at the labyrinthine, ornate wooden architecture all around him, Kanzaki Ryuuji couldn't help but sink into thought.
Not long after he'd been confirmed as dead, he had encountered something similar to what happened to Shiranami Chihiro.
He had become an earthbound spirit.
Unnoticed by anyone, unable even to make his voice heard, and unable to stray too far from his own home.
Fortunately, those days didn't last long.
He was soon chosen by the Black Sphere.
Dangling "resurrection" as the lure, the Black Sphere put to him the demand of undergoing a test trial.
The first time he completed a mission of evading detection and concealing himself was in the world of Chainsaw Man.
Because he wasn't judged to be a contactable unit by Santa Claus's puppets—
he seized the opportunity to leap straight down from a second-floor window, blend into the dense throng of marionettes, and flee outward along with the flow of the crowd.
But even so, as a close-range bystander—
he witnessed with his own eyes the terror of Quanxi, as well as that enormous hand that descended from the sky.
Honestly, if he hadn't heard the chime signaling a passing grade at the very end—
Kanzaki Ryuuji genuinely couldn't imagine how it all would have ended.
After all, if he had to watch a full party wipe several times with his own eyes…
Kanzaki Ryuuji couldn't be sure he'd still have the courage to keep taking on these challenges.
If resurrection only meant dying again for nothing—or dying even more miserably—
then he might as well end it all and sleep peacefully through the cool summer night.
Fortunately, Ichinose, Chris, and the others won.
But… before Kanzaki Ryuuji could even spend much time being happy about that victory—
he was dragged into this sudden exam for the upperclassmen.
And this time, the Black Sphere had also saddled him with an extra "Mysterious Merchant" identity.
According to the Black Sphere—
as the holder of this merchant identity, if he faced a lethal blow within the exam grounds, the goods on his shelves could die in his place.
But the problem was…
As a ghost in the middle of a resurrection match, one who dies the instant he's seen—
Kanzaki Ryuuji wasn't all that confident whether, once a living person spotted him and triggered the rule-violation penalty that turned him into an evil spirit… this death-in-his-place mechanism would even still take effect.
And even if it did, as a merchant, he'd still have to sell his goods, wouldn't he?
In that case, every time a customer came, he'd have to expose himself once.
Expose himself once, and he'd have to die on the spot once… Did he even have enough deaths for that?
Still, as a contestant in the second phase of the resurrection match, he did at least have a "first-encounter immunity."
Perhaps… Kanzaki Ryuuji calculated quietly in his heart:
'I could use that to find someone to act as a go-between, and set up a channel where we could trade safely without ever meeting face to face?'
After all, as the Mysterious Merchant, he could take a commission.
Who wouldn't want to stockpile a bit of capital for their post-resurrection self while fighting a resurrection match?
And who could look at the [Arcle], the [Gaia Memory], the [Noble War Chariot]… and resist being tempted?
Meanwhile.
As the blue light dispersed—
Shiina Hiyori and Amanatsu Kazuha, who had just descended into the Infinity Castle, hadn't even had time to be astonished by the magnificent, upside-down architecture surrounding them.
"Grrrr—!"
Several demons lurking in the shadows had already pounced on them like ravenous wolves.
Fortunately, the Combat Suits truly were highly effective—and because the Black Sphere's past exam times had never been fixed—
both girls had developed the good habit of wearing their Combat Suits close against their bodies even while at school.
Facing the hideous demons lunging head-on—
though Shiina Hiyori was frightened inside, her body reacted almost on pure instinct.
Boosted by the Combat Suit, she immediately delivered a high kick. "Bam!"
With a muffled crack of breaking bone, the demon charging at the very front was actually kicked flying backward, smashing through several wooden doors!
Seeing this, Shiina Hiyori felt a little calmer inside. She quickly pulled several [Explosive Tags] from the Black Sphere wristwatch, took aim, and flung them out. "Booom—!"
Amid the violent explosion and the flames shooting skyward—
the girl and Amanatsu Kazuha swiftly retreated to a safe distance.
