Stars veiled over the night sky. Under the pale moon, the city of Taisho era Japan stood in its glory. The past of Kiriya's country of birth. His grandparent is not even born yet right at the moment and even his great-grandparent is still young.
And this makes Kiriya deep in thought. His eyes linger on Kanae who's also looking at him, chopsticks between her fingers stopped moving. Funny enough, chronological-wise, she was even older than his great-grandparents. And Kiriya, an early adult, just chatting like a friend with a teen from his great-great-grandparents era.
This is truly magical. He will never dream or think of this very moment if not because of the Chat Group.
"Can't demons and humans live a life together?"
That question from Kanae to Kiriya. She is rather curious about what he thinks. Everyone, from either side, knew that demons are brutal predators and humans are puny prey, but Kiriya, even if he's human, never seems to hate demons as much as other people. Of course, she knows that Kiriya never lost anyone to demons, but Kiriya knows a lot about demons, and maybe even knows better than Oyakata-sama himself. Though, she is not sure about that one.
Yahiko, who was next to him, turned to look at him too. His mouth is still munching on food.
"Theoretically, it's possible. But, you know their relationship with humans fundamentally. But, I know that's not what you mean by asking me, right?"
Kanae nodded.
She's asking for what he thought, personally, not the possibility.
Kiriya can tell her the existence of Blue Spider Lily. It was the easiest way to solve all problems and answered her question. Of course, Kiriya still needs countermeasures if Mr. Jackson does something. After all, he doesn't exactly know if Blue Spider Lily also removes the demon's power or just removes the weakness.
"So …."
"I personally believe it's possible. Even without the Chat Group doing anything, it's very possible."
"I see." A smile appeared on her lips. He believed it; Kanae thought to herself. Even if she died in the future where they never met, he believes it. She stands up and takes her sword. "Kiriya-san, Yahiko-kun, I'll go for a patrol."
"Sure."
"Be careful, Kanae-san."
She assured them with a nod and a smile. "I promise I'll take you to our residence later."
She left after paying for their food.
"I'm worried she'll run into that Kizuki demon …." Yahiko whispers as he keeps eating. Her plate is empty next to theirs.
"It is bound to happen. But we'll stop her demise, so don't worry about it and eat well, kid."
"Fine…."
And talking about being well, the tracker at their spawn point just notified Kiriya that Mei and Ethan have arrived.
"I'll see Mei and Mr. Ethan for a moment." Kiriya stood and left Yahiko alone.
Kiriya disappeared among the crowd in the streets like a ghost and appeared in the forest, near the spawn point, where Ethan and Mei standing there just finished chatting and about to tell others in the group chat.
"Mei, Mr. Ethan."
"Kiriya."
"Kiriya-san."
"How's life?" Kiriya greets them. They look quite different from a few months ago. "Looking "good" I see."
Ethan looks in a better condition. His fingers now are complete and not even a single one is missing. Ethan is literally a bunch of molds after all.
Mei, now, even if she looks the same, the air around her feels different. She's now more composed and through the glasses, her stare looks as if she has seen a lot, and it seems too much, even.
Their appearance has switched; before, it's Ethan who looks like he will fall anytime, now it's Mei.
"Let's go, we'll meet Yahiko first." Kiriya reaches their shoulder and teleports them near the restaurant.
A seconds later, the dark, silent, forest changed into a bright, lively, city.
"Such a convenient power." Ethan looks around, they're still invisible. "Even though we appeared out of nowhere, they didn't seem to care."
"It's more than just reflecting light and voice, am I right?" Mei realized, The person who was about to hit them moved immediately as if teleporting. No, they're actually teleported. "You're … bending space?"
"Yeah." Kiriya nods. "This way, we don't need to worry about anyone hearing things."
Not that Kiriya cares about people eavesdropping on him, but he didn't want to cause more problems.
But for Mei, she wonders deeply, with his power could he beat "them"? Mei stared at Kiriya's back silently.
Some of the spell is released and Yahiko can see them walking into the restaurant.
"Mei-san, Ethan-san!" Yahiko waves his hand to the group. Ethan's and Mei's clothes are quite "exotic" compared to people there, but people don't seem to bother, thanks to Kiriya's perception manipulation spells.
"Where's Kanae?" Ethan asked.
"She's going to patrol for her job."
"What kind of job needs a girl doing patrol at night using a sword?"
"Demon hunting."
"... Fair enough."
Well, even for their first mission, Kanae already bought a sword with her. Not a surprise if she's actually hunting demons. Nothing in the group screams normal anyway, even for the supposedly "Ordinary Person" is the weirdest one; Ethan thought to himself.
"Then, what should we do now?" Mei asked, more towards Kiriya than others.
"What else, just enjoy your time here or train your power. This mission is actually easier than what we fight at Ethan's mission."
"Is that so?"
'But more complicated and dangerous.' Kiriya thought to himself.
Different from the first mission, the main target of this mission is not the last boss. And rebel against death is never always about killing your opponent. As long as Kanae doesn't die until sunrise, it'll count as rebelling against death.
Or so the theory said. The Group never tells them the criteria, they can only rely on what they believe. Killing or no killing, each has its own consequences.
'This is very complicated, I just wanted to finish them all at once.' Kiriya narrowed his eyes. It was the reason he prepared himself, but if can, he wants to make it as the last choice when everything falls from the board.
"What happened, why suddenly frowning?" Mei asked.
"No, nothing." Kiriya answered calmly.
Within the Group Chat, a silent understanding has been made after the first mission and a lot of their interaction—when Kiriya is making a certain expression in the middle of nowhere, something is happening and will happen.
"That's right." Kiriya said suddenly. He turned at Mei. "How's your world going?"
With that one question enough to make Mei get silenced in sour expression.
"Before, I thought I'm just gonna be a simple scientist. Then, this group chat thing appeared before me. Now, I just realized that my world isn't as simple as I thought."
Ethan and Yahiko listened carefully. They are quite curious too, for what actually happened. They've learned something is happening when chatting within the system, but learning the truth from the person directly in front of you is still the best way to learn.
"I somehow got involved to be a scientist in a real hidden organization whose goal is to defeat the enemy of humanity, Honkai and Herrscher."
"A fucking hidden organization … again." Ethan curses under his breath. Somehow, even in another world, hidden organizations get involved in everything. From himself, Kanae, now, Mei.
Ethan looks at Yahiko, who's then looking at him with questing eyes. "I'm sure I'll hit a jackpot if your problem is also involved with hidden organizations too."
"You'll not get disappointed then." Kiriya slipped in. Before coming back addressed the elephant in the room. "But, consider me not familiar with this Honkai and Herrscher things, just like them."
"We're still not really sure either … what we know is, to put it simply, Honkai is present in many forms, including famines, natural disasters, and many more—zombies and mutants are included in this. We suspect that their goal is to destroy human civilization and humanity. And Herrscher … well, they're people who represent this "Honkai". They have immense supernatural powers like controlling electromagnetic fields, this one is the one that destroyed my school before and makes me get involved into this UN's mess."
"Honkai … what an odd concept, to include zombies and natural disasters in one sentence." Ethan commented. He gets intrigued when she says zombie and mutant.
"I'm not sure I understand much more than Honkai is some kind of evil force of the world…." Yahiko scratches his head.
"I'd say evil force is not the best as a conclusion, because the world has never been that easy to read."
Again, Kiriya gives another subtle hint; Mei thought to herself.
"So, you said, Honkai is actually neutral. Even though, somehow, they targeted human civilization specifically?"
"You can say I learned that there's something called the Great Filter Theory a few times back in my place. Because, Honkai is in a lot of forms and each of those forms could push humanity if they win the challenges."
"Ohh!! I get it, it's like a test!" Yahiko chirped. His eyes get bright as if the light in his brain was turned on.
"So, what is Honkai actually? Is it a force of nature or something?"
"That was something Mei needed to find out for herself."
Because if Kiriya just said it directly, the force of Honkai could get stronger.
After all, Honkai will be stronger the more advanced humanity is. And the smarter the humans, the more advanced their civilization will be.
And even if Kiriya never tells her, sooner or later she'll find it in herself with her friends.
'Mei's world is more complicated than what ours is. So, I can't brute force it like I did to Ethan's world or this world. I can't help them directly or Mei's civilization will not be ready and become a premature one. I can only make sure Mei doesn't die, not the destiny of her world.'
With many thoughts, with many things he wanted to achieve. And now, more things are added to the list.
How far can he go with those suppressed emotions?
How deep will he fall when those emotions come back to him?
Inevitably he becomes the Beast of Burden.