Shiroyama Kyousuke's "temporary home" was far less impressive than Aika's luxury apartment, but it still may have been unusual for a normal high school boy.
It was not a house, an apartment, a dorm room, an inn, a hotel, a tent, or even a cardboard box shanty.
Then what was it?
It was one of the cruisers packed in on either side of the large canals. While it was a small boat, the cabin was larger than a student apartment and it even had a bedroom with a double bed, a simple kitchen, a bath, and a bathroom. It was not a bad place to live if one ignored how frightening stormy nights were and how annoying all the seagull droppings were.
Some people saved money by buying run-down boats without an engine, but Kyousuke's was still able to cruise.
"Sigh…"
He stepped into the bedroom without turning on the lights, moved his smartphone from his pocket to the bedside table, and then hopped into the large bed.
When he shut his eyes, his mind turned to the nickname he had spoken a few times this night: Alice (with) Rabbit.
With a few exceptions, people did not give themselves their nickname. In Kyousuke's case, it was even a humiliating name. Even so, he had used it. In order to get across the necessary information, he had chosen not to beat around the bush, but he started to wonder why he had gone that far.
He quickly found the answer.
"When you get down to it, do I just not want that girl to die?"
Nevertheless, the fact remained that there was nothing he could do. Pairing up with Meinokawa Higan would not be enough, but this remained true even when ignoring that. However, explaining that would have gotten him nowhere. If he could not do it, he could not do it. She only needed to understand that.
He looked over to the bedside table.
There was a picture frame there, but whose picture was inside it? He thought for a bit in the darkness and finally remembered.
Olivia Highland. That twelve-year-old girl with bright blonde hair had lent her body to him as a vessel to pay the investigation fee needed to search for the mother she had never known. They had worked together for a total of three weeks, but she was gone now. She had safely returned to the sunlit world.
Shiroyama Kyousuke would never let a vessel of his die.
What was the last thing she had said to him?
He remembered and then regretted it.
That was when his smartphone received a call. A gentle vibration sounded and the flashing backlight dimly illuminated the smile in the picture frame.
He grabbed the phone from the bed and saw it was from Aika.
"Onii-chan, are you having a passionate night?"
"What's this? Do people pick random fights over the phone these days?"
"Hm. If your cruiser had become love nest, I was prepared to graduate from my shut-in ways and make a late-night attack with the liger, but if not, this probably isn't good."
Sensing something was wrong, he got up from the bed.
"Keep it short."
"Meinokawa Higan hasn't returned."
"…"
A tingling feeling crawled along his spine.
That was the sensation of death.
"There are three possibilities: One, she was spending the night at your cruiser. Two, Guard of Honor found and captured her while she was wandering around outside. And three…"
"She got fed up with it all and went to search for her sister alone? Goddammit!!"
He cursed without meaning to.
As the middleman, Aika calmly spoke over the phone.
"You were thinking the rookie vessel named Meinokawa Higan could avoid any further danger if the summoner didn't cooperate, but it looks like your plan failed."
"Yeah. It would've taken three days at the most. If I could have tracked down the Government middleman who gave the Meinokawa sisters that job and found proof that they had been deceived, then responsibility would have fallen to that giant organization. After that, all of Government's strength would have driven Guard of Honor from the harbor region and carefully searched for Meinokawa Renge. …That might have solved everything without that powerless girl having to face those dangerous Materials!!"
If a summoner and vessel joined forces, they could fight. That was simple enough, but there was still a problem there.
If a vessel already had a contract, they could still overwrite their contract to make a new one with a third party, but that only meant it was possible. The details of the system were not fully known. No one could say how much of a burden it would place on her.
"Onii-chan, I have something to tell you about Government."
He had a bad feeling about this, but Aika's voice reached his ears regardless.
"Government has no choice but to officially register Meinokawa Higan as an enemy. You know why, don't you?"
"…Yes."
"Government is the ally of justice funded by about sixty governments, religions, and multinational corporations. And our primary purpose is to appropriately manage the invisible asset that is the summoning ceremony. …She was only a part of Freedom before, but now that she has asked for Government's protection, she is under our management. Running away for her personal convenience was a huge mistake. Anyone could misuse this 'wandering asset', so we need to freeze the account immediately. Even if it means ripping up the bankbook."
Depositing money in a bank was a good thing. It helped increase the assets of good people and it was useful for monitoring and weakening the assets of bad people. But what if there was a large sum of money of unknown ownership that anyone could withdraw? Government would either manage it under their own trusted name or they would dispose of it.
(This is awful…)
Meinokawa Higan was already out of her league against Guard of Honor, but now Government was pursuing her too. It was like having both the wolf and the hunter pursuing Little Red Riding Hood.
Of course, this decision was not based in Aika's personal feelings.
She had made this call because things had reached a point where she was no longer in control.
If she showed too much of her own discretion, Aika too could be labelled a "wandering asset".
"Who has the Government sent?"
"A summoner/vessel pair with each of five Repliglass units."
"The military? That's not good."
"Oh? Not the summoners?"
"You're in Government, so you should know. If a unit focuses on fleeing, they can stop a chain and then either carpet bomb the area with freefall bombs dropped from high altitude bombers fifteen thousand meters up or fire from a cruiser out at sea beyond the horizon. If they destroy the terrain itself when you can't even see them, there's not much you can do. Normal firepower is the scariest thing of all. There's a reason that's the power that rules the world."
"Umm, Onii-chan. This is a battle between summoners…"
"And dealing with another summoner is a lot easier. What's the name of the strongest one?"
"Government Award 930, Golden Luxury. The president of Quad Motors, an American multinational corporation, is her father. In other words, she's one source of our funding. She gets especially good results in complex terrain like urban areas or inside buildings. And the Material she prefers to summon is…"
She hesitated for a moment and Kyousuke realized why once she continued.
"The 'White' Queen who Wields the Sword of Unsullied Truth (iu – nu – fb – a – wuh – ei –kx – eu – pl – vjz). That's one of the Unexplored-class beyond the Divine-class."
That instantly blew away his previous mood.
Every summoner knew the name of the Queen. That Material was known as the strongest even among the Unexplored-class beyond the Regulation and Divine classes. Government, Illegal, and Freedom were in constant conflict, but ironically, all three had arrived at that exact same conclusion.
Being the strongest meant one's victory was assured as soon as they summoned the Queen, but the conditions for summoning her were far too unique. It was rare for anyone to summon her in a true battle rather than a mock battle held on a vast experimental field.
However, this summoner supposedly specialized in summoning her.
This was not just a theory. In a battle of life or death, she was summoning that Material to take her enemy's life.
"…"
He had Award 902, but that was only within Freedom and it could not be confused with the numbers within Government. Also, Kyousuke had not accepted a single job in half a year. He could not guarantee he had full use of his previous power, so he did not know if he could defeat this summoner even if he went all out.
As a side note, Award 930 was more powerful than the Aika and White Liger pair.
If this person really was capable of summoning the Queen, it was possible she would reach Award 1000.
"Do you know where Meinokawa Higan has gone?"
"If I did, I wouldn't have called you."
"Then where are Golden Luxury and the disciplinary units? If they're ahead of us here, Meinokawa Higan is probably inside their dragnet."
"…? You seem oddly motivated here, Onii-chan."
"I never intended to just let them die. And a moment ago, I remembered something a little unpleasant."
"They're in R Block. They seem to be blocking the route to the harbor. But they're in motion, so they must be searching. I'm guessing they know she's in the area and are performing a thorough search."
"I see…"
Kyousuke reached for his hoodie's hood. He always kept an Incense Grenade on him. He placed it on the bedside table and pulled out the storage drawer below the bed. He had not worked for about half a year and had not really resupplied, but he had about three spare Incense Grenades.
They weighed around three hundred grams, so they felt a little heavier than a can of coffee in his hands.
(That's four in all. Wiping them out in a Hive Crusher might not be possible, but I have a chance if I just get in and get out.)
"By the way, what was the unpleasant thing you remembered?"
"Olivia Highland. My previous vessel. You remember her, right?"
"Yes, I do… I do!! She's that cruelest of girls who ignored me and clung to your arm with an innocent smile while muttering 'Onii-chan' in her sleep!! Ahhh, it's pissing me off just remembering it!!"
"That doesn't matter right now, but do you remember the last thing she said?"
Aika fell silent for a moment.
She must have remembered because she mimicked the girl's voice:
"Yes, but I wasn't scared. After all, I knew you'd always come to save me, Onii-chan. Alice's rabbit is the friend of any girl that wanders into this world! So if you wish for my happiness, then I'll make a wish too. I hope more and more vessels like me will meet you and be given happiness. Eh heh heh. I'll ask the White Queen!!"
Kyousuke grimaced a little.
Alice (with) Rabbit was the name given to him by a girl who had once been Alice.
"That kind of traumatized me."
"Well, after knowing you for only a few weeks, she couldn't have known about your true worries."
"But remembering that made me realize that Meinokawa Higan might be the same, even if I only just met her today and have no real connection to her. Or maybe I should say she's a human being who wanted to be the same."
"Can you no longer see her as just a name on a document?"
"I don't remember ever treating her like that. Well, now that I'm looking at it this way, I guess there's no point in forcing myself to hold back."
"Hmm. Then I have something to tell you as the little sister that loves her big brother."
After a short pause, she almost seemed to whisper the rest.
"Welcome home, Onii-chan. And now it's time to head out again."
With the central square at the center, Toy Dream 35 was divided up like a pizza to create twenty-six blocks labeled from A to Z. Each block had a unique concept and was named after the first letter of an English word describing that concept. However, it was not widely known what those words were, so even the residents tended not to know about any of the blocks outside the one they lived in.
Meinokawa Higan was hiding behind a flower bed.
She was in the courtyard of a perfectly normal looking school.
A new rectangular building had been constructed above the older L-shaped building and the courtyard was located at the center of that three-sided square.
More specifically, this was a high school in Toy Dream 35's R Block. It was artificial land built over the ocean and the three hundred meter square of land was supported by about forty pillars. Giant bridges could be seen both above and below it, but that was the standard multilevel structure of this city.
The one open side of the three-sided square led to the edge of the float and the salty wind blew in despite the cliff-like difference in height.
The amusement park city never slept, but there were exceptions in places. The cold stillness of a school or hospital at night was gradually eroding the air here despite the year-round festive atmosphere.
She had no idea where her sister Renge might be.
She had simply been planning to start her search around the harbor area where they had parted ways and then to gradually widen her area of search in hopes of finding her sister or some hint that would lead to her.
But…
(Wh-what are those?)
After leaving the block the Government middleman's apartment had been in, she had entered the central square and then walked through R Block to reach the harbor area.
That was all she had wanted to do, but she had found herself unable to make it even halfway through R Block.
She had no interest in this school, but as she had continued making detours to avoid the strange attention she was receiving, she had found herself here. It was almost like she had been led to an open space where someone could go on a rampage.
(Are they summoners? Are they from Guard of Honor that's after my sister? …No. Th-they seem different somehow. They're different…but um, they're still dangerous!!)
As soon as she heard quite a few mechanical sounds, something had dropped down to block her way forward.
They were human. Pitch black external armor covered their bodies and they had extra legs sweeping back behind their normal two. They dropped down as if it were nothing special. For humans equipped with grasshopper-like leg units, a difference of over ten meters may have been the same as climbing or descending a flight of stairs.
But that was not all.
Units that looked like a spider body added onto a human's upper body were silently crawling along the school's walls and the bottom of the giant bridge running overhead. Water strider units with four legs sticking out were skimming along the surface of the dark water flowing below the artificial schoolyard. Fifty or sixty of these bizarre humans were blocking her way.
They were Repliglass. In a divergence from older weapons, this armor had bones, muscle, and blood made from processed silicon cells. They were the invention of the century and they had twisted the current age itself to the point of creating a new division of the military beyond infantry or tanks: Pilot Soldiers.
But despite all that, they were not the stars of the show.
Surrounded by these bizarre shapes were the residents of a world Higan recognized: a summoner and a vessel. That equipment looked like it could win a war against aliens, but those soldiers were only the eyes and ears. They would find the target and the summoner and vessel would supply the finishing blow. That was the setup.
And there was more than the one pair.
From Meinokawa Higan's position, she could see four such pairs hanging around waiting for a report to come in.
She doubted she had simply been caught in the middle of some other incident.
She did not know who they were, but she doubted they would help her in any way.
(If they're blocking the way because they know I'll pass through here, then, um, my sister must be up ahead.)
She clenched her teeth, calmed her racing pulse, and forced herself to think.
She could not fight.
She was a vessel, but without a summoner, she was only a girl.
Her death was assured the instant they found her.
(Then this is my chance. This is the way back to my sister. If I can get back to the harbor where we were separated, I can save her. So…!!)
So…
So…
So…
It took a full thirty seconds for her thoughts to continue on toward an actual course of action.
In fact, even after thirty seconds, she could not find an answer.
She was simply frozen in place.
And once she realized she had done nothing at all, it dawned on her: she was afraid.
Her skinny body was assaulted by uncontrollable shaking.
She could not move. Not even a single step. She could not move forward or even back.
She knew just how powerless she was at the moment.
If a summoner and vessel found her and attacked her with a Material, her flesh-and-blood body would be smashed to bits. Even if it was the weakest Material, no resident of this world could defeat a resident of the other world. That rule was absolute.
And even if the Repliglass soldiers were only acting as the eyes and the ears, her life was not guaranteed if they found her either. A vessel could do nothing on her own. If they attacked her with normal guns, she would be turned to Swiss cheese. If they kicked her or tackled her with their giant bodies, her bones would be crushed.
She was weak.
She was hopelessly weak.
But that was not why she was afraid.
These "excuses" kept coming to mind.
She was afraid of how her heart was giving in to all those indulgences in preparation to give up on her beloved sister.
(No…)
In a desperate attempt to bring back what little courage she had, she pictured the face of that family member who had risked her own life to protect her.
But every time she did, it was blotted out by even more excuses.
Renge's smile, words, and scent were all lost in the blink of an eye.
(No!! I-I don't want to lose her. I'm the only one that can save her. Even if it's impossible, I'm the only one that can do it!! I know that. I know that, and yet…)
No matter how much she yelled in her heart, her physical body did not move a single step.
No words escaped her mouth.
She still could not move forward or back. She could only tremble in hiding in order to save herself.
It was hopelessly pathetic and hopelessly shameful, but she could not hide those thoughts.
She could not keep going.
She could not win.
She did not want to die.
She recalled the monsters she had seen at the harbor. They appeared vividly in her mind: Fafnir, Yamata-no-Orochi, and The Lady of "Purple Lightning" that Separates Good from Evil (iu – ao – eu – ei – kub – miq – a – ci – pl). As Divine and Unexplored classes, they had been special cases, but they were essentially the same. That was what happened when a human ran afoul of Materials. They could die even with the best of preparations, so it was obvious what would happen without those preparations.
Her true nature was showing itself now that she had been placed in this extreme situation, but even after seeing that, she could do nothing more than cower behind cover.
(White Queen, White Queen, White Queen! G-gr-grant me courage. Grant me the courage to save my sister even if it means sacrificing myself!!)
She prayed again and again to calm herself.
Each time, the exact opposite happened. Her mind was growing blank.
She could not stop trembling.
She could not stop it no matter what she did.
Just hiding here placed so much pressure on her that she thought she would pass out. She then realized that was because passing out would be a self-destructive yet easy way out for her.
Nothing could have been more shameful and nothing could have been more painful.
Her blank mind then recalled something pointless.
On that day, at the instant she had been separated from Renge, what had she asked for on that boat? When she had prayed to the White Queen in the same way and nothing had happened, what had her heart hoped for?
"…help…"
Something like a groan escaped her lips.
It was relying on others to the extreme. And even as she tried to escape the reality before her eyes, she could not let the Repliglass soldiers or the summoners hear her.
"Someone help…"
And as she gave her quiet plea, a human form slowly approached from behind.
"!?"
Sensing their presence, she turned around in surprise, but…
"Mgh!?"
As soon as she did, a hand covered her mouth and a great force pulled her once more behind the flower bed she had been hiding behind.
A familiar face appeared before her eyes.
It was Shiroyama Kyousuke who held a finger to his lips.
"Shh."
"Pwah. Wh-wha-what? Um, wh-why are you-…ow!?"
She was cut off by a light chop to the head.
"What do you think you're doing here?" he whispered. "That harbor is Guard of Honor's stronghold and it's guarded by a ton of summoners. Whether you're searching the surrounding area on the assumption your sister is still on the run or you're searching the inside on the assumption she's been captured, that's too much ground to cover. How many warehouses are there and how big are they? Aren't there over a thousand containers piled up around there? If you searched randomly through there on your own, not even a week or two would be enough. And Guard of Honor isn't exactly going to sit there and let you search. Right?"
"Th-then…"
"Even if you have to go there, you need to have a specific target in mind that you can rush in to reach. Without that, you won't be saving anyone."
Kyousuke glanced out from behind the flower bed to check on the several figures throughout the courtyard and to check on the shortest route to the exit.
"Now, our current problem is the allies of justice. I can see four pairs from here and it doesn't look like Golden Luxury is here. Maybe she's inside one of those Hornets flying around."
"Eh? Eh? You mean that high-level Government Award holder? S-so this really isn't Guard of Honor?"
"They're our enemy either way. If they love human wave attacks that use quantity over quality and they've sent out units wearing Repliglass designed from silicon DNA, then it has to be Government. …Not that it matters now. I can leave the low-priority explanations until later." Kyousuke was speaking rapidly. "This is an unnecessary detour. If we're going to find your sister, we need to get out of here safely. If you've had enough of those idealist fantasies and that heroic pessimism and you actually want to realistically save your sister, then help me here. A summoner can't do anything on his own."
"You…" Higan sounded taken aback. "You'll help my sister?"
"That line is off limits. Don't use it so carelessly."
His voice grew unpleasantly cold there.
He pulled a small razor blade from the pocket of his sports brand track suit.
"We need to create a new contract as summoner and vessel. This will overwrite your previous contract, so you'll lose your connection to your sister. Are you fine with that?"
"Create a contract? You mean we're going to fight them? B-but…"
"Are you afraid?"
His blunt question caused her heart to leap in her chest. She felt like he had seen right through her.
But even at such close range, she saw no hint of disappointment on his face.
He smiled a little and spoke.
"A vessel needs talent, but a summoner doesn't. Every summoner begins with the Original series and has to work up to more and more powerful Materials. You don't get a convenient seed position from your bloodline, an item you inherited, or special training. Do you understand what I'm getting at?"
"…?"
"Even the greatest expert has to start at the beginning and even the lowest rookie has a chance of using the strongest Material. All of the fear you just felt can become a powerful weapon if you use it. …So I'm not telling you not to be afraid. Our style is to feel that fear and then smile because you now have a new method to add to your repertoire."
He was not just idealistically denying the existence of the darkness in her heart.
"Summoners have no limits on the Materials we can summon and those Materials can be swapped out any number of times, but that isn't because we want so many weapons. We have a single path to our goal and all else – even the gods – are only stepping stones used to reach it. It's both an all-purpose tool and the greatest blasphemy. In this cheating game of rock-paper-scissors, the optimum answer changes from person to person. Depending on the situation, the identity of the trump cards and the worthless cards can change entirely. So if you want to win, you have to find your own path. Even if that starts from fear."
He accepted and even approved of her weak and fearful heart.
As soon as she heard that, the trembling of her body came to a stop.
She had learned this ugliness was not hers alone.
She had learned the boy in front of her had once felt this same fear and overcome it.
She had learned there was a way to overcome it.
They were only words. They were only sound waves vibrating the air. They took on a completely different form from the White Queen that people worshiped as the concentrated ideal of all things. This was a human sort of salvation that differed from that extreme sanctity that did not allow a single drop of corruption.
"Let's get started."
Kyousuke used the razor blade to make a shallow cut on his right hand's index finger. When a bead of blood appeared there, he held it out toward Higan…or more accurately, her lips.
"I bind this covenant of blood in the name of The Spirit of Fluttering 'Yellow' Gills that Rules the Heavens (s – a – so – voz – tix – ei – yw – za), one of the Three which manage and guide the summoning ceremony. You are of human flesh with a proper heart and soul, yet from this moment onward, you shall be a limited vessel that can hold all things."
Higan stared blankly at the fingertip and red blood held out toward her mouth. Each word forced open her heart and exposed the invisible connector needed to bind this new contract.
"You shall be a lord of emptiness that uses the power filling you to at times bend the laws of this world."
An ominous sharpness entered the air. They could no longer hide because Government's summoners would have already detected the change.
But it did not matter as long as they could complete the contract.
"So I shall prepare this vessel. I am a summoner, unable to leave the world of man, yet a symbol of haughty intellect that uses power from beyond the world of man to guide the world of man to the next age!!"
Meinokawa Higan licked the bloody finger, placed it between her lips, and took it into her mouth.
She swallowed.
That was the beautiful and somewhat suggestive contract ceremony.
The single drop of blood used magical power to explosively rearrange her entire body. Her five senses were stirred up and her mind was briefly thrown into a psychedelically colorful world.
Shiroyama Kyousuke caught her slender body as she wobbled dizzily.
Her contract had been overwritten, so there was no need to hide any longer. He and his newly-acquired vessel girl stepped out below a bright streetlight.
He reached for his back and pulled something from behind his hoodie's neck. It was a 180 cm rod made of Repliglass. It normally hid behind his back like a coiled snake, but it had returned to its normal shape and size.
It was a Blood-Sign, the symbol of a summoner.
As everyone's focus turned his way, he spoke.
"Despite what I said, you don't need to fear anything else tonight. You aren't alone. And…"
She was not a pitiable girl who could only fearfully wait for death.
Nor was she a burden that had to be protected by some great strength.
This was how he saw her.
"Right now, you are the Alice with the Rabbit."
That was Freedom Award 902.
In that moment, a fight began between the summoners who would leave behind countless legends.
Facts:There are three major powers: Government, Illegal, and Freedom. They manage their summoners with their own Award systems. They have each made a contract with one of the three great Materials standing at the peak of either the low, middle, or high sounds and the Awards are directly carved into the souls of summoners as formless rewards from the residents of the other side.Guard of Honor is a new group gathering power in Illegal, but the details are unknown.When people involved with Materials, such as summoners and vessels, earn Award 100, they leave the awareness of normal people. They can speak with normal people as long as they are in their field of vision, but the people will forget about them as soon as they leave their field of vision.A summoner and a vessel form a pair by binding a contract. If both of them fully consent, then a new contract can be made. (This does not work under duress, while unconscious, while hypnotized, or under the influence of other forms of suggestion.) This overwrites the previous contract and no thought is given to the other member of the old pair. There are many mysteries about this system, so there is a possibility of unexpected side effects.Even the lowest rookie and the greatest expert must begin with the weakest Material, but in exchange, anyone has a chance of reaching the most powerful Material.The "White" Queen who Wields the Sword of Unsullied Truth (iu – nu – fb – a – wuh – ei –kx – eu – pl – vjz) is the most powerful even among the Unexplored-class, but the method of summoning her is so unique that she is rarely summoned outside of mock battles and ceremonies.The types of Awards and the conditions for earning them differ between the three powers. The more one earns, the more inhuman they become. Upon earning 1000, their affiliation between this world and the other world reverses, making them a resident of the other side while still alive.