But once the firelight faded—
those demons, which should have been blasted into chunks of flesh, had actually completed bodily regeneration in an extremely short time.
Roaring once more, they lunged at the two of them again!
"How could this be…" Shiina Hiyori frowned.
Amanatsu Kazuha immediately made her assessment:
"Looks like these are monsters similar to the vampires we ran into before… ordinary physical attacks can't kill them."
"Let's try using Ripple."
As she spoke, she didn't hesitate to crush the Parasyte capsule she'd been hiding in her palm.
"Lefty, I'm counting on you."
As the Parasyte swiftly fused into her left arm—
Amanatsu Kazuha drew a deep breath and adjusted the rhythm of her breathing.
From the moment the Parasyte fusion completed, to the demons leaping through the air, to the Parasyte's long whip—now wreathed in golden Ripple—being swung out at a speed that broke the sound barrier!
"Shrrk—!"
Blade-light wove through the air. Every demon that had lunged in close was sliced to pieces.
Under the searing of the Ripple, those chunks of flesh turned to ash that filled the sky before they could even hit the ground.
The whole thing took no more than three seconds.
Watching this one-sided slaughter—
Shiina Hiyori couldn't help but exclaim from the bottom of her heart: "S-so strong!"
Amanatsu Kazuha, however, gave a somewhat helpless sigh:
"Strong, my foot."
"Compared to real monsters like Class President Ichinose and Chris-senpai, my methods are nowhere close."
But Shiina Hiyori shook her head earnestly:
"No, Amanatsu-san. You're already plenty excellent—there's no need to belittle yourself at all."
"In this school, someone with your level of strength is absolutely a rare gem."
Amanatsu Kazuha didn't keep dwelling on the matter.
She simply handed the [Blank Card Box] she'd just received from Chris over to Shiina Hiyori.
"Here, senpai."
"Lefty and I aren't really compatible with this kind of full-coverage mechanical armor. You keep it for self-defense."
"For the battles ahead, I'll just rely on the [Controller]'s invisibility function."
Shiina Hiyori took the card box without any fuss:
"Thank you, Amanatsu-san."
"Then for now, let's check the Controller's positioning and the information on the corresponding monsters."
The girl looked around at this eerie fortress-city. "In any case, we still need to regroup with everyone as quickly as possible."
As Shiina Hiyori spoke, Amanatsu Kazuha had already raised her hand and tapped the Controller.
Soon, a three-dimensional map unfolded before the two of them.
Amanatsu Kazuha's gaze swept over the dense cluster of red dots, and she instinctively tapped the one located at the very center of the map.
Immediately afterward—
the monster's intelligence data materialized in midair:
[Target: Muzan Kibutsuji]
[Value: 60 points]
[Traits: Progenitor of demons. Possesses 7 hearts and 5 brains within his body; all must be destroyed simultaneously to completely halt his regeneration. Can rapidly self-heal by devouring flesh and blood, and by injecting his own blood into a human's body, can transform them into a demon.]
[Primary weapons are multiple sharp tentacle-whips extending from his back; his ultimate technique is the Blood Demon Art: Black Blood, Brambles, in which his blood transforms into black thorns.]
[Fatal point: He can completely mimic, freely changing into the form of any human he wishes to disguise as. Humans he has turned into demons will have their thoughts controlled, their memories read, and their vision shared. His only fear is sunlight.]
Shiina Hiyori pressed her lips together and ventured a tentative guess:
"This… could this be the same kind of creature as that 'Douma' we encountered during our midterm exam?"
Amanatsu Kazuha shrugged noncommittally:
"Who knows. Maybe."
"In our eyes, anyway, they're all pretty much the same."
However—
what these two girls didn't know was—
the instant they uttered the name "Douma"—
through the miniature surveillance eyeballs that Nakime had spread into every corner of the Infinity Castle, Muzan Kibutsuji witnessed and heard all of this.
And his pupils suddenly shrank violently!
"These humans—why do they know Douma's name?!"
"And more than that… that tone of theirs, as if they've already killed Douma—what on earth is going on?!"
____
